The Dayton Jewish Observer, December 2017

How Israeli shows are transforming television p. 36 December 2017 Kislev/Tevet 5778 Vol. 22, No. 4

Published by the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton

The Miami Valley’s Jewish Monthly • Online at daytonjewishobserver.org

Happy

Keeping the faiths

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Chanukah Festival of Lights

Women’s Interfaith Discussion group

Hobby Lobby’s Bible museum

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Museum of the Bible, Washington, D.C

Latin latkes

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Plantain Latkes with Avocado Crema

DAYTON

Friendship Village Retirement Community

Peter Wine

Happy Chanukah from the residents & staff of Friendship Village

You’re Invited To our next monthly Friday Night Shabbat featuring a traditional Shabbat dinner with all your favorites.

Ryan Levin

World War II U.S. Army veterans Lou (L) and Al Levin, 92, joined an Honor Flight trip to Washington, D.C. in November.

Established in Springfield in 2005, Honor Flight transports U.S. military veterans to see the memorials in Washington, D.C. connected to the wars in which they fought. Here, the Levin brothers visit the national FDR Memorial.

Program led by Joe Bettman

Friday, December 22, 5 p.m.

In The Atrium Dining Room

Friday Night Shabbat is $10 per person.

R.S.V.P. to 837-5581

Join our Diabetic Support Group Tuesday, Dec. 12, 10:30 a.m. & 6 p.m. (2nd Tuesday each mo.) with Gem City Home Care Certified Diabetes Educator Mara Lamb.

Friendship Village For more information call 837-5581.

7 a.m. - 2 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Located directly inside the Atrium entrance. Stop in & join us for a cup of coffee & Friendship Village Hospitality.

Volunteer opportunities available — call Lauren at ext. 1299 for details.

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The Coffee House is located just inside the Atrium entrance at Door 18. Watch for the Friendship Coffee House sign.

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Robert Kahn, who fled Nazi Germany with his family after Kristallnacht, talks with members of the Stivers Philharmonic Orchestra while composer Niccolo Athens watches via Skype from Shanghai, at a rehearsal for the premiere of Athens’ work, Bob Kahn’s Violin, which the orchestra performed on Nov. 8 for the JCC Cultural Arts & Book Fest. During Kristallnacht, Nov. 9-10, 1938, Nazis forced Kahn to play his violin while they beat his father and ransacked the family’s apartment in Mannheim, Germany. Athens was inspired to write the piece after he saw Kahn’s violin on display with Prejudice & Memory, the Holocaust exhibit at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. The soloist for the premiere was Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra Violinist Betsey Hofeldt (R).

Howie Beigelman/OJC

**Correction**

Ohio House Minority Leader Fred Strahorn In the November Observer, prays at the Western the article, At Wright State, Wall in Jerusalem Fiddler becomes a teaching tool, during a bipartisan onstage and off, incorrectly mission of 11 Ohio House members to indicated that Wright Israel in November, State University does not sponsored by have any Jewish student Bellefaire JCB, the organizations. Wright Negev Foundation, State’s undergraduate and Ohio Jewish Jewish Student Union is Communities, with formally affiliated with support from the Jewish Federation of Hillel: The Foundation Greater Dayton. The for Jewish Campus Life.

Jewish students with Wright mission’s goal was to increase business, State’s Boonshoft School of academic, and research partnerships between Ohio and Medicine have their own Israel. Also on the trip was Dayton Development Coalition group, J-Shoft.

CEO Jeff Hoagland.

IN THIS ISSUE Arts & Culture...............................36

The Nosher..................................30

Calendar of Events.....................25

Opinion...........................18

Family Education.........................26

Obituaries.............................34

Kve l l i n g Co r n e r. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Religion..............................27

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • DECEMBER 2017

DAYTON Marshall Weiss

sion group, which meets every four to six weeks at different houses of worship across the Miami Valley.

The group, which drew a dozen women to its first meeting — at Shahid’s mosque in 2014 — now brings together 80 to 90 women from various religions to learn from and about Women’s Interfaith Discussion group each other. breaks barriers, builds understanding For their first program, Shahid and Allen selected the topic, Basics Of Our Faiths. Each agreed to bring five friends to the meeting.

“I have to tell you, I had the hardest time getting five people,” Allen said. “Bonnie Rice ended up being my only person who came that day.”

After two or three meetings, Shahid and Allen met Buehler.

They asked the Catholic sister to help them organize the programs, as their go-to person on Christianity.

“There was so much we wanted to know about ChristiWomen’s Interfaith Discussion organizers (L to R) Sister Jeanette Buehler, Bushra Shahid, and Phyllis Pavlofsky Allen at the Dayton Fazl- anity,” Allen said. “And she is a leader.”

I-Umar Mosque.

The sister coordinates the Community Homicide Prayer

By Marshall Weiss explained.

Vigils in Dayton, Trotwood, and The Observer For a year, Shahid visited nearby townships.

Four years ago, Bushra various churches to promote Buehler and Allen, both Shahid, a member of Dayton’s the idea and asked friends to retired, have teaching backAhmadiyya Muslim Commuconnect her with churches. She grounds: Buehler holds a bachenity, decided the time was right received no response. lor’s degree in education, a masto start an interfaith discussion “Most people were suspiter’s in theology, and a master’s group for women. cious, like, ‘Why would you in organizational development; Born in Africa and raised in want to do that?’ Or, ‘You’re Allen holds a bachelor’s degree her parents’ native Pakistan really trying to do something since her teens, Shahid knew else and this is just a cover,’” she in education and a master’s in theatre management. Shahid little about other religions. said. received her master’s degree in “I said, we need to have Then, she met Phyllis PavEnglish literature in Pakistan. some ladies who are passionate lofsky Allen, a member of Beth Through word of mouth, about their faith, who want to Jacob Congregation, and soon they started attracting 20 to talk about it, and who want to after, Sister Jeanette Buehler 25 women at their programs, maybe teach other people about with the Sisters of the Precious including Baha’is, Unitarians, it, and let’s just get together Blood. The three now organize Presbyterians, Baptists, Sikhs, and have meetings,” Shahid the Women’s Interfaith Discus-

Keeping the faiths

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and members from all of Dayton’s synagogues and temples.

“We started to look for different venues,” Allen said. “What we found was people at the different venues — the volunteers — then would start coming.”

They’ve held sessions at Beth Abraham Synagogue, Temple Beth Or, and Temple Israel’s Jewish Cultural Festival.

“We did one at Westminster Presbyterian,” Allen said. “Our topic was Song In Our Faiths.

We listened to the organ and their minister talked to us. Every venue we’ve been to, we’ve collected a few people along the way.”

Allen added that the group never set out to have a formal membership base.

“We’ve always said on our flyers to bring a friend,” Allen said. “We thought maybe the first people that came would never come back again. We

590 Isaac Prugh Way 937.298.0594 694 Isaac Prugh Way 937.297.4300

From the editor’s desk I’m not sure when the notion of gifts for the kinderlach (children) on all eight nights of Chanukah took hold, but it wasn’t that way when I was a kid. The Marshall first night was always something Weiss cool, like Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots or a Planet of the Apes action figure, when action figures were a good 8 inches tall.

Light Brite seemed a high-tech wonder. But after a good half hour, it was too hot to use, with that incandescent bulb so close to your fingers. The biggest letdown was begging and begging my Mom to buy the shrunken head kit. Some kit: you peeled an apple from the kitchen, attempted to carve it with the flimsy plastic tools, and added hair and teeth after you applied the chemicals and baked it in the oven. No way my Mom was going to let me put that in our oven. Sometimes, by the third or fourth candle, there was comfort in receiving a six-pack of tube socks.

would be happy with 30 different people every time. But it hasn’t worked out that way.”

Most attendees have been Christian.

“The one hesitation I told them when they asked me to be a part of this,” Buehler said, “is that I’m Catholic. I said, ‘Some people don’t consider Catholics Christian. And so you need to be aware of that.’ And so it’s been a challenge for me to make sure when I do presentations that I do some research on general Christianity too, so it’s not just Catholic.”

A similar issue confronts Shahid. Women from her faith community of Ahmadiyya Muslims attend the programs, but very few Sunni Muslims have come out.

“There’s a reason for that,” Shahid explained. “Our community has been excommunicated Continued on next page

SHALOM From all our staff and residents

May the light of Chanukah bring miracles to us all.

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DAYTON Women’s Interfaith Discussion Continued from previous page

Sharon Bengel

Editor and Publisher Marshall Weiss MWeiss@jfgd.net 937-853-0372

Rabbi Judy Chessin hosted a Women’s Interfaith Discussion luncheon at Temple Beth Or in September

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from Islam.”

Founded in Punjab, India in 1889, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community believes that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835-1908) is the messiah and renewer of Islam.

Dayton’s Ahmadiyya mosque, the Fazl-I-Umar Mosque on Randolph St., was constructed in 1955 and is identified in The Oxford Handbook of American Islam as the first mosque built in the United States by black converts to Islam. According to Shahid, it is also the first mosque building erected in Ohio, and the first mosque constructed by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in America.

“In Pakistan in the ‘70s, the National Assembly decided that this group of Muslims (Ahmadis) would be excommunicated because of their belief in the messiah,” Shahid said. “That excommunication led to persecution, and our caliph had to leave there and settle in England. But that excommunication follows us everywhere.”

An estimated 10 to 20 million Ahmadis live around the world, with 15 to 20,000 in the United States. Israel is the only country in the Middle East where Ahmadi Muslims can openly practice their faith.

“We thought it was an important enough topic to do three sessions: one on the Christian messiah, one on the Ahmadi messiah, and one on waiting for the messiah,” Allen said.

Shahid’s dream of an interfaith group for women came out of her religious practice of gender separation to preserve modesty.

“We have the observance of separate socialization for men and women in all of our activities,” Shahid said. “I thought it would be a good idea to introduce that to a community, where we are so used to having men and women together, and see how it goes.”

“As a Catholic,” Buehler said, “I come from a very patriarchal model, particularly for women who are religious. We’ve struggled with that.

We’ve moved beyond that in ways maybe the ordinary woman in her pew hasn’t always moved, because we’ve been somewhat independent in the ways we run our congregations, even though they are approved by Rome. We have ways of being responsible for ourselves.

“Recently, I was reading some things about feminine qualities in terms of creativity, imagination, being in touch with emotions, inclusivity. And these are things I see happening when we come together as women. We bring those out in one another without having to fear that men dominate us or that we have to listen to what the men say in the group. We’re free to offer our own suggestions.

We have really learned to respect our differences.

And every time new women come and experience that, we’re building a better world.”

The Women’s Interfaith Discussion’s next program will be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Thursday, Jan 18 at the Salvation Army Kroc Center, 1000 N. Keowee St., Dayton. Email ladiesinterfaith@gmail.com.

Contributors Rachel Haug Gilbert Rabbi Joshua Ginsberg Marc Katz Candace R. Kwiatek Advertising Sales Executive Patty Caruso, plhc69@gmail.com Proofreaders Rachel Haug Gilbert, Pamela Schwartz Billing Jeri Kay Eldeen, JEldeen@jfgd.net 937-853-0372 Observer Advisor Martin Gottlieb Published by the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton David Pierce President Judy Abromowitz Immediate Past Pres.

Bruce Feldman President Elect Todd Bettman Officer Dr. Heath Gilbert Officer Beverly Louis Officer Mary Rita Weissman Officer Cathy Gardner CEO The Dayton Jewish Observer, Vol. 22, No. 4. The Dayton Jewish Observer is published monthly by the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton, a nonprofit corporation, 525 Versailles Dr., Dayton, OH 45459.

Views expressed by guest columnists, in readers’ letters and in reprinted opinion pieces do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Dayton Jewish Observer, The Dayton Jewish Observer Policy Committee, the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton or the underwriters of any columns. Acceptance of advertising neither endorses advertisers nor guarantees kashrut.

The Dayton Jewish Observer Mission Statement To support, strengthen and champion the Dayton Jewish community by providing a forum and resource for Jewish community interests.

Goals • To encourage affiliation, involvement and communication.

• To provide announcements, news, opinions and analysis of local, national and international activities and issues affecting Jews and the Jewish community.

• To build community across institutional, organizational and denominational lines.

• To advance causes important to the strength of our Jewish community including support of Federation agencies, its annual campaign, synagogue affiliation, Jewish education and participation in Jewish and general community affairs.

• To provide an historic record of Dayton Jewish life.

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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • DECEMBER 2017

DAYTON Community Chanukah celebration Dec. 13 Children’s singer/songwriter Joanie Leeds will perform at the Dayton Community Chanukah Celebration on Wednesday, Dec. 13 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville.

The program, which will include a kosher dinner with latkes Joanie Leeds and sufganiyot (doughnuts), is hosted by the JCC and PJ Library, in partnership with Beth Abraham Synagogue, Beth Jacob Congregation, Hillel Academy, Temple Beth Or, and Temple Israel.

Participants are encouraged to bring their menorahs and candles. The cost is $10 adults, $7 children before Dec. 4; $14 adults, $9 children after Dec. 4.

Children 3 and younger are free.

R.S.V.P. to 610-1555.

We Wish The Dayton Jewish Community A Very Happy Chanukah.

46

CELEBRATE HANUKKAH IN EVERY SEASON

Temple Beth Or Annual Artisan Fair Temple Beth Or will hold its Annual Artisan Fair on Sunday, Dec. 3 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 5275 Marshall Rd. in Washington Township. Along with Chanukah items available for purchase from the Judaica shop, local artisans and vendors will be on site.

The Temple Beth Or Brisketeers will have lunch available for purchase, including brisket sandwiches and side dishes.

Brisket by the pound and chopped liver will be available for purchase. For more information, call Temple Beth Or at 435-3400.

Dinsmore attorneys are proud to serve Dayton’s legal needs and we support the vision of a prosperous and vibrant community in every season.

Happy Chanukah to all.

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Chabad Chanukah On Ice Dec. 17 RiverScape MetroPark in Downtown Dayton will be the venue for Chabad’s Chanukah On Ice program at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 17. While skating, participants can watch as a menorah is carved from a block of ice to be lit for the fifth day of Chanukah. The cost is $7 per skater. RiverScape is located at 237 E. Monument Ave. R.S.V.P. to 643-0770.

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60,000 joined a Polish nationalist march. Should Jews be worried?

By Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA The sight of far-right activists waving racist banners and shouting antisemitic slogans during a nationalist march in the capital of Poland on Nov. 11 shocked many around the world.

It was an understandable reaction to witnessing tens of thousands in Warsaw marching near what used to be the largest Jewish ghetto during the Holocaust amid shouts of “Jews out” and “Remove Jewry from power.”

The march, an annual event that began in 2009 with 500 participants on Poland's national day, was not necessarily the largest so far. Similar numbers of marchers showed up last year. But it did showcase the rising strength of Polish nationalists who are feeling emboldened by the conservative government in Warsaw — and to some extent by the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president.

Despite its size, the Warsaw gathering was neither unusual nor even particularly toxic compared to similar gatherings in other countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Similar or worse displays have occurred regularly in other post-communist countries — including in Ukraine earlier this year and

Jakob Ratz/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images

Tens of thousands of nationalists marched through Warsaw, Nov. 11

“In a way this is scary, too, because it shows the far right have their act together and can demonstrate the discipline of a political movement rather than a bunch of hooligans,” Kadlcik said. “But there was very little intimidation.”

Polish Jews are split on whether antisemitism has increased under the conservative Law and Justice party, which Does Poland have a fascism rose to power in 2015. problem?

President Andrzej Duda in a Despite their growing visibilpost Nov. 13 on Twitter wrote: ity, ultranationalist Poles have “In our country, there is no neither the prominence nor acroom, nor is there consent, to ceptance they seem to enjoy in Lithuania, Latvia, Hungary and xenophobia, to insane nationalism, there is no room in our Ukraine. country to antisemitism.”

Still, their popularity among Polish Jews agree that racyoung people is seen as a worist violence in their country risome sign, according to Rafal is relatively rare. Only a few Pankowski, co-founder of the Polish anti-racism group Never dozen antisemitic incidents are Again, who cited a 2013 survey recorded annually, most of them verbal, though several antiseof high school students showing that 44 percent would rather mitic statements were made by Polish politicians. not have Jewish neighbors and Those are crucial differences, more than 60 percent would not want to have a Jewish boyfriend Kadlcik said, between Poland and other countries in the or girlfriend.

“The sociological data shows region.

In Hungary, activists from us that the younger generation the ultranationalist Jobbik party, is more prone to xenophobia than that of their parents, which the country’s second largest, rally regularly in the thousands is perhaps the most alarming and sometimes terrorize Jews, aspect of the phenomenon," as well as Roma and gays. In Pankowski said.

Ukraine, synagogues and JewThough there were certainly ish cemeteries are routinely racists at the Nov. 11 march, targeted and activists for the there were also “ordinary people, families who just wanted to xenophobic Svoboda party call do a patriotic act, which to them for chasing “Jews out.”

In Latvia, veterans of the is just to march with the Polish Nazi Waffen SS march every flag,” said Piotr Kadlcik, the former president of the Union of year. In Bulgaria, the Lukov March, named for a Nazi ally, Jewish Religious Communities also draws thousand of particiin Poland. pants. And in Lithuania, nationAnd while some shouted alist marches often feature swasoffensive slogans about Jews, there were no known antisemit- tikas and other fascist symbols.

“Things are bad, but they’re ic banners on display, nor was not as bad as many people there rioting or violence. annually in the Baltic states — where the far right is far more powerful and violent than in Poland.

In the aftermath of the march, JTA posed five questions on the situation to some of Poland’s leading experts on the issue and a former leader of its Jewish community.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • DECEMBER 2017

THE WORLD think, at least not yet,” Kadlcik said of Poland.

Why is the far right growing in Poland?

Spared the political instability of war-torn Ukraine and the financial crisis gripping Hungary, Polish voters have not displayed the same penchant for raw nationalism as some of their neighbors. Law and Justice is decidedly right wing in that it opposes immigration from the Middle East, seeks to limit access to abortion and increase its control over the media. But the ruling party also has scrapped its plans for asserting greater control over the judiciary and vocally opposes antisemitism. It also celebrates rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust.

