American Israelite, March 29, 2012

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An evening with Michael Oren, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. p.11

CINCINNATI, OH Candle Lighting Times Shabbat begins Fri 7:42p Shabbat ends Sat 8:43p

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The extraordinary life of Manuel D. Mayerson “Do you know what was even better than making my first million dollars?” Manuel Mayerson once asked a group of young professionals who had gathered to hear him speak about his long and successful career as an entrepreneur and philanthropist. “It was giving away my first million dollars!” he said with a twinkle in his eye.

That was Manuel D. Mayerson…a truly extraordinary man who lived a life rooted in Jewish values and defined by his devotion to his family and community. And even though he died this past Thursday at his home in Amberley Village at the age of 90, he truly lived every one of those years with purpose and meaning, and touched the lives of countless others all along the way.

Manuel “Manny” Mayerson was a first generation American of Russian immigrant parents who grew up on Greenwood Avenue in Avondale. As a boy he preferred playing baseball and hanging out with his buddies, to sitting in a classroom or practicing piano. As a teen and throughout his life one of his favorite pastimes was dancing. He spent countless hours at Coney Island’s Moonlight Gardens “cutting it up” on the dance floor. He was also a bandleader in high school and an active member of Kadima AZA, a chapter of B’nai B’rith’s national Jewish youth movement, and had several jobs, including working for a beer manufacturer and selling shoes.

A favorite story that Manuel used to tell regarding one of those jobs illustrates his early aptitude for being a great problem solver. When he was hired to work at the shoe store he was told “if a customer leaves without buying something you can just go right out the door with him because you’ll be fired.”

Manuel realized that most of the salespeople there didn’t last the day, and decided he didn’t want to join their ranks. So if one of his customers got ready to leave without making a purchase, he would invite them to stop by the front counter to receive a gift from him for stopping by. He had pre-arranged with the woman at the counter to give each of

Rhoda and Manuel Mayerson

these people shoelaces, place them in a store bag, and to charge him for whatever she gave in gifts. Not only was the shop owner impressed to see every one of Manuel’s customers leaving with a “purchase” bag, the recipients were thrilled to get something for nothing, and when they came back in the future, they would of course insist that Manuel be the one to wait on them.

“From the very beginning Dad was an achiever,” explained his son, Neal. “He was bound to succeed at everything he did because he was super smart, perceptive, and he loved people. On top of it all, he had a work ethic that was forged in the Great Depression. He knew what it meant to work hard” Although Manuel’s father and grandfather had been successful in

the real estate business, when the Great Depression hit, things changed very quickly. In order to help make ends meet Manuel took a job, along with his father, collecting rents on properties owned by the bank. And even though times were difficult his family kept a jar in the kitchen for collecting spare change for others who were less fortunate, keeping true to the value of tzedakah that had been passed down to them from generation to generation. So when Manuel went on to became a driving force in the world of real estate, it was no surprise that he continued to give of his time and money to help others.

Even though he ended up with a successful career in real estate, he started off on a very different path.

After high school, Manuel enrolled at The Ohio State University and

majored in dentistry. However, fate intervened when his parents were involved in a very bad car accident, making it necessary for him to leave school and go back home to help out. And although he never returned to college, he was endowed with a strong mind and character, a bright spirit, and unusual amounts of creativity and promise, which helped him make his mark and go on to become a pioneer in the shopping center industry.

He often talked about an article he read in the paper that set the wheels of his future in motion. It outlined President Eisenhower’s plan to build an interstate highway system across the country. While this new plan would make it possible for people to live further from the city, he knew they would need convenient shopping. That’s what prompted him to build the first of many shopping centers in what was then the “outskirts” of town, among them Cincinnati’s first two indoor shopping malls in Beechmont and Kenwood that he built for Carl and Robert Lindner.

Manuel established the Mayerson Company in 1949 and quickly became known for his creativity, integrity and “sixth sense” regarding business ventures. “Dad knew how to take things and turn them on their edge. He could see the value in things when others couldn’t,” shared his son, Neal. “He was honest and very perceptive about people. He knew how to frame things in a way that would serve their interests and his.”

Although he was becoming more and more successful in business, nothing was more important to Manuel than Rhoda, the love of his life. “The second I laid eyes on her, I knew I was going to marry her,” Manuel used to say when he’d reminisce about seeing his beloved wife for the very first time. “Even after 68 years of marriage, his love, respect and adoration of her never diminished. It just grew,” said Neal. “Dad always said he was the luckiest guy in the world that she was his wife.”

MAYERSON on page 20

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THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 2012

New officers for JVS of Cincinnati Jan Armstrong Cobb has been named chair of Jewish Vocational Service (JVS) of Cincinnati. Prior to this, she had been an officer on the JVS board for eight years.

Cobb is a vice president of Duke Realty Corp. and Cobb replaces Joel (Jody) Brant, who was board chair for the past three years.

“Jan comes to the position well qualified, and I am very excited to be working with her,” noted Peter Block, president and chief executive officer of JVS. Cobb and Block will work together to exe-

cute the strategy of the JVS organization and represent the agency to the greater community.

Other new JVS officers include Sandy Kaltman, vice chair; Dan Feigelson, treasurer; Jessica Kuresman, secretary and Dov Rosenberg, trustee. Rosenberg is the director of Allos Ventures and Blue Chip Venture. The new officers assumed their duties in early February.

The other trustees on the board are David Alex, Jan Armstrong Cobb, Dan Feigelson, Nancy

Postow, Andrea S, Shapiro, DDS, and David Seltzer, MD were all reelected for an additional three years.

Existing board members include Stan Better, Jody Brant, former board chairperson Robert Clayton, Amy Coppel, Robert Covitz, Ron Gold, Sandy Kaltman, Jessica Kuresman, Shary Levitt, Michael Margolis and Robert Oestreicher.

Those who resigned from the board in 2011 were Ryan Peerless, Asaph Naaman, Sarah Weiss and Eric Dauer.

JCC spring sports—register now for ages 36 and older. And co-ed Pick-Up Soccer (ages 12 and older) continues at the J on Tuesday nights, and it’s free for J members.

For your future Reds baseball star, the JCC offers Little Blue Jays Instructional T-ball (ages 3 to 5) or Blue Jays Youth Baseball (ages 5 to 12). There’s also Quickstart Tennis (ages 3 to 6), Tumblebugs (18 months to 3 years), and a whole range of other sports and exercise programs.

Whether your goal is fun, exercise, or being part of a team, you can’t lose when you participate in sports programs at the JCC.

Jared Witt and Thomas Speed

Don’t drop the ball, spring sports teams are forming now at the Mayerson JCC, so be sure to sign up to join some of the hottest, winning teams around!

Basketball, soccer, softball, baseball, tennis, T-ball; The J has sports of all sorts, for adults and kids. Most sports schedules begin in early April, so hurry and register now; all levels of ability are welcome. Programs are open to everyone.

JCC teams are fun, exciting and play to win! This past season, the JCC boys and girls Blue Jays basketball teams burned up the courts and finished with amazing

seasons. In a nail-biting display of skill and sportsmanship, grade 10 boys Blue Jays basketball team advanced to the semi-finals of their tournament. The girls grade six to eight Blue Jays basketball team also competed in tournament play, placing second in the finals, and proudly bringing home medals and trophies.

For die-hard male sports fans, the J invites men to join the JCC Men’s Softball League at Triple Creek (ages 16 and older) or Men’s Pick-up Basketball for J members (ages 16 and older).

Also new this spring is a Men’s Basketball League (April to June),

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class can explore and examine this harrowing period in history from a variety of vantage points. Then, April 24 and May 1, Rabbi Michael Shulman will offer a class on the History of Plum Street Temple. Dedicated in 1866, Plum Street Temple is among the oldest synagogue buildings still standing in the United States. This class will explore its history, its architecture, its place in Jewish life in Cincinnati and other little known facts and stories of this beautiful sanctuary.

Wise Temple hosts first full-time female Air Force rabbinic chaplain On Friday evening, April 13, Isaac M. Wise Temple will be privileged to have Rabbi Captain Sarah

Schechter, U.S. Air Force—an active duty Air Force Chaplain—as its guest speaker. As the first

female full-time rabbi to serve the Air Force as a chaplain, Rabbi Schechter joined the military following September 11, 2001. Since that time, Captain Schechter has been deployed overseas on several occasions. Her experience speaks to the human as well as spiritual needs of Jews and non-Jews, having worked alongside our troops overseas and at home. She has conducted seders in remote places in Iraq, counseled people from every faith and every walk of life, and asked her husband and child to join her sacrifice when she was far away from them for extended periods of deployment. She is much like our soldiers themselves, serving with them, yet she is also a rabbi who serves the needs of our soldiers and understands what is in their minds and their hearts.

“On the Shabbat following Passover, the festival of freedom, Rabbi Schechter’s visit to Wise Temple is a good way to pay trib-

ute to both present soldiers and veterans. We owe it to our Jewish celebration of freedom and elevation of responsibility among our highest values, to pay tribute to those whose deeds of service have given voice to those values. As we learn from her experiences, we will pause to consider the responsibilities and the sacrifices of those who have protected our nation’s freedom,” remarked Rabbi Lewis Kamrass, senior rabbi at Wise Temple.

Captain Schechter will also address Wise Temple religious school students and parents on Sunday morning, April 15, during religious school, and some of the high school students on Sunday evening at Kulanu, the Cincinnati Reform Jewish High School.

The entire community is invited to hear Rabbi Schechter’s remarks during Shabbat evening services, April 13, at 6:15 p.m. at Wise Center.

Wise Temple YoFI seder ty for families and extended families to enjoy the Passover holiday in a kid-friendly setting. During the seder, there will be plenty of age-appropriate music and liturgy, which will be drawn from “Sammy the Spider’s First Hagaddah.” In addition, the seder is extremely interactive and engaging for the children.

“The YoFI Seder has been an enormous success for our young families. We have seen the need for a family-friendly way to celebrate Passover and we have responded. The intergenerational attendance is wonderful, and we love that we have our own unique way to incorporate songs and storytelling to our youngest congregants during this special time of year. I could not be more proud of what YoFI and our committees have accomplished in these past years,” commented Mazer.

SEDER on page 19

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

VOL. 158 • NO. 36 THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 2012 6 NISSAN 5772 SHABBAT BEGINS FRIDAY 7:42 PM SHABBAT ENDS SATURDAY 8:43 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 ISSAC M. WISE Founder, Editor, Publisher, 1854-1900 LEO WISE Editor & Publisher, 1900-1928 RABBI JONAH B. WISE Editor & Publisher, 1928-1930 HENRY C. SEGAL Editor & Publisher, 1930-1985 PHYLLIS R. SINGER Editor & General Manager, 1985-1999 MILLARD H. MACK Publisher Emeritus NETANEL (TED) DEUTSCH Editor & Publisher BARBARA L. MORGENSTERN Senior Writer YEHOSHUA MIZRACHI NICOLE SIMON Assistant Editors ALEXIA KADISH Copy Editor JANET STEINBERG Travel Editor SONDRA KATKIN Dining Editor MARIANNA BETTMAN NATE BLOOM IRIS PASTOR RABBI A. JAMES RUDIN ZELL SCHULMAN RABBI AVI SHAFRAN PHYLLIS R. SINGER Contributing Columnists LEV LOKSHIN JANE KARLSBERG Staff Photographers JOSEPH D. STANGE Production Manager MICHAEL MAZER Sales ERIN WYENANDT Office Manager e Oldest Eng Th

ewish N h-J ew lis

For its fourth year, Isaac M. Wise Temple’s YoFI (Young Family Involvement) group is proud to present its Second Night Seder for families with young children. This year, the Seder will take place on Saturday, April 7, at Wise Center. We will begin at 5:30 p.m. with pre-seder activities, and will then sit down for the seder and festive meal at 6 p.m.

Wise Temple introduced YoFI several years ago as a way to address the social, spiritual and religious needs of families with young children. While the events are designed for children from birth to age 5, all of YoFI’s programs are geared for the family.

Therefore, older siblings, parents, grandparents and friends are more than welcome to participate. This year’s YoFI co-chairs are Elissa Mazer and Alison Moss.

The Second Night Seder is one of the most special programs that YoFI sponsors. It is an opportuni-

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is the director of the CSC Groundlings program and the CSC Shakespeare Summer Camp.

Also in April at Wise Temple, Rabbi Ilana Baden will teach a two-part class on Holocaust Literature, on April 10 and 17 at noon. Literature can be a vehicle of transportation and transformation, as it allows us to learn from and react to experiences that others have had. In this course, Rabbi Baden will share samples of literature on the Holocaust so that the

Est. 1854

Merchant of Venice” from a Jewish perspective, as well as his approach to the story and characters. Dubin has been a member of the CSC for 12 years as an actor and director.

Originally from Milwaukee, Wis., he has worked for several theaters across the country, including the Milwaukee Repertory Theater and the Unseam’d Shakespeare Company, and has appeared in a number of independent films. In addition to being an artistic associate and ensemble member, Dubin

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Wise Temple hosts Cincinnati Shakespeare Company (CSC) director Jeremy Dubin on Sunday, April 29, from 10 – 11 a.m., to discuss the upcoming production of “The Merchant of Venice.” One of Shakespeare’s most controversial plays to the modern audience because of its arguably antiSemitic themes, this play nevertheless presents a very deeply human and complex portrayal of Shylock, its Jewish antagonist. Dubin will discuss his direction of “The

r in Am ape er sp i

April Eitz Chayim classes at Wise Temple

THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE (USPS 019-320) is published weekly for $44 per year and $2.00 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.

