Yom Kippur at Temple Sholom
JCC annual meeting Adath Israel to be held Sept. 21 welcomes all on
Following the traditional morning Yom Kippur service, Temple Sholom will provide an opportunity for all ages and abilities to remain in the synagogue while exploring non-traditional avenues of reflection and prayer. These sessions will take place in the time between the Yom Kippur morning service and the afternoon Yizkor service which commences at 2:45 p.m.and concluding Yom Kippur service of Neilah. Remember, all are welcome and no tickets are required. “Yoga for Yom Kippur” with Richard "Dick" Stone will take place in Room #1. Gather in the Schwartz Family Chapel to learn about “Ancient Text in Modern Music” with Student Rabbi David Gerber. Congregant Jack Grubbs will lead the discussion, “Israel, Do We Want Peace” in the Rabbi’s Study. Or take a “Meditative Walk” outdoors with Temple Sholom’s vice president, Pam Hudson. Call the Temple office for directions and schedule for Kol Nidre and Yom Kippur day.
The entire community is invited to celebrate the second birthday of the Mayerson JCC at their annual meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 21, at 7 p.m. Several awards will be presented at this meeting, including the Sigmund M. Cohen Memorial Award, the Kovod Society Award, the JCC Community Partnership Award and JCC staff awards. The evening program is free, and includes news and information about the JCC, as well as the election of the 2010/11 JCC board and officers. There will be live entertainment and a birthday cake reception after the meeting. All adults are welcome to attend. One of the highlights of every JCC annual meeting is the announcement of the JCC Kovod Award winner. Since 1942, the Kovod Society has recognized individuals who have distinguished themselves by rendering unselfish service to the JCC over a period of years, and who give evidence of Jewish communal leadership. Last year’s winner was Dianne Rosenberg, who has served on multiple boards and committees, both within the Jewish community and the Greater Cincinnati community.
“The High Holy Day period creates an extraordinary opportunity for renewal and beginning new things in our lives,” said Rabbi Irvin Wise of Adath Israel Congregation. He has a message for anyone seeking a place to worship. His congregation is offering a warm welcome. The congregation has made it a priority to open its doors during Yom Kippur and throughout the year. “We are egalitarian and inclusive, for lifelong Cincinnatians and newcomers to the area,” said Wise. “Interfaith couples and families should know that they can find a home here, as well as people who are single, and people who are gay. I want everyone with an interest in leading a rich, meaningful Jewish life to have a congregational home with us, if that is what he or she desires.” Adath Israel Congregation will never let financial circumstances be an obstacle to full participation by potential
JCC on page 19
ADATH on page 19
Jewish groups step up efforts to combat anti-Muslim bigotry
The peace talks — and their obstacles By Ron Kampeas Jewish Telegraphic Agency WASHINGTON (JTA) — Peace in a year? Try getting past Sept. 26. Or is it 30? Direct talks between Palestinians and Israelis have barely begun and already the sides are facing their first major hurdle — the end of Israel’s partial moratorium on settlement building. Several issues might beset the sides as they aim to meet the yearlong deadline suggested by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and endorsed (with considerable enthusiasm) by President Obama and (with less enthusiasm) by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. The hard questions — the status of Palestinian refugees and the sharing of
Yom Kippur
Jerusalem — promise to vex the negotiators, as they have for years. Even before that point, however, a number of issues already are creating anxieties among negotiators in Jerusalem, Ramallah and Washington. That moratorium: Netanyahu placed a partial moratorium on settlement building to entice Abbas to the negotiating table. It lapses Sept. 26 — although not effectively until Sept. 30 because of the Sukkot holiday — and Netanyahu has said he will not renew it. Abbas says he will not be able to continue talks without it. U.S. officials are pressing the sides to come up with a way out before the next meeting of TALKS on page 20
By Sue Fishkoff Jewish Telegraphic Agency SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) — Jewish groups have stepped up efforts to combat anti-Muslim bigotry, with several national initiatives announced this week and supporting statements coming in from a range of Jewish voices. In Washington, officials from several Jewish organizations took part Tuesday in an emergency summit of Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders that denounced antiMuslim bigotry and called for a united effort by believers of all faiths to reach out to Muslim Americans. Also Tuesday, the Anti-Defamation League announced the creation of an Interfaith Coalition on Mosques, which
Courtesy of Vince Isner
Rabbis Nancy Fuchs-Kreimer and David Saperstein taking part in an interfaith summit in Washington, Sept. 7, 2010.
will monitor and respond to instances of anti-Muslim bias surrounding attempts to build new mosques in the United States. BIGOTRY on page 20
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Program provides support, advocacy for Cedar Village’s new Americans Russian-speaking residents say program manager Nina Layliev is a “life-saver” For Adolf Edelman—a Russian-speaking resident of Cedar Village who fled from the Nazis during World War II and then fought in the Russian army—Nina Layliev is a “life-saver.” Layliev manages the New Americans Community Support Program at Cedar Village, providing advocacy and support services for Edelman and the facility’s other Russianspeaking residents. Layliev helps these 14 residents with translations and interpretations—heightening their ability to communicate more effectively and increasing their social opportunities within Cedar Village and beyond. During a recent site visit to Cedar Village to learn more about the New Americans Community Support Program, members of the Jewish Federation’s Planning & Allocations committee’s Senior Adult Family Council met Edelman, who told them more about his life’s story and expressed
THE ART OF ROSH HASHANAH Nina Layliev and Adolf Edelman share their stories with volunteers from the Jewish Federation’s Senior Adult Council.
his gratitude to the federation, which provides funding for the support program. “Mr. Edelman and others told us how vital Nina really is to their lives; and how the services she provides for them are life-enabling,” said Edie Rau, a member of the Senior Adult Council who attended the site visit. “For example, without the services that Nina works so hard to
provide, individuals such as Mr. Edelman would not be able to share his unique and compelling story with the wider community.” Council members were also impressed with the scope of services Layliev brings to the residents on a daily basis. Senior Adult Council volunteers Edie Rau, Lothar Haas PROGRAM on page 20
Rosh Hashanah Cover Coloring Contest entries can be seen at Marx Hot Bagels 9701 KENWOOD ROAD • BLUE ASH
New classes at Wise The Isaac M. Wise Temple announces a new and exciting schedule of adult learning opportunities for 2010-2011. Barbara Dragul, director of Education & Lifelong Learning, along with the Eitz Chayim, the adult education committee, have put together a stimulating array of classes touching on many different topics with a variety of times scheduled to meet the varying needs and interests of adult learners. This coming year’s course offerings include focuses on text study, historical Jewish perspectives, contemporary Jewish issues, Jewish beliefs, adult Hebrew and more. As a recipient of the prestigious Congregation of Learner’s Award for “outstanding adult education programs” from the Union for Reform Judaism, Wise is committed to offering a breadth and depth of adult Jewish learning opportunities for its congregants. The following is a sampling of the classes being offered this fall: A Saga of Indiscretion: The Book of Judges; Who Was Isaac Mayer Wise; The Creation Stories of Genesis; Blessings, Prayers and Worship; and Women in the Rabbinate. In addition Wise Temple
is offering a 4-part series on Biblical Models of Leadership. This series, which will examine the leadership styles and methods of Moses, Joshua, Deborah and Solomon, will be offered on Sunday mornings throughout the year as well as downtown on Thursdays at noon. Also, each week at Wise Center there is a Shabbat morning Torah study where congregants delve into and discuss the week’s Torah portion. Wise Temple is also offering a Beginning Hebrew for Adults class this year. Meeting on Wednesday afternoons at the same time that the children study Hebrew (4:45-5:45 p.m.), these adult classes move from simple decoding skills, to a focus on liturgy. In its efforts to make adult Jewish learning accessible to all of its congregants, Wise Temple offers classes at varied times, from Sunday morning sessions to downtown Thursday classes to weekly Tuesdays with Torah from noon-1 p.m. Wise Temple welcomes the participation of members and non-members in most classes, lectures and programs, which are taught by Wise Temple’s rabbis and special guests.
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The founders of Friends of Cedar Village to be honored The founders of The Friends of Cedar Village will be honored on Sunday, Sept. 26 at 2 p.m. in the Chai Court at Cedar Village. Rabbi Gerry Walter will dedicate a special block of inscribed pavers dedicated to the founders of The Friends of Cedar Village, and will honor this group of women who came together in August 1994 from the auxiliaries of The Orthodox Jewish Home and Glen Manor to create The Friends of
Cedar Village. Friends and families of all who are being honored are invited to attend the ceremony and reception. According the Nancy Schwartz, the chair of the Chai Court project since its creation in 1997, “The Friends have been an integral part of Cedar Village since its inception, ground breaking and actual building dedication. (Neither) their financial support nor the hours of volunteerism and commitment can
be measured. The Friends are always there whether for funding needed equipment, hosting parties, helping with outings, working in the Gift Shop, or filling orders in the Deli! So we honor these Founders who have made all this possible. Please join us.” The founders of the Friends of Cedar Village include Carolyne Abravaya, Bess Block, Lucy Costello, Clara Comisar, Ellouise Creech, Leah Gerber, Reva
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Ganson, Hannah Hattenbach, Evelyn Horowitz, Gertie Kirzner, Peggy Katz, Evelyn Kabakoff, Jeanette Koff, Sally Korkin, Jennie Lucas, Minette Lebowitz, Terry Mabo, Freddy Mayer, Ida Minson, Fran Nidich, Alice Price, Fritzie Price, Citti Samuel, Rose Sandle, Roz Schickler, Freda Schwartz, Nancy Schwartz, Pearl Schwartz, Ruth Schwartz, Idell Stein, Sylvia Walsh, Bess Wolf and Florence Zaret.
Hadassah to hold local open meeting The Cincinnati Chapter of Hadassah will hold its opening meeting/installation on Monday, Sept. 20 at 11:45 a.m. at Carrabba’s Italian Grill in Mason. Co-chairs for the event are Renee Sandler and Teri Junker, and Renee Sandler is installing officer. Tobe Snow will be honored for her accomplishments as president of the Cincinnati Chapter for the past three years, as she begins her new positions as programming vice president, coffee talk coordinator and immediate past president. Bobbi Handwerger and Sharon Casper will be installed as the new chapter co-presidents. Both are recent returnees to active participation in Hadassah. They are also life members, as are their daughters and Sharon’s daughter-in-law. Sharon Casper was born and raised in Cincinnati and has lived here her whole life except for a few years in Middletown. She moved back to Cincinnati in 1985 and fondly remembers that one of the first calls she received was an invitation to come to a Hadassah meeting. Sharon graduated from the University of Cincinnati College of Nursing and Health and worked in
nursing for many years. After taking off a few years to be home with her children, she returned to work in clerical/administrative positions at Jewish and Christ Hospitals. She
Durham-Chapel Hill Chapter. She was born and raised in the Washington, D.C., area and graduated from Barnard College. She and her husband, Stuart, lived in New
“Hadassah has been doing wonderful, life saving work for nearly 100 years, and I am so proud to be part of such a long line of Hadassah women.” Bobbi Handwerger. has served as editor of the Chapter Bulletin for the past several years, but became even more active in Hadassah as soon as she retired. She is passionate about Hadassah’s many projects in Israel and wants to encourage all Hadassah members to share her passion. Sharon is married to Jeff and has three grown children and two grandchildren. Bobbi Handwerger joined Hadassah in 1971 in Durham, N.C., and became a life member in 1975 during her tenure as president of the
York City, Bethesda, Md., Boston, Mass., and Durham, N.C., (where she earned a master’s degree at Duke University) before moving to Cincinnati in 1990. They also spent a sabbatical year in Rehovot, Israel. Bobbi contacted the Hadassah office as soon as she moved to Cincinnati and was active in the Mt. Scopus group until it disbanded. She worked in the Dean’s Office at the UC College of Medicine as Director of Recruitment Programs and K-12 Outreach until her retirement in
2007. As soon as she retired, she returned to active participation in Hadassah, serving as co-chair of Education Day for three years. She loves Israel and has seen Hadassah’s work in action during her many visits to Jerusalem. In addition, Stuart has had many Hadassah-trained Israeli physicians in his laboratories at Duke and CCHMC. Bobbi and Stuart have two grown children and two grandsons. Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, is a volunteer women’s organization whose members are motivated and inspired to strengthen their partnership with Israel, ensure Jewish continuity, and realize their potential as a dynamic force in American society. Founded in 1912, Hadassah retains the passion and timeless values of its founder, Henrietta Szold, Jewish scholar and activist, who was dedicated to Judaism, Zionism and the American ideal. “Hadassah has been doing wonderful, life saving work for nearly 100 years, and I am so proud to be part of such a long line of Hadassah women,” said Bobbi Handwerger. For more information, please call the Hadassah office.
Chabad Jewish Center presents Simchat Torah festivities for children, adults Once again, it is time to put on dancing shoes and dance the night away on Simchat Torah at Chabad Jewish Center. This year, kids have their very own Simchat Torah celebration to get in the spirit of the holiday. Thursday, Sept. 30, from 5:30 – 7 p.m., children will enjoy a delicious kids menu buffet dinner, create their very own Simchat Torah flag with Sandy Candy art and then learn Israeli dances with Idit Moss. “This event is guaranteed to be fun for the whole fami-
ly,” said Rabbi Berel Cohen, youth and family program director for Chabad Jewish Center. Immediately following the special children’s program, everyone is invited to stay and partake in the traditional Simchat Torah celebration at Chabad Jewish Center. Holiday services, a buffet dinner and plenty of L’Chaim (for the adults) will help everyone gear up for singing and dancing with the famous Chassidic spirit that is unparalleled elsewhere. Seven celebratory “hakafot” (circlings)
will be made around the Bimah while holding the Torahs. Simchat Torah literally means, “Joy of the Torah.” When we dance with the Torahs, the joy that we feel uplifts us and brings us together in unity. Not everyone may have the same capabilities when it comes to learning – but we all have feet and we can move! On Simchat Torah, we dance together with the Torahs, rejoicing in our unity as Jews, no matter whom we are or where we come from.
