The Dayton Jewish Observer, January 2024

What counts calling for genocide?

And how should be punished? p. 8 DavidasMoss designs Grace After Meals in comic bookitform p. 22

THE DAYTON Published by the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton

January 2024 Tevet/Shevat 5784 Vol. 28, No. 5

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Pursue Peace II

by Elyssa Wortzman, a painting in her series for the Women Strong Art Project's Elemental Love exhibit.

DAYTON Beth Abraham Synagogue

Chanukah around town

Temple Beth Or

Ben and Steph Goodstein with their daughter, Delainey, decked out for Beth Abraham Synagogue's Eat Latkes & Dreidel On! party.

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At Temple Beth Or's Chanukah at the Big Easy event, (From L) Claudia and Bill Fried, Evie Polk, and Adam Snyder light their menorahs. Evie is the daughter of Cadi and Brian Polk; Adam is the son of Emily and Ryan Snyder.

Peter Wine

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PAGE 2

Rabbi Nochum Mangel leads children in dancing the hora at Chabad's menorah lighting on the first night of Chanukah at Town & Country Shopping Center in Kettering. The program was one of seven Chanukah-related events Chabad offered this season.

Calendar..................................19 Family Education....................20

Food................................21 Obituaries........................... 23

O p i n i o n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 5 R e l i g i o n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 8

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JANUARY 2024

DAYTON Peter Wine

Light in the darkest of seasons

Leading the menorah lighting for the eighth night of Chanukah at the JCC's We Are Not Alone Community Chanukah Celebration Dec. 14: (From L) Jewish Federation Past President Debby Goldenberg, Federation CEO Cathy Gardner, Federation Past President Dr. Heath Gilbert with daughter Livy, and Federation officers Secretary Marni Flagel, VP Teddy Goldenberg, VP Ben Mazer, Treasurer Neil Friedman, and President Elect Dan Sweeny with children Leyton and Lily.

Local updates connected to the Israel-Hamas war

By Marshall Weiss, The Observer Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton Past President Debby Goldenberg described this year's JCC Chanukah celebration as particularly poignant.

Federation staff and layleaders personally invited non-Jews to the program who have expressed their support for the Jewish community since the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre and the ensuing Israel-Hamas war.

"Over the past two months, the worldwide Jewish community has faced increased antisemitism and hatred due to the war in Israel," Goldenberg said at the Dec. 14 event, held at the Boonshoft Center for Jewish Culture and Education in Centerville. It was billed as We Are Not Alone — A Community Chanukah Celebration.

"For many of us, we have never experienced this level of discrimination. And yet when I look out at the crowd here tonight, I have hope and reassurance. Many of you are joining us from the

Bark Mitzvah Boy NOTYAD EHT

general community. Throughout this difficult time and even prior, you have supported and advocated for a Jewish state. You have stood beside us, sometimes at the risk of facing negativity yourselves. You have made it clear that there is no place for hate in Dayton. It is comforting to know that during this dark time, we are not alone. There are no words powerful enough to express our gratitude."

After guests tasted latkes and sufganiyot prepared by Chabad's Rochel Simon, Temple Beth Or's Rabbi Judy Chessin offered the blessings as Federation leaders lit every candle on their Chanukah menorahs, signifying the final evening of the eight-day festival.

"We, tonight light the light of survival. The light of existence on the brightest night, the night when all of the candles are lit," Chessin said. "We might be sad that the light will go out. But we feel — particularly this year — that the light will Continued on Page Four

From the editor’s desk

NOTYAD EHT

REVRESBO

REVRESBO

What’s the date for Tu B’Shevat, you ask?

I’d suggest Medjool . . .

c O Menachem

Though I've never thought of the number 28 as special, my mind is officially blown. Here's why. The arrival of January marks 28 years since I began my work for the Jewish Federation of Marshall Greater Dayton as the editor of our community's new Jewish newspaper.

Weiss At the time, I was 28 years old, possibly the youngest editor of a Jewish newspaper in North America. People I'd meet would give me a long look and ask, "How old are you?" That doesn't happen anymore. It's also mind-blowing to me that our son, Levi, is now 28. I've always felt blessed to do the work I do. Each issue of The Observer is unique.

Each year is a new beginning, too, an opportunity to look around and report on what's going on with fresh eyes and a renewed perspective.

As long as I'm thinking about 28, I started noodling around to find the significance of the number 28 in Judaism. It's the number of Hebrew letters in Bereshit (Genesis) Chapter 1, Verse 1 — our yearly return to the beginning of the beginning.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JANUARY 2024

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DAYTON

Local updates connected to the Israel-Hamas war

district is "actively investigating the Continued from Page Three continue to glow because of our great details" of "controversial posts shared by one of our employees on their alliances and friendships that we personal social media platform." have had, by the many people who A day before the superintendent have come out to support Israel and distributed the letter, StopAnthe Jewish people, and by the rekindling of passion in the Jewish people tisemitism, an American non-profit watchdog organization that combats to indeed, teach the very lessons of Jew hatred, singled out Bethel High Chanukah."

School teacher Sevinch Abbasova at Chessin also challenged guests to its social media sites. identify the source of a quote: "We StopAntisemitism posted screendidn't take a foreign land, and we didn't exist on the spoils of other na- shots of what it claimed were two posts from Abbasova's social metions, but on the lands of our ancesdia sites. The first equates Israel's tors. And through the years, it was operations in Gaza with the Nazi illegally seized by our enemies. We, Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration when we had the opportunity, reand death camp complex. The second stored our birthright." shows an individual with a blurred"You might think that was Bibi Netanyahu," Chessin said. "Or Benny out face holding a sign that reads, Gantz and the current Israel situation. "There is blood on your hands" in what appears to be a school classBut no, this was a statement by Shimon HaMaccabee (Simon Maccabee), room. The letter A in the word hands the last of the Maccabee brothers who is rendered as a Jewish star.

"Imagine being a Jewish child in fought the Greek empire led by the her classroom," said StopAntisemiSeleucid Emperor Antiochus, 2,158 years ago. Imagine that we are fight- tism of Abbasova's alleged first post.

Of the second, StopAntisemitism ing that war still." commented, "Allegedly she is using Israel Emergency Campaign school property (and possibly an actual student) to create antisemitic breaks $800,000 propaganda such as this."

As of Dec. 19, the Jewish FederaIn both instances, StopAntisemition's Israel Emergency Campaign has raised $802,328 toward its goal of tism urged people to email the $856,000. To date, the Jewish Federations of North America system has raised more than $711 million and has allocated close to $211 million.

The funding provides food and financial assistance for impacted families, the elderly, and homebound.

It covers the costs of temporary housing, respite trips, children's activities, and increased security, as well as support for communities under fire.

Emergency campaign funds purchase medical supplies and equipment for first responders and hospitals near the front line. JFNA also directs assistance to vulnerable populations and their caregivers including young children, people living with disabilities, Russian-speaking Israelis, Ethiopian Israelis, Holocaust survivors, and marginalized populations such as Bedouin communities.

The Jewish Agency for Israel's Funds for Victims of Terror provides immediate cash grants to families and individuals who have been impacted Above by acts of terror and violence for and right: post-trauma and psychosocial care. social To donate to the Israel Emergency media posts Campaign, go to jewishdayton.org.

DaytonMetroLibrary.org PAGE 4

Bethel Public Schools investigates high school teacher's social media posts Bethel Local Schools Superintendent Matthew W. Chrispin informed families with children in the school district via a Dec. 4 letter that the

StopAntisemitism alleges were made by Bethel H.S. teacher Sevinch Abbasova.

THE DAYTON

OBSERVER daytonjewishobserver.org Editor and Publisher Marshall Weiss mweiss@jfgd.net 937-610-1555 Contributors Rabbi Shmuel Klatzkin Candace R. Kwiatek Advertising Sales Executive Patty Caruso, plhc69@gmail.com Administrative Assistant Samantha Daniel, sdaniel@jfgd.net 937-610-1555 Billing Sheila Myers, smyers@jfgd.net 937-610-1555 Proofreaders Rachel Haug Gilbert, Steven H. Solomon Observer Advisor Martin Gottlieb Published by the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton Mary Rita Weissman President Dan Sweeny President Elect Marni Flagel Secretary Neil Friedman Treasurer Ben Mazer VP Personnel Teddy Goldenberg VP Resource Dev. Dr. Heath Gilbert Immediate Past Pres.

Cathy Gardner CEO The Dayton Jewish Observer, Vol. 28, No. 5. 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 columnists, in readers’ letters, and in opinion pieces do not necessarily reflect the opinion of staff or layleaders of The Dayton Jewish Observer or the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton. Acceptance of advertising neither endorses advertisers nor guarantees kashrut.

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

Goals • To encourage affiliation, involvement and communication.

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

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

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

• To provide an historic record of Dayton Jewish life.

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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JANUARY 2024

DAYTON superintendent to voice their concern, and included Chrispin's email.

StopAntisemitism has more than 200,000 followers each at its Instagram and X accounts.

According to the district, Abbasova is an English language learner teacher at Bethel High School. As of press time, Chrispin declined to be interviewed by The Observer, stating in an email that the investigation is still in process.

"I assure you that we are working diligently to conclude the investigation promptly," he added.

According to the Miami County Sheriff's Office, Bethel High School contacted the sheriff's office Dec. 4, after Chrispin and the high school had received several emails about Abbasova's alleged posts. The high school had also received several social media messages about the situation.

The high school later notified the sheriff's office that no threats had been directed at the school.

In an interview with The Observer, Miami County Sheriff's Department Chief Steve Lord said he believed the school district contacted his office in case any of the emails or posts might contain personal threats to Abbasova.

"People can express their dissatisfaction with what she said, as long as they're not threatening her or property or anything else," Lord said. "What you say can have consequences. Our position is, if it’s not violating the law, then everybody is allowed to condemn what she said. They just can’t threaten her property while they’re doing it. And I don’t know that there have been any allegations of that. It was just, there’s a potential, maybe this could happen, so you should know about it. But our finding is that there’s nothing here that’s actionable. The school would be in charge of regulating how their employees conduct themselves."

MLK weekend programs

Temple Israel and Omega Baptist Church will join together for their annual pulpit exchange over MLK weekend.

Rabbi Aubrey Rabbi Karen Pastor Joshua Pastor Ken Moss Pastor Joshua Ward will deliver the Glazer D. Ward sermon at Temple Israel's Shabbat ser- Bodney-Halasz vice, 6:30 p.m., Friday, Jan. 12. An Oneg reception will follow the service.

Rabbi Karen Bodney-Halasz will deliver the sermon at Omega Baptist Church's 11 a.m. service, Sunday, Jan. 14. All are encouraged to attend both services. Temple Israel is located at 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton. Omega Baptist is located at 1821 Emerson Ave., Dayton.

For more information about the pulpit exchange, call Temple Israel at 937-4960050 or Omega Baptist at 937-278-1006.

Members of Beth Abraham Synagogue and The Potter's House will come together at Beth Abraham for a Martin Wright Brothers Home Asphalt Restoration Luther King Jr. Shabbat service, 9:30 a.m., Saturday, Jan. 13. Pastor Ken Moss will join Rabbi Aubrey Glazer during the Make the “Wright Choice” Our 51st Year service for a bima dialogue about King's enduring teachings today.

A kiddush lunch will follow services.

Paving, Repairs, Sealcoating, Concrete, Walks, Patios, Beth Abraham Synagogue is located at 305 Sugar Camp Cir., Oakwood. For Drainage, Curbs, Approaches • Residential & Commercial more information, call the synagogue at 937-223-9207 • 800-319-1114 • www.houserasphalt.com 937-293-9520.

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PAGE 5

Art of peace

DAYTON Marshall Weiss

Jewish texts inspire the universal messages in Toronto native's paintings.

By Marshall Weiss, The Observer Elyssa Wortzman had just arrived in Dayton in the fall of 2022 when she was invited to join the Women Strong Art Project.

"This group of women artists was looking for a Jewish artist to join their group," the Toronto native says.

"It's an ethnically and racially diverse group. I thought this must be a sign of something."

She and her husband, Rabbi Aubrey Glazer, made the move here from Canada for his position as Beth Abraham Synagogue's new rabbi.

The idea behind Women Strong, Elyssa says, is to bring together women artists from diverse religious and cultural backgrounds.

"Not only to show (art) together, to share meals together, to share friendships together, and to see how that process could help to break down barriers and work as an interfaith organization," she says. "And I thought that was fascinating. That sounded like a great social justice project, and it worked with my desire to meet artists in the city."

Her first public exhibition with Women Strong was What ABOUT Hair in early 2023 at the Dayton Metro Library's main library.

Women Strong's newest exhibition, Elemental Love, will be on display at the Woodbourne Library in Centerville, Jan. 12-Feb. 21.

