1. Art and Diseño

THE JEWISH
January 30, 2015 • 10 Shevat 5775
STAR
Vol 14, No. 5 • TheJewishStar.com
Beshalach • Published weekly since 2002 • 516-622-7461
THE NEWSPAPER OF LONG ISLAND’S ORTHODOX COMMUNITIES
Northern
exposure
70 years later
World remembers Shoah,
told Jews remain targets
Fighting on border
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Batsheva Kanievsky Archives
Ner Echad draws
5 Towns women
By Celia Weintrob
As women put a few coins or bills into the pushka just
before lighting the Shabbos candles, they think of their
family and friends who need a special blessing for health
or peace, and of Jews facing difficulties across the globe.
Ner Echad (One Light) seeks to magnify the power of
those blessings 1,000 -fold, allowing the ladies to tap into
a worldwide sisterhood that is giving tzedakah and lighting candles together at the
same auspicious moment.
Ner Echad was founded
this past Succos, on the
third yahrzeit of Rebbetzin
Batsheva Kanievsky of Bnei
Brak, by her husband, Rav
Chaim Kanievsky, shlita, an
acclaimed Talmudic scholar,
through the efforts of close
family friends, Rabbi Ernest
Rothman and his son Yehuda.
Many of the founding
supporters of this new organization hail from the
Five Towns.
By all accounts, this unassuming Rebbetzin greeted scores each day with
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Continued on page 10
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By Vanessa Gera, AP
BRZEZINKA, Poland — A Jewish leader stood before 300 survivors of the Nazis’ most notorious death camp on Tuesday and asked world leaders to prevent
another Auschwitz, warning of a rise of
anti-Semitism that has made many European Jews fearful of walking the streets,
and is causing many to flee the continent.
World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder made his bleak assessment on
the 70th anniversary of the liberation of
Auschwitz, speaking next to the gate and
the railroad tracks that marked the last
journey for more than a million people
murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
He said his speech was shaped by the
recent terrorist attacks in France that targeted Jews and newspaper satirists.
“For a time, we thought that the hatred
of Jews had finally been eradicated. But
slowly the demonization of Jews started
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SHEAR YASHUV — Missiles
fired by Lebanese Hezbollah terrorists struck an Israeli military
convoy on Wednesday, killing two
soldiers.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would respond
“forcefully” to the attack, and the
military launched aerial and
ground assault on Hezbollah positions, including at least 50 artillery shells according to Lebanese
officials. A Spanish peacekeeper
was killed in the border flare-up in
southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah’s attack was its deadliest assault on Israeli forces since
a 2006 war. It followed a Jan. 18
airstrike attributed to Israel that
killed six Hezbollah fighters and
an Iranian general.
Hezbollah said its fighters destroyed a number of Israeli vehicles and caused casualties among
“enemy ranks,” and that the attack
was carried out by a group calling
itself the “righteous martyrs of Quneitra.”
Ever since, Israel has braced for
a response to the strike, beefing up
its air defenses and increasing surContinued on page 17
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to come back,” Lauder said. “Once again,
young Jewish boys are afraid to wear
yarmulkes on the streets of Paris and Budapest and London. Once again, Jewish
businesses are targeted. And once again,
Jewish families are fleeing Europe.”
The recent attack in Paris, in which
four Jews were killed in a kosher supermarket, is not the first deadly attack on
Jews in recent years. Last May a shooting
killed four people at the Jewish Museum
in Brussels and in 2012 a rabbi and three
children were murdered in the French
city of Toulouse.
Europe also saw a spasm of anti-Semitism last summer during the war in Gaza,
with protests in Paris turning violent and
other hostility across the continent.
Continued on page 18
Ner Echad draws 5 Towns women…
Continued from page 1
and households. She quietly raised millions
of dollars for the needy, and gave sustenance of the soul in even greater currency.
Put simply: one dollar + two candles =
infinite impact.
Ner Echad members automatically give
a dollar by credit card just before candle
lighting, exponentially amplifying the unity
and blessing of Jewish women. Members
receive a text, phone or email alert stating
the weekly lighting time, and the first name
of another member to pray for. And when a
person joins, their name is sent that week
to Bnai Brak for a blessing for what they request (parnassa, gezunt, shidduchs, etc).
Signing up for Ner Echad only takes a
few minutes, and creates “spiritual and
material protection for the individual, their
family, and the Jewish nation,” said Henya
Storch, a Woodmere resident and the group’s
outreach and special events director.
