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Jewish Journal

Connect. Inform. Inspire.

March 28, 2024

Performative Actions Must Stop

Commentary /

In the wake of the Hamas attack on October 7, hatred toward Israel continues to rage on college and university campuses around the country. Some schools are holding true to their values about open inquiry—such as Vanderbilt University arresting anti-Israel students who disrupted the school’s functioning. Unfortunately, most are failing, including Columbia University, which is now investigating a vocally pro-Israel professor. This week, Sarah Lawrence College in Westchester County New York, has the prefect chance to live its stated values about embracing difference and diversity of views with a visit from Jodi Rudoren, Editor-in-Chief of The Forward, who will be giving the school’s 2024 Adda Bozeman Lecture.

There are planned protests and a clear response to them that the school should take. I suspect, however, that the school will not show real leadership, but will keep silent and continue its long tradition of performative statements over lived values.

According to the school’s announcement, Rudoren “will discuss the role of American media in shaping U.S. perceptions and politics towards the Middle East,” and the school has framed her talk by stating that: “The current war in Gaza is also a war for and against media coverage. The very language used to describe the events—”war,” “conflict,” “genocide,” Israel and Gaza, Israel and Palestine, Israel and Hamas—is contested and has different political and legal implications. How to describe and contextualize the attack of October 7 remains controversial.”

But what is truly sad here is that none of Rudoren’s critics intend to listen to her remarks and debate or question her.

Under Rudoren, The Forward—one of America’s premier Jewish news platforms—has been ideologically open to a wide range of viewpoints notably since October 7th when Hamas brutally attacked Israeli civilians. The site has published heterodox pieces such as “Both the Israeli and Palestinian governments should be obligated to recognize the other’s right to statehood.” In response to the chaos and violence that has erupted on campuses nationwide with the Israel-Hamas war, Laura E. Adkins, former op-ed editor, wrote, “If you are a Jewish (or Palestinian) Harvard, MIT or Penn student or alum and have strong feelings about what’s happening that you want to turn into an op-ed, please reach out to me. At The Forward we are particularly invested in sharing first-person perspectives of how national debates affect the people who have to live with the consequences.”

Nonetheless, the students affiliated with the “Justice for Palestine” movement at Sarah Lawrence saw a Jewish speaker, one with clear Jewish commitments and a prominent professional connection to Israel who left a prominent position at The New York Times (which has not been a supporter of Israel) to work at the Forward, and declared “RUDOREN YOU’RE NOT WELCOME HERE.” They called her an “American liberal-Zionist” who, along with the College “have blood on your hands.” The College must respond to this behavior, for not only is this anti-Israel hatred in opposition to the school’s stated principles of creating “unimpeded opportunity to actively and fully participate in the educational experience,” but also it runs against the pedagogical goals that have been given intense focus at the school of late which includes the theme of “Difference in Dialogue.”

The College has proudly declared a commitment to dialogue “to explore some of the most contentious issues facing our society.” The school believes in promoting and advocating for “opportunities for connection, conversation, interaction, reflection, and reasoned disagreement, the events in this series bring into dialogue two or more interlocutors from contrasting points of view.” The school asserts that “opportunities for probing the most challenging issues of our day from a variety of vantage points are at the heart of a Sarah Lawrence education and a reflection of our commitment to diversity and inclusive excellence.”

Will the College actually live up to its lofty stated goals and ideals here? Given the school’s silence when  addressing anything involving Jews and the Title VI complaint, I suspect that the school will not lead here in any way.

In addition to trying to cancel a legitimate speaker and an alternative point of view, the students are holding both a demonstration and an alternative event during the lecture itself. In both cases, as long as the events do not shut down the Bozeman lecture or prevent the speaker and community from speaking, such action is absolutely fine. But what is truly sad here is that none of Rudoren’s critics intend to listen to her remarks and debate or question her. Instead, students would rather make uncontested claims and ignore higher education’s core value of open inquiry.

