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Book Review: Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife

Carol Silver Elliott nominated for Athena Award Carol Silver Elliott, the President and CEO of Cedar Village Retirement Community, has been named a finalist in the Greater Cincinnati Athena Awards competition.

The awards recognize women who have achieved professional excellence, dedicated themselves to community service and helped other women achieve their leadership potential.

The winner will be announced at the Athena luncheon on Oct. 24 at Xavier University’s Cintas Center.

For seven years, Silver Elliott has headed Cedar Village, a nonprofit continuing care retirement community in Mason that is affiliated with the Jewish community.

Cedar Village board members, Andrew Shott and Jay Price nominated Silver Elliott. “With her inspiring leadership, Carol Silver Elliott has helped people in remarkable ways,” they said.

With Cedar Village’s journeys to Israel, older women have experienced the joys of celebrating their bat mitzvahs for the first time. Under Silver Elliott’s leadership, Cedar Village has taken residents to Israel three times for various reasons, despite the challenge of taking people as old as 96 on such arduous journeys.

With Cedar Village’s innovative programming, people with dementia have been engaged in creative activities, allowing them to express themselves artistically.

And with the creation of the Shalom Center for Elder Abuse Prevention at Cedar Village, older adults have been protected from abuse. It is the only safe haven for older adults in the Midwest.

“As a faith-based organization, our commitment to the community and to our elders reaches far beyond our walls,” said Silver Elliott regarding the Shalom Center. “This is our obligation and part of our social and community responsibility.”

Silver Elliott has reached the top of her professional associations, despite roles like that often being dominated by men. She is chair of the Board of Directors of the

Carol Silver Elliott

Association of Jewish Aging Services, which represents 120 North American nursing homes, housing communities and outreach programs.

She traveled to China this year to speak at a conference devoted to sharing best practices about the retirement industry. She was the only American to address the forum in

Shanghai.

She represented LeadingAge, which represents 6,000 U.S. non-profits that promote the health and well-being of older adults, children and those with special needs. She is on the boards of the national LeadingAge and LeadingAge Ohio.

Silver Elliott also has helped other women break gender barriers,

including Karen Raitt, Cedar Village’s director of environmental services.

“Carol is such an awe-inspiring mentor,” Raitt said. “She recognizes people with talent. She educates them. She teaches them. When you’re around her, you can’t help but get pulled into the excitement to be part of her passion and compassion.”

LOCAL • 3

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2013

B’nai Tzedek and Beit Chaverim shine with charitable collections During August and September, members from Congregations B’nai Tzedek and Beit Chaverim undertook two types of collections to strengthen community.

Members were asked by Bob Mermelstein, the Chair of the Social Action Committee, to bring

in the books and magazines they had already read. The books were divided among three locations including Crayons to Computers, an agency that makes free school supplies available to teachers,The River City Correctional Institution, and the Lebanon

Correctional Institute.

Mermelstein also coordinated the collection of non-perishable foods, paper goods, and toiletry items from both congregations just prior to Yom Kippur, when their annual Operation Isaiah initiative occurred. Members gener-

Works of Boris Schatz collection brings life of artist to life at HUC—JIR The Skirball Museum opens its 2013–14 season with The Boris Schatz Collection at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion where an impressive display of bronze and wood reliefs, ivories, oils and sepia paintings by Boris Schatz (1867-1932), the noted artist and founder of the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts, will be shown. The exhibition opens with a reception on Thursday, October 24, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. and will run through January 31, 2014. The Skirball Museum is located on the Cincinnati campus of the Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, 3101 Clifton Avenue.

“Schatz is better known as the founder of the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts than for his own work as an artist,” says Abby Schwartz, Interim Director of the Skirball Museum. “I am delighted to be able to bring together in one space these works in a variety of media. This is an exciting opportunity to explore Schatz’s artistic versatility and his contributions as a sculptor and painter.”

The majority of the collection was acquired by Hebrew Union College in 1926 as a gift from Joseph Schonthal, noted philanthropist of Columbus, Ohio, who made the donation in memory of his wife, Hermine. At the time, the “Jewish Daily Bulletin” called the collection “one of the first conscious attempts in modern times at the creation of a specifically Jewish art, and considered to be of significance from a historico-cultural aspect.” In addition to the works belonging to the Skirball Museum, the upcoming exhibition will include two ivories from the collection of Regine Weiss Ransohoff, two wood reliefs from the collection of Rabbi Tom and Joani Friedmann, and a bronze medallion from the collection of Morton and Jo Ellen Spitz.

Several programs will be offered in association with the exhibition.

Monday, November 11, from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. will be the One City, One Symphony listening party in cooperation with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

This is a community conversation about music that complements the

Artwork of Boris Schatz

from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m., a gallery talk will be offered. This slide presentation and gallery conversation will be led by Abby Schwartz.

Boris Schatz

exhibition.

On Sunday, November 17, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m., will be Oh, What a Relief It Is! This free workshop is open to children in grades 3, 4 and 5, and is limited to 30 participants.

On Thursday, December 5,

About Boris Schatz Shlomo-Zalman Dov-Baruch Schatz (1867-1932), who later changed his first name to Boris, was born in the town of Vorno, near the Lithuanian city of Vilna.

He studied at Vilna’s School of Drawing and later received work as a drawing teacher. The Jewish sculptor, Mark Antokolsky, had a strong influence on Schatz’s work and on his decision to specialize in sculpture. Schatz came to believe that art should have a high degree of realism that expressed the authentic “Jewishness” of the characters it depicted. He was involved off and on with the Zionist movement. His most important work, “Mattathias the Maccabee”, is known today only in photographs. In 1905, in what was then Palestine, Schatz founded what is now the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem.

ously brought about 50 shopping bags full of items, which were immediately sorted. Kosher food was taken to the new Barbash Vital Support Center in Clifton, and all remaining items were donated to the nearby NEEDS pantry in Kenwood, which serves

neighborhoods in Northeastern Hamilton County.

These projects are a part of a more extensive year-round series of activities to support the needy.

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Piano & singing sensation to perform at the JCC At 12 years old, Ethan Bortnick has moved audiences all over the world as a pianist, composer, singer, and entertainer. He will perform at the Mayerson JCC on Thursday November 7 at 7:30pm in a one night show featuring a variety of songs, from popular hits to classical pieces.

He will also share insight into his development as a performer. This one-time special event is offered as a part of the JCC Wolf Center for Arts & Ideas. Tickets are available now.

