November 23, 2018 15 Kislev 5779 Volume 74, Issue 22
w w w. a z j e w i s h p o s t . c o m
S O U T H E R N A R I Z O N A ’ S A WA R D - W I N N I N G J E W I S H N E W S PA P E R S I N C E 1 9 4 6
INSIDE
WIC Israel trip sparks family reunion Happy Hanukkah from our art contest winners
Arts & Culture ...............3, 7, 20 Classifieds .............................22 Commentary ..........................6 Community Calendar...........28 Hanukkah ........................14, 18 In Focus................................. 31 Insider’s View.......................25 Israel ..........................10, 21, 23 Local ...................2, 3, 7, 9, 10, ..................14, 20, 21, 23, 24 Obituaries .............................30 P.S. ........................................26 Synagogue Directory...........24
Winter Publication Schedule Dec. 7, Dec. 21 Jan. 11
Photo courtesy Shore family
Hanukkah Gift Guide .....S1-8 Restaurant Resource.... 15-18
(L-R): Chava, Isaac, Jacob, Maria, Rachel, Elisaveta, and Raya Sher in 1931 in Kirensk, a village in Siberia.
DEBE CAMPBELL AJP Assistant Editor
T
he recent Weintraub Israel Center annual mission to Israel did not only build community bridges; it also mended a bridge between a local family and long-lost family members with origins in Russia. Bonnie Shore-Dombrowski, a Tucson attorney, was joined on the October trip by her two sisters, Debby Shore of Washington, D.C., and Ricki Shore of Berkley, California. The sisters had made numerous fruitless attempts to track down a first cousin, Olga, they knew lived in Israel. They gave up on any chance of making a connection by the time they arrived in Tel Aviv on Oct. 15. It wasn’t until a week later, as the sisters were sitting around Gadit Sass’ dining table in Hof Ashkelon that they shared the family story and their attempts to locate their cousin somewhere near Be’er Sheva. Sass grabbed her cell phone and accessed WhatsApp. It didn’t take long until the modern bush telegraph yielded results. Soon Bonnie had her cousin Olga on the phone, with Sass interpreting. Back in Tel Aviv the next day, the last day on the itinerary, the sisters had a warm reunion in the Royal Beach Hotel lobby with Olga Scher, her daughter Ire-
na, and Rina Chen, an old family friend also living in Israel. There were lots of hugs, tears, and laughter, often delayed by tedious translation from Russian to English or Russian to Hebrew to English and back again. The warmth and electricity between the women and indeed the love were tangible. The family story has its beginnings two centuries past, in the Russian-Polish border shtetl of Vladafka, along the Bug River near Brest. It starts with the family of Abraham and Clara Sher and their children: Jacob, Max, Ida, Gussie, Rae, Irving, David, and Minnie. Abraham was the Shore sister’s great-grandfather. Jacob, the eldest brother, was born in 1891. He was arrested about 1906 by the Czar’s Cossacks for chanting revolutionary slogans and sentenced to seven years of exile in Siberia. Along with thousands of convicts, he is said to have marched in shackles for two years along the “convict highway” to Irkutsk. He was indentured to a wealthy family as a servant for five years. In 1911 he met Maria, the daughter of another family in exile. Upon his release, Jacob and Maria married in 1914. They eventually settled in Kirensk and raised five children: Raya, Liza, Chava, Isaac, and Rachel. Meanwhile, Abraham and the remainder of the family immigrated to the See Family, page 4
First place winners (from top): Alex Erbst, age 6; Luke and Hunter Meislin, twins, age 7; Michael Jurkowitz, age 12. See page 14 for second and third place winners.
CANDLELIGHTING TIMES: November 23 ... 5:02 p.m. • November 30 ... 5:01 p.m. • December 7 ... 5:01 p.m.
LOCAL
Photo: Gabby Erbst
THA fourth-graders, Tucson J preschoolers bond in Madrichim program
Rabbi Billy Lewkowicz and Tucson Hebrew Academy fourth-graders act out a story for preschoolers at the Tucson Jewish Community Center.
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new program coordinated by the Tucson Hebrew Academy and the Tucson Jewish Community Center is crafting leaders out of fourthgrade students. In the Madrichim (leaders) program, the THA students visit the Tucson J to teach preschoolers about the importance of upcoming holidays. Gabby Erbst, THA director of admissions and support services, wanted THA students to have an experience where they spend some of their time helping others. “We were trying to think of opportunities for THA to give back to the community and having our students be more involved in the Jewish community around them,” Erbst says. She and THA teacher Emily Ellen-
tuck developed an interactive curriculum where the children make crafts together. “It is just a good way for the kids to learn leadership skills,” Erbst says. Ellentuck says that the articulation required to teach the preschoolers helps the fourth-grade students better understand the topics for themselves. “There is a concept that when you teach, you learn at a higher level,” she says. “It’s also good for the pre-k kids because they are going to school next year with kids who are bigger than them,” Ellentuck says. “If they come to THA, they’ll know somebody, they’ll have a buddy.” Crystal Lucha is the early childhood education teacher coordinating the Madrichim program at the J. She says the THA students provided a wonderful introduction to Rosh Hashanah. “One student had a sibling in this class, See Madrichim, page 8
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MICHEAL ROMERO AJP INTERN
T
he Tucson Jewish Community Center is hosting a Chanukah Cantata on Dec. 8 at 7:30 p.m. that will feature cantors and other vocalists from multiple congregations across Tucson and the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra in a special telling of the Hanukkah story. Robert Lopez-Hanshaw, musical director at Temple Emanu-El, organized the event, writing all the music for the production and rehearsing the ensemble as well as conducting it. Inspiration for the cantata came from Lopez-Hanshaw’s wish for a performance of the Hanukkah story meant to unify the different synagogues in Tucson. “At the Hanukkah event [last year] at Temple Emanu-El, I got that idea that we should do something like that but for the whole community,” Lopez-Hanshaw says. But this telling of the story with live musical accompaniment will be something audiences are not used to seeing. “It is a very different exploration of the story of Hanukkah,” Lopez-Hanshaw says. “It is very far removed from the candles and latkes for the kids.” Lopez-Hanshaw found inspiration in various places, with the intent to go deeper into the story of Hanukkah. “What it really was about was interacting with all of the text sources, because I chose different texts that are in Hebrew or Aramaic, some very old, some very new,” Lopez-Hanshaw says. “All touching on different aspects of the story: the military side, the mystical side, the side of sacrifice, the side of a miracle.” The approach to the production was to understand the different aspects of a community united by the same faith but separated in methods of observance.
“It’s an exploration and celebration of the diversity of viewpoints within the Jewish community both in this time and across time,” Lopez-Hanshaw says. “I think that it does have the potential to bring communities together, diverse Jewish communities together,” he says. “That is something that is sometimes hard to do.” Featured soloists include Rabbi-Hazzan Avraham Alpert of Congregation Bet Shalom; Cantor Janece Cohen of Congregation Or Chadash; Cantorial Soloist Marjorie Hochberg of Temple Emanu-El; Cantorial Soloist Nichole Chorny of Congregation Anshei Israel; Cantorial Soloist Diana Povolotskaya of Congregation Chaverim; Cantorial Soloist Sarah Bollt of Or Chadash and the Institute for Judaic Services and Studies; Cantorial Intern Emily Ellentuck of Congregation M’kor Chayim; and Dale Whitmore, chorus manager of the Southern Arizona Symphony Chorus as well as former cantorial soloist of Congregations Ner Tamid and Kol Simchah. Choir member Herb Cohn has been a big supporter of Lopez-Hanshaw’s vision. “I am very much for building our community, I feel it has been splintered for too long,” Cohn says. As for the music, Cohn appreciates the liberty Lopez-Hanshaw took to create something that examines the story in a different light. “Robert has taken the composer’s pen, the conductor’s baton and the magician’s wand and made something wonderful,” Cohn says. The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona is pleased to sponsor the cantata, along with the congregations and the Tucson J, says Stuart Mellan, JFSA President and CEO. “We hear time and time again how thrilling it is when our diverse community See Cantata, page 9
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FAMILY continued from page 1
United States. Abraham, Gussie, and Ida went first, arriving in New York in 1906. At the port of entry, the family name, “Sher,” became “Shore.” Max and his little sister Rae, 13- and 11-years-old respectively, traveled next aboard the TSS Ryndam, sailing Dec. 24, 1908 from Rotterdam, arriving Jan. 15, 1909, according to the ship’s manifest, of which Bonnie has a photocopy. They were listed as “Hebrew” since they had no nationality. Clara traveled with Irving, David, and Minnie in 1909. Abraham and Clara later had three more sons in the United States, Mike, David, and Harold. Freed from exile, Jacob renewed communications and exchanged photographs with his family in America at least until 1931. But those communications led to further tragedy for Jacob and his family. On Feb. 20, 1938, at 2 a.m., the NKVD, the predecessor to the KGB, invaded Jacob’s home. The letters and photos from America were enough to incriminate Jacob, and he was taken, along with 90 percent of the men in Kirensk. All but one disappeared. While spying on the shackled prisoners held nearby, Jacob’s son Isaac saw and shouted to his father. Josef Stalin’s Great Purge of 1937-38 ordered the roundup of all dissidents. Isaac was spotted and thrown into a cell at the NKVD headquarters in Kirensk for a day but escaped and fled to the forest, surviving on nuts until he felt it was safe to return in the spring. Communications by then had ceased with the American relatives, fracturing the Shore’s only link to their last direct family in Russia. “Under Stalin, every family had one or many members killed for no good reason at all,” says Bonnie. “Stalin decimated his people, not just the Jews, everyone. But the Jews were more vulnerable.” Because of Jacob’s arrest, all of his family members were labeled “enemies of the state,” making them targets of the government. When the Russian Army conscripted Isaac in World War II, he received no weapons or training and was assigned heavy duties, often made to stand at attention for hours on end. In his tasks with a team of artillery horses, a runaway horse broke his arm, kicked in his teeth and injured his leg, leaving him limping for the
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rest of his life. It became Clara’s dying wish that the family locate her first son Jacob. At every family reunion in America, the missing Jacob always came up. It was Max’s son Jack, the Shore sisters’ father, who finally found the missing link. With the advent of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) under Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, records and information had become more available in Russia. In 1987 Jack contacted a colleague of his wife, Barbara, at the University of Pittsburgh, Joseph Eaton, Ph.D., who was traveling to Russia for a seminar in Moscow. Jack enjoined Eaton’s assistance to reach out for family connections. Eaton was said to be itching for an excuse to visit the KGB intelligence office and took on the task with gusto. Deterred by officials in Moscow, Eaton met someone at the seminar who was headed to Irkutsk and entrusted him with transferring the information. The courier connected with the foreign relations officer in Irkutsk, a Mr. Bondarev, who took up the cause, quickly locating a Sher family in the city. Jeffrey Miller, the mayor of Eugene, Oregon, was visiting Irkutsk, Eugene’s sister city, and took a letter for Eaton in Pittsburgh, who relayed it to Barbara and Jack. Disappointingly, the family timelines didn’t match. At Jack’s behest, Bondarev broadened the search and within two months located his first cousin Isaac. Isaac sent a copy of the same 1931 family photograph his father had sent to America decades before, and the match was confirmed. The link reestablished, communications resumed. But the mystery of Jacob remained. After the Soviet Union’s dissolution, historians estimated victim totals from Stalin’s era ranged from 3 to 9 million. Isaac had been called to the KGB in 1956 to receive a document stating that his father Jacob died from pneumonia in a prison camp on March 12, 1942. The family had its doubts, especially after a mass grave of unidentifiable bodies near Irkutsk was discovered and exposed in 1989. Isaac assumed his father probably was among those victims. Isaac remembered being at a synagogue with his father as a lad and knew he was Jewish. In Russia, under Communism, it was forbidden to practice any religion. But Isaac took dirt from the site and said Kaddish at a synagogue. In 1990 the KGB presented another document to Isaac stating that Jacob was shot and buried in a cemetery in Irkutsk. The family found no grave there. But, most critical
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Photo: Debe Campbell
(L-R) Long-lost cousins Irina Sher, Rina Chen, Olga Sher, Debby Shore, Ricki Shore, and Bonnie Shore-Dombrowski in Tel Aviv, Oct. 22.
was the Rehabilitation Certificate received with that notification. It posthumously reversed the “enemy of the state” stigma for the entire family, retroactive to 1938. Finally, in December 1990, 83 bodies were discovered under the old NKVD building in Kirensk. This is where Jacob initially was held, and Isaac had been locked in a cell overnight. Among 80 men and three women found murdered there, one died of a knife wound, seven were shot, and the remainder were beaten to death. Isaac easily identified a photo of his father’s body among those victims who were buried and well preserved in the permafrost. Jacob had never escaped the village and died in 1939 near the family’s home in Kirensk. The 83 bodies were reburied and memorialized with dignity and procession in May 1991. Jack and Barbara visited cousin Isaac, his siblings, and families, in Irkutsk in 1991. They learned that Isaac’s family thought their American relatives had abandoned them, says David Shore, brother to the Shore sisters. Isaac and
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Olga later visited the Shores in America. When Isaac’s children Olga and Victor immigrated to Israel in 1999, another link was broken. Bonnie had lost contact in 2001, until the sisters’ trip last month. Jack Shore died in 2001, having made reconnecting the family his life’s work. “He did a lot of genealogy,” says Bonnie. She still recalls her grandfather Max spinning stories in his heavy Yiddish accent about their experience in the shtetl along the Bug River in Belarus. Jack recorded his findings, the source for most of the detail relayed in this story, in a video he and Barbara produced at the University of Pittsburgh in 1991. “It was really so moving to make the connection with these relatives,” says Debby. “I was so struck how our cousin Olga looked so familiar. I know that my father would be so happy that we found our relatives in Israel.” Ricki added, “Now that we’ve found one another again, these family ties will continue to be nourished and maintained.”
