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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2013 22 TISHREI, 5774

JCC / Shalom Family Book Swap

CINCINNATI, OH Candle Lighting Times Shabbat begins Fri 7:10p Shabbat ends Sat 8:11p

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VOL. 160 • NO. 10

The American Israelite T H E

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J Street confab’s message: We’ve arrived

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Colorado flooding wreaks havoc on Yom Kippur observances

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With eyes on neighbors, Azerbaijan and Israel intensify ties

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Padrino is Pasta, Pizza, Hoagies, made from home-style Italian Recipes

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Pictured are Livingston campers enjoying the Frank and Rachel Chesley swimming pool that received major infrastructure repairs this summer from the Jewish Foundation grant and a gift from Stan Chesley.

In its commitment to the mission of “investing in our community”, The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati has recently invested in critical repairs and improvements in The Robert Krohn Livingston Memorial Camp near Bennington, Indiana. “In its goal to ‘make Cincinnati one of America’s great cities for Jewish life,’ the Foundation’s investment has helped strengthen Camp Livingston, our community’s Jewish resident camp”, said Gretchen Myers, president of the Camp’s Board of Directors. Livingston is nearing its 100th anniversary in 2020.

“We appreciate The Foundation’s support of Camp Livingston and the other Jewish camps that serve our community,” continued Ms. Myers. “We believe strongly that Jewish camping,

whichever Jewish camp a family chooses, is essential to the future strength of our Jewish community,” she added.

The Foundation for Jewish Camp, “Camp Works,” recently cited that adults who attended a Jewish camp as a child are: 55% more likely to feel attached to Israel; 45% more likely to attend synagogue regularly; 37% more likely to light candles on Shabbat.

In other studies, 1 out of 3 Jewish professionals were camp counselors and 7 out of 10 young Jewish leaders attended camp.

“We are confident that the programs and services that we have offered at Camp Livingston these past decades have been at the core of the commitment of our youth and adult community leaders who enjoyed the Livingston experience

as a child.

This Jewish Foundation funding has resulted in an architectural and engineering study of the 640 acres of the facility, new plumbing infrastructure, maintenance vehicles, rescue boat, mattresses, water fountains throughout the grounds, maintenance building/garage, dining hall ventilation, pool upgrades, roofs on the dining hall and other buildings, and a rehabbed low ropes course.

These improvements affected facilities mostly built in 1969 when the Camp was relocated to Indiana from its original site on Given Road in Indian Hill. Henry “Sandy” Livingston purchased the Indian Hill property and opened the Camp there in 1920, in memory of his son, Lt. Robert Krohn Livingston. The 28 year old distinguished veteran of WW I died during the influenza epi-

demic in 1918. In its nearly 100 year history, the Camp has served Jewish families throughout the tri state region, primarily from Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus, Indianapolis and Louisville.

“Camp Livingston is an important part of our overall investment in Overnight Jewish Camping, “ said Michael R. Oestreicher, President of The Jewish Foundation. “We wanted our specific investment in Livingston to address the basic safety and infrastructure needs so that the camp will be in the best possible shape for the members of our community who use it, and so that Camp Livingston’s generous individual donors can rest assured their dollars are going towards the enhancements that will take Livingston to the next level.”

HAVE PHOTOS FROM AN EVENT? Whether they are from a Bar Mitzvah, Annual Meeting, School Field Trip or Your Congregation’s Annual Picnic, spread the joy and share them with our readers in the Cincinnati Jewish Life section!

MAIL: MAIL Send CD to The American Israelite, 18 W 9th St Ste 2, Cincinnati, OH 45202 or E-MAIL: E-MAIL production@americanisraelite.com Please make sure to include a Word doc. that includes the captions, if available, and a short synopsis of the event (date, place, reason, etc.).

If sending photos by e-mail, please send them in batches of 3-5 per e-mail (16MB MAX). All photos should be Hi-Res to ensure print quality.

THIS IS 100% FREE. For more information, please contact Jennifer at (513) 621-3145.

All photos are subject to review before publishing.

LOCAL • 3

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2013

Northern Hills Sisterhood Feature Radio Memories at Paid-Up Membership Brunch The Sisterhood of Northern Hills Synagogue - Congregation B'nai Avraham invites the community to share Memories of the Golden Days of Radio at the annual paid-up membership brunch. The event will take place on Sunday, October 6th at 11 a.m. at the Synagogue.

Don Siekmann, a retired CPA and business executive, has collected over 35,000 radio programs and has made many presentations on the Golden Days of Radio, including a class at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI). Please join Don in sharing stories and listening to por-

tions of actual shows from long ago.

There is no charge for Sisterhood members, but there is a nominal fee for guests. For more information, please contact the Synagogue office.

Author Malcolm Gladwell via satellite at Wise Temple Author Malcolm Gladwell will address When Underdogs Break the Rules at the first of the season 92YLive program at Wise Center on Tuesday, October 1 at 8 p.m. (doors open at 7:30 PM). Why are we so often surprised when underdogs win? Do Goliaths make mistakes in spite of their strength—or because of it? Why are the childhoods of people at the top of so many professions marked by dep-

rivation? Malcolm Gladwell uncovers the hidden rules that shape the balance between the weak and the mighty. Malcolm has been a staff writer with The New Yorker magazine since 1996 and is the author of several books.

The “Live from New York” series highlights prominent Jews from all aspects of American life. This series originates and is broadcast live from New York’s prestigious

Jewish Cultural Center, the 92nd Street Y. The broadcasts are fed into Wise Center and are viewed on a large screen. These events, programs of Wise Temple’s EitzChayim Adult Education Program, have a fee at the door and are open to the public. For further information and to RSVP, contact Margie Burgin

THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE IS NOW HIRING A

YP Choral Collective Performs at the JCC The entire community is invited to attend a free concert at the Mayerson JCC on Sunday, October 13 at 4 p.m. This special event celebrates Daniel Pearl World Music Day, an international day that uses the universal language of music to encourage fellowship across cultures. This year’s concert will feature Cincinnati’s Young Professionals’ Choral Collective (YPCC), a group of energetic singers between the ages of 21-45 who live and work throughout Cincinnati. This new group was founded by Kelly Ann Nelson

and Christopher Eanes who act as the artistic and managing directors. The repertoire for the concert will include music from many different countries, instilling the idea of “Harmony for Humanity.”

Daniel Pearl World Music Day was created in remembrance of Wall Street Journal reporter, Daniel Pearl, an American who was kidnapped and murdered by extremists in Karachi, Pakistan.

Pearl’s family and friends came together to work toward a more humane world, forming the Daniel Pearl Foundation.

Pearl was also known as a talented musician who joined musical groups in every community he visited. He had a passion for music and a lifelong mission of uniting people from different cultures. Over the past twelve years, Daniel Pearl World Music Day has included more than 10,000 performances in 129 countries.

This free family-friendly event is open to the public. For more information, please see the Mayerson JCC contact information in the community directory of this issue.

IT’S EASY AS 1-2-3 TO SUBSCRIBE 1. Pick-up your cell or home phone 2. Dial (513) 621-3145 3. Say “I want a subscription to The American Israelite” Or send an e-mail with “Subscription” in the subject line to publisher@americanisraelite.com

SALES REPRESENTATIVE HIGH COMMISSION. NO EXPERIENCE REQUIRED. TO APPLY, please contact Ted Deutsch at 621-3145 or send your resume to publisher@americanisraelite.com

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teaches courses in the Law School on Family Law, Constitutional Law, Advanced Constitutional Law and Bioethics and Public Health Ethics.

Rabbi Lewis Kamrass states, “This promises to be both a fascinating and timely program. I am confident that Professor Spindelman’s presentation will help bring clarity to us and shed light on these recent Supreme Court decisions.” The service and dinner are open to the community.

For more information contact the Isaac M. Wise Temple.

J Street confab’s message: We’ve arrived

By Ron Kampeas

Even those establishment figures who laud J Street’s new prominence acknowledge that its first five years have been anything but smooth.

Rabbi David Saperstein, who directs the Reform movement’s Religious Action Center, recalled some significant bumps: J Street’s attempt at even-handedness during the 2009 Gaza War and its refusal to take a position on a U.N. Security Council resolution in 2011 that would have condemned Israel’s settlement practices.

Both postures were roundly repudiated by the Jewish establishment.

Rabbi Eric Yoffie, then president of the Union for Reform Judaism, berated the group at its 2009 conference for its Gaza position.

“It has been more strongly messaged in recent years on moving the peace process forward,” Saperstein said of J Street. “It has been targeted in the key messages it’s put out, focusing with clarity on the peace process. For the significant majority of American Jews who remain committed to the peace process as indispensable to Israel’s well-being, it has become a go-to entity for people who wanted to make a difference.”

One key to J Street’s acceptance, said the JCPA’s Rabbi Steve Gutow, has been its role in pushing back against the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, particularly against mainline Christian churches.

“Three years ago at the Presbyterian convention, [J Street Senior Vice President] Rachel Lerner came in literally at the last minute and gave a remarkable speech about why delegitimization was wrong,” Gutow said.

One of the church’s publications had just praised J Street as an emerging new voice in the Jewish community. The divestment bid was defeated.

Ben-Ami said his group’s legitimacy on the left was among the added values it brought to the Jewish table and a reason why the Jewish center had softened its stance.

“The center-right understands

they don’t present the best face on BDS,” he said.

That strength is also J Street’s Achilles’ heel in its bid for establishment bona fides: its inability to accrue associates on the Republican side of the congressional aisle. Not one Republican is slated to speak during the conference, and in recent elections, J Street’s affiliated political action committee has backed only Democrats.

“It is a very important goal of ours to try and make some inroads in the Republican Party on the Hill because this used to be an area of bipartisan agreement,” Ben-Ami said, referring to the backing for a two-state solution.

Most damning, however, for Republicans, was Ben-Ami telling The New York Times in 2010, “Our No. 1 agenda item is to do whatever we can in Congress to act as the president’s blocking back.”

In his interview with JTA, BenAmi attempted to walk back the quote, saying he would have made the same pledge in George W. Bush’s last two years in office, when the president made reviving Israeli-Palestinian talks a priority.

Matt Brooks, the director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, wasn’t buying the explanation.

“You define yourself very clearly where you stand when you call yourself the blocking back for the president,” Brooks told JTA. “It’s no surprise that Republicans are distrustful and by and large in disagreement with the strategies of J Street.”

Halber of the Washington JCRC agreed.

“Their missions statement is not bad,” he said. “The problem with J Street is that they’ve turned Israel into a partisan issue.”

It’s a message the group has taken to heart. J Street led lobbying this summer for a congressional letter urging Obama to take up the offer of the newly elected Iranian president, Hassan Rohani, to engage. Of the more than 130 signatories, 18 were Republican.

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

VOL. 160 • NO. 10 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2013 22 TISHREI 5774 SHABBAT BEGINS FRIDAY 7:10 PM SHABBAT ENDS SATURDAY 8:11 PM THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE CO., PUBLISHERS 18 WEST NINTH STREET, SUITE 2 CINCINNATI, OHIO 45202-2037 Phone: (513) 621-3145 Fax: (513) 621-3744 publisher@americanisraelite.com editor@americanisraelite.com production@americanisraelite.com RABBI ISAAC M. WISE Founder, Editor, Publisher, 1854-1900 LEO WISE Editor & Publisher, 1900-1928 RABBI JONAH B. WISE Editor & Publisher, 1928-1930 HENRY C. SEGAL Editor & Publisher, 1930-1985 PHYLLIS R. SINGER Editor & General Manager, 1985-1999 MILLARD H. MACK Publisher Emeritus NETANEL (TED) DEUTSCH Editor & Publisher GABRIELLE COHEN JORY EDLIN JULIE TOREM Assistant Editors YOSEFF FRANCUS Copy Editor JANET STEINBERG Travel Editor MARIANNA BETTMAN NATE BLOOM IRIS PASTOR ZELL SCHULMAN PHYLLIS R. SINGER Contributing Columnists BONNIE ULLNER Advertising Sales Manager JENNIFER CARROLL Production Manager ERIN WYENANDT Office Manager

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WASHINGTON (JTA) – The story that this year’s J Street conference schedule tells is, typically enough, about getting Israel and the Palestinians to a two-state solution.

Between the lines is another narrative as urgent as peacekeeping to the liberal pro-Israel group: getting J Street into the establishment.

The second objective received a major boost earlier this month with the announcement that Vice President Joe Biden would headline the conference, which begins Saturday.

The first vice presidential appearance at a J Street event will be supplemented by a handful of other first appearances: a top Israeli government minister, representatives of the hardline Israeli parties Likud and Shas, and the president of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the national Jewish community’s umbrella body.

The conference, titled “Our Time to Lead,” could be read as J Street’s aspiration to community leadership as much as an urgent call for American involvement in advancing the peace process.

“All across the country we’re making progress in getting representation on JCRCs,” Jeremy Ben-Ami, J Street’s founder and director, told JTA, referring to the Jewish community relations councils that operate in most American Jewish communities.

“We’ve done several hundred events at Jewish communal institutions. Our rabbinic cabinet is over 700. There is a growing understanding that this is a very important part of the American Jewish landscape, that we have a very important seat at the table,” he said.

Ben-Ami is unabashed in describing how he has striven for establishment acceptance. He noted that J Street, having passed its fifth birthday, is now eligible for the ultimate imprimatur of Jewish establishment credentials: membership in the Conference of Presidents of Major

American Jewish Organizations.

The Presidents Conference, the main communal umbrella group on foreign policy issues, confirmed that J Street had submitted a formal application but would not comment further, citing the confidentiality of the process.

J Street also has applied for JCRC membership in five cities – Boston, Baltimore, Atlanta, San Francisco and Denver – with only Denver rejecting the bid.

Ronald Halber, who directs the Greater Washington JCRC, said J Street’s arrival was more a function of its longevity than communal acceptance of its position.

“If you’ve been around a while, you start making friends and relationships,” he said. “The more you’ve become an established fact, the more you’re a player.”

Still, J Street remains vulnerable, as it has been since its founding, to charges that it is not in step with the broad communal consensus on Israel.

Lee Smith, writing in the online Jewish magazine Tablet, fumed that J Street had pulled “a Putin on Obama” in its refusal – virtually alone among Jewish groups – to back President Obama’s request for congressional authorization for a strike on Syria following an alleged chemical weapons attack by the regime of President Bashar Assad.