Ethan’s shows are lively, interactive and powerful. He often engages the crowd with questions and composes songs on the spot with audience input. Jewish elements come through in Ethan’s songs, “Believe in Yourself” and “We’re All Family”,

which he co-wrote for his direct-toDVD film “Anything Is Possible.”

Ethan scored the background music for the movie and plays the main character – an orphan who is discovered to be a talented pianist. Bortnick also made history two years ago as the youngest musician to create and host his own concert special on PBS. This 12 year old musical sensation began learning the piano at the age of three and was playing Beethoven, Mozart, Little Richard, Elton John and composing music by the age of five. His moving performances have caught the eye of the mainstream media and he has been featured on national and international television programs including "Oprah" and "Jay Leno." He has received a Guinness

World Record certificate as the Youngest Musician to Headline a Solo Concert, and has performed with Justin Beiber, Beyonce, Josh Groban, Gloria Gaynor, Patti LaBelle, The Pointer Sisters, Elton John, and more.

“In addition to sharing his amazing talents with millions of people, Ethan is using his gift to help others. It is an inspiration to know that he has helped to raise over $30 million, benefitting various charities throughout the nation. We are happy to have him at the JCC!,” said Courtney Cummings, JCC Arts Manager.

Ethan Bortnick had a strong desire to tour and help his community after the birth of his brother. When Ethan was 5, his brother, Mason, was born with hypoplastic left heart syn-

drome, a rare congenital heart defect.

During this time, the Bortnick family spent a lot of time at Miami Children’s Hospital.

“I saw a lot of people in there who needed help,” Ethan said, “and I wanted to help them all.”

It’s a large feat, but Ethan has helped raise millions of dollars for Miami Children’s Hospital and other nonprofits such as the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, Boys & Girls Club and Starkey Hearing Foundation.

For more information or to buy tickets to Ethan Bortnick’s Nov. 7 performance at the Mayerson JCC, please refer to the JCC’s information in the community directory of this issue.

Wise Temple installs three new Rabbis – a historical first At no other time has a Temple installed three new rabbis, representing ordination from all three HUC–JIR campuses. On October 25 at 7:15 PM Wise Center, Wise Temple will install Rabbi Karen Thomashow as its Associate Rabbi (ordained at HUC Cincinnati in 2007),and as its Assistant Rabbis, Rabbi Rachel Maimin (ordained at HUC New York in 2013), and Rabbi Sydney Henning (ordained at HUC Los Angeles in 2013).

Adding to the uniqueness of this event, Rabbi David Ellenson, HUC–JIR President, who ordained each of the rabbis, will be the guest speaker at the installation. Rabbi Ellenson has led HUC–JIR with great distinction for the past twelve years and will be retiring from the position of President of the College–Institute at the end of the year. We will also welcome HUC’s President-Elect, Rabbi

Aaron Panken, who was recently elected to that position in July.

This Installation Shabbat is a family celebration for every age. Fifteen committed volunteers have been carefully focused on creating an evening that is both celebratory and filled with a strong sense of community among all ages. Bryna Miller, Installation Committee Co-Chair says, “We want the entire Wise Temple community to be a part of welcoming our new rabbis into our congregational family so we’ve created ways for everyone to feel involved. We will begin the service with all the children coming up on the bimah to share in the candle lighting and Kiddush.” “We also have creative programs planned for children ages 3 -12, so parents can participate in the remainder of the installation service knowing their kids will also have a fun and meaningful evening,” added Gayle Warm, also an

Installation Committee Co-Chair.

Babysitting is also available for children 3 years old and under. RSVP is required.

Rabbi Thomashow, who joined Wise Temple in June as Associate Rabbi, says, “I am so honored to join this community–both as a professional and with my family. I am touched by the welcoming nature of the synagogue community over this past summer and holidays. It is my commitment to be a part of making this community open and creative, accessible and meaningful.”

Rabbis Henning and Maimin joined Wise Temple in July as Assistant Rabbis. “Being a rabbi at Wise Temple is such an honor and a privilege. The community we have here is very special. My colleagues and our congregants bring me so much pride and joy and I am looking forward to sharing that with my fami-

ly during our installation”,said Rabbi Henning. Rabbi Maimin added, “I am eager for my family and friends to attend the Installation Shabbat service. I hope they get a glimpse of this vibrant, historic, and engaging congregation with which I am proud to be associated.”

On October 25th, we will welcome our new rabbis’ families and friends to join with our entire congregational family to celebrate their commitment to service, leadership skills, knowledge, and dedication to touching the lives of others through their sacred work. Wise Temple welcomes all members of the larger Jewish community who wish to welcome the rabbis to Cincinnati, and share in the joy of this special occasion. A festive Oneg Shabbat and Dessert Reception will follow the service.

first got shabbat? experience of the New Year, our theme will be “welcoming.” got shabbat? will begin with a family friendly service at 6:15 PM in the Wohl Chapel at Wise Center.

There will be a simultaneous adult service in the library. Following a participatory, uplifting service, families who have registered ahead of time will gather in the social hall for good food, fun and fellowship.

Through a generous gift from Wise

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

VOL. 160 • NO. 13 THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2013 13 CHESHVAN 5774 SHABBAT BEGINS FRIDAY 6:38 PM SHABBAT ENDS SATURDAY 7:39 PM THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE CO., PUBLISHERS 18 WEST NINTH STREET, SUITE 2 CINCINNATI, OHIO 45202-2037 Phone: (513) 621-3145 Fax: (513) 621-3744 publisher@americanisraelite.com editor@americanisraelite.com production@americanisraelite.com RABBI ISAAC M. WISE Founder, Editor, Publisher, 1854-1900 LEO WISE Editor & Publisher, 1900-1928 RABBI JONAH B. WISE Editor & Publisher, 1928-1930 HENRY C. SEGAL Editor & Publisher, 1930-1985 PHYLLIS R. SINGER Editor & General Manager, 1985-1999 MILLARD H. MACK Publisher Emeritus NETANEL (TED) DEUTSCH Editor & Publisher JORY EDLIN JULIE TOREM Assistant Editors YOSEFF FRANCUS Copy Editor

Temple’s sisterhood, each family will take home a pair of Shabbat candlesticks to brighten their home Shabbat celebrations.

