Noa Tishby special envoy combating antisemitism Davidnamed Moss Israel’s designsfirst-ever Grace After Meals in for comic book form p. 22 p. 6
THE DAYTON Published by the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton
May 2022 Nisan/Iyar/Sivan 5782 Vol. 26, No. 9
OBSERVER
The Miami Valley’s Jewish Monthly • daytonjewishobserver.org Warren LeMay via Creative Commons
NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION U.S. POSTAGE PAID DAYTON, OHIO PERMIT NO. 59
Miami Valley Reform leaders mourn the coming historic loss
HUC to end residential rabbinical program in Cincinnati
Ohio adopts int’l. antisemitism definition
17
Gov. Mike DeWine
Israeli drone docking co. picks Centerville for U.S. manufacturing
5
Marshall Weiss
Strix Drones CEO & founder Niv Aharoni
Barry Manilow’s musical opens in New York
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BETH JACOB GIFT SHOP
Need a Mother’s Day Gift? Visit our newly restocked Gift Shop for your Judaic, Holiday & Gift needs. Please call the synagogue office to schedule your appointment to visit our beautiful shop.
7020 N. Main Street Dayton, OH 937-274-2149
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DAYTON Kate Elder
Women Inspiring Women at Beth Jacob
Beth Jacob Congregation will present its 2nd Annual Jewish Women Inspiring Jewish Women luncheon at 11 a.m., Sunday, May 22. Speakers for the event are Rabbi Judy Chessin, Debra Edelman, Judy Feinstein, Alyson Footer, Debbie Lieberman, and Marcy Paul. Beth Jacob is located at 7020 N. Main St., Harrison Township. The cost is $18. R.S.V.P. by May 13 to 937-2742149 or bethjacob1@aol.com.
Community Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration May 1
Dayton’s Jewish community will host its Yom Ha’atzmaut Israel Independence celebration from 1:30 to 4 p.m., Sunday, May 1 at Indian Riffle Park, 2801 Stroop Rd., Kettering. The free program will include live music, Israeli dancing, demonstrations of Krav Maga (Israeli martial arts), and children’s activities. Israeli-style kosher box lunches will be available for purchase in advance via rochelskitchen.com.
Beth Abraham Sundae Fun Day
Beth Abraham Synagogue’s 2nd Annual Sunday Sundae Fun Day will be held at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, May 22. The free program will feature Greater’s Ice Cream sundaes and activities for all ages. Beth Abraham is located at 305 Sugar Camp Cir., Oakwood.
JWV to place flags at graves for Memorial Day
Jewish War Veterans Post 587 invites volunteers to help place American flags at the graves of Jewish veterans for Memorial Day weekend. JWV will place flags at Beth Jacob Cemetery at 10 a.m., Friday, May 20, and at the Temple Beth Or section of David’s Cemetery, Beth Abraham Cemetery, and Temple Israel’s Riverview Cemetery at 10 a.m., Sunday, May 22. Post 587’s bugler will play Taps at all the cemeteries where it will place flags. Other veteran and civic groups will place flags at other cemeteries. JWV places a metal flag holder beside each Jewish veteran’s grave. The holders help JWV to quickly find veterans’ graves. To have a flag holder placed at the grave of a Jewish veteran in time for Memorial Day, call Post Commander Steve Markman at 937-886-9566.
Idan Atzmon makes friends with a current resident of the Humane Society of Greater Dayton. The preschooler, along with 65 other kids, parents, and grandparents came together there April 3 to volunteer as part of the PJ Our Way Mitzvah Paws project. They made 49 dog toys, filled 40 Kongs, and learned about the Jewish mitzvah of kindness to animals.
Acrobats for Chabad Lag B’Omer BBQ The Chicago Boyz Acrobatic Team will provide the entertainment for Chabad of Greater Dayton’s Lag B’Omer BBQ at 6 p.m., Thursday, May 19. As seen on America’s Got Talent, the Chicago Boyz’ performances include stunts inside twirling ropes, catapulting off mini trampolines, and tumbling routines. The cost for the BBQ is $18 adults, $7 children. Chabad is located at 2001 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood. Register at chabadChicago Boyz Acrobatic Team dayton.com.
Hadassah’s virtual tour of Design Museum Holon exhibit, The Ball Michal Chelbin
Victor ‘Vivi’ Bellaish, Moni Mednik, Bastel and Ball Gown 1870 Arts & Culture.........................25 Calendar.............................21 Family Education....................24
Dayton Hadassah will present a virtual exhibit, The Ball, from the Design Museum of Holon, Israel, 11:50 a.m., Tuesday, May 17. The exhibit explored the connections in the history of balls, Western fashion, and the contemporary creations of leading fashion designers in Israel. It featured 120 ball gowns representing historical and contemporary designs. Holon is one of Dayton’s Sister Cities. The cost is $18. To register, call Julie Bloom at 937416-6711. Obituaries.......................27 O p i n i o n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 9 Religion..........................23
THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2022
DAYTON
Area Reform leaders mourn HUC vote to end residential rabbinical program in Cincinnati Warren LeMay via Creative Commons
By Marshall Weiss, The Observer To say Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati’s connections with Dayton-area Reform congregations run deep would be an understatement. It was natural for the architect of Reform Judaism in the United States, Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, to reach out from his Cincinnati perch to nearby Jewish congregations and unite them within his vision of Reform Judaism and via an umbrella organization for America’s synagogues. Dayton’s Temple Israel, then B’nai Yeshurun, began using Wise’s Reform prayer book in The administration building at Hebrew Union College's 1861. Wise co-officiated at the 1863 dedication of Cincinnati campus Temple Israel’s first synagogue building, with more of his reforms to follow: an organ for worto its decision. It also cited increasing competition ship services in 1865, the elimination of prayer for rabbinical students from independent Jewish shawls in 1869, and egalitarian seating and an seminaries in the United States, those not affiliegalitarian choir in 1875. That was the same year ated with a particular Jewish movement. Wise established his Reform rabbinic seminary, In a statement following the vote, the board Hebrew Union College, in Cincinnati. committed to maintaining its graduate school and When Wise founded the Union of American academic resources on the Cincinnati campus: Hebrew Congregations (now the Union for the Klau Library, American Jewish Archives, Reform Judaism) in 1873, three and Skirball Museum, as well as to develop a Miami Valley synagogues were “low-residency hybrid rabbinical and canamong its 24 charter members: torial program to serve all of Jewish North Temple Israel, Temple Anshe America.” Emeth in Piqua, and Temple Leaders with local Reform congregations Sholom in Springfield. tell The Observer they mourn the coming loss Wise himself oversaw the of the rabbinic program and are skeptical training of HUC’s first genabout the overall future of HUC’s Cincinnati eration of rabbis, from the first campus. ordination class of 1883 through “I’m grieving. I feel that the administration the class of 1900, ordained only a Rabbi Karen Bodney- doesn’t fully realize the impact of a decision few months after his death. of this magnitude from the Midwest,” said Halasz Now, with campuses in New Temple Israel Senior Rabbi Karen BodneyYork, Los Angeles, and Jerusalem, the board of Halasz, who received her ordination in Cincinnati HUC voted in New York April 11 to end its 147in 2007. As an HUC rabbinic student, she oversaw year old Cincinnati residential rabbinical proTemple Israel’s religious school for four years, gram by the end of the 2026 academic year. The beginning in 2003. board, which approved the decision by more than “It doesn’t come as a surprise to me, but I’m a two-thirds vote, has cited shrinking revenue deeply disappointed. They grossly underestimate and enrollment in the rabbinical program on all the amount of support and funding that comes Continued on Page Four campuses, but in particular at Cincinnati as key
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From the editor’s desk I can’t remember the last time I put an issue to bed when there was so much national-level Jewish news coming out Marshall of Ohio, and equal parts joyous and Weiss sorrowful, even bizarre and appalling. You’ll find much of it here, and we constantly provide you with news updates between issues at our Facebook page. If you haven’t already liked or followed us, go over to facebook.com/TheDaytonJewishObserver. Other than on Shabbat and holy days, I post the latest Jewish news several times each day. From here, it looks like May might prove a turning point, with so many in-person events coming back. It’s time to blow off the dust of the last two years and come out again. I hope to see you soon at some of the several programs featured and listed in this issue of The Observer.
THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2022
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DAYTON
HUC vote
‘It was my final act of respect & responsibility for my parents.’ — Debbie Feldman with her husband, Bruce
W
hen Debbie and Bruce Feldman were asked to participate in the Jewish Cemeteries of Greater Dayton campaign, it was an easy decision. Bruce, whose family has been involved in Dayton’s Jewish community for four generations, saw a need to support and ensure the perpetual care of the cemeteries. “Because my family has been here so long, we have friends, family and loved ones in all three cemeteries,” said Bruce. “I immediately got involved with this campaign. This effort provides a future for all our cemeteries. It’s great to see the community come together and care for one another.” Debbie, on the other hand, grew up in northern Virginia. Yet she now feels her “roots are in Dayton.” When the time was right, she moved her parents to Dayton to help care for them. After they passed, they were interred at Beth Jacob’s cemetery. “I am comforted knowing they are here, near me and with my family. It was my final act of respect and responsibility for my parents.”
Jewish Cemeteries of Greater Dayton is an endowment organization created to maintain our three Jewish cemeteries in perpetuity. Please join us as we strive to maintain the sanctity, care, and integrity of these sacred burial grounds.
Preserving our Past Ensuring Our Future
daytonjewishcemeteries.org 525 Versailles Drive • Centerville, OH 45459 PAGE 4
THE DAYTON
“So if that would be what you’re hearing, would you want to start on a campus that you couldn’t complete your work on or that’s not going to Continued from Page Three from the Midwest. I know that there continue to be supported by HUC? In are those who strongly disagree, but many ways, it felt very self-fulfilling.” I do think there’s a sense of coastal Rabbi Judy Chessin has served as elitism that has led to this position, Temple Beth Or’s rabbi since its first which I find somewhat egregious.” Shabbat service in January 1985 in Bodney-Halasz said that leaders in Washington Township. She received the Reform movement have submither ordination from HUC in Cincinted solutions to the challenges of nati seven months before. She said declining enrollment “for years, but, she mourned the HUC board’s choice. at least according to those who sub“Our own Dayton community has mitted them, they’ve been been greatly enhanced by quickly dismissed and not our affiliation with the coldiscussed at a high level.” lege,” Chessin said. “Every The board’s decision, she rabbi at Temple Beth Or has said, “limits who can apply arrived here because of the based on if they can afford Cincinnati HUC campus. to live on the coasts. People Now, geographic access to who used to be able to quality, certified Reform consider the rabbinate may clergy and professionals have to think twice withmay be challenging.” out having a Midwestern Regarding the AmeriEileen Litchfield option.” can Jewish Archives, Klau Eileen Litchfield, a longtime past Library, and Skirball Museum, she president and current vice president said, “These resources cannot be of Temple Anshe Emeth in Piqua, said moved but will exist without rabher congregation of 20 memberships binic students to access them. And the has relied on rabbinic interns from rabbinic students on the coasts will HUC’s Cincinnati campus to lead its not be near the very holdings which monthly worship services for more promote academic excellence.” than 25 years. She said she learned of Bodney-Halasz emphasized the the HUC board’s plan for Cincinnati importance of holding HUC’s board two weeks before the vote, and not and administration accountable for through any communication from “carrying out their promises for ‘reHUC or the Reform movement. imagining Cincinnati.’” “After 2026, our future is in con“They have made some big promsiderable jeopardy,” Litchfield said. ises — sustaining the AJA, Klau “We presently pay $600 per regular Library, and re-imagining the Cinservices (much more for cinnati campus as a the High Holy Days), plus research center — and mileage. We have only been that, I think, will be difable to afford one service per ficult for them to keep. month for years. We can only I don’t think it will be assume the congregation will easy to maintain the bear the cost of bringing a graduate school withrabbinic intern from the coast. out the presence of the Airfare plus other related rabbinic program. This costs will double our monthly has completely torn our expense.” movement apart and will Rabbi Judy Chessin Litchfield said the conhave a lasting impact.” gregation sent a letter of protest to Bodney-Halasz and Temple Israel, HUC’s board, and individual congre- as well as Chessin individually, were gants also sent personal letters. among more than 480 signatories on “We learned from a faculty mema letter to Union of Reform Judaber at HUC that they were threatened ism President Rabbi Rick Jacobs in if they talked about it,” she said. advance of the HUC board’s April 11 Religion News Service reported vote; JTA reported the letter said the that HUC’s Cincinnati campus has signatories would “reassess how we 27 rabbinical students this year, allocate our budgetary priorities” to down from 51 students in the 2008the URJ should the plan pass, citing 09 school year. HUC’s Los Angeles the movement cutbacks in youth procampus has 40 students, and the New gramming in recent years as evidence York campus has 45. HUC overall of a “potential abandonment of our faces a deficit of $8.8 million. geographic region.” URJ temple dues “The lack of being proactive in provide funding to HUC. recruiting students felt like a coward“I’m not sure how this will impact ly surrender in closing the campus our community moving forward,” because it was the easy way out,” Bodney-Halasz said. “Right now, the Litchfield said. focus for all of us is trying to come to Bodney-Halasz said members a place of healing. Because we care of HUC’s administration have told so deeply for the movement and the potential rabbinic students behind history and the relationships and all the scenes that Cincinnati’s rabbinic that it has the power to bring to our program would be closing. communities.”
