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Kids’ Books Offer Sanitized Picture of Islam – Just Ask “Curious George”

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Quick quiz. Find the main difference between these brief excerpts from accounts of the world’s two major faiths. First, this:

Christians believe [Jesus Christ] to be the Son of God….according to Christian teaching after three days he rose from the dead….Christians believe that there is only one God, but that he is revealed in three different forms.

Next, this:

The Qur’an was first revealed to the Prophet Muhammad during [Ramadan]. The actual night that the Qur’an was revealed is a night known as Lailut ul-Qadr (‘The Night of Power’).

The difference, of course, is that while the details of the founding of Christianity are presented as a set of beliefs, the supernatural elements of Islam’s founding narrative are recounted as if they were historical fact.

Both of these excerpts are from a BBC website intended for the use of teachers in secular British schools.

After 9/11, it was imperative that people in the West be educated about Islam. There was no need to stuff their heads with countless historical and theological details; all that was necessary was for Western leaders to get across the point that Islam isn’t just another religion but is, rather, totalitarian ideology with religious elements. That never happened. Instead, we were all told repeatedly that Islam is a religion of peace, that all those terrorists are misunderstanding it every time they do something naughty, and that the chief victims of their misunderstanding are the overwhelming majority of their fellow Muslims who are thoroughly decent, God-fearing types.

As it happens, these days schools across the Western world do set aside time for Islam lessons. But to judge by the teaching materials available online, what goes on during these classroom sessions is the very opposite of education.

For one thing, as in the above passage about the “revelation” of the Koran to Muhammed, Islamic articles of faith are routinely treated as chapters of history. For another, the teaching materials either shove the darkest aspects of Islam under the carpet or subject them to a total whitewash. The glossary at one website for teachers defines “jihad” as “to ‘struggle’ or ‘strive’ – to try to do your best for God.” The same site instructs teachers to explain to their pupils that Ramadan “is when the Qur’an was first revealed to Muhammed.” Teachers are then asked to read aloud a story about the night on which the Koran was “revealed”; from it, the children learn that Muhammed (whom some of us know as a bloodthirsty warrior) was “a kind and trustworthy man” and that the religion he founded was a marked improvement over Judaism and Christianity, in part because it treats women so well. Next, the teachers are instructed to assign an “exercise in empathy”: “For each main event in the story, the pupils should try to imagine how Muhammed would have been feeling.”

Throughout this detour into Fantasyland, the “revelation” of the Koran to Muhammed is treated as history. By contrast, the same site’s teaching materials about Christianity repeatedly preface statements of belief with these sorts of phrases:

“According to the Bible…”

“Some shepherds, kings, and Mary believed…”

“In the Bible it is said that…”

“Christians say….”

Perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised to discover how many books have been written with the sole objective of giving non-Muslim children an utterly sanitized picture of Islam. Example: Mommy’s Khimar by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow and Ebony Glenn. No, a khimar is not a female body part. It’s basically another word for hijab (although some sources insist on certain niggling distinctions). The book, written for children aged 4 to 8, is about a little girl who marvels at the beauty of her mother’s closet full of khimars, which come in every imaginable color and pattern. “When I put on Mommy’s khimar, I become a queen with a golden train….When I wear Mommy’s khimar, I shine like a star.” The whole thing is a not-too-subtle attempt to sell little girls on the idea of covering themselves up in strict Islamic fashion. Ditto Michelle Khan’s The Hijab Boutique, in which Farah, a fifth-grader, learns that the opinions of the “cool” girls at her exclusive L.A. girls’ school don’t matter and ends up happily attending a new, apparently more heavily Islamic school, joining the Muslim Girl Scouts, and starting to wear a hijab. Lesson: too much assimilation into the host society is no good.

Children’s books on Ramadan alone make up a sizable subgenre. They tend to share a handful of key ingredients: the exciting first glimpse of the new moon, which signals the beginning and end of this most special of all months; the demanding but spiritually rewarding all-day fast; the wonderful smells from the kitchen, where Mommy (and maybe Grandma) are working hard at the stove; the big, delicious breakfast that you eat before dawn; the big, delicious dinner that you eat after sundown; the especially big, especially delicious meal that you eat on Eid-al-Fitr. when Ramadan finally ends; the visits from Muslim friends and members of one’s extended family; the reading of the Holy Koran and the trip to the beautiful mosque.

In My First Ramadan, by Karen Katz, we learn that Islam “means peace in Arabic.” (Of course, it means submission.) The boy protagonist reads the Holy Koran with his dad and, on Eid-al-Fitr, worships Allah with his dad in the beautiful mosque. His mom and sister “pray in a different room.” The sexual segregation goes unexplained. In Max Celebrates Ramadan, by Adria F. Worsham and Mernie Gallagher-Cole, Max, an infidel, goes home with his Muslim schoolmate Amar to commemorate Eid-al-Fitr with a bounteous dinner. (This book is part of a series; in other volumes, Max celebrates Cinco de Mayo, Martin Luther King Day, and Groundhog Day.) Early on, before Max enters Amar’s house, we see that Max has a pet dog. This dog does not make another appearance in the book. Presumably Max got the memo about Islam and dogs. Either that, or Max’s dog became part of the delicious Eid dinner.

You may have grown up on the Curious George books. I did. To my astonishment, there is now a volume entitled It’s Ramadan, Curious George. First published in 2016, its authorship is credited to the creator of Curious George, H.A. Rey, who died in 1977, and Hena Khan. In this book, George, like Max, discovers the joys of Ramadan by celebrating it at the home of a Muslim family. (Lucky for him he’s a monkey, not a dog or pig.) This isn’t Khan’s only Ramadan book for kids: she’s also the author of Night of the Moon: A Muslim Holiday Story (2008). Last year, the Voice of America promoted her new book Amina’s Voice, an attempt to depict “the challenges a Muslim teenager faces in the U.S.” Khan made it clear in an interview that the “challenges” all involve virulent American Islamophobia, not the totalitarian nature of the religion itself.

The title characters in Hassan and Aneesa Love Ramadan and Hassan and Aneesa Celebrate Eid by Yasmeen Rahim and Omar Burgess are a brother and sister of grade-school age. In the first book, Aneesa is uncovered; in the second, she’s in hijab. Make of that what you will. Then there’s Lisa Bullard’s Rashad’s Ramadan and Eid-al-Fitr, which is part of a “Holidays and Special Days” series that includes books about Christmas, Hanukkah, Chinese New Year, Easter, Kwanzaa, Cinco de Mayo, and even the Day of the Dead. (Bullard, whose oeuvre makes clear her progressive slant, is also the author of a forthcoming series of “Go Green” books that explain to kids from kindergarten to second grade the importance of such activities as recycling and honoring Earth Day.)

“Dad says Ramadan is a time to get closer to Allah,” we’re told in Bullard’s Ramadan book. No surprise there: in all of these Ramadan volumes, it’s invariably Dad who reads from the Holy Koran and/or serves up the bullet points about Islam. Mom? She’s usually busy whipping up delicious meals in the kitchen or setting the dinner table. Traditional gender roles are verboten in most children’s books these days, but they’re obligatory in these books about Islam.

In every one that I looked at, moreover, the whole cast of characters seems to be meticulously sharia-compliant. At home, for example, Mommy’s prayer rug is carefully placed behind Daddy’s. Not a single one of these books is about secular Muslims or cultural Muslims or only moderately observant Muslims. The characters are all uniformly devout, the interpretation of the Koran unremittingly literal. It’s hard to imagine a mainstream publisher these days putting out a Christmas or Easter book, say, that’s as packed with strictly pious rhetoric and conduct as these things are.

In any event, the list of titles goes on and on: Na’ima B. Robert and Shirin Adl’s Ramadan Moon; Asma Mobin-Uddin and Laura Jacobsen’s A Party in Ramadan and The Best Eid Ever; Reza Jalali and Anne Sibley O’Brien’s Moon Watchers: Shirin’s Ramadan Miracle; etc. No doubt about it: the number of children’s books about Islam that have been published in the U.S. in recent years is well-nigh breathtaking. And the authors of these things are all on the same page, doing their darnedest to make the most dangerous ideology on the planet look wholesome and appealing.

Perusing these books, I found myself imagining an alternate post-9/11 universe in which we all had our heads screwed on straight about Islam – a universe where the children’s books on the topic (if any) had titles like Daddy Joins ISIS and Grandma Gives Asma a Clitoridectomy and Imran and His Friends Beat Up a Jew. Or Faizan’s Parents Build an Explosive Device in the Garage. Or Rashad Helps Daddy and Uncle Ahmed Kill Mommy because Her Khimar Slipped Off. Or Abdul and His Family Cheer the Ariana Grande Attack.

No, instead we’ve been given a small library of propaganda for everybody from toddlers to pre-teens – a groaning shelfful of brightly illustrated agitprop. Ever since 9/11, Muslims and their appeasers have been conducting a full frontal assault on the truth about Islam. These books are a tiny part of that assault. But they may also be the most important part. Get ’em when they’re young! Brainwash a kid about Islam in grade school and it’ll be damned hard to undo it in later years, when some of their most heartwarming memories of childhood include reading about the little girl wearing Mommy’s khimar and about Max discovering the joys of Ramadan. That’s plainly the raison d’être for these despicable creations.

