The Dayton Jewish Observer, August 2014

New Cavs coach Blatt a slam dunk p. 5 August 2014 Av/Elul 5774 Vol. 18, No. 12

Published by the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton

The Miami Valley’s Jewish Monthly • Online at JewishDayton.org Hadas Parush/Flash90

Bar & Bat Mitzvah issue

How this Gaza conflict is different

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Mendy Fedotowsky

Ava Kuperman

Ohioans teach at Arab-Israeli camp

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

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Dr. Marti Moody Jacobs with a student in Sakhnin

Gaining trust to combat child abuse in Israel

Address Service Requested

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

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On July 11, the fourth day of Operation Protective Edge, Israelis in the southern town of Nitzan sit and pray together inside a street bomb shelter in anticipation of a code red siren for incoming rockets

Counselor Rabbi Menachem Mordoff, who serves Haredim in Israel

DAYTON Marshall Weiss

Jewish War Veterans’ time-honored tradition at naturalization ceremonies

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By Claire Gaglione Special To The Observer For 20 Dayton-area immigrants, May 29 marked their first day as American citizens. In a naturalization ceremony presided over by Judge Thomas Rose in U.S. District Court at Dayton’s Federal Building, men and women from as far away as Chad, Russia, and Iran took the Oath of Allegiance to the United States.

As these new Americans began their lives as fully naturalized citizens, Joe Bettman and Henry Guggenheimer — members of Jewish War Veterans Post 587 — handed out copies of the Bill of Rights to each one. Volunteers with Dayton’s JWV post have been distributing copies of the Bill of Rights at area naturalization ceremonies for so long, neither Bettman nor Guggenheimer recalls when the practice began.

JWV members who have been fixtures at the ceremonies in recent years include Dr. Ron Gilbert and former Post Commander Larry Briskin. After the oath and the judge’s remarks, members of lo-

cal civic organizations congratulate the new Americans and offer their services.

On this day, Guggenheimer spoke to the new Americans about his own naturalization in 1944. He reminded the new citizens that they had a responsibility to tell their children about what their homeland was like, not only for the preservation of their culture, but also to emphasize what many take for granted: the rights and privileges afforded to Americans.

Bettman said that receiving a copy of the Bill of Rights signifies to new citizens “that they really are Americans... that these rights are now yours.”

“The Bill of Rights shows how we respect everyone regardless of race, national origin, and so on,” Gilbert said.

“Here, you succeed based on your own efforts.”

“Every veteran was fighting or serving because freedom doesn’t come free,” Bettman said. “Even now, people are in dangerous places, fighting for the freedoms we have.”

IN THIS ISSUE

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Jewish War Veterans Post 587 members Joe Bettman (L) and Henry Guggenheimer hand out copies of The Bill of Rights to new U.S. citizens immediately following their naturalization ceremony in U.S. District Court on May 29

The Coffee House is located just inside the Atrium entrance at Door 18. Watch for the Friendship Coffee House sign.

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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • AUGUST 2014

DAYTON-ISRAEL CONNECTIONS

For 8th summer, teaching students English in Arab-Israeli community Marshall Weiss

Marti recruits Jewish and non-Jewish volunteers from America to lead the camp sessions; Jamal recruits families from nearby ArabIsraeli communities to host them.

“The idea is not to stuff the pupils with English but to give them a little bit of fun while they’re studying English,” Jamal says.

“And the major advantage of this course is that the students are exposed to native (English) speakers.”

“Every time, like last year, I learn something new from the camp,” Beth Schaeffer, a retired attorney from Dayton, helps prepare students with the says 15-year-old Donya Al-Bashaer Sakhnin School Summer English Workshop for a mock trial Daghash. “And this

By Marshall Weiss year I am learning something Galilee, Sakhnin is a predomiThe Observer new and that’s why I keep signnantly Arab Muslim city.

SAKHNIN, Israel — In one Jamal and Marti — a member ing.” room, high schoolers act out a “The bureau of education of Temple Beth Or, retired phyfight from Romeo and Juliet. Next sician, and bestselling novelist system (here), as far as we can door, they create poems about — started the project eight years see, is basic math, sciences, a work of modern art. Down languages,” Marti says. “So they ago in Jamal’s town of Deir althe hall, students prepare for a don’t get a lot of self-expression.

Assad. This is the second year mock trial while another group They don’t get art, they don’t the camp has been in residence brainstorms for an ad campaign at Al-Bashaer Sakhnin School. get drama, so we’re trying to to market a camera. give them things they don’t get From June 10 to 26, Alin their school.”

Bashaer Sakhnin School SumMarti has brought more than mer English Workshop empow40 volunteers to the camp since ered 40 Arab-Israeli students to its inception. Among them this sharpen their language skills in year are Temple Beth Or cona creative setting. gregants Beth and Alan SchaefThe camp format was confer, and Alan’s friend Howard ceived and implemented by Smith from Marion, Ohio. Alan Dayton’s Dr. Marti Moody Jais an attorney in Dayton, Beth is cobs and Dr. Jamal Assadi, chair Al-Bashaer Sakhnin Summer a retired attorney, and Howard of the English department at the English Workshop organizer runs his family’s business.

Sakhnin Teacher’s College.

“We learn as much from the Dr. Marti Moody Jacobs with a student in the program Situated in Israel’s Lower students as they do from us,”

Gap Bark Mitzvah Boy in Israel The Year

Praying for peace . . .

c O 2014 Menachem

BMB

From the editor’s desk

At the end of June, I participated in the Jewish Media Summit, hosted primarily by Israel’s Government Press Office, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ministry of Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs. The project Marshall brought together nearly 150 journalists with Jewish media across the Weiss world. During the program, centered in Jerusalem, we only began to touch on dilemmas each of us faces. Must we be apart from the communities we are part of, for example, to provide fair coverage? How should we navigate the most inherent challenges to Jewish journalism, found in the same passage in Leviticus 19:16: “You shall not be a gossip monger among your people; you shall not stand aside while your fellow’s blood is shed”?

How do we balance the impulse to support Jewish life and the Jewish state with the journalistic charge to report on their shortcomings? It’s a tightrope walk. I would make the case that because we love our community and Israel, we are obligated to show current situations as they are, so our readers might take it upon themselves to repair a broken world.

Beth says.

“It’s the cultural exchange,” Alan adds. “That idea makes it a powerful experience.”

“It’s a close-knit thing we don’t have in America,” Howard says of the large, connected families. “Here, they value family, from generation to generation, from grandparents to children. They honor each other.”

Rounding out this year’s volunteers were actor and retired teacher Perry Brokaw of Mt. Vernon, Ohio, and poet Grace Curtis from Waynesville.

Perry has presented acting

workshops in Germany, Bolivia, Russia, and Turkey.

“My idea is to have fun and to have the students come out of themselves, to become someone they aren’t,” Perry says.

Grace met Marti at a literary event.

“She talked about this program,” Grace says. “I immediately went up to her afterward and said, ‘I’m in.’”

Jamal says most of the volunteers’ hosts are students who study English at the teacher’s college, which is next door to Continued on next page

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DAYTON-ISRAEL CONNECTIONS

Teaching English to Arab-Israelis

Marshall Weiss

Editor and Publisher Marshall Weiss MWeiss@jfgd.net 937-853-0372 Contributors Dr. Rachel Zohar Dulin Claire Gaglione Rachel Haug Gilbert Miriam Karp Rabbi Shmuel Klatzkin Candace R. Kwiatek Mark Mietkiewicz Simone Lotven Sofian Advertising Sales Executive Patty Caruso, plhc69@gmail.com Proofreaders Karen Bressler, Claire Gaglione Rachel Haug Gilbert, Joan Knoll Pamela Schwartz

Actor and retired teacher Perry Brokaw from Mt. Vernon, Ohio directs students with the Al-Bashaer Sakhnin School Summer English Workshop in a scene from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet

Continued from previous page the school.

“The hosts are people who are interested in promoting coexistence,” he says. “Receiving people at your home can be a difficult experience and you have to have a lot of courage to do so.”

Jamal says it surprises Americans how much time Arab-Israeli extended families spend together. The large family circles can prove challenging for some American volunteers, Marti says.

“And if somebody needs to be alone, it’s hard,” she says. “Because there’s two weeks when you’re not alone.”

One of this year’s hosts is Zainab Naamneh, who just completed her third year at the teacher’s college and will soon begin her career as a teacher.

“I thought it would be a wonderful thing to practice my English, to re-expose myself to native speakers, so I asked my husband if we can have a room for them, and we prepared a place in our house,” Zainad says.

Dr. Malik Yousef, principal of the Al-Bashaer Sakhnin School, says he jumped on the opportunity to host the camp two years ago. He even pushed back final exams in the high school two weeks earlier this year so his students could participate.

“In order to have the English language you should live it,” Malik says. “So we don’t have the facility and the money to send all of them abroad, then we have those guys (the camp) here with us, they give them the chance to talk English and to live the language with the accent.”

For the past four years, the project has come full circle for Jamal and the most exceptional campers each spring when he brings them to stay with host families in the Dayton area.

“When we go to the states,” Jamal says, “I see the identity of our hosts: I see Muslims, I see Jews, I see Christians, and we meet at dinner parties, and I know they are there because we are there. And they cooperate because all of them want the project to sucPAGE 4

ceed. I can see the commitment and the dedication that is practiced and extended in order to succeed, to show the good side of our humanity. We are human beings regardless of our background.”

On their visits, they have toured the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, the Dayton Peace Museum, Cincinnati’s National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, and have participated in Passover Seders at Temple Beth Or and Marti’s home.

“The idea, in the end,” Jamal says, “is to promote the idea of peace and coexistence between peoples.”

During Marti’s stay with the Assadis in June, they hosted a party for past campers who’ve visited Dayton.

“Each of them stood up and said what they remember most from the trip and it was so moving and interesting because one of the girls said that her favorite thing was the Seder,” Marti says. “We did a Seder at our house and all the kids participated.

We had a Muslim host who’s fairly conservative and she participated, and Jamal, too.”

Marti observes that Arab-Israelis “can be very ambivalent, but are, by and large, very grateful to be living here (in Israel). It’s a stable country, there’s education, there’s health care, there’s jobs, there’s transportation, there’s infrastructure. And generally there’s peace.”

Little more than two weeks later, Operation Protective Edge, Israel’s campaign to cripple the Hamas terror organization in the Gaza Strip, would begin.

Jamal’s son Mahmoud, who studies nursing in Amman, Jordan and is now home for the summer, says his first choice would be to live in Israel; his second choice is the United States.

“And you hear that over and over,” Marti says.

“We are not terrorists,” Jamal says.

“We are not people who like to shoot or like to kill as the media likes to convey it.”

Billing Sheila Myers, SMyers@jfgd.net 937-853-0372 Observer Advisor Martin Gottlieb Published by the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton Judy Abromowitz President David Pierce President Elect Melinda Doner Vice Pres.

Mary Rita Weissman Vice Pres.

Bruce Feldman Vice Pres.

Cathy Gardner CEO The Dayton Jewish Observer, Vol. 18, No. 12. The Dayton Jewish Observer is published monthly by the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton, a nonprofit corporation, 525 Versailles Dr., Dayton, OH 45459.

Views expressed by guest columnists, in readers’ letters and in reprinted opinion pieces do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Dayton Jewish Observer, The Dayton Jewish Observer Policy Committee, the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton or the underwriters of any columns. Acceptance of advertising neither endorses advertisers nor guarantees kashrut.

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

Goals • To encourage affiliation, involvement and communication.

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

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• To provide an historic record of Dayton Jewish life.

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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • AUGUST 2014

THE REGION

New Cavs coach Blatt a slam dunk Michael C. Butz

By Michael C. Butz The Cleveland Jewish News David Blatt, The Cavaliers’ new head coach, knows what he wants as he begins to learn about Cleveland, and he doesn’t want to be hungry.

“I really hope I can get some good hummus and tahini,” he said, smiling. “I don’t know if they have it — or if they have it in the form that I’m familiar with — but Jewish food anywhere is good.”

Blatt — who will move to Cleveland from Israel, where he was an overwhelmingly successful coach for Maccabi Tel Aviv — addressed the media for the first time as Cavs coach at a June 25 news conference at Cleveland Clinic Courts.

Blatt’s hiring marks a historic moment not only for the game of basketball — it’s the first time a Euroleague coach has made the transition directly to head coach in the NBA — but also for Israel and the worldwide Jewish community.

“Based on the response in Israel, it means a great deal. No less important — and I want this out there — the Cavaliers have greatly increased their fan base by 7 million,” the 55-year-old veteran coach told the Cleveland Jewish News. “The whole country of Israel has now become Cleveland Cavaliers fans because one of their sons is in the program. It means a lot because of the example it sets and because of the road traveled, which a lot of people are familiar with.”

Blatt will become the team’s 20th head coach. Yahoo! Sports reports Blatt agreed to a threeyear contract that has a team option for a fourth year and that his annual base salary will be $3.33 million, with incentives that could raise it to $5 million per year.

“I can’t tell you how excited I am to be here today next to this man. David really is sort of the culmination of a very long and thorough process, and he’s truly — as I went back and looked at the criteria we set out more than a month ago — he’s truly the embodiment of every characteristic we most sought in a coach,” said Cavs general manager David Griffin at the news conference.

The Cavs fired coach Mike Brown, who spent only one season leading the Cavs during his second coaching stint with the team, on May 12. The

NFL Championship in 1964.

Russian coach of the year in team finished the Blatt’s Israeli wife, Kin2005.

2013-14 season 33-49 neret, and their four children Blatt made headlines in — disappointing in May when he led his team to — 22-year-old twin daughters, that many, includa 17-year-old son and a 15-yeara Cinderella championship ing Cavs majority in the Euroleague, in the pro- old daughter — will eventually owner Dan Gilbert, cess toppling CSKA Moscow move to Northeast Ohio. believed the team “In time, I’ll find a synaand Real Madrid — both was poised to make gogue in the area I live in,” he considered stronger teams. the playoffs after acsaid, joking that he also needs Following the Eurolecumulating several to find a gym. “I think it’s ague championship, Blatt high draft picks in important for me to be a part of announced he’d be leaving recent years. the Cleveland community as a the team. At a June 12 news Blatt isn’t a conference, he explained his whole, and certainly, a part of complete stranger to the Jewish community specifireasoning.

Cleveland. He was cally.”

“I’m not leaving Maccabi here in the 1980s Also, basketball runs in his for a bigger contract. I’m as a player when family. leaving to pursue a differhe went up against “My son is a basketball a Kevin MackeyDavid Blatt is introduced to Cleveland media June 25 ent dream for my career, player, and currently is being one which began in my coached Cleveland at Cleveland Clinic Courts recruited to come play college childhood when I grew up State University next year. We’re going to have watching the Boston Celtics,” team, and he visited to scout to 1993, and nine of those some decisions to make because said Blatt, according to Macplayers for the Euroleague dur- seasons were spent playing in he has an army commitment ing Randy Wittman’s tenure as Israel. Upon retiring, he began a cabi Tel Aviv’s website. “This and he’s also a kid who has a is something I have not yet Cavs coach between 1999 and coaching career that’s lasted to chance to go and play in the achieved and I truly believe 2002. this day. first division in Israeli basketDespite relatively few visits, He started in 1993 as a coach that this is the best time to make this move. Maccabi asked ball even next year,” he said.

Blatt said he has friends in for Hapoel Galil Elyon, and “One thing for sure is he’s not me to stay; it was my decision Cleveland and was welcomed in 1999, he joined Maccabi Tel quite ready for the Cavaliers, to leave. I am very proud to to the city in the days following Aviv as an assistant coach. He but we’re thinking about it have been a part of this team his hire. later became head coach.

“Several people from the Blatt left Maccabi Tel Aviv in and club, and I thank you again down the road.”

