The Dayton Jewish Observer, October 2018 by The Dayton Jewish Observer

Soup, Vietnamese style book p. 20form p. 22 David MossMatzah designsBall Grace After Meals in comic October 2018 Tishri/Cheshvan 5779 Vol. 23, No. 2

Published by the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton

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

Hospice medical dir. retires

The ‘Prince of Kosher Gospel’ opens CABF

Ohio’s Hospice of Dayton

Dr. Jules Sherman

Federation’s new president Mendy Fedotowsky

NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION U.S. POSTAGE PAID DELPHOS, OHIO PERMIT NO. 21

Jewish Federation President Bruce Feldman

25 years after Oslo Address Service Requested

Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton 525 Versailles Drive Dayton, OH 45459

Joshua Nelson

Yitzhak Rabin (L) & Yasser Arafat

Saar Yaacov

DAYTON

Nosh.

Chabad 25th anniversary gala

Monthly Friday Night Shabbat Dinner with all your traditional favorites. Friday, October 26, 5 p.m. $10 per person. R.S.V.P.

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Chabad of Greater Dayton will celebrate its 25th anniversary with a gala dinner at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 23 at The Dayton Art Institute. Honorees for the gala are Sylvia and Ralph Heyman, Rabbi Shmuel Mimi & Stuart Rabbi Shmuel Klatzkin, and Sylvia & Ralph Heyman Klatzkin Rose Mimi and Stuart Rose. son, with additional giving levels availEntertainment for the evening will feature speedpainting with able. For more information and reservations, go to chabaddayton.com/gala25 Dan Dunn’s Paintjam. or call Chabad at 643-0770. The cost of the gala is $125 per per-

Introduction to Judaism Genealogical Society The Synagogue Forum of Greater meeting at Main Library Dayton will present its 16-session course, From Door to Door: Introduction to Judaism, on Mondays from 7 to 8:30 p.m. beginning Oct. 8. The annual class opens Dayton’s synagogues to anyone interested in Jewish learning, dialogue, and exploration. From Door to Door offers an in-depth look at Judaism from Conservative, Orthodox, Traditional, and Reform perspectives. Course instructors are rabbis from Dayton’s synagogues; class sessions also rotate among the congregations. The registration fee is $75 for a single or couple and includes books and materials. For more information or to enroll, call Rabbi Judy Chessin at 435-3400.

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Dayton will hold its next meeting at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 9 at Dayton’s Main Library, 215 E. Third St. Jamie McQuinn, special collections manager for Dayton Metro Library, will lead a private tour of the new facility, with a focus on its genealogy department resources. Participants are welcome to stay afterward to use the library’s databases for research. Free parking is available in the library’s garage, accessible from St. Clair St. The 90-minute tour will begin in the atrium. R.S.V.P. to Molly Blumer, jmblumer@ hotmail.com or 479-8880 by Oct. 7.

JFS co-sponsors Holocaust feature for LGBT Film Festival Jewish Family Services and Rainbow Elder Care are co-sponsoring the screening of the documentary Dear Fredy for the Dayton LGBT Film Festival, at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 14 at The Neon, 130 E. Fifth St., Dayton. An openly gay Jew, Fredy Hirsch set up a daycare center for Jewish children in the Terezin family camp at Auschwitz before they were scheduled for extermination. He died mysteriously while planning an uprising there. For more information, go to daytonlgbt.com. Fredy Hirsch

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IN THIS ISSUE Calendar of Events.......................17

O p i n i o n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 0

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

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

Kvelling Corner............................18

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

N o s h e r. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 0

World...............................................11

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • OCTOBER 2018

DAYTON

‘Prince of Kosher Gospel’ to open CABF Oct. 7 By Robert Wiener New Jersey Jewish News When he was 8 years old, Joshua Nelson made a discovery that would influence his entire life. Buried within his grandmother’s record collection he found a Mahalia Jackson album which included the song, Walk in Jerusalem. “I had heard gospel music before, but it never sounded like that,” he said. Jackson was a devout Christian with a deeply emotional singing voice. In the ensuing years, her voice Joshua Nelson would be the spiritual and His own style is a blend of vocal foundation for Nelson’s style, which honors his African- bluesy and up-tempo religious American and Jewish identities. music, some taken from Jewish Nelson was born to a Jewish liturgy, some from Christian hymnals. With his hands on an mother of Romanian descent electric keyboard, he is equally and an African-American versatile singing and inspiring father. hand-clapping when he perHe was raised by his grandforms Mi Chamocha and Adon parents in East Orange, N.J. Olam in Hebrew, and Christian Through his diverse heritage, gospel songs such as How I Got he developed a strong affinity Over and Elijah Rock in English. for religious and spiritual eleHe’s been dubbed the ments of Judaism. “Prince of Kosher Gospel,” and “We observed all the holihe’ll open the Dayton JCC’s days — all the festival days, Cultural Arts & Book Fest on and Shabbat,” he said. The JCC’s Cultural Arts & Book Fest presents Joshua Nelson with The Dayton Jewish Chorale and the University of Dayton Ebony Heritage Singers at 7 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 7 at the Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville. Tickets in advance are $18 adults, $8 ages 6-18, free ages 5 and under. Tickets at the door are $25 adults, $15 ages 6-18, $5 ages 5 and under. Tickets may be purchased at jewishdayton.org, by calling 610-1555, or the evening of the event. The Adventures of

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Oct. 7 in a concert with The Dayton Jewish Chorale and the University of Dayton Ebony-Heritage Singers. Did the fact that Jackson devoted her music to Jesus bother him? “Nope,” he answered quickly. “I wasn’t trying to copy her religion. I was trying to do her justice.” Born in Newark, Nelson walked to Temple Sharey Tefilo-Israel in South Orange each Saturday to attend services and Hebrew school. His mother took pride in the fact that the congregation’s rabbi, Harvey Goldman, religious leader from 1985 to 1998, had marched with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. As a child, Nelson sang with Cab Calloway, the famed African-American band leader who included a Yiddish inflection in many of his lyrics and rhythmic cadences. At that concert at Lincoln Center, Nelson met the Klezmatics; when he was an adult, he recorded an album, Brother Moses Smote the Lord, with them. Nelson’s penchant for music led him to attend Arts High School in Newark. Following graduation, he spent two years in Israel living on a kibbutz and studying at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and the Hebrew UniverContinued on next page

From the editor’s desk

One of the most eye-opening programs I’ve attended this year took place in mid-September at the Religion News Association Annual Conference, held in Columbus. It was the panel discussion, #MeToo in Sacred Spaces. The panelists have all experienced sexual abuse Marshall and harassment in their faith communities: Weiss a staff member of an Evangelical Christian megachurch, a bishop in the United Methodist Church, the director of a program for Muslim girls and women to promote sexual health/sexual violence awareness, and, representing the Jewish community, Dr. Keren McGinity, director of the Interfaith Families Jewish Engagement Program at Hebrew College in Boston. It was McGinity’s July essay in the New York Jewish Week that led to the investigation and downfall of sociologist and researcher Dr. Steven M. Cohen. The painful testimonies from across faith traditions strengthen a message that’s met resistance from some leaders in individual religious movements concerned about airing their community’s “dirty laundry” or that when a member of their community speaks out, it sends the message that sexual abuse/harassment might be endemic to that particular community. Here’s hoping these panelists are able to build a lasting interfaith coalition moving forward.

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Joshua Nelson

Continued from previous page sity of Jerusalem. After returning to New Jersey, Nelson taught Hebrew school at Sharey Tefilo-Israel for 15 years before the demands of life on the road as a fulltime performer made that impossible. Nelson has performed in churches, embassies, synagogues, and concert halls in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. “I try to get black Jews as backup singers because they already know the prayers,” he said. On one occasion, he took his musical entourage — Christians and Jews alike — to visit the concentration camps at Auschwitz and Birkenau because “they have to understand the Jewish experience. They can’t just get up there and sing.” Nelson said he has never had problems as a black man trying to connect with the Jewish community or as a Jew trying to connect with the black community, despite the fact that he has found “many black Jews trying to ostracize themselves from the black community and from anything that deals with Jesus because they want people to accept them as being Jewish.” Nelson is zealous in maintaining both Jewish and black identities, and in keeping memories alive of centuries-old injustices done to both peoples. And ever since singing at the funeral of jazz vocalist and Newark native Sarah Vaughan in 1990, Nelson has performed at many Christian as well as Jewish services. “I walk into a church and I sing Hallelujah, and if the spirit hits me, I fall down like anybody else who is black,” he says, “and I will go into a synagogue and do it and I dare anyone to say something to me.” He noted that the rhythms and melodies of much gospel music have pre-Christian roots in Africa and were imported to America by those who were seized into slavery. Christian worship was imposed on slaves by their masters at Southern plantations. To cope with the physical and emotional bondage, slaves used hymns such as Go Down, Moses and Steal Away to Jesus to encourage their escape to freedom. He said his music pays homage to that bitter history. When a rabbi once asked him if gospel’s Christian content conflicted with Jewish liturgical music, Nelson told him there is no conflict. “I told him, ‘You already know that black people were not Christians coming off the slave ship.’” Nelson has performed with many well-known jazz and pop stars, including Dizzy Gillespie, Wynton Marsalis, Della Reese, and Aretha Franklin. Besides Mahalia Jackson, he said his main influence is the late Aretha Franklin, whose vocal roots are in the gospel church and can be heard in her contemporary, secular rhythm and blues materials. A second performer who inspires him is Louis Armstrong, whose far different background from Franklin’s included an orphanage, a reform school, and the brothels of New Orleans. “Every performer has to have a niche, and my niche keeps me working all the time,” Nelson said with a smile. His niche may be Jewish music presented in a gospel style, but Nelson does not like being referred to as a cantor. “It makes me sound so grandiloquent,” he said. “Just call me Joshua.”

Editor and Publisher Marshall Weiss MWeiss@jfgd.net 937-853-0372 Contributors Rachel Haug Gilbert Candace R. Kwiatek Rabbi Levi Simon Advertising Sales Executive Patty Caruso, plhc69@gmail.com Proofreader Rachel Haug Gilbert Billing Jeri Kay Eldeen, JEldeen@jfgd.net 937-853-0372 Observer Advisor Martin Gottlieb Published by the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton Bruce Feldman President David Pierce Immediate Past Pres. Todd Bettman President Elect Joel Frydman Foundation Chair Dr. Heath Gilbert Treasurer Beverly Louis Secretary Dan Sweeny VP, Resource Dev. Mary Rita Weissman VP, Personnel Cathy Gardner CEO The Dayton Jewish Observer, Vol. 23, No. 2. The Dayton Jewish Observer is published monthly by the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton, a nonprofit corporation, 525 Versailles Dr., Dayton, OH 45459. Views expressed by guest columnists, in readers’ letters and in reprinted opinion pieces do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Dayton Jewish Observer, The Dayton Jewish Observer Policy Committee, the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton or the underwriters of any columns. Acceptance of advertising neither endorses advertisers nor guarantees kashrut. The Dayton Jewish Observer Mission Statement To support, strengthen and champion the Dayton Jewish community by providing a forum and resource for Jewish community interests. Goals • To encourage affiliation, involvement and communication. • To provide announcements, news, opinions and analysis of local, national and international activities and issues affecting Jews and the Jewish community. • To build community across institutional, organizational and denominational lines. • To advance causes important to the strength of our Jewish community including support of Federation agencies, its annual campaign, synagogue affiliation, Jewish education and participation in Jewish and general community affairs. • To provide an historic record of Dayton Jewish life.

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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • OCTOBER 2018

