American Israelite, May 3, 2012

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Phyllis Binik-Thomas will be the new education director of Mercaz Conservative High School.

Tandoor — Cuisine authenticity

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In Belgium, national rupture spreads to Jews

Phyllis Binik-Thomas to head Mercaz

Schmooze for Twos helps young Jewish couples connect

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Mercaz Conservative Hebrew High School is pleased to announce that beginning in July, Phyllis Binik-Thomas will serve as their new education director. “After a search for someone to continue to serve as an inspiration to our youth, the Mercaz Board is excited to present Phyllis Binik-Thomas as our next Mercaz Director. We are so fortunate that Phyllis has accepted the position; she is a strong Jewish educator and administrator,” stated Yaffa Rubin, the Mercaz board

chairperson. Binik-Thomas brings years of experience as a teacher and administrator in religious schools in our community.

Binik-Thomas is already very familiar with Mercaz and has taught here for several years. Currently, she is teaching one of our innovative “Experience Jewish Education through the Arts courses.”

“Phyllis has such an extensive knowledge base that she was always the one I could ask to create a class combining two of our curric-

ular areas. She would never hesitate and would always come up with a creative way to meld the areas into a hands-on class that teens would like to take,” said Dara Wood, the current Mercaz director. The Mercaz Board was very impressed by her passion for our program as well as her thoughts about continuing to “provide our students with the foundational Jewish knowledge and experiences in order to help them create their own Jewish identity to guide them on their life-path.”

Binik-Thomas has been a very active member of the Cincinnati Jewish community as well. She has served as one of the chairs for the Israeli film festivals for many years, has a true love of Israel and has taken many trips there. She is a gifted contemporary artist and creates one-of-a-kind hand painted personalized ketubot with hand calligraphy.

Several years ago Phyllis was nominated by Mercaz and was chosen as a Grinspoon-Steinhardt Award winner. The GrinspoonSteinhardt Award is for Excellence in Jewish Education and recognizes teachers in communities across North America who have made a commitment to the field of Jewish education. Binik-Thomas’ creativity in creating new curriculum was a key factor in her being chosen as a winner of this important award.

“As a teacher, I have always enjoyed being a resource to teens as they explore what Judaism has to offer, and look forward to my new role as director of Mercaz. Dara Wood has done an incredible job creating an environment which supports students in their work of constructing an authentic Jewish identity. I hope to build on her successes,” Binik-Thomas stated.

Binik-Thomas will continue to serve as the education director at Beth Israel Congregation in Hamilton. Wood and Binik-Thomas will work together this summer to ensure a smooth transition for our Mercaz families.

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THURSDAY, MAY 3, 2012

Hagar school leaders will speak about creating a JewishArab community in Israel’s Negev

Hagar School students

Can understanding each other’s language and culture help Jews and Arabs in Israel find com-

mon ground? At the upcoming Israel Up to the Minute, representatives from the Hagar School, a

Jewish-Arab school in Israel’s Negev, will speak about how they’re addressing that question.

The program, which is free and open to the public, will take place on Tuesday, May 8, at 7 p.m. at the Mayerson JCC. In Israel, Jewish and Arab children usually attend separate schools. These children, who might even be neighbors, grow up in two parallel worlds that rarely intersect. It’s different at the Hagar School, in the city of Beer Sheva, where class enrollment is balanced between Jewish and Arab children.

Two teachers (one Jewish and one Arab) are present in each classroom, and equal status is given to both the Hebrew and Arabic languages and their respective cultures. Religious diversity is taught through holiday celebrations and classroom education.

The Hagar Association was founded in 2006 by Jewish and Arab parents, teachers, community organizers and other concerned Beer Sheva residents in an effort to create successful relations and equal opportunities for both groups. The association started with the school (currently nursery school through fourth grade, but expanding annually as the students get older) and has now spread to the entire surrounding community.

Bilingual and multi-cultural education is used to advance relationships between the Arab and Jewish children and their parents.

The Hagar community-outreach program offers activities to members of the wider community, including spoken Arabic classes, joint Arab-Jewish holiday celebrations, bilingual shows and family workshops.

At Israel Up to the Minute, Hagit Damri, Hagar executive director, and Afnan Abu-Taha, one of the founders of the Hagar Association, will speak about their personal experiences in their shared community, overall Arab-Jewish relations in the Negev and the association’s work to create change.

Israel Up to the Minute is presented by the Israel Center and the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati in conjunction with the Mayerson JCC’s Adult Enrichment Program.

The Israel Center of the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati and its Israeli emissaries—the Community Shaliach and the Chaverim M’Israel—work to sustain and strengthen connections between Cincinnati and Israel through education, advocacy and travel.

Host families needed for young Israelis Cincinnati is currently seeking Jewish families to host next year’s Chaverim, who will arrive in September 2012. Host families play a crucial role in the success of the Chaverim—helping them

The Bailes Family with Israeli Danielle Flicker

It seems like only yesterday the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati was introducing the new Chaverim M’Israel (Friends from Israel), Danielle Flicker and Roni Zeller. But their time in Cincinnati is coming to a close; they’ll finish out the school year here, stay at Camp Livingston for two months and then head home to Israel. And next (school) year’s Chaverim—from Cincinnati’s Partnership2Gether (P2G) city of Netanya—will soon be arriving for a year of volunteer service.

The mission of the Chaverim program is to promote a positive and realistic view of Israel through education and personal interaction between Israeli teens and members of the Cincinnati community. The Chaverim spend

most of their time visiting schools, both Jewish and non-Jewish, throughout the greater Cincinnati area, talking with students and helping them understand what it’s like to be a young person in Israel.

Along the way, they learn what life is like for Jews in the Diaspora, experience they can take back to Israel, which helps cement the bonds between Israel and Cincinnati.

But the Chaverim’s interactions with local students aren’t the only way they achieve their mission. They also develop deep personal relationships with their host families. Amy and Michael Bailes, whose family has hosted Danielle this year at their home in Blue Ash, said, “Our expectation was that we would be hosting a young lady in

our home for several months.

What we received was a lifetime bond with our third daughter who happens to be Israeli.” They continued, “It was so freeing to see the world through the eyes of an inquisitive 18-year-old who had not experienced many things that we take for granted.”

Scott and Naomi Ruben have developed a stronger relationship with Israel because of Roni, whom they’ve hosted this year. “I have always had a strong Jewish identity,” said Naomi, “but not a deep connection with the State of Israel.

Hosting Roni gave me a personal connection—I now listen more intently when I hear news about Israel. And we now have mishpacha there—Roni and her family.”

The Jewish Federation of

adjust to life in Cincinnati, providing a home away from their home and a family away from their family. If you are interested in serving as a host, please contact Sharon Spiegel at the Federation.

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and Louise Wolf.

“My husband loves to walk.

When I approached the JCC with the idea of adding an outdoor track to the facility, they were open to the concept and made it happen.

I’m so pleased I could do this for the J,” said Louise Wolf.

Come to the J for Family Field Fest, enjoy the new outdoor amenities, a picnic dinner and lots of age-appropriate games.

Wise Temple Religious School WiseUP projects Social action is a hallmark of the mission and ideals of Wise Temple. Last year, more than 800 individuals in the congregation took action through WiseUP Social Action Volunteer Projects. It is in the human spirit to want to contribute to making the world a better place, and it is the Jewish mandate of “tzedek, tzedek, (justice, justice) you shall pursue” (Deuteronomy 16:20) that prompts us to act upon that spirit. This is a core principle in the Wise Temple community and one that includes the children in

this sacred work. Therefore, in each grade Wise Temple’s students participate in age appropriate Wise-UP projects each year.

Children naturally understand the spirit of doing real work in the world and can quickly sense when they are making a difference. The religious school Wise-Up projects are chaired by parent volunteers under the caring direction of a parent coordinator, Dianne Benmayor.

Some of the projects this year were: Pre-k and kindergarten students prepared Shaloch Manot Baskets

(Purim goody baskets) for the elderly; first grade students prepared gifts of welcome for Interfaith Hospitality Network (homeless shelter) guests; second grade students shared their lovely voices in song with residents of Cedar Village, and fifth grade students planted bulbs at the Jewish Cemetery.

These projects teach the children that all of us have something to contribute to the world we live in, and when we work together we can truly make a difference. A Hassidic rebbe, known as the Leover, taught,

“If a person comes to you for assistance, and you tell him, God will help you, you are acting disloyally to God. For you should understand that God has sent you to aid the needy person, not to refer him back to the Almighty” (From The Blue Guide to the Here and Hereafter).

Wise Temple turns this passion for making a difference into action through the award winning WiseUp program, where congregants are invited to participate in a variety of projects that contribute to the ideal of tikkun olam.

Wise Temple discusses Cinti’s child poverty levels With nearly one half of its children living in poverty, Cincinnati ranks third in the nation—behind only Detroit and Cleveland—in its percentage of impoverished children.

How did Greater Cincinnati get here and what is being done? The Wise Temple Critical Topics Committee will address this crisis on Monday, May 14, at 7 p.m. at Wise Center.

“Cincinnati—Third in the Nation in Child Poverty: A Report Card for Change” will feature a panel of noted community experts whose organizations focus on the needs of Cincinnati’s children.

Elaine E. Fink, managing attorney at the Legal Aid Society of Southwest Ohio LLC, an affiliate of Legal Aid Society of Greater Cincinnati, manages Children’s and Education Advocacy and has spear-

headed efforts to establish programs that improve outcomes for low income children and promote systemic change. Fink is project director for Kids in School Rule! designed to improve education success for students in the child welfare system.

She currently sits on the Board of Trustees of The Freestore Foodbank and the Board of Directors of the Mayerson Academy.

Georgine Getty, executive director of the Interfaith Hospitality Network, has served that organization since 2009. Previously, she held the position of executive director of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. Among the many awards she has received is Community Partner of the Year in 2007 from Tender Mercies.

Kurt Reiber is president and CEO

of the Freestore Foodbank, an organization on whose board he served for 14 years including a term as Chairman of the Board from 20062010. During his chairmanship, he helped lead the Freestore Foodbank through a successful capital campaign to restore all facilities and improve the capacity to distribute food to those in need throughout Greater Cincinnati.

Anthony Smith is assistant superintendent of Cincinnati Public Schools. He was an administrator with Cincinnati Public Schools for over 20 years and principal at the Robert A. Taft Information Technology High school for 10 years. At Taft, he earned recognition for helping Taft change from a very poorly-performing school to one that is nationally cited for excellence.

Smith has been honored as a Champion for Children by the 4C Foundation.

Event moderator Marianne Brown Bettman has been a Professor of Clinical Law at the University of Cincinnati College of Law since 1999. In addition to her teaching, Bettman serves as a consultant to lawyers statewide in appellate issues, writes a monthly newspaper column for The American Israelite and the Cincinnati Herald, and lectures community and civic groups about law and the courts. She has won a number of awards, including the university-wide Dolly Cohen Award for excellence in teaching at the University of Cincinnati.

Aquestion and answer period will follow the panel discussion. The program is free and open to the public.

Northern Hills installs new officers, trustees for everyone.” Edie Neusner is also co-chairing the event.

Headlining the entertainment is ventriloquist Denny Baker, with an interactive show that promises to astound. The Walnut Hills High School Classical Combo will also perform. Guests will also enjoy champagne, delicious hors d’oeuvres and delectable desserts. A highlight of the evening will be a raffle. The top prize is a trip for two to New York, including airfare, hotel and entertainment attractions.

The congregation will install Joe Lazear as its new president. Other officers to be installed are: Bobbi Handwerger, Henry Spitz, and Kathy Hart, vice-presidents; Matt Lee, treasurer; Laurie Dubin, finan-

cial secretary; Lynn Kohel, recording secretary; Judy Knapp, corresponding secretary; and Matt Yosafat, cemetery warden. Trustees to be installed are Jeff Bassin, David Bernstein, Barb Goldstein, Arnold Horowitz, Dennis Manes, Orly Rumberg, George Smulian, Barry Wolfson, and Ron Richards.

Continuing trustees include Mark Bratslavsky, Lisa Crawford, Amy Frankel, Fred Joffe, Sonia Milrod, Margie Stayton, and Steve Weiss.

Steven Pentelnik, David Zucker, and Karroll Miller will serve on the Synagogue Board as past presidents.

The Northern Hills Sisterhood will install Bobbie Winkler as its new president. The Sisterhood will also install Bobbi Handwerger and

Sandy Spitz, programming vicepresidents; Diana Fenichel, treasurer; Eileen Metz, financial secretary; Ellen Warm, corresponding secretary; Pam Gardner, recording secretary; and Grace Lehrer, Connie Hinitz, Gayna Bassin, and Candy Gellen, trustees. Roslyn Shapiro will serve on the Sisterhood Board as past president.

The Northern Hills Men’s Club will install Bob Stayton as its new president. The Men’s Club will also install Hal Winkler, vice-president; Joel Suddleson, secretary; Barry Wolfson, treasurer; and Todd Winkler, Joe Zukor, and Herb Brass, trustees. Ron Richards and Jerry Shubs will serve on the Men’s Club Board as past presidents.

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

VOL. 158 • NO. 41 THURSDAY, MAY 3, 2012 11 IYYAR 5772 SHABBAT BEGINS FRIDAY 8:16 PM SHABBAT ENDS SATURDAY 9:17 PM THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE CO., PUBLISHERS 18 WEST NINTH STREET, SUITE 2 CINCINNATI, OHIO 45202-2037 Phone: (513) 621-3145 Fax: (513) 621-3744 publisher@americanisraelite.com editor@americanisraelite.com production@americanisraelite.com RABBI ISSAC M. WISE Founder, Editor, Publisher, 1854-1900 LEO WISE Editor & Publisher, 1900-1928 RABBI JONAH B. WISE Editor & Publisher, 1928-1930 HENRY C. SEGAL Editor & Publisher, 1930-1985 PHYLLIS R. SINGER Editor & General Manager, 1985-1999 MILLARD H. MACK Publisher Emeritus NETANEL (TED) DEUTSCH Editor & Publisher BARBARA L. MORGENSTERN Senior Writer YEHOSHUA MIZRACHI NICOLE SIMON Assistant Editors ALEXIA KADISH Copy Editor JANET STEINBERG Travel Editor SONDRA KATKIN Dining Editor MARIANNA BETTMAN NATE BLOOM IRIS PASTOR RABBI A. JAMES RUDIN ZELL SCHULMAN RABBI AVI SHAFRAN PHYLLIS R. SINGER Contributing Columnists LEV LOKSHIN JANE KARLSBERG Staff Photographers JOSEPH D. STANGE Production Manager MICHAEL MAZER Sales ERIN WYENANDT Office Manager e Oldest Eng Th

ewish N h-J ew lis

Northern Hills Synagogue Congregation B’nai Avraham will combine the business of installing its officers and trustees for the coming year with an evening of merriment at an Installation Extravaganza on Sunday evening, May 13. The entire community is invited to attend this event which will begin at 7 p.m., and take place at the synagogue.

“We have always installed the officers and trustees of the Synagogue, Sisterhood, and Men’s Club at a Friday night service,” explained Jeff Bassin, one of the Extravaganza’s co-chairs. “But this year we wanted to do something different, and make this a fun evening as well. It promises to be a great time

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“Beginning in 1949, when Ellen and I first arrived from Europe, the JCC at Blair and Hartford Avenue played an important role in the lives of our children, Hank, Ray and Marilyn. Supporting the creation of a youth ball field at the JCC just seems a natural fit for our whole family,” said Joseph Schneider.

Enjoy the fresh air with a leisurely walk on the J’s new outdoor paved track, in honor of Alan

Est. 1854

activities for kids of all ages. There will be lots of relays and field games for ages 6 – 12. A picnic dinner will be available for purchase when attendees RSVP by May 6.

While enjoying the free festivities, come play on the brand new youth ball field, thanks to the generosity of the family of Joseph and Ellen Schneider. The new Schneider Ball Field has a baseball diamond, benches and a backstop.

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Come to the J on Thursday, May 10, from 6 – 8 p.m. for free, family entertainment!

The Mayerson JCC is the place for interesting, wholesome activities that every member of your family will enjoy!

The J Family Field Fest celebrates Lag B’Omer, a time for parties and picnics between the Jewish holidays of Passover and Shavuot.

