Children, parents, and teachers dance to camp-style Jewish songs after a kosher dinner at the Community Shabbat celebration hosted by Hillel Academy, the JCC, PJ Library & PJ Our Way at the Boonshoft CJCE, Friday night, Sept. 13. Hillel Academy Jewish day school students led a Kabalat Shabbat service under the guidance of Principal Anna Smith, and Beth Abraham Synagogue Religious School's Jese Shell led supplementary religious school students in the Kiddush. Beth Abraham Rabbi Aubrey Glazer and Beth Jacob Rabbi Leibel Agar offered prayers for the occasion, and Jewish Federation CEO Cathy Gardner lit the Shabbat candles with Jewish Family Services Exec. Dir. Tara Feiner. Funding for the program came from the Prizmah Center for Jewish Day Schools and a Jewish Federation Innovation Grant.
Photographer Mike Jaffe was one of several Jewish artists and artisans whose works were on display at the Dayton Art Institute, Aug. 21 for the Look at Us: Jewish Artists & Artisans in Dayton program. Local artist Hannah Kasper Levinson also gave a talk about her art at the event, which was presented by the JCC, Beth Abraham Synagogue, Beth Jacob Congregation, Temple Beth Or, and Temple Israel, with funding through a Jewish Federation Innovation Grant.
PJ Library & Beth Jacob's Sukkot at Black Star Farm
Rabbi Leibel Agar and Cantor Jonathan Cohen will be leading us in prayers for the High Holidays.
Beth Jacob Congregation invites and encourages the community to join us for Inspirational High Holiday Traditional services.
See our full holiday schedule at www.bethjacobcong.org 7020 North Main Street—Dayton, Ohio 45415 937-274-2149—www.bethjacobcong.org
The family of Jese Shell will host PJ Library and Beth Jacob Congregation's Sukkot party at Black Star Farm, 1-3 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 20. The farm is located at 5904 Troy-Frederick Rd., Tipp City. Register for the free program by Oct. 18 at jewishdayton.org/events.
Rabbi Leibel Agar Cantor Jonathan Cohen
Stacy Emoff
Peter Wine
Two commemorations to mark year since Oct. 7 massacre
In person Oct. 7 & via Zoom with Western Galilee, Israel, Oct. 27
The Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton will present two memorial programs to mark one year since the Hamas massacre of Oct. 7: one in person on Oct. 7, the other via Zoom on Oct. 27.
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists from Gaza infiltrated Israel, murdered 1,200 people there, and took hundreds hostage.
Marking One Year: United in Remembrance
The community will join together with rabbis from local Jewish congregations and the Dayton Jewish Chorale, 5:45 to 7
p.m., Monday, Oct. 7 at the Boonshoft Center for Jewish Culture and Education, for Marking One Year: United in Remembrance.
Doors open at 5:30 p.m. for an evening prayer service led by Beth Abraham Synagogue. The service will be livestreamed, with the link available at jewishdayton.org and bethabrahamdayton.org.
Israel.
The Boonshoft CJCE is located at 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville.
Registration for this program is required by Oct. 6 at jewishdayton.org/events.
One Partnership, One Heart
The Jewish Agency's Partnership2Gether program — which connects Dayton and 16 other Jewish communities across the central United States with Budapest, Hungary and Israel's Western Galilee region — will host a live one-hour Zoom memorial program at 11:30 a.m., Sunday, Oct. 27.
Following opening prayers and a candlelighting ceremony, One Partnership, One Heart will present an in-depth panel discussion with Israelis in the Western Galilee who have been directly impacted by the Hamas massacre.
The panelists are:
Leadership of the Jewish Federation, Hillel Academy, Hadassah, and Jewish War Veterans will also participate on the program.
Activities will be available for participants to show their support of friends and family in
• Liat Atzili, who was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz and released. Her husband’s body is still held in Gaza.
• Dubi Ganor, whose son was gravely injured on Oct. 7 and is gradually recovering with the help of his family and community.
• Omri Dagan, whose twin brother was killed on Oct. 7.
• David Vaknin, who was evacuated from Liman in the Western Galilee. He was called up to the IDF reserves and has been deployed to the war in the north ever since.
Participants will be able to submit questions to the panelists upon event registration, at jewishdayton.org/events.
For more information about both commemorations, contact Dayton JCRC Director Jeff Blumer at jblumer@jfgd.net.
Following Israel's memorial schedule
Earlier this year, Israel's government selected the 24th of the Hebrew month of Tishri, which coincided with Oct. 7, 2023, as the national remembrance day on which to mark the Hamas massacre each year.
However, because 24 Tishri falls on Shabbat in 2024, Israel has designated the memorial to be held on Sunday, 25 Tishri, which falls this year on Oct. 27. This will be the precedent for future years when 24 Tishri falls on Shabbat.
In addition, Israel's government has announced it will also hold a state ceremony — on the first anniversary only — on Oct. 7, the civil calendar date "of the brutal terrorist assault, which has been etched in the consciousness of people in Israel and around the world."
—
Marshall Weiss
If you live here in the Miami Valley, your friends and family in other places are likely asking you, "What's going on in Springfield?" Or maybe, "What's really going on in Springfield?" Along with talking with your friends who live in and around Springfield, consider taking the time to watch city commission meetings online. Drive out there and support its shops, restaurants, and cultural institutions. See for yourself what's going on. What can each of us do to help fix the legitimate challenges the city and those who live there now face? Is there a social service organization you might volunteer for in Springfield this year? If you live in Springfield, have you made your voice heard civilly in public forums? At this time, when Springfield is under the world's microscope, and as its problems appear insurmountable, the words of the Prophet Micah come to mind of what the Almighty requires of us: "Only to do justice and to love goodness, and to walk modestly with your God." To a good new year.
Springfield mayor ejects Blood Tribe member for sounding threatening at Aug. 27 city commission meeting
During public comments at Springfield’s Aug. 27 city commission meeting, Mayor Rob Rue cut off and ejected a man who identified himself as the leader of the neo-Nazi Blood Tribe group that marched with rifles in Springfield on Aug. 10.
The Blood Tribe member, who provided a variation of a racial epithet in place of his real name, had spoken for almost a minute when he told the mayor, “I’ve come to bring a word of warning. Stop what you’re doing, before it’s too late. Crime and savagery will only increase with every Haitian you bring in.”
The mayor then cut him off. “Thank you,” Rue said. “You sound threatening to me.”
As the neoNazi attempted to talk over Rue, the mayor asked police to remove him from the meeting peacefully. “You’re done,” the mayor added. The speaker then left the meeting.
NBC News has since identified this Blood Tribe member as Drake Berentz.
action before we even arrived.”
In at least one interview, with the Columbus Jewish News, Rue indicated he knew in advance about the Blood Tribe’s planned Aug. 10 march. According to the article, the mayor “didn’t want to take too many preemptive steps in fear of a larger presence or reaction from the outside group.”
Both The Dayton Jewish Observer and Columbus Jewish News interviewed an eyewitness to the Aug. 10 march who said that when police were not watching the dozen Blood Tribe marchers, four of them aimed their rifles at her family in their car and at two cars in front of them as the four shouted, “Go the f— back to Africa!”
After Rue and the commission heard comments from the next speaker, the mayor explained to those present why he had the Blood Tribe member ejected.
“In our guidelines, the moment you begin to sound threatening, that’s when we say, that’s enough. It’s not free speech. That’s a threat. I just want to make that clear.”
The public comments component of the city commission meeting was heated before the neo-Nazi spoke.
With a time limit of three minutes each, Springfield residents shared their frustrations stemming from the burgeoning population of legal Haitian immigrants who now live in the city.
Others denounced racism and expressed support for welcoming and helping the immigrants. Some expressed both frustration and support.
When it was the neo-Nazi’s turn to speak, he approached one of the podiums wearing Blood Tribe’s colors, red and black. He identified himself as “of Blood Tribe.”
“I was at the head of the anti-Haitian immigration march earlier this month,” he said. “I’m sure the Hon. Mr. Rob Rue recognizes me, considering he supposedly knew of our
Springfield’s police chief, Allison Elliott, has declined to comment on the incident.
Anti-Defamation League Regional Director Kelly Fishman told The Observer that over the last year, ADL’s Center on Extremism has documented more than 260 incidents across the United States in which public forums were disrupted by antisemitic speech and other trolling and harassment efforts.
“Threats to these civic spaces and harassment of community officials undermine and jeopardize American democratic foundations,” Fishman noted.
“Increasingly, public officials are targeted with intimidation and threats of violence, driving some out of local office. These actions make public forums feel unsafe, keep public servants from doing their work, and may prevent some candidates from running for office.”
NBC News also reported that a day after the Sept. 10 presidential debate in which former President Trump falsely stated that Haitians were eating pets in Springfield, Blood Tribe's leader took credit for pushing that claim as part of its online hate campaign against Springfield's Haitians.
On the Telegram messaging app, Christopher Pohlhaus, leader of the national Blood Tribe, posted that his hate group had "pushed Springfield into the public consciousness."
— Marshall Weiss
Contributors Rabbi Aubrey Glazer Candace R. Kwiatek
The Dayton Jewish Observer, Vol. 29, No. 1. The Dayton Jewish Observer is published monthly by the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton, a nonprofit corporation, 525 Versailles Dr., Dayton, OH 45459.
Views expressed by columnists, in readers’ letters, and in opinion pieces do not necessarily reflect the opinion of staff or layleaders of The Dayton Jewish Observer or the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton. Acceptance of advertising neither endorses advertisers nor guarantees kashrut.
The Dayton Jewish Observer Mission Statement To support, strengthen and champion the Dayton Jewish community by providing a forum and resource for Jewish community interests.
Goals
• To encourage affiliation, involvement and communication.
• To provide announcements, news, opinions and analysis of local, national and international activities and issues affecting Jews and the Jewish community.
• To build community across institutional, organizational and denominational lines.
• To advance causes important to the strength of our Jewish community including support of Federation agencies, its annual campaign, synagogue affiliation, Jewish education and participation in Jewish and general community affairs.
• To provide an historic record of Dayton Jewish life.
Blood Tribe member Drake Berentz, who says he led the neo-Nazi group's Aug. 10 march in Springfield, speaks at a Springfield City Commission meeting, Aug. 27.
City of Springfield
Introduction to Judaism course
The Synagogue Forum of Greater Dayton presents its 14-session Introduction to Judaism course on Tuesdays from 7 to 8:30 p.m. beginning Nov. 12 and running through March 4.
The annual class is open to anyone interested in Jewish learning, dialogue, and exploration. A hybrid course, some sessions are held at local synagogues, some via Zoom, with all sessions available online.
The course offers an in-depth look at Judaism from Conservative, Orthodox, Traditional, and Reform perspectives. Instructors are rabbis from Dayton’s synagogues. Topics include God and theology, sacred texts, peoplehood, Zionism, Jewish history, personal observance, life cycles, Shabbat, community, holidays, prayer and liturgy, antisemitism and the Holocaust.
Registration is $36 for an individual or couple. For more information or to enroll, email Rabbi Judy Chessin at rabbichessin@templebethor.com.
Chabad Rosh Hashanah market & dinner
Chabad Women's Circle will present its Rosh Hashanah Market from 5 to 7:30 p.m., Monday, Sept. 30. Jewish New Year items such as foods, apples, local raw honey, candles, and decor will be available for purchase. Chabad will also host its annual Rosh Hashanah dinner at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 2. The cost is $40 adults, $15 children. Both programs will be held at Chabad, 2001 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood. Register for the dinner at chabaddayton.com or 937-643-0770.
Federation trip to Jewish D.C.
The Jewish Federation will lead a mini mission to Washington, D.C., Nov. 8-10 in advance of Jewish Federations of North America's General Assembly.
The trip includes a Shabbat service and dinner at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue, tours of the new Capital Jewish Museum, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and Stuart and Mimi Rose's rare book collection on exhibit at the Folger Shakespeare Museum.
The cost, not including transportation, is $500 double occupancy, $400 single. For more information, contact Janese R. Sweeny at jsweeny@jfgd.net.
For new Federation president, leadership is a family thing
When Dan Sweeny was elected president of the Jewish Federation at its annual meeting Aug. 25, four generations of his family were in the room, from his grandmother Elaine Bettman to his children. And Joe Bettman, his late grandfather, was in his heart.
In Dan's speech, he noted that it was 25 years earlier when Joe completed his term as Federation president.
"I can't overstate the philanthropic influence they have on their succeeding three generations of family," he said. "Grandma and Grandpa are responsible for my earliest Federation memories."
In so many ways, especially their work to resettle Jews from the former Soviet Union in the early 1990s, Joe and Elaine became the patriarch and matriarch of Dayton's Jewish community. Their children, including Dan's mother and father, Melissa and Tim Sweeny, continued the family traditions of volunteering and leadership.
"Between summers at the JCC camp, preschool, and BBYO, to say the Jewish community was formative in who I am today would be an understatement. It wasn't until later in life that I realized it is not the norm to have parents that went to so many meetings."
Dan said that's how he came to get so involved in volunteering at a young age.
"I thank them for the example they set for my siblings and me, putting others first and giving back to our community. You could almost call it the second family business."
from Indiana Wesleyan University.
He's worked for Dayton Children's since 2016, and currently serves as the hospital's director of population health.
Dan's wife, Janese, serves in management with the Jewish Federation, as its executive director of development and strategy.
Dinsmore attorneys nationwide are driven by an unwavering commitment to empower our clients to accomplish their goals. We're proud to serve Dayton with our award-winning client service and support a prosperous future for the community.
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Dan received his undergraduate degree in health management from Ohio State and his MBA in health care administration/management
"After the twins were born, she made the choice to completely change her career (as an attorney) to become a Jewish professional. I am
Peter Wine
Jewish Federation Pres. Dan Sweeny, his wife, Jewish Federation Exec. Dir., Development & Strategy Janese R. Sweeny, and their children, Lily, Parker, and Leyton.
so proud of the work she does," Dan said.
In the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre, the IsraelHamas war, and the explosion of antisemitism across the world and here in the United States, Dan told The Observer one of his highest priorities as Federation president is to combat antisemitism locally.