OBSERVER daytonjewishobserver.org Editor and Publisher Marshall Weiss MWeiss@jfgd.net 937-610-1555 Contributors Candace R. Kwiatek Rabbi Tina Sobo Advertising Sales Executive Patty Caruso, plhc69@gmail.com Proofreader Rachel Haug Gilbert Billing Sheila Myers, SMyers@jfgd.net 937-610-1555 Observer Advisor Martin Gottlieb Published by the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton Dr. Heath Gilbert President Bruce Feldman Immediate Past Pres. Mary Rita Weissman Pres. Elect/VP, Personnel/Foundation Chair Beverly Louis Secretary Neil Friedman Treasurer Dan Sweeny VP, Resource Development Cathy Gardner CEO The Dayton Jewish Observer, Vol. 26, No. 9. 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 • MAY 2022
DAYTON Marshall Weiss
Israeli drone docking co. to base U.S. manufacturing in Centerville By Marshall Weiss, The Observer Centerville is now the home of U.S. manufacturing for an Israeli company that produces universal, autonomous drone docking and recharging stations. Niv Aharoni, CEO and founder of Strix Drones, made the announcement April 11 at Sinclair College’s National UAS Training and Certification Center. “We were founded four years ago in Israel. What we are doing that is different from other companies is that we can fit any kind of drone in our unit,” he said. “We see ourselves as the prime technology for docking station for any kind of drone. What we are trying to do is combine technology of the software and the hardware.” Strix, which is based in Hod Hasharon and has an office in Miami, has leased manufacturing space from Ram Precision Industries in Centerville. Aharoni told The Observer he decided to manufacture his docking stations in the Dayton area because it holds “the ideal environment.”
“They have all the factories for our steel, they have knowledge and land, and we can work together with them. We looked for a year to find a good place, and we find that Dayton by far is the best place.” He plans to hire 10 to 20 people for the manufacturing venture this year and hopes to expand to more than 50 people next year. Itay Tayas Zamir, who handles business development for Strix, told The Observer he encouraged Aharoni to select Dayton for U.S. manufacturing, based on Zamir’s past experiences with the Dayton Region Israel Trade Alliance, a collaborative of the City of Dayton, Montgomery County, and the Dayton Development Coalition. In 2016, Zamir brought a company he co-founded, Woosh Water, to Sinclair College for its first pilot site tests outside of Israel. Though Dayton was not selected as the manufacturer for Woosh’s water stations in the United States, Zamir was impressed with DRITA’s hard work and creativity on the project. “DRITA facilitated everything,”
Niv Aharoni, CEO and founder of Israel-based Strix Drones, demonstrates one of its drone docking stations April 11 outside Sinclair College’s Deb Norris UAS Indoor Flying Pavilion
Zamir said of the Strix venture. “They introduced us to our (manufacturing) partners, Ram Precision and Budde Sheet Metal Works. What convinced Niv was the added value, the extra mile from DRITA.” Zamir added that Strix is also partnering with Sinclair’s National UAS Center for tech support and on-demand pilots. “We have trained technicians and a pilot from the UAS National Center, from
graduated students from Sinclair,” he said. Strix, Zamir said, already has a pilot project with Walmart; it will present a demonstration at Walmart’s Bentonville, Ark. headquarters in mid-May. Strix will also demonstrate its docking stations to a medical logistics company. By the end of May, Zamir said, Strix plans to begin its manufacturing in Centerville.
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Does your son or daughter graduate high school this year? The Observer is happy to offer you a FREE announcement, including a photo, in our June graduation issue. To receive a form for this free announcement, contact Marshall Weiss at MWeiss@jfgd.net. Forms received after May 9 will be held for the July issue of The Observer.
DAYTON
Noa Tishby named Israel’s first-ever special envoy for combating antisemitism
Will keynote Federation’s Presidents Dinner at Dayton Arcade, May 15 Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Yair Lapid has appointed Israel’s first special envoy for combating antisemitism and the delegitimization of Israel, naming Israeli American artist and author Noa Tishby to the position. Making the announcement on April 11 in Jerusalem, Lapid said, “the creation of this post and the appointment of Tishby is another step that will strengthen Israel and our fight against antisemitism internationally at a moment when Jews around the world once again face an alarming and dramatic resurgence in antisemitism.” She is charged with raising awareness of delegitimization efforts against Israel, advocating against hate toward Jews, and spearheading initiatives worldwide, according to the Foreign Affairs Ministry. In 2011, Tishby founded Act for Israel, an online advocacy organization. In 2021, she wrote Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth. The ministry described
her as “a leading voice in the United States and abroad” in fighting antisemitism and anti-Israel delegitimization efforts. She has been recognized as one of the 50 Most Influential Jews in the World by The Jerusalem Post. Tishby was born Noa Tishby in Tel Aviv and served in the Israeli Defense Forces. She received a drama scholarship from the Tel Aviv Museum of Arts and appeared in popular Israeli television, film, and stage productions before establishing her film and television career in the United States as a producer, actor, and writer. Tishby will keynote the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton’s Presidents Dinner in the rotunda of the newly opened Dayton Arcade, May 15. “I can imagine no greater honor than representing the State of Israel to work to eradicate the rising threat of irrational and dangerous hate against Jews, bring antisemitism to the surface, and foster dialogue,” Tishby said. “The danger facing Jews and the State of Israel is
Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs
more prevalent now than at any time since World War II and the Holocaust.” A recent FBI report found that Jews are the target of 58 percent of religiously motivated hate crimes in the United States while making up just 2 percent of the population, the ministry said in announcing the appointment. — JNS Jewish Federation’s Presidents Dinner with Noa Tishby, 5 p.m., Sunday, May 15 at The Dayton Arcade, 35 W. Fourth St. Tickets are $100 each, $50 per young adult (ages 35 and under). Kashrut will be observed. Participants will be asked to make their pledges to the 2022 Jewish Federation Annual Campaign. R.S.V.P. by May 1 to jewishdayton/events.
Brunch discussion on Americanism in Jewish Dayton a century ago
A DAI EXCLUSIVE! LIMITED ENGAGEMENT–CLOSING MAY 22!
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Black Heritage Through Visual Rhythms is organized by the African American Visual Artists Guild in partnership with the Dayton Art Institute.
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about the history of Dayton’s Marshall Weiss, editor and Jewish community, Weiss will publisher of The Dayton Jewish Observer and project director of talk about the local Jewish community’s vigorous Miami Valley Jewish efforts in the 1920s Genealogy & History, to Americanize its will present the talk, newest arrivals from Judaism and AmeriEastern Europe. canism in Dayton a The brunch discusCentury Ago, at 9:45 sion is presented in a.m., Sunday, May 8 memory of Franklin at Temple Israel, 130 T. Cohn by NataRiverside Dr., Dayton. lie R. Cohn, Shari The brunch proLynn Cohn, and Dr. gram is part of Temple Gregory Cohn. Israel’s Ryterband Marshall Weiss The cost is $7 at Lecture Series and is the door. Reservations may presented in partnership with be made at jewishdayton.org/ Miami Valley JG&H. events. The author of two books
Contact Patty Caruso at plhc69@gmail.com to advertise in The Observer. PAGE 6
THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2022
DAYTON
Air Force Security Assistance manager’s greatest career moment: When Israel destroyed Syria’s nuclear reactor While being interviewed March 22 as part of an Air Force Life Cycle Management Center Public Affairs video series, civilian employee Brian Koontz said the greatest moment of his career was in 2007, “when Israel destroyed a Syrian reactor that was in a piece of territory that was later controlled by ISIS.” “The thought of ISIS with a nuclear reactor is kind of scary, as it should be,” said the 25-year Air Force civil service employee. “It was destroyed with F-16s and F-15s, both of which I played a small part in. But that’s where you see that FMS (foreign military sales) really pays off, that the world is safer because of what they did with the aircraft that we supplied to them.” In honor of Israel’s 74th Independence Day, observed this year on May 5, The Observer interviewed Koontz about his contributions to the U.S. Air Force Security Assistance Program for Israel.
several different career fields that play a role in any given FMS program, including program management, engineering, finance, contracting, logistics, test and security. We employee U.S. government civilian employees, contractor support, and military members in these roles. WPAFB offers great opportunities to work with foreign partners across the world.
stantial and advanced defense industry that is a supplier for many USAF and other countries’ weapon systems, which has led me to travel to Israel multiple times while working with a different FMS partner in order to get updates and view progress from critical Israeli suppliers.
In addition to F-15s and F-16s, are there other items you’ve provided for Israel in your work? How often do you get over The only Israel programs to Israel for your work? that I have worked are I just moved to the Israel the F-15 and F-16. HowF-15 program from a difever, there are several other ferent F-15 FMS program and am looking forward to Brian Koontz, Israel F-15 Israel programs managed Security Assistance at Wright-Patterson AFB, intraveling to Israel for the Program manager cluding transport and tanker first time as the Israel F-15 aircraft. Israel is also an FMS partner in SAPM (Security Assistance Program several other FMS programs across the manager) in the near future. I worked Department of Defense and the separate the Israel F-16I program for five years in the early 2000s, and traveled to Israel services. Do you do your work through WPAFB? once or twice per year. FMS program Are you also the point person for Yes, I am a Department of the Air events can drive more or less travel to Force civilian employee at Wrightbe warranted. On some FMS programs, I replacement parts for aircrafts that go Patterson Air Force Base. My current have traveled to the partner nation up to to Israel? There is a large team of acquisition assignment is on the Israel F-15 Forfive times per year. and logistics professionals across several eign Military Sales program. There are Israel is unique in that it has a sub-
bases and contractor locations that support the replacement parts process. For aircraft that have already been provided to Israel, the Air Force Security Assistance and Cooperation Directorate (AFSAC) at Wright-Patterson AFB is the focal point. AFSAC manages the requests and budget, and works closely with the Israeli Air Force to monitor and accelerate the parts replacement process while working with other supporting organizations and defense contractors to fill the need. Is there anything else you would like our readers to know about your work with Israel? Israel is a critical ally of the United States in an important region of the world. The Israeli Ministry of Defense and Israeli Air Force can be a very challenging and demanding FMS partner. However, they also are very appreciative of honest and hard work, and see the work we do as a true partnership. At the end of the day, they are a joy to work with and you will grow professionally. They challenge you. — Marshall Weiss
Ever since there’s been an IDF protecting Israel, there’s been an MDA ensuring their health. Magen David Adom has been saving lives since 1930, some 18 years before Israel became a state. We take immense pride in being Israel’s national emergency medical service and in supplying the blood and medical care for the soldiers who have ensured Israel’s existence. Join us in celebrating Israel’s independence on Yom HaAtzma’ut. Save a life in Israel — and now in Ukraine too. Support Magen David Adom at afmda.org or call 866.632.2763.
afmda.org THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2022
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100 years ago, young Black, Catholic & Jewish leaders legally kept the Klan from rallying at Memorial Hall
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M.J. Gibbons Jr.