Family Field Fest kicks off with fun

r in Am ape er sp i

Family Field Fest at the J, May 10

THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE (USPS 019-320) is published weekly for $44 per year and $1.00 per single copy in Cincinnati and $49 per year and $3.00 per single copy elsewhere in U.S. by The American Israelite Co. 18 West Ninth Street, Suite 2, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202-2037. Periodicals postage paid at Cincinnati, OH. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE, 18 West Ninth Street, Suite 2, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202-2037.

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

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Wise Temple upcoming Eitz Chayim classes May brings a new set of offerings for adult Jewish learning at Wise Temple. The Downtown Lunch and Learn series on Living Ethics continues with the topic: “When to Reform and When Not to Reform” on Thursday, May 3 from noon–1 p.m. with Rabbi Ilana Baden. This class will look at when and how Reform Judaism differs with traditional Judaism.

Through studying two different cases, the class will see specific situations where Reform Judaism has either diverged from tradition or preserved it. Although the final ruling may be the same, the rationale may be different. A key aspect of studying these cases is understanding what makes our traditions and values particularly Jewish. Innovating and reforming are to be distinguished from disregarding or discrediting Jewish tradition. It is possible to be a moral person without being a Jewish one. These cases specifically ask how we can be both.

The popular Tuesdays with Torah series will spotlight “Shavuot 101” on Tuesday, May 8 from noon–1 p.m. One of the more obscure Jewish holidays, Shavuot celebrates the giving of the Torah at Sinai. But nowhere in the Bible is any link made between Shavuot and Sinai. So how did this association come about? And what does cheesecake have to do it? Rabbi Michael

Shulman will teach this basic class on Shavuot, exploring its history, its traditions and its relevance for us today.

Beginning Tuesday, May 15 and continuing on May 22, Rabbi Lewis Kamrass will teach a Tuesdays with Torah class on “Three Cities of American Jewish History.” Jewish life in America can be traced by looking at the pioneering spirit of the country and of the Jews who established Jewish lives in those communities. This course will explore three distinct communities.

Congregation Mickve Israel was founded by 42 Jews who arrived in Savannah, in the new colony of Georgia, on July 11, 1733. Having left London, England, five months earlier, the brave band of mostly Portuguese Jews and two German Jewish families sought freedom and opportunity in the New World.

Cincinnati is not only the oldest Jewish community west of the Allegheny Mountains but has also, because of Isaac Mayer Wise, been an institutional center of American Reform Judaism for more than a century. Jews were among the earliest settlers who arrived in San Francisco in the early 19th century, journeying to a new world for the Gold Rush, but establishing a western Jewish presence with deep roots and influence on the larger communi-

ty. Rabbi Kamrass will explore these distinctive communities and the Jews who built Jewish life there and in America.

Finally on Saturday, May 26 Wise Temple will observe Shavuot with a congregational service, followed by dinner and a special program on “Portraits in Faith” with guest presenter, Daniel Epstein. Daniel has been travelling the world for seven years for business and for faith.

Motivated by a personal search to fill the “God-sized hole” in his life, Daniel created a spiritual exercise out of interviewing people around the world about the role of faith in their lives. As a photographer, Daniel also captured a moment with each person in a black and white portrait meant to evoke their true spirit.

“Portraits in Faith” is not about religion. It is about documenting the role of spiritual experience inside and outside of formal religion, expected and unexpected, told in people’s own words, and brought to life with video and photography. On Shavuot, Daniel will share his “Portraits in Faith” portraits, stories and lessons learned from 400 people from 25 countries. This is a workshop, with an opportunity for participants to share their own stories of personal faith experiences and reflect on the questions Daniel uses in his interviews.

Young couples can meet new friends at Access’ many Schmooze for Twos events.

Schmooze for Twos helps young Jewish couples connect There are events for young people who like sports and cooking and volunteering. There are intimate discussion groups and big parties for hundreds. There are programs just for men, and programs just for women. There are events for those who like things more Jewish, and for those who like them less Jewish and even for those who aren’t looking for any Jewish content at all. There are classes for those who are into health and fitness, and get togethers for those who just want to kick back with a beer at the end of a long work week. There are cookouts and pool parties and ski trips.

There are events just for singles, for parents with newborns and for growing families.

For the past decade The Mayerson Foundation has been working hard to provide a wide range of programming for young Jewish professionals and families to help make Greater Cincinnati a vibrant and exciting place for Jewish young people of every possible taste and interest.

“Young people are the life blood of any thriving community.

And through programs like Access for Jewish young professionals (YPs), 21-35, Shalom Family for young families and YPs at the JCC we are proud to have made a contribution to the many efforts to help make Cincinnati a great place to be for this young Jewish cohort,” explained Pam Saeks, director of Jewish Giving for The Mayerson Foundation. “However, one size doesn’t fit all, and what we learned early on is that in order to be really successful we had to be willing to cater to the wide variety of our constituents’ needs and interests,” she continued.

“We realize that there are many points along the way when young people can lose their connection to Judaism and the Jewish community, so we have dedicated ourselves to providing as many

entry points for as many different types of individuals as possible.

“But just when we thought we had covered every base, we discovered a very important group we had left out of the mix—young ‘couples.’ That’s when we created Access’ newest signature program, Schmooze for Twos.

“Now, young couples, primarily those without children, have a way to meet others in the Jewish community like themselves. When Jewish or interfaith couples can make connections with one another through programs like these, there’s a much better chance they will stay connected to Jewish life in the long run,” she added.

“We started noticing that some of the people who had been attending our Access events for years weren’t coming as much anymore,” said Rachel Plowden, Access event coordinator. “We did some analysis and discovered that a majority of them are now in committed relationships and as a result, their social needs and interests had shifted,” she explained.

“That’s when we came up with the idea to do something just for young couples. After testing it with some focus groups, we were happy to learn that it was the perfect way to re-engage past participants and attract new ones,” she added. “Even though our community now offers several ways to meet other young Jewish singles and families with young children, there really wasn’t a formalized way for young couples to meet others like themselves, especially those who don’t have children, or who are just in the beginning phases of their relationships when most of their other friends may still be single. We are encouraged by the large number of couples who have attended our Schmooze for Twos events, and are glad to be able to fill this important niche in the Jewish community.”

SCHMOOZE on page 19

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THURSDAY, MAY 3, 2012

For Murray Koppelman, a distasteful Tehran scene inspires a gift to New Israel Fund

By Ron Kampeas Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Courtesy of Michal Fattal/Flash90

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with his father, Benzion, at a memorial day for Yoni Netanyahu at Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem, June 26, 2007.

Benzion Netanyahu’s role in U.S. politics

By Rafael Medoff Jewish Telegraphic Agency NEW YORK (JTA) — Benzion Netanyahu — historian, one-time political activist and father of Israel’s prime minister — died Monday in Jerusalem at 102. An accomplished scholar and the patriarch of one of Israel’s most important political families, he also played a surprising and little-known role in American political history.

Netanyahu was born in Poland in 1910 to a family deeply immersed in the world of religious Zionism. His father, Rabbi Nathan Mileikowsky, a popular Zionist preacher, brought the family to British-ruled Palestine in 1920.

He Hebraicized the family name to Netanyahu.

In the wake of the Palestinian Arab riots of 1929, Netanyahu was attracted to the militant wing of the Zionist movement, Revisionist Zionism, headed by Vladimir Ze’ev Jabotinsky. His literary talents were recognized early on, and he served as editor in chief of the Revisionist newspaper HaYarden in the 1930s.

In 1940, Jabotinsky sent several of his leading disciples, including Netanyahu and future Knesset member Hillel Kook (better known as Peter Bergson), to the United States to seek funds and public support for the rescue of Europe’s Jews and creation of a Jewish state in Palestine.

“It was a brand new world for us,” Netanyahu told me in one of my interviews with him. “I had never been to America. But I had to learn quickly—there was no time. The world of European Jewry was going up in flames.”

Netanyahu became executive director of the U.S. wing of the Revisionist Zionist movement and editor of its magazine, Zionews.

His essays were notable for their passion, political insights and high level of fluency in a language

he only recently had mastered.

One 1944 editorial criticized mainstream Jewish leaders as “too cautious, too appeasing, and too ready to swallow the meaningless statements of sympathy that [are] issued from high places.”

Bergson and Netanyahu employed tactics that were not commonly used by the American Jewish community at the time, including placing full-page advertisements in The New York Times and other newspapers. Some of the ads challenged the Roosevelt administration’s stance on refugees.

Others took aim at the British government’s White Paper policy of closing Palestine to Jewish immigration. One that Netanyahu authored was headlined “The White Paper Must Be Smashed, if Millions of Jews are to be Saved!”

Netanyahu divided his time between Revisionist headquarters in New York City and Capitol Hill, where he sought to mobilize congressional backing for the Zionist cause. At the time, mainstream Jewish leaders such as Rabbi Stephen S. Wise were strong supporters of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and stayed away from the Republicans. Netanyahu, by contrast, actively cultivated ties to prominent Republicans such as former President Herbert Hoover, as well as dissident Democrats such as Sen. Elbert Thomas of Utah, a Mormon.

In 1944, Netanyahu sought to have the Republican Party endorse Jewish rescue and statehood.

In the months leading up to that year’s Republican national convention, the Revisionists undertook what they called “a systematic campaign of enlightenment” about Palestine among GOP leaders such as Hoover, Sen. Robert Taft, who chaired the convention’s resolutions committee, and Rep. Clare Booth Luce, wife of the publisher of Time and Life magazines.

BENZION on page 22

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Murray Koppelman saw women pushed onto the back of a bus in Tehran and had a nightmare about Israel’s future.

Koppelman, a well-known philanthropist in New York, is behind a New Israel Fund pledge drive to combat discrimination against women in Israel. He will match every new dollar donated to the New Israel Fund up to $500,000.

A full-page ad in The New York Times including a dramatic photo of a defaced poster featuring a woman’s portrait — one of many that have been vandalized in Jerusalem — announced the drive on April 18. The ad urges Americans to “Help keep Israel strong, free, and democratic.”

Koppelman, 80, said in an interview that the idea for the campaign came to him when he was touring Iran last autumn.

He had traveled much of the world and wanted to see Iran “while I still could make the trip,” he told JTA. His decision caused much family consternation, but he persisted.

Koppelman waited six months for a visa. He hired a guide when he arrived in Iran.

Courtesy of Jonathan Lantz Murray Koppelman in his Manhattan office next to a work by the Israeli artist Yaacov Agam.

“It was a very arduous trip — I am over 80 — I needed to sit down. I found a bench, I sat down,” he recalled.

It was a bus stop. “There were 20 to 30 women with chadors on, and when the bus came, they were pushed to the back,” Koppelman said.

The scene brought to mind an NIF-organized lecture he had attended just before leaving for his

trip. Alice Shalvi, a veteran Israeli feminist, described encroachments on Israeli women’s rights, including buses where women were expected to sit in the back.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has pushed back against such measures, pledging to “preserve public space as open and safe.”

KOPPELMAN on page 21

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THURSDAY, MAY 3, 2012

Ancient marriage secrets revealed A provocative new series of classes on the secrets of successful marriage will begin in May. Regardless of marital status, all are invited to attend the six session course, presented exclusively in Greater Cincinnati by the The Goldstein Family Learning Academy at Chabad Jewish Center. The course is expected to draw more than 65 local students to its dynamic text-based and audio-visual classes.

The Art of Marriage will go far beyond platitudes, to cover topics at the heart of modern marriage.

Does marriage still serve any purpose at all? How far should one go to make a marriage work? When is divorce the best option?

Included as well are Jewish bedroom secrets, from ancient

texts, on how to increase intimacy in marital relationships.

“Beautiful, inspiring, but most of all practical,” says Dr. Patricia Love, author of “How to Improve Your Marriage Without Talking About It,” one of Amazon’s top two marriage books. “Whether your marriage is magical or miserable, this vital course is designed for you.”

Judaism views a loving marriage as a spiritual as well as a human ideal. The Art of Marriage shows students how to attain that for themselves and for their spouses, with timeless lessons from both modern and ancient Jewish texts such as the Talmud and Zohar.

“Judaism venerates marriage and therefore has a long history of looking to enhance the marriage experience. The course is not only

about providing techniques for success in marriage, it’s about changing your attitude toward your spouse and toward marriage in general,” explains Rabbi Yisroel Mangel.

Like all of the academy’s programs, The Art of Marriage is designed to appeal to students at all levels of Jewish knowledge, including those without any prior experience or background in Jewish learning. All JLI courses are open to the public, and attendees need not be affiliated with a particular synagogue, temple, or other house of worship.

Rabbi Mangel of Chabad Jewish Center will conduct the six course sessions on Thursday mornings, starting May 3, at 9:30 —11 a.m. and Monday evenings, starting May 7, at 7:30—9 p.m.

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Adath Israel’s youth Passover seders Adath Israel Congregation’s Youth celebrated Passover with a variety of seders. Our youngest children in kindergarten through second grade had a very creative look at the Passover Seder led by Kathy Wise. Kathy showed up with her interactive Seder plate puppets.

The students loved learning about the items on the Seder plate through her retelling of the Passover story. Many of the children especially loved when Cookie Monster wanted to change his name to Matzah Monster and crushed matzah as he ate it! At the end of the program, Kathy Wise taught the children some of her original Passover songs.

Next it was time for the third through seventh graders to participate in their own model seder, which marked the anticipated return of the Jarson Education Center’s Model Seder. At the start of the year many teachers had expressed an interest in bringing this tradition back to our religious school. The goal of our model seder was to be sure that all our students experienced a seder with their religious school family that was informative and interactive. In order to accomplish this we first had to create the Jarson Education Center Haggadah.

The seder began as many seders do, by students sharing their favorite moments from their family’s seders. When it came to the first handwashing to prepare for our seder, we read a touching poem aloud called “Blessed be these hands.” Students then had the opportunity to add their own blessing to this poem, in which each line begins with Blessed be these hands.

Some that the students added were: Blessed be these hands that hold a child.

Blessed be these hands that comfort us when we are sick.

Blessed be these hands that cook the food that nourishes us.

When it came to asking the Four

Questions, all of the children participated. We had volunteers who acted the parts of the four children as well as their parents to answer the questions they asked about Passover. Our music teacher, Mitch Cohen, led us in Avadeem Hayinu, the Frog Song and Let My People Go. A highlight of the seder was a performance of “Let My People Go! A Passover Play” that was written specifically for our seder. There were 13 parts, including Moses, Gd, Pharaoh, Joseph, Benjamin, several Hebrews, the Boss and Aaron, which enabled many children to participate. The acting was superb and they told the rest of the students the story of Passover. When we got to the plagues, our River turned red with blood, flies were buzzing, lice were crawling around, hail was flying, cattle disease struck our animals, locust were humming, darkness fell and we made sure to paint the lambs’ blood on our doorpost so the last plague would pass us by!

Our play ended with our third grade singing their 10 plagues song and then everyone joining in for Dayenu.

Throughout our seder, students were able to taste charoset, make a Hillel sandwich, dip their parsley in salt water and taste the bitter herb. When it came time for our Passover meal, we all finished what was on our seder plates.

After religious school the teens of Adath Israel had their own seder that was creative, fun, delicious and something that is happening all over the world as an interesting way to introduce people of all ages to the concept of a seder—a chocolate seder!

Adath Israel’s Youth and Family Department threw this lively chocolate seder on Wednesday, April 4, two days before Passover began.

Designed for two of Adath Israel’s youth groups, Kadima and USY, the room was full of sixth through 12th graders. There were 33 teens and pre-teens in attendance and with the USYers leading the show, everyone

took turns reading from the specially created Haggadah.

The seder began by describing all of the elements on the chocolate seder plate, which included an egg filled with M&M’s, a piece of bitter chocolate for the bitter herbs, a chocolate mint in place of parsley, chocolate covered raisins for charoset, green M&M’s for the lettuce and a chocolate lollycone in place of the shank bone. As they read through the Haggadah, which mimicked the order of a traditional seder, they dipped fruit into a melted chocolate fondue, tasted all kinds of chocolate and drank four cups of chocolate milk.

SEDERS on page 19

Invites the community to the presentation of the

47TH ANNUAL SIMON LAZARUS JR. HUMAN RELATIONS AWARDS Honoring high school volunteers for remarkable deeds

Wednesday, May 9, 7:30 P.M. Rockdale Temple, 8501 Ridge Road Dessert reception follows the awards ceremony.