Elemental Love was first commissioned for an exhibit last October at the residence of University of Dayton President Eric Spina in conjunction with the university's activities with the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.

Elyssa gave herself three weeks to study Jewish texts on the theme of peace to conceptualize the four

Pursue Peace II by Elyssa Wortzman, a painting in her series for the Women Strong Art Project's Elemental Love exhibit.

PAGE 6

Artist Elyssa Wortzman talks about the messages she embedded in her painting, Pursue Peace I.

paintings she would contribute to the exhibit. She put "I'm really feeling very solid and comfortable paint to canvas for two weeks. about drawing on that cultural framework to inform "I'm very quick," she says. "And once I start workthe work that I'm doing artistically," she says of her ing on something, I'll be like, yeah, don't talk to me for Elemental Love series. "Partly because of my husband's two days. It comes out pretty quickly because I had influence and partly because Judaism is a text-based conceptualized a lot of it before." religion, I look for inspiration in Jewish texts."

She completed the paintings only a few days before For this series, she looked at what Jewish tradition the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre and the resulting Israelsays about peace to find messages that engage her Hamas war. "It felt very uncomfortable intellectually or visually. as an artist to know that I had just cre'I strongly believe With the first painting for Elemental ated this. And now look what's going Love, Elyssa relied on two texts she conthat art has the on." nected with: from the Psalms and from ability to push Elyssa practiced law for a few years Sefer HaMiddot (The Book of Attributes) with a firm, but most of her career has Ukrainian Chasidic master Reb you, prompt you, by been in the arts.

Nachman of Breslov. in a way that "I had just finished my degree in art "I skimmed the text and said, 'what history, and I loved art history, but I are the words that are jumping out at engenders selfended up in law school," she says. "And me?' I picked a few phrases from each my first year in law school was so visu- reflection.' of them. And I strung them together ally anemic, I ended up going to France and created what looks like the page of and studying (art) every summer during law school." a book — because remember, this is for the Literary She eventually earned her doctorate in Jewish spiri- Peace Prize." tual direction from the Graduate Theological FoundaShe imagined that in Judaism there is a book called tion. Her scholarly work combines spiritual education the Book of Peace. "It doesn't exist. This is just in my with art. imagination. And in the book, one of the pages says, She describes her approach to art as "spiritual con'Pursue peace. Peace is in my bones. Awe inspires ceptualism, with a focused coloring, philosophy, and prayers, bringing peace in all worlds.'" the heart of an abstract expressionist. So if you put all Though these are distinct phrases from different that together, that's how I see what I'm doing." sources, Elyssa melded them together into that phrase.

"In my spiritual direction practice, one of the main The Women Strong Art Project exhibit Elemental foundations is the idea of mindful witnessing of someLove, including works by Elyssa Wortzman, will be thing," she says. "I want the viewer to have this almost on display at the Woodbourne Library, 6060 Far Hills meditative engagement with the piece. And I think the Ave., Centerville, Jan. 12-Feb. 21. The library will host color fields promote that kind of experience." a meet-the-artists art experience including a collageThis painting, Pursue Peace I, employs various making project on the topic of peace, Tuesday, Feb. 6, shades of blue. Blue is the color Elyssa personally as6-7 p.m. For more information, go to wclibrary.info. sociates with peace. From a color theory perspective,

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JANUARY 2024

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Literal Peace with Flowers by Elyssa Wortzman, a painting in her series for the Elemental Love exhibit.

blue creates a sense of calm, too. It's also, she notes, the color of water, which can be relaxing.

"The underpainting here represents the state of peace — where these words are fulfilled — in this imaginary Book of Peace. But clearly, we're not living in that messianic place where there is world peace on

an individual or a collective level."

For this reason, viewers can pull down a blind with a second painting, which is essentially the same painting, but seen through a misty veil. The word murky is painted on it.

"The idea is that when your ethical choices or your way of being in the world is morally

The Contradictions of Peace 2023 by Elyssa Wortzman

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JANUARY 2024

or ethically murky, then that's not going to lead to peace."

Her inspiration for this second painting comes from Reb Nachman's Sefer HaMiddot, where he writes, "Murky waters are a sign that there is no peace."

"Meditating on this peaceful painting and being able to read those words is intended to bring you to an elevated soul state," Elyssa says. "Or an elevated state of consciousness in which you can actually do something about the murky situation in the world.

I strongly believe that art has the ability to push you, prompt you, in a way that engenders self-reflection."

The 11 women of the Women Strong Art Project, including Elyssa, will create new works of art on the theme of peace for an exhibit at the Dayton International Peace Museum in March.

Elyssa says that since Oct. 7, about half of the women in the project have reached out to her to express their compassion and support.

"It's been really heartening to see the responses, asking me how I'm doing, do I have family there, what's going on? Telling me, some of them directly, that they support the cause.

Others, 'I'm really concerned about you,' and that's really nice to see.

"In their own lives, some of the members are very active in fights for racial justice and other things in the community.

I honestly didn't know what the reaction would be. I haven't heard anything negative."

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PAGE 7

THE WORLD

What counts as calling for genocide? And how should it be punished?

Marshall Weiss

BEAT THE WINTER BLUES WITH LAUGHTER featuring Sarah Routman

Saturday, January 20 at 10:30 a.m.

Followed by a FREE Kiddush Lunch Cost: There is no cost for this event Are you ready to giggle, chuckle, and laugh out loud? Temple Israel is hosting a Shabbat laughter session with Sarah Routman to bring more joy into your life! Don’t miss it - it’s going to be hearty and hilariously fun! Like the saying goes laughter IS the best medicine. RSVP to 937.496.0050.

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PAGE 8

By Andrew Lapin, JTA After three college presidents were denounced for testifying in Congress that context matters in evaluating potentially antisemitic or genocidal speech, universities across the country have stated that calls for genocide are always against their schools’ rules.

But there is still deep disagreement and confusion — both among Jewish groups and college administrators — about what constitutes genocidal speech and how it should be punished. Notably, even antisemitism watchdogs that called for consequences for the college presidents appear reluctant to say whether some frequent pro-Palestinian slogans should be Demonstrators at the Islamic Council of Dayton's 'Stop the genocide!!! Ceasefire now!!!' peace rally considered genocidal. at Dayton's Courthouse Square, Nov. 10.

The reluctance raises questions Israel activist who spoke to JTA said the about whether the congressional hearpunishment should depend on “coning, which drew widespread attention and the resignation of one of the college text,” acknowledging that he was using the very phrase that drove much of the presidents, will have any practical efbacklash to the university presidents. A fects on campus discourse about Israel few others declined to state exactly how that some say is dangerous to Jewish such students should be punished. students.

“Chants like ‘From the river to the Amid sharp, fierce criticism followsea’ and ‘Globalize the intifada’ are ing the hearing, some officials took the deeply offensive and antisemitic and opportunity to proactively announce are unquestionably contributing to that calling for genocide wouldn’t be hostile environments for Jewish and allowed on their campuses.

Israeli students on campuses across the In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul country,” a spokesperson for the Antisent a letter to the heads of her state’s Defamation League said. public universities instructing them But the ADL stopped short of definthat “calling for the genocide of any ing such chants as de facto calls for group of people” should “lead to swift Jewish genocide, and its own webdisciplinary action.” Stanford Universite’s description of the phrases does sity, meanwhile, released a statement not include the term saying that “calls for The ADL stopped “genocide.” The website the genocide of Jews say that “intifada” or any peoples… short of defining such does refers to violence such would clearly violate” chants as 'From the as that of the second the school’s code of two decades conduct. river to the sea' and intifada ago, when approximateBut what, exactly, counts as a call for 'Globalize the intifada' ly 1,000 Israelis were in terror attacks. genocide? Do popuas de facto calls for killed Neither Hochul’s lar pro-Palestinian office nor Stanford’s chants that many Jews Jewish genocide. public relations repreconsider threatensentatives responded to ing — like calling for questions about whether they consid“intifada” — run afoul of the rules? ered such phrases to meet the definition And how should students be punished of calling for genocide of Jews, nor how if those rules are broken? they would discipline them.

In the wake of the hearing that Julia Jassey, a recent college graduprompted those questions, some of ate and the CEO of the campus antithe leading U.S. campus antisemitism semitism watchdog Jewish on Campus, watchdogs said they could not easily called those phrases “antisemitic in be answered. The groups condemned chants such as “intifada” and “From the impact” but would not say whether students who use them should be disciriver to the sea, Palestine will be free,” plined. but demurred from explicitly calling “Practically, the impact of saying them genocidal.

‘From the river to the sea’ calls into Representatives of two groups sugquestion the existence, the legitimacy, gested that students who call for genothe lives of the folks who are living cide should be suspended. One pro-

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JANUARY 2024

THE WORLD there who are Jewish,” Jassey said.

When asked whether those phrases should be subject to disciplinary measures, Jassey, like other campus antisemitism activists who spoke to JTA, said it was largely up to the universities.

“I think that university administrations have an obligation to be clear,” she said, adding that they should “condemn” such language whether it comes from students or faculty. “It’s really important to prioritize the impact,” she said.

The ADL statement on the phrases further said universities had “clear legal obligations” to “respond” to such language.

But beyond noting that the response should include some form of disciplinary action, the ADL did not clarify what such a response should be.

The organization said it does push for universities to suspend any student group “that promotes calls for antisemitic violence.”

That may be a reference to Students for Justice in Palestine, which defended Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. The ADL and other Jewish groups called on campuses to withdraw recognition and funding from the group, and in recent weeks, several universities have suspended their SJP chapters.

While there have been a small number of reported incidents of swastikas and chants of “Gas the Jews,” along with others referencing Hitler on campuses this year, chants of “From the river to the sea” and “intifada” have been far more common.

Responding to video of a recent event held by the Co-

lumbia University chapters of and does not believe students SJP and the anti-Zionist group or university personnel should Jewish Voice for Peace at which be penalized for using it. She protesters chanted “intifada,” added that her group does not the International Legal Forum, endorse calls for violence and an Israel-based group, called said, “No one on campuses the chant “a direct and unadul- is calling for the genocide of terated call for violence and Jews and there is no evidence genocide.” The group pushed of this.” She repeated her Columbia to publicly condemn group’s repeated accusation in the activists and “ban these the wake of Oct. 7 that Israel is hate groups once and for all.” committing “a genocide against Columbia had suspended Palestinians in Gaza.” both groups for the remainder Meyerson-Knox said that of the fall semester.

JVP bases its guidelines on inThose who chant those ternational law. “Resistance ‘by phrases object to the notion any means necessary,’ not so that they are calls for genocide. much. Popular resistance, absoA spokesperson she said.

Those who chant lutely,” for JVP said that “There is a big difthe group does not those phrases ference there.” consider “From the When asked object to the river to the sea” to about the pro-Palbe antisemitic. notion that they estinian phrases, “JVP underthe general are calls for stands that to be counsel for Hillel an absolute right genocide.

International, the for anyone to be umbrella group free from the river to the sea,” for campus Jewish centers, told Sonya Meyerson-Knox, the JTA that students who chant group’s communications man“From the river to the sea” ager, said. “So Palestine will be “need to be educated” on the free, Israeli Jews will be free. fact that the phrase appears in One person’s freedom does not Hamas’ charter. take away another person’s “What’s relevant is whether freedom. Unless, of course, it’s it lands on Jewish students in a supremacist state, which on the campus as an attack, a is what the Israeli government potentially genocidal attack, on has been doing for 75 years.” the Jewish people, a plurality She likewise said that the of whom now live in Israel,” group also does not consider the counsel, Mark Rotenberg, use of the term “intifada” to be said. equivalent to a call for violence, Rotenberg added that a

university “has a responsibility to not allow these kinds of endorsements of violence to be misunderstood,” comparing the chants to a student placing a noose in an area of campus “knowing that Black students will see it.”

He did suggest what administrations might do to a student or staff member who took such an action.

“Universities will discipline, suspend and terminate the employment of people in the university community who engage in that kind of speech activity,” he said.

Watchdog groups devoted to the issue of campus antisemitism — some of which have spent years filing federal civil rights complaints that included objecting to the use of pro-Palestinian language on campus — were somewhat vague as to how schools should discipline students who use them.

“The consequences that would be appropriate would be those provided for by school regulations or by law,” Gerard Filitti, general counsel for the pro-Israel legal group the Lawfare Project, said.

The Lawfare Project has filed federal civil rights challenges to college campuses via the Department of Education, including one at Columbia University from 2019 that the department reopened in the wake of Oct. 7.

Asked what kinds of conse-

quences would be appropriate, Filitti offered a range of options without saying which would best fit the offense.

“Whether that includes suspension, or a mandatory training about antisemitism, including anti-Zionism, or whether that includes expulsion, I think that is, to borrow a phrase that was spoken of...context-specific,” he said, referencing the university presidents’ answers to the question of whether calls for genocide of Jews violated their codes.

