Published Articles

Original Article Published on The Jerusalem Post

Ari Zivitovsky is a little like Indiana Jones. But the scientist rabbi is not in search of The Ark of the Covenant; instead, he travels the world looking for kosher animals. Zivitovsky and his partner, Rabbi Ari Greenspan, have come head to head with some incredible and exotic creatures, some of which you may have never even heard of.

Zivitovsky has a PhD in biomedical engineering and is a senior lecturer in brain science at Bar Ilan University. Greenspan is a practicing dentist in Jerusalem.

Zivitovsky and Greenspan met as children in New York and have been going on Jewish adventures together ever since. When they were studying together as teenagers, a slaughterer came to their yeshiva to demonstrate kaparot. The two teenagers were interested in seeing what the insides of a bird looked like. The shochet saw their interest and encouraged them to become shochtim. So they did.

The two newly certified shochtim found themselves asking lots of kosher questions. So they traveled the world in search of answers.

The two men have traveled to four continents on their kosher animal quest. They have been to Turkey in search of the Talmudic Shiboota fish, they have been to Cyprus in search of grasshoppers, and most recently, researched giraffes here in Israel. When a giraffe died in a zoo in Ramat Gan, Zivitovsky was given permission to dissect the dead giraffe to further his knowledge of kashrut. Yes, a giraffe is kosher. It chews its cud, has cloven hooves and it only eats plants. These traits make it a kosher animal. So then, one might ask why we can’t buy giraffes at our local meat market. Zivitovsky explains that they are not endangered, they have no natural enemies, and no one hunts them, so in many ways they are an ideal animal to eat. However, the problem is that giraffes are so strong they could kill an adult lion with one kick. You would need to restrain it in order to kill it in the kosher way. Could you imagine having to restrain a giraffe and then climbing three meters in order to slaughter it? The conclusion therefore is that it is not practical to kill giraffes for food.

What do Zivitovsky and Greenspan do with all of their kosher knowledge? Since 2002, they have been hosting a series of very unique dinner parties, where they introduce weird kosher foods to the diner participants. At the first dinner the menu included pigeon, sparrow, water buffalo, fallow deer and red deer, muscovy duck, partridge and pheasant. “Nearly one hundred people filled the restaurant to hear over two hours of lectures and eat a thirteen course meal,” says Zivitovsky. “Had I been cooking, I would have just cooked all thirteen types of birds in one big pot. But we found a master chef, Moshe Basson, who prepared each one differently.”

And for dessert? Grasshoppers! I was shocked that ten to fifteen percent of the participants actually tried them, said Zivitovsky.

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Bruce Beck had to sing in order to get a world exclusive with Israel’s only Olympic Gold medalist.

Every Jewish man remembers his bar mitzvah. Some even remember parts of their haftarah. Rarely does this ‘feat’ get them anywhere in life. Not the case for New York’s NBC TV sports anchor and reporter, Bruce Beck. Bruce grew up in Livingston, New Jersey, 25 miles southwest of Manhattan. Following a traditional, pretty much unremarkable, bar mitzvah in 1969, he attended Ithaca College in upstate New York and became a sports broadcaster. Beck has been the weekend sports anchor for News 4 New York for the past 11 years. As part of Beck’s “dream job,” he has covered Super Bowl XLII, the World Series, the NBA finals, the Stanley Cup Finals, The US Open Tennis Championship, the US Open Golf Championship, the NCAA Final Four and the Kentucky Derby. Nothing, however, he maintains, compares to his’s coverage of the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece, when windsurfer Gal Friedman became the first Israeli to ever win an Olympic gold medal. “I was down at the windsurfing venue trying to get an interview,” reports Beck. “The way it works is that you wait in the mixed zone, a little control area behind fences, with all of the international reporters.”

