AI2010_07_08

11th annual Cedar Village Golf Temple Sholom welcomes Classic planning underway Rabbi Miriam Terlinchamp

Courtesy Cedar Village

(Front) Lou Nidich, Freda Schwartz, Florence Zaret, Barb Reed (co-chair) and Mark Mayer (co-chair); (Back) Lenny Dave, John Fox, Dave Goodman, Sally Korkin, Lesley Loon and Mike Mayer

Plans are being made for the Cedar Village Golf Classic which will take place Monday, Aug. 9 at Wetherington Golf and Country Club. According to Barb Reed and Mark Mayer, co-chairs, this will be a unique opportunity to play golf at Wetherington, a premier private golf club, and to raise funds for Cedar Village.

Proceeds from the 11th annual tournament will be used for the renovation and expansion of Cedar Village rehabilitation services. Since the tournament was founded in 2000, over $1 million has been raised to benefit the residents of Cedar Village.

Since 2006, Jerry and Nancy Robinson and Spring Valley Bank and Marvin and Betsy Schwartz and TOPICZ have been the Presenting Sponsors of the Golf Classic. This year, PNC Bank will be the Major Sponsor.

GOLF on page 19

“Rabbi Miriam Terlinchamp is the perfect match for Temple Sholom and will be a vibrant addition to the Cincinnati Jewish Community,” enthusiastically stated Marcy Ziek, president of Temple Sholom. Rabbi Terlinchamp “embraces our vision of being an intimate and inclusive Reform Jewish congregation. She is also very musical and artistic, both of which are very important to our Temple.” As of July 1, Rabbi Terlinchamp assumed her role as Rabbi and Spiritual Leader of Temple Sholom.

Quoting Rabbi Terlinchamp: “In the spirit of whom we have been historically and who we want to be in the future as a welcoming Reform community where all feel included, Temple Sholom voted unanimously to open our arms wide to the whole TERLINCHAMP on page 19

Rabbi Miriam Terlinchamp

Moscow exhibit gives a voice With a major assist from to Jewish Red Army soldiers Jewish group, ‘Son of Hamas’ staying in U.S.

By Anna Rudnitskaya Jewish Telegraphic Agency

MOSCOW (JTA) — Lev Fein, a Jewish soldier in the Red Army, returned home to Minsk in 1945 to find a letter about his family being wiped out by the Nazis and the dire consequences of the occupation for Belarus Jews.

“Father and Uncle Fein died on the third day of being in the ghetto, the 3rd of August.

Mother, Manya and Bellochka, and Aunt Fein and her daughter died on the 20th of November 1941, in the second mass pogrom. By the beginning of 1942, I was the only one left,” reads part of the letter, written by a friend’s wife who miraculously had escaped.

The letter to Fein, now 95 and living in

the United States, is part of an exhibit of soldiers’ letters and excerpts from their World War II diaries that opened this week at Moscow’s Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War. Titled “Writings and Reflections of Jewish Soldiers in the Red Army,” the monthlong exhibition is part of a documentary project whose authors have gathered accounts from nearly 900 veterans living in 10 countries, many in the United States. The exhibition also contains photos and video.

“This war in Soviet history has for a long time been a war of gods and heroes. Its main characters were generals and political leaders,” said Oleg Budnitsky, director of the International Research Center for Russian EXHIBIT on page 22

which he nearly sabotaged inadvertently with the March publication of “Son of Hamas,” a book that described his undercover work for Israel’s Shin Bet domestic security agency.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security had moved to deport Yousef on the basis of passages that it said indicated he aided Hamas, which the United States lists as a terrorist group.

The reversal culminated a short campaign waged by EMET, a small, four-yearold American Jewish organization, on behalf of a Palestinian Muslim-turnedChristian who had subverted the terrorist organization co-founded by his father.

By Hillel Kuttler Jewish Telegraphic Agency WASHINGTON (JTA) — When Mosab Hasan Yousef left a San Diego courthouse with the news that he would not be deported from the United States, he telephoned Sarah Stern in her Washington, D.C., office.

“Sarah, we won!” he told Stern, president of EMET: Endowment for Middle East Truth, in the June 30 call, “They’re going to give me political asylum and are dropping the case. I want you to know that you’re the first person I’m calling.” “I let out a scream I was so happy,” Stern said of her reaction.

The news climaxed Yousef’s three-year legal effort to settle in the United States,

‘SON’ on page 22

THURSDAY, JULY 8, 2010 26 TAMMUZ, 5770 CINCINNATI, OHIO S HABBAT C ANDLE L IGHTING T IMES : F RIDAY 8:48 – S ATURDAY 9:48

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CINCINNATI JEWISH LIFE

DINING OUT

TRAVEL

Stuart Levey: The man trying to make anti-Iran sanctions work

JCC Center Stage Musical Theater’s ‘Tell Me a Story’

VIEW—hospitality first, sales second

Stockholm: How Swede it is

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THURSDAY, JULY 8, 2010

The American Israelite is currently seeking an

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This position is part-time, flexible hours.

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Mary Ellen and Tom Cody

JNF honors Mary Ellen and Tom Cody with Tree of Life Award Jewish National Fund (JNF) will honor Mary Ellen and Tom Cody for their numerous contributions to the Jewish community at the Tree of Life™ Award Dinner on Nov. 1, 2010 from 6-9 p.m. at the Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza. “These are two dedicated and community-minded people who are well-deserving of this recognition,” said special events co-chair Ed Paul. “This honor is a way of showing everyone Mary Ellen and Tom’s commitment to making our world better nationally as well as locally.”

The Tree of Life™ Award is a humanitarian distinction presented

by JNF to individuals for their outstanding community involvement, their dedication to the cause of American-Israeli friendship, and their devotion to peace and the security of human life. The award recognizes leaders for their achievements and innovations in industry, government and education.

“Mary Ellen and Tom’s philanthropic work is truly inspiring,” said dinner co-chair Patti Schneider. “They have set the bar high for the rest of us; I know I speak for my co-chairs when I say that it is an honor to be part of such a meaningful award dinner.

By agreeing to be honored, Mary Ellen and Tom continue to give to our local community and extend

their reach to help JNF fulfill its mission of being caretakers of the Land of Israel.”

Mary Ellen and Tom Cody are well known in Cincinnati for their philanthropic work and civic achievements. In 2006, Mary Ellen was named one of the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Women of the Year. She serves on a number of boards, including Friends of CCM, Dominican Community Services, Every Child Succeeds, and St. Ursula Academy. She has previously served as president of Dress for Success Cincinnati.

Tom serves on the Board of Directors of CTS Corporation, Ohio National Financial Services, Inc. and The Ohio National Life Insurance Company. He is Chairman of the Board of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, and is a board member for a number of organizations, including Xavier University and The Greater Cincinnati Foundation. His past volunteer work has included chairing the United Way, Community Chest and the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce Board of Trustees; serving as co-chair of Cincinnati C.A.N. and as a board member of Cincinnati Art Museum and the Hebrew University College Ethics Center.

“Mary Ellen and I are truly

honored to be receiving the 2010 Tree of Life™ Award,” said Tom Cody. “In early 2009 we traveled to Israel and saw firsthand the incredible work that JNF does. We were truly impressed with the commitment to improving the lives of all those people it deals with. Mary Ellen and I believe that community service is something that we must incorporate into all our lives whether or not we have chosen a service career. JNF consistently demonstrates that.”

The dinner will benefit Givot Bar, a new community in the Negev Desert that is part of JNF’s Blueprint Negev initiative, a campaign to sustainably develop Israel’s southern region for the next generation of Israel’s residents. The community, which is currently home to 70 families, is expected to reach 500 families within the next 10 years. Ground has already been broken for the creation of the 12-acre Wingate Park, which will run through the center of Givot Bar and include a walking path, bike trail, playgrounds, extensive lawns and shaded areas, and an amphitheater that will be used as the region’s flagship center for shows and cultural events. Proceeds from the dinner will go toward building inclusive and accessible playgrounds as part of Wingate Park.

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Jewish Federation releases statement on Planning and Allocations The work of the Jewish Federation’s Planning and Allocations committee (chaired by Suzette Fisher) and the three local councils, Senior Adults (Jan Armstrong Cobb, Kathie Kaplan, co-chairs); Youth and Family (Marcie Bachrach, Susan Brenner, co-chairs) ; and the Council of Jewish Life and Learning (Billy Bie & Chase Kohn, co-chairs) have become more critical than ever. The agencies, programs and services of Cincinnati’s Jewish community — so essential for so many whose lives, livelihoods and well-being depend on them—are requesting funding for the 2011 allocations process and council members are investing hours and hours of time determining the value of the programs.

The Jewish Federation of Cincinnati constantly strives to secure these vital financial resources necessary to support them by implementing effective, multi-faceted fund development strategies. But as economic volatility continues and uncertainties about the financial future persist, it is not surprising that even these tenacious efforts have fallen short of achieving the community’s fundraising goals.

The job of the Planning & Allocations committee and its councils is to ensure that every available dollar delivers maximum impact and benefit to the community. The task of deciding how to distribute the existing funds from the 2010 Community campaign is already underway with Planning and Allocations council members making two- to three-hour site visits to partner and beneficiary agencies—the first step of a multi-tiered process.

It is here that council members have the opportunity to see, touch and feel the programs, meet the clients, talk to the coordinators, and ask questions of the agency executives. It is here where council members make sure that programs offered to the community are valuable, influential and delivering services in a thoughtful and caring manner.

This year, the Planning and Allocations councils and committee have expanded—welcoming over 40 new council members.

These individuals with incredible professional backgrounds, expertise and passion for our community, attended an orientation meeting to become familiar with the planning and allocations process, and to identify their specific areas of strength that would increase their effectiveness in reviewing pro-

grams, budgets and asking thoughtful questions of the executives and program coordinators.

Prior to the council members conducting the site visits, agency executives completed an application form—newly designed this year so that a program’s impact, accountability and alignment with the agency’s core mission could be more easily ascertained.

Additionally, a new application for scholarship funding for the community’s day schools and camps has also been developed— along with a new evaluation tool for council members to utilize.

to hear these reports and to evaluate, debate and discuss the programs requesting funds.

In July, Planning and Allocations committee members will be meeting with the Jewish Federation’s six partner agency presidents and executives to assess the health of these agencies that provide critical, lifeline services to the community. This is a new role for the Planning and Allocations committee — one made necessary by an increase of $348,000 in requested funding and a decrease in available dollars. The drop in the draw from the

The job of the Planning & Allocations committee and its councils is to ensure that every available dollar delivers maximum impact and benefit to the community.

Currently, the three local councils and their 20 to 25 members are in the process of making 39 site visits to various programs for which the presenting agencies have requested funding. Each site visit includes two or three council members participating in the program they are evaluating and then reporting back to the council.

For example, council members rode the senior adult bus to and from the Mayerson JCC— talking with clients and the driver and observing how friendly, clean and well-routed the bus experience was for the clients. As Leah Smith, volunteer on the Senior Adult council, commented, “I thoroughly enjoyed my ride on the bus with Dave. I was so impressed with his gentle way with the seniors. One Russian woman summed it all up by stating ‘my bus driver Dave is my friend and relative!!!’ It truly was my pleasure to have such a great experience riding and talking with these seniors.”

Council members have also traveled to Camp Livingston to meet with campers, counselors and the director of the camp while touring the grounds and engaging in camp activities.

Once the site visits are complete, council members report back to their individual councils with full written reports about their visits. The councils convene

endowment, along with a flat annual campaign, make the challenges faced by the volunteers serving on the Planning and Allocations committee overwhelming—and, in many cases, heart-wrenching.

Site visits require an extensive time commitment to an exhaustive process—yet these visits enables council and committee members to make highly informed recommendations to the Planning and Allocations committee.

“Those serving on the Planning and Allocations councils understand the seriousness and potential impact of the task they have volunteered to undertake,” said Fisher, who is chairing the Planning and Allocations committee for the second consecutive year. “In 2010, 49 new volunteers stepped forward to participate in this process. So now, nearly 100 members of the community have committed themselves to experiencing first-hand the programs and initiatives for which the agencies are requesting funding. We know that this deeper level of engagement—which will include input from clients as well as staff—will result in more insightful recommendations to the Planning and Allocations committee and more efficient distribution of the available funds.”

While the councils are conducting site visits, the Planning

and Allocations committee is busy reviewing the organizational profiles, business plans, forecasting and budgeting processes of the partner agencies: Jewish Family Services, Mayerson JCC, Jewish Vocational Services, Rockwern Academy, Cincinnati Hebrew Day School, and the University of Cincinnati Hillel.

“Transparency, collaboration and a thorough understanding of the greatest communal needs are the defining characteristics of this entire process,” continued Fisher.

“Even in the face of a challenging economic environment, our agencies have stepped forward to embrace this collegial approach to efficient community planning by respecting each other’s core competencies, coordinating complementary, synergistic programming, and achieving the most efficient use of our community’s resources. Their spirit has made our task much less onerous.”

Beneficiary Agencies include Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Camp Chabad, Camp Livingston, Cedar Village, Center for Holocaust and Humanity Education, Hebrew Union College, Hillel of Miami University, Cincinnati Community Kollel, RITSS, UC Department of Judaic Studies and Workum. National and Regional Agencies are the American Jewish Committee (AJC), BRIDGES, Hadassah, JTA, MARCC, National Hillel, Ohio Jewish Communities and UJC Birthright Israel.

Synagogue beneficiaries receiving SEED funding include Adath Israel, Beth Israel, Congregation Beth Adam, Congregation B’nai Tikvah, Congregation Ohav Shalom, Golf Manor Synagogue, Isaac M. Wise Temple, Northern Hills Synagogue, Rockdale Temple, Temple Sholom, Valley Temple and Zichron Eliezer.

Allocations from Israel and Overseas dollars also include dollars spent on our partnership with Netanya and Cincinnati, the Jewish Agency for Israel and the Joint Distribution committee.

The total amount of available dollars for the Planning and Allocations committee to distribute is calculated from the collectable annual campaign, the draw on the unrestricted endowment and income from interest and fees. The Jewish Federation of Cincinnati funds programs and services in five key areas: Senior Adults, Youth & Family, Jewish Life and Learning, National Agencies, and Israel and Overseas.

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Can Kutsher’s, the Catskills’ last kosher resort, be saved?

By Uriel Heilman Jewish Telegraphic Agency MONTICELLO, N.Y. (JTA) — For Yossi Zablocki, it was the phone call of a lifetime.

Last February, the manager at Kutsher’s Country Club, the last kosher resort hotel in the Catskill Mountains, called him in a panic with news that owner Mark Kutsher was thinking of retiring and closing down the place.