The got shabbat? vision is developed and implemented by Wise Temple’s got shabbat? engagement team, including Lisa Cooper, Claudio Hanna, Beth Hertzman, Tammy Miller-Ploetz, and Amanda Rosenberg.

Reservations are required in order to attend this dinner program.

MARIANNA BETTMAN NATE BLOOM IRIS PASTOR ZELL SCHULMAN PHYLLIS R. SINGER Contributing Columnists BONNIE ULLNER Advertising Sales JENNIFER CARROLL Production Manager

On Tuesday, October 22, the Wise Temple Seniors will have a guided tour of the American Sign Museum.

The guided tour will help explain how signs and the sign industry have their own stories to tell, before being lost to redevelopment and “beautification” projects everywhere. In addition to the guided tour, seniors will have the oppor-

tunity to watch a demonstration by the owners of Neonworks, the museum’s working neon shop.

Seniors who choose to order the optional lunch will meet for a box lunch at Wise Center and then car pool to the museum.

Over the years, the Wise Seniors group and its programs have been very popular. New faces are always welcome. Sue Voos, who is organiz-

ing this Wise Temple Seniors event, states “The box lunch gives us time to catch up with each other and the outing to the museum gives us an opportunity to learn more about something that most people don’t really think about very often – signs!” The Wise Temple Seniors chairs, Pete and Kathy Teitelman, explain “The best thing about the Wise Temple Seniors group is that

we explore places that everyone wants to go to but don’t seem to find the time to do on their own. Plus, it’s fun to go as a group. I know it will be entertaining and informative.”

The box lunch is at 1:00 pm and the museum tour is at 2:00 pm.

There is a charge for this program and it is open to members and nonmembers of Wise Temple.

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Wise Temple Seniors to visit the American Sign Museum

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schmooze, for kids to play, and time for everyone to participate in the 2nd annual Name that Tune Competition.

“Shabbat is such a natural time to bring families together”, explains Rabbi Maimin.

“Celebrating Shabbat brings us closer to our loved ones, closer to our Judaism and closer to other families in our temple community. We want our got shabbat? experience to be inclusive, joyful and fun. Connecting to parashat Vayera, and to the fact that this is our

The American Israelite

JANET STEINBERG Travel Editor

got shabbat? A family Shabbat experience at Wise Temple On Friday, October 18 Wise Temple will host its first got shabbat? of the year. Building upon last year’s successes, got shabbat? is a time for families with kids ages 6-12 to join with others in worship, celebration and friendship. A familyfriendly, interactive, abbreviated Shabbat service led by Rabbi Rachel Maimin, Barbara Dragul and Sam Pollak, will be followed by a taco bar and ice cream sundae bar dinner.

There will be time for parents to

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

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2013

LOCAL • 5

Looking for an adventure? Try Overnight Jewish camping or Israel Travel!

Looking for an adventure?

Are you tired of your kids wasting their summers watching TV, playing video games and complaining about being bored? Are you looking for an adventure instead?

Overnight Jewish camping or Israel travel might be the answer.

Overnight Jewish campers come home changed, say their parents.

They are more grown up, more independent and more interested in participating in Jewish life – lighting Shabbat candles, singing Israeli songs, giving to charity, and doing social action work. Both Jewish camping and Israel travel experiences instill an appreciation of Jewish heritage and develop future community leaders.

Overnight camps in general allow kids to live as part of a community. Removed from outside influences – cell phones, internet and television – while surrounded by nature, campers of all ages form lasting friendships and connections unlike any they have experienced.

When children attend Jewish camps, they also develop their Jewish identities within a safe and inclusive environment. For many,

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overnight Jewish camp is their first exposure to Israel; they interact with Israeli campers and counselors, sing Israeli songs and eat Israeli food.

The connections they make to Israel and their Jewish peers encourage them to travel to Israel during high school and after, cementing their relationships with the Jewish homeland and deepening their understanding of what it means to be

Jewish.

The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati – knowing that young people who have attended camp and traveled to Israel are crucial to a healthy and sustainable community – funds grants for every Jewish child in Cincinnati through its Israel Travel and Overnight Jewish Camping Grants Program. The proADVENTURE on page 19

Federation professional promoted The Jewish Federation of Cincinnati announces the promotion of Karyn Zimerman to Israel Travel and Overnight Jewish Camping Program Administrator. Zimerman will administer the generous grants provided by The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati to support Israel travel and overnight Jewish camping opportunities for Cincinnati’s youth.

“I am thrilled to be serving in this new position, as I know firsthand what a difference Jewish camping and Israel travel have made in my life and in my children’s lives,” says Zimerman.

Previous to this new position – which is being funded through a grant from the Jewish Foundation – the overnight Jewish camping and Israel travel grants were administered separately, by two part-time employees at the Federation. Merging the two positions and dedicating a full – time professional acknowledges the connection between the two experiences – young people who attend Jewish camp are more likely to go on to travel to Israel—and demonstrates the increased priority both the Foundation and the Federation are giving to the grant program. Both overnight Jewish camping and Israel travel experiences have been shown to instill an appreciation of Jewish heritage and develop future leaders.

Zimerman will be responsible for creating a revitalized plan to increase the number of young people attending overnight Jewish camp and traveling to Israel in addition to engaging those participants and their families in

www.americanisraelite.com

both programs, and we are confident that Karyn Zimerman will strengthen our investments in them as she helps facilitate greater youth participation in these dynamic educational experiences.”

ADMINISTRATOR on page 22

Karen Zimmerman

meaningful ways with the local Jewish community.

“My goal is to increase the number of grants we provide, so that every Jewish child and young adult in our community is a recipient of this incredibly generous, life-changing gift from the Jewish Foundation,” said Zimerman.

“The Trustees of the Jewish Foundation were proud to establish a new overnight Jewish camping grants program to go alongside our hallmark Israel travel grants initiative,” said Jewish Foundation Executive Director Brian Jaffee. “We have entrusted the Jewish Federation with administering

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Pew survey of U.S. Jews: soaring intermarriage, assimilation rates

By Uriel Heilman NEW YORK (JTA) – There are a lot more Jews in America than you may have thought – an estimated 6.8 million, according to a new study. But a growing proportion of them are unlikely to raise their children Jewish or connect with Jewish institutions.

The proportion of Jews who say they have no religion and are Jewish only on the basis of ancestry, ethnicity or culture is growing rapidly, and twothirds of them are not raising their children Jewish at all.

