Wave Resort in Long Branch, NJ on the Jersey Shore. Opening in mid-June on the beaches of Long Branch, NJ is LBK Grill, (Long Branch Kosher) a new upscale fast casual outdoor eatery. Photo Credit: yeahthatskosher.com
By Ilana Siyance
Monday June 15th, marks the beginning of Stage 2 in New Jersey in adherence to Gov. Phil Murphy’s multi-phase reopening plan. After close to three months of shutdown of all nonessential businesses due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Monday marks the reopening of outdoor dining at restaurants and bars, and allows shoppers inside of nonessential retail stores at half capacity. On Sunday, Gov. Murphy took the time to clarify other changes that Stage 2 will prompt. Libraries will open for curbside pickup, yard sales, real estate open houses and car washes will resume.
“This is a big day,” Murphy said Monday morning during an interview for the NBC Today show. “We’re slowly but surely getting back on our feet. We’re opening back up and it feels great.” As reported by NJ.com, the state of NJ has lost more than 12,625 residents to the novel virus, with at least 166,881 total Covid-19 positive test results since early March. The state was the second hardest hit in the U.S., following only New York. This Sunday alone, the state of NJ reported 40 new deaths and 305 new cases for the last 24 hours.
All the reopening outlines in Stage 2 continue to require social distancing of at least six feet, face coverings when plausible, frequent hand washing and more recurrent sanitizing of frequently-touched surfaces. Health Officials will continue to closely monitor any spikes in cases, and adjust the plan if necessary. As issued by the governor and the state Department of Health, details of the reopening include many restrictions. For outdoor dining for instance, there were roughly 20 requirements, including limiting access to indoor areas except bathrooms. Bars and restaurants must also post signs that say patrons with a fever or symptoms of the coronavirus shouldn’t enter. Outdoor seating must limit each table to eight customers, and provide six feet of space between tables. Further, employees must wear face coverings and gloves, and buffets and salad bars must remain closed.
Retail stores will be opening at half capacity, with both employees and customers required to done masks. Stores must offer special shopping hours for seniors and high-risk individuals whenever possible. Stores should also install physical barriers, such as Plexiglass, between customers and employees, and regularly sanitize surfaces frequently used. Though indoor malls remain closed, the stores that have exterior doors may reopen.
Day care centers are also reopened as of Monday. It is required to have temperature checks for staff and children. Class sizes will be limited, and switching staff between groups will be prohibited. Staff members must wear masks but the children will not be required to do so, although it is encouraged.
The Motor Vehicle Commission offices will be opened for some pick up and drop offs. Plexiglass barriers have been installed in the offices, and floors have been taped to clarify the distance requirements. The agency plans to restart behind-the-wheel road tests and issuing new licenses and permits on June 29.
Houses of worship were opened for indoor religious gatherings at 25% of a buildings capacity or 50 people, whichever number is fewer. The size for outdoor religious gatherings has been increased too. Masks are recommended.
Outdoor special events such as legal firework displays, are permitted with a crowd limit of 100 people. That outdoor occupancy limit may become more lenient in time for July 4th festivities, allowing for 250 or 500 people, depending on the number of new cases. Other reopened businesses include open houses for real estate listings, but face coverings must be worn and a limit of indoor traffic must be enforced. Also, students will be allowed to enter school premises to retrieve personal belongings, return books and empty lockers. Libraries can reopen, with limited staff, providing outdoor and curbside pickups and drop offs.
Stage 2 will also later include the opening of hair and nail salons, barbershops, and other personal-care businesses, as of June 22. On that date, pools and other outdoor, non-contact organized sports can also open. Day camps for youth and in-person summer school can open, with restrictions, beginning on July 6. Gyms and fitness centers are among the businesses listed for Stage 2 opening, but a date has not yet been announced. Atlantic City’s casinos will also be part of stage 2, and might be opened in time for Independence Day.
The poll had responses from 1,085 members of HPAE, Health Professionals and Allied Employees working on the front lines in hospitals, rehabs and long-term care facilities in New Jersey during these unprecedented times. Photo Credit: Twitter
By Ilana Siyance
An online poll has revealed that half the nurses in New Jersey’s largest healthcare union have been exposed to the coronavirus, and one out of five were infected with COVID-19. As reported by NJ.com, the informal survey also showed that of those nurses who got sick, one in four went back to work before they felt they had fully recovered. A majority of them also said they were told to reuse single-use personal protective equipment such as N95 respirators. As per the survey, close to 30 percent said they wore an N95 that did not fit them, and 63 percent said they brought their own protective equipment to work. Further, the 53 percent of respondents who were exposed to the novel virus said they did not quarantine.
The poll had responses from 1,085 members of HPAE, Health Professionals and Allied Employees working on the front lines in hospitals, rehabs and long-term care facilities in New Jersey during these unprecedented times. The union sent the survey to its 14,000 members to find if the disturbing accounts union leaders have been hearing are true, said HPAE President Debbie White. The respondents answered between April 30 to June 2. “They put their employees at risk. This clearly shows they did,” White said. “These stories taken together that would terrify the rest of society.”
“This whole experience has totally eroded any trust or faith had in the employer,” said one nurse who did not wish to be named for fear of reprisal. . “We want to take care of people, and knowing you don’t have the right equipment to do your job –the stress is unbelievable”. She said that she and her colleagues felt “disposable” during the pandemic.
White stressed that hospitals had no set guidelines rather each followed random practices. “They were locking up supplies, acting like they were running out. They would send our members into COVID rooms without protection. They would tell certain groups – you can be protected and you cannot,” said White. The union is now working to push a bill, entitled S2384/A4129, introduced in the state Legislature. The bill proposed last month, would require hospitals, surgery centers and nursing homes to report on how their employees fared during this pandemic. The state Health Department would be required to post on their website, how many of the nurses tested positive for COVID-19, were admitted to a hospital, and died from the disease.
Cathy Bennett , the president and CEO of New Jersey Hospital Association, the trade group representing 71 acute-care hospitals and nursing homes in the state, conceded that the novel virus exposed some weaknesses in the system but said they will be corrected moving forward. “We know, for example, that the longstanding norms for the level of PPE stockpiles at the federal, state and facility level are not adequate for a pandemic,” Bennett said in an email.
“That is an operational issue that must be addressed at all levels, including the Strategic National Stockpile at the federal level.” “It already is occurring in hospitals, which are going to great lengths to invest in supplies, line up new suppliers in the U.S. and abroad and rebuild their inventories at greater levels,” added Bennett. However, Bennett also defended the hospitals and their frontline employees, pointing out that New Jersey was the second hardest hit in the U.S., following only NY. She said the association succeeded overall in evading “the worst fears – a healthcare system overrun with patients and unable to provide care to them – didn’t materialize in our state.”
Rabbi Yonatan Eybeshutz, in his collection of sermons known as Yaarot Devash, uses idyllic terminology to describe the midbar experience: “With all their physical needs cared for, their time was freed to be totally devoted to the Lord, with no impediments and no distractions.”
By: Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb
When one reaches a certain age, he does not have to be reminded that his memory is not what it used to be. These days, one receives e-mails, unsolicited of course, with such titles as “Eight Tips for Improving Memory,” and “Preventing Memory Loss in the Aging Person”. Undoubtedly, one of the consequences of the passage of the years is the fading of some, but certainly not all, memories.
But it is not only older people for whom memory is problematic. Younger people as well forget a lot. Moreover, even those memories that they retain are often modified, if not distorted.
Our ability to substantially change the memories we have of past experiences is brought home to me forcefully almost every week. As the faithful reader of this column knows full well, I often share my recollections of events in my life as the background for my comments on the weekly Torah portion. Very frequently I receive e-mails from old friends and classmates protesting that these recollections are inaccurate. Typically, it is my younger sister, Judy, who chastises me and declares: “That’s not the way I remember it.” Or, increasingly lately,” You must have made up that one!”
What about memories of a group? Surely, when a group of friends, for example, gets together after many years and discusses their memories, they will all agree about what transpired. Yet, if you ever attended a class reunion, you came away impressed by how different people remember events very differently.
The Jewish nation specializes in memory. We remember the Sabbath, the Exodus from Egypt, and a host of other historical experiences. We even remember our enemy, Amalek. Sociologists have termed such memories “collective memories”. One wonders whether collective memories remain intact over time, or whether different groups of descendants remember their ancestors’ experiences differently.
This week’s Torah portion, Parshat Shelach (Numbers 13:1-15:41), contains a description of the beginning of the ordeal of spending forty years in the wilderness, or midbar. The story is a familiar one. The spies returned from their mission and spoke words of despair and discouragement. The Almighty was angered by this and by the people’s reaction to the spies report. He expressed His anger harshly: “Not one shall enter the land in which I swore to settle you…Your carcasses shall drop in this wilderness, while your children roam the wilderness for forty years, suffering for your faithlessness…”
Forty years of wandering must have left an indelible impression upon the collective memories of the Jewish people. Yet, note how very discrepant versions of the wilderness experience developed over the course of the centuries.