Beck was waiting patiently when all reporters were told that Gal Friedman would not be coming through the mixed zone. After the 1972 Munich massacre, Israeli athletes simply do not grant en-masse interviews. But Beck was determined. He called Jerusalem and got a hold of Israel’s press liaison in an attempt to find out where in Athens the Israeli delegation was staying. He was then given the name of the local Israeli press secretary in Greece. After a lot of schmoozing, and his revelation of the fact that he was Jewish, the pleasant, persistent reporter was given the name of the hotel. When Beck arrived at the location, the prospects of meeting Friedman seemed slim. Again, all the reporters were waiting behind a fence. “I just needed to get in to interview Friedman. What could I do? I couldn’t speak or read Hebrew very well. I wasn’t a very good Hebrew school student. But I have a very good memory. I am a reporter. And to this day, I remembered my entire haftarah by heart. “So I started singing my haftarah, the special one for Machar Chodesh – the lovely story of David and Jonathan – for the Israeli press secretary. He was so moved that he said, ‘Bruce, come in, we want you to talk to Gal.'” And Beck got the exclusive – he was the only reporter in the world granted access to Gal Friedman. “Gal knew the whole story. He knew that I sang for the press secretary. He laughed. We talked about Munich, the fight for survival of Jews in their homeland, what it would be like to hear Hatikvah that night as he received his gold medal, etc.”

Beck looks back fondly on the story as a rare moment when a reporter’s religious background actually opened an important door, and when the reporter became part of his own story. “Journalists from all around the world wanted to know why Gal Friedman was such a big story, and how I was picked to interview him.”

“Here I was in Athens, Greece – 4,500 miles from home, in the cradle of Western Civilization – never prouder to be an American – never prouder to be a Jew.”

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Original Article Published on The Jerusalem Post

Every Jewish man remembers his bar mitzvah.

Some even remember parts of their haftarah. Rarely does this ‘feat’ get them anywhere in life. Not the case for New York’s NBC TV sports anchor and reporter, Bruce Beck.

Bruce grew up in Livingston, New Jersey, 25 miles southwest of Manhattan. Following a traditional, pretty much unremarkable, bar mitzvah in 1969, he attended Ithaca College in upstate New York and became a sports broadcaster. Beck has been the weekend sports anchor for News 4 New York for the past 11 years.

As part of Beck’s ‘dream job,’ he has covered Super Bowl XLII, the World Series, the NBA finals, the Stanley Cup Finals, The US Open Tennis Championship, the US Open Golf Championship, the NCAA Final Four and the Kentucky Derby.

Nothing, however, he maintains, compares to his’s coverage of the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece, when windsurfer Gal Friedman became the first

Israeli to ever win an Olympic gold medal.

“I was down at the windsurfing venue trying to get an interview,” reports Beck. “The way it works is that you wait in the mixed zone, a little control area behind fences, with all of the international reporters.”

Beck was waiting patiently when all reporters were told that Gal Friedman would not be coming through the mixed zone.

After the 1972 Munich massacre, Israeli athletes simply do not grant en-masse interviews.

But Beck was determined. He called Jerusalem and got a hold of Israel’s press liaison in an attempt to find out where in Athens the Israeli delegation was staying. He was then given the name of the local Israeli press secretary in Greece.

After a lot of schmoozing, and his relevation of the fact that he was Jewish, the pleasant, persistent reporter was given the name of the hotel.

When Beck arrived at the location, the prospects of meeting Friedman seemed slim. Again, all the reporters were waiting behind a fence.

“I just needed to get in to interview Friedman. What could I do? I couldn’t speak or read Hebrew very well. I wasn’t a very good Hebrew school student. But I have a very good memory. I am a reporter. And to this day, I remembered my entire haftarah by heart.

“So I started singing my haftarah, the special one for Machar Chodesh – the lovely story of David and Jonathan – for the Israeli press secretary. He was so moved that he said, ‘Bruce, come in, we want you to talk to Gal.’”

And Beck got the exclusive – he was the only reporter in the world granted access to Gal Friedman.

“Gal knew the whole story. He knew that I sang for the press secretary. He laughed. We talked about Munich, the fight for survival of Jews in their homeland, what it would be like to hear Hatikvah that night as he received his gold medal, etc.”

Beck looks back fondly on the story as a rare moment when a reporter’s religious background actually opened an important door, and when the reporter became part of his own story.

“Journalists from all around the world wanted to know why Gal Friedman was such a big story, and how I was picked to interview him.”