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THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 2012

Local grocery stores fundraise for JFS food pantry The next time you are grocery shopping, you can easily help feed families in need. Three local grocery stores, Meijer, Remke/biggs, and Kroger, are currently collecting donations to benefit Jewish Family Service (JFS) food pantry.

Meijer will match every $10 donation given through its Simply Give Food Pantry Drive at the Marburg Avenue location now through May 19. Donation cards are available throughout the Marburg store and at JFS. Pick up a card, take it to the cashier when you

check out, and your $10 donation will be added to your grocery purchase and Meijer will send a $20 gift card to JFS. This is the second time Meijer has partnered with JFS food pantry for the Simply Give program. Two stores, the one on Marburg and the other in Loveland on Montgomery Road, partnered with JFS in November-December 2011. That promotion raised $1,240 for the pantry.

“Customers are getting very familiar with it and it gains momen-

tum each time. It is an easy way to make a donation to the food pantry—and to double their donation,” says John Purkiss, store director with Meijer. The Meijer family has designated a total of $1 million in 2012 to distribute among the many food pantries throughout the Midwest as matching funds in this promotion.

Remke/biggs at Highland and Ridge is making it easy for shoppers to donate $5, $10 or $20 to help Cincinnati families in need to celebrate Passover. On April 1, vol-

unteers with the Dr. Samuel S. Rockwern Passover Delivery of Jewish Family Service project will deliver over 400 boxes filled with Passover food to families experiencing financial difficulties.

“While I was grocery shopping at Remke/biggs, I saw the display asking for donations to help families in need celebrate Passover.

Because Passover is one of my favorite holidays, I wanted others to be able to enjoy it also,” said Leslie Reiss, who already supports JFS. She grabbed a ticket from the dis-

play with the amount she wanted to donate, handed it to the cashier, and the donation was added to her purchase. “It was an easy way to give an additional contribution to the JFS Passover project.”

The Remke/biggs promotion is good through April 8.

Kroger has an ongoing promotion to fundraise for JFS. By using a coded JFS Kroger gift card, 4 percent of all purchases, including gas and pharmacy, will be donated back to JFS. The cards are available by calling JFS.

Shalom Family treats parents to date night From changing diapers and wiping runny noses, to driving carpool and preparing dinner on the run, the life of a young parent can be hectic and exhausting. But now all the overworked, and often overwhelmed, moms and dads in the Jewish community will have a chance to relax and do something just for themselves when Shalom Family presents the ultimate way to unwind with a free Wine & Dine Date Night for Parents at The Art of Entertaining in O’Bryonville on Saturday, April 21, at 7 p.m.

The theme of the evening is Mid-East Feast, and will start with a sampling of select Israeli wines, the perfect complement to the fivecourse gourmet Mediterranean meal that will follow. Couples will be able to watch the culinary experts at the Art of Entertaining prepare the evening’s repast in the open-view kitchen, using the season’s freshest ingredients to bring

Enjoy a night out with Shalom Family and your significant other.

the tastes, textures and aromas of all the best Middle Eastern fare to the table. Afterward, guests can mix and mingle over dinner in the spacious yet intimate indoor dining area, or weather permitting, couples

can enjoy an evening under the stars on the outdoor patio. This event is open to parents in the Jewish Community who have children ages 12 and younger, and in which at least one parent is Jewish.

“Although parents have an opportunity to meet each other at our Shalom Family events, it’s often difficult for them to really get to know one another when they’re chasing after a toddler, watching their children come down a giant waterslide or waiting with them in line for a turn on a flying trapeze,” says Pam Saeks, director of Jewish Giving for The Manuel D. and Rhoda Mayerson Foundation. “That’s why we host a special Parents’ Night Out event every year to give them a chance to be with friends and make new ones. And not only will they have a chance to have an uninterrupted conversation, which is a novelty for many young parents, the entire event is free of charge, from the drinks and dinner right down to dessert!” she adds. “What could be better justification for getting a sitter and enjoying a great night out on the town together?”

Amy Friedman and her husband Jef moved back to Cincinnati after living away for eight years and didn’t really know anyone when they returned. “We decided to attend our first Shalom Family event, which happened to be for parents only,” explains Amy. “I was nervous about going since we hardly knew anyone. We figured if we weren’t having any fun we could leave early.

But I am so glad we went, because we had the best time! We met tons of people, ate some great food, and really enjoyed being in such great company. We actually ended up staying until the party ended!” she continues. “Many of the people we met at that initial event have become very close friends. It’s so nice to be treated to a night out with other parents. We really appreciate how Shalom Family caters to the needs of everyone in our family!”

PARENTS on page 21

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Translating U.S. pro-Israel advocacy Tears flow amidst a for Jewish communities abroad— determination for and taking care about context democracy

By Ron Kampeas Jewish Telegraphic Agency WASHINGTON (JTA) — It takes more than a translator to translate American-style proIsrael activism for foreign audiences.

Nearly a decade after an effort by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee to replicate its model overseas collapsed in acrimony, a range of Jewish organizations are helping smaller Diaspora Jewish communities enhance their advocacy. They have found receptive audiences.

In recent years, pro-Israel initiatives in a number of countries have taken on a higher profile.

In Canada, much of the Jewish communal advocacy apparatus was consolidated last year into the new Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs. In Britain, a commitment to sustain the pro-Israel message across party lines has reinvigorated “friends of Israel” groups in the three major parties. In France, the Jewish communal umbrella body, the CRIF, has an arm researching legal ways to push back against anti-Israel boycott efforts. In Germany, U.S. groups like the American Jewish Committee and the Israel Project have helped local communities set up informa-

tion events with Israeli speakers.

In their efforts to assist Jewish communities upgrade their Israel advocacy, U.S. organizations are building on relationships and on infrastructures that have existed for decades; in others they are starting anew.

In either case, pro-Israel activists say, the key lesson they have learned is that the American model cannot be imposed overseas wholesale. They note that the landscape facing pro-Israel activists in the U.S. is quite different from the one confronting Israel’s supporters in many foreign countries.

For starters, the U.S. has an almost uniquely adversarial relationship between the executive and legislative branches, something that makes lobbying legislators an effective means of influencing foreign policy. Many foreign countries have histories of troubled relationships between the Jewish and general populations that still resonate — a contrast to America’s relative philoSemitism. Finally, the political cultures of some foreign countries do not place the same value on the right to petition government.

Steve Rosen, the former AIPAC foreign policy director who now consults with a number

of Jewish communities in Europe, said the structural differences between the U.S. government and other democracies are paramount.

“Most of these countries have parliamentary systems of government, and in parliamentary systems it is rare for the legislature to second-guess the executive,” he said. “The party leader pretty much controls what the lawmakers do, especially on foreign policy.”

That clashes with the classic AIPAC credo outlined by its founder, Si Kenan, which leverages the tensions between the legislative and executive branches.

Rosen described the strategy by quoting Kenan: “Our job is to get the Senate to tell the president to order the State Department to stop beating up on Israel.”

Rosen was involved in an attempt by AIPAC in the early 2000s to encourage Jewish communities in Europe to organize and lobby on behalf of Israel.

AIPAC was set to unveil the program at its 2004 policy conference. It screened a video at the opening plenary featuring glowing testimonies from European Jews on the success of the training program.

ADVOCACY on page 20

By Maxine Dovere JointMedia News Service NEW YORK — The Jewish community in New York gathered for a memorial service at the Consulate of France Tuesday afternoon. The well-attended service was organized by Rabbis Joseph Potasnik and Avi Weiss.

Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove, Senior Rabbi of the Park Avenue Synagogue, offered the comfort of psalm and prayer. The warm sun belied the shutter felt deep in the souls of all who listened as Cantor Paul Zim intoned the “El Male Rachamim,” plaintively calling for the souls of the victims to be gathered to Gan Eden.

In a private conversation with Annette Herszkowicz, the aunt of Eva Sandler, widow of the assassinated Rabbi Jonathan Sandler and mother of Gavriel and Aryeh, she spoke of the joy and happiness the Sandlers were enjoying as they began a life of academic and outreach activities in the Jewish community of southwestern France. “They have killed innocents. Wonderful young people who had no time to enjoy life and happiness,” she said, as tears ran along her cheeks.

“They were so happy.”

Herszkowicz, who had “exchanged blessings” with her sister during a Sunday night telephone call, said she now had no words to say, no way to comfort her sister or her niece. She has not spoken with them since the tragedy occurred.

Jonathan and Ava Sandler had returned to their native France from their home in Jerusalem only seven months earlier. He would teach Torah to the Jewish community of southwestern France and do kiruv — outreach — in the community. At 30, he was already well known as a columnist in Kountrass, a Lithuanian Haredi monthly newspaper distributed in France and Israel. He did outreach work as a volunteer for Shoresh, bringing Judaism to secular Jews.

Ava, a mother of three small children, could be close to her mother. Of Sephardic heritage, she was raised in Paris. Jonathan was of Ashkenazi background.

He had studied in Toulouse before making aliyah. Several members of his family had survived Auschwitz, said Herszkowicz.

“They were overjoyed about life, their children, and one another. Jonathan was scholarly, dedicated to enhancing Torah knowledge. They were reveling in their growing family, pleased with the

Courtesy of Maxine Dovere

Annette Herszkowicz, aunt of Ava Alulon Sandler, the widow of Rabbi Jonathan Sandler, who was murdered with their two small sons as they waited outside Ozar HaTorah School in Toulouse, France.

birth of a little girl, following her two big brothers,” said their disconsolate aunt.

The massacre at the entrance to the Ozar HaTorah Jewish school in Toulouse, France, brought death to four members of Annette Herszkowicz’s family.

Miriam Monsonego, the 8-yearold executed by bullet to the head, was a cousin. Jonathan Sandler had come to France to teach at the school her father directed.

In Israel, MK Danny Danon, Chair of the Knesset Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs Committee, called for an urgent debate stressing that “the attack on the Jewish school in France is a red warning light for the whole of world Jewry. The countries of the world must unite against such attacks against the Jewish People, and take action to destroy the seeds of anti-Semitic terrorism being planted around the world.

We shall not permit the pogroms of the early 20th century to be repeated in Europe.”

In New York, Consul General Philippe Lalliot spoke privately with JointMedia News Service.

Calling Monday “a difficult moment for all, but a day of solidarity,” the Consul said, “the entire national community of France is devastated by the tragedy. There is a profound sense of unity.”

Consul General Lalliot continued, saying, “We have to educate people and make sure that all children learn from history.” He stated with determination, “This will not happen. Never Again. Never again.”

NATIONAL • 7

THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 2012

J Street and Israel are still arguing—but on friendlier terms

By Ron Kampeas Jewish Telegraphic Agency WASHINGTON (JTA) — The first Israeli government official to ever appear before J Street got a rousing, whistling, foot-stomping reception.

And that was it, as far as the welcome went.

The speech delivered Monday night at J Street’s annual conference by Baruch Binah, the deputy chief of mission at the Washington embassy, was a compendium of the Israeli government’s differences with the liberal pro-Israel group — and, accordingly, it was not interrupted once by cheers or cries of agreement, and Binah left the stage to the lightest of applause.

Yet what was noteworthy was that he turned up at all, something made evident later in the evening when Ehud Olmert, the former Israeli prime minister, told the gathering that Binah’s appearance was “historic,” even if it was mostly about disagreement.

“The fact that the government decided to send him is the most important thing,” Olmert said, triggering another round of cheers, applause and table-thumping from among the some 2,500 conference attendees at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.

Binah’s very presence was emblematic of how J Street seems to have gravitated toward deeper identifications with the country whose interests it has claimed to defend since its 2008 inception— as well as toward the mainstream pro-Israel community in the United States.

Israeli officials monitoring the event said they were surprised by a tone they considered more proIsrael than they had expected.

They contrasted this year’s J Street conference with last year’s.

In 2011, the group opened its conference by honoring Peter Beinart, the journalist who had made waves with an essay warning Israel that it was losing American youth; Izzeldin Abuelaish, the Gaza doctor who remained committed to peace in the wake of the 2009 deaths of three of his daughters from Israeli fire during Operation Cast Lead; and Sara Benninga, a founder of the Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity Movement, which protests Israeli policies in eastern Jerusalem’s Arab neighborhoods and condemns “ethnic privilege” in Israel.

This year all three opening speakers were Israelis who are participants in the mainstream of the country’s political debate: Amos Oz, the novelist and peace

You are invited to AJC’s

National Human Relations Award Dinner honoring

Michael J. Graham, S.J. President, Xavier University

Keynote Speaker: Robert A. McDonald Chairman and CEO, Procter & Gamble Co.

