The American Israelite, February 28, 2013 by Clermont Sun Publishing Company

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013 18 ADAR, 5773

Access presents The Political Party p.12

CINCINNATI, OH Candle Lighting Times Shabbat begins Fri 6:12p Shabbat ends Sat 7:13p

VOL. 159 • NO. 32

The American Israelite T H E

O L D E S T

Springtime holiday heralds season of spiritual renewal

LOCAL

p.3

Rockwern basketball team caps off undefeated season

LOCAL

p.6

David Hoguet brings stability, growth to JCGC

DINING OUT

p.14

The Cincinnatian— adventure in the urban jungle

BUSINESS

E N G L I S H

p.20

Finance Minister Steinitz, Howie Mandel highlight...

LIKE US ON FACEBOOK! FOLLOW US ON TWITTER!

SINGLE ISSUE: $1.00 J E W I S H

W E E K L Y

I N

A M E R I C A

Bill granting FEMA funds to Sandy—damaged shuls sparks...

E S T .

1 8 5 4

“ L E T

A Web of hate: European, U.S. laws clash on defining and policing online...

T H E R E

B E

L I G H T ”

Australian Jewry breaks silence on Zygier as new details continue to emerge...

JCC, SCPA bring Bebe Neuwirth to Cincinnati The Mayerson JCC Wolf Center for Arts & Ideas is partnering with local organizations to make the arts accessible to everyone. Marc Fisher, interim CEO of the JCC, is excited to lead the organization in offering more arts programming to the Cincinnati community, and looks for opportunities to partner with other organizations to make it happen. “Our goal at the JCC is to bring outstanding programs and services to the Cincinnati community, in locations where people can best interact with them. We’ve had great success partnering with Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and most recently, the Cincinnati Museum Center and other local theaters, to bring our Jewish & Israeli Film Festival to sold-out crowds in five locations across Cincinnati. We are excited about our newest partnership with the School for Creative and Performing Arts,” according to Fisher. The Mayerson JCC’s latest collaboration with the School for Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA) presents Tony-winning Broadway star and Emmy-winning actress (of Cheers) Bebe Neuwirth, in a special one night performance, open to the public, on Saturday night, March 9. Ms. Neuwirth will perform an evening of favorite songs by Stephen Sondheim, Kander & Ebb, Kurt Weill, and more, in SCPA’s beautiful Corbett Theatre. “When deciding to bring Bebe Neuwirth to Cincinnati, we reached out to SCPA as a partner because they are not only a great venue for the show, but their students can benefit from Ms. Neuwirth’s artistic experience on an entirely different level,” said Courtney Cummings, JCC Cultural Arts manager. “Thanks to support from The Mayerson Foundation, we are thrilled to provide a master class to SCPA students, in addition to the public performance. This is truly a win-win situation – providing both

Bebe Neuwirth

“Our goal at the JCC is to bring outstanding programs and services to the Cincinnati community, in locations where people can best interact with them.” Marc Fisher

a great show and a fantastic learning opportunity.” SCPA students will learn about Broadway, music and dance, and will benefit from Neuwirth’s extensive expertise in her private, twohour master class. Neuwirth established herself as a versatile performer on stage, film and television as the only Broadway triple-threat to play both leading lady roles, Roxie and Velma, in Chicago. She has received Tony Awards for her roles as Roxie in Chicago and as Nickie in Sweet Charity. Jeff Seibert, The Mayerson Foundation’s grant officer, said, “The only way we can be cost effective is to partner with organizations like the JCC, who bring in wonderful artists. We wouldn’t have this opportunity and the students at SCPA wouldn’t be able to benefit from Bebe Neuwirth’s talent if it wasn’t for the JCC.” Most recently, Neuwirth originated the role of Morticia in The Addams Family. On television, she will always be recognized for her Emmy award-winning portrayal of Lilith, the icy, monotone psychiatrist and eventual wife of Kelsey Grammer’s Frasier Crane in the beloved television sit-com Cheers and its sequel Frasier. In addition to her litany of accomplishments, Neuwirth recently signed with streaming giant Amazon to offer its first streaming TV series, Browsers, a musical comedy set in contemporary Manhattan that follows four young people as they start their first jobs at a news website (Neuwirth will play their boss). The JCC is also offering an accessible round-trip shuttle to the Saturday night, March 9 concert for everyone, including people with disabilities, for a minimal fee. The shuttle is open to the public and departs from the JCC parking lot. Advance reservation is required by Friday, March 8. To learn more about this community collaboration please consult the Community Directory in this issue for the JCC’s contact information.

WONDERFUL WEDDINGS 2013 S PECIAL S ECTION If your business/organization wants to reach the greater Cincinnati Jewish community regarding weddings, this is the issue to do it! • Bands/DJs • Banquet Halls • Bridal Shops • Caterers • Event Rentals • Florists • Photographers To advertise, contact Ted Deutsch at 621-3145 or publisher@americanisraelite.com Deadline is March 1st Publishes on March 7th

The American Israelite

LOCAL • 3

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013

Rockwern basketball team caps off undefeated season This article was written by Matthew Youkilis, a sixth grade student at Rockwern Academy. Sunday, Feb. 17, the Rockwern Lions sixth and seventh grade basketball team defeated Lakota, capping off an undefeated season. The final score was 45-28, but the Lions had to fight hard to come away with the win. Rockwern’s center, Jacob Kotzin, won the tip-off, but the Lions couldn’t capitalize on their first possession. When Lakota received the ball, they sprinted down the court and scored a quick two points. For the next few minutes, Rockwern and Lakota traded baskets. At the end of the first quarter, Lakota led 9-6. Then Rockwern coach, Guy Peri gave the team a pep talk to get them back into the game. This helped the Lions substantially, as they went into halftime with a 16-14 lead after an exciting second quarter. After a well-deserved threeminute halftime break, the Lions lived up to their name and charged through the third quarter, led by great defense from the entire team. Going into the fourth quarter, the Lions had a 26-18 advantage, but they knew the game was not over yet. They made sure they held onto the victory with spectacular defense, and offense that flourished like a beautiful flower.

The sixth and seventh grade boys’ basketball team at Rockwern Academy.

At the end of the game, the score was 45-28, and Rockwern had completed their perfect season. Now that the Lions have gone 10-0, they hope to bring home the championship trophy, which they will compete for in the tournament

starting next week. “This was a team effort. Everybody contributed, and now we hope this winning streak can carry through to the tournament,” remarked Brad Gallop, the team’s forward.

JCRC, CHHE announce ongoing partnership

Sarah Weiss

The Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati and The Center for Holocaust and Humanity Education (CHHE) are pleased to announce that Sarah Weiss has been named executive director of the JCRC. Weiss will retain her current position as executive director of CHHE, splitting her time evenly between the two organizations. In September 2011, as part of an ongoing collaboration between the two organizations, Weiss was

brought on as interim Consulting Director of the JCRC while the search for a permanent director continued. In the ensuing year and a half, the success of the partnership became evident, and the boards of the two organizations decided to offer Weiss a permanent position. “Working with Sarah over the past year and half has been wonderful, and we are extremely pleased that the JCRC will continue to benefit from her many talents and the depth of her experience,” said JCRC president, Gary Greenberg. In her interim position, Weiss spent 20 percent of her time at the JCRC and the remaining 80 percent at CHHE. To accommodate the move to a 50/50 arrangement, CHHE’s staff will be reorganized and an additional employee hired. “With our mission so complementary to the JCRC’s, we saw it as a natural fit for Sarah’s skills to be spread over both organizations,” PARTNERSHIP on page 19

"A marvel of digital dexterity, warmly romantic sentiment, and jaw-dropping bravura." —Chicago Tribune

Bronfman Plays Brahms MAR 14 & 16 Thurs 7:30 pm; Sat 8 pm

MUSIC HALL 513.381.3300 • cincinnatisymphony.org Concert tickets from $10 advance THURS MAR 14: Pre-concert light dinner buffet., FREE to all ticketholders

4 • LOCAL

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

Springtime holiday heralds season of spiritual renewal Chabad Jewish Center, the unique Seder experience will be led by Rabbi Mangel and will feature explanation and commentary based on mystical and Kabbalistic insights, humor and song. A sumptuous four-course holiday dinner will be served with hand-baked Matzah and choice of wine. “The Seder is the most opportune and exciting time to bring unity to the community, to get people to meet each other and enjoy great food, and to enjoy each other’s company,” said co-director Chana Mangel. “The Seder has kept families and communities together for thousands of years. The Seder meal will be interactive, warm and vibrant, interspersed with lively discussion through group participation as well as individual involvement,” Chana added. HOLIDAY on page 19

Upcoming Wise Temple events

Dinner program focuses on the Cincinnati art scene Continuing its commitment to spiritual and learning opportunities for midlife congregants, Wise Temple is hosting a special Shabbat service and dinner program featuring Cincinnati Art Museum Director, Aaron Betsky and Artworks Director Tamara Harkavy on Friday, March 1. During the program, Betsky and Harkavy will address the questions, “What makes Cincinnati great; what makes it different; what lets us understand where we are, where we’ve come from and where we’re going?” Cincinnati has an unparalleled history of making, showing and performing great art. The visual arts in our city are anchored by great institutions such as the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Taft Museum of Art, and the Contemporary Arts Center, but they are also found in our neighbor-

hoods through the efforts of organizations such as Artworks. They will discuss what makes the arts in Cincinnati great and important, and they will show how they are planning to make it an even more vital part of our community. Using images taken from past exhibitions and mural projects, they will lift the veil on what they and others have planned, and speculate on how we can make the arts work harder in and around our community. The dinner and program will begin immediately after Shabbat services at 6:15 p.m. For more information contact Margie Burgin, Wise Temple’s Membership/Program Director. WiseUP Social Action Projects in March The WiseUP Social Action Committee of Wise Temple encourages and inspires congregants to fulfill our ongoing sacred obligation to repair the world, one mitzvah at a time, and, in so doing, bring greater meaning to our lives and the lives of others. On Sunday, March 17, volunteers will prepare and host brunch for women and children at the emergency shelter at Bethany House. After brunch, project leader Kim Goldwasser will lead activities with the kids. Bethany House Services collaborates with others to provide a full range of housing, education and assistance programs to homeless and disadvantaged women and children. On Saturday, March 9, project leader Paul McOsker will organize approximately 20 Wise Temple volunteers as they help receive, sort and pack donated food items for the Freestore Foodbank. This

“LET THERE BE LIGHT” THE OLDEST ENGLISH-JEWISH WEEKLY IN AMERICA - EST. JULY 15, 1854

VOL. 159 • NO. 32 THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013 18 ADAR 5773 SHABBAT BEGINS FRIDAY 6:12 PM SHABBAT ENDS SATURDAY 7:13 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 production@americanisraelite.com RABBI ISAAC M. WISE Founder, Editor, Publisher, 1854-1900 LEO WISE Editor & Publisher, 1900-1928 RABBI JONAH B. WISE Editor & Publisher, 1928-1930

agency successfully distributes over 12 million pounds of food per year to help feed those in need. On Thursday, March 21, Wise Temple Brotherhood continues its commitment to Lighthouse Youth Services. Project leader Ed Waterman and other brotherhood members will prepare and share dinner, play basketball and games, and be role models for teenage boys at this community center. To sign up for WiseUP Social Action projects, please contact Margie Burgin through the Wise Temple office. Superhero Shabbat for the Young Family Involvement Group On Friday, March 1, Wise Temple will host a special YoFI Shabbat with Jewish Superheros as the theme. Kids can come dressed in their regular clothes or wear their favorite Superhero costume. No parent will be turned away for getting in the spirit as well, so bust out the tights and the “S” t-shirts. Kids will make their own capes and complete real Superhero work throughout the service! While YoFI, Wise Temple’s Young Family Involvement Group, is geared for families with kids ages 0-6, older siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles are all welcome and encouraged to attend as well. This is a great opportunity to celebrate Shabbat with friends, new and old, in a fun and welcoming atmosphere. Services begin at 6:15 p.m. at Wise Center. So be faster than a speeding bullet as you head over to Wise Temple and experience the joy of Shabbat, which is more powerful than a locomotive.

HENRY C. SEGAL Editor & Publisher, 1930-1985 PHYLLIS R. SINGER Editor & General Manager, 1985-1999 MILLARD H. MACK Publisher Emeritus NETANEL (TED) DEUTSCH Editor & Publisher JORY EDLIN MICHAEL SAWAN Assistant Editors ALEXIA KADISH Copy Editor JANET STEINBERG Travel Editor MARIANNA BETTMAN NATE BLOOM IRIS PASTOR RABBI A. JAMES RUDIN ZELL SCHULMAN RABBI AVI SHAFRAN PHYLLIS R. SINGER Contributing Columnists JOSEPH D. STANGE Production Manager ERIN WYENANDT Office Manager e Oldest Eng Th

ewish N h-J ew lis

Adult Jewish learning and Torah study program in March Adult Jewish learning at Wise Temple offers food for the mind, heart and soul. Join us as we explore a kaleidoscope of Jewish ideas, knowledge and wisdom in March. On Sunday, March 10, Wise Temple continues its “Sunday Series” with the co-directors of the musical Parade. Join us as Ed Cohen and Dee Anne Bryll, codirectors of the Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center and the Cincinnati CollegeConservatory of Music’s musical theater department’s production of Parade discuss the historical and social context of the play, the story of the sweltering intolerance of 1913 Atlanta, when northerner and Jewish factory manager Leo Frank is wrongfully accused of murdering a 13-year-old girl. As press frenzy and public outrage whip his trial into a referendum, Frank’s only hope lies in a brave crusade by the southern wife he never understood, among a people that never understood him. The 2000 Tony Award winner for “Best Book” and “Best Score,” Parade is a transformational story of a country at odds with its declarations of equality. This program begins at 10 a.m. at Wise Center. Wise Temple continues “Tuesdays with Torah” with the topic Israel, Iran and Holocaust Denial on March 12 and March 19 from noon – 1 p.m. Rabbi Maura Linzer will explore the roots and motivations of Holocaust denial and will discuss Iranian President

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s bold statements of Holocaust denial that have consistently made front page news around the world as a form of anti-Israel propaganda. Join our Rabbis and/or our rabbinic interns every Shabbat morning as we delve into the week’s Torah portion. Every week we explore, debate and discuss our sacred texts, learning more about our tradition and its relevance in both today’s world and in our lives. Torah study begins at 10:45 a.m. every Saturday following the 9:30 a.m. Shabbat Service at Wise Center. No registration is necessary. For more information about these programs or to register, please contact Sue Leen through Wise Temple’s main office.

The American Israelite

•

The following is a preview of March events at Wise Temple

Est. 1854

birth of the Jewish nation over three millennia ago – and at the same time embark on a modern-day journey to spiritual freedom. This year, in Cincinnati, the Chabad Jewish Center is opening its doors once again for their community-wide Family Passover Seder. This special event is open to all members of the Jewish community, regardless of affiliation, synagogue membership or financial means. The evening will be integrated with Chassidic tales, spiritual insights and Jewish humor in an inviting atmosphere of warmth and acceptance. Said Rabbi Yisroel Mangel, “As in past years’ Seders, guests will come away with a profound sense of history, of where they’re coming from, who they are. We will make it more than just a token religious observance, and people really respond.” Held Tuesday, March 26 at the

• ca

and spiritual meaning. The Seder is a whole-person experience, empowering each man, woman and child with a renewed sense of inner freedom and spiritual resolve. The Passover Haggadah, which records the Seder’s narrative, says that in each generation man must see himself as if he had personally gone out of Egypt. Judaism teaches that Egypt and its nefarious Pharaoh symbolize the negative forces that constrict man. The slavery in Egypt represents the emotional and psychological shackles that confine and enslave the human spirit, constraining one’s ability to live up to his or her fullest spiritual potential. Each year on Passover, as nature experiences its own season of springtime renewal, we participate in the Seder tradition and experience our own renewal and rebirth. At the Seder table we commemorate the Exodus from Egypt and the

r in Am ape er sp i

For over 3,300 years, Jewish families the world over have gathered around the festive table on the eve of Passover to commemorate the Exodus from Egypt and celebrate the “Seder” feast. This is no ordinary meal; the Passover Seder (which actually means “order”) incorporates 15 multi-sensory steps which reach deep into the human psyche in every way possible and all at once: Rich melodies, dynamic visuals, prayers and stories, even the visceral senses of taste, smell and touch are part of the interminable tradition. The Seder is a time to retell the story of the Exodus and the history of our nation’s birth, but also much more. The observances at the Sedertable allow one to actually re-experience a modern-day Exodus; facilitating one’s own spiritual rebirth and enabling him or her to forge a new path toward a life of holiness

THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE (USPS 019-320) is published weekly for $44 per year and $1.00 per single copy in Cincinnati and $49 per year and $3.00 per single copy elsewhere in U.S. by The American Israelite Co. 18 West Ninth Street, Suite 2, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202-2037. Periodicals postage paid at Cincinnati, OH. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE, 18 West Ninth Street, Suite 2, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202-2037. The views and opinions expressed by the columnists of The American Israelite do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the newspaper.