On one hand, there are those who look back upon the years in the midbar is a time of opportunity for spiritual development. They see it as a time when the Jews could concentrate upon Torah study without concern for mundane matters. After all, their needs were taken care of by the Almighty. They were fed the manna, food from heaven, and their clothing showed neither wear nor tear. According to an ancient Midrash, Mechilta DeRabi Ishmael, the Almighty knew that had the people entered directly into the Land of Israel they would have busied themselves with their fields and vineyards and would have ignored Torah. He, therefore, rerouted them through the desert, where they ate the manna and drank from the miraculous well and absorbed Torah into their very bodies.
Rabbi Yonatan Eybeshutz, in his collection of sermons known as Yaarot Devash, uses idyllic terminology to describe the midbar experience: “With all their physical needs cared for, their time was freed to be totally devoted to the Lord, with no impediments and no distractions.”
Indeed, Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin, the early 19th century founder of the famed yeshiva of Volozhin, wanted his institution of higher learning to replicate the midbar environment. He dreamed of creating an institution in which the students gave thought to neither career nor creature comforts, but were free to devote all their time, day and night, summer and winter, to pure Torah study, with nothing to deter them from that sacred goal. To a large degree, Rabbi Chaim was successful in achieving his dream.
The collective memory of men such as Rabbi Yonatan Eybeshutz and Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin was of forty pleasant years of life in a placid wilderness, a paradise of sorts, in which men were free to indulge in Torah study in its most spiritual sense.
But we also have evidence of a very different collective memory of the experience of 40 years in the midbar. One articulate expression of this very different version is to be found in the commentary of Ramban, Nachmanides, on Exodus 12:42. He views the wilderness experience as the very opposite of a utopia. He sees it instead as a precursor to the lengthy and persistent galut, the exile of the Jewish people from its land, the torture and persecution it endured, and its dispersal throughout the world
He writes: “All these forty years were a time of great suffering, as it is written: ‘Remember the long way that the Lord…Has made you travel in the wilderness…That he tested you with hardships…He subjected you to the hardship of hunger.’ You had a total exile in a land which was not yours, but which was the realm of the snake, the serpent, and the scorpion.”
These two very different collective memories force us to question which version is true. The answer is, as in so many other such disagreements, that there is a grain of truth in both versions. For some people, and for some of the time, the wilderness experience was an unsurpassed spiritual opportunity. For others, and at other times, challenges prevailed, and deprivation and frustration were familiar phenomena.
All of us live, to one extent or another, in a “wilderness.” At times we feel that we are in paradise, and at times we are convinced that we are in the opposite of that. At times we use our “wilderness” for its spiritual richness, and at times we find the “wilderness” arid and barren.
Eventually, we will tell the story of our years in the “wilderness” to our children, and they will pass the story on to our grandchildren.
It should be no surprise to us that our grandchildren will then have differing versions of what our experience was like. Collective memories differ because our world is complex. It is a world in which, as the Midrash puts it near the beginning of the book of Genesis, “light and darkness are intermingled”.
In contrast to the scouts who maligned the land, Joshua and Caleb, who were also part of the reconnaissance mission, returned inspired and energized.
By: Rabbi Osher Jungreis
In this week’s parsha, we discover our tragic predilection for self-destruction. Even if G-d performs open miracles and bestows every blessing upon us, it will be to no avail if we are bent on trouble. G-d performed the most astounding miracles for our forefathers: the plagues that fell upon Egypt, the splitting of the Red Sea, the collapse of Pharaoh and the Egyptian army, manna falling from heaven, water gushing forth from rocks, the giving of the Torah at Sinai – and yet, when the command came to enter the promised land, they demanded that spies be sent forth to scout out the land. It is difficult to understand how a nation that had witnessed G-d’s open wonders could question His ability to bring them into the land. When people have hidden agendas however, then no matter what miracles they may experience, it will have no impact upon them. Thus, the parsha states, “And they went and they came…” (Numbers 13:26), meaning that they returned with the very same agenda with which they had departed. This despite the fact that G-d performed mighty miracles on their behalf while they were scouting out the land.
In order to protect their anonymity, G-d made their reconnaissance mission coincide with the death of Job, the most prominent man in the land of Canaan. The entire population was involved in mourning ceremonies, so the presence of the twelve spies went undetected. But instead of appreciating this, they returned with a malicious report, stating that “It’s a land that eats its inhabitants” (Numbers 13-32) – meaning that it is impossible to survive there – people are always dying, and everyone is busy going to funerals.
G-d allowed them to see the magnificent huge fruit of the land, and indeed, they brought back samples of it, but that too was used to plant terror in the hearts of the people when they said, “Yes, it is a land of milk and honey, BUT the people who dwell in the land are powerful; the cities are greatly fortified, and we also saw the offspring of the giants and Amalek.” (Numbers 13:27) By the time they finished their report, the people were frozen with fear, and ready to return Egypt. In vain did G-d make miracles – they refused to see them.
In contrast to the scouts who maligned the land, Joshua and Caleb, who were also part of the reconnaissance mission, returned inspired and energized. They tried to prevail upon the nation to have courage and go forth, for G-d would be with them and they would succeed in conquering the land with ease, but their words fell upon deaf ears.
The question that should give us all pause is how is it that people can undergo the exact same experience, but have totally different perceptions. The answer is that people see what they want to see. If they have faith, if Torah illuminates their lives, then nothing will be beyond their reach, but if faith is lacking, if they have their own agendas, then even G-d’s miracles will be enshrouded in darkness. We would all do well to take this lesson to heart. G-d bestows so many favors upon us — but do we see them?
Lev Baruch Perlow is a 1st Sergeant in the Israeli army and with his slightly Ethiopian-tinged Hebrew and English, he might seem like a “typical” Ethiopian-Israeli working to defend the Jewish state
Dr. Yvette Alt Miller
Lev Baruch Perlow is a 1st Sergeant in the Israeli army and with his slightly Ethiopian-tinged Hebrew and English, he might seem like a “typical” Ethiopian-Israeli working to defend the Jewish state. Yet Lev’s background – and his Ashkenazi sounding name – indicate that his background is anything but ordinary.
He was adopted at the age of ten in 2005 into an American Jewish family and spent much of his childhood in an affluent suburb of Chicago, attending a mix of public schools and Jewish schools, immersed in his family’s tight-knit Orthodox Jewish community. Lev, as well as his siblings who were also adopted from Ethiopia, had Orthodox conversions to Judaism. In a recent Aish.com exclusive interview, Lev discussed growing up in a largely white American area, the racism he experienced, and what he wants people to know right now about racism and how to combat it.
“I remember pretty well living in an orphanage in Ethiopia as a young child,” he recalls. He’d watched movies about New York and thought of America as a magical place. When it was time to actually leave Ethiopia and move to the United States to join a new family, he was apprehensive.
“When I got to America I was speechless,” Lev says. “It was a dream come true.” Back in Ethiopia “my house was the size of a room.” Suddenly, he had a beautiful house and every comfort he could imagine. More importantly, he now had two loving parents and a warm Jewish environment to welcome him. His second Shabbat in America, Lev went to synagogue with his parents. “From the very moment I got to shul, the second week after I got adopted, I felt very welcome.” The fact that he was from Ethiopia didn’t elicit negative stares or remarks. “Everybody saw me as another person – not something to stare at.”
Beta Israel, the “House of Israel,” is the name of the community of Jews which existed in some 500 separate villages scattered throughout the former kingdom of Aksum, in today’s Ethiopia. This community, also known as “falashas,” are Africans yet they have been Jewish since biblical times. Today next to all of them have immigrated to Israel.
That warmth and acceptance gave Lev a strong feeling of security and a sense of being home, but he soon realized that in many ways to have black skin in America is to face a constant drumbeat of racism, prejudice and hostility, invisible to many people who are not Black.
The first time Lev felt slighted because of his skin color was in a shopping mall where he’d arranged to meet a friend. Lev arrived early and waited. He was dressed well, Lev remembers, like most of the other shoppers in the mall. That didn’t seem to matter to a woman who walked towards him. “She looked at me and stopped,” he recalls. Somehow a young boy in a bustling public space, simply because he was black, seemed like a threat. She took her purse off her shoulder and switched it to the other side so that it wouldn’t be close to Lev as she walked past him.
It wasn’t the last time he’d be negatively judged because of the color of his skin. But Lev stresses that his experience has been very different from most African Americans. “African Americans have a whole history in America – in Ethiopia, there’s no similar history of slavery or racism. You don’t really feel it until you come to America.” Yet once he was in America, Lev was struck at how many people seemed hung up on the color of his skin.
One of his first months in American school, a social worker entered his class. Lev was the only black child in the class – one of only a small handful in the school – and she asked him to come out of the room with her to talk. Black History Month was coming up, she explained, and she wanted to know Lev’s thoughts about it. “I kind of felt offended,” he remembers thinking. “Why do you have to specifically make a month to represent Blacks? What about the other eleven months of the year?” And why was she taking him, a ten-year-old, out of class and asking him and only him to think about it?