"We as a Federation must become better partners with the overall community to advocate and educate," he said. "That's so important. That's definitely something I want to work hard on with Federation CEO Cathy Gardner and the Jewish Community Relations Council. The Dayton Jewish community, we've always had positive relationships with the greater Dayton community. We need to strengthen that to combat antisemitism and hate of all kinds."
children on the Jewish Federation's database than with all the Dayton area's Jewish congregations combined.
This, he said, is the result of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation's North American PJ Library outreach and local PJ programs for young Jewish families.
'I want to continue to bring new Jews in.'
"As people are coming in, we have to build on that outreach with programs of value. Young families are busier than ever. There have to be compelling reasons for them to gather and get together Jewishly. We've done that in a lot of ways. PJ Library's annual Down on the Farm event in the fall attracts well over 200 adults and children. And we just had 150 parents and kids at a JCC, PJ & Hillel Academy community Shabbat dinner."
Most exciting to him is the number of new Jewish families coming into the Dayton area for the first time in decades. A 2023 demographic study by The Observer showed there were more than twice as many
Dan noted that the yearslong national trend of declining synagogue affiliation has now impacted the Dayton area.
"Whether we like to admit it or not, people are looking for that connection to other Jews, but they don't necessarily want to go to synagogue to get it. I
want to continue to bring new Jews in."
He also wants to ensure the community better understands the local Jewish Federation's global impact.
"Our annual campaign and emergency campaign better the lives of Jews in Israel and around the world too," he said.
"That's a message that often gets overlooked. And when you see some of the numbers, it's staggering. In response to Oct. 7, Jewish Federations of North America have raised $833 million across 146 communities. More than 150,000 donors and nearly 54,000 volunteers have donated their time and resources to Israel. They have provided essential aid and support, trauma relief, and community rebuilding among many other critical priorities. It's incredible."
Dan said his children have started to think of volunteering as something they want to do, too.
"Lily and Leyton are both running for student council. Leyton's done it before, and he wanted to do it again. They want to do more."
— Marshall Weiss
Shana Tova! Wishing you a happy New Year.
Kyiv funeral for rabbi’s son killed in battle shows Jewish contributions to Ukraine war effort
By Marcel Gascón Barberá JTA
KYIV, Ukraine — Dozens of Jewish soldiers and civilians together with many non-Jewish Ukrainians gathered Sept. 12 at Kyiv’s Brodsky Central Synagogue to bid farewell to the son of a prominent rabbi who died on the front only weeks after being drafted into the Ukrainian army.
Anton Samborskyi, 32, was the adopted son of Moshe Azman, one of two men who claim the title of chief rabbi of Ukraine.
Speaking at the synagogue service — which was also attended by Israel’s ambassador
to Kyiv, Michael Brodsky — Azman drew attention to the tragic irony of how Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine, which the Kremlin justifies falsely as an operation to free Ukraine from a Nazi junta, is killing many members of its national minorities, including Jews and Russians.
The Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine said in a statement that it has assisted in the burial of 47 Jewish soldiers fallen in combat since the start of the war.
Speaking to JTA, the federation’s chair, Rabbi Mayer Stambler, estimated the number of Ukrainian Jewish soldiers
killed in action to be in the hundreds.
Stambler said the federation is currently providing holiday meals and other support to 1,200 Jewish soldiers on the front and across Ukraine who have requested it.
In his comments at the funeral, Azman referred to Samborskyi as "Moty," the short form of Matisyahu, the Hebrew name he and his wife gave the boy when he joined the family.
According to the Federation of Jewish Communities, Samborskyi had been living in a Jewish orphanage up until then. Matisyahu was a Jewish freedom-fighter during the Maccabean revolt.
“I have received tens of thousands of words of sympathy and support,” Azman said in a social media post Sept. 13,
Wishing
announcing a charity campaign in Samborskyi’s honor. “I read each and every one of them. Your warm words, coming from the heart, fill me with confidence in our victory over evil."
Samborskyi was drafted as part of the country’s mandatory conscription law, which
allows authorities to forcibly recruit adult males between 25 and 60.
In a statement on social media in August, Azman revealed that his adoptive son was drafted into the army a week after the birth of his daughter in May. “After completing a quick course,” the rabbi added, he was “sent right away to the front.”
Samborskyi died when a missile fell near him in the Pokrovsk axis of the Donetsk region in Eastern Ukraine, where Russia concentrates its main efforts to seize Ukrainian territory.
In interviews, Ukrainian soldiers have decried the lack of training and physical readiness of many of the new recruits sent to the front in a rush to compensate for Russia’s overwhelming advantage
Wishing you a new year of health, happiness and peace
Rabbi Moshe Azman at the funeral of his son, Anton (Matisyahu) Samborskyi, at Kyiv’s Central Synagogue, Sept. 12.
Oleksandr Magula/Suspilne Ukraine/JSC UA:PBC/ Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
in personnel. They requested anonymity because they were not supposed to speak to news media.
Like many of their fellow citizens of all faiths and origins, male members of the Ukrainian Jewish community told JTA that they try to avoid certain areas of their cities out of fear of bumping into the military recruitment patrols.
In both Dnipro and at a Jewish camp in western Ukraine this summer, Jewish leaders said men were participating less often in communal life because of the risk of conscription.
Specialized Telegram channels run by anonymous Ukrainians inform in real time about the presence of the patrols in specific areas of the cities, in order to help those vulnerable to mobilization avoid conscription.
The total number of troop casualties is unknown: The Ukrainian government has not published an ongoing tally but said in February, at the war’s two-year mark, that more than 30,000 of its troops had been killed.
The United States has said it believes the numbers are significantly higher. Regardless, the stalemate of battle is requiring a steady supply of new soldiers, many of whom are soon wounded or killed.
Azman released the statement about his son’s death on Aug. 29, when Ukraine commemorates the Day of Remembrance of the country’s defenders.
According to the Federation of Jewish Communities, Samborskyi was officially considered missing at the time, but because of the circumstance of his disappearance, the family was certain of his death.
Samborskyi’s body was only recovered and identified Sept. 11 and was buried Sept. 12 at a Jewish cemetery in Kyiv.
Born in Leningrad, now Saint Petersburg, in 1966, Azman arrived in Ukraine in the early 1990s with the mission of reviving Jewish life after decades of Soviet persecution.
He started conducting religious services in one of the rooms of the Brodsky synagogue, which had not yet been returned to the Jewish community and was a puppet theatre
for children at the time.
He is one of the two rabbis using the unofficial title of chief rabbi of Ukraine. The other is American-born rabbi Yaakov Bleich, who came to the Eastern European country as a member of the Karlin-Stolin
Chasidic movement but has since become estranged from the group’s leadership in the United States.
Chabad-Lubavitch is the largest Jewish movement in Ukraine, with rabbis in dozens of cities. A self-professed
Lubavitcher who is not part of Chabad’s structure in the country, Azman gained prominence both nationally and internationally after he remained in the country at the start of Russia’s invasion.
Since then he has worked to rally support for Ukraine in the country and abroad. He travels regularly to the front and delivers aid to Ukrainian soldiers and civilians, Jewish and non-Jewish.
Azman’s wartime activity has made him popular among many Ukrainians, some of whom attended the funeral Sept. 12 to demonstrate their support.
According to local reports, among those present was a representative of a foundation to support the Azov Battalion, a Ukrainian army regiment with a history of displaying Nazi symbols.
The battalion has sought to rebrand amid Russian efforts to paint its enemy as heirs to the Nazis. Samborskyi was not in the brigade, the representative said.
A Jewish university professor who volunteered to join the army at the start of the war praised Azman’s support for soldiers and recalled the help he received from the rabbi after he was seriously wounded on the front.
A non-Jewish Ukrainian man who identified himself simply as Mikhail, meanwhile, said he worked as a restorer at the Brodsky synagogue when the building was still operating as a theatre in the late 1970s.
“I follow him on Facebook and respect what he does,” Mikhail said about Azman. “I want to be here today to show him and his family my support in this difficult moment.”
Ukrainian Jews, relatives, and friends attend the funeral for the late Ukrainian serviceman Anton (Matisyahu) Samborskyi at the Central Synagogue in Kyiv, Ukraine, Sept. 12.
Maxym Marusenko/NurPhoto via Getty Images
NYC officially recognizes day when first Jewish community arrived in 1654
By Julia Gergely New York Jewish Week
It was in mid-September 370 years ago when a group of 23 Sephardic Jews arrived on the shores of New York — then called New Amsterdam — and created the first organized Jewish community in the city. Today, New York City is home to the largest Jewish population of any city in the world.
On Sept. 12, the City Council voted on a resolution to honor both, turning Landing Day from an event marked by a few Jewish leaders into an official date on the city’s calendar. The resolution aims to “commemorate the arrival of the first Jewish community in New Amsterdam in 1654 and to celebrate the continuing importance of the Jewish community in the City of New York.”
Landing Day has been commemorated in the city several times throughout history, most recently last year at a ceremony to recognize the 369th anniversary of the community.
That event was held at the Jewish Tercentenary Monument at Peter Minuit Plaza in Battery Park, erected by the State of New York in 1954. The small memorial includes a flagpole adorned with a plaque that explains its
purpose is “to honor the memory of the twenty three men, women and children who landed in September 1654 and founded the first Jewish community in North America.”
Still, Landing Day — and the existence of this early New York Jewish community — is not widely known among Jews or New Yorkers, which is one of the reasons that Gale Brewer, who represents the Upper West Side on the City Council, sponsored the bill to give it the city’s sign-off.
“When the City Council passes something like this, it’s official,” Brewer said. “It goes into the city record and becomes part of the city’s history. It’s not a holiday, per se, but it is recognized, and it gives it legitimacy.”
The resolution was spearheaded by Howard Teich, the founding chair of the Manhattan Jewish Historical Initiative, who organized last year’s commemo-
ration and partnered with Brewer to bring the resolution before the City Council.
“We just have to change the narrative of the community right now,” Teich said about the ceremony last year, adding that he felt Jewish communal discourse was too often focused on fear and division.
“We’ve got to spread a positive message of who we are, what we’ve accomplished, how we’ve worked with other people, what we’ve started, the difference we’ve made in the time we’ve been here and, really, what America has meant to us as a people.”
Moving forward, New York City will honor Landing Day every year throughout the second week of September. While the exact day the Jews landed in New York is not known, records indicate it occurred during the week before Rosh Hashanah, which that year was on Sept. 12, 1654.
That year, nearly two dozen Sephardic Jews arrived in New York after fleeing persecution in Recife, Brazil, which had recently been colonized by the Portuguese. Three Ashkenazi Jews — Jacob Barsimson, Solomon Pietersen and Asser Levy — had arrived from Europe weeks earlier and helped advocate for the group to stay in New York when Peter Stuyvesant, the Dutch directorgeneral of New Amsterdam, rejected the new refugees because he wanted to establish a colony solely for Dutch Reformed Christians.
With urging from the Dutch West India Company — which, at the time, operated heavily in what was known as New Netherland, and which had many Jewish investors — Stuyvesant was overruled and the group remained.
They went on to establish the first Jewish congregation in the United States, the Mill Street Synagogue. The congregation was later renamed Congregation Shearith Israel, the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, and moved uptown to West 70th Street in 1897.
Brewer first introduced the resolution in May. On Sept. 10, the Committee on Cultural Affairs, Libraries and International Intergroup Relations signed off before the council-wide vote Sept. 12.
“There are more than a million Jews in New York City — more than any other city worldwide — and it kind of started with this group,” Brewer said.
Detail of the Jewish Tercentenary Monument, Peter Minuit Plaza, Battery Park, erected by the State of New York in 1954.
Julia Gergely
What you need to know about Telegram
The embattled app extremists use to spread their messages
By Josh Axelrod, JTA
Telegram, the wildly popular messaging platform beloved by the far right and instrumental to both sides in the IsraelHamas war, has suddenly found itself in the crosshairs of European law enforcement and regulators.
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French authorities made a surprise arrest of Telegram’s founder and CEO Aug. 24, a major escalation in the growing efforts by governments to hold social media platforms liable for the oftentimes illegal and violent content they host.
And on Sept. 6, following scrutiny of its lax content moderation policies, Telegram made several Hamas channels inaccessible, including the group’s main avenue for communicating with followers.
which is nearing an estimated 1 billion users? And how will it impact Israel, where the platform has become a leading news source?
Here’s what you need to know about the popular and controversial app.
What is Telegram?
The company calls itself “a messaging app with a focus on speed and security,” with more than 950 million active users. In that sense, it functions much like Whatsapp or Signal, allowing users to send encrypted messages to each other.
But it may be more accurate to think of Telegram as a platform like Facebook or X. Users can join “groups” with up to 200,000 people or “channels” with no cap on membership. These function as feeds where administrators can broadcast messages to subscribers.
'Telegram is the platform of choice for antisemites across the ideological spectrum'
“The writing’s on the wall,” Samuel Woolley, chair of Disinformation Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, told the JTA.
“We’re going to see continued legislation clamping down on illicit uses of social media and messaging apps like Telegram.”
What exactly is Telegram? What happens next for its base,
“He does everything to be independent of national governments and this is all out of the tradition of resisting the Russian government,” said Kilian Bühling, a researcher who studies digital mobilization at Germany’s Weizenbaum Institute.
Why do extremists love it?
Founded by Russian entrepreneur Pavel Durov in 2013, it’s the successor to his other hugely popular app, VKontakte or VK, essentially a Russian Facebook.
After the Kremlin pressured Durov to fork over user data to Russian security services, Durov sold his stake in the company, fled Russia and developed Telegram.
That origin story is key to understanding Telegram’s way of operating.
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Europe’s surging far-right movements have found a home on Telegram, using the app to radicalize new members and organize real-world demonstrations. The radical Reichsbürger movement, which believes Germany is still under Allied occupation and not a sovereign state, is one such group. They organized a coup attempt, in part through Telegram channels, but were thwarted by German authorities in 2022 when law enforcement discovered a cache of nearly half a million euros and an arsenal of weapons.
There are a few reasons the app is so conducive to mobilization.