What position does his son from the bottom of my heart.” community have reached out 2004 but returned for a second Blatt now has his chance, and play? to me already — too many stint in 2010. In between, he “Point guard — and he’s if he’s successful, he’ll bring names even to mention — but coached various teams in Rusbetter than his Dad,” Blatt adCleveland its first championit’s a good feeling knowing I’m sia and Italy. mitted. “Which is what we all ship by a major professional coming into a place where I’m Along the way, he was want, of course, particularly as sports team since the Browns going to have a few friends.” named Israeli coach of the good Jewish parents.”

Born in 1959 in suburban year in both 1996 and 2002 and won the pre-Super-Bowl-era Boston, Blatt grew up watching the Bill Russell-era Boston Celtics win 10 NBA championships in 11 seasons from 1959 to 1969.

The Celtics tacked on three more NBA titles in 1974, 1976 and 1981.

Blatt played prep basketball at Framingham South High School according to JTA, and went on to play point guard at Princeton University from 1977 to 1981 under respected longtime Tigers Coach Pete Carril.

During his sophomore year, Blatt was recruited by a coach for an Israeli kibbutz team to play overseas that summer, JTA reported. He did, and in 1981, Blatt returned to Israel to win a gold medal at the Maccabiah Games as a member of the U.S. national team.

“From the time that I came On June 17, Ohio Development Services Agency Director David Goodman (Center, L) and Yaron here in ’79, I knew that I wanted Sideman, Consul General of Israel for the Mid-Atlantic Region of the United States (Center, R), signed a to play in Israel professionmemorandum of understanding that enters Ohio into an economic development partnership with Israel. ally for some years,” Blatt told The MOU creates a working group of Israelis and Ohioans to pursue opportunities for investment, joint Haaretz. “I realized I wasn’t product development and university projects. Seated with Goodman and Sideman are Joyce Garver Keller, making the NBA, and I wanted Ohio Jewish Communities executive director; and Yariv Becher, economic consul, Israeli Economic Mission to continue to play basketball to the U.S. Midwest. Standing (L to R): Ryan Burgess, assistant director, Ohio Development Services professionally, in terms of Agency; Dan Foley, Montgomery County commissioner; Michelle Kohn, regional manager for Cincinnati money, but more than anything, Children’s Hospital Global Child Health Center; Rick Carne, Dayton Region Israel Trade Alliance; Tom to keep playing.”

Sudow, Global Cardiovascular Innovation Center. According to Keller, the agreement has been in the works for nearly a decade. In 2013 two-way trade between Ohio and Israel exceeded $465 million.

Blatt’s career spanned 1981

Ohio & Israel sign economic development agreement

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • AUGUST 2014

PAGE 5

THE WORLD

How is this Gaza conflict different from other Gaza conflicts?

By Ben Sales, JTA SDEROT, Israel — Over the first week of Operation Protective Edge, Israel has endured more than a thousand rockets.

Yet the only Israeli death so far from Hamas’ attacks was a civilian killed July 15 by mortar fire while visiting soldiers near the Erez border crossing into Gaza.

In many ways, Israel’s Operation Protective Edge — its third Gaza operation in six years — is much like previous Israeli campaigns in the territory. Israel has used airstrikes to exact a toll on Hamas and has massed troops on the Gaza border, threatening a ground invasion.

So far, Israel has conducted nearly 1,500 airstrikes over Gaza, with more than 190 Gazans having died as of July 15.

With only a single Israeli fatality so far, this conflict has been like no other in the country’s history. Despite Hamas rockets that travel farther than ever, Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system has intercepted 90 percent of the rockets heading toward population centers, and early-warning sirens and shelters have protected residents.

Iron Dome was first used during Israel’s 2012 conflict with Hamas, though the system has added batteries and been more fully developed since. In

Ariel Hermoni/Ministry of Defense/Flash90 With Protective Edge, that conflict, six Israelis Israel has so far expewere killed, five of them rienced a new kind of from rocket fire. conflict.

The protective shield But Amichai Cohen, provided by Iron Dome a research fellow at the has allowed most Israelis Israel Democracy Institute, to continue their daily wrote that Iron Dome lives. And even amid could lead to more blame discussion of a cease-fire, being assigned to Israel it has given the army because its civilians are breathing room to conless exposed to harm than tinue its mission. is Gaza’s population.

“We are striking “Given the real, yet Hamas with increasing much smaller threat that strength,” said Israeli Israeli Prime Min. Benjamin Netanyahu & Defense rockets pose to Israeli ciPrime Minister Benjamin Min. Moshe Yaalon briefed in the South Front vilian lives after the invenNetanyahu at a Cabinet Command on Operation Protective Edge, July 9 tion of Iron Dome, there is meeting July 13, adhas managed to intercept about a real question of whether dressing Israeli citizens.

90 percent of its targets. the IDF’s freedom of action has “Regarding civil defense, one “If anyone hit 9 of 10 in the been curtailed,” Cohen wrote in needs not only an Iron Dome majors, he would be cast in gold an email sent out July 14 by his but iron discipline as well. You and sent to Cooperstown,” Eran institute. “Is the IDF, in effect, have shown this up until now.

This could yet take a long time, Lerman, deputy chief of Israel’s penalized for this life-saving and we need both your support National Security Council, told technology?” a Jewish Federations of North One place that doesn’t benefit and your discipline.” from Iron Dome is Sderot, a Israel’s goal in this conflict is America delegation July 14, city in the western Negev that to destroy Hamas’ rocket stocks referring to America’s Baseball Hall of Fame. has been absorbing Qassam and launchers while reassertLerman hailed Israel’s rockets from Gaza since 2000. ing the Israel Defense Forces’ Because Sderot is only about a military deterrence. Meanwhile, “remarkable ability to defend ourselves technologically.” half-mile from the Gaza border, the Israeli home front has been Experiencing loss of life from Iron Dome doesn’t have time to guarded by Iron Dome. Within war has been central to the seconds of when a rocket is David Buimovitch/Flash 90 Israeli experience. Yom Hazilaunched, Iron Dome identifies karon, Israel’s memorial day, the type of missile fired, maps is a solemn occasion for the where it came from and where country. Civilian and military it will land, and — if necessary — fires a missile to knock it out deaths have been a key part of the calculus of when to begin of the sky. and end military campaigns.

The missile defense system

An Iron Dome missile defense battery set up near the southern Israeli town of Ashdod firing an interceptor missile, July 14

intercept the rockets. Residents have 15 seconds from the time of a warning siren to run for shelter.

Speaking to leaders of North American Jewish community federations who came to show solidarity with the city, Sderot’s mayor, Alon Davidi, encouraged the Israeli army to fight until it eliminates Hamas’ offensive capabilities. He said that the long-range rockets now being fired into the rest of the country have made millions of Israelis understand what Sderot has had to endure.

“All of the country feels what it means to want to save your life,” Davidi said. “In Tel Aviv they have two minutes.

We have 15 seconds. We have a joke: If we lived in Tel Aviv we could take a shower and make coffee” before seeking shelter.

“We pray the army can do the job and succeed with the operation,” he added.

Many Israelis would likely welcome the respite from running to bomb shelters that a cease-fire would provide. But Talia Levanon, head of the Israel Trauma Coalition, said that if this operation ends like Israel’s last in 2012, there will hardly be a break in the conflict for Sderot.

Whether “it’s called an operation or it’s called a war, we need to seek shelter with my children and grandchildren, “ Levanon said. “Right now we speak of a cease-fire. We’ll wait a year or two years for it to happen again. We’re always licking the wounds of the previous operation and preparing for next time.”

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THE WORLD

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8 things you need to know about the Gaza-Israel conflict

By Uriel Heilman, JTA Israel and Hamas are fighting their third major conflict in six years, and while some things have stayed the same, the battle lines have also shifted in a few notable ways. Here are eight things you need to know about the current conflagration: • Iron Dome has been a game changer: The U.S.-funded Israeli anti-missile system was operational during the last conflagration, in November 2012, but its remarkable success rate this go-around has reduced Gaza’s missiles to more of an irritant than a deadly threat for Israel — so far.

In the eight-day conflict of 2012, Gaza fired some 1,500 rockets into Israel and killed six Israelis, five of them from rocket fire. In the three-week war of 2008-09, 750 rockets were fired into Israel, killing three (another 10 Israelis were killed in fighting). By comparison, more than 1,100 rockets have been fired toward Israel as of July 15 and thus far there’s only been one Israeli death — and by mortar fire at a border area, not a rocket attack.

While one missed rocket can make things drastically worse, the success of Iron Dome has bought Israel time to carry out its Gaza operation without overwhelming domestic pressure for either a cease-fire or an escalation.

• Iron Dome’s success is bad for Israeli PR: It’s a paradox of Israel’s able defenses that media coverage of this conflict has focused overwhelmingly on Palestinian suffering in Gaza, prompting complaints from some supporters of Israel. But in the absence of Israeli deaths, Gaza is where the story is. The scenes of devastation there, the tales of human loss and the Palestinian death toll are much more compelling for most viewers and readers than images of Israelis hunkering down in bomb shelters, taking cover in shopping malls or peeking into a hole in the ground where a rocket landed.

But Israelis would rather suffer bad PR than battlefield losses.

• Israel does not want a fullscale war: Israel’s quick embrace of an Egyptian-proposed cease-fire early on July 15 was a sign of its reticence to launch

a ground invasion of Gaza and turn this into a full-scale war -despite calls from some hawkish Israeli Cabinet members to deal Hamas a death blow.

Israel would love to eliminate Hamas, but it doesn’t seem able to do so. Despite some limited success, after every conflagration Hamas has managed to rearm and improve its rocket capacity, as evident in the rocket range on display in this round of fighting. Another ground operation likely would result in greater loss of lives on the Israeli side and worse carnage in Gaza.

The Israeli government

wants this over quickly because the longer it lasts, the greater the chances an errant Israeli strike causes mass Palestinian civilian deaths or a Palestinian rocket manages to penetrate Israel’s defenses and cause significant Israeli casualties.

• Israel and Hamas are at a stalemate: On the defensive front, this confrontation has been a big win for Israel: Iron Dome has managed to render Hamas’ rockets mostly impotent, and the Israeli army foiled an attempt by Hamas attackers to infiltrate Israel via sea.

There’s been just one Israeli Continued on Page 10

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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • AUGUST 2014

PAGE 7

Little by little, gaining trust to combat child abuse in Israel’s Haredi communities

By Marshall Weiss, The Observer TEL AVIV — Rabbi Menachem Mordoff, 48, sees his work as an opportunity to save lives.

“We have a 5-year-old who sexually abused five children in his kindergarten.

Five years old,” Mordoff says. “And his mother says, ‘The girls in the kindergarten, when I was a kid, did to me exactly what he is doing now.’”

Mordoff is one of six Haredi (fervently-Orthodox) counselors out of a total of 50 on the staff of the non-profit ELI: The Israel Association For Child Protection. The six work with clients from the Haredi world.

In an interview with The Observer through a translator, Mordoff described how over the past six years, the Haredi counselors have gained the trust of some Haredi communities in Israel to break cycles of child abuse.

A resident of Bat Yam, just south of Tel Aviv, Mordoff, his wife and two children are members of the Orot Hatorah national religious movement.

He says child abuse in Israel’s Haredi communities is basically at the same level as in Israel’s non-Haredi population, but it takes more time to reveal it in the Haredi world; the victims don’t always understand what’s being done to them. “(There’s) a lot of not being exposed to any sexual education or to television,” Mordoff says.

The rabbi has been a counselor with ELI for three years. He studied family therapy and was a student at ELI’s college. He says it is unusual for someone in the Haredi community to become a family therapist.

“When I started, I talked to a friend of mine who is a rabbi,” Mordoff says. “He said there is no need for such a thing.

While giving therapy in my community, I met the issue of child abuse.”

Mordoff says the trauma that’s specific to Haredim is when the perpetrator comes from within.

“How can it be that a person of ours is a perpetrator?” He explains. “Many times the resistance comes from the fact that we are a closed community and we don’t want anybody to penetrate and see what’s going on within the community. These communities are known or consider themselves to have high morals and values, and their self-esteem is very high and could not allow themselves that this kind of thing will happen there.”

Another obstacle, he says, is that members of a Haredi community might not know how to classify what has happened.

“For instance, if a girl was raped, is it considered to be a rape or is it because the girl behaved herself in a way — so they are not sure who is to be blamed.

PAGE 8

Marshall Weiss

Rabbi Menachem Mordoff is one of six counselors with ELI: The Israel Association for Child Protection who serve the Haredi (fervently Orthodox) communities in Israel

And then it’s very easy to blame the victim.”

Dr. Hanita Zimrin, the first person to receive a Ph.D. in social work in Israel, founded ELI in 1979. Last year, ELI’s therapists treated 3,910 abused children and their family members; 82 percent of the cases in therapy comprised sexual abuse victims and their families. ELI maintains a safe house, a school-based social outreach and prevention program, its training college, and programs for children with special needs, new immigrants, and Arab populations in Israel.

Even before factoring in the challenges of penetrating Haredi communities, ELI must overcome concerns families have about their privacy, and the social and legal ramifications that surround abuse.

During ELI’s early years, people would call its hotline and say, “I need help, but what would happen if I come?” When counselors would say they were required to report their names, potential clients would hang up.

“Now this is something that we succeeded to put on the Israeli law, that when a family is in therapy and we know the therapy would be ruined if a report is being done, we have a committee that has the authority to say, ‘let’s call the police, make a report, but it won’t go on the computer, as long as the therapy continues successfully,’” Zimrin says. “The committee is composed of our social worker, a DA, and a policeman. So it’s an official authority which allows the ability to really go on with the therapeutic intervention, and we call the process the Shadow of the Law.”

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • AUGUST 2014

would call the rabbi and would gaining trust in the Haredi Now, Zimrin says, ELI obey whatever he would have community is always difficult. asks callers not to reveal their “They always start out suspi- to say. That’s why we are names, to come to the offices building this connection with cious,” he says. without counselors knowing the rabbis, because the mother He talks of a child who voltheir identities. would go to the rabbi.” unteers with Save The Animals “We make a call to child In other words, if their rabbi in Tel Aviv. This child told him protective services and say we have a case and we’ll know in a the only creature that loves him insists on ELI’s services, a family can’t say no. few weeks or months from now is the dog he takes care of.

Mordoff leads family therapy “There are some children who this person is in this case,” sessions but not with girls indithat it’s easier for me to gain she says. their trust because I am coming vidually. Women who provide She adds that in the absence therapy for ELI’s Haredi clients from the same community,” of legal evidence that can take are permitted to work with the perpetrator away, the ability Mordoff says. boys until they are 12.

“What I do is I go and speak for ELI’s counselors to say, “we ELI started its work with to the rabbi of the community, see you, we watch you, and Israel’s Haredi communities to the spiritual authority as the moment you do something in 2008 following a case in the well as to the parents, to gain we’ll know and we’ll report, Lubavitch comtheir trust before I creates a kind of protection.” munity of Kfar can gain the child’s The first step ELI’s counChabad. trust.” selors take when they start “There was a He also sees therapy is to protect the child rabbi, a melamed physical and mental so the abuse will not go on. (teacher) who abuse cases, but “Sometimes it’s not easy bewas a pedophile,” few cases of neglect cause the perpetrator is a part Zimrin says. “And among the Hareof the family,” Mordoff says. we were invited to dim.

