O pinion
THE VIEW FROM HERE
The Pileup Is Straight Ahead, and We Can’t See It
BY JOSHUA RUNYAN
WITH MY DAUGHTER’S
16th birthday last week — an
otherwise supremely joyous
event — I entered into a fright-
ful club: parents of children old
enough to drive.

Friends of mine who are
already veterans of this elite
group, especially those who live
in Center City, have told me not
to worry. Echoing a nationwide
trend, their children put driv-
ing off, in some cases, by several
years. Not so my daughter, who
the day after her 15th birthday
proudly declared to her mother
and me that in just a year, she’d
be driving.

Her overly optimist predic-
tion was a bit off, but at her
birthday dinner downtown
I happily, if a bit anxiously,
informed her that this summer
I would indeed be teaching her
how to drive. As I ponder how
exactly I will impart the wis-
dom of the road to Esti, I’ve set-
tled on the first of what I shall
call the Runyan Commandments
of Driving Etiquette: No matter
what happens, don’t overreact.

This has a precedent. A
“contract” handed to us by our
children’s doctor encourages
young drivers to pledge to never
drive while under the influence
and instead call a parent to pick
them up, in exchange for the cor-
responding parent’s pledge to not
freak out, to pick them up, no ques-
tions asked and defer conversation
for the next morning. I figure that
if I’m being asked to not overreact, I
should be able to insist on the same
mentality from my children.

But my reasoning goes deeper
than that. When I was learn-
ing to fly, one of my first flight
instructors advised when in an
emergency, the first thing you
should do is wind your watch.

Few of us have winding watches
today, so I can’t exactly say the
same thing to my daughter.

The point is that regardless of
the preceding event, responding
to it should be based on calm
reasoning, not jerky reflexes. In
a plane, overcontrolling an air-
frame — what we call “chasing
the gauges” — can quickly result
in loss of control. So, too, in a
car, overbraking or oversteering
in a skid can quickly put you in a
highway median, or worse.

But as my column isn’t a
primer on driving, you’re prob-
ably wondering where I’m going
with all of this. I fear that as
a society, too many of us are
overreacting to the indignities
of the day. Somebody cuts us
off on the Schuylkill, and we
flip out. We see a smug Catholic
school boy smirking at a Native
American in the vicinity of the
Lincoln Memorial, and we go
ballistic. To be sure, the initial images
and clips that came out of the
confrontation between Nick
Sandmann and his 11th-grade
classmates from Covington
Catholic High School in Park
Hills, Ky., and Omaha Nation
elder Nathan Phillips were
jarring. There was Phillips,
banging on a drum and chant-
ing what he said later was a
prayer for peace, seemingly
standing amid a sea of jeering
teenage boys bedecked in red
Make America Great Again
hats. He was face to face with
Sandmann, whose class was in
Washington, D.C. on Jan. 18
for the annual March for Life
protesting abortion rights.

On first glance, it appeared
as if the boys were taunting a
Native American man, who was
in town for a separate, unre-
lated demonstration. That’s the
story national media outlets ran
with, and the boys’ school was
quick to condemn its students.

When I learned all of this the
next night, I felt uncomfortable.

Footage of the boys showed
their behavior to be reprehen-
sible, and it fit into a pattern of
increasingly hateful speech and
actions coming from certain
corners of this country.

It didn’t take long for a friend
of mine on Facebook to relate
the incident to the Holocaust,
posting a meme juxtaposing
the image of Sandmann and
Phillips with a black-and-white
photograph of a Nazi SS officer
face to face with a bearded,
Orthodox Jewish man. The
glaring and the smirk were
almost identical.

But I looked closer at the
Holocaust image. Instead of
showing a stoic but hateful Nazi,
it actually depicted an SS offi-
cer cutting off the Jewish man’s
beard. The only proper corollary
to the events of Jan. 18 — if there
is one — would be if Sandmann
was assaulting Phillips. No one
alleged that happening, so my
discomfort grew to suspicion.

Clearly, the boys were not behav-
ing as parochial schoolchildren
taught to love and embrace their
fellow man should behave. But
what else was going on?
The next day revealed the
backstory, which began almost
two hours earlier.

As the boys made their way
to the Lincoln Memorial —
their chaperones, it should
be noted, nowhere in sight —
they were being taunted by a
few Black Hebrew Israelites,
members of a group identified
by the Southern Poverty Law
Center as racist and anti-Se-
mitic. (These are the same peo-
ple who I’ve encountered over
the years on street corners near
the University of Pennsylvania
and Temple University, alter-
nately telling me that as a visi-
bly religious Jew, I’m the reason
for the Holocaust, and that the
Holocaust didn’t happen.)
The Hebrew Israelites, who
believe themselves to be the
real descendants of the biblical
Israelites, told the boys that they
were school shooters and other
things that can’t be reprinted
here. For most of the time, the
boys kept their composure, but
it appears that toward the end
of their journey — when they
encountered Phillips — the
whole thing had devolved into
an open conflict. Phillips says he
came in the middle of the melee
to offer up his prayer for peace.

