AI2010_08_26

JCGC announces Adoption Connection JFS moves to JCC memorial services helps Jewish families

By Elijah Plymesser Assistant Editor

Jewish Cemeteries of Greater Cincinnati announced that memorial services will be held on Sunday, Sept. 5, 2010 and Sunday, Sept. 12, 2010 at several of its cemeteries.

Several memorial services are scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 5. Ohav Shalom’s service at Love Brothers cemetery in Price Hill will be held at 11 a.m. Northern Hills will hold its service in Covedale at 1 p.m. Adath Israel will hold services in Price Hill at 12:30 p.m. and in Montgomery at 1:30 p.m.

A memorial service for the Reform community will be held at 1:30 p.m. on Sept. 12 at the Montgomery cemetery.

The service will be led by Rabbi Miriam Terlinchamp, the new rabbi at Temple Sholom.

JCGC is comprised of 22 Jewish cemeteries, almost all of the Jewish cemeteries in Cincinnati and Hamilton, Ohio.

JCGC represents the culmination of over 10 years of community efforts to address the financial, succession, upkeep and other challenges facing many Jewish communities.

Cincinnati is a leader nationally in creating this organizational model to take care of its cemeteries in perpetuity.

For Abby Schwartz—a volunteer on the Jewish Federation’s Planning & Allocations committee’s Youth and

The most recent big move in the Cincinnati Jewish community is the relocation of Jewish Family Service from their northern Blue Ash building to the second floor of the Mayerson JCC. A result of synergy efforts as well as efficiency increases, JFS hopes to expand its creative partnership by being housed in a much closer proximity to its other sister agencies. JCC executive director Jeff Baden stated that “the JFS relocation to the campus already shared by the Mayerson JCC and the Jewish Federation provides a full spectrum of care for our community, all in one great place.”

Yet despite the obvious opportunity for collaboration between the agencies, synergy was not the only factor that precipitated the co-location. In the wake of the financial downturn, the Jewish Federation spearheaded a community efficiencies group with the interest of managing the Jewish community’s space and resources in the most economic way possible, with special attention to sharing space. As JFS had one of the most expensive rents in the community, it made sense to work out a shared space arrangement. In addition to

ADOPTION on page 19

JFS on page 22

Jewish Federation Of Cincinnati

(L-R) Patti Towbin, Suzy Marcus-Goldberg, Beth Schwartz, JFS exec., Marcie Bachrach, Adoption Connection dir. Samantha Tebelman, and Abby Schwartz

Couple behind Ground Zero JCC leader advising couple mosque model of tolerance behind Islamic center

By Walter Ruby Jewish World Review NEW YORK (JTA) — Over the last few months, I have had a front-row seat to history.

Last May, I spoke at a public hearing of Manhattan’s Community Board No. 1 in support of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and Daisy Khan, the husband-and-wife team who initiated plans to build a 13-story Islamic community center two blocks north of Ground Zero.

I was there on behalf of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, which has worked with the group Rauf and Khan lead, the American Society for Muslim Advancement, in ongoing efforts to strengthen Muslim-Jewish relations in the United States and around the world.

In my testimony at the hearing, I said that since our organizations began cooperating

Walter Ruby

three years ago, I have consistently found both Feisal and Khan to be unequivocally opposed to violence and terrorism and deeply COUPLE on page 19

NEW YORK (JTA) — The head of the Manhattan JCC is advising the effort to build an Islamic cultural center two blocks from Ground Zero and is calling on Jewish and Christian institutions to accept the couple behind the project.

Rabbi Joy Levitt, executive director of the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan, discussed her institution’s connection to the project in an appearance Sunday on ABC’s This Week With Christiane Amanpour. Levitt appeared with Daisy Khan, the wife of Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf, who is the religious leader associated with the controversial project, which will include a mosque.

“The JCC has invited Daisy and the imam to come speak at the JCC in September, and I hope that we’ll be able to do that. They’ve certainly accepted our offer,

and I hope that JCCs and other community centers in the Christian and Jewish community and in the secular world will come to do that, because clearly what this whole controversy has unleashed is a tremendous amount of misinformation, lack of knowledge about Islam that we need to address.”

Levitt confirmed that the JCC has been advising Khan and Rauf. “Well, we got a call from Daisy when they began to think about this project, and said we want to build an MCC just like the JCC,” Levitt said.

Many Republican lawmakers and several Democratic ones, a slew of conservative pundits and some people who lost loved ones in the Sept. 11 attacks oppose the project, saying that opening a mosque so close to JCC on page 22

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Brenner to receive national award for outstanding community service Brenner to be honored at ceremonies in New Orleans during Lion of Judah Conference When friends and volunteers in Cincinnati’s Jewish community learned that Susan Brenner had been chosen as Cincinnati’s recipient of the national 2010 Women’s Philanthropy KipnisWilson/Friedland Award from the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), few seemed surprised. After all, Brenner became deeply involved in the Jewish community immediately upon moving to Cincinnati from North Carolina 15 years ago. Since that time, she has been a volunteer and leader on behalf of numerous organizations and has participated in hundreds of area projects throughout the Jewish community—and well beyond.

Brenner has co-chaired the Jewish Federation’s annual campaign, the Lion of Judah division (within Women’s Philanthropy), Partnership 2000 with Netanya, Israel; and for several years served on the Cincinnati Jewish Federation Board and Executive Board. “Susan is a perfect example of how to be the consummate volunteer,” said Jan

Susan Brenner, recipient of the Women’s Philanthropy KipnisWilson/Friedland Award from the Jewish Federations of North America

Armstrong Cobb, who has volunteered with Brenner and who served as immediate past chair of Women’s Philanthropy for the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati. “She is competent, committed, willing to shoulder big tasks, and able to support causes in all ways. She exemplifies everything this award represents.”

In addition to her many volunteer roles for the Jewish Federation, Brenner has also served on the Hillel Cincinnati board, and as a volunteer

with both Jewish Family Service and the American Jewish Committee.

She is a member of Wise Temple Sisterhood and currently volunteers to visit the elderly and Jewish Hospital patients on Fridays to wish them a “good Shabbat.”

Brenner’s vast spirit of volunteerism extends beyond the Jewish community. A resident of the community of Wyoming, she has chaired the Wyoming Youth Services largest fundraiser for the past nine years.

She is a volunteer for the Wyoming Art Show and has been active in the Parent Teacher Association. Brenner also prepares dinner once a month at a soup kitchen.

“Susan is always helping to build a culture of service, citizenship, and responsibility in everything she does—from her local community within a community (Wyoming), to the Wise Temple community, the Cincinnati Jewish community, and to Jews in Israel and beyond,” noted Fran Coleman, who currently serves as the chair of Women’s Philanthropy. “Following the example set by her parents, Susan is the ultimate in her commitment to helping others and her incredible dedication shows in everything she does.

She has been this way from the moment I met her when she moved to Cincinnati 15 years ago.”

Cincinnati Reform Jewish High School changes name For over a quarter century, the Cincinnati Reform Jewish High School (CRJHS) has undergone many changes and we are preparing to take new ones for the coming school year. As a collaboration of Rockdale Temple, Temple Sholom, Valley Temple, and Wise Temple, CRJHS is a Sunday evening Jewish educational program for high school students in grades 9–12 who come from nearly 35 different secular high schools in the region. We have been extremely successful and feel that a change right now is appropriate to fulfill our future potential.

The first change is the school’s name, which will be Kulanu—in Hebrew that means “all of us.”

This name represents our direction as a school community. Kulanu, which includes the rabbis, the high school staff, and the parent board, wants our students to succeed and become—and remain—connected to their Judaism.

The success of our program consists of three components. With each working together, the magic of our Sunday evening classes happens.

The first component is commit-

ment. Our students attend Kulanu despite their busy school and social schedules. Our parents want to offer their children the best possible Jewish educational experience. Our teachers are committed to the students. Our temples, rabbis and parent board know that a Jewish education continues throughout the high school years and, indeed, is lifelong.

The second component is a curriculum that reflects the varied interests and passions of our students and staff. We have courses in dance, theater, cooking, Torah, Israel, theology, philosophy and spirituality. On any given Sunday, you can find students meditating in the courtyard, discussing Torah, or creating Jewish music, and much more, all of which complements a Jewish life. Judaism is a vibrant spiritual journey. Our students live it each Sunday evening the school is in session.

The third component is an inclusive community. This is the desire to reach our students and support their connection to Judaism. From the moment students walk through our door, we are there to help and guide

them on their journey. Every member of our Kulanu family looks out for each other. We are Kulanu, a community of Jews who make each Sunday session an incredible place for learning and growth.

We strive to help each student find their own Jewish path. The lessons taught translate into experience. The classes are relevant.

The students can transfer the skills learned during classroom time into practical real-life appropriate responses and tools.

Our vision is that each student will graduate from Kulanu feeling their connection to Judaism with a sense of pride in being Jewish. It may be through art or Torah study, it may be from a talk with a teacher about being a mentsch—a good person—or rabbis who supported them, learned about their struggles, and really listened. Our vision is that Kulanu will continue as a sacred space where Judaism is lived and learned. Our hope is that our students leave after four years with life-lessons learned and a clear definition of what it means for them to be a Jew.

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Israel trip is great highlight to terrific summer at Camp Livingston Camp Livingston marked its 90th anniversary with its first camper delegation to Israel this summer, giving teens entering 11th grade the best of both worlds: the southern Indiana camp they love and the Israel adventure they rave about.

Eleven teens from Camp Livingston joined delegations from Camp Pinemere (Philadelphia) and Camp CHI (Chicago) to tour the Promised Land under the auspices of the JCC Association, which has led teen trips for over a decade. The group hit all of the usual tourist gems over four weeks: Jerusalem, the Kotel, Masada at sunrise, a kibbutz, the Dead Sea, the Red Sea, Eilat, Tel Aviv, camel rides, Yad Vashem and more. Particularly inspiring was the visit to Netanya, Cincinnati’s partner city, which was so well received that many of the teens returned there for their free weekend. The trip also featured stays at Camp Livingston for several days before and after visiting Israel. The trip was led by Jeff Kramer, a Camp Livingston staff member and perennial counselor, Danielle Alexander a Pinemere counselor, a JCCA Tour Guide and an IDF Medic. Camper Noah Yasgur applauded the blend, “The great thing about having both Livingston friends and kids from other cities was that we not only got to travel with friends that we’ve known for years, we also made new life long friends from all over the country.”

This summer was also an incredibly successful experience for the hundreds of campers to visit the beautiful 680-acre site under the continued leadership of director Ben Davis, assistant director Edana Appel, and a mix of returning and new-to-Livingston veteran staff. “It was a great summer, many of our new programs and our new canteen were a hit, and campers and their parents tell us they had a terrific time. I am very proud of my staff and I can’t wait for next year,” according to Davis. Livingston’s unique pluralistic approach to Judaism – unattached to any particular denomination – lets kids experience and explore Jewish living and their personal identity in a comfortable, positive and downright fun environment. “I had a great time this summer. I made tons of new friends; Livingston makes it fun to be Jewish. I’m definitely going back,” commented camper Sarah Kanter.

This year’s Adventures Unlimited (AU) program for kids entering 10th grade, now in its 26th year, enjoyed white water rafting and a zip line canopy tour in West Virginia, hiking, rock climbing and repelling at the Red River Gorge in

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The first Livingston camper delegation tours Jerusalem’s Old City.

Kentucky, and camping out under the stars at Sleeping Bear Dunes Park on Lake Michigan. AU helped kids realize they could build team spirit and conquer great chal-

lenges in a safe and supportive way.

Next year Livingston is offering two additional programs for older teens: For the first time, Ozrim

Israel Campers Bennett Kaplan and Danny Bayliss

Jordana Fish

(Helpers) will provide an alternative for those entering grades 10 and 11 who wish to focus on social action via projects at camp, in the surrounding community as well as a road trip to an exciting destination for some summer fun. Mixing community service and recreation, Ozrim will be available for fourand eight-week sessions.