Even if the family does treat it. It wasn’t Zimrin agrees. report the case to the police, the that easy. They “One of the reasons perpetrator can come back. didn’t want us to you see less neglect “If this perpetrator is the talk about sexual in those families is father, you want to send him to abuse and we said jail,” Zimrin says. “He deserves because they have a if we are not albig support system to be in jail and sometimes the lowed to say ‘sex’ and everybody sees Dr. Hanita Zimrin, child, the victim, needs to see we are not coming. what’s happening.” president of ELI: The that justice was done. Except Mordoff says ELI Israel Association for Child This guy abused for after three years, he’s back Protection more than 100 has established a home. And he’s still the father children. It took network of connecor the brother or the uncle. I years before we succeeded to tions and approval with the always say there is no good gain their trust. We gave expert highest rabbinic authorities in decision or bad decision: there testimony in the court against Israel’s Haredi communities. is bad or worse. And we need this melamed. We succeeded to “We have letters of apto find the better of these.” proval,” he says. “So sometimes prove 29 cases, and he got 29 Mordoff adds that when ELI years in jail.” you see resistance from the counselors assess that the famZimrin says ELI now preslower level but you do have the ily is unable to protect a child, support from the ents musicals to the children in they will remove ELI has Kfar Chabad about prevention. higher level.” the child from “And in order to work there, Most perpetrathe home. established tors in the Haredi we took the musical to the “Usually we a network of rabbinical authorities in Kfar community, believe in the Chabad and we translated it, if ability of the connections and Mordoff says, you can say, to the right terms are men, “except family to heal approval with the because there is and now we have two separate itself, but not musicals, one for boys and one a gender separahighest rabbinic always,” he for girls which goes on in their tion in this comsays. “In those authorities in educational system.” munity, we see families where A week before this interview, men who abuse the background Israel’s Haredi Mordoff completed teaching boys and women is not stable, communities. a 60-hour course for Haredi who abuse girls. where the family kindergarten teachers to show You would see is falling apart them how to identify indicators not because of the abuse but be- a lot of same-gender abuse of abuse and what to do once in the institutions, you know, fore, it is quite seldom that you they identify them. like boarding schools of girls can rehabilitate these families.

“They knew it existed but or boarding schools of boys: Sometimes it’s not that we can they did not know it existed in you see the elder abusing the mend the family but we can try their community,” he says. to break the cycle from happen- younger in the same gender.”

Whenever Mordoff would He also notes that often the ing in the next generation.” sexual abuse is intergeneration- give an example of a symptom ELI also provides counseling of abuse, a teacher would say, al. Once the therapy with an for the perpetrators but coun“But this is exactly what I had abused child evolves, Mordoff selors can’t provide therapy for in the kindergarten.” realizes that one of the parents all those involved in a case.

“What Menachem did not was abused as a child as well.

“Many times this is because When calls come to ELI’s ho- say is how many fights he has you are not able to,” Mordoff in his community in order to tline from the Haredi commusays. “Many times it’s because work here. He is a brave pernity, Mordoff says, most often the victim would not accept they are now from a representa- son,” Zimrin says. “And he has you as a therapist if he knows tive calling on behalf of a rabbi. the support of his rabbi.” you are also the therapist of the A challenge specific to closed “The secular families would perpetrator.” societies such as Haredim, Zimcall the police, us, welfare,” Even with Shadow of the rin adds, is that of the extended Zimrin says. “The Orthodox Law legislation, Mordoff says

family within each community.

“And the entire community is split into those who support the victim and those who support the perpetrator, “ she says.

“So the work that we do has to do with the individual, with the family, as in other cases, but with the community at large.”

When there are reports of abuse within a Haredi family, Mordoff says, the parents feel that they have to sacrifice someone, either the victim or the perpetrator.

“This is what we’re trying to cope with, that they do not have to sacrifice,” he says.

Another significant problem, Zimrin says, is that perpetrators in the Haredi world are expelled to other Haredi communities rather than treated.

“The perpetrator will be sent from B’nai Brak to Brooklyn,” she says. “From Brooklyn to Jerusalem. And we do have cases of pedophiles right now: we have pedophiles in Jerusalem, a group of pedophiles who are

imported from Brooklyn, and they have to deal with them here.

“So the community takes the problem and puts it away. This is (what happens to) the perpetrator. Except for this is what happens for the victims as well.

A victim in this community will be taken out of school. And there is another issue which we have to take care of: the siblings will not get a good shiddach (match). So what we need to do is to be very careful as to how we touch it.”

A few weeks later, with rockets flying in from Gaza, ELI will double its clients’ therapy sessions.

In an email, Zimrin explains that their abuse clients are much more sensitive to the pressures all Israelis now face.

“Children in the process of therapy might have a regression to their prior trauma. In addition we try to help the parent and give them tools to cope with this situation.”

Please Mark Your Calendar

37th Annual Friendship Dinner Sinclair Community College, The Ponitz Center Monday, October 27, 2014 Reception – 5:30 p.m. • Dinner – 6:30 p.m.

During the Annual Friendship Dinner, The National Conference for Community and Justice of Greater Dayton (NCCJ) will honor individuals and one area corporation for their personal and professional commitment to promoting understanding and respect among people of all races, religions and cultural backgrounds.

‘The Annual Friendship Dinner is an important vehicle to not only support NCCJ’s mission but also to educate the community about our important and inspirational work.’

2014 Dinner Chairs

‘The Annual Friendship Dinner is a critical component of NCCJ’s programmatic activities. It enables us to raise essential funds to continue our important Susan Cornett Larry Burick Thompson Hine LLP Community Volunteer communal work.’

Dinner Committee Beth Adelman, Coldwell Banker Heritage Karen Basista, Miller-Valentine GEM Marieta Bingatati, WilmerHale Dominique N. Davis, RP, LifePlan Financial Group, Inc. Steve Davis, Thompson Hine LLP Michael Houser, Houser Asphalt & Concrete Beverly Louis, Community Volunteer Kermit F. Lowery, LexisNexis Gayle Moscowitz, Community Volunteer Stefanie Nemitz, Dayton Children’s Hospital Belinda Matthews Stenson, Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce Michael Roediger, The Dayton Art Institute, Ex Officio Yu Chen Yu, PNC Bank Mary E. Tyler. The National Conference for Community and Justice

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • AUGUST 2014

PAGE 9

The Gaza-Israel conflict Continued from Page Seven death so far — from mortar fire at the Erez border crossing where Israel and Gaza meet.

On the offensive front, however, Israel hasn’t managed to curtail the rocket fire, kill the top leaders of Hamas or significantly disable its fighting capabilities.

Hawks argue that Israel could accomplish those goals if it launched a full-fledged war, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu either doesn’t agree or is unwilling to pay the price in Israeli lives or Palestinian collateral damage.

For Hamas, which started off the war severely weakened politically, the battle has been an opportunity to demonstrate the improved range of its rockets and reassert its position as the Palestinian faction willing and able to take on Israel. But Hamas’ inability to inflict any significant damage on Israel or protect Gaza from Israeli assault is not good for its reputation.

• Hamas’ Egyptian lifeline is dead: If it wasn’t clear before Egypt’s cease-fire proposal, it certainly is now: Hamas has no friend in Egypt. The proposal did not include any of the Hamas leaders’ demands, highlighting the stark changes in the Egypt-Hamas relationship since Hamas’ 2012 confrontation with Israel.

When the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi was elected Egyptian president in June 2012, Hamas rulers in Gaza gained a powerful ally in their neighbor to the south (Hamas is affiliated with the Brotherhood).

Trade and arms trafficking in the tunnels linking Gaza and Egypt increased, and with the blockade of Gaza breached, Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula became a staging ground for attacks against Israel.

That’s over now. Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi treats Hamas with the same disdain and antagonism he has for the Muslim Brotherhood, and he has choked off Hamas’ access point at the Egypt-Gaza border.

And in today’s Egypt, where intimidated press outlets take their cues from the government, Egyptian media have followed suit. A clip of excerpts from Egyptian TV programs taken July 9-12 and compiled by the Middle East Media Research Institute shows Egyptian commentators and anchors slamming Hamas.

• The psychological effects PAGE 10

of air-raid sirens across Israel may be long lasting: For the first time, Israel’s populous center, including Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, are the sites of frequent air-raid sirens. Though the incoming rockets are either being intercepted or allowed to fall harmlessly in unpopulated areas, the psychological impact of this conflict is likely to reinforce Israelis’ sense of being under siege — particularly for those too young to remember the last time their cities were the site of bombings or rocket fire.

As Israeli author and journalist Ari Shavit wrote in London’s Sunday Times, the quiet of the last decade or so in metropolitan Tel Aviv — since the end of the Second Intifada — helped lull many Israelis into thinking they lived in some kind of Middle Eastern version of California, complete with skyrocketing real estate prices and high-tech start-ups. But with parents now running with their kids to bomb shelters, that bubble has burst.

Combined with the wars in Syria and Iraq, the revolution and counterrevolution in Egypt, and the rest of the Arab Spring, Israelis now may have more reason than ever to be wary.

• The link between Middle East ferment and antisemitism worldwide persists: As with past conflagrations between Israel and the Palestinians, antisemitic incidents around the world have spiked since Israel launched its bombing campaign in Gaza. A rabbi in Morocco was attacked on his way to shul last July 11.

Protesters in Paris marched to the Abravanel synagogue on July 13 chanting antisemitic slogans, throwing projectiles, and clashing with police and Jewish security guards. A synagogue elsewhere in France was firebombed. In Chile, a Jewish home was stoned while assailants yelled antisemitic epithets, according to the World Jewish Congress.

• American Jews are playing their familiar role: The Israel-Diaspora relationship may be changing, but the way American Jews react to Israel in a time of crisis is not. The American Jewish organizational establishment is collecting money, going on solidarity missions and taking to the airwaves to defend Israel’s reputation abroad. Those staples of solidarity efforts, Israel emergency fundraising campaigns, are back in full swing.

OPINION

Why Gaza doesn’t have bomb shelters

By Jonathan S. Tobin One of the key talking points by apologists for Hamas in the current conflict is that it isn’t fair that Israelis under fire have bomb shelters while Palestinians in Gaza don’t have any.

Among other factors, the lack of shelters accounts in part for the differences in casualty figures between the two peoples.

But somehow none of the talking heads on TV ever ask why there are no bomb shelters in Gaza.

There’s no question that Hamas is outgunned by Israel.

The Islamist terror group that still rules over Gaza has thousands of rockets, but Palestinians eager to cheer news of Israeli casualties have been disappointed as the Iron Dome anti-missile defense system has knocked down most of the rockets shot over the border from Gaza at Israeli cities in the hope that carnage will result.

But even though Israel has gone to unprecedented lengths to avoid killing Palestinian civilians as it attacks the missile launch sites and Hamas command centers and ammunition storage areas that are embedded in packed neighborhood and especially in or around schools, mosques, and clinics, some civilians have died.

Given that the Israelis have pounded the Islamists with nearly a thousand strikes during the conflict’s first week, the approximately 150 Palestinian fatalities is actually pretty low.

But still, fewer Palestinians would have died had there been places for them to seek refuge during the fighting.

The assumption is that the Hamas-run strip is too poor to afford building shelters and safe rooms for its civilians, a point that adds to the impression that the Palestinians are helpless victims who deserve the sympathy if not the help of the world in fending off Israel’s assault on Hamas’s arsenal.

But the assumption is utterly false. Gaza’s tyrants have

So, what do you think?

Send your letters (350 words max., thanks) to The Dayton Jewish Observer, 525 Versailles Drive Dayton, OH 45459 MWeiss@jfgd.net

plenty of money and material to build shelters. And they have built plenty of them.

They’re just not for the people of Gaza.

As is well known, Gaza is honeycombed with underground structures from one end of the strip to the other.

This doesn’t only refer to the more than 1,400 tunnels that have connected Gaza to Egypt through which all sorts of things — including rockets, ammunition, building materials as well as consumer goods– came into the strip until the military government in Cairo stopped the traffic.

The chief problem facing the Israel Defense Forces in this campaign is the same one they faced in 2008 and 2012 when they previously tried to temporarily silence the rocket fire.

Hamas’s leaders and fighters are kept safe in a warren of shelters build deep underneath Gaza. There is also plenty of room there for its supply of thousands of rockets and other armaments.

Moreover, they are also connected by tunnels that crisscross the length of that independent Palestinian state in all but name ruled by Hamas.

Indeed, when you consider the vast square footage devoted to these structures, there may well be far more shelter space per square mile in Gaza than any place in Israel.

If these structures were opened up to the civilians of Gaza, there is little doubt that would lower the casualty figures.

Indeed, if the leaders of Gaza and their armed cadres emerged from their safe havens under the ground and let the civilians take cover there they could then show some real courage.

But lowering casualties isn’t part of Hamas’ action plan that is predicated on sacrificing as many of their own people as possible in order to generate foreign sympathy.

Instead, they cower behind the civilians, shooting missiles next to schools, storing ammunition in mosques and, are actually urging civilians to act as human shields against Israeli fire on Hamas strongholds.

Indeed, they have enlisted the people of Gaza as part of their misinformation campaign in which they attempt to conceal the presence of missile launching or masked, armed Hamas fighters in civilian neighborhoods.

But I have a question for the Palestinians and their foreign cheerleaders. What if, instead of devoting all of their resources and cash to an effort to turn Gaza into an armed fortress, bristling with thousands of rockets and honeycombed with tunnels and shelters where only Hamas members and their dangerous toys are allowed, the people of Gaza had leaders who had devoted their efforts to improving the lot of the Palestinian people since they took over the strip after Israel’s complete withdrawal in 2005?

What if instead of importing missiles and other arms from Iran, Hamas had decided to try to turn their tiny principality into a haven of free enterprise instead of an Islamist tyranny built on hate and which survives on the charity of Israel (yes, Israel, which every day — including when there is fighting going on — sends trucks laden with food and medicine into Gaza to prevent the humanitarian crisis that the Palestinians claim has been happening there from occurring) and the West?

Hamas has sown the wind with its cynical decision to start a war against Israel and the people of Gaza are reaping the whirlwind.

Gaza doesn’t have bomb shelters. What it does have is a ruling terrorist movement that uses civilians as human shields.

By tolerating such a government and by cheering when their Islamist rulers provoke Israeli counter-attacks by shooting rockets at Israeli civilians, the people of Gaza cannot entirely blame the Jewish state or the world for their fate.

But whatever we may think about their decision to accept this situation, the lack of bomb shelters in Gaza should not argue against Israel defending its people.

Lowering casualties isn’t part of Hamas’ action plan

Jonathan S. Tobin is senior online editor of Commentary magazine.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • AUGUST 2014

OPINION

Israel under rocket attack: a letter from Modi’in was announced and we walked

By Simone Lotven Sofian downtown to the restaurant.

Special To The Observer It’s Sunday, 3 p.m. and David Ironically the barrage of four rockets targeting Jerusalem and I just got back from Jerusalem. I am studying at Pardes landed in and around Hebron and Bethlehem. and David, whose sessions We missed the air raid siren at Hartman Institute finished later that evening in Modi’in last week, decided to do some because we were just leaving shopping for gifts downtown.

Jerusalem when it happened.

Now I am waiting for the So this morning we got up at washing machine to finish so I 6 a.m. to beat the traffic can hang up the clean and just as I started to clothes. That is our make coffee, the siren normal life in Israel, started up. but as you all know, Into our safe room, right now, life here is close the blast door not quite normal. and the blast shutters I need to go back and we waited. We to yesterday, Shabheard four distinct bat. Yesterday, we also Simone Lotven booms and waited drove to Jerusalem to Sofian about 10 minutes. I finspend the afternoon ished making the coffee, we got with friends leading a group ready and left for Jerusalem. from the United States. We Just like every other mornwent swimming at their hotel, ing, we drove on Route 443 took showers and as we were with all the other early comdiscussing where to go to dinmuters and lots of trucks. ner, the sirens started to wail.

There was no delay at the For David and me, this was checkpoint into Jerusalem and our very first alert. Everyone the soldier, who looked 12 years went into the stairwell, which old, glanced at us and waved is the hotel’s safe area. About us through. We passed the huge 10 minutes later, the all clear

headquarters of Teva Pharmaceuticals and into the city, through the traffic and parked in our usual parking spot near the Inbal hotel.