“Come and join us for an inspiring and happy holiday celebration. Just bring yourself, children, grandchildren, friends and lots of spirit, and we’ll provide the rest,” said Rabbi Yisroel Mangel, director of Chabad Jewish Center. On Friday morning, Oct. 1, we will conclude with the final reading of the Torah, and begin reading the Torah anew, with more singing, dancing and rejoicing. The festivities will be held at Chabad Jewish Center in Blue Ash.
The oldest English-Jewish weekly in America Founded July 15, 1854 by Isaac M.Wise VOL. 157 • NO. 6 Thursday, September 2, 2010 23 Elul, 5770 Shabbat begins Fri, 7:49 p.m. Shabbat ends Sat, 8:46 p.m. THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE CO., PUBLISHERS 18 WEST NINTH STREET, SUITE 2 CINCINNATI, OHIO 45202-2037 PHONE: (513) 621-3145 FAX: (513) 621-3744 publisher@americanisraelite.com editor@americanisraelite.com articles@americanisraelite.com production@americanisraelite.com HENRY C. SEGAL Editor & Publisher 1930-1985 MILLARD H. MACK Publisher Emeritus NETANEL (TED) DEUTSCH Editor & Publisher BARBARA L. MORGENSTERN Senior Writer LEEANNE GALIOTO 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 Advertising Sales JOSEPH D. STANGE Production Manager ALLISON CHANDLER Office Manager
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In awe of schach: Searching for the perfect sukkah covering By Edmon J. Rodman Jewish Telegraphic Agency LOS ANGELES (JTA) — His 14-foot-long pole saw in hand, Paul Nisenbaum is ready to head out into the great urban forest in a search for schach. The Los Angeles teacher and small businessman is among the many Jews throughout North America who will search their neighborhoods, from wilderness to city center, for a suitable sukkah roof covering. With Sukkot, the holiday when Jews construct and live in fragile, temporary booths coming a few days after Yom Kippur, the hunt is on. According to halachah, the schach should be something that once grew in the earth but is no longer attached to the earth. Once the schach is in place, most of the roof of the sukkah should be covered, with the test being that once inside, you see more shade than sun. Rabbi Isaac Luria, the 16th Century leader of kabbalistic teaching, even taught there is a connection between schach and divine inspiration. Mats made of bamboo seem to be the norm in America, but for Nisenbaum and others, only something more directly connected to their environment will bring inspiration. “I want the real thing,” said Nisenbaum, who long before the holiday scouts out suitable palm trees in his neighborhood. “While I’m walking to shul, I spot the good ones.” Up north, in Fairbanks, Alaska, Randall Miller looks to the natural resources of his area for schach. “We use local stuff from the forest,” he said. “Spruce boughs some years, and on others tall purple flowers called fireweed,” Miller said. “We use the long stalks which later in the season turn a purplish red.” Miller, whose sukkah temperatures drop to between 30 and 0 degrees, added that “Sometimes at night we see the stars through the roof, other times the stars and the falling snow.” In New York City, a national sukkah design contest called Sukkah City is challenging artists, architects, designers and sukkah enthusiasts to become halachically creative with sukkah design. Using Jewish law as well as city ordinance as design criteria, contest organizers Joshua Foer and Roger Bennett asked entrants for their sukkah visions. Recently a panel named the 12 finalists whose sukkahs will be
According to halachah, the schach should be something that once grew in the earth but is no longer attached to the earth. constructed in Union Square Park in the days before Sukkot. New Yorkers will vote and pick the winner, which will remain standing for the holiday as the “People’s Choice Sukkah.” Foer says for the roofs, “there are lots of possibilities beyond mats.” He noted that among the 600 entries, there were designs with roofs of “dried flowers, little pieces of wood veneer, fallen leaves” and one whose creators wanted to use an invasive species of grass. One of the 12 finalists, Volkan Alkanoglu, a Los Angeles architect and teacher who had never before been in a sukkah, used rattan for schach for his entry titled “Star Cocoon.” The cocoon’s curved support structure will be made of cane. Alkanoglu, who along with his team designed the sukkah on a computer, saw the unique materials and design parameters as a way “to bring people together.” Beyond contests and foraging, many still love their mats — especially those who live in desert climates, where green schach quickly dries up and shrivels. When Howard Scharfman of Tucson, Ariz., wants to search for schach in a desert region that he describes “as cactus and more cactus,” he visits his storage shed. Scharfman likes to use a woven bamboo mat to cover his sukkah, where he says temperatures average 100 degrees. “It’s a renewable resource,” he said. “I can use it year after year.” In the Midwest, one community is going to the farm for inspiration. East Side Veggies, a project of Congregation Shaarey Tikvah in the Cleveland area, is selling bundles of green cornstalks harvested from nearby Geauga County for $10 a bunch. “It’s not your typical bamboo matt covering,” said the schach sale coordinator, Matthew Fieldman. “The stalks are literally right from the field. This was alive not long ago, and it presents just a different atmosphere with nothing manufactured. “We are supporting Jewish values by reducing our footprint,” added Fieldman, who used corn-
stalks the previous Sukkot for his own sukkah. “We are supporting local agriculture and supplying something that every part of the Jewish community can use.” Fieldman says the cornstalks, which are some 6 feet in length, “long, lush and green,” are supplied by an Amish farming collective. “They completely knew what Sukkot is,” Fieldman said. “They respect what we are doing.” This year he ordered enough cornstalks for about 100 families. The previous Sukkot, Fieldman observed that the stalks, which start green before gradually turning brown, reminded him of the transitional nature of Sukkot and of life. “Once upon a time I used bamboo mats,” Fieldman said, but “then I met the farmers who grew this corn.” Edmon J. Rodman is a JTA columnist who writes on Jewish life from Los Angeles.
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Michael Oren, making the case for Obama By Ron Kampeas Jewish Telegraphic Agency WASHINGTON (JTA) — Michael Oren outlines what may be his toughest assignment: Making the case to a skeptical public for a leader who’s hard to pin down. Pitching Bibi to the Americans? No, that’s an easy one. The real problem for the Israeli ambassador to Washington is how to make Israelis understand President Obama. “Obama often doesn’t get the credit he deserves in Israel,” Oren said in a pre-Rosh Hashanah interview with the U.S. Jewish media. “I think it’s important at some point that he visits us.” The interview appeared to represent Oren’s most intensive effort yet to counteract speculation in some Jewish and Israeli corners that the Obama administration has been chilly, if not outright hostile, toward the Netanyahu government. It comes at the start of renewed Israeli-Palestinian talks and a new anti-Iran sanctions regime, two developments seen as bolstering Israel’s need to be seen as enjoying strong relations with the White House. In the interview, Oren reviewed the strides of the past year and the challenges facing Israel and the Jewish world looking ahead. Among the accomplishments, he counted the renewed peace talks with the Palestinians and overcoming the public disagreements between the United States and Israel over those talks. Along the same lines, he also listed his ability to settle public disagreements with J Street, a left-wing pro-Israel group that has faced heavy criticism from centrist and right-wing critics. As for future challenges, Oren said the prospect of a nuclear Iran loomed large. Less threatening, but nonetheless clearly a concern for him, was handling criticism from pro-Israel hawks now that the Jewish state was plunging into peace talks that would involve compromise. Oren, who was born and raised in New Jersey, brings to his understanding of the Obama administration the nuance of a historian versed in the trajectories of both nations. He said that a major part of his job is explaining the Obama administration to Israelis, through interviews with Israeli media. “I try to put it in perspective, Israelis are tough,” he said, using a Hebrew colloquialism that means “You can’t put one over on them.” “I don’t try to polish things up. We’ve had disagreements over settlements, we’ve had disagreements over Jerusalem — but you’ve got to see a big picture. The U.S.Israel relationship is vast.” Oren went on to outline areas of
cooperation — defense, commerce, intelligence sharing — that would characterize any American administration, Republican or Democrat, until a reporter asked the ambassador to get specific about Obama. “I have a different take on the Cairo speech,” Oren said, referring to Obama’s June 2009 speech to the Muslim world. The speech was lambasted in Israel and some U.S. Jewish circles for emphasizing Holocaust denial as an Arab failing but not making a broader case for ancient
Still, Oren implied that the harmony on this front might not last. “They have not yet in any way stopped enriching uranium or pressing on with their nuclear program,” he said of Iran. “So that’s going to be the true test, six or nine months down the road we’re going to have to reassess and see where the sanctions are going.” The Obama administration has said it wants a full year to test the Iranians. The Israeli and U.S. governments could conceivably fall out over whether a military strike is necessary to stop the nuclear program.
Courtesy of Ross Skeegan
Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, spent his first year on the job reaching out to a diverse mix of audiences, including in Dallas at the annual plenum of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs Plenum, Feb. 21, 2010.
Jewish claims to Israel. “A lot of people in Israel said the Cairo speech, they weren’t thrilled with the Cairo speech. I said, wait a second, this is the first time a president of the United States has gone to the heart of the Arab world and introduced Israel’s legitimacy, and said to the Arab world you’ve got to recognize the legitimate Jewish state,” Oren said. “It was an amazing thing; he didn’t get credit for it.” Oren also praised Obama for making good on his pledge to ramp up pressure on Iran through sanctions to make transparent its suspected nuclear program. The ambassador asserted that the multilateral sanctions are “biting” the Iranian regime. “He’s had a very robust position on Iran,” the ambassador said. “Again, I don’t think people understand fully just how determined he is to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.” Tellingly, the success surprises Oren. “We had the Iranian issue, which could have been the source of the greatest divisions between the Israeli and American governments, and over the course of this year you saw no daylight between our governments,” he said.
Oren played a role in speculation about U.S.-Israel differences when his conversations in conference calls with fellow diplomats were leaked to the media. His follow-up explanation at the time was the object of some derision: Oren insisted that he never said there was a “rift” in the relationship but a “shift.” He went some way in explaining the issue in his recent interview. “The administration promised change, and it’s an administration of change,” he said. “Obama is not a status quo president; he promised change domestically, he promised a change in foreign policy. One of my jobs was to figure out what this change was and report it back.” Change is scary, Oren suggested, and Obama needed to make his case directly to the Israeli public. “The timing has to be right,” Oren said. “I think that when he does come, when he reaches out, I think there will be a greater sense of support for him. It will be very important for the peace process — we’re going to be asked to take some big risks.” Restarting direct talks helped put behind Israel and the Palestinians the issues that had vexed them — settlements in the West Bank and building in eastern
Jerusalem — for the moment. Oren noted that the end of a 10-month Israeli partial moratorium on settlement building looms Sept. 26, and that while Israel understands the pressures leading Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, to demand its extension, Netanyahu is under pressure, too. Netanyahu’s “credibility is an asset for the peace process,” Oren said, anticipating a time — within a year, according to Israel’s timetable — that Netanyahu will have to make the case to the Israeli public for territorial concessions. “You don’t want in any way to impair his credibility.” Notably, Oren described the negotiations as among three entities — Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the United States. And he described the moratorium in terms of negotiations with the United States. “We’re discussing this with the administration very intensely, we’re looking for ways to get around the hurdle,” he said. Oren also anticipated resistance from the American Jewish right. “The moratorium was very unpopular with the American Jewish right,” he said. “I anticipate further, if we move down this road toward an agreement with the Palestinians, that’s just going to begin.” Oren said his tensions with J Street were overblown and are in any case behind them. He said he communicates regularly with the organization’s director, Jeremy Ben-Ami. “Does everything they do please me? They do not,” Oren said, referring to J Street’s criticism of both Israel and Hamas in the 2009 Gaza war. He hastened to add that “We understand that the American Jewish community is politically pluralistic, but the tent of pro-Israel organizations is a very big tent, is very inclusive.” Including J Street in a “proIsrael” tent is bound to be jarring to some ears, particularly among some centrist and right-wing proIsrael groups that have endeavored to describe the organization as representing the interests of a detached U.S. Jewish minority, if not an anti-Israel agenda. Oren clearly sees himself, however, as a bridge between Israel and the Jewish Diaspora. He noted his role in interim success having to do with women who want to worship equally at the Western Wall and in concerns about a Knesset bill that would have negated successes in getting Israel to recognize Reform and Conservative conversions. In the former case, he noted that the Prime Minister’s Office is now monitoring the situation and ensuring that women — while still unable to hold services at the Wall — have easy access to a nearby alternative site.
National Briefs Netanyahu hints at continuing freeze WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signaled he would heed, in part, an appeal from President Obama to continue the settlement freeze. “Between zero and one there are a lot of possibilities,” Haaretz quoted Netanyahu as telling his Cabinet ministers on Sunday. Other media quoted similar remarks from the prime minister, suggesting that he is considering quashing some — if not all — of the thousands of building permits set to kick in when the partial moratorium he imposed last fall expires on Sept. 26. After pressure by the United States, Netanyahu imposed the moratorium as a means of enticing Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to direct talks. Abbas has threatened to pull out of the direct talks renewed earlier this month unless the moratorium is extended. In a news conference last Friday, Obama made clear he would prefer the moratorium to continue. “What I’ve said to Prime Minister Netanyahu is that, given, so far, the talks are moving forward in a constructive way, it makes sense to extend that moratorium so long as the talks are moving in a constructive way,” Obama said. Obama also chided the Palestinians for their less than enthusiastic approach to the renewed process. “A major bone of contention during the course of this month is going to be the potential lapse of the settlement moratorium,” Obama said. “The irony is, is that when Prime Minister Netanyahu put the moratorium in place, the Palestinians were very skeptical. They said this doesn’t do anything. And it turns out, to Prime Minister Netanyahu’s credit and to the Israeli government’s credit, the settlement moratorium has actually been significant. It has significantly reduced settlement construction in the region. And that’s why now the Palestinians say, you know what, even though we weren’t that keen on it at first or we thought it was just window dressing, it turns out that this is important to us.” The sides return to talks this week, in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el Sheik. In Netanyahu’s officially released Cabinet remarks, he said his emphasis would be on Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, something Abbas has resisted.