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COMMENTARY Paranoia and patriotism: When America doubted my grandmother’s loyalty OREN HAYON JTA HOUSTON
Photo courtesy Oren Hayon
A
fter my grandmother Jeannette died in December 1996, the process of settling her estate worked in the same way it does in most families: There was a house to be sold and possessions to be distributed. The surviving family members were left with a few souvenirs of my grandparents’ lives and a hefty mound of paperwork to be processed: health insurance and pension forms, tax documents and medical documents, all neatly packed into cardboard boxes and thick manila envelopes. In the 20-plus years since the estate was resolved, I hadn’t given much thought to those mounds of paperwork until last month, when my mother and I found a curious file among my grandmother’s belongings. It was a large black binder marked “CONFIDENTIAL,” stuffed full of letters and memoranda typed on crinkly onionskin paper and featuring the seal of the Department of Justice stamped on its cover. As I pored through the hundreds of typed pages packed into the binder, I began piecing together this story about loyalty and patriotism. Those documents, whose contents are described here, testify to an uneasy chapter of our nation’s history and my family’s role in it. My first impression was that finding a confidential government file in my grandparents’ paperwork was unusual, but by no means surprising, since both of them had spent time as federal government employees. In addition to his military service, my grandfather Lou had been employed by
Jeanette Kern, left, receiving one of the two commendations she earned for her work during World War II as a clerk in the Army Signal Corps, July 27, 1944.
the Works Progress Administration and the Postal Service. My grandmother had worked for the Department of the Interior and later for the Immigration and Naturalization Service. She in particular had distinguished herself with exemplary service on behalf of the United States. While Lou was fighting overseas during World War II, my grandmother took a job as a clerk in the Army Signal Corps, where she received two commendations for her contributions toward the war effort. After the war, and my grandfather’s safe return to the United States, Lou and Jeannette Kern move from New York to El Paso, Texas, where Jeannette begins her job with INS, processing deportation paperwork for foreign nationals. One day, in the early fall of 1948, a telegram arrives at their home addressed to my grandmother.
3718 E. River Rd., Suite 272, Tucson, AZ 85718 • 520-319-1112 www.azjewishpost.com • localnews@azjewishpost.com The Arizona Jewish Post (ISSN 1053-5616) is published biweekly except July for a total of 24 issues. The publisher is the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona located at 3718 E. River Rd., Tucson, AZ 85718. Inclusion of paid advertisements does not imply an endorsement of any product, service or person by the Arizona Jewish Post or its publisher. The Arizona Jewish Post does not guarantee the Kashrut of any merchandise advertised. The Arizona Jewish Post reserves the right to refuse any advertisement.
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ARIZONA JEWISH POST, November 23, 2018
Its terse syntax barks: “reply justice department … detailed questions concerning charges, complete history her life, family, relatives, organizations she might be connacted [sic] with and definite request for formal hearing.” The two of them must have been baffled: “justice department”? “formal hearing”? What on earth could this mean?
A test of loyalty
Soon afterward, a letter from Washington, D.C., makes everything chillingly clear: Jeannette has been charged with “sympathetic association with the Communist Party of the United States … within the purview of Executive Order No. 9835.” The letter contains no additional details, but it advises that a hearing on Jeannette’s case will be held on Nov. 16, 1948. Jeannette and Lou quickly dash off panicked letters to an attorney friend of theirs seeking answers. How should they respond to the charges? Could this be a mistake? The charges of Communist sympathy are false, of course, but what would the taint of these accusations mean for their livelihood? What would it to do their infant daughter — my mother — who has just turned a year old? They write a letter to Kansas Sen. Clyde Reed, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, asking for his assistance and guidance, but receive a letter from Washington advising them that Reed is on vacation and unable to respond. The correspondence from my grandparents makes it clear that genuine fear had begun to set in. November quickly arrives, and Jeannette dutifully appears, as directed, before the Loyalty Board, set up by order of President Harry Truman the year before to root out communists among federal employees and job applicants. She is, understandably, unsure about what to expect.
The hearing minutes record her appeals to the committee that she be given additional time to retain a lawyer and prepare a defense. The committee, hoping for a swift resolution of the charges, initially is disinclined to grant the request, but after several rounds of back-and-forth negotiation the members are convinced to accept a postponement. The hearing is pushed back to April 6, 1949. This is good news for my grandmother, of course, but her relief is short-lived. In this El Paso courtroom, she sees something that makes her heart sink: It’s the court stenographer. She knows her. It’s a woman named Connie, a notorious gossip who works in the steno pool at my grandmother’s office. Jeannette realizes with a growing sense of panic that news about this hearing will surely spread throughout her workplace and beyond. Any hopes she may have had for a discreet and anonymous dismissal of the false accusations leveled against her have instantly evaporated.
“Do you know the Shapiros?”
The months before the new hearing fly past; Jeannette prepares frantically with the help of an attorney, Ernest Guinn, who will represent her. At last April 6 arrives, and my grandparents appear before the Loyalty Board in the U.S. Court House in El Paso. Guinn opens with a request that only fair evidence and competent witnesses should be admitted into the record for deliberation. A board member quickly reassures the attorney that Jeannette is not on trial; instead, this is just an informal “administrative proceeding.” But of course this also means, he adds slyly, that the hearing “is not bound by the strict rules of evidence adhered to in the courts.” After the opening statements, the Loyalty Board lays out their evidence for the charge that my grandmother is a communist. Her mother, who lived with them back in the Bronx, New York, had emigrated from Russia to the United States. Jeannette had attended a meeting of the “Southern Conference for Human Welfare,” an early civil rights groups, and government informants had reported that others who attended these meetings had “communistic sympathies.” One of her childhood friends suggested to the FBI that Jeannette was “communistically inclined” after she interfered with the friend’s teenage romance with her boyfriend. A statement from a former neighbor stating that “I believe they are Communists because they had large pictures of Lenin and Trotsky on the wall of their See Loyalty, page 12
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he Jewish History Museum is currently showing “Call Me Rohingya,” an exhibition that illuminates the persecution of Rohingya people, an ethnic minority in Burma, through the photographic works of Andrew Stanbridge. Staged in the Allen and Marianne Langer Contemporary Human Rights Gallery in the Gould Family Holocaust History Center at the Jewish History Museum, the exhibit will be on view through May 31, 2019. The exhibition intentionally connects the 1982 Citizenship Laws enacted by the military rulers of Burma with the Nuremberg Race Laws (1935) enacted by the
Nazi government in Germany to reveal the ways that governments have used the denial of citizenship rights as a tool to harass and vilify targeted groups as “alien” to the nation, says Bryan Davis, executive director of the museum. “Call Me Rohingya” also highlights the ways that social media is being used to spread disinformation and hate speech. The museum is located at 564 S. Stone Ave. “Call Me Rohingya” is open for public viewing Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday 1-5 p.m. and Fridays noon-3 p.m. For more information or to arrange a group visit www.jewishhistorymuseum.org or call 670-9073.
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which added a different dimension,” Lucha notes. She calls the program a way for the J and THA to build bridges. As most of the J’s EEC students are not Jewish, “talking about the Jewish holidays and values with them brings a different perspective. Being role models adds an extra element for them all.” One THA student, Gregory Aday, says he likes to see the joy he and his classmates bring to the younger children. “The thing that I like most is helping them do something that helps them think and knowing they’ll be happy with it,” Gregory says. Olivia Slaughter, another THA student, appreciates that they share something with the younger children that the little kids get to share with their parents. “I like that we help them and encourage them to learn more about Jewish history and the holidays,” Olivia says. “They’ll have something else to take home and show that their friends from THA helped them make.” Rabbi Billy Lewkowicz, who oversees the program, thinks it helps the students retain the information better because the emphasis is on passing it on to
Photo: Gabby Erbst
continued from page 2
A fourth-grader from Tucson Hebrew Academy works with a preschooler at the Tucson Jewish Community Center.
someone else. “They were going to learn this lesson and it wasn’t a lesson they are going to be graded on, but something they were going to impart to others,” Lewkowicz says. “I think when the kids heard that, they absorbed it more because it wasn’t for themselves, it was knowledge they were going to share.” Although Lewkowicz stays until the end of each session to tell a story, he says the importance of the meetings comes from what the children teach each other and learn for themselves. “I want to say it’s a bit of a cherry on top, it’s not the main part of it,” Lewkowicz says. “The ice cream cone and the scoop of ice cream is the kids doing the teaching.”
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This month’s event will focus primarily on antique furniture and “top-notch” clothing, he says, but also will include art, old tools, high-end electronics, and topof-the-line shoes, purses and other accessories. “You name it, the event really will have it,” says Creson. The 1st rate 2nd Hand Thrift Store is located at 5851 E. Speedway Blvd. All proceeds benefit the store’s Jewish community partners. For more information, call 327-5252. Debbie Evenchik CRS, CRP Executive Sales Associate
CANTATA continued from page 3
comes together for special occasions,” says Mellan. “And so it’s wonderful that one of our community’s Hanukkah celebrations this year will bring so many of our cantors and vocalists together for this unique creation.” Jennifer Selco, director of Jewish life and learning at the J, has acted as the liaison on the center’s side of things. “We see ourselves as the town square
and enjoy the opportunity to host events like this,” Selco said. Selco helped arrange the security for the cantata and arranged for local youth groups to sell concessions during the event. Donations for the cantata can be made to the Federation. After all of the costs for the event are paid, any remaining funds will be divided among the participating synagogues and the J. Tickets are $18. Ticket sales are being handled by the J; call 299-3000 or visit www.tucsonjcc.org.
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ARIZONA JEWISH POST, November 23, 2018
Photos: Debe Campbell
(520) 319-8130 www.reisenarizona.com
Tucsonans Ron and Jacquelyn Feller at the Path to Peace wall in Netiv Ha’asara, Oct. 21
DEBE CAMPBELL AJP Assistant Editor
N
etiv Ha’asara, a moshav (cooperative farming community) northwest of Israel’s Negev, in the Hof Ashkelon region, is part of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona partnership area. With pastoral charm and fragrant lemon trees, lush gardens hug its 250 cozy homes near the Mediterranean coast. In the shadow of the Gaza border, it is home to a grassroots peace movement recently expanded by the hands of Tucson visitors. As drones buzzed overhead and guards undoubtedly looked down from nearby watchtowers, a band of 50 Tucson travelers with the Weintraub Israel Center’s 2018 Israel experience stood in the sandy desert terrain at the Gaza boundary between the fence and the walls. That was on Oct. 21. Like thousands of other recent visitors to Netiv Ha’asara, they came to see the Path to Peace project and visit its founder, ceramic artist Tsameret Zamir. The moshav and its many recent visitors together have created the Path to
Peace, a mosaic of painting and stones decorating the drab walls, to foster hope, love, and happiness among all people, according to Zamir. Today, such a visit might be impossible. Last week, peace was shattered by hundreds of rounds of Hamas missiles targeting Israel’s southern district. Iron Dome interception strikes, tanks and Israeli Defense Forces massing along the Gaza border, and a tenuous cease-fire are creating turmoil. Unfortunately, this is not unusual for the residents of this area. Evacuated by the Camp David Accords from a settlement of the same name in the Sinai Peninsula, Netiv Ha’asara residents relocated there in 1982. Born and raised nearby, Zamir moved there 20 years ago to give her four children the beautiful and peaceful life she grew up with, she says. But missiles raining down on homes disturbed the bucolic solitude in 2000. By 2005, Israel evacuated Jewish settlements inside the Gaza Strip as Palestinian shooting and terrorism continued. There were long periods of gunfire and three wars, Zamir recalls. Following a 50-day war when terrorists came out of tunnels onto
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Path to Peace artist Tsameret Zamir in her studio, Oct. 21
“Every one of us can dream and want peace, and in the Path to Peace wall we all together create shared hope,” Zamir says. The thousands of pieces on the wall attest to the volume of visitors who chose to leave their mark and wishes for a better future. Every visitor takes the hope for peace with him and passes it forward in different ways, Zamir says. Back at her studio, Zamir plays a video for visitors that describes the project. She sells stones and a few ceramic items to support and continue the project. She encourages other communities to make an active contribution to peace by launching their own Path to Peace projects. The studio offers a kit with stones to replicate the Gaza wall project in other locations. The Path to Peace is about tolerance and kindness to others, about happiness and staying optimistic, creating mutual hope as a way of solving problems, says Zamir. “We feel safe now and sleep well at night,” she said four weeks ago. “The goal is to bring happiness to my community and change the fear into hope.” Today, residents maintain the Path to Peace in the moshav, in hope that peace soon will return.
