Emunah Magazine

German Yeshivah Student Dancing

Berlin, Germany – Some may think it is hard to find a rabbi in Berlin, Germany these days, but Rabbi Josh Spinner, an American arrived here about 11 years ago. When he came he was the only frum person around. Over the past decade he has helped build this city into a growing Orthodox Jewish community, a feat many would think is impossible because of the horrendous atrocities that Germany inflicted in the past. At the Rykestrasse shul there are over 35 men , dressed for Shabbos and singing in shul on a Friday night.

“When my wife and I arrived here in 2000, we were the only Jews around. There was nobody to invite for Shabbat dinner,” the rabbi recalled over a cappuccino at kosher Cafe Rado, just down the street from the Jewish kindergarten.
He’s in the middle of a thriving orthodox Lauder Yeshurun community of young immigrants mostly from the former Soviet Union. Members say its believers are more actively celebrating their faith than their oppressed parents and grandparents and moving forward from the traumatic past of Judaism in the country.
There are about 200 believers now and it’s growing fast: There are several weddings a year and the nursery school has become so overcrowded that parents have to register their children soon after birth if they want to get one of the coveted spots.
Spinner, 39, who was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and grew up in Canada, speaks fluent Russian and good German, as well. He helped build the tightly knit community in Prenzlauer Berg and is also the vice president for the American Ronald S. Lauder Foundation, which supports the Yeshurun community financially and is committed to rebuilding Jewish life in Eastern and Central Europe that was destroyed in the Holocaust.
Unlike many Jewish institutions elsewhere in Germany where the focus is on the past, members say Yeshurun is firmly rooted in the present and focused on the future.
“In many other Jewish places in Germany, there’s a sadness, it’s all about the past,” said Rabbi David Rose, the director of the congregation’s yeshiva where young men study Judaism’s traditional texts. “Here we have a lot of students, it’s all very alive.”
Most members are in their 20s and 30s and among more than 200,000 ex-Soviet Jews who were let into the country after the German government relaxed immigration laws for Jews following reunification in 1990.
Genia Novominska was 10 years old when her family left Kiev, Ukraine, for Germany.
“For my parents’ generation Judaism did not exist,” said Novominska, now 22 and one of 20 students at the Yeshurun community’s midrasha, or institute of Jewish studies for women. “Under communism they would have gone to prison just for lighting the candles on Shabbat.”
Novominska, however, was curious to find out more about her Jewish roots and as a teenager attended an introductory weekend seminar by the Lauder Foundation. The seminars are held regularly in several German cities.
“First I stopped eating pork, then I became more and more observant of Jewish rules and now I’m recruiting Jewish girls for Lauder myself,” Novominska said. While her parents remain secular, she said they did not mind their daughter’s growing spirituality.
On a recent Saturday morning, Novominska led a group of visiting Jewish girls from all over Germany to the morning prayer at Rykestrasse synagogue and then introduced them to typical Shabbat dishes like from hamin, a long-simmered stew with beef, hard-boiled eggs, beans and potatoes, and kugel, a casserole made from sliced potatoes.
Active recruiting among young Eastern European Jewish immigrants is one of the secrets for Yeshurun’s success and fast-growing membership. The other one involves matchmaking between the yeshiva’s boys and the girls from the midrasha, which was originally in Frankfurt in west Germany before it moved to Berlin in 2006.
“The move was totally deliberate and it worked out,” Spinner said. “We had 13 weddings in the first year after the girl’s midrasha moved to Berlin.”
Today, Berlin’s Yeshurun community has become a center for orthodox Jewish life and learning in Germany. It boasts a rabbinical seminar, a yeshiva for boys, a midrasha for girls, a kindergarten, an elementary school and an entire economic network that has popped up to serve them, including a kosher grocery, a cafe and a bakery.
“It’s just like a shtetl inside Berlin,” said Novominska, referring to Jewish small town culture in 19th century Eastern Europe.
On a regular weekday morning, between 30 to 35 male students attend the yeshiva, reading and discussing the Talmud as they sit in the community center’s study room, heads covered with yarmulkes. Two young men from the seminar were ordained as rabbis last year and six more are on track for ordination until 2012.
According to experts’ studies, about 10 percent of the second generation of Jewish immigrants have turned to orthodox Judaism.
“There’s a trend, you can see it in Israel as well, that Eastern European Jews, if they return to their roots, they do it all the way and very thoroughly,” said Olaf Gloeckner from the Moses Mendelssohn Center for European-Jewish Studies in Potsdam.
Olga Afanasev, who emigrated from Kiev at age 15 and now heads the full-time program at the girls’ midrasha, even noticed “a whole wave of adolescents who are now becoming religious.”
The number of religious and secular Jews is still a far cry from Germany’s flourishing Jewish community of 560,000 — and its cultural and intellectual prominence — before the Third Reich. Some 6 million European Jews were killed in the Nazi genocide, including 200,000 from Germany.
Today, around 250,000 Jews live in Germany. Berlin has the country’s biggest Jewish community with 11,000 registered religious community members and 10 synagogues. Experts estimate between 20,000 to 30,000 Jews, including Americans and Israelis, live in the German capital.
Despite the religion’s recent re-emergence in Germany, many Jews still feel the need to take precautions against anti-Semitism.
All Jewish institutions have 24-hour police guards and metal barriers, and Spinner has asked the congregation’s men to hide their kippas with baseball caps when they’re outside.
“Our goal is not to prove that Prenzlauer Berg is a Jewish neighborhood,” said Spinner. “We want Jewish life to become normal and it will become normal again just by us living it.”
The yeshivah can be found online at http://www.lauderyeshurun.de