DAYTON

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At age 70, Hospice Senior Medical Director Dr. Jules Sherman retires who require more intensive By Marshall Weiss care; he was on the committee The Observer that selected the campus site. It was 1979 when oncologist He says the “100-percent” Dr. Jules Sherman first connectfocus for him and his medical ed with Hospice of Dayton. “Within a year of starting my team has been patients’ physical and emotional comfort. practice, I met Betty Schmoll, “What we do a lot is helpwho was the nurse that started ing families get through it,” he Hospice of Dayton,” Sherman, adds. “Sometimes families are a Philadelphia native, says. more at strife than the patient Schmoll estabOhio’s Hospice of Dayton themselves.” lished the hospice Hospice staff in 1978 with six also help each homecare nurses. other through the “I was a new emotional chalcancer specialist in lenges they face. town, and then she “We have supheard I had a lot port groups for of training in my staff all the time,” fellowship in pain Sherman says. “We management,” he have wonderful says, “so she asked social workers that if I would lecture are really adept those nurses in at providing that pain managesupport. And as ment.” the physicians, we When St. Eliza- Dr. Jules Sherman beth’s Hospital donated 13 beds all support one another. “I am used to seeing people for Hospice’s inpatient unit die, because you do it so much. in 1984, Sherman and another It’s emotional, but I have to be oncologist became voluntary able to go see the patient in the medical directors to care for next room no matter what’s those patients. happening, so you have to be This September — after able to pull it in. I raised a famnearly 40 years of advancing palliative care in the Miami Val- ily — I didn’t want to bring that ley — Sherman retired as medi- type of distress home to them.” Sherman, 70, describes himcal director of Ohio’s Hospice of self as a practicing Jew and an Dayton, a full-time position he agnostic; he says his years in held since 2002. palliative care have led him to Sherman was one of the first question his faith. physicians to receive certifica“I wish I didn’t, but I’m tion in palliative medicine from the American Academy of Hos- always searching for my belief in God,” he says. “But in what pice and Palliative Medicine, I did in my life as a doctor, I which was established in 1988. Until then, the emerging spe- didn’t see God intervening. Other people will say, ‘Well you cialty of hospice care had been should,’ but I see the young and a subspecialty of oncology and old suffering, and I do what I cardiology. can, with my heart, to get them It was the new certification, Sherman says, that drew physi- comfortable.” He says he has drawn on Jucians from other specialties to this work, which he describes as daism’s ethical commandments in his work. a calling. “Every individual I treat has “When Hospice started, 95 a story,” he says. “And every percent of them were cancer one of those individuals, I have patients,” he says. “Now, it’s to mold what I learned to fit not about maybe 40 percent are only their physical ailment but cancer patients.” Sherman says Ohio’s Hospice their emotional ailments over of Dayton now cares for 900 pa- this.” Before the hospice care tients, mostly in homecare and movement arrived, Sherman extended-care facilities such as nursing homes. Satellites in the notes that most people died in hospitals. Ohio’s Hospice system serve “Now, a lot of people can die another 600 patients. at home, peacefully, in a nursing Sherman also oversaw the home, peacefully, and the ones care for Hospice’s 52-bed that are on the edge of needing inpatient unit on Wilmington more extreme care can come Avenue in Dayton, for those

into the inpatient unit and their families know from the beginning that we’re going to hold their hand, and the patient’s, from the time they sign on to Hospice until well after the funeral and bereavement, into the future with families.” Even so, he says that families sometimes prevent patients from dying at peace. “At a time of life when peace should be there in the discussion, there could be a lot of strife,” he says. “I’ll give you an example. A patient comes in dying of cancer, in extreme pain. We have drugs that can deal with that. This doesn’t happen all the time. But I can give these drugs, control the pain, go in the next day and the family’s pushing back: ‘Dad’s sleeping all the time. Now he’s too groggy, he can’t interact with us.’ And they’re to a point where we’re talking about days or weeks of survival. And when I do lighten the drugs, he’s more alert, but he’s in agony again.” Hospice staff, Sherman says, are trained to be counselors, to negotiate the needs of the patient with those of the family. “A lot of times people were divorced and they have children from a first marriage, so you have the new wife of 10 years but the kids from the previous marriage. They come into the picture and they want opposite things.” Over the last three years, Sherman has lightened his load with an eye on retirement. “I have five grandkids, here and in Mason,” he says. “Ava and I will travel.” He loves fly fishing and has taught his older grandchildren to fly fish. “There comes a time. This does become harder and harder to do. When I make rounds now in the inpatient unit, half the people are younger than me. We have patients in the unit all of the time down in their 20s. Those are hard things to deal with. “Any of us who have worked at Hospice 10, 20 years have seen an awful lot of ways death can go: from a pleasant, comfortable experience to an extreme distress. I hired a lot of the doctors at the beginning and I think maybe everyone but one or two are still at Hospice. I’m very proud of that.”

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DAYTON

Bruce Feldman elected Federation pres.

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lofsky, a longtime Federation campaign director, At its 108th annual meeting, held Aug. 15, who would say, “First we must create awareness, the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton elected then understanding, and ultimately, involveBruce Feldman its new president. ment.” Feldman’s election marks the first time in the “We must recommit ourselves to leading a new Federation’s history that spouses have served generation of Dayton-area Jews along this wise as Federation presidents: his wife, Debbie, was path toward increased involvement,” he says. president of the Federation from 2003 to 2006. Feldman remembers growing up when there Bruce Feldman is president of Economy Linen, were still Jewish neighborhoods in Dayton. a position previously held by his father, DeNeal “The Jewish community was all around you,” Feldman, and his grandfather, Harry Feldman, he says. “Now, in an age when there who founded the company. Mendy Fedotowsky are no Jewish neighborhoods left in “My first involvement in the the Dayton area, we must all choose Federation officially, was when I to be active participants, to show up was a freshman at Miami University in Jewish places and at Jewish events. and Joe Bettman called me to run a As a Federation, it is our charge to campaign for the Federation there,” hear and respond to what people are Feldman recalls. looking for, and to present the most After he graduated from Miami, compelling programming and social he began working at Economy Linen service experiences that we can.” and started volunteering with the He describes the Federation as the Federation’s Jewish Community Rebackbone of the Jewish community, lations Council. Feldman also became where all parts of the community involved with the Federation’s young come together to work on its most leadership track. He has served on pressing needs. Federation’s board and as its treaJewish Federation “If there are needs in our Jewish surer, and is a past president of Beth President Bruce Feldman community that are not being met, Jacob Congregation. In the general community, Feldman co-found- we are here to help. That’s always been what the ed the Minority Economic Development Council, Federation is about. Whatever stage of life you’re in, if you reach out to the Federation, we’ll do our now run by the Dayton Chamber of Commerce, best to help you. And we want to involve you in and has spearheaded food distribution for the Jewish activities, social life, and interesting educahungry. tional events. These days, Economy Linen is a staunch sup“We have great volunteers and professionals. porter of prison reentry hiring. “Our company hires people who need second Our CEO, Cathy Gardner, has put together a great team, and I encourage everyone to get involved. chances out of jail,” he says. Among his several leadership positions, Feld- We’re happy to connect you to a program or service that sparks your passion.” man sits on the Sinclair Community College Feldman says he wants to build on the coopboard, the Federal Reserve Bank Dayton Business eration and partnerships between the Federation Advisory Council, and chairs the Dayton Busiand local Jewish community organizations and ness Committee. synagogues, particularly via the Jewish Dayton As president of the Federation, he aims to inDreams Big visioning project, and the Life & volve more people in the Federation’s activities. Legacy program to increase planned giving with “I’d like to help people better understand the wide array of programs and services the Federa- local Jewish organizations. “We want to make our community stronger, a tion brings to our community, and why we exist,” great place for our families to grow.” he says. — Marshall Weiss He agrees with the words of the late Carol Pav-

MEET the CANDIDATES 2 0 1 8 Wednesday, October 10, 6:30PM @ Boonshoft CJCE All candidates running for the following contested positions have been invited to attend: Each candidate will have up to three minutes on microphone followed by Q&A. Microphone presentations begin at 7PM. All candidates are encouraged to meet with voters after the conclusion of all presentations.

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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • OCTOBER 2018

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was advertised as free By Ben Sales, JTA and open to the public, An investigation into but organizers began an allegedly antisemitic charging Jewish students incident at Rutgers Uni$5 after a large group of versity is being reopened them showed up. ZOA by the U.S. Department pointed to an email sent of Education’s Office for by an event organizer Civil Rights. saying that “We need to Kenneth Marcus, the start charging because 150 department’s new asZionists just showed up!” sistant secretary for civil rights, wrote in a letter at The Old Queens building at Rutgers University in but that “if someone looks like a supporter, they can the end of August that a New Brunswick, N.J. get in for free.” pro-Palestinian event at The Office for Civil Rights the New Jersey state school in and until now did not respond initially did not consider the January 2011 may have discrim- to an appeal filed shortly afteremail as evidence because it had inated against Jewish students ward by ZOA. But on Aug. 27, by charging them admission Marcus reopened the investiga- been redacted, so it dismissed the complaint. while allowing others in for tion into the event. In a 2014 letter, it said there free. The event in question was was no evidence that only Jews The new investigation, sponsored by Belief Awarewere charged admission, or that responding to a complaint ness Knowledge and Action, others got in for free unfairly. originally made by the Ziona pro-Palestinian group, and But Marcus wrote that the ist Organization of America in was called Never Again for 2011, will also look into whether Anyone. It sought to expand the email should be considered, and students at the university curHolocaust remembrance slogan that it may point to discrimination against Jewish students. rently experience antisemitism. to also refer to other offenses, The letter also noted that In reopening the Rutgers including Israeli abuses of the some students who reported probe, Marcus employed the Palestinians. At a certain point, being charged had a Jewish State Department’s definition organizers began charging a $5 appearance (like wearing a yarof antisemitism, which includes admission fee. some types of anti-Israel activiAccording to ZOA, the event mulke, for example). ty, like holding Jews collectively responsible for Israel’s actions. Staffing Needs? Call The Professionals! The definition was composed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. Susan Tuchman, director of the ZOA’s Center for Law and Justice, sees that as an imporNoble Staffing tant precedent. Solutions 228-0060 “OCR for the first time is 228-8271 going to be using the State Jeff Noble Department's definition of antiwww.mridayton.com • email: info@mridayton.com semitism when it is accepting and deciding Title VI cases,” Tuchman told JTA. “It’s important because that State Department definition recognizes that some anti-Israelism and antiZionism crosses the line into antisemitism.” Title VI of the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination based on national origin. The investigation stems from Informative session to prepare your a ZOA complaint filed in 2011 preschooler for kindergarten. Dinner alleging that organizers’ actions at the pro-Palestinian event served 5:30–6. Concurrent programming that year at Rutgers constituted for children. No charge. RSVP required antisemitism, and that Jewish students’ civil rights were for children by Wednesday, October 10, at violated because the school did jewishdayton.org or 937-610-1555. not appropriately address the anti-semitism. The complaint also alleged that Jewish students were harassed and physically threatened on other occasions. In 2014, the Office for Civil Rights dismissed the complaint,

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THE WORLD

How an encounter between Jews & Palestinians underlines the promise & failures of Oslo Photos and Story By Ron Kampeas, JTA The wall separating Bethlehem from Israel-controlled territory is silent and noisy at once, like the breakdown in conversation between Israelis and Palestinians that helped kill the Oslo peace accords. It was only this year — in June, almost 25 years since the launch of the accords that were supposed to reconcile the sides — that I’d seen the wall up close, and its hugeness was aggravating. I was part of a group of Jewish Americans who had come to Bethlehem with Encounter, an organization that brings together Jewish Americans with Palestinians. In the West Bank city, the wall is a locus of steadfastness on both sides, a mutual and perpetual silent treatment. But it is also alive, at least on the Palestinian side, with expressions of anger and rebuke. “ANTI” appears in huge block letters, a repudiation of, well, everything. But the graffiti is in English and Arabic, not Hebrew — Israelis need to get permits from their government to enter Palestinian-controlled areas. Palestinians are talking to themselves and to their sympathizers. My aggravation is compounded because I know how easy conversation can be on either side. Both entities, Israel and the Palestinian areas, are tiny and crowded, and strangers talk more freely than they do throughout much of the West. Israel is so small, lives often cross in separate spheres. “Is that Ehud Barak?” my wife, Doina, asked some-

My first encounter with time in early 1999 when Barak had come years earwe saw him at a hotel. lier, in the fall of 1993 at the Barak was preparing for Dehaishe refugee camp near his successful bid to unseat Bethlehem, in the West Bank. Prime Minister Benjamin We were both in uniform. Netanyahu and to revive My reserve unit was the the Oslo process launched last guard at the camp. Barak, by his mentor, the assasthen the military chief of sinated Prime Minister staff, paid us a surprise visit. Yitzhak Rabin. Rabin was pulling troops out Barak was smiling, of Dehaishe a few weeks afleaning on the reception ter the Sept. 13, 1993, ceredesk and chatting with a mony in Oslo with President small coterie of men at the Bill Clinton and Palestinian Crowne Plaza, where The The Palestinian side of the separation wall in Bethlehem leader Yasser Arafat. Associated Press was put- has graffiti in Arabic and English Barak stood in his signating us up while we settled ture pose, arms crossed tightly across his chest, and into my second Jerusalem gig with the agency. grinned, rapid-firing questions at us in the cold, late Yes, I said, it is Barak. My wife said he’s so little. afternoon light. What did we think of the pullout? He I agreed, but what struck me was a suit that didn’t caught my eye, but only for a moment, thank God. An seem to sit well on him, bunched in awkward creases officer spoke up. I was a lowly corporal. I didn’t think on his shoulders. I had become accustomed to seeing anything. him in an army uniform. I caught the second-to-last shift at Dehaishe, overBarak soon learned to wear his civvies more natunight, and I heard the chorus of minarets playing the rally, and I got to know him a little better, joining other reporters on his flights to Europe and the United recorded call to prayer before dawn, which I loved and still love. Later that morning we piled onto trucks and States, where he tried to salvage the peace process. He came up short in 2001: The peace was dead, the second headed for Nablus. We were to guard the courthouse intifada was in full force, and Ariel Sharon was elected there. Israeli troops marched dozens of Palestinians, some prime minister.