Telegram has a reputation for being free of government intervention. As in Russia, Durov has long thumbed his nose at government and law enforcement requests for user data, unlike other social media platforms.
That attitude helped lead to his arrest: Among the 12 crimes French authorities charged him with was “refusal to communicate” information to authorities to carry out investigations. And that attitude extends to Telegram’s hands-off policy around content moderation. Where most platforms employ teams of people to monitor content and try to remove explicit antisemitism and other hate speech, Telegram’s rules for posting are comparatively meager.
Its terms of use clock in at just 100 words. The app says it
Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov was recently arrested in France.
THE WORLD
bans spam, the promotion of violence and illegal pornographic content.
The app has also built a reputation for privacy, though data protection experts say this is mostly spin. The only encryption that exists on the app is for one-to-one messages. Even then, users need to opt in; encryption not an automatic setting as it is on Signal, Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger. And many cryptographers say Telegram’s encryption is not up to snuff.
“Telegram has been very successful in falsely marketing itself as being a secure application,” said Jan Penfrat, senior policy advisor at European Digital Rights, an association of European nonprofits focused on online privacy issues.
In addition, the app’s functionality serves the aims of the far right, which looks to broadcast messages to wide audiences, amplify alternative media, and connect regional movements to national ones, all without oversight.
Penfrat pointed to the ability to create large groups or popular channels on the app and added, “If you can do this without any moderation, that’s obviously something that can be very appealing for people to spread illegal content.”
What do Jewish watchdogs say about it?
Advocacy groups have implored governments and the platform itself to do more to remove extremist content. In 2021, Hope Not Hate, a counter-extremism organization, penned an open letter to Telegram laying out how it served as a mass conduit for antisemitic rhetoric. In particular, the letter cited a channel hosted by GhostEzra, the alias for a leading antisemitic
propagandist who at the time had 330,000 followers on Telegram.
“Our research has found that your platform, more than any other, is being used by terrorpromoting far right networks and is home to the most extreme, genocidal and directly violent antisemitic content,” the letter said. “We are calling on Telegram to be consistent and take serious action against the terrorist content still on the platform that is putting Jewish and other minoritised communities at risk.”
Signatories included several British Parliament members as well as heads of a number of Jewish organizations, such as the Board of Deputies of British Jews.
And this summer, the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a civil liberties nonprofit, called on the British government and platforms like Telegram to remove racist anti-migrant content in the wake of far-right riots in the United Kingdom this summer.
The Anti-Defamation League, which has run pressure campaigns against both Facebook and X to persuade them to do more to counter hate speech, has also followed the growth of extremism on Telegram. The group observed an unusually high proportion of antisemitic content on Telegram in 2020, and after Oct. 7, 2023, documented a 433% increase in posts calling for violence against Jews, Israelis or Zionists. Rates of hate speech remain higher than before Oct. 7, said Oren Segal, who heads the ADL’s Center on Extremism.
“Telegram is the platform of choice for antisemites across the ideological spectrum,” Continued on Page 14
Shana Tova from Miami University
AS WE APPROACH ROSH HASHANAH AND YOM KIPPUR, the Office of Transformational and Inclusive Excellence at Miami University wishes Jewish community members and friends Shana Tova during this time of reflection and new beginnings.
We Remember Them
Tradition has given Judaism a continuity with its past and continues to preserve its character as a unique faith with a distinct way of life. Through the celebration of our holidays with family, loved ones, familiar foods and tunes year after year, Jewish traditions highlight the importance of family ties.
As we celebrate the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, they are also the perfect time to reflect on the people missing at your table and in your congregation, to preserve all your memories, and begin to create connections for your family’s future generations.
On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Jewish Cemeteries of Greater Dayton, we wish you a Shana Tova U’metukah
May you have a good and sweeet year.
Jewish Cemeteries of Greater Dayton is an endowment organization created to maintain our three Jewish cemeteries in perpetuity. Please join us as we strive to maintain the sanctity, care, and integrity of these sacred burial grounds.
Preserving our Past Ensuring Our Future
daytonjewishcemeteries.org
Telegram
Continued from Page 13
he said. “Anybody who is in the business of tracking antisemitism is very familiar with Telegram because of how much is on that platform and how much various antisemitic and extremist groups rely on it.”
But unlike more mainstream social media platforms that the ADL has worked with and also publicly criticized, Telegram is hard to engage on the topic of combating hate speech because the app hasn’t acknowledged how big of a problem it is, Segal said.
“In order to engage a platform on these issues they have to have some sort of demonstration that they care about these issues and are willing to be responsive,” he said. “In order to fix a problem you have to admit that you have one.”
Yfat Barak-Cheney, the director of technology and human rights at the World Jewish Congress, called Telegram “a gateway for terrorist propaganda on social media platforms” but shared Segal’s frustrations.
“We have made this information available to government leaders and international institutions and have long called for regulative action to be taken,” she said in a statement. “To date, the platform has not heeded any calls for increased monitoring and moderation.”
How has it been used in Israel and the Palestinian territories since Oct. 7?
Telegram, based in Dubai, has long been popular in the Middle East, and its usage has surged in Israel and the region following Oct. 7. That’s partly because both the Israeli military and Hamas have relied on it as a key messaging platform.
As of October 2023, the month of Hamas’ attack and the war’s outbreak, Israel had around 2.5 million active weekly users, according to Sensor Tower, a market intelligence firm — amounting to about one in four Israelis.
Statistics on Palestinian usage are harder to come by, but Telegram has served as Hamas’ key platform for communication throughout the war. Members used Telegram to share first-person videos of the Oct. 7 attack, often depicting gruesome scenes, and still rely on the app to spread content to subscribers around the world.
It has also uploaded videos of hostages, including one of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whom the terror group recently murdered along with five other captives.
In the days after Oct. 7, the Telegram channel of Hamas’ military wing nearly quadrupled in size to more than 700,000 followers. Content on its main channel was viewed exponentially more than the same posts on the terror group’s app, according to The New York Times
The app faced pressure in the days after Oct. 7 to ban Hamas-aligned channels as other platforms, such as Facebook and X have done. Durov pushed back initially, saying Hamas was using the app to warn civilians to leave areas before missile strikes.
But he eventually relented in a rare instance of content moderation, restricting the channels on Apple and Google devices. But Telegram offered workarounds, and the content is still findable and shareable months later.
That has changed somewhat in recent days, as Telegram appears to have blocked access to Hamas’ main channel following Durov’s arrest and a spate of reporting on its permissive policies.
The Israeli military also uses the app to spread its messaging as well as to send out official updates like siren alerts and press releases to its 135,000-plus subscribers. Leading Israeli journalists such as Amit Segal, political activists such as the right-wing rapper and Continued on Page 38
HISTORY SINGS
A powerful, indie-rock musical makes its world premiere to launch its path to Broadway.
MC & Tom Brennan, Linda & Gary Greenberg and The Lemmerman Family present
RUTKA: A NEW MUSICAL
Based on the diary of RUTKA LASKIER, as published in Rutka’s Notebook: A Voice from the Holocaust Music and Lyrics by JOCELYN MACKENZIE and JEREMY LLOYD-STYLES Book by NEENA BEBER
OCT. 13 – NOV. 10, 2024
Sponsored by The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati
Hope. Resilience. Resistance.
Rutka’s world is consumed by usual teen concerns. But the world is far from usual in war-torn 1943 Poland, as Rutka and her friends reach for hope, resilience and resistance in the Jewish Ghetto. This unforgettable musical is a compelling drama based on Rutka’s Notebook — a publication of the real diary left behind by 14-year-old Rutka Laskier, and a shining example of how even one small voice can make a difference in the world.
Moe and Jack’s Place — The Rouse Theatre season presented by SCHUELER GROUP The Rouse Theatre Season Design Sponsor: KERRY AUTOMOTIVE
Now more than ever
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Israel's part of who I am
By Avi Gilbert
This summer, I had a lifechanging experience: the chance to travel to Israel for a month. Because of the ongoing war, none of my camp friends from Goldman Union Camp Institute traveled with me, so I didn’t know anyone else on the trip.
However, that was the case for a bunch of the other teens on the program, so I quickly made lots of friendships that will last me a lifetime.
Along with meeting amazing teens from across the United States, we had the opportunity to live and travel with a group of Israeli teens from a kibbutz called Dorot, another great experience.
On this Reform movement trip, Yallah! Israel, we toured all over Israel from July 3 through July 29: from Jerusalem to Eilat, from Tel Aviv to Haifa.
Our group consisted of around 40 teenagers from all over North America. A big factor that helped me travel to Israel was that the Jewish Education Project's RootOne helped subsidize my trip. I had to complete 18 nekudot (points) to receive a voucher that took off a chunk of the total price of the trip.
A few of these nekudot were Zoom calls with the other participants, but most of them were online activities to learn more about everything that has to do with Israel.
From Hebrew to the rich history of the land of Israel, it was a fun and informative way to get to know Israel a little bit more before traveling there.
Submitted
everything seemed normal to someone who doesn’t live in Israel. We never experienced a siren or had to enter a bomb shelter.
But we did meet people who were directly affected by the massacre. It was impossible to find anyone in Israel who didn’t have a connection to someone who was killed because of the war. We visited a very impactful place where all the destroyed cars, ambulances, and other police vehicles from the Nova Music Festival are kept.
We also visited Kibbutz Ofakim, which was invaded on Oct. 7. You could still see the bullet holes and rubble in the buildings. Our tour guide had experienced the terror within the kibbutz. I stood in the spot where it happened.
My trip to Israel was a deeply transformative experience, filled with a blend of joy, discovery, and somber reflection.
Our tour guide had experienced the terror within the kibbutz.
For me and many others, this was our first time traveling to Israel. Some of my favorite activities we did were snorkeling in the Red Sea, the HaGal Sheli surfing experience, and volunteering at Kibbutz Dorot.
A couple of the more serious and impactful moments included visiting Yad Vashem and the Western Wall.
During my adventure in Israel, I couldn’t even tell there was a war going on. There were places we couldn’t go that might have been included on previous years' trips and we had to travel with added security, but other than that,
OPINION
A blood libel against Haitians?
By Mira Fox
During the presidential debate on Sept. 10, former President Donald Trump made a baseless allegation referring to an online conspiracy about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio stealing and eating people’s beloved cats and dogs.
“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in, they’re eating the cats,” he said. “They’re eating the pets of the people who live there.”
The strange moment was fallout from a social media drama about an imaginary threat to Fido that developed over several days before the debate.
On Sept. 9, J.D. Vance, Trump’s vice presidential candidate, tweeted about “the issue of Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio.”
The post went on to mention “reports” of people having their pets abducted and eaten by unspecified illegal migrants.
Springfield police said that they had received no reports of pets being stolen and eaten; the claim seemed to have sprung from a third-hand story in a post on Facebook claiming that a neighbor’s daughter’s friend had lost her cat and found it being carved up “like you’d do a deer” in the yard of a Haitian family.
Later, the Nazis invoked the conspiracy to stoke and validate hatred against Jews.
No, pets aren’t children, but today we often treat them as members of the family. In our society, eating a pet is an act of huge trespass, the likes of which, it’s understood, would only be done by someone despicable and nearly inhuman.
And, like the Jews, the Haitian immigrants in Ohio are a relatively new demographic group that has drawn local ire.
Around 20,000 Haitians have moved — legally, with valid work permits — to Springfield in the past few years, taking local manufacturing jobs.
reliability and work ethic of his Haitian employees, and a pastor said the community has revitalized his church.
Nevertheless, White nationalists, carrying rifles and flying swastikas, marched down the streets of Springfield in August.
The speed with which that rumor spread is the result of a public discourse that has been stoking hatred against outsiders of all varieties as a threat to White, Christian America.
From forging lifelong friendships and immersing myself in the vibrant culture of Israel to witnessing firsthand the aftermath of the ongoing conflict, this journey was an eye-opener in many ways.
It gave me a profound sense of connection to the land and its people, as well as a deeper appreciation for the resilience and spirit of those living through such challenges.
Israel is no longer just a distant place on the map — it's now a part of who I am. I am so grateful to everyone who contributed to the best experience I have undergone so far and am looking forward to returning as soon as possible.
Avi Gilbert is a junior at Centerville High School.
So, what do you think?
Contributing to the rumor, bodycam footage of a woman being arrested for eating a cat went viral in August. But she was an American citizen, and she wasn’t in Springfield.
Nevertheless, the rumor instantly spread. First, the Facebook post went viral, and then Vance’s tweet. Ted Cruz posted tasteless memes of kittens begging their owners to vote for Trump, so they won’t be eaten by Haitians and Elon Musk tweeted a meme from The Simpsons of characters mourning their dead cat; even the House GOP’s official X account posted a meme of an AI-generated Trump hugging a kitten and a duck.
And finally, Trump brought the false conspiracy up during the presidential debate.
The lie has echoes of another conspiracy theory: blood libel, the conspiracy theory that arose in the Middle Ages alleging that Jews killed Christian children to use their blood in matzah.
It was a major shift for the city of about 60,000, and locals have been resentful, complaining about the impact on housing and schools in the area.
Even before the allegations of stealing and eating pets, residents blamed the community for crime in the city and voiced suspicion of Vodou, a religion widely practiced in Haiti, even as a factory owner praised the
It’s never good for the Jews when the public is predisposed to believe in conspiracy theories against anyone unfamiliar; we’re no longer new immigrants, but we’re not the American mainstream either.
Meanwhile, the people screaming in horror about Haitians supposedly killing pets have forgotten that Kristi Noem, the governor of South Dakota, actually shot her dog. That’s not blood libel; she wrote about it in her own memoir.
Mira Fox is a reporter at the Forward.
I was confused and a little upset after reading Martin Gottlieb's piece regarding AIPAC and its lobbying in the Democratic primaries (September Observer)
My understanding of this opinion piece is that AIPAC should not spend a large amount of money to defeat candidates that are anti-Israel. I understand this is possible only because of the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling. While I believe this ruling was a terrible decision for democracy in our country and should be overturned, the fact is that it is the law of the land. We certainly know that many super PACS are supporting candidates of every flavor and are only limited by the size of the purse. Although it is fine if Mr. Gottlieb does not want to support AIPAC in this endeavor (I stopped supporting AIPAC years ago), I do not believe a Jewish paper should be espousing that a Jewish organization should hold back in supporting a cause that is important, if not vital to Jews throughout the country! — David A Garfunkel, Closter, N.J.