Hadracha (“leadership”) is an eight-week program for those entering 12th grade and is a successor to the Machon counselor-intraining program. The program has been completely revised to better emphasize practical work experience, life skills and leadership development to help its participants become more successful as staff and as leaders in the community. Acceptance is limited based on application and interviews.

Of course, Livingston continues to offer a full range of engaging programs for kids entering 3rd through 11th grades and new activities launch every summer. All activities are age appropriate and designed to captivate your child’s interest, build skills and self-confidence, including swim lessons, camp outs, the lake aqua-park, ropes course, climbing wall, arts and crafts, kayaking/canoeing, soccer, horseback riding, music, sports, talent shows, drama and of course plenty of gaga.

After 90 years, Camp Livingston is still running strong – and flourishing. Literally thousands of alumni can attest to the great fun, lifelong friendships (including many spouses) and positive Jewish experience that it uniquely offers.

ELIJAH PLYMESSER NICOLE SIMON Assistant Editors ALEXIA KADISH Copy Editor JANET STEINBERG Travel Editor STEPHANIE DAVIS-NOVAK Fashion Editor MARILYN GALE Dining Editor MARIANNA BETTMAN NATE BLOOM RABBI A. JAMES RUDIN RABBI AVI SHAFRAN Contributing Writers LEV LOKSHIN JANE KARLSBERG Staff Photographers PATTY YOUKILIS JUSTIN COHEN Advertising Sales JOSEPH D. STANGE Production Manager CHRISTIE HALKO Office Manager

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Northern Hills, Ohav Shalom join selichot services Once again this year, Northern Hills Synagogue – Congregation B’nai Avraham and Congregation Ohav Shalom will combine to open the High Holiday season with a Selichot program and service, held this year at Ohav Shalom, on Saturday night, Sept.

4, beginning at 9 p.m. “The Selichot service introduces the main themes of the Days of Awe – repentance and forgiveness – together with familiar High Holiday prayers, such as the confession ‘Ashamnu’ and the 13 Attributes of God’s mercy, and some of the traditional music of

the season. The late night hour is connected with a tradition, going back to the Talmud, that God’s mercies are most readily available at that time,” said Rabbi Gershom Barnard of NHS. The Selichot service will be conducted by Dr. Albert Weisbrot, who will also serve as High Holiday cantor at Congregation Ohav Shalom.

At 9 p.m., the program will start with a showing of Woody Allen’s 1989 film “Crimes and Misdemeanors,” which raises questions of religious faith and the sources of morality. Shelley Kirk, president at Ohav Shalom will

join with Rabbi Barnard to lead the assembled group afterward in discussing the film (over refreshments). “This film was selected to help set the tone for our preparations for the High Holiday as we explore together how we might respond if faced with the same moral dilemmas as presented in this film,” said Kirk. The Selichot service itself will begin at approximately 11 p.m.

Questions about the program or about the High Holidays may be directed to Congregation Ohav Shalom or Northern Hills Synagogue.

Will talks be about appearance or substance?

By Ron Kampeas Jewish Telegraphic Agency WASHINGTON (JTA) — It’s a peace conference where nothing is off the table. Or on it, for that matter.

The Obama administration’s invitation to Palestinian and Israeli leaders to launch direct talks on Sept. 2 attempts to reconcile Israeli demands for no preconditions with Palestinian demands that the talks address all the core issues: final borders, the fate of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees.

The administration does this by calling on the sides to “resolve final-status issues” without saying when and how these should come up, if at all.

The vagueness of the invitation issued last Friday underscored the distance between the two sides, as well as the immediate political and regional pressures that have put a fire under U.S. efforts to restart the peace process. Whether or not the peace talks will be able to move from vague outlines to concrete resolutions remains to be seen. For now, merely having direct talks is an achievement, particularly for the United States and Israel.

For the United States, having the talks gives Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a reason to continue a partial settlement moratorium, thereby sustaining Arab support for U.S. policies.

This support is seen as important as Washington attempts to juggle emerging crises in the region, including Iraq’s vexed attempts to set up a government and Iran’s accelerating nuclear ambitions.

President Obama also wants a process underway before November, when his Democratic Party is likely to face a tough battle

at the ballot boxes during midterm congressional elections.

For Netanyahu, the talks are a way to demonstrate his government is interested in pursuing peace with the Palestinians.

Among the Palestinian leadership, however, there are deep concerns that Washington and Jerusalem are more interested in the appearance of talks rather than getting down to the nitty-gritty of the final-status issues. Israel has resisted Palestinian demands to discuss final-status issues and opposes any deadline for a resolution.

The discrepancies between the two sides were evident in the delicate way U.S. officials tried to treat the issue of preconditions to the talks.

“Only the parties can determine terms of reference and basis for negotiations, and they will do so when they meet and discuss these matters,” George Mitchell, the top U.S. envoy to the region, said in the news conference announcing the invitations. “As you know, both we and the Quartet have previously said that the negotiations should be without preconditions.” The Quartet is the grouping of the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations that guides the peace process.

Yet in launching the news conference, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton seemed to say that both of the elements Israel had resisted indeed would be on the table: Finalstatus issues and a deadline.

“On behalf of the United States government, I’ve invited Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Abbas to meet on Sept. 2 in Washington, D.C. to re-launch direct negotiations to resolve all final-status issues, which we

believe can be completed within one year,” she said.

Was that a deadline, a reporter asked Mitchell? Not quite, he said.

His answer qualified the deadline as not written in stone, but as an “objective.” He said, “We believe it can be done within a year and that is our objective.”

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The words behind the man behind the mosque

By Jeffrey K. Salkin Jewish Telegraphic Agency COLUMBUS, Ga. (JTA) — I admire my colleagues and friends who have shown themselves to be courageous enough to speak out against the anti-Islam hysteria that tends to surround conversations about the Islamic center that is being planned for a property that for many is uncomfortably close to Ground Zero. They have shown themselves to be paragons of religious tolerance, and for this I commend them.

But in the general category of “Is this good for the Jews?” we might want to examine the words of the man who is the imam of the Masjid al-Farah — Feisal Abdul Rauf. Luckily we have no shortage of those words. A brief perusing of his book “What’s Right With Islam Is What’s Right With America” (HarperOne, 2005) might prove both instructive and sobering.

What does Rauf believe about Israel? Rauf states that the creation of Israel was an unfortunate byproduct of the nation-state idea.

Jews, he said, lived completely peacefully in the Muslim world for centuries.

“They looked, spoke and ate — even sang — like the rest of the people around them,” he wrote, adding that the creation of Israel began a most unfortunate schism

Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin

between Jews and Muslims, who had previously experienced “a deeply intimate kinship with each other” (page 169).

Rauf would have us imagine that life in the Middle East was Woodstock until the creation of the nasty State of Israel, which comes to ruin everyone’s good time. We might rightly wonder aloud whether the historic dhimmi status of the Jew in Muslim cultures actually implies the deep intimacy that Rauf imagines. And a subtle but telling point: Is the nation-state as a concept to be condemned (an arguable point), or only if that nation-state happens to be Jewish?

In his imagined history of the Middle East, Rauf continues to say

that because of the Israeli-Arab conflict, Sephardic Jews became “unfortunately victimized” in many Muslim societies. He goes on to say that the worst thing about this is that it deprived those societies of their rich, deep pluralism.

Rauf lists notable dates in Islamic history — among them 1924, when the Ottoman Caliphate ended; 1947, when India was split into Pakistan and India; and 1948, when Israel was “created as a homogenous Jewish nation-state within the geographical envelope of the Muslim world” (page 243).

I realize that we Jews carry our own historic losses with our souls; the wound of the destruction of the Temples in Jerusalem is still memory-resident. But Rauf is mourning the loss of the power of the Caliphate and simply repeating the Palestinian narrative, and saying that the Muslim world is a restricted neighborhood into which a Jewish sovereign nationstate need not apply.

Rauf acknowledges that a number of conflicts exist today in the Muslim world, including Pakistan-India over Kashmir and Russia-Chechnya, “but the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is viewed in the Muslim world as being sustained by America” (page 161). He not only drastically understates the number of conflicts that exist today in the Muslim world (how about Darfur,

the Balkans, etc.), but he clearly believes that America is at the root of the problem in the Middle East — and not, for example, the fact that the Arab leaders themselves cheated the Palestinians out of their land (see “Palestine Betrayed,” by Ephraim Karsh).

For the record: I believe that a Palestinian state is necessary — not out of any sentimental admiration of Palestinian nationalism, but because of a belief in Zionism, the idea that we might truly be “a free people in our land,” a people free to continue to craft our own national narrative, complete with our national values. Is there room for that narrative in Rauf’s worldview?

On Sept. 12, 2001, I heard the baristas at the Starbucks in Manhasset, N.Y., whispering about the cars that remained overnight in the railroad station parking lot — cars that would never be claimed because their drivers had disappeared. That moment will be with me forever.

Since that moment I have worked at combating Islamophobia and criticizing those who are ready to brand all manifestations of Islam as a dangerous religion. I have urged Jews to reject the anti-intellectual temptation of essentializing Islam and writing off an entire religion as a terrorist operation.

Maimonides, a victim of Muslim radicalism, had every reason to hate Islam and didn’t.

National Briefs Society honors black renditions of Jewish music (JTA) — A society dedicated to the preservation of Jewish music is releasing an album of AfricanAmerican renditions of Jewish songs.

The New York-based Idelsohn Society for Musical Preservation is releasing “Black Sabbath: The Secret Musical History of BlackJewish Relations” on Sept. 14. The 15-track album includes Billie Holiday’s rendition of My Yiddishe Momme, Cab Calloway singing in Yiddish and Nina Simone and Eartha Kitt singing in Hebrew.

The society is honoring Johnny Mathis, whose 1958 rendition of Kol Nidre leads the album, on Thursday at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.

U.S.: Direct talks on track, no deadline WASHINGTON (JTA) — An Obama administration official said

But if Rauf is the man who is the religious leader of the controversial mosque, then you might understand why Jews are permitted to worry. This says nothing about the rights of that institution to exist. It says nothing about privileging the feelings of the bereaved families of 9/11 over other American values of pluralism, which itself is debatable.

I am merely saying that we should not expect a “kumbayafest” with this gentleman. Of course, I would rejoice at the possibility that I will be wrong. I would rejoice in hearing, from his lips, an affirmation of the right of the Jewish state to exist, even in what he believes to be his Middle Eastern ‘hood.

And so I would hope that as the board of the Islamic center starts to prepare the guest list for the inevitable opening event that they might invite Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, to speak.

Now that would be a grand gesture that would help many Jews, and many Americans, sleep better at night.

Jeffrey K. Salkin is the rabbi of Temple Israel in Columbus, Ga., and the president of Kol Echad: Making Judaism Matter. He is the editor of “A Dream Of Zion: American Jews Reflect On Why Israel Matters To Them.” direct Israeli-Palestinian talks are on track, but would not set a time frame.

“We are working through the details of what is necessary to get the parties into direct negotiations,” P.J. Crowley, the State Department spokesman, said Wednesday, referring to the Quartet grouping of the United States, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union, which guides the Middle East peace process. “We fully expect that we’re going to get there. We just, at this moment, are still working directly and trying to move the parties to that point where they’re prepared to enter into direct negotiations.”

Crowley said the Quartet was still considering releasing a statement prior to the talks; Palestinians want such a statement as a means of committing Israel to discussing final-status issues, including borders, Jerusalem and refugees.

Israel’s government has resisted such outlines.

“There could very well be a statement,” Crowley said. “When that statement occurs, I can’t tell you. I don’t know. We’re not at the point yet where a statement has been agreed to.”