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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • OCTOBER 2018

THE WORLD teenagers, into the courtroom on charges of belonging to Hamas. The judge asked each, did you join before Sept. 13 or after? Most of them knew enough to say “before” and they were let off with a warning. One or two stumbled and said “after,” and then figured it out. Israel’s message was this: Hamas was always illegal, but OK, you get a pass if you joined up when things were hopeless. Now that there is a peace process, we’re going to do Fatah a favor and make it dangerous to join Hamas. This was unsettling: Why was Israel doing the nascent Palestinian Authority’s dirty work? The Palestinian territories are so small, lives will cross in separate spheres. Barak won the elections in July 1999 and in October that year, he was given a boost in his bid to advance peace talks when Nelson Mandela paid the region a visit. His was a truthto-power tour: In Jerusalem, the just-retired South African president told Israelis that they had to concede territories; in Gaza, at the Palestinian parliament, he said Arab nations must recognize Israel’s right to exist. I followed Mandela through Gaza City and then had to wait out his address to parliament. The AP had a cramped office in Gaza City, on the second floor. I was hungry and descended to the street where there was a restaurant. Across the street was a vendor, seated behind a folding table piled with goods. This vendor was familiar, and with an unsettling

Ibrahem Abassi poses at his home in the Silwan neighborhood of Jerusalem

specificity. He didn’t just look like someone; I had seen him before. He returned my gaze, I thought, with meaning. He recognized me, too, or so it seemed. But this was my first time in Gaza City. I had been in the Gaza Strip, seven, eight, nine years earlier — as a soldier, part of a force policing an intifada that exploded daily in the Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps. That’s where I had seen him: One of the leaders, I was sure, guiding the surges toward us, showering us with stones, and then the retreats as we raised our rifles, armed with the extensions that fired rubber bullets. I got my lunch and went back upstairs. “Do people from Nuseirat or Bureij come up to Gaza City to work?” I asked my colleague. It could be, he responded. I left Israel in 2000, but I’ve been back frequently. I saw the wall rise from a distance when I visited Jerusalem. While living in Israel, I had visited Palestinian areas, not infrequently — well enough to know where to get the best Bethlehem chicken,

coffee in Ramallah, and a car repaired on the cheap. On my visits back as a citizen-tourist, I’ve barely visited the West Bank: Once while covering President George W. Bush’s 2008 visit, and another time visiting a friend in a settlement. And now with Encounter. The Palestinian territories are cramped. More cramped than I remember. For Israel, the extended security barrier is the device that shut down the second intifada’s terrorist attacks on civilians. For Palestinians, at least in Bethlehem, it is a means of talking to themselves about lives limited by roadblocks, splashed with slogans and self-help advice, like a late morning talk show but static. “Freedom of the mind is not always enough,” one graffito says. Both sides suffer from physical and intellectual claustrophobia. Just saying hello is fraught with meaning in this conflict. Some of the Palestinians who spoke to the Encounter group will not knowingly speak to Israelis. Nevertheless, EncounContinued on Page 22

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PAGE 9

OPINION

Oslo failed. Long live Oslo. By Kenneth Jacobson It has become conventional wisdom in certain circles that the Oslo agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, which was signed 25 years ago Sept. 13 on the White House lawn, was simply a failure. There is no doubt that the great hopes of IsraeliPalestinian peace and reconciliation engendered by Oslo have not been realized. Twenty-five years later not only is there no peace, but the parties are not even talking to each other and the Palestinians themselves remain irreconcilably divided. Moreover, not only was peace not accomplished, but soon after Oslo was signed, Palestinian terrorism surged, leading many on the right to argue that ceding territory to the Palestinians and the general show of perceived weakness by Israel at Oslo had emboldened the terrorists. While this reading of the cause of terrorism was too monolithic — there have been surges of terrorism during periods of stagnation and frustration with the status quo — it did speak to the uncertainties surrounding Palestinian extremism and terrorism and the simplification by some on the left about Palestinian behavior and thinking. At the same time, in certain left-wing circles, it is assumed the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by a right-wing extremist opposed to the peace process was the main reason the hopes of Oslo never came to fruition. If only Rabin had lived, the argument goes, there would be Israeli-Palestinian peace. There is no doubt that Rabin’s unique credibility as a defender of Israel’s security, together with his willingness to take a bold initiative with Israel’s longtime enemy, the PLO, was not easily replicated. The loss of

Rabin at that critical moment not only was one of the saddest days in the history of the nation, but also hurt the chances for peace. Rabin’s death was a disaster in many ways, but whether it was the major factor in the stalling of peace efforts remains questionable. In addition to the outbreak of suicide terrorist attacks at that time, there is no real evidence that had Rabin lived, there might have been peace. The Palestinians had not made the qualitative leap toward accepting Israel’s legitimacy that was necessary for an agreement. When twice later on, at Camp David in 2000 and at Annapolis in 2008, Israeli leaders offered far more than Oslo for the actual creation of an independent Palestinian state and the dismantlement of many settlements, the Palestinians couldn’t bring themselves to say yes. Still, there is reason to look back at Oslo as an important step forward in the painfully slow process of legitimizing Israel in the Arab world and in establishing a framework for Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation. Let’s remember that before Oslo, Palestinians of all stripes simply spoke the language of rejectionism, of denial of the right of Israel to exist. It’s not to say by any stretch of the imagination that way of thinking has disappeared — Hamas is the most blatant example of this — but Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas himself and other members of the P.A. engage at times in such rhetoric. But it is vital to recognize that since Oslo, with all the disappointments that have followed, there is an alternative narrative, reflected in the words of Abbas, but also in public opinion polls among Palestinians. This is a language, however grudging, of accepting Israel’s existence and the need to find a solution based on two states. One can question Abbas’ sincerity when he talks about two states for two peoples, or when he condemns terrorism, or when he cooperates with Israeli security forces, but at least it is now part of the public dialogue and rhetoric — something that was not true

before Oslo. And from the Israeli side, Oslo concretized the concept of Palestinian self-government, through the establishment of the Palestinian Authority and the aspiration of a two-state solution, which until that point had been considered purely theoretical or unrealistic. There is enduring cynicism among the Palestinian leadership and its structures, and polls today show little drive for or expectation of a two-state solution among both the Israeli leadership and public. However, the framework established at Oslo remains to be built upon or adjusted at a time when conditions are more conducive for direct Israeli-Palestinian engagement. The challenge going forward is not simply to reject Oslo but to move its conceptual breakthroughs into the practical realm. In this regard, there are responsibilities on all sides. After the terrorism following the failure of the July 2000 Camp David summit and the conflict following the withdrawal from Gaza, Israelis have every right to be concerned about security. These concerns, however profound, need not stifle conversations and initiatives by Israel that could strengthen forces within the Palestinian community toward actualizing the concept of Israel’s legitimacy. Nor should steps be taken that would make an ultimate two-state solution a practical impossibility. And Palestinians, following in the path of Salam Fayyad, the former Palestinian prime minister, need to take practical steps to build up Palestinian institutions and infrastructure to help convince Israelis that the ideas embodied in Oslo are not dead. Twenty-five years after the White House lawn ceremony, cynicism about Oslo is understandable. However, it could still be celebrated as a watershed moment in the eternal conflict if its conceptual breakthroughs are reinvigorated and translated into steps that could create movement for a secure peace on both sides. Kenneth Jacobson is deputy national director of the AntiDefamation League.

Young activists learned the wrong lessons from the Oslo Accords By David Brog This summer, America’s Jewish youths rebelled. Or at least a very small minority of them did. But through orchestrated stunts and aggressive marketing, they garnered the headlines they sought. These youths are demanding that Israel end its “occupation,” presumably of the West Bank. They are targeting pro-Israel organizations they deem to be insufficiently zealous in opposing said occupation. They want peace. They want it now. And they know who’s to blame for its absence: Israel. This agenda is not new. It’s a throwback to a movement that dominated the Israeli left in the 1980s and 1990s appropriately called Peace Now. Peace Now also demanded immediate peace, and it likewise assumed that Israel could have peace if it only wanted it badly enough. But some tragic things happened on the way to the signing ceremony. These events challenged Peace Now’s core assumptions and forever changed the Israeli left. This mugging by Mideast reality holds valuable lessons for today’s new peace activists in a hurry. In the 1990s, there was a broad consensus in Israel and abroad that peace would be achieved through a two-state solution. Politicians and pundits all knew what “the deal” would look like. When the Oslo peace process — sealed 25 years ago — stalled in the late

So, what do you think? Send your letters (350 words max., thanks) to The Dayton Jewish Observer 525 Versailles Drive Dayton, OH 45459 • MWeiss@jfgd.net PAGE 10

1990s, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak decided to break the stalemate by offering the Palestinians “the deal.” Barak eventually agreed to a Palestinian state in all of Gaza, Arab eastern Jerusalem and, over time, what the Clinton Parameters described as 94 percent of the West Bank with additional land from Israel proper. But the Palestinians did not accept the deal. They didn’t even make a counteroffer. Instead, they launched a wave of suicide bombings in which over 1,000 Israelis were murdered and thousands more injured. Israel’s supposed partner for peace, the Palestinian Authority, actively competed with Hamas to see who could blow up more Israelis. Israel’s most generous peace offer to date was met with the most vicious wave of terrorism to date. Israelis are a can-do people who are determined to shape their own destiny. Having failed to get the Palestinians to create a state through negotiations, some decided they could force them to accept a state by simply withdrawing from the territory they sought. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon embraced the idea of unilateral withdrawal and decided to test it in Gaza. In 2005, he removed every last Israeli soldier and citizen from Gaza in what he called a “down payment for peace.” But the Gaza withdrawal didn’t launch the virtuous cycle that Sharon had expected. Instead, the exact opposite occurred. Hamas, a terrorist group, seized control of Gaza and dramatically increased the number of missiles it fired at Israel’s towns and cities. Once again, an Israeli concession had produced an escalation of Palestinian terrorism. Today’s college students were in diapers as these disasters played out. And many dismiss events that

preceded their puberty as ancient history. Thus it’s worth noting that the Palestinians rejected a subsequent and even more generous peace offer in 2008. As recently as 2014, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas scuttled the Obama administration’s peace efforts by announcing a unity government with Hamas. To this day, Abbas pays generous salaries to any Palestinian who succeeds in murdering Israelis. Little has changed. Peace Now was founded by officers from Israeli combat units. They were rooted in Israeli reality by their service to their country. Thus when the results of their policies were so different from their expectations, many of them did what responsible adults tend to do: They learned and they adjusted. There’s still an Israeli left today. But instead of demanding peace, now their program might best be summarized as “enable peace tomorrow.” They tend to focus on opposing settlement construction and other policies that would preclude an Israeli government from again offering the Palestinians “the deal” at some point in the future. These days, President Trump tends to be more optimistic about the prospects for peace than these Israelis. America’s student protesters couldn’t be more different from the founders of Peace Now. They never defended Israel or even lived there. Most of them are visiting Israel for the first time. Yet they exhibit the worst conceits of “the ugly American,” insisting upon fitting the natives — both Israeli and Palestinian — into their simplistic, preconceived political categories. David Brog is executive director of the Maccabee Task Force. THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • OCTOBER 2018

THE WORLD

Jewish-American left-winger heading to Jerusalem yeshiva detained at Israeli border

dation not to allow her entry. group; Encounter Programs, desire to become a citizen of However, after pledging to which leads listening tours to Israel. Along with feeling dediobtain a permit before going to Palestinian areas of the West cated to living there, Weinberg(Palestinian) Authority territory, Bank for Jewish Americans; and Connors said being an Israeli her entry was permitted.” Adamah, a Jewish-American citizen affords her more rights Weinberg-Connors is from farm that has a fellowship for should something like this deBoston and is a 2017 graduate young adults. tainment happen again. of Beloit College, where she As part of her coursework, “I definitely want to still By Ben Sales, JTA Area A; Jewish Israelis are not. majored in critical identity stud- Weinberg-Connors created The make aliyah,” she said. “I really Another Jewish-American Weinberg-Connors also has ies and minored in religious Jewish American Princess Zine, an care about this place and makleft-wing activist was detained been involved in left-wing online publication that “seeks to ing it into the place I think it at the Israeli border and threat- activism. According to a Haaretz studies. She studied abroad at Tel understand the emergence, use, should be for the Jewish people ened with deportation before article published in February, and meaning(s) of the Jewish and all people is really imporbeing allowed to enter the she was a member of All That’s Aviv University, and has been involved with Jewish organiza- American Princess stereotype.” tant to me. I do worry about my country. Left, a left-wing activist collections such as Achvat Amim, a Weinberg-Connors said the ability to stay here if I’m not a Julie Weinberg-Connors, 23, tive in Israel. Palestinian-Israeli solidarity experience has not dimmed her citizen.” arrived in the country on Sept. Weinberg-Connors also vis12 to begin a year of study at ited the West Bank Bedouin vilthe Pardes Institute of Jewish lage of Khan al-Ahmar, which Studies, a nondenominational Israel has slated for imminent yeshiva in Jerusalem. Weinberg- destruction. Connors was detained at Ben “When I said Khan al-Ahmar, Gurion Airport upon landing the man said, ‘You can’t enter and was questioned by Interior into Israel,’” Weinberg-Connors Ministry officials before said, referring to an Serving Dayton, Ohio Since 2001 being allowed to enter official questioning her. the country. The whole “I said, ‘Why?’ and he Serving Dayton, Ohio Since 2001 experience took more said, ‘Because you’re than three hours. here to make trouble.’” Weinberg-Connors After being threatis in the process of imened with deportation migrating to Israel, or due to the Khan almaking aliyah, and will Amar visit, Weinbergbe living in the country Connors spoke to her Julie Weinbergon an A-1 visa, which lawyer and eventually Connors is intended to be a was asked to sign a stepping-stone to immigration. document pledging not to visit “They said, ‘We’re re-bookArea A while in Israel without ing your flight and putting receiving a permit. you on a new flight back to the After signing the document, FALL SEEDING & LAWN MAINTENANCE call Us tOdaY U.S.,’” Weinberg-Connors told Weinberg-Connors was allowed OSEEDING verseeding & slice & seeding FALL LAWN MAINTE JTA. “They put me in a holding to enter the country, according Free estimates all scallOdaY FALL SEEDING & &LAWN MAINTENANCE FALL LAWN U tOdaY csall Us tOdaY FallSEEDING leaF Yard & clean -Up MAINTENANCE area.” to the Interior Ministry. O•Overseeding & sslice Overseeding & slice s verseeding &•eeding sa lice eeding estimates Fall plantings F ertilizatiOn erate s Oil seeding “It made me really sad,” she stimates “It was clear from (Weinberg- Free Free estimates said later. “I love this land very Connors’) interrogation that Fall leaF & Ylard c&lean -Upclean-Up all Y 3159 Encrete Lane • Dayton, Ohio 45439 FFall leaF eaF &ard Yard clean-Up deeply and it’s very important it was her intention to go to Fall plantings • FertilizatiOn • aerate• saOil Fall plantings • FertilizatiOn erate sOil to me that it is a place that is a the territory of the Palestinian F all plantings • FertilizatiOn • aer 3159 Encrete Lane • Dayton, Ohio 45439 safe home for the people who Authority,” a spokesperson for 3159 Encrete Lane • Dayton, Ohio 45439 call it home. That we have a the Interior Ministry told JTA. 3159 Encrete Lane • Dayton, Ohio 45439 government now that’s trying “Investigations conducted with to deny people entry based on relevant security officials led their political beliefs is scary.” to an unequivocal recommenWeinberg-Connors is the latest Jewish-American left-wing activist to be detained by Israel *SAVE 20% OFF Jewelry Repair and Restoration Services at the border and questioned over their politics before being Whether you need a simple ring repair or a new setting, you can allowed into the country. count on our expert jewelers. Earlier this year, Israeli • Fully insured • Restoration on • Master goldsmiths officials detained prominent heirloom pieces • In-house expert repairs • Over 5 decades journalist Peter Beinart, author • Prompt delivery combined experience Moriel Rothman-Zecher, and • State of the art equipment activists Simone Zimmerman and techniques and Abby Kirschbaum. *See store for details. 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IZZY EZAGUI

