Program offers NHS to feature grants to overnight ‘The Tribe’ Jewish campers For the 2011 summer, children who have never attended a Jewish overnight camp can receive up to $1,000 for camp sessions of three weeks or more and up to $500 for camp sessions of two weeks from the Jewish Overnight Camping Program. The grants are gifts and are not needbased or contingent on other scholarship or financial aid dollars. The camp must be sponsored by a non-profit Jewish organization to qualify under the program. This program has been in existence for five years and has helped a total of 330 children attend overnight camp for the first time. Getzel Cohen, who created the program and directs it, noted how important the camping experience is for Jewish children. The Foundation for Jewish
What can Barbie, the most successful doll in history, show us about being Jewish today? The documentary “The Tribe” attempts to answer that question. It will be shown at a special adult education program at Northern Hills Synagogue–Congregation B’nai Avraham on Sunday evening, Jan. 9, at 7 p.m. Directed by Tiffany Shlain and narrated by Peter Coyote, “The Tribe” weaves together archival footage, graphics and animation to tell the story of both the Barbie doll and the Jewish people. By tracing Barbie’s history, the film sheds light on important questions: What does it mean to be an American Jew today? What does it mean to be a member of any tribe in the 21st century? “The Tribe” has won numerous awards, including Best Documentary at both the New York and Los Angeles short film festivals in 2007, Best Short Documentary at the 2006 Nashville Film Festival and 2007 Warsaw Jewish Film Festival, and the grand jury prize at the 2007 Florida Film
PROGRAM on page 19
NHS on page 19
By LeeAnne Galioto Assistant Editor
Rockwern needs the community’s support By LeeAnne Galioto Assistant Editor Studies on Jewish day schools repeatedly point to day schools’ importance in fostering a strong connection to Jewish identity. In order to thrive, parents need to have confidence in Rockwern Academy’s academics, values and stability. Across the board, the main drivers of increased enrollment for a day school are affordability and academic excellence. It can also be argued that consistently offering all grades, including seventh and eighth, will also increase parents’ confidence in the school. Currently Rockwern and many other Jewish day schools have a model similar to mainline independent schools. They go after the top 10 percent of the income bracket, and ROCKWERN on page 20
Katsav rape conviction hailed as watershed moment
The new German anti-Semitism
By Dina Kraft Jewish Telegraphic Agency
By Donald Snyder The Jewish Daily Forward
TEL AVIV (JTA) — For years it was considered an open secret in Israeli political and media circles that Moshe Katsav had a habit of sexually harassing women who worked for him. In a nation at arms with a decidedly machismo bent, sexual encounters between powerful male politicians and military officers and their female staff often were seen as a perk of the job and such behavior quietly was accepted as part of the culture, if unhappily by many women.
BERLIN (Forward) — Muslim teenagers in Hanover attack an Israeli dance troupe, reportedly yelling “Juden raus” as they hurl stones. German leftists march in Berlin with Muslims to protest the 2008–2009 Gaza military conflict. “Death to the Jews!” the marchers chant. At a soccer game between teams from the St. Pauli section of Hamburg and the city of Chemnitz in eastern Germany, the Chemnitz fans shout “Sieg heil” and wave imitation Nazi flags. This is happening in a country where Holocaust education has long been mandatory and where expressions of anti-Semitism and the dissemination of hatred are illegal. Holocaust denial is a crime in Germany.
CONVICTION on page 21
Courtesy of Yossi Zeliger / Flash90 / JTA
Former Israeli President Moshe Katsav, with gray hair at center, outside a Tel Aviv court on Dec. 30, 2010 after being convicted of raping a government employee, assaulting a female employee of the President’s Residence and sexually harassing an 18-year-old female National Service volunteer.
ANTI-SEMITISM on page 20
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Shabbat in Liverpool: New CD adapts Beatles’ tunes for services
Gaza-Israel border heats up as Hamas acquires new weapons
4th Annual JNF Judge Carl B. Rubin Legal Society Attorney of the Year Gala
Eat, drink and be merry at Slatt’s Pub
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Northern Hills Kaufman Memorial Fund Synagogue Hazak will sponsor annual lecture welcomes Chaverim M’Israel The Chaverim M’Israel (Friends from Israel) will be the special guests when Northern Hills Synagogue – Congregation B’nai Avraham holds its monthly HaZaK program for seniors on Wednesday, Jan. 19. The program will take place at the synagogue and begin at noon. Lunch will be served. Chaverim M’Israel is a special program sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati and the Jewish Agency for Israel which brings to Cincinnati for a year two teens from Cincinnati’s sister city of Netanya, Israel. While here, they provide formal and informal programs about Israel throughout Cincinnati, at both Jewish and nonJewish venues, teaching about contemporary Israel, Israeli culture, history and current events. This year’s Chaverim M’Israel are Gaby Silver, 18, and Matan Moyal, 19. They both have deferred their service in the Israeli army for a year of volunteer service in Cincinnati. “HaZaK” is an acronym, with the letters standing for the Hebrew words “Hakhma” (wisdom),
The monthly HaZaK programs are for adults 55 and older and are open to the entire community. “Ziknah” (maturity) and “Kadima” (forward). The monthly HaZaK programs are for adults 55 and older and are open to the entire community. In addition to members of Northern Hills, many attendees have come from the Jewish Community Center, Cedar Village, Brookwood Retirement Community and throughout Greater Cincinnati. There is no charge for the program and lunch, but donations are greatly appreciated. For reservations or more information, call the Northern Hills Synagogue office.
Local man elected as district officer for United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism’s newly formed central district elected its first slate of district council officers earlier this month. Among the officers elected is Jeff Bassin of Montgomery, Ohio. Bassin was named vice chair for membership and Alim and will serve for the next two years. Bassin will work with district chair Muriel Carp of St Louis, Mo., the other district officers and the professional staff. He will work to recruit member congregations and assist new emerging congregations throughout the district. Before he became district chair-elect, Bassin served as the district’s interim vice chair for membership and Alim. Bassin, a trial attorney with the IRS, is a past-president of the United Synagogue’s Great Lakes and Rivers Region and a past-pres-
ident of Northern Hills Synagogue — Congregation B’nai Avraham in Cincinnati and a past-president of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Ann Arbor. Bassin lives in Montgomery with his wife, Gayna, and son, Edward. His older son, Michael, just completed service in the Israeli Army. United Synagogue’s Central District was created by a merger of the Great Lakes & rivers, Midwest and mid-continent regions. The district represents more than 100 United Synagogue member congregations in Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Western Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming, as well as Saskatchewan and Manitoba, Canada, and Mexico D.F., Mexico.
Shoshana Kaufman and her sons, Oran and Gil, have established a memorial fund at Adath Israel Congregation in memory of their husband and father, Enrique N. Kaufman, M.D., who passed away in April 2010. The fund will sponsor the Rabbi’s Forum, an annual lecture focusing on critical contemporary issues. The establishment of this fund is but another example of the Kaufman family’s commitment to Adath Israel where they have been members since 1969. Reflecting on the family’s generosity in establishing the memorial fund, Rabbi Irvin Wise said that the synagogue has meant a great deal to them, and they have been very involved with Adath Israel over the years. Dr. Kaufman, a native of Argentina, graduated from medical
Dr. Enrique N. Kaufman
school in Buenos Aires. In 1958, he immigrated to Israel, where he met his wife of 50 years, Shoshana,
also a native of Argentina. While in Israel, he served in the army during the 1967 Six Day War and later completed an internship and fellowship in internal medicine. In 1968 the family moved to Cincinnati so that Dr. Kaufman could complete a second residency in University Hospital’s psychiatry department. The treatment of phobias became a special interest for Dr. Kaufman. “He was a people person devoted to his community and always interested in Jewish education,” Shoshana said. “He was one of the main supporters of Yavneh (now Rockwern Academy) Day School’s move from Roselawn to Montgomery, one of the founders of Halom House for mentally challenged adults, and a supporter of the National Yiddish Book Center and Jewish Federation.”
JCC aquatics center offers year-round programs Make sure your winter wardrobe includes a bathing suit, because no matter what the weather’s like outside, it’s always a comfortable 84 degrees in the indoor waterpark at the Mayerson Jewish Community Center. The 12,000-square-foot indoor aquatics center at the JCC features a variety of separate, heated pools, including areas for water aerobics and swim lessons. The JCC offers many levels of Red Cross certified instruction to J Members, as well as the public. Starting the week of Jan. 9, beginners and advanced swimmers of all ages will have the opportunity to learn and improve their swimming skills in a series of 11 swim classes offered in the indoor aquatics center at the J. Yacova Guigui has two children who take swim lessons at the JCC, and she plans to enroll her third child in the winter swim lessons starting in January. “Before I signed my kids up for swim lessons at the J, they were not able to swim on their own. Now they’re able to swim laps across the entire pool,” said Guigui. JCC winter swim lessons are offered at a variety of convenient times. There are classes available in the morning and afternoon on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays for children as young as 6 months, through adults of any age. Private swim lessons for individuals, or groups of 2 or 3 people, are available by appointment with one of the JCC’s certified
water safety instructors. Members of the JCC pay discounted fees for all winter programs (including swim lessons) and also enjoy many other advantages like unlimited use of the JCC facilities, as well as free aquatics exercise and other group exercise classes. Overall, J Members may choose from
JCC water aerobics classes cater to J Members of all fitness levels, including those with arthritis. among more than 90 free group exercise classes per week. JCC water aerobics classes cater to J Members of all fitness levels, including those with arthritis. The new JCC Aqualates class gives J Members a great workout in the water with a combination of traditional Pilates exercises and strength training. There are also low-impact classes in shallow and deep water designed to build muscle strength, while exercising joints and muscles without strain. The JCC indoor waterpark also features a fun indoor splash pool with a graduated “zero entry” for
easy access by even the smallest child. Young children enjoy pool play features like small geysers and a climb-on water playground with a slide. Older kids (and adults) have fun zipping down the 116-foot water slide, while others relax in the “current channel” and the indoor whirlpool spa that accommodates up to 20 people. There are also adjacent party rooms perfect for birthday celebrations and get-togethers with family and friends. Any parent (J Member or not) looking for a fun place to have their children’s birthday party can schedule a pool party in the JCC indoor waterpark or an arts and crafts party. Each birthday celebration is led by a JCC host or hostess. The first hour takes place in a play area, and the second hour is in a private party room. The JCC provides party room decorations, festive paper goods, juice and cupcakes. It’s a popular and easy way for parents to celebrate their child’s birthday. To learn more about swim lessons and aquatics classes at the J, contact Lydia Mikenas, JCC aquatics director. For pool parties and other facility rentals, contact Erin Hill, JCC events coordinator. The Winter 2010 JCC update program guide is available on the JCC website, featuring a full list of youth and adult programs at the Mayerson JCC . Most winter programs start the weeks of Jan. 9 or 16. Programs are open to the public, and many classes fill up quickly. Advance registration is required.
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Free ‘Concert on Clifton’ at HUC with Constella Trio Three world-class musicians— Ilya Finkelshteyn, principal cello of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra; Tatiana Berman, internationally acclaimed violinist; and Yael Senamaud, principal viola of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra—bring their artistry to Clifton. The free concert of the Constella Trio is part of Hebrew
Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion’s “Concerts on Clifton” series. The program will be held Sunday, Jan. 16 at 4:30 p.m. in its historic Scheuer Chapel. The evening will also honor the life and work of composer Bonia Shur on the occasion of his birthday. Shur has written hundreds of liturgical pieces as well as compo-
sitions for symphony, stage and film. His Kol Nidre has never before been performed in public. The program will include: Shur’s “Kol Nidre,” Ludwig von Beethoven’s “String Trio in D major; Opus 9 No. 2,” Franz Schubert’s “Unfinished Trio in B flat major, D. 471,” Gideon Klein’s “Trio (Terezin 1944),” and Erno
‘LET THERE BE LIGHT ’
Dohnanyi’s “Serenade Opus 10.” The Skirball Museum in Mayerson Hall will be open for visitors from 3:30–4:30 p.m. The museum’s permanent exhibit is titled, “An Eternal People: The Jewish Experience.” Reservations are requested. For more information, contact Rabbi Jean Eglinton at HUC.