Pankowski cites a number of factors in explaining the rise of Polish nationalism. As citizens of a key NATO ally with bitter memories of Russian domination, many Poles have been driven to nationalism in response to Russian expansionism under President Vladimir Putin.

The rise of the far right elsewhere in Europe, and the election of Trump, is also “creating a feeling of solidarity," Pankowski said.

“The U.S. election is an important factor,” said Pankowski, who noted that the official banner of the Warsaw march — “We Want God” — was taken from a Polish poem Trump quoted during his July visit to Poland.

Do Jews have anything to do with it?

Antisemitism was neither a central theme of the Polish far right, nor was it very prominent at the Warsaw march, observers said. Most of the focus at the rally was Muslim immigration, Pankowski said. Among the banners on display was an antiMuslim caricature drawn by a Danish cartoonist in 2005 carrying the slogan “Mohammed not welcome.”

Nonetheless, Jonny Daniels, founder of From the Depths, which promotes Holocaust commemoration in Poland, filed a complaint on Nov. 13 accusing marchers of incitement to hate and calling on the government to identify and punish them to the full extent of the law. Marchers found guilty could face up to three years in prison.

“Hatred of Jews remains an element of the identity of the far right in Poland even though it has no large Jewish community, and that’s what was on display at the march,” Pankowski said.

What do Polish Jews say?

The issue of antisemitism in Poland is a contentious one among its Jews and led to a public row among community leaders in August.

Leslaw Piszewski, president of the Union of Jewish Communities in Poland, and Anna Chipczynska, head of the Warsaw Jewish community, sent a letter to Law and Justice leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski saying that Polish Jews are increasingly fearful due to government inaction in the face of rising antisemitism.

But Artur Hofman, who runs the country's largest Jewish cultural organization, TSKZ, dismissed the letter as “stupid” and scheduled a meeting with Kaczynski. Daniels and two Chabad rabbis also attended.

Hofman and the rabbis then accused Piszewski and Chipczynska of exaggerating Poland’s antisemitism problem as part of a “political war” against Law and Justice. Piszewski and Chipczynska dismissed that charge and claimed the accusing groups are not legitimate representatives of Polish Jewry.

Sergiusz Kowalski, a leader of a Polish branch of B’nai B’rith and an ally of Piszewski and Chipczynska, called the four men who met Kaczynski “court Jews.” And Michael Schudrich, the chief rabbi of Poland, said in an interview with the Forward that Daniels “has become a supporter of the ultra-right wing.”

Daniels, a frequent target of the far-right online who has criticized ultranationalism in Poland, has denied this, adding his organization is willing to participate in intercultural dialogue with a range of partners.

Wishing You A Very Happy Chanukah What about Israel?

For the most part, Israel has remained silent about Holocaust revisionism and incidents of antisemitism in countries that have friendly ties to the Jewish state. But on Nov. 13, a spokesman for its Foreign Ministry called the Warsaw event “a dangerous march of extreme and racist elements,” and urged Polish authorities to act against the organizers.

Last year, Israel’s ambassador to Poland, Anna Azari, hosted Tadeusz Rydzyk, a Catholic priest who runs a radio station that the U.S. State Department has called a main purveyor of antisemitism. She defended the move as important outreach even as Never Again, Pankowski’s group, called it a “big mistake.”

Azari did speak out in October against proposed legislation on restitution, arguing its preclusion of claims by distant relatives and non-citizens discriminates against Jews whose families lost property in Poland during or after the Holocaust. An Israeli restitution official told JTA, referring to the proposed law: “First the Nazis seized private property and then the communist authorities of Poland seized it, when most Polish Jews were already dead.”

Ultimately, however, Israel’s attitude seems to be guided by comments Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made in 2013 during the visit by Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski to Jerusalem. Noting the suffering of non-Jewish Poles and Jews under Nazi occupation, Netanyahu observed that “Poland and Israel have to support each other.”

Wishing You A Happy Chanukah.

Tim Sweeny REALTOR® (937) 901-2346 CELL (937) 918-2693 BUSINESS tim.sweeny@coldwellbanker.com www.TimSweeny.com

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Facebook

Breaking the Silence is frequently vilified by Israeli politicians and is generally unpopular with the public. Two of the main criticisms of the group are that most of the testimonies it publishes are anonymous and that it appeals to foreign audiences for support rather than limiting its work to Israel.

Issacharoff, an officer in the Israel Defense Forces reserves, spoke to Israelis without concealing his face or name. The backlash was swift.

In May, Reservists on Duty, a group that works to counter Breaking the Silence, published Dean Issacharoff, the spokesperson for Breaking the Silence, a a video in which former memnonprofit that opposes Israel's military occupation in the West Bank bers of Issacharoff’s platoon, including his commander,

By Andrew Tobin, JTA occupation in the West Bank. called him a liar. Soon after, TEL AVIV — Imagine for The group publishes Israeli a moment that a soldier is veterans’ testimonies regarding the group called for him to be investigated. suspected of misconduct in the alleged human rights abuses In June, Justice Minister field. by the army in the Palestinian Ayelet Shaked, a member of the Typically, someone might be territories. pro-settler Jewish Home party, expected to report the soldier, Issacharoff gave his account asked the attorney general to prompting the army to invesof beating the Palestinian at a open a probe into the incident, tigate. The soldier might deny Breaking the Silence rally in any wrongdoing.

April. He told the crowd that in which he did. Later that month, In Israel, a recent case un2014, during his army service in police questioned Issacharoff on suspicion of assault. folded in almost exactly the op- the West Bank, his commander Authorities posite way. A soldier admitted ordered him to tracked down to beating a passive Palestinian, handcuff the man, Breaking the the Palestinian and his fellow soldiers and a who had thrown Silence is they said Issapolice investigation declared he rocks at Israeli charoff arrested. was lying. soldiers as part of frequently The story of the soldier, Dean a protest and was vilified by Israeli While the man confirmed he was Issacharoff, reflects the divisive passively resisting politicians and arrested at the politics surrounding Israel’s arrest. time in question, conflict with the Palestinians.

Issacharoff said is generally he said he did For Issacharoff and his dovthat in front of his unpopular with not face violence. ish supporters, his account was platoon, he “bethe public.

Based on that and a rebuke of the occupation. But gan to knee him other evidence, many others, from the prime in the face and minister down, heard it as a chest until he was bleeding and the State Attorney’s Office on Nov. 16 closed the investigation betrayal of his fellow soldiers dazed,” and then dragged him into Issacharoff, concluding the and his country. to detention. alleged assault never happened.

Issacharoff is the spokes“As a soldier, I never knew Patronize our advertisers.

Shaked welcomed the finding man for Breaking the Silence, how to deal with someone who Tell them you saw it in The Observer. as confirmation that Isachara much-maligned nonprofit resists nonviolently,” he exroff is a liar who is “defaming that opposes Israel’s military plained. the state of Israel in front of the world.”

“Kudos to his comrades in his s e company who refused to remain Grad indifferent and were unwilling to remain silent while he lies," she said. “It is good that the truth has come to light about : this organization, which is mak9 – g December 18–January 5 Monday, January 15 (MLK DAY) 7 es Trainine! ing money at the expense of IDF d a l Monday–Friday Monday, February 19 Gr elor in ailab soldiers and Israeli citizens.” ns s av (PRESIDENTS’ DAY) *No Camp on Monday, Dec. 25 or Jan. 1 Cou sition Prime Minister Benjamin Nepo tanyahu tweeted a similar senti8:45AM–3:45PM 8:45AM–3:45PM ment, saying that “Breaking the Rise and Shine (7:30–8:45AM) and Rise and Shine (7:30–8:45AM) and Silence lies and slanders our Stay and Play (3:45–6PM) available Stay and Play (3:45–6PM) available soldiers internationally. Today, in case anyone had any doubt, Cooking | Art | Sports | Drama | Music | PJ Library | Field Trips this fact has received further proof. The truth wins.”

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Continued on Page 10

Why an Israeli soldier insists he beat a Palestinian; but IDF doesn’t buy it

K–6

PAGE 8

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • DECEMBER 2017

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versy since it was founded in 2004 by dovish Israeli soldiers who had recently finished servContinued from Page Eight ing during the second intifada, vestigation, which he said was a bloody Palestinian uprising. politically biased.

In 2015, then-Defense “Why do you think they did Minster Moshe Yaalon banned not take the testimony of Ruthe group from speaking to ben, the company commander’s assistant who was standing active-duty soldiers, calling its work “hypocrisy and false right next to me while I kneed propaganda." At the same time, the Palestinian?” Issacharoff Education Minister Naftali asked. “Perhaps it is because it Bennett barred the group from did not fit the conclusion that appearing at schools. the prosecution knew Ayelet Netanyahu, who repeatShaked wanted to receive?” edly has railed against The video included Breaking the Silence, footage released Nov. last year backed the 16 of Ruben Silverpassage of a controstone corroborating versial law requiring Issacharoff's account. special reporting by Breaking the Silence nonprofits that receive has stood by Issachamost of their funding roff and accused the from abroad, which government of seeking mostly included huto silence critics of the Israeli Justice Min. man rights groups. occupation.

This year he has “What began under Ayelet Shaked pushed for stricter legislation the political direction of the that would shut down any minister of justice became a organization that seeks to harm political investigation that the army or try its soldiers in came to a tendentious and international courts. political conclusion,” said In April, Netanyahu canceled Avner Gvaryahu, its executive a meeting with Germany’s director. foreign minister because the The group declared in a visiting diplomat planned to sit statement Nov. 18 that the down with Breaking the Silence attorney general had invesand another Israeli human tigated the wrong incident. rights group. In a statement, Breaking the Silence said Ishis office said he does not meet sacharoff had just seen a photo with foreign diplomats who of the Palestinian whom police “lend legitimacy to organizainterviewed and responded that it was not the same man he tions that call for the criminalization of Israeli soldiers.” assaulted.

Even many Israelis who Police insisted they got it oppose the occupation symright. Regardless of how the saga ends, Breaking the Silence pathize with such moves. The army is generally seen as a — a small and marginal advobulwark against the country's cacy group based in Tel Aviv myriad enemies, and sweeping — has already attracted an criticism is taboo, especially outsized amount of attention. before foreign audiences.

The group has courted contro-

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Jew vs. Jew as Congress weighs new definition for antisemitism

By Ron Kampeas, JTA WASHINGTON — Jewish and pro-Israel leaders exchanged heated remarks at a congressional hearing on how to define antisemitism.

The hearing of the House Judiciary Committee on Nov. 7 took up a bill that would, among other things, define as antisemitism language that “demonizes” Israel.

Of the nine witnesses who addressed the committee, five said the language was necessary to stem antisemitism on campuses. Four argued it infringes on freedom of speech.

The witnesses at times directly addressed one another, violating congressional protocol. Exchanging barbs, each side questioned the bona fides of the other in defining antisemitism.

In a bizarre twist, the coauthors of the language that the bill would codify argued opposing viewpoints.

Lawmakers, who also bickered at times, marveled at the Jewish family food fight they were witnessing.

“It's like throwing a ball and having a scrum and seeing who wins,” said Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga. At issue is the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which would codify the State Department's definition of antisemitism. The proposed addition to federal anti-discrimination statutes would apply to Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which addresses institutions, including universities, that receive federal funding. A version has passed in the Senate.

The language, in its current State Department formulation, includes a section that defines as antisemitism language that “demonizes” Israel. It breaks down the term “demonizes” as “(u)sing the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism to characterize Israel or Israelis, drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis, blaming Israel for all interreligious or political tensions.”

Several Jewish groups have filed Title VI complaints on

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • DECEMBER 2017

tower. speech in and of itself. behalf of Jewish students who Cooper seemed visibly un“It wouldn’t raise First said they faced antisemitic comfortable next to TrachtenAmendment problems, it harassment and discrimination berg at the witness table, who would only be triggered by because of their support for Iskept staring at him. Cooper harassment,” Clement said. rael, or for anti-Israel language That, Stern replied, was “dis- kept emphasizing that the that advocates said echoed ingenuous” — a federal statute Jewish leadership in its entirety “classic” antisemitism.

Advocating for the proposed would naturally inhibit speech. backed the bill, seeming to sideline Stern's organizational “When you prioritize a language were top officials of affiliation. At one point Coocertain definition, it has the the Anti-Defamation League, per's insistence that the entire weight of having Congress the American Jewish CommitJewish community backed the behind it,” he said. tee, the Simon Wiesenthal Cenbill drew a correction from Barry Trachtenberg, a Jewter and Christians United for Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., ish studies professor at Wake Israel, as well as Paul Clement, who produced a letter from J Forest University in North a former U.S. solicitor general.

Street U, the liberal Middle Opposing were two JewEastern lobby's campus affiliish studies professors, the ate, opposing the bill. director of PEN America — a Some lawmakers vigorspeech freedom umbrella — ously backed the bill. Rep. and Kenneth Stern, the head Ted Deutch, D-Fla., the Jewof an outfit that combats ish lawmaker who wrote the antisemitism. bill with Rep. Pete Roskam, Stern, who drafted the R-Ill., was infuriated by language in question when Stern's claim that the bill he worked for the Ameriwould victimize freshmen can Jewish Committee in Rabbi Abraham Dr. Pamela Nadell searching for answers.

2004, opposes codifying the Cooper “Saying this is an effort to language into law, although go after Jewish anti-Zionists is Carolina, seemed to accuse he still endorses the language proponents of the legislation of the reddest of red herrings,” he for its intended use — as a said. means for diplomats to identify bad faith.

Others from both parties “They are part of a persistent antisemitism. seemed skeptical of the bill. campaign to thwart scholarIn his testimony Stern, who The committee chairman, Rep. ship, debate and activism critidirects the Justus & Karin Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., told the cal of Israel,” he said.

Rosenberg Foundation, said AJC's Rabbi Andrew Baker, The Simon Wiesenthal Centhe tough standards he would who had said the definition of ter's Rabbi Abraham Cooper apply to a speech at the United and the ADL's Jonathan Green- antisemitism changes “over Nations by Iran's president blatt fired shots at Trachtenberg time,” that his reasoning should not apply to college “would counsel against codifyand at Pamela Nadell, the freshmen. He said it would be ing.” president of the Association especially cruel to young Jews Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., for Jewish Studies, saying that still testing their boundaries the committee's ranking memacademics were not in the within the community. ber, said he favored including trenches. Cooper chided the “Whether or not you can be antisemitism among bigotries committee for inviting them. an 18-year-old anti-Zionist and addressed by Title VI, but cau“It's like inviting people within the (Jewish) community tioned: “We just also have to be is not a debate Congress should from the Flat Earth Society to a hearing about NASA,” he said. careful not to stifle legitimate decide,” he said. and hard-edged and even ofGreenblatt suggested they Proponents said the bill fensive debate.” were ensconced in an ivory would not inhibit speech because the definition would only be applied when assessing whether an act banned under Title VI — violence or a bid to Centerville & Troy Locations shut off speech — was antiseFriday, December 8th • 10am-8pm mitic, and not to antisemitic

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Wishing you and your family a very

Happy Chanukah ! Jews for Jesus commissioned study

on Jewish millennials. What it found.

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By Ben Sales, JTA NEW YORK — Are Jewish millennials the most religious generation? And do one-fifth of them think Jesus was God in human form?

Yes and yes, says a new survey of 599 Jews born from 1994 to 1999. The survey creates a contradictory portrait of Jewish millennials: These young adults describe themselves as religious, and practice Jewish ritual, but are unaffiliated. They value tradition and family, but don’t plan on marrying only Jews.

They are proud to be Jewish, but don’t feel that contradicts with practicing other religions.

It’s the kind of survey that could be useful to Jewish planners but for the organization that commissioned and funded it: Jews for Jesus, the evangelical Christian group that for decades has been trying to draw Jews toward belief in Jesus.

The survey was conducted by the Barna Group, a reputable polling firm specializing in religion, especially conservative Christianity, and was sent to the media with endorsements by Jewish studies professors. But its goal was to conduct market research for “Messianic Jews.”

Jews for Jesus likes what it sees.

“It was very hopeful from our perspective,” Susan Perlman, the San Francisco-based group’s director of communications, said. “This was a generation that was spiritual, that is willing to engage in the subject of whether or not Jesus might be the messiah. All we can ask for is an open mind to engage with the Bible, engage with the culture and look at the possibilities.”

The survey, published in October, is mostly composed of the standard questions: how often do you pray, how do you feel about Israel, do you date nonJews and the like. Much of it is a millennial-focused version of the Pew Research Center’s 2013

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PAGE 12

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study of American Jews.

“They are free-thinking and flexible in their spiritual and religious identity, yet they gravitate toward formal customs and ancient expressions of faith,” the survey’s introduction reads. “Often molded by intermarriage and multiculturalism, they reject rigid or traditional definitions of what it means to be Jewish, but — more than any other generation — still consider their Jewish identity to be very important to them.”

But it also includes a few unusual entries that Pew didn’t cover, like a detailed section on belief in God and the afterlife, and — no surprise here — an extensive examination of attitudes toward Jesus.

For those who think of millennials as religiously uninvolved and skeptical of traditional practices, the survey has some surprising news: Eighty percent of Jewish millennials self-identify as “religious Jews,” as opposed to just a slim majority of all Jews. And nearly half say being Jewish is “very important” to them, higher than any other generation.

That commitment to Judaism comes through in specific practices as well. Almost a quarter of Jewish millennials attend religious services once a week, according to the survey, and one in three prays every day. A majority says “God loves people.”

Ari Kelman, a Jewish studies professor at Stanford University who was interviewed as part of the report, said the study suggests a cohort distinct from all others.

“These don’t look like Jews I recognize,” he said of millennials. “I was not willing to just write them off entirely. Maybe these are Jews we’ve never seen before. We know religion is changing, we know parameters of identity are changing, so why would we expect different generations to look exactly the same?”

