JONATHAN S. TOBIN - Biden will do everything he can to help Lapid and 11 Challah Facts Every Jewish Woman Should Know By Yvette Miller and Sandy Koufax honored with a statue at Dodger Stadium BY JACOB GURVIS and a Polish man who rescued Jews from the Nazis dies at 102 and The Portion of Korach -The Torah Itself Feels the Pain and The moral clarity of Nikki Haley

View in browser Yehuda Lave is an author, journalist, psychologist, rabbi, spiritual teacher, and coach, with degrees in business, psychology and Jewish Law. He works with people from all walks of life and helps them in their search for greater happiness, meaning, business advice on saving money, and spiritual engagement. Love Yehuda Lave Join my blog by sending me an email to YehudaLave@gmail.com The Portion of Korach The Torah Itself Feels the Pain The atmosphere in the camp, following the long litany of complaints (lack of meat, the spies, etc.) was perfect for a challenge of the leadership. Korach had no problem in seizing the moment and assembling and inciting a crowd of supporters against Moses and Aaron. They assembled against Moses and Aaron, and said to them, "You take too much upon yourselves, for the entire congregation are all holy, and the Lord is in their midst. So why do you raise yourselves above the Lord's assembly?" (Numbers 16;3) Whoever reads the portion of Korach cannot help feeling the pain and anguish felt by Moses and Aaron after having devoted their lives in behalf of their people. This feeling of pain and cry of anguish "vey" is alluded to in the unusual manner that the letter "vav" is written as the first letter, and subsequent letters, in this portion, thereby emphasizing the very harsh atmosphere present in the camp The Three Musketeers at the Kotel The Three are Rabbi Yehuda Glick, famous temple mount activist, and former Israel Mk, and then Robert Weinger, the world's greatest shofar blower and seller of Shofars, and myself after we had gone to the 12 gates of the Temple Mount in 2020 to blow the shofar to ask G-d to heal the world from the Pandemic. It was a highlight to my experience in living in Israel and I put it on my blog each day to remember. The articles that I include each day are those that I find interesting, so I feel you will find them interesting as well. I don't always agree with all the points of each article but found them interesting or important to share with you, my readers, and friends. It is cathartic for me to share my thoughts and frustrations with you about life in general and in Israel. As a Rabbi, I try to teach and share the Torah of the G-d of Israel as a modern Orthodox Rabbi. I never intend to offend anyone but sometimes people are offended and I apologize in advance for any mistakes. The most important psychological principle I have learned is that once someone's mind is made up, they don't want to be bothered with the facts, so, like Rabbi Akiva, I drip water (Torah is compared to water) on their made-up minds and hope that some of what I have share sinks in. Love Rabbi Yehuda Lave. JONATHAN S. TOBIN - Biden will do everything he can to help Lapid Despite outrage about interventions in its own elections, America has often sought to influence Israeli politics. Expect Washington to pull out the stops to try to sabotage Netanyahu. (June 22, 2022 / JNS) The latest developments in Israeli politics provided President Joe Biden with a good excuse to postpone his visit to Israel next month. With the collapse of Israel's coalition government this week, the country is saddled with an interim government headed by an unelected prime minister in Yair Lapid who is about to launch his campaign to hold onto the office. Scheduling a visit by the leader of Israel's sole superpower ally at the start of what promises to be a bitterly fought election campaign will make it clear that Washington is far from neutral when it comes to the outcome. And that is exactly the impression that Biden is hoping to leave when he goes to the Jewish state in July. Far from being an unwelcome development, the exit of Naftali Bennett from the prime minister's office is good news for the Biden administration. It viewed Bennett—the leader of a small party that was actually to the right of the Likud and former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu—as a necessary evil. Since his decision to throw in with Lapid and the ragtag coalition of parties from the left, right, center and one Arab Islamist faction was the only reason that Netanyahu was ousted, Biden and his foreign-policy team treated him with kid gloves over the course of his year in Israel's top job. The administration was itching to bash the Jewish state over every new home built in Jerusalem or Judea and Samaria, as well as for every ginned-up dispute about the Palestinians involving Israeli self-defense against terrorism. It was also less than enthused over Jerusalem's ongoing campaign to sabotage Iran's nuclear program that was being conducted even as the Americans were desperately trying to convince Tehran to cut a new and even weaker deal. But they