Avi Gilbert at the Western Wall
Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris debate at The National Constitution Center, Philadelphia, Sept. 10.
Win McNamee/Getty Images
with Outgoing JFGD Board President Mary Rita Weissman
JCC Volunteer of the Year Wendy Lipp (left) with with JCC Advisory Board Past Chair Beverly Louis
Allan L. Wasserman Young Leadership Award recipient Jese Shell with Dan Sweeny
Moss Creativity Award recipient Lee Schear with Moss family member Stephen Levinson (left)
Jennifer Ramos, accepting the Joe and Elaine Bettman Tzadik Award, on behalf of her parents Joan and Peter Wells (on screen)
Robert A. Shapiro Award recipient Ira Segalewitz (left) with JFGD Board Past President Heath Gilbert
Past Presidents Award recipient Helen Halcomb with Mary Rita Weissman
JCRC Volunteer of the Year Elliot Ratzman with JCRC Chair Bonnie Beaman Rice
Michele Dritz (left) with JFS Executive Director Tara Feiner
Dorothy B. Moyer Young Leadership Award recipient Meryl Goldman with Dan Sweeny
Incoming JFGD Board President Dan Sweeny with grandmother Elaine Bettman
of the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton & its Agencies
Past
October 2024
UPCOMING EVENTS
MONDAY, OCTOBER 7, 5:30 - 6:45PM October 7th Remembrance
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 13, 5:30 - 7PM JCC JYG+ Pop Culture Trivia
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1 - 3PM PJ Library Sukkot at Black Star Farm
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 27, 11:30AM - 12:30PM October 7th Commemoration – One Partnership, One Heart
Connect with us! Check out our events. For more information, check out our calendar at jewishdayton.org
United in Remembrance
Monday, October 7, 5:30 – 6:45PM Boonshoft Center for Jewish Culture & Education 525 Versailles Drive, Centerville, 45459
The entire Dayton Jewish community is invited to join us as we remember the one-year anniversary of the October 7th attacks on Israel. There will be art, videos, singing, prayers, a candle lighting, and sharing stories of the previous 365 days, from the perspectives of our friends and family in Israel and here in our community.
RSVP by October 6 at jewishdayton.org/events. Questions? Contact Je Blumer at jblumer@jfgd.net.
Sunday, October 27 via Zoom, 11:30AM - 12:30PM
Virtually stand shoulder to shoulder with our Partnership2Gether communities and the Western Galilee to mark this tragic day through interactive community gatherings connected live, via video links, with ceremony, song, and listening to remembrances from those most impacted. RSVP online at jewishdayton.org/events. Questions? Contact Je Blumer at jblumer@jfgd.net.
October 2024
Sukkot at Black Star Farm
Sunday, October 20, 1 – 3PM
Black Star Farm
5904 Troy-Frederick Rd, Tipp City, 45371
Beth Jacob Congregation and the family of Jese Shell welcome PJ Library families of all ages for Sukkot at Black Star Farm. Join us to share a snack in the sukkah, shake the lulav and etrog, listen to PJ Library stories, decorate pumpkins, create floral designs, and enjoy the outdoors!
No charge. RSVP by October 13.
To register, visit jewishdayton.org/events Questions? Please contact Kate Elder at kelder@jfgd.net
Washington, D.C. Mini Mission
November 8 – 10
Cost: $500 (double occupancy)
$400 (single occupancy)
Join us for an exciting three-day trip to D.C. ahead of the JFNA General Assembly. Highlights include Shabbat service and Dinner at Sixth and I synagogue, tours of the Capital Jewish Museum, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and a very special private tour of the rare book collection of Stuart and Mimi Rose at the Folger Shakespeare Library.
For more information, contact Janese R. Sweeny, Executive Director, Development & Strategy, at jsweeny@jfgd.net.
JewCE: The Jewish Comics Experience at the Capital Jewish Museum
Items on display at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Illuminated Manuscript on display in the Imprints in Time exhibit at Folger Shakespeare Library
BETH JACOB CONGREGATION
October 2024
OPENING EVENT
“ALL THAT JAZZ”
Sunday, November 3 at 2PM
In partnership with the University of Dayton Departments of Communication and Music and the Alumni Chair in the Humanities
Featuring a Performance by the Dayton Jazz Ensemble directed by Dr. Willie Morris III
University of Dayton - Roger Glass Center for the Arts (29 Creative Way, Dayton 45479)
Free parking nearby in Lot S-1
Cost: $10 (No cost to students with valid student ID)
Larry Tye
The Jazzmen: How Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie Transformed America
The Jazzmen by Larry Tye is a captivating exploration of the lives and music of some of the most influential figures in jazz history. Tye delves into the personal and professional stories of three of the most iconic jazz legends, highlighting their contributions to the genre and their impact on American culture, especially the civil rights movement and their bonds with Jewish musicians and managers. Through rich anecdotes and thorough research, Tye paints a vivid picture of the jazz scene, bringing to life the vibrant and often tumultuous world of these groundbreaking musicians. The book is a tribute to the creativity, resilience, and enduring legacy of the jazzmen who shaped the soundscape of the 20th century.
Limited seating available – Must register by October 15
To purchase tickets, visit jewishdayton.org/events or call 937-610-1555.
Thursday, November 14 at 7 PM via Zoom No Cost
Thomas Harding
The Maverick: George Weidenfeld and the Golden Age of Publishing
George Weidenfeld was a British publisher, philanthropist, and political activist. He founded the Weidenfeld & Nicolson publishing house in 1948, which became renowned for its contributions to the literary world. Weidenfeld introduced the works of over 6,000 authors. Included among them were Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, Saul Bellow’s Herzog, and Mary McCarthy’s The Group. Weidenfeld was also known for his humanitarian e orts, particularly his work in helping Jewish refugees, his ardent Zionism, and his involvement in various charitable organizations.
To purchase tickets for in-person events or to register for free events, please visit jewishdayton.org/events or call 937-610-1555
Dayton's BBYO teens enjoyed gathering with BBYO chapters across the Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio region for this year's kicko at King's Island.
High schoolers interested in learning more about BBYO should email Suzzy Nandrasy at snandrasy@jfgd.net.
Thank you, Josh Alpert, for your 13 years of service to Dayton's BBYO chapter as advisor and city director!
October 2024
JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON & ITS AGENCIES
Legacies, Tributes, & Memorials
FEDERATION
JEWISH CEMETERIES FUND
In memory of Marilyn Scher
Susie and Eddie Katz
Pam and Mike Feldman
Debby and Bob Goldenberg
CAROL J. PAVLOFSKY LEADERSHIP FUND
In memory of Ellie Chaet
Marlene and David Miller
HOLOCAUST PROGRAMMING FUND
In honor of Michael and Danielle Natarus’
baby girl
Kathy and Mark Gordon
JOAN AND PETER WELLS AND REBECCA LINVILLE FAMILY, CHILDREN AND YOUTH FUND
In honor of Joan and Peter Wells for receiving the Joe and Elaine Bettman Tzadik Award
Marni Flagel
JEWISH FAMILY SERVICES ENDOWMENT FUND
In memory of Joseph Litvin
Jane and Gary Hochstein
Let's do a KNITZVAH
Calling all our crafty community members…Let’s do a KNITZVAH!
Friday, November 1 to Friday, November 29, JFS will welcome your hand-knitted, crocheted, or sewn donations of hats, scarves, lap blankets, socks, or gloves to help make our Chanukah outreach extra special (and fuzzy).
For questions or to schedule a drop-o , please contact Jacquelyn Archie at jarchie@jfgd.net or 937-610-1555
This New Year, answer the call by making a legacy gift, ensuring a strong Jewish community for future generations.
Be remembered forever with a legacy gift in your will, trust, retirement account, or life insurance policy.
To learn more about leaving a legacy, contact Janese R. Sweeny, 937-401-1542.
Classes
Beth Jacob Classes: w. Rabbi Agar. Tuesdays, 7 p.m.: Torah Tuesdays on Zoom. Thursdays, 7 p.m.: Thursdays of Thought on Zoom. Call to register, 937-274-2149. bethjacobcong.org/beth-jacob-happenings.
Chabad Classes: Wednesdays, 7:30 p.m.: Talmud Class on Zoom & in person. Call for Zoom link. 2001 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood. 937-643-0770.
Temple Beth Or Classes: Sundays, 12:30 p.m.: Adult Hebrew. Sat., Oct. 5, 19, 10 a.m.: Apocryphal Study in person & Zoom. templebethor. com/events. 5275 Marshall Rd., Wash. Twp. 937-435-3400.
Temple Israel Classes: Tuesdays, noon: Talmud Study in person & Zoom. Wed., Oct. 9, 16, 10 a.m.: Torah Queeries w. Rabbi Bodney-Halasz, call for location. Sat., Oct. 5, 19, 26, 9:15: Torah Study on Zoom. For Torah Study Zoom info., email Fran Rickenbach, franwr@gmail.com. Wed., Oct. 23, 30, 10 a.m.: New Weekly Torah Commentary Class in person. Sun., Oct. 27, noon: My Jewish Year: Free. Call for info. tidayton.org/calendar. 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton. Call office to RSVP, 937-496-0050.
Young Adults
Chabad Young Professionals Dinner in the Sukkah: Wed., Oct. 16, 6:30 p.m. RSVP at chabaddayton.com/tools/ events. 2001 Far Hills Ave.,
Beth Abraham Sisterhood’s Sunset in the Sukkah: Tues., Oct. 22, 6 p.m. $10 nonmembers, free for members. RSVP 937-293-9520 or email Sandra Kallenberg, sandra@bethabraham.org. 305 Sugar Camp Cir., Oakwood.
Men
Chabad Men’s Night Out in the Sukkah: Mon., Oct. 21, 6:15 p.m. $64. RSVP at chabaddayton.com/tools/ events. 2001 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood. 937-643-0770.
Family
PJ Library, PJ Our Way, & Beth Jacob Sukkot at Black Star Farm: Sun., Oct. 20, 1 p.m. Free. For info., contact Kate Elder, kelder@jfgd.net. RSVP by Oct. 18 at jewishdayton.org/events. 5904 TroyFredrick Rd., Tipp City. 937610-1555.
Youths
JCC & JYG+ Pop Culture
Trivia: Sun., Oct. 13, 5:30 p.m. $10. Grades 6-8. For info., contact Suzzy Nandrasy, snandrasy@jfgd.net. RSVP by Oct. 4 at jewishdayton.org/events. Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles
CALENDAR
Community Collaborative Selichot Service: Sat., Sept. 28: 7:30 p.m.: Minchah. 8:15 p.m.: Reception. 8:30 p.m.: Havdalah followed by Selichot. At Beth Jacob Congregation. W. Beth Abraham, Temple Beth Or, Temple Israel, & the Dayton Jewish Chorale. 7020 N. Main St., Harrison Twp. 937-274-2149.
Oct. 7th Remembrance: Mon., Oct. 7, 5:30 p.m. For info., contact Jeff Blumer, jblumer@ jfgd.net. RSVP by Oct. 6 at jewishdayton.org/events. Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville. 937-610-1555.
One Partnership, One Heart Zoom Remembrance: Sun., Oct. 27, 11:30 a.m. On Zoom. W. Partnership2gether & Western Galilee. For info., contact Jeff Blumer, jblumer@jfgd.net. RSVP at jewishdayton.org/ events. 937-610-1555.
Rosh Hashanah
Chabad Women's Circle Rosh Hashanah Market: Mon., Sept. 30, 5-7:30 p.m. 2001 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood. 937-643-0770.
Chabad Rosh Hashanah Community Dinner: Wed., Oct. 2, 7 p.m. $40 adults, $15 children. RSVP at chabaddayton.com/tools/events. 2001 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood. 937-6430770.
Sukkot
Temple Israel's Pizza in the Hut: Wed., Oct. 16, 5:45 p.m $5 adults, $3 ages 4-12. RSVP at tidayton.org/calendar. 130
Temple Israel Simchat Torah & Potluck Dinner: Wed., Oct. 23, 6 p.m. $5 adults, $3 ages 4-12. W. guitarist Cyle Ginsberg. RSVP by Oct. 18 for dinner at tidayton.org/calendar.
130 Riverside Dr., Dayton. 937496-0050.
Beth Abraham Simchat Torah Celebration: Thurs., Oct. 24,
5:30 p.m.: Free pasta dinner & sundaes. 6:15 p.m.: Dancing & singing w. the Torahs. RSVP to 937-293-9520 or email Sandra Kallenberg at sandra@bethabraham.org. 305 Sugar Camp Cir., Oakwood.
Chabad Simchat Torah Dinner Celebration: Thurs., Oct. 24, 7 p.m. Free. RSVP at chabaddayton.com/calendar. 2001 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood. 937-6430770.
Temple Beth Or Simchat Torah & Bring Them Home Dinner: Fri., Oct. 25, 5:30 p.m. Followed by Simchat Torah Shabbat service at 6:15 p.m. 5275 Marshall Rd., Wash. Twp. 937-435-3400.
SHANA TOVAH הבוט
Holy Days 5785 with Temple Beth Or
Temple Beth Or invites you to join us for the High Holy Days.