He added that universities should consider “the whole range of remedies available as consequences under the codes of the schools.”

The Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, another pro-Israel legal group active in campus lawsuits, also did not offer thoughts on Continued on Page 20

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South Dayton Area Retired Teacher, Business Man Many K/O references!

Martin Luther King Jr. Shabbat Saturday, Jan. 13, 9:30 a.m.

Join us for a bima dialogue with Pastor Ken Moss from The Potter’s House and Rav Aubrey Glazer on the enduring teachings of MLK today.

Kiddush lunch to follow.

I live behind Alter High School Call Kevin CELL: 937-751-5501 THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JANUARY 2024

Catering & Online Delivery Available Pastor Moss

Rav Glazer

Beth Abraham, Dayton’s only Conservative synagogue, is enthusiastically egalitarian and is affiliated with the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.

For our complete program schedule, go to bethabrahamdayton.org.

305 Sugar Camp Circle • Dayton, Ohio 45409 937•293•9520 • www.bethabrahamdayton.org

Greene Town Center

72 Plum Street Beavercreek, Ohio 937-429 9000 www.pashagrill.com PAGE 9

THE WORLD

Hundreds of U.S. synagogues receive bomb threats as spree continues despite arrests Swatting wave includes Piqua, Ohio congregation Temple Anshe Emeth

Temple Anshe Emeth in Piqua was among the Jewish congregations and institutions to receive a swatting threat in mid December.

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By Philissa Cramer, JTA Hundreds of synagogues and Jewish institutions across the United States received bomb threats by email between Friday, Dec. 15 and Monday, Dec. 18, in A swatting threat sent to Temple Anshe a substantial acceleration of a monthsEmeth's email the morning of Dec. 18. long spree of hoax threats. threats.

The Secure Community Network, The surge in threats comes at a time which coordinates security for Jewish of high anxiety for American Jews amid institutions nationwide, said that it had a spike in reports of antisemitic incitracked 199 threats over the weekend, dents amid Israel’s war in Gaza. with nearly 100 in California and 62 in It also follows multiple arrests of Arizona. Synagogues in at least 17 states people who have been charged with plus Washington, D.C., were affected, sending bomb threats targeting Jewaccording to local media reports. ish and other institutions, including a None of the threats was deemed minor in California in December and a credible after local investigations. But man in Peru in September. some of them caused significant disHundreds of synagogues have ruption: A Boulder, Colo. synagogue received bomb threats evacuated its Shabbat The surge in threats since the latest spree morning services on began over the sumSaturday, for example, comes at a time mer, including during while a congregation in the High Holidays. The western Massachusetts of high anxiety for canceled its Sunday American Jews amid arrests do not appear to blunting the threats. religious school. a spike in reports of be “Unfortunately, In Alabama, the state’s only Jewish law- antisemitic incidents there is reason to believe that this namaker, Philip Ensler, amid Israel's war tionwide trend will posted a video to social in Gaza. continue in the foreseemedia showing the able future,” the Jewish moment that the Torah Federation of Northern New Jersey told reading at his synagogue was intercommunity members in an email Dec. rupted and everyone in attendance was 17 sharing news of at least five threats ushered outside. “This is exhausting,” in the area. he tweeted. “I pray for the day that we Temple Anshe Emeth in Piqua, Ohio, can worship and live in peace.” shared with The Dayton Jewish Observer Ensler, who is also executive directhat the congregation received an email tor of the Jewish Federation of Central bomb threat Monday morning, Oct. 18.

Alabama, later said in a Federation Leaders of the temple then met with statement that six of seven Jewish Piqua's police chief. institutions in his area had received the

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PAGE 10

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JANUARY 2024

January 2024 JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON & ITS AGENCIES

SUN

MON

TUE

WED

THU

FRI

SAT

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UPCOMING EVENTS WEDNESDAYS, 12:30 - 3:30PM Open Canasta

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MONDAYS (except January 1), 12 - 12:45PM JFS: Let's Talk

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THURSDAY, JANUARY 11, 7PM Cultural Arts & Book Series — David Abromowitz SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 6:30PM Havdalah Glow 2.0

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THURSDAY, JANUARY 25, 7PM Cultural Arts & Book Series — Benyamin Cohen SATURDAY, JANUARY 27, 7PM JCC Boomers Game Night

3

Connect with us! Check out our events. For more information, check out our calendar at jewishdayton.org.

at

Join 2,000 Jewish teens from across the globe for an Olympic-style sports experience.

Be part of the magic!

JOIN TEAM OHIO!

Interested teens and parents please reach out to Marc Jacob at 937-401-1545 or mjacob@jfgd.net.

A Jewish Teen Experience you will not forget. Spaces are limited.

SPORTS SPECIALTIES

DETROIT For Jewish athletes representing their communities

July 28 - August 2

for ages 12-16 (as of April 1st)

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JANUARY 2024

Baseball Basketball Dance Ice Hockey

Girls Volleyball Soccer Table Tennis

Tennis Swimming Golf

PAGE 11

January 2024 JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON & ITS AGENCIES

JANUARY

&

FEBRUARY To purchase tickets for in-person events or to register for free events, please visit jewishdayton.org/events or call 937-610-1555

Thursday, January 11 7PM In partnership with Washington-Centerville Public Library

Livestream at the Woodbourne Library (6060 Far Hills Avenue, Centerville, 45459) No Cost David Abromowitz The Foxtail Legacy 3 Continents, 3 Generations, 1 American Dream • The Foxtail Legacy is a multigenerational saga spanning Russia, South Africa, and America at the turn of the 20th century. Driven to be a “big man,” Jacob Itzkowitz rises from peddler to business mogul, but his plotting and double-dealing threaten both his growing empire and the legacy he’s built for his family.

Jewish Community Center OF GREATER DAYTON

Thursday, February 8 7PM In partnership with Wright Memorial Public library

Thursday, January 25 7PM via Zoom No Cost

Livestream at Wright Memorial Public Library

Benyamin Cohen The Einstein Effect — How the World’s Favorite Genius Got Into Our Cars, Our Bathrooms, and Our Minds Physicist to Pop Culture Icon • Albert Einstein’s genius continues to define our everyday lives, and his enduring legacy has shaped him into a modern-day pop culture icon. But it’s not just his genius that continues to shape our world.

The Einstein Effect reveals the innumerable ways his influence is still with us today.

(1776 Far Hills Avenue, Oakwood, 45419) No Cost Natasha Rogoff Muppets in Moscow — The Unexpected Crazy True Story of Making Sesame Street in Russia Muppet Ambassadors? • With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the timing appeared perfect to bring Sesame Street to post-Communist Russia.

Tasked with producing the series, Natasha Lance Rogoff faced bombings, attempted assassinations, office takeovers, artistic arguments, cultural tiffs, and financial setbacks. And prevailed. It reads like fiction, but Muppets in Moscow is true.

JCC CULTURAL ARTS PROGRAMMING IS MADE POSSIBLE BY A GRANT FROM OUR COMMUNITY SUPPORTER OHIO ARTS COUNCIL IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE JEWISH BOOK COUNCIL.

A Women’s Freedom Seder

O U R J O U R N E Y TO WA R D S C O M M U N I T Y

S ave the d ate!

Thurday, April 4

6 - 9PM at Beth Abraham Synagogue 350 Sugar Camp Circle, Oakwood, 45409 $54 per person. RSVP online by March 14 at jewishdayton.org/events or contact Stacy Emoff at semoff@jfgd.net The Jewish Community Center is proud to collaborate with the women from Beth Abraham Synagogue, Beth Jacob Congregation, Hadassah, Temple Beth Or, and Temple Israel.

PAGE 12

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JANUARY 2024

January 2024 JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON & ITS AGENCIES

A Starry Tu B’Shevat Camp-in Saturday, January 20 6:30 – 8:30PM Chabad of Greater Dayton 2001 Far Hills Avenue, Oakwood, 45419 Pitch your tent at this back-to-nature fruit-themed camp-in.

Families will start the night with Havdallah and star gazing with the Miami Valley Astronomical Society, then get ready for a camp-in experience to remember!

To register, visit jewishdayton.org/events Questions? Please contact Kate Elder at kelder@jfgd.net

T H G I N GAME Saturday, January 27, 7–9PM The Boonshoft Center for Jewish Culture & Education 525 Versailles Drive, Centerville, 45459 Join your JCC Boomers Group friends for a fun night of your favorite card games including Gin Rummy, Poker, Uno, Euchre and more!

Bring a wrapped left over or unwanted Chanukah gift for a CRAZY White Elephant Exchange!

Cost: $15 -Includes Hors D’oeuvres, Desserts, Soft Drinks, Beer, Wine, and tons of fun!

RSVP at jewishdayton.org/events or contact Stacy Emoff at semoff@jfgd.net or call (937) 610-5513.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JANUARY 2024

PAGE 13

January 2024 JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON & ITS AGENCIES

Legacies, Tributes, & Memorials FEDERATION

ANNUAL CAMPAIGN In memory of Sonna Tuck Harvey Tuck ISRAEL EMERGENCY FUND In celebration of Susan Mallitz’s 80th birthday Susan and Joe Gruenberg and Family CAROLE RABINOWITZ CAMP FUND In memory of Brenda Spector In honor of Marc Katz’s recovery In memory of William Bernie Beverly Louis PAST PRESIDENTS FUND In memory of William Bernie Ralph and Sylvia Heyman JEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER DAYTON ENDOWMENT FUND In memory of William Bernie Maureen and Marc Sternberg Marlene and Henry Maimon In honor of Cathy Gardner’s NCCJ Award Marlene and Henry Maimon In honor of Cathy Gardner’s NCCJ Award Marni Flagel

CAROL J. PAVLOFSKY LEADERSHIP FUND In memory of Brenda Spector In memory of DeNeal Feldman In memory of Dr. Chuck Love’s mother In memory of Barbara Ornstein In memory of Coushatta and Garret Welsch’s father In memory of David Char Marlene and David Miller JEWISH CEMETERIES OF GREATER DAYTON In memory of DeNeal Feldman Susie and Eddie Katz and Lois Unger Melinda and Bill Doner and Family Heath Gilbert John Duby Karen and Michael Weprin Stacy Emoff Kathy and Mark Gordon Barbara and Jim Weprin Joan and Peter Wells Marla and Steve Harlan Sharon and Dale Schiff Donna and Marshall Weiss Marty and Suzanne Weinberg Mindy and Garry Greene Maureen and Marc Sternberg Andi Rabiner and Marilyn Scher Michael and Carolyn Rice Linda Ohlman Kahn and Lori Kahn Robert and Nora Newsock Michael and Susan Riordan Gerald Parisi Patty and Michael Caruso and Family

The Levin Family Julie and Rick Kantor Mr. and Mrs. Stanley J. Katz Sylvia Blum Barbara and Stewart Abrams Jessica and Jeff Sacks Mark and Sharon Natarus and Family Mary and Gary Youra Beverly Louis Stacy and Steve Marlowe and Family Jason’s Indiana University Friends HOLOCAUST PROGRAMMING FUND In memory of David Char Kathy and Mark Gordon EDWARD R. HATTENBACH MEMORIAL In memory of Helene Kirzner Shelley Hattenbach Brian and Tina Goldstein-Hattenbach JOE BETTMAN MEMORIAL TZADIK AWARD In memory of DeNeal Feldman In memory of David Char Jean and Todd Bettman Elaine Bettman JCC

CHILDREN’S CULTURAL FUND In memory of DeNeal Feldman Dr. and Mrs. Jeff Mikutis

Jewish Family Services of Greater Dayton

JFS: Let's Talk Every Monday, except December 25 and January 1 12 - 12:45 PM via Zoom YOU ARE NOT ALONE! Since the October 7, 2023 terrorist attack in Israel and the taking of hostages, the war, and the subsequent increase in antisemitism, many of us are struggling to process these difficult and emotional events. JFS wants to provide you with a safe, nonjudgmental, confidential space to be heard and to process complicated emotions. During these drop-in sessions with JFS staff, expect to: • Have your camera on. This is for everyone’s protection so that we know who is in the Zoom room.

• Have the opportunity to share your emotional struggles, fears and concerns, UNINTERRUPTED. Please note that these sessions will focus on emotions and not politics or events.

• Maintain confidentiality. These sessions will not be recorded and, by choosing to participate, you are agreeing to maintain confidentiality.

Let us support each other. RSVP is required. Once you sign up for a date(s), JFS will email you the link to register for the Zoom link. RSVP online at jewishdayton.org/events.

PAGE 14

Heuman Scholarship & Interest-free Student Loans

Applications will be available starting January 2.

Completed applications are due Friday, March 29.

Are you a member of the Dayton Jewish community who plans on attending a two- or four-year college, technical program, or graduate school in the academic year 2024-2025? If so, you may be eligible to apply for a college scholarship and/or interest-free student loan through the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton.