What the Sarah Lawrence Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) would rather do is plan an event during Rudoren’s talk with speakers who themselves have been published in The Forward  and have been “the force behind the … Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism … [and] stands in solidarity with the Hamas terrorists who murdered babies and grandmothers.” This runs directly against the “big think” thrust of Sarah Lawrence and the College’s purported push toward inquiry: If so many have issues with Rudoren, then question her and her views and flush out the differences and points of view. Instead, they hope to simply ignore alternatives and compel students to attend a different, one-sided event.

The College and its leadership could and should respond here. They should invite all students to hear Rudoren and then attend the other event if they wish. While I think that the views of the SJP event are disgusting and dangerous, if Sarah Lawrence were truly committed to dialogue, it would take the lead here and educate students about real viewpoint diversity and show the community how to listen and engage across difference. Parallel programming does not advance education, and performative programing toward speech and difference needs to be called out as the fraud it is. Sarah Lawrence College has a chance to exemplify its purported values toward speech by making a strong statement about the Bozeman lecture.

Samuel J. Abrams is a professor of politics at Sarah Lawrence College and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

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wildpixel/Getty Images

Change Is Good – A poem for Parsha Tzav

Judaism, Poetry /

And [Moses] took the fat, the tail, all the fat which was on the innards, the diaphragm of the liver, the two kidneys together with their fat and the right thigh. ~ Leviticus 8:25

I’m a fan of the evolution of Judaism.
We started in tents set up in a promised land
and eventually ended up in Egypt.

We sat at a mountain for a while
and received new, detailed, instructions.
We took a long walk and eventually

ended up back at our original campground.
We built a Temple and showed up three times
a year to follow the detailed instructions.

The neighbors became occupiers
became evictors and we had to set up shop
in the old country back when it was still

the new country. We wrote so much down
about how to do what we should do.
Some of us grew mighty beards.

Along the way, electricity was invented
and we found ourselves in the new new country.
Some of us just call it the country.

Our beards were not as fashionable here
so many of us shaved them off. We put up
multiple buildings in the same neighborhood

so we could choose the right one for
our new-fangled sensibilities.
These changes keep happening,

like when the famous folk singer picked up
an electric guitar. Some people followed him
into that building and others stayed in the old one.

I love the tradition of the old building but
am happy to not have to interact with the
innards of a ram anymore.

Let Judaism go electric if it needs to.
We can unplug whenever we want.

Rick Lupert, a poet, songleader and graphic designer, is the author of 27 books including “God Wrestler: A Poem for Every Torah Portion.” Find him online at www.JewishPoetry.net

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A Bisl Torah – Hope Revealed

A Bisl Torah /

I officiated at a funeral of a woman that reminded me of an important lesson. Perhaps, the most important life lesson: to fully embrace each moment we have in this world.

At the age of 45, she was diagnosed with cancer, told she would have 3-6 months left to live. Instead of accepting her fate, she searched for other opinions. One doctor told her, “If you’re willing to fight, I’ll fight with you.” Hope revealed.

She lived another 27 years. A true medical miracle. Savoring time with her children and grandchildren, thrilled to be present at graduations, weddings, births and bnai mitzvah. Fueled by hope and love, she willed herself to continue forward. Choosing to show up, being available, offering an ear, giving an open heart, she treated each day like a precious gift.

Often, the world feels dark and filled with despair. For many, it is hard to get out of bed to face what the day will bring. And while we are experiencing fear, worry and grief, this woman’s life message should exist close within reach. Something we hold onto when we wonder how to cope.

As Devarim implores, “I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse—therefore, choose life!”

With just a spark of hope and ounce of love, life is meant to be lived. Even as this woman physically left this earth, her message was clear: if given the chance, choose life.

Over and over again.

Shabbat shalom

Rabbi Nicole Guzik is senior rabbi at Sinai Temple. She can be reached at her Facebook page at Rabbi Nicole Guzik or on Instagram @rabbiguzik. For more writings, visit Rabbi Guzik’s blog section from Sinai Temple’s website.

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The Unraveling of Candace Owens

Orit Arfa /

Candace Owens broke out as a right-wing media star around the time when I moved to Berlin in 2016. I saw in her a role model and kindred soul. As a black woman, she encouraged her own community to question their historic loyalty to the Democratic party in America, calling for “Blexit”, the exit of blacks from a party that she argued only exploits black suffering to lure votes. She was beautiful, articulate, brave, and charismatic.