Local Jewish moms invited to apply for Israel trip Juggling all the responsibilities of motherhood, career and the various other activities we call “life” makes it hard for today’s Jewish moms to find time for themselves. Sarah’s Place is offering to give 18 deserving, local moms an incredible opportunity to recharge – in Israel! This fairly new, local women’s learning project has teamed up with the Jewish Women’s Renaissance Project (JWRP), a non-profit group based in Washington, D.C., that aims to empower Jewish women. JWRP has provided amazing Israel experiences to 1,000 women worldwide in the three years since it launched the T.A.G. (Transform and Grow) trips to Israel, which are subsidized through private foundations. Participants pay for a grouprate airfare, and all other components of this popular trip — toprated hotels and restaurants, incredible tours with select tour guides, and Shabbat in the Old City of Jerusalem — are all free. The nine-day itinerary includes floating in the Dead Sea, kayaking on the Jordan River and visiting the Western Wall. Some moderate hiking is included as well. But it’s not all fun in the sun. The women
National Briefs Clergy, Bibi urge Pollard release WASHINGTON (JTA) — More than 500 clergy signed a letter to President Obama urging clemency for Jonathan Pollard. The letter was delivered a day before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly sent a letter to Obama issuing a formal clemency request. Netanyahu was scheduled
will attend lectures by some of the most prominent educators in Israel, meet Israeli women who serve as soldiers, business leaders, and politicians, and will be able to give their own hands-on assis-
tance with a heart-warming charity project. A quick perusal of the numerous, personal YouTube videos about the JWRP Israel trip make it evident that many past partici-
pants consider this trip to have been one of the most fundamental Jewish experiences of their lives. The Cincinnati contingency will be joining groups from Chicago, Denver, Dallas, East Brunswick and West Palm Beach. JWRP criteria limit the trip to moms whose youngest child has not yet graduated college. Although the JWRP T.AG. trip is often described as a “Birthright for Moms,” it is not limited to first-time-visitors. Local coordinators, Aviva Minster and Nomi Landis, look forward to helping interested moms learn more about this opportunity. “We’re thrilled that we’ll be able to introduce JWRP director Lori Palatnik to anyone who might be curious about this great trip when she visits Cincinnati in mid-January. She’ll be speaking on Sunday evening, Jan. 16, at the Mayerson Jewish Community Center and in some private venues on Monday, Jan. 17. Any moms who believe an Israel trip would help them recharge and boost their sense of Jewish spirit are encouraged to go ahead and apply at the JWRP website to secure their spot!” Testimonials from past participants and more information is available on the JWRP or Sarah’s Place Cincy websites.
to read his letter Tuesday evening to a Knesset plenum discussion. “After more than two and a half decades in prison, Mr. Pollard’s health is declining,” reads the letter sent Monday from rabbis representing all streams, as well as a number of leading Protestant and Roman Catholic clergy. “He has repeatedly expressed remorse for his actions, and by all accounts has served as a model inmate. Commuting his sentence to time served would be a wholly appropriate exercise of your power of clemency — as well as a matter of basic fairness and American justice. It would also represent a clear sense of compassion and reconciliation — a sign of hope
much needed in today’s world of tension and turmoil.” The letter is the latest in a surge of pleas to free Pollard, a U.S. Navy analyst who spied for Israel and who has been in prison since 1985. A raft of Democratic Congress members urged Obama to release Pollard late last year, and a number of officials who were involved in investigating the matter also have signed on to the effort. Among the signatories of the letter sent this week was Rabbi Donald Levy of Temple Beit Torah in Colorado Springs, Colo., a former Navy cryptologist who participated in the damage assessment after Pollard’s arrest.
“There was nothing that we came across to indicate that Pollard gave information to any country but Israel,” said Levy said in a separate statement. “Further, the information he probably disclosed consisted primarily of daily operational intelligence summaries, information that is extremely perishable. It did not appear to me at the time that the information he gave Israel should have resulted in a life sentence.” Also signing the letter were leaders of lay Jewish groups, including the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, B’nai B'rith International and the Zionist Organization of America.
Aviva Minster and Yehudis Polsky introduce JWRP Israel trip.
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VOL. 157 • NO. 24 THURSDAY, JANUARY 6, 2010 1 SHEVAT 5771 SHABBAT BEGINS FRIDAY 5:13 PM SHABBAT ENDS SATURDAY 6:12 PM 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 RABBI ISSAC M. WISE Editor & Publisher, 1854-1900 LEO WISE Editor & Publisher, 1900-1928 RABBI JONAH B. WISE Editor & Publisher, 1928-1930 HENRY C. SEGAL Editor & Publisher, 1930-1985 MILLARD H. MACK Publisher Emeritus NETANEL (TED) DEUTSCH Editor & Publisher BARBARA L. MORGENSTERN Senior Writer LEEANNE GALIOTO 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 JOSEPH D. STANGE Production Manager ALLISON CHANDLER Office Manager
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Shabbat in Liverpool: New CD adapts Beatles’ tunes for services By Michael Feldstein Jewish Telegraphic Agency STAMFORD, Conn. (JTA) — When is it kosher to listen to the Beatles on the Sabbath? When your chazan adapts the Kabbalat Shabbat Friday night service to the melodies of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Lenny Solomon, the founder of the song-parody group Shlock Rock, employed “nusach Liverpool” for a service in late December at the Young Israel of Hollywood, an Orthodox synagogue in South Florida. “I’ve never had more pride in anything else that I have ever performed,” said Solomon, who has been in the Jewish music business for 25 years. “I had created something new that could be sung in the shul. This is something that I had never done, and I was beaming by the time the services ended.” The service was the culmination of a years-long project for Solomon that has included the release of a CD with 21 Beatles’ songs set to various parts of Shabbat services and liturgy. On the CD, “Shalom Aleichem” is sung to the tune of “With a Little Help from My Friends”; the “V’Shamru” portion of kiddush is set to “The Long and Winding Road”; “Ein Keloheinu” sounds like “Let it Be”; and the Havdalah service is set to “Imagine.” The story of the CD began in 2004 when a friend and neighbor asked Solomon, who lives in Israel, for the 40th birthday gift of a CD of the songs of Kabbalat Shabbat set to Beatles music. Solomon was skeptical but the neighbor, Allen Krasna, sent him an Excel spreadsheet with the Beatles’ songs in one column and the prayers and songs of the Shabbat service on the left. Solomon went to work. Working on and off, he needed nine months to take the 35 tunes and incorporate the melodies to the words of the Shabbat prayers. Solomon recorded the CD, “A Shabbat in Liverpool,” in 2005, but it took another five years to obtain the proper licensing to release the project. The collection finally was released publicly last November as a 21-song CD, which is available for sale at Amazon and other retailers. (Samples of the collection are available at the shlockrock web site). Solomon was in the United States promoting the CD. Dec. 24 marked the first time that Solomon actually used the songs in a real service. The reaction at the Young Israel of Hollywood seemed to be mostly positive. “I enjoyed it and sang along with Lenny,” said congregant Avi
The American Israelite is currently seeking a
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Courtesy of Shlock Rock
The album cover of Shlock Rock’s “Shabbat in Liverpool,” which features Beatles’ songs set to Sabbath prayers and replicates the Fab Four’s famed “Abbey Road” album, was released in December 2010.
Frier. “I think it will take awhile, though, for something like this to really catch on and became mainstream, like the Carlebach minyanim.” It was hardly the first time Jewish services have been set to secular music. Some of the most popular Shabbat tunes originally were secular songs, such as “Erev Shel Shoshanim” (“Evening of Lilies”), a Hebrew love song written in 1957 by Yaffa Yarkoni. “Every song that comes into this world has a holy spark,” Solomon said. “It is the obligation of the Jewish musician to take the best melodies of the secular world and bring them from the side of darkness to the side of light. This will cause the Jewish people to get closer to God and hasten the redemption.” Krasna, whose request spawned the creation of the CD, agrees. “I’m in favor of anything that is done in the service that elevates one’s spirituality,” said Krasna, a lifelong Beatles fan. “Certainly, Conservative and Reform synagogues may embrace this kind of thing more easily, since they always look for ideas to make their services more relevant to the times. But I believe there is a place for these tunes even at Orthodox synagogues.” Solomon sees the Beatles service as a work in progress. “My first effort at leading the service was not perfect,” he said. “I do hope I’ll have the opportunity to do this again, so that other
congregants can learn the service and appreciate the rich Shabbat liturgy in a brand-new way. “I’m also convinced that there are many people who ordinarily do not attend a synagogue but who can be introduced to the holy words of our Shabbat prayers through this music.”
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The Eulogizer: Notable Jews who died in 2010 By Alan D. Abbey Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) — When The New York Times Sunday Magazine published its annual list of notable 2010 deaths, there were three Jewish names: Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, innovative mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot and caricaturist David Levine, who actually died on Dec. 29, 2009. We’ve come up with a bunch more notable figures, divided here by category. Politics/Government Theodore “Ted” Sorensen, 82, was President John F. Kennedy’s speechwriter, a longtime adviser and a ghostwriter of Kennedy’s “Profiles in Courage.” Daniel “Danny the Red” Bensaid, 63, a French philosopher and former student radical who was a leader in the student revolt in Paris in 1968, was described as France’s leading “Marxist public intellectual” upon his death. Ruth Proskauer Smith, 102, was an abortion rights pioneer. Harry Schwarz, 85, was a South African anti-apartheid activist who was his country’s ambassador to the United States during the transition from apartheid to the Mandela government. He also was a leader of South Africa’s Jewish Board of Deputies, and he worked with Israeli leaders to ensure the safety and future of South African Jewry. Schwarz told his own story as part of a museum exhibit of German
refugees in South Africa. David Kimche, 82, was a founding father of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency and a spy who worked undercover in Africa and with the Christian Phalangists in Lebanon before Israel’s 1982 war there. Dov Shilansky, 86, was a former Speaker of the Knesset. Actors/Filmmakers Tony Curtis, 85, actor and artist, was born in the Bronx as Bernard Schwartz. A major sex symbol on the big screen from the 1950s on, Curtis helped finance the rebuilding of the Great Synagogue in Budapest in honor of his Hungarian roots. Tom Bosley, 83, was probably best known as Richie Cunningham’s dad, Howard, on the sitcom “Happy Days.” The Jewish Exponent published a piece on Bosley in 2006 when he appeared in a stage production of “On Golden Pond” in Philadelphia. Zelda Rubinstein, 76, a diminutive (4’3”) actress who won a science fiction film award for her role in “Poltergeist” in 1982, was an activist for “little people.” Harold Gould, 86, was best known for his role as the father of Rhoda Morgenstern in the TV sitcoms “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “Rhoda.” Gould, who held a doctorate in theater, taught for four years at the University of California, Riverside, before turning to acting. He appeared in dozens of TV shows and movies,
including “The Sting.” Gould was originally cast as Howard Cunningham in “Happy Days.” Maury Chaykin, 61, known for portraying detective Nero Wolfe on TV, had film roles in “Dances With Wolves,” “WarGames” and “My Cousin Vinny.” Steve Landesberg, 74, an actor, comedian and voice actor, was best known for his work on TV’s “Barney Miller.” Bud Greenspan, 84, who was best known for his production of documentaries about the Olympics, was called a “trailblazing filmmaker” by The Los Angeles Times. Irvin Kershner, 87, a film director, was most noted for “The Empire Strikes Back,” the 1980 sequel to the original “Star Wars” film. Ingrid Pitt, 73, a Holocaust survivor, was an actress in horror films in the 1960s and 1970s.
signing contracts with Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly. Malcolm McLaren, 64, was a rock and punk music impresario and performer who was most noted for managing the Sex Pistols, a seminal British punk band in the 1970s. London’s The Telegraph ran an extensive obituary and photographs after his death. Doug Fieger, 57, was cofounder of the power pop band The Knack and writer of the 1979 hit song “My Sharona.” David Soyer, 87, was founding cellist of the Guarnieri String Quartet, one of the modern era’s most celebrated chamber music ensembles. David Deckelbaum, 71, a Canadian/Israeli folk musician from the group “The Taverners,” was described by the Israeli daily Haaretz as an “iconic banjoist” on the folk music scene in Israel.
Musicians Eddie Fisher, 82, was a prerock-era pop singer. He was married to actress Debbie Reynolds, but left her, scandalously, for actress Elizabeth Taylor — a move that cost him his “Coke Time” TV series and a recording contract in 1959. Fisher made the first commercial recording of “Sunrise, Sunset” from “Fiddler on the Roof.” Mitch Miller, 99, a record company executive and conductor who became famous for his 1960s TV show “Sing Along With Mitch,” was known for speaking derisively about rock and roll. He passed on
Literature/Media/Art Daniel Schorr, 93, was an award-winning journalist whose name appeared on Richard Nixon’s “enemies list” and who angered both government officials and his employers for being a stickler for journalistic ethics and the protection of sources. Schorr spent many years as a commentator for National Public Radio. The station produced a lovely package of stories, audio clips and tributes about Schorr after his death. Harvey Pekar, 69, was a cartoonist best known for his autobiographical comic series, “American Splendor.” His life was the subject of a 2003 film with the same title, starring actor Paul Giamatti as Pekar and featuring a cameo by Pekar himself. J.D. Salinger, 91, was one of the 20th century’s most celebrated and reclusive American authors. Salinger’s 1951 novel, “The Catcher in the Rye,” still sells a quarter-million copies a year. The New York Times critic Michiko Kakutani said Salinger “domesticated the innovations of the great modernists” and presaged the work of writers such as Philip Roth and Saul Bellow. Erich Segal, 72, was an author and professor whose novel (and later film), “Love Story,” became a touchstone of youthful romance in the 1970s. The film’s signature line, “Love means never having to say you’re sorry,” was 13th on the American Film Institute’s list of top 100 movie quotes. Segal, the son of a rabbi, also produced scholarly works in the fields of Greek and Latin literature. Abraham Sutzkever, 96, was an acclaimed Yiddish poet who was considered one of the great poets of the Holocaust. Born in the Russian Empire, he was a partisan during
World War II and spent more than 50 years in Israel, writing what Israeli scholar Miriam Trin called some of the greatest poetry of the 20th century. However, he was largely unknown in Israel because he wrote in Yiddish. Shmuel Katz, 83, was a wellknown Israeli caricaturist and illustrator of children’s books. Haaretz said Katz, an Austrian Holocaust survivor who immigrated to Israel in 1948, drew some of Israel’s “best-loved” children’s books. David Slivka, 95, who once famously made a death mask of his friend Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, was a sculptor and painter. The New York Times described Slivka as “one of the last living members of the New York school of Abstract Expressionists.” His paintings and sculptures are in the permanent collections of many major museums, including the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and the Brooklyn Museum. Academia/Science Martin Ginsburg, 78, was an internationally renowned taxation law expert and law professor, as well as the husband of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Howard Zinn, 87, was a radical historian and author of, among other titles, “A Peoples History of the United States.” Adam Max Cohen, 38, was an associate professor of English at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. A Shakespeare scholar, he wrote about how the illiteracy caused by his terminal brain tumor enabled him to gain new insights into appreciating Shakespeare’s plays as performance art, and not only as great literature. Crime Martin Grossman, 45, was executed in Florida 26 years after his conviction for the murder of a Florida wildlife officer. The Orthodox world campaigned to keep Grossman from execution. Other Rosa Rein of Switzerland, who was believed to be the world’s oldest Jew and the oldest Swiss citizen, died in February, just weeks before her 113th birthday. Mark Madoff, 46, was an American businessman and son of the infamous Bernard Madoff. Honorary Miep Gies, 100, was a nonJewish Dutch woman who enabled Anne Frank and her family to hide, and who later discovered and preserved Frank’s diary. She was honored by many organizations in later years, including the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial organization in Israel.
