THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2010 11 ADAR, 5770 SHABBAT: FRI 6:09 – SAT 7:09 CINCINNATI, OHIO VOL. 156 • NO. 31 SINGLE ISSUE PRICE $2.00
Four local comedians at Temple Sholom Four local comedians will perform at Temple Sholom on Sunday, March 7: Alex Stone, Mike Cody, John Bunyan and Keith Sanders. Alex Stone has entertained audiences at colleges and clubs across the country. Alex’s Mom and a big fan, Sharon Stone, offers some insight into the her son’s emergence into
comedy. Said Stone, “When you are the mother of a shy boy, you wonder what his profession might be as an adult. You try to picture him as a writer, a radiologist, a trash collector, anything that doesn’t involve much interaction with the public. The one thing you don’t envision is a stand-up comedian.
“As Alex was growing up, I knew he had a great sense of humor and he loved to draw, so I thought he might become an editorial cartoonist. “Imagine my surprise when he told us that he was in a stand-up comedy contest. The principal at his high school was even more astonished when I told him that
Alex had won ‘The Funniest Person in Cincinnati’ Contest at Go Bananas Comedy Club. His response was ‘But he doesn’t talk.”’ Dinner is included in the evening. The public is welcome. There is a charge. For information and reservations, call Temple Sholom.
Wise Temple convenes panel on prisons
NATIONAL Free speech at issue in campus Israel wars Page 7
INTERNATIONAL Shooting a German-Israeli relationship Page 9
Wise Temple’s Critical Topics Committee will present a panel to discuss the impact of prisons and prisoners on Cincinnati and communities nationwide for the evening of March 25 at the temple. After opening remarks by Rabbi Ilana Baden of Wise, Professor Marianna Brown Bettman, Professor of Clinical Law at the University of Cincinnati College of Law, and a regular columnist for The American Israelite newspaper, will serve as moderator of a distinguished panel whose combined expertise comprises such areas as day-to-day operation of prisons, the criminal justice system, prison
reform, and attorney education. The panelists are as follows: Terry Collins — immediate past director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections — began his career in the department as a social worker, then became a warden, deputy director, and assistant director before being appointed director in 2006 by then Governor Robert Taft. Governor Ted Strickland renewed his appointment in 2007. Collins oversaw 13,000 employees and an inmate population of over 51,000. Mr. Collins retired on Jan. 31, 2010. David Yost — now in his third term as Delaware County prosecut-
ing attorney, Yost won the first-ever capital sentence in that county in 2003. A defender of Megan’s Law unconstitutionality claims, Yost filed the first eviction action against a convicted sex offender living within 1,000 feet of a school. Previously, Yost practiced law, served in senior posts in the administrations of Columbus Mayor Dana G. “Buck” Rinehart and Governor George V. Voinovich, reported for the Columbus CitizenJournal, and taught at Columbus State College. David Singleton — after law school, Singleton won the Skadden Fellowship to practice at the Legal
Action Center for the Homeless in New York, worked as a Public Defender for the District of Columbia, and practiced law at Thompson Hine and Flory in Cincinnati before assuming his current position in 2002. Singleton is an attorney and executive director of the Ohio Justice and Policy Center (OJPC), a nonpartisan, nonprofit, public interest law office based in Cincinnati whose purpose is the reform of Ohio’s justice system. The presentation by the panel will be followed by a question and answer period. The program is free and open to the public.
Rabbi Yechezkel Besser, who guided Lauder on revitalizing Jewish life in Poland, dies by Jacob Berkman Jewish Telegraphic Agency
ISRAEL Israel debates giving expats the vote overseas Page 10
DINING OUT Trio cackling over Best Chicken Soup award Page 14
NEW YORK (JTA) — Rabbi Yechezkel Besser, the “spiritual father” of the Polish Jewish revival, has died. Besser, who died Feb. 9, is widely credited with focusing Jewish attention and resources on the remnant of Polish Jewry to have survived the Holocaust. In particular he worked with philanthropist and cosmetics magnate Ronald Lauder to build more than 20 Jewish schools in Poland and Eastern Europe. Besser, a Chasidic rabbi who made his money in real estate and had a shtiebel on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, met Lauder in 1987 when Lauder was serving as the U.S. ambassador to Austria. The rabbi, who had narrowly escaped his native Poland in the days following Kristallnacht, already had
Chabad.org
The Lubavitcher rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, left, pours wine for a blessing in the cup of Ronald Lauder as Rabbi Yechezkel Besser, second from left, and Estee Lauder look on.
started returning to his native land to try to rekindle the Jewish world he saw destroyed by the Nazis. “In some ways it was a perfect partnership,” said Warren Kozak, the author of a book on Besser titled “The Rabbi on 84th Street.” “He could not have helped rebuild Judaism in Eastern Europe without Ronald, and Ronald could not have done it without Rabbi Besser. He gave Ronald the knowledge and background necessary in terms of East Europe, Talmud and Judaism. Ron had the resources the rabbi needed.” Besser, who was born in Katowice, Poland, in 1923 and immigrated to the United States after World War II, helped guide the billionaire cosmetics magnate as he launched the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation in 1988 to start building schools.
BESSER on page 19