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Effort helping nonprofit Jewish camps become more professional By Jacob Berkman Jewish Telegraphic Agency NEW YORK (JTA) — When Frank Silberlicht became executive director of Camp Young Judaea in Wimberley, Texas, in 1998, he had no idea his job eventually would change from getting a camp up and running to overseeing an organization that helps 80 nonprofit camps. But over the past decade or so, as private camps have ramped up their programming and facilities, nonprofit camps like the Young Judaea in Wimberley have realized that they need to do more than just patch up their aging facilities to compete. In Silberlicht’s case it meant evolving from a situation in which he would reach out to donors whenever something needed repair to creating an active board that raises $500,000 annually for capital improvements and coming up with a strategic plan to boost the camp’s population and facilities. “No one ever told me about fund raising,” Silberlicht said. “Now that is a big part of my job.” Young Judaea in Texas is one of 80 not-for-profit camps now working with the Harold Grinspoon Foundation’s Institute for Jewish Philanthropy in a program that offers consulting services to help camp administrators become more professional and millions of dollars in matching grants for improving camps. The foundation’s benefactor, Harold Grinspoon, was the pioneer in giving Jewish children cash incentives to attend Jewish summer camp, starting a program in 1995 in western Massachusetts that gave scholarships to first-time campers. As that project was picked up by the Foundation for Jewish Camp, which took the initiative nationwide and helped increase the number of Jewish campers to more than 75,000 in 2010, Grinspoon surveyed the camps he was helping to populate and realized that they were in dire need of updating. His institute deployed a team of consultants and mentors across the United States to work one-on-one with the camps to help them update their fund-raising operations, professionalize their lay leadership boards, initiate strategic plans and improve their fundraising technology. For camp administrators, that has meant more successful fundraising campaigns and more professional management. On the ground, campers are getting better facilities, new sports fields and renovated bunks. That helps increase enrollment, which in turn boosts the camps’ revenue streams and financial viability. “Jewish overnight camp includes groups that are 100 years old but that had been primarily living off of income [from camp
tuition], and with a lot of deferred maintenance,” Eric Phelps, the director of the Institute for Jewish Philanthropy, told JTA. “A camp could be 65 years old and have only 400 people in their database. We have helped them with technology to make sure they have a donor base of more than 6,000.” Over the past six years the institute has helped camps raise more than $60 million for capital improvements, expansions and endowments, along with $10.5 million in matching funds from Grinspoon. Grinspoon also is offering incentives to help camps start to think more seriously about soliciting bequests and legacy grants from donors by offering camps $25,000 in immediate grants over three years if they can meet specific goals for legacy giving. The project thus far has helped 31 camps bring in $31.8 million in legacy gifts. The Grinspoon Foundation also is working with the Jewish Community Center Association and the Mandel Center of the Jewish Federations of North America to develop a pilot program to bring to day camps the consulting services it has used with overnight camps. The groups have commissioned a study to be completed by the end of this year to examine the scope of day camps and to help day camps, overnight camps and Jewish community centers work together in mutually beneficial ways. “They have really been transformed,” said the foundation’s executive director, Joanna Ballantine. “There were facility issues and opportunity issues.” Or as Phelps put it, “The transformation has been visible and palpable. You wouldn’t recognize some of these camps. It would be like going from Hurricane Katrina to Palm Beach.” The foundation said it helped one of the smaller camps with which it worked to install donor management software, utilize social media to get guests to its first alumni reunion and raise more than $600,000 in two years — three times its annual operating budget. Another camp used its Grinspoon mentor to create a strategic plan and a master facilities plan to start a $6 million campaign, of which it already has raised $4.8 million, the foundation said. The camp also has plans to become a green camp, making its facilities, programming and operations environmentally sound. Camp Ramah of New England has worked with the institute over the past 18 months to help it enact a strategic plan that will make the Conservative camp network become more of a year-round resource to its constituents and potential constituents, board member Aaron Kass said.
Harold Grinspoon Foundation
Philanthropist Harold Grinspoon, right, visiting one of the camps he’s trying to help professionalize with matching grants and consulting services.
“They have really helped focus us and provide us with focus,” Kass said. “They gave us someone who was a fundamentally experienced consultant who was able to walk us through the process of doing this.” For a camp like Young Judaea in Texas, the transformation started in 2000, when it received an unsolicited $200,000 gift that it had no idea how to handle, Silberlicht
recalled. Ultimately the money was used to build an aquatics center and a couple of cabins. More importantly, however, the gift set off a strategic planning process that has helped the camp grow from 328 campers to nearly 600 and spurred a fundraising strategy that has raised more than $4 million to start an ambitious building project this year to improve its facilities.
The transformation was accomplished, according to Silberlicht, by revamping the camp’s board, bringing in lay leadership that was active, involved and thinking strategically about raising money. “They really helped us work those things,” Silberlicht said. “Now board members work in conjunction with the camp director, and it is a team-wide effort.
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Returning from D.C., Abbas and Hagel’s Pentagon bid Bibi maintain stances after talks draws frosty reception By Ron Kampeas Jewish Telegraphic Agency WASHINGTON (JTA) — Last week’s gentle give and take between the Israelis and Palestinians appears to have survived the tarmac moment. Reiterated, if qualified, commitments to the U.S.-brokered peace process by the leaders upon their return from Washington was a hopeful sign, considering that past talks have been undermined by the harder lines that leaders take when they hit the home tarmac. “I believe that we should make every effort to reach an historic compromise for peace over the coming year,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in his New Year’s message to the Diaspora. “I guarantee one thing: This will not be easy. But as Israel’s prime minister, it is my responsibility to make every effort to forge a lasting peace with our neighbors.”
Abbas’ aides also sounded a cautiously optimistic note. Nabil Sha’ath on Tuesday told the French news agency AFP that Abbas “is prepared to succeed in these negotiations, and that the climate in Washington was different.” There were also qualifications. In his Hebrew Rosh Hashanah greeting to Israelis, Netanyahu cautioned that “I am telling you this is an attempt because there is no assurance of success. There are many obstacles, there are many skeptics, there are many reasons for skepticism.” And Abbas held fast to his demand that Netanyahu extend a partial moratorium on settlement building past Sept. 26, which Netanyahu has rejected. On background, officials on all sides were suggesting that they may be able to overcome the hurdle. “We are going to try to find other means to incentivize them to stay at the negotiating table,”
Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to Washington, told Jewish leaders in a Sept. 3 conference call. An emerging tactic was to focus on the issues that unite the parties. In that vein, a PA official delivered what perhaps was the most stinging rebuke of Iran’s government to date, aligning the Palestinian Authority with Israel and the United States as perceiving the real regional threat as emerging from Tehran. The Palestinians were outraged at Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for dismissing the talks as meaningless. “The one who does not represent the Iranian people, who falsified election results, who oppressed the Iranian people and stole authority, has no right to speak about Palestine, its president or its representatives,” Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudaineh said Saturday, according to the Palestinian Ma’an News Agency, citing the official PA news agency Wafa.
As brave as G-d: Are we capable? By Brad Hirschfield Jewish Telegraphic Agency NEW YORK (JTA) — There are many kinds of bravery. Physical bravery allows firefighters to run into burning buildings when everyone else is running out, or empowers young soldiers to put themselves in harm’s way even when they can avoid doing so. Moral bravery is the kind that people find within themselves when they must speak truth to power, or otherwise stand up for that in which they believe even when it will be unpopular. Sacred bravery fuels our ability to both seek and grant forgiveness. As Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, approaches, I ask myself and others whether or not we are brave enough to be forgiving. Are we willing to take chances on ourselves and on the people in our lives? Seeking and granting forgiveness will make us feel vulnerable, but if we are serious about what we are doing, making ourselves vulnerable in a way takes courage. Yom Kippur reminds that we have what it takes, and that if we take those chances and feel that vulnerability, we can find greater fulfillment and peace than we often imagine is possible. In fact, the fundamental promise of Yom Kippur is that we will be fine — fully forgiven for anything we have done wrong in the past year.
According to Leviticus 16:30, atonement will be made and we will be purified on Yom Kippur. The verse has no qualification or limitations. It reassures us that no transgression is so big that it cannot be redressed, at least as far as G-d is concerned. The day will do its job, the Bible promises. But will we do ours? The prophet Isaiah said that G-d forgives people because G-d wants to forgive, and therefore all transgressions against G-d will be forgiven. Do we actually long to forgive them? Are we willing to be as brave as G-d when it comes to forgiveness? There are no limits to that which can be forgiven, but there are limits as to who can forgive any given thing. We cannot demand that others forgive what has been done to them, and we cannot forgive people for the hurt they have caused others. The issue is our relationship to the person or act that needs to be forgiven, not the severity of the act, which some people might deem unforgivable had it happened to them. We are free to forgive anything, but we can only forgive that which has been done to us. Sacred bravery is about forgiving others, and about doing so because we want to — because to do so will help us be who we most want to be. And then, sacred bravery, when we really feel it,
invites us to go one step further. Sacred bravery is not only about granting forgiveness, but also about finding the courage to seek it. It’s about trusting that nothing is truly unforgiveable as long as we are willing to work it out with the ones we have wronged. It may take time, even a great deal of time, but all can be forgiven. That is the promise of Yom Kippur. So this year, I am working on being brave and encouraging others to follow suit. However and wherever one spends the holiday, we should all take the time to think about at least one person from whom we have not sought forgiveness but really must. We should be asking ourselves not whether it will work, but what one concrete step — even a small one — we can take to move in that direction. We also should consider how we can forgive one person who still needs forgiveness from us. And if that is too much to ask of ourselves, at least think about what it is that keeps us from forgiving and how we might move beyond that barrier. The day will do its job; the real question is whether or not we will do ours. Rabbi Brad Hirschfield is the president of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership.
By Adam Kredo Washington Jewish Week WASHINGTON (WJW) — Former Republican senator Chuck Hagel raised many Jewish eyebrows in 2007 when he informed an Arab-American crowd that his support for Israel is not “automatic.” Many of those same eyebrows were lifted again in recent weeks after several reports indicated that Hagel, who has taken heat over the years from Jewish groups for his statements about Israel and the Middle East, is on the short list to replace Secretary of Defense Robert Gates when he steps down from the post next year. Hagel, widely seen as jockeying for an administration job, reportedly is being touted by U.S. National Security Advisor Jim Jones, who is said to believe that the former Nebraska senator and Vietnam veteran could serve as a prominent Republican defender for the administration, according to a report by Politico. Hagel, who endorsed thenpresidential candidate Barack Obama in 2008, has been a critic of the Iraq war. He also called for a winding-down of the U.S. presence in Afghanistan and for direct talks with Hamas and Iran. During his time in the Senate, he refused to sign several congressional statements backing Israel. The possibility of his selection has some pro-Israel organizations and activists worried. “Hagel would be in a position to reinforce the worst aspects of the administration's current Middle East policies, which would be very dangerous for Israel,” said Morris Amitay, a former executive director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and treasurer of the Washington PAC, a pro-Israel political action committee. Shoshana Bryen, senior director for security policy at the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, said Hagel is attractive to the administration for several reasons: He “shares the president’s belief that Iraq was a bad war,” aims to cut the defense budget and seeks closer relations with the Arab world. What do these views mean for Israel? “A slowdown in things Israel needs or wants,” such as military equipment, Bryen said. Last month, Hagel publicly threw his support behind embattled Pennsylvania Democrat Rep. Joe Sestack, whose race for a Senate seat has transformed into a proxy war between liberal and conservative pro-Israel outfits. Yet even liberal Jewish groups such as J Street and the National
Jewish Democratic Council have balked at coming to Hagel’s defense. The administration, Jewish Democrats say, is firmly proIsrael, and while Hagel likely desires the top defense position, Obama won’t soon hand it to him. “Clearly Hagel has a mixed record on Israel, but that record frankly puts him at variance with the president’s own policies vis-avis Israel,” said David Harris, president and CEO of the National Jewish Democratic Council, adding that for now, “speculation is just that.” J Street declined comment. Asked about the reports that Hagel is on the short list to succeed Gates, one Democratic operative who campaigned for Obama in the Jewish community responded that “If he was in fact appointed, I would find his appointment difficult to reconcile with my views of the administration.” Others questioned if powerful, centrist pro-Israel groups such as AIPAC would be willing to flex their political muscle to challenge the president on a potential Hagel nomination. One Jewish organizational leader in contact with the White House said, “I have to think that the mainstream Jewish communal organizations would have meaningful problems with it, but it’s for that reason I see it as highly unlikely Hagel would be a [realistic] defense pick.” Others, however, are quietly voicing concern that the administration has yet to shoot down talk of a Hagel nomination. A White House spokesman declined comment, and Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said via e-mail, “I don’t play these silly Washington parlor games. Such speculation is an absolute waste of time.” Hagel does have his supporters. Most, though, operate outside the Jewish communal realm. Steven Clemons, senior fellow and director of the New America Foundation’s American Strategy Program, said Hagel would do well at the Pentagon because he would aim to “twist the Rubik’s cube in the Middle East in a direction where you can solve” problems surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Plus, Hagel opposed the Iraq war and has said it’s time to leave Afghanistan. “I think he’s a serious candidate,” Clemons said. “He’s been vetted in so many different ways” by the administration, and his approach to the Middle East could benefit the peace process, as well as America’s relations with Arab countries.
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In France, Masorti struggles for a foothold By Sue Fishkoff Jewish Telegraphic Agency PARIS (JTA) — At 6 p.m. on a Friday, Rabbi Yeshaya Dalsace was in the kitchen making hummus. He had finished vacuuming the living room, where Shabbat services would soon start. The first worshipers to arrive were put to work setting up chairs and arranging platters of cucumbers and tomatoes. Dalsace is the spiritual leader of Dor Vador, a 60-member Masorti congregation in Paris. Dor Vador is one of six congregations in France affiliated with Masorti Europe, the European equivalent of the North American Conservative movement. On a shoestring budget, like the others, it is run out of Dalsace’s apartment. “When I need to buy supplies, like books, I have to ask the members,” the rabbi said. Unlike its North American counterpart, which has been losing members for more than a decade, the Masorti movement in Europe is growing. Wedged between the larger and better supported Progressive (Reform) movement and the Orthodox establishment, which controls Jewish life in most European countries, the continent’s smaller Masorti congregations have growing appeal for younger Jews. The growth is particularly apparent in France, home to an estimated 600,000 Jews.