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Rabbi, ‘adopted son’ struggle to secure a U.S. visa By Deborah Hirsch The Jewish Exponent PHILADELPHIA (Jewish Exponent) — Maybe it was fate, or maybe just a random series of events that motivated a curious Palestinian high school student to sneak into the Hebrew University class where he met the Jewish professor who would later become a father figure. However you characterize their serendipitous path, Rabbi Andrew Sacks of Jerusalem considers Anas Sbeih, now 25 and living in Sweden, his adopted son. And after all the two have shared over the past eight years, Sacks, a Philadelphia native, is eager to introduce Sbeih to his extended family at a wedding in a Philadelphia suburb next month. “It’s a perfectly normal and typical thing that anyone would want for a family member,” said Sacks, director of the Conservative/Masorti Movement’s Rabbinical Assembly in Israel. But U.S. Embassy officials in Stockholm denied Sbeih’s visa application in early December, saying that he didn’t have strong enough ties to Sweden to counter the risk that he may overstay his welcome. While that explanation jibes with the law, it doesn’t sit well with Sacks. He has appealed for help from friends in the United States, including local rabbis and U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach (R-6th District). Despite their letters pledging support, the embassy hasn’t budged. “I don’t believe I will be successful, but I’m not giving up,” Sacks vowed in a phone interview from Jerusalem, where he has lived since making aliyah in 1987. That is especially so, he added, if this denial means that Sbeih will “continue to be treated as a Palestinian Muslim” even after he becomes a Swedish citizen. According to the State Department, foreigners who are denied visas must always apply for a visa in the future, even if they gain citizenship that would otherwise allow them to travel without one. Speaking in fluent English from Stockholm, Sbeih said he wants to believe that the denial was procedural, as officials claimed, but it’s impossible to know if racial profiling had anything to do with it. Even if it was purely based on legal criteria, he said, it’s disappointing to be the object of such “inhuman” bureaucratic maneuvering. “I don’t know what I can do to prove to people that I’m really just a person with no interest to break the law,” Sbeih said. “I just want to go to meet the family I’ve heard about and go back home to Stockholm.” Sbeih is used to his identity get-
ting in the way — except in the past, that had more to do with his sexual orientation than with his nationality. In fact, he said, it was his family’s violent reaction to his homosexuality that led him to explore theology – and, ultimately, to connect with Sacks. In reaction, Sbeih turned to religion, hoping that in becoming a more observant Muslim he’d find a way to accept or suppress his feelings. That lasted three months. He began spending more time away from home, and, after befriending a student at the Hebrew University, he began hanging out at the campus and sitting in on classes. There, he heard Sacks — someone who was religious but also liberal — interpreting Judaism from all sorts of angles. “I wanted to seek haven or help, but I couldn’t find it,” Sbeih said. “I didn’t know any religious Muslim figure that would help me accept myself and be in peace with myself. I saw that in Andy, so I was just thinking maybe I can teach myself and reflect it on my parallel side.” Sbeih’s family troubles came to a head about a year after that. After a cousin attacked him for being gay, Sbeih said, he left the city for eight months. When he came back, he stayed with friends or with Sacks, and eventually moved in with the rabbi. Sacks said that Israeli law prohibits interreligious adoption, and that has been complicated by the fact that Sbeih was already a legal adult. So instead, the two men signed power of attorney forms and other forms linking their lives together. Still, Sbeih said, he realized he would never feel safe in Jerusalem. With Sacks’s help, he decided to make a new home for himself in Stockholm, where he attained refugee status. There, he worked two part-time jobs as he studied Swedish and continued to explore theology, often with Sacks’s friends in the Swedish rabbinate. One of them, David Lazar, rabbi of the Great Synagogue in Stockholm, invited him to read from the Koran during his installation ceremony in October. Next month, Sbeih will speak at the local Jewish museum as part of a presentation on minorities and creativity. Now, after close to four years, Sbeih is a legal resident of Sweden, and this fall he will begin his freshman year studying political science at the University of Stockholm. Though Sacks has visited him several times and the two men have traveled to other parts of Europe together, the planned trip to Philadelphia would have been Sbeih’s first opportunity to meet other members of his “Jewish family.”
Courtesy of JTA
Rabbi Andrew Sacks, left, with Anas Sbeih.
Sacks said he understands that 25-year-old single Palestinian men “are not those that the States most want to let in.” His issue is that the law, or the officials interpreting it, don’t allow enough room for applicants to prove they have no intention of immigrating. Sacks has even volunteered to put up a bond to guarantee Sbeih’s return to Sweden after the visit. In addition to Gerlach, U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) has written a letter urging the U.S. Embassy in Sweden to reconsider, as have two rabbis from the Philadelphia/New Jersey region. Sbeih’s “stable employment,
educational and community ties to Sweden, and counterpoised lack of ties to the United States, indicate he has every reason to return home following his trip,” Frank wrote. In a written response, Consul Martin Tatuch reiterated that Sbeih’s “current family, social and economic ties to Sweden fall short of the standard prescribed” by U.S. law. After reviewing the case, he said, “the decision was a sound one.” Chris Dunnett, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Stockholm, declined to answer further questions, saying it would be “unlawful” to provide information on spe-
cific cases out of “concern and consideration” for the applicants. Sbeih can reapply, but he’s not sure it’s worth the hassle. Maybe a few years from now, he said, he’ll be able to get his Swedish citizenship and have a better chance of being approved. For now, he said, he’ll settle for traveling around Europe with Sacks and discussing Judaism — in fluent Hebrew — with Lazar at a nearby cafe. Together, they make quite a sight, Lazar said with a chuckle — “a gay Palestinian Muslim and a rabbi speaking Hebrew in a coffee house between a church and a synagogue.”
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Some Arab conspiracy theorists seeing WikiLeaks-Israel link By Sue Fishkoff Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Courtesy of Michael J. Jordan
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech at the Durban Review Conference in Geneva on April 20, 2009 prompted walkouts by numerous European countries.
After U.N. votes for Durban III, battle lines are drawn By Marcy Oster Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) — When the original U.N. anti-racism conference, held in Durban, South Africa in 2001, devolved into an anti-Israel hate fest, Jewish groups around the world were caught unawares. So when the Durban Review Conference was called for Geneva in 2009, Jewish activists started their fight early, convincing numerous countries to boycott the conference, dubbed Durban II, effectively blocking it from becoming a repeat of Durban I. Now, with last week’s U.N. vote to authorize Durban III – a U.N. General Assembly session planned for September 2011 to commemorate the original Durban conference – the battle lines again are being drawn. “The vote of the U.N. General Assembly, while not unexpected, sets the stage for a celebration of the outrageous events that took place during Durban I, which were permeated by manifestations of bigotry and hatred," said a statement from the leaders of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. “The event is scheduled to be held shortly after the 10th anniversary commemoration of September 11th. It is hard to imagine a more insensitive action, recalling that the attack on the World Trade Center that killed thousands was carried out by those influenced by the same hateful ideologies that Durban I came to represent.”
The first plans to boycott Durban III already are taking shape. Canada announced in November that it would boycott the September 2011 session on “Combating racism and follow-up of the Durban Program of Action." "Canada will not participate in this charade," Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said at a Nov. 25 news conference. "Canada is clearly committed to the fight against racism, but the Durban process commemorates an agenda that actually promotes racism rather than combats it." Both the United States and Israel have warned about Durban III turning into another occasion for gratuitous Israel-bashing. When the matter came to a vote last Friday, the vote was 104-22 in favor of the special General Assembly session; 33 countries abstained. “We voted ‘no’ because the Durban Declaration process has included ugly displays of intolerance and anti-Semitism, and we do not want to see that commemorated,” said a statement by the American ambassador to the United Nations, Susan E. Rice. “The United States is fully committed to upholding the human rights of all individuals and to combating racial discrimination, intolerance and bigotry. We stand ready to work with all partners to uphold human rights and fight racism around the world.” Israel’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement announcing its intention to skip the session.
“Under the present circumstances, as long as the meeting is defined as part of the infamous ‘Durban process,’ Israel will not participate in the meeting,” the statement said. “Israel expects the participants to deal appropriately with the serious manifestations of racism throughout the world, and to reject attempts to once again divert world attention from this dangerous phenomenon by means of cheap politicization." Condemnation of the U.N. vote by Jewish groups was fast and furious. “The original Durban conference attempted to validate the perverse theory that Zionism is racism,” the B’nai B'rith International executive vice president, Daniel Mariaschin, said. “Durban’s legacy of hate, intolerance and double standards should never be forgotten, and should certainly never be celebrated.” The Anti-Defamation League called for a boycott of Durban III. David Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee, said the anti-racism agenda has been misappropriated. “The global campaign against racism has been hijacked by countries that have little regard for human rights and whose primary goal is to advance highly political agendas,” Harris said. “To bring this traveling show of hatred to New York is scandalous and will not advance the noble U.N. mission of defending and protecting human rights.” DURBAN III on page 19
SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) — Unless you’re a reader of Islamist websites, you’d probably be surprised to learn that the WikiLeaks trove of U.S. diplomatic cables is an Israeli conspiracy. Wonder why there was so much material about Arab regimes petitioning the United States to contain Iran’s nuclear program? How about why there was conspicuously little in the trove of data that was embarrassing to Israel? It’s because WikiLeaks founder and director Julian Assange struck a deal with Israel and the “Israel lobby” to withhold documents that might embarrass the Jewish state — at least that’s what Al Manar, the Hezbollah-run media outlet, and Al Haqiqa, which is affiliated with a Syrian opposition group, are writing. The conspiracy theories are percolating as well on far-left and far-right websites. “Why [did] the hundreds of thousands of American classified documents leaked…not contain anything that may embarrass the Israeli government?” asked a Dec. 8 story on Indymedia UK, an independent online news organization. “The answer appears to be a secret deal struck between Wikileaks… [and] Israeli officials, which ensured that all such documents were ‘removed’ before the rest were made public.” Israeli officials haven’t even bothered to respond to the allegations. “We don’t comment on such ludicrous claims” was how Yoni Peled, spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Washington, put it. But the Anti-Defamation League issued a statement last week detailing some of the rumors and denouncing them as conspiracy theories cooked up by Israel’s enemies. Comparing it to persistent rumors that Israel was behind the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, ADL National Director Abraham Foxman called the theories “yet another manifestation of the Big Lie against Jews and Israel.” The “WikiLeaks affair has given new life to the old conspiracy theories of underhanded Jewish and Israeli involvement in an event with significant repercussions for the U.S. and many
nations around the world,” Foxman said. Ben Cohen, associate communications director for the American Jewish Committee and an expert on anti-Semitism, said the conspiracy theorists haven’t gotten far, even in the Arab world. “I’ve seen them, but not in any mainstream outlets,” Cohen told JTA. “Nor do I get the sense they have picked up huge traction.” The story, however, also has surfaced in the United States, at the Arab Times and the Arab Voice, Arab-American community papers in Texas and New Jersey. Cohen says it’s unlikely that Assange would strike any deal with Israel. WikiLeaks’ representative in Russia is a well-known Holocaust denier who spews antiSemitic and anti-Israeli diatribes from his home in Sweden, often under aliases. His real name is Israel Shamir, a convert to Orthodox Christianity who claims to have been born Jewish. “The idea that WikiLeaks is in league with the Israelis is hugely undermined by their relationship with Shamir,” Cohen said. Sharif Nashashibi, chairman of Arab Media Watch, a Londonbased nonprofit that monitors the British media for its coverage of the Arab and Muslim world, says the articles he’s seen are all reprinting the same Indymedia story. “This claim certainly isn’t prevalent in the Arab and Muslims worlds, and that’s most likely because it has no solid basis,” Nashashibi wrote JTA in an email. He noted that Israel indeed has been mentioned in the cables leaked by WikiLeaks, contrary to what the conspiracy theorists claimed. “Without any credible supporting evidence, this claim is merely a baseless conspiracy theory that doesn’t warrant serious attention from any concerned parties, including the ADL,” Nashashibi wrote. Foxman says the reports do merit concern, irrespective of their veracity or number. “These things feed on themselves and circulate and recirculate,” Foxman said, citing the persistence of the 9/11 conspiracy theory even a decade later and despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary. “It’s not rational; it has political expediency. That’s what fuels it.”