Around the same time, I became a media curiosity in Germany as a rare Jewish voice telling Germans that welcoming Muslim migrants from countries steeped in anti-semitism, misogyny, and fascism wasn’t a correction to their Nazi past, but rather, a deranged continuation of it. For some, I was a breath of fresh air, Jews included, perhaps in the way Owens was for black conservatives who wanted to think for themselves and not the way left-leaning social justice outfits like the NAACP encouraged them to think.

I even remember, as I started “The Orit Arfa Show” for a German publication called www.Achgut.com, founded by prominent German-Jewish writer, Henryk Broder, I was inclined to liken it to “The Candace Owens Show,” which hosted by conservative media giant, Prager University. She passionately questioned her guests with wit and insight. I even purchased her book, Blackout, which she promoted ad nauseam on her Instagram channel.

But I could not get past the first two chapters. It didn’t read like a down-to-earth, honest coming-of-age memoir of a conservative black woman having been raised by her grandparents. It read more like an Ivy League college application essay filled with superfluous fancy, big words. I wondered how blacks from the inner-city could even relate to it. I returned it to Amazon.

I still liked her occasional videos on social media, like a powerful 18-minute diatribe in the wake of George Floyd riots, in which she astutely outlined Floyd’s history of drug abuse and domestic violence, letting us know he was no hero.

About a year later, my best friend in Israel, shared with me a 2021 Instagram video in which she drove the streets of Nashville with her wealthy, handsome British husband, George Farmer, hunting for a billboard advertising her new show on The Daily Wire, the conservative media network co-founded by Ben Shapiro. She peppered the text with statements like, “Fight every chance you can to be you. Don’t let them intimidate you. Authenticity is greatness” to justify her self-indulgence.

“There is nobody so cool that they do not freak out when they don’t see themselves on a billboard,” she said in the video. Actually, the people who don’t freak out are people who might actually deserve to be on billboards. My friend pointed out that even her husband seemed irritated by her haughtiness.

Then we noticed her habit of not only criticizing celebrities, but picking fights with them, like a parasite sucking off their fame to get more famous. We both unfollowed her on social media.

Our suspicions about her sincerity and righteousness were confirmed when she began defending Kanye West’s antisemitic rants, like when he announced he was “going death con 3 on Jewish people” [sic]. Owens defended him, tweeting, “If you are an honest person, you did not find this tweet antisemitic.” Now, I understand if she doesn’t want to criticize a friend publicly, but to claim a monopoly on honesty? That’s narcissism. As Jewish and conservative voices started accusing her of antisemitism, Dennis Prager came to her defense, saying her merits outweigh her demerits, and that she should learn from her mistakes. How kind of him.

Apparently, Jews catapulted her astounding rise. About seven years ago, Owens’ career was self-admittedly kick-started at a gathering of conservative movers and shakers hosted by the David Horowitz Freedom Center. After she falsely compared Israel to the “segregated South” and implied that Israel was engaged in “genocide” for defending itself against the Hamas atrocities of Oct. 7, the Center publicly regretted ever believing in her.

The Twittersphere waited impatiently for Shapiro to follow suit. Owens publicly picked fights with this modern Orthodox, fiercely pro-Israel Jew, insinuating he cares more about Israel than America, calling him “unprofessional and unhinged.” Clearly, she was projecting. Pandering to her Christian base, she quoted Scripture to paint herself as a martyr against, as it seemed, money-grubbing Jews, tweeting: “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

Shapiro outwitted her with: “Candace, if you feel that taking money from The Daily Wire somehow comes between you and God, by all means quit.”

Finally, on March 22, the Daily Wire announced that it severed their relationship without detailing the terms. Owens “celebrated” in an X post: “I am finally free” then immediately proceeded to ask her fans for…money.

In the end, it’s not her repulsive statements on Jews and Israel that justify her becoming a pariah, but her complete lack of integrity. She publicly insulted her former boss while on the payroll of a company he founded. She turned her back on the nation of people who believed in her and generously lent their success for her own.