Source: AP

Rabba Sara Hurwitz

A female Rabbi? Supposedly it is being called a Rabba. I guess for ‘lashon n’kayva’ purposes. Apparently Rabbi Avi Weiss declared Sara Hurwitz an orthodox rabbi. Obviosuly just about everyone in the orthodox community went bonkers when hearing this. The Agudath Israel Council said this it too radical and way off when it comes to the Orthodox traditions. While Rabbi Avi Weiss awaits his fate on whether he will be expelled from the Rabbinical Council of America he continues to ‘practice’. However, Rabbi Weiss did agree not to bestow the Rabbi’ness on any other women.

Speaking with Heeb, Hurwitz talked about the controversy and her thoughts. Though armed with all sorts of typically outrageous Heeb questions, her soft, thoughtful tone kept me respectful — clear proof of her magic Jewish powers. She might get demoted to “maharat” soon, whatever that means, but she’ll always be Rabba Hurwitz to us.

To clarify for our pretty secular readers, you’re the first Orthodox female rabbi, right?

Um, I have trouble with the language of “first,” because there are women who have privately learned with rabbis who are also functioning in a rabbinic position. I think I may be the first one working in a shul, and to have taken all the relevant tests and have a signed certificate indicating that.

First official, then?

Okay.

Kinda like crashing the ultimate boys club. How long did you study?

I studied for three years at Drisha institute and five years under the auspices of Rabbi Weiss.

( Check out below for a Youtube clip of Rabba Sara )

So there’s a big thing about what to call you. Some Orthodox aren’t cool with “rabba”?

My title is still “rabba” for now. We’re undergoing much conversation and dialogue within our community to see if that title is the appropriate title for me and my community for now. I think in the future we’re deciding what the right title is for the graduates of the school I opened with Rabbi Weiss, Yeshivat Maharat. So right now, the title is probably going to be “maharat,” which was my old title. It essentially means leader in Torah and Halaka – in Jewish law and spirituality.

Could a female rabbi ever lead an Orthodox congregation? On the pulpit and everything?