Every dollar donated by Ner Echad members goes directly to the Batsheva Kanievsky
Widow and Children Fund and into the
hands of needy women and children across
Israel. But Rabbi Rothman also pointed to
the spiritual unity that the group achieves.
“It enhances the prayers and requests that
one beseeches the Almighty at that time. This
is done all together, all member credit cards
are charged $1 at exactly the same moment:
candle-lighting time in Jerusalem, the spiritual
center of the world. So it’s lighting Shabbos
candles together, praying for each other together, and dispensing charity together,” he said.
Storch recalls meeting Rebbetzin Kavievsky
unexpectedly, and relates the mystical, inspirational influence she had on her as both a Jewish woman and a medical professional.
“There isn’t a day that I don’t think
about her and the impact that her captivatingly warm personality has had on my own
spiritual and personal growth,” she said.
She indicated that the Ohel Sara Amen
Group in Lawrence has its roots in a bracha
given by Rebbetzin Kanievsky.
Dena Harary of Woodmere noted that
“My husband, Charlie, works hard to
strengthen Klal Yisrael. I, too, am working
to help Jewish women feel more connected
to G-d and to Judaism. That is why I am
so excited about Ner Echad. Not only is it
a tribute to Rebbetzin Kanievsky, who is 5HEEHW]LQ%DWVKHYD.DQLHYVN\Batsheva Kanievsky Archives
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January 30, 2015 • 10 Shevat 5775 • THE JEWISH STAR
10
my role model, it is a powerful way to bring
Jewish women closer to mitzvot and to each
other.”
Debbie Greenblatt of Lawrence, the wellknown public speaker for Gateways, commented, “Our Sages teach: ‘In the merit of
righteous women, our forefathers were redeemed from Egypt, and in the merit of righteous women they will be redeemed in the
future.’ Throughout the ages, Jewish women
have maintained a clear vision of the direction
that our people need to take. At this critical
juncture in history, the idea of women joining
together in a mitzvah, and to honor the great
Rebbetzin Batsheva Kanievsky, of blessed
memory, is an expression of that vision and
will no doubt create a formidable force that
will hasten the ultimate redemption.”
Rebbetzin Aviva Feiner,menahales of Machon Basya Rochel Girls Seminary in Lawrence,
and Rebbetzin of the White Shul in Far Rockaway said, “From the few momentous opportunities that I had to meet Rebbetzin Kanievsky
there are two feelings that linger: warmth and
simcha. Ner Echad has hightlighted our mitzva
of hadlakas neros to be a zechus for the continued aliya of her neshama. Let’s all embrace
this opportunity to connect our candles to Rebbetzin Kanievsky, and enable that warmth and
simcha to permeate our hearts and homes, every Shabbos Kodesh and all week long.”
Rebbetzin Slovie Jungreis Wolfe of Lawrence, an author, international lecturer, and
leader of Hineni Couples, stated, “More than
the Jewish people have kept Shabbos alive,
Shabbos has kept the Jewish people alive. We
have the incredible opportunity to ignite our
Shabbos candles across the world and give
life to our nation. Through our acts of kindness, prayers and our Shabbos lights we join
as one people, as Ner Echad, and bring blessing to Am Yisroel.”
Ner Echad’s website is replete with testimonials of dozens of well-known Jewish
women encouraging others to join, such as
Rachel Frankel, Yamina Mizrachi, Rebbetzin
Tzipporah Heller, Rabbanit Yehudit Yosef,
Bracha Goetz, and Shani Hikind.
For six extraordinary decades, Rebbetzin
Batsheva Kanievsky’s tiny apartment in Bnei
Brak overflowed onto the streets of Israel
with women coming from all over the world
to seek her advice, blessing and support.
“The Kanievsky family devote their lives
24/7 to the Jewish people,” Storch said. “If
we have a chance to say thank you, and show
hakoros hatov, and help the Rebbetzin’s soul
have an aliyah, how can we not take a few
minutes to sign up, and donate a dollar for
candlelighting in her memory that helps widows, divorcees, and children in need?”
Volunteers are sought as communal ambassadors, to spread the word, do good
deeds, and build a huge network of Jewish
women from all backgrounds.
If you are ready to light up the world, join
Ner Echad by signing up on the website: www.
nerechad.org/join, by calling 844-637-3242,
or emailing [email protected].