Overall, the intermarriage rate is at 58 percent, up from 43 percent in 1990 and 17 percent in 1970. Among non-Orthodox Jews, the intermarriage rate is 71 percent.

The data on Jewish engagement come from the Pew Research Center Survey of U.S. Jews, a telephone survey of 3,475 Jews nationwide conducted between February and June and released on Tuesday.

The population estimate, released Monday, comes from a synthesis of existing survey data conducted by the Steinhardt Social Research Institute and the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University.

While the Steinhardt/Cohen study, called “American Jewish Population Estimates: 2012,”is likely to be a matter of some debate by demographers and social scientists, it is the Pew study that offers an indepth portrait that may influence Jewish policymaking for years to come.

Among the more notable findings of the Pew survey: • Overall, 22 percent of U.S. Jews describe themselves as having no religion, and the survey finds they are much less connected to Jewish organizations and much less likely to be

raising their children Jewish. Broken down by age, 32 percent of Jews born after 1980 – the so-called millennial generation – identify as Jews of no religion, compared to 19 percent of baby boomers and just 7 percent of Jews born before 1927.

• Emotional attachment to Israel has held steady over the last decade, with 69 percent of respondents saying they feel attached or very attached to Israel.

Forty-three percent of respondents said they had been to Israel.

• Far more respondents said having a good sense of humor was essential to their Jewish identity than observing Jewish law – 42 percent compared to 19 percent.

• Approximately one-quarter of Jews said religion is very important in their lives, compared to 56 percent among Americans generally.

• Less than one-third of American Jews say they belong to a synagogue.

Twenty-three percent of U.S. Jews say they attend synagogue at least once or twice a month, compared with 62 percent of U.S Christians who attend church once a month.

The Pew study is the first comprehensive national survey of American Jews in more than a decade. The last one, the 2000-01 National Jewish Population Survey (NJPS), was conducted by the umbrella organization of North American Jewish federations and counted 5.2 million Jews, including children. But critics said that study’s methodology was flawed and undercounted American Jews.

Both the Pew survey and the Steinhardt/Brandeis study put the number of U.S. Jewish adults at about 5.3 million, including Jews who do not identify as Jewish by religion. The Steinhardt/Brandeis study counted an additional 1.6 million Jewish children for a total of 6.8 million Jews in America. The Pew study counted 1.3

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million Jewish children.

Overall, Jews make up about 2.2 percent of Americans, according to Pew. By comparison, 6.06 million Jews live in Israel, according to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics.

Because of the differences in methodologies between the new surveys and the NJPS, the increased number of U.S. Jews likely overstates any actual growth.

Leonard Saxe, one of the authors of the Steinhardt/Brandeis study, told JTA there has been some growth during the last decade, but he could not put a number on it. Saxe attributed the growth to the immigration of Russianspeaking Jews, programs to bolster Jewish identity and shifts in attitude that have enabled many children of interfaith marriages to be raised with a Jewish identity.

The Pew study found that about 10 percent of American Jews are former Soviet Jews or their children.

About 65 percent of American Jews live in just six states, according to the Steinhardt/Cohen estimates: New York (20 percent), California (14 percent), Florida (12 percent), New

Jersey (8 percent), Massachusetts (5 percent) and Pennsylvania (5 percent). The other four states in the top 10 – Illinois, Maryland, Texas and Ohio – add another 15 percent. The three most Jewish metropolitan areas are New York, South Florida and Los Angeles.

Among Jewish denominations, the Reform movement remains the largest: 35 percent of respondents identified as Reform, according to the Pew study. The second-largest group is Jews of no denomination (30 percent), followed by Conservative (18 percent) and Orthodox (10 percent).

As with other studies, the Pew study found that the Orthodox share of the American Jewish population is likely to grow because Orthodox Jews tend to be younger and have larger families than Jews generally. In addition, while past surveys showed about half of respondents raised as Orthodox were no longer Orthodox, the Orthodox retention rate appears to be improving, with just a 17 percent falloff among 18- to 29-year-olds.

Most denominational switching among American Jews, however, remains in the direction of less traditional Judaism.

In the Pew survey, 90 percent of those who identified as Jews by religion and are raising children said they are raising them Jewish. By comparison, less than one-third of those who identified themselves as Jews of no religion are raising their kids as Jewish.

Among inmarried Jews, 96 percent are raising their children as Jews by religion (as opposed to ethnicity), compared to 45 percent among intermarried Jews.

On Jewish observance, some 70 percent of respondents to the Pew survey said they participated in a Passover seder in 2012 and 53 percent

said they fasted for all or part of Yom Kippur that year. The numbers represent declines from the 2000-01 NJPS, which found seder participation rates at 78 percent and Yom Kippur fasting at 60 percent.

The new Pew survey found that about 23 percent of U.S. Jews say they always or usually light Sabbath candles, and about 22 percent reported keeping kosher at home.

While most of those surveyed by Pew said they felt a strong connection to Israel, and 23 percent reported having visited the Jewish state more than once, the respondents expressed significant reservations about the current Israeli government’s policies vis-a-vis the Palestinians.

Forty-four percent said West Bank settlement construction hurts Israel’s security interests, and only 17 percent said continued settlement construction is helpful to Israeli security.

Thirty-eight percent of respondents said the Israeli government is making a sincere peace effort with the Palestinians.

The Pew survey also asked respondents about what it means to be Jewish, offering several options. The most popular element was remembering the Holocaust at 73 percent, followed by leading an ethical life at 69 percent.

Fifty-six percent cited working for justice and equality; 43 percent said caring about Israel; 42 percent said having a good sense of humor; and 19 percent said observing Jewish law.

Sixty-two percent of respondents said being Jewish is primarily a matter of ancestry and culture; 15 percent said it was mainly a matter of religion.

Most Jews said it is not necessary to believe in God to be Jewish. In the survey, 60 percent said a person cannot be Jewish and believe that Jesus is the messiah.

Mashup: Jewish leaders respond to Pew survey

By Uriel Heilman NEW YORK (JTA) – What would happen if some of the biggest players in American Jewish life sat down and debated the implications of the new Pew Research Center’s survey of U.S. Jewry?

After last week’s landmark study, I talked to nine Jewish philanthropists and organizational leaders about the lessons Pew holds for them and how they spend and invest their hundreds of millions of dollars per year dedicated to American Jewish life. (The result was this story: Engagement trends are negative, but Jewish funders see validation in Pew study.)

