AI2010_07_29

Heiman Family Foundation gifts $1 million Gift supports establishment of new Center for Jewish Cultures and Ideas at UC CINCINNATI — The Department of Judaic Studies at the University of Cincinnati’s McMicken College of Arts & Sciences is one step closer to establishing the Center for Jewish Cultures and Ideas, thanks to a generous $1 million gift from the Kim and Gary Heiman Family Foundation.

When complete, the multi-million dollar center will serve as a unique hub for enhancing the Judaic Studies program at UC, forging valuable community-wide partnerships and extending the university’s international reach.

“The generosity of the Kim and Gary Heiman Family Foundation will empower the Department of Judaic Studies to realize its fullest potential,” said McMicken College of Arts HEIMAN on page 20

Klezmer comes to P&A council witnesses senior Temple Sholom adult program On Aug. 6, 2010 at 6:30 p.m. following a “nosh” at 6 p.m., the sanctuary at Temple Sholom will come alive with the sound of Klezmer music to enhance the beauty of the Shabbat service. The Klezmer group is comprised of Dr. Mark Bailey, Music Director of Temple Sholom, on the keyboard, Michele Gingras, Professor of clarinet at Miami University in Oxford, and Stu Warshauer, Founder and Director of the Naples, Fla. “Klezmer Revival Band” on the fiddle, will provide the accompaniment for a very moving Shabbat service.

These three musicians, all professionals, have a long history in music. They all have received many honors as musicians, written and released several CDs, written and published books on Klezmer music, and performed locally and across the country.

The community is welcome to join us at Temple Sholom for this very spiritual experience. Kiddush and light refreshments will follow the service.

Council members observe ‘life-giving, life-changing’ program impact CINCINNATI — For the past several months, the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati’s Planning & Allocations committee has been on the move. Council members from throughout the community have been making site visits to partner and beneficiary agencies as part of a multi-tiered process to determine how to allocate the Federation’s available dollars—and to ensure that every dollar delivers maximum impact and benefit to the community. This summer, members of the Senior Adult Council made numerous site visits to the JCC’s Senior Adult Programs and immersed themselves in the various activities offered. From observing and participating in computer, art and music classes to enjoying lunch with P&A on page 21

JTA publisher steps down, Daniel Schorr, crusading editor tapped to lead agency journalist, never forgot his Jewish roots

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

NEW YORK — Mark J. Joffe, JTA’s longtime executive editor and publisher, has announced that he has stepped down as head of the global Jewish news service, effective July 21, 2010. Following Joffe’s announcement, the JTA board of directors has tapped Editor in Chief Ami Eden to lead the agency.

“The media industry as a whole is undergoing sweeping changes, and the Jewish media vertical is no different,” Joffe said. “I am very proud of where I’ve taken JTA, and I believe the organization is wellpositioned for the digital age. But after 22 years, I will be turning my energies to other areas where I can make an impact.”

Joffe began work at JTA in 1987 as the

news agency’s editor and was promoted to executive editor and publisher in 1993. He established JTA’s website in 1997, which quickly became the leading destination for global Jewish news on the Internet, and launched several other digital services. In addition, he also has played a lead role in developing the soon-to-be-launched searchable digital news archive of JTA stories produced over the course of the agency’s 93year history. Under Joffe’s leadership, first as editor and then as publisher, JTA has won numerous awards and accolades for its journalism. Joffe is particularly proud of a 2003 investigative series that revealed that the Ford Foundation had funded much of the anti-Israel activism by NGOs participating

JTA on page 21

By Ron Kampeas Jewish Telegraphic Agency WASHINGTON (JTA) — It took about seven years for Daniel Schorr to tire of being a journalist for Jewish media.

The distaste of digesting for JTA’s readers the news of the emerging Holocaust, combined with what he saw as the blinkered parochialism of Jewish news, led him to quit JTA in 1941 and search for work elsewhere.

But Schorr never stopped being a Jewish journalist: events and his conscience would not let him.

Schorr, the crusading broadcast journalist who died last Friday at 93, is best known

Stephen Voss NPR

Daniel Schorr on NPR in 2006.

for his clashes with the powerful, including his employers. His tough reporting of the SCHORR on page 21

THURSDAY, JULY 29, 2010 18 AV, 5770 CINCINNATI, OHIO S HABBAT C ANDLE L IGHTING T IMES : F RIDAY 8:34 – S ATURDAY 9:34

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THURSDAY, JULY 29, 2010

Rockwern sponsoring Jewish recreational basketball league The Rockwern Academy is sponsoring Jewish recreational basketball teams this winter for students in grades 7-12. In forming this league Rockwern Academy hopes to build community spirit and support Jewish athletics, as well as provide teens with another outlet to enhance Jewish identities and bonds with other local Jewish youth.

Rockwern aims to provide stu-

dents with a place to play and practice, as many local schools have limited athletic facilities.

Ultimately Rockwern seeks to get kids off the couch, away from video games and to keep them active and healthy. Practices will be held weekly, with the season beginning in November and lasting until March. The league will be sponsored by the Cincinnati Area Youth Basketball League.

The breakdown of teams will be 7th and 8th grade students, with combined teams for 9th/10th graders as well as a team for 11th/12th grade youth.

In addition to looking for players the league is also seeking coaches and parents to help out.

The goal is to have a league comprised of all Jewish players in order to foster community bonding and growth.

Manischewitz Company announces winners of national retailer contest bigg’s grocery store in Cincinnati takes 2nd place SECAUCUS, NJ — The Manischewitz Company, the leading brand in specialty kosher foods for over 120 years, is pleased to announce the winners of its first-ever retailer display contest in honor of Jewish American Heritage Month (JAHM): King’s Supermarket in Short Hills, N.J., first place; bigg’s grocery store in Cincinnati, Ohio, second place; Giant Food Store in Linglestown, Pa., third place. In an effort to increase awareness for JAHM, a month-long celebration that aims to raise the national consciousness regarding contribu-

tions Jewish Americans have made to our country’s heritage, Manischewitz challenged retailers to create an in-store display to celebrate the spirit of JAHM. Thirty retail chains from across the country participated by creating promotional displays such as poster boards, balloons, shelf talkers and more. By receiving second place, bigg’s won $2000. As part of the contest rules they were permitted to select a charity of their choice to be a recipient of the prize money.

Judging of the entries was based on size, product assortment and overall creativity.

Bigg’s has been providing Cincinnatian’s with one of the widest selections of kosher foods

in the Tri-state region. Being one of the few kosher food outlets, bigg’s has been a staple of the local Jewish community for decades and should be commended not only for its sizeable selection but also as an island of kosher food products in the large sea of food retailers. Taking the scarcity of kosher food in Cincinnati into account, Manischewitz undoubtedly would have placed bigg’s in first place.

Manischewitz is a supporter and major corporate sponsor of Jewish American Heritage Month (JAHM), which was created by Congressional Resolution and Presidential Proclamation, declaring the month of May as Jewish American Heritage Month.

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Local wins ‘Sexiest Guy Next Door’ competition Cincinnati born David Herskovits was chosen out of 5,000 contestants to be the “Sexiest Guy Next Door,” sponsored by Perry Ellis retailer. The 27-year-old resident of Chicago won the title from a few hastily submitted Facebook photographs. But it certainly takes more than that to be crowned the

“Sexiest Guy Next Door,” including a “rigorous routine of orange peel facials, as well as a steady diet and constant exercise.”

One of 12 finalists, Herskovits garnered the votes he needed with the help of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, earning him 12,516 votes out of the nearly

40,000 total votes cast.

The winning contestant will grace the Perry Ellis runway in Miami, Fla. in September and will also be featured in an editorial for Ocean Drive magazine, which will certainly be a help in advertising his good-looks.

Though he never took part in

any serious modeling efforts, Herskovits hopes to use this prize to jump start his entrepreneurial ambitions, be they in business, modeling or publishing. He says, “I would like to continue winning anything, whether it be a modeling contest or entrepreneurial contest.”

Religious passion combines with politics at CUFI parley

By Ron Kampeas Jewish Telegraphic Agency WASHINGTON (JTA) — Pastor Scott Thomas was ready to “present the Biblical positions” of his support for Israel — as the Christians United for Israel literature put it — to the Florida congressional delegation.

“We believe Israel has the right to defend herself …” the youthful, handsome pastor for Without Walls Central Church in Lakeland, Fla., started, then trailed off, turning away from a reporter. “Randy, you’ll have to help me with the other two talking points.”

Randy Neal, a senior official with CUFI, the evangelical group that attracted 5,000 activists to Washington last week to lobby for Israel, counted them down for Thomas.

“We believe Israel has the right to defend herself, we need to increase pressure against Iran to get it to abandon its nuclear program,” Neal said. “We don’t believe, recognizing Israel as a sovereign nation, that we can dictate where they can and can’t build.”

That was this year’s CUFI platform in a nutshell: Get behind Israel, and block the Obama administration when it pressures Israel.

Pastor John Hagee, CUFI’s founder, made it clear in a fiery floor speech on the evening of July 21 at the massive Night to Honor Israel, held in the cavernous Washington Convention Center.

That’s the same place that hosts the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy conference, and the CUFI event this year drew almost as big a crowd.

Many were like Shelby Shelton, 68, from north Florida, who said, “The Bible says the time for Zion is now and it’s very clear that we should support the Jewish people.” Her husband, Ron, 72, sporting a flowing white beard, nodded.

CUFI is the largest organization representing what are believed to be tens of millions conservative evangelical Christians who support Israel. They do so because of what they believe is Israel’s biblical man-

date and, they say, because supporting Israel is aligned with U.S. interests. In recent years, lawmakers have been heedful of the constituency’s numbers as a factor in sustaining support for Israel.

The organization also has found itself at the center of controversy.

Before founding CUFI, Hagee told followers that he saw Hitler as God’s agent because he helped force the Jews toward the land of Israel. He later apologized, explaining that this was his theological explanation to cope with the magnitude of the Holocaust.

Hagee also has cast Islam as being at war with the West, but more recently has modified such statements to “radical Islam” or “Islamism.”

In words and donations, Hagee has backed West Bank settlement, but also says he will support whatever peace solution Israel’s elected government backs.

Onstage last week Hagee, who launched the first Night to Honor Israel in 1981 at his San Antonio church, riffed on President Obama’s famed election slogan “Yes we can!” by asking the crowd to join him in warning, “No, we can’t!”

“Can we support any treaty that does not allow Israel to defend itself?” he boomed, leading the crowd: “No, we can’t!”

The political message of the evening, and of the entire event, was that Obama had turned on Israel although he now seems to be correcting himself.

“It’s particularly unsettling for the people of Israel that the relationship between Israel and its most steadfast ally has been troubled this last year,” U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), a CUFI stalwart, told the crowd.

Lieberman said he now would “hope and pray” that the relationship was on an upswing in the wake of the positive meeting earlier this month between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The message, that Obama administration pressure on Israel to halt settlement expansion is unwelcome, trickled down to the

rank and file.

“We are not here on earth by accident,” Lieberman said, sparking one the biggest rounds of applause of the evening. “We are here as a result of a conscious and intentional act of creation of the almighty.”

Lieberman insisted on calling himself “Brother Joseph.”

Whatever its importance to the leadership, politicking earned little better than polite applause throughout the evening. The real roars were reserved for scripture reading and Israeli music, including a rendition of “Jerusalem of Gold” in perfectly accented Hebrew by Hagee’s son and daughter, Matthew and Sandra.

During medleys of Israeli songs performed in Hebrew and English, fresh-faced students from Christian colleges joined matrons from the Midwest, African Americans and Hispanic evangelicals — a major target for CUFI in the past year — on the floor in massive hora dances.

The crowd, which vigorously waved Israeli flags at any mention of the Jewish state, eagerly shouted “Amen!” when Rabbi Aryeh Scheinberg of San Antonio, Hagee’s friend and ally for decades, delivered the Jewish blessing over the bread.

Thomas, the Florida pastor, spoke of discovering the “Judeo” in his Judeo-Christian heritage.

“When I discovered the Judeo aspect of my Christian faith, it was the most natural response to pray for Israel,” he said. “To stand for her, to support her.”

It was a theme repeatedly invoked by conference-goers.

“Our book that we read says, ‘Those who bless Israel will be blessed and those who curse Israel will be cursed,’” said Jacqueline Ulmer of New York, repeating a passage from the Bible that spilled from everyone’s lips.

The convention skewed heavily Republican, with only one Democrat — Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.) — speaking among about a dozen Republicans. David Brog, CUFI’s executive director, told JTA that in the past Democrats had not responded when he invited them, so this year he didn’t really bother.

“I got a little lazy this year,” he acknowledged, saying he probably should have invited more Democrats.

It was left to Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, to make a robust case for the Obama administration’s emphasis on diplomacy toward a two-state solution.

“The two-state solution will be predicated on a demilitarized Palestinian state,” he told the crowd, almost apologetically. “That Palestinian state will have to recognize Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people.”

This year's fundraising appeal at the convention was to support CUFI’s college student organization. Next up, speakers said, is an initiative that aims even younger: CUFI Kids, seminars training preteens in Israel activism.

John Hagee Ministries has raised more than $43 million for Israeli causes since 2006, when Hagee founded CUFI. Most of the money goes to medical and educational charities, although a portion — about 5 percent, according to officials — is spent in Jewish communities in the West Bank.

Victoria Hearst, a scion of the Hearst publishing empire who leads a ministry in Colorado, has visited Israel at least 12 times and has helped set up projects in the West Bank Jewish town of Ariel.

“I do everything I can for Ariel,” said Hearst, who attended the CUFI gathering. “Islam is a bad tree, it produces nothing but bad fruit — you have to cut it down.”

CUFI was caught in an Israeli controversy earlier this year when it was discovered that it funded Im Tirtzu, a student group in Israel that launched strident attacks on liberal nongovernmental groups, calling for their defunding and banishment.

Brog said that Hagee Ministries would “revisit” its commitment to Im Tirtzu, suggesting that the group had hoodwinked the donor board by making a presentation that depicted the group as wanting only to educate college students about Zionism.

(JTA Intern Sarah Freishtat contributed to this report.)

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Op-Ed: Making the case for ‘Yes’

By Jeremy Ben-Ami WASHINGTON (JTA) — Alan Dershowitz wants in—to the “Community of Yes,” J Street’s new campaign to rally broad-based American support for meaningful presidential leadership to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

We believe that a major presidential effort will be required to achieve our goal—ensuring Israel’s security and future as a Jewish and democratic home—and that such an effort will require political will and guts. The campaign aims to show that the mainstream of Americans, Jewish and non-Jewish, will support a major push to forge a rational resolution to the conflict.

In an ad supporting the campaign, we highlighted the choice that faces the president between those who say “yes” because they believe a two-state resolution to the conflict is an urgent priority and those who will say “no” and aim to raise the political costs for supporters of bold American action.

So where does Dershowitz fall?

He does support the notion of a two-state solution and, thankfully, nearly the entire Israeli political spectrum also has publicly affirmed the notion. But what about a bold effort by the president to end the conflict, including perhaps outlining publicly the parameters of what a two-state solution would mean?

On April 21, Alan Dershowitz, under the headline “J Street can no longer call itself pro-Israel,” wrote in the Huffington Post that J Street had “gone over to the dark side” for saying that “resolving the [IsraeliPalestinian] conflict is not only necessary to secure Israel’s future, but also critical to regional stability and American strategic interests.”