Zablocki, 37, had spent his summers growing up at the famed resort in upstate New York, graduating from camper to lifeguard to gabbai and leader of High Holidays services. Suddenly he had an opportunity to realize a lifelong dream — and he jumped at it.

“He always dreamed of taking over Kutsher’s,” Zablocki’s wife, Daniela, said. “He really does think of it as a second home. When the opportunity to take it over came up, he asked me, but I think it was a given this was not something I could say no to.”

Now a criminal defense attorney for the New York Legal Aid Society and a general contractor living in Elizabeth, N.J., Zablocki saw the opportunity to run Kutsher’s not just as a third job but as the fulfillment of a calling.

Within days, Zablocki was booking guests for Passover and laying plans for the summer high season — when his endeavor will undergo its real test. If his new programming and marketing approaches work, Zablocki may be able to restore Kutsher’s lost sheen as a thriving retreat for kosher-observant Jews.

Half a century ago, Kutsher’s was part of a thriving Catskills culture that served as a summertime haven for city Jews to stay cool, eat well, be entertained and revel in the company of landsmen from near and far.

“In the past, these hotels opened the doors and guests just fell in from the sky,” Zablocki said.

“Everyone was coming to the Catskill hotels. They didn’t have to sell themselves.”

But the advent of air conditioning, the end of restricted hotels, and the assimilation and gentrification of American Jewry changed all that, turning many Jewish Catskills resorts into ghost towns. Over the past couple of decades the few remaining Jewish resorts in the region have shuttered their doors, been sold to non-Jewish owners or become Chasidic summer camps.

Zablocki is seizing Kutsher’s status as the only kosher resort left in the mountains to draw new customers who require the services of a kosher hotel. His vision is to bring back guests to this relic of American Jewish life with a combi-

nation of new programming and aggressive marketing. His target audience is a younger, Modern Orthodox crowd that may not know from the Borscht Belt.

“I have someone calling every single yeshiva day school in the Northeast saying, ‘Why don’t you come up to Kutsher’s instead of going to some roadside Best Western and bringing in your Torahs, kosher caterer, etc.? Come here. We have everything. You don’t have to bring food, siddurim or even Shabbos candles. You don’t have to worry about electronic key cards or walking around without an eruv. Everything is taken care of.’”

In addition to indoor and outdoor swimming pools, an 18-hole championship golf course, a health club, a lake, boating, tennis, bocce ball, shuffleboard, children’s activities, an eruv enclosure and, of course, lot and lots of food, Zablocki’s “new Kutsher’s” is booking entertainers like singer Neshama Carlebach, comedian Yisroel Campbell of the off-Broadway show “Circumcise Me,” and the Orthodox rock band Soul Farm.

Zablocki also is updating the resort: He has added a hot tub to the indoor pool, brought in spa treatments and fixed up the children’s playground.

Yet in many ways, walking around Kutsher’s on a summer weekend is like traveling back in time. Gray-haired, tuxedoed waiters still whisk around dishes of chopped liver, schav, pierogi and, of course, cold borscht soup.

There’s still a cosmetics shop in the lobby called Justine’s Makeup Counter, an automat and vending machines that date back to the 1950s. And Jackie Horner, who served as the inspiration for the hit 1987 film “Dirty Dancing,” is still leading dance classes, exercise routines and “Bingo for Bucks.”

Except Jackie is now in her 70s, the old chairlifts on the ski hill haven’t worked in years and the grand stage in the cavernous Stardust Room is dark except on weekends.

But dozens of elderly Jews from Florida still flock here every summer to take up their usual places in the dining room, the kitchen is open, tickets are on sale for the High Holidays and next Passover, and comedians from the city are making the two-hour drive up from New York to coax laughs out of overfed Jews.

It’s something you can’t take for granted, Zablocki warns. Kutsher’s almost didn’t open at all this year.

“Once this era is gone, the Borscht Belt will be completely forgotten,” said Mickey Montal, who runs the kitchen at Kutsher’s.

“You can go to a Sheraton anytime.

We want to preserve the kosher hotel and the nostalgia of the area.

It’s an intricate part of Jewish life in America. People that come here enjoy it immensely.”

If things go well, Zablocki hopes he won’t just be saving an American Jewish icon but also creating an avenue for his other dream: making aliyah with an American salary.

“As crazy as it seems, I will have an easier time making aliyah and running a hotel in the Catskills than if I wasn’t running a hotel in the Catskills. If it works out, I can leave my other jobs,” he said. “The new Zionist dream is to work in America and live in Israel. My legal aid career doesn’t really allow for that, nor does the construction business. Since most of what I do here during the fall, winter and spring is phone-oriented and computer-oriented, I could do it.”

Whether or not that’s a pipe dream remains to be seen. The hotel still needs some work, and Zablocki still has a formidable challenge in making back the money he invested to open the hotel and lease it from the Kutsher family.

Most important, the guests must materialize. The hotel has 250 operational rooms; Zablocki figures he needs an average of 150 of them occupied on summer weekends — about half that midweek — to break even.

Zablocki says he has lost about 30 pounds since taking control of the hotel.

“I’ve stopped eating. I used to come here for the food, but I can’t enjoy a meal. I’m constantly doing everything,” he said. “There’s definitely much more to running the hotel than I initially thought.”

If anyone can do it, Zablocki can, his sister says.

“Yossi’s a bulldozer,” Chana Zablocki told JTA. “When another brother of ours had a brain tumor everybody said was inoperable, Yossi was the one who got on the phone and found a surgeon in Arizona who had done 200 of these surgeries. And today, thank God, our brother is married and healthy.”

Ultimately, success or failure will hinge on whether the American Jews of today are interested in what Kutsher’s has to offer.

“Ninety-nine percent of the people that come here are coming to have a version of the Catskills hotel experience: as much food as you can eat, entertainment, shows.

We’re figuring out how to recapture and capitalize on that,” Zablocki said.

“We’re not reinventing the wheel. People should have a nostalgic feeling when they come here. We’re keeping this as a Catskills-style resort.”

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Stuart Levey: The man trying to Settlement freeze, Iran, peace talks to headline make anti-Iran sanctions work

By Ron Kampeas Jewish Telegraphic Agency WASHINGTON (JTA) — Stuart Levey was given a big stick when the Bush administration made him the first under secretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence. But the stick only started to hurt its targets — terrorist groups and rogue nations — when he figured out how to soft-talk nations and private businesses into going along.

Levey is that rarity — a senior government official who has transitioned not just between two administrations, but between two presidents with profound foreign policy differences.

President Obama’s decision to keep Levey and his office in place has less to do with ideology and more with how Levey has made the office into a tool that has effectively squeezed Iran and North Korea and hindered the ambitions of terrorist groups.

Most recently, on June 16, Levey had the floor in the White House press room when he outlined new sanctions targeting an Iranian bank, a number of shipping companies and individuals associated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is believed to control the Islamic Republic’s suspected nuclear weapons program.

“Stuart has been the chief architect of our strategy to impose growing financial costs on Iran for its continued defiance and he has played a major leadership role on this issue internationally,” Obama’s Treasury secretary, Tim Geithner, said in introducing Levey.

The strategy, in fact, predated the Obama administration.

Levey told The New York Times in a 2008 story that he came upon the idea when he was in Bahrain in January 2006, shortly after he assumed his position. Upon reading in a newspaper that a Swiss bank was pulling out of Iran, it occurred to Levey that the tendency of governments to confine their actions to what they could accomplish directly was overly narrow and that he could do more by talking private enterprise into isolating bad actors.

U.S. laws and executive orders clearly ban U.S. business dealings with Iran, with a few exceptions; getting third parties to comply is more complex and vexed. Levey’s innovation was to transition from law enforcer to diplomat, and to make his case through watertight presentations.

“A lot of it was urging international allies to adopt a more effective international standard,” said Rob Nichols, who was an assistant secretary of the Treasury and the communications director when Levey moved to the department in 2005.

By April 2008, Levey was successful enough to have become a bete noire in Tehran.

“They had assigned one of their Zionist deputies to halt the Iranian economy,” said Davoud Danesh Jafari, a former finance minister in Iran. “This person would personally travel to many countries around the world. He would use incentives and encouragement to request cooperation against Iran, and if he failed to get any results he would use threats to pursue his goal.”

JTA Photo

Stuart Levey

Levey’s Jewishness clearly was significant to Jafari, but though Levey’s children attend a Jewish day school in suburban Maryland and he is involved in school activities, he does not wear it on his sleeve at work.

Levey tells Jewish friends that he has never personally encountered anti-Jewish hostility on his travels in the Muslim and Arab worlds, and feels equally driven to pursue Iran as he does North Korea or the drug dealers and money launderers he went after at the Department of Justice.

And contrary to Jafari he does not threaten, although Levey’s interlocutors have told the media that they understood the threat of U.S. action underpins his outreach.

Instead, Levey would task his staff to come up with unimpeachable evidence of wrongdoing by an entity and then make the case to his interlocutors, often with charts.

“Stuart shared facts,” said Molly Millerwise Meiners, his spokeswoman until 2009, who accompanied Levey on his overseas trips and now works as a spokeswoman for Citigroup. “He was very straightforward and worked side by side with these individuals, be they government or private sector.”

Jonathan Schanzer, an analyst for Levey in the middle of the decade who is now a vice president at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy think tank, said Levey was exacting and probing in

assessing evidence.

“The system that has been created involves layers of lawyers,” Schanzer said.

In making his case for sanctioning shipping companies, Levey at times has attracted headlines with a spectacular find — notably in 2008, when his agency helped linked the owners of a building in New York’s financial district to an Iranian bank with ties to weapons dealers. But Levey generally keeps his victories under wraps, partly because he does not want to exercise a threat option.

“He understands that he cannot make waves in the financial community,” Schanzer said. “Slinging around threats would not induce financial stability.”

Levey’s single major brush with controversy was his role in accessing the database at SWIFT, the international grouping that coordinates interbank transactions.

President George W. Bush authorized such access after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and The New York Times revealed the U.S. Treasury’s use of the access in 2006.

Levey vigorously defended his use of the database, saying it was subject to independent audits for any inappropriate privacy breaches. The Belgium-based grouping objected, but the story — unlike other revelations of Bush-era privacy incursions — slipped out of sight.

Before joining the Bush administration in 2001, Levey was in law practice for 11 years at the Washington firm Miller, Cassidy, Larroca & Lewin, where he worked with Nathan Lewin, well known for his work on behalf of Jewish groups.

Levey, 47, the son of an Akron, Ohio-area dentist, is plugged into Washington’s Republican network.

After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1989, he clerked with Laurence Silberman, a conservative judge on the Washington federal appeals court. In private practice, as a white collar criminal defense lawyer, he contributed only to Republicans.

Levey joined the incoming George W. Bush administration at the Department of Justice in 2001, and made enough of a splash as part of the team transferring responsibilities to the then-new Department of Homeland Security that he seemed a natural pick for the new Treasury terrorism financing office when it was established in 2005.

Despite his GOP and conservative credentials, Levey has emerged as nonpartisan to the extent that when Obama’s nomination of Geithner hit a glitch over back taxes, Levey was appointed acting secretary.

vital Obama-Bibi meeting

By Ron Kampeas Jewish Telegraphic Agency WASHINGTON (JTA) — The joke making the rounds in Jerusalem ahead of next week’s Netanyahu-Obama summit: Time to bone up on geology.

Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, told reporters this week that he was misheard when he was quoted as telling Israeli diplomats that a “tectonic rift” was emerging between Israel and the United States. The Israelis didn’t get it, said the U.S.born Oren: He meant there was a “tectonic shift.”

Whether there is a difference, and whether it’s meaningful, no one was going to say. The point was to get it right this time when the U.S. president and Israeli prime minister meet at the White House on July 6 or face a worsening of U.S.-Israel ties.

“The Americans and Israelis with whom we’ve met all seem quite optimistic that both sides are intent on having a positive meeting,” said the executive director of the American Jewish Committee, David Harris, who is in Israel this week. “Both sides understand that there’s a lot at stake in having a positive outcome.”

As opposed to the last two — or almost two — times.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s last visit to Washington, in late March, was marred by the aftermath of the tensions that followed Israel’s announcement about two weeks earlier of new building in eastern Jerusalem just as Vice President Joe Biden was in Israel for a visit.

Top U.S. officials called the announcement an insult, and when Netanyahu and President Obama met they kept their deliberations behind closed doors, failing even to issue a summary statement.

Both sides spent subsequent weeks making up, with Obama administration officials emphasizing practical U.S. defense support for Israel and Netanyahu pressing hard for direct talks with the Palestinians.

By the end of May, things looked good for a June 1 meeting at the White House.

But then came Israel’s deadly May 31 raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla. Netanyahu, already in North America, canceled his White House meeting and rushed back to Israel.

The Obama administration ostensibly supported Israel during the widespread outrage that followed, but the administration also pressed Netanyahu to set up an investigatory commission and flip its Gaza sanctions policy: Instead of a “white list” of permissible products to be allowed into Gaza,

Israel created a blacklist of products it would bar from import to Gaza. That allowed a much broader array of goods into Gaza and marked a diplomatic loss for the Israeli government.

The sides are likely to come to the July 6 meeting with two items unresolved: What Israel plans to do once its 10-month partial freeze on West Bank settlement building lapses in September, and how the sides plan to confront Iran.

The first issue is likely to be the most contentious: The Obama administration wants to keep the Palestinian Authority in the process, having finally lured it into proximity talks. But if Netanyahu doesn’t have direct talks to show for his efforts, it will be a hard sell to keep his right-leaning Cabinet on board.

As an extra burr, Jerusalem’s mayor, Nir Barkat — who has national ambitions — is pressing ahead with plans to build in Arab neighborhoods of eastern Jerusalem.

On Iran, the difference may be more fundamental. Ostensibly the news for Netanyahu is good: The U.N. Security Council passed expanded sanctions this month against Iran in light of its recalcitrance on making its nuclear program transparent. The sanctions themselves lacked serious bite, but they set the stage for much tougher sanctions — one set approved by the European Union and another passed by the U.S. Congress.

The congressional sanctions are the toughest ever, targeting third parties that deal with Iran’s energy and financial sectors. They have been welcomed by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, signaling the likelihood that Obama will adopt at least some of them.

Already the Treasury Department has expanded sanctions targeting Iran’s shipping and banking sectors based on existing law.

The problem is, Israel’s establishment no longer believes sanctions will be effective and is eager to hear what, if anything, the Obama administration has planned for the military front. Obama thus far has laid back on such plans, or even on whether he would consider drawing up such plans for such a contingency.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak toured the United States last week, and in his meetings with Clinton, national security adviser James Jones and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Barak outlined what is shaping up as his proposal to synthesize the two emerging crises: Barak wants Netanyahu to announce a bold peace initiative with the Palestinians as a means of freeing Israel diplomatically to operate in the military sphere should the need arise with Iran.

