jewish action fall 2014

FALL 5775/2014

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Fall 5775/2014 JEWISH ACTION I 1

JEWISH ACTIONFAL L 5775/20 14 VOL . 75 , NO. 1FEATURES8 Doing Time with the Rabbi A Day in the Life of a Prison Chaplain By Bayla Sheva Brenner

TRIBUTE14 My Abba, Rav Ovadia By Adina Bar Shalom With Toby Klein Greenwald

20 The True Rav Ovadia: Q&A with Rabbi Dr. Binyamin Lau By Toby Klein Greenwald

22 RABBIS DIARY A Yom Kippur Guest By Akiva Males

COVER STORY24 The New Entrepreneurs: Why the Entrepreneurial Spirit

is Alive and Well and Boomingin the Orthodox Community

By Bayla Sheva Brenner

32 A Business of her Own By Avigayil Perry

38 JUDAICA A Gallery of Shana Tovas By David Olivestone

SPECIAL SECTION: Health 42 Is Healthy Eating

the Latest Craze? By Naomi Ross 47 Becoming Heart Healthy: Make A New Years Resolution that Could Save Your Life By Charles and Elie Traube

50 Book Review LChaim: 18 Chapters to Live By By Shmuel Shields, PhD Reviewed by Shira Isenberg

HISTORY52 Rabbi Meir Bar-Ilan: Forgotten

Pioneer of Jewish Activism By Rafael Medoff

DEPARTMENTS2 LETTERS4 PRESIDENTS MESSAGE A Summer of Change By Martin Nachimson

6 CHAIRMANS MESSAGE Gerald M. Schreck

JUST BETWEEN US60 Daat Torah: The Missing Chapter

in the Shulchan AruchBy Julius Berman

ISRAEL64On and Off the Beaten Track in . . . Neot KedumimBy Peter Abelow

66 INSIDE THE OU

THE CHEFS TABLE74 Back To School: Easy, Economical Meals By Norene Gilletz

KOSHERKOPY78 Everything You Need to Know

About Shemittah By Y. Dov Krakowski

82 The Spiritual Significanceof Shemittah

By Tzvi Hersh Weinreb

BOOKS84Preparing for Yamim Noraim: What

Are Your Favorite Books and Why? By Charlie Harary, Allison Josephs, Yitzchok Adlerstein, Rachel Cohen, Daniel Lapin, Leah Kohn

90A Glimpse At Greatness By Daniel Mann Reviewed by Gidon Rothstein

LEGAL-EASE92 Whats the Truth About . . . the Arba Minim? By Ari Z. Zivotofsky

LASTING IMPRESSIONS96 Remembering Marty By Steve Lipman

page 14 page 24page 8

Letters

Revisiting Pewg I take issue with the notion thatthe Pew report is an indictment of theOrthodox community, as expressedby a number of contributors to yourrecent symposium (After Pew: WhatWill it Take to Save AmericanJewry?, summer 2014). Nothingcould be further from the truth. De-spite the enormous pressures in thiscountry to assimilate and acculturate,as demonstrated by the woeful inter-marriage statistics in the Pew report,we have managed to thrive. With allthe problems that face our commu-nity, be it kids at risk, the growingnumber of singles and a skyrocketingdivorce rate, we still have much inwhich to take great pride, includingoutreach to the unaffiliated. Be itNCSY, Chabad, college campus pro-grams or the plethora of online Torahsites, we are reaching out. But look atwhat we are competing against!

The average Orthodox balabusor balabusta is busy with work, fam-ily, mortgages, tuition payments, etcetera and is not preoccupied withglobal Jewish issues. Nevertheless,such people are the bedrock ofour community.

I find it ironic that Jerry Silver-man, president and CEO of the Jew-ish Federations of North America,expressed concern over issues raisedin the Pew report. In fact, Federationis part of the problem. When thefocus of Jewish life is the civil reli-gion of fundraising, the average Jew-ish young adult can easily feel that

fundraising for the environment orany other cause that is not asparochial is just as worthy.

Engaging in triumphalism isshortsighted and foolhardy. But thePew report demonstrates that it is ei-ther the real deal or no deal when itcomes to authentic Jewish continuity.

RABBI DAVID FRIEDMANOceanside, New York

g There is an ongoing theme in manyof the essays that appeared in yoursymposium on the Pew report that ifonly people knew about the joys ofobservance, they would be more at-tached to their Jewish heritage. Ithink the reality of attrition is differ-ent. Over the past generation, peopledid not drift away because of igno-rance any more than off-the-derechyouth today drift away due to unfa-miliarity. People who are now secularbut were raised Jewishly attendedshul, went to Hebrew school, joinedUSY or NIFTY or Hillel. More thananyone would like to admit, they werepushed away in the process, de-meaned by their Hebrew teacher orsome other form of leadership. Theyhave been to Sedarim and Shabbatdinners. They light Shabbat candlesor display other trappings of Jewishlife, including giving generousamounts of tzedakah. But the negativeimprint never quite goes away andcan be a daunting project to reverse.

DR. RICHARD M. PLOTZKERWilmington, Delaware

2 I JEWISH ACTION Fall 5775/2014

Jewish ActionTHE MAGAZINE OF THE ORTHODOX UNION

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Copyright 2014 by the Orthodox Union.Eleven Broadway, New York, NY, 10004. Telephone 212.563.4000 www.ou.orgPeriodicals Postage Paid, New York, NY,

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Childless in the Orthodox Communityg I want to thank Jewish Action for the beautifularticle on childlessness (A Life Unexpected: Frum and Childless, summer 2014). Writer BaylaSheva Brenner captured the pain and made itpersonal without sounding subjective. It was amasterful piece.

I will never forget a woman who participated ina support group I led sponsored by A TIME [an or-ganization that assists Jewish men and women cop-ing with infertility]. She was married seventeenyears and did not have children, but she said shenever found davening difficult. We were amazed andsomewhat skeptical. She explained, I know that notefillah goes to waste and that all of our neshamosare connected and affect one another. So, before Idaven, I close my eyes and imagine all the babiescreated as a result of my prayers . . . and that I willmeet them and hear their thanks after one hundredand twenty years. I still hope one will make its wayto me, but I dont question the power I yield.

Thanks so much for sharing such importantinsights.

CHANI JURAVEL Spring Valley, New York

g A big yasher koach for the article about thepain of infertility that persists long past thechildbearing years.

As a stepmother to a large family, I expend atremendous amount of time and energy taking careof (now-adult) children and grandchildren who arenot mine and whose loyalties lie elsewhere. I oftenfind myself yearning for my own children. I alsofully understand the sadness of knowing that myfamily line ends with me.

I once asked Rabbi Ezriel Tauber what is thepurpose of pain. He said that as long as we feel pain,we should use it as an inspiration to daven.

ANONYMOUS


PresidentsMessage By Martin Nachimson

Iwrite these words atthe end of July, in themidst of a tumultuoussummera summer un-like any I can recall inrecent years. Duringthese days and weeks ofturmoil in which Jewsthe world over check thenews from Israel everyhour, the four simplewords Acheinu kol BeitYisrael have taken on a whole newmeaning for me.

So many have noted the over-whelming sense of unity and together-ness felt from all corners of the Jewishworld. But I want to recount the achdutthat I, as president of the OU, have beenprivileged to see.

I saw achdut in a solidarity missionpulled together by the OUremark-ably, in a mere twenty-four hours. Tothe credit of some of our incrediblestaff members, including Rabbi AviBerman, executive director of OU Is-rael, and Rabbi Judah Isaacs, OU direc-tor of community engagement, somefifty participants including prominentmen and women as well as rabbis fromOU shuls across the United Statesdropped everything at a moments no-tice to fly to Israel. They left their re-sponsibilitiestheir families and theirjobsfor four frenzied days for onereason only: to show the people of Is-rael that we have not forsaken them,that we are with them one hundred,one thousand, percent.

I saw achdut in the memorableShabbat the mission members, led byRabbi Steven Weil, OU senior manag-ing director, and Rabbi Dr. Tzvi HershWeinreb, OU executive vice president,emeritus, spent with the brave and in-spiring people of Sderot, the embattledcity that bears the brunt of Hamas bru-tality. Housed for Shabbat at YeshivatHesder of Sderot, under the guidanceof the indefatigable Rabbi David Fendelwho insists on not leaving the city in

the face of ongoing at-tacks, participants ex-perienced athree-hour-long,deeply meaningfulKabbalat Shabbatservice. Along withhundreds of yeshivahboys and soldiers, thelatter of which wascomprised of both re-ligious and non-reli-

gious young men mostly from theGefen Brigade, the visitors sang anddanced against the background noise ofwar in an extraordinary atmosphere ofahavat Yisrael and togetherness.