Courtesy of Sue Fishkoff
Young Jews came to a Conservative movement picnic in Paris to meet, eat and sing Jewish songs, June 13, 2010.
Overwhelmingly Sephardic since the 1960s, when Jews from the former French colonies of North Africa poured in to replenish a community decimated in the Holocaust, French Jews tend toward the traditional. But their observance level is rarely as strict as the Ashkenazi-flavored Orthodox Judaism of the Consistoire, the country’s Jewish governing body, which controls access to rabbis, mohels, kosher meat and burial rites. Just 5 percent to 8 percent of French Jews identify as Orthodox, according to recent surveys. “I like this philosophy better,” said 30-year-old Devorah Cohen. Like many members of French Masorti communities, Cohen grew
up in a Consistoire-affiliated synagogue but has spent the past four years with Dor Vador, which she said suits her lifestyle and values. “They don’t say do this and don’t do that. They explain why,” she said. “I think Masorti speaks to French people more than the Consistoire.” Yet in a country so dominated by one Jewish stream, few French Jews understand what Masorti is all about. “It’s a chronic problem of the Conservative movement,” said Rabbi Rivon Krygier, a Conservative rabbi in Paris. “It’s difficult to position oneself in the middle.” French Masorti Judaism is much more traditional than
Conservative Judaism in the United States; it’s closer to the Canadian model. “I observe kashrut, niddah, all the halachah,” said Dalsace, using the Hebrew word for Jewish law and referring to kosher and ritual purity laws. A native Frenchman, Dalsace grew up Orthodox but became disillusioned with what he said was the Consistoire’s rightward march. “I’m closer to Modern Orthodox, like most European Masorti Jews,” he said. The major distinction from Orthodoxy is egalitarianism, though the Masorti congregation in Marseilles uses a mechitzah, or barrier between the sexes, during worship. The country’s Masorti movement also welcomes conversion, and is active in interfaith work and environmental issues. France’s first Masorti congregation, Adath Shalom, was founded on the west side of Paris in 1987 by a group of 50 families that broke away from a Liberal (Reform) synagogue. When the Belgian-born Krygier was hired in 1990, newly ordained from the Conservative Schechter Institute in Jerusalem, some of the founding families left, afraid the congregation would become “too Orthodox,” Krygier recalls. Now with more than 300 duespaying members, Adath Shalom has outgrown its rented space and has more than 100 students enrolled in its 3-year-old day school, which is run in conjunction with two Liberal congregations.
Of France’s Masorti communities, three have rabbis and three are lay-led. The country’s newest affiliate, in St. Germain en Laye, a Paris suburb, joined in July, and a small group of young Jews in Paris are creating La Schule, a Masorti-friendly minyan, or prayer community. Audrey Berkovics, 28, is among the younger set of French Jews trying out Masorti. She showed up recently for a picnic in Paris organized by Marom, the Masorti youth movement, where nearly 80 Jews in their 20s and 30s enjoyed sandwiches, wine and guitar playing. “This attracts me, the joie de vivre,” Berkovics said. But as someone who attends Chabad services and Consistoireaffiliated Orthodox synagogues, she also said some things “shock” her. “Men and women mixed, women wearing tefillin — I’m not used to it,” she said. Noemie Taylor, 27, is a Marom activist who also is involved with La Schule. Raised with no religion, like most citizens of this heavily secular country, Taylor became attracted to Judaism and converted through the Masorti movement in 2008. Her Jewish boyfriend broke up with her, telling her that converts aren’t really Jewish. That’s typical of French Jews, she says. “They’re very closed, I guess because of anti-Semitism and because religion is a private thing in France,” Taylor said.
European Conservatives, the new kids on the block, making strides By Sue Fishkoff Jewish Telegraphic Agency LONDON (JTA) — A recent survey of British Jewry showed a decline in every Jewish denomination since 1990 except for two groups: the strictly Orthodox haredi and the Masorti, or Conservative movement. Over those 20 years, both have nearly doubled. Researchers behind the report, published in May by the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, understood the haredi growth: Strictly Orthodox Jews have large families, and almost all of them join synagogues. But why were the British Masorti numbers up? They’re up across Europe. Over the last three years, the number of Masorti communities on the continent has increased by 50 percent, from 20 to 30 congregations. It’s still the smallest Jewish denomination in Europe, but it’s growing the fastest.
Masorti leaders say it’s because they’re the new kids on the block. “Unlike the Conservative movement in the United States, where they are the establishment, the mainstream, in Europe we are young, exciting, the new thing, experimental,” said Rabbi Chaim Weiner, the London-based president of Masorti Europe, the umbrella body for Conservative communities in Europe. “Each of our communities grows from year to year.” There are 12 Masorti communities in Britain, six in France, and one each in Brussels, Stockholm, Prague, Budapest and the Dutch city of Almeer. Spain has a few, as does Germany, and there are ties to groups in Portugal. Despite the growth, the overall Masorti numbers pale compared to the Orthodox movement, which dominates religious life across the continent. Masorti is also much smaller than the Progressive, or Reform movement, which claims 150 affiliated congregations in Europe, including 80 in Britain. Masorti draws from both those
movements, Weiner says, attracting disaffected Orthodox Jews as well as Reform Jews interested in more tradition. Rabbi Andrew Goldstein, chairman of the European Union for Progressive Judaism, says that at least in Britain, Masorti growth comes primarily from the Modern Orthodox community, which has declined by a third since 1990, according to the study. In fact, the first British Masorti congregation, New London Synagogue, broke away from an Orthodox congregation in 1964 and the third, Edgware Masorti, broke away from a Reform congregation in 1980. Masorti Judaism in Europe is closer to the Canadian or Israeli model of Conservative practice, although some of the communities — like in Prague, which is led by an American rabbi — look more like their U.S. counterparts. This affects everything from egalitarianism to attitudes toward intermarriage. About half the British Masorti synagogues maintain gender-sepa-
rate seating during worship, but most European Masorti communities do not. Four of the movement’s 15 or 16 European rabbis are women. By the same token, attitudes toward intermarriage are more lenient on the continent but less so in Britain, according to Michael Gluckman, executive director of the British Assembly of Masorti Synagogues. “We’re still a bit more traditional than in America,” Gluckman said. Bernard Weil of Adath Shalom, the oldest Masorti congregation in Paris, says that while he and other congregants drive to synagogue on Shabbat, they would never think of offering a Shabbat parking space to new members — a membership incentive he said he heard about from American Conservative Jews. Conversely, even those communities like Adath Shalom that are not made up primarily of English speakers try to cater to them. “Especially at Yom Kippur, some of the service is in English,”
Weil said. “Religiously we’re closer to the Orthodox; socially we’re closer to the Liberals,” or Reform Jews. Potential converts to Judaism, as well as Jews involved in mixed marriages, are among those most often drawn to Masorti communities in Europe, Gluckman said. Five years ago, a Europeanwide Masorti beit din, or rabbinic court, was established to standardize conversions and other Jewish legal procedures. It’s all part of the movement’s struggle to parlay its recent growth into real establishment. “For the movement to thrive in Europe, each small community has to be able to provide the full range of rabbinic services, from conversion to divorce,” said Weiner, who heads the new Masorti rabbinic court. “Even a few years ago, people didn’t believe it was worth making a commitment to us,” he said. “Now our profile has crossed the threshold, and communities are coming to us wanting to join.”
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From kids’ TV host to public intellectual, Taub criticizes right and left By Dina Kraft Jewish Telgraphic Agency TEL AVIV (JTA) — Gadi Taub rests one hand on an oversized brown envelope that contains the galley proofs of yet another book — this time a two-part collection of essays. In the other hand he holds what came in the day’s mail — the just-published English version of his newest book, “The Settlers and the Struggle over the Meaning of Zionism.” Taub, 45, an author, historian and newspaper columnist, is not your typical Israeli social critic. He is a former host of children’s TV programs. He quotes Alexis de Tocqueville and John Dewey. He sports a pair of silver hoop earrings. He’s a best-selling novelist; his first, titled “Allenby,” was about the seedy underside of Tel Aviv life and was set in strip clubs. And in a country where opinion makers tend to pick a political camp and stick with it, Taub has consistently criticized the post-Zionists of the left as well as the ultranationalists on the right. These days he’s preaching a 21st century version of doom for Israel — lest, he says, its leaders and people wise up, not only to the dangers of a potentially nuclear Iran but, as he sees it, the selfdestructive settlement policy in the West Bank. “The most pressing problem with the settlements is not that they are obstacles to a final peace accord, which is how settlement critics have often framed the issue. The danger is that they will doom Zionism itself,” Taub wrote in an Op-Ed in The New York
Courtesy of Inbar Zaafrani
Gadi Taub, author of “The Settlers and the Struggle over the Meaning of Zionism.”
Times at the end of August. “If the road to partition is blocked, Israel will be forced to choose between two terrible options: Jewish-dominated apartheid or non-Jewish democracy. If Israel opts for apartheid, as the settlers wish, Israel will betray the beliefs it was founded on, become a pariah state and provoke the Arab population to an understandable rebellion. If a non-Jewish democracy is formally established, it is sure to be dysfunctional.” Sitting on the back patio of a favorite Tel Aviv bistro called Orna and Ella, the end of Israel seems far off amid the clattering of dishes and cream-colored linen tablecloths. It was here and at another trendy Tel Aviv restaurant that Taub wrote “The Settlers” in both Hebrew and English. The book reads like something of a call to action, a plea for Israelis to wake up and realize what he says
is the disaster of the settlement enterprise. To achieve that aim, he weaves history with journalisticstyle anecdotes, always hitting on the same theme: that settlement stands in direct opposition to Zionism’s goal of creating a viable, independent Jewish state. Taub says he hopes his fellow countrymen “get it” even if Israel’s current leaders do not. “These are the people of yesterday not because of their age — they are not old — but they are backward looking,” he said of the Israeli government. “What Netanyahu is trying to do is cling to the status quo, and there is no such thing as status quo in politics. They seem not to understand the most critical dangers Israel is facing. Settlement is going to sink us into a binational condition with an Arab majority and this will not be a Switzerland. This will be a Lebanon.” The Jewish people’s right to
self determination can only be secured in an area where there is a Jewish majority, he says. Taub’s own Zionism runs deep in a family where his maternal grandparents were chalutzim, pioneers of Israel. They came from Poland to what was then British Mandate Palestine in 1920 to help be among the founders of a Jewish homeland. Taub’s grandmother split stones to pave roads in the Galilee, and his grandfather worked draining the swamps of Palestine. His father was a refugee from pre-Holocaust Europe, fleeing on a boat of illegal immigrants to Palestine in 1939. Nearly a decade later he was wounded during Israel’s War of Independence, losing several fingers in an incident that effectively ended his professional days as a blacksmith. He later turned to the study of economics, working as a government economist and eventually rising to become No. 2 at the Bank of Israel. It was his father, whom he describes as an “ardent Zionist,” who most influenced his Zionism, Taub says. He recalls as a boy in the 1970s and listening to his father discuss a settler evacuation from the West Bank. “He said the settlers were going to be a terrible danger, and I remember not understanding what he meant but that it frightened me,” said Taub, who grew up in Jerusalem. For all his criticism of the settlement enterprise, Taub does not let the Israeli left off easy. The problem with the Israeli left, he says, is that their disgust with occupation has morphed into dis-
gust with Zionism itself. “Everything that smacks of national sentiment seems to them to be fascistic,” he said. “They only speak in terms of individual human rights while their disgust with Jewish national sentiment has marginalized them.” The prolific Taub, who teaches in the communications department of Hebrew University, has written 11 books. Several are for children, but even those books seem to have a social message. One of them, “The Giraffe Who Liked to Feel Sorry for Himself,” was written upon his return from the United States, where he spent four years studying for his doctorate in American history at Rutgers University. It was a response, he said, to the American exhortation to be cheerful and upbeat. Despite his tendency to harp on bleak predictions for the future, Taub insists his message comes from a positive place: imagining bringing the settlers back into the fold and into his vision of history as it should be played out. “I don’t want to get rid of the settlers but bring them back home, ideologically and physically,” he said. “I am against the settlements because I am a Zionist, not because my Zionism has weakened. “I want a persistent type of Zionism which first of all requires to draw borders in such a way that we preserve a Jewish majority and secondly believes in the right of all peoples to self determination. It is inconsistent that we demand that right for ourselves because it’s universal and then deny to another people.”
Hot on cars, cold on Turkey, home expensive home JERUSALEM (JTA) — Here are some recent stories out of Israel that you may have missed.
Israeli tap water is safe to drink, as well as less expensive. Hauser also is responsible for replacing the meetings’ weekly spread of bourekas with vegetables, fruits, granola and yogurt.
Make mine tap water Israeli government minister’s heads no longer will be hidden by bottles of mineral water during Cabinet meetings — Cabinet Secretary Zvi Hauser will now be serving tap water during meetings. The Forum of Water Corporations had written a letter to Hauser telling him that it was difficult for the public to believe in the quality of the country’s water when its leaders were drinking water from a bottle. The move was undertaken to prove to the Israeli public that
Home, sweet, more expensive home The cost of housing in Israel is rising through the roof and shows no signs of stopping. The average price of an apartment rose more than 17 percent from June 2009 to June 2010. Tel Aviv showed the largest increase, with the average price of a three-bedroom apartment jumping 32 percent to nearly $612,000. Other average increases: Haifa and Beersheba, 20 percent; Jerusalem, 19 percent; and Herzliya, 14 percent.