LOCAL • 5

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013

How Jewish young professionals help the community thrive

Parties are just one part of what YP’s are looking for. Many are also eager to play a role in helping to shape their Jewish community.

Well-known for throwing the biggest social events for Jewish young professionals in our community, Access, an initiative of The Mayerson Foundation for Jewish young professionals 21-35 years old, is also frequently called upon by Jewish agencies and organizations to recommend individuals who would make a valuable addition to their boards and committees, and who can offer a young voice and perspective to the important decisions that need to be made on behalf of the Cincinnati Jewish community. Each year, the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati asks Access for the names of constituents who might be interested in getting more involved in the inner workings of the Jewish community by serving on one of its Allocations Councils, committees that make recommendations to the Federation board as to where community dollars and resources should be directed. Members of these Councils evaluate programs and help determine funding allocations based on site visits and a review of funding requests. The following Access constituents have been invited to join one of the Jewish Federation’s Allocation’s Councils in 2013: Jeremy Faust, Elida Kamine, Adena Kass, Evan Meyer, Andrea Newman and Jonah Sandler. “If we want the next generation to be part of our Jewish Community

in the future, they must be involved in planning today,” says Marcie Bachrach, vice president of Planning and Allocations at the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati. “I am thrilled that these six outstanding young professionals will be able to offer their perspective and expertise to help shape our community’s future.” “I recently moved to Cincinnati, and Access and other organizations have already provided me with a plethora of wonderful memories and experiences. I view this extraordinary opportunity to serve on an Allocations Council as a way to help further the positive impact the Federation has had in our community,” explains Evan Meyer. “Knowing that participation on this board will allow future Jewish generations to have the kind of positive experiences I have had is a wonderful feeling.” Elida Kamine explains, “It is a serious responsibility to be asked to consider how a community should allocate its resources. It is a testament to this Jewish community that these decisions are made by such a broad cross-section of our community, including young professionals, many of whom (myself included) have not been otherwise involved with the traditional institutions and organizations. “I see the Allocations Committee experience as a wonderful way to really learn about our community on

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! MARCH 7 TH

Netanel (Ted) Deutsch Michael Mazer Michael Sawan FRIENDS ARE ENCOURAGED TO CALL AND WISH THEM WELL, BUY THEM LUNCH, DINNER AND DRINKS, AND TO DELIVER GIFTS.

a macro level – by being able to look at the whole host of services, institutions and programs that comprise our community,” Kamine continues. “But it is also a way to study our community on a micro level, as well as a deeply personal one. Some of our community’s programs and institutions are truly remarkable, and the impact they are having on the individuals they serve is profound,” she says. “I know others have come out of this experience gravitating toward future involvement with some of Federation’s partner agencies, and I look forward to having this be a stepping stone to further involvement in the Jewish community. It also offers a fantastic opportunity to do meaningful work shoulder to shoulder with many members of our community, which will enable me to interact with many others with whom I might not otherwise meet or engage.” “I value the perspective young people have about our community and their vision for the programs they believe are needed in Cincinnati in order to build the kind of vibrant Jewish future they desire,” explains Barb Miller, director of Planning and Allocations at the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati. “Through the planning and allocations process these young leaders have the opportunity to shape decisions not only through their financial commitment to our community campaign, but by offering advice based often on their professional backgrounds and passion.”

THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE’S ARCHIVES ARE NOW ONLINE. THE REST IS JUST HISTORY. It’s time for you to checkout The American Israelite’s Archives Online. The Archives features issues from years past and search tools to help you find that long-lost article that you’ve been searching for!

The American Israelite

PROFESSIONALS on page 19

These archives are only available at

americanisraelite.com

6 • LOCAL

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

COMMUNITY NEWS Adath Israel 7th grade hosts ‘First Zionist Congress’ Adath Israel’s Religious School Class Kitah Zayin (7th Grade) re-enacted the First Zionist Congress recently during religious school, with the assistance of their teacher, David Gershuny and Madricha (teaching assistant) Allison Schwartz. The students spent several weeks examining the dilemmas of real Zionists in Europe during the late 1800’s. They learned and then revealed to the 3rd through 6th graders how the early Zionists took the road less traveled: While the vast majority of Jewish immigrants of that time opted for immigration to America, these Zionists chose instead a difficult life in the then-

undeveloped land of Eretz Yisrael. Our early Zionists were well represented with Renee and Noah as Ahad Ha-Am, a liberal Russian Jewish thinker and a leading Eastern European Jewish essayist who demanded that Israel become the center of Cultural Judaism. Winnie, Daniel and Max represented the views of Theodore Herzl, The Father of Modern Zionism and the founder of JNF. Mr. Herzl stated, after witnessing the Dreyfuss Affair, that the Jews must have a country of their own. He did not care where the Jewish State was located. Jacob and Jadon represented Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, The Father of Modern Hebrew. Mr. Yehuda would not tolerate any language other than Hebrew to be spoken in

the Jewish State. Hannah, Zack and Hannah stood in for Manya Shochot, the Mother of the Kibbutzim who demanded that the Jewish State be a country run by the working class. Joel took on the views of Rav Kook, who later was The first Chief Rabbi of Israel (though the state had not yet been born). Rabbi Kook wanted all of the Jews to be practicing our religion, but would accept those who did not. Matthew, who was A. D. Gordon, considered an older Zionist at the age of 47, who said that the only place for our homeland is Israel and the only religion that was needed came from working the land. Each Zionist’s position was fervently defended with the use of flags and slogans. Mathew creat-

ed his flag representing the views of A.D. Gordon, had a farm scene on it, with a garden, a cow, chickens and a farm house his slogan was “Labor is Our Cure.” Winnie and Max used Theodore Herzl’s design of a flag with 7 gold stars in a circle, representing the seven hour work day. Jacob and Jadon made their slogan “Bring Hebrew Back Now!” Learning about Zionism and what it meant in the past is a part of our 7th grade curriculum. Early Zionists understood the goals of Zionism was “to save Jewish lives and to create a better Jewish future.” Our students studied everything from what they felt the purpose of the Jewish state should be, either to improve Jewish lives

or to revitalize Judaism – to where the Jewish state must be, to the language that should be spoken to whether or not there should be a Jewish state. They all agreed that the Jewish State must be an open and free society! Our 3rd through 6th grade classes all came together to witness our 7th graders reenacting the First Zionist congress and it gave them a chance to see the wide variety of visions the early Zionists held. As the Congress came to an end there were many surprised faces when just, like the original First Zionist Congress, this Zionist congress ended in utter chaos with all of our Zionists yelling at each other, supporting why their view was the right one!

David Hoguet brings stability, growth to JCGC By Michael Sawan Assistant Editor Publisher’s Note: This is the second in a series of articles covering the Jewish Agency Executives of Cincinnati. Look for more profiles in future issues of The American Israelite. David Hoguet, now in his fifth year as the executive director of the Jewish Cemeteries of Greater Cincinnati (JCGC), has been with the agency since soon after its 2008 creation. “I was hired about the same time that JCGC came into existence,” explains Hoguet. “[JCGC] came into existence for the purpose of combining all of the Jewish Cemeteries under one roof.” Before JCGC, Cincinnati had 26 Jewish cemeteries in the area, almost all of which were still active. Some were unified here, others independent there, and no one authority existed. Consolidation of the cemeteries soon became necessary in order

to attain financial stability. “We’ve been able to operate the organization on a much stronger basis, financially, than the consultants who helped the community leaders put this organization together,” says Hoguet. “We’ve operated on a better basis than they had projected.” The JCGC now presides over 22 of the 26 Jewish cemeteries in Cincinnati, with plans to develop a new cemetery in Loveland. Hoguet himself is a New York City native, having come to Cincinnati in 1980. He received degrees from Penn State and NYU. “I like Cincinnati,” he states. And, even more: “I like Skyline. I eat it a lot.” Hoguet has presided over JCGC through its transitional period toward unity. “[JCGC] was initially a member organization, meaning that each of the cemeteries that came into JCGC had board membership and voting rights that were based on the size of the cemeteries as well as the endowments that they had contributed. There was also, however, a proviso that over a three year period JCGC would turn into a community cemetery, meaning the board might still have members on it who had been associated with the prior cemeteries, but that they were no longer representing interests of those cemeteries; they were members of the combined entity.” JCGC has also begun work on an online service designed for easy access by community members. “We’ve created an online capacity to look up information and monument photos on the families or individuals that are buried in our cemeteries,” says Hoguet. “We don’t have 100 percent of all of the monuments photographed, but we are very close.” The non-online world is also receiving updates, in the form of the aforementioned Loveland property: “We’ve purchased land for a new cemetery, that was done with

(Clockwise) A new map of the cemetery, apart of JCGC’s ongoing beautification efforts; A shot of the Walnut Hills Cemetery, which also houses JCGC’s administrative office; Looking out onto the Walnut Hills cemetery; An old sign, using the cemetery’s old name.

the help of the Jewish Foundation who also provided the grant at our formation that has helped build our endowment. One of the things we’ll be working on this year, and probably over the next couple of years, is a development plan for that cemetery. It’s a 23 acre property. Importantly, it is going to be a community cemetery, meaning that all denominations will have sections in the cemetery. I don’t know this for a fact, but it’s possible that it may be the first Jewish community cemetery in the country.” JCGC has also had a genealogy service in place: “Last year we participated in the JCC’s community learning day, where basically we showed people how to use our genealogy lookup capability. We have a committee working on that

topic now, because we are trying to get more engagement with the community. I think more awareness with what’s going on at the JCGC.” Along with the progress, “every organization has issues that they have to deal with,” adds Hoguet. “One of the things that is probably an ongoing project that we wish they were in better condition... are the monuments in some of the cemeteries, particularly out on the west side, that are leaning or broken. We do have a repair effort dedicated to that, but we always have a long to-do list there.” The repair process can be surprisingly involved, depending on the size of the monument. “Someone will make a work order up. If it’s something our crew can do then they’ll do it. If it’s a really

large monument and they can’t handle the pieces because they weigh too much, we may have to get help from an outside company that has the appropriate equipment to deal with it.” Hoguet was quick to share the credit with his coworkers at JCGC’s administrative office. “We have two of us here in the office. Mary Bauer is the office manager. She handles, besides the office and book work, a lot of the genealogy questions that come in, as well as selling monuments and markers. Ronnie King is our foreman. Ronnie has been with us for over 10 years. He leads the grounds and burial crew, and they all do a great job.” “It’s a good team,” adds Hoguet, “I’m fortunate that they’ve all been here for a while.”

NATIONAL • 7

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013

Appreciating ‘Dear Abby’: How Judaism influenced the famous advice columnist By Robert Gluck JointMedia News Service When we think of “Dear Abby,” we think of a columnist with a sense of humor giving out sage advice. But not all readers know that the Jewish background of Pauline Phillips, the recently deceased woman behind the words, played a large role in what became the most widely syndicated newspaper column in the world. “Dear Abby” began in January

1956 and was eventually syndicated in 1,400 newspapers globally, with 110 million readers, and was serialized by the New York Times Syndicate, The National Enquirer and Reader’s Digest. Phillips, who died Jan. 16 at 94, was born Pauline Esther Friedman in Sioux City, Iowa, to Russian Jewish immigrants, Rebecca and Abraham Friedman, who owned of a chain of ABBY on page 20

Inspired by past Jewish stars, champion skater Max Aaron eyes Sochi Olympics By Chavie Lieber Jewish Telegraphic Agency NEW YORK – With consecutive quadruple jumps at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Max Aaron launched himself not only to a gold medal and a national championship. The 20-year-old Arizonan also joined the ranks of Jewish athletes who have made it big. For Aaron, that was even more exciting than executing the perfect salchows last month in Omaha, Neb., which moved him from fourth to first in the standings. “I grew up looking to all those

Jewish athletes for inspiration,” Aaron told JTA. “I always thought the list needed to be longer. We needed to have a stronger representation of Jewish athletes, and I’m so happy that I’m part of them now.” Next month, Aaron will represent the United States at the World Figure Skating Championships in Canada. If he and nationals’ runner-up Ross Miner combine to finish at least among the top 13, the U.S. will be able to send three skaters to the 2014 Games in Sochi, Russia. SKATER on page 21

Bill granting FEMA funds to Sandy—damaged shuls sparks uncharacteristic Jewish response By Ron Kampeas Jewish Telegraphic Agency WASHINGTON – How essential is a house of worship to a neighborhood? That’s the crux of a question now exercising Congress as a bill advances that would provide direct relief to synagogues and churches damaged by superstorm Sandy last October. The bill, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives last week by a vote of 354-72 with strong bipartisan support, adds houses of worship to those defined as a “private nonprofit facility that provides essential services of a governmental nature to the general public.” The Senate is expected to take up the measure soon; backers there include Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Mark Pryor (D-Ark.). The Federal Emergency Management Agency has withheld funding for houses of worship, citing constitutional separations of church and state. FEMA, which fiercely opposes the bill, wrote in a backgrounder distributed to congressional offices and obtained by JTA that “churches, synagogues, mosques and other houses of worship” cannot “be broadly consid-

ered to provide ‘essential services of a governmental nature.’” Despite the strength of its House approval, the bill has stirred controversy, but the divisions are novel: Instead of the classic disagreements engendered by church-state arguments, this one has liberal Democrats disagreeing and the two major Jewish civil rights groups on opposite sides. The American Jewish Committee joined lobbying on behalf of the bill along with a number of other Jewish groups, including the Orthodox Union, Agudath Israel of America and the Jewish Federations of North America. The Anti-Defamation League is opposed. The Reform movement, meanwhile, has been careful not to take a position, noting its disagreement with such funding in the past but not weighing in this time. “In general, we have serious constitutional concerns about this type of funding,” Sean Thibault, a spokesman for the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, said in a Jan. 10 statement. “However, we recognize that this aid is, in certain respects, distinct from other forms of aid that we have historically opposed. We continue to work with congregations to help them understand the varied constitutional and policy concerns before each synagogue makes their own decisions.” Rabbi David Bauman of Temple

Israel in Long Beach, N.Y., said his synagogue suffered $5 million in damages from Sandy and that the disrepair bled into the wider community. Religious school students who have not met for months recently gathered in each other’s homes for smaller tutorials – a situation that Bauman said is “not ideal.” The local Alcoholics Anonymous group hasn’t had a place to meet since the synagogue social hall was ruined in the storm. “Those people need to come together,” Bauman said, noting that he was searching for an alternative venue. Such services are why houses of worship should be as eligible as other community service organizations, says Nathan Diament, who helms the Orthodox Union’s Washington operation. “Already among the private non-profits eligible for FEMA’s aid are community centers, and FEMA’s definition of community centers are places where people gather to engage in educational and social and enrichment activities,” Diament said. “FEMA then decided on its own that if those activities are done in a house of worship, they are not eligible. What we are seeking to legislate is government neutrality and equal treatment.” FEMA on page 20