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the Israeli side of the border, Operation Protective Edge initiated Israel’s disengagement from Gaza. Netiv Ha’asara became the closest community in Israel to the Gaza Strip, just 438 yards from a Palestinian town. A barbed wire-reinforced metal fence marks the borderline skirting the moshav. A concrete wall blocks the view into the community while a second wall provides a further layer of protection from random cross-border shooting. In 2012, Zamir tired of seeing the gray cement wall from her nearby home. “I couldn’t help but think what hides behind it,” she recalls. She went to the wall, began painting a huge white dove, and wrote “Path to Peace” in Hebrew, Arabic, and English. The mosaics and colorful display face the Gaza border. She intends for those across the border to see the message of peace when they gaze at the wall. “Every moshav resident and visitor who comes here chooses a ceramic stone to place on the wall to create beauty,” she says. “It’s to show strength and bravery and it has become a tourist attraction.” Every participant pencils a personal wish on the back of a colorful ceramic piece and glues it onto the security wall. The water-resistant, mosaic pieces are handmade in the Path to Peace studio, just steps away from the wall. Designs evolve but include whimsical animals, flowers, hearts, symbols, and slogans. “We work together to help others and our neighbors, nurturing the moshav,” she says. New homes are under construction and people who grew up there are returning to build homes near family. Today, protective bunkers or bomb shelters stand every few hundred yards, some brightly painted in floral and geometric patterns. Under constant threat of attack, residents have just five seconds when a security alarm sounds to enter a bunker — either in their home, those scattered throughout the community, or the school, which is a secure shelter. One such alarm sounded just minutes before the Tucson group arrived in the otherwise quiet and quaint community.
November 23, 2018, ARIZONA JEWISH POST
11
Photo courtesy Oren Hayon
A letter from the Justice Department Loyalty Board dated March 15, 1949, and a telegram from a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee demand that the author’s grandmother answer questions about “the complete history of her life.”
LOYALTY continued from page 6
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ARIZONA JEWISH POST, November 23, 2018
apartment.” (This statement was deeply puzzling to my grandparents. Their best guess was that the neighbor had seen family photos of our Jewish relatives, who wore thick beards, and mistook them for Russian revolutionaries.) The board begins to question my grandmother with intensity. They ask about her employment with the government, seizing on the fact that she had a security clearance, and that her secretarial work had involved administrative tasks with lists of U.S. warships in foreign waters. To counter, Guinn calls upon Davis Green, a close friend of my grandparents, to testify about Jeannette’s patriotism. The Loyalty Board grills him on his political affiliation and point out, for the record, that he is a Democrat who supports liberal causes. After they finish with Green, the board members turn their attention back to Jeannette and ask about who she knows. Curiously, almost all of the people they inquire about appear to be Jews. “You know the Shapiros? ... Did you associate with a Sarah Klein? … Do you know a person named Anna Gelb? … Do you know an Eva Rosenbaum? ... Have you become close friends with Mrs. Nathalie Gross?” they ask. At this, Jeannette has finally had enough and snaps back in reply: “No, she is positively obnoxious.” My grandmother’s Jewish identity continues to hold the Loyalty Board’s attention. The members ask at length about her work with Zionist organizations and her involvement in “the Palestine situation.” The interrogation includes numerous questions about the Yiddish press: “Do you read newspapers from New York? … Do you read the Morning Freiheit? … Did the Daily Worker come in to your home?” The board even calls my
grandparents’ rabbi, Joseph Roth, to testify about their character. Eventually the Loyalty Board exhausts its questions about Jeannette’s Jewish identity and turns its attention to the time and money she devotes to social welfare causes in her community, which appear to raise certain suspicions in their minds. Yes, she asserts, she has been trying “to do a little bit to help” with racial tensions in Texas. “I remember one time a white man killed a Negro woman, and he was being set free,” she recounts. “[I tried] to interest people in becoming more community conscious.” The board seems to think that Jeannette’s sympathy for the victims of racism is a sign of communist tendencies. The members ask pointedly, “You are not opposed to employing Negroes as household servants? Or Mexicans?” Changing tactics, they begin asking Jeannette about her political opinions: Should the U.S. abandon its position in Berlin? Are you in favor of the Marshall Plan? And the Atlantic Pact? Are you for the abandonment of our position in Japan? Noting that her husband had been stationed in the Philippines during the war, they ask if she would have liked our overseas soldiers to come home quickly. She agrees that she would have, and they pounce on her, exclaiming that this position “happened to be a Communist Party line.” The transcript continues through many more pages, and it includes the testimony of numerous witnesses and voluminous material (Exhibits A through T) introduced as evidence. Eventually the Loyalty Board has heard enough and adjourns the hearing to begin its deliberations. My grandmother goes home and waits. She doesn’t hear anything for 2 1/2 months. It’s hard to imagine how frightened and trapped she must have felt. She was a new mother with few friends in a community she did not know well, forced to defend
herself against false accusations that, even if disproven, would threaten her professional livelihood and reputation. And she was swiftly arriving at the conclusion that some of the things she believed in most strongly — Jewish life, progressive politics, racial equity, the safe return of U.S. soldiers — could be used as evidence that she was a communist and a threat to America.
Patriotism and xenophobia
At last, on June 25, 1949, she receives her verdict: a letter affirming in a one-sentence statement that the Loyalty Board of the U.S. Department of Justice has ruled in Jeannette’s favor, and that all charges against her have been dismissed. Up until a few weeks ago, no one besides my grandmother knew about the existence of the black binder. My best guess is that she kept her story a secret because of how painful the memories were. It must have been difficult for her to have been reminded about how simple it was for an overzealous government bureaucrat or a grudge-wielding neighbor to derail a fellow American’s good reputation and cast doubt on her patriotism. As I reflect on these events in my grandmother’s life, I am left wondering if our country has learned anything at all since she sat in that El Paso courtroom. And I confess that these reflections do not leave me feeling terribly cheerful. Today, Jews are still painfully aware that no matter how “American” we may feel, we can easily be accused of having divided loyalties. Politicians sow fear of immigrants, stoking suspicion among neighbors. A simple mistake, a scurrilous rumor or “foreign-looking” family members can leave many among us vulnerable to others’ suspicions that we cannot be trusted — or,
Happy Chanukah
Oren J. Hayon is the senior rabbi of Congregation Emanu El in Houston, Texas. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of AJP or its publisher, the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona.
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as we have seen in recent days, vulnerable even to violence. My grandmother’s case offers an early glimpse into this aspect of our national culture, which would continue to corrode in the years that followed. Her hearing in the spring of 1949 was five and a half years before Senator McCarthy would finally be chastened with the famous rebuke “Have you no sense of decency, sir?” We are — thankfully — several decades beyond the paranoia of McCarthyism, but its tenacious cells still sleep in the veins of fear beneath our nation’s skin. Today one can witness firsthand how easily some Americans’ love of our country can metastasize into a strain of xenophobia so pernicious that they can be convinced to turn against their fellow citizens. Seventy years after my grandmother was summoned before a committee of the federal Justice Department, anti-Semitism is ascendant once again across America. And once more it is garbed in the belief that Jews cannot be fully American, that our values threaten the integrity of the nation which has been our beloved home for centuries. When we discovered the nondescript black binder among my grandmother’s belongings, we had no idea what secrets it would hold. We could never have predicted the story that those yellowing photographs and official documents would tell. And, I confess, we never expected that the historical territory through which that binder led us would look quite this familiar.
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Children’s creativity shines forth in AJP Hanukkah art contest
ongratulations to the winners of the 2018 Arizona Jewish Post Hanukkah art contest. All of the submissions were outstanding and conveyed the symbols of the holiday with warmth and love. First place winners (see page 1) Alex Erbst (age 6, Tucson Hebrew Academy), Luke and Hunter Meislin (twins, age 7, Manzanita Elementary School), and Michael Jurkowitz (Alice Vail Middle School, age 12) win a 4-attraction family
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ARIZONA JEWISH POST, November 23, 2018
Alma Green, age 6 Matthew Meislin, age 9
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HANUKKAH RECIPE When chocolate babka meets doughnuts, the result is doubly delicious 1 tsp vanilla extract 1/4 cup sugar 2 tablespoons cornstarch 4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt 1 1/2 cups milk 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, broken into pieces 1/2 stick unsalted butter, cubed For the cacao nib sugar plus frying: 6 cups vegetable oil, for frying 2 cups sugar 4 tablespoons cacao nibs
CHAYA RAPPOPORT The Nosher via JTA
Photo: Chaya Rappoport
B
abka is nearly a weekly occurrence in my house, and I can think of few things better. But it’s not just me: Babka has really been getting the recognition it deserves all over the country, making appearances everywhere from artisanal bakeries to Jewish delis and even high-end restaurants. My babka recipe is rich, buttery and loaded with eggs, more closely related to brioche, which is what I wanted for these babka-doughnut hybrids. I increased the flour content and the eggs, making for a sturdier dough, and I reduced the amount of butter just a smidge so the dough would stand up better to frying. For a little crunch, and to offset the sweetness of the filling and dough, I added cacao nibs, which impart a slightly bitter flavor and some nice crunch, too. Cacao (or cocoa) nibs are dried, fermented pieces of cacao beans — a very pure, intense chocolaty flavor. You can find them at Whole Foods, specialty food stores (like a health food store) or on Amazon. With these doughnuts you get all the pillowy softness of babka, plus the moisture that deep-frying locks into the dough. The dark chocolate pastry cream would be lovely in a tart, cream puffs or on cake, but here, along with the cacao
Chocolate Babka Doughnuts
nib sugar, it serves to further complement the dough and turns the whole treat into something much more than just chocolate babka. Both doughnuts and babka are timeintensive kitchen projects — usually, it’d be either-or — and that choice would be pretty hard to make. But with these doughnuts both are possible at once. And if that isn’t a Hanukkah miracle, then I don’t know what is. Please note: You want to make the dough the night before you will fry the
doughnuts, so plan accordingly. Ingredients: For the doughnut dough: 3⁄4 cup whole milk 4 large eggs, lightly beaten 1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature, cubed 3 1⁄2 cups all-purpose flour 1⁄2 cup sugar 1 tablespoon active dry yeast 1 teaspoon kosher salt For the chocolate pastry cream: 4 large egg yolks
Directions: 1. To make the cacao nib sugar: In a food processor, grind the cacao nibs until fine. Combine the pulverized cacao nibs and sugar. Transfer to an airtight container until ready to use. 2. The next step is to make the pastry cream, since it needs to set before you fill the doughnuts. Whisk together yolks, vanilla, sugar, cornstarch, cocoa powder and salt. 3. In a heavy saucepan, bring milk just to a boil over moderate heat and in a stream add 1/4 cup to egg mixture, whisking until smooth. 4. Transfer the milk-and-egg mixture to the pan with the rest of the milk and bring to a boil, whisking (the mixture will look curdled but will become smooth as whisked). 5. Boil the mixture 1 minute, whisking
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ARIZONA JEWISH POST, November 23, 2018
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vigorously, and remove from heat. Stir in chocolate and butter, stirring until melted and combined well. Transfer to a heatproof bowl and chill, surface covered with plastic wrap, overnight, or until ready to fill doughnuts. 6. To make the doughnut dough: Heat the milk until warm to the touch, around 110° F. Add the eggs to the warm milk mixture and whisk gently to combine. 7. Butter a medium bowl and set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flour, sugar, yeast and salt. Add the milk mixture and mix just until combined. Switch to the dough hook and knead the dough on low speed, about 3 minutes. The dough will be sticky — this is perfectly fine. 8. Increase the speed to medium and add the butter, a piece or two at a time. In the mixer, let the dough mix until completely smooth and elastic. To test the dough’s readiness, try stretching a piece of it. It should stretch easily to a point where it becomes translucent but does not rip. 9. Put the dough in a buttered bowl, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for a minimum of 12 hours, or overnight. 10. The next day, when ready to make the doughnuts, line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Dust the paper well with flour. Tip the cold dough onto a lightly floured work surface and roll it into a 9 1/2- by 12 1 ⁄2inch rectangle. It should be about 1/2-inch thick.
11. Using a 3-inch round cookie cutter, cut out 12 dough rounds and set them on the prepared sheets. Lightly cover them with plastic wrap and set in a warm place to proof for about 1 1/2 hours. After proofing, the dough should look puffy and spring back slowly when pressed gently. 12. When you’re ready to fry, line a rimmed baking sheet with paper towels. Prepare the cacao nib sugar in a bowl nearby. Spoon the pastry cream into a pastry bag fitted with a small round tip. 13. Add the oil to a medium, heavy-bottomed pot or to a deep fryer. Heat the oil to between 350 and 365 F. 14. Carefully add 2 to 3 doughnuts to the oil and fry them until golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Using a slotted spoon, put the doughnuts on the paper towels. After about 1 minute, when the doughnuts are cool enough to handle, toss them in the cacao nib sugar. Repeat with the remaining dough. 15. To fill the doughnuts, using a knife or a chopstick, poke a hole into one side of each doughnut. Be careful not to poke through the other side. Insert the tip of the cream-filled pastry bag into the hole and gently squeeze to fill. Makes 12 doughnuts.
