The American Israelite, April 4, 2013

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VOL. 159 • NO. 37

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Seeking Kin: What became of a refugee couple sheltered in a...

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Adding a new dimension to Holocaust testimony

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Exhibit recalls Jewish refugees and Nazi prisoners held...

ISRAEL

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African-Israeli personalities hoping to change...

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Cedar Village recognizes Eight Over Eighty honorees The fifth annual Eight Over Eighty event sponsored by Cedar Village will honor distinguished older adults, 80 years or older, who have dedicated their time, talents and lives to our Jewish community and the Greater Cincinnati area. The celebration will be held on Thursday evening, May 30, at Adath Israel Congregation.

Cedar Village will recognize Jack and Tulane Chartock, Miriam Cohen, Peggy Katz, Millard Mack, Gene Mesh, Bess Paper, Judge Burton Perlman and Gerald Robinson who were nominated to receive this honor.

Jack Chartock was a solicitor for the Jewish Federation for the past 60 years and in 2012, he and Tulane were the chairmen for Super Sunday. Jack was a member of the morning minyan at Adath Israel for 40 years. He volunteered for Meals on Wheels, Jewish Hospital and Cedar Village. Tulane led the Used Jewish Book sale originally sponsored by Brandeis from its beginning. Tulane was a volunteer for Jewish Family Service and Jewish Federation for many years.

Miriam Warshauer Cohen served on the board of Jewish Family Service for many years and cochaired the establishment of the lecture series which continues today.

She currently serves on the Cedar Village board. Prior to moving to Cincinnati, Miriam was on the board of the JCC and Jewish Federation in New Orleans where she chaired the Federation Campaign Women’s Division. She is an active member of Adath Israel.

Peggy Katz began volunteering

The 2012 Eight over Eighty honorees.

at the Orthodox Jewish Home when her parents lived there. She continued volunteering at Glen Manor and currently at Cedar Village in the gift shop, with the Friends of Cedar Village and for the Golf Classic.

She is a member of Hadassah and Adath Israel.

Millard Mack served as the publisher of The American Israelite from 1985 to 1998. He was the president of the United Jewish Cemetery for several years. He also served as president of the

Adolescent Clinic, a division of Children’s Hospital. He remains a supporter of the American Jewish Archives at HUC in Cincinnati.

Gene Mesh is on the board of directors of the State of Israel Development Corporation. He serves on the National Board of Directors for the State of Israel Bonds. He was Man of the Year, State of Israel, 1988.

He was the recipient of the Raoul Wallenberg Medal for assisting Ethiopian Jews relocate to Israel.

Judge Burton Perlman is a past

president of Jewish Vocational Service, United Jewish Cemeteries, Jewish Community Relations Council, Rockdale Temple and the Metropolitan Area Religious Coalition of Cincinnati, an important interreligious organization started by the Jewish, Episcopal and Catholic communities of Cincinnati, that now includes some 16 judicatories. He is committed to improving community relationships.

HONOREES on page 19

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LOCAL • 3

THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2013

Adath Israel presents youth, family events On Thursday, April 4, Cincinnati’s United Synagogue Youth (USY) chapters, Adath Israel USY and Northern Cincinnati USY, will get together to cook dinner and serve for 125 Ronald McDonald residents.

The community is invited on Friday, April 5, to join us for Kiddush Club, a lively Kabbalat Shabbat experience for newborn through second graders and their families. A delicious Shabbat meal will follow.

Bring your newborn through kindergarten children back to Adath Israel on Sunday, April 14, for Mazel Tots. Meet at 9 a.m. in the school lobby for breakfast and schmoozing, followed by a lively music session sponsored by the Frances Zakem Memorial Fund, and a craft activity with a Jewish theme. The morning includes play time, and the children will have the option of listening to a book read from the PJ library selection.

On Sunday, April 14, from

12:30-2 p.m., our kindergarten through second grade youth group, Jewish Stars, and their families are invited to a fun and exciting magic show with magician Charlie Cadabra.

On Sunday, April 14, the Adath Israel Congregation third through fifth grade youth group (ATID) will hold a “Cupcake Cookoff” from 12:30 – 2 p.m. Participants will bake and decorate cupcakes to sell at religious school on Wednesday to raise funds for the Kosher Food Pantry. The creativity and presentation of their cupcake decorating will be judged by Adath Israel Celebrities!

The community is invited to Shabbat Family Day at Camp Kern on Saturday, April 20. The day will begin with a lively and interactive Shabbat service, followed by a full day of delicious meals and fun activities. Creative programs and games throughout the day will focus on the theme of Jewish Values. Camp Kern will open their

climbing tower, giant swing and zip line for us in the afternoon. It will be a great bonding and memorable experience for all.

Saturday, April 27, bring your little ones to meet friends at Tot Shabbat from 11 a.m. – noon, where they will sing songs, hear stories and experience Shabbat in a meaningful way.

Our annual citywide USY bonfire in celebration of the Jewish holiday, Lag B’Omer, will take place on Saturday, April 27, from 9:15 a.m. – 11:15 pm. Our teens will cook s’mores over the fire while enjoying each other’s company.

On Sunday, April 28, Adath Israel Congregation’s Kadima group, for sixth – eighth graders will join Northern/Ohav Kadima for Rock Climbing! They will learn how to climb, or, if they already know how, they’ll refresh their skills!

An RSVP is requested for all events.

The J begins spring programming The Mayerson JCC spring program session begins the week of April 7 and there is a broad range of dance, music and fun programs for kids, teens and families. Most programs are open to the public with advance registration. Open registration starts Monday, March 25.

Tweens and Teens, ages 11 15, will love the JCC American Red Cross Babysitter Training. In this four-class series, they will learn how to calm a crying baby, handle a conflict between two children, and help kids have fun while keeping them safe. This class also includes an introduction to Pediatric First Aid/CPR. Encourage reading, cooking and friendship in PJ Library: Little Chefs. In this unique program, 3-5 year olds will read and make recipes from the popular PJ Library children’s book collections and participate in a fun cooking activity related to the story.

Recipes and book summaries will be sent home each week to share.

PJ Library is a national Jewish family engagement program that offers free, high-quality Jewish children’s literature and music for ages 6 months – 5 1/2 years, on a monthly basis, and the program is locally implemented by the J. Boys and girls can enjoy their own clubs with JCC Boys Club and Girls Squad! These programs

offer weekly classes for preschool aged children. Each week features different themed activities with a story, games, activities and a snack. Exercise and healthy choices are included.

Dance and music are both popular JCC programs. A range of classes are offered to children ages 6 months – 7 years. Babies, toddlers and their parent(s) will enjoy Music and Motion. In this class, adults join their children in music exploration with finger plays, clapping, singing, dancing and playing instruments. Children will be exposed to songs in English, Hebrew and other languages which help foster listening skills, cognitive and motor development and self esteem.

Little dancers will enjoy Beginning Dance. Dancers experience and learn classic and modern dance techniques in a nurturing and fun environment. The class focuses on musicality, strengthening the body, improving posture, developing flexibility, and enhancing coordination. Students develop space orientation and learn teamwork through improvisation and games.

Children aren’t the only ones having fun this spring! Mah Jongg has become very popular at the J. Bring your friends and join in on one of the weekly game times.

Mah Jongg is an ancient Chinese game of skill, strategy and chance.

New for ages 60+ this spring is the Busy Bees crafting circle.

Enjoy spending time crafting with others. Bring your cross-stitch, crochet, knitting, tatting and more.

Share ideas and projects.

Beginners are always welcome.

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Run/Walk. Just for fun, she still runs every morning and teaches Pilates to hundreds of students.

Isphording will speak about “How to Lead an Olympic Life Every Day.” There is a charge for non-temple members.

Service dedicated to multiple causes at Adath Israel Please join us for a special dedication of our newest piece of art for the synagogue lobby following Carlebach Kids Kabbalat Shabbat on Friday, April 12, at 5:30 p.m.

Over 30 years ago, the family of Marc H. Jacobson endowed a fund for our youth and educational programs in memory of Marc who tragically died in 1980 at the age of 24. His sister, Barbara Himmel, and her family will be here from Cleveland to join their uncle, Dave Jacobson, and his family and other relatives and friends to dedicate a beautiful tapestry for our lounge in

Marc’s memory.

Jeanette Kuvin Oren, who designed and made our beautiful ark curtain and Torah covers in the Marcus Chapel, and the tapestry in the Board Room, also designed and made this new piece which is a collage of Jewish ethical and spiritual mitzvot and values.

Jeanette shared that she has never been asked until now to design such a piece of art conveying Jewish concerns with holiness in our daily lives.

Please join Rabbi Wise and the congregation for this special

opportunity to honor Marc Jacobson, to be with his family, and to experience the very wonderful Carlebach Kids Service, which is a spirited Friday Night Live service. The Adath Israel third, fourth and fifth grade choir will join our Shir Ami Friday Night Live band to help lead the uplifting Carlebach Kabbalat Shabbat melodies. The students will play flute recorders during a number of the prayers.

“The students really enjoy playing their recorders in class, and have done a great job learning

how to play together with so many playing at once,” commented their teacher, Mitch Cohen.

The students have also worked on Israeli dancing for the service with their teacher Idit Moss.

During Friday Night Live services, it is customary for congregants to get up out of their seats and dance as well.

A traditional Maariv service and the special tapestry dedication will follow, after which everyone is invited to the Oneg Shabbat in honor of Marc Jacobson and in appreciation of his family.

Seeking Kin: What became of a refugee couple sheltered in a Spanish monastery?

By Hillel Kuttler Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Courtesy of Zarateman/Creative Commons

The Santa Maria de la Vid monastery in Burgos, Spain gave shelter to Karl and Ruth Albrecht, refugees from Nazi Germany.

Karl, who in Spain went by Carlos.

The family recalls the Albrechts attending a conversion ceremony in the church for another German refugee, a Protestant man named Walter.

“They remembered that Ruth remained standing or sitting, not kneeling, before the sacrament,” Arroyo said of his mother-in-law and her sister.

Another recollection is of Karl sipping brandy when an agitated Ruth arrived, telling Karl they had to leave.

“He said, ‘For now, this is the most important thing we have to do – just enjoy it,’” referring to the brandy, Arroyo said.

ed with the Gestapo, and “Jews in Spain were worried that if they were caught, they would be turned over.” The concern was particularly acute among German Jews, Avni said.

“It could be that this couple searched for secure shelter in this monastery,” he said. “The Germans were not specifically looking for Jews, but they looked for who they wanted. They didn’t have to kidnap anyone; the minute they asked for someone, the Spanish police would find and get them.”

Since he initially contacted “Seeking Kin” last year, Arroyo has sought additional information from the current residents of La Vid but came up empty. None of the monks living there is old enough to have been there during the Albrechts’ stay, he said.

The case is personally significant, Arroyo said, because “it’s part of our history that’s not very well known. To have someone in our rural setting who came from the outside world is very appealing. It put [people] with flesh and bones in a town in the middle of nowhere,” he said of the Albrechts.

Arroyo would like to find any of their relatives to “tell them part of their history, of when their ancestors were fleeing tyranny in Europe and met a family in the middle of nowhere, in Castile,” he said. His wife’s family, Arroyo continued, “still remembers them and still cherishes their friendship.”

The Albrechts, he figured, “would be glad to know the story.”

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

VOL. 159 • NO. 37 THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2013 24 NISSAN 5773 SHABBAT BEGINS FRIDAY 7:47 PM SHABBAT ENDS SATURDAY 8:48 PM THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE CO., PUBLISHERS 18 WEST NINTH STREET, SUITE 2 CINCINNATI, OHIO 45202-2037 Phone: (513) 621-3145 Fax: (513) 621-3744 publisher@americanisraelite.com editor@americanisraelite.com production@americanisraelite.com RABBI ISAAC M. WISE Founder, Editor, Publisher, 1854-1900 LEO WISE Editor & Publisher, 1900-1928 RABBI JONAH B. WISE Editor & Publisher, 1928-1930 HENRY C. SEGAL Editor & Publisher, 1930-1985 PHYLLIS R. SINGER Editor & General Manager, 1985-1999 MILLARD H. MACK Publisher Emeritus NETANEL (TED) DEUTSCH Editor & Publisher JORY EDLIN MICHAEL SAWAN Assistant Editors ALEXIA KADISH Copy Editor JANET STEINBERG Travel Editor MARIANNA BETTMAN NATE BLOOM IRIS PASTOR RABBI A. JAMES RUDIN ZELL SCHULMAN RABBI AVI SHAFRAN PHYLLIS R. SINGER Contributing Columnists JOSEPH D. STANGE Production Manager ERIN WYENANDT Office Manager e Oldest Eng Th

ewish N h-J ew lis

Karl and Ruth Albrecht, a couple who fled Nazi Germany, were given shelter in 1941 or 1942 at Santa Maria de La Vid, a monastery in Spain. He was Catholic, she was Jewish.

Santiago Arroyo, a resident of Burgos, a northern Castile city near the monastery for Augustinian monks, tells of a connection his family has to the period and wonders what became of the couple.

Don Grigorio Arranz became friendly with the couple because as a physician, his work often took him to the monastery. His daughters, Pilar and Remedios, knew them, too. Pilar, now 96, is the mother of Arroyo’s wife, Lourdes Nieto Arranz.

Many years ago Arroyo, a wine salesman and a Catholic, first heard Pilar speak about the Albrechts. An admirer of Israel and of Jews, he contacted “Seeking Kin” after reading a column in an Israeli newspaper with a website he checks regularly.

Arroyo isn’t sure how long the Albrechts stayed at La Vid, but it was at least a few months. One of the Albrechts stayed part of the time in Madrid, traveling to and from the monastery. The couple often spent Sunday afternoons with the Arranzes or came for dinner or dessert.

Remedios, now 94, told Arroyo that Ruth Albrecht was a beautiful woman with dark hair, but doesn’t remember much about

And then the couple departed the monastery, and presumably, the country, for good. They hoped to reach America, and Arroyo is curious to know whether they made it.

The Albrechts were in their mid-40s and childless, but perhaps their American friends, neighbors or relatives will read this column and help him put the pieces together, Arroyo said.