The 17-year-olds, who were
tomahawk-chopping, should
have kept their cool. But I
blame their chaperones for
allowing a situation to esca-
late in a city like Washington,
D.C., with tensions already
high one day before the third
Women’s March.

Phillips is blameless. Not
so the Hebrew Israelites, who
despite their vile hatred of pretty
much everybody but themselves
— Phillips says they even had a
few choice words for him — have
managed to effectively stay out
of what has become a national
debate, complete with presiden-
tial tweets and mea culpas from
daytime talk show hosts.

Aiding and abetting all of this
are the social media denizens
who have breathlessly reacted and
overreacted, up to and including
the president, and their enablers
in the national media who have
mindlessly broadcasted the reac-
tions and overreactions instead
of subjecting the entire affair to
logical analysis. For that, as with
so many moments of the past
several years, we as a country
are suffering.

It’s as if we’re all in the driv-
er’s seat, flailing into head-on
collisions of our own making.

It’s time we all wind our watch. l
Joshua Runyan is the editor-
in-chief of the Jewish Exponent.

He can be reached at jrunyan@
jewishexponent.com. Places to Visit in Israel in 2019 If You Really Want to Learn
BY MOSHE PHILLIPS
ARE YOU OR a family mem-
ber planning to go on Birthright
in 2019? Are you looking for
something more than the aver-
age “Israel experience?” Here
16 JANUARY 24, 2019
are some ideas on what to see if
you choose to extend your trip
and your mind. Don’t give in
to the critics of Israel who want
you to leave Birthright and see
the Palestinian point of view
when you know almost noth-
ing about the Jewish struggle
to free Israel from British con-
trol in the first place.

Birthright may take you to
the Kotel, the Sea of Galilee,
the Yad Vashem Holocaust
memorial and Masada — and
JEWISH EXPONENT
those are all worthwhile — but
there are other places to visit
that will help you understand
the amazing history of the pio-
neers who fought the battles
that allowed the modern state
of Israel to be declared.

Here is a list of eight places
to visit in Israel that will help
you develop a more accurate
picture of the struggle to build
the Jewish state.

See Phillips, Page 18
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



O pinion
Netivot and Sdot Negev are a
tribute to Israeli perseverance
BY STEVEN ROSENBERG
WHEN PEOPLE WHO are
familiar with the great state
of Israel think of the nation’s
border towns, terms such as
high-tech, education, advance-
ment, construction and prog-
ress don’t readily come to
mind. For decades, these terms
have only been used to describe
Israel’s major cities: Tel Aviv,
Jerusalem or Haifa. Israel’s
border towns are usually seen
as rural villages, where educa-
tion is not always prioritized
and oftentimes young people
bringing Philadelphians to
this region, as have past chairs
before him.

I was fortunate to be able
to spend time last week vis-
iting with the mayor of Sdot
Negev, Tamir Idan, along with
his staff and members of the
Partnership2Together teams.

Every time I’m in this region,
I am reminded of the commu-
nity’s amazing resiliency, its
people’s creativity and their
incredible fortitude. This area
sits within what is known as
the Gaza Envelope: Just a few
miles from the Gaza border and
just a few yards from the border
fence, Sdot Negev and Netivot
are in danger each and every
day. Living life under siege
from Hamas rockets and Friday
demonstrations every week has
become the new normal. Bomb
shelters sit on almost every cor-
ner, next to bus shelters, outside
of playgrounds and schools that
have been rebuilt to be actual
bomb shelters, enabling chil-
dren to remain in place when
the sirens roar.

host Broadway shows.

These people are true heroes.

Mayors Idan and Yehiel Zohar
are building and creating a
magical place. They lead their
communities with strength
and humility while they con-
tinue to live, farm (right up to
the border fence with Gaza),
pray and send their children to
school each and every day. The
community continues to grow
and flourish, and I’m grateful
for the chance to have seen this
evolution firsthand.