Attorney Sidney G. Kusworm
Rabbi Samuel Mayerberg
Rev. John N. Samuels-Belboder
Attorney John C. Shea
the event not only at Memorial Hall but By Marshall Weiss, The Observer Though they were all in their 20s and anywhere in the county, as the lecture to be given “will provoke and incite riot 30s, the five young men were already and disorder within the City of Daywell-respected in their professions and for championing social justice causes in ton and County of Montgomery and religious prejudice and hatred among Dayton. the people thereof and may and will Ohio was a hotbed of Ku Klux Klan result in great and irreparable injury to activity when the young men joined person and property of the citizens of together on May 26, 1922 to file an injunction and prevent the Klan from pre- this county and state.” A county judge granted the injuncsenting a speaker for an invitation-only tion hours before the scheduled event. event that evening at Memorial Hall, then as now, Montgomery County’s war Memorial Hall was locked up, and the Klan instead held its program that night memorial facility. The Dayton Daily UD at a high school in Greene County. News informed its The young men behind readers it brought to the injunction were Temple the attention of the Israel’s Rabbi Samuel MayMontgomery County erberg; civic and business commissioners that leader M.J. Gibbons Jr., a the county had alCatholic; and the Rev. John lowed the Klan to N. Samuels-Belboder, pastor book the meeting. of the African American St. The Klan program Margaret’s Episcopal Church. was billed as a speech The attorneys who prepared on Americanism by the injunction were active in Billy Parker of BranUD Law Prof. Erica Goldberg civic affairs as well as with son, Mo. Parker was their respective religious communities: the editor of the New Menace, an antiSidney G. Kusworm, a Jew; and John C. Catholic newspaper. Shea, a Catholic. The organizer of the event, C.L. HarIn Ohio, the Klan’s main targets for rod, “King Kleagle” of Columbus, had hatred were Black people, Catholics, and already been prevented from presentJews. ing Parker in Akron because of a court The plaintiff Kusworm and Shea injunction. named in the case was Edward T. Banks, Although Montgomery County’s 48, an African American clerk with the commissioners claimed they weren’t municipal court. Banks was known for aware Memorial Hall had been rented his speeches about the progress African to the Klan, Harrod boasted to the Dayton Daily News that there will be “no Americans had made in business and professional fields. interference.” “Back then, states could block some“We have some of the most prominent city officials and citizens...enrolled thing like the KKK rally, both because we didn’t really think the First Amendin our membership. They have assured ment applied to the states at all, but us that nothing can stop our meetings. also because even First Amendment We will have no more interference.” juris prudence applied to the federal The commissioners didn’t cancel the government was fairly impoverished meeting. The five young men filed an injunction to bar the Klan from holding as compared to now,” explains Univer-
THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2022
DAYTON Dayton Metro Library
sity of Dayton Law Prof. Erica Goldberg, who teaches torts, constitutional law, and criminal procedure. She also blogs at inacrowdedtheater.com about free speech values. “My personal view about this is that Jews have to be vigilant about antisemitism and they have every right to be concerned for their safety, but we’ve also been on the forefront of protecting freedom of speech as an important principle/value regardless of the speaker. And often, because we The injunction that attorneys Kusworm and Shea filed May 26, 1922 kept find the speakers’ views really Klan members from gathering later that evening not only at Memorial Hall, offensive, that really shows but anywhere in Montgomery County commitment to the principal. sional action. And then, even mere advocacy and incitement “So sometimes these interonce the First Amendment got to imminent lawless action. We ests can be intentioned and not incorporated against the states, cannot punish advocacy. Even everyone agrees on whether it was a much less robust conif it’s advocacy for something or not where we’ve landed ception of free speech than we detestable. And so the more is correct, but certainly Jews have now.” general, the less imminent have been on both sides of the Goldberg says the First some statements are — or their issue, both wanting to prevent Amendment started picking up reason for a group’s gatherKKK rallies and hate group some traction in cases with U.S. ing — the more likely it is to gatherings, but also wanting to Supreme Court Justice Oliver be protected. So that current protect their right to freedom Wendell Holmes’ famous 1919 incitement standard is: Your of speech.” dissent in Abrams v. United speech can only be regulated At the time of the injunction, States, in which he argued, “It as incitement if it’s directed to in 1922, the First Amendment is only the present danger of and reasonably likely to prohad not yet been incorporated immediate evil or an intent to duce imminent lawless action.” against the states, Goldberg bring it about The government, Goldberg says. At the time of the that warrants says, is allowed to create con“The First tent-neutral time/place/manner Amendment, injunction, in 1922, Congress in setting a limit restrictions. “You could start technically, if controlling when gatherings you look at the the First Amendment to the expression of opinion happen in public spaces or how text, only aphad not yet been where private loud they’re allowed to be,” she plies to Conrights are not explains. “But what you’re not gress, meaning incorporated concerned.” allowed to do is discriminate federal action,” against the states, It still took on the basis of the content of she says. “Of Goldberg says. until 1969 them. So if you have a mechacourse, that’s for the First nism for allowing organizano longer the Amendment to develop the tions to assemble, for allowing case. Now, the First Amendstrong protections of freedom groups to march, you just have ment applies to anything a of speech we have today. to apply that evenhandedly. state actor would do, a goverThat Supreme Court case, You can’t discriminate on the nor would do, a state legislawhich sets our modern incitebasis of viewpoint for protectture would do as well.” ment standard, Goldberg says, ed speech.” Prior to 1925, the year when was Brandenburg v. Ohio. Getting back to Dayton in the First Amendment started “A Ku Klux Klan member 1922, Goldberg doesn’t wongetting incorporated against was convicted under this der at what now appears to be the states, Goldberg says, statute called the Ohio Crimithe stretch in the injunction’s “there was little states could nal Syndicalism Statute,” she wording that the KKK event not do” when it came to censays. “The Supreme Court set would “incite riot and disorsorship. out the incitement standard der.” “Basically, all of the First because it wanted to distin“The standards just were Amendment litigation was guish between what it calls applied very differently back happening because of congresthen,” she says. “Usually instead of the current incitement standard — the Brandenburg ongress shall make no law respecting “clear and present danger” standard — then they would an establishment of religion, or prohibiting say that people publishing the free exercise thereof; or abridging the pamphlets opposing World War I presented a clear and freedom of speech, or of the press; or the present danger. right of the people peaceably to assemble, “So even if they paid lip service to some sort of speechand to petition the Government for a protected standard, it often just wasn’t applied in a very redress of grievances. speech-protective way. And that’s really different than — First Amendment, U.S. Constitution now.”
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‘Anywhere they go, it’s another butcher’ Maryna Braginsky of Centerville updates The Observer on her family in Ukraine
In the April issue of The Observer, we interviewed Centerville resident Maryna Braginsky, who shared what her immediate family in Ukraine endured over the first weeks of Russia’s invasion. Her mother was sheltering in the basement of her house in Sumy, a city in northeastern Ukraine. Braginsky’s 11-year-old niece Polina was sheltering there too. Braginsky’s younger brother, Vlad, an officer in the Ukrainian army, is stationed at Mykolaiv, a city near the Black Sea in southern Ukraine near Odessa. Her older brother, Igor, was fighting with Ukraine’s territorial defense to protect Sumy, the family’s hometown. Just before The Observer went to press with this issue, Braginsky provided us with another update. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. What’s going on with your family in Ukraine? We managed to get our niece (Polina, 11) out of Ukraine, out of Suma, and taken to France. She went through Poland and then she stayed with friends
Brunch Discussion
of friends in Germany for one week. And then we managed to get her to France, to my husband’s distant relative.
not exactly in Mykolaiv.
Is your mother still in her house in Suma? She is, yes. And she refuses to leave, unfortuHow did you get her out? nately. I don’t know if she It wasn’t a green corridor. can leave by now or not It was some police team. They because last night, they agreed to take her and her (Russians) started the great mom across regions and then Brother Igor Brother Vlad Maryna Braginsky Niece Polina battle for the east, which they managed to get transporjust bring her something. involves Donetsk and Lugansk How does your mother get tation from there and into the food, water, and medicine? There are a lot of mines left and Kharkiv, and Kharkiv is Polish border. And her mom She has her own water well. from when Russians retreated. like 70 miles from my mom’s returned. And we’re trying to Food, my sister-in-law helps a They left mines along the road, city. So if they decide to go figure out what to do with her lot because she’s in charge of in forests, in fields. So now there, anywhere they go it’s next. the grocery store. That’s why (Ukrainian) authorities tell another butcher. I don’t know. My older brother (Igor), she stayed back, because that’s people not to go anywhere, We talk to her, who is this the only grocery store for the just stay in your own street, but she decided girl’s father, he ‘There are a lot neighborhood, so she stay in your own yards because was in territoof mines left from she does not want huge said, “I have to go back and everything is full of explosives. to go anywhere. rial defense in when Russians take care of the store so people Now, my mom says, “I hear a She wants to stay the same city lot of explosions.” It’s because because his retreated. They left in her own house. can at least buy something that’s rationed.” At least she probably our guys are detonatI don’t know daughter was mines along the manages to get some bread ing those explosives in fields. what made her there. But as there and some milk there. This huge battle in the east, make the decisoon as we got road, in forests, So medicine, sometimes they say they have around sion. Probably her out, he rein fields.’ the Red Cross manages to 40,000 Russian troops there, is because both (of enlisted in the come and then my mom gets spilling over to south. Honmy) brothers are regular army her meds. She has meds for estly, yesterday was very hard fighting and this is the only and he asked to be transferred thyroid, and she just survived and today is very hard because normalcy left in her life now, south, where our younger cancer, so she needs some supI constantly try to check on my she’s in her own house. That’s brother (Vlad) is. So now he is port from medicine. Sometimes brothers. And one (the youngwhy she doesn’t want to go there. My younger brother is er) is in a special division, so still in Mykolaiv. It’s bad there. anywhere because if she evacu- my brother’s friends manage to get some medicine and then he doesn’t answer me. I see ates, I think for her it means But my older brother, he’s in that he is online, he’s using his that the whole life is destroyed. they just come, fighters, and the Mykolaiv region but he’s phone, but he doesn’t answer me. So I asked our older brother what’s going on. He said he’s fine, he’s just really busy so he doesn’t answer. But I want him Sunday, May 8, 2022 to answer, at least a smiley face that everything is OK, at least 9:45AM-12PM something to know that he is using his phone now and that $7 Payable at the door he’s still fine. — Marshall Weiss Presented by Miami Valley Jewish Genealogy & History and Temple Israel's Ryterband Lecture Series. To donate to Jewish Federations RSVP online at JewishDayton.org/events of North America’s Ukraine relief campaign, go to go to Marshall Weiss, editor and publisher of jewishdayton.org. Money raised The Dayton Jewish Observer, project MARSHALL WEISS helps those caught in the fightdirector of Miami Valley Jewish Genealogy ing, assists those seeking to flee, & History, and author of two books about aids refugees in neighboring the history of Dayton's Jewish community, will talk about the local Jewish countries, and facilitates aliyah community's vigorous efforts to Americanize its newest arrivals from to Israel. The funds raised have been allocated to The Jewish Eastern Europe in the 1920s. Agency for Israel, The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, World ORT, United Presented in memory Hatzalah, Hillel International, of Franklin T. Cohn Nefesh B’Nefesh, HIAS, Israel by Natalie R. Cohn, Trauma Coalition, Hadassah Miami Valley Jewish Shari Lynn Cohn, and Medical Organization, Chabad, Genealogy & History Dr. Gregory D. Cohn. and Shma Yisrael.
Judaism and Americanism in Dayton a century ago
JG&H
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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2022
THE REGION
Columbus Torah Academy security guards arrested, indicted for online threats By Jane Kaufman Cleveland Jewish News The list of charges has grown following indictments by a Franklin County grand jury against two former security guards regarding threats against the Jewish community in Central Ohio. Thomas M. Develin, 24, and James Ronald Meade Jr., 26, also known as James Ricky Meade II, were both indicted April 8 in Franklin County Court of Common Pleas following their initial arrests and arraignments in Franklin County Municipal Court. Since that time, Develin has been placed under house arrest at his parents’ house after posting $200,000 in bonds April 13, while Meade awaits his April 22 arraignment. Develin was arrested March 31, while Meade was arrested April 4. Both worked for Sahara Global Security in Columbus, and were terminated immediately. On April 1, the Columbus Division of Police issued a news release that Develin had posted photos of himself posing with a semi-automatic handgun while he was working as a private security guard for CTA. The posts were found on the social media platform, Discord. Develin also posted statements that said, “I’m at a Jewish school and about to make it everyone’s problem” and “The playground is about to turn into a self-defense situation.”
Develin – who was stationed at Columbus Torah Academy and other Jewish institutions – is now facing two counts of making terroristic threats and a single count of tampering with evidence; all three are third-degree felonies. In addition, he faces a single count of manufacturing or processing an explosive, dating to an incident that took place March 31. That is a second-degree felony. He also faces a single count of unlawful possession of dangerous ordnance, a fifth-degree felony. Develin pleaded not guilty to all five charges at his April 14 arraignment before Judge Andy D. Miller. Under the terms of his bond agreement, he is to have no contact with any of the alleged victims or witnesses and is to stay 500 feet away from addresses listed in the indictment, he is to undergo drug and alcohol screening, he is not to possess firearms, he is not to have internet access except as required for employment and he is not to enter or be within 500 feet of any religious facility, not to engage in any Anheuser-Busch group chats, no contact with any codefendants, and he is to remain under house arrest at this parents’ home, surrender his passport and is not to own any explosive devices, according to a judge’s April 13 order. Meade – who was stationed at Columbus Torah Academy for at least one day, according to Columbus police –
Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs Kentucky-Indiana-Ohio Region presents
has not yet been arraigned on a single count of making a terroristic threat and tampering with evidence, the two charges he faces in Franklin County Court of Common Pleas following his indictment April 8. Meade posted bond of $4,485 in bond and is not in jail currently. His Thomas M. Develin Ronald Meade Jr. lawyer, Bryan Bowen, of Luftman, Heckman & Associates LLP of ColumAmong the organizations and indibus, told the Columbus Jewish News April viduals that spoke at the security brief19 that a Franklin County judge set a ing were representatives from Jewish$40,000 cash or surety bond. Bowen was Columbus, Ohio Jewish Communities, uncertain where he was staying. the Anti-Defamation League Cleveland The indictments show the threats regional office and the Secure Commutook place from Dec. 16, 2021 to April 7, nity Network. 2022 and that the evidence tampering Rabbi Avrohom Drandoff, head took place March 28 and March 29. of school for Columbus Torah AcadDevelin was initially arraigned at emy, thanked God that a disaster was Franklin County Municipal Court averted. following an investigation into cyber “I’d like to thank Hashem that we threats on social media against the aren’t discussing a tragedy but rather Columbus Jewish community by the how to better security,” Drandoff said. Columbus Division of Police. He then announced changes to CTA’s Columbus Jewish community security policy, eliminating the practice members gathered April 4 with clergy, of private security guards and only uslocal and regional Jewish officials and ing Columbus Division of Police officers security professionals in the wake of the to provide school security, given threats situation. made by private security personnel.
