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After wearing a kippah almost nonstop for decades, I have decided in the wake of October 7 to not walk outside in America wearing a kippah.

As part of my 40-year-plus career as a Jewish camping professional, I have gotten to spend dozens of summers at Ramah camps. There are many pluses – beautiful Shabbatot, having my own children in camp, tennis courts 50 feet from my bunk ,and not having to cook all summer are just a few of the reasons. 

Having to visit my physician each year and explain why I need him to complete and sign my camp medical form isn’t one of them! 

Fortunately, the doctor, a guy around my age, is a good sport and the conversations during the visit are quite pleasant.

My doctor is white and Jewish, while his two partners in their downtown New Haven, Connecticut, practice are Indian and black men. 

Last month, I had my yearly checkup. As I was finishing up my EKG and blood pressure screening with the 30-something black female technician I have known for years, she asked, “Don’t you usually wear a small hat on your head?”

A man wears a black kippah. (credit: Wikimedia Commons)

I paused then quickly realized she was referring to the knitted kippah she usually sees me wear to appointments. 

I said, “You have a good memory. I usually wear a yarmulke on my head. To tell you the truth, these days, I really don’t feel safe. I have been wearing a baseball hat.” (I point to my gray USTA tennis hat). 

I didn’t go into all the details – the arrest of 48 pro-Palestinian protesters at their encampment on the Yale University campus less than a mile from the doctor’s office, the overall rise in antisemitism in America, and so on.

She considers my response and thoughtfully replies, “You are not yourself without it.”

In my pocket and out of sight

She has me put on a hospital gown and she ushers me to the exam room. I carry my shoes, clothes, and my hat in my hand. My kippah remains in my pocket, out of sight.

She weighs me and asks a range of questions about things like depression symptoms. I am not depressed so I deny any symptoms. Sure, she would not be able to truly understand how I and everyone I know have actually been dealing with symptoms of depression and especially anxiety since October 7. 

As she is about to leave the room and invite the doctor in, she smiles warmly and says, “You look good in it. You really should start wearing it again!”

I so appreciated her comments and heartfelt concern. I am sure on some level she truly understands what it means to look different and to stand out. Unlike her, I can take off my kippah and “blend in” to feel safe. For a moment, I am putting myself in her shoes. But for now, she is asking about me.

After wearing a kippah almost nonstop for decades, I have decided in the wake of October 7 to not walk outside in America wearing a kippah. I am also careful not to go outside wearing any of my 50 Ramah hats, jackets, sweatshirts, and vests, which have Hebrew on them. 

This is eating me up. What a relief it was to go back to wearing a kippah full-time during two recent trips to Israel. For now, in America, I only wear a baseball hat and stay away from Hebrew clothing.

We have made other tough decisions. While our Jewish community was giving out “I Stand with Israel” signs to display on the front lawn, we opted not to – out of concern for our safety. This is not to say that local antisemites won’t come down our street looking for mezuzot or Shabbat candles kindled in the window, or lights left on for 25 hours for Shabbat.

I have always been a proud, comfortable Jew in America who never thought twice about displaying Jewish signs – on my home or person. 

These times are different. 

Before last Sunday’s “March for a Free Palestine” on the New Haven Green, the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven reminded the Jewish community to avoid the area. Gail Slossberg, the CEO of the Jewish Federation wrote, “If you are downtown at that time, please have situational awareness. Do not engage with protesters.”

I was not in the area. And sadly, I am always wearing a baseball hat – with no Hebrew writing. 

The writer is a disabilities inclusion specialist and freelance writer living in New Haven, Connecticut.

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The original article is published at JPost.com

What can Israeli educators learn from a visit to the memorial for the victims of 9/11?

Since October 7, Israelis have been grappling with the question of what commemorations and memorials would be most appropriate to mark this painful period in Israeli and Jewish history.

Twenty-three educational consultants from Israeli schools working with Schechter Institute’s TALI program recently spent a week in New York City, where they turned to Ground Zero and its 9/11 Memorial for inspiration and guidance.