Yeah, there are ways for an Orthodox woman to be a religious leader. I would say 90 percent of the job overlaps – that both men and women can do. There’s 10 percent within an Orthodox community that a woman cannot do: She cannot lead certain parts of the service; she cannot sit on a bet din, a religious body of law; she cannot be counted toward a quorum. But there are a lot of things she can do that a man can’t: She could oversee a woman go into the mikvah during the conversion process; she can help women maneuver through more intimate details of their lives having to do with sexuality and their menstrual cycles — things women feel more comfortable going to another woman about . . .

On a separate note, there are a few weird ruling from the ultra-Orthodox about women lately. Any feelings about women with braces on their teeth getting outlawed from the mikvah?

I have heard of it. Braces are absolutely fine in the mikvah.

So do you think you’re the first of many? Or is the community too resistant to change?

No, I’m the first of many, absolutely. I think that facts on the ground are what will be important here, and the more women that are serving and impacting the community, the more comfortable the community will be seeing in seeing women in leadership roles.

So more Orthodox Bat Mitzvahs for girls on the way?

There are many ways for a girl to have an Orthodox Bat Mitzvah . . . in a women’s prayer group, or she can give a speech in shul or at a party. You know, right now we’re not looking to change the framework of the Orthodox community. We’re not looking to have women come up to the Torah during services. I think that falls, right now, outside of the pale of the Orthodox community. We’re just looking for, within the framework of Halaka, more women to lead and contribute and impact the community.

Good luck. Sound far more progressive than anything I expected from the Orthodox.

Thank you. I appreciate it.

So can you explain why the semantics of your title seem so important to everybody?

[Laughs] I wish I could. Trying to figure it out now. You know, there’s certain language that people have been using for centuries. Any traditional language being associated with something new is difficult for people. And having women as spiritual leaders is a new phenomenon, and so we’re all trying to figure out what the right language is.

Jerusalem, Israel – David Pur is 115 years old and still manages to daven 3 times a day. He barely has use for a siddur because his eyesight has been declining for many years and is able to daven by heart. Having only been in a nursing home for the past 3 months he still tries to learn a little Torah every day. He has been notified that a visit from the folks at Guinness Book of World Record is imminent. To Mr. Pur this is no big deal, but his family is very excited about this event. His family consists of 3 of his 9 children who are still alive, 18 grandchildren and 56 great-grandchildren.

“I have had plenty of time to memorize the Biblical writings,” he said. He prays every morning while standing next to Moshe, who has just turned 100, and who Pur says sometimes seems lost – but is guided by his older friend.

David Pur was born in 1895 in Iran. Back then it was known as Persia and is known to speak upwards of 5 different languages. In 1948 he made Aliyah with his family to Israel and has lived there ever since. His grandson is IDF General Yoav Mordechai and together they discuss the current events and politics of Israel. Pur’s 70-year-old son Salim, who often accompanies him, comments that his father solves everything with a smile, and says wistfully, “I wish I could be like him.”

He rejected a potential remarriage ten years ago, when the 80-year-old doctor with whom he was close tried to suggest a new wife for him. Politely apologizing, Pur told his friend, “Sorry, no woman can replace my deceased wife.”
For nearly 110 years he smoked, but he says the damage was minimized because he “never swallowed the smoke.” At breakfast, he drinks a glass of brandy and eats nuts. I avoid meat and fried foods, and eat as many fruits and vegetables as possible.”

By Avi Norensberg

Less than ten years ago those who identified themselves as professional poker players were shunned. The thought of giving credence to such a profession, one thought to be based on gambling, was absurd. But in the early part of the last decade the game of poker gained widespread appeal, not as form of gambling but as a game of skill, where a person can get better through study and practice. Indeed even the Internal Revenue Service recognizes poker as a legitimate profession, allowing those who play the game for a living to declare their winnings as earned income rather than as unearned income. But this article does not purport to debate the merits of gambling but rather to showcase one individual in particular who is able to maintain his Jewish identity in a game not known for its overtly religious participants.

