The Dayton Jewish Observer, August 2016

Jewish family education: back to basics p. 23 August 2016 Tammuz/Av 5776 Vol. 20, No. 12

Published by the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton

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Bar & Bat Mitzvahs

25

Elie Wiesel

1928 - 2016

Remembering Steve

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Steve Bernstein

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To our next monthly Shabbat featuring a traditional 1974 2009 Shabbat dinner with all your favorites

Chabad of Greater Dayton and Jewish Family Services are partnering on a sixweek community-wide food collection campaign for the Artemis Center, which will culminate with a women’s challah baking event in mid-September.

Beginning Aug. 1, food collection bins will be on site at Beth Abraham Synagogue, Beth Jacob Congregation, Chabad, Temple Israel, Temple Beth Or, and the Boonshoft Center for Jewish Culture and Education for donations to the Artemis Center, Montgomery County’s domestic violence advocacy agency.

Items must be non-perishable; the most highlyrequested among clients are dry pastas and sauces, pancake mix, syrup, and boxed meals.

Jewish Family Services Director Tara Feiner said the idea for the challah Jewish Family bake came from Services Director Tara Feiner Devorah Mangel, Chabad’s women’s program director.

“I was familiar with the program,” Feiner said. “Other Chabads have done the Mega Challah Bake program around the country, and Devorah was really eager to bring it to Dayton.”

When Feiner and Mangel applied for a Jewish Federation Innovation Grant to fund the project, they added a women’s social action component.

“The various ingredients in challah,” Feiner said, “represent Torah, joy, family, material necessities, life, and health.

Knowing that we’ll have women coming together to support these values when we do the bake, we thought — what about supporting women who may not have these things, women who don’t have the material necessities, that don’t

have stability or joy in their families?

Victims of domestic violence are clearly a group of women who have that need.”

Chabad and JFS will host the Mega Challah Bake on Thursday, Sept. 15 at 7 p.m. at the Boonshoft CJCE. The session is open to all women, and girls ages 10 and up.

“Everyone will arrive and have an assigned station where they will have their mixing bowl, spoons, and all of their ingredients will already be measured out in containers in front of them,” Feiner said. “Someone will be up front, guiding everybody.”

While the dough is rising, participants will sort the donations for Artemis during a dessert reception.

After the reception, the women will braid their challahs and can learn new braiding techniques.

Chabad Women’s “I hope that Program Director Devorah Mangel women will leave with a feeling of togetherness and empowerment,” Mangel said. “Baking challah is an opportunity for women to come together to pray for peace, sustenance, and both physical and spiritual health. It will inspire and empower us to then carry those blessings into everything that we do.”

“All you need to do is take the challahs home to bake,” Feiner said. “It’s very well received in other communities. We’re hoping for about the same participation as the JCC’s Women’s Seder, about 100 people.”

The cost to participate in the Mega Challah Bake is $18 per person, with reservations due Sept. 2 at daytonmegachallahbake.com or by calling 610-1555. ­— Marshall Weiss

Federation’s 106th annual meeting With the theme of I Jewish Dayton, the Jewish Federation will hold its 106th annual meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 17 at 5:30 p.m. at the Boonshoft CJCE. The program will include the graduation of the 2016 Jewish Community Leadership Institute, elections and installations to the 2016-17 Federation board, and presentations of awards to volunteers and staff of the Federation

and its agencies.

The annual meeting will present special tributes to Janice Kohn, who has retired from the Federation after 37 years of service; and Susie Katz, a recipient of this year’s national Kipnis Wilson-Friedland Award from Jewish Federations of North America, along with all past Dayton Kipnis Wilson-Friedland Award recipients.

IN THIS ISSUE Arts & Culture...............................20

Opinion...........................10

Calendar of Events....................17

Obituaries.............................22

Family Education.........................23

Re l i g i o n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 9

L i f e c y c l e s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Wo r l d . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • AUGUST 2016

DAYTON

Partner recalls caterer Bernstein as father figure

By Marshall Weiss Fine Catering. involved in the com- wise reach, he added.

The Observer “Bernstein’s Fine Catering is “He loved and munity.

Adam Baumgarten was 15 going to continue to be Bernboasted about the Bernstein’s Fine years old when he met Steve stein’s Fine Catering,” he said. generations of brises Catering received Bernstein for the first time.

“Steve gave me the responsibiland baby namings, the 2015 Best Of “I was interviewing to be Bar and Bat MitzDayton Award from ity when he was alive to grow a dishwasher at the Uptown vahs and weddings,” Dayton Magazine for as a partner, as a person, as a Deli,” he recalled. “Sitting there Adam said. business, and that’s what we’re catering. Last year, with him, a Merit Menthol Ul“He was such a Bernstein’s also took going to continue to do. We tralight 100 in his giant hand, he stubborn, set-in-hisover management of don’t have to get bigger, but looked at me and asked, ‘Why ways man,” Lauren operations for Leo’s we’d like to. We want to be part do you want to work here?’ said in an interview Bistro at The Dayton of providing a service for Jews And before I could answer, in Dayton, which is important.” with The Observer.

Art Institute — rehe exclaimed, ‘because I’m a Steve is survived by his wife “But he was the most flections, Adam said, mother f---ing son of a bitch!’ of 52 years, Marti, their son, and generous, caring that the business is followed by his trademark roar- and giving, loving two grandchildren. regarded as among The late Steve Bernstein (L) with his business partner, ing laugh.”

He was buried in Albuquerperson.” the top caterers in Adam Baumgarten. Adam and his wife, Lauren, now run Over the next 24 years, Steve que, where he met Marti while A native of the Dayton area.

Bernstein’s Fine Catering. would become Adam’s mentor, Queens, N.Y., Steve attending the University of “We’re also one friend, father figure, and busisher kitchens. Kosher catering, opened his catering business of only three approved caterers New Mexico. ness partner.

“They were married there, and the Uptown Deli restaurant Adam said, comprises about 20 for the Dayton Art Institute,” he Steve, the founder, co-owner, at Randolph Plaza in Clayton percent of Bernstein’s business. said. This opens the business up and he just always loved it,” and chef of Bernstein’s Fine Ca- in 1988.

Adam said.

“He put himself out there for to clientele it might not othertering — a mainstay of Dayton’s the Jewish community, someHe had previously worked general and Jewish communities in the hospitality industry, times at a loss on the business Known for our Exceptional Care — died unexpectedly of a heart including in the food service side, which I don’t think people attack on June 23. quite understood,” Adam told departments of in Kettering & Oakwood He was 73.

‘He showed me The University of The Observer.

A decade ago, “Often times he was the first New Mexico and when Adam mar- the importance The University of person people called when they ried Lauren Sher- and value of were getting ready to have a Dayton. man — whom baby, when their daughter or Steve eventulong-term he met through son got engaged, or when a ally closed the his catering restaurant portion loved one had died. And there relationships.’ work — Steve were a lot of times when people of the business We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. made Adam would come and say, ‘I don’t to concentrate on his partner. Steve signed their know how I’m going to pay for catering when it proved more ketubah (marriage contract). He this.’ And he would say, ‘Just profitable; he also sold kosher held their children, Noah and tell me what you want, we’ll groceries at the Clayton storeAdina, when they received their front during the years when take care of it.’”

Hebrew names.

In 2011, Steve and Adam kosher items were difficult to “He showed me the impormoved the catering business to find in the Dayton area. tance and value of long-term Bernstein’s Fine Catering has its current West Carrollton facilrelationships,” Adam said of ity, doubling its square footage. handled the lion’s share of koSteve, at a memorial service on Adam said his plan moving sher catering in the Dayton area July 10 at Temple Beth Or. Adam for three decades, preparing forward is to grow Bernstein’s, and Lauren now run Bernstein’s meals in Jewish community ko- to get even better, and to stay

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From the editor’s desk

I was fortunate to interview Elie Wiesel a few times over the years.

One exchange remains ever at the front of my mind. In 2007, I interviewed him before he accepted the Dayton Literary Peace Prize LifeMarshall time Achievement Award. I asked Weiss him what we as individuals can do to help eliminate intolerance and injustice from the world. His reply: “Marshall, you are a journalist. I used to be a journalist for many, many years. I know, after all, the shortcoming but also the power of somebody who writes, who uses words, publishes them, and you surely can (know also). What we can do — I, now as a teacher and a writer, and you, now as a journalist — is to sensitize the readers as I try to sensitize the students. That is really what we can do: to sensitize to the danger of fanaticism, the ugliness of fanaticism, to the absurdity of fanaticism. And then, with some luck, some people will hear.” May his memory be for a blessing, this teacher to us all.

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Nate Ebner of the New England Patriots has qualified for the U.S. Olympic men’s rugby sevens team competing in August at the Rio Olympics, becoming the only NFL player to make a U.S. Olympic team.

Ebner, 27, who is Jewish, was included on the 12-man roster released July 18 by USA Rugby.

Joining Ebner on the squad is another Jewish player — Zack Test, 26, of Northern California.

According to ESPN, Ebner took a leave of absence from the Patriots in May to train and attempt to make the Olympic team. He will rejoin the Patriots — Ebner is a safety and special teams standout — following the Olympic rugby tournament from Aug. 6 to 11.

The Ohio native was the youngest player ever to make the U.S. men’s sevens team when he joined the squad at 17. He went on to become an All-America rugby player at Ohio State University before joining the school’s football team and being drafted by the Patriots in the sixth round of the 2012 NFL draft.

Ebner’s father, Jeff, was the Sunday school principal of Temple Sholom in Springfield, Ohio.

In 2008, he was killed at 53 by a man who beat him while attempting to rob his auto reclamation shop.

“He taught me the importance of being Jewish,” Ebner told the Jewish Journal of Massachusetts last year. “My Dad stressed finishing strong in every task I did and conduct myself always in a proper manner.”

Speaking of his grandparents, he added: “They make sure I keep up with Jewish events and that I remember my origins.”

Test, who attended the Ronald C. Wornick Day School in Foster City, California, has been a member of the U.S. sevens team since 2009. He played in the Maccabiah Games in Israel.

Rugby sevens is a fast-paced version of the sport featuring teams of seven players playing seven-minute halves — as opposed to the normal 15 players and 40-minute halves. This year marks its Olympic debut.

Rugby has not been played in the Olympics since 1924. The U.S. team that won the gold medal that year included Samuel Goodman, a Jewish player who also managed the club. Goodman also played for and managed the U.S. team that won the gold four years earlier.

— JTA

Published by the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton Judy Abromowitz President David Pierce President Elect Melinda Doner Vice Pres.

Mary Rita Weissman Vice Pres.

Bruce Feldman Vice Pres.

Cathy Gardner CEO The Dayton Jewish Observer, Vol. 20, No. 12. 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.

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THE WORLD

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By Sarah Wildman, JTA Prize as a tool to call A philosopher, profesattention to things, and sor and author of such as a vehicle to scream seminal works of Hololouder, shout more, caust literature as Night agitate more.” and Dawn, Elie Wiesel Born in the town of perhaps more than any Sighet, Transylvania, other figure came to then and now a part embody the legacy of of Romania, in 1928, the Holocaust and the Wiesel was deported worldwide community to Auschwitz in 1944 of survivors. The Nobel with his family when he laureate died July 2 of was 15. His mother and natural causes. one of his sisters would “I have tried to keep disappear forever when memory alive,” Wiesel the family was forced said at the Nobel Peace aboard the cattle cars, Prize ceremony in 1986. murdered immediately.

“I have tried to fight His father, who traveled those who would forget. with him to the camps, Because if we forget, we Elie Wiesel meets with high school students at the died of dysentery and are guilty, we are accom- Schuster Center before the Dayton Literary Peace plices.”

Prize dinner on Oct. 14, 2007, which honored Wiesel starvation in Buchenwald before liberation. with its Lifetime Achievement Award Often he would say Two sisters would surthe “opposite of love is vive the war. reading in high schools across not hate, it is indifference.”

In Night, Wiesel describes America. In 2006, it was choThe quest to challenge indifpinching his face to see if he sen as a book club selection ference was a driving force in is dreaming when he sees the

by Oprah Winfrey and, nearly Wiesel’s writing, advocacy and murders of infants. half a century after it was first public presence. Though he “In those places, in one night published, spent more than considered himself primarily a one becomes old,” Wiesel told a year atop the bestseller list. writer, by the end of the 1970s NPR in 2014. “What one saw in He would also take Winfrey to he had settled into the role of one night, generations of men moral compass, a touchstone for Auschwitz that same year. and women had not seen in “There is no way to talk presidents and a voice that chaltheir lenged easy complacency about about the last half century R E S TA U R own A Nentire T lives.”

Wiesel was liberated from of Holocaust consciousness history.

Buchenwald in 1945. He went without giving Wiesel front Wiesel spent the majority of Theaperfect place for on to study at the Sorbonne and center role,” said Michael his public life speaking of the your graduation party. and moved to New York at at the atrocities he had witnessed and Berenbaum, a professor the end of the 1950s, where he American Jewish University in asking the public to consider Large party reservations welcome • Private rooms other acts of cruelty around the Los Angeles and former director lived in relative obscurity. He 5331 Far Hills Ave., Centerville worked hard to find a publisher of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial world, though he drew the line (937) 434-4750 • www.MeadowlarkRestaurant.com for Night, which initially sold Museum’s research institute. at direct comparisons with the Continued on next page “What he did, extraordinarily, Holocaust.

“I am always advocating the utmost care and prudence when one uses that word,” he told JTA hand-crafted pizzas and in 1980. much more President Barack Obama, who met frequently with Wiesel and took his counsel, said he had been a "living memorial."

