Published Articles

Many years ago, Marcy Yellin, mother long time Amitzim camper and Voc Eder, Jacob Yellin, raised an interesting observation. I suspect her comment is no different from ones we hear from Ramah parents in all Ramah camps. The Yellin Family has LOVED Ramah and Tikvah. “Our only regret is that Tikvah is only two months and that we have to wait ten months for camp to start again. Why can’t it be ten months with only two months off?

We in Tikvah have been brainstorming ways to allow members of the community – campers, family members, staff members and numerous “friends of Tikvah” to be connected – both in person and virtually. I would like to introduce some of our “off season” projects. I plan to share details of each in future blog postings. I will strive to post entries an average of once a week.

For the past month or so, several Amitzim campers and counselors have been “piloting” a weekly “Shabbos is Coming” conference call where participants sing “Shabbos is Coming,” discuss the parsha, and shmooze. Voc Eders have been having a similar call with their advisors. How nice to share Shabbat all year round with camp friends!

Voc Ed and Post Voc Ed Staff, along with several Washington, DC – area Friends of Tikvah, had an idea – how about a reunion/Shabbaton in Washington! Stay tuned for details of our January 15-17th reunion – and wait until you hear about the “Tikvah Express,” magically transporting us to DC!

Speaking of reunions – did you know this is the 40th Anniversary of Tikvah? Our Tikvah Program was the first of the Ramah programs for campers with special needs and we are celebrating! Details of our July 11th in camp reunion – for former Tikvah campers and staff an families – will follow shortly. For now, send me anecdotes, stories and reflections (howardb@campramahne.org).

And a different type of Tikvah Reunion – Amitzim staff members and their dear friends from Teva Staff are planning a Shabbat get together in New York in early December. They just might be planning to connect with New York area campers…

Please stay tuned for news of the many ways staff, campers and families are staying connected all year round. I wish we COULD make Marcy Yellin’s suggestion of 12 month camping a reality. Short of that, let’s stay connected in person and virtually!


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Original Article Published on The Jerusalem Post, Jerusalem Post Children’s Articles

Ari Zivitovsky is a little like an ancient explorer. The scientist rabbi travels the world looking for different kosher animals. Zivitovsky has come head to head with grasshoppers, guinea fowl, buffalo even giraffes!

Zivitovsky and his childhood friend, Rabbi Ari Greenspan, are both Americans who came to live in Israel. They are both rabbis and doctors. Lots of information has been lost about which animals are kosher, so these guys are on a mission to find the secrets of weird and crazy kosher animals! A friend came to the two Ari‛s and asked them if a kosher pheasant could be prepared. Neither of them was sure, since the Torah tells us about the 24 birds that are not kosher, but since those times, many more species of birds have been discovered! The rabbi doctors did lots of research and Rabbi Yosef Kafich taught them that pheasant is kosher, and in his Yemenite family, they have been eating kosher pheasant for centuries!

Zivitovsky and Greenspan have travelled the word together in search of exotic kosher animals. They went to Turkey in search of the Talmudic Shiboota fish, to Cyprus, in search of a special grasshopper that is considered kosher, and recently they were called to an animal park in Israel to research giraffes. Giraffes are considered kosher. The reason we don’t eat them is because giraffes are so strong that they could kill a lion with one kick. It would be very hard for a shochet to try and hold them down!

Since 2002, Zivitovsky and Greenspan have been holding special dinner parties, where people can come try all sorts of newfound kosher animal dishes, including pigeon, sparrow, water buffalo, fallow deer, red deer, Muscovy duck, partridge and pheasant. And for dessert? Grasshoppers! The two Ari’s have certainly shown us that there is more to keeping kosher than eating lots of chicken!

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Original Article Published on The Jerusalem Post, Jerusalem Post Children’s Articles

The US was awash with tennis champions during the US Open and the many lead-up competitions that preceded it. Dash American correspondent Howard Blas had the opportunity to catch up with two of Israel’s leading tennis players, Shahar Peer and Dudi Sela during the competition.