“Here I was in Athens, Greece – 4,500 miles from home, in the cradle of Western Civilization – never prouder to be an American – never prouder to be a Jew.”


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Original Article Published On The Jerusalem Post

It started with a late-night call from DeeDee Benel, my son’s faculty adviser at Manhattan’s Ramaz High School, a private Orthodox Jewish prep school on the Upper East Side. “Everything is OK with Daniel,” she reassured my wife and then began telling her about the birth of her grandson in Denver, Colorado, and the upcoming pidyon haben.

This ceremony is performed for first-born Jewish males who, according to the Torah, belong to G-d and must be “redeemed” by their parents. Only those whose parents are not descendants of the Levites or Kohanim – members of the “priestly class” who cannot be redeemed – undergo the ritual, and only those who have been delivered naturally and not by C-section. It happens 31 days after birth; the father pays five silver coins to a kohen friend who passes them over the child’s head, “releasing” him from his duty to serve G-d as a priest in the Temple, and recites the priestly benediction, Birkat Kohanim. In Temple times, the priests kept the money, but nowadays the kohen tends to return the coins to the father as a nice gift for the child. It all culminates in a festive meal, usually a breakfast, after which everyone dashes off to work.

For the family, it’s a breeze compared to the stressful brit mila circumcision ceremony, when they have eight days to line up a mohel, and a caterer, notify friends, and there’s blood involved. But, nevertheless, Benel was anxious about her grandson’s pidyon haben. Noting that the book of Numbers specifies that the redemption price is “five shekalim of silver, which is 20 gerah,” she told my wife that she had gone on-line looking for the right coins. “I originally ordered coins from a religious man in Brooklyn. I thought they were pidyon haben coins. When they arrived at my home, they were simply U.S. silver dollars.” Halakhically acceptable, but not what Benel, a woman of uncompromising standards, had in mind.

The coins have to contain 100 to 117 grams of silver. Silver dollars minted before 1965 contain 24.06 grams of pure silver. Five of them would fit the bill for a pidyon haben (though more recently minted U.S. coins would not). But Benel wanted something special.

“I went on-line and Googled ‘pidyon haben coins,’” she explained. “The name of one place in Hamden, Connecticut, came up. I called the guy. It was late and he usually closes at 5pm. By a miracle, he was at his desk doing paperwork. I told him the story. And he had the coins I was looking for.” She was referring to a set of coins minted by the Bank of Israel in the 1970s for the specific purpose of pidyon haben. The set consists of five coins containing 117 grams of pure silver. The beautiful 25 lira coins have a small Hebrew mem mint mark and the emblem of the State of Israel on one side and the biblical verse for pidyon haben and five pomegranates on the other.

The coin dealer offered to send the coins overnight mail to Denver. But it was winter and Benel was concerned about the weather. She wanted to personally deliver the coins to her son – the father of the new born boy – who was visiting New York and would be flying back to Denver for the ceremony in two days.

“The delivery of the coins can’t be delayed,” she implored before coming to the point of her call: “I remembered that I had a student from New Haven [Connecticut] … That’s why I’m calling… I didn’t want to ask, but….” Hamden is actually 10 or 15 minutes from our home. “Your friend is a bit nuts, the dealer observes when I arrive at his office the next morning, filling me in on the nonstop series of late-night calls and messages from the irrepressible Benel.

We chat amicably about the price of gold, and he tells me that many people are melting down coins for money and he shows me a table filled with new commemorative gold coins, featuring Shmuel Yosef Agnon and selling for $800 each. “I didn’t even know who Agnon was until I came across these coins and researched the guy,” he tells me.

The dealer (who wishes to remain anonymous, for reasons of safety and security) reaches across his desk for a sturdy blue box, tucked safely inside a Fed Ex envelope.

“Here are the coins for your friend,” he says and, shaking his head, adds: “I’m not a rabbi, but she shouldn’t be buying them. It is the father’s obligation. Besides, five silver dollars would do the job – she could have saved nearly $150.”

Not the sort of argument that would sway a determined Jewish grandmother like DeeDee Benel. And I was glad that I could do my small part to help her get this ancient Jewish ritual just right.

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