I thought it would be interesting if they’d actually speak to each other, so I weaved together what they said (without altering any quotes) so it sounds like they’re actually having a conversation.

Here’s what they had to say.

Arnold Eisen, chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary: I see the study as a wakeup call for all of us – the vital religious center of American Jewry.

Mark Charendoff, president of Maimonides Fund: I think it’s an indictment of our collective efforts… As a community, we made a decision a couple of decades ago to focus on Jewish continuity and Jewish identity and we don’t seem to have moved the needle by even one degree… I don’t have another word other than devastated.

Jerry Silverman, CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America: I’m not devastated because I don’t know that the information is shocking based on the trends of 1990 to 2000 and some of

the trends we’ve seen in local community studies.

Andres Spokoiny, CEO of the Jewish Funders Network: I don’t think we should cry gevalt.

Sandy Cardin, president of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation: It’s too soon, I think, to see the immediate impact of what many of us in the community have been doing over the past five to 10 years.

Yossi Prager, North American executive director of Avi Chai: This new study reinforces the idea that we need an energizing nucleus… The Jewish community spent a lot of money trying to reach those it saw as on the Jewish margins, and I think this study shows that those efforts were largely unsuccessful…

Intensive and immersive Jewish

education is the right answer.

Spokoiny: Orthodox education cuts both ways. Yes, it some cases it guarantees continuity; in some cases, it pushes people aside. If you don’t define your Judaism by religion, you’re basically saying that Judaism is not for you… Given that a lot of Jews define themselves as secular or atheist, it’s critically important… to explore and find and foster venues for encouraging Jewish identity through non-traditional ways: through culture, through arts.

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism: It’s very clear that the intermarriage rates are not going away, and the big question is what does the Jewish community do in response. Our approach is to bring those people close, not to push them away, not to judge them.

Eisen: They want a new notion of what being Jewish is – we haven’t really responded to that… We need to have options… Stop trying to make Judaism only about religion.

There are substantive ways to be a Jew beyond religion.

Prager: This study should diminish anyone’s confidence in a smorgasbord approach to building enduring Jewish commitment. Lots of efforts have been tried and seem not to have worked.

Jacobs: Demographics give you a slice of reality. They don’t tell you what to do; they don’t tell you what’s possible. That’s the challenge of Jewish leadership.

Michael Steinhardt, Jewish megaphilanthropist: The leadership in the community is atrocious.

MASHUP on page 22

NATIONAL • 7

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2013

Jewish Republicans caught National in party shutdown crossfire Briefs

The national study polled nearly 3,000 American-Jewish households.

By Ron Kampeas WASHINGTON (JTA) – The first lawmaker to speak at a closeddoor Capitol Hill confab convened by the Republican Jewish Coalition’s women’s affiliate was, naturally enough, a woman. So was the second.

Against the background of the current federal budget battle, that’s about all that united Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.).

Ayotte has been a leading Republican voice calling on her GOP colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives to stand down in their battle over President Obama’s signature health care law – a fight that led last week to a shutdown of the federal government. Bachmann has been a leader among those urging them to hold the line.

Judging from the RJC’s Twitter feed Tuesday from the Capitol Hill Club, the white linen establishment near the Capitol where the coalition’s National Women’s Committee was hosting its event that day, both women received an equally warm reception.

But the genteel veneer can barely paper over the sharp divisions among Jewish Republicans as they watch their party rend itself over an impasse that has ground government operations to a halt and could presage an unprecedented default on the national debt.

“My party has magnificently grabbed defeat from the jaws of victory,” said Fred Zeidman, a Houston-area lawyer and major donor to Republican presidential campaigns.

The current crisis stems from the refusal of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives to pass a federal budget unless Obama agrees to delay or defund aspects of the 2010 health care law known as Obamacare. The president has refused to negotiate, arguing that the Republicans are threatening to blow up the national economy because they oppose a measure already duly passed into law.

Zeidman made it clear that he blamed both sides. Obama should agree to negotiate with his Republican counterparts, he said, and the Republicans should adopt a continuing resolution that would permit the government to keep functioning. Failing to do so, Zeidman said, would cost Republicans at the polls next year.

“Am I against Obamacare?” he asked. “Yeah. Am I going to shut down the country over it? Never.”

Zeidman, who said he had personally urged House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to bring an unconditional funding authorization to the floor, blamed a cadre of about 35 to 40 conservative Tea Party

Courtesy of Chris Maddaloni/Getty Images

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) at a news conference in the Capitol , Oct. 5, 2013.

Republicans in safe House seats for holding the national party hostage.

“These are the zealots,” he said.

“They love this stuff. What are they going to do when they see we lose elections?”

Jewish Republicans by and large have been reluctant to address the issue.

Matt Brooks, the Republican Jewish Coalition director, turned down several requests for interviews, and the office of Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), the only Jewish Republican in Congress and the House majority leader, did not respond to two requests for interviews.

Cantor, who supports the party’s strategy, earned cheers at the Capitol Hill Club meeting for calling on Obama to negotiate with Republicans, according to tweets from conservative blogger Melissa Braunstein, who was present.

“When you have divided government, you work through things by talking,” she quoted Cantor saying. “This is about more than Obamacare or the debt. We have a real debate about the balance of power.”

More telling, perhaps, was how expansively the RJC’s own Twitter feed reported the remarks by Ayotte, who has said elsewhere that the shutdown is not a “winning strategy.”

According to the tweets, Ayotte sharply criticized the isolationist faction within the GOP that has helped drive the shutdown, arguing that it was harming the U.S. on the world stage.

The RJC tweeter followed up: “Ayotte: ‘Withdrawing from the world is not an option.’ Predicts Reagan wing will win debate with isolationists within GOP.’“ A senior Jewish Republican aide in Congress said the Tea Party wing deserved praise for galvanizing Republicans following the demoralizing Obama victory last November.

The shutdown, said the aide, would open up a broader philosophic conversation about the role of government.

D.C. theater retools controversial play about Palestinians WASHINGTON (JTA) – A Washington Jewish theater funded in part by the local Jewish federation scaled back its plans to produce a controversial play concerning how Palestinians were treated when Israel became a state.

Rather than showing the entire play, Theater J instead will present “The Admission” as a workshop in which viewers will be invited to give their feedback. A spokesman for the Washington DC Jewish Community Center, which houses Theater J, said the play, by Israeli playwright Motti Lerner, will be used as a platform for discussion on how difficult subjects are treated.