NATIONAL

THURSDAY, JULY 8, 2010

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Bork turns Kagan process into fight over Israeli justice

By Ami Eden Jewish Telegraphic Agency NEW YORK (JTA) — It was an unexpected headline in an otherwise relatively mundane U.S. Supreme Court confirmation process: Bork tries to Bork Barak’s Elena Kagan with Barak card.

Like a ghost from confirmations past, failed Reagan nominee Robert Bork grabbed headlines last week when he spoke out against President Obama’s nomination of Elena Kagan to the high court. At the top of his complaint list: As dean of Harvard Law School, Kagan once referred to former Israeli Chief Justice Aharon Barak as her “judicial hero.”

“It’s typical of young lawyers going into constitutional law that they have inflated dreams of what constitutional law can do, what courts can do,” Bork said during a June 23 conference call organized by the anti-abortion group Americans United for Life in an effort to rally opposition to Kagan in the U.S. Senate. “That usually wears off as time passes and they get experience. But Ms. Kagan has not had time to develop a mature philosophy of judging. I would say her admiration for Barak, the Israeli justice, is a prime example. As I’ve said before, Barak might be the least competent judge on the planet.”

Conservative bloggers quickly ran with Bork’s comments, painting Barak as the prototypical liberal activist judge and insisting that Kagan’s praise of the Israeli justice was grounds for rejecting her nomination. By the weekend, even a few Republican lawmakers were giving voice to the concerns, albeit in less absolute terms. And two GOP members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sens. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) and Jeffrey Sessions (RAla.), raised the issue in their opening statements on the first day of Kagan’s confirmation hearings.

“You’re going to have a lot of explaining to me about why you picked Judge Barak as your hero because when I read his writings, it’s disturbing to me about what he says a judge should do for society as a whole,” Graham said.

As of Tuesday morning, however, the issue had not taken center stage at the hearings.

But if Bork’s comments ulti-

mately proved to be a brief sideshow in the confirmation process, they triggered a feisty online debate over Barak himself.

In Israel, Barak has been subject to criticism from the left and the right, both for his expansive notion of judicial powers in upholding democratic values and for deferring to national security considerations

the world.” According to the report, Scalia went on “to celebrate his fruitful and long-standing relationship with the Israeli judge, and to affirm a profound respect for the man — one that trumped their fundamental philosophical, legal and constitutional disagreements.”

Told of Scalia’s remarks, Bork dismissed them as sounding “like

theme has been echoed in recent days by Barak’s defenders, who argue that the different legal traditions in Israel and the United States make it difficult to read too much into Kagan’s praise of Barak.

“Kagan wasn’t saying that she would decide every U.S. issue the same way Barak would decide the same matter in Israel,” Aaron

Yossi Zamir/Flash 90

Aharon Barak, formerly Israel’s top justice, recently became an issue in Elena Kagan’s Supreme Court confirmation process.

in a number of cases involving Palestinians.

Following Bork’s comments, liberals in the United States rushed to defend Barak and Kagan by noting that the Israeli justice has received praise as well from judicial conservatives, most notably U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. A darling of conservatives, Scalia glowingly introduced Barak in March 2007 when he was honored by the American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists (with the Supreme Court’s two Jewish members, Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in the audience).

In its report on the introduction, the Forward paraphrased Scalia as saying that “no other living jurist has had a greater impact on his own country’s legal system — and perhaps on legal systems throughout

politeness offered on a formal occasion.”

At the National Review Online, Ed Whelan argued that Scalia’s comments about Barak could not be compared to Kagan’s use of the phrase “my judicial hero.”

In an e-mail to JTA, David Twersky, a veteran journalist and analyst for Jewish organizations, recalled that at a New York Sun editorial dinner at the Harvard Club he asked Scalia about Barak.

“To my great surprise, he had nothing but good things to say and said he would never second-guess Barak,” Twersky said. “So I can tell you from personal experience that Bork is wrong.”

Twersky recalled Scalia as saying, “I mean they don’t even have a constitution over there.”

The Israel-lacks-a-constitution

Zelinsky wrote in a column for the Huffington Post. Instead, added Zelinsky, an American who once clerked for Barak, Kagan “respected what he stood for and had accomplished, in particular the furtherance of ‘democracy, human rights, the rule of law, and justice.’”

The Orthodox Union has taken issue with Barak’s record, accusing him of improperly attempting to “impose his ideological vision” on matters when Israel’s Jewish and democratic values are seemingly in conflict. But even as it reiterated those criticisms, the OU’s Washington blog — like several other U.S. Jewish groups — dismissed Bork’s attack on Kagan, suggesting her praise was merely “social convention.”

“Israel gets pulled into enough disputes around the world these

days, and its Supreme Court continues to spark debates too,” the OU blog declared. “Can’t Judge Bork and the rest of Kagan’s opponents find something else — and less bizarre — to attack her with?”

Both the OU and the Reform movement waded into the confirmation process, though they stopped short of taking an actual position on the nominee.

In a letter to U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the OU said it found Kagan’s record “encouraging.” It noted her repudiation in confirmation hearings of her 1987 memo, when she clerked for the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, rejecting any government funding for faith-based charities providing social services.

The OU also noted memos she wrote as a domestic adviser to President Clinton backing religious freedoms in the workplace.

The Reform movement, meantime, forwarded to the Judiciary Committee members what it considered to be the most compelling questions it solicited from its membership on the Web site, AskElanaKagan.

“What limits does the Establishment Clause place on government funding that flows to faithbased organizations?” was one question.

“Do states have a right to define marriage as solely between a man and a woman? What should be the Federal role concerning marriage?” was another.

Nancy Ratzan, the president of the National Council of Jewish Women, issued a statement rejecting Bork’s criticism of Kagan and promised that the NCJW would continue to push its members to take action in support of her nomination.

Kagan’s Jewishness also took center stage later in the day.

Graham, probing Kagan on threats to the United States, asked her if she was unnerved by the Christmas Day bomber.

“Where were you on Christmas Day?” Graham asked.

“Like all Jews,” she responded, “I was probably at a Chinese restaurant.”

“I could almost see this one coming,” Leahy quipped.

Then Sen. Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) jumped in: “Those are the only restaurants that are open!”

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Lamenting the gulf on Tisha B’Av

By Edmon J. Rodman Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Brian Hendler

Natan Sharansky, chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, addresses a meeting in Jerusalem of the organization’s board of governors, June 20, 2010.

Jewish Agency makes it official: New focus is on identity building

By Jacob Berkman Jewish Telegraphic Agency NEW YORK (JTA) — As expected, the board of governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel approved a plan to overhaul the agency’s focus.

The new strategic vision, which is outlined in an 11-page document, calls for turning the agency’s attention more squarely toward building global Jewish identity, and away from its traditional mission of bringing in and settling new immigrants to Israel.

The plan, according to a statement released by the agency last week, passed 119-1 in a June 25 vote at the board’s meetings in Jerusalem.

“The main danger facing the Jewish world today is a weakening of the connection of young Jews to their people and to the State of Israel,” said the agency’s chairman, Natan Sharansky, who led the new strategic planning process along with the organization’s top lay leader, Richard Pearlstone. “Our new plan deals directly with this issue.”

Sharansky has been pushing the plan since he was appointed chairman of the agency last year. He has reshaped the top professional staff and is moving the agency’s key operations — such as global fundraising and marketing — to New York from Jerusalem. Sharansky also has decided to essentially scrap much of the fundraising strategy of the past.

It’s not a radical redoing of the agency but a shift that flip-flops its focus. The plan drastically deemphasizes aliyah and some of the agency’s modalities of the past.

The agency seems to have concluded that to remain relevant, it must do away with old sensibili-

ties – namely that for the better part of the 20th century, the world Jewish community was consumed with founding, establishing and settling the State of Israel.

“We were once a people without a homeland; we can’t become a homeland without a people,” said Misha Galperin, who on Thursday was to become the agency’s head of global external affairs — a position created with the overhaul.

In its bid to play matchmaker between Israel and the Diaspora in the name of pushing Jewish identity, the agency has four goals, according to the document (which is available on JTA’s philanthropy blog, Fundermentalist.com): • Expand the multifaceted significance of Israel in the identity of young Jews around the world.

• Strengthen solidarity and the commitment among Jews to build up the Jewish collective (Klal Israel).

• Increase the number of Jews who make aliyah, with a particular focus on those who do so as the fulfillment of their Jewish identity.

• Increase the number and impact of young Israelis and Jews worldwide, motivated by Jewish values, who aid vulnerable populations and address the major challenges of Israeli civil society.

The Jewish Agency will focus on reinforcing its partnership with Birthright Israel and further developing its own MASA program, which provides significant scholarships to college graduates from the Diaspora to participate in Israel programs lasting three months or longer. The agency also is launching several new initiatives, including an effort to empower youth activists to perform Israel outreach.

The agency, which receives

more than $100 million annually in unrestricted funds from the North American Jewish federation system, is expected to approve its budget at meetings in October.

The budget will reflect the new strategy; a number of programs that are not within the new focus will be cut or drastically reduced.

“In coordination with the Government of Israel and other partners, we will phase out of those programs that do not align with the mission,” reads a passage in the newly approved strategic visioning document. “Programs that are aligned with the revised mission will be examined for their ability to make a difference to our strategic goals, their unique added value and the degree to which they are compelling to donors.”

The move did have one vocal detractor from within its lay leadership: The new chairman of the World Zionist Organization and a longtime Jewish Agency board member, Avraham Duvdevani, called the plan “unacceptable and very painful to me,” according to the Israeli daily Haaretz.

“Israel’s demographics mean we cannot afford to wait for Zionism to come about as a byproduct. Aliyah (immigration to Israel) is this country’s oxygen,” Duvdevani told Haaretz, adding that the agency’s budget of approximately $300 million is too small to “carry out a real revolution in Jewish education, which would only come if Diaspora Jewry receives free Jewish education at a of cost several billions of dollars.”

But in the end, according to agency officials, the only vote against the new plan came from a non-board member who was erroneously counted.

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — Alas, this year on the Ninth of Av, Tisha B’Av, when we darken our mood and grieve our losses, should we add a lament for what has happened in the Gulf of Mexico?

On a day when we acknowledge by chanting kinot, laments, the Jews slain in wars, pogroms and all manner of persecution, should we now also acknowledge through this ancient form that the environment can kill Jews, too? Or kill our spirits, and those of our friends?

“We’re seeing already an increase in suspiciousness, arguing, domestic violence,” Dr. Howard Osofsky of Louisiana State University told NPR recently.

Each year on the Ninth of Av, we read a book that tells the story of disaster too well.

The Book of Lamentations, Eicha, named for its first word, “Alas,” which traditionally is chanted on Tisha B’Av (this year it falls on the night of July 19), speaks to the aftermath of violence and disaster.

“Lonely sits the city,” begins the five-chapter book that speaks to the fall of Jerusalem. Verse by verse it laments the loss “of all the precious things she had.”

Today, as we watch the spoiling beach by beach, we also lament the precious loss of life and community.

Yet it’s not the fall of Jerusalem we are witnessing or the burning of the Talmud in medieval Paris.

So why lament? Should we cry over wasted hydrocarbons or the loss of shellfish many of us don’t even eat?

Does the oil need to ooze along JCC or synagogue floors to bring pain and tears? As the oil washes ashore on the gulf states, perhaps more than any other generation we know well that it’s our shore, too.

If our insatiable need for fuel helped to bring on the disaster, then to paraphrase Eicha, should we say, “Our sighs are many and our hearts are sick?”

Our poets have perfected the language of pain; it flows too easily into the events of the day. A new lament can be found in the old. In Eicha we find the verses that set a new Gulf lament spilling out: “You have made us filth and refuse” (3:45), the Gulf Eicha begins.

Witnesses to an environment “laid waste without pity.” (2:2) And as we watch on disaster cams the oil boiling up from deep under the sea, or witness the hopefully engineered attempts to stop the flow fail, the lament continues: “Our steps were checked, We could not walk in our squares.” (4:18) AGulf Eicha proclaims: “Let us lift up our hearts with our hands.” (3:41)

As we ask, what of the animals?

As of the end of June, according to the National Wildlife Federation, 1,065 birds, 51 mammals and 436 sea turtles have died from the oil.

We see them, blackened; what could be sadder now than these photos? And though these words were intended for us to examine human death and suffering, they fit here well enough: “Because of this our hearts are sick, Because of these our eyes are dimmed.” (5:17) The oil-saturated animals call us out on our Talmudic concept of preventing the suffering of living beings, “tzar ba’alei chayim.”

Until faced with this disaster, like cartoon characters we have been living in a pineapple under the sea.

On this day of national Jewish mourning, when I usually have trouble finding something over which to mourn, to fast and not wear leather, I turn on the news and gone is the joy, my “dancing is turned into mourning.” (5:15) “For your ruin is vast as the sea: Who can heal you?” (2:13) And then I view with alarm the maps that measure the spread of the slick, or grow confused at the calculations of just how much oil. As the BP spokesmen and politicians try to soothe my pain, I hear: “The Lord has delivered me into the hands Of those I cannot withstand.” (1:14) And what to say of the role of corporate profits and maintenance shortcuts?

“All around me He has built Misery and hardship.” (3:5) While eating a fish dinner, I think of the fishermen who now spend their time fishing for oil, and the small businessmen who can no longer make their living from the sea and think: “The old men are gone from the gate, The young men from their music.” (5:14) “All her inhabitants sigh As they search for bread.” (1:11) Speaking to the 11 men who lost their lives on the Deepwater Horizon explosion, this Gulf lament asks: “Is there any agony like mine, Which was dealt out to me…” (1:12) “We get our bread at the peril of our lives ...” (5:9) Gulf Eicha ends with a drop of hope.

Searching online, I find that Avodah, The Jewish Service Corps in New Orleans has already placed a worker to be involved with disaster-related issues of mental health in the gulf.

While the relief wells are being drilled, Gulf Eicha suggests a prayer: “I have called on your name of Lord, From the depths of the Pit. Hear my plea ...” (3:55-56) Let us come back; Renew our days as of old.” (5:21)

THURSDAY, JULY 8, 2010

INTERNATIONAL

9

End of trips back to Germany for persecuted Jews marks milestone

By Toby Axelrod Jewish Telegraphic Agency BERLIN (JTA) — Yochanan Asriel stood at the corner of Friedrichstrasse and Franzoesicherstrasse in Berlin last week next to a small, brass plaque newly set into the sidewalk. On it was the name of his father: Davicso Asriel, born 1882, deported Jan. 26, 1942, murdered in Riga.