By: Bruce Bawer
(Front Page Mag)

In the Name of Peace, It Is Time to Accept Israel’s Possession of the Golan Heights

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The Golan Heights were a launch-pad for aggression against Israel from the rebirth of the state in 1948 until captured by Israel in a defensive war in 1967. Even today, territory adjacent to the Golan has been used to threaten Israel. It is time for the international community to recognize Israel’s possession of the Golan Heights as legitimate and necessary. Such a bold move would do much more than just support Israel’s security — it would also advance peace and regional stability.

The Golan Heights, bordering Israel, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, dominate the Jordan Rift Valley which contains the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River. The Heights were allocated by the British and French governments to the French Mandate of Syria in the 1920s and were transferred as part of the newly independent state of Syria in 1946. When the administrative line between the British and French Mandates was drawn in 1923 no consideration was given to defense against aggression from either territory.

The picture has of course changed immeasurably since then. Vulnerability of Israel to occupation of the Heights by hostile forces is proven by recent history and re-affirmed by events from the start of the civil war in Syria until today. This vulnerability remains even with the advent of modern warfighting technology.

As part of the Arab League, Syrian forces launched an invasion of northern Israel across the Golan Heights in June 1948. After the 1949 armistice, there were years of sporadic attacks against Israel from the Golan Heights, including cross-border raids by Fatah and shelling of civilian communities by the Syrian Army. Syria intensified its artillery fire against Israel on the outbreak of the Six Day War in 1967. Israel then seized a major area of the Golan Heights to protect its citizens and its territory. During the 1973 Yom Kippur War by Arab states against Israel, the Syrians re-took part of the Golan — vital ground for offensive operations against Israel — but were subsequently thrust back.

In 1981 Israel effectively annexed the area of the Heights under its control, a move that was condemned by the international community. The international community still does not recognize Israel’s possession of the Golan Heights as legitimate and frequent calls have been made, including by the UN, to restore the territory to Syria.

It is a commonly held view that Israel’s possession of the Golan Heights is illegal under international law. But this position is not tenable. It is illegal to hold onto territory acquired through wars of aggression, but Israel gained the Golan Heights during its defense against aggression launched from the Golan. Under the UN Charter defensive war is not illegal and throughout history countries have retained territory gained in their own defense.

Recognition by the international community would not encourage wars of aggression but, on the contrary, would deter them. Returning the Golan Heights to Syria would not only endanger Israel and against their will consign the 25,000 Druze living there to the depredations of President Assad; but it would also send the message that an aggressor has nothing to lose as there is no territorial price to pay for its violent actions.

Western support for Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights would equally extract a price from Assad — albeit a comparatively small one — for the war he has waged against his own people in which millions have suffered and perhaps half a million died. In this, the West has plenty of words but few tools at its disposal. Rejecting Assad’s claim on the Golan Heights is one of them, especially as he now seems set to retain virtually all of the status quo ante even after the monstrous war crimes he has committed.

But such a move by the West would be much more than just a rap on the knuckles, it would also be an expression of the new reality. In the past Israel offered Syria the Golan Heights in exchange for peace, with all approaches rejected. Many Western experts and governments naively viewed Assad as a potential partner for peace with Israel. The events of the last seven years have proven beyond all doubt that he is nothing other than a murderous despot who must not be given any opportunity for further aggression.

This is really the crux of the issue: Western action now could make a concrete contribution to preventing conflict in the future.

Syria is now and will remain for the foreseeable future under the domination of Iran. Through both actions and words, we know the Iranian ayatollahs are intent on aggression against the Jewish State. They are establishing a land corridor from Iranian territory through Iraq and Syria to Israel’s border and plan to link their forces in that area with Hizballah’s strong offensive forces, including 100,000 rockets, in southern Lebanon. They have positioned their own forces and their proxies where they can threaten Israel and are intent on building these up and maintaining them in position for the long-term.

The Syrian government, as the civil war dies down and when it reconstitutes its forces with Russian assistance, will itself threaten Israel at Iran’s behest; and Hizballah and other Iranian proxy militias will also continue to do so. If these — or any other — malignant entities gain possession of the Golan Heights the threats of cross-border indirect fire could well escalate, leading to the deaths of Israeli civilians and forcing Israel into an overwhelming response that would cause significant bloodshed. This would potentially draw southern Lebanon into a conflict that could easily explode into a regional war.

Israel’s possession of the Heights on the other hand is never likely to translate into offensive action against anyone. Israel has only ever fought on the defensive and its government sees neither Syria nor Iran as targets for aggression.

Iran, Syria and other entities proclaim Israel’s occupation of the Golan as an excuse for conflict. Iran and its clients in the region including Hizballah, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, count on a weak Western response to their aggression, with appeasement and judgements of moral equivalence serving repeatedly to encourage their violence. The other side of the coin is that unequivocal rejection by the West of this excuse would reduce the prospects of conflict.

We understand President Trump is now considering some form of recognition of Israel’s legitimate and necessary possession of the Golan. We strongly support this proposal and encourage all other Western nations that are genuinely interested in the cause of peace to do the same.

By: Andrew Roberts
(Friends of Israel Initiative)

(Published in the UK Telegraph on Oct 2, 2018)

Philanthropist Ron Lauder Advocates a Level Playing Field in Soccer and Sports in General

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From left: WJC President Ronald S. Lauder, director for Chelsea Football Club Eugene Tenenbaum and WJC CEO Robert Singer. Credit: Photo by Shahar Azran/World Jewish Congress

Working with Chelsea Football Club and others, an ambitious new initiative called “Red Card for Hate” aims to promote a global dialogue to combat all forms of animosity and bias in sports

Ronald S. Lauder’s distinguished career includes many diverse roles, including business leader, philanthropist, art collector and U.S. Ambassador to Austria. He currently serves as president of the World Jewish Congress. By his own admission, sports fan or supporter is nowhere on the list.

Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea FC (Football Club), the top English soccer team.

“In my entire life, I have never said these four words: wide world of sports!” he quips. That may change very soon. Lauder is thinking a lot about soccer these days. He has been meeting with Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea FC (Football Club), the top English soccer team. He even attended a Chelsea game, noting, “They yell a lot!”

But Lauder’s interest in soccer may have more to do with his interest in combatting anti-Semitism than with the sport itself.

At an exclusive VIP cocktail reception on Sept. 17 at Lauder’s New York City home—attendees included diplomats from more than 40 countries, as well as representatives of the World Jewish Congress and its CEO, Robert Singer; senior Chelsea FC officials; members of the media; and other distinguished guests—Lauder unveiled an innovative idea to use worldwide interest in soccer to combat anti-Semitism.

As he observes, “We have seen anti-Semitism on the right and left, on college campuses, in Europe and in the Middle East, and even in soccer stadiums. Soccer stadiums are no place for Nazi salutes or slurs against Muslim or black players!”

According to the World Jewish Congress, soccer, especially in Europe, has been plagued by instances of anti-Semitism and racism for years. Fans have led anti-Semitic chants, including making hissing noises to evoke the Nazi gas chambers, and targeted African and black players with monkey sounds, among other offensive actions. Ultra-nationalists and neo-Nazis have also played roles in supporter groups for various teams. Lauder says “sports are supposed to be for fun, excellence and competition.”

‘It needs to be pushed out’

The WJC and Chelsea FC therefore announced an ambitious new initiative, “Red Card for Hate,” which aims to promote a global dialogue to combat all forms of hatred in sports. The initiative will include three projects: “Pitch for Hope,” a video project and an international forum—all geared towards encouraging supporters, government officials and the public to treat hate phenomena more seriously and to engage in discourse for effective action.

“Pitch for Hope” invites young adults in the United States, the United Kingdom and Israel to submit proposals for projects that “harness the spirit of comradery in sports to build bridges between people of all backgrounds, faiths and walks of life.” Finalist will be invited to present their proposals at Chelsea FC’s Stamford Bridge Stadium in London; the winners from each country will receive a $10,000 grant to develop and implement their pilot project.

As part of stage two, the WJC and Chelsea FC will produce a series of videos to raise awareness about the effects of anti-Semitism and discrimination. They will address such issues as mutual respect between fans and players and fans of differing backgrounds, and will be rolled out over the course of the 2018-19 football (soccer) season.

In the third stage of the initiative, WJC and Chelsea will host a forum bringing together national football associations, football clubs, players, government officials and others to share best practices, to create a forum for discussion and collaboration, and to create a network of people and organizations to enhance the fight against anti-Semitism in sports.

Lauder notes the potential for success given the number of people who watch sports. “Sports events are seen by billions, not millions.”

He adds, “Our goal is to wipe out anti-Semitism in sports. It doesn’t go away by itself. It needs to be pushed out. To see the Nazi salute … it shouldn’t happen!”

‘Take it to the next level’

The kick-off event in Lauder’s home included short remarks by Singer and such guests as Eugene Tenenbaum, director of the Chelsea Football Club; Consul General of France in New York Anne-Claire Legendre; Gary Bettman, commissioner of the National Hockey League; and Lee Igel, clinical associate professor in the New York University Tisch Institute for Global Sport.