In-person and live streaming services
Erev Rosh Hashanah, Wednesday, Oct. 2
7:30 p.m. Evening Services
Rosh Hashanah, Thursday, Oct. 3
10:00 a.m. Morning Services
12:00 p.m. Luncheon: All the Best Deli, DonationsAppreciated 1:00 p.m. Family Interactive Program
Kol Nidre, Friday, Oct. 11
7:30 p.m. Evening Services
Yom Kippur, Saturday, Oct. 12
10:00 a.m. Morning Services
12:30 p.m. Family Interactive Program
2:00 p.m. The Heart of Israel: Thoughts from Rabbi Azriel’s Journey
4:00 p.m. Yizkor 5:30 p.m. Ne’ilah
Modest Break-the-Fast to follow: Bernstein’s Fine Catering Visit templebethor.com for service times & updates
Sukkot Shabbat & Dessert, Friday, Oct. 18
Join us for Shabbat Services at 6:15 p.m. followed by Dessert in the Sukkah
Simchat Torah & Bring Them Home Dinner, Friday, Oct 25
Join us at 5:30 p.m. for a special dinner prepared from the favorite recipes of the Oct. 7th hostages, many of whom are still missing or deceased, followed by a SimchatTorah Shabbat Service at 6:15 p.m.
MAZEL TOV!
Wittenberg University has hired Darren Hertz as its new men's basketball head coach. The Miami, Fla. native served as an assistant coach at the University of Dayton since 2017 and brings with him 25-plus years of experience as a college men's basketball coach, including 19 seasons at his alma mater, the University of Florida, working for current Chicago Bulls Head Coach Billy Donovan. At UD, Darren worked for current Flyers Head Coach Anthony Grant. Darren helped the Flyers earn a berth in the NCAA Division I Tournament in 2023-24 while compiling a 25-8 overall record. He was also part of Dayton's celebrated 2019-20 season in which the Flyers went 29-2, were ranked No. 3 in the country, and were projected to be a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament before the Covid pandemic ended the season. Darren has helped coach and mentor more than 30 players who have played in the NBA.
At Dayton Children's professional staff dinner in August, Dr. Jeff Mikutis was honored for his outstanding decades-long career, dedication, and impact on Dayton Children's orthopaedic patients. Jeff retired from Children's about a year and a half ago. He still keeps very busy as a physician volunteer with the Reach Out Clinic in Dayton, on the board of the Dayton Art Institute, as a volunteer at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, and as a reader for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.
National Conference for Community and Justice of Greater Dayton Director of Education Lake Miller has been elected the next president of the Montgomery County Prevention Coalition, a group of more than 300 community volunteers. He becomes president of MCPC in January. In August, Lake was a panelist at the 2024 Ohio Coaching & Mentoring Network Conference. OCAM provides capacity building and workforce development for prevention professionals. He shared his experience in the field of prevention and some of the tools Dayton's NCCJ uses. Lake is the son of Mike and Adriane Miller. Adriane is executive director of Dayton's NCCJ.
training programs, and oversees HR functions. He leverages people data and analytics to reduce turnover, stabilize operations, and increase employee engagement. Max's parents are Marilyn and Larry Klaben Larry is chairman and CEO of Morris Furniture.
The Miami Valley School has selected Andrew Kahn, Class of 2007, to receive its 2024 Young Professional Alumnus Award. Andrew is principal security engineer with Unum Group. He's at the forefront of the insurance company's cybersecurity, protecting digital infrastructures from emerging threats. Andrew, who lives in Solon, Ohio, is the son of Linda Ohlmann Kahn and Buddy Kahn
Jake Elder has rejoined Cox-Colvin & Associates Inc. as a principal scientist. He returns to his environmental roots focusing on environmental compliance and remediation projects in the commercial, industrial, and utility sectors. Jake recently joined the Jewish Federation's board and is immediate past president of Temple Beth Or.
Washington Jewish Week interviewed Dayton Dragons co-principal owner Greg Rosenbaum for a feature in August. A self-described "Olympics freak," Greg, who lives in Bethesda, Md., shared memories of the seven Olympics he's attended, including Paris this past summer. "Over the years, I've learned how to maximize the Olympic experience," he told Washington Jewish Week. "We planned a program which had us see 31 events in 15 different sports in the equivalent of 11 days. We averaged almost three events a day and focused on medal events." Of the 31 events Greg attended, medals were handed out at 29.
Furniture Today Magazine has named Morris Furniture Vice President of Talent Management Max Klaben one of its 40 Under 40 Leaders. Max's great-grandfather Morris Lieberman founded the family business in 1947. Based in New York, Max recruits top talent, develops
Hillel Academy of Greater Dayton is one of 18 Jewish day schools across North America to comprise the Prizmah 2024-25 cohort of Engage: Growing School and Community Partnerships. Prizmah is the network for Jewish day schools in North America. Through the Engage program, school admissions staff work with Prizmah and local PJ Library partners to increase recruitment, retention, and enrollment by positioning their Jewish day schools as central hubs for Jewish communal life.
Send your Mazel Tov announcements to mweiss@jfgd.net.
Associate Rabbi Shmuel Klatzkin Youth & Prog. Dir. Rabbi Levi Simon. Complete schedule on Pages 27 & 29. Beginner educational service Saturdays, 9:30 a.m. 2001 Far Hills Ave. 937-6430770. chabaddayton.com
Yellow Springs Havurah
Independent Antioch College Rockford Chapel. 1st & 3rd Saturday each month. Contact Len Kramer, 937-5724840 or len2654@gmail.com.
RELIGION
Are we cleared yet to gather & memorialize Oct. 7?
By Rabbi Aubrey L. Glazer
Beth Abraham Synagogue
Why do we gather? As a tribal and global community, Jews know that gatherings play a huge role in our lives. In this process of our comings together of friends, family, and co-workers, Priya Parker teaches that we all have the potential to change the way we connect, the way we understand ourselves and one another, and the way we live.
Yet, too often, the human
Perspectives
connection at the center of it all — the real magic behind the gathering — is obscured or the deeper purpose occluded. Gathering is intended to help everyone create meaningful, memorable experiences, for work and for play, and especially for religion and spirituality.
As we approach the anniversary of the Oct. 7 massacre, one key question we must ask is why do we gather and how do we begin to heal from this horrific year of mourning?
Whether the memorialization for the massacre takes place on the Gregorian or Hebrew calendar, by the time you read this, there will have been dozens of collections of Hebrew poetry anthologized and published in Israel commemorating all the hundreds of poems that have been written from last Oct. 7 to this one, according to my teacher, Rachel Korazim.
ets whose words affect Jewish thinking and living. So let us listen closely to the words of one renowned Hebrew poet, who offered this advice as we move from mourning to memorializing amidst the war in the Land of Israel:
It is not only permitted for a poet to write a love poem in times of war, but a necessity, because even in times of war the value of love is greater than the value of (death). It is not only a right for a poet in the days of horror to sing his song to nature, to the blooming trees, to children who know how to laugh, but a duty, the duty to remind a human that s/he is still a human being, that there exists in the world those simple and eternal values that make life more precious...because as long as poetry loves humanity in this (holy) land and the life in it, it is worthwhile and proper for a human, for God, to love them, appreciate them, guard them...
How do we memorialize our loved ones and remember love amidst war and destruction?
But why? A deeply human need to express our mourning, confront the darkness, heal the deep wounds, and eventually transform this darkness into light. We need a way to gather and ritualize this shattering moment to mourn, heal, and integrate the darkness into light, and bring forward a new hope amidst this year of edging on hopelessness.
As I have argued elsewhere, the Hebrew poets are the proph-
Candle Lightings
Erev Rosh Hashanah Oct. 2: 6:59 p.m.
First Eve Rosh Hashanah Oct. 3: 7:55 p.m.
Goldberg struggled with writing poetry in a time of war, then all lovers of Zion — whether the greatest Hebrew poets or people like us — struggle with suffering and how it tears our hearts.
How do we memorialize our loved ones and remember love amidst war and destruction?
October Elul/Tishri
Torah Portions
Oct. 5: Haazinu (Deut. 32:1-52)
Oct. 26: Bereshit (Gen. 1:1-6:8)
Rosh Hashanah
Jewish New Year
Oct. 3-4/1-2 Tishri
Now these are the words — not of Moses our Teacher — but of another equally great Hebrew poet, Leah Goldberg, and she wrote them in 1939. Goldberg responded to the events of the Shoah/World War II in her Hebrew poetry from the 1940s. But she began writing poetry at 12, exiled from Russia to Lithuania and eventually immigrated by making aliyah to Eretz Yisrael in 1935.
She wrote many poems during the rise of violence in Europe at the close of the 1930s, in the turbulent days before the outbreak of World War II, the dark cloud of the Shoah beginning.
And that is precisely the controversy about war poetry that arose amongst the greatest Hebrew poets in Israel. So if such a renowned Hebrew poet as Leah
Shabbat, Oct. 4: 6:55 p.m.
Shabbat, Erev Yom Kippur Oct. 11: 6:44 p.m.
Erev Sukkot, Oct. 16: 6:37 p.m.
First Eve Sukkot Oct. 17: 7:34 p.m.
Recall how the word on the street in Israel post-Oct. 7 was simply, “there are no words” and yet we still seek healing through words. As a way of reflecting again upon this looming question of such a darkened October as to why we gather, I reflect upon one contemporary Hebrew poem written in response to the Oct. 7 massacre by Dael Rodrigues Garcia. This Hebrew poet was born and raised in Jerusalem, has studied in several seminaries, and earned his master's in Hebrew literature from BenGurion University of the Negev. Dael is married to Ali, and a father to Roni, and teaches creative writing. Dael has been awarded the Ofira Ben-Aryeh and the Sapir College Prizes. Garcia’s poem, Hutar Lefirsum, Cleared for Publication, calls us to listen and reflect as we gather to remember.
Cleared for publication: that our hearts are broken. And within those hidden places in empty rooms thousands of sobs strangulating without a voice. Cleared for publication: that open season was declared upon us.
And we were pillaged in the dark of the most utterly precious. Already it cleared for publication: that magical aura illuminating those faces of all our beloved ones, extinguished. Yet, beneath the very same earth already there is a stubborn plant sprouting enrooting endlessly and entwined with love. Continued on Page 26
Shabbat, Oct. 18: 6:34 p.m.
Erev Shemini Atzeret
Oct. 23: 6:27 p.m.
Erev Simchat Torah
Oct. 24: 7:25 p.m.
Shabbat, Oct. 25: 6:25 p.m.
Celebration of the beginning of the Jewish calendar year. Begins the Days of Awe, a 10-day period of repentance and prayer that ends on Yom Kippur. Celebrated with festive meals, including apples dipped in honey.
Yom Kippur Day of Atonement
Oct. 12/10 Tishri
The holiest day on the Jewish calendar, marking the end of the Days of Awe, spent fasting and in prayer. The sounding of the shofar, the ram’s horn, signals the end of the holiday.
Sukkot
Festival of Booths
Oct. 17-23
15-21 Tishri
Named after the huts the Jews lived in while wandering in the desert after the Exodus from Egypt. Marked by building sukkot to eat meals in during the festival, and in the synagogue by processions with the lulav (palm branches with myrtle and willow) and etrog (citron fruit).
Shemini Atzeret
Eighth Day of Assembly
Oct. 24/22 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. 25/23 Tishri
Annual cycle of reading the Torah is concluded and a new cycle begun. Celebrated in the synagogue with singing, dancing, and Torah processionals.
Rabbi Aubrey L. Glazer
Cleared yet
Continued from Page 25
A few elucidations are in order to grasp the power of this poem and how it both captures our feelings and affects our thinking when we gather.
If you have ever been blessed to live in Israel, then you know that when they hear television and radio announcers reading the names of the soldiers killed on a given day, it is always prefaced by the very title of this poem. Once these names “are cleared for publication,” then the families already sense the looming catastrophe about to unfold in their lives.
The poet is playful here, as the Hebrew word hutar refers as well to it being “open season” as a double entendre playing on “cleared”— utterly horrifying.
Even more disorienting are those “hidden places” that Dael evokes in this poem, harkening
back to its roots in a rabbinic attempt to see behind the veil and understand the prophetic verse: “If you do not heed this, my soul will cry in hidden places because of pride. (Jer. 13:17)."
In searching for the meaning of these “hidden places,” the sages of the Talmud discover a radical theological insight — that indeed even God has a hidden chamber to weep over the loss of Israel’s pride snatched from it through catastrophes and then given to other enemy nations “regarded as sheep to be slaughtered (Ps. 44:23)."
Stop to absorb this insight for a moment: What does it mean to gather now in the presence of divine weeping, especially recalling how elsewhere in scripture God is described as “joyful in His palace (I Chron. 16:27)?"
This is a complete paradox. How can God be both joyful and weeping simultaneously?
What the Talmudic debate yields is that the innermost chambers are for hidden weeping, while in the outer chambers, there is no weeping (Babylonian Talmud, Hagigah 5b).
This resolves the paradox, seeing that there is a need for gathering in different spaces to emote differently; if that is how God holds the paradox, does that work for us as mere mortals?
Where does this leave us in terms of remaining hope, and remaining hopelessly hopeful? The poem concludes with a vision of a hopeful new growth:
Yet, beneath the very same earth already there is a stubborn plant sprouting enrooting endlessly and entwined with love.
from another Israeli, Oded Adomi Leshem, who has been thinking through these very issues for some time and concludes from his extensive research that there are actually bi-dimensional degrees of hope, from wish to expectation.
Leshem wrote this study while the IDF were bombing the Gaza Strip and missiles from the Gaza strip were being fired at Israeli towns already in May 2021.
Leave it to Israelis to be on the forefront of keeping hope alive
Everything turns on the unwillingness to give in to despair and plant more seeds of love to be rooted in that same earth that makes us human.
So amidst conflict, catastrophe, death and destruction that has felt like a new normal since Oct. 7, leave it to Israelis to be on the forefront of keeping hope alive. Despite the darkness of how this poem begins, it ends with hope through love.
I found parallel inspiration
Like most Israelis, Leshem had 90 seconds to reach the bomb shelter, grab his kids and his laptop to continue writing about hope. As he explores in this remarkable study that emerged under fire, called Hope Amidst Conflict: Philosophical and Psychological Explorations (2024), Leshem’s research into hope is important at this juncture as he includes a novel integration of philosophical and psychological examinations of the concept of hope.
Leshem also introduces what he calls the "Bi-dimensional Model of Hope,” a pioneering conceptualization and operationalization of hope. His results are based on original data collected in the framework of the Hope Map Project, a global study surveying the hopes for peace in conflict zones worldwide.