“I am here today,” said Asriel, 85, “to leave a bit of my family behind.”

Now living in Haifa, Asriel was part of the last official group of former Berlin Jews to be hosted formally by the city as part of a program to sponsor their visits back to their native city. With the number of survivors dwindling, the 41-yearold Invitation Program for Former Persecuted Citizens of Berlin came to an end with last week’s trip.

Most visitor programs, begun during the 1960s in German towns and cities, already have shut down.

Only Hamburg’s remains active.

The end of these programs marks a milestone for the survivor generation.

Some 15,000 former Berliners — plus an equal number of family members — have been invited back at German taxpayer expense over the years. Most are Jewish, and mostly from the United States, Israel, Canada, England and South America. The approximately 120 visitors who have come this year have met with politicians and Jewish leaders, visited synagogues and family graves, and sometimes found their former homes.

Last week, cousins Gerd and Fred Friedeberg, born in Berlin in 1936, walked with their American-born wives into the lobby of 16 Raumerstrasse, the last address of Gerd’s family before it fled to Shangai in 1939.

Neighbors looked on curiously.

To come here now from California “took a lot of soul searching for me,” Gerd Friedeberg said. His children had complained that he didn’t talk enough about the past. He felt he knew too little.

Rabbi Shlomo Jakobovits, 78, came from Toronto with his wife, Wilma. They visited the synagogue where his father, Julius, had served as rabbi before the family fled to England.

“One day our school principal walked into our classroom and said, ‘Herr Jakobovits, Jude raus’ — Jew, out!” Jakobovits recalled.

“I was 6 and didn’t know what was happening. I just went home.”

Ruediger Nemitz, the coordinator of Berlin’s visitor program, began accompanying the Jewish visitors in 1969, when the program began and he was a student.

Toby Axelrod

Yochanan Asriel is surrounded by family prior to the installation of a memorial stone for his father outside the family’s former shop in Berlin.

“When I see the visitors in front of me, I feel a real sadness,” Nemitz said. “It is different to read a book about what happened. But when you see someone who was persecuted as a baby, you can’t understand.”

In the small town of Weiden, the visit of former Jewish citizens in 1988 was “quite an emotional event” all around, said Michael Brenner, a professor of Jewish history and culture at the LudwigMaximilian University in Munich.

“Everyone knew each other, and then they met again,” said Brenner, 45, who co-organized the visit. “It was ‘the’ event in the town.

There were newspaper headlines, and of course there were former neighbors and people who did not want to meet them, and old Nazis were alive, too, then.”

One visitor “wanted to thank the neighbors who helped him prepare for emigration. But he also wanted to look for another neighbor” who had roughly opened his suitcase.

“In the end he decided not to,” recalled Brenner, who is Jewish.

“But he was also thinking, ‘I want to show that person I am back and remind him of what he did.’ ” Emotions can run high, and just putting a hand on someone’s arm “shows we feel with them, it shows that they are not alone in their sadness,” said Carola Meinhardt, who coordinates the program in Hamburg. She expects the program will shift toward a greater emphasis on the younger generation.

In Berlin, Mayor Klaus Wowereit said a decision must be made soon about how to transition the program now that the survivors themselves are no longer coming.

“If you have the chance to talk to these people, it is so emotional and so important,” he said.

“As long as there are survivors who want to come, the program should continue,” Lala Suesskind, president of Berlin’s Jewish com-

munity, told JTA. In fact, Nemitz said, those who wish to revisit for the first time will be invited back, just no longer as part of a group.

For Asriel, the painful past has resurfaced in his dreams.

“At my age now, at 85, every night when I go to sleep, I think of the family,” he said. “Not my family now — I think of my parents and grandparents who I left behind.”

When Asriel was 14, his parents took him to Berlin’s Anhalter Bahnhof train station, where he saw them for the last time. His father was murdered in Riga, his mother in Auschwitz.

Asriel fled to Denmark and ended up in Palestine, where he joined the British army and served for four years. After the war he married Agnes Bash, a Hungarian Jew who survived Auschwitz, and they had three children.

Like many survivors, Asriel hardly talked about the Holocaust for decades. But now, he said, “our generation is making sure that things are not forgotten.”

The “stumbling block” memorial to his father that Asriel had installed in Berlin is one way; a memorial to his mother in the Weissensee Cemetery is another. He is talking as well about his memories of Nazi Germany to his grandchildren, two of whom came along on this trip. Two daughters also came.

“He could not help but feel a bitter memory,” his granddaughter, Dana Cohen, 26, of Haifa, said of her grandfather during the trip to Berlin. “But he was also admiring all the modern things. And I think this is what we will always feel: Germany is nice and modern.

But it will always have that bittersweet taste.”

Asriel’s other grandchild on the trip, Eitan Sondak, 13, of Chicago, said that “I will keep telling the story, to my children and my children’s children.”

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Riding the French countryside in the Jewish-Muslim friendship bus

By Sue Fishkoff Jewish Telegraphic Agency BESANCON, France (JTA) — On a hot afternoon in early June, an unusual looking bus is parked in the central square of this historic city in eastern France.

Passers-by cast sidelong glances at the brightly colored portraits on its side accompanied by such slogans as “Jews and Muslims say no to discrimination” and “We are more alike than you think.”

It is the friendship bus, a project of the French Jewish-Muslim Friendship group, known by the acronym AJMF. Led by a rabbi and imam, the bus and its team spend five weeks every summer traveling through the French countryside hosting panel discussions, chatting with pedestrians, promoting dialogue, and holding out the hope of mutual respect and cooperation between two communities more often found at odds.

“This is our sixth summer touring France,” said Rabbi Michel Serfaty, AJMF’s founder and coleader of the bus project with Imam Mohamed Azizi. “We fight discrimination and stereotypes, and try to break down the walls between our young people.”

Tensions run high between France’s estimated 6 million Muslims and 600,000 Jews. In addition to reverberations of the Israeli-Arab conflict, the relationship between the two communities in France has been exacerbated by a rise in religious extremism among its Muslims and their poor economic status. Many French Muslims, particularly the young people, are unemployed or working menial jobs. They are living in crowded suburbs like the one where a 23year-old French Jew, Ilan Halimi, was kidnapped, tortured and murdered by a gang of young Muslims in 2006.

“We have done a bad job teaching our children the importance of getting along with each other while maintaining their own identities,” said Morgi Madini, a Muslim and linguistics professor in Besancon who showed up for an AJMF discussion of Jewish and Muslim dietary practices. “We need this kind of rapprochement; we need to listen to each other.”

Few such initiatives exist in France; none besides this one is led by a rabbi and imam. Their partnering, and the fact that the work takes place on the streets and in schools, gives the AJMF project great access to France’s Muslim population, say Serfaty and Azizi. AJMF works with the Grand Mosque of Paris and the CRIF, the French Jewish umbrella organization.

Sue Fishkoff

The Jewish-Muslim Friendship bus team talks to a Muslim activist in the central square of Besancon, France, June 10, 2010.

Most Jews and Muslims in France have roots in the same region: the former French colonies of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.

They share a similar culture and history, and many speak the same language, Arabic. That helps launch the dialogue, although it does not guarantee accord.

“There is a rupture between the third and fourth generations,” said Serfaty, who grew up in pre-independence Morocco speaking French and Arabic and interacting with his Muslim neighbors — something few young Jews and Muslims in France do today. “Jews have left the suburbs, and this young generation of Muslims doesn’t know any Jews. They have forgotten that their grandparents used to live together.”

“We do this work because no one else dares,” said Algerian-born Marc Dahan, a professor of applied mechanics and volunteer director of the AJMF branch in Besancon.

Serfaty, who moved to France in 1963, has a bachelor’s degree in Arabic and is a professor of Jewish law, Hebrew philology and mesorah — the transmission of Jewish tradition. A longtime activist in Jewish-Catholic dialogue, Serfaty in 2001 organized France’s first high-level meeting between Jewish and Muslim leaders on behalf of the Consistoire, the governing body of French Orthodox Jewry.

As the intifada worsened, so did Jewish-Muslim relations across Europe in the early 2000s, including in France. Serfaty continued organizing such meetings until, in November 2004, he decided he had to take his work to the streets.

“That’s where the trouble was, and that’s where we had to be,” he said.

In the summer of 2005, he teamed with Azizi, a law professor as well as an imam who had moved

from Morocco to France two years earlier. The two clerics took 15 Jewish and Muslim teenagers from the Paris suburbs, all young men, on a six-week bus tour through the French countryside. Everyone slept in the bus and spent their days talking to young people and elected officials about tolerance and diversity.

After three summers, Serfaty and Azizi decided to limit the summer tour to adults while continuing to work with troubled Parisian youths the rest of the year. The boys, Serfaty said, were a bit “unpredictable” on the road.

Serfaty says his goal is to create a cadre of young Muslim activists committed to peaceful relations who are not afraid to reach out to the AJMF when problems arise.

That has already happened.

Last November in Evry, a volatile Paris suburb, a Muslim activist who runs an afterschool program for underachieving Muslim children invited Serfaty to speak to her charges.

“She told me, ‘These children stink of Jew hatred,’” Serfaty said.

“I told her that’s true everywhere, but I was glad to work with her.”

A Muslim community center in another Paris suburb invited him to talk to a group of Muslim women who wanted a Jewish perspective on the violence in Gaza.

“I went because this is what we want, the Muslim base reaching out to us,” Serfaty said. “It’s not the mayor calling us in.”

But it’s slow going. Elia Ktourza, AMJF’s program director, says some French towns don’t want to work with them.

“They’re afraid, they’d rather hide their problems,” she said.

And many religious Muslims in particular are wary of the colorful bus, which has the word “Jew” emblazoned all over it.

Israel Briefs Turkey will cut ties if Israel doesn’t apologize JERUSALEM (JTA) — Turkey’s foreign minister has threatened to cut ties with Israel unless it apologizes for its deadly interception of a Gaza-bound flotilla, a Turkish newspaper reported.

“Israelis have three options: They will either apologize or acknowledge an internationalimpartial inquiry and its conclusion. Otherwise, our diplomatic ties will be cut off,” Foreign Minister Ahmet Davuto told Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review on Sunday.

Davuto offered the options when he met last week in Brussels with Israel’s Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Benjamin BenEliezer, the newspaper reported.

Nine Turkish citizens were killed in violence that began when Israeli naval commandos boarded in international waters the Turkish-flagged ship Marmara on May 31 to divert it to Israel’s Ashdod port; the boat was determined to reach the Gaza shore despite an Israeli blockade.

Turkey has already recalled its ambassador and cancelled several joint military exercises, as well as banned Israeli military airplanes from using Turkish airspace.

Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, have been quoted as saying Israel will not apologize for its role in the death of the passengers.

Davuto also said that the ban on flying in Turkish airspace could be expanded to include civilian aircraft, Hürriyet reported.

“If steps are not taken [by Israel], the process of isolation will continue,” the minister said.

“We know what we want. We are right in all means. We will strictly follow [this path] until our demands are met.”

Meanwhile, the Turkish Defense Ministry informed Israel’s military over the weekend that it would not participate in an annual naval search-and-rescue exercise scheduled for next month, the Jerusalem Post reported.

The Reliant Mermaid exercise has been held with the Israeli, Turkish and American navies for the last 10 years.

Also, the Haaretz business magazine, TheMarker, reported Monday that Turkish Airlines has cut its weekly flights to and from Israel in half due to decreased Israeli tourism.

Munich Olympic kidnapping planner dies JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Palestinian terror group leader who said he planned the kidnapping of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics has died.

Mohammed Daoud Odeh, also known as Abu Daoud, the former leader of the Palestinian Black September organization, died Saturday in Damascus of kidney failure. He was eulogized by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas: “He is missed. He was one of the leading figures of Fatah and spent his life in resistance and sincere work as well as physical sacrifice for his people’s just causes.”

Eleven Israeli athletes, including American citizen David Berger, were kidnapped and later killed during the abduction. Five Palestinians and a German policeman also were killed.

Odeh oversaw the plans of the raid, which he disclosed in a book published in 1999, titled “Palestine: From Jerusalem to Munich.” But he said he did not order the killing of any of the Israeli athletes.

He was the object of an assassination attempt in 1981, reportedly by the Mossad, but survived.

Flotilla investigation commission gets expanded authority JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s Cabinet unanimously approved expanding the authority of an Israeli inquiry into the Navy’s interception of a Gaza-bound flotilla.

The commission, headed by former Supreme Court Justice Jacob Turkel, will now be permitted to subpoena witnesses and receive sworn testimony, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement. Israeli soldiers will be excluded from the expanded powers, since a military investigation has already begun into the May 31 incident, which left nine passengers dead, according to the statement.

“The cabinet authorized this morning the extension of authorities for the public commission of inquiry into the flotilla affair,” the statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said. “The recommendation was approved without opposition. The said authorities relate to summoning witnesses and swearing them in for testimony. The decision does not apply to IDF soldiers and maintains the independence of the institution of military investigations.”

Turkel last week had threatened to resign unless his independent committee was given the right to conduct a full judicial inquiry, according to Israeli reports. He also had requested to add two members to the committee; that request was not addressed on Sunday.

The commission will now have similar powers as the Winograd Commission, which was established following the Second Lebanon War.

SOCIAL LIFE

THURSDAY, JULY 8, 2010

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A N N O U N C E M E N TS

Phillip Seth Ruben and Carrie Stephany Goldfeder

BRIS rit Milah of Daniel Zoimen ocurred this past week at Congregation Zichron Eliezer in Amberley Village.

B

ENGAGEMENTS hillip Seth Ruben, son of Steven and Terry Ruben of Blue Ash and Carrie Stephany Goldfeder, daughter of Mark and Joy Goldfeder of St. Louis, Mo. have announced their engagement.

Phillip is the grandson of Norman and the late Florence Brodie of Lake Worth, Fla. and Martin and Shirley Ruben of Cincinnati.

Carrie is the granddaughter of Toddy and the late Shirley Goldman of St. Louis, Mo., and the late Dan and the late Annette Goldfeder of St. Louis, Mo. Phillip is a graduate of Sycamore High School and Ohio University where he

P

Jamie Diane Priesman and Jeffrey Lawrence Weisbrot

earned a degree in Sport Sciences. He is employed at the St. Louis JCC. The bride-to-be is a graduate of Parkway North High School in St. Louis, Mo. and Indiana University, where she earned a degree in Apparel Merchandising. Carrie is employed at Brown Shoe Company.

The couple reside in St. Louis.

A July 2011 wedding is planned.

degree from Marquette School of Dentistry. He practices at Loveland Family Dentistry in Loveland, Ohio.