In a debate with me last November, he claimed that by advocating for vigorous U.S. leadership and airing our differences with the Israeli government, J Street is “dilut-

National Briefs Six-month freeze agreed to on conversion bill NEW YORK (JTA) — An agreement has been reached to put a six-month freeze on a controversial Israeli conversion bill up for a vote in the Knesset.

According to the July 22 deal brokered between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet Secretary Tzvi Hauser and several Israeli non-Orthodox religious movements, the bill will be withdrawn for six months while a coalition of non-Orthodox Israeli groups

ing” the voice of American Jews and “creating a false picture” of what the Jewish community thinks.

The reality, of course, is the opposite: We are giving voice to the large number of pro-Israel, pro-peace Jewish Americans and others who have been silenced on this issue for too long.

Then, in June, Dershowitz headlined a fundraiser for the Tea Party-friendly opponent of U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.).

Schakowsky—a progressive Jew and longtime staunch supporter of Israel — supports President Obama’s approach to the Middle East and has been endorsed by JStreetPAC for backing a sensible pro-Israel, pro-peace agenda.

Dershowitz’s candidate says he’s running against Schakowsky’s for “failing to speak out” against the Obama administration on Israel — and Dershowitz is backing him in the debate, not Schakowsky.

The “Community of Yes” is designed to encourage Americans to “speak out” as well — albeit in a different direction. We seek to rally those who favor more presidential leadership to forge a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that ensures Israel’s future as a democratic home for the Jewish people, creates a viable Palestinian state and promotes America’s vital national interests.

Yet that’s precisely the sentiment that provoked Dershowitz to call J Street not pro-Israel, and it’s the opposite of the position Dershowitz is endorsing by standing behind Schakowsky’s right-wing opponent.

I’ve written before that Alan Dershowitz’s mode of advocacy for Israel represents what is wrong with the way the “case for Israel” has been made for far too long. It is emblematic of what Peter Beinart recently called “the failure of the American Jewish establishment” to make room in the communal tent for the more progressive, liberal led by Natan Sharansky, chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, submits proposals on how to redraft the measure, Haaretz reported.

The bill, which was proposed

by Knesset member David Rotem of the Yisrael Beiteinu Party, passed a committee vote last week but still needs three Knesset readings to become law.

It has drawn significant opposition from Diaspora Jewish groups, including the nonOrthodox American religious movements and the Jewish Federations of North America, as well as Netanyahu and the Jewish Agency. They object to the bill’s giving the ultimate authority over conversions to the Orthodox-dominated Chief Rabbinate of Israel.

NATIONAL BRIEFS on page 19

wing of the Jewish community that loves and supports Israel but isn’t ready to check its values at the door when it relates to Israel.

It is the style of Dershowitz’s advocacy — labeling us the “dark side,” calling us “McCarthyist” — that cements his position as part of the “Chorus of No” that is working hard to frighten American policymakers and politicians from speaking out openly and frankly on issues related to Israel and the Middle East.

I respect Alan Dershowitz. I agree with some of his views on Israel and the Middle East. But I believe that how he defines what it means to be “pro-Israel” and the manner in which he advocates is precisely what is making it so unattractive for many people in our community — particularly the young people — to be “proIsrael.”

Alan, tell me you won’t attack me as “not pro-Israel” for saying that resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a vital American interest, or for criticizing Israel’s approach to Gaza or for calling on the president to make an even stronger effort to achieve a two-state solution — and I will gladly admit I was wrong.

And we’ll happily spring for the cost of remaking the ad to exclude your two-second cameo in the “Chorus of No.”

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With an eye toward cooperation, recalling the Holocaust heroism of Muslims

By Lauren Greenberg Jewish Telegraphic Agency NEW YORK (JTA) — In April 1941, members of the Kavilio family of Sarajevo fled their house as Nazis rampaged through the city destroying Jewish homes. As they ran toward the mountainside, a Muslim friend of the family, Mustafa Hardaga, spotted them and offered shelter.

Shortly after, when Josef Kavilio thought the family could be moved to safety, the Kavilios relocated to Mostar, an area under Italian control, but Josef stayed behind. He was arrested by the Nazis and held captive in chains in the freezing snow.

Hardaga’s wife, Zejneba, found Kavilio and smuggled him food until she could help him escape to safety, where he stayed with the Hardaga family again.

Kavilio later rejoined his family, but their relative security did not last. When the area fell under German control, the Kavilios again sought refuge with the Hardagas.

Decades later the Kavilios, by now living in Israel, petitioned the

Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial

Zejneba Hardaga, in black, at a Yad Vashem tree-planting ceremony in honor of her family, 1985.

Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem to recognize the Hardagas’ bravery and name them Righteous Gentiles.

Later, when Yugoslavia broke up and the region descended into war in the 1990s, the Hardaga family was rescued from Sarajevo and brought to Israel in 1994.

The story of the two families is among eight told in a new booklet

produced by a British interfaith dialogue group and called “The Role of Righteous Muslims.” The 30-page booklet, produced by Faith Matters, focuses on stories of Muslims helping Jews during the Holocaust and is being distributed to educators, synagogues and mosques as a model for positive Muslim-Jewish interaction.

“We wanted to try to look at

something that could bring greater understanding in both communities in the UK,” the director of Faith Matters, Fiyaz Mughal, told JTA. “We’re looking for bridging points, and we thought this fits the perspective of mutual understanding and shared history.”

Mughal said his organization detected a rift between the Jewish and Muslim communities in Europe and saw this booklet, which took the better part of a year to produce, as an opportunity to address it.

Jews see Muslims as inclined toward violence and uninterested in engagement, discussion of the Holocaust or mutual understanding, Mughal said. And, according to Mughal, Muslims believe that Jews don’t want Muslims to be heard. Muslims, he said, “feel that there is an overwhelming desire to protect the Middle East, and that the Jews don’t want to discuss anything else.”

By chronicling World War II stories in which Muslims went out of their way to help Jews — 70 Muslims are named by Yad Vashem as “Righteous Among the Nations” for aiding Jews in North

Africa, Turkey and Albania during the Nazi era — the booklet aims to change those perceptions.

Aside from physically saving people, the Muslims whose stories are retold in the booklet helped preserve Jewish life and culture, helping Jews obtain kosher meat before the Saabbath or saving the famed Sarajevo Haggadah.

Mughal said he hopes the booklet will demonstrate to Muslims and Jews that “life is not black and white, straight and narrow.”

“The histories are different but are intertwined,” he said.

“Our shared histories can overcome feelings of helplessness and hopelessness.”

Faith Matters, which has posted the booklet on its website, is working with partner organizations in both communities to distribute the booklet and have it used in community settings by educators and by individual readers.

“It is short and was written in an easygoing style, so that it can be read in 20 minutes,” Mughal said.

“We want people to absorb it without having to revisit it.”

for Ben-Ami to try to persuade the public that I oppose the twostate solution (as Limbaugh does), favor expansion of the settlements (as Palin does) and oppose peace is simply a lie, and a deliberate one at that. No softer word will suffice.

Another possible reason why J Street decided to include me in their insidious ad is to appeal to hard-left elements such as Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein and others who pay lip service to supporting Israel while condemning everything the Jewish state stands for. Ben-Ami is trying to build a large organization and in order to attract the hard left, he finds it useful to demonize me because the hard left hates my liberal support for Israel.

The J Street ad is fraudulent in yet another way: It suggests that I am saying certain words but the voice is not mine. Thousands of my words, in my actual voice, are available on YouTube, but none of them have me opposing the twostate solution or favoring expansion of the settlements or opposing peace. So they just make it up by including a video of me with my lips moving and a dubbed voiceover suggesting that they have me (along with the others) on videotape opposing the two-state

solution. (All the videos have moving lips, but some include words actually spoken by the person in the video — watch it and judge for yourself.)

If this were a political campaign ad, J Street would be in deep trouble. But this is even worse because it is an attempt to deceive the public into thinking that mainstream supporters of Israel all favor the expansion of settlements and oppose the two-state solution and peace.

J Street continues to destroy its credibility by posting deceptive ads of this kind. If they are willing to mislead the public in this manner, they should not be trusted to tell the truth about anything relating to Israel. They are more interested in increasing their own power and contributions than they are in supporting Israel or promoting truthful dialogue.

If J Street wants to have any chance at restoring its credibility, it must begin to tell the truth. A good first step would be to remove this ad and admit that it was fraudulent. Otherwise, everyone will begin to understand what the J in J Street stands for: Joe McCarthy.

Op-Ed: J Street’s McCarthyism

By Alan Dershowitz CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (JTA) — J Street, the leftist lobbying organization that claims to be proIsrael, is running a television ad that divides the world into two groups: the good guys who support the two-state solution, the end of the occupation and peace; and the bad guys who oppose these results and instead favor a continuation of violence.

Pictured as representing the pro-peace position are President Obama, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Gen. David Petraeus. Pictured as representing the anti-peace, anti-two-state, proexpansion of settlements and proviolence position are Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), Malcolm Hoenlein (executive vice-chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations) and, you guessed it, me!

Now Jeremy Ben-Ami, who runs J Street and is responsible for the ad, knows full well that I support the two-state solution and peace, and have opposed Israeli settlements since he was in diapers. (I began publicly supporting the two-state solution in 1970 and opposing settlements in 1973.)

Harvard Law School

Alan Dershowitz

Ben-Ami knows this because we debated each other at the 92nd Street Y in New York City and he publicly acknowledged that I support these positions. He knows that I wrote a book, “The Case For Peace,” advocating precisely these positions and praised by President Clinton (“the blueprint for stability presented in this book is among the best in recent years”), Amos Oz (an “enthusiastic voice for peace”) and other advocates of a peaceful resolution.

Why, then, would he falsely lump me with Limbaugh and Palin

when he knows that I fundamentally disagree with their positions?

Why would Ben-Ami knowingly put out an ad containing such defamatory McCarthyism? (Joe McCarthy infamously lumped together liberals with communists, and progressives with Stalinists.)

There are several possible reasons.

First, it could be that BenAmi cannot tolerate the idea that there are liberals, like me and Professor Irwin Cotler of Canada, who support the two-state solution, the end of the occupation and peace while fundamentally disagreeing with J Street's general negativity toward Israel. As I argued during the debate and other occasions, J Street and I tend to agree on many substantive issues.

But I publicly focus on the 80 percent of issues on which there is broad consensus within the proIsrael community, whereas J Street focuses on the 20 percent of issues on which there is disagreement, such as keeping the military option against Iran on the table, condemning the Goldstone Report and defending the use of selfdefense during the flotilla confrontation.

It would have been fair for J Street to have an ad putting me on the other side of those issues. But

(Alan Dershowitz is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School.)

NATIONAL

THURSDAY, JULY 29, 2010

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AJCongress demise a tale of money, shifting priorities a quarter of its budget came from endowments. But the pool simply dried up with the recession.

“There are some people who gave a lot of money, but over the last number of years that has not been very robust at all, even before Madoff,” Gordon said.

Immediately following the Madoff scandal, board member Jay Umansky issued a challenge to other board members to each contribute a low four-figure gift to help the AJCongress get back on its feet, according to several sources. But with a board comprised more of intellectual heavyweights than financial heavyweights, only a handful accepted the challenge.

It didn’t help that after the departure of the previous executive director, Neil Goldstein, in 2008, the

board failed to hire a new CEO and instead had Stern and Matt Horn — the organization’s legal counsel and policy director, respectively — become co-executive directors while keeping their old roles. The two were meant to serve in their new executive positions on an interim basis, but the board never found a successor to Goldstein.

“This is about a vacuum of leadership,” one insider said. “That is what you are missing over here. It is about no cohesion that brought together contributors, programming and mission statement.”

While the AJCongress appears dormant for now, Stern and others are not closing the book completely. Several employees are still working, though it’s unclear if they are being paid.

AJCongress shutters quickly, pays debts slowly

By Jacob Berkman Jewish Telegraphic Agency Marc Stern, the legal counsel of the American Jewish Congress

By Jacob Berkman Jewish Telegraphic Agency NEW YORK (JTA) — After a death watch lasting nearly two years, news that the end of the American Jewish Congress was imminent set off a flurry of e-mails in the Jewish organizational world wondering if the nine-decade-old advocacy group indeed was shuttering its doors.

News of the demise was posted last Friday by eJewishPhilanthropy, a website focused on Jewish nonprofits.

“We have suspended most of our operations,” the organization’s co-executive director, Marc Stern, told JTA by phone last Friday, confirming that an organization that had been devastated by the Madoff scheme in December 2008 had laid off nearly all its remaining employees.

“Some things are continuing to go on because they are in process, and there are future activities a couple of months down the road,” Stern said, citing cash flow problems.

“There are some other things floating around that can be done with minimal costs. I hope things will become very clear and we can discuss it in public.”

The AJCongress’ demise is a story not just about cash-flow problems but about the changing of priorities of the American Jewish community, organizational insiders said.

While the fulcrum was certainly the organization’s losses in the Madoff scandal — $21 million of its $24 million endowment disappeared in the scheme — the money woes laid bare the longstanding weaknesses that for years had made

the AJCongress a junior sibling to larger Jewish advocacy organizations such as the American Jewish Committee and Anti-Defamation League.

“I think we had to find our voice in the community and in the arenas that were important; I don’t know that we did that very effectively,” AJCongress Chairman Jack Rosen, told JTA. Others say privately that while the AJCongress was doing important work, focusing on issues of religious freedom in the United States, free speech and women’s rights, those simply did not resonate with donors who time and again have shown more interest in Israel and anti-Semitism.

Officially launched in 1922 by prominent Jews including Rabbi Stephen Wise and Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, the AJCongress was established to be a democratic body that spoke for American Jews on a wide range of issues. At the time the AJCommittee, which had a similar mission, was seen as an elite bastion of German Jewish immigrants that was unresponsive to the broader Jewish community.

By the 1940s, the AJCongress was pioneering the model of using legal action to better Jews’ lives in America. In the 1960s, it took the lead role on behalf of the Jewish community in the legal fight for civil rights. In recent years it focused on securing the church-state divide in the United States, along with international issues such as helping refine Israel’s relationship with NATO and leading the legal fight against terrorists' use of human shields.

The organization’s president, Richard Gordon, attributed the AJCongress’ fundraising woes to a changing of priorities in the Jewish community that many organizations are feeling.

“The number of people who give to organizations like ours is dwindling,” Gordon said. “There is not a group of younger people who see these organizations as vital to American Jews.”

As the deepening recession prompted increased calls for the organized Jewish world to eliminate duplication and unnecessary bureaucracy by merging and contracting, the AJCongress became a prime example for the chopping block. Many suggested it be taken in either by the ADL or the AJC. Those calls became louder in recent months as news surfaced that the AJCongress was considering merging with the AJC. Gordon says those talks continue and take place nearly every day. The AJC refused to comment.

Mission duplication aside, a shortage of cash was the precipitating event that led to the AJCongress closure. The Madoff losses erased the sum total of a bequest left to the organization by philanthropists Martin and Lillian Steinberg in 2001 — they were close with Madoff, according to the Forward.

The losses also wiped out half of the remaining proceeds from the 2004 sale of the organization’s building on East 84th Street in Manhattan.

Until the middle of the 2000s, the AJCongress still was managing to raise between $3 million and $4 million per year from bequests and living donors. About

NEW YORK (JTA) — When the board of the American Jewish Congress decided to suspend its operations last week, it didn’t give its staff much notice.

Employees were notified on Tuesday, July 13, that Thursday, two days later, would be their last day and that they then would receive their final paychecks.