The data on Jesus might be especially surprising to Jews who, if they agree on nothing else, believe that Jews for Jesus and its “messianic” philosophy are beyond the pale. The survey found that 21 percent of Jewish millennials believe Jesus was “God in human form who lived among people in the 1st century.” And 28 percent “see him

as a rabbi or spiritual leader, but not God.” The openness to non-Jewish practice extends beyond that: 42 percent of respondents say they celebrate Christmas. A majority says one can hold other faiths and still be Jewish.

Some of the findings depart from the Pew study of four years ago. Pew found far lower rates of synagogue attendance among Jews ages 18 to 29, and a much lower percentage of respondents said religion was important to them.

But Pew backs up some of the statistics on Christianity. It found that a third of all respondents had a Christmas tree at home, and 34 percent said belief in Jesus as the Messiah was compatible with being Jewish.

“This does not mean that most Jews think those things are good,” Alan Cooperman, director of religion research at the Pew Research Center, said at the time. “They are saying that those things do not disqualify a person from being Jewish. (But) most Jews think that belief in Jesus is disqualifying by roughly a 2-to-1 margin.”

The October survey no doubt garnered higher percentages on those questions because it included “Messianic Jews” — that is, members of a religious movement that combines Christian and Jewish beliefs — whom Pew excluded from some questions.

Some 58 percent of respondents in the Jews for Jesus study are children of interfaith marriages, about 10 points more than in the Pew study, which had a slightly narrower definition of “Jewish.” The survey has a margin of error of 2.5 percent.

Kelman acknowledged that he had misgivings about a survey on Jews funded by a group that essentially wants to convert them to Christianity.

“The fact you’re doing market research on American Jews, their potential adherence to Jews for Jesus makes you uncomfortable,” he said.

But, regarding Barna, the polling firm, Kelman said: “They were good social scientists with skin in the game. Most people who fund research on American Jews also come with an agenda, and I’ve been in this world long enough to know that the people who fund that research don't interfere.”

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • DECEMBER 2017

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PAGE 13

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Wishing you a very Happy Chanukah.

At GA, encouraging ‘deep dive’ to confront problems

Jeffrey Brown/JFNA

By Gary Rosenblatt New York Jewish Week LOS ANGELES — Speaking as a millennial Jew, Sean Rad, 31, the co-founder of Tinder, the world’s most popular dating app, told Jewish leaders here that “Judaism will fade away if it’s not re-purposed” for today’s generation.

In a world of endless options, “millennials won’t accept Jewish tradition that is passed down and imposed on them,” said the man who has given the word “swipe” new meaning.

“How can you expect people to read thousands of pages of Jewish texts if they can’t finish reading 50 Shades of Grey?” he asked.

“They wait for the movie.”

Tinder has been criticized widely for enabling and promoting a hook-up culture. But Rad, in his address here to the delegates of the 86th annual General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America, spoke warmly of his upbringing in a traditional Persian Jewish family in Los Angeles and expressed his hope to marry someday and raise a Jewish family.

“Don’t change the content of Judaism’s wisdom,” but rather how it is experienced, he

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PAGE 14

advised, suggesting that within a decade, people will be able to enjoy virtual visits to Israel at home in their pajamas through artificial intelligence devices. “Have the courage to recognize you have a problem” in engaging with a younger generation of Jews and address it, he urged.

Rad’s blunt message at the Nov. 12-14 conference, Israeli Pres. Reuven Rivlin addresses the which drew more than General Assembly in his first major talk to 2,000 lay and profesa Jewish audience in America, Nov. 14 sional leaders of Jewish communal life, reflected donation required. a new willingness by JFNA to Such criticisms appeared acknowledge and address serious problems within American in line with opening plenary remarks from Jerry Silverman, Jewry, most notably the deep president and CEO of JFNA, the and growing divide between umbrella group of more than Israel and the Diaspora on a range of Jerusalem’s policy and 100 federations in the U.S. and Canada. He called for those identity issues, and the disassembled to “take on the tough tancing of many young people questions of the day and push from Jewish life in general and the dialogue forward,” adding: federations in particular.

“Our community can withstand At a millennial roundtable a deep dive, especially when we highlighting the accomplishdive together.” ments of three innovative and One of the tough questions socially conscious millennials that came up repeatedly at the — yes, the word was heard so often that one GA speaker called conference was how the relafor a moratorium on its usage — tionship between American Jason Leivenberg, who directs a Jewry and Israel can be repaired after the low blow the commuLos Angeles federation project, NuRoots, to engage young Jews, nity suffered in June. That was when the Jerusalem government asserted that his peers “want reneged on a plan what the com‘Millennials to give egalitarian munity is offering, prayer at the Westbut the packaging won’t accept sucks. It’s clunky Jewish tradition ern Wall, or Kotel, more prominence, and doesn’t that is passed and was prepared deliver.” What’s to give the increascalled for, he said, down and ingly fundamentalis “creative brandimposed on ist Chief Rabbining” that doesn’t ate full control of sacrifice the integ- them.’ conversions. rity of the product, At the session, Distressed presumably Jewish teachings.

Donors and Discourse, three The roundtable participants executives of major federations also called on federations to admitted that their fundraisbroaden their definition of ing efforts have been impacted philanthropy. Jackie Rutman, by dissatisfaction among some who at the age of 14 founded a major donors over Israeli polinonprofit to inspire and unite cies, particularly on religious young people through dance, freedom, pluralism and identity said that federations “are great at engaging young people from issues. They also spoke of their efforts to avoid being caught up philanthropic families” but in political disputes, from the sometimes “alienate young Iran nuclear deal to the Kotel professionals” like herself who controversy. can’t afford the steep entry fee “Our job is to educate, to required for participation in have people understand the some activities. She said she complexities of Israeli political was “brushed off” repeatedly life and to make the case” that when she sought to become involved in a federation project a federation’s primary goal is and could not afford the $1,000 “action, not statements” with an THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • DECEMBER 2017

THE WORLD emphasis on social service, said Mark Medin, a vice president of UJA-Federation of New York.

He and Naomi Adler, CEO and president of the Philadelphia federation, said they allow key donors upset at Israel to target their gifts for domestic projects.

Steven Nasatir, longtime president of the Chicago federation, said his federation does not have such a policy.

Melissa Weintraub, a rabbi and mediator on Arab-Israel and intra-Jewish disputes, addressed efforts to heal rifts in the community. She explained that in her work as founding co-executive director of Resetting The Table, the goal is to bring disputants together in dialogue to embrace rather than avoid differences. She called on federations to lead the way convening programs of “sacred disagreement” that allow stakeholders to hear each other out on the path to arrive at delicate decisions.

‘Divisive and damaging’ In an unusually pointed resolution for a group that seeks consensus with Israel, JFNA urged Jerusalem to reverse its “divisive and damaging”

moves regarding the Kotel and conversion. The statement asserted that lack of progress on these issues, which are seen as dismissive of the religious practices of the great majority of American Jews, could “undermine the Zionist vision and the state of Israel’s sacred role as a national home for the entire Jewish people.”

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, in his first major speech to the North American Jewish community, sought to reassure Diaspora Jews that Israel cares deeply about them. “You are true stakeholders in this wonder called Israel,” he said, praising North American Jewry for standing with Israel “at times of crisis and joy. I am here today to say that this cannot be taken for granted.”

He acknowledged that the Kotel issue “has become a symbol of division and disagreement,” and called for the two communities to “get to know each other better” and for Diaspora Jews to “respect Israel’s democratic process,” while indicating that he does not always agree with decisions made by the government.

The address by Rivlin, the

only major leader of either the Israeli or American government to speak at the assembly in person, was greeted warmly.

Though known as a hardliner during his years in the Knesset — he still opposes a two-state solution — he has displayed a skill in speaking out for pluralism and tolerance during his tenure as president. And though his ceremonial role is apolitical, he has been critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government. Two weeks before, Rivlin, a member of the prime minister’s Likud party, publicly warned that “statesmanship has come to an end” and said Israel was witnessing “the winds of a second revolution or coup.”

At the GA, Rivlin thanked North American Jewry for its “unconditional love,” a description that has seemed more aspirational than real for increasing numbers of American Jews disenchanted with the government in Jerusalem.

The Jewish community was once “the Blue and White model of solidarity” with Israel, said Bethamie Horowitz, a psychologist and research profes-

JFNA

JFNA Pres. & CEO Jerry Silverman (L) & Board Chair Richard V. Sandler

sor at NYU and a panelist at a plenary on Israel-diaspora relations. But she described “the more bruising” relationship now as “the Black and Blue model,” with many American Jews upset over various Jerusalem policies.

Gidi Grinstein, the founder of Reut, an Israeli think-tank, said that Zionism’s purpose is to sustain the Jewish people and that “at its core, the relationship is about Israel serving world Jewry” rather than the other way around. “We need to be brutally honest” in recognizing that “decades of arrogance and ignorance toward the Diaspora,” based on the negation of the Diaspora by Israel’s founding leaders, is “dismissive and borderline abusive.” He said

authentic dialogue is needed to discuss the relationship now, a message many speakers offered during the GA. Appearing by satellite for a Q-and-A session, Prime Minister Netanyahu was not confronted with a direct question about his government’s backtracking on the plan regarding prayer arrangements at the Kotel. Instead he was asked by JFNA Chair Richard Sandler for an update on the status of the deal. The prime minister said that only the “ideological” components of the Kotel plan were frozen and that construction is moving forward at the Robinson’s Arch area of the Western Wall where egalitarian services continue to be held.

(The compromise had called for equal prayer access for all at the main area of the Kotel.)

“I strongly believe all Jews should feel at home in Israel,” Netanyahu said to polite applause. He added that he believes in the longstanding government principle, established by founding Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, that issues of religious status quo be “resolved through evolution, not revolution.”

At Magen David Adom, we’re often saving lives before our ambulances even arrive.

At Magen David Adom, Israel’s national EMS service, help begins the moment the phone is answered. Because EMTs handle the calls, they can provide lifesaving instructions while dispatching ambulances and first-responders on Medicycles. And now, with 15,000 CPRcertified civilian Life Guardians joining our team, help can be just seconds away.

As we celebrate Chanukah, please give the gift of life, and make your year-end tax-deductible donation today.

AFMDA Midwest Region 3175 Commercial Avenue, Suite 101 Northbrook, IL 60062 Toll-Free 888.674.4871 midwest@afmda.org

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • DECEMBER 2017

www.afmda.org

PAGE 15

CHANUKAH ACROSS the AGENCIES Community Chanukah Celebration Featuring PJ Library entertainer Joanie Leeds!

JFS Chanukah Brunch Partnering with Active Adults, Lynda A. Cohen Yiddish Club, Jewish War Veterans, & Hadassah

Sunday, December 10 @ 11AM at Beth Abraham Synagogue

(305 Sugar Camp Cir, 45409) Wednesday, December 13 5:30–7:30PM @ Boonshoft CJCE Hosted by the JCC & PJ Library, in partnership with Beth Abraham Synagogue, Beth Jacob Synagogue, Hillel Academy, Temple Beth Or, & Temple Israel IN ADVANCE (before Dec. 4): $10 adult | $7 child AFTER DECEMBER 4: $14 adult | $9 child Children 3 years or younger are free

Enjoy a catered dinner with latkes and sufganiyot. Bring your menorah and three candles to celebrate Chanukah with the community!

Join your friends for a delicious brunch and musical entertainment from accordian player Dan Wolcott of the Route 161 Happy Wanderers.

RSVP online at jewishdayton.org or to Karen at 610-1555

by December 1.

Cost: $15 in advance, $20 at the door.

Your payment is your reservation.

Please bring a new children’s book, coloring book, and/ or crayons for children at area shelters.

RSVP @ 610-1555 OR jewishdayton.org

& P J O U R W AY : A G E S 8 – 1 1

Get the Ball Rolling

Saturday, December 16 @ 6:30PM @ Capri Bowling Lanes (2727 S Dixie Dr, Kettering, OH 45409)

Kids ages 8-11 and their families are invited to “Get the Ball Rolling” with PJ Our Way! Join us for bowling and kosher pizza as we brainstorm activity ideas for PJ Our Way in 2018.

PJ Our Way is all about kids taking the lead, and we want to hear from you-so come with your best ideas and let’s get rolling!

RSVP @ 610-1555 OR jewishdayton.org PAGE 16

YA D : A G E S 2 1 – 3 5

Team Building Chanukah Party

Saturday, December 16 @ 7PM @ Scene 75 (6196 Poe Ave., 45414) Come for a fun-filled evening where we will celebrate Chanukah, have dinner, and compete in a team building experience against each other. So bring on the competition as we challenge our opponent in order to bring home the trophy! RSVP to Cheryl Carne young at ccarne@jfgd.net or online adult at www.jewishdayton.org by division December 12. Sponsored by Shumsky.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • DECEMBER 2017

THE WORLD

Judaism is the star at Bible museum built by Hobby Lobby

Samson brings down the walls at Courageous Pages, the children’s play area at the new Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., which was dedicated on Nov. 17

Photos & Story By Ron Kampeas, JTA lem stone.

The museum also portrays the Bible WASHINGTON — As the Burning Bush crackles, God is heard. “Mow-zes,” as unmistakably American. One permaGod says in the mysterious mid-Atlantic nent exhibit is dedicated to the biblical underpinnings of the abolition of slavaccent that Hollywood once trained its ery and of the civil rights movement. actors to use — the one Anne Baxter Scholarship at the museum is pervaas Nefertiri used to summon Charlton sive, but employed a la Cecil B. DeMille: Heston's Moses in the 1956 blockbuster to prove the Bible isn’t just compelling The Ten Commandments.

That epic, earnest and seemingly end- but true.

A day at the museum — officials say less film has much in common with the a thorough tour would take 72 hours — Museum of the Bible, the $500 million extravaganza gifted to the National Mall may leave you smarter about the Bible’s origins, but you may suspect the goal by one of America's leading evangeliof this newfound knowledge is not to cal families, the founders of the Hobby encourage critique but belief.

Lobby chain.

Executive Director Tony Zeiss was The museum celebrates Jews and unambiguous about the museum's deJudaism as the noble, beloved and even sired effect at the dedication ceremony. feared antecedents to Christianity, and Designers of the museum, he said, had argues that its best modern expression two overarching is in the state of Israel. And criteria: “Will this it makes the case that the lift up the Bible, Bible is not merely to be and will it lift up studied but to be believed. people?”

Speaking at the dedicaJudaism as parent tion Nov. 17, Steven Green, suffuses just about the president of Hobby every exhibit, particLobby and the museum's ularly The Hebrew chairman of the board, said Bible. It’s an immermuseumgoers should come sive 30-minute stroll away realizing that the through animations Bible “has had a positive impact on their lives in so Amanda Weiss, director of the Bible and special effects ilLands Museum in Jerusalem, with lustrated by supple, many different ways and exhibit her museum has loaned handsome animated when they leave they will an to the Museum of the Bible Hebrews. That’s be inspired to open it.”

It especially celebrates the Bible's Jew- more than twice as long as the immersive New Testament experience. ish origins, notably those made maniOn the fifth floor of this six-floor fest in modern Israel. The dedication mammoth are artifacts contributed by included a rabbi, Israel’s ambassador to Israel’s Antiquities Authority. The exhibthe United States, the Israeli minister of it is permanent, but the Israeli authority tourism, and the director of the Israel will rotate about 1,500 items at a time.

Antiquities Authority.

The debt to Judaism is seen in the At times, the event seemed like a “kosher-style” food at Manna, the pro-Israel gala. Ron Dermer, the Israeli rooftop restaurant run by a couple who ambassador, celebrated the museum as wrote The New Jewish Table cookbook. a signifier of the Jewish claim to JerusaTwo kosher items per meal will be availlem. The Bible nurtured Jews through able at the restaurant.

2,000 years of exile until they were able Judaism and its origins in Israel are to “rebuild the original DC — David's evident as well in a temporary exhibit Capital,” he said. through May, organized by Jerusalem’s In the museum store, Star of David Bible Lands Museum, a consultant to pendants glitter next to crucifixes and Chanukah menorahs made from Jerusa- the D.C. museum.

Temple Beth Or’s Annual Artisan Fair with brisket lunch Sunday, December 3, 9a to 2p Artisan crafts and specialty items.

Brisket lunch only $9 a plate.

Takeout brisket & chopped liver.

Live saxophone quartet!

No entrance fee for shoppers.

Open to the public!

Vendors will include Stahl’s Bowls, Rising Moon Glass, Usborne Books, Discovery Toys, Cay’s Cottons and Fused Glass Creations.

Try CrossFit for Hanukkah!

A Hanukkah-themed workout suitable for all fitness levels brought to the Dayton Jewish Community by Temple Beth Or.

Centerville CrossFit 923 Senate Drive Dec. 14, 7:30 p.m.

Temple Beth Or 5275 Marshall Road Dayton, Ohio 45429 www.templebethor.com 937-435-3400

Today...and for Generations

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • DECEMBER 2017

PAGE 17

OPINION

Waiting for peace

By Douglas Bloomfield There are at least three reasons the Trump Middle East Peace Plan — no matter its merits — will fail: President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and President Mahmoud Abbas. They’re all talk and no walk.

Trump is looking for a chest thumping achievement; substance is secondary. He has a notoriously short attention span, an aversion to details, and his thinking doesn't go much beyond topic sentences and tweets.

Trump has given the assignment of preparing his “deal of the century” to a group of inexperienced amateurs, several of whom bring a load of biases and excess baggage.

Three of the novices — the chief negotiator, the ambassador to Israel and the first son-in-law— are Orthodox Jews and supporters of the settler movement. That may help explain reports that the plan won't call for Israel removing settlements or settlers from the West Bank.

Descriptions emerging from various unnamed sources appear to indicate the plan is being drafted in cooperation

with Netanyahu's office, which may itself be a source of many of the leaks.

Whatever its provenance, Netanyahu is confident he can outmaneuver this administration as he has its predecessors.

He will praise Trump’s leadership and friendship for Israel, commend the star-studded Trump team for its contribution and declare his undying desire for peace and readiness to make the difficult, historic decisions required.

That’s just blowing smoke.