He echoes Goldberg in asking, “Is it legitimate to talk about hope for peace while people are burying their loved ones? Is hope a thing to be discussed when hope is essentially absent?”
Leshem concludes that cultivating “optimal hope” is neither naive nor delusional — it is not “considered a waste of time or even a dangerous delusion” to be “discussing peace during intractable ethnonational conflicts” — it is what makes us human, what makes us Jews, what makes us Israelis.
Optimal hope always must abide, especially in such dark times. As Leshem teaches: “optimal hope protects from despair, frustration, and anguish when hopes for peace are dashed.”
But wisely, he notes that: “optimal hope does not require promises,” rather it abides due to its adaptability over adversity, flexibility amidst changing circumstances, and sustainability through extended conflicts. That optimal hope struggles to sprout and take root is an internal motivation rather than an external assessment.
Once each of us has the strength to complete our cycles of mourning and take a breath for healing, we are restitching our torn hearts into the fabric of the One that continues to connect and inspire optimal hope to redeem this broken world.
Dodge, Debbie Lieberman & Carolyn Rice
For rabbis writing High Holiday sermons during the Israel-Hamas war, procrastination pays off
By Jacob Gurvis, JTA
On the morning of Oct. 7, Rabbi Erez Sherman was preparing for the Yizkor memorial service at his Conservative synagogue, Sinai Temple in Los Angeles. He had written a sermon, somewhat presciently, about memory. It was titled Hard to Say Goodbye
Then he received a text message from his predecessor, Rabbi David Wolpe, who was three hours ahead in Boston: “Change your sermon.”
News had broken about Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel, and while Sherman said he typically doesn’t use technology on Shabbat and holidays, it became clear this was no typical holiday. For his sermon that day, Sherman ended up reading text updates from someone in a shelter in Ashkelon, near the Gaza border.
Now, as rabbis across the United States prepare their sermons for the upcoming High Holidays, the first since Oct. 7 sent shockwaves across the Jewish world, many are acutely aware that similar last-minute changes could be needed yet again. As the Israel-Hamas war continues and the U.S. presidential election approaches, the volume and pace of news show no sign of abating. For any rabbi interested in preaching on current events, that uncertainty presents a challenge.
But as Rabbi Nicole Guzik, Sherman’s wife and co-senior rabbi, points out, it’s a challenge with which rabbis are — often somberly — familiar.
“I hate to say it, but look what has happened during the months of September and October,” Guzik said. “What was it like to be a rabbi during 9/11? What was it like to be a rabbi during the Yom Kippur War? Being a rabbi is being able to pivot and to give meaning and significance and the grounding of Torah to current events.”
Rabbi Jennifer Frenkel, the senior rabbi at Congregation Kol Ami, a Reform synagogue in Cherry Hill, N.J., said High Holiday sermon writing often boils down to “the art of procrastinating.” That’s especially true, she added, when the holidays fall as late as they do this year. Rosh Hashanah begins the evening of Oct. 2, nearly three weeks later than it did last year.
“I think clergy have learned a lot since 9/11, since all these things tend to hit around the holidays, about being open to needing to scrap everything we’ve thought of and start again,” Frenkel said.
Frenkel, who plans to speak about current events for one of her High Holiday sermons, said she has been collecting resources and brainstorming with colleagues. But while in a typical year she would likely have an initial draft by
this point, she has not yet started writing that sermon.
“That process, I imagine, is going to start much later than it has,” Frenkel said. “Certainly with the situation in Israel ever evolving, the political climate in the country. So that’s kind of where I am — not very far at all. But I think that’s the best place to be right now, just staying open to the meaning that we’re finding in the day-to-day.”
Guzik, who is planning to speak about the Gaza war on Rosh Hashanah, said the conflict has simplified rabbis’ preparations in one key way — when it comes to choosing sermon topics.
“You know you’re going to speak about Israel,” Guzik said. “I would be shocked if one of the five sermons that people deliver, (if) one’s not about Israel, that would be a very hard thing for me to hear. I think it kind of relieves that uncertainty. I think the question will be the direction.”
Rabbi Ariel Rackovsky, who leads Congregation Shaare Tefilla, a Modern Orthodox synagogue in Dallas, said he has recently been writing his Shabbat sermons later than usual and, where possible, avoiding references to specific events that could quickly become outdated.
For the High Holidays, he said, he plans to keep his sermons focused on broader subjects that can be written ahead of time with little risk of requiring changes, and when he talks about Israel, current events will not be “the sole focus” of his remarks.
“Given that the specific reality may change, not just from one day to the next but from one hour to the next, my discussions are going to focus on the types of themes that you can prepare for in advance, that you can anticipate,” Rackovsky said.
Michele Lowe, a playwright who advises rabbis across the country on their sermons, said many of the rabbis she Continued on Page 28
Nicole Guzik and Erez Sherman, the husband-wife team of co-senior rabbis at Sinai Temple in Los Angeles.
Sinai Temple
Sermons
Continued from Page 27
works with ahead of this High Holiday season plan to speak about the war and antisemitism, even if they gave similar sermons last year or in the months since Oct. 7.
Lowe is advising roughly two dozen rabbis on 37 sermons for this fall — her largest workload since she began moonlighting as a so-called “rabbi whisperer.” Most of her clients are Reform rabbis and the majority are women, she said.
Lowe said that any rabbi who chooses to speak about the war knows they will likely need to continuously edit their sermons until the day they deliver them.
“Because this is something that is unfolding literally by the day, I think that if they are going to be preaching about the war, for example, they know that,” Lowe said. “It’s absolutely not a surprise.”
Lowe said the current moment reminds her of another recent crisis that accelerated ahead of the High Holidays: the COVID pandemic. In 2021, even as vaccination rates increased, the spread of the Delta vari-
ant cast uncertainty over how synagogues would approach the holidays.
“Everyone thought in July of 2021, everybody’s going to stay healthy, things are going to be OK,” Lowe said. “And then what ended up happening was, the more the summer came on, a lot of those sermons had to get rewritten.”
On the plus side, Lowe said, giving a sermon about the war or other current events during the High Holidays provides rabbis a luxury often not available to them on a typical Shabbat: Time.
While she usually encourages brevity — “I’m of the belief nobody ever complained that the sermon was too short,” she quipped — Lowe said High Holiday sermons are often closer to 20 minutes, sometimes twice as long as a typical Shabbat offering.
As rabbis tackle — or revisit — these topics on the High Holidays, length is not the only factor to weigh. There’s also the question of navigating the political climate in one’s own congregation, a reality that differs in each community.
At Sinai Temple in Los An-
RELIGION
geles, Sherman said the clergy have historically tended to steer clear of politics — an approach that drew criticism when Wolpe argued for it.
“We don’t give political commentary, we give spiritual food for the soul,” Sherman said. “Anybody can go read the news on whatever site they would like to, but when you’re going to come to a synagogue on Shabbat, on holidays, on High Holidays, I think people want to feel connected three ways: To each other, to a deeper sense of themselves, and to God.”
“When we asked our leaders, should we go back to what we were doing pre-Oct. 7, they said, ‘No, we’re not enjoying what you’re doing, but we crave it,’” Sherman said.
To Frenkel, the appeal of an Israel sermon — for both the rabbi and the congregation — is the opportunity to use Jewish tradition and text to draw meaning out of a difficult situation, an exercise that can be repeated, even on the same topic.
Sherman said his community includes members of all political stripes, and that he and his colleagues “really try to present ideas of how to think and not what to think.” That apolitical approach does not apply to Israel, however, which he said has been a topic of conversation and education “literally every week” since Oct. 7.
In fact, that’s a practice Sherman said his congregants have validated. About five or six months after the war began, Sinai Temple’s rabbis asked layleaders whether they should stop talking about Israel.
“For many (congregants), they haven’t been in the synagogue to hear every Israel sermon that we’ve given, or every sermon on antisemitism, or every sermon on the meaning that we find in community right now,” Frenkel said. “These sermons are kind of the heavy hitters. Are we going to echo some of the things that have already been said this year? Absolutely. But I think there’s always a new angle.”
Rackovsky has experience revising his sermons quickly. In 2018, American-Israeli activist Ari Fuld, whom Rackovsky
ANNUAL MEDICARE ENROLLMENT PERIOD
October 15 - December 7
Learn ways to: Stay Informed. Stay Healthy. Save Money. Find out how the October 15 - December 7 Medicare Annual Coordinated Election Period can work for you. Get tips on how to enroll for 2025 coverage in a Medicare prescription drug plan (Part D) and/or a Medicare Advantage Plan.
Medicare and OSHIIP, the Ohio Senior Health Insurance Information Program, are o ering three 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. By appointment only. Please call the desired location to schedule your appointment.
Please bring your medication list, Medicare card, and current plan information to your appointment. OSHIIP Medicare Counselor and JFS volunteer Connie Blum will also be counseling and helping with 2025 plan selection; she can be reached at 937-503-1979
knew personally and who had a relationship with Rackovsky’s synagogue, was stabbed and killed by a Palestinian teen in the West Bank days after Rosh Hashanah. Rackovsky said he found a way to incorporate Fuld’s “legacy and what he stood for” into his Yom Kippur sermon that year.
If he has to adapt his sermons this fall, he hopes it’s for a brighter reason. “I hope that that pattern doesn’t hold up this year,” he said. “But on the other hand, there’s already been so much bad news that it’s not like you’re starting from a place where you’re talking about how great things are and suddenly they’re not.”
While last-minute changes to High Holiday sermons have historically been prompted by tragedy, Guzik isn’t ruling out the possibility that good news could throw a wrench into her sermon this year.
“Say suddenly on erev Rosh Hashanah, I get news that — God willing it happens much earlier — a deal has been reached and the hostages are being released, you better believe that my sermon is changing,” she said.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22 9 AM - 2 PM at Huber Heights Senior Center 6428 Chambersberg Rd., 45424 For an appointment, call 937-233-9999.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12 9AM - 1PM at The Boonshoft Center for Jewish Culture and Education 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville, 45459
For an appointment, call 937-610-1555.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15 9AM - 2PM at Earl Heck Center 201 N. Main St., Englewood, 45322
For an appointment, call 937-836-5929
Rabbi Jennifer Frenkel
This year’s High Holiday kids’ books celebrate diversity
By Penny Schwartz, JTA
The enduring traditions of the High Holiday season take shape across time and place in the latest crop of children’s books about Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot.
This year’s books transport readers back to biblical times, whiz them to the old-world streets of Istanbul, remember the etrog trade in 18th-century New York City, and celebrate harvest festivals from very different cultures. All beckon families with stories that display the rich diversity in Jewish culture.
In this heartwarming story, Rafael, a young Jewish boy in Istanbul, wishes his grandmother, Nona, and his cousins Alegra and Leon, “anyada buena,” the Judeo-Spanish greeting for a happy new year shared by Sephardic Jews at Rosh Hashanah. Kids follow the cousins at the bustling outdoor market, where they help Nona shop for the ceremonial foods they will enjoy that evening at their traditional Sephardic meal.
The cousins’ excitement is briefly dampened when an older kid bullies them while they shop. But Alegra uses her voice to stand up to him, leading the way for Rafael and Leon to speak out as well. A playful pack of friendly cats gets in on the action, keeping it light. When the family gathers for the holiday, Nona praises the kids for their teamwork. The book concludes with a note about Sephardic customs and a handy glossary.
Max and the Not-So-Perfect Apology
Carl Harris Shuman; illustrated by Rory Walker and Michael Garton • Apples & Honey Press; ages 6-8
In this cartoon-style page-turner, readers meet Max, a young inventor who saves time in the morning by washing only one side of his face. When Max and his best friend Emma join forces for
their Torah-class project about the biblical story of Jacob and his brother Esau, Max is determined to win first prize. But their teacher arranges different teams. Jealousy and feelings of being left out threaten their friendship. It’s a perfect set-up for a fun-filled adventure when Max powers up his time-travel machine, this time without his co-pilot Emma. He lands in ancient Israel, where plenty of jokes between Max and Jacob, Jacob's son Joseph and Jacob's brother Esau will have kids chuckling. There are meaningful lessons to be shared about forgiveness that reflect the themes of Yom Kippur.
An Etrog from Across the Sea
Deborah Bodin Cohen and Kerry Olitzky; illustrated by Stacey Dressen McQueen Kar-Ben; ages 4-10
Award-winning authors Deborah Bodin Cohen and Kerry Olitzky team up in a charming Sukkot tale lavishly illustrated by Stacey Dressen. Set in the early 18th century, a Sephardic Jewish family travels by stagecoach from their country home to New York City to their grandfather Luis’ large house. Leah, her brother Aaron, and their mother eagerly await Papa’s return from his travels from Corsica in time for Rosh Hashanah.
In a postcard, Papa has promised to bring home a perfect etrog — the fragrant citrus fruit used during Sukkot. But when Papa doesn’t arrive, they fear something is wrong. Grandpapa Luis comforts Rachel with a beautiful silver etrog cup. But will her Papa return for Sukkot, bringing the promised etrog?
To everyone’s relief, Papa returns home just in time, and the etrog finds its home in Leah’s silver cup. In a note, families learn that the story is based on the life of Luis Moises Gomez (1660-1740), a prosperous merchant and trader from Britain who settled in New York.
Mixed-Up Mooncakes
Christina Matula and Erica Lyons; illustratContinued on Page 38
Sacred Speech — a new series For Heaven's sake
The new rabbi was mystified. Every Shabbat, an argument broke out during the service when it came time to recite the Shema. Half the congregation would tell everyone to rise: “We stand for Shema Yisrael, the watchword of Juda-
ism!” The other half would remain unmoved, declaring, “The Shulchan Aruch (Code of Jewish law) says if you’re already seated, you stay seated to say the Shema, so we sit!”
Invariably, each faction would end up glaring at the other. In desperation, the rabbi
appointed a delegation to interview the congregation’s aged founding member.
During their conversation, one congregant asked, “Wasn’t our tradition to stand for the Shema?” “No,” the man shook his head. Another congregant jumped in, “So the tradition was to sit for the Shema?” The man frowned. “No.”
Frustrated, the rabbi interrupted. “Tradition or not, just tell them one or the other! Every Shabbat, one group argues ‘stand,’ the other argues ‘sit!’”