Five years ago, a young twenty-one year old living in Brooklyn, NY quit his day job to become a professional poker player. But his story is not unique. What is unique is that he is a frum Jew. Ari Engel, better known as BodogAri in the poker world—named for a popular online poker site, has amassed over $2.1 million in online poker tournament winnings alone. He has also enjoyed major success in traditional poker tournaments as well, earning nearly $400,000 in that arena. In addition to playing poker for a living, Ari divides his time between playing tournaments and teaching poker to others. The self-described “Poker Rebbe” runs a sophisticated poker training center in Las Vegas and online at themavenvt.com and aristrainingcenter.com. He has “trained dozens of people from various backgrounds” including two players who have received a prestigious Player of the Year award, the game’s version of the Most Valuable Player award.

Even with his success, there are those who might take issue with Jewish people “gambling” for a living. There is possibly a halachic prohibition against gambling as well, although I am not an authority on this issue so I cannot debate that here. I asked Ari for his thoughts on this subject and he readily admits that his “job has an element of gambling to it.” But he was also quick to point out that every job contains much of the same elements as his. He notes that people “can only control certain elements of [their] jobs” and must rely heavily on outside factors such as the economy and decisions made by others to maintain a level of success. The same holds true for Ari and his job. He likens himself “to stock trader rather than a blackjack player.” “Poker is a psychological and mathematical game rather than a game of luck,” explains Ari and “thank G-d for the last five years I’ve been able to consistently make a living from playing poker,” he adds. He also points out that he does not “partake in any other forms of gambling” and clearly notes the difference between games of pure chance and games of skill.

While Ari currently lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, he has travelled a long road to get there. Born in Toronto, Canada, Ari has spent his share of time living in various countries including South Africa, Australia and Israel as well as many places in the United States including Maryland, Illinois, New York and now Nevada. His travel schedule mimics his diverse living pattern as well. While Ari finds it relatively easy to keep kosher in his home town, cities like Tunica, Mississippi and Council Bluffs, Iowa—popular stops on the poker tournament circuit—are not as kosher friendly. Keeping strictly kosher, Ari “manages fairly easily” by travelling with his own food.

On his blog, bodogari.blogspot.com, Ari noted that “from a poker perspective, having ‘ forced ‘ religious breaks” helped his game tremendously as he has a difficult time “limiting [himself] naturally.” Shabbos gave him the break he needed “which was definitely good for my long term mental health,” he says. Unlike other players, who might feel stressed by the often psychologically and physically tough tournament schedule, Ari takes comfort in the fact that he can guiltlessly take the much needed breaks from the long hours of playing required to be a successful poker player. His religion has given him a leg up on the competition. Ari designs his schedule around tournaments that start at the beginning of the week so he does not have to play on Shabbos. During some of the more popular poker tournaments, most notably the World Series of Poker (WSOP) each summer in Las Vegas, Ari is conspicuously absent from the series’ Main Event, the year’s largest tournament both in terms of money and players. Doing well in that tournament would mean that he would have to play on Shabbos so he chooses not to enter at all.

While he is not the only professional Jewish poker player, you would be hard-pressed to find one who more proudly displays it, wearing his yarmulke during tournaments. He is “proud to be a Jew and do my best to make a Kiddush Hashem whenever I play.” Ari’s success is twofold. He is flourishes in a game where only a small percentage of people enjoy success. And while others might have strayed in his world, Ari has thrived; not in opposition to but as a result of his religion.

Courtesy: ThePokerGrind.net

A TV Interview Below

Alan Veingrad lived an American boy’s fantasy. From 1986-92, he was an offensive lineman in the National Football League, first for the Green Bay Packers, then for the Dallas Cowboys, playing alongside such stars as Troy Aikman and Emmett Smith. Veingrad is the proud owner of a Super Bowl ring for his participation in the Cowboys’ 1992 victory over the Buffalo Bills.

But that wasn’t enough.