By Marcy Oster Jewish Telegraphic Agency
One reason for the ballooning prices: a shortage of new apartments for sale, according to the Bank of Israel. The bank believes that housing prices will continue to rise and has tried to cool off the market by raising interest rates. Cold on Turkey Despite Turkey’s best public relations efforts, Israelis are finding other attractive tourist destinations to replace Turkey. Israeli tourism to Turkey has declined by as much as 90 percent in the past year, more specifically since the Gaza flotilla incident in May. The number of Israeli tourists who traveled to Turkey in July was down 90 percent to 4,500 tourists, compared to 43,000 in July 2009 and 78,000 in July
2008, according to Haaretz. June saw a similar drop. In all, Israeli travel to Turkey is down 40 percent for the year compared to 2009. Israelis have cut back on travel to Turkey as relations between the two countries continues to sour, beginning with the December 2008 outbreak of the monthlong Gaza war. Hit the road, Jack Prototypes of an electric car made specifically for Israel have hit the road for field tests. Renault sent the cars to Israel in August to check them out in extreme heart conditions. Israel is set next year to become one of the first markets for electric cars with a quickchange station, where cars can
stop and pick up a freshly charged battery for immediate use. Shalom salaam: Israeli kids to study Arabic Soon Jewish and Arabic kids will be speaking the same language. Arabic language classes are expected to become compulsory soon for Israeli students beginning in grade 5. A pilot program in 170 schools in northern Israel was rolled out for the new school year. More than 200 schools in the north of Israel, where Arabic is a common language, have signed on to the program. About 50 Arab teachers have been hired to teach in the program. Israeli children begin compulsory English-language instruction in the third grade.
SOCIAL LIFE
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2010
A N N O U N C E M E N TS
Debbie Newman and Andrew Brown
BIRTHS
ENGAGEMENT
aron and Stacey (Chester) Schwartz of Weston, Fla. happily announce the birth of their son, Ethan Parker Schwartz, born on Aug.16, 2010. The grandparents are Barry and Sally Schwartz of Coconut Grove, Fla. (formerly of Cincinnati) and Richard and Margo Chester of Palmetto Bay, Fla. Ethan’s great-grandparents are Irvin and Ida Schwartz of Cincinnati, Ohio, Pauline Mickler of Miami, Fla. (formerly of Louisville, Ky.), and the late Dr. Arthur Mickler of Louisville, Ky.
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A
r. And Mrs. Donald Mendelson (Judith Rose) of Northridge, Calif. (formerly of Cincinnati) announce the birth of their greatgrandson, Hunter Rebel Green, born Thursday, Aug. 26, 2010. The parents are Mr. and Mrs. Adam Green (Marissa Sellers) of Sherman Oaks, Calif. The grandparents are Margo Mendelson Sellers of Quartz Hill, Calif., (formerly of Cincinnati), Mr. and Mrs. Brian Sellers of Valley Glen, Calif., and Dr. and Mrs. Alan Green of Glendale, Calif.
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avid Newman is pleased to announce the engagement of his daughter, Debbie Newman, to Andrew Brown. Debbie is the daughter of David Newman and the late Judy Newman. She is the granddaughter of the late Louis and Natalie Rubin of Cincinnati and the late Hyman and Francis Newman of Cleveland, Ohio. Andrew Brown is the son of Jane Felson and Jerry Minton. He is the grandson of the late Helen and Dr. Henry (Chip) Felson of Cincinnati and the late Archie and Mo Minton of Cincinnati, Ohio. Debbie and Drew reside in Cincinnati where Debbie is a corporate paralegal with Luxottica Retail and Drew manages the Mt. Airy Homeless Shelter for Men. A September wedding is planned.
R E F UA H S H L E M A H Frieda Berger Fraida bat Raizel
Roma Kaltman Ruchama bat Perl
Ravid Sulam Ravid Chaya bat Ayelet
Daniel Eliyahu Daniel ben Tikvah
Pepa Kaufman Perel Tova bat Sima Sora
Edward Ziv Raphael Eliezer Aharon ben Esther Enya
Mel Fisher Moshe ben Hinda
Murray Kirschner Chaim Meir ben Basha
Edith Kaffeman Yehudit bat B’racha
Alan Schwartzberg Avraham Pesach ben Mindel
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CINCINNATI JEWISH LIFE
2010 JCRC Annual Meeting
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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2010
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DINING OUT
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MEI – Authenticity from the Far East By Marilyn Gale Dining Editor As I stepped into MEI’s, I was struck by the light in the restaurant. Filled with simple, golden oak furniture, the floors glistened and a feeling of serenity blanketed the room. The sound of running water was also present in the small fountains outside and in decorative water pieces inside on the bar and counter. Once I began the interview, Jun Chen, the manager and partner with her husband— who reigns as the restaurant’s sushi chef—I realized how little I knew about Japanese food. Other than sushi or teriyaki, I was ignorant in understanding the presentation and freshness inherent in the preparation. MEI’s is authentic Japanese food, said Chen. From my research, I found that Japanese cuisine is known for its emphasis on seasonality of food, quality of ingredients and presentation. This ethnic food is based on combining staple foods, typically rice or noodles, with a soup and okazu – dishes made from fish, meat, and vegetable tofu to add flavor to the staple food. These are typically flavored with miso and soy sauce which are low in fat. The standard meal consists of three okazu which is one soup and three sides. Different cooking techniques are applied to each— they may be raw (sashimi), grilled, simmered, steamed, deep fried (tempura), or vinegared. Noodles are an essential part of Japanese cuisine usually as an alternative to a rice based meal. Soba (thick, grayish-brown noodles made from buckwheat flour) and udon (thick wheat noodles) are served hot or cold with soy flavorings. Japanese rice is short grain and becomes sticky when cooked. MEI’s has been in existence for 10 years. Chen attributes the success of the restaurant to bona fide Japanese food. She said the western specials are kept off the menu; no fancy tricks to entertain the diners, just pure, simple food, known to be heart healthy. “Not deep fried but grilled, steamed or stewed, and not much oil used in preparation. Fresh seafood is a
LUNCH - DINNER COCKTAILS COCKTAILS - CARRYOUT CARRYOUT
main source of protein in Japanese diet,” said Chen. This is where the Japanese eat. MEI’s offers daily special appetizers such as tempura vegetable or Japanese pumpkin, which is a smaller version of the large orange
such as sliced yam and burdock root are available as appetizers and sides. Chen is proud of MEI’s ponzu sauce which she describes as citrus juice with soy sauce, served as a side for fish. She also proclaims
potato—fish, mackerel, egg with chives, potato salad, green pepper, tempura, burdock root, pickled cucumber and radish pickle. This meal sat on display in the front of the restaurant, next to the sushi bar, and was dazzling in color.
Enjoy the tasty, colorful Bento box special for lunch.
Jun Chen, manager, welcomes you to authentic Japanese dining.
MEI’s interior style promotes a relaxed, serene dining experience.
western one. Chen grows this pumpkin delicacy as well as eggplant in her backyard. Lotus root, another favorite, can be deep fried or stewed and has a mild taste. Eggplant is grilled, and daikon radish, cut into chunks, is cooked with soy sauce. Raw vegetables
MEI as having the best sushi in town. MEI’s has a daily lunch special, called the Bento box. The day of my interview the Bento box consisted of rice with plum, sesame seed on top of the rice, raw fish (sashimi), stewed vegetables— carrots, eggplant, lotus root, yam
Chen is a good example of youthful benefits of this food. Slender and soft spoken, I found it difficult to believe she was a mother of three young school age children. Perhaps the Japanese diet does hold the secret to the fountain of youth. As we walked through the
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restaurant, first stopping to remove our shoes before we entered the partitioned area, she moved gracefully and slid effortlessly onto the cushions under the deep set tables in the private eating areas screened away from the main dining section. Chen told me about tatami, a Japanese custom of sitting on specially made floor mats. MEI’s offers diners this option where you eat in small rooms, almost sitting on the floor, but she assured me that once you sit down, there is plenty of leg room underneath the tables. Each room can hold up to seven people. Reservations are required for the tatami experience. Chen introduced me to cold sake which I found to be a dry, refreshing, slightly sour drink that combines nicely with the sharpness of a piece of sushi dipped aggressively into a soy sauce wasabi mixture. Although it is a wine distilled from rice, cold sake is reminiscent of a dry champagne and a great thirst quencher. Chen added, “Authentic Japanese drink their sake cold.” For a first time patron, Chen suggests the sushi dinner, an assortment of fresh fish that might include tuna, salmon, whitefish, yellowtail, salmon roe, and sea urchin with soup in the $19 range. A light miso soup accompanies the meal. Or, be more daring and try kamo nabe—hot pot for two— known in Western language as Japanese fondue; sliced duck meat simmered with leafy vegetables, mushrooms, and seafood cooked at the table. There is also sukiyaki; thin sliced beef, lightly cooked in a skillet in the sukiyaki sauce with vegetables. The word “yaki” means “sautee” or “grill” in Japanese. Chen suggests diners might choose to cook the meal themselves at their table or the server will gladly prepare it. The Far East awaits you at MEI in the Marketplace in Symmes Township. Whether your taste is for sushi or sake or something in between, you won’t be disappointed in this heart healthy dining.
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DINING OUT
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2010
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OPINION
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Dispatching the goat
C O R R E C T I O N: In our September 2 issue the article on the new Cincinnati Mikvah which appeared in the American Israelite omitted mention of Mrs. Yehudis Klafter. Mrs. Klafter played a fundamental role in building up the Mikvah Society, including grant writing, fundraising, and organizing. The community would like to thank her for all of her contributions and publicly acknowledge her integral role in the construction of the new Mikvah.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Do you have something to say? E-mail your letter to editor@americanisraelite.com
Dear Editor, The pastor in Florida who wants to burn the Koran has not thought it through. What he should do is ask everyone to read the Koran. A book written by one man in one lifetime, who is held as a prophet. My understanding of a prophet is one who accurately tells the future. Moses was not only a prophet; he recorded things that took place over 2,000 years before he was born. He wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of G-d. G-d gave us the account of the birth of Isaac 12 months before Sarah had even conceived. In fact, the Lord even gave Isaac his name to be a reminder to all who would ever doubt G-d’s limitless power. G-d laughs at our unbelief. Isaac means laughter. Isaac was the heir of promise. Abraham staggered not at the promise of G-d through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to G-d. He considered not the deadness of Sarah’s womb. By faith he received strength to take Sarah in his arms and say, Honey you know the son we thought would never be given to us, is finally coming! We will have an heir! Ishmael was not the heir of promise. An angel’s voice from heaven brought comfort to Haggar at Be’er Sheba. Her water supply was replenished and she was told that her son would father 12 princes and he would become
a great Nation. The Arabs have been blessed because of the grace of G-d. One man wrote the Koran about 1,400 years ago; the Bible was written about 3,500 years ago with many authors without contradiction. The Holy Spirit of G-d inspired these men to write his words. If the Bible is not to be feared, why will not the Muslims allow it to be read in their countries? Pastor Jones is wrong by wanting to burn a book, which cannot accurately reveal past history or prophesy the things to come. Sincerely, Frank R. Whitson Cincinnati, OH
Where were Clinton’s harsh words when Hamas lobbed 3,000 missiles into Israel after Israel made a peace gesture and returned Gaza? General David Patraeus condemmed him. Where was Patraeus’ rebuke when Ahmadinejad hosted the world Holocaust denial symposium? The same American citizens denounced him, while they support the murdering terrorists burning of the Israeli and American flags. My questions go unanswered: why the double standard? The silence from the leaders of the world is deafening when it comes to the murder and terrorist attack on Jews worldwide. Paul Glassman Deerfield, OH
Dear Editor, Dear Editor, I have questions and no answers. The entire world condemmed a country bumpkin preacher for announcing his intentions to burn the Quran. The Pope condemmed him. Where was the Pope’s righteous indignation when Gilad Shalit was kidnapped and held to this day? President Obama condemmed him. Where was the president’s condemnation on August 31, 2010 when four Israelis, including a pregnant woman, were murdered when Hamas terrorists ambushed their car as they were driving near Kiryat Arba in the West Bank? Hillary Clinton condemmed him.
The controversy over the Ground Zero Mosque (GZM) represents nothing short of a catharsis of the American people (70 percent at last count, including Moslems) toward failed Moslem American political leadership to confront Moslem hatred toward America and Moslem on Moslem violence. It is a failure to confront the Ft. Hood massacre, the attempted bombing of Time Square and Fort Dix, the murder of American soldiers on the eve of the invasion of Iraq, etc. There are LETTERS on page 20
T EST Y OUR T ORAH KNOWLEDGE HAFTORAH YOM KIPPUR MORNING YESHAYA 57:10-58:14. YOM KIPPUR AFTERNOON BOOK OF JONAH 1. Which day on the calendar does the prophet say to enjoy? 1. Sabbath 2. Sukkot 3. Passover
2. Nineveh 3. Damascus
2. Which mitzvoth does the prophet emphasize? 1. Between Hashem and Man 2. Between Man and Man
5. Did Jonah eventually fulfill Hashem’s mission? 1. Yes 2. No
3. Which city did Hashem instruct Jonah to prophesize to? 1. Jerusalem
6.Was it successful? 1. Yes 2. No
Jonah sacrificed himself by running away from Hasher’s mission so Nineveh would not repent. 5. A. Jonah 3:2, 3. 6. A. Jonah Chapter 3. Nineveh repented and Hashem did not destroy the city. The Malbim says they only repented on sins against Man (verse 8) however they still kept their idolatrous practices.
One of the most remarkable elements of Yom Kippur in ancient times, when the Holy Temple stood in Jerusalem, was the ritual of the “Two Goats.” Two indistinguishable members of that species were brought before the High Priest, who placed a randomly-pulled lot on the head of each animal. One lot read “to G-d” and the other “to Azazel” – the name of a steep cliff in a barren desert. As the Torah prescribes, the first goat was solemnly sacrificed in the Temple, attention given to every detail of the offering; the second was taken to the cliff and thrown off, dying unceremoniously before even reaching the bottom. Some moderns might find the fates of both goats troubling, but there are depths to Jewish rituals of which they don’t dream. I lay no claim to conversance with those truly deep meanings. But pondering the “two goats” ritual before Yom Kippur (and anticipating its recollection during the day’s prayer-service), a thought occurs, and it may bear particular import for our times. There are two ways to view human life, as mutually exclusive as they are fundamental. Our existence is either a result of intent, or of accident. And a corollary follows directly: Either our lives are meaningful, or they are not. If the roots of our existence ultimately lie in pure randomness, there can be no more meaning to good and bad actions than to good or bad movies; no more import to right and wrong than to right and left. Human beings remain but evolved animals, their Mother Theresas and Adolf Hitlers alike. To be sure, we might conceive a rationale for establishing societal norms, but a social contract is only a practical tool, not a moral imperative; it is, in the end, artificial. Only if there is a Creator in the larger picture can there be ultimate import to human life, placing it on a plane meaningfully above that of mosquitoes. The Torah, of course, is based on the foundation – and in fact begins with an account – of a Divinely directed creation; and its most basic message is the meaningfulness of human life. Most of us harbor a similar, innate conviction.