Jamie received her bachelor’s degree at Bradley University in Peoria, Ill. and her master’s degree in counseling in Phoenix, Ariz. at the University of Phoenix. She worked for Banner Health in Arizona for eight years as a crisis therapist. She currently works for Fidelity Investment in Covington, Ky.

lbert and Sherry Weisbrot are delighted to announce the engagement of their son, Jeffrey Lawrence to Jamie Diane Priesman. Jamie is the daughter of Harlan and Rhoda Priesman of Lincoln, Neb. Jeffrey is the grandson of Edwin and Rita Grusd and the late Moszek and Mindla Weisbrot.

Jeff received his bachelor’s degree from Miami University and received his D.D.S.

ve Pearl and Richard Pearl and Lynn and David Callif are happy to announce the engagement of their children, Rachel Heather Pearl and Robert Charles Callif, both of Cincinnati.

Rachel is the granddaughter of the late Eugenia and Sig Susskind and the late Naomi Pearl Abrams and Henry Pearl, all of Cincinnati.

Rachel is a graduate of Ohio University, and is currently working as a medical esthetician at Sia Spa in Cincinnati.

Rob is the grandson of Elaine Bornstein and the late Donald Bornstein of Louisville, Ky. and Neal Callif and the late Sylvia Callif of Columbus, Ohio. Rob is a graduate of the University of Florida, and is currently vice president of BCM Inks in Cincinnati.

A December wedding is being planned in Cincinnati.

A

L-R: Rabbi Meir Minster, Rabbi Hanan Balk, Rabbi Sruly Kova

E

R E F UA H S H L E M A H Frieda Berger Fraida bat Raizel

Murray Kirschner Chaim Meir ben Basha

Daniel Eliyahu Daniel ben Tikvah

Andrea Lavine Chana Sara bat Esther Enya

Mel Fisher Moshe ben Hinda

Alan Schwartzberg Avraham Pesach ben Mindel

Edith Kaffeman Yehudit bat B’racha

Ravid Sulam Ravid Chaya bat Ayelet

Roma Kaltman Ruchama bat Perl

Edward Ziv Raphael Eliezer Aharon ben Esther Enya

Pepa Kaufman Perel Tova bat Sima Sora

ANNOUNCEMENTS ARE 100% FREE PLACE YOUR ANNOUNCEMENT IN THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE. E-MAIL: articles@americanisraelite.com with “Announcement” in the Subject Line

12

CINCINNATI JEWISH LIFE

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

JCC Center Stage Musical Theater’s “Tell Me a Story” JCC Center Stage Musical Theater performed “Tell Me a Story” onstage in the Amberley Room on Tuesday, April 13 and Thursday, April 15, 2010. “Tell Me a Story” is a whimsical fairy tale in which two babysitters tell a story that comes alive on stage. A little girl hears the tale of a magical kingdom (with a princess and prince destined to meet), an enchanted pomegranate tree, an ugly witch and her helpers, and three unfortunate frogs.

Emily G., Emily F. and Jenna perform their role as Nar-Ish-Kites

Written by Marlene Foreman Shmalo; Paul L. Rogers, musical director; Courtney Cummings, choreographer

The King and Queen and their daughter, the Princess

Princess and Prince, Quinn and Charlie

Frogs, Quinn, Shane and Charlie

Ethan, Leah, Claire and Emma B. as the Kings and Queens

Emily G. and Emily F.

THURSDAY, JULY 8, 2010

CINCINNATI JEWISH LIFE

13

Rehearsing, “Tell Me a Story”

The entire cast of “Tell Me a Story:” Elyse Baden, Sophie Bloomfield, Emma Burstein, Jenna Caller, Emily Fox, Ethan Gabbour, Emily Glazer, Charlie Goldsmith, Alayna Hatfield, Nina Hayutin, Emma Heines, Claire Lefton, Leah Mossman, Shane Setna, Quinn Stiefbold and Alex Woosley.

14

DINING OUT

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

VIEW—hospitality first, sales second

By Marilyn Gale Dining Editor Nestled in the elbow of Victory Parkway, as the road winds down into Mt. Adams, is an almost hidden restaurant, but once discovered you have given yourself the opportunity to expansive, affordable dining available within the Queen City. VIEW, in the category of a destination restaurant, opened in February 2010 with a setting overlooking the Ohio River that is bewitching.

Generating a pleasantly curious feeling of being in a European town, the diner experiences fine food in a breathtaking atmosphere. On a clear day while sitting on the patio—sipping coffee, or sharing a piece of their signature chocolate chip pie, perhaps reading the newspaper—you look up and can see far and wide; the river, the city, the clumps of green trees.

Abundant charm cradled in East Walnut Hills, paired with fresh, creatively prepared cuisine, VIEW beguiles the diner to enter and indulge in gastronomical pleasure.

Gay and Harry Stephens, also owners of Bella Luna, an appealing Italian restaurant on Eastern Avenue, fell in love with VIEW’s beautiful space. Nine years of successful experience in the hospitality service industry helped them recognize VIEW’s potential.

Having achieved a flourishing restaurant on the east side of town, they knew they could maximize the attributes of location and transform it into a culinary mecca.

“What is a destination restaurant?” I asked Gay Stephens.

Stephens, who grew up in the restaurant business, working for her father at age 15 in his dairy bar in Batavia, Ohio, said, “A destination restaurant is one you have to look for. It won’t be in a strip mall or clustered in a downtown area among other dining spots.”

Only open a few months, business has grown and Stephens has been pleased with the response.

“We get people from downtown, Hyde Park, East Walnut Hills, Mt. Adams. Satisfied diners have spread the word of VIEW’s culinary excellence and have given us a broad customer base,”

Gay Stephens, owner, has created a welcoming ambience for culinary aficionados.

added Stephens.

Stephens has a background in occupational therapy. She fell in love with restaurant work after meeting her future husband, Harry (initially from New York), while working in Sarasota, Fla. Together, they share a passion for the hospitality industry resulting

in a lifelong partnership. Stephens labels their fervor to cook and serve for the customer an art.

“I like to know my patrons, how they like to eat, where they like to sit, what they like to drink.

I train staff to be attuned to the needs of the customers; hospitality first, sales second,” Stephens

Chocolate chip pie, served warm with a dollop of vanilla ice cream, is a popular dessert choice among View customers.

said.

“And the food?” I asked.

“American classic with a twist; fresh, flavorful, the menu changes three times a year so we can maximize the use of local produce and herbs,” replied Stephens.

Start with onion rings for the appetizer, an old favorite with an added richness. VIEW’s are covered in porcini mushroom tempura and served with a smoky, sweet tomato marmalade. Or try the grilled cheese; thick slices of fontina cheese, topped with caramelized onions on sourdough bread. Their menu is full of these variations on the comfort food theme—lamb meatloaf, smoked salmon and egg salad, and mac & cheese are other available choices.

Now is the time to partake of Sunday brunch. In the warmer months, you might decide to arrive early to get a chance to sit on the patio and breathe in the view. The offerings on this smaller menu promise an adventure in eating. Honey Crepes with Sweet Ricotta & Figs—where honey, cinnamon & butter combine with fresh ricotta chesse and orange

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scented figs—sounded tantalizing as did the Chocolate French Toast, thick slices of French toast layered with chocolate and topped by strawberries. Of course the traditional breakfast and lunch items are also available. Brunch starts at 10:30 a.m. and goes to 2:30 p.m.

Two additional, unique factors from this restaurant should be mentioned: 1.) The parallel tasting menu and 2.) The early dinner hours available to people who plan to attend a play at the Playhouse or an event downtown, yet want to have elegant cuisine, too.

The parallel tasting menu is a new concept in dining, explained Stephens. Promoted in Las Vegas and New York, it consists of four courses, with two items per course, each based on a focus ingredient. The new menu for this season was in the process of being revised when I visited, and is now available to diners.

The second customer-friendly item is the early dinner hour menu, served Sunday through Thursday, 4:30- 6:30 p.m. Ideal for supper following a matinee or before the evening event, this time slot is particularly desirable for people who don’t like to stay out late or drive at night.

“What are the future plans for the restaurant?” I asked.

“To maintain our incredible food and superb hospitality, but also increase our setting for private parties and on-site banquets.

Food and celebrations go together.

Let View take the stress out of having a party,” said Stephens View has a full liquor bar.

Happy Hour is from 4:30 - 6:30 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, and offers reduced pricing on beer, wine, martinis and Manhattans. Live jazz happens on Thursday and blues reigns on Friday. The last day of the work week also is known as Prime Rib Night. Drinks, music, an enchanting setting and succulent meat bestow a dynamite start for the weekend.

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Your restaurant will also receive featured articles and a spot in the dining out guide.

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DINING OUT

THURSDAY, JULY 8, 2010

15

DINING OUT Andy’s Mediterranean Grille At Gilbert & Nassau 2 blocks North of Eden Park 281-9791

K.T.’s Barbecue & Deli 8501 Reading Rd Reading 761-0200

Slatt’s Pub 4858 Cooper Rd Blue Ash 791-2223 • 791-1381 (fax)

Apsara 4785 Lake Forest Dr Blue Ash 554-1040

Kanak India Restaurant 10040B Montgomery Rd Montgomery 793-6800

Stone Creek Dining Co. 9386 Montgomery Rd Montgomery 489-1444

Bangkok Terrace 4858 Hunt Rd Blue Ash 891-8900 • 834-8012 (fx)

Local 127 127 W. 4th St Cincinnati 721-1345

Sugar n’ Spice 4381 Reading Rd Cincinnati 242-3521

Bella Luna Cafe 4632 Eastern Ave Cincinnati 871-5862

Marx Hot Bagels 9701 Kenwood Rd Blue Ash 891-5542

Sukhothai Thai Cuisine 8102 Market Place Ln Cincinnati 794-0057

Carlo & Johnny 9769 Montgomery Rd Cincinnati 936-8600

MEI Japanese Restaurant 8608 Market Place Ln Montgomery 891-6880

Tandoor 8702 Market Place Ln Montgomery 793-7484

Embers 8120 Montgomery Rd Montgomery 984-8090

Mecklenburg Gardens 302 E. University Ave Clifton 221-5353

the Palace 601 Vine St Downtown Cincinnati (in the Cincinnatian Hotel) 381-3000

Ferrari’s Little Italy & Bakery 7677 Goff Terrace Madeira 272-2220

Noce’s Pizzeria 9797 Montgomery Rd Cincinnati 791-0900

Gabby’s Cafe 515 Wyoming Ave Wyoming 821-6040

Oriental Wok 2444 Madison Rd Hyde Park 871-6888

Izzy’s 800 Elm St • 721-4241 612 Main St • 241-6246 5098B Glencrossing Way 347-9699 1198 Smiley Ave • 825-3888 300 Madison Ave Covington • 859-292-0065

Parkers Blue Ash Grill 4200 Cooper Rd Blue Ash 891-8300

Johnny Chan 2 11296 Montgomery Rd The Shops at Harper’s Point 489-2388 • 489-3616 (fx)

The American Israelite can not guarantee the kashrus of any establishment.

Pomodori’s 121West McMillan 861-0080 7880 Remington Rd Montgomery 794-0080

9797 Montgomery Rd

(513) 791-0900 nocespizzeria.com

GREAT CASUAL DINING In the Heart of Kenwood

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KT’S BARBECUE & DELI 8501 READING ROAD • 513-761-0200 View our menu @ ktsbbqanddeli.com CATERING AVAILABLE FOR ANY AND ALL OCCASIONS

VIEW Restaurant 2200 Victory Pkwy Cincinnati 751-8439 Walt’s Hitching Post 3300 Madison Pike Covington (859) 331-0494

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OPINION

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‘Ethnic Prejudice’ neither ethnic nor prejudice The recent Israeli High Court ruling against parents of students in the Israeli town of Emmanuel and the ensuing massive haredi demonstration on the parents’ behalf present an opportunity to either jump to conclusions or objectively evaluate the facts.

Several Sephardi parents – Israelis of North African and Middle-Eastern backgrounds – in the town brought a lawsuit aimed at preventing other parents of students who had been studying in the local Beit Yaakov girls’ school from maintaining a new school the latter group had established. The court ruled that the new school was born of illegal ethnic discrimination and, later, that the “new school” parents’ subsequent second choice – to send their daughters to a school in another city – was also forbidden them.

The court fined those parents for each day they refused to comply with its order to return their children to the Emmanuel Beit Yaakov, threatened them with prison and then made good on the threat. On June 17, the parents, wearing their Sabbath clothes, were held aloft and escorted to the prison by a peaceful crowd of tens of thousands, singing and dancing, in a demonstration of support for the soon-to-be prisoners.

What gives here? Well there are two versions. First, the one presented by most media: Racial prejudice lay at the root of the parents’ desire for a separate school for their children and their refusal to abide by the court ruling. The large number of supporters who turned out on their behalf reflected a general haredi Ashkenazic disdain for the “segregation” of Sephardim.

Version two: The jailed parents sought only to preserve the religious standards the Emmanuel school had maintained for many years. Changing demographics over the years in Emmanuel brought an influx of families with less stringent standards of Jewish observance, dress and insularity (including things like use of the internet and personal messaging, which are shunned by many haredim for religious reasons) than the original residents of the town. Some of the long-time residents with school-age children saw a need for two different educational institutions to service Emmanuel’s girls. That most of the new families happened to be of Sephardi heritage played no role at all in that decision.

The first version was endorsed

by Israel’s High Court, which pronounced that the new school evidenced prejudice and ordered the

parents who had founded it to return their children to the Emmanuel Beit Yaakov.

Those parents, however, insisted, and insist, that the court finding was wrong, that their choice was a matter of religious conscience.

They refused to be coerced to send their children to a school of the court’s choice and readily went to jail for their civil disobedience.

The larger haredi community, wary of the High Court in the best of circumstances and seeing it as having ignored clear facts in this case, rallied to the parents’ side.

Which version reflects the truth?

There is no doubt that discrimination against Sephardim exists in Israeli society, and that it is pernicious and must be fought wherever it appears. The question about the Emmanuel issue, though, is whether such discrimination – or, rather, parents’ concerns for the tenor of their children’s educations – motivated the establishment of the new school.

Several simple facts, although oddly absent from most news reports, seem to point in one direction: More than a quarter of the girls who had been enrolled in the new school were…Sephardim. And there were Ashkenazi girls who remained in the original Beit Yaakov, too. What is more, not one applicant to the new school was rejected. Any girl willing to abide by the school’s standards was welcomed, regardless of her ethnic background. The “segregation,” it seems, consisted of nothing more than two schools offering two different sets of religious standards.