ISRAEL
THURSDAY, JANUARY 6, 2011
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Concern in Israel over growing backlash against African migrants, Arabs By Dina Kraft Jewish Telegraphic Agency TEL AVIV (JTA) — For the tall 28-year-old from Sudan who calls himself Mike, life in Israel has become a game of survival. Most days, he earns enough money to buy food for dinner doing odd jobs at construction sites or cleaning houses. But with voices against illegal immigrants rising in Israel, Mike, an asylum seeker here, is worried that his situation is becoming increasingly tenuous. Just days ago, hundreds of protesters gathered in his neighborhood of Hatikvah in southern Tel Aviv to rally under a slogan he found intimidating: Expel the foreigners. “I hear they want to clear us out because this is a Jewish country,” Mike said as he stood among carts of tomatoes and yellow peppers at Hatikvah’s outdoor market. Nearby, as Miriam Sharabi, 67, pushed a cart of groceries, she cursed the African migrants who have come to this working-class neighborhood plagued by poverty and crime. “We need to get the kushim out of here,” Sharabi said, using the derogatory Hebrew term for blacks. “They are criminals; they steal things,” she said. “They rape women.” These sentiments are part of a growing backlash in Israel against the estimated 32,000 foreigners who are in Israel illegally, many of them Africans who sneaked into Israel from Egypt and whose numbers have swelled in the past three years. The rising chorus of anti-foreigner sentiment, coupled with recent calls against renting or selling homes to Israeli Arabs, have prompted a national debate about the depth of racism and xenophobia in Israel. Just this month, there were several attacks against migrants and Arabs in Israel. In the southern coastal town of Ashdod, attackers threw a burning tire into a one-room apartment shared by seven Sudanese asylum seekers. In Tel Aviv’s Hatikvah neighborhood, a gang of youths hounded three teenage African girls, calling them “dirty blacks” and beating them. In Jerusalem, police arrested a group of teenagers for allegedly attacking Arabs. In Bat Yam, near the Arab community of Jaffa in southern Tel Aviv, street demonstrators called on locals not to rent or sell apartments to Arabs. Fliers distributed ahead of the rally urged residents to save daughters of the town from dating young Arab Israeli men in Jaffa. The street demonstration
echoed the sentiment expressed in a letter recently signed by numerous Israeli municipal rabbis announcing that it is against Jewish law to rent or sell properties to non-Jews. The letter ended with an exhortation to punish those who disobey the ban with excommunication from the Jewish community. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a video statement posted on YouTube last week, called for an end to the incitement. “We are a country that respects all peoples, whoever they are,” he said. “Citizens of Israel must not take the law into their own hands, neither through violence nor through incitement.” Netanyahu said that the government is dealing with the problem of African migration, specifically by building a fence along the IsraelEgypt border and a detention center in the Negev large enough to serve as a way station for some 10,000 migrants awaiting deportation. A number of lawmakers, public figures and police officials have warned that the migrants pose a major danger to Israel, threatening its Jewish character and bringing disease and crime to the country. Yet a recent Knesset report found that the migrants have a very low level of criminal activity. Sigal Rozen, public policy coordinator of the Hotline for Migrant Workers, said that such remarks promote an atmosphere of intolerance and xenophobia in Israel. “When the public hears from decision makers that these people are bringing disease and crime and should be deported, then it gives them the legitimacy to say the same things,” he said. Daniel Blatman, a Holocaust scholar and director of Hebrew University’s Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry, said that the sentiment against the “other” stems from a sense of hopelessness among Israelis about the possibility of a peaceful future. In an Op-Ed in Haaretz this week that has drawn a lot of attention, Blatman compared the atmosphere of distrust in Israel today to that of Germany right before the Nazis’ rise to power. “There is this approach that we have to live in a ghetto. We have to close ourselves off to the world, because everything coming from the outside world is threatening us — refugees, cultural influences, peace activists who come here to assist the Palestinians and, of course, the Arab population who live inside Israel,” Blatman told JTA in an interview. “It’s a sort of xenophobia very similar to the one that happened in 1932 after Germany’s defeat in World War I, with no real hope for the future, economic diffi-
Courtesy of Maariv / Flash90 / JTA
Hundreds showed up for a demonstration in Tel Aviv’s Hatikvah neighborhood against African migrants who have moved into the area in recent years, Dec. 21, 2010. The sign says, “Israeli girls for the Jewish people.”
culties and political violence.” The feeling that Israel is being delegitimized on the world stage exacerbates those feelings, according to Blatman. “There is a sense that we have to protect our own home and not protect others,” he said. Shlomi Maslawi, a member of the Tel Aviv city council from the Hatikvah neighborhood, organized the street demonstration that called for the expulsion of migrants. He
said there was nothing racist about it. “The government has abandoned those of us in the city’s southern neighborhoods,” he said. “As it is, our people live with limited resources. This population is causing deterioration in our already fragile quality of life. This is not about racism, but that our neighborhoods have become more dangerous places.” Maslawi complained about large numbers of migrants sharing
apartments — sometimes 20 in a single unit. He also blamed them for driving up rents in the area. “People talk about the human side of their story, but what about our people who are scared to leave their homes at night?” he said. Raphael Gebreyesus, a 24-yearold asylum seeker who came to Israel from Eritrea to escape his country’s lengthy military service, lives in a tiny apartment with two other asylum seekers. Like most African migrants in Israel, they do not have work permits, but rather three-month conditional (and renewable) permits that allow them to stay in Israel while their cases are under adjudication. In the past, authorities did not bother migrants working in menial jobs, but now employees fear they will be fined if they employ migrants. Yehuda Mizrahi, who grew up in Hatikvah, said that people like Maslawi are exaggerating the role of the migrants in creating the region’s problems. He said that crime in the neighborhood is being perpetrated by the same Jewish Israeli criminals, many of them drug addicts, who long have made Hatikvah a dangerous place. “What does it matter if a person is black or not as long as he’s a good person?” Mizrahi said. “The problem is the government has to decide what it wants to do.”
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Gangsta rapper turned Orthodox Jew plans comeback By Dina Kraft Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Courtesy of Wissam Nassar / Flash90 / JTA
A child holding a toy gun was one of tens of thousands who attended a mass rally in Gaza City to celebrate the 23rd anniversary of Hamas’ founding, Dec. 14, 2010. Exchanges of fire between Hamas and Israel have escalated in recent weeks.
Gaza-Israel border heats up as Hamas acquires new weapons By Leslie Susser Jewish Telegraphic Agency JERUSALEM (JTA) — After two years of relative quiet since the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Israel’s southern border with Gaza is again becoming volatile. Last week, Gazans fired a rocket into Israel that landed close to a kindergarten in a kibbutz near Ashkelon just as parents were dropping off their children. Although no one was hurt, nothing like that had happened since the war. Militants fired more than 200 Grad missiles, Kassam rockets and mortar shells into Israeli territory in 2010, according to the Israel Defense Forces, compared to 160 in 2009. Both years pale in comparison to prewar levels in 2008, when militants in Gaza launched some 4,000 projectiles into Israel. Nevertheless, despite the relative quiet for most of this year, the IDF is concerned that the recent escalation, if unchecked, could lead to a new round of serious fighting. After last week’s attack in Ashkelon, the Israel Air Force bombed a staffed Hamas militia base, the first time it had taken such action in two years. Until then, the IDF had restricted its retaliatory and preemptive raids to targeting weapons caches, so-called workshops, smuggling tunnels and Hamas militants in the act of launching attacks. The IDF attacked the Hamas base to signal that Israel will hold the Hamas government responsible for what goes on in Gaza and
that in allowing a bombing so close to a kindergarten, Hamas had crossed a dangerous red line. But that didn’t quiet things down. Last week, Gaza militants fired 24 mortar shells and three Kassam rockets at Israel, and Israel responded with air strikes that killed at least five militants. Over the past few weeks, the militants also have stepped up ground attacks on Israeli border patrols. The most serious incident for Israel came in early December, when Gaza militants fired a state-ofthe-art Kornet missile at an IDF Merkava tank. The Kornet, a lethally accurate and potentially gamechanging anti-tank weapon that Hamas added to its arsenal only very recently, penetrated the Israeli tank’s armor but did not explode. Hamas’ acquisition of Kornet weapons means that Israel will have to rethink its tactics if it launches another major ground incursion into Gaza. For now, tanks patrolling the border have been reinforced with the Israeli-developed “trophy” active protection system, which has the capacity to destroy incoming missiles. The Hamas position on the escalation is ambivalent. The organization’s political wing says it has no interest in a major clash with Israel right now, but the military wing says it’s poised to resume largescale rocket attacks. At a rally in the Gaza city of Khan Yunis to mark the 23rd anniversary of the founding of Hamas – an event that coincided
with the second anniversary of the Israel-Hamas war, called Operation Cast Lead – Mahmoud a-Zahar, one of the leaders of Hamas’ political wing, insisted that Hamas was committed to the ceasefire reached in the wake of Cast Lead. But a day later, at a news conference called by Hamas, masked men from the Izz a-Din al-Qassam Brigades claimed to have new weapons that would surprise the IDF. They warned that they would respond harshly “to any acts of aggression by the occupying Zionist forces against its fighters or against the civilian population of Gaza.” They also claimed responsibility for some past acts of terror, including the June 2008 attack on the Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav seminary in Jerusalem, in which eight yeshiva students were shot dead by a rampaging gunman. In a separate statement, Ahmed Ja'abari, deputy commander of Hamas’ military wing, declared that Israelis had two choices: death or expulsion. Israeli analysts attribute the bellicose tone to competition between Hamas and other militias claiming to be doing more in the struggle against Israel. The tough talk is a way of saying that they, too, are fighting “the occupation.” On the other hand, the analysts say, Hamas’ political wing does not want to provoke another war, with all the hardship it would cause the population of Gaza and the threat it would pose to Hamas’ rearmament plans. BORDER on page 21
JERUSALEM (JTA) — It was early on during his difficult, isolated years in prison that the former gangsta rapper known as Shyne decided to formally take on the laws of Judaism as his own. Shyne, who legally changed his name in prison from Jamaal Barrows to Moses Levi — Moses is one of his favorite biblical heroes, and Levi is for the Levites who were musicians during Temple times — remembers the initial skepticism he encountered from prison rabbis at New York’s Rikers Island, where he was first incarcerated, and the other prison rabbis that would follow. “In prison culture, everyone is trying to make a scam, everyone is a con artist, so who is this darkskinned guy they wondered? Does he just want the Jewish food?” asks Levi, now cloaked in the black garb of a Chasidic Jew and living in Jerusalem. “A guy with payes? Maybe they might believe him,” he tells JTA, laughing. Levi, 32, a former protegee of the hip-hop mogul Sean Combs (aka P Diddy), found himself drawn to Judaism ever since hearing Old Testament stories from his grandmother as a boy. He was with Combs and then-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez, the singer and movie star, the night of a 1999 shooting at a Manhattan nightclub that left three injured and resulted in a trial that became a media circus. Combs was acquitted, but Levi was found guilty of opening fire in the nightclub. In 2001 he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. After serving nearly nine years he was released last year. Levi credits Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, one of his attorneys, with helping him gain access in prison to prayer books and other religious items like a tallit and tefillin. Now, as he walks through the alleyways of Jerusalem’s Old City on his way to the Western Wall, he clutches a worn prayer book whose maroon leather cover was torn off by prison officials for security purposes. Adhering to an Orthodox approach to Judaism made the most sense to him, said Levi, who is studying with several haredi Orthodox rabbis from some of the most stringent yeshivas in Jerusalem. A few months ago,
Levi said, he underwent a type of conversion called a “giyur l’chumra” — a conversion usually for those who likely are Jewish but undergo conversion “just to be on the safe side.” “I’m looking for a connection to Hashem,” Levi says, using the Hebrew name for God. “I am not trying to weaken it. I want to know what is done, then I can decide if I’m up to it. What did Moses do? What do the sages say to do?” Levi feels like he’s returning to the fold. His days are spent in study and prayer. Reminders of his newly acquired Jewish education come out in his rapid fire, Brooklyn-accented speech smattered with Hebrew words and Talmudic and biblical references. Levi is an anomaly in more ways than one. His father is a prosperous lawyer who currently is the prime minister of Belize, in Central America. When Levi was a child, his mother took him from Belize to the United States. They settled in New York, where she worked as a house cleaner to support them. But Levi soon was enamored with life on the streets, becoming a gang member. He was in and out of trouble, and at the age of 13 he was sent away to a juvenile center. By 15 he had been shot. These days, after spending time in prison, adopting Judaism and moving to Israel for a few months, Levi is talking about a musical comeback. He plans to release two albums this spring that are part of a joint venture with Def Jam Records, the major hip-hop label. Gone is some of the harsher and misogynist language of his previous two albums, one of which came out while he was in jail. While not explicitly religious, the lyrics do have a spiritual bent. In Jerusalem, where Levi says he plans to stay for the next few months, he appears nonplussed by the second glances he attracts. But as a black man in the clothes of a haredi — complete with long black wool coat, fedora, knickers and black ribbed socks — Levi indeed stands out. At the Western Wall plaza he encounters a group of young, religious Ethiopian Israelis. Levi’s great-grandmother was Ethiopian, and he thinks she may have been Jewish. Exploring his possible Ethiopian Jewish heritage intrigues him. RAPPER on page 22
SOCIAL LIFE
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4 ANNUAL JNF JUDGE CARL B. RUBIN LEGAL SOCIETY ATTORNEY OF THE YEAR GALA TH
On Nov. 14, 2010, the Jewish National Fund/Judge Carl B. Rubin Legal Society met for its 4th Annual Attorney of the Year award. This year’s recipient was Marianna Brown Bettman. Bettman has been a professor of Clinical Law at the University of Cincinnati College of Law since 1999, teaching Torts, Legal Ethics and a seminar on the Ohio Supreme Court. She is also the director of the Judicial Externship Program and the Judge-in-Residence Program. From 1993-1999, Bettman was a judge on the First District Court of Appeals, the first woman ever elected to that position. Before assuming the bench, Bettman was in private practice. Most recently, she was appointed by Governor Strickland to chair one of two Ohio Judicial Appointments Recommendation panels, which makes recommendations to fill judicial vacancies. Over 40 Attorneys and JNF Board Members joined Bettman and her fellow Attorney of the Year award recipients and Legal Society Fellows for this evening: Louise Roselle (Waite Schneider Bayless & Chesley; 2007-2008); Al Gerhardstein (Gerhardstein & Branch; 2008-2009), and Todd Bailey (Frost Brown Todd LLC; 2009-2010). Jay Footlik, former Special Assistant to President Clinton in the White House was our keynote speaker. A special thank you to our hosts: Todd and Ann Bailey.