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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • OCTOBER 2018

Highlights JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON & ITS AGENCIES

Jessica Michna portrayed Golda Meir to a full house to celebrate Israel at 70 with Hadassah, the JCC and the JFS Active Adults. PHOTO CREDIT: Peter Wine

JCC early childhood

Shabbat Abba Zeke Gilbert and Shabbat Ima Linnley Balog bless the candles at our weekly Friday morning celebration. PHOTO CREDIT: Katie Lagasse

PJ Library celebrated the end of summer with a potluck Shabbat dinner at Orchardly Park. PHOTO CREDIT: Emily Snyder

On September 5, JFS welcomed in the new year with friends at One Lincoln Park. Thank you Cantor Andrea Raizen for joining us and blowing the shofar. Our new year is "Off to a Sweet Start!" PHOTO CREDIT: Amy Dolph

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER â&#x20AC;¢ OCTOBER 2018

PAGE 13

October events JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON & ITS AGENCIES MON 1

FRI 5

TUE 2

SAT 6

WED 3

THURSDAY 4 ACTIVE ADULTS Tour and Lunch 10:30–11:30 @ SunWatch Village (2301 W. River Rd, 45417) 11:45 Lunch @ Carillon Brewing Co. (1000 Carillon Blvd, 45409) Self-guided walking tour at SunWatch, cost on your own: $6 at the entrance. Lunch cost is on your own. RSVP by September 27.

SUNDAY 7 CABF Opening Night: Joshua Nelson 7PM @ Boonshoft CJCE Light dessert reception prior to the event. More details on page 12. In advance: adult $18/ ages 6–18 $8/ 5 and under free At the door: adult $25/ ages 6–18 $15/ 5 and under $5

WEDNESDAY 10 JCRC Meet the Candidates 6:30PM @ Boonshoft CJCE Partnering with League of Women Voters and Washington-Centerville Public Library.

SATURDAY 13 DAYTON JYG Havdalah and Haunt 7:45 –11PM Meet @ Boonshoft CJCE Grades 6–8 celebrate Havdalah around a campfire, make s'mores, and walk the corn maze. Transportation provided to and from Tom's Maze. $13/person.

PAGE 14

T 16

See page 12 for full list and more information. $5 in advance, $8 at door except where noted.

TUE 23

SUNDAY 28

MONDAY 29 L'CHAIM 2018 Our Brains Come Alive With the Sound of Music 1–2:30PM @ Kleptz YMCA (1200 W National Rd, 45322) Guest speaker and performance by a senior dance troupe, followed by a light snack.

WED 31

SUN 10/7 @ 7PM

JOSHUA NELSON Boonshoft CJCE

TUE 10/9 @ 7PM

A River Could Be A Tree ANGELA HIMSEL & From Rose Bowl to Rashi CALVIN MURRAY Boonshoft CJCE

SEE LEFT

FRI 12

WEDNESDAY 17 PJ LIBRARY Kindergarten Readiness 5:30–7PM @ Boonshoft CJCE Dinner and informative session to prepare your preschooler for kindergarten with concurrent kids' program. Partnering with Hillel Academy.

MONDAY 22 JCC Big & Little Yoga Class 10 - 11AM @ Boonshoft CJCE 2-4 year olds bring a caring adult for yoga with instructor Elissa Dinsmore.

SATURDAY 27

TUE 30

O C TO B E R C A B F E V E N TS

SUNDAY 14 COSPONSORED BY JFS Dayton LGBT Film Festival: Dear Fredy 1-3PM @ The Neon (130 E 5th St, 45402) An openly gay man imprisoned in Auschwitz convinces his captors to allow him to develop a daycare offering fun and a fitness program for children in the camp to help keep them healthy and shield them from their situation. $9/ticket at daytonlgbt.com or The Neon.

SUNDAY 21 JCC & PJ LIBRARY Night @ the Drive In: Coco 6:30–9:30PM @ Dixie Twin Drive-In (6201 N Dixie Dr, 45414) Games followed by screening of Pixar's Coco at 7:30PM

FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO RSVP (unless noted): 937-610-1555 www.jewishdayton.org

2 0 TUE 1 9 9

THURSDAY 11 JCC Speaking of That: Headscarves and Hope 1–3PM @ Boonshoft CJCE Introducing our new Thursday speaker series. Our first topic is Teaching and Learning in an Arab-Israeli Village (and beyond!) with Dr. Martha Moody Jacobs.

MONDAY 15 YAD (AGES 21–35) Dinner @ Carillon Brewing Company 6 -7PM @ 1000 Carillon Blvd, 45409 Enjoy dinner with friends prior to the CABF event featuring Izzy Ezagui, an American IDF soldier and the world’s only sharpshooter with one arm. Dinner 6–7PM, CABF event begins at 7. Cost on your own.

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

MON 8

THURSDAY 4 CHILDREN'S THEATRE Auditions for The Addams Family Young@Part 5:30–8PM @ 105 Sugar Camp Circle Children in grades 3–12 should prepare to sing a 1-minute segment of a Broadway song. Wear comfortable clothes and be prepared to learn a basic dance. $150 program participation fee.

WED 24

THU 25

MON 10/15 Disarmed @ 7PM IZZY EZAGUI Carillon Brewing Co. 1000 Carillon Blvd., 45409 THU 10/18 This Narrow Space @ 7PM ELISHA WALDMAN Boonshoft CJCE NO CHARGE Anschel's Story

RENATE FRYDMAN MON 10/22 Beth Jacob Synagogue 7020 N. Main St., 45415 @ 6:30PM WED 10/24 @ 7PM

Wright Memorial Public Library 1776 Far Hills Ave., 45419

THURSDAY FRIDAY 18 19

SATURDAY 20

FRIDAY 26 JFS OSHIIP Medicare Check Up Day 9AM–3PM @ Boonshoft CJCE Ohio Department of Insurance's Medicare counselors sit down with you individually to review your needs and help select a plan. Call to make an appointment.

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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • OCTOBER 2018

ore.

Announcements JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON & ITS AGENCIES

Did YOU know?

Federation funded trips for volunteer American firefighters to help battle blazes caused by kite arson in Israel's south this summer. Your gift to Federation’s Annual Campaign supports efforts like this, and so much more through The Jewish Agency for Israel. Find out more at www.jfna.org.

Whatever you care about most, leaving a legacy ensures the things you value are sustained for future generations. A legacy gift of any size makes a difference!

To create your Jewish legacy contact:

Janese R. Sweeny, Esq. Director, Jewish Foundation of Greater Dayton jsweeny@jfgd.net 937.401.1542 www.jewishdayton.org

A Biss'l Mamaloshen Keyt

bond; mountain range.

JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON

JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER of GREATER DAYTON

JEWISH FAMILY SERVICES of GREATER DAYTON

LIFE & LEGACY is brought to the Dayton Jewish community through the Jewish Foundation of Greater Dayton.

Legacies, Tributes, & Memorials FEDERATION

ANNUAL CAMPAIGN IN MEMORY OF › Dr. Mel Lipton -Bobbie Kantor -Brenda and Scott Meadow LINDA RUCHMAN MEMORIAL FUND IN HONOR OF › 85th birthday of Don Fischer › 50th wedding anniversary of Joan and Peter Wells › 30th wedding anniversary of Pat and Irv Bloom › Speedy recovery of Dr. Harley Ellman -Judy and Marshall Ruchman IN MEMORY OF › Lois Hoffman -Judy and Marshall Ruchman CAROL J. PAVLOFSKY LEADERSHIP FUND IN HONOR OF › Special birthday of Elaine Bettman › 90th birthday of Dottie Engelhardt › Birthday of Sarah Pavlofsky -Marlene and David Miller

| KEYT | noun: A chain, shackle,

HOLOCAUST PROGRAM FUND IN HONOR OF › Speedy recovery of Kathy Gordon -Jane and Dr. Gary Hochstein ROBERT AND MOLLIE FITTERMAN PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FUND IN HONOR OF › B’nai Mitzvah of Robin Moore › Celebration of Charlotte Fitterman college graduation › Celebration of Daniel Fitterman college graduation -Susan and Alan Witte CAROLE RABINOWITZ YOUTH JEWISH EXPERIENCE FUND IN HONOR OF › Beverly Louis receiving the Robert A. Shapiro Award -Helene Gordon ROBERT A. SHAPIRO EDUCATION FUND IN HONOR OF › Beverly Louis receiving the Robert A. Shapiro Award -Bella Freeman and Family

TALA ARNOVITZ FUND IN HONOR OF › 65th wedding anniversary of Esther and DeNeal Feldman -Beverly Saeks IN MEMORY OF › Dr. Mel Lipton -Beverly Saeks DOROTHY B. MOYER YOUNG LEADERSHIP FUND IN MEMORY OF › Mrs. Gloria Moyer -Marcia and Richard Moyer JCC

BARBARA FLAGEL PLAYGROUND FUND IN HONOR OF › Birth of Livnat Gilbert, daughter of Rachel and Dr. Heath Gilbert -Beverly Louis IN MEMORY OF › Lois Hoffman › Dr. Mel Lipton › Myrna Miller -Laura and Adam Weiser and Family

Expressions with Keyt : 1 Brekht zikh a ring, tsefalt di gantse keyt. One link snaps and the whole chain falls apart. 2 A

kleyt iz a goldene keyt. A business is a golden chain (in the sense that it ties you down even when you want out).

JOAN & PETER WELLS AND REBECCA LINVILLE FAMILY, CHILDREN, AND YOUTH FUND IN HONOR OF › Marriage of Jeremy and Miriam Klaben -Joan and Peter Wells › Speedy recovery of Peter Wells -Beverly Louis JFS

JEWISH FAMILY SERVICES IN HONOR OF › Marriage of Jeremy and Miriam Klaben -Helene Gordon › Speedy recovery of Dr. Harley Ellman › Speedy recovery of Fred Weber -Susan and Jonas Gruenberg IN MEMORY OF › Dr. Mel Lipton -Dr. Judy Woll › Margie Weinstein, sister of Ellen Rosenthal › Aunt of Nora Newsock › Lois Hoffman -Susan and Jonas Gruenberg

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • OCTOBER 2018

FOUNDATION

JEREMY BETTMAN B’NAI TZEDEK FUND IN HONOR OF › Marriage of Jeremy and Miriam Klaben -Jean and Todd Bettman › Special birthday of Elaine Bettman -Marci and Joel Vandersluis › Special birthday of Esther Feldman -Elaine and Joe Bettman SAMMY’S RAINBOW BRIDGE FUND IN MEMORY OF › Yahrtzeit memory of “Sammy” Bettman -Jean and Todd Bettman

Make a meaningful impact on the Jewish community to honor or memorialize someone in your life. Consider a donation to a Jewish Foundation of Greater Dayton Fund. Contact us at 937-610-1555.

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Upcoming events JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON & ITS AGENCIES

Active Adults

t h u r s d a y, o c t o b e r 4 t o u r @ 1 0 : 3 0 –1 1 : 3 0 a m SunWatch Indian Village/ Archaeological Park 2301 W. River Road, 45417

lunch @ 11:45am Carillon Brewing Company 1000 Carillon Blvd, 45409 Self-guided walking tour at SunWatch, cost is on your own: $6 at the entrance. Lunch cost is on your own. RSVP by September 27.

J E W I S H FA M I LY S E R V I C E S P R E S E N T S

L’CHAIM 2018:

Our Brains Come Alive With the Sound of Music

MONDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1–2:30PM

S A V E

T H E

D A T E

PARTNERSHIP2GETHER

@ Kleptz YMCA (1200 W National Rd, 45322) Come learn the benefits that music has on our brains, health and overall mood then enjoy a performance by a senior dance troupe. A light snack will be served. No charge. RSVP by October 22 @ www.jewishdayton.org or by calling 937-610-1555.