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ARTS & CULTURE / LOCAL Spiritual guitarist coming to Rialto on U.S. tour MICHEAL ROMERO AJP INTERN
Photo courtesy Voice Art Group
G
uitar virtuoso Estas Tonne makes his way to Tucson on Dec. 9 to perform at the Rialto Theatre as part of his first U.S. tour, hot on the heels of a 10-city international tour. Although Tonne has lived in America before, “The Breath of Sound” tour is his first big exposure to U.S. audiences. “Life takes us to the place we need to be,” Tonne says. “It doesn’t matter that we are different, that is the point.” He has noticed that some concertgoers have been taken aback by the format of his shows, because the songs aren’t separate pieces and stories aren’t told in between. For Tonne, the music just flows out of him. “I can only share what I am experiencing, what I am feeling,” Tonne says. “The music is an ongoing sound journey because life is ongoing.” Although many might be familiar with Tonne’s “The Song of the Golden Dragon,” which has over 50 million views on YouTube, the music he performs on this tour is meant to be different on each stop. “There is repetition of course, it is still me in this body,” Tonne says. “But the dynamic of storytelling is different, even when there is repetition there is freshness.” Tonne was born in the Ukraine, which was still part of the Soviet Union at the time, and has German and Jewish ancestry. He began playing guitar when he was 7 years old but stopped when he moved to Israel. When he was old enough, he joined the Israeli army but was eager to leave. Even so, he doesn’t regret that time, because he believes it was part of the path he was meant to be on. “If I didn’t stop then, I probably wouldn’t play the way I play today,” Tonne says. “I am just giving thanks to all of this.” In an internet video, Tonne talks about
Estas Tonne performs in St. Petersburg, Russia, April 6.
trying to buy drugs from a man in California, but the man refused to sell him any because he was touched by Tonne’s playing. “Of course I had to go (the) hardcore way, because I needed to experiment,” Tonne says. “So there were lots of drugs and all other kinds of stuff involved.” Today, Tonne no longer feels like he needs drugs to fill his soul; his music does that. In the near future Tonne plans to write a book about his experiences. “It is about time,” he says. “I’ve been writing for 17 years about this crazy trip I’m on.” Right now his goal in the concert experience is to touch people’s lives in this intimate setting that is hard to duplicate. “We all would love to live in a world that is more open and pure,” Tonne says. “So this ongoing musical journey is a purification.” The Dec. 9 concert will begin at 7 p.m. at the Rialto Theatre, 318 E. Congress St. Doors open 6 p.m. For tickets, call 740-1000 or visit www.rialtotheatre.com or www. estastonne.com.
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Photo courtesy Jewish Agency for Israel
JFSA funds empower Israeli partnerships
(L-R) Oshrat Barel, Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona vice president; Shneor Katash, Partnership2Gether representative in Kiryat Malachi; Hila Yogev Keren, P2G director; and Hila Kordana, P2G representative in Kiryat Malachi, at the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly in Tel Aviv, Oct. 24.
DEBE CAMPBELL AJP Assistant Editor Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of four articles on how the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona allocates funds. The first, in the Oct. 12 issue, focused on youth and family education programs at synagogues. ewish Federation of Southern Arizona applies a Planning and Allocation process that distributes annual campaign income in four areas: congregations, beneficiary agencies, national and overseas programs, and the Federation’s operations, explains Stuart Mellan, JFSA president and CEO. During the last quarter of each year, a PAC steering committee works on budgets for the four funding areas. Partnership2Gether connects 450 Jewish and Israeli communities in 46 city-tocity and region-to-region partnerships, engaging more than 350,000 participants each year in meaningful ongoing connections between Israelis and Jews around the world. Through unique programs and one-on-one encounters, the JFSA collaborates with The Jewish Agency for Israel in this P2G Peoplehood Platform, previously known as Partnership 2000. Overseas programs connect the global Jewish family, increase Jewish identity, strengthen Israeli society and build bridges between Tucson, Israel, and the world, says Marlyne Freedman, chair of JFSA’s national and overseas PAC. “It’s about developing
J
relationships. In developing relationships, we strengthen advocacy and partnerships,” she says. “Living bridges should go both ways,” adds Oshrat Barel, JFSA vice president for planning and community engagement, citing examples of bringing visiting artists from Israel and sending Tucson artists in reciprocation. “Based on strong relationships, we can be impactful,” she says. Tucson receives value through the partnership as well, says Freedman, through programs such as the shinshinim (Israeli teen emissaries) and other people-to-people exchanges. “Teaching the importance of Israel is most important. If we can continue educating, and building a community, it’s worth all the money in the world. Relationships among our brothers and sisters in Tucson with the partnership areas, is not just about the money; it’s much more. It is growing our homeland.” JFSA’s partnership areas include the town of Kiryat Malachi and the Hof Ashkelon region. These areas were once under a Western Region Consortium of multiple Jewish federations. In 2008, that was reduced to collaboration with Seattle, Phoenix, and Tucson. In 2013, Tucson assumed the entire sponsorship, gradually boosting its annual contributions from $40,000 to $200,000, with an additional $150,000 in directly designated supplemental donations. Additionally, JFSA/Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona aligned See Partnerships, page 22
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ARIZONA JEWISH POST, November 23, 2018
PARTNERSHIPS continued from page 21
grant funds and private donor-direct funds go through the Federation, Barel says. Partners on the ground coordinate programs and funding for efficacy and efficiency. “Our community identifies our needs, and the partnership area identifies their needs,” Barel says. “Each year we call for proposals. We create one community that builds on the three communities, giving new, personal meaning to the words ‘the Jewish people,’ ” adds Andrea Arbel, Jewish Agency for Israel partnership unit director based in Jerusalem. “Over time, our overseas allocation has grown, increasing impact in the community,” says Freedman. Amir Eden, Weintraub Israel Center director in Tucson, adds, “We are investing not only in the present but more importantly in the future of our partnership areas. The social justice projects ensure they are caring for their community as a whole so that children with special needs or of immigrants have the support they deserve to become better citizens and have tools to succeed.” As a former JFSA vice president, Freedman has watched and helped guide this growth for more than a decade. She describes Kiryat Malachi then as a small, fractured, struggling community. “Now it is developing industry and housing,” Freedman says, attributing that mainly to the assistance through the partnership and its strengthened relationship with the local political infrastructure. “Our joint steering committee already has started the conversation ‘Partnership 10 years from today.’ We dream to work together on projects in many fields — technology, science, health, and biology,” Arbel says. “We have slogans at our partnership: ‘Let’s dream together’ and ‘Just do it.’ We feel the sense of belonging to something that is greater than just yourself and your community is essential.” Other overseas support aids emergency and specific or collaborative projects directly. This includes the Jewish culture center in Ekaterinburg, Russia. JFSA contributions help sustain and improve the center, a youth center, summer camps for children, and holiday celebrations, festivals, and seminars.
Hof Ashkelon, Kiryat Malachi gain sustainability via links Hof Ashkelon Regional Council covers 68 square miles in Israel’s southern district. With an increasing population of 18,254, it abuts the Gaza border and includes five kibbutzim (collectives), 11 moshavim (farm cooperatives), four settlements, and a youth village. Kiryat Malachi, the City of Angels, has a population of 23,000. It is a development town established when the government was trying to spread out immigrants, says Adi Shacham, Partnership2Gether’s People to People coordinator for the area. “The partnership connection between the three communities [Kiryat Malachi, Hof Ashkelon, and Tucson] creates a stronger advantage; it’s all about connections between people. Each community develops differently. Together they can create something bigger,” says Shacham. Partnership Coordinator Hila Kordana describes the ma’abara, or tent city, that was Kiryat Malachi in the 1950s, composed of immigrants from Iraq, Yemen, Morocco, Romania, and Ethiopia. “The name was chosen to honor the Jewish community of Los Angeles, which contributed much of the funding for its establishment,” she notes. New immigrants from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia in recent years have increased the population of Kiryat Malachi by 40 percent, Kordana adds. One-third of Israelis live below the poverty level, according to a report from the Adva Center, a policy analysis institute. Half of the population of Kiryat Malachi is on welfare, says Kordana. Of the 37 percent of people employed, the average salary for men is $15,000 and $7,500 for women, according to Wikipedia. Yet, people are still happy, Kordana says. The town’s plan for industrial development in technology looks to double the population in five years.
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Partnership2Gether strengthens local, overseas community programs
Kiryat Malachi youth perform in an Art City production.
DEBE CAMPBELL AJP Assistant Editor
E
ach year, Art City provides more than 200 youth in Kiryat Malachi and Hof Ashkelon, Israel, an opportunity for professional development in the performing arts. The program contributes to the community and region with cultural and social activities, empowering youth with a sense of belonging, and using creativity to integrate cultures. It is one among many youth and community development programs funded through the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s annual campaign funding. Art City began nearly a decade ago and has evolved, with JFSA’s support, to a new level, says Oshrat Barel, JFSA senior vice president for planning and community engagement. The program now stages a professional level musical
annually during Hanukkah for the surrounding communities. “This is our next generation, these are the people that will be our friends, our neighbors, and our leaders,” says Andrea Arbel, Jewish Agency for Israel partnership unit director, based in Jerusalem. “By investing in them, we help create better lives for them and the entire community.” Along with Art City, JFSA allocations and Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona/Federation aligned grants fund programs — on both sides of the ocean. Perhaps most visible on this side, the shinshinim (Israeli teen emissaries) program brings two young Israeli ambassadors to Tucson annually to share culture and education with youth and the community at large. Multifaith missions to Israel expand See Overseas, page 24
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AREA CONGREGATIONS CONSERVATIVE Congregation anshei israel
5550 E. Fifth St., Tucson, AZ 85711 • (520) 745-5550 Rabbi Robert Eisen, Cantorial Soloist Nichole Chorny • www.caiaz.org Daily minyan: Mon.-Thurs., 7:30 a.m. & 5:30 p.m.; Fri., 7:30 a.m.; Sun. & legal holidays, 8 a.m. & 5:30 p.m. / Mincha: Fri., 5:45 p.m. / Shabbat services: Sat., 9 a.m., followed by Kiddush; Tot Shabbat, 1st Fri., 5:45 p.m.; Family Service, 3rd Friday, 5:45 p.m.; Holiday services may differ, call or visit website. / Torah study: every Shabbat one hour before Mincha (call or visit website for times) / Talmud on Tuesday, 6 p.m. / Weekday Torah study group, Wed., 11 a.m. beverages and dessert provided.
Congregation Bet shalom 3881 E. River Road, Tucson, AZ 85718 • (520) 577-1171 Rabbi Hazzan Avraham Alpert • www.cbsaz.org Shabbat services: Fri., 5:30 p.m. (followed by monthly dinners — call for info); Sat. 9:30 a.m., Camp Shabbat (ages 6-10) 10 a.m.-noon, followed by Kiddush lunch; 12:30-2 p.m. CBS Think Tank discussion led by Rabbi Dr. Howard Schwartz and Prof. David Graizbord; monthly Tot Shabbat (call for dates) / Weekday services: Wed. 8:15 a.m. / Hagim 9:30 a.m.
ORTHODOX Congregation ChoFetz Chayim/southwest torah institute 5150 E. Fifth St., Tucson, AZ 85711 • (520) 747-7780 Rabbi Israel Becker • www.tucsontorah.org Shabbat services: Fri., Kabbalat Shabbat 15 minutes before sunset; Sat. 9 a.m. followed by Kiddush. / Mincha: Fri., 1 p.m.; Sat., 25 minutes before sunset, followed by Shalosh Seudas, Maariv and Havdallah. Services: Sun., 8 a.m.; Mon. & Thurs., 6:50 a.m.; Tues., Wed., Fri., 7 a.m.; daily, 15 minutes before sunset. / Weekday Rosh Chodesh services: 6:45 a.m.
Congregation young israel/ChaBad oF tuCson 2443 E. Fourth St., Tucson, AZ 85719 • (520) 881-7956 Rabbi Yossie Shemtov, Rabbi Yudi Ceitlin • www.chabadoftucson.com Daily minyan: Sun. & legal holidays, 8:30 a.m.; Mon. & Thurs., 6:30 p.m.; Tues., Wed., Fri., 6:45 a.m. / Mincha & Maariv, 5:15 p.m. / Shabbat services: Fri. at candlelighting; Sat. 9:30 a.m. followed by Kiddush. Mincha, Maariv and Havdallah TBA.
ChaBad on river 3916 E. Ft. Lowell Road • (520) 661-9350 Rabbi Ram Bigelman • www.chabadonriver.com Shabbat services: Fri., Mincha at candlelighting time, followed by Maariv. / Sat., Shacharit service, 9:30 a.m. / Torah study: women, Wed., 2 p.m.; men, Tues. and Thurs., 7 p.m. Call to confirm.
ChaBad oro valley 1217 W. Faldo Drive, Oro Valley, AZ 85755 • (520) 477-8672 Rabbi Ephraim Zimmerman • www.jewishorovalley.com Shabbat services: 3rd Fri., 5 p.m. Oct.-Feb., 6 p.m. March-Sept., all followed by dinner / Sat., 10 a.m. study session followed by service.
ChaBad sierra vista 401 Suffolk Drive, Sierra Vista, AZ 85635 • (520) 820-6256 Rabbi Benzion Shemtov • www.jewishsierravista.com Shabbat services: Sat., 10:30 a.m., bimonthly, followed by class explaining prayers. Visit website or call for dates.
REFORM
Congregation Chaverim 5901 E. Second St., Tucson, AZ 85711 • (520) 320-1015 Rabbi Stephanie Aaron • www.chaverim.net Shabbat services: Fri., 7 p.m. (no service on 5th Fri.); Family Shabbat, 1st Fri., 6 p.m. / Torah study: 2nd Sat., 9 a.m., followed by contemplative service,10 a.m.
Congregation Kol simChah
(Renewal) 4625 E. River Road, Tucson, AZ 85718 • (520) 296-0818 Mailing Address: 6628 E. Calle Dened, Tucson, AZ 85710 Shabbat services: 1st and 3rd Fri., 7:15 p.m.