Stanley M. Chesley (Waite Schneider Bayless & Chesley; JNF National President); Marianna Brown Bettman (Attorney of the Year Award recipient, 2010-2011)
Todd Bailey (Frost Brown Todd, LLC; Attorney of the Year Award Recpieint, 2009-2010), Marianna Brown Bettman, Louise Roselle (Waite Schneider Bayless & Chesley; Attorney of the Year Award Recipient 2007-2008; JNF Southern Ohio Region President) and Al Gerhardstein (Gerhardstein & Branch; Attorney of the Year Award Recipient 2008-2009)
Carol and Larry Neuman (Strauss & Troy; Legal Society Fellow), Jay Footlik (keynote speaker; former special assistant to President Clinton), and Todd Bailey
Eric Greenberg and Michelle Rothzeid (Frost Brown Todd, LLC; Rubin Scholar)
THURSDAY, JANUARY 6, 2011
CINCINNATI JEWISH LIFE
Todd Bailey, Jay Footlik, Marianna Brown Bettman, Louise Roselle and Al Gerhardstein
Todd Bailey addressing the attendees and discussing the connection between JNF and Judge Carl B. Rubin
Stanley M. Chesley discussing JNF; Marianna Brown Bettman
Charlotte Brooks and Marc Grodner
Ann and Todd Bailey, Gary Roselle and Jay Footlik
Louise and Gary Roselle
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Eat, drink and be merry at Slatt’s Pub By Marilyn Gale Dining Editor Slatt’s is a happy place. Could it be the 12 plasma high definition televisions perched throughout the comfortable restaurant? Perhaps it is the Happy Hour and tasty appetizers offered five days a week. Or is it a function of the owner, entrepreneur Bob Slattery, a friendly guy who wants his customers to get a good deal, have a hearty meal and relax in old fashion comfort? Originally from Cleveland, (yes, Slatt’s does hold the distinction of being a haven for Browns’ fans), Slattery likes to have his hands in a lot of different things. I learned he has some connection to a dog park and people who appreciate man/woman’s best friend are my kind of folk. In fact, the décor in this restaurant consists of pictures, some comical, of Slattery’s family. Lucky for Cincinnati residents that Slattery went to Miami University and then settled in the Tri-State. I met with Shelly Klunk—one of the managers. A lively lady, she has worked at Slatt’s for almost 5 years. Klunk says “I love it here, after I had children, I wanted a flexible schedule and Slatt’s offers me the opportunity to do that. We have great clientele; families, older people, business people, and regulars come in time and time, again. They order the fish and chips, halibut and penne pasta.” Klunk described the food as mostly American fare with a splatter of ethnic favorites such as nachos, spring rolls, pesto, quesadilla and creme brulee. If she could choose a favorite, she’d recommend the baked Alaskan halibut encrusted in Japanese bread crumbs, pan seared and then baked, topped with citrus butter sauce, served with mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus, priced at $20. In existence in the Blue Ash area since 2006, Slatt’s has combined generous hospitality with America’s favorite foods. Steak is on the menu, four choices of chicken wings, gourmet burgers and one can get a side order of macaroni and cheese for a mere $2—a great way to feed the toddler and preschoolers. Slatt’s is more than a meat and potatoes dining spot, it is a robust eatery where friends, families and colleagues can gather together, grab a
(Clockwise) Spacious dining makes a visit to Slatt’s pleasant and comfy; Manager Shelley Klunk welcomes you; Comfort food is plentiful here; Fanciful and comical pictures provide a fun decor.
quick meal or feast on a larger dinner. Slatt’s caters to everyone’s appetite. Many menu items can be ordered in regular or large size portions. The appetizers are tempting, like boursin stuffed mushrooms— baked mushrooms stuffed with a fresh boursin and cream cheese blend for $7—and would be a grand start to a meal. The salad category is interesting too. Shanghai chicken salad—sesame crusted chicken, bok choy and romaine ribbons, snow peas, bean sprouts,crisp wonton, tossed in a soy ginger vinaigrette at $11 appealed to me. Or if you are inclined toward seafood, tilapia and spinach salad paired with croutons, mushrooms, diced eggs and tossed
in balsamic vinaigrette, priced at $13, might hit the spot. There are a total of 10 specialty salads on the menu, a marvelous way to get those daily vegetables. The specials at Slatt’s keep on coming. There’s Happy Hour, Monday through Friday, from 4 to 7 p.m., with discounted drink prices and some appetizers are half price; Monday is also the evening for 1/2 priced martinis and on Wednesday, 1/2 priced bottles of wine are available. One great bottle Slatt’s offers is Purple Trillium wine from Burnet Ridge Winery, located locally in North College Hill. In addition, there’s an $8 daily lunch special, which includes a
drink. The day of my visit the item was the crispy chicken and walnut salad, normally priced at $10. A new bar menu is on the agenda for Slatt’s, and there are after-dinner hot drinks, perfect to take the chill out of a cold winter’s evening. The Nose Warmer, Tia Maria, Frangelico, Bailey’s and Grand Marnier in coffee, is a cornucopia of spirits for only $5. Perhaps you crave the mint chocolate candy cane drink — a mixture of Bailey’s, peppermint liqueur and hot chocolate. To further sweeten the dining deal, clever Mr. Slattery always provides coupons, for 20 percent off dinner. You can get them from the Reach website. Parking is plen-
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tiful and wireless connection to the internet is provided. There are private rooms available for parties and celebrations and all televisions are equipped to show power point presentations. Outside dining in the summer adds extra charm to an already pleasant ambience. Combat the winter doldrums with a visit to Slatt’s. Take the laptop or arrive with friends. Order a meal or a drink or a dessert. The sinful seven chocolate cake promises to be a chocolate lover’s dream. Enjoy! Slatt’s Pub 4858 Cooper Road Blue Ash, Ohio 45242 513-791-2223
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Too close for moral comfort The New Israel Fund wants a donation from me, its letter says. I’m afraid I’ll have to decline again this year. Not only for the usual reasons, namely that many of the group’s goals are diametric to mine. What it calls “vibrant social change” in Israel is what I consider antiJudaism social engineering; what it conceives of as religious freedom is what I view as societal anarchy; what it promotes as pluralism will, I think, create an unbridgeable and permanent chasm between groups of Jews in Israel. But for something new, too. The NIF’s advocacy for Palestinian rights has always smelled suspiciously to me like an effort to dismantle the Jewish State. But recently the group came under fire from even some of its own supporters when it emerged that among the “human rights” groups it funds are several that promote the “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions” (BDS) movement, the campaign to brand Israel as an “apartheid state” through economic, political and academic shunning. Born of the notorious antiIsrael, anti-Semitic orgy known as the 2001 “Durban I” conference, the BDS effort is widely perceived as a tactic to isolate Israel and advance the “one state solution” – an Arab-majority country, G-d forbid, in its place. To its credit, the NIF is on record as calling the BDS campaign “unproductive” and “inflammatory.” At the same time, though, it says that it “will not reduce or eliminate our funding for grantees that differ with us on a tactical matter.” And so, in an exercise of obfuscation worthy of Big Brother himself, the NIF explains that while it “will not fund BDS activities nor support organizations for which BDS is a substantial element of their activities,” it will nevertheless “support organizations that conform to our grant requirements if their support for BDS is incidental or subsidiary to their significant programs.” If I read that right (it’s not easy), what the group is saying is that those who seek to drill large holes in Israel’s far-at-sea ship of state are unworthy of NIF fund-
ing, but those enthusiastically drilling smaller holes can step right up with open hands. No such hair-splitting is invoked by the NIF with regard to its opposition to the integrity of Judaism in the Jewish State – what it calls “the Orthodox monopoly over marriage, divorce and other issues of personal status” that “impinges on the rights of Jewish women to marry whomever they choose.” Or with regard to its own unproductive and inflammatory claims, like the one in the solicitation I received: that Orthodox Jews in Israel seek to “force women in an ultraOrthodox neighborhood to ride in the back of public busses, even to be separated from men walking down public streets,” and want to “undermine the power of the High Court of Justice – the ultimate bulwark against inequality and discrimination.” “We must mobilize quickly,” the fundraising letter continues, the sentence underscored for emphasis, “and counteract this extremism.” Such scaremongering dovetails disturbing with the abundant media incitement in Israel against the charedi community and arguably contributes to the hatred that has, tragically, resulted. Like the recent report that various charedi Knesset members received threatening letters. “Take your pekelach and shtreimelach and stinking peyos,” one of the missives read, “and fly off to Brooklyn! Consider yourselves warned!” Reminiscent of another time and place, a Rosh Yeshiva in Bnai Brak reportedly received a letter stating “Stop sucking our blood and living on our backs… We’ll fight you physically and you will feel our might on your bodies and against your synagogues.” Now, I’m sure the NIF doesn’t condone threats or violence against anyone, even those it relentlessly portrays as dangerous religious extremists undermining Israeli society. But just as a degree or two of separation from BDS is not a nice place for a Jewish group to be, neither is a similar distance from hateful wielders of poison pens. Rabbi Shafran is an editor at large and columnist for Ami Magazine.
Do you have something to say? E-mail your letter to editor@americanisraelite.com
Dear Editor, Yesterday was the 10th anniversary of Nigun HaLev, a grass roots congregation in the Jezreel valley. The congregation is comprised of kibbutzniks, moshavniks and city dwellers, farmers and hi-tech executives, children, parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. The Kabbalat Shabbat service is modern-Israeli, innovative with guitar, beautiful singing, traditional prayers and nigunnim woven in with modern poetry and Carlebach tunes. A year of planning had gone into the anniversary party, with congregation-wide participation and enthusiasm. Friday morning, due to the forest fire on Mt. Carmel, the three spiritual directors of the kehilah met to decide whether to hold the 10th anniversary party scheduled for Saturday morning. After much discussion, a decision was made to postpone the celebration indefinitely. By the time Shabbat rolled in and Kabbalat Shabbat services began, the mood was somber. A bus-load of Israelis had been killed on Mt. Carmel. The forests of Mt. Carmel were ashes, and the wildlife that inhabited the green forests were burned to death. It is December. In the season when we pray
daily for our winter rain, no rain has fallen. All forests are dry, crackling timberlands. The skies are relentlessly blue, cloudless, hot. Every step on the dry, parched earth is a reminder that the green fields and moist earth have not arrived. At Friday night services, the chairs are arranged around a small table, and Rabbi Chen, from Moshav Nahalal, begins Kabbalat Shabbat. People arrive, bringing their hanukiot to light. The mood picks up with the singing. Voices are accompanied by Shaye’s guitar playing. A woman joins him on her flute. Kabbalat Shabbat is followed by communal candlelighting of the hanukiot. One man shares that his hanukiah is made of silver soup spoons from his family. Each family member had a silver spoon with their name engraved on it for his grandmother’s Friday night chicken soup. His family was killed in the Shoah. He has welded together the spoons as a tribute to their light in those dark times. Ma’aariv follows. Bini gives a moving d’var Torah on the importance of having hope and faith despite the burning fire. I say a mi- sheberach for the 10th anniversary of the kehillah. The service ends. It is time for announcements. One woman
who has been sitting quietly, speaks up. She has been evacuated from her home. Her young grandson was visiting at her house for Chanukah, when she was told to leave immediately because of the fire. She threw things into a suitcase, took her grandson by the hand, and left. She arrived at shul with her suitcase. She is a native Israeli, in her sixties. She said that in all her years growing up and growing old in Israeli, she has never been afraid — in the army as a soldier, in the ‘67, ‘73, ‘82 wars, in the intifadas, never. Today she felt fear, like all those wars rolled into one moment of life and loss and love. History is meaningful in Israel. So are current events. Another man spoke. He had arrived a bit late to services. He had planned to hike in the canyon ravine on Mt. Carmel. As he was entering the ravine, he got a phone call and had to cancel the hike. Two hours later, a tunnel of fire shot down the canyon and ignited the ravine. He was lucky. He hopes the firefighters are safe. A woman announces that all the food that was prepared for the 10th anniversary party is being collected, driven up to Mt. LETTERS on page 22
T EST Y OUR T ORAH KNOWLEDGE THIS WEEK’S PORTION: BO (SHMOT 10:1-13:16) 1. During the plague of locusts what do Pharaoh and Moshe agree about? a.) Only to let the males could leave b.) The men and women could leave c.) Men, women, and children could leave, but not the cattle 2. During the Plague of darkness, what did the Pharaoh agree to? a.) Men and women could leave b.) Men, women, and children, but not cattle could leave c.) Everybody could go, but not money
3. Did the darkness only effect sight? a.) Yes b.) No 4. Was there any plague between the plague of locust and darkness? a.) Yes b.) No 5. Where did the blood of the first Pascal offering go? a.) On the altar b.) Spilled on the floor c.) Sprinkled on the door and lintel of their homes
source of their wealth. R'Bchai 3. B 10:23 The darkness was a thick mist or cloud that came down from heaven. Ramban 4. B 5. C 12:22
By Rabbi Avi Shafran Contributing Columnist
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
ANSWERS 1. A 10:10,11 Pharaoh tried to dissuade Moshe,by saying there was evil approaching. He meant that Children of Israel could run into a disaster in the desert. Rashi 2. B 10:24 Pharaoh thought to hold back their cattle, which was the
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Written by Rabbi Dov Aaron Wise
THURSDAY, JANUARY 6, 2011
JEWISH LIFE
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Efrat, Israel - “This renewal of the moon shall be for you [the Festival of] the New Moons — the first month for you of the months of the year.” Exodus 12:1 A new nation, Israel, is being born, and it celebrates its birth with a new festival and a new calendar. Our calendar has a strong lunar factor, the monthly festival which marks the renewed moon which appears — almost miraculously, but also consistently — from a lightless, frightening sky. The Jewish calendar also has a strong solar element, its first month being Nisan, the time of longer days and agricultural renewal after a cold and lifeless winter. The key word here is “hodesh,” month, which also connotes “hidush,” change, and “hadash,” new. It is a calendar born of hope, an optimism which arose from the experience of cataclysmic, miraculous social changes which enabled powerless Hebrew slaves to overwhelm mighty Egypt and emerge a free nation. A stubborn, irrational optimism has characterized the Jewish people for its 4,000-year existence. Even in the worst periods of exile, persecution, torture and pogrom, we proclaimed: “I shall not die, but I shall live, and declare the deeds of the Lord” (Psalm 118:17). This optimism was born on this first Rosh Hodesh, and it emerged out of the miraculous renewal of a family/nation reborn. Hence we are enjoined to remember the exodus from Egypt every day (Deuteronomy 16:3) to celebrate and re-experience it during our Pesach Seder celebration each year (Ex. 13:3), and to study history with an inner vision which sees the marvelous changes wrought by the majestic partnership between God and Israel: “Remember the days of yore, understand the changes [Hebrew shnot, shana, shinui] from generation to generation; ask your father and he will tell you, your sages and they will say it to you” (Deut. 32:7). Egypt, Greece and Rome all had the seemingly consistent sun as their god and guide, a beacon which breeds the pessimism of
It was the Bible, with its account of the Egyptian change and renewal, which gave the world the symbolism of the moon, the possibility of light emerging from darkness, freedom from slavery, which enabled us to dare hope for a perfected world and a time of peace and Redemption.