“The moment we start putting all these precautions around Black people,” trying to tiptoe around in order not to hurt their feelings, Lev cautions, we risk creating a gulf between people, and emphasizing differences in color instead of bringing people together. Asked what white people can do to overcome racism, Lev is emphatic: “Think of them as normal.” This is something he’s noticed many well-meaning whites fail at, as they try to bend over backwards to be extra nice or to show how unprejudiced they are. “At the end of the day we’re people. We’re not more special than another person – we’re the same as you. We have the same rights, the same everything – just a different skin color.”
Instead, he’s noticed that some people’s determination not to offend can make them even more likely to emphasize differences and to be inadvertently racist.
He remembers one time in class his teacher was reading excerpts from a book about slavery. “It was from a white point of view,” Lev recalls. “The teacher was reading the book and said the N word. I see her saying the word from the book and looking at me.” The teacher paused, possibly embarrassed, and in that moment the entire classroom of children all turned their heads too and stared at Lev. Suddenly, the racism in the book seemed horribly present in the classroom. “The moment that you put these side looks and pauses after saying the N word, you give it power… Little by little, you separate people from each other.” What started off as Lev’s teacher’s embarrassment over saying the N word in his presence grew to feel like an acknowledgement that this vile slur somehow applied to him.
The N word continued to bedevil Lev as he got older. Some children seemed to be determined to make racist remarks about Lev. The liberal use of the N word in some rap songs gave them the perfect cover to say this odious insult with seeming impunity, under cover of merely singing some popular songs.
As a teenager, kids – including some in his Jewish school – would sing rap songs containing that offensive slur around him. Each time they’d come to the N word in the lyrics, they’d pause and look at Lev. Sometimes they would yell out the N word louder than the other words. Lev would pretend not to hear, but the pain was horrible. He wanted to fight his tormentors but his parents worked with him, convincing him not to. They advised him to be patient and to talk with people who slighted him. “They taught me patience; patience is what helped me get through it.”
Demonstrators clash as people gather to protest the death of George Floyd, Saturday, May 30, 2020, near the White House in Washington. Protest erupted across the United States to protest the death of Floyd, a black man who was killed in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25.. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) (Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
“The use of the N word really ticks me off,” he says. There’s such a horrible history associated with it; once Lev learned more about it he was even more pained by its use. Even now that he lives in Israel, he hears the N word in rap music, and tries to educate people not to repeat it. “Israelis used to say it around me until I explained the history – I said this is a word that’s not used as a good thing.”
Many of the people currently posting on social media in the United States, saying that they want to help eliminate racism might do well to heed this warning: the N word, even if it’s ostensibly used in an “artistic” way, is a hateful word that should never be used.
At other times, kids made jokes about Lev’s skin color and Ethiopian origins. Even when they felt they were simply being funny, their insensitive remarks often made Lev feel out of place. This type of racism was particularly pervasive in the Jewish community, Lev observed. “In school I was one of the fastest kids, one of the strongest kids, so they would use that to joke around,” Lev recalls. “‘Oh, he can run fast because he’s Black or African’ – those jokes.” Another common stereotype Lev disliked was that he liked rap music – “they want that stereotype (of rappers) to be every Black person,” he observes. Making these broad assumptions strips away Black people’s individualities, implying that all Black people are somehow alike simply because of the color of their skin.
At times, the humor was more obviously barbed. There was a time in high school when Lev came to school wearing a black shirt. “Hey Lev, put on a shirt!” several students teased him. The teacher didn’t say anything.
After high school, Lev immigrated to Israel. His mother is Israeli, and he’d grown up loving Israel as the Jewish homeland. “I made aliyah because of the Jewish people and because of my parents” he explains. “My parents gave me everything I could have wanted and dreamed of in America and more. Moving to Israel is a thank you.” He also wanted to serve in the Israeli Defense Forces to defend his country.
Tragically Lev has encountered racism in Israel as well. He’s noticed that Israeli Jews from Ethiopian families sometimes embrace African American culture, recognizing a community similarly beset by racism. He advises his Ethiopian friends in Israel to embrace their own rich Jewish culture instead. “You have a different culture, you’re raised differently,” he explains – still, the common sympathy can be strong as Ethiopian Jews watch the American Black experience from afar and recognize much of the own racism and police brutality that Ethiopian Jews face in Israel too.
In both the United States and in Israel, Lev has found racism to be pervasive. “It’s every day, it’s every second – this type of light racism (of jokes and minor slights). It floats in the air. People try to wave it away, but as long as you have it racism will stay.” Lev has started speaking up, pointing out small instances of racism and racist assumptions when he sees them – he’s found that he has to say something every day.
Lev’s parents and siblings still live in suburban Chicago and he’s been following the news avidly, reading about protests against the murder of George Floyd and the riots and looting that have spread across the country. He understands the frustration of Black Americans who’ve been subject to violence and racism and oppression that many white people simply can’t conceive of. He mourns the violence, which he doesn’t support, and feels he understands the peaceful protests as many thousands of African Americans have stood up and said enough.
When he watched the video footage of George Floyd’s arrest and murder, Lev says it reminded him of his military training – and seemed to be a classic case of what not to do when apprehending someone.
Floyd’s death came just a few months after the February 23 shooting of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old man who was murdered while out jogging in Brunswick, Georgia. That murder reminded Lev of terror attacks he’d witnessed against Israeli soldiers years earlier. Still living at home in Chicago, Lev remembers seeing footage on the news of an Arab terrorist ramming his car into a crowd of Israeli soldiers. After watching that horrific attack Lev told his mother that he was going to move to Israel and enlist to help protect the Jewish state.
“That kind of hatred behind the murder of Arbery is disgusting and horrific. I had the same feeling that I had when I saw a car hit Israeli soldiers: another person killing someone because of the color of their skin.”
Today, with so many Americans and others around the world asking what they can do to help stamp out racism, Lev has some advice we all need to hear. Be kind. Be sensitive. Don’t joke about other people’s differences or try to taunt them. Look at others as fully realized people, not simply as walking embodiments of the color of their skin. “It’s pretty simple: treat a black person like you treat yourself, like you treat any other person.”
The author writes: “Camp changed my life. It can still change yours even if there’s no camp this summer.”
By: Tzivi Nochenson
I was a camp kid. I counted down the days until the school year ended. Freedom from school, early wake ups, endless homework and the constant grind.
From the age of 10 my summers were filled with weeks away from home at Jewish summer camp. Camp was my heart and soul. Until this day, a part of me wishes I could stuff those duffle bags full, find the perfect shower caddy and put together a stationary box for letters.
As I was getting ready for Shabbat a few weeks ago, I heard the news that one of the camps I attended would be closed this summer due to COVID-19. I couldn’t believe it. Hundreds of children would have their hearts broken.
A t-shirt from Camp Betar in Neversink, NY in the Catskills region. Throughout the 1940s until the late 1970s, Camp Betar offered thousands of kids an opportunity to reconnect with their Jewish heritage and a love of Zionism. Photo Credit: Facebook
The cancelation of camp is more than just a loss of activities, games and opportunities. For many Jewish kids this is their chance to have Jewish experiences and make Jewish connections. Jewish songs, Israeli staff members, Hebrew words, Shabbat dinner and services, a pride and sense of identity bigger than oneself; a community. As someone who attended public school with a small Jewish population, all of those summers I spent at camp filled with positive memories planted the seeds for the life I live now.
At camp I learned that being Jewish meant more than bagels and lox. It meant being a part of something so much bigger. I discovered that Judaism could actually be relevant to me.
Shabbat felt special at camp. Everyone showered, dressed nicely and the activities were different. It had a unique feel. When I would spend my first Friday night at home after camp was over, I used to lament at how I missed those special camp Shabbats. The feeling in the air on Shabbat at camp was truly one of a kind.
Almost 15 years later, as I light my Shabbat candles in my home in Israel, I am taken back to those experiences and feelings many summers ago. I can still picture myself walking arm in arm with camp friends down the long gravel path overlooking the lake that led us from the serene Shabbat mood in the dining hall, to the lively and upbeat services that awaited us in the Chapel. I learned at camp that being proud to be Jewish is a beautiful thing.
At camp, I met many other Jews who became best lifelong friends. Since I wanted the opportunity to relive that sense of Jewish camaraderie and see my friends throughout the year, I got involved in various Jewish community opportunities, including traveling to Israel.
As I built on those positive Jewish experiences growing up, I found myself growing closer to Torah Judaism. Today I am a committed observant Jew. I am happily married, living with my kippah-wearing husband and two beautiful children in Israel. I live in a thriving community of other committed Jews and we care for one another in many ways. As a wife and mother, I aim to infuse Judaism into my home each day and use the Torah’s incredible framework of wisdom as our guide. I am grateful to wake up each morning and know I am a part of something much bigger than myself.