The High Court emperor’s nakedness may have been most succinctly voiced by one of the parents who went to jail, as he was held aloft by the crowd and a reporter’s microphone put before him. “Are you a Sephardi?” asked the off-camera voice, its owner having apparently noticed the man’s complexion.

“Yes,” he replied, “A Yemenite.” Then, with a wry smile at the absurdity of it all, he added “A Yemenite is being taken in [to prison] for racism. Ata meivin? [You understand?]”

And yet the headlines blared on, using charged phrases like “ethnic prejudice” and “segregation,” and portraying the jailed parents and their supporters as seeking to discriminate against Sephardim, invoking, as did the court, American blacks’ struggle for civil rights in the 1950s.

They got it perfectly backward.

The haredi parents and marchers were championing their rights as parents to educate their children as they wish. They, if anyone, are the Martin Luther Kings here. The court, sad to say, assumed the Bull Connor role.

Do you have something to say? E-mail your letter to editor@americanisraelite.com

Dear Editor, Kudos to Janet Steinberg for receiving meritorious recognition in the form of a well deserved award. I commend her excellent work and believe she is truly worthy of this honor.

Whenever I want to be trasnsported to another part of the world, I have only to read

“The Wandering Jew.” To be a participant in a delightful journey Janet’s descriptive writing and dazzling photographs draw me into the geographical space and ambience of that particular setting. Before long I am soaking up the culture and enjoying a wonderful vicarious adventure.

Her diverse itinerary and attention to detail enhance my pleas-

ure and prove to be a valuable learning experience as well.

As an avid reader of the Israelite, I look forward to all your articles. However, the highlight for me is “The Wandering Jew.” Sincerely, Florence Zaret Cincinnati

Have something on your mind?

Write a letter to the editor and let your voice be heard.

Send your letter by e-mail:

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TEST YOUR TORAH KNOWLEDGE THIS WEEK’S PORTION: MATOS-MAASEI (BAMIDBAR 30:2—36:13) cross the Jordan River b) Korach and his followers c) Soldiers who went to war against Midian

1. What significance does Ramses have in the Parsha? a) The Pharaoh that would not let the Children of Israel leave Egypt b) Place of idolatry a) The place that the Children of Israel started their journey out of Egypt

4. What did Machir and Yair sons of Menashe do? a) They fought against Midian b) They were princes of tribe of Menashe 2. What was special about the land of Gilaad? c) They conquered territory of Gilaad a) Many rivers and streams d) They argued with Moshe about inheritances b) Good land to raise cattle c) Had orchards and vineyards 5. What happened in Rephidim? a) There was no water for the people to drink 3. Whom did Moshe call sinners? b) Korach's rebellion a) Tribes of Reuven and Gad that did not want to c) War with Amalek refused to go to war against Canaan, they would incur Hashem's wrath which would effect the whole nation 4. C 32:39-41 5. A 32:14

By Rabbi Avi Shafran Contributing Columnist

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

ANSWERS 1. C 33:3 2. B 32:1 3. C 32:14 Moshe warned the tribes of Reuven and Gad, that if they

16

Written by Rabbi Dov Aaron Wise

JEWISH LIFE

THURSDAY, JULY 8, 2010

17

Sedra of the Week

by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin

SHABBAT SHALOM: MATOT-MASEI NUMBERS 30: 2 — 36: 13

Efrat, Israel — “And Moses recorded the places of origin toward the places of destination... and these are the places of destination toward the places of origin” (Numbers 33:2).

Undoubtedly, the Exodus stands as the central event of our nation’s collective consciousness, an event that we invoke daily in the Shema, on the Sabbath, on festivals and after every meal. Still, when we consider the detail that our portion of Masei devotes to recording all 42 stops of the 40 year desert sojourn, we’re a little taken aback.

One chapter devotes 45 verses to listing all 42 locations, and since each location was not only a place where the Israelites camped, but also a place from which they journeyed, each place name is mentioned twice. Why such detail?

Different commentators take different approaches.

The Sforno maintains that the plethora of locations is a way of highlighting the merit of the Jewish people, who, “in the loving kindness of their youth, followed G-d into the desert, a land not sown” (Jeremiah 2:2). And the Sefat Emet suggests that the names of the encampments are included to demonstrate that wherever the Jewish people travelled through our long history, we have been able to create Tikkun Olam – making a profound impact on our environment.

This week, I would like to concentrate on the commentary of Nahmanides. Apparently, he is troubled not only by the delineation of each stage of the journey, but also by the additional declaration that “...Moses wrote their goings forth, according to their stations, by the commandment of G-d...”

(Numbers 33:1-2). These words suggest that the actual recording of these journeys has importance. In approaching the issue, Nahmanides first quotes Rashi who says that Moses “set his mind to write down the travels. By doing this, he intended to inform future generations of the loving kindness of Gd...who protected His nation despite their manifold travels.”

Nachmanides, then quotes Maimonides (Guide for the Perplexed, 3: 50) who understands the detail as a means of corroborating the historical truth of the narra-

tive. He adds that later generations might think they sojourned in a “desert that was near cultivated land, oases which were comfortable for human habitation, places in which it was possible to till and reap or to feed on plants, areas with many wells...,” hence the enumeration of all these way-stations is to emphasize the extent of the miracle of Israelite subsistence. After quoting these views, Nahmanides concludes with his own most intriguing comment: “The recording of the journeys was a Divine commandment, either for reasons mentioned above, or for a purpose the secret of which has not been revealed to us...” Nahmanides seems to be prompting us to probe further.

I would submit that the secret he refers to may indeed be the secret of Jewish survival. After all, the concept of “ma’aseh avot siman l’banim” — that the actions of the fathers are a sign of what will happen to the children — was well known to the sages, and one of the guiding principles of Nahmanides’s Biblical commentary. Perhaps, the hidden message of this text is an outline of the future course of Jewish history. From the time of the destruction of the Temple, until our present return to the Land of Israel — the “goings forth” of the Jewish people certainly comprise at least 42 stages: Judea, Babylon, Persia, Rome, Europe, North Africa and the New World. As Tevye the Milkman explains in Fiddler on the Roof when he is banished from Anatevka, “Now you know why Jewish adults wear hats; we must always be ready to set out on a journey!” Moreover, each Diaspora was important in its own right, and made its own unique contribution to the text (Oral Law) and texture (customs) of the sacred kaleidoscope which is the Jewish historical experience. Are not the Holocaust memorial books, where survivors try to preserve what little can be kept of lost worlds, examples of our sense that G-d commanded us to write things down — to remember?

Perhaps the Jews didn’t invent history, but they understood that the places of Jewish wanderings, the content of the Jewish lifestyle, and the miracle of Jewish survival are more important than those hieroglyphics which exalt and praise rulers and their battles. The “secret” Nahmanides refers to may not only be a prophetic vision of our history, but a crucial lesson as

to what gave us the strength, the courage and the faith to keep on going, to keep on moving, to withstand the long haul of exile.

If we look at the verse where Moses writes down the journey according to the command of G-d, we read that Moses recorded “their starting points toward their destinations at G-d’s command and those were their destinations toward their starting points.” What does this mean? Why does the same verse conclude “destinations toward starting points?” Fundamental to our history as a nation is that we are constantly traveling — on the road to the Promised Land, on the journey toward redemption. That direction was given to us at the dawn of our history: in Hebron, with the Cave of the Couples, beginning with Abraham and Sarah, and their gracious hospitality to everyone, their righteous compassion and just morality; and in Jerusalem, the city of peace. Even as we move down the road of time, we must always recall the place of our origin.

When S.Y. Agnon received the Nobel Prize for Literature, he was asked about his birthplace. To the interviewer’s surprise, he answered that he was born in Jerusalem. The interviewer pointed out that everyone knew he had been born in Buczacz, a town in Galicia. Agnon corrected him: “I was born in Jerusalem more than 3,000 years ago. That was my beginning, my origin. Buczacz in Galicia is only one of the stopping-off points.”

Only two princes of tribes who served as scouts reached the Promised Land: Caleb and Joshua; Caleb because he visited the graves of our Patriarchs and Matriarchs in Hebron, and Joshua because the name of G-d, the author of the revelation was added to his name. Only these two set out for the Promised Land with their place of origin at the forefront of their consciousness. Only those with a proud past can look forward to a glorious future.

As long as we wander with our place of origin firmly in mind, we will assuredly reach our goal. We may leave our place of origin for our destination, but our places of origin in Israel will remain our ultimate destiny.

Shabbat Shalom Shlomo Riskin Chancellor Ohr Torah Stone Chief Rabbi — Efrat Israel

MODERN ORTHODOX SERVICE Daily Minyan for Shacharit, Mincha, Maariv, Shabbat Morning Service and Shalosh Seudas.

Kiddush follows Shabbat Morning Services

RABBI HANAN BALK & ASSISTANT RABBI STUART LAVENDA

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Over 125 years in Cincinnati and 10 years at Cornell.

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3100 LONGMEADOW LANE • CINCINNATI, OH 45236 791-1330 • www.templesholom.net Miriam Terlinchamp, Rabbi Marcy Ziek, President Gerry H. Walter, Rabbi Emeritus July 9 6:00 pm Shabbat Nosh 6:30 pm Shabbat Evening Service

July 16 Please contact Temple Sholom

July 10 10:30 am Shabbat Morning Service

July 17 Please contact Temple Sholom

18

JEWZ IN THE NEWZ

Jewz in the Newz

by Nate Bloom Contributing Columnist CNN SHUFFLES THE DECK As you probably heard, talk show host LARRY KING, 76, has announced that he is leaving CNN this fall after a 25-year-run. He says that declining ratings are not the reason — he wants to do some news specials and spend more time with his family. Reams have been written about King and he’s written several memoirs.

Nevertheless, he remains a hard personality to sort out. For example, everybody in the news biz who really knows Larry says he is kind and considerate. But, this kind guy cannot sustain a marriage—he’s been divorced seven times and his current (Mormon) wife recently tried to commit suicide amid rumors of infidelity about her and Larry.

CNN, a traditional “middle-ofthe-road” straight news outlet, has taken a beating in the ratings as the opinionated program hosts on conservative Fox News, and the mostly liberal oriented MSNBC, have peeled off viewers. In 2007, Paula Zahn, who anchored a “straight news” CNN broadcast, was fired for anemic ratings and replaced by CAMPBELL BROWN, 42, who also did a “straight news” show.

(Brown converted to Judaism, under Orthodox auspices, in 2006.

Zahn’s husband is Jewish and their children are being raised Jewish.)

Brown didn’t get any better ratings than Zahn and her show will be replaced this fall with a “civilized,” but lively roundtable discussion show anchored by ELIOT SPITZER, 51, the former liberal Democratic governor of New York, and conservative journalist Kathleen Parker. The focus will be on news analysis and the airing of “informed” partisan viewpoints.

BRODY BEEFS-UP Opening Friday, July 9, is “Predators,” a sequel to two earlier sci-fi/horror films with similar titles (“Predator” and “Predator 2”). ADRIEN BRODY, 37, put on 25 pounds of muscle to play an exmercenary solider who is kidnapped by space aliens (the “predators”) and brought to a planet where he and other humans are “training prey” for the space aliens. Co-stars include Topher Grace (“That ‘70s Show”) and Lawrence Fishburne.

THEY COULD CALL THE AWARD “THE FELDMAN” This year’s winner of the “amoral hustler of the year award”

(entertainment division) has to be COREY FELDMAN. Feldman, now 38, was a competent child actor who starred in several good teen-oriented ‘80s films, like “Stand by Me” and “Lost Boys.”

However, he really hasn’t been in a good “scripted” TV show or film as an adult. He’s stayed in the spotlight via reality TV. In 2003, he appeared on the MTV reality show, “The Surreal Life.” In a circus-like moment, Feldman wed while the MTV cameras rolled. The nuptials were presided over by a rabbi and former rap star M.C. Hammer, an ordained minister. Last year, however, Corey and his non-Jewish wife, Susie Sprague, split-up. Comics joked that Susie decided to leave the hasbeen actor when she woke up one morning and couldn’t remember who Corey Feldman was.

In 2007, Feldman and his friend, former child actor COREY HAIM, co-starred in “The Two Coreys,” a short-lived and tawdry reality show that was crafted to milk drama out of Haim’s long battle with drug addiction. The sad coda was Haim’s drug overdose death last March.

But the “topper” came on June 26, when Feldman spoke at a sparsely attended “for profit” memorial service for Michael Jackson, organized by Jackson’s mother. Dressed in a Michael Jackson outfit, Feldman praised Jackson to the skies.

The back-story is that Feldman, like a lot of others, was the object of Jackson’s attention when he was an adolescent. However, their friendship ended in 2001. In 2005, not long after Jackson was arrested for child molestation, Feldman contacted ABC News and gave them a long interview in which he said that Jackson showed him a book of nude photos when he was 14. Previously, Feldman had denied that Jackson had ever done anything “inappropriate.”

Hard to know what the truth is about the photos — but it seems to me that Feldman decided to “squeal,” and get media attention, at the moment when Jackson seemed sure to be convicted and would no longer be in a position to ever help Feldman again (Jackson was ultimately acquitted).

Feldman is now singing with a rock band—and, oy vey, —he is doing some tribute numbers to Jackson, dressed in the trademark outfits of the late King of Pop. I’m convinced that Feldman would gladly accept the “amoral hustler of the year award” if the event was televised and he was paid a fee.

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FROM THE PAGES 100 Years Ago Mrs Chas. N. Thurnauer and family, of 3891 Reading Road, are at Charlevoix, Mich., for the summer.

Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Ornstein and family are guests at the Royal Fontenac Hotel, Frankfort, Mich.

Mr. and Mrs. I.J. Friedlander are at Oden, Mich., where they will remain until the end of September.

Mr. Julian E. Benjamin, son of Mrs. Ida Benjamin, was one of the graduates of the University of Michigan.

Mrs. B. Ronsheim and daughter, Miss Mayme, of 2723 Woodburn Avenue, left for the country, where they will spend the summer.

Mr. Adolph Heller, of Chicago, Ill., brother of Mrs. P. Goldsmith, of Greenwood Court, died Tuesday, July 5, in Seattle, Wash., from an operation of the abscess in the ear.

On behalf of the Lackman family, Albert Lackman, last week handed $500 to the representatives of each of 20 of the city’s leading

charities, making a total of $10,000.

The occasion was the 20th anniversary of the death of Herman Lackman, the founder of the Lackman fortune, and was a tribute to the memory of Mr. and Mrs. Herman Lackman. The Jewish charities, which were among those which received a share of the generous gift, are the Jewish Hospital, Jewish Home for Aged and Infirm, and Jewish Orphan Asylum (Cleveland). — July 7, 1910

75 Years Ago Mr. H.S. Livingston, of the Kemper Lane Hotel, observed his 81st birthday on Wednesday, July 10, when his sister, Mrs. S.L. Spira, of the Hotel Alms, entertained with a family dinner. On Friday, July 12, Mr. and Mrs. Irwin M. Krohn are giving a dinner honoring Mr. Livingston’s birthday.