“whatever has been is what will be, and whatever has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new [hadash] under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9) and “tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time” (Macbeth 5:5). It was the Bible, with its account of the Egyptian change and renewal, which gave the world the symbolism of the moon, the possibility of light emerging from darkness, freedom from slavery, which enabled us to dare hope for a perfected world and a time of peace and Redemption. Moses was a product of this faith in change and redemption in the midst of slavery and oppression. When we are first introduced to him, we don’t even know if he will survive the homicide decreed against Hebrew male infants. He is anonymous, as a slave is devoid of a name. Likewise, he lacks a clear pedigree: “A man went from the house of Levi and took a daughter of Levi” (Ex. 2:1). It is only four chapters later, when his mission as “redeemer” is defined, that we are given the names of his parents and grandparents. The family names are extremely significant. I know little about Moses’s parents, but I know a world about his grandparents, who undoubtedly influenced his parents. These grandparents, in the midst of bleak Egyptian servitude, named their son Amram,
exalted nation — and their daughter Jochebed, glory to God. “Exalted nation,” in the midst of slavery? “Glory to God” in the midst of persecution? Apparently, they had the tradition of a “covenant between the pieces,” of an emergence from poverty and affliction, and infused their grandson with that faith. Only one who believes in the possibility of change will struggle to bring it about. One of the strangest rituals of our people is the “Sanctification of the Moon” (Kiddush Halevana), which takes place on the Saturday evening following Rosh Hodesh (the New Month festival). The congregation leaves the synagogue and assembles beneath the renewed moon. There, they bless the God who “renews the months,” wish each other peace, and sing and dance to words which promise ultimate Redemption — a moon which will never wane but will shine forever with God’s light of love. Peculiar? Ridiculous? Not at all. A people that believes in a God who is invisible, that has experienced a promised return to its ancient homeland, must continue to dream of a world at peace though most skeptics think it’s impossible! Shabbat Shalom Shlomo Riskin Chancellor Ohr Torah Stone Chief Rabbi — Efrat Israel
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JEWZ IN THE NEWZ
Jewz in the Newz By Nate Bloom Contributing Columnist PORTMAN FOR REAL AND ON FILM On Dec. 27, “everybody’s” favorite Jewish actress—NATALIE PORTMAN— set tongues wagging, and computers clicking, with the news that she was pregnant and that she was engaged to her baby’s father, French ballet dancer Benjamin Millipied, 32. All over the Net, the question was asked: “Is he Jewish?” Well, as I write this (Dec. 29), I don’t know for sure—but I don’t think so. Trust me, in time we will know. Meanwhile, it is much more likely than not that Portman will follow the feelings she expressed in an interview with an Israeli website in 2004: “A priority for me is definitely that I’d like to raise my kids Jewish, but the ultimate thing is to have someone who is a good person and who is a partner.” Life imitates art a bit in that Portman, 29, is pregnant in her new film, “Love and Other Impossible Pursuits.” This modest budget indie played 2009 film festivals. It will open in a very limited number of theaters in early February. On Jan. 1, it became available for “ondemand” viewing via cable and satellite systems (you pay an extra one-time fee). “Love” is based on the 2006 novel of the same name by novelist/essayist AYELET WALDMAN, 46, the wife of novelist MICHAEL CHABON, 47 (“Yiddish Policeman’s Union”). The film centers on the love/hate relationship between Emelia (Portman), and her stepson, William, a very smart, plain-talking young boy. Their “backstory” is largely told in flashbacks— William’s Jewish father, Jack (SCOTT COHEN, 45) is an attorney who was married to William’s mother, Carolyne, a rather icy Episcopalian physician (LISA KUDROW, 47). Although they were in love when they wed, Carolyne very rarely wanted to be intimate with Jack. Emelia, a young Jewish lawyer in Jack’s office, finds him attractive and they have an affair that ends Jack’s marriage. Jack marries Emelia and she soon becomes pregnant. Tragically, their baby dies within days of its birth. SHAMELESS TV The Showtime series, “Shameless,” starts on Sunday, Jan. 9, at 10PM. Based on a British TV series, it stars William H. Macy as Frank Gallagher, the alcoholic single father of six children ranging in age from toddler to young adult.
Frank spends most days drunk. The oldest child, Fiona (EMMY ROSSUM, 24), holds things together with the help of whatever pocket money her siblings can pitch-in. I watched a “sneak peek” of the first episode and it was very strong TV. Rossum (“Phantom of the Opera,” The Day After”) was a lot more grown-up and forceful in this role than I have ever seen her. (Warning: there are explicit sex scenes in some episodes.) Rossum was long very guarded about her private life—so much so that the first time anyone heard that she was married was when her agent announced, in Oct. 2009, that Rossum had just filed for divorce from her husband of 18 months, music exec. Jason Siegel (whom I presume is Jewish). Not long after, Rossum switched gears and talked candidly about her new romance with ADAM DURITZ, 46, the lead singer of the popular rock band “Counting Crows.” The averagelooking Duritz has dated several very famous women, including Jennifer Aniston. Rossum explained his appeal: “He’s extremely kind, incredibly intelligent, thoughtful, creative and respectful.” The couple stopped dating last September, but Rossum says they’re “still close.” Rossum, who has an operatic singing voice, was raised by her mother, a professional photographer who grew-up in a Scarsdale, NY Jewish family. Emmy’s parents split-up when her mother was pregnant with her. She told “People” in 2007 that she’s only seen her father (who may not be Jewish) a couple of times. AWARD SEASON BEGINS The Golden Globe awards ceremony takes place on Sunday, Jan. 16 (8PM, NBC). Next week, I’ll cover the Jewish nominees in the film acting, directing, screenwriting and film music categories. Here are the Hebrew nominees in the TV categories—JULIANNE MARGULIES (“The Good Wife”) and KYRA SEDGWICK (“The Closer”) are two of the five nominees in the best actress in a TV drama category. Last year, Margulies won the Globe for this role. Sedgwick has gotten a Globe nomination for “The Closer” every year since 2005, winning in 2007 (Also nominated in this category is Katey Sagal for “Sons of Anarchy.” Sagal’s late father was Jewish, but she doesn’t identify as Jewish.) LEA MICHELE (“Glee”), whose father is Jewish, is up for a Globe for best actress in a comedy or musical TV show.
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FROM THE PAGES 100 Years Ago Mr. and Mrs. B.M. Markstein, of 34 Landon Court, Avondale, are receiving congratulations upon the birth of a son, born December 23. Mrs. M. Kahn and daughter, Flora, of 674 Forest Avenue, Avondale, have left for Itta Bena, Miss., to visit her daughter and grandchild, Mrs. Sam Kaplan, at their bungalow, where Mr. Harry Kahn has been for the past two months. From Itta Bene they expect to go to attend Mardi Gras at New Orleans.
A press dispatch from New York, says: Solomon Frank, of New York, asked his friend, Samuel Friedman, who owns a cloak business in Cincinnati, to be best man at the wedding of Frank and Miss Rebecca Epstein, scheduled for January 1. The invited best man came from Cincinnati a week ago, and while the wedding preparations were under way he met Miss. Tillie Tiemann, of 144 West Fourth Street, one of the bridesmaids. Today the two went from Hotel
Majestic and were married by Rabbi Silverman. Frank and Miss Epstein stood up for them, and in the evening at the Frank-Epstein wedding at Hennington Hall, 214 East Second Street, the process was reversed. Mrs. Minnie Mendel, who resided at 1438 Pullan Avenue, was buried in the Judah Torah Cemetery on Monday afternoon. She was but thirty years of age, and is survived by her husband and three small children. Rabbi Jacob Mielziner officiated. — January 5, 1911
75 Years Ago Mr. and Mrs. Charles Small, 913 Blair Avenue, celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary on New Year’s Eve. Among those present were Mr. and Mrs. M. Korchmar, Mr. and Mrs. C. Wasserman, Mr. and Mrs. A. Ostrow, Miss Anna Immerman, Mr. Harry Immerman, Mrs. B. Wasserman and family, Mr. and Mrs. N. Cohen, Mr. Sol Silverman, of Columbus, son Aaron and daughter, Florence. Invitations have gone out for a dance to be given by a group of bachelors Monday Jan. 13th, at 9:30 p.m., at the Netherland Plaza Pavillon Caprice. The hosts are the Messrs. Julius W.