Tenenbaum described an increase of anti-Semitic events in England from 100 a year before Brexit, to about 100 a month at present. He and his colleagues have carefully considered ways to address it. “When we saw the anti-Semitic chants of fans, we decided not to kick them out, but to educate them, and to show what it is that happens when we say it and mean it.”

He says the partnership with the WJC “let’s us take it to the next level.”

They have already organized meetings of Chelsea FC players with Holocaust survivors and have brought 150 fans and players to the March of the Living in Poland.

Legendre called the work of the WJC and Chelsea FC “relevant and inspiring,” and noted that “France is not immune to anti-Semitism.” She added that “we will fight it to our utmost.”

Bettman spoke of the importance of sports for setting a tone and feels that sports “can be an incredible vehicle.”

He shared that in the NHL, “we don’t tolerate acts of hatred in our buildings or at our games. We host 1,300 events a year and want to make sure fans know the expectations and feel welcomed.” He drew a with Judaism to sports, playfully noting that “people come together, have ceremonial garb, a ceremonial chant and a common focus that is an emotional connection.”

Igel offered a powerful story about a 1938 soccer match between Germany and Austria right before the Anschluss (the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938). He then spoke about the anti-Semitism and hatred that still exist in the world.

“That is why this work is so important; it is not just another nice program full of good intentions.” Igel referred to the three phases of the “Red Card for Hate” initiative, mentioning that it will include the convening of an international summit in Paris in 2019 to battle discrimination, racism and anti-Semitism in sports.

By: Howard Blas
(JNS.org)

Another Big Year For Sports Agencies, Ranked By Forbes

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As sports continue growing to previously unimaginable heights of popularity, aided by the spread of television and internet coverage and high-quality production value and picture and sound quality, anyone involved in the business is making big bucks. Each time a team signs a star to a big contract, there’s an agent and agency to thank, and they get thanked handsomely by taking a nice cut out of paychecks that are far, far larger than anything the vast majority of people would come even close to seeing in an entire lifetime.

Forbes features the best sports agencies each year, and the rankings are in for the 2018 World’s Most Valuable Sports Agencies. All of the firms that Forbes puts in the rankings are responsible for getting their clients $45.7 billion, which has earned them a nice $2.35 billion from commissions. The big number is almost a 10 percent increase from the prior year.

Los Angeles based Creative Artists Agency leads the way by sitting atop the list thanks to $9.3 billion in contracts under management, leaving the other sports agencies in the dust. Forbes reports that “with a $900 million uptick in deals over the last year, the agency now stands to earn $348 million in commissions from its clients- a $30 million increase from 2017.”

CAA has 16 clients, with three in the top 11. All of those contracts amount to over $100 million.

Wasserman comes in at second behind CAA thanks to the $3.7 billion in contracts Wasserman has negotiated, earning the agency $175 million in commissions, both of which are nice increases from the year before. Founded in 2002 by Casey Wasserman founded the agency back in 2002, which doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone who knows his lineage. His grandfather is Lew Wasserman, who is very well known around the talent agency world. Since its creation in 2002, Wasserman has chugged along and now represents over 750 athletes that span a handful of sports.

Forbes goes on to talk about how “Wasserman lands five agents on this year’s World’s Most Powerful Sports Agents list, including No. 12 Joel Wolfe and No. 18 Adam Katz (baseball), No. 29 Thad Foucher and #46 Darren Matsubara (basketball), and #42 Doug Hendrickson (football). Wasserman also expanded its soccer division with the purchase of European agency Mondial Promotion, giving it the strongest soccer division of any multi-sport agency in the world.” Wasserman’s acquisition of equity in No. 31 Orr Hockey Group shows that it wants to penetrate the hockey market further.

The list has a good mix of big agencies that cover multiple sports and agencies specializing in just one. There were also three new agencies that made it into the rankings this year.

By: Gabriel Eaton

The Yankees Are on Fire!–New Home Run Record while Recording 100th Win

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They’re called the Bronx Bombers for a reason. The power house New York Yankees, despite falling short of a division title and settling for a winter-take-all wild card game, reached the pinnacle of their offensive prowess by not only winning 100 games, but also setting a record for most home runs hit by a team in a single season.

This despite the acquisition of supper slugger Giancarlo Stanton who belted 59 home runs a year ago for the Miami Marlins to go along with rookie of the year slugger Aaron Judge who hit 52 a year ago. Both fell short of the 40 home run total with Judge being sidelined with a fractured hand for nearly a month

However the Yankees got contributions from other areas of their lineup. Aaron Hicks and rookie Miguel Andujar each hit 27 home runs. Short stop Didi Gregorius hit a career hit 27 dingers. And late season acquisition Luke Voit, a first baseman, added 13 taters to add to the total. Also adding to the total was Gleyber Torres. A surprised home run contributor, as he not to be expected as a power threat. Torres hit 24 round trippers in his rookie campaign.

So as a team, the new record established on September 29, one day before the season ended, the Yankees continued with their reputation as home run hitters dating back to the days of Ruth and Gehrig, as a team noted for hitting the long ball.

Other things that got in the way for the Yankees were challenges but disappointing play by their young backstop Gary Sanchez, who showed tremendous promise last year and Greg Brid who has not quite recovered from a serious leg injury at the beginning of the 2017 season.

Despite the great totals, the Los Angeles Dodger, have the most home run hitters with sever over 20 this year. It would have taken Gary Sanchez to hit two homeruns for the Yankees to have seven on their roster.

Also, it’s only Stanton who will have driven in over 100 RBI for the season. An usually low number for a team that has hit so many home runs. Having said that, the Dodgers, despite their power numbers, don’t have a single player near the 100 RBI plateau.

Another intriguing aspect of the Yankees season is the amount of rookie of the year candidates. While much of the focus will be on Los Angeles Angel Shohei Ohtani the Japanese outfielder/pitcher. But Torres and Andujar should receive attention for the award, as well.

With their 100 win total, the Yankees are now one of three teams, along with the Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox to reach that plateau.

How fitting that it was Giancarlo Stanton’s 38th home run of the season that gave the Yankees the record for 266 round trippers, two more than the previous record held by the Seattle Mariners who set the record in 1997. Those Seattle teams were led by Hall of Famer Ken Griffey, Jr. who blasted 56 home runs, Jay Buhner who hit 40 and the young Alex Rodriguez who belted 23.

The Yankees will face a surprising Oakland A’s team that also has power this week. Khris Davis, a designated hitter, led baseball with 48 home runs. Davis added 123 RBIs to do along with his home run totals.

If the Yankees are to survive their one game playoff, they will face their arch rivals the Boston Red Sox whose two starts Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez are MVP candidates with their power and high batting average numbers. The series would open with a best-of-seven at Fenway Park. If the Yankees do beat Oakland, expect a lot of fireworks between the team teams like always.

By: Andrew Schiff

Tony Award Winning Jewish Writer of Musical “Cabaret” Dies at 98 in NJ

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The Roundabout Theatre Company announced last week that Joe Masteroff who won a Tony Award for the winning story of the dark musical “Cabaret” has died at the age of 98.

Masteroff passed away at the Actors Fund Home in Englewood, New Jersey.

Masteroff was born in Philadelphia, PA on December 11, 1919 and studied at Temple University. He was born to Louis Masteroff from Korsun Russian and Rose Pogost from Kishinev, Russian.

He is also credited with writing the book for the Sheldon Harnick-Jerry Brock musical “She Loves Me” which earned Masteroff a Tony Award nomination for Best Author of a Musical.

“We deeply mourn the loss of our friend Joe Masteroff, one of the 20th century’s masters of the Great American Musical. His “She Loves Me’ and ‘Cabaret’ helped shape our theater, and we were honored to present them both on Broadway,” said CEO of the Roundabout Theatre Company.

Masteroff was not known for producing many plays or books but the ones he did produce had a lasting effect. “She Loves Me,” a light hearted musical, which had a revival back in 2016 starring 30 Rock actress Jane Krakowski. While “She Loves Me” is light hearted, it is completely the opposite of the dark sleazy underworld setting of Cabaret which takes place in 1931 as the Nazis are rising to power.

As a youth, Masteroff aspired to write plays and during World War II, he took a course to see if he could do it. In 1959 he wrote “The Warm Peninsula,” which made it to Broadway starring Julie Harris.

Masteroff recalled after hearing the news that when Harris wanted to do his play and go on tour, that “my life changed.”

Masteroff was getting a noticed even though the show only had 86 performances.

From there, he was asked to write the book for “She Loves Me” and that writers Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick would compose songs. Legendary producer Hal Prince was to call the shots as producer. “She Loves Me” was a story about a clerk who worked in a perfume shop in 1903 Budapest who is romancing a woman by correspondence. By coincidence she comes to work in the store, although they don’t recognize the other. At first, they are constantly fighting and disagreeing over things, Eventually they recognize who each other are and they fall in love. The movie, with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, “You’ve Got Mail,” is based on “She Loves Me.”