For now, she has ironically moved to Locals, a platform for independent creators who fear being deplatformed for right-wing views. It was started by two Jews, media personality Dave Rubin and his Israeli brother-in-law, Assaf Lev. Either she knows deep down she can’t succeed without brilliant Jews behind her, or she is setting them up to cancel her for being an “antisemite” so that she can rally against the “Jewish media cabal.”

In the end, I’m happy I had the foresight to reject her even before her antisemitic madness. Perhaps lack of integrity goes hand in hand with antisemitism, since hatred of the Jews reflects a hatred of the Hebrew Bible which introduced to the world a morality of honor and honesty.

Owens is no longer an inspiration but a warning. So “The Orit Arfa Show” never really took off, but that’s ok. True success can’t come through parasitic creation or headline-making insults but from a humility generated by hard-work, authentic achievement, and the intellectual battles for ideas, not clicks.

Orit Arfa is a journalist and author based in Berlin. Her novel The Settler covers the pull-out from Gaza while Underskin is a German-Israeli love story. This article originally appeared in German on www.Achgut.com. www.OritArfa.net. 

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Longing for Shushan after October Seventh

Poetry /

Now in Los Angeles some long

not for Egyptian fleshpots but

the joys of Shushan as they throng

in markets all defined as glatt.

Not only those from Teheran,

but those from Brooklyn also hanker,

like those from Queens and Kazakhstan

and Hungary and Casablanca,

to be in ancient Persia, where

Queen Esther, helped by Mordecai,

gave Ahashverosh one great scare,

and his Prime Minister, whose lie

was like those of a later rasha,

who for his Holocaust denial

deserves to be, like Haman Pasha,

hanged sans the travesty of trial.

 

To Pico Glatt the women go,

and stocking up with hamantaschen

don’t talk of Michelangelo,

but long for Persia with a passion,

as do all Ashkenazi Jews

joined by Sephardim in a crowd.

Every Purim they accuse

Amalek, happily allowed

to dream of wiping out their foes,

as once they did in Shushan, when

a hidden God helped them oppose

Jew hatred in the hearts of men

who like the ones today once tried

to wipe them out. With adlayada,

and Shushan memories as guide,

they’ll all march madder than a hatter,

and I’ll march with them too to Gelson’s,

no more to Ralph’s, but to Pavilions,

declaring: “No more Bergen-Belsens,

no more massacres of millions….

 

….though since October 7 this

is obsolete, “No more again”

a target Jews are forced to miss,

unable to respond “Amen.

What happened on Shmini Atseret

makes it too hard for me to say,

its pain too hard for me to bear it,

while on this Shushan Purim day

I pray for Purim-paired repair,

like Shushan Purim, Purim’s pair.

 

I recalled this poem on Shushan Purim, 5784, 3 /25/2e, after reading “Walled Cities “from the Time of Joshua” Celebrate Shushan Purim – Why?” thetorah.com, by Prof. Eyal Ben-Eliyahu.

Joshua as a Foil to Hadrian

Whereas for the Romans, the establishment of the pomerium marked their status as the founders of the new colony, the rabbis were aware that the Jewish entitlement to the cities in the land of Israel was vested not in their status as founders, but in the divine promise to the patriarchs, fulfilled with Joshua’s conquest of the cities in Canaan. This makes Joshua an ideal figure for them to utilize.

Joshua did not establish Jerusalem, rather, according to Joshua 10:1–27, 12:10, he defeated the king of Canaanite Jerusalem, and ostensibly reestablished the city as Israelite.[20] As the conqueror of Jerusalem, who established it as Israelite, Joshua becomes a polemical mirror-image of what Hadrian claimed on his coin.

Gershon Hepner is a poet who has written over 25,000 poems on subjects ranging from music to literature, politics to Torah. He grew up in England and moved to Los Angeles in 1976. Using his varied interests and experiences, he has authored dozens of papers in medical and academic journals, and authored “Legal Friction: Law, Narrative, and Identity Politics in Biblical Israel.” He can be reached at gershonhepner@gmail.com.