Like Abbas, Netanyahu is neither ready, willing nor able to make peace. Abbas, 82, is in the 12th year of his four-year term as president, in failing health and has avoided choosing much less grooming a successor. He is politically weak, his popularity is shrinking and those around him are plotting their course of succession.

Pay no attention to the talk about unconditional talks.

Each man has his poison pills.

Abbas will want to begin where talks with prior Israeli governments left off — including provisions he rejected at the time and knowing they are unacceptable to Netanyahu.

The prime minister will insist

the Palestinians recognize Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people, which Abbas adamantly rejects although Yasser Arafat did just that more than 20 years ago.

And then there’s Jerusalem.

Netanyahu has said he would never agree to partitioning Israel’s capital. Not only has he gotten Knesset to pass a law making compromise on the issue extra difficult, but he is also trying to annex more Palestinian territory to the municipality, where it would become part of the eternal and indivisible city.

Palestinians want the eastern part of the city captured in 1967 for their capital.

Trump has yet to express his support for the two-state solution, though officials hint he will. Netanyahu grudgingly endorsed the concept under pressure from Barack Obama in 2009 but has since abandoned that, promising voters in 2015 he would prevent establishment of a Palestinian state.

Netanyahu was able to fend off Obama’s peacemaking efforts for eight years because he had the backing of a Republican Congress committed to opposing anything the Democratic president wanted.

That strategy won’t work with a Republican president and a Republican Congress.

One attribute that unites Abbas and Netanyahu is a burning desire to avoid being blamed for the failure of any Trump plan. The last thing they want is to incur the wrath of the vindictive, grudge-holding, name-calling president.

To pressure the Palestinians to be more acquiescent, the State Department is threatening to close the PLO’s Washington office. The PLO office closure is likely to backfire, delighting rejectionists on both sides and demoralize the peace camp.

Also collaborating on drafting the Trump plan is said to be Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince and rising power center in the kingdom. The Saudis can offer the Palestinians cover in the Arab world to repel accusations that they’ve surrendered too much to the Zionists.

Israel and the kingdom have been secretly cooperating against Iranian influence in the region, and Netanyahu would like to escalate the relationship.

He is telling the Gulf Arabs that making peace with Israel will enable him to be more forthcoming with the Palestinians.

That offer is greeted with much skepticism. Saudis and their friends fear he’ll take their gifts, then find ways to avoid delivering on his offers.

The prime minister unveiled his escape strategy: “my stance will be decided by the security and national interests of the state of Israel” in responding to any peace deal. Like Trump, he defines national interest as what's best for him personally.

Netanyahu, who prefers preserving the status quo, has a Catch 22 peace strategy. He’ll insist that Israel can’t make peace with a Palestinian Authority that includes the Hamas terrorist organization, which is dedicated to Israel's destruction.

And if Hamas and Fatah don’t reconcile and form a unity government, he’ll point out that Israel can't make peace with the Palestinians if they can’t even make peace with each other.

Trump sees the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a personal challenge to his negotiating skills, a Nobel Prize opportunity.

Those who would most like him to succeed are the majority of American Jews and progressives who would never vote for Trump.

His narrow Jewish base and the very influential evangelicals would prefer he turn his energy elsewhere and wait for the messiah to bring the Israelis and Palestinians to the peace table.

Douglas Bloomfield is a columnist based in Washington, D.C.

Time for a peace process paradigm change

By Jonathan S. Tobin What are the details of the Middle East peace plan that President Donald Trump will use to craft what he hopes is the “ultimate deal?” Sometime in the next few months, they will be unveiled as part of an effort to revive the dead-in-the-water peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. Though we’ll have to wait and see what exactly is in the proposal being cooked up by a team led by presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner and chief negotiator Jason Greenblatt, the only two things that seem certain are that it is likely to be acceptable to Saudi Arabia and that it will have zero chance of success.

That’s why instead of merely repeating the mistakes of its predecessors, the Trump team should try a paradigm shift that will predicate peace on a simple concept: the Palestinians have to admit they’ve lost their war on Zionism. Avoiding this admission in order to mollify them or their supporters or concentrating, as every PAGE 18

U.S. administration has done, on pressuring Israel to make concessions, merely makes it impossible for the Palestinians to accept the sea change in their political culture that is the only thing that will make peace on any terms possible.

It was this idea that brought two members of the Knesset — representing a larger group of legislators that come from six different parties that are in and outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government — to Washington to meet with several like-minded members of Congress to promote the concept of an Israeli victory in the long conflict rather than a self-defeating compromise.

The launch of a joint #IsraelVictory caucus at the Capitol Hill gathering is a small step and, as of yet, hasn’t influenced the administration’s thinking.

But the gathering, which was sponsored by the Middle East Forum think tank, is a long overdue effort to promote a concept Kushner and company ought to be thinking about.

Trump’s team is likely to embrace an “outside-in” strategy in which Arab states, principally the Saudis, will use their influence and money to pressure the Palestinians into finally accepting a two-state solution.

In return, the U.S. would get the Netanyahu government to agree to terms that are likely to largely resemble past plans floated by the Obama, Bush and Clinton administrations.

Trump may think the missing ingredient for peace has been the absence of a master dealmaker, but this scheme has no more chance of working than the efforts of his predecessors.

The reason is that the essential element for peace is still missing. The Palestinians are still stuck in a mindset that rejects Israel’s legitimacy. The Palestinian Authority won’t accept a deal that ends the conflict for all time no matter where Kushner, Greenblatt and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman draw the borders between the two states, how much of Jerusalem the

Palestinians receive, how many descendants of the 1948 refugees are allowed to “return” to Israel or even how much money is thrown at them.

That’s because the Palestinians’ national identity as a people is still inextricably bound up in a futile century-old war on Zionism that its people have been taught to think they will eventually win.

At various times, the PA has declared a willingness to accept peace. Yet every such gesture has been undermined by its cradle-to-grave incitement that promotes a culture of hatred for Israel and Jews, and makes new rounds of bloodshed inevitable.

The history of the last 24 years of negotiations since the Oslo Accords shows that peace is impossible so long as the Palestinians still hold onto hope of eventually winning this war. As with every other conflict, this one will only be settled when one side admits defeat and that is something no one, not even a Trump team that appears to be more realistic about Palestinian

behavior and intentions than past administrations, seems willing to force them to do.

Critics of the #IsraelVictory idea mock its simplicity. But generations of would-be peacemakers have forgotten that it really is that simple. Once the Palestinians concede the war is lost rather than being paused and put aside their dreams of a world without a Jewish state, compromise would be possible.

But if the compromises precede acknowledgement of an Israeli victory, then all the Jewish state will be doing is trading land for more terror, not peace.

The Trump team may not be listening to the #IsraelVictory caucus as it hatches its plans.

But if the White House ignores the basic truths the caucus proclaims, it will be wasting its time and making the next round of violence more, rather than less likely.

Jonathan S. Tobin is opinion editor of JNS.org and a contributing writer for National Review.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • DECEMBER 2017

FIND YOUR LIGHT. Federation will help it shine.

Your continued support to the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton reaches so many. We belong to the largest association of Jewish philanthropies in North America. So even a gift of $36, $54, or $100 can light up the world.

Just as the flame of the shamash candle lights the other candles on the Chanukah menorah…

Jewish Federation of GREATER DAYTON

Your generosity, expressed as a gift to the Jewish Federation, grows into a light that shines brighter with every passing day.

› Wonder Movie Night Sunday, December 3 TBD @ Cinemark at the Greene

(4489 Glengarry Dr., 45440) Kids ages 6–12 and their families join PJ Our Way and JFS for a night at the movies and dinner!

"Wonder" is based on the best selling book by R.J. Palacio, and over dinner we will discuss the themes of kindness and antibullying shown in the movie. $10/person, RSVP required.

› Community Hanukkah Celebration Wednesday, December 13 5:30–7:30PM

@ Boonshoft CJCE Hosted by JCC & PJ Library and partnering with Beth Abraham, Beth Jacob, Hillel Academy, Temple Beth Or, and Temple Israel.

› YAD: Team Building Chanukah Party Saturday, December 16 7PM @ Scene 75 (6196 Poe

Ave., 45414) A fun filled evening for ages 21–35. Celebrate Chanukah, have dinner, and compete in a team building experience against each other. Contact Cheryl Carne (ccarne@jfgd.net) to RSVP. Sponsored by Shumsky.

$40 provides one child with a PJ Library subscription for a year $75 provides round trip transportation for housebound seniors $200 supports local Holocaust education in public schools $350 sends a teen to a BBYO convention

FIND YOUR LIGHT And share it with those who need it most. You have the capacity. Just like the candles you add to the menorah, you can bring light, warmth and comfort to those who are struggling without them. * Your gift to Jewish Federation delivers relief and brightens the lives of

thousands of people at home, in Israel and in more than 70 countries worldwide. * Find your light.

Federation will help it shine.

Remember, your gift to the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton is taxdeductible. Make your contribution to take a deduction on your 2017 returns and your light will shine through all of 2018.

$500 supports programming for young adult professionals or college students in Dayton $1,800 provides essential medical equipment for the Western Galilee Hospital ICU, located in our partnership region in Israel $3,000 subsidizes a mission to Israel from Dayton $11,000 the cost of full year preschool tuition at the JCC

Women's Philanthropy Brunch Introducing Rachel Gilbert TOP: Speaker Bizu Riki Mullu shares her story.

Rachel Gilbert is our new PJ Library Coordinator.

Rachel and her family are very active members of the Dayton Jewish community.

Rachel is working part time, and is here on Monday and Wednesday mornings. She is responsible for the administration, planning and implementation for PJ Library, PJ Our Way and PJ Grandparents.

BOTTOM: Michele Dritz’s daughter, Hannah Dritz and her friend, Ruth Glaser check in at the Women’s Philanthropy Brunch.

› Get the Ball Rolling with PJ Our Way Saturday, December 16 6:30PM @ Capri Bowling Lanes (2727 S Dixie Dr., 45409) Kids ages 8-11 and their families are invited to "Get the Ball Rolling" with PJ Our Way! Join us for bowling and kosher pizza as we brainstorm activity ideas for PJ Our Way in 2018. PJ Our Way is all about kids taking the lead, and we want to hear from you-so come with your best ideas and let's get rolling!

RSVPs are due at least 1 week before event. Events with no price listed are free.

FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO RSVP (unless noted):

937-610-1555 www.jewishdayton.org

On Thursday, November 9, YAD volunteered at Lindy's Bakery, a dog treat bakery that provides Daybreak, an emergency shelter for runaway children an opportunity to gain valuable work experience. L-R: Mike, Andrew, Hannah, Sydney, Rachel, and Ben. JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON AGENCY NEWSLETTER | DECEMBER 2017

Jewish Community Center of GREATER DAYTON › A Gastroenterologist's Guide to Gut Health with author Dr. David Novick

Tuesday, December 5, 7PM @ Boonshoft CJCE $5 in advance/ $8 at the door.

Partnering with Jewish Family Services.

› My Jewish Year with author Abigail Pogrebin Thursday, December 7, 6:30PM @ Boonshoft CJCE $5 in advance/ $8 at the door.

Partnering with PJ Library.

Concurrent children's program for ages 4–9 at no charge.

› Dayton Junior Youth Group Skating and Sufganiyot

Saturday, December 9 7–9PM @ Riverscape MetroPark (237 E. Monument Ave., 45402) Grades 6–8. Meet your friends for ice skating! $8 includes skate rental. Contact Meryl Hattenbach for more information and to RSVP by December 7.

› Community Chanukah Celebration

Wednesday, December 13 5:30–7:30PM @ Boonshoft CJCE Hosted by JCC & PJ Library and partnering with Beth Abraham, Beth Jacob, Hillel Academy, Temple Beth Or, and Temple Israel. See ad on page XX for details.

› Winter Camp Shalom

December 18–January 5 7:30AM–6PM @ Boonshoft CJCE

HEALTH & WELLNESS › Aerobic Conditioning Tues/Thurs @ 9–9:50AM

Fall session continues through December 7. $25 per session for all classes. Through Sinclair Lifelong Learning.

RSVPs are due at least 1 week before event. Events with no price listed are free.

FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO RSVP (unless noted):

937-610-1555 www.jewishdayton.org

TOP: Stivers orchestra

students listen to local author Robert Kahn speak about his experiences in the Holocaust. The orchestra played an original piece of music inspired by his story.

BOTTOM: Author Jill Santopolo is interviewed

by Deb Dobkins, Community Outreach & Development Coordinator at Washington-Centerville Public Library.

PHOTO CREDITS: PETER WINE

Tuesdays @ the J Classes and Events

JCC EARLY CHILDHOOD IS HIRING! Are you a warm and loving individual who is ready to make a difference in

Beginning January 9, the Boonshoft CJCE will stay open until 8:30PM and offer you an opportunity to participate in some exciting programs! January 9 is our kick-off. Start the New Year off with a safer and

the lives of young children?

more confident you!

the best possible preschool

Are you looking for a work environment that is dedicated to providing children with

experience and are you

› Krav Maga is a defensive

seeking to be part of a high quality, low teacher-

martial arts form developed

child ratio program? We have the opportunity

in Israel. $50/4 sessions

you’ve been seeking!

with instructor Tim Tharp.

6:30–7:30PM. Register at www.israelisurvivaltraining.com/survival-classes.html

› Sign up for 8 weeks of Improv from 6:30–8PM for $75 with Karen Jaffe (minimum of 6, ages Information 16 years and older).

Package

The Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton's Early Childhood Care & Education is currently seeking a full-time Preschool teacher for our two year old classroom. The position is 40 hours per week, with

Come play some games, learn great communication tools,

a Monday–Friday schedule and benefits. For more

and relieve the stress of your day! No materials needed, just

information and to apply please visit

come ready to say “YES, AND”.

jewishdayton.org/jcc/early-childhood-care-education

JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON AGENCY NEWSLETTER | DECEMBER 2017

JCC early childh

FRIENDS DRIVE

If you have not received a letter about the JFS Friends Drive in the mail and you would like to make a donation, please contact Shay Shenefelt at 937-401-1551. We are asking for donations to be made by December 31.

During October and November, Tara Feiner, Jewish Family Services Director, spoke throughout our student loans available to students attending community about the Ashkenazi Jewish community’s both undergraduate and graduate programs! elevated risk for hereditary breast and ovarian Student loans are available courtesy of the Lillian cancer. This initiative stemmed from the JFS E. Finn Memorial Student Loan Fund and the partnership with Sharsheret, a national organization Cantor Student Loan Fund. Applications will that supports Jewish women be available beginning on January 2, 2018 for and families, of undergraduate or graduate students who are all backgrounds, Dayton residents. Awarded annually, the loans who face ovarian are distributed based on academic achievement, cancer, breast financial need, and funds available. These cancer, and who student loans are interest-free and repayment is are at high risk for to commence six months after graduation. hereditary breast For 2018, we again consolidated the student loan and ovarian cancer. If you applications and the Vicky & Robert Heuman were unable to Scholarship application. You may apply for one attend one of or both via the same application. these talks, or if you would l like to learn more about hereditary breast and ovarian cancer or the services Since its creation in 2006, the Vicky & Robert Heuman Scholarship has been awarded annually Sharsheret offers, visit www.sharsheret.org for more information. to an undergraduate or graduate student who DID YOU KNOW? JFS makes interest-free

demonstrates both academic achievement and

PHOTO CREDIT: BASSER CENTER FOR BRCA

financial need. The scholarship is open to Jewish

Are you caring for a loved one who is not in

Dayton area residents.

the Greater Dayton area? While the Network for

If you have any questions about student loans,

Jewish Human Service Agencies is working to update

please contact Shay Shenefelt at

its website, it may be difficult to access the Senior

sshenefelt@jfgd.net or 937-401-1551. To request

Resource Connect portal. Please do not hesitate to

an application, please contact Alisa Thomas at

contact JFS to find services and supports provided by

athomas@jfgd.net or 937-610-1796.

Jewish agencies nationwide.

Jewish Family Services Jewish Foundation ofof GREATER DAYTON GREATER DAYTON › Medicare Check Up Day (OSHIIP) Monday, December 4 9AM–3PM @ Boonshoft CJCE

Call 610-1555 for an appointment.

› JFS Chanukah Brunch Sunday, December 10 11AM @ Beth Abraham

Synagogue (305 Sugar Camp Circle, 45409) In partnership with Active Adults, Hadassah, Jewish War Veterans, and the Lynda A. Cohen Yiddish Club. $15 per person. $20 at the door. RSVP

by December 1. Your payment is your reservation.

› L’Chaim 2017: Schtick Happens Wednesday, December 20 1:30 PM @ Temple Israel (130 Riverside Drive, 45405)

No Cost. RSVP by December 13.

› December Mitzvah Mission Monday, December 25 10AM–NOON @ Boonshoft CJCE Mitzvot for all ages. No cost.

› Need Assistance Finding a Food Pantry Near You? Call the United Way Information & Referral Line, 225-3000 or Dial 2-1-1. › Don’t know what to donate in the Food Barrels? How about non-perishable, nonexpired dairy products?

In October, JFS, the JCC, and the Jewish community partnered with Homefull to collect paper products, cleaning supplies and laundry supplies for “starter kits” for those transitioning from living in a shelter to permanent housing. Pictured are the students at Hillel Academy who collected items and added their items to Beth Abraham’s barrels. Not only did the Jewish community collect these items, but students at Beth Abraham, Temple Beth Or, Temple Israel, Hillel Academy, and JCC Early Childhood Care and Education raised over $280 in their Homes for Change… and we are still expecting additional funds to add to that count!. Todah Rabah— thank you—to the community for supporting those who are home-insecure.

PHOTO CREDIT: HILLEL ACADEMY

EVAPORATED MILK POWDERED MILK PUDDINGS & CUSTARDS are greatly appreciated!

RSVPs are due at least 1 week before event. Events with no price listed are free.

FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO RSVP (unless noted):

937-610-1555 www.jewishdayton.org

JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON AGENCY NEWSLETTER | DECEMBER 2017

›Mamaloshen

in partnership with

A little bit of Yiddish to share with friends, courtesy of the JFS Yiddish Club, in memory of Lynda A. Cohen.