You'll see the goodness of diverse students from 43 high schools whose actions show they share the Jewish value of tikkun olam.

Questions? 621-4020

8 • NATIONAL

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With Israel trip, Christie eyes an expanded national scope

By Ben Sales Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, fresh off his first trip to Israel, has the attention of some key Jewish Republicans.

Fred Zeidman, a major Jewish donor to the campaign of presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, says he hopes the trip leads Christie to seek national office.

“There’s no question of this man’s passion and devotion to Israel,” Zeidman said. “I am certainly hopeful that he will take on a much more major role.”

Christie said he was looking to “expand his portfolio” as an emerging Republican national leader when he visited Israel earlier this month.

The first-term governor billed the weeklong trip, called “Jersey to Jerusalem,” as an “economic growth, diplomacy [and] observance” mission. Christie met with leaders of several Israeli companies, but much of the trip focused on Israeli defense and policy.

Several influential Republicans had urged Christie to seek the party’s presidential nomination this year, but he demurred and has been a strong supporter of Romney. A recent Quinnipac poll showed Christie leading the pack of potential Romney running mates, and Republican leaders have mentioned him as a possible vice-presidential nominee.

Courtesy of Mark Neyman/GPO/FLASH90/JTA

Chris Christie meeting Israeli President Shimon Peres during the New Jersey governor’s trip to Israel, April 3, 2012.

Although Christie acknowledged his growing influence in his party, he denied any presidential ambitions and said he would finish his term as governor.

“I have an obligation to this state.

I signed up for a four-year gig,” Christie said at a news conference upon returning from the Middle East, where he also visited Jordan.

But he added, “I am a voice in my party nationally. As I grow, I need to expand my portfolio in that position.

It is best to be prepared for the roles you are asked to take on in life.”

Israel and New Jersey have enjoyed a close relationship for decades. In 1988, then-Gov. Tom Kean signed a “partner-state agreement” with Israel. New Jersey also has a large Jewish population, and several of its governors have traveled to Israel, including Christie’s immediate predecessor, Democrat Jon Corzine.

“On all of those trips, the governor met with the prime minister of Israel,” said Alan Steinberg, who coordinated Christine Todd Whitman’s 1996 and 1998 trips to Israel when she was governor.

“Every governor of New Jersey takes a position on national and international issues, particularly because New Jersey is very involved in international trade. The fact that [Christie] took a position on these issues does not signal a future run for the presidency.”

Zeidman said the trip is a “great learning experience” for Christie.

“The meetings are a tremendous advantage to him in dealing with the hottest part of the world,” he said.

At the news conference, Christie took a hawkish line on the IsraeliPalestinian conflict. He cautioned against Israeli withdrawal from eastern Jerusalem, explaining that his tour of the Old City of Jerusalem “further reinforced my view that Jerusalem has to stay under Israeli control.”

CHRISTIE on page 19

Biggest federation trip to Israel in years brings more than 700 from Miami

By Uriel Heilman Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) — From afar it appeared to be a luminescent snake, twinkling in the dusk that was just beginning to cloak the desert mountains framing the Dead Sea. Upon closer inspection it turned out to be hundreds of Jews from South Florida bearing glow sticks making their way down Masada’s snake path in an Israeli Independence Day celebration.

They were part of the biggest federation mission to Israel in at least a decade, organized by the Greater Miami Jewish Federation.

Shortly before their trek down the snake path, the hikers had participated in a ceremony atop Masada that included a prayer for the State of Israel, the singing of “Hatikvah,” Israel’s national anthem, and the release of 130 doves. Earlier in the day, many of the participants had been in the Negev development town of Yeruham singing, dancing and partying with the locals from Miami’s Israeli sister city.

“Having a mega-mission enables us to produce events that have a tremendous wow factor,” Jacob Solomon, president and CEO of the Miami federation, told JTA in a telephone interview. “I’m watching this church-like parade down a Roman ramp. You can’t do that with a little mission.”

The 700 participants on the April 22-May 1 mission include both firsttime visitors to Israel and federation mission veterans, with participants ranging in age from 22 to 88.

Each day of the mission has its own theme — Jewish peoplehood, tzedakah, tikkun olam, leadership and federation values, to name a few — and the trip includes everything from visits to federation-funded projects supported via the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the Jewish Agency for Israel to a scheduled April 29 meeting with Israel’s president, Shimon Peres.

There is no Palestinian component to the trip, although some participants are doing site visits to Israeli-Arab projects supported by the federation system, according to Solomon.

Before the trip, about 140 of the participants spent several days in Poland at the site of the Nazi concentration camps.

With such a large group, the Miami mega-mission presents numerous logistical challenges. It took two years to put together, and on the ground in Israel involves 16 buses, 26 staffers and one charter plane (which brought approximately 400 of the participants). Each bus has its own itinerary, and the whole group comes together about half a dozen times during the 10day trip for so-called mega events.

“The scale is pretty impressive, even for me,” Solomon told JTA. The purpose of the trip, Solomon said, is to foster community.

“Nothing builds community like a mission,” he said. “The point is to inspire people, to touch people, to engage them. Clearly there is a fundraising objective.

But there’s also a human resource dimension that’s equally important. Past mission goers have become campaign chairs, board chairs. We did it as an investment in the future of our community.”

Courtesy of César, mixed by Uri Fintzy

Mel Gibson came out on top for most film industry Jews in his recent conflict with screenwriter Joe Eszterhas.

After Mel Gibson-Joe Eszterhas spat, Hollywood Jews standing by Gibson on ‘Judah Maccabee’

By Dana Kennedy Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) — Jews run Hollywood, the old cliche goes.

So an outsider might find it strange that one of Hollywood’s biggest studios, Warner Bros., agreed to make a movie about one of the Jewish world’s greatest heroes with a star known for going on anti-Semitic tirades.

And when the plans to film “Judah Maccabee” fell apart this month, igniting a feud between producer Mel Gibson and screenwriter Joe Eszterhas that involved more accusations of anti-Semitism, Hollywood again went for Mel. A number of industry figures interviewed by JTA, including lawyers, studio execs and publicists — all of them Jewish and a number of whom come from families who survived the Holocaust or fled the Nazis — defended Gibson over the Hungarian-born Eszterhas. Almost to a man, however, they declined to be quoted by name — as is typical in Hollywood.

Veteran producer Mike Medavoy, whose parents fled to Shanghai in the 1920s to escape the Russian pogroms, has known Gibson and Eszterhas for decades.

Both have “issues,” he said, but he has a softer spot for Gibson.

“I really believe that everyone deserves a second chance,” Medavoy said. “I want to give Mel the benefit of the doubt. I think Mel’s problem is he’s a little immature and can’t handle his anger.”

Alan Nierob, Gibson’s longtime publicist and the son of Holocaust survivors, has always stood by his client.

The loyalty to Gibson of some in Hollywood comes despite the controversy over his controversial

portrayal of Jews in the 2004 film “The Passion of the Christ,” his rant against Jews following a drunk driving arrest in 2006, and his violent threats and accusations against an ex-girlfriend that were leaked online in 2010. Also that year, Jewish actress Winona Ryder said that Gibson had called her an “oven dodger” at a party in the mid-1990s.

The latest flap erupted when Eszterhas, who once was one of Hollywood’s flashiest screenwriters but hasn’t had a hit since 1997, accused Gibson of only pretending to be developing a movie about Judah Maccabee to help Gibson’s own image in the Jewish community. Eszterhas accused Gibson of setting him up — hiring him to write the script and then rejecting it not because it wasn’t good, but because Gibson actually “hates Jews” and never wanted to make the movie in the first place.

In his detailed nine-page letter that was leaked to TheWrap website, Eszterhas said that while working with Gibson, the star “continually called Jews ‘Hebes,’ and even ‘oven dodgers’ and ‘Jewboys.’

“You said most gatekeepers of American companies were ‘Hebes’ who ‘controlled’ their bosses,” Eszterhas wrote to Gibson.

He also described Gibson as erupting in almost psychotic rages in which he railed about his exgirlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva, intimating he wanted her dead.

Gibson wrote a letter back to Eszterhas saying that his claims were “utter fabrications” and threatened to sue Eszterhas for releasing the audiotapes. Gibson’s defenders suggested that Eszterhas’ attacks were exaggerations or lies meant to deflect from Gibson’s claim that Eszterhas’ script wasn’t any good and that’s why it was rejected by Warner Bros.

INTERNATIONAL • 9

THURSDAY, MAY 3, 2012

International Briefs French group suing Google for Jewish auto-complete searches (JTA) — A French anti-discrimination group is taking Google to court for offering to search if celebrities are Jewish.

SOS Racisme, a French organization that fights discrimination, is scheduled to meet Google attorneys in a French courtroom on Wednesday for a hearing on the matter, according to the Hollywood Reporter, citing French media reports.

The suggestion of Jewish comes as part of Google’s autocomplete feature, which appends terms to searches to make them faster. Some of the celebrities’ names associated with Jewish include News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch and “Mad Men” star Jon Hamm.

Google says on its support webpage that suggestions made by the auto-complete feature “are a reflection of the search activity of all Web users and the contents of Web pages indexed by Google.”

Toulouse shooting spotlights problems of tracking hate crimes in Europe

By Cnaan Liphshiz Jewish Telegraphic Agency BRUSSELS (JTA) — Jihadist websites eat up a fair share of Bart Olmer’s workday. He even has passwords to some closed hate forums.

“Reading hate speech is part of the job,” says Olmer, who reports on intelligence services for Holland’s largest circulation daily, De Telegraaf.

It’s an explanation he may need to repeat for security services on future visits to France, if that country’s parliament passes legislation aimed at making it illegal to visit hatemongering websites.

The legislation was among several measures proposed following the March 19 slaying of three children and a rabbi at a Jewish school in Toulouse.

Parliament is to vote next month on the measures aimed at stopping “self-radicalized lone wolves” like the killer from Toulouse, Mohammed Merah. Leftist parties said they’d oppose the bills.

Researchers and European politicians are split on France’s post-Toulouse legislation push.

Courtesy of CEJI

CEJI Vice Chairman Ronny Naftaniel, left, and Robert Trestan of the Anti-Defamation League at the CEJI conference in Brussels, April 2012.

Some want to use this opportunity to introduce similar legislation elsewhere in Europe while the Toulouse shooting is still in people’s minds. Others find it risky and “emotionally motivated,” favoring better law enforcement rather than new legislation.

“In Western Europe we have the legislation we need: Murder

and incitement are illegal,” said Mike Whine of the Community Security Trust, the defense agency of Britain’s Jewish community.

“We need better application of existing laws. We need to ban more hate preachers from entering our countries, for instance.”

Bruno de Lille, a Belgian minister from the Flemish Green Party

who is a campaigner for gay rights, said legislation that originates in emotions should be avoided.

“It’s often ineffective and jeopardizes basic values and liberties in a manner disproportionate to the contribution to collective security,” he said.

Whine and de Lille made their remarks at a conference last week in Brussels on monitoring hate speech and hate crimes in Europe.

Titled “Facing Facts,” the conference was organized by a Brusselsbased nonprofit called CEJI: A Jewish Contribution to an Inclusive Europe. The goal of the conference was to talk about how countries and nongovernmental organizations can better cooperate on monitoring discrimination.

Joanna Perry, hate crimes officer for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, or OSCE, said at the conference that too many governments take a negative view of local watchdog NGOs that present them with figures about hate crimes that often are politically unsavory.

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2012 TRA VEL ISSUE DEADLINE: MAY 18 | PUBLISHES: MAY 24

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HATE on page 22

10 • INTERNATIONAL / ISRAEL

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Bankruptcy dispute, deterioration marring plans for memorial at Schindler factory site

By Eva Munk Jewish Telegraphic Agency BRNENEC, Czech Republic (JTA) — The windows are smashed, the doors stand agape and the keys in the rusting padlocks have not been turned for years. Still, despite the plaster clinging to the crumbling bricks in leprous sheets, the front looks salvageable.

The back, however, tells a different story. Piles of debris block gaping holes knocked through the walls when the owners tore out the big textile machines. Nearby, the erstwhile camp hospital decays in a sodden mess.

This is the place where in the waning days of World War II, Oskar Schindler saved 1,200 Jews from near-certain death.

The Schindler buildings were last used by a company called Vitka, a once-thriving textile manufacturer.

But after Vitka went into bankruptcy in 2004, a series of corporations sold off its machines for lump iron and stripped the buildings of anything of value.

In the course of last year, the latest owner of the property, Blue Fields, razed 80 percent of the factory buildings. Blue Fields also failed to pay the bank, which put a lien on the property. The bankruptcy administrator immediately put a halt to fur-

Courtesy of Lubomir Zmelik

The lower part of the Schindler factory next to a demolished 19thcentury building.

ther demolitions, and the entire property, including the Schindler buildings, is now mired in litigation that could take years to resolve.

“Those buildings are going to stand there in that condition for years to come,” said the bankruptcy administrator, Jiri Krejcerik. “No one is going to invest into property that isn’t theirs.”

Blahoslav Kaspar, the mayor of Brnenec, the town where the factory stands, long has dreamed of turning the Schindler buildings into a Holocaust memorial. The town submitted a plan for the center to the regional authorities with a request for about $1 million. But it has no chance of acquiring the funds until

the ownership issues are resolved.

Horrified by the rapid destruction, historical preservationists scrambled to have the site declared a national monument. But the request, now pending in the Czech Culture Ministry, hinges upon the concurrence of Blue Fields, which has stopped communicating except via an electronic mailbox. Until a company representative re-emerges, the authorities say their hands are tied.

Though a preliminary ban on demolition has been placed on all buildings, Blue Fields still destroyed several 19th-century buildings in better shape earlier this year, Eliska Rackova of the Pardubice Historical Authority told JTA.

“The owner produced a statement from the construction authorities saying that the buildings were decrepit and a danger to the public, and we were powerless to stop it,” she said.

Now there is concern that the same fate awaits the rest of the Schindler buildings, possibly condemning a key piece of Jewish history to the dustbin.

In the winter of 1944, as the war neared its end and the Nazis rushed to destroy concentration camps and prisoners, Schindler moved some 1,200 Jews from his enamelware factory in Krakow, where they faced near-certain death in Auschwitz, to Brnenec in the Czech Sudetenland.

At the time, Brnenec resident Eduard Kubin was a 17-year-old worker at a munitions plant adjacent to the Schindler buildings. Kubin, now 86, still remembers the freezing winter night when the transport arrived.

“It was the coldest winter anyone could remember, and 15 prisoners froze to death on the way,” he recalled. “They took them to the cemetery in the village of Brezova, but the priest wouldn’t let them be buried on cemetery ground. They had to dump them in a nearby hollow and pile old wreaths on them.

FACTORY on page 22

In Belgium, national rupture spreads to Jews

By Cnaan Liphshiz Jewish Telegraphic Agency BRUSSELS (JTA) — Few Jewish couples define their marriage as “mixed” just because bride and groom were born and raised 30 miles apart in the same country.

But Linda and Bernard Levy live in Belgium, a country whose long experiment in fusing two distinct cultures recently has been showing signs of breakdown. With the Dutch-speaking Flemish half of the country increasingly at odds with the French-speaking part, Belgium’s corresponding Jewish communities are finding themselves at loggerheads as well.

Linda was born in Antwerp, the capital of Flanders in the self-governing Flemish region. She rarely uses Flemish (similar to Dutch), the language of her youth, since she married Bernard, a Francophone from Brussels. They live just outside Brussels with their three children.

“Language is actually a nonissue in mixed marriages like ours,” she said. “Flemish Jews are usually bilingual.”

But a recent rupture in relations between Belgium’s Flemish and French-speaking Jewish communities, each with approximately 20,000 members, has exposed some

profound ideological differences between the two communities, particularly on Israel.

The trigger was Belgium’s decision in March to join Austria as the only two EU countries to vote in favor of a U.N.-led investigation of West Bank settlements.

Belgium’s Flemish and Frenchspeaking Jewish communities long have maintained a modus vivendi for cooperation under which they always approached federal authorities together. But on the vote on the U.N. probe, the two communities broke with each other.

