Pink Slips At Birthright

by Sharon Udasin

In an attempt to redirect the organization’s focus on local Birthright alumni communities, Birthright Israel NEXT — the post-trip programming wing of Birthright Israel — has laid off six of its employees, several of whom held high-ranking managerial positions, The Jewish Week has learned.

The layoffs in the New York-based national office included two individuals from the communications department, one person from programming and three from the community initiatives sector, said Rabbi Daniel Brenner, executive director of NEXT.

Last year, only 24 percent of NEXT’s budget was allocated for local programs in its five pilot cities, but this year, 33 percent of the budget will go to its seven smaller branches, according to Rabbi Brenner.

“The restructuring is being done in an effort to create a more efficient structure for us to meet our goals in the coming year,” he said. “Generally, we’re reducing the size of our national staff. We’re going to put more resources into local offices.”  Continue reading…

‘No Cookie-Cutter Bar Mitzvahs Here’

Elani Hillman plays with a Jewish star toy as he prepared for his bar mitzvah with tutor Aliyah Cheskis-Cotel.

by Sharon Udasin
Staff Writer

Waiting for his teacher to begin his first bar mitzvah lesson, 12-year-old Jacob Mussen made handprints in a special bed of movable metal pins and then watched colored droplets creep down the sides of a liquid motion toy.

Jacob, who has graphomotor dyslexia as well as obsessive- compulsive disorder, is taking private classes with Aliya Cheskis-Cotel, a New York Jewish educator who provides bar and bat mitzvah lessons to students who might otherwise opt out of this rite of passage. After working full time at a Jewish day school, Cheskis-Cotel first tutored a child with Asperger’s syndrome 17 years ago, and from then on began working individually with special needs students, reluctant adults and overachieving tweens. 
Cheskis-Cotel is by no means alone in her efforts, as educators focus more and more on accommodating special needs in Jewish communities all over the country. In New York, tutors like Cheskis-Cotel and institutions like the JCC in Manhattan, Congregation B’nai Jeshurun and Congregation Habonim are among a growing number of resources for special-needs youngsters seeking a Jewish education.

Nonetheless, the beginning of the school year, when other parents face an array of choices, can be a particularly challenging time for parents of special-needs children, who frequently are turned away from Jewish day schools and congregational schools that lack the resources to serve them properly. While awareness of special populations’ needs has grown, particularly with recent films like “Praying With Lior” about the bar mitzvah of a Down’s syndrome boy, supply of appropriate programs is a long way from satisfying the increasing demand, experts say.

“There is a big proliferation of kids with Asperger’s and learning disabilities,” Cheskis-Cotel said. “Twenty years ago people just told those kids that they should just sit in the back of the classroom, and nobody helped them.”  Continue reading…

Y Protesters Unbound

Critics of the 92nd Street Y’s decision to close the Buttenwieser Library protested Monday night. They’re likely fighting a losing battle. Michael Datikash

by Sharon Udasin

Not wanting to close the book on the Buttenwieser Library, a small band of passionate protesters took to the streets Monday night to save their beloved — but perhaps doomed — book room.

“It is so inimical to what the Y stands for, especially as the people of the book,” said Erwin Flaxman, a professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College. 

Flaxman and the other protesters braved on-and-off thunderstorms to hand out about 400 flyers and collect petition signatures from passersby and Y patrons in front of the building at 92nd Street and Lexington Avenue. They’re demanding that the Y keep the library open, or at least postpone its closing. Protesters collected 340 signatures. Continue reading…

Noise In The Library

by Sharon Udasin
Staff Writer

Take your Kindle and shove it!

That pretty much sums up the anger of patrons of the 92nd Street Y’s Buttenwieser Library following last week’s announcement that the Y was shuttering the nearly 80-year-old beloved book room.

The library’s plan is to replace the 3,000-square-foot, 30,000-volume library with a Wi-Fi reading room on the ground floor that will include some new fiction (in traditional book form), laptops and Amazon’s electronic book device called the Kindle. Smaller book collections will be dispersed throughout the institution.