These days, Veingrad, who was elected to the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in April, goes by the name “Shlomo.” He spends most of his time speaking to Jewish organizations about his experiences and how they now pale in comparison with his love for Judaism.

As a player, Veingrad began talking to kids about the dangers of drugs. Now it’s primarily Jewish groups, “from black hats to Chabad to yeshivas to Hebrew day schools, Young Israels,” he said in a recent interview.

( Veingrad in 1989 )

Veingrad recently spoke to high school students in Montreal about diversity. “You have 600 eyes looking at you. You have no idea of what they’re digesting. When I was finished they asked the most thought-out questions about my life today, not about my life yesterday.”

He said the football seems trivial to his “greater purpose.”

This all happened because of the note that was left for me. One night in the locker room there was a message for him to call Mr. Lou Weinstein. Mr. Weinstein invited Alan to have lunch with him at his gold club. Mr. weinstein said he had read about a jewish player on the Packers and i wanted to meet and welcome the rarity. It was there that Mr. Weinstein invited the player to accompany them to the Rosh Hashona prayers at the local Cnesses Israel, a synagogue near the Green Bay Packers stadium.

It had been a long time since Mr. Veingrad had spent much time in shul, nearly a decade since his bar mitzvah. He knew the date of the Packers’ Monday night game against the Chicago Bears better than he did Yom Kippur. “But when I heard the Hebrew,” he recently recalled of that service in Green Bay, “I felt a pull.”

These days Alan spends his time speaking to large audiences throughout the world.

The story Mr. Veingrad tells in about 40 speeches a year attests to a ferociously competitive spirit. He started playing high school football as a teenage beanpole in Miami, could get a scholarship only from a Division II school, East Texas State, and was cut by his first two N.F.L. teams.

A full year later, he caught on with the Packers, beginning a six-year career with Green Bay and Dallas. From high school through the pros, he defied the odds with a rigorous program of weight training and a relentless study of technique.

In retirement, Mr. Veingrad brought a comparable focus and intensity to his emerging religious life, which was nurtured by Moshe Gruenstein, an Orthodox rabbi in South Florida, with whom he studied the Torah for eight years, and then by several Chabad rabbis.

( just a regular guy in shul )

At a recent speaking event Spense Kassimir came over to Alan saying “I drove all the way to Orange County to get this signed,”  showing Mr. Veingrad an official N.F.L. football.Mr. Veingrad obligingly signed with his name, his uniform number, and his message: “Jewish Pride!”

Catching Up With The Running Man

Meeting with other civic leaders

1:25pm DG to EM: I do this often , sometimes I do complain about the cold from my twitter page, this past Friday I posted that it was way too cold to be out campaigning, and then pronounced that because this is a special election it called for special measures . Follow me on Twitter.com/TeamGreenfield for my constant updates.

11:04pm DG to EM: Just got home. Today was a slow day, because it was a Sunday , Now its time for me to feed my 3 month old son. have a good night.

Family man

B”H

Dovid Stein has been on the music scene for some time now, doing both a full length album produced by the famous Eli Gerstner and starring on the just released DVD “YBC Live 3” Since Dovid released his first album about a year ago, his fame skyrocketed and he has since starred in several major concert performances. Emunah Magazine invited Dovid Stein to sit down with Yosef Shidler from TheCoolJew.com in the Emunah Magazine office to talk about his professional career as a musician.

TCJ: Dovid, how did it all start, what made you get in to music to begin with?

DS: Well I guess it started back when I was a little kid. My brother and I used to go to pirchei in Torah Vodaas and they had a choir that actually had 2 live performances. We never made it past our second performance which was at an old age home. We weren’t really that good but they all clapped for us anyway. I used to choreograph dances to Miami Boys choir and have my brothers and sisters perform them with me then we’d get all dressed up and put on concerts for the family, lip synching to MBD, Avraham Fried and Miami Boys Choir

TCJ: Were you in any other choirs growing up?
DS: Not really any kid choirs maybe a camp choir. I was in the adult choir for Yerachmiel Begun and the Miami Boys Choir as well as Avraham Fried’s backup choir for a bunch of his concerts. I also did Choir work on Yaakov Shwekey’s 2nd album as well as several others. I was in a marching band in 5th grade.