I saw achdut in the endless streamof packages sent to the makeshift armybases located throughout southern Is-rael. Jews from across the spectrumfrom Gerrer Chassidim to secularhipsterskept up a constant flow offood packages and clothing for thegrateful but exhausted soldiers.

Who in these trying times does notfeel a strong bond of brotherhood, adeep sense of shared destiny?

I saw achdutwhen 20,000 Jews at-tended the levayah of IDF soldier Nis-sim Sean Carmeli, a lone soldier fromSouth Padre Island, Texas. A heartfeltplea posted on Facebook called uponMaccabi Haifa soccer club fans to do amitzvah and attend the funeral of fallenIDF soldier Nissim Sean Carmeli, sothat his funeral will not be empty.Who could have imagined that so manywould respond?

That same terrible day, Max Stein-berg, a lone soldier from California,gave his life for his country, for hispeople. Inspired by Birthright, Maxmade aliyah two years ago. He foundhis place in Israel, his mission in theIDF, though he had no family in Israel.But in truth, he did have family30,000 of his family members came tohonor and say goodbye to Max, a sol-dier they never knew but whom theyloved nonetheless.

I saw achdut in the aftermath ofthe devastating kidnapping of threeyoung innocent boys, when religiousand secular came together to pray atbus stations, at prayer rallies, and evenin the Knesset.

Months prior to the kidnapping, Is-raeli society was in the throes of inter-nal conflict. In this atmosphere ofahavat Yisrael that permeates the Jew-ish people nowadays, it is difficult torecall the bitter strife that threatened todivide the Jewish nation.

Are we a changed people? Have theevents of the past few months changedus in a profound way?

Sukkot, known as a holiday of unity,is approaching. One of the central ritu-als of the holiday is taking the arbaminim, the Four Species, together inone bundle and making a blessing overthem. What is the meaning behind thisritual? The midrash explains that theFour Species represent four kinds ofJews. The etrog, which has both a won-derful taste and aroma, represents theideal Jew who possesses both Torahand good deeds. The lulav, whose fruit(dates) have taste but no aroma, repre-sents one who has Torah knowledgebut lacks good deeds. The hadas, whichpossesses scent but lacks taste, repre-sents the individual with good deedsbut whose Torah education is deficient.Finally, the tasteless, scentless aravahrepresents the Jew who lacks bothTorah and good deeds.

What is the message of the arbaminim? That all Jewsdespite our dif-ferencescomprise the whole.

I hope and pray that we can inter-nalize the message of Sukkot, that thischaotic summer will have irrevocablychanged us. I hope and pray thatachdutwill remain the eternal legacy ofEyal Yifrach, Naftali Fraenkel and Gil-Ad Shaar, Hyd, who unknowingly setall of this in motion. Despite the factthat their lives ended almost beforethey began, they left us a precious giftthat we barely knew we hadtheknowledge that we can achieve ex-traordinary levels of unity, that we canbe kish echad, blev echad once again.Am Yisrael chai. g

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ChairmansMessage By Gerald M. Schreck


Igrew up in the shadow of theHolocaust. Williamsburg in the1950s and 60s, as I have writtenabout in this column many times, wascomprised of mostly survivorsmenand women with numbers on theirarms but a fire in their souls. Thesewere Jews who drew upon their vastreservoirs of faith to build families andbusinesses, to look forward, notbackward, to rebuild and to persevere.But despite my intimate connectionwith the Holocaustmost of ourneighbors and acquaintances wereHolocaust survivorsI personally didnot experience anti-Semitism.

But while anti-Semitism wasoutside of my experience, fear was not.I was in grade school during the ColdWar, and every now and then, theschool would run air raid drills wherewe would have to get down on the floorand crouch under our desks, our handsover our heads. I was probably six orseven years old when the drills started.Incapable of fully grasping what wasgoing on, my fear grew in intensity. Iwould first taste the fear in my mouth,and by the time it descended into thepit of my stomach, it was no longerfear; it was full-blown terror. Then thesirens would stop and class wouldresume as if nothing had happened.

Now as I read the alarming reportsabout growing anti-Semitism inEurope, and I hear the virulently anti-Semitic chants Death to Jews andHitler was right! from anti-Israelprotesters on the news, I taste thatsame fear again. Fueled by the war inGaza, anti-Semitism is on the rise in

one European country after another. Inthe suburb of Sarcelles, in France, akosher grocery and a Jewish-ownedpharmacy were torched. In Paris, a ver-itable scene from the Nazi era tookplace a week earlier: on July 13, a shulin the center of the city came under at-tack by pro-Palestinian protesterswhile Jewish members huddled inside.Not surprisingly, it is estimated that5,000 to 6,000 Jews are expected toleave France this year because of anti-Semitism. In Germany, which boaststhe fastest-growing Jewish communityin the world, some Jews have beguntaking down their mezuzahs and notwearing yarmulkes in public.

Anti-Semitism is not a new ism.Our literature is full of references tonations who try to destroy us, to thevarious incarnations of Amalek. Anti-Semitism is not rational, nor is it meantto be. The religious Jew alwaysunderstood there was a theologicalpurpose to anti-Semitism. Writing in a2002 issue of Commentary (TheReturn of Anti-Semitism), Hillel

Halkin summed it up beautifully: [TheJews] understood not only that [anti-Semitism] existed but that it must exist;that hatred of them was hatred of theGod Who chose them.

This understanding should help uscope with the ever-present phenome-non of anti-Semitism, but it by nomeans offers a license to the anti-Semi-tes. It is our responsibility to speak outagainst the rising anti-Semitism in Eu-rope. We must protest it loudly andclearly. I am proud to say that top OUleaders recently visited with congres-sional leaders at the White Housewhere they expressed their dismayover the rising anti-Semitism in Europeand around the world. Their concernswere heard. We must ensure that ourJewish brothers and sisters around theworld do not feel forsaken. We mustensure that we never make the mistakeof remaining silent again.

Now onto the content of this superbissue: one of the highlights is the little-known story of Rabbi Meir Bar-Ilan, aman who, seventy years ago, refused toremain silent in the face of deafeningsilence. At a time when no Jewishlobby existed in Washington, RabbiBar-Ilan, one of the founding fathers ofthe Religious Zionist movement,launched a one-man crusade on Capi-tol Hill to protest the extermination ofEuropes Jews. The son of the Netziv,Rabbi Bar-Ilan was a remarkable figurewhose story has much to teach us.

We are also privileged to presentthe personal reminiscences of RabbanitAdina Bar Shalom, the daughter of RavOvadia Yosef. In this unique article onone of the greatest gedolei hador ofmodern times, Rabbanit Bar Shalom re-calls what it was like to grow up as the

Gerald M. Schreck is the chairman of theOU Communications Commission.


daughter of a leading Torah sage. Jour-nalist Toby Klein Greenwald did amagnificent job transcribing, translat-ing and editing the article. I am also in-debted to Shira Schmidt, anotherlongtime contributor to Jewish Action,for all the time and effort she put intopreparing this article for publication.

In this jam-packed issue, we alsofocus on the rising number of Ortho-dox entrepreneursmen andwomenwho are motivated to pursuetheir passions and be their own

bosses. With her usual in-depth re-porting, Bayla Sheva Brenner informsus that nowadays its easier than everto enter the world of entrepreneur-ship. With interest-free loans, freementoring and support services of allkinds available to aspiring entrepre-neurs, its no surprise that more andmore Orthodox Jews are taking theplunge into business ownership.

Finally, we offer a section onhealthy living, with an essay by foodwriter Naomi Ross on healthy trends

in the kosher food industry and a criti-cal article by father and son cardiolo-gists Drs. Charles and Elie Traube,who remind us that one of the mostimportant resolutions we can makethis year is a resolution to be good toourselves. As the article explains,abusing our bodies by eating a high-fat, cholesterol-rich diet and living asedentary lifestyle is not just bad forour bodies, its bad for our souls.

Wishing all of our readers a kesivahvachasimah tovah.g

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The sky hung low as I drove upstate to the EasternCorrectional Facility in Napanoch, New York, thispast May. I had never been to a prison before. Yet,here I was, traveling to the edge of the Catskills to visit amaximum-security prison. I came to observe Rabbi MosheFrank at work as a prison chaplain. You could say I was alittle nervous.

Rabbi Frank agreed to let me accompany him on hisregular Tuesday visit. I pick him up at his modest cottagein nearby Ellenville, where even the main thoroughfarelooks like a side street, and take him to the job hes loveddoing for close to thirty years. A strapping man in his latefifties, as suited for football as he is for semichah, he surely

shatters the inmates image of a rabbi. Im not a big be-liever in the correctional system, he tells me. Recidivismis high. They have to revisit how they could do this better.Nonetheless, he does what he can to help the Jewish pris-oners rebuild their lives, from the inside.