passed on every opportunity to do so, signaling that their preference was for the Bennett-Lapid coalition to somehow cling to power. Bennett repaid their courtesy by declining to push openly for Americans to speak up against the new push for appeasement of Iran, thereby undermining critics of Biden's feckless policy among both Democrats and Republicans. According to the coalition agreement, Bennet's fall means that Lapid will become premier until a new one can be elected. That provides Biden with a far more accommodating Israeli counterpart. Not only can Lapid be counted on to back the administration when it comes to Iran, but his support for the intellectually bankrupt two-state solution approach to the Palestinians would allow the Biden team to revive the same delusional peace-process policies most of them pursued when serving under former President Barack Obama. Subscribe to The JNS Daily Syndicate by email and never miss our top stories That is, if he can hang on to the prime minister's office. While Lapid's Yesh Atid Party remains the second-largest in the Knesset and is likely to hold onto that distinction in the next election, it will still rank far behind Likud. The notion that Netanyahu's corruption trial, which drags on endlessly despite the weakening of the already flimsy case against him during the course of its first year, will hurt him has already exploded. There doesn't seem to be any scenario in which Lapid can put together a 61-seat majority, even if parties like Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu, Gideon Sa'ar's New Hope or even Bennett's Yamina—all of which oppose the new prime minister's views on security and the Palestinians—stick with him. Lapid's best chance to keep Netanyahu out of office is another stalemate, much like the results of the four elections that were held between 2019 and 2021. As the caretaker prime minister, Lapid can hold onto his new title, much as Netanyahu did during that period, as long as there is no duly constituted new governing majority. And to achieve that goal, he can count on any help that Biden is able to give him. Despite the righteous indignation that Americans feel about the thought of other nations intervening in their politics—such as the outrage that the hoax/conspiracy theory about the Russians colluding with former President Donald Trump to steal the 2016 election generated among Democrats—the United States has a long history of trying to influence democratic elections elsewhere, especially in Israel. In the last 30 years, presidents from both American political parties have sought to prevent Likud governments from being formed. President George H.W. Bush did his best to help Yitzhak Rabin topple Yitzhak Shamir in 1992. President Bill Clinton did everything but canvas door-to-door in Tel Aviv in a vain quest to aid Shimon Peres's doomed effort to defeat Benjamin Netanyahu in the months after Rabin's assassination. He had better luck three years later when Ehud Barak knocked off Netanyahu in 1999. A decade later, in his first months in office, Obama openly plotted to prevent Netanyahu from forming a coalition after the 2009 election and then spent the next years trying unsuccessfully to ensure that his government fell. In fact, Obama never stopped scheming against Netanyahu as his opposition to efforts to pressure the Jewish state to make dangerous concessions to the Palestinians, coupled with his campaign against the Iran nuclear deal, made his defeat something of an obsession for that administration. Indeed, in one of the more brazen acts of intervention, the Obama State Department even helped funnel cash to efforts that helped Netanyahu's opponents under the guise of funding "pro-democracy" efforts in Israel. By the same token, former President Donald Trump did all he could to help Netanyahu in the three elections held in 2019 and 2020 with both unprecedented pro-Israel policies and giving his ideological ally the benefit of stage-managed events that touted the Abraham Accords. So, there will be nothing new in Biden seeking to put his finger on the Israeli electoral scale for Lapid. Still, the next prime minister needs to be wary of the American embrace. The more that Biden makes his distaste known for a Netanyahu comeback—and a snub of the opposition leader next month is a given—the more ammunition it will provide the Likud Party. Netanyahu lost office because Israelis were no longer deeply divided on security issues since a consensus that stretches from the center-left to the right believes that there is no peace partner, as well as for the necessity of the country doing everything in its power to stop an Iranian nuclear weapon. The more Biden makes obvious his preference and that a new right-wing/religious coalition will result in American disfavor, the more it will impress upon Israeli voters that another stalemate will mean that policies they regard as dangerous will be pursued—something not true of the Bennett-Lapid government that was too weak and divided to do anything important. That would make it clear to the electorate that