I thought that, in this issue, rather than answer a question, I would tell you about an exciting initiative in the shidduch world with a catchy name. Perhaps you have heard of it. Nix the Pix is the brainchild (or should I say “heartchild”) of well-known shadchan, Lisa Elefant from New York, who also spearheads the “Adopt the Shadchan” shidduch organization.

Summer is coming to a close (how quickly the seasons change), and children will soon don their backpacks, filled with pristine notebooks and newly sharpened pencils, and head out the door. What are their thoughts and hopes – and what are those of their parents and teachers? If last year was a successful one, they anticipate more happy times. If last year was a disaster, they hope this year will be better. But all of them, all of us – parents, teachers, and kids – wonder what they can do to make this upcoming year a great one. Here are some insights and ideas from children, teachers, parents.

Summer is winding down, and vacation season is coming to a close. Taking a cue from the classic first-day-of-school essay that teachers tell children to write, I will ask, what did your family do this summer and, more importantly, was it a vacation for you?

“The kids had a great time, but it wasn’t a vacation for me,” said Yehuda, a father of seven after a family trip. When asked what would be a vacation for him, he said, “A vacation for me includes my own bed, food that I like, and cool air-conditioning. Obviously, to Yehuda, a real vacation is spent in his bedroom!

Taking a cue from the favorite Rosh Hashanah song of both little kids and their teachers, I have put together some apple-and-honey recipes that will make a big hit with the family.

Elul is here, and the King is in the field. These days approaching Rosh Hashanah are designated for teshuva – a time when the universe is ripe for personal growth, when we concentrate on our middos and our Yiddishkeit. But how do we use the power of Elul to be our best selves? To make even one small change?

For more than 20 years, Rabbi Aryeh Nivin has focused on this work and guided thousands of others on how to do the Elul avoda, using Torah sources such as the Arizal, Derech Hashem, and the Slonimer Rebbe.

In our neighborhood, there is a small wooded area that is home to wild animals, such as deer, foxes, squirrels, and feigelach (birds). The birds include finches, cardinals, robins, and a Yiddish-speaking bird named Raizeleh. 

SURVIVAL

Yesterday we sat and pondered why

The way was so steep and so many died

Why must we suffer, we do implore     

But when we see the final Geulah, we will agonize no more.

Dedicated to the ones who didn’t survive,

and to my parents, who believed I could write

 This story is written in loving memory of my father, Werner Victor Cohen (Avigdor ben Avraham Hakohen), who passed away on June 11, 2021.

My father, Werner Victor Cohen, was born in Essen, Germany, on December 8, 1921. In addition to himself, my father’s family consisted of his parents, Albert and Hedwig Cohen, and his sister, Lore.

During the Kristallnacht attacks on Jews, on Nov. 9 and 10, 1939, my dad and his father, Albert, were taken from their home by the Nazis. His father was incarcerated at a city jail and released, but my Dad was taken to Dachau concentration camp. He was one of the youngest sent there. He spent several brutal weeks in the camp while Hitler (yemach shemo) used this opportunity to test whether there would be any international condemnation. There was deafening silence.

On January 17, 1991, a coalition of armed forces from 34 countries led by the United States started operation Desert Storm to liberate recently-conquered Kuwait from Iraq. Iraq began its retaliation the next day. Over a period of several weeks, 39 modified Scud B (Al Hussein) missiles were fired at Israel, with 14 exploding in highly-populated residential areas of Tel Aviv and Haifa. (The remainder of the Scuds were either duds, or landed in the wilderness, in the Mediterranean, or were intercepted by U.S. Patriot anti-missile missiles.) Two Israelis were directly killed by these Scuds, and 11 were seriously injured.

In 1993, a scientific paper written by Fetter, Lewis, and Gronlund, entitled “Why Were Scud Casualties So Low?” was published in the prestigious British scientific journal Nature.[1] An expanded and more detailed version of the paper appeared a few months later.[2] The low casualty rate had attracted professional scientific interest. The paper uses a standard mathematical formula to predict the number of casualties expected in a missile attack. The formula is an extrapolation from past missile attacks and takes into account three parameters that modify the extrapolation: a) the size of the warhead, b) the population density, and c) whether there was warning of the attack.

When people ask me what I do and I tell them cybersecurity, they think it is only about hackers and technology. Surprisingly, though, a large segment of my education in cybersecurity was focused on physical security, because without strong physical security, no firewall, antivirus, etc., can protect a network from someone just walking in and taking control.

This past year has been tough for us all with COVID-19, but it has not stopped criminals from taking advantage of our community. What really pushed me into writing this article was the recent violent crime that has plagued our community, most notably the brazen murder of Efraim Gordon, the first time a Jewish person in our community has been murdered since 1969.