Rabbi David Hartman remembered as interdenominational force in Jewish learning By Maxine Dovere JointMedia News Service Rabbi Michael Siegel, senior rabbi of Chicago’s Anshe Emet Synagogue, recalls meeting Rabbi David Hartman following a lecture Hartman gave at the University of Chicago. Hartman asked for a ride to downtown Chicago, and for months, Siegel proceeded to become Hartman’s “rabbinic driver.” “The time we spent in the car was one of the more valuable educational experiences of my life,” Siegel told JNS. “He was so alive with ideas, challenges. His teaching was mesmerizing.” Siegel was among the numerous and varied students of Hartman, who died Feb. 10 at 81. Those students included rabbis and lay leaders of all denominations, men and women, Jews and non-Jews. Upon first hearing the name “Shalom Hartman Institute,” it

might be assumed that one is encountering a center for “peace” studies. The source of the name, however, is different: it is the egalitarian Beit Midrash named by Rabbi David Hartman in memory of his father. “Hartman’s intent was to open a conversation among rabbis for the sake of the Jewish people,” Rabbi David Steinhardt of B’nai Torah Congregation in Boca Raton, Fla., and a Rabbinic Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, told JNS. “The Shalom Hartman Institute is one of the only places of interdenominational conversation… David Hartman was passionate about everything he did… Of central concern was how we translated our tradition and our text into a living reality. He compelled us to be able to live a Jewish life and understand Jewish life in different ways.” HARTMAN on page 21

Where great floors and low prices meet 2300 East Kemper Road Sharonville, OH 45241 1 mile east of Tri-County Mall

(513)771-2900 www.harryscornerflooring.com CARPET • AREA RUGS • HARDWOOD • CERAMIC & STONE TILE LAMINATE FLOORING • SHEET VINYL • VINYL FLOOR TILE

8 • NATIONAL

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

Seeking Kin: From Down Under, a gaze toward the Old Country By Hillel Kuttler Jewish Telegraphic Agency BALTIMORE – Several “Seeking Kin” columns have presented people’s searches for descendants of relatives who emigrated from Eastern Europe to the United States. Now comes Naomi Bloch of Melbourne, Australia, with a search involving a twist: She hopes to find cousins who remained in the Old Country. Early in World War I, Russia expelled communities of Lithuanian Jews after fabricating charges that they were spying for and otherwise aiding German invasion forces in the region. Siauliai, the northern Lithuania city from where Bloch’s ancestors hail, was among the affected communities. Avrom Leizer Rosenberg, also known as Abrasha Solomovitch, was then living in Tula, a Russian city south of Moscow. Rosenberg was the half-brother of Bloch’s grandmother, Yetta. His wife, Masha, was a Tula native who

came from a wealthy family. The home in which the Rosenbergs and their five children lived featured a grand piano in one salon and an upright piano in another. When the expulsion order was issued, three generations of Bloch’s family left Siauliai (in Yiddish, Shavel) on the long eastward journey to Tula. The group included Bloch’s grandparents, Yetta and Joseph Seltz, and their children, Chaya (Bloch’s mother) and Hillel; Yetta’s half-sister, Chaitsa Slomovitch, a widow, and her three children, Rafael, Shlomo and Itola; and another half-sister of Yetta, Hindl Kupovitch, and her six children, who later would be known as Morris, Boris, Lily, Bertha, Mindl and Ellis. Hindl’s husband, Joseph, was a mohel who had immigrated to Johannesburg, South Africa, and was saving to bring over his family when war broke out and the expulsion occurred. The family matriarch, Esther-Temma Rosenberg, who was Yetta’s moth-

er and stepmother to the others, made the trip to Tula, too; her husband, Shlomo Rosenberg, had died by then. (Yet another half-sister, Bryna, had already left for the United States, and the whereabouts of her descendants are known to Bloch.) Research conducted by St. Petersburg Jewish University researcher Anatoli Chayesh and appearing on LitvakSIG—a Lithuania-centric genealogy organization, or “special-interest group”—states that Russia issued the expulsion order in spring 1915 to the governing administration of the Kaunas region. “According to the orders of the Army Command, all Jews must be expelled who are living west of the line [linking] Kaunas, Vilkomir (Ukmerge), Rogovo (Raguva), Panevezys, Pasvalys, Salata (Salociai), Bauska. The aforementioned places must be cleared of Jews,” it read. SEEKING on page 22

A Web of hate: European, U.S. laws clash on defining and policing online anti-Semitism By Alina Dain JointMedia News Service Last October, the hashtag #unbonjuif (#agoodjew) was trending as the third-most tweeted subject in France. Users jumped on the chance to tweet phrases like “a good Jew is a dead Jew,” ultimately forcing the French Jewish students’ union (UEJF) to file a lawsuit against Twitter for allowing that content to appear. When a French court decided this January that Twitter must reveal the identities of users who sent out those anti-Semitic tweets, a crosscontinental debate ensued on the difficulty of defining and policing antiSemitism online. The French incident was hardly the first case of hate in social media and on the Web. The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s 2012 Digital Terrorism and Hate Report found more than 15,000 websites, social networks, forums, online games and apps that disseminated hateful content. Also in Europe, a report this month by Community Security Trust showed that the number of antiSemitic incidents via social media in the United Kingdom grew nearly 700 percent in the past 12 months. “Social media is becoming more and more of a problem for us if you look at anti-Semitism,” Ronald Eissens, co-founder of the Dutch anti-racism group Magenta and the

International Network Against Cyber Hate (INACH), which works to counter cyber-hate and has 21 members in 20 countries, told JNS. “There’s a lot of it around. Prosecution is a lot harder because most social media are based firmly in the U.S.”

Courtesy of Herr Wolf

Modern anti-Semitic propaganda from the International People’s Party.

In France, the Gayssot law of 1990 was passed to repress racist, anti-Semitic or xenophobic acts and criminalizes Holocaust denial. French Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson later claimed the law violated his right to freedom of expression and academic freedom, but the United Nations Human Rights Committee ruled against him. France punishes the dissemination

of racist content online with fines and terms of imprisonment. These penalties increase if the dissemination was public – for example, on a website rather than in a private email – according to the American Jewish Committee (AJC). “The French justice system has made a historic decision,” Jonathan Hayoun, president of the UEJF, said in a statement about the French court’s recent Twitter ruling. “It reminds victims of racism and antiSemitism that they are not alone and that French law, which protects them, should apply everywhere, including Twitter.” France has faced off against an American online giant before. In 2000, France prosecuted Yahoo! for selling Nazi memorabilia online. In France, it is illegal to display such items unless they are in a theatrical or museum setting. A French court ruled at the time that Yahoo! had to make the auction site inaccessible to French users or pay a fine. Although it never legally accepted the French ruling, Yahoo! eventually chose to remove the auction. Then, in 2012, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube complied with German law by either taking down material posted by a neo-Nazi group or by blocking users in Germany from access to the content, according to the New York Times. HATE on page 22

International Briefs U.S. seeks direct meeting with Iran over growing nuclear program American officials have announced that they are seeking to meet directly with Iranian officials during this week’s nuclear talks in Kazakhstan amid further proof that Iran is advancing its nuclear program, the Wall Street Journal reported. Vienna Jewish museum grapples with items looted by Nazis Twenty-five years after the founding of the Jewish Museum of Vienna, museum officials have admitted that many of the items in the museum’s possession were looted from Jewish families during the Holocaust. A review of the artifacts found 490 objects and more than 980 books that may have been stolen from Jewish owners. FC Barcelona to tackle IsraelPalestinian conflict through soccer Israeli President Shimon Peres met Thursday evening with the president of FC Barcelona, one of Spain’s biggest soccer clubs, at the Kfar Maccabiah Hotel in Ramat Gan to discuss a new project aimed at restoring peace between Israelis and Palestinians through sport. The talk took place as FC Barcelona soccer players, including star player Lionel Messi, prepared to play an exhibition game against an Israeli team composed of both Israeli and Palestinian players on July 31. Vatican aid chief and possible papal candidate visits with Syrian refugees in Jordan The head of the Vatican’s international humanitarian aid organization, Cardinal Robert Sarah, traveled to Jordan this week to discuss relief options for Syrian-Christian refugees in Jordan. Cardinal Sarah, 67, a possible successor to Pope Benedict, is the president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, which organizes Catholic relief worldwide, the Associated Press reported. Iran-backed terror plots against Israelis revealed in Nigeria, Cyprus While the aftermath of the Bulgarian investigation that said Iran-funded Hezbollah was responsible for last summer’s Burgas bus bombing continues to unfold, additional terrorist plots against Israel that were backed by the Islamic Republic were revealed in Nigeria and Cyprus.

The Nigerian secret police on Wednesday said it foiled a terrorist group backed by “Iranian handlers.” Secret police spokeswoman Marilyn Ogar said that the leader of the terrorist group, 50-year-old Abdullahi Mustaphah Berende, “took photographs of the Israeli culture center in Ikoyi, Lagos, which he sent to his handlers.” Nigeria has arrested Berende and two other suspects from the group, which it did not describe any further. U.S. and Israeli officials have strongly urged the EU to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization and crack down on the group’s presence within the EU. The EU, however, has so far refused to blacklist Hezbollah. Anti-Semitic attacks in France rose to ‘unprecedented’ levels in 2012 Anti-Semitic attacks in France rose to “unprecedented” levels in 2012, according to a report released by the French-Jewish security organization, Service de Protection de la Communauté Juive (SPCJ). According to the report, “614 anti-Semitic acts were recorded in 2012 against 389 in 2011, which constitutes a 58-percent increase of anti-Semitic acts in France in 2012.” Turkish official: Marmara trial of Israeli official ‘political’ A top Turkish government legal official has said that his country’s in absentia trial of top Israeli commanders for their role in the May 2010 Marvi Marmara flotilla incident is “political, not really judicial.” The trial restarted Thursday after first beginning in November 2012. Britain’s Oxford University Student Union to vote on joining BDS movement Students at Great Britain’s prestigious Oxford University will vote this week on a controversial motion to boycott Israel, The Guardian reported. The Oxford University Student Union meets on Wednesday to decide on a motion to join the international boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement “in protest of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and its hindrance of attempts to create a Palestinian state,” according to The Guardian. Canadian, Israeli navies team for joint exercise The Canadian and Israeli navies participated in joint training exercises in the Gulf of Aqaba. The Canadian HMCS Toronto and Israel’s INS Kidon exchanged some crew members before participating in a search-and-rescue exercise earlier this month, the Canadian Forces said in a report issued Feb. 22. The ships practiced rescuing a patrol vessel and maneuvering in close quarters.

INTERNATIONAL • 9

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013

Recession, xenophobia prompting Jews to ditch Hungary By Cnaan Liphshiz Jewish Telegraphic Agency BUDAPEST (JTA) – Three years ago, Fanni moved to Vienna from her native Hungary with her husband. Now she is pregnant. Though the couple would prefer to raise their child near their Jewish families in Budapest, rising nationalism and an economic recession are leading them to stay in Austria. “I don’t want to cut my roots, but I see no good future for a child growing up in an increasingly xenophobic environment,” said Fanni, a lawyer, who along with others interviewed for this article asked that their full names not be published. As many as 1,000 Hungarian Jews are believed to be leaving the country each year, spurring fears among Jewish leaders about the future of Central Europe’s largest Jewish community – some 80,000 to 100,000 people. Immigration to Israel has tripled in the past three years, to 170 in 2012. And many others have sought new lives in Berlin, London and Vienna, the Austrian capital just a two-hour train ride away. “Had my law firm been hugely successful in Hungary, I would have stayed despite the negative atmosphere,” Fanni said. “And if the atmosphere was good but business was slow, I would’ve also stayed. But now the negative aspects outweigh the positive.”

The migration is part of a wider movement of Hungarians, some 300,000 of whom have sought employment in Western Europe over the past four years, according to government estimates. They are leaving behind a stunted economy with a contracting gross domestic product, an annual inflation rate of more than 5 percent and an unemployment rate above 10 percent. But it also comes at a time of mounting anti-Semitism in Hungary, a development epitomized by the rise of Jobbik, a farright political party that now occupies 47 of 386 seats in the Hungarian parliament. The party won 16.7 percent of the popular vote in the 2010 elections, a massive improvement over the 2.2 percent it claimed in 2006. Still, Hungarian Jewish leaders dispute that anti-Semitism is at the root of the emigration. Peter Feldmajer, president of the Mazsihisz Hungarian Jewish umbrella organization, told JTA that the Jewish percentage of Hungarian emigrants perfectly matches the Jewish percentage of the larger population. “Jews are leaving due to the economy, not anti-Semitism,” Feldmajer said. “This worries me not only for Jews but the whole of Hungary.” Other prominent Hungarian Jews, however, allow that antiSemitism may play a role, if not the definitive one, in encouraging

Courtesy of Béla B. Molnár

Demonstrators protesting racism in Hungary in Budapest, December 2012.

Jews to leave. “The Hungarian Jewish community is vibrant and strong, but many are leaving,” said Zsuzsa Fritz, director of Budapest’s Balint Jewish Community Center. “It’s mostly because of the financial situation, together with the fact that the climate is not very nice for Jews if Judaism plays an important part in their lives.” The Unified Hungarian Jewish Congregation, a Chabad-affiliated body, said in a statement that it “could not rule out that the increasingly anti-Semitic sentiment may factor heavily in the minds of those who leave,” though Jewish emigration from Hungary

was “by no means massive.” Massive or not, the emigration has piqued the interest of Viennese Jewish leaders, who long have hoped that an influx of foreign Jews would revive the community’s sagging numbers and enable it to sustain an extensive communal infrastructure of schools, synagogues and old-age homes. Oskar Deutsch, the president of the Jewish community of Vienna – known locally as IKG – said last month that Hungarian anti-Semitism was driving Jewish immigration to Vienna. The community has set up a program to help assimilate – and lure – the

newcomers, including language courses, help in finding employment, housing and Jewish education. IKG is prepared to extend such help to 150 families annually from different countries, including Hungary. Deutsch’s predecessor, Ariel Muzicant, told JTA in December that 20 Hungarian families were preparing to leave or had recently arrived in Vienna. “We believe, and our statistics show this, that our Jewish community will cease to exist if we do not have Jewish immigration in the coming years,” Deutsch said. Deutsch declined further comment on the subject, possibly because of the consternation his statements caused across the border, where Hungarian Jewish leaders criticized him for “sowing panic” and giving “false” data. But in talks with about a dozen Hungarian immigrants to Austria, most cited professional reasons as the primary driver of their emigration, even if the anti-Semitic rhetoric increasingly common in Hungary is never far from their thoughts. “In every election, my parents would say that if a party like Jobbik entered the government, we would pack our suitcases and go,” said Gabor, a recent arrival to Vienna from Budapest. “The whole atmosphere is of things getting worse, not only for Jews. It can be a driving force for people to get the hell out.”

Study equates Zionist pioneers with Arab terrorists By Rafael Medoff JointMedia News Service The film is grainy and amateurish, but the image is stirring: onearmed Yosef Trumpeldor, Zionist national hero, ploughing a field in the Galilee in 1913. By coincidence, the 100-yearold film clip of one of the most remarkable figures in Israel’s history was posted on YouTube shortly before Trumpeldor’s name appeared in the news in connection with the controversial study of Israeli and Palestinian textbooks that was released in February. The study, titled “Victims of Our Own Narratives?” was funded by the U.S. State Department and carried out by a Jerusalem-based group, the Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land. Staff researchers examined books used in Israeli and Palestinian schools and concluded that both sides are equally guilty of incitement against the other. Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister Salam Fayyad praised the study, which he said “confirms that Palestinian textbooks do not contain any form of blatant incitement.” The study’s co-director, Prof. Sami Adwan of

Bethlehem University, said it was “amazing” that Palestinian textbooks are not harsher, in view of what he called “the atrocities that Palestinians are living under.” The Israeli Ministry of Education, however, called the study “biased and unprofessional,” and three members of the international Scientific Advisory Panel overseeing the study rejected their colleagues’ methodology and conclusions. Yale University professor Bruce Wexler, who designed the study, responded that Israeli officials who have questioned the study “make for poor and dangerous national leaders.” One of the most controversial sections of the study dealt with the textbooks’ promotion of “martyrdom-sacrifice through death.” The study found passages in Palestinian books such as: “Every stone is violated, every square cries out in anger, every nerve is abuzz, death before submission, death before submission, forward!” and “With all this, the call to raise the overall performance to the level of shedding one’s blood becomes a sacred national right which it is difficult to relinquish or be lenient on.” The study then argued that

Courtesy of Mark Neyman/GPO/Flash90

Israeli President Shimon Peres places flowers on the grave of early Zionist activist Yosef Trumpeldor in Tel Hai, Israel on Feb. 21, 2013.

