If there was one month, in particular, where the news perhaps impacted us the most during 5778, it had to occur roughly in the month of Sivan, or May.
This was the month when two hugely important news events impacted the Jewish community. Coinciding with the observance of the State of Israel’s 70th anniversary, the Trump administration officially opened the new U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, fulfilling a campaign promise that other presidents had failed to accomplish.
During that same month, the president also decided to pull the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal—the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA. And it was in May that U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley slammed the international body for staying silent on Hamas attacks against Israel from Gaza.
Haley told the Security Council: “Who among us would accept 70 rockets launched into your country? We all know the answer to that. No one would.”
As we enter 5779, Hamas is still implementing terror, spending international funds on fire and weaponry instead of food, medicine and education for its children.
Rep. Josh Gottheimer broke ranks with the Democrats and voted against the Iran nuclear deal in mid-October.
Headlines in The Jewish Link and in the secular media covered a continuing concern with the town of Mahwah. The town was sued for outright discrimination against Orthodox Jews. The suit claimed the town’s ordinances were written to keep frum Jews out of Mahwah. The town’s anti-eruv policy was also the subject of legal complaints.
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Rutgers’ President Robert Barchi first cited “academic freedom” in defending the anti-Semitic rhetoric of Food Science Professor Michael Chikindas, who mostly used Facebook as his vehicle of hatred toward Jews. But the academic community, not to mention the state’s elected officials, would have none of it as the teacher lost his role as a director and was prohibited from teaching required courses on campus.
Before the secular year ended, Jews worldwide mourned the passing of the gadol hador Rav Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman.
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The Orthodox Union started the year off by issuing a timeline for synagogues employing female clergy to alter or reorganize their responsibilities.
By mid-February, Jewish communities throughout New Jersey and beyond joined the nation and world in mourning the death of innocent students and teachers killed by a former student turned mass shooter at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
In March, the Yeshiva University men’s basketball team made us forget our sadness as the Maccabees advanced to the NCAA Division III basketball tournament for the first time in the school’s history. YU advanced to the tournament after winning the Skyline Conference championship.
Also in early March, Teaneck’s own Dr. Mort Fridman addressed the 2018 AIPAC Policy Conference as its new president. Over 18,000 delegates were in attendance for the annual event held in Washington, D.C.
Later in the month the Jewish community lost yet another of its greats with the passing of Rabbi Ozer “Tony” Glickman, a Yeshiva University rabbinical faculty member who had once served as vice president of strategic risk management at Canada’s Imperial Bank of Commerce. He was 67.
We suffered another loss with the June passing of Rav Dovid Kaminetsky. He was a beloved educator at the Rosenbaum Yeshiva of North Jersey, a former principal of The Moriah School and Manhattan Day School as well as director of Camp Mogen Avraham and a national director of NCSY.
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Jewish Link Co-Publisher Mark (Mendy) Schwartz and Elie Y. Katz were sworn in as deputy Teaneck mayors while Mayor Mohammed Hameeduddin took the oath of office for his fourth term as mayor.
While in Helsinki, President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin heaped praise on Israel while disagreeing on each other’s country’s status on Syria and Iran.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg defended his website’s carrying of Holocaust denial pages, saying the people behind them were not “intentionally getting it wrong” about the Holocaust. Holocaust scholar Deborah Lipstadt, in an exclusive Jewish Link interview, said that Zuckerberg “doesn’t get the Holocaust.”
What area community members really got, however, was the spirit of helping one another. No finer example could be demonstrated than that of Renewal, which completed its 500th kidney transplant.
In August, the news got hotter as we move toward the Yamim Nora’im, and then in November the midterm elections.
The Jewish Link analyzed the votes and actions of Senator Booker, wondering if the Jewish community and Israel had lost his support. The following weeks and months will show the New Jersey Democrat’s intentions, as many worry he has drifted to his party’s far left.
By Phil Jacobs