Through this visit, meetings, and programs with Jewish leaders, institutions, and members of the Jewish community, they also deepened their knowledge of and relationship with the American Jewish community. The delegation returned to Israel on Tuesday with new ideas and insights.

The insights the delegation came back with 

The diverse participants work in youth villages (boarding schools) throughout Israel’s periphery, striving to empower teens and build their leadership skills. The consultants are part of TALI, the Hebrew acronym for “Enhanced Jewish Studies,” Israel’s largest pluralistic in-school Jewish studies program, which provides educational programs and resources to 65,000 children in diverse communities throughout Israel.

The consultants began planning their trip to New York before October 7. At the time, the visit was intended to be the culmination of six months of study, during which they explored issues of Jewish and Israeli identity. Through readings and discussions of Zionist literature, Israeli culture, and a visit to a major world Diaspora community, the participants would be better equipped to serve their students.

THE TWIN Towers burn (credit: Brad Rickerby/File/Reuters)

Then, after October 7, the trip’s viability was uncertain.

“The trip itself is a little bit of a miracle,” reported Dr. Peri Sinclair, the Susan and Scott Shay TALI director-general of the Schechter Institute. “We started planning the trip before Sukkot, and it was a big question mark!”

In a conversation just hours after arriving in New York, Sinclair noted that she hoped the trip would “expose participants to the vitality and creativity” of the Diaspora Jewish community, help them see “common ties,” and “see what inspiration they could bring home.”

Sinclair described the trip as “a bit of a reverse solidarity mission.” She observed, “The international hug Israel has felt after 10/7 has been very powerful. Everyone realized we need to put more into our relationships worldwide.”

Sinclair hoped the group – many of whom were in the United States for the first time – would experience firsthand the pluralism TALI holds as a core value, and that they would come back to Israel “with action steps.”

The visit to Ground Zero and the 9/11 Memorial would be an important part of the process of considering the role of memorials and monuments in Israel post-10/7. Sinclair pointed out that “lots of Israelis see 10/7 as Israel’s 9/11. They realize how horrendous 9/11 was, and want to bridge from their experience to ours.”

Sinclair, an Israeli who earned her doctorate in the US and has previously visited Ground Zero, was hopeful about the impact and meaning of the group’s visit. Yet she acknowledged, “I don’t know what to expect. Going after our 10/7 will be different. It is not just paying respects. It is part of our processing what happened to us.”

Rivka Greenfield, TALI’s director of pedagogy research and development, hoped the group would “see how Americans dealt with 9/11 and how they educate children.”

She noted that “for the past six months, we have been feeling it in our flesh, and we want to go [to New York] because [what we are experiencing] is part of an international war.”

The visit to Ground Zero, on a busy day for the delegation, as it took place between visits to the Lower East Side and the UJA-Federation of New York, began with a ceremony organized by two group members. Each participant received both a yellow ribbon pin, which in Israel has become a symbol of identification with those held in captivity, and a white 9/11 Memorial bracelet.

Together, the group members engaged in a text study and discussed the roles memorials and monuments play in the US and in Israel.

Sinclair later recounted powerful discussions the group had engaged in. Some of the group members were struggling with “not wanting their children [who live near the Gaza border area] to have to drive daily to school through a monument.” Others noted the need “to make space and fill a void with positive actions, by not being victims, and yet remember that there is evil in the world.”

THE VISIT to Ground Zero and the US had a strong impact on the participants, who are still processing the experience and figuring out what to incorporate into their teaching back home.Dotan Levi, head of education at Derech Kfar near Atlit, movingly described his journey from Israel to Ground Zero.

“We left family and friends in a bloody Israeli reality and set out to discover our people and, to a large extent, to meet ourselves with questions of identity, belonging, and meaning.

“When we arrived at Ground Zero, the intensity of the memory of the terrible deaths came to life. Wearing yellow pins to remember that 186 days have passed and the hostages are still in Gaza, and a white bracelet bearing the memory of those who perished in the Twin Towers disaster, we wondered about the relationship between the Jewish people and the world and what is the right thing to do: to continue to increase the light and to concentrate the Jewish and world effort, or is it right to fight the darkness and remember that there is evil in the world and we need to fight it?