Israeli textbooks likewise promote “the value of martyrdom-sacrifice through death.” As evidence, it cited two books that described Yosef Trumpeldor as a hero and quoted his dying words, “No matter, it is good to die for our country.” “Trumpeldor’s heroic defense of his home is a very different kind of ‘martyrdom’ from that frequently associated with the Palestinian movement,” Prof. Gil Troy of McGill University, author of the

book Why I Am a Zionist, told JNS. “To overlook that point, and implicitly compare Trumpeldor’s death in defense to suicide bombers or any kind of terrorism in offense – which Palestinians frequently call ‘martyrdom operations’ – is like comparing a policeman and an armed robber because both have guns. Trumpeldor died defending his home and country, not slaughtering innocents to advance a political goal.” As a teenager growing up in

Russia in the late 1800s, Trumpeldor was attracted to Zionism as well as the pacifism and communalism of the philosopher Leo Tolstoy. “He did not have a trace of militarism in his character,” Prof. Anita Shapira, a leading Israeli historian of Zionism, has written. Nonetheless, Trumpeldor served with distinction in the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-1905, suffering wounds that cost him his left arm. Despite his injuries, he requested and was granted permission to return to the battlefront. While held captive by the Japanese, Trumpeldor formed a Zionist group in the P.O.W. camp and began making plans to settle in Turkish-ruled Palestine. Trumpeldor arrived in the Holy Land in 1912 and, together with a small group of likeminded pioneers, settled at the Migdal farm, a fledgling Jewish settlement in the Galilee, on the site of what had been a Jewish town in biblical times. (A British visitor to the area in 1879 reported seeing a gravesite that was said to be that of Dina, daughter of the biblical patriarch Jacob, but there are no signs of it today.) A harsh environment and primitive living quarters were the norm.

10 • INTERNATIONAL / ISRAEL

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

Australian Jewry breaks silence on Zygier as new details continue to emerge on case By Israel Hayom JointMedia News Service Australian Jewry has broken its silence about the case of alleged Mossad agent Ben Zygier, with the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) on Tuesday welcoming announcements by the Australian and Israeli governments of further inquiries into the circumstances surrounding Zygier’s death. “We welcome the fact that the Israeli parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Subcommittee for Intelligence and the Israeli State Attorney’s office, part of the Ministry of Justice, have both announced that they will be conducting investigations

Courtesy of YouTube

Ben Zygier

into the circumstances surrounding Ben Zygier’s death,” said ECAJ President Dr. Danny Lamm. “We also welcome the inquiries being undertaken by Australia’s Foreign Minister, Bob Carr, within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the

fact that he has invited the Israeli authorities to have an input into those inquiries,” Lamm added. New details continue to emerge on Zygier, who was known as “Prisoner X.” Israel’s Maariv newspaper reported on Tuesday that Zygier hanged himself in Israel’s Ayalon Prison by tying a bed sheet to the steel bars of the window in his cell’s bathroom, and then standing on a stool. According to Australian media reports, Zygier, a 34-year-old dual Israeli and Australian national, revealed details of Mossad operations to Australian intelligence. He was then reportedly held in isolation in Israel’s most secure, supposedly suicide-proof prison cell, originally built to hold then-

Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin, Yigal Amir. Citing the Israel Prison Service report written up immediately after Zygier’s suicide in December 2010, Maariv reported that Zygier woke up on the morning of Dec. 15, 2010, ate his breakfast, and took the sheet that covered his mattress to the bathroom, the only area in his cell which is not monitored by security cameras. Zygier reportedly told his guards that he was taking the sheet to the bathroom to wash it. He then apparently tied the sheet to the steel bars of the bathroom window, stood on a stool, and hanged himself. ZYGIER on page 19

Nine months after Israeli court ruling, nonOrthodox rabbis still fighting for equal pay By Ben Sales Jewish Telegraphic Agency TEL AVIV – In a precedent-setting decision, Israel's Supreme Court ruled last May that a Reform rabbi, Miri Gold, should be paid a state salary, just like her Orthodox colleagues. The Reform and Conservative movements hailed the decision as a step closer to full equality for nonOrthodox religious denominations. But Gold, who works as a rabbi at Kibbutz Gezer in central Israel,

still has yet to see her first government paycheck. The government says Gold has not fulfilled the criteria set by the state for non-Orthodox rabbis. Gold and her allies say the criteria are onerous and unfairly set different conditions for Orthodox and nonOrthodox rabbis. In a bid to challenge the rules, Gold, another non-Orthodox Israeli rabbi, and the Conservative and Reform movements filed a new court petition last week. “I can’t tell you how aggravat-

ing it is,” Anat Hoffman, executive director of the Reform movement’s Israel Religious Action Center, told JTA. “We thought this was a victory, and then it started to be a rigmarole. It’s a real insult.” Last year’s Supreme Court ruling determined that Reform, Conservative and other nonOrthodox rabbis in rural communities could be recognized as “rabbis of non-Orthodox communities” and receive wages equal to those granted by the state to Orthodox rabbis. Several caveats, however, set

special conditions for nonOrthodox clergy. The decision applied only to Israel’s regional councils – large districts of rural communities – but not Israeli cities. The rabbis would be paid by the Ministry of Culture and Sport rather than the Religious Affairs Ministry, which pays Orthodox rabbis. The non-Orthodox rabbis would not have religious legal authority over such matters as marriage, divorce and conversion. FIGHTING on page 22

On the Golan Heights, Israel braces for consequences from Syria civil war By Ben Sales Jewish Telegraphic Agency ALONEI HABASHAN, Israel (JTA) – A fence made of chain links and rusted barbed wire once was enough to separate the Golan Heights from Syria. That’s no longer the case. A few feet away from what one area resident called a “cattle fence” – one easy to jump if not for the electric current running through it – a newer barrier of crisscrossing shiny steel bars towers high above the heads of nearby soldiers. As Syria’s civil war escalates next door, Israelis have grown concerned that spillover could undermine the sense of security that Golan residents have enjoyed since the end of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. “The chaos presents a situation in Syria where there’s no rule, and a lot of entities can enter that can put us in danger because they have no national or diplomatic responsibili-

Courtesy of Ben Sales

Israel started construction on the new fence separating the Golan Heights from Syria, seen in front of the old one, in response to possible consequences from the Syrian civil war.

ty,” said Ori Kalner, deputy head of the Golan Regional Council. Heightened security awareness

is a new feeling for residents of the Golan, the mountainous region in Israel’s northeast corner captured

from Syria in 1967’s Six-Day War. The Bible mentions it as a place of refuge, and for many Israelis it is exactly that. Two hours from the country’s congested center, filled with national parks and bed-andbreakfasts, the Golan has remained immune from the terrorists and missiles that have bombarded Israel in recent decades. But the sense of sanctuary is eroding. Mortar shells and gunfire from the Syrian civil war began spilling into the Golan in November. Israel returned fire – the first cross-border conflict on the Golan since 1973. One shell landed in a backyard in this agricultural village 500 yards from the border. In January, Israel announced construction of the new fence to prevent Syrians from infiltrating the border. Last week, seven Syrians crossed into Israel to seek medical attention; they are hospitalized in the northern Israeli city of Safed. ISRAEL on page 20

Israel Briefs Palestinian teens injured in riots following funeral of Palestinian prisoner JERUSALEM – Two Palestinian teenagers were injured in Palestinian riots in the West Bank following the funeral of a Palestinian prisoner who died in an Israeli prison. Arafat Jaradat, 30, was buried with military honors Monday in a village near Hebron in a funeral attended by thousands of Palestinians, according to reports. He died Saturday of a heart attack in the Megiddo jail in northern Israel days after being arrested for participating in attacks on Israelis. Following the autopsy, Israel’s Health Ministry said in a statement that no signs of trauma apart from those pertaining to resuscitation attempts were found on the body, and that no evidence of disease were found. The autopsy at Israel’s Abu Kabir Center for Forensic Medicine was conducted in the presence of a Palestinian pathologist and family members. Women of the Wall Megillah reading undisturbed by Israeli police A women’s Megillah reading at the Western Wall took place on Shushan Purim without incident or arrests. Approximately 80 women turned out, some donning prayer shawls, others dressed as police and haredi Orthodox worshipers, on Monday morning in Jerusalem, the Times of Israel reported. Israel calls test of Arrow 3 missile defense system successful JERUSALEM – The first flight test of the Arrow 3 was conducted Monday at an Israeli test range over the Mediterranean Sea by Israel’s Missile Defense Organization and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, Israel’s Defense Ministry announced in a statement. Study: Sderot rocket attacks increased miscarriages JERUSALEM – Rocket attacks on Sderot significantly increased the number of miscarriages that occurred in women from the southern Israeli city, according to a new study. The number of miscarriages likely was increased because of the rise in stress, including the release of too much cortisol, a stress hormone, wrote Tamar Wainstock and Professor Ilana Shoham-Vardi of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev’s Department of Epidemiology, Faculty of Health Sciences.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013

ANNOUNCEMENTS ENGAGEMENT

Bradley Michael Elfenbein and Heather Nicole Funk

ary and Helen Elfenbein are pleased to announce the engagement of their son, Bradley Michael Elfenbein, to Heather Nicole Funk. Heather is the daughter of David and Pamela Tonnemacher of Coos Bay, Oregon and Tim Funk of Red Bluff, California. The couple resides in Los Angeles, California. Heather is a top-rated medical aesthetician and is the owner of Beauty Call L.A. Bradley is an event planner and the owner of West Coast Events. An October 2013 wedding is being planned in Los Angeles.

Happy Birthday, Mom! March 1st

Josie Brower

SOCIAL LIFE â&#x20AC;˘ 11

12 • CINCINNATI SOCIAL LIFE

2013 Passover Cover

COLORING

CONTEST SIZE: Art must be no larger than 8.5" Wide x 11" High. MATERIALS: Anything that shows up bold and bright, such as markers, crayons, paint or cut paper. AGE CATEGORIES: Open to children of all ages. All entries must be received by FRIDAY, MARCH 15TH THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE 18 W 9th Street, Suite 2 Cincinnati, OH 45202 Entries must have a completed entry form attached to the back. Please print clearly.

2013 Passover Cover Coloring Contest Entry Form

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

Access presents The Political Party On Wednesday, October 9th, Access presented The Political Party, a Candidates’ Forum for Jewish young professionals at the Weston Art Gallery/Aronoff Center. More than 100 YPs came out to enjoy a cocktail reception in the Weston Art Gallery, followed by a sit down dinner in the loge lobby balcony of the Aronoff Center, featuring speakers from the League of Women Voters, the Board of Elections as well as the Chairmen of the Hamilton County Democratic and Republican Parties. After taking a break to visit the buffet, which included mini burgers, coleslaw and other all-American fare, guests got to hear from Presidential Surrogates, US Congressman Ted Deutch from Florida, on behalf of Obama, and attorney Gary Greenberg, on behalf of Romney. Each talked about their candidates’ views on Israel and other important issues. After addressing questions from the audience the group headed down to the lower level of the Weston Art Gallery for a dessert reception and a chance to meet more than 25 state and local candidates. For more information about Access, check out the community directory in the back of this issue. Photos continued on page 13.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013

CINCINNATI JEWISH LIFE • 13

14 • DINING OUT

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

The Cincinnatian—adventure in the urban jungle By Michael Sawan Assistant Editor The Cincinnatian has hired a new executive chef, 28-year-old Matthew Beaudin. With a career path that mixes traditional and exotic experiences, Chef Beaudin is looking to breathe new life into both of the Cincinnatian’s dining areas; the elegantly styled Palace and the lounge-style Cricket. Beaudin’s kitchen experience began early. Before his graduation from high school, he was already running a restaurant, left to his own devices entirely. “I’d leave school early to go run the kitchen, to make sure I got my prep done,” says Beaudin. “I was getting suspended [from school] all of the time. Then I’d be late for school because I was up until 10 or 11 shutting the restaurant down. I was just passionate about [cooking], I loved doing it.” His drive soon led to the Culinary Institute of America, from where he graduated in 2005. But Beaudin is a self-described “jumper,” resulting in a career that has carried him from institution to institution: the Mt. Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, N.H.; the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, Colo.; the Ritz Carlton in Sarasota, Fla.; Lauberge du lac in Lake Charles, La.; and the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in Washington, D.C. This is the expected half of the story. Beaudin’s remarkable experiences have taken him to places around the world: Hong Kong, China, the Caribbean and Rwanda. One notable stint occurred when Beaudin relocated his family (his wife, three small children and two dogs) to the Rwandan village of Musanze. The place is secluded, a two and a half hour drive from traditional civilization, deep in the forest of the Virunga Mountains. This is where the famous silverback gorillas that Dian Fossey worked with still live. “You can pay $750 and go see them,” says Beaudin sardonically. “[Each gorilla has], like, five people guarding it. There’s an entire army guarding silverback gorillas.” Beaudin had been hired as part of a revitalization program. An initiative of the Masansi Opportunity Center, a school was started that focused on hospitality and construction. Beaudin was given a position teaching a group of “Presidential scholars,” students who proved incapable of disappointment. “I took them and educated them straight out of the Culinary Institute of America handbook,” says Beaudin. “I could not fail them on a test. They were the most intelligent, driven kids. They have a drive that I’ve never seen in my life.” While in Africa Beaudin began

Courtesy of Michael Sawan

(Clockwise) A more private area in the Palace; The main dining room at the Palace, extending to a view of Vine Street; Matthew Beaudin, the new executive chef at the Cincinnatian; Overlooking the Cricket lounge.

seeing the benefit of living farmto-table: Using only what was around you to cook, “taking an ingredient and representing it to its fullest.” “In Africa, if I wanted goat meat I killed a goat,” explains Beaudin. “If I wanted sweet corn beignets, I waited six months until I grew the corn.” Beaudin is overpouring with stories: inflated frogs, hotel fires, goat exchange programs, jazz saxophone, turkey heists, on and on. He’s worth the price of a plate just to get him talking. And make no mistake, the sum of his experiences will be put to use during his tenure at the Cincinnatian. Beaudin does, however, plan to keep things relatively western during his time in Cincinnati, though he does hope to add some pizzazz to the Cincinnatian. “We’re doing a lot of sandwiches,” says Beaudin. “A sliced steak sandwich with a balsamic mayonnaise, caramelized onions. We’re doing a shortrib sandwich, shredded short ribs, cole slaw, let-

tuce, tomato, and chipotle mayonnaise. A huge, oversized fish sandwich. We’re going to do an 8 ounce fried cod sandwich, with tartar sauce and just a huge brioche bun. Just kind of pub style, for the in-room dining, all-day menu, the Cricket all-day menu.” So far Beaudin has met with success at the hands of Cincinnati’s taste buds. During a recent tasting, he was able to influence the eating habits of a 50year-old man: “To me, the coolest thing is to see a 50-year-old man who just tasted Brussels sprouts for the first time in his life and liked them. Because as a kid, Brussels sprouts are overcooked and mushy.” Not so, in the hands of Chef Beaudin. All in all, Beaudin is looking to open the restaurant to a broader set of tastes, and people. “This palace has had a reputation for all too long, I think, of being stuffy, where you can only come in if you’re dressed to the nines. We want to be more approachable in the future, which is going to be what the

menu has on it. We’re going to bring back some of the old classics: The Dover sole, sweet breads, but we want to have some newer things, too. Things that are really going to appeal to a younger clientele as well.” Beaudin doesn’t hope to alienate old patrons, however: “[With change] you run the risk of going too far in one direction. We have such an elegant setting here, we don’t want to interfere with that, either. We want to maintain that elegance, maintain that luxury.” “There’s a lot of opportunity here,” he adds. “We’re going to try and take advantage here in the coming months, just as far as the utilization of this space and using it to its fullest.” “We’ll change the Palace’s dinner menu in April. [There] will be a really, really heavy focus on local and sustainable ingredients. I’ve spoken with local farmers already. We’re looking at putting beehives on the roof, which would be sweet. So the farmers will come and tend them, or we’ll end up

tending them. The honey that we use on property will come directly from our roof. I’m hoping to get four hives, which would be amazing. Then we’re going to do some gardening on the roof as well. I mean, [Cincinnati is] such a great farming area. You have all of these farmers around here, it’s insanity not to take 80 percent of what you have from around here. Everything should come from here.” From a chef who used to slaughter his own goats in Africa, I imagine such modest proposals will be easy to follow through with. Both the Palace and Cricket serve breakfast Monday - Friday, 6:30 – 10 a.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 8 a.m. – noon. They serve lunch Monday through Friday, 11:30 a.m. – 2 p.m.; and dinner Monday through Thursday, 6 – 9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 5:30 – 10 p.m. The Cincinnatian Hotel 601 Vine Street Cincinnati, OH 45202 (513) 381-3000