The old man smiled. “That was the tradition.”
One might conclude that argument is part of the Jewish heritage. Abraham, Moses, and Job all argued with God. Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brothers, and the wilderness Israelites all engaged in notable disputes.
The Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmuds are independent encyclopedic collections of rabbinic arguments, debates, and competing opinions about law and tradition generated across many centuries.
Jewish learning commonly takes place in chevruta, pairs of students who challenge each other’s views. Jews even argue about the appropriate toppings for Chanukah latkes: applesauce or sour cream?
Argument is part of human heritage. In Genesis, we learn that God created humans, male and female, in the Divine image. “Unlike coins, however, whose images all appear identical, not one human is similar to another,” explain the sages of the Talmud.
Every human is a oneof-a-kind amalgam of unique characteristics, abilities, experiences, emotions, thoughts, and speech — almost as if designed to generate disagreement.
motives, ego) is destined not to endure. What is an example of a disagreement that is for the sake of Heaven? The disagreement between Hillel and Shammai. What is an example of a disagreement that is not for the sake of Heaven? The disagreement of Korach and his followers.”
A machloket directed toward discovering truth, not toward gaining power, winning, or self-aggrandizement, is heavenly.
It seems humans are destined to clash by heavenly design. But to what purpose?
The story of the Tower of Babel appears shortly thereafter in Genesis. It begins, “Now the entire earth was of one language and uniform words.”
Many biblical scholars conclude that Babel was a deliberate attempt to create a homogenous society where no diversity or individuality was allowed.
Everyone adopted the same values and mission, lived in the same area, and spoke the same language. There was a single way to think, to express oneself, and to act.
Rejecting the coerced uniformity, God’s response was to confuse the people’s speech and scatter them over the face of the earth. It seems humans are destined to clash by heavenly design. But to what purpose?
To discover truth. “Only God can see the totality of truth,” Rabbi Jonathan Sacks explains. Humans “can see only fragments of truth at any one moment among the limitless perspectives.”
But machloket, disagreement or constructive conflict, can bring us closer to the truth.
To respect the person. Every human, in the image of God, is deserving of respect. Talk to each other, not at each other. Actively listen — hear, pay attention, understand, and reflect — and listen more than you speak. Separate the viewpoint from the individual, and debate the viewpoint, not the person. Look for common ground in another’s views. Reiterate your opponent’s arguments before sharing your own. And take note of how the Talmud characterizes the end of the machloket: “Even a father and his son, or a rabbi and his student, who are engaged in Torah study together become enemies. But they do not leave there until they love each other.”
To value diversity of opinion. Too often, we gravitate toward similar outlooks, but both hearing and challenging contrary views are essential. Chasidic wisdom teaches: “If a tree grows in isolation it is likely to become crooked
and bent. However, trees that grow together in a forest grow straight and tall — they ‘keep each other straight,’ so to speak. Similarly, for truth to be upheld, it is fundamental that human beings do not live in intellectual isolation, only hearing views that reinforce their own. Vigorous and respectful debate is crucial.”
Regard disagreement not just as conflict but as a collaborative activity in pursuit of honesty and truth, not necessarily consensus.
Listen to others’ views and imagine how they can enlarge your own understanding of the truth. Be open to the outcome.
For three years, the House of Shammai and the House of Hillel disagreed. Each of these academies said, "The halacha (law) is in accordance with our opinion."
Ultimately, a Divine Voice emerged and proclaimed: "Elu v’elu — Both these and those are the words of the living God." Look for the divinity that may be found within the views of people who disagree with you.
Seventeen and a student in Israel, Deborah set out to meet with her parent’s rabbi, tasked with convincing her to return to America.
She was prepared to explain why she would be staying in Israel, even against her parents’ wishes.
Along the way, she texted a friend, “I’m off to an argument, and I hope I win!” He responded, “Not likely. If you have a discussion you can get somewhere, if you have an argument you never win.” Only a machloket for the sake of Heaven can endure.
Literature to share
Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren't Growing Up by Abigail Shrier. This New York Times bestseller reports on the decline in the mental health of America’s youths and how the mental health industry has both contributed to this trajectory and itself grown exponentially along the way. The therapeutic approach to children now influences how we treat, discipline, teach, and talk to our kids and grandkids, with little discussion about its short- and long-term effects. Wellwritten, fast-paced, and engaging throughout, Bad Therapy will increase your awareness of what’s going on behind the scenes — and in some cases right before your eyes.
To seek truth. We learn in Ethics of the Fathers, “Every machloket that is for the sake of Heaven (in pursuit of truth) is destined to endure, and one that is not for the sake of Heaven (provoked by ulterior
Tucky Jo and Little Heart by Patricia Polacco. This moving tale of kindness and friendship is based on the true story of Johnnie Wallen who, as a Kentucky lad of 15, joined the army the day after Pearl Harbor. Central to his wartime experience is what happened in the jungles of the Philippines. It will bring tears to your eyes. Another unforgettable tale from the renowned author, this illustrated book is appropriate for upper elementary ages through adults.
Candace R. Kwiatek
Slow-Cooked Sweet & Sour Iraqi Lamb for Rosh Hashanah
By Joanna Nissim
The Nosher
The wonderful thing about Jewish food is that so many dishes deliciously demonstrate Jewish migration. There are so many examples of the same dish cropping up in different countries with only a slight variation and nowhere is this proved more than with ingree
This slow-cooked dish of lamb, eggplant and tomatoes with the Iraqi signature sweet and sour gravy varies only slightly in recipe and spelling in Jewish kitchens across the Middle East.
It continues to be a firm favorite among the Iraqi community, who call it ingerie; it’s served for Shabbat and festivals as a wonderful showstopper.
Many Jews of Baghdad emigrated to Mumbai as early as the 1700s and, unlike other Jewish communities in India, they were able to kasher their own meat, and therefore, could eat dishes like ingree.
Over the years, the dish remained the same regardless of the country it’s cooked in; both communities maintain the traditional tangy flavor, with the Iraqis using lemon and the Indians using tamarind to give the sharp tang.
One of the reasons that this dish was so loved by both communities was that it was just as good served at room temperature the following day and was therefore a great dish to finish off for Shabbat lunch.
There is also documentation of the lamb being substituted for beef or ground beef depending on what was available at the time.
The Indian version stays true to the Iraqi original and has not absorbed any of the Indian flavorings. For example, the much loved Iraqi dal sambusak or aruk (rice patties with fish or meat), to which the Indian community adds a pinch of garam masala to the filling.
Although this ingree recipe takes two to three hours to cook, the assembly and preparation are short and sweet and the finished dish stores beautifully for a day or two (if it lasts that long), covered in the fridge.
Total Time: 2 hours 30 minutes-3 hours 30 minutes Yield: Serves six
2 1/4 lbs. cubed lamb shoulder
1 large onion, finely sliced 17 oz. water
1 Tbsp. date syrup (aka silan)
salt and pepper, to taste
2 eggplants
⅔ Tbsp. oil, for frying
3 beefsteak tomatoes
juice of 1 ½ lemons (1 lemon if it is a big one)
2 Tbsp. pomegranate molasses
1 tsp. honey
Begin by sautéing the onion and cubes of lamb until they are golden brown.
Add tablespoon of date syrup and cover with 17 ounces of water. Turn the heat to low
and leave to simmer for an hour, until the meat is tender.
While the meat is simmering, slice the eggplant and fry in olive oil with a little salt and pepper. Once cooked, keep to one side to cool.
Remove the meat from the liquid and lay at the bottom of the casserole dish.
Layer the eggplant slices on top and press down slightly.
Slice the tomatoes and lay them on top of the eggplant.
Pour the cooking liquid from the meat into a saucepan and gently heat through with the other ingredients.
Pour over the layered dish and bake at 365 degrees for one hour until everything is cooked through and bubbling.
Serve as a stand-alone dish or over rice.
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Joanna Nissim
CJ CHAN
Tishpishti is Sephardi honey cake, but better
By Susan Barocas, The Nosher
Honey cake is a hallmark of Rosh Hashanah and the fall Jewish holidays — Ashkenazi honey cake, that is. But did you know there’s a Sephardi cake traditionally served for Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur breakthe-fast, and during Sukkot? Tishpishti symbolizes wishes for a sweet new year and the fullness of life.
Semolina pastries and puddings have been made for centuries across the Mediterranean, North Africa, and Middle East. Tishpishti is made with fine semolina and soaked in a syrup of sugar, honey, or a mixture.
Tishpishti is best when left at room temperature for several hours or overnight so the syrup penetrates the cake. Store wrapped at room temperature for two days or a week in the refrigerator.
Total time: 1 hour 15 minutes
cake bakes.
To make the cake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9-by-13-inch pan. In a large bowl, whisk together the semolina, flour, nuts, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon until well blended. Set aside.
In a large saucepan, mix the oil, water, honey, sugar, cinnamon, zest, salt. Heat over medium, stirring often. Remove saucepan from the heat just as it begins to boil.
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup good neutral vegetable oil (such as avocado, sunflower or peanut)
2 cups water
½ cup honey
½ cup sugar
2 tsp. finely grated lemon or orange zest or a combination
1–2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice or orange blossom water
For the cake:
1 cup fine semolina (not semolina flour)
2 cups all-purpose or oneto-one gluten-free flour or almond flour
1½ cups finely ground walnut or almond meal (not flour)
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
⅛ tsp. salt
about 30 slices blanched almonds, whole almonds or walnuts, or chopped almonds or walnuts
To make the syrup, stir sugar, honey, water, and lemon juice (if using) together in a heavy saucepan over medium heat until the sugar dissolves, about five minutes. Turn the heat up to medium-high until mixture begins to boil, then reduce heat to a gentle boil. Cook about 15 minutes until the mixture thickens, but is still syrupy. Remove from the heat and if using orange blossom water, stir it in. Let syrup cool to room temperature while the
Using a wooden spoon, stir in the flour mixture, about a third at a time, until it's totally absorbed and the batter is well blended. It might seem like the last bit can’t get mixed in, but it will. Resulting batter will be thick and dough-like. Scoop the mixture into the greased pan and gently pat to flatten the batter with your hands so it is spread evenly and the edges are straight and even. (An offset spatula smooths the surface evenly and makes sharp, clean edges.) Score cake into small diamond shapes, about 26-30 pieces 1½ inches wide, cutting about half way down. Gently press one almond slice or whole nut on top of each piece in the center. Bake for 4045 minutes until the edges are just starting to brown.
Take the cake from oven, immediately pour about half the room-temperature syrup slowly, evenly over the hot cake, which will absorb the syrup as it cools. Wait a few minutes, then follow the scoring to cut all the way through the pieces. Pour the rest of the syrup evenly into the cuts and over the whole cake.
The Levy Family
Mrs. Jack Goldberg
Ralph & Sylvia Heyman
Gayle & Irvin Moscowitz
Sylvia Blum & Family
Susan Barocas
Tishpishti, syrup-soaked semolina cake.
Caramelized Apple & Cranberry Noodle Kugel a yummy Sukkot treat
By Elizabeth Kurtz The Nosher
This kugel is perfect for Sukkot, when cranberries are fresh and available. Apples and cranberries taste amazing together and give a sweet-tart contrast to the whole dish.
Buy extra bags of fresh cranberries and store in the freezer so you can make this any time of year.
12 oz. extra-wide noodles
4 Tbsp. margarine, divided
2 Granny Smith apples, chopped
1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries
3 Tbsp. brown sugar
5 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup Tofutti sour cream
3/4 cup vanilla soy milk
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. salt
Topping:
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9-by-13-inch baking pan.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add noodles and cook about seven minutes, or until al dente.
Drain and mix with two tablespoons of the margarine in a medium bowl.
Melt the remaining two tablespoons of margarine in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add apples and cook three to four minutes, or until soft.
Add cranberries and brown
Wishing you a new year of health, happiness and peace
sugar; stir and cook about four minutes, until cranberries are cooked through but not popping open.
Remove from heat and set aside. Combine eggs, sugar, sour cream, soy milk, vanilla, and salt in a large bowl; whisk until smooth.
Add reserved noodles and apple-cranberry mixture; stir to mix. Pour mixture into prepared pan.
To prepare the topping: Combine flour, sugar, oats, oil, and cinnamon in a small bowl; mix well. Sprinkle over kugel. Bake about one hour, until set and cooked through. Best served warm.
L'Shanah Tovah
Wishing you a new year of health, happiness and peace
Wishing you a new year of health, happiness and peace
The Groveman & Begel Family
We wish the Dayton Jewish community a very happy new year
Best wishes for a happy, healthy new year
Best wishes for a happy, healthy New Year Stan Frankowitz
Wishing you a new year of health, happiness and peace
HAPPY NEW YEAR
L’SHANAH TOVAH
Cory & Sharon Lemmon
Judith Weber
Ann & John Paddock
Judy Woll & Ron Bernard
Mike Goldstein & Family
Apples and cranberries taste amazing together and give a sweet-tart contrast to the whole dish.