Jewish summer camp shaped my life and as campers across the globe are left without their Jewish home this summer, I mourn with them. The loss is real.
I encourage parents and campers to build on that loss and inspire themselves to keep camp alive this summer. Whether camp has everyone wear white on Friday nights or serves a special dish on Saturday, bring that experience home. Perhaps take an online tour of a site in Israel, since many camps aim to recreate the Western Wall and the Dead Sea in their Israel programming. Keep up with camp friends and make a “Zoom” cabin. Whether it is songs, dress, food, a certain activity, or a certain person, figure out a way to keep it in the picture this summer. Infuse a little bit of camp in daily life and create positive Jewish experiences at home. If parents and campers can keep the spirit of camp alive, they will grow together.
At the end of camp tears would stream down our faces as we had to say goodbye. The staff at camp used to tell us, “It’s not goodbye, it’s only see you soon.” So remember, it is not goodbye to camp this summer; it’s only see you soon.
Rebbetzin Halberstam was a life partner to her husband, and was renowned for her own kindness and charitable personality.
She survived the Holocaust to become the matriarch of a Chassidic dynasty
By: Mendel Super
The revered Rebbetzin Chaya Nechama Halberstam, a Nazi death-camp survivor and wife of 47 years of the Sanz-Klausenburger Rebbe, Rabbi Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam, passed away on April 4 after being in ill health in recent years. She was 96 years old.
A refined woman of dignity and grace, she arrived in the United States after World War II, her parents and seven of her siblings having been murdered in Europe.
It was her brother-in-law, Rabbi Michael Dov Weissmandl, himself a Holocaust survivor and underground Jewish leader in occupied Slovakia, who suggested a match for the 24-year-old with a fellow survivor: the 42-year-old Sanz-Klausenburger Rebbe. Rabbi Halberstam, who prior to the war had been one of the youngest Chassidic rebbes in Europe, had lost his wife and 11 children to the Nazis—the eldest dying shortly after liberation—himself surviving Auschwitz, Dachau and a death march. The young woman was initially hesitant; he was nearly 20 years her senior. Rabbi Halberstam allayed her concerns, promising that they would live to marry off all their children together.
Indeed, his words came to pass.
Rebbetzin Chaya Nechama Halberstam was born in 1923 to Rabbi Shmuel Dovid and Miriam Leah Ungar, in the city of Trnava (Tarnow), Slovakia, in 1923.
Rebbetzin Halberstam’s father, Rabbi Shmuel Dovid, was a revered Hungarian rabbi and teacher who accepted the rabbinic leadership of the small Slovakian city of Nitra in 1931, where he expanded its small yeshivah, making it famous throughout Europe, and became known as the Nitra Rav.
Prior to accepting the position, a student of his tried to dissuade him from moving to what was a relatively small Jewish community. In a sadly prophetic vision, Rabbi Shmuel Dovid responded to the young man, Rabbi Weissmandl, who would later become his son-in-law, “My heart tells me that there will come a time when the only remaining yeshivah on the continent will be in Nitra. That is where I wish to be … .”
Indeed, even as World War II began and conditions for the Jews of Slovakia worsened, Rebbetzin Halberstam’s father insisted on keeping his yeshivah’s doors open.
In 1942, Slovakia’s Nazi puppet dictator, the Catholic priest Jozef Tiso, began deporting the country’s Jews to Auschwitz. By the first Shabbat after Passover of 1942, the Jews of Nitra were beginning to be deported.
Rabbi Ungar, working closely with his son-in-law and student Rabbi Weissmandl and in conjunction with other underground Jewish activists, attempted to save Slovakian Jewry. With the aid of a hefty bribe paid to Nazi and Slovak officials, they managed to stave off some deportations until 1944. They also obtained permission from the Slovak government to keep their yeshivah open during those two years; the last surviving one in Slovakia. They constructed hiding places under the bimah (the Torah-reading lectern)and above the bookcases in the study hall in the event of Nazi raids. Often, the warning would come so suddenly that the students and faculty would bolt, leaving their Talmuds still open on the tables. Through this all, Halberstam’s father continued to teach.
After crushing a Slovak partisan revolt in 1944, the Germans occupied the country, ramping up the deportations to Auschwitz. The Nitra yeshivah was liquidated by the Nazis on Sept. 5, 1944. By October, every remaining Jew in Nitra had been deported.
Halberstam’s father, and her brother, Sholom Moshe, had been out of town when the Nazis liquidated the yeshivah. They fled to the forests, spending the winter hiding in mountain caves, subsisting on meager rations. During this time, Rabbi Ungar made sure to observe every iota of Jewish law, not even eating bread if he couldn’t find water to ritually wash his hands. When Rosh Hashanah approached, his primary concern was how they would hear the shofar. His student Meir Eisler, who also accompanied him in hiding, recalled that when kindly gentile farmers would offer them fruit and vegetables, Rabbi Ungar would never accept the life-sustaining offer without first paying them.
Just a month before liberation, on Feb. 9, 1945, Rabbi Ungar succumbed to starvation. In his last moments, he instructed his son on where and how to bury him, and recited his final prayers.
Young Chaya Nechama was deported to the Sereď concentration camp after the Nazis uncovered their bunker and from there to Auschwitz.
“When we got there, I was separated from my younger sister, Hilde Channale, who was sent to the gas chambers,” she recalled in an interview with Ami Magazine. “Four weeks later, there was a selection and I was among a group of women who were dispatched as slave labor to a munitions factory in Bad Kudova, on the Czechoslovakia-Poland border. The women in Bad Kudova were interned at the Gross-Rosen concentration camp. At first we had a foreman who was terribly cruel, but he was later replaced by a woman supervisor who was tolerable.
“One of the girls had a siddur and we took turns using it. But there wasn’t very much time for that. If we weren’t working there were lineups and roll calls, or else we were sleeping from exhaustion.”
They were a diverse group of 23 girls at the camp, many of whom didn’t come from religious families, and Chaya Nechama tried to set an example. She would express certainty that they would be liberated, and go on to marry and establish families, something that was a faraway dream in those bleak times. Her optimism was contagious and helped many of the girls pull through. One young woman, at Chaya Nechama’s urging, would pluck a few strands from her clothing and save a smidgen of margarine each day so she would have an improvised Shabbat candle.
The new Arrivals and Departures Hall at LaGuardia Airport’s Terminal B. Vantage Airport Group/LaGuardia Gateway Partners
Edited by: JV Staff
A new terminal was unveiled at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, marking the latest step forward in the makeover of a facility once likened to that of “a Third World country” by former Vice President Joe Biden, as was reported by the AP.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Executive Director Rick Cotton attended Wednesday’s ribbon-cutting for the new, 840,000-square-foot Terminal B, which opened on Saturday.
AP reported that the airport was opened in the late 1930s but had become a cramped, outdated relic by the time Biden said in 2014 that disembarking there was like being “in some Third World country.”
The five-year, $8 billion makeover is in its fourth year, and is replacing six concourses, adding 72 gates and improving parking and access roads. The majority of the funding is coming from private sources through a public-private partnership. A separate project to build a rail link to Manhattan has been approved by the Port Authority, as was reported by the AP.
Air travel has fallen by more than 90 percent at LaGuardia and other New York-area airports due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There’s no doubt air travel will recover,” Cotton said. “It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when. We’re building these projects for the future.”
Also joining Cuomo and Cotton in the celebration of the unveiling of LaGuardia Airport’s new Terminal B Arrivals and Departures Hall (Headhouse) was Walsh Construction, along with joint venture partner Skanska USA, according to a PR Newswire report.
Walsh Construction and Skanska USA, operating as the design-build joint venture of Skanska-Walsh, in partnership with HOK and WSP, was brought on by LaGuardia Gateway Partners, the private developer and operator of Terminal B, for the design and construction of the new 850,000-square-foot Headhouse.
The four-level Headhouse is the new main entrance for passengers traveling through LaGuardia Airport’s Terminal B, featuring 60-foot-tall ceilings and a glass façade that fills the massive hall with natural light. The first floor is reserved for ground transportation arrivals, floor two houses the arrivals hall and baggage claim, with passenger check-in located on the third level, and concourse bridges, retail and restaurants reside on the fourth level. The Headhouse design allows airport customers and employees a seamless integration with the new west parking garage, new concourses, and the Central Hall, which is currently under construction and will connect to Terminal C.
“The new Headhouse is the flagship component to LaGuardia’s new Terminal B, and Walsh Construction is proud to join our design and construction partners in unveiling the terminal’s new front door,” said Dan Walsh, co-chairman of Walsh Construction. “The Headhouse completion is a tremendous accomplishment for all stakeholders. We thank the Port Authority, our outstanding managing partner Skanska, and the subcontractor and trade communities for their trusted partnership as we worked hand-in-hand to deliver this facility to the citizens of New York and its visitors.”