It is easy to apply for both incredible opportunities at the same time on a single, unified application.

To request the application and to learn more about the Heuman Scholarship, please contact Alisa Thomas, Executive Assistant, at 937-610-1796 or athomas@jfgd.net.

If you have questions specific to interest-free student loans, please contact Tara Feiner, Executive Director of Jewish Family Services, at 937-401-1546 or tfeiner@jfgd.net.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JANUARY 2024

OPINION

Why university presidents failed their tests

By Mark Rotenberg The now outgoing president of the University of Pennsylvania is a highly accomplished scholar. She, along with the presidents of Harvard and MIT, have had years of experience preparing for and taking exams and have inexhaustible resources at their fingertips to help them get ready.

Yet, these three presidents so spectacularly failed their latest exam at a congressional hearing Dec. 5 to discuss the record levels of antisemitism on campus that Penn President Elizabeth Magill was forced to resign while Harvard President Claudine Gay had to make an abject apology for testimony which Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Tribe called “hesitant, formulaic, and bizarrely evasive.”

Indeed, the now infamous performance by these university leaders before the House Education and Workforce Committee managed to generate a remarkably widespread chorus of condemnations from the White House, Mark Rotenberg is vice president for university initiatives and general counsel at Hillel International. He oversees Hillel's Campus Climate Initiative. Originally published by the Times of Israel.

leading Democrats and Republicans, and business and community leaders.

As a former university general counsel serving as an advisor to five university presidents and having previously worked at the law firm that prepared Magill and Gay for their testimony, I know how thoroughly presidents prepare for important public presentations and hearings. So what possible explanation is there for this extraordinary leadership flameout?

One major factor is a deeply embedded misunderstanding among many higher education leaders that upholding free speech principles requires tacit acceptance of an increasingly toxic campus environment for Jewish students.

When asked explicitly whether advocating genocide against Jews was a violation of the schools’ student conduct codes, Magill began her answer by highlighting Penn’s commitment to free speech and then observed that, “It is a context-dependent decision.”

Her response was echoed by Gay, who declared that, “We embrace a commitment to free expression and give a wide berth to free expression even of views that are objectionable, outrageous and offensive.” These answers betray a serious misconception of how free-speech

principles should apply on campus.

Colleges and universities typically say they exist for the purposes of teaching, learning, and research. Free speech and related principles of academic freedom are critically important in order to foster these objectives. As Justice Felix Frankfurter famously observed in Sweezy v. New Hampshire, “the spirit of free inquiry (and) the right to examine, question, modify or reject traditional ideas and beliefs…are the necessary conditions for the advancement of scientific knowledge (and are) also necessary for creative work in the arts.”

But increasingly, university leaders and faculty have developed an intellectually lazy habit of ignoring this foundational rationale for free speech in the academy. The contours of the right to free speech, like all other rights that we Americans cherish, can be determined only if we appreciate the purpose of such a right in the first place.

Free speech in a university context exists to foster the particular goals of an academic community. Speech activity that is self-evidently unhinged from the university’s scholarly mission and instead operates to impede that mission by directly attacking an insular minority on campus should not be shielded

from any disciplinary consequences.

To cite a real-world example, a member of the university community who places a noose in a campus location knowingly frequented by Black students can, and should, be disciplined for that speech activity. That’s because the speech activity in no way fosters the academic purposes of the school, but instead creates a hostile educational environment for Black students in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act which requires the school to eliminate the hostile environment, address its effects, and take steps to ensure that it does not recur. Ignoring the reason why universities should protect free speech leads them to misapply the principle in cases where it serves no valid purpose, and instead creates a climate of intimidation and fear that violates students’ civil rights and denies them equal educational opportunities.

A second reason underlying these presidents’ problematic testimony is what might be called the “Jewish students exception” to diversity, equity and inclusion protections on campus.

Virtually no DEI offices in American higher education were established with any consideration for Jewish students’ Continued on Page 16

The fight about how to deal with antisemitism: an unsatisfying debate

By Martin Gottlieb I wish I could believe that the huge, angry reaction against the congressional testimony by the presidents of three elite universities will do something about the rising tide of antisemitism, but I don’t.

The reaction seems to me a pathetic search for easy scapegoats. We can’t do anything about the marchers, the haters, the single-minded polarizing war policy of Israel or the preexisting problems of the Mideast or about the vast, legitimate, passionate differences of opinion about Mideast issues. But we can fire American college presidents. Great.

The immediate offense of the presidents – waffling on questions about whether they can legitimately repress calls for genocide against Jews – is understandable.

For some years now, universities have come under intense criticism for failing to protect freedom of speech. That criticism has come mainly from the political right, which sees itself as the main victim.

But others have seen merit in the complaints, which have been taken seriously not only at elite schools, but others. And they should be.

But now the presidents have to shift their defense, from rebutting the charge that they are too repressive to rebutting the charge that they are too permissive. Like a boxer might who suddenly finds an opponent shifting from right-handed to left-handed, they have had difficulty adjusting.

The questions from Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) were fair enough, given the rules of politics. But calls for genocide were not precisely the problem that the presidents had been focused on. They’ve been confronted with calls for intifada and for rejection of Zionism and with chants like “from the river to the sea” and “free Palestine.”

Although many people see genocidal impulses at work in those calls, the presidents would be hard-pressed to ban them. At the hearing, the presidents were reluctant to

So, what do you think?

start down the slippery-slope of speech repression, aware of political pitfalls there, too.

They didn’t handle the questions well. But the fact that all three stumbled in similar ways ought to tell us something about the difficult spot they were in.

At any rate, they are clearly not antisemitic. Some people do seem to believe that the presidents are insufficiently focused on the concerns of Jews, as opposed to other minorities.

The charge has been made that their answers would have been different if the minority in question had been Black people, rather than Jews. That seems like something to talk to them about, rather than fire them over, given that they are people of good will.

Or is the main charge simply that they are excessively rigid in defense of free speech? If so, they are caught in a whipsaw, given recent history.

What the presidents got caught up in is a fight about how to deal with antisemitism.

This is an inherently unsat-

isfying debate. If there were an effective way to dispose of antisemitism, it would have been found by now. Ignoring antisemitism is as unsatisfying and dangerous as ignoring any festering problem.

But repressing it runs the risk of making it more attractive to some because it is forbidden, while running the additional risk of changing the debate into one about free speech.

An attempt to find a middle ground between those two options fosters endless debate about exactly where it should be, while offering little hope of success because you’re watering down two inherently flawed approaches. It’s tinkering.

In fact, the debate itself can become harmful if it simply divides the good guys, if it results in some opponents of antisemitism trashing other opponents of it. That’s the wrong fight.

In 2009, some Israeli film makers came out with Defamation, a documentary arguing

that antisemitism was largely dead and that Jews ought to stop worrying about it. The film targeted the Anti-Defamation League for its obsession with an allegedly solved problem. Many American Jews – hardly victimized by antisemitism, if at all – would have seen some merit in the movie’s argument.

But now here we are – long after that movie and a century after the birth of the ADL – and antisemitism is worse than ever in the lives of millions now alive.

Clearly, in the rise and fall of antisemitism, forces are at work that are bigger than can be accounted for by any analysis of who’s doing what to combat it. Fighting over which well-intentioned people should be running universities might make us feel like we’re doing something useful. But it’s only a feeling.

Retired Dayton Daily News editorial writer Martin Gottlieb is the advisor to The Dayton Jewish Observer.

Views expressed by columnists, in readers’ letters, and in opinion Send letters (350 words max.) to The Dayton Jewish Observer, pieces do not necessarily reflect the opinion of staff or layleaders of 525 Versailles Dr., Dayton, OH 45459 • MWeiss@jfgd.net The Dayton Jewish Observer or the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JANUARY 2024

PAGE 15

OPINION

University presidents

Continued from Page 15 needs. Even today, after the alarming rise in antisemitism on campus has been called out by President Biden and his administration, as well as

by Congressional leaders and state officials across the country, Jewish students routinely experience a cold shoulder from DEI and other studentfacing administrators who do little to protect them from an explosion of intimidation, marginalization, and bullying in classrooms, in social media, and in the quad.

Too often, Jewish students are stereotyped as privileged, White, and wealthy students who are undeserving of the protections and services offered to other minority campus populations.

This discrimination not only is an erasure of the 28% of Jews between the ages of 18-29 who identify as Jews of color or Mizrahi Jews; it is a violation of federal and state civil rights laws and a betrayal of the very mission proclaimed by the schools these students are attending.

It is a stark and sad truth that while Presidents Gay, Magill, and their DEI offices likely would find it easy to express unconditional condemnation of similar behavior inflicted on other minority groups on their campuses, the “Jewish students’ exception” makes them visibly uncomfortable answering detailed questions about their schools’ protection of Jewish students’ civil rights, explaining that they must “contextualize” their responses to genocidal threats behind a haze of free speech ideas and student privacy rules that leave Jewish students with little faith that their school will take their claims of harassment seriously.

Let’s be clear: Nothing in the law of free speech, academic freedom, or student privacy prevents university presidents from forthrightly declaring that advocating genocide of Jews or any other group is barred by their student conduct policies.

If those policies aren’t clear enough on this point, then they should commit to making them clear. The time for obfuscation and avoidance is over. The time for moral clarity and leadership is now.

How Oct. 7 is reshaping the Zionist — and anti-Zionist — left in the U.S.

By Yehuda Kurtzer Tragedy and trauma can have unintended consequences. It is becoming clear that the seismic events of Oct. 7 have created aftershocks in the American Jewish political map that could reshape its contours for years to come.

I see two clear political realignments that are operating in tandem. The first is that the messy mainstream of American Jews is energized anew toward identification with Israel and the Jewish people, expressing that identification with levels of belonging that represent a reversal of decades of assimilation and decline, and coalescing back into a big tent.

The second is a real rupture between the Jewish left and the rest of the Jewish community to which it was once attached, and its coalescence into a separate tent of its own.

When I talk about the messy mainstream, what I mean is the politically and religiously liberal majority of American Jews, who have a wide variety of observance and affiliation rates.

It is messy because this group exhibits deep disagreements about the value and meaning of boundaries between Jews and non-Jews, and tends to behave and practice Judaism in ways that challenge the very existence of such boundaries.

This is the sector of Jewish life that many of us have watched and worried about for the past few decades as its connection to Israel eroded, whether because of concern over Israel’s increasingly rightwing governance, or simply out of distance and apathy.

At the Shalom Hartman Institute we’ve termed this group the “troubled-committed,” and we’ve worried that this population was at risk of exiting from the Jewish community.

Now I see signs of reengagement, reflected in higher turnout at synagogue, Hillel and Chabad events, and expressed on social media as a response to a sense of alienation from a gentile world that does not take Jewish pain and trauma seriously. This is happening at all ages.

For some liberal Jews, this act of recognition and return

So, what do you think?

PAGE 16

may reflect a real existential transformation away from those exact liberal values and commitments they held dear for a long time. It is something of a replay of the prior generation’s anti-Communist turn in the 1960s and 1970s, a journey inward from the universal to the particular.

One colleague, a university professor horrified by colleagues’ inabilities to mouth even platitudes condemning Oct. 7, told me she is leading herself through an active process of “de-lefting.”

For others it may be less radical, and more subtle. Many are simply realizing that they have always been more ontologically Jewish than they acknowledged, and are feeling more emotionally available to be claimed by the needs of the Jewish people.

American Jews who feel frustrated that their liberal allies didn’t show up reciprocally as they themselves stood for racial justice are not now going to abandon their commitments to racial justice or other movements. They are just more likely now than before to be more cautious in their expectations from the whole business of allyship. Liberal Jews have long been castigated by some on the far left as “progressives except for Palestine.” Now that epithet may become true, and a source of pride.

Big tent makes comeback

With an increased interest in belonging, the Jewish community’s big tent is making a comeback. That tent had been contracting for decades, thanks to exoduses on either end of the political map, along with a self-defeating tendency to more aggressively police its boundaries.

But in the last few weeks, the establishment organizations kicked into gear with wildly successful campaigns of crisis fundraising, rallies, and solidarity missions.

It’s been an important reminder of the absolute necessity of unwieldy consensus political instruments and the muscle memory of solidarity that had atrophied over time.

This is all a big deal. It

means the return, for individuals, of Jewish political identities that are a little less partisan and a little more discerning in terms of broader agendas. On a collective level, a revitalized Jewish big tent makes possible more diversity of views within the organized Jewish community, and might even translate to a more effective exercise of Jewish communal power. A community divided cannot advocate for itself.

The broad tent was on display at the rally in Washington Nov. 14. I was grateful that the so-called peace bloc of progressive Zionist organizations showed up — and, at odds with some others in the crowd, insisted on booing the Rev. John Hagee when he took the podium.

In both showing up and expressing their displeasure, these groups showed their full-throated commitment to redefining the tent poles so they are included — and so that extreme voices on the right are at least as uncomfortable in that tent as they are.