Betn \ BET-en \ Verb 1. To request, ask, bid.

2. To beg, implore, entreat, beseech.

3. To pray.

The Jewish Foundation of Greater Dayton is excited to announce the LIFE & LEGACY™ community partners! The partners include:

Expression with Betn:

› CHABAD OF GREATER DAYTON

› Hunger ken nisht keyn

› BETH ABRAHAM SYNAGOGUE

gebot. Hunger recognizes no law. › ipelech, afile roznike, betn esn. Lips, however rosy, must be fed. › Gute gest kumen umgebetn. Welcome guests come uninvited.

› DAYTON JEWISH CEMETERIES › HILLEL ACADEMY › JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER › JEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER DAY TON › JEWISH FAMILY SERVICES › JEWISH WAR VETERANS › TEMPLE BETH OR › TEMPLE ISRAEL

LIFE & LEGACY is a four year program designed to help Jewish organizations secure after lifetime gifts. Through training, marketing assistance, and incentive grants, our partners will have an opportunity to strengthen their philanthropic culture in meaningful ways. If you have any questions about the program, please contact Foundation Director Janese R. Sweeny at jsweeny@jfgd.net or 937-401-1542.

Legacies, Tributes, & Memorials FEDERATION

ANNUAL CAMPAIGN IN MEMORY OF › Fran Timmons Debby and Dr. Robert Goldenberg Susan and Dr. Nathan Ritter › Loraine Kobel Marla and Dr. Stephen Harlan

For more information about PJ Library or PJ Our Way or to get a child enrolled in either of these great programs, please contact PJ Library Coordinator Rachel Gilbert at rgilbert@jfgd.net or 937-610-1794.

MIRIAM SIEGEL MARKS AND MILTON A. MARKS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FUND IN MEMORY OF › Milton A. Marks › Miriam Siegel Marks › Richard Marks Meredith A. Cline LINDA RUCHMAN FUND IN HONOR OF › 20th wedding anniversary of Heidi and Jon Freeman Judy and Marshall Ruchman IN MEMORY OF › Fran Timmons Judy and Marshall Ruchman TALA ARNOVITZ FUND IN MEMORY OF › Jonathan Ezekiel Beverly Saeks

JFS

JEWISH FAMILY SERVICES IN HONOR OF › Marriage of Samantha Pavlofsky Helene Gordon IN MEMORY OF › Fran Timmons Bobbie Kantor Beverly and Jeffrey Kantor Brenda and Scott Meadow ROBERT L. CLINE AND RITA Z. CLINE BIKUR HAVERIM ENDOWMENT FUND IN MEMORY OF › Fran Timmons Cathy Gardner JCC

BARBARA FLAGEL PLAYGROUND FUND IN MEMORY OF › Barbara Flagel Lynn and David Goldenberg Mary and Scott Flagel

JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON AGENCY NEWSLETTER | DECEMBER 2017

FELDMAN FAMILY BBYO FUND IN MEMORY OF › Loraine Kobel Melissa and Tim Sweeny FOUNDATION

JEREMY BETTMAN B’NAI TZEDEK FUND IN HONOR OF › Marriage of Samantha Pavlofsky Jean and Todd Bettman › Birthday of Jean Bettman Elaine and Joe Bettman IN MEMORY OF › Bruce Perri Jean and Todd Bettman SAMMY’S RAINBOW BRIDGE FUND IN MEMORY OF › “Misha” Lieberman Jean and Todd Bettman

WELCOME SARAH WOLL JFGD and the Jewish Foundation of Greater Dayton are very happy to welcome Sarah Woll to the staff! As the new Development Administrative Assistant, Sarah will provide administrative support to both the Annual Campaign and the Foundation.

Sarah recently moved to Ohio from Denver and looks forward to raising her family here. She enjoys spending time with her husband and two children.

Welcome Sarah!

KVELLING CORNER Dr. Allan Katz was inducted as an Air Force Research Fellow at a ceremony held at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.

Allan leads the Materials and Manufacturing Directorate program to develop ceramic matrix composites capable of operating in turbine engines to temperatures of 2,700 degrees.

Rachel Haug Gilbert He is considered by many to be the father of CMC materials for high temperature applications.

He led pioneering research on high temperature behavior of CMCs in the early 1980s, and has led multiple development and technology transition efforts to bring advanced CMC materials to fruition for turbine engine applications.

The Hon. Walter H. Rice, judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, was thrilled to learn that the federal building and courthouse in Downtown Dayton will be named in his honor. A panel established by U.S. Rep. Mike Turner and chaired by attorney Merle F. Wilberding unanimously recommended the building be named for Judge Rice, who has served as a federal judge since 1980.

Dr. Michael Halasz has been installed as president-elect of the Ohio Dental Association.

Dr. David Shuster has received the Boonshoft School of Medicine 2017 Voluntary Faculty Award for teaching medical students. A clinical assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery, David teaches the medical school’s Medicine and the Holocaust course.

Joshua Spetter has been selected as the new director of programming and training for Peace Corps Mexico. In this position, he’ll serve as the deputy country director, working in conjunction with the country director and the director of management and operations to oversee the Peace Corps program. Joshua has dedicated his career over the past 20 years to the Peace Corps.

LIFECYCLES

Trust Furst

Debbie Feldman, president and CEO of Dayton Children’s Hospital, was named Executive of the Year by Dayton Business Journal. With Debbie’s leadership, Dayton Children’s also received DBJ’s Customer Service Business of the Year Award, and Community Supporter of the Year.

with your Chanukah Centerpieces Bring in this ad and receive $10 off your next in-store purchase of $60 or more*

Marissa Sucosky is celebrating 15 years of working at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Since 2012, she has served with the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention Oliver Wyatt Magrish and Health Promotion.

Heidi and Dan Magrish of Pittsburgh have announced the birth of their son, Oliver Wyatt, on June 29. Heidi is a former resident of Dayton. Oliver weighed 6 lbs., 11 oz. and was 191/4 inches long. Welcoming him into the family are his big brothers, Logan and Parker, as well as his grandparents, Bari and Steve Blumhof of Dayton, and Joy Moravitz of Pittsburgh.

On Oct. 21, friends and family gathered in Pittsburgh at Rodef Shalom Congregation to celebrate Oliver’s naming: Ronen Menachem ben Daniel v’ Gitel, in loving memory of his maternal great-grandmother, Dr. Dean X. Parmelee, associate Betty Feldman. dean with the Boonshoft School of Medicine (L) presents Dr. David Shuster with the 2017 Voluntary Faculty Award for teaching medical students

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Commercial HVAC & Refrigeration Kettering, Ohio 45429 • (937) 604-2049 Tim Crafton, Owner • storchvacr@gmail.com Wishing You A Happy Chanukah

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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • DECEMBER 2017

PAGE 23

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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • DECEMBER 2017

CALENDAR OF EVENTS Temple Beth Or Classes: Sat., Dec. 2, 10 a.m.: Tanach w.

Rabbi Chessin. 5275 Marshall Rd., Wash. Twp. 435-3400.

Temple Israel Classes: Saturdays, 9:30 a.m., Torah Study. 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton. 496-0050.

Fitness

Sinclair Lifelong Learning Aerobic Conditioning: Tues. & Thurs., 9-9:50 a.m. Through Dec. 7. $25 for all sessions.

525 Versailles Dr., Centerville.

R.S.V.P. to 610-1555.

Discussions

Temple Israel Ryterband Brunch Series: Sundays, 9:45 a.m. $7. Dec. 17: Dr. Fred Krome, Univ. of CincinnatiClermont, The Einstein-Freud Correspondence of 1931-32.

130 Riverside Dr., Dayton. 4960050.

Family

PJ Library/JFS Movie & Dinner: Sun., Dec. 3, 3:45 p.m. Ages 6 and up. Wonder at Cinemark at The Greene.

Followed by kosher Pizza dinner at Greene Community Room. $10. R.S.V.P. to 6101555.

Bowling w. PJ Library: Sat., Dec. 16, 6:30 p.m. Capri Lanes, 2727 S. Dixie Dr., Kettering. Ages 8-11 & families.

Kosher pizza included. Free.

610-1555.

Children

JCC Winter Camp Shalom: Dec. 18-Jan. 5. Mon.-Fri., 8:45 a.m.-3:45 p.m. Beforecare at 7:30 a.m. & aftercare until 6 p.m. available. 610-1555.

Seniors

JFS L’Chaim Party: Wed., Dec. 20, 1:30-3 p.m. Temple Israel, 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton.

Young at Heart Players, ice cream bar. Free. R.S.V.P. to 610-1555.

JCC Cultural Arts & Book Fest

Dr. David Novick: Tues., Dec. 5, 7 p.m. Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville. $5 in advance, $8 at door, available at jewishdayton.org, 610-1555.

Abigail Pogrebin: Thurs., Dec. 7, 6:30 p.m. Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville. $5 in advance, $8 at door, available at jewishdayton.org & 610-1555.

Chanukah

Temple Israel Chanukah Happening: Sun., Dec. 3, 11 a.m. Class presentations, doughnuts, lunch available for purchase. 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton. 496-0050.

Dayton Junior Youth Group Skating & Sufganiyot: Sat., Dec. 9, 7-9 p.m. RiverScape MetroPark, 237 E. Monument Ave., Dayton. $8 skate rental.

R.S.V.P. to Meryl Hattenbach, 610-1555 by Dec. 7.

JFS Chanukah Brunch: Sun., Dec. 10, 11 a.m. Beth Abraham Synagogue, 305 Sugar Camp Cir., Oakwood. $15 advance, $20 at door. 610-1555.

Make Chanukah Candles w. Temple Israel: Sun., Dec. 10, 2:30 p.m. Candle dipping at Aullwood Audubon Center, 1000 Aullwood Rd., Dayton. $5 adults, $3 ages 11 and under.

Call 496-0050 for more info.

Chabad Chocolate Gelt Factory: Sun., Dec. 10, 3-4 p.m. 2001 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood. Free. R.S.V.P. to 6430770 ext. 1.

Chabad Women’s Circle PreChanukah Party & Dinner: Sun., Dec. 10, 5:30 p.m. 2001 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood. 6430770.

Community Chanukah Celebration: Wed., Dec. 13, 5:30-7:30 p.m. Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville. Dinner, singer Joanie Leeds. $10 adults/$7 children before Dec. 4; $14 adults/$9 children Dec. 4 and after. R.S.V.P. to 610-1555.

Temple Beth Or Chanukah CrossFit Workout: Thurs., Dec. 14, 7:30 p.m. Centerville CrossFit, 923 Senate Dr. Temple Anshe Emeth Chanukah Party: Fri., Dec. 15, 6 p.m. Soups & salad.

Shabbat service at 7:30 p.m.

320 Caldwell St., Piqua. For more info., call Eileen Litchfield, 937-547-0092.

Temple Beth Or Chanukah Shabbat & Outdoor Menorah Dedication: Fri., Dec. 15, 6:30 p.m. Preneg meal, dedication, services. 5275 Marshall Rd., Wash. Twp. 435-3400.

Beth Abraham Synagogue Shabbat Chanukah Kiddush: Sat., Dec. 16, noon. 305 Sugar Camp Cir., Oakwood. 293-9520.

YAD Team Building Chanukah Party: Sat., Dec. 16, 7 p.m.

Scene75, 6196 Poe Ave., Dayton. Dinner included. Free.

R.S.V.P. to Cheryl Carne at ccarne@jfgd.net.

Chabad Chanukah On Ice: Sun., Dec. 17, 5:30 p.m.

RiverScape MetroPark, 237 E. Monument Ave., Dayton. $7 per skater. For more info., call Chabad, 643-0770.

Community Events

Temple Beth Or Annual Artisan Fair: Sun., Dec. 3, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. 5275 Marshall Rd., Wash. Twp. 435-3400.

Beth Jacob Congregation Rabbi-In-Residence Weekend: w. Rabbi Adam Rosenthal. Fri., Dec. 15, 5:30 p.m. service followed by 6:45 p.m. dinner ($18). Sat., Dec. 16, 9 a.m. service followed by noon kiddush lunch. 7020 N. Main St., Harrison Twp. R.S.V.P. for dinner to 274-2149.

Temple Israel’s Torah on Tap: Wed., Dec. 20, 5:30 p.m. With a rabbi from Temple Israel. Dublin Pub, 300 Wayne Ave., Dayton.

First round on Temple Israel.

Beth Abraham Synagogue Kosher Chinese Dinner & Movie: Sun., Dec. 24, 5:30 p.m. $10 adults, $6 ages 3-12. 305 Sugar Camp Cir., Oakwood. R.S.V.P. to 293-9520.

Call for additional details Offer expires 1/31/2018 Valid at Kettering Location

JEWISH

TDJO_12

FED ER ATI O N

PR ES I DENTS

of G R E ATER

DAY TO N

DI NNER 201 8

SAVE DATE

t h e

Classes

Sunday, June 3, 2018 Invitation to follow.

Seating is limited.

JFS Mitzvah Mission: Mon., Dec. 25, 10 a.m.-noon. Make scarves, no-sew rag dolls & sack lunches for those in need.

Bring unwanted fabric such as old T-shirts or bedsheets.

Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville. 610-1555.

For more information contact Juliet Glaser at jglaser@jfgd.net.

?

Are you reading this? So is the entire Jewish community.

Contact Patty Caruso at plhc69@gmail.com to advertise in The Observer.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • DECEMBER 2017

PAGE 25

JEWISH FAMILY EDUCATION

Soul searching Turning to Spirituality Series

Soul mate. Lost soul. Good for the soul. Sell one’s soul.

Despite today’s rampant secularism, there’s a lot of “soul searching” going on in science, religion, philosophy, and daily life.

Google the word “soul” and you’ll find upward of a bil-

Candace R. Kwiatek lion results. It’s not a modern notion, however. The soul appears in the first book of the Bible and is found in the oldest Jewish prayer, the Shema: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.”

So what is the soul? According to various Bible dictionaries, the soul is a nonphysical entity separable from our physical body, which is the animating principle of life.

It’s the center of emotionalintellectual-moral activity, the spiritual and immortal substance in the human, the essence of humanness, and a Divine essence of humans inseparably bound to God. With its emphasis on the material world, science has traditionally dismissed these notions of the soul as figments of the spiritual realm or reduced it to a psychological construct that helps shape our perception and understanding of the world, notes the cuttingedge scientist Dr. Robert Lanza.

After all, “a soul has never been seen under an electron microscope, nor spun in the

Literature to share Twenty-Six Seconds: A Personal History of the Zapruder Film

by Alexandra Zapruder. This extraordinary nonfiction work weaves together the story of a family with history, culture, law, and journalism. An amateur photographer, the author’s grandfather filmed the only record of President Kennedy’s assassination, just yards in front of him. His six feet of 8mm film became the subject of extensive controversy, family secrecy, and conspiracy theories. Zapruder’s engaging book raises as many questions as it answers.

Dreidels on the Brain by Joel ben Izzy. Finally! A modern, funny, unapologetically Jewish, and believable coming-of-age story for the middle school set. Family relationships, life’s purpose, the source of happiness, the meaning of morality: no topic is off-limits for the narrator, a delightful kid you’ll wish lived down the block. Don’t miss out on this one — perfect for Jewish and non-Jewish youngsters.

laboratory in a test tube or ultra-centrifuge.”

At best, the notion of “the soul” has been relegated to neuroscience, where the “soul experience” is interpreted as the result of physical and chemical processes in the brain.

Still, science has yet to explain consciousness, why we have subjective experience, or why we have a sense of the self.

Emerging scientific theories by Lanza and others, including a new approach known as biocentrism, are starting to seriously challenge the existing physical-only models of reality.

Judaism’s understanding of the soul Jacob's Dream by William Blake, circa 1805 unites science and religion in many respects through fleeting like the wind (ruach), its contextual use of three and upon death, the author of separate words for the soul: Ecclesiastes concludes, “the nefesh (rest), ruach (wind), and ruach returns to God who gave neshamah (breath). it.”

From nafash, meaning rest, It is the neshama, breath, the nefesh is the animating that separates theology from life-force of all living creatures science. (humans and animals).

Breathed into the human at In the realm of neuroscience, Creation, the neshama is the with its foundations in chemspiritual existence that pulls istry and physics, the nefesh is the human toward the Divine, the “breath of life” responding toward moral behavior and to the body’s needs, keeping self-improvement, and toward the material body working and a purposeful life in the imthe creature alive until the moage of God. The neshamah is ment of cessation. eternal.

More in the realm of modern Jewish teachings describe psychology than neuroscience, the body and soul as separate ruach is the Divine animation yet indivisible partners acting of all creatures: spirit, personal- together to form one’s inner ity, feelings, creativity, insight, identity, to pursue a meaningand Divine inspiration. ful purpose, and to do the holy These soul stirrings are work of repairing the world.

CommUNITY Shabbat ayton

Lifting our voices as one

Friday, January 26 at the Dayton Art Institute (456 Belmonte Park N, Dayton, OH 45405) 6:30PM service, Shabbat dinner to follow Join Beth Abraham, Beth Jacob, Temple Beth Or, and Temple Israel, led by the Dayton Jewish Chorale, as we celebrate Shabbat as one community. Shabbat dinner buffet kosher under supervision of Beth Abraham.

No charge for service. Shabbat dinner cost: Adult $45, child (ages 5–11) $28.

Please RSVP by January 12 at jewishdayton.org or to 937-610-1555. Dinner seating is limited.

PAGE 26

Chasidic scholar Rabbi Yanki Tauber writes, “Without the soul, the body is like a light bulb without electricity, a computer without the software, a space suit with no astronaut inside.”

British teens apparently concur. In a recent study, more than half of those surveyed indicated a belief that humans have souls. Researcher Berry Billingsley explains, “Teenagers do not feel that science is enough to explain to them what it means to be a person.”

“A soul is not just the engine of life,” Tauber continues. “It also embodies the why of a thing’s existence, its meaning and purpose…

Each soul is the expression of God’s intent and vision in creating that particular being.”