DINING OUT • 15

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013

RESTAURANT DIRECTORY THAI SUSHI PASTA 20 Brix

Ferrari’s Little Italy & Bakery

Padrino

101 Main St

7677 Goff Terrace

111 Main St

Historic Milford

Madeira

Milford

831-Brix (2749)

272-2220

965-0100

Ambar India Restaurant

Izzy’s

Parkers Blue Ash Tavern

350 Ludlow Ave

800 Elm St • 721-4241

4200 Cooper Rd

Cincinnati

612 Main St • 241-6246

Blue Ash

1198 Smiley Ave • 825-3888

891-8300

CAFE MEDITERRANEAN FRESH, HEALTHY,

281-7000

H APPY H OUR D AILY / P RIVATE R OOMS

10808 MONTGOMERY ROAD 513.489.1212 for reservations www.eddiemerlots.com

7625 Beechmont Ave • 231-5550 Andy’s Mediterranean Grille

4766 Red Bank Expy • 376-6008

Pomodori’s

At Gilbert & Nassau

5098B Glencrossing Way • 347-9699

121West McMillan • 861-0080

Authentic Cuisine

2 blocks North of Eden Park

8179 Princeton-Glendale • 942-7800

7880 Remington Rd

LOCATED IN THE CROSSINGS OF BLUE ASH

281-9791

300 Madison Ave • 859-292-0065

Montgomery • 794-0080

9525 KENWOOD ROAD (513) 745-9386

7905 Mall Road • 859-525-2333 Slatt’s Pub

Asian Paradise 9521 Fields Ertel Rd

Johnny Chan 2

4858 Cooper Rd

Loveland

11296 Montgomery Rd

Blue Ash

239-8881

The Shops at Harper’s Point

791-2223 • 791-1381 (fax)

cafe-mediterranean.com

Dine-In | Carry-Out | Delivery 513.351.0123 / 513.351.0913 BlueElephantThaiSushi.com Visit our website + order online 2912 Wasson Road, Cincinnati (2 mins from Hyde Park square)

PRIVA PRIVATE DINING | CARRY CARRY-OUT LUNCH/DINNER | ITALIAN BAKERY SUN: KIDS EAT FREE TUE & WED: 1/2 PRICE WINE SUN & MON: $5 MARTINIS 7677 GOFF TERRACE | MADEIRA, OH

272.2220 | ferrarilittleitaly.com

489-2388 • 489-3616 (fx) Stone Creek Dining Co.

Baba India Restaurant

Cincinnati's first and only true wine, restaurant and wine retail store. Come in and enjoy an appetizer or entrée paired with one of the 100 wines we pour daily.

3120 Madison Rd

K.T.’s Barbecue & Deli

9386 Montgomery Rd

Cincinnati

8501 Reading Rd

Montgomery • 489-1444

321-1600

Reading

6200 Muhlhauser Rd

761-0200

West Chester • 942-2100

Kanak India Restaurant

Sukhothai Thai Cuisine

101 Main St • Historic Milford

Blue Ash

10040B Montgomery Rd

8102 Market Place Ln

831-Brix • www.20brix.com

891-8900 • 834-8012 (fx)

Montgomery

793-6800

794-0057

2912 Wasson Rd

Marx Hot Bagels

Tandoor

Cincinnati

9701 Kenwood Rd

8702 Market Place Ln

351-0123

Blue Ash

Montgomery

891-5542

793-7484

Bangkok Terrace 4858 Hunt Rd

Blue Elephant

Cafe Mediterranean 9525 Kenwood Rd

Mecklenburg Gardens

Tony’s

Cincinnati

302 E. University Ave

12110 Montgomery Rd

745-9386

Clifton

Montgomery

221-5353

677-1993

9769 Montgomery Rd

Meritage Restaurant

Wertheim’s Restaurant

Cincinnati

1140 Congress Ave

514 W 6th St

936-8600

Glendale

Covington, KY

376-8134

(859) 261-1233

Carlo & Johnny

9386 Montgomery Rd Cincinnati, OH 45242 (513) 489-1444

GET RESULTS. Place your restaurant ad here!

Eddie Merlot’s 10808 Montgomery Rd

Oriental Wok

Cincinnati

2444 Madison Rd

489-1212

Hyde Park

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

871-6888

The American Israelite

Call 621-3145 today. AVAILABLE AT THESE FINE LOCATIONS:

bigg’s

Marx Hot Bagels

Ridge & Highland

9701 Kenwood Rd. Blue Ash

Sushi • Steaks • Raw Bar Live Music Every Tues thru Sat! (513) 936-8600 9769 MONTGOMERY RD. www.jeffruby.com

• Hyde Park (513) 871-6888 • Ft. Mitchell (859) 331-8822 LUNCH, DINNER, COCKTAILS, CARRY-OUT Elegant Banquets & Catering Available

orientalwok.com

AMBAR

BABA

KANAK

350 LUDLOW AVE. CINCINNATI, OH 45220 (513) 281-7000

3120 MADISON RD. CINCINNATI, OH 45209 (513) 321-1600

10040B MONTGOMERY RD. CINCINNATI, OH 45242 (513) 793-6800

Izzy’s 612 Main St. 800 Elm St.

Kroger Hunt Rd. – Blue Ash

Rascals’ Deli 9525 Kenwood Rd. Blue Ash

CINCINNATI’S BEST INDIAN RESTAURANTS

16 • OPINION

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

Abusive Journalism By Rabbi Avi Shafran Contributing Columnist A number of years ago, a neighbor of mine, a business professional, shared a secret and a request. He told me that he had been found guilty of a crime – a dishonest financial reporting to the federal government – and was awaiting sentencing. He fully admitted that he had acted wrongly and offered no excuse for what he did. My neighbor is a kind, reasonable, family-oriented and charitable person. I drew on what thespian talents I had cultivated many decades earlier in high school, and feigned not being shocked. “Oh, I’m so sorry,” was all I could say. Then came the request. “Could you write the judge a character reference letter?” he asked. “Of course,” I answered, without hesitation. My neighbor’s punishment would have great impact on his future, his family and his friends. Here was a good man who did a bad thing. The judge knew about the bad thing; the least I could do was describe the good man. And so I did, the next day. I’ll never know whether my letter, which acknowledged the crime and sought only to provide an honest assessment of my neighbor as a person, had any effect. He was sentenced to a year in prison and served his sentence. What brought that memory to mind was the most recent example of “creative” reportage in a Jewish newspaper. “Orthodox Rabbi Defends Jewish Psychiatrist Convicted in… Assaults” read the headline of a report in the Forward on Feb. 8. Now what kind of stupid fellow, I thought, would defend the abusive actions of a doctor? When I saw the name of the rabbi, however, I realized that the headline had itself probably been abusive, of the truth. Rabbi Yisroel Miller is wellknown as a caring, sensitive, accomplished and respected leader of a congregation in the Western Canadian city of Calgary. He previously served a congregation in Pittsburgh and has been honored with rabbinic leadership awards by the Orthodox Union and the National Society for Hebrew Day Schools; he received a special award from the United Jewish Federation too, for his work to build bridges among diverse groups of Jews. He has authored four well-regarded books of essays on Jewish thought. Ah, I thought, and now he’s defending the indefensible? No way. No way, indeed. Upon closer inspection, the Forward piece exposed itself as an

example of something less than responsible journalism. Oh, pshaw, let’s be straightforward: it was make-believe muckraking. What Rabbi Miller did, it seemed, was just what I did for my neighbor – and what innumerable rabbis, priests and ministers (not to mention friends, relatives and others) have done out of a sense of mercy and propriety: ask a sentencing judge to take their impressions and information into account when deciding the punishment for someone guilty of a crime. And yet the article was not only headlined to make it seem as if Rabbi Miller had defended the criminal – which he hadn’t done; his letter is explicit and clear about that – but led readers to imagine that he had minimized the crime. The rabbi is introduced in a sentence recounting how the defense attorney characterized his client’s crimes as “minor offenses” and how he “then proceeded to read aloud from a letter from… Rabbi Yisroel Miller…[of] Calgary’s Orthodox synagogue.” Perhaps, I thought, the article’s writer had just somehow neglected to quote whatever part of Rabbi Miller’s letter “defended” the accused. I searched in vain. The Forward report included details about the 74-year-old defendant’s conviction, and angry comments about him from various people. But the only portions of the letter quoted were the rabbi’s plea to the judge for leniency in sentencing the defendant, including his experience of the man as having always possessed a “humble manner,” the observation that “The bad does not erase the good” and the fear that “a prison term would be a death sentence” for the doctor (who was reported to be frail and in the early stages of dementia). So I contacted Rabbi Miller directly, and asked to see the letter myself. He readily sent it to me and it was, as I had expected, nothing more than a plea for leniency. In it, he explicitly declares himself unqualified to opine about the defendant’s guilt or innocence and, equally explicitly, acknowledges the “darkness of the human soul” to which even otherwise good people can succumb. At no point in the letter does Rabbi Miller try to minimize the seriousness of the charge against the defendant; at no point does he in any way “defend” him. I asked the rabbi how he feels about being maligned by a national newspaper. “I myself don’t blame the Forward too much,” he responded, kind soul that he is. “After all, it’s their parnassa [livelihood].”

C O R R E C T I O N: To all of those who were offended by our Purim spiel, please accept our apologies. Pages 12 and 13 of the Feb. 21 issue were a joke. Whether you believe it was in poor taste or good taste: It was all just a joke, and we are sorry if you were offended. —Netanel (Ted) Deutsch Editor and Publisher, The American Israelite

Silence your gun before it backfires: Lessons from the Brooklyn College BDS debacle By Itzik Yarkoni and Ariel Nishli JointMedia News Service On Feb. 6, New York’s Brooklyn College found itself entangled in a fiery free speech fiasco that not only brought to arms both sides of the fervent debate on Israeli-Palestinian relations, but a public and somewhat personal statement by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The “Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions” (BDS) movement – which advocates an academic and commercial boycott on Israel as a means to brand it a criminal nation – was granted approval and funds by Brooklyn College’s political science department to host a panel delegitimizing the Jewish state, thinly veiled as a discussion of their movement’s mission. Lectures and panels denouncing Israel as an apartheid state have frequently popped up on university speaker schedules across the country for years, so why did this particular event heat up the campus’s political climate and capture the public’s attention in such an unprecedented way? The meritless BDS movement, which has been debunked as indefensible under international law, is most definitely not reaching a mainstream audience. Rather, a public relations win for BDS is a direct result of generally flawed tactics employed by the other side. In their continued attempt to combat anti-Israel hate speech, the pro-Israel community shouts when it should strategize. Highlighting the whole affair was Bloomberg, who said he “couldn’t disagree more violently” with the BDS movement. Even more significantly, the mayor pointed out the ironic publicity BDS enjoyed was the very result of prominent Zionists speaking out. “What the protesters have done is given a lot of attention to the very idea they keep saying they don’t want to people to talk about,” Bloomberg said. “They just don’t think before they open their mouths.” Had Israel supporters taken a more subtle approach, the initially low-profile BDS discussion may have attracted fewer anti-Israel sympathizers. The first pro-Israel response came from Jewish intellectual Alan Dershowitz, who asserted Brooklyn College’s approval was very much a result of internal bias, and not derived from a love of free speech. Then came members of the New York State Assembly and City Council, including mayoral

hopeful Karen Quinn, who threatened to cut Brooklyn College’s funding if the event proceeded. Assemblyman Dov Hikind warned of a “second Holocaust.” Within a week of the scheduled event, the media was awash in opinions from both sides, and the modest lecture was transformed into a divisive international issue.

Dozens of police officers were stationed outside, checking attendees for weapons and monitoring the overflow.

Then came the protestors. While philosopher Judith Butler and Palestinian rights activist Omar Barghouti spoke in the student center, the chanting could still be heard. Dozens of police officers were stationed outside, checking attendees for weapons and monitoring the overflow. Though members of the press weren’t allowed inside, they questioned people on what they thought about the BDS movement. Most never heard even of it – until the vocal attempts to suppress it garnered worldwide attention, that is. As a former Israel activist at UC Irvine, a campus that suffers from rampant anti-Semitism, I (Itzik Yarkoni) recall a case when pro-Israel leaders effectively responded to a similar event using restraint. “Israeli Apartheid Week” – the annual week demonizing Israel on campus that comes with heated protests and counterprotests – provides plenty of fodder for sympathetic media outlets. But one year, we chose to simply ignore it. No counter-protest, no megaphones, no crowds, and most importantly, no press. Our muted response was in contrast to years past, when combative pro-Israel groups brought massive attention to UC Irvine, which served not only to increase numbers for the anti-Israel audience, but with the help of a biased media presence, warped the proIsrael message into something altogether unintended.

After the BDS discussion at Brooklyn College, had campus Israel activists waited patiently to appeal to sympathizers leaving the event, they could have shared the truth about BDS’s origins as a hate-fest and ultimate path toward the destruction of the state of Israel. This would possibly change minds, or at least introduce them to a rational opposition. This strategy – called “individual appeal” – can be effectively used with “soft-Zionists,” those who identify as supporters of the Jewish state, but lack proper historical context. The BDS website speaks for itself. Their mission statement, if carried out, logically leads to the disenfranchisement of the Jewish people without any clear indication of how it would create a lasting peace. The other major battlefield in this war of words is online, being waged on social media platforms. Israel supporters need to ask: Who is really controlling the dialogue? Pro-Israel identifiers may be the Jewish state’s most vocal defenders on the Web, but when the message communicated is Israel’s role in the context of the BDS debacle, what that ultimately amounts to is even more PR for the BDS cause, and the tarnishing of Israel’s brand. During the week of Feb. 6, there were thousands of Facebook messages and tweets concerning the Brooklyn College event and its associated controversies. That same week, plenty of positive news broke about Israel, hardly any of which was shared across social networks with the same intensity. Just a few examples: New York real estate firm Pinnacle Group sold $400 million NIS in Tel Aviv Bonds, the European Union denounced any calls for boycotts against Israel, and Birthright announced skateboarding and hip hop themed trips to Israel. Even if they aren’t aware of it, Israel supporters are choosing how their country is being presented to the world: either proactively in the context of positive, productive and truthful news, or via defensive, emotionally triggered reactions to the activities of anti-Israel organizations. It’s critical to understand that the success enjoyed by anti-Israel movements in demonizing the Jewish state is often a direct result of Zionist groups whose impassioned race to the soapbox can serve to pique the curiosity of latent audiences for hate groups. With the implementation of simple ground-level reforms, we can remind Israel haters that without our help, no one is listening.