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How to React to Anti-Semitism
TDJO_10-19
Join us in Columbus • May 13-15, 2022
Friday, May 13 • 6 PM
Services followed by dinner provided by sponsors Panel discussion: Media/Social Media: How to navigate through hyperbole and misinformation for the truth. Congregation Agudas Achim, 2767 E. Broad St., Columbus
Saturday, May 14 • 9:30 AM
Services followed by lunch provided by KIO Region Panel discussion: The workplace and community: Ways to deal with anti-Semitism and differentiate between it and legitimate criticism of Israel. Congregation Tifereth Israel, 1354 E. Broad St., Columbus
Sunday, May 15 • 10AM
Breakfast provided by The Rosenson Family Foundation Panel discussion: How to handle anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiment on campus. Jewish Community Center of Greater Columbus, 1125 College Ave, Columbus
All are welcome to attend but registration is required. Register online now at https://cutt.ly/FJMC-Weekend2022 Deadline for online registration is May 5
For more information contact:
Mark Rosenson • mrosen3216@aol.com | Jerry Brodsky • jerry brodsky2@gmail.com | Dr. Dale Levy • dlevy82@gmail.com
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THE REGION
Cincinnati Holocaust Museum receives $18 million anonymous donation By Jackie Hajdenberg, JTA What can a Holocaust museum accomplish with $18 million? Cincinnati’s is about to find out. The anonymous gift, the largest ever for the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center, comes as the museum’s administrators warn about the waning numbers of living Holocaust survivors as well as “divisive concepts” legislation that could put a chill on how the Holocaust is taught in schools. The museum’s CEO, Sarah Weiss, said the gift will enable the museum to add digital exhibits that are increasingly seen as a frontier for Holocaust education. Weiss pointed to the Dimensions in Testimony exhibit, which uses artificial intelligence to simulate conversations with Holocaust survivors, as an example of the kind of experience she aims to offer museum visitors in the future. She said that with few living Holocaust survivors, the youngest of whom are now nearing 80, digital conversations would necessarily have to replace real-life ones. “We are really the last generation who will be living with the survivors and World War II veterans,” Weiss said. The anonymous donation, which Weiss said had been in the works for some time and comes from donors with a preexisting relationship with the museum, comes at a fraught moment in Ohio and nationally. The state is one of many where Republican lawmak-
ers are pushing legislation to ban or curtail the teaching of “divisive concepts.” Legislation pending in Ohio would bar schools from teaching, advocating or promoting diversity, equity or inclusion in ways deemed divisive or “inherently racist,” and limit instruction around sexual orientation or gender identity. “The unintended consequences are that it’s actually going to make teachers fearful to teach the Holocaust,” Weiss said. Already, a state representative in Ohio drew criticism for using the Holocaust as an example of how teachers can comply with “divisive concepts” legislation — by elevating the perspectives of Nazis. “Maybe you’re listening to it from the perspective of a Jewish person that has gone through the tragedies that took place,” the representative said in March. “And maybe you’ll listen to it from the perspective of a German soldier.” Similar comments have been aired, and drawn swift pushback, in Texas, and Indiana. “History doesn’t just stay in the past,” Weiss said. “It shapes our present and our future as well.” Weiss’ center, which is a field trip destination for all Cincinnati ninth graders, also plans to use the $18 million gift to deepen youth programming. The museum has operated on a $1.5 million annual budget, Weiss said; the gift will allow it to expand its spending and create an endowment. The museum has had a few different homes since it was established in 2000. Its original location was at
Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center
Students visiting the Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center
Hebrew Union College’s Cincinnati campus. In 2009 it moved to a Jewish day school in nearby Kenwood. In 2019, the museum moved again to Union Terminal, a former train station where an estimated 1,000 Holocaust survivors disembarked after coming to America. The museum moved in after the station underwent a massive restoration effort. Last year, it was the beneficiary of a virtual bake sale to oppose antisemitism. Cincinnati is not the only American city to see resources recently poured into its Holocaust memorial efforts. In April, donors announced the purchase of a prominent building to be used as Boston’s first Holocaust museum. It will be located on the city’s historic Freedom Trail, a tourist destination filled with museums and cultural institutions.
r o F n Us CONFIRMATION
Joi
& CONSECRATION
Friday, May 13th at 6:30 p.m., In person & Streaming
We will be celebrating our oldest and youngest students in a wonderful program which will bring together both of these important ceremonies. All are invited to join us in person. We will enjoy an ice cream bar as well after the service and all of our celebrants will receive a special gift from Rabbi Chessin and Rabbi Azriel.
5275 Marshall Road., Dayton, OH 45429 www.templebethor.com 937-435-3400 PAGE 12
THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2022
May JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON & ITS AGENCIES
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Connect with us! Check out our events. For more information, see our calendar at jewishdayton.org. Sunday, May 1 @ 1:30PM — Yom Ha’Atzmaut Community Celebration Monday, May 2 @ 12PM — From BRCA to Tay-Sachs: A Modern Approach to Jewish Genetic Screening Monday, May 2, 9, 16, 23 @ 2PM — Tour Paris! Sunday, May 15 @ 5PM — Presidents Dinner
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Wednesday, May 18 @ 4PM — A Tribute to Stephen Sondheim Thursday, May 19 @ 6PM — Welcome to Medicare Seminar
PRESIDENTS
DINNER 2022
DATE: Sunday, May 15, 2022 TIME: 5PM Cocktail hour 6PM Dinner and Keynote Speaker
LOCATION: Dayton Arcade 34 W 4th St, Dayton, OH 45402 Complimentary valet parking will be provided.
Guest speaker: NOA TISHBY
RSVP by May 1, 2022. Contact Melanie Gomez at 937.401.1558
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PAGE 13
May JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON & ITS AGENCIES
Join Us
2022 SUMMITin BUDAPEST
SEPTEMBER 10 - 15
Our first international gathering in almost three years AND our first Partnership Summit in Budapest!
Enjoy the Partnership Experience:
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Let’s celebrate being together again. Reconnect with old friends and meet new friends from our U.S. communities, Western Galilee, and Budapest. $900pp (double), $1,400 (single occupancy) Subsidized cost includes 5 nights in the 4-star Budapest Mercure Budapest City Center hotel, kosher meals, guided tours, program fees, and transportation during the Summit. Flights and transport to and from airport are not included in the cost of the Summit. Registration fee $500 due by May 1, 2022 Remaining amount due by July 1, 2022 Fully refundable up to July 31, 2022
Registration at: westerngalilee.org.il/summit For more details, contact: Marcy L. Paul, U.S. Consortium Director, at marcyp2g@outlook.com
LET’S EXPLORE! JUNE 7 - JULY 22 GRADES 1 - 10
Traditional camp, swimming, field trips, and specialty camps! For more information and to register, visit jewishdayton.org. We’re hiring summer camp counselors! See available positions at jewishdayton.org under the “about” tab. PAGE 14
THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2022
May JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON & ITS AGENCIES
MEET ME IN THE LOBBY! Come out and join the JCC for Lobby Games and Gatherings at the CJCE every day from 10AM to noon starting April 25.
The “City of Lights”
May 2 - Père Lachaise Cemetery
The JCC will provide the cards and game boards unless noted. (Masks are OPTIONAL)
MONDAY
May 9 - The Occupation and Liberation of Paris during WWII
Bridge
May 16 - Underground Paris
TUESDAY
May 23 - St. Martin Canal
Canasta
Join the JCC and the JCC Alliance for these exciting virtual programs! All Tour Paris programs are Mondays, 2PM to 3:15PM. Tickets are $50 for the series. Contact Helen Jones at hjones@jfgd.net or 937-610-5513 or visit jewishdayton.org for more information and registration.
WEDNESDAY
Discover Stephen Sondheim who reinvented the American musical! Wednesday, May 18, 4 -5PM Tickets are $12.50 until May 16; $15.00 May 17-18
CELEBRATING ISRAEL
Mah Jongg (please bring your mah jongg set and cards)
THURSDAY
Scrabble/Backgammon
FRIDAY
Needlework (knitting, crochet, needlepoint) Questions? Contact Helen Jones at hjones@jfgd.net or 937-401-1553
Live music, Israeli dancing, Krav Maga demonstration, activities for everyone! A large accessible playground for children. Israeli-style kosher box lunches for adults and children available for preorder at rochelskitchen.com Free admission and onsite parking!
SUNDAY MAY 1, 1:30-4PM Indian Riffle Park 2801 Stroop Rd., Kettering 45420 This program is proudly supported by
THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2022
In case of rain, please check jewishdayton.org or our Facebook page for updates on rain location THE JCC IN PARTNERSHIP WITH: Beth Abraham Synagogue Beth Jacob Congregation Camp Livingston Chabad of Greater Dayton Dayton Sister City Committee - Holon, Israel Hadassah Hillel Academy PJ Library & Our Way Temple Beth Or Temple Israel PAGE 15
May JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON & ITS AGENCIES
Legacies, Tributes, & Memorials FOUNDATION
FEDERATION
ANNUAL CAMPAIGN IN MEMORY OF › Naomi Lerner, Blessed Mother of Sara Shuster Michael Roediger IN MEMORY OF › Ruth Z. Goldberg › Elaine S. Veta Audrey Sachs JEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER DAYTON ENDOWMENT FUND IN MEMORY OF › Ron Gilbert Martha Moody and Martin Jacobs LINDA RUCHMAN MEMORIAL FUND IN MEMORY OF › Irv Zipperstein Judy and Marshall Ruchman PJ LIBRARY IN MEMORY OF › Sara Shuster’s mother Marcia and Ed Kress PAST PRESIDENTS FUND IN MEMORY OF › Claire Lieberman › Larry Stein › Irv Zipperstein Sylvia and Ralph Heyman JOE BETTMAN MEMORIAL TZADIK AWARD IN MEMORY OF › Irv Zipperstein › Pat Bloom Elaine Bettman
ADDISON CARUSO B’NAI TZEDEK YOUTH PHILANTHROPY FUND IN MEMORY OF › Gerald Whiteman Patricia and Michael Caruso IN MEMORY OF › Mitchell Biondi IN YAHRZEIT MEMORY OF › Samuel G. Cohen Donna Holt and Charles Fox JFS
IN MEMORY OF › Sis Office Mimi and DL Stewart A SPEEDY RECOVERY TO › Cathy Gardner Susan and Joe Gruenberg IN MEMORY OF › Irv Zipperstein Bev and Jeff Kantor JEWISH FAMILY SERVICES DISCRETIONARY FUND IN MEMORY OF › Dottie Engelhardt Rabbi Bernard Barsky
JCC
CAROLE RABINOWITZ CAMP FUND IN MEMORY OF › Joe Bettman › Eileen Wolf ’s father › Dee Fried’s sister › Ron Gilbert › Howard Beyer A SPEEDY RECOVERY TO › Cathy Gardner Beverly A. Louis IN HONOR OF › Alice and Burt Saidel receiving the Governor’s Award for the Arts in Ohio IN MEMORY OF › Richard Lieberman Bernie Rabinowitz JOAN AND PETER WELLS AND REBECCA LINVILLE FAMILY, CHILDREN AND YOUTH FUND IN MEMORY OF › Claire Lieberman › Irv Zipperstein IN HONOR OF › Ralph Heyman’s birthday A SPEEDY RECOVERY TO › Cathy Gardner Joan and Peter Wells JANE HOCHSTEIN JCC PROGRAMMING FUND IN HONOR OF › The birth of a grandson to Robin Moore IN MEMORY OF › Ron Gilbert Gayle and Irv Moscowitz
FROM BRCA TO TAY-SACHS:
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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2022
THE REGION
Ohio adopts international antisemitism definition
By Stephen Langel Columbus Jewish News Gov. Mike DeWine signed an executive order April 14 adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism and requiring all state agencies, departments, boards, and commissions, including all public colleges and universities to adopt it as well. By doing so, all of these entities are required to use that definition in reviewing, investigating, or deciding whether there has been a violation of any policy or regulation prohibiting discriminatory acts at such institutions. DeWine cited the rising num-
ber of incidents of antisemitism munities, lauded the move. “Governor Mike DeWine has in Ohio and throughout the repeatedly given his personal country as the reason for the commitment to our executive order. community on combatThe IHRA defines ing hate, especially Jewantisemitism as hatred, Beigelman said “a certain percepin a news release. tion of Jews, which “His issuance of may be expressed today’s executive order as hatred toward defining antisemitism is Jews. Rhetorical and the latest step. Together physical manifestawith his powerful tions of antisemitism letter to college and are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish Gov. Mike DeWine university presidents in December on making individuals and/or the campus safe for Jewish stutheir property, toward Jewish dents, faculty, and staff, Ohio community institutions and leads the way in facing this religious facilities.” Howie Beigelman, executive ancient hatred head-on. We are grateful for his leadership.” director of Ohio Jewish Com-
Governor’s Holocaust Commemoration May 9 Gov. Mike DeWine will host Ohio’s 42nd Annual Governor’s Holocaust Commemoration at 1:30 p.m., Monday, May 9 at the Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center in Cincinnati. The guest speaker for the program will be Rebecca Erbelding, historian, archivist, and curator at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Erbelding is author of Rescue Board: The Untold Story of America’s Efforts to Save the Jews of Europe, winner of the 2018 National Jewish Book Award for Writing Based on Archival Material. Rabbi Judy Chessin of Temple Beth Or in Washington Township will offer the benediction. The Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center is located at Cincinnati Museum Center, 1301 Western Dr. The commemoration is Rebecca Erbelding presented in partnership with Ohio Jewish Communities and the Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center and will also be livestreamed via Zoom. Register at ohiojc.org.