The next story Masteroff would compose could be called She Loves Me its polar opposite. “Cabaret,” originally titled “Welcome to Berlin,” would call on the talents of John Kander and Fred Ebb (who would later do “Chicago,”) to compose the music and song for the production.

Masteroff had a great deal of reluctance about Cabaret calling it “very iffy.”

“We had done so many things that nobody in their right mind would have done,” Masteroff related. Cabaret’s success “was a pleasant surprise.”

The show’s cabaret numbers are interspersed with two love stories, one with a young couple and one with an older couple. The younger couple is between a free spirited Sally Bowles and an American writer named Cliff Bradshaw and the other between a German land landy and her Jewish tenant, a fruit vendor.

Cabaret, original idea was inspired by Christopher Isherwood’s “Berlin Stories” along with John van Druten stage adaptation, I Am a Camera, ran for well over one thousand performances and ultimately was adapted for film in 1972 starring Joel Grey and Liza Minelli. In total, “Cabaret” won eight Tonys, including for best musical.

While other musicals have faded, “Cabaret’s popularity has only gotten stronger. A 1998 production of the musical ran for over two thousand performances and a touring London production of Cabaret was reviewed by The Las Vegas Review-Journal which called the play “timeless.”

By: Anton Gomez

French Singer Charles Aznavour Dies at 94; Family Saved Jews from Nazis

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Charles Aznavour was honored in Israel for his family’s efforts to protect Jews and others persecuted by the Nazis during World War II.

French singer Charles Aznavour, who stole the hearts of millions with decades of haunting love songs, has died aged 94, his spokeswoman said on Monday.

Aznavour passed away overnight at one of his homes, in the village of Mouries north of the French port city of Marseille.

The singer, who sold more than 100 million records in 80 countries, began his career peddling his words and music to the Paris boulevardiers of the 40s and 50s: Edith Piaf, Maurice Chevalier, Charles Trenet.

The singer had planned to go back on tour later this month, starting with a concert in Brussels on October 26, according to a Times of Israel report.

He was scheduled to play in Tel Aviv next July, having played a hugely successful concert there last year. On that visit, he was honored in Israel for his family’s efforts to protect Jews and others persecuted by the Nazis during World War II. He received the honor from Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, who spoke of his love of Aznavour’s music, saying “La Boheme” was his favorite song.

Rivlin presented him with The Raoul Wallenberg Award, named for the Swedish diplomat who helped thousands of Jews flee Nazi-controlled Hungary during World War II, according to the Times of Israel report. Aznavour’s family “hid a number of people who were persecuted by the Nazis, while Charles and his sister Aida were involved in rescue activities,” Rivlin’s office said.

“We have so many things in common, the Jews and the Armenians, in misfortune, in happiness, in work, in music, in the arts and in the ease of learning different languages and becoming important people in the countries where they have been received,” Aznavour said at the time.

Sometimes described as France’s Frank Sinatra, Aznavour was born in Paris on May 22, 1924, to Armenian parents — his birth name Shahnour Aznavourian.

He grew up on Paris’ Left Bank and began performing at the age of nine. His father was a singer, cook and sometime restaurant manager, and his mother an actress. His first public performances were at Armenian gatherings where his father and older sister Aida sang and Charles danced.

Short in stature at 160 cm (five foot three inches), Aznavour possessed a magnetic stage presence that brought rapt audiences to their feet at venues such as the Olympia in Paris and New York’s Carnegie Hall.

Fans admired his mature storytelling ability and quavering vibrato voice, rich in sensitivity and range.

“I have the kind of voice that gels with the type of songs I write,” wrote Aznavour in his biography.

His ability to perform in French, Spanish, English, Italian and German helped.

As a student, French President Emmanuel Macron was a big fan of Aznavour and sang his songs at karaoke nights, according to former classmates.

But it became evident that Aznavour himself best interpreted the bittersweet emotions of such songs as “Hier Encore” (Yesterday When I Was Young), “Apres l’Amour” (After Love) and “La Boheme”. Others were “She” and “Formidable”.

In his autobiography, “Aznavour by Aznavour”, he recalls that after a period trying to play the role of a tough guy, he was goaded one evening into climbing on the bandstand to sing.

“There, I had a revelation. I saw that the girls looked at me much more, their eyes moist and their lips apart, than when I played a terror… I was only 15 or 16, but I understood,” he wrote.

By: Edmond Taylor

Israel’s Lessons from Two Historical Events

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This month marks the 45th Anniversary of the Yom Kippur War and the 25th Anniversary of the Oslo Accords signing

Prime Minister Golda Meir, conscious of what might be the western reaction to Israeli military mobilization, and in particular, wary of a negative U.S. reaction, declined to order full mobilization, even when the Mossad Chief Zvi Zamir brought her a tip from an Egyptian double-agent (President Sadat’s son-in-law) that the Egyptians would attack on Yom Kippur.

This month (September, according to the Hebrew calendar) marks the anniversary of two major historical events in the Middle East. Both of these events have had major repercussions on the region and in Israeli-Palestinian relations. Forty-five years ago, on October 6, 1973, the armies of Egypt and Syria launched an attack on Israel during the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur. Israeli military intelligence cautioned against a rush to war. Major-General Zaira, Israel’s Chief of Intelligence, with an over-confident attitude, dismissed reports of Egyptian forces concentrating along the Suez Canal front as the same old Egyptian maneuvers.

Twenty five years ago, on September 13, 1993, the Oslo Accords were formally signed on the White House lawn, with a grinning President Bill Clinton overseeing the historical handshake between Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) chairman

Prime Minister Golda Meir, conscious of what might be the western reaction to Israeli military mobilization, and in particular, wary of a negative U.S. reaction, declined to order full mobilization, even when the Mossad Chief Zvi Zamir brought her a tip from an Egyptian double-agent (President Sadat’s son-in-law) that the Egyptians would attack on Yom Kippur. As a consequence of the delay in Israel’s mobilization, and Egypt’s surprise attack, the Israeli fortification along the Suez Canal fell, albeit after a heroic fight by the defenders. The lack of preparedness on the part of Israel as a result of over-confidence stemming from the Six-Day War, cost the lives of almost 3,000 Israeli soldiers. Ultimately, Israel triumphed in spite of the early setbacks.

Commanders consult on the Southern front, among them ex-COGS Yitzhak Rabin, COGS Elazar and head of the Southern command Shmuel Gorodish, 8 October 1973.

Twenty five years ago, on September 13, 1993, the Oslo Accords were formally signed on the White House lawn, with a grinning President Bill Clinton overseeing the historical handshake between Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) chairman. The signing of the Oslo Accords launched what we now know as the “peace process.”

This reporter (along with Gary Ratner) met and interviewed PM Rabin at his Defense Ministry office in Tel Aviv, prior to the Oslo Process. Responding to a question about meeting and negotiating with Yasser Arafat, Rabin emphatically rejected the idea, saying that under no circumstances would he negotiate with the murderous Arafat and his PLO terrorists. Rabin’s sentiments toward Arafat were in evidence during the signing ceremony on September 13, 1993, at the White House. Rabin was desperately trying to avoid talking to Arafat, or shaking his hand.

PLO terrorist Yassir Arafat alluded to the Oslo Accords as his Treaty of Hudaybiyah, implying that he intended to break the Accords with Israel at the moment he felt it right, much like the Prophet did in 630 CE. Indeed, in September, 2000, judging that the Israeli public morale was low, perceiving Israel as weakened by the suicide bombing campaign he coordinated with Hamas, he launched the Second intifada, this time a bloody and violent one.

Even after being prodded by President Clinton to shake hands with Arafat following the signing of the Accord, everyone could easily detect the discomfort on Rabin’s face. One can only imagine the pressure put on Rabin to go through with the Oslo deal. According to historian Efraim Karsh, “So deep was his (Rabin’s) loathing of Arafat, that he planned to shun the Washington ceremony altogether.” It took U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher to cajole Rabin into coming. Rabin had to take an “anti-nausea pill.”

It is clear now that Rabin’s skepticism about Arafat was warranted. Unfortunately Rabin decided to carry on with what he knew in his heart was a charade. Rabin believed that peace had to commence at some point, but chose a time when Arafat’s fortunes and that of the PLO were at their lowest point. Arafat sided with Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi brutal conquest of Kuwait, and the Arab Gulf states set out to punish the Palestinians. Kuwait expelled most of its Palestinian population, and the rest of the Gulf Arab’s shunned the Palestinians. Rabin said to us that, “you make peace with your enemies, and especially bitter enemies.” When I asked Rabin what would happen if the Palestinians reneged on the Accords and resumed their terrorist attacks, Rabin replied that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) was strong enough to handle the Palestinians under such circumstances.

In the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War, the Agranat Commission laid blame on Israel’s military leadership for its “obdurate adherence to what was known as the ‘conception,’ according to which Egypt would not launch war against Israel before she had first ensured sufficient air power to attack Israel

As it happened, Arafat’s pledge “to renounce terrorism, and other acts of violence” was a sham. Interviewed in Arabic by Jordanian TV on the same day the White House ceremony took place, Arafat made it clear to his Palestinian viewing audience that the Oslo Accords did not end the conflict. He argued that the Accords gave his Palestinians (PLO) a territorial foothold from which the war to liberate all of Palestine (meaning Israel) would ensue.