Tuesday, April 3, 2012 6 p.m. reception 7 p.m. dinner & program Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza Pavillion Ballroom

Reservations at www.ajc.org/cincinnati-graham or 621.4020 Courtesy of Ron Kampeas

Left to right, Maya Lee Parritz, a leader at J Street U; essayist Peter Beinart; Stav Shaffir, a leader of Israel’s social justice movement; Rory Silver, a J Street U leader; and Hillel Ben-Sasson, a co-founder of the Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity Movement, address a session at J Street’s national conference on how young activists can transform Zionism, March 25, 2012.

activist; Stav Shaffir, a founder of the social justice protest movement launched last summer in Israel; and Michael Bitton, the mayor of Yerucham, a development town. Sessions included officials of The Israel Project, an Israel advocacy group that consults with the Israeli government — and one that J Street had once attacked as being unrepresentative of American Jews.

Shaffir earned applause when she defined her movement as the natural heir to the “crazy, beautiful dream” of the early Zionists.

In all, it was a striking shift for a group that last year at its conference featured a panel discussion on the boycott Israel movement — which J Street opposes — that included a representative of Jewish Voice for Peace, which describes itself as a part of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.

The shift did not escape the notice of Israeli officials. The decision by Jeremy Ben-Ami, J Street’s president, to pronouncedly distance himself from Beinart’s latest initiative — a call to boycott of settlement products — was the deciding factor in sending Binah, Israeli officials told JTA. The embassy’s announcement that Binah would attend came a day after Ben-Ami told Atlantic blogger Jeffrey Goldberg that Beinart’s initiative would not be productive.

“I don’t think that it makes any sense to put negative pressure on people whose behavior you hope to change,” Ben-Ami told The Atlantic. “I think that the way that Israelis will feel comfortable making the compromises and the sacrifices — and Israel as a whole,

not just the settlers — is when they really feel that not only American Jews, but the United States, is going to be there for them.”

The point was to establish a relationship with a group that the Israeli government has come around to perceiving as significant, said a senior Israeli official.

“A critical conversation is better than no conversation because apathy is our enemy,” the official said. “They understand it’s a process — next time they may get the ambassador.”

The point was dialogue “among friends, even if there are differences, even if it is unpleasant.”

To that end, Binah stoically, in apprehensive tones, slogged through a speech replete with rebuke, and the audience just as stoically bit its lips and refrained from interjecting, although there was an occasional derisive yelp.

“We need you to stand with us.

It is as simple as that and someone ought to say it. Internal activism is a central part of democratic society, but pressures on the elected government of Israel can present us with a problem, davka when we need you the most,” Binah said, using a Hebrew word meaning, in this context, “especially.”

Binah suggested that J Street did not appreciate its potential to harm Israel in the organization’s capacity as a lobbying group.

“I respectfully submit that this relatively new role lays responsibilities before you, which I am certain have not been adequately considered,” he said. “This, when you bring lawmakers to Israel, please make sure they come out with a full picture.”

8 • NATIONAL

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

Talkin’ baseball: Jewish Major Looking into Anne Leaguers and why we care about them Frank’s unblinking eyes

By Peter Ephross Jewish Telegraphic Agency NEW YORK (JTA) — Nearly all fans of baseball history have heard of Hank Greenberg. Most have heard of Al Rosen. But fewer have heard of Cal Abrams, and hardly any, it’s safe to say, have heard of Lou Limmer. All four are members of a compelling team — the 165 American Jews who played Major League Baseball between the 1870s and the end of the 2010 season.

Why should we care about Jews who played in the Major Leagues?

Baseball helped American Jews feel at home and helped nonJewish Americans feel comfortable around them. For instance, there’s the famous Greenberg story of sitting out a game on Yom Kippur in 1934. The actions of the slugging Tigers’ first baseman along with his home runs made him a hero to Jews and non-Jews.

The conundrum of whether to play on Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, has resurfaced for many players, from Sandy Koufax deciding not to pitch in the first game of the 1965 World Series to, more recently, outfielder Shawn Green, both of the Dodgers.

Courtesy of Jewish Major Leaguers

Adam Greenberg, who was hit in the head in his first and only Major League plate appearance with the Chicago Cubs in 2005, is one of more than 165 Jewish Major Leaguers.

Every time a star player rests on the High Holidays, it generates national headlines and fosters Jewish pride. Of course, non-stars have to make the same call.

The story of Jews in baseball goes beyond the well-trod turf of the “High Holidays dilemma.”

Rebutting anti-Semitism and fighting hecklers was not uncommon for Jewish players, even when the hecklers were on the opposing

bench. In particular Rosen, a former amateur boxer, wasn’t shy about taking on hecklers.

Racial awareness is another theme. Most Jewish players understood some of the prejudices faced by black players. Some, like Abrams, felt a special bond with their black teammates.

“I associated with them because we had a rapport about being with each other,” Abrams said of his black teammates on the Brooklyn Dodgers, including Jackie Robinson. “We kibitzed around with each other, but I didn’t go out with them. I mean, I wouldn’t go into the end of town to go dancing with the black people, but whenever we could we were together clowning around and kidding around.”

Jewish pride is a recurrent trope, too. Ron Blomberg made many New York Yankees’ ushers happy when he made his debut for the team in 1967.

“Most of them were Jewish, with names like Hymowitz or Lichstein, and three or four of them told me they never thought they would ever see a Jew play baseball in Yankee Stadium,” Blomberg recalled.

“They had tears in the eyes and said to me, ‘You little Yid, you’re someone I can look up to now.’ ”

On Capitol Hill, Gary Ackerman served with a sharp wit and a stubborn candor

By Ron Kampeas Jewish Telegraphic Agency WASHINGTON (JTA) — When Rep. Gary Ackerman decided to retire, he did it in the same manner that he served in Congress for the past three decades: on his own terms.

The veteran New York Democrat had insisted for weeks that he would run again, so the announcement of his retirement came as quite a surprise.

Redistricting had left him with a viable district — albeit one that shifted his current district straddling the Queens-Nassau County border deeper into Queens — and until right before his announcement he was determined to maintain an open Democratic primary field.

His office’s statement announcing his retirement seemed to suggest that the reason he didn’t bow out sooner was that he wanted to prove he was not leaving scared.

“On the eve of the Federal Circuit Court’s approval of Congressional district lines that were seen to be extraordinarily favorable to Ackerman, and with the primary-free backing of the Democratic Party virtually

assured, Ackerman has informed his family, staff, friends and party leaders that he will not seek a 16th term of office,” said the statement from his office on March 16, a day before the court published its approval.

His closest colleagues were taken by surprise.

“I had just spoken to him last week about the new districts, about the machinations,” Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) told JTA. “He was sounding like a candidate for re-election.”

Walking out proud was important for Ackerman who, associates say, had been spooked by a major fundraising push against him in the 2010 elections, after he had accepted the endorsement of J Street, the liberal pro-Israel group.

Ackerman handily won that race with 63 percent of the vote, but he told associates that the amount he spent to push back against charges he was weak on Israel was many times the $20,000 he received from J Street.

In January 2011, Ackerman cut off J Street when the group said it could not oppose a proposed U.N. Security Council resolution that would have condemned Israel for its settlement policy.

“The decision to endorse the Palestinian and Arab effort to condemn Israel in the U.N. Security Council is not the choice of a concerned friend trying to help,” he said in a statement severing ties with J Street. “It is rather the befuddled choice of an organization so open-minded about what constitutes support for Israel that its brains have fallen out.”

In fact, J Street had not endorsed the resolution, but had explained why it was not taking a position. But Ackerman’s characteristically sharp turn of phrase garnered more attention than the missed nuance.

Ackerman in a conference call with reporters Tuesday said the pushback for his association with J Street did not unsettle him and that his excoriation of the group was a product of his own tendency to dress down friends. He said he still liked the group.

“I took them rather severely to task — they had made a huge mistake. Friends do not let friends drive drunk, but that does not mean you don’t like them,” he said, borrowing an analogy that J Street’s leaders have used to defend their own criticisms of Israeli policies.

By Edmon J. Rodman Jewish Telegraphic Agency LOS ANGELES (JTA) — Is the image of Anne Frank heading in the same commercial direction as Edvard Munch’s “The Scream”?

Munch’s Expressionist painting, once an iconic representation of horror, for years has been available as a party inflatable, an action figure mask, even a bobblehead.

With the installation of a lifelike wax figure of the famed Holocaust diarist on display in Madame Tussauds in Berlin, could Frank’s image be susceptible to the same misappropriation and exploitation?

Considering that a 1999 issue of Time magazine listed Anne Frank as one of the most important people of the 20th century, and that the “Diary of Anne Frank” is one of the best-selling books of all time, it probably should not be surprising us that publishers and manufacturers are cranking out Anne Frank posters, postcards, limited edition T-shirts and key chains in an effort to cash in on her celebrity.

The fact that Madame Tussauds has locations worldwide indicates tourist acceptance of the museums, which are filled with kitschy wax likenesses of celebrated personalities such as John Kennedy, Albert Einstein, Marilyn Monroe and Rihanna — all done up in unblinking cosmetic perfection. But are we ready for a young Jewish martyr and personification of the Holocaust to be melted into the waxy mix?

It’s not entirely clear. The German publication Der Spiegel noted that the wax figure of Adolf Hitler, which the museum reintroduced after it was beheaded by a visitor in 2008, is in the next room. Chris Hale, a producer who lives in Berlin, wrote on his blog that Frank’s likeness is displayed in “the city where the diabolical plan to murder all the Jews of Europe was hatched.”

But with several metal sculptures of Frank already on display in the U.S. and Europe — there’s even one near the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam — why all the fuss?

Isn’t a wax figure just a sculpture done in a different medium?

Madame Tussauds did not respond to JTA’s request for comment. But museum spokeswoman Nina Zerbe told Der Spiegel that the museum wanted to convey a “sense of optimism” with the figure and that “It’s important to let the story continue.”

Perhaps it is the motionless three-dimensional quality of the wax likeness. Frank is shown seated at her writing desk in the attic room made famous in her diary, complete with frozen smile that

Courtesy of Christian Kielmann

A wax likeness of Anne Frank has been installed at Madame Tussauds in Berlin — in the room next to the Hitler figure.

adds a dimension of jittery concern. The projects that put her and her world into motion — a Tony Award-winning Broadway play, a movie, a Japanese animation, a PBS movie of her life and a CD with a virtual tour of the house where she hid — all escape this effect.

An Anne Frank comic book even seems to capture her spirit better.

In 2010, The Anne Frank House in Amsterdam approached two American comic book artists, writer Sid Jacobson and illustrator Ernie Colon, to create “Anne Frank, The Anne Frank House Authorized Graphic Biography.”

Published that year by Hill and Wang, the book was among the first major projects in print to move beyond the boundaries of presenting Frank simply in word and in photos.

“Can Anne Frank’s Story Be Told in a Comic Book?” Time magazine asked when the book first came out, foreshadowing some of the concern that the boundary-breaking Frank wax figure has received.

“With a graphic format we could make a more truthful presentation of the story,” Jacobson said in a recent interview from his home in Los Angeles. From traveling to Amsterdam and seeing the house and the research, he knew he wanted to put the Frank story in context by also telling the story of the rise of Nazism.

“Seeing a person that you know introduced in a few quick panels is so much more effective than reading,” said Jacobson, a former executive with Marvel and Harvey Comics and one of the writers of the comic book classic “Richie Rich.” Jacobson also was the author of another retelling of tragedy, “The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation.”

NATIONAL / INTERNATIONAL • 9

THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 2012

‘America’s rabbi’ seeks congressional seat

Court ruling against historic Berlin shul suggests congregation is a fiction

By Robert Wiener New Jersey Jewish News

By Toby Axelrod Jewish Telegraphic Agency

(NJ Jewish News) — Known by some as “America’s rabbi,” he is a Lubavitcher rabbi, a television host, frequent talk-show guest, and the author of 27 books — among them such provocative titles as “Kosher Sex” and “Kosher Jesus.”

As of March 12, Englewood, N.J., resident Shmuley Boteach can add another role to his long resume — Republican candidate for Congress.

Boteach is the pick of the Republican organizations in Hudson, Passaic and Bergen counties to run against either of the two incumbent Democrats — Bill Pascrell, currently representing District 8, or District 9’s Steve Rothman — now locked in a primary fight to represent the redrawn ninth district.

Unlike the candidates for the GOP’s presidential nomination, Boteach views such hot and divisive issues as birth control, abortion, and gay rights as distractions from America’s key social problems. He doesn’t think that focusing on what he calls this “trifecta of sexual issues that dominate the political landscape” will bring “healing to America.”

Instead, he proposes changing the subject.

“I believe the social-sexual obsession of the United States is destroying America in general and is particularly hurtful to the Republicans,” he told NJ Jewish

International Briefs Al Jazeera pledges not to broadcast Merah footage (JTA) — Al Jazeera said it would not broadcast video footage shot by Mohammed Merah during his attacks on soldiers and on a Jewish school in Toulouse.

“In accordance with Al Jazeera’s code of ethics, given the video does not add any information that is not already in the public domain, its news channels will not be broadcasting any of its contents,” the network said Tuesday.

Al Jazeera also said it was declining all requests from other media outlets for copies of the footage.

Earlier in the day, French President Nicolas Sarkozy had called on television networks

News in a March 14 phone interview.

And while the reason he is a Republican is that he is a social conservative, in Boteach’s view that stance is not only about these three issues. “For me,” he said, “social conservatism is about the American family.”