With a failing economy and a decreased demand for traditional library services, Y officials decided that an overhaul is crucial to the institution’s survival.

But for lovers of the library — who this week launched a “Save the 92Y Library” Facebook group that has more than 200 members — the Buttenwieser helped give the institution a soul. 

“The Y prides itself on its intellectual curiosity,” said Neal Sher, 61, former head of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and a former Justice Department official. “You can go anywhere for a nice gym.” Continue reading…

Momo and Birthright Israel: Splitsville?

Well, thanks to an article in the New York Jewish Week, the cat’s finally out of the bag so I can freely write about what many of us have known for weeks: the relationship between Taglit Birthright Israeland Oranim’s “Momo” Lifshitz is in jeopardy. Last week, Oranim officially informed Birthright Israel that it was not planning on participating in this winter’s session, calling into question the future of their relationship. 

Why is this relevant? Because Oranim is the largest trip provider that recruits participants and runs trips for Birthright Israel. In the 10 years that Birthright has been in operation, Oranim has brought in nearly 50,000 of the 200,000 young Jews who have come to Israel – and Momo, in his trademark style, has greeted nearly every single one of them. So what transpired that would cause such a rift?

Continue reading Jewlicious’s post...

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A Divorce In The Birthright Family

Oranim’s “Momo” Lifshitz: Agenda at odds with Birthright?

by Sharon Udasin
Staff Writer

“Momo” Lifshitz is a legendary figure among Birthright Israel participants, a larger-than-life symbol of the free 10-day trip that more than 200,000 diaspora Jews have used to jumpstart their Jewish identities.

In the decade since the Birthright trips began, nearly 50,000 teens and 20-somethings have wandered through the gates of Ben-Gurion International Airport — and into the open arms of this balding, middle-aged teddy bear of a man. The president and founder of Oranim Educational Initiatives, the largest Birthright trip provider, Shlomo Lifshitz (“Momo,” as he is commonly called) prides himself on greeting each of his Oranim Birthright trip participants with a personal “Shalom and Welcome Home.”

But Lifshitz’s “message” — alumni say he routinely pushes aliyah, pressures participants to date only Jews and stresses that they should “make Jewish babies” — has drawn criticism over the years. And this week, citing new restrictions forced on him by Birthright officials, Lifshitz, 53, a secular, nationalist former Israeli army officer whose office is based in Kfar Saba, cut his ties with the popular trips, formally withdrawing from the winter ‘09-’10 trip season.

In an e-mail sent to thousands of Oranim alumni Monday, Lifshitz cited an ideological reason for his move.Due to new rules and regulations within the project, I have been instructed that there were certain things I was simply not allowed to talk about,” Lifshitz wrote. He noted that Birthright had prohibited him from using the phrase “raise your children Jewish” or encouraging aliyah to Israel. And he said he could no longer promise his free Israel honeymoon gift to brides and grooms who had met during their Oranim Birthright trips.

“I cannot continue to allow my messages to be muted,” Lifshitz continued in the letter. Continue reading…

For Jewish Doctors, A ‘Relatively’ Welcome School

Einstein Class of ’59, then and now. Says Evelyn Schwaber, front row center (with scarf), “As soon as I had my interviews I knew [Einstein] was where I was meant to be.” Photos courtesy of Yeshiva University

by Sharon Udasin
Staff Writer

When Peter Barland was applying to medical schools 54 years ago, his choices were severely limited — most top universities still capped their Jewish admittances through strict quotas, and winning a seat at such coveted institutions as Harvard, Yale or Columbia was next to impossible. 

But lucky for Barland and his soon-to-be 55 classmates, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine opened its doors that same year, welcoming not only a Jewish majority, but also three women and one African American to its student body at Yeshiva University. Barland and some of his classmates gathered recently to mark Einstein’s 50th commencement ceremony, rekindling memories from those who had been there during its first days. Members of the class of ’59 gathered for a reunion on June 1st at the Harmonie Club, and the next day placed hoods on this year’s graduates at the 50th commencement.