Yet some resist that innate feeling, and adopt the perspective that what we can perceive with our physical senses is all that there is in the end. The apparent randomness of nature, in that approach, leaves no place for Divinity. It is not a difficult position to maintain; the Creator may be well evident to those of us primed to perceive Him, but He has not left clear fingerprints on His Creation. Might those two diametric worldviews be somehow reflected in the Yom Kippur ritual? The goat that becomes a sacrifice on the Temple altar might symbolize recognition of the idea that humans are beholden to something greater. And the counter-goat, which finds its fate in a desolate, unholy place, would then allude to the perspective of life as pointless, lacking higher purpose or meaning. It’s not an unthinkable speculation, especially in light of how the Azazel-goat seems to be described by the Torah – so strangely – as carrying away the sins of the people. The traditional Jewish commentaries all wonder at that concept. Some, including Maimonides, interpret it to mean that the people will be spurred by the dispatching of the Azazel-goat to repent. If, indeed, the Azazel-goat alludes to the mindset of meaninglessness, we might approach an understanding of the inspiration born of its dispatching. The animal’s being “laden with the sins” of the people might refer to the recognition that sin stems from insufficient recognition of how meaningful in fact are our lives. The Talmudic rabbi Resh Lakish in fact said as much when he observed [Sotah 3a] that “A person does not sin unless a spirit of madness enters him.” And so the sending off of the Azazel-goat could be seen as an acknowledgement of the idea that sin’s roots lie in the madness born of our self-doubt. And those who witnessed its dispatchment might well have been spurred by that thought to then turn and consider the other goat, the one sacrificed in dedication to G-d. So stirred on the holiest day of the Jewish year, they might then have been able to better commit themselves to re-embracing the grand meaningfulness that is a human life. We may lack the Two Goats ritual today, but we can certainly try all the same to absorb that eternally timely tho
4. Why did Jonah runaway from his mission?
underprivileged among us. Malbim 3. B. Jonah 1:2. 4. Malbim explains that Jonah ran away from his mission because Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria. Eventually they would conquer the Ten Tribes of Israel. However because of their wickedness they did not deserve to conquer. Therefore they were given the chance to repent.
By Rabbi Avi Shafran Contributing Columinst
Written by Rabbi Dov Aaron Wise
ANSWERS 1. B. Yeshaya 58:13, 14. The verse emphasis two aspects of Shabbat: to abstain from work and to enjoy and honor Shabbat. Then Hashem will reward with a land without boundaries. Rashi and Malbim 2. B. Yeshaya 58:6,-12.. The purpose of a fast is not to abstain from eating, but rather to learn to care for the
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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2010
JEWISH LIFE
17
Sedra of the Week by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin
SHABBAT SHALOM: YOM KIPPUR
Efrat, Isreal—One of the highlights of the Yom Kippur liturgy is the reading of the Book of Jonah, a small book containing a world of philosophy. The major message of Jonah is also the major message of Yom Kippur, so that a proper understanding of the former will most certainly illuminate the latter. G-d tells Jonah, son of Amitai, to call the people of Ninveh to repentance. Jonah refuses to do so, and believes he can escape the G-d of the heavens and the earth by sailing away on the sea. The central issue of the Book of Jonah is why the prophet found a mission to Ninveh so objectionable. We must remember that Ninveh was the capital city of Assyria and Assyria was then the arch enemy of Israel. Indeed, Assyria defeated the 10 tribes and banished them into exile in the 8th century B.C.E. Jonah cannot understand why G-d is interested in Assyria’s repentance. After all, as long as the Jews have more merits than the Assyrians, the chances of an Israeli victory in battle are far greater. Hence Jonah seeks to escape G-d by boarding a ship bound for Tarshish. A raging storm develops, and a drawing of lots reveals that Jonah is responsible for it. It is fascinating to note that water is the major symbol of the Book of Jonah as well as of the Tishrei period of festivals. Water is both a symbol of life as well as of destruction. The Bible opens “and the spirit of G-d hovered over the face of the waters” and no life can grow without the presence of water. At the same time, the Bible tells us right before its description of the life giving waters that “there was darkness on the face of the tehom,” usually translated as the depths of the waters of the netherworld. It was after all the waters of the flood which threatened to destroy the world. The Mishna tells us that on the Festival of Sukkot G-d judges how much rain we will receive in the coming year to enable fruit and vegetation to provide sustenance for us. Rain is therefore a symbol of G-d’s gracious bounty, and His purification of His children on the Day of Forgiveness. As the prophet Yezekiel says in
But Jonah has forgotten that his first name means dove, and that just as the dove was saved from the flood so was he, Jonah, undeservedly saved from the raging waters. words which we repeat again and again during the Yom Kippur penitential prayers, “And I shall sprinkle upon you the waters of purification and you shall become pure.” (Ezekiel 35: 24-25) Hence the festival of Shemini Atzeret on which we thank G-d for rain has a double meaning: G-d’s waters bring physical sustenance as well as spiritual purity. It is the combination of the two that brings us to redemption. It goes even one step deeper. We begin giving G-d praise as the One whom “causes the winds to blow and the rains to flow” on Shemini Atzeret — and these words of praise are incorporated in the Amidah blessing of the G-d “Who causes the dead to live again.” G-d’s purifying waters can even revive us from death and bring us eternal life. Jonah is cast overboard into the raging waters. He has endeavored to escape his Divine mission, and is therefore worthy of death. G-d, however, in His infinite compassion provides a great fish—a creature of the water—to follow Jonah and revive him. In Jonah’s own words, “I called, in my distress, to G-d and He answered me From the belly of the grave I cried out. You heard my voice. You cast me into the depth of the heart of the sea… your waves passed over me… yet You lifted my life from the pit O Lord my G-d” (Jonah 2:3-7). The waters almost destroyed Jonah and the waters in the form of a water-creature sent by G-d saved his life. G-d is trying to teach the crucial lesson that Assyria, who has been so evil and destructive, can and must make a complete turnaround if the world is to be redeemed. G-d is also teaching that He is willing to overlook the evil Assyria has committed if she will indeed repent. Jonah refuses to accept this. He is after all the son of Amitai, a name which is derived from emet, truth.
Truth demands that evil never be overlooked; evil must be punished. This is precisely how Jonah explains why he refused G-d’s mission “…. This is why I hastened to flee to Tarshish; I knew that you are a gracious and merciful G-d slow to anger abundant in loving kindness and forgiving of evil” (Jonah 4:2). This is not the G-d in whom I want to believe, the G-d who described Himself earlier to Moses as the One who is “abundant in loving kindness and truth” (Exodus 34:6). But Jonah has forgotten that his first name means dove, and that just as the dove was saved from the flood so was he, Jonah, undeservedly saved from the raging waters. G-d is trying to teach him that the G-d of compassion will bestow His life giving purity even upon those who have sinned. On Yom Kippur each of us descends into the “waters of death.” We wear the white reminiscent of shrouds, we remove ourselves from all physical necessities and pleasures such as food, drink and sex, and we wear nonleather shoes like the mourner. For whom are we mourning? We are mourning for ourselves who have died because of our sins. However G-d in his compassion returns us to life on Yom Kippur, reborn and purified. G-d sprinkles upon us His life giving waters “because on this day you shall be forgiven of all your sins; before G-d shall you stand pure” All of us experience the death and the rebirth of Jonah. As the final Mishnah in Yoma says, “how fortunate are you O Israel! Before whom are you purified, and who purifies you? Our Father in Heaven.” 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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6442 Stover Ave • 531-6654 • golfmanorsynagogue.org
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3100 LONGMEADOW LANE • CINCINNATI, OH 45236 791-1330 • www.templesholom.net Miriam Terlinchamp, Rabbi Marcy Ziek, President Gerry H. Walter, Rabbi Emeritus September 17 8:00 pm Kol Nidre Service
September 24 6:00 pm Shabbat Nosh 6:30 pm Shabbat Evening Service
September 18 10:30 am Yom Kippur Morning Service
September 25 10:30 am Shabbat Morning Service
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JEWZ IN THE NEWZ
Jewz in the Newz By Nate Bloom, Contributing Columnist EASY TO WATCH “Easy A” already has buzz as a teen flick way above the genre’s norm. It’s being classed with the hilarious John Hughes’ films of the ‘80s, like “Ferris Bueller” and “Sixteen Candles.” I was charmed by the trailers and I think it’s that rare movie that parents and teens could enjoy together. Emma Stone plays a high school girl whom few notice. But, to help a gay male friend who is being bullied for being gay, she helps start a false rumor that he’s straight and that she lost her virginity to him. The rumor mill about Stone’s “looseness” is stoked by the school's #1 Christian teen (AMANDA BYNES, 24). Based somewhat on the famous novel, “The Scarlet Letter,” the excellent cast includes Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci as Stone’s parents and LISA KUDROW, 47, as a concerned guidance counselor (Opens Friday, Sept. 17). MORE NEW SHOWS, NEW TV SEASON SCOTT CAAN, 34, the son of JAMES CAAN, 70, co-stars in a re-make of “Hawaii 5-O,” the classic CBS ‘60s police show. The title, network, and character names remain the same. Caan plays Detective Danny “Dano” Williams, the sidekick of the lead detective. Caan’s “Dano” will be a bit edgier than the original. The remake storyline has him being a tough cop, originally from New Jersey. (Starts Monday, Sept. 20, at 10PM). Starting the same night, at 8PM, is the 11th season of ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.” Two Jewish celebs compete—JENNIFER “Dirty Dancing” GREY, 50, and soft-rock singer MICHAEL BOLTIN, 57. The Fox TV drama, “Lonestar,” also starts on Sept.20 (9PM). It stars JAMES WOLK, 25, an incredibly good looking (Jewish) guy who grew up in a Detroit suburb, the son of an artist mother and a shoe store owner father. If “Lonestar” is a hit, Wolk may be headed toward a huge career. Wolk has only been acting for about five years, but showed some “real acting chops” when he starred in a 2008 Hallmark Hall of Fame film based on the true life story of BRAD COHEN, a Jewish guy with Tourette’s Syndrome who became an elementary school
teacher. In “Lonestar,” Wolk plays Robert Allen, a Texas con-man who leads a secret double life. As “Bob,” he is married to Cat and living in Houston while working for his oil-tycoon father-in-law (Jon Voight). Four hundred miles away, he is “Robert” in a second life with girlfriend Lindsey. As he schemes to take control of the oil business, he must fight to keep his web of lies from falling apart, while torn between the love of two women. Voight, who recently reconciled with his daughter, Angelina Jolie, is well-known as a great friend of the Jewish people and as a major supporter of Chabad. Starting on Wednesday, Sept. 22, (10PM) is ABC’s “The Whole Truth” (10PM) co-starring Maura Tierney and ROB MORROW, 47. Tierney is a Manhattan district attorney and Morrow (“Northern Exposure,” Numb3rs”) is a defense lawyer. The series’ gimmick is that we see each case from both sides’ perspectives and guilt or innocence is only revealed at episode’s end. Starting on Thursday, Sept. 23, are “My Generation” (ABC, 8PM) and “$#*! (pronounced “bleep”) My Dad Says” (CBS, 8:30 PM). “Generation” is done in the form of a documentary about a group of Austin, Texas “Generation Y” young people. The premise is that we see their (filmed) lives during their high school senior year (2000) and, again, in 2010. Playing the “rich kid,” Anders Holt, is British Jewish actor JULIAN MORRIS, 27, who had a recurring part on “ER.” “My Dad Says” is based on the best-selling memoir, “Sh*t My Dad Says” (2009) by JUSTIN HALPERN, 29. Halpern’s father, retired San Diego radiologist SAM HALPERN, is a very blunt talking man, befitting his incredible climb from a poverty-stricken childhood on a Kentucky tobacco farm. The younger Halpern failed as a screenwriter and had to move back home a few years ago. On a lark, he began twittering his father’s often comic—and almost always saucy (but to-the-point)—parenting advice. His tweets acquired a huge following and a book followed. WILLIAM SHATNER, 79, plays Sam Halpern (called Ed Goodson in the series). The TV show focuses on Ed’s reaction when one of his two adult sons moves back in with him. Legendary TV director JAMES BURROWS, 69, an incredible talent who co-created “Cheers,” was brought aboard to direct the show’s pilot.
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FROM THE PAGES 100 Years Ago Mr. Hugo Goldsmith is visiting his mother Mrs. P. Goldsmith, and brother Emile, at Catalina Island, near Los Angeles. Mr. and Mrs. Jake Bettman and daughter Jean, are home again, on Glenwood Avenue, Avodale, from the coast of Maine resorts. Messrs. Jesse M. and Sidney M. Auer, of Hale Avenue, have just returned to New York from a cruise through the eastern waters on their yacht, The Viking.
Dr. Grossman has returned from his summer cottage at Omena, Mich., and has resumed his duties with renewed vigor. He will preach in the Plum Street Temple on Saturday morning as usual. Mrs. Rosina Menken Rosenstiel, of New York City, who died recently at Orwell (Vt.), on Sept. 4, where she had been spending the summer, was born in Cincinnati in 1824, and was a
daughter of Solomon Menken, a merchant of this city. Her mother was one of the Wyatts, a direct descendant of the first Colonial Governor of Virginia. Mrs. Rosenstiel married the late Lewis S. Rosenstiel, of Cincinnati, who was well known as one of the pioneer dry goods merchants of Ohio, who, after retiring from business, went to New York and devoted his life to the charities of that city. — September 15, 1910
75 Years Ago Dr. and Mrs. Sheldon Blank and their family, who are visiting in the East, will return to this city in October. Dr. and Mrs. Samuel Rothenberg have returned from a summer at Oden, Mich. Their mother, Mrs. Myer Rothenberg, will also return from Oden soon. Mr. Stanley Paul Fleischer has returned home from Michigan where he spent the summer with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. N.I. Fleischer.