Whereas those laid off in previous rounds of cuts received severance pay and compensation for accrued vacation, the employees who lasted till the last round were told they would not receive the same benefits — at least until September.

Some employees who spoke to JTA on condition of anonymity are crying foul, saying the AJCongress still has money remaining from the 2004 sale of its building — an amount they believe adds up to about $2.5 million left in the bank — out of which the organization can pay the estimated $500,000 it owes employees.

Board members insist that employees will get all that is owed them and that there’s just a holdup while the money, which is restricted and cannot be touched unless the board approves the move in two separate votes, is made available by board votes.

According to the AJCongress constitution, the first of those votes cannot happen until 20 days after a proposal is made to unrestrict the funds, and the second vote cannot take place until 30 days after the first vote. Each vote requires at least 75 percent board approval.

“The employees have been kept up to date on every aspect of the finances of the organization.

Nothing came as a surprise to

them,” AJCongress President Richard Gordon told JTA. “This has been discussed for months. They knew exactly the financial situation of the organization,” he said. “Shortly after the Madoff situation happened, we let a lot of people go. They were made whole with severance, vacation, etc.

I have always believed that those who stayed on should be treated no worse than those let go initially.”

But employees are miffed that the board did not take the votes to unrestrict the money before making the layoffs.

“We never doubted leadership’s assertions and desire to pay the staff,” one employee said.

“What was really surprising to us was to learn that the money was restricted and requires a lengthy constitutional process that could take weeks or months before we see the money owed to us.”

Marc Stern, the organization’s co-executive director and its legal counsel, said the board was made aware that it had to unrestrict the money to pay employees, but it chose not to.

Gordon said he didn’t think 75 percent of the board would have voted to unrestrict the money.

“There was a sense that if other things had unfolded in a different manner, we would not have had to do this,” Gordon said. “I might have done things differently. I also thought we would be at a different point and could have reconstituted or merged by now. We were all looking at the finances, and no one said we need to vote on this.”

Board members including Gordon and AJCongress chairman Jack Rosen say they are confident the board will unrestrict the money and take care of its employees as the process allows.

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HIAS poster contest now on view at Ellis Island

By Roberta Elliot HIAS NEW YORK — For the first time, HIAS’ annual Poster Contest for Immigrant Youth is on display at Ellis Island, part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument. Ellis Island was the nation’s premiere federal immigration station and is now a museum of immigration. Since 1995, HIAS, the international migration agency of the American Jewish community, has sponsored an annual immigrant art poster contest. Winning posters from the 2009 annual contest will be on display on the main floor of the Ellis Island Museum in the area behind the information desk through Labor Day This year’s contest theme was “My Family’s Story,” which was

Barbara Julius

Marc Silberberg, newly elected chairman of HIAS, and Batya Ehrens, HIAS board member, admire winning entries from HIAS’ 2009 Poster Contest for Immigrant Youth now on display at Ellis Island.

based on myStory, HIAS’ social networking site that allows immi-

grants to share their migration stories with one another through

the written word, art and media.

Poster contestants, age 5-12, were asked to submit a piece of art and an essay to illustrate their family’s immigration story. Word spread, and the response was tremendous, with entries coming from across immigrant communities – from Russian Jewish to Greek to Chinese, Italian and Korean. Five times more entries were received this year than last.

According to Gideon Aronoff, President & CEO of HIAS, “We believe that the positive response to the contest – and the success of myStory – is strong confirmation that personal immigration stories are among our most important national treasures, and it is befitting that this exhibit be displayed on Ellis Island. The vibrancy of these posters make a powerful state-

ment about the vitality of our country, which was made strong by the immigrants who arrived here with individual and communal dreams to fulfill.”

Twelve winning posters were selected to be included in a festive 2010 calendar, and form the basis of the Ellis Island exhibit. Entries are now being solicited for the 2010 contest, which closes on October 15, 2010.

Funding for the calendar and the Ellis Island exhibit was generously provided by the Estate of Sidney Krum. Downloadable versions of posters from 1995 to the present are available online at HIAS’ Sidney Krum Gallery.

(Roberta Elliott is the Vice President of Media and Communications for the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.)

Pa. Senate race turning into Israel proxy fight

By Ron Kampeas Jewish Telegraphic Agency WASHINGTON (JTA) — A close battle for Pennsylvania’s open U.S. Senate seat is quickly turning into a proxy war between self-described pro-Israel forces on the left and right.

The immediate fight is over the pro-Israel credentials of U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.), who knocked off the incumbent Arlen Specter in the Democratic primary and is now facing Republican former congressman Pat Toomey.

The Emergency Committee for Israel, a group recently founded by neoconservatives and evangelical Christians, released a TV ad last week attacking Sestak and questioning whether he understands “Israel is America’s ally.” J Street countered this week with an ad defending Sestak and urging viewers to tell him to “keep fighting for peace and security in the Middle East.”

Both ads are running in Philadelphia markets and on cable.

For J Street the campaign is turning into a test of whether the organization, which backs U.S. pressure on Israel and the Palestinians in pursuit of a twostate solution, can break through and insulate candidates from attacks launched by centrist and right-wing segments of the proIsrael community.

Meanwhile, with neoconservative scion William Kristol calling it the “pro-Israel wing of the proIsrael community,” the Emergency Committee for Israel sees the race as a first step in convincing Jewish voters to break with President Obama’s Middle East policy and candidates who support it. The

organization is clearly primed to take shots at candidates like Sestak, 58, who insist their support for Obama, even when he pressures Israel, is pro-Israel.

The race will be closely watched throughout the country: A number of Congress members with known dovish tendencies have declined J Street’s support until now for fear of alienating the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and its backers. One prominent example is Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), a Jewish lawmaker who took J Street’s money in 2008 but is not on their roster of 61 endorsees this year.

In an interview with The New York Jewish Week, Gary Bauer, the evangelical Christian leader and onetime hopeful for the Republican presidential nomination, called Sestak “a perfect example of an elected official running for higher office who uses these rote, throwaway phrases about being pro-Israel, but who has developed a pretty consistent record of associating with organizations and individuals who are anything but.”

Jeremy Ben-Ami, J Street’s director, acknowledged that the Pennsylvania race is a test for his group.

“There’s no question that this race is a very important test of what kind of support J Street and its supporters can deliver,” he said.

“We will show a substantial amount of money can be raised from our political action committee, and that a substaintial amount of money can be raised for a candidate that opposes the right wing on these issues.”

Donors thus far have dedicated $100,000 to Sestak’s race

through the J Street PAC—a hefty chunk of the $650,000 the organization has raised this cycle.

Ben-Ami, however, qualified that the race is not make or break: The fight this year will be principally fought over bread-and-butter issues like the economy.

“This is not an issue that turns elections,” he told JTA. In fact, in neck-and-neck races such as this one, a lot can turn an

mary, said that summer’s dog days were too early to make a call in the race. He thought Sestak could be vulnerable, however, in a state where an estimated 300,000 Jews comprise about 2.3 percent of the population.

“I have dear friends I work with in the Jewish community every day who are strongly to the left, strongly identified with the Democratic Party—they are very

Molly Theobald/AFL-CIO

The Senate bid of U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) is turning into a proxy fight between organizations that support President Obama’s Middle East policies and those who oppose them.

election—including Israel issues.

In 1992, Specter was a Republican senator in a GOP-unfriendly year when he came from behind to defeat challenger Lynn Yeakel.

Among the reasons for Specter’s rally: Yeakel refused to criticize her church for hosting speakers critical of Israel.

Gary Erlbaum, a Philadelphiaarea real estate developer who strongly backed Specter in the pri-

much opposed to Sestak,” said Erlbaum, who is not part of the Emergency Commitee. “While they might not get behind Toomey, they’re more likely to take a pass.”

Sestak, naturally, couldn’t look more different in each advertisement.

In the Emergency Committee ad, he is depicted in black and white, appearing aged and pinched. These photos are con-

trasted with color photos of Hamas militants while the announcer scores Sestak’s appearance at a fund-raiser for the Council on American Islamic Relations in 2007.

The ad noted that the FBI called the group a “front group for Hamas,” but the law enforcement agency did not make that determination until 2009. In 2007, while some Jewish activists were urging Sestak not to participate on the grounds that CAIR had alleged ties to terrorist groups and did not condemn terrorism, the FBI had good relations with the organization and used it for outreach to the Muslim community.

In his speech, Sestak spoke with pride in describing Muslim troops in the U.S. military and his own efforts to help plan and oversee joint Israeli-Turkish military exercises. He described himself as a supporter of Jews and Israel, as well as Muslims and the creation of a Palestinian state.

Sestak said CAIR does “important and necessary work,” but also that it was not enough for the group to condemn terrorism— arguing that it had a duty to “condemn the specific acts, and specific individuals and groups by name associated with those acts, such as Hamas and Hezbollah.”

The Emergency Commitee ad also notes that Sestak signed onto a J Street-backed letter to Obama asking him to pressure Israel to open crossings to the Gaza Strip, calling the Jewish state’s maritime blockade “collective punishment.” Israel opened up the crossings last month in the wake of the controversy following its deadly raid on an aid flotilla that aimed to breach the blockade.

INTERNATIONAL

THURSDAY, JULY 29, 2010

International Briefs Greece’s Jewish museum defaced ATHENS, Greece (JTA) — Vandals painted red swastikas on the walls of the Jewish Museum of Greece in Athens.

The July 22 attack marked the first time that the museum has been the target of anti-Semitic expression, according to an Athens community news release.

Greece has been beset by a chain of anti-Semitic events this year, including twin arson attacks on the Synagogue of Hania, vandalism against Jewish cemeteries in Ioannina and Thessaloniki, and an attack against the Holocaust memorial in Rhodes.

Security cameras recorded the eight perpetrators during the museum attack.

‘Anti-Zionist’ Palestinian bishop elected to a top Lutheran post BERLIN (JTA) — A Palestinian bishop who has been a harsh critic of Israeli settlements and a proponent of a shared capital in Jerusalem was chosen for a top post in the Lutheran Church.

Munib Younan, 59, told Lutheran leaders after his election as head of the Lutheran World Federation in Stuttgart on Saturday that he hoped to contribute to building peace in the Middle East.

The Jerusalem native said his church must dedicate itself to fighting “extremism and xenophobia, especially anti-Semitism and Islamophobia,” according to the Deutsche Welle news agency. He added that “The conflict in my own home is never far from my thoughts.”

Younan, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Jordan and the Holy Land, will head a church federation with 145 member churches in 79 countries.

Some critics have charged Younan with being anti-Zionist.

While he declared support for a two-state solution in a 2009 interview with PBS, he also suggested that Israeli policies were to blame for violent attacks on Israel.

“We Palestinians, Christian or Muslim, care for the security of Israel,” he told PBS. “But the security of Israel depends on the freedom and justice of the Palestinians.”

In 2006 he signed “The Jerusalem Declaration on Christian Zionism,” condemning the pro-settler Christian movement as “detrimental to a just peace within Palestine and Israel.” The declaration also promoted “nonviolent resistance as the most effective means to end the illegal occupa-

tion.”

In the PBS interview, Younan also said that Palestinians had to understand the trauma of the Holocaust for Jews, and Jews and Israelis must “understand the deep trauma of occupation in the depth of us Palestinians. Although there is no comparative suffering.

Suffering is suffering.”

PA gives Irish flotilla passengers honorary citizenship DUBLIN, Ireland (JTA) — The Palestinian Authority has granted travel documents and honorary citizenship to Irish anti-Israel activists who participated in a Gaza aid flotilla.

A spokesman for the General Delegation of Palestine in Ireland confirmed the offer and said passports and honorary citizenship had been offered to all activists who were on the May 31 flotilla, according to a report in the Irish Times.

Eight Irish citizens and one Irish-registered vessel, the MV Rachel Corrie, were part of the sixship convoy that tried to reach Gaza from Turkey two months ago. Some of the Irish citizens were detained in Israel after Israeli forces detained the ships, including the Marmara, where fighting resulted in the deaths of nine Turkish passengers and injuries to several Israeli commandos.

Kin of 9/11 victims join AMIA demonstration BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA) — Relatives of victims of the 9/11 World Trade Center attack joined in a demonstration to mark the 16th anniversary of a Buenos Aires Jewish center bombing.

A car bomb in 1994 blew up the AMIA center, killing 85 and wounding hundreds.

Local Jewish organizations and the families of the AMIA victims were joined at last Friday’s demonstration by the families of the victims of the 2004 Madrid train bombings, which allegedly were directed by al-Qaida, as well as Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon, a member of the International Criminal Court at The Hague.

AMIA and DAIA, the central Jewish institutions in Buenos Aires, organized the demonstration with the Relatives and Friends of the AMIA Victims organization.

The bombing allegedly was carried out by Hezbollah agents with Iranian sponsorship and organization, but Argentina has not been able to bring anyone to justice for perpetrating the attack.

About 5,000 people attended the event, including Argentina’s vice president, Julio Cobos; its Cabinet chief, Alberto Fernandez; and Minister of Justice Julio Alpacas. Former President Nestor Kirchner also was on hand; his wife, current President Cristina Fernandez, was in China.

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Jewish fusion music key to Budapest’s ‘Jewstock’ festival

By Ruth Ellen Gruber Jewish Telegraphic Agency BUDAPEST (JTA) — Flora Polnauer, 28, tilts back her head, half closes her eyes and hums a few bars of a song by her hiphop/funk/reggae band HaGesher.

The song is “Lecha Dodi,” the Shabbat evening prayer — sounded over a Yiddishized version of the Beatles song “Girl.” It’s just one of the many unconventional songs of the band, whose vocalists rap their own lyrics in Hebrew, Hungarian and English.

“It’s modern Jewish music because it’s influenced by Jewish things, but it’s not the replaying of old Jewish songs,” says Daniel Kardos, 34, a composer and guitarist who plays with Hagesher and several other bands. “I pick up many things and mix them.”

Hagesher is one of about half a dozen bands in this city of European Jewish cool blending jazz, hip hop, rap and reggae with Israeli pop and traditional Jewish folk tunes and liturgy to form an eclectic urban sound.

“It’s a big mix of contemporary Jewish musical identity,” said vocalist Adam Schoenberger, the son of a rabbi. “All of us find Jewish culture very important. Hagesher is a platform for us to articulate musically our different musical interpretation of Jewish cultural heritage.”

As the program director of the popular Siraly club, whose dimly lit basement stage is a regular venue for Hagesher and other groups, Schoenberger, 30, is a leader in Budapest’s Jewish youth scene.

He is also one of the organizers of Bankito, sometimes referred to as “Jewstock” — a youth-oriented Jewish culture festival Aug. 5-8 on the shore of Bank Lake, north of Budapest.

Bankito includes concerts, exhibitions, performances, workshops, seminars and lectures, a poetry slam, sports events, movies, and Jewish and interfaith religious observances. A number of events at this year’s festival will highlight Roma, or Gypsy culture, and focus also on social and civic issues such as the rights of the Roma and other ethnic minorities.

Music is a highlight of Bankito.

Hagesher, the Daniel Kardos Quartet and other Jewish bands such as Nigun and Triton Electric Oktopus will perform.

“We’re at a fascinating moment in Jewish music: It’s hip again,” said Michigan’s Jack Zaientz, who authors the Teruah Jewish music blog. “There’s an amazing gang of musicians who are young, smart, urban and Jewish, and making their Jewish identities a core part of their

Ruth Ellen Gruber

Flora Polnauer, guitarist Daniel Kardos, and sax player Janos Vazsonyi perform in Budapest.

music and stage identities.”