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ARIZONA JEWISH POST, November 23, 2018
REFORM
Congregation m’Kor hayim 3888 E. River Road, Tucson, AZ 85718 (Tucson Hebrew Academy) Mailing Address: P.O. Box 31806, Tucson, AZ 85751 • (520) 904-1881 Rabbi Helen Cohn • www.mkorhayim.org Shabbat services: 2nd and 4th Fri., 7 p.m. / Torah study, 2nd and 4th Sat., 9:30 a.m.
Congregation or Chadash 3939 N. Alvernon, Tucson, AZ 85718 • (520) 512-8500 Rabbi Thomas Louchheim, Cantor Janece Cohen www.orchadash-tucson.org Shabbat services: Fri., 6:30 p.m.; 1st Fri., Friday Night LIVE (Sept.-May); 2nd Friday, Tot Shabbat (Sept.-May), 6 p.m.; Sat., 10 a.m. / Torah study: Sat., 8:30 a.m.
the institute For JudaiC serviCes and studies Mailing Address: 36789 S. Golf Course Drive, Saddlebrooke, AZ 85739 Rabbi Sanford Seltzer • (520) 825-8175 Shabbat services: Oct.-April, third Friday of the month at 7 p.m. — call for details.
temple emanu-el 225 N. Country Club Road, Tucson, AZ 85716 • (520) 327-4501 Rabbi Batsheva Appel • www.tetucson.org Shabbat services: Fri., 7:30 p.m.; Sat., 10 a.m./ Torah study: Sat., 8:30 a.m. except when there is a Rabbi’s Tish.
temple Kol hamidBar 228 N. Canyon Drive, Sierra Vista • (520) 458-8637 kolhamidbar.tripod.com Mailing address: P.O. Box 908, Sierra Vista, AZ 85636 Shabbat services: Fri., 7:30 p.m.
OTHER
Beth shalom temple Center
1751 N. Rio Mayo (P.O. Box 884), Green Valley, AZ 85622 (520) 648-6690 • www.bstc.us Shabbat services: 1st and 3rd Fri., 7 p.m. / Torah study: Sat., 10 a.m.
Congregation Beit simCha
7493 N. Oracle Road, Suite 201, Tucson, AZ 85704 • (520) 276-5675 Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon • www.beitsimchatucson.org Shabbat services: Fri., 6 p.m., at Oro Valley Community Center, 10555 N. La Canada Drive; Sat., 9 a.m., twice per month, with Torah study, at 7493 N. Oracle Road, Suite 131; monthly Shabbat hikes.
Congregation etz Chaim (Modern Orthodox) 686 Harshaw Road, Patagonia, AZ 85624 • (520) 394-2520 Rabbi Gabriel Cousens • www.etzchaimcongregation.org Shabbat services: Fri., 18 minutes before sunset / Torah study: Sat., 9:30 a.m. handmaKer resident synagogue
2221 N. Rosemont Blvd., Tucson, AZ 85712 • (520) 881-2323 www.handmaker.com Shabbat services: Fri., 4:30 p.m., led by Lindsey O’Shea, followed by Shabbat dinner; Sat., 9:30 a.m., led by Mel Cohen and Dan Asia, followed by light Kiddush lunch.
seCular humanist Jewish CirCle www.secularhumanistjewishcircle.org Call Cathleen at (520) 730-0401 for meeting or other information.
university oF arizona hillel Foundation 1245 E. 2nd St. Tucson, AZ 85719 • (520) 624-6561 • www.arizona.hillel.org Shabbat services: Reform, Conservative, Orthodox and alternative services two Fridays each month when school is in session. Dinner follows (guests, $8; RSVP by preceding Thurs.). Call for dates/times.
Hadassah to host regional speaker at installation lunch
H
adassah Southern Arizona will honor its 2018 Woman of the Year, install officers for 2019 and recognize its annual supporters at a luncheon on Dec. 9. Ian Merles, the annual giving officer for Hadassah West Coast Region, will be the guest speaker. Honey Manson will install the new slate of officers: Erica Friedman and Sara Wisdom, co-presidents; vice presidents Lynnda Schumer for membership, Anne Lowe for programming, Rochelle Roth for development and Barbara Gretzer for education; Marcia Winick, treasurer; Theresa Dulgov and Louise Good, co-recording secretaries; Karen Skolnik, corresponding secretary; and Carrie Jacobi, records administrator. The event will begin at 11:30 a.m. at Skyline Country Club, 5200 E. St. Andrews Drive. The cost is $25 for members, $27 for non-members, paid by Dec. 3. For more information and to RSVP call Marcia Winick at 886-9919.
OVERSEAS continued from page 23
locals’ perspectives and knowledge of real life on the ground in Israel. Mission participants bring back those revelations to share with family, friends and the wider community. Through School Twinning Programs with Kiryat Malachi and Hof Ashkelon, students and teachers in Tucson develop strong relationships with their peers in Israel, sharing culture, language, and friendships. Teachers participate in foreign exchange through an Amitim (colleagues) Program. In Israel, Krembo Wings provides weekly and summer social activities for young people with all types of mental and physical disabilities, together with their non-disabled peers aged 7 to 22. Kiryat Malachi is among 65 national branches across Israel, with more than 6,000 members nationwide. Along with helping the youth they mentor, the volunteer youth counselors benefit from leadership training. Another national program, SAHI (Mitzvah Special Forces), empowers at-risk teens to engage in helping others. This program helps teens to become stronger citizens through volunteerism, becoming agents of change in their communities. Youth Giving Units collect food and bundle food packages for more than 2,000 needy households across Israel weekly. The youth units deliver the packages, knock on the door, and leave quickly, so the family is not made uncomfortable and to remain anonymous. JFSA funds the program in Kiryat Malachi. Achari Program (Follow Me) supports and counsels Ethiopian families with limited Hebrew-speaking skills to increase readiness for their children’s mandatory Israeli Defense Forces service. The program influences their future through education, cultivating leadership and social involvement. The project uses the military recruitment process not to supply the army with “better soldiers” but to supply Israeli society with better civilians, guided by strong values, believing in themselves and their mission, with a greater sense of belonging and a concerned attitude.
INSIDER’S VIEW
Photo courtesy Amir Eden
At Hanukkah, don’t take message for granted
Amir, Gahl, Sha’ron and Neev Eden on Dec. 19, 2017, the last night of Hanukkah
AMIR EDEN WEINTRAUB ISRAEL CENTER
M
any years ago, after serving in the Israel Defense Forces, I moved to live on a kibbutz in the beautiful Israel Valley. My father, who lived as a teen in the 1950s in Hulata, a kibbutz in the shadow of the Golan Heights, inspired me (a city boy) to experience life as a kibbutznik. Everyone who joins a kibbutz is offered a host family and I was blessed to be adopted by a wonderful family. Once during Hanukkah, Mikki Zimring, who was my adopted father while living on the kibbutz, invited me to his home for coffee and sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts eaten in Israel and around the world on Hanukkah —they are deepfried, filled with jam and then topped with powdered sugar). We walked quietly side by side and I remember the site of the kibbutz’s Hanukkiah on top of the tallest water tower, all lit up for the holiday. The image of the electric lights against the dark, clouded sky was a visual representation of just how important Hanukkah was. In the kibbutz, Hanukkah was a national holiday of liberation, a festival of Jewish national pride. We celebrated the victory of the few against the many. When we arrived at his house, Mikki
took out his family’s Hanukkiah and proceeded to light the candles. “Mikki,” I asked, “it’s the second night of Hanukkah — why are you lighting seven candles?” Mikki explained to me that he and his family lit the candles according to the custom of Beit Shammai (the House of Shammai), starting with eight and ending with one; and not with the generally accepted custom of Beit Hillel (the House of Hillel), starting with one candle and building up to eight. They followed the custom of Shammai, he said, as a way to remind themselves that after the victory of the Maccabees, the country lost its purpose. It became corrupted and divided, without a vision for a better future. Seeing the candles dwindle in numbers strengthened their resolve that this must not happen again. “Ner Yisrael lo yishkach” (the light of our people will shine forever). As long as people light candles and remember that the light needs nurturing and should never be taken for granted, the light will shine. So, however you light your candles — like Mikki or like the rest of us — remember to never take them for granted. Chag Urim Sameach — Happy Hanukkah.
Amir Eden is the director of Tucson’s Weintraub Israel Center.
November 23, 2018, ARIZONA JEWISH POST
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P.S. Celebrating local people, places, travels and simchas SHARON KLEIN Special to the AJP Octogenarians unite Steve Seltzer and Stephen Doctoroff, both retired physicians, attended a mini-62nd reunion of Newton High School (Massachusetts) alumni. From Oct. 2-6, accompanied by their wives, Janet and Aimee respectively, they joined a dozen other attendees in Sante Fe, New Mexico. The group ate, drank, and enjoyed day trips from Sante Fe to Tesuque Pueblo, Chimayo, Bandelier National Monument, and the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. This mini-reunion coincided with the celebrants’ 80th birthday year. Here are their celebrations and trip highlights.
Frank and Carol Pilmar at an Israeli food market
seen since the 60th reunion. These alums are already planning a 64th reunion. Stephen found the balloon festival “spectacular” and opined that it would be a worthwhile drive from Tucson for this annual event.
Janet and Steve Seltzer with their joint 80th birthday Pavlova cake
Aimee and Stephen Doctoroff at Stephen’s mini-62nd high school reunion in Santa Fe last month
In July, the Seltzers traveled to Newport, Rhode Island, and then Boston where they were feted by their children, who grew up in Tucson — Andrea Pion (Boston), Ruth Grasfield (Boston), and Scott Seltzer (Israel) — along with their spouses and families. Andrea emailed family and friends to solicit cards and notes to honor Steve’s birthday in June and Janet’s in November. Andrea strung the greetings with clothespins onto three long streamers. In August, Janet and Steve continued their milestone year festivities with a Baltic cruise. In July, the Doctoroffs celebrated Stephen’s 80th, also in Boston, where their adult children and grandchildren live. Stephen and Aimee finished off their Eastern sojourn with a vacation week on Cape Cod. At the mini-reunion, Stephen relished the comradery with classmates, one a friend since kindergarten and others whom he had not
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ARIZONA JEWISH POST, November 23, 2018
Live long and prosper Born in 1928, Frank Pilmar became a nonagenarian last month. He and his wife, Carol, celebrated this milestone birthday with friends at Kingfisher Restaurant and then with family in their native New York before flying off to Paris and Israel. Pilmar, a retired businessman, has been a volunteer at Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging for almost 10 years. Frank schmoozes with residents who have become friends, is an open ear, and helps in whatever capacity he can, whether in the apartments, assisted living, skilled nursing, rehab, or memory care. He tries to brighten residents’ days and his own. He derives satisfaction from being at Handmaker for three hours at a time, three days a week, which includes assisting at Saturday morning Shabbat services conducted by Mel Cohen and Dan Asia. Reticent to be written up in this column, Frank says, “I don’t do this for the notoriety; I do this for Frank.” He recalls an encounter years ago, about a month into his volunteering. He asked a young female employee why she worked at Handmaker. The woman replied, “How can it be bad? Everyone is like my Grandma!” “Right from the heart,” Frank pegged her answer. And it is from his heart that he speaks of this senior living community as a good place to volunteer, with nice staff and good programming, helping to fulfill Handmaker’s tradition since 1963 of loving kindness. “Forever Friends” 75th birthday reunion From crinolines to pageboy haircuts, Elvis Presley to saddle shoes, enduring friendship brought Kathy Unger and her grade school friends together earlier this month for a reunion in Westlake Village, California. The friends are celebrating their 75th birthdays this year, with Kathy, the youngest, turning three-quarters of a century later this month. The group established this quinquennial reunion when they turned 50 and have been meeting every five years since. Kathy’s friends now live in California, Ohio, Connecticut, Florida and Arizona. While they met as youngsters in Akron, Ohio, it was the Jewish Community Center that brought them together every Tuesday night. They formed a club, “The Amies” (French for friends), which became a
Kathy Unger (seated, right) with her grade school reunion buddies
BBG chapter. Their Jewish lives and leadership was a common theme in their conversations over the course of this gathering. “We were close as kids,” says Kathy, “and we’re even closer all of these decades later.” They are, and always will be, “Forever Friends.” For the love of Israel When six firefighters traveled to Israel earlier this month (see “New delegation of firefighters heading to Israel,” AJP 10/26/18), they carried with them a plaque to be placed beneath a tree planted at the fire station in Hof Ashkelon, in our Partnership region. The plaque reads: “Firefighters Beyond Borders funded in part by The Bryna Zehngut Community Fund at the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona.” Established at the time of Bryna’s passing in 2005, the fund supports programs,
Esther Sherberg, chair of The Bryna Zehngut Community Fund, with memorial plaque for tree planting
projects, and groups that perpetuate the issues and ideals that personified her life. This project embodies her love of Israel. Before leaving for this humanitarian mission, firefighter Ted Geare realized that he graduated from Rincon High School in 1970 with Al Zehngut, Bryna’s widower. He was touched and honored to have this opportunity to carry her plaque to our homeland and dedicate the tree in Bryna’s memory. Time to share Happy Thanksgiving weekend, Happy upcoming Hanukkah, and see you back in print in the secular New Year. Keep me posted of your activities — 319-1112. L’shalom.