allowing Lapid to stay in office means issues of war and peace—and not how tired they are of Netanyahu and his family—should be the decisive factor in the outcome. All of this means that the Israeli section of Biden's tour will be even more closely watched than it might have been had Bennett hung on. Yet Biden and the rest of the Obama alumni that run U.S. foreign policy these days should remember that the more they bashed Netanyahu in the past, the stronger he became. A repeat of that formula might be just the thing to enable the Democrats' bête noire to secure the 61 Knesset seats that he needs to win the election outright. If he does, that will undoubtedly mean a new period of tension and conflict between Washington and Jerusalem. But this wouldn't be the first time Israeli voters demonstrated that they don't like taking instructions from American politicians. Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS (Jewish News Syndicate). Follow him on Twitter at: @jonathans_tobin. The moral clarity of Nikki Haley With her fellow Republicans seemingly unable to produce a coherent vision for America to counter the disastrous Biden administration a recent speech was pitch-perfect and received by her conservative London audience like rain in a desert. Op-ed. Melanie Phillips24.06.22 08:54 Melanie Phillips Biden administration Nikki Haley TPS Hillel Mayer (JNS) U.S. President Joe Biden is about to travel to the Middle East in an attempt to alleviate the mess created by his own ineptitude. He is due to go cap in hand to Saudi Arabia to beg the leader of a state he has publicly reviled as a human rights "pariah," Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, to bring oil prices down in order to alleviate the fuel shortage caused by the war in Ukraine. And the reason for that war is the catastrophic signal Biden himself sent out when America scuttled so ignominiously from Afghanistan. This told Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, that an America that had so badly lost all sense of itself as a defender of freedom wouldn't lift a finger against Russian aggression. Thus emboldened, Putin launched his onslaught against Ukraine. Drawing the same conclusion from the rout of America, China has been rubbing its hands over Taiwan, which is now at far greater risk of a Chinese attack. And Iran has felt emboldened to thumb its nose at America by ramping up its aggression in the region and brazenly advertising its imminent breakout of nuclear weapons capacity. In other words, the Biden administration has made the world an infinitely more dangerous place. So a speech by Nikki Haley in London this week seemed to offer a lifeline. Haley, who is spoken of as a possible vice-presidential candidate in 2024, was appointed by former President Donald Trump as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, where she did an outstanding job in robustly standing up for Israel and the West against their many enemies. While she has not declared herself to be running for high office, her delivery of the Colin Cramphorn Memorial Lecture at the Policy Exchange think-tank sounded like a leadership campaign speech. And with her fellow Republicans seemingly unable to produce a coherent vision for America to counter the disaster of the Biden administration, it was pitch-perfect and received by her conservative London audience like rain in a desert. It was the speech of a leader rousing not just her party and her nation but also Western civilization itself to battle for survival. The West, she said, was in danger as a result of its own myopic and craven behavior. While Putin's aggression, she said, was precipitated by the rout of America in Afghanistan, this followed in turn decades of a total failure of deterrence by the West. Faced with Russia's aggression in the Crimea and Syria, as well as its use of chemical weapons to target dissidents on the streets of Britain, the West had done almost nothing to hold Putin to account for these crimes. The West, she warned, was now at an inflection point with its back against the wall. Russia and China had formed an alliance to bring down the West that was closer than the alliance between Mao and Stalin. The third party in this troika of evil was Iran, which was intent on regional domination and whose own belligerence promoted Russian ambitions. The West's lethal mistake, she said, had been to assume that economic interdependence with such regimes would promote peace and avoid conflict. The opposite was the case. Now the West needed to make a fundamental shift by detaching from its enemies and relying instead on its friends. This, of course, is particularly true in the Middle East. Ever since the fanatical Iranian revolutionary regime came to power in 1979, the West has astoundingly ignored the war that Iran has waged against it through terrorism and the killing of Western soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. And the West has also incentivized endless violence in the Middle East through its insistence on rewarding Palestinian Arab rejectionism and anti-Jewish