JEWISH LIFE • 17

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013

It is premature for you to have Me in your midst, God explains, until the nation has properly repented and is ready for redemption. God is loving and compassionate, but He has high standards.

midst” (Exodus 33:3). You will have messenger-angels who will lead you, you and they will have to make the decisions and follow through on the actions; but you will not see My face, and I will not be visibly in your midst. This is for your own good: ‘I will not go in your midst because you are (still) a stiff necked (stubborn and rebellious) nation, lest I destroy you on the way’” (Exodus 33:2,3,5). It is premature for you to have Me in your midst, God explains, until the nation has properly repented and is ready for redemption. God is loving and compassionate, but He has high standards. If His presence is truly in our midst, if He has no opportunity to “look away” (as it were), then He will have to punish in the same way that He rewards. We are better off with God always ready to step in and prevent disaster, but from behind a cloud – so that He will be able to back off, look away, as it were, from punishing us severely, even though we might very well deserve such punishment. Moses continues to press, entreating, “How shall it be known that Your nation has gained Your favorable grace unless You go (on the journey) together with us (imanu), so that we may be distinguished, your nation and I, from every other nation on the face of the earth?” (ibid 16). But God doesn’t acquiesce. Yes, He will reveal the “paths” on which He wishes Israel to walk and by means of His divine Torah, he will show them how He wants them to live. He will send leaders, prophets, teachers and generals to lead them in the right direction. But, they will have to follow their leaders without ever seeing God’s face or having God’s presence in their midst, until they take responsibility for their actions, repent and become worthy. During the early Biblical period, certainly when the Israelites were in Egypt and for most of the First Commonwealth Period, God was still very active “behind the scenes” – because, after all, the

Jewish people were very much in their infancy. It was during the Second Commonwealth, and especially in our period, that God expected and expects us to initiate, to play center stage in our journey toward redemption. He promises, however, that when we truly wish to become pure, He will aid us and that He guarantees our eventual repentance and world redemption. The Book of Esther, which we read at Purim, was written at the beginning of the Second Commonwealth, when God was expecting much more human action than Divine intervention. Hence this marvelous book begins the era of a God who will grant victory as long as we act properly and initiate wisely – as did Esther and Mordechai. Shabbat Shalom Rabbi Shlomo Riskin Chancellor Ohr Torah Stone Chief Rabbi – Efrat Israel

HAPPENING @ YOUR

SYNAGOGUE? S TAY U P -T O -D ATE W ITH A S UBSCRIPTION T O T HE A MERICAN I SRAELITE NAME ADDRESS CITY

STATE

CHECK TYPE OF SUBSCRIPTION

1 YEAR, IN-TOWN

CHECK TYPE OF PAYMENT

CHECK

ZIP 1 YEAR, OUT-OF-TOWN

VISA

MASTERCARD

LIFETIME

DISCOVER

1-Year Subscription: $44 In-town, $49 Out-of-town Send completed form with payment to: The American Israelite

18 W. 9th St. Ste. 2 • Cincinnati, OH 45202-2037

CHANGE OF ADDRESS? SEND AN EMAIL TO PUBLISHER@AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

www.americanisraelite.com

The American Israelite

T EST Y OUR T ORAH KNOWLEDGE THIS WEEK’S PORTION: KI TISA (SHMOT 30:11—34:35) 1. What caused Bnei Yisroel to build the golden calf? a.) They were hungry for food b.) Wanted to be like other nations c.) Did not know where Moshe was 2. Who said “this is your god who took you out of Egypt? a.) Aaron b.) Bnei Yisroel c.) Amalekites 3. Whom did Moshe mention when he prayed to Hashem to save Bnei Yisroel? a.) Abraham Rashi 4. A 32:26 The tribe of Levi was the only tribe that nobody sinned with the golden calf. The tribe Levi set up Yeshivot in Egypt. 5. C 32:29 The blessing was a better service of Hashem

EFRAT, Israel – Why does the name of God not appear throughout the Scroll of Esther – unlike all of the other twenty-four books of the Bible, which feature His name in almost every verse? Ki Tisa is the most theological portion of the Pentateuch. It deals with one of the most profound issues facing our religion: what is the nature of God’s involvement with the world in general and with Israel in particular? This is one of the most difficult passages in the Bible, so how should we understand chapters 33 and 34 of the Book of Exodus – the central chapters of this week’s Biblical portion? It is precisely this conundrum which we will attempt to tackle. The Israelites certainly felt God’s involvement and protection during the period of the plagues and the splitting of the Reed Sea. They continued to sense God’s close connection when they stood at Mount Sinai and heard His commanding voice. But then, Moses absented himself and seemed to have absconded into splendid, supernal isolation with the Divine, leaving the nation bereft of both leadership and the divine presence. They panicked, and regressed into the hedonistic and destructive idolatry of the Egyptian Golden Calf. They lost their moorings! Now, after they have accepted their punishment and are about to continue their journey, they have one major, but crucial request: They wish God to enter into their midst, so that they will always be sure of His protective presence. They want to live in a world in which God’s supportive compassion will always be manifest, not in an agonizing uncertainty, in which God’s face is often hidden. God has already informed them, however, that they must first “make a Sanctuary for Him” – prepare the world so that it will be ready for His presence – “and then He will dwell in their midst.” In the words of the Kotzker Rebbe, “Where is God? Wherever you let Him in.” First make a sanctuary where God can dwell, and then He will descend into its midst. Hence, God explains to Moses, the spokesman for his nation, “I will send an angel (messenger) before you, I will drive out the Canaanites... bring you to a land flowing with milk and honey, but I will not go in your

WHAT’S

b.) Isaac c.) Jacob d.) All the patriarchs 4. Who answered the call “Whoever is for Hashem come to me”? a.) Levites b.) Tribe of Judah c.) People from all tribes 5. What did Moshe promise those that answered his call? a.) Extra portion of Manna b.) Special portion in the land of Canaan c.) Blessing

coffin going across the sky. Rashi 2. B 32:5 Actually the “mixed multitude” said about the golden calf this is “your” god, and Bnei Yisroel followed. Rashi 3. D 32:13 Each of the patriarchs had merits who could shown the goodness of Bnei Yisroel.

by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin

SHABBAT SHALOM: PARSHAT KI TISA EXODUS 30:11 – 34:35

Written by Rabbi Dov Aaron Wise

ANSWERS 1. C 32:1,5 Moshe told the people he would come down the mountain on the 40th day. The people figured 40 including the day he went up the mountain, but he meant 40 without that partial day. Hence, they saw an image of Moshe's

Sedra of the Week

18 • JEWZ IN THE NEWZ

JEWZ

IN THE

By Nate Bloom Contributing Columnist NEW FLICKS Opening on Friday, March 1, is “21 and Over,” a raunchy comedy co-written and co-directed by JON LUCAS, 36, and Scott Moore. They are best known for writing the original “Hangover” movie. The plot: straight-A college student Jeff Chang is always well-behaved. His two best friends, Casey and Miller, surprise him by dropping-by the night before his med school interview. One thing leads to another and what was supposed to be one beer turns into a night of chaos and over-indulgence. SKYLAR ASTIN, 26 (born Skylar Astin Lipstein), plays Casey, with JONATHAN KELTZ, 25, (“Entourage”) appearing in a supporting role (“Randy”). Astin was a star of the hit Broadway musical, “Spring Awakenings,” and co-starred in the 2012 film musical, “Pitch Perfect.” Lucas recently said: “21 is where [sic] you go out with all your friends. We call it the American Bar Mitzvah in the movie, because it is oddly this day when America recognizes you as a grownup. You can now do everything you haven’t been able to do.” Opening the same day, via OnDemand viewing in Cincinnati, is “A Place at the Table.” This documentary explores the tragic fact that almost 50 million Americans aren’t sure where their next meal is coming from. The problem is explored through three real people (a single mother; a 5th grader, and a 2nd grader with asthma) who are “food insecure.” Academic experts and celebrities working to fight hunger are interviewed, including actor Jeff Bridges and chef Tom Colicchio, 50, the head judge on the Bravo series, “Top Chef.” The film was co-directed by Kristi Jacobson and LORI SILVERBUSH, 44. In 2001, Silverbush, whose mother is from Israel, wed Colicchio in a Jewish ceremony and they now have two sons. Colicchio, by the way, performed a great service for Jewish food mavens when, in 2009, he saved the famous Jewish cooking chef, JOAN NATHAN, 76, from choking by performing the Heimlich maneuver on her at a charity banquet. NEW ON THE TUBE: FASHION AND FUNNY PARODY The fifth season of the Bravo reality series, “The Rachel Zoe Project,” premieres at 9PM on Wednesday, March 6. The new season follows ZOE, 41, and her husband/business partner RODGER BERMAN, 42, as

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

NEWZ

they expand her womens’ wear collection and open a hair salon. Their infant son, SKYLAR, is often seen. Starting the same night, at 10:30PM, is the new Bravo series, “Dukes of Melrose.” It features prominent boutique fashion store owners CAMERON SILVER, 43, and Christos Garkinos. We see them as they show off their collections of vintage couture and buy and sell great pieces that were often owned by celebrities. In the premiere show, the duo is shown getting “A-List” celebs ready for the Oscars. Last November, Silver spoke to the London Jewish Chronicle about his new book, “Decades: A Century of Fashion.” He had some interesting things to say about Jews in fashion: “In recent years [I’ve] noticed a real decline in the number of aspiring Jewish designers. It was all about DONNA KARAN, RALPH LAUREN, CALVIN KLEIN…but they are now the old guard. ALBER ALBAZ at Lanvin is wonderful…But there are not that many young ones. It’s also not the schmutter business it once was as it’s now all about conglomerates and there is so little manufacturing done in the US. There are lots of Jewish CEOs, but I fear the artistry has gone.” The E! Channel has picked-up, for TV broadcast, the very funny web comedy series, “Burning Love,” a parody of “The Bachelor” TV show. Produced by BEN STILLER, 47, the series follows a narcissistic firefighter Mark Orlando (Ken Marino) looking to find “true love.” A second season of the web show has already been filmed, but E! is starting with the first season. MICHAEL IAN BLACK, 42, co-stars as the host of the “Bachelor”-like show. New episodes air Mondays at 7PM and the first show aired last Monday. But re-runs are shown every day of the week. Check schedule. ON PARENTHOOD The NBC series, “Parenthood,” may not be renewed for a fifth season. If it is, it’s likely that costs will contained by turning some of the regular characters into guest stars. This happened to star character Haddie Braverman, who went off to college and was reduced to a few appearances (she’s played by SARAH RAMOS, 21. Ramos’ mother is Jewish). Ramos, I just learned, has something in common with MAX BURKHOLDER, 15, who plays her brother, Max, on the series (the kid with Asperger’s Syndrome). Like Ramos, he’s the son of a Jewish mother/non-Jewish father. In 2010, Max celebrated his bar mitzvah at a Memphis, Tenn. synagogue.

FROM THE PAGES 150 Y EARS A GO Pike’s OperaHouse – Miss Charlotte Thompson, one of the most accomplished artistes on the American stage, has been playing a very successful engagement at this establishment during the week. She has appeared for three nights in her favorite impersonation of Fanchon Vivieux in a new Play called Little Fadette or the Cricket. We are pleased to announce a re-engagement has been effected, for six nights more with this talented artiste. She will produce a new play on Monday next written expressly for her and never before played in this city, entitled Little Barefoot, which will be produced in the same superb manner which characterizes all pieces produced at this establishment. To-morrow afternoon at 2 o’clock will be presented the Grand Spectacular drama of The Sea of Ice. Wood’s Theatre – Miss Jane Coombs, assisted by the well known artist Mr. J. K. Mortimer, have been performing to overflowing houses. Indeed, standing room could scarcely be obtained, so great was the pressure. We are rejoiced to hear of the engagement of Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Florence, the inimitable “Irish Boy” and “Yankee Girl.” We have not the least doubt of their success, as their former visit here a short time since, is sufficient evidence of the patronage they may expect, at the hand of a Cincinnati public. – March 13, 1863

125 Y EARS A GO One of the most graceful as well as pleasant affairs occurred at the Grand Hotel on Wednesday evening last. The occasion was the joint celebration of the twenty first birthday anniversary of Mr. Henry Wildberg, son of Samuel Wildberg, Esq., and Mr. Albert Goldsmith, son of Jacob Goldsmith, Esq., of Walnut Hills. All are so well and favorably known that no further introduction is necessary. Mr. Max Kahn, of the School of Design, painted beautiful and most appropriate programmes, souveniers to be kept for many a day, as each one bore the mongram of the lady to whom it was presented. There were twelve couples invited, as follows: The Misses Julia Simon, Cora Buxbaum, Bertha Lauer, Laura Loth, Hattie Leon, Cora Marblestone, Clara Holzman, Stella Bauer, Dollie Bloom, Minnnie Dricker, Blanche Nathan, and Hattie Marks, and the Messers. Maurice Kahn, Harry Eichberg, Jake Wildberg, M. N. Dricker, Sol Metzger, Chas. Marks, Dave Abrahms, Max Wolf, Chas. D. Blooom, Max Kahn, Hugo Nathan, Henry Wildberg and Albert Goldsmith. – March 2, 1888

100 Y EARS A GO The funeral of Moritz Loth, one of the founders of thte Union of

American Hebrew Congregations, for many years one of the most prominent citizens of Cincinnati, and at one time an editorial contributor to the ISRAELITE, took place last Thursday afternoon in the Walnut Hills Jewish Cemetery. Rabbi Louis Grossmann officiated, eulogizing Mr. Loth and paying a tribute to his work and worth. He declared that men of his type are rare and that Mr. Loth would live forever as a leading figure in history of American Judaism. – February 17, 1913

Albert A. Goldman at the home of the bride’s parents, 1002 Marion Avenue. Mrs. Wasserman attended Ohio State University and UC and is affiliated with Sigma Delta Tau. Mr. Wasserman, the son of the late Mrs. Ida Zeff Wasserman, and Mr. William Wasserman, received his bachelor’s degree at UC and is a member of Sigma Alpha Mu. – February 28, 1963

75 Y EARS A GO

Richard A. Weiland was sworn in for a third term as chariman of the Board of Commissioners of the Cincinnati Human Relations Commission at a luncheon Feb. 26, in the Omni Netherland Plaza’s Hall of Mirrors.The swearing in of Weiland and other CHRC commissioners by Mayor Charles J. Luken, as well as the presentation of the various awards, were part of the commission’s 45th annual meeting and luncheon. M. Samuel Sudman and Susan Diott have been appointed co-chairmen of the Jewish Federation’s national and overseas allocations committee, announced David Lazarus, president of the Jewish Federaion of Cincinnati. “The Federation has appointed a number of new committee members this year,” said Lazarus, “in keepiing with our commitment to bring in new leadership.” - March 3, 1988

The regular Saturday 9:45 a. m. WLW Sabbath services are being broadcast again by the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods. “Synagogue of the Air” is the program’s title. Miss Leah Fred is muscial director. Clarence Rosenberg is soloist. Rabbi Morris W. Graff of Cincinnati will read services each Saturday in March. He is a Hebrew Union College graduate, was Temple Israel rabbi in Paducah, Ky., seven years and is studying for his docorate at H.U.C. Hundreds of letters from shutins and others testify to the popularity of this program. A Purim musical comedy playlet in Yiddish and in English will be presented by the pupils of the Price Hill Talmud Torah under the direction of Wolfgang Kaelter, Wednesday, March 16th, at 8 p. m., at the Beth Jacob Center. The name of the playlet is “Now It Can Be Told.” The play has been prepared jointly by Mr. Kaelter and pupils, consisting of Toby Braunstein, Rose Benjamin and Jerome Zimmerman. – March 10, 1938

50 Y EARS A GO Losantiville Country Club promises an exciting event, “Jazzville at Losantiville” Sunday, March 31 from 5 to 10 p.m. Carl Halen’s Gin Bottle jazz band will play for dancing and a concert. A jazz star from the East also will be featured. Members and their guests, in town or out-of-town, are invited. Teen-age members are welcome. Mrs. Arthur Romanow is chariman. Her committee includes Mr. Edgar Aub, Jr. Mrs. Henry Trounstine, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Fox, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Rosenthal and Mr. Sam Huttenbauer. The club will accept reservations after it re-opens March 15. Reservations will close March 30. Dr. and Mrs. Alfred L. Weiner announce the marriage of their daughter, Wendy, to Mr. Norman Wasserman, on Feb. 24. The ceremony was performed by Rabbi

25 Y EARS A GO

10 Y EARS A GO Approximately 1,000 people attended the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce Annual Dinner Feb. 25 at the Hyatt Regency. The Chamber recognized The Honorable William McClain, Charles Scripps and Phyllis Shapiro Sewell as Great Living Cincinnatians, The E.W. Scripps Company and Time Warner Cable sponsored the event. Eric and Annette Hattenbach have spent the last 54 years working, volunteering, traveling and raising a family together. Although they have retired from their respective careers, retirement finds them volunteering together at Cedar Village and Shrine Hospital, working out at Tri-Health and takng the occasional vacation. Most of all, however, the Hattenbachs enjoy their children grandchildren and great-grandchild. It is obvous that family is their most important priority. Eric Hattenbach was born and raised in Germany but came to the U.S. in 1938. Annette grew up in Cincinnati and the two of them met at an AZA picnic back in 1941, when she was 14 and he was 20. They laugh together at the memory calling their interest in one another somewhat “scandalous” since she was so young. -