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JEWISH FAMILY SERVICES of GREATER DAYTON THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2022
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Beth Abraham, Dayton’s only Conservative synagogue, is enthusiastically egalitarian and is affiliated with the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.
THE REGION
OSU student president kills Israel divestment resolution
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The OSU Student Senate passed a Boycott Divest and Sanctions resolution aimed at Israel on April 6 at the last meeting of the semester
By Jane Kaufman Columbus Jewish News A resolution inspired by the boycott, divest, and sanctions movement against Israel that The Ohio State University student senate approved April 6 died after the outgoing student senate president, Jacob Chang, failed to sign it. Ethan Wolf, an alternate student senator who is a senior at OSU in Columbus, told the Columbus Jewish News April 13 the resolution — targeting Hewlett Packard and Caterpillar Inc. for their business interests in Israel — was doomed from the start. “Whether the president signed it or not, whether it made it through the trustees or not, at the end, the end game was the same, because it was never going to be implemented,” Wolf said. “It’s illegal in the state of Ohio to pass the divestment bill from the State of Israel specifically,” he added, referring to anti-BDS legislation passed by the Ohio legislature in 2016. “So it was a toothless bill that just put Jewish people at risk.” The resolution had passed by a vote of 14-8 with two abstentions. Its main impact, Wolf said, will be to affect campus climate. “There’s still a lot of students that I think are going to be pretty upset with that,” he said, adding that because of the way the process was framed, no public forum took place before the vote, although more than 40 Jewish students had spoken about the resolution March 30. “I’m pretty upset that when people tried to bring those concerns to the table to be heard, they were silenced and shut out of the room.” Benjamin Johnson, OSU’s senior director of media relations, media and public relations, emailed a statement to the Columbus Jewish News April 13. “Ohio State has an unwavering commitment to free speech and encourages our students, faculty and staff to engage in discussion and debate and respects the right of the USG General Assembly to engage in free expression on issues it believes are pertinent to campus
affairs,” Johnson wrote. “Based on the USG bylaws, because the outgoing USG president did not sign this resolution, it represents the opinion of the outgoing USG General Assembly and not of the entire USG as an organization. This distinction means that this resolution does not meet the threshold described in the university’s investment policy, and the university will not move forward with any action on this resolution.” Joseph Kohane, executive director of OSU Hillel, said he was pleased with the ultimate outcome in an April 12 email to the Columbus Jewish News. “This is a fitting end to a terrible resolution,” Kohane wrote. He also explained the process of what had happened. “The outgoing undergraduate student government president did not sign the BDS resolution passed last Wednesday and as of 7:45 p.m. (April 12), USG has a new president,” Kohane wrote, referring to incoming student senate president Andrew Pierce. “So the resolution that passed last week is just the opinion of last year’s general assembly, not of USG and the new (undergraduate student government) administration is not bound by it, as all of the 54th general assembly’s legislation expired tonight with the inauguration of the 55th.” Rabbi Levi Andrusier, executive director of Schottenstein Chabad House at OSU, praised Chang for “doing the right thing and not buckling under pressure.” In addition, he told the said April 13 that he was concerned about the handling of the motion, and the silencing of Jewish voices “still lingers with all of us, and most importantly, the students who led the fight against the BDS resolution.” He said he has noticed an outcome regarding interest on campus in Jewish observance. “A positive result from all the commotion over the last couple of weeks is that many more students are feeling the need to strengthen their Jewish connection and add more Jewish observance to their lives,” Andrusier said.
The resolution had passed by a vote of 14-8 with two abstentions.
Sunday, May 22, 3:30-5 PM Meet, Mingle & Schmooze Activities and Games for all ages Bubbles, Balloons, Raffles and more! Celebrate the end of the school year * Plus * Delicious Graeter’s Ice Cream Sundaes!
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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2022
OPINION
Does it matter whether we call Russia’s war in Ukraine genocide? The term has its origins in the Holocaust and is properly applied to attempts to destroy a people or group. Putin’s war is horrifying, but there are consequences to diluting the word’s meaning. By Jonathan S. Tobin When President Joe Biden used the word genocide to describe Russia’s actions in Ukraine, it raised some eyebrows. But it didn’t generate the same kind of pushback some of his other previous unscripted remarks about that conflict, such as his call for regime change in Moscow or his threats to use chemical warfare against Russia. Nevertheless, the White House still walked back this statement and even the president conceded that he was just speaking for himself rather than announcing an official policy determination for the U.S. government. In response, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed his thanks to Biden, calling his comment “true words of a true leader.” Predictably, a Kremlin spokesman denounced the talk of genocide as “unacceptable” and having come from a nation that was itself “committed well-known crimes in recent times.” French President Emanuel Macron was also critical of Biden, saying that he is being more “careful” because “I’m not sure the escalation of words is helping.” Most of Biden’s domestic foes held their fire. Indeed, some sources that are often critical of the administration spoke up in favor of his statement. For example, Fox News host and media commentator Howard Kurtz devoted a segment of his Sunday show to supporting Biden’s use of the word. Given the mounting evi-
dence of atrocities committed by Russian forces in Ukraine, the question of what exactly we should call them seems a matter of little importance to most observers, who think there’s nothing wrong with using the strongest possible terms to describe them. Russian bombing and missile fire causing heavy casualties, and the abuse of civilians in areas occupied by Moscow’s troops involving rape and murder is also well-documented. Still, the meanings of words always matter, and that is especially important with respect to a term that was first used to describe the Holocaust. As with the promiscuous use of terms associated with the Nazis’ attempt to exterminate the Jewish people, if every atrocious thing that happens is comparable to the Holocaust and every person that we think is awful is Adolf Hitler, then these terms become meaningless. And that is equally true when it comes to the use of genocide. The term was coined in 1944 by Raphael Lemkin, a Polish Jewish lawyer who had escaped the Nazis and dedicated his life to creating a body of international law that would prosecute those guilty of such crimes. The mass murder of Armenians by Turkey during World War I had initially drawn his attention to the fact that governments could attempt to wipe out a people with impunity. But the destruction of European Jewry inspired him to work to create a definition for such crimes. In his book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe, he combined the Greek word genos, which means race or people, with the Latin suffix cide, meaning killing, to create the new word. In December 1948, the Genocide Convention established by the United Nations was adopted by its General Assembly. It defined genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part,
So, what do you think?
a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” The five acts it specifically mentions include killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to the group, deliberately inflicting conditions intended to bring about a group’s physical destruction, trying to prevent births, and forcibly transferring children to another group. That definition fits neatly with what the Nazis did to the Jews. But there are other historical examples just from the last century. From 1932 to 1933, the Communist government of the Soviet Union, led by Joseph Stalin, deliberately imposed a famine on Ukraine. The country was then under a Communist occupation that would only end with the fall of the Soviet Union. The policy of deliberately removing all food supplies from Ukraine— in order to destroy them as a people, as well as to prop up Soviet rule elsewhere as the Communist system failed—led to the deaths of as many as four million people and is known to Ukrainians as the Holodomor. In the postwar era, the U.S. government has recognized six examples of genocide. They include the 1993 ethnic cleansing of Muslims by Bosnian Serbs; the 1994 massacre in Rwanda of approximately 600,000 members of the Tutsi minority by members of the majority Hutu tribe; the 1995 murder of approximately 150,000 Kurds by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein; the 2004 slaughter of about 500,000 Darfuris by the Sudanese government; the systematic murder of non-Islamic minorities in the areas of Iraq and Syria that were controlled by the ISIS caliphate during its rule from 2013 to 2017; and
the systematic oppression of Muslim Uyghurs by the Chinese Communist government in that country’s western Xinjiang province, which has led to the imprisonment of approximately one million people and the systematic killing and forced abortions associated with a campaign to wipe out that minority group. The comparison to these clear examples of genocide shouldn’t lead to the downplaying of Russian crimes in Ukraine. But as horrifying as the results of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion have been, it is by no means clear that his intention is mass murder, as opposed to merely the conquest of territory as part of his ambition to reassemble the old czarist/Soviet empire. To acknowledge this doesn’t mean one approves of Putin’s invasion or is willing to give him a pass for crimes that are being committed by his forces. Though there is no good answer as to how these crimes might ultimately be prosecuted, there should be no hesitation about labeling the war and its conduct by the Kremlin as criminal. Yet there is a difference between horrible wars and genocide, almost all of which generally involve defenseless ethnic or religious groups being victimized by governments. The point being is that all wars involve unjustified deaths and various kinds of horrible acts by combatants, even those which are fought on behalf of good causes, including the one fought against the Nazi regime, whose policies forced the world to come up with a word to describe its atrocities. A loose definition of genocide enables bad actors to treat those who oppose them as be-
A loose definition of genocide enables bad actors to treat those who oppose them as being guilty of outright massacre.
ing guilty of outright massacre. To this day, some who minimize the Holocaust claim that the Allied bombing of Germany and Japan were criminal acts. Indeed, it was Putin’s regime that was wrongly throwing around the word genocide to describe what it considered mistreatment of ethnic Russians inside Ukraine before the war started. The same kind of unjustifiable use of the word genocide has been cynically employed by critics of the United States, who accuse Americans of committing crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, essentially treating Islamist terrorists and those who fight them as morally equivalent. Even worse is the way Palestinians and their supporters indiscriminately use the word genocide to describe Israeli policies and measures of selfdefense against a movement bent on the destruction of the sole Jewish state on the planet. The accusations against the United States and Israel are lies. Still, the willingness to use the word genocide in this dishonest manner is the natural result of a watering down of its definition to describe anything horrible as opposed to its specific meaning, which refers to a particular kind of crime that is not comparable to even a very brutal armed conflict. Genocide, like Holocaust analogies, must be reserved for only such barbarism that fit its definition. When we apply it to other events, we undermine our sense of outrage at those crimes that actually are genocides—something that is painfully obvious when you consider the world’s continued indifference to what is happening to the Uyghurs at the hands of the Chinese, even as the world registers outrage about Ukraine. Anger about Russian crimes is justified; however, talk of genocide is, to date, both unjustified and a gesture that saps the foundation of our efforts to oppose mass murder elsewhere, as well as to minimize past examples such as the Holocaust.
Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS.
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2022
LINEUP OPENING NIGHT: THAT ORCHESTRA WITH THE BROKEN INSTRUMENTS 2021 • 1hr 19min • Documentary, Musical Film • Hebrew/English/Arabic (with subtitles)
Thursday, June 2 @ 7PM The Dayton Art Institute 456 Belmonte Park N Dayton, Ohio 45405
A broken string, fractured echo chamber, rustling valves. One brilliant conductor, three gifted composers, and 100 musicians meet for four days of rehearsals. They speak different languages. Their instruments are broken. An orchestra of professional and amateur musicians, young and old, prepare, against all odds, for a one-time-only concert for the Mekudeshet festival. A poetic, engaging take on broken and whole presents an eclectic array of Jerusalemites and their determined attempt, even if it’s just for one night, to create harmony out of a discordant city.
$18.00 per person Includes dessert
PLAN A Tuesday, June 7 @ 7PM at The Neon Available online June 7, 7PM to June 9 7PM NEIGHBORS Thursday, June 9 @ 7PM at The Neon Available online June 9, 7PM to June 11, 7PM Guest speaker: Elliot Ratzman ONE MORE STORY Monday, June 13 @ 7PM at The Neon Available online June 13, 7PM to June 15, 7PM
JOIN US FOR A SPECIAL PROGRAM WITH NEAL GITTLEMAN, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF THE DAYTON PHILHARMONIC, BEFORE THE FILM, AND A DESSERT RECEPTION AFTER IN THE DAI LOBBY.
BERENSHTEIN
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Wednesday, June 15 @ 7PM at The Little Art Theater in Yellow Springs June 16 @ 7PM at The Neon Available online June 15, 7PM to June 18, 7PM
Tuesday, June 21 @ 7PM at The Neon Available online June 21, 7PM to June 23, 7PM
CINEMA SABAYA Thursday, June 16 @ 9:30AM at The Neon Available online June 16, 10AM to June 18, 10AM In partnership with Hadassah, featuring a pre-movie program with Martha Moody Jacobs and a coffee reception.