Arafat had often invoked the Treaty of Hudaybiyah when addressing Palestinian audiences. It was the treaty the Prophet Mohammad made between his followers in Medina and his enemies from his own tribe of the Quraysh of Mecca, who inconclusively besieged his Medina followers in 628 CE. The treaty established a 10-year truce between the Muslims in Medina and the Quraysh of Mecca. Two-years later, now with increased power and feeling strong enough, he broke the truce with the Meccan and attacked them. In 630 CE, he conquered Mecca.

Arafat alluded to the Oslo Accords as his Treaty of Hudaybiyah, implying that he intended to break the Accords with Israel at the moment he felt it right, much like the Prophet did in 630 CE. Indeed, in September, 2000, judging that the Israeli public morale was low, perceiving Israel as weakened by the suicide bombing campaign he coordinated with Hamas, he launched the Second intifada, this time a bloody and violent one.

The Oslo process was one of the worst self-inflicted wounds in Israel’s history, along with the failure of Israeli military intelligence in the Yom Kippur war. Palestinian terrorism didn’t end, it spiked. More Israelis were killed in bombing and suicide attacks than in any previous two-year period in Israel’s history.

Earlier in July, 2000, President Bill Clinton summoned Arafat along with Israeli PM Ehud Barak to Camp David for a peace summit. Arafat was given unprecedented concessions. The U.S. plan offered by President Bill Clinton and endorsed by PM Ehud Barak would have given the Palestinians 97% of the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) and full control of the Gaza Strip, with a land-link between them. In exchange for the 3% annexation of Judea and Samaria, Israel would increase the size of Gaza by a third from Israeli territory. Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem would become the capital of the new state. Palestinian refugees would have the right to return to the Palestinian state and receive reparations from a $30 billion international fund to compensate them. The Palestinians would maintain control over their holy places and would be given desalinization plants to provide them with adequate water.

The Oslo process was one of the worst self-inflicted wounds in Israel’s history, along with the failure of Israeli military intelligence in the Yom Kippur war. Palestinian terrorism didn’t end, it spiked. More Israelis were killed in bombing and suicide attacks than in any previous two-year period in Israel’s history. The failure of the Oslo process diplomacy has reinforced Benjamin Netanyahu’s conviction that Israel must wait for a Palestinian leader that is fully committed to peace and prosperity for his own people. It also exposed the folly of the land-for-peace formula.

In the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War, the Agranat Commission laid blame on Israel’s military leadership for its “obdurate adherence to what was known as the ‘conception,’ according to which Egypt would not launch war against Israel before she had first ensured sufficient air power to attack Israel. Syria would only launch an all-out attack on Israel simultaneously with Egypt.

The West Point Modern War Institute summarized the lessons learned from the Yom Kippur war. “Linking military action to political goals, guarding against cognitive biases, and when appropriate, recognizing opportunities to improve one’s own lot by acknowledging the interests of an adversary.” These, according to its author David Wallsh, “are fundamental to the successful conduct of war in any time and place.” For Egypt however, the “October War” served to convince Anwar Sadat that Israel couldn’t be eliminated by war and he ultimately chose to make peace.

By: Joseph Puder
(Front Page Mag)

In Israel, Learning Torah Has No Age Limit

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Kollel program offers Jewish study, a warm meal and companionship to Holocaust survivors and other elderly in Jerusalem, Ashdod, Ashkelon and Tzfat

Yosef Damsker, 86, is a thin man with a gray beard and a large yarmulke. But when he moved to Israel from Leningrad (today, St. Petersburg) in 1990, he was not only secular, he knew very little about his Jewish background, except for fasting on Yom Kippur.

These days a widower who lives in the Talpiot neighborhood of Jerusalem, he studies Torah every morning at Colel Chabad’s Kollel Tiferes Zekeinim Levi Yitzchak in the Nahlaot neighborhood of Jerusalem. The kollel, whose name in English means “the kollel for the glory of the aged in the name of Levi and Isaac,” is a special program for elderly Jews, most of whom live alone and on limited incomes.

Yosef Damsker, 86, a Holocaust survivor who made aliyah in 1990 from Leningrad. Credit: Shay Vizel

Damsker survives on NIS 2,400 (about $670) a month that he receives from Israel’s National Insurance Institute. At the daily kollel program, he receives a warm meal, camaraderie with other Holocaust survivors and a lesson in his heritage.

“I come to eat lunch and connect with my friends,” he told JNS. “I am so happy to be here.”

A kollel generally refers an institute for full-time, advanced study of the Talmud and rabbinic literature. But the Lubavitcher Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, longtime leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement—fostered kollel-like Torah-study programs for the elderly and retired, both men and women. The first ones opened in 1980 around the world, with the first in Israel established in 1988.

The program celebrated its 30th anniversary in Israel over the summer. Today, seven kollels operate for the elderly in four cities in the country—Jerusalem, Ashdod, Ashkelon and Tzfat—all administered by Colel Chabad, Israel’s oldest operating charitable organization, established in 1788 by the first Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Schnuer Zalman of Liadi. Approximately 250 students come to study in the various kollels.

According to Rabbi Itzik Marton of Colel Chabad, Schneerson’s teaching were centered on the understanding that even when a person retires from a traditional profession, he or she can still offer a great deal to the spiritual uplifting of those around them.

Elderly people are “not just those who have finished their jobs, and are not just people who are waiting, God forbid, for the end of their days,” said Dr. Yakir Kaufman, a behavioral neurologist and acting medical director of Herzog Hospital in Jerusalem. “On the contrary, this is a time of great creativity.”

He said the program offers the elderly a “better state of well-being and health.”

Shay Vizel directs the Jerusalem program. He told JNS that around 75 people learn in the morning kollel—most of them survivors, around 40 men and 35 women—and another 35 men attend a similar program at night.

“Some 90 percent of participants live alone. They wait to come to kollel every day to get their warm lunch and connect,” he said, explaining that Colel Chabad also hands out food cards to participants and provides them with a small stipend for coming to learn.

“They become like a family,” Vizel said of the participants. “As people pass away, the participants say Kaddish [mourner’s prayer] for their late friends.”

‘Happiness for the mind and soul’

It’s hard to find members of the kollel who are willing to tell their stories. That’s because the people who attend “are smart people who were very successful in their younger years,” according to Nina Avni, who works with Colel Chabad and offers support services to the members that range from helping them sign their apartment contracts, to receiving Holocaust reparations and more. “They don’t want to talk about their difficulties.”

Ethel Abramovitch, 80, agreed to tell her story. An engineer who moved to Israel from Ukraine, she said she revels in the chance to once again be a student, despite her advanced age.

“Coming to learn Torah with others actually makes me feel healthier,” she said. “I know I am with friends and people who think and believe just like me, which gives me happiness, both for my mind and soul.”

Even though Abramovitch travels by bus to the Nahlaot kollel from the northeast Jerusalem suburb of Pisgat Ze’ev, which can take up to 45 minutes each way, she tries never to skip a day. She told JNS that in Ukraine, she knew very little about her Jewish background. Now, “I learn what it is to be a Jew. This is very important to me.”

Like the others, Abramovitch lives alone; her husband passed away. She said her son lives in Israel, but he is busy with his own children. If left on her own, she said, she would likely not cook for herself.

“The food here is very tasty,” she said. “I come here to eat among friends. I don’t want to be anywhere else.”

By: Maayan Jaffe Hoffman
(JNS.org)

Parshas Bereishis – The Secrets of Creation

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In the beginning, God made the Heaven and the Earth. (Bereishis 1:1)

The words are so incredibly simple, and yet, of course, conceal the most remarkable secrets of Creation. Indeed, each of the Hebrew words can be and are dissected and explained in so many ways, so many Kabbalistic ways. In fact, the Tikunei Zohar does exactly that with only the first word, Bereishis, revealing 70 different explanations for this word alone.

The point of “Perceptions” all through the years has been to provide a unique perspective on already well-known ideas. It has been to open the mind of the reader to nuances in the parshah, and how they might apply to everyday life. And, above all, to show how the Torah is really the blueprint for Creation of all of history, by revealing how its seemingly simple words incorporate all that has ever occurred, and will occur.

For example, the Zohar teaches that the first verse of the parshah should actually be the second verse (Zohar, Bereishis 16a). In other words, the proper chronological order of the verses is as follows:

The earth was null and void, and there was darkness upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God hovered above the water. (Bereishis 1:2)

In the beginning, God created the Heaven and the earth. (Bereishis 1:1)

God said, “Let there be light!” and there was light. (Bereishis 1:3)

The obvious question that arises makes it clear as to why the verses are not actually written that way: If the earth was not created until the second verse, then which earth was null and void in the first verse? What, if anything, existed prior to the creation of Heaven and Earth? What was “bereishis” the beginning of, if not of everything that exists?

To the seasoned Kabbalist, that is not a question, or at least, not a difficult one, for Kabbalah, in essence, is only about that: The process of Creation up until physical creation as recorded in the Torah. From a Kabbalistic point of view, the Written Torah picks up the story in the middle, long after far more spectacular things have occurred just to make physical Creation possible. For the first time in this parshah sheet, we will discuss some of them briefly, very briefly.