Though it has dominated Middle East headlines for the past month, Syria does not feature at all on the J Street schedule. Iran, with nuclear ambitions seen by Jerusalem as a more pressing existential threat than the conflict with the Palestinians, merits a single session.

Ben-Ami said J Street was taking its cue from a U.S. administration that has placed a premium on keeping the Israeli-Palestinian talks going.

“The real core mission of J Street is to demonstrate that a lot of people who care deeply about Israel strongly support what the president and the secretary of state have laid out this year,” he said.

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answer a question that is now on many people’s minds: What about similar defense of marriage measures in the states across the country, including in Ohio? Are they unconstitutional, too? A dissenting opinion suggests that it is only a matter of time before they fall.

Has the Supreme Court set a countdown clock ticking against state laws banning same-sex marriage? Stay tuned.”

Professor Spindelman is well suited to address these questions and the future of same-sex marriage. He is a noted national expert in these areas and regularly

Est. 1854

ices on Friday, October 11. His talk will help shed light on the complex decisions reached by the Supreme Court of the United States in June on the federal Defense of Marriage Act and California Proposition 8. These Supreme Court decisions leave many questions about whether same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry. Professor Spindelman explains, “The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a key provision of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, but the ruling is limited to invalidating that particular law. It does not necessarily

• ca

In light of the recent Supreme Court decision on the Defense of Marriage Act and California Proposition 8 in June 2013, Wise Temple is excited to bring in noted national legal expert Marc Spindelman, Isadore and Ida Topper Professor of Law at Moritz College of Law at The Ohio State University. Spindelman will address the Court’s decisions and their implications for the future of the ongoing legal push for samesex marriage equality and equal rights.

Professor Spindelman will be the guest speaker at Shabbat serv-

r in Am ape er sp i

Wise Temple Congregational Dinner Features Legal Expert on Marriage Equality

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.

NATIONAL • 5

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2013

Seeking Kin: For Israeli paratroopers, a bond that doesn’t break

By Hillel Kuttler The “Seeking Kin” column aims to help reunite long-lost relatives and friends.

BALTIMORE (JTA) – The photograph shows a lighthearted moment at the end of a war that four decades later still prompts analysis and evokes somber reflections.

Snapped just after Israel and Egypt had signed an agreement ending the Yom Kippur War in February 1974, the photo shows two Israeli soldiers swimming in the Suez Canal.

It was among several several war-era photos from the Israel Defense Forces’ archives published recently by Yedioth Ahronoth as the 40th anniversary of the war neared.

The Israeli newspaper asked readers to identify those shown.

Two days later, the swimmers were named: reservists Uri Lahav, a first sergeant, and Amnon Aizenberg, a private, now aged 78 and 68, respectively.

They had jumped into the water to cross from the canal’s west bank to the Sinai Peninsula – approximately one-sixth of a mile. They did so, Aizenberg told JTA recently, to show “that we can swim in the Suez, not just fight for it.”

Aizenberg didn’t even know how to swim, so he was grasping Lahav’s waist to be pulled across.

Lahav was far more comfortable in the water, having worked as a commercial fisherman before settling into a 40-year career as an economist with the Egged bus cooperative until retiring in 2005.

Within hours of their dip they were back home: Lahav in Herzliya and Aizenberg in Petach Tikvah.

Their 66th Paratrooper Brigade, 55th Regiment had fought legendarily in the battle for Jerusalem’s Ammunition Hill in the Six-Day War in 1967. In the intervening decades, the unit’s members have maintained contact and gather regularly.

On Oct. 17, many will make their way to Kibbutz Givat Haim for a memorial service marking the 40th yahrzeit of a regiment member.

Right before Yom Kippur, as is their practice, many unit members attended the annual service for 1973 paratrooper fatalities held at the paratrooper memorial near the Tel Nof Air Force Base. And in July, the regiment’s deputy commander, Doron Mor, a geologist, led a group tour of volcanic rock formations close to Mount Avital, near the Golan Heights battlefields.

Unit members are invited to the

simchas of their comrades. And they organize events at Hanukkah, Passover and during the summer.

“We’re like a family,” Aizenberg said.

The gatherings are meaningful but not all fun.

Attending events related to the four wars in which he fought – the 1956 Sinai campaign, the Six-Day War, the Yom Kippur War and the first Lebanon War – “are, for me, not happy” occasions, Lahav says.

“Many close friends were killed.”

In Lebanon in 1981, Lahav’s son Omer, also a paratrooper, was fighting elsewhere in the country.

And now Omer’s daughter, Yael, is serving along the Israel-Egypt border, an area that has experienced attacks on Israelis in recent years but otherwise has remained peaceful as a consequence of the 1979 peace treaty signed by the two countries.

Family associations with battle also figure prominently for Aizenberg, who still repairs heavy construction machinery as he did in the 1970s.

On the eve of Yom Kippur in ‘73, just before sundown, military officials knocked on his door to call him into service with war imminent. Aizenberg was sitting shiva: His mother, Dvora, had been killed in a car accident a few days earlier.

And his wife, Rachel, was seven months pregnant with their first child.

Aizenberg’s commander, Yossi Yaffe, would be injured during the battle for the city of Suez. (Yaffe later would be killed in battle, one of 2,656 Israeli soldiers to die in the war). Yaffe was sent back to Israel to be treated, and upon returning to the unit in December, he informed Aizenberg that Rachel had just given birth to a son. The Aizenbergs named him Eyal.

In Suez that night, “we were able to light the candles of Hanukkah and had a table set up with food for the holiday, including sufganiyot,” the Israeli donuts, Aizenberg recalled. “The next day, they let me fly home” to briefly spend time with his expanded family.

Eyal now has three children.

Aizenberg’s daughter, Yifat, has one.

Aizenberg says he has no illusions that his grandchildren will live in an Israel that’s at peace because the enemy surrounding countries will not allow the Jewish state to let down its guard.

“This is our history, and this is our neighborhood,” he said. “I educate [my grandchildren] to be brave soldiers who understand that they need to protect our country.”

Hebrew Class For Beginners, Intermediate or Advanced Begins Thursday, October 3

• OPEN HOUSE • to meet the teacher and fellow students on Thurs. Oct. 3 at 6:30 p.m. at Rockwern immediately before class. If you cannot attend the open house please contact Mrs. Rendler. at Rockwern Academy 8401 Montgomery Rd. • Cincinnati, Ohio 45236 For beginners to intermediate levels. Anyone who would like to learn to speak Hebrew. The class instructor is Mrs. Rendler.

Beginner class from 7-8 p.m.

Intermediate/Advanced class from 8-9 p.m.

For more information contact Mrs. Rendler at zrendler@fuse.net or publisher@americanisraelite.com or call 513-721-2220

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Colorado flooding wreaks havoc on Yom Kippur observances

By Andrea Jacobs DENVER (IJN) – Before the start of Yom Kippur, a flood of historic proportions swallowed Boulder, Colo., and surrounding areas, displacing families, damaging synagogues and threatening services on the holiest day of the Jewish year – until determination came to the rescue.

Orthodox Boulder Aish Kodesh hit the Internet first, sending a mass email to 500 residents announcing that heavy rains and flooding had destroyed the tent it had prepared for the holiday. The email offered alternative locations for services, including hard-hit Chabad centers and Denver synagogues out of harm’s way.

Elon Bar-Evan, executive director of Boulder Aish Kodesh, said the tent and parking lot were under water and that many prayer books intended for the services were ruined.

Rabbi Marc Soloway, spiritual leader of Conservative Bonai Shalom in Boulder, told the IJN Friday that his synagogue had sustained significant flooding.

“Our Yom Kippur services are scheduled elsewhere, but it is unclear whether we will be able to have them there at this point due to flooded roads and so forth,” Soloway said. “It’s a mess.”

At Har HaShem, Boulder’s major Reform synagogue, the power was out.

“The lower level of the main building was under four feet of water,” said communications and membership director Ellen Kowitt, reached at her home in Erie, Colo.

Because Kowitt often works from home, she was able to update the website. Before the server collapsed, Rose wrote an email to the congregation: “The Talmud teaches that rain is a sign of blessing. That might sound questionable right now. Whether we can turn this into a blessing remains to be seen . . . I believe in us.”

Chany Scheiner of Chabad of Boulder described a scene of utter chaos at the synagogue, which is attached to the side of her home.

“CU and other places closed on Thursday,” she said. “My husband Rabbi Pesach Scheiner and I thought they might be making a big deal out of nothing.”

When three rooms filled with water later that night, they knew it was serious. “There was a flood in front of our house and the backyard was a nice sized swimming pool,” she said.

The Scheiners and their children were evacuated. Neighbors convinced them to leave. “We went in their car,” Scheiner said. “It was like the parting of the Reed Sea.”

Courtesy of Chabad

A Chabad volunteer helps people clear damaged goods from their homes in Colorado.

When the Scheiners returned to assess the damage, they found a few inches of brown water in the synagogue. The family got on their knees to clean the small worship space and then tackled the house.

Days of heavy rain across Colorado’s Front Range left eight people confirmed dead as of Monday evening and hundreds more unaccounted for.

Reconstructionist Beth Evergreen, located in the foothills just outside Denver, nearly shut its doors on the evening of Yom Kippur due to flooding.

According to Rabbi Jamie

Arnold, the road cutting through Evergreen, in the mountains west of Denver, was closed all day Friday, which meant congregants coming from Conifer would have to tackle a circuitous route from the opposite direction. Only about 30 to 40 “hardcore” congregants made it to Beth Evergreen for Kol Nidre, Arnold said, and about 300 attended Yom Kippur services the next day, when the clouds dissipated long enough to allow for safe travel.

“I didn’t change my sermon substantially,” Arnold said. “I included prayers for healing and read names for those unable to say kaddish for

their loved ones. But my sermon was about the function of community; how it provides sanctuary. I think that said it all.”

Meanwhile, Rabbi Yisroel Wilhelm of Chabad at the University of Colorado was receiving a call a minute and a stream of emails Friday morning.

“We’ve already cleaned up our mess – only a few inches in the shul,” Wilhelm said. “But it’s pretty intense.”

Students contacted Wilhelm to find out where they could attend services in Boulder. Some, unable to get home to Denver, also called him.

Others trapped in inaccessible areas requested basic supplies.

“The saddest part for me is that there are people who are completely stranded,” he said. “They can’t even get out of their cars. Another girl in an isolated canyon has no food or water.”

Bonai Shalom was able to hold services at Naropa University, despite the university’s closing.

Several Boulder Aish Kodesh members attended Bonai Shalom’s services.

“Our congregation shares land with Boulder Aish Kodesh,” said Steve Hill, president of Bonai Shalom. “We’re very close.”

Rabbi Wilhelm, who rewrote his FLOODING on page 19

With deal struck, pro-Israel groups suspend lobbying for Syria strike

By Ron Kampeas WASHINGTON (JTA) – ProIsrael groups suspended their highprofile lobbying effort for a strike on Syria now that the United States and Russia have struck a deal to strip the Assad regime of its chemical weapons.

A spokesman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which organized a Capitol Hill blitz last week aimed at persuading Congress to back a strike, confirmed Monday that lobbying has been suspended for now.

The American Jewish Committee and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, which also had been involved in the lobbying, said they would suspend lobbying, too.

“We sent many messages over the last week and a half; we are not formulating new letters to the Hill,” Jason Isaacson, the AJC’s director of international affairs, told JTA. “Our message is out there should it be required.”

Jewish groups had hesitated at first to sign on to the lobbying effort, fearful that their support would be construed as a pro-Israel initiative.

But they dove in after President Obama called for a strike last month and senior administration officials solicited their help in persuading Congress to sign off on the military

Courtesy of Win McNamee/Getty Images

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov talks with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Washington, Aug. 9, 2013.

action. AIPAC sent 250 of its members for personal meetings with Capitol Hill lawmakers, a show of strength the lobby reserves for major initiatives.

Jewish groups maintained their support for a strike even after President Obama called last week for Congress to delay a vote wile he explored the Russian proposal, which calls for Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles to be eliminated by 2014. The AJC in a letter Sept.

12 to Congress members said the threat of credible military action

must be maintained even as the United States looked at the Russian plan. Leading pro-Israel figures echoed the view.

“Every day that goes by without congressional authorization, it undermines the vitality of the threat,” Abraham Foxman, the AntiDefamation League’s national director, said in an interview Friday.

By Monday, however, the groups had changed their tune, suspended their lobbying and endorsed the putative deal brokered in Geneva over the weekend by U.S. Secretary

of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.

Under the terms of the agreement, Syria would be stripped of its chemical weapons by the middle of 2014. If it refuses to comply, the situation would be referred to the U.N. Security Council.

Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime has yet to formally give its assent to the deal, though government officials have indicated a willingness to approve it.

“While we remain cautious about President Assad’s true commitment to disarmament, we welcome this agreement as an ambitious but hopeful first step to eliminate chemical weapons in Syria,” the ADL said in a statement Monday.

Martin Raffel, the senior vice president of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, which had advocated for a strike, said his group would now “take its lead from the administration.”

“We hope military force won’t be necessary,” Raffel said. “The point of the military force was not just to engage in the military operation, it was to try and prevent Assad from using chemical weapons.

We’re cautiously optimistic this thing will all work out.”

The flurry of activity followed an attack on Aug. 21 in which a rebel stronghold near Damascus was hit

with chemical weapons that are believed to have killed more than 1,400 people, including hundreds of children.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the attack was likely perpetrated by opposition forces, but the United States maintains it was almost certainly launched by Assad.

After sealing the deal with Lavrov in Geneva, Kerry flew to Israel, where he appeared at a joint news conference Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“We have been closely following – and support – your ongoing efforts to rid Syria of its chemical weapons,” Netanyahu said. “The Syrian regime must be stripped of all its chemical weapons, and that would make our entire region a lot safer.”

Netanyahu cast Israel’s investment in the deal in the same terms that pro-Israel groups had framed their support last week for strike authorization: as a message to Iran.

“What the past few days have shown is something that I have been saying for quite some time – that if diplomacy has any chance to work, it must be coupled with a credible military threat,” Netanyahu said.

“What is true of Syria is true of Iran and, by the way, vice versa.”