“Along with his beloved wife Marion and the foundation that bears his name, he raised his voice, not just against antisemitism, but against hatred, bigotry and intolerance in all its forms,” Obama said in a statement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wiesel was 515 Wayne Ave. “bitterly mourned” by the state in beautiful of Israel and the Jewish people.

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THE WORLD

Wiesel

dent,” Wiesel famously said. The president visited the cemetery anyway, but changed his itinerary to include a visit to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

Continued on next page Wiesel challenged the White House poorly. again in 1993 when he charged the “The truth is in the 1950s and in the newly inaugurated President Bill Clinton early 1960s there was little interest and to do more to address the atrocities then willingness to listen to survivors,” said unfolding in Yugoslavia.

Wiesel’s longtime friend Rabbi Irving “Most people don’t confront a sitting "Yitz" Greenberg, who had read a copy president that way, and he confronted of Night in Israel in the early 1960s. “In two,” said Sara Bloomfield, the U.S. 1963, someone told me this author is Holocaust Memorial Museum's current alive and well in New York City and I director. somehow managed to find him and go “He saw people would listen to see him.”

Wiesel was “gaunt” and “working as a him,” said Stuart Eizenstat, who held freelance reporter, a stringer, for a French senior positions in multiple presidential administrations and was a key figure newspaper, an Israeli newspaper and in the negotiation of Holocaust restitua Yiddish newspaper — and for none tion agreements with several European of the above was he making a living,” governments.

Greenberg said.

“He became more aggressive about In the late 1960s Wiesel finally began showing that it is not just the Holocaust, to emerge as one of the preeminent but applying lessons to rest of the world voices in Holocaust literature. By the end of his career he had written some 50 as well,” Eizenstat said. “He became more active in other genocidal or world books.

In 1972, he enthralled Yeshiva Univer- conscious issues. He wanted to use that power for the cause not just of Holocaust sity students with his excoriation of the memory, but also to prevent genocide.”

American and American Jewish leaderAt the inauguration in 1993 of the U.S. ship for its silence during the Holocaust.

Holocaust Memorial Museum, Wiesel How many Jewish leaders “tore their said, clearly, “I don't believe there are clothes in mourning?” Wiesel asked. answers. There are no answers. And this “How many marched on Washington?

How many weddings took place without museum is not an answer; it is a question mark.” music?”

His later years saw him wade into His 1966 book reporting the plight politics. He was friends with Obama but of Soviet Jews, The Jews of Silence, made possible the movement that sought their loudly chastised the president for calling for an end to settlement construction and freedom. for brokering the Iran nuclear rollback“Elie Wiesel was the collective moral for-sanctions-relief deal, positions that compass of the Jewish people,” Natan led to criticism, even from longtime Sharansky, who became the face of the admirers. His very public support for Soviet Jewish struggle, said in a statement with his wife, Avital, who with Wi- Netanyahu was also questioned. Peter esel led advocacy for Sharansky's release Beinart, writing in Haaretz, said: “Wiesel takes refuge in the Israel of his imaginafrom prison. tion, using it to block out the painful “He was the first to break the silence reckoning that might come from scrutisurrounding the plight of Soviet Jewry, nizing Israel as it actually is.” and he accompanied our struggle until The final years of his life also saw we achieved victory,” said Sharansky, financial turmoil. His personal finances who is now the chairman of The Jewish and $15.2 million in assets of the Elie Agency for Israel. “We will miss him Wiesel Foundation for Humanity were deeply.” invested with Bernie Madoff, who was In 1978, Wiesel became the chairconvicted in 2009 of fraud. Wiesel's forman of the Presidential Committee on tune and the reserves of his organization the Holocaust, which would ultimately were wiped out. recommend the building of a Holocaust Yet he did not cease his work. Just museum in Washington. As his public presence grew, he began to visit the sites months after the Madoff scandal broke, in June 2009, he led Obama and German of other genocides. In 1980, he traveled Chancellor Angela Merkel on a trip to to Cambodia. In an interview with JTA, Auschwitz, where he noted he was at his Wiesel called the Cambodian refugee camps “spectacles of horror” and noted, father’s grave. Wiesel then gave a searing indictment of the world’s continued “That these things could happen again inability to learn. simply means that the world didn’t “Wiesel never pretended that he learn — or that the world didn’t want to understood the Holocaust,” said Ruth learn.”

Franklin, author of A Thousand DarkIn 1985, Wiesel's reputation grew nesses: Lies and Truth in Holocaust Fiction. beyond the Jewish world when he “He spoke of it as a horror beyond explachallenged President Ronald Reagan nation, a black hole in history. As the on live television over his intention to visit a German cemetery that housed the virtual embodiment of the catch phrase ‘never forget,’ he did more than anyone remains of Nazi soldiers. else to raise awareness of the Holocaust In the Oval Office to receive the Congressional Medal of Achievement, Wiesel in American life.”

Along with his wife, Wiesel is surchastised Reagan. vived by a son, Shlomo.

“This is not your place, Mr. PresiTHE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • AUGUST 2016

THE WORLD ANALYSIS

Critics still targeting Wiesel

Win McNamee/Getty Images

Did the Nobel laureate have a moral blind spot on Israel?

By Jonathan Mark, New York Jewish Week Before Elie Wiesel was a survivor, he was a Jew. His introduction to Yiddishkeit had nothing to do with cuisine, comedy or politics, but the loneliness of exile, a yearning for Zion. He recalled that the first words of the first lullaby he ever heard were “In dem Bais Hamikdash,” in Jerusalem’s Holy Temple, the widowed daughter of Zion sits alone, rocking her Yidele to sleep, one day he’ll wander.

In Auschwitz, Zionist songs were his solace: “We would often hum tunes evoking the calm waters of Jordan and the majestic sanctity of Jerusalem. If we were granted our lives...we would take the first boat for Haifa,” he wrote in Night.

In time, Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize winner, would be challenged about Israel’s politics and policies. He didn’t see the need to challenge Israel. Where others heard politics, he heard lullabies. He remembered when even the most imperfect Israel would have seemed messianic.

He’d been mocked in print by writers such as novelist Tova Reich and Israel critic Norman G. Finkelstein for exploiting the Holocaust. Finkelstein told Salon, “Elie Wiesel is such a ridiculous character. The expression ‘There’s no business like Shoah-business’ (was) literally coined for him.” Because of Wiesel, said Finkelstein, “we only know about those genocides that serve the interest of the U.S. and Israel.”

But the main event was always with those who didn’t share Wiesel’s politics. Wiesel, the proud child of Vizhnitzer Chasidim, was depicted by some as nothing less than a hypocrite. As Haaretz headlined in 2014: Elie Wiesel Hides Ethnic Cleansing Behind a Prayer Shawl.

In 2001, Wiesel wrote in The New York Times, “I have long denied myself the right to intervene in Israel’s internal debates.” After all, “my own memory is bound up with its history.” He may have “more sympathy” for this politician or that, “but that’s my personal business; I don’t talk about it.”

As for Jerusalem, “it is at the center of my commitments and my dreams...Jerusalem, for me, is above politics,” though, of course, on an earthly level, it never was or is.

He acknowledged the “acerbic articles scolding me for not protesting whenever Israeli police or soldiers react excessively to violence from Palestinian soldiers or civilians. I rarely answer. My critics have their conception of social and individual ethics; I have mine.”

But why, asked Tikkun’s editor, Michael Lerner, after Wiesel’s death, hadn’t he ever questioned why there should have been a federal museum of the Jewish genocide before a museum about slavery or the “genocide of Native Americans?” Wiesel, writes Lerner, “was no prophet nor someone who really understood the Jewish prophetic tradition.” He was “largely silent about the War in Vietnam and, more importantly, the oppression of the Palestinian people.”

In fact, Wiesel had once been a member of the editorial board of Tikkun, a leftist magazine, but resigned, said Lerner, because he felt “Jews should not publicly critique other Jews.”

Lerner noted the “post-traumatic stress disorder that continues to shape the consciousness of many contemporary Jews should be dealt with in a compassionate

Elie Wiesel arriving for a discussion on the Iran nuclear deal on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., March 2, 2015

and empathic manner,” so Wiesel’s memory should be blessed, even as we acknowledge his limitations. But who among us does not have limitations?

In 2015, when dozens of Democratic members of Congress, including Jewish ones, boycotted Prime Minister Netanyahu’s address to Congress, Wiesel flew to Washington to support Netanyahu’s warnings about Iran’s nuclear threat to Israel. Politics was one thing, a potential Holocaust was another. If Israel’s isolated leader would be in Congress, Wiesel would be with him. That place was his place. He participated in a fullpage newspaper ad, comparing the president’s “catastrophic” Iran deal to Haman or the Holocaust. Wiesel said in the ad: “As one who has seen the enemies of the Jewish people make good on threats to exterminate us, how can I remain silent?”

Many loved him for that, but others were bothered by his support for Netanyahu. Peter Beinart’s Haaretz column was headlined: Why does such a great man keep apologizing for a government that betrays his ideals? Beinart, of course, was assuming that Wiesel’s ideals were akin to Beinart’s, not Netanyahu’s.

Thane Rosenbaum, a novelist and essayist, said, “No Holocaust survivor should ever be asked to apologize for how much they love Israel. That’s the problem with liberal Jews: They actually think that Israel” — and therefore Wiesel — “owes them each a personal apology: ‘Your actions in the Middle East have hurt me personally, Israel. Now I can no longer love you.’ That’s moral narcissism.”

Abe Foxman, former director of the AntiDefamation League, said, “I’m not impressed by the criticism. Look, Elie he was twice asked to be president of Israel. His love for Israel was unconditional.”

Foxman, a survivor, said that many who lived through the Hitler years loved Israel unconditionally because “if, during the Holocaust, there had been a Jewish state, whatever its policies, six million Jews would not have perished.” Loving unconditionally means, as with family, a love, with all its courtesies, that isn’t conditional on complete agreement. “Even today,” said Foxman, “Israel is a place of refuge, and the insurance policy for Jews in the future.”

Wiesel was raked by others as well. In 2001, Christopher Hitchens wrote in The Nation: “Is there a more contemptible poseur and windbag than Elie Wiesel?”

Hitchens pointed out that after the Sabra and Shatila massacre in 1982 (when Israeli allies, the Phalangists, a Christian Lebanese militia, killed hundreds of Palestinians), Wiesel was asked by The New York Times (Sept.

22, 1982) to comment. Said Hitchens, Wiesel “was Continued on Page Nine

‘No Holocaust survivor should ever be asked to apologize for how much they love Israel.’

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • AUGUST 2016

PAGE 7

UNITE. LEARN. DISCOVER. CREATE. SHARE. PRAY.

WOMEN EMPOWERED! IN AUGUST:

HELP THE ARTEMIS CENTER! Bring specifically requested, high-need items items such as dry pastas and sauces, pancake mix and syrup, or boxed meals for their food pantry.

Collection hampers will be at Beth Abraham Synagogue, Beth Jacob Synagogue, Chabad of Greater Dayton, Temple Israel, Temple Beth Or, and at the Boonshoft CJCE.

Artemis Center is the Domestic Violence Advocacy Agency in Montgomery County. When survivors of domestic violence leave their relationships, they often can take only what they can carry. The Artemis pantry provides clients and their children with food, hygiene items, school supplies and suitcases, as well as household cleaning items they may need when they find a place to live.

MEGA Bake THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15 | 7PM

BOONSHOFT CJCE | 525 VERSAILLES DR. 45459 Join women and girls ages 10 and up from across the Greater Dayton area for an evening of unity and inspiration, as we knead and braid delicious Challah to adorn our Shabbat tables. We will sort the items collected for Artemis Center while the dough rises.

RSVP required by September 2. Cost: $18 per person.

www.daytonmegachallahbake.com A partnership between Jewish Family Services and Chabad Women’s Circle. This event has been made possible through funding provided by a Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton Innovation Grant.

PAGE 8

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • AUGUST 2016

THE WORLD

Continued from Page Seven one of the few American Jews approached on the matter to express zero remorse.” Wiesel told The Times, “I don’t think we should even comment,” adding that he felt “sadness — with Israel, and not against Israel.”

And “for the victims,” added Hitchens, “not even a perfunctory word.”

In fact, Wiesel told The Times that since the Holocaust, “this has been the worst and darkest Rosh HaShanah for me. It is not that I accuse or indict anyone, and surely not the people of Israel, but I felt sadness... In a strange way, I felt responsible.”

A few days later in The Times (Oct. 13, 1982), Wiesel was quoted by Samuel Freedman: “When you think of those innocent children,” Mr. Wiesel said, “you should think of Jeremiah, wherever he is.” Hardly as callous as Hitchens suggests.

Over the years, one of the strongest critiques came from Arthur Hertzberg, the late Conservative rabbi and liberal activist, in The New York Review of Books (August 1988).

Hertzberg had been a president of the American Jewish Congress; he left Poland in 1926. By 1946, his mother was lighting 37 yizkor candles.

Unlike Wiesel’s secular critics, Hertzberg’s essay invoked five biblical prophets and the Kotzker and Berditchever rebbes.

Hertzberg pointed out that Wiesel had, in fact, once been rather vocal on behalf of the Palestinians. At the beginning of the first intifada, wrote Hertzberg, “You have

expressed sympathy for the ‘anger of young Palestinians,’ writing that the Palestinians are ‘treated as non-persons ...Why, you say, ‘shouldn’t they have chosen violence as a means of attracting attention to their existence and their dreams of obtaining a national identity (Wiesel in The New York Times, June 23, 1988)?’ You have deplored ‘the extremists in both camps.’”

And yet, Hertzberg criticized Wiesel for telling Palestinians to “stop using stones and start using words,” but not appealing “to the Israelis to do anything at all,” to move away from “repression and toward negotiation.”