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New sites make shul an online-only experience

By Sue Fishkoff Jewish World Review SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) — On a recent weekday, Rivka Bowlin led mincha, the afternoon prayer service, from her home in Louisville, Ky. Her fellow worshipers were in Atlanta, Detroit and Oakland, Calif., watching her on their computer screens, following along with an online prayer book and keying in “Amen” after each blessing via a chat window.

Bowlin was the day’s prayer leader for PunkTorah, the brainchild of two young Jews in Atlanta who are trying to create a global Jewish community in cyberspace.

They held their first prayer service on June 30.

Just because participants don’t meet face to face doesn’t make that community any less real, said Patrick Aleph, the group’s 27year-old co-founder and executive director.

“We are a community of real people who happen to meet online,” he told JTA. More and more Jewish religious life is moving online.

Synagogues stream worship services over the Internet to reach homebound congregants, students away at college and distant relatives of the bar mitzvah boy.

Rabbis write blogs, religious school teachers “tweet” by posting online messages of 140 characters or less, and youth groups share videos on Facebook.

But these online ventures usually are tied to a brick-and-mortar synagogue, and are envisioned as a supplemental offering to the “real” congregational community.

Almost none are created solely as online Jewish communities, which is what makes PunkTorah and OurJewishCommunity, based in Cincinnati, so unusual.

“It’s a taste of the future,” said Rabbi Laura Baum, 30, spiritual leader of OurJewishCommunity.

Critics might say online worship is too easy, that it doesn’t require even the simple effort of getting dressed and walking to a designated building.

But supporters of online Jewish communities say they demand interaction. At last year’s Passover Seder, Baum said, someone in Paris read a passage in the haggadah about matzah, while someone in New York read the section about maror, the bitter herbs. For the Yizkor memorial service during Yom Kippur, people sent in the names and photos of their departed loved ones, which she streamed online.

Patrick Aleph, left, and Michael Sabani launched their online Jewish community PunkTorah on June 30, 2010.

“This is do-it-yourself Judaism,” said Michael Sabani, PunkTorah’s creative director and de facto spiritual leader.

So far, several thousand people have gone to their site, although considerably fewer take part in the online prayer services. The regulars hail from North America, Israel and Britain. “If you log onto our site or send us an e-mail, you’re part of our community,” Aleph said.

On Aug. 17, Aleph and Sabani launched a fund-raising appeal to build OneShul, an online synagogue, to extend the services they can offer. Their goal is to raise $5,000 in 60 days — much less than the usual synagogue capital campaign.

“We’re not interested in buying property or lining our pockets,” Sabani said. “We want to build something for the least amount of money that will serve the most people most effectively.”

That was Congregation Beth Adam’s goal in 2008 when the independent, liberal synagogue in Cincinnati hired Baum, then 28 and freshly ordained by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, to create an online Jewish community that would reach out to unaffiliated Jews nationwide.

“They realized that in order for Judaism to survive, there needs to be a new model,” Baum said.

Beth Adam pays her salary and Baum uses the synagogue’s inhouse liturgy, but the online community she leads has little overlap with the 300-member congregation behind the venture.

Baum and Rabbi Robert Barr, Beth Adam’s senior rabbi, stream Friday night services live at 6 p.m.

EST, interacting with participants via Twitter and Facebook. Barr

does a weekly podcast on iTunes and Baum blogs regularly, and between the two of them, they offer the usual array of counseling and educational services one would expect from Jewish clergy.

In the two years they’ve been online, tens of thousands of people from more than 150 countries have sought them out, they said.

“I can be your rabbi even if you’re not in Cincinnati,” Baum said, noting that many Jews are online already and are used to making such connections. “We are your rabbis and this is your community,” she said.

These communities wouldn’t exist if they didn’t meet a growing need, said Shawn Landres, cofounder and CEO of Jumpstart , a Los Angeles-based incubator for sustainable Jewish innovation projects. One of the challenges for online Jewish worship, he said, is that certain prayers require a minyan, a quorum of 10. But in an age of webcams and the Internet telephone service Skype, Landres said, spatial relations become altered and who’s to say what “together” means?

Soon after his father’s death three years ago, Landres added, he was participating in a meeting via Skype when the group paused for afternoon prayers. They invited him to say Kaddish, the traditional prayer for mourners.

“I was in my living room, in my pajamas,” Landres said. It turned out to be “an extraordinary experience,” he said. “I felt that community and I felt that connection. I would never say that it wasn’t real.

I would never say that God did not hear that prayer. Maybe we have to look past our own definition of what’s real.”

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Rabbi for the deaf combines her passion for Judaism, signing

By Johanna Ginsberg New Jersey Jewish News WHIPPANY, N.J. (New Jersey Jewish News) — Although she herself is not deaf, Dena Bodian developed a fascination for American Sign Language during her childhood in New Jersey.

“I was in Florence Heller’s kindergarten class at Morristown Jewish Center, and she taught the Sh’ma with sign language,” she said. “Later, when I attended the Hebrew Academy, we used to bentsch [say the grace after meals] in sign language.

“I signed the Sh’ma to myself at night for 10 or 15 years. It didn’t seem strange to me at the time, but I guess it was quite unorthodox.”

Unorthodox or not, it stuck.

“Having been exposed to sign language at a very young age — before I could even read — I guess I always equated sign language with Judaism,” Bodian said.

In June, Bodian was able to combine both passions when she was ordained as a rabbi by the Hebrew Seminary of the Deaf, a Chicago-based institution that trains clergy and teachers to serve the needs of the Jewish deaf and hearing-impaired. Bodian, 31, and two other women rabbis were ordained by the 13-year-old institution, which is associated with the Conservative movement’s Jewish Theological Seminary.

Ordination marked the latest peak in a lifetime of involvement and early leadership in Jewish life.

“I grew up in a kosher home and we made Shabbos every week.

I remember as a kid every Friday night my father took me to shul,” Bodian recalled. “Now that I look back, it was probably a way to give my mom a break — other people took their kids to the park; we went to shul. I was the only kid there.”

She decided herself by fourth grade that she wanted to attend day school, and her parents, Louis Bodian and Helen Kloder, enrolled her at the Hebrew Academy of Morris County. At that time, it was affiliated with the Conservative movement and had not yet adopted an egalitarian approach.

“When I was there, girls did not have a part in services. Having that as a contrast forced me to become really active in the shul environment,” she said. She dropped out after sixth grade, she said, because she would not be allowed to chant from the Torah.

Coutesy of Dena Bodian

Rabbi Dena Bodian was ordained by the Hebrew Seminary for the Deaf in Chicago.

But Bodian took on leadership roles from a young age at her synagogue. These activities, Bodian said, “forced me to take ownership in a positive way — it was a great model.”

After getting a master’s degree, Bodian moved to Leesburg, Va, where she served as a lay leader for a small synagogue, worked for an educational video company licensing images and took night classes in ASL translation. A night school classmate told her about the Hebrew Seminary of the Deaf.

“I thought, Wow!” she recalled. She dropped out of the night classes, quit her job and moved to Chicago.

Signing has always held a certain fascination for Bodian. “It has a fantastic aesthetic,” she said. But even after receiving ordination from HSD, she said, she is “not super-fluent.”

That doesn’t mean she doesn’t have a significant skill set. She gave her commencement address in both English and in ASL. She also has a deep understanding of the barriers people who are deaf face in joining Jewish communal life.

“Deaf Jews are a demographic that frequently go unheard. It’s hard to find a synagogue that is not wheelchair accessible, but they often fail to address the linguistic issues deaf people face,” Bodian said. “The deaf community not only don’t hear the prayers, they can’t hear the sermons, they can’t shmooze during kiddush. It’s not a handicap issue you can solve with a hearing device; it’s much more a linguistic issue.

“It’s like speaking Spanish or Russian — except Hebrew is no longer the universal equalizer.”

THURSDAY, AUGUST 26, 2010

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9

It’s all relative: You say Einstein is ‘Jewish science,’ I say ‘liberal conspiracy’

By Joel N. Shurkin Jewish World Review BALTIMORE (JTA) — More than a half-century ago, the Nazis dismissed Albert Einstein’s groundbreaking theories as “Jewish science”; in recent years Holocaust revisionists have taken up the anti-Einstein cause. Now, the legendary physicist is facing a new wave of attacks — this time from conservative bloggers who say that his theory of relativity and its iconic formula, E=mc2, are part of a “liberal conspiracy.”

The latest debate erupted when a website, Conservapedia, posted a definition of relativity making the charge that it was part of an ideological plot, and then added a list of counter examples it says disprove Einstein’s theories. The postings were picked up by the liberal blog TPMMuckracker and then went viral.

Conservapedia is the creation of Andrew Schlafly, the 49-yearold lawyer son of Phyllis Schlafly, the anti-abortion activist. He has a degree in engineering physics from Princeton University and a law degree from Harvard Law School. Schlafly, who did not respond to repeated attempts to interview him for this article, founded Conservapedia three years ago — reportedly because he feels that Wikipedia, the dominant online encyclopedia and one of the most visited websites in the world, has a liberal, anti-Christian, anti-American bias.

How Einstein and his theories got embroiled in America’s cultural wars is not clear. That his theories represent one of the great leaps in scientific history is.

From 1666 until Einstein’s day, physics — the way humans look at the mechanics of nature — was dominated by the work of Isaac Newton. Then, in 1905, the 26year-old Einstein published a paper on what he called the special theory of relativity. The famous formula is in that paper: Energy equals mass times the speed of light squared.

While physicists can give complex, sometimes poetic explanations for this formula, it essentially means that the mass of any object can be converted into energy.

Ten years later, Einstein added gravity to the mix in his general theory of relativity, which states that time and space are intricately entwined. Every time you feel heavier when an elevator you are riding in accelerates upward, you are feeling the effects described in

Curtesy of JTA graphic/Library of Congress

Conservative blogger Andrew Schlafly says Albert Einstein’s scientific theories are bad science and part of a “liberal conspiracy.”

Einstein’s general theory.

Initially, many scientists disbelieved these theories, but gradually, they came around. Experimenters from around the world set about trying to prove — or better yet, disprove — Einstein’s theories. Now, a century later, his theories are universally accepted in the scientific community.

Schlafly’s argument against Einstein appears to conflate relativity, a theory in physics about time, space and gravity, with relativism, a philosophical argument about morality and human experience having nothing to do with physics.

He points to a 1989 article by liberal law professor Lawrence Tribe in the Harvard Law Review. Now widely disseminated on the Internet, Tribe’s article uses relativity as a metaphor for understanding constitutional law. In the footnotes, Tribe thanks the man who was then the editor of the review: a law student named Barack Obama.

Hence, a liberal conspiracy.

Schlafly goes further, claiming that “virtually no one who is taught and believes relativity continues to read the Bible,” but he doesn’t say how he knows that. He also cites passages in the Christian Bible in an effort to disprove Einstein’s theories.

Attacks on relativity have a long and sleazy history. After much of the physics community came to accept the theories, attacks continued from less admirable sources, including anti-Semites who were apparently upset that a Jew was being credited with producing something that important. They

called it “Jewish science.” Nazis, believing that Germans should do better, came up with an alternative — totally incoherent — concept they called Deutsche Physik, which set back physics in Germany until after World War II. Now, a new generation of Einstein deniers, including some Holocaust revisionists, are launching their own attacks, simultaneously rejecting Einstein’s science and accusing him of stealing his ideas from others.

They point to the published work of French physicist Jules Henri Poincaré, and Dutch physicist Hendrik Antoon Lorentz, which preceded Einstein’s publication by several years. These men were superb physicists (Lorentz won a Nobel Prize) and they had thought about relativity, but neither made the huge leap in imagination Einstein did, although Poincaré came close and probably did influence him.

Another claim is that the theories originated with Einstein’s first wife, the Serbian physics student Mileva Maric. She may well have served as a sounding board, but respected physicists and historians say no serious evidence exists that she made any substantive contribution.