November 23, 2018, ARIZONA JEWISH POST
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COMMUNITY CALENDAR The calendar deadline is Tuesday, 10 days before the issue date. Our next issue will be published Dec. 7, 2018. Events may be emailed to office@azjewishpost.com, faxed to 319-1118, or mailed to the AJP at 3718 E. River Road, #272, Tucson, AZ 85718. For more information, call 319-1112. See Area Congregations on page 24 for additional synagogue events. Men’s Mishnah club with Rabbi Israel Becker at Cong. Chofetz Chayim. Sundays, 7:15 a.m.; Monday-Friday, 6:15 a.m.; Saturdays, 8:15 a.m. 747-7780 or yzbecker@me.com. Chabad of Sierra Vista men’s tefillin club with Rabbi Benzion Shemtov, first Sundays, 9 a.m., at 401 Suffolk Drive. 820-6256 or www.jewishsierravista.com. “Too Jewish” radio show with Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon on KVOI 1030 AM (also KAPR and KJAA), Sundays at 9 a.m. Nov. 25, Robert Mnookin, Samuel Williston Professor of Law at Harvard and director of the Harvard Negotiation Research Project, author of new book, “The Jewish American Paradox.” Dec. 2, Asaf Lewin, software manager of Space IL, the Israeli lunar project. Dec. 9, Rabbi Amy Scheinerman, author of “The Talmud of Relationships.” Beth Shalom Temple Center of Green Valley bagel breakfast and Yiddish club, first Sundays, 9:30 a.m. Members, $7; nonmembers, $10. 648-6690 or 399-3474. Temple Emanu-El adult class, “Faces of Torah,” facilitated by Jesse Davis, most Sundays, 10:15-11:30 a.m., through April 28. See schedule on www.jewishtucson.org. 327-4501. Southern Arizona Jewish Genealogy Society, second Sundays, 1-3 p.m. at the Tucson J. Contact Barbara Stern Mannlein at 731-0300 or the J at 299-3000. Tucson J Israeli Dance, taught by Brandi Hawkins, 2nd and 4th Sundays, partners, 4:45-6
Friday / November 23
5:30 PM: Temple Emanu-El Seeking Shabbat service, preceded at 5 p.m. by wine and cheese, followed at 6:30 p.m. by Shabbat dinner. Dinner, $12 for adults, free for kids 12 and under. Vegetarian option available upon request. Register at 327-4501.
Monday / November 26
4 PM: Arizona Center for Judaic Studies Sally & Ralph Duchin Campus Lecture Series presents Israel’s Role in Shaping Jewish Identity,” with Prof. David Graizbord, associate director of the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies at UA. Free. At UA Hillel Foundation, 1245 E. 2nd St. 626-5758 or www.judaic. arizona.edu.
Tuesday / November 27
NOON: Cong. Or Chadash book club discusses “David and the Philistine Woman” by Paul Boorstin. 512-8500 or www.octucson.org.
Wednesday / November 28
4-7 PM: Brandeis National Committee Hanukkah Party at Cong. Anshei Israel, Cantor Falkow Lounge, with entertainment by cantorial soloist Nichole Chorny, latkes, gift shopping. $25. Profits support Elaine Lisberg Endowed Scholarship Fund. Bring toiletries/diapers for Emerge! Center Against Domestic Abuse. RSVP to Marsha Rosenblum at 529-7477.
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ARIZONA JEWISH POST, November 23, 2018
ONGOING p.m., open circle, 6-7 p.m. Members, $8; nonmembers, $10. 299-3000. Cong. Anshei Israel parent-tot class, led by Lindsey Embree. Mondays, 9-11 a.m. Children up to 24 months and their parent(s). Free. Mandatory vaccination policy. Call Nancy Auslander at 745-5550 or visit www.caiaz.org. Temple Emanu-El mah jongg, Mondays, 10 a.m. 327-4501. Cong. Anshei Israel mah jongg, Mondays, 10 a.m.-noon. All levels, men and women. Contact Evelyn at 885-4102 or esigafus@aol.com. Tucson J current events discussion, Mondays, noon-1:30 p.m. Members, $1; nonmembers, $2. Bring or buy lunch, 11:30 a.m. 2993000, ext. 147. Cong. Bet Shalom yoga. Mondays, 4:30-5:30 p.m. $5. 577-1171. Jewish 12-step sobriety support group meets Mondays, 6:30-8 p.m. at Cong. Bet Shalom. dcmack1952@gmail.com. Spouse Bereavement Group, cosponsored by Widowed to Widowed, Inc. at the Tucson J, Tuesdays, 10 a.m. Contact Marvin at 885-2005 or Tanya at 299-3000, ext. 147. JFCS Holocaust Survivors group meets Tuesdays, 10 a.m.-noon. Contact Raisa Moroz at 795-0300.
Thursday / November 29
6-8 PM: 1st Rate 2nd Hand Thrift Store “Best Of Event.” Shop best merchandise, wine and cheese, live music by Birks Works featuring Stuart and Eric Mellan. Share of profits distributed to participating Jewish agencies. 5851 E. Speedway Blvd. 327-5252.
Friday / November 30
11 AM: Jewish History Museum/Holocaust History Center gallery chat, Encountering “The American Dream,” presented by Alvaro Enciso, who hikes the Sonoran Desert with the Tucson Samaritans and installs sculptures as ongoing memorials. Free. 564 S. Stone Ave. 6709073 or www.jewishhistorymuseum.org. 9:30 PM: Temple Emanu-El Downtown Shabbat at Jewish History Museum, 564 S. Stone Ave., with Rabbi Batsheva Appel and Armon Bizman band. 327-4501.
Saturday / December 1
9-10 AM: Cong. Or Chadash Eat, Study, Pray, “Chanukah: What is Religious Freedom?” with Rabbi Thomas Louchheim. Includes lox and bagel breakfast. Discussion followed by Shabbat service at 10 a.m. Free. 512-8500 or www.octucson.org. NOON: Cong. Anshei Israel book club discusses “The Wanting of Levine” by Michael Halberstam. Copies to borrow available at CAI office
Awakening Through Jewish Meditation, Iyún Ayin, with Reb Brian Yosef, Tuesdays at 10:30 a.m., at Cong. Bet Shalom. Free. See www.torahofawakening.com. Temple Emanu-El “Stitch and Kvetch.” Third Tuesdays, 6-7:30 p.m. 327-4501. Tucson J social bridge. Tuesdays and Thursdays, noon-3 p.m., year round. Drop-ins welcome. Meets in library on second floor. 299-3000. Tucson J canasta group. Tuesdays and Thursdays, noon. Instruction available and a beginners’ table every week. Call or text Lisa at 977-4054.
Temple Emanu-El Talmud study, Wednesdays, 10 -11:30 a.m. Text required, call 327-4501. Chabad of Sierra Vista women’s class with Rabbi Benzion Shemtov, last Wednesdays, 2 p.m., 401 Suffolk Drive. 820-6256 or www.jewishsierravista.com. Chabad Tucson lunch and learn with Rabbi Yehuda Ceitlin, Wednesdays, 12:15 p.m. at 5th Street Kitchen and Deli, 5071 E. Fifth St. www. chabadtucson.com. Jewish mothers/grandmothers special needs support group for those with children/grandchildren, youth or adult, with special needs, third Wednesdays, 7-8:30 p.m. at Tucson J. Contact Joyce Stuehringer at 299-5920.
Cong. Anshei Israel Talmud on Tuesday with Rabbi Robert Eisen. Meets 6 p.m. 745-5550.
Temple Emanu-El Jewish novels club with Linda Levine. Third Thursdays, 2-4 p.m. 3274501.
Weintraub Israel Center Shirat HaShirim Hebrew choir. Tuesdays, 7 p.m. Learn to sing in Hebrew. Contact Rina Paz at 304-7943 or ericashem@cox.net.
“Biblical Breakthroughs with Rabbi Becker” at the Southwest Torah Institute. Fridays, noon, for men and women. 747-7780 or yzbecker@me.com.
Tucson J Israeli dance classes. Tuesdays. Beginners, 7:30 p.m.; intermediate, 8:15 p.m.; advanced, 9 p.m. Taught by Lisa Goldberg. Members, $8; nonmembers, $10. 299-3000.
Jewish History Museum new core exhibition, “Meanings Not Yet Imagined.” Holocaust History Center, “Call Me Rohingya,” photographs by Andrew Stanbridge. 564 S. Stone Ave. 670-9073.
Cong. Anshei Israel gentle chair yoga with Lois Graham, Wednesdays, 9:30-10:30 a.m. Members of Women’s League, $6 per class; nonmembers, $8 per class. Contact Evelyn at 885-4102 or esigafus@aol.com. through Nov. 30 (For more information, contact moderator Joan Belzer at 298-6324.) For club information, contact Helen Rib at 299-0340 or helenrib@yahoo.com. 6 PM: Cong. Anshei Israel “Latkes & Vodkas” adult Hanukkah party with martinis, brisket dinner, latkes. Live jazz by Birks Works featuring Stuart and Eric Mellan. Must be 21+. Members $36, guests $40, $5 more per person after Nov. 23. RSVP at www.caiaz.org or 745-5550.
Sunday / December 2
8-10 AM: Tucson J 5K Hot Chocolate Run. Run or walk. $25 for 5K by Dec. 1, $30 race day; $10 for 1K. Register at www.tucsonjcc.org or contact Debbie Claggett at sports@tucsonjcc.org or 299-3000, ext. 255. 9:30 AM: Cong. Or Chadash Boker Tov Bistro with Lauren Grossman, author of three novels. 512-8500 or www.octucson.org. 10 AM: Temple Emanu-El Hanukkah Spectacular with student participation. 327-4501 or www.tetucson.org. 3:30-5 PM: PJ Library/PJ Our Way present “Let it Glow” Hanukkah celebration at Barnes & Noble, 5130 E. Broadway. Make your own Hanukkah glow stick menorah. RSVP by Nov. 30 at www.jfsa.org/letitglow or contact Mary Ellen Loebl at 647-8443 or pjlibrary@jfsa.org . 5:30 PM: Temple Emanu-El Millstone Meno-
Tucson J Fine Art Gallery shows, New Works from Broken Glass, through Dec. 10; Trajectory by Elliott Heiman, Dec. 11-Jan. 24. 299-3000. rah lighting, followed at 5:45 p.m. by Hanukkah dinner. Bring menorah and two candles. Dinner: Members, $30; nonmembers, $35; ages 4-12, $9; 3 and under, free. RSVP for dinner by Nov. 26, at 327-4501 or www.tetucson.org.
Monday / December 3
10:30 AM-NOON: Temple Emanu-El class, “Probing the Biblical Book of Judges,” with Rabbi Sandy Seltzer. Continues Dec. 10 and Dec. 17. To register and for fee information call 3274501. 7-9 PM: Tucson Tikkun Community presents “Iran: Observances and Experiences,” with Marcia and Michael Zaccaria. At Tucson City Council Ward 6 office, 3202 E. 1st St. Contact Michael Zaccaria at zaccarim@comcast.net.
Tuesday / December 4
7 PM: Phoenix Suns Jewish Heritage Night and Hanukkah celebration. Pre-game menorah lighting. Tickets start at $25. Group discounts available. At Talking Stick Resort Arena, 201 E. Jefferson St., Phoenix. Receive a Suns yarmulke if you order through event site www.groupmatics. events/event/Jewishheritage42 or by contacting Lynsay Saunders at lsaunders@suns.com or 602379-7769.
Wednesday / December 5
11 AM: Jewish History Museum Mapping Migration series, with special guests
Deborah Oseran, Ellen Posner, and Lynda Rogoff. Free. 564 S. Stone Ave. 670-9073 or www.jewishhistorymuseum.org.
Thursday / December 6
6 PM: Tucson Hebrew Academy Hanukkah Hop. Students perform Hanukkah show. Free. Latkes sold after show to support eighth grade Israel experience. At THA. Contact Emily Ellentuck at 529-3888.
Friday / December 7
5:45 PM: Cong. Anshei Israel “BOGO” Tot Shabbat Service. Dinner at 6:15 p.m.: Bring a new family and host family and guest family are free. Members, $25 family of 2 adults and up to 4 children; additional adults (13+) $10. RSVP for dinner by Dec. 3 to Kim at 745-5550, ext. 224 or edasst@caiaz.org. 5:45 PM: Cong. Or Chadash 100 menorah celebration and Friday Night Live! Latke Nosh followed at 6:30 p.m. by service. Bring menorah, 7 candles, matches. Sufganiyot oneg follows. At St. Francis in the Foothills Celebration Center, 4625 E. River Road. 512-8500 or www.octucson.org. 6:30 PM: Temple Emanu-El Tot and Shabbat Rocks! service with the 5th grade, Rabbi Batsheva Appel, Cantorial Soloist Marjorie Hochberg, and the Avanim Band, preceded by Millstone Menorah lighting at 5:30 p.m., followed by family Shabbat dinner at 5:45 p.m. Dinner, $12 for adults, $3 for kids 4-12, free for kids under 4. RSVP for dinner at 327-4501.
Saturday / December 8
what to bring, contact Pat at pat_d@comcast.net or 481-5324. 7:30 PM: Chanukah Cantata. Presented by Tucson J, JFSA, and seven Tucson congregations, joined by the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, and congregational choirs. Performers include Rabbi-Hazzan Avraham Alpert, Cantor Janece Cohen, Cantorial Soloist Marjorie Hochberg, Cantorial Soloist Nichole Chorny, Cantorial Soloist Diana Povolotskaya, Cantorial Soloist Sarah Bollt, Cantorial Intern Emily Ellentuck, and Dale Whitmore. $18. At Tucson J. Register at www.tucsonjcc.org or 299-3000.
