Weekly Kibbitz
In Viral Clip, French TV Host Asks
Jewish Guest Why He Wears a
Kippah in Public
you should keep your religion to
yourself,” she said.

“My name is Cohen! Why would
you want me to ‘keep my religion
to myself’? I’m coming from Israel,”
Cohen responded in exasperation.

A clip of the video drew quick con-
demnation on Twitter. “Is this 1930s
Europe?” tweeted Israeli journalist
Emily Schrader.

Though brief, the exchange illus-
trated the starkly diff erent per-
spectives on religious expression in
France, the United States and else-
where in the western world. Laïcité,
or “secularism,” rather than religious
freedom, is enshrined in the fi rst
article of the French constitution,
which also protects the free exercise
of religion. The term has long been
understood to imply a strict sepa-
ration between the private sphere,
where religion is accepted, and the
Dr. Cyrille Cohen, head of immunology at Bar-Ilan University, reacts to a question
on the French CNews program.

public, where it is discouraged.

Religious minorities have com-
plained that French secularism
is often gentler with displays of
Christianity than other faiths.

“If a priest came in here would you
ask him to take off his cross, if the
pope, would you have him take off his
cross and head covering?” Cohen said
in the exchange.

Since 2004, French public schools
have banned all personal displays of
religion, including both crosses and
yarmulkes. In 2009, debate erupted
after a woman was banned from
swimming in a public pool while
wearing a bathing suit in line with
some Islamic interpretations of mod-
esty laws. In 2016, the swimsuit nick-
named a “burkini” was banned by the
mayor of Cannes, a beach town.

French Jews also came up against
the government’s strict adherence
to laïcité when a hearing in the trial
of suspects involved in the 2015
shooting at a Paris Kosher super-
market, which killed four Jews, was
scheduled on Yom Kippur. The French
judiciary refused to change the date
after requests by the families of the
victims, citing laïcité.

— David I. Klein
Screenshot from Twitter/Sivan Rahav Meir
An Israeli professor was asked by the
host of a French TV news show why
he publicly identifi es his religion by
wearing a kippah in a clip that went
viral on Dec. 7.

“Many people are asking, why a
professor wears a religious symbol
in our studio,” the host of CNews
pressed Dr. Cyrille Cohen, head of
immunology at Bar-Ilan University,
who was invited to discuss vaccine
eff ectiveness against the COVID-19
virus. “For transparency, I wear it every
day. I did not put it on especially for
this show,” he responded with an air
of confusion.

But French-Jewish journalist
Elisabeth Levy, who was also a guest
on the panel, pushed further.

“You understand, don’t you, that
our non-religious way of life is dis-
crete. It’s not against religion, but
The eight crazy nights of Hanukkah
came early for Adam Sandler when the
Kennedy Center for the Performing
Arts announced on De. 13 that the
comedian and actor would be hon-
ored with the Mark Twain Prize for
American Humor at a ceremony in
March. The prize is presented annually to
individuals “who have had an impact
on American society” similar to that
of the 19th-century novelist and
humorist, “who startled many while
delighting and informing many more
with his uncompromising perspective
on social injustice and personal folly.”
Sandler, 56, got his start as an
actor on “The Cosby Show” and was
a cast member on “Saturday Night
Live” for fi ve years before eventually
starring in a slew of blockbuster com-
edy movies in the 1990s and early
2000s, including “Happy Gilmore,”
4 “Big Daddy,” “The Wedding Singer,”
“50 First Dates” and “Click.”
Sandler has also given critically
acclaimed dramatic performances,
such as one in 2019’s “Uncut Gems,”
in which he played a frenetic Jewish
jeweler with a gambling addic-
tion. Others include roles in Paul
Thomas Anderson’s “Punch-Drunk
Love” (2002), Noah Baumbach’s
“The Meyerowitz Stories” (2017) and
Jeremiah Zagar’s “Hustle” (2022).

Perhaps unusually for comics of his
generation, the Brooklyn-born Sandler
often places his Jewishness front and
center, as in his portrayal of an Israeli
fi sh out of water in “Don’t Mess With
the Zohan” (2008) and especially in his
performance of “The Chanukah Song,”
originally an “SNL” bit in which he
name checks dozens of Jewish celebri-
ties. His 2002 animated comedy “Eight
Crazy Nights” takes place during the
DECEMBER 22, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
Hanukkah season.

Sandler, his wife
Jackie and their two
teenage daughters
are set to star in a bat
mitzvah-themed movie
for Netfl ix based on
Fiona Rosenbloom’s
2005 novel, “You Are
So Not Invited to My
Adam Sandler gives an acceptance speech at the
Bat Mitzvah!”
2022 Gotham Awards.

Previous Jewish win-
ners of the Mark Twain
Prize include playwright Neil Simon, of controversy when he focused part
Lorne Michaels of “SNL,” actors Carl of an “SNL” monologue on Kanye
Reiner and Billy Crystal, and come- West’s antisemitic comments and
dian Jon Stewart.

cracked jokes that suggested Jews run
There was no Mark Twain Prize in Hollywood. In the days following the
2020 or 2021 due to the COVID-19 episode, Stewart, a personal friend
pandemic. The previous two win- of Chappelle’s, weighed in on the
ners before Sandler were 2019’s Dave monologue and defended Chappelle’s
Chappelle and 2022’s Jon Stewart. comments.