Building LaGuardia Airport’s Terminal B
The redevelopment of LaGuardia Airport and the new Terminal B, which began in 2016, is a complex multi-phase effort led by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the State of New York that required extensive planning and precise execution. The new Headhouse resides on the site of the old West Parking Garage, which was replaced with a seven-story, 3,100 space Terminal B Parking Garage that opened in February of 2018.
The Skanska-Walsh team also completed construction of the Terminal B Eastern Concourse in 2018. The Eastern Concourse’s cutting-edge design and customer amenities allow travelers ample space across 18 gates. Terminal B will have 35 total gates upon completion of the second (western) concourse. The Terminal B Headhouse will also connect to both concourses via two pedestrian bridges. The first bridge, opening today, is 420 feet long at an elevation of 65 feet. Aircraft will have space to taxi underneath, eliminating runway bottlenecks that plagued the old airport design. LaGuardia is the first airport in the nation with this innovative pedestrian bridge design that spans active taxi lanes.
The Headhouse contains Terminal B’s baggage handling system, totaling over seven miles, roughly two miles of walkways, and 1,200 energy-reducing motors. The inventive baggage claim system runs throughout the airports walls and ceilings.
Beyond the Headhouse, new infrastructure will surround the airport with more than eight miles of new roadways, 17 new roadway bridges, almost two miles of new aircraft taxiway space and 16 fewer traffic lights.
Building with Modern Technologies
The advanced techniques and modern technologies employed by the Skanska-Walsh team were crucial for the intricate execution of LaGuardia’s Terminal B and Headhouse. The team developed the project phasing using a series of 3D and 4D – or time dependent – models that allowed the visualization of the future layout of the airport throughout the duration of the project. Project leaders were able to measure progress with 360-degree photography and laser scanning to keep pace with real-time construction updates, collaborate with subcontractors, and quickly resolve construction challenges across the complex project site.
Dr. Andre Goy has been chairman and executive director of John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center since 2011 and chair of oncology for Hackensack Meridian Health since 2016.
Hackensack Meridian Health has announced the appointment of Andre Goy, M.D., M.S., as physician-in-chief of the Hackensack Meridian Health Oncology Care Transformation Service. In this role, he oversees the delivery of cancer care across the entire Hackensack Meridian Health network, the largest cancer program in New Jersey.
Dr. Goy has been chairman and executive director of John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center since 2011 and chair of oncology for Hackensack Meridian Health since 2016. He is also professor of medicine at Georgetown University and professor and chair of oncology at Seton Hall–Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine. Under his leadership, John Theurer Cancer Center became a member of the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center Consortium — one of only 16 research consortia in the nation approved by the National Cancer Institute.
As chief of the Division of Lymphoma since 2005 and holder of the Lydia Pfund Chair for Lymphoma since 2017, he has led New Jersey’s largest program focused on the research and treatment of all types of lymphoma — including Hodgkin disease, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, mantle cell lymphoma, and HIV-associated lymphoma. An internationally renowned lymphoma clinician and researcher, Dr. Goy has trained and/or worked at leading medical institutions, including Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, University Hospitals Group of Paris, and The Pasteur Institute in Paris.
Dr. Goy is widely known for his work on novel therapies for mantle cell lymphoma, having been principal investigator or co-investigator of the studies behind all four drugs approved to treat mantle cell lymphoma. He first showed evidence of activity of the drug bortezomib in recurrent or persistent mantle cell lymphoma, and then led the pivotal trial of lenalidomide for this disease while participating in the development of both BTK inhibitors ibrutinib and acalabrutinib. These novel agents are transforming the treatment of this disease, which often becomes resistant to standard therapy and has a very poor outcome.
Dr. Goy also initiated CAR T-cell therapy at John Theurer Cancer Center, in collaboration with the team of Steve Rosenberg at the National Cancer Institute. CAR T cell is a form of cellular therapy where a patient’s own immune cells are genetically engineered to force them to attack cancer cells. CAR T cells became the first live therapy approved in 2017 for aggressive lymphoma and leukemia. It is recognized as a revolutionary treatment that is now being expanded to the treatment of other lymphomas, multiple myeloma, and hopefully soon for solid tumors.
He has published extensively and serves as reviewer for many prestigious journals, including New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Blood, and others. He has co-chaired the Global Council on the Future of Health and Healthcare for the World Economic Forum. Dr. Goy believes that the world is at an inflection point in medicine due exponential and converging advances in science, discovery, and technologies, including artificial intelligence and augmented reality, which will help reshape health monitoring and totally transform care delivery. He has been invited to speak and teach across the globe.
“Thanks to Andre Goy’s leadership, John Theurer Cancer Center has flourished to become one of the nation’s leading cancer care and research centers, and that expertise now extends throughout our entire network,” noted Robert C. Garrett, FACHE, CEO, Hackensack Meridian Health. “With Dr. Goy at the helm as physician-in-chief of the Hackensack Meridian Health Oncology Care Transformation Service, patients and physicians throughout the state will benefit from his acumen and vision.”
Dr. Goy received his medical degree from University Joseph Fourier in Grenoble, France before completing his training in hematology oncology in Paris at the Faculty of Medicine Cochin Port Royal. While there, he also received master’s degrees in Tumor Immunology from the Pasteur Institute and in Experimental Oncology from Kremlin Bicetre. Dr. Goy then served on the faculty at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center before coming to John Theurer Cancer Center.
About John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center
John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center is New Jersey’s largest and most comprehensive center dedicated to the diagnosis, treatment, management, research, screenings, and preventive care as well as survivorship of patients with all types of cancers.
The 14 specialized divisions covering the complete spectrum of cancer care have developed a close-knit team of medical, research, nursing, and support staff with specialized expertise that translates into more advanced, focused care for all patients.
Each year, more people in the New Jersey/New York metropolitan area turn to John Theurer Cancer Center for cancer care than to any other facility in New Jersey.
John Theurer Cancer Center is a member of the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center Consortium, one of just 16 NCI-approved cancer research consortia based at the nation’s most prestigious institutions. Housed within a 775-bed not-for-profit teaching, tertiary care, and research hospital, John Theurer Cancer Center provides state-of-the-art technological advances, compassionate care, research innovations, medical expertise, and a full range of aftercare services that distinguish John Theurer Cancer Center from other facilities.
Hackensack Meridian Health is a leading not-for-profit health care organization that is the largest, most comprehensive and truly integrated health care network in New Jersey, offering a complete range of medical services, innovative research and life-enhancing care.
Hackensack Meridian Health comprises 17 hospitals from Bergen to Ocean counties, which includes three academic medical centers – Hackensack University Medical Center in Hackensack, Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, JFK Medical Center in Edison; two children’s hospitals – Joseph M. Sanzari Children’s Hospital in Hackensack, K. Hovnanian Children’s Hospital in Neptune; nine community hospitals – Bayshore Medical Center in Holmdel, Mountainside Medical Center in Montclair, Ocean Medical Center in Brick, Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen, Pascack Valley Medical Center in Westwood, Raritan Bay Medical Center in Old Bridge, Raritan Bay Medical Center in Perth Amboy, Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank, and Southern Ocean Medical Center in Manahawkin; a behavioral health hospital – Carrier Clinic in Belle Mead; and two rehabilitation hospitals – JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute in Edison and Shore Rehabilitation Institute in Brick.
In this Tuesday, June 9, 2020 photo, Harvey Curtis, left, discusses repair plans with customer Jack Matheson outside Sidecountry Sports, a bike shop in Rockland, Maine. Matheson is looking forward to getting his 40-year-old Raleigh back on the road. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
By: David Sharp & Kelvin Chan
Fitness junkies locked out of gyms, commuters fearful of public transit, and families going stir crazy inside their homes during the coronavirus pandemic have created a boom in bicycle sales unseen in decades.
In the United States, bicycle aisles at mass merchandisers like Walmart and Target have been swept clean, and independent shops are doing a brisk business and are selling out of affordable “family” bikes.
Bicycle sales over the past two months saw their biggest spike in the U.S. since the oil crisis of the 1970s, said Jay Townley, who analyzes cycling industry trends at Human Powered Solutions.
“People quite frankly have panicked, and they’re buying bikes like toilet paper,” Townley said, referring to the rush to buy essentials like toilet paper and hand sanitizer that stores saw at the beginning of the pandemic.
The trend is mirrored around the globe, as cities better known for car-clogged streets, like Manila and Rome, install bike lanes to accommodate surging interest in cycling while public transport remains curtailed. In London, municipal authorities plan to go further by banning cars from some central thoroughfares.
Bike shop owners in the Philippine capital say demand is stronger than at Christmas. Financial incentives are boosting sales in Italy, where the government’s post-lockdown stimulus last month included a 500-euro ($575) “bici bonus” rebate for up to 60% of the cost of a bike.
But that’s if you can get your hands on one. The craze has led to shortages that will take some weeks, maybe months, to resolve, particularly in the U.S., which relies on China for about 90% of its bicycles, Townley said. Production there was largely shut down due to the coronavirus and is just resuming.