While there is no overt antiSemitism in the Conservapedia entries on Einstein, the ones on relativity are redolent with the old arguments. For instance, Schlafly writes: “The theory... is heavily promoted by liberals who like its encouragement of relativism and its tendency to mislead people in how they view the world.”

Greg Gbur, assistant professor of physics at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, argued in his blog, Skulls in the Stars, that if you “replace ‘liberals’ with ‘Jews’ in [that] sentence,” the words might as well have been written by a Nazi circa 1930s-era Germany.

In an effort to discredit Einstein’s theories, Schlafly provides a list of about two dozen “counterexamples.” Scientists looking at the list say many are irrelevant, some misinterpret the science, and many are flat wrong.

The latter category, they say, includes Schlafly’s claim that no useful devices have been “developed based on any insights provided by the theory; no lives have been saved or helped, and the theory has not led to other useful theories and may have interfered with scientific progress.”

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American Jews begin response to Pakistan floods

By Jonah Lowenfeld Los Angeles Jewish Journal LOS ANGELES (L.A. Jewish Journal) — Nearly a month after pictures of Pakistanis wading through floodwaters began to appear on the front pages of newspapers worldwide, aid from Americans, including Jews, is beginning to arrive in the stricken country.

American Jews are now responding to the call to bring relief to the devastated area, where conditions have been growing steadily worse. The monsoon rains that flooded Pakistan’s northwest region about a month ago have killed more than 1,000 people, and millions more are estimated to have been left homeless. Roads and railways have been damaged, along with schools and other civic infrastructure. The impact on the country’s crops is still being calculated and could run into the billions of dollars.

The American Jewish World Service and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee each put out an appeal for donations last week.

The AJWS, which has been working with grassroots organizations in Pakistan for years and had raised $42,000 for the Pakistan effort by the end of last week, is delivering aid bags with food, water, pots, pans and clothes to families in the region.

JDC also has worked with Pakistan before — it responded to earthquakes that hit the region in 2005 and 2008—and the organization has allocated $20,000 from its revolving disaster relief fund that it plans to use to distribute medicine and other supplies. It hasn’t yet raised enough to cover that amount, but officials hope to meet or exceed the goal as their campaign progresses.

“Checks take time to come in,” said Will Recant, assistant executive vice president in charge of international development at JDC. “Not everything is done electronically, and a lot of what we do is done

International Briefs Algerian aid ship departs for Gaza (JTA) — An aid ship sponsored by the Algerian government departed for Gaza.

The ship, which left an Algerian port Thursday, had religious and political leaders on board. It also carried food, medicine, and educational materials, according to the Palestinian news

through federations.”

The American Jewish Committee contributed an undisclosed amount from its humanitarian fund to the JDC effort, and a spokesman for the group said it is encouraging donors to give to JDC directly.

In light of the dire situation, Pakistanis likely wouldn’t object to receiving aid from the United States, wrote Aoun Sahi, a journalist in Lahore, Pakistan, via email. “But there will be some problems with the word ‘Jewish’ if printed on clothing especially,” he wrote. “It will not be easy for them to accept aid from Jewish groups from Israel, but they will be OK with American Jewish groups’ aid.”

He added, “I think this is a good opportunity for different Jewish groups to establish links with some Pakistani groups.”

A spokeswoman for the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles said she knows of no aid that has gone from

Israel to Pakistan during this crisis.

Israel was widely applauded for its rapid response in providing aid and medical services in Haiti after the earthquake.

Though the Pakistani floods have been news for weeks, Jewish groups issued their call for donations only last week.

How much and how fast people donate can depend heavily on media coverage of a disaster.

“The biggest challenge right now is that this has been going on for two weeks, and the media is just now starting to pay attention,” AJWS spokesman Joshua Berkman said, adding that coverage of Pakistan’s floods has paled in comparison with the attention immediately given to the Haitian earthquake.

Larger, nonsectarian U.S. aid organizations are also reporting a slow response to the Pakistani flooding.

“Haiti is the obvious compari-

son. This response is far slower,” said Susan Kotcher, vice president for development at the International Rescue Committee. Kotcher said the IRC, which made its first calls to donors on July 29, is now getting hundreds of daily donations for Pakistan and has raised a total of $1.4 million from Americans. By contrast, in the first few days after the earthquake in Haiti, the group was getting thousands of donations each day, and raised more than $4 million in the first two weeks.

Some, including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have attributed the slow response to the economic hardships facing Americans, as well as to a feeling of fatigue among donors who have contributed to other recent relief efforts.

Others say the slow response may be caused by the fact that the devastation from floods, unlike that from earthquakes and tsunamis, develops over time.

“Its destructive power will accu-

mulate and grow with time,” said U.N. Secretary General Ban Kimoon.

But others suspect that political factors are at play. “I can’t help but have my suspicions,” said Edina Lekovic, communications director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council. “The first media coverage that I saw about the floods had more to do with whether the victims were going to rely on extremist groups for aid and relief,” she said, referring to news stories reporting that Islamic charities with connections to terrorist groups were distributing aid to people in flood-affected areas.

“That their basic humanity and suffering comes second to questionable aid sources is insulting, and misses the point.”

The slowness of the global response is also being noticed in Pakistan. “Many right-wing organizations have been raising their voices over the slow response of Americans to the disaster,” Sahi said. “Many of them have been comparing the response of Americans to the Pakistani tragedy with the one faced by Haiti, and have been trying to make it a religious issue.”

Asked what might account for the slowness of the Jewish response, Rabbi Harold Schulweis of Temple Valley Beth Shalom in Encino, Calif. said, “I don’t think that is an anti-Muslim deal. I think it’s a deeper question of overload” – too many issues to care about at once.

American Jews are more concerned with existential threats being made against them by Iran, he suggested.

“If I’m scared that somebody is threatening me, I’m not going to listen to the cries of the neighbors,” Schulweis said. “That’s too bad,” he added, “because in the course of that parochialism, we lose one of the most uplifting values in Judaism itself, which is to be a light unto the nations.”

To help support the relief efforts in Pakistan, visit the websites of the JDC, the AJWS or the IRC.

service Palestine Today. The ship was organized by Algerian religious leaders and funded by business men to “express solidarity with the Palestinian people,” Palestine Today reported.

In July, a Libyan ship attempted to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza but was diverted to an Egyptian port and its cargo delivered by land.

On May 31, Israel halted a sixship flotilla heading for Gaza. A confrontation broke out on one of the ships, the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara, resulting in the deaths of nine passengers and the injury of several Israeli soldiers.

Israel subsequently eased somewhat its embargo of Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas.

George Galloway, a proPalestinian British lawmaker writing in the Morning Star newspaper, announced that another flotilla designed to break the blockade will leave Sept. 18. Its ships will sail from London, Casablanca, Morocco and Doha.

Nations Association of Australia.

Stella Cornelius was presented the award Aug. 13 in Sydney. She joins previous winners including former South African President Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, East Timor President Xanana Gusmao and former Irish President Mary Robinson.

The citation stated: “The International Peace Award is made to Dr. Cornelius for a lifetime of devotion to peace, conflict resolution and social justice issues; and in particular for initiating the Peace and Conflict Resolution Program of the UNAA 1973; the Conflict Resolution Network; the Media

Peace Awards 1979; the Ministry for Peace Campaign 1983; the Bilateral Peace Treaties Proposal.”

Among the audience was New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies CEO Vic Alhadeff. “Stella Cornelius is an inspiration,” he said.

“Anyone who is in the business of working towards social cohesion need look no further for a model of dedication and commitment.”

In 2000 Mandela presented Cornelius with a certificate in recognition of her achievements in conflict resolution and education.

She was awarded an Order of the British Empire in 1978 and an Order of Australia in 1987.

Courtesy of Peter Biro/International Rescue Committee.

Pakistan has been devastated by massive floods.

Jewish activist wins peace award in Australia SYDNEY, Australia (JTA) — A 90-year-old Jewish peace activist won the International Peace Award from the United

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Eric Scott Peerless to Amanda Brooke Sergay

ENGAGEMENT ouis and Marcy Peerless are happy to announce the engagement of their son Eric Scott Peerless to Amanda Brooke Sergay, daughter of Dr. Stephen and Janie Sergay of Tampa, Fla. Eric is the grandson of the late Thelma and Julian Licht of New Rochelle, N.Y. and the late Miriam and Sidney Peerless of Cincinnati, Ohio. He is a graduate of Sycamore High School and Arizona State University. Eric is currently principle and C.E.O. of Mad Development and a co-founder of jewelry website Since1910 in New York City.

Amanda is the granddaughter of Ruth and the late Milton Feldman and the late Julius and Bianca Sergay. She graduated from Emory University and The University of Miami School of Medicine. Amanda is a dermatologist and practices in New York City.

A March 2011 wedding is being planned in Tampa, Fla.

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Pomodori’s — The Art of the Tomato

By Marilyn Gale Contributing Columnist Almost a landmark, Pomodori’s in Clifton is a visionary pizzeria, perhaps the first to offer the now heart healthy and popular woodfired crust. It was a trip down memory lane for me when I entered the upscale restaurant located in the center of the UC campus business district. Upscale not in the sense of fancy tablecloths and cushy chairs, or high definition televisions perched in the corners of the ceiling, but in quality, simple food that maximizes the unique flavors and textures inherent in basic Italian cooking. Fresh whole milk mozzarella, ripe tomatoes, figs, apples and balsamic vinaigrette, newly picked basil and lots and lots of garlic is the hallmark taste at Pomodori’s.

I arrived as weekday lunch was ending. The wood burning hearth sits almost in the center of the room, with tables surrounding it in the formation of the letter C, and big windows on one side, facing the street. Ceramic tiles, copper tables, and scattered throughout the dining area are stone sculptures, their shapes reminiscent of an excavation from ancient Rome. A friendly mural is painted on the back wall. A glass of Italian wine and a wood fired pizza—a special treat for a well deserving graduate student or a tasteful lunch between university colleagues—Pomodori’s in Clifton offers a little work day escape and repartee from the college grind.

Did you know that Pomodori is the Italian word for tomato?

Since 1984, Pomodori’s has been an innovation in pizza preparation. One of the only authentic pizzerias with a wood-fire oven and a woodpile out back, the restaurant legend says that if you can smell the woodpile burning, you have come to the right place.

Pomodori’s proudly proclaims the celebration of the art of the tomato.

I have personally been aware of Pomodori’s in Clifton since 1986.

At that time, I had just enrolled my second child in Arlitt, the UC child care/nursery school. Another young woman also enrolled her son there; we began talking as young mothers do, from toilet training to our spouse’s occupations. She told me about the business she and her husband were starting, something about a new healthy way to make pizza. Lo and behold, it turned out to be Pomodori’s. The wood-fired pizza had arrived in the Queen City and a new way to eat this Italian favorite was born. The owners, Sally and Tim McLane, generously offered a special field trip for my daughter’s preschool class and the children were delighted to have a mini cooking class. I still have the pictures of my daughter making

Congenial ambience makes eating at Pomodori’s in Clifton fun for the whole family.

pizza with dough stuck to her hands and flour covering her hair and overalls. She had a priceless smile spread across her chubby cheek face.

For this review, I interviewed waitress Emily Chewning. Self described as flirtatious, she has worked at the restaurant for four years. She was friendly and eager to talk about her culinary place of employment.

“The food is extraordinary,” said Chewning. “No one can believe such a nice restaurant like this can exist in the middle of campus town. But here we are.

“People from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital come here to eat. We get out of towners, and we supply them with traveling information. We tell them where to take their kids. People who used to live in Cinti, and have moved to places as far away as California stop in to eat when they return to visit friends and relatives.

Regulars come in all the time, kind of like family,” said the waitress who was born in 1987, three years after the restaurant opened.