He is in the general practice of law, associated with Bert H. Long. Messrs. Louis Goldsmith and Stewart Orton have left for Ann Arbor, Mich., where they will enter their junior year at the University of Michigan. Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Wolf (Rose Nathan), who returned to this city recently from their wedding trip in Chicago and Northern Michigan, are at their home at 3564 Bogart Avenue, where they will be happy to
see their relatives and friends. Dr. Aaron J. Kanter of Gholson Avenue has returned after a year of service on residence at Montefiore Hospital in New York City. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Kanter. Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Mack are again at home after a trip to New York, where they visited Mrs. Mack’s son, Mr. Phillip Wise, who is a reporter on the Wall Street Journal. — September 19, 1935
50 Years Ago Former Judge Robert S. Marx, widely known attorney and the founder and first commander of the Disabled American Veterans passed away in his sleep early Tuesday morning, Sept. 6, at his summer home in Charlevoix, Mich. His age was 71. His home here was at 3333 Whitfield in Clifton. Mr. Marx was an advisor to the late Franklin D. Roosevelt during his early presidential years. He was a member of Rockdale
Temple. He was judge of the former U.S. Superior Court in Cincinnati 192026. He was a senior member of the law firm of Nichols, Wood, Marx and Ginter and general counsel for Schenley Distillers, Inc. Rabbi and Mrs. Herbert H. Rose (Esther Burgin), 13 Millstone Drive, Livingston, N.J. announce the birth of their second child, a son, Ben Zion, born Aug. 26. Grandparents are Rabbi and Mrs.
Morris M. Rose of New York City and Mr. and Mrs. Sam Burgin of Cincinnati. Mr. and Mrs. Marvin Dorfman (Harriet Miller), of Hollywood, and formerly of Cincinnati, are the parents of a daughter, Cheryl Lynn, born Saturday, Aug. 27. The grandparents are Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Miller, of Hollywood, and formerly of Cincinnati, and Mr. and Mrs. Harry Dorfman of Cincinnati. —September 15, 1960
25 Years Ago Dr. Helen I. Glueck, professor emerita of medicine at UC and currently associated with the Research Coagulation Laboratory at the College of Medicine Pathology Department, has been designated as honoree for the 1985 tribute dinner hosted by the Associates of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati Chapter. Gary Rabiner, chairman of the Cincinnati Associates and of the tribute dinner issued the announcement. The dinner will be Sunday,
Nov. 24, at the Westin Hotel. Last March, the College of Medicine honored Dr. Glueck as one of the recipients of its first Daniel Drake Award. She has also received a Distinguished Service Citation from the National Conference of Christians and Jews and was named as a Career Woman of the Year by the Cincinnati YWCA. Stanley I. Grad will be awarded special recognition by Adath Israel Congregation and the Israel Bond Organization at a special tribute brunch on Sunday, Oct. 20, at
Adath Israel, beginning at 10:30 a.m. Mr. Grad will receive the “Tower of David” Award for his work on behalf of Israel, Adath Israel Congregation, the Jewish Community Center, the Orthodox Jewish Home for the Aged and the community at large. He is vice president of Frederick Rauch and Company. He has been a board member of the JCC for more than 15 years. He is currently a vice president of the OJH and has served on its board for the last 10 years. — September 19, 1985
10 Years Ago Edward W. Vinocur, president and CEO of Cedar Village since 1999, died September 10. Vinocur, who established the first Jewish hospice in Ohio, was a recognized leader in the field of aging and a pioneer in nonintuitional models of care. In 1991 he received the Dr. Herbert Shore Young Executive Award
from the North American Association of Jewish Homes for the Aged. One hundred and twenty-nine golfers came out on a beautiful August day to participate in the First Annual Cedar Village Golf Classic at Shaker Run Golf Course. Sixty thousand dollars was raised to benefit the residents
and tenants through programs and services. The day began with a clinic given by LPGA Hall of Famer Amy Alcott and continued with lunch, which was followed by 18 holes of golf. Harvey Smilovitz was the emcee for the evening events, which included dinner, a raffle and an auction. — September 14, 2000
CLASSIFIEDS
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 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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JCC from page 1 The Sigmund M. Cohen Memorial Award and Endowment for Excellence in Service was established in 1992 by Ruth Cohen and her children, along with the JCC and the Cincinnati Jewish community in general. The Cohen Award is given annually to a JCC member who has rendered distinguished volunteer service to the J, and who also volunteers in other community organizations in a selfless and quiet manner. Bill E. Katz was last year’s recipient of the Sigmund M. Cohen Memorial Award. Katz was the founding president of the Mayerson JCC board of directors, and he has served on the JCC board for more than 13 years (including five years as president). The Sept. 21 annual meeting is a great opportunity for the community to hear news and updates about the J. “It’s fantastic to see how the JCC has become our community’s gathering place,” said Jeffrey Baden, JCC executive director. “At our annual meeting, we’re looking forward to sharing with everyone our many successes over the past year, as well as our exciting plans for the future.” The meeting also includes the election of leaders for the coming year. Nominees for the 2010/11 JCC officer positions are: Steve Shifman, president; Debbie Brant, vice president; Marc Fisher, vice president; Len Eppel, treasurer; and Sherri Friedman, secretary. New nominees for the 2010/11 JCC board are Ivan Rocabado, Renee Roth and Jack Rubin. Continuing board members nominated for another term are Debbie Brant, Steve Shifman and John Stein. For more information about the Sept. 21 annual meeting at the Manuel D. and Rhoda Mayerson JCC on The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati campus, call the JCC or visit their website. ADATH from page 1 members either. And during the High Holy Days, free tickets are available for those wanting to learn more about the community. Wise calls the High Holy Days a time for beginning, renewal and returning. “We have always been a people that affirms our individual journeys,” said Wise. “And quests have always been strengthened, supported and enhanced by being part of a congregational communal family.” Erev Yom Kippur services begin at 6:45 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 17, with the Minhah service. Kol Nidre starts at 7:15 p.m. On Saturday, Sept. 18, services resume at 8:45 a.m.
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NEWS
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Conservative and Orthodox streams have launched an online campaign urging rabbis to devote part of their sermons this Shabbat to educating their congregations about Islam and
include a reading from the Koran as part of a national outreach initiative. The efforts come in response to what organizers describe as a wave of anti-Muslim sentiment
resulting from the ninth anniversary of 9/11 and the controversy surrounding efforts to build a Muslim community center and mosque near Ground Zero in
Manhattan. Jewish bloggers and pundits, mostly on the right, have become more vocal in opposing the center and calling for greater scrutiny of American mosques.
and Kathie Kaplan remarked, “We wonder how Nina does it all. A look into Nina’s scheduling book showed that there were enough activities to fill a day for two to three staff members, mak-
ing it even more amazing that Nina takes care of this all herself.” In order to help Russianspeaking residents overcome language and cultural differences in every facet of their daily living, Layliev also helps residents with
their medical needs, while spending time with them translating books, watching Russian television and organizing outings. “The service that Nina provides allows our senior residents a chance to live their lives with far more dignity,” noted Kaplan, co-
chair of the Senior Adult Council of the Jewish Federation. “We should be proud of our Jewish community and the vital services our campaign dollars support.” Site visits to partner agencies —part of the multi-tiered Planning and Allocations
process—provide opportunities to conduct in-depth reviews of an agency’s programs, funding applications and program performance so they can make highly informed recommendations to Federation’s Planning and Allocations Committee.
TALKS from page 1
ment building returns to 2008 levels.
the leaders, on Sept. 14 in Egypt. Michael Oren, the Israeli ambassador to Washington, has spoken of “incentivizing” the Palestinians with other gestures. Oren did not elaborate, but Netanyahu has made a point of talking up economic incentives for the Palestinians, including increased commerce by reducing regulations and pulling away roadblocks. Another way out would be for both sides to avoid questions about the deadline as it approaches and for the moratorium to continue, unofficially, without comment from either the Israelis or Palestinians. Most Israelis living within Israel’s pre1967 borders — the area known as the Green Line — wouldn’t notice whether or not building was continuing in settlements, but the impact would be immediately noticeable to Palestinians. Supporters of the settlement movement, however, say the current restrictions create burdens for the 300,000 Israeli Jews living in the West Bank. The settler community has vowed to protest unless settle-
That deadline: Netanyahu wants an agreement within a year, and before that an interim agreement outlining the parameters of a final status deal. He has made clear, however, in private conversations with U.S. officials that the agreement will be on paper until the Israeli leader is sure that he can secure his country’s borders — in other words, Israelis are saying nothing goes into effect for five, perhaps 10 years. The Israeli expectation is that Abbas will be able to sell the Palestinian public a peace deal based on clearly detailed outlines of what they will get down the line — sort of like showing Junior the catalogue photo of the BB rifle he’ll get for his 15th birthday when he’s 10. Abbas wants more tangible results, and his prime minister, Salam Fayyad, has suggested that a state could be in place by 2011. Fayyad later qualified this to say that he was referring to the infrastructure of a state, much the way that the Zionist movement had the instruments of statehood ready to
go for years before Israel’s founding in 1948. Abbas and the Palestinian Authority are seeking a patina of inevitability to fend off a challenge to their legitimacy by the Hamas terrorist group, which routed them from the Gaza Strip in 2007 and poses a challenge to them in the West Bank. What remains to be seen is whether state institutions — short of statehood — grants them that inevitability.
peace treaty with Jordan and the United States has neutralized Iraq. And for the Palestinians, the point of the peace is to rid themselves of any continued notion of Israeli military occupation. Iraq may be neutralized for now, the Israelis counter, but the region is inherently unstable and Iran is sinking its claims into Iraq.
Jordanians in there for good measure, too — as if the West Bank and Gaza are together when in fact we know they’re not,” the envoy said recently. “The assumption is, if we cut a deal with the PA, and someday the people of Gaza throw off the Hamas yoke, they’ll join the peace arrangement.”
LETTERS from page 16
mosque close to the site of an American tragedy and of an event perpetrated by Moslems (although many in the Moslem community still maintain the canard that this was a Jewish/Israeli conspiracy) the right thing to do, now? This disregard enables those skeptical of Moslem intentions to claim that this mosque will be another “trophy,” that is, represent part of the Moslem conquest to build mosques on “captured or defeated territory” (i.e., Jerusalem’s Temple Mount). The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) accuses anyone opposed to the mosque as racist and demanded Nancy Pelosi initiate an investigation on the sources of funding being used against the mosque. CAIR not only has a disregard for the Constitution but has now labeled the NY Archbishop and Governor as racists and the Anti-Defamation League as a racist organization! It is important to note how the Archbishop came to his position. He compared the GZM to the construction of the church at Auschwitz in the 1980s. Auschwitz consisted of two camps, Auschwitz I and II. Auschwitz II, also called Birkenau, was the Jewish death camp, site of over a million Jewish murders.