The bicycle rush kicked off in mid-March around the time countries were shutting their borders, businesses were closing, and stay-at-home orders were being imposed to slow the spread of the coronavirus that has infected millions of people and killed more than 450,000.
Sales of adult leisure bikes tripled in April while overall U.S. bike sales, including kids’ and electric-assist bicycles, doubled from the year before, according to market research firm NPD Group, which tracks retail bike sales.
It’s a far cry from what was anticipated in the U.S. The $6 billion industry had projected lower sales based on lower volume in 2019 in which punitive tariffs on bicycles produced in China reached 25%.
There are multiple reasons for the pandemic bicycle boom.
Around the world, many workers were looking for an alternative to buses and subways. People unable to go to their gyms looked for another way to exercise. And shut-in families scrambled to find a way to keep kids active during stay-at-home orders.
“Kids are looking for something to do. They’ve probably reached the end of the internet by now, so you’ve got to get out and do something,” said Dave Palese at Gorham Bike and Ski, a Maine shop where there are slim pickings for family-oriented, leisure bikes.
Bar Harbor restaurateur Brian Smith bought a new bike for one of his daughters, a competitive swimmer, who was unable to get into the pool. On a recent day, he was heading back to his local bike shop to outfit his youngest daughter, who’d just learned how to ride.
His three daughters use their bikes every day, and the entire family goes for rides a couple of times a week. The fact that they’re getting exercise and enjoying fresh air is a bonus.
“It’s fun. Maybe that’s the bottom line. It’s really fun to ride bikes,” Smith said as he and his 7-year-old daughter, Ellery, pedaled to the bicycle shop.
The pandemic is also driving a boom in electric-assist bikes, called e-bikes, which were a niche part of the overall market until now. Most e-bikes require a cyclist to pedal, but electric motors provide extra oomph.
VanMoof, a Dutch e-bike maker, is seeing “unlimited demand” since the pandemic began, resulting in a 10-week order backlog for its commuter electric bikes, compared with typical one-day delivery time, said co-founder Taco Carlier.
The company’s sales surged 138% in the U.S. and rocketed 184% in Britain in the February-April period over last year, with big gains in other European countries. The company is scrambling to ramp up production as fast as it can, but it will take two to three months to meet the demand, Carlier said.
“We did have some issues with our supply chain back in January, February when the crisis hit first in Asia,” said Carlier. But “the issue is now with demand, not supply.”
Sales at Cowboy, a Belgian e-bike maker, tripled in the January-April period from last year. Notably, they spiked in Britain and France at around the same time in May that those countries started easing lockdown restrictions, said Chief Marketing Officer Benoit Simeray.
“It’s now becoming very obvious for most of us living in and around cities that we don’t want to go back into public transportation,” said Simeray. But people may still need to buy groceries or commute to the office one or two days a week, so “then they’re starting to really, really think about electric bikes as the only solution they’ve got.”
In Maine, Kate Worcester, a physician’s assistant, bought e-bikes for herself and her 12-year-old son so they could have fun at a time when she couldn’t travel far from the hospital where she worked.
Every night, she and her son ride 20 miles or 30 miles (30 or 50 kilometers) around Acadia National Park.
“It’s by far the best fun I’ve had with him,” she said. “That’s been the biggest silver lining in this terrible pandemic — to be able to leave work and still do an activity and talk and enjoy each other.”
Joe Minutolo, co-owner of Bar Harbor Bicycle Shop, said he hopes the sales surge translates into long-term change.
“People are having a chance to rethink things,” he said. “Maybe we’ll all learn something out of this, and something really good will happen.”
Google is planning to ban The Federalist and Zero Hedge from its ad platform, Google Ads, after NBC News raised concerns to the tech giant about articles that the conservative websites published regarding rioting and looting that occurred alongside the protests over the death of George Floyd.
According to the NBC report, Google notified The Federalist that it will block the site from using Google Ads because of concerns raised over an article related to the protests over Floyd’s death.
The NBC News Verification Unit notified Google of a report from a British think tank that accused them of running insensitive content related to the protests over Floyd’s death.
NBC News, which cited a report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate, said that the offending article from The Federalist had claimed “the media had been lying about looting and violence during the protests.”
A spokesperson for Google told NBC News the websites would be taken off of the Google Ads platform after determining that the articles violated the company’s polices on race-related content.
“We have strict publisher policies that govern the content ads can run on and explicitly prohibit derogatory content that promotes hatred, intolerance, violence or discrimination based on race from monetizing,” the Google spokesperson said. “When a page or site violates our policies, we take action. In this case, we’ve removed both sites’ ability to monetize with Google.”
Google did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment. A social media reporter for Ad Week reported that Google has not yet banned The Federalist from using Google Ads, but that the site will soon be de-monetized.
The NBC News story does not link to the allegedly inflammatory Federalist article. But the Center for Countering Digital Hate’s offshoot group, “Stop Funding Fake News,” included a June 3 article from The Federalist entitled “The Media Are Lying To You About Everything, Including The Riots.”
The article, by Federalist political editor John Daniel Davidson, disputed a popular claim by the media that white supremacist groups were behind much of the violence that occurred during the Floyd protests.
The NBC News reporter who published the story thanked the Center for Countering Digital Hate for their “collaboration” on the story.
Cotton was at the center of controversy last week after The New York Times apologized for publishing an op-ed from the Republican calling for deploying the national guard to combat looting and riots that occurred during otherwise peaceful protests over George Floyd’s death.
While Cotton differentiated in his article between peaceful protesters and violent rioters, a group of New York Times staffers complained that the op-ed endangered the newspaper’s black employees.
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].
The Washington Monument and the White House are visible behind the words Black Lives Matter sign that has been painted in bright yellow letters on the 16th Street by city workers and activists, Friday, June 5, 2020, in Washington. (Khalid Naji-Allah/Executive Office of the Mayor via AP)
By Hadassa Kalatizadeh
Protests against racial injustice and police prejudice continue across the country, following the death of George Floyd. A New Jersey catering business in Mercer County, faced heavy backlash on social media on Thursday after its chef called the Black Lives Movement “bull—-”, making light of Floyd’s death.
As reported by NJ.com, Joseph Russo, who made the comments on his Facebook page, identifies himself as a co-owner of The Stone Terrace by John Henry in Hamilton. “I f—— hate these protesters. The evil ones,” Russo said on his page. “You’re halting our way of life for your bull—- looting.” Russo further posted an image of a white police officer kneeling on the neck of a black man, with a caption underneath that read, “Hey, NFL, here’s how. Right on!”
Community members and leaders have been quick to lash out at the comments and “Russo’s act of inhumanity.” “Anyone who continues to patronize Stone Terrace with the full knowledge that Russo felt comfortable in putting on blast that Black Lives Matter is bull—- is complicit in his act of dehumanizing his fellow citizens,” Jeannine Frisby LaRue, a community leader in Trenton, wrote on her Facebook page on Thursday.
Hamilton Mayor Jeff Martin also spoke out, calling Russo’s comments “hateful and abhorrent.” “Had I known he held these racist feelings, I would never have attended, supported, or held events at his restaurant,” Martin wrote in a statement on Thursday.
Responding to backlash from the community, The Stone Terrace sought to detach itself from the chef. “It’s come to our attention that there have been inappropriate posts made by an employee at The Stone Terrace,” the restaurant posted in a statement on Facebook. “Joseph Russo is not the owner of The Stone Terrace and these views do not reflect our views as a whole.” The statement added that the business was ashamed of Russo’s comments and that they do support the Black Lives Matter movement. Further, the catering company took down its Facebook page on Thursday and representatives of the business did not respond to calls for comment. Russo also did not return calls seeking comment.
Numerous other businesses and organizations have come under fire for lack of support for the Black Lives Matter movement, or even for a seeming insensitivity towards the issue. The McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, NJ is one such example. The organization sent out a mass email soliciting donations to “help keep the curtain up on our digital stage”. The email went out with the subject line, “Arts and Culture Matter.” What the sender might have thought was a catchy phrase, ended up exploding like a bomb in recipients’ inboxes. It took merely two hours for Michael Rosenberg, managing director of the theater, to issue an apology.
“I apologize for the very poor choice of words that I used in the subject line for today’s email,” Rosenberg wrote in a follow-up email on Wednesday night. “In saying ‘Arts and Culture Matter’, it came across as if we were equating arts and culture with the Black Lives Matter movement and that is not a belief that McCarter or I hold.” The email blast, which had been sent out to members of the public, supporters of the theater and the press, quickly received responses implicating that the wording in the email was not ok. “This is absolutely a moment for cultural institutions like McCarter to listen and learn – and we clearly have work to do,” the apology added. “I pledge to listen, learn, and do better.”
As per an interview with NJ.com, Rosenberg took responsibility saying he was involved in drafting the “arts and culture matter” email. “I’m the one that gave the final sign-off on the email, so I’m responsible,” he said. “I think it’s really important that I acknowledge that that was a poor choice of words and that I caused pain,” Rosenberg added. On May 31, the McCarter Theatre Center had posted a message of support for Black Lives Matter on Instagram. “We stand on the side of justice and equality. We shout BLACK LIVES MATTER with you. We fight for our values: equity, anti-racism, and anti-white supremacy,” the McCarter theatre Instagram post had read.