The Budapest musicians take their cues from Jewish bands in North America, Paris, London and elsewhere that also experiment with new forms and fusions. Among their models are John Zorn, the avant-garde composer who has promoted “Radical Jewish Culture” on his Tzadik label since 1995, DJ Socalled and Balkan Beat Box, and Orthodox reggae star Matisyahu and rapper Y-Love.

Trumpeter Frank London, who regularly tours Europe with the Klezmatics and other bands, has had a particularly strong impact with his mash-ups of klezmer, Balkan brass and even Gospel.

“Everyone is influenced by Frank London through the Klezmatics,” said Bob Cohen, a Hungarian-American musician and writer who has lived in Budapest since the 1980s. “But another big influence in Hungary is Israeli raves on Tel Aviv beaches.”

“I played at Jewstock a couple of years ago,” Cohen said. “People there had an academic interest in klezmer, but what they want is to go out and rave.”

In some ways, Cohen said, the new Jewish music scene in Budapest developed as a reaction to a more traditional klezmer music scene that many young people now perceive as part of the stuffy mainstream establishment.

The Budapest Klezmer Band, for example, the city’s best-known Jewish music group, performs internationally in opera houses and concert halls as well as theaters and mainstream festivals.

Formed in 1990, the band also collaborates on elaborate klezmer stage productions and ballets.

“The new Jewish music scene is a party scene, not a concert scene, and the older generation doesn’t relate to it,” Cohen said. “In a way,

they want an art form that won’t be understood by the traditional Jewish establishment.”

In many ways, Kardos exemplifies both the musical variety and the variety of influences that help shape the scene.

In addition to Hagesher and his own quartet, he composes film music and plays with several other bands. One of them, Shkayach, is a collaboration with Polnauer, a rabbi’s daughter and powerful vocalist who raps with Hagesher and other groups. Shkayach forms a contrast with their rap and progressive jazz work by creating an intimate acoustic sound based on traditional Yiddish and Israeli melodies.

Kardos attended a Jewish high school in Budapest and made aliyah after graduation. In Israel, he learned Hebrew and studied jazz at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem. But like many young Hungarian Jews who moved to Israel in the 1990s, he decided after three years to return to Hungary, where he continued his studies.

It was only back in Budapest, Kardos said, that he realized the importance to him of both Jewish music and his own Jewish identity.

“It was strange because when I was in Israel, I wasn’t open so much to the Jewish musical traditions,” he said.

Away from Israel, though, Kardos said that “I realized that it was more important than I thought.

I was very young when I was in Israel, and I didn’t realize that it’s very important to be Jewish and have all these traditions.”

He added, “I think I was too young for the music, too. After some time I realized that when I hear those Eastern melodies, I just feel like home. It’s so natural to me.

Like being in a swimming pool and floating.”

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Israel Briefs

Yossi Zamir / Flash 90 / JTA

Tourists from Singapore cover themselves with mud while bathing in the Dead Sea.

Tourists flocking to Israel at record pace

By Marcy Oster Jewish Telegraphic Agency JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli tour guide Yossi Weiss was leading two busloads of American Christian pilgrims on a tour of Jerusalem’s Old City when he noted how difficult it was to move around.

The Jewish Quarter was so crowded and busy Monday as the group visited the Temple Mount, Robinson’s Arch and other famous sites, observed Weiss, who recently was named chairman of the Israel Tour Guides Association.

It was one sign of the record year Israeli tourism is having.

Despite the hand-wringing over Israel’s image overseas, the political direction of the Jewish state and the persistence of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, visitors are continuing to flock to Israel— more than ever.

In the first half of 2010, some 1.6 million tourists visited Israel, setting a new record, according to the Israeli Tourism Ministry. It constituted a 39 percent increase over the same period of 2009, which included the Gaza war, and a 10 percent increase from the first half of 2008, Israel’s previous record year for tourism.

“Israel is a sought-after tourism product,” said Oren Drori, senior deputy director general at the Tourism Ministry, adding that there is a wide gap between Israel’s political image and its actual image.

Despite the gains over last year, the number of visitors for 2010 is only slightly ahead of

where the numbers were 10 years ago, before the start of the second Palestinian intifada, according to Ami Etgar, director general of the Israel Incoming Tour Operators Association.

Claiming that Israel can do better, Etgar said that “This is a country that every person in the world has a motivation to visit.”

Furthermore, the record numbers have not translated into equal gains for Israeli hotels because many of the tourists are day trippers visiting from Egypt, Jordan, Cyprus and Turkey, according to Eli Gonen, president of the Israel Hotel Association.

The numbers also include the passengers on cruises that dock in Haifa and Ashdod ports. For nearly a decade, cruise ships did not stop in Israel due to ongoing security issues, but they have returned in recent months, and bookings have increased for 2011.

“We are glad that people are coming to visit the country,” Gonen said. “We hope they will come again and stay longer.”

Industry experts attribute Israel’s tourism boom to several factors: • Israel has changed its aviation policies to allow more airlines to land in the country, including charters and low-cost European carriers.

• The evangelical market is growing. Three-fourths of all visitors to Israel are non-Jewish, and 35 percent of those visitors define themselves as pilgrims, according to Drori.

• More Russians are coming, in part because Israel lifted the visa requirement for travelers from Russia in 2008. With the visa restriction now being lifted on Ukraine, visitors from that country are expected to grow, too.

• Tourism traffic from Latin America, particularly Brazil, has risen dramatically. A new El Al route established earlier this year between Tel Aviv and Sao Paulo has helped bring more visitors from South America. “It’s a boom,” Pilgrim Tours’ operations manager Eduardo Kitay said of the agency’s Spanish and Latin American pilgrimage tours. Kitay says the agency is so busy, it may have to turn away groups at the end of the year and into early next year.

• New tourism markets, such as the Far East and Eastern Europe, have begun to send more travelers, while tourists from Germany, England and France remain steady. North America remains the No. 1 source of tourists to Israel.

Tourism Ministry officials attribute their success in promoting Israel to implementation of the recommendations from a 2006 report

by Ernst & Young on Israeli tourism. The report found that Israel has the potential to more than double the number of annual visitors, to between 4 million and 5 million per year, and the way to reach that point was to promote Israel’s attractions while minimizing any negative feelings associated with its political developments.

The study propelled the

Tourism Ministry to develop “intensive, segmented and focused” marketing and advertising campaigns to improve Israel’s image as a tourism destination while targeting specific audiences, Drori said.

Over the past year, targeted advertising campaigns have run in the United States, Russia, Germany, France, Britain, Scandinavia and Brazil, ministry officials said.

The manager of Tel Aviv-based Yarkon Tours, Joseph Mizrachi, says the main increase in bookings has come from Christian visitors.

Jerusalem is the agency’s main destination, in addition to such Christian religious sites as the Sea of Galilee (the Kinneret), the Jordan River, the Mount of the Beatitudes and Mount Tabor.

The surge in tourists also has benefited the Palestinian economy by sending visitors to the West Bank cities of Bethlehem and Jericho. Though Israeli passport holders are barred by law from entering areas fully controlled by the Palestinian Authority, known as Area A, the Tourism Ministry recently allowed Israeli tour guides into Bethlehem in preparation for leading tours there, and Israel is considering easing restrictions on Israeli visits to Palestinian areas.

Weiss, of the Tour Guide Association, says August and September do not look very promising now. The American market, which usually books well in advance, appears to be waiting until the last minute, he said, speculating that concerns about the economy could be the reason.

Israel Museum in Jerusalem reopens JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Israel Museum in Jerusalem has opened after a five-year, $100 million renovation project.

The renewed campus of the museum was inaugurated Sunday.

The opening will be celebrated with a week of public programs and events, including concerts by popular Israeli musicians, activities for children, and programs featuring artists, writers and performers.

The museum’s three collection wings—the Samuel and Saidye Bronfman Archaeology Wing, the Edmond and Lily Safra Fine Arts Wing, and the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Wing for Jewish Art and Life—have been redone.

Though the exhibit space has more than doubled, fewer objects are on display for more ease in viewing.

The new galleries are opening with a series of exhibitions highlighting recent acquisitions and long-held masterpieces.

James Carpenter Design Associates of New York and Efrat Kowalsky Architects of Tel Aviv oversaw the renovation.

The museum was founded in 1965, when Teddy Kollek served as mayor of Jerusalem.

Egypt’s Jewish community head disappears JERUSALEM (JTA) — The president of Egypt’s Jewish community has allegedly fled the country after being convicted of fraud and ordered to prison.

Carmen Weinstein, 82, was convicted last week by an Egyptian court and sentenced to three years in prison, as well as fines and restitution totaling more than $8,000.

Weinstein was convicted of selling an Egyptian businessman a Jewish community building that did not belong to her and then refusing to return his money. Weinstein said documents proving she had sold the building for 3 million Egyptian pounds, or $520,000, were forged.

Egyptian security sources have not been able to find her, Ynet reported Sunday.

The Jewish community secretary, Rauf Fuad Tawfiq, told Ynet that Weinstein had gone to visit the United States days before the ruling, and that she intended to return.

Weinstein heads a Jewish community of only dozens of members, most of whom are women.

According to the Jerusalem Post, she rents out a few buildings to support the community.

ISRAEL BRIEFS on page 20

MATURE LIVING

THURSDAY, JULY 29, 2010

Mature Living

R E F UA H S H L E M A H Independent You is a local clothing outlet that caters to those with special needs by combining style, quality and functionality.

Independent You is Cincinnati’s first special needs clothing and accessories store with a full range of selections that aim for comfort and independence.

For those interested in achieving peace of mind for themselves and their family members after they are gone, contact Richard Rubinstein for the best in life insurance policies. Policies are available up to age 85, and the rates are guaranteed to never increase, and then benefits to never decrease. He provides payments to fit most budgets and no physical exam is required.

Teepa Snow and a Cedar Village resident during a music session.

Welcome to The American Israelite’s 2010 guide to Mature Living in the Cincinnati area. This year’s guide provides readers with resources for everything you and and your loved ones need to help with living an exciting, fun-filled life in the Tri-State region.

The Senior Center at the J provides everything from exercise classes and technology seminars, catered to Seniors, to Mahjong and Bridge.

Those seeking a top notch retirement community, complete with all the best amenities, visit Cedar Village in Mason, Ohio.

Cedar Village is a non-profit retirement community complete with a 162-bed Medicaid and Medicare certified facility as well as 102 assisted living apartments.

Cedar Village provides physician care, social work services and various therapy programs.

For activities and entertainment, the new, state-of-the-art Mayerson JCC Senior Center

makes available all the latest technology to seniors, as well as providing the community atmosphere that Jewish Community Centers are renowned for providing. The Senior Center at the J provides everything from exercise classes and technology seminars, catered to Seniors, to Mahjong and Bridge.

The JCC’s Tuesday Morning Talks provide seniors with lectures and activities on a variety of interesting topics, and seniors can even brush up on their photography skills with digital photography seminars in the afternoon. All of this is coupled with access to a brand new spa and pool facility as well to the J Cafe, the perfect place to meet friends and family.

Family Bridges Home Care is there to provide seniors the opportunity to choose the way they want to live. Family Bridges provides in home assistance catered to your individual needs as well as oneon-one care with 24/7 availability.

Family Bridges aims to provide the best possible non-medical home care to every customer.

Comfort Keepers helps to provide seniors with happy, healthy lives in the comfort of their own homes by providing quality and compassionate care as well as safety technology to aid you in preserving independence and comfort.

Weil Funeral Home, located in Cincinnati, provides a long tradition of caring and Jewish funeral practices for those in the Tri-State area. For four generations the Weil family has been providing the most compassionate and efficient Jewish funeral home services available.

11

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12

MATURE LIVING

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New efforts in dementia care at Cedar Village

By Carol Silver Elliott Cedar Village Worldwide, there are an estimated 24 million people living with some form of dementia, the general term used for the impairment of memory and other cognitive abilities. While there are 70 different types of dementias, Alzheimer’s is the most common, accounting for 60 percent of all dementias. According to a report released in March 2010, by the Alzheimer’s Association, there are 5.3 million Americans living with the disease and there is someone diagnosed with Alzheimer’s every 70 seconds.

In Ohio there are 230,000 people, 65 and older, with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia, representing a 15 percent increase over 2000 statistics. At Cedar Village, special care for individuals with dementia has been part of the mission since the facility opened in 1997. As part of the 162-bed Medicare and Medicaid certified Health Care center, the philosophy of Cedar Village’s dementia care program is recognizing that each person’s disease process is unique and must be addressed individually.

Consulting with Teepa Snow, MS, OTR / L, FAOTA, a nationally recognized expert in dementia care, Cedar Village has continued to develop and hone its approach to both managing residents with dementia and optimizing their

“Fannie’s General Store” was created by Lettuce Paint and dedicated in memory of Fannie and Max Warren by their family.

quality of life. This has included a variety of elements including staff education, program changes and facility enhancements.

Staff education is an ongoing process and has included both day long workshops and special programs focused on understanding the progression of dementia—and meeting resident’s needs appropriately based on their specific needs.

Training has even included the development of new tools, such as a set of cards that staff carries with them, which help identify behaviors at different stages and suggest effective interventions. As well, programming has been redesigned to group people by level of disease and function, rather than where they live at Cedar Village. In this way, activities are both more tailored and more effective.

In addition, Cedar Village has made some changes to the environment, with a series of custom murals depicting an old-fashioned “town square” with stores designed to trigger memories and tables filled with items these stores might have had, items that allow the residents to “shop” and actively participate and interact.

Care of those with dementia requires ongoing learning and Cedar Village is committed to that process. It is part of Cedar Village’s focus on making aging an enriching and fulfilling experience and bringing meaning to the words “life begins at Cedar Village.”

(Carol Silver Elliott is the CEO and President of the Cedar Village retirement housing community.)

MATURE LIVING

THURSDAY, JULY 29, 2010

JCC Senior Center plans luncheon and health improvement programs As part of their ongoing mission to provide a wide variety of activities, classes and seminars for local Cincinnati senior adults (ages 60+), the JCC Senior Life program has planned a tribute luncheon in early August and will offer several new wellness programs that start this October.

On Thursday, Aug. 5, the JCC Senior Center will host its 6th Annual ShalomNet luncheon in the Amberley Room at the J at 11:30 a.m. This special event celebrates the accomplishments of almost 600 ShalomNet and ShalomPhone program participants. Both programs are funded by the Manuel D. and Rhoda Mayerson Foundation.

There will also be a special tribute for Michael Williams, the JCC’s former ShalomNet instructor. Williams successfully ran the program until health reasons prevented him from continuing in his position. This annual event is free and open to the public, however reservations are required and should be sent to Susan Bradley at the JCC. New JCC programs for all ages start the week of Oct. 3. Some of the programs designed specifically for adults ages 60 and older include wellness classes like: Intro to Reiki (holistic healing), Tai Chi for Arthritis, Yoga for Seniors, Healthy Steps (the LeBed Method), A Matter of Balance, and HealthRHYTHMS Group Empowerment Drumming.

Intro to Reiki focuses on using natural healing energies to prevent stress, increase the body’s natural healing powers, and attain higher levels of energy. Using hands-on healing techniques, participants focus on their emotions to release toxic blockages from their bodies and minds.