Sunday / December 9
8 AM: Tucson J Cycle for Good, part of JCCs of North America program. Money raised benefits Tucson J Taglit program. Additional start times at 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. $18. At Tucson J. Reservations required to guarantee a bike. Register at www. tucsonjcc.org or 299-3000. 11 AM: Chabad on River Jewish Women’s Circle Rosh Chodesh event, “Chanukah Donut Delight!” $10 suggested. At Chabad on River, 3916 E. Fort Lowell Road. To RSVP or sponsor, call/text Chani Bigelman at 661-1071. 11:30 AM: Hadassah Southern Arizona brunch with Woman of the Year presentation, installation of officers for 2019, and honoring annual givers. Ian Merles, annual giving officer for the West Coast region, will speak. At Skyline Country Club, 5200 E. St. Andrews Drive. Members, $25; nonmembers, $27. To RSVP, mail check payable to Hadassah to Marcia Winick, 7284 Onda Circle, Tucson, AZ 85715. Questions? Call Marcia at 886-9919.
8 AM: Temple Emanu-El Wandering Jews hike and Shabbat morning service with Rabbi Batsheva Appel at Seven Falls. 327-4501.
4-5 PM: Tucson Symphony Orchestra Just For Kids Hanukkah Concert. Free. At Tucson J. www.tucsonjcc.org or 299-3000.
12:15-3:15 PM: Secular Humanist Jewish Circle Chanukah Party with food and gift exchange. Members, $3; nonmembers, $5. At Casa Adobes Congregational Church, 6801 N. Oracle Road. To RSVP by Dec. 3, and for information on
6 PM: Cong. Anshei Israel “Hanukkah & the Chocolate Factory” Party, with dinner buffet. $6.13 per person (all ages) with RSVP by Dec. 3; $13 after and at the door. RSVP at www.caiaz.org or 745-5550.
NORTHWEST TUCSON ONGOING
Jewish Federation-Northwest chair yoga with a Jewish flair taught by Bonnie Golden. Mondays, 10-11 a.m. $7 per class or $25 for four. 505-4161 or northwestjewish@jfsa.org. Northwest Needlers create hand-stitched items for donation in the Jewish community. Meets at Jewish Federation Northwest Tuesdays, 1-3 p.m. RSVP to judithgfeldman@gmail. com or 505-4161. Jewish Federation-Northwest mah jongg, meets Wednesdays, 12:30 to 3:30 p.m., 505-4161. Chabad of Oro Valley adult education class, Jewish learning with Rabbi Ephraim Zimmerman. Wednesdays at 7 p.m., at 1217 W. Faldo Drive. 477-8672 or www.jewishorovalley.com.
Tuesday / November 27
5 PM: JFSA Northwest Division Campaign Kick-off, music and dining with Jewish jazz pianist Jon Simon, at the Buttes at Reflections, 9800 N. Oracle Road. No host sunset cocktails and complimentary appetizers on the patio, followed by dinner at 6 p.m. $45. RSVP for availability at www.jfsa.org/northwestcampaignkickoff2019.
Saturday / December 1
9 AM: Jewish Federation-Northwest and Cong. Beit Simcha Shabbat Hike with Rabbi Samuel Cohon at Catalina State
Park, 11570 N Oracle Road. 505-4161 or northwestjewish@jfsa.org.
Thursday / December 6
10-11:30 AM: Jewish Federation-Northwest, “Getting to Know Us,” with Amir Eden, director of Weintraub Israel Center. Bagels and coffee. Free. 190 N. Magee Road, Ste. 162. 5054161 or northwestjewish@jfsa.org. 5 PM: Chabad of Oro Valley Community Menorah lighting and celebration, Oro Valley Public Library, 1305 W. Naranja Dr. Food, music, raffles. 477-8672 or www.jewishorovalley.com.
Sunday / December 9
3 PM: Chabad of Oro Valley Hanukkah program, Children's Museum Oro Valley, 11015 N. Oracle Road #101. 477-8672 or www.jewishorovalley.com. 4 PM: Jewish Federation-Northwest, Family Chanukah Party. 190 N. Magee Road, Ste. 162. 505-4161 or northwestjewish@jfsa.org.
UPCOMING Tuesday / December 11
6 PM: JFSA Northwest community event with Susan Kasle, MPH, vice president of community services at Jewish Family & Children’s Services. 505-4161.
ah! Chanuekgifts! y p p a H r uniqu
Stop in
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November 23, 2018, ARIZONA JEWISH POST
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Happy Chanukah!
We would like to express our gratitude to our many wonderful friends in the Jewish community!
OBITUARIES Vivian Workman Vivian Mae Workman, age 78, died Sept. 12, 2018 in Evergreen, Colorado, after a battle with lymphoma. Mrs. Workman was born in Brooklyn, New York, to David and Pauline Brande. She was a 1957 graduate of East Rockaway High School and a 1961 graduate of the University of Rochester where she received a bachelor of arts degree in general science. Her professions included industrial spy and computer programmer. She was married to Martin Workman from 1964 until his death in 2002. They moved from Ami-
tyville, New York, to Tucson in 1982 and to Green Valley in 1996. Mrs. Workman moved to Colorado in 2008. Survivors include her daughters, Pamela Workman-Parker (David Dettloff) of Tucson and Dr. Rachel Workman (Chris Gayer) of Evergreen, and six grandchildren. Memorial contributions may be made to “Clothes To Kids of Denver,” a non-profit providing free school clothing to preschool-12th grade students from low-income or in-crisis families, at www.clothestokidsdenver.org.
Ruth Graff
Celebrating 25 years in Tucson
6440 N. Campbell Ave. | 520.795.7221 | www.vivacetucson.com
Ruth Sokol Graff, 87, died Oct. 30, 2018. Mrs. Graff was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She attended Girls’ Latin School in Boston and graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in business management. She worked for the Combined Jewish Philanthropies in Boston and later in New York City. She and her husband were involved for many years with Temple Shalom of Newton, Massachusetts, and moved to Tucson in
1994 following his retirement. Mrs. Graff was predeceased by her husband of 42 years, Milton A. Graff, and her brother, Sheldon Sokol. Survivors include her children, Deborah L. Kay (Dr. Jeffrey Kay) of Tucson and Steven A. Graff (Ruth L.) of South Windsor, Connecticut; sister, Helen E. Sokol of Walnut Creek, California; and seven grandchildren. Graveside services were held at East Lawn Palms Cemetery with Rabbi Robert Eisen of Congregation Anshei Israel officiating. Memorial contributions may be made to the Arizona Opera Company.
David Lyons David J. Lyons, 79, died Nov. 2, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia. Mr. Lyons grew up in Minneapolis. Survivors include his wife of 57 years, Myrna Lyons; sons Jonathan (Jamie) Lyons of Marietta, Georgia, and Brett (Marlo) Lyons of Los Gatos, California; sisters Barbara Maurice Hobbs of Minneapolis and Lisa (Richard Grossman)
Lyons of Los Angeles; and four grandchildren. Services and interment were in Georgia. An online guestbook is available at www.edressler.com. Memorial donations may be made to National Ramah Commission, 3080 Broadway, New York, New York 10027, or www.campramah.org.
Saul Rutin Saul Rutin, 84, died Nov. 4, 2018 from complications of PSP (progressive supranuclear palsy), a rare neurological disease often misdiagnosed as
Parkinson’s. Mr. Rutin was a pharmacist.
Survivors include his wife, Dian; sons, Aron (Carla) and Eric (Carolyn); stepsons, Eric and Jim (Denise) Lieberthal; and six grandchildren. A celebration of life will be held in January. Memorial contributions may be made to the PWR (Parkinson’s Wellness Recovery) gym, 134 W. Ft. Lowell Rd., Tucson, 85705 or to the charity of your choice. Arrangements were made by Evergreen Mortuary.
Obituaries are printed free of charge. There is a nominal fee for photographs. 30
ARIZONA JEWISH POST, November 23, 2018
IN FOCUS 50th anniversary celebration
Photos courtesy Susan Rubin
Photo: Angela Salmon/Handmaker
Handmaker honors employees
(L-R): Chad Rubin, Marshall and Susan Rubin, Lindy and Michael Beaver, Marla and Jared Rubin, Megumi Rubin and the grandchildren, Liliana, Milena and Eli
Marshall and Susan Rubin celebrated their 50th anniversary, which was officially on Aug. 11, with a party Oct. 21 for family and friends. About 55 people attended the party, held at Culinary Dropout, including the Rubin’s adult sons and their families, who live in Tucson, and Susan’s brother and sister-inMarshall and Susan Rubin try to duplicate the cake-eating picture from their law who were visiting from Salem, Oregon. wedding.
(L-R): Tina Armstrong-Johnson, Diane Weintraub, Ron Weintraub, Abigail Delgado
On Tuesday, Nov. 13, Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging hosted its annual dinner honoring employees with five or more years of service. Fifty-nine employees were on this year’s list. Special guests at the dinner were Diane and Ron Weintraub, who recently established a scholarship fund at Handmaker for
employees furthering their education in healthcare. The Weintraubs presented commemorative certificates to the first two recipients, Tina Armstrong-Johnson and Abigail Delgado, both currently licensed practical nurses who are completing schooling to obtain their registered nurse qualifications.
Photo: Debe Campbell
Shinshinit gets visit from home
Pictured in the lobby of the Harvey and Deanna Evenchik Center for Jewish Philanthropy Nov. 12, from left, Moshe Benacot, Marla Handler (member of Ron’s host family in Tucson), Ron Benacot, and Mirav Benacot.
Ron Benacot, one of Tucson’s two shinshiniyot (Israeli teen emissaries) this year, received a visit last week from
her parents, who live in Moshav Mavki’im, in Tucson’s partnership region in Israel. November 23, 2018, ARIZONA JEWISH POST
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ARIZONA JEWISH POST, November 23, 2018
Hanukkah Gift Guide New books for kids include a fresh take on trailblazing ‘All-of-a-Kind Family’ PENNY SCHWARTZ JTA
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lla, Henny, Sarah, Charlotte and Gertie. The names of the five fictional sisters bring a smile to generations of Jewish Americans who grew up reading “All-of-a-Kind Family,” the classic mid-century chapter book series by Sydney Taylor that followed the dayto-day doings and adventures of a Jewish-American immigrant family on New York’s Lower East Side. The trailblazing series marked the first time that a children’s book about a Jewish-American family found an audience in both Jewish and non-Jewish American homes. Now the beloved family comes to life in “All-of-a-Kind Family Hanukkah,” the first fully illustrated picture book based on the series, by Emily Jenkins and Paul O. Zelinsky. The dynamic writerillustrator team will charm young readers with this delightful story that reflects
the warmth and spirited character of the original and creates a new chapter for this generation. It’s among eight new outstanding and engaging children’s books for Hanukkah, the eight-day Festival of Light that begins this year on Sunday evening, Dec. 2.
All-of-a-Kind Family Hanukkah
Emily Jenkins & Paul O. Zelinsky Schwartz & Wade Books; ages 3 to 8 Jenkins, an award-winning author, grew up reading the “All-of-a-Kind” classics — over and over, she told JTA. “As an only child, I adored books about big families and their escapades,” she wrote in an email. Jenkins read the books to her children, who were just as smitten. For this illustrated book, set on the eve of Hanukkah in 1912, Jenkins focused on
Gertie, the spunky 4-year-old, as the family gets ready to celebrate the holiday. Adults familiar with the chapter books will spot various references to the original — such as the ginger snaps hidden in the bed, Ella’s favorite hymn and a special library book, Jenkins revealed. Zelinsky said illustrating the Taylor classic was a chance to reconnect with the books his daughters adored. In a phone conversation, the Brooklynite, whose recognition for excellence includes the prestigious Caldecott Award for “Rapunzel,” said he immersed himself in the “All-of-aKind” world, down to the details of what the storybook family’s New York apartment looked like. Zelinsky stepped away from his wellknown finer, more detailed style and embraced bolder, less polished illustrations that he said matched Gertie’s passion and reflect the soul of the stories. In one spectacular double-page spread, kids get a cutaway view of the family apartment: In the bedroom, Gertie is hiding under the bed
after a tantrum while Mama and her sisters are in the adjacent kitchen joyfully preparing potato latkes. The back pages include notes from Jenkins and Zelinsky that fill in details about Taylor and the creation of this new book. Dreidel Day Amalia Hoffman Kar-Ben; ages 1-4 Young kids will spin, bounce and tumble their way through Hanukkah along with a lively kitty in this delightful board book that glows like the colors of a box of holiday candles. Little ones can count out loud with each double-page spread that features one word and one number and discover the corresponding number of colorful dreidels. My Family Celebrates Hanukkah Lisa Bullard; illustrated by Constanza See Books, page S-2
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Basaluzzo Lerner Publications; ages 4-8 This easy-tofollow illustrated story is perfect for families and classrooms. Kids learn about the Hanukkah tale and the miracle of how a small amount of oil lasted eight days. Families celebrate, light candles, play dreidel, and receive chocolate and coins as gifts. The book’s end pages explain the holiday and pose reading-based questions helpful for educators.