bigotry by punishing Israel and undermining its security purely for resisting such attempts to destroy it. What was so refreshing was the clarity of Haley's message and her refusal to soft-soap brutal realities. If the West is to defend itself, she warned, it has to be prepared to take the pain and sacrifice involved in decoupling from China and Russia. It needs to show strength and the intention to win. And to do all that, it needs above all to believe that it is actually worth defending. "Only countries proud of their inheritance can defeat their enemies," she said. "Our self-loathing has to stop." This indeed is key. Unless the West believes in the principles for which it stands, it cannot survive. America itself is a moral project or it is nothing. But at the moment, it seems determined to make that second option come true. For it is dangerously riven by the most profound social, cultural and political divisions. It is divided between intellectual elites and the rest; between black and white; between gender ideologues and those who believe there are men and there are women; between Democrats and Republicans; between pro-Trump Republicans and Never-Trump Republicans. The divisions are bitter, violent and viciously polarized. Civilized engagement between opposing views seems to have become all but impossible. Opinions diverging from politically approved positions are being suppressed through character assassination and professional and social intimidation. The building blocks of society have been grievously undermined. Traditional family life has been eroded. Education has ceased transmitting Western culture to the next generation and instead is teaching the young to hate their society. And as the West has turned on itself, so inevitably it has turned on the Jews through both domestic anti-Semitism and the demonization and delegitimization of Israel aimed at bringing about its destruction. The onslaught being mounted in the Western world against the Jewish people will not end unless and until the West ends its own onslaught against itself. The challenge facing Western leaders therefore could not be more momentous. But could any leader meet it? Is it actually possible to stop America's slide into cultural fragmentation and global impotence? When asked this question in London, Haley said America simply couldn't afford to fail. And her own approach showed how, if this desperate task has any chance of succeeding, the West can stop itself from plunging off the edge of the cultural cliff. The only way is through leadership that exhibits the kind of moral clarity she was expressing. For the reason that evil currently has the upper hand in the world is the absence of leaders prepared to make it clear that they simply won't stand for attacks on their society at home or on the free world abroad. What is so astounding isn't just the appeasement of the West's enemies abroad. It is also that that, at home, the lunacies of critical race theory and intersectionality have gained such traction in the universities, schools, companies and even the armed forces. It's all part of the same dismal story—a wholesale absence of Western spine. What makes the timidity of Western politicians all the more frustrating is the demonstrable public hunger for such leadership and the rewards that it brings. In America, this was demonstrated by last year's stunning election victory in Virginia of Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who gained office in a hitherto solidly Democratic state by emphasizing parental rights to make decisions about their children's education with the slogan, "parents matter." And in Israel, the Trump administration's decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem not only did not produce the eruption of violence so adamantly predicted by the U.S. State department and hosts of other faint hearts, but ushered in the revolutionary Abraham Accords between Israel and the Gulf states. One thing above all is required at present from the leaders of the West. It's moral courage. Whoever displays that deserves to win the highest office. It is essential that whoever fails to display it does not. Melanie Phillips, a British journalist, broadcaster and author, writes a weekly column for JNS. Currently a columnist for "The Times of London," her personal and political memoir, "Guardian Angel," has been published by Bombardier, which also published her first novel, "The Legacy." Go to melaniephillips.substack.com to access her work. 11 Challah Facts Every Jewish Woman Should Know By Yvette Miller Challah is the rich braided bread that adorns Shabbat tables in Jewish homes the world over. Here are 11 interesting tidbits you might not know about this essential, delicious traditional bread: 1. Biblical Origins The word challah in the Torah first occurs when G‑d describes to the Jewish people what life will be like for them in the Land of Israel: When you come to the Land to which I bring you, it shall be that when you will eat of the bread of the Land, you shall set aside a challah (portion) for G‑d. (Numbers 