Tai Chi for Arthritis, developed by the Arthritis Foundation, utilizes Chinese martial arts techniques to balance the energy of the body and mind. This form of tai chi is widely used to help those with arthritis, back pain, and balance issues.

The Yoga for Seniors class uses a systematic method to ensure that students can comfortably relax and

enjoy ease of motion as they improve their strength, flexibility and concentration. The gentle stretching and strengthening positions benefit the entire body, with emphasis on the back, shoulders, hips and legs. Unlike traditional yoga, this JCC class caters to those with limited flexibility.

Healthy Steps (The LeBed Method) is a fun, gentle, therapeutic exercise program set to music.

This JCC class focuses on healing through easy-to-learn movement and dance techniques that help increase range of motion, energy, and self-esteem. The LeBed Method caters to those who have survived or currently have breast cancer, as well as those with chronic disorders such as Lymphedema, Arthritis, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s, and other illnesses.

“A Matter of Balance” concentrates on reducing senior adults’ fear of falling. It is an evidencebased program that uses proven scientific methods to assist in overcoming fears and increasing personal activity levels. This class is led by Susan Bradley, who is one of only two “Matter of Balance” master trainers in the tristate area.

The HealthRHYTHMS Group Empowerment Drumming class at the J (funded by a grant from the CareSource Foundation) is another evidence-based program that’s practiced world-wide as an activity that helps strengthen the immune system, decrease stress, and improve moods, self-confidence, energy and communication skills.

Hannah Kadetz, who recently took the JCC HealthRHYTHMS class, said, “This class is the most fun I have all week! It really helps me stay more focused, happy, calm and energized.”

Almost all JCC Senior Life programs and events are open to the public and require advance registration. For more information or to register, contact Susan Bradley at the J. To view a complete list of JCC Senior Life programs, events and trips, visit the JCC or their website.

13

14

DINING OUT

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

Gabby’s Café — A dining treasure in Wyoming

By Marilyn Gale Contributing Columnist

give me something to eat?

DiStasi initially started his culinary career in the food distribution world and went around delivering food to area restaurants. As he had always loved the idea of making food and feeding people, he decided to harness some family recipes and open his own restaurant. He credits his mother as his mentor, describing

farmer’s markets, food shows, and by checking the internet for the most recent development in culinary trends. A chef, a business man and a scholar of food, these traits were obvious in DiStasi’s enthusiasm as he talked about new kinds of cheese and olives he was adding to the food choices.

Alongside DiStasi in his passion for Gabby’s is Chris

and dining on pasta topped with a sauce of artichokes and eggplant were common for Singleton and were the catalyst for his venture into culinary arts.

In addition to the pizza choices, dinner specials focusing on summer abundance were available. There was a summer strawberry salad, consisting of mixed greens, fresh basil, strawberries,

Eureka, a discovery, a gem of a restaurant practically hidden in the suburb of Wyoming. I assume the residents in that community know how lucky they are to have such a jewel in their midst—a dining spot brimming with an eclectic menu—and I am not referring to the American hamburger and fried chicken or a mere stir fry or pasta.

Gabby’s Cafe has a little bit of this and that; Italian, Mexican, barbeque, even Greek.

Stepping inside, the atmosphere reminded me of the comfortable booths and tables in restaurants I grew up with, a little retro. There were two dining rooms, one having a large bar in it.

Large screen televisions were prominent in each.

Dino DiStasti, owner, proud papa of this family friendly dining spot, is a local fellow, born and raised in Price Hill. He greeted me with a broad smile and firm handshake, and immediately asked what I wanted to eat. I told him to surprise me and voila, fire roasted vegetable pizza.

This turned out to be an excellent choice and a marvelous introduction to an array of food items.

The fire roasted pizza, dotted heavily with half moon shaped roasted garlic, balls of goat cheese and layered with chargrilled eggplant, zucchini—purchased that day from the local farmer’s market across the street—sweet peppers, onions and a three-cheese blend was easily big enough for two. With toppings so thick and generous, you might need to use a Dino DiStasi, owner, and Chris Singleton, general manager, invite you and your family to friendly knife and fork. Diners have the dining at Gabby’s Cafe. option of whole wheat or traditional crust. This gourmet neigh- her as a tremendous cook. Since Singleton, general manager and pine nuts, goat cheese, and seaborhood pizza pie is a real deal at the restaurant’s conception, other chef, another hometown fellow, sonal sweet Vidalia onions, tossed $12.95. family members have added their raised in Fairfield, Ohio. in balsamic vinegar and olive oil “Where have you been hid- gastronomic magic to the menu. Singleton also credited his mother for $9.99. Seafood selections, ing?” I asked, between bites of Desserts, such as carrot cake, were and grandmother, whom he said such as salmon and mahi mahi, pizza, careful not to let the tangy made by DiStasi’s wife; cookies were fabulous cooks. Raised an were grilled and finished lightly chunks of melting goat cheese are Donna’s gourmet cookies who only child, he spent a lot of time in the oven, enhancing both texdrip on to my chin. happens also to be his sister. watching them prepare food and ture and crispness to the outside DiStasi replied, “Gabby’s has DiStasi’s specialty is making experimenting with new flavors. of the fish. A half smoked chickbeen here for six years.” his sold-by-the-jar marinara sauce These ladies had a fondness for en— Gabby’s has its own smokAnd who is Dino DiStasi, this early in the morning. He reported creativity and unusual ingredi- er—with two sides is a special amiable man, who, like a nurtur- he also likes to find new food ents. Eating a tin of smoked oys- summer dinner on Tuesdays for ing Jewish mama, couldn’t wait to items in places such as local ters, sampling specialty olives, only $10.99.

For those health conscious eaters who want to increase fish and omega 3 oil in their culinary lives, Gabby’s offers creative and tasty seafood dinners at a sensible price. There’s the parmesan and artichoke encrusted salmon, pan seared salmon topped with artichoke hearts, panko and herbs, served with a light lemon sauce, vegetables and garlic mashed potatoes for $15.95, and the pesto grilled mahi mahi, covered with local basil pesto, chargrilled and served atop a bed of fettuccini with an artichoke cream sauce for $15.50.

If you aren’t in the mood for pizza or a whole dinner, then sink your teeth into Gabby’s certified Angus beef burger. One half pound of meat, grilled to your liking, with a choice of two toppings, plus Saratoga chips or homemade vegetable slaw for $8.49 is a filling option. This sandwich was recently listed in Cincinnati Magazine—top 40 burgers in Cinti—and came in at #13.

For the vegans among us, Singleton rightfully boasted about Gabby’s “honest vegetable soup.”

No cheese, no noodles, only local produce: carrots, onions, broccoli, cabbage, sugar snap peas, vegetable broth, won’t be overcooked, and served with a ciabatta roll for $3.99. Singleton said, “Lots of choices here; 10 people with 10 individual tastes will be able to find something on the menu.”

Open seven days a week for lunch or dinner, with music on the weekends, and a bar that specializes in American premium beers, this dining spot has all the bases covered for customer friendly eating. With food that’s reasonably priced, generous portions using local, seasonal produce, and managed and owned by hometown fellows, Gabby’s Café is a fun place to eat, whether you are on date, with the family or just wanting a great meal with a satisfying brew.

Gabby’s Café 515 Wyoming Avenue Wyoming 513-821-6040

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

DINING OUT

THURSDAY, JULY 29, 2010

15 Dine-In / Take-Out / Delivery

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

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

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

Apsara 4785 Lake Forest Dr Blue Ash 554-1040

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

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

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

Kanak India Restaurant 10040B Montgomery Rd Montgomery 793-6800

Sugar n’ Spice 4381 Reading Rd Cincinnati 242-3521

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

Sukhothai Thai Cuisine 8102 Market Place Ln Cincinnati 794-0057

Blue Elephant 2912 Wasson Rd Cincinnati 351-0123

Marx Hot Bagels 9701 Kenwood Rd Blue Ash 891-5542

Tandoor 8702 Market Place Ln Montgomery 793-7484

Carlo & Johnny 9769 Montgomery Rd Cincinnati 936-8600

MEI Japanese Restaurant 8608 Market Place Ln Montgomery 891-6880

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

Embers 8120 Montgomery Rd Montgomery 984-8090

Mecklenburg Gardens 302 E. University Ave Clifton 221-5353

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

Through The Garden 10738 Kenwood Rd Cincinnati 791-2199 Trio 7565 Kenwood Rd Kenwood 984-1905 VIEW Restaurant 2200 Victory Pkwy Cincinnati 751-8439

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1/2

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16

OPINION

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Point of View

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

by Rabbi James A. Rudin

A waste of time and resources (RNS) Membership in the Presbyterian Church (USA) has dropped every year since the denomination was formed in 1983.

The continuing decline and aging membership have resulted in reduced income, fewer congregations and staff layoffs at the denomination’s headquarters in Louisville, Ky. So, why is it that the shrinking membership of the PCUSA is constantly forced to spend hundreds of precious hours debating appalling resolutions that always single out Israel for egregious condemnation?

Anti-Israel hostility — some might even call it hysteria — was on display again at the church's General Assembly in Minneapolis earlier this month.

Six years ago, the PCUSA called for “selective divestment” in multinational corporations operating in Israel, but that plan was rescinded in 2006. This year saw a 173-page proposed resolution that was dripping with hostility toward Jews, Judaism and Israel.

Among the document’s many mistruths was the odious lie that Israeli treatment of Palestinians is akin to the Nazis’ campaign against Jews. Using that “N” word immediately and utterly destroys any rational discussion or chance for authentic dialogue.

Another ugly assertion was that the DNA of Israeli Jews is “European,” and not “Middle Eastern” (the idea being, I assume, to portray Israelis as foreigners in their homeland). In fact, the majority of Israeli Jews are from Muslim lands including Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Morocco, Turkey, Yemen and Lebanon — countries where Jews have lived for hundreds, even thousands, of years.

Such a racist charge is reminiscent of the 1930s and 1940s when the real Nazis murdered millions of racially “inferior” groups like Jews, Gypsies and Slavs. During the Spanish Inquisition, Jews were attacked because they lacked “Limpieza de Sangre,” purity of blood. It is a disgrace the proposed PCUSA resolution contained such racist garbage.

The resolution was saturated with a malevolent double standard of judgment, lies, distortions and insults to Jews and Judaism, and even questioned Israel’s right to

national sovereignty. The Rev. Susan Zencka of Stevens Point, Wisc., had it right when she said: “We have come to a position of Palestine good, Israel bad. Life is not that simple.”

Fortunately, Presbyterians for Middle East Peace (PMEP), a broad-based group of clergy and lay people, were able to revise most of the wretched anti-Israel resolution. The unfair and incendiary assertion that Israel is an “apartheid” state was deleted, along with many other toxic sections of the wildly inaccurate report. The revised resolution also acknowledged Israel’s need to block the flow of weapons into Hamas-controlled Gaza.

More than 100 nations have gained independence since the end of World War II, including Israel in 1948. But because of the current anti-Israel attacks, PMEP was compelled to add these words to the resolution: “(We reaffirm) Israel’s right to exist as a sovereign nation within secure and internationally recognized borders...” No other nation requires such wording.

There were many other improvements, but unfortunately, one mischievous Presbyterian position adopted years ago remains in the final resolution: a questioning of U.S. aid to Israel.

PMEP leaders expunged huge amounts of malignant language, but like some cancer surgeries, they didn’t get it all. After an intense week of struggle, the Presbyterians voted 558-119 to adopt a revised resolution that still has flaws.

Among PMEP leaders were the Rev. John Buchanan of Chicago (publisher of The Christian Century magazine); William Harter of Chambersburg, Pa.; Byron Shafter of New York City; and John Wimberley of Washington, D.C., along with Auburn Seminary president Katherine Henderson and Syracuse University professor Gustav Niebuhr. This group prevented the church from driving itself over the cliff of irrelevancy, racism, arrogance and ignorance.

The real danger to the world, and to America’s national security, is not the Israel-Palestinian conflict, but rather Iran’s effort to produce nuclear weapons that threaten all of us, including Presbyterians.

At the next General Assembly in 2012, will there be yet another wasteful, divisive debate whether to verbally punish Israel? Angry and dismayed Presbyterians might ask: “How long must this wicked game go on? How long, O Lord?”

(Rabbi Rudin is the American Jewish Committee’s senior interreligious adviser.)

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

Dear Editor, Having been a longtime member of the local post of the Jewish War Veterans joining shortly after returning from World War II, I have been saddened by the virtual demise of the post.

It was therefore very gratifying to read in Thursday’s {July 15} Israelite of the effort to bring it back to life. However if there are former or current members of the military interested in joining, there was not enough information given to lead them in that direction. They need to know how to make contact with those working to make this again a viable and important JWV post. At least a phone number.

Ephraim Roth Amberley Village (Publisher’s note: We have added the phone number for the Jewish War Veterans to our Community Directory.)

Dear Editor, In response to Gerald Schwartz’s letter: Clearly Schwartz does not like Paul Glassman, and will not miss an opportunity to find fault with anything Mr. Glassman writes.

Personally, I find Mr. Glassman’s letters to be interesting and illuminating. Mr. Glassman’s letter made a comparison between two Jewish brothers. One who heads a talent agency, and one who works for Obama. The one who heads a talent agency ended its representation of Mel Gibson because of his outrageous remarks. One of the points of Mr. Glassman’s letter was to point out, using sarcasm, how well Gibson’s remarks fit in with Obama’s record to date with Israel.

Schwartz says the connection between Gibson and Obama was unwarranted. Had Schwartz read the letter with an open mind he would have seen the connection, or perhaps he did, but feels a need to defend Obama.

Jerome C. Liner Montgomery, OH Dear Editor, A Palestinian Embassy in the Works—In a quiet announcement made on July 20, the U.S. State Department upgraded the status

of the Palestinian delegation in Washington D.C. to “Delegation General.” This allows the Palestinians to fly their flag outside their diplomatic office like a real State embassy. This appears to be in anticipation of the Palestinian request for full state recognition by the United Nations next year on land captured by Israel during the Six Day War in 1967. Question: What did the Palestinians do to deserve this upgrade? Is it (a) for behaving with civility in the West Bank (i.e., no homicide bombers) over the last 3-4 years, (b) to entice them into direct talks with Israel, (c) to reward the ongoing Palestinian efforts to delegitimize (boycott) Israel in academic, business, and political organizations throughout the world, or (d) the follow-up to President Obama’s Cairo speech in which he equated Israelis to American Negro slave holders? Recall, after former President Clinton gave more face time with Yassir Arafat than any other world leader (I say this not to insult every other bona fide world leader), offering 97 percent of the West Bank and Gaza (with Israel’s concurrence), Clinton and later President Bush were rewarded with the Second Intifada, Jewish heads rolling in the streets of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and Palestinians dancing in the streets of Ramallah as the World Trade Center came tumbling down. Pandering to the Palestinians has never been in America’s interests. Perhaps we should request some clarity from the State Department and our elected officials.

R. Warren Amberley Village Dear Editor, July 21st marked the fifth anniversary of the Gush Katif atrocity where 10,000 Jews were brutally removed from Gaza leaving it Judenrein (rid of Jews). This was done by the former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Opponents to this action were beaten brutally and mercilessly by Israel’s uniformed special police unit. Some members of the Jewish community praised this action and called it a positive step for peace. Some “Jewish” organizations even sent millions of dollars to the Arabs.