After Wiesel passed away, Anshel Pfeffer, a columnist for Haaretz, also defended Wiesel (July 11). Did Wiesel have a tendency to overlook the faults of allies? Well, said Pfeffer, that could also describe Mohandas Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Muhammad Ali, each of whom sought allies from Adolf Hitler to African dictators to Saddam Hussein. When they died, “you heard nearly nothing about their unsavory friendships...

Compare that with the small but vocal corner of public opinion and punditry, which (since) Elie Wiesel passed away, seems to be obsessed with the fact that he didn’t care much for the Palestinians.” Wiesel “made too many people uncomfortable with his constant reminders that not long ago Jews were an endangered and hunted-down species.”

Yes, writes Pfeffer, “After the Holocaust (he) feared, with good reason, that once again the Jews would lose and another genocide” could take place in Israel. “He visited in 1949 while Israel was still

barely hanging by a thread, while absorbing millions of survivors like him.”

Pfeffer admitted that he and Wiesel might have voted differently. “So what? He saw Israel as the haven that must be protected at all costs.” Don’t blame the man “who had seen his family and community destroyed and felt that Israel should take no risks.”

Wiesel, wrote Pfeffer, “still found time to speak out on behalf of Cambodians, Bosnians, Rwandans and other victims of genocide. But he wouldn’t do so for those whom he saw as endangering his own people.”

Elie Wiesel, concluded Pfeffer, “had nothing to apologize for.”

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PAGE 9

OPINION

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Memories of the Jewish agricultural colonies in New Jersey

Star of David attack opens new wounds

By Jackie Fishman many of the early settlers tried In the July Jewish Observer, farming, they found it was there was a mention of the Jew- hard work and had limited ish farm colonies established success. Factories moved into in New Jersey beginning in the these early colonies and men 1890s by German Jewish phiand women worked at tailorlanthropist Baron Maurice de ing and sewing trades, became Hirsch (From the editor’s desk). shopkeepers, and found other I grew up in Rosenhayn, N.J., jobs, and, in Rosenhayn, Italian a Baron de Hirsch colony estab- immigrants soon settled in and lished in 1898, one of the settlewere excellent farmers; the Jews ments for Jews of Rosenhayn were Phila. Jewish Archives Ctr. leaving Europe butchers, bakers, because of the poshop keepers, and groms. There were ran summer hotels. several colonies in My husband’s that area of South grandparents first Jersey: Rosenhayn, lived next door Norma, Alliance, to mine in RosenBrotmanville, hayn. His grandfaCarmel — and ther was a butcher, by the time I was Or Yisrael Synagogue, built and later, his father born in 1926, these in 1898, Rosenhayn, N.J. was a butcher in communities had Carmel. begun to have a diversified The sons and daughters of population, and there were these early settlers went on very few Jewish farmers by to college and became docthe time I was living elsewhere tors, lawyers, judges, teachers, (1940), although my parents professors, businessmen and still had a poultry farm for women, and were productive many, many years. citizens.

My father not only was Education was highly valued a successful farmer but apby the Jewish people. Rosenpraised farms for the Federal hayn built a hall where a Prof.

Land Bank as a second wave of Mounier resided, and he taught Jewish farm settlers came into classes in English, citizenship, the Vineland area and started a American history, civics, as new life on poultry farms there well as some agriculture. My (World War II, 1940s). father told me they had debatMy father and his faming teams and invited other ily were settlers of the early colonies to participate.

Rosenhayn colony. His father, And like many small JewJacob Klein, was a rabbi. While ish towns, Rosenhayn had two

shuls, half a block apart, both struggling to exist, by the time I was a child there.

Years later, in 1952, my husband — a resident in internal medicine at Jewish Hospital in Philadelphia — was approached by a doctor about going to Woodbine, N.J., a town serving a large area that had no doctor. We stayed for seven years, where Harold delivered babies, handled industrial accidents, and all kinds of other medical problems.

Woodbine was one of the early Baron de Hirsch colonies, and it had an agricultural college.

The college was later purchased by the state, and when we lived there, the Jewish farms still existed. However, school was closed on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, even though the population was not mainly Jewish. The teachers were Jewish, and the pool of substitutes also.

Several years ago, a friend sent me a doctoral thesis by a young woman who had assessed the Jewish agricultural colonies of South Jersey and Argentina. Her conclusion was that they were not successful: there were few Jewish farmers in any of them now. I wrote to her and said, as my father had so often remarked, “They were beyond successful!” And he would proudly point to the young men and women, doctors, lawyers, judges, teachers...”

Jackie Fishman lives in Springboro.

Wiesel inspired Free Soviet Jewry movement

By Glenn Richter On my bookshelves there are two rows of volumes on the Soviet Jewry movement. Squeezed in among the tomes is a small, well-worn paperback with pages no longer attached to the spine, The Jews of Silence, by Elie Wiesel. This slim volume is, however, a bridge. It crossed Wiesel and his readers over from his prior works, hearing the screams of those silenced in the Holocaust, to an eloquent challenge in 1966 to listen to the cry of our silenced but living oppressed brethren in the USSR. While today one of every seven Israelis or their descendants is from the former Soviet Union, when hundreds of thousands of FSU Jews live in the United States and the West, when with the click of a computer button I'd just arranged a frequentflyer point flight to Israel via Moscow on Aeroflot Russian Airlines, it is difficult to remember how ignorant American Jews were — or willed PAGE 10

themselves to be — about the quarter of world Jewry locked in the Soviet Union when The Jews of Silence was published.

For my contemporaries in high schools and universities in the 1960s, Wiesel's cri de cœur was the first of three shocks that would galvanize our nascent public student Soviet Jewry movement into a tidal wave of action.

Wiesel ended The Jews of Silence thus: “What torments me most is not the Jews of silence I met in Russia, but the silence of the Jews I live among today.”

Not yet the icon he later became, Wiesel reinforced his written, searing recollection of his visit with Jews in the USSR in talks to our Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry members. We connected immediately to Wiesel: Jacob Birnbaum, the SSSJ's founder, a refugee from Nazi Germany, and students, some of us children of Holocaust survivors or veterans of the American Continued on Page 22

As a Holocaust survivor, I am outraged at the way Mr. Trump is conducting himself. How can a person who is running for the highest office of the United States of America come out with such an antisemitic display on Twitter as the image of a Star of David with money, to attack his opponent?

Mr. Trump, you don't have to remind me of the Star of David. It brings back memories of the 1940s, when every Jew had to wear an arm band with the Star of David and the word Jude. Six million Jews went to their extermination at the hands of the Nazis, with so many sent to the crematoriums of Auschwitz, Treblinka, Dachau and others, including my 9-year old sister together with the rest of my family of nine. I am the only survivor of my family. I myself had to wear the Star of David for five years in ghettos and concentration camps. When a member of the Gestapo approached, if you didn't wear the Star of David, the first thing he asked you was where is your Shand Band, your Star of David?

Mr. Trump, don't follow in the footsteps of Nazi Germany.

I was in Auschwitz together with Elie Wiesel. I wonder how he would react to this display of the Star of David.

Mr. Trump, by displaying the Star of David on Twitter you have opened new wounds for the few remaining Holocaust survivors including myself.

— Sam Heider, Dayton

Guns and mass shootings Two articles about guns in the July 2016 issue of The Dayton Jewish Observer are full of mistakes.

First is How Israel stays a 'well-regulated militia' with so many guns around.

A “well-regulated clock” keeps good time. A “well-regulated militia” works well. It has nothing to do with laws.

Ordinary people with guns prevent gun massacres in the U.S.A. One example is the ABC News/Associated Press news story, Official: Hospital Gunman Intended to Kill Others (July 25, 2014). The doctor who stopped the massacre was not a member of the Israeli Army!

The opinion piece NRA, GOP: unindicted co-conspirators is worse.

There's no such thing as “reasonable, responsible gun control.” Gun control laws do more harm than good because criminals and terrorists are allowed to ignore those laws.

Mass shootings cause people to vote for politicians who support gun control, mostly Democrats. Terrorists know that if they break gun control laws, they'll receive pardons from the next Democrat elected to the presidency, just like Bill Clinton pardoned 14 gun-smuggling FALN terrorists while Hillary Clinton ran for the Senate the first time.

The blood was still wet when President Obama started exploiting the Orlando massacre for political gain.

The NRA has never blocked any “gun safety legislation.” Gun safety means using training to prevent accidental shootings. Gun control means passing laws that make it harder for sane, honest people to own guns legally, while allowing criminals, terrorists, and lunatics to own as many illegal guns as they want. For example, drug-related shootings cause more people to vote for politicians who support gun control, including Hillary Clinton. While Hillary was secretary of state, the Obama administration's Project Fast and Furious supplied thousands of guns to trigger-happy drug dealers. The project was only stopped because the NRA caught Obama doing it.

Every mass shooting is a defeat for the NRA and a golden opportunity for gun control businesses. Which group cares more about stopping mass shootings?

— Rex Tincher, Kettering

So, what do you think?

Send your letters (350 words max., thanks) to The Dayton Jewish Observer 525 Versailles Drive, Dayton, OH 45459 MWeiss@jfgd.net THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • AUGUST 2016

Europe’s horrific past, potential for hope tug at mission participants

Beth Adelman (L), Julie Liss-Katz, and Irv Moscowitz at the site of the Wannsee Conference near Berlin, held Jan. 20, 1942 by Nazi and German government officials to coordinate the implementation of the Final Solution

Prague and Vienna to show what was.

By Marc Katz Budapest is what could be.”

Special To The Observer Berlin is a whole different story, she Daniel, our soft-spoken, 31-year-old added. Actually, there are several stoguide, told us the story of a previries. One is of building bridges among ous tour. A man in his 80s, recalled the Jews of Budapest and Dayton to that when he was 15, he had peddled help return and improve Jewish life his bicycle to a soccer field to watch a there. Another is continuing education game. At that young age, he thought about the Holocaust. nothing about it. It was just part of life.

The diverse group of travelers built And death. The game was played in the 1940s, on a field at the base of Mauthau- bridges among themselves to strengthen the Dayton Jewish community. sen concentration camp.

“The trip far exceeded my expectaOn the opposite side of the soccer tions,” said Marlene Maimon, who field were barracks, mostly holding with her husband Dr. Henry Maimon, Jews, who were worked to death. had been to Prague before. “The bondSome of the soccer field remains, and some of the camp. As a group of 26 Day- ing with people I barely knew, it was heart-warming and gratifying. Learning tonians on a two-week tour of Eastern history. It was a wonderful experience.

Europe watched, Daniel swept his arm I’m blown away.” across the countryside.

Of the cities visited, Budapest easily Townspeople were there, Daniel said. has the most identifiable They watched. They knew.

‘We combined number of Jews, about They did nothing.

40,000, although estimates Though not the center- the trip with put the number as high as piece of the Jewish FederaPrague and 100,000. tion of Greater Dayton’s Prague is said to have trip, Mauthausen was one Vienna to show about 5,000 Jews, and of the most powerful stops what was.

Vienna nearly 7,000. on the tour.

Berlin, a city of about Budapest — conBudapest is 3.5 million residents, the nected to Dayton’s Jewish what could be.’ epicenter of the Holocaust, Federation through the has approximately 50,000 Jewish Agency For Israel’s Jews.

Partnership2Together program — comBerlin seems pained about its past, prised the heart of the trip, preceded by constantly alluding to the “murder” of visits to Prague and Vienna. About half six million Jews. the group continued on to Berlin for an Prague, Vienna and Budapest lean additional three days. Gayle and Irvin toward euphemisms such as “victims” Moscowitz co-chaired the trip. and “people who didn’t return.”

Though heavily laced with visits to As we discovered this, awaiting our Jewish sites, there were plenty of palcountry’s Fourth of July, we learned of aces, art museums and small shops in an Eastern Europe hoarding centuries of Elie Wiesel’s death; a voice of freedom had passed in the night. history.

Officially, our tour ended at the house Among the cities we visited, Budapest of the Wannsee Conference, just outside seemed most intent on rebuilding its the center of Berlin, where Adolf EichJewish community. mann presided over a 1942 meeting of “We want to be connected with them high-level Nazi officials to decide — in (the Jews of Budapest),” said Cathy fewer than 90 minutes before breakfast Gardner, CEO of Dayton’s Jewish Federation. “We combined the trip with Continued on next page

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PAGE 11

Europe

COME AND SEA

OUTRAGEOUS 3

UNDER THE SEA HAIRSHOW

While in Budapest, the Joffes broke away for a night to visit Eszter Rudas, a Hillel exchange student with them 21 years ago.

Continued from previous page Also in Vienna, we learned of auto entrepreneur — how the Final Solution should be carried out.

Emil Jellinek, who named the new car he was developOur guide there forcefully pointed out the Final ing in 1900 after his daughter, Mercedes.

Solution was well under way before 1942, punctuating Later Germans may not have known one of their her talk with pictures and a sheet of paper stating the favorite automobiles was named after the granddaughNazi regime’s plan was to continue its work until 11 ter of a rabbi. million Jews were dead.

Outside Vienna, we found guide Daniel at MauthauWondrous tour manager Sara Kort led us through sen. the journey as we stepped off our planes, pointing out “This place could not work without an infrastructhat the United States has been configured as it is now ture,” the non-Jewish guide said, his eyes close to tearlonger than most of Europe, which has been readjusted ing over. He had a grandfather in the war, he said, but several times through two world wars and Communist had not researched much about him. invasions over the last 100 years.