Flemish Jews, represented by the Forum of Jewish Organizations, or FJO, met with Belgium’s justice minister and released a statement saying that “the Jewish community was shocked and appalled” by the vote.

By contrast, French-speaking Jews, represented by the Umbrella Organization of Jewish Institutions of Belgium — known by the French initials CCOJB — did not condemn Belgium’s vote. Instead, CCOJB’s president met a Belgian Foreign Ministry official who concluded that Belgo-Israeli relations were “warm and frank.”

The ministry “regrets certain disagreements are being used to import the conflict to Belgium,”

CCOJB informed its members in a statement.

“The meeting at the foreign ministry would’ve gone differently had we been invited,” Eli Ringer, honorary chairman of the Antwerpbased FJO, told JTA. He noted that CCOJB, the organization representing Francophones, recently added to its board a member of JCall, a leftleaning Jewish group that describes itself as pro-Israel but also is critical of the Israeli government. JCall was modeled after J Street in the United States.

“I hope we can once more speak with one voice on the federal level,” Ringer said.

It was hardly the first dispute between the two Jewish communities. In December, Ringer criticized CCOJB for hosting as a guest of honor at a gala a Belgian politician who had equated Israel and Nazism.

He called the move “unwise.”

Joel Rubinfeld, the previous president of CCOJB, says the two organizations have reached a point of an “open row.” Relations between the groups “have never been worse,” he said. His CCJOB successor, Maurice Sosnowski, declined to be interviewed for this article.

The Jews of Antwerp and Brussels long have been different.

Jews from Antwerp tend to be more religious, tight-knit and hawkish on Israel, while their Brussels coreligionists are more liberal, according to laymen and leaders from both communities. Antwerp has 13 Jewish schools compared to three in Brussels.

Linda Levy’s father, a diamond dealer, is one of approximately 18,000 Jews living in Flanders.

Most Flemish Jews in Antwerp are Orthodox and speak Flemish or Yiddish at home as well as French and Hebrew.

“I was raised in a largely secular home, but our family in Brussels thinks I’m some kind of religious authority because I’m from Antwerp and I light Shabbat candles,” Levy said.

Her husband, Bernard, hails from the Brussels Jewish community of about 20,000. Most of its members are concentrated in and around the French-speaking federal capital, where they lead secular lives.

The split between the Jewish communities of Belgium mirrors what in recent years has become a national woe: the widening gulf separating Flemish and French-speaking Belgians.

BELGIUM on page 22

Israel Briefs Egyptian presidential candidate: Camp David Accords are ‘dead’ JERUSALEM (JTA) — Amr Moussa, the leading candidate in Egypt’s presidential race, called the Camp David peace accords “dead and buried.”

Moussa said Sunday during a rally in southern Egypt that the document belongs “on the shelves of history,” Haaretz reported.

He differentiated, however, between the accords and the peace treaty that was signed in 1979, a year after Camp David. The Camp David Accords called for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state as a goal.

“This agreement is dead and buried. There is an agreement between Israel and Egypt that we will honor as long as Israel honors it,” Moussa reportedly said.

Moussa served as foreign minister under ousted President Hosni Mubarak for a decade.

Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak called on Egypt to control the instability in the Sinai Peninsula in order to keep the peace between the two countries.

“We urge Egypt to contain the lawlessness in the Sinai Peninsula — this is imperative in order to keep our two nations firmly on the path of peace,” he said Monday during an address to the Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem.

The unrest has grown since Mubarak was overthrown more than a year ago. The gas line running between Egypt and Israel has been attacked no less than 14 times, and terrorists have infiltrated into Israel from Sinai.

British union boots Israeli lecturer JERUSALEM (JTA) — A workshop in Britain set to be led by an Israeli expert on negotiation and conflict management was canceled after pressure from a proPalestinian national union.

Moty Cristal was due to deliver a lecture for a National Health Service workshop on negotiation, conflict resolution and crisis intervention this week, but received an email April 27 from organizers saying that the event was canceled, The Guardian reported. The email said the lecture was canceled “on the grounds that it is Unison’s policy and also that of the Trades Union Congress to support the Palestinian people,” according to the Guardian.

Unison is Britain’s largest trade union, representing 1.3 million public service workers. It has frequently voted in favor of a general boycott of Israel. The Trades Union Congress has voted against such boycotts, though it favors a boycott of West Bank goods.

BAR/BAT MITZVAH • 11

THURSDAY, MAY 3, 2012

Bar mitzvah honors late father’s wish, reflects son’s creativity

By Suzanne Kurtz Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) — In his 2003 memoir “Lessons for Dylan,” Joel Siegel, the late film critic for ABC’s “Good Morning America,” asked that his young son someday sing the Shema prayer.

“But, when you finish,” he wrote, “think about applauding on the inside.”

Siegel passed away in 2007 after a 10-year battle with cancer.

Had he lived, he would have been applauding at the recent early Saturday evening service when his only child completed his nontraditional journey to becoming a bar mitzvah.

Growing up in New York with his mother, the artist Ena Swansea, and stepfather, Antoine Guerrero, Dylan, 14, had no formal Jewish education (nor did the family belong to a synagogue) before beginning his bar mitzvah preparations a year-and-a-half ago.

For Swansea, a Quaker, the task was especially daunting. “It’s been a journey for us. We didn’t know where to begin,” she said. “Joel wanted very much for Dylan to have a bar mitzvah, and I promised him I’d do that. But it took awhile to find a way that suited Dylan.”

Swansea started by contacting Rabbi Larry Raphael, a childhood friend of Siegel’s in San Francisco, for assistance. Raphael put her in touch with Rabbi Kim Geringer of Congregation Sha’arey Hayam in Manahawkin, N.J., and a faculty member at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York.

“I was really moved by what they wanted to do,” said Geringer, who began Dylan’s journey to bar mitzvah by assigning him, and Swansea, books to read, including “A Topical Bible,” and several articles on Jewish ethics.

During discussions about the material, the conversation would frequently come back to Siegel, who wrote in his book of the time he spent with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and working on behalf of civil rights in the South during the 1960s.

“It was really wonderful to make the connection [between] the underlying ethics and Joel’s life and his values,” Geringer said.

The plan was for the bar mitzvah ceremony to include a full Sabbath afternoon Torah service followed by Havdalah. But, the rabbi says, it was important that the event remain “true to who Dylan is and his needs, yet still be true to the proper way to have a service.”

To prepare Dylan for the parts of the bar mitzvah that would be in Hebrew, the rabbi enlisted her daughter, Rachel Geringer-Dunn,

Courtesy of JTA

Dylan Siegel, 14, wearing his great-grandfather’s tallis.

a teacher at the Cathedral School in New York and a b’nai mitzvah tutor at the city’s Central Synagogue, to help him learn how to read the language. For more than a year, she and Dylan met on Sunday afternoons, using the tried-and-true Hebrew primer “Aleph Isn’t Tough.”

“It was really special to be a part” of the preparations, GeringerDunn said. “It pushed me to think about how we can make this happen, to make it meaningful and still be a bar mitzvah.”

The preparations culminated with an April 14 service and reception, both in the family’s New York loft.

For his Torah portion, Dylan prepared a traditional speech, but also tapped into his creative side by writing a play complete with “music, lights, actors and props.”

He cast his uncle and cousin to perform.

“The play was the best,” said Dylan, an eighth-grader at City and Country School in New York.

“I wanted to explain the story [Parshat Shemini] in a way that people would remember and make it visual.”

Also during the service, Siegel’s sister passed on to Dylan her grandfather’s tallit, while another cousin read a text about the meaning of the prayer shawl.

As a guide for the 125 guests —

a “marvelous mix of people,” Swansea said — a program was created for the service with the traditional liturgical texts interspersed with photos of father and son, and excerpts from Siegel’s book, including his grandmother’s brisket recipe, a “closely held family secret.”

“We wanted to put [the recipe] in the program because it meant so much to everyone and to Joel,” Swansea said.

A photo of Siegel cutting a cake in the shape of a Torah at his bar mitzvah in 1956 was included, too.

And as a tasty tribute to Dylan’s father, Swansea commissioned a baker to make an identical vanilla Torah cake with passion fruit butter icing for Dylan. It was served at the reception following the service.

“Honoring his dad’s wishes and dedicating himself to doing this tells me that [Dylan] is a different kind of young man,” said Andy Clayman, a guest and family friend.

“Inwardly he’s showing that he is responsible beyond his years, and outwardly that he’s very creative.”

Those present at the bar mitzvah “knew who we were honoring and thinking of,” Swansea said. “It was very personal and unique, and also traditional, and affected a lot of people.”

And Siegel, she adds, “would have been very, very pleased and proud of Dylan.”

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B ar / B at Mit zvah Planning your son or daughter’s Bar/Bat Mitzvah can be stressful.

Trying to find the right place, supplies, DJ, caterer, the list goes on and on. Here is a list of businesses to help alleviate some of your stress.

VOTED “BEST CATERER” – Cincinnati Magazine

For all of your Bar/Bat Mitzvah needs.

Castle House has the best selection.

3435 EDWARDS ROAD • HYDE PARK

(513) 871-2458 www.c a s t l e h o u s e.com

SAT

MON–FRI 9:30 AM –6 PM THURS 9:30 AM –8 PM 9:30 AM –5:30 PM & SUN 12 PM –5 PM

A-1 AMUSEMENT & PARTY RENTAL With a phone number that ends in “4-FUN,” how could a blurb on this company not stress it’s the place to go for all the fun stuff — interactive inflatables; “adrenaline rush obstacle course;” carnival, water and video games and concession equipment including a Belgian waffle stick and a caramel corn maker.

Company president, Donald Maslyn, writes on their website that all of their equipment is maintained in-house and that his team is “dedicated to your safety and satisfaction.”

In business since 1992, the company serves Cincinnati, Dayton, Kentucky and Indiana.

“We provide the best and newest games and attractions in the industry,” said Maslyn.

New this month is an all-inone inflatable movie screen and projector/Wii game system with a 12’ inflatable movie screen — ideal for events with up to 500 guests. Just plug in and play, according to their literature.

Recent clients include Gina

from Notre Dame Committee, who wrote, “…just wanted to thank you for the great job you did for our After-Prom. I’m so glad we went with your company. It was very easy and fun to work with you, and after the week we had we really needed that. Thanks so much.”

A LA CARTE A La Carte Dessert and Catering Company, led by Chef Jeffrey Kreines,specializes in Jewish Lifecycle events. Born in Cincinnati and raised in Amberley Village, Chef Jeffrey understands Jewish culture and cuisine.

Bringing his passion for food and culinary expertise to your event is what he does best. This passion and skill seems contagious throughout the entire staff of A La Carte Catering, ensuring that your party is a success. Whether planning a Bar Mitzvah weekend, Shabbat Dinner, or Passover Seder, your experience will be both spectacular and memorable.

Our event coordinator will detail to your every desire and bring your party ideas and vision to fruition in an appropriate and seamless manner. Call A La Carte for your next Simchah, today!

BALLOON WORKS For either centerpieces or accents, balloons work.

That is the big message of Balloon Works — and that they “will build and design just about anything with or without balloons.”

Virtually anything imaginable is within this company’s reach — arches, Eiffel Towers and cityscapes.

Also, Balloon Works offers

designs based on flowers and other materials besides balloons such as leis, poker chips, table covers and carpets.

Popular themes include tropical, Mardi Gras, under the sea, casino and under the stars. Sports themes are favored as well.

The company offers custom imprinted and promotional items as well.

COOPER CREEK Cooper Creek Event Center is the tri-state’s newest event venue.

Located in Blue Ash, overlooking the scenic Blue Ash Golf Course, the event center is an inviting, upscale destination specializing in corporate and social events. The venue offers over 8,000 square feet of flexible function space, a beautiful view of the golf course and delicious menu selections prepared exclusively for Cooper Creek. The venue is ideal for hosting Bar/Bat Mitzvahs, weddings and corporate meetings accommodating groups from 50 to 350.

Guests arriving in front of Cooper Creek will appreciate the large covered entrance. The back of the facility features a deck overlooking the 18th green and #1 tee area.

The course level of the venue highlights the Blue Ash Golf Course Golf Shop and The Sandtrap Grill. The Golf Shop offers a wide selection of competitively priced golf merchandise, golf lessons offered by Anthony Andrews, our PGA Golf Professional, and a friendly knowledgeable staff.

Contact the Sales & Event Team at 513-745-8596 to set up a meeting to tour the facility.

BAR/BAT MITZVAH • 13

THURSDAY, MAY 3, 2012

CASTLE HOUSE Located in Hyde Park, Castle House specializes in designer clothes and shoes for girls, boys and infants.

Founded 55 years ago, Castle House carries 100-150 different designers each season, including Joseph Aboud, Calvin Clothing and Lilly Pulitzer.

The shop carries gift items as well as monogrammed blankets, towels and sun-hats.

Their motto is “If you can’t find it anywhere, call us…”

HILTON CINCINNATI NETHERLAND PLAZA The Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza is a National Historic Landmark and Historic Hotel of America. The hotel has been completely restored to its 1930s grandeur and is one of the world’s finest examples of French art deco. Known for its worldclass service and food, the hotel offers a unique and beautiful place for Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, weddings, receptions and more. The Hilton is rated as a AAA FourDiamond hotel and was named the #1 Hilton Hotel in the U.S. for Food & Beverage in 2011 and 2010.

The Hilton features three breathtaking ballrooms, including the Hall of Mirrors. Along with Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, the hotel can do overnight accommodations, private dinners, afternoon tea and celebration brunches.

Group rates are available for blocks of 10 or more rooms.

JEFF THOMAS CATERING This prize-winning caterer offers custom menus with a flair for the unusual. Jeff Thomas works closely with his clients to design a menu specifically suited to their needs and tastes. Buffet, Seated and Station Menus are available with a wide selection of options. Jeff prides himself in the fact that his world travels allow him the luxury of infusing new and different cuisine ideas to the TriState area. It is his belief that each event is a performance with its own unique theme. No cookie cutter events with this company! Jeff and his courteous staff allow you the luxury of enjoying your own event as a guest. From food and tableware to linens and centerpieces, Jeff is the only one to have!

JEWISH FAMILY SERVICE Have a Bar/Bat Mitzvah or other celebration coming up? You can easily decorate your tables while helping local families in

need by renting Centerpiece for Tzedakah baskets from Jewish Family Service.

The custom-bowed Centerpiece for Tzedakah baskets support JFS’s Food Pantry, which is the source for free kosher food, personal care items, and supportive guidance for individuals in the Greater Cincinnati Jewish community experiencing financial difficulties.

“The baskets are the best things ever,” noted Janet Cohen, who used Centerpiece for Tzedakah baskets to decorate for her children’s wedding weekends. “With so many people in need of basic necessities, it makes sense to put your money toward the needs of others.” She looked into other centerpiece options, but chose the baskets to provide support for an organization that strengthens lives throughout the community.

A Centerpiece for Tzedakah is an attractive basket filled with kosher food packages and other sundries. The baskets are elegantly wrapped and decorated with ribbons in the colors of your choice, and include a personalized card acknowledging your donation to the Jewish Family Service Food Pantry. The rental fees are taxdeductible.

To order a Centerpiece for Tzedakah contact Sandee Golden at JFS at least three weeks before your event.

MITZVAH PIX Len Kaltman has photographed over 150 B’nai Mitzvah in the Cincinnati area. One of the reasons he shoots so many is that he doesn’t shoot weddings—he ONLY photographs Bar and Bat Mitzvahs. According to Kaltman “About five years ago a friend of mine asked me to photograph her son’s Bar Mitzvah and since then, the phone hasn’t stopped ringing.”

And he doesn’t charge wedding prices, either. He offers one simple

price which includes full day coverage and all the photos. Instead of insisting his clients purchase prints or albums Kaltman provides all the photos on a disc along with full reproduction rights. His customers make their own albums using online services such as Shutterfly or Blurb, or have traditional prints made at any lab. And family, friends and guests can download the photos free of charge too. His contemporary editorial shooting style captures the high energy of today’s B’nai Mitzvah parties.

Word of mouth has been great for his business and he generally holds dates two to three years ahead of the event. Kaltman proudly mentions that “once a family has a Bar or Bat Mitzvah date set, I’m usually the first call.” You can see samples of his photos along with his extensive client list at his website: www.mitzvahpix.com THE PHOENIX For an event with an historical flavor, the ambience of the Phoenix should be explored.