Women Leading A Dialogue A Multicultural Women’s Empowerment Program

Wednesday, November 14 @ 6–8PM Women Leading a Dialogue MISSION GOALS • Strengthen the bond and encourage communication A Multi Cultural Women's between various cultures and groups in the Western Galilee: Jews, Christians, Muslims and Druze Empowerment Event. Visit • Break down barriers and stereotypes • Women empowerment THE PROGRAM www.jewishdayton.org for • Widen the circles to family members and beyond In collaboration with the Young Adults Center of Matte Asher • Introduce a variety of cultures Regional Council, the Western Galilee Partnership2Gethermore information. • Develop strong relations between communities created a group of Arab and Jewish women from Akko and To find mutual ground and strengthen the bond between Arab and Jewish women from the Western Galilee while sharing, exposing and involving our partner communities to the complex diversity of the Western Galilee.

Matte Asher, to lead a dialogue. The women of the group get to know each other, go out on field trips and celebrate special holidays together, like Ramadan, New Years and Passover. While strengthening their bonds, they also enhance their leadership and project building skills. These women, ages of 25-45, bring their favorite dishes to the meetings, share their recipes and, with help from a professional facilitator, discuss mutual issues pertaining to being women and mothers in Israel and in the Western Galilee region. One of the components of the program is a visit to the Jewish communities in the US. During these meetings, the participants meet with a variety of audiences, attend services in synagogues, churches and mosques, and connect and inspire communities to form their own groups.

• Inspire the creation of similar groups in P2G communities • Develop leadership skills among the participants

Night at the Drive In: Coco WHAT IS PARTNERSHIP2GETHER?

PARTNERSHIP2GETHER is a program of The Jewish Agency and The Jewish Federations of North America, promoting people-to-people relationships through cultural, social, medical, educational and economic programs. This Partnership is between the 14 communities of the Central Area Consortium, Budapest and Israel’s Western Galilee. Our mission is to promote mutually beneficial endeavors forging relationships through programs that build Jewish identity and strengthen ties and connections among and between our communities.

@ The Dixie Twin Drive In (6201 N. Dixie Drive, 45414)

Sunday, October 21 6:30PM 7:30PM

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Contact your local Jewish Federation or Danit Bornstein, Partnership2Gether Coordinator O ++972-4-6055241 | C ++972-52-4742451 | E danitb@jafi.org

Family fun, games, and snacks Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person. Film

—Mother Teresa

www.westerngalilee.org.il

Fun and games and snacks followed by a screening of Pixar's Coco. Bundle up for the weather and bring lawn chairs, picnic blankets, or sleeping bags if you plan to watch the movie outside of your car. You may also bring a portable radio. Visit www.dixietwin.com for more information on how to enjoy a drive-in movie.

& PAGE 16

Admission: No charge RSVP at jewishdayton.org or 937-610-1555. THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • OCTOBER 2018

CALENDAR OF EVENTS Classes

Intro. to Judaism: Synagogue Forum of Greater Dayton presents 16 sessions, Mondays, 7-8:30 p.m. beginning Oct. 8. $75 single/couple. For info., call Rabbi Judy Chessin, 435-3400. Temple Beth Or Classes: Tues., Oct. 16, 7 p.m.: Connections for Seniors: Preventing Falls in the Home w. Kettering Medical Ctr. 5275 Marshall Rd., Wash. Twp. 435-3400. Temple Israel Classes: Sun., Sept. 30, 5 p.m., Oct. 7 & 21 at noon: Saul: First King of Israel w. Temple Israel Rabbi Emeritus Sofian. Tues., Oct. 2, 16, 23, 30, 5:30 p.m.: Musar w. Rabbi Sobo. Wednesdays, noon: Talmud. Saturdays, 9:30 a.m.: Torah Study. 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton. 496-0050. Tuesdays @ The J: 6 p.m., Oct. 16, 30: Yoga w. Elissa Dinsmore. $8. 6:30 p.m., Oct. 16, 23, 30: Krav Maga. $50 for four weeks, register at daytonkravmaga. com. 7 p.m., Oct. 9, 16, 30: Israeli Dancing w. Janifer Tsou. $3 per lesson. Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville. R.S.V.P. to 610-1555.

Discussions

call Temple Israel at 496-0050.

Temple Israel Ryterband Brunch Series: Sundays, 9:45 a.m. $7. Oct. 7: Temple Israel Rabbi Emeritus David Sofian, Why Should You Care? Israel and You. Oct. 14: HUC-JIR Prof. Dr. Richard Sarason, The Kabalistic Origins of Kabalat Shabbat. Oct. 21: Dr. Jack Bernstein, Adult Vaccination. Partnering w. Beth Abraham Men’s Club, at Beth Abraham, 305 Sugar Camp Cir., Oakwood. All other brunches at Temple Israel, 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton. 496-0050. Beth Abraham Men’s Club Brunch: Sun., Oct. 21: Dr. Jack Bernstein, Adult Vaccination. Partnering w. Temple Israel. At Beth Abraham, 305 Sugar Camp Cir., Oakwood. 293-9520.

Family

Kindergarten Readiness Session: presented by PJ Library & Hillel Academy. Wed., Oct. 17, 5:30-7 p.m. Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville. R.S.V.P. to 610-1555. Prayer & Play - Havdalah at Rabbi Sobo’s: Sat., Oct. 20, 4-6 p.m. Mac & Cheese for dinner, games, dessert. For more info.,

Children & Youths

JCC Children’s Theatre Auditions: Thurs., Oct. 4, 5:30-8 p.m. 105 Sugar Camp Cir., Oakwood. Show is Addams Family Young@Part. Program participation fee $150. Schedule audition time, w. Meryl Hattenbach, 937-401-1550. Junior Youth Group Havdalah & Haunt: Sat., Oct. 13, 7:4511 p.m. Dropoff & pickup at Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville. Transportation to Tom’s Maze. R.S.V.P. to Meryl Hattenbach, 937-401-1550. Chabad Kids Club Ultimate Birthday Bash: Sun., Oct. 14, 3-4 p.m. $5. 2001 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood. 643-0770.

Women

Chabad Ladies Shabbat Dinner: Fri., Oct. 12, 5 p.m. 2001 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood. R.S.V.P. to Devorah Mangel, 937974-8648.

Seniors

JFS Active Adults Lunch & Tour: Thurs., Oct. 4, 10:30 a.m. Tour Sunwatch Indian Village,

R.S.V.P. to Molly Blumer, 4798880 by Oct. 7.

2301 W. River Rd., Dayton. $6. Followed by 11:45 a.m. lunch at Carillon Brewing Co., 1000 Carillon Blvd., Dayton. Pay for lunch. R.S.V.P. to 610-1555.

Meet the Candidates: Wed., Oct. 10, 6:30-8 p.m. Sponsored by Jewish Community Relations Council in partnership w. League of Women Voters & WashingtonCenterville Public Library. Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville. 610-1555.

JCC Book Club: Fri., Oct. 19, 10:30 a.m. Uncovered by Leah Lax. Hosted by Judi Grampp. Temple Israel, 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton. Call Judi at 890-6271. OSHIIP Medicare Open Enrollment Check Up Day: Fri., Oct. 26, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. For appointment, call JFS at 6101555. JFS L’Chaim, Music As We Age: Mon., Oct. 29, 1-2:30 p.m. Music therapist, senior dance troupe, snack. Kleptz YMCA, 1200 W. National Rd., Englewood. R.S.V.P. to 610-1555.

JCC Cultural Arts & Book Fest

Headscarves & Hope w. Dr. Martha Moody Jacobs: Thurs., Oct. 11, 1-3 p.m. Discussion hosted by JCC. Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville. 610-1555. Screening of Dear Fredy: Sun., Oct. 14, 1 p.m. The Neon, 130 E. Fifth St., Dayton. Co-sponsored by JFS for Dayton LGBT Film Festival. $9. Temple Israel Torah on Tap: Wed., Oct. 17, 6 p.m. Happy hour w. the rabbi, at Troll Pub, 216 Wayne Ave., Dayton. First round of drinks on Temple Israel.

For complete schedule, see listings on Page 12.

Community Events

Jewish Genealogical Society of Dayton: Tues., Oct. 9, 6 p.m. Main Library, 215 E. Third St., Dayton. Tour w. Special Collections Mgr. Jamie McQuinn.

Chabad 25th Anniversary Gala Dinner: Tues., Oct. 23, 6 p.m. Dayton Art Institute, 456 Belmonte Park N. 643-0770 or chabaddayton.com/gala25.

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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • OCTOBER 2018

937-228-3630 GROUPS SAVE!

Call 937-461-8295

PAGE 17

KVELLING CORNER Rachel Haug Gilbert Dottie Engelhardt celebrated her 90th birthday. Joni Watson was appointed

to the National Education Association Internal Language Review Stakeholder Task Force, to review NEA’s language through a racial-equity lens.

outdoor sanctuary and created new candlesticks and a kiddush table from a tree blown down in a neighbor’s yard. Seth is the son of Jill and Tom Conte.

Esther and DeNeal Feldman Springboro High School senior Seth Conte has earned his Eagle celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary. Scout rank. For his project, he renovated Temple Beth Or’s

MICKALENE THOMAS PHOTOGRAPHS tête-à-tête Organized by

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Call 937-223-4ART (4278) or visit daytonartinstitute.org THE COMPASSIONATE CARE AND CLINICAL COMPETENCE YOU DESERVE Independent Living • Assisted Living • Rehabilitation Skilled Nursing • Short Term Stays

Sarah and Lonnie Carpenter joined the annual Ride 2 Remember in Cleveland in June. The Jewish Motorcyclists Alliance and the Shul Boys motorcycle club of Cleveland organized the ride, which raised more than $77,000 for the Survivor’s Memory Project at the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage in Cleveland. Lonnie also achieved Champion in Class D2 on his 1976 Yamaha RD400 at the Annual Ohio Vintage Nationals Drag Race at Quaker City Motorsports Park in Salem — his first drag race.

his dedication to and advocacy of optometry in Ohio. Volunteers taking the lead with the 2018 Dayton Walk to End Alzheimer’s include Board Member and Past President Mike Emoff, the Froelich family, Reason To Hope Committee Member Bernie Rabinowitz, and Program Committee Member Marci Vandersluis. The walk will be held Oct. 6.

Dr. Heath Gilbert was named 2018 Key OD of the Year by the Ohio Optometric Association for

Send your Kvelling items to: kvellingcorner@gmail.com or to Rachel Haug Gilbert The Dayton Jewish Observer 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville, OH 45459

LIFECYCLES

Members of Temple Israel’s 2018 Adult B’nai Mitzvah Class were called to the Torah on Aug. 25 (L to R): Robin Moore, Tiffany Lobertini, Victoria Minor, Gianni and Danielle Riffle, and Eleanor Kent

Send lifecycles to: The Dayton Jewish Observer, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville, OH 45459 • Email: MWeiss@jfgd.net. There is a $10 charge to run a photo; please make checks payable to The Dayton Jewish Observer.

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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • OCTOBER 2018

RELIGION

CONGREGATIONS Beth Abraham Synagogue Conservative Rabbi Joshua Ginsberg Cantor/Dir. of Ed. & Programming Andrea Raizen Mornings, Mon. & Thurs., 7:15 a.m.; Tues., Wed., Fri., 7:30 a.m. Evenings, Mon.-Fri., 5:30 p.m. Sun., 8:30 a.m. Sat. , 9 a.m.; Youth Service, 10:30 a.m. 305 Sugar Camp Circle, Oakwood. 293-9520. BethAbrahamDayton.org Beth Jacob Congregation Traditional Saturdays 9:30 a.m., Sundays 8 a.m., Sunday through Friday, 7 p.m. 7020 N. Main St., Dayton. 274-2149. BethJacobCong.org Temple Anshe Emeth Reform Fri., Oct. 19, 7:30 p.m. with Rabbinic Intern Eliza McCarroll 320 Caldwell St., Piqua. Call Eileen Litchfield, 937-5470092, elitchfield@woh.rr.com. Correspondence address: 3808 Beanblossom Rd., Greenville, OH 45331. ansheemeth.org Temple Beth Or Reform Rabbi Judy Chessin Educator/Rabbi Ari Ballaban Fridays 7 p.m. Saturdays 10 a.m. 5275 Marshall Rd., Wash. Twp. 435-3400. templebethor.com Temple Beth Sholom Reform Rabbi Haviva Horvitz See Web site for schedule. 610 Gladys Dr., Middletown. 513-422-8313. thetemplebethsholom.com Temple Israel Reform Senior Rabbi Karen Bodney-Halasz Rabbi/Educator Tina Sobo First Friday each month 6 p.m. All other Fridays 6:30 p.m. Saturdays 10:30 a.m. 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton. 496-0050. tidayton.org Temple Sholom Reform Rabbi Cary Kozberg Fridays 6 p.m. 2424 N. Limestone St., Springfield. 399-1231. templesholomoh.com

ADDITIONAL SERVICES Chabad of Greater Dayton 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 a.m. adults, 10 a.m children. Sundays 9 a.m. 2001 Far Hills Ave. 643-0770. www.chabaddayton.com Yellow Springs Havurah Independent Services 1st & 3rd Saturdays, 10-noon. Antioch College Rockford Chapel. Contact Cheryl Levine, 937-767-9293.