In the messiness of the big tent, we commit enough to what we share to tolerate our disagreements; then, protected by the overarching framework, we fight like hell on those disagreements. This means that the establishment now must be far more welcoming to the Zionist left: If they are standing in the tent despite their discomfort, it is on those holding the tent poles to make them feel more comfortable.

This is not just a reciprocal obligation. It is a necessity, because if the establishment keeps pushing its left flank out — as it has for decades, to organizations like J Street and the New Israel Fund — it will risk losing all the gains it is currently making, the vast numbers of people waking up now to Israel’s vulnerability and prioritizing that awareness as part of their political identities.

A stronger tent can easily lead to a stronger response against those who choose to stand outside of it. There is a reckoning underway in Jewish philanthropy and institutional life, as organizations are revis-

iting their grant portfolios and mission statements to make their commitments to Israel and Jewish peoplehood clearer — and cutting ties where they feel compromised.

But it would be self-defeating for the revitalized liberal Zionist mainstream to spend too much energy policing its boundaries. Since the red lines are brighter now than ever, the big tent should be inclusive of anyone seeking to belong.

One fascinating outcome of this could mean that we stop the decades-long obsession with intermarriage as the marker of Jewish peoplehood.

After Oct. 7, identification with the Jewish people at a time of suffering is a much healthier and maybe more accurate indicator of belonging.

Some will doubtlessly see this as redefining the parameters of Jewishness through loyalty to Israel. This is sometimes criticized as making “proIsraelism” a replacement of “Judaism.” I disagree: Some of our oldest and most traditional understandings of belonging to the Jewish people are rooted in exactly this question — In a moment of crisis, are you with us?

A tent of their own

That is exactly the question that has defined the second major political shift, the hardening of the Jewish far left around anti-Zionism, and the construction of an alternative tent.

Prior to Oct. 7, I was sensitive to the nuanced distinctions among organizations like IfNotNow, Jewish Voice for Peace, and — outside the Jewish community — Students for Justice in Palestine.

Since Oct. 7, the differences between these organizations have functionally collapsed.

They have embraced a shared strategy and, with only a few exceptions, coalesced their movements into the same protests, vocabulary, and messaging.

The most dramatic expression of that shared messaging is what seems now an open repudiation of Zionism altogether, and a stark commitment to tendentious rhetoric about colonialism, the Israeli

Views expressed by columnists, in readers’ letters, and in opinion Send letters (350 words max.) to The Dayton Jewish Observer, pieces do not necessarily reflect the opinion of staff or layleaders of 525 Versailles Dr., Dayton, OH 45459 • MWeiss@jfgd.net The Dayton Jewish Observer or the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JANUARY 2024

OPINION perpetration of genocide, and other left dogmas that situate their commitments squarely outside the framework of Jewish communal respectability.

This shift includes an implicit decision to no longer even seek to influence the establishment, which was essential to the founding of IfNotNow nearly 10 years ago. That group’s founders were products of Jewish institutional systems and then wanted them to reflect the values systems they claimed to espouse.

I remember being in the lobby of an AIPAC conference with a group of rabbis whose children were outside with IfNotNow. The adjacency to the establishment and these bonds of kinship gave the critique of the protesters immense power.

The clear decision since Oct. 7 to instead constitute a bloc that swims entirely in the language and politics of the left, rather than remaining adjacent to the Jewish community, may be liberating for these organizations.

They may benefit from more stakeholders and more passionate participation. But it is also freeing for the left end of the establishment to feel unburdened by these organizations.

In some ways, this left solidarity is not surprising and follows from the solidarity process underway over in the center. Those outside a major moment of consolidation, who feel threatened by it, circle their own wagons.

I understand that some on the far left feel that the Jewish community has moved the goal posts in what they see as an embrace of war and what they characterize as depraved indifference to mass Palestinian death.

While mainstream American Jews see Oct. 7 as a reminder of Jewish victimhood, those on the far left see the Israeli response as breaking new ground in Jewish aggression. And this may mean they are willing to accept the

philanthropic and institutional consequences of their self-imposed ostracism.

This signals an end of an era, when both the establishment and the Jewish left accept the terms of the rupture.

member of the Jewish left’s tent, just as many of us were uncomfortable with Hagee speaking at the Washington rally.

But no one in the messy mainstream would place Hagee at the center of our Centering the Palestinian struggle movement, and we tolerate folks in our This shift was, perhaps, foreshadmidst who dissent from his involveowed when the leftist magazine Jewish ment altogether.

Currents published an article in 2021 in I have yet to see any public dissent which a Palestinian intellectual argued within the Jewish left about Sarsour’s for the legitimacy of resistance against prominent role at the Manhattan Bridge Israel “by any means necessary.” In event — or frankly, about any of the the immediate aftermath of Oct. 7, it many egregious, outrageous moral failonly became more blunt. One Currents ings it has exhibited since Oct. 7. contributing editor tweeted, “Glory to The only dissent has come from the resistance,” and a reporter publicly people who are essentially declaring questioned the althat they must leave It is essential that legations of rapes by the movement. I find Palestinian “fighters.” when Jews find ourselves this incriminating, No dissenting ediand also a loss: Those on opposite sides of a torial voice emerged of us not on the left from the magazine’s dividing line, we do not would learn a lot leadership. Wars indehumanize or make one from a version of it herently polarize our that was more openly another proxies for the disagreements, and self-critical and less this was a stark stak- ideologies of institutions dogmatic, and more ing of new ground generous back to us we detest. by a Jewish left that — especially around seems entirely disinthe matters of life and terested in the claims of Jewish peopledeath that the Jewish people now face. hood and solidarity as they define the And I worry that means the Jewish terrain for the vast majority of world left will have no seats at any tables beJewry. sides the ones they set for themselves.

The Jewish left now seems to be thinking of the Palestinian cause not as A new window of opportunity an expression of allyship but as its own These two political realignments offer core identity. When Jewish Voice for us two important possibilities. The first Peace shut down the Manhattan Bridge is to find better ways to differentiate in November, their public imagery between institutions and individuals. placed front and center the PalestinAn even bigger window of opportuian American activist Linda Sarsour, a nity that has finally yawned open is for controversial figure who has sown deep the liberal Zionists and the Zionist left divides in the feminist movement in to join together to reshape the Jewish policing the participation of Zionists. establishment that has ignored them for A generous way to read this is years. through the prism of messy coalitions I have been trying very hard to — that Sarsour is an uncomfortable sustain relationships with people I care

about who are loyal to institutions that do things I cannot tolerate. I think those relationships are the only long-term way that we make sure that individuals do not calcify into ideologies. Just as it is unconscionable for an AIPAC member’s home to be targeted by pro-Palestinian protesters, it is essential that when Jews find ourselves on opposite sides of a dividing line, we do not dehumanize or make one another proxies for the ideologies of institutions we detest. Life is long and people change, and any red lines we draw should focus more on institutions than individuals.

And second, as the liberal Zionists and the Zionist left secure their place in the big tent, the establishment organizations will have to pay attention. The Zionist left is enduring dissent in its ranks and choosing to stay in solidarity with the messiness of the Jewish people. This needs to be rewarded, not derided.

A principled Zionist left here in the U.S. will look and sound a lot more like the Zionist left in Israel. That means a basic paradigm of respecting the dignity and legitimacy of Jewish lives and Jewish self-determination while advancing the cause of Palestinian human, civil, and national rights in the same breath.

A liberal Zionist camp thrives in between the quietism to its right and the shrill certitude to its left. The strengthening of the Zionist left within the messy mainstream is a major cause for optimism; it wards off the ferocity of the anti-Zionist left while simultaneously representing a vision for Jewish politics that blends integrity with belonging, the universal and the particular.

Oct. 7 broke the Jewish polity. Maybe it also will allow us to finally fix it.

Yehuda Kurtzer is president of the Shalom Hartman Institute, a research and education center based in Jerusalem and New York.

Originally published by forward.com.

How ‘decolonization’ became latest flashpoint in discourse over Israel

By Andrew Silow-Carroll Attend or watch footage of a campus pro-Palestinian demonstration these days and you are likely to see someone carrying a sign reading “Decolonization is not a metaphor.” Almost immediately after the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, George Washington University Students for Justice in Palestine put out a statement praising the terrorists, declaring “Decolonization is NOT a metaphor.”

As a political slogan, it may not pack the same punch as “Free Palestine” or “From the river to the sea.” But to activists on both sides of the IsraeliPalestinian divide, the charge that Israel Andrew Silow-Carroll is editor at large of the New York Jewish Week and managing editor for ideas for JTA.

So, what do you think?

is a “settler colonial” state and calls to “decolonize” Palestine are becoming an increasingly potent part of the toxic, perhaps unbridgeable, discourse.

Two nearly simultaneous events inspired me to take a dive into the meaning of the slogan. The first was a news release from the American Jewish Committee announcing that, in light of the “terrifying increase” of antisemitism since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack against Israel, it was adding new terms to its online Translate Hate glossary of antisemitic terms. Among those terms, alongside “from the river to the sea” and the newly added “Globalize the Intifada,” is “settler colonialist.” “Those who oppose the State of Israel as a Jewish state,” writes AJC, use the term to charge that Israel “engages in ethnic cleansing by displacing and dispossess-

ing a native or pre-existing population.”

It goes on to explain why the term is “categorically false.”

More on that in a moment. The second event was a webinar in memory of Hayim Katsman, 32, the Israeli ethnographer and peace activist killed when Hamas infiltrated his kibbutz. The webinar was the launch of a new book of scholarly essays, Settler Indigeneity in the West Bank, that features an essay by Katsman. Like many of the other Jewish and Israeli contributors to the book, Katsman used the term “colonialist” to describe aspects of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, even while recognizing how it can be abused.

In the book’s introduction, its editors, Rachel Z. Feldman and Ian McGonigle, explain why. They acknowledge the argument — put forth by AJC and others

— that unlike the Europeans who colonized Africa, the Americas and Asia, Jews had a longstanding connection to and presence in the Land of Israel, and that the “early Zionist settlers did not have a home empire.”

Or, as AJC puts it, “unlike European settler colonialists who settled colonies to enrich their motherlands, and who maintained a connection to their home countries to which they could return if they so wished, Jews who came to Mandatory Palestine had no motherland in Europe to enrich.”

However, write Feldman and McGonigle, aspects of political Zionism certainly resemble colonialism. “If we read Herzl, if we read Jabotinsky, they’re speaking about a colonizing project,” Feldman said at the book launch, referContinued on Page 23

Views expressed by columnists, in readers’ letters, and in opinion Send letters (350 words max.) to The Dayton Jewish Observer, pieces do not necessarily reflect the opinion of staff or layleaders of 525 Versailles Dr., Dayton, OH 45459 • MWeiss@jfgd.net The Dayton Jewish Observer or the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JANUARY 2024

PAGE 17

MAZEL TOV!

RELIGION

We do really choose life.

By Rabbi Shmuel Klatzkin Chabad of Greater Dayton The year was 1939.

Britain was closing the gates of their mandate in the Holy Land to the Jews just as the Nazi regime Britain had placated was about to conquer Eastern Europe and enslave and slaughter its Jews.

German Jews had been suffering already for six years of ever-increasing oppression.

Martin Buber had been one of those who made it out from Germany in time. In 1938, he left to accept a professorship at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

In 1939, as Britain’s White Paper took effect and Hitler was preparing the war that

Perspectives would start in September, Buber wrote a long letter to Mahatma Gandhi.

The Jews in their anguish expected to find in Gandhi an ally in their own fight. They asked only that Britain not shut off their only escape from Hitler’s hell.

But Gandhi was strangely unsympathetic and primly found the Jews not meeting his standards. Though he rejected Britain’s conqueror’s claim to India, he accepted the claims of Arab imperial conquest, even though it had been superseded by the conquests of first the Ottoman and then the British empires.

Buber was for a binational state. Not only did he abhor the strategy of the Irgun, but even the way of Ben-Gurion was far too belligerent for him.

Buber didn’t feel an entirely Jewish state was necessary.

What was necessary was that the Jews have an equal right to settle in an Arab-Jewish state.

But on the right of the Jews to come to their ancient home again, Buber would not budge.

It seemed to him merely the same as Gandhi’s assertion for the Indian people: to rule themselves in their home, in a state that would be home to Hindu and Muslim equally.

Gandhi clearly saw Hitler’s violent intentions, but his counsel was for suicide, not immigration.