As we turn into the long driveway off Institution Road,I notice the barbed wire fence. Built at the end of the nine-teenth century, the prison resembles a medieval fortress,with stone castle-like steeples and a pyramid roof. Its 900occupants committed serious crimesmurder, assault,grand theft and other felonies. Their sentences numberten, twenty, thirty years. Some are here for life.

We enter an enclosed vestibule with steel doors andbarred windows and are buzzed into the reception area.Rabbi Frank greets a stocky woman with closely croppedblonde hair standing behind a high counter, munching on

Bayla Sheva Brenner is senior writer in the OU Communi-cations and Marketing Department.


P R O F I L E

an apple. The inmates are just about done with count,rabbi, she says. (Inmates are counted three times daily.)

Ill need your ID, she says, looking at me. She instructsme to walk through the metal detector and begins rummag-ing through my pocketbook. My cell phone and MP3 playerare placed in a steel locker.

She stamps my handmy ticket to the visiting area. Iwalk into the room and notice a few inmates, fortunateenough to have visiting family and friends, sitting withtheir guests at small tables. All eyes are on the rabbi andme as we pass through visiting room A to B, a more pri-vate area.

Rabbi Franks regulars are already there, standing at at-tention, waiting for us. He smiles at them. Youre dressedso nicelywhite shirts and all, he says, impressed.

As of June 2014, a total of forty-six inmates at Easternwere listed as Jewish, though not all are halachic Jews.Only a handful of them identified themselves as Jewishwhen they were incarcerated; the others opted for an offi-cial change of religion during their imprisonment.

Rabbi Frank holds prayer services and Torah classes atthe prison chapel on Sundays and Tuesdays. His prayerservice is interactive; he stops at various points to discusswhat the words mean. They love it; it grabs them, he says.They have such a thirst. I show them that every word hasa unique nuance.

On Tuesdays Rabbi Frank teaches Chumash, Gemaraand about the holidays. He also reserves time for privatecounseling. Inmates discuss their painful estrangementfrom their wives and children. He does what he can to fa-cilitate contact. Sometimes hes successful.

I hope to teach them basic valuesmenschlichkeit.[Some of them] come in when theyre twenty-five and leaveat forty; [do they leave] in a better place than when theycame in? Yes, if they utilize their time.

Rabbi Franks classes offer a window into the world ofJewish thought and faith. We have something to look for-ward to, says an inmate named Chanan, hearing about

Hashem and what He expects of us. An average of five toten inmates participate in the learning sessions.

The rabbi offers them a link to life on the outside. Ishare what goes on in the community, the shul, with myown family, says Rabbi Frank. They hunger to be part ofall of it in absentia.

We settle down to speak and I ask the handful of men toshare their stories.

In 2004, Chanan was sentenced to twenty years inprison. Thus far, hes served tenseven-and-a-half years atClinton Correctional Facility near the Canadian border, twoyears at Rikers Island in Queens and, at the time of our in-terview, one year and three weeks at Eastern. His good be-havior cut his sentence down to seventeen years.

Prior to his incarceration, Chanan, a gifted musician,played the saxophone, clarinet, trombone, bass and flute.To makes ends meet, he did accounting work by day andplayed saxophone in a band at night. Many of his gigs wereat clubs and Catskill hotels. Eventually, the hedonistic clubscene got to him, leading to a serious alcohol and drug ad-diction. He began attending AA meetings, where he foundsolace, sobriety and God. I kept hearing all this talk abouta Higher Power, says Chanan. I wanted to find my Jew-ish one. Despite his efforts to reconstruct his life, at forty-six, a tragic confrontation put him behind bars.

With his long salt-and-pepper beard, yarmulke and gen-tle self-effacing manner, Chananwho loves learningTorahdefies the image of a convict doing hard time. Hestudied more than 150 seforim in the past year, includingGemara as well as works on musar and halachah. Now fifty-six, he actually sees incarceration as the greatest thingthat could have happened to him. When I got arrested . . .I accepted it as if God was saying, You want to spendtwenty years with me? Okay.

I know Hashem is running the show and everythingHe does is good. If it werent for Hashem, the rabbis en-couragement and Judaism, I would have given up a longtime ago.

EasternCorrectional

Facility in Upstate

New York.

Photos: Esther Chillwww.estherchill.com


Determined to use his time in prison constructively,Chanan pushes himself to grow in his Yiddishkeit. If Ihave any hope of being an integral part of the community,I have to have something to offer.

He devours books on Judaism. If he spots an intrigu-ing sefer advertised in one of the Jewish newspapers ormagazines he regularly receives, he writes to the authors,requesting they send him copies. Over the years, hesamassed an impressive library, and has contacted writersin Israel, England, Canada and America, among othercountries. Im the post offices best customer, he says.

Whenever Chanan encounters a Hebrew word he isunfamiliar with, he consults with Ran, a fellow inmateoriginally from Israel. In his mid-thirties, Ran was sen-tenced in 2005 to eighteen years.

Both inmates speak of their love and respect for RabbiFrank. We can talk to him about anything, says Ran.Religion, food, something that's bothering us. Look atus, talking and laughing right now; who would believewere in jail? But inside we have a lot of issues to dealwith. I have a son I cant see . . . . Its very hard.

[Ordinarily,] I have no patience for religious mate-rial, says Ran. But the rabbi explains it in a clear way.He doesnt push us. Even while downplaying his growthin Judaism, Ran, who sports a sefirah beard, admits thathe observed every fast this past year.

Rans parents divorced when he was young. A trou-bled youth, he was kicked out of yeshivah and woundup living on the streets. He moved to the United Statesin the mid-1990s and began to build a life. He got mar-ried, had a job, even started keeping kosher again andgoing to shul. Unfortunately, he stumbled. In prison al-most nine years, he accepts his punishment. If you dosomething wrong, even if its by mistake, you have topay for it, says Ran. I have family and friends whosupport me. When I get out, I can build a life again.After his arrest, he dropped whatever advances he hadmade in Yiddishkeit.However, nine months after his in-carceration, he began retracing his steps. Ive been upand down in my life. I try to keep moving up. I get up inthe morning. I pray three times a day. Baruch Hashem, Ikeep going. I still have a lot of work to do.

Rabbi Frank never reads the inmates criminal casehistories. Theres no reason for me to know [about theirpasts]. I dont think it would benefit my relationship withthem. It might color my feelings toward them. [This way,I can] treat them as my equals.

A native of Brooklyn, Rabbi Frank, who earned a mas-ters degree from Yeshiva University in classical Jewishhistory, prefers the peace and quiet of country life to thetumult of the city. I open the window in the morningand breathe the fresh mountain air and I hear the creeknearby. I can accomplish my errands on erev Shabbos in amatter of minutespost office, haircut, cleaners, last-minute shopping. His children made different choices.They live in Manhattan, Kew Gardens Hills, Lakewoodand Ramat Eshkol, Israel. Nobody stays in Ellenville, hesays. But the chaplain remains.

Rabbi Frank began his prison visits in 1985, as the as-sistant to Rabbi Herman Eisner, the then-rabbi ofEzrath Israel in Ellenville, New York. When Rabbi Eis-ner, a concentration camp survivor who had led thecongregation since 1949, retired in 1988, Rabbi Franktook over as rav of the shul. Although he left the posi-tion in 2011, he continues his chaplaincy work at bothEastern and Ulster Correctional Facility, a medium-se-curity facility in the area.

Viewing himself more as a friend than a teacher,Rabbi Frank imparts Judaism with an easy smile and dis-cernible respect for everyone, affording each inmate theinspiration and time he needs to grow. Time is a com-modity the inmates have plenty of.

My motive is not to make them frum, Rabbi Franksays. I try to be very direct in a loving way. One youngJewish inmate told me, I dated a Jewish girl before andshe never stood by me; she dropped me like a hot potatowhen she knew I was in trouble. I told him, You cantmaintain your Judaism and be dating a non-Jewish girl,no matter how much money she sends you. He hasntcome back to services.

If you dont have belief in a Higher Power, youregoing to really be at a loss, says Rabbi Frank. God be-comes very present in their lives.

Being more observant makes me feel better, saysRan. When I read Tehillim, Im in a different world. Ididnt used to read it on the outside, only when I was inthe box [twenty-four-hour period of solitary confine-ment]. Because of the rabbi, I made Kiddush for the firsttime in my cell this past Friday. I tried to do a treatytransfer [the transferring of a prisoner from the countryin which he was convicted of a crime to his home coun-try], to do the rest of my prison time in Israel. It was de-nied and I got down. I try not to break in jail. Its veryeasy to get broken here.