Light the Menorah! A Hanukkah Handbook
Jacqueline Jules; illustrated by Kristina Swarner Kar-Ben; ages 4-10 In this contemporary guide to Hanukkah, families discover unique ways to celebrate Hanukkah that give deeper meaning to the ritual of lighting the menorah, as well as easy to understand explanations of the holiday. Jules, an award-winning author, offers a short verse for each of the eight nights that can be read after lighting the menorah. They reflect the holiday’s themes of religious freedom, courage and miracles. Swarner’s illustrations and border designs add warmth and glow. Songs, rules for playing dreidel and instructions for simple crafts such as a homemade coupon gift book make this book a welcome resource.
Hannah’s Hanukkah Hiccups
Shanna Silva; illustrated by Bob McMahon Apples & Honey Press; ages 4-8 Uh, oh. Or make that Uh-hic oh! Hannah Hope Hartman, a spunky young girl who lives in a brownstone on Hester Street, is practicing for her religious school’s Hanukkah program when she suddenly gets a case of the hiccups – and they just won’t go away! Her brother Henry tries to cure her by making funny faces. The building’s diverse neighbors offer their own customs: drinking pickle juice backwards; a Mexican red string cure and cardamom cookies.
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Kids will relate to Hannah, who doesn’t want to be in the school program with the hiccups and finds a creative solution. Silva’s heartwarming story — and the play on words that begin with the letter ‘h” — is perfectly paired with McMahon’s cartoon-like illustrations in this lively, laugh-out-loud yarn that shines with the light of a family’s Hanukkah celebration.
How It’s Made: Hanukkah Menorah
Allison Ofanansky; Photographs by Eliyahu Alpern Apples & Honey
Press; ages 7-12 Family members of all ages will gather round this engaging book, which shines a light on all things menorah. The 32 pages of Ofanansky’s text, brought to life by Alpern’s vibrant photographs, explain the holiday and explore the many types of menorahs — from antiques to creative whimsical versions. Kids go behind the scenes with menorah-making artists. A fun fact reveals that one Israeli bakery fries and bakes 2,000 doughnuts for each day of Hanukkah. Gifts, songs and blessings in Hebrew, English and transliterated from Hebrew are also included along with instructions for making candles, olive oil and latkes.
The Story of Hanukkah
David A. Adler, illustrated by Jill Weber Holiday House; Board book, ages 2-4 In this vibrantly illustrated board book, the award-winning David Adler retells the story of Hanukkah in simple, straightforward prose for young readers, paired with richly colored bold illustrations by Weber, the team that wrote the original (2011) version for older kids. The end depicts a modern family celebrating Hanukkah.
Light the Menorah: A Playful Action Rhyme
Tova Gitty Broide; illustrated by Patti Argoff Hachai Publishing; ages 1-4 This lively rhyming book features two young brothers and a sister from a haredi Orthodox family joyfully celebrating Hanukkah, with latkes hopping in the frying pan and the sister spinning like a dreidel.
Hanukkah Gift Guide
The Hanukkah connection: In modern times, sharing the light with family near and far DEBORAH FINEBLUM JNS
Photo: Nina Mikryukova/Unsplash
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or generations, lighting the Hanukkah candles together has been the fodder for lifelong memories. But today’s far-flung families are increasingly challenged to share the sight of the candles aglow, the sound of the blessings and traditional songs sung by old and young alike, the feel of a perfect dreidel spin, and the smell and taste of latkes fresh from the pan. Long-distance offspring may be away at college, on a gap-year program, serving in the military, or working and living in another town, with or without kids of their own. This leaves today’s parents (and grandparents) called upon to apply ingenuity, creativity, flexibility and some basic technical know-how to successfully span the miles with Hanukkah spirit. In fact, says “The Red Tent” author Anita Diamant, who has also generated a library of guidebooks on modern Jewish life, including “How to Raise a Jewish
At Hanukkah, a text or Skype call can bring far-flung family closer.
Child: A Practical Handbook for Family Life,” “my family enjoys Hanukkah kitsch so much we keep it going over the miles.” When her daughter was a college student, Diamant would send a box of “Hanukkah stuff as a counterweight to the Christmas decorations.” The “stuff ”—
menorah, gelt, candles (flame-free ones for those in dorms) can include modest gifts (think: socks) for each of the eight nights, she says, including notice that a donation was made in their name to a nonprofit organization that’s meaningful to them.
Technology can be a parent’s best friend. Diamant recommends sending long-distance kids a “light-hearted, light-themed” text or email on each night complete with a holiday story and a link to a Hanukkah song, “plus a video of you lighting your hanukkiah at home.” Whatever form it takes, college students receiving Hanukkah love from home is never more appreciated than in these days of anti-Israel — and often, outright anti-Semitic — influences on many North American campuses. “Even celebrating a happy Jewish holiday like Hanukkah can get tricky on campuses today,” says Tammi Rossman-Benjamin of AMCHA Initiative, a watchdog organization monitoring North American campuses. “And yet, the Hanukkah story — about the few against the many — has so much to say about the threats that Jewish students face today.” For parents of lone soldiers serving in Israel, it is hard to be multiple time zones away. See Connection, page S-4
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Hanukkah Gift Guide
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“Hanukkah is when I miss them the absolute most, and when we light, I usually cry,” says Hadassah Sabo Milner, a mom of three Israel Defense Forces lone soldiers, who lives with her youngest son and husband in New York. “On Hanukkah, we were always singing ‘Maoz Tzur’ (‘Rock of Ages’) really badly together. And even though I’m not the kind of mom who needs to talk to my kids every day — they need to live their lives without having to check in all the time — when we light here, it’s the middle of the night in Israel, and I can’t just pick up the phone and call.”
Begin new traditions all their own
At least college students and soldiers have built-in communities to celebrate Hanukkah. For young adults working and living far from their families, it can be a lonely existence. “It might be tough to be away from home because they haven’t quite mastered the latke recipe, they’re putting together a makeshift menorah, or they simply miss the sounds of parents telling them to ‘Be careful! Watch the flame! Don’t let the wax drip!’ says Miller. “But being away from home also means that they’ve started to pave their own path; it’s a chance to share traditions from home and begin new traditions of their own.” And when they pose for a group candle-lighting photo to post on Facebook or Instagram, “there’s a glimpse of peoplehood — of feeling connected to the Jewish community and loving the chance to share that pride with the digital world.” Whereas young adults are celebrating beloved traditions from childhood — whether that includes latkes or Israeli sufganiyot (jelly donuts), or both — young children are busy forming their memories, and grandparents want to be part of that happy process. Even when she can’t be with them on the holiday, Ann Wanetik, who lives in the Detroit area, takes advantage of her visits to her eight grandchildren who live in Israel. “Whenever I’m in Israel in the fall, I take each one out separately and let them choose what they want for Hanukkah,” she says. “It’s an opportunity to have some time alone with each one, focus on what that child enjoys most and buy them something special they pick out themselves.”
Taking advantage of Skype and the Internet
For Boston-area grandmother Ruth Nemzoff, technology shrinks the miles between her and her long-distance grandkids. “You’ve got to get with the program,”
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she says. So Nemzoff, author of “Don’t Roll Your Eyes: Making In-Laws Into Family,” and known as “Mama Ruth” to her 11 grandkids ages eight months to 18 years, has developed a full program of Hanukkah connections with those on the West Coast and in Washington, D.C. “No matter what, when you live at a distance you have to be resourceful in creating Hanukkah with your grandchildren, but with interfaith ones, it’s even more important,” says Nemzoff, who serves as a board member at InterfaithFamily. “I’m not big on materialism, and the goal is not to compete with the gifts under the tree, but I do want to share this special tradition with them,” she adds. The Internet makes much of this possible, she maintains. She uses it to send her younger grandkids “Shalom Sesame” DVDs and the older ones Hanukkah songs, including Maccabeats Hanukkah tunes. She’ll send small gifts, and in this Skype-able world arrange to light the candles, open gifts and even make latkes “together” (doable with her West Coast family three hours away on Pacific Standard Time). “Sometimes, I also email them a picture of the gift they’ll get the next time we visit.” With interfaith families, it’s important to be both sensitive and honest, says Nemzoff. “You need to talk to the parents first, so they won’t feel you are converting the kids or competing, but it’s important to share your family’s traditions, your early memories of Hanukkah and your heritage since it also belongs to them.” Sometimes, even with the best of distance-spanners, it’s hard to beat the appeal of a sloppy sufganiyot-flavored kiss. “We usually just get on a plane,” says Baltimore bubbe Belle Libber with a sigh. Be it to the grandkids in Milwaukee, Atlanta or Israel, Libber and her husband Jonathan have racked up the frequent-flyer miles. “There’s nothing like being right there with them,” she says. When that isn’t possible, love itself can travel at the speed of light — namely, the light of the Hanukkah menorah, says Rabbi Yisroel Gordon, principal of Machon Los Angeles, a high school for girls. “One reason Hanukkah makes a lot of people really homesick is the power of the menorah light itself, the only remnant we still have of the priests’ service in the holy temple,” he says. “Hanukkah reminds us of the importance of family since it was one courageous Jewish family, Matisyahu and his five sons, who created this miracle and saved the Jewish people.” “If I were a mystic,” he adds, “I’d say that gazing at the lights, you can feel that wherever they are, your child is gazing at the same lights along with you.”
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Hanukkah Gift Guide Everyone wins in ‘Good as Gelt’ Jewish music sweepstakes from Milken Archives
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his Hanukkah, let’s celebrate the power of light to overcome darkness,” says Jeff Janezcko, Ph.D., curator of the Milken Archive of Jewish Music. “Let’s celebrate the resilience of the human spirit. Let’s celebrate the power of a gift, given with intention to inspire hope.” As he wrote, there were “fires burning in California, rockets hitting Israel, and too many tragedies around the world. Perhaps it’s a blessing that Hanukkah starts early this year — to remind us that even in times much darker than now, there is cause for hope. “That’s why, this year, we’re sharing musical gifts that might inspire us all to envision and strive for a better tomorrow.” Everyone who enters the “Good as Gelt” giveaway will receive digital downloads of the archives’ eight thematic gifts: 1. Peace: Shalom aleikhem (Rabbi Israel Goldfarb)
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2. Love: Yo kon amor (Ofer Ben-Amots) 3. Laughter: Strange Happenings: The Holyday Calamities of Avremele Melamed (Maurice Goldman) 4. Health: Abi gezundt (Abraham Ellstein) 5. History: Hashkivenu (Traditional Sephardic) 6. Family: Tants un maysele (Yehudi Wyner) 7. Friendship: Sacred Service for the Sabbath Eve IV. “Why Do We Deal Treacherously?” (Judith Zaimont) 8. Future: L’dor vador (Meir Finkelstein) Plus, eight randomly picked winners will receive two albums: The Milken Archive’s “A Hanukkah Celebration” plus an album of their choice from the Milken Archive collection. Enter by Nov. 26 at www.milken archive.org. Album winners will be selected and all free tracks made available on Nov. 27, 2018.
Hanukkah Gift Guide Unsung Heroes: New kids’ book honors Polish woman who saved children in WWII
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he story of Irena Sendler, the Polish social worker who hid 2,500 Jewish children from the Nazis during World War II, is now a children’s book. “Mommy, Who Was Irena Sendler?” by Cathy Werling is the third volume in the Unsung Heroes children’s book series, published by the Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes. The book, written for children ages 7 to 12, tells the story of Sendler, a young social worker in Poland who was horrified by the way Hitler and the Nazis treated Poland’s Jewish people. Determined to help save Jewish children from the concentration camps, Sendler smuggled them out of the Warsaw Ghetto and hid them with nonJewish families. She buried their Jewish names and information about where they were sent in glass jars under an apple tree, hoping to be able to reunite the families once the war ended. Sendler’s story was largely unknown for 60
years until three American high school students discovered it during a history project and shared it with the world. In “Mommy, Who Was Irena Sendler?” readers will learn how Megan Felt and two classmates in Uniontown, Kansas, uncovered the story. As the students began to share the story they called “Life in a Jar,” many lives were touched and forever changed. A
story-within-a-story, the book takes the form of a conversation between Felt and her 8-year-old daughter, Blair. Now the program director for the Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes, Felt shares two life-changing lessons about courage: the bravery of Sendler’s selfless acts, and her own determination to share Irena’s story. “The book has truly changed the course of my life in a powerful way,” says Felt. “I want my daughter and other children to understand that they, too, have an opportunity and a responsibility to make a positive change in the world. Sharing Irena’s powerful story has become a passion in my life, and I feel it is necessary to share the story of good with others.” “Sendler’s courageous acts during World War II are well known now, but they were hidden from the world until those students in Kansas discovered her,” says Norm Conard, executive director of the center. He previously
taught social studies in Uniontown and assigned Felt and her classmates the history project that led to the discovery of Sendler’s story. “There are unsung heroes of history all around us, and their stories provide powerful inspiration. Ordinary people have the power to change the world — that’s the message of all of our Unsung Heroes children’s books.” The Unsung Hero children’s book series includes additional books by Werling. “Why Did Grandpa Cry?” tells the story of civil rights hero Ken Reinhardt, who stood up against injustice as a teenager in Little Rock when his high school was integrated. “Why Did Sergeant Stubby Go to War?” is about a bedraggled rescue dog that went on to become a highly decorated war hero. The Unsung Hero children’s books are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and www.lowellmilkencenter.org, and at the Hall of Unsung Heroes in Fort Scott, Kansas.
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