He wrote: “The calculated violence of Hitler may even result in a general massacre of the Jews by way of his first answer…But if the Jewish mind

PAGE 18

The English here could be prepared does not preserve for voluntary sufferthe full meaning ing, even the masof the Hebrew, sacre I have imaged which literally may could be turned into be translated as: If a day of thanksgivsomeone comes to ing and joy.” kill you, rise up to Gandhi was kill him first. hostile even after the The difference is war. After the extersubtle but important. mination of most of “Rise up to kill” the Jews of Europe, requires being preGandhi should have Rabbi Shmuel Klatzkin pared to use violence rejoiced to see his in defense of self dream come true, or others and teaches that the and that he could join in celebrating the accumulated good resolve to use whatever force is necessary can be enough to karma from their sacrifice and deter the would-be murderer. their dream of peaceful indeWe do really choose life. pendence.

Only when the offender forces But in a 1946 essay still opus to choose between his life posing Jewish immigration to the Holy Land, he did not men- and the life or body of his victims, do we employ violence. tion the Holocaust once.

And the effect of our resolution Gandhi’s achievement in to do so creates a better option freeing India by applying – deterrence.

Indian values is very great.

Gandhi’s methods did not But it is properly honored, not stop the Holocaust, nor did by accepting Indian values as those deaths bring joy. It took imperial, but by standing true an incredibly violent struggle to our own values. and lengthy occupation before Jewish law and teachings command us to choose life and Nazism was uprooted. But our demonstrated readiness put preservation of life above to employ such massive force 610 of the 613 commandments. pushed deadly hate underAs Churchill said, “Jaw jaw is ground for many years. better than war war.”

But now it is back. In our But Jewish law sees the response to it, we must reject world as it is. There are people imperialist values. Stand firm who love death more than life and true to our own deepest and who will deal death out insights as a people, to our as much as they can. If we can mighty spiritual heritage. stop them short of their own May our firm resolve to do methods, we must do so. whatever is necessary to stop But it happens that sometimes there is no way to protect murder and sexual violence reestablish deterrence. lives from murder and sexual And in that respite from violence. violence, the forces of peace Our law is very clear on can create facts on the ground, that. The classic text is in the so that violence nowhere again Talmud (Sanhedrin 72a): The will find funds or rationalizaTorah stated a principle: If someone comes to kill you, rise tions from the evil, the foolish or the weak. and kill him first.

Beth Abraham Synagogue

Conservative Rabbi Aubrey L. Glazer Cantor/Dir. of Ed. & Programming Andrea Raizen Fridays, 5 p.m.

Saturdays, 9:30 a.m.

305 Sugar Camp Circle, Oakwood. 937-293-9520. bethabrahamdayton.org

Beth Jacob Congregation

Sam Jacob placed 19 out of 2,000-plus runners and third in his age division at the Turkey Trot race in Phoenix, Ariz. over Thanksgiving. Sam, the son of Allyson and Marc Jacob, is a cross-country runner at Centerville High School.

Sammy Caruso has graduated summa cum laude from University of Michigan-Dearborn with a bachelor's degree in history and political science.

He received a Dean's Medallion for his outstanding leadership.

Sammy, the son of Patty and Mike Caruso, will pursue a career in public affairs, social justice, and advocacy.

In 2023, Lion — the largest family-owned manufacturer of first responder personal protective equipment and uniforms in the United States — celebrated its 125th birthday. The Daytonbased company supplies 50 of the 100 largest fire departments in North America. Lion also develops training technologies for how firefighters can best respond to a range of different scenarios. At the helm of Lion are brothers Steve Schwartz, CEO; and Andy Schwartz, corporate counsel and chief procurement officer.

Send your Mazel Tov announcements to mweiss@jfgd.net.

January

Tevet/Shevat Shabbat Candle Lightings January 5: 5:08 p.m.

January 12: 5:15 p.m.

January 19: 5:23 p.m.

January 26: 5:31 p.m.

New Year for Trees

January 25/15 Shevat Marks springtime in Israel.

Celebrated with picnics, fruit, and planting trees.

Traditional Rabbi Leibel Agar Saturdays, 9:30 a.m. Evening minyans upon request.

7020 N. Main St., Dayton.

937-274-2149. bethjacobcong.org

Temple Anshe Emeth

Reform Rabbinic Intern Gretchen Johnson 320 Caldwell St., Piqua.

Contact Steve Shuchat, 937-7262116, ansheemeth@gmail.com. ansheemeth.org

Temple Beth Or

Reform Rabbi Judy Chessin Asst. Rabbi/Educator Ben Azriel Fridays, 6:30 p.m.

5275 Marshall Rd., Wash. Twp. 937-435-3400. templebethor.com

Temple Beth Sholom

Reform Rabbi Haviva Horvitz 610 Gladys Dr., Middletown.

513-422-8313. templebethsholom.net

Temple Israel

Reform Senior Rabbi Karen BodneyHalasz. Rabbi/Educator Tina Sobo Fri., Jan. 5, 6 p.m.

Fridays, Jan. 12, 19, 26, 6:30 p.m.

130 Riverside Dr., Dayton.

937-496-0050. tidayton.org

Temple Sholom

Reform Rabbi Cary Kozberg 2424 N. Limestone St., Springfield. 937-399-1231. templesholomoh.com

ADDITIONAL SERVICES

Torah Portions January 6: Shemot (Ex. 1:1-6:1)

Tu B’Shevat

CONGREGATIONS

January 13: Vaera (Ex. 6:2-9:35) January 20: Bo (Ex. 10:1-13:16) January 27: Beshalach (Ex. 13:17-17:16)

Chabad of Greater Dayton

Rabbi Nochum Mangel Associate Rabbi Shmuel Klatzkin Youth & Prog. Dir. Rabbi Levi Simon. Beginner educational service Saturdays, 9:30 a.m. 2001 Far Hills Ave. 937-643-0770. chabaddayton.com

Yellow Springs Havurah

Independent Antioch College Rockford Chapel.

Contact Len Kramer, 937-5724840 or len2654@gmail.com.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JANUARY 2024

CALENDAR Classes

Beth Abraham Classes: w.

Rabbi Glazer. Mondays, 10 a.m.: Mishnah Matters on Zoom. Register at 937-2939520.

Beth Jacob Classes: w. Rabbi Agar. Sundays in person, 10 a.m. & Wednesdays on Zoom, 6 p.m.: Beginner Hebrew Class, $100 for new students.

Sundays in person, 11 a.m. & Wednesdays on Zoom, 7 p.m.: Intermediate Hebrew Class, $100 for new students.

Tuesdays, 7 p.m.: Torah Tuesdays on Zoom. Thursdays, 7 p.m.: Thursdays of Thought on Zoom. Call to register, 937274-2149. 7020 N. Main St., Harrison Twp. Chabad Classes: Tuesdays, 8 p.m.: Code of Jewish Law. Wednesdays, 7:30 p.m.: Talmud Class. Thursdays, noon: Parsha Study on Zoom. 2001 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood. 937643-0770. chabaddayton.com.

Temple Beth Or Classes: Thurs., Jan. 4, 7 p.m.: Chai Mitzvah on Zoom. Sat., Jan. 6, 10 a.m.: Apocryphal Study in

person. Sundays, 12:30 p.m.: Adult Hebrew. 5275 Marshall Rd., Wash. Twp. 937-4353400. templebethor.com.

JCC Cultural Arts & Book Series

Temple Israel Classes: Saturdays, 9:15 a.m.: Virtual Torah Study. Tues., 9, 16, 23, 30, noon: Talmud Study. Wednesdays, 10 a.m.: Torah Queeries w. Rabbinic Intern Kit Brewer at home of Ann & Skip Becker.

Fri., Jan. 12, 11 a.m.: Living w.

Loss w. Rabbi Bodney-Halasz.

RSVPs requested. 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton. 937-4960500.

Chabad Women’s Circle Tu B’Shevat: Wed., Jan. 24, 6 p.m. $36. W. artist & musician Sophia Braginsky. RSVP at chabaddayton.com (click Women’s Circle.) 2001 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood. 937-643-0770.

Family

Temple Israel Prayer & Play: Fri., Jan. 5, 5:30 p.m. Infants– 2nd grade. Contact Tina Sobo, 937-496-0050. 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton.

PJ Library & Chabad Starry Tu B’Shevat Camp-In: Sat., Jan. 20, 6:30 a.m. Free. At Chabad, 2001 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood. RSVP by Jan. 18.

RSVP jewishdayton.org/events.

937-643-0770.

See schedule, Page 12.

Women

Interaction in the 19th Century Shtetl. 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton. 937-496-0500.

Emerson Ave., Dayton. For info., Rabbi Karen BodneyHalasz, 937-496-0050.

JFS Let’s Talk: Mondays, Jan. 8, 15, 22, 29, noon on Zoom. Safe, nonjudgemental space to process complicated emotions. RSVP to 937-6101555.

Beth Abraham Synagogue MLK Shabbat: w. The Potter's House. Sat., Jan. 13, 9:30 a.m. Followed by Kiddush lunch. Pastor Ken Moss joins Rabbi Aubrey Glazer. At Beth Abraham, 305 Sugar Camp Cir., Oakwood. 937-293-9520.

Chabad Bagels, Lox & Tefillin: Sun., Jan. 7, 9:30 a.m.

13+ welcome. 2001 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood. 937-643-0770.

JCC Boomers Game Night: Sat., Jan. 27, 7 p.m. $15 includes snacks & drinks. For info., Stacy Emoff, 937-5105513. RSVP at jewishdayton. org/events. Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville.

Adults

Community

Temple Israel Brotherhood Ryterband Lecture & Brunch Series: $7. Sun., Jan. 7, 9:45 a.m.: Dr. Sai Konduru, AFIBAtrial Fibrillation Sun., Jan. 21, 9:45 a.m.: History Prof. Fred Krome, University of Cincinnati Clermont College, Myths & Realities of Jewish-Christian

Temple Israel & Omega Baptist Church Pulpit Exchange: Fri., Jan. 12, 6:30 p.m. at Temple Israel, 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton. Sun., Jan. 14, 11 a.m. at Omega Baptist, 1821

Men

JCC's Open Canasta: Wednesdays, 12:30-3:30 p.m.

Free. Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville. 937610-1555. jewishdayton.org.

Temple Israel Newish to Jewish: Thurs., Jan. 11. 7 p.m.: Social Justice in the Jewish Tradition w. Rabbinic Intern Kit Brewer. RSVP to Kit, intern@ tidayton.com. At St. Vincent DePaul Shelter, 124 W Apple St., Dayton.

Kosher Nostalgia Foods w.

Chabad: Sat., Jan. 13, 7 p.m. $25. RSVP at chabaddayton. com/events. 2001 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood. 937-643-0770.

Temple Israel: Beat the Winter Blues: Sat., Jan. 20, 10:30 a.m.: Shabbat laughter session w. Sara Routman. Followed

by Kiddush lunch. Sat., Jan. 20, 5 p.m.: Sundown Social w. Rabbinic Intern Kit Brewer. $5. RSVP by Thurs., Jan. 18., 937-496-0500. 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton.

Temple Beth Or Tu B’Shevat: Fri., Jan. 26, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Bring a veggie dish. 5275 Marshall Rd., Dayton. 937-4353400.

Save the Date Saturday, April 6, 2024

Call for Sponsors! contact artsgala@wright.edu wright.edu/artsgala Presenting sponsor:

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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JANUARY 2024

PAGE 19

JEWISH FAMILY EDUCATION

Good or evil?

read, “I give thanks…You have us couldn’t afford to purchase bring good into the world in returned my soul to me with enough to warm our homes. partnership with humans. compassion.”

The souvenir. After a fierce The human, formed by the Today, his siddur is wellYom Kippur War battle with Creator with a yetzer hara, a worn, filled with underlines Egyptians in the Sinai Desert, selfish and undisciplined but and handwritten notes. productive evil inclination, and the surviving Israeli soldiers “They roared their terrible The context. The presidents began looking for souvenirs. good and evil, comprehend a yetzer hatov, an empathic and roars and gnashed their terrible their implications, and choose conscience-directed but focused Ronen Mizrachi noticed a bulg- of Harvard, MIT, and UPenn reteeth and rolled their terrible cently testified during a House to act in either manner. good inclination, has the poten- ing breast pocket on one of the eyes and showed their terCommittee hearing on campus So what defines good and tial to bring both good and evil dead Egyptians. He pulled out rible claws,” goes the fearsome evil? Philosophy professor antisemitism and calls for Jewa small book embossed with into the world. chant-like refrain in the picture Peter Kreeft addresses the most ish genocide in Israel.

Arabic letters. A Koran. As Humans’ task is to use their book classic Where the Wild When questioned whether the war dragged on, every so common secular explanations: dual inclinations, guided by Things Are by Maurice Sendak. often he would flip through the calling for the genocide of Jews evolution, reason, conscience, God’s laws, to unleash sparks Sent to his room without supviolates their schools’ code of Koran’s well-worn pages, here human nature, and utilitarianof goodness into the world to per for being a “wild animal,” an underline, there a handwrit- conduct against bullying and ism. turn darkness into light. the wolf-costumed, mischiefharassment, none of the school ten note.