If so, what’s the access code?

How do you find out your soul’s personal mission? What are the signs that you’re headed in the right direction — or not?

In his book, Toward A Meaningful Life: The Life and Teachings of the Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, Rabbi Simon Jacobson relates the following story: “A man visiting the Rebbe complained of a lack of meaningfulness in his life. Yes, he had a successful career and healthy family, but at the end of the day, he felt lonely and empty. ‘Do you ever devote time to your soul?’ the Rebbe asked him.”

Rabbi Naomi Levy, author of Einstein and the Rabbi: Searching for the Soul, encourages taking a soulfie, “a daily attempt to meet our souls…to get to know our own true essence.”

She encourages exploration of seven time-tested ways for raising the volume of your soul’s voice: meditation, music, food, prayer, learning, nature, and Shabbat. Find the one that works for you and stick with it.

Then heed the voice that you hear.

“Man can never be happy if he does not nourish his soul as he does his body,” Schneerson cautioned. “When the soul is starved for nourishment, it lets us know with feelings of emptiness, anxiety, or yearning.”

The body and soul are indispensable partners for doing life’s sacred work.

Start or enhance your journey of self-discovery and purpose with some soul-searching.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • DECEMBER 2017

RELIGION

CONGREGATIONS

The first connecfry our latkes in schmaltz, but tion between Chain oil, ideally olive. nukah and pancakes Interestingly, Tel Aviv-based was made by the food writer Phyllis Glazer notes famous 13th-century the word latke may derive Italian rabbi, Kalony- from the Old Russian oladka, mus ben Kalonymus. and is a diminutive of olad’ya, In a poem, the from Greek eladia, the plural of rabbi included eladion, which means “a little cheese pancakes in oily thing.” This comes from a list of dishes to elaia, which means olive. serve at an idealized This reminds us that it is not Chanukah (and Puthe potato per se that should rim) feast. This take center perfectly tied stage on Chainto an earlier nukah, but the tradition. miracle of the In the early oil.

Middle Ages, This is a dairy foods good thing, were connected since the with the FestiMaccabees val of Lights. never saw a cause for the Jews of the shtetl This was due to the potato, much villages in Eastern European Book of Judith, which less a potato countries such as Russia and is not part of the official pancake; alPoland, pickings were slim Chanukah story (the story Rabbi Joshua Ginsberg though, they in winter, and potatoes were is connected with the first did witness cheap and available from the Temple, but nevertheless came the liberating power of God. root cellar. to be associated with ChanuWe know this not only from Millions of Jewish mothers kah). the Chanukah story, but also provided sustenance to their According to this book, the from the term Maccabees, hungry children with just a few beautiful Judith entertained which is derived from an acrospotatoes and very little fuel. an Assyrian general with salty tic of the Hebrew, Mi Kamocha Few latkes, however, were cheese and with Ba’Eilim Adoshem, Who among actually fried in It is not the wine. When he the mighty is like you, God? vegetable oil, let passed out, she deIn our house, we often mix alone olive oil. In potato per se capitated him with things up by making our latkes Eastern Europe, his own sword. out of zucchini, carrots or sweet vegetable oils were that should This allowed the potatoes. Perhaps this year often hard to find. take center Jews to mount a we’ll add a fried cheese latke to So they fried them stage on successful surprise our repertoire. with schmaltz, fat Just as we can’t forget Judah rendered from Chanukah, but attack. In one version of this story Maccabee, we won’t forget our chicken, duck or the miracle of that circulated, the traditional friend, the potato. goose. salty cheese was We’ll keep the oil burning this This was an the oil. cooked into a latke, Chanukah season for the tried unfortunate turn of and true potato latke. events (at least for this vegetar- a pancake.

In Rome, Jews still make As the Chanukah light sheds ian) because latkes were origipancakes with ricotta for Chaits sweet light, may the aroma nally made with cheese. nukah. Perhaps, serving potato of oily treats also remind us of The latke, potato or not, descends from Italian pancakes latkes with sour cream is a con- days long ago. tinuation of the tradition, since Chanukah Sameach, Happy that were made with ricotta thankfully most of us no longer Chanukah. cheese.

Thanks a latke

Why we eat potato pancakes at Chanukah

By Rabbi Joshua Ginsberg Beth Abraham Synagogue If latkes could talk, what would they tell us? The Latke Song, a fun tune by the late Debbie Friedman, channels everyone’s favorite Chanukah food, and answers this very question.

You can hear many covers of this popular song on YouTube.

Latkes, Yiddish for potato pancakes, are one of the quintessential Chanukah delicacies for Ashkenazic Jews.

They are fried in oil to com-

Perspectives memorate the central miracle of the Chanukah story — a oneday supply of olive oil (for the Temple Menorah) that lasted eight days during the Maccabees’ heroic victory over the Syrian-Greek Seleucid Empire led by Antiochus IV. But why potato pancakes?

In truth, latkes didn’t emerge as a Chanukah treat until the 16th century, when this New World product was introduced to Europe.

Before potatoes arrived on the continent, latkes were often made with buckwheat.

And as it turns out, potatoes weren’t an overnight success.

According to the food historian Ken Albala, whose Sephardic grandparents emigrated from Turkey and Greece a century ago, “Potatoes did not fit into a culinary niche that Europeans knew about.”

Only when famine threatened in the late 18th century were farmers in northern and central Europe motivated to overcome their fears and plant potatoes.

And it wasn’t until back-toback crop failures in 1839 and 1840 made starvation a distinct possibility that farmers in Eastern Europe followed suit.

This was a good thing, be-

December • Kislev/Tevet Shabbat Candle Lightings December 1 4:55 p.m.

December 8 4:54 p.m.

December 9 Vayeshev (Gen. 37:1-40:23)

December 15 4:55 p.m.

December 16 Miketz (Gen. 41:1-44:17; Num. 7:30-41)

December 22 4:58 p.m.

December 23 Vayigash (Gen. 44:18-47:27)

December 29 5:03 p.m.

December 30 Vayechi (Gen. 47:28-50:26)

Beth Jacob Congregation Traditional Rabbi In Residence Adam Rosenthal Saturdays 9:30 a.m., Sundays 8 a.m., Sunday through Friday, 7 p.m.

7020 N. Main St., Dayton. 274-2149.

BethJacobCong.org Temple Anshe Emeth Reform Rabbinic Intern Taylor Poslosky Fri., Dec. 15, 7:30 p.m.

320 Caldwell St., Piqua.

Call Eileen Litchfield, 937-5470092, elitchfield@woh.rr.com.

Correspondence address: 3808 Beanblossom Rd., Greenville, OH 45331. ansheemeth.org Temple Beth Or Reform Rabbi Judy Chessin Educator/Rabbi Ari Ballaban Fridays 7 p.m.

Saturdays 10 a.m.

5275 Marshall Rd., Wash. Twp. 435-3400. templebethor.com Temple Beth Sholom Reform Rabbi Haviva Horvitz See Web site for schedule.

610 Gladys Dr., Middletown.

513-422-8313. thetemplebethsholom.com Temple Israel Reform Senior Rabbi Karen Bodney-Halasz Rabbi/Educator Tina Sobo First Friday each month 6 p.m.

All other Fridays, 6:30 p.m.

Saturdays 10:30 a.m.

130 Riverside Dr., Dayton.

496-0050. tidayton.org Temple Sholom Reform Rabbi Cary Kozberg Fridays 6 p.m.

2424 N. Limestone St., Springfield. 399-1231. templesholomoh.com

ADDITIONAL SERVICES

Torah Portions December 2 Vayishlach (Gen. 32:4-36:43)

Beth Abraham Synagogue Conservative Rabbi Joshua Ginsberg Cantor/Dir. of Ed. & Programming Andrea Raizen Monday through Friday 6:50 a.m. & 5:30 p.m. Fri., 5:30 p.m. Sat. 9 a.m.

Sundays at 8:30 a.m. 305 Sugar Camp Circle, Oakwood. 293-9520.

BethAbrahamDayton.org

Chanukah

Festival of Lights

Dec. 13-20 25 Kislev-2 Tevet Eight-day holiday commemorating Jewish victory over the Syrian-Greeks and the miracle of the rededication of the Temple. One day’s oil for the Temple’s light lasted eight days. A chanukiah (menorah) is lit for eight nights, and latkes (potato pancakes) are fried in oil to commemorate the story. Children play with dreidels, and gifts are exchanged.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • DECEMBER 2017

Chabad of Greater Dayton Rabbi Nochum Mangel Associate Rabbi Shmuel Klatzkin Youth & Prog. Dir. Rabbi Levi Simon. Beginner educational service Saturdays 9 a.m. adults, 10 a.m children. Sundays 9 a.m.

2001 Far Hills Ave. 643-0770. www.chabaddayton.com Yellow Springs Havurah Independent Services 1st & 3rd Saturdays, 10-noon. Antioch College Rockford Chapel. Contact Cheryl Levine, 937-767-9293.

PAGE 27

mission

RELIGION

Monday, December 25

h

Celebrating Chanukah with our non-Jewish friends

mis

10AM–NOON @ Boonshoft CJCE Join us for mitzvot for all ages!

mitzvah

By Melissa Henriquez Kveller.com Salad fixins? Check. Cookies?

Check. Menorah, candles and dreidels? Check, check, check.

My husband, kids and I were headed to family dinner at the home of a dear friend. She and her husband are not Jewish, but my friend is a history teacher who loves learning about and sharing multicultural traditions.

Since she had never lit a menorah before, she asked me to bring ours. I was more than happy to oblige.

For good measure, I also brought some dreidels and, because our kids ate all our gelt on the first night of Chanukah, some red and green Christmas M&Ms. We’d be celebrating the fourth night of Chanukah together and decorating Christmas cookies — the delightful mingling of the seasons and faiths in our respective families — and I’d been looking forward to it all day. After all, it’s not every day you get to introduce the special traditions of your faith with others.

We shared a wonderful meal and conversation while the kids played. We called them back to the table for the menorah lighting.

I explained to the little ones that we needed five candles tonight — one for each of the four nights of Chanukah, plus the shamash candle, the helper that lights the others and stands taller than the rest.

All four kids put a candle in the menorah, and once the shamash was lit, I began reciting the blessing to a very captive audience — many of whom were hearing Hebrew for the

Make scarves, no-sew rag dolls, and sack lunches for those in need. Light noshes will be served.

Upcycle unwanted fabric!

Bring old t-shirts or bed sheets with fun patterns to help make the rag dolls.

No cost.

RSVP at 937-610-1555 or at jewishdayton.org

JEWISH FAMILY SERVICES of GREATER DAYTON

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very first time.

Looking around the room — seeing all four of our kids staring awestruck into the bright glow of the menorah, shadows dancing on their tiny faces — I couldn’t help break into a grin.

And then, just as quickly as my grin came on, guilt washed over me.

“Ugh, I should have sung it, I’m sorry, I just have a really bad voice,” I said.

If this was our friends’ first Chanukah experience, I wanted to do it right, and by reciting the blessing versus singing it, I was not only cheating myself but, more importantly, cheating them — bad voice and all.

“Sing it, sing it!” my friend’s older son chanted.

I took a deep breath and quietly sang the familiar tune that’s been with me since childhood, eyes averted and cheeks

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flushing with each line.

Looking up, no one was covering their ears — to my surprise. They were all watching intently, smiles playing on their lips. Phew.

“Dreidel time!”

My friend’s son knew about the game from a book at school and was eager to learn how to play. After dividing up the M&Ms, my 6-year-old daughter taught her friends the significance of the four Hebrew letters on each side of the dreidel, and then the kids went to town — changing the rules up just a bit, but having a blast along the way.

Now if someone could just explain to me how my 3-yearold son miraculously lands on gimel. Every. Single. Time.

The game was such a hit that we left one of our dreidels at their house for our friends’ kids to play with.

Sharing traditions with our non-Jewish friends that night was a gift. If only more of us could experience multicultural and interfaith experiences like ours, I truly think the world would be a better place. We have so much to learn from one another.

People say, “Be the light you wish to see” — and in uncertain times like the ones we are in, it feels good to be able to be a source of light.

It feels even better to have friends who reflect that light, embrace it, and then emit it themselves in their willingness to learn and share with their own children.

Melissa Henriquez blogs at Let There Be Light. She and her husband, who is not Jewish, live in Michigan with their two children.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • DECEMBER 2017

RELIGION

Sephardi inspiration for Chanukah

By Tamar Zaken, JTA For many years, I worked in the most special place I could imagine. It’s a radical beit midrash (house of study) in Jerusalem: Memizrach Shemesh, the Social Action Beit Midrash, inspired by the traditions of Jews from Arab lands.

At Memizrach Shemesh, we used Jewish texts, with a special emphasis on Sephardic (Mediterranean) and Mizrahi (eastern) rabbinic texts, as tools for awareness raising and social change. We trained leaders, educators and activists in Israeli society with the perspective that good community workers need to learn before taking action. I directed Memizrach Shemesh’s Youth Leadership Department for a decade.

Toward the end of my time at the beit midrash, I came upon a beautiful text that summarized the purpose of my work. Rabbi Hayim Yosef David Azulay (born in Hebron, active in North Africa and Italy 17271806) tells us that “Everyone in Israel got his or her part at Sinai, and each needs to make efforts to engage in the Torah so that they can bring to light their part, and this is something that can be done by no other.”

We all have a responsibility to find our place in the Torah.

As a Jewish educator, I want all Jews to feel like a welcome part of this Torah, to realize that the community is incomplete without their voice.

At Memizrach Shemesh, I was at the center of an important issue, showing Israeli society the significant social, cultural, textual and religious voice of Sephardic and Mizrachi Jews in Israeli society. We were not only teaching texts many had not heard of, we were also offering a prism through which to view Jewish and Israeli life: a life where denominations were not needed and all were included, where honoring tradition and taking on the responsibility to

make change could go hand in hand.

I relocated to the United States in 2015 with my family, and although I am no longer a part of Memizrach Shemesh, the spirit and mission have stayed with me. Looking around my new community I often wonder: How can I make change here, on my own, in this context? I want to scream out at injustices I see and read about. But at the same time, I must grapple with raising and supporting my family, teaching my children how to be mensches, and readjusting to American life.

Often around Chanukah at Memizrach Shemesh, we would examine the disagreement between two of the great ancient rabbis, Hillel and Shammai. They disagreed on how we should light the chanukiyah (Chanukah menorah).

The house of Shammai suggested we should light eight candles on the first night, then decrease the number of candles by one each night of Chanukah.

Hillel believed we should light one candle on the first night, adding one candle every night until there were eight candles on the last night.

Tradition sided, as it often has, with Hillel instead of Shammai.

I see in the debate of my favorite rabbinic pair a metaphor for how we make change in these difficult times. And my interpretation of Rabbi Hillel’s approach has helped me re-engage with a new Sephardic website for Chanukah.

Starting off with a bright, hot light — almost a fire — the fully lit chanukiyah proposed

by Shammai reminds us that sometimes we need to take bold or drastic measures when we

I see in the debate of my favorite rabbinic pair a metaphor for how we make change in these difficult times.

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result of time and focus, each small action eventually combining to make a light for all.

Rabbi Hillel has helped me find my way to light what I hope is the first candle of many. I created a resource guide, Sephardi Chanukah (sephardichanukah.weebly.com), for Jewish educators with sources, lesson plans, stories and recipes that teachers can use to bring the Jewish texts and traditions of Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews to schools, synagogues and organizations in English-speaking Jewish communities.

As I learned at Memizrach Shemesh, there is often an answer in our Jewish texts. In Hillel’s discussion come across injustice or sufferawareness about the social issue on how to light the candles, I ing. found the inspiration to create a at hand.

This may mean putting small light, Sephardi Chanukah.

Hillel’s incremental light yourself at risk by camping out grows slowly, and little by little My hope is that it will grow near a water source to ensure brighter as more Jewish educathe beauty and strength of the you can put out the fire if it tors help their students bring to light is sustained. This kind of spreads, speaking up when light their part of the Torah they social change might look like you see a racist act unfolding volunteering at a homeless shel- received at Sinai, making our in front of you, or walking out curricula, our classrooms, and ter, raising awareness about a of a high school classroom with social issue or educating people our communities more whole. your fellow students when you about their rights. feel frustrated and betrayed by Over time, though, this builds Tamar Zaken translates Sephardic election results. Like Shammai’s into the same bright light of rabbinic texts to expose English “fire,” these actions are strong, speaking audiences to their Shammai’s first day, but not radical and shake up people’s messages of inclusion and justice. right away. Instead, it’s the

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PAGE 29

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A Chanukah menu with a lighter touch Spicy Seared Salmon with Gochujang Sauce

By Megan Wolf, JTA The holidays are a wonderful time to share meals with friends and family — but must they be heavy and calorie filled?

For Chanukah, this simple and tasty Asian-inspired menu uses oil per the holiday tradition, but it's low in calories and rich in flavors, colors and textures.

My bet is your guests won’t even know the difference between regular fried rice and your version of this special cauliflower fried rice.

Cauliflower, by the way, is an excellent stand-in for many popular carbohydrates — potatoes (mashed cauliflower), rice (as prepared here) and pizza crust (you’ll never believe how delicious cauliflower pizza is).

Gochujang is a thick, Korean sauce, similar to a spicy

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PAGE 30

Cauliflower Rice

barbecue sauce. It’s wonderful on chicken, vegetables or here with meaty fish.

It’s also lovely stirred into rice (or cauliflower rice) dishes to add an extra bite. It’s easily purchased at many Korean restaurants, Asian specialty markets or traditional grocery stores.

Your guests will love to celebrate with you without worrying about derailing their healthy eating habits. I mean, why can’t we eat healthfully before Jan. 1?

Want a little decadence? A little chocolate gelt never hurt anyone and would be a perfect way to round out this spicy and savory menu.