BIGOTRY from page 1 Meanwhile, six rabbis and scholars representing the Reconstructionist, Reform, PROGRAM from page 3
two components to this. First, is the Mosque itself and the incompetent public relations. Mosques in the U.S. are commonly called Islamic Centers (i.e. in West Chester and Clifton). The Center serves as a house of worship and a house of learning. When Americans heard of a 13-story Islamic Center to be built near the site of the World Trade Center (WTC) destruction, the immediate reaction was why a 13-story mosque and why so close to the WTC, the target of Moslem hatred toward the U.S.? Despite the fact that this Center would be a more typical community cultural center (i.e. JCC) was immaterial. It is perceived as a 13-story mosque. The denial from the Moslem establishment that the site was not part of the WTC or Ground Zero is actually false. The proposed site was a “victim” of the WTC, part of one plane’s fuselage crashed through the roof making the building inoperable. What is a footprint of Ground Zero? All Americans agree it is not restricted to the twin towers. And, virtually all Americans agree that the Moslem community has a right to build a mosque. But is building a
That border: Netanyahu wants a demilitarized Palestinian state, which the Palestinians effectively conceded in the 1990s. But like his predecessors, he also wants a long-term, if not permanent, presence in the Jordan Valley, along the border with Jordan, to contain the threat from the east that for generations has exercised Israelis. The Palestinians (and the Jordanians) counter, what threat from the east? The prospect of having to secure Israel’s longest border once may have been a concern, in terms of its drain on Israel’s military, but there is a
That territory: So within a year there is peace with the Palestinian Authority and mutual recognition, an end to all claims. Well, except for Gaza, which is ruled by Hamas, which does not recognize Israel or any prospects for peace — and barely recognizes Abbas. What does peace mean without the territory Israel referred to between 1949 and 1967 as a “dagger aimed at Tel Aviv” and the acquiescence of its 1.3 million Palestinians? Just pretend and hope, Oren says. “We are negotiating, we, the United States and the Palestinians are all three of us negotiating — throw the Egyptians and the
Auschwitz I, close to Aushwitz II was more ecumenical, only about half its victims were Jewish (3 percent of the WTC victims were Moslem). Although building a church along the outer perimeter of Auschwitz I should have posed no problem, Pope John Paul II recognized the insensitivity and interceded to have the church dismantled. The Auschwitz church would stymie the need to correct poor Catholic-Jewish relations. The second area is the imam of the GZM. He has been referred to as a “moderate.” It is easy to call someone a moderate Moslem without looking into the credentials. At best he is gray. He does not regard Hamas (and its goal of a Palestine caliphate) as a terrorist organization, although he has indirectly called the targeted murder of civilian Israelis by Hamas as terrorists. He has issued a veiled threat that if the mosque is not built (at the WTC site) it will unleash Islamic terrorism. He has referred to Osama bin Laden as a U.S. creation and the U.S. as an accessory to the WTC crime. Calling America an accessory to the Taliban is like saying the U.S. was an accessory to Stalin! Yes, the U.S. formed a military
alliance with Russia to defeat the Nazis, and yes, the U.S. supplied the Taliban to defeat the Russians in Afghanistan. But did the U.S. create Islamic Fundamentalism or Communism? How absurd! This imam refuses to condemn the Saudis, the keepers of Wahabism, the most fundamentalist, virulent, and racist form of Islam, as a principal source of Moslem problems today. It is Wahabism, thru petro dollars, that created Osama bin Laden and the Taliban, and is the source of funding most Islamic institutions in the world. It is Wahabism that keeps Shia’s as 2nd class citizens, prevents Catholic or Jewish American soldiers from praying to their God on Saudi soil, and keeps women mentally and physically repressed. It is Wahabism that intimidates U.S. imams from condemning Islamic tyranny and ugly practices (wifehonor killings, beheadings, torture on American soil). (And the irony is our African-American President bows to the Saudi king, while Wahabi supported forces rape and kill Africans in Darfur!) This imam has condemned the West for bringing its values to Arab lands (including the creation of Israel). This
That word: Netanyahu has made clear he wants the Palestinians to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, and in this he has the Obama administration’s backing. The Israeli prime minister did not invent this formulation — Tzipi Livni introduced it in 2006 when she was foreign minister. The rationale was that the PLO’s absolute recognition of Israel — extracted in excruciating negotiations by Netanyahu during his previous prime ministership, in 1998 — added up to not much. In the 2000 Camp David talks, the Palestinians insisted on a Palestinian right of return, which Israel believed added up to a peaceful plan for removing the Jewish state. The Palestinians also denied any Jewish claim to Jerusalem. imam would have you believe that Jews in Arab lands lived an idyllic life, there was no Holocaust in Arab lands, and Arabs were not responsible for evicting 500,000 Jews from lands they had lived in for millenia. This is the portrait of a moderate Moslem. If one seeks moderate American Moslems you need not look further than Irshad Majdi or the American Islamic Forum for Democracy. The proposed Ground Zero Mosque is terrible PR. A better act of faith on behalf of the Moslem community, in particular the Saudis, would have been to initiate the building of an interfaith center and memorial AT Ground Zero. Had this happened, Americans in their magnanimity would never have opposed the mosque, notwithstanding Newt Gingrich or Sarah Palin. The failure to comprehend American hurt, that democratic Americans (including Moslems) bleed, has now backfired. Proposed mosques on Staten Island, in Tennessee, and other locations are unfortunately being met with resistance and/or have been withdrawn. Sincerely, Ray Warren Cincinnati, OH
AUTOS
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2010
21
Looks good in red: 2011 Audi R8
2011 Audi R8
If you go onto the Audi website, there is something you notice, in addition to the plethora of well engineered vehicles. Lots of silver and black, it seems as if these are the official colors of Audi. Maybe it means to suggest that their fare looks best this way, and perhaps they do. All but one at least, the Audi R8. Audi’s latest engineering marvel, a driveable supercar, looks damn good in red. One of the perks of owning a company that specializes in top of the line supercar building, is that you can borrow whatever technology you like. Lucky for Audi, they already own Lamborghini, from which they have borrowed much of the technology for the R8, mostly mechanical. The 5.2 liter V-10 engine is the same found in the Lamborghini Gallardo, just with a different setup. The gearbox and all-wheel drive system is also pretty much the same. But that is about all that is the same, the design of each have striking differences, as well as the price tag, with the Audi being far more affordable. The 2011 R8 has two engine options, a 4.2 liter V8, producing 420 horsepower, and a 5.2 liter V10 with a whopping 525 horsepower. One would imagine that if you are in line to buy one of these works of automotive art, you might as well shell out the extra wampum for the same engine found in the R8 LMS GT3 race car (yes the V10). Saying the R8 is quick would be an understatement. It is light-speed, give your passenger whiplash fast, rocketing from zero to 60 miles per hour in 3.7 seconds—faster than you could read this sentence. Audi is careful to put that massive force to all four wheels, for superior traction and handling, with their legendary quattro allwheel drive. Before reaching the
wheels power goes through the Six-speed R-tronic Transmission, which blends the control of a manual gearbox with the advantages of an automatic. Par for the course with Audi is the inclusion of everything high tech, and in this regard the suspension shines. The Audi magnetic ride, developed during thousands of miles at Germany’s famed Nurburgring, is made to cope with continuously changing surfaces. By utilizing an advanced magnetically charged fluid whose viscosity continuously adapts to driving dynamics and can be controlled electromagnetically, the driver can select from “Normal” or “Sport” modes to customize the R8 ride and handling. The result is improved driving dynamics, reduced body movement, better road handling and enhanced overall ride comfort. This Audi is also the first production car to take advantage of full LED lighting, providing superior visibility for you in front, and all the folks behind as well. One of the most distinctive design features of the R8 are the sideblades that help funnel air into the midmounted engine compartment. Aiding in the sleek design is the transparent engine hood, allowing the V10 to receive all the attention it truly deserves. As for the interior, well it’s an Audi, so its got to be nice. Between the Media and Navigation system, the svelte leather and carbon fiber accents and Bang & Olufsen sound system, the R8 sacrifices none of the creature comforts that its competitors forgo. All of this handbuilt “incredible” is available starting at $147,500 for the 5.2 Liter FSI V10. For a supercar that you can actually drive without loosening your fillings, this is quite something. And it looks great in red.
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OBITUARIES
DEATH NOTICES KATZ, Josephine, age 94, died on September 9, 2010; 1 Tishrei, 5771.
OBITUARIES TSEVAT, Miriam Miriam Rose (Krieg) Tsevat, age 93, passed away on August 22, 2010 – the 12th day of Elul, 5770. Mrs. Tsevat was a daughter of the late Max and Martha Krieg. She is survived by her children: Dr. Joel (Jody) Tsevat and David (Susan Plummer) Tsevat; her granddaughters, Rebecca and Danielle Tsevat; and her brother, Ernesto (Elvira) Krieg. She was preceded in death by her husband of 60 years, Matitiahu Tsevat, and her son, Daniel Tsevat. Mrs. Tsevat was born in Liegnitz, Germany, during the “cabbage winter” of 1917, in the midst of World War I. When she started high school her public school had 50 Jewish students. Within a few years of the Nazi rise to power all of them had dropped out or moved, leaving her as the only Jewish student. In 1932 her classmates told her that, because she was Jewish, not only could they no longer be her friends, but they were forbidden to even talk to her! As a teenager she joined a Zionist youth movement over the strong objections of her parents. In 1938, with only the little money she had from selling a pair of earrings given to her by her great aunt, she immigrated to Mandate Palestine. There she attended the Hebrew Teachers College. Miriam worked in Mandate Palestine as a teacher and supervisor of teenagers until 1946, when she sailed to New York to pursue a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education and a master’s degree in vocational guidance and occupational adjustment, both at Columbia University.
Miriam Krieg met Theodor Pinczower, who later Hebracized his name to Matitiahu Tsevat, while in Germany and their friendship and later courtship followed them across various continents for 17 years. After Miriam spent a year in Venezuela, joining her parents and brother who had fled there previously, she and Mat rendezvoused in New York and were married there in 1949. Shortly thereafter, they moved to Cincinnati in order for Mat to attend Hebrew Union College. Intent on staying in Cincinnati only until he finished his Ph.D., Mat was invited to join the HUC faculty, and he and Miriam lived here the rest of their lives. Nevertheless, they were able to visit Israel frequently, and occasionally work there, over the next 50 years.
Miriam Rose (Krieg) Tsevat
As a social worker at Jewish Vocational Service and Jewish Family Service, Miriam was devoted to her clients, particularly those who no one else seemed able to help, especially the “old old,” as they were called. She had the uncanny ability to identify people’s strengths and help them maximize their potential. She received several honors and wrote papers, a noted one of which described how unresolved family problems are passed on from generation to generation. Mrs. Tsevat retired in 1979. Mrs. Tsevat was devoted to her husband’s scholarship, the HUC
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community, Yavneh Day School, her North Avondale neighborhood, and to Israel. Most of all, she was devoted to her family – both her nuclear family and her extended family in Israel. “We will certainly try to embody her courage and devotion as we continue on down the path of life. What I will treasure even more, though, were her resourcefulness and wisdom, or as they say in Hebrew, her sechel. Some people are brilliant and some are resourceful, but few are both. Throw in lots of insight, endless perseverance, and a little chutzpah, and you have Mom,” according to her son, Joel. Mrs. Tsevat loved museums, in particular the Taft Museum; travel; classical music; the Cincinnati Nature Center; and the Krohn Conservatory. She had an insatiable appetite for knowledge, attending lectures whenever she could. She loved hosting guests for Shabbat dinners, Passover Seders, or just for tea. She was an avid swimmer, well known to all at Clinton Hills Swim Club and at the Xavier pool, logging more miles in her 70s than people half her age. To quote Bill Joslyn, a family friend: “She was an extraordinary, admirable woman and a loving mother. She inspired us all to live better lives, passionately raised our expectations and continually prodded us to persevere in achieving goals. She reached out, engaged and gave of herself unhesitatingly. We’ll all remember the many important contributions that she added to our lives.” Her son, David, added: “Living on four continents, sometimes under hardship, and emigrating from two was trying and courageous. But nothing was more so than watching the despair and ultimately the passing of her eldest child. Nevertheless, Mom was able to call upon a remarkable courage to sustain herself, as well as her family, friends, and community. Having come out of a German-Jewish culture—now largely lost—where music, literature, art, learning and nature were treasured, and extravagances and empty pleasures were disdained, Mom found joy and comfort in much that surrounded her and in what her curiosity and perceptiveness enabled her to discover.” Funeral services were conducted on August 24, 2010 and officiated by Rabbi Lewis Kamrass of Wise Temple. Memorial contributions can be made to Hebrew Union CollegeCincinnati, 3101 Clifton Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio 45220-2488 LEVINTHAL, Mildred Caroline Greenburg Mildred (Mickey) Caroline
Greenburg Levinthal passed away at the age of 99 on September 4, 2010. She was the beloved wife of the late Sam Levinthal, devoted mother of Charles (Beth) Levinthal of Huntington, N.Y., and Roberta (Mort) Mallin, dear sister-in-law of Sylvia Shuller, loving grandmother of Michael and Gabrielle Mallin, Diana and Arturo Sanchez, David and Sarah Levinthal, and Brian Levinthal, and great-grandmother of Samantha, Baylee and Danielle Mallin, Maya and Kai Sanchez, and Aaron Levinthal. Mickey was a lifelong resident of Cincinnati. Her first home—in fact the place of her birth—was downtown on 13th Street. She lived on Glenwood Avenue in Avondale and Paddock Road in Bond Hill, before moving to the Williamsburg of Cincinnati apartments and later the Evergreen Retirement Community. At the time of her passing she was a resident of Cedar Village. She enjoyed her career as a substitute teacher at Woodward High School and Hartwell School. Her father, Fred W. Greenburg, started a small macaroni and vinegar distribution company in Cincinnati. During the mid-1940s her husband Sam took over the business and eventually built it into Cincinnati Foods, Inc., the largest institutional wholesale grocery company in the tri-state region. Mickey served as secretary of Cincinnati Foods, Inc. until its sale to the John Sexton Company in 1965. Everyone who met Mickey Levinthal or was lucky to be a friend knew her to be a sweet and kind lady. The four generations of her family will always cherish her memory and share the blessing of her devotion, caring and love through so many years. Her life was an extraordinary gift to all of us. Funeral services were held at United Jewish Cemetery, officiated by Rabbi Gerry Walter. Memorial contributions can be made to Cedar Village, 5467 Cedar Village Dr., Mason, Ohio, 45040; (513) 754-3100. SALTZMAN, Dr. Bernard E. Dr. Bernard E. Saltzman, Emeritus Professor of Environmental Health at the University of Cincinnati, died on September 6, 2010, in Cincinnati at the age of 92. He was a pioneer in industrial hygiene and in air pollution research and education. He also was a retired officer of the U.S. Public Health Service, with the rank of Sanitary Engineer Director (equivalent to Navy Captain), before his second career with the University. Bernard was born and raised in New York City and graduated from City College of New York
with a B.Ch.E degree. He earned an M.S. degree in chemical engineering from the University of Michigan and later in his career as a part time student, a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from University of Cincinnati. He began his career as an engineer with Seagram distillers, but soon joined the U.S.P.H.S. as a sanitary engineer. During this 26 year career he worked on water supply and sewerage in Massachusetts and New York, water pollution in West Virginia, where he ran the state water and sewage laboratory and as an industrial hygiene chemist in Bethesda, Md., and Cincinnati (in a division now named NIOSH). He served as the director of the radiochemical laboratory in Salt Lake City and then as Deputy Chief of Chemical Research and Development in the air pollution program (now EPA). During this time he developed many analytical methods now widely used. After retiring, he became Professor of Environmental Health in the Department of Environmental Health, College of Medicine, University of Cincinnati, where he continued his research. He is an author of over 120 publications in journals and books. Dr. Saltzman’s 1954 article on measurement of nitrogen oxides was cited over 600 times in the scientific literature. Among his awards are the annual Eminent Cincinnati Chemist of the Cincinnati Section, American Chemical Society, the Harvey W. Wiley award of the Association of Official Analytical Chemists, the Borden Award and honorary membership in the American Industrial Hygiene Association. For many years he obtained grant support and directed the graduate program in industrial hygiene and also in air pollution jointly with the Department of Civil Engineering. The numerous graduates have gone on to serve in many important positions in government, industry and education. Dr. Saltzman is survived by his wife, Martha; his children, Dr. Phyllis Saltzman of Cincinnati, Barbara Trompeter of Massapequa Park, N.Y., and Dr. Gregory Saltzman of Ann Arbor, Mich.; seven grandchildren; and a sister, Bertha Rubin of Yonkers, N.Y. Funeral services were held at Weil Funeral Home on Tuesday, September 7. Memorials may be sent to The Industrial Hygiene Program at University of Cincinnati Medical School, Department of Enviromental Health, P.O. Box 670056, Cincinnati, Ohio 45267. An additional onling eulogy can be accessed at: http://campus.albion.edu/gsaltzman/bernard-e-saltzman-19182010-in-memorium/
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