And for Boteach, that particular issue is addressed through the prism of his own particular perspective; he is running for Congress, he said, in order to “bring Jewish values to the discourse,” with the specific aim of keeping families together. As a child of divorce, he said, he views stable marriages as an imperative.

To help further this goal, he said, if he gains the seat to become the first rabbi ever to become a member of the House, his top legislative priority would be to make marital counseling tax-deductible.

Such a move “would give families the financial incentive to get the help they need. The distraction of a 30-year debate on gay marriage is not going to save heterosexual marriage,” he said.

Although Boteach believes constitutionally guaranteed religious freedom would be violated if institutions such as the Catholic Church were compelled to provide insurance coverage for birth control to employees, he declared, “I believe in contraception. Judaism believes in contraception. My values are informed by Judaism. The religion does not view sex as being for procreation only,” he said, “we believe in sex for intimacy.” “that might have these images” not to broadcast the footage “out of respect for the victims — out of respect for the Republic.”

The edited footage was sent on a USB flash drive to Al Jazeera in Paris. Al Jazeera sent the drive to police on Monday, Reuters reported.

The package reportedly was mailed to Al Jazeera on March 21, the day that police began their siege of Merah’s Toulouse apartment. Merah was killed following a 30-hour standoff when police stormed his apartment. He was shot in the head while jumping out a window.

A letter accompanying the footage said that Merah had acted on behalf of al-Qaida, The Associated Press reported.

Merah had confessed during the standoff with police that he killed the three soldiers and the four people at the Ozar Hatorah school — a rabbi and his two young sons, and the daughter of the school’s principal.

BERLIN (JTA) — On paper, it was one of Berlin’s oldest shuls, a rare congregation on the east side of this once-divided city that with the help of government subsidies said it maintained services for 1,000 members.

But in reality it’s not clear how many Jews, if any, attended the Adass Yisroel synagogue, located behind a courtyard on Tucholskystrasse in this city’s Mitte section. Nor is it clear what, exactly, the people behind the shul did with the money they received from the government of the state of Berlin.

Last week, a Berlin court ruled that Adass Yisroel cheated the state and must pay back about $265,000 in state subsidies, as well as all legal costs resulting from a lawsuit filed by the congregation against the government in 2010.

Adass Yisroel could appeal the ruling, but if it holds, it could spell the end of this rare East Berlin congregation.

The congregation was re-established in 1997 after German unification, claiming it was the sole successor to a congregation founded in 1869. It claimed 1,000 members, so it was eligible for approximately $862,000 annually in government subsidies.

Between 2001 and 2006, Adass Yisroel received $636,000 to

$803,000 each year from the government. The synagogue is not part of the United Jewish Community of Berlin and thus did not receive funds from that body.

It claimed 1,000 members, so it was eligible for approximately $862,000 annually in government subsidies.

When the state tried to audit Adass Yisroel in 2008, the congregation refused to open its books, maintaining that its status as a religious organization made it exempt from such an audit. The government stopped funding Adass Yisroel in 2010, demanding repayment of some of the subsidies it had paid to the synagogue, spurring the shul’s lawsuit.

An investigation found that the congregation had claimed government subsidies for nonexistent personnel and for a fleet of cars with-

out submitting a drivers’ log.

Synagogue director Mario Offenberg and his wife also reportedly charged the state for their annual business-class flight to Spain, claiming they were visiting the local Jewish community.

Tagesspiegel reported that the Berlin Senate told the court it doubted that Adass Yisroel actually had any members other than Offenberg. There was no evidence of any articles of incorporation, board of directors, personnel or members, the court found.

Explaining the court’s decision on March 22, Judge Christoph Heydemann said the congregation did not have the right to refuse to open its books.

Neither Offenberg nor the congregation’s attorney, Raimund Koerner, have indicated whether or not they will appeal the court’s decision. They do not need to do so until the court issues its ruling in writing, which will happen in April, according to a court spokesperson.

The spokesperson said that neither Offenberg nor Koerner appeared in the Berlin courtroom on March 22.

Offenberg did not respond to inquiries by JTA. More than 20,000 Jews are estimated to live in Berlin today. Some 11,000 belong to the main community, which funds several synagogues across the denominational spectrum. There are also several independent congregations.

10 • ISRAEL

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

Increasing number of Israeli entrepreneurs focusing on social justice

By Mati Wagner Jewish Telegraphic Agency TEL AVIV (JTA) — Capitalism in pursuit of social justice.

The notion is becoming more common in Israel as a new generation of entrepreneurs and innovators in the fields of high-tech, industry and real estate is delving into philanthropy.

“The culture of venture capital and the startup nation also transfers into innovation in the field of philanthropy,” Andres Spokoiny, president of the Jewish Funders Network, said in a telephone interview ahead of the Jewish Funders Network International Conference that was held here last week. “One of the goals of the conference is to foster networking among highly empowered, highly independent individuals.”

Cecile Blilious, who comes from the high-tech world, is a managing partner at Impact First Investments and one of the new philanthropists. Her company funds enterprises that are economically viable and have a positive social impact.

Blilious also helped found the Al-Bawader private equity fund, which invests exclusively in businesses in Arab-Israeli communi-

Courtesy of Jewish Funders Network

Right to left, Israeli President Shimon Peres with Hubert Leven, president of the Rashi Foundation, and Andres Spokoiny, president and CEO of the Jewish Funders Network, on opening night of the Jewish Funders Network International Conference in Jerusalem, March 20, 2012.

ties, and is a board member of Neurotech Solutions, which developed a test that can screen young children and adults for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

“This is a social business product that can be harnessed not just to make money but to make the world a better place,” Blilious said in an interview during lunch break between sessions, “and it is com-

ing out of Israel. That is the best hasbara [public relations] possible.”

Following a session titled “Developing a Social Capital Market in Israel,” Bank Hapoalim Chairman Yair Seroussi told JTA that his bank spends 50 million shekels (about $13.4 million) annually on philanthropic activities. They include sending a fleet of mobile libraries to poor neigh-

borhoods, facilitating computer access in public schools and a nationwide program in which thousands of Bank Hapoalim employees volunteer every year to teach 11th-graders how to manage their personal finances.

“We are sensitive to what is happening in Israeli society and we are reacting to it,” Seroussi said.

Particularly striking at the conference was the large contingent of Israeli entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and high-tech innovators focused on tikkun olam, repairing the world, using the same business know-how that got more than 60 Israeli companies listed on the Nasdaq — more than any country outside North America and China.

Chanoch Barkat, a former venture capitalist with Apax Partners Israel, is doing just that. His Dualis Social Venture Fund provides counseling and financing to a chain of five restaurants – two in Tel Aviv and one each in Ra’anana, Yahud and Beersheva – that employs high school dropouts.

In an interview, Barkat acknowledged the restaurants are not as profitable as other food establishments, but said they are

self-sustaining. By teaching highrisk teenagers such basic business skills as punctuality and commitment, he said, the restaurants save the state millions of dollars in crime prevention, rehabilitation and welfare costs.

“I believe there is a growing opportunity for developing new models in the world of social change by adopting and implementing tools from the world of finance,” Barkat said.

Forbes magazine’s 2012 list of billionaires listed 13 Israelis, including Shari Arison, who owns a controlling share in Bank Hapoalim and Housing and Construction, one of Israel’s largest building firms; Nochi Dankner, who has holdings in some of Israel’s largest industries and financial institutions; and Idan Ofer, who owns the Zim shipping concern and has stakes in aviation, high-tech, private equity, real estate and media. All are members of a growing cadre of high-powered Israeli philanthropists.

Less prominent Israeli millionaires, who numbered more than 10,000 in 2010, according to a Merrill Lynch report, also are increasing their involvement in philanthropic pursuits.

Einstein online: Internet archive offers window into physicist’s life and work

Israeli-built robots shoot for U.S. competition

By Linda Gradstein Jewish Telegraphic Agency

By Ronen Shnidman JointMedia News Service

JERUSALEM — Ever wonder about Albert Einstein’s love life?

Now you can get a firsthand glimpse by searching the newly improved Einstein Archives website, which relaunched Monday with expanded offerings.

The online archive now makes available digitally 2,000 documents from Einstein’s papers and other sources, as well as a searchable catalogue of more than 80,000 documents held in the Einstein Archives at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

“You see a person who makes mistakes, crosses things out and rewrites just like everyone else,” said Menachem Ben-Sasson, the Hebrew University’s president. “It shows that even a genius is human.”

Regarding Einstein’s romantic life, there are dozens of love letters that he wrote to his future second wife while he was still married to his first. There is also a letter from his mistress Betty Neumann, who fell in love with Einstein in 1923 when she was 23 and he was 44.

Their affair lasted nearly a year. In the letter, written in 1938, Neumann asks Einstein, who had

moved to the U.S., for help escaping Germany. Einstein is able to help her and she escapes the Holocaust.

Courtesy of Alfred Eisenstaedt via CC

An online archive of documents related to Albert Einstein, pictured here at his home in Princeton, N.J., in 1949, has recently been relaunched and upgraded.

Einstein, who lived from 1879 to 1955, was a founder of the Hebrew University and one of its most loyal supporters. In his will he bequeathed all of his writings — as well as the rights to the use of his image — to the university.

The online archive is the result

of a partnership between the Albert Einstein Archives at the Hebrew University, the Einstein Papers Project at the California Institute of Technology and the Princeton University Press.

An earlier version of the site, launched in 2003, featured 900 manuscripts and a catalogue of 43,000 records.

“The renewed site is another expression of the Hebrew University’s intent to share with the entire cultural world this vast intellectual property which has been deposited into its hand by Einstein himself,” said Hanoch Gutfreund, a physicist, former president of the Hebrew University and the academic head of the Einstein Archive, in a statement.

The current digitization project is funded by the Polonsky Foundation UK. Leonard Polonsky recently helped digitize a similar archive belonging to Isaac Newton.

At a Jerusalem news conference, Polonsky cited the fates of the ancient Library of Alexandria, which burned in a fire in 48 BCE, and of the libraries in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

“What happened to the libraries there?” he asked. “Now these documents can never be destroyed.”

TEL AVIV (JNS) — Forward Omri Casspi made the leap from Israel to the National Basketball Association in 2009, but the latest Israeli hoopsters seeking to compete on American soil aren’t human.

Earlier this month, several thousand spectators watched student-built robots from across Israel square off for two days on a custom-sized basketball court at Tel Aviv’s Nokia Arena.

Dozens of high school teams built their own robots for a chance to represent Israel in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) World Championship, to be held at St. Louis’s Edward Jones Convention Center from April 25-28. This year’s St. Louis-bound teams include Team Elysium from Maccabim-Reut-Modiin’s Mor High School, Team Orbit from Binyamina’s ORT High School, and Raptor Force Engineering from Jim Elliot High School in Lodi, Calif.

FIRST is a worldwide non-profit that encourages students to explore and develop their abilities in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) disciplines in a fun and supportive environment. Founded in 1989 by technologist and Segway

inventor Dean Kamen, FIRST currently has branches in five countries — Brazil, Canada, Israel, Mexico and the U.S. — with over 250,000 school-age children and 68,000 adult team mentors participating annually in competitive events.

Six weeks ahead of the regional final in Tel Aviv, 46 teams of high school students and their adult mentors were tasked with using their knowledge of science and engineering principles to build game-play robots. The student-built robots were required to have the following basketball-related capabilities: shooting free-throws; gathering rebounds to convert field goals; and attempting to balance between one and three robots on seesaws placed in the middle of the court.

During the season-ending playoffs, teams had to take things one step further and forge alliances with two partner teams — a process that resembled a schoolyard kickball draft.

Kamen — whose father, wellknown American Jewish comic illustrator Jack Kamen, designed the FIRST logo—was a highly visible figure in this year’s regional competition in Israel. Wearing a bright red Hawaiian shirt, the younger Kamen served as a referee and an Englishlanguage game announcer during the two-day event.

SOCIAL LIFE • 11

THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 2012

An evening with Michael Oren, ANNOUNCEMENTS Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. ARE FR EE! EE A crowd of about 700 greater Cincinnati

community members filled the Mayerson

B IR THS • B AT /B AR M I T ZVAHS

JCC’s Amberley Room to capacity the

E NGAGE ME N TS • W E DDINGS

evening of Saturday, Jan. 21, to hear

B IR THD AYS • A NNIVE R SAR IE S

Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren speak.

The event was presented by the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati and its Jewish Community Relations Council, in collaboration with the Wolf Center for Arts and Ideas at the Mayerson JCC, and was funded by a grant from the Gettler Family Foundation. Ambassador Oren spoke for approximately 30 minutes about Israel’s challenges and successes in an environment of uncertainty and then took questions from the audience.

Ambassador Oren at the podium

Photos continued on page 13.

Gary Heiman

Place your FREE FREE announcement in The American Israelite Newspaper & Website by sending an email to articles@americanisraelite.com

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THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 2012

CINCINNATI JEWISH LIFE • 13

U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot (right) and aide with Eddie Paul (center)

Ben Gettler, Michael Rapp and Ambassador Oren

Brett Caller, president of the Jewish Federation; Gary Greenberg, president of the Jewish Community Relations Council; Ambassador Oren; Gary Heiman, president and CEO of Standard Textile and chairman of The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati; Shep Englander, CEO of the Jewish Federation

Jewish Federation and Mayerson JCC staff with Ambassador Oren

Michael Fisher, CEO of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center with Michael Oren

U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt, Ambassador Oren, Shep Englander, Joyce Garver Keller

14 • DINING OUT

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KT’s Barbeque — for Passover Seder?

