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Charitable Giving During the Pandemic Is the Jewish Thing to Do
BY YVETTE ALT MILLER | KVELLER
IT’S BEEN DECADES since I
ordered food at a McDonald’s.

I’ve kept kosher since I was 18
and, outside of Israel, at least,
Mickey D’s is decidedly treif.

Except the other day, I found
myself entering and ordering a
decidedly nonkosher cheese-
burger and fries.

To be clear, the food wasn’t for
me. After months of sheltering
in place in my suburban neigh-
borhood, I could no longer put
off a downtown appointment.

So I headed to Chicago’s central
business district. It felt like
something out of a dystopian
movie. There were no masses of
people hurrying along the wide
avenues; gone were the tourists
that stopped foot traffic as they
gaped at skyscrapers. Homeless
people seemed to be the largest
contingent I saw. On most
corners I passed, there were
several. “Can you help me out?” one
implored. Another asked for
money, saying he was cold and
wet and needed help. The amount
of need felt so overwhelming
that at first I rushed past them
all, ignoring their pleas.

Then, just before I boarded
a train back to the suburbs,
I asked myself why I hadn’t
helped. After all, I had cash on
me. Just then, I was approached
by a skinny man about my age
who asked for help.

“Sure, I can help you,” I said
as I reached for my wallet.

“I don’t want your money,”
he responded. “Can you buy
me a meal instead?”
“Of course,” I replied, trying
to mask my shock as it occurred
to me that as I almost rushed by,
there was a human standing here
hungry. I asked him where he
wanted to go, and he led me to a
nearby McDonald’s, one of the few
restaurants still open.

My new acquaintance
ordered a cheeseburger. Before
I paid, I hesitated.

“Why don’t you order
dinner, too, for later?” I asked.

He ordered Chicken McNuggets
and some sides. I swiped my
credit card: a total of $16 for
providing a day’s worth of food.

“God bless you — you’re
the only one who stopped,” he
told me.

In a time of such enormous
need, his words broke my
heart. After all, the pandemic
has decimated the economy.

A recent poll by the Pew
Research Center found that
about one-fourth of Americans
have had trouble paying their
bills in the past seven months.

Demand at food banks has
risen at an “extraordinary
rate,” according to The New
York Times, and up to 14% of
U.S. parents say their children
are not getting enough to eat.

“The number of families
having difficulty affording food
has exploded during COVID-
19,” the nonpartisan Center on
Budget Policy and Priorities
recently noted.

Each week, a food pantry
near my home offers drive-
through food assistance. The line
is long and filled with late-model
minivans. Just a few months
ago, many of these people would
never have imagined being in
this position. But jobs have been
eliminated, salaries cut and
workers furloughed.

In this unprecedented
moment, it’s wonderful that
many Jewish institutions are
redoubling their efforts to
help those in need. But are
we, as Jewish individuals and
families, doing the same?
Judaism mandates giving
charity: The Talmud goes into
great detail about the obliga-
tions we have to help others,
declaring “Charity is equiva-
lent to all the other mitzvot
combined.” The Jewish mitzvah
of maaser kesafim instructs
us to donate a portion of our
income to charity.

For many of us, performing
this mitzvah feels like an
impossible ideal. But perhaps it’s
finally time for us to have a
difficult conversation about our
attitudes to giving charity and
to the poor. Over the years, I’ve
heard some troubling comments
reflecting a profound reluctance
to help others. A friend once
told me she didn’t donate her
children’s castoffs to charity
because she didn’t believe in
helping people bear “children
they can’t afford.” A 10-year-old
student in one of my Sunday
school classes was taken aback
one day when we learned that
the Jewish sage Maimonides
taught that the highest form
of charity was giving a poor
person a job.

“But poor people don’t want
to work,” she said, no doubt
echoing what she’d heard at
home. “That’s why they’re poor!”
Unsurprisingly, the reality
is very different: A report in
October from the U.S. Bureau
of Labor Statistics found that
the overwhelming majority of
unemployed workers expressed
hope of finding another job
soon. These attitudes have long
been a problem, but today
they’re a crisis that we can’t
ignore. We need to rediscover
the central Jewish tenet of
charity more than ever. When
people can no longer feed
themselves — when people
are begging on street corners,
wracked by hunger and asking
for succor — we have no choice
but to step up and help.

It’s time for us as a commu-
nity to step up to the plate
and, if we are in a position
to help, increase our chari-
table giving. Reach out to your
local synagogue, JCC or Jewish
Federation and ask what
they’re doing to help people
in your community. If you feel
they’re not doing enough, urge
them to do more, and consider
volunteering. Contribute to
emergency relief funds. Donate
to established charities. And
remember, too, that tzedakah
isn’t always made up of money
— if funds are tight, we can
also help by donating time and
expertise. A few weeks ago, if you
had asked me whether there
was more I could do to help, I
might have said no. I already
donate between 10% and 20%
of our income to charity. I
might have said I was maxed
out — I certainly would
never have thought I’d be
paying an impromptu visit to
McDonald’s. But there’s always
more we can do.