“Einstein came along just at that time and I had the opportunity to go there,” said Barland, who is a practicing rheumatologist and now a professor at Einstein. “Many of us who went to the school were full of ambivalence. Things were brand new — everything seemed to be an experience, an adventure.” Continue reading…

Brotherly Love, From NYU To Israel

The ‘Aleph’ chapter: The new AEPi-ers at the Interdisciplinary Center of Herzliya.

by Sharon Udasin
Staff Writer

In what has become perhaps the most Americanized region in all of Israel, the sunny seaside city of Herzliya just landed a classic American import that it probably never expected: the Jewish state’s first-ever college fraternity.

The international executive board of Alpha Epsilon Pi initiated 15 young men from the Interdisciplinary Center of Herzliya into the “Aleph” chapter of AEPi, at a ceremony last week at the Sheraton Jerusalem Plaza Hotel. Among the initiates were six Israelis, six North Americans, one Australian, one Colombian and one South African. 

“AEPi was founded as a refuge for Jewish males who couldn’t get into other fraternities,” said one of the 15 founding fathers, 20-year-old American student Ron Bronstein, who hopes that his chapter will become an “international outpost” for the fraternity’s future growth all over the world.

After visiting universities throughout Israel, the board determined that IDC Herzliya was the ideal location, according to Steven Kaplan, expansion director of AEPi. Located just 10 minutes north of Tel Aviv, IDC is Israel’s first private university, and it boasts a popular school for English speakers in addition to its Israeli program. Replete with North Americans who crave a more cohesive campus experience, IDC was the perfect venue for fraternity life, Kaplan decided. Continue reading…

Alpha Epsilon Pi opens Israel’s first-ever college fraternity.

by Sharon Udasin
Staff Writer

In what has become perhaps the most Americanized region in all of Israel, the sunny seaside city of Herzliya just landed a classic American import that it probably never expected: the Jewish state’s first-ever college fraternity.

The international executive board of Alpha Epsilon Pi initiated 15 young men from the Interdisciplinary Center of Herzliya into the “Aleph” chapter of AEPi, at a ceremony last week at the Sheraton Jerusalem Plaza Hotel. Among the initiates were six Israelis, six North Americans, one Australian, one Colombian and one South African.

“AEPi was founded as a refuge for Jewish males who couldn’t get into other fraternities,” said one of the 15 founding fathers, 20-year-old American student Ron Bronstein, who hopes that his chapter will become an “international outpost” for the fraternity’s future growth all over the world.

After visiting universities throughout Israel, the board determined that IDC Herzliya was the ideal location, according to Steven Kaplan, expansion director of AEPi. Located just 10 minutes north of Tel Aviv, IDC is Israel’s first private university, and it boasts a popular school for English speakers in addition to its Israeli program. Replete with North Americans who crave a more cohesive campus experience, IDC was the perfect venue for fraternity life and could benefit from AEPi’s capacity to unify the school’s perpetually separate international and Israeli populations, Kaplan decided.

“IDC has been trying for such a long time to bridge the gap between the international school and the Israeli school,” agreed Chapter President Ofri Ben Porat, a 25-year-old native Israeli. Continue reading…

A Loss And A Gain For Tribeca Jews

Tribeca Hebrew: Merging with the Jewish Community Project. Michael Datikash

by Sharon Udasin

In yet another sign of the toll the economic downturn has exacted on the Jewish community, the trendy Tribeca Hebrew school — which helped re-energize Jewish life downtown after Sept. 11 — has closed its doors and merged with its neighbor, the Jewish Community Project.

“It’s sort of a perfect storm,” said Tribeca Hebrew board chair, Karie Parker Davidson, who pointed to the financial crisis and real estate struggle as two motivating factors behind the decision. “We had a terrific strategic plan, but it was really hard to build momentum in this economic climate.” Continue reading…