By Nicole Simon Contributing Editor If you were to tell Kenny Tessel, the outspoken owner and main cook of KT’s Barbecue, that “food is food and barbecue is barbecue,” he would serve up some of his restaurant’s fare with a dash of his personality in order to prove you wrong.

And that is what you can expect from Tessel’s eatery in Reading— character driven charm and very, very good food, made just for you and your next (Passover) event.

Kenny Tessel, a native born Cincinnatian, has been serving and standing by his high quality, offthe-grill foods out of his Reading location for the past seven years.

After having spent time in California as a scriptwriter, actor and personal cook to the stars, the Ohio University graduate returned home to follow in his family’s footsteps as a restaurateur. Cooking was a constant in Tessel’s family, as they owned Stanley’s Deli of Golf Manor. Kessel continues the tradition of giving the community the highest standard quality foods.

“I’ve always been the cook in my group of friends,” noted Tessel. From his time at Walnut Hills High School through being out on the West Coast, he experimented with what his friends liked food-wise. He has spent years working on such items as ribs, chicken and brisket. He has also perfected a number of recipes, some of which came from his family.

Tessel is very interested in expanding his customers’ palate.

Looking around at his Reading area fast-food competition, he wanted to remind the community “here you get quality food, it’s a good price for something that’s homemade.”

The cole slaw, the potato salad, the brisket, it’s all made from items that can be bought at grocery stores and made at home and can make for a Passover dinner.

“We’re very different from any other barbecue place in town.”

According to Tessel, you can’t boil and steam ribs, bake them and call it barbecue. “Slow, smoked, over wood ” and using a combination of white oak, sugar maple and cherry wood will give the food a lighter smoke. And he also doesn’t oversmoke the barbecue with hickory, which he claims would give unsuspecting eaters indigestion.

The aroma of good stuff grilling will entice your nostrils and get you in the door. Once inside the cozy little restaurant, I found familiar faces on the establishment’s walls. Signed photos of actors and directors praise Tessel and his food—both from the present time, and from the time when Tessel was the personal chef to celebrities such as Rosanne Barr and Dean Martin’s family.

In more recent times, the core of KT’s Barbecue’s business has been based around catering and pre-orders. Tessel is willing to do

the cooking for you and reported that he does Shabbat dinners, Passover brisket dinners and so on, as long as they are ordered a few days in advance, as Tessel does not mass-produce food—he makes his orders special. “I’m here to make sure your brisket dinner is the best brisket dinner you’ve ever had in your life,” Tessel said.

KT’s has a Passover meal package; roast brisket dinners, a generous 1/3 pound portion of the brisket, plus carrots, potatoes, onions and gravy, all for $12.99 per person. You could also order his homemade chopped liver, which is made with real shmaltz. He will also do outside recipes—Tessel reports if you come in with a recipe wishing for him to make, you would have to pay for the cost of ingredients and the cost of making up the recipe, but he’ll do it.

As long as the order is made in advance, as walk-ins lead to unpredictable availability.

In terms of catering, Tessel has done office parties, bar mitzvahs, weddings and more. Anything on the menu—smoked barbecue, homemade sides, soups and desserts—is available, as are off the menu items. “We’ll work with you; if you want us to serve it or if you prefer to pick it up. We’ll make your recipes if you wish. I can prepare for two or 2,000,” he added.

For more health conscious eaters, KT’s offers healthy-style barbecue choices—the meat is already high quality and sauce is on the side.

In addition, KT’s also is vegetarian friendly. KT’s has a black-eyed pea salad, the baked beans are vegetarian and most of the soups are made with a vegetable stock.

Tessel said he loves to cook, and it comes out in the finished product.

The dry rub, and the smoky flavor of the barbecue chicken is enticing. The brisket smelled of Passovers passed.

The baked beans, the potato salad with its chunks of red potatoes in a creamy mixture and the combination of the various cheeses in the mac and cheese made for wonderful sides. For dessert, there’s the hot corn bread, which apparently can go like hot cakes. There are also apple crisps and a flourless chocolate cake option, but they need to be ordered in advance.

Remember, if you want to have KT’s provide your Passover brisket dinner or chopped liver, let Tessel know early so he can make it up for you. Tessel requests orders be made at least two days in advance of pickup.

KT’s Barbecue is open on Monday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Tuesday to Friday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and on Saturday from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. He is closed on Sunday except for pre-orders or catering.

KT’s Barbecue 8501 Reading Road Cincinnati, OH 45215 (513) 761-0200

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16 • OPINION

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Strafing or sanctions?

It has become an article of faith for many that economic pressure on Iran is futile, that negotiations will only buy the mullahcracy time. To disagree is apostasy.

In this view, the apostate-inchief is President Obama. Yes, he declared at the recent American Israel Public Affairs Committee convention in Washington that “I will not hesitate to use force when it is necessary” regarding Iran.

But he is nevertheless inclined to give the unprecedented sanctions that have been placed on Iran some more time to, he hopes, convince the country’s leaders to see the wisdom in abandoning their “peaceful” nuclear program.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trigger finger is itchier.

He has insinuated that Israel may feel the need to move militarily against Iran sooner. (And Mr. Obama acknowledged Israel’s right to do what it judges it must.) What seemed to emerge from the AIPAC convention and a private meeting

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

Dear Editor, Tougher Action on Iran is Needed.

There’s a war going on around the world. It’s not a traditional war, but make no mistake about it: The Iranian regime is waging a covert war against us and our friends and allies.

In the past decade, the Iranian regime has made clear its intent toward the United States of America and our allies.

The evidence is on the table.

We should not be hesitant to bring that evidence forward and talk about it openly.

They’re behind the more powerful improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that have maimed and killed our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. In some instances they’ve supported the IED development; in other cases they’ve even built the components for IEDs in Iran. Their proxy regime in Syria also funneled terrorists into Iraq to wound and kill our troops.

In October, the FBI disclosed an alleged plot by the Iranian regime to work with a Mexican drug cartel to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington. We’ve also heard reports of Iranian collaboration with Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez.

This is part of a long pattern of behavior. For almost 30 years, the State Department has designated the Iranian regime a state sponsor of terrorism. Their terrorist proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah, is respon-

sible for the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983.

When they’ve had a chance to harm us or our allies, they’ve done so. That’s why we need to do everything in our power to prevent them from achieving a nuclear weapons capability.

Incidentally, their pursuit of a nuclear weapon and the capacity to deliver it, as well as their aggressive military posture in the Straits of Hormuz and elsewhere in the region, is part of what’s driving up gas prices. Ohioans are feeling that pain at the pump.

To be clear, our beef is with the leadership, not the Iranian people. Helping the Iranian people achieve their true freedom is one way we can prevent the regime from getting a nuclear weapons capability. In the summer of 2009, the United States had the opportunity to help Iranian protestors overthrow their despots. Unfortunately, the Obama administration chose not to provide assistance and the movement was crushed. Some of us may recall the video of Neda Agha-Soltan, a young Tehran woman, getting shot in the chest by the brutal regime as it was cracking down on the protestors.

Syrian dictator Bashar Assad is doing the same in his country right now with the support of Iran.

Congress has been pushing the administration to be tougher on the regime, knowing that containment is not an option. I co-sponsored a resolution emphasizing

that it’s unacceptable for the Iranians to acquire a nuclear weapons capability.

There’s a lot we can do. There still are opportunities to ratchet up sanctions that target the political leaders and the elite Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps that protects the regime. Iran’s ability to use energy revenues to fuel their global ambitions threatens us and our allies. This is why I will be supporting the Iran Sanctions, Accountability and Human Rights Act that has passed out of the Senate Banking Committee.

As we impose sanctions, we need to show we’re not trying to hurt the Iranian people, only their oppressors. That’s why I’ve called for free and fair elections in Iran.

As a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, I’m now working to bar companies that engage in business or trading activity with Iran from buying oil from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

This is a loophole that needs to be closed.

Sanctions must be multilateral so that the pressure of the whole world comes down against Iran.

We need to work hard to keep our allies together. Time is short. We can no longer afford for Russia and China to provide an economic safety valve for the regime. We need to make sure more companies follow the example of French oil giant Total, which stopped buying Iranian crude.

LETTERS on page 19

T EST Y OUR T ORAH KNOWLEDGE THIS WEEK’S PORTION: PASSOVER c) Thirteen

1. Is wine on the seder plate? a) Yes b) No 2. How many matzos are at the seder? a) One b) Two c) Three 3. How many things are there to know in the song, “Who knows one”? a) One b) Five moved (zuz means moved) from its lofty place in heaven to this world. R’Yakov Emden 5. C Chad Gad Ya is the story of the soul from the time it enters this world until it leaves. See 4

Israel may well wait until the U.S., with its larger bunker-busting bombs and its air bases in the Middle East, is willing to act in concert with her.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

4. How many coins (zuzim) were used to buy the goat? a) One b) Two c) Three 5. How many stanzas are there in Chad Gad Ya? a) Seven b) Eight c) Ten

and the other half for the Afikoman 3. C In the Talmud, there are many statements preceded with a number. It was used to help remember similar groups of information.

4. B The goat is a symbol of the soul which

There isn’t a sane person on the planet — at least if evil counts as insanity — who doesn’t wish for Iran to be forced to abandon its nuclear ambitions (or to have them vaporized by one or another air force).

Many American Jews — most Orthodox Jews likely among them — feel that the military option is the only realistic one, and that it needs to be employed as soon as possible. Actually, yesterday.

It’s an understandable feeling.

Iran’s president hasn’t made a secret of his lust for a world without an Israel, or of his country’s progress in producing nuclear material.

(Though he has tried mightily to make secrets of the whereabouts of Iran’s nuclear facilities and of its less-than-peaceful plans for the uranium it is enriching.)

between the two leaders is that, despite timetable differences, they were essentially on the same page.

Mr. Obama stated boldly that he had no intention of waiting until Iran actually achieves a nuclear weapon.

“Iran’s leaders should know,” he announced at the gathering, “that I do not have a policy of containment. I have a policy to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.”

Israeli leaders — and not just doves like Shimon Peres but hawks like Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom — were impressed with Mr. Obama’s words. “We’ve never heard such a supportive speech in Israel,” Mr. Shalom told Israel Radio.

Our collective fancy is tickled by the thought of an Iran waking up one dawn to the utter destruction of its nuclear program, humbled by a supersonic flock of screaming aircraft raining bunkerbusting explosives on every target; followed by other countries rejoicing as a grateful Iranian populace overthrows its leaders and creates a Persian Spring.

But we have to consider another scenario, too, in which an attack is not fully effective, and Iran emerges more determined than ever to see its evil intentions to some sort of fruition; and another, where even after a successful attack, havoc results in the oil market and Americans are paying $10 a gallon at the pump. Most Americans strongly support Israel at present. In, chas visholom, a newly decimated economy, with a Jewish state’s actions as its proximate cause, will that support will be quite as...unwavering?

Israel may well wait until the U.S., with its larger bunker-busting bombs and its air bases in the Middle East, is willing to act in concert with her. That will make it more likely that an attack will truly set the Iranian nuclear program back many years. And even should Israel act on its own, there is a chance that the U.S. will join the mission. That may have been signaled by Mr. Obama when he said that, regarding security issues, the U.S. “always has Israel’s back” — a phrase usually used when one actor has taken an initiative and the other one helps ensure that it goes well.

One wonders what Torah leaders in Eretz Yisrael have to say about attacking Iran. Politicians may not particularly care; but we should. To my knowledge, the only godol baTorah who has spoken publicly to the issue thus far has been Rav Ovadiah Yosef.

“Don’t attack Iran,” he declared on Israel radio recently. Pray and study Torah, he exhorted listeners, “and G-d will save the People of Israel.”

Ultimate success, in other words, isn’t in Mr. Obama or Mr. Netanyahu’s hands, but in our own.

Written by Rabbi Dov Aaron Wise

ANSWERS 1. B Wine is not part of the Seder plate 2. C Two matzos are the same as Shabbat.

The third is split in two because matzo is called “bread of poverty” to imitate the poor

By Rabbi Avi Shafran Contributing Columnist

JEWISH LIFE • 17

THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 2012

Sedra of the Week

by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin Efrat, Israel — During the majestic and magical evening of the seder, how many matzot does the leader of the proceedings take, two or three? And how many cups of wine do the participants drink, four or five? I daresay the overwhelming majority of my readers will respond: three matzot and four cups of wine. But in my seder, we all take two matzot and drink five cups of wine. Cynics may comment that it is indeed a gastronomic and digestive boon to trade a matzah for a glass of good, red, dry wine, but my reason is purely halakhic and Zionistic, as I hope to prove.

The simple interpretation of a Talmudic passage (Berakhot 39b) would suggest two matzot: “Rav Papa maintains that everyone agrees that on Passover evening, we place the broken matzoh within (or under) the whole matzoh and make a blessing thereon.”

This implies two matzot or rather one and one half, and the Vilna Gaon rules that this is our normative practice.