NATIONAL • 7

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2013

Repurposing your lulav and etrog

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By Binyamin Kagedan (JNS) – Another High Holidays season is upon us, which means Sukkot is right around the corner. In no time you’ll be ordering your annual bouquet of palm fronds, citrons, myrtle, and willows-the famous Four Species.

Given the state of the economy these days, it’s painful to buy anything that you can only use once.

Why not stretch the value of your lulav and etrog this year with a little creative repurposing post-festival? When they can be shaken and blessed no more, try one or all of these suggestions for getting the most out of your four species.

Lulav The lulav bundle, including the palm fronds after which it is named, twigs of myrtle (hadasim), and willow branches (aravot), has customarily been put aside after the Sukkot holiday and saved until Passover time. Having by then dried out, they are used to fuel the fire that burns the chametz found during the final cleaning of home, or as kindling in a wood-fire oven being used to bake matzah. Some also have the tradition of using the dried lulav palm as a broom to sweep up those last bits of hidden chametz. These ritual uses are considered a respectful way to dispose of the lulav, which has the status of a sacred object in Jewish law.

For something new this year, consider nourishing your creative side by exploring the art of palm weaving. The individual leaves of the lulav can be twisted and braided into variety of beautiful patterns, or folded into shapes like origami. Chabad.org recommends weaving palm leaves into a basket that can be used to hold spices for havdalah. Check the Web for helpful instructions and inspiration-there are a number of websites devoted to the craft, which is also a popular Easter activity.

Repurposing the etrog as b’samim (spices) for havdalah

513-621-3145

Courtesy of David Komer

Try reincarnating your etrog this year as “Mr. Etrog Head.”

As for the hadasim, while still fresh they have a sweet and delicate fragrance, and can also be used for havdalah purposes. The oil of myrtle plants is known to have a variety of medicinal properties, although extracting it is not exactly a DIY project. Aravot, which tend to dry and fall apart rather quickly, don’t lend themselves as well as hadasim to repurposing. Those who observe Hoshanah Rabah towards the end of Sukkot, however, will be familiar with the custom of whacking bundles of aravot against the ground, a mysterious and ancient ritual marking the moment that we formally retire the lulav and etrog for the year.

Etrog The etrog (citron), the most aromatic of the Four Species and the only edible one, offers the most possibilities for efficient and enjoyable repurposing. One familiar strategy is to push whole cloves into the fresh etrog’s peel, filling up as much surface area as possible. The etrog will eventually dry out and shrivel up, but the cloves, now held in place in the shape of the fruit, retain their delectable scent and can be used for years to come as b’samim for havdalah.

Etrogim can also be boiled and turned into jelly, sliced and candied for a tangy dessert, or steeped in vodka for a citron liqueur. You can find a post on the blog Shivimpanim.org containing simple step-by-step instructions for each of these preparations.

The blog’s most original contribution by far, however, is reincarnating the etrog as Mr. Etrog Head, an adorable (and fragrant) take on everyone’s favorite customizable root vegetable. Who knows-if properly refrigerated, he just might save you some money on this year’s Hanukkah gifting!

Binyamin Kagedan has an MA in Jewish Thought from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.

8 • NATIONAL

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Rabbi Shmuley Boteach gives a Jewish perspective on Rwandan genocide, Syrian civil war

By Sean Savage

Courtesy of Maxine Dovere

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach at the 2012 Christians United for Israel conference.

(JNS) – Known as “America’s rabbi,” Shmuley Boteach has lived an unconventional life for an Orthodox rabbi – from running for the U.S. Congress, to authoring several bestselling books, to hosting TV shows, to serving as a spiritual guide to Michael Jackson. Through it all, Boteach has been outspoken about the issues he is passionate about.

The latest issue Boteach has prioritized is raising awareness about genocide. As the 20th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda approaches next spring, and while the world

grapples with its response to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s use of chemical weapons, Boteach organized and will moderate a Sept. 29 panel in New York City featuring high-profile guests and experts on genocide, including Rwandan President Paul Kagame, noted Holocaust survivor and human rights activist Elie Wiesel, and Jewish philanthropists Sheldon Adelson and Michael Steinhardt.

Boteach spoke to JNS about his upcoming event, Judaism’s teachings on genocide, the Rwandan genocide, the situation in Syria, and how the international community

can prevent genocide in the future.

JNS: What does Judaism have to say about genocide?

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach: “The responsibility to protect (an international concept that became a United Nations initiative which says that nations have a responsibility in preventing human rights crimes such as genocide) is something I have worked on with U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power, and it also has biblical origins. In Leviticus 19:16 it says: ‘Do not stand idly by while your neighbor bleeds.’ This

gives us [Jews] a moral responsibility to act. It obligates us to intervene when we see the rights of the oppressed or the downtrodden, violated.”

JNS: What did you experience on your two trips to Rwanda, and how did the experience shape your views?

RSB: “Profoundly, first of all, to see a country come back from the brink like that is amazing. Just twenty years ago people were hacking each RABBI on page 22

Did Sukkot help shape Thanksgiving?

By Robert Gluck (JNS) – Did Sukkot help shape America’s Thanksgiving?

According to one of the foremost experts on American Judaism, Dr. Jonathan Sarna, the biblical holiday did not exactly guide the Puritans’ thinking during colonial times, but they were generally influenced by the idea of thanking God for their bounty.

“The Puritans did not believe in fixed holidays,” Sarna – the Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University and chief historian of the Philadelphia-based National Museum of American Jewish History – told JNS. “If it was a good season, they would announce a thanksgiving, but it’s not like the Jewish holiday which occurs on the 15th of the month of

National Briefs Fund set up for teen hit by car on way to Yom Kippur services NEW YORK (JTA) – A fund has been launched to help an Israeli girl living in Florida who was hit by a car on the way to Yom Kippur services in an accident that killed her mother.

Orly Ohayon, 16, and her mother, Esther, 57, were struck while walking to the Etz Haim Synagogue in Mandarin, a Jacksonville suburb, for Kol Nidre services. Esther Ohayon died at the scene.

Along with helping Orly with medical costs, the fund also will help pay to transport Esther’s body to Israel for burial.

Tishrei (Sukkot). They did not believe in that. So in that respect it’s different.”

In terms of thanking God for a bountiful harvest, the Puritans did learn that from the Bible, Sarna said.

“They knew what they called the Old Testament, what we call the Hebrew Bible, they knew it, and they were influenced by it,” he said.

“Now they didn’t go out and build huts, obviously. But the notion that one would be thankful for a bountiful harvest was certainly one they would have learned from the Hebrew Bible.”

Thanksgiving did not become a fixed holiday in America until President Abraham Lincoln declared it as such in 1863. The holiday also did not have a firm date until Congress established one – the fourth Thursday of each November

– in 1941.

Although “you’ll commonly read all over the place” about the connection between Thanksgiving and Sukkot, Sarna said that Diana Muir Applebaum – a Massachusetts-based historian who wrote the book “Thanksgiving: An American Holiday, An American History” – set him straight on the subject when he consulted with her.

Applebaum believes there is always some difficulty in discovering the “first” of anything.

“The Separatists at Plymouth did not create an annual holiday [of Thanksgiving],” Applebaum told JNS. “Rather, a holiday that grew in popularity and stabilized into an annual celebration over the course of several decades was later traced back to an event that took place at Plymouth in December 1621. The thesis of my book on Thanksgiving

is that it is a holiday rooted in the deeply held convictions of the New England settlers, and in the human love of a holiday.”

But did the Bible have any influence on the Puritans’ festival of thanks?

Applebaum explained that the Puritans separated the laws of the Hebrew Bible into two categories.

“Some were deemed moral commandments, these applied to all men, at all times,” she said. “The others were regarded as ceremonial or temporal commandments, which applied only to Jews, or only to the olden days, but not to Christians.”

For Puritans, the Sabbath was an eternal, moral commandment applying to Christians, but they considered Sukkot, Passover, Shavout, kashruth, and other laws to be ceremonial or temporal commandments, not intended by God to

San Diego State instructor labels Israel ‘Palestine’ on class map (JTA) – An Arabic-language instructor at San Diego State University handed out a map of the Middle East which identified Israel as “Palestine.”

The map handed out by lecturer Ghassan Zakaria on the second day of classes earlier this month was meant to highlight Arabicspeaking countries, according to the student newspaper The Daily Aztec.

Following complaints from students and the local community, Zakaria redistributed the map substituting a handwritten Israel label.

of the Secure Community Network, was appointed to a three-year term on the Homeland Security Advisory Council.

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly will liken Iran to North Korea in his U.N. General Assembly speech.

The speech is Netanyahu’s bid to emphasize Israeli reservations about any rapprochement with Iran by the United Nations.

Jewish security chief named to gov’t advisory panel WASHINGTON (JTA) – The top security official for Jewish organizations was named to a consulting body to the Department of Homeland Security.

Paul Goldenberg, the director

Obama to meet with Abbas at U.N. WASHINGTON (JTA) – President Obama will meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at the U.N. General Assembly.

A top U.S. official said the meeting in New York was a sign of the president’s commitment to renewed peace talks.

“This is the president’s first opportunity to meet personally and at length with President Abbas since the launch of direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians,” Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser, said of the meeting to take place Tuesday following Obama’s speech to the General Assembly.

Netanyahu at U.N. will liken Iran to North Korea

Obama, Netanyahu to meet at White House WASHINGTON (JTA) – President Obama will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House to discuss the peace talks with the Palestinians and developments in Syria.

“The president looks forward to discussing with Prime Minister Netanyahu the progress on final status negotiations with the Palestinians, as well as developments in Iran, Syria, and elsewhere in the region,” a White House official said, confirming that Obama and Netanyahu will meet on Sept. 30.

apply to the children of the new covenant, Christians. Puritan theology “supported the proclamation of special days of prayer when unusual events occurred,” Applebaum said.

But there are those like Rabbi Elias Lieberman, leader of the Falmouth Jewish Congregation in Massachusetts, who see a stronger biblical influence on Thanksgiving.

“Both of these splendid holidays encourage us to stop and acknowledge the manifold blessings God bestows upon us each and every day,” Lieberman said.

“Whether we accomplish that stock-taking over a slice of Thanksgiving pumpkin pie or beneath the leafy branches of a sukkah roof – or both – we understand and embrace the impulse which inspired our Pilgrim and our Israelite ancestors.”

Claire Danes scores Emmys win for Israel-influenced ‘Homeland’ (JNS) – Actress Claire Danes has won her second award for outstanding leading dramatic actress in a series at the Emmys ceremony Sunday for her performance as bipolar CIA agent Carrie Mathison in “Homeland,” the U.S. version of an Israeli show called “Hatufim” (Prisoners of War).

“Homeland” has been filming some of its scenes in Israel, but recently announced that shooting would move to Morocco due to security concerns with regard to the developing chemical weapons situation in Syria, which borders Israel.

Other notable Emmy award winners include Julia LouisDreyfus as outstanding leading comedic actress in a series for “Veep,” and Michael Douglas as outstanding leading actor in in a movie for “Liberace.”

INTERNATIONAL • 9

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2013

International Briefs

Courtesy of Amos Ben Gershom/GPO via Getty Images

Azeri President Ilham Aliyev, left, meets with Israeli President Shimon Peres at the presidential palace in Baku, June 28, 2009.

With eyes on neighbors, Azerbaijan and Israel intensify ties

By Cnaan Liphshiz BAKU, Azerbaijan (JTA) – With less than a month to go until presidential elections, the moustachioed smile of Ilham Aliyev stares down at his countrymen from giant posters scattered around this bustling metropolis on the Caspian Sea. The Azerbaijani president has been in office since 2003 and is widely expected to be re-elected, extending the leadership of the Aliyev clan into its third decade.

Aliyev’s father, Heydar, held the post for a decade prior to his son’s ascension.

Ilham Aliyev’s tenure has brought greater prosperity to this young country, but it has come at a price: Widespread corruption and human rights abuses have earned Azerbaijan a dismal ranking in a survey of democratic standards in 166 countries conducted last year by the Economist magazine.

But to the West – especially to Israel – Aliyev is a trusted friend and the key to a transformation that has developed oil-rich Azerbaijan from a small nation in Iran’s shadow to a strategic ally and an avid consumer of Israeli arms.

“The partnership between Israel and Azerbaijan is complicated by political factors, but ultimately it is moving forward because it makes sense from an economical point of view,” said Oded Eran, a former Israeli ambassador to the European Union and ex-director of Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies. “Azerbaijan is reliable enough as a supplier of oil for Israel, and Israel is a reliable supplier of high-tech and arms.”

Israel has long cultivated ties with this Muslim nation, which has enormous reserves of oil and natural gas and a 380-mile southern border with Iran. The Jewish state opened an embassy in Baku in 1992, just

one year after Azerbaijan gained independence from the former Soviet Union.

But Azerbaijan, mindful of antagonizing its neighbor, the partnership has mostly flourished in the shadows. Azerbaijan still does not have an embassy in Israel, despite expanding bilateral trade now pegged at $3 billion a year. In 2009, Aliyev compared relations with Israel to an iceberg: “nine-tenths submerged.”

The elder Aliyev, a former KGB boss, handled the relationship with Israel “with great care during those early and unstable times,” according to Avinoam Idan, a senior research fellow at John Hopkins University’s Central Asia-Caucasus Institute.

In recent years, however, the partnership has grown much more open – and more robust.

In 2011, the Israeli defense contractor Aeronautics opened a factory for military drones in Azerbaijan.

The following year, the state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries sold Azerbaijan $1.6 billion worth of weapons – a deal that amounted to 43 percent of Azerbaijan’s total expenditure on arms in 2012.

Azerbaijan now supplies a whopping 40 percent of Israel’s oil consumption.

In May, Elmar Mammadyarov became the first Azerbaijani foreign minister to visit Israel.

Mammadyarov met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres along with a dozen other ministers and promised that the opening of an Azerbaijani embassy was “just a matter of time.”

Israel’s increasingly cozy ties with Azerbaijan have grown in the wake of a crisis in the country’s relations with Iran. Though traditionally mistrustful of the Islamic Republic’s penchant for exporting revolutionary zeal, Azerbaijan had strived to maintain good relations, signing a AZERBAIJAN on page 21

Israel aids Kenyan rescue efforts for Nairobi mall attack (JNS) Israel helped Kenya with rescue efforts in the aftermath of a terrorist attack on the Westgate mall in Nairobi over the weekend, which left more than 60 people dead and more than 200 injured, as well as 30 people held hostage by the Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group al-Shabab from Somalia. By Monday afternoon, Kenyan forces said they took control of the mall.