From there, I walked about a mile to Pardes, first stopping at the Café Hillel at the Hadar Mall for my morning’s second cup of coffee, hafuch gadol, dal shuman, lakachat (large skim latte to go) and on to classes.

It looked like every other morning. Children on their way to camp, mothers taking little ones to day care, the exercisers running, walking or on bikes, people waiting for the bus and lots of cars honking at each other.

This is my Israel under rocket attack from Hamas in the Gaza strip. In the southern parts of the country, it is different.

Beersheva, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Sderot and all the towns and kibbutzim between them have been living under steady, more intensive and more dangerous rocket attacks.

Life there is interrupted, more than just for eight or 10 minutes. People can’t go to

work because all the summer camps and summer school programs for their children are closed. The train now stops in Beersheva and goes no farther.

And yet, there too, people take their children to the park or join friends for coffee, ice cream or a falafel.

But they also know where the nearest shelter is since they only have 15 seconds to get there in an attack. In Tel Aviv, Jerusalem or Modi’in, we have one-anda-half to two minutes to find shelter. That is really plenty of time.

There is tension. There is worry. People especially worry about family and friends who are in the IDF or in a reserve combat unit. As I write this, it is a watching and waiting game.

No one wants a land operation into Gaza, everyone is waiting to hear a siren or watch the next rocket intercepted by the Iron Dome, and we are waiting for this unprovoked attack on Israel and her citizens to end, but can’t figure out how that is going to happen.

So, there is this hidden and

sometimes not-so-hidden anxiety and tension.

But we adamantly maintain our “normal lives” while being sure what our options for shelter are when we walk down the street, just in case the siren sounds. Today, after my classes, I walked back up the hill to meet David along with the kids walking home from camp eating ice cream, mothers pushing babies in strollers as they do their errands, and people sitting in cafés and restaurants.

By the time you read this, we may know how this ends, and maybe not. But what I have learned is that Israelis are adamantly normal in times of threat. This is not to maintain some macho image of the tough Israeli. Rather, it is a statement that Israel is a normal country in a very dangerous region, and even more so that Israelis have a right to make their lives here, work here, and bring up their children here.

Simone Lotven Sofian is the grant manager for the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton.

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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • AUGUST 2014

PAGE 11

CALENDAR OF EVENTS Classes

Temple Israel Classes: Mondays, 1:15 p.m.: Knitting & Crocheting.

Wednesdays, 10 a.m.: Lattes & Legends, Dorothy Lane Mkt., 6177 Far Hills Ave. Wednesdays, noon: Talmud study. Saturdays, 9:30 a.m.: Torah study. 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton. 496-0050.

Discussions

from the Talmud: Saturdays following noon kiddush lunch w.

Rabbi Ginsberg. 305 Sugar Camp Cir., Oakwood. 293-9520.

6:30-8 p.m. At the home of Julie & Dr. Adam Waldman. For Jewish teens grades 9-12. R.S.V.P. to Yale Glinter, 610-1555.

Children

Young Adults

Chabad Camp Gan Izzy: Through Aug. 15. Ages 4-11. 2001 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood. 643-0770.

Teens

Beth Abraham Synagogue Tales

BBYO Kickoff: Wed., Aug. 27,

YAD Rafting & Camping Weekend: Fri., Aug. 15-Sun., Aug. 17. Adventures on the Gorge, Lansing, W.Va. $100 includes Shabbat dinner, camp site, rafting & all meals. Bring tent & sleeping

bag. Transportation available for additional cost. R.S.V.P. to Hilary Zappin, 610-1555.

Seniors

Jewish Family Services Events: See Federation newsletter in center spread.

Community Events

JCC Movie Night at Dixie DriveIn: Thurs., Aug. 7, 8:15 p.m. ET.

DO YOU NEED...

Free. 6201 N. Dixie Dr., Northridge.

Beth Abraham Synagogue Shabbat Under The Stars: Fri., Aug. 8, 7:30 p.m. At the home of Diane & Ralph Williams. R.S.V.P. 293-9520.

JCC Summer Fling Italian Feast: Sun., Aug. 10, 5 p.m.

Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville. $10 advance, $15 at door. R.S.V.P. to Karen Steiger, 853-0372.

Beth Abraham Synagogue Opera Afternoon: Sun., Aug. 17, 2 p.m.

The Elixir of Love & discussion w. Cantor Jerome Kopmar. Free.

305 Sugar Camp Cir., Oakwood.

293-9520.

Hillel Academy Open House for Students & Parents: Tues., Aug. 19, 6 p.m. 305 Sugar Camp Cir., Oakwood. 277-8966.

LOANS DISCRETE AND CONFIDENTIAL CALL MR. RICH FOR A PRIVATE APPOINTMENT MORAINE CITY PAWN 4725 SPRINGBORO PIKE 45439 | 937.297.9112

The Quality Care of Bethany Village...

JCC at Dayton Art Institute Twilight Concert: Wed., Aug. 20, 7 p.m. David Wion & Friends, The Music of Broadway. Free for DAI members, $8 non-members. 456 Belmonte Park N. 223-5277.

Temple Israel Shabbat In The Park: Sat., Aug. 23, 10:30 a.m.

Activity Center Park, Centerville.

Call Temple Israel, 496-0050.

In the Comfort of Your Home.

Bethany Village is one of Dayton’s premier retirement communities because of our exceptional senior care. Now, we bring that same dedicated service to your house with Graceworks at Home. Whether we provide specialized nursing care or help with simple chores around the house, Graceworks at Home helps seniors live independently.

GraceworksAtHome.org PAGE 12

Call for a free consultation: (937) 703-0603 THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • AUGUST 2014

FAITH, LOVE, AND HOPE: Remembering Carol Pavlofsky

Jewish Federation of GREATER DAYTON Friday, August 15-Sunday, August 17 › YAD White Water Rafting Adventure Departing at noon @ Boonshoft CJCE for Adventures on the Gorge in Lansing West Virginia.

Gear up for a weekend of fun with YAD as we camp and raft with friends. Includes Friday shabbat dinner, campsite for Friday and Saturday, all day rafting Saturday and meals along the river. $100 per person.

RSVP to Hilary Zappin at hzappin@jfgd.net or 610-1555

by August 1.

COMING UP: Sunday, September 21 › Heart Health: Every Beat (and Laugh) Counts 2PM @ Boonshoft CJCE Hadassah and the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton invite the women of our community to come put the he-hes in heart health with International Laughter Yoga Specialist Sarah Routman.

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

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

I never had the pleasure of meeting Carol Pavlovsky, of blessed memory.

However, I have heard of her warmth, love and commitment to her family and our Jewish community. Listening to everyon’es stories, I was transported back to a time when Carol was busy raising her family and working to cultivate leaders in our community. I felt from each person who spoke the love and respect they had for our Dayton treasure, Carol.

I’m so grateful to her family for allowing us to recognize Carol’s contributions. I thank each member of the Pavlovsky family for guiding us to present a program worthy of her spirit and her accomplishments. I thank “Carol’s Girls,” who learned from her how to lead and rose to the challenge of making our Dayton Jewish community even more robust.

Thanks also go to Susie Katz and Marla Harlan for speaking so eloquently at our event.

My love of Judaism and my professional leadership were enhanced tremendously that night. Thanks to all of you for inspiring me, and so many present that evening, for decades to come.

Cathy L. Gardner

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton

The Pavlofsky family, ABOVE: Back Row: Howard Pavlofsky, David Miller, Gary Pavlofsky, and Erv Pavlofsky. Front Row: Jamie Pavlofsky, Kathy Pavlofsky, Marlene Miller, Lisa Pavlofsky and Wendi Pavlofsky.

PHOTO CREDIT: KATIE LEHNER

“Carol’s Girls” ABOVE: Standing: Debby Goldenberg, Carole Rabinowitz, Susie Katz, Marcia Kress, Meredith Moss Levinson, Judy Lipton, Elaine Bettman, Judy Abromowitz, and Sarah Moore Leventhal. Seated: Mary Youra, Marla Harlan and Gayle Moscowitz.

PHOTO CREDIT: KATIE LEHNER

YAD PLANS WEEKEND FULL OF FUN in West Virginia Join YAD for a whitewater rafting and camping weekend Friday, August 15 through Sunday, August 17 at Adventures on the Gorge, in Lansing WV. Relax Friday night with Shabbat under the stars, enjoy white water rafting Saturday, depart for home on Sunday morning. Cost $100 per person, which includes all of the following: Friday night Shabbat dinner, camp site for Friday and Saturday, and Saturday all day rafting and meals along the river. Bring your tent and sleeping bags. Transportation available for an additional cost, details available at booking. RSVP by Friday, August 1 to Hilary Zappin at hzappin@jfgd.net or 937-610-1555.

JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON AGENCY NEWSLETTER | AUGUST 2014

DAYTON BBYO CHAPTERS

Gear Up for a New Year

Jewish Community Center of GREATER DAYTON Thursday, August 7 › Movie Night at the Dixie DriveIn: ET The Extraterrestrial 8:15PM at The Dixie Drive-In (6201 N. Dixie Drive, Northridge 45414) Snuggle up under the stars with your family and share the magic with friends while enjoying Steven Spielberg’s classic blockbuster E.T. The Extraterrestrial along with family fun and games. Please bring a canned food item for the Jewish Family Services’ Food Pantry.

Sponsored by Ryan Levin.

Sunday, August 10 › Summer Fling @ 5PM at Boonshoft CJCE Join us for a fantastic Italian feast, delicious desserts, and delightful entertainment by the acoustic duo Reyna and Dana. $10 in advance, $15 at the door.

Wednesday, August 20 › Twilight Concert @ 7PM at The Dayton Art Institute (456 Belmonte Park North, Dayton 45405) David Wion and Friends, The Music of Broadway and More.

No charge for DAI members, $8 for non-members.

Share summer stories and reconnect with friends! Inviting teens in Grades 9-12 for a back to school program on Wednesday, August 27, 6:30-8 pm, at the home of Adam & Julie Waldman.

BBYO is the world’s leading multicultural Jewish youth movement, and there’s an opportunity for you to participate right here in Dayton! Here’s what some current members have to say about BBYO: Andrea Liberman, girls’ president of Hatikvah, describes BBYO as an international youth group for Jewish teens. Boys and girls from around the world are able to participate in local, regional, and international events where they learn about Jewish heritage, perform community service, and have fun with new lifelong friends.

Jason Guadalupe, vice-president of programming for Weprin-Kadima, shares his thoughts about BBYO: “BBYO is on the rise in the Dayton area. Local synagogue programming, BBYO advertising, and growing religious school numbers have increased youth group participation, and programming within BBYO has drawn in new members. Dayton BBYO is diverse, pulling members from Kettering, Centerville, Beavercreek, Vandalia, and Oakwood. Dayton combines entertainment (like go-karting at Scene 75 and rolling sushi with Fusian employees) with more serious activities, such as holding debates and performing all sorts of community service. Both the chapter boards advisors and the city director work to make Dayton BBYO a fun and immersive Jewish experience.”

The Dayton chapters usually meet weekly on Wednesdays from 7-8:30 pm at Sugar Camp (105 Sugar Camp Circle, 1st Floor). For additional information on Dayton BBYO, contact Yale Glinter, JCC Youth, Teen and Family Director/ BBYO City Director at yglinter@jfgd.net or 937-401-1550 or Rachel Wilson, Program Assistant, 937- 401-1541.

Wednesday, August 27 › BBYO Kickoff @ 6:30-8PM at the home of Adam & Julie Waldman Teens in grades 9-12 are invited to celebrate the beginning of a new school year for BBYO!

JCC Early Childhood Care & Education Fall Registration: Select spots still available.

Contact Audrey MacKenzie at amackenzie@jfgd.net or 853-0373 for more information.

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

PLEASE CONTACT KAREN STEIGER REGARDING ALL EVENTS UNLESS NOTED OTHERWISE: 610-1555, ksteiger@jfgd.net JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON AGENCY NEWSLETTER | AUGUST 2014

For their Big Brothers & Big Sisters community service program, campers had a delicious time baking pizza with the JCC preschool campers! Pictured above: Yetta Krummel-Adkins & Vivian Klass. PHOTO CREDIT: LISA SIEGEL

›Mamaloshen

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

Beyn: \BEYN\ Noun\Masculine\ Plural: Beyner A bone.

Expressions with beyn: 1. Az s’iz nishto keyn fleysh, grizhet men beyner - If there is no meat, people gnaw on bones (i.e. they make do with what they have).

2. Es nisht keyn beyner, veln dir nisht vey ton di tseyner - Don’t eat bones and your teeth won’t hurt (i.e. don’t do things that will obviously cause you harm if you want to avoid that pain).

3. A karger ligt oyfn gelt vi a hunt oyfn - A scrooge lies on top of money like a dog on top of a bone.

Preschool Camp Shalom Tzedakah and Chaverim campers discover the wonders of carnivorous plants such as the Venus Flytrap during a trip to Knollwood Garden Center in Beavercreek. PHOTO CREDIT: CINDY TURNER

JEWISH FAMILY SERVICES OFFERS

Transportation Gift Certificates Are you looking for a special gift for that person who seems to have it all? Is there a special occasion coming up for Mom or Dad? Jewish Family Services has an answer for you!

You may now purchase Ticket to Ride transportation gift certificates in the amount of $30 each. Every gift certificate enables the recipient to schedule ten one-way rides provided

by our super friendly drivers. Leave your worries and let us do the driving!

The certificates can be applied to many local destinations such as medical appointments, shopping, banking, and social events. Once a person is registered, appointments will be made based on space availability.

Transportation gift certificates are a great way to give someone

Folk singer and storyteller extraordinaire Bob Ford entertained during the lunch program at Covenant Manor PHOTO CREDIT: CHERYL BENSON

Camp Shalom campers (L) Brianna Becker and (R) Ava Harvey, teach community member Ruth Poling the technique of braiding a loaf of challah at Covenant Manor. PHOTO CREDIT: JANICE KOHN

a thoughtful gift that can be used throughout the year. For more information, please call Joyce Anderson, Transportation Coordinator at 937853-0377.

Janice Kohn

PROGRAM DIRECTOR & VOLUNTEER SERVICES Jewish Family Services of Greater Dayton

As we age, it is important to maintain a healthy lifestyle to the best of our ability. This includes our vision, hearing and dental hygiene. As the body ages, there are natural declines in body functions. A key component to staying healthy is to regularly see your doctor. To keep your vision healthy, it is important to see an optometrist. They can help to find the best strength for your glasses and what you can do to prolong eye health.

Another very important component to overall health is dental hygiene. Going to the dentist regularly can help keep your teeth healthy. With poor dental care, come cavities, disease, and infections. Many conditions in the mouth can lead into the rest of the body.

If you have a tooth infection, that infection can spread through the rest of your body making you very ill.

The dentist can also help to identify any other conditions you may not be aware of. Other diseases have reactions in the mouth, such as Diabetes. A dentist can see and identify if there is another unknown illness.

Hearing is also essential in living a happy, healthy life. Many times, an individual with hearing issues withdrawal from social situations because they cannot hear what is happening. They can become isolated and depressed. There is often some form of help, whether it is a hearing aid, regularly having your ears cleaned, or another assistive device such as an amplifier. Having regular test to include all aspects of health can improve the quality of life greatly.

Your Jewish Family Services Staff

Jewish Family Services of GREATER DAYTON Tuesday, August 5 12:30PM @ Covenant Manor Afternoon at the Movies

Friday, August 8 NOON @ Covenant Manor Fresh Friday delicious home cooked meal. Prepared by Bernstein’s Fine Catering.