Built in 1893, the Phoenix offers the elegance of the late 1800s in a structure designed by Cincinnati’s Samuel Hannaford, best known for his design of Music Hall. It is considered one of the best examples of Italian Renaissance architecture.

More importantly, the building is part of the tribe’s history in Cincinnati. It housed The Phoenix Club, the first Jewish businessmen’s organization in this region of the country.

Ambience includes ornate woodwork, a classic bar, Tiffany glass and a white marble, grand staircase.

Facilities are available for intimate affairs, such as the Tea Room, up to major events with 500 people in the Grand Ballroom.

For food, The Phoenix “will create a menu that will please the most discerning palette.”

CELEBRATE YOUR BAR/BAT MITZVAH AT THE

COOPER CREEK EVENT CENTER

• Accommodations for up to 350 guest • Conveniently located in Blue Ash • Easily accessible from I75, I71 & I275

For more information, call 513-745-8596 or awilson@coopercreekblueash.com

4040 COOPER ROAD, BLUE ASH, OHIO 45241 www.coopercreekblueash.com

14 • DINING OUT

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

Tandoor — Cuisine authenticity

By Nicole Simon Assistant Editor After enjoying a meal at Tandoor of Montgomery, the word unique came to mind to describe the wonderful food that was found there. Nestled in the Marketplace on Montgomery Road, you’ll find a place that serves Indian food that’s so good you can taste the love that went into it. This made sense, as I soon discovered the owner and chef, Naren Patel, claims all he has ever known is cooking.

Growing up in Uganda, he played sports and on the side learned to cook for himself. He then later honed his craft at culinary school in England before coming to Cincinnati in 1978 to be the general manager of the Khyber restaurant.

In the nearly 27 years that he has owned and operated Tandoor restaurant, Patel has expanded his unique menu, won numerous awards for his food and has become one of the most successful Indian food caterers in the Tri-state area.

“The secret to the success is working hard, all the time, six day per week, and serving lunch and dinner,” noted Varsha Patel, Naren’s wife and restaurant manager. Naren noted how he’s in the restaurant every morning to check on the sauces. This doesn’t even include the time Patel puts into his other restaurants (Shanghai Mama, Indian Bistro and Niva Grocers) on his day off!

After sitting down at Tandoor, I was taken by the low-key and warm atmosphere and the clientele. One of the resident regulars, Adrian, noted that he had been coming to Tandoor for 18 years, and was on a first name basis with the staff. He pointed out that the numerous doctors who frequented the restaurant were a testament to the healthful nature of the food served. Many native Indians also patronize Tandoor, which speaks volumes about the food’s quality.

“We prepare our foods from scratch,” Patel said. “Our menu is full of favorites of the cuisine of India, and we take pride in the authenticity of it.”

Tandoor of India is unique in its style of cuisine, according to Patel.

His restaurant offers “Moglai food,” the rich fare of Northern India, which was heavily influenced by Afghanistan and points north and east of that bordering country.

One of those influences was the restaurant’s namesake — the tandoor — which according to the restaurant’s menu, is an iglooshaped clay oven where the food is cooked. The meat, poultry or fish is first marinated in a rose colored spice mixture, then impaled on long skewers that are lowered into the tandoor. Tandoor India Restaurant has made a specialty of this lean

(Clockwise) Owner and chef, Naren Patel, stands next to his wonderful buffet; Tandoor’s sign welcomes patrons to the restaurant; Lovely Indian art decorates the eatery; Yummy chicken curry and tandoori chicken; Be sure to enjoy the saag spinach, naan, rice and various vegetable creations from the buffet.

and pungent method of cooking.

Tandoor oven specialties include traditional tandoori chicken, boti kabab of lamb, which is skewered and oven-roasted, murgh tikka chicken barbecued on a skewer after seasoning, and sheikh kabab of lamb seasoned and cooked with onions and herbs. There’s even an assorted “mixed grill” option.

Also on the menu are traditional dishes such as saag chicken, cooked with freshly spiced spinach. For those who like spicy foods, there is chicken madras, which features a hot curry.

Another hot option is lamb vindaloo, which is a specialty of Goa. It features chunks of lamb and potato, cooked in a thick, hot curry.

Tandoor’s chef will prepare items that do not appear on the

menu, giving diners even more choices. “A lot of our guests will ask us to fix something special for them, and we are happy to do that,” said Naren Patel.

For those with any food allergies, have no fear. Nut products such as peanut oil have been removed from all the dishes. Some of the breads that are made from lentil and chickpea flours are gluten-free. There are plenty of dishes without cream or don’t have butter added. The kitchen staff will do all they can to meet any special dietary need of their diners.

The lunch buffet is available Monday through Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and features a variety of selections from the cuisine of Northern India. Also, the

buffet is a great place to start if one is a novice to Indian food. I myself took part in the lunch buffet and was not disappointed by the range of foods from salads and samosas to the tandoori and curry chicken available that day. The combinations of vegetables and spices made for an amazing plethora of flavors. According to Varsha Patel, who’s in charge of the lunch options, she noted how items such as spinach, daal and rice are always available, but other buffet items change daily.

When it comes to Tandoor’s catering, Naren Patel noted he gives his 110 percent every time.

He spoke of being involved with Indian weddings, which go on for three days and his needing to be there with his food for the some-

times 1,000+ guests. Outside of the Cincinnati area, he has catered events in Florida and New Jersey.

Tandoor also has a full bar.

Remember, spice levels are under the diner’s control, ranging from bland to extremely hot.

After my first visit to Tandoor, I must return and have the awardwinning Mulligatawny soup.

Tandoor certainly leaves one wanting more. Along with the aforementioned lunch buffet, dinner (menu only) hours are Monday to Thursday, 5–9:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday, 5–10:30 p.m.

The restaurant is closed Sundays.

Tandoor Restaurant 8702 Market Place Lane Montgomery, OH 45242 513-793-7484

DINING OUT • 15

THURSDAY, MAY 3, 2012

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16 • OPINION

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The pointless fight over divestment

(RNS) — Mainline Protestant churches—Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians and others — were once the church of the establishment but are now rapidly losing both members and influence in a downward spiral with no end in sight.

For decades, mainline churches partnered with Jews on a host of social justice issues, but the halcyon days of mainline dominance are gone. So, too, is much of the partnership with many American Jews.

One reason for the continuing decline was on full display in Tampa, Fla., on April 24 when the United Methodists opened their quadrennial General Conference gathering. On the agenda: a vote to divest church assets from companies in Israel, which will also be taken up (again) at the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s General Assembly in Pittsburgh beginning June 30.

In 2004, during the second Palestinian intifada, the Presbyterians’ General Assembly voted 413-62 to “initiate a process of phased selective divestment in multinational corporations doing business in Israel."

The action drew strong criticism from many prominent Presbyterians, including former CIA Director James Woolsey, who warned that singling out Israel for economic punishment was unfair and would send the “wrong message” to both Jews and Arabs.

But the one-sided movement remains alive in Methodist, Lutheran, United Church of Christ and Episcopal circles. Eight years later, such efforts have been beaten back, thanks to sustained opposition within the various denominations.

Such efforts represent a biased double standard that judges Israel much more harshly than its neighboring nations and terrorist organizations including Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah — all of them publicly committed to the physical destruction of the world’s only Jewish state, America’s longtime ally and the only real democracy in the turbulent Middle East.

Why are some Protestant church leaders so intent to single out Israel for financial punishment and public

Dear Editor, After I had my gangrene gallbladder removed I had home nurse visits for two weeks and was asked if I had guns in the house. I responded that if I did, I would not tell her. The nurse just kinda slipped it in along with all the other regular questions. I told her I refused to answer because it was against the law to ask. Everyone, whether you have guns or not, should give a neutral answer so they have no idea who does and who doesn’t. My doctor also asked me if I had guns in my house.

The Government now requires these questions be asked of people on Medicare, and probably everyone else. It is either an insurance issue or government intervention.

Either way, it is out there and the second the government gets into your medical records (as they want to under Obamacare) it will become a major issue!

From a Vietnam Vet and retired Police Officer: At the local VA clinic before seeing the doctor, I was asked three questions: 1. Did I feel stressed? 2. Did I feel threatened? 3. Did I feel like doing harm to someone? The nurse then informed me, that if I had answered yes to any of the questions, I would have lost my concealed carry permit as it would have gone into my medical records and the VA would have reported it to Homeland Security. Looks like they are going after the vets first.

Other gun people, like retired law enforcement, will probably be next. Then they will go after the

civilians; what argument will they have? Be forewarned and be aware. The Obama administration has gone on record as considering veterans and gun owners potential terrorists. Be very cautious about what you say and to whom.

Sincerley, Chuck Klein Dear Editor, The suggestion to open the JCC on Jewish holidays seems to be an extension of previous debate in the Jewish community about whether the Jewish people need to assimilate with the larger culture in order to succeed. I agree that the JCC should open on all Jewish holidays (but close on Christmas and Easter because those are now considered secular holidays).

However, I think the JCC should go farther than that. Here are some modest proposals to make the JCC more acceptable to non-Jews: Rename JCC with a more inclusive name such as the NPROEGCC (No Particular Religious or Ethnic Group Community Center).

Scrap Israeli Independence Day. Replace with independence celebrations from larger countries such as Brazil or China.

Replace Israeli flags with Smiley Face flags. At the bottom add the words “Have a Nice Day.” Replace kosher food at J Cafe with a pork-centric Bar-B-Que. Use the slogan “Pig out at the NPROEGCC.” At summer camp, stop singing

Hatikva with the kids. Who has time to learn those lyrics? Replace with a more popular song, such as Lady Gaga’s Poker Face.

Sincerley, Andrew Steinberg, Cincinnati, OH Dear Editor, For many years I was Chairman of the Jewish Campus committee which was charged with relocating the Jewish Community Center, so I read your letter in The American Israelite with considerable interest. It is always nice to get other’s perspectives on community issues. Let me give you a bit more information that might help you better understand how we got to today’s JCC. As you know most community actions are, above all, financially driven. The relocation of the JCC was no different. More than 25 years ago the community recognized that the Roselawn facility was becoming a problem as the population shifted north and east.

The original plan was to build the JCC in Mason, as part of a total Jewish Campus incorporating synagogues and most Jewish agencies. Cedar Village is now located there. More than 100 acres were purchased, some of which were profitably sold off. An expansive and expensive community survey, as well as negative feedback from large potential donors and possible agency tenants, eventually killed LETTERS on page 22

T EST Y OUR T ORAH KNOWLEDGE THIS WEEK’S PORTION: ACHREI MOT-KEDOSHIM (VAYIKRA 16-20) 1. Is the blood of a frog or other reptiles forbidden? a.) Yes b.) No 2. Is human blood forbidden to eat? a.) Yes b.) No 3. Does the prohibition of eating/drinking blood, include deriving benefit, like selling? a.) Yes b.) No 3. B 4. A 17:13 The verse says to cover the blood after hunting, but the blood should be covered even by chickens which are not hunted. Rashi 5. C 17:10 “Cut off”means a punishment in this world and the next.

However, it is not a capital punishment which is administered by the court.

by Rabbi A. James Rudin

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

4. When is there a commandment to cover blood? a.) After slaughtering a bird b.) Upon completion of a sacrifice in the Holy Temple c.) After letting blood 5. What is the punishment for eating blood? a.) Fine b.) Fasting c.) Being cut off ANSWERS 1. B 2. B Human blood is permitted from the Torah but is forbidden Rabbinically. If the blood fell on bread it is forbidden, but if it is in between the teeth it can be swallowed.

Point of View

condemnation while Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is slaughtering his own citizens? While Egypt’s once promising quest for democracy is threatened by the extremist Muslim Brotherhood?

While Hezbollah effectively controls the fragile Lebanese government?

Hamas brazenly fires rockets into Israel, Iraqis kill one another in intra-Muslim sectarian strife and Saudi Arabia systematically denies women their human and civil rights. Iran flaunts world public opinion by continuing a clandestine nuclear program while supplying both Hamas and Hezbollah with thousands of deadly rockets.

Where is the mainline outrage on any of that? Cue the chirping crickets.

Even as those ominous and dangerous developments are taking place, it’s clear some Protestant leaders remain solely concerned about divesting their church funds from Israel. Indeed, for the past eight years they seemed obsessed with Israel’s alleged flaws, even as the Presbyterians eventually pulled back on divestment.

The Rev. Peter A. Pettit, a Lutheran professor at Muhlenberg College and the director of the Institute for Jewish-Christian Understanding, points to one source of animosity toward Israel: a simplistic understanding of “liberation theology” that has led to the perception that the Middle East conflict is essentially a struggle between the oppressed Palestinians and the oppressing Israelis.

“Liberation theology” began in Latin America in the 1950s and 1960s as a Catholic-led movement that presented Christianity as a radical force to alleviate the political, social, economic and cultural injustices plaguing that region. But today, some Protestant leaders employ “liberation theology” as a bludgeon in their relentless propaganda campaign against Israel.

While the theology has never attracted a large following in the mainline churches, it remains a key theological weapon in anti-Israel circles throughout the world. Adherents even use religious language and imagery, such as depicting Palestinians as the crucified Jesus suffering at the hands of the Israelis.

But there are some mainline leaders who recognize the unfairness and dangers of divestment.

Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori recently declared: “The Episcopal Church does not endorse divestment or boycott. It’s not going to be helpful to endorse divestment or boycotts of Israel. It will only end in punishing Palestinians economically.”

Let’s hope the Methodist and Presbyterian delegates in Tampa and Pittsburgh heed her words.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Written by Rabbi Dov Aaron Wise

JEWISH LIFE • 17

THURSDAY, MAY 3, 2012

Sedra of the Week

by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin Efrat, Israel - “… You shall love your friend like yourself…”

(Lev. 19:18).

One of the great tragedies of our times is the terrible conflict between different streams of Jews.

Three times last year, a Reform Synagogue in Ra’anana was vandalized by overly-zealous adolescents overtaken by an evil excess of religious fervor. A letter condemning the attack signed by virtually all of the orthodox rabbis in Ra’anana—including Chief Rabbi of the city, Rabbi Peretz—was read out at that Reform Synagogue, so that it would be clear to all that at least the Orthodox establishment decried the crime.

The manner in which halakhically observant Jews relate to other streams of Judaism will depend upon the interpretation of a well-known verse in this week’s Biblical reading, “You shall love your friend like yourself.” Yes, Rabbi Akiva referred to this commandment as “the great rule of the Torah” (Torat Kohanim 19,45 and ad loc). Yes, when a would-be convert came to Hillel with the request to be converted to Judaism on the condition that he be taught the entire Torah while standing on one foot, the sage responded merely re-stating the words of our commandment: “What is hateful to you, do not do to your friend; that is the entire Torah the rest is commentary. Go and study” (B.T. Shabbat 31a). And yes, no observant Jew would want to enter his Synagogue only to find that it had been vandalized. But an observant Jew’s attitude toward this crime will ultimately depend upon our interpretation of a single word in the text of the commandment: “friend” or re’a (Hebrew).

The narrowest interpretation of the word would insist that the verse refers only to “your friend vis a vis the commandments,” which means an individual who is as ritually observant as you are. If it is someone who would be considered ritually lax in his observance, you may even hate him (see additions to Rashi and Rashbam ad loc).

Maimonides would seem to limit the Biblical commandment to another Israelite (Laws of Proper Opinions 6:3), although he would

SHABBAT SHALOM: PARSHAT AHAREI MOT-KEDOSHIM • LEVITICUS 16:1–20:27

It is the Ibn Ezra who interprets the text in accordance with every word in the verse and understands that it refers to every human being created

by God “in His image”. This is why this verse dealing with inter-personal laws concludes, “I am the Lord,” in order to explain that God created all of us “as one.” most probably extend the practice of human sensitivity to every individual who keeps the universal moral laws of Noah (see his last ruling in his Laws of Slaves). It is the Ibn Ezra who interprets the text in accordance with every word in the verse and understands that it refers to every human being created by God “in His image.” This is why this verse dealing with interpersonal laws concludes, “I am the Lord,” in order to explain that God created all of us “as one.” All of us were created in His image, all share a portion of God within ourselves, and hence we are all siblings. (Ibn Ezra, ad loc.)