Reuters reported that Israeli advisers helped Kenya negotiate with the terrorists to end the siege on the mall, and an anonymous security source told AFP, “The Israelis have just entered and they are rescuing the hostages and the injured.”

Oslo Accords should be annulled, Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon says (JNS) Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon wrote in a New York Times op-ed published Sept. 20 that the 1993 Oslo Accords should be annulled.

“Only by officially annulling the Oslo Accords will we have the opportunity to rethink the existing paradigm and hopefully lay the foundations for a more realistic modus vivendi between the Jews and Arabs of this region,” Danon wrote.

“The P.L.O., and later the

Palestinian Authority, never truly accepted that Israel, as the national state and homeland of the Jewish people, was here to stay,” he added.

U.N. nuclear watchdog rejects attempt to single out Israel (JNS) Member states of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N. nuclear watchdog, on Friday rejected a resolution by Arab states that only criticized Israel’s nuclear capability as part of a call to remove weapons of mass destruction from the entire Middle East.

Fifty-one IAEA member nations voted against the resolution calling on Israel to join the Nuclear NonProliferation Treaty, and 43 countries voted in favor.

Hamas: Egypt shuts down 130 smuggling tunnels connecting Gaza with Sinai (Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS) The Hamas government in the Gaza Strip is claiming that Egyptian authorities have recently shut down some 130 smuggling tunnels connecting the Palestinian enclave with Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, causing Gaza’s economy an estimated loss of $250 million, Israel Radio reported Sunday.

Anti-Semitism a keystone of Belgian primary school curriculums (JNS) The Belgian Ministry of Education has been supplying primary school teachers with anti-Semitic material through the state-funded Special Committee for Remembrance Education, which provides teachers with ready-made templates for their

history lessons, the Gatestone Institute reported Sept. 16.

The teaching material includes cartoons like “Never Again, Over Again” from political cartoonist Carlos Latuff, who is known for anti-Semitic, proPalestinian motifs in his artwork. The cartoon, taught at to schoolchildren ages 6-12, equates Palestinians to the Jews under Nazi tyranny.

Lauder raps Polish Forbes over Jewish property allegations (JTA) – The World Jewish Congress slammed a Polish magazine report that alleged corrupt practices in the restitution and management of Jewish property in Poland.

In a statement issued Sept. 18, WJC President Ronald Lauder called the report in the Polish edition of Forbes magazine “littered with factual errors” and “sensationalist,” and its allegations “unfounded and slanderous.”

French Muslim leader resigns over invite to pro-Israel Jewish lawmaker (JTA) – The co-founder of a French-Muslim advocacy group was forced to resign for inviting a Jewish, pro-Israel lawmaker to the group’s inaugural event.

Farid Belkacemi stepped down as vice president of the League for the Judicial Defense of Muslims over the presence at the Sept. 16 event of Meyer Habib, a member of the National Assembly in France and former vice president of the CRIF umbrella organization of French Jewish communities, according to a statement by the Muslim group.

10 • ISRAEL

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Debut Jerusalem festival aims to put Jewish art on the map

By Ben Sales JERUSALEM (JTA) – The reader opened with a recitation of Psalm 48 followed by a contemporary poem before yielding the floor to five male dancers, all wearing the standard haredi Orthodox uniform of black pants and white button-down shirt. One had bushy earlocks but no yarmulke.

So began the inaugural Jerusalem Biennale, a six-week contemporary art festival that launched this week and will run through the end of October.

Seeking to combine the best in Jewish and contemporary art, all of the pieces on display – from oversize worry beads bearing words like “Iran” and “militant Islam” to an installation of a Shabbat dinner table – share a single goal: To show that Jewish art reaches far beyond the kiddush cups and menorahs available in synagogue gift shops.

“We wanted an event that maps out what exists today in common between the contemporary art world and the Jewish world,” said Ram Ozeri, the event’s organizer.

“I am interested in where the world of Jewish content comes out through art. Because it’s a dominant ingredient in Israeli identity, it doesn’t make sense that it will have no expression.”

Exhibiting in five Jerusalem locations and including works by more than 50 artists, the festival

Israel Briefs Palestinian terrorist tried to lure Israeli victims with tale of ‘buried treasure’ (JNS) – The Palestinian terrorists who killed Israel Defense Forces Sgt. Tomer Hazan last week had tried for months to lure several of his Bat Yam restaurant co-workers to his village on the outskirts of Qalqilya in Samaria, by telling them that there was buried treasure underneath his building and that he needed help in digging it out, Israel Hayom reported.

Moti Elmashali, 42, from Afula, managed the Tzahi Besarim restaurant in Bat Yam where Hazan and his murderer, Nidal Amar, worked for five years. Elmashali told Israel Hayom that Amar tried to lure him to his house in Beit Amin, by claiming that there was a hidden treasure under his house containing a large amount of money.

Palestinian sniper kills IDF soldier near Cave of the

aims to serve as a proving ground for emerging Jewish artists and as an opportunity for more established but still unknown artists to reach a wide audience.

Ozeri is hoping the debut biennale is the first step in a recurring and larger undertaking.

Ken Goldman, a Memphisborn multimedia artist who lives on Kibbutz Shluchot in northern Israel, called the festival “not your grandmother’s challah covers.”

“It’s a chance to get in on the ground,” said Goldman, 53. “We’re a very small community of modern artists dealing with Jewish subjects. It’s a chance to meet the world, show our stuff. I want to have one foot here and one foot there, and be straddling that edge.”

Like many of the works in the festival, Goldman’s piece – a photograph of his arm with the deep imprint of tefillin straps along with the biblical quote “You shall bind them as a sign” – deals explicitly with religious ritual.

Many of the works in another exhibit, at the Heichal Shlomo synagogue, explore the meanings of key phrases in the Torah or abstract concepts like divine holiness.

“It was fun imagining in my head what the rabbis would look like,” said Jessica Deutsch, 22, the youngest artist featured at the festival.

Deutsch is exhibiting a series of nine drawings depicting the first Patriarchs in Hebron (Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS) – A 20-year-old Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier was shot and killed in an apparent Palestinian sniper attack on Sunday.

Staff Sgt. Gal (Gabriel) Kobi was shot in the neck as he stood at the Pharmacy Checkpoint, not far from the Cave of the Patriarchs.

He was rushed to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, but efforts to save his life proved futile. The attack took place during Sukkot festivities in Hebron, as part of which access to the Cave of the Patriarchs was limited to Jewish worshippers.

Avigdor Lieberman: Failure to condemn murder of IDF soldier means PA does not seek peace (JNS) – Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman MK Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beiteinu) said Sunday that the absence of a Palestinian Authority (PA) condemnation of the murder of an Israel Defense Forces soldier at the hand of a Palestinian man over the weekend proves that the Palestinian leadership has no intention of making peace with Israel.

Courtesy of Miriam’s Studio

Tobi Kahn’s “Saphyr” is among the works on display at the first Jerusalem Biennale arts festival.

two chapters of the Jewish ethical tract Pirkei Avot.

“In my heart I just consider myself Jewish,” she said. “Projects in my sketchbook will reflect what I’m learning.”

The biennale’s best claim to prestige in the contemporary art world comes from Tobi Kahn, a well-regarded New York-based artist who has been featured in a range of museums over a threedecade career. For the festival, he

contributed “Urah VI,” a Rothkoesque painting with solid-color squares meant to evoke the gemstone breastplate of the ancient Israelite high priest.

Another exhibit features Kahn’s “Saphyr,” a wooden table with a compartmentalized tray holding 49 small sculptures – an innovative way to count the Omer, the 49-day period between Passover and Shavuot.

“The most interesting thing for

Three days after 20-year-old Tomer Hazan was lured to the West Bank by a Palestinian coworker and subsequently murdered, Lieberman condemned the Palestinian Authority on his Facebook page, saying “the fact that the Palestinian Authority hasn’t issued a clear condemnation of the murder proves once again that the current negotiations the Palestinians are conducting with Israel is, for them, merely a tactical move solely aimed at improving their international standing.”

ing materials for private projects into Gaza for the first time since 2007, when the Palestinian terror group Hamas seized control of the territory.

An Israeli defense official told Reuters last week that 350 trucks of cement, steel, and concrete would cross into Gaza. The official said that Israel’s decision came after a request by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Jews will not ‘contaminate’ Temple Mount, Arab Knesset member says (JNS) – Arab Member of Knesset Ahmad Tibi (Ra’am Ta’al) said in a televised interview with Arab media that Jews will not be allowed to “contaminate” the Temple Mount and the AlAqsa Mosque.

“The Al-Aqsa Mosque is a place of prayer for Muslims alone.

Period! Not for others,” said Tibi, a member of the Ra’am Ta’al party, Israel National News reported.

Israel lets building materials into Gaza for first time since 2007 (JNS) Israel will allow build-

Responding to soldier’s shooting, Netanyahu allows return to Hebron house JERUSALEM (JTA) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu allowed settlers to return to a Jewish house in Hebron in response to the fatal shooting of an Israeli soldier in the West Bank city by a Palestinian sniper.

The Machpelah house, near the Cave of the Patriarchs, was evacuated last year by the Israel Defense Forces. The shooting took place Sunday at a West Bank checkpoint near the Cave of the Patriarchs, a holy site also known as the Machpelah.

A West Bank military court ruled in April that Jewish settlers had legally purchased the home.

me in Judaism is time,” Kahn said.

“I’m intrigued by what time means, the whole Jewish law of when Shabbat starts. I’m thrilled to be part of an exhibit that’s opening its doors to many types of Jewish understanding.”

While the exhibits feature a range of media and deal with a wide spectrum of Jewish topics, Ronit Steinberg, a professor of modern Jewish art at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, said the festival risks drawing an exclusively Jewish audience.

“It needs to be marketed so that it isn’t provincial and closed,” Steinberg said. “We know that there’s a danger when you define an exhibit under a certain religion.

We need to persuade people to come see this just as art.”

While he understands that the festival will not soon attain the reputation of famous biennales like those in Venice and Berlin, Ozeri hopes over time it will at least become synonymous with the cutting edge of Jewish art.

“Jerusalem is trying to compete with New York and Berlin and Liverpool in Western art, and it can’t really put up a fight,” Ozeri said. “Jerusalem can become an art center if it uses its comparative advantage.”

Israel rejects EU version of altercation with soldiers in West Bank JERUSALEM (JTA) – Israel rejected the European Union’s characterization of an altercation in the West Bank between Israeli soldiers and a European diplomat as well as foreign activists.

The EU’s statement about Friday’s incident “ignores the European diplomats’ blunt violation of the law, their disregard of a ruling of the Israeli court and their unnecessary provocation under the alleged pretext of humanitarian aid,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “Diplomats are sent by their governments to be a bridge and not act as provocateurs.”

In the incident, European diplomats and activists were setting up tents in the Palestinian village of Khirbet Makhoul, where Israeli officials razed several illegally built homes earlier in the week.

According to a Reuters report, French diplomat Marion FesneauCastaing was pulled out of a truck

by Israeli soldiers, who drove away in the vehicle. The diplomat was captured on film punching an Israeli soldier in the face.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2013

SOCIAL LIFE • 11

CHAMPIONS GATE NEW YORK – More than 350 rabbinic, educational and lay leaders from 73 communities across North America and around the globe came together for Yeshiva University's Eighth Annual ChampionsGate National Leadership Conference held in Orlando, Fla., July 25-28.

This year’s theme, “Kehilla: What We Bring to It,” explored the broader narrative of community, inviting participants to journey through four separate realms of communal leadership as they gained practical tools to address pressing issues facing their communities at home and Orthodox Judaism as a whole.

Presented by YU’s Center for the Jewish Future (CJF), ChampionsGate has grown from a gathering of 40 lay leaders in 2005 into a major event involving dozens or prominent leaders from the Orthodox world. Its creation and growth were made possible by the vision and support of Mindy and Ira Mitzner, vice chair of the University Board of Trustees and chair of the CJF advisory council.

“The ChampionsGate conference is a transformational experience for all involved.”

This year’s conference offered insightful sessions and group discussions about how to incorporate Skills, Knowledge, Inspiration and Networking to become more effective community leaders.

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12 • CINCINNATI JEWISH LIFE

JCC / SHALOM FAMILY BOOK SWAP More than 200 young families “shopped ‘til they dropped” at the Shalom Family & the JCC’s first ever book swap for kids!

Armed with the Book Bucks they recieved for each book they brought to trade, young participants got to browse through hundreds of titles and fill their PJ Library bags with their “purchases” to take home and enjoy! In addition to shopping at the Swap, guests got to decorate their own bookends, make lollipop book marks, create one of a kind cookie pops, get their faces painted and meet favorite storybook characters such as The Cat in the Hat, Raggedy Ann and Humpty Dumpty in person. Kids also got to take a turn at the Lollipop Pull where the could win brand new books, courtesy of the PJ Library, and one lucky winner got a $50 gift card to Joseph-Beth Kids, courtesy of Shalom Family. Before the main event began, Shalom Baby hosted a special Playdate on the Playground giving families with babies a chance to see the JCC’s Early Childhood School up close and personal. After the event, guests got to stay and enjoy the J’s pool for the rest of the afternoon. Shalom Family is an initiative of The Mayerson Foundation and the Mayerson JCC for families with children 12 and under in which at least one parent is Jewish. For more information, please consult the community directory in the back of this issue.

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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2013

CINCINNATI JEWISH LIFE • 13

14 • DINING OUT

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Padrino is Pasta, Pizza, Hoagies, made from home-style Italian Recipes

By Bob Wilhelmy Dining Editor “Fiddled and tweaked recipes made from family favorites is how we arrived at the flavors,” said Keia Davis, assistant GM at Padrino, an Italian restaurant at 111 Main Street in Old Milford.

Davis is speaking of the dishes at this interesting restaurant.

Padrino is a storefront enclave that features a dining room-bar area, a sidewalk café, in front, and a porch-style patio out back (see photos). During my visits, there were diners in all three places (four places if you count the bar). The ambiance was casual and quiet, with patrons enjoying conversation, food and drink: a good setting, in my book.