But guided by ever-changing It’s the perennial question: making Max sails into an imagi- context, desires, feelings, or leaders would categorically do One day, his convoy came Why did God create a world nary world of wild beasts. across a lone Egyptian who sur- so, explaining it would depend groupthink, secular explanawith evil in it? Answer: “For on context and conduct. rendered withtions only “reflect what is, there to be free The honeymoon. Sitting out incident.

Humans' task is rather than what ought to be,” will, there has together in an otherwise empty When the capKreeft concludes. to be choice. to use their dual subway car, Daniel and Rivky tive was seated In the Jewish worldview, Evil has to be an Candace R. Steiner shared memories of nearby, Ronen God is the ultimate source of option, and it inclinations, guided Kwiatek opened his can- their wedding and the week of morality. As the Creator, God must be attracby God's laws, to teen and offered festive meals their friends had fashioned “a world that is tive,” writes hosted afterward. the Egyptian a fundamentally good,” Rabbi Rabbi David unleash sparks There, as the most wild “I’m so grateful to everyone,” drink, then anJonathan Sacks notes, a word Aaron. The thing of all, he is crowned king echoed repeatedly in the CreRivky said, “but I wish we other. The man bigger question of goodness into and launches an unrestrained could go away alone somedrank, grateation story. is, how can I the world to turn rumpus. But when chaos enwhere just for a few days.” fully blessing But when God formed light, partner with sues, Max commands, “Stop!”

Daniel added,“Like a hona corresponding “not-light”— God to turn evil darkness into light. Ronen and his Despite the fearful beasts’ pleas darkness — was created. family, his eyes eymoon.” They smiled at each into good? and threats, he journeys home, other. on the floor.

“All negative things are The firewood. Last winter where he finds his supper wait- merely the absence of positive At the next station a dishevNoticing a suspicious bulge was especially harsh, unbearing. in the Egyptian’s breast pocket, eled middle-aged man reeking things,” Rabbi Jack Abromowitz ably cold, recounts Reb YerLike the classic fairy tales Ronen motioned, “Take it out.” of alcohol entered the car and explains. “Good is a real thing achmiel ben Yisrael. Some in and heroic quests, Wild Things sat down next to them.

Slowly the Arab pulled out and evil is the lack of it.” But the village called the cold evil. is about overcoming monWhen he asked, “Are you a small book embossed with that means evil has the potenFoolish. It was winter and it sters: how to master untamed Hebrew letters. A siddur (Jewish guys married or just friends?” tial to become good. was cold. Nothing more. But qualities in oneself and how to they started chatting until the That leads to God, the moral evil did come that winter in the prayer book). conquer evil in the world. man rose to get off. On the platRonen stared in disbelief, lawgiver, the source of rules, decision to raise the price of Human perception of then slowly removed the Koran form, he turned to face them, laws, and statutes designed to firewood so high that many of “monsters” is ubiquitous. from his own breast pocket. The flipped his wrist, and sent an According to anthropologist envelope flying to land at their two men stared at each other.

Donald Brown, forming moral Ronen looked at the siddur and feet. Inside was $1,000 in cash. sentiments of good and evil and “This world was not created understood how the prayer distinguishing right and wrong for what is already good in book had fallen into Arab are human universals, “inherit,” Rabbi David Aaron writes. hands—just as the Koran had ent features of human nature “This world was created to be fallen into his. And he knew regardless of upbringing or a forum for a new and higher what to do. culture.”

He gave the Arab the Koran, kind of goodness — the goodThis 20th-century discovery ness born out of overcoming and the Arab gave him the echoes the biblical view that evil and choosing to do good.” siddur. Ronen opened his and God created humans in the Divine image: earthly reflections of the Creator’s attributes of a moral disposition, independent Do Not Eat This Book! Fun with Jewish Foods & Festivals by thought, and free will.

Beth Kander. Newly on the market, this delightful picIn other words, humans are ture book uses clever four-line verses to introduce Jewish divinely designed to recognize Illustration from Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. holidays and their traditional foods. Sprinkled throughout are winsome cartoon characters, a little Yiddish, and a lot antisemitism.”

“This is private property. of humor, with more in-depth holiday descriptions and And a top figure at the Simon Universities set their own rules recipes at the end. This is a book for reading, creating, and Continued from Page Nine Wiesenthal Center, an antisemi- for campus,” he said. tasting. Just don't eat it! tism watchdog group that has “They have protocols in whether or how universities Meeting Elijah: True Tales of Eliyahu HaNavi by Eliezer place. It’s not for me to say should discipline students who called for all three presidents Shore. Meeting Elijah is a collection of 57 extraordinary who participated in the hearing right now what those protocols uttered those exact phrases. real-life encounters with Elijah by ordinary individuals in The group’s president Alyza to resign, suggested that univer- should be…But what it does the midst of a crisis. Heard directly from those involved or mean is they’ve got a whole lot Lewin said in a statement, “The sities should “train the police” from their family or friends, these tales feature some kind to respond to complaints of of discussing and a whole lot of very first step to ending the of unexpected assistance just when needed, often from a antisemitism. reflecting to do, because whatcurrent harassment and prestranger who then just disappears. They also include acWhen asked if students callever they have in place right venting future harassment is counts of mysterious inspiration that bring others to be in for university administrators to ing for “intifada” should be ar- now may be working for a lot just the right place at the right time to help. You’ll want to rested, Rabbi Abraham Cooper of people but it’s not working understand Jewish identity so read them all more than once, and share them with others. didn’t rule it out. for the Jewish students.” they can effectively recognize

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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JANUARY 2024

This easy Balkan vegetable stew is perfect for Shabbat

Corner of Far Hills & Dorothy Lane 2977 FAR HILLS AVE • DAYTON OH 45419

Ghiveci or guvech is a comforting rustic dish.

By Vered Guttman, The Nosher Looking for a Shabbat dinner centerpiece or a hearty midweek meal? You’re thinking of ratatouille, maybe? What I have in mind is a heartier dish from Romania and Bulgaria called ghiveci or guvech. It's more rustic and substantial.

The veggies for guvech are cut into large, uneven chunks, and can be cooked all together at once, while for ratatouille, each component is fried separately before they are combined.

This makes guvech preparation much easier, and allows for creative improvisations; you can easily add any vegetables in season. Besides the mandatory eggplant, zucchini, peppers, tomatoes and potatoes, green beans or okra are common. Guvech is seasoned very simply with salt, black pepper and occasionally paprika, to let the produce shine. The Bulgarian version is cooked with fatty meat, while most Romanian versions are vegan.

Bulgarian Sephardi Jews and Romanian Ashkenazi Jews brought guvech to Israel and made the dish widely popular. The vegetarian Romanian version is probably most common in Israel nowadays. And although it is traditionally served over rice, I like to serve it on another Romanian staple, mamaliga. It’s the definition of comfort food.

This recipe is the Bulgarian version of guvech that includes meat. You can make it vegetarian by simply omitting the meat. The rest of the ingredients and instructions stay the same. Serves six to eight.

For the meat (optional): 2 lbs. boneless beef short ribs, shoulder or stew meat kosher salt freshly ground black pepper 1 Tbsp. olive oil 6 cups water 2 bay leaves For the vegetable stew: 2 eggplants kosher salt ¼ cup olive oil 1 yellow onion, chopped to ¼ inch dice 2 Tbsp. tomato paste 2 red or green peppers, seeded and sliced 3 carrots, peeled and cut into ½-inch rounds 3 Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into ½-inch dice 2 zucchini, cut into ½-inch rounds 4 garlic cloves, sliced 1 (28 oz.) can whole tomatoes 1 tsp. paprika, or to taste freshly ground black pepper

cooked rice, for serving (optional) Start by cooking the meat, if using. Cut beef into 1-inch cubes and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Heat one tablespoon of oil in a medium pot over medium-high heat and brown beef cubes on all sides, about six minutes total.

Add water to cover (about six cups) and bring to boil. Use a large spoon to skim off any foam. Add bay leaves, reduce heat to low, cover pot and cook for 90 minutes. Set aside.

Peel eggplant, cut into quarters lengthwise and then to ¾-inch pieces. Put in a colander and salt generously. Let stand for 30 minutes and up to two hours, then wash with cold water and pat dry. Heat a large, heavy bottomed pot (preferably ovenproof) over medium-high heat. Add a quarter cup of olive oil and onion, and sauté until the onion is transparent. Add eggplant and cook for another eight minutes, stirring occasionally. Add tomato paste and cook for one minute longer.

Add the rest of the vegetables you’re using and stir gently. Add the cooked beef and mix it in very gently.

Roughly chop the canned tomatoes (you can do it with a large knife inside the can) and add to the pot together with their liquid. Add paprika, two teaspoons of salt, and ground black pepper to taste. Stir, bring to boil, reduce the heat to low, cover and cook for 90 minutes, or until the veggies are very tender.

Check the stew after about 15 minutes to see that the vegetables have released enough liquid.

You want to have enough liquid to reach about a quarter of the way up the vegetables. The stew doesn't need to be very wet, but you don’t want the veggies to burn either. If the liquid doesn't reach desired height, add a little boiling water.

This step is optional, but adds an extra layer of taste: After the stew has cooked on the stove for 45 minutes, preheat your oven to 375 degrees. After an hour on the stove top, remove the lid from the pot, add salt to taste, transfer to the oven and cook for one extra hour uncovered, to create a nice crust.

Serve guvech hot or warm, with rice (optional).

Notes: It is recommended, and easy, to add any seasonal vegetables to the basic guvech. Consider adding one pound of butternut squash or sweet potato, cut into half-inch dice; a half pound of whole okra, stems removed; or a half pound of green beans, cut into 1-inch pieces.

You can cook the meat, if using, up to two days in advance. Store the cooked meat in the fridge with the cooking liquid. Before using, remove from the fridge and discard the fat on the top of the pot (the fat will be solid and white in color).

Guvech keeps in the fridge for up to four days.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JANUARY 2024

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PAGE 21

Arts&Culture

At what price the American dream?

By Martina Jackson, Fig City News The Foxtail Legacy is a tale of the legacies we all are heir to — family history, family dynamics, family culture, and genetics. And it is that last category that at the beginning and end of the novel is pivotal in defining who should be and is “family.” All heirs to the immigrant experience — whether descended from the founding Europeans or more recent for, but rather his stepmother’s niece, transplants, experience this. Many later immigrants came here to an established Shira. She proves a great asset in estabsocial and economic order, requiring ac- lishing his new life. Arriving in America, Jacob discovers that his sister and commodation to an existing order. That is the story attorney David Abromowitz brother-in-law misled him about their business. Instead of joining them, Jacob tells in his first novel. becomes a peddler, driving his horse Jacob Itzkowitz, the novel’s moving and wagon through the back roads force and focus, was born in Shavlan, of rural New Jersey. This is the first Russia, in what was known as the Pale of many betrayals by others — even of Settlement, the portion of the czarfamily members, but Jacob also finds ist Russian empire where Jews were himself putting business deals above allowed to live — and where they family and setting a pattern of personal endured frequent persecution. As a compromises that extend to the teenager, Jacob leaves his next generation of his family. home and large family to join The novel moves back and forth an uncle in South Africa in in time — from 1894 to 2013 — 1894 — at a time of significant from Jacob and Shira to Jacob’s migration of Russian and son Lew and his sisters, to Lew’s Lithuanian Jews. Abromowitz son Jake. Through multiple deals estimates that approximately and manipulation, Jacob succeeds 40,000 Jews went to South Afin establishing himself and his rica in search of fortune, and department store — Itzkowitz’s ultimately many came to the David — in Point Pleasant, a developing United States as well. In fact, Abromowitz New Jersey coastal town. Jacob many Jews of Russian descent is consumed by his ambitions, and claim South African family history. they consume his son Lew, a brilliant By chance, young Jacob’s ability scholar, who wants to be a physics prowith horses and his sharp intelligence fessor but instead joins his father’s busibrings him to the attention of the Boer ness. While Point Pleasant offers Jacob president, Paul Kruger, for whom and his family approval and security, he performs a critical service and is rewarded with enough money to return it is not without its prejudices. In the early 1920s, in the novel and in reality, to Shavlan to marry his cousin. Aboard there was a large Ku Klux Klan march the ship carrying him on the journey through the small seaside town, with home, he is asked to assist a wealthy, Jews and Catholics among its targets. but shady Jewish diamond merchant, Jacob becomes hardened and exwhich further increases his fortunes. pects his family to embrace his values.

With money to finance his immigration Although he is a shrewd judge of to New Jersey, Jacob plans to join his people related to his business goals, much older sister and brother-in-law, he is insensitive and indifferent to his who have written to assure him he wife, children, and grandchildren. His would have a better life working with drive to be successful and respected has them in their store. absorbed his identity.