The origin of our usual custom of taking three matzot—two whole and one broken stems from Rashi (Commentary on Pesachim 116a).

He insists that we must have two whole matzot to retain our custom of lechem mishneh (parallel to our two Shabbat challah loaves).

Maimonides, on the other hand, insists upon one and one-half, ruling that “lehem oni,” the matzah/bread of affliction, trumps “lehem mishneh,” the double portion of the manna which we commemorate on the Sabbath (Laws of Hametz and Matzah 8,6).

I vote with Maimonides, since Passover is only the very beginning of our redemption: Even when we left Egypt, we were still a long distance (and a whole generation) away from the land of Israel, and seven weeks away from the Receiving of the Torah.

The “whole” matzah expresses our gratitude for the exodus, but the half matzah is a necessary reminder that our affliction had far from concluded at that point in time.

Let us turn to the wine.

Conventional wisdom explains

SHABBAT SHALOM: PARSHAT TZAVSHABBAT HAGADOL • LEVITICUS 6:1-8:36

At this point, comes the special cup for Elijah (its not in the count of four because only Elijah drinks from it), but this is also within the context of exile, since it is introduced with the words, “Pour Your wrath against the Gentiles who do not know You...for they have consumed Jacob and laid waste His habitation…” the four cups of wine as emanating from the four expressions of redemption articulated in the Book of Exodus (6:6-7): “I will free you…I will save you…I will redeem you…I will take you…”

But in the very next verse comes the fifth expression, “I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob” (ibid 8). What happened to the fifth cup?

A cursory glimpse into the order of the cups of wine should explain what occurred. We begin with Kiddush, the first cup, which mentions both the creation and the exodus, and enables us to eat a little hors d’oeuvre of karpas; then we pour the second cup for Maggid, the story of the enslavement and the exodus; we eat the meal of our freedom, replete with reminders of the sacrificial foods, and then pour the third cup for Grace after the Meal.

It is this blessing for the food which, in its prayer for the restoration of Jerusalem, makes reference to its destruction, and in its praise for the God who is good and who does good (HaTov VehaMetiv) reminds us that after the Hadrianic persecutions following the abortive Bar Kochba rebellion. Now, albeit within the context of praise, the spectra of destruction and exile has entered the Passover seder. At this point, comes the special cup for Elijah (its not in the count of four because only Elijah drinks from it), but this is also within the context of exile, since it is introduced with the words, “Pour Your wrath against the Gentiles who do not know You...for they have consumed Jacob and laid waste His habitation…”

Now comes the fourth cup of Hallel and the recitation of the blessing of the Song (Nishmat,

“May the breath of all living souls praise God...”), with its prayer and gratitude for God’s restoration of Israel to our homeland and Jerusalem (Mishna Pesachim 10,5). A Tosefta substitutes Hallel HaGadol (Psalm 136: “Praised be the Lord…whose loving-kindness extends to the world”) for the Nishmat Prayer. Our haggadah includes Hallel HaGadol as well as Nishmat, until the conclusion of Yishtabach, with the praise to “God, King of all living worlds.”

Each ritual drinking of wine— should refer to a specific theme.

Hallel evokes our return to national sovereignty in Israel; Hallel HaGadol and Nishmat refer to redemption of the world. And indeed the Tosafists (as well as the Gaonim and Maimonides) all cite a variant reading, “On the fifth cup, we recite the Blessing of the Song (or Hallel HaGadol).”

Many of the Gaonim actually demand a fifth cup, the Rambam along with most decisors permits it, though he would only endorse reciting Hallel HaGadol with this fifth cup.

Modern scholarship would suggest that in the haggadot of the land of Israel, they always included a fifth cup—and only in our galut haggadot was it excluded.

Perhaps from the backdrop of galut the yearning for world redemption seemed a bit too much to ask for. Now that we have returned to our homeland, I would urge the addition of a fifth cup immediately before reciting Hallel HaGadol. In our global village, until the world recognizes our God of peace and morality, no single nation will ever feel secure.

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

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18 • JEWZ IN THE NEWZ

JEWZ

IN THE

By Nate Bloom Contributing Columnist GATES’ NEW ANCESTRY PROGRAM In 2010, the (terrific) PBS program “Faces of America,” explored the ancestry of 12 famous Americans. The host of “Faces,” African-American Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., returns to PBS as the host of “Finding Your Roots,” a new, 10-part, famous person ancestry series. The first two programs aired last Sunday, March 25, and one featured singer Harry Connick, Jr. However, there will be encore showings and all aired shows can be viewed online. As I write this, I don’t know if Connick’s Jewish ancestry was explored. (Connick’s late mother was Jewish. She died when he was 14 and shortly thereafter Connick decided to follow his father’s Catholic faith.)

New series programs first air on Sundays at 8 p.m. On April 1, BARBARA WALTERS, 82, will one of two famous persons profiled. On Sunday, April 8, actress KYRA SEDGWICK, 46, and her husband, actor Kevin Bacon, 53, will be profiled. Sedgwick’s mother is Jewish and she identifies as Jewish. I’ll cover the rest of the Jewish and “part Jewish” celebs who will be the subjects of later programs in my next column.

BAD TO WORSE IN EGYPT Last week, the grandson of famous Egyptian actor Omar Sharif, whose name is Omar Sharif, Jr., wrote an article for the gay publication, “The Advocate,” in which he said that his mother is Jewish and that he is gay. He said that he could no longer “remain in the shadows” about these identities. He added that Arab Spring revolution had been “hijacked” by intolerant Islamist parties and he didn’t feel welcome in Egypt.

Sharif, Jr., now lives in the United States.

Virtually all media outlets treated Sharif, Jr.’s disclosure that he is “half Jewish” as news. It really isn’t. Here’s a recap of what I wrote in 2010 for this very newspaper: Ten years ago, the elder Omar Sharif told several American publications that he paid for the “biggest bar mitzvah in the history of Canada” for his grandson, Omar Sharif, Jr. The elder Sharif, a convert to Islam from Christianity, told these same publications that he and Tariq Sharif, his only child and the father of Sharif, Jr., were “tolerant atheists.”

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NEWZ

However, in 2007, when Sharif (the elder) was asked about his “Jewish grandson” by the Arab news channel, Al-Jazeera, there was no talk of a bar mitzvah.

He knew he was speaking to an Arab audience, so he forcefully denied that his grandson was Jewish “at all” and claimed he was a Muslim (how Sharif, Jr. religiously identifies now isn’t clear). Sharif only qualified his statement a tiny bit: saying on TV that Sharif, Jr. “respected his Jewish mother.”

It was clear to me that the elder Sharif fibbed or really fudged the facts because he was scared for the safety of Tariq (who was living in Egypt with a “new” Muslim wife) and for his grandson, who often visited Egypt. If the elder Sharif had repeated on Arab TV what he told American papers — he’d have been on dangerous ground with traditional Muslims.

Even saying you’re an atheist, if you are a Muslim by birth, or conversion, might be viewed as apostasy. Standing by as a child of your marriage is raised in another faith is likewise a serious offense.

Paying for a bar mitzvah takes this offense up a big notch.

Of course, most Muslims wouldn’t do anything about these “offenses.” In 2007, the elder Sharif seemed most concerned about Al-Qaeda extremists who, he said in the same TV interview, were unhappy when he played St. Paul in a movie. Now his grandson is clearly most afraid of Islamists who aren’t “fringe terrorists.” They wield majority power in Egypt’s parliament.

SNOW WHITE REDUX “Mirror, Mirror,” which opens in theaters on Friday, March 30, is a live-action re-telling of the Snow White tale. Julia Roberts stars as a wicked enchantress who ousts the young Princess Snow White (Lilly Collins, 23) from her throne.

Aided by the seven dwarfs, Snow White is determined to take back her throne. Appearing in large supporting roles are MICHAEL LERNER, 70, and MARE WINNINGHAM, 52.

Collins is the daughter of famous Brit singer Phil Collins and his second ex-wife, American Jill Tavelman. I know that Tavelman’s late father, who owned a famous Hollywood clothing store, was Jewish. I know that her brother donates to Jewish charities. I don’t know if Tavelman’s mother is Jewish. By the way, Jill Tavelman received an incredible $34 million as her divorce settlement ($2.8 million for every year they were married).

FROM THE PAGES 100 Y EARS A GO Mrs. I Trager, who has been spending the winter in Florida, has returned.

Mr. M. Bing has moved to his new residence, 828 Hutchins Avenue, Avondale.

Miss Bertha Wolfstein, of Portland, Ore., is visiting her aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Emanuel Beck, of 305 Goodman Street, Avondale.

The funeral of Eliza Ullman, (nee Weil) wife of Henry Ullman, will take place from the chapel of the Walnut Hills Cemetery this (Thursday) afternoon.

Mrs. Marcus Katz of 9 Andover Hall, Burnet and Albany Avenues, Avondale, is expected home on Friday, after having spent the past four weeks with her children, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Krelsman, at Peoria, Ill. It is reported that Prof.

Siegfried Geismar, in charge of the German Department at Woodward High School, has been offered the position of Superintendent of the Brooklyn Hebrew Orphan Asylum, one of the largest institutions of its kind in the country.

Prof. Geismar has gone East to confer with the directors of that institution. Prof. Geismar is one of the best-known younger educators in the city, and has been president of the Schoolmasters’ Club, the Cincinnati German Teachers’ Association, and other bodies. — March 28, 1912

75 Y EARS A GO Adolph Levy passed away Monday evening, March 29th, at Jewish Hospital. He lived with his son-in-law and daughter, Dr. and Mrs. Ira A. Abrahamson, 808 N. Crescent Avenue. He was 70.

Mr. Levy is survived by his widow, Mrs. Lillie Mayer Levy; his daughter, Mrs. Abrahamson; a son, Leon Levy, St. Louis; and three grandchildren, Margaret, Jean Lillian and Ira Abrahamson, Jr. David Youngerman, 844 Windham Avenue, passed away suddenly Tuesday, March 23rd.

He is survived by his widow, Mrs. Zelda Youngerman; his daughter, Mrs. Celia Fogel, and his sons, Edward, Louis, Jacob, and Dr. William Youngerman.

Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Lowenstein and children, Gordon and Janet, left Tuesday for Miami, Fla. Mr. Morton Olman of Greenwood Avenue has returned after five months in Florida. He is affiliated with Theodore Mayer & Brother, Realty Company.

Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Shor (Frances Rosenthal) 3965 Warwick Avenue, are parents of a boy, born Tuesday, March 23rd.

Oscar Berman was elected president of Cincinnati’s Jewish Community Council Tuesday evening, March 30th, at Wise Center, at the Council’s first public session.

Max Hirsch is retiring after two years of service as president. Mr. Berman has been a vice president for a number of years. He is president of the Cincinnati District of the American Jewish Congress, is widely known for his interest in civic, religious and philanthropic causes and as a manufacturer. — April 2, 1937

50 Y EARS A GO Dr. Raymond R. Suskind, associate professor at UC and specialist in occupational skin disease at its Medical Center, has accepted appointment as head of environmental medicine, University of Oregon, Portland, effective this June.

Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Jay Allen and Mr. and Mrs. Saul E. Shuller announce the marriage of their sister, Rosa B. Allen, to Mr. Alfred B. Stillpass, son of Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Stillpass, of Monroe, Ohio, Sunday, March 11, at Shuller’s Wigwam. The ceremony was performed by Rabbi David I. Indich.

Charles Victor Abraham, of 2143 Madison Road, passed away Sunday March 25, at Jewish Hospital.

Mr. Abraham is survived by his wife, Mrs. Esther Garcia Abraham; three children, Kate, Richard and Charles III; and a sister, Mrs. Harry Mendelsohn.

Mrs. Rose Bardach, 1106 Towne Avenue, passed away Thursday March 15.

She is survived by her husband, Max Bardach; a daughter, Mrs. Enid Greenberg; a son, Bruce Bardach; a sister, Mrs. Dorothy Freckman, of Kentucky; a brother, Mose Shapoff of Miami Beach, and two grandchildren.

Abe Levy, Redding Apartments, passed away Tuesday, March 20.

He is survived by his wife, Mrs. Goldie Levy; a daughter, Mrs. Irvin Pollak; his sisters, Mrs. Charles Slesnick, San Francisco; Mrs. Louis Guttenberg, New York City; Mrs. Henry Schnipper; Mrs. Phillip Farber and Mrs. L.P. Levi, all of Rochester; and two grandchildren. — March 29, 1962

25 Y EARS A GO Rockdale Temple’s “Second Friday Education Series” will continue its 1986-87 season on Friday, April 10, following Sabbath services at 8:15 p.m. The program will feature a Passover cooking demonstration and tasting with Barbara Rosenberg, culinary teacher and

author. The focus of the presentation will be the use of today’s equipment and materials to make traditional Passover foods easily and quickly. Among the items to be demonstrated will be an apple torte made from leftover charoses.

Recipes will be provided.

Rosenberg was editor of Rockdale Temple Sisterhood’s best-selling cookbook, “In the Beginning.”

Ann Danziger of 2444 Madison Rad passed away March 23.

She is survived by her daughter, Ruth Podore; two grandchildren, Nancy Mangel and Dr. Peter Podore; and three great-grandchildren.