Tuesday, August 12 12:30PM @ Covenant Manor Presentation by Sarah Routman, International Laughter Yoga Specialist

Tuesday, August 19 12:30 @ Covenant Manor Musical Selections with David Simpson on Guitar and keyboard

Friday, August 22 NOON @ Covenant Manor Fresh Friday: Enjoy a delicious home cooked meal prepared by Bernstein’s Fine Catering 12:30 PM Bingo

Tuesday, August 26 12:30 @ Covenant Manor Mary Jane Munson, Pianist

PLEASE CONTACT CHERYL BENSON REGARDING ALL COVENANT MANOR EVENTS : 854-6319

JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON AGENCY NEWSLETTER | AUGUST 2014

HEUMAN SCHOLARSHIP AWARDED to Naava Honer

Jewish Foundation of GREATER DAYTON

SHARE YOUR STORY » Do you have a donor

advised fund or endowment fund through the Jewish Foundation of Greater Dayton? We want to hear from you! Share your story and experience with the Jewish Foundation with us, and you may be featured in a future article. If you have any questions or would like to submit information, please contact Alisa Thomas at anelligan@jfgd. net or 937-610-1796.

THE BOOK OF LIFE » The Jewish Foundation

of Greater Dayton is working on a Book of Life, featuring personal stories and messages for future generations. If you have an endowment with the Jewish Foundation of Greater Dayton and would like to be a part of this meaningful project, please contact Alisa Thomas at anelligan@jfgd. net or 937-610-1796 by May 23.

The Jewish Foundation of Greater Dayton is pleased to announce Naava Honer has been named as this year’s recipient of the Heuman Scholarship. Naava holds a bachelor of science in biological sciences from Wright State University.

She plans to attend The Ohio State University this fall, where she will work toward a master of science in mammalian paleontology, which is the study of mammal fossils.

Naava is a member of Temple Israel and proud mother to son Jackson. In addition to her full time studies, Naava volunteers at Hillel Academy of Dayton, where her son attends school. She is also a yearly volunteer at the Jewish Culutral Festival.

Described as an “inspiring young woman who will be successful at anything she puts her mind toward,” Naava has a very special reason for pursuing higher education. “I want my son to have the best chance at becoming a productive member of society. I strongly feel that being a positive role model and leading by example is the best

way for him to succeed as well as myself.” Having expressed a love for learning and a passion for science and discovery, Naava plans to use her degree toward a career as a research scientist or Paleontologist.

Mazel Tov Naava!

The Heuman Scholarship is made possible through a fund established by Bob and Vicky Heuman. Since its creation in 2006, the Heuman Scholarship has been awarded annually to an undergraduate or graduate student who demonstrates both academic achievement and financial need. The scholarship is open to Jewish Dayton area residents.

Applications are accepted from January through March. The award is announced in May. If you would like more information about the Heuman Scholarship, please contact Alisa Thomas at athomas@jfgd.net.

Legacies, Tributes, & Memorials FEDERATION CAMPAIGN IN HONOR OF › 60th wedding anniversary of Elaine and Joe Bettman Pam and David Levine Sandy and Irv Zipperstein › 65th wedding anniversary of Bobbie and Jerry Kantor Sandy and Irv Zipperstein IN MEMORY OF › Rick Harris Sandy and Irvin Zipperstein LINDA RUCHMAN FUND IN MEMORY OF › Rick Harris Judy and Marshall Ruchman Julie Ruchman HOLOCAUST PROGRAMMING FUND IN HONOR OF › Carol Pavlofsky’s lifelong dedication to the Dayton Jewish community Helene Gordon IN MEMORY OF › Phyllis Heider Lori Ohlmann

CAROL J. PAVLOFSKY LEADERSHIP FUND IN HONOR OF › 65th wedding anniversary of Bobbie and Jerry Kantor Esther and DeNeal Feldman BENJAMIN R. SHAMAN COMMUNITY RELATIONS FUND IN MEMORY OF › Bob Emoff › Charles Weprin Dorothy Finder JCC JOAN AND PETER WELLS FAMILY, CHILDREN AND YOUTH FUND IN HONOR OF › 85th birthday of Joe Bettman Joan and Peter Wells BEN AND DOROTHY HARLAN CHILDREN’S FUND IN MEMORY OF › Janice Bernstein, mother of Susie Mikutis Marla and Dr. Stephen Harlan

FAMILY SERVICES SENIOR SERVICES IN MEMORY OF › Rick Harris Esther and DeNeal Feldman Beverly and Jeffrey Kantor › Bob Emoff Lisa and Scott Berliner SPECIFIC ASSISTANCE IN HONOR OF › 65th wedding anniversary of Lois and Gilbert Unger › 80th birthday of Jim Duberstein › 65th wedding anniversary of Bobbie and Jerry Kantor Marilyn Scher › The kindness of Rabbi David Sofian Hyla Weiskind › Speedy recovery of Marvin Levitt › Full recovery of Rebecca Linville Hyla and Dr. Raymond Weiskind IN MEMORY OF › Rick Harris Andi Rabiner Marilyn Scher › Gloria Albert, mother of Jeff Albert Andi Rabiner Hyla and Dr. Raymond Weiskind

› The mother of Michele Hershenson Andi Rabiner SOCIAL SERVICES IN MEMORY OF › Mark Gershon Connie and Stanley Blum FOUNDATION JEREMY BETTMAN B’NAI TZEDEK YOUTH PHILANTHROPY FUND IN HONOR OF › 85th birthday of Joe Bettman Rita Solko › 60th wedding anniversary of Elaine and Joe Bettman Rita Solko Shirlee and Dr. Ron Gilbert Joan and Peter Wells IN MEMORY OF › Rick Harris Jean and Todd Bettman ADDISON CARUSO B’NAI TZEDEK YOUTH PHILANTHROPY FUND IN MEMORY OF › Ann Barry Cohen Patty and Michael Caruso & Family

Donating to an endowment fund is a wonderful way to honor someone. To make a contribution, call Sheila Myers at 937-610-5538. Let us know what fund you would like to donate to, or we will be happy to help you choose a fund.

JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON AGENCY NEWSLETTER | AUGUST 2014

At summer camps & trauma centers, Teen tours alter itineraries Beersheba students help face rockets

TEL AVIV — When the siren eraries to keep participants out rang out in Jerusalem, the 41 of missile range and increasing teenage participants in a fivecontact with parents to preempt Ben Sales week summer Israel trip were undue worry. Instead of taking hard thing.”

By Ben Sales, JTA already asleep, exhausted from kids to the Western Wall in JeWhile Israel suffered its BEERSHEBA, Israel — a day that had begun with a rusalem or the beach in Tel Aviv first death in the conflict on During Israel’s conflict with flight from New York.

— stops typically at the core of July 15, some Beersheba resiHamas in 2009, Eli Nachmani, Within minutes, they were the Israel teen tour itinerary — dents have been treated for already using a wheelchair, trips are headed for northern shock from missile strikes. At awake, out of their rooms and injured his leg when a rocket cities like Safed or taking hikes a temporary treatment center in a fortified room. From their hit this southern Israeli city. shelter, they could hear rockets in sparsely populated areas. for trauma victims, student In the last clash in 2012, Trip directors are coordinatvolunteers handle administra- explode overhead.

Nachmani sustained a head It was July 8, the first day in ing with Israel’s Education tion and engage the patients injury when the blast from a Israel for participants in a trip Ministry, which sends out daily in preliminary conversation rocket knocked him out of his organized by NCSY, the youth Children at an impromptu day camp set guidelines about which sites before professional social wheelchair. arm of the New York-based are off-limits. Trip directors say workers and psychologists The nearest bomb shelter is up for children of hospital workers in Orthodox Union. It was also the they plan to return to Jerusalem treat them. Students are re50 yards from his house, and Beersheva first day of Operation Protective and Tel Aviv if the conflict ends sponsible as well for helping he can’t cover the distance on enjoyed it.

Edge, the military campaign before the trips do. to move patients to a shelter his own in the seconds between Today, Ivgi Hadad coordiIsrael has launched against A group from Cleveland on when a siren goes off. the sounding of the air-raid nates city volunteers during Hamas in Gaza. a 10-day Taglit-Birthright Israel “They can run and hit a siren and the impact of rockets emergencies in addition to her This wasn’t the trip they’d trip replaced its night out in fired from the Gaza Strip. studies. In a municipal building wall, fall down the stairs,” said bargained for.

Tel Aviv with unplanned stops Moshe Levy, 27, a physiology Calls to Israel’s Welfare Min- near the university on July 14, “Obviously, it was scary,” further north. student volunteering at the istry and the Beersheba munici- she alternated between phone Leaders say the teenagers trauma center. “They’re already said Barry Goldfischer, who pality have gone unanswered. calls and typing on her lapdirects the NCSY trip. “The have followed directions durin a sensitive situation, so any His only help is Noa Pney-Gil, top. Of her 250 volunteers on policy is to keep kids far away ing attacks and have kept calm alarm puts them off balance.” a 24-year-old education major that day, 200 were Ben-Gurion from the rocket fire. It’s harder despite the missiles. Because Helping out during the confrom the nearby Ben-Gurion students. the goal of the trips is to teach flict comes naturally to medical and harder.”

University.

“During routine times, you The fighting between Isparticipants about Israel, the “I thank her, thank her, thank see a lot of adults volunteering, students because the medical rael and Hamas over the next fighting hasn’t caused the trips school’s students’ association her from the bottom of my and young people don’t find week caught in the crossfire to significantly change their places a high priority on volheart,” Nachmani said. “We free time,” she said. “But when thousands of American youth educational component. unteering all year round, said should have many more like there aren’t work or classes, None of the trip leaders said Nadav Zillcha, the association’s on summer tours. Previous her.” they come out. They have this rounds of conflict in Gaza octhat kids had flown back early Fortunately, there are. After kind of adrenaline. Adults have chairman. curred late in the year and their due to the conflict. That inZillcha, 30, was skipping Israel’s latest round of fighting gone through things in life. cludes some 3,500 participants one day of a rotation at another impact was largely confined to with Hamas in Gaza broke out, They don’t come out quickly now in Israel on Birthright trips. hospital to organize volunteers. Israel’s south. In contrast, this Pney-Gil joined hundreds of under fire.” round is taking place during “Parents are following news He said helping out during the Ben-Gurion University student Missiles overhead that the height of tourist season and on a minute-to-minute basis, conflict prepares medical stuvolunteers who stayed in the morning didn’t faze Dafna has already seen rockets aimed and our communication with dents for the gravity of saving conflict zone past the end of Kandelman, a first-year mediat major cities like Tel Aviv and parents has needed to become people’s lives. the school year to assist city cal student volunteering as a minute-to-minute,” said NCSY “There’s a need here,” Zillcha Jerusalem. residents in need. counselor at an impromptu day As a result, leaders of high International Director Micah said, adding, “We need to realThe volunteers have helped camp for children of the local school trips are changing itinGreenland.

— Ben Sales, JTA ize that now.” out in hospitals, delivered suphospital’s staff. plies to the homebound elderly Israeli law compels hospital and disabled, and assisted with workers to stay on the job in post-trauma care. times of emergency, but it poses “When you go home, you un- a child-care dilemma for emderstand people need help here ployees since many day camps and are waiting,” said Pney-Gil, have been canceled because of a Tel Aviv native who considers the missile threat. So medical Assisted Living Community herself a Beersheba-ite. “I want students set up and run a camp with specialty alzheimer’s care Home is more than a to be connected to the place I for some 250 children of hospilive. I won’t escape to Tel Aviv tal workers. living space; it is the Locally Owned and Managed every time there’s a problem. I’ll At 10:45 a.m., the kids were center of memories for deal with the problem here.” having a late breakfast in the families and friends. Our The size of the volunteer bomb shelter when a missile goal is for you to have the corps is a testament to the siren blared. Kandelman and comfort you desire, the success of university efforts to other volunteers rushed to compassion you need and inculcate a culture of commugather campers playing outside, nity involvement and serve as a only to find that many of them the respect you deserve. catalyst for the city’s improvealready were filing into the you deserve. ment. shelter.

The Carlyle House takes Some scholarships are tied to Growing up in southern a fresh new approach to the number of hours students Israel, a major target for rocket senior living. Community volunteer with underpriviattacks from Gaza, the kids and family are at the core leged residents. The university knew the protocol. Kandelman of what we stand for and provides discounted housing to found it harder to adapt. we want each and every students willing to live in Beer“You can’t get used to it,” she House sheba’s rundown city center. said. “You (say), ‘OK, there’s a resident to enjoy their Tami Ivgi Hadad, 32, a docsiren, let’s go to a stairwell, let’s senior years to the fullest toral student researching nongo to a reinforced room.’ Most extent possible. profits, began volunteering as of the day it’s OK. Then you let an undergraduate in exchange your guard down and it comes 3490 Far Hills Ave., Dayton, OH 45429 • CarlyleHouseAssistedLiving.com for a scholarship. Over time out of nowhere. It catches you she came to realize she really off guard every time. That’s the

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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • AUGUST 2014

PAGE 17

KVELLING CORNER The Levinson Brothers are at it again. As of press time, Joel and Stephen Levinson’s album, 2776, has hit the number three spot on the iTunes comedy chart. The comedy writers and video producers created the album with television writer Rob Kutner (Conan, The Daily Show). It features the vocal

Rachel Haug Gilbert talents of 80 artists including Patton Oswalt, Margaret Cho, Dick Cavett, Yo La Tengo, and Ira Glass. The album’s concept: it’s the year 2776 and on America’s 1,000th birthday an evil alien played by Martha Plimpton threatens to destroy the United States unless the

Joel and Stephen Levinson

president, played by Will Forte, and his Secret Service agent, played by Aubrey Plaza, can convince her that it’s worth saving. Along with George Washington, played

by Paul F. Tomkins, they visit America’s past, present and future. The album provides its fair share of social commentary on “everything American — immigration, religion, the media, sports, politics, sex, droids, and rock ‘n’ roll.”

Released on July 4, 2776’s proceeds benefit OneKid One World and its efforts to promote education in Kenya and El Salvador. Joel and Stephen are the sons of Meredith Moss Levinson and Jim Levinson.

Joel is a professional video contest winner and has appeared on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno and on the front page of The New York Times.

He and his wife, Randi, and their children, Morty and Hubie, live in Culver City,

LIFECYCLES

Calif. Stephen has worked for Comedy Central and has written for Good Morning Today on the Fusion network. He and his wife, Hannah, and their son, Noah, live in Brooklyn and Los Angeles.

Dr. Elaine Knoll Gaglione has joined the staff of Community Health Centers of Greater Dayton and works at the Alex Central Health Center in Miamisburg.

Jeff Noble, CEO of Management Recruiters of Dayton, has announced that the local executive recruitment franchise will move to the Kuhns Building, at 15 W. Fourth St. in Downtown Dayton in August.

Adina Haviva Weiss With gratitude to Hashem, Donna and Marshall Weiss announce the Bat Mitzvah of their daughter, Adina Haviva, on Aug. 31 at Chabad of Greater Dayton. Adina is a seventhIn the June 2014 issue of The grade student at The Miami Bridge Bulletin, a publication of Valley School where she plays the American Contract Bridge on the middle school tennis, League, Len Solganik was basketball, and lacrosse teams listed as a new Life Master, and sings with the middle the highest honor the ACBL school choir. A member of Beth awards.

Abraham Synagogue, Adina also participated in Chabad’s Send your Kvelling items to Rachel 2013-14 Bat Mitzvah Club. at kvellingcorner@gmail.com or to She enjoys playing the flute, Rachel Haug Gilbert, The Dayton dancing around the house, and Jewish Observer, 525 Versailles laughing with abandon. Adina Drive, Centerville, OH 45459. is the granddaughter of Evelyn and the late Dr. Louis Barnett, Norman and Florence Weiss, and the late Pearl Weiss. For her mitzvah project, Adina donated her hair to the non-profit Wigs For Kids.