“Antisemitism and terrorism are not a danger to the Jewish people; they are a danger to hope, a danger to the world. Anyone who strives for good should stand on the side of good, on the side of Israel.”

Morit Agmor-Avraham, head of professional development for Derech Kfar, reflected on her visit with many people and institutions in the New York Jewish community. “American Jewry provides us with a hall of mirrors for ourselves, for who we are as individuals, as family members, and as a nation,” she noted.

The impressive and thoughtful group was well received by Jewish educators in New York, who were impressed and moved by their visit.

Dr. David Bryfman, CEO of The Jewish Education Project, noted their curiosity. “What an absolute privilege to be able to interact with a cross section of some of the very best of Israeli society. These educators are so committed to their profession and education that they really offer hope for a brighter future in a post-October 7 world.”

On Friday, April 12, just before Shabbat, the delegation met with Rabbi Avi Orlow, vice president of innovation and education at the Foundation for Jewish Camp.

Instead of a well-deserved restful Shabbat, group members prepared for a range of Shabbat programs and experiences, before a final day of touring on Sunday and departure from New York on Monday night.

What will the delegation bring back to Israel? “I don’t think they know yet,” Sinclair noted honestly. “Most are still processing.”

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The original article is published at JPost.com

MLB’s lone Sabra stands strong with Israel from near and far as Reds’ assistant pitching coach.

In most ways, Cincinnati Reds assistant pitching coach Alon Leichman looks like all other players and coaches on the National League Central team. During games, all are clad in white pants and shirts with the word “Reds” inscribed inside of a large letter “C,” and all wear red baseball caps with the same letter “C.” And all are focused on the game.

As Leichman sits on the bench in the dugout taking copious notes on his pitchers’ form and delivery, it is not obvious that the 34-year-old is the only native-born Israeli in the major leagues (though there are other Israeli citizens throughout MLB who are not native born, including Baltimore Orioles pitcher and fellow Team Israel player Dean Kremer).

Leichman’s mind is on the game, and it is also on the situation back home in Israel. The generally quiet and humble Leichman has not been afraid to stand up for his country during these difficult times. Pictures abound of Leichman wearing a “Bring Them Home” T-shirt pitching batting practice, while sporting a black glove with an Israeli flag and the words “Bring Them Home” stitched in white capital letters and the word “NOW!” in even bigger red letters.

Leichman grew up playing baseball, a somewhat surprising fact for a Sabra. He was reared in Kibbutz Gezer, near Latrun on the road from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. While his New York-born father and Michigan-born mother, who met in Israel after making aliyah in their 20s, were not particularly big baseball fans, the kibbutz had an affinity to American baseball.

“The kibbutz was founded by Americans and wanted to bring American culture to Israel, so all kids on the kibbutz play baseball. I happened to really like it,” exclaimed Leichman, who started playing shortstop and pitcher on his first team at age six.

Leichman’s custom designed glove. (credit: Alon Leichman/Courtesy)

Peter Kurz, former President of the Board of Directors of the Israel Association of Baseball and current General Manager of Team Israel, has known Leichman for over 20 years.

“I took Alon on his first Israel National Team trip – and my first as well – to Holland as a 10-year-old kid in 1999 – the youngest on a team of 12 year olds.”

Leichman graduated from the Brenner Regional School in 2007 and went on to serve in the Israel Defense Forces as an “outstanding athlete.”

He went on to attend junior college at Cypress College in Cypress, California, and pitched on their baseball team from 2010-2013.

“My parents supported my going to college in America to play baseball – they knew it’s what I always wanted to do.”

While at Cypress, Leichman required Tommy John surgery for a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow. He then attended University of California-San Diego, where he pitched and graduated with a history degree. Leichman always knew he would continue either to play baseball, coach or serve as a scout.