STEP 1: OHR AIN SOF

In the beginning, there was Ohr Ain Sof, only Ohr Ain Sof. The Kabbalists are quick to point out that this light, literally “Light of Without End,” is not the Essence of God, just a revelation of His light on an extremely sublime level. It was, and is, an expression of God’s desire to reveal Himself, eventually, to beings that will be able to recognize and appreciate such a revelation.

However, at this point in the creation process, nothing else existed but this infinite light, emanating out in all directions, infinitely, something that is much easier to say than to imagine. On this level of revelation, the existence of anything else would be a contradiction of the very nature of the light, since the existence of something else could only be possible if the light ceased to be infinite on such a level of revelation.

STEP 2: TZIMTZUM

Therefore, the first thing that had to happen to the Ohr Ain Sof in order to make Creation possible, any of it-the spiritual and physical aspects of it-was a lessening of its infiniteness somewhere, just enough to allow other things to exist. This lessening of the infiniteness of the Ohr Ain Sof is called, in Kabbalah, “Tzimtzum,” or “Constriction,” and its creation is considered to be one of the largest and most important “miracles” of all Creation.

Hence, at what is technically called the “Center of the Ohr Ain Sof” (or the Malchus of the Ohr Ain Sof, but how do you find the center of infinity?), tzimtzum occurred. And, it kept occurring in a spherical fashion outward from that point, expanding the size of the spiritual void, until there existed a Divinely-specified ball-like hollow called the “Challal,” or “Hollow,” because that is exactly what resulted: a large-trillions of times larger than our physical universe, at least-hollow that was devoid of Ohr Ain Sof, or at least enough of it to begin the process of Creation.

STEP 3: THE CHALLAL

It is basically impossible to accurately imagine what the Challal is, but to get a very rough idea, imagine a room filled with light, with a basketball suspended in the middle of it. Even though light surrounds the entire ball on all sides, the rubber skin of the ball, kept in spherical shape by the air pressure inside of it, keeps the light from entering the ball, leaving the inside of the ball completely void of light.

In reality, there is no room, just Ohr Ain Sof emanating infinitely in all directions. The ball is the Challal, except that it is not physical, but completely spiritually, and the light is held back not by air proof rubber, but by the will of God, resulting in a spiritual void into which the Ohr Ain Sof is not allowed to penetrate-at least not yet-and in a reality of finiteness within the reality of infiniteness. This will be crucial for making possible a free-will being.

STEP 4: KAV OHR AIN SOF

When they build a house, they first dig a hole and remove all the dirt. What is left is a big hole, a challal. After that, they begin to refill the hole, except this time with building materials and in a very orderly fashion, from the bottom up. New materials are only added as they are needed to further the building process, until completion.

Likewise, after the Challal was complete, it became time to allow light to re-enter it the spiritual void, Ohr Ain Sof, but in a very measured, methodical, and orderly manner. Relatively speaking, a thin line of light was allowed to penetrate the darkness, what the Kabbalists refer to as the Kav Ohr Ain Sof-the Line of the Light of Ain Sof. All of spiritual and physical Creation will be constructed from this light.

As the Kav Ohr Ain Sof enters the Challal, it moves further away from its Source, which has the effect of weakening the light, or of filtering it, increasing the effect of tzimztum. And, as the light becomes less spiritual, it also becomes more “physical,” so-to-speak, eventually making possible the existence of actual physical elements of Creation, including man.

Hence, unlike the actual Ohr Ain Sof beyond the Challal, which is infinite and equal in intensity everywhere, the Kav Ohr Ain Sof is comprised of levels, making possible the concept of measurement-middos-of “up” and “down,” “good” and “evil,” and therefore, of positive and negative growth. It is this that gives man’s free-will meaning, for it provides him with a stage on which to act out his free-will decisions with real and measured impact.

STEP FIVE: SEFIROS

What is Creation made of? Light, Divine Light. That, of course, is hard to accept, since our notion of light is that it is something that can never result in something material, and the Ohr Ain Sof itself is not the least bit physical. That’s like saying that the same light that makes up the spiritual soul is the same light that results in a physical body.

Well, that happens to be true. It’s just that the light that creates body has become far more constricted than the light of the soul, resulting in a physical container for the light of the soul. It is like pouring water into a glass that is made from ice: they are both the result of water molecules, except that the water molecules of ice move slower as a result of freezing temperatures.

But it is the glass that gives form to the water, just as the body gives form to the soul, so-to-speak. Likewise, infinite light (Ohr Ain Sof) requires a finite vessel (Challal) to hold it, if it is to be distinguishable from the rest of the infinite light, and make possible a world in which man can exist and use freewill choice in a meaningful way. Such vessels are called, in Kabbalah, the Sefiros.[1]

And, just as everything in the physical world is a composite of molecules of different combinations, likewise is everything in Creation a function of Sefiros, or subsets of the Sefiros, over subsets of the subsets of the Sefiros, etc., until there is a sefirah, or set of sefiros, for everything that exists.

STEP SIX: PARTZUFIM

Literally, a partzuf is a face, and represents the revelation of inner existence, just as a human face reveals the inner reality of a person. There are generally 10 sefiros in any given system within all of Creation:

Keser : Crown Chochmah : Wisdom Binah : Understanding Chesed : Kindness Gevurah : Strength Tifferes : Beauty Netzach : Dominance Hod : Glory Yesod : Foundation Malchus : Kingdom

Therefore, each of the above sefiros also consists of their own set of 10 sefiros, and when considered in this fashion, they are called a “partzuf,” or world, a unique reality unto itself within the larger reality and system. For example, the timber used to build the walls of a room in a house are like the sefiros, whereas the room that results, which is the sum total of all the materials used, is like a partzuf, a world unto itself.

Having created the Challal, the Kav Ohr Ain Sof, the Sefiros, and the Partzufim, all the necessary ingredients to make all of Creation exist. It just becomes a question of levels, of filtering, of tzimtzum, of combinations, etc., when it comes to determining what is created, and how. It also becomes a question of many processes along the way, such as Sheviras HaKeilim-the Breaking of the Vessels-in order to assure that Creation results in the perfect environment for a free-will being, much of which is discussed extensively in the holiest of Kabbalistic works.

But at least we now have an inkling that something existed prior to Ma’aseh Bereishis-the Work of Creation-as we know it, and what it was, is.

By: Rabbi Pinchas Winston
(Torah.org)

[1] In Hebrew, the word “sefirah” comes from the word “to count,” since the Sefiros represent measured amounts of Divine Light, which is also why they are called “middos,” or “measurements.” However, each sefirah is perfectly round, echoing the shape of the Challal and a symbol of Divine perfection, which is probably why the English word for a ball is “sphere.”

University of Haifa to Confer Honorary Doctorate on German Chancellor Angela Merkel

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The honor is bestowed “in recognition of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s contributions in leadership grounded in the principles of equality, freedom and human rights; for being an exemplary model to women around the world; in appreciation of her warm friendship and robust ties between The Federal Republic of Germany and the State of Israel.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Haifa “in recognition of her leadership grounded in principles of equality, freedom and human rights; for serving as a model to women around the world; in appreciation of her warm friendship and robust ties between The Federal Republic of Germany and the State of Israel.” The award ceremony will take place during her two-day visit to Israel on October 3-4th.

The University of Haifa campus

“Throughout her life, Dr. Merkel has demonstrated exemplary standards of excellence, wisdom and humanity. It is a great privilege to confer upon her an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Haifa, and I am enormously proud and excited by the occasion,” noted Prof. Ron Robin, President of the University of Haifa.

According to the University of Haifa’s leadership, Chancellor Merkel’s groundbreaking leadership has earned her recognition by inspiring policy-makers and leaders of the Free World. Merkel is a courageous trailblazer who has broken through walls and glass ceilings, creating a more egalitarian society based on human dignity and equality – values embodied by the University of Haifa. Her public service to the German people as a Member of Parliament, a member of the Government and Chancellor has spanned more than two decades.

She has stood firmly against racism and anti-Semitism and has worked tirelessly to forge connections between Jews and gentiles in Germany and throughout Europe. Chancellor Merkel has invested boundless efforts and resources to strengthen the scientific collaborations between Israel and Germany, as evidenced by the close research ties between the University of Haifa and numerous research institutes in Germany. This distinguished award also recognizes her unwavering contribution to the strong friendship and profound relations between The Federal Republic of Germany and the State of Israel.

«It is indeed a great honor to confer this degree on Chancellor Merkel,” said Prof. Ron Robin, President of the University of Haifa.

As part of the award ceremony, scheduled to take place at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem on October 4, 2018, Merkel will meet with a diverse group of graduate students from the University of Haifa, including German students studying at the University.

Dr. Merkel’s lifelong career is characterized by a commitment to excellence and ground-breaking work. Born in Hamburg, she earned a PhD in Physics from the University of Leipzig. As a faculty member, she served at the Central Institute of Physical Chemistry at the Academy of Sciences in Berlin until 1990 and published dozens of scientific articles. She was the first woman to be appointed Chancellor of Germany, the first woman elected to head the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the youngest German chancellor since the 1950s and the first to come up through the academic ranks. “It is indeed a great honor to confer this degree on Chancellor Merkel,” said Prof. Ron Robin, President of the University of Haifa.