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013

CLASSIFIEDS • 19

COMMUNITY DIRECTORY COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS Access (513) 373-0300 • jypaccess.org Big Brothers/Big Sisters Assoc. (513) 761-3200 • bigbrobigsis.org Camp Ashreinu (513) 702-1513 Camp at the J (513) 722-7258 • mayersonjcc.org Camp Chabad (513) 731-5111 • campchabad.org Camp Livingston (513) 793-5554 • camplivingston.com Cedar Village (513) 754-3100 • cedarvillage.org Chevra Kadisha (513) 396-6426 Cincinnati Community Kollel (513) 631-1118 • kollel.shul.net Cincinnati Community Mikveh (513) 351-0609 • cincinnatimikveh.org Eruv Hotline (513) 351-3788 Fusion Family (513) 703-3343 • fusionnati.org Halom House (513) 791-2912 • halomhouse.com Hillel Jewish Student Center (Miami) (513) 523-5190 • muhillel.org Hillel Jewish Student Center (UC) (513) 221-6728 • hillelcincinnati.org Jewish Cemeteries of Greater Cincinnati 513-961-0178 • jcemcin.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) 214-1200 Jewish Information Network (513) 985-1514 JVS Career Services (513) 985-0515 • jvscinti.org Kesher (513) 766-3348 Plum Street Temple Historic Preservation Fund (513) 793-2556 Shalom Family (513) 703-3343 • myshalomfamily.org The Center for Holocaust & Humanity Education (513) 487-3055 • holocaustandhumanity.org Vaad Hoier (513) 731-4671 Workum Fund (513) 899-1836 • workum.org YPs at the JCC (513) 761-7500 • mayersonjcc.org

CONGREGATIONS Adath Israel Congregation (513) 793-1800 • adath-israel.org Beit Chaverim (513) 984-3393 • btzbc.com Beth Israel Congregation (513) 868-2049 • bethisraelcongregation.net Congregation Beth Adam (513) 985-0400 • bethadam.org Congregation B’nai Tzedek (513) 984-3393 • btzbc.com Congregation Ohav Shalom (513) 489-3399 • ohavshalom.org

Congregation Ohr Chadash (513) 252-7267 • ohrchadashcincinnati.com Congregation Sha’arei Torah shaareitorahcincy.org Congregation Zichron Eliezer 513-631-4900 • czecincinnati.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 Chai Tots Early Childhood Center (513) 234.0600 • chaitots.com Chabad Blue Ash (513) 793-5200 • chabadba.com Cincinnati Hebrew Day School (513) 351-7777 • chds.shul.net HUC-JIR (513) 221-1875 • huc.edu JCC Early Childhood School (513) 793-2122 • mayersonjcc.org Kehilla - School for Creative Jewish Education (513) 489-3399 • kehilla-cincy.com Mercaz High School (513) 792-5082 x104 • mercazhs.org Kulanu (Reform Jewish High School) 513-262-8849 • kulanucincy.org Regional Institute Torah & Secular Studies (513) 631-0083 Rockwern Academy (513) 984-3770 • rockwernacademy.org Sarah’s Place (513) 531-3151 • sarahsplacecincy.com

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 BBYO (513) 722-7244 Hadassah (513) 821-6157 • cincinnati.hadassah.org Jewish Discovery Center (513) 234.0777 • jdiscovery.com 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

DO YOU WANT TO PLACE A CLASSIFIED? Send an e-mail including what you would like in your classified & your contact information to

business@ americanisraelite.com or call Erin at 621-3145 PARTNERSHIP from page 3 said CHHE president, John Neyer. “We came up with an arrangement that makes both organizations stronger. This isn’t a ‘1 plus 1 equals 3’ situation; it’s even better. It’s ‘1 divided by 2 equals 4 or more.’ That’s the new math in highfunctioning not-for-profits.” The JCRC and CHHE – while distinct organizations with separate boards – share overlapping missions, values and goals. (In fact, in many communities, the two organizations have a formal structural connection.) This continued close relationship between the two will encourage streamlined information sharing and more robust programming for the community. “This collaboration makes sense for everyone. In addition to creating efficiency and better results for both organizations, it will also strengthen the community as a whole,” said Shep Englander, Jewish Federation of Cincinnati CEO. Sarah Weiss has worked at CHHE since 2004, when she started as a program manager. After guiding CHHE through its transition into a successful, independent 501(c)(3) organization in 2007, she became executive director. She holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing and international business from the University of Cincinnati, is a HOLIDAY from page 4 Part of the evening will include a special children’s Seder led by Rabbi and Mrs. Berel and Tziporah Cohen, Chabad Jewish Center’s family and youth programming PROFESSIONALS from page 5 Access offers something to suit just about every Jewish young professional. No matter if it’s a Saturday Night Party, volunteer project or being part of a committee, Access provides ways for young professionals to build connections ZYGIER from page 10 According to the Prison Service report, Zygier had not been considered a suicide risk. His guards had not carried out checks on him every few minutes, but rather at intervals of 20-25 minutes. On Tuesday, the Israeli State Prosecution said it would not object to having part of the report declassified, Army Radio

SENIOR SERVICES

• • • • •

Up to 24 hour care Meal Preparation Errands/Shopping Hygiene Assistance Light Housekeeping

(513) 531-9600 graduate of the “Teaching the Holocaust and Antisemitism” course at the esteemed Yad Vashem International School for Holocaust Studies and was named a Lerner Fellow, after participating in an advanced course sponsored by the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous at Columbia University. Weiss is the 2007 recipient of the Public Allies “Changemaker” award, the 2011 Weston “Avodah” award presented by the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati and the YWCA’s Rising Star award. She serves on the Bridges for a Just Community board and the Cincinnati Human Relations Commission and was previously a member of the Jewish Vocational Service board. The mission of the JCRC is to protect Jewish security, recognizing that Jewish security depends on a just society for all. To achieve its mission, the JCRC works on a broad range of local, national and international issues, concentrating its efforts in the areas of Israel, the Middle East and anti-Semitism. The CHHE educates about the Holocaust, remembers its victims and acts on its lessons. Through innovative programs and partnerships, the CHHE challenges injustice, inhumanity and prejudice, and fosters understanding, inclusion and engaged citizenship. directors. There is a charge for admission. Space is limited; reservations will be accepted on a first-come, firstserved basis. Nobody will be turned away for lack of funds or financial difficulties. with their community, which many have said helps to make Cincinnati feel even more like home. For more information about Access or information on how to get involved in the community, please consult the Community Directory in this issue for Access’ contact information. reported. The radio station reported that the state filed an official response to a court petition to mandate the report’s publication. Israeli lawmakers on Sunday announced plans to investigate Zygier’s death, which a judge has ruled was a suicide. Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr has initiated an inquiry into his department’s handling of the case.

20 • BUSINESS

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

Finance Minister Steinitz, Howie Mandel highlight Prime Minster’s Club Dinner

ISRAEL from page 10

By Jory Edlin Assistant Editor Cincinnati leaders Pamela and Bernard Barbash were among 19 recipients of the Israel65 Award at the Israel Bonds Prime Minister’s Club Dinner, held Jan. 27 in Boca Raton, Fla. The Barbashes were recognized for dedication to Israel and the Jewish community. In addressing the sellout crowd of 750, Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz declared, “Israel bonds are an expression of friendship and commitment that is so important to the Israeli people.” Master of ceremonies Howie Mandel commented on 2012 record sales that exceeded $816 million, praising Israel Bonds as “one of the most successful organizations.” He added that an investment in bonds represents “freedom, technology and the future.” Bonds president and CEO Izzy Tapoohi opened the evening by announcing that 2012 U.S. sales totaled over $816 million, and that 2012 worldwide sales had exceeded $1.2 billion. The evening culminated with the presentation of the Israel65 Award, which was made by Steinitz, Mandel, Tapoohi and Bonds Chairman of the Board Richard Hirsch. Over $230 million in Israel bond investments were announced at the event. ABBY from page 7 movie theaters. “The Friedmans belonged to a synagogue, were observant and felt that Jewish culture was extremely important,” Jan Pottker, author of Dear Ann, Dear Abby: An Unauthorized Biography of Ann Landers and Abigail Van Buren, told JNS. “They took their religion seriously. Because their parents were immigrants, their first language was Yiddish.” An honorary member of the FEMA from page 7 Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.), whose congressional district includes much of the borough of Queens, cosponsored the bill with Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.Y.). In an interview, Meng said she co-sponsored the bill because some 200 institutions in the New York-New Jersey region had been devastated but were still providing critical relief for neighbors. “They were one of the first ones to open up their doors and feed people at the same time their electricity was out or their floors were ruined,” Meng told JTA. The Orthodox Union has estimated that some 60 to 70 synagogues in

Courtesy Israel Bonds

(L-R) Master of Ceremonies Howie Mandel; Finance Minister of Israel Yuval Steinitz; Bernard and Pamela Barbash; Israel Bonds president and CEO Izzy Tapoohi; Israel Bonds Chairman of the Board Richard Hirsch

Development Corporation for Israel/Israel Bonds ranks among Israel’s most valued economic and strategic resources, with a record

of proven success spanning more than six decades. Praised for consistency and dependability, the Bonds organization has helped

build every sector of Israel’s economy. Worldwide sales since the first bonds were issued in 1951 are nearly $35 billion.

National Council of Jewish Women, Phillips authored six books: Dear Abby, Dear Teenager, Dear Abby on Marriage, Where Were You When President Kennedy was Shot?, The Dear Abby Wedding Planner, and The Best of Dear Abby. “The Dear Abby Show” aired on CBS Radio for 12 years. Phillips wrote under the pen name of Abigail Van Buren. The name “Abigail” was taken from the Book of Samuel (one of King David’s wives, known for her beauty and wisdom), and “Van Buren”

was adopted in honor of one of her favorite presidents, Martin Van Buren. Phillips strove to be direct and say more with less in her writing. She always enjoyed quoting a favorite Swedish toast: “Fear less; hope more. Eat less; chew more. Talk less; say more. Hate less; love more.” Phillips launched “Dear Abby” when she was 37 and new to the San Francisco area. Sometime during this period, she phoned the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle and

said that she could write a better advice column than the one she had been reading in the newspaper. After hearing her modest credentials, editor Stanleigh Arnold gave her some letters in need of answers and said to bring back her replies in a week. Phillips got her replies back to the Chronicle in an hour and a half. Despite their silent feuds and professional rivalry, Phillips and her sister – Abby and Ann – rose to fame in the world of journalism. Through it all, Phillips never forgot her Jewish upbringing.

New York and New Jersey of all denominations have been affected. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), whose district covers much of Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn, vociferously opposes the bill, which he said would amount to government funding of religion. “This bill would direct federal taxpayer dollars to the reconstruction of houses of worship,” Nadler said in remarks quoted by NY1, a cable news channel. “The idea that taxpayer money can be used to build a religious sanctuary or an altar has consistently been held unconstitutional.” Those concerns were echoed by the ADL in its statement issued Jan. 4. “Houses of worship are special –

not like other non-profits and not like other buildings,” it said. “They receive special constitutional protections from government interference, special tax-exempt benefits for contributions and have special restrictions that prohibit direct public funding.” Such concerns, also expressed by the American Civil Liberties Union, are misplaced, according to Marc Stern, AJC’s associate general counsel. He noted FEMA-directed relief for a church damaged in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing of a neighboring federal building, as well as relief for a Jewish day school hit in the 2001 Seattle earthquake. “The ACLU-ADL position is a

little bit odd,” he said. “You can pay for rebuilding a zoo, but houses of worship are not eligible.” FEMA in its briefing for lawmakers said the precedents cited by Stern and others do not hold in this case. In the Oklahoma City case, the agency said, the congressional appropriation made it clear that the funding for the damaged church was a one-time exception. In the Seattle case, the money was applied to a school, not a house of worship. “In contrast, a house of worship such as a synagogue is not an educational facility, nor does it fall within one of the other categories of facility specifically listed” under prior law, FEMA said.

Residents have tried to ignore their neighbors’ conflict, but they say it’s becoming more difficult. Some worry that if rebels succeed in toppling the regime of President Bashar Assad, Islamist groups will exploit the opportunity to attack Israel, as terrorists did following Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in 2005. “They’ll turn this into another Gaza,” said Yaron Dekel, a resident of Alonei Habashan. “I don’t think what’s happening here is different from what’s happening in the rest of Israel.” Like many Golan towns, the 56family Alonei Habashan is tightly knit. Residents are used to leaving their doors unlocked and the town’s entrance gate open, Dekel said, though they have become more cautious lately as the threat of Syrians crossing the border has risen. “If you live in Tel Aviv, you lock your door,” Dekel said. “Here no one does, but now they tell us to. People used to leave the door open for a month.” Communities across the Golan are adopting increased security measures. The Golan Regional Council, which delivers services to area communities, is providing increased security funding to towns, as well as assembling local volunteer security, logistical and medical teams in case of an attack. Kalner says the Golan is “ready for change in Syria.” He adds, however, that the Golan, as opposed to Syria, is calm, vibrant and secure. “Were raising people’s awareness,” Kalner said. The region’s two largest security threats are missiles and refugees crossing the border, he says. On Sunday, Kalner toured the area adjacent to Israel’s Gaza and Egypt borders, both targets of frequent rocket attacks in the past decade, to learn about security protocols there. While similar attacks in the Golan could temporarily drive away tourists, the council’s tourism chief, Shmuel Hazan, says that Israelis will return out of a sense of solidarity. “Israelis like to support places that are problematic,” Hazan said. “We know from experience that in Gaza or Jerusalem, when there was a crisis, when things got better they returned to the way they were.” One silver lining to the Syrian threat, both residents and officials say, is that Israel will likely hold on to the Golan for the coming years. Israel annexed the region in 1981 and its return has been a subject of peace negotiations with Syria in the past. Given the Assad regime’s instability, the prospects of a deal that would lead to the Golan returning to Syrian control is more unlikely than ever. “It’s clear that what’s happening there makes that discussion superfluous,” said Dalia Amos, the council’s spokesperson. “We’re all very optimistic.”

FOOD • 21

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013

Aaron’s mother, Mindy, said her children had always wanted to be professional ice skaters. As kids, they tried every activity to see what they liked. Max, she said, was a natural. “They’ve put in a lot of hours for this, and while it’s not something that I recommend for everyone, my husband and I always try to encourage them to live up to their potential,” she said.