I AM HERE
Thursday, June 23 @ 7PM at The Neon Available online June 23, 7PM to June 25, 7PM Guest Speaker: Renate Frydman
WET DOG (CLOSING NIGHT) Sunday, June 26 @ 7PM at The Neon Available online June 26, 7PM to June 28, 7PM
ALL FILMS ARE AVAILABLE ONLINE AND ONLY IN OHIO ON EVENTIVE, A SECURE VIDEO ON-DEMAND WEBSITE.
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To purchase tickets or a festival pass, visit jewishdayton.org. All ticket and festival pass purchases will be through Eventive. For more information or assistance, contact Helen Jones at hjones@jfgd.net or 937-610-5513 PAGE 20
THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2022
CALENDAR Classes
Beth Jacob Classes: Sundays, 2 p.m.: Conversions w. Rabbi Agar. Tuesdays, 7 p.m.: Weekly Parsha w. Rabbi Agar. Thursdays, 7 p.m.: Jewish Law w. Rabbi Agar. 7020 N. Main St., Harrison Twp. 937-274-2149. Chabad JLI Course: Beyond Right — The Values That Shape Judaism’s Civil Code w. Rabbi Mangel. Six Mondays beginning May 9, 7-9 p.m. 2001 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood. Zoom option available. $72 includes textbook. Scholarships available. Register at chabad@ chabaddayton.com or call 937643-0770. Temple Beth Or Adult Education Chai Mitzvah Virtual Class: Thurs., May 5, 7 p.m. Free. Register at templebethor. com/chai-mitzvah. Temple Israel Classes: Tuesdays, noon: Virtual & In-Person Talmud Study. Thursdays, May 5 & 12, 1 p.m.: Thinking About God, Part 2 w. Rabbi BodneyHalasz. Saturdays, May 7 & 28, 9:15 a.m.: Virtual Torah Study. Saturdays, May 14 & 21, 9:15 a.m.: Virtual & In-Person Torah
Study. Register at 937-496-0050.
Discussions
Temple Israel Ryterband Lecture Series: Sundays, 9:45 a.m. May 1: HUC Asst. Prof. of Jewish History Jennifer Grayson, The World of the Cairo Genizah, The Jews of Medieval Islam. May 8: Dayton Jewish Observer Editor & Publisher Marshall Weiss, Judaism & Americanism in Dayton 100 Years Ago. May 15: Senior Rabbi Karen Bodney-Halasz, From My Side of the Bima. $7 includes light breakfast. 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton. 937-4960050.
Women
Chabad Women’s Circle End Of Year Dinner: Herbalist & homeopath Sara Chana Silverstein. Sun., May 22, 6:30 p.m. 2001 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood. $25 in advance, $36 day of event. Register at chabaddayton.com/CWC.
Seniors
Welcome To Medicare Seminar: Thurs., May 19, 6-8 p.m. Presented by Ohio Senior Health Insurance Information Program in partnership with JFS. Free. No R.S.V.P. Boonshoft
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Recreation
JCC Lobby Games: 10 a.m.noon, Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville. Bridge Mondays, Canasta Tuesdays, Mah Jongg Wednesdays (bring own set & cards), Scrabble/ Backgammon Thursdays, Needlework Fridays. 937-610-5513.
Community
Temple Anshe Emeth Earth Day Taste of Judaism: Sat., April 30, 1 p.m. W. Rabbinic Intern Caitlyn Brazner. 320 Caldwell St., Piqua. In person & via Zoom. Register for both at ansheemeth@gmail.com. Community Yom Ha’atzmaut Celebration: Sun., May 1, 1:30-4 p.m. Indian Riffle Park, 2801 Stroop Rd., Kettering. Free admission. Kosher box lunches available for purchase in advance at rochelskitchen.com.
dayton/events. JCC Alliance Virtual Programs: Mondays, May 2, 9, 16 & 23, 2 p.m.: Tour Paris. $12.50 each, $50 for the series. Wed., May 18, 4 p.m.: Discover Stephen Sondheim. $12.50 until May 16. $15 May 17-18. Register at jewishdayton.org/events or contact Helen Jones at hjones@ jfgd.net. Temple Beth Or Confirmation & Consecration: Fri., May 13, 6:30 p.m. In person w. ice cream bar to follow & streaming. 5275 Marshall Rd., Wash. Twp. templebethor.com. Jewish Federation Presidents Dinner With Noa Tishby: Sun., May 15, 5 p.m. The Dayton Arcade, 35 W. Fourth St. $100, $50 ages 35 and under. R.S.V.P. by May 1 to jewishdayton/events.
JFS & PJ Library Present From BRCA To Tay-Sachs, A Modern Approach To Jewish Genetic Screening: led by JScreen Genetic Testing. Mon., May 2, noon. Free. Register at jewish-
Dayton Hadassah Virtual Tour of Israel Design Museum Exhibit, The Ball: Tues., May 17, 11:50 a.m.-1:30 p.m. $18. Register w. Julie Bloom, 937-416-6711. Chabad Lag B’Omer BBQ: Thurs., May 19, 6 p.m. Featuring the Chicago Boyz Acrobatic Team. 2001 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood. Adults $18, children $7. Register at chabaddayton.com. Beth Jacob Congregation Jewish Women Inspiring Jewish Women: Sun., May 22, 11 a.m. 7020 N. Main St., Harrison Twp. $18. R.S.V.P. by May 13 to 937-247-2149 or bethjacob1@ aol.com. Beth Abraham Synagogue Sunday Family Fun Day: Sun., May 22, 3:30-5 p.m. 305 Sugar Camp Cir., Oakwood. Free. 937293-9520.
Class of 2022
Does your son or daughter graduate high school this year?
BMB
The Observer is happy to offer you a FREE announcement, including a photo, in our June graduation issue. To receive a form for this free announcement, contact Marshall Weiss at MWeiss@jfgd.net. Forms received after May 9 will be held for the July issue of The Observer.
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PAGE 21
MAZEL TOV!
Mom deserves the best on her special day. Lisa Michaels, who has volunteered with Ohio’s Hospice for several years, tells us that its Pathways of Hope Grief Counseling Center needs male volunteers in particular for its Camp Pathways program for children and teens ages 7 to 17 who have experienced the death of a loved one. Volunteers ages 18+ are needed to help support
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MIAMI OFFERS ITS COMMUNITY PROGRAMMING OPPORTUNITIES FOR CONTINUED, MEANINGFUL LEARNING. MIAMI OFFERS ITS COMMUNITY MIAMI OFFERS ITS COMMUNITY PROGRAMMING OPPORTUNITIES FOR We recognize, examine, and value the PROGRAMMING OPPORTUNITIES FOR CONTINUED, MEANINGFUL LEARNING. MIAMI OFFERS ITS COMMUNITY historical legacies of many diverse identities. CONTINUED, MEANINGFUL LEARNING. PROGRAMMING OPPORTUNITIES FOR We recognize, examine, and value the We are gratefulMEANINGFUL for the many contributions CONTINUED, LEARNING.
Bark Mitzvah Boy them during camp, June 24-26 at Camp Joy Outdoor Education Center in Warren County. Volunteers are asked to complete applications and submit references by Friday, April 29. Lisa says this will be her fourth year volunteering for the camp. “I have the honor of being a group leader for our littlest campers this year,” she says. “Being a buddy the last few years has been one of the most rewarding experiences.” Applications are available at hospiceofdayton. org/volunteers-neededcamp-pathways-2022. University of Dayton English Prof. Miriamne Krummel’s new book, The Medieval Postcolonial Jew, In and Out of Time,
has just been published by University of Michigan Press. In it, she confronts the “fraught temporal dissonances” written into the structure of sacred Jewish and Christian time. This is Miriamne’s third book about Jews in the medieval era. Hadassah Magazine’s latest issue, which celebrates the centennial of the bat mitzvah, includes a reflection from Holocaust survivor and former Daytonian Cherie Rosenstein, who now lives in Beachwood. Cherie wrote about preparations for her adult bat mitzvah, held March 12 at B’nai Jeshurun in Pepper Pike. Moviegoers who attended the premiere of As They Made Us at The Neon on April 9 were thrilled to have a surprise Zoom visit from its writer and director, Mayim Bialik, and script supervisor Jessica Wasserlauf after the screening. Jessica, who is based in Pittsburgh, has plenty of family in Dayton who attended the premiere. As They Made Us marks Mayim’s debut film as writer and director. It’s time to send in college and grad school graduation announcements. Send these and all of your Mazel Tov announcements to jewishobserver@jfgd. net.
Hillary Brynn Katchman Hillary Brynn Katchman will be called to the Torah as a bat mitzvah on Saturday, May 21 at Temple Israel. She is the daughter of Steven and Nika Katchman, and the sister of Gabriel Katchman. Hillary is a sixth-grade student at Watts Middle School in Centerville. Her interests include music and band. She plays the trumpet and is looking forward to playing in the middle school jazz band next year. Hillary swims for Woodhaven Swim Club and has also played basketball and soccer. For her service project, Hillary has been volunteering at the Tenth Life Cat Rescue and will be collecting supplies for the shelter. Hillary is grateful for her religious school teachers, rabbis, and her family for their guidance and support as she becomes a bat mitzvah.
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RELIGION
CONGREGATIONS
Was Dumbledore’s phoenix, Fawkes, on Noah’s Ark?
The British Library
By Rabbi Tina Sobo Temple Israel How do we approach seemingly mythical, magical, or otherwise logically implausible creatures referenced in the Bible and rabbinic literature (Midrash, Mishnah, Talmud)? Using Natan Slifkin’s book, Sacred Monsters as a primary source, I explored this question in a recent lecture. One congregant asked why rationalist-inclined modern Jews might explore such imaginative elements of our tradition.
Perspectives I have a few thoughts as to how to respond, and share them here. There are many ways to approach these “monsters,” but I hope you find the approach that works for your understanding of Jewish tradition and practice. Let’s start with the question at hand: Was Dumbledore’s phoenix, Fawkes, on Noah’s Ark? For Harry Potter-loving Jews, I refer you as well to the book Harry Potter & Torah by Dov Krulwich. For those less familiar with the phoenix according to various traditions, dating back to at least 500 B.C.E., the phoenix is believed to be a unique creature that lives up to 500 years, or is even immortal, renewing itself from fiery ashes. While we can readily find sources from Herodotus’ writings through J. K. Rowling, what does this have to do with Jewish tradition and Noah’s Ark? Most Jewish sources related to the phoenix are connected back to a verse from Job (29:18)
which states, “I thought/said, with my nest, I will expire (die); and like the chol, I will increase my days.” The most obvious translation of the word chol is sand, but this leads to a mixed metaphor. By hermeneutical principles, this is problematic with the reference to Job’s nest in the first half of the verse. This leads commentators such as the Malbim and Rashi to read chol not as sand but as a bird, which makes more sense with the nest metaphor in the beginning of the verse. This understanding is connected to a few midrashim (rabbinic commentaries) on Genesis, which ascribe the chol as refraining from eating of the Tree of Knowledge when Eve offered its fruit to all creatures, thus giving a basis for its immortality: other creatures were punished with mortality due to their consumption from the forbidden tree. Then, in a midrash on the Flood narrative, we have a scene of Noah encountering the chol on the Ark being humble and refraining from asking for food. Rabbi Tina Sobo Noah blesses the bird with immortal life. From these accounts, rabbinic tradition ascribes credence to the chol as a bird with a very long (or eternal) life span that can rejuvenate itself, possibly through fire. In other words, a Jewish version of the phoenix that works within our tradition and goes back to the initial verse from Job makes his statement make sense. After the
Candle Lightings Shabbat, May 6: 8:18 p.m. Shabbat, May 13: 8:25 p.m. Shabbat, May 20: 8:31 p.m. Shabbat, May 27: 8:37 p.m.
May 7: Kedoshim (Lev. 19:1-20:27) May 14: Emor (Lev. 21:1-24:23) May 21: Behar (Lev. 25:1-26:2) May 28: Bechukotai (Lev. 26:3-27:34)
Conservative Interim Rabbi Melissa Crespy Cantor/Dir. of Ed. & Programming Andrea Raizen Saturdays, 9:30 a.m. 305 Sugar Camp Circle, Oakwood. 937-293-9520. BethAbrahamDayton.org
Beth Jacob Congregation
Traditional Rabbi Leibel Agar Sundays & Wednesdays, 7:15 p.m. Saturdays, 9:30 a.m. 7020 N. Main St., Dayton. 937-274-2149. BethJacobCong.org
Temple Anshe Emeth
Detail of a phoenix in a medieval bestiary, unknown illuminator, circa 1250
trials Job faces, to desire such a renewal would certainly be understandable. The question remains as to whether we take these sources to literally mean the rabbis believed such a creature actually exists, or perhaps are using the legend of it as a literary device — or both. A rationalist could argue that if such a bird existed, experts would have found evidence of it by now. But perhaps this bird is wise, knowing it is unique, and by some versions of the legend, only one phoenix exists in the world; it remains in hiding. There would be no fossils since it is immortal (or very few if it lives 500 years or more). Perhaps we just haven’t found it yet? The possibility that the phoenix is real helps open our minds to be more imaginative in how we approach not just the phoenix in our tradition, but other aspects as well (talking donkeys, “dolphin” skins in the Tabernacle, etc.).