Dr. Merkel began her political career in 1990, serving for several months as the deputy spokesperson for the first freely elected East German government. With the reunification of Germany, Dr. Merkel was elected to the Bundestag (Federal Parliament of Germany) as the representative of the State of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, where she still serves as the representative of the CDU. Dr. Merkel served as Federal Minister for Women and Youth from 1991-1994, and in 1994 was appointed Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety.

In 2000, she was elected to head her party, and in 2005 her party won the election and she was appointed Chancellor, a position she has held to this day after winning elections in 2009, 2013 and 2017. Throughout her years in office, Chancellor Merkel ascribed great importance to strengthening ties between Germany and Israel. She has been invited to Israel several times and, in 2008, convened a special meeting of the German government in Israel in honor of Israel’s 60th Independence Day.

Edited by: JV Staff

Discover Torun’s Medieval Charm and Jewish Legacy

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This medieval town located in northern Poland is the birthplace of the famed astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, is also known for their gingerbread making as well as being one of the few Polish cities to escape major damage in World War II. The city earned its UNESCO status for its preserved street pattern and medieval brick buildings. Torun — about halfway between Warsaw and Gdansk — is also called ‘Krakow of the North’ for its charm and is one of the most important and crowded tourist centers, right after Krakow; it also has the richest of original and best preserved historical monuments in Poland. This magnificently walled Gothic town on the Vistula should be high on every traveler’s list.

Torun, Poland: Memorial plaque on the site of a former synagogue destroyed by the Nazis in 1939 – New York Jewish Travel Guide

The Jewish Community of Torun started at the end of the 18th century with only three Jews living in the town: a teacher, a kosher butcher and a cook. After Torun reverted to Poland in 1920, the local Jewish population became one of the smallest in Polish town numbering 354 in 1925. On the outbreak of World War II there were about 1,000 Jews in Torun. Some of them did not engage in Jewish organizations or in the life of the community. The changing geopolitical situation and demographic conditions at that time caused the Jewish community to systematically drop in numbers. Some left, while others decided to assimilate within Polish society.

This small town was influenced by the presence of Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Kalisher, an Orthodox German rabbi born in 1795 in Lesano, Prussia (now Leszno, Poland) who was considered to have been one of the most important pioneers for the foundation of modern Zionism. He expressed views, from a religious perspective, in favor of the Jewish resettlement of the Land of Israel. As an adult, he settled in Torun and spent his life there, serving for 40 years as “acting rabbi.” He did not receive any remuneration for his work but was supported by his wife, who ran a small shop. In 1862, he published “Drishat Tzion” and wrote: “When we redeem the land, we make a pathway for our God and a kalischer way towards final redemption.” A street is named after him in Tel Aviv off of HaCarmel Street as well as a religious kibbutz in the Bet She’an valley called Tirat Tzevi. An Israeli postage stamp was also issued in his honor in 2008. In Torun, there is a plaque commemorating him on the wall of the building where he used to live at 46 Szeroka Street.

Lachmann family home – New York Jewish Travel Guide

There was a synagogue that was situated ul. Szczytna 12 that was built in 1847 and used by the local congregants as a space for prayer. Unfortunately, the synagogue was destroyed by the Nazis during the war and was the only building that was destroyed. The city of Torun’s coat of arms displays a gate protected by the angels, who perhaps were looking out for the city during this time. A commemorative memorial plaque now marks the former synagogue space.

Visitors will also find an interesting house in the middle of town that was occupied by the Lachmann family. In this building a Jewish star remains inside by the window stairwell. This home is now a regular rental apartment complex. The Lachmanns were traders of corn and wool with Russia and Germany and moved to Hamburg more than 120 years ago. NYJTG was fortunate to have Mr. Szymon Wisniewski, director of the Tourist Information Center, share the house’s details during a recent tour.

Old Town Square – New York Jewish Travel Guide

But Torun has a great deal more to offer visitors. Torun oozes medieval charm and it is hard not to feel like you’re visiting a different century. In 2016, the city attracted a record number of almost two million tourists.

Enjoy walking through the delightful sights of Torun. One could easily spend a full day of solid sightseeing here…if you have time, two or three days would be well spent there and will pass very quickly.

Old Town Square. As is the way in Europe, the Town Hall, located in the center of the Old Town Market Square, is the focal point for Torun and a perfect place to start your visit. It is the most important building in Torun, dating back to the late 14th century, where you will find some of the most beautiful buildings in the city, such as the Postal Building and the Arthus House.

Cosmopolis Fountain in Torun – New York Jewish Travel Guide

Capture the monuments. There are plenty of statues and monuments throughout the Old Town of Torun and most come with a legend or story, such as the dragon of Torun that was apparently spotted by a couple in 1746. The torture wooden donkey directly across from the Copernicus statue shows a painful contraption used to torture and humiliate the criminals who were forced to sit on it before being whipped.

Keep your eyes open in the town center! My favorite is the statue of Filus, an adorable puppy with a hat in his mouth known from a popular Polish comic strip. It is in honor of the Polish cartoonist Zbigniew Lengren, whose well-known comic series involved Professor Filutek and his dog, Filus.

One of the cute little spots in the Old Town Market Square is the Frog Fountain. The fountain tells the story of Torun’s own version of the Pied Piper. The statue at the center is of Janko Muzykant, who saved the town from a plague of frogs, by playing his fiddle and luring them to the forest.

Teutonic Castle Ruins – New York Jewish Travel Guide

Cosmopolis fountain show. Each evening, at the Cosmopolis Fountain just outside of the Old Town, there is an impressive light and sound show. While it isn’t a large or spectacular multimedia fountain, it is definitely worth seeing while in Torun. The times vary depending on the season but will start once it gets dark and continue until midnight. Another reason to love it: it’s among the many free things to do in Torun.

Visit the Gingerbread Museum. The city is well-known for the tradition of gingerbread making and this museum has a really fun and interactive show that shares the secrets of Torun’s gingerbread with visitors. This is one of the most popular — and definitely one of the most memorable — things to do in Torun. The baking of gingerbread has been part of the city’s culture since as far back as the 14th century and the baking tins and molds themselves were works of art.

Torun, Poland, Old Town Hall, Copernicus Statue – New York Jewish Travel Guide

Explore the castle ruins. East of the remnants of the Old Town walls are the ruins of the Teutonic Castle, destroyed in 1454 by angry residents of the city protesting against the knights’ oppressive regime. Although much of the castle is in ruins, there are some really well-preserved parts, including a bridge and a tower to see. The ruins of the Teutonic Castle is listed by the UNESCO organization.

Lean against the leaning tower. An important landmark and must-see is Torun’s own Leaning Tower. It’s a medieval tower that shifted over time. Instead of walking up it like in Pisa, you stand at the base of the wall with your legs together and arms outstretched in front of you. Local superstition claims that if you can balance longer than five seconds, then you are considered unfaithful to a partner!

By: Meyer Harroch
(New York Travel Guide)

Digital Glasses Offer Hope of Sight for Vision-Impaired

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Groundbreaking digital eyewear now under development in Israel projects images only onto the healthy parts of eyes with retinal damage

Israeli company ICI Vision has developed digital eyewear with the potential to give millions of legally blind people the ability to see.

This photo shows an image as seen through Orama digital glasses. Photos: courtesy

The company’s Orama high-tech glasses are the brainchild of Haim Chayet, an Israeli optic physicist who was originally creating augmented-reality goggles for motorcyclists.

Working alongside a friend who had damaged vision due to a scar on his eye, Chayet realized the technology would have greater impact as an assistive device for many people experiencing vision impairment. Joining forces with two partners in the field and top Israeli eye doctors in an advisory capacity, he launched ICI Vision in 2014.

“We approached the technology from the perspective of helping the millions of people with vision problems enjoy a new lease on life and maintain their independence,” CEO Tal Lotan tells ISRAEL21c.

Globally, 340 million people have impaired or complete loss of vision due to macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic retinopathy and other retinal diseases, resulting in direct annual treatment costs of $157 billion in the US last year.

Recognizing faces of loved ones

This photo shows an image as seen through unaided eyes with retinal impairment

Orama’s “enhanced vision engine” combines artificial intelligence, eye-tracking software, computer vision and other software and hardware, including a built-in 3D camera, to fill in the gaps from loss of vision and optimize the image in front of the user’s eyes.

The eyewear is personalized to each user through eye mapping, a procedure that establishes the location of healthy retinal cells.

“Once the extent of a patient’s retinal damage has been established, we can build a set of glasses which projects images onto the healthy part of the eye to enhance their central vision,” explains Lotan. “No one else is doing exactly what we do.”

There’s an adjustment period as Orama users learn to interpret what they’re seeing.

“During initial trials, patients were able to recognize faces of loved ones and see more clearly in their central vision. We have a lot of people interested in trialing the product as they have put their hope in our technology as a solution to their loss of vision,” says Lotan.