Law enforcement officials applaud after President Donald Trump signed an executive order on police reform, in the Rose Garden of the White House, Tuesday, June 16, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
By: Jill Colvin, Lisa Mascaro & Zeke Miller
Following weeks of national protests since the death of George Floyd, President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday that he said would encourage better police practices. But he made no mention of the roiling national debate over racism spawned by police killings of black men and women.
Trump met privately with the families of several black Americans killed in interactions with police before his Rose Garden signing ceremony, and said he grieved for the lives lost and families devastated. But then he quickly shifted his tone and devoted most of his public remarks to a need to respect and support “the brave men and women in blue who police our streets and keep us safe.”
He characterized the officers who have used excessive force as a “tiny” number of outliers among “trustworthy” police ranks.
“Reducing crime and raising standards are not opposite goals,” he said before signing the order, flanked by police officials.
Trump and Republicans in Congress have been rushing to respond to the mass demonstrations against police brutality and racial prejudice that have raged for weeks across the country in response to the deaths of Floyd and other black Americans. It’s a sudden shift that underscores how quickly the protests have changed the political conversation and pressured Washington to act.
But Trump, who has faced criticism for failing to acknowledge systemic racial bias and has advocated for rougher police treatment of suspects in the past, has continued to hold his ’law and order.” line. At the signing event, he railed against those who committed violence during the largely peaceful protests while hailing the vast majority of officers as selfless public servants.
Trump’s executive order would establish a database that tracks police officers with excessive use-of-force complaints in their records. Many officers who wind up involved in fatal incidents have long complaint histories, including Derek Chauvin, the white Minneapolis police officer who has been charged with murder in the death of Floyd. Those records are often not made public, making it difficult to know if an officer has such a history.
The order would also give police departments a financial incentive to adopt best practices and encourage co-responder programs, in which social workers join police when they respond to nonviolent calls involving mental health, addiction and homeless issues.
Trump said that, as part of the order, the use of chokeholds, which have become a symbol of police brutality, would be banned “except if an officer’s life is at risk.” Actually, the order instructs the Justice Department to push local police departments to be certified by a “reputable independent credentialing body” with use-of-force policies that prohibit the use of chokeholds, except when the use of deadly force is allowed by law. Chokeholds are already largely banned in police departments nationwide.
While Trump hailed his efforts as “historic,” Democrats and other critics said he didn’t go nearly far enough.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of N.Y., speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, June 16, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said, “One modest inadequate executive order will not make up for his decades of inflammatory rhetoric and his recent policies designed to roll back the progress that we’ve made in previous years.”
Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the order “falls sadly and seriously short of what is required to combat the epidemic of racial injustice and police brutality that is murdering hundreds of Black Americans.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., right, accompanied by Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., left, speaks at a news conference on District of Columbia statehood on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, June 16, 2020, in Washington. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Md. will hold a vote on D.C. statehood on July 26. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Kristina Roth at Amnesty International USA said the order “amounts to a Band-Aid for a bullet wound.”
But Trump said others want to go to far. He, framed his plan as an alternative to the “defund the police” movement to fully revamp departments that has emerged from the protests and which he slammed as “radical and dangerous.”
“Americans know the truth: Without police there is chaos. Without law there is anarchy and without safety there is catastrophe,” he said.
Trump’s audience included police officials and members of Congress, and came after he met privately at the White House with the families of men and women who have been killed in interactions with police.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters that many tears were shed at the meeting and “the president was devastated.” Trump listed the families’ relatives who died and said: “To all the hurting families, I want you to know that all Americans mourn by your side. Your loved ones will not have died in vain.”
White House adviser Ja’Ron Smith said it was “a mutual decision” for the families not to attend the public signing. “It really wasn’t about doing a photo opportunity,” he said. “We wanted the opportunity to really hear from the families and protect them. I mean I think it’s really unfortunate that some civil rights groups have even attacked them for coming.”
The White House action came as Democrats and Republicans in Congress have been rolling out their own packages of policing changes. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the sole African American Republican in the Senate, has been crafting the GOP legislative package, which will include new restrictions on police chokeholds and greater use of police body cameras, among other provisions.
While the emerging GOP package isn’t as extensive as sweeping Democratic proposals, which are headed for a House vote next week, it includes perhaps the most far-reaching proposed changes ever from a party that often echoes Trump’s “law and order” rhetoric.
It remains unclear whether the parties will be able to find common ground. Though their proposals share many similar provisions — both would create a national database so officers cannot transfer from one department to another without public oversight of their records, for instance — differences remain.
The Republican bill does not go as far as the Democrats’ on the issue of eliminating qualified immunity, which would allow those injured by law enforcement personnel to sue for damages. The White House has said that is a step too far. As an alternative, Scott has suggested a “decertification” process for officers involved in misconduct.
During the Obama administration, Attorney General Eric Holder opened a series of civil rights investigations into local law enforcement practices that often ended with court-approved consent decrees that mandated reforms. Those included Ferguson, Missouri, after the killing of Michael Brown and Baltimore following the police custody death of Freddie Gray.
Hours before he resigned as Trump’s first attorney general in November 2018, Jeff Sessions signed a memo that sharply curtailed the use of consent decrees.
In other developments, an Atlanta-area police chief who was criticized for saying on social media that he doesn’t support the Black Lives Matter movement has been placed on leave while his city investigates him, the AP reported on Tuesday.
Johns Creek Police Chief Chris Byers wrote on his personal Facebook page that religious leaders have failed to give enough support to police and that Black Lives Matter as a movement “seems to glorify the killing of my brothers and sisters.”
Since then, Johns Creek City Manager Ed Densmore said he began gathering information from residents, police officers and city employees.
But Densmore said the investigation now focuses on other issues related to the chief. Densmore said he opened an internal investigation into allegations against the chief “unrelated to his social media post.” He did not specify what those allegations are.
In his Facebook post, Byers said he is supportive of demonstrations for justice and that he supports the lives of all people.
“But I do not support the Black Lives Matter as a movement as it seems to glorify the killing of my brothers and sisters,” he wrote. “It is not what you pastors and religious leaders think it is.”
Pleading through tears Monday, the family of a black man killed by Atlanta police outside a drive-thru demanded changes in the criminal justice system and called on protesters to refrain from violence amid heightened tensions across the U.S. three weeks after George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis.
An autopsy found that 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks was shot twice in the back late Friday by a white officer who was trying to arrest him at a fast food restaurant for being intoxicated behind the wheel of his car. Brooks tried to flee after wrestling with officers and grabbing a stun gun from one of them.
“Not only are we hurt, we are angry,” said Chassidy Evans, Brooks’ niece. “When does it stop? We’re not only pleading for justice. We’re pleading for change.”
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced Monday that she was ordering changes to police use-of-force policies, including requiring that officers receive continuous training in how to deescalate situations and use those techniques before taking action that could be fatal. She said she also was requiring officers to intervene if they see a colleague using excessive force.
The mayor said that after Brooks’ shooting, it was clear Atlanta did not have “another day, another minute, another hour to waste” in changing police practices.
Other cities nationwide are taking similar steps, and packages of police reforms have been proposed or are emerging in Congress.
About 20 of Brooks’ children, siblings, cousins and other family members sobbed at a news conference as over 1,000 people gathered not far away at an NAACP-led protest outside the Georgia Capitol.
Floyd’s death May 25 after a white Minneapolis officer pressed his knee into the black man’s neck touched off demonstrations and scattered violence across the U.S., and Brooks’ killing rekindled those protests in Atlanta. The Wendy’s restaurant where Brooks was shot was burned down over the weekend.
Evans said there was no reason for her uncle “to be shot and killed like trash in the street for falling asleep in a drive-thru.”
“Rayshard has a family who loves him who would have gladly come and got him so he would be here with us today,” she said.
Relatives described Brooks as a loving father of three daughters and a stepson who had a bright smile and a big heart and loved to dance. His oldest daughter learned her father was slain while celebrating her eighth birthday with cupcakes and friends, wearing a special dress as she waited for Brooks to take her skating, said Justin Miller, an attorney for the family.
“There’s no justice that can ever make me feel happy about what’s been done,” said Tomika Miller, Brooks’ widow. “I can never get my husband back. … I can never tell my daughter he’s coming to take you skating or for swimming lessons.” (AP)
Hundreds of heritage and archaeological sites in Judea and Samaria could be removed from Israeli control and transferred to the Palestinian Authority’s jurisdiction, according to the map released in conjunction with US President Trump’s “Deal of the Century,” Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot revealed Tuesday morning.
