Jews worldwide have embraced the feeling of achdus, seeking new ways to bring unity. This past Shabbos, the Young Israel of Forest Hills (YIFH) hosted the legendary media magnet Nachum Segal and his wife Stacey, parents of Yosef Segal, president of the Young Professionals Minyan (YPM). I was privileged to join the scholar-in-residence as a guest of Rabbi Dr. Elimelech and Chavie Gottlieb, parents of shul president Dovid Gottlieb, for the Friday evening gala Shabbos seudah. Since accepting the presidency this past July, Dovid, a third-generation Young Israel member, has revamped the facility with renewed growth and budding prospects bringing a fervent achdus into the Modern Orthodox community of Southern Forest Hills.
Kabbalas Shabbos began with all three minyanim (Main, YPM, and Tiffereth Shalom Sephardic minyan) joining in unison, significantly filling the main sanctuary pupils. T’filah included uplifting Carlebach-style nigunim led by Derek Orenshein and a lively kumsitz.
Rabbi Zalman Mergui, rav of Tiffereth Shalom, delivered poignant remarks on chinuch prior to Maariv, expounding on always finding the positive in our children.
The capacity Shabbos meal drew families of Ashkenazic and Sephardic backgrounds, including couples of all ages who dined amongst relatives and friends. I felt right at home in a room full of faces I have come to appreciate over the years. Amongst the Eastern European descendants, there were Bukharian, Georgian, Syrian, Persian, Egyptian, and Moroccan Jews. I was warmly welcomed by Moshe Meirov, president at Tiffereth Shalom, and his esteemed wife Roza, as well as David Shakhmoroff and his family.
An announcement of a $25,000 allotment made possible by Susan Rabinowicz and Robin Holcman, YIFH Sisterhood co-presidents, for a new dance floor, cosmetic updates, and a functional kitchen were welcomed words from Dovid Gottlieb Psy.D., co-organizer of the special Shabbos. Thanks were extended to Renee Cutler for graphics, Daniel Rosen, Jacob Birn, Ariel Meirov, Yosef Segal, Jason Cutler, and Dan Hoffman for their extraordinary efforts. As he prepared to make the communal Kiddush, Rabbi Elisha Friedman, rav, made note of the remarkable harmony that had gripped the ballroom.
Launched in 1951 by survivors eager to rebuild their lives and communities of youth lost in the Shoah, YIFH quickly became one of the most active branches nationwide and was the first to host a Holocaust commemorative program outside of Israel that continues annually. Today, the shul remains committed to its dedication of Hashem, Jewish culture and values, and the State of Israel, once again attracting young couples, as Forest Hills sees fresh spurts of development in building Jewish life.
In his keynote address, entitled, What the American Jewish community needs to know about Israel since Simchas Torah, Nachum took the audience on an emotional journey on the current state of affairs. The renowned international radio personality described the contagious unity one feels throughout the country, the extreme sadness in a shiv’ah home where a child has fallen at battle, and the chesed operations nationwide that make our endeavors in the States appear minute. Nachum spoke of his firsthand experiences having just returned from his second mission to Eretz Yisrael post-October 7. On Shabbos Day, Nachum weighed the requirement to rise for IDF soldiers, and held a symposium during Shalosh S’udos.
Nachum was personally affected by the loss of Major (ret.) Moshe Yedidya Leiter, a commander and husband of two decades, who fell in battle in the Gaza Strip and was laid to rest at Yerushalayim’s Mount Herzl Military Cemetery. “I am carrying on my shoulders my grandfathers and grandmothers… who could not fight back,” are the final words told to his father, stressing how the Jewish nation should find inspiration both from the suffering of the massacre, and the heroism that ensued. Nachum concluded his speech with the heartfelt letter the commander’s father, Yechiel, a former chief of staff to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and well-known figure, read to fellow Scrantonian, President Joe Biden, urging him to allow Israel to fight for her democracy against unfathomable barbarism finding common grief on their loss of a son framing the war as light against darkness, truth against lies, and civility against murderous barbarism:
Dear President Joe Biden:
I’m taking the liberty of talking to you from Jerusalem. We have two things in common, you and I.
Number one: We were both born in Scranton. Scranton, Pennsylvania. I still have my bank account at the PNC Bank on Joe Biden Boulevard. My mom, may she live to 120, lives in Scranton. She’s a real Scrantonian. And my maternal grandparents are buried in Scranton. So that’s the first thing we have in common, Mr. Biden.
The second thing we have in common is that, as of last Friday, I, like you, am a bereaved parent. You lost a son, and I lost a son. So, we have two things in common. That’s why I’m taking this liberty.
So, you know – because you lost a son – you know the pain that I’m feeling now. The harrowing sense of darkness, the stabbing of the heart, the longing to once again hug your boy, talk to him about life, and advise him on his career.
There’s much I can tell you about how special he was: his 15 years in special forces, and medical school, the manager of two businesses, education institutions, father of six – the last a son, born just three months ago, who will never know his father.
But maybe we can talk about that sometime later.
What I want to say to you here and now, about our dear Moshe, is that he was fighting your fight, Mr. President. He was fighting our fight. He gave his life so the barbarians wouldn’t get through the gates of democracy, and of Judeo-Christian, western values. He was fighting for human freedom, and against all the lies and distortions of the freedom deniers, who fool so many Americans with their double-talk. He was fighting against Hamas-ISIS.
There are rumors, now, that you’re putting pressure on Israel to hold off, to cease the offensive. If those rumors are true – I hope they’re not – but if they’re true, I respectfully ask of you, here, on my son’s grave, cease and desist! Stand back, Mr. President. Don’t pressure us. Let us do what we know how to do, what we must do: Defeat evil.
This is a war of light against darkness, of truth against lies, of civility against barbarism. Take it from one plain-speaking Scrantonian to another: We’re going to win this one, with you or without you. We’re going to win it, hands-down. Never have the people of Israel been so united. This is our job. It’s what the Jewish people are in this world to do: to fix the world. And sometimes, fixing the world means using strength, and force.
My Moshe died for a cause. Stand with us, Mr. President. Maybe, as we read in the Biblical Book of Esther, it’s the whole reason you are the leader of the free world. All of your long and illustrious career of leadership was the preparation for this very moment.
Those who stand with us will be blessed; those who do not stand with us will fail.
Stand with Moshe, who loved America, and even trained with your Delta Force during his army service.
Thank you, Mr. President.
By Shabsie Saphirstein