Rose Moskovitz passed away recently in Burlington, Vt. She is survived by three children; Mrs. Simon (Esther) Perlmutter, Dr. A.J. Moskovitz of Burlington, Vt., and West Palm Beach, Fla., and Dr. Harold Moskovitz of Cincinnati; 11 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren.

She was the wife of the late Morris Moskovitz. — April 2, 1987

10 Y EARS A GO Nearly 90 Cincinnatians gathered at the home of Mark and Judy Petricoff at Frenchman’s Creek in Palm Beach Gardens Feb. 27 to celebrate the first-ever reunion of Cincinnatians in Florida.

The group braved the unseasonably cold temperatures to hear author and international terrorism expert Steve Emerson give a sobering assessment of worldwide terror networks and their impact on the U.S. Emerson’s new book, “American Jihad,” outlines these networks and how nations are beginning to work together to defeat them.

Mickey Hiudt Wolfson, 75, known by so many and loved by all, passed away March 11. A lifelong resident of Cincinnati, Mrs. Wolfson was a magical presence in the lives of all who knew her.

With an extremely generous heart, she contributed to countless organizations and charities throughout her life.

Mrs. Wolfson was predeceased in death by her husband, David I. Wolfson; her parents, Isadore and Tuba Hiudt; her brothers, Hyman and Leon Hiudt; her sister, Jean Hiudt Swillinger; and her sons, Gary and Robert Wolfson. She is survived by her sister, Florence Hiudt Guttman; her daughter and son-in-law Barbara and James Marowitz; her son and daughterin-law, Stephen and Barbara Wolfson; her grandchildren, Joshua, Natasha, and Amanda Wolfson, Gabriel, David, Forrest, and Rebecca Marowitz; and many nieces, nephews and in-laws. — March 28, 2002

THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 2012

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 Livingston (513) 793-5554 • camplivingston.com Cedar Village (513) 754-3100 • cedarvillage.org Chevra Kadisha (513) 396-6426 Cincinnati Community Mikveh 513-351-0609 • cincinnatimikveh.org Fusion Family (513) 703-3343 • fusionnati.org Halom House (513) 791-2912 • halomhouse.com Hillel Jewish Student Center (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) 514-1200 Jewish Information Network (513) 985-1514 Jewish Vocational Service (513) 985-0515 • jvscinti.org Kesher (513) 766-3348 Plum Street Temple Historic Preservation Fund (513) 793-2556 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 Beth Israel Congregation (513) 868-2049 • bethisraelcongregation.net Congregation Beth Adam (513) 985-0400 • bethadam.org Congregation B’nai Tikvah (513) 759-5356 • bnai-tikvah.org Congregation B’nai Tzedek (513) 984-3393 • bnaitzedek.us Congregation Ohav Shalom (513) 489-3399 • ohavshalom.org

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

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.org

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

production@ americanisraelite.com SEDER from page 4 Moss added, “We are so pleased to offer this seder again this year. It is truly a joy to see our youngest members and their extended families celebrating Passover together in such a meaningful way. Our committees, led by YoFI parents, work very hard to make all of our events enjoyable for our participants, and we are looking forward to another successful service.”

This year, YoFI is asking each family to bring one seder plate from home. Before the official seder starts, LETTERS from page 16 We are at a pivotal point where we must decide whether to do the things required to help preserve the peace and avoid Iran developing a nuclear weapons capability and the means to deliver it.

We’re blessed to have brave men and women who put their lives on the line every day. None of us wants to see a shooting war involving the men and women of our armed forces. But to avoid that, we must pursue what Ronald Reagan famously referred to as “peace through strength.”

Ratcheting up sanctions is the first step.

Sincerely, Senator Rob Portman, Cincinnati, OH American Jewish Committee and The Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati are grateful to the Islamic Center of Cincinnati for the moving statement of solidarity in response to the recent school shooting in Toulouse, France.

Dr. Inayat Malik, president of Islamic Educational Council of the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati wrote several leaders in the Jewish community, expressing his “personal sympathy and grief over the shootings in Toulouse, France. Unfortunately there are still people in this world who commit horrible crimes that shock the conscience of every human being regardless of their faith, ethnicity or political opinions. May G-d have mercy on the departed and grant patience and peace of mind to the surviving family members.”

Here is the statement released by the Islamic Center of

SENIOR SERVICES

• • • • •

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

(513) 531-9600 people will have an opportunity to assemble the foods for their plates so that everyone has access to this important part of the seder ritual.

The meal will feature a delicious menu from a new caterer that will include matzo ball soup, chicken schnitzel, brisket, kugel, tzimmes and roasted vegetables. The committee will make every effort to keep all of the foods, including the charoset, free of nuts. However, if people have a specific concern about a food allergy, YoFI strongly encourages them to contact Wise Temple to discuss the issues.

Cincinnati on March 21, 2012: We, at the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati, are horrified to learn this morning that the shooting suspect in Toulouse, France, may be a French citizen of Algerian descent who is alleged to be an Al-Qaida operative. He appears to have a Muslim name but his actions trample the fundamental teachings of Islam which considers human life sacred. This cowardly monstrous act of shooting unarmed civilians, including children, cannot be justified by any twist of logic. It violates all norms of human civility and expels the perpetrator from ranks of humanity leave alone any religion. All such actions need to be condemned in the strongest possible terms. Our deepest sympathies and earnest prayers are with the families of the victims who in this instance are Jewish. We stand together with our Jewish brothers and sisters and share in their grief.

It is of interest to note that the same individual is reported to be the suspect in the recent shootings of three French soldiers of Arab descent, who may have served abroad in armed conflicts.

Our sympathies for their families as well.

AJC and the JCRC appreciate the support of the Islamic community in Cincinnati and welcome their condemnation of this heinous attack. May we work fervently to counter such injustice and cruelty. Together, we stand in solidarity with the families of the victims in the aftermath of this shocking attack.

Sincerely, John M. Stein, president, AJC Cincinnati, and Gary Greenberg, president, JCRC Cincinnati, OH

20 • BUSINESS

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Milton S. Schwartz receives award from United Way Twelve extraordinary volunteers will be recognized by United Way of Greater Cincinnati at its annual Leaders & Legends Luncheon in May. The volunteers are being saluted for their countless hours of dedication helping United Way, the community and United Way agency and community partners.

“This is a celebration of the passion and commitment that local leaders and everyday legends have for their community and those who live in it,” said Valarie Sheppard, United Way board chair.

“These individuals help create a better quality of life for everyone.

They truly LIVE UNITED.” The New Century Awards will salute several individuals whose caring and compassion improve people’s lives and foster the spirit of volunteerism.

The Ruth W. and I. Westheimer Award for Continuous Leadership will be awarded to Milton S. Schwartz.

Schwartz, who is a retired director of Big Ticket Selling Services, Macy’s, and a community volunteer, has been a dedicated United Way volunteer for more than 30 years, serving both Community Impact and Resource Development. He is currently on the Program Monitoring Committee, reviewing program investments, and has served on United Way committees that helped identify critical community needs to guide United Way strategies. He has also contributed for nearly 40 years to improving lives through the Isaac M. Wise Temple, United Jewish Cemeteries, Jewish Community ADVOCACY from page 6 Two days later, a closed meeting with AIPAC officials and the Europeans ended in an emotional shouting match. Insiders who attended the meeting said the AIPAC officials accused the Europeans of exercising excessive caution in advancing lobbying in their countries, and the Europeans countered that AIPAC was pushing too hard.

“To train them as if American democracy was their model, it was so bizarre,” said one top American Jewish community official who had been involved in the program and witnessed its breakdown.

AIPAC in recent years has revived its outreach to foster proIsrael lobbying abroad. AIPAC officials did not return multiple requests for comment.

Officials with numerous American Jewish groups that

Milton Schwartz living United Way

Relations Council, and Jewish Federation, and as a founder of the Ronald McDonald House.

“We are thrilled to be able to recognize those who willingly give of their time, talent and expertise to make our community

a better place for everyone through their efforts in the areas of Education, Income and Health,” said Rob Reifsnyder, United Way president.

The luncheon is May 15 at Duke Energy Center.

assist counterparts overseas say that adapting programs to local realities is a key takeaway of their experience over the years.

Superimposing the American model was a proven failure, said David Harris, the AJC’s executive director, which has multiple programs assisting overseas communities.

“The goal has to be to understand what in the American model is exportable, where are you seeking to export to, what are the local conditions and how much adaptation is required for the local model to take root and not fail,” he said.

Dermot Kehoe, a spokesman for Bicom, the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre, which was founded in 2001, said that one element of the American model that he hoped British Jews could emulate is how the Americans have made support for Israel a bipartisan value.

“They have a gold standard of

how you get the best for Israel by not aligning yourself with a party,” he said. “The basic tenets of Israel’s right to exist are accepted across the spectrum in the United States.”

On the other hand, the practices of day-to-day American lobbying would seem out of place and unseemly in Britain, he said.

“The parties are much more centralized, the executive is much more in control here,” Kehoe said. “The whipping goes down to the local level. The room for maneuver is very small.”

Americans, he said, “do relationships with the individuals,” whereas decisions in Britain “are taken much more at the top level,” so it makes more sense to cultivate the leadership.

In that context, Kehoe added, pro-Israel fundraising for individual candidates, commonplace in the United States, is unthinkable in Britain.

MAYERSON from page 1 And according to Manuel, there were no lengths to which he wouldn’t go to be with her. He used to tell the hilarious story of a time when he was in the Navy, stationed at Navy Pier in Chicago. He and Rhoda were engaged at the time and she had plans to come see him during his next furlough.

Unfortunately, he knew he wouldn’t get much time off to spend with her so he hatched a brilliant plan.

He had heard that anyone who volunteered to compete in an upcoming boxing match would get the entire weekend off, even if they lost. Wanting to spend as much time with his fiancé as possible, Manuel threw his hat in the ring, and decided to compete in the match. “After all it was win-win,” he’d say. He trained and conditioned and when the big day came, he felt as ready as he’d ever be to take on his opponent.

“We both danced into the ring to cheers from the crowd. As we took off our robes I noticed that my opponent had this weird deformity— giant ripples all over his body— what some would call ‘muscles,’” he’d chuckle! “I had what some would call ‘Jewish muscles’ so I knew right then and there I was in for it. Needless to say he beat me, in more ways than one! I ended up with eyes and ears so red and swollen I practically couldn’t see or hear. It was so bad in fact, that when I came out to get Rhoda she walked right past me and didn’t even recognize me. Oh well, even though I was completely disfigured and in terrible pain, at least we got to spend the entire weekend together!”

The couple’s love and admiration for one another was obvious to all who knew them, especially their children. “How many husbands sit down to dinner each night before the meal is served and say to their wives, ‘I want to be the first to thank you for this wonderful meal,’” shared Manuel’s daughter, Arlene. “When my parents were getting ready to go out on the weekend, my father never failed to say to us, ‘Doesn’t your mother look beautiful?’ He never stopped being enamored of her.”

With a young wife, two small children and a budding career, Manuel was on top of the world. But suddenly at the age of 30 he became very sick and was diagnosed with life-threatening cancer. He ended up having radical surgery and was told that the only way they would know if they got it all was if he was still alive in 10 years. One year later, their youngest son Neal was born.

“That was their message of optimism,” said Neal. “They must have believed so strongly that he was going to beat this thing, that they made the conscious decision to have another child. My dad would have never agreed to leave his wife with three young children to provide for on her own if he didn’t believe that he was going to pull through. I think that’s why he always had this special appreciation for life and understood

that it’s given to you to be in it. He lived his life fully and applied his motto for business to his entire life: to put all assets, personal and financial, to their highest and best use.

His was a life lived ‘out loud!’”

Over the years, Manuel distinguished himself in brokerage, development, management and acquisition of real estate. In addition to developing, owning and managing multifamily residential communities and landmark commercial properties in downtown Cincinnati, he brought something to the Queen City that most people take for granted today. “I remember one night while walking with my dad in New York City; he kept looking up at all the buildings. I thought he was admiring the architecture,” explained Neal. “Actually, he was looking at the lights on the buildings and realized that lighting up the Cincinnati skyline could add to its architectural importance.

When he returned home, he set out to light up the Central Trust Tower, now the PNC Bank Building, which became the sole light in the city’s skyline. Today, most other buildings have followed suit.”

A pinnacle of his real estate career was the development of Cincinnati’s premiere Class A downtown office building—the Scripps Center. From envisioning how an old garage could be used as a strategic location, to being intimately involved in designing, constructing, leasing and managing the building, Manuel brought his talents and experience together to create this crowning achievement.

“The first time I met Manny I was a very young associate attorney who’d been sent over to his office to drop off some legal papers,” said Michael Oestreicher, a partner with Thompson Hine and the current president of The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati. “I recall vividly how he invited me to sit down for a chat and then went on to describe some of his hopes and aspirations for Cincinnati, including his dream to construct a building that would impact the skyline of the city he loved so dearly. That my own office has been in that building for over 20 years has served as an inspiring reminder of the lasting impact of mentoring and generously giving your time to others.”

Manuel was known as a “people person” who had a great sense of humor and a zest for life. “Because my Grandpa was wealthy, people assumed that he was driven by it, but he wasn’t,” said Manuel’s grandson, Adam. “He loved having fun with people. He was the life of the party.