“Students and teachers from CCM eat at Pomodori’s in Clifton frequently,” said Chewning. “The young musical artists are apt to burst into song during the dinner hour.” This waitress has even seen a couple of romantic break-ups over pizza and wine. Though in distress and sometimes teary eyed, with napkins moist and stained with mascara, the customers still pack up their leftovers to take home. The food is that good.

“It can get emotional around here,” added Chewning.

With the price range of pizzas, entrees, salads and pastas in the $7 - $14 category, it is easy to order a variety of creatively prepared selections and leave feeling as if you have just dined in a country café in rural Italy. The Roma and Basil wood- fired pizza, marked as heart healthy, is a satisfying combination of sliced fresh Roma tomatoes and basil with garlic, on an olive oil crust with a blend of five cheeses. Of course, the goat cheese pizza with sun-dried tomatoes sounded tasty. How about the gorgonzola walnut pizza pie, a mixture

Emily Chewning enjoys serving heart healthy wood-fired pizzas.

of gorgonzola and chopped walnuts with fresh tomatoes on the signature wood-fired crust covered with pesto sauce? Don’t forget to save room for what Cincinnati Magazine has called the best dessert in town – the Apple Pizza.

This subtly sweet treat is a concoction of sliced Granny Smith apples with a touch of apricot preserves, streusel topping and ricotta cheese baked on top of, you guessed it, the famous wood-fired crust.

The pasta dishes feature a luscious homemade ravioli which is available in pumpkin spice flavor in the fall. Chewning warned the baked garlic bread with cheese, a mozzarella provolone mix, dotted with garlic butter is addicting.

Large selections of beer and wine are also available and harmonious with the college pizza-loving crowd. Wednesdays is half-price bottle night for wine and if you don’t finish, you can take the wine bottle home.

Diners can order food online through campus food and delivery is available in select areas.

Also, some things never change. I was told by Chewning that Pomodori’s in Clifton still offers that same lovely field trip for the preschoolers at Arlitt. Bravo to Pomodori’s for introducing heart healthy wood-fired pizza to Cincinnati over 25 years ago and thank you for continuing to share your culinary magic with the young impressionable children in the UC neighborhood.

Pomodori’s Pizza 121 West McMillan Street, Cincinnati, OH 45219 513-861-0080

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OPINION

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A 21st Century Exodus

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

Dear Editor, Jerome Liner’s letter (August 12) was a breath of clear air and a clearer mind.

I, too, was dumbfounded by Barbara Glueck’s comments on the Ground Zero mosque issue, which must reflect AJC’s position because of her reference.

As an almost 40-year member of AJC, on its Cincinnati Board for many years, and one of AJC’s representatives to, then, West Germany’s Konrad Adenauer Foundation in 1984, I have long respected AJC’s work in building human relations locally, nationally and internationally, for and among Jews and non-Jews.

Since 9/11, however, AJC, many other Jewish community organizations, and a majority of U.S. Jews (based on polls and election results) have showed their total ignorance and/or denial of religious history and the threats to our religion, heritage and future, which that history continues to foment.

One undeniable, undebatable, unquestionable historic aspect of Islam is that it is NOT a “mere religion.” Islam is a “politically-driven

religion” or a “religiously-driven political system,” no matter which way you place the nouns and adjectives. One can NOT be an observant, committed Muslim without a commitment to Jihad, which is a political movement to overpower, eliminate and rule the infidels. One can NOT be an observant, committed Muslim without a commitment to Sharia, which is a “legal” system that suppresses women, the weak and the needy with outrageous barbarity, brutality and insanity.

READ YOUR HISTORY. If you read the Hebrew Bible, Christian Bible and the Koran, you’ll find encouragement of both positive inspiration and nasty instigation, in all three. (Yes, I’ve read the first two completely through, and parts of the third.) So, engaging in a “battle of the Books” is as useless as is the argument, “My god is better than your god.” Of course the Muslims take little time building a mosque over a defeated synagogue or church. Thousands of years prior to Mohammed, Hashem instructed Moses to destroy pagan temples and idols, which he and the Israelites did with obedience and relish.

To entreat understanding and

tolerance of Islam through the U.S. Constitution’s separation of church and state is illogical and worse than naive; it’s irresponsible. In the 21st century, the world is being overtaken, inevitably and unwaveringly (look at the international demographics and birthrates) by a “political religion” that sees all other “mere religions” as infidel enemies.

The implications are obvious and odious. Only when so-called “moderate Muslims” gain the courage to confront their “religious political” leaders and come into worldwide modern times with, at least, a legal system and a political dogma that encourages and supports a quality of life instead of a martyrdom in death can Jews, Christians, Buddhists and other non-Muslims hope for the kind of “world peace” we all say we seek.

Denial of history, denial of fact, denial of the clear and convincing are risky mindsets. Germany’s Jews in the 1930s are the greatest modern examples and proof. I am dumbfounded that today’s Jews — the majority, the liberals — wallow in even worse denial.

George A. Makrauer The Villages, Florida

T EST Y OUR T ORAH KNOWLEDGE THIS WEEK’S PORTION: KI TAVO (DEVARIM 26:1—29:8) 1. What does a person say to the priest when he brings his first fruits? a.) Shalom Aleichem b.) Requests the Kohen to bless him c.) I acknowledge to Hashem for bringing me to the land he promised our forefathers 2. How did the Children of Israel come to Egypt? a.) Poor b.) Few in number c.) Slaves to Pharaoh

a.) Flowing with milk and honey b.) Highest land in the world c.) Land Hashem checks constantly 4. Who in the Parsha in compared to an eagle? a.) Hashem b.) the Children of Israel c.) Attacking nation 5. What does a person do after he brings his first fruits? a.) Return home b.) Celebrate (with a sacrifice to Hashem) c.) Give charity to the poor

3. How does the Torah describe the land of Israel?

2. B 26:5

3. A 26:9

4. C 28:49

5. B 26:11

It certainly didn’t take 40 years this time around, but my departing passage, my Exodus, through the Sinai desert was far from easy.

Adjectives that come to mind when describing the anywhere from nine to 16 hour bus ride (depending, on, oh just about anything) could be harrowing, treacherous, monotonous, draining, etc. With the mandatory Egyptian drama blaring out of the bus speakers all night long, rest was certainly impossible, even if you were lucky enough to have a seat that was fully functional and could ignore the massive jolts that seemed to threaten the bus with flipping on its side regularly. When I finally reached the border crossing at Taba, dirty, sweaty and weighed down with six months worth of baggage, I had never been happier to reach the Promised Land. And not just for the respite and milk and honey that it promised.

Exactly a year ago this week I began a journey into the Pharaonic heartland of Cairo, Egypt. I suppose it is rare that you hear of a Jew going back to Egypt. Far from being the house of bondage it once was, Cairo was a smelly, bustling metropolis of over 20 million inhabitants, vestiges of numerous empires abound. On any given block you could find the architecture of the Pharaohs, the Coptic Christians, any one of the numerous Islamic empires, as well as my favorite (pardon the Western bias) European colonial. My apartment, cozily nestled between two blaring mosques, was of the late 1920s bourgeoisie styling, complete with a rickety wood and glass Schindler elevator which only went one direction, luckily, up. Living in Cairo was like living in a history book—pick an era and I could be living it within a short distance.

My purpose in coming to Egypt was slightly more concrete than imagination-guided time travel; I was there to take steps toward achieving fluency in Arabic and learning more about the religion we in the West often identify as “the other”—Islam. At the American University in Cairo I embarked upon an in-depth study of Islam, studying Islamic Philosophy, Mysticism and Quranic Exegesis, avoiding politics and a discussion of Israel and to a lesser extent, Judaism, at all costs.

Being a Jew in Egypt is not too terribly difficult, at least not if you don’t mind obscuring an integral part of your identity and don’t wear a kippah or keep kosher. I only had a problem with the first, and being familiar with Islam helped me get out of this bind. Whether Coptic, Catholic or Muslim, you had to be something, but Jewish was not one of the boxes you could check.

Just about every Egyptian I met was interested in my din, the Arabic

word for religion, to which I usually responded ‘no religion’ or that I was a hanif, essentially a simple monotheist in the fashion of Abraham and Noah. Yet the trouble I experienced was not from Egyptians, rather they were often very gracious, hospitable, and understanding for the most part — though they still often loathed Jews, it was a result of state propaganda more than their own personal hatred.

In my mind this was far more excusable than the treatment I would sometimes receive from my Western counterparts—the real trouble I faced was from my fellow foreigners studying abroad, so many of whom were consumed with a raging fire against Zionism, Israel and the evil colonialist West. While some students came to discover and be educated, many more came to just have their ideas reinforced by skewed academics (AUC is far from the model of academic integrity and objectivity we normally expect from an “American” university) and state and popular rhetoric.

Though despite my best efforts, it was impossible not to become embroiled in what almost always turned out to be a fierce debate about Israel and Zionism. Instead of being enslaved physically, as a Jew studying at the American University I felt enslaved intellectually. Being Jewish, and a tacit supporter of Israel, was reason for blacklisting.

My opinions no longer had any worth, my thoughts no meaning.

Everything I put forth in conversations with those other than my very closest friends was undercut by my Jewishness. The assumption was, “oh, he is Jewish, and thus must obviously be biased against Arabs and blindly supportive of Israel.” Of course neither of those two things were true, and had they taken a moment to consider the fact that I was voluntarily living in an Arab country rife with public displays of anti-Semitism, they would have quickly realized how off the mark those assumptions were. Yet this bondage persisted, trapping my ideas within me, without an outlet to effectively express them. It is this manner of bondage which currently enslaves Jews and supporters of Israel today.

Not only were my ideas a slave to the prevailing attitudes of the majority in Egypt, so were history and reality. Looking at a conflict I had read so much on, even experienced from my time in Israel (during the 2006 Lebanon War), from such a drastically different point of view was like being in an alternate history book—one of those Barnes & Noble’s specials that have short stories entitled “If the Chinese settled the New World” or “Spanish Armada prevails over the British Royal Navy.”

The Egyptian narrative of the October War of 1973, more popular-

1. C 26:3

By Elijah Plymesser Assistant Editor

ANSWERS:

16

Written by Rabbi Dov Aaron Wise

ly known by Westerners as the Yom Kippur War, was absolutely boggling. Not only was it glorified to the point where t-shirts on AUC campus were sold with “October 1973” scribbled fashionably across a tight designer piece of clothing, it was indoctrinated into the Egyptian psyche as their proudest moment—not their independence day, not the return of Sinai, not their peace accord with Israel—but the Yom

Kippur War. It was glorified everywhere, not because of the depravity of the attack, but because it was seen as a total victory. After all it was the closest the Arabs had ever been to defeating the nascent Israel, and resulting in righting what they saw as the injustices of 1967. There was even a museum very proudly displaying captured Israeli armaments.

Never before had I experienced such a departure from reality and

rationality. Egypt highlighted for me the massive dangers of subjugating reality to the whim of politicians and their rhetoric. The heavy bias I came across even in academia was disappointing, even more so because I was studying at the “flagship” university of Egypt, one that was in part funded by millions of U.S. AID dollars.

EXODUS on page 22

THURSDAY, AUGUST 26, 2010

JEWISH LIFE

17

Sedra of the Week

by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin

SHABBAT SHALOM: PARASHAT KI TAVO DEUTERONOMY 26:1 29:8

“You shall set up for yourselves great stones...and you shall write upon them all the words of this Torah clarified completely [Hebrew, be’er hetev]...these are the words of the covenant…which the Lord commanded Moses to contract with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant He contracted with them at Horeb.” (Deuteronomy 27:1, 2, 3, 8; 28:69) When we think of the covenants between God and the Jewish people, we usually focus on the covenant with Abraham and then the covenant at Sinai. The first is the Covenant between the Pieces, when God guaranteed Abraham progeny and a homeland (Genesis 15). The second covenant, at Sinai, was with the entire nation — the covenant of religious law, when God revealed His will in the form of ethical, moral and ritual commandments (Exodus 19-24). But the above-cited verses make clear that a third covenant was also made just as the people were about to enter the land. The text couldn’t be more explicit: “...in addition to the covenant He contracted with them at Horeb (Sinai).” Why a third covenant? Weren’t the first two enough? Didn’t they cover our national identity and our religious destiny? What is God now adding?