The likable Israeli maintained what he describes as a “good connection” to his junior college coach, Scott Pickler, who always told him, “You will be a good coach someday.”

Leichman then had an opportunity to coach in the Cape Cod Baseball League, where he helped the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox win the 2016 Championship.

“I had been helping out as pitching coach and the pitcher did pretty well. It gave me the stage to work. People know each other in baseball and it kept leading to other opportunities.”

In 2017, Leichman began a six-year career in a variety of roles with the Seattle Mariners organization. In 2022, he served as pitching coach of the AAA Tacoma Rainiers of the Pacific Coast League.

Leichman continually stresses how gradual the progression is from playing in college to coaching at the various levels in professional baseball. In December, 2022, Leichman was named assistant pitching coach for the Cincinnati Reds.

“It has been a good dream come true to coach here,” Leichman said of Cincinnati. “Every step of the way prepares you for the next step.”In his current role, he charts each game from the dugout.

“I make sure guys are on track and help them make adjustments if needed. If I see they are off, I talk to them.”

Kurz is proud of Leichman

“No one was more thrilled than I was to see his meteoric rise as a coach in minor league and MLB baseball, and he will be an MLB manager one day soon. His determination, grit, rise to excellence, ability to reach out to everyone at any level, and perseverance always made him stand out.”

Throughout Leichman’s impressive baseball career in America, he has always maintained strong ties with Team Israel and to his native Israel. In his post-college years, he proudly coached junior 12 to 18 year olds in Israel.

“I always liked coaching and knew I would do it after I was done playing.”

Kurz has been with him through almost two decades and countless milestones.

“I have been involved with Alon on countless National Teams, the IBL, the WBC and the Olympic team.”

Leichman competed for Israel during the qualifying round of the 2010, 2012 and 2016 European Baseball Championship.

Leichman was on the roster for Israel during 2013 World Baseball Classic, though he did not make any appearances. He later served as the bullpen coach for Israel at the 2017 World Baseball Classic qualifier and at the World Baseball Classic.

Leichman competed on the Israel National Team for qualifying for the 2020 Olympics. He pitched one perfect inning for Team Israel against Team USA in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo in the summer of 2021.

“Pitching in the Olympics was the highlight of my baseball career,” reported Leichman beaming with pride.

When Israel was attacked by Hamas on October 7, 2023, Leichman was in the United States. He was touched and appreciative when the Reds came out with a public statement a day later, on October 8, which said that they “mourn the loss of life and suffering of innocent people caused by the terrorism perpetrated against Israel. We condemn these senseless acts of hate and stand in solidarity with the people of Israel as we pray for peace and an end to terrorism.”

Leichman didn’t take that public show of support for granted.

“It was a big deal… Both the manager and GM reached out and offered support if I needed anything.”

In addition, Leichman said that his former team, the Mariners, reached out, as have several past and current Jewish major leaguers.

Leichman returned to Israel on October 18 and remained there with family until returning to the US and the Reds on February 1 for the new season. Kurz shared how Leichman spent his time in Israel.

“Even over the last few winter months when he was in Israel during the war, and we volunteered together to help Israeli agriculture and picked oranges and avocados together with Assaf Lowengart and the Olympic IOC, Alon was always one of the guys, and spent time with our budding athletes, teaching them and showing them the finer points of the game that he learned. And with all that, he has always been humble, appreciative, and understood where he came from and has always given back.”

Leichman returned to the Reds for spring training and for the start of the MLB season. He chanced upon a picture of a glove posted on social media by a female friend who played softball for Team Israel.

When he saw Maddy Lewis’s two-toned blue glove, designed by JH Performance with the words “chazakim b’yachad” (“we are strong together”) Leichman thought, “Maybe I should get a glove too.”

With Israel still at war and the hostages still in captivity, Leichman decided to design his own red and black glove which he notes are “the colors of Bring Them Home.”

Kurz was touched

“When he publicized the mitt he had made, and whenever he uploads a picture of himself at Reds camp with the “Bring them Home” T-shirt, I get goosebumps and the value of that simple PR act is incredible.