It is from this perspective that Rabbi Akiva taught, “Beloved is the human being, who is created in the Divine Image” (Mishnah Avot 3,18). This is what makes this commandment “the great rule of the Torah,” the rule which is inclusive of all of humanity. And it would most certainly include our Reform siblings and co-religionists.

I would like to go one step further. I am a very proud Orthodox Jew, teacher and rabbi, who believes that our Torah is the word of God. I believe that it is the halakha—our fealty to the Jewish legal system which has its roots in Sinai and which developed through the generations as recorded in the Talmud, the Codes and the Responsa—which has guided our continued and creative existence into this period of “the beginning of the sprouting of our redemption.” Hence, I cannot pray a statutory prayer service conducted in a non-Orthodox synagogue, since it would not conform to the rules of congregational prayer which I hold to be sacrosanct.

However, the other movements are not my enemies; from a certain perspective, they are my

partners. In many instances, they have reached Jews whom neither I nor my Orthodox co-religionists were successful in reaching and have brought them closer to Jewish traditions. There are even a significant number of students who have come to our Rabbinical School on a religious journey which began in a Reform congregation or a camp setting. Yes, we do not agree, yet, are there not many instances wherein partners generally disagree?

Moreover, we can even learn from heterodox groups. There were many aspects of Synagogue life, especially in the diaspora, where we learned from nonOrthodox movements such as having more decorous services, including a sermon in the vernacular, and explaining our prayers to the uninitiated. Indeed, the challenge of the non-Orthodox movements made Orthodoxy more receptive and more open to human sensitivities. In a situation of “competition,” every “establishment” must try a little harder!

And, even in a more extreme situation, did not Rabbi Meir continue to learn from Elisha ben Abuyah, even after he turned away from traditional Torah and became a heretic, and this was justified by the other Sages (B.T. Hagigah 15b)?! The bottom line: our Torah teaches that we must love others like we love ourselves even if, perhaps especially if, the other is different from ourselves.

We must always be mindful of the fact that our common “image of God” makes that which unites us as siblings more significant than anything which divides us.

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

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By Nate Bloom Contributing Columnist JEWS ROCK THE HALL OF FAME Last December, when the inductions for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame were announced, I wrote a similar column item to the one below. If you missed that item, here it is again with some updates. The induction ceremony took place on April 15 and will be televised on HBO on Saturday evening, May 5 (many encore showings).

Individual inductees: (1) singer-songwriter LAURA NYRO (1947-97), was born Laura Nigro, the child of secular parents. Her maternal grandparents were Russian Jewish, as was her father’s mother. Her paternal grandfather was Italian Catholic.

Nyro wrote very well-crafted songs that others turned into big hits, including “Wedding Bell Blues,” “Stoned Soul Picnic,” and “Eli’s Coming.” Ovarian cancer claimed her. She was inducted by a tearful BETTE MIDLER, 66, who said at the ceremony: “In a world of imitators . . . she was a complete original. She was an ornament on the Earth.” (2) DON KIRSHNER (1934-2011), inducted as a “non-performer,” he was the genius producer/executive who was critical to the creation of most of the best rock music of the early-to-mid ‘60s.

His stable of in-house songwriters included CAROLE KING, NEIL SEDAKA, BARRY MANN, CYNTHIA WEIL and NEIL DIAMOND. He created the Archies and the Monkees rock bands. King, 70, inducted him, saying: “He was one of the most significant influences on popular music in the 20th century.”

Bands: (1) The Red Hot Chili Peppers, a hard rockin’ band: the original line-up (and Hall inductees) includes two Jewish members: JACK IRONS, 49, the original drummer, and HILLEL SLOVAK, the original lead guitarist. Born (1962) in Israel, the son of Holocaust survivors, Slovak’s great talent was overwhelmed by drugs and he died (1988) of an overdose. (2) The Beastie Boys, the best “white” rap group of all-time, its line-up has always been: Adam Yauch, 47, ADAM HOROVITZ, 45, and MIKE DIAMOND, 46. Although the band has sometimes touched on Jewish themes — the ‘two Adams’ come with asterisks.

Horovitz is the son of a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother, while Yauch is the son of a Jewish mother and a non-Jewish father.

Both were raised secular. Yauch, long a devout Buddhist, is sadly fighting cancer, and wasn’t able to be at the ceremony. (3) Guns ‘N Roses: STEVEN ADLER, 46, the

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group’s original virtuoso drummer. He’s battled a serious drug problem for decades.

A MINYAN OF MARVEL HEROES Opening on May 4 is “The Avengers,” which is based on a Marvel Comic created by STAN LEE, 89, who has a cameo in the flick. A number of the most famous Marvel heroes are assembled to fight a new, terrible enemy. Robert Downey, Jr. appears for the third time in a film as “Iron Man.” SCARLETT JOHANSSON, 27, who acted with Downey in “Iron Man 2,” reprises her role as Natasha Romanoff, AKA the Black Widow. This flick has pretty good advance “buzz.”

TV UPDATES AND PREMIERES I previously wrote that the new HBO series, “Girls,” has four young women as its lead characters: series creator LENA DUNHAM, 25, whose mother is Jewish, plays Hannah Horvath; ZOSIA MAMET, 23, the daughter of playwright DAVID MAMENT, 64, plays Jewish character Shoshanna Shapiro; Allison Williams, the daughter of NBC anchor Brian Williams, plays Marnie Michaels; and I just found out that JEMIMA KIRKE, 27, who plays Shapiro’s English cousin, Jessa Johansson, is the daughter of a non-Jewish father (former “Bad Company” drummer Simon Kirke) and a Jewish mother, LORRAINE DELLAL, 60.

Lorraine’s father, JACK DELLAL, 83, is a famous and very wealthy British real estate developer whose parents were Iraqi Jews. Lorraine’s mother, ZEHAVA HELMER, is a former Israeli stewardess. The premiere Israeli center for dance, the Suzanne Dellal Center in Tel Aviv, was funded by Jack in memory of Lorraine’s sister, who died in childhood.

“The Conversation” is a talk show on the Lifetime network that began on April 26. New episodes air Thursdays at 11 p.m. Host Amanda De Cadenet, who is famous in Britain, interviews famous women. The premiere show guests were Jane Fonda, Zoe Saldana, GWYNETH PALTROW, and SARAH SILVERMAN (this episode can be seen on the Lifetime website). Other famous Jewish women scheduled to appear on the eight-episode series include DIANE VON FURSTENBERG (May 17), DONNA KARAN (June 7) and IVANKA TRUMP (June 14). A reviewer for “USA Today” wrote: “‘The Conversation’ is a series that’s smart, often funny and not the least bit cheesy (unlike much Lifetime programming).”

FROM THE PAGES 100 Y EARS A GO Mr. Theodore Rosenthal and Mrs. Anna Schlesinger were married Monday evening. Dr. Grossman officiated. They have gone to the Pacific Coast on their wedding trip. Mr. Rosenthal is the well-known druggist.

The new manager of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Dr. Ernst Kunwaldf of Berlin, formerly conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestra in that city, is the grandson of the celebrated ghetto novelist, Leopold Kompert.

It is refreshing, even though characteristic, to hear Rabbi Wise express the sentiment that the Jews of America owe to the nation that has dealt so generously and so fairly with them the obligation of good citizenship — and the best citizenship is genuine Americanism. The idea is not often expressed in behalf of foreigners, and the fact that they owe anything to the country of their adoption is frequently overlooked.

Indeed, a common attitude is an attempt to get as much as possible and give as little as possible in return, a shirking of all responsibilities that can be evaded and either an absolute denial of any reciprocal obligation or indifference thereto.

The Jew is by no means alone in his loyalty to America, and in his recognition of this debt, but he is distinguished for these admirable qualities, notwithstanding the fact that the leaders of every nationality represented among the foreign population of the country might well say with Dr. Wise: “America has given us a haven, a home, freedom, a chance to work out our ideals of democracy. It is a favor the repayment of which we cannot evade. We owe it to America to become efficient, true and loyal American citizens.” — May 2, 1912

75 Y EARS A GO Mrs. Wilbert Rosenthal, 647 Forest Avenue, will open her home to the Euterpe Music Club, which will entertain Delphian Group members interested in music Wednesday May 12th, at 2:30 p.m. Dr. James G. Heller will discuss “Modern Music.” Mrs. Bernard R. Levy, retiring president, will preside.

Participants will include Mrs. Eli Cohan, Mrs. Sigmund Raab, Mrs. Simeon Buka, Miss Virginia Buka, Mrs. Clarence Tischler, Mrs. Jack Sharon and Miss Jane Snow will play a composition by Mrs. Sharon.

Rabbi Jacob Mielziner, of Copenhagen, Denmark and formerly of Cincinnati, passed away in Copenhagen, Wednesday, May 5th.

Rabbi Mielziner was 58. He was born in New York City and was a son the late Dr. Moses Mielziner, former acting president of the Hebrew Union College, and of the late Mrs. Rosette Levald Mielziner.

He was ordained at HUC and

graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 1900.

He was rabbi at the former Reading Road Temple in Cincinnati for 10 years and was widely known for his civic activities and genial personality.

Surviving are his widow, Mrs. Astrid Mielziner; daughter Viga; son, Orla, all of Copenhagen; brother Benjamin; sisters Misses Ernestine and Dora Mielziner of Cincinnati, and Mrs. Rose Reinberg, Cleveland.

A sister, Miss Belle Mielziner, and brother Leo Mielziner, preceded him in death. — May 6, 1937

50 Y EARS A GO During her first month as the advertising manager of The American Israelite, Mrs. Bette Lewis has increased the advertising lineage sales 24%, it was announced this week.

Mrs. Lewis entered upon her duties as the advertising manager on March 31st. A native Cincinnatian, she enjoys a wide friendship in business circles in Greater Cincinnati.

She had established an impressive advertising sales record while with a newspaper in Louisville.

A promotion to the rank of full colonel has been given to Frederick S. Spiegel, son of Mrs. Arthur M. Spiegel, 3700 Reading Road and the late Judge Spiegel, and grandson of the late Cincinnati mayor, Frederick Spiegel.

Colonel Spiegel is chief of the flight medicine division of the headquarters of the Pacific Air Forces, with offices at Hickman AFB in Hawaii. He is a graduate of the College of Medicine of the University of Cincinnati.

The parents of Douglas Casper announce his forthcoming Bar Mitzvah, Saturday, May 5, at 9 a.m., at Adath Israel Synagogue. A Kiddush will follow the services.

Relatives and friends are invited.

No cards.

Douglas is the son of Jack A. Casper of Middletown and Mrs. Shirley Casper, 7845 Greenland Place. He is the grandson of Mr. Alex Casper and Mr. Louis Weiland. — May 3, 1962

25 Y EARS A GO Elihu E. Harris, member of Rockdale Temple in Cincinnati has been selected as one of approximately 200 leaders nationwide who will represent Reform Judaism on the Arza slate in the World Zionist Congregation elections.

Harris was named to the Arza slate in recognition of his commitment to Israel and his service to Reform Judaism. ARZA — the Association of Reform Zionist of America — is the Israel arm of the Reform movement. Arza works to strengthen Israel politically and

financially.

Born in Cincinnati, Harris comes of a family with deep Zionist roots; his grandfather, Abram Levy, in 1913 was a host of the 16th Annual Convention of the American Federation of Zionists.

“From generation to generation.” So it is with a Torah and ark now at Camp Livingston.

The regional Jewish resident camp received the Torah from Congregation Beth El in Springfield, Ohio. The synagogue had been decreasing in number and was disbanding, explained Joel Stravsky, Camp Livingston director. Through a local connection, it was arranged for Camp Livingston to receive its Torah.

“It’s the concept of the older generation passing the Torah on to the next generation,” Stravsky said.

The Springfield congregation, barely a minyan, passed its Torah to the hundreds of young children from throughout the tri-state region. — May 7, 1987

10 Y EARS A GO Conferences with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and King Abdullah of Jordan highlighted the visit to Israel and Jordan by nine recently retired U.S. flag officers, three officers of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), including past national chairman, Benjamin Gettler of Cincinnati.

“The most harrowing events were the low altitude overflights of Jenin, Tulkarem and Qalqilya in an Israeli Air Force Blackhawk helicopter, to view the results of the recent battles with Palestinian terrorists,” Gettler stated. “The Jenin site, where the U.N. is calling for international inspectors, represents only a fraction of the Jenin refugee camp with the balance appearing unscathed.”

The Cincinnati Board of Rabbis gathered April 26 at the Hillel Jewish Student Center, 2615 Clifton Avenue, to complete the Passover seder meal begun in the Israeli city of Netanya on March 27. That seder was destroyed by the attack of a suicide bomber.

Donald N. Malof, 71, passed away April 21. Mr. Malof was born in Cincinnati, OH. He was a son of the late Philip and Eva (Rubel) Malof. On his mother’s side, he was a scion of the family that owned Cincinnati’s old Rubel Baking Company. He is survived by his wife, Ida L. Malof; and his children Gary Malof, Debra and Craig Serbin of Buffalo Grove, IL and Pamela Malof of Hollywood, CA. Also surviving Mr. Malof are his grandchildren Adam and David Rose and Stephanie and Robert Malof. An extended family, some of whose members are local residents, also survives Mr. Malof. — May 2, 2002

THURSDAY, MAY 3, 2012

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(513) 761-3200 • bigbrobigsis.org Camp Ashreinu (513) 702-1513 Camp at the J (513) 722-7258 • mayersonjcc.org Camp Livingston (513) 793-5554 • camplivingston.com Cedar Village (513) 754-3100 • cedarvillage.org Chevra Kadisha (513) 396-6426 Cincinnati Community Mikveh 513-351-0609 • cincinnatimikveh.org Fusion Family (513) 703-3343 • fusionnati.org Halom House (513) 791-2912 • halomhouse.com Hillel Jewish Student Center (513) 221-6728 • hillelcincinnati.org Jewish Cemeteries of Greater Cincinnati 513-961-0178 • jcemcin.org Jewish Community Center (513) 761-7500 • mayersonjcc.org Jewish Community Relations Council (513) 985-1501 Jewish Family Service (513) 469-1188 • jfscinti.org Jewish Federation of Cincinnati (513) 985-1500 • shalomcincy.org Jewish Foundation (513) 514-1200 Jewish Information Network (513) 985-1514 Jewish Vocational Service (513) 985-0515 • jvscinti.org Kesher (513) 766-3348 Plum Street Temple Historic Preservation Fund (513) 793-2556 Shalom Family (513) 703-3343 • myshalomfamily.org The Center for Holocaust & Humanity Education (513) 487-3055 • holocaustandhumanity.org Vaad Hoier (513) 731-4671 Workum Fund (513) 899-1836 • workum.org YPs at the JCC (513) 761-7500 • mayersonjcc.org

CONGREGATIONS Adath Israel Congregation (513) 793-1800 • adath-israel.org Beit Chaverim (513) 984-3393 Beth Israel Congregation (513) 868-2049 • bethisraelcongregation.net Congregation Beth Adam (513) 985-0400 • bethadam.org Congregation B’nai Tikvah (513) 759-5356 • bnai-tikvah.org Congregation B’nai Tzedek (513) 984-3393 • bnaitzedek.us Congregation Ohav Shalom (513) 489-3399 • ohavshalom.org

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

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Tufts Undergrad Seeking Summer Position CLERICAL POSITION IN LAW OFFICE Rising-senior studying Pre-Law at Tufts University. Prior clerical experience in a law office. Yavneh & Cincinnati Country Day graduate.

Please contact me at

Ilana.Linder@Tufts.edu or (513) 237-7979 SEDERS from page 5 When they reached the meal part of the service, everyone took a break from chocolate to eat a dinner of pasta, potatoes and vegetables. And of course there was ice cream for dessert. Flavors included chocolate, vanilla and cookies and cream and could be topped off with chocolate syrup.