In order to understand the addition, we must hark back to the divine election of Abraham, the first Hebrew. God tells Abraham that “...through you shall be blessed all the families of the earth” (Genesis 12:3), which means that the Jewish mission is to reach out to the world. And what Abraham must teach is compassionate righteousness and moral justice (Gen. 18:18,19). Indeed, Maimonides rules that the Jewish people are obligated to teach the nations of the world the seven Noahide laws, the universal laws of ethics and Human inviolability (Maimonides, Laws of Kings 10.8); only when the likes of an Ahmadinejad accepts “Thou shalt not murder an innocent” as an absolute will there be a future for a free and secure world in a global village.

Hence the third covenant in this week’s portion. Just as Israel assembles at the Jordan River – the gateway to the Land of Israel to become a nation-state, God commands them to erect great stones.

“And you shall write upon the stones all the words of this law...”

(Deut. 27:8). What then follows are the 12 curses (Deut. 27:15-26), each directed toward anyone who

fails to live by a certain moral rule, resulting in 12 universal principles. This teaching is to be writ large, “clarified completely” — interpreted by the talmudic sages to mean engraved deeply and/or translated into all 70 languages. So if the first two covenants stress who we are in terms of a family, genealogical continuity and the creation of our religious identity, the third, symbolized by the erection of the stones, dramatizes our responsibility to the world as a kingdom of priest/teachers.

Tragically however, if we do not “hear” God’s voice which commands us to be an ethical example to the world, we will lose our homeland and turn into wanderers, prey to heinous hatred and mass murders. We will become victims of violence perpetrated by oppressors so depraved as to be no longer images of God. All this is implied in the third covenant. Yes, for a time, we “heard,” we obeyed...and we succeeded. Josephus, among others, records how Jews, together with the Torah, were spreading all over the known world (Contra Apionem 2, 39), attracting huge numbers of converts from every part of the Roman Empire. But sometime in the second century CE — perhaps because in our pride we forgot that it was the Torah’s superiority, and not our own, which had brought us such success — we became unable, or unworthy, of sustaining the momentum. We stopped “hearing” God’s voice, were forced to leave history, and virtually forgot the mission of the third covenant.

As strange as it might sound, Maimonides – the great legalisttheologian who deplores Christianity as idolatry, nevertheless writes that at least in this regard the Christians continued where we left off. In the unexpurgated versions of the Mishneh Torah, he records: “God’s ways are too wondrous to comprehend. All those matters relating to Jesus of Nazareth and the Ishmaelite who came after him are only serving to clear the way for King Messiah, to prepare the whole world ‘...to worship God with one accord’

(Zephaniah 3:9). Thus the messianic hope, the Torah and the commandments have become familiar topics...among the inhabitants of the far-flung islands at the ends of the globe...”

Unfortunately however, the evolving theology of the new church paved the way for hateful, anti-Semitic atrocities. But miraculously, nearly 2,000 years later, a sea change has embraced many leading churchmen, beginning with Pope John XXIII and his Nostra Aetate (1965), and going on to include leading Protestant theologians and the world of Evangelicals, who never had a history of anti-Semitism and has been extremely supportive of the State of Israel in general and the settlement community in particular.

Now thank God we as a people and a nation have returned to history, in the “Beginning of the period of our redemption.” Many are the miracles all around us, including our military victories and the ingathering of the exiles, the Tribe of Dan from Ethiopia and the Bnai Menashe from northern India.

Along side of these magnificent occurrences is the growing threat of extremist Islam with its suicide bombers and commitment to jihadism.

Miraculously, the Christian world is finally beginning to rid itself of the ugly specter of anti-Semitism and is beginning to recognize the eternal legitimacy of its Elder Brothers Covenant. It is critically important that – despite the many differences which divide us, especially in our refusal to recognize the founder of Christianity as the messiah or the special and unique son of God – we must join hands with the Christians and bring a religion of love, morality and peace to a desperate, thirsting world. The God of compassion must overcome the Satan of jihadism, and our revived dialogue with our younger brother must bring the light of freedom and security to the farthest corners of the world.

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

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

Kiddush follows Shabbat Morning Services

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September 3 6:00 pm Shabbat Nosh 6:30 pm Shabbat Evening Service

August 28 10:30 am Shabbat Morning Service Jacob Habib Bar Mitzvah

September 4 10:30 am Shabbat Morning Service

18

JEWZ IN THE NEWZ

Jewz in the Newz

By Nate Bloom, Contributing Columnist EMMY TIME The Primetime Emmy Awards, for excellence in TV, are being broadcast, live, on NBC on Sunday, Aug. 29 (8PM). Here are some of the more prominent Jewish nominees in just some of the many Emmy categories.

PERFORMERS JULIANNA MARGULIES (“The Good Wife”) and KYRA SEDGWICK (“The Closer”) are two of the six nominated actresses competing for the Emmy for best lead actress in a drama series.

Sedgwick’s mother is Jewish and she strongly identifies as Jewish.

This is her fifth nomination in a row for “The Closer” (no wins yet). Margulies might be the narrow favorite—she has momentum as the winner of the Golden Globe and Screen Actors’ Guild best actress awards for “Wife.” (Worth noting: Margulies’ “Wife” co-star, non-Jewish actor Alan Cumming, is nominated for best guest actor for playing religious Jewish character Eli Gold. Cumming, as Gold, will be a regular on the series next season.)

Newcomer and hot TV star LEA MICHELE (“Glee”) is nominated for best lead actress in a comedy or musical series.

Michele, who plays Jewish character Rachel Berry, is the daughter of a Sephardi Jewish father and an Italian Catholic mother.

LARRY DAVID, the star and creator of “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” is nominated for best lead actor in a comedy series (“Curb”). This is David’s fourth nomination for the same role since 2003 and some predict this is his year. Mega-veteran actor ELI WALLACH, 94, is nominated for best guest actor in a comedy (“Nurse Jackie”). The outstanding voice-over category has three Jewish nominees: HANK AZARIA (“The Simpsons”); SETH GREEN (“Robot Chicken”) and H. JON BENJAMIN (“Archer”).

SHOWS, WRITERS, DIRECTORS “The Daily Show,” starring JON STEWART, is nominated for best comedy series and for best comedy writing. “Mad Men,” created and produced by MATTHEW WEINER, is up for best drama series, and Weiner is also up for a writing Emmy. Likewise, “Lost” is nominated for best drama series and series co-creator/producer DAMON LINDELOF is nominated for writing the show.

“You Don’t Know Jack,” an HBO original film about Jack Kevorkian, the physician who assisted at many suicides, is nominated for best original TV film. Its director, BARRY LEVINSON, is up for an Emmy for best director of a made-for-TV film. He competes with BOB BALABAN (“Georgia O’Keefe”) and JEREMY PODEWSKA (“The Pacific”).

Other interesting nominees include STEVE LEVITAN (the co-creator of the hit sitcom “Modern Family. He’s up for writing the show); ADAM SHANKMAN (nominations for best choreography/producing—the Oscars telecast); and AGNIESZKA HOLLAND, best director of drama series episode, the pilot for HBO’s “Treme.” Holland grew-up in post-war Poland; her Jewish father barely survived the Holocaust. Her Catholic mother fought with the Polish underground. Holland’s best known feature film is the Holocaust movie, “Europa, Europa.”

JERRY’S STORIES I chanced to see JERRY WEINTRAUB’s new autobiography, “When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead,” on the library shelf. Before reading the book, I knew almost nothing about Weintraub, a big time celeb manager, concert promoter and film producer. No doubt, Weintraub has lived an eventful life. But I’d wait for the paperback or get a library copy before forking over $27 for the hardcover.

The Bronx-raised Weintraub, now 72, came from a stable Jewish family and could have gone into his father’s jewelry business. But Jerry was always on the hustle for something better. This included a brief stint as an acting student in the late ‘50s. He didn’t make it as an actor, but his studies brought him into showbiz.

I am not sure I would like the “real” Weintraub, but there’s no denying he has been a big giver to Jewish causes, especially Chabad.

More interesting than Weintraub himself are the stories about the famous—like Elvis, Frank Sinatra, John Denver, and the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Some tales are funny; while others reveal character: In 1965, the senior George Bush barely knew Weintraub. But when he heard that Jerry was barred from playing at Bush’s Maine tennis club by an anti-Semitic club employee—he invited Jerry to play there with him, and the next day—the whole powerful Bush clan put Jerry up for membership—thus forever ending discrimination at the club.

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FROM THE PAGES 100 Years Ago Miss Addie Weihl, of Cleinview Avenue, East Walnut Hills, left Wednesday evening to spend a few weeks with her brother, Mr. Abe Weihl, of Jacksonville, Ill. She was accompanied by Miss Addie Wachtel, of Rockdale Avenue, Avondale.

Miss Maude Fleischman has returned from a short concert tour, in which she met with her usual success.

This winter Miss Fleischman will go

on an extended tour through the west, to and including the Pacific coast, where her splendid voice and charming personality will surely win her well-deserved recognition.

Mrs. Sophia Hassenbusch, who died in Richmond, Ind., on August 17, after a lingering illness, was born and raised in Cincinnati. She was the wife of Joseph Hassenbusch, of Richmond, Ind., and beside him,

leaves a daughter, Gertrude. She is also survived by four sisters — Mrs. Sam Hassenbusch, of St. Joseph, Mo.; Mrs. Fred Slesser, Mrs. B.J. Mayer and Mrs. Sarah Silverberg, of Cincinnati, and two brothers, Messrs.

Sol and Ben Rosenheim, also of this city. The burial took place on August 21 from the residence of Dr. J.B. Mayer, and interment at the United Jewish Cemetery. —August 25, 1910

75 Years Ago The Misses Shirley and Janet Blumenthal have just returned to the city, having spent a delightful summer at Camp Pinemere, Minocqua, Wis. Mr. and Mrs. J.F. Blumenthal visited the girls while at camp.

Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Weinberg announce the bar mitzvah of their son Hillel, on Saturday morning, September 7th, at the Avondale Synagogue, Reading Road and

Lexington Avenue. Mr. and Mrs. Weinberg will receive in honor of Hillel at their home, 673 N. Crescent Avenue, on Sunday evening, Sept.

8th. No cards.

Mr. and Mrs S.E. Greenberg, 111 W. 11th Street, Covington, Ky., will be at home Sunday afternoon and evening, Sept 1st, in honor of the bar mitzvah of their son, Adrian. The religious ceremony will be held Saturday

morning, Aug 31st, at Temple Israel, E. Seventh Street, Covington.

Returning this week from Camp Agawak, Minocqua, Wis., were Mrs. Ruth Greendfield, a director of the camp, and the Misses Marion Cronbach, Dorothy Mombach, Muriel Mayer, Joan Waldman, Dolores Bien, Betty Steinharter, Joan Klein and Jacqueline Mosler. — August 29, 1935

50 Years Ago The compulsory Sunday observance laws of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania are unconstitutional, a brief filed in U.S. Supreme Court by a number of Jewish religious and civic groups contends.

Any Supreme Court ruling on this issue will have far-reaching effect, since many states have Sunday closing laws similar to those of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.

Three major grounds are cited for this contention: The laws are religious laws and thus infringe the First Amendment

which prohibits laws respecting an establishment of religion.

Even if they are considered welfare laws as has been argued, they nevertheless restrain freedom of religion of persons who observe a day other than Sunday as Sabbath.