Cauliflower Rice 1 Tbsp. olive oil 2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

1 tsp. minced ginger 1 onion, sliced 1 head cauliflower, cleaned and stems removed 1 cup chopped broccoli 1 cup shredded carrots 1 cup peas 1 egg 1 Tbsp. sesame oil 2 Tbsp. soy sauce Sesame seeds Pickled radish 1. In a food processor or blender, pulse cauliflower florets to resemble rice. Do this in batches and set aside.

2. In a large nonstick skillet, heat olive oil and cook garlic, ginger and onions until soft and fragrant.

3. Add cauliflower, broccoli and carrots, stir and continue to cook until soft. Add water, two tablespoons at a time if needed (this will help to steam the vegetables).

4. Add peas, then stir to combine. Make a well in the center of the vegetable mixture and scramble in the egg.

5. Add sesame oil and soy sauce. Stir to combine and season to taste.

6. Top with sesame seeds and sliced pickled radish.

7. Serve immediately.

Spicy Seared Salmon 2 Tbsp. olive oil 4 salmon filets 4 Tbsp. Gochujang sauce 1. In a large nonstick skillet with a lid, heat olive oil until hot.

2. While the oil heats, prepare the salmon by brushing each filet with Gochujang.

3. Place salmon sauce side

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • DECEMBER 2017

Toasted Cashew Asparagus 1 bunch asparagus 1/4 cup salted cashews 1 Tbsp. toasted sesame oil Juice of 1 lime 1. Steam asparagus until bright green and tender, about five minutes.

2. While the asparagus steams, toast cashews over medium heat until warm and fragrant, about three minutes.

3. Top asparagus with cashews, sesame oil and fresh lime juice.

4. Serve immediately.

Toasted Cashew Asparagus

30,000 Orthodox women belong to recipe-sharing Facebook group

By Yvette Alt Miller, JTA Getting dinner on the table is a challenge for any busy, modern family.

With larger-than-average family sizes and religiously mandated dietary restrictions, however, mealtimes can be even more complex at Orthodox Jewish homes. On the one hand, there are a limited number of kosher restaurants in any given area. On the other, homecooked Shabbat meals are often considered the highlight of the week.

Take the financial burden of kosher dining with large families, combine that with the demand for weekly, delicious meals for a crowd, and the pressures of feeding an observant family can become rather intense.

But what if there was a way to trade time and family-tested meals with a like-minded bunch of people?

Thus the Facebook page I Don’t Cook But I Give Out Recipes was born in 2007.

It’s the brainchild of two Brooklyn sisters — Goldie Adler Nathan, 35, and Esty Adler Wolbe, 29 — who created a forum to allow kosher cooks from across the globe to trade recipes, swapping information about everything from chicken soup and cholent to Italian desserts and kung pao tofu.

I Don’t Cook But I Give Out Recipes, however, quickly became more than just a recipe swap site. It has evolved into a full-fledged community of mostly Orthodox women who

Gi ft Sa Car le d

down (skin side facing up) in the skillet. Immediately top with the lid.

4. Cook for about two minutes on high heat, then remove the lid and flip skin side down.

Immediately top with the lid again. Turn down the heat.

5. Continue to cook until your desired temperature.

In this preparation, I like my salmon cooked all the way through, which takes about eight minutes, depending on thickness.

6. Serve immediately.

Note: This sauce is spicy and wafts into the air. Always make this dish with your range’s fan on!

rd Ca e ift l rd G SaCa

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Gif

Sisters Esty Adler Wolbe (L) and Goldie Adler Nathan are the founders of the I Don’t Cook But I Give Out Recipes Facebook page

discuss everything from health issues to the division of labor in families. Today, its 30,000 members swap tips on marriage, child rearing, holidays and, of course, cooking.

“It's a support group,” said Wolbe, a mother of four, of the page's success. “Friday afternoon, when you're busy cooking (for Shabbat), you know you're not alone.”

Kosher cooks, she points out, face burdens above and beyond most home cooks, including meeting dietary restrictions and the high cost of kosher meat.

“We’re overcooking, not just on Thanksgiving and Christmas,” Wolbe said. “We overcook once a week on average.”

The size and the commitment of the page’s members is impressive considering the site began as something as a joke: As a 19-year-old newlywed who lived in a cramped basement apartment, Wolbe “hated her kitchen,” per Nathan’s description. Instead of cooking Continued on next page

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PAGE 31

Blue Crinkle Chanukah Cookies

Plantain Latkes with Avocado Crema

By Samantha Ferraro, The Nosher Every year I create a new latke recipe for the Chanukah season. Potatoes are so last year, but roots and vegetables are trending now.

Plantain chips are among my favorite treats; put a bag in front of me and it’s over. I blame my East Coast childhood for my addiction to Latin flavors. Sweet and salty plantains, deep flavors of paprika and sazon, and rice and beans are all my jam.

So with my deep love affair with Latin cuisine, I took this idea as inspiration for this year’s latke creation.

Plantains fry up beautifully, as most may know from eating crispy plantain chips or tostones.

To add a bit of depth, smoky chipotle and paprika are added to the shredded batter and as a complement to the savory latkes, a creamy avocado crema to dip the latkes in. Is there anything better?

A few cooking tips: The plantain mix will be a bit sticky, so when frying the latkes, oil the back of your spoon or spatula to gently press the latkes down so they don’t stick too much.

The thinner the latkes, the crispier they will be, and crispy plantains are exactly what you want.

For the plantain latkes: 2 green plantains ¼ of a large yellow onion (or ½ small yellow onion) 2 garlic cloves, grated ½ tsp. paprika ½ tsp. smoked chipotle 1 whole egg, whisked ¼ cup matzah meal Salt and pepper, to taste Canola or grapeseed oil, for frying For the avocado crema: 1 ripe avocado ¼ cup sour cream (or Greek yogurt is a good substitute) 1 lime, juiced Small bunch of fresh cilantro leaves PAGE 32

(about ½ cup) Small bunch of fresh parsley leaves (about ½ cup) 1 tsp. garlic powder 2 Tbsp. water (for consistency) Salt and pepper, to taste Prep your ingredients. Use a paring knife to peel the tough skin on the plantain and chop into smaller pieces, but large enough to fit through the feed of a food processor (or you can use a hand grater if you prefer).

Using a food processor with the small shredding blade, shred the plantains and the onion. Then add the mixture to a bowl and grate two garlic cloves, add the egg, matzah meal and spices, and mix everything together well.

Next, heat a large frying pan with enough canola oil to coat the bottom and allow to come up to about 360 degrees, or you can test it with a small piece of batter and if it sizzles, it’s ready.

Then spoon a tablespoon-sized amount of latke mixture into the pan, and slowly add it to the hot oil. Lightly grease the back of your spoon and gently press down on the latke so it fries up evenly. I add about three to four latkes to a large skillet.

Fry on first side until golden brown and crispy, about three to four minutes, then use a spatula to carefully flip over and continue cooking for another two to three minutes until crispy.

Once done, remove to a paper towellined baking sheet and sprinkle with salt as soon as they are done frying.

To make the avocado crema, add the avocado, sour cream, lime juice, herbs and spices to a food processor or blender, and blend until smooth. Add a bit of water to make it a creamier consistency.

When everything is done, serve the latkes with avocado crema and garnish with additional cilantro.

Samantha Ferraro is the food blogger and photographer for The Little Ferraro Kitchen. Samantha is originally from Brooklyn, N.Y., and now lives in Hawaii.

By Rachel Kor, The Nosher In many homes, there is a tradition to bake Chanukah cookies at this time of year. Whether it’s the sugar and butter in the mixer, the blue and white sprinkles, or the festive menorah cookie cutters, there is something about cookie baking that propels us into the holiday spirit.

This year, I wanted a new Chanukah cookie to share with family and friends.

Although I love the classic sugar cookie with sprinkles, sometimes it’s nice to have a really easy and delicious cookie with limited frill and fuss.

These blue crinkle cookies fit the bill perfectly! They are the delicious, soft and chewy cookies we adore, with blue coloring for Chanukah.

13/4 cups all-purpose flour 1 tsp. baking powder 1/4 tsp. salt 3/4 cup granulated sugar 1/4 cup oil 2 large eggs 1 tsp. vanilla bean paste, or pure vanilla extract Blue food coloring 1 cup powdered sugar, for coating Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In an electric mixer bowl, mix the sugar and oil together for two to three minutes, or until light and fluffy.

With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs one at a time, and then add the vanilla. Mix until combined. Add the blue food coloring until the desired color is achieved.

Slowly add in the flour mixture; mix

Recipe-sharing group Continued from previous page for herself and her husband, Yitzy, a loan officer at a car dealership, the couple would eat out or visit relatives for meals.

So Nathan created the group to tease Wolbe, who loved dishing out recipes and advice despite never actually using her kitchen.

“My mother is always saying, ‘how can you make fun of your sister like that?’” Nathan said with a chuckle.

At first, the page was a forum for family and friends to share recipes or post a photo of a particularly picture-perfect meal. Soon, though, word spread among members’ extended networks, and more people began using the page to post recipes and talk about food on a regular basis.

Wolbe was just beginning a cooking odyssey of her own. When she had her first baby in 2007, eating out wasn’t so easy anymore.

“It was born out of necessity,” she said of her cooking, “and soon it became love.”

until fully combined.

Empty the dough onto a clean and floured surface. Form the dough into a ball and wrap with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least two hours.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place the powdered sugar into a small bowl. Set aside.

Unwrap the chilled dough. Using your hands, roll one-inch balls. If the dough gets sticky, add powdered sugar to the palm of your hands when rolling.

Then, roll the dough balls in the bowl of powdered sugar, making sure they are completely and generously coated.

Place them on the prepared baking sheets, two inches apart. Bake for eight to 10 minutes.

Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for five minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely. Yields 20 cookies.

Rachel Kor is the author, recipe developer, designer and photographer behind her blog at rachelkor.com.

Their family, Wolbe explains, moved to the United States from the Ukraine, where their grandmother was known for her cooking prowess, which she passed on.

“I come from a long line of amazing cooks,” she said. “I grew up in the kitchen."

Fast forward to 2015, when Wolbe — a full-time foodie by then, with a popular kosher food blog, Cooking with Tantrums, as well as an online cooking show — was shocked to discover the page had 8,000 members.

That year, Wolbe became administrator of I Don't Cook But I Give Out Recipes.

She switched it to a closed group — vetting new members to make sure they actually exist — keeping it focused on kosher food and insisting on a high level of courtesy from users.

“Esty does a fabulous job of setting and keeping the tone friendly, fun and helpful,” said member Vichna Belsky, 35, of New York.“Plus, it’s fun to sometimes bump into a random person someplace and discover you’re both in this group.”

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • DECEMBER 2017

Bring back the kichel!

Jewish bowtie cookies: an old-world treat of fried dough

By Ronnie Fein, The Nosher My mother was a first-class baker, and there were always homemade goodies for dessert at our house.

So when I went away to college and needed a nosh to remind me of home, I went to a nearby bakery for a little something.

It was mostly good: Chinese cookies, hamantashen, babka. But the kichels?

Not so much.

Not only were my mother’s kichels world class and nearly impossible to top, but what the bakery called kichel wasn’t at all what I was used to.

Bakery kichels, as I learned, are thick, bowtie-shaped pastries that are sometimes sprinkled with sugar.

They can be crumbly and dry, or hard and dry, depending on the bakery.

They are the kind of cookie a kid, especially one who’s homesick, would never choose.

Especially a kid whose mother made world-class kichels.

Here’s why my mom’s kichels were so amazing: They were soft and crispy at the same time, and they would melt in your mouth before you even had a chance to chew or even realize they were on your tongue.

They were paper thin but developed air bubbles that were fun to pop with my front teeth, especially because a feathery dusting of confectioners’ sugar would fall from the top of the bubble into the crevice and give a faint but definite sweet to all parts.

We didn’t need milk to dunk and soften these kichels. They were as light as a helium balloon; fried (it is Chanukah, after all) but never greasy, sugar sprinkled but never cloying.

The big trick for fabulous kichels is rolling the dough as thin as possible.

It takes some time and patience, but the result — crispy, puffy, delightfully light cookies with just a sprinkle of sifted confectioners’ sugar — is so worth it.

1 cup all-purpose flour 1/8 tsp. salt 2 large eggs, beaten 1/4 Tbsp. white vinegar Vegetable oil for deep frying Confectioners’ sugar 1. Place the flour and salt in a bowl.

2. Add the beaten eggs and vinegar and mix thoroughly until a smooth dough has formed (you can use an elec-

tric mixer or food processor).

3. Let the dough rest, covered with plastic wrap, for at least 30 minutes.

4. Roll out portions of the dough on a lightly floured surface until the dough is very thin, almost like paper.

5. Cut the dough into squares or rectangles or odd shapes.

6. Heat about 2 inches vegetable oil in a deep sauté pan (or use a deep fryer) over medium-high heat until the oil reaches about 375 degrees (a bread crumb or tiny piece of dough will sizzle quickly when you drop it into the oil).

7. Drop the cutouts, a few at a time, into the oil (they will puff up) and cook briefly on both sides until they are crispy and faintly browned.

8. Drain on paper towels.

Sift confectioners’ sugar on top. Makes 30.

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Mike Alan Bondurant, age 54 of Xenia, passed away Nov. 3. Mr. Bondurant attended Miami East High School and MVCTC. He was employed by Ernst Concrete and formerly

by Moraine Materials for more than 28 years. Mr. Bondurant is survived by his wife of more than 22 years, Jaime (Alpert) Bondurant; son, Zachary Parrott; daughter, Marissa Bondurant; Murphy the dog aka “The Dick;” parents, Jan and Marilyn (Spitzer) Bondurant of Troy; brothers, Mark (Julie) Bondurant of Troy, Matt Bondurant and John Mark Porter of Vandalia; mother-in-law Marcia Alpert; brothers-in-law Dave (Sheri) Alpert and Josh Alpert; several nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his grandparents, Drury and Emma Bondurant and Clifford and Pearl Spitzer; and father-inlaw Marvin Alpert. Memorial contributions may be made to the Marissa Bondurant College Fund. Please consider becoming an organ donor.

Donald A. “Don” Chernick, age 83 of Dayton, passed away Oct. 28. Mr. Chernick and his wife owned Belmont Jewelers and later Gallery Jewelers and retired in 2016. He served on the board of Meadowbrook Country Club, was a B’nai B’rith Bowling champion, loved fishing, golf and gambling. He was preceded in death by his parents, Robert and Esther Chernick, and sister, Shirley Sadow. Mr. Chernick is survived by the love of his life, his wife of 63 years, Betty; son, Dr. Ed (Leslie) Chernick; daughter, Susan (Bruce) Truax; grandchildren, Alex Franke, Katie Franke, Jessie Truax, Emily (Greg) Ozier, Elizabeth (Chuck) Meyer; great-grandchildren, Tessa, Jackson and Caden Meyer and Greggy Ozier. Interment was at Riverview Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be made to Temple Israel.

Gail S. Gulinson, age 69 of Chicago, formerly of Dayton,

passed away Nov. 7. She was the beloved wife of Sheldon, married 47 happy years; loving mother of Brent (Elaine) and Gregg Gulinson, cherished “Gamma Gail” of Savannah, Greyson and Addison, treasured aunt of 10 nieces and nephews. Interment was at Shalom Memorial Park, Arlington Heights, Ill. Contributions may be made to the Cancer Research Institute.

Theodore “Ted” Schwartz, age 94, passed away Nov. 7. He was the beloved husband of the late Debra Schwartz, devoted father of Steve (Melissa) Schwartz and Andy (Pam) Schwartz, loving grandfather of Olivia, Samuel, Devorah, Judah and Seth, dear brother of the late Eleanor Warm, and brother-in-law of Richard (Maureen Lynch) Lapedes.

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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • DECEMBER 2017

Best wishes to all for a Happy Chanukah

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We wish the Dayton Jewish community a very happy Chanukah

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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • DECEMBER 2017

PAGE 35

Episodes are laden with tension, violence and ethical justifications for deception.

When the show started airing in Israel in 2015, Larry Tanz, vice president of acquisition at Netflix, said he spent two late nights binging the series.

“It became clear to me that we should invest in a meaningful way to premiere the show globally, outside of Israel,” he said.

“It’s brilliantly executed and also quite topical and relevant.”

Wallenstein said it’s no surprise that the foreignlanguage program has managed to find an audience in America — and beyond.

“Though it captures the story of just one region of the world, that drama taps into more universal themes that resonate even with those who don’t necessarily know what’s going on in the Middle East,” he said.

Netflix worked with Yes, the Israeli satellite channel that produced the show, on a multiseason partnership and the rest, as they say, is history. Season Two will not be available on Netflix until March 2018.

“For many people watching, it’s very likely that it’s the first time they have ever seen an Israeli TV show,” Tanz said.

To Fenigstein, Fauda resonates because of its truth — specifically that of Lior Raz, the retired Israeli special forces soldier who co-created and stars in the show.

“He knows (that world) inside out,” he said. “He doesn’t even have to act. He’s playing himself.”

The show also portrays Palestinians in a very human way, Fenigstein added.

“Even the Arab populations in other countries watching it, it looks real to them.” Mossad 101 Afghan-American actress Azita Ghanizada got hooked on Fauda after it was recommended by novelist Stephen King, she said.

“Fauda presented a balanced and nuanced perspective of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the fight against terrorism and the complication of geopolitics,” Ghanizada said. “The humanity of the characters dove into a place that isn’t shared in most narratives surrounding the conflict, and the Muslim characters were deeply human, not the caricatures you often see in Hollywood films and TV.” Ghanizada, founder of MENA (Middle Eastern North African) Arts Netflix

Arts&Culture

Made in Israel

The cast of Fauda.

How Israeli shows are transforming television

By Esther D. Kustanowitz Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles The impact of Israeli programs on American television has taken an almost biblical route: In the beginning, there was BeTipul, which begat HBO’s In Treatment; Hatufim begat Showtime’s Homeland; and Keshet Studios begat NBC’s The Brave and CBS’ Wisdom of the Crowd, both based on television shows born in Israel.

And now, through the proliferation of online streaming services such as Hulu, Amazon Prime, and Netflix, Israeli concepts are dispersed throughout the world, translated for international audiences.