Simchat Torah — culmination of the High Holy Days By Rabbi Levi Simon Chabad of Greater Dayton The joy in the synagogue on the holiday of Simchat Torah eve is one that must be seen to be believed. Young and old sing, dance, and celebrate the joyous gift from God — the Torah! Simchat Torah takes place at the end of the month of Tishri, a month chock full of holidays,

Perspectives beginning with the solemn High Holy Days, continuing with Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles), and ending with the holidays of Shemini Atzeret (Eighth Day of Assembly) and finally, Simchat Torah (Celebrating the Torah). In Judaism, we always strive to be ma’alin bakodesh, to increase in holiness, to move upward and onward. How do we understand Simchat Torah, a holiday of dancing and rejoicing with the Torah, as being able to bring all of our prayers from the High Holy Days and Sukkot to a climax? Chassidut, Jewish mystical tradition, explains that the High Holy Days season follows a progression. It is introduced by the month of Elul, a month of introspection, when we reflect upon our thoughts, speech and deeds of the year gone by and resolve to strengthen the good and improve what needs improving. Rosh Hashanah is the Day of Judgement when our fate and

love of the Torah. that of all of Hashem’s (God’s) Only when one has worked creations is determined for the at something and has striven coming year. mightily to obtain it will one The Ten Days of Repentance be truly joyous at arriving at its follow, in which we strengthen conclusion. Similarly, the fullest our efforts to assure a good measure of joy with the Torah is outcome, concluding on Yom reached on Shemini Atzeret and Kippur when it is assured that Simchat Torah when a verdict of a good, we conclude reading sweet New Year has the Torah that we have been sealed. studied: Torah unThe spiritual acderstanding acquired complishments of Rosh through our own toil Hashanah and Yom and effort. Kippur are brought Shemini Atzeret down from the intanand Simchat Torah gible to the revealed are the culmination of through sitting in the Rabbi Levi Simon the High Holy Days Sukkah and waving season; on this day all the the lulav and etrog, and finally integrated fully when we are so month’s events and spiritual accomplishments — including certain and so happy that we the giving of the second Ten just can’t sit still and we dance Commandments tablets on with the Torah on Shemini Yom Kippur — are absorbed Atzeret and Simchat Torah. and internalized within each The spiritual service of the and every one of us. month of Tishri is also symbolOn Simchat Torah we attain ized by the second set of Ten the apex of joy. It is the nature Commandment of a joyous temperament and tablets, received happy mood to disregard by Moses on Yom limitations and restrictions and Kippur. to break out and rise above set These replaceboundaries. ment tablets had Consequently, everything been given after the we do on Simchat Torah in the Jews did teshuvah (repentance) for the spirit of joy has the power to help us internalize the spirisin of the Golden tual accomplishments of the Calf, and Moses had beseeched preceding month and integrate God on their behalf. They are them into regular positive daily considered holier than the first action in an unlimited manner. tablets, given on Shavuot, the The overwhelming joy of Giving of the Torah. Simchat Torah can break all Why? The first time around, limitations and ensure a year the Torah had been given as a full of blessings for health, gift from God, without much wealth, and family satisfaction initiated effort on the part of for each and every one of us the Jews. The second tablets and for the Jewish people as a were given after the Jews exerted effort demonstrating their whole.

Shemini Atzeret

Eighth Day of Assembly

Oct. 1/22 Tishri Historically, it allowed an extra day in Jerusalem for Jewish pilgrims on their journey to the Temple. Tefillat Geshem (the prayer for rain), Hallel (Psalms of thanksgiving and joy), and Yizkor (memorial prayers) are recited.

Simchat Torah

Rejoicing of the Torah

Oct. 2/23 Tishri Annual cycle of reading the Torah is concluded and a new cycle begun. Celebrated in the synagogue with singing, dancing and Torah processionals.

October

Tishri/Cheshvan Candle Lightings Erev Simchat Torah Oct. 1, 7:59 p.m. Shabbat, Oct. 5, 6:55 p.m. Shabbat, Oct. 12, 6:44 p.m. Shabbat, Oct. 19, 6:34 p.m. Shabbat, Oct. 26, 6:24 p.m.

Torah Portions Oct. 6 Bereshit (Gen. 1:1-6:8) Oct. 13 Noach (Gen. 6:9-11:32) Oct. 20 Lech Lecha (Gen. 12:1-17:27) Oct. 27 Vayera (Gen. 18:1-22:24)

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • OCTOBER 2018

Study: nearly half of US Jews don’t identify with organized religion Nearly half of U.S. Jews do not identify with organized religion, a new study by the Pew Research Center finds. More than one in five, however, are considered “Sunday stalwarts” (or Saturday): those who “actively practice their faith, but they also are deeply involved in their religious congregations.” The study published Aug. 29 defines how people practice their religion. It only includes Jews who define their religion as Judaism, or “Jews by religion.” Conducted last December, the study of more than 4,700 respondents has a margin of error of 2.3 percent. Among the seven categories, 45 percent of American Jews are listed in the two for the least religious: “religion resisters,” who believe in a higher power but have negative views of organized religion, or “solidly secular,” those who don’t believe in God and do not selfdefine as religious. The breakdown is 28 percent as “solidly secular” and 17 percent as “religion resisters.” On the other end of the spectrum, 21 percent of Jews are “Sunday stalwarts.” Eight percent are “God-and-country believers,” who express their religion through political and social conservatism, and 5 percent are “diversely devout,” who follow the Bible but also believe in things like animism and reincarnation. The somewhat religious are defined as either “relaxed religious” (14 percent), those who believe in God and pray but don’t engage in many traditional practices, or “spiritually awake” (8 percent), those who hold New Age beliefs and believe in Heaven and Hell. Americans as a whole are more or less evenly divided among the seven groups. The largest three groups are “Sunday stalwarts,” “relaxed religious” and “solidly secular” at 17 percent each. The smallest are “God-and-country believers” and “religion resisters” at 12 percent each. “Jewish Americans are the only religious group with substantial contingents at each end of the typology,” the study says. — JTA

PAGE 19

Matzah Ball Soup, Vietnamese style

Matzah Ball Pho

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By Sonya Sanford, The Nosher Growing up in Seattle, it’s easy to fall in love with pho. Nearly as ubiquitous as coffee shops or teriyaki spots (yes, teriyaki), pho restaurants seem to be just around every corner of the city. They welcome you in from the cold and the rain with their steamy glass windows and equally steamy giant bowls of soup. Pho (pronounced fuh) is a traditional Vietnamese soup that was popularized around the world by Vietnamese refugees fleeing the Vietnam War and its aftermath. Pho ga is the chicken noodle variety. For me, pho is the perfect meal: a big bowl of rich, aromatic, sweet, salty broth filled with satisfying rice noodles and tender meat, and balanced by toppings of fresh herbs, crispy bean sprouts and tart lime juice. Some feel that any mashup of two differing traditional dishes is a crime against all that is holy in food. I am not trying to provoke traditionalists, but I do believe that learning from other strong culinary traditions can enrich our own. In that spirit, I started experimenting with homemade pho. It was a revelation to learn that the broth is made by charring onions and ginger before adding them to the stock, the depth of the broth’s flavor transformed by their smoky sweetness. After making pho a few times, it occurred to me that the broth would go well with dumplings. Matzah balls are dumplings by definition. What would happen if they showed up? Why not combine my two favorite soups? The outcome: Matzah ball pho is a highly compatible marriage of comfort food meeting comfort food. Like traditional matzah ball soup,

this dish is nourishing, filling, and warming; but its flavors are also complex and unexpected together. The matzah balls are nutty and hearty, in contrast to the simple rice noodles one usually finds in pho. The broth has the spice of ginger, and sweetness of cinnamon and anise — nothing like classic matzah ball chicken broth. Like any other pho, matzah ball pho can be served as a complete meal in and of itself, which makes the labor of this dish a little more worthwhile. There are enough toppings and additions to make this satisfying to eat, especially served with a side of toasted challah or crusty bread. For all these reasons, this has quickly become a new classic in my home. A note about the recipe: Traditional pho ga calls for fish sauce in its broth. Fish sauce is made of fermented anchovies. Red Boat makes one that is certified kosher, but many who keep strictly kosher will not combine fish and meat in the same dish. To make this kosher, you can use tamari in lieu of fish sauce for extra umami flavor in the broth. For the broth: 2 medium unpeeled yellow onions, halved 1 large 4- to 5-inch piece of ginger, cut in half lengthwise 5 qts. cold water 1 4- to 5-lb. chicken, cut into parts 1/2 pound chicken wings 2 tsp. kosher salt, or to taste 1 Tbsp. rock sugar or Turbinado (raw) sugar 1 cinnamon stick 2 star anise 1 tsp. whole coriander seeds 2 Tbsp. fish sauce or tamari 1 small white onion, thinly sliced 4 scallions, thinly sliced

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • OCTOBER 2018

For the matzah balls: 1 cup matzah meal 1 tsp. kosher salt 1 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. baking soda 4 large eggs, beaten 1/4 cup schmaltz or oil (vegetable or safflower) 1/4 cup minced scallion For the toppings: 1 large bunch of fresh Thai basil 2-3 limes cut into wedges 3 cups mung bean sprouts 2 Fresno chilies or jalapeños, sliced thin Hoisin sauce, to taste Sambal oelek (garlic chili sauce), to taste Sriracha, to taste To make the broth: Char your onions and ginger by either placing them on a baking sheet under a broiler for eight to 10 minutes or by charring them over a gas flame on your stovetop for a few minutes on each side. The onions and ginger should be nicely charred but still firm — this essential step will deepen the broth’s flavor. Once the onions and ginger are charred, remove the skin from the onion. Rinse the onion and ginger, and use a small knife to scrape off excess charred bits to prevent your broth from getting murky. Cut your chicken into parts, separating the breasts, legs, wings and backbone. This will ensure that your chicken cooks evenly and that the breasts will not become dry or tough when simmered. In a small skillet over medium heat, toast the cinnamon, anise and coriander until lightly browned and fragrant, about two to three minutes. Be

careful not to burn the spices. Add the onion, ginger and chicken to a large pot. Fill the pot with five quarts of water. Bring the water to a simmer; skim the impurities as they rise to the top. After 20 minutes of simmering, or once they are cooked through, remove the chicken breasts and allow them to cool. Add the toasted spices, salt and sugar to the pot. Continue to gently simmer the mixture for one hour. Remove the remaining chicken parts and strain the liquid through a fine meshed sieve. Bring the liquid back to a simmer for another 20-30 minutes, or until the liquid has reduced by about a quarter. This step will further deepen the broth’s flavor. While the broth is simmering, shred the chicken meat and reserve for serving. Once reduced, turn off the heat and add the fish sauce or tamari to the broth. Taste, and add additional seasoning if desired. To make the matzah balls: While the soup is simmering, in a large bowl whisk together the matzah meal, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Add the beaten egg and schmaltz/oil. Add the scal-

lions. Mix everything together until just combined. Do not over-mix. Refrigerate the mixture for at least 30 minutes, and up to a day. Form the matzah ball mixture into even-sized balls. You can determine the size based on your preference, but know that they will double when cooked. It makes it easier to form the matzah balls if you rub a little oil on your hands beforehand. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Lower to a simmer and gently drop the matzah balls into simmering water. Place the lid on the pot and continue to simmer for 30 minutes. Once cooked, matzah balls are best stored in their cooking liquid.

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To serve the matzah ball pho: Add the shredded chicken, raw sliced onion and scallions to a bowl. Ladle hot broth into the bowl. Add the matzah balls to the soup. Serve along with basil, bean sprouts, lime wedges, hoisin and hot sauces. Allow people to garnish and customize their pho to their liking. Sonya Sanford is a chef, food stylist, and writer based in Los Angeles. Gerald Parker addresses Jewish Family Services’ 2017 Montgomery County Heroin Epidemic forum

• Magistrate Judge & Community Leader • Member of the Friends of the JCC • Daughters Zoe & Maya attend preschool at the JCC • Former Montgomery County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney • Former Civil Litigator with a large Dayton law firm

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ANNUAL MEDICARE ENROLLMENT PERIOD: October 15–December 7, 2018

Medicare and OSHIIP, the Ohio Senior Health Insurance Information Program, are offering four free Medicare Check Up days in Montgomery County to help with plan review and selection. Medicare counselors from the Ohio Department of Insurance will be on hand to sit down with you individually and help review your needs and decide on a plan. This is a free service offered by Medicare and OSHIIP, the Ohio Senior Health Insurance Information Program.

SOUTH

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525 Versailles Dr., Centerville CALL 937-610-1555 for an appt.

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FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26 9AM–3PM BOONSHOFT CJCE

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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13 9AM–3PM VANDALIA SENIOR CENTER 21 Tionda Dr. (off Dixie Dr. in Vandalia) CALL 937-898-1232 for an appt.

Bring a list of current prescription drugs. Need additional Medicare information or help with plan selection? Contact Connie Blum, OSHIIP’s County Coordinator, at 937-297-4109 or scblum@earthlink.net. JEWISH FAMILY SERVICES of GREATER DAYTON THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • OCTOBER 2018

PAGE 21

The promise & failures of Oslo

OBITUARIES Daniel Kory Weckstein of Oakwood, passed away on Aug. 28 after a resilient battle with brain cancer at the young age of 44. Mr. Weckstein is survived by his wife, Kellie; children, Collin and Casey; parents, Donald and Caryl Weckstein; sister, Debbie (Larry) Frank; and brother Jerry (Caryn) Weckstein. Mr. Weckstein was born in Xenia on Sept. 6, 1973. He graduated from Centerville High School, received a bachelor’s of education from Indiana University and a master’s of education from Xavier University. Mr. Weckstein was a beloved teacher,

Our Family Serving Your Family For More Than 90 Years

coach and vice-principal in the Cincinnati area prior to becoming the principal of Oakwood Junior High School, where he positively impacted the lives of many students and teachers. Mr. Weckstein enjoyed spending time with his family, coaching soccer, being an entrepreneur, and cheering on the Bengals and Hoosiers. His willingness to help others and put family and friends in front of himself will be greatly missed by all. Memorial donations may be sent to The Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center (DUMC 3624, Durham, NC 27710), or may be sent to the Resilience Scholarship (www.gofundme. com/resiliencescholarship) to honor Mr. Weckstein and his family into the future.