According to Haim Avni, professor emeritus at Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Institute of Contemporary Jewry, the Albrechts’ story is unusual but plausible. The couple likely entered Spain with transit visas, allowing them to remain in the country legally only until the ship on which they held tickets departed. Had they missed the ship or entered the country illegally, they likely would have been detained at the Miranda de Ebro prison near Burgos, he said, adding that either scenario might explain how they ended up at La Vid. An expert on the Jews of Spain, Portugal and Latin America, Avni also figured that the Albrechts were in Spain before the fall of 1941, when Germany ceased issuing exit visas to Jews.

But with Spain neutral in the war and not occupied by Germany, why did the couple need to hide?

Avni explained that Spain’s leader, Francisco Franco, was allied with the Nazis until the U.S. invasion of nearby North Africa in late 1942. But before and after the invasion, Spanish police cooperat-

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rently a leadership and training consultant for Procter & Gamble, Xavier University Leadership Center and the Barrett Cancer Center. She also volunteers to speak to schools in an effort to fight childhood obesity. As a health advocate, she is the director of the Thanksgiving Day 10K

Est. 1854

Isphording is an award-winning syndicated radio host, national keynote speaker and magazine columnist. She has written three books. She ran the first-ever women’s Olympic Marathon in 1984.

Isphording consults for many Fortune 500 companies, and is cur-

• ca

Members and guests of Wise Temple Sisterhood are invited to spend an afternoon enjoying guest speaker, Olympic athlete Julie Isphording, and coffee, tea and refreshments, on Wednesday, April 10, at 1 p.m. in the Wise Center Library.

r in Am ape er sp i

Olympian speaks at Sisterhood annual library tea

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The views and opinions expressed by the columnists of The American Israelite do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the newspaper.

NATIONAL • 5

THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2013

Adding a new dimension to Holocaust testimony

By Edmon J. Rodman Jewish Telegraphic Agency LOS ANGELES – In a dark glass building here, Holocaust survivor Pinchas Gutter shows that his memory is crystal clear and his voice is strong. His responses seem a bit delayed – not that different from other survivors I have known who are reluctant to speak openly about their experiences – but he’s doing just fine for a 3-D image.

In the offices of USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies, Gutter, who as a teenager had survived Majdanek, the German Nazi concentration camp on the outskirts of Lublin, Poland, sounds and looks very much alive.

His hologram-like image projected on a screen is a prototype for a project of the University of Southern California’s Shoah Foundation called New Dimensions in Testimony. It’s an initiative to record and display 3D, interactive testimonies that according to the organization “will preserve the dialogue between Holocaust survivors and learners far into the future.”

Courtesy of Paul Debevec

Shades required: Edmon J. Rodman finds a smaller version of the LED light set used for the USC Shoah Foundation’s 3-D project intensely bright.

Recalling my conversations with survivors, I wonder how a 3D representation, no matter how well intentioned, can match the experience of making live eye contact with someone who is reaching out with the story of his or her own private hell.

“We wanted this to be as intimate as possible,” says Stephen Smith, the executive director of USC’s Shoah Foundation, a veteran of making survivor testimony available to the public.

“There is very little time,” he adds, pointing out that most survivors are now in their 80s and 90s.

The plan is to make the interactive testimonies available through 3-D installations installed in Holocaust museums and schools, allowing students and others to have a question-and-answer session with a survivor.

Smith makes it clear, however: “We are not trying to create a fantasyland experience.”

In speaking with students and

Courtesy of USC Institute for Creative Technology

Holocaust survivor Pinchas Gutter as appearing on the hologram-like interactive presentation developed by the USC Shoah Foundation.

accessing their needs about the Holocaust, Smith says he finds that they aren’t that interested in historical detail. Rather, they want to know “things about the human experience – if the survivors were successful, hateful, if there was justice.”

To create a new form of dialogue, Smith is planning on asking 10 survivors a battery of 500 questions to build the means for a conversation.

For the demo Paul Debevic, the associate director for graphic research at the USC Institute for Creative Technologies, explains that Gutter was shot on a 26-foot spherical “light stage” with seven cameras – 50 will be used on the final – illuminated with more than 6,000 LED lights, which I could see captured his every gesture contour and wrinkle.

Later I try out a smaller set, similarly lit, and immediately need sunglasses.

Debevic, along with Ron Artstein and David Traum, who are working on the project’s interactive component, explain that a language program is being created that will cross-reference the words of a question with the recorded answers and pick the best possible response.

After donning a headset and mike – in the final version this will not be necessary – Artstein begins the conversation with Gutter.

“Can I ask you a few questions?” he asks politely and distinctly.

“I will answer any questions you might have for me,” a casual Gutter replies.

“How did you survive?”

Artstein wonders.

“It was chance. It was faith. It was... it was a combination of 1,000 things,” Gutter answers.

The next question brings Gutter even more to life.

“Can you sing a song for us?”

Artstein asks.

Gutter, who was once a parttime cantor, responds by singing a Polish lullaby he learned from his mother – “The children are going, going

down the road.

The little sister and her brother they cannot contain their wonder At how beautiful the world is.”

Then it’s my turn to put on the headset. I have come with my own questions that in speaking one on one with a survivor would seem too probing and painful to ask.

But here it would be like talking to the TV, I thought, so I could dispense with the social conventions and fire away.

Yet in asking a question that would be difficult to ask even privately, I pause.

“Do you believe in God?” I ask finally, after pushing a laptop button.

“Yes. I believe there is a power higher than human beings and I’m not quite sure what it is,” Gutter answers, suddenly sounding and appearing much more present than a projection.

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Rand Paul straw poll win means continued National Jewish debate on Israel aid opponent Briefs Israel about “phasing out” aid to the

By Maxine Dovere JointMedia News Service The foreign policy positions of U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), which have already generated some concern in the Jewish community, might remain a topic of debate among Jews for another several years after poll results indicating that he will be a significant factor in the 2016 presidential race.

Rand Paul – the son of 2012 presidential candidate U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) – in mid-March won a presidential straw poll of 3,000 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) participants, edging U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (RFL), 25 percent to 23 percent. The younger Paul, like his father, has drawn some Jewish criticism due to his opposition of all foreign aid, including military aid to Israel.

Aaron Keyak, executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council, called Paul’s January appointment to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee “absurd,” adding that the appointment gave him “a bigger microphone and a prominent platform.”

“He represents a foreign policy perspective that, for friends of Israel and those who want to prevent and not contain Iran achieving nuclear weapons capability, is highly troubling,” Keyak told JNS. The U.S. policy of preventing a nuclear Iran “should be an easy position for one of the top Republicans,” but Paul “simply gives the wrong answer,” Keyak said.

Courtesy of The U.S. Senate

U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY)

“He may be the only United States Senator to not have rejected containment as a policy,” he said.

Paul, whose office did not return requests for comment from JNS, says he opposes defense aid to Israel foster the Jewish state’s independence from American influence. Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of President of Major American Jewish Organizations, who traveled with Paul to Israel in January, told JNS there is “some change in his positions – although there are some of which with we may not agree.” “[Paul] had a very good meeting with the Prime Minister (Benjamin Netanyahu),” Hoenlein said. “On numerous occasions, he expressed support for Israel.”

Hoenlein believes Paul has “elected a more nuanced position on aid regarding Israel as opposed to others he would like to cut off.” Paul, however, did specifically speak in

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Jewish state, Hoenlein noted.

Regarding Paul’s opposition to Israel aid, Hoenlein said, “Obviously we don’t agree regarding the importance of foreign aid, although allocating it wisely and effectively is something we have always advocated [at the Conference of Presidents].”

Barry Slotnick – the nationally known New York defense attorney whose high-profile clients have included subway shooter Bernhard Goetz and mobster John Gotti – told JNS that it is important to understand that Paul’s position on foreign aid puts him “in the great minority.”

“Congress has to react by passing bills and putting together budgets that ignore his position,” Slotnick said. “Maybe someday he will rethink the issue.”

Slotnick, who once sought the Republican nomination for New York State Attorney General, called Paul “very intelligent” and “a force to be reckoned with,” but reiterated that his position on foreign aid is “a minor minority in Congress.”

“Do I think he counts?

Ultimately, I do not,” Slotnick said.

Asked why he thought Republicans decided to place Paul on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Slotnick responded, “Without question, Paul has been put on the Foreign Relations Committee so that he will not shine… and he will not shine.”

NJDC’s Keyak, regarding the theory that mainstream Republicans may have placed Paul on the Foreign Relations Committee to put his marginal views on display, told JNS, “Putting Senator Paul on the Foreign Relations Committee to show his extremist positions is like putting a piece of challah on your [Passover] seder plate to show your household is kosher.”

U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (DNJ) chairs the Foreign Relations Committee. Keyak said, “Those of us who care about Israel’s safety and security – as well as America’s – should be thankful to have a [Foreign Relations Committee] chairman like Senator Menendez.

We should all hope that Senator Paul never gains such seniority.

However, by placing him to be on the [Foreign Relations Committee], Republicans are giving Paul that chance sometime down the road.”

When Paul was running for Senate in 2010, Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) Executive Director Matthew Brooks said Paul is “outside the comfort level of a lot of people in the Jewish community, and in many ways outside of where the Republican Party is on many critical issues.”

PAUL on page 19

Billboards calling for end to U.S. aid to Israel posted in N.Y., Conn.

(JTA) – Billboards calling for an end to U.S. aid to Israel were erected at 25 train stations in suburban New York and Connecticut.

The billboards that went up March 26, on the first day of Passover, in Metro North stations are sponsored by a group called American Muslims for Palestine.

The ad also calls Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza a form of apartheid, and features a quote by South African social rights activist Desmond Tutu.

They are scheduled to run for one month, and reportedly were timed to coincide with President Obama’s visit to Israel.

“The campaign against U.S. aid for Israel targets neither Jews nor Passover but rather Israeli apartheid and injustice,” said Michael Letwin of Jews for Palestinian Right of Return, who spoke at Tuesday’s launch of the billboards at the Metro North station in Manhattan’s Harlem. “And the best way to honor Passover, which celebrates Jewish liberation from ancient oppression, is to champion Palestinian human rights today.”

The ads come several months after billboards that accused Israel of confiscating Palestinian land were displayed in some of the same stations. Those ads were posted under the auspices of The Committee for Peace in Israel and Palestine.

There have been several exchanges of ads between proIsrael and pro-Palestinian groups at Metro North stations.

Congress extends Lautenberg amendment WASHINGTON (JTA) – An extension to the Lautenberg Amendment, a law facilitating immigration for victims of religious persecution, including Jews, was included in the funding bill passed by Congress.

The continuing resolution approved by the Senate on Wednesday and the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday extends government spending until October and includes in it the Lautenberg Amendment, which facilitates the exit from Iran of members of the Jewish, Christian and Baha’i minorities. Named for its original author, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), the amendment was first passed in 1990 to facilitate the exit of Jews from the Soviet Union.

“As we prepare to celebrate Passover, we are thankful for Congress’ continuing commit-

ment to protecting Jews, Christians, Baha’is, and other persecuted religious minorities in Iran,” the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, which led lobbying for the amendment’s extension, said in a statement.

Lautenberg, who is retiring next year, celebrated the amendment’s approval.

“More than 20 years ago, I created this program to allow religious minorities to escape persecution and live safely in the United States,” he said in a statement.

“When the president signs the extension into law, this critical lifeline will be restored and provide religious minorities with a safe means of exit and access to refugee status in the United States.”

Also included in the continuing resolution was $10 million in Homeland Security funding for securing non-profits. Most of such allocations in the past have gone to Jewish organizations. The Jewish Federations of North America, the Orthodox Union and Agudath Israel of America, groups that lobbied for the funding, praised the allocation.

“Since Sept. 11, nonprofits generally, and Jewish communal institutions specifically, have been the targets of an alarming number of threats and attacks,” said William Daroff, JFNA’s Washington director. “We are incredibly grateful for the bipartisan, bicameral support for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, as it is a proven, critical resource that helps supplement the work of local and federal law enforcement to help keep us safe.”

GOP self-analysis cites RJC as worthy of emulation WASHINGTON (JTA) – A report commissioned by the Republican National Committee on how to reverse the party’s fortunes cited the Republican Jewish Coalition as a group worth emulating.

“One outside group that has been particularly successful at engaging its community and increasing its Republican support is the Republican Jewish Coalition,” said the “Growth and Opportunity Project” report unveiled Monday. “We should incorporate some of its tactics in our efforts.”

The RJC reference was in a section calling for outreach to demographic groups that don’t traditionally vote GOP, among them Hispanics, women and AfricanAmericans.

The RJC campaigned aggressively against President Obama in the last election and his Jewish share fell from between 74 and 78 percent in 2008 to about 69 percent this election.

Among the five authors of the report was Ari Fleischer, a spokesman for the George W. Bush White House who is an RJC board member.

NATIONAL / INTERNATIONAL • 7

THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2013

Jews should Holocaust commemoration marks shift for Greek work to Jews in fight against neo-Nazis reduce fossil By Gavin Rabinowitz port for Golden Dawn as just a protest vote, turning a blind eye to Jewish Telegraphic Agency and ideology of hate. fuels, not ally THESSALONIKI, Greece its violence But the commemoration week– Antonis Samaras stood in end in Thessaloniki, the second with gas and (JTA) the pale morning light coming largest city in Greece with an area the stained glass windows population of nearly 800,000, oil companies through of the only Thessaloniki synagogue included several signs that change

By Sybil Sanchez and David Seidenberg Jewish Telegraphic Agency NEW YORK – Two weeks ago, JTA reported on a new alliance between Jewish leaders and domestic gas and oil companies.

Called the Council for a Secure America, the alliance is based on a “common interest” between American Jews and domestic energy companies to “increase domestic oil and gas production and to decrease U.S. reliance on imported oil from the Middle East,” the report said.

But the alliance represents neither the Jewish community nor its interests.

To say that reducing our dependence on foreign oil is our No. 1 priority is not only an ineffective approach to energy policy, it is a distorted picture of the Jewish community’s concerns.

Reducing the use of all fossil fuels, not just foreign ones, must be our goal. This not only will help improve energy security in the United States, it will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and lessen the tremendous threats to Israel’s security posed by climate change.

Every nation already has its own supply of renewable energy.