15: 18-19) Challah is used to describe the portion that is set aside. Doughs made of any of the five grains (wheat, barley, spelt, rye or oats) should have a portion separated out, which was later given to the priests who worked in the Temple and their families to eat. Further reading: About Challah 2. Challah in the Temple When the ancient Temple stood in Jerusalem, 12 special unleavened wheat loaves, called challah, were displayed on a gleaming golden table, opposite the golden menorah. These delicious fresh loaves were changed weekly and represented each of the 12 tribes of Israel who together formed one whole: the Jewish people. The holiness of the Temple might be denied to us at the moment, but the holiness that resided in it did not disappear. Each of our homes can be a Mikdash Me'at, a miniature Temple. We do not have the magnificent golden menorah of the Temple, but we each can cherish the more modest lights of our Shabbat and holiday candles in our homes. Although we no longer have the 12 show breads on the golden table of the Temple, we still place two loaves of luscious challah on our Shabbat and holiday tables. Further reading: The Showbread 3. Why Two Loaves? It's traditional to place two loaves of bread on Shabbat and holiday tables. This represents the double portion of manna with which G‑d fed the Jewish people as they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years after leaving Egypt. (Shabbos 117b) As slaves, the Jews had been subjected to very harsh work. They learned in the desert how to pause in their labor by observing Shabbat, when no work was done. Since the only work the Jews had to do in the desert was gather their daily portion of manna (all other needs, such as shelter and clothing, were taken care of directly by G‑d), they were instructed not to gather it on the weekly holiday of Shabbat. Instead, G‑d sent a double portion of manna each Friday; it's this double portion we recall through our double challah loaves on Shabbat. Further reading: The Two Shabbat Loaves 4. Remembering the Temple Today Play VideoDo-It-Yourself Taking Challah 16 Although our Temple is destroyed and we no longer have priests whose lineage we can verify beyond any doubt, we still observe the mitzvah of separating challah today. Jewish bakers, both home cooks and commercial bakeries, separate a portion of dough, equal in size to a small egg, from each batch of bread they bake. After kneading the dough, cooks say a special blessing: Baruch Atah Ado-noy, Elo-hei-nu Melech Ha-Olam, Asher Kid-e-sha-nu B'mitz-vo-tav V'tzi-vanu L'Haf-Rish Challah. In English, this means: "Blessed are You, L‑rd our G‑d, King of the Universe, Who has sanctified us with His commandments and has commanded us to separate challah." Separate an egg-sized portion of dough and set it aside to be burned to a crisp later, either on the stove or in an oven. (Note: No other bread may be baked in the oven while this portion is being burned.) After separating the challah portion, hold the egg-sized piece that is to be burned and declare: Ha-rei zu challah. ("Behold, this is challah.") Note: only batches of bread dough made with three or more pounds of flour (of any of the five grains: wheat, oats, spelt, barley or rye) are separated with a blessing. Batches of dough made with between two and three pounds of flour are separated without a blessing, and doughs made with less than two pounds of flour are not separated at all. It's become the custom of many Jewish woman to purposely bake bread with larger amounts of flour, to give themselves the opportunity of performing the mitzvah of separating challah dough. 5. Flat Challah Many modern Jews think of challah as a delicious loaf of braided egg bread. But during the centuries, the definition of just what type of bread this refers to has evolved. Flatter loaves of bread are still used in some Sephardic communities. Some Moroccan Jews serve round loaves of bread, sometimes sprinkled with spices and olive oil before baking, on Shabbat. Jews of Yemen traditionally served a flat bread called lachoch, fried in a pan, on Shabbat. Some Persian Jewish households place beautiful loaves of barbari, a flat glazed bread, on their Shabbat tables. 6. Inventing the Braided Loaf Play VideoSoft and Fluffy Challah for Shabbat 5 Today, many people associate Shabbat challah with braided golden bread infused with eggs, and sometimes studded with sweet raisins. According to some, Jews began baking these types of braided challahs in the 1400s in southern Germany and Austria. Most Jews at the time ate dark rye bread during the week; to distinguish Shabbat bread, cooks started baking with fine white wheat flour. Additions like eggs and raisins enhanced these special loaves even more. Braiding made them look even more festive. It's possible that these long-ago Jewish bakers inspired their non-Jewish neighbors because egg-rich, braided loaves became traditional in the region, sometimes called berchisbrod or perchisbrod, and are still eaten today. Further reading: Why Is Challah Braided? 