The same Jewish organizations who condemned Jews in Israel

who wanted to remove the Arab threat praised this anti Jewish atrocity. They branded anyone who wanted to expel the Arab as racist or fascist and called this “unJewish” even though the Torah calls for removing the inhabitants of the land (which includes the Arab trespassers).

The impact on the victims’ families removed continues today with the government putting up one bureaucratic hurdle after another. Many still live in trailers with little hope for a permanent home. Unemployment among the victims is double the rate of the rest of the country.

Many soldiers committed suicide as a result of the acts they were forced to perform in removing Jews from their homes. Many of the older former residents have either died or are suffering health problems resulting from the “disengagement.” Gaza’s greenhouses were destroyed by the Arabs and the areas were turned into a Hamas terrorist camp. Previously the greenhouses provided jobs to the Arabs and brought in over $120 million a year to Israel’s economy. The Arabs are now firing rockets into Sderot the same way they did against the Jews who were living in Gush Katif and are obtaining longer range rockets to attack Jewish cities. The synagogues left behind were torched by frenzied Arab mobs yelling to Allah as G-d’s name was profaned.

Now five years later, we still don’t have peace and the victims are still. One point is being ignored; Hamas hates peace and they hate Jews and want to destroy the Jewish state and leave no Jews alive. They are smuggling arms into Gaza at an alarming rate in preparation for terrorist acts or war.

The organizations which praised this atrocity and sent Jewish money to the Arabs have ignored the Jewish victims who are being mistreated by the Israeli government while Arabs build luxury homes on stolen Jewish land and are silent on the issue. I pray to Hashem that Jews will no longer be subjected to this cruelty by their own government and Jewish land which the Arab lost when they went to war in their hope to destroy the Jewish state remains in Jewish hands. Too many have given their lives to liberate that land from Arab occupiers.

Sincerely, Ezra Kattan Cincinnati, Ohio

JEWISH LIFE

THURSDAY, JULY 29, 2010

MODERN ORTHODOX SERVICE

17

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

Sedra of the Week

by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin

Kiddush follows Shabbat Morning Services

RABBI HANAN BALK & ASSISTANT RABBI STUART LAVENDA

6442 Stover Ave • 531-6654 • golfmanorsynagogue.org

SHABBAT SHALOM: PARASHAT EKEV DEUTERONOMY 7:12-11:25

“[God] afflicted you and let you hunger [in the desert], and then He fed you the manna... in order to let you know that not by bread alone does a human live, but rather by that which comes from God’s mouth does a human live” (Deut. 8:3).

What is the real message of the manna? And how does one live by that which comes from “God’s mouth?” Toward the end of Deuteronomy, the Biblical text equates life with God Himself: “I have placed before you life and death, the blessing and the curse.

Choose life [and life means] to love the Lord your God, to listen to His voice and cleave to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days” (Deut. 30:19, 20).

Conventional wisdom has it that bread is the staff of life, but this is only part of the picture. Our Torah teaches that it is God alone who enables human life, which is why it is God who provides the food by which we lived in the desert; so it would be clearly God’s gift. To clarify these metaphysical verses, we turn to the earliest manuscripts of Onkelos’ Aramaic translation (Targum) of the Biblical text, specifically the verse which heads up our commentary: “... Not by bread alone does a human live but rather by that which comes from God’s mouth does a human live.”

Here the Targum explicitly distinguishes between bread — which provides physical subsistence — and God’s mouth [words, Torah] which provides for human life, human eternity. Bread is temporal existence; God’s words—and gifts —are eternal. Bread exists in the real world and over the course of time it rots and disappears; God’s words are eternal—values, ideas and ideals that soar to the heavens and live in time immemorial, far beyond the parchment on which they are recorded. Bread is a thing, an “it,” an object that can be gathered and consumed, lost or stolen.

In contrast, love is a relationship, a desire to give and reach out beyond oneself, and which lives—and “begets”—beyond the life span of any of those who feel it. God is love, and real love emanates from —and ultimately returns to—the God who gave it. A Temple is a building that exists in space, and just as it is constructed; it can be

deconstructed, or even worse, burned to the ground. In contrast, Shabbat is a day unto the Lord, a sanctuary in time which bestows a taste of eternity on all those who rejoice in its 25 hours. Manna from God’s mouth is beyond physical food.

This was the Biblical way of teaching Israel how to experience Shabbat, and to help Israel realize that only by recognizing God as the true source of life, do we have the opportunity of living life eternal.

The second Mishna in the seventh chapter of Tractate Shabbat lists the 39 forbidden physical activities on Shabbat—activities derived from acts involved in the construction of the Mishkan— Desert Tabernacle, a building in space. A careful reading of these activities reveals the following categories: the process involved in bread production, the process involved in garment production, the process involved in leather production. Food, clothing and shelter —the fundamental needs of all physical creatures.

I believe the Mishna is teaching us the legitimacy of pursuing the necessities of life during the six-day work week; however, it is precisely this chasing after our

physical needs which is prohibited on Shabbat. Shabbat is a day given over to true life, to the eternal values of Torah, love, family and community relationships. Shabbat is a day when we do not get into a car to escape the people closest to us, to avoid looking within ourselves or being present with spouse and children. Shabbat is a day when we refuse to be interrupted by a telephone and its conversations where we speak, but rarely truly listen. Shabbat is a day that brings us back to an earlier stage of human development, before Instant Messaging—a medium which may inform, but doesn’t really communicate.

It is told that a man was once running back and forth in a frenzy not far from Rebbe Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev. When the rebbe asked him why he seemed so agitated, the Jew responded: “I am trying to find the best way to make a living.”

“Please make sure,” cautioned Rebbe Levi Yitzhak, “that in your rush to make a living, you don’t lose your life.”

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

Over 125 years in Cincinnati and 10 years at Cornell.

Egalitarian • 8100 Cornell Rd, Cincinnati, OH 45249 (513) 489-3399 • www.ohavshalom.org

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

August 6 6:00 pm Shabbat Nosh 6:30 pm Shabbat Evening Service Klezmer Shabbat

July 31 10:30 am Shabbat Morning Service

August 7 10:30 am Shabbat Morning Service

18

JEWZ IN THE NEWZ

Jewz in the Newz

By Nate Bloom Contributing Columnist A NOT POLITE TITLE “Dinner for Schmucks” tells the story of Tim (PAUL RUDD, 41), a nice guy on the verge of having it all. The only thing standing between him and a big promotion is finding the perfect guest to bring to his boss’ annual Dinner for Extraordinary People, an event where the winner of the evening is the one who brings the most eccentric “loser” as his guest. Enter Barry (Steve Carrell), a guy with a passion for dressing mice up in tiny outfits to recreate great works of art. Tim has a crisis of conscience as he comes to realize that Barry, underneath it all, is a good and wise person.

Rudd told the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles that he now realizes the word “schmuck” might be offensive to some, but, to begin with, Rudd says: “It wouldn’t even have crossed my mind that somebody might find this offensive…It seems to me that most people use the word nowadays in the sense of: ‘Don’t be a fool’ or ‘Don’t be a jerk’ — as in, ‘Stop acting like a schmuck.’ ” The film is directed by JAY ROACH, 53, (“Austin Powers”).

He converted to Judaism not long before he wed (1993) Bangles rock group (“Manic Monday”) lead singer SUSANNA HOFFS, now 51. (Opens Friday, July 30.)

PELTZ UPDATE Early this month, I noted that newcomer NICOLA PELTZ, 15, the pretty co-star of the sci/fi film, “The Last Airbender,” might be the daughter of Jewish billionaire NELSON PELTZ. Well, Nicola just told an interviewer that Nelson, the CEO of the Wendy’s/Arby’s group, is her father. Meanwhile, I found a 2007 obit in which the UJA Federation described Nelson Peltz and his wife Claudia (Nicola’s mother) as “compassionate leaders of the New York Jewish community.” Also, while other Web family history sources make it clear that Claudia was not born Jewish; she may be a Jew-by-choice—a New York Reform synagogue lists the couple as members. Altogether—it seems clear that Nicola was raised Jewish.

TUBE NOTES KEVIN POLLAK, 52, stars in his own one-hour stand-up comedy special on Showtime (Thursday July 29, 11PM).

Pollak, who has acted in many movies and TV shows, began his career as a quite funny stand-up

comic and spot-on impressionist.

He is famous for doing a great and quite funny WILLIAM SHATNER impression.

Speaking of Shatner, he doesn’t seem to be slowing down at 79.

On Monday, August 2, his new “Bio” cable channel series, entitled “Aftermath with William Shatner,” premieres (10PM). It takes an in-depth look at what happens when people are tragically or infamously transformed from unknown citizens into household names overnight. Shatner’s first guest is Bernhard Goetz, 59, who became famous overnight in 1984 when he shot four young men in a New York subway he thought were about to rob him. (Goetz is often assumed to be Jewish.

However, his father was German Lutheran and his German Jewish mother converted to her husband’s faith after they married.)

BOUNCING BACK Recently, I saw “Inside Edition” chief correspondent JIM MORET do an intelligent commentary about Lindsay Lohan for MSNBC. Curious, I “googled” Moret, 53, and was surprised to learn that he was the son of James Darren, the ‘50s/’60s heartthrob singer/actor. I found out a lot more: Jim’s Jewish mother, GLORIA, was the Philadelphia high school sweetheart of Darren, who is of Italian Catholic background.

Their parents objected to their match and so they secretly eloped in 1955, when they were both 18.

The couple bitterly divorced in 1959. Gloria’s second husband, JERRY MORET, adopted Jim when he was 13. (Jim Moret and James Darren are now reconciled and quite friendly. He considers both Jerry and James to be his “dads.”)

Jim was raised Jewish and is a practicing Jew. Moret and his Jewish wife have two daughters.

He was a Southern California entertainment lawyer when he joined CNN in the early ‘90s as the host of “Showbiz Tonight.” In 1994, he was CNN chief correspondent at the O.J. Simpson trial.

Last January, Jim’s memoir (“The Last Day of My Life”) came out. It describes how he overcame suicidal depression in 2007. In 2001, he had declined a CNN request that he transfer from Los Angeles to Atlanta. He couldn’t find much other work and fell deep into debt.

But he talked to himself and managed to find a new, upbeat attitude to approach life and got back “in the game.” In 2009, Moret and his wife celebrated their 20th anniversary by renewing their vows in a second Jewish wedding.

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

FROM THE PAGES 100 Years Ago Mr. Will Hilb and Miss Alma Hilb, of Reading road are enjoying the breezes at Ottawa Beach, Mich.

Miss Hildred Diamond, of Rockdale avenue, is spending the summer with her aunt, Mrs. A. Sommerfield, at Walton Lake, Mich.

Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Heldman have left for Atlantic City and Brighton Beach, prior to their depar-

ture for Europe, sailing August 4, for an eight weeks’ trip abroad.

Mrs. Frances Leiser Levison, who had been living at Hotel Alms, died Tuesday, July 26. Mrs. Levison had been suffering for some time, but on the previous Thursday she became ill and was taken to the Jewish Hospital, where she died. She is survived by four children, Rachel, wife

of Gus Karger, the Washington (D.C) correspondent of the “Times-Star” and Harry, Edgar and William Levison. She also leaves two brothers, David and Henry, and one sister, Miss Hannah Leiser, all of Cincinnati.

The funeral occurred at the United Jewish Cemetery this (Thursday) morning, Rabbi Leo Mannheimer officiating. — July 28, 1910

75 Years Ago Ferdinand J. Ach, 74, of 3602 Washington Avenue, passed away suddenly Sunday, July 28th, in Charlevoix, Mich., where he had gone for a vacation. Mr. Ach was the brother of Samuel Ach, former president of the Board of County Commissioners of Hamilton County. Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Ach were also in Charlevoix.

Born in Dayton, he was in business there for many years before his retirement eight years ago, when he came to live at the home of a son Eugene L. Ach, 3602 Washington Avenue. He was a partner in the firm

of Canby, Ach and Canby, coffee importers. In Cincinnati he was a member of The Cincinnati Club and the Losantiville Country Club.

Another son, Jacques Ach, a daughter, Mrs. Julian Schwab, and his brother Samuel, all of Cincinnati, survive him. Services were held from the residence with burial in Dayton.

Mr. Alfred Katz, of Rockdale Avenue, left Sunday, July 28th, with a group of campers for Camp Schonthal, Magnetic Springs, Ohio, where he will be counselor for the month of August. Upon his return Mr.

Katz, who graduated this year from the University of Cincinnati Law School, will be associated in the practice of law in the office of Mr. Gilbert Bettman, Union Central Buidling.

Rabbi and Mrs. Louis I. Egelson are leaving Thursday, Aug. 1st, for Minocqua, Wis., where they will visit their son, Louis Jr., who is at Camp Kawaga, directed by Dr. B.C. Ehrenreich. Other Cincinnati boys summering at Kawaga are Howard Altman, Jimmie Salinger, Herbert Heilbrun and Robert Louis Altman.

— August 1, 1935

50 Years Ago A.B. Angel, 128 Tenth Avenue, Huntington, W. Va., son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Henry Angel, passed away suddenly in Dayton, Ohio.

Wednesday, July 20. He was 52.

He is survived by his wife, Mrs. Elaine Oscherwitz; four children, David, Kathy, Macky, and Susan; four sisters, Mrs. Louis Sapadin and Mrs. I.A. Berman of Cincinnati, Mrs. Albert Finkelstein, Miami Beach and Mrs. Roger Wolf of Albert Lea, Minn., and three brothers, Harry R. Angel of

Huntington, M.L. Angel and Philip, Charleston.

Funeral services were held in Huntington, Friday, July 22, Rabbi Frank Sundheim, Ohav Sholom Temple, Huntington, and Rabbi Samuel Cooper, Charleston, officiating.

Mrs. Martha Ransohoff has returned from Knoxville, where she attended a two-week graduate seminar in child development at the University of Tennessee.

Mrs. Ransohoff was for many

years a member of the University of Cininnati faculty in child development. She is a member of the Executive Committee of the PreSchool Education Committee and of the boards of Lincoln Court Nursery School, and has conducted discussion groups among PTAs and numerous recreational groups.

Mr. And Mrs. Richard Hertzberg (Mona Gettler) and daughters, Chris and Martha have moved to 5739 N. 18th Place, Pheonix, Ariz.—July 28, 1960

25 Years Ago Sue H. Richard has been elected new president of the Cincinnati Health Department Volunteers (CHDV). The CHDV was established as an auxiliary to the Health Department by the late Esther Ransohoff Kuhn 23 years ago. City wide immunizations, assistance in Health Department clinics, and hearing/vision testing for all local third-grade schoolchildren are among the programs adopted by the organization.

Past presidents of the CHDV include the founder, the late Esther

Ransohoff Kuhn, former mayor Bobbie Sterne, and former chairmen of the Board of Health, Peggy Pauly and Mary Ellen Slauson. Helen Fabe, another past president, was also a member of the Board of Health.

Dennis Mann has been promoted to full professorship in architectural design at UC. His brother, Jack, was promoted to associate professor in art and sculpture at Wittenberg University, Springfield, Ohio.

Dennis and Jack are the sons of Mr. and Mrs. Jack Mann.

Twenty-two Catholic and Protestant theologians and writers from the Federal Republic of Germany and Switzerland have contributed articles to a volume published by the Catholic Herder Publishing House of Freiberg, West Germany, in honor of Dr. Jakob J. Petuchowski. Dr. Petuchowski is the Sol and Arlene Bronstein Professor of Judaeo-Christian Studies and Research Professor of Jewish Theology and Liturgy at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. —August 1, 1985

10 Years Ago The dangerous impact of Holocaust deniers is that some of their ideas and arguments are trickling down and threatening to become some part of the accepted mainstream, despite the recent verdict in the Irving/Lipstadt trial that marginalized author David Irving and in general, other Holocaust deniers.