The full list of endangered sites, which was presented to Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin (Likud) and other influential officials, will be discussed today in the context of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee hearing scheduled to begin at noon. The hearing, initiated by MKs Shlomo Karai, Matan Kahane and Moshe Arbel, will examine the steps taken by the Israeli government to combat the Palestinian takeover of Area C (the portion of Judea and Samaria placed under full Israeli jurisdiction under the Oslo Accords).
There are some 6,000 sites of historical and archaeological importance in Judea and Samaria that are recognized by the scientific community, but only 2,300 or so have been officially declared protected archaeological sites.
Following the roll-out of the “Peace to Prosperity” plan, “Preserving the Eternal,” a project dedicated to the preservation of the archaeological treasures scattered throughout Judea and Samaria, conducted an emergency survey for the Shiloh Policy Forum, of 365 major antiquities sites that bear particularly important physical testimony to Israel’s national heritage.
Of the 365 sites surveyed for this project, 258 are located in what is currently Area C.
According to the conceptual maps released with the Trump Plan, some 30% of these sites will be part of the future Palestinian state: 135 heritage sites currently under Israeli control will be reassigned to Palestinian jurisdiction. Notable among these are the Hasmonean Fortress at Horkania in the northern Judean Desert, the Hasmonean Fortress at Kypros in the Jordan Valley, the Hasmonean palaces near Jericho, the biblical city of Shomron (Samaria-Sebastia), the altar of Joshua on Mount Ebal, Tel Beitar, Tel Maon, Tel Hebron, among others.
Currently, the overwhelming majority of antiquities sites in Judea and Samaria suffer from constant vandalism and looting, with a sorely understaffed and underfunded department of the Civilian Administration responsible for law enforcement and prevention measures. To make matters worse, the Palestinian Authority has recently stepped up its activities in this area, dedicating tremendous effort and resources to re-writing and re-defining the history of these sites, turning them into “Palestinian heritage sites” and erasing or obscuring Jewish history, while curtailing access to the sites for Israeli tourists, archaeologists and other visitors.
These efforts are in full swing in such illustrative cases as Sebastia, the capital city of the biblical Jewish Kingdom of Samaria, and in the Hasmonean fortress of Tel Aromah near Peduel.
There is good reason for concern that these trends will be exacerbated, causing further erasure of history and the physical record of the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel in the archeology sites that Israel is slated to abandon.
“Unfortunately, in the last 20 years, the State of Israel has not maintained its heritage sites,” says Etan Melet, Field Coordinator for the Preserving the Eternal Project. “Priceless archaeological sites have been neglected by the government and have been relegated to a very disrespectful place in the list of national priorities. 4,000 years of history should be given far more respect. We demand that decision makers give their full attention to our national heritage sites and take whatever steps are necessary to maintain them, even if it requires resources or adjusting the here and there. ”
Meir Deutsch, Director General of the Regavim Movement, adds: “The Oslo Accords’ stipulations on preservation of and access to these world heritage treasures have failed completely. The coordination mechanism never got off the ground, and antiquities sites have been subjected to incessant looting that has damaged them to the point that in many cases there is nothing left for archaeologists to examine or document, not to mention preserve. Many more sites are on the verge of being lost forever to the scientific community, and other major sites have been targeted by the PA’s for takeover and “repurposing” as “Palestinian heritage sites.” (INN)
Joanna Hoffman, a part of the original Macintosh team at Apple, told attendees at a conference recently that Facebook is “peddling in an addictive drug called anger” and “destroying the very fabric of democracy, destroying the very fabric of human relationships.”
She and others charge that the social media site has done a lousy job of eliminating hateful posts and fake news.
“You know it’s just like tobacco, it’s no different than the opioids,” Hoffman told those attending 2020 CogX, according to CNBC. “We know anger is addictive, we know we can attract people to our platform and get engagement if we get them pissed off enough. So therefore what, we should capitalize on that each and every time?”
Facebook chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg has been pilloried in recent months – most recently by allowing President Donald Trump’s “when the shooting starts, the looting starts” post.
For his part, Zuckerberg told his critics that he felt “deeply shaken and disgusted by President Trump’s divisive and incendiary rhetoric at a time when our nation so desperately needs unity.”
Scientists from Chan Zuckerberg Initiative made the case in the second week of June that the president’s message might fuel violence. “The spread of news that is not vetted for factual accuracy leads to confusion and a mistrust of experts,” the scientists noted. “We were disconcerted to see that Facebook has not followed their own policies in regards to President Trump, who has used the Facebook platform to spread both misinformation and incendiary statements.”
Their recommendation for Zuckerberg was to tighten controls on what they viewed as incendiary language. Permitting free speech, they argued, could harm “people or groups of people, especially in our current climate that is grappling with racial injustice.”
The company has come under withering criticism also for its ongoing legal troubles and the outsize influence it has on the lives and health of its users and employees. Others point to its influence on the way media, specifically news, is reported and distributed. Notable issues include Internet privacy, such as use of a widespread “like” button on third-party websites tracking users; possible indefinite records of user information; automatic facial recognition software; and its role in the workplace, including employer-employee account disclosure.
While no one can argue with Facebook’s success, “its last decade has also been full of scandals and accusations, ranging from a psychological experiment conducted on 70,000 unconsenting Facebook users which examined how changes in the News Feed could impact their mental health, to claims the social network was censoring content,” according to businessinsider.com.
Wave Resort in Long Branch, NJ on the Jersey Shore. Opening in mid-June on the beaches of Long Branch, NJ is LBK Grill, (Long Branch Kosher) a new upscale fast casual outdoor eatery. Photo Credit: yeahthatskosher.com
By Ilana Siyance
Monday June 15th, marks the beginning of Stage 2 in New Jersey in adherence to Gov. Phil Murphy’s multi-phase reopening plan. After close to three months of shutdown of all nonessential businesses due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Monday marks the reopening of outdoor dining at restaurants and bars, and allows shoppers inside of nonessential retail stores at half capacity. On Sunday, Gov. Murphy took the time to clarify other changes that Stage 2 will prompt. Libraries will open for curbside pickup, yard sales, real estate open houses and car washes will resume.
“This is a big day,” Murphy said Monday morning during an interview for the NBC Today show. “We’re slowly but surely getting back on our feet. We’re opening back up and it feels great.” As reported by NJ.com, the state of NJ has lost more than 12,625 residents to the novel virus, with at least 166,881 total Covid-19 positive test results since early March. The state was the second hardest hit in the U.S., following only New York. This Sunday alone, the state of NJ reported 40 new deaths and 305 new cases for the last 24 hours.
All the reopening outlines in Stage 2 continue to require social distancing of at least six feet, face coverings when plausible, frequent hand washing and more recurrent sanitizing of frequently-touched surfaces. Health Officials will continue to closely monitor any spikes in cases, and adjust the plan if necessary. As issued by the governor and the state Department of Health, details of the reopening include many restrictions. For outdoor dining for instance, there were roughly 20 requirements, including limiting access to indoor areas except bathrooms. Bars and restaurants must also post signs that say patrons with a fever or symptoms of the coronavirus shouldn’t enter. Outdoor seating must limit each table to eight customers, and provide six feet of space between tables. Further, employees must wear face coverings and gloves, and buffets and salad bars must remain closed.
Retail stores will be opening at half capacity, with both employees and customers required to done masks. Stores must offer special shopping hours for seniors and high-risk individuals whenever possible. Stores should also install physical barriers, such as Plexiglass, between customers and employees, and regularly sanitize surfaces frequently used. Though indoor malls remain closed, the stores that have exterior doors may reopen.
Day care centers are also reopened as of Monday. It is required to have temperature checks for staff and children. Class sizes will be limited, and switching staff between groups will be prohibited. Staff members must wear masks but the children will not be required to do so, although it is encouraged.
The Motor Vehicle Commission offices will be opened for some pick up and drop offs. Plexiglass barriers have been installed in the offices, and floors have been taped to clarify the distance requirements. The agency plans to restart behind-the-wheel road tests and issuing new licenses and permits on June 29.
Houses of worship were opened for indoor religious gatherings at 25% of a buildings capacity or 50 people, whichever number is fewer. The size for outdoor religious gatherings has been increased too. Masks are recommended.
Outdoor special events such as legal firework displays, are permitted with a crowd limit of 100 people. That outdoor occupancy limit may become more lenient in time for July 4th festivities, allowing for 250 or 500 people, depending on the number of new cases. Other reopened businesses include open houses for real estate listings, but face coverings must be worn and a limit of indoor traffic must be enforced. Also, students will be allowed to enter school premises to retrieve personal belongings, return books and empty lockers. Libraries can reopen, with limited staff, providing outdoor and curbside pickups and drop offs.
Stage 2 will also later include the opening of hair and nail salons, barbershops, and other personal-care businesses, as of June 22. On that date, pools and other outdoor, non-contact organized sports can also open. Day camps for youth and in-person summer school can open, with restrictions, beginning on July 6. Gyms and fitness centers are among the businesses listed for Stage 2 opening, but a date has not yet been announced. Atlantic City’s casinos will also be part of stage 2, and might be opened in time for Independence Day.