Study: American Jews stand out in bequests to charities (JTA) – American Jews provide for charities in their wills nearly twice as much as people of other faiths, a new study shows.

The Jews most likely to make bequests to charities – and not just Jewish ones – practiced some aspect of the Jewish tradition, including attending synagogue services or visiting Israel, according to Connected to Give: Jewish Legacies today, the first in a series of topical reports based on data from the National Study of American Jewish Giving.

At Conservative Judaism convention, leaders focus on shrinkage BALTIMORE (JTA) – At their biennial convention, Conservative Jewish leaders called for renewing the “vital religious center” of American Judaism in the wake of numerous studies showing their movement is shrinking.

Arnold Eisen, chancellor of the movement’s Jewish Theological Seminary, called for a return to the principles articulated a century ago

by Solomon Schechter, founder of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.

Eisen proposed a threefold strategy to confront what he called this “time of unprecedented challenge and change” for Conservative Judaism: being as welcoming as possible to bring in more Jews; taking Conservative Judaism beyond the bounds of the synagogue; and providing more money and time to the movement.

Negotiate but verify, key senators tell Obama on Iran WASHINGTON (JTA) –- A bipartisan group of 10 U.S. Senate leaders urged President Obama to make sure that Iran’s public remarks on its nuclear program match its actions.

In their letter released to the media on Monday, the senators also said the president should continue with diplomatic efforts aimed at stopping Iran from obtaining

nuclear weapons. The letter was backed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

Sens. Robert Menedez (D-N.J.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Roy Blunt (RMo.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), Kelly Ayotte, (R-N.H.), Robert Casey Jr. (D-Pa.) and Christopher Coons (D-Del.) signed the letter.

UC Berkeley’s Jewish Student Union rejects J Street membership (JNS) – The Jewish Student Union at the University of California, Berkeley has denied membership to a college branch of the J Street lobby, on the grounds that it violated student union’s laws by hosting speakers who demonize Israel.

In particular, J Street U sponsored the Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence, which works with Israeli veterans who severely criticize Israel’s military operations.

Egypt: U.S. aid suspension ‘errant’ WASHINGTON (JTA) – Egypt’s military rulers called the U.S. freeze on some forms of military assistance “errant in both substance and timing.”

“The decision raises serious questions regarding the United States’ readiness to provide constant strategic support for Egyptian economic and security programs,” said a foreign ministry statement sent to reporters Oct. 10.

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Museum on Belgian shipping line stirs debate on Holocaust history

By Cnaan Liphshiz ANTWERP, Belgium (JTA) – With the confidence befitting a septuagenarian grandmother, Ellen BledsoeRodriguez briskly leads her family past the beer stalls and DJs that dot the Flemish capital’s historic port on sunny autumn days.

Bledsoe-Rodriguez is uninterested in such diversions. She and nine of her relatives had traveled 5,600 miles from California for last week’s opening of a museum devoted to the Red Star Line, the maritime travel company that nearly a century ago transported her mother and 2 million others from war-torn Europe to Ellis Island.

“I knew this would be an emotional experience, but I underestimated how emotional it would be,” BledsoeRodriguez told JTAwhile retracing her mother’s footsteps into the red-brick terminal she had passed through in 1921 as a third-class passenger from Russia, fleeing the pogroms and persecution that preceded the near annihilation of European Jewry.

To Bledsoe-Rodriguez, the Red Star Line is symbolic of her mother’s will to survive. But to city officials in Antwerp, which funded the $25 million museum, it is a reflection on the “universal quest for happiness” and a response to growing interest in general immigration trends.

“For Belgians, the Red Star Line is

reminiscent of the belle epoque, but it means something very different to Jews,” said Michael Boyden, a Belgian literary historian at Sweden’s University of Upsala, who published a critical Op-Ed about the museum in the Flemish-language De Morgen daily.

“The museum seems to me like a missed opportunity to research these different narratives more deeply.”

Debates over whether European history is properly understood in particularist or universalist ways are not new in Europe. In recent years, several commemoration projects in Belgium and Holland have been marred by conflict between those seeking to engage wide audiences with universal themes and activists who argue that the fading memory of the Jewish genocide requires specifically combating the anti-Semitism that made it possible.

Luc Verheyen, the museum’s project coordinator, said the museum does not skirt the “tragic element” of European emigration. But it also aims to celebrate the contributions of notables such as Albert Einstein, who boarded a Red Star Line vessel in 1933 bound for New York.

“The museum helps illuminate a forgotten story of 60 million Europeans who left for all kinds of reasons,” Verheyen said.

The Red Star Line operated from 1871 to 1934, a period that coincided with some of the worst anti-Semitic

persecution in history. During the line’s 63 years, Jews accounted for at least a quarter of its passengers taken across the Atlantic Ocean in dozens of ships.

Historians say the actual percentage may have been much higher.

The first wave of Jewish passengers – including Bledsoe-Rodriguez’s mother, Basia Cohen – were escaping pogroms in czarist Russia. Later waves were fleeing anti-Jewish agitation and the rise of the Nazis. For many years, the Red Star Line offered kosher food to its Jewish clientele.

Cohen left her home at 11 with her mother and five siblings in the hopes of reuniting with her father, a bankrupt beet farmer who had left years earlier.

The Cohens spent three weeks in squalid dormitories with 1,500 passengers aboard the ship. At Ellis Island, they were quarantined for eight months because of scalp fungus.

“Somehow the experience at Ellis Island had aged us, we didn’t want to sing anymore,” Cohen said in an interview before her death in 1993. “We were all grown up.”

Among the later refugees was Einstein, whose resignation letter to the Prussian Academy of Sciences, on display at the museum, was written on Red Star Line stationary.

The Jewish dimension is hardly overlooked in the two-story museum.

But the exhibition “emphasizes the universal character of migration,” the

city wrote in a statement. The official booklet on the museum describes it as “a universal human story about the pursuit of happiness, a story we can all relate to.”

That sort of universalizing of history has prompted protests from Jewish leaders who argue that it degrades the uniquely Jewish character of the Holocaust.

The opening last year of Belgium’s main Holocaust museum at Mechelen was delayed over criticism that its broad mission of defending human rights risked “obfuscation as to the scale of the Shoah and banalization,” according to Eli Ringer of the Flemish Forum of Jewish Organizations.