What impact does one’s view — the phoenix being legendary or real — have on our theological beliefs? Does it change our perception of the moral lessons and legal impacts these texts have on our modern practice if we believe these creatures to be (or have been) in existence, to believe our ancestors believed they existed, to be a miracle of the time, or to see them as purely literary imagination? I find myself sometimes stymied by the desire to know for sure — to find the bottom line, the compelling answer. We have lived the last two years in deep uncertainty as we have navigated Covid. The act of approaching our texts with similar uncertainty — allowing that uncertainty to simply be as we ponder the meanings — opens the text to new understandings. The power of asking the question gives us a different perspective when we challenge our assumptions of the text, whatever they may be. May you look at our texts with an open mind, and perhaps, see a phoenix someday.
Yom Hazikaron
Israel Memorial Day May 4 • 3 Iyar Memorial Day for all who died serving Israel. Concludes with a siren blast as stars appear and Independence Day begins.
Yom Ha’atzmaut
Israel Independence Day May 5 • 4 Iyar Celebrated by Jews around the world. Israel celebrates with parades, singing, dancing, and fireworks.
THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2022
Reform 320 Caldwell St., Piqua. Fri., May 13, 7:30 p.m. led by Rabbi Margie Meyer Contact Steve Shuchat, 937-7262116, AnsheEmeth@gmail.com. ansheemeth.org
Temple Beth Or
Reform Rabbi Judy Chessin Asst. Rabbi/Educator Ben Azriel 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., May 6, 6 p.m. Fridays, May 13, 20 & 27, 6:30 p.m. Saturdays, May 14 & 21, 10:30 a.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
May • Nisan/Iyar/Sivan Torah Portions
Beth Abraham Synagogue
Chabad of Greater Dayton
Lag B’Omer
33rd Day of Omer May 19 • 18 Iyar The 33rd day of the Omer breaks up the seven weeks of semi-mourning between Passover and Shavuot. It marks the end of a plague among Rabbi Akiva’s students and a victory of Bar-Kokhba’s soldiers over the Romans 2,000 years ago. Celebrated with picnics and sports.
Rabbi Nochum Mangel Associate Rabbi Shmuel Klatzkin Youth & Prog. Dir. Rabbi Levi Simon, Teen & Young Adult Prog. Dir. Rabbi Elchonon Chaikin. 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.
PAGE 23
JEWISH FAMILY EDUCATION
Fall down, get up
The Power of Stories Series Attacked, stripped, and dumped underground, a teen shivered while the gang debated his fate for disrespecting “the family” and making pretentious claims to power. Traded to local traffickers and transported to a foreign
Candace R. Kwiatek country, the teen was eventually sold to the captain of an elite military guard. Recognized for his capabilities and potential, the young slave advanced in position and power until a false accusation landed him in prison. Nearly a decade later, he was released as a free man and pardoned by the country’s leader, who placed him in a key administrative position in the national public policy sector. His name was Joseph. In the biblical account, Joseph descends three times: His brothers cast him into a pit, Ishmaelite traders transport
him to Egypt as a slave, and he is thrown into an Egyptian prison. “Each time, however,” writes spiritual leader Danny Maseng, “he is raised up again a better Joseph, destined for a better life.” In Judaism, this phenomenon is known as yerida l’tzorech aliyah, a descent that facilitates an ascent. Built into the very design of all creation, it describes the patterns of history, the movement of peoples, even the nature of individual lives. In the beginning, the Torah declares, there was chaos and darkness. Then God brought forth order and light. Dark before light. The talmudic sages imagine Adam’s first day in the Garden. “Woe is me,” he cried as the sun set, “the world is becoming dark, returning to chaos and disorder.” When dawn broke, he said in wonderment, “Evidently, the sun sets and night arrives, and this is the order of the world.” Night before day. Descent for the sake of ascent. We read of Jacob’s famineplagued family who were
welcomed into Egypt like nobility, only for their descendants to be enslaved by a pharaoh “who knew not Joseph.” Hundreds of years later, Moses led them in the Exodus to Sinai. Slavery before freedom and revelation. Descent for the sake of ascent. Involuntarily married to the pagan King Ahashverus, the Jewish Queen Esther was perfectly positioned to reveal Haman’s evil plot and save the Persian Jews. Descent for the sake of ascent. Ruled by the increasingly tyrannical Hellenizing Syrian- Joseph Is Sold by His Brothers, Gustave Greeks, the Maccabees of Ju- Doré, 1866 will never sprout and grow dea rebelled and triumphed. unless it first disintegrates into Their legacy? The first indethe earth.” There is no rising pendent Jewish state in Judea in over 400 years. Inspiration to without first falling, as we see in the following stories. fight for religious freedom and The Gladiator. A gladiator liberty. And Chanukah, commemorating the rededication of and bandit, Resh Lakish saw a figure bathing in the Jordan the Temple and reminding us River. Jumping in to pursue it, that light can come from darkhe found only Rabbi Yochanan, ness. Yerida l’tzorech aliyah. who exclaimed, “Your strength In a famous letter, the is fit for Torah.” Resh Lakish Lubavitcher Rebbe used countered, “Your beauty is fit surgery to illustrate the confor women.” Rabbi Yochanan cept that an ascent can only be cleverly offered, “If you return achieved by a prior descent. to the study of Torah, I will “A Martian entering an give you my sister in marriage, operating theatre wouldn’t who is more beautiful than I imagine that the surgical team am.” Resh Lakish accepted. was doing something good by Under the tutelage of Rabbi cutting the patient open,” he wrote, “that it would ultimately Yochanan, he became Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish, one of the restore the person to health.” most prominent Torah scholars Similarly, Rabbi Shlomo of of his generation. Radomsk observed, “A seed The Tourist. Somber visits to Holocaust sites in Poland and the Czech Republic during a senior-year trip brought high schooler Penina Graubart face to face with her family history and the near-destruction of the
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Jewish people. “I was at my lowest point,” she remembers, but there she found inspiration. Dedicating herself to protecting present and future Jews would become her new mission. She went on to explore Israel, deciding to make it her home. Today Penina attends university in Israel where she advocates on behalf of the Jewish people. The Volunteer. “You are the most despicable, disgraceful and rude person! I think you need to change your attitude, and I wish you luck!” Miriam heard on the voice mail message. A volunteer organizer of the local gemach (free loan service), she was heartsick, her eyes filling with tears. She had explained there was no storage room for additional items at the moment. And she had been accused of screaming. She had offered a referral to another gemach and was accused of making excuses. And now the voice mail? Could there be any truth in the caller’s accusations? On reflection, Miriam realized she was spread too thin and burned out, influencing her attitude and interactions. After making some changes, her volunteer work was once again infused with joy and kindness. “God created the world in a way that in order to jump, you must first crouch down,” writes Rabbi Ari Shvat. “Yerida l’tzorech aliyah. There is no advancement in life without first going down.” Or, as Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg puts it, “Life is an endless series of events that can be encapsulated in the phrase, ‘fall down, get up.’”
Literature to share The Upstander: How Surviving the Holocaust Sparked Max Glauben’s Mission to Dismantle Hate by Jori Epstein. This short, powerful memoir reads like a conversation between two friends, Max and Jori, a young reporter who magically captures Max’s exuberant personality. Unusually observant from childhood, Max recounts endless experiences peppered with remembered thoughts and images along with funny and poignant anecdotes. Woven in are historical records that add another layer to his tale. He warns against the insidious nature of hate, but his ultimate message is that one must deliberately choose a positive life. My Israel and Me by Alice McGinty. My Israel and Me takes young readers on an inviting journey through the land, history, and cultures of Israel. Told from a child’s perspective in rhyming quartets, each experience includes a prose sidebar with added detail. Colorful illustrations showcase modern cities, historical sites, landscapes, and marketplaces while portraying the diversity of Israel’s people: European, Ethiopian, Bedouin, Muslim, and more. Everyone contributes something unique to the land. An excellent introduction to Israel on many levels, highly recommended for home or school.
THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2022
Arts&Culture
Barry Manilow brings his Nazi-era musical to NYC
Julieta Cervantes
food and drinks
Jewish favorites reinterpreted by Wheat Penny and Meadowlark Traditional Kosher Jewish deli and cuisine by Rochel Simon Desserts, pastries, and ice cream by Graeter’s, Temple bakers, and Evan’s Bakery
music and entertainment
Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman at a rehearsal for their musical Harmony in New York
By Jacob Henry New York Jewish Week Barry Manilow could fill a stage just by showing up with a piano, and he has: Starting in 1977, his stints on Broadway have nearly always sold out. With 13 multi-platinum albums, 28 top 10 hits, and a famously devoted fan base, he might be forgiven if he wanted to rest on his laurels. But at 78, the Brooklyn-born singer/ songwriter and his writing partner Bruce Sussman are, well, ready to take a chance again: Their musical Harmony, which is being produced by the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, is being staged in New York for the first time. It’s a musical about the Comedian Harmonists, a performing troupe of Jews and gentiles who combined close harmonies and stage antics in Germany during the 1920s and ‘30s. Their success was a counterpoint to the rise of the Nazis, who eventually banned performances featuring work by Jewish composers, which had been a huge part of their repertoire. In 1934, JTA reported at the time, the Harmonists were prohibited from giving public concerts because two members of the group were Jewish.
Manilow and Sussman have been working together for decades, with a catalog that includes everything from pop hits to musical theatre spectacles. Harmony was first staged in 1997; Sussman learned about the group thanks to a lengthy German-language documentary that first aired in 1977. “We couldn’t believe that we didn’t know these people,” Manilow said of the Harmonists. Before the show officially opened on April 14 at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Lower Manhattan, the New York Jewish Week caught up with Manilow and Sussman to talk about musical theatre, their Jewish upbringings in New York City, and how to create harmony in an ever discordant world. Barry, before you were one of the biggest pop stars on the planet, you started in theatre, both you and Bruce. You had to sneak into the second act of Company when that show first premiered on Broadway because you couldn’t afford the tickets. Now, you’ve played on Broadway and Harmony is opening this year in New York. When you look back at it all, how does it feel seeing your career go Julieta Cervantes full circle like this?
Manilow: I’m not sure it’s exactly full circle, but it’s exciting to be in New York, I’ll tell you that. We’re doing what we’ve wanted to do forever, which is bring Harmony to New York. This theatre in particular is very moving. It just really resonates with this show, and with me and Bruce. It’s a very big impact on the audiences, being in this theatre. A scene from Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman’s Harmony Continued on Page 26
Miami Valley Klezmer Ensemble, the Shimmy Cats, Miami Valley Music Men, and folk and chamber music from many of your local favorites!
culture and traditions
Explore “Modern Judaism in a Diverse World” with chances to learn from regional experts and our rabbis
win big
Win a Roberto Coin necklace, theater tickets, hundreds of dollars in dining certificates, a sports & wellness package, a family fun pack, signature boutique items and more. Purchase tickets on Temple Israel’s website.
give back
Donate items to Crayons to Classrooms, Daybreak, and SICSA Wish lists available on Temple Israel’s website.
11am to 7pm
June 12 www.tidayton.org/festival
Temple Israel • 130 Riverside Drive • Dayton, OH 45405
THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2022
PAGE 25
Manilow
Julieta Cervantes
Sussman: And when we realized why we didn’t know them, that was the story. That became very compelling to us. One of the parallels too is that Barry and I, first and foremost, are collaborators. And this show is about Harmony in the broadest sense of the word. And one of the ways these guys found harmony was by finding the ability to successfully collaborate with each other. That’s something that Barry and I can relate to very strongly. A lot of people don’t know how to collaborate. And it is very important to us. It’s the thing that Barry and I do best.