Miss Carol Bettman, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Bettman, has graduated from Hillsdale School for Girls. She was the violinist for the

Ensemble and a member of the Board of the school magazine, “Hill Breezes.”

Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Holman are spending several weeks at the summer home of their daughter, Libby Holman, at Kennebunkport, Maine. Miss Holman at the present time is appearing in leading roles with a summer theatrical company at Ogunquit, Maine.

Mr. Robert Senior is spending a few days with his father, Mr. Edward

Senior, at Clifton, Mass.

At Forest Acres, camp for girls, at Freyburg, Me., are the Misses Marjorie Levine, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Levine, of Rose Hill Avenue; Miss Dorothy Silverstein, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. Silverstein, of Glenwood Avenue; Helen Wise, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Leo Wise, of Paddock Rd.; and Miss Maebelle Mandeleil, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Mandeleil, of Burton Woods. — July 11, 1935

50 Years Ago Mrs. Bessie Meyers, of the South Crescent Apartments, passed away at her home Thursday, June 30.

Those surviving include: one daughter, Mrs. Helman Rosenthal, of Dallas; four sons, Philip, Sidney and Melville, of Cincinnati, and Albert, of Dallas; a sister, Mrs. Meyer Keller, of Los Angeles; 10 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

The marriage of Miss Anne

Harris Goldberg, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Leon Goldberg of Scarsdale, to Mr. Alfred I. Straus III, son of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred I. Straus, Jr., of Cincinnati, took place Sunday evening, July 3, in the Hotel Pierre, New York City.

The maid of honor was Miss Frances Hall of Hingham, Mass. Mr. James Straus was his brother’s best man. Miss Mary Moss of Cincinnati, Miss Elizabeth Musser of

Circleville, Ohio, Miss Judy Halper and Miss Susan Hanff of Scarsdale, N.Y., and Mrs. John Lewis Coon III of Framingham, Mass. were bridesmaids.

The ushers were Mr. John Wyler, first cousin of the bridegroom; Jack Heines, Mr. Michael Krohn, Mr. Richard Jaeger, Lieut.

Steven Mack, all of Cincinnati, and Mr. Alan Weston of New York City.

— July 7, 1960

25 Years Ago Rabbi Jack Stern of Scarsdale, N.Y., a native of Cincinnati is the new president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), the rabbinic arm of the international Reform Jewish movement.

At the recent annual meeting of the Jewish Community Relations Council, Rabbi Randi Musnitzksy installed 13 new board members.

The individuals installed for a two-year term were: Philip T. Cohen, Gerald Gendell, Franklyn Harkavy,

Mickey Kaplan, Alfred B. Katz, Mona Kerstine, Marilyn Krug, Madeline Landsman, Dr. Roger Selya, Gerald Springer, Louis Weisser, Mauri Willis, and Dr. Jeffrey Zipkin. Continuing as officers are: Judge Burton Perlman, president; Arthur H. Friedman, Rabbi Alan Fuchs, and Ruth Zeligs, vice presidents; and A.J. Randman, treasurer.

Mrs. Phyllis Cohen of Middletown, formerly of Cincinnati, passed away June 27.

She is survived by: her husband,

Theodore; two sons, Barry and Marc; a brother and sister, Jerome and Florence Schwartz; and four grandchildren, Lisa, Jennifer, Justin and Michael Cohen.

Mrs. Cohen was a member of Rockdale Temple and Temple Beth Sholom.

Services were on June 30 at the Weil Funeral Home. Rabbis Lance Sussman and Howard Simon officiated. Interment was in the Montefiore Cemetery. — July 4, 1985

10 Years Ago Harold Wagner, 79, passed away on June 26, 2000. Mr. Wagner was born in Milwaukee, Wisc. to the late Ben and Ella Wagner. Mr. Wagner was the husband of the late Shirley Stillpass Wagner and the late Edith B. Wagner. He is survived by his children: Randal and Peter Bloch; and Linda and Niles Berman of Madison, Wis. Surviving grandchildren are: Jane and John Bloch; and Sarah and Jaron Berman. Mr. Wagner was the brother of Dr. Marvin and Shirley Wagner of Milwaukee, Wis. He is also survived by his beloved, Dr.

Elaine Rosin, and her children: Kris and Paul Rosin, Marci Rosin, and Julie and Rick Lukin.

Grandchildren of Dr. Rosin surviving Mr. Wagner are: Jessica, Andrew and Rebecca Rosin.

“Work for peace of the city,” said the prophet Jeremiah to the exiled Jews 2,500 year ago, “for in its peace will you have peace.” The Peace of the City Award of the Jewish Community Relations Council was inspired by these words.

At its annual meeting and lunch on June 19, the group presented its eighth annual Peace of

the City Awards to Cincinnatians Benjamin Gettler and Otto M. Budig, Jr. Announcement is made of the 80th birthday anniversary on July 3, 2000, of Mr. Sol Augenbraun of Dayton, Ohio and Florida. Mr. Augenbraun and his late wife, Leah, were residents of Cincinnati from 1962 until 1971, when they moved to Dayton. Both came to Cincinnati from Cleveland, Ohio.

Mr. Augenbraun was born in Poland and subsequently suffered under the Nazis during the Holocaust. — July 6, 2000

CLASSIFIEDS

THURSDAY, JULY 8, 2010

COMMUNITY DIRECTORY COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS Big Brothers/Big Sisters Assoc.

(513) 761-3200 • bigbrobigsis.org Beth Tevilah Mikveh Society (513) 821-6679 Camp Ashreinu (513) 702-1513 Camp at the J (513) 722-7226 • mayersonjcc.org Camp Livingston (513) 793-5554 • camplivingston.com Cedar Village (513) 336-3183 • cedar-village.org Chevra Kadisha (513) 396-6426 Halom House (513) 791-2912 • halomhouse.com Hillel Jewish Student Center (513) 221-6728 • hillelcincinnati.org Jewish Community Center (513) 761-7500 • mayersonjcc.org Jewish Community Relations Council (513) 985-1501 Jewish Family Service (513) 469-1188 • jfscinti.org Jewish Federation of Cincinnati (513) 985-1500 • shalomcincy.org Jewish Foundation (513) 792-2715 Jewish Information Network (513) 985-1514 Jewish Vocational Service (513) 985-0515 • jvscinti.org Kesher (513) 766-3348 Plum Street Temple Historic Preservation Fund (513) 793-2556 The Center for Holocaust & Humanity Education (513) 487-3055 • holocaustandhumanity.org Vaad Hoier (513) 731-4671 Workum Summer Intern Program (513) 683-6670 • workum.org CONGREGATIONS Adath Israel Congregation (513) 793-1800 • adath-israel.org Beit Chaverim (513) 335-5812 Beth Israel Congregation (513) 868-2049 • bethisraelcongregation.net Congregation Beth Adam (513) 985-0400 • bethadam.org Congregation B’nai Tikvah (513) 759-5356 • bnai-tikvah.org Congregation B’nai Tzedek (513) 984-3393 • bnaitzedek.us Congregation Ohav Shalom

(513) 489-3399 • ohavshalom.org Golf Manor Synagogue (513) 531-6654 • golfmanorsynagogue.org Isaac M. Wise Temple (513) 793-2556 • wisetemple.org Isaac Nathan Congregation (513) 841-9005 Kehilas B’nai Israel (513) 761-0769 Northern Hills Synagogue (513) 931-6038 • nhs-cba.org Rockdale Temple (513) 891-9900 • rockdaletemple.org Temple Beth Shalom (513) 422-8313 • tbsohio.org Temple Sholom (513) 791-1330 • templesholom.net The Valley Temple (513) 761-3555 • valleytemple.com EDUCATION Chabad Blue Ash (513) 793-5200 • chabadba.com Cincinnati Community Kollel (513) 631-1118 • kollel.shul.net Cincinnati Hebrew Day School (513) 351-7777 • chds.shul.net HUC-JIR (513) 221-1875 • huc.edu JCC Early Childhood School (513) 793-2122 • mayersonjcc.org Mercaz High School (513) 792-5082 x104 • mercazhs.org Reform Jewish High School (513) 469-6406 • crjhs.org Regional Institute Torah & Secular Studies (513) 631-0083 Rockwern Academy (513) 984-3770 • rockwernacademy.org ORGANIZATIONS American Jewish Committee (513) 621-4020 • ajc.org American Friends of Magen David Adom (513) 521-1197 • afmda.org B’nai B’rith (513) 984-1999 Hadassah (513) 821-6157 • cincinnati-hadassah.org Jewish National Fund (513) 794-1300 • jnf.org NA’AMAT (513) 984-3805 • naamat.org National Council of Jewish Women (513) 891-9583 • ncjw.org State of Israel Bonds (513) 793-4440 • israelbonds.com Women’s American ORT (513) 985-1512 • ortamerica.org.org

19

LAWN CARE

BABYSITTING

A.B.C. Lawn Service

Jack'n Jill Babysitting Service

Mowing | Lawn Care 513-738-4410 HOME IMPROVEMENT

Serving Cincinnatians for 50 yrs.

Group sitting for Weddings, Hotels, events, etc.

(513) 731-5261 SENIOR SERVICES

RICHEY CONSTRUCTION Carpentry, Remodeling Repairs, Gutters, Siding, Windows, Roofing, Decks, Tile, Drywall, Painting, Kitchen, Baths

731-9721

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Shomer Shabbat

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References. Insured.

GOLF from page 1 There will be both morning and afternoon golf sessions with a scramble shotgun start. Morning play will begin at 8 and afternoon play will begin at 1:15. There will be contests on every hole.

Following the tournament there will be a buffet dinner, raffle prizes will be drawn, and contest and team prizes will be awarded. The cost of the tournament includes breakfast, TERLINCHAMP from page 1 Cincinnati community, especially during the High Holiday season.

There will be no need for reservations or tickets to attend any or all of the High Holiday services.”

It is with a vibrant outlook and great excitement that this native of Seattle, Wash. embarks on this journey in the Midwest in partnership with the Greater Cincinnati community and in particular the amazing people of Temple Sholom.

“Rabbi Terlinchamp was recruited by an extremely committed Search Committee led by co-chairs Marc Rubin, past president and John Molander. The committee devoted many hours and worked very hard over the past six months to find the right match. The entire congregation joins to say “thank you” for a job well done.

In addition to serving a four year Rabbinic Internship at Temple de Hirsch Sinai in Seattle, Wash., as a student she was the

lunch and dinner. Golfers can play with their own foursome or Cedar Village will set up teams. The driving range and putting green will be open throughout the day. There will also be a raffle and winners do not need to be present to win.

Sponsorships are available and sponsors will have priority for each session. For more information, to request an invitation or to register, contact Sally Korkin at Cedar Village. solo Rabbi at Congregation Beth El in Santa Maria, Calif. Her one year Chaplaincy Internships were served first at the L.A. County Men’s Central Jail followed by a year at one of L.A.’s Jewish Homes for the Aging.

In recognition of her community dedication and involvement in Social Action activities, she was awarded the 2006 Jason Huebsch Award for Excellence in Community Service.

She is one of four Rabbinic Fellows, Kol Tzedek (Voices of Justice), representing the American Jewish World Service (AJWS) who speak about their experiences in Senegal which they experienced in 2009 as a participant in the AJWS Rabbinical Students’ delegation.

“We developed excellent interfaith outreach and inclusiveness programs this past year under the warm guidance of Interim Rabbi Richard Shapiro. Our new Rabbi Terlinchamp is excited to continue to build on our work,” said Ziek.

20

TRAVEL

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

Stockholm: How Swede it is Wandering Jew

by Janet Steinberg Travel Editor PART 5 OF A SERIES As the Seabourn Pride cruised along the 24,000 islands that make up the Swedish Archipelago, some 200 passengers from 13 nations prepared for a luminous heliotropic day in the Land Of the Midnight Sun. The shiny, rounded rock islands of the Swedish Archipelago, with their picture-postcard cottages clinging to the coastline, were formed by a Scandinavian ice cap before it retreated some 10,000 years ago. Sweden’s capital city of Stockholm is situated where the Baltic Sea meets Lake Malaren.

“The Queen of Lake Malaren”; “The City that Floats on Water”; “The Venice of the North”…all are suitable titles for this royal capital built on 14 islands.

Visiting Stockholm during the summer is visiting a lifestyle...a two month celebration where beautiful people rejuvenate themselves after a long dark winter.

Parks are overflowing, sailboats are gliding, and coffee is bubbling in crowded cafes around the city.

Pedestrian malls and plazas are brimming with locals and visitors from around the world. Raoul Wallenberg Plaza, dedicated to one of the unsung heroes of W.W.II, is one of those plazas.

Wallenberg, a non-Jewish humanitarian, saved the lives of tens of thousands of Jews facing the prospect of certain death in the concentration camps of Europe. In 2001, Kirsten Ortwed’s Hommage A Raoul Wallenberg was installed on the plaza adjoining Berzelii Park. A plethora of shapeless black sculptures, lying on the ground, leave the artist’s thoughts to your imagination. The word “Wallenberg” is scrawled into the ground in brass letters.

Just behind Raoul Wallenberg’s Torg, as it is called in Swedish, is Stockholm’s Great Synagogue, the largest in the country. The synagogue was designed by F. W. Scholander and built in 1870. The severe exterior of plastered brick, inspired by Assyrian architecture, contrasts with the spacious, rich interior.

Flykten med Torahn, Willy

Gordon’s 1986 sculpture of a man running away with the Torah, stands in front of the Synagogue. In the courtyard is a monument, dedicated on September 27, 1998, to the 6-million European Jews who were murdered by the Nazis.

“Glom Oss Inte”—“Forget Us Not,” the monument screams. The Holocaust Monument consists of a seven-arm candelabrum and slabs of stone on which 8,500 names, together with date and place of birth and death, are inscribed. The names of 650 survivors who came to live in Sweden, and who contributed names of relatives, are also included.

Mounted along the length of Aaron Isaacs Alley, its metal trellising forms Stars of David. Above the tablets are quotations from the Prophet Isaiah written in both Hebrew and Swedish.

Stockholm’s Jewish community, though not large in number, is a very active and well respected community. It has thrived since 1774 when King Gustav III invited Jews to take up residence there. In 1779, Parliament granted Jews religious freedom and settlement rights.