If we learn to harvest this natural inheritance, fossil fuel tyranny and energy scarcity would disappear.

Israel is at the forefront of solar energy research and commercialization, and a shift to a clean energy economy would benefit Israel in many ways. Oil is also the primary source of income for Iran, and reducing the world’s need for oil will improve Israel’s security.

Focusing on domestic fossil fuels will only make us more dependent on a system that is putting the entire natural world at risk. Furthermore, in a dirty energy future in which climate change goes unchecked, the disruption of weather patterns in the Middle East could turn most of Israel into a desert. As reported by BenGurion University in the “Israel National Report” on climate change, the Negev Desert could expand as much as 200-300 miles northward, which would include most of Israel. That would be an overwhelming threat to Israel’s survival, as great as any the nation has ever faced.

to survive World War II and vowed, “Never again.”

For Greek Jews marking the 70th anniversary of the destruction of this city’s historic Jewish community, the Greek prime minister’s words were long awaited. So was his presence – the first time a sitting Greek premier had set foot in a synagogue in 101 years.

“We have to be very careful to remember the message of ‘Never again,’” Samaras said at the March 17 commemoration. “The fight against neo-Nazis is more important than ever.”

Greek Jews had the past on their minds on the weekend of March 15 -17 as they gathered to remember the beginning of the Nazi deportation of Thessaloniki’s Jews to Auschwitz. But they were also mindful of the present, in particular the sudden rise of Golden Dawn, a neo-Nazi party that erupted on the political scene last year, coming from nowhere to grab 18 seats in the Greek Parliament.

Greece’s government, besieged by an economic crisis and unwilling to confront an emerging populist party, has said little about Golden Dawn’s violent activities against immigrants and antiSemitic outbursts. But Samara’s presence in Thessaloniki, and his vow to be “completely intolerant to violence and racism,” appeared to mark a shift.

“For me this was something that I saw now for the first time,” said David Saltiel, president of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece. “It was the first time for a prime minister in a synagogue, and also for him to be so clear that he wanted this to symbolize his tough decision not to permit racism and anti-Semitism.”

Greece’s small Jewish community has watched in horror as Golden Dawn has grown in popularity over the past year, garnering more and more public support.

Greek Jews had hoped there would be some pushback from the country’s leaders in the face of attacks on immigrants by black-shirted gangs and anti-Semitic statements by party leaders. But there has been little.

Samaras, heading a shaky coalition government, put all his efforts into dealing with Greece’s massive economic crisis; the unpopular austerity measures he forced through left him very little political capital for taking on the populist party. And the weary Greek public dismissed rising sup-

is in the air.

A public march from its Liberty Square, where the Jews were first rounded up, to the Old Railway Station, where 50,000 were put on cattle cars to Auschwitz, was organized by the city’s dynamic and controversial new mayor, Yiannis Boutaris. It was the first such display by the Jewish community since the end of the war.

An unorthodox, chain-smoking, straight-talking businessman with a stud in one ear, Boutaris, 71, has shaken up Thessaloniki since becoming mayor in 2011. One of his main thrusts has been to revive Thessaloniki’s cosmopolitan history, embracing a city important to Turks for its Ottoman past and to Jews, who once were a majority and a center of Sephardi and Ladino culture.

“For the first time we have a mayor who dares to say we are all one family,” Saltiel said. “For the first time we have a mayor who is not afraid.”

About 2,500 people took part in the march, according to police estimates, most of them were not Jewish. They walked the two miles in silence until they reached the

Courtesy of Michael Thaidigsmann/ WJC

Thessaloniki Mayor Yiannis Boutaris, third from left, leading the march in his city from Liberty Square to the Old Railway Station, March 2013.

station before scattering flowers on the rails. Keeping watch were busloads of riot police blocking off the route and military snipers on rooftops.

“This is the least we can do to honor the citizens of Thessaloniki who lost their lives in the concentration camps,” said Boutaris, who is also working for further restitution of Jewish property.

Much of the shift in attitude can be attributed to sustained pressure from Jewish communities in Greece and abroad, and to Samaras’ desire to maintain relations with Israel that have flourished in the past three years.

“The prime minister realizes

the danger Golden Dawn poses to Greece and used this as the perfect opportunity to send the message to Greek society,” said Victor Eliezer, a member of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece and a frequent political commentator.

“He also wants to take Greece out of the group of European nations that are allowing neo-Nazis to flourish.”

Standing at the podium in the synagogue, Samaras was surrounded by the heads of the World Jewish Congress, the European Jewish Congress, the Jewish Agency for Israel, and the ambassadors of Israel and the United States.

8 • INTERNATIONAL

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

Exhibit recalls Jewish refugees and Nazi For one Holocaust survivor, prisoners held together in Canadian prisons Siemens was a roadblock to

By Arno Rosenfeld his story Jewish Telegraphic Agency VANCOUVER, Canada – When Austrian and German Jews escaped Nazism by fleeing to Britain during the 1930s, the last thing they expected was to find themselves prisoners in Canada, interred in camps with some of the same Nazis they had tried to escape back home.

But that’s what happened to some 7,000 European Jews and “Category A” prisoners – the most dangerous prisoners of war – who arrived on Canadian shores in 1940. Fearing a German invasion, Britain had asked its colonies to take some German prisoners and enemy spies. But the boats included many refugees, including religious Jews and university students.

Though Britain alerted Canada to the mistake, it would take three years for all the refugees to be freed.

“It was a period where everybody was closing their doors,” said Paula Draper, a historian who worked on an exhibit about the refugees currently on display at the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre. “But Canada closed its doors more tightly than almost anybody else.”

While greatly overshadowed at the time by the enormity of the Holocaust, the refugee episode illustrates two characteristics of Canadian government policy that are difficult to imagine today: rampant anti-Semitism and restrictive immigration. The country is one of Israel’s staunchest allies and has a relatively liberal immigration policy. In 2001, more than 18 percent of Canada’s population was immigrant; in 2010, Canada admitted more legal immigrants than it had in 50 years.

This wasn’t the case during World War II, when Frederick Charles Blair directed Canada’s immigration branch. Blair believed an international Jewish conspiracy was trying to skirt Canadian immigration policies by sneaking the refugees into the country.

Moreover, anti-Semitic attitudes among Canada’s Protestant elite had hardened in the run-up to World War II, according to University of British Columbia historian Richard Menkis.

The Protestants believed ethnic minorities lacked Canadian values, a view similar to that of Quebecois nationalists, who believed the province should remain both French and Catholic. Jews faced quotas in universities, were blocked from various professional fields and barred from certain neighborhoods.

“There were certain observers who thought that places like Toronto and the establishment there was as anti-Semitic as any-

By Toby Axelrod Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Courtesy of Alfred Bader / Photo by Jessica Bushey

Alfred Bader’s internment shirt from Camp I in Ile-aux-Noix, Quebec, circa 1940-1941. Bader arrived in Canada aboard the S.S. Sobieski and was interned for 15 months.

thing in North America,” Menkis said.

After tiring of Canadian intransigence on the refugee issue, the British sent a high-ranking diplomat, Alexander Paterson, to assure the Canadians that the Jewish refugees posed no security threat.

Paterson ended up spending more than eight months in the country and cleared many of the prisoners individually.

Courtesy of Eric Koch / Library and Archives Canada / Photo by Marcell Seidler

Photograph of an internee in a camp uniform, taken by internee Marcell Seidler, Camp N in Sherbrooke, Quebec, circa 1940-1942. Seidler secretly documented camp life using a handmade pinhole camera.

By 1943, the last of the refugees had been released. Many went on to make important contributions to Canadian society, including two Nobel Prize winners.

But as late as 1948, even after the horrors of the Holocaust had been revealed, a public opinion poll had Jews ranking near the top of a list of groups that Canadians least wanted in their country.

“This is how blind Canada was, blinded by racism, to the potential of all the people they might have been able to rescue from the Holocaust,” Draper said.

Draper, who has taught in the Canadian Studies program at the University of Toronto’s University College, began researching the internment of Jewish refugees in the 1970s. At the time, the Jewish community was reluctant to complain about this history given the fate of the Jews of Europe. Even among the survivors themselves, who lamented their lost years of freedom, many were thankful just to have escaped the destiny of their European brethren.

“To be overly critical of a government’s policy at the time, about this specific group, in light of the Holocaust,” was hard to justify, Draper said.

But if criticizing the Canadian government in the aftermath of the Holocaust was somewhat taboo, today the internment camps have been largely forgotten. Moreover, given how far Canada has come, it can be easy to overlook the antiSemitism that led to them.

Beginning in the 1960s, much began to change in Canada.

Hoping to placate French Canadians who felt shut out of society at large, the government launched a dialogue on biculturalism.

“A number of groups – with the Ukrainians in the lead – said, ‘Well, biculturalism isn’t enough,’” Menkis said. “That opened a whole discussion at the federal level about multiculturalism.”

The Jewish refugees were held in eight camps across Canada, at least two of which also housed Nazi prisoners. Because they were not prisoners of war, the Jewish refugees fell outside of the protections of the Geneva Conventions.

As a result, they were sometimes treated worse than the Germans. In some camps, the Nazis had access to Christian clergy and enjoyed Christmas trees and decorations, while the Jews struggled to find menorahs or candles, and rabbis were hard to come by.

BERLIN – I was 23 when I first met my cousin Gilbert Michlin. He was sitting at a brasserie near his office in Paris wearing a dark suit with a folded handkerchief poking out of the breast pocket. His short, dark hair was perfectly combed.

He said, in charmingly accented English, “There is one thing I must tell you: I was in Auschwitz.”

Of course, I already knew. But I had never met a survivor before, let alone our French cousin, who had been a slave laborer for Siemens at the death camp.

After the war, Gilbert went to study in the United States and eventually returned to Paris to become the European director of telecom products for IBM. That day in the late 1970s, Gilbert, then 53, had no more to say about the Holocaust. Instead, he told me how miraculous it was that he’d met his French wife, Mireille, in America.

“A girl from Marseilles and a boy from Paris would never meet in France,” he laughed. “Someone should write a novel.”

We met again over the years.

But it was not until 2006, when he and Mireille visited my adopted home city of Berlin, that I really got to know Gilbert.

Berlin had been one of Gilbert’s last stations on his way to liberation. Now he and three other men had been invited back to share their recollections with the public and meet representatives of the German company that had “recruited” them at Auschwitz in February 1944.

By then, Gilbert was 80 and had published his memoir, “Of No Interest to the Nation,” in French and English. He wanted not only to tell what he remembered, but also to provide evidence. He had spent many hours in archives and consulted historians. Sitting at his laptop, he had typed out the facts of his parents’ fate in the gas chambers of Auschwitz.

The fight against Holocaust denial was most important to him.

His new hero was U.S. historian Deborah Lipstadt, who dared to call David Irving a Holocaust denier and triumphed in Irving’s lawsuit against her.

In his memoir, Gilbert recalled French complicity in the deportation of Jews. He lovingly portrayed his father’s yearning to immigrate to America and his rejection at Ellis Island in 1923; Gilbert’s own childhood dream to be an actor; and the shock of Nazi

Courtesy of Toby Axelrod

The official ID photo of Gilbert Michlin upon his return to Paris following World War II, 1945.

occupation and his arrest with his mother by French police at 2 a.m. on Feb. 3, 1944, two days before his 18th birthday.

A week later, Gilbert saw his mother for the last time as she was driven away from the Auschwitz platform in a truck.

It was at the death camp that a Siemens representative recruited Gilbert and about 100 others to a work unit. His father’s insistence that Gilbert learn a mechanical trade saved his life. Gilbert was selected for armaments production. Siemens kept its Bobrek factory prisoners together, even after the SS evacuated them in the death march from Auschwitz in January 1945. They were transferred together from Buchenwald to Berlin. A few months later, the war was over.

Sixty-one years later, Gilbert was back in Berlin. Visiting the unfinished Holocaust memorial, he said the insurmountable chainlink fence was more evocative than the Peter Eisenman construction itself.

I went with the Bobrek survivors to the Siemens offices.

Each told his story. Then my cousin stood and insisted that the company finally open its archives to historians so they could get some answers: Why were these slave laborers kept together? Why were they saved?

The Siemens representatives froze; they had no response. The archive remained closed.

In the years since, I did some research for Gilbert, finding original documents about his family in other postwar archives. But it was always the Siemens archive that haunted him. For years he carried on conversations and correspondence with sympathetic company representatives, yet never got into their archive.

INTERNATIONAL • 9

THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2013

International Walking with the pope: John Paul II’s Polish hometown explores Holocaust history Briefs

By Maxine Dovere JointMedia News Service Capriles rails against acting president’s ‘heirs of Hitler’ statement (JTA) – Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles, the grandson of Holocaust survivors, criticized the country’s acting president for describing his supporters as “heirs of Hitler.”

Capriles and acting President Nicolas Maduro are both expected to officially announce their candidacy for Venezuela’s president on Tuesday. Maduro was named by the late president Hugo Chavez as his preferred successor. Capriles is the country’s opposition leader.

Maduro on Sunday compared complaints by the opposition against Cuban doctors working in Venezuela with the persecution of Jews by the Nazis.

“The heirs of Hitler are leading a campaign in Venezuela against the Cuban people,” Maduro said.

Capriles on Monday decried Maduro’s statements during a news conference.

“Does he know who Hitler was? If he does, then what he said was atrocious, because he’s saying that those who do not think like him are killers,” said Capriles.

Capriles said earlier this month that he would run for president of Venezuela. Last October in national elections Capriles won 44 percent of the vote but lost to Chavez by 11 percentage points.

During the 2012 presidential campaign, state-run media urged Venezuelans to reject “international Zionism” and vote against Capriles, describing him as having “a platform opposed to our national and independent interests.”

Chavez also said the Mossad, Israel’s secret service, was out to kill him and accused Israel of financing Venezuela’s opposition.

Government media described Capriles as “JewishZionist bourgeoisie."

David Miliband resigns from soccer team after hiring of fascist coach (JTA) – Britain’s Jewish former foreign secretary resigned from the board of a soccer club after the team appointed a coach who gave a Nazi-style salute at a game in Rome.

Italian Paolo Di Canio, who was appointed head coach of the Sunderland team on Sunday, is a self-described fascist and admirer of fascist leader Benito Mussolini.