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

Gossett-Abrams Rachael Anne Gossett, originally from Kettering, and Joshua Aaron Abrams of St. Louis were married on May 17. Aaron is the son of Lynn and Cathleen Abrams of Cape Girandeau, Mo. Rachael is the daughter of Judy Rosen Gossett of Columbus, and Randall Gossett of Florida. Josh received his bachelor’s degree in systems technologies from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale and is currently furthering his education. Rachael received her Ph.D. from The Ohio State University and is a professor of criminal justice at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Mo. The couple resides in St. Louis.

Ethan Falk Halasz Scott Halasz and Rabbi Karen Bodney-Halasz welcomed their second child, Ethan Falk Halasz, on May 6. Ethan was 22.5 inches long and 10.3 lbs.

Big brother is Jonah. Paternal grandparents are Jerry and Maxine Halasz of Centerville.

Maternal grandparents are Martin and Lynn Pollman and Howard and Bea Bodney, all of Overland Park, Kan.

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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • AUGUST 2014

CONGREGATIONS

RELIGION

The Rebbe’s legacy

By Rabbi Shmuel Klatzkin intense discussions in the fields Chabad of Greater Dayton of their own expertise.

There were many reaBut the Rebbe used his sons why my path should knowledge, pointedly, not to never have crossed that of demonstrate how great he was, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi but rather to relate to people Menachem Mendel Schneerson, where they lived, in the field of whose 20th yahrzeit their passion and (anniversary of his engagement with death) the world has life. And no matter just marked. My Jewhow great his viish experience was sion, he never used limited to the liberal his dreams as an variety, and my own excuse to be blind mind-set was libertarto the pains and the ian. To the degree that joys of individual I thought of rabbis people. wearing long black He offered no coats, and living lives excuses for his Jewfully informed by Rabbi Shmuel Klatzkin ish life. It was not thousands of years of justified by a phiJewish teachings, I thought of losophy; it flowed into philosothem as confined to the past, phy. It was not an adjunct of or to a few ghettoes of trauhis politics; it informed the way matized Holocaust survivors he related to societies and their in New York or Israel. In my challenges. He understood that world, such people lived at the best way to promote Jewish life and bring others to see its truth and beauty was to live its ideals, deeply understood.

And that meant leading with an immense distance. Their love, the “great principle of the humanity did not intimately Torah,” “Love your neighbor as inform mine. yourself.”

I learned over the years, No big deal, you might say. however, that my humanity Everyone loves love. informed his.

But really: everyone loves to The Rebbe was a man with be loved. We respond to that a vision. He piloted the uneasily. But how much do we reprecedented growth of a tiny, ally love people with whom we decimated Chasidic sect into a major force on the world stage. disagree?

Agreement was not a preconPrime ministers and presidents sought his advice and blessing, dition for the Rebbe. Love was exchanged letters or made their and is a mitzvah, to be done for its own sake, its intrinsic worth, way to his door. He was a man its power to connect us to the of vast learning, effortlessly Source of love and life that is spanning and integrating the the source of the mitzvah. breadth of Jewish literature of The Rebbe pointed out again every sort over the centuries. and again that the word mitzvah His knowledge of the world is related to the Hebrew word was deep as well; he would tzavta, meaning connection or engage scientists and authors, joining. Of course, mitzvah military leaders and artists in

Perspectives

Hear

this week’s Jewish news with Radio Reading Service Goodwill Easter Seals Miami Valley Radio Reading Service provides audio access to print media for those unable to read on their own.

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

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means commandment. But where does the power of a commandment come from?

From the connection it offers to the Source of both the mitzvah and of our very own self.

The excellence of the Rebbe’s work was that he put love first. Yes, he upheld the whole of Jewish law and teaching, down to the smallest detail. But he never insisted you must follow it because he did. Rather, he took upon himself to demonstrate its worth in the most direct way — by engaging people in love.

He wasn’t there to win debates, he told a NASA exobiologist — he was there to touch souls. And souls know when they are touched The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi by love.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, a man who was interested in past chief rabbi of the United creating followers. Instead, this Kingdom, speaks often of how was a man who was passionate the Rebbe touched him. He about creating leaders.” related once: The several new biographies “I was an undergraduate, of the Rebbe, published in the visiting American Jewry to seek out its intellectual leaders. days leading up to the Rebbe’s 20th yahrzeit, all tell of how They were impressive. But my the Rebbe never sought leaderencounter with the Rebbe was ship. When at last he accepted unique. In every other case, I it, in his first asked questions public speech, ‘This was not and received he spoke of answers. The a man who how he needed Lubavitcher was interested everyone’s help, Rebbe alone for he could not turned the inter- in creating do the job for view around and anyone. began asking me followers.

For we are all questions. What Instead, this was created in God’s was I doing for a man who was image, and Jewish life in Cambridge? passionate about therefore, we all have the power What was I docreating leaders.’ to lead. There ing to promote are people who Jewish identity want and need each of us to see among my fellow students?

“The challenge was personal him or her and to know them, and to love them by calling and unmistakable. I then realthem to their own better self, to ized that what was remarkable the core of their own meaning. about the Rebbe was the exact We may not want the job; but opposite of what was usually how can we refuse? attributed to him. This was not

Torah Portions

Av/Elul

9 Av/August 5

The day of fasting to commemorate the destruction of the First and Second Temples, the loss of Jewish sovereignty, and numerous other tragedies said to have fallen on this day. The Book of Eicha (Lamentations) is read.

Beth Jacob Congregation Traditional Mornings: Sun., Mon., Thurs., 7 a.m. Sat. 9:30 a.m. Evenings: Sun. through Fri. 7 p.m.

7020 N. Main St., Dayton. 274-2149.

BethJacobCong.org Temple Anshe Emeth Reform 320 Caldwell St., Piqua. Call Eileen Litchfield, 937-5470092, elitchfield@woh.rr.com.

Correspondence address: 3808 Beanblossom Rd., Greenville, OH 45331. ansheemeth.org Temple Beth Or Reform Rabbi Judy Chessin Asst. Rabbi/Educator David Burstein July & August layled services Fridays 6:30 p.m.

5275 Marshall Rd., Washington Twp. 435-3400. templebethor.com Temple Beth Sholom Reform Rabbi Haviva Horvitz See Web site for schedule.

610 Gladys Dr., Middletown.

513-422-8313. thetemplebethsholom.com Temple Israel Reform Rabbi David M. Sofian Rabbi/Educator Karen Bodney-Halasz 1st & 2nd Fri., 6 p.m. Other Fri., 7:30 p.m. Tot Shabbat 4th Fri., 6 p.m. Sat., 10:30 a.m.

130 Riverside Dr., Dayton.

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

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

ADDITIONAL SERVICES

August Tisha B’Av Ninth Day of Av

Beth Abraham Synagogue Conservative Rabbi Joshua Ginsberg Cantor/Dir. of Ed. & Programming Andrea Raizen Monday through Friday 6:50 a.m. & 5:30 p.m. Fri., 5:30 p.m. Sat. 9 a.m.

Sundays at 8:30 a.m. 305 Sugar Camp Circle, Oakwood. 293-9520.

BethAbrahamDayton.org

August 2/6 Av Devarim (Deut. 1:1-3:22) August 9/13 Av Vaetchanan (Deut. 3:23-7:11) August 16/20 Av Ekev (Deut. 7:12-11:25) August 23/27 Av Re’eh (Deut. 11:26-16:17) August 30/4 Elul Shoftim (Deut. 16:18-21:9)

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • AUGUST 2014

Chabad of Greater Dayton Rabbi Nochum Mangel Associate Rabbi Shmuel Klatzkin Youth & Prog. Dir. Rabbi Levi Simon. Beginner educational service Saturdays 9 a.m. adults, 10 a.m children. Sundays 9 a.m.

Tuesdays & Wednesdays. 6:45 a.m. 2001 Far Hills Ave. 643-0770. www.chabaddayton.com Yellow Springs Havurah Independent Services 1st & 3rd Saturdays, 10-noon. Antioch College Rockford Chapel. Contact Cheryl Levine, 937-767-9293.

PAGE 19

OBITUARIES Robert M. “Bruce” Mandel, Dec. 22, 1926-June 23, 2014, died at Tidewell Hospice of Sarasota, Fla. He is survived by his wife of 45 years, Barbara Brooks Mandel; daughters Jill Secrest Mandel (Steve Hines), Melissa Mandel Codespoti (J. Scott Codespoti), Alyssa Mandel (Brian Gomien); grandsons Ari and Eli Codespoti and Martin and Rory Gomien; and sister Sylvia Mandel Linsker. Mr. Mandel and his wife were the owners of Brass Carousel, a gift shop in Centerville, for more than a decade. A private ceremony was held at the National Cemetery in Sarasota to be followed by a memorial for friends and family in December to celebrate his remarkable life, one which included an abiding love for jazz, a healthy respect for the restorative power of a dry gin martini, an elegant game of golf, and an ability to deliver a properly timed punchline in a well-told joke.

Loved ones are requested to start thinking of “Bruce stories” in preparation for the winter memorial. The family asks that donations be made to Tidewell Hospice, All Faiths Food Bank and the Jewish Federation of Sarasota.

Robert A. Weisman, age 77, of Bellbrook, passed away July 2 at his residence. Dr. Weisman was a retired biochemistry professor and administrator at Wright State University and a member of Beth Jacob Synagogue. He was passionate about his family, classical music and doing good deeds.

For 22 years he was a classical music disc jockey at WDPR radio. He was known for his love of good wine and great sense of humor. Dr. Weisman is survived by his wife of 23 years, Beverly Guterman; children and their spouses, Michael and Heidi Weisman of Cincinnati, Harris and Rena Weisman of Scottsdale, Ariz., Susan Weisman and Patrick Callihan of Lebanon, Hal and Leisha Guterman of St. Louis, Seth Guterman of Chicago; sister, Bette Jean Weisman of St. Louis; grandchildren, Alyssa, Baylee, Eden, Sarah, Chana, Moshe, Miriam, Esther, Dovid and Riley Weisman; Aiden Callihan, Hannah, Evan, Sarit, Nadav, and Matai Guterman; and many other relatives and friends. Interment was at Beth Jacob Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be made to the organization of your choice in Dr. Weisman’s memory.

Please note: The deadline for the September High Holy Days issue of The Observer is Friday, August 1.

Zalman Schachter-Shalomi brought old world gravitas to New Age Judaism

By Ben Harris, JTA Rabbi Zalman SchachterShalomi, the father of the Jewish Renewal movement, died on July 3 at age 89. A maverick rabbi from an Orthodox background who spent time in the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, Schachter-Shalomi transitioned over time toward a New Age, neo-Chasidic approach, gaining a substantial following on his own but also influencing other Jewish denominations.

His nontraditional approaches to Jewish spirituality, including services marked by ecstatic prayer, drumming and dancing, eventually morphed into the Jewish Renewal movement.

Known to friends and followers as Reb Zalman, he lived out his later years in Boulder, Colo., where he died after being ill for some time.

The movement he started had its origins in the 1960s, when Schachter-Shalomi began instituting meditation and dance during prayer services.

He sought to fuse the mystical traditions learned while he was Lubavitch with the sensibilities of the modern world in an effort to revitalize a synagogue practice he found stultifying.

He eventually broke with Chabad, founding the P’nai Or Religious Fellowship in 1962 and a havurah — a lay-led congregation with no central

New & Renewing Voluntary Subscribers, June 3-30 Renewing Angel Myrna Nelson Double Chai Braverman Family David Hurwitz Ellen & Michael Leffak Shirley Leventhal Stewart & Marilyn Lipp Mr. Eric & Dr. Dena Zied Subscribers Dorothy Shaman Finder Dr. & Mrs. Harold Fishman Ellen & Bruce Holroyd Jean Isenberg Dr. Theodore Jarvis Elli Kent Michael Kriner Richard Lesser Paul & Kristan Levy Helen & Steve Markman Max L. Markman Janice May Edward Nikkola Ellin Oppenheimer Ellan Potasky-Larry Katz Thank you for your generosity.

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Dr. & Mrs. Stephen Harlan Robert & Vicky Heuman Sylvia & Ralph Heyman Steve and Rachel Jacobs Dr. & Mrs. David Joffe Susan & Stanley Katz Dr. & Mrs. Charles Knoll Lawrence A. Lasky Sarah Moore Leventhal Bert & Jean Lieberman Beverly Louis Dr. David & Joan Marcus Suzi & Jeff Mikutis Irvin & Gayle Moscowitz John & Sharyn Reger Russ Remick Felice & Michael Shane Zerla Stayman Dr. Marc & Maureen Sternberg Col. Jeffrey Thau, USAF, (Ret) & Rina Thau Mr. & Mrs. Ira H. Thomsen Joel & Jennifer Tobiansky Lois & Gilbert Umger Julie & Adam Waldman & Family Judith & Fred Weber Caryl & Donald Weckstein Michael & Karen Weprin

Daniel Sieradski

Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

leader — in Somerville, Mass., in 1968. He ordained the first Renewal rabbi, Daniel Siegel, in 1974.

Schachter-Shalomi led prayers in English set to popular tunes, translated Chasidic texts on mysticism into English, promoted ecologically friendly kashrut and encouraged Jews to create their own colorful tallitot, prayer shawls.

In 1993, P’nai Or merged with Rabbi Arthur Waskow’s Shalom Center to become Aleph, the Alliance for Jewish Renewal. The Philadelphiabased institution has ordained some 80 rabbis.

Born in Poland in 1924 and raised in Vienna, SchachterShalomi’s family fled the Nazis and eventually landed in Brooklyn in 1941. He was ordained as a rabbi in 1947 from the Central Lubavitch Yeshiva.

He later got a master’s degree from Boston University in the psychology of religion and a doctorate from Hebrew Union College, which is affiliated with the Reform movement.

Though he lost family members to the Nazis, Schachter-

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Shalomi believed it was a mistake to attempt a restoration of the Jewish world destroyed by the Holocaust. Instead, he felt that Jewish traditions needed to be renewed, harmonized with new ways of viewing reality that emerged in the 20th century, much in the way theology had to be reordered following Galileo’s demonstration that the earth was not the center of the universe.

Schachter-Shalomi spoke often of a paradigm shift made necessary by worldview-busting events — the moonwalk, Auschwitz and Hiroshima were favored examples — that were so earth-shattering they rendered traditional Jewish modalities irrelevant. He wanted Jews to get over what he called their “triumphalist” sense that they had a monopoly on religious truth in favor of an “organismic” model that saw Judaism as one of many tributaries of the Divine river.

He was a believer in a radical ecumenism, fascinated by the ways other traditions “get it on with God.” Along with the legendary composer Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, Schachter-Shalomi was among the earliest emissaries dispatched by the Lubavitcher Rebbe to do outreach on college campuses. But he drifted from the strictures of Orthodoxy, exploring other mystical traditions and immersing himself deeply in the counterculture. His LSD experience, Schachter-Shalomi said later, had confirmed certain “intimations” he had previously about the nature of the spiritual world. Schachter-Shalomi married four times and fathered 11 children, including one through a sperm donation to a lesbian rabbi.

An inveterate boundary crosser, he declined to choose between the social justice imperatives and progressive politics of Reform Judaism, the spiritual rigor and devotion of traditional Orthodoxy and the mystical impulses of Chasidism. He wanted all of them.

In the 1990s, Schachter-Shalomi left Philadelphia, where he had held a teaching post at Temple University, to assume the World Wisdom chair at Naropa University, a Buddhistinspired liberal arts college in Boulder, Colo.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • AUGUST 2014

FOOD THE JEWISH INTERNET

Do you MOOC? Have you ever attended a MOOC? A MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) is an online course that is available without charge to an unlim-

Mark Mietkiewicz ited number of people (bit.ly/ jmooc1).

Although distance learning is not new, MOOCs are different because they allow (some) interactivity between student, teacher and other participants.