Longing for Shushan after October Seventh Read More »

A Moment in Time: “Thinking Outside of the Box”

'A Moment In Time', Blogs /

Dear all,

Maya and Eli were having fun this week playing in a delivery box we had unpacked. As I watched them, I thought about the importance of “thinking outside of the box” when we get stuck. It’s so easy and natural to do the same, over and over. Yet we often need reminders to approach life with alternative thinking.

I am reminded of a Chassidic story about a man who was lost in a forest for three days. He finally meets another man who was also lost. The first says to the second, “Can you tell me which way to go?”

The second says, “All I can tell you is that the way I have been trying hasn’t gotten me out of this forest. Perhaps if we worked together, we can find our way.”

And so, the two stopped doing what had failed, and they found their way out – together.

Creative thinking is not always easy. It can come from struggle. It can come from feeling lost. But when that moment in time reveals an “aha!” the box we were in transforms into a new chapter.

With love and shalom.

Rabbi Zach Shapiro

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Print Issue: Got College? | Mar 29, 2024

Featured, Print Issue /

CLICK HERE FOR FULLSCREEN VERSION

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Rabbis of LA | Grief Helped Pave a Career Highway for Rabbi Anne Brener

Community, Rabbis of LA /

One can never know when an epiphany will present itself. For Rabbi Anne Brener, a psychotherapist, author, academic and public speaker, it occurred in the summer of 1985 when she was asked to lead a widows’ group at Jewish Family Service’s Freda Mohr Center.

At first, the women were not responding to her therapeutic language, but when she started talking about Jewish matters — such as asking others for forgiveness on Yom Kippur — the women reacted. “When I saw how they resonated to the psychological meaning of the rituals, it pulled back something inside of me,”she said. “So I took what my grief had taught me, or perhaps had not yet been processed, and I just threw it into writing about the Jewish cycles of grief and the psychological wisdom in them.” Eight years later, she published her first book, “Mourning & Mitzvah, A Guided Journal for Walking the Mourner’s Path Through Grief to Healing,” was published. A history of the Jewish traditions that face death in a positive way, the book — now in its third edition — includes over 75 guided exercises. 

Grief was something Brener knew too well.  Her father died when she was an infant; when she was 23, her mother and 18-year-old sister died three months apart. She has also survived two devastating bouts of cancer. 

After suddenly losing her mother and sister, she became more focused on her internal world. She used video as a therapeutic tool. “I would carry around a video machine that weighed about 60 pounds,” she said. “I would videotape people either talking about themselves in a therapy session or while interacting with other people.” Brener would then ask “What were you trying to communicate?” With a scant amount of formal training, she participated in many workshops – and owing to the back-to-back family deaths, she had been in therapy.

Moving to Northern California, Brener taught at a community college in Ukiah. At the same time she was also working with a group of women who founded one of the first shelters in the country for battered women. “We had to prove to people that domestic violence was something that actually happened,” she said, reflecting on 1970s attitudes. “One thing I would do is get the women to say ‘No,’ and then we would play it back without the sound, and they would see themselves as they developed their emotional strength.”

Brener was born in Leominster, Massachusetts, in 1948, and grew up in New Orleans. In 1967, when she was 19, Brener was living in Israel. Trying to figure out what she was going to do with her life, she remembered her work with video. “I thought if there was television and people could see each other’s lives, they would have more compassion for each other,” she said. “Television would be the tool to do that … “It seems almost laughable now,” she said, shuddering at the memory. “It makes me want to cry.”

Returning to the States, she earned a Master’s degree in broadcast communications, and not long afterward the double family deaths struck. Building a career in Northern California, Brener recalled being “very far from a Jewish life when I lived in Mendocino County.”

Judaism was the bedrock of her social values. She saw her faith in terms of politics, civil rights and social action.

And Judaism was the bedrock of her social values. She saw her faith in terms of politics, civil rights and social action. As a way to calm her mind, Brener developed an intense yoga practice.  “At one point,” she said, “I pushed myself up, my hands, my feet and legs, and turned into a bridge. When I came down, I felt a curtain pull apart inside of me. I felt as if I had not lost my mother and my sister, and that I still had access to them.”