Judaism teaches that we are
each here to fulfill a specific
set of tasks that only we can
perform and for which we’re
given the precise, individual
tools we require. Let this be
our moment to shine. Let this
pandemic be our time to step
up and start helping our fellow
men and women in their hours
of need. l
Yad Vashem Needs Non-Bigoted Leadership
BY EVA FOGELMAN
12 NOVEMBER 26, 2020
THE OPPOSITION IS mounting
to the prospect of Effi Eitam, a
former far-right Israeli politi-
cian and general, becoming chair
of Israel’s national Holocaust
museum, Yad Vashem.

Among those urging Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
to change course are Israeli
Holocaust survivors, the
Anti-Defamation League and
Israeli opposition leader Yair
Lapid, along with plenty of
op-ed writers and pundits. It’s
bad enough that Eitam lacks
credentials in Holocaust educa-
tion and research. But even
more disturbing to his critics are
Eitam’s racist comments about
Israeli Arabs and Palestinians
— his call for expulsion of
Palestinians in the West Bank,
his description of Israeli Arabs as
a “fifth column” and insistence
that they should be barred from
serving in the country’s political
JEWISH EXPONENT
system — and the reprimand
he received after two soldiers
under his command said they
were following orders when they
beat two Palestinians, including
one who died from his wounds.

As a scholar with longtime
ties to Yad Vashem, count me
among those who are aghast
at the prospect of Eitam’s
appointment. The head of Yad Vashem
is responsible for budgetary
decisions, hiring directors of
departments, approving confer-
ences and publications. These
duties have implications for
shaping Holocaust research and
educations — what topics will
be emphasized, minimized or
ignored. As for public responsi-
bilities, the choices made by the
director in hosting or under-
mining international dignitaries
can damage relationships between
Israel and other countries.

JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



O pinion
In 1981, I started my social
psychological research in
Jerusalem at the Yad Vashem
Righteous Among the Nations
Department on why non-Jews
risked their lives to save Jews
during the Holocaust. In
those days, the department
was housed in a tiny room
and the files were randomly
kept in the back of the library.

Today its high-tech academic
research lab is used by inter-
national scholars and others.

My archives, interviews and
research materials are being
donated to the archive division,
which will digitize them for
future researchers.

This is why I am distressed:
My most significant finding
about the rescuers is that they
risked their lives to save Jews
because they grew up in tolerant
families who valued respect
and accepted people from all
walks of life. As children they
were taught by their parents
that all human beings are
created in the image of God.

When those who became
rescuers were inundated with
hate-filled Nazi propaganda
designed to inspire hatred of
the Jews, they ignored it.

The mission of Yad Vashem
is to teach values that stem
from the lessons I learned from
the rescuers: the importance
of valuing human rights and
respecting everyone. I ask
myself: “Can a man who does
not accept human rights for
Arabs and Palestinians lead
an institution dedicated to
teaching millions of students
and teachers from all over the
world to appreciate the innate
value of all human beings?”
One of the first stops in Israel
for diplomats from around the
world is Yad Vashem, which is
used to underline the importance
of the Holocaust in Jewish history
and the establishment of the state
of Israel. How can Effi Eitam be a
spokesman for the cause and talk
to leaders from other countries
when he advocates banning all
Arab representatives from the
Knesset? With the global resurgence
in anti-Semitism and the dismal
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM results of the recent Claims
Conference study on the Holocaust
ignorance among young people,
Holocaust institutions such as
the Museum of Jewish Heritage
in New York have committed
to expanding their educational
programs to reduce racism. How
will Eitam rationalize the signif-
icance of Holocaust education
when his views on Arabs are the
embodiment of racism?
David Ben-Gurion’s goal was
to ensure that Yad Vashem would
honor the Righteous Among the
Nations of the World as well as
the victims and fighters. I wonder
if the new leadership will reduce
the significance of the rescuers
in teaching about the Holocaust.

How will Yad Vashem conduct
ceremonies for rescuers and their
families if they are Muslims? Will
schools refuse to send students
to study at Yad Vashem when
they know its leader has espoused
racist views?
On my frequent visits to
Yad Vashem to lecture and do
research, or when I socialize
with colleagues, I love to wander
the halls of the International
School for Holocaust Studies
and peek into the classrooms.

I am in awe of the diversity
of students — Israelis from all
walks of life, policemen from
the United States and educators
from around the world. This is
the institution that Ben-Gurion
envisioned — one that welcomes
everyone to learn about the past,
to never forget and to carry
those lessons into the future.