The seder continued briefly after dinner and the teens played a cou-

EDUCATION SCHMOOZE from page 6 Chai Tots Early Childhood Center (513) 234.0600 • chaitots.com Chabad Blue Ash (513) 793-5200 • chabadba.com Cincinnati Hebrew Day School (513) 351-7777 • chds.shul.net HUC-JIR (513) 221-1875 • huc.edu JCC Early Childhood School (513) 793-2122 • mayersonjcc.org Kehilla - School for Creative Jewish Education (513) 489-3399 • kehilla-cincy.com Mercaz High School (513) 792-5082 x104 • mercazhs.org Kulanu (Reform Jewish High School) 513-262-8849 • kulanucincy.org Regional Institute Torah & Secular Studies (513) 631-0083 Rockwern Academy (513) 984-3770 • rockwernacademy.org

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

SENIOR SERVICES

“When my fiancée and I moved to Cincinnati we didn’t really get to know anyone for three months,” said Marie Krulewitch. “When we went to our first Schmooze for Twos Happy Hour we ended up meeting some really cool couples, and have already gone pumpkin patching, made home-made pizzas, gone to the park, and had a campfire with a couple we met at that very first event. Schmooze for Twos not only offers people in relationships a group of others to go on double-dates with, but it gives us a readymade group of people who have and will go through similar experiences as their relationships continue to develop.”

Schmooze for Twos is open to couples who are married, engaged, or in committed relationships and in which at least one partner is Jewish and in which at least one partner is between the ages of 2135. The program began last September with a dinner party at Stir in Olde Montgomery, and was followed by a Couples’ Lox and Box: Breakfast and Boxing Class at the Mayerson JCC, an Art-rageous Latka and Martini Bar event at The Mayerson Foundation’s Private CHRISTIE from page 8 The governor also said the most “eye-opening” part of his trip was a helicopter tour with Israeli military officials over part of the West Bank. George W. Bush, at the time governor of Texas, expressed a similar sentiment after taking a similar helicopter tour in 1998 with then-Israeli Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon.

“Everyone who thinks they have an opinion that’s worth something on the Palestinian issue should take that tour,” Christie said. The helicopter ride took

• • • • •

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

(513) 531-9600 ple of mixer games together.

This chocolate seder was more than just an excuse for dessert (and who needs an excuse), it was a way for Adath Israel’s youth group teens to get together, enjoy each other’s company while learning the structure of the Passover Seder and relate the practices of a traditional seder to that of the chocolate seder. In addition to being a delicious event, it was also a unique pre-Passover experience.

Penthouse Art Gallery and a Sinfully Delicious Date Night for Sweethearts for Valentine’s Day. Next up, couples will be treated to ballroom dance lessons when Schmooze for Twos takes to the dance floor for Dare 2 Dance Date Night and Dinner on Wednesday, May 9 at 7:30 p.m. at Dare 2 Dance Studios in Blue Ash. Experts will teach participants the basics that will have them “dancing like the stars” in no time. They will learn the fundamentals of some traditional favorites such as the Fox Trot, and of course, the most popular social dance, Salsa. The program is free with advance reservations and includes refreshments and drinks.

“I really enjoy the Schmooze events because they are more intimate,” said Karen Overmyer, who attends events with her husband Mark. “We really enjoy the low-key atmosphere, the smaller venues, and socializing with other couples like us. And, everyone there is a candidate for a double date so it’s easy to make friends! Mark and I are planning a camping trip with a couple we met at the Stir Happy Hour.”

For more information or to RSVP by May 6 for the Dare 2 Dance event, please contact Rachel Plowden at Access. “three minutes from West Bank settlements to the Mediterranean.

A missile goes much faster than a helicopter.”

Christie, whose trip included a meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu, praised the Israeli prime minister’s leadership. Israeli officials called the dinner that Netanyahu hosted for Christie unusual given the two had not previously met.

“Let me present it this way: It’s not routine. There is a belief that the governor is an up-and-coming national leader,” Netanyahu spokeman Mark Regev told The Record newspaper in New Jersey.

20 • LEGAL / FIRST PERSON

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Punishing juvenile sex offenders Legally Speaking

by Marianna Bettman On April 3, the Supreme Court of Ohio issued a blockbuster juvenile law decision, in re: C.P. This 52 opinion, written by Justice Paul Pfeifer, strikes down R.C. 2152.86, a registration and notification requirement provision for certain juvenile offenders. This statute is part of Ohio’s Adam Walsh Act. Citizens often complain they have no idea who to vote for in a judicial election. This opinion tells voters a lot. It lays out two totally different philosophies about the punishment of juveniles. Justice Pfeifer was able to command a comfortable majority for the rehabilitative view.

But Justices Terrence O’Donnell and Robert Cupp were far less forgiving in their dissenting positions.

The 15 year-old C.P. was charged with a number of sex offenses in Athens County Juvenile Court. The victim was a 6-year-old boy who was a relative. The juvenile court judge declined to transfer the case to adult court. C.P. was adjudicated delinquent, and given a threeyear minimum commitment to the Ohio Department of Youth Services on each count. C.P. was also designated a Serious Youthful Offender (SYO) in regard to each offense. As part of the SYO disposition, the Court imposed three concurrent five-year prison terms which were stayed pending his successful completion of his juvenile disposition.

R.C. 2152.86 creates a new classification of juvenile sex offender called public-registry-qualified-juvenileoffender-registrants (PRQJORs). This PRQJOR status is imposed upon juveniles who are 14-17 when the offense was committed, have been adjudicated delinquent for committing certain sexually oriented offenses when the victim is under 12, or aggravated murder, murder or kidnapping with purpose to gratify the sexual needs or desires of the offender.

The juvenile court judge classified C.P. as a PRQJOR. By statute, C.P. was also automatically classified as a Tier III sex-offender/child victim offender.

PRQJORs must comply with all the reporting and notification requirements for adult Tier III sexual offenders. The statute imposes lifetime registration and community notification requirements on this category of juvenile sex offenders, including placement on a public internet registry. PRQJORs receive no reclassifi-

cation hearing upon completion of their juvenile disposition. They become eligible for reclassification 25 years after their statutory registration obligations start.

The Ohio Supreme Court majority found that the statute, with its automatic classification, registration and notification requirements, violated due process and the ban against cruel and unusual punishment. The Ohio high court had previously held that the adult registration and notification requirements were punitive, not civil, in nature. So that issue was not challenged again, although the dissenters in this case reaffirm their disagreement with that holding.

The majority in the C.P. case relied heavily on two U.S. Supreme Court decisions which banned certain punishments for juvenile offenders — Roper v. Simmons, which bans the death penalty for juveniles who committed their crimes before the age of 18 and Graham v. Florida, holding that the Eighth Amendment prohibits the imposition of a sentence of life without the possibility of parole on a juvenile offender who has not committed a homicide offense.

The Ohio majority decision to strike down R.C. 2152.86 was based on a number of factors carefully analyzed by Justice Pfeifer. First on the list is the lack of a national consensus favoring the publication of personal information of juvenile offenders. Ohio was the first state to adopt an Adam Walsh statute — Congress had threatened states that did not comply with crime-control funding cut-offs. So Ohio had instituted a system most of the rest of the nation later rejected, and is out of sync with current views on this.

Other factors cited by the majority are its belief that juvenile offenders are less culpable and more likely to change than adult offenders, and the exceptional harshness of lifetime registration and notification requirements for a juvenile. Justice Pfeifer described the latter as “forcing a juvenile to wear a statutorily imposed scarlet letter as he embarks on his adult life.”

Pfiefer wrote, “[R]egistration and notification necessarily involve stigmatization. For a juvenile offender, the stigma of the label of sex offender attaches at the start of his adult life and cannot be shaken…Before a juvenile can even begin his adult life, before he has a chance to live on his own, the world will know of his offense. He will never have a chance to establish a good character in the community.

He will be hampered in his education, in his relationships and in his work life. His potential will be squelched before it has a chance to show itself. A juvenile…who is subject to sex-offender notification will have his entire life evaluated through the prism of his juvenile adjudication. It will be a constant cloud, a once-every-three-month reminder to himself and the world

that he cannot escape the mistakes of his youth...”

Finally, the majority found that the lifetime registration and notification provisions for PRQJORs directly conflict with the fundamental purpose of a juvenile disposition, which is rehabilitation.

The majority also found the registration and notification requirements for PRQJORs violated the Ohio Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment, found at Article I Section 9. While acknowledging that cases involving cruel and unusual punishment under the state constitution are rare, the Court found lack of proportionality the key factor in also finding a state constitutional violation. Especially significant in this regard are the complete lack of discretion in the juvenile judge over the portion of the penalty that could last a lifetime, and the very public nature of the punishment, which runs counter to the confidentiality of the juvenile justice system and its rehabilitative goals.

The Court also found that R.C. 2152.86 violates a juvenile’s right to due process under the federal and state constitutions because of the elimination of all discretion of the juvenile judge at “the most consequential part of the dispositional process.”

Justices O’Donnell and Cupp both wrote very passionate dissents in this case.

Justice O’Donnell went into specific and very graphic detail about C.P.’s sex offenses, not just in this case, but in several others while he lived in Utah. His distaste for the conduct of this particular juvenile is quite palpable. Unlike the majority, he does not believe that registration and notification requirements are punitive, but rather civil in nature, and thus cannot constitute cruel and unusual punishment. The Court, however, has previously decided otherwise. O’Donnell also criticizes the majority for substituting its judgment for that of the General Assembly—a common criticism for him. He sees the statute as enacted pursuant to the legislature’s authority, and “with the intent to protect the safety and welfare of the public.” He also sees no due process violation, finding “discretion is a matter of grace and not of right.”

Justice Cupp was indignant that the majority would even compare the punishment in this case with the punishment in Graham—lifetime imprisonment with no chance of parole. “I am left wondering how the two can possibly be considered comparable for constitutional purposes,” he wrote.

“I do not find the requirements at issue here pertaining to registration and notification to rise to such a level as to be even remotely comparable.”

He also finds that R.C. 2152.86 provides adequate procedural safeguards, and satisfies due process. He thinks the majority decision will create a Pandora’s box of unanswered questions for juvenile judges.

This Year in Jerusalem This Year in Jerusalem

by Phyllis Singer Once again in the Hebrew calendar, we have experienced the cycle of joy and sadness—the times of commemorating redemption and loss.

The Hebrew months of Nissan, Iyar and Sivan, corresponding this year to April and May, bring joy and sadness —the highs and lows of the Jewish experience.

The 15th of Nissan brings Passover, the holiday of freedom, when we celebrate the Jewish people’s exodus from Egypt, our flight from slavery to freedom. Certainly a holiday of joy—a high in the Jewish experience.

But only a week after the end of Passover—on the 27th of Nissan— comes Yom HaShoah v’Hagevurah, the Day of Remembrance for the Holocaust and Heroism, commonly known in Israel and the Diaspora as Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. Certainly a day of sadness—a low in the Jewish experience. The remembrance begins at Yad Vashem with an outdoor ceremony. Six candle lighters are featured —each one a survivor of the Holocaust. Each one’s story is recounted. The next day, a siren sounds at 10 a.m. throughout the country to remind us of the tragedy— of the loss of 6 million Jews, including 1.5 million children. For two minutes the country comes to a standstill to commemorate. In addition, places of entertainment are closed throughout the evening and the day, and numerous organizations hold programs of remembrance.

One week later, on the 4th of Iyar, we commemorate Yom Hazikaron, Israel Memorial Day, remembering those who died in Israel’s wars.

Another day of sadness, another low in the Jewish experience.

But then the cycle continues on the next day, the 5th of Iyar, with a day of joy—a high in the Jewish experience—Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel Independence Day, marking the establishment of the modern state of Israel in 1948. Joy is everywhere as Israelis spend the day outdoors, visiting national parks and celebrating with barbecues everywhere.

A remarkable transition takes place in Israel as the country moves from sorrow to joy. On the night of Yom Hazikaron, a commemoration takes place at the Kotel (the Western Wall). Families who have lost loved

ones during Israel’s wars or terrorist attacks gather there to remember. It is a solemn ceremony in the presence of the president of Israel. A time to remember, a time of sadness. The siren sounds again—this time in both the evening and the daytime. Again, the country comes to a standstill for two minutes; again, places of entertainment are closed.

But as the 4th of Iyar comes to an end, the country transitions into Yom Ha’atzmaut—a day of joy and celebration. The celebration begins at night with a joyful program at Mt. Herzl featuring 12 (sometimes 13 or 14) citizens of Israel representing the 12 tribes of Israel lighting a torch “l’tiferet Medinat Yisrael”— “for the glory of the State of Israel.”

Each candle lighter is chosen as part of a theme for that year’s celebration. This year’s theme was “water as life.” Each of the candle lighters had some connection to water in the State of Israel.

But this year’s joyous celebration at Mt. Herzl was accompanied by sadness. One week earlier, a tragic accident occurred at the very site where the celebration took place. A lighting system for the celebration collapsed, killing a young soldier— 20-year-old Hila Bezaleli—and wounding four others—all of whom were at Mt. Herzl that day to rehearse for the Yom Ha’atzmaut ceremony.

But in true Israeli fashion, the sadness transitioned into the joy of the day. The country decided that the ceremony should go forward on Mt. Herzl as planned. And Hila’s parents —in the midst of their grieving— agreed with that decision. Hila was honored with two moments of silence at the ceremony—at the beginning and during the procession of the Color Guards, in which she would have participated. Her family sat in the front row of the audience, alongside Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin, and her mother, Sigalit, lit the main torch with Rivlin, marking the beginning of the festive ceremony.

From sadness to joy.

(Meanwhile, four members of the company responsible for installing the rigging have been arrested, and an investigation is ongoing into the tragedy. According to reports, the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court accused the four of causing death by negligence. The court accused the company of “negligence at the highest level.” But that’s another story— for another time.)

The month of Iyar ends with Yom Yerushalayim on the 28th, celebrating the reunification of Jerusalem in 1967 and remembering the special significance of Ir Hakodesh—the holy city—to the Jewish people. Another high in the Jewish experience. And the cycle ends on Shavuot—the 6th of Sivan (the 6th and 7th in the Diaspora)— commemorating Am Yisrael receiving the Torah at Mt. Sinai—certainly a time of joy and celebration!

AUTOS • 21

THURSDAY, MAY 3, 2012

The 2013 Infiniti JX—Crossover has been redefined passengers enjoy their own set of controls. To ensure friends or family in the second and third rows are cooled or warmed comfortably, front vents deliver air directly, while side vents direct air across the cabin. The air itself is cleansed of most allergens, germs and odors with the Advanced Climate Control System.

To say this car is safe would be an understatement. Infiniti redefines the meaning of car safety, setting the tone for a new age of comfort and security on while on the road.

Infiniti introduced the world’s first Around View® Monitor,

2013 Infiniti JX

The 2013 Infiniti JX redefines everything you know about crossovers. From the engine to safety nothing will ever be the same again. The term crossover will no longer apply to a hybrid of two cars, rather it is redefined as a genetic hybrid consisting of the perfect meld of a car and your office.

The 2013 Infiniti JX brings a simple phrase to mind: Balanced Power. Control, power, tactile response and inspired performance are, and will always be, the driving force behind every Infiniti, and the JX is no exception. Whether engaging the power of the V6 or Infiniti’s Intelligent All-Wheel Drive system, the JX’s refined driving characteristics are meticulously crafted to achieve maximum output while enhancing your feel for the road. Behind the seductive curves of the JX lives Infiniti’s signature sense of exhilaration.

The JX is an adrenaline rush.

Infiniti has made the engine so in tune with the road, that you always feel like you are going fast. You constantly get that rush while at the same time, they’ve provided balance of control to keep you safe.

Acceleration swell is Infiniti’s vision of power, dedicated to delivering a shape and feel beyond raw numbers. By tuning Infiniti

engines to unleash torque that climbs over a broader rev range, the force you feel seems to increase the faster you go, building like the swell of a rising wave. The emotional energy surges in tandem, creating a limitless rush rather than a momentary thrill.

Despite feeling speedy and dangerous with that pure adrenaline rush, the JX is fine tuned for your safety. The JX’s Intelligent AllWheel Drive empowers you with confidence by intuitively adjusting handling and power delivery in adverse weather conditions. By constantly monitoring wheelspin, throttle position and vehicle speed, the system automatically diverts up to 50 percent of the available power to the rear wheels, enhancing traction and control when conditions are less than optimal. When all-wheel drive is not needed, 100 percent of the power is channeled to the front wheels.

Why should the driver be the only one having the fun in comfort? Maybe you are sitting in the back seat and are a little antsy about the smooth, fast ride? JX has you covered with Tri-Zone Automatic Temperature Control.