In the first of many twists of fate, What motivated attorney David Jacob does not marry the bride he came Abromowitz to branch out in search of a literary career? Point Pleasant was his The JCC Cultural Arts & Book Series birthplace too. His grandfather — the and Washington-Centerville Public Limodel for Jacob — died before he was brary present a livestream with David born. “My family history was the scafAbromowitz, 7 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 11 folding on which I built the story,“ he at the Woodbourne Library, 6060 Far said. Lew is loosely based on David’s Hills Ave., Centerville. The program father, Jake. But Abromowitz is quick to is free. Register at jewishdayton.org/ point out that much of The Foxtail Legacy events or 937-610-1555. sprang from his imagination.

PAGE 22

Einstein and pop culture: It’s all relative, says author Benyamin Cohen more relatable.

By Justin Vellucci “He was the most famous person Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle on the planet — and he wanted to use Jewish journalist Benyamin Cohen his fame to speak out against things,” sees Albert Einstein everywhere. Yes, Cohen said. there’s the long shelf life of E=mc2. And After fleeing persecution in Germany a lot of people still know Einstein from in 1933, Einstein campaigned against his opposition to deploying the atomic the use of the atomic bomb and helped bomb, or his theory of relativity.

But the genius thinker, who is widely launch the refugee resettlement group, the International Rescue considered the Western Committee. It’s still around world’s first modern-day today. The list of Einstein’s celebrity, can be seen, Cohen activism efforts runs deep. likes to say, in our cars, our He fought for the persebathrooms, and our minds. cuted Scottsboro Boys, nine If you like using GPS on Black teens accused of raping your cell phone or getting two White women in 1931. a pizza delivered, you can And he worked to end lynchthank Einstein, Cohen said. ing of Black people in the “Einstein is one of those American South, Cohen said. few characters that is univerBenyamin Cohen When world-famous consally beloved,” said Cohen, tralto Marian Anderson, who was Black, 48, of Morgantown, W.Va., who since came to perform at Princeton Univer2021 has served as news director of the sity but was barred from staying at the Forward. “I think people relate to him.” town’s Whites-only hotels, Einstein put So Cohen, who manages Einstein’s her up at his home. official social media accounts, wrote a “I can escape the feeling of complicbook about his knowledge of Einstein.

The thesis of The Einstein Effect: Einstein ity only by speaking out,” Einstein once said. is more relevant now than he’s ever Einstein helped groups of German been before.

Jews relocate to Mexico and to Alaska, As a teenager, Cohen didn’t know much about Einstein. Yes, there was the Cohen said. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, Einstein voiced support for Nobel Prize and, of course, the crazy Zionism and the founding of a Jewish hair. But, while attending college at state, going so far as to travel around Georgia State University in Atlanta, the U.S. raising money for Israeli indeCohen read a book that revealed that a pendence. nimble-fingered coroEinstein’s archives — ner doing Einstein’s some 85,000 documents autopsy stole his brain strong — are held in Isto study what made rael, at Jerusalem’s HeEinstein such a modern brew University, which marvel. The brain was Einstein helped to start. never officially recovThe officials behind ered. those archives broke “We were not taught ground last summer on that in school,” Cohen a museum dedicated to laughed. “It got me Einstein that will be the thinking: ‘What stories largest of its kind in the are there about Einstein world. that I don’t know?’”

Cohen typically posts For his book, Cohen to Einstein’s social metraveled to an undisdia accounts 10 times a closed location to meet day and that dedication the person who, today, is reflected in followkeeps and studies ers; across platforms, 20 Einstein’s brain. Cohen million people follow even held a piece of it, Albert Einstein. which is kept in Mason jars. But he’s Cohen, who occasionally treks the being cagey about the specifics. The 90-minute door-to-door from Morganholder of Einstein’s brain needs to pretown to Pittsburgh to get good kosher serve anonymity. food, is the son of an Orthodox rabbi In The Einstein Effect, Cohen also — and sees his own spirituality, though paints colorful stories of the Germannot observant in religious practice, in born, Jewish thinker as a kind of Einstein. cultural activist who was ahead of his “He was always seeking answers,” he time, which he thinks makes him even said, “and looking at the universe.”

The JCC Cultural Arts & Book Series “I wrote this book for other people presents Benyamin Cohen via Zoom, 7 like me,” Cohen said. “I am sure a p.m., Thursday, Jan. 25. The program physicist will read this book and find is free. Register at jewishdayton.org/ mistakes in it. But I want to share how events or 937-610-1555.

Einstein is relevant today.”

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JANUARY 2024

Decolonization

phrase. The two argued that “decolonization” means exactly what it says: Continued from Page 17 “repatriating land to sovereign Native ring to two of political Zionism’s found- tribes and nations, abolition of slavery in ing fathers. “And, unfortunately, they its contemporary forms, and the dismanwere subject to the modalities of Eurotling of the imperial metropole” – that is, pean thought that…looked at Palestinthe colonizing “homeland.” ians as primitive people who could not It is not a handy bit of jargon for possibly have a sovereign imagination of improving our societies and schools or their own.” fighting racism or “easing” an occupaBut “colonialism” doesn’t tell the tion, they write. whole story of Israel, Feldman, assistant The paper only mentions “Palestine” professor of religion at Dartmouth, told once, in a roll call of colonialist malefacme. “I think that’s where things can slide tors that includes Australia, the United into antisemitism, when this just sort of States, and apartheid South Africa, but it blanket equation is made between Zion- became a touchstone for radical moveism and all European colonial projects. ments that felt the widespread rhetoric It would be missing the fact that Israel of anti-colonialism had lost its bite. is the historic ancestral homeland of the George Washington University Jews,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean Students for Justice in Palestine, since that Jews haven’t acted in ways that are suspended by the administration, takes settler colonial.” the phrase to its logical, violent extreme, Ignoring those power dynamics — or, calling the Hamas attack a “tangible, as many Palestinians and their support- material event in which the colonized ers tend to do, denying any Jewish con- rise up against the colonizer and regain nection to the land — “will never get us control of their lives.” closer to peace and reconciliation,” FeldAnother pro-Palestinian group, man continued. “This debate about who Decolonize This Place, calls for “direct is more native is a fundamentally flawed action and (is) driven by the belief that debate and it leads to dehumanization all colonized and oppressed people have of either Israelis or Palestinians. Both the right to take back their land, to realpeople are in this land together, and that ize self-determination, and to win their is the absolute basis of any future kind liberation by any means necessary.” of reconciliation.”

The day after the Hamas attack , it said “Reconciliation” is barely on the on Instagram: “(T)he heroic Palestinian minds of those who quote Decolonizaresistance and the people’s steadfastness tion is not a metaphor, the 2012 paper continue, while settler colonial Israel, the

by American academics Eve Tuck and U.S., and the ‘international community’ K. Wayne Yang that popularized the ignore that Israel is the violence.”

“Softer” versions of decolonization from the West Bank. He bewails “the call for divesting from countries and growing acceptance (among Jews) of a institutions that support colonialism. one-state reality between the river and Corinna Mullin, who teaches interna- the sea.” tional relations at the University of Tunis That seems of a piece with the scholin Tunisia and recently at CUNY’s John arship and activism for which he was Jay College, used the “not a metaphor” known. His mother, the American-born phrase during a Nov. 17 Labor for Pales- Orthodox feminist activist Hannah Katstine teach-in in support of the boycott of man, told Haaretz that he came to Kiborganizations with “links to Zionism.” butz Holit after the army to help revive “We need to materially decolonize the desert outpost. Although he studied these institutions so that they no longer in the United States, he was determined are serving the causes of oppression to return home. Among other things, he and exploitation, but instead are in the took part in solidarity shifts to protect service of liberation,” she said.

Palestinian communities harassed by Those who wave the “not a metaphor” Jewish settlers in the West Bank. sign at rallies may embrace all or none of His dissertation, about political trends these interpretations. AJC insists that the in Religious Zionism, was dedicated to “settler colonialist” label is, however it is “all life forms that exist between the Jorused, a slur. And when it is “used to say dan River and the Mediterranean Sea.” Jews do not have the right to national “He was determined to understand self-determination or to deny Israel’s the political rise to power of Israel’s reliright to exist,” it explains in the glossary, gious right wing, which he viewed as a “that is antisemitism.” serious obstacle to the establishment of a The historian Simon Sebag Montefiore just and lasting peace,” Feldman said in writes that the “decolonizing narrative is her opening remarks at the book launch. much worse than a study in double stan- She also quoted Katsman, whom she got dards; it dehumanizes an entire nation to know over the years, saying that he and excuses, even celebrates, the murder worked to create a world where “Israelis of innocent civilians.” and Palestinians both are able to live full In his chapter for the Settler Indigenelives as equals under the law.” ity volume, about religious Jews living Since his death at the hands of Hamas, in the Negev, Katsman appears to agree Katsman has been held up as a counterwith scholars who describe Israel’s efpoint to the zero-sum nihilism representforts to “‘Judaize’ Palestinian space” as ed by his murderers. Perhaps he should colonialism in effect, if not intent. also be seen as a symbol of the possibiliBut he doesn’t reject Israel, only those ty of two peoples sharing a land without Jewish ideologues who want to erase the either one trying to expel, dominate, or Green Line separating pre-1967 Israel colonize the other.

OBITUARIES DeNeal Feldman, 92, passed away Alan (Myrnie) Moscowitz, Elaine on Nov. 26. DeNeal, known as Neal (Marc) Tenzer, Roberta (Marvin) to his friends and family, was born Galler, Ellen (Tom) Drake and their families. Neal was a champion and on Feb. 12, 1931. A lifelong resident of Dayton, he attended Dayton cheerleader for the City of Dayton.

He was known and loved by many Public Schools, graduating from and had a kind word and smile for Fairview White. He then attended everyone. He truly never knew a The Ohio State University, where he met his beloved wife, Esther, and stranger. He was active in the Dayton Jewish community and served they became loyal Buckeye fans. on numerous committees over the He began working in the family business, Economy Linen, founded years. He was a leader in the linen by his father, Harry Feldman, while industry and served on the Board of Directors of the Textile Rental Serstill in high school and joined full vice Association. He was preceded time upon graduation from Ohio in death by his parents, Harry and State. Together with his brotherSarah Feldman, and sister, Harriet in-law, Milton Moscowitz, they Moscowitz. Interment was at Beth grew the business into a thriving company dedicated to its employees Jacob Cemetery. Donations may be and customers. After several years, made to the Jewish Cemeteries of Greater Dayton, care of the Jewish he was joined by his son, Bruce, Federation of Greater Dayton. and nephews, and ultimately, he had the great joy of welcoming his Esther Feldman, 90, was born in grandsons, Martin and Jason, into the business. Neal and Esther were Rochester, N.Y., on Aug. 27, 1933 blessed with a loving marriage for and passed away Dec. 13. Esther over 70 years. They were dedicated brought joy and warmth to all who knew her. She will be greatly to their family, daughter, Lynn missed but her legacy of love and Foster, and son, Bruce Feldman strength will forever live in the (Debbie) and nothing made them hearts of her family and friends. happier than to spend time with She was kind and caring and took their grandchildren, Erin (Jason), a genuine interest in everyone she Martin, Amy (Gary), and Jason (Rachel); and great-grandchildren, met. Growing up in Rochester, Esther was part of a loving famAva, Evelyn, Blake, Juliet and ily. Her parents, Bess and Max Chloe; as well as his nieces and nephews, Irvin (Gayle) Moscowitz, Rockoff, and her sister, Sorelie,

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JANUARY 2024

were an important part of her life.

She was an outstanding student, graduating valedictorian of her high school class. The turning point in her life was when she decided to attend The Ohio State University where she met her true love, Neal.

At age 19, she married and moved to Dayton where she focused on their home, children, family, and friends. While caring for her family was her priority, she was an active volunteer for many organizations including Hadassah, Jewish Federation, and Covenant House. Fulfilling a lifelong goal, Esther returned

to college, attending Wright State University and in 1976 received her degree in social work. Esther and Neal were blessed with a loving marriage for over 70 years. They were dedicated to their family, children, Lynn Foster and Bruce (Debbie) Feldman, and nothing made them happier than to spend time with their grandchildren Erin (Jason) Voegtli, Martin Foster, Amy (Gary) Knopf, and Jason (Rachel) Feldman and great-grandchildren, Ava, Evelyn, Blake, Juliet and Chloe as well as their nieces and nephews, Irvin (Gayle) Moscowitz,

L’dor V’dor.

From Generation To Generation.

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Alan (Myrnie) Moscowitz, Elaine (Marc) Tenzer, Roberta (Marvin) Galler, Ellen (Tom) Drake and their families. She was preceded in death by her husband, DeNeal Feldman, parents, Max and Bess Rockoff, and sister, Sorelie Jaffe. Interment was at Beth Jacob Cemetery. Donations may be made to the Jewish Cemeteries of Greater Dayton, care of the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton.

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