It is my hope and fervid
prayer that Effi Eitam will
honor Ben-Gurion’s mission
and change his racist stance
against the non-Jewish popula-
tion of Israel, bringing more
people under our tent instead
of excluding them. l
Eva Fogelman is the author
of “Conscience and Courage:
Rescuers of Jews During the
Holocaust,” among numerous
other publications, writer and
co-producer of “Breaking the
Silence: The Generation After
the Holocaust” and co-founder of
Jewish Foundation for Christian
Rescuers. The Challenge for Orthodox Media
BY GARY ROSENBLATT
HOW IS THE Orthodox
community, much of which enthu-
siastically supported President
Trump, dealing with his defeat —
and his refusal to concede?
Post-election, it’s difficult to
gauge such reactions statistically.

And of course, there is a wide
range of outlook and behavior
within Orthodoxy, from haredi
to Modern Orthodox. But it
seems that while Trump was
heavily favored by Orthodox
Jews, his loss generally is being
accepted as a political reality.

But there are pockets
of supporters for whom the
president’s defiant reluctance
to wear a mask, or encourage
others to do so, underscored a
welcome reliance on God alone
to protect us. And they believe
the election was rigged.

For Orthodox media, known
for avoiding controversy in
covering their local communi-
ties, the political climate finds
editors and publishers caught
between facts and sentiment.

The most recent case in point
involves a column published
last week by The 5 Towns Jewish
Times, a free weekly on Long
Island. The piece caused an
outcry for promoting baseless
beliefs that the media and
the public health community
— including the CDC —
conspired with the Democrats
to exaggerate COVID-19 to
ensure Joe Biden’s election.

“A suspicious virus coming
out of China was utilized by the
Democratic Party as a means
of mind control and behavior
control before an election,” wrote
JEWISH EXPONENT
columnist Gila Jedwab, a local
pediatric dentist. “A weapon
of fear that was used to terrify
a nation and accomplish one
agenda: to create enough chaos
to get their candidate elected.”
She also appeared to
question the science of epide-
miology, writing, “Stopping the
spread of something invisible
had always been an endeavor
bereft of common sense, the
absolute height of futility.”
Jedwab’s column was too
much even for readers who had
tolerated the writer’s previous
criticism of mandated masks as
an assault on freedom. All but
one of the 37 online responses
to her piece on the publication’s
website expressed outrage at the
writer for her baseless claims,
and at publisher Larry Gordon
for giving her the forum.

Rabbi Heshie Billet, who
recently retired after more than
40 years as rabbi of the Young
Israel of Woodmere, said he
complained to Gordon about
Jedwab’s columns, which he
felt were “very, very troubling
and went against mainstream
medical advice.” The rabbi said
publishing such columns was
irresponsible. Other
critics called
out Jedwab’s use of a false
conspiracy theory, attributed to
QAnon. The same QAnon that
employs anti-Semitic elements,
claims that liberal celebrities
and politicians operate a secret
cabal to kidnap children and
harvest their blood, and holds
Donald Trump as their savior.

Gordon responded in his
column this week to the criticism
by asserting that, as publisher, he
shouldn’t be expected to agree
“with every word and idea” in
the paper.

To me, and I’m sure many
others, that wasn’t the point of
the complaints. Rather, it’s that
a publisher should be expected
to refrain from printing known
falsehoods. I called Gordon, who told
me that Jedwab submitted a
column for the current issue,
but he decided not to run it.

“Things were very hot this
week,” he acknowledged. He
said Jedwab’s future as a colum-
nist in his paper “depends,” but
he did not elaborate.

I also asked Gordon about
a column written by his son,
Yochanan, that appears to endorse
the idea that Vice President-
elect Kamala Harris should be
compared to Amalek — tradition-
ally, the biblical personification of
anti-Jewish evil.

Gordon dismissed it as “just
a cute little thing” — a meme
on pro-Trump websites. “It
doesn’t mean she’s Amalek.”
In Teaneck, New Jersey,
the local Jewish Link, a widely
distributed free publication,
had a tumult of its own.

A long essay, displayed
as a full-page ad, was titled
“Sacrificing Our Children on the
Altar of Covid Fear.” Written by
a local day school lay leader, it
argued that communal leaders
should ignore medical advice and
government-approved regula-
tions calling for masks and social
distancing in day schools.

The publisher,
Moshe Kinderlehrer, noted a deepening
polarization in the community
over the past year. “Covid has
brought out the worst in some
people,” he said. “The extremes are
louder and more challenging. It’s
not all about Trump. It’s about this
weariness” over the pandemic. “As
a publisher, I worry,” he said.

He’s not alone. l
Gary Rosenblatt is the editor at
large of The Jewish Week, where
a longer version of this piece first
appeared. STATEMENT FROM THE PUBLISHER
We are a diverse community. The views expressed in the signed opinion columns and letters to the editor pub-
lished 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, the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia or the Jewish Expo-
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NOVEMBER 26, 2020
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