They arbitrarily and unreasonably permit some activities and forbid others, thus in effect depriving individuals of liberty and property without due process of law and denying equal protection of the laws, which are guaranteed by the 14th Amendment.

Mr. and Mrs. Saul E. Shuller,

1605 Miramar Court, invite their relatives and friends to worship with them at the forthcoming bar mitzvah of their son, Melvin Allan, Saturday, Sept. 3 at 9 a.m. at the Louis Feinberg Synagogue. A kiddush will follow.

A reception in Melvin’s honor will be held Sunday, Sept 4, at 8:30 p.m. at Shuller’s Wigwam, College Hill. Relatives and friends are asked to attend. No cards.

Melvin is a grandson of Mr. and Mrs. Max Shuller of Cincinnati and the late Mr. and Mrs. Ben Allen. — August 25, 1960

25 Years Ago Philip M. Meyers Jr. has been appointed the general campaign chairman for the 1986 Jewish Welfare Fund, announced Federation president Robert M. Blatt.

“I am thrilled that Phil has accepted this position, because I know that he will bring a great deal of prestige and a long-standing family tradition of commitment to this post,” Mr. Blatt said. Philip Meyers Sr. was the Chairman of the Jewish Welfare Fund in 1947.

Dr. and Mrs. James B. White proudly announce the bat mitzvah of their daughter Jaime Beth, on Friday, Sept. 6 at 8:15 p.m. at Adath Israel Synagogue.

Jaime is the granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred B. Katz and the late Dr. and Mrs. S.S. Willis of Southfield, Mich.

Mr. and Mrs. Mark Moler (Robin Seltzer) of Dallas announce the birth of a son, Gregory Howard, Aug 12.

Grandparents are Mr. and Mrs.

David Seltzer and Ms. Paula Moler.

Great-grandmothers are Mrs. Harry (Rose) Seltzer and Mrs. Gus (Celia) Cohen.

Mrs. Nancy Kasdin Shapiro of 216 Greeenland Avenue passed away Aug. 20.

She is survived by her husband, Henry D. Shapiro; three sons Lawrence, Elliot and Mathew; her mother, Mrs. Hilda Kasdin of Morristown, N.J.; and a grandmother, Mrs. Eva Block, of Miami Beach. —August 29, 1985

10 Years Ago The Sixth Annual JCC Adams Golf Classic will be held on Wednesday, September 20, at Walden Ponds in Indian Springs, Ohio. Rick Kantor, one of this year’s JCC Adams Golf Classic co-chairs, explains, “This year, the event is held in memory of Kartan M. Mailender. I can’t think of a better person to honor as I reflect on his long-time devotion to the Jewish community Center. He was a friend of my father’s, and I feel fortunate to have known him since I was a young child. As a role

model, he was a man who gave of himself. He inspired philanthropy in others.”

Ronald and Jeanette Turner, of West Chester, Ohio, announce the engagement of their daughter, Karin Elizabeth, to Mr. Thomas David Benjamin. Thomas is the son of Lois and the late Thomas S. Benjamin of Glendale, Ohio. He is the grandson of the late Dr. & Mrs. Julien Benjamin of Cincinnati, Ohio.

Albert J. Butchkes, 90, passed away on August 14, 2000, in

Plantation, Fl. Mr. Butchkes was born in Cincinnati, Ohio to the late Isadore and Bertha Butchkes. He was the husband of the late Mary Butchkes. He is survived by his children, Stephanie and Robert Hauser of Plantation, Florida. Mr. Butchkes is also survived by his grandchildren, Laura Hauser of New York City and Jeffrey hauser of Plantation, Florida; a brother, Sydney Butchkes of New York City; and a brother-in-law, Morris Russak of Cincinnati, Ohio. — August 24, 2000

CLASSIFIEDS

THURSDAY, AUGUST 26, 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 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

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ADOPTION from page 1 Family Council—a site visit to Jewish Family Service’s (JFS) Adoption Connection was a particularly meaningful encounter. After meeting with JFS staff, Schwartz recalled that, “learning about Adoption Connection was a very eye-opening experience. I was so impressed with the professionalism of the JFS staff and their dedication to their work.”

As the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati’s Planning & Allocations committee endeavors to determine how to allocate the Federation’s available dollars to partner and beneficiary agencies, members of the committee and its various councils have been making dozens of site visits to gain key insights into the community’s many programs and services—such as Adoption Connection.

For families in Cincinnati’s Jewish community wishing to adopt a child, Adoption Connection provides an unparalleled scope of COUPLE from page 1 committed to the American values of democracy and pluralism. These are values, Feisal argues in his book, “What’s Right with Islam,” that are intrinsic to Islam as well.

For this reason, our foundation has consistently supported Feisal’s effort to create an Islamic commnity center in New York that will serve as a high-profile platform from which to articulate that vision of peaceful and pluralistic Islam to Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

Months ago, he and his wife told the president of our foundation, Rabbi Marc Schneier, that they hope to create a center for MuslimJewish dialogue at the Islamic community center in cooperation with our foundation and the larger Jewish community.

Over the past three years, Rauf and Khan have taken part in an annual event sponsored by our foundation known as The Weekend of Twinning of Mosques and

services—including ongoing advocacy and support. JFS executive director Beth Schwartz and Adoption Connection director Samantha Tebelman said that, “We are the go-to place for same-sex couples, singles wishing to adopt and members of all faith communities. Furthermore, the agency also offers increased opportunities to facilitate international adoptions, creating more possibilities for potential adoptive families.”

Abby Schwartz says that for many of our community’s Jewish families —including those that do not conform to traditional family models—it is of utmost importance to have a culturally sensitive agency actively working on their behalf to help them achieve their adoption goals. “I feel so fortunate to have had this experience at Adoption Connection. It helped me to learn more about how our Federation’s dollars are utilized, and to be a part of a thoughtful process that ensures the continuity of such vital programs.”

Synagogues Across North America, during which mosques and synagogues offer one-on-one programs focusing on and celebrating commonalities in our two faith traditions.

From what I have learned, when Feisal set out during the past few years to bring to fruition his decades-old dream of creating an Islamic community center with a strong interfaith component in New York City, he was never much concerned about where the center would be located. Yet, when a space large enough to fulfill his vision became available two blocks north of Ground Zero, he saw special significance in the site. He argued that the building of an Islamic community center there dedicated to non-violence and mutual understanding among faiths would represent a deeply felt gesture of compassion and healing by the Muslims of New York to the entire New York community, including those who lost loved ones on 9/11.

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BUSINESS

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Local construction firm wins numerous design awards

By Elijah Plymesser Assistant Editor Stan Better, of Stan Better Construction, a Design and Build Firm in Cincinnati, has been awarded three awards in this year’s Qualified Remodeler Magazine Master Design Awards 2010. This

national competition showcases excellence in various different categories of design and construction.

Better has also been a proud supporter and volunteer for Camp Livingston for the past 10 years and was recently honored by the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati.

The awards received by Stan

Better Construction Co. Inc. were for their Conservatory Sunroom project done in Amberley Village.

Their second award was for a kitchen remodeling in the $50,000 to $100,000 category. This kitchen in Loveland went under an extreme makeover, with wall removal, all new cabinets and appliances, as

well as countertops.

The third award won was in the Light Commercial category and included a total renovation of the historic Plum Street Temple in Downtown. The design team for this project included K4 Architecture Interiors and Stan Better AIA Architects and was con-

structed by Stan Better construction. This renovation completely transformed a very outdated space into a vibrant meeting and dining hall that much better complements the above sanctuary. Stan Better Construction is proud to have received numerous other awards and accolades throughout the years.

Intellectual Property Institute celebrates 20th anniversary under Germain’s continued leadership Ken Germain, an attorney at Wood, Herron & Evans (Cincinnati’s largest intellectual property law “boutique”), will celebrate a milestone this year: the 20th anniversary of the intellectual property law seminar that he created and nurtured through the years.

Germain, who also is a University of Dayton School of Law (Program in Law and Technology) adjunct professor, began the All Ohio Annual Institute on Intellectual Property (AOAIOIP) with the Cincinnati Bar Association in 1990. It is now the CBA’s largest seminar, offering regional intellectual property attorneys the opportunity to hear topnotch presenters from all over the country lecture on current IP topics at one of two locations: Cincinnati and Cleveland. Last year’s program drew nearly 300 attendees in

Ken Germain

each location. Germain also has presented the “Trademark Law Developments” lecture every year.

The Sept. 21-22 event will commence with coverage of recent developments in patents, copy-

rights and trademarks. Other sessions will focus on ethics (featuring federal appellate judges) and updates from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (featuring two of the office’s top administrators).

A special anniversary celebration reception will kick off the Cincinnati session.

Germain received his J.D. degree from New York University School of Law, where he served as Associate Editor of the NYU Law Review. His academic career includes professorial positions at University of Kentucky College of Law, George Washington University National Law Center, American University Washington College of Law, University of Cincinnati College of Law and the University of Dayton School of Law. He has presented more than 200 professional lectures (almost

all on IP topics) over the years.

Germain has been a full-time practitioner since he moved to Cincinnati in 1988. His practice focuses on trademark and unfair competition law, with emphasis on consulting and troubleshooting regarding all issues of domestic law, including searching, filing/prosecution, licensing, and infringement.

Beyond that, Germain has testified as an expert witness in well over a dozen cases which took place all over the country. He is listed in these directories of outstanding practitioners: Best Lawyers in America; Ohio Super Lawyers; Chambers U.S. America’s Leading Lawyers.

Carrying on a practice and tradition of service founded in Cincinnati in 1868, Germain and his 51 colleagues at Wood, Herron & Evans provide a full spectrum of

intellectual property services to clients across the country and around the globe.

Germain (and his wife, Lois) are longtime, active members of Congregation Ohav Shalom, where, for many years, Germain has served on the board of directors and the executive committee, chaired many other committees, and co-chaired (with Lois) a number of entertainment fundraisers.

Founded in 1872, the Cincinnati Bar Association is one of the oldest and largest metro bar associations in the country. Its mission is to maintain the highest professional standards among attorneys, to enhance the professional competence of attorneys, to improve the administration of justice, to serve the needs of members, and to provide law-related service and education to the public.

Updating your closet with accessories

By Stephanie Davis-Novak Contributing Columnist Have you ever thought about calling into work because you felt like you had nothing to wear? Do you sigh when you flip on your closet light? What you need is a little style pick-me-up. Accessories are an easy and affordable to way to keep your closet from feeling dull and tired, and breathe new life into outfits.

Animal prints are everywhere this fall. But let’s face it: not everyone is brave enough to sport a leopard print dress, or can get away with wearing one to the office. Anyone can wear small doses of this print, though. A pair of leopard-print pumps really pops against a plain suit without being too flashy. Tory Burch and Beverly Feldman are just two of the designers offering eyecatching leopard print shoes this season, in both flats and pumps. Adding an animal print scarf, handbag or a belt is also a tasteful way to add some visual interest. The key is restraint – don’t mix animal prints in the same outfit, and a little goes a long way.

Brighten up your style with these vibrant Brahmin handbags.

Boots always add something extra to an outfit, and the trends this year are no exception. You will see a lot of over-the-knee styles this fall.

But if the thought of attempting to walk in platform over-the-knee boots makes your ankles cry, there are plenty of other fresh options. If you prefer flat boots, sleek equestrian-style riding boots are a stylish choice. You’ll see more wedge-heel

boots this coming season, which gives a little bit of height, but more stability than a typical high-heel boot. In general, look for boots with interesting details like laces, buckles, or cuffs, such as Kate Spade’s ruffled ankle boots. Adding a pair of chic, knee-length boots to an otherwise basic knee-length dress, gives it an instant boost.