“It is common to have a family Rachel Haug Gilbert At least one marvel surviving album,” Daniel said, “and an enin Prague is a captivating astrocyclopedia. The two books must nomical clock, the oldest still in not touch on the bookshelves.” use, dating to 1410.

The inference was clear. Not Sadly, most synagogues in only did the locals not want to Prague and Vienna have been see, they did not want to rereduced to museums. Our member. The local train stations group was stunned to see the transported prisoners as well as Old Jewish Cemetery of Prague, residents. crammed with 12 layers of tombBefore we left Mauthausen, stones. our tour manager, Sara, held out When the Communists reher hand with three small stones, placed the Nazis in 1945, there one each from Auschwitz, Birkewas no religion at all in some nau and Majdanek. She added places, prompting our guide, one from Mauthausen, to bring Vida Neuwirthova, to call what souls together symbolically. is now the Czech Republic, “the We went on to Budapest, visitmost atheist country in Europe.” ing large and small synagogues.

Because she grew up in the The smallest was a three-room Communist era, Neuwirthova apartment with a tiny congreJewish Federation’s mission tours the Prague gation that just made a minyan did not find out she was Jewish until she was about 14, after Castle complex (prayer quorum) without the which the search for her family history led her to seven of us who attended Shabbat morning services. embrace Judaism.

In the Jewish quarter where it is located, there were While she didn’t marry a Jewish man, she took us once 40 such synagogues. This was the only one left to the Spanish Synagogue and sighed. With luck, next — the oldest continuous shul in Europe, one of the conyear, it will be where her oldest son marries, and her gregants said — and the cholent lunch was delicious. youngest son celebrates his Bar Mitzvah.

The congregants are producing a documentary about Neuwirthova is also a puppeteer. On her final day their community. with us, she carried a Queen Esther puppet, becoming “When people from Israel and the United States the envy not only of us, but of other passing groups. work on the same projects, it personalizes it,” said Irv Though it was easy to see which buildings were Moscowitz, past chair of Partnership2Together. Dave replaced due to war bombings in Vienna, Budapest and London, also on the trip, is the current chair. “Look Berlin, Prague seemed to be hardly touched, in deferat the way young people are revitalizing Jewishness ence to Nazi officials who were said to expect to return here,” Moscowitz added. and make homes there after the war.

It was in Budapest where Pamela Schwartz struck In Vienna, Susan and Dr. David Joffe shared silent up a conversation with a young woman who wanted to moments. Her parents met in Vienna and her father know what it was like to grow up knowing she’s Jewwas from Budapest. ish. The young woman said she had suspected she was Jewish, and ultimately learned that she was.

“I told her I grew up in Dayton and not only was I raised to be proud of my Judaism, but that there were Jewish families in our city living there for generations,” ANHEALTHCARE EMBASSY COMMUNITY AN EMBASSY AN HEALTHCARE EMBASSY COMMUNITY HEALTHCARE COMMUNITY Schwartz said.

Generations? Before World War II, 800,000 Nursing & Skilled Skilled Nursing Skilled & Nursing &Jews lived in Hungary. Of those, 565,000 Rehabilitation.

Rehabilitation.

Rehabilitation.were killed and 100,000 left of their own accord. An estimated 40,000 can be accounted for in Budapest.

43 private suites suites 43 private suites 43 private There are programs for them to embrace Largeprivate semi rooms roomstheir Judaism. Last year, 180, mostly adults, Large semi Largeprivate rooms semi private Renovations ongoing Renovations ongoing Renovations ongoing studied Hebrew. Young families have said Shortrehab term rehab Short term Short stays term stays rehab stays they don’t want to focus on the Holocaust.

Longcare term Long term Longcare term care They want to focus on the future. settingsetting Serene Serene settingSerene As the future rushes in, it is difficult to let go of the past. There is the bunker in Berlin where Hitler spent his final days. It is now 4911 Covenant House Dr. Dayton, Ohio 45426 4911 Covenant 4911 House Covenant Dr. Dayton, House Ohio Dr.45426 Dayton, Ohio 45426 a parking lot, marked only with a small Located Unitedthe Theological Seminary on Denlinger Road. Road.

Located behind thebehind Located Unitedthe Theological behind Seminary United Theological on Denlinger Seminary Road. on Denlinger unadorned sign none of us walked the few more information or to schedule a tour, a tour, For moreFor information For more or to information schedule aor tour, to schedule hundred feet to see. please contact Shannon Ryan, Director of Admissions and Marketing at please contact Shannon please contact Ryan, Shannon Director of Ryan, Admissions Director and of Admissions Marketing at and Marketing at “I thought I knew the Holocaust,” mission participant Rick Carne said. “This trip framed it for me.”

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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • AUGUST 2016 7/13/16 1:17 PM

Good News for Grandparents:

PJ Library Offerings & Events, Just For You!

Jewish Federation of GREATER DAYTON › PJ LIBRARY End of Summer Road Trip with Josh & the Jamtones Sunday, August 7 @ 1:30PM Meet @ Mayerson JCC › Join the Cincinnati PJ Library party at the Mayerson JCC and get up and dance! $5 per person or $15 per family presale.

Contact Juliet Glaser at jglaser@jfgd.net for more information. › JFGD Annual Meeting I jewishdayton Wednesday, August 17 5:30PM @ Boonshoft CJCE Awards and installation of JFGD, JFS, JCC board members, graduation of the Jewish Community Leadership Institute and special recognition of Kipnis-Wilson Friedland Award recipients. We will also honor Janice Kohn for her distinguished years of service to the Dayton Jewish Community. › Young Adult Division & Chabad Rock the Wall Tuesday, August 16 @ 7PM Urban Krag Climbing Center (125 Clay Street, Dayton) An evening of challenge and excitement of rock climbing.

Following the event we will go to the Century Bar to celebrate our success!

Contact Cheryl Carne at 610-1778.

PJ Library in Dayton is rolling out a new PJ Library program just for you, called PJ Grand. All grandparents are eligible, whether your grandchildren live in Dayton or in another part of the country. Our goal is to give grandparents a place to schmooze with each other, brag about their grandchildren, and learn how Beth Grafman PJ Library can act as a tool to enhance their relationship and Jewish connection with their grandchildren. Events will take place twice a year.

Our first PJ Grand event is on Wednesday, September 21st at Scene 75 (6196 Poe Ave, 45414) from 6:30 – 8 PM. Guest speaker Beth Grafman,

The Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton will honor this year’s local Kipnis-Wilson/Friedland Award recipient, Susie Katz, at the Annual Meeting on Wednesday, August 17, at 5:30PM at the Boonshoft Center for Jewish Culture and Education (CJCE). This distinction, named for Lion of Judah founders Norma Kipnis-Wilson and Toby Friedland z”l, honors the most inspiring Jewish women in the Jewish Federation of North America’s 151 communities. Recipients of this year’s award will be recognized at the biennial International Lion of Judah Conference, which takes place September 11–13 in Washington D.C. In addition to Susie, we will honor all past recipients of this prestigious award at the Annual Meeting. Past recipients include:

2004 2006 2010

PLEASE CONTACT KAREN STEIGER REGARDING ALL EVENTS UNLESS NOTED: 610-1555, ksteiger@jfgd.net

» To sign up for this wonderful program, or to RSVP for our very first PJ Grand event, please contact Juliet Glaser, PJ Library Coordinator, at 4011541 or jglaser@jfgd.net. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to share with your grandchild the Jewish ideas and inspiration that PJ Library provides!

Kipnis-Wilson/Friedland Award Recipients to be Honored at Annual Meeting

2008

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

Dayton area Program Officer for PJ Library and the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, will speak about the importance of PJ Library in building strong relationships within families, and give us insight into how the program works. This event is FREE and open to all grandparents.

For a limited time PJ Library grandparents (anyone whose grandchild is signed up for PJ Library in any U.S. city) can receive four FREE PJ Library books! This gift is made possible through the PJ Library and Harold Grinspoon Foundation.

2012 2014 2016

Carole Rabinowitz z”l Elaine Bettman Debby Goldenberg Judy Abromowitz Susan Lapidus Katz Mary Rita Weissman Susie Katz

Come Jam With Your PJ Library Fam! Get up and dance! Josh and the Jametones creates music for 21st century children – and their parents.

With ska and stadium rock influences, they proudly make their songs danceable, fun, and inclusive.

Josh & The Jamtones have won multiple Parent’s Choice Awards, and have shared the stage with everyone from The Wiggles to Dave Matthews.

Come see them in concert at the J! Register online at https://www.mayersonjcc. org/ and be sure to mark that you are with Dayton PJ Library Community. Dayton PJ Library families will have a special section to sit together during the concert.

Look for Juliet Glaser and Caryl Segalewitz when you arrive at the Mayerson JCC, they'll be holding a sign for Dayton PJ Library. Pick up your tickets and concert goodie bag from them.

Contact Juliet Glaser at jglaser@jfgd.net or 610-1555 with any questions.

Concert: Sunday, August 7, 3PM @ Mayerson JCC in Cincinnati

$5 per person or $15 per family presale, $10 per person at the door

COMING IN SEPTEMBER: JCRC & CABF present

POLITIFEST 2016 Elections: A Jewish Perspective September 26, 7PM @ Boonshoft CJCE

$10 in advance and $15 at the door Dr. Steven Windmueller, a professor emeritus of HUC-LA, joins JCRC and CABF to delve into the different elements of Jewish power, politics, and religion as discussed in his book, The Quest for Power: A Study in Jewish Political Behavior and Practice. Stay afterward to watch the first presidential debate with Dr. Windmueller!

Candidates Night September 29, 7PM @ Boonshoft CJCE Join JCRC, League of Women Voters, and Washington - Centerville Public Library as local county commissioner candidates address the audience. For more info see page 20.

&

JEWISH COMMUNITY Relations Council of Greater Dayton

JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON AGENCY NEWSLETTER | AUGUST 2016

JCC & JCRC Team Up for POLITIFEST Jewish Community Center of GREATER DAYTON › Preschool Open House Thursday, August 18 6:30PM @ Boonshoft CJCE For enrolled families only.

› Book Club Friday, August 19 10:30AM @ Temple Israel

(130 Riverside Dr., 45405) The Nest by Cynthia Sweeney.

RSVP to Lynda Cohen at 8982460.

› BBYO Break Out Saturday, August 20 9–10:30PM @ Breakout Dayton

(8120 Washington Village Dr, 45458) $20. Min. of 5 participants. RSVP

by Friday, August 12.

› First Day of Preschool Monday, August 22 9AM @ Boonshoft CJCE › Art Appreciation Fridays, Oct 7–Dec 16 10AM @ Boonshoft CJCE

Art of Japan, Past and Present, French Impressionism and Contemporary Art. $50 per student.

HEALTH & WELLNESS FALL QUARTER @ Boonshoft CJCE

$5 per class. Minimum 4 students. Please RSVP. › Tai Chi Beginners Thursdays @ 4–5PM Instructor Debra Stewart

› Tai Chi Advanced Thursdays @ 5–6PM Instructor Debra Stewart

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

Aug 23–Dec 8. $25 for all sessions. Through Sinclair Lifelong Learning.

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

PLEASE CONTACT KAREN STEIGER REGARDING ALL EVENTS UNLESS NOTED: 610-1555, ksteiger@jfgd.net

Just in time for the 2016 political season, the JCC is teaming up with the Jewish Federation's Jewish Community Relations Council for Politifest! With the goal of providing an interesting and in-depth look into current Jewish values, these two events will be open to the community and encourage discussion and education on the key Jewish issues that have recently taken a national stage.

Politifest kicks off on September 26, at 7PM with guest speaker and author, Steven Windmueller. Windmueller is a highly regarded professor emeritus at Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles with an extensive and diverse background within the Jewish community. He joins us to discuss his new book, The Quest for Power: A Study in Jewish Political Behavior and Practice. Windmueller has done extensive research into how the Jewish community has become involved in politics. Cost is $10 per person. Following Windmueller's discussion, stick around for snacks and schmoozing as we watch the first Presidential Debate, live on the big screen at the Boonshoft CJCE.

ABOVE: Tessa Hoff gears up to fight fire as

the Washington Township Fire Department visits Camp Shalom. PHOTO CREDIT: MERYL HATTENBACH BELOW: Roger that, tower!

Campers Lillian Putman and Maya Currie have some high-flying fun sitting in a Cessna cockpit during a field trip to Moraine AirPark during week three of camp. PHOTO CREDIT: KATIE LAGASSE

If you're hungry for more, the Jewish Community Relations Council has teamed up with the League of Women Voters to wrap up Politifest on September 29 at 7PM with a Candidate's Night.

This event will provide community members with an opportunity to nosh with local and state candidates and ask them questions about issues important to the Jewish community. For both events, please RSVP to Karen Steiger at 610-1555.

BBYO BREAKOUT DAYTON Saturday, August 20 @ 9–10:30PM @ Breakout Dayton (8120 Washington Village Dr, 45458)

We will have a short Havdalah service together before beginning escape games.Visit jewishdayton.org or contact Casey Owens at cowens@jfgd.net or (513) 571-3795 to RSVP.

JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON AGENCY NEWSLETTER | AUGUST 2016

$20 to register. Min. of 5 participants. RSVP by Friday, August 12.

Supporting the ARTEMIS CENTER and WOMEN who are Victims of Domestic Violence On September 15, from 7PM–9PM at the Boonshoft CJCE, JFS and Chabad Women’s Circle, via funding provided by a Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton Innovation Grant, will be hosting Dayton’s first Mega Challah Bake.

However, the Mega Challah Bake will not stand alone.

We want to use this event as an opportunity to support the Artemis Center and victims of domestic violence.