“All of our sauces are made from scratch.,” Davis said, “just like our salad dressings and our entrée dishes and pizzas. The food is really very good and very reasonably priced.”

Asked for patron or personal favorites, Davis was quick to respond. “Spaghetti and meatballs is probably the one we sell most of. Everybody likes it.”

Another dish that gains high marks among diners is the vodka tortellini (hold the sausage crumbles), which features a cheese stuffing, and a vodka-infused rosé sauce.

Worth mention is that Padrino accommodates those among us who have gluten issues, offering both pizza and pasta in gluten-free versions.

Accommodation of diners goes even farther, according to Davis.

“Since we make entrées from scratch pizzas , we can make dishes the way you want them.

We have no problem with any of that, since our preparations are from scratch. If you can’t eat bacon or sausage or can’t mix meat and dairy, we’ll do whatever we can to accommodate those dietary preferences.”

One place no accommodation is necessary is the veggie pesto primavera pasta dish (pictured), which features the penne in a pesto-cream sauce. The pesto dish then is mixed with sautéed zucchini, squash, onions and peppers.

Another veggie item is the roasted veggie “open-face” melt.

No patty on this melt, but spinach, mushrooms, onions, and tri-color sweet bell peppers, all layered on grilled garlic bread with marinara and mozzarella..

The fork-and-knife sandwich is a whopper size-wise, and looks delicious.

Want a meat sandwich? Go for the Italian beef, which features thinly sliced roast beef

Pictured, are: Keia Davis, assistant GM, holding the pesto primavera pasta.

The outside café dining area along Main in Old Milford

served with a giardiniera of pickled vegetables, and au jus for dipping or dripping into the roll.

If you have never had an Italian beef sandwich, be prepared for a delicious challenge. If you do it the right way, you’ll take the au jus and more or less saturate the bread with the juice. The juicy sandwich is hard to eat without leaning in and still making a

mess, but well worth whatever it takes to eat it. Yummy!

Davis ticked off her menu favorites: the foxy Shazam pizza, named after a band that plays at Padrino, the pizza featuring marinara, fresh mozzarella, feta, sliced tomatoes, spinach, fresh basil, and an oven-poached egg on top (more Spanish with that egg than Italian, but hey);

The patio at the back of the restaurant.

the britters pizza, with garlic butter base, spinach, artichoke, sun-dried tomatoes, onion, goat cheese and a balsamic drizzle; and the L.L. salad, with feta, craisins, candied almonds, tomatoes and red onion in a balsamic vinaigrette toss.

You’ll find a lot to like on Padrino’s menu, and live music on Saturday nights to boot.

See you there.

Padrino 111 Main St. Milford, OH 513-965-0100

DINING OUT • 15

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2013

RESTAURANT DIRECTORY 20 Brix

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4200 Cooper Rd

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Ambar India Restaurant

Mexican Grill

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350 Ludlow Ave

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Mason

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793-7484

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514 W 6th St

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111 Main St

Covington, KY

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16 • OPINION

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Iran nuclear program diplomacy: Dishonor, war, or both?

By Ben Cohen (JNS) – From the brink of war, the Middle East has moved at dizzying speed to the cusp of peace.

Or so we are led to believe.

The issues at hand are Iran and Syria – and incidentally, there is good reason to feel some relief from that fact, since it’s a timely reminder that Palestinian opposition to Israel’s legitimacy is not the core dispute in the region, but a sideshow in the larger civil war with Islam that has engulfed much of this neighborhood.

In Syria, the regime of Bashar al-Assad claims, under the watchful eye of the Russians, to be submitting vital data on its chemical arsenal, in advance of a November deadline to disarm itself of these monstrous weapons. If the Obama Administration is looking to save face from its shabby climb-down in the face of Syrian brutality and Russian duplicity, it can always assert that the Syrian disarmament process is yielding positive effects in neighboring Iran. The White House can argue that the renewed impetus for a deal on Iran’s nuclear program is the result of a credible threat of force against Assad, Tehran’s key regional ally.

Confront these dictators and tyrants with the prospect of an American assault, the White House might say (off the record, of course), and they will bend.

But I suspect that the White House is going to have trouble selling this line on Iran, especially when you take its to-ing and fro-ing over Syria into account. For one thing, betting on the ability of Hassan Rouhani, Iran’s new president, to deliver a deal is a seriously risky business. Rouhani says that Iran does not intend to build a nuclear weapon, but there is no solid evidence of his sincerity.

Even if he is sincere, there is no solid evidence that he can carry the rest of the Iranian regime with him, particularly given that, as president, he is subordinate to both the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

What strikes me, in fact, is that for all the gushing attention paid to Rouhani’s charm offensive, which has been astutely timed to coincide with his arrival in New York for the United Nations General Assembly meeting, nothing has really changed – and I’m not just referring to Iran’s state doctrine of Holocaust denial, about which Rouhani, when asked by NBC’s Ann Curry whether he believed that the slaughter of six million Jews was a myth, replied, “I’m not a historian.”

For years, straight-faced Iranian diplomats have been turning up at

meetings of the U.N. Security Council to offer assurances that their nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only, and that it abides by the terms of the NonProliferation Treaty (NPT).

Invariably, these announcements are compromised by reports from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) complaining of Iran’s refusal to cooperate, as well as the occasional discovery of yet another nuclear installation whose existence the Iranians simply forgot to disclose.

Take the underground uranium enrichment plant at Fordo, near the holy city of Qom. In 2009, the Iranians were forced to admit Fordo’s existence to the IAEA, after western intelligence services exposed its activities – already, not a good start. Last week, a report in the German magazine Der Spiegel that Rouhani was willing to close down Fordo in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions was quickly denied by Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization. Salehi, who served as foreign minister under Rouhani’s predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, underlined that no such statement was made, and that he was unaware of any agreement to shut Fordo under the supervision of U.N. inspectors. Then, in the same breath, Salehi added, “Iran is ready to enhance and strengthen engagement with the IAEA.” You could put that another, more cynical way: Iran is doing what it has always done, using diplomatic engagement to buy time for its nuclear program. After all, whether or not Rouhani’s pledge not to build a nuclear weapon is genuine, the Iranian regime is either very close to obtaining one, or has already done so.

Even more important than Salehi, neither Ayatollah Ali Khamenei nor the IRGC have explicitly backed Rouhani’s conciliatory noises. Khamenei has talked vaguely about “heroic flexibility” while emphasizing the importance of the regime sticking to its “main principles.” You could spend a lifetime trying to extract a solid meaning to these words, and that’s precisely what Khamenei wants you to do. Meanwhile, the political and economic leviathan that is the IRGC, a military unit that has viciously repressed opposition at home while supporting the aggression of both Assad and the Islamist terror group Hezbollah abroad, is hardly in the mood for a historic compromise, even if it concedes the tactical necessity of adjusting the tenor of Iranian statements so that they sound more soothing to western ears.

Should the Obama IRAN on page 21

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ZOA: Oslo Accords deeply harmed Israel and was a fraudulent peace process

By JPRWire Staff (JTA) – On 20th anniversary of the Oslo Accords, the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA)’s National President Morton A. Klein has issued the following statement: “The Oslo Accords, as we have said on many occasions, was the greatest blunder and self-inflicted wound Israel has made in the 65-year history of the State. Yet at the time, virtually the whole American Jewish communal world supported Oslo, praised the so-called ‘peace process’ and believed there was peace at hand, while condemning those, such as the ZOA, who warned of its potential disasters, as warmongers, extremists and enemies of peace. We were called attack dogs of the Zionist thought police, McCarthyites, and other choice epithets.

“The ZOA, virtually alone among the American Jewish organizations, was opposed to the Oslo Accords from the beginning, for straightforward and plain reasons: Yasser Arafat had not first revised the PLO Charter, or the Fatah Constitution, both calling for terrorism and the elimination of Israel; he had not spoken to his people about accepting Israel; he had not placed Israel on Palestinian maps; and he had not stopped promoting Israel’s destruction and the murder of Jews, which he had spent his adult life preaching.

“Five months after the Oslo Accords were signed, twenty years ago, I asked the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin at a meeting with American Jewish leaders how he could transfer weaponry to the new Palestinian Authority regime when it hadn’t fulfilled any of its obligations in the intervening period — i.e., to end incitement to hatred and murder, outlaw terrorist groups, arrest and extradite terrorists, and confiscate illegal

weaponry. The aim at the time was that the PA would use Israeli weapons to fight terrorist groups that were still fighting Israel. While that idea has been shown to be tragically nonsensical today, it was widely accepted at the time. Nonetheless, I asked Prime Minister Rabin why he hadn’t chosen to wait at least a year to test Yasser Arafat and the intentions of the new Palestinian regime before arming him. He waved his hand dismissively and replied with a look of disgust, ‘Mr. Klein, of which army were you a general?’ That non-answer, refusing to deal with the truth of the Palestinians’ continuing war against Israel, is symptomatic of the Oslo process.

“By entering into the Oslo process before Palestinians had truly changed and reformed their society and institutions and accepted Israel as a Jewish state, Israel sent a message to the world that there was no peace because there was no Palestinian state; that the issue was a question of territory, not the Palestinian Arabs’ hatred of Jews and non-acceptance of Israel’s existence within any borders.

“Ignoring Arafat and the Palestinians anti-peace, pro-terror actions ensured that real peace would not be attained under Oslo. It showed that there was to be no accountability for the Palestinians. Some denied this.

Israeli writer Amos Oz wrote that, with the Oslo Accords, Israel would resolutely insist on strict compliance by the Palestinians or the process would stop. That turned out to be nonsense as one violation after another has been ignored by successive Israeli governments.

U.S. negotiator Dennis Ross also said in a television interview that, if Arafat doesn’t comply, the process will be stopped immediately. A year or so later, when I confronted Ross with the fact that the Palestinians had

not fulfilled any of their obligations, he told me that Israel should proceed and reach a final agreement anyway because, once the Palestinians had a state, their extremism and radicalism would end. In response, I asked him if he would similarly advise his daughter to marry an abusive fiancée on the assumption that, once they married, the fiancée’s behavior would become gentle and kind. I received no substantive reply.

“Despite all these difficulties, we can feel comforted, gratified and blessed to note the following: in 1948, only 6% of world Jewry lived in Israel; today it is almost 50%. Israel has gone from a largely agrarian society to one of the world’s greatest hitech countries, its economy buzzing along while much of the world remains in recession. Israel publishes more books, scientific papers, has more orchestras and musicians and more university educated people per capita than any other country in the world. In fact, its universities are ranked among the best in the world. It has more students studying in yeshivot than at any time in history. Israel has one of the most powerful armies in the world. All of Jerusalem is united under Israeli sovereignty. Recent polls show that Israelis, despite all its problems and challenges, are one of the happiest people in the world.

Despite the tragic mistake of Oslo and the immense challenges that have flowed from it, the Jewish people will overcome this tragic error as we have overcome all the horrors and tragedies throughout Jewish history.

“In addition to the Jewish people’s historic resourcefulness, perseverance and talent, G-d has promised us this land and that we would be an eternal people. For all these reasons, we remain optimistic about the future of Israel and the Jewish people.”

JEWISH LIFE • 17

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2013

Haim Vital has ramifications that impinge upon almost every human relationship, which poignantly expresses what love is and what love is not. If a husband loves only a wife whom he can control, if a parent loves only an adult child whom he can control, then one is loving not the other, but rather oneself, loving only an extension of oneself.

Clearly, this is not true love.

Undoubtedly, love which leaves room for the other to do even that which one would not want him to do leaves the door open to conflict and – in the case of God – human sin. In the most extreme case, it enables the possibility of Auschwitz and Treblinka. And, from a theological perspective, does not such uncontrolled freedom of choice place an inordinate limitation on God’s power? At this point we must enter into our discussion the very profound and bold image of tzimtzum; this kabbalistic notion suggests that, in creating the world, God constricted or limited Himself in order to leave room for the other in a very real and palpable way. To be sure, God does make two promises: He will always step in to make certain that Israel, the people of the Covenant, will never be destroyed and that we will ultimately return to Israel (Leviticus 26). God also guarantees that we will eventually return to His teachings and therefore will be worthy of being redeemed.

And the prophets maintain that Israel will eventually fulfill the Abrahamic charge of bringing redemption to the entire world.

However, a God of love had to create independent individuals who would be worthy of His love, who would serve as His partners and not merely as His pawns or puppets.

This theological underpinning magnificently explains the significance of Rosh Hashana. On the day of the creation of the first human being, we are commanded to blow the ram’s horn, the musical instrument by which kings of Israel were crowned. We learn on Rosh Hashana that it is the task of Israel to bring the message of a God of love, peace and morality to the entire world. It is the task of Israel to eventually

enthrone God in the world because, after all, there is no king without subjects.

God has been accepted as King by us, but not yet by the world at large. Our task is a daunting one, but God promises that we will succeed. The drama of history is fraught with human failure, Divine forgiveness and ultimate reconstruction and repair. This process began in the Garden of Eden, continued through the Sin of the Golden Calf in the desert and encompasses the destructions of both Temples followed by exile and persecution. However, our God is a God of love – and love means to give, love means to forgive.

Love also empowers the beloved, and we have certainly been empowered by God’s promise of our eventual redemption. Our return to and development of the State of Israel is a powerful affirmation of God’s empowerment.

God willing, this time we will truly succeed.

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

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T EST Y OUR T ORAH KNOWLEDGE THIS WEEK’S PORTION: BRAISHIT (BRAISHITH 1:1—6:8) 1. In the beginning of time, what covered the depths? a.) Light b.) Darkness c.) Wasteland 2. What did Hashem do to the light and darkness? a.) Create them b.) Separate them c.) Hide them 3. What did the firmament do? a.) Separate the waters b.) Separate between the water and dry land water. Rashi 5. C 6:7 Man who was created from earth would be erased by water. Rashi

EFRAT, Israel – “In the Beginning God created the heavens and the earth... Let us make the human being in our image and after our likeness.”

Why did God create the world? If God is the All-in-All and perfectly sufficient within Himself, why the necessity for a world? And why a world such as the one in which we live, in many respects a vale of tears and tragedy? From many perspectives, this is the question of all questions. It has special poignancy – and is therefore closely related – to the Days of Awe which we have just experienced and even for the festival of Succot, in which the Divine decree regarding rain is handed down from Above and is the conclusion of the period which marks individual human destiny.