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Continued from Page Nine ter says its goal is to “enable deeply committed Jewish influencers to encounter firsthand the people, perspectives and challenges at the heart of the conflict” in order “to effectuate more inclusive and constructive leadership on some of the most divisive issues in our own communities.” What is an influencer? How do I effectuate? But it’s hard to blame the program’s organizers for falling into the habits of cadged, obscure language. I am one of seven dual Israeli citizens among the 30 people on this tour. This group within the group creates logistical challenges: Encounter has to apply for permission from Israel for us to enter Area A, the Palestinian Authority-con-

Larry S. Glickler, Director Dayton’s ONLY Jewish Funeral Director 1849 Salem Avenue, Dayton, Ohio 45406-4927 (937) 278-4287 lgfuneralhome@gmail.com

trolled area of the West Bank (including Bethlehem); without the permits, they will change the whole program. And we need separate accommodations, as Israel will not allow Israelis under any circumstances to spend nights in Area A. Encounter wants Palestinian claims to reach Israeli areas, and we are seen as influencers not just in the American Jewish community but in Israel. Sneaking us into meetings with Palestinians who will not countenance “normalization” with Israelis is one limited way of broadening the program’s reach. There are Palestinians eager to talk to Israelis. Some of the Palestinians plainly speak of a time when this came more easily. Sami Awad, who directs the Holy Land Trust, which advocates for nonviolence, said Oslo and the separation that undergirded that peace plan — made manifest in roadblocks and crossings and permits — had the (perhaps) unintended consequence of shutting down meetings. “It actually became more challenging for Palestinians and Israelis to meet each other,” he told us. Some of the Palestinians we meet betray a longing to learn more about the people on the other side of the fences and borders, in some cases across the alley and up a flight of stairs. Ibrahem Abassi, who lives in Silwan, the ancient, clustered neighborhood bordering Jerusalem’s Old City, told us

The Dayton Jewish Observer New & Renewing Voluntary Subscribers • Aug. 9 - Sept. 4 New Guardian Angels Congregation Anshe Emeth Renewing Angels Skip & Ann Becker Mr. & Mrs. Bruce Feldman Michael Jaffe Dr. David & Joan Marcus New Angels Alex & Jane Briskin Marvin & Susan Mason Stuart & Gail Weprin Double Chai George & Ruth Barnett Felix & Erika Garfunkel Rochelle & Michael Goldstein Jeff & Nancy Gordon Carol Graff Beth A. Kolotkin Marc E. Low Robert Margolis Cantor Andrea Raizen Marshall & Judy Ruchman Beverly Saeks Sumner Saeks Linda & Joel Shapiro Susan & Gerson Silver Dr. & Mrs. Alvin Stein

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Kim Kwiatek Laurie & Eddie Leventhal Sarah Moore Leventhal Todd & Gabriele Leventhal Beverly Louis Perry Lubens Carole & Donald Marger Suzi & Jeff Mikutis Irvin & Gayle Moscowitz Bobbie & Jack Myers Ron & Sue Nelson John & Sharyn Reger Russ Remick Brenda Rinzler Cherie Rosenstein Steven & Barbara Rothstein Dr. & Mrs. Gerald Rubin Jan Rudd-Goenner Marc & Maureen Sternberg Col. Jeffrey Thau, USAF, (Ret.) & Rina Thau Dr. & Mrs. Joel Tobiansky Julie & Adam Waldman & Family Judith & Fred Weber Donald & Caryl Weckstein Hyla & Ray Weiskind Michael & Karen Weprin Dr. Judith Woll & Ron Bernard

the story of Hadass, the Jewish nurse at Hadassah Mt. Scopus who cared for his ailing mother. One day not long after his mother died, Abassi said, he drove home and saw Hadass walking through Silwan. He was moved: She had come to pay her condolences. But she had not: She was his neighbor, living meters away up a flight of steps in one of the Jewish developments in the neighborhood reviled by Palestinians. How could he not know this? This woman who had gone out of her way to extend every comfort to his mother, whom he had come to love for her kindnesses. How could she not tell him she was a neighbor? Israelis and Palestinians say as much in what they omit from their conversations as in what they say. Twenty-five years after Oslo, it is dead or dying, and there are autopsies blaming Israel’s undaunted settlement expansion, Palestinian recalcitrance, and the unremitting violence on both sides. It was, they say, mortally wounded when an Israeli assassin felled Rabin in 1995. It died, I think, in these silences. There’s one evening of home hospitality, in Bethlehem. Our group of seven Israelis is unable to stay overnight, so on our way to our hotel we have dinner in an area straddling Area B (under partial Palestinian control) and C (under Israeli control), near the village of Bet Sahur, at the apartment of Evon Rishmawy, a water control expert. The meal is stunning: piles of stuffed vine leaves and cabbage, in a warm apartment crowded with Christian paraphernalia. She asks us about the United States and recalls hosting — for months — a Jewish college student, and how close they became. Our status as Israelis is never explicitly acknowledged. For Rishmawy, we are Americans. Why are we holding back? Our driver arrives and Rishmawy walks us into the street. She cautions him to drive carefully, to care for her guests. “Dir balak!” she warns him in Arabic. “Pay attention!” I laugh. “You know dir balak?” she asks, grinning. I do, and the reason why envelops me like a pool of cold water: It’s a phrase we used as soldiers to caution Palestinians. My smile disappears. So does hers. Our group drives off.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • OCTOBER 2018

JEWISH FAMILY EDUCATION

Minor revolutions The Bible: Wisdom Literature

In the recently released documentary, Three Identical Strangers, triplets separated and adopted by different families just months after birth unexpectedly discover they are siblings at the age of 19. Despite growing up in different parenting and socioeconomic circumstances, the brothers at first appear to be

Candace R. Kwiatek clones, but as the story develops, it’s obvious the homogeneity isn’t so clear-cut. The documentary takes on a more sinister note when it turns out the boys were part of a decades-long clandestine experiment involving the deliberate separation and calculated adoption placements of more than five dozen sets of identical siblings. Under the guise of studying the effects of parenting styles, the experiment was looking to provide an unequivocal answer to the question of whether genetics or environment plays the larger role in human development. While science hasn’t yet given us a definitive answer to this

age-old question, the Bible’s message is more clear-cut. Through story, proverb, and law, the Bible asserts that nature and nurture are subservient to the individual’s free-will choices, which ultimately determine who the person becomes. Contested even today, this idea was downright revolutionary in an ancient world where one’s ancestry, fate, and the arbitrary will of the gods were far more determinative of a child’s destiny than choice. This isn’t the only revolutionary biblical message about children. “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth,”God tells Adam and Eve, the first commandment in the Bible. Children are the builders of civilizations and futures in the physical sense as well as in the moral and cultural realms. Thus it’s only logical that children are an element of God’s Covenant with Abraham to build an exemplary people: “I will multiply your seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore, and in your seed shall the nations of the earth be blessed (Gen. 22:17-18).” The most revolutionary acknowledgment of children’s value, however, is found in the biblical genealogies. “It would never have oc-

(son) to yaldah (girl) and yonek mother bring him to the city curred to Sumerians to write (nursing baby). By highlightelders in the marketplace and (genealogies) down, because ing dependency, vulnerability, say, ‘This our son is stubborn they accorded no importance growth and development, and rebellious, he will not obey to individual memories,” notes biblical vocabulary asserts that our voice...’ And all the men of author Thomas Cahill in The children are not adults. his city shall stone him and all Gifts of the Jews. “For them only This principle is all the more Israel shall hear and fear. (Deut. impersonal survival, like kingobvious in the Fifth Commandship, like the harvest, mattered; 21:18-21).” ment, “Honor your father and the individual…could have no According to the rabbis of your mother.” meaning.” the Talmud, this law is hypoAuthor and clinical psycholBiblical genealogies turn that thetical and was intended to be ogist Wendy Mogel explains, notion upside down, highlighta deterrent only, inducing fear “(God) recognized that children ing the universal importance of just by hearing it: the death are not naturally inclined to children. They trace the descen- penalty emphasizes the severtreat their parents with respect, dants not just of the Israelite ity of the sin only. Neon so he commanded it... patriarch, but of humanity Parents are to be authority all the way back to Adam figures...holy stand-ins.” and Noah. Every child is a In the ancient world, fountainhead of the future. where gods were neither the In the ancient world, “the source of morality nor role eldest male in the family models to be emulated, this was the absolute ruler, with command to honor parents the power of life and death as quasi-divine representaover every family member. tives of an ethical-behaviorHe could exile, beat, sell, or even kill them with no legal Three Identical Strangers is a documentary demanding divinity was ramifications,” write educa- about triplets separated at birth by a Jewish- revolutionary. affiliated adoption agency in 1961 Equally radical today is tors Lin and Don Donn. the command’s implication Furthermore, infanticide was But this revolutionary biblithat parents should not treat common: unwanted children cal law makes it clear that parchildren like peers, seeking love were tossed off cliffs, left ents — father or mother, alone and friendship rather than obeoutdoors to die of exposure, or or together — do not have dience and respect. Children abandoned in the marketplace absolute, arbitrary control over are uniquely children. to be claimed as slaves. the life and death of their child. Science seeks to revolution“It was regarded as the parInstead, they must together ize our understanding of the ents’ right if they didn’t want turn to the court, which is natural and physical worlds of the child,” world explorer and impartial, deliberative, and the child and how they affect writer Jeffrey Hays explains. constrained by legal and moral human development. The Bible Within the context of this an- bounds. Children are not posseeks to guide the moral and cient worldview, the purpose of sessions like slaves or property ethical worlds of the child and the following biblical injunction — or lab rats. revolutionize the consequent becomes obvious: “If a man The Bible has more than building of civilizations. Both has a stubborn and rebellious two dozen specific words that son who will not hearken to his indicate young characters, from minor revolutions are still in progress. voice, then his father and his betulah (young woman) and ben

Literature to share Judging Noa: A Fight for Women’s Rights in the Turmoil of the Exodus by Michal Strutin. This version of the biblical tale of Zelophehad’s daughters, who challenged the rules of inheritance, is a highly engaging story of ancient Israel and its culture in transition. Written with a naturalist’s eye for detail, the wilderness and cast of characters come to life. Reminiscent of The Red Tent, Judging Noa is historical fiction and modern midrash at its best. Lone Wolf in Jerusalem by Ehud Diskin. Action-packed and gritty, Lone Wolf follows the idealistic David from Nazi-filled forests in Belarus to anti-immigration British in pre-state Israel. Filled with incredible exploits and suspense punctuated by flashbacks, David exhibits the bold determination, sense of mission, and courage that will define the new Israeli. Israel’s pre-state years — with myriad challenges and confusing militant Jewish groups — come alive. Three Identical Strangers (the movie). This crime documentary focuses on a decades-long study exploring the influences of nature and nurture on human development. Led by the Austrian-trained psychiatrist Peter Neubauer, the experiment used more than 60 sets of identical siblings (primarily twins) separated at birth and raised in homes secretly chosen for similarities in all but parenting styles. The movie raises disturbing questions, beginning with why a Jewish adoption agency was intimately involved in such experimentation.

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PAGE 23

To treat the whole patient By Judy Bolton-Fasman JewishBoston.com When Elisha Waldman, a pediatric oncologist, moved to Israel more than a decade ago, he was determined to make a difference in the lives of his patients at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. As he chronicles in his memoir, This Narrow Space: A Pediatric Oncologist, His Jewish, Muslim, and Christian Patients, and a Hospital in Jerusalem, he appreciates that each family and each child has a unique history. He was determined to navigate physical and cultural barriers to treat the whole patient. Waldman is now the associate chief of the division of palliative care at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. He’ll talk about his memoir on Oct. 18 as part of the Dayton JCC’s Cultural Arts & Book Fest. What moved you to practice pediatric oncology? As I moved through my medical studies, I was constantly interested in the sicker patients. I was drawn to oncology

because it is about the whole patient — not just one organ system. In retrospect, the arc makes a lot of sense, especially from where I’m sitting now with primary palliative care. I also recognize that an interest in human suffering was driving me. How do we address suffering? How do we alleviate suffering? Oncology was a pathway to consider those questions. What moved you to practice in Israel? I grew up in a classic liberal Zionist home. My Dad is a Conservative rabbi and my family eventually moved to Israel from Connecticut. Right now, I’m the only family member not there. Practicing pediatric oncology The JCC’s Cultural Arts & Book Fest presents Dr. Elisha Waldman at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 18 at the Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville. Tickets are $5 in advance, $8 at the door and are available at jewishdayton.org, by calling 6101555, or the evening of the event.

was really a synthesis of all of these different things into one beautiful thing — dealing with human suffering against the backdrop of a place that is fascinating, a place I love and have aspirations for. You write that you are drawn to treating children with cancer because of your ongoing interest in theology and humanities. My undergraduate degree was in religious studies. Part of what drove me as an undergraduate was not just an academic interest in religion, but also the elements of personal challenge to my religious practice today. I deal with kids who are very sick, and I try to touch on their spiritual needs as part of a holistic approach to their treatment. Until I started looking into palliative care, these two interests were really intertwining threads that I only recognized when