To do so, throughout the month of August, the Jewish community will collect high need items for the Artemis Center’s pantry: spaghetti and sauce, pancake mix and syrup, canned meats, chicken and tuna, boxed meals. How will these items support the Artemis Center and women in our community?

Susan S. Gottschalk, Esq., Family Violence Collaborative Director, Artemis Center, explains:

Artemis Center is the Domestic Violence Advocacy Agency in Montgomery County.

The agency’s mission is, “Leading the community in its commitment to end domestic violence.”

The shelter is a separate agency run by the YWCA, and Artemis collaborates closely with shelter staff to serve survivors. In addition, Artemis and the YWCA collaboratively operate the Domestic Violence Hotline. Artemis answers 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. weekdays. Shelter advocates answer the hotline during off hours.

Beyond the hotline, Artemis provides crisis intervention, risk assessment, safety planning (including assistance with obtaining protection orders), court accompaniment, victim advocacy, child and adult therapy, a pantry, and information and referrals.

Many abusers will not allow their partners to work. When those survivors leave their relationships, they often can take only what they can carry. The Artemis pantry provides clients and their children with food, hygiene items, school supplies and suitcases, as well as household cleaning items they may need when they find a place to live.

All Artemis services are provided free of charge.

Please watch for the specially designated hampers for donations! Hampers will be at Beth Abraham Synagogue, Beth Jacob Synagogue, Chabad of Greater Dayton, Temple Beth Or, Temple Israel and the Boonshoft CJCE.

RIGHT: Ira Segalewitz makes apple dumplings

during the Active Adults tour of the KitchenAid Factory on July 7. BOTTOM: JFS and JCC Camp Shalom made soup and challah rolls for St. Vincent de Paul's shelter, then listened to Barb Chambers, Food Service Manager at St. Vincent de Paul, speak about their programs and issues of hunger and homelessness. PHOTO CREDITS: SHERI POCH

It is with great excitement that Jewish Family Services and the JCC introduce Shay Shenefelt as their new Administrative Assistant! Shay started with JFS in late May. When you see her around the CJCE and in the community, please introduce yourself and extend a warm welcome!!

Jewish Family Services Jewish Foundation ofof GREATER DAYTON GREATER DAYTON Sunday, August 7 › Lynda A. Cohen Yiddish Club 1:30PM @ Starbucks

(2424 Far Hills Ave, 45419) Topic: Miami Beach: A Yiddishe Shtetl. RSVP to Judy Woll at 470-0113.

Sunday, August 7 › Active Adults Annual Dinner 5PM @ Ray’s Wine Spirits Grill

(8268 N Main St, 45415) $15 per person. Your payment is your reservation. Please RSVP by July 26.

Sunday, September 11 › Active Adults Picnic 11AM @ Hills and Dales:

Olmsted Shelter (2606 Hilton Dr. 45429) Bring a pareve or dairy dish +$5 per person. RSVP by Friday, September 1.

› Need Assistance Finding a Food Pantry Near You? Call the United Way Information & Referral Line, 225-3000 or Dial 2-1-1. › Are you caring for a loved one who is not in the Greater Dayton area?

Visit http://www.ajfca.org/ senior-resource-connect/ to find supports and services provided by Jewish agencies nationwide. › Don’t know what to donate in the Food Barrels? How about nonperishable, non-expired dairy products? For example: EVAPORATED MILK POWDERED MILK PUDDINGS & CUSTARDS Thank you for helping fight hunger across the Miami Valley!

PLEASE CONTACT KAREN STEIGER REGARDING ALL ACTIVE ADULT EVENTS: 610-1555

JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON AGENCY NEWSLETTER | AUGUST 2016

ENDOW Your Gift Jewish Foundation of GREATER DAYTON

DID YOU KNOW? Through a Jewish Foundation of Greater Dayton Donor Advised Fund, you can easily fulfill your philanthropic goals and manage your giving, all from one account. As a fund holder, you decide how much to put into your fund. You decide when to make gifts.

You decide what qualified 501(c)(3) organizations you would like to support. We take care of the rest. For more information on establishing a Donor Advised Fund, please call us at 937-610-1555.

During 1 0 0 D AY S of T i k k u n O l a m designation and are available for the » Creating a Restricted organization to use where the funds are the Jewish Federation of Greater Endowment Fund: Restricted funds are targeted for a specific use needed most.

Dayton raises funds for the Annual or purpose. Your endowment can

Campaign. These funds are critical in be designated to support the Annual Endowments help provide a stream helping us meet our mission of caring Campaign, the Jewish Federation of of permanent income to safeguard the for those in need, strengthening Jewish Greater Dayton, Jewish Community programs that matter most to you. If life, and creating connections among Center, Jewish Family Services, or a you choose to support a program, and Jews – locally, in Israel and around the specific program or event.

in time that program ceases to exist, world. When a donor chooses to create an endowment Endowments help provide a stream of permanent your generosity will still live on. The funds will be fund, it helps income to safeguard the programs that matter used toward a comparable provide income most to you. program. that ensures our We recommend mission will continue to be met in » Creating an Unrestricted speaking with your attorney or financial Endowment Fund: If you would perpetuity. There are several options advisor about options for funding your available when creating an endowment, like to create a fund to offer general endowment. If you would like more support to the Jewish Federation of including tailoring your legacy to best information about establishing an Greater Dayton, we recommend represent what is important to you and establishing an unrestricted endowment endowment fund, please contact us at your family.

937-610-1555. fund. These funds have no specific

Legacies, Tributes, & Memorials FEDERATION

ANNUAL JEWISH CAMPAIGN IN HONOR OF › Susie Katz receiving the KipnisWilson Friedland Award Barbara and Jim Weprin IN MEMORY OF › Steve Bernstein Judy and Dr. Howard Abromowitz PJ LIBRARY IN HONOR OF › Graduation of Natalie Fishman › Graduation of Joshua Segalewitz Natalie and Larry Katz › Bar Mitzvah of Yitzi Fox Marcia and Ed Kress IN MEMORY OF › Elias Vandersluis, father of Joel Vandersluis Marcia and Ed Kress

› Mamaloshen

JCC

CAROL J. PAVLOFSKY LEADERSHIP FUND IN HONOR OF › 65th wedding anniversary of Marlene and Art Carne Cissy Ellison HOLOCAUST PROGRAMMING FUND IN HONOR OF › Wedding of Lauren Jacobson Helene Gordon › Dayton Heart Center Sam Heider DOROTHY B. MOYER YOUNG LEADERSHIP FUND IN MEMORY OF › In Yahrzeit memory of Dorothy B. Moyer › In Yahrzeit memory of Hyman S. Dennis Marica and Richard Moyer

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

Gezunt : \ge-ZUNT\ Adjective Healthy, well, strong.

JOAN & PETER WELLS AND REBECCA LINVILLE FAMILY, CHILDREN, AND YOUTH FUND IN MEMORY OF › Melanie Kushnir Joan and Peter Wells BEN AND DOROTHY HARLAN CHILDREN’S FUND IN HONOR OF › New grandchild of Cheryl and Sandy Gerber Marla and Dr. Stephen Harlan IN MEMORY OF › Fred Leventhal Marla and Dr. Stephen Harlan

Expression with gezunt: › lts farlirt der mentsh mit di yorn: yugnt, sheynheyt, gezunt, libe far koved; nor eyn zakh blaybt im - zayn narishkeyt. A person loses everything as he ages: his youth, good looks, health, pursuit of respect; only one thing remains with him: his foolishness.

JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON AGENCY NEWSLETTER | AUGUST 2016

FAMILY SERVICES

JEWISH FAMILY SERVICES IN HONOR OF › 65th wedding anniversary of Marlene and Art Carne Mindy and Roger Chudde › Speedy recovery of Stanley Katz Brenda and Scott Meadow IN MEMORY OF › Elias Vandersluis, father of Joel Vandersluis Cathy Gardner FOUNDATION

JEREMY BETTMAN B’NAI TZEDEK FUND IN HONOR OF › Wedding of Lauren Jacobson Jean and Todd Bettman IN MEMORY OF › Fred Leventhal › Steve Bernstein Jean and Todd Bettman

› Vos vintsiker men fregt/redt, iz alts gezinter.

The less you ask/talk, the better off you are. › Es gezunterheyt. Bon appétit. › For gezunterheyt. Have a nice trip, bon voyage.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS Classes

JCC Fitness: Aerobic Conditioning. Tues. & Thurs., Aug. 23-Dec. 8, 9-9:50 a.m. $25 for all sessions. Tai Chi Beginners w.

Debra Stewart. Thursdays, 4-5 p.m. Tai Chi Advanced w. Debra Stewart. Thursdays, 5-6 p.m. $5 per class. Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville. R.S.V.P. to Karen Steiger, 610-1555.

Temple Beth Or Classes: Thurs., Aug. 11, 1 p.m. Socrates Café.

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

Temple Israel Classes: Sat., Aug. 6, 13, 20 & 27, 9:30 a.m.: Torah Study. 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton.

496-0050.

470-0113. Sun., Aug. 7, 5 p.m.: Active Adults Annual Dinner. Ray’s Wine Spirits Grill, 8268 N. Main St., Clayton. $15. R.S.V.P. to Karen Steiger, 610-1555.

Children

Chabad Camp Gan Izzy: Ages 5-12. Through Aug. 12. 2001 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood. 643-0770.

Teens

BBYO @ Breakout Dayton:

Sat., Aug. 20, 9-10:30 p.m. 8120 Washington Village Dr., Wash. Twp. Grades 8-12. $20. R.S.V.P. to Casey Owens, 513-571-3795.

Community Events

Temple Israel Shabbat Shalommm Yoga: Sat., Aug. 6, 9 a.m. $5. Bring a towel. 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton. 496-0050.

Jewish Federation Annual Meeting: Wed., Aug. 17, 5:30 p.m.

Dayton’s Original Music & Video Exchange Since 1976

JCC Book Club: Fri., Aug. 19, 10:30 a.m. The Nest by Cynthia Sweeney. Temple Israel, 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton. R.S.V.P. to Lynda Cohen, 898-2460.

Seniors

JFS Events: Sun., Aug. 7, 1:30 p.m.: Lynda A. Cohen Yiddish Club.

Miami Beach, A Yiddishe Shtetl.

Starbucks, 2424 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood. R.S.V.P. to Dr. Judy Woll,

Temple Israel Installation of Senior Rabbi Karen BodneyHalasz: Fri., Aug. 19, 6 p.m.: Shabbat Service & Installation.

7:15 p.m.: Kiddush & Oneg. 8 p.m.: Dinner. $40 by Aug. 1, $50 between Aug. 2 & 9. Sun., Aug. 21, 9 a.m.: Beautification project with lunch at noon. $5 for lunch. 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton. R.S.V.P. for dinner and

lunch to 496-0050.

Temple Beth Or Makor/Hebrew School Open House: Sun., Aug. 21, 10:30 a.m. 5275 Marshall Rd., Wash. Twp. 435-3400.

Beth Abraham Synagogue Shabbat Under The Stars: Fri., Aug. 26, 7:30 p.m. At the home of Ruth & Enrique Ellenbogen. R.S.V.P. to the synagogue, 293-9520.

Linda Weprin Realtor/Broker Military Relocation Professional

LindaMWeprinRealty.com

Discussions

Beth Abraham Synagogue Opera Afternoon: Sun., Aug. 28, 2 p.m. I Puritani screening introduced by Dr. Mike Jaffe. 305 Sugar Camp Cir., Oakwood. Free. 293-9520.

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

Video Games iPods • Tablets Smartphones Computers • TVs DVDs • CDs • Blu-ray

Mon thru Sat, 10 - 9 Sun, 10 - 6

Cash paid for quality items 1133 Brown St., Dayton • 228-6399 secondtimearound.com

Call for a FREE Market Analysis 937-477-4734

Linda M. Weprin Realty Licensed Real Estate Agent for 25+ Years

Assisting you every step of the way!

Welcome Home They say home is where the heart is.

You’ll find a lot of heart at Cedar Village.

We have beautiful apartments ready for your finishing touches. Our kosher kitchen serves your traditional favorites. And most importantly, you’ll find a sense of community—a neighborhood under one roof. Come make yourself at home at Cedar Village. Call today to schedule a tour.

5467 Cedar Village Drive Mason, OH 45040 513.754.3100 cedarvillage.org

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • AUGUST 2016

PAGE 17

Welcome back Hillel students!

“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”

William Butler Yeats

Nurturing confident and successful learners • • • •

Exemplary secular and Judaic education Art and science professional residency programs Project-based learning and critical thinking Students become “life-long learners”. This has a positive impact in all of their future academic and personal endeavors • Hebrew language immersion via Tal-Am Hebrew Curriculum

Nurturing confident and successful learners www.daytonhillel.org 937.277.8966 • dkmecoli@daytonhillel.org

HillelAcademyAd 29-1.indd 1

PAGE 18

6/30/16 10:55 AM

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • AUGUST 2016

RELIGION

CONGREGATIONS 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 Beth Jacob Congregation Traditional 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 Sara Otero-Eiser 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 6 p.m. ‘preneg,’ 6:30 p.m.

Summer lay-led Kabalat Shabbat services. 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 Fridays 6 p.m.

Saturdays 10:30 a.m.

130 Riverside Dr., Dayton.

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

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

ADDITIONAL SERVICES 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.

Tuesdays & Wednesdays. 6:45 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.

A Bar & Bat Mitzvah primer

By Rabbi Haviva Horvitz Temple Beth Sholom Middletown What is a Bar or Bat Mitzvah? There are many who would answer that question claiming that it is a big birthday party given to a child entering his or her teenage years.

Others might suggest that it is a religious ceremony honoring a young man or young lady.