The heartbeat of Stockholm is best felt in Gamla Stan, The Old Town. Through tight narrow streets, amid 12th-century turrets and domes, you’ll find fascinating shops, cellar restaurants and a potpourri of people.

Stortorget, the big cobbled square, is Stockholm’s most famous historical site. In 1520, it was here that Danish King Kristian II had the infamous “Bloodbath of Stockholm.” More than 80 Swedish noblemen were beheaded and the red house on the square has as many white stones as there were victims.

Also to be found in Gamla Stan are: Riddarhuset, the House of Knights and Swedish Nobility; Runstenen, an 11th-century rune stone; Storkyrkan, the oldest church in Stockholm (13th century); St. George and the Dragon, a 15th century wooden sculpture in the Cathedral; and the 17th century Royal Castle where each day, at noon, you can watch the changing of the guard.

A visit to the Wasa Museum will acquaint you with the world’s oldest identified, raised and restored warship. Prior to Sweden’s involvement in the Thirty Years’ War, King Gustavus II Adolphus ordered the Wasa built. On her maiden voyage, August 10, 1628, the vessel heeled and foundered in Stockholm’s harbor. In 1961, she was brought to the surface, mounted on a concrete pontoon and housed in an aluminum building. Restoration work has been carried on ever since.

A short distance from the Wasa

A Stockholm landmark: the grand Grand Hotel.

Museum is Skansen, the world’s oldest open-air museum. Opened in 1891, this Sweden-in-a-nutshell contains about 150 buildings moved there from different parts of the country to represent different periods and social classes.

Containing the only zoo in Stockholm, Skansen also gives a picture of the Swedish countryside and of Scandinavian wildlife.

Open year round, many regard Skansen as Stockholm’s foremost place of entertainment.

One must not leave Stockholm without indulging oneself with an authentic Swedish smörgåsbord.

And I can think of no better place to partake of this treat than at the Grand Hotel, an unmistakable

landmark in the Stockholm skyline.

Since 1874, this regal Grande Dame has stood proud in her envious position on the waterfront where she has shared the good company of her neighbors, the Royal Palace, the Opera House, Old Town and the National Museum.

In tune with the rhythm of the city, the Grand Hotel embodies the heritage and vibrancy of Stockholm. The hotel’s Veranda Restaurant, renowned for its panoramic view over the waterfront, serves a traditional smörgåsbord with all the classic dishes.

A staple of the smörgåsbord is herring, in every size, shape and form imaginable. Along with the

The Holocaust Memorial screams “Glom Oss Inte” — “Forget Us Not.”

herring, a Swedish snaps is a must to cleanse your palate. And nothing could be better than the Grand Hotel’s own 1874 Grand Aquavit, which was produced for the hotel’s 125th anniversary in 1999.

This homemade aquavit is gently flavored with cumin, aniseed, fennel and a dash of sherry, which creates an especially smooth and balanced taste. Skal (cheers)!

Shopping is exciting in Stockholm. Swedish designers are renowned for their beautiful textiles, crafts and glassware. For one-stop shopping, it’s Nordiska Kompaniet (N.K.), the department store where “The King is a customer and the customer is a king.”

N.K. was founded by Josef Sachs in 1902. Its present location on Hamngatan dates from 1915.

The rotating N.K. clock, on the roof of this architectural heritage site, is as symbolic of Stockholm as City Hall. Pilots used it as a beacon in early days, and when electricity was rationed during the war, the N.K. clock was given special dispensation. The clock’s red dial was considered fundamental to Stockholmers’ sense of time.

N.K.’s “Very Swedish Shop” has any Swedish souvenir you might fancy. Check out the handmade Dala horses, from the county of Dalarna. Glass collectors will thrill at collections produced by Kosta Boda and Orrefors.

(JANET STEINBERG is an award-winning Travel Writer and Travel Consultant.)

AUTOS

THURSDAY, JULY 8, 2010

21

Fun and style in a luxury car

2010 Audi A5 Convertible

When Audi decided to downsize the engine in the 2010 A5, many people were wondering “why.” The V-6 from 2009 has been replaced with a 2.0 liter turbocharged 4-cylinder engine.

However, the 4-cylinder version delivers brisk acceleration and improved fuel economy.

In looking at the other models available to consumers in this market segment — the MercedesBenz E350, BMW’s 328i coupe, and Infiniti’s G37 coupe — none is anywhere near as appealing and attractive as the Audi A5. In addition, none of them has as affordable a price tag or offers better fuel economy.

With 211 horsepower, the 2010 A5 produces 258 pound-feet of torque and there’s never a power deficit.

In acceleration tests, the 2010 A5 went from 0 to 60 in 6.6 seconds. Even at 3,625 pounds, the A5 isn’t sluggish nor does it feel heavy.

The the six-speed manual transmission offers smooth changes between gears. While acceleration ability is nice, stopping distance is even more important. The A5 comes to a stop from 60 mph in just 108 feet — one of the best performers in its class and ahead of the Infiniti G37 (110 feet).

The change to a 4-cylinder engine has really paid off when it comes to fuel economy. With EPA ratings of 22 city/30 highway mpg and 25 mpg combined, this Audi A5 provides its owner with impressive fuel economy — again, better than others in this segment, such as the G37 (19/27) and the Mercedes E350 (17/26).

The A5’s ride is smooth and comfortable. In addition to the great ride, the A5 also offers sharp turns and great performance.

Optional on the A5 are sport seats that are comfortable and accommodating. The car offers good legroom and headroom in front and the cabin is quiet.

The A5 features Audi’s Multi Media Interface (MMI) with a knob and four surrounding buttons, located on the center console.

The A5 provides the driver with excellent visibility, with a rearview camera and rear parking sensors, which come as part of the optional Navigation package.

Because the sensors aren’t “overly sensitive,” they provide believeable feedback to the driver — something he or she will pay attention to rather than ignore.

Wide door openings make for easy entry and exit. And thanks to these wide door openings, it is much easier for parents to install child seats than in most other coupes. And getting the seat into the car is a breeze.

The trunk is perfectly capable of handling golf clubs and a suitcase. The A5’s 12 cubic feet of storage space is roomier than the G37’s (7.4 cubic feet).

Appearance is one of this car’s strong selling points. It offers sheet metal formed into attractive curves. This is a beautiful car that pedestrians stop to look at.

The look in the cabin is elegant. The materials are all firstrate; the controls are easy to use and reach; and the gauges and dash are illuminated nicely.

Standard safety features on the Audi A5 include: disc brakes; traction and stability control; front and rear head airbags; child seat anchors; daytime running lights; a pre-collision safety system; and turn signal mirrors.

Options include the 19” Sport Package, with high performance tires; Shift paddles; and front sport seats with lumbar support.

Electronic options include a Bang & Olufsen premium sound system with 14 speakers and 505 watts output; the Bluetooth/Homelink Package with a Bluetooth interface and a Homelink garage door opener.

The Audi Drive Select Package offers a dynamic steering system with adaptive suspension damping system. Audi’s “Drive Select” allows the driver to choose among four different suspension settings: Comfort, Auto, Dynamic or Individual.

The 2010 Audi A5 has an MSRP starting at $36,000.

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OBITUARIES

DEATH NOTICES

beloved brother, Barry Goodman, and wife, Rabbi Tami Elliott Goodman. His smile could light up a room. He will be sorely missed. May his memory be for a blessing. His funeral was on June 13, 2010, at Weil Funeral Home, followed by interment at Adath Israel’s Cemetery in Price Hill.

Memorial contributions to Adath Israel Synagogue, Cedar Village, the Multiple Sclerosis Society or the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra would be appreciated.

Cincinnati. His doctoral degree was in Interdisciplinary Studies, which included work in psychology, quantitative analysis and rehabilitation studies. He became a licensed rehabilitation counselor and teacher and taught at Mount St. Joseph College and the

University of Cincinnati.

Dr. Goodman was a man of hope, despite suffering from Multiple Sclerosis for over 50 years. He loved music and spending time with his friends and family. He attended the Cincinnati Symphony with his grandmother, from the time he was a young teen and eventually went on to serve on the Orchestra’s Board of Directors. Stan walked alongside his father in Cincinnati’s Civil Rights marches. He was elected the president of the Young Republicans and was a Mason for most of his adult life, in addition to supporting many worthwhile community organizations, like the ACLU, Goodwill and the MS Society. His family had been longtime members of Adath Israel and active in the Jewish community.

Dr. Goodman loved people and believed that the world should be accessible to all people with all their different needs and abilities.

He was loved by his friends and family and especially by his

American billionaire of Soviet origin. He came to Moscow to participate in the opening ceremony.

“I wanted to somehow document the role of Jews in the history of war, not only as victims, but also as heroes,” he told JTA. “It’s important to gather these witnesses now because these people are dying.

“This exhibition presents a small part of our archive. We want to share the information we collect with the Center for Jewish History in the U.S., and with many more organizations like universities, schools and libraries.”

Most of the 900 interviews were carried out over five years by a father-daughter duo of expatriate Soviets, project coordinator Julie Chervinsky and interview director Leonid Reines. They are not yet finished with their work.

“The majority of people we interviewed had never been interviewed before,” Reines said.

“They would recite poems and cry, and pause, and say ‘Sorry dear, it was so long ago, I don’t remember …’ And then they would tell me, ‘Say thank you to the people who sent you for the fact that they remember.’”

Among those on hand for the opening ceremony was Boris Stambler, who was sent to the Bryansk front in 1941 when he was 16. He and his father both fought in the war and returned.

“When I was interviewed for this exhibition, they asked me whether there was anti-Semitism during the war,” recalls Stambler, who lives in Moscow. “I answered that there were about 30 nationalities in our company. We often ate from the same kettle, and our blood was of the same color.”

Chervinsky says that about 99 percent of the veterans said they did not feel anti-Semitism at the time, but often add that they felt they had to be braver and stronger than the others “not to let the others say that Jews were cowards.”

‘SON’ from page 1

WILLIS, Norman, age 66, died on June 25, 2010; 13 Tammuz, 5770.

NEDELMAN, Eva, age 92, died on June 29, 2010; 17 Tammuz, 5770.

MOSKOWITZ, Libby, age 97, died on June 30, 2010; 18 Tammuz, 5770.

OBITUARIES GOODMAN, Dr. Stanford M. Dr. Stanford M. Goodman

Dr. Stanford M. Goodman passed away on June 11, 2010. He was born to Leah and Nathan Goodman on October 30, 1938.

He grew up in Cincinnati and worked at the family “Fashion Shop” clothing stores. He earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University of EXHIBIT from page 1 and East European Jewry, at the opening ceremony of the exhibition. “Now it’s time to give voice to its ordinary participants. More than 30 million people were soldiers of the Red Army during World War II; 450,000 of them were Jews.”

Demographers estimate that nearly 150,000 Red Army Jewish soldiers were killed during World War II. There were also more than 2 million Jewish civilian victims — more than 10 percent of the Soviet war loss, although Jews constituted just 2 percent of the population.

The project is being carried out by the Blavatnik Archive Foundation, a nonprofit group created by Leonard Blavatnik, an

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

LEVA, Dr. Max Dr. Max Leva, age 96, was born and raised in Rucheim, Germany. The last survivor to become a Bar Mitzvah in his town, he left Germany when policies of the Nazi regime made it impossible for him to continue his studies. He settled in Cincinnati, worked his way through the University of Cincinnati night school where he received a B.S.

Stern had worked in Washington since the early 1990s for the Zionist Organization of America and the American Jewish Congress. In 2006 she alerted the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare to the anti-Israel statements of a man it had nominated to the panel.

The task force’s co-chair, then-Rep. James Saxton (R-N.J.), recruited Stern to help identify moderate American Muslims as potential nominees.

She would found EMET as a platform for highlighting the courage of those who exposed the dangers of radical Islam. The organization also works to sensitize members of Congress to threats to Israel’s security.

“The first thing my mother taught me was to say thank you.

The first thing we as Jews are taught is to say thank you,” Stern said. “These people need to be thanked.”

After learning of the imminent publication of “Son of Hamas,” Stern utilized her network of previous EMET honorees to locate Yousef and propose presenting him with the organization’s annual Speaker of the Truth Award at its June 23 dinner. Concerned for his safety if he were deported to the Middle East, Stern began assisting him in fighting deportation.

In June, Stern secured three letters that Yousef’s lawyer, Steven Seick, said “made all the difference” once they were entered as evidence: The chairman of Israel’s Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee thanked Yousef for acting with “resolute determination … personal courage,

in Chemical Engineering. He subsequently earned a Master’s degree from Carnegie Mellon and Ph.D from Tokyo Institute of Technology. Dr. Leva began his career at the Bureau of Mines in Pittsburgh and established a oneman consulting firm in the late 1940s. He built and worked in his experimental laboratory, acquired numerous patents and loved his work as an inventor, scientist and consultant.

Dr. Leva was predeceased by his loving wife, Irma Bass Leva and is survived by his children, Nancy (Jay) Lazier of Virginia Beach,Va., Joseph (Devora) Leva of Boston and Maxine (Robert) Levin of State College, Pa.; his grandchildren, Benjamin Lazier, Ari Lazier and Yoni (Dan) Joseph, Aaron, Ariel and Elana Leva and Daniel and Jonathan Levin; and great-grandchildren Sammy and Elani Joseph. Graveside services and interment were held at the Beth Sholom Cemetery. Memorial donations may be made to Hadassah. reliability and dedication” to save lives.

U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn (RColo.), one of Yousef’s co-honorees on June 23, wrote a letter with 21 House of Representatives colleagues that urged Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to “take into account all the evidence,” particularly Yousef’s “cooperation with Shin Bet at significant risk to his own safety and life.”

Former CIA director James Woolsey, a member of EMET’s advisory board, urged the U.S. to drop deportation proceedings, which if successful would be “an incredible travesty” and an “inhumane act” that would harm America’s recruitment of anti-terrorism agents and “set us back years in the war on terrorism.”

Another key factor, Seick said, was an affidavit signed by Gonen Ben-Yitzhak, Yousef’s former Shin Bet handler, attesting to Yousef’s character and to his pivotal role in preventing terrorist attacks, including against Israeli President Shimon Peres and ex-Sephardi chief rabbi Ovadiah Yosef.

Seick was about to call BenYitzhak as his first witness when the Homeland Security attorney announced that she was dropping the case. Yousef’s lawyer expects the official letter granting asylum to be issued by mid-August.

William Daroff, director of the Jewish Federations of North America’s Washington office, who wrote to Napolitano and Attorney General Eric Holder on Yousef’s behalf, credited Stern with being the leader in bringing the case to Jewish leaders.

“Having the dinner and putting the focus on him brought his case [out] in a way that hadn’t happened previously,” Daroff said.

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