“Watching the kids from the podium is always a proud moment for me, but we’ve had some disappointments in the past from scouts. Max is not a very tall boy, and scouts don’t usually go for the small ones.” Mindy says her children struggled with a packed schedule, attending public school full time and ice skating in the morning and afternoons, but they were never allowed to ditch Hebrew school, which they attended three times a week. “You need to be grounded, and we try to understand the value in Jewish traditions and hobbies,” she said. “Ice skating was important, but they always take off for the Jewish holidays.” Aaron is enrolled at Pikes Peak Community College in Colorado Springs, where he takes night classes after training for the world championships. He says he wants to become a sports agent once he retires as a figure skater, but hopes he can win as many titles as possible before the time comes. He also has plans for what he’d like to do with his free time after the competition. “I’ve wanted to visit Israel for a while now,” he said. “I’ve never been to the land, even though I feel deeply connected to it. I’m also hoping one day my sister and I can perform there together.”

of the modern State of Israel. He suggested that the Jewish people have a capacity for self-determination, both politically and religiously. “The conversation [led by Hartman] was about learning and defining Jewish peoplehood, and defining Judaism for Israel and North America and the relationship [between them],” Steinhardt said. “Upon learning of his death, I felt the pain very profoundly,” he said. “I had the experience of losing an intellectual and spiritual father.” Anshe Emet’s Siegel called Hartman “a storehouse of knowledge.” “The questions he would ask were not the normal questions,” Siegel said. “He was a traditional thinking iconoclast who demanded clarity in thinking not only from his students but from the Jewish tradition as well.” Siegel said Hartman “had a profound effect” on his rabbinate. “He became a rebbe to me on a level with which I was really unfamiliar,” Siegel said. “He actually engaged me on a spiritual level – more than ‘What are you reading?’ [rather], ‘Are you feeling it in your kishkes.’” “His thought process was extraordinary.” Rabbi Don Goor of Los Angeles spoke with JNS soon after returning from a Shalom Hartman Institute alumni retreat that included “studying in his memory, reminiscing about how he touched lives.” “Study with Hartman is the greatest gift of my rabbinate,” Goor

said. “He opened new ways of approaching text… to engage congregants seriously with the voices of our tradition and challenge them to see.” At his congregation, Temple Judea of Tarzana, Goor encourages his congregation to undertake “the endeavor of being a part of the Jewish tradition and to see their voices as a valid part of the tradition.” “The impact [Hartman] had on me continues through my rabbinate and the impact I have on my students,” said Goor, who teaches second-and fifth-year rabbinical students at Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles. “The texts I choose to teach are the texts that he inspired to come alive.” Hartman was a strong advocate for inclusion of the different streams of Jewish life and sought to create a place where all could come together. He had the unique ability to make each individual feel as significant as the other, according to his students. The influence of Hartman reaches well into both the present and future. Two recently elected members of the Israeli Knesset, Dr. Ruth Calderon and Dr. Aliza Lavie, attended classes at his institute. More than 120 synagogues and Jewish Federations in the United States and Canada have developed curriculums based on his teachings. Some 50,000 individuals are enrolled annually in the institute’s courses. Rabbi Dr. Daniel Hartman, David’s son, was named the institute’s president in 2009 and carries its philosophy forward.

SKATER from page 7 Aaron, who was raised in a traditionally Conservative Jewish home in Scottsdale, spends numerous hours a day on the ice. As a boy his main passion was hockey; Aaron laced up his figure skates on the weekends. He would go on to join multiple hockey leagues, competing in the USA Hockey nationals in 2006 and 2007. But after suffering a back injury four years ago that nearly ended his career, Aaron realized he couldn’t juggle two sports, and he decided to focus on figure skating. Aaron’s gift for skating seems to run in the family. His 18-yearold sister, Madeline, is also a professional figure skater and a 2013 U.S. junior bronze medalist. His older sister, Molly, also used to skate competitively. A few years ago, the Aaron family bought a second home in Colorado, so Max and Madeline could train together at the Broadmoor Skating Club, although the two don’t perform together since Madeline is a pairs skater and Max skates solo. “I wanted to become a figure skater after I saw how well Max skated,” Madeline said. “I’m hoping we get to perform one day together, but it’ll take a lot of dedication.” HARTMAN from page 7 The Shalom Hartman Institute occupies three acres of land along Jerusalem’s “Cultural Mile.” Its mission has been to “help build a more pluralistic and tolerant Israeli society.” In July 2012, the institute began a partnership with Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, called the Fellowship for Campus Professionals. The program brings Hartman Fellows to campuses in America in order to teach about the Jewish relationship with Israel. “The institute is for rabbis of all denominations,” he added, noting that the institute fostered “deep and wide-ranging conversations” at a time when the “Who is a Jew?” question arose. Hartman’s theology transformed as he aged and as the conditions of the Jewish people began to change, Steinhardt explained. “He emphasized the partnership of God and the Jewish people – which has a significant vote and voice in the determination of its identity and behaviors,” he said. Hartman “believed people were obligated to take control of their destinies… Not having power or control of their destiny was no longer an option,” according to Steinhardt. Steinhardt said Hartman recognized the new realities in thinking about Jewish peoplehood. Hartman opined that current Jewish thought needed to be considered in light of 2,000 years of statelessness, the experiences of the generation living after the Holocaust, and the reality

Courtesy of Courtesy USFSA

Max Aaron skates his way to a gold medal at the 2013 U.S. Figure Skating Championship in Omaha, Neb., January 2013.

All About Food Zell’s Bites

by Zell Schulman I’ve been home from Arizona for two weeks and there are still several stacks of “Things to Do” waiting on a table in my office which I haven’t gotten to or had the time to think about. I had a wonderful adventure in Scottsdale. Everyone tried talking me into staying another month, but after five weeks, I couldn’t wait until I got home, even though the weather was 75 degrees the day I left. As they say, “Home is where the heart is.” Tackling my suitcases, I made piles for the cleaner, the washer and gifts I had purchased for myself, family and friends. As I got down to the bottom of my luggage, I realized I’d forgotten to take my toiletries and the container which holds them. I made a call to Jerry, Arte’s General Director, asking him to send them to me. One evening Judy Lucas and I drove to Phoenix for a musical program, sponsored by Brandeis women’s organization. The refreshment table was covered with delicious treats and tasty homemade bake goods. Two of my favorites were the Walnut Chews and the best Bailey’s Irish Cream Fudge I’d tasted in a long time. Both were made by Ellen S. Tuckman. The fudge only has four ingredients and can be prepared very quickly. It would be the perfect item to take to a food swap, bake sale or benefit. Ellen was kind enough to mail the recipes to me and I am happy to share them with you. BAILEY’S IRISH CREAM FUDGE Makes three dozen pieces Ingredients 1 cup Bailey’s Irish Cream 3 cups powdered sugar, sifted 1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick unsalted) 4 cups Ghirardelli (or Nestle) chocolate chips

Method 1. Grease an 8 inch square pan. Melt the chocolate chips and butter together over medium low heat, stirring constantly until they are melted. You may also do this in a microwave safe container and microwave on full power 1 minute. Remove from the microwave, stir well until smooth. They may need to microwave another 15 to 30 seconds more until all of the chocolate chips are melted. 2. Sift the powdered sugar into a large bowl. Add the Bailey’s and mix well. Slowly stir in the melted chocolate-butter mixture until it becomes smooth. 3. Pour into the greased pan. Flatten the mixture so it sits evenly in the pan. Place a large sheet of wax paper on top and using the flat of your hand, smooth the fudge evenly. Score and mark the fudge into six lengthwise strips and six wide strips. You should get 36 pieces. 4. Refrigerate until firm, about two to three hours. Zell’s Tip: You may also prepare the fudge earlier in the day, mark it into squares, then cover well and refrigerate it overnight. WALNUT CHEWS Makes three dozen pieces Ingredients 1/2 cup flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1/3 cup butter 1/4 cup granulated sugar 1/4 cup brown sugar 1 large egg, beaten well 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts Method 1. Grease an 8 inch square pan. Preheat the oven to 350˚. 2. In a large bowl sift the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside. 3. Melt the butter in a small saucepan, remove from heat. 4. Add the sugars, egg, butter and vanilla into the sifted dry ingredients. Mix together well. Fold in the chopped walnuts. 5. Spread the batter into the greased 8-inch pan. Bake 20 minutes. Insert a tip of a knife into the center of the batter, to make sure it is well baked. 6. Cut into bars. Zell’s Tips: These may also be cut into small squares.

22 • OBITUARIES D EATH N OTICES ORCHIN, Milton, age 98, died February 14, 2013; 4 Adar, 5773. ROSENBAUM, Victor A., age 78, died February 19, 2013; 9 Adar, 5773. SCHWARTZ, William L., age 86, died February 21, 2013; 11 Adar, 5773. FIGHTING from page 10 Two months ago, the Ministry of Culture and Sport released its new criteria for non-Orthodox rabbis to collect state salaries. To be eligible, the rabbis must work full-time and be present at their congregation for at least 40 Sabbaths per year. Only rabbis of congregations with at least 250 members can receive full-time pay; those leading congregations of 50-250 members may receive half a salary even though they’d be required to work full-time. Aside from the obvious inequalities, the new rules put Gold in something of a Catch-22 in 2012: Unable to raise a full-time salary on her own last year, she worked only half-time. As a result, she won’t be paid at all for her work in 2012. “Part of the reason our rabbis are part-time is that there isn’t enough funding,” Gold told JTA. “The idea is to have more of an even playing field. The more we can be available to people, the richer Jewish life will be in this country.” A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Culture and Sport, Or Doron, said non-Orthodox rabbis are paid according to “set criteria” and that the ministry uses the same pay scale as those for Orthodox rabbis. Just two non-Orthodox rabbis currently meet the criteria for state wages: Rabbis Yoav Ende of Kibbutz Hannaton and Shai Zarchi of Nigun Halev, a congregation in the town of Nahalal, near Haifa.

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

SEEKING from page 8 The Seltzes, Slomovitches and Kupovitches stayed in Tula approximately four years. They returned to Siauliai, then departed for South Africa; the Seltzes and Slumovitches settled in Cape Town. Yetta Seltz taught dressmaking there – she’d learned the skill at the ORT school in Siauliai – but “never told me much” about the Tula period, said Bloch, who grew up in South Africa and in 1987 moved to Australia to join the two brothers of her husband, Jack. Bloch remembers hearing that once in South Africa, her grandfather sold eggs after having peddled sweets in Tula. His marriage to Yetta was arranged. Yetta previously had fallen in love with her Hebrew tutor and a poet, whose first name was Nyoma. Her parents disapproved of Nyoma because he had tuberculosis; Hindl HATE from page 8 Additional broad laws have been passed on racism and cyberhate. The Council of Europe’s Additional Protocol to the Cybercrime Convention was passed in 2003 and became enforceable in 2006 after receiving the required number of signatures. The protocol criminalized racist and xenophobic acts committed through computer systems. The European Framework Decision on Combatting Racism and Xenophobia was then passed in 2008. In 2005, the European Union Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC)’s Working Definition of anti-Semitism was released, defining the phenomenon as “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews.” “Rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism are directed toward Jewish or nonJewish individuals and/or their

interceded on her sister’s behalf in an unsuccessful bid to melt their parents’ opposition. Bloch believes that she was named for her grandmother’s old flame. A retired librarian who now volunteers at the Kadima library of Yiddish books, Bloch hopes to learn what became of her relatives from Tula. She knows that correspondence with Avrom Leizer Rosenberg continued after World War I and is unsure why, how and when the contact ceased. Speaking from his home in California, her cousin, Daniel Seltz, said he has learned the names of two of the five Rosenberg children: Ida and Shmuel. One of his South African relatives, he said, even located Shmuel Rosenberg after World War II and corresponded for a while. That’s when the trail ended for good. Tula’s Jewish community

escaped annihilation during the Holocaust because the Russians held the city. According to the Washington-based NCSJ: Advocates on behalf of Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States and Eurasia, some 3,000 Jews live in Tula today and a Jewish community center was dedicated in 2004. “There are many children and a very active community” in Tula, said Lesley Weiss, an NCSJ official who last visited the city five years ago. Bloch approached “Seeking Kin” for assistance in locating the Rosenbergs of Tula after reading in The Australian Jewish News of the column’s success in December in finding an Israeli woman’s long-lost cousins, now living in Tulsa, Okla. “I like being in contact with my relatives,” Bloch said from her den during a Skype interview last week, the Australian summer’s heat lead-

ing her to step away momentarily to increase the speed of her ceiling fan. She directed the video camera to the wall, where framed photographs showed her grandmother and her great-grandparents. Another frame held the 1928 class photograph from Siauliai’s Ivri Gymnasium, which her mother attended. By researching online, she’s already located Rosenbergs in Philadelphia and Boston who are descended from Moshe Rosenberg, who was either a brother or cousin of Shlomo Rosenberg. “I’d like to know what happened to Avrom Leizer’s family” – and if they are alive, to know “that they are respectable and nice people,” she said. Bloch wants to pass on the family’s history to her sons, Joel and Danny, and her three grandchildren. They aren’t very interested in genealogy, Bloch said, “but eventually somebody will be.”

property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities… More specifically, manifestations could also target the state of Israel, conceived as Jewish collectivity,” the definition reads. Though that definition was never legally binding, various international bodies, several law enforcement agencies and European courts have used it in their investigations. It is essentially meant to “help police forces who are monitoring antiSemitism on the ground to have a better understanding of what antiSemitism is,” Kenneth Stern, the AJC’s specialist on anti-Semitism and extremism, told JNS. Under the First Amendment, hate speech in the U.S. must be likely to cause violence or harm before it can be deemed criminal. But in the European Union, speech can be prohibited even if it is only abusive, insulting or likely to disturb public order, noted Talia Naamat, legal researcher at the Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry in Jerusalem. There are many laws on Holocaust denial in Europe, including in Germany, Belgium, and Austria, where British Holocaust denier David Irving was convicted and imprisoned in 2006. In Spain,

Holocaust denial was a criminal violation until 2007, when a court ruled in the case of neo-Nazi activist Pedro Valera that Holocaust denial could not be punished with imprisonment because the act falls within free speech. But in January, Spain’s justice minister proposed a new bill that would make Holocaust denial a criminal offense if it incites violence. The bill is expected to be approved later this year. “I believe this case best encapsulates the debate (in Europe) between freedom of expression versus incitement to hatred, as well as the varying degrees of protection from hate speech,” Naamat told JNS. But frequently, such European laws appear as part of a broader “incitement to racial, ethnic or religious hatred or discrimination,” or as part of the general prohibition of genocide, she said. In the Netherlands, the Dutch penal code includes a broad antidiscrimination provision, “ so, anti-Semitic content in essence will be prosecuted if it’s brought to the prosecutor as falling under the anti-discrimination legislation,” Eissens said. Three cases were recently filed against Jeroen de Kreek, a Dutch Holocaust denier who posted his

material on several websites. Having already lost one case, he will face the other two this spring. In this case, Kreek is likely to be convicted as “his material is blatantly antiSemitic,” according to Eissens. The UK has only general legislation regarding harassment and discrimination, The Public Order act of 1986, which states that “a person who uses threatening words or behavior, or displays any written material which is threatening, is guilty of an offence if he intends thereby to stir up religious hatred.” Other laws, the Protection from Harassment Act, the Malicious Communications Act, and the Racial and Religious Hatred Act, were passed in subsequent years. “Our perspective is that things which are illegal offline should be illegal online,” Dave Rich, spokesman for Community Security Trust, which conducted the February survey on social media anti-Semitism in the UK, according to the International Business Times. “Racial abuse laws were made from incidents in the street, not online.” European laws on the issue, however, are not uniformly applied across the EU. Even the European Court of Human Rights does not offer an accepted definition for “hate speech,” instead offering only parameters by which prosecutors can decide if the “hate speech” is entitled to the protection of freedom of speech. Prosecutors therefore exercise a great amount of discretion, as do policemen, who must classify the act as a hate crime or not, and judges, who must assess which action or speech is likely to disturb public order. “That assessment can be subjective,” Naamat said. INACH’s Eissens emphasized that prosecuting anti-Semitism is “a thing we do but not the only thing we do.” The organization is also highly focused on counterspeech projects, education and prevention, though Eissens does believe that the law is necessary in some extreme cases.

2013 PASSOVER GREETINGS

PUBLISHES MARCH 21 •DEADLINE IS MARCH 15 For more information, please contact Ted Deutsch at 621-3145 or publisher@americanisraelite.com Select a style and return the form below by mail or fax. PLEASE INCLUDE MY PERSONAL GREETING IN THE PASSOVER ISSUE. (PLEASE

PRINT)

STYLE:

Style D (3 col X 4”) $396.00

YOUR MESSAGE HERE! (Your Name)

PRICE: NAME (AS BILL

YOU WANT IT TO APPEAR)

TO:

ADDRESS: PHONE: RETURN TO: THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE, 18 W. NINTH ST., STE. 2 CINCINNATI, OH 45202 • PH. 513.621.3145 • FX. 621.3744

Style E (3 Col X 5.45”) $539.55 Style A (2 col X 1.5”) $99.00

Your Own Message! (Your Name) Style B (2 col X 2”) $132.00

HAPPY PASSOVER to Our Family and Associates! Add Your Business Logo

Happy Passover! (Your Name)

Style C (2 col X 3”) $198.00

Wishing all our friends and family a Happy Passover! (Your Name)

Style F: Half-Page Ad (5 col X 6.5”) $1072.50 Style H: Full-Page Ad (5 col X 13“) $2145.00 These greeting samples are for display purposes only. Other sizes, styles and messages are available.