WADOWICE, POLAND – When Karol Wojtyla left his hometown of Wadowice, Poland, in 1938 to pursue his studies at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland was an independent country with a vibrant culture and a population that included more than 3 million Jews.

In Wadowice, more than 40 percent of the residents were Jewish. But the Nazis annexed the town in 1939. Following the death of his father, Wojtyla entered seminary in 1941. Later in life he would return to Wadowice as a frequent visitor – including three times as the pope.

Wojtyla, who became known as Pope John Paul II, died in 2005.

That year, some 430,000 visited his small hometown. In 2010, on the 90th anniversary of the late pope’s birth, Stanislaw Dziwisz, his personal secretary, and Wadowice Mayor Ewa Filipiak laid the cornerstone for a museum that incorporates John Paul II’s home at 7 Koscieina Street.

During the winter of 2012, JNS met with the grandchildren of those who knew John Paul II as a young student who loved to ski and kayak – and counted Jews among his childhood friends.

“John Paul taught us to love the place we come from as well as those closest to us,” Filipiak said.

In the town square memorial, renamed in John Paul II’s honor in 2012, each Polish city and every

Courtesy of Maxine Dovere

Pope John Paul Square and the Cathedral of Wadowice. The town’s Holocaust history is being revisited.

Pope John Paul II at the old Yankee Stadium, New York City, in October 1979.

foreign country the pope visited is marked with an engraved, embedded stone.

After decades of communist rule, Poland is rediscovering its rich history, creating museums and educational programs that expand knowledge of its past. Among these efforts is the School for Dialogue Among Nations, a study program dedicated to discovering the Jewish history of Wadowice and the surrounding area.

The School for Dialogue is an intense, yearlong learning program through which students in Polish high schools learn about the Jewish history of their local regions. In Wadowice’s high school, JNS joined visiting members of the Polish-Jewish Forum for Dialogue Among Nations nonprofit in a circle of students study-

ing the Jewish history of their town – the pope’s town.

While observing the class, Marta Krolik, the county executive, called the experience “interesting and exciting.” Speaking through an interpreter, she told JNS, “We have a free Poland, and can speak about all we wish.

Wadowice has nothing to be ashamed about. We are all for objective and absolute truth about history – even though the discourse is not always positive.”

Halina, one of the participating students, lives in a town neighboring the former Auschwitz concentration camp, and attends the Wadowice regional high school.

She said the School for Dialogue had changed attitudes about Jews not only among young people, but adults as well. “There’s still room

Courtesy of Thomas J. O'Halloran

for the society to fight stereotypes and negative emotions,” she said.

Visitors and students went on to tour the town according to its Jewish geography. They saw what before the German occupation had been a Jewish-owned shop, a synagogue, and a mikvah (ritual bath). They also saw the gates of the ghetto that was imposed on the town’s Jews after the Nazis’ conquest. The students had previously studied each component of the town’s history, and on the tour they were able to describe each landmark’s roots in addition to its contemporary use.

A short distance from the active town center is the now rarely used Jewish cemetery. The white-walled area is at the end of HISTORY on page 22

10 • ISRAEL

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

African-Israeli personalities hoping to change community’s image

Courtesy of Avi Ohayon / GPO / JTA

Yityish Aynaw, shown meeting President Obama during his visit to Israel, is among several Israeli figures hoping to use their fame to improve the standing of African-Israelis, March 2013.

By Ben Sales Jewish Telegraphic Agency TEL AVIV – When Yityish Aynaw immigrated from Ethiopia to Israel at age 12, she was thrust into an Israeli classroom. An orphan lacking Hebrew skills, Aynaw says she relied on other kids and her own sheer ambition to get through.

Ten years later Aynaw, 22, is the

first Ethiopian-Israeli to be crowned Miss Israel – a title she hopes to use to showcase Israel’s diversity.

“Israel really accepts everybody,” she told JTA. “That I was chosen proves it.”

Ethiopian and other AfricanIsraelis have historically struggled with poverty and integration. But recently, several African-Israeli women have made a pop culture

splash.

Along with Aynaw, EthiopianIsraeli actress Ester Rada, 28, has just released her first solo rock record to positive reviews. And Ahtaliyah Pierce, a 17-year-old Black Hebrew Israeli, reached the semifinals on Israel’s edition of “The Voice,” a reality show in which emerging singers compete.

Though their personal stories diverge, each woman has experienced challenges as an African immigrant and wants to use her fame to help other African immigrants better integrate into Israeli society.

“It’s hard for Ethiopians to adapt, but they should be who they are, be the best that they can be,” said Rada, who was born in Jerusalem to Ethiopian parents who spoke Amharic at home. “Don’t let others keep you down or make you feel like we don’t belong.”

Rada’s parents stayed close to their Ethiopian roots, eating traditional foods and listening to traditional music. But Rada rebelled.

She refused to speak Amharic and failed to understand why she should feel tied to a country she had never seen and did not understand.

In recent years, the resistance has softened. Ethiopian culture “is a part of me and I can’t run away from it,” Rada said. “I decided to embrace it.

And it’s helped me define who I am, in my culture and in my music.”

IMAGE on page 22

Palestinian Authority treatment of Obama Bethlehem visit conjures up past political mirages

By Dr. Rafael Medoff JointMedia News Service The Palestinian Authority’s removal of a monument showing all of Israel as “Palestine” from the route on which President Barack Obama traveled during his recent visit to Bethlehem was consistent with the longstanding practice of totalitarian regimes attempting to fool foreign visitors.

This propaganda technique is sometimes called Potemkinism.

The name refers to Grigory Alexandrovich Potemkin, the Russian cabinet minister who is said to have constructed fake villages to impress the Czarina Catherine II during her visit to the Crimea in 1787.

Josef Stalin used such tactics to great effect. In the 1920s and 1930s, many Western visitors to the Soviet Union were taken to see Bolshevo, supposedly an example of the USSR’s progressive new prison system. Future British

Labor Party leader Harold Laski, among others, was deeply impressed by the prison without walls or guards, where prisoners supposedly were educated and inspired to become new men.

George Bernard Shaw actually claimed that the only problem in dealing with a Bolshevo prisoner was “inducing him to come out at all” when his term concluded. Ella Winter, the journalist-activist (and wife of famed muckraker Lincoln Steffens) wrote glowingly of the “kindly-faced” and “easy-going” prison director. Too late did the Kremlin’s early Western admirers come to realize that Bolshevo had been created for their consumption, filled with informers whose reward was to live in the sham prison, and in no way typical of the harsh jails and slave labor camps of the Soviet gulag.

Robert Conquest’s Harvest of Sorrow, a study of the Soviet-created famine in the Ukraine, quotes eyewitnesses describing how the

authorities quickly transformed one small farming village into an acceptable site for Westerners to view in the 1930s.

The residents were “forbidden to leave their houses,” except for a handful of peasants who were given new clothes before the visitors arrived. “Furniture from the regional theater in Brovary was brought… Curtains and drapes were brought from Kiev, also tablecloths.” Animals were quickly slaughtered, crates of beer arrived, and a telephone switchboard operator appeared. “All the corpses and starving peasants were removed from the highways in the surrounding countryside…”

Adolf Hitler likewise often engaged in Potemkin-style deception. American visitors to Germany in the 1930s were shown only that which reflected well on the Nazi regime. The U.S. political newsweekly The Nation complained TREAMENT on page 22

Courtesy of Gili Yaari/Flash 90

Israelis hold up placards, including a portrait of Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan labeled wanted, during an anti-Turkish protest outside the Turkish embassy in Tel Aviv on July 8, 2010.

Criticism of flotilla apology to Turkey mounts amid Erdogan’s demands of Israel

By Jacob Kamaras JointMedia News Service Some Israeli leaders are criticizing Israel’s recent apology to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan over the 2010 Gaza flotilla incident in light of the demands Erdogan has made of Israel since the apology was publicized.

Erdogan, clarifying initial reports that Turkey-Israel ties had been normalized following his conversation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said that those ties would not be fully restored until Israel both provides financial compensation for the nine Turkish citizens who died in the

Mavi Marmara altercation and ends its blockade on Gaza. The Turks who died in the flotilla incident had attacked Israeli soldiers on board.

Israeli Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett (Habayit Hayehudi) on Wednesday wrote on Facebook that Erdogan is doing everything he can to make Israel regret the apology.

“Let there be no doubt – no nation is doing Israel a favor by renewing ties with it. It should also be clear to Erdogan that if Israel encounters in the future any terrorism directed against us, our response will be no less severe,” Bennett wrote.

CRITICISM on page 22

Israel and Turkey: A short history of a tense relationship

By Joe Winkler Jewish Telegraphic Agency Toward the end of March, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for “operational mistakes” during the 2010 raid on a Turkish flotilla heading for Gaza.

An announcement that the two nations were resuming normal diplomatic ties quickly followed, though has since been complicated by further Turkish demands.

The incident that turned Turkish-Israel ties into a fullblown row came in May 2010, when Israeli forces confronted a flotilla of six ships attempted to breach Israel’s blockade of the Gaza strip. The Israeli commandos were attacked when they boarded one of the ships, the Mavi Marmara, and they responded with deadly force. Nine people were killed, all of them Turks (one

was a dual U.S.-Turkish citizen).

The incident marked the nadir of Turkey-Israel ties. JTA reported in the aftermath of the raid: “While Turkey and Israel have seen their once-close relationship deteriorate steadily for the past few years, the Israeli commando raid of a Turkish-led flotilla heading for Gaza, in which several Turks were killed, marks a dangerous new low in the two countries’ relations. “‘Turkey is now involved in a way it’s never been before: Blood has been spilled,’ said Hugh Pope, a Turkey analyst with the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based policy and advocacy organization.

“Following Monday’s raid, massive street protests broke out in Turkey, and the country recalled its ambassador from Israel and summoned Israel’s ambassador to Ankara.

RELATIONSHIP on page 22

SOCIAL LIFE • 11

THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2013

ANNOUNCEMENTS ENGAGEMENT r. and Mrs. Michael Shapiro are delighted to announce the engagement of their daughter Elaine Michelle Shapiro to Mark Harris Weingarten, son of Irene Weingarten and Steven Weingarten.

Elaine is the granddaughter of Maria and Jacob Shapiro of St. Louis, Mo. and the late Anna and Leonid Greenberg of Kiev, Ukraine. Mark is the grandson of Emily and Albert Stein of Houston, Texas, the late Harris Weingarten of Houston, Texas, the late Frances and Marvin Eichenblatt of Westwood, N.J. and Judith Bronstein of Sarasota, Fla. Elaine graduated from the Ohio State University with a Bachelor’s of Science in Psychology and received her Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing from the University of Cincinnati. She is currently enrolled in a graduate pro-

M

Elaine Michelle Shapiro and Mark Harris Weingarten

gram for a Master’s of Nursing Degree for Family Nurse Practitioners.

Mark graduated from Indiana University, Kelley School of Business with a Bachelor’s of Business Administration in Management and International Business. He is currently a retail execution manager with Dr. Pepper Snapple Group.

A fall wedding in Cincinnati is planned. Elaine and Mark will be making their home in Chicago.

Please join the Gentlemen of the University of Cincinnati’s AEPi Fraternity as we honor the women in our lives at the

THINK AEPiNK: Survive and Thrive Dinner Wednesday, April 17th · 6pm · Mayerson JCC

Benefiting Sharsheret, supporting Jewish women with breast cancer Keynote Speaker Sarah Ganson will pay tribute to her mother and beloved Jewish community member, Ellen Ganson. $18/student · $36/person with advance RSVP · $50 at the door Bricks for Breast Cancer silent auction.

Cash bar. Dietary Restrictions observed.

Table Sponsors Debbie & Mark Balk Anita & Murray Dock Michael Ganson Laura & Tom Glassman Michelle & Chase Kohn Pam & Sonny Saeks Trudy Balk & David Slifkin

Special Thanks Netanel (Ted) Deutsch Anita Dock Betsy Shonebarger Photography

Host/Hostess Michelle & Howard Pinsky Susan Bernstein & Howard Ain Beena & David Pinales The Beasley Family Galite & Ryan Silverman Cheryl & David Bernstein Carol Ann & Michael Schwartz Lisa & Jonathan Bernstein Sharon Stern Marie & Philip Bortz Debbie & Michael Steinbuch Jan & Ross Evans Tenenholtz Family Bonnie & Michael Fishel Tieger Family Carrie & Ken Goldhoff Michele & Morry Wiener Karen & Ruth Levy Natalie & Scott Wolf Susan Brenner & Steven Mombach Diane & Howard Yasgur Beth & Scott Kotzin Judy & Gary Zakem

Lead sponsor: The Manuel D. and Rhoda Mayerson Foundation

More info: michael.levy0813@gmail.com

RSVP: thinkaepink@gmail.com

CINCINNATI JEWISH LIFE • 13

THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2013

NHS Installs New Officers and Trustees at Installation Extravaganza Northern Hills Synagogue - Congregation B’nai Avraham installed new officers and trustees of the Synagogue, Sisterhood and Men’s Club at an Installation Extravaganza. Highlighting the evening was ventriloquist Denny Baker and his cast of “characters.”

Tamar Meyer, Oded Zmora, and Olivier and Deborah Fischer

Trish wants to date a doctor, so she plays the Dating Game with Drs. David Goldstein, David Bernstein, and Doug Mossman.

Sandy Spitz and Bobbie Winkler, incoming Sisterhood president.

Bob Stayton, incoming Men's Club president.

Lynn Kohel, Claire Lee, and Karla Kohel

Ventriloquist Denny Baker with Skeeter

Jeff Bassin presents a pin from the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism to incoming Synagogue president Joe Lazear

Laurel Wolfson, Julie and Steve Pentelnik, and Gloria Wolfson

A highlight of the evening was a raffle. The grand prize was a weekend trip to New York City, won by Elaine Hordes. Rabbi Gershom Barnard drew the winning ticket from the box held by Edie Neusner, while emcee Bill Freedman looked on.

14 • DINING OUT

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

Marx Hot Bagels—still full of surprises

By Michael Sawan Assistant Editor You wouldn’t expect to see snow in July (even March was a stretch).