One interesting trend this fall is

faux fur. Again, accessories are ideal for this trend because fur (faux or otherwise) works very well in smaller doses. You are going to see a lot of fur trim on coats and gloves. Faux fur mufflers or collars are ideal because they can be worn with coats, blazers, or even just a basic black turtleneck. Lafayette 148 has a fox muffler in their fall lineup, but faux fur is also widely available, even in couture brands such as Chanel. Try a faux fur vest to add a little glitz to an outfit. It’s surprising how much it can punch up a pair of jeans and a shirt, or even a simple dress. This is an edgier look, so you will need a little jewelry and some heels to get the look right.

Of course, no outfit would be complete without a bag. Look for structured handbags this season.

They should have a strong shape, but the look is definitely refined and sophisticated.

Brahmin and Longchamp have several styles that are great examples of this look.

Men can also use accessories to update their fall looks as well.

Messenger bags are not only practical, they’re quite stylish. Plus, you won’t have to ask your wife to hold

your keys in her purse anymore.

Mulberry has a professional, modern style that can be converted to a briefcase. Jack Spade offers more casual versions in other materials.

Leather jackets will also be popular this fall and winter, particularly bomber jackets and motorcycle jackets, which have a leaner, straight fit. Look for both of these styles in lambskin as well, which is a modern take on the traditional leather.

Kensie faux fur vest makes any outfit warm and stylish.

AUTOS

THURSDAY, AUGUST 26, 2010

21

New XJ is a treat so sweet

2011 Jaguar XJ

By Elijah Plymesser Assistant Editor After battling through years of leaking fluids, high maintenance V-12s and an “owned by Ford” stigma, Jaguar has finally come out on top. Say what you will about the British luxury sportsters, Jaguar has managed to provide the masses with a thrilling, elegant four door. Finally gone are the classic four round headlights, replaced by a front fascia more reminiscent of the sportier XK and XF models. Yet there is no reason to think that this XJ is a slouch. Gone as well are the sluggish six-cylinders of the most recent design, and in is a growling, naturally-aspirated (ie no supercharger or turbocharger) eight cylinder, pumping out a generous 385 horsepower. The 2011 XJ continues to build on the 2010 model (the initial year of the revamped design) and continues to harken back to the original XJs of the late ‘60s and ‘70s.

The interior of this new Jaguar is more than a treat, laden with enough wood, chrome and leather to make any executive drool. It is certainly a departure from emulating the more plain interiors of the German luxury cars the last generation of XJ attempted. The combination of the panoramic moonroof, interior mood lighting, heated and cooled seats, climate control and a 600 watt premium sound system all come together on the impressive Jaguar Media Hub. Instead of the traditional instrument panel, one is treated to a high definition 12.3 inch TFT display which provides the driver with all the necessary readouts. All this plush leather and the option of Burl Walnut, Satin Elm or optional

Carbon Fiber scream luxury and style. Bring the 385-hp engine and 19-inch Aleutian Alloy wheels back into the equation and you are reminded that this machine also screams speed. The 8-inch HD display on the center console brings together navigation, media and a hard drive, as well as a Bluetooth cell phone support.

Power is mated to a six-speed automatic transmission with Jaguar Sequential Shift which provides the choice of Drive, Sport Automatic or Manual Gearshift modes. The shifting is done by racing style paddle shifters mounted behind the steering wheel. This provides the XJ with a swift zero to 60 time of 5.4 seconds, quite impressive for a British four-door weighing in at a few pounds over 2-tons. Despite this the XJ comes with a respectable 19 combined mpg. All that power though is limited to an electronically governed top speed of 121 mph.

For the XJL model, owners get a power boost to 470 hp from the same V-8, but with a supercharger.

The Supersport model provides for the ultimate thrill ride though, with a 510-hp supercharged beast under the hood and a zero to 60 time of 4.7 seconds.

The base model XJ will set you back $72,500, certainly 7-series territory, with the XJL coming in at $79,500, up to $90,500 with the supercharged engine.

The Supersport XJL has a top of the line premium—$113,000. For that price you can be assured you are owning one of the finest motoring machines in production. This newest incarnation of the XJ is everything that Jaguar needs to make a big presence in the 21st century. We can only hope that Jaguar keeps on delivering winners like this one.

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OBITUARIES

DEATH NOTICES VAN DAVIS, Barbara Rubel, age 67, died on August 13, 2010; 3 Elul, 5770 HERSHEY, Dr. Daniel, age 79, died on August 19, 2010; 9 Elul, 5770 TSEVAT, Miriam, age 93, died on August 22, 2010; 12 Elul, 5770

OBITUARIES VAN DAVIS, Barbara Rubel Barbara Rubel van Davis, 67, formerly of Cincinnati, Ohio, died Friday, Aug. 13, 2010, at her home in Überlingen, Germany, of pancreatic cancer.

Barbara was born June 13, 1943, to Walter and Dorothea JFS from page 1 saving money, the JFS relocation has provided the organization with a far more visible and accessible locale for the community. “By moving to the campus, JFS can strengthen even more lives. Our community will have easier access and awareness of our wide range of professional and expert services,” said JFS director, Beth Schwartz.

The decision is ultimately aimed at making JFS—as well as the JCC and the Jewish Federation—an even more streamlined, well-oiled machine for the

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(Payne) Rubel, of Cincinnati, Ohio. As president of the Rubel Baking Company, Walter Rubel’s wish was that someday Barb would work in the family business, but she chose instead a career as a clinical psychologist.

Graduating from Anderson High School in 1961, Barb continued her education at the University of Cincinnati, where she earned a B.A. in psychology, magna cum laude, was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and was voted Outstanding Psychology Student of her class.

She was presented with the Doris Twitchell Allen Award for Outstanding Senior Woman for excellence in scholarship and service in 1981 by the U.C. Psychology Department. Barbara earned an M.A. in psychology and completed all but her doctoral dissertation at U.C., forced to leave because of post-polio complications.

At age 5, Barbara was stricken

with polio in the great epidemic of 1948-49. Barb was consigned to an iron lung, and her doctors said she would never walk again. Through years of physical therapy, many surgical procedures and great determination, Barb not only learned to walk, she would eventually practice her profession at the Central University Clinic in Cincinnati and later as a clinical psychologist at Salem International College in Germany until her recent retirement.

Barbara was married to Cincinnati radio personality Dick Pike, with whom she had two sons, Jason and Anthony. While still a graduate student, Barbara started the first post-polio group in Cincinnati, and her work with this group helped establish one of the first post-polio clinics in Ohio.

In 1987 Barbara gave a lecture at an international post-polio conference in St. Louis, where she met

Jeffrey van Davis, a Chicago filmmaker and university professor, who was shooting a documentary about post-polio syndrome. The couple married and moved their family to Tucson, where Barbara was active in a writers’ workshop and began her writing career, subsequently completing two featurelength screenplays and a book of poetry. In March of this year, Barb took part in the American tour of the documentary film “Only A God Can Save Us” (2009), an account of the life of German philosopher Martin Heidegger and his involvement in Nazism, which she co-wrote and edited with her husband, Jeffrey.

Although suffering from complications from polio, Barbara lived an active life as mother, writer, clinician and environmental activist. An avid reader, she loved music of all kinds and searching for flea market antiques. She cared

deeply for the environment, progressive politics and visiting other countries and cultures, and most of all she loved being with her family.

In lieu of contributions, Barbara has asked that people work toward making a better world with peace and justice, be open to other cultures, fight racism in all its forms, and preserve the natural environment. How? Do it at the local level. Do something to make your town a better place. Treat all people with respect. Be the best parent a child could ever wish to have.

Barbara is survived by her sons, Jason (Allison) Pike, of Plainfield, Ill., and Anthony (Colleen) Pike of Oswego, Ill.; and by four grandchildren, Allison, Carson and Anderson Pike and Shelby Ritsema.

Memorial services were held at the Überlingen City Cemetery chapel in Überlingen, Germany, on Thursday, Aug. 19.

community. Sharon Stern, chief operating officer of the Jewish Federation, who worked in order to make this move a functioning reality, stated that the end goal is to make Cincinnati one of the tightest knit, most functional and collaborative Jewish communities of its size. “It is something we should be very proud of,” Stern said when describing the community oriented leaders that helped this move happen.

It is not a change without sacrifices though, something that Jewish Federation CEO Shep Englander points out. “We recog-

nized that the services provided by the Mayerson JCC and Jewish Family Service would better serve our community if they were colocated...it became clear that all three would need to sacrifice some physical space, and I want to thank all three organizations for putting the community’s needs over their personal prerogatives.”

Bruce Baker, the president of Jewish Family Service had similar sentiments on the issue. “The JFS Board recognizes the adjustments the JFS staff had in leaving behind private offices for shared open spaces. But everyone agrees that this sacrifice is worth the benefits to our agency and to our community.” But at what price will those benefits of co-location come? One of the challenges that both Stern and Scwhartz acknowledged was properly handling the integration of a direct service agency into an office environment. The simple

fixes have mostly been addressed; for example, in order to better facilitate independence, the Jewish Federation sacrificed a section of its lobby/front desk area to make way for a JFS front desk and a dedicated entrance for JFS. Unfortunately a deeper issue remains, which will be far more difficult to remedy. The layout of the offices are open, which is a significant departure from the private offices formerly held by JFS workers. Part of what makes JFS effective is the setting of privacy and confidentiality necessary to foster a trusting environment to share deeply personal issues. Having an open cubicle based layout, where sound waves may travel quite liberally is certainly a setback which JFS and other organizations are working on. Imagine the difficulty for a stranger to come in and share deeply personal concerns knowing that workers in the adjacent cubi-

cles may be privy to their conversations without their consent. Even more difficult, imagine a Jewish Federation or JCC employee who may need to utilize the services of JFS. It is reasonable to see how this could potentially erode a culture of trust JFS has worked so hard to foster.

Even in light of these significant challenges for JFS, the colocation is ultimately beneficial for the community, especially with the upcoming merger of Big Brothers/Big Sisters with Jewish Family Service. Having the resources of the Mayerson JCC will undoubtedly provide JFS’ clientele with valuable resources.

Something Schwartz sought to emphasize was the idea that “it is good to seek out services,” something that placing Jewish Family Service at the center of Jewish community life will certainly improve.

JCC from page 1

selor on my right is helping us, because our funding is going to be pretty much follow the same way that JCC got its fund-raising,” Khan said. “First, we have to develop a board. Then the board is going to have a financial committee, fund-raising committee that will be in charge of the fundraising.”

Many critics of the project express concern that the money to pay for the Islamic cultural center might come from overseas sources with ties to terrorism. Khan said

that she and her husband have pledged to work with U.S. authorities to alleviate such concerns.

In the interview, Levitt slammed former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich — one of the most prominent critics of the project — for comparing the project to Nazis putting up a site next to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. She also invoked periods in early American history, when some colonies outlawed the building of synagogues.

Ironic how an institution (Academia) which ought to promote the free exchange of ideas in an open forum, is seeking to blacklist Israel and those associated with her. It is imperative that not just as Jews, but as citizens of the free world, we exercise our right to set the historical record straight, without the threat of being silenced or denigrated because of supporting Israel’s

existence. In warping history, Israel’s detractors seek to delegitimize a clearly legitimate action in history. And they seek to do so by placing each and every opponent of theirs back into the House of Bondage, barring them from sharing their ideas, correcting wrongs, and stimulating discussion— something we dearly need, especially in the Arab regions of the world.

Ground Zero is a slap in the face to those that died there and their families. Some of the opponents also argue that the symbolic location of the project will embolden antiAmerican Islamic forces.

Khan said that when she and her husband begin to raise money for the estimated $100 million project, they will be seeking more advice from Levitt and the JCC. “Well, this is where my counEXODUS from page 16 This enslavement of both the historical record, as well as current reality, by opponents of Israel is not only occurring in the Land of Bondage. It is a phenomenon seen around the world in numerous Israel boycotts and divestment campaigns, the most despicable of them all (in my opinion) being the UK Academic Boycott of Israel.