Tennis is one of the world’s leading international sports. Players and fans from all around the world converge upon Roland Garros (French Open), Wimbledon (Wimbledon), Melbourne Park (Australian Open) and Flushing Meadows (US Open) to see the world’s best tough it out game after game, set after set, in impossible heat, in order to bring home the trophy, the crown of the tennis world.

Though they haven’t won a grand slam tournament yet, Israeli tennis stars Shahar Peer and Dudi Sela are on the rise, and have captured the hearts of Israeli and Jewish tennis fans across the globe. Earlier in 2009, Shahar Pe’er made headlines around the world when she was denied a visa for Dubai in order to compete in the Dubai Tennis Championships, only because she was Israeli. Also earlier in the year, Dudi Sela put Israel squarely on the tennis map during the Davis Cup quarter final men’s singles match, which was played at the Nokia Stadium in Tel Aviv. To the home crowd’s delight, Sela knocked over Russian tennis giant Mikhail Youzhny to get to the semifinals. D’ash American correspondent, Howard Blas, had the opportunity to catch up with Israel’s tennis stars during the Pilot Pen, a US open warm-up. This month we are featuring Shahar Peer and next month we will be featuring Dudi Sela.

Shahar Peer is one of the highest ranked women’s tennis players in Israel’s history. She and Anna Smashnova, another Israeli tennis champion, have each reached 15th in the world. The 22 year old Peer was born in Jerusalem and when she is not playing tennis around the world, lives in Maccabim. She enjoys reading and romance movies! She has an older brother Shlomi, who is 29 and an older sister, Shani, who is 26. Her mother, Aliza, is a retired sports teacher and her father, Dovik, is CEO of a software company. She comes from an athletic family. Her father was an award winning swimmer and her mother was a champion sprinter. D”ash reporter Howard Blas briefly met Peer at the Pilot Pen, a tennis tournament in New Haven, Connecticut, which serves as a warm up to the U.S. Open.

How many times have you played in the US Open? What is your current ATP ranking? This is my fifth time playing in the U.S. Open (first time was 2005). I am currently ranked 64th in the world.

Do you enjoy playing overseas? never play in Israel. There are no tournaments in Israel! (The only time I play in Israel is in the nationals). So I am always playing tennis overseas it is my life, my job, my career. I enjoy traveling. It is part of what I do.

What’s your greatest challenge as an athlete? It is not so hard being an athlete. I enjoy what I do. I guess the greatest challenge is playing well.

What’s your greatest challenge as an Israeli athlete? It is not so challenging being an Israeli athlete. I am proud of Israel and I enjoy representing Israel.

When competing overseas, do you find a lot of Israelis/Jews come to support you? Yes, especially places like New York at the U.S. Open and Melbourne at the Australian Open. Israelis and Jews come out to cheer and show support.

How does Israel’s prowess on the Tennis court affect public opinion about Israel, in your opinion? I am not sure what people think about Israel or about Israeli tennis. I hope it is positive. I hope they are happy watching Israelis playing the sport.

Can you tell our readers about your army service? Was it a tough decision to do it since you are a professional athlete? Or was it important simply because you are Israeli? Going in to the army is natural. Everyone does it for their country. I am happy I did it. I did what I had to do for my country.

You’ve had a couple of interesting, somewhat high profile incidents in the past few years. First, what was it like teaming up with Indian Sania Mirza for doubles and what was your reaction to playing with a Muslim player? We were friends before we played together and we are still good friends. We don’t involve any politics on the court.

How do you feel now looking back on the Dubai incident in February? How did it feel to have the support of Venus Williams and other players? Note: Peer was prevented from playing at the Dubai Tennis Championships in the United Arab Emirates since she was denied visa. Many players condemned this action and some sponsors pulled out. The tournament organizers were also forced to pay major fines for this action. Israeli tennis player Andy Ram was given a visa for the same tournament the following week. It was not a happy thing. I was not happy about it. I was happy that other players came out and supported me. I was especially proud of Andy Roddick.

If you had a message for all of your fans out there, Israeli, Jewish or otherwise, what would it be? Work hard and enjoy what you are doing.

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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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