Rav Haim Vital, the disciplescribe of the legendary Rav Yitzhak Luria (known as the holy Ari), gives an amazing response to our query based upon God’s second revelation to Moses at Sinai when He forgives Israel and allows for the Second Tablets.

The basis of our Yom Kippur liturgy is God’s own self-definition (as it were): “The Lord, the Lord, God, merciful and gracious...” (Exodus 34:6). God here defines Himself as a God of unconditional love, i.e., the God of love before one sins and the God of love after one sins (Rashi ad loc.), and the God of compassion who loves His children just as a mother loves those who came from her womb.

Love, however, cannot exist in a vacuum; love requires an object to be loved. And that object must also be a subject in and of itself; after all, love for something which one can control is loving an extension of one’s self and is only another form of self-love.

God, therefore, had to create “other,” someone who may be a part of Himself but who must also be separate from Himself, someone who would be granted freedom of choice. That freedom of choice must allow the beloved to do even that which the Lover would not want him to do (see Seforno to Genesis 1:26, “in our image”).

This idea formulated by Rav

...it is the task of Israel to bring the message of a God of love, peace and morality to the entire world.

c.) Separate between light and darkness 4. What is another name for the firmament? a.) Atmosphere b.) Space c.) Sky 5. How did Hashem threaten to destroy the world? a.) Fire b.) Earthquake c.) Erase

into day night.

3. A 1:6,7 Even thought the sky was created on day one it was soft and unstable. Rashi 4. C 1:8 “Shamim” is a combination of fire and

by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin

SHABBAT SHALOM: PARSHAT BEREISHIT GENESIS 1:1-6:8

Written by Rabbi Dov Aaron Wise

ANSWERS 1. B 1:2 Darkness, wind, water were created on the first day.

2. B 1:4 Hashem separated light and darkness

Sedra of the Week

18 • JEWZ IN THE NEWZ

JEWZ

IN THE

By Nate Bloom Contributing Columnist New TV Season: More Shows and “Late Additions” In my last column, I covered new “scripted” broadcast TV shows that premiere this month and have a Jewish co-star. Below are HBO and Showtime series; shows starting in October; and three more actors I “discovered” in the last week.

CBS: “The Crazy Ones”. I previously wrote that this series about an ad agency, co-stars Robin Williams and SARAH MICHELLE GELLAR, 36, as a father and daughter who run an ad agency. I also noted that JAMES WOLK, 28, co-stars as an agency copywriter. Add one more Jewish thespian: the darkly beautiful AMANDA SETTON, 27, costars as an agency assistant (with a Jewish-sounding name). A former “Gossip Girl” co-star, Setton is Syrian Jewish on her father’s side and Ashkenazi on her mother’s side. Her wealthy family supports New York yeshivas. Also: Last week, I said that “Mom,” a CBS sit-com, was created by CHUCK LORRE and starred Anna Faris as a recovering alcoholic with a spirited teen daughter. Well, the daughter’s boyfriend, Luke, a series regular, is played by actor SPENCER DANIELS, 20, whose mother is Jewish.

ABC: “Betrayal,” wasn’t mentioned last week. It stars HANNAH WARE, 30, as a beautiful photographer who is having an extramarital affair with a lawyer for a powerful family. A murder trial complicates things further.

Ware, a UK native, is the sister of JESSIE WARE, 28, a singer/songwriter whose 2012 debut CD was huge in the UK. Also on ABC: “Once Upon a Time in Wonderland” is a fantasy/drama and a spin-off of the hit series, “Once Upon a Time”. The spin-off has an “Alice in Wonderland” back story. BARBARA HERSHEY, 65, plays “The Queen of Hearts” (Starts 10/10).

NBC: “Sean Saves the World”.

Stars Sean Hayes (“Will and Grace”) as a divorced gay father whose teen daughter moves in with him full-time. His mother, who lives with him, is played by LINDA LAVIN, 75. A gawky English web designer re-locates to Los Angeles and tries to connect with the glamour crowd, including “hot” women. He makes two close American friends. One buddy, played by KEVIN WEISMAN, 42 (“Alias”), is a charismatic paraplegic who parlays his disability to his advantage in picking up women.

Showtime: “Masters of Sex”.

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

NEWZ

It is essentially an episodic biography of Dr. William Masters and Virginia Johnson, the famous (late) human sexual response researchers. LIZZY CAPLAN, 31, co-stars as Johnson, who became Masters’ research assistant in 1957 and his wife in 1971.

Its likely that this will be a breakthrough role for Caplan, who has worked steadily in TV and films since 1999.

At the Movies JOSEPH GORDONLEVITT’s new film, “Don Jon,” marks his debut as a director and screenwriter of a full length feature film. He plays a ladies’ man who scores with beautiful women every weekend (hence his nickname, Don Jon). But he is secretly addicted to internet porn. Seeking something more, he meets up with two extraordinary woman (played

by SCARLETT JOHANSSON, 28, and Julianne Moore) who make him see and pursue better alternatives. The film got rave reviews at the Sundance Film festival, with many critics praising Gordon-Levitt, 32, for deftly balancing humor and drama.

A.O. SCOTT, the NY Times film critic, writes: “ ‘Enough Said’ [directed and written by NICOLE HOLFCENER, 53] is very funny indeed. Line for line, scene for scene, it is one of the best-written American film comedies in recent memory.” Julia Louis-Dreyfus (“Eva”) co-stars as a divorced mother. Eva is also mothering her teen daughter’s needy friend (played by TAVI GEVINSON, 16, who at age 12 started a wildly popular style blog that’s morphed into “Rookie,” a teen on-line magazine). Eva meets and hits it off with Albert (James Gandolfini in his last feature role), a flawed but nice divorced dad.

Yom Kippur Tweets I have to thank actress MAYIM BIALIK for tweeting about a hilarious Yom Kippurrelated parody trailer: “Jewish Hunger Games: Kvetching Fire.”

Its a very clever satire of the film “Hunger Games.” Just google “Kvetching Fire” and you’ll find the trailer. Other celeb tweets: JAKE TAPPER of CNN: “To my Hebraic friends on Yom Kippur: have an easy fast. May you be inscribed in the Book of Life – and may it be a best-seller!”; and actor ZACH BRAFF: “Friday the 13th!! Fortunately, any Jewish zombies will be fasting for Yom Kippur and thus more lethargic and easy to run from.”

FROM THE PAGES 150 Y EARS A GO Having dealt in Hats, Caps and Furs in this same locality for twenty years, we have a pretty accurate knowledge of the wants of Western trade. Our old customers will find this Fall one of the most desirable stocks we have ever shown them.

Parties who have never dealt with us are invited to look through our stock; they will find every thing pertaining to the Hat, Cap and Fur trade, at satisfactory prices.

Wm. Dodd & Co. Wholesale Hat Dealers, 144 Main St. To Resident and Transient Israelites The undersigned has opened a hotel, styled “Merchants Exchange,” at the corner of Market and Fifth st., in Louisville, Ky., formerly called “Ferguson house,” where he is amply prepared to receive and accomodate resident and transient Boarders. – October 16, 1863

125 Y EARS A GO Mr. and Mrs. Harry Rosenbaum, nee Sophie Hollstein, celebrated the tenth anniversary of their wedding day on Tuesday evening, the 18th inst., at their beautiful home, Edgecliff and Francis Lane, Walnut Hills. The affair was a charming one, and many congratulations and happy wishes were bestowed upon them. Among those present were: Mrs. F. Rosenbaum, Messrs. Gus and Louis Rosenbaum, Mr. and Mrs. M. Hollstein, Messrs. Albert and Gus Hollstein, Miss Ciara Hollstein, Mr. and Mrs. Leopold Fechheimer, Mr. Edward and the Misses Laura and Edith Fechheimer, Master Abe Fechheimer, Miss Edith Rosenbaum, Mr. and Mrs. Max Ritzwoller, of Peoria, Ill., Mr. and Mrs. A. E. Burkhardt and many others. A splendid collaboration was served and it was late in the night when the happy occasion was brought to a close.

A quiet marriage, which created no little comment, was solemnized last Sunday evening, the contracting parties being Mr. Harry Freund and Miss Flora Joseph, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. L. Joseph, of 78 Hopkins Street. The groom is the son of Mrs. Louise Freund. The ceremony was performed by Rabbi Davidson, and was a complete surprise to all except a few intimate friends who witnessed the ceremony. – September 28, 1888

100 Y EARS A GO Berger–Phillips.

Mr. and Mrs. Fred Phillips, of 317 Forest Avenue, Avondale, announce the betrothal of their daughter, Edna, to Harry S. Berger, son of Mr. and Mrs. Saul Berger. All of Cincinnati, Ohio.

Marcus–Goldsmith.

Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Goldsmith of 1189 East Main street, Columbus, O., announce the engagement of their daughter, Aimee, to Mr. Sol Marcus, of Reading, Pa. On Sunday evening, September 14, Rabbi Louis Brav was installed into office as rabbi of Congregation B’nai Israel, of McKeesport, Pa., by Rev. Dr. Rudolph I. Coffee, of the Tree of Life Synagogue of Pittsburgh. The ceremony was very impressive. – September 25, 1913

75 Y EARS A GO Engagements Ohio PONS:TASHMAN – Miss Anne Tashman, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ben Tashman, Cleveland, to Carl C. Pons, Cleveland.

ALTSCHUL:KOLLIN – Miss Ruth Kollin, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. H. L. Kollin, Cleveland, to Mr. Eric H. Altschul, Toledo.

GOLDSTOCK:GOODMAN – Miss Anne Sonia Goodman, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. R. L. Goodman, Cleveland, to Warren Goldstock, Cleveland.

ROSEN:FEIN – Miss Eve Fein, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. Fein, Cleveland, to Sol M. Rosen, Cleveland.

Marriage Ohio CORTELL:FISHER– Miss Helen W. Fisher, daughter of Mrs. Anna Fisher, Cleveland, to Ralph H. Cortell, Cleveland, Saturday Sept.

17th.

LASNIK:ROBINSON – Miss Ruth L. Robinson, daughter of Mrs. Ralph Miller, Cleveland, to Jack William Lasnik, Cleveland, Sunday, Sept. 18th.

KLEIN:ROSENBERG – Miss Ruth Rosenberg, daughter of Herman B. Rosenberg, Cleveland, to Harold A. Klein, Cleveland, Sunday, Sept. 18th.

RADY: ROSENTHAL – Miss Blossom Rosenthal, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jospeh Rosenthal, Chicago, to Walter S. Rady, Chicago, Sunday, Oct. 9th. – September 29, 1938

50 Y EARS A GO The marriage of Miss Suellen Skurow, daughter of Mrs. Gilbert Skurow and the late Mr. Gilbert Skurow, to Mr. Phillip Sobel, son of Mr. and Mrs. Abraham Sobel of Skokie, Ill., took place Sunday, Sept.

15, at the Netherland.

Rabbi Bernard Greenfield officiated. A dinner and reception followed.

The bride was given in marriage by her brother-in-law, Mr. William Jay Meister. Mrs. Meister, the bride’s sister, was matron of honor.

Maid of honor was Miss Arlene Ackerman. Miss Marlo Rose, Mrs.

Paul Schindler and Sue Jaffee, niece of the bridegroom, were bridesmaids.

Mr. Jeffrey Mantell, nephew of the bridegroom, was best man.

Ushers were the Messrs. Jerry Orsoff, Bert Sherman and Mervin Rabinowitz. – September 26, 1963

25 Y EARS A GO Sam Boymel will be honored as the Israel Bond Man-of-the-Year at a Tribute dinner, Sunday evening, Dec. 4, at the Omni Netherland Hotel, said Michael P. Kruke, chairman for Israel Bonds.

“I am very pleased to be the chairman of bonds when Sam is honored,” Kruke stated. “Sam most certainly deserves this tribute.”

Boymel, a Cincinnati business man, was Israel Bond chairman during the 1983-85 campaigns. He now serves as a member of the Israel Bond Executive Committee and the board of trustees. He is a member of Adath Israel Synagogue and Crest Hills Country Club.

Boymel is a member of the Prime Minister’s Club, the President’s Club and a Canal Founder. He has visited Israel 10 times in the past 10 years and has attended many Israel Bond conferences in Israel. He was among the first group of international leaders to visit Israel, Egypt, and Syria within days of the Yom Kippur cease fire.

“Because of Sam’s total commitment to Israel’s well-being and his investment of time, influence, energy and funds, he wil receive the highest award presented by the State of Israel throughout the Israel Bond organization,” Kruke said. “Sam will receive the Peace Medal, an award very few people in the United States have received.” – October 6, 1988

10 Y EARS A GO The American Jewish Committee announced that Andy Brown, his father Mel, and brother Steve will receive the AJC St. Louis Chapter’s 2003 Netzach Award on Tuesday, Oct. 28, at a reception and dinner at the Ritz Carlton Hotel. The Brown family is being honored in recognition of their dedication, commitment and leadership that have enriched the Jewish community.

Since 1996 Andy Brown has been executive director of Camp Livingston, an independent not-forprofit Jewish summer camp serving young people from Cincinnati and other cities throughout the Midwest.