7. Salting Our Challah After saying the blessing on the challah (or all other bread), it's customary to slice it and dip it into salt. This recalls the salt that the priests in the ancient Temple used to sprinkle on the sacrifices they offered to G‑d and links us directly to the worship of our ancient ancestors in Jerusalem. Salt is also symbolic of the Jewish people: It never spoils, is always fresh, and brings out the beauty and flavor of everything it touches. Why Do We Dip the Challah Into Salt? 8. Not Hurting Challah's Feelings? Art by Rae Chichilnitsky When Shabbat and holiday challah loaves are set on the table, they are draped with a beautiful cover, hiding them until it is time to make the Hamotzi blessing over bread. One of the reasons behind this custom reveals a great deal about the value that Judaism places on kindness and sensitivity to others; we cover the loaves of challah because it's customary to make a blessing over wine on Shabbat and holidays before making a blessing over the challah, and we want to shield the challah from this knowledge that it doesn't come first. If we take such pains to shield the feelings of mere bread, how much more care must we take to guard the feelings of our fellow men and women? Further reading: Why Do We Cover the Challah? 9. 'Water' Challah Not all challah loaves are the same. Many Sephardi Jews bake simple loaves of "water" challah, containing no eggs, sugar or other sweetener. 10. Beautiful Shapes Throughout the Jewish year, some communities bake challah in different shapes or incorporating different decorations. It's common in all Jewish communities to eat round challah loaves from Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, all the way through Simchat Torah, several weeks later. The round shape of these special challahs symbolizes the circular nature of the Jewish year. They also recall crowns, recalling G‑d's majesty during the High Holy Days. Some Jews have the custom of baking "Schlissel" challah, also called "Key" challah, the first Shabbat after Passover. This is challah baked in the shape of a key. In some communities, bakers baked real keys into their challahs. Key challahs commemorate when the manna began to fall. Our ancestors felt the sheltering care of G‑d, who looked after the Jews in the desert. One of the reasons suggested for baking this challah is that key-shaped challahs remind us to ask G‑d to unlock the key to His treasure box for our own livelihood. The Shabbat before Yom Kippur, some Jews bake challah decorated with the shape of ladders baked into the dough, symbolizing Moses' climbing of Mount Sinai and our hopes that our prayers scale the Heavens on Yom Kippur. Others bake "Feygelech," or "Little Bird" challah before Yom Kippur; this recalls the prophet Isaiah's promise, "Like flying birds, so will G‑d, Master of Legions, protect Jerusalem, protecting and rescuing, passing over and delivering." (Isaiah 31:5) Recipe: Round Raisin Challah Further reading: Why is Rosh Hashanah Challah Round? 11. A Sacred Moment Play VideoKneading G‑d in Creation 5 While there is no obligation to bake one's own challah, some Jewish women who do choose to bake challah for their families use the time to pray. Some women recite Psalms; others formulate prayers in their own words. As discussed above, separating challah is a major mitzvah that imbues one's home and one's challah with holiness. Some women like to compare the seven ingredients of traditional Ashkenazi-style challah each represent a spiritual dimension as well. Water is often compared to the Torah and its wisdom. Yeast represents our ability to grow and expand and reach new heights. Sugar reminds us of the sweetness we hope to bring into our families and communities. Salt brings out the taste in other ingredients and also recalls the Jewish people; like salt, we never spoil, but remain fresh always. Oil, in biblical times, was used to anoint kings and the priests who served in the Temple; it reminds us to bring majesty and holiness into our lives, too. Eggs represent the giving of life—something Jewish women through the ages have nurtured in our homes and communities. Flour represents nourishment: Just as the flour sustains us physically, we hope that the challah we consume on Shabbat and Jewish holidays sustains us spiritually. Sandy Koufax honored with a statue at Dodger Stadium BY JACOB GURVIS LOS ANGELES (JTA) — For Jewish sports fans around the world, Sandy Koufax has for decades occupied an unmatched legendary status. Now, 57 years after the Hall of Fame pitcher sat out a World Series game to observe Yom Kippur, Koufax has officially been immortalized with a statue at Dodger Stadium — next to his former teammate, Jackie Robinson. The Los Angeles Dodgers unveiled the Koufax statue with a pregame ceremony on Saturday, three years after the statue was initially announced. The unveiling was originally planned for the summer of 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Emceed by Dodgers broadcaster Charley Steiner, who is Jewish, the ceremony was attended by dozens of Koufax's friends and family, plus