ICI’s technology is patented in the United States, China, and Australia and patent-pending in Europe and Japan. The company is gearing up for its first round of seed funding with hopes of securing $3 million toward R&D and manufacturing costs, and expects to have 30 units ready within 18 months to test in home environments.

If all goes according to plan, Orama glasses could be sold globally by mid-2020.

The working prototype has been tested on more than 60 patients in Tel Aviv, with many able to see for the first time.

“We had a patient who had only been able to identify their partner’s face through touch who was able to see their face for the first time in four years — a remarkable moment for the couple,” relates Lotan.

For home and work

In its current phase, the product is intended for in-home use so that users can engage directly with other people, read books, watch television and become familiar with their home surroundings, often for the very first time.

The glasses are also functional for those struggling in the workplace.

“We trialed the glasses on a patient who was having difficulty communicating in office meetings. Once she put on the glasses, she was able to see where voices were coming from and feel part of the conversation, rather than a passive listener,” says Lotan.

“We hope that many patients will experience the benefits of Orama in such a way that will help them excel in situations which before were not so simple.”

According to professor of ophthalmology and retina specialist Prof. Adiel Barak, a member of ICI Vision’s medical board, “Preliminary results of the observational studies, conducted by ICI Vision in Israel, are showing major improvement in standard vision tests and real-life simulation tests (viewing faces). Further trials will be held on an ongoing basis in order to provide ICI Vision’s constant feedback of the device’s efficacy and to make careful improvements.”

ICI Vision plans to target people with retinal disease across the US, Europe and Asia. “Our audience stands at over 50 million, which is substantial, but in reality reflects an aging population,” says Lotan.

But the story doesn’t end here. The company’s goal is to introduce monitoring and restorative functions into Orama at a later stage.

This will be made possible by a recent medical development using infrared light to cure or help patients with dry AMD, a cause of blurred or reduced vision.

“This technology is in early-stage development and is something we aim to patent in the future. If we succeed, it will be a real-game changer,” says Lotan.

By: Leoni Jesner
(Israel 21C)

Easing Sleep Apnea May Be Key to Stroke Recovery

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Sleep apnea is a known risk factor for stroke, and new research suggests that curbing the condition might also aid the recovery of people who’ve suffered a stroke or mini-stroke.

Patients in the study typically used the CPAP mask — “continuous positive airway pressure” — to ease their nighttime breathing difficulties.

The investigators found that, among stroke patients, “treatment of sleep apnea with CPAP therapy provides significant benefits, even greater than the benefits of tPA, the FDA-approved drug treatment for stroke,” said study lead researcher Dr. Dawn Bravata.

“That’s a substantial clinical effect,” she said. “The added good news for stroke patients is that CPAP has been used as a sleep apnea therapy for many years, and it has an excellent safety record.” Bravata is a research scientist with the Regenstrief Institute and Roudebush VA Medical Center in Indianapolis.

According to the researchers, sleep apnea is common among people who’ve had a stroke or mini-stroke, but few are currently diagnosed and treated for the condition. It’s estimated that two out of three stroke patients are thought to have the condition, which causes irregular breathing during sleep. Sleep apnea can lead to low oxygen levels, high blood pressure and an irregular heartbeat.

In the new study, Bravata’s group tracked outcomes for 252 people who had experienced a stroke or mini-stroke (known as a transient ischemic attack, or TIA) for up to one year. Patients were treated at one of five different hospitals in two states.

The patients were randomly divided into three groups: a control group who received standard care without sleep apnea treatment; standard care plus CPAP therapy; or enhanced care with CPAP therapy. Patients who used CPAP did so for an average of 50 percent of nights.

The researchers reported that 59 percent of patients who received CPAP therapy showed marked improvement in their recovery, in terms of improvements in neurological symptoms. This compared with 38 percent of those who didn’t get CPAP.

Timing of therapy may be key, as well, the study authors said.

“Preliminary data suggests the sooner you treat sleep apnea in stroke patients with CPAP, the more potent the effect of that treatment,” Bravata said in a Regenstrief news release.

“Usually, diagnosing sleep apnea is an outpatient service. But we need to make sleep testing acutely available to stroke and TIA patients in the hospital as part of their work-up,” she said, “just as we do brain imaging, lab testing and cardiac monitoring as part of the initial stroke/TIA evaluation.”

Two experts in stroke care believe the approach has real merit.

“This study is very interesting — it shows that a simple intervention, treating obstructive sleep apnea, can improve outcomes in stroke patients,” said Dr. Andrew Rogrove. He is director of stroke services at Northwell Health’s Southside Hospital in Bay Shore, N.Y.

The findings were published earlier this month in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Edited by: JV Staff
(HealthDay News)

Dozens of Medical Groups Join Forces to Improve Diagnoses

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Doctors working together. They are sitting on a meeting and looking at the documents. The focus is on the mature man wearing glasses. [url=http://www.istockphoto.com/search/lightbox/9786662][img]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/40117171/medicine.jpg[/img][/url]

Every nine minutes, a patient in a U.S. hospital dies because a diagnosis was wrong or delayed — resulting in 80,000 deaths a year.

That sobering estimate comes from the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine (SIDM).

To help remedy this situation, more than 40 health care and patient advocacy groups have joined forces to improve the quality of diagnoses, especially those that can result in patient harm. The effort is called ACT for Better Diagnosis.

“Providing an accurate medical diagnosis is complex and involves uncertainty, but it’s obviously essential to effective and timely treatment,” Paul Epner, chief executive officer and co-founder of SIDM, said in a statement.

“Nearly everyone will receive an inaccurate diagnosis at some point in their life, and for some, the consequences will be grave. Major improvement is needed to systematically identify how to improve diagnostic quality and reduce harm to patients,” he said.

In addition to the deaths of hospital patients, diagnostic errors affect 12 million outpatients and is the most common cause of medical errors that patients report, according to SIDM.

The society says obstacles to accurate and timely diagnoses include:

  • Incomplete communication when patients are transferred between facilities, doctors or departments.
  • Lack of standardized measures for hospitals, health systems or doctors to understand how well they are doing in the diagnostic process, to guide improvement or report errors.
  • Patients and doctors both report feeling rushed by limited appointment times, which is a risk in getting a complete medical history essential to making a working diagnosis.
  • The diagnostic process is complicated, and limited information is available to patients about the questions to ask or whom to notify when changes in their condition occur or what symptoms are serious.

“The diagnostic process can be complex, as well as emotional and fearful, for women heart patients,” registered nurse Evan McCabe, WomenHeart champion and chair of the board of directors, said in the media statement.

“Having the right information to help mitigate the fear of the unknown is crucial. It’s important that health care providers listen to patients and have the research and other tools they need to provide answers,” she said.

Dr. Ana Maria Lopez, president of the American College of Physicians added, “The diagnosis process — thinking through a patient’s clinical presentation — is a defining task for our profession, and for internal medicine specialists and subspecialists in particular. Critically assessing diagnostic decision-making reveals knowledge gaps, communication pitfalls, and risk for errors.”

Some of the groups that have joined the ACT for Better Diagnosis include the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network and the American Heart Association. Also participating are these federal agencies: the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Veterans Health Administration.

Edited by: JV Staff
(HealthDay News)

Brief Exercise Breaks During Class Help Bodies, Brains

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Two-minute exercise breaks in the classroom may help school children meet physical activity goals without disrupting learning, new research suggests.

University of Michigan researchers say short bursts of in-classroom activity can trim childhood obesity rates while helping elementary schools provide 30 minutes of daily exercise for students.

“What we’re showing is that we can give kids an additional 16 minutes of health-enhancing physical activity,” said lead investigator Rebecca Hasson, an associate professor of kinesiology and nutritional sciences.

Children in the United States are supposed to get at least one hour of exercise each day, including 30 minutes of physical activity during school hours, the study authors explained. Most don’t reach this daily goal.

“Many kids don’t have PE (physical education) every day but they might have recess, and if they get 10 more minutes of activity there, it would meet that school requirement,” Hasson said in a university news release. “This doesn’t replace PE, it’s a supplement. We’re trying to create a culture of health throughout the entire school day, not just in the gym.”

The researchers conducted five studies to analyze the effect of activity breaks on the mood, thinking, appetite and overall physical activity of 39 children.

In a lab setting, kids aged 7 to 11 completed a series of experiments, including eight hours of sitting interrupted with two-minute low, moderate, or high-intensity activity breaks. The researchers also tested the effect of two-minute, sedentary screen-time breaks.

The study showed that when given high-intensity activity breaks, the kids burned an additional 150 calories a day and didn’t overeat to compensate for the increased physical activity.

The screen-time breaks triggered more notable improvement in the students’ moods but both types of breaks resulted in good moods. The children also rated the activity breaks as more fun than the screen time.

The activity breaks also had a lingering positive effect on the moods of overweight or obese students, the study authors noted. This may mean they got more gratification from this extra exercise.

The researchers also said taking time out for movement did not alter the students’ class performance.

“Teachers were worried it would make kids more rowdy, but 99 percent of kids were back on task within 30 seconds of doing activity breaks,” Hasson said. “We even had one teacher who did an activity break in the middle of a math exam — she realized the benefit of getting them up and moving.”

Edited by: JV Staff
(HealthDay News)