In the early 1990’s Andy helped start a young adults’ division within the AJC St. Louis Chapter called “Gateways.” He earned a master’s degree in social work from Washington University in 1992. – October 2. 2003

FOOD / COMMUNITY CALENDAR / CLASSIFIEDS • 19

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2013

COMMUNITY CALENDAR September 26 5:30 p.m. – Chabad Jewish Center’s Simchat Torah Celebration Chabad Jewish Center 3977 Hunt Rd. Cincinnati, OH 45242 (513) 793 - 5200 September 26 8 p.m. – No–alcohol Celebration of Simchas Torah The Arthur Schreiber Building 1995 Section Rd. Golf Manor, OH (513) 733 - 4400 September 27 9:30 a.m. – Northern Hills Simchat Torah service Northern Hills 5714 Fields Ertel Rd. (513) 931 - 6038 September 29 5 p.m. - Hadassah Opening Event Trio Bistro 7565 Kenwood Rd. (513) 821 - 6157

October 2 7 p.m. – Hillel Annual Meeting Amberley Room Mayerson JCC 8485 Ridge Rd. (513) 221 - 6728

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

(513) 761-3200 • bigbrobigsis.org Camp Ashreinu (513) 702-1513 Camp at the J (513) 722-7258 • mayersonjcc.org Camp Chabad (513) 731-5111 • campchabad.org Camp Livingston (513) 793-5554 • camplivingston.com Cedar Village (513) 754-3100 • cedarvillage.org Chevra Kadisha (513) 396-6426 Cincinnati Community Kollel (513) 631-1118 • kollel.shul.net Cincinnati Community Mikveh (513) 351-0609 • cincinnatimikveh.org Eruv Hotline (513) 351-3788 Fusion Family (513) 703-3343 • fusionnati.org Halom House (513) 791-2912 • halomhouse.com Hillel Jewish Student Center (Miami) (513) 523-5190 • muhillel.org Hillel Jewish Student Center (UC) (513) 221-6728 • hillelcincinnati.org Jewish Cemeteries of Greater Cincinnati 513-961-0178 • jcemcin.org Jewish Community Center (513) 761-7500 • mayersonjcc.org Jewish Community Relations Council (513) 985-1501 Jewish Family Service (513) 469-1188 • jfscinti.org Jewish Federation of Cincinnati (513) 985-1500 • shalomcincy.org Jewish Foundation (513) 214-1200 Jewish Information Network (513) 985-1514 JVS Career Services (513) 936-WORK (9675) • cincinnaticareer.net Kesher (513) 766-3348 Plum Street Temple Historic Preservation Fund (513) 793-2556 Shalom Family

Zell’s Bites

October 3 6:30 p.m. – Hebrew Class Open House Rockwern Academy 8401 Montgomery Rd.

November 3 Sarah’s Place Women’s Retreat Embassy Suites Conference Center4554 Lake Forest Dr. Blue Ash

(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 CONGREGATIONS Adath Israel Congregation (513) 793-1800 • adath-israel.org Beit Chaverim (513) 984-3393 • btzbc.com Beth Israel Congregation (513) 868-2049 • bethisraelcongregation.net B’nai Tikvah Chavurah (513) 284-5845 • rabbibruce.com Congregation Beth Adam (513) 985-0400 • bethadam.org Congregation B’nai Tzedek (513) 984-3393 • btzbc.com Congregation Ohav Shalom (513) 489-3399 • ohavshalom.org Congregation Ohr Chadash (513) 252-7267 • ohrchadashcincinnati.com Congregation Sha’arei Torah shaareitorahcincy.org Congregation Zichron Eliezer 513-631-4900 • czecincinnati.org Golf Manor Synagogue (513) 531-6654 • golfmanorsynagogue.org Isaac M. Wise Temple (513) 793-2556 • wisetemple.org Kehilas B’nai Israel (513) 761-0769 Northern Hills Synagogue (513) 931-6038 • nhs-cba.org Rockdale Temple (513) 891-9900 • rockdaletemple.org Temple Beth Shalom (513) 422-8313 • tbsohio.org Temple Sholom (513) 791-1330 • templesholom.net The Valley Temple (513) 761-3555 • valleytemple.com EDUCA EDUCATION Chai Tots Early Childhood Center (513) 234.0600 • chaitots.com

Chabad Blue Ash (513) 793-5200 • chabadba.com Cincinnati Hebrew Day School (513) 351-7777 • chds.shul.net HUC-JIR (513) 221-1875 • huc.edu JCC Early Childhood School (513) 793-2122 • mayersonjcc.org Kehilla - School for Creative Jewish Education (513) 489-3399 • kehilla-cincy.com Mercaz High School (513) 792-5082 x104 • mercazhs.org Kulanu (Reform Jewish High School) 513-262-8849 • kulanucincy.org Regional Institute Torah & Secular Studies (513) 631-0083 Rockwern Academy (513) 984-3770 • rockwernacademy.org Sarah’s Place (513) 531-3151 • sarahsplacecincy.com Yeshivas Lubavitch High School of Cincinnati 513-631-2452 • ylcincinnati.com ORGANIZATIONS 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

week, I volunteered and helped create a beautiful panel which will be hung in their sukkah.

Fall fruits and vegetable dishes are the “stars” when entertaining in the sukkah. Enjoy sharing these recipes with your family and friends.

FALL FRUIT SALAD WITH HONEY DRESSING Serves 4 – 6

October 9 5:30 p.m. - AJC Community Service Award honoring Jay Price Mayerson JCC 8485 Ridge Rd. (513) 621-4020

COMMUNITY DIRECTORY COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS ORGANIZATIONS

All about food – Sukkot celebrations

by Zell Schulman Sukkot, the Fall Festival of the Ingathering, has always been a favorite holiday for me. Over the years, my family has erected a variety of “temporary booths,” sukkahs.

Though I won’t be building a sukkah, I will create several arrangements to decorate my condo using colorful gourds, Indian corn and pumpkins which are now available at the supermarkets and specialty stores.

This year, I celebrated Sukkot at our Jewish Community Center. Last

FLOODING from page 6 sermon Thursday night to emphasize the need for volunteers “to seize the day,” said that a few hundred people comprising a “very different turnout” prayed at CU Chabad over Yom Kippur.

Kol Nidre “felt like a relief,” he said. “Students were happy to get out of their dorms and join us. There was a very special energy.”

For those who couldn’t make it to synagogue, some observed the holiday at home.

“Yom Kippur is where you are,” said one man, who asked not to be identified. “We had the machzor, we had the parsha, so we did it at home.”

Jonathan Lev, executive director of the Boulder JCC, which also sustained damage, broke away to spend a few hours at Bonai Shalom’s Kol Nidre service.

“Although I couldn’t stay long at services, people were talking to each other, pooling resources and figuring out what was necessary,” Lev said.

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

business@ americanisraelite.com or call Erin at 621-3145

The pomegranate, an oddly shaped pinkish-red fruit is available in the produce departments. It is mentioned in the Bible as a sign of fertility, and has numerous seeds. You chew the seeds, enjoy the juice and throw away the pulp! Try one, you may like it. If you’re not a risk taker, enjoy it in this recipe. This honey dressing doesn’t need refrigeration.

Ingredients 2 avocados, peeled and sliced 2 Navel oranges, peeled and sliced One small red onion, peeled and sliced Seeds from one pomegranate 1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted Flooding virtually annihilated the Chabad Jewish Center of Longmont, located about 25 miles northeast of Boulder. “Our shul was completely ruined,” Rabbi Yakov Borenstein said Friday. “It looks like an island. We are right next to a creek here.”

Borenstein managed to save the Torah scroll, prayer books and other ritual items before he was ordered out of the building Thursday. At 3 a.m. that night, the rabbi, his wife and four children were evacuated from their home.

“Our Hebrew school is gone,” he said. “The water is two feet deep.

Humidity has warped all our sacred books.”

Borenstein worried he might not draw a minyan to Yom Kippur services in Longmont, but almost 100 people showed up.

“G-d has a purpose in everything,” Borenstein said. “I see a tremendous amount of good in people. Volunteers and donations are coming from all over. What a beautiful world we live in.”

SENIOR SERVICES

• • • • •

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

(513) 531-9600

20 • BUSINESS

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30–year commitment strong as ever

Iris Diamond has provided more than 30 years of her time, talent and treasure to Hospice of Cincinnati.

“I did not know what the word ‘hospice’ meant when I started, but I learned very quickly,” notes Iris Diamond of her initial involvement with Hospice of Cincinnati. More than 30 years later, she not only understands Hospice’s mission but also passionately promotes it wherever she goes.

Diamond served on the original Crest Hills Country Club Golf Tournament Committee. Her leadership within the Crest Hills community also enabled Hospice to build the Crest Hills Wing of the Blue Ash Inpatient Care Center.

“When you can see the accomplishments from all your hard work, that’s what keeps you involved,” Diamond explains. “The more you do, the more important you realize your work is. … There couldn’t be a better organization to grow with.”

Diamond chaired the golf event for two years and later chaired the Corporate Sponsorship Committee.

Her efforts were recognized by Hospice in 1996 with the coveted Donna West Award, honoring her exemplary volunteerism. In 2006, Diamond further invested herself by serving on the Hospice of Cincinnati

Board of Trustees, completing her final term this year. She also has provided guidance to the Development and Marketing committees.

“We are so fortunate Iris chose Hospice of Cincinnati as one of her volunteer passions,” notes Sandra Lobert, Hospice of Cincinnati President and CEO. “Her long and dedicated service is distinguished by both the tremendous amount of time she contributes and by the excellent results she achieves. She has been and continues to be a true friend to Hospice of Cincinnati, and we are grateful for her many contributions.”

Diamond refers to her contributions as “critical work for critically ill people,” noting that when she became involved, she never stopped to think how she might someday benefit. Ten years ago, her cancerstricken son received the loving care of Hospice of Cincinnati. Two years ago, her 105-year-old mother was a patient.

“Watching the nursing staff and what they do made me proud of my involvement,” Diamond says.

“Hospice is a class act with people who know what they’re doing.”

Retirement Community’s increased Leasing Linked to Improvement in Real Estate Market The Kenwood by Senior Star, a local retirement community, has seen a dramatic increase in leasing activity in 2013, a development that mirrors a similar uptick in the real estate market.

Typically, residents elect to sell their existing homes before moving into a retirement community.

Cincinnati Area Board of Realtors® reported that the July 2013 housing marketing in Cincinnati increased by 30 percent from July 2012 – the 25th consecutive month of increased sales.

“We’re definitely benefiting from an improving housing market,” said Tom Rotz, executive director of The Kenwood. “We’re hearing from our new residents that homes are selling. In the past two years, 100 of our 215 independent-living apartments have been leased.”

In addition, Rotz said “The Kenwood’s health services apartments are nearly 100 percent occupied while the occupancy rate in independent living units is approximately 55 percent.”

“We’ve experienced a constant

request for our health service apartments since last fall,” Rotz added.

It appears the improving market is a national trend as well.

Realtor.com states that in July 2013, the national market experienced about a five percent decline in housing inventory. And, national median list prices increased about five percent year-over-year.

Ralph Davidow, independent living resident, was among the first residents to move into The Kenwood, and he’s seen the growth firsthand.

By Suzanne Kurtz Sloan Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) – Max Wallack was 6 years old when his beloved greatgrandmother Gertrude came to live with him and his family in Natick, Mass.

For four years he helped his parents take care of her and saw firsthand the effects of Alzheimer’s disease on her. But Wallack also noticed that when she and other Alzheimer’s patients would do simple jigsaw puzzles, their mood would lighten.

The observation would change him forever.

“Patients were so often depressed and agitated, but after they would do a puzzle, they were happy,” he said.

In 2007, Wallack began researching the role these puzzles had in assisting those with Alzheimer’s disease. He discovered that not only did the puzzles help boost the patient’s self-esteem, but they also helped slow the progression of the disease. Wallack started collecting puzzles and eventually struck up a collaboration with Springbok Puzzles to design a line of puzzles specifically for those with

Alzheimer’s.

His bar mitzvah project became PuzzlestoRemember, a non-profit that provides jigsaw puzzles to patients at Alzheimer’s and veteran’s facilities internationally. Since its inception, the organization has distributed more than 23,000 puzzles to 2,000 facilities.

Today the 17-year-old is a rising junior at Boston University, where he has been spending the summer working at the Laboratory of Molecular Psychiatry in Aging at BU’s Alzheimer’s Disease Center.

He hopes to attend medical school in a few years.

Wallack, who skipped kindergarten and fifth grade, was recently awarded the Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Award for his service project.

He plans to apply a little of the prize money toward his research and “a lot towards my tuition,” he said.

Working with Alzheimer’s patients, Wallack said, “really is my calling; it’s really important to me.”

JTA spoke to Wallack about his plans for the future, his biggest influences and how he still makes time to have fun.

Suzanne: What sort of puzzles have you found are best for people with Alzheimer’s disease?

Max: Usually puzzles that have bigger pieces but are the same dimensions of a large [500-piece] puzzle

dents and a steady flow of tours coming through, Rotz is looking forward to a successful year in 2014.

“This is really just the beginning for us,” Rotz said. “We’re excited about the momentum and the wonderful residents that are pouring in.”

Although the improving market has certainly been a factor in The Kenwood’s success, it has not been the only one. Grant, for example, is responsible for ensuring that new residents have a smooth, hassle-free COMMUNITY on page 22

Coins with Chutzpah: Amulets bring blessings, raise money for poor

Puzzling project: Max Wallack helps Alzheimer’s patients Note: this is the complete version of this article orginially published August 29, 2013.

“I make it a point to talk to all the new residents, and there are certainly a lot of them,” he said. “Some have been waiting for their homes to sell for months. It just seems like everything started happening a few months ago. It’s great to have so many new neighbors.”

“Since July 2013, we’ve had an average of three move-ins a week,” said Nancy Grant, move-in coordinator for The Kenwood. “This is unusually high for average senior living communities.”

With a community full of resi-

but in 12 or 36 [total] pieces, with colorful, vivid, memory-provoking scenes.

(SK): Who or what have been the biggest influences in your life?

(MW): The two biggest influences in my life have been Jan Davidson from the Davidson Young Scholars Program for gifted children. She started me on my path. And my great-grandmother for showing me what I’m going to do for others.

(SK): What do you think you want to be doing when ”you grow up” or think you’d like to be doing professionally in perhaps five or 10 years?

(MW): I want to be a geriatric psychiatrist, interacting with patients and their caregivers, but I also want to be doing research.

(SK): What’s your favorite Jewish holiday?

(MW): Shabbat is really important. I try to really think about the week – what I’ve done and what I’ll do and how to be a better person.

(SK): What advice would you give other teens interested in launching a service project?

(MW): Try something you’re passionate about and do it. Even the PUZZLING on page 22

According to the ancient Hasidic tradition, everyday objects touched or used by tzaddikim, or righteous persons, are themselves blessed.

Shia Halpern, of Brooklyn, New York, has found a way to continue that tradition while fundraising for needy Orthodox Jewish families.

Halpern sells coins— commemorative amulets blessed by Rabbis that grant blessings to the holder.

Halpern has worked closely with Osborne Coin Company, based in Cincinnati, Ohio, to design and distribute two specific coins to commemorate two different tzaddikim.