“Alon is indeed the first Sabra to reach this coaching level in MLB and he will achieve greater things as well, but he will always remember his roots and support them. I am very proud to have mentored and taught him over the years.”

Leichman prays for the day he will no longer need to wear the “Bring Them Home” shirt or glove.

“I hope things get better back at home. I hope it won’t be a thing anymore.”

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The original article is published at JPost.com

This restaurant one of a kind in the New York and perhaps North American kosher scene.

At Tsion Café – an Ethiopian vegan kosher restaurant situated in a somewhat unlikely location for those in search of kosher – the fresh, well-seasoned food, which includes dishes featuring such names as injera, sambusa, wot, messer, shiro, atakilt, and gomen, is only a small part of the experience.

The African art, eclectic collection of books, piano, occasional poetry nights, elaborate bar, homemade Ethiopian spices and foods available for purchase – and, of course, the chance to schmooze with the restaurant’s Ethiopian Israeli New Yorker owner Beejhy Barhany – make this restaurant one of a kind in the New York and perhaps North American kosher scene.

The café, which opened in 2014, recently came under kosher vegan certification after previously serving such (non-kosher and obviously non-vegan) dishes as filet mignon and shakshuka. It is located in Sugar Hill, the iconic 10-square block historic area in Manhattan’s Harlem and Hamilton Heights neighborhoods. Sugar Hill became a popular place for wealthy African Americans to live during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and ‘30s. 

“Our mission is to nourish the body and soul with delightful culinary delights and fine art – we’re a place with Pan-African love, Black Israeli pride,” Barhany proudly notes on the restaurant’s website.

Culinary delights and fine art: Black Israeli pride

Barhany, affectionately known as Chef Beejhy, is regularly present and available to chat with customers. She recounts that her family’s journey from Ethiopia to Israel took place in 1980, “before operations” (including Operation Moses in 1984 and Operation Solomon in 1991) and involved, among other things, “an uncle in the Mossad” and “travel through Kenya.” After growing up in Israel and completing her army service, Barhany traveled throughout South and North America before settling in New York.

SAMOSA ORDERED for appetizer: Well-seasoned pastries filled with lentils and sun-dried tomato. (credit: HOWARD BLAS)

THE RESTAURATEUR, who lives in the neighborhood, notes that there is quite a bit of Jewish life nearby, including several synagogues (there is the Chabad of Hamilton Heights three blocks away) and the JCC Harlem. The Conservative Movement’s Jewish Theological Seminary on 122st Street and Orthodoxy’s Yeshiva University on 185th are reasonably close as well, though her restaurant is the only kosher establishment for many blocks. Barhany, proud of her many identities, is the founder of the nonprofit Beta Israel of North America (BINA) Cultural Foundation, which showcases the culture of Ethiopian Jews and all Jews of Color.

Beejhy’s daughter – similarly smiley and friendly – also works at Tsion Café. She warmly welcomed our party of three, and informed us that there are no printed menus but that we can use our phones to scan the QR code to view the day’s offerings. Diners of a certain age not in the habit of scanning can study the menu on the very informative website on a screen at home, or on an iPhone while seated at the restaurant.

For those unfamiliar with Ethiopian cuisine, key terms with definitions are offered in rotation at the top of the website’s main menu: injera (made from teff, a flat, highly sour bread served with Ethiopian dishes) and tej (Ethiopian honey wine – legend has it that it was the first alcoholic beverage that humans consumed) alternate with the terms “Tsion” and “community” on the screen.

A tab on the website titled “Ethiopian Cuisine” offers a general introduction to the Ethiopian dining experience, as well as a more detailed description of menu items. It starts by permitting and encouraging eating with your hands (“We Ethiopians share a communal quality to consuming food and beverages. Not only do we eat with our hands, but we literally feed each other with delicate gurshas – mouthfuls of food – as a sign of love”) and often needed definition of terms.