“Israel’s influence on the global TV marketplace is remarkably disproportionate to the size of the country,” said Andrew Wallenstein, co-editor-in-chief of Variety. “It’s hard to believe a nation so small can have such a big impact.”

The vehicle for much of Israel’s entertainment impact on the world is Netflix, which isn’t just the home of Stranger Things and stand-up comedy specials.

It’s also where subscribers access television shows and films from across the globe, including the two most recent straight-from-Israel TV success stories, Fauda and Mossad 101.

With so much Israeli material being sold to the United States, and with last year’s festivals in Cannes, Berlin and Toronto featuring TV programming, it was time for the Los Angeles Israel Film Festival to get in on the conversation, the festival’s director, Meir Fenigstein said.

New episodes of Fauda and Mossad PAGE 36

101 were scheduled for screening with the Los Angeles Israel Film Festival in November, before most audiences had a chance to see them elsewhere.

The festival is also screening two other television shows, Your Honor, a thriller about a judge’s involvement with a notorious crime family, and Harem, a fictional tale about the phenomenon of cults and their destructive consequences.

Netflix, boasting 109 million members in more than 190 countries, is a major distributor of both original Israeli content and repurposed Israeli formats, like the teen drama The Greenhouse Academy, the BBC drama The A Word, and the forthcoming original The Good Cop, a dramedy featuring Tony Danza.

But in addition to exporting formats, the Israeli TV shows themselves are having a moment. KCET has been broadcasting Hatufim (Prisoners of War), and Hulu has announced distribution for the Israeli thriller series False Flag. Amazon Prime has Srugim, a show about Orthodox singles living in Jerusalem. Netflix also has Mossad 101 airing in Hebrew with English subtitles, and the Arabic-and-Hebrew Fauda.

“It’s a credit to Netflix that it was willing to see if an American audience could take to a show that is part Hebrew, part Arabic,” Wallenstein said.

Netflix’s wide reach also means that Fauda and other Israeli TV shows are being seen in more countries than their creators ever could have imagined.

Netflix’s official number is 190 countries.

For Netflix, things really got hot with Fauda (chaos in Arabic). The series lives up to its name, with chaotic relationships and situations that are ready to explode, sometimes literally, as a retired Mossad agent is reactivated into service to try to eliminate a terrorist who had been presumed dead.

Advocacy Coalition, added that Fauda “shared how complicated both sides of the conflict are, allowing me as the viewer to go on the journey with each character regardless of religion or national identity.”

Mossad 101 (titled Hamidrasha, meaning The Academy in Hebrew) takes a different perspective — and tone. A scripted dramedy, it focuses on a training course for Mossad cadets.

“The series was used from the beginning as a platform through which we could show different Israelis from different perspectives getting to another Israeli melting pot, but this time, a very elite one: the Mossad training course,” said Daniel Syrkin, the show’s cocreator and director, in a Hebrew email interview.

The first season featured diverse characters, including a Persian Israeli, a Russian Israeli, a genius psychologist, a startup millionaire and AmericanIsraeli brothers from Los Angeles. The course is guided by a Mossad officer whose motives are suspect and whose work relationships are complicated. An essential question throughout the series: What would these cadets do to protect their country?

“We dealt less with the famous operations of the Mossad and more with the human aspect and allowed ourselves to do this with a wink — there was a lot of humor and lightness in the first season,” Syrkin wrote.

Several critics indicated that it was, perhaps, too light-hearted, focusing more on the competitive spirit and relationships between trainees than on the serious fact that they were training to seduce, kidnap and even assassinate targets.

Syrkin said the second season had to Netflix be more serious and “more respectful of the legend of the Mossad.”

This season, they’re still asking the question about love of country, he reports, but “the plot is bloodier, more suspenseful and has less humor,” and the shared enemy this season is “international Islamic terror — that’s not a group that any Israeli is ready to joke about.”

Now that the show has a global audience, Syrkin said, “it excited me to think that the scenes we were shooting at that moment in Hebrew for an Israeli audience, that deal with Israeli dilemmas, will get to the wider world and interest also viewers that know very little about Israel.”

This could happen more often in the future, Netflix’s Tanz said, noting that the streaming service already has announced plans for more original series with Fauda creators Avi Issacharoff and Raz. “Maybe we have increased the demand for Israeli TV by showcasing some of the best of it,” he said. “Israel, in particular, is a strong source of compelling content, so we expect to find more opportunities there.”

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • DECEMBER 2017

Arts&Culture

Talk about guts She said, ‘Oh, I got the letters.

By Marc Katz I just didn’t want to drink that Special To The Observer As you might expect, a book (bowel prep) stuff.’”

The patient now had cancer. entitled a Gastroenterologist’s “Fortunately, she went to surGuide to Gut Health: Everything gery and it was removed and You Need to Know About Coloshe did very well,” noscopy, Digestive Novick says. “But Diseases, and Healthy it was a pretty close Eating, lends itself call. When we give to some bathroom recommendations, humor. they should be Even Dr. David taken seriously.”

Novick, the author It may sound of the book, initially funny to talk about leaned toward a irritable bowel syncomic presentation. drome, but Novick “In the beginsays that’s the secning,” Novick says, ond largest reason “I started writing a Dr. David Novick after the common book about humorcold for people to miss work in ous anecdotes that came out in the course of practicing gastro- the United States. It’s thought to impact 10 to 15 percent of enterology.” the adult population.

But as a physician, he says, Worse, colon cancer is the one must number three cancer in terms be very of frequency and death among careful men and women in the U.S., when Novick says. “Even with 15 using years of colon cancer screenhumor. ing, we’re still getting more “It’s often said that the than 50,000 people dying of best humor in that setting is colon cancer every year, many making fun of yourself. I can of which are preventable,” he joke about my being a little says, through screening. behind schedule all the time.

He wrote the book to give But, uh, it is potentially serious people a reference that was business.” up to date, easy to read, and Novick, who has practiced understandable, covering the in Dayton for more than 25 most important years, will talk problems he sees in about his book on his practice.

Dec. 5 as part of the Novick says many JCC Cultural Arts & books on the market Book Fest, in partpromote alternative nership with Jewish diets, and Internet Family Services. junkies can run into Bring all of your misinformation colonoscopy jokes, without knowing. but be prepared to To help with discuss the seriousterminology, Novick ness of the digestive provides a glossary system as well. in the back of the In one anecdote book. He even has he incorporates in a chapter on how to prepare to Gut Health, Novick tells of the visit the doctor. woman who had a colonosAs for some people’s copy, and polyps were found. reluctance to address issues “She was advised to follow of constipation or diarrhea, up in five years,” Novick says.

Novick understands they may “When she came back, it was be embarrassed to discuss it, eight years later. Her family even with a physician. doctor had found some blood “People may not want to talk in her stool. about it much, but certainly the “I told her, ‘We sent you a numbers of certain disorders letter three years ago to come are extremely high.” in for your next colonoscopy.’

The JCC’s Cultural Arts & Book Fest in partnership with Jewish Family Services presents Dr. David Novick at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 5 at the Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville.

Tickets are $5 in advance, $8 at the door and are available at jewishdayton.org, by calling 610-1555, or the evening of the event.

The spiritual adventures of Abigail Pogrebin

By Judy Bolton-Fasman jewishboston.com Eighteen holidays. Fifty-one rabbis. One calendar year. Welcome to Abigail Pogrebin’s pursuit of Jewish knowledge and spirituality, as presented in her new book.

My Jewish Year: 18 Holidays, One Wondering Jew grew out of a compelling series called My Year of Living Jewishly that Pogrebin published in The Forward in 2015. In it, she chronicled her observance of every Jewish holiday, both major and minor, melding memoir and journalism to report on her adventures.

Pogrebin will discuss My Jewish Year as part of the JCC Cultural Arts & Book Fest, on Dec. 7.

Over her yearlong immersion into the Jewish calendar, Pogrebin consulted 51 rabbis and scholars across the religious spectrum.

“There is so much to learn from every approach, and even to reject from every approach,” Pogrebin said.

“These voices and diverse perspectives all combine to enrich one’s thinking.”

She also brings the rigor of an accomplished researcher to her work. A former producer for Mike Wallace on 60 Abigail Pogrebin Minutes, Pogrebin leaves no stone unturned in researching every holiday.

“I knew I had to let that research be my guide,” she said. “I also knew that I had to walk a fine line in which both those who were wellversed (in Judaism) would get something from the book, and the neophytes would be able to appreciate it. I didn’t want to be pediatric about the Jewish holidays, but I didn’t want to lose the rookie who doesn’t necessarily know what Shemini Atzeret is.”

Pogrebin’s approach to observing Shemini Atzeret — the Eighth Day of Assembly, immediately following Sukkot — is a telling example of the way she finds the significance and relevance in a particular holiday.

“I wanted to understand the underpinnings of a holiday before I got to the layers of meaning,” she said. “Something like Sukkot feels bottomless; the main interpretation is the wandering and the value of getting lost. Before I embarked on this project, I thought the holiday was a non sequitur from Yom Kippur. But as some rabbis pointed out, we’ve just spent this intensive time inside being introspective, then God kicks us outdoors to look at the world. We tear ourselves down in Yom Kippur and then we build something on Sukkot.”

The daughter of Letty Cottin Pogrebin, she finds Passover to be a powerful holiday ripe with innovation and creativity.

Her mother, a founding editor of Ms. Magazine, is one of the original members of the famed Feminist Seder that has been running in New York for more than 40 years.

As Pogrebin noted, she spent her formative years in the 1970s and ‘80s “sitting on the floor

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • DECEMBER 2017

with remarkable women.” That Seder, she said, “took the Haggadah liturgy and carefully reinterpreted it to speak to everyone’s life. It highlighted women’s contributions biblically, and today that’s a worthy exercise.”

As for her own family Seder, Pogrebin said one of the most powerful observations she came away with during her year of living Jewishly was how “malleable” the Haggadah is.

“Once you are following all of the steps in the Haggadah,” she said, “there is a lot of room for how to mark this story of escape and deliverance and to make that as resonant as you can for this moment.” To Pogrebin, the mandate for any Seder leader is to engage the children at the table. “I think it’s important that kids know that we cannot tell the story without them,” she added.

Pogrebin quotes Rabbi Jonathan Sacks on the subject of history and engagement: “Rabbi Sacks says that, ‘To be a Jew is to know that the task of memory is more important than history.’

“His point stays with me. It isn’t just about knowing our factual history, but the task — the work — of making history come alive in our own time.

Yes, we were slaves in Egypt, victims in the crusades, the pogroms, the Holocaust. That is in our DNA. But where is that oppression happening now? If not to us, then to others? And we also carry our ancestral past with simchas, or celebrations — every Bar or Bar Mitzvah, wedding, bris or baby-naming. We remember not just a cruel King Antiochus, but also the brave Maccabees; not just the heartless Pharaoh, but also the intrepid Moses. We are not supposed to be passive in recounting these stories; the task, as Sacks puts it, is to animate them in every generation.”

Two notable epiphanies in Pogrebin’s year were connected to the organization of the Jewish calendar. She pointed out there are few spans in a Jewish year that are not organized around a festival or fast.

“You get to an epiphany of pausing and observing where you are and what you are doing,” she said. “It doesn’t matter how emotionally connected you feel, but how you are helping a person who is suffering far or close. That was a revelation. Almost half the holidays convey that message of the urgency of participation and responsibility. That is a refrain in our tradition, our holiday structure and our teachings that I won’t forget.”

The JCC’s Cultural Arts & Book Fest presents Abigail Pogrebin at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 7 at the Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville. Tickets are $5 in advance, $8 at the door and are available at jewishdayton.org, by calling 610-1555, or the evening of the event.

PJ Library will hold a program at the same time, for children ages 4 to 9, to explore the Jewish calendar and holidays. This program is free.

R.S.V.P. to 610-1555.

PAGE 37

CABF TICKETS HOW TO ORDER:

BY PHONE: (937) 610-1555 ONLINE: jewishdayton.org

Arts&Culture

A home-run Chanukah gift

IN PERSON: Boonshoft CJCE 525 Versailles Drive Centerville AT EVENT: Evening of Event

DEC 5

A Gastroenterologist’s Guide to Gut Health with author DR. DAVID NOVICK 7PM @ Boonshoft CJCE $5 in advance/$8 at the door

Partnering with: Jewish Family Services

DEC 7

My Jewish Year with author ABIGAIL POGREBIN Children ages 4–9 are 6:30PM @ Boonshoft CJCE $5 in advance/$8 at the door

Partnering with: PJ Library

T H A N K COMMUNITY SUPPORTER

invited to a concurrent program with PJ Library. No charge for children’s program.

RSVP required.

Y O U !

FESTIVAL PARTNER

HOTEL SPONSOR

AUTHOR SPONSORS Wright Memorial Public Library

PUBLISHER $1,000+ Bernie Rabinowitz, in memory of Carole Rabinowitz Ryan Levin of the Levin Family Foundation

PERFORMER $500+ Michael & Rochelle Goldstein Robert & Vicky Heuman

POET $250+ Mindy & Garry Greene Mike Jaffe Todd & Gabriele Leventhal Family Fund

PIANIST $100+ Joyce & Jim Anderson Joseph & Elaine Bettman Julie & Rob Bloom Marni Flagel Felix & Erika Garfunkel David & Lynn Goldenberg Debby & Bob Goldenberg Kim & Shelley Goldenberg Fund Jane & Gary Hochstein

Linda & Steven Horenstein Marti & Marty Jacobs Harriet & Donald Klass Kim & Candy Kwiatek Sarah, Daniel, Micah & Eli Leventhal Sis & Joseph Litvin Beverly Louis Jan Maharam Dr. David & Joan Marcus L. David Mirkin Alan & Myrnie Moscowitz Jim & Carol Nathanson Cherie Rosenstein Suzanne & Phil Rubin Ron Bernard & Judy Woll Ed & Roberta Zawatsky

PATRON $18+ Beth Adelman Dena Briskin Dr. Robert & Leslie Buerki Shelly Charles Linda Chernick Alan & Judy Chesen Marcia Cox

Cissy Ellison Dorothy L. Engelhardt Tara & Adam Feiner Chuck & Dee Fried Harry & Barbara Gerla Helene Gordon Arlene Graham Henry Guggenheimer Izzy & Sharon Guterman Charlotte Handler Bea Harris Meryl Hattenbach Clara & David Hochstein Karen Jaffe Robert & Gert Kahn Meredith Levinson Edward & Ruth Meadow Phyllis F. Morris Bonnie Parish Edie Pequignot David Rothschild Judy Schwartzman Dan & Kim Shaffer Shay Shenefelt Janese & Dan Sweeny

2017 CABF COMMITTEE Julie Bloom Chair Dena Briskin • Leslie Buerki • Judy Chesen • Cherish Cronmiller Neil Friedman • Angela Frydman • Shirlee Gilbert • Rochelle Goldstein Helene Gordon • Scott Halasz • Gary Hochstein • Marti Jacobs Martin Jacobs • Harriet Klass • Joan Knoll • Candy Kwiatek Sarah Moore Leventhal • Beverly Louis • Jan Maharam Marlene Maimon • Joan Marcus • Edie Pequignot Karen Jaffe Administrative Assistant • Jane Hochstein JCC Director PAGE 38

By Marc Katz Special To The Observer Since Lipman Pike was the first known professional Jewish baseball player, and he began his career in 1871, he’s certainly a good place to begin a discussion of baseball cards featuring Jewish players.

This is the opening pitch for The Jewish Baseball Card Book, the brainchild of collector Martin Abramowitz, the Boston resident who birthed a collection of Jewish baseball cards, an oral history on many of the players on those cards, and now, this coffee-table book edited by former sports editor Bob Wechsler with help from Abramowitz, Peter McDonald and the Jewish Baseball Museum, an online site commemorating all the players and artifacts without the clutter.

The book features 698 cards of the first 170 Jewish major league players. It sells for $49.95, with 194 colorful pages.

You don’t have to be a scholar of Jewish baseball history or even care which players were Jewish to appreciate this book.

It not only traces the history of Jewish players, but of baseball cards. You can learn something from virtually every page, forgetting for a moment you’re also reading about Jewish history in

sports.

At the book’s beginning is an oversized picture of Sandy Koufax’s 1956 Topps card featuring him in his Brooklyn Dodgers uniform.

Across from Koufax is Pike, where we find out he played for $20 a game and set the professional record with seven home runs in 1872 while playing for the Baltimore Canaries.

There’s even a page for players who are not “Members of the Tribe,” although as their names suggest, they sure sound like it. Here we find such non-MOT players as Bo Belinsky, Lou Boudreau, Bob Katz, John Lowenstein, Buddy Myer, B.J. Rosenberg, and Larry Rothschild.

Cards featured include those made by Topps, Fleer, Bowman, Donruss, Upper Deck and, in the early days, Old Mill Red Border, OBAK, Fatima, Cracker Jack, The Sporting News and others.

There’s also a section for play-by-play announcers, umpires and sportswriters.

There are cards of the famous catcher and spy Moe Berg, who allegedly took pictures on a barnstorming tour of Japan for U.S. use prior to World War II, and three pages of Hank Greenberg, along with Koufax, the only playing Jewish members of the Hall of Fame.

Happy Chanukah THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • DECEMBER 2017

U YO !”

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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • DECEMBER 2017

11/7/16 10:54 AM

PAGE 39

CELEBRATE HANUKKAH WITH

Joan Nathan & Whole Foods Market This December, “the queen of American Jewish Cooking” is partnering with us to bring you some favorites from her latest cookbook, King Solomon’s Table. Our chef’s cases and hot bars will feature holiday ready-to-serve dishes for you to buy in store or order online:

Macedonian Leek & Meat Patties | Fried Artichokes Cod with Tomatoes, Plums, Apples & Pine Nuts Sweet & Sour Cabbage | Seven Sacred Species Salad Sweet & Crunchy Kugel | Tahina Cookies

Receive a free copy of King Solomon’s Table when you place a Hanukkah order of $100 or more at shop.wfm.com.* *Good on individual online orders placed December 1-18; one book per customer.

$35 VALUE!