Julie, Adam, Noah, Zoe & Oscar Waldman
Wishing you a new year of health, happiness and peace
Art & Joan Greenfield
Best wishes for a happy, healthy new year
John, Elaine, Claire & Sarah Gaglione
We wish the Dayton Jewish community a very happy new year
Robert & Vicky Heuman
Best wishes for a happy, healthy new year
L’Shanah Tovah
Cong. Anshe Emeth, Piqua, your northern neighbors
Wishing you a new year of health, happiness and peace
Brenda Rinzler
May good health and happiness always be with you
The Knoll Family
Wishing you a new year of health, happiness and peace
Barbara Sanderow & Family
May the year ahead be blessed with good health & cheer
Steve, Shara, Rachel & Natalie Taylor
Wishing everyone a sweet and good new year
Cantor Andrea Raizen
L'Shanah Tovah
Sis Litvin
Out with the old, in with the new: May you be happy the whole year through
L’Shanah Tovah
Debby, Bob, Alicia, Ted & William Goldenberg
Best wishes for a happy, healthy new year
Susan & David Joffe
Wishing you a new year of health, happiness & peace
Cheryl & Franklin Lewis
Best wishes for a happy, healthy new year
Steve & Liz Musin
Best wishes for a happy, healthy new year
May the new year bring much happiness and peace to you and to Israel
Meredith Levinson
Edye Leuin & Dave Ziegler
Cherie Rosenstein & Family
Wishing you a new year of health, happiness & peace
Alan & Susan Fitterman Witte
L’Shanah Tovah
Miriamne Krummel
Matt Adkins
Yetta & Shoshana Krummel-Adkins
Wishing you a new year of health, happiness & peace
Maryann & Jack Bernstein
L'Shanah Tovah
Dr. Judy H. Ribak & Family
Best wishes for a happy, healthy new year
Sharon & Bob Burick & Family
Wishing you a new year of health, happiness & peace
The Self Family
Craig, Annie, Josh, Kayleigh & Anna Kate
Wishing you a new year of health, happiness & peace
Paula Gessiness & Jay Holland
New Year's greetings from
Jeffrey Abrahams
Wishing you a new year of health, happiness and peace
Bonnie Mendelson & Family
L'Shanah Tovah
Celia B. Diamond
Jeff & Cathy Startzman
We wish the Dayton Jewish community a very happy new year
Bernard Rabinowitz
Elaine Goldberg
Wishing you a new year of health, happiness and peace
Lynn Foster
Best wishes for a happy, healthy new year
Judge Susan Dlott
Wishing you a new year of health, happiness and peace
We wish the Dayton Jewish community a very happy new year
Beverly Saeks & Family
Wishing you a new year of health, happiness and peace
&
Best wishes for a happy, healthy New Year
Robin & Tim Moore
Wishing you a new year of health, happiness and peace
Anne & Aaron Burke
Wishing you a new year of health, happiness and peace
The Cruse Family
Best wishes for a happy, healthy New Year
Ronni & Marc Loundy
May good health and happiness always be with you
Kim & Candy Kwiatek
Wishing you a new year of health, happiness and peace
Mel & Jan Berman
Wishing you a new year of health, happiness and peace
Harriet Klass
We wish the Dayton Jewish community a very happy new year
Ken Baker
K.W. Baker & Assoc.
Wishing you a new year of health, happiness and peace
Wishing you a new year of health, happiness and peace
&
Wishing you a new year of health, happiness and peace
Mrs. Sharyn Reger
Best wishes for a happy, healthy new year
Lawrence Wagenfeld & Family
May the year ahead be blessed with good health & cheer
& Jeff Thau
Best wishes for a happy, healthy new year
The Garfunkel Family
Best wishes for a happy, healthy new year
Marni Flagel & Family
Wishing you a new year of health, happiness and peace
Frieda Blum
Wishing you a new year of health, happiness and peace
&
Best wishes for a happy, healthy new year
& Susan Mason
Judy Lipton
Rina
Adam
Tara Feiner
Marvin
Jim
Kristen Mitchem
Rex
Louise Tincher
Dr. & Mrs. Stephen Harlan
schedule TEMPLE
holiday
14-year-old Shoah victim's diary inspires world premiere musical at Cincy Playhouse
In 2006, Yad Vashem published a diary in which 14-year-old Rutka Laskier, a Polish Jew, wrote about her life for four months in 1943, until her deportation and murder in Auschwitz. A non-Jewish friend of Rutka had safeguarded the diary for six decades.
usually Anne Frank's. But in Beber's research, she saw that everyone kept diaries generations ago.
"There are many, many diaries of young people who perished in the Holocaust, " she says. "Diaries that survived are at Yad Vashem."
ROSH HASHANAH SERVICES
Erev of Rosh Hashanah
Wednesday, October 2
8:00 p.m. Congregational Services
Rosh Hashanah
Thursday, October 3
9:00 a.m. Family Services
10:30 a.m. Congregational Services
Tashlich following services
KOL NIDRE
Sunday, October 12
8:00 p.m. Congregational Services
YOM KIPPUR
Sunday, October 13
9:00 a.m. Family Services
10:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.
Congregational Services
1:30 p.m. Echos of Strength: Commemorating October 7th
6:15 p.m. Gerald A. Greene
Memorial Break-the-Fast
SUKKOT
Wednesday, October 16
5:45 p.m. Pizza in the Hut
6:30 p.m. Congregational Services
SIMCHAT TORAH
Wednesday, October 23
6:00 p.m. Services and Consecration
7:00 p.m. Potluck Dinner
"The outside world slowly closed down on her, but these few sheets of paper – some 60 handwritten pages in a notebook – reflect the entire universe of an adolescent Jewish girl in the shadow of death," Thomas Vinciguerra wrote of the diary in The New York Times after its publication in English.
Rutka's Notebook is the source material for Rutka: A New Musical, which will have its world premiere production at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Oct. 13 to Nov. 10.
Music and lyrics are by indie-rockers Jocelyn Mackenzie and Jeremy LloydStyles, previously with the Brooklynbased band Pearl and the Beard. Rutka is directed by Wendy C. Goldberg, former artistic director of the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, who has served as jury chair of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Joining the team most recently is playwright Neena Beber, who wrote the musical's book One of Beber's recent projects was as a writer/executive producer with The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
The musical's producers, Amy Langer and David B. Schwartz — the team that conceived of the show — brought Beber to the project on director Goldberg's recommendation.
Another difference: "Anne Frank was hiding in an attic. Rutka was out in the world with her friends."
Why indie rock for the score? "Another Amy and David choice," Beber says.
"They had the music first, which is, I think, unusual for a musical. They thought it was very important to get the sound right. As you can imagine, just singing about the Holocaust, it has to be exactly right. And it's delicate.
"The music is the emotions they are going through. So we want that to feel contemporary, to make people feel those feelings now, to make it feel vibrant and alive, just as Rutka's voice completely does shine, as a very young, youthful, alive voice."
Beber says the producers secured the rights to create the musical from Rutka's sister, Zahava Scherz in Tel Aviv. Neither sister knew the other in life.
"Her sister, Zahava, I've spoken to Zahava multiple times," Beber says. "Rutka's father, like Anne Frank's, was the only one to survive. He met someone in a refugee camp, moved to Palestine, and had another family: one daughter."
When Zahava was 14, she looked through a photo album and asked, "Who is this? The girl looks like me."
Beber says that's when Zahava learned she had a sister and brother who were murdered in the Holocaust.
Zahava plans to attend the opening of Rutka at Cincinnati Playhouse.
"I worked a couple of times with Wendy at the O'Neill Center, workshopping some new plays," Beber tells The Observer from New York. "I became close to one of the Mrs. Maisel actors, Marin Hinkle, who played the mom, and so Marin and I are working on a play that she's the lead in and Wendy directed that at the O'Neill, and so Wendy's the one who asked me to come on board. I am a Jewish writer and celebrate that identity. I've also written young adult stuff."
When people think of Holocaust diaries, the first that comes to mind is
"She continues on the journey to get Rutka's story known," Beber says. "The Holocaust, because it's just so unfathomable and because we still do grapple with hate, it's a story that needs to be told. Especially in a world where we do see these swastikas marching."
— Marshall Weiss
Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park presents Rutka: A New Musical, Oct. 13-Nov. 10, 962 Mt Adams Cir., Cincinnati. Tickets begin at $35. Recommended for ages 12 and up. For details and to purchase tickets, go to cincyplay.com or call the box office at 800-582-3208.
Playwright Neena Beber
The 60-page diary of Rutka Laskier, on which the new musical is based.
Readings for new play about Daytonian who survived the Holocaust as a partisan
The public is invited to attend three readings of a new play, Anschel, by Michael London, based on the book Anschel's Story by Renate Frydman.
The Dayton Holocaust Resource Center’s founder and director, Frydman published the book in 2017. It’s her late husband’s story of survival in Nazi-occupied Poland. Told in the first person, it relates how Anschel “Charlie” Frydman stayed alive as a slave laborer and then as a partisan fighter, when he was only a youth, after his parents and two sisters were murdered.
London, a member of the Ohio Playwrights Circle, adapted the book into a one-person play with grants from the Leon Norman and Mildred Miriam Nizny Memorial Fund and the Eleanor and John Kautz Fund of The Dayton Foundation.
The Dayton Holocaust Resource Center is partnering with the Jewish Federation on this project. The readings, directed by Annie Pesch, will be held:
• Monday, Oct. 21, 7 p.m. with Matthew Shanahan as Anschel at the Loft Theatre, 126 N. Main St., Dayton, 937637-8100. Shanahan also co-recorded the audiobook of Anschel's Story.
• Monday, Nov. 4, 7 p.m. with Maximillian Santucci as Anschel at the Main
Library's Bassani Theater Off Third, 215 E. Third St., Dayton, 937-463-2665.
• Tuesday, Nov. 12, 3 p.m. with Henry Ballard as Anschel at Sinclair Community College, hosted by the Theatre Department, Building 2, 937-512-4580. Contact the venues for tickets to the readings.
"After the readings, we plan to do a full production in spring," Frydman says. "We also hope to bring the play to high schools and colleges in our area as non-profit events.
"The value of this endeavor, like the book, is to bring to audiences the spirit of resilience that Anschel had, the resilience we can all call upon in our own moments of difficulty and trauma."
Telegram
Continued from Page 14
provocateur known as the Shadow, and government agencies such as the Health Ministry also have popular channels.
Telegram is especially useful in wartime and amid cell service disruptions, since it can operate on WiFi, so “using these kinds of applications for simple messaging when SMS isn’t available is a big benefit to folks,” Woolley said.
But in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack, the Israel Internet Association, which seeks to encourage safety and transparency online, warned Israelis against unfettered use of Telegram.
“In light of the Hamas attack, the war in Gaza and the need for urgent and current information, thousands of Israelis have chosen to join the Telegram app,” read a statement from the group.
“But many are unaware of the characteristics and dangers embedded in it…We recommend prohibiting the installation of the app among youth given that it features hurtful and violent content without appropriate moderation or supervision, and lacks a functional reporting mechanism.”
IDF soldiers have also used the app for illicit purposes. Members of an Israeli Defense Forces Psychological Warfare unit operated a channel called “72 Virgins – Uncensored,” posting gore-filled videos of dead civilians and racist language at the beginning of the war.
The IDF at first denied the accusation but later told Haaretz that the account was operated with-
Kids’ books
Continued from Page 29
ed by Tracy Subisak • Quill-Tree Books; ages 4-8
out authorization.
What happens next?
The future of the app hangs in the balance, as it faces two existential threats. The first is from the French legal system. Durov was charged with complicity in spreading child pornography, selling narcotics, and aiding organized crime.
He was released on a 5 million euro bail and ordered to stay in France while he faces a potential trial.
The second is the European Union’s new landmark disinformation and hate speech law, the Digital Services Act, under which the app is expected to face scrutiny.
There’s a hitch, though. The DSA’s hefty enforcement mechanisms only come into effect for so-called “very large online platforms” with more than 45 million EU users.
Telegram says it has just 41 million, shielding it from regulators’ authority to fine the company up to 6% of its revenue.
The EU is now investigating whether Telegram fudged those numbers, according to a Financial Times investigation.
If they reclassify the app, Telegram could be forced to institute content moderation policies or face harsh financial penalties.
“If founders and technology firms won’t, at the very least, come to the table to have a discussion about what can be done, as seems to be the case with Durov, then they are going to be made an example of,” Woolley said.
ish children’s literature, Sammy Spider is back in board-book form in an introductory text about the Jewish holiday cycle. Starting with the fall holidays of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, and Simchat Torah, the book continues through Shavuot in spring, showing the friendly young arachnid who enjoys spinning his web in the home of a Jewish family.
A Jewish mother who lives in Hong Kong is one of the co-authors of a story featuring a young girl whose family celebrates two harvest holidays: Sukkot and the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival. Ruby shops separately with her Chinese Nainai and her Jewish Zayde for supplies for the holidays, but she craves some way to combine them. The book illuminates connections between different traditions for readers who appreciate learning about the world and want to see contemporary models of Jewish family represented in children’s literature.
Sammy
Spider’s
First Book of Jewish Holidays
Sylvia A. Rouss; illustrated by Katherine Janus Kahn Kar-Ben; ages 1-4
Possibly the most famous character in Jew-
OBITUARY
Marilyn D. Scher (Footer), passed away peacefully surrounded by her family, Aug. 31 — at the age of 99. She was preceded in death by her parents, Katherine and Maurice Footer; and the love of her life of 63 years, Sidney Scher; also, son-in-law Craig Rabiner. She is survived by her daughter, Andrea Scher Rabiner of Dayton; sons, Mark Scher of Cincinnati, Gary (Jodie) Scher of Dayton; brothers, Delbert Footer of Dayton, Larry (Hope) Footer of Estero, Fla.; numerous nieces and nephews and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She will be missed by many. She adored her family. Family was the most important thing to her. Donations may be made to Hospice of Dayton, Jewish Cemeteries of Greater Dayton (through the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton or Beth Jacob Congregation), or the charity of your choice.
In their newest collaboration, Julie Salamon and Jill Weber hit the mark with a charming, beautifully illustrated intergenerational story about a young girl named Ruby, her grandparents, and great-grandmother, Tata. Every weekend, when Ruby visits, Tata enchants her with stories imagined from her dreams. On Friday nights, they gather around the Shabbat table and light candles, share challah and enjoy a festive meal.
Ping-Pong Shabbat: The True Story of Champion Estee Ackerman
Ann Diament Koffsky; illustrated by Abigail Rajunov • Little Bee Books; ages 4-8
Kids will cheer as they follow a rising young Ping-Pong star named Estee who aces all her competitions. Every Shabbat, Estee takes a break from the fast-paced game to go to synagogue and later, to enjoy the company of her family and friends. But when Estee qualifies for the national championship that will be held on a Saturday, she faces a hard choice.
In the back pages of this action-packed, cartoon-style book, readers discover the reallife story of Estee Ackerman, who gave up the chance to compete in the national table tennis championship when she was just 11, because it was held on a Saturday. The following year, Estee won the gold medal at the nationals, gratified that she had honored her values and her religion.