Michael Lionstar must come to the I worked with hospital no matter the chaplains in the time. From Boston Children’s west Jerusalem Hospital. Mediand the surroundcine in general ing Israeli areas, is undergoing a parents can easily period of change. get to the hospital, If you look at the yet ultra-Orthosweep of history, dox families will the separation of often wait until spirituality and after Shabbat to medicine is a bring their child relatively modin. ern event. Now But the real clinicians are place you have becoming more Dr. Elisha Waldman to change the comfortable with algorithm is where you have recognizing that we need to a Palestinian patient who you address spiritual needs in the hospital the same way we need know has no immune system and will get a fever in the next to address pain and suffering. day or two. Their family most likely lives in a Palestinian vilYou write that, as a doctor in lage miles away or a refugee Israel, your “entire care management algorithm camp on the other side of the separation barrier. What do I changes to adapt do if I think this child is going to the geopolitical situation.” Can you to get a fever at 2 in the morning and is not able to get back give an example? so easily? There is the reality of One of the best checkpoints in the middle ofPJ theLibrary examples is when a patient has a low- night — a family can’t just get in the car and go to the hospital. In grade fever while getting chemother- those cases, we would manufacture fevers to admit kids. It’s apy. It’s a red flag. We instruct parents very different than practicing medicine at a place like Memothat if a child has a fever of 100 degrees rial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Fahrenheit, they

JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON

2018 WOMEN’S PHILANTHROPY EVENT Sunday, November 4, 6–8PM Boonshoft CJCE (525 Versailles Drive, 45459) Kosher cocktail reception with heavy hors d’oeuvres and dessert. Invitation to follow. To RSVP by October 26, call 937-610-1555 or visit www.jewishdayton.org to register online. If you have not yet made your gift to the 2018 Annual Campaign, you will have the opportunity to do so. Rabbi Shira Stutman was recently named by The Forward as one of “America’s most inspiring rabbis” and is director of religious programming at Washington, DC’s innovative Sixth & I Historic Synagogue. She is an expert in the fields of Jewish programming for people

in their 20s and 30s, working with and supporting interfaith couples, and welcoming people who want to convert to Judaism. Her focus is making Jewish meaning and building Jewish community. Rabbi Stutman also serves as the scholar-in-residence for the National

Rabbi Shira Stutman

Women’s Philanthropy program of the Jewish Federations of North America. She taught for the Wexner Heritage program, is a member of the board of directors of Jews United for Justice, and is on the J Street Rabbinic Cabinet.

Julie Bloom Michele Dritz Stacy Emoff Sydney Feibus Marni Flagel Lynn Goldenberg Joan Isaacson Sarah Moore Leventhal Ann Liberman Judy Lipton Pam Schwartz Stephanie Weber EVENT COMMITTEE PAGE 24

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • OCTOBER 2018

Journeys of meaning & survival focus of this year’s CABF Becoming a Jew, living as a Jew, and surviving as a Jew are themes at the core of this year’s Cultural Arts & Book Fest, which the JCC presents from Oct. 7 through Nov. 7.

Marshall Weiss Toward Judaism

Though Judaism is not a proselytizing religion, it’s food for thought when people choose to join the tribe. An author of a memoir and the subject of a book on the topic will share their personal stories of becoming Jews by choice. Running back Calvin Murray — now known as Yosef Murray — was the Buckeyes’ 1980 Season MVP. He holds the record for the longest pass reception in Buckeye history, at 86 yards. He also played in 1981-82 for the Philadelphia Eagles. Married since 1992, he and his wife, Yosef (Calvin) Emunah, Murray converted to Judaism five years ago. They have homes in Bexley and the Israeli suburb of Ma’ale Adumim in the West Bank. Emunah Murray has chronicled their path in From Rose Bowl To Rashi: A Unique Journey To Orthodox Judaism. Angela Himsel, author of A River Could Be A Tree, grew up a fundamentalist Christian in rural Indiana. As part of her bachelor’s degree program at Indiana University, Himsel Angela Himsel studied for two years at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, which led her to explore Judaism. I’ll interview Himsel and Yosef Murray at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 9 at the Boonshoft

CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville. The cost is $5 in advance, $8 at the door. Reservations may be made at jewishdayton.org or by calling 610-1555.

She’ll also lead a program at Wright Memorial Library, 1776 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 24. Both programs are free.

A boy’s story of survival

Kosher deli dinner & local Jewish history

Renate Frydman, the Miami Valley’s longtime champion of Holocaust education, will lead two programs about her book, Anschel’s Story: Determined To Survive. Frydman puts forward her late husband Anschel “Charlie” Frydman’s story of survival in Nazi-occupied Poland against nearly imposRenate Frydman sible odds. She shares his recollections of how he stayed alive — first as a slave laborer and then as a partisan fighter — when he was only a youth, after his parents and two sisters were murdered. Beth Jacob Congregation, 7020 N. Main St., Harrison Township, will be the site of Frydman’s talk at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 22.

This is my kind of event. For $18 per person, we’ll enjoy a full kosher deli dinner at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 1 at the Boonshoft CJCE, then I’ll share new stories of old Jewish Dayton connected to my visual history book, Jewish Community of Dayton. Everyone who attends will receive a free copy of Jewish Community of Dayton, thanks to the generosity of the Rose Family Philanthropic Fund. You already have a copy, you say? Give this one to a friend or family member. Reservations must be in by Oct. 25. Sorry, no walk-ins; we want to ensure there’s enough for everyone. Kosher vegetarian options will also be available when you make your reservations, at jewishdayton.org, by calling 6101555, or in person at the Boonshoft CJCE.

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Introducing...

The Temple Beth Or Legacy Society Temple Beth Or has partnered with the Jewish Foundation of Greater Dayton and the Harold Grinspoon Foundation in the Life & Legacy program. By signing one or more Letters of Intent to remember Temple Beth Or in their will, trust, retirement account or life insurance policy, these couples and individuals, along with those who have asked to remain anonymous, have earned a place in our Legacy Society as well as our hearts.

Elaine & Joe Bettman Dr. Martha Moody & Rabbi Judy Chessin Dr. Martin Jacobs Eva Clair Dr. Milton Nathan & Kathryn & Jacob Elder Ritva Williamson Marni Flagel Ira Segalewitz Lorraine Fortner Janet Sherman & Cathy Gardner Marc Low Rachel Haug Gilbert & Sara & Micah Siegal Dr. Heath Gilbert Janese & Daniel Sweeny Karen & Matthew Caryl & Donald Lindsay Weckstein Janice Maharam Mary & Gary Youra Helen & Steve Markman

The future is in your hands.

Anyone can leave a legacy. What will yours be? Temple Beth Or 5275 Marshall Road Dayton, Ohio 45429 www.templebethor.com 937-435-3400

Today...and for Generations PAGE 26

Disarmed charts American-born IDF vet’s battle for Israel — and himself By Renee Ghert-Zand Times of Israel American-born IDF soldier Izzy Ezagui lost his dominant arm in a direct mortar hit during Operation Cast Lead in January 2009. Six months later, Ezagui took himself off heavy painkillers for phantom limb pain, got back into shape, and convinced the IDF to allow him to reenlist in a combat unit. With determination and ingenuity, he passed all the required tests, including shooting, reloading guns, unjamming rifles, throwing grenades, charging hills, climbing ropes, and doing pushups. He continued on to commanders’ school and completed his military service with high distinction. Now Ezagui, 29, has penned a new memoir charting his journey. Titled Disarmed: Unconventional Lessons from the World’s Only One-Armed Special Forces Sharpshooter, it is a candid glimpse inside Ezagui’s mind as he deals with his devastating injury. Just as the author’s physical, mental, and spiritual recoveries are non-linear, so too is the memoir’s narrative. It zigzags back and forth in time and place — not just during Ezagui’s military service, but also throughout his entire life. This choppy chronology and Ezagui’s stream-of-consciousness writing style will not suit some readers. Nonetheless, his honesty and humor shine through. Ezagui has worked for the last six years as a motivational speaker and unofficial goodwill ambassador for Israel. He’s helped to raise millions of dollars for hospitals, rehabilitation programs, and other charities, and partnered with amputee organizations, schools, universities, and major corporations. Although his parents and younger sisters, members of the Chabad Lubavitch community, live in Jerusalem, Ezagui moved to the United States shortly after his military service. No longer religiously observant, he moved from New York to Los Angeles last year to pursue an acting and screenwriting career. He recently completed shooting an original short film. Ezagui still answers calls to speak on behalf of Israel, but is happy to now have another professional focus and be around people who are unaware of his past. “I’ve enjoyed telling and writing about my own story, but there is only so long you can do that before you can go insane. Now I want to tell other people’s stories and inspire in other ways,” he said.

With his book’s publication, The Times of Israel spoke with Ezagui about deciding to pursue writing, leave Israel, and avoid exposing a sensitive family issue — until now. Ezagui will share his story in Dayton for the JCC’s Cultural Arts & Book Fest, on Oct. 15 at Carillon Brewing Company. Why did you decide to write this memoir? I thought people would be interested in reading my story. I didn’t think I could do it myself, so I initially hired a ghostwriter. She and I finished a draft, but it didn’t feel or sound like me. I didn’t get a sense of my own voice in it, and I decided to throw the whole thing out. Then I spent a couple of years sitting in cafés doing a lot of reading. I also wrote short fiction and blogged for The Times of Israel. Eventually I got a sense for what I needed to do if I wanted to write my own story, and felt I could do it. I was fortunate to find an editor who helped me piece it together structurally. I am so much happier that I waited and did it this way. Was there a particular inspiration for the book’s non-linear structure? I was in the Far East after the military and I had a very long train ride from somewhere in Thailand to Laos, and I was reading 127 Hours (the 2004 autobiThe JCC’s Cultural Arts & Book Fest presents Izzy Ezagui at 7 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 15 at Carillon Brewing Company, 1000 Carillon Blvd., Dayton. Tickets are $5 in advance, $8 at the door and are available at jewishdayton.org, by calling 610-1555, or the evening of the event.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • OCTOBER 2018

ography by American rock climber Aron Ralston who amputated his own right arm after being trapped in a Utah desert canyon). Ralston alternated between the background of how he became a rock climber and those poignant moments where he’s dealing with the injury while he’s stuck there and deciding what to do about his arm. That formula of using the more exciting moments to hold the reader’s attention for stuff that’s happened in the past is genius. I wanted to use that model to make my memoir interesting. Do you still return to Israel for military reserve duty? Yes. I go back often. I’m pretty sure I’m missing reserve duty this month because of the book launch, but I haven’t missed many reserve duty call-ups. It’s usually twice a year. I go to most of them. My unit was not called up for the 2014 Gaza War. I would, of course, go if my unit was called up during any future conflict.

which street to take, and I’m not about that. I’m less effective in Israel. When I was serving, I was doing something good for the country. When I finished my service and I was living there, there was no calling left. I was able to continue that calling by moving back to the U.S. and doing hasbara (public diplomacy for Israel) and writing this book. I’ve done corporate events in front of 400 people who have never met a Jew before, and I’m telling them stories about Israel in a positive light. That’s more important than my reserve duty and my fighting in a war. The real front lines are the college campuses. That’s where the real battle lies, and I can’t fight it from Israel.

The real front lines are the college campuses.

If this is so, then why do you no longer live in Israel? I’m not tough enough to live in Israel. I’m tough enough to serve in the military and face the enemy, but to live amongst Israelis — that takes a toughness that I just don’t have. I’m a sensitive dude. Israel’s a tough place to live. You have to bargain for your cable bundle and argue with every taxi driver

What audience did you have in mind for Disarmed as you wrote it? First and foremost, I wrote it for me. Beyond that, I wrote it for everyone outside of the base, everyone who will not be reading this article. It will be nice if pro-Israel people read it, but they are not the intended audience. I’ve seen so many books that target specifically their own demographic, preach to the choir. There’s nothing wrong with it, but what are you accomplishing beyond bolstering, reminding, and inspiring people? I wrote this book to reach people who don’t know anything about Israel, or who dislike Israel. I don’t want

the reader to feel that I am trying to sell something. I just want to tell a story, and I hope that by osmosis people will feel the love I feel for Israel.

community. What is your short film about? It’s called Pull Yourself Together, and it’s about a one-armed guy who is having a very, very bad day. I was playing with the idea of somebody who lost his arm in non-heroic circumstances, and instead of everyone calling him a hero and praising what happened, he’s a monster for what he did. He drove drunk and got into a car accident. I wanted to play with the other side of what can happen. I made the film with 30 people. It’s a pretty high-level production. It’s a real little movie with a real budget.

In your memoir, you disclose for the first time that during your IDF service your father served a prison sentence for masterminding a massive mortgage fraud scheme. That’s a significant thing to have omitted from interviews and speeches you’ve given over the past six years. It didn’t come up because there was never any context for it. But now there’s a book and people can read how I feel about it, and if they want to know the actual story, they can read about it. Having brought it up before would have only done harm. In my Izzy Ezagui book, I am able to share my thoughts on it. I feel very strongly about my father and what a good man he is. He is one of the best people I know. The strength that I had to go back to the military despite such a hobbling disability is something I learned from him. As the judge who gave him below the minimum sentence knew, he may have done something that was illegal, but he did not do it with illintent or for self-gain. The Rebbe gave him a blessing and he did it to help the

by David

Is writing a cathartic experience for you? I write some really weird stuff. The short film that we just made is very strange. The character I play literally digs his arm up out of a backyard grave and reattaches it with tape. There was a moment as we shot this scene when I thought to myself, “Why did I write this? Why am I putting myself through this?” But during the writing stages I managed to stay away from these questions. I don’t dig too deep emotionally — or I fool myself into thinking that I don’t — so I can get the job done.

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