“The danger we are facing today following the trial does not relate to Irving and the hardcore extremists who actually deny the Holocaust itself,” said Dr. Jonathan Cohen. “We

know western European countries won’t countenance Holocaust denial per se, but there are things we start to hear at the grassroots level, arguments and debates that are taking place that give expression to all these [deniers’] arguments,” he said.

On June 30, 2000, over 350 people joined in celebration at Wise Temple as they saluted the many achievements of Rabbi A. Goldman, Rabbi Emeritus of Wise Temple, and commemorated his 85th birthday.

The congregational leadership wanted to find a time for the congregation, as well as the Goldmans’ numerous friends, to join with their family in paying tribute to Rabbi Albert and Sylvia Goldman. They chose to designate a special Shabbat service, tributes came from Rabbi Lewis Kamrass, Wise Temple’s senior Rabbi, from Rabbi Leonard Troupp, of Temple Beth David of Commack, N.Y., and Bob Goldman, Rabbi Albert and Sylvia Goldman’s son — July 27, 2000

CLASSIFIEDS

THURSDAY, JULY 29, 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 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 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 Jewish War Veterans (513) 459-0111 • jwv.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

NATIONAL BRIEFS from page 5 “Change in the law on conversions in Israel must be carried out through broad agreement to prevent a split within the Jewish nation,” Netanyahu said, according to Haaretz. “Unity is in the foremost interest of the State of Israel and the Jewish nation, and I intend to defend that principle with determination.”

The Jewish Federations of America welcomed the delay.

“We truly support this process of a dialogue table, which allows the participants time to discuss this important issue appropriately and reach a solution that protects the bonds between Israel and the Diaspora,” the group’s CEO, Jerry Silverman, said in a July 22 statement. “We are also thrilled that Natan Sharansky will be leading the process.”

Interior Minister Eli Yishai, chairman of the haredi Orthodox Shas Party, which is a member of Netanyahu’s coalition, said last Friday that the freeze on the conversion bill had been coordinated between coalition member parties Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu, but not with Shas.

“Our plan to present the conversion law to the Knesset at the start of the winter session, in late October, remains unchanged,” Yishai said.

Ex-CIA chief: Path to Iran strike ‘seems inexorable’ WASHINGTON (JTA) — A former American spy chief says the path to U.S. military action against Iran is inescapable.

Michael Hayden, who headed the CIA under President George W. Bush, told CNN on Sunday that a strike “seems inexorable” because Iran has not been deterred from developing a nuclear weapon.

“In my personal thinking, I have begun to consider that that may not be the worst of all possible outcomes,” Hayden said.

He said an Iran on the verge of a nuclear capability would be as destabilizing to the Middle East as an Iran with a nuclear weapon.

Hayden said that under Bush, a strike was not seriously considered as an option.

Barak heading back to Washington WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak is returning to Washington to coordinate ways to isolate Iran.

Barak, who will meet with officials at the Pentagon, is scheduled to arrive Monday. His stateside visits now average once a month.

Israel and the United States are closely coordinating on how to isolate Iran until it makes its nuclear program more transparent.

Barak will continue to New York on Thursday and a meeting with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

19

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FASHION

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

Stylishly Versatile Fashionably Late

by Stephanie Davis-Novak Fashion Editor Mid-season shopping can be tricky business sometimes. You desperately want some new clothes, but they need to adapt to the changing weather and keep up with changing styles. Luckily, there are some summer trends that are staying consistent.

HEIMAN from page 1 & Sciences dean, Valerie Gray Hardcastle, Ph.D. “The new learning opportunities made possible by this gift, combined with the abundance of resources already available through the University of Cincinnati’s vast network, will allow us to provide the highest level academic experience for students interested in Judaic Studies.”

According to Department Head for Judaic Studies, Gila Safran Naveh, Ph.D., this gift will help the department proceed immediately with a variety of enhancements to build upon the program’s comprehensive learning experience, including: • Distinguished visiting scholars from countries like Israel • Increased study abroad and experiential learning opportunities • New major tracks and graduate certificate in Judaic Studies • Endowed departmental chairs, including Jewish Law, Jewish Christian Relations, Israel and the Jewish People and Jews in American Popular Culture • Educational conferences, symposiums and exhibits • Opportunities for international faculty research and fellowships ISRAEL BRIEFS from page 10 Netanya man allegedly murders his children JERUSALEM (JTA) — A Netanya man was arrested for murdering his three young children.

Itai Ben Dror was found Saturday morning in his apartment with the children; he reportedly attempted to commit suicide after allegedly committing the murders.

The children — ages 10, 8 and 5 — were stabbed in their sleep.

Ramle District Court justices ordered Ben Dror to be held for 10

A major trend this summer is the beige color palette. Khaki has been everywhere from casual shorts to dress suits. This trend will continue to be big this fall, with various shades of beige and camel. This is good news for those of us watching our budgets, because this look is extremely versatile. Pale neutrals flatter a wide variety of skin tones, and can be paired with just about any other color. Beige trousers are a wardrobe essential, such as Armani’s pleated lightweight pair, or Gucci’s tailored trousers with leather trim. Since this neutral shade is so versatile, it is easy to transition your look from day to evening, with some vibrant jewelry and bold sandals.

As you think about how to move your wardrobe from sum-

mer into fall, layering pieces are essential. Cardigans are always a go-to piece. They’re the answer to frigid office air-conditioning and cooler summer evenings, and you can throw them over a dress or a top to extend a piece’s wearability for another season. The updated cardigan is slightly longer, reaching just past the hip, and is made of lightweight fabrics such as silk or cashmere. Wear a cardigan long and loose with skinny jeans and flats for a casual look, and then put it to work at the office by belting it over a ruffled tank and a skirt. Burberry and Escada offer modern takes on the classic cardigan that can be worn now and through the fall.

This summer’s graphic prints trend will also be continuing into the fall. Think bold: bright colors

and big, abstract patterns. Tory Burch and Oscar de la Renta are two designers with modern graphic-print dresses in classic silhouettes. As the weather turns crisp, move these pieces into fall by pairing them with opaque tights and a blazer.

Men can also stretch their wardrobe from summer to autumn while staying on trend. The fitted, tailored look of the summer continues to be the preferred silhouette as we move into the fall, with a slim waist and trousers. Doublebreasted blazers, which became popular again last fall, will continue to be fashionable, especially in lighter-weight fabrics. Don’t think that these jackets can only be worn as part of complete suits – get more bang for your buck by pairing them with other trousers,

even jeans. Lanvin and Zegna both have some great doublebreasted jackets. If you’re in the market to buy a new suit, consider purchasing a three-piece suit, as vests are going to be popular moving into the fall.

Menswear is also taking a que from women’s fashion when it comes to layering. Not only is it just plain practical for in-between season shopping, it is stylish. The trick to mastering the art of layering is to consider color and texture. The bright colors that have been everywhere this summer are still going to be popular through the early fall, and can be worn with a darker fall jacket. As you layer, think about mixing different fabrics and prints to achieve a textured feel that will keep your look from being dull.

• Opportunities for student exchange and travel “In the world of higher education, and especially through the eyes of Judaic Studies, learning has a transformative power,” Safran Naveh said. “By equipping our students with the knowledge they need to better understand their own culture and embrace other cultures, we are investing in a brighter future for people across the globe. After all, the more we know about ‘the others,’ the strangers, with respect to cultural values and ideals, the less they become ‘the fearful others’ and the more we will be able to all work together toward a common goal.

“This unique approach to education can have a positive effect on the current state of affairs worldwide. The turmoil overseas continues to be a crisis rooted in the misunderstanding of other cultures. We are fortunate to have the support of the Kim and Gary Heiman Family Foundation and the entire Jewish community as we continue enhancing our curriculum with opportunities for students to explore Jewish history right here in Cincinnati and at its origin in Israel.”

The Heimans’ personal ties to the Jewish and Greater Cincinnati

community are numerous. Ms. Heiman is an executive committee member of Rockwern Academy and Yad Vashem, and has served as president of the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati and campaign chair for Israel Bonds of Cincinnati. Ms. Heiman’s past community involvement has also included work with BRIDGES for a Just Community, Hebrew Union College, The American Jewish Committee and the Junior Achievement Globe Program. In 2001, the Cincinnati Enquirer named Ms. Heiman a Woman of the Year.

As a holder of dual citizenship, Mr. Heiman lived in Israel for 17 years, serving in the Israeli special forces during and after the “Yom Kippur War.” While living in Europe early in his business career, Mr. Heiman developed the skills necessary to conduct successful business in the international community. Currently, he serves as president of the Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati, one of the most esteemed and successful Jewish Foundations in the U.S., and has been a member of UC’s Board of Trustees since 2004.

Mr. Heiman’s international background and collaborative approach has guided his philosophy

in business, which in many ways echoes the mission of UC’s Department of Judaic Studies.

Under his able leadership as president and CEO of Standard Textile Co., Inc. Mr. Heiman has grown the company from one Cincinnatibased manufacturing facility to today’s 23 production facilities in 13 countries, serving customers in more than 55 countries.

“My professional success has been driven by my first-hand knowledge of diverse cultures, my ability to speak several foreign languages, my striving to unite people of diverse historical, cultural and religious backgrounds to work toward our common goals, and my ability to forge meaningful and cordial relationships with leaders all over the world,” Mr. Heiman said.

“Our strong support of UC’s Judaic Studies Department is formal recognition of a shared goal to educate all students about the power of international partnership and exchange.”

In recent years, the Department of Judaic Studies has adopted a strong interdisciplinary approach, enhancing its curriculum with an “experiential learning” component and complementary course work pertaining to other related disci-

plines. A new educational track within the major makes available a graduate certificate in Judaic Studies and a certificate in Religious Studies. Since 2008, Judaic Studies has become a Taft Department and recruited 12 new UC faculty affiliates, resulting in a diversified pool of students and tripled enrollment from 800 to 2,400 students.

The department has also capitalized on its proximity to two prominent sources of Judaic enrichment in the Cincinnati community, including both the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) and the worldfamous American Jewish Archives.

Collaboration through experiential learning and joint courses has created unmatched learning opportunities for UC students. More recently, Judaic Studies has also initiated partnerships with local Jewish high schools to help students earn college credit for their work.

The Kim and Gary Heiman Family Foundation gift to the Department of Judaic Studies supports the $1 billion Proudly Cincinnati campaign—which currently stands at more than $680 million—UC’s most ambitious fundraising campaign in history.

days and undergo a psychiatric evaluation. Ben Dror, who is divorced from the children’s mother and had them at his apartment as part of the custody agreement, said in court Sunday that he killed the children “to give them peace and quiet from their mother.”

“Now they are in heaven waiting for me there,” he also said.

Welfare authorities recently had granted Ben Dror unsupervised visits with the children on the recommendation of a psychiatrist, according to reports.

Ben Dror reportedly told

police that the murders, which occurred on his ex-wife’s birthday, were premeditated.

His ex-wife, Lilach, said Sunday that Ben Dror was not mentally ill, as some news outlets had begun to speculate. In a radio interview she called him “manipulative.”

The 14 officers will assist the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, which is working to uphold order and stabilize the area following January’s earthquake. The quake killed more than 100,000, left hundreds of thousands injured and damaged the homes of some 3 million people.

The group, which works on a voluntary basis, will operate as part of a combined force of Israel, Italy and Serbia.

In recent months Israel’s Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Public Security and the Israel

Police have been in contact with the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the Italian government and police force to advance the mission.

Immediately following the earthquake, Israel sent a field hospital and an evacuation and rescue team to the island.

“This is a Jewish and humanistic action, and it follows up on the rapidly organized activity that preceded it after the Haitian earthquake,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday following the Cabinet’s decision.

Israeli police heading to Haiti (JTA) — Israel’s Cabinet agreed to send a group of police officers to Haiti to maintain public order.

NEWS

THURSDAY, JULY 29, 2010

P&A from page 1 the program participants, to delivering Meals on Wheels with other community volunteers and riding the bus that provides daily transportation to and from the J, Senior Council members observed for themselves the “life-giving and life-changing impact” these programs provide.

Janet Cohen, a Senior Adult Council volunteer, learned that the JCC’s Meals on Wheels Program served over 63,000 meals in 2009 to 261 of the community’s homebound elderly. “I could see that the people who receive these meals are so appreciative and so happy when the Meals on Wheels volunteer delivers food to their homes,” said Cohen who accompanied a JTA from page 1 in the U.N. conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa.

The series caused an uproar on Capitol Hill and led to sweeping reforms at Ford and elsewhere in the foundation world.

“We are grateful for Mark’s vision and his many years of loyal service,” said Elisa Spungen Bildner, president of JTA’s Board of Directors. “At the same time, we are extraordinarily confident that Ami and his team will reinforce the jta website as the go-to spot on the Web for Jewish readers, organizations and communities as well as maintain the organization’s essential role as news supplier to Jewish newspapers.”

An award-winning journalist, Eden has served as the editor of JTA for two years, during which SCHORR from page 1 Watergate scandal earned him three Emmys and a spot on President Richard Nixon’s enemies list. His revelations several years later of CIA malfeasance won him threats of prosecution and ended his 23-year career with CBS. Schorr never forgot his roots in print and parochial journalism, however, recalling his stint with the Jewish Daily Bulletin, JTA’s daily newspaper, and then after the Bulletin with JTA in his 2001 autobiography, “Staying Tuned, a Life in Journalism.”

His job at JTA was “cable rewrite”: He would convert the reports condensed from “cables,” written to save money when cable operators charged by the word, to everyday English.

“At JTA we received chilling cable reports of anti-Semitic depredations in Europe from refugees, Jewish organizations and neutral travelers,” he wrote. “These reports occasioned screaming headlines in the Yiddish press, but were largely ignored by the general newspapers.

Editors were being counseled by the

Meals on Wheels volunteer during daily deliveries. “I saw first-hand all the wonderful things that Meals on Wheels does to provide this crucial service to those individuals in need.”

“Our Cincinnati Jewish Community has much to be proud of when it comes to providing for our seniors,” remarked Shelly Gerson and Linda Greenberg, who each attended several classes offered to seniors at the Mayerson JCC. “Being a part of the Senior Adult program classes for a day proved to me that as a community we really respect the fifth commandment and honor not only our own parents, but all of our parents.”

In addition to providing key insights into an agency’s program or service as part of the planning

Meals on Wheels in action.

time he oversaw a major expansion of the agency’s Web strategy, including the launch of influential politics and philanthropy blogs, and the multimedia Wandering Jew project. Prior to arriving at JTA, he served as the executive editor of the Forward and the founding editor of the JewishDailyForward website.

“I am humbled and honored at the opportunity to lead a media organization that has been on the front lines of one of the most monumental centuries in Jewish history,” Eden said. “We will carry this tradition of journalistic excellence through this new century, serving as the primary national and international news source for Jewish newspapers across the United States and around the world,” Eden added. “At the same time, we will work aggressively to ensure

that JTA emerges from this period of industry-wide transition and transformation as a leader in digital media.”

Eden stressed the importance of having a strong team to work with, both in the past and future.