The fact that he was a criminal didnt stopthem from helping him perform mitzvot.


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I ask Rabbi Frank about his most memorable prisonexperience. He shares the following: A group of SatmarChassidim approached him for help. They wanted to pro-vide an inmate in solitary confinement with what heneeded to make Pesach Sedarim. Since those in solitaryconfinement have little or no human contact, food and rit-ual items have to be passed through a tiny hatch in the celldoor. Rabbi Frank measured the opening and gave the pre-cise measurements to the Chassidic volunteers. They thenarranged for the delivery of two custom-size Seder trayscontaining hermetically sealed Pesach victuals, repletewith miniature matzot.

I was taken by the fact that they would go to suchlengths . . . [they] upset the routine in a matzah bakery inorder to produce matzot of an unusual size, says RabbiFrank. A man from Williamsburg, who had his own family,delivered it all on erev Pesach. After the inmate serving alife sentence died in prison, the Satmar communityarranged a burial plot for him in Israel. The fact thathe was a criminal didnt stop them from helping himperform mitzvot.

Choosing to Change Soft-spoken and unassuming, Rabbi Frank forms deepbonds with some of the Jewish prisoners. Recently, a super-intendent called him for feedback about an inmate who wastransferred to a medium-security prison and is now up forparole after twenty-five years of incarceration. You have tobe careful; youre putting your reputation on the line if yousay you know for sure the inmate will not be a further riskto society, says Rabbi Frank. You could speak about thegood things he did and advances he made to overcome hisanger, confirm that he was properly utilizing programs,helping other inmates with their education, was involved incharity drives. They want to see that the inmate has re-morse for the crime he committed; thats teshuvah from thestates perspective.

How does Rabbi Frank determine when teshuvahis genuine?

You could tell by the inmates attitudes. I see inmatesbecoming resigned to the fact that they cant continue to bebelligerent or arrogant. Being locked up in a maximum-se-curity prison could motivate one to change. One is re-minded every day of his compromised state.

The relationships Rabbi Frank forges with the inmateslast long after they leave prison and reenter society. Somecontinue to call and write to him; the rabbi invites them tocelebrate at his semachot, and they invite him to theirs.

When Chanan leaves the barbed wire behind, hell besixty-four. He wants to live in a frum community, learn in ayeshivah and work as a mashgiach.He also looks forward toa geulahmeal of corned beef, pastrami and tongue on clubbread with Russian dressing and coleslaw. Until then, hehopes to continue to feed himself spiritually every day. g

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I FIRST MET RABBANIT ADINA BAR SHALOM, the daughter ofRav Ovadia Yosef, zl, in the spring of 2007, on a visit to the Haredi Collegeof Jerusalem, founded in 2001, which was housed in a community center ina decrepit part of the Romema neighborhood of Jerusalem. Today the college takes up several floors in Jerusalems upscale Malcha

complex. This past year, on Israels Independence Day, the Rabbanit wasone of fourteen women chosen to light a torch during the traditional light-ing of the torches ceremony at Mount Herzl. Each of the women selectedcontributed to Israeli society in various ways. The Rabbanit said emphati-cally that she was lighting in honor of her father, in honor of the women ofvalor who help bring about and support a world of Torah study and inhonor of the thousands of Chareidimwho have entered the workforce, as itsays, For thou shalt eat the labour of thy hands: happy shalt thou be, andit shall be well with thee (Tehillim 128:2) (The Jerusalem Bible[Jerusalem: Koren Publishers, 2000]). The following evening, she was one of ten individuals, among them

Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein, to receive the prestigious Israel Prize. The stories and details about life with Rav Ovadia Yosef, described

here, are from a lecture which I have translated, excerpted and summa-rized. The Rabbanit delivered the lecture The Legacy of Hakham Ovadiain Hebrew this past November at Yeshiva University (lecture available atwww.yutorah.org).

Toby Klein Greenwald

The author with her father, Rav Ovadia, at anevent for the Haredi College of Jerusalem.Rabbanit Bar Shalom opened the college thir-teen years ago in response to the need forhigher education in the Chareidi community.The college offers separate gender classes andthe degrees are awarded by Bar-Ilan and Ben-Gurion universities. Rav Ovadia was a greatsupporter of the college. Photo courtesy of Rabbanit Bar Shalom

Toby Klein Greenwald is a journalist, educator andcommunity theater director who lives in Efrat, Is-rael with her family. Rabbanit Adina Bar Shalomis the eldest daughter of Rav Ovadia Yosef. Specialthanks to Shira Leibowitz Schmidt for assisting inthe preparation of this article.

T R I B U T E

MY

ABBA,RAV

OVADIABY ADINA BAR SHALOM

WITH TOBY KLEIN GREENWALD


It is difficult to find the words to describe the extent of theahavat Yisraelwith which my father, Rav Ovadia, wasblessed. My father and his brother were born into a poorfamily in Iraq. He was four years old when his family cameto Israel, where six more children were born.

From childhood on, he loved to learn Torah more thananything else; he didnt play with other children. At age sixhe knew scores of mishnayot by heart, and at nine he startedto learn Gemara.

H I S E A R L Y L I F E His phenomenal, photographic memory was apparent at ayoung age. When he couldnt afford to buy seforim, he

would stand in a bookstore for half a day, look over the seferand commit it to memory.

At twenty-four, he married [my mother] Margalit Fattaland at the age of twenty-six, in 1947, he was elected deputychief rabbi of Egypt, sent there by Rabbi Ezra Attiya, roshyeshivah of Porat Yosef Yeshiva, and Harav Ben-Zion Uziel,the Sephardic chief rabbi of then-British-ruled Palestine. Itwas a struggle in Egypt to observe the laws of kashrut andthe mitzvot. But my father persevered and strengthened thewhole community in limud Torah [Torah study].

My father understood the principle of chanoch lanaaral pi darko [Teach a child according to his or her ownway]. So to draw the community close, he went on day


trips [with his students] and joined them on picnics. I re-member when I was four years old, together with Abbasstudents we visited the pyramids and boated on the Nile.He would laugh and joke with his students, and in themidst of this, intertwine the study of Torah. He acted likeone of his students, not like a ravwho came to educatethem. Many [of his students] were older than he was, andthis was his way of bringing them closer.

Three years later, my father and his family returned to[the newly established State of ] Israel. In Egypt, my par-ents had been comfortable, but they arrived in Israel withfour children during the tzena [a time of austerity and ra-tioning], and their financial situation was very difficult.Abba did whatever was necessary in order to earn a liveli-hood. He gave shiurim in Porat Yosef Yeshiva, taught ha-lachah to baalei batim in the evenings and served as achazzan on Shabbat.

Our home was a home of Torah. In between the shiurimthat Abba gave, he learned Torah at home. We children tip-toed, and thats not metaphoric; we really did. We playedquietly; you could hardly hear us. Even if we cried, it wasquietly; and when we laughed, it was in total silence.

On Shabbat, my father, like other fathers, would teachus the songs that he loved, both Chassidic songs and songsfrom Egypt . . . He would also ask us what we were study-ing in school, which teachers we like, which subjects weenjoy learning. Shabbat was wonderful for us. He wouldtell stories, and all his stories had a musar haskel, a lesson.

On weekday afternoons, we would spend a half hourwith Abba during lunchtime. The radio would be on, andwe would listen to Professor Nechama Leibowitz, zl, ex-plain the Tanach. He would say, Learn from her, children;see what a wise woman she is. Learn the Tanach well, sothat in twenty or thirty years from now, I will be privi-leged to hear you on the radio explaining the Tanach. In-deed, today several of my brothers deliver regular shiurimon Israeli radio.

In 1957, my father began serving asa dayan, rabbinical court judge, inPetah Tikva. His heart was filled withcompassion for the couples who cameto him. After all, who comes to a beitdin? People who are in pain and havedifficulties. He tried his best to allevi-ate peoples suffering.

Once, close to Pesach, he convenedthe beit din for an urgent case. His col-leagues arrived and asked, What is sourgent? We arent doctors! He replied,We are much more [than doctors].There is a man who refuses to give hiswife a get, and hes sitting in prison.The man believed that because he was-

nt a criminalhe didnt steal or commit murder, he justrefused to give his wife a gethe would be allowed to gohome for the chag. [But once he realized that was not thecase,] he called my father and said he couldnt stay in jailbecause there was no shmurah matzah, et cetera. Hepromised to give his wife a get right after Pesach. Abbasaid, No, you wont leave prison until you give her a get.He finally said, Bring the dayanim now, and Ill give her aget. So Abba called the dayanim together quickly. On theeve of bedikat chametz, Abba came home late, after the getwas given. He said that he wanted us, his children, to un-derstand how important it was to him to have this womanreceive her get. Now that she is a free woman, he said, Ican conduct the Seder.

