Community Corner

Touro undergrads experience cultural differences in healthcare on eye-opening trip to Thailand

How should pre-med students from the United States react to a hospital in Thailand that hires its all-female nursing staff based on a beauty contest? And should they have ethical concerns about an in vitro fertilization clinic in Bangkok that refuses to treat infertile couples of different religions?

For many years, I was privileged to host an inspiring yearly parlor meeting at the home of my long-time chavrusah, Aaron Kopelowitz, for the benefit of Yeshivas Beth Abraham Slonim in Yerushalayim. Founded by the Nesivos Sholom zt”l in 1942 when the destruction of the European Slonimer kehillah became known, the yeshivah has been a bastion of Torah and chassidus and continues to grow with many thousands of students in its many educational divisions and branches across Eretz Yisrael.

During the time of Tu BiSh’vat, all the plants appear to be the same as it was the day before. But beneath the rough, lifeless bark, hidden from sight, there is a stirring…a silent awakening…a new life beginning to emerge that will eventually, with Hashem’s help, blossom and bear fruit. We can learn three important lessons from Tu BiSh’vat.

This past Wednesday night, January 25, Israel Heritage Foundation (IHF), under the direction of Rabbi Dr. Joseph Frager, Executive Vice President, and Rabbi David Katz, Executive Director, hosted Simcha Rothman, member of the Knesset for the Religious Zionist Party, rabbis, and community leaders at Prime Bistro in Lawrence. Rabbi Katz introduced the minister and passionately spoke about the need to uplift others with Torah and Yiddishkeit, noting that the Israeli government is one of the biggest supporters of Torah today. Rabbi Katz blessed Rothman to continue bringing k’vod to the world. Dr. Frager spoke about the Jewish people being a united entity, giving the example that within the new coalition in Israel, there are religious Zionists working alongside Charedim as a solitary team in service to Eretz Yisrael. He also pointed out that the minister is going to work hard on maintaining control over Israel’s Area C that covers roughly sixty percent of the West Bank and is home to nearly 400,000 Israelis, and 300,000 Palestinians.

“There are those who advise us [as a result of increasing antisemitism] that Orthodox Jews should hide their Orthodoxy, they should not be so visible and [they should] just blend into society and that will minimize the increasingly violent attacks against visibly Orthodox Jews. I ask, is that the progressive definition of freedom? Is that what great Americans fought, lived, and died for? So that its citizens should have to hide from who they are?!”

The Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV), representing over 2,000 traditional, Orthodox rabbis in American public policy, sent a letter Monday renewing its call for Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) to be removed from the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee. The letter, sent to both House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), calls removal of Omar not only a matter of “moral conscience,” but also “a necessary step to quell the rising tide of anti-Semitic speech and violence now impacting Jewish communities across America.”