TCJ: Really? Where’d you march?
DS: We marched passed the Lubavitcher Rebbe ZT”L at one of the Lag B’omer Parades they have in Crown Heights. The band was actually led by Ari Halberstam Hu Yinkam Domo’ who was tragically murdered by a Lebanese terrorist on the Brooklyn bridge back in 1994

TCJ: So when did you start singing again?
DS: I didn’t actually start singing publicly again till about 7 or 8 years ago

TCJ: How did that unfold?
DS: It started one Rosh Hashana when the chazzan at the shul I was davening in lost his voice and I was voted to relief him. The chazzan decided to call it quits and I was to be back for Yom Kippur Davening. I happened to bump into an old friend and he was telling me about this voice teacher he was going to in boro park and that I might want to pop in for a few tips.

TCJ: So did you?
DS: Yes

TCJ: Do you still go to a voice teacher? I imagine you train your voice.
DS: I go to an amazing teacher in Lakewood NJ named Avraham Wheaten. He’s pretty much the best in the business. He really helped me come a long way.

TCJ: What is it that you learn from a voice teacher?
DS: Well the most important thing a voice teacher can teach you is how to sing and talk with a healthy and free voice

TCJ: Talk?
DS: Yes. I meet a lot of people who don’t use proper technique when talking which leads to a strained hoarse sounding voice. You hear it a lot with teachers. Going to a “good” voice teacher will help you deal with hoarseness, proper breathing and proper vocal projection. My teacher is actually doing an open lecture on vocal efficiency here in Brooklyn.

TCJ: Do you know when and where I’m sure there are plenty of people reading this that are interested?
DS: I’m not sure when though it should be within the next couple weeks. You can email me at dovidstein@gmail.com for more information

TCJ: When did you realize you could actually do this as a career?
DS: Well I started to sing at weddings about 7 or 8 years ago and I guess it slowly evolved into a career.

TCJ: Tell us about the YBC Live DVD?
DS: Well its actually available on DVD and a Double Audio CD sold separately. Featured is myself with a 20 piece orchestra conducted by Eli Gerstner, Yeshiva Boys Choir, Menucha and the most talented Yaakov Mordechai Gerstner for his Solo DVD Debut! There are also behind the scenes footage and all that other fun stuff you find on dvd’s!

TCJ: Tell us about your album and the success you have seen from it
DS: Well BH the album sold very well and I’ve BH been getting booked for a lot of weddings and bar mitzvahs. The real success is singing for special kids and watching their faces light up when I come to sing for them.

TCJ: Is that often?
DS: I sing quite often and for a lot of different organizations. I am BH part of a lot of these special kids lives and there is no greater satisfaction than putting a smile on their faces. I’m blessed to be a part of it.

TCJ: Do you travel for simchas?
DS: I’ve BH had a bunch of opportunities to sing at simchas abroad. From Florida to California and as far as Israel.

TCJ: Sounds exciting. What music do u listen to?
DS: (Laughs) My own of course! No seriously….My favorite singers are Yeedle, Fried and MBD I also like Yehuda Green. Of course my kids usually decide what’s played in the car.

TCJ: Your Currently very big on the wedding scene. What makes you different?
DS: Everyone is unique. BH I’m able to do something I love and make a living doing it.

TCJ: Are you working on your second album?
DS: I’m actually putting together material now!

TCJ: If I have a composition I think you might like will you listen to it?
DS: Sure! Email it to me

TCJ: When do u expect to release the album?
DS: When it’s ready! J

TCJ: If someone wants to reach you how do they do it?
DS: I can be reached via email at dovidstein@emunahmagazine.com

TCJ: Well I thank you for your time
DS: Thank you!