In neighboring Holland, the remembrance of German soldiers along with their Jewish and nonJewish victims during memorial ceremonies for World War II victims led to acrimonious debates and legal action.

In May 2012, a Dutch court, responding to a petition filed by a Jewish group, issued an injunction against the commemoration of German soldiers in the town of Vorden.

“Commemoration needs to draw lessons or it’s a sterile affair,” said Joel Rubinfeld, co-chair of the Brusselsbased European Jewish Parliament and past president of Belgium’s main Jewish umbrella group. “There are lessons to be drawn from Jewish emigration from Europe, and presenting them

Cnaan Liphshiz

Ellen Bledsoe-Rodriguez near a marker honoring her mother, Basia Cohen, one of the many Jews who fled Europe on a Red Star Line vessel, Sept. 29, 2013.

as part of a larger population shift doesn’t help in a time when anti-Semitism is once more driving some Jews out of Europe.”

Bledsoe-Rodriguez takes a less critical view.

“No one died in my family in the Holocaust,” she said. “If not for Red Star Line, we might be in a different museum right now – a museum for Holocaust victims.”

Russia’s meteoric Mideast rise, and what it means for Israel

By Alina Dain Sharon and Sean Savage (JNS) – Fresh off brokering a deal to place Syrian chemical weapons under international control, Russia has reasserted itself as a Middle East power player, hearkening back to the days of its Cold War status. Israel, meanwhile, enjoys much stronger bilateral relations with Russia than it did during the Soviet era. But will Russia’s meteoric rise in the region change the nature of that relationship?

Observers point to Russia’s longstanding support for the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, close contact with Iran, and veto power on the U.N. Security Council as examples of its attempt to undermine U.S. supremacy in the Middle East for the sake of its own strategic goals. Russia often seems to say one thing and do another, critics of the country say, a fact that is also reflected in its surpsingly strong-though complex-relationship with Israel.

Russian President Vladimir Putin once warned Israel of an impending Syrian poison gas attack, and Israel was the first country he visited after he was first elected. At the time, Putin spoke of how pleased he was to visit a country where more than a million Russian-speakers reside. But when it came to the recent Syrian chemical weapons crisis, Israeli-Russian relations weren’t as cordial.

“We’ve asked the Russians to stop

supplying certain kinds of weapons to the region. We didn’t always get the answer we wanted,” Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Danny Dannon told JNS.org.

In September, Russia unexpectedly capitalized on U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s comment that the confiscation of Syrian chemical weapons would prevent U.S. military action against the Assad regime, immediately pitching a plan to place the chemical weapons under international control just as U.S. President Barack Obama was preparing to seek congressional approval for an attack on Syria.

Tatiana Karasova, head of the department of Israeli and Jewish Community Studies at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences of the Russian Federation, told JNS.org that a U.S. attack on Syria-which never materialized-would have been “a painful blow for Russia, as it would manifest as evidence of Russia’s weakness, its inability to save its strategic ally.” An attack “would have completely destroyed its authority in the Middle East and consequently its image of a global power,” she added.

“The idea of putting Syrian chemical weapons under international control gives a chance to prevent an American aerial attack on Syria, and would allow Russia and the U.S. to finally reach points of agreement,” Karasova wrote in an email interview

that was translated from Russian.

Prior to its Syria initiative, Russia utilized its veto power on the U.N. Security Council to oppose efforts by Western powers to levy heavy sanctions on the Syrian regime.

To date, Russia’s Mideast alliances have not prevented it from cooperating with Israel in the areas of the economy, diplomacy, armaments, science, culture, and education, among other fields-a marked change in policy regarding the Jewish state that began two decades ago.

In the wake of the 1967 Six-Day War, the Soviet Union had cut off diplomatic relations with Israel. From that time through the early 1990s, the relationship between Russia and Israel was marred by “a legacy of mutual misunderstanding, mutual demonizing representations and the absolute lack of objective information” in each nation about the other, Karasova said.

Russia’s intolerance of Israel also extended to Russia’s own Jewish community. Even toward the end of the Soviet regime, there was still “extraordinary hatred and anti-Semitism that pervaded every single aspect of the Soviet administration,” said Isi Leibler, an international Jewish leader who was deeply active in Russia at the time.

Leibler was arrested and expelled from Russia in 1980 but was later invited back, launching the first Jewish cultural center in the Soviet Union.

Under the presidency of Boris Yeltsin, the Russian government began

to normalize Russian-Israeli relations.

Later, Putin began a transition to a pragmatic policy and economic diplomacy, resulting in friendly relations with both Arab states and Israel.

But that doesn’t mean current Russian-Israeli relations should be seen in a vacuum, according to Karasova.

“It’s no secret that Russian-Israeli bilateral relations still depend on the level of Russian-Syrian, RussianIranian and Russian-Palestinian relations. This is why relations between Russia and Israel can only be explained in the context of a broader regional strategy,” she said.

Putin sees Israel as a nation with high economic, military, scientific, and technical potential, with close ties to global major powers. Russia also has common social and humanitation interests with the Jewish community in Russia, and with the Russian-Jewish community in Israel. In fact, along with a change of attitude towards Israel, there has also been a significant change in the modern Russian goverment’s attitude about its own Jewish community.

“Putin himself has repeatedly expressed his extremely negative attitude toward anti-Semitism in all its forms,” Karasova said.

According to Mark Levin, executive director of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry (NCSJ), Russian Jews are now “not dealing with state-sponsored anti-Semitism,

which is a big shift.” The fact that a million Russian Jews immigrated to Israel in the 1990s and now reside in the Jewish state “had an impact not only internally, but on how Russians and the Russian government view Israel,” he said.

“It doesn’t mean all the problems have dissapeared... but [Russia] is a much different country than once existed 25-30 years ago,” Levin said.

Statements Putin made about his pride regarding Israel’s RussianJewish community “would never ever have been made by his Soviet predecessors,” according to Leibler. But while Putin “doesn’t dislike Jews,” it is also important to consider that the Russian president is “not a philoSemite,” he told JNS.org.

Russia and Israel still have different attitudes regarding the IsraeliPalestinian conflict. Russian political cooperation with Israel’s traditional opponents, particularly Iran and Syria, continues to be a factor, as is Israel’s tendency to fear Russia’s political and financial instability.