Continued from Page 25
You had a Jewish upbringing in one of the most Jewish places in the world, Brooklyn. Do you have any specific memories of what it was like growing up Jewish in Brooklyn? Were any of these memories used to shape the songs from the show? Manilow: My one answer is the accordion. Every Jewish kid had to play the accordion before they would let you over the Williamsburg Bridge. I kid, but I was good at the accordion. They only teach you Yiddish folk songs. I loved those Yiddish songs. The family would sing a lot. I got a very musical Yiddish upbringing. When I left Williamsburg, I knew that world of Yiddish folk songs. I played them, I sang them, I arranged them, I knew everything about them. Jumping into Harmony was just a big familiar musical experience for me. Barry, you’ve performed on Broadway for years, including the 1977 Barry Manilow on Broadway show that earned you a special Tony Award. Is there anything you can say about producing and creating theatre now when compared to when you first started? Manilow: It’s still the same. It’s an incredibly difficult thing to do, only it’s even more expensive as the years go by. I don’t know how these shows get up. Sussman: Also, I think what is deemed commercial is a more narrow number of pieces. When we first started, there were situation comedies on Broadway. There were all kinds of musicals. And I think now, a lot of that stuff is no longer feasible to produce on Broadway. It’s either off-Broadway or regional theatres, but not on Broadway. It’s just harder to finance. The original production of
Barry Manilow, Bruce Sussman and the cast of Harmony
Follies that Barry and I saw in 1971 was budgeted at $700,000 (approximately $5 million in today’s money). And that was the most expensive show produced to date. You can barely do a workshop for that amount of money now. The finances are staggering, and then that puts pressure on the producers to make sure that they have something that’s financially viable. So that narrows the number of shows that are going to qualify. So in this world of The Lion King and Aladdin, how were you able to bring this show, a show about Jewish singers facing oppression, to life? Sussman: We wrote the show we wanted to write, and we hoped that people would like it and that we would find a home for it. It was just a matter of getting it to New York. And now, National Yiddish Theatre stepped forward with this beautiful, gorgeous building that I’m in, and here we are. Harmony is a show set in a time where Jewish people faced a great deal of oppression and had to fight against that. Did you see any parallels between
this story and life right now, or maybe within your own lives? Sussman: I’m from Queens and Barry is from Brooklyn. We both grew up in something of a bubble. Being Jewish was kind of the norm. It wasn’t until I went to college in western Pennsylvania that I realized, oh my goodness, I’m the minority. I grew up in Jackson Heights. Every school I went to, on the Jewish holidays, nobody went to school. Everybody was off. I was always among my own. The story from Harmony was something I knew just from history, but it wasn’t anything I experienced personally in my life. Manilow: It’s really not about my life at all. The only parallel is that I’m a musician, and they were musicians. And they were very inventive, so inventive that they were the first people to do the kind of harmonies we hear now. Now, we’ve got the high notes, we’ve got Backstreet Boys, nobody did that, plus they were (like) the Marx Brothers. And then all their records, all their music, all their movies, it was destroyed. They were the inventors of a style of music and comedy that had never been before them.
My editors are going to kill me if I don’t ask about Copacabana. It’s one of your most beloved songs. Do you feel the same way about it? Do you still get the same thrill out of performing your most classic hit today? Manilow: I do. I would stop doing it if I didn’t. These audiences are lighting themselves on fire with every hit I’ve been lucky enough to have. By the time we get to Copa, that’s the last straw for them. In my shows, there are so many hits and songs that they know, that by the time we get to Copa, they’ve forgotten I haven’t done Copa yet. When those drums start, it’s the last straw for these audiences. You’ve both hit every music milestone in the industry. What else is there to accomplish? Manilow: As far as what’s on the horizon, we don’t know yet. We’ve gotta finish this. It’s taken a long time. Whether we make it uptown or it ends at the Yiddish theatre, I will be very happy. We’ll have an original soundtrack soon. That will be great. It would be so wonderful if we could move this uptown. Right now, we’re just in the weeds making sure that this version of Harmony is the best one we’ve ever had.
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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2022
OBITUARIES Eva Strauss Izenson passed away on March 22 at home with her husband and three children by her side. Born in Leipzig, Germany in 1937, Eva grew up in Portsmouth, Ohio. She practiced as a dental hygienist after graduating from The Ohio State University. She enjoyed traveling, playing competitive bridge, and, above all, spending time with her family and friends. Eva was preceded in death by her parents, Herbert and Gisela Strauss. She was survived by her husband of 63 years, Fred; her children and their spouses, Mark Izenson and Susan Sheffield of Atlanta; Rivers and Cathy Jenkins of Charleston; Dan and Peggy Izenson of Cincinnati; and her grandchildren, Riv, Peter, Cason, Sam, Will, Molly, Lark, and Chris. Donations may be made in Eva’s memory to the UD Men’s Basketball Restrictive Fund, 300 College Park, Dayton, OH 454697054.
Trotwood. Fred’s hobbies included painting, cartooning, writing and rooting on the Buckeyes and Flyers. Family meant everything to “Pop.” Interment was at David’s Cemetery. Donations may be made online in memory of Fred Izenson in support of research to the Cardiovascular Medicine Department Fund at The Cleveland Clinic, give.ccf.org.
a manufacturing company called he studied other faiths as well. He Dayton-Walther. Jerry purchased a was a founding member of the Dayhome that happened to be two doors ton Christian Jewish Dialogue (now down from the home of the recruiter the Interfaith Forum) and he and who brought him to Dayton. They his wife were past co-presidents. spoke frequently, and the recruiter He also started a small, interfaith convinced him that Jerry would Bible study group that still meets make an exceptional recruiter. He over lunch. Jerry was also passionwas a scientist, a patent-holding ate about music. He was first violin engineer; recruiting would be a in his high school orchestra, and risky change — going from a VP’s he took voice lessons for over 30 Irving Kaplan, age 91, of Jacksalary to straight commission. But years. In addition to all kinds of sonville, Fla., formerly of Dayton, because Jerry was very unhappy Jewish music, he loved to sing old passed away March 31. Irving where he was and did not want to show tunes and especially opera. was the retired owner of Kaplan & uproot his family again, he deIt has been said that Jerry would Associates and Kaplan Warehouse cided to make a total career change sing for anyone at the drop of a hat, Rental. He was an Air Force veteran and took a position as an account and even if they kept their hat on. of the Korean War, a member of the executive for the Dayton franchise He also loved plants and trees, and Jewish War Veterans, Hadassah, and of Management Recruiters Interhad an abundant vegetable garden Beth Abraham Synagogue. He was national in 1980. With over 3,000 every year, as well as berry bushes preceded in death by his beloved recruiters worldwide, Jerry was of many kinds and a cherry tree. He wife, Shirley; and son, Jonathan. named MRI Account Executive of and Lorraine would make cherry Irving is survived by his nieces, the Decade in 1989, thereby reach- pies (he picked, she pitted and nephews, cousins and friends. ing pinnacles of two completely baked), and several zucchini breads Interment was at Beth Abraham different careers within 21 years. every year from Jerry’s produce. He Cemetery. If desired, memorial He eventually became co-owner could sometimes be spotted pruning contributions may be made to Beth of the Dayton MRI franchise, and neighbors’ trees without bothering Fred M. Izenson, age 87 of Ketter- Abraham Synagogue. continued recruiting in Dayton until to ask first, because he couldn’t bear ing, passed away April 4 at Cleve2007. Jerry loved recruiting because to see a tree uncared for. Jerry loved land Heart Clinic with his three Gerald “Jerry” R. Kotler, Ph.D. he felt that he was improving many little children and was the Sabbath children by his side. Sadly, Fred‘s On April 6, Jerry went to be with companies by finding them the best Candy Man in many congregations beloved wife and companion of 63 his beloved wife of 60 years, Loremployees, and improving the lives over the years. If a stranger ever years, Eva Izenson, passed away raine, who preceded him in 2020. of many people by finding them came up to you in public when less than two weeks prior. Together, His daughter was holding his hand better jobs. It made sense that he you had a baby or small child with they cherished spending time when he left. Jerry was born on would be good at this, because he you, smiled, and told you what and holidays with their children, June 19, 1938, in Brooklyn, N.Y., had previously fixed up 10 couples “diamonds,” “gold,” or a “gem” grandchildren, and friends. Fred a fact he was proud to tell anyone who married, and clearly had a gift you had, that was Jerry. He was a is survived by his loving children, who commented on his accent. He for making connections. He simply self-taught expert on many subjects, Mark (Susan) of Atlanta; Cathy received his B.S. in metallurgical loved helping people and makowned over 3,000 books, and was (Rivers) Jenkins engineering in Brooklyn, his M.S. ing people smile. He often said, a sought-after lecturer in congreof Charleston; in metallurgy at Carnegie Tech “A compliment doesn’t cost you a gations of many faiths and other Dan (Peggy) of (now Carnegie-Mellon) in Pittscent, and it can make someone’s forums as well. Though teaching Cincinnati; his burgh, where he day. Why would you keep it to was never his career, it was always grandchildren, met his wife and yourself?” His daughter has been one of his many passions, and he Riv, Peter, Cason, they had their overwhelmed by the number of taught religious school for several Sam, Will, Molly, first child, and his people who have recently told her, years, was briefly an adjunct profesLark and Chris; Ph.D. in materi“I wouldn’t be the person I am tosor in metallurgy at UD, and with his sister Nancy als science at day, if it weren’t for Jerry.” He had his wife, gave seminars in résumé (Ira) Leeds of Stanford, Calif., 15 real nieces and nephews, each of writing at various Dayton Public Davie, Fla., and where his son whom adored him, but he also had Library branches and other sites. her daughters, was born. He many diverse young people who Once he retired from recruiting, he Marci, Susan and Jennifer. Fred was left California called him “Uncle Jerry.” Over the started a small, part-time résumé preceded in death by his parents, to take a position in research and years, Jerry served on multiple syn- writing business with his wife and Rae and Al Izenson, and in-laws, development at Ford in Michigan. agogue boards and as a lay cantor in daughter. He served on the local Herbert and Gisela Strauss. Born After two years there, he left for a several synagogues. In Dayton, he school board in New Jersey when in Pittsburgh, Fred grew up in better opportunity in Hightstown, was a concurrent member of three his children were in school there. Weirton, W.Va. He attended the N.J., at a large corporation called congregations, Beth Jacob, Beth Here, he served on the board of University of Michigan, where N.L. Industries. After four years Abraham, and Temple Israel. He The Dakota Center in West Dayton. he proudly played first clarinet in there, he was promoted to technical was passionate about Judaism, but He insisted on recruiting the first the marching band. He graduated director of the company’s diein the spirit of making connections, African American for their board. from the University of Miami and casting division, in Toledo, Ohio, earned his Juris Doctor degree from Doehler-Jarvis, the largest dieThe Ohio State University. Fred casting company in the world at the practiced law for 41 years in the time. Five years later, the company Dayton community, followed by 15 underwent a reorganization and years as a magistrate for Vandalia his position was eliminated. Given From Generation To Generation. Municipal Court. Among his many six months severance to find a new legal appointments, he served as position, he had multiple offers, and assistant City of Dayton prosecuin 1979, chose to take a position as LICKLER tor and law director for the City of vice president of engineering for
A lifelong learner, he and his wife were taking classes together right up until Covid began, despite Jerry’s already advancing dementia. In addition to his wife, he was preceded in death by his parents, Esther and Louis Kotler, his brother-in-law and dear friend, Steve Marcus, and his beloved nephew, Joshua E. Kotler. He is survived by his aunt, Evelyn Barnett, older brother, Martin (Fran), younger brother, Herman (Mina), younger sister, Renee Krieger (Abraham), sister-in-law, Sandra Marcus, sister-in-law, Mona Abramowitz (David), daughter, Beth “Batsheva” Fullenhull (Andrew Shlomoh), son, Michael (Hillary), nieces and nephews, Marcy, Kelly, Kevin (Stacey), Avery (Corinne), Matt, Jonathan (Julia), Anna (Dan), Daniella (Joseph), Tanya (Zach), Larry, Brian, Rebecca (Benjamin), Benjamin, and Danny (Mickey). As well as cousins, great-nieces and nephews, countless dear friends, and the light of his golden years, his only grandchild, Lily Fullenhull. Interment was at Beth Abraham Cemetery. Jerry would have wanted to offer his deepest appreciation to the wonderful staff of Spring Hills Singing Woods Assisted Living Facility and the blessing that is Compassus Hospice. Donations may be sent to americanbrainfoundation.org, curealz.org, hias.org, or the charity of your choice. Nancy Wiviott, age 88, of Kettering, passed away April 10. Nancy was born in St. Louis. Nancy is survived by her sons Jeffrey Wiviott, Gary Wiviott and daughter Sheryl (Mike) Erlichman; grandchildren Dr. Robert Erlichman (Blair), Brian Erlichman, and Adam Erlichman; great-granddaughter Luci Erlichman; life companion Ernie Keucher. Nancy retired as a civilian employee of Wright-Patterson AFB. Nancy was a member of Temple Israel. Nancy enjoyed spending time with her family. Memorial contributions may be made to the charity of your choice.
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Our Family Serving Your Family For More Than 90 Years
Funeral Homes, Inc.
Pre-need Arrangements Pre-paid Funeral Trusts Cremation Services • Transfers North Main Chapel 1706 N. Main Street Huber Heights Chapel 5844 Old Troy Pike
For Both Locations Call 937-275-7434 PAGE 27
Need Help Understanding Your Health Insurance Options? Our Local Advisors are Here for You When it comes to something as important as your health, you need someone you can trust. That’s where RetireMED steps in. Our team of experienced advisors will make sure your health care needs are covered now and later, allowing you to focus on the things that matter most to you.
Medicare and More Whether you’re approaching age 65 or have a few years to go, we can help. From individual health insurance plans and short-term policies to Medicare, our advisors can show you your options. The best part? Our services are available at no cost to you. All you have to do is call.
Chief Executive Officer Marisa O’Neill with her family.
Call to learn more!
937-915-0476
retiremed.com/djo