Freiberg, Bertrand B. Kahn, Jerome L. Kahn, Robert S. Marx, Leonard R. Minster, J. Robert Orton, Julian A Pollak, A. Senior Prince, James A. Rheinstrom, Walter M. Shohl, Sidney Spritz and Max H. Thurnauer. Miss Pearl Beren will depart Saturday, January 18th, for a threeweek vacation in Philadelphia, New York, West Indies and South America. On Jan. 24th, Miss Beren will sail on the S.S. Statendam of the Holland American Lines for a two-week cruise to six ports in the Indies and to Venezuela. Upon her return to New York, she will spend an additional few
days there before returning to Cincinnati. Walter E. Stroheim, 53, salesman for the Mack Shirt Corporation, passed away at his home, 217 Delmar Avenue, Wednesday, Jan. 1st, after a heart attack. Services were held Friday, Jan. 3rd, with interment in United Jewish Cemetery. Surviving him are his widow, Mrs. Rose Kurtsman Stroheim, a son, Walter, Jr., a daughter, Miss Milretta Stroheim, three brothers, Arthur, Theodore and Edwin Stroheim, all of Cincinnati, and one sister, Mrs. Charles Block, of St. Louis. — January 9, 1936
50 Years Ago Dr. Naftali Frankel, musician, musicologist and musical director of the new Jewish Community Chorus, will address the “kick-off brunch” of the Jewish Culture and Art Committee, Sunday, Jan. 8, at 11 a.m., at the Jewish Community Center. He will speak on “The Scope of Jewish Music.” Mrs. Louise Heldman, 1039 Avondale Avenue, passed away Friday, Dec. 30. Mrs. Heldman was vice-president
of the Bake Shop and had served as president of Camp Livingston. She was a trustee of Jewish Hospital Auxiliary, Home for Incurables, and Associated Jewish Agencies. She was a member of Rockdale Temple Sisterhood, Council of Jewish Women, and Ruth 18. Her husband has been a leader in religious, civic, philanthropic and cultural activities. Survivors include her husband, Morton; two sons, Richard K. and Tom J. Heldman, all of Cincinnati; a daughter,
Mrs. Joseph H. Solomon, of west Newton, Mass., and eight grandchildren. Mrs. Sylvia Appel, 1702 Avonlea Avenue, passed away Thursday, Dec. 29. Survivors include her husband, Hyman; her mother, Mrs. Rose Schneider, of Dayton; three brothers Louis Flagel, of Middletown, Ohio, and Edward and George Flagel, of Dayton. Mrs. Appel was a graduate of the Jewish Hospital School of Nursing. — January 5, 1961
25 Years Ago Rabbi Judith A. Bluestein will be the guest rabbi Friday, Jan. 24 at 8:15 p.m. at the Wise Center, Rabbi Alan D. Fuchs announced recently. Rabbi Bluestein recently visited the Soviet Union under the auspices of the Cincinnati Council of Soviet Jewry and the Jewish Federation. This trip will be the subject of her sermon. During her visit, Rabbi Bluestein was able to observe the degree to which Jewish education is taking place within the Soviet Union, even against the many obstacles, which exist. She will offer other impressions of her
travels and visits with Soviet Jews as well. Sr. Leon Boothe, Ronald Graceman, Judge Robert Kraft and Edwin Rigaud have been elected to the local board of directs of the National Conference of Christians and Jews. The NCCJ is a non-profit, civic association engaged in a year-round program of education to improve interreligious and race relations. The Cincinnati chapter, established in 1944, is one of 70 offices in the conference’s nationwide network. Mrs. Hannah Doctrow of 7866
Dawn Road passed away Dec. 30. She is survived by a daughter, Jean Doctrow of Cincinnati; Kenneth of Hamilton, David of Lexington and Nathan of Pittsfield, Mass.; 10 grandchildren, Jan Parsons of Laurel, Md., Nancy Zanetos of Lancaster, Pa., Lori Morrero of Cincinnati, Mindy Jeffrey, Matt, Pam and Robby Doctrow of Lexington, Susan Prevelege of Boston, and Steven Doctrow of Pittsfield; and one great-grandson, Alan Phillip Marraro. She was the wife of the late Phillip Doctrow. — January 9, 1986
10 Years Ago James J. Behr, 84, passed away December 22, 2000. Mr. Behr was born in Cincinnati, the son of Julian J. and Helen (Ronsheim) Behr. He is survived by his wife Margery Behr, and his children, Ted Behr of Boston; Douglas and Stephanie Behr of Potomac, Md.; and Judy Riemenschneider of Atlanta. Surviving grandchildren are Jennifer and Jonathan Behr and Karla and David Riemenschneider. Mr. Behr was
the brother of Walter and Barbara Behr of Somerset, Md.; and Betty and Rabbi Martin Ryback of Los Angeles, who also survive him. A 21-gun salute shattered the afternoon sky over United Jewish Cemetery in Montgomery. The tribute was part of a ceremony honoring David Arrin Urbansky, a Prussian immigrant awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his valor in the battles of Vicksburg and Shiloh during
the Civil War. The medal itself is part of the collection of American Jewish Archives at Hebrew Union CollegeJewish Institute of Religion. Urbansky came to the United States from Prussia in1859, at the age of 20. Two years later, he enlisted in the Union Army in the 58th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He did not become a U.S. citizen until January 1865, three weeks after he was mustered out of the Army. — January 4, 2001
CLASSIFIEDS
THURSDAY, JANUARY 6, 2011
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) 754-3100 • cedarvillage.org Chevra Kadisha (513) 396-6426 Halom House (513) 791-2912 • halomhouse.com Hillel Jewish Student Center (513) 221-6728 • hillelcincinnati.org Jewish Community Center (513) 761-7500 • mayersonjcc.org Jewish Community Relations Council (513) 985-1501 Jewish Family Service (513) 469-1188 • jfscinti.org Jewish Federation of Cincinnati (513) 985-1500 • shalomcincy.org Jewish Foundation (513) 792-2715 Jewish Information Network (513) 985-1514 Jewish Vocational Service (513) 985-0515 • jvscinti.org Kesher (513) 766-3348 Plum Street Temple Historic Preservation Fund (513) 793-2556 The Center for Holocaust & Humanity Education (513) 487-3055 • holocaustandhumanity.org Vaad Hoier (513) 731-4671 Workum Fund (513) 899-1836 • workum.org CONGREGATIONS Adath Israel Congregation (513) 793-1800 • adath-israel.org Beit Chaverim (513) 984-3393 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 Cincinnati Hebrew Day School (513) 351-7777 • chds.shul.net 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) 204-5594 • 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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production@ americanisraelite.com PROGRAM from page 1 Camp in New York examined the results of 26 surveys to compare the attitudes and behaviors of adults who had attended Jewish camp as children with those who did not. The results showed that camp attendance increases the likelihood of adult participation and identification in areas such as synagogue membership, observance of holidays, donating to Jewish charities and connection to Israel. The camping program enjoys widespread communal support including the principals of the day schools and the afternoon schools as well as the congregational rabbis of Cincinnati, (Orthodox, Conservative and Reform) under the leadership of Rabbi George Barnard. Every summer, the program helps to send about 60–70 kids to Jewish overnight camps. Children have loved the opportunity. Robert Wetzler went to a Jewish overnight camp for the first time this past summer. Of the experience, he said, “Camp was so much fun. I could drink soda, swim, learned about Judaism, and lots more. Being at camp made me feel more like a Jew. I made lots of new friends, and now I want to go back!” NHS from page 1 Festival. It was an official selection for the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. A discussion will follow the DURBAN III from page 8 At the original U.N. conference against racism in Durban, the United States and Israel walked out when it became clear that it had devolved into little more than an opportunity for vitriolic Israelbashing that many said bordered on anti-Semitism. The conference’s final document singled out Israel for special condemnation. In Geneva in 2009, several European and North American countries announced ahead of time that they would not attend the conference out of concern that its special focus on Israel would make a mockery of the issue of fighting
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(513) 531-9600 Similarly, Drew Schneider, another one of the scholarship recipients, said, “I had an idea of what [Jewish sleep-away camp] was going to be like, but I had no idea it would change my life forever. The best thing about going to a Jewish camp is being surrounded by Jewish people and making many new friends. My school has few Jewish people, and it was amazing to look around camp and know that everyone there was Jewish.” In the future Cohen would like to increase the Jewish Overnight Camping Program. He wants to match what the Grinspoon Foundation offers to the Jewish children of Springfield and western Massachusetts. The expanded program in Cincinnati would provide grants of $1,500 for first year campers and $1,000 for returning campers. From its inception, Shelly Shor Gerson and Sylvia Shor have generously supported the program. A number of other interested individuals have also helped. The program is now also supported (on a matching basis) by the Foundation for Jewish Camp. Applications can be found on the Jewish Federation website on the resources page. The application deadline is May 15, 2011. screening, which will take place at Northern Hills Synagogue. There is no charge for attendance. For more information, please call Northern Hills. racism, and several more walked out of the conference when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used the occasion to bash Israel. The countries that voted last week against the Durban III session were Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, the Netherlands, Palau, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the United Kingdom and the United States. Among the countries abstaining were Austria, Belgium, France, Greece, Hungary and Spain.
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NEWS
ROCKWERN from page 1 90 percent of the students pay full tuition, and those families also donate significant annual gifts. Jewish day schools do not work well that way, because there will always be a large number of students who need tuition assistance. It is a tough decision to send kids to Rockwern, because Jewish day school is a financial sacrifice for most families, and Cincinnati has good public schools. Peter Cline, Rockwern Academy head of school, said, “Many middle class families are hesitant to look at the school, because they are afraid they cannot afford it and don’t want to be in the position of having to say no to something they would like for their children.” In order to attract families, the academics of the school need to be excellent, which in turn means the school needs to have money. Surveys of schools in similar markets and circumstances show that they all rely on a huge amount of community gifts. Rockwern has been lucky to receive support from the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati, the ANTI-SEMITISM from page 1 But generational and demographic changes are converging in Germany today, and a shift is afoot in the zeitgeist. While Germany continues to contend with vestiges of traditional antiSemitism, a new and more deeply embedded strain has emerged related to Israel. Polls show that this strain is distinguishable from mere opposition to Israeli policies, or even from anti-Zionism. In a 2010 report by the University of Beilefeld’s Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence, institute researchers, who conduct an annual poll on anti-Semitism, found an increase linked specifically to Israel. Among their findings: More than 57 percent of those polled agreed that Israel is waging “a war of annihilation” against the Palestinians (up from 51 percent in 2009). In 2008 — the most recent year the question was asked — more than 40 percent agreed that “what Israel is doing to the Palestinians is basically no different from what the Nazis did with the Jews during the Third Reich.” More than 38 percent of Germans polled agreed that “considering the politics of Israel, it is easy to see why one would have something against Jews” (up from 34 percent in 2009). Yet, at the same time, 67.5 percent in the 2010 poll agreed with the statement, “I like it that increasingly more Jews live in Germany.”
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Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati and private donors including the Rockwern endowment fund. Contrary to popular belief, the school was not given $4 million for scholarships and operating expenses flat out. The school receives partial payments of the $4 million gift over the course of several years, and then it receives interest from the portion of the money they have for operating expenses. By the end of the period they will have received the entire gift, but even then, they will only be using a portion of the interest payments from the money. The endowment gift was always meant to be a long-term donation, and it was also intended to spur on additional donations. When Rockwern first received the donation, they began to put together a campaign to raise additional funds, but the state of the economy meant that people were hesitant to give. The campaign was shelved until a later date. While donations have been generous, some feel that additional donations for scholarships are needed to attract and keep middleclass families. Without consistent enrollment for seventh and eighth
grade, what is preventing families from switching schools sooner? A community-wide, unequivocal commitment to Jewish education, from donors and families, will go a long way toward strengthening the school. A positive change in this way will create an impact felt for generations. Studies repeatedly prove that there are three main activities that instill a positive Jewish identity in children and young adults for a lifetime: trips to Israel, Jewish camps and Jewish day schools. These three encounters increase the likelihood that children will grow up participating in Jewish life. A study run by Avi Chai, one of the biggest independent funders of Jewish education, revealed that nearly 40 percent of young Jewish leaders in their 20s and 30s attended day school. (Less than 11 percent of the sample was Orthodox.) More than two-thirds attended Jewish overnight summer camps, and more than half spent four or more months of study or work in Israel. Young Jews who have gone to Israel through the Cincinnati Foundation’s program feel a real connection to Israel, whereas for
young Jews who have never been, Israel tends to be just a distraction. Intensive Jewish education influences more than a Jewish identity as shown in a 2007 study titled, “The Impact of Day School: A Comparative Analysis of Jewish College Students” that compared college-age Jews from both private and public school backgrounds. Former day school students are significantly more resistant than their public school peers to social pressures to engage in risky situations and behaviors like the heavy use of alcohol. While the research about the continuity of Judaism and leadership and participation speaks to donors, it does not really speak to parents. The number one reason for parents to send their children to a Jewish day school used to be religious education, but now it is number five. Parents ask, “What am I getting for my tuition?” Parents also look more at the individual pieces of education like, “Will my child get an excellent math education? Will he have friends?” Rockwern can compete with public schools for academics, plus it provides a smaller, more person-
al environment, and the diverse curriculum helps students develop an ability to think critically and objectively. “The Impact of Day School” study also confirmed that day schools provide top-notch preparation for a broad range of colleges and universities including the most selective. Parents also worry that time spent studying religion and Hebrew takes away from other subjects, but in reality it complements them. A recent study from the University of Melbourne showed that learning a second language at a young age increased literacy, and bilingual children outperformed monolingual children in assessments of English skills and some aspects of word awareness. According to Cline, a solution for a successful future of Rockwern will be found in determining the real resource need and how to attract and serve the broad middle class. The plan needs to equip the school with what it needs now without having to worry about the future. Cline said, “There are no villains in all of this. People in their hearts want this to be a great Jewish community.”
“As a psychologist, I think that this reflects ambivalent attitudes,” Beate Küpper, one of the researchers who produced the report, wrote in an e-mail to the Forward. “Germans are happy if there are some Jews in their country, as this gives us release. It shows off that we are tolerant…. However, the strong blaming of Israel common in Germany (because we like peace and go for the weaker…) is full of antiSemitic stereotypes [and] associations.” Mirko Niehoff, a 31-year-old social worker who works with Muslim youth, said he sees aspects of these trends in his daily work. “We realized we were dealing with a new anti-Semitism with roots in the Middle East conflict,” he said. Observers say that Muslim and classic right-wing anti-Semitism are combining with a left-wing demonization of Israel to produce a toxic mix, despite Germany’s postwar efforts to ensure that future generations continue to learn the lessons of the Holocaust. This new strain renders old ways of combating anti-Semitism less effective. According to some observers, in Germany the Holocaust narrative is no longer the powerful antidote it once was. When former public school teacher Sebastian Voigt, now a doctoral candidate at the University of Leipzig, told his teenage students they would study the Nazi period, many complained that they had already studied the Holocaust.
This alienation from German history is compounded by the fact that many Muslim youths don’t feel accepted as Germans themselves. They show little interest in this dark chapter of German history. Meanwhile, many of Germany’s 4 million Muslims stay connected with events in the Middle East via cable television networks, such as Hezbollah’s AlManar and Hamas’s Al-Aqsa. These anti-Semitic networks promote Holocaust denial. “You cannot undo with education what these satellite broadcasts are doing,” said Matthias Kuntzel, an author and political scientist, in a phone interview from Hamburg. The programs are fed to Germany via Egyptian and Saudi Arabian satellites. Both countries have refused repeated German requests to stop transmitting AlManar. Although Al-Manar was banned in 2008, private homes with satellite dishes continue to receive its programs, making the ban ineffective. To be sure, both Israel’s continued occupation of the West Bank and its invasion and blockade of Gaza are substantive issues criticized by the majority of Germans. Taken at face value, opposition to Israel need not be assumed to be anti-Semitic. But the majority who tell pollsters they view Israel’s actions toward the Palestinians as a “war of annihilation” and “principally not different than what the Nazis did with the Jews during the Third Reich” reflect a country in which the lines are blurred between
opposition to Israeli actions and policies and anti-Semitism. According to Lars Rensmann, an expert on anti-Semitism from Germany who teaches political science at the University of Michigan, for reasons peculiar to his native country, hatred of Jews may lurk below the surface even at protests that stop short of overt anti-Semitism. “It’s not so legitimate to attack Jews in Germany, so you attack Israel as a state — the collective Jew that represents the memory of the Holocaust,” Rensmann said. Despite widespread criticism of Israel within Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government continues to strongly support the Jewish state. Yoram BenZeev, Israeli ambassador to Germany, spoke enthusiastically about his relationship with the chancellor during an interview at his embassy. Still, Ben-Zeev conceded, the German public has a negative view of Israel, as does most of Europe. Germany’s support for Israel, normally unwavering, is no longer automatic. Last July, the Bundestag unanimously condemned Israel for its attack on the Mavi Marmara, the Turkish ship bound for Gaza with humanitarian aid. “The resolution condemning Israel was scary,” said Lala Susskind, president of the Jewish Community in Berlin. “It was the first time the left and the right were united in criticizing Israel.” Still, German leftists like Petra Pau, a member of the Left Party in the Bundestag, condemn Israeli
actions while demonstrating steadfast opposition to antiSemitism. Others, such as Alfred Grosser, a prominent Franco-German Jewish intellectual, maintain that Israeli actions fuel anti-Semitism throughout the world. Grosser, 85, a controversial figure who survived the Holocaust as a protected French citizen during World War II, equates Gaza with a concentration camp. And he accuses the Central Council Of Jews in Germany of silencing any criticism of Israel. A number of organizations in Germany are trying to combat the new anti-Semitism. One innovative program is “Active Against Anti-Semitism,” designed by the American Jewish Committee for Muslim children in Berlin schools. In another program, at the Jewish Museum in Berlin, Murat Akan, a 32-year-old German of Turkish ancestry, is one of five Turkish guides the museum employs in order to encourage Muslim youth to learn about Germany’s rich Jewish heritage. Some 200,000 Muslims live in Berlin, a city with a population of 3.5 million. While some of the Muslim teenagers sympathize with the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, Akan said, others are openly anti-Semitic. “They often ask me why they should feel connected to anything that happened in German history, like the Holocaust,” Akan said. “We have to teach them why it’s so important to learn what hatred can do.”