In 1958, we moved back to Jerusalem when my fatherwas appointed to serve as a justice in the rabbinical courtin Jerusalem. Subsequently, he began serving in the rab-binical high court. In 1968, he became Sephardic chiefrabbi of Tel Aviv-Jaffa. Prior to this, he had written Cha-zon Ovadia and the first few volumes of Yabia Omer. Hereceived awards for these seforim, including the Rav KookPrize for Torah Scholarship, the Rabbi Uziel Prize andthe Israel Prize for his rabbinic writings and bold ha-lachic decisions.

In 1972, he was elected the Sephardic chief rabbi of Is-rael. After the Yom Kippur War, Minister of DefenseMoshe Dayan asked him to examine the possibility of de-claring the wives of soldiers who were missing in actionand presumed dead as halachic widows. These womenwould remain agunot otherwise.When Dayan was askedwhy he went to [Rav Ovadia] and not to another rav, hesaid, Because I have absolute faith in him and, just as Itrust him, so do all of Am Yisrael; they will accept his ha-lachic decision . . . If [Rav Ovadia] investigates the issueand he [declares them widows,] nobody will disagree withthat decision.

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef learning in his home(October 18, 1972). Photo: Israel Sun


He questioned the soldiers who served with the menmissing in action. With each testimony, he cried. He could-nt eat during those days, didnt drink, didnt sleep, couldnot close his eyes, until he gave a heter to every one of thewives whose husbands were missing. There were nearly960 widows resulting from the Yom Kippur War. For many,the bodies of their husbands were found and identified.But [in those cases] where the bodies could either not befound or identified, as a result of my fathers pesak andthorough investigation of each and every case, not onewoman was left an agunah.

A T E A C H E R O F T O R A H Abba was known for having the ability to rub shoulderswith kings and rulers of countries but also with the com-mon man. He never refused an invitation; whether it wasto visit the kibbutzim of Hashomer Hatzair [the secularCommunist kibbutz movement] or the king of Spain, hewent with the same enthusiasm. He was especially happyto go [teach Torah at] the secular kibbutzim because hesaid this was their only opportunity to hear divrei Torah. Inthe beginning [of his rabbinic career], he went everywhereby bus. He never complained that it was difficult for him,and he never felt that he should stay home and learn Torahinstead. He thought that learning Torah and teaching oth-ers were both important and that he had to do both.

On one of his trips to the States, he visited a school inLos Angeles. A seven-year-old boy from the well-knownSyrian Jewish Falas family was so inspired by his visit thatwhen he reached the age of sixteen he went to Jerusalemto study in a yeshivah for two years. Soon after, this youngman met my daughter and [became my son-in-law]. He

was recently chosen to be the Sephardic chief rabbi of Lon-don. At the age of seven, he saw the joy of Torah and itbrought him to a place where he yearned to learn Torah.Abba always supported my son-in-laws pesakim. Abba toldhim, Go with strength and save Am Yisrael. You have theability to speak English; I wish I could.

After serving as chief rabbi of Israel for ten years, Abbafounded the Shas party. He wanted to finish what hestarted. He wanted to serve Am Yisrael, to take care of theunderprivileged, to work for the glorification of Torah. Heknew that in order to execute ideas, one needs politicalpower. He wasnt nave. He knew that [without Shas,] hewould not be able to implement his vision.

We, the family, were unhappy with this decision andasked him to reconsider. We were afraid that [his involve-ment in politics] would cast a shadow over his greatness inTorah, chas vechalilah, and his prestige would suffer. Abbadrew his answer, as usual, from the sources. Yechezkel theProphet was called Yechezkel ben Buzi. Why? Because heembarrassed himself for the Torah . . . in order to spreadthe Torah, he had to dirty himself more than once. [He hadto] go into the mud, to ask people to come and listen to di-vrei Torah. This is the reason why he was privileged tohave God reveal Himself to him and call him Ben Adam.Prophecy was given to prophets who did not have the des-ignation of Ben Adam. But God wanted to uplift Yechezkeldue to the fact that he had shamed himself for the Torah.My father then turned to my mother and said, Can I standon the side? Is this what I will say to Hakadosh BaruchHu? That I cared more for my honor?

Indeed, what we feared came to pass. People got angryor mocked Abba for things he said. His divrei Torahwere

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef speaking to religious stu-dents before their induction into the IDF (1973). Photo: Israel Sun


not always properly understood, and such misunderstand-ings also took place when he would broadcast shiurim viasatellite. We urged him to cancel the broadcasts. We toldhim that journalists are listening and they dont under-stand. He was very distressed after he spoke about thereincarnation of souls connected to the Shoah and sur-vivors misunderstood what he said [and assumed he hadreferred to them as evil]. He didnt mean that they wereevil, chalilah vchas, but many survivors were shattered anddemonstrated outside of our home. That was the onlydemonstration during which he went out to the peopleand said, I apologize. I was misunderstood; no one onEarth went through what you did. That was the only timehe cried with the demonstrators because they did not un-derstand him. After that incident, we once again urgedhim to stop the broadcasts. And he said, No, Ive learned

what is not understood. And Ill makemore mistakes. There is no individualwho is immune to making mistakes.How can I otherwise reach 30,000people? They heard him in Morocco,in France; they heard him everywhere.So he continued, in spite of the factthat there were things that hurt himand hurt us.

BRINGING THE UNIVERSITY TO USMy father introduced me to my husband. I was eighteenyears old. I wanted to work, to support my family. Abbasaid, Ezer kenegdo, not alone; he will help you and youwill help him. You will build a home together. MayHashem make it successful. So my husband, like my fa-ther, worked as a chazzan and gave classes in the evening,and I clothed the daughters of Israel. I had a bridalgown salon.

Later, my husband became a dayan. We have three chil-dren and thirteen grandchildren, baruch Hashem. Whenour youngest daughter got married seventeen years ago, Ithought, how can I contribute, to leave my mark, as thedaughter of Rav Ovadia?

I realized that higher education was the answer. Twohundred years ago, academic study had caused [manyamong] Am Yisrael to become secular and this led tomuch intermarriage; it was known as hashmadat dat,the destruction of religion [the Enlightenment]. There-fore, the Chareidim in Israel boycotted university studies.However, academic study helps develop the world, as it iswritten in the Torah, Wisdom among the non-Jewsshould be believed.

What can we do to provide Chareidimwith education,with the knowledge to participate in the twenty-first-cen-tury world?

I thought about this issue because I was raised inAbbas home. People came to him seeking his advice. Iknew that hearing about all their difficulties caused him tofeel deeply distressed. They didnt have money to feedtheir children, to buy them clothes, to support their fami-lies. They were working, but the salaries didnt cover theirmonthly expenses. I thought: we have to bring academicstudies to Am Yisrael, to the Chareidim. Not to send theChareidim to university, but to bring the university to us.

Abba immediately agreed with me. He asked thatthings be done in the proper way, in the way of the Torah. Iopened the Haredi College of Jerusalem thirteen years agowith twenty-three women. Today, more than 1,000 stu-

dentsmen and womenstudy in the college. The degreesare awarded by Bar-Ilan and Ben-Gurion universities.

Five years ago, when Abba came to visit the college, heasked me, Where are the men? I said, Abba, I only teachwomen, because I am afraid that the Ashkenazic rabbanim,who were very opposed to the college in the beginning,will claim that Im taking the men out of the yeshivot. Hesaid, Youre afraid of the Ashkenazic rabbis and not ofme? If Im saying [to bring the men,] then obviously Iknow that those who will come to the college [will do sobecause they] need to support their families. They are peo-ple who will not become rabbanim.

Working with the academic world was a challenge, andBar-Ilan University was concerned about opening new de-gree programs for Chareidim. I wanted to offer a lot of aca-demic options. I wanted Chareidim to study computerscience and guidance counselingeverything studentscould learn elsewhere. The [course work is] the same, butI wanted to give Chareidim the opportunity to studyamong other Chareidim in separate-gender classes.

One day, Abba said, I will go to Bar-Ilan and Ill talk tothe president. And he did. He met with the university

Pre-election rally in Tel Aviv where RabbiOvadia Yosef encouraged voters to votefor Shas (February, 2006). Photo: Leon Kahane/Israel Sun


president, after which, the president promised that hewould open the door to all of the degree programs inthe university.

Abba went to see the universitys Torah library, andwas amazed at the Responsa Project. He said, in jest,Lets have a contest. One of you ask a question, and Iwant to see how many answers the computer will give,and how many Ill give. A question was asked. He an-swered way before the computer did.