The new pope, despite his “of the people” attitude, probably won’t be visiting any dance clubs down the street from the Vatican.

And Marx Hot Bagels? Open during Passover? That doesn’t make much sense, either.

But the regional staple made it work, with the same trademark snark that has always accompanied the business.

“We’ve sold a lot of matzo ball soup so far,” explained John Marx, the owner of the Marx Hot Bagels.

“We’re not kosher for Passover, we realize that, everyone should realize that, but we serve matzo. A lot of Jews who came in would eat matzo instead of a bagel. And we feel that we’re doing the community a justice by serving matzo. Or helping out, anyhow.”

Danielle Marx, John Marx’s wife and his second set of hands in the store, explained that the matzo ball soup had become a popular item even outside of Passover.

“We do make a vegetarian matzo ball soup and it’s pretty popular,” she began. “People seem to really like it.”

John was still on the subject of kosher: “Actually, the kosher thing kind of ties your hands on a lot of things,” he explained. “And especially being a gentile and having to follow the laws. Like, I’m not allowed to light the oven.”

Danielle added: “But if we can go along the lines of vegetarian; there are new vegetarian restaurants all the time, and they come up with new ideas. It’s just that sometimes it’s hard finding the kind of cheese that they would use that would also be kosher.”

This dedication to kosher law permeates Marx Bagels. For instance, every day they have a special rabbi come in to parse through all of the lettuce, making sure no small bugs have crept in.

John saw some irony in such effort going into some of his products.

“I don’t know if you should put this in the article, but we make kosher hot cross buns. In fact, during Passover one of our busier days is Good Friday because of Catholics. We do make hot cross buns, which is a, I guess an oxymoron to say it’s kosher and to say it’s a hot cross bun.”

“It’s kind of an Easter pastry,” added Danielle.

The change in season will be influencing other products, as well.

“With spring and summer coming up, our Holland Knots make a great hamburger bun,” said Danielle.

John had to speak up. “I think the bialys make a better bun. A lot

Courtesy of Michael Sawan

(Clockwise) An interior shot of Marx Hot Bagels; Shanon Lee takes a look at all of the prepared stock in the freezer; What a ton of frozen bagels looks like; Dough all knotted and waiting for the baking; John Marx prepares mini bagels.

of people use bialys for hamburger buns.”

Another popular item at the store is the mini bagels, which I was fortunate enough to see John roll by hand.

“All of the minis are rolled by hand,” explained John as he slit a hunk off of a pile of dough. From there he snipped, stretched and rolled the dough, mechanically popping one after another onto a waiting tray.

John explained that he had learned the skill from a former coworker, a lazy man who had imparted the knowledge to avoid the work. When this same coworker was caught stealing, John was there to pick up the extra work. And pay.

John pours stories like this, all told with his matter-of-fact honesty and sharp humor. He should

write a book.

Shanon Lee, an employee of the Marx’s, then led me around the back of the restaurant. You get a sense of how large the space is back there when ordering, with trays, bags of ingredients and machines in the large, busy space.

Imagine that doubled and frozen.

That’s the freezer of the restaurant, chock full of ready-to-bake breads, bagels, pastries and more. And, of course, it’s freezing in there.

“In the summertime you’re thankful for it,” added Lee as we escaped.

All of this food goes not only to the front-end deli area, but Marx’s growing catering business. Danielle handles that end of the business.

“We get a lot of tray orders,” explains Danielle. “The main thing is shivas. We do a lot of shiva trays.

But people are also using them for

things like gravestone placing, brises and even b’nai mitzvahs.”

Danielle was struck with an anecdote: “One thing that my daughter just took to a dinner that she had to go to was a pletzel, do you know what that is?

“It’s an onion board,” explains John.

“You cut that in slices,” continues Danielle, “and then serve that with our baked salmon salad. That makes a nice hors d’oeuvre.”

You can be assured of individual care with these platters, too.

“They’re all special ordered,” explains Danielle. “It’s not like they’re pre-made.”

“We also do things like fruit salad and cheese trays,” adds Danielle.

Many facets of Marx Hot Bagels have worked across an ebb and flow of interest. John himself sees that

these shifts will continue to come.

“I expect we’ll make changes only because a lot of the things we do now we didn’t do five or ten years ago, so I expect that as we go we’ll add and subtract. Make changes. I don’t think anything stays the same, unfortunately.”

Danielle speaks up: “If anybody has some ideas of things that they would like to see, we’re open to new ideas,” adds Danielle.

“We’re open to suggestions,” finishes John.

Marx Hot Bagels’ hours, in case you’re in the mood to give them an earful, are Monday through Saturday, 6 a.m. – 9 p.m.; Sunday, 6 a.m. – 8 p.m.

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16 • OPINION

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Let’s speak honestly to the Palestinians

By Eric R. Mandel JointMedia News Service There is a narrative that has been gaining adherents in America, that it is within Israel’s control to make peace with the Palestinians. If only it were so.

The story says that the issue is territorial, and the “occupation” and/or settlements are the root cause of the conflict.

Unfortunately it is the Palestinians who need to be confronted with a reality check.

The same people, who feel that Israel can magically create peace by itself, also feel that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is a man Israel can trust and is a partner for peace.

Yet of great concern to Israeli and American leaders who are paying attention is that Abbas has been heard to say things that represent the antithesis to peace. In August 2011 he said, “Don’t order us to recognize a Jewish state… we won’t accept it.” And on Dream 2 TV (Egypt), Oct. 23, 2011, he said, “I’ve said it before and I will say it again: I will never recognize the Jewishness of the state or a Jewish state.” Or in reference to the terrorist organization Hamas, he said in March 2013, “I don’t see much difference between their (Hamas) policy and ours. In this case, there is no need to label them as a terrorist organization.”

In January 2013, Abbas mentioned a full rogues gallery of terrorists and anti-Semites when he said, “We pledge to continue on the path of the martyr brother Abu Ammar (Yasser Arafat)… [and] remember the pioneers – the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin Al-Husseini.” The Mufti of Jerusalem is the same Palestinian leader who tried to work closely with Hitler because he wanted to bring the Holocaust to the Middle East.

With attitudes and speeches from Palestinian leaders like this, it is no wonder that Israel remains skeptical about peace. In a 2012 poll jointly conducted by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion and American Pollster Stanley Greenberg, 61 percent of Arab-Palestinians do not accept two states for two peoples and 72 percent of Arab-Palestinians reject any Jewish connection to Israel and to Jerusalem.

Now in his ninth year of a four-year term, it is also of great concern that Abbas is mistrusted and despised by many of his own people because of the endemic corruption and siphoning off of

millions in funds targeted for the Palestinian people, just like Arafat did. He would lose an election today, and if Israel withdrew from Area A, many are concerned that Hamas would likely take over, just as they did in Gaza in January of 2006.

What is needed now is an honest talk with the Palestinians.

The premise that the conflict can be resolved if only Israel pushes harder for peace and offers more land, neglects to assign responsibility to the Palestinians.

This line of reasoning completely ignores the historical record of Arab rejectionism of a two-state solution in 1949, 1967, 2000 and 2007. It ignores Israel’s two unilateral withdrawals from Arab land, in 2000 from Lebanon and 2005 from Gaza, leading to tens of thousands of missiles aimed at Israeli civilians during the Second Lebanon War, Operation Cast Lead, and Operation Pillar of Defense just this past November.

When Secretary of State John Kerry next speaks to the Palestinians, he should ideally be honest with them about their role and responsibility for the conflict and for a future of peace, if there is to be any.

If peace is the goal, then keeping facts in context is essential.

Israeli settlements comprise less than 1.7 percent of West Bank land. With the security fence, approximately 7 percent of the land is built on by Israel. We also must remember that the West Bank, or Judea and Samaria, is ancient Israel. Yet Israel has shown a complete willingness, time and again, to give almost all of the West Bank away to the Palestinians for a true, secure peace.

The U.S., as the world’s leading power, should go to Ramallah and say, “Commit to peace by recognizing Israel as a Jewish State, acknowledge that there will be no right of return, and stop launching rockets into Israel.”

That is the way to set the stage for real progress and a realistic peace. Some tough love is in order, as platitudes and moral equivalence only beget false illusions and more violence.

I wish this were only up to Israel to change the relationship and the future with the Palestinians, and its Arab neighbors. It is now time to speak honestly with the Palestinians if peace has any chance of taking root.

Eric R. Mandel, MD, is the cochair of the StandWithUs/New York office.

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

Dear Editor, When the Gibson Greeting Card company left Amberley Village, a stream of income from taxes derived from their employees was lost. This loss has presented an economic challenge to Amberley. How to maintain the high quality of services to resi-

dents with less income? It costs the village 25% more to provide these services than property taxes provide. Adding additional homes, condos or landominiums isn’t the answer, it would only exasperate the situation.

Amberley needs more income, not community gardens or arboretums or botanical gardens

or leisure trails. The focus of attention should be the North Site and finding an entity that employs higher income people and our villagers will not be harmed in any way.

Sincerely, Diane Levine Cincinnati, OH

Holocaust Remembrance Day 2013: How to say ‘never again’ and mean it

By Ben Cohen JointMedia News Service As we mark Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) on April 8 for the 60th consecutive year – this somber day was first placed onto the Jewish calendar in 1953, at the instigation of Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion – we again ask ourselves a deceptively simple question: Why do we still remember the 6 million Jews who perished in the Nazi Holocaust, along with millions of others?

There is no better day than Yom HaShoah to explore these issues. Unlike the various other Holocaust Memorial Days that take place during the year, most commonly on Jan. 27 (the United Nations-designated International Holocaust Remembrance Day), Yom HaShoah is an overtly Jewish occasion, launched by a Jewish state that came into existence only three years after the Second World War ended with the defeat of the Nazis and their allies.

As with any genocide, the Holocaust provides us with an opportunity to consider both particular and universal lessons. I intend to look at both, and then suggest ways in which the particular and the universal might be intelligently merged.

Let’s start with the particular: The state of the Jews and the manner in which that most toxic and persistent of hatreds, antiSemitism, continues to impact us.

Two immediate, and on the surface contradictory, conclusions can be reached. On the one hand, the post-Holocaust era has been, relative to the broad sweep of Jewish history, something of a golden age. In the vast majority of states in which we live, Jews experience no legal discrimination, and the kind of violent, mass anti-Semitism that distinguished the Nazi period seems a historical relic. There are approximately 13.5 million Jews in the world today, compared with 11 million

in 1945 – a figure that underlines the failure of the Nazis to fulfill their plan of eliminating the Jewish people globally. In the main, Jews are well-represented in the wealthier, more educated demographic of the world’s population. Most importantly of all, we have, in the State of Israel, a place under the sun and, as a consequence, the ability to defend ourselves against present and future enemies.

Now for the flip side. It is also true that anti-Semitic sentiment today is more widespread, and more socially acceptable, than at any other time since 1945. But because so much of this hostility is couched in enmity toward Israel, and because anti-Semites want to engage in anti-Semitism without being tarred with the now vulgar appellation “anti-Semitic,” we are told that protesting these views encourages the further spread of anti-Semitism and amounts to shutting down free speech! Our enemies tell us that we are over-sensitive, and that we label all criticism of Israel as antiSemitic. But comparing Israel to the Nazis, or arguing that the lesson of the Holocaust is that Jews should be ten times more noble and pacific than everybody else, as these same enemies regularly do, isn’t criticism of Israeli policy.

It’s anti-Semitism in a more slippery form.

Nor can we discount the prospect that state-sponsored antiSemitism will return. Indeed, in several countries around the world, among them Hungary, Venezuela and Turkey, long-established Jewish populations are again considering emigration because their governments are either directly promoting antiSemitism (as in Turkey and Venezuela) or collaborating with and encouraging anti-Semitic political parties (like the Jobbik party in Hungary).

All these realities warn against complacency. It’s hard to get that point across to Jews today, partic-

ularly in the U.S., where antiSemitism never reached the lethal levels of Europe and the Muslim world, and in Israel, where antiSemitism is regarded as more of a historical rather than contemporary matter. That’s why an intelligent appraisal of current antiSemitism is essential. Talk too much about the 1930s, and people rightly switch off – absent the existence of concentration camps, pogroms and Nuremburg-style discrimination laws, the comparison makes no sense. Equally, glibly declaring that we’ve never had it so good blinds us to festering problems in countries that most American Jews have never visited.

What about the universal lessons? The world since 1945 has witnessed numerous genocides (and there could have very well been a second genocide of the Jews in the Soviet Union in 1953 – the same year that Yom HaShoah was instituted – had Joseph Stalin not suddenly died as his post-war anti-Semitic campaign was reaching its peak). There was East Pakistan/Bangladesh in 1971 (a comparatively early example of Muslims slaughtering other Muslims,) Cambodia in the late 1970s, Zimbabwe in the early 1980s, Iraqi Kurdistan in the late 1980s, Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s, and Darfur, western Sudan, North Korea and Syria in our own time. And yes, I am quite aware that there are several other examples I haven’t mentioned – that’s the point.

The persistence of genocide suggests, firstly, that it is a general phenomenon, impacting Jews, Christians, Muslims and others, and including whites in Europe and blacks in Africa among its victims. Secondly, that governments will rarely intervene to prevent genocide from taking place.

In that sense, the NATO campaign in Kosovo in 1999 was very much the exception, not the rule.

OPINION on page 19

JEWISH LIFE • 17

THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2013

brief time in Bedford Stuyvesant, where the community’s remnants emigrated after the Holocaust before they settled in Netanya. The Rebbe, of blessed memory, recited the circumcision blessings, and with tears coursing down his cheeks could barely be heard as he choked upon the words, “And I see you wallowing in your blood; and I declare unto you, by your blood shall you live, by your blood shall you live” (Ezekiel 16: 6).

And then the Rebbe spoke. He explained that the Hebrew word damayich, “by your blood” can also be translated “by your silence” (dom is attentive silence, while dam is blood). We continue to live as Jews, we propagate and plant and build, because – despite our tragic sacrifices – we remain silent before G-d, as did our forbear Aaron.

“However,” he continued, looking upward and speaking with a voice which seemed to shake the very foundations of the building, “You, G-d, dare not remain silent.