Most offer short video lectures and readings, and even quizzes, which are graded automatically. Upon completion, many institutions offer a certificate verifying participation in the course.

Is a MOOC right for you?

The Open University of Israel has created a great checklist.

In a nutshell, you should love learning, be comfortable with technology and are self-driven.

And you don’t expect personal feedback from instructors or require academic credit for your work (bit.ly/jmooc2).

As for the quality of the courses, they are often offered by stellar universities and

LESHON IMA - MOTHER TONGUE

The month of Av The summer has reached its zenith and the days are slowly getting shorter. The Jewish year 5774 is approaching its end. We have reached the month of Av, the 11th month on

Dr. Rachel Zohar Dulin the Jewish calendar. What do we know about this month?

First, the name Av is not recorded in the Bible. As a matter of fact, if we would have continued the biblical system of counting the months of the year, Nissan, the month of spring, would have been the first month (Ex. 3:7), and Av would have been the fifth month of the year.

However, with the rabbinic new configuration of the calendar, the year begins in the fall (Rosh Hashanah 1:1), thereby Av is the 11th month.

Second, like other names of months on the calendar, the word Av is rooted in the Akkadian language, and was integrated into Hebrew by the returnees from the Babylonian exile.

The meaning of the word is unclear. Yet, in Jewish tradition Av is also known as Menachem Av meaning Av which comforts, eluding to the tradition that the Messiah known as menachem, comforter, will be born on the ninth of Av (Eicha Rabati 1).

Two historical events which shaped our history took place during the month of Av. In the year 587 BCE the First Temple was destroyed (Jer. 52:12-13). And, 600 years later (70 CE), the Second Temple fell on the same day (Taanit 4:6). Therefore, Tisha b’Av has become a day of fasting, similar to Yom Kippur (Rosh HaShanah 18). Traditionally it commemorates not only the destruction of the Temples, but many other tragedies, which fell upon our people.

However Av is also a month in which Jewish tradition records great joy. The rabbis of the Talmud cite that during the days of the Second Temple the young maidens of Yerushalayim used to don borrowed white dresses, not to shame those who did not have dresses, and dance in the vineyards while young men would join them in merrymaking.

It was said that “there were no days of greater joy than these in Israel (Ta-a-nit 1:10).”

The origin of this custom is obscure, but rooted in the universal celebration of nature and is connected with wine festivities.

Av then is a month mixed with sadness and joy. I wish all our readers an easy fast on Tisha b’Av and a joyful rest of the summer.

This course takes a different ap- fered in English with some in first-rate professors. Which Hebrew, Russian and Arabic. proach to the idea of tolerance, brings us to the Jewish part of And to search for worldwide as well as to the long, complithe MOOCs. As the number of MOOCs on practically any cated history of the Catholic courses has exploded, so have topic under the sun, check out Church and the Jews (bit.ly/ the ones on Jewish topics both Coursera (bit.ly/jmooc14) and jmooc4). inside and outside Israel. edX (bit.ly/jmooc10).

Also check out MIT’s Jewish Please note that you’ll need Technion made headlines History from Biblical to Modto check the timing of courses. ern Times. Although the course recently when it announced In cases where the course has that it was offering a MOOC on hasn’t been offered in several already taken place, you can Nanotechnology and Nanosenyears, much material is availsometimes sample most of the sors in Arabic presented by able online (bit.ly/jmooc5). course materials at your own Prof. Hossam Haick (bit.ly/ The three biggest providers pace. Others allow you to join jmooc11). of MOOCs in Israel are: a watchlist for notification of As Thomas Friedman noted • Tel Aviv University, (bit.ly/ upcoming opportunities. in The New York Times, Haick jmooc13) For example, the University • Hebrew University of Jeru- was flooded with emails from of California, Santa Cruz has all over the Arab world. “Are salem (bit.ly/jmooc7) offered a MOOC titled The you a real person? Are you • The Open University of Holocaust. Taught by Murray really an Arab, or are you an Israel (bit.ly/jmooc8).

Baumgarten and Peter Kenez, Israeli Jew speaking Arabic, They offer an eclectic mix of this 10-part course “traces the courses that range from history, pretending to be an Arab?” destruction of the Jews and Prof. Haick is an Israeli Arab The Fall and Rise of Jerusalem Jewish life in Europe by Nazi from Nazareth (bit.ly/jmooc12).

(Tel Aviv University), to the Germany, drawing on major MOOCs can allow anyone social sciences, Educational works of history, literature, to ignore borders they would Psychology (Open University and film. The lectures outline never consider crossing in real of Israel), to the life sciences, the work of the Nazis as well life. Some 4,800 students signed Synapses, Neurons and Brains as Jewish responses (bit.ly/ up for the Technion course in (Hebrew University). jmooc3).”

Arabic, including registrants Most Israeli courses are ofBernard Dov Cooperfrom Egypt, Syria, Saudi man of the University of Arabia, Jordan, Iraq, KuMaryland, College Park, wait, Algeria, Morocco, presents Practicing TolerSudan, Tunisia, Yemen, ance in a Religious Society: Pakistan, the United Arab The Church and the Jews Emirates and the West in Italy. From the syllabus: Bank. Students from Iran What social and ideologisigned up for Prof. Haick’s cal mechanisms allowed English-language MOOC. Jews to survive and even flourish in Catholic Italy?

Mark Mietkiewicz may be And under what circumreached at highway@rogers. stances did the practice Tel Aviv Univ. will offer the free open online of tolerance break down? course The Fall and Rise of Jerusalem this fall com.

Dr. Rachel Zohar Dulin is a professor of biblical literature at Spertus College in Chicago and an adjunct professor of Bible and Hebrew at New College of Florida.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • AUGUST 2014

PAGE 21

JEWISH FAMILY EDUCATION

Mishpacha & Menschlichkeit The Jewish Family Identity Forum

Devil’s advocate Myths and misconceptions

When you hear the word devil, Satan or Lucifer, what images come to mind? A devious serpent wrapped around a tree branch? A red-clad trolllike figure with horns and tail holding a pitchfork? A beast

Candace R. Kwiatek with the face of a pig, the horns of a ram, the fur and ears of a goat, the body of a human, and cloven hooves?

A terrifying human-eating bird or another of the underworld fiends in Hieronymus Bosch’s surrealist paintings?

An underworld ruler, a tormenter in Hell, the malevolent demon commander of evil spirits? A fallen angel with a devious grin, a deceiver of humanity, a competitor with God for human souls?

While these specific images are largely the product of Christian theology and art, Satan’s origins can be found in

Jewish literature.

In the Hebrew Bible, the word satan appears more than two dozen times in eight books — where it has a general meaning of adversary.

According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, satan is variously used to refer to an enemy or traitor in war, any opponent, or an antagonist who puts up obstacles. In Psalms and most famously the Book of Job, Satan is the accuser or prosecuting attorney in the Heavenly Court.

Job offers two more clues to the identity of Satan: he is described as part of a group of celestial beings who travel between heaven and earth and is referred to as haSatan, a specific Hebrew construct used to indicate a title rather than a name, most frequently identifying angels of God. The original biblical character is not an independent fiend, a fallen angel ruling over a sinful world, or a supernatural entity in opposition to God and

humankind.

In keeping with Judaism’s strict monotheism, the biblical Satan is a celestial servant, an angel assigned to a specific task and requiring God’s permission to act. Our modern images, however, have been formed in the cauldron of history, language, and culture.

In the sixth century BCE the Israelites came under the influence of Persian Zoroastrianism in which good and evil are dueling forces.

During the following chaotic centuries there was an explosion of Jewish apocryphal (extra-biblical) literature that often incorporated foreign concepts of fallen angels and demons, a conscious and free-willed evil spirit prince, and Satan — now Satanel — as Eve’s seducer and author of death.

Never widely accepted in Judaism and only recently resurrected in the interest of modern biblical scholarship, these long-lost and hidden texts had a significant impact on the early development of Christian thought.

Historical forces were augmented by the translation of the Bible into the lingua franca, Greek, in which haSatan became diabolos, from which the English devil is derived.

Lucifer, a misapplication of

The Devil is not part of Jewish tradition.

a text from Isaiah (Is. 14:12), introduces fire imagery into the equation.

In mainstream Christianity, the Devil evolved into God’s adversary, the antichrist, the fallen angel prince who hates humanity and, with a band of demons, uses lies and deception to destroy souls.

In Muslim theology, the Devil (Shaytan or jinn/demon) is also a fallen angel, but not God’s enemy. A divine creation himself, Shaytan’s sole purpose is to deceive humans and discourage them from obeying God. In both traditions, the Devil is associated with eternal fire in the afterlife. The Devil is not part of Jewish tradition.

While midrash and Jewish folklore occasionally characterize Satan as a demonic creature, mainstream Judaism’s view from the rabbinic era onward is much more in keeping with the original biblical notion.

Rather than a physical being or an underworld ruler, Satan is the force that tempts one to do evil, a difficulty or distraction that hinders one from doing good. It is often used as a synonym for yetzer hara, the evil inclination or the temptation to move away from the path of righteousness. Satan (or haSatan) “the angel” is a servant of God, and simply a way of personifying man’s challenges and obstacles to doing good.

But if Satan’s purpose is temptation, isn’t it a kind of sting operation? Why would God set up humans to fail? The answer is twofold: free will and choice.

Without free will, we would be angels rather than humans, totally subservient to God’s demands and directions. But free will is purposeless without choice, and authentic choice

demands challenge or real temptation to one direction in opposition to another.

A humorous but accurate parallel to haSatan as pointed out by Mordechai Housman in Does Judaism Believe in Satan? is the character Arthur Slugworth in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

He attempts to foil the children’s success in the Wonka Factory “lifetime of chocolate” contest. But it turns out that Slugworth is really Mr. Wonka’s assistant, working at his direction to find an honest child to take over the factory.

Like Slugworth, Satan is an assistant with a dirty job.

While Judaism doesn’t believe in the devil, per se, it does believe in a “devil’s advocate.”

After all, Satan challenges us to make authentic decisions as we exercise our unique human quality of free will.

Satan tempts us to conquer our yetzer hara, our evil inclination. And Satan allows us to become better human beings when we make the choice to act “in the image of God.” Family Discussion: The lyrics to Bob Dylan’s Man of Peace include the following: “He got a sweet gift of gab, he got a harmonious tongue…/ Catch you when your troubles feel like they weigh a ton/He could be standing next to you/ The person that you’d notice least...” How do they capture Judaism’s view of Satan? What other advice would you add?

Candace R. Kwiatek is a writer, educator and consultant in Jewish and secular education.

She is a recipient of an American Jewish Press Association Simon Rockower First Place Award for Excellence in Commentary, and an Ohio Society of Professional Journalists First Place Award for Best Religion/Values Coverage.

Literature to share My Promised Land: the Triumph and Tragedy of Israel by Ari Shavit. If you’re looking for a different perspective on modern Israel’s history and a window into the current conflicts, this is the book to explore. Written by a seasoned Israeli journalist, Promised Land brings alive the multi-faceted story of this contested region through the dramas of people and events. Sometimes unexpected and thoroughly fascinating, its storyteller flavor makes this a not-to-be-missed summer read.

The Day the Rabbi Disappeared by Howard Schwartz. From the renowned Jewish folklorist comes a new twist on holiday stories for all ages, though directed to the upper elementary set. Combining excellent storytelling, evocative illustrations, and elements of magic, Schwartz’s collection of a dozen folk tales is yet another award-winner.

PAGE 22

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • AUGUST 2014

Hard B’nai Mitzvah work has payoff: belief in oneself ance of teacher, clergy and

By Jeff Bernhardt parent, he or she will have Special To The Observer achieved a goal which for When I began my work as a many (albeit not all) appeared B’nai Mitzvah teacher almost insurmountable at first.

25 years ago, I believed that it Along the way, it is our was all about the day. Everyresponsibility to remind the thing I taught, every prayer or future Jewish adult to look Torah verse the student studback a week, a month or sevied, every reminder or nudge eral months and to say, “Look to study from the parent — it at how fluently you read that was all about the day. verse. Do you remember when But over these last few you couldn’t get that first word years, I’ve realized the folly and were ready to give of that belief. That’s up?” It is then not to say that that the Torah the day isn’t verses beimportant. It come a chain absolutely of prideful is, and accomplishit will be ments. remembered Bar & Bat Mitzvahs It is our job forever. to mine the journey But if we only see of all it offers to our young the months of preparation as people — to help them see its a means to an end — and we treasures — and in the end to don’t see all that those months have to offer our young people remind them that the end came because there was a beginning — then we are truly depriving filled with trepidation, anxiety, them. fear, awe, excitement, wonIt is during the journey to the bima (synagogue stage) that der. And because there was a middle filled perhaps with we have the opportunity to challenge and determination. help them become the adults And afterward, let them we hope they will be. remember that just as they set It is an opportunity to teach a goal and achieved it on the or reinforce time-management, day they each became a Jewish self-discipline, responsibility, adult in the eyes of their comself-assessment, goal-setting munity, likewise they can meet and the value of hard work. every challenge they set for It is a time to teach the themselves. importance of communication This is the gift of learning to — about what is difficult, chalbelieve in oneself. lenging, frustrating, exciting.

Two stuIt’s a time to teach the impor- If the preparation dents exemplify this lesson. tance of asking has been handled Justin was for help, and an endearing how that can be with care...this and bright boy a virtue rather young adult will with emotional than a sign of and learning weakness. move on to the issues when It’s a time to next leg of life’s I met him. teach coping Justin had a skills — how to journey with the great deal of deal with frusanxiety about tration, anxiety, most valuable his capability stage fright. It’s gifts of all. despite coma time to teach ing into the and reinforce process with a knowledge of problem-solving strategies — a number of the prayers. The strategies that can be called Torah reading in particular felt upon during life’s journey.

And then, there are the most undoable to him. After learning one reading, Justin balked precious of the gifts: building at my suggestion that he could self-confidence, self-empowerlearn more. ment and belief in oneself.

On the day of his Bar The young person realMitzvah, he led the congregaizes, with our reminders, that tion in prayer in a powerful because of hard work and and enthusiastic voice, and determination, because of he chanted from the Torah blood, sweat and perhaps an two readings. Afterward, as I occasional tear, because of his mingled with his family and or her efforts, a goal has been friends, one after another set and accomplished. complimented me on my work With the support and guid-

and expressed their pleasant surprise at Justin’s accomplishments and his poise and comfort on the bima.

It was clear that this boy, while surrounded by love, was also surrounded by doubt.

He was being sold short, which no doubt explained his own lack of belief in himself. I was pleased that Justin showed them of what he was made.

I also hoped that what he achieved, leading up to and on that day, would serve to remind him and others of who Justin really is and of what he is capable.

Then there was Mara. She was told that she would likely not accomplish all that was expected.

She was falling behind in her studies and making little progress. With some private lessons Mara was able to work past the blockage (and her anxiety) and push forward.

As the date got closer, she timidly asked me whether it would be OK to chant a little

less Torah or lead a few less prayers. “Let’s just see what happens if you work hard,” I said.

In the end Mara did everything that was expected. Her parents and I reminded her of how far she had come and how much she was able to accomplish. Her father said that through this she learned to

believe in herself.

Recently, I asked a friend what he gained from his Bar Mitzvah experience 25 years ago. He said without hesitation that one of the greatest lessons he walked away with was confidence.

“It was probably one of my first great accomplishments in life,” he said, “and for the first time I understood the true meaning of pride.”

He credited the year of preparation.

Once the months of training and the day have ended, once the DJ has gone home, and once the gifts have been opened and the checks deposited, there remain the most important gifts.

If the preparation has been handled with care, if the tutor, rabbi, cantor and parents have done their jobs, this young adult will move on to the next leg of life’s journey with the most valuable gifts of all.