Perspectives Although both a big, elaborate party and a religious ceremony may take place, neither of these answers is truly accurate.

The word bar means son of in Hebrew (and bat means daughter of), so the definition of the term Bar Mitzvah is son of the mitzvah, and Bat Mitzvah is daughter of the mitzvah.

The focus is thus on the child.

Don’t forget the second word of the phrase: mitzvah. A mitzvah is thought of as a good deed, but that is only partially accurate. The term mitzvah is Hebrew for commandment; it is a commandment from God, but not always directly.

I find it best to define a mitzvah as an action that brings each of us closer to God. There are 613 of these actions listed in the Torah. The more we follow, the closer we get to God. Jewish tradition teaches that at the age of 13 for boys and 12 or 13 years for girls (depending on the movement), the young adult is ready to take on the responsibilities of following the mitzvot (plural of mitzvah).

Prior to that, it is the parents’ obligation to teach the child about religious responsibilities.

If something should happen, if the child “slips” in some

way, it is the parents who are Meaning of Your Child’s Bar or responsible.

Bat Mitzvah, addresses this However, prepared or not, issue. a child becomes a Bar or Bat I have been told that this Mitzvah at the appropriate book helps the entire family age. No party, no ceremony is find the spiritual connection necessary. One does not have with God during what is often a Bar Mitzvah; one becomes a found to be a stressful time.

Bar Mitzvah.

It is important, and at times So why have the ceremony? difficult, to keep the focus on Why have a big party? A child the reason for this event: conwho becomes obligated to folnecting with God as a member low the mitzvot becomes, by of the Jewish community. default, a full-fledged member Finally, I would like to anof the Jewish community. swer the question that is asked One way to demonstrate frequently about the “mitzvah this new position and the project,” which is: “why do I new religious responsibilities really have to do a project?” that accompany this The fact is, it is new status is for the the mitzvah project young adult to parthat unites the three ticipate in a commuelements involved nity-wide religious in becoming and service, to be called to celebrating a Bar or the Torah.

Bat Mitzvah.

The more capable No matter what the child is, the more project is chosen, it of a leadership role will inevitably inhe or she can take volve the community.

Rabbi Haviva Horvitz Whether it is doing and the more of the service the child is something to help the encouraged to perform. And community, or asking the comthen, in Judaism, it is tradition- munity to help raise money for al to celebrate with the commu- a specific cause, the mitzvah nity — and with lots of food. project will connect the young A frequent question that adult with the community in a arises is that of the invitation new way. list. Who is so important in this Similarly, any mitzvah, child’s life that they should be simply by its nature, connects honored with an invitation, the one who is responsible for to include them at this great it with God. event?

That is the essence of mitzFamily members and friends vot, and, by completing the seem obvious, but what about challenge of a mitzvah project, teachers? The teachers who the Bar or Bat Mitzvah behave helped prepare the comes the focal point between student to be a part of society the community and God. and a part of the community, This is another manifestation should not be overlooked. of the ceremony at the synaIn addition, there is the idea gogue and another way for the of including God. A book, writ- young adult to prove his or her ten by Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin, worth to become a productive Putting God on the Guest List: member of the religious comHow to Reclaim the Spiritual munity.

Shabbat Candle Lightings August 5, 8:27 p.m.

August 12, 8:18 p.m.

August 19, 8:09 p.m.

August 26, 7:58 p.m.

August 6/2 Av Matot-Masei (Num. 30:2-36:13) August 13/9 Av Devarim (Deut. 1:1-3:22) August 20/16 Av Vaetchanan (Deut. 3:23-7:11) August 27/23 Av Ekev (Deut. 7:12-11:25)

Temple Israel will celebrate the installation of Senior Rabbi Karen Bodney-Halasz over the weekend of Aug. 19-21.

The community is invited to participate in all activities.

Bodney-Halasz, who has served the temple since 2003, will be installed as part of Temple Israel’s Shabbat service on Friday, Aug. 19 at 6 p.m., with guest speaker Rabbi Karen BodneyRabbi Dr. Halasz Jonathan Cohen, dean of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Cincinnati campus.

The installation Shabbat service will be followed by a kiddush and oneg at 7:15 p.m. and dinner at 8 p.m.

On Sunday, Aug. 21 at 9 a.m., the temple will lead an outdoor beautification project on its campus, with a potluck picnic lunch at noon.

The cost for the dinner is $40

by Aug. 1, $50 between Aug. 2 and 9; the lunch is $5 by Aug. 9. R.S.V.P. for the dinner and Sunday events to Annette at 496-0050.

2313 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood 937-293-1196 www.oakwoodflorist.com family owned and operated military discount

August

Torah Portions

Temple Israel senior rabbi’s installation

Tammuz/Av Tisha B’Av, Ninth Day of Av August 13 The day of fasting to commemorate the destruction of the First and Second Temples, the loss of Jewish sovereignty, and numerous other tragedies said to have fallen on this day. The Book of Eicha (Lamentations) is read.

This year, the fast day falls on Shabbat and is postponed until the following day.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • AUGUST 2016

2315 Far Hills Avenue Oakwood • 299-5282

PAGE 19

POLITIFEST Arts&Culture JCRC & CABF present

2016 Elections: A Jewish Perspective Monday, September 26 7PM @ Boonshoft CJCE $10 in advance and $15 at the door Dr. Steven Windmueller, a professor emeritus of HUC-LA, joins JCRC and CABF to delve into the different elements of Jewish power, politics, and religion as discussed in his book, The Quest for Power: A Study in Jewish Political Behavior and Practice.

Stay afterward to watch the first presidential debate with Dr. Windmueller!

POLITIFEST Candidates Night Thursday, September 29, 7PM @ Boonshoft CJCE Join JCRC, League of Women Voters, and the Washington Centervile Public Library as local county commissioner candidates address the audience.

Candidates include: »»Judy Dodge (D) »»Gary Leitzell (R) »»Debbie Lieberman (D) »»Robert Matthews (R)

RSVP for both events to Karen Steiger at 610-1555 or ksteiger@jfgd.net.

&

JEWISH COMMUNITY Relations Council of Greater Dayton

PAGE 20

Seven books by Elie Wiesel that show his range of influence

By Gabe Friedman, JTA Most people know Elie Wiesel as the author of Night, one of the first published autobiographical accounts of what life was like inside Nazi concentration camps.

The book, which helped shape the American understanding of the effects of the Holocaust, has since become a staple on high school reading and bestseller lists.

But Wiesel, who died on July 2 at 87, wrote more than 50 books of fiction and nonfiction — and not all were focused on his harrowing experiences in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald camps.

He was interested in political activism, philosophy and religion, and his books ranged from novels that question the existence of God to a journalistic exposé on the plight of Soviet Jewry.

Here’s the Wiesel reading list everyone should know.

Allan Tannenbaum/Getty Images

Night (1960)

Arguably the most influential Elie Wiesel, the author of more than 50 books, in the study of his New York City book on the Holocaust, Night home, Oct. 14, 1986 brought the atrocities faced by Jews in the concentration camps A Beggar in Jerusalem (1970) to the forefront of American consciousness. The Wiesel turned his imagination to the Six-Day War book’s narrator, Eliezer, chronicles his hellish experiin this novel originally written in French, which won ence in Auschwitz through a lyric, fragmented style France’s prestigious Prix Medicis award. Wiesel, who now acknowledged as a “genuine artistic achieveworked as a journalist in France after being liberment.” Young Eliezer survives the torturous labor and ated from Buchenwald, muses on suffering and loss murderous Gestapo, but his belief in God is forever through the protagonist David, a Holocaust survivor altered. who runs into a group of beggars near the Western Wall days after the war. Their stories bring him back Dawn and Day (1961, 1962) to his painful memories of World War II and fighting Along with Night, these two works form a trilogy Arab soldiers in the 1967 war. that deals with the Holocaust and its aftereffects.

Although Night has been variously described as a Souls on Fire: Portraits and Legends of memoir, a novel and a “testimony” (by Wiesel himHasidic Masters (1972) self), these two books are decidedly fictional.

Wiesel, who struggled with his faith after his HoloIn Dawn, a Holocaust survivor moves to prestate caust experiences, never lost his fascination with ChaIsrael (what was then the British Mandate of Palessidism, the ecstatic spiritual movement of which his tine), joins the Irgun (a predecessor of the Israel Degrandfather was a follower. Souls on Fire is a collection fense Forces) and struggles with an order to execute of lectures on the lives of the early Chasidic masters a British officer. In Day, a Holocaust survivor comes from Eastern Europe, starting with the movement's to terms with his World War II experiences while founder, the Baal Shem Tov, and including storytellrecuperating in a hospital after being injured in a car ing rabbis and Kabalists who continued the tradition. accident.

The portraits combine history and legend, and along the way, Wiesel wrestles with the question of whether The Jews of Silence (1967) men can speak for God. In 1965, Wiesel was sent to the Soviet Union by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. His observations on the The Trial of God (1979) plight of Jews there — who suffered from antisemitic This eerie story — one of the very few plays Wiesel discrimination and were forbidden to publicly pracwrote — is set in a Ukrainian village in 1649, where tice their religion — became the catalyst for an activist a Cossack pogrom has just wiped out all but two of and political movement in the West that eventually the town’s Jews. Instead of staging a Purim play, the helped thousands migrate to Israel and other counsurvivors — along with three actors — stage a mock tries in the 1980s. trial of God. “I would approach Jews who had never been Although the play is set in the 17th century, Wiesel placed in the Soviet show window by Soviet authorihas said he based it on an event he witnessed at Austies,” he wrote. “They alone, in their anonymity, could chwitz, when three rabbis came together to indict God describe the conditions under which they live.” for allowing the Holocaust to happen.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • AUGUST 2016

chat

chat t Constan ns? meltdow Violent y h t Leng sibling ? r e t ea rivalry ?

Limit-t esting?

Sweet potato quinoa veggie burgers 1 tsp. cumin powder

By Liz Rueven, JTA ½ tsp. turmeric You’re in your summer barbecue groove and have ½ tsp. salt invited friends for a day of sizzling fun. Just as you’ve ground pepper to taste settled into your menu choices, you realize that one 7 Tbsps. whole wheat breadcrumbs of your guests for that easy fête you’re planning is vegetarian. Now what?

Rinse quinoa and cook according to package direcYou’ve been down this route before, serving plenty tions. Cool and set aside. Peel and slice sweet potato of vegetable-centric sides and maybe even those dry and place in steamer. Cook vegetarian patties you find in the Liz Reuven over boiling water 15-18 frozen food aisle. minutes or until fork tender.

Newsflash: Vegetarians would Drain, cool and set aside. rather not eat those faux burgers.

Toast walnuts lightly in So don’t bother with those thin, nonstick pan until golden and cellophane-wrapped stand-ins fragrant. Cool and set aside. for the real deal. Instead, show In a food processor, comsome love by making these moist bine chickpeas, walnuts, vegetarian burgers from scratch. lemon juice and eggs. Whirl Yes, you need to use your food for 15-20 seconds, until comprocessor, but you can make this bined (should not be permixture a day in advance and fectly smooth). Scrape bowl as then forget about it until you fire needed. up the grill. You may even find Add garlic, scallions, parsother guests peering over your ley, curry, cumin, turmeric, shoulder wondering what smells salt and pepper. Pulse until so darn good.

Sweet Potato Quinoa Burgers combined.

In these easy vegetarian Add cooked sweet potato and bread crumbs; pulse burgers, sweet potato and quinoa lend structure until combined. Add quinoa and pulse until combined. while healthy walnuts ensure that they remain moist.

It’s better if your mixture is not too smooth.

Cumin, turmeric and curry balance the sweetness of Notes: This mixture can be made a day in advance the potatoes. This recipe is dairy free. and stored covered in the refrigerator. The patties will feel a little loose as you’re forming them, but that’s ½ cup quinoa (use 1 cup cooked quinoa) OK. If you’re not sure, add a little more breadcrumbs.

1 medium sweet potato (use 1 cup cooked sweet These veggie burgers may be grilled on the barbecue potato, lightly packed) or pan fried with a little oil in a nonstick pan.

1 15-oz. can chickpeas, rinsed, drained and patted Consider serving with rounds of thinly sliced red dry with paper towel onion, your favorite salsa, avocado, tomatoes or just ¾ cup whole walnuts about anything you can load on the bun.

2 Tbsps. freshly squeezed lemon juice Yields 10 medium burgers.

4 eggs 3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped Liz Reuven is kosher on the inside, veg on the go and always 3 scallions, white and most of green, chopped on the lookout for the most scrumptious eats. Check out her 3 Tbsps. parsley, chopped blog, Kosher Like Me. 1 tsp. curry powder

Scott Ervin: The Kid Whisperer @ Boonshoft CJCE

Wednesday, September 28 6:30–8:30PM Scott Ervin joins us to answer your questions and give helpful hints for you to use to create discipline that builds children’s confidence and critical thinking skills.

No cost. RSVP at jewishdayton.org or to Karen at 610-1555.

Ages 6 weeks through kindergarten

DISCOVERY and

Michael Solomonov’s Turkish Coffee Ice Cream I have long been a fan of chef Michael Solomonov, the Philadelphia-based, James Beard Award-winning chef and restaurant entrepreneur who is probably best known for his Israeli restaurant Zahav.

In what is part memoir and part cookbook, Solomonov and his business partner and co-author, Steven Cook, share beautiful recipes and personal stories of Israeli cuisine in the new cookbook Zahav: A World of Israeli Cooking.

One of my favorite recipes is a coffeeflavored ice cream. Not just any coffeeflavored ice cream: this one is made with fine Turkish coffee and cardamom. Here, Solomonov shares this recipe for you to try out in your own kitchen. Yields one quart.