As the sweet Psalmist King David declared, ‘Lord, You must not be silent (al domi lakh), You must not hush your voice, G-d, you must not be quiet, Because, behold, Your enemies are shouting out loud...(Psalms 83:2-3). You, O G-d, must cry out, I have forgiven, according to your words ‘. You, O G-d, must cry out from the ramparts, ‘For a short moment did I forsake you and with great compassion do I gather you, says ‘the Lord your redeemer’ (Isaiah 54, 7-8)!

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

T EST Y OUR T ORAH KNOWLEDGE THIS WEEK’S PORTION: SHEMINI (LEVITICUS, CHAPTERS 9—11) 1. What did Aaron do when he raised his hands? a.) Bless the people b.) Pray c.) Prepare to slaughter an animal for sacrifice 2. What sin did two of Aaron's sons commit? a.) Offer a different sacrifice b.) Tried to take over leadership from Moshe and Aaron c.) Worship idols 3. What was their punishment? a.) Exile outside the community

Hashem's punishment of their sin showed the awesome holiness of the Mishkan. Rashi 5. C—10:3. He took comfort that they sanctified Hashem's name. Sforno see question 4

EFRAT, Israel—This week’s Torah reading presents an awesome and awful scene of the heights of ecstasy merged with the depth of despair: exaltation together with extinction, ineffable transcendence alongside inexplicable tragedy. The desert Sanctuary is being dedicated, sacrifices to the Almighty are offered, and Moses and Aaron bless the entire nation.

A divine fire comes forth from the heavens and consumes the offerings; the people see, sing out with joy and exaltation, and fall on their faces in gratitude to the Almighty who has miraculously signaled His acceptance of the offerings.

Two sons of Aaron, Nadav and Avihu, caught up in the religious excitement of the moment, take a censer, place upon it fire and incense, and offer an additional tribute to G-d. In effect, they respond to the fire of Divine acceptance and grace with their own extra fire of human fervor and commitment. The Divine reaction is as immediate as it is imponderable: “And a fire came forth from before the Lord and consumed them; they died before the Lord” (Leviticus 10:1-2).

The intermingling of emotions defies the imagination: at the climax of the exodus from Egypt, and the moment of tribute to the High Priest Aaron, symbol of Divine protection and generational continuity, Aaron’s two beloved sons are taken from him. This appears to be a gratuitous and merciless act on the part of G-d.

Most of our commentators attempt to justify the deaths by attributing some fatal flaw in the actions and characters of Nadav and Avihu. The Biblical text, however, makes no such attempt: “And Moses said to Aaron, ‘It is as the Lord spoke saying, by means of those closest to me shall I be sanctified and in front of the entire nations shall I be glorified...”

(Leviticus 10:3).

Rashi, the Biblical commentator par excellence, takes Moses’ statement at face value. He does not seek to rationalize why these youths deserved their tragic fate; he merely provides the source of Moses’ explanation: “Where did the Lord speak? ‘And I shall be encountered there with the children of Israel and I shall be sanctified by My glory’ (Exodus 29:43). Do not read the text ‘by My glory’ but rather read it, ‘by those who glori-

fy Me.’ Moses said to Aaron, ‘Aaron my brother, I knew that this Temple would be sanctified by those most beloved of G-d. I would have thought that it would have been by me or by you. Now I see that they (Nadav and Avihu) were greater than us” (Rashi, ad loc).

Aaron’s response is Biblically reported as “Vayidom Aharon – and Aaron was silent.” Perhaps this heavily pregnant silence is indicative of Aaron’s feeling that if he says what he wants to say, and rails against Whom he wishes to rail, he will irrevocably destroy the most precious relationship of his life. Or perhaps it was simply the silence of an unasked question to which there is no satisfactory answer.

The theological construct expressed by Rashi harks back to the haunting Biblical scene, at the very dawn of our history, of the “covenant between the pieces.” In the introduction to the covenant comes the Divine guarantee, “I am the Lord who took you out of Ur Kasdim to give you this land as an inheritance” (Genesis 15:7).

However, what immediately follows is the blood, smoke and fire of sacrifice, the prophesy that Jewish redemption requires a prelude of alienation, servitude and affliction on the part of the nation.

Then, as a result of his awesome vision, a dark fear descends upon Abraham. To be sure, the Covenant concludes with a confirmation of our continuity and territorial integrity; but our salvation will only come at the price of ultimate sacrifice: “And so the sun set, and a heavy cloud overcast.

And behold, a smoking furnace of ashes and a torch of fire which passed between these (bloodied) pieces. On that day the Lord established His covenant with Abram, saying, ‘to your seed have I given this land from the River Nile of Egypt to the great River, the Euphrates’” (Genesis 15:17-18).

From this perspective, we understand the intermingling of the sacrificial blood of the paschal sacrifice with the joyous freedom of the wine which together mark our celebration of Passover, the “Hillel sandwich” which mixes the matzah of redemption together with the bitter herbs of suffering.

And from this perspective we understand why Yom HaZikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day for her fallen martyrs of the IDF, enters into – and merges with – Yom HaAtzmaut, Israeli Independence Day. And, as amazing as it is, parents, spouses and orphans almost uniformly respond to these ultimate sacrifices as did Aaron of old, with a heavy, pregnant and accepting silence.

As a very young boy, I remember attending the very first Shabbat circumcision ceremony celebrated by the Kloizenberg-Tzanz Hassidim after they located for a

b.) Community service c.) Death 4. How are Aaron's sons described after their sin and death? a.) Sinners b.) They lived close to Hashem c.) Made accidental errors 5. What was Aaron's reaction to his son's death? a.) Mourned for seven days b.) Sang c.) Accepted with silence

not command them to do it. They should have consulted Moshe first.

3. C 10:2. This fire consumed their souls, but their bodies and clothes remained intact. Talmud 4. B—10:3 Moshe said to Aaron, that his sons were greater than they were themselves, and

by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin

SHABBAT SHALOM: PARSHAT SHMINI LEVITICUS 9:1-11:47

Written by Rabbi Dov Aaron Wise

ANSWERS 1. A 9:22 The blessing was the three part priestly blessing or he raised his hands vertically towards Hashem like King Shlomo when he dedicated the Temple. Rashi, R'Bchai 2. A—10:1. The "alien fire" was that Hashem did

Sedra of the Week

18 • JEWZ IN THE NEWZ

JEWZ

IN THE

By Nate Bloom Contributing Columnist TV AND VIDEO NEWS “How to Live with Your Parents (for the Rest of Your Life)”, premiered on ABC last night, but you can catch an encore showing on Saturday, April 6, at 8:30PM. This sit-com stars Sarah Chalke (“Scrubs”) as a recently divorced single mom who moves in with her eccentric parents (Elizabeth Perkins and BRAD GARRETT, 52, of “Everybody Loves Raymond” fame).

The FX cable series, “The Americans,” premiered in late January to mixed reviews and FX has already renewed it for a second, 13 episode season. New shows air Wednesdays at 10PM and you can watch already aired episodes online. The premise: in the early 1980s, the Soviet Union plants two KGB agents (Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys), who are also a married couple, in the Washington, D.C. area. They appear to be just regular Americans. The spies’ lives are complicated when a FBI counterintelligence expert moves in next door. He’s played by NOAH EMMERICH, 48. Emmerich is one of those character actors most people recognize, but few know his name. He played Jim Carrey’s best buddy in “The Truman Show” and Patrick Wilson’s best friend in “Little Children.”

The series was created by JOE WEISBERG, 46. In 1989, while still a Yale Univ. student, he smuggled in goods to Soviet Jewish Refuseniks. In 1990, he joined the CIA and worked for the agency until 1994.

This month, Toronto resident JOREL HOFFERT is scheduled to have his bar mitzvah. In the words of the “Wall Street Journal”: “He conscripted his parents and grandparents to make a truly mindblowing [bar mitzvah] video invitation, which has to be seen to be believed (and beloved). The video features young Hoffert throwing down serious East-West swag: Crooning a reskinned “Bohemian Rhapsody,” showing off serious air-guitar and actual-piano chops, and finishing off with an epic Gangnam-style finale. And the lyrics are hilarious, with lines like ‘I’m half a Jew/Learned Hebrew/I’m half Asian and proud of that too.’”

The video has gotten close to 500K views on Youtube. To see it: go to Youtube and search for “Jorel Rocks.”

3-D Dinosaurs Opening on Friday, April 5, is a 3-D version of STEVEN SPIELBERG’s 1993 sci-fi blockbuster, “Jurassic Park.” Stars

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include JEFF GOLDBLUM, now 60; Laura Dern, 46 (whom Goldblum dated from 1995-97); and Sir Richard Attenborough, now 89.

Attenborough’s (non-Jewish) parents took in two young German Jewish refugee girls in 1939. They arrived in England on what was known as the “Kindertransport.”

His parents adopted the girls after WWII when it became known that the girls’ parents had died in the Holocaust. These two girls, who Sir Richard and his brother, famous scientist David Attenborough, always considered their sisters, moved to the States after the war and lived with a blood uncle. Both were active members of the Jewish community until their recent deaths.

Dern, who has always favored making edgy, small-budget indie movies, recently told an interviewer that she agreed to do “Jurassic Park” for three reasons: “Spielberg, Spielberg and Spielberg.” She added that she is grateful she did the film because it is one of her few films she feels comfortable watching with her young children.

QUITE A TRIO Three well-known, if not super-famous Jews died in the last three weeks, and I was struck by how their careers reflect the diversity of Jewish talent. You can easily find longer bios online, but often their Jewish background isn’t mentioned. So, just in case you missed their deaths and/or the fact that they were Jewish – here they are – with apologizes for not writing more about their interesting lives: • Canadian JOE WEIDER died on March 23, age 83. He was the creator of many of the top bodybuilding competitions, publisher of bodybuilding magazines, and seller of many nutritional supplements, including Tiger’s Milk products.

• ANTHONY LEWIS died on March 25, age 85. Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and NY Times columnist, he is credited with creating the field of legal journalism in the United States.

• MALACHI THRONE died on March 13, age 84. Crack character actor with scores of TV and movie roles, including “It Takes a Thief.” In 2009, he told an interviewer that he refused to change his Jewish first name even though his agent warned him he would only get parts “playing Jews and Indians.” He said he didn’t regret turning down the role of Dr. McCoy on “Star Trek” (he wanted the Spock role) and was happy to be one of the few actors to gueststar on both the original “Trek” and on “Next Generation.”

FROM THE PAGES 150 Y EARS A GO It affords us great pleasure to announce the great success attending the engagement of the sterling artists, Mr. Couldock and his talented daugher, which is a convincing proof that the legitimate drama will be well patronized, when in the hands of such sterling artists.

The beautiful Domestic Drama of the “Chimney Corner” has been the attaraction during the present week. We have never witnessed a more genuine piece of acting than Mr. Couldock’s Peter Probity; we are sorry that Mr. Couldock’s engagements elsewhere – prevents his staying after to-morrow night, but we hope soon to see him again on the boards of the Opera House, in other of his favorite characters.

To-night he will appear in conjunction with his daughter, in his inimitable personation of Luke Fielding in the Willow Copse, a character in which he stands preeminent; it being his benefit night, we anticipate a crowded house. An excellent bill has been prepared for the usual Saturday Matinee, consisting of the beautiful Home Drama of Grand-father Whitehead and a new Ballet entitled The Villasers by the incomparable Zavistowski Troupe, and Corps De Ballet. – April 17, 1863

125 Y EARS A GO On the 12th inst. Mr. Aaron Stix and Miss Belle Strauss will be wedded at the home of the bride’s mother in Walnut Hills. Owing to the recent death of Mr. Strauss, the wedding will be a most quiet one, none but the immediate relatives being present. Dr. Wise will perform the ceremony.

On April 14th there will be given a grand ball at College Hall by a number of prominent young men in connection with the members of the Eccentric Club. The affair will be conducted on the finest scale and anything that money can procure will be at hand. No pains are being spared to make this ball the crowning event of the season.

Mr. Ludwig Wise returned from an extended Western trip on Sunday last. He will now remain at home to complete arrangements for his marriage to Miss Rose Ronsheim, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jos. Ronsheim, of 14 Hopkins Street.

The happy event will take place on the 17th inst., at the residence of the bride’s parents, in the presence of the immediate family only. – April 6, 1888

100 Y EARS A GO The last two issues of Public Libraries, published in Chicago, contain contributions from the pen of Mrs. Henry Englander, formerly head of the Children’s Department

of the Cincinnati Public Library.

The Young Ladies’ Art of Arts Club, composed of Misses Helen Brahem, Janet Block, Helen Frank, Bearice Bowman, Helen Levy and Minnie Sallinger, volunteered their services to the Relief Society and in two days’ active campaign they have collected $200.

One of the interesting incidents of the flood was the sending by the United Hebrew Charities of Cincinnati of daily supplies of strictly kosher food for thirty families of Orthodox Jews, who were starving in the midst of plenty, at Hamilton, O., because they would not eat food that they considered trefe. - April 3, 1913

75 Y EARS A GO The University of Cincinnati trustees have approved a resolution drawn by President Raymond Walters on the approaching retirement of Dr. Albery H. Freiberg, lauding him for his 40 years on the medical faculty and naming him professor emeritus of orthopedic surgery. “His career has reflected glory upon the college of which he is a graduate and teacher,” the resolution said.

Pi Alpha Tau sorority entertained with a house-party, April 3rd, at the home of Miss Harriet Perl, 3514 Washington Avenue.

On April 6th the mothers and daughters discussion group of Pi Alpha Tau sorority met at the home of Mrs. I. Aronoff, 918 Dana Avenue.

Mr. and Mrs. Sol Pritz, 3417 Harvey Avenue, will be at home to friends and relatives Sunday, April 24th from 7 to 11 p.m., in honor of the engagement of their daughter, Miss Natalie, to Mr. Sylvan Wolder, son of Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Wolder, Louisville. No cards.

Mrs. Sol Rosenbaum and granddaughter, Miss June Shane of Burton Avenue, left Wednesday, Arpil 13th for a week with relatives in Memphis. – April 14, 1938

50 Y EARS A GO Mrs. William Mayer and Mr. and Mrs. Richard Robens have returned following a trip abroad during which they visited Amsterdam, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Athens, Rome and Vatican City, in a Ruth 18 tour.