“JTA would not be where it is today without Mark Joffe and the agency’s other past leaders,” Eden said. “And the future is bright, thanks to our excellent management team.” Eden is joined on the management team by Director of Finance and Administration Lenore Silverstein, Director of Development Nancy Clayman, Director of Marketing and Communications David Billotti and Managing Editor Uriel Heilman.

Moving forward, the management team will be taking aggressive steps to:

State Department to be wary of Jewish propaganda.

“Years later, declassified records would show how far the American and British governments went to keep Americans in ignorance of the extermination of the Jews in Europe.

For fear of distracting the Allies from pursuit of the war, it was said.”

The horrors didn’t diminish the newsroom’s earthy atmosphere, however. Decades later, Schorr could still recall editor Victor Bienstock’s cable to an exceptionally prolific correspondent: PROCRISSAKE OFFLAY — Lay off, for Christ’s sake.

Schorr’s account of his seven years at JTA — starting as a high school student stringing for the Jewish Daily Bulletin — demonstrates how little has changed in how Jewish reporters cobble together news Jews can use.

Among other assignments, he wrote, he “provided a weekly packet of mimeographed news and editorial material for several dozen AngloJewish weekly newspapers around the country. Their demand was as great as their financial resources were small. So, I churned out copy

Paula Darte for NPR

Daniel Schorr in 1987.

using several pseudonyms, as well as my own name.

“The rule was to emphasize the ‘Jewish’ angle. In my music column I favored conductor Bruno Walter over Leopold Stokowski, pianist Arthur Rubinstein over Claudio Arrau. (For free concert tickets and phonograph records I had relented on

21

and allocations process, site visits can often result in immediate improvements to a program’s efficiency. For example, while riding along on Meal on Wheels deliveries, Janet Cohen and Shelly Gerson observed that a GPS system could provide the driver with more direct routes from house to house and result in faster delivery times. The women alerted program staff to the need for a GPS system—resulting in the donation of two units within one day.

Senior Council volunteers also include Andy Shott, Betty Goldberg, Carol Kabel, Edie Rau, Fran Behrman, Fred Heldman, Fred Wittenbaum, Leah Smith, Lothar Haas, Mark Mayer, Rachel Pearl, Scott Joseph, and co-chairs Jan Cobb and Kathie Kaplan.

• Enhance JTA’s status as the vital source of news for Jewish newspapers, federations and other organizations.

• Expand the scope of editorial content to serve a wider audience, including younger readers and those unaffiliated with Jewish communal life.

• Develop and expand new revenue streams.

• Push for increased cooperation and new partnerships among Jewish media outlets.

As part of the leadership transition, Eden said, all members of the management team will be playing a greater role in formulating and executing the agency’s business plan, and Heilman will also be playing a stepped up role in running editorial operations. In addition, Eden cited the contributions of JTA’s editorial team, including

Washington Bureau Chief Ron Kampeas, Philanthropy Correspondent Jacob Berkman, Copy Editor Marc Brodsky and the agency’s global network of correspondents. He is also excited that longtime JTA reporter Sue Fishkoff is returning to the staff as a full-time writer after taking time off to write a book.

Joffe said he expects JTA’s record of distinguished journalism to continue long beyond his tenure. “JTA is blessed with an exceptionally talented and dedicated team, now led by Ami Eden, our editor in chief,” he said. “With the support of our incredible board, our loyal clients and our generous funders, they will take the organization to new heights, finding creative new ways to fulfill our mission of educating and informing the Jewish people.”

my contempt for music criticism.)

Each week I summarized ‘The War and the Jews.’Each year I did an article asking, ‘Was Columbus a Jew?’ (No, but his navigator may have been Jewish.)”

It wasn’t all free concerts: Schorr volunteered for Bund duty, covering the pro-Nazi societies that flourished in that period among German Americans.

John Kayston, a JTA staffer at that time, recalled Schorr’s resourcefulness in a 1997 interview marking JTA’s 80th anniversary. Kayston joined Schorr as an interpreter at one of the Bund events.

“The storm troopers at the door asked for our press ID, and refused us entry when they saw we were from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency,” Kayston recalled. “We went to another entrance, and when showing our ID, we covered the word ‘Jewish’ with our thumb.”

They got in.

By 1941, two years out of college, Schorr had had enough, and found his complaints at the wrong end of Jacob Landau, JTA’s founder.

“After seven years of this I began to bridle about this contorted

view of a world in crisis,” he wrote in his autobiography. “I made my discomfort evident enough so that Landau finally suggested it might be time for me to move on. Fired, you might call it. For the first time, but not the last.”

Schorr’s clashes with management, at CBS and later CNN, would become the stuff of his cranky legend. He never quite won the job he longed for throughout his youth, a correspondency with The New York Times. As a freelancer in 1953 for the Times, he filed thorough coverage of an outbreak of floods in the Netherlands, earning front-page play each day and the respect of the paper's managers.

Yet when Edward Murrow, the legendary CBS correspondent, offered Schorr a job, he cabled the Times to ask his editors what they thought. They told him to accept the offer.

Two years later, Schorr recounted at the luncheon marking JTA’s 80th anniversary that he discovered why during a dinner with two Times editors. War was looming in the SCHORR on page 22

22

OBITUARIES

DEATH NOTICES COHEN, Frances Orey, age 60 died on July 19, 2010; 8 Av 5770.

OBITUARIES HACHEN, Rabbi David S. Rabbi David S. Hachen passed away on May 29, 2010, at age 82. A Cincinnati native, Rabbi Hachen served as LTJG Navy chaplain, 8th Fleet, in Norfolk, Va. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Cincinnati, ordination from Hebrew Union College (HUC), and master’s and doctorate degrees from Columbia University.

In 1969, he began 30 years with the Union for Reform Judaism’s new Northeast Lakes Council. Prior to this position he served as a pulpit rabbi for Temple Shalom in Norwalk, Conn., and Suburban Temple in Wantagh, N.Y. He was active in early interfaith efforts.

Rabbi Hachen was the first chair of the Central Conference of American Rabbis’ Task Force on Women in the Rabbinate.

According to his family, his daughter, Debra, became what was the denomination’s first woman to follow her father into the rabbinate.

Rabbi Hachen is survived by his wife of 61 years, Pearl B.; sons David S. Jr. (Gayle) of South Bend, Ind., and Daniel E. of Kibbutz Yahel, Israel; daughter Rabbi Debra (Peter Weinrobe) Hachen of Demarest, N.J.; nine grandchildren, Seth and Aaron Hachen, Philip, Carolyn and Melissa Weinrobe, Binyamin, Ma’ayan, Naomi and Yonaton Hachen; and sister Katharine Kohn of Cincinnati.

He was preceded in death by his brother, Harry Hachen Jr. SCHORR from page 21 Middle East (it would break out in 1956), and “we need to have flexibility,” they told him.

Translation?

“My dream of becoming a New York Times correspondent was dashed because I was a Jew,” Schorr said.

The scoops that made Schorr a household name had little to do with his being Jewish.

He opened up the CBS Moscow bureau and scored the first televised interview with the new Soviet leader, Nikita Khruschev, in 1955. Schorr would be told not to come back to the Soviet Union from a vacation in 1957 for repeatedly defying the Soviet censor.

ARON, Dr. Bernard S.

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

Dr. Bernard S. Aron, age 78, passed away on July 16, 2010 – the fifth day of Av, 5770, after a long illness. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y. in July 1932, he was the son of the late Emanuel (Manny) and Ruth (Mammar) Aron. He graduated from Midwood High in Brooklyn, received his bachelor’s degree from New York University College of Arts and Science and medical degree from New York University College of Medicine.

After completing his internship and residency in New York, he went on for a fellowship at Christie Hospital and Holt Radium Institute in Manchester, England.

Dr. Aron was married to Janice Aron on June 30, 1955.

Together they had two children, Melanie and Marc. They enjoyed traveling together, as well as with family members, and they celebrated their 75th birthdays and a 50th wedding anniversary together with loved ones. Janice was a loving and devoted caregiver during the more recent, difficult years of her husband’s progressive illness.

His hobbies included music, especially 20th century, and chess, and he was active in the American Cancer Society, as well as prostate cancer testing at the Black Family Reunions.

In 1969, Dr. and Mrs. Aron arrived in Cincinnati and he established himself as a radiologist within the community for the next 40 years. He was Professor Emeritus of the Division of Radiation Oncology at The Barrett Center for Cancer Prevention,Treatment and Research at University of Cincinnati Hospital. He was published many times throughout the years and received numerous awards.

Dr. William Barrett, Chairman, UC Department of Radiation Oncology commented, “Dr. Aron was very dear to many of us. As Director of the Division

of Radiation Oncology (19781997), and founding program director of our residency program, (serving in that capacity for 20 years, from 1970-1990), Dr. Aron was an extraordinary leader.

Without fanfare and with great kindness, he embodied the values of the Department of Radiation Oncology: patient care, compassion at all times, unselfish teamwork, respectful attitude towards all, dedication to teaching, and excellence in research. Dr. Aron’s own practice of medicine embraced a patient population that is very diverse by age and socio-economic background. His teaching has inspired and influenced many of our current attending physicians and alumni nationwide. His compassionate care touched thousands of patients over the years.”

David Stern, Vice President for Health Affairs, Christian R. Holmes Professor and Dean, College of Medicine commented, “During his tenure at UC, Dr. Aron made significant contributions to patient care by establishing UC’s Division of Radiation Oncology (now a department) where he served as division director for 28 years. Through the residency program, he taught nearly 80 percent of the region’s radiologists. In clinical research, he led studies of drugs like tamoxifen for treating invasive breast cancer. He also established a $1.5 million radiation oncology clinical research program to fund new faculty research. A 10-year member of UC’s Institutional Review Board, Dr. Aron was a respected leader in his field. He published more than 80 manuscripts in peer-evaluated journals and presented at many local, national and international meetings.”

In addition to his medical work, Dr. Aron was active in numerous activities and causes, ranging from Congregation B’nai Tzedek to assistance of a family from the Congo in Africa.

According to Claver Lumana Pashi, Ph.D., “Thanks to Dr. Aron, I was able to leave the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire) and to receive a scholarship to attend the University of Cincinnati where I graduated with a Ph.D. in Political Science. Once in Cincinnati, Dr. Aron was able to adopt me as one of his own children. I lived in his home for over six months to get accustomed to life in America. He helped bring my family (a spouse and three children) to the United States. He was always willing and ready to help my family by providing material and financial assistance. Dr. Aron was one of the best friends my children had.

They looked at him as their own grandfather. My family has been blessed to be part of the life of such a great physician, professor, researcher and humanitarian; and most of all a great human being.”

Dr. Aron was a past president of Congregation B’nai Tzedek and board member throughout the period from 1969-2008.

“Dr. ‘Bernie’ Aron’s loss is deeply felt by those in Congregation B’nai Tzedek where he was such a vital part. As a member for over 40 years, he undertook various roles – as president three different times, as the Congregation’s Israel Bonds champion, as the co-chair and major donor to the synagogue’s building campaign that gave rise to our Kugler Mill home. Less notable but no less important were Bernie’s efforts to recruit members to B’nai Tzedek from the pool of incoming interns and residents at UC where he was a Professor of Medicine, and to act as the Congregation’s caregiver to many of our members, whether his patients or not, by visiting them during hospital stays or in simply answering their inquiries on medical or health issues. For all of the above, a joint UC Barrett Cancer Center/B’nai Tzedek testimonial dinner honoring ‘Bernie’ in 2008

acknowledged his contributions both to the field of medicine and to his synagogue. In sum, his life was truly a blessing:” Alex Cohen, B’nai Tzedek founding member and past president but also Bernie’s neighbor, friend and fellow “Brooklynite.”

Surviving relatives include his wife, Janice Aron; his daughter Rabbi Melanie (Michael Dine) Aron, and son, Marc (Elizabeth Haberman) Aron; his grandchildren, Aviva (Matt Fiedler) AronDine, Jeremy Aron-Dine, Shifrah Aron-Dine, Avra Aron, Elissa Aron and Jordan Aron; his sister, Georgine Brave; and nieces and nephews, Bradley Brave, Larry Brave and Elizabeth Brave.

“Our summer Torah portions, from the book of Deuteronomy, are the reflections of an old man, looking back at the most productive years of his life. Moses remembers the good and the bad, high points and struggles, hoping to provide a foundation for the people’s continued vitality after his death. My father had many productive years as well, and like Moses some peak moments and some real challenges, and I hope that he too understood that he had provided a very sound foundation for his work, for his community, and for his family to continue to build for the future:” from Rabbi Melanie Aron, in her eulogy to her father.

Funeral services were held at Beth Israel cemetery in Woodbridge, N.J. on July 19, 2010.

The family would appreciate memorial contributions to: Cure PSP (Progressive Supranuclear Palsy-a Parkinson’s related disorder), Executive Plaza III, 11350 McCormick Road, Suite 906, Hunt Valley, Md. 21031, gift online at: “https://give.psp.org/”; Barrett Cancer Center, c/o Dr William Barrett, (Mail Location ML0757), 234 Goodman Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45267-0757; or to Congregation B’Nai Tzedek, 6280 Kugler Mill Road, Cincinnati, Ohio 45236.

Schorr was the first to obtain Nixon’s enemies list, released during the Watergate hearings in 1973, of 20 people the president hoped to “screw” through tax audits. He immediately read the list on air, gasping when he reached No. 17: himself. He was listed as a “real media enemy.”

“I think I tried not to gulp,” he told PBS years later. “I tried not to gasp.”

After filing, Schorr said, “I wanted to collapse.” He later said it was one of his proudest moments.

More vexing for him was the reaction by CBS in 1976 when he obtained a congressional report showing that the CIA had engaged in massive domestic spying; the report eventually would lead to major reforms. CBS would

not allow him to report the scoop, so he handed it to the Village Voice. The FBI launched a probe of Schorr, and he risked a contempt charge for refusing to reveal his source. (He never did.)

CBS eventually cut him off.

Schorr landed at CNN at its inception in 1979, until he fell out with founder Ted Turner in 1985 over Schorr’s refusal to accommodate former politicians as commentators equal to journalists.

Since then he worked for NPR, providing commentaries.

Schorr as a boy was a proud, Hebrew-speaking Zionist. He wrote of the irritation he felt at the Yiddish spoken in his home, saying he favored the language of the Jewish homeland. He told JTA’s 80th anniversary luncheon that

JTA played a critical role in bringing news of the atrocities of the Holocaust.

But he was also a detached reporter and earned the wrath of CAMERA, the pro-Israel media watchdog, as recently as June.

Speaking of President Obama’s posture after Israel’s deadly raid on an aid flotilla aimed at breaching Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip, Schorr said on NPR: “He expresses a great regret over lives lost. He hopes for the best and so on. He is stuck there in the middle, in a position where he clearly does not like this blockade. On the other hand, he doesn’t like taking a position against Israel.”

CAMERA argued that Obama has taken positions against Israel.

In a career of history-changing

scoops, however, perhaps the one most revealing about Schorr was one he let go: Speaking at a New Israel Fund dinner in Los Angeles in the late 1990s, he recalled coming across a group of Jews fleeing the Soviet Union during the Cold War in the 1950s. He wanted to report the scoop; the fleeing Jews begged him to refrain.

Schorr consulted his conscience as a Jew and a journalist, and made the decision: He didn’t file.

Schorr is survived by his wife of 43 years, Lisbeth; a son, Jonathan, a daughter, Lisa; and one grandchild.

(JTA correspondent Tom Tugend in Los Angeles contributed to this report.)