A F O L L O W E R O F B E I T H I L L E LAbba was very well respected. Tremendous rabbanim,like Rav [Yosef Shalom] Elyashiv, who did not alwaysapprove of his halachic opinions, agreed that he was agenius in Torah, and that his pesakwas clear-cut andsolid. Many also appreciated his lenient approach. Abbanever hesitated to quote posekimwho did not rule theway he did.

At one point, he was questioned about his decisionregarding the status of the several thousand IDF con-verts who were converted [outside of the framework ofthe Chief Rabbinate] in special IDF conversion courts.Abba said, I checked it out [and decided that] whoeverconverted, converted. We dont posel a person after hehas converted.

Abba left an ethical will to my brother, Rabbi YitzhakYosef, the new Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel. He is a ge-nius in Torah, head and shoulders above others. In hisethical will, my father said to him: Go according to BeitHillel. And dont make it burdensome for the tzibbur[public]. If you want to take something more difficultupon yourself, I wont tell you not to. But dont be mach-mir [stringent] with the tzibbur, because it will just dis-tance them. You have to draw the tzibbur close. Takethat as a will that I am leaving you. Continue in this way,because I know you are filled with Torah; you know howto make halachic decisions. You have courage, butchoose always to go in the way of Beit Hillel and notBeit Shammai.

We lost a leader who was a giant, a leader whose headreached the stars and whose feet were planted in theground. I want to conclude with a verse from Tehillim:Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel ofthe wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits inthe seat of scorners. But his delight is in the Tora of theLord; and in his Tora he meditates day and night. And heshall be like a tree planted by streams of water, thatbrings forth its fruit in its season; its leaf also shall notwither; and in whatever he does he shall prosper(Tehillim 1:1-4) (The Jerusalem Bible [Jerusalem: KorenPublishers, 2000]).

So was Abba, who planted trees that bring forth fruitsin season, the fruits being the talmidei chachamim of ourgeneration. And then there are the books. There is noth-ing Abba cherished more. He used to bring home a newsefer and hug and kiss it as if it were a human being. Abbaleft the scores of books he wrote as an inheritance for usand for all of the generations to come. g

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TG:What was Rav Ovadias true opinion about thereligious significance of the State of Israel?

BL: He wasnt different from most of the Jerusalem rabbiswho were the talmidim of the Vilna Gaon, such as RavEliezer Waldenberg and Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach.Rav Ovadia believed as the other rabbis did. They were notanti-Zionists but they were certainly not part of the Zion-ist movement. They were subscribers to the belief that [theestablishment of the State] was yad Hashemthe hand ofGodworking, but they believed that it was forbidden tosupport the Zionist movement politically. They didntthink Israel was the Diaspora. They were far from Satmarbut they were not part of the Religious Zionist movement.

TG:What was Rav Ovadias opinion about the obliga-tion to serve in the army?

BL: He believed that anyone who was able to learn Torahshould do so; anyone who was capable of sitting seriouslyin the tent of Torah, about whom it could be said Toratoumanuto, Torah is his vocation, should not serve inthe army.

TG: What were Rav Ovadias thoughts about seculareducation?

BL: He thought that studying for a profession is importantin order for an individual to earn a livelihood, assumingthat he cannot learn. In other words, the ideal is to becomea talmid chacham, but he recognized that it was not thederech, the way, for everyone, but rather for a select groupof people, and that there are others who would need theability to make a living.

TG:What will be Rav Ovadias main legacy?

BL: Thats a difficult question because everyone takes

something different from him. He has the status of onewho achieved gadlut, greatness in Torah. He became oneof the poskei halachah, halachic decisors, of the generationand [the idea of ] a yerushah, inheritance, is that it does notend. Every generation includes those people who work atthe yetzirah, the creation of the Torah. When we say theblessings on the Torah, we say, noten haTorah [in thepresent tense] and Rav Ovadia is one of the proofs that inour generation the Torah continues to renew itself.

He dealt with the entire Torah so it is hard to say thatone major area would be his legacy.

TG: Whom did Rav Ovadia consider to be his teachers?

BL: Thats an interesting question. He was raised by RavEzra Attiya, the rosh yeshivah of Porat Yosef Yeshiva. Buthe was an autodidact. Thats whats important to knowabout him.

TG: Whom among his contemporaries did he considerto be gedolei hador?

BL:There is no question that Rav Auerbach is one of thegedolimwhom Rav Ovadia regarded very highly, but hehad a chavurah, a group of rabbanim [who were his col-leagues], all Ashkenazim. They were known as rabbaneiYerushalayim. They stayed connected to each other forsixty years; they were a close-knit group. It included RavElyashiv and Rav Waldenberg, and their teacher had beenRabbi Tzvi Pesach Frank.

When Rav Ovadia came back from Egypt in 1950,he became a part of that chavurah and was the onlySephardi member.

For ten years he studied in Porat Yosef, but he alwayslearned alone, aside from one friend to whose house hewould travel back and forth. That was Rav Ben Tzion AbbaShaul, who became one of the rashei yeshivah of PoratYosef. The families are still very much in touch; the con-nection was very strong.

TG : What were Rav Ovadias thoughts regardingprospects of peace with Palestinians and the Arabworld in general?

BL: He thought that if there is a chance, one has to give it[a chance], but he absolutely did not believe the Arabs. Hethought that there was no one to talk to. g

THE TRUE RAV OVADIA Journalist Toby Klein Greenwald speaks with Rabbi Dr. Binyamin Lau,

one of the foremost experts on Rav Ovadia Yosef.

Rabbi Dr. Binyamin Lau wrote his doctoral dissertation on Rav Ova-dia, which subsequently evolved into the book From Maran toMaran: The Halachic Philosophy of Rav Ovadia Yosef. The bookopens with a letter from Rav Ovadia to Rabbi Lau in which he writesthat he reviewed the book and he saw that it was written inhaderech hanechonah; in other words, that Rabbi Lau understoodhim. Rabbi Lau is the rabbi of the Ramban Synagogue in Jerusalemand is the director of the Center for Judaism and Society as well asthe Institute for Social Justice at Beit Morasha of Jerusalem.

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Hi Rabbi, I was offered a job inyour area and my family would like tospend a Shabbat with your shul beforewe consider relocating. Can you helparrange this?Rabbi, our family of six looks for-

ward to vacationing at Hershey Parknext week. Wed love to stay and spendShabbat in your community. Can youaccommodate us?

As the rabbi of Harrisburg, Penn-sylvanias Orthodox shul, throughoutthe year I receive many requests suchas the ones above. While a wonderfulwoman in our community runs a small

kosher bed and breakfast, there is nohotel or motel located within our eruv(or within a forty-minute walk of ourshul). As such, accommodating visitorswho would like to spend a Shabbat inour community means asking one ofthe shuls families to host them.

I only seek Shabbat accommoda-tions for those who have a good reasonto spend Shabbat in our community.(Extending a Hershey Park vacationjust does not qualify.) Accommodatingeven the most wonderful family forShabbat means asking a great dealfrom hosts who do not know them; re-quests for Shabbat accommodationsare not infrequent (especially whenHershey Park is open for business) andour community has a limited number

of families able to serve as hosts. However, even when people have

excellent reasons for requesting Shab-bat hospitality, I find myself plagued bythe following: When I ask one of ourfamilies if they can host people forShabbat, I am asking them to welcomecomplete strangers into their home. Inthis day and age, is it safe for Jewishcommunities to remain nave and con-tinue with our open-door policy? Whatif someone contacted me with a re-quest for Shabbat accommodationswith the most legitimate of reasons andthis individual turned out to be a dan-gerous person? What if this individualwould then harm (God forbid) one ofthe members of the family who kindlywelcomed him or her into their home?While nothing of this sort has hap-pened on my watch (thank God), couldI be so confident that it never would?

Then I had a revelation. It was aweek or two before Yom Kippur, and asI prepared for that solemn day, I re-ceived the following e-mail:My name is _____, and I live in _____.

My firm has me scheduled to make apresentation on one of our top-sellingproducts to a company in your area.However, they are only able to see me onErev Yom Kippur. Theres no way I canmake it home after the presentationprior to Yom Kippur. Would you be ableto accommodate me so that I couldspend Yom Kippur with you andyour shul?

A discussion in the Talmud imme-diately came to mind: The mishnah inYoma (1:5) teaches that prior to YomKippur, the elder Kohanim compelledthe Kohen Gadol (High Priest) whowould perform that years Yom Kippurservice to take an oath of allegiance.With this oath, the Kohen Gadol sworethat he would perform that days sa-cred service in full accordance with theOral Laws understanding of it. Thisversion of the Temple service signifi-cantly differed with that espoused bythe Sadduceesa powerful hereticalsect of the era who based themselveson a purely literal reading of the Torah.