Because all guests have a personal idea of comfort, the JX offers three distinct climate zones. The driver, front passenger and rear

KOPPELMAN from page 7

1995 weeks after an extremist Jew assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

“Like so many members of the American Jewish community, I have kept my opinions to myself for too long,” Koppelman read from the Op-Ed in stentorian, Brooklyn-inflected tones.

“Hesitant to contribute to an image of the Jews as a divided people, I have refrained from taking a public stand on the issue of Israel exchanging occupied territory for peace. In unity, so I thought, there is strength. But it was words — words of venomous hatred — that led directly to the unthinkable outrage of the assassination of a prime minister of Israel by a Jew.”

Seeing Iranian women shoved to the back of the bus unsettled Koppelman, who asked his guide whether such measures were introduced all at once after the 1979 revolution that brought Islamists to power.

No, the guide said, each change came incrementally.

“I thought, ‘What’s going to happen to Israel?’ ” Koppelman said.

He didn’t leave it at just thinking about it.

“I'm a person who likes to speak out,” said Koppelman, who then recited an Op-Ed he had submitted to The New York Times in

delivering advanced yet intuitive technology, helping to make parking easier. Four cameras positioned around the vehicle give you a virtual 360° bird’s eye view on your display. Infiniti has now enhanced the system with Moving Object Detection — alerting the driver to moving objects. Offering a new perspective of the world around you, the JX helps you navigate even the tightest spaces.

The Blind Spot Intervention™ system helps alert you to vehicles in the blind spot area when driving, then actively assists you back toward the center of your travel lane if you begin to move over.

Give yourself that promotion you’ve always wanted. The corner office with the best view is now mobile. It comes complete with your own dedicated administrative assistant.

Meet Infiniti personal assistant. Unlike other assistant systems, IPA is tailored to help you with everything and anything.

Infiniti has truly captured the essence of power and tempered it with their ingenuity. Combine this with safety and truly making your office mobile and you got a car that is more. It redefines the term crossover. All this starts at an MSRP of $40,450.

NOW APPEARING IN OUR SHOWROOM

22 • OBITUARIES D EATH N OTICES SCHIFF, Dr. Gilbert M., age 80, died on April 25, 2012; 3 Iyar, 5772.

HIRSCHMAN, Florence , age 98, died on April 24, 2012; 2 Iyar, 5772.

WILLINS, Elaine, age 80, died on, April 25, 2012.; 1 Iyar, 5772.

OSCHERWITZ, Dr. Morris G. “Moo”, age 75, died on April 27, 2012; 5 Iyar, 5772.

FISHMAN, Sarabelle, age 91, died on April 28, 2012; 6 Iyar, 5772.

FREEDMAN, Stanley H., age 74, died on April 30, 2012; 8 Iyar, 5772.

NORD, Barbara Kohn, age 99, died on May 1, 2012; 9 Iyar, 5772.

O BITUARIES FISHMAN, Sarabelle Sarabelle Dennis Fishman, age 91, passed away April 28, 2012, the sixth day of Iyar, 5772 (Omer Day 21), in Deerfield Beach, Fla. She is survived by her beloved husband and best friend of more than 70 years, Melvin B. Fishman, M.D. and her three devoted daughters: Elinda (Steven) Kiss pf Philadelphia, Penn., Cheryl (Barry) Brickner of Farmington Hills, Mich., and Geri (Robert) Friedman of Long Grove, Ill. She was the loving grandmother of Keith (Melissa) Friedman, Kelly Brickner, Brian Friedman and Shawn Brickner, M.D. Mrs. Fishman was born in Cincinnati, but was raised in Middletown, the devoted daughter of the late Jenny (Schreiber) and Sam Dennis. She was predeceased by her sister, Eileen Dennis Stern Keller.

Mrs. Fishman studied journalism at the University of Cincinnati and was a prize-winning society editor of Middletown Journal. Her columns were awarded Best Society Column in Ohio by the Ohio Newspaper Women’s Association for two consecutive years while her husband served overseas during World War II. After the war, she and her husband returned to Cincinnati.

Mrs. Fishman was a member and popular book reviewer for Hadassah, United Order of True Sisters and Adath Israel Sisterhood for many years until she and her husband moved to Florida in 1996.

She and her husband were members of Adath Israel Synagogue and the Jewish Community Center of Cincinnati and the Jewish Center of Boca Raton, Fla. Interment was Tuesday, May 1, at Hirsch Hoffert Cemetery, with a graveside service. Funeral arrangements were made by Weil Funeral Home.

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

BENZION from page 7 The GOP adopted an unprecedented plank demanding “refuge for millions of distressed Jewish men, women, and children driven from their homes by tyranny” and the establishment of a “free and democratic” Jewish state. The Republicans’ move compelled the Democrats to compete for Jewish support and treat the Jewish vote as if it were up for grabs. The Democratic National Convention, which was held the following month in Chicago, for the first time endorsed “unrestricted Jewish HATE from page 9 Ten governments — including Greece, Estonia, Latvia, Moldova and Ukraine — reported to the OSCE that their police forces had recorded fewer than 10 hate crimes in 2009. Portugal and FACTORY from page 10 “After the war, the Czechs made the local Germans dig them up with their bare hands and place them in a mass grave inside the cemetery.

Schindler even brought in a rabbi to consecrate the ground.”

Relics of those cruel times are everywhere: the latticework balcony where the guards took their smoke breaks; the courtyard where prisoners assembled; the iron gate with the peephole that still creaks open to BELGIUM from page 10 One of the first big splits hit the Belgian Socialist Party in 1978, two years before the creation of the Flemish Region and the onset of Belgian federalism, when the party split in two. There not only are two socialist parties now representing Francophones on the one hand and the Flemish on the other, but two Christian Democratic parties, two LETTERS from page 16 the concept. As you noted, several additional sites were identified and evaluated. All failed because of zoning and/or municipal planning issues, infrastructure problems (water, sewer, drainage, etc.) or design and cost concerns. While alternative sites were being evaluated the Roselawn building was closed down, primarily because it was losing thousands of dollars per month that the community couldn’t afford to spend. The Deerfield Road site proved to be too small for what community surveys showed was wanted in a new facility. It also ran into political issues with Township planners who wanted it for Township uses. Sites in Montgomery and Blue Ash failed mostly for cost issues, but also for other reasons. For example, Blue Ash planners didn’t want another major recreation facility within walking distance of the Blue Ash Recreation Center. A Montgomery

immigration and colonization” of Palestine and the establishment of “a free and democratic Jewish commonwealth.”

These events helped ensure that support for Zionism and later Israel would become a permanent part of American political culture. Every subsequent Republican and Democratic convention has adopted a similar plank. To do less became politically inconceivable.

In recent years, pundits have speculated on the extent to which Benzion Netanyahu may have influenced his son’s actions as prime minister. While it is difficult to draw

a direct connection between father and son on specific policy matters, there is a parallel in their efforts to cultivate support for Israel on both sides of the political aisle.

While working as a political activist in the 1940s, Benzion Netanyahu also managed to complete a doctorate in medieval Jewish history at Dropsie College in Philadelphia. He later taught Jewish history at Dropsie, and then at the University of Denver and Cornell University. Netanyahu’s magisterial study, “The Origins of the Inquisition in Fifteenth Century Spain,” widely considered a

groundbreaking work in his field, was published in 1995. He spent time in both Israel and the United States over the years, returning to Israel permanently in 1976, the same year his son Yoni was killed while leading the Entebbe rescue operation.

Notoriously reluctant to grant interviews, Netanyahu generally succeeded in eluding the spotlight.

He only recently agreed to cooperate in the first documentary on his life and legacy, by Israeli filmmaker Moshe Levinson, which coincidentally is scheduled to premiere this week in Jerusalem.

Macedonia said they did not compile any data on hate crimes.

Only nine members of the OSCE, the world's largest security-oriented intergovernmental organization, submitted official data on anti-Semitism in 2009, compared to 48 member states

that did not.

Other than in France, Perry said she “couldn’t point to any direct impact on policy or legislation” following the Toulouse shooting, though “it does raise awareness to the issue.”

Robert Trestan of the Anti-

Defamation League said he believes the Toulouse attack helped European governments and authorities “better understand that people who target Jews will often also target law enforcement agents. It’s something American authorities know very well.”

grant a glimpse of the world; the low door (now marked with a sloppily painted D) that Schindler would emerge from for the review.

“Around back there’s a window where we used to leave loaves of bread,” said Kubin, pointing to a narrow alley next to the factory wall. “It was next to the electrified fence, in a spot where the guards in the towers couldn’t see. We’d wrap them in oily rags to camouflage them.”

“Giving them food was tricky,”

said Petr Henzl, 83, whose father worked at the factory during the war.

“A lady who lived behind the wall threw them some fruit once, but the guards caught them picking it up and gave them an awful beating.”

Both Henzl and Kubin give much of the credit for the survival of the prisoners to Schindler’s wife, Emilie.

“He was off on business mostly,” Kubin said. “She ran the kitchen and the hospital and got the headman at the mill to give them the leftover

groats and husks to make gruel. She was also the one who took in the last transport in December.”

The few local residents who remember that time now look on in frustration as the property falls into further and further disrepair.

JTA’s efforts to contact Blue Fields, which does not list telephone or email contacts, were unsuccessful.

The Czech Jewish community says it would welcome a memorial in Brnenec.

liberal parties and even two green parties. The secessionist New Flemish Alliance wants the Flemish part of the country to pull out of Belgium altogether.

The very creation of a separate institution representing only Flemish Jews was itself a part of the same process. Founded 50 years ago, the CCOJB umbrella group used to represent — nominally, at least — Jews from both Flanders

and Wallonia, the French-speaking region of the country. But in 1993 the Flemish community splintered off and formed FJO, reflecting the sentiment that Jews from Antwerp were not really represented in the main community umbrella group.

Michael Freilich, editor in chief of Belgium’s leading Jewish publication, Joods Actueel, says the two communities inhabit two distinct political universes.

Due to the political system, “in Flanders you can only vote for Flemish parties and in Wallonia only for French-speaking parties, even though parties from both regions sit in government,” Freilich said. “This means politicians who matter to Wallonians don’t matter to Flemish and vice versa. It’s very difficult to lobby together when you inhabit two different, parallel political realities.”

site lacked sufficient sewer capacity and faced opposition from Indian Hill which controlled part of the acreage. An existing recreation center turned out to be too small and too costly to operate (which is why it was for sale).

The Amberley site turned out to have many advantages, the two most important of which are the site was already owned by a synagogue in financial distress which wanted to sell the property; and that locating there would help anchor the existing Jewish community and get another 20-25 years out of the substantial investment in Jewish structures (schools and synagogues) in the area. Another extensive community survey revealed that the site was overwhelmingly endorsed by the community and it also confirmed many opinions as to what should and should not be included in the facility. Major potential donors including the Jewish Foundation and the Mayerson

Foundation agreed, and fairly quickly came up with the funds to build the new JCC. The use of the name “The J” was a happy accident. A major reason why the new facility was constructed was to help keep young Jewish families in Cincinnati and engaged in the Jewish community, an objective that has certainly been achieved.

The marketing committee was looking for a name that would catch on with a young demographic. The director, then Rabbi Mark Rothschild, suggested the use of the name “The J” because he fondly remembered it from his youth (not in Cincinnati). He began to use the name and soon everyone involved with the project began to use it. It wasn’t long before it was the officially adopted name.

The new facility has been a tremendous success by almost any measure. It has received national attention and has achieved almost

all the goals set forth in justifying building it. Yes, there are some problems. The locker rooms are too small, the Café never seems to have the right menu items, and some classes are oversubscribed.

It is too far for some people to travel to (I work out at Harper’s because it is two minutes from my house) and some people don’t like the hours, or the floor plan, or the size of the pool, or the absence of racquetball courts or the crowded parking lots or the security system. You can’t please everyone, but surveys have shown time and time again that The J has succeeded across all demographic groups and particularly with seniors, young professionals and young families.

I hope you find this letter interesting, and perhaps it fills in some of the knowledge gaps you had.

Yours truly, Howie Brecher Cincinnati, OH

Gene Mesh receives special humanitarian medal for helping Ethiopian Jews Gene Mesh was recently awarded the highest humanitarian award—the Raoul Wallenberg Medal—for his efforts in regard to the Ethiopian Jews and the Scholarship Fund for Ethiopian Jews (SFEJ).

The Government Coin & Medal Corps. issued a special medal to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Operation Moses. This medal has been used to single out individuals and organizations that made special or significant contributions for the absorption and integration of Ethiopians into Israeli society.

Between Nov. 21, 1984, and January 5, 1985, Operation Moses involved the air transport of some 8,000 Ethiopian Jews from Sudan directly to Israel. Thousands of Beta Israel had fled Ethiopia on foot for refugee camps in Sudan.

Several years later, Operation Solomon airlifted almost twice as many Ethiopian Jews to Israel as Operation Moses. In 25 hours, 14,200 Ethiopians were airlifted from an internal Civil War to Israel.

The operation set a world record for single-flight passenger load when, on May 24, 1991, an El Al 747 carried 1,122 passengers to Israel.

“Gene Mesh has been a valuable and staunch supporter of the fund for many years. Recently he has been given the highest humanitarian award, for his efforts in regard to the Ethiopian Jews and the fund,” said Ed Sherman, former executive vice president of SFEJ. This award was presented to Mesh by Asher Naim, the former Israeli Ambassador to Ethiopia, at Beth Ami Synagogue in Boca Raton, Fla., in February 2012. A recipient of the same award in 2009, Ambassador Naim was the Ambassador of Israel to Ethiopia at the time of Operation Solomon and was instrumental in the negotiating process with the dictator, President Mengistu and later with the winning rebels, headed by Meles Zenawi.

SFEJ was established in 1999 by American Jewish volunteers to encourage the pursuit of higher education by the Israeli under-privileged immigrants from Ethiopia. In the belief that education is the single most effective tool for the integration of the Ethiopian community into Israeli society, SFEJ was founded to raise funds for the promotion of post-secondary education among Ethiopian Israelis. The primary aim of SFEJ has been to help finance the granting of scholarships to Ethiopian Jews in Israel. The fund provides financial support

Gene Mesh and Ed Sherman celebrating, February 2012.

to Ethiopian immigrants who wish to undertake academic studies at Israeli universities, or to advance themselves professionally at other academically recognized institutions in Israel.

Convinced that the speedy emergence of a well-educated group with leadership potential is important to the whole Ethiopian immigrant community, SFEJ is eager to support any Ethiopian student seeking higher education, regardless of age or gender.

SFEJ has been fundraising since its inception in 1999 and looks to continue to aid in the Ethiopian absorption efforts with its vast Israeli and American supporters.

“Gene Mesh has been an active supporter for several years. He is the third person to receive this award. He plans to continue supporting the efforts of the institute,” commented Ambassador Naim.

“We need to cultivate professional leaders so they can serve as an example to their people, and this community, in turn, can take their rightful place in our society as useful and worthy citizens,” said Naim.

Without leaders to provide role models, spark inspiration and navigate between cultures, Naim fears these new immigrants may become a permanent underclass.

The Israel Association for Ethiopian Jews

(IAEJ) reports that more than 72 percent of Ethiopian children grow up in families living below Israel’s poverty line. In 1997, just 19 percent of Ethiopians graduated high school with the matriculation certificate necessary to continue their education. Though the number of matriculating Ethiopians has grown, the graduate rate is still far less than the 50 percent rate of the rest of the population, according to the association.

“These are people who lived without electricity, running water or automobiles. Ask someone from Gondar how many kilometers it is to Addis Ababa. He won’t know, but he can tell you the number of days it takes to walk there,” Naim said.

“We have to prepare a pre-industrial people for a post-technology society.”

Mesh was introduced to Naim and SFEJ through a mutual friend, Ed Sherman. He was drawn to the work and dedication to the Ethiopian Jews demonstrated by Naim and the fund, and he wanted to provide assistance as well.

“I enjoy being charitable and helping others,” Mesh modestly acknowledged when asked about receiving the award. “The Ethiopian Jews are very charming, beautiful, intelligent and loyal.

Currently we are seeing the second generation approaching college age and the need for scholarship funds is imperative.”