members of the Dodgers organization, including manager Dave Roberts. Koufax, left, with sculptor Branly Cadet. (Jacob Gurvis) Koufax's Jewish identity — and his famous Yom Kippur sitout — were highlighted alongside his many career accolades, which include three Cy Young Awards for the sport's best pitcher and three seasons each with more than 300 strikeouts and an earned run average below two. "An African American star athlete from Pasadena is about to be joined by a Jewish left-handed pitcher from Brooklyn, who in one defining moment, prior to the first game of the 1965 World Series, he galvanized an entire community, and a generation of Baby Boomers — children of the '60s and '70s who are now adults in their 60s and 70s," Steiner said in his opening remarks. During a tribute video played later in the event, Koufax's decision not to pitch in Game 1 of the 1965 World Series was referred to as "an act of conscience, principle and even peaceful disobedience." The Jewish references ended there — with no mention that the ceremony took place on Shabbat — but the praise for the 86-year-old lefty did not. In addition to Steiner, the crowd also heard from Joe Torre, a Hall of Fame player and longtime New York Yankees manager who now works for the commissioner's office; current Dodgers star and fellow lefty Clayton Kershaw; and Dodgers owner and chairman Mark Walter. Torre, who ended his managerial career with the Dodgers from 2008-2010, marveled at Koufax's pitching prowess, including the times he faced him as an opposing batter. Kershaw spoke about Koufax's friendship and mentorship. "Sandy, one day I hope I can impact someone the way you championed me — you really have — left-handed pitcher or not," Kershaw said. Following the tribute video, Walter took his turn at the podium. He called Koufax "one of the greatest players of all time," but also emphasized his influence off the field. "So, Sandy, when you're great on and off the field, this is one of the things that happens for you," Walter said, pointing toward Koufax's heretofore covered statue, which was then revealed to applause. Check out our Jewish sports newsletter. SUBSCRIBE HERE Finally, Koufax himself addressed the crowd. He called the statue "one of the greatest honors of my life," and offered a brief retrospective of his illustrious career, beginning with his introduction to baseball at Lafayette High School in the Bath Beach section of Brooklyn. Koufax thanked various coaches and teammates, paying special tribute to Robinson. The two Hall of Famers overlapped for two years with the Brooklyn Dodgers — the first two seasons of Koufax's career and the last two of Robinson's. The Dodgers moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in 1958, Koufax's fourth season with the team. "Jackie went out of his way to make me feel welcome, and I'll never forget his kindness on that," he said. The two statues were both made by sculptor Branly Cadet. Koufax chose the pose for the statue and the quotes engraved on its edges. The sculpture — showing the 6-foot 2-inch Koufax in his full enormous stride, about to deliver a pitch — is 10% larger than life size. In 1972, the three-time World Series champion became the youngest player ever elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and that same year the Dodgers retired his No. 32. His career was cut short at the age of 30 by arthritis in his left elbow. Fifty years later, the golden-armed Jewish left-hander from Brooklyn — and his iconic windup — are permanently set into bronze. Polish man who rescued Jews from the Nazis dies at 102 Jozef Walaszczyk hired 30 Jews to work at a potato-flour factory and kept them alive by bribing a German official. Jozef Walaszczyk, a member of the Polish resistance who rescued Jews during the Holocaust. (June 22, 2022 / JNS) Jozef Walaszczyk, part of the Polish resistance during the Nazi German occupation of Poland during World War II, died at the age of 102 on Monday, according to the Institute of National Remembrance, a Polish state historical body. The AP reported that Walaszczyk had been staying in a hotel with a Jewish woman when the German Gestapo searched the premises. He only then discovered she was Jewish and helped her hide and distracted the Germans by playing sick. The Gestapo later arrested the woman, Irena Front, and another 20 Jews. Walaszczyk arranged to bribe the Germans to release the Jews; he was able to get a kilogram of gold in a number of hours and saved their lives, according to the institute. He also hired 30 Jews to work at a potato-flour factory and kept them alive by bribing a German official. According to the Polish state historical body and the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, most of the Jewish workers he employed survived World War II and the Holocaust. Se you tomorrow bli neder We need Moshiach Now! Love Yehuda Lave Yehuda Lave, Spirtual Advisor and Counselor Jerusalem, Jerusalem  Israel 972-585043210 YehudaLave@gmail.com You received this email because you signed up on our website or made a purchase from us. Unsubscribe