Rabbi'sDiary By Akiva Males

A Yom Kippur GuestHi Rabbi, while were Orthodox, our cousins belong to theReform Temple in your neighborhood. Theyll be celebratingtheir sons bar mitzvah in a few months. Would a family inyour shul be willing to host my wife and me so we can stop inand wish our cousins mazal tov?

Rabbi Akiva Males is the rabbi of KesherIsrael Congregation, an OU shul in Harris-burg, Pennsylvania.

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THE NEW ENT WHY THE ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT IS ALIVE AND WELL,

AND BOOMING IN THE ORTHODOX COMMUNITY

BY BAYLA SHEVA BRENNER

COVERSTORY

Bayla Sheva Brenner is senior writer in the OU Communications and Marketing Department.

THE RECESSION OF 2008 MAY HAVE LEFT THOUSANDS

OF ORTHODOX JEWS OUT OF WORK, BUT APPARENTLY

NOT OUT OF HOPE. RATHER THAN SETTLE FOR JOBS FAR

BELOW THEIR SKILL SETS AND FINANCIAL NEEDS, A

GROWING NUMBER ARE LAUNCHING SUCCESSFUL

BUSINESSES OF THEIR OWN.

TREPRENEUR



While exact statistics ofOrthodox entrepreneursin the country are notavailable, thanks to a

growing number of Jewish organiza-tions offering interest-free loans tonew businesses, the entrepreneurialspirit is alive and well and booming inthe Orthodox community.

If you want to start your ownbusiness, now is the time to do it,says Srulie Rosner, international di-rector of the OU Job Board, an em-ployment program that provides aplethora of services including an on-line job board, e-learning classes,job fairs, rsum and cover lettercritiques, networking events andcareer counseling.

Today, you can not only get asubstantial interest-free loan butalso mentorship to make sure youwill succeed.

Who are these new Orthodox en-trepreneurs? They are middle-agedmen and women who lost their long-time jobs to downsizing. They arestruggling fathers and mothers whorealize their day jobs can no longersupport the high costs of frum life.They are young, energetic go-getterswho prefer the satisfaction of being

their own boss. They range from shopowners to high-tech developers, fromModern Orthodox to Chassidic, andthey all have one thing in common:they possess a creative idea and adream to strike out on their own.

Baby Boomerang Back toWhat You LoveWhen Chaim Friedman, forty-eight,owner of 3 to 5 Aquatics, lost his jobat a brokerage firm, he immediatelybegan job hunting. For two years, hepounded the pavementto no avail.The bills piled high; his confidenceplummeted. Residing in an affluentsection of Woodmere, New York, hewent from supporting several kollelsin Israel to wondering how to putfood on the table. While fishing for aviable way to support his family, hecaught a big one. With the help of aloan from Emergency Parnassa Initia-tive (EPI), a New York-based non-profit organization dedicated toassisting the unemployed, Friedmantook his fascination with marineaquatics and began selling saltwaterfish and live coral on eBay andCraigslist. He regularly imports livefish from Africa, Indonesia, Bali andHawaii and ships them to customers

across the country in special bagscontaining saltwater and pumped-inoxygen. For local walk-in customers,he keeps a stock of fish in the twentyfish tanks that occupy his basement.I realized that my personalitywouldnt have allowed me to have aregular job, says Friedman, who is anavid scuba diver. Hes thrilled to haveturned a longtime hobby and passioninto a growing parnassah (sourceof income).

Ageism compelled many BabyBoomers to switch gears and openbusinesses. A guy whos forty-fiveplus who doesnt know the latestcomputer software cant even get ajob in an office or warehouse, saysRosner. He could try to catch upwith classes for six months, but thenhes six months older and when hegoes for a job interview, a competentguy in his twenties or thirties isalso applying for the job. Whomare you going to hire? Entrepreneur-ship offers a viable way out forthis population.

[The middle-aged unemployed]are pushed into entrepreneurship. Itssimilar to the turn of the centurywhen [Eastern European Jewish] im-migrants came to America, says Ros-


ner. They couldnt find jobs becausethey couldnt speak the language andthey wanted to remain shomer Shab-bat. So they went into businessthepush cart, the grocery store, the cloth-ing store. The same dynamic is atplay here, insists Rosner. Necessity isthe mother of entrepreneurship. Butwhile he endorses the idea of startingones own business, he offers the as-piring entrepreneur a piece of advice:start small.

Rosner tells of a genius program-mer in his late forties who came tohim in the middle of the recession forhelp. He couldnt find a job with his[outdated] knowledge of technology,says Rosner. He took softwareclasses and attended business semi-nars and still found himself hard-pressed to land a position. Withnowhere to turn, he procured a loanfrom a family member and opened akosher gluten-free bakery. Eightmonths later, he called Rosner tothank him for his support and to lethim know he was doing well. Hecame to the realization that [even] ifyou cant get a job, theres somethingyou can do.

Chaya Fishman, in her mid-twen-ties, founder and executive director ofThe Jewish Woman Entrepreneur(JWE), a national organization aimedat supporting Jewish businesswomen,reports seeing a huge influx of BabyBoomers at the organizations annualconferences. (See profile of Fishmanon p. 32.)

Ironically, Rabbi Zisha Novoseller,CEO/executive director of EPI, aBaby Boomer from Lakewood, washimself the victim of downsizing.After receiving a pink slip in 2008from a company where he had beensupervising dozens of employees, hesoon realized that unemployment wasnot just his personal problem; it was acommunity-wide problem. Unem-ployment was rippling through thefrum community, he says. I saw thedifficult circumstances people foundthemselves in. What does one do?Does he re-educate himself? Does heswitch careers? Should he become anentrepreneur? And how does hemorph from one career to another? Aperson has to consider all the factors

involved in making such a decision.At the same time, a group of

prominent businessmen who wereaware of the problem thought it wasimperative to do something. They ap-proached Rabbi Novoseller and askedhim to organize a program to assistthe unemployed.

In 2009, he became CEO of EPI(the OU provides office space to EPIin its Manhattan headquarters). Atthe outset, Rabbi Novoseller realizedthat entrepreneurship was a realisticoption for many of the unemployed orunderemployed and launched a busi-ness gemach. Providing $25,000 to$50,000 interest-free loans to entre-preneurs, the EPI business gemachhas funded more than 160 businessesand currently has many millions ofdollars out on loan. The companiesspan a range of industries, from high-tech and e-commerce to beauty prod-ucts and clothing.

EPI, which partners with the OUJob Board on many programs andservices, provides mentorsessen-tially successful businessmentohelp guide aspiring entrepreneurs.Whatever they need to be matzli-ach, says Rabbi Novoseller. Cur-rently, there are EPI branches in NewJersey, New York and Baltimore, andone is set to open in Los Angeles.

The New Wave ofYoung EntrepreneursBaby Boomers are not the only onestaking advantage of the interest-freeloans.

When the Rosens married in2006, they agreed that Mordechaiwould learn in kollel and, to supple-ment his stipend, Elisheva would dowhat she did best: sell clothes.

Elisheva cultivated her fashionand sales skills while single sinceshe had friends in the industry andwould accompany them to fashiontrade shows.

As a young wife, she sold womensclothing from her small apartment inFar Rockaway, New York. When themerchandise and customer trafficbegan taking over the couples livingspace, they moved to larger livingquarters. At that point, the Rosens, intheir thirties, came up with an idea.They noticed that Central Avenue, amajor shopping thoroughfare in the

1 Offer what peoplewant to buy, not whatyou want to sell

2 Understand yourtarget audience

3 Find new ways tokeep costs as lowas possible

4 When planning, alwaysoverestimate expensesand underestimaterevenue

5 Focus on salesand marketing

6 Evaluate your progress

7 Learning more aboutyour business equalsearning more

8 Get a mentor

Tips for aStrong Start

Rabbi Zisha Novoseller, CEO/executive di-rector of EPI, has helped fund more than160 businesses. Currently, EPI has manymillions of dollars out on loan.

Cour

tesy

of E

PI


Five Towns, lacked a store for mid-dle-priced clothing. It was time toopen a store.

They heard about EPIs loangemach from a friend. We werewarned that they would grill us, saysMordechai. They asked us why wethought the store could make it onCentral Avenue when so many storeson the avenue stood vacant. We toldthem that our clientele say thattheres nothing like [our merchan-dise] on Central Avenue. When EPIasked for their [sales and expendi-tures] projections for the year, theRosens realized they had left outsome key numbers. Nonetheless, theyreceived a callback. EPI went over theplan with them to make sure it madesense, then approved a loan. In 2010,the Rosens opened Fame, a trendywomens clothing boutique. As itturns out, the Rosens were on themark. Having outgrown their firststore, they recently moved to a newspace triple the size.