NEWS
THURSDAY, JANUARY 6, 2011
CONVICTION from page 1 But then came last week’s “earthquake,” as Israeli newspapers described it: Katsav, Israel’s president from 2000 to 2007, was convicted of rape, sexual assault and harassment. Walking out of the crowded Tel Aviv courtroom where Katsav had just been convicted on Dec. 30, Merav Michaeli, a leading Israeli feminist and well-known television personality, hailed what she said she hoped signaled a cultural shift. “I wish I could tell you this will change the face of Israeli society, but even if it does not it is another step, a sign of change,” she said. “The judges believed the women and understood and recognized the impossible position women are often placed in when working for such powerful men.” Katsav’s conviction, handed down in a scathing ruling by a panel of three judges who called the former president a liar and expressly stated that when a woman says “no” she means it, was hailed as a historic day for women’s rights and even for Israeli democracy. Many Israelis say the conviction represents a watershed moment in Israel’s transition to a new set of societal rules about what is considered acceptable — and legal — behavior when it comes to relations between men and women, particularly in the workplace. Moshe Negbi, a legal analyst for Israel Radio, said the verdict may come to symbolize “a mortal
BORDER from page 10 The upshot is that the Hamas government has been allowing its military and other smaller militias a slightly freer rein to test how much they can snipe at Israel without provoking a major military response. Two years on, it seems that the record of the three-week war that began in Gaza on Dec. 27, 2008 achieved mixed results. The main aims of the operation were to restore deterrence, destroy as much of the Hamas terrorist infrastructure as possible, and prevent a renewal of weapons shipments into Gaza. To a large extent, the operation achieved the first two goals, but the flow of weapons and war materiel into Gaza has continued unabated, perhaps even at an accelerated pace. The failure to stop the arms flow has threatened to undermine the operation’s other achievements. With new weapons and war materiel at its disposal, Hamas has been able to rebuild its military infrastructure and, now, the deterrent effects of Cast Lead appear to be beginning to wear off. Hamas’ rearmament since the war has been impressive. The IDF believes that aside from the Kornet anti-tank missiles the terrorist group now has, Hamas also has anti-aircraft missiles. In addition,
blow to the macho culture that turns women into an object of despicable sexual exploitation.” The transition took hold years ago. In 1998, the Knesset passed a groundbreaking sexual harassment law. An important test case soon followed when Yitzhak Mordechai, a former general and defense minister who ran for prime minister, was forced to resign from government in 2001 after being convicted of sexual assault and harassment against several women who had worked for him. Then came the case of Haim Ramon, at the time the justice minister, who was indicted in 2006 for indecent conduct and in 2007 was found guilty of kissing a female soldier against her will. Most recently Uri Bar-Lev, a major general in the police force and a top contender for the job of Israel’s next national police commissioner, dropped out of the running for the post last fall after being accused of sexual assault. “In the past there was this conception that we should not damage the respect given to officers or any man in a powerful position, and if [sexual harassment] happened to a woman it was probably her fault — it was a great way to hush everything up,” said Efrat Nachmany Bar, a colonel in the Israeli army reserves who until her retirement four years ago served as the army’s representative to the Knesset on issues of sexual harassment. In her current position as deputy director of the Israeli Institute for Hamas has more accurate and longer-range rockets — for example, the Iranian Fajr-5, which puts Tel Aviv in range. Hamas fighters and other militiamen have received training in Iran, Syria and Lebanon, and from Iranian and Syrian instructors in Gaza. They have also been building Hezbollah-style underground bunkers in Gaza. The IDF sees two aspects to these developments: On the one hand, Hamas will not want to put all this at risk by provoking Israel prematurely. The IDF assessment is that Hamas is still very much in the throes of the rearming and rebuilding process. But a future showdown, when Hamas feels it is strong enough, cannot be ruled out. “Two years after Operation Cast Lead, the situation in the Gaza Strip is different and calmer,” IDF Chief of Staff Lt.Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi said at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv on Sunday. But the situation is still potentially explosive, he said. He warned that Israel would not tolerate the continuation of the kind of rocket and mortar fire its civilians have witnessed over the last few weeks. But he gave no indication that the IDF would go beyond the limited, carefully controlled responses it has made so far.
Courtesy of Roni Schutzer / Flash90 / JTA
Women demonstrating outside the Tel Aviv courtroom where former Israeli President Moshe Katsav was convicted of rape and other sex crimes, Dec. 30, 2010.
Dignity, she lectures on the topic throughout the country. About Katsav, Nachmany Bar said, “Everyone knew and everyone was quiet. But now it has become not just his personal business but a societal issue. “The Israeli public is now saying, ‘Let’s not be quiet anymore, but let’s talk. And let’s also talk about why we did not talk before,’” she said. Nachmany Bar credits the army for being ahead of the curve of Israeli civil society when it comes to confronting sexual harassment. She held workshops and lectures, and ran help lines for soldiers and officers for 16 years. She also sat on the committee that disciplined sexual harassment cases.
That era coincided with women increasingly taking on combat support roles in the army. Israel’s existence as a military society often gets the blame for forging a male-dominated culture, Nachmany Bar said, but “the issue goes beyond the army. I think a militaristic culture is not one borne from security risks alone, although that strengthens it, but of patriarchy itself.” As part of the context for understanding the Israeli culture, she and other experts cited Israel’s history as a country forged on the image of the new Jew — the strong, muscular contrast to notions of the Diaspora Jew as pale, stooped and decidedly unmanly. “Part of the Zionist project was
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to prove that Israeli men are the real Jewish men,” Nachmany Bar said. “The image of the Israeli man as soldier is part of this.” Using the Hebrew term “gever gever,” slang for a “real man,” she said, “Part of being this real man is to be in control all the time — the idea being that if we are to be a real man in regards to a woman, the man needs to lead and the woman needs to follow.” A national survey done this year by the Ministry of Trade and Industry found that 40 percent of women reported experiencing some form of sexual harassment on the job. Avigail Moor, who heads the women’s studies department at Tel Chai College, said her research found that the figure for actual harassment, reported or not, appears to be higher: some 60 percent of the Israeli female workforce. The figure is similar to other Western countries, she said. Sexual assault and rape hotlines have been overloaded in the aftermath of the Katsav conviction with calls coming in from across the country. Moor, a psychologist, said the question now is how much Israeli men will internalize the message handed down by the court. “If this is the beginning of a new era, it could have a spectacular effect,” Moor said. “If women come forward in large numbers it could also trigger a backlash. Any social revolution, and this is what it is, has its ups and downs.”
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OBITUARIES
DEATH NOTICES TAFT, E. Gerald, age 95, died on December 30, 2010; 24 Tevet, 5771. LEVINSON, Ruth Ann, age 84, died on December 31, 2010; 24 Tevet, 5771. LEVINE, Daniel, age 92, died on January 3, 2011; 27 Tevet, 5771. SUGERMAN, Ruth, age 59, died on January 3, 2011; 28 Tevet, 5771.
OBITUARIES HERMAN, Carol H. Carol H. Herman (nee Ostertag), passed away on December 10, 2010 — the 3rd day of Tevet, 5771. Born in Munich, Germany, on February 7, 1922, she was the daughter of the late Gustav and Franceska Ostertag and the sister of the late Bernard Ostertag, all of whom perished at Auschwitz. She was LETTERS from page 16 Carmel, and given to the police and firefighters. No one bats an eye. My friend Drorit is waiting for the sufganyot to arrive. Her husband Yossi tells me not to worry. The people up around Carmel are different. They know how to deal with tough things in life. The next morning, we hear the winds picked up during the night, and whipped up the fires like cappucino foam. The hopes of getting the blaze under control have disappeared. Drorit’s family is sitting under their pomelo tree having a picnic in winter. The drone of small planes fills the sky. They are flying in low overhead. Two at time — red, yellow and white. Each country is identified by color.
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also preceded in death by her first husband, Joseph Herman, her daughters, Brenda and Sandy Herman, her second husband, Judah Jaffe, and her son-in-law, Barry Ross. Surviving relatives include her daughter, Linda Ross, her grandchildren, Jennifer, David and Debbie Ross, and her great-grandchildren, Bennett and Carter Ross. Mrs. Herman enjoyed a wonderful childhood in Munich, growing up in an observant Jewish home with her parents and younger brother Bernard. As the situation in Europe became more critical, her parents tried to get visas to the United States. With only one visa available, Mrs. Herman was the only member of her family who left on one of the last children’s transport, traveling by train to Portugal and then by ship to Cuba, and finally arriving in the United States in 1941. She married Joseph Herman on July 6, 1944. Together they had three wonderful daughters and enjoyed living life. She loved to travel the world, visit with family and friends, and spend time in temple and in Israel. Greece — once our oppressors on Chanukah — is now sending planes to aid Israel. Planes from Turkey and Cyprus follow. Israelis are glad to see the planes again. At night, the skies were too dark for small planes to navigate, so they stopped flying until daybreak. Two by two, like Noah’s ark. Only now, there is no water. There is only destruction by fire. Anne Feibelman Galil, Israel Anne Feibelman was born and raised in Cincinnati and attended Wise Temple. As part of her program to be ordained as a rabbi at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia, she is studying in Israel this year.
Carol H. Herman
Mrs. Herman was very involved and passionate about her Jewish life and Israel. She was a member of both Wise Temple and Adath Israel, she was a past Sisterhood president of Wise Temple, a life member of Hadassah and a supporter of the Lion of Judah. She was active in the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati and the Center for Holocaust and Humanity Education. She was also a co-chair
of the 2005 Women’s Mission to Israel and she made eleven trips to Israel in her lifetime. Following is an excerpt of an essay written by Carol Herman: “I treasure my memories of holidays with my family in prewar Munich, Germany. I can picture it now: Friday evening, Shabbat, the home aglow with warmth and light, the four of us gathered around the dinner table, my father blessing my brother and myself, wonderful aromas drifting in from the kitchen. And I can see my adorable brother, Bernie, clutching his small Kiddush cup in his little hands. “One evening as he held this beloved cup, he proclaimed, ‘Mutti, Fati, when I grow up to be a rabbi, I will have a very big cup all my own. But until then, this is my kiddush cup, and I will take it to school tomorrow to show my Hebrew teacher and tell him how grown up I feel drinking wine from this cup.’ “Bernie never became a rabbi; he never grew up. The little boy so filled with laughter, joy and dreams ended his journey in Auschwitz in the spring of 1942,
murdered at the age of eleven. “My parents secured a place for me on one of the last Kindertransports, and I left for the United States in 1941. I was a teenager, and even though my parents tried to get Bernie out as well, he was too young. When I left, my mother packed my suitcase with many things from our pre-war life; one of these things was Bernie’s Kiddush cup. It’s almost as if she knew I would never see them again and this was her way of making sure I didn't forget my family.” Bernie’s kiddish cup is displayed in CHHE’s “Mapping Our Tears” exhibit. Funeral services were held for Mrs. Herman on December 12, 2010 at Wise Temple, with Rabbi Lewis Kamrass officiating. Burial followed at New Hope Cemetery. Memorial contributions can be made to the Brenda and Sandy Herman Scholarship Fund at Wise Temple, 8329 Ridge Road, Cincinnati, Ohio 45236, 513-7932556; or to The Center for Holocaust and Humanity Education, 8401 Montgomery Road, Cincinnati, Ohio 45236, 513-487-3055.
RAPPER from page 10 Levi plans to travel to Ethiopia in the spring, and says he’d like to help fund a yeshiva for Ethiopian immigrants in the town of Beit Shemesh, near Jerusalem. “The Israelites won’t be whole and Messiah won’t come until all the tribes are connected to Hashem,” Levi says, referring to the Ethiopian Jews as a lost tribe —an originally Jewish community cut off from the rest of the Jewish world for generations. Levi finishes his evening prayers at the Western Wall before paying a visit to the protest tent next to the prime minister’s residence that calls for the immediate release of Gilad
Courtesy of Dena Wimpfheimer
The rapper Shyne, shown leaning against a pillar in the Old City of Jerusalem, says the tenets of Judaism help him become closer to the kind of person he strives to be.
Shalit, the Israeli soldier who has been held captive by Hamas in Gaza for more than four years. Noam Shalit, the captured soldier’s father, is in the tent, and Levi is anxious to speak with him. “I know what it’s like to suffer and not be with your family, and heaven knows what kind of pain and torture they are doing to him,” Levi says after the two shake hands and sit down. He adds, “All we can do is pray.” “We need more than prayers,” a
polite but terse Noam Shalit replies. From the Shalit tent, Levi heads out into a chilly Jerusalem night to meet with one of the rabbis with whom he studies regularly. Every day, he says, the tenets of Judaism help him become closer to the kind of person he strives to be. “The bottom line is not to be a Chasid,” he says. “Some people can dress up and look the part, but sometimes they don’t behave that way and the person you never expect turns out to be the mensch. Right?”
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