The first coin he started selling was the Rabbi Elimelach coin, named after one of the founding Rabbis of Hassidism. Around the time of the Rabbi’s death, many Orthodox Jews take a pilgrimage to his tomb in Lizensk, Poland, and it was there that Halpern first started selling the commemorative coins.

Although Halpern receives the coins in bulk from Osborne, he has a Rabbi bless each coin and then wraps them individually with a small pamphlet explaining the coin, with a website for more information.

Halpern said the bulk of his sales are from family members of pilgrims who were not able to make the journey but still wish to commemorate the event.

The coin comes in gold, silver, or bronze. It features the full name

This is what the coins look like.

of the Rabbi bordered by the words, “I promise that those who support my descendants will be blessed.” A likeness of the gravesite is on the back, bordered by a similar phrase: “Moshiach will ask those he redeems – how did you honor the descendants of the Rabbi, R’ Elimelech of Lizhensk.”

According to Halpern, those COINS on page 22

BUSINESS / AUTOS • 21

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2013

Tufts Hillel Manuel D. 2013 Porsche Boxter S Julie Torem Mayerson Social Justice Fellow By Assistant Editor Established L'dor v Dor The 2013 Porsche Boxter S, Medford, MA (Sept. 23) – When Manuel D. Mayerson (Manny) died in 2012, the Cincinnati Jewish community lost a devoted friend and committed philanthropist. A pioneer in the development of malls and shopping centers who established the Manuel D. and Rhoda Mayerson Foundation that funded programming for all aspects of the Jewish and general community, Manny lived a life rooted in Jewish values and defined by his devotion to his family and community.

“He took his responsibility as an active and engaged citizen very seriously,” affirmed his granddaughter Emma Mayerson. “Tzedakah (the obligation to give) and tikkun olam (helping to make the world a better place) were very important values to him.”

Manny was very proud that his granddaughter followed in his civic and philanthropic footsteps. A graduate of Tufts University in Medford, MA, Emma has a deep passion for Judaism and social justice.

She credits her participation in a weekly Talmud study group with Rabbi Jeffrey Summit, Tufts Hillel Neubauer Executive Director, with grounding her social justice work in Jewish text study, teachings and community.

In high school in California,

Emma co-founded the East Bay Jewish Teen Foundation and in college she co-founded the Tufts University Labor Coalition.

Currently, Project Director of Alliance for Girls in the San Francisco Bay Area, Emma works to eliminate social and cultural barriers for girls. For her work she received the Outstanding Advocate for Social Change award from the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW).

“When my grandfather supported an organization, he gave his passion and intelligence along with his financial resources,” Emma noted.

Emma’s dedication to and support of Tufts Hillel has led to a gift, made

by Emma and her mother Arlene (Manny’s daughter), in honor of both Manuel Mayerson and Rabbi Summit. The gift will support a social justice intern at Tufts Hillel.

“Tufts Hillel is committed to promote active citizenship and prepare our students to become leaders in their communities and in the world,” stated Rabbi Summit.

“Hillel makes social justice a defining component of Jewish life on campus, and we are honored that Emma and Arlene Mayerson established this important internship.”

IRAN from page 16

worryingly, if Israel judges that any negotiations between the U.S. and Iran are going nowhere, Jerusalem could take the radical step of pre-emptively striking Iran’s nuclear facilities, in order to eliminate what continues to be a very real existential threat.

Ultimately, the stakes are highest for the United States.

President Obama’s allergy to even limited military operations that don’t involve boots on the ground may well yield a much deadlier local conflict, in which the U.S. has little leverage.

When the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain signed the Munich Pact with Adolf Hitler, Winston Churchill told him, “You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor and you shall have war.” If Obama cares about his legacy, he must now do all he can to avoid a similarly penetrating barb that will haunt him for the rest of his life.

Administration become heavily invested in a diplomatic track with Iran, skepticism and dismay will emanate from two main sources. Firstly, the conservative Sunni monarchies in the Arab Gulf, who dread the thought that Shi’ite Iran might one day dangle a nuclear weapon over their heads. Secondly, Israel, which has poured scorn on Rouhani’s words, and for whom the following points remain non-negotiable: a complete halt to uranium enrichment, the removal of enriched uranium from Iran, the dismantling of underground nuclear facilities, and an end to any efforts to use plutonium to produce a nuclear bomb.

That’s why, when Khamenei speaks of Iran’s “main principles,” we should remind ourselves of ours. The real dilemma posed by nuclear weapons is not who owns them, but who is prepared to use them. For decades, Israel’s nuclear weapons, which don’t officially exist, have served as a fundamental guarantor of regional peace and stability: If that vital military edge is removed by an Iranian bomb, the Middle East will be more perilous than it has ever been. Just as

has remained the benchmark for its class, winning “Car and Drivers” Best-Handling Cars under $100k and a couple of the 10 Best Trophies.

The Boxter S model has grown by 1.3 inches in overall length, and its wheelbase has stretched by 2.4 inches. To keep mass in check, aluminum has been used more extensively than before and the top design is lighter.

Nearly one inch has been pared from the front overhang, and the windshield is shorter. The proportions are more aggressive and exotic then before. Like all Porsches, the front fenders are clearly visible from the driver’s seat. In the 2013 Boxter, a strong crease runs along the inside edge AZERBAIJAN from page 9 non-aggression pact with Tehran in 2005.

But relations deteriorated in 2009 after Iran cracked down on the large minority of ethnic Azerbaijanis living in Iran. When Azerbaijan protested, Iranian officials threatened to raise territorial claims.

Israel was named as a factor in the dispute last year when Azerbaijani officials revealed plans by local extremists, aided by Iran, to blow up the Israeli and American embassies in Baku.

Also last year, Iran accused Azerbaijan of helping Israel assassinate Iranian nuclear scientists and gather intelligence. The situation was inflamed further by a Reuters report that Israel planned to use Azerbaijani airfields in the event of a strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.

Israeli and Azerbaijani officials denied the report.

“These reports sound like James Bond stories, and that’s exactly what they are,” said Raphael Harpaz, Israel’s ambassador to Azerbaijan, at his office at the Hyatt Regency Hotel.

That said, “Azerbaijan has taken a courageous stand against efforts to destabilize the region,” Harpaz added – an obvious reference to Iran.

Harpaz said anti-Semitic sentiment, prevalent in much of the Muslim world, is virtually nonexistent in Azerbaijan, a secular country with guaranteed freedom of worship and – unlike its abstemious southern neighbor – teeming with bars and nightclubs where scantily dressed women dance to Turkish and Russian pop hits.

“Azerbaijan’s economic success and relatively liberal attitudes form a contrast with Iran’s restrictive policies and a viable alternative, which is probably making the Mullah regime uncomfortable,” Idan said.

2013 Porsche Boxter S

of the fenders, which makes them appear less rounded than those of the previous model.

Interior space is excellent and an extra inch of rearward space has been added to the seats which is a huge plus for taller drivers.The Porsche Boxter 911 joins the rest of the Porsche family in adopting a tall center console

that houses the shifer and a number of secondary switches. The quality of the interiors plastic parts is impressive and makes the optional leather package seem unnecessary. New seats, borrowed from the 911, offer terrific lateral support and hours of comfort.

MSRP starts at $50,450

22 • OBITUARIES D EATH N OTICES KAUFMAN, Faye C. age 79 died on September 18,2013; 14 Tishrei, 5774.

STOLLER, Harry age 82 died on September 18, 2013 14 Tishrei, 5774.

HORN, Evelyn age 88 died on September 20, 2013 17 Tishrei, 5774

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

COINS from page 20 phrases were chosen specifically because the funds raised from selling the coins go directly into charities to support Orthodox Jewish families that fit specific criteria laid out by Rabbi Elimelach. By supporting the less fortunate, those who buy the coin can carry the blessings of the Rabbi with them wherever they go. On the website Halpern created to sell the coins, he cites common uses of the coins, “Bearers of the coin have used it whenever they sought a blessing: they placed it in hospital rooms, under the pillows of laboring women, and in the pockets of businessmen.”

The second coin Halpern sells is the Segula coin, which bears the name of Rabbi Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev, a famous Hasidic leader and scholar. To this day, the mention of his name is believed to bring protection and blessings, and it is a common practice to write down his name on a piece of paper and carry it RABBI from page 8 other to death in the streets with machetes. Now they have one of the fastest growing economies in the world. They no longer speak in terms of whether you are Hutu or Tutsi, they say they are all Rwandans now.

It is amazing.

“Visiting the areas where genocide took place such as the Ntarama church, where 5,000 people were massacred inside, made me, I apologize for this, vomit. It was the most gruesome and horrible thing I have ever seen.

“See, the Rwandans have a different way of commemorating the dead [than the Jewish people]. For example if you visit Auschwitz, you don’t really see bodies or ashes anywhere, because in Judaism, we must bury the

as an amulet.

The coin bears a likeness of the seal that the leader used to identify himself on letters and decrees, which features a bull brought to be sacrificed on an altar. The other side of the coin is emboldened with the Rabbi’s name. The coin is 1.50’’ in diameter, equivalent to an American silver dollar. It is made from brass with an antique bronze finish.

Halpern explained that people are very excited about the coins, and cited a few specific reasons. “In the Orthodox Jewish community, there aren’t many coins that represent something we think about or live for.

There are Jewish coins from the Israeli government but nothing designed for the Hassidic Jews so they are very excited about it due to the rareness.” He also said that people purchase the coins to establish a commemorative connection to the holy site. Finally, there is the fact that a coin will last a thousand years, and can be handed down through the generations, whereas a piece of

paper can fade or be easily destroyed.explained. He places his orders over the phone, and his Osborne sales representative helps him mint the coins just as he had imagined them.

Halpern was drawn to Osborne by a referral from a friend, who had created a coin to commemorate Hanukah. He stayed with Osborne because the price was right: “They have right pricing for the amount that I ordered, for the quantity, they had the best price,” he said. Halpern orders 1,000 of each type of coin once a year. “Sometimes we sell out, sometimes we have extra, it fluctuates each year,” he explained.

At the end of the day, whether Halpern has ten extra coins or if he sells out before the day is done, his efforts translate into positive change.

He puts coins in both the pockets of those who purchased them to carry a blessing and a reminder of a pilgrimage and coins in the pockets of those Jewish families that need them the most

PUZZLING from page 20

remains as quickly as possible. In Rwanda, you can see still the skulls and bones from the massacres everywhere.”

disappointed I am that [Syrian President Bashar] al-Assad will not be punished for gassing children.

Once you gas children, you no longer deserve to be a leader; you deserve to be in jail.”

nations, say it doesn’t care about the gassing of children? Every Arab child is God’s child; indeed, every child is god’s child. We cannot turn a blind eye to that. I believe that Israel’s security interests will always be served by its moral interests first.”

JNS: How does the situation in Syria compare, from a Jewish perspective, to the former genocides in Rwanda and Darfur, and ultimately, to the Holocaust? Do you consider the situation in Syria to be genocide?

RSB: “Whenever poison gas is used, it is a trigger for genocide. We saw its use in World War I that led to mass causalities that triggered the Geneva protocols (which made it illegal to use chemical weapons). Again, in World War II, it was used by the Nazis during the Holocaust, and by Saddam Hussein in Iraq. I find it very personally difficult to convey how

COMMUNITY from page 20 transition to The Kenwood, a good illustration of the service-oriented nature of the community.

Grant helps residents with everything from scheduling a moving company and setting up their new apartment home, even acting as a go between with residents’ interior designers, to counsel on downsizing from their old home and forwarding mail and subscriptions.

Grant continually encourages residents to take their time. “We understand how stressful and overwhelming moving can be,” Grant said. “It is a big decision to relocate to a community and we want residents to feel comfortable and at ease during the process.”

According to Grant, many residents lived in their homes for 30 or more years, so the task of moving from a cherished home with decades of memories, can be a big undertaking. “Lately, we’re seeing new residents move into The Kenwood and

JNS: Does the fact that Syria is in a civil war, between sides that are both perceived as enemies of Israel, change the Jewish thought-process or moral compass on getting involved?

RSB: “This is a very good question, one that was asked by many of my congregants during Yom Kippur.

While they are valid concerns, I cannot accept any scenario where Jewish or Israeli interests can be fundamentally at odds with basic human rights.

We describe ourselves as a light unto nations. How can we as a light unto then put their home up for sale,” she says. “It certainly makes the process easier.”

One of The Kenwood’s newest residents, Mellen Kolb, took that advice. She decided to move into The Kenwood, and then sell her previous home. “It was the best decision I ever made,” Kolb says. “It gave me the time I needed to evaluate and select the items to perfectly suit my new living space. I couldn’t be happier.”

Once they are moved in, Grant and the rest of the staff work to integrate the new residents into The Kenwood family. She even goes so far as to share a photo with current residents and staff of their new neighbor before their move in, so they can recognize them upon arrival.

Another key to The Kenwood’s success is the scope of its programming and services. Developed in concert with residents, The Kenwood offers weekly programs in creative writing and water color

smallest thing, it will grow from there.

(SK): What kind of things do you like to do for fun?

(MW): I like biking, swimming, Ping-Pong, video games, billiards. I try not to procrastinate. I have a lot to do.

The Teen Heroes column is sponsored by the Helen Diller Family Foundation, which is dedicated to celebrating and supporting teens repairing the world. To learn more about the foundation’s Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards, visit their website. Please tell us about teens who deserve attention.

JNS: What practical steps can be taken to prevent future genocide?

RSB: “What is lacking is a United Nations that is moral. It was founded during World War II to prevent these types of wars. Why hasn’t Assad been condemned as a war criminal?

“Two answers: Russia and China.

They have veto power on the Security Council and can subvert the whole process. The U.N. has become a joke, because dictators can control the whole organization.” classes, an Arthritis Foundation certified aquatics class, chair yoga, bridge club and a variety of history lessons with an instructor from the University of Cincinnati’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), to name a few.

“It’s vital that the programming and events we offer revolve around our residents and the activities that intrigue them,” said Rotz. “I think this organic, ever-changing approach to planning allows us to meet the physical and mental needs of each individual living at The Kenwood.”

And one person couldn’t agree more: Mike Myers, director of sales and marketing at The Kenwood, who has worked passionately to tell the community’s story for the past two years. “We feel like one of the best kept secrets in Cincinnati is finally out,” Myers says. “And we couldn’t be happier watching our residents love and experience life in their new community.”

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