In addition to a more detailed explanation about injera, which involves a three- to five-day fermentation process and is the “utensil” for eating, the link notes that wot are stews; messer are red lentils; shiro are chickpeas; gomen are collard greens; ataklit are cabbage, carrots and potatoes; and kil alicha are yellow split peas. All are cooked with flavorful Ethiopian spices such as berbere.

OUR DINING adventure started with an appetizer of sambusa. Given our appetites and desire to jump right into the dining experience, we opted for four (not just two) sambusa, the hot, crispy, fried, well-seasoned triangular pastries filled with lentils and dipped in a zesty sun-dried tomato sauce. They arrived pretty quickly, though we had a longish wait for our three entrées. Watching them being prepared fresh by chefs in the kitchen just beyond the well-stocked bar was fun, and the wait was forgiven when all arrived together – hot, well seasoned, and visually appealing.

As relative newbies to Ethiopian cuisine, we went with the Ethiopian Veggie Combo, which had a little of everything, including shiro, atakilt, messer, kik alicha, and gomen, presented as five distinct circular mounds atop a rectangular injera on a rectangular white plate.

Our second entrée, Oyster Mushroom Wot, was spicy, well seasoned, and something we’d never dream of preparing at home. We were in awe of how the flavors of the oyster mushrooms (no actual oysters here, of course!), tomatoes, jalapenos, fresh herbs, and awaze melded together. I had never tasted awaze, a traditional Ethiopian sauce consisting of berbere, honey, and other spices. And it is not often that a dish is presented to the table in a black skillet!

Our final entrée, Duba Wot with Jollof Rice, was a bit more filling than the other dishes, as it was rice-based. The spicy pumpkin (the vegetable has deep historical roots in Ethiopian cuisine) and sweet potato stew with jollof rice and plantaini (crispy green plantains), drizzled with creamy tahini, cilantro, and lime sauce, offered a different flavor profile from the other dishes. The savory stew was nicely presented in a bowl-like white plate which kept it safely contained.

Ethiopian food has a reputation for being super flavorful and not very filling. We found the food to be very flavorful and appreciated the introduction to food with which we had no familiarity. The portions were indeed small, but we did not leave hungry. We opted out of dessert, though that may have been a tactical error, as the malawach with silan, and the halvah looked delicious. Fellow diners enjoyed the Ethiopian coffee and Ethiopian spice tea.

THE WEBSITE notes that the restaurant is a place to experience “Ethiopian and Israeli culture firsthand.” The chef is indeed Ethiopian-Israeli, and there are a few menu items remotely connected to Israel (pita and Tel Aviv Quinoa salad to name two), but playing up “Israeli culture” is a bit of a stretch; it is essentially an Ethiopian restaurant – and an excellent one at that. The eatery offers great food, a lovely ambiance, and a chance to purchase artwork, as well as Tsion’s Awaze ($10), Berbere Spice Blend ($12), and Injera chips bag ($8).

I look forward to returning when the outdoor patio is open in the warmer months. It is the perfect New York destination for live music and poetry readings, and it will be a nice place for a drink on a summer evening. There is a good assortment of kosher wines, and the mixed drinks have such names as Redd Fox (tequila, sorrel, agave, ginger, lime juice, jalapeno); X (bourbon, lemon juice, agave, pinotage); and Kafa martini (vodka, Ethiopian coffee, amarula, berbere).

Many reflect the rich heritage of the neighborhood and the building. Jimmy’s Chicken Shack was the former occupant of the building, and such people connected to the Harlem Renaissance as Redd Fox, Charlie Parker, Malcolm X, and Billie Holiday once passed through. The development of this neighborhood served as a mecca for Black culture including music, art, and literature from approximately 1910 through the mid-1930s. Despite its proximity to several heavily populated Jewish neighborhoods, the number of Jewish residents of Sugar Hill is small.

Getting to Tsion is a bit of a challenge and may require taking two subways or buses – but it is worth it! 

  • www.tsioncafe.com/
  • 763 St. Nicholas Ave., New York City
  • (212) 234-2070
  • Ram Kosher (K-V Pareve – Kosher Vegan Certification by Rabbi Andre Malek)
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