He was happy when others were happy and liked helping people feel good about themselves.”

“My dad used to get so much pleasure out of doing for others and took a personal interest in just about anyone who crossed his path,” said Neal. “He had a soft spot for underdogs. He helped them get back to MAYERSON on page 22

AUTOS • 21

THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 2012

Porsche Boxster for the green in you The Porsche Boxster is for those who want a taste of luxury and sport but are environmentally conscious. With this car, you can have your cake and eat it, too.

Its intelligent, lightweight construction has been fundamental to the Porsche identity since 1948 for both technical and ecological reasons. This forms the basis for achieving low fuel consumption values in conjunction with outstanding performance.

On the technical side, various components are made with a high proportion of aluminum, magnesium, plastics and super-highstrength sheet steel. The materials used have been selected for their ability to withstand load, yet they are considerably lighter than conventional steel. As a result, the bodyshell of the new Boxster models has a light alloy content of approximately 46 percent.

On the ecological side, all materials used are meticulously selected. Using only innovative and environmentally friendly components, all synthetic components are easily recyclable and each material is labeled to facilitate its separation for recycling. The reduction in the number of plastic variants helps to ensure more efficient recycling. Recycled plastics are used where they meet exacting technical requirements. In short, the new Boxster is around 95 percent recyclable.

In addition, Porsche uses a high proportion of environmentally

friendly water-based paints. For Porsche, environmental protection does not begin at the end of a vehicle’s life. It starts at the planning and development stage.

The Boxster models are designed to operate on fuels with an ethanol content of up to 10 percent. Ethanol has a positive impact on the CO2 balance since the plants grown for the production of this biofuel also absorb CO2 from the atmosphere. The release of hydrocarbons from the fuel system has been minimized thanks to the active carbon filter and the multilayered material from which the fuel tank is made. All fuel lines are made from multilayered plastic, steel or aluminum.

After all these amazing environmental add ons, the car is not lacking in any luxury, speed or fun.

It can still go from 0-60 mph in 5.4 seconds, so hat wearers beware.

Ultimately, the feeling of freedom comes from within. The interior of the new Boxster models is purposefully designed as a declaration of independence.

The geometric form of the cockpit follows a clear direction: forward. The elevated center console integrates the driver optimally into the vehicle by positioning the gear lever extremely close to the steering wheel to enable fast and sporty gear changes.

The generously proportioned interior is light and offers plenty of space for driver and passenger comfort. The individual controls

PARENTS from page 5

older siblings and grandparents are always welcome. Other events have included: Dream Job-ARama: Career Fair for Kids, the Potato Pancake Arty Party, Circus Sundae, Superhero Hanukkah, the Pirate and Princess Party, GalaxyA-Glo Go, Splish Splash Beach Bash and others!

In addition to hosting large events for families and parents, Shalom Family offers smaller, more intimate programs such as Sensory Sunday: Stories, Songs and Fun for You and Your Little One — private interactive playgroups, offered twice a month at the Gymboree in Mason. Shalom Family also offers Shalom Baby Starter Kits, a series of free gifts, sent three times throughout the year right to the recipient’s front door. They contain gifts and goodies for parents and babies too, such as a “Tushy Towelettes To Go” container, a Baby’s First Jewish Holiday board book, a fork and spoon set, a hard bound copy of the popular book “Jewish Family & Life,” a Schlep Bag, as well as ritual items and lots of other surprises.

“As a parent of two young children myself, I can appreciate how nice it is to get out for the night with other adults and leave the planning to someone else,” explains Julie Robenson, event coordinator. “Our Parents’ Night Out events are very popular and based on the response we’ve already gotten, we anticipate that this event will fill up quickly, so it’s important to RSVP as soon as possible to insure a spot.”

Thanks to the generosity of The Mayerson Foundation, Shalom Family hosts the biggest, free events for families all throughout the year in the Cincinnati Jewish community and across the region. These events offer a great way for parents and children to spend quality time together and meet others in the Jewish community!

Recently, Shalom Family and the Mayerson JCC held the Wild West Purim Fest which drew more than 650 people. Events are typically geared for families with children ages 10 and under. However,

www.porsche.com

Porsche Boxster S

are characterized by their simplicity and ergonomics for intuitive use.

Fitted as standard, the CDR audio system combines with the optional Sound Package Plus to deliver impressive acoustic performance and has a touchscreen for easy operation. Available as an option, the BOSE® Surround Sound System creates an authentic sound experience with eight amplifier channels, 10 loudspeakers and a total output of 445 watts.

The luxury and fun of the inte-

rior also brings this baby to life.

The interior materials are highquality, and the refined tone is enhanced by a wealth of silver-colored details. These are found on the dashboard trim strip, the center console, the door pulls, the glove compartment release lever, the side and center air vent surrounds and the model designation plaque on the center console.

The steering wheel rim and gear lever/selector are sporty and stylish at the same time. The door pull

inlays are typically Porsche.

Finished in leather, they represent a balanced blend of design and functionality. In the Boxster S, the door armrests and the center console storage compartment lid are also finished in leather.

While most eco-friendly cars squeeze your purse for every last penny, this automobile will leave you with some spare change.

MSRP $60,900 for the Boxster S. If you are feeling thrifty, MSRP $49,500 for the Boxster.

22 • OBITUARIES D EATH N OTICES MAYERSON, Manuel D., age 90, died on March 22, 2012; 28 Adar, 5772.

KALTMAN, Roma, age 85, died on March 24, 2012; 2 Nissan 5772.

BERNSTEIN, I. Leonard, M.D., age 88, died on March 26, 2012; 3 Nissan, 5772.

MAYERSON from page 20 flourishing when everyone else had turned their backs on them. I am sure that is what motivated him to start the Hebrew Free Loan Society in the ‘80s to help assist Jewish families in need with free loans to start businesses.”

While he was developing his career, he and his wife Rhoda were active in the community. From sharing their time and talent on many boards, to providing turkey dinners during Thanksgiving for those in need, to sharing their wealth, Manuel and Rhoda are known for their passion of giving over many

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years. Ultimately this led to another crowning achievement, the creation of The Manuel D. and Rhoda Mayerson Foundation, the family foundation that Manuel established with his beloved wife in 1986. Its board is comprised of his family and reflects the couple’s heartfelt motto—to “give while you live.”

And while The Mayerson Foundation has given generously over the years, Manuel always insisted that the focus shouldn’t be on how much it gives, but rather on how much good it can accomplish.

As much a visionary in philanthropy as he was in business, he never wanted to just be a “check writer” and always worked to find creative ways to be involved.

Over the past 25 years the foundation has had a profound impact on the Greater Cincinnati community and beyond, and has touched the lives of thousands of people from all walks of life. “I don’t want anyone to think for a minute that this foundation was founded by my wife and I,” Manuel was quoted as saying in a 2002 Cincinnati Enquirer article.

“It was founded generations before me, though not with money. It was

founded by my ancestors on the traditions and heritage of sharing, and their attitude toward the community,” he explained.

The work of the Mayerson Family Foundation is broad and far-reaching but represents the issues that Manuel held dear. “First and foremost, Dad was very, very proud to be Jewish,” said Neal. “He had a strong sense of his duty to the Jewish people and had a respect for the institutions that are part and parcel of our Jewish community.”

Manuel felt that work related to Jewish continuity was of the highest importance. He believed that in order to preserve and grow the Jewish community it was essential that it be welcoming to all— Orthodox, Conservative, Reform.

To that end, Manuel was an advocate for and governor of the Hebrew Union College, Jewish Institute of Religion. In this role, he helped to establish Mayerson Hall, which housed the college’s first distance learning technology equipment, the Fieldwork Institute, pairing rabbinic students with congregational rabbis to learn about practical matters, and contributed to Student Scholarship Funds, recruitment efforts, the American Jewish Archives and much more.

As the foundation grew, new Jewish programming was created to provide opportunities to Jewish young adults through the Access initiative, families with young children through the Shalom Family initiative and interfaith families through the Fusion initiative, helping them connect to one another.

“When I moved to Cincinnati for rabbinical school I was concerned about making Jewish friends outside of the seminary.

Little did I know that I would meet the most amazing young Jewish professionals and participate in social, educational and ritual programs with them,” said HUC-JIR rabbinic student, Ariel Boxman.

“When reflecting on my last four years in Cincinnati, my greatest memories are all from Access events. Parties, community service opportunities and Shabbat observances with the Access Jewish community have filled my days in Cincinnati with life and meaning.

When choosing to stay in Cincinnati post ordination, one of the greatest factors in my decision was Access. It is the friends I made, the community I have become a part of and the warmth I feel every time I attend an event or function,” she added. “I owe my gratitude to Mr. Mayerson for believing in the value of Jewish community.”

Nothing pleased Manuel more than learning of a new marriage that could trace its initial spark back to the work of the Jewish Giving Department of the foundation.

In fact, when Stephanie and Jack Rubin, Access’ first couple to become engaged, made the announcement, Manuel and Rhoda immediately arranged to take them out for a special celebratory lunch at the Queen City Club. “Thanks to

Mr. Mayerson and The Mayerson Foundation, we got the greatest gift of all—each other! Neither of us expected we’d meet our special someone the night we arrived for an Access event,” explained Jack.

“Maybe that’s why we’re so grateful to the Access program, the professionals at the Mayerson Foundation and the whole Mayerson family.”

Manuel felt that the most significant single grant the foundation made was to help build the new Jewish Community Center, The Manuel D. and Rhoda Mayerson JCC in Amberley Village. Every time a friend or relative came in from out of town he would proudly take them on a personal tour of the building.

“I had the honor of getting to know Manny pretty closely over the years,” said Shep Englander, chief executive director of the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati. “He used to have lunch in the JCC’s J Cafe as often as he could. He always asked insightful questions about the needs of the community. And he’d usually throw in a good joke too. Anyone who got to know Manny will never forget his sincerity, insight and most of all, his humor.”

Manuel also felt strongly about providing for those who were in difficult circumstance through no fault of their own. His heart broke for children who were ill or suffered abuse and so for years he served on the board of Children’s Hospital of Cincinnati as the foundation initiated efforts to begin the Mayerson Center for Safe & Healthy Children, and it supported the Treatment Center of Hematology and Oncology and its Bone Marrow Transplant Unit. Most recently, due to Manuel’s strong interest in leveling the playing field for the most vulnerable, the foundation provided both capital and operating support to Lighthouse Youth Services to build a new shelter for homeless young adults.

Manuel was deeply impressed with the work of the FreeStore/FoodBank and, while he always advocated to “teach a man to fish,” he also recognized the importance of having basic needs met and knew that the work of The Mayerson Food Distribution Center would make a significant difference in the lives of so many across the region.

He was a driving force behind the creation of the Mayerson Academy for Human Resource Development, providing public school teachers with training on best practices in education in a state of the art facility.

Manuel’s dedication to Tikkun Olam wasn’t just something he practiced himself. He wanted others to learn the power of giving. Through the foundation, in partnership with Northern Kentucky University, he and his family created the first university-based student philanthropy program that has now become a national model. He and Rhoda were also dedicated to The Mayerson High School Service Learning Program which supports high

schools to develop and maintain programs in which hundreds of students learn to serve others every year.

Both Manuel and Rhoda were moved by art. They always wanted others to be able to experience the joy and inspiration they felt when in the presence of great art. The foundation, as well as Manuel and Rhoda individually, supported almost all of the local arts organizations. Most significantly, the foundation participated in the effort to create the New School for the Creative and Performing Arts in Over-the-Rhine as well as creating a fund for Artistic Excellence to support high quality programming in the school.

Manuel and the foundation also broke new ground in creating the VIA Institute on Character which is a world leader in the scientific study of what’s best in human beings and in how to develop these best qualities, and the foundation supports the civil and human rights of people with disabilities—supporting the Disabilities Rights, Education and Defense Fund (DREDF), a pioneer in the disability civil rights movement—and having created Kesher and the Inclusion Network in Cincinnati to improve quality of life for people with disabilities.

Known for giving of his time as well as his financial resources, Manuel was active in numerous organizations over many decades, serving on a variety of boards, such as Adath Israel Congregation, The Contemporary Arts Center, The National Foundation for Jewish Culture, Anti Defamation League, The Cincinnati Zoo, National Conference for Community and Justice (now Bridges), The Cincinnati Art Museum, The Freestore / Foodbank, and The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and the Hebrew Free Loan.

“Even though Dad worked really hard, he had a lot of balance in his life. He was a competitive person who loved playing golf, and took to the tennis court when he could. He also really appreciated the wonder of nature,” said Neal.

“He and my mother enjoyed an active social life. They went out with friends, to parties, to the symphony, opera, theater and the ballet.

And they shared their hobby of appreciating and purchasing art and producing Broadway plays.”

However, above all of his achievements in the community, Manuel valued family most deeply. As the father of Frederic (wife Dawna), Arlene (husband Allan), Neal (wife, Donna), and the grandfather of Amanda, Adam and Emma, he felt a deep and abiding pride in who they were and what it meant to be a Mayerson.

He lived his life in honor of that family name and tradition.

His funeral took place at Adath Israel Congregation and was attended by hundreds of people from Greater Cincinnati and across the country. The family has requested that contributions in honor of Manuel be made to the Mayerson JCC.

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