2 cups heavy cream 2⁄3 cup milk 1/4 cup ground Turkish coffee 5 cardamom pods 6 large egg yolks 3/4 cup sugar

Combine the cream, milk, coffee, and cardamom in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Remove the saucepan from the heat and let the mixture steep for 10 minutes.

Combine the egg yolks and sugar in a large heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water (The bottom of the bowl shouldn’t touch the water). Whisk until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture falls from Michael Persico the whisk in ribbons when you lift it out of the bowl, about two minutes. Add the cream mixture and stir with a rubber spatula, scraping the sides to prevent coagulation, until the mixture reaches 180 degrees.

Strain out some of the coffee grounds, pour into a container, cover, and refrigerate overnight. Churn in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Turkish coffee ice cream

— Shannon Sarna, JTA

LEARNING

Contact Audrey MacKenzie, Director of JCC Early Childhood, at amackenzie@jfgd. net or 853-0373 for more information.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • AUGUST 2016

PAGE 21

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PAGE 22

Jerry I. Matusoff, 88, passed away peacefully on April 6 in Port Orange, Fla. He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Carol Lou (Gradsky) Matusoff; two daughters, Barrie Denmark and Jody Zitsman; son-in-law, Howard Zitsman; grandchildren, Bailey Denmark and Ben Zitsman; and sister Gloria Williams.

Mr. Matusoff was a native Daytonian. He graduated from Fairview High School before attending The Ohio State University and Carnegie Technical Institute (Carnegie Mellon University). Mr. Matusoff started his insurance career with Northwestern Mutual Life and subsequently represented several companies.

He became a member of the prestigious Million Dollar Roundtable in 1960 and achieved life membership in 1988. He was a leader in the Jewish community, serving as president of B’nai Brith, was a board of directors member at Temple Israel, and chairman, Men’s Division of the United Jewish Campaign. He was also president and founder of the Standard Club. Mr. Matusoff was the first recipient of the Jewish Community Council President’s Leadership Award.

In addition, he served as president of the Prisoners Correctional Association and as a board member and treasurer of the PAR Council of the United Way. Mr. Matusoff was an active member at Meadowbrook Country Club.

More than his business success, impeccable dress, and civic duties, Mr. Matusoff will be remembered for his warm smile, outgoing personality, and his devotion to Carol Lou and his family. His was a life well lived and well loved.

Contributions in his name may be sent to: Halifax Health Hospice, Port Orange, Fla., the Jewish Federation of Daytona Beach, Fla., or the charity of your choice.

Marilyn E. “Cookie” Shleier, age 81 formerly of Dayton, passed away July 4 at Cedar Village in Mason. She was preceded in death by her husband, Ray, and brother Alan Hornstein. Mrs. Shleier is survived by her son, Dr. Alan Shleier, and daughter, Jill (Todd) Engle; nieces and nephews and many special friends. Interment was at Beth Jacob Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be made to Cedar Village or Beth Jacob Congregation.

Soviet Jewry

Continued from Page 10 civil rights movement.

A year after The Jews of Silence was published, the Six-Day War propelled us into a deep-rooted connection with Israel and our own Jewish identities. And a year after that, Arthur Morse's While Six Million Died exposed the relative silence of our parents' generation during the Shoah.

We vowed that this generation would not be guilty of the same sin.

Elie Wiesel was our moral compass. In between our numerous demonstrations at the Soviet U.N. Mission, SSSJ produced a stark white-onblack lapel button challenging the Jewish community: “Are We The Jews Of Silence?”

It took years, but eventually the Jewish establishment put its considerable muscle behind the Free Soviet Jewry movement. Wiesel was a featured speaker at large rallies and utilized his growing moral authority to press for the liberation of Russian Jews.

In 1986, 21 years after his first visit, he returned to the USSR. Despite Mikhail Gorbachev's lockdown on immigration to Israel that year, Wiesel witnessed the miraculous rebirth of Jewish self-identification among refuseniks and thousands of ordinary young Jews who flocked to Moscow's Arkipova Street Synagogue on Simchat Torah.

Gal Beckerman recounted in When They Come For Us We'll Be Gone that Wiesel told the congregation inside, “Not a day passes when I don't talk of you, dream of you, sing of you, pray for you. You give us so much hope throughout the world.

We owe you a thousand times more than you owe us.”

Soviet Jews responded in kind. Former Prisoner of Zion Alexander Paritsky recalled,

“In the hardest and most critical period of my struggle for freedom in a Siberian labor camp, I always remembered the great Elie Wiesel.”

Former refusenik Dan Roginsky: “For we who were fighting for exodus from the Soviet Union, Elie Wiesel was an example of a Jew who never gave up in his struggle for tikun olam (repairing the world) and for the future of the Jewish People.”

Dina Beilina, a leading Moscow refusenik: “Elie was (a) soldier. All his life he fought, in the beginning, alone. But he believed in his mission and became a symbol of Jewish resistance to Nazism and a symbol of our victory over evil.”

Former refusenik Sasha Smukler, echoing the words of his friend Yuli Kosharovsky: “He inspired us to become Jews again.”

“Elie was a major source of inspiration for the refuseniks,” summarized Enid Wurtman, an American Soviet Jewry movement leader who was inspired by the refuseniks to make aliyah to Israel to continue her work from Jerusalem. “He taught them about the Shoah, strengthened their Jewish identity, made them assertive Jews fighting against all odds to be free, fighting for their right to emigrate to Israel.”

Absolutely nothing can bring back the Six Million.

Yet when three million of our brothers and sisters in the Soviet Union were threatened with spiritual annihilation, postwar Jewry finally stepped forward, their march begun, as Natan Sharansky often recalls, by “students and housewives,” inspired by Elie Wiesel.

Yehi zichro mevorach — may his memory be for us a blessing.

Elie Wiesel was our moral compass.

Glenn Richter is the former national coordinator of the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry.

Hear this week’s Jewish news with Radio Reading Service.

Do you know someone who is visually impaired and would like to keep up on the Jewish news? Join Marshall Weiss every Sunday at noon and 6 p.m. for the Goodwill Easter Seals Miami Valley Radio Reading Service broadcast of The Jewish News Hour.

Radio Reading Service provides audio access to newspapers, magazines and other print media for those unable to read on their own. Listeners tune in with special radio receivers.

If you know someone who might qualify to receive a Reading Service radio, call 528-6564.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • AUGUST 2016

JEWISH FAMILY EDUCATION

Brains, books, & building blocks Back to basics series Harvard University’s extensive review of neuroscience and behavioral research on early brain development offers three unsurprising but significant findings. The brain is most flexible, or “plastic,” early in life. Brains are built over time, from the bottom up. And interaction between genes and experience shape the develop-

Candace R. Kwiatek ing architecture of the brain (InBrief: The Science of Early Childhood Development).

While the first two findings are self-explanatory, the Harvard document offers an intriguing description of the connection between interaction and brain architecture.

It reports that “a major ingredient in this developmental process is the ‘serve and return’ relationship between children and their parents and other caregivers…”

Children are programmed to seek interaction. When the child cries, gestures, or asks a question and the adult responds appropriately, the ping-pong-like back and forth builds and strengthens neural connections in the child’s brain, providing the foundation for further cognitive and emotional growth.

How can these findings inform us about cultivating Jewish identity and menschlichkeit (humane personhood)? For one, the plasticity of young brains suggests that connections to Judaism more easily take root in a child’s early years.

Furthermore, the bottomup architecture of the brain underscores the significance of the early years in creating a foundation for subsequent Jewish maturation.

Finally, children’s inborn need for interaction makes them active participants in the development of their own Jewish identity and expression of menschlichkeit.

What is particularly remark-

able about these modern scientific conclusions is how in tune they are with Judaism’s ancient wisdom.

Children are the building blocks of the future. Rabbinic lore recounts that before God gave the Torah at Sinai, He asked for guarantors to insure it would never be forgotten.

Rejecting Israel’s suggestions of ancestors and prophets, God finally agreed to the people’s offer of their children as its guarantors, (Shir haShirim Rabbah 1:4:1).

Why children? The Torah itself answers in Moses’ final speech to the Israelites. He mandates that the routine public reading of the Torah include children, because when they hear, learn, and observe the Torah’s teachings, “it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed (Deut. 31:10-12, 21).”

Echoing the research on brain development, Jewish learning in the early years provides a solid foundation for building Jewish identity and a Jewish future.

The significance of parentchild interactions can also be recognized in a biblical text, later incorporated into the Shema prayer: “Take to heart these instructions with which

Jeffrey Lamont Brown

“Parents are meant I charge you this day. to share their Jewish Impress them upon identity with each your children. Recite child ‘according to his them when you stay or her intelligence,’ at home and when background, age, peryou are away, when sonality, attitude, and you lie down and learning style, the Talwhen you get up. mud teaches,” writes Bind them as a sign Rabbi Jason Miller in on your hand and let the article Making the them serve as a symFour Children Speak to bol on your forehead; Us on Passover. This inscribe them on the connects parents and doorposts of your house and your gates Children are unique participants in their own creation children as partners in the development (Deut. 6:6-9).” parents is to nurture, cultivate of identity and expression of Designed to be both forand fully develop that unique menschlichkeit. mal and informal experiThe Harvard study’s scientifences throughout the day, these melody.”

This ancient but very sophis- ic conclusions about the brain varied actions — impress, ticated understanding that each are a modern confirmation of recite, bind, inscribe — become 2,000 years of Jewish wisdom stimuli for the serve and return child has a unique set of gifts, challenges, and personality recorded in the Bible, Talmud, exchanges that shape the Jewtraits also implies that the child and Haggadah. ish architecture of the brain. is an active participant in his or The message for Jewish Clearly, the Bible was ahead her own identity development. parents, in the words of Anita of its time in recognizing the This perspective is reflected Diamant, author of How to significance of most famously in the HaggaRaise a Jewish Child, is that it’s early parent-child dah’s parable of the Four Sons: never too early to pay attention interactions in the wise, the rebellious, the to “the ways we nourish the an adult’s Jewsimple, and the silent.

Jewish self — or soul — in our ish identity and Each in turn poses a quescare.” engagement. tion to which the parent And perhaps as we nourish Children are responds according to the our young ones, we will find unique particithat we are nourishing our own pants in their own individual child’s nature and abilities.

Jewish souls as well. creation. Long before philosophies of “knowCALLING ALL JEWISH TEENS ing” — strategies ENTERING GRADES 8–12 for learning styles, and brainimaging technologies became popular — Judaism asserted the uniqueness of every child and the importance of responding accordingly.

Jacob’s blessings were individually tailored for each of his sons. The Book of Proverbs advises to “Train a child according to his way.”

And Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav explained, “Every Jewish child has a nigun miyuchad, a unique melody. The job of

Connections to Judaism more easily take root in a child’s early years.

Literature to share Tucson Jo by Carol Matas. Still the Wild West in the late 1800s, Arizona comes alive through the eyes of the lively and independent teen, Jo Fiedler. Her father’s law-and-order campaign to become Tucson’s mayor stirs up the family and the town, introducing themes of antisemitism, gender equality, and Jewish identity. A quick, excellent read from an acclaimed author, this drama-filled historical fiction based on a true story is targeted to middle grades and young adults.

The Gratitude Diaries: How a Year Looking on the Bright Side Can Transform Your Life by Janice Kaplan. Filled with engaging anecdotes, advice, and thought-provoking research from philosophers, scientists, and scholars, The Gratitude Diaries traces the author’s exploration of the impact of gratitude in every aspect of life. The simple solution Kaplan devises for becoming a more glass-half-full person — regularly listing three things for which she is grateful — significantly increases her happiness while having a powerful and inspiring ripple effect on everyone around her.

Come

BBYO Breakout Dayton

Saturday, August 20 @ 9–10:30PM @ Breakout Dayton

(8120 Washington Village Dr, 45458) We will have a short Havdalah service together, and then begin the escape games.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • AUGUST 2016

Visit jewishdayton.org or contact Casey Owens at cowens@jfgd.net or (513) 571-3795 to RSVP. $20 to register. Min. of 5 participants.

RSVP by Friday, August 12.

PAGE 23

LIFECYCLES The Carrs Photography

Sparano-Schear Dr. Martin and Susan Schear joyfully announce the marriage of their son Todd to Brittany Sparano of Atlanta. The wedding took place June 25 at the Dayton Country Club. Todd and Brittany reside in Dayton, where he is the owner of The Designers Consignment, and she runs Britzy’s Parties, her business that provides children’s entertainment. Kvelling with happiness are grandmothers Eleanor Fox of Philadelphia, and Rose Gelber of Delray Beach, Fla. Todd and Brittany will be honeymooning in Italy later this summer.

Among the nearly 100 Dayton BBYO alumni who attended a June 2426 reunion were these members of the Class of ‘76, at the Boonshoft Center for Jewish Culture and Education (L to R): Dr. Elliot Davidson, Sue Berman Libowsky, Julie Blum, Nan Solnik Zieleniec, Robin Kamin Moore, Scott Schoenfeld, Jane Bodenstein Garfield, and Trudy Weiss.

Trust Furst with your Bar & Bat Mitzvah arrangements

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Ethan and Kayla Zied Dena and Eric Zied are pleased to announce the B’nai Mitzvah of their children, Ethan and Kayla, on Aug. 27 at Temple Israel. The twins are the grandchildren of Marci and Ernest Zied of Canton, Ga. and Renee and the late Howard Mason of Cincinnati. They are the younger siblings of Abigail.

The twins are seventh-grade honor students at Springboro Junior High School. Ethan is very active in Boy Scouts and soccer; he plays the violin and has been participating in robotics. He also enjoys playing video games with friends.