During my visit, I also
had the opportunity to meet
with some local heroes, as
the Jewish Federation’s Israel
Representative, Tali Lidar, set
up time for us to meet with
the firefighters who deal with
the kites, balloons and other
contraptions now turned into
weapons and burning valu-
able land, damaging build-
ings and vehicles and even
killing wildlife in Israel. But
even in the face of extreme
danger, the work continues,
families continue to grow and
KVETCH ’N KVELL
Setting the Record Straight on ZOA
MY DEAR FRIEND Ari Fuld, an American-Israeli father of
four and ardent fighter for Israel, was recently murdered by a
Jew-hating Arab (“Organization Calling Out Hill Should Look
in Mirror,” Jan. 17). In my moment of excruciating grief and
horror that Arab terrorists were again murdering innocent Jews
by knifing, shooting and ramming cars at them, I tweeted an
epithet specifically against Ari Fuld’s murderer — not all Arabs.

Yet a critic condemned me for my verbal outpouring of grief and
misery over losing my great friend and ally.

The same letter writer also criticized me for questioning
actress Natalie Portman’s wisdom after she received Israel’s
prestigious $1 million Genesis Prize, then defamed Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as racist and falsely bashed
Israel for violence and abuse of power, and mistreatment of
and atrocities against Arabs. Portman also falsely stated that
Israel was created as a haven for refugees from the Holocaust.

In fact, the movement to re-establish Israel occurred long before
the Holocaust. Knesset member Oren Hazan demanded that
Portman be stripped of her Israeli citizenship, while I only ques-
tioned her wisdom.

The critic then referenced a mainstream Jewish umbrella
group’s warning to ZOA about our tone. ZOA’s substance and
facts were admittedly accurate. The real issue was that ZOA
criticized ADL for promoting the anti-Semitic Israel-bashing
BlackLivesMatter and J Street, which promoted anti-Israel UN
resolutions; ADL’s lobbying against state anti-BDS laws; and
ADL accusing pro-Israel friends of Islamophobia. ZOA also
criticized National Council of Jewish Women and HIAS for
defending Israel-hater Linda Sarsour. ZOA responded to the
umbrella group’s warning that in an era of frighteningly rising
anti-Semitism on campuses, in the media and in Congress, ZOA
must strongly and boldly speak the truth.

Morton Klein | Merion Station
Next time you’re in Israel, I recommend you hop on the high-speed
train from Tel Aviv to spend a day in Netivot. You will be amazed at
what you will see and your perception of Israel’s border towns will be
forever changed.

don’t matriculate to the army.

However, the towns of
Sdot Negev and Netivot are
leading the charge to change
the perception of Israel’s
border communities. The
Jewish Federation of Greater
Philadelphia, through the
Partnership2Together program
of the Jewish Agency for Israel,
has been fortunate to have
Sdot Negev Regional Council
and Netivot as sister cities to
Philadelphia. Our chair, David
Gold, has done incredible work
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM The people of these com-
munities have used ingenu-
ity and creativity to build a
beautiful place where con-
struction is rampant; cranes
are everywhere. Public gath-
ering spaces are being built
and being activated, and tech-
nology is at the forefront of all
that they do. This particular
trip allowed me to see the
new movie theater showing
first run films and the state-of-
the-art performing arts center
with a stage large enough to
creativity abounds.

Next time you’re in Israel,
I recommend you hop on the
high-speed train from Tel Aviv
to spend a day in Netivot. You
will be amazed at what you
will see and your perception
of Israel’s border towns will be
forever changed. l
Steven Rosenberg is the chief
marketing officer of the Jewish
Federation of Greater Philadelphia
and the publisher’s representative
of the Jewish Exponent.

JEWISH EXPONENT
Vivid Memories of Vilna Shul
Reading your recent article about the Vilna Congregation on
Pine Street brought back vivid memories from my childhood
in the 1920s and 1930s (“Historic Vilna Congregation Closes
for Renovations,” Jan. 10). My grandparents, Samuel and Rachel
Malerman, and then my father, Bernard Malerman, owned
Malerman’s Hebrew Bookstore. Until the 1960s, when the city
forced my father to move the store, it was located at 504 Pine St.,
across the street from the synagogue.

When I was young, my grandmother would send over gefilte
fish and challah to the congregation every Friday morning. Even
after she died in 1947, my father continued the tradition. What
a sense of community that showed, especially when my family
attended a different synagogue. l
Marilyn Malerman Hindin | Philadelphia
Statement From the Publisher
We are a diverse community. The views expressed in the opinion columns and letters
published in the Jewish Exponent are those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect
the views of the officers and boards of the Jewish Publishing Group and/or the Jewish
Federation of Greater Philadelphia. Send letters to letters@jewishexponent.com or fax to
215-569-3389. Letters should be a maximum of 200 words and may be edited for clarity
and brevity. Unsigned letters will not be published.

JANUARY 24, 2019
17