Mr. and Mrs. John Friedman celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary at a dinner given by their children and grandchildren, Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Friedman, Carol and Stewart, and Mrs. and Mrs. Irwin Newhauser, Richard and Susan.

Dr. and Mrs. Marvin L. Herzig of Cincinnati announce the engagement of their daughter, Susan Brenda, to Mr. Melvin S. Schwarzwald of Cleveland, son of Mr. and Mrs. Sol J. Schwarzwald of Canton, Ohio. – April 4, 1963

25 Y EARS A GO Children from four area Jewish schools were honored at a special awards assembly at the Jewish Community Center on Sunday, Feb. 28 as winners of the annual Jewish Book Review Contest Sponsored by the Bureau of Jewish Education.

Max Frankel, executive director of the Bureau of Jewish Education, presided at the assembly, and distributed book prizes to all the winners, assisted by Esther Feuerberg, assistant principal at Yavneh, and Rabbi Pesach Sobel, Larry Katz, and Rabbi Shaya Sackett.

Winners selected by the judges Grade 3-4: 1st place, Ben Sommers, 2nd place, Lisa Warshawsky, 3rd place, Jeff Finkelstein, Honorable Mention, Stephen Shapiro and Julia Schultz. Grades 5-6: 1st place, Mendel Lifshitz, 2nd place, Nicole Faust, 3rd place, Ariella Moskowitz, Honorable mention, Mindy Kurlansky, Shawn Knapp, and Lisa Scheim. Grade 7-8: 1st place, Emily Shapiro, 2nd place, Elisa Gallon, 3rd place, Bezalel Lifshitz and Michael Appel, Honorable Mention, Brian Hattenback and Samuel Sommers. Hebrew entries, grades 5-6-7: 1st place, Avi Kogan, 2nd place, Dror Nativ, 3rd place, Ari Wise, Honorable Mention, Amy Weinberg and Benjamin Liwnicz – April 7, 1988

10 Y EARS A GO So much interest was shown in the last JCC Musical Theater Workshop with Broadway star Pamela Myers that the program will be offered again this spring.

Both of Dian Carr’s children, Erin and Michael, participated in the JCC Musical Workshop this past February. “Erin and Michael were really glad to work with Pam Myers, said Carr. “She is helpful and encouraging and constructive in her feedback. They had a great time.”

Young visitors celebrated Purim with senior adults at two area residential communities in March. The visits were coordinated by Jewish Visiting Initiative: The Bikur Cholim Project of Jewish Family Service as part of the project’s Holiday Sensations program.

Fourth-grade students of Alexia Kadish’s Congregation Ohav Shalom class brought “Purim Shenanigans” to Cedar Village while the Ner Tamid chapter of the B’nai Brith Youth Organization celebrated Purim with Jewish residents of The Lodge Retirement Community.

The participants included: Abigail Miller, Ben Schulman, Madeleine Bransford, Fela Wrobel, Gail Scoffield, Rachel Yanow, Ethel Segal, Sarah Yanow, David Segal, Josh Rogoff, Sandy Rheins and Jordan Della Bella. – April 10, 2003

THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2013

CLASSIFIEDS • 19

COMMUNITY DIRECTORY COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS Access (513) 373-0300 • jypaccess.org Big Brothers/Big Sisters Assoc.

(513) 761-3200 • bigbrobigsis.org Camp Ashreinu (513) 702-1513 Camp at the J (513) 722-7258 • mayersonjcc.org Camp Chabad (513) 731-5111 • campchabad.org Camp Livingston (513) 793-5554 • camplivingston.com Cedar Village (513) 754-3100 • cedarvillage.org Chevra Kadisha (513) 396-6426 Cincinnati Community Kollel (513) 631-1118 • kollel.shul.net Cincinnati Community Mikveh (513) 351-0609 • cincinnatimikveh.org Eruv Hotline (513) 351-3788 Fusion Family (513) 703-3343 • fusionnati.org Halom House (513) 791-2912 • halomhouse.com Hillel Jewish Student Center (Miami) (513) 523-5190 • muhillel.org Hillel Jewish Student Center (UC) (513) 221-6728 • hillelcincinnati.org Jewish Cemeteries of Greater Cincinnati 513-961-0178 • jcemcin.org Jewish Community Center (513) 761-7500 • mayersonjcc.org Jewish Community Relations Council (513) 985-1501 Jewish Family Service (513) 469-1188 • jfscinti.org Jewish Federation of Cincinnati (513) 985-1500 • shalomcincy.org Jewish Foundation (513) 214-1200 Jewish Information Network (513) 985-1514 JVS Career Services (513) 985-0515 • jvscinti.org Kesher (513) 766-3348 Plum Street Temple Historic Preservation Fund (513) 793-2556 Shalom Family (513) 703-3343 • myshalomfamily.org The Center for Holocaust & Humanity Education (513) 487-3055 • holocaustandhumanity.org Vaad Hoier (513) 731-4671 Workum Fund (513) 899-1836 • workum.org YPs at the JCC (513) 761-7500 • mayersonjcc.org

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

Congregation Ohr Chadash (513) 252-7267 • ohrchadashcincinnati.com Congregation Sha’arei Torah shaareitorahcincy.org Congregation Zichron Eliezer 513-631-4900 • czecincinnati.org Golf Manor Synagogue (513) 531-6654 • golfmanorsynagogue.org Isaac M. Wise Temple (513) 793-2556 • wisetemple.org Kehilas B’nai Israel (513) 761-0769 Northern Hills Synagogue (513) 931-6038 • nhs-cba.org Rockdale Temple (513) 891-9900 • rockdaletemple.org Temple Beth Shalom (513) 422-8313 • tbsohio.org Temple Sholom (513) 791-1330 • templesholom.net The Valley Temple (513) 761-3555 • valleytemple.com

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

ORGANIZATIONS American Jewish Committee (513) 621-4020 • ajc.org American Friends of Magen David Adom (513) 521-1197 • afmda.org B’nai B’rith (513) 984-1999 BBYO (513) 722-7244 Hadassah (513) 821-6157 • cincinnati.hadassah.org Jewish Discovery Center (513) 234.0777 • jdiscovery.com Jewish National Fund (513) 794-1300 • jnf.org Jewish War Veterans (513) 204-5594 • jwv.org NA’AMAT (513) 984-3805 • naamat.org National Council of Jewish Women (513) 891-9583 • ncjw.org State of Israel Bonds (513) 793-4440 • israelbonds.com Women’s American ORT (513) 985-1512 • ortamerica.org

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HONOREES from page 1 Bess Paper is a life member of Hadassah and leads their book group at Cedar Village. She continues to write essays and remains an active member of a 100 year old literary writing group which she joined in 1977. She did volunteer work for the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society after WWII as the organization settled new immigrants into productive life.

Gerald Robinson is a dedicated community member. He has chaired the Cedar Village Harkavy Fund since its inception in 2005 and has served as a Cedar Village board member and currently is a member of the Cedar Village Foundation board. He and Marvin Schwartz have been the Presenting Sponsors of the Cedar Village Golf Classic since 2006.

This year’s nominees will join Robert Betagole, Rosemary and Frank Bloom, Philip T. Cohen, Wilbur Cohen, Werner Coppel, Bernard Dave, Dr. Larry Essig, Debbie Fox, Benjamin Gettler, Murray Guttman, Charlotte PAUL from page 6 “We don’t write off anybody,” Brooks told The Jewish Week of New York at the time. “As it stands now, there are just too many questions about Paul. Is he more like [Republican Kentucky Senator] Mitch McConnell, who has been terrific on Israel – or is he more like Ron Paul?”

OPINION from page 16 It’s at this point that we can merge the particular with the universal. I’ve always rejected the insulting notion that the Holocaust should have turned Jews into pacifists, and that by defending ourselves and our state on the battlefield, we are somehow violating the memory of our grandparents and great-grandparents. But I do think that the experience of the Holocaust, along with the undoubted influence which Jews as a group enjoy, should motivate us to form alliances with those who are being persecuted and slaughtered now.

Many of these groups, such as the 25 million stateless Kurds, or the 100 million Christians living with varying degrees of oppression, cannot count on sustained media

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(513) 531-9600 Hattenbach, Faye Horwitz, David Jacobson, Robert Kanter, Florence Lieberman, Dr. Gordon Margolin, Dr. Albert Miller, Pat and Morry Passer, Sue Ransohoff, Barbara Rosenberg, Pearl Schwartz, Ruth Schwartz, Theodore L. Schwartz, Phyllis Shapiro Sewell, Sue and Jerry Teller, Richard Weiland and Florence Zaret. Additional past honorees, all of blessed memory are Paula (Peppi) Gallop, Eric Hattenbach, Ernst Kahn, Gertie Kirzner, Lou Nidich and Freda Schwartz.

According to Carol Silver Elliott, CEO/president of Cedar Village, “Each of these people has made a difference in the lives of others and it will be a privilege to salute them and their lifetimes of achievement and community service. We invite the community to join us on May 30 to celebrate their accomplishments.”

The evening begins with a reception at 5:30 p.m. followed by dinner and the program. Funds raised will be used to create walking paths on the Cedar Village campus.

A reservation for the dinner is requested.

The RJC did not invite Ron Paul to its candidates’ forum for the 2012 presidential election because he was “so far outside of the mainstream of the Republican party and this organization,” Brooks told the Washington Jewish Week in 2011, and the group could face a similar decision with Rand Paul if he remains a factor in the 2016 race. coverage of their plight. Only a handful of western politicians can be relied on to pick up the cudgels on their behalf. That’s why, if we are searching for a lesson for this Yom HaShoah, I would modestly propose this one: That we extend our concept of what constitutes self-defense to embrace those peoples who cannot—at least not yet— do so effectively for themselves.

That doesn’t mean conferences and dialogue groups and experience-sharing seminars. It means hardcore political advocacy, it means energetically chasing down war criminals like Sudan’s leader Omar al-Bashir, and it means providing weapons and other aid to those exposed to the horrors of mass slaughter.

Above all, it means that when we say “never again,” we mean it.

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LEGAL / FIRST PERSON • 21

THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2013

Sports Torts Legally Speaking

by Marianna Bettman Torts is the subject I teach at U.C. law school. Torts are personal injuries. If the injured person (the plaintiff) can prove the person (the defendant) that hurt him or her was negligent, the plaintiff can recover money damages. Negligent means careless or inattentive.

There are lots of allegations of negligence in sporting activities, but the law favors both watching and participating in such activities, so special rules have been developed for sports injuries to make it harder for a plaintiff to recover.

The Ohio Supreme Court issued two recent rulings about sports torts. I wrote about the first case last September when it was argued before the Court, and promised to revisit it when the Court issued its opinion. That case, Smith v.

Landfair, involved a woman who got kicked in the head by a horse.

Roshel Smith was barn manager at her father’s stable. Donald Landfair, who was nearly 80, boarded two of his horses there.

Landfair decided to take his horses to be shod by a blacksmith. In order to do this he had to load them both onto a trailer. No problem on the way out. But on the way home, as Landfair was trying to unload horse Annie from the trailer, she was spooked by an Amish wagon driving by. (This happened in Holmes County, where there are a lot of Amish.)

Smith was standing at the barn door watching her father exercise another horse on the track, when she heard a commotion and saw that Annie had pushed Landfair out of the trailer, onto the ground.

She rushed over to help. She was kicked in the head by the horse, and sustained serious injuries. She sued Landfair for compensation for those injuries.

I’ve said the law (like the rest of our society) favors sports. There is a law in Ohio that provides immunity for various equine activities.

Immunity means that for some policy reason, a plaintiff cannot recover money damages even if the defendant is negligent. Ohio’s equine immunity statute bars equine activity participants, includ-

ing spectators, from bringing a tort claim. Under the statute, an equine activity participant includes someone who is a spectator at an equine activity. And that’s what the dispute in this case was all about.

Landfair argued that Smith was a spectator, because she was an observer of what happened, and therefore couldn’t collect damages from him in this case. Smith argued that she wasn’t a spectator, because a spectator physically places herself at a particular equine activity for the purpose of watching that activity – like someone who pays to go to a horse show and watches from the stands. Smith argued that she had no such purpose – she was simply a bystander, who just coincidentally happened to be nearby when the incident arose, and therefore she should be allowed to recover for her damages.

The word “spectator” is not defined in the equine immunity statute. When that happens, it is the role of the Court to provide a definition. As happens many times in cases, the Court did not accept the definition proposed by either party, but provided one of its own. The Court found that just being around a horse or just glancing at horse wouldn’t be enough to make a person a spectator. A spectator is one who purposely places herself in a location where equine activities are

occurring and who sees such an activity. Then the Court went on to apply that definition to the facts of the case, and that application favored Landfair. In a 6-1 decision written by Justice Judy Lanzinger, the Court found that Smith had voluntarily put herself in a spot where equine activities were taking place, saw Landfair try and unload Annie from the trailer, and was injured due to the inherent risk of that activity. So the Court found that Smith was a spectator at an equine activity, and thus could not recover money damages from Landfair.

Justice Paul Pfeifer dissented from this decision. He would have adopted Smith’s definition of a spectator.

The second sports injury case involved a collision between a downhill skier and a then teen-aged snowboarder. The case is Horvath v. Ish. There is an Ohio law that establishes all kinds of rules and regulations for ski resorts, including immunity for ski-area operators from damages suits arising from the inherent risks of skiing.

But immunity was not the issue in this case. Horvath tried to persuade the Court that this statute also created duties between skiers, and that Ish (who is considered a skier under the statute) should pay damages to Horvath for carelessly run-

ning into her on the slopes. But the Court determined that this statute created no such duties, and thus had nothing to do with this case.

So, instead, the Court decided the case under the common law.

In a 6-1 decision written by Justice Evelyn Stratton (who has since retired) the Court held that under the common law, individuals who engage in sports and recreational activities assume all risks of those activities (an example of how the common law reflects societal values), and cannot recover damages for injuries unless the other participant’s actions were either reckless or intentional. Normally, in a tort case, the plaintiff can recover if the defendant is simply negligent.

But in these sports cases the plaintiff must prove more. Recklessness is the conscious disregard of or indifference to a known or obvious risk of harm to another that is unreasonable under the circumstances. It is worse conduct than simple negligence. And intentional conduct pretty much means something was done on purpose. The case was sent back to the trial court to see if Ish’s conduct was either of these.