Jeff Bernhardt is a Jewish educator, social worker and writer living in Los Angeles. He prepares B’nai Mitzvah students at Temple Israel of Hollywood and privately.

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By Judy Lash Balint recalls.

JNS.org “It’s a great place for JERUSALEM — It’s 9:30 kids to learn about the a.m. on a sunny Monday need for a strong Israel morning in the Jewish and the legitimacy of Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old fighting for Israel,” City. Two large groups of Kramer adds regarding revelers almost collide in the outdoor museum, the alley leading to the where more than 150 main square. armored vehicles are Both groups are accomon display along with a panied by a clarinetist and moving memorial coma drummer belting out plex dedicated to fallen traditional simcha (celebra- Rabbi Chanoch Yeres, director of the Deaf Israeli soldiers.

Programming Division of International Young Israel tion) tunes, and in the Many B’nai Mitzvah middle of both are 13-year Movement, leads a 2013 Bar Mitzvah for 63 deaf want to take an active and hearing-impaired children old boys dancing with role in their celebration, Part of the donation is desbeaming grandmas and and Jerusalem Scavenignated for the Israeli “twin” uncles under a small chupah ger Hunts provides creative to receive a traditional B’nai (canopy) as they make their opportunities for learning and Mitzvah gift of a siddur (prayer way under the stone arches fun in and around Jerusalem. book) or tefillin (phylacteries). from the Western Wall.

Founder and director Tali TarSome lasting relationships It’s the Israeli version of the low explains that Israeli kids Bar Mitzvah extravaganza, and have been forged, Ozarowski can train to guide their friends notes, and the program was it’s repeated every Monday and family on a fun-filled, edurecently expanded to include and Thursday (days when the cational, thematic navigation twinning between Israeli preTorah is read) throughout the through the city as they engage teens from established Jerusayear. with its history and figure out lem neighborhoods and kids in their place in its future.

Boys from all over the counAMIT’s Beit Hayeled facility in try get called up to the Torah The program is tailored to Gilo. for the first time at the Wall, the interests of each child, who In Netanya, the Beit Elazraki works with one of the Scavenand then get danced up the steps to the Jewish Quarter and Children’s Home run by Emuger Hunt professional guides nah — a prominent religious on to a lavish breakfast spread and educators to develop a preIsraeli women’s movement at one of the many restaurants sentation at one of the stations with worldwide supor halls dotting the used in the hunt. porters — hosts area.

“We believe a Bar or Bat many Bar and But not every Mitzvah should be a special ocBat Mitzvah Bar or Bat Mitzcasion and an opportunity for twinning events. vah-age teen in a meaningful experience,” says Bar & Bat Mitzvahs American B’nai Israel is fortunate Tarlow, a longtime informal Mitzvah students and educator who made aliyah (imenough to have that their families have sponsored kind of experience. migrated to Israel) from South several major projects at the For the tens of thousands Africa. home, which houses almost 300 of youths from dysfunctional Any family that’s been part children whose families cannot of The Package from Home Bar families who are cared for in residential facilities all over the care for them. and Bat Mitzvah Project would In 2011, a group of budJewish state, it’s often Diaspora agree with that sentiment. ding musicians from Teaneck, Jews who make the differStarted by American imN.J. raised more than $20,000 ence between having no Bar/ migrant Barbara Silverman at as their Bar Mitzvah project, Bat Mitzvah at all, or having a the beginning of the Second meaningful transition into Jew- which funded new equipment Intifada in 2000, the volunteerfor the music therapy program ish responsibility. run program prepares and at Beit Elazraki.

Zemira Ozarowski, coorsends tens of thousands of care Several times a year, Ameridinator of donor relations for packages to Israeli soldiers, can and British B’nai Mitzvah AMIT — a network of educafocusing particularly on Lone students join their peers at Beit tional programs that serves Soldiers (soldiers without Elazraki for a lively party that 28,000 Israeli children — is family in Israel) and wounded always features loud music responsible for the twinning soldiers. and a festive meal. program that encourages B’nai Mitzvah students in A popular B’nai Mitzvah American Bar and Bat Mitzvah the U.S. can raise money for activity for institutional groups the project, and those visiting kids to share their celebration as well as individual families with needy Israeli kids. can take part in the packaging is a visit to the Yad Lashiryon Some of the Americans and distribution of everything Latrun Tank Museum a few come over with their families from warm clothing to toiletmiles west of Jerusalem. to take part in the simcha they ries to snacks. Each package Elisha Kramer, a U.S.-born have sponsored, Ozarowski includes letters of appreciation graduate student, spent part explains, while others conduct for the soldiers, which kids are of his army service as a tour fund-raising projects at home encouraged to write. guide at the museum. and send over funds to help For children with physical as “Some weeks there would support AMIT’s efforts to inject well as emotional challenges, it be two or three Bar Mitzvah joy into the lives of Israeli kids takes a special effort to create groups every day,” Kramer from difficult backgrounds. a Bar or Bat Mitzvah program THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • AUGUST 2014

they can relate to. At a recent ceremony in a Jerusalem synagogue, 63 deaf and hearingimpaired children were called to the Torah in front of parents who were visibly moved by the moment, which was sponsored by the International Young Israel Movement and its Deaf Programming Division in cooperation with the Jewish Agency.

Boys with cochlear implants opened up the brand new prayer shawls provided by the IYIM with a flourish, while groups of girls chattered in sign language and waited for their turn to recite a special blessing for becoming a Bat Mitzvah.

Ben Zion Chen, the head of the Association for the Deaf in Israel, told the kids, “I grew up with hearing parents and didn’t know what Torah was.

You are all very fortunate.”

“It’s important that you know your rights and how to deal with your deafness as you grow up,” Chen added, while a sign language interpreter translated his words to the attentive students.

“He didn’t sleep all last night,” said Orna regarding her son Shai, a profoundly deaf 13-year-old from Ramle. “He’s gone through so many operations, and had so many difficulties in his short life — it’s a joy to be here with him and see how happy he is,” she exclaimed as Shai took his place under the prayer shawl spread over his group, while Rabbi Chanoch Yeres, director of the IYIM Deaf Programming Division read the Torah portion.

In true Israeli B’nai Mitzvah style, the kids and their families, who had come from all over Israel, were treated to a celebratory lunch and a tour of the Old City to mark the day.

Standing up for girls

By Dr. Beth Cooper Benjamin ten scenarios designed to elicit themes related to Bat Mitzvah) eJewish Philanthropy Today, outside of Orthodoxy, and asked participants to complete the stories they had been girls and boys participate in given and explain what the identical B’nai Mitzvah rituals characters were thinking and celebrated with equal enthusifeeling. Story stems, like other asm by families and communiprojective measures, allow ties. respondents to articulate their Given that ritual Bar Mitzexperiences and associations vah has existed since the Midindirectly, without having to dle Ages while Bat Mitzvah claim them as their own. was inaugurated less than 100 In our research, we found years ago, we have certainly that the meaning come a long way. of Bat Mitzvah is Where I work, bound up with though, we’re the ways girls are learning that negotiating femithings might still Bar & Bat Mitzvahs ninity in the crucible be different for young of puberty and at the edge of men and women during B’nai adolescence. We learned that Mitzvah. this milestone raises challengRecently, I spoke with my ing issues for girls, and we 12-year-old cousin, whose have some suggestions for social calendar is in full-tilt adults.

B’nai Mitzvah mode. His realIn the complete report, I disity is very different than that of cuss various aspects of the Bat his female classmates; when I asked what he wears I was told Mitzvah experience for girls, but here I look specifically at he “has two shirts.” I don’t pressures girls face around atknow if he finds the prospect tire, femininity, and sexuality. of wearing the same thing Girls’ narratives often took every weekend a snoozefest or the shape of a mythic quest for a relief. the “perfect dress,” suggestWhat I do know is that this ing that the question of what relaxed nonchalance is not to wear is one of great consewhat I encountered when I was studying girls’ experiences quence for Bat Mitzvah girls.

This quest for perfection of contemporary Bat Mitzvah. also reflects a mass culture that I work as the research direcrelentlessly targets girls with tor at Ma’yan, where I co-lead digitally enhanced images a feminist leadership training that create impossible beauty program for Jewish teen girls.

Together with a co-facilitator and nine Jewish girls in New York City-area high schools, we conducted an online survey of pre- and post-Bat Mitzvah girls in the tri-state area.

In the survey, we presented a series of “story stems” (writ-

One researcher explains how to protect our daughters during Bat Mitzvah Jonathan Levine

The milestone of Bat Mitzvah can also raise challenging issues for girls

standards. What we noticed in these narratives is that respondents had internalized the belief that they will be judged based on how they present themselves.

The extreme version of the anxiety is a belief that their

value as people is tied up with their clothing choice.

Respondents also wrote rich descriptions of Bat Mitzvah dresses. Dresses were frequently described as either babyish or matronly, and sometimes Continued on next page

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For a complete schedule of our events, go to bethabrahamdayton.org.

Continued from previous page both at once: “It looked like a Barbie fairy princess turned Grandma.”

What’s missing from these developmental mash-ups of girlhood and old age is the state that girls’ bodies are often beginning to resemble at around Bat Mitzvah-age: sexually mature adulthood.

Arguments around hemlines and tzniut (modesty) are sometimes proxies for a more difficult conversation about girls’ maturing bodies, sexualization and objectification, and their desire to assert and explore their sexuality.

Lots of adults are concerned about their daughters’ dignity or the solemnity of religious ritual. And many girls want to express their identities, relate to their friends, and not be coerced into looking “like a nun.”

So what’s a parent or other caring adult to do?

Our research clearly shows that the Bat Mitzvah unfolds in conversation with all the other influences and experiences in girls’ lives.

One of the best things adults can do is to create safe spaces where girls can talk — about their pressures and concerns as well as excitement and anticipation.

dards.

Whether they’re on the bima (synagogue stage), in school, or hanging out in their pajamas, Strive for open-ended diatween and teen girls often feel logue rather than seeking out scrutinized and denigrated specific information or correcting misperceptions. Cultivating based on their appearance and their actions. a curious (but not interrogaIt’s so common that we tive) attitude conveys respect might not even notice it, but to young people, who may criticizing a girl or woman for view adults as using conversaviolating — or appearing to tions to assess or inform or fix violate — cultural norms of them. sexual behavior and appearAnother important thing adults (both parents and Jewish ance (sometimes called slutshaming) demeans all girls and communal professionals) can robs more dignity and meaning do is to resist the temptation to from a spiritual milestone than police girls’ bodies even under any hemline or high heel posthe guise of protecting them. sibly could.

It’s normal to feel protective And it clearly discriminates. of young people and/or comLook at the reaction to the munity norms. But girls’ bodies MTV Awards perand sexuality are formance by Miley often highly proOne of the Cyrus and Robin vocative for adults, best things Thicke: both perforand it’s crucial for us to ask ourselves: adults can do mances were overtly sexualized, but Miley what’s coming up is to create criticized while for me as I negotiate safe spaces got Thicke (whose song this issue? What do I Blurred Lines sugfeel when a woman where girls gests that women wears a short skirt can talk don’t mean it when or a low-cut dress? they tell a man “no”) What concerns me was barely mentioned. about my daughter’s clothing Calling out this kind of preferences? commentary is an act of courIt can also be helpful to talk age and a powerful action explicitly with teens about the for adults to model. You can cultural pressures and marketstart by naming it in the world ing messages that constrain girls’ choices and create narrow around you (you will find plenty of examples in the media, and impossible beauty stanbut you can also find amazing examples of girls’ activism and resistance) and reminding young people that a person’s value has nothing to do with what he or she wears.

Coming of age can be difficult for girls, as they navigate a more complex social world and become more conscious of external pressures and expectations from parents, peers, community, and society.

But we know it can also be a challenging time for adults, who have to temper their support with restraint that encourages girls to explore their identities and solve their own problems.

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Dr. Beth Cooper Benjamin is the director of research at Ma’yan, where she serves as a vocal advocate for girls in the Jewish communal world. She received her doctorate in human development and psychology from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education and may be reached at beth@ mayan.org. This piece contains just some of the many findings from a longer report about our research on Bat Mitzvah. The full report, It’s Actually A Pretty Big Deal: Girls’ narratives of contemporary Bat Mitzvah.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • AUGUST 2014

Freedom from modern slavery focus of Bat Mitzvah project Mendy Fedotowsky

D o w n t o w n D a y t o n ’s

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By Miriam Karp Special To The Observer Like many of us, Ava Kuperman thought human trafficking only referred to sex trafficking, and just to people far away. An English class assignment changed that.

“We read about an Egyptian girl. When she was about my age, her family sold her,” the Van Buren Middle School student Automotively Chic Showroom/Banquet Facilities said. “Soon after, her owners moved to LA, bringing her along. She did all their chores.

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Bar & Bat Mitzvahs now an American citizen and helps kids Amenities include: like herself recover from trafficking and build normal lives.”

Two full refreshment bars Multiple food service areas Ava said she thought about the story Multi-media center Huge video arcade style game room a lot. “I emailed Stop Human TraffickPodium with microphone Security services included ing Dayton and Abolition Ohio, and met Surround sound audio system Roof patio with grill & service facilities people from these organizations. What Two 10' front projection screens Multi banquet/meeting configurations could I do to help? I’m 13 — I’m not going to go out on the streets or rescue people.”

Call 937-296-9262 For her Bat Mitzvah project at Temple for more information or email: aschmelick@primetimepartyrental.com Beth Or, Ava decided to promote awareness and raise funds to combat human traffickFIFTH ST. ing. Her project coincided with Passover, EAKER ST. the Jewish festival of freedom from slavery.

300 S. PERRY “I found a prayer on Freetheslaves.net I-75 about freeing slaves,” she said. “I brought Ava Kuperman during her Bat Mitzvah on June 7 at We Accept Visa FRANKLIN ST. and MasterCard CHAMINADE it to our temple’s Seder and put it in the Eastwood Metro Park JULIENNE newsletter. I found a really cool Seder — HIGH SCHOOL BP The Invisible Seder — really moving— and we tion in the Miami Valley.

WASHINGTON ST. used it at my family’s Seder. It made my uncle “It really makes you think,” Ava said of the cry.” mitzvah project. “Most of the time you just pay US35 Ava’s mom, Andrea, said she was surprised attention to your own life. Before I read that arwhen Ava told her about the project. “It’s a ticle I had no idea that slavery exists today, even www.tajmagaraj.com very big and deep topic,” Andrea said. “I was in America.” concerned about how much she would actuShe hopes to continue to raise awareness, to ally be able to do — it’s not very motivate people to do more.

‘It’s people hands-on.”

“When people think of tikun Patronize our Andrea said Temple Beth Or’s olam (repairing the world), they right around advertisers. director of education, Rabbi David usually think about helping aniThanks! you. They might mals, environment, the homeless.

Burstein, gave Ava perspective.

Tell them “He explained that there both This is different: it’s people right even be down are social action projects and social you. They might even be you saw it the street, even around justice projects, focused more on Observer mascot Bark down the street, even your nextMitzvah Boy in The Observer. raising awareness,” Andrea said. door neighbor.” your next-door “This certainly made us more Andrea deaware, even of the many products neighbor.’ scribed the project B R E A K F A S T • L U N C H • D I N N E R we use that are made by people as “very Ava.” laboring in slavery or near-slavery conditions.”

“She is very empathetic and Andrea and Jereme Kuperman held their has a righteous indignation. The daughter’s Bat Mitzvah ceremony and celebraInvisible Seder was one of the tion on June 7 at Eastwood MetroPark. Ava first Seders I participated in that donated money from her Bat Mitzvah gifts to didn’t feel abstract or far away. I two local organizations, Be Free Dayton and felt a real connection. It was very Abolition Ohio: The Rescue and Restore Coalideep and moving.”

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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • AUGUST 2014