Chappelle was recently the subject
— Jackie Hajdenberg
Getty Images via Nina Westervelt
Adam Sandler to Receive Mark Twain Prize
for American Humor



local
Zoom Beit Midrash Celebrates
Kiloversary, 1,000 Days of Meeting
Sasha Rogelberg | Staff Writer
Courtesy of Stew Feinberg
T he World Health Organization
declared COVID a pandemic on
March 11, 2020, 1,016 days ago
from this article’s Dec. 22 publication.

For more than 1,000 of those days,
a Zoom beit midrash has met virtu-
ally, gathering to discuss Torah, prayer
and Jewish philosophy and culture.

The group has hosted Rabbi Irving
Greenberg, author of “The Jewish
Way,” and Rising Song Institute’s Joey
Weisenberg, among other lecturers.

On Dec. 16, the group, led by West
Chester synagogue Kesher Israel
Congregation member Rabbi Dr. Maury
Hoberman, celebrated its kiloversary
and 1,000th meeting.

“It’s really special because their par-
ticipation is special,” Hoberman said
of the group. “People come at this from
different aspects of how they relate the
Torah portion to their personal lives
and how they relate the history or the
music to their personal lives, which
makes it fascinating. It’s really a very
diverse group.”
Beyond philosophical conversations,
the non-denominational group made up
of mostly 50- to 70-year-olds has music
Thursdays, where one participant selects
a genre or song to play for the group.

Each daily meeting, including abbre-
viated Saturday Shabbat services, ends
with a misheberach, prayer for healing,
and a five-minute meditation.

In addition to a regular 10-25 per-
son daily attendance, Hoberman pro-
vides recordings of the daily meetings to
about 20 members who can’t attend the
9:30 a.m. sessions. While many attend-
ees hail from West Chester and Kesher
Israel, others are snowbirds in Florida
or are from as far away as California
and learned about the group via word
of mouth.

“[Hoberman] is really engaging. His
mission is to really teach people, and he’s
very good at it,” said Neshamah Diana
Faraone, a beit midrash member outside
of San Francisco. “It didn’t matter to me
that it was early in the morning.”
Before becoming a rabbi, Hoberman
was a surgeon. After retirement,
Hoberman, now an octogenarian, pur-
sued his ordination and received his
semikhah from ALEPH: Alliance for
Jewish Renewal in 2019. After meeting
Faraone at an ALEPH-led Jewish heritage
trip to Italy in 2016 and emailing back-
and-forth for several years, Hoberman
invited Faraone to the beit midrash.

Hoberman hosted the first beit mid-
rash on March 22, 2020, according to
Stew Feinberg, the group’s de facto his-
torian and record keeper, who attended
that meeting.

The group was designed to be a way
for Hoberman to foster Jewish commu-
nity in a time of isolation and disorien-
tation. After advertising the group in a
post on the Kesher Israel Facebook page,
Hoberman was joined by a couple dozen
interested parties. In July, Hoberman
had planned to reassess whether the
group was still necessary, but people
kept showing up.

“That was about 950 beit midrashes
ago,” Feinberg said.

Many members touted Hoberman’s
teaching style, which invites partici-
pants to join in to conversations after
Hoberman introduces various top-
ics. Faraone remembers a particularly
engaging conversation about whether
animals have souls — a topic that
emerged after several members had pets
who died.

“People really feel included and cared
for,” she said.

Beyond the discussions and lec-
tures, the beit midrash has become a
social system and support group for
some members. West Chester residents
attend Kesher Israel services together
on Saturday or hang out in each others’
homes. For member Shellie Herdan,
who joined the beit midrash a couple
of months after it began, the group was
a source of comfort after her husband’s
death. “I needed to do kaddish, so I did it
with them — for 30 days with them,
every day,” she said. “And then I stayed.”
The Zoom beit midrash, organized by Rabbi Dr. Maury Hoberman, hosted Rabbi
Irving Greenberg, author of “The Jewish Way.”
The beit midrash was joined by Rising Song Institute’s Joey Weisenberg, who played
music for the group.

Influenced by his late-in-life journey
to becoming a rabbi, Hoberman believes
that Jewish adults should have more
educational opportunities.

“There’s a great hunger for Jewish
education in adults,” Hoberman said.

“We often get the comment, ‘How come
they never taught us that before?!’”
For the group’s members, technology,
rather than being counter to the spirit of
the ancient Jewish tradition, has been a
helpful tool.

“One of the advantages and the rea-
son people show up is because it’s so
convenient,” Hoberman said. “The
future of Judaism has to do with it using
the technology that’s available.”
Member Jo Anne Deglin, a snow-
bird and Bala Cynwyd resident, believes
that technology has made Judaism more
accessible to Jews across generations,
though she acknowledges that there’s
been a shift in what Judaism looks like.

“It’s not the Judaism I think my
mother grew up with,” she said.

As technology opens up more oppor-
tunities for connection, conversation
and information for the beit midrash,
Deglin believes Jews should embrace
what the future holds: “All we have to do
is open the window to let it in a little bit,
and then we’ll see what’s there.” JE
srogelberg@midatlanticmedia.com JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
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