Justice Pfeifer again dissented.

He thinks both the statute and the common law create a duty of ordinary care between skiers.

We Americans love our sports.

And tort law backs that up.

new base, my mom came to visit with the JNF Makor group. I got let out for a full FOUR days just to be with her which was the perfect break from the army. We celebrated an awesome Purim/Shabbat together in Eilat, in a beautiful hotel with great beds and showers, and then I was thrown back into the reality of my life.

I was then in the army for three straight weeks after that. In army terms it’s called “closing 21.” Not going home (kibbutz now) for two straight shabbatot was really, really tough (you can ask my mom, I cried a lot); but at the end of the day, I got a full three weeks out of the way.

One night in the middle of the second week we were told to get ready for a masa (in army terms means a really long walk at a really fast pace in the middle of nowhere).

Basic preparation includes: face paint, doubling up on socks, and putting on all your gear. Once we were all ready we took off within seconds. We did a few laps around the base and then instead of leaving through the gate like normal, we were led into the dining room where we were pleasantly surprised with mattresses, sleeping bags, a spread of cakes, croissants and stroodles, and a TV! So instead of the dreaded masa, we ended up watching Mulan and pigging out on

treats we never get during the week.

This NEVER happens in the “real” army. When I told all my friends, they were convinced that I evaded the Tzahal (IDF) draft and landed myself in something entirely different. It was probably one of the best nights!

Another amazing night was this past Wednesday where we went to sleep at the relatively early hour of 10:45 p.m. (the usual is at least 1 a.m.) so we knew something was up. We all figured we were getting “hakpatza’d” ( to be woken up in the middle of the night with yelling and sirens and whatnot) and found ourselves following a trail of glow sticks our commanders had planted, leading to the top of a hill next to our base.

At the top, our commanders had planned a small ceremony just to give me my intelligence shoulder tag and my beret pin! Since I missed the first week I was the only one without so they did a whole ceremony just for me! I couldn’t believe it. And then, to top it all off, they told us we were getting out of the army the next day for five whole days off! Just in time for Shabbat and the first part of Pesach.

The crazy part was that our commanders could have easily just told us that we were having a movie night and not made us go through

all the struggle of getting ready for a masa, or just told us we were getting out of the army early and not woken us up in the middle of the night when all we wanted to do was stay asleep. But a reoccurring theme I have discovered in my short time in this unit is that nothing comes easily and you have to work for even the smallest of things.

However, it’s moments like those which make me fall in love over again with where I am. The feeling of earning something through hard work is indescribably more fulfilling than the easy way out of having things handed to you.

It’s moments like those that make me look back on all the hardships I have endured the past couple of months, that in the moment I thought I could never make it through, and it gives me the absolute best feeling inside of just pure, utter contentment and pride with where I am and what I’ve accomplished.

It’s still the hardest thing I’ve ever done but I’m making it through day by day, week by week.

I’ll be keeping you all posted when I can :) Shabbat shalom and Chag sameach!

My army experience Live from Israel

by Lainey Paul Well, if I thought I was going to have no life in the army, it’s exactly that times 1,000! I sincerely apologize for not keeping you all up to date more regularly, and I’ll try and do all my catching up for the past two months as briefly as possible.

I wrote last about comparing the feeling of how I had imagined my army service to be, to the reality of it, and its affect that it’s had on me.

I’ve gotten over the fact that I don’t have Facebook anymore for life updates. I’ve gotten over the fact that I’m not allowed to use my cellphone during the week. I’ve even gotten over the fact that the majority of Shabbatot over the next couple of years will be in the army.

What still kills me is that I don’t have the basic rights as a lone sol-

dier. Whether that means that I don’t get let out for my shabbat Garin (Shabbat back in the kibbutz with my group), or get to go back to the states for a month to be with my family. I feel I’m making the choice between my friends and family, and the army. In the grand scheme of life, four years is absolutely nothing; but here, in the moment, I feel I’m giving up my entire “outside world” life for something that I don’t even know what I’m going to be doing.

But enough with feelings. Let’s move on to the fun stuff: What exactly I do in the army day to day.

Obviously I can’t say everything, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have great stories still!

Let’s start with where I’m based.

In the middle of nowhere, in the Negev. I sleep in tents, pee in portapoties, and am allowed to shower only once a week. How I still have friends is a mystery to me. But hey, at least the food is gourmet! As much as I complain about living conditions, it’s definitely an experience I wouldn’t trade in.

All of us girls have gotten significantly closer and I feel as if I’ve known them forever. My commanders are the most amazing people in the world and I honestly couldn’t have asked for anyone better.

The first week I was in this

Until next time, Lainey

22 • OBITUARIES D EATH N OTICES RIKH, Lana, age 63, died March 25, 2013; 14 Nissan, 5773.

FRAND, Erwin Akiba, age 75, died March 28, 2013; 17 Nissan, 5773.

SAX, Saralee, age 81, died March 29, 2013; 18 Nissan, 5773.

SIMON, Evelyn, age 88, died March 29, 2013; 18 Nissan, 5773.

HISTORY from page 9 Tomicka Street, beyond the railroad tracks. The entry gate is only half open – one needs to bend down to avoid hitting the head.

Among Polish-Jewish cemeteries, Wadowice’s is not very old.

Established in 1882 by the local community, it was in active use from about 1894 through the 1940s. Under the German occupation, only members of the Chevra Kadisha (Jewish volunteers who tend to the deceased immediately after death) were allowed to leave the ghetto to bury the dead. A total of 566 Jews, both local residents and Jewish soldiers who fought in World War I, are buried in the hallowed ground.

The Nazis confiscated the cemetery property and sold it to a German. Since it was private property, the cemetery survived with limited damage. After the Germans were defeated in World War II, the cemetery lay abandoned and overgrown for decades. In 1992, descendants of the Jews of Wadowice, led by David Jakubowicz, restored the graveyard. In the past several years, two local non-Jewish residents have undertaken care of the burial ground as their personal responsibility, acting independently and without compensation.

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

RELATIONSHIP from page 10

IMAGE from page 10

“Addressing parliament Tuesday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke in harsh terms that seemed to leave little room for an easy rapprochement with Israel. ‘This bloody massacre

by Israel on ships that were taking humanitarian aid to Gaza deserves every kind of curse,’ Erdogan said.

‘This attack is on international law, the conscience of humanity and world peace. No one should test Turkey’s patience,’ he added.

‘Turkey’s hostility is as strong as its friendship is valuable.’”

Signs of trouble in the TurkeyIsrael relationship long predated the raid, appearing not long after Erdogan took office. In 2004, early reports began to emerge of Ankara putting the breaks on the close military alliance between the two countries.

In 2005, Erdogan visited Israel and met with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in a bid to carve out a larger role for Turkey in regional peacemaking. Then and in subsequent months, Turkey played the role of mediator between Syria and Israel.

But after Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in 2007 and Israel began to step up its operations there, Erdogan’s pro-Palestinian rhetoric took on an increasingly anti-Israel flavor. In 2009, while fighting raged in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, Erdogan accused Israel of massacres and attempted genocide.

“Israel is perpetrating inhuman actions which would bring it to selfdestruction,” he said. “Allah will sooner or later punish those who transgress the rights of innocents.”

Shortly afterward, Erdogan stormed out of a meeting in Davos, Switzerland, after an argument with Israel’s president, Shimon Peres, over Israeli actions in Gaza. Peres later phoned Erdogan to diffuse the tensions.

Aynaw says it’s important for Israelis to see the positive side of the Ethiopian community. She compares the effect of her winning Miss Israel to Barack Obama’s election as president of the United States. The two met at the Israeli president’s residence during Obama’s recent trip to the region.

“There are wonderful things about the [Ethiopian] community, and it’s important that [Israelis] see it,” she told JTA. “Israel is a multicultural state. We’re diverse and we come from different countries, so we need to show that outwardly.”

TREATMENT from page 10 in 1933 that it was “difficult to restrain the silly people who after a week or two in Germany, during which they have seen no Jews beaten up in the streets, go back to their own countries and declare that the stories told in the papers about Germany are all untrue.”

In the weeks preceding the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, the Nazis removed copies of Der Stuermer and other anti-Semitic literature from newsstands, lest foreigners see the truce face of the Third Reich. To a significant extent, these deceptions worked.

The New York Times reported to its readers that the Nazis displayed “good will” and “flawless hospitality.” The Associated Press predicted that the Berlin games would help “assure peace” in Europe.

The impact of this Nazi propa-

CRITICISM from page 10 Bennett, expressing his support for Israeli soldiers, wrote that they “always do everything, and I mean everything, to protect the lives of Israeli citizens.

“This is your job. We’ll deal with the rest. The people of Israel stand behind you, we are always with you,” he wrote.

Likud MK Moshe Feiglin, according to Israel Hayom, said Wednesday that the apology to Turkey was a mistake because, “The more you give them the feeling that they are on the side of justice, the higher their level of violence rises.”

Prof. Efraim Inbar, director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University, told JNS the apology was a mistake because Turkey “will not reverse its policies”and “will drag the negotiations on compensation in order not to allow for an exchange of ambassadors.”

Inbar called Erdogan’s recent announcement that he will visit Gaza in April “a slap in our face.”

Rada and Pierce report incidents of racism directed at them because of their skin color. A woman once accused Rada of coming to Israel only for the money. And Pierce says in her hometown of Dimona, she used to be called “kushi,” a Hebrew pejorative used to describe blacks.

“There are many stigmas about the community, and unfortunate stories,” said Hava Tizazu, an Ethiopian-Israeli actress who works with at-risk African youth.

“Now there are new personalities who are beautiful and positive. It helps to change the image, but it’s just one step in a longer process.”

Since she advanced to the semifinals on “The Voice,” Pierce

says the slurs have all but stopped.

She was voted off the show in March, but like Rada she hopes to keep performing after her army service.

“I want to be on stage,” Pierce said. “It doesn’t matter if I’m modeling, singing or acting. I have to be on stage.”

Aynaw also hopes to model and act, and to support youth arts clubs during her year as Miss Israel. She will represent Israel at the Miss World competition in September in Indonesia.

“I feel like a very important person,” Aynaw said. “I don’t usually get up and see myself on all of the TV channels. I’m definitely getting used to it.”

ganda effort reached all the way to the White House. American Jewish leader Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, who met with President Franklin D. Roosevelt shortly after the Olympics, wrote to a colleague: “Then [the President] said this disturbing thing: ‘I have just seen two people who have toured through Germany. They tell me that they saw that the Synagogues were crowded and apparently there is nothing very wrong in the situation at present’… I then explained to [FDR] how grave conditions were. Told him of some recent happenings in Germany...

Cited other examples of the ruthless and continuing oppression of the Jews. He listened carefully; but I could see that the tourists, (whoever they were, the Lord bless them not) had made an impression upon him.”

Unsavory regimes have much to gain by creating political

mirages for the benefit of foreign visitors. The Nazis wanted to improve their international image so as to undercut anti-German boycott campaigns and divert attention from Hitler’s military buildup. The Soviets wanted to improve trade relations with the West and promote Communism as the ideal system of government.

For the Palestinian Authority, too, much was at stake in the recent visit by Obama, as the subsequent announcement of $500million in U.S. aid to the PA made clear. Temporarily hiding its map of Palestine, from a president who once denounced such maps as the work of those who “don’t even acknowledge Israel’s existence,” was a small sacrifice for a reward of that magnitude.

Nitsana Darshan-Leinter, director of the Shurat HaDinIsrael Law Center civil rights organization, called the apology “pathetic pandering to an Islamic extremist who compared Zionism to fascism and is still trying to indict Israeli officers for war crimes.

“The United Nations has investigated the Israeli blockade of Gaza and has determined that it is in full compliance with international law,” Darshan-Leinter said in a statement. “The flotilla, which was provided material support by the Turkish government, was a provocation designed to endanger the lives of Israeli sailors.”

In the U.S., Roz Rothstein, CEO of the Los Angeles-based Israel education group StandWithUs, told JNS that the apology itself “was an extraordinary gesture of good faith on Israel’s part,” but that the reaction

by Erdogan shows how this is a situation of “give a little, and the other side will take a lot” for Israel.

“Watching the video of the

[flotilla] incident, one can easily see that the Israeli soldiers that lowered themselves onto the deck of the flotilla never expected to be beaten with clubs and nearly murdered by the waiting violent militants,” Rothstein said. “Were there other ways that Israel could have stopped a belligerent boat headed toward its shores? Certainly. Israel made mistakes. One wonders how America might have dealt with this. But if you watch the video of the [Turkish NGO] IHH people who talked about ‘kill or be killed’ on the Turkish flotilla just before it sailed for Israeli waters, one understands that the intent of the IHH members was anything but peaceful. The bottom line is that the Turkish IHH flotilla participants own responsibility for what occurred.”

Netanyahu’s flotilla apology drew praise from several European leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron. On Wednesday, Merkel called the apology a “correct and brave step” by Israel.

Dr. Rafael Medoff ’s latest book is ‘FDR and the Holocaust: A Breach of Faith.’

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee cordially invites you to

The 2013 Cincinnati Annual Event

An Insider’s Perspective: Israel’s Risks and Opportunities in the Coming Months Featuring

David Horovitz Founding Editor, The Times of Israel and Former Editor-in-Chief of The Jerusalem Post

Monday, April 22, 2013

6:00 pm - Leadership Cocktail & Hors D’oeuvres Reception (The leadership reception is exclusively for Club Members who have generously contributed a minimum of $1,500 to AIPAC’s 2013 Campaign.)

7:00 pm - Community Program & Dessert Reception

Manuel D. & Rhoda Mayerson JCC 2IDGE 2OAD s #INCINNATI $36 couvert per person t Payment requested upon RSVP Dietary laws observed.

ADVANCE RESERVATIONS PREFERRED To register please visit www.aipac.org/cincinnati2013. You may also register by contacting Sarah Beren at (312) 253-8998 or Brittany Cohen at bcohen@aipac.org.

Midwest Office P.O. Box A3996 Chicago, IL 60690

Tel 312-253-8998 Fax 312-236-8530 www.aipac.org