For young people trying to estab-lish themselves in a career, entrepre-neurship is becoming an increasinglypopular option. Entrepreneurshiphas always been something very Jew-ish, especially in the Orthodox com-munity where there are many [whoare] not interested in pursuing a col-lege education, says Rabbi YehoshuaWerde, founder and director ofCrown Heights Young Entrepreneur(CHYE), a business resource centerthat supports entrepreneurship inthe neighborhood.

Rabbi Werde, who launched theyear-old initiative, runs a variety ofprograms that raise the entrepreneur-ial consciousness in the community.Not every young man goes into rab-banus or shlichus. We want to makesure that if someone wants to start abusiness, hell have the opportunity todo it right, says Rabbi Werde. The or-ganization, which offers lectures,mentoring, credit counseling, as wellas local workspace and a loungeequipped with a business resource li-brary, recently ran a Shark Tank in-spired event, inviting prominentbusiness professionals to connectwith the communitys aspiring entre-preneurs. So many [of our] young

people are asking, Should I go intobusiness? Should I go to college?There was nothing here to helpthem, says Rabbi Werde. WhileCHYE is currently focused on theCrown Heights community, it hopesto spread out to other communities inthe future.

Rising CostsAnother major factor contributing tothe rise in Orthodox entrepreneur-ship is the high cost of Orthodox life.

Even if you choose to live in anarea with a lower cost of living, tu-ition would still amount to abouteight thousand per child, says RabbiJudah Isaacs, director of communityengagement at the OU. If you havefour children, youre talking aboutthirty-two thousand dollars annuallyjust for tuition. Add housing, shulmembership, food, clothing . . . re-gardless of community, the costs asso-ciated with living an Orthodoxlifestyle are much greater. And thecosts keep rising; peoples incomesarent keeping up.

In a recent article in Tablet, an on-line Jewish magazine, Rabbi Ilan Feld-man, rav of Beth Jacob Atlanta,bemoaned the rising costs of the Or-thodox lifestyle for Jews in his commu-nity where costs are significantly lowerthan in the major Jewish centers.

For someone making sixty thou-sand dollars a year in America, thatsmiddle class, Rabbi Feldman is quotedas saying. But in this Orthodox com-munity, sixty thousand dollars meansyou arent going to make it.

Passover alone is usually a three-thousand-dollar holiday, saysRabbi Feldman.

Fishman of the JWE says that en-trepreneurship appeals to so many inthe frum world because of simpleeconomics. She cites an IZA study(IZA is an independent institute thatconducts labor market research) indi-cating that the average entrepreneursincome is 50 percent higher than thatof the traditional employee, providingthat he had sufficient education withwhich to conduct his business.

Yeshivah tuition and kosher foodare things you just cant cut back on,says Esty Margaretten, a thirty-six-year-old graphic artist from Brooklynwho procured a start-up loan fromEPI to create the Rina and Dina Col-lection, the frum worlds alternativeto Hello Kitty. Working for a salaryhas its upsideyou get your weeklypaycheckbut then you are limitedby how much income you can gener-ate. If you are an entrepreneur,theres a possibility of [making a lot]more money.

Elisheva and Mordechai Rosen opened Fame, a trendy womens clothing store on CentralAvenue in Cedarhurst, New York, with the help of EPI. Photo courtesy of Elisheva Rosen


The Rina and Dina collection fea-tures two modestly dressed little girlswho promote mitzvot and good mid-dot and includes stickers, crafts,games, puzzles, stationary, pencilcases, key rings and a beautifully il-lustrated coloring book.

In response to mounting requests,Margaretten recently introduced aboys versionthe Pinny and Shimmycollection. Currently, the collectionscan be found in Judaica stores in NewYork, Baltimore, Florida, Los Angeles,Toronto, Israel and Europe.

A Dose of RealismAs successful Orthodox entrepre-neurs will attest, it takes more than aloan to launch a profitable business; ittakes a lot of siyata dShmaya (Heav-enly assistance).

Data from the US Bureau of LaborStatistics show that less than two-thirds of all start-ups make it to theirthird year and only 35 percent survivetheir first decade.

Rabbi Novoseller agrees that mak-ing a business profitable is no simplefeat. The fact that someone is drivenand smart is not enough. The mostcommon mistake new entrepreneursmake: not understanding moneymanagement. Since most of thosewho come to Rabbi Novoseller havenot attended business school, theyoften dont realize how much moneythey realistically need to start andmaintain the business, how they willcollect outstanding debts, et cetera.All of this comes from experience,says Rabbi Novoseller, who connectsnew entrepreneurs with mentors inthe appropriate fields. But he willonly make the connection if he feelsthe business has a realistic chance ofsuccess. Due to his careful screeningprocess, only five percent of the busi-nesses that EPI has funded have ei-ther failed or are experiencingdifficulties. Out of the 160 businessesthat EPI has helped fund, it rejecteddozens that were not viewedas viable.

Oftentimes, people ask me, howcould you start a business with onlyfifty or one hundred thousand dol-lars? says Rabbi Novoseller. Theanswer is we tend to fund businessesthat are not just good ideas, but thathave a competitive advantage. Forexample, a family member who isa manufacturer and able to givethe prospective entrepreneur adrastic discount.

Fishman says that while entrepre-neurship is a great path, its notfor everyone.

Her advice to those just startingout: do your market researchis yourservice or product already out there?If it is, how

will yours be different? Most impor-tantly, crunch your numbers. She re-calls meeting more than a fewwomen who did not spend enoughtime working on a business plan.They borrowed money from familyand friends and got into trouble be-cause they didnt figure out whenthey will break even or how they willcover certain expenses. Shes alsoseen women get overly excited wheninvestors express interest in theirideas and end up ceding too muchcontrol of their company.

Oftentimes, Fishman says, thevery qualities that make people effec-tive entrepreneurswhat she refersto as the go-getter, shaker, moverpersonalityalso causes them to failbecause they lack the patience to do

Shmuel Goldman (left), former COO ofIntrasphere Technologies Inc, mentorsBentzion Plotkin as part of CHYEsmentoring program. Photo courtesy of Rabbi Yehoshua Werde of CHYE

Sell What You Know

Writing teachers always tell their students: write what you know. In business,the same principle applies. When starting a business, try to stick to some-thing you are very familiar with. When Rabbi Shlomo Goldman, a middle-agedBoro Park resident, lost his longtime job in the jewelry district in 2008, his wife,Zlaty, turned her sewing hobby into Gold Laibel, a school uniform business. Shestarted with one school. Today, the Brooklyn-based business supplies uniforms tothirty-two schools in Brooklyn, New Jersey, Los Angeles, Rockland County, eventhe UK and Belgium.

EPI got them started. In order to outshine the competition, Zlaty purchaseshigh quality fabric and offers personalized tting. A school has three hundredgirls and they come in all shapes and sizes; I make sure to t the uniform to theindividual, she says. She refuses to go the made-in-China route; all her uniformsare sewn in Manhattan. A lot of money [was] invested, says Zlaty. We borrowedfrom EPI three times. Otherwise we wouldnt have been able to do it.


their homework. The thrill of entre-preneurship should be balanced withthinking about the details.

Ultimately all new entrepreneursrequire the same core characteristics:perseverance, stamina anda back-up plan.

Women in Business Despite the discouraging statistics,more and more frumwomen aredrawn to entrepreneurship. We havea lot of single moms in our networkand they cant work a traditional job,says Fishman. Having control overyour schedule is a powerful thing.

For Chassidic women especially,most of whom do not have a collegeeducation and who have large fami-lies and need the flexibility, entrepre-neurship makes a lot of sense.

Noticing this trend, the Manhat-tan-based Hebrew Free Loan Society(HFLS) began offering an entrepre-neurial course geared towardChareidiwomen three years ago.Since then, some 200 Chareidiwomen have taken the microenter-prise course, offered in Boro Park andWilliamsburg, which covers topicsincluding market analysis, cash flow

reports, writing a business plan,defining your product and service,knowing your competitive advantageand your target market, profit andloss statements and many otheraspects of running a successfulbusiness.

Shana Novick, executive directorof the HFLS, said the course was in-spired by similar programs in Israel.Many students in the microenter-prise course qualify for an HFLS in-terest-free loan up to $25,000.

Via its Orthodox MicroenterpriseProgram, which also includes entre-preneur classes for men, HFLS hasgiven more than 100 loans to mem-bers of the Orthodox communitysince its inception in 2008, totalingmore than two millio

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