The moment was so profound that suddenly, “out of nowhere, for the first time in years, I started to chant the Shema.” 

Not long afterward, Brener met Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, one of the founders of the Jewish Renewal Movement. She asked if her reaction was what the Shema was about.  He told her it was. “But I don’t think I had considered Judaism as a spiritual path,” she admitted.

Growing up with an adoptive father from an Orthodox family and a mother who was Reform, “I went to a Sunday school at a Reform synagogue where we went most of the time.” It was, she said, an ideal upbringing. “I had the social awareness of the Reform, but I had the heart and the calendar of Orthodoxy.”

She reflected on her childhood days when her adoptive grandfather, Philip Brener, suffered a stroke. Notably, he had spent his life raising money for Palestine, then for Israel. After the stroke, he was paralyzed on the right side. Young Anne had the honor of feeding him, holding the feeding tube. “When I finished, I went into his study. I saw a plaque saying ‘If I forget thee O Jerusalem, may my right hand fail and my tongue cleave, too.’” She was in the third grade. “That was one of the most significant moments of my life. I didn’t think about God again until 20 years later when I was doing yoga.”

Asked if she always had been on a trail to the rabbinate, Rabbi Brener, ordained in 2008, thought it was an intriguing question. “When I was being educated,” she said, “it was not a possibility. I think if women were being ordained then, and I had seen that as a possibility for my future, it would have been a likely choice. But it wasn’t.”

Fast Takes with Rabbi Brener

Jewish Journal: Favorite place to travel outside of Israel?

Rabbi Brener: New Orleans. After my mother and sister died, I had to get away because every corner and tree held a memory. I return now for the same reasons. 

J.J.: Your favorite spare time activity?

R.B.: I like to do yoga and I like to write. 

J.J.: Best vacation ever?

R.B.: Before COVID, an Israeli travel agency organized a trip for rabbis that was all about art, music and dance.

Rabbis of LA | Grief Helped Pave a Career Highway for Rabbi Anne Brener Read More »

Make a Star of David Pendant with Drinking Straws

Home, Lifestyle /

Since Oct. 7, sales of Star of David jewelry have soared as people have wanted to show their support for Israel. That got me thinking it would be great to create an activity for kids to create their own Magen David pendants to wear. 

My craft material of choice was drinking straws. I used plastic straws from IKEA that I’ve had forever. IKEA actually doesn’t make plastic straws anymore because they’re not good for the environment, but you can make these with paper straws as well. My straws were also bendy straws, so I worked with that flexible feature, though straight straws work just as well. 

Besides necklaces, these Star of David pendants would make festive garlands for decorations. Believe me, once you make one, you’ll want to make a bunch of them.

What you’ll need:

Drinking
Straws
Ruler
Pencil
Scissors
Glue

1. With a pencil, mark a point on the straw at 2 1/4″, 4 1/2″ and 6 3/4″. 

2. Bend the straw where you marked it with the pencil. 

3. At the end of the straw after the pencil mark at 6 3/4″, use scissors to cut a slit.

4. Form a triangle by bending the straw at the pencil marks and tucking in the end with the slit into the opposite end. Use a drop of glue to hold the two ends together. Then make a second triangle.

5. Apply two drops of glue to each side of one of the triangles. 

6. Position the second triangle on top of the first one, aligning it where you placed the drops of glue. Tie string or yarn to the star to create a necklace.

Jonathan Fong is the author of “Flowers That Wow” and “Parties That Wow,” and host of “Style With a Smile” on YouTube. You can see more of his do-it-yourself projects at jonathanfongstyle.com.

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New York Jewish Couple Redefines Kosher Wine Market

Community /

When Larissa and Ami Nahari made the decision to venture into the wine industry, they encountered skepticism. Despite working in unrelated fields and lacking expertise in wine beyond their appreciation for it, the New York Jewish couple remained resolute in their mission to revolutionize the somewhat stagnant kosher wine market. Their aim was to introduce a diverse range of wines that were previously unavailable.