Kayla is involved in acrobatics, soccer and Girl Scouts. She also plays the clarinet and runs a pet-sitting company with her older sister. They both enjoy reading and watching movies in their spare time, and volunteer at a local nursing home.

If you know someone who might qualify to receive a Reading Service radio, call 528-6525

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • AUGUST 2016

With all the Bar Mitzvah planning, I never expected this

L’Dor V’Dor From Generation To Generation

Judaism knew that my son wasn’t simply becoming a man: he was becoming his own man. school football game that night and

By Michelle Tauber, JTA I ran into a mom the other day whose he’d already made plans to attend with his friends. son is having his Bar Mitzvah in a few “Sorry Mom,” he said, and he meant weeks, just before my son. Our boys were in the same preschool class togeth- it. “But I’ve got somewhere to be.”

All along, Judaism knew what I er at the JCC, back when they smelled didn’t. Judaism knew that my son — like fingerpaint and graham crackers. my first baby, my oldest child — wasn’t How’s the planning going? we simply becoming a man: he was becomchirped. Good, you know, busy, still ing his own man. That in stepping up to waiting on all those late R.S.V.P.s. the Torah, he was stepping away from Then we looked at each other and me. That I needed to let go, just a little, cried. before I need to let go a lot.

This is the part of Bar Mitzvah planAnd so I cry. I cry at every Bar and ning I did not anticipate. I had been so Bat Mitzvah I attend. Because I rememworried about the details, the cost, the ber when the young man in the new time: How are we going to fit in cantor suit leading the Shema prayer was blowlessons along with everything else? ing bubbles in a stroller. Because I Do people prefer kugel or knishes, know his mom and dad or both, at the kiddish? How remember, too, and will our indifferent almost that we all feel the 13-year-old — who proswell of pride and crastinates months-long the loss of time. projects until hours before Because I — possibly buckle down remember standto learn an entire Haftarah?

Bar & Bat Mitzvahs ing on the bima myself While I fretted, the earth in a polka-dot dress, and how moved. I didn’t feel it at first. Then can that possibly be so long ago when when I started to notice — my son’s I can still feel the slender weight of the eyes a good two inches above mine, his yad (Torah reading pointer) in my hand voice deepening, his angles sharpening from that day?

— it seemed novel and fun, like when “I cry just to cry,” confessed the mom he’d first rolled over as a baby. Look I bumped into recently. I told her my how he’s grown! Isn’t it something? son had surprised me by diligently He was changing, but I was still learning his Haftorah, no nagging reoperating under the old rules because quired, but that he had started pulling those were the only ones I knew. I away, and that was hardest of all for volunteered to chaperone the middleme. school field trip to the environmental “Thank God mine’s not doing that center after we’d had fun on the same yet,” she said. “I’m not ready.” trip last year. When he learned I’d I’m not ready either. But my son is. signed up again, he begged me to pull On Passover, we dip in salt water to out, exasperatedly insisting that there remember the pain of the past. There is was “no reason” for me to go. holiness in our tears, in tasting them.

I still ask him to tag along with me We are all salt and water, the tides on Sunday afternoon errands, but the ever changing. So when my son is answer is always no — he’s in his room called to the Torah, I will taste love and on Instagram. And why would he care loss and the insistent pull forward. And about that free sprinkle cookie at the when I see other parents with tears in grocery store, anyway? their eyes, I’ll know they taste it, too.

When I bought tickets for Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween party at Walt Michelle Tauber is the head writer for Disney World — an event our family People magazine. She lives in Orlando, looks forward to every fall — he reFlorida, with her husband and four kids. fused to come because there was a high

Bernstein’s Fine Catering Owner Adam Baumgarten (L) with Steve Bernstein, of blessed memory

Thank you for the outpouring of sympathy, support, and special memories in the days after the unexpected passing of our founder — husband, father, grandfather, partner and best friend — Steve Bernstein. He was an inspiring, loving, generous man.

In Steve’s memory, we dedicate ourselves to serving you and yours in the years ahead with a commitment to Steve’s exacting standards and ‘heimish’ love of community.

He wouldn’t have it any other way.

And neither would we.

— Adam & Lauren Baumgarten

898-2761

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • AUGUST 2016

1130 E. Dixie Drive West Carrollton, OH 45449

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For transgender teens, mitzvah journey offers multi-layered transition

Can you name these B’nai Mitzvah?

Thanks to PORTRAITS By Mendy for her pictures

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mother of Lily (once a Rabbi Eric Gurvis

By Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman, JNS.org boy), talks about her A young woman is transitioning to be daughter’s transition, which occurred a young boy. While the rabbi and close around the time of the rite of passage. family members are aware of the transi“During the first year, we cancelled tion, the congregation is not. the Bar Mitzvah that was fast approachSuch was the scenario faced five years ing,” writes Rubenstein. “This was a ago by Rabbi Eric Gurvis, senior rabbi of huge loss for us because we did not Temple Shalom in Newton, Mass. It was think we could get her to do a Bat Mitzamong the handful of Bar and Bat Mitzvah. She spent a great deal of time being vahs he has performed for transgender angry with God. As happiness set in, youths. confidence continued to grow, and sup“There were port continued to flow from our Jewish a lot of details community, Lily announced that it was involved, even time to start scheduling her Bat Mitzvah. in the lanTwo years after my child told us she was guage around Bar & Bat Mitzvahs transgender, she would chart new territhe celebration.… tory for our congregation. Lily led Shab(For) people who did not know (about the gender transition), we had no interest bat services, read from our Holocaust Torah, and took her place as an adult in making a spectacle of any kind that woman in our Jewish community.” day, rather than just celebrating with the Lily’s story is becoming more comchild,” recalls Gurvis. mon. Casey Cohen, communications diInstead of calling the ceremony a Bar or Bat Mitzvah, Gurvis named it a “mitz- rector for Camp Tawonga in Groveland, Calif., says, “We want all kids to connect vah journey to becoming a responsible to Judaism and spirituality in a way that adult Jew.” The synagogue removed the is personal and meaningful for them.”

Bar/Bat Mitzvah label from the certifiTo that end, Tawonga is launching the cate that it gave the teenager.

Beyond the Bima program this fall; it’s The term transgender defines anyone who knows him or herself to be a gender designed to offer an individualized approach to B’nai Mitzvah. that is different than the gender the per“In talking to trans families, they want son was assigned at birth. This could be their child to have an individualized a girl who now sees herself as a boy or, in some cases, a person who identifies as journey as a human being. It is coming at it from a Jewish lens, without a neither male nor female. Some transfocus on being a man or a woman, but a gender individuals modify their bodies person,” says Jamie Simon-Harris, Camp through medical means, some do not.

Tawonga’s associate “For me, it is remembering executive director. that every individual is created ‘It is coming at Simon-Harris b’tzelem elokim (in the image of it from a Jewish tells the story of one God),” says Gurvis, who has lens, without a child she met who worked as a Reform rabbi for more than 30 years. Over that focus on being a was grappling with gender issues. He time, he says, the Jewish comrequested that his munity has “become more com- man or woman, Bar Mitzvah focus fortable” with what is transpir- but a person.’ on character and less ing in terms of not only transon “boy-girl stuff.” gender issues, but also lesbian, The child explained how he was born gay, and bisexual issues. His synagogue male and uses a male pronoun to refer has for at least a decade had multiple to himself, but doesn’t feel like a boy. versions of the misheberach blessing Simon-Harris says she believes he could that parents say at their child’s Bar or have a very powerful experience if the Bat Mitzvah, including the traditional people who work with him are able to blessing — one that accommodates two tailor his Jewish journey into adulthood parents of the same gender — and one to meet his needs. that doesn’t mention gender at all.

But Simon-Harris is also careful to Eight or 10 years ago, Gurvis says, the point out that it is not just transgender Jewish community was unavailable to families in need of LGBT support for one youths who require creative and intentional B’nai Mitzvah training. All teens reason: lack of understanding. are unique, she says, and all are fêting “Today, there is more understanding their Bar and Bat Mitzvahs at a compliand sensitivity,” Gurvis says. “There cated time in their lives; puberty and is a higher degree of comfort in some sexuality are on the minds of all middle places with children coming out to their parents and friends, and the parents (are) school youths.

“Each teen needs support and a lot of seeking out clergy and educators to talk thoughtfulness to take this Jewish jourabout it. We are there to help support in ney,” Simon-Harris says. any way we can.”

Her advice: let teens decide what they That doesn’t make things easy — just want to share and what they don’t, and easier. In an article that ran on MyJewto educate yourself. ishLearning.com, Britt Rubenstein, THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • AUGUST 2016

Yesh Atid: my daughter’s nontraditional ceremony

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By Julie Wiener, JTA At my daughter’s Bat Mitzvah last month, hundreds of people spread out to form a large circle and, together, carefully held a completely unrolled Torah scroll.

With the scroll spread out so that its entire contents were visible, my daughter found the spot on the parchment where the Torah portion corresponding to her Hebrew birthday was located. So did eight other 12- and 13-year-olds.

Standing with parents at their Torah portion (helpfully indicated in advance with Post- Julie Wiener (R) watches her daughter during her Yesh Atid Bat Mitzvah It notes) and going in order from Genesis to Deuteronomy, through one of the five partner- cramming for a big test only to each child then recited one line ing synagogues. The synagogue forget all the material immediately afterward. from his or her portion. kids have a traditional Bar or Having a group ceremony It’s no surprise that my Bat Mitzvah at their congregahad its disadvantages: We daughter’s Bat Mitzvah would tion, while the JCC ones can were allowed to invite only 30 be more meaningful to me than either plan a private Bar or Bat guests; the ceremony was not any other Bar or Bat Mitzvah, Mitzvah or participate in the anywhere near my daughter’s and of course, the novelty of Brit Atid program. birthday; and we didn’t get this new ritual added to the The Brit Atid ceremony was to customize the ceremony or specialness. But it was also just preceded by a year of monthly party. However, these were a powerful moment — one that parents-and-kids Torah study offset by the many advantages, while nontraditional also felt sessions together, along with both practical and symbolic. respectful and authentic. monthly one-on-one sessions On the practical end, I’m not Having each child physiwith our teacher, Jeremy Tabick much of a party planner, and cally stand by his or her Torah (a doctoral student at the Jewmy husband and I did not want portion reinforced the idea that ish Theological Seminary). to spend tens of thousands of each child has a place in the Each child then came up dollars and countless hours Jewish story. It empowered all with a creative project to interplanning a big event. the assembled fampret/present his or her Early on, even before we ily and friends to portion. knew about the Brit Atid optouch the sturdy My daughter, tion, we’d decided, with my yet fragile Torah who loves filmdaughter, that we’d rather put and feel a sense of ing intricate stopBar & Bat Mitzvahs money toward a family trip to ownership over it. motion animation Israel than toward a Bat MitzAnd it quite literally ofsequences starring Playvah party. fered a new and different way mobil figures and Barbie dolls, Shortly before the Brit Atid, of looking at the Torah. created a short and somewhat we attended the more tradiPerhaps most important, irreverent film about her Torah tional Bar Mitzvah of a close however, was that this was a portion, followed by a speech friend — the first one we’ve group ceremony, not an indiaddressing the portion’s many been to in years — and both my vidual show. And, in contrast problematic aspects. daughter and I had a few pangs to the lavish, wedding-like parAlthough both my daughof wondering if she, too, should ties that follow many contemter and I worried the Brit Atid have done the chanting Torahporary American Bar and Bat would feel like a dumbedin-a-synagogue-on-SaturdayMitzvah ceremonies, this was down Bat Mitzvah — after morning route. followed by a shared party: a all, learning to chant trope is The second-guessing got her simple but tasteful (and tasty) a demanding process — this competitive juices flowing and brunch reception. approach felt more relevant for motivated her to improve her Called a Brit Atid — Hebrew us than a long performance in speech. And in the end, she for covenant of/with the future a language most of our friends said she was very happy with — the ceremony was a culmiand family do not understand. how it went — and is excited nation of my daughter’s parSince we are not regular about our August trip to Israel. ticipation in the Jewish Journey Shabbat servicegoers, learning Now we just have to conProject (JJP), an alternative to chant trope just is not a skill vince her almost-10-year-old Jewish education program that my daughter is going to use, at describes itself as “experiential least not in the near future, and sister to go the Brit Atid route, as well. Which, given her social Jewish education for the modit’s not really what being Jewbutterfly personality and curern New York City kid.” ish is about to us. rent obsession with planning Launched in 2012 out of the So like most kids, she’d the perfect Warriors bookJCC in Manhattan, JJP enables probably have forgotten the themed birthday party, just kids to choose their own classes trope within months of the might be a challenge. according to their interests and Bat Mitzvah. And learning to scheduling needs. chant trope just for the sake of Students can, like my kids, proving that she could master it Julie Wiener is the managing enroll through the JCC, or (and then forget it), seemed like editor of MyJewishLearning.com.

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Temple Israel invites you to the

Installation Shabbat Weekend of

Senior Rabbi Karen Bodney-Halasz Schedule of Events

FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016 6:00pm Shabbat Installation Service with Guest Speaker Rabbi Jonathan Cohen, Ph.D Dean of HUC-JIR Cincinnati campus

7:15pm Kiddush and Oneg 8:00pm Celebratory Dinner

$40/person by August 1 or $50/person August 2 - 9

SUNDAY, AUGUST 21, 2016 9:00am Outdoor Beautification Project 12:00pm Potluck Picnic Lunch $5/person by August 9

RSVP for dinner and Sunday events to Annette astogdill@tidayton.org or 937.496.0050 Temple Israel, 130 Riverside Drive, Dayton, OH 45405