Ami recalled how some individuals even chuckled behind their backs, doubting the young couple’s prospects. Yet, their astonishment was palpable upon discovering that they had been honored as the Most Innovative Kosher Company by the Jewish Link last year.

In a phone interview from their New York home, Larissa recounted to the Journal the genesis of their wine business.

“Upon inquiring about an importer, we were surprised to learn they didn’t have one. That’s essentially how we got started, and from there, other Israeli wineries learned about us, and our journey began.”

“We traveled to Israel because Ami is originally from there, and we wanted to establish a deeper connection,” she said. “At the time, we were exploring various business opportunities, not specifically related to wine. However, during our visit, Ami’s father introduced us to a winery, and we were immediately drawn to it. Upon inquiring about an importer, we were surprised to learn they didn’t have one. That’s essentially how we got started, and from there, other Israeli wineries learned about us, and our journey began.”

Despite lacking any prior knowledge of importing wine to the U.S. or distributing it to stores, they embarked on a journey of learning from scratch. Moreover, shortly after commencing their imports from Israel, they made the bold decision to venture into producing their own wine. Teaming up with Gabriel and Shimon Weiss of Shirah Wine, they introduced a line of California wines, Twin Suns, that were more accessible and budget friendly. Their main product, a cabernet sauvignon, garnered critical acclaim with a score of 93 points at the New York International Wine Competition and was hailed by Jewish Link Kosher Wine Guide as the best kosher red wine under $25. Over time, their product range expanded to encompass some of the country’s most esteemed wine regions, including Napa, Sonoma and Oregon’s Willamette Valley.

Twin Suns’ namesakes, twin sons Ivri and Eitan

“We’ve introduced numerous wines and spirits to the kosher market that were previously unheard of. However, the brand closest to our hearts is Twin Suns, named after our twin boys: Ivri and Eitan,” Larissa said. “Their birth coincided with the inception of River Wine.”

“It’s almost impossible to make certain kosher wines such as Amarone, which is a very famous Italian wine,” said Ami. “We were the first to make it as well as Passover whiskey and Passover aged tequila, which was not available before to consumers.”

Their portfolio of kosher wines is extensive and impressive, including Super Tuscan, Willamette Valley Oregon Pinot Noir, Old Vine Zinfandel aged in whiskey barrels, and Barbera D’Asti.

The company’s growth has surpassed their expectations, advancing rapidly. While they sold 700 cases of wine in their first year, this year they exceeded 40,000 cases in sales.

Balancing parenthood with the demands of traveling to wineries, both domestic and international presents its challenges, but with the assistance of Larissa’s mother, they manage. 

“When we journey to Italy, France or Israel, we typically bring the boys along,” said Larissa said. “When we travel to wineries in Napa Valley or Oregon, we usually take turns. Having your own business has its own benefits, but also keeps us very busy. We are just really non-stop. We always look for the next thing, what the kosher market doesn’t have yet. We are constantly evolving.”

Larissa was born in Connecticut, growing up in what she describes as a “very wine-centric household.” Ami was born in Yemin Orde, near Haifa, and spent part of his childhood in Toronto, where his parents served as “shlichim” (teachers for the Jewish Agency), before returning to Israel and making their home in Efrat, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank. Ami moved to the United States 25 years ago, where he met his wife.

Their company now exports wine to 12 countries and enjoys widespread distribution across the U.S., with major markets in New York, Miami and Los Angeles.

 “We want Jews to stop drinking terrible wines or good wines that are overpriced. They don’t need to compromise anymore,” said Ami. “They can drink kosher wines like regular wines. We introduced a new Italian line called Dacci, which is mid-tier, and we have a unique rosé from Oregon, which is very high-end.” This wine was just selected by Trader Joe’s to be sold on the mainstream rosé shelf, not necessarily as kosher, which is very rare for kosher-certified wines.

Buyers can find The River Wine products in many kosher markets around town as well as Ralphs and Pavilions.

Meanwhile, their twin sons remain completely unaware of the significance of having a brand named after them. 

“People are always enthusiastic when they meet them, but they don’t quite grasp the excitement,” Larissa said. “They just roll their eyes.”

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