The fact that Russia also maintains its support for the Palestinians in United Nations votes is not as significant an issue as Russia’s relationship with Iran, Leibler said, noting that most European nations and Asian countries like India also vote in favor of the Palestinians. Yet overall, it is a “big mistake” to suggest that Israel and Russia are allies, Leibler believes.

INTERNATIONAL / ISRAEL • 9

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2013

Will rising nationalism renew Montreal Jewish exodus?

Gaza ‘terror tunnel’ uncovered near border kibbutz

By Ron Csillag

By Israel Hayom / Exclusive to JNS

(JTA) – Battered and bruised by decades of separatist governments, restrictive language laws and a modern-day exodus, the Jewish community of Quebec may finally have something to celebrate.

A new analysis of figures culled from the 2011 Canadian census, known as the National Household Survey, found that Quebec’s Jewish population had not dipped below the 90,000 threshold, as had previously been believed.

Montreal’s Federation CJA had projected a Jewish population in the province of 88,500. The new analysis, which combined the 83,200 Montrealers who said they were Jewish by religion in the NHS with those who said they were Jewish by ethnic origin, arrived at a revised figure of approximately 91,000.

That figure is only nominally below the 92,970 Jews counted in 2001, suggesting that the community decline that began in the 1970s has leveled off.

“We’re quite pleased,” Charles Shahar, a research coordinator at Federation CJA, told JTA. “We’re closer to 91,000. That seems to be encouraging. It’s a positive figure.”

Once the most populous Jewish community in Canada with a peak Jewish population of 120,000 in 1971, Montreal has seen its Jews

International Briefs Iranian sentenced to jail in Azerbaijan for plotting Israeli Embassy attack (JTA) – An Iranian citizen was sentenced to 15 years in jail in Azerbaijan for planning an attack on the Israeli Embassy in Baku.

Bahram Feyzi, arrested in March and accused of being an Iranian spy along with drug possession, was sentenced Friday in the Baku Court on Grave Crimes, the French news agency AFP reported.

Iran’s embassy in Azerbaijan criticized the ruling, saying the charges against Feyzi are unfounded, Iran’s Press TV reported.

StandWithUs campaign counters anti-Israel ads on Vancouver buses VANCOUVER, Canada (JTA) – An Israel advocacy group has launched a transit campaign in opposition to anti-Israel ads on Vancouver buses and light rail stations.

StandWithUs, a right-leaning Israel advocacy group, began run-

Courtesy of David Ouellette

Montreal Jews protesting the proposed Charter of Quebec Values, which aims to restrict public displays of religious faith.

departing for decades, driven out largely by the antagonism to minority rights espoused by the secessionist Parti Quebecois.

For nearly 40 years, Montreal’s mostly English-speaking Jewish community has endured not only laws mandating French only on signs and in the workplace, but a general distress in the face of what the late Montreal author Mordecai Richler called French Quebec’s “tribalism.”

The latest affront to minorities is the Parti Quebecois’ proposed Charter of Quebec Values, a measure aimed at instituting religious “neutrality” in the public sphere by ning two advertisements on Monday meant to combat the ads put up by the Palestine Awareness Committee.

Hamas leader Mashaal to visit Iran (Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS) In another sign of reconciliation between Hamas and Iran, Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Mashaal will arrive in Tehran on Monday night for an official visit during which he will meet with Iranian leaders.

Mashaal’s trip is taking place after a two-year rift between Hamas and Iran during which Iran suspended economic aid to Hamas.

Iranian citizen caught with forged Israeli passport at Brussels Airport (JNS) Three passengers were caught in early September with forged Israeli passports at Brussels Airport, officials said over the weekend.

One of the passengers was identified as an Iranian citizen who could use the passport to threaten Israeli security. The passengers were on their way to Canada, with the Iranian planning to arrive in Toronto and the others going to Montreal.

Council of Europe won’t ban

banning “overt and conspicuous” religious headwear – including turbans, hijabs and yarmulkes – as well as large crosses and crucifixes.

Those affected would include civil servants, judges, doctors, nurses, police officers and teachers.

“This is unprecedented for a North American political jurisdiction today,” said McGill University sociology professor Morton Weinfeld. “If you’re an observant Jew, Muslim or Sikh, Quebec may not be the place for you.”

The Parti Quebecois charter has been blasted across Canada as xenophobic, discriminatory and unconstitutional. Both the Centre for Israel and Jewish AffairsQuebec and B’nai Brith Canada have voiced strong opposition and, in a rare move, Montreal’s Jewish General Hospital denounced the proposal.

Late last month, kippah-clad Jews joined thousands of Muslims, Sikhs and Christians in a protest march against the measure, which will be introduced to the Quebec legislature later this fall. As Parti Quebecois is a minority party, the measure will need support from opposition parties to become law.

Regardless of its legislative fate, the charter is emblematic of a movement that has led Montreal Jews to quit the province in droves.

male circumcision after Peres appeal (Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS) The Council of Europe will not ban male ritual circumcision as it does female genital mutilation, the organization’s secretary-general, Thorbjorn Jagland, wrote in a letter to Israeli President Shimon Peres.

The letter came in response to Peres’s appeal over the council’s recent resolution against circumcision.

Catholic-Jewish meetings in Spain address religious freedom and persecution (JNS) – Fifty Catholic and Jewish leaders gathered in Madrid, Spain on Oct. 13 for the International Catholic-Jewish Liaison Committee (ICJLC) to further religious cooperation.

The meeting in Spain addressed the “serious challenges to religious freedom and to the safety and security of houses of worship emerging around the world,” Betty Ehrenberg, chair of the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations, told JNS. Iran’s proposal to cap nuclear work ‘a joke,’ Yuval Steinitz says (JNS) Officials in Jerusalem

(JNS) – A 1.5-mile tunnel running from the Gaza Strip to the Israeli border kibbutz Ein Hashlosha was uncovered last week, Israeli officials announced Sunday.

Israel Defense Forces units uncovered the massive tunnel Oct. 10, and according to defense officials quoted on Army Radio, it was meant for the abduction of Israeli soldiers or for a large terror attack.

Equipment for the abduction and transfer of people was found inside the tunnel, including a transportation mechanism that could quickly ferry away a hostage.

During a speech last week at BarIlan University, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.Gen. Benny Gantz said that the next war Israel might face could start with a terror tunnel attack at an Israeli border town or at a local kindergarten there.

The tunnel is able to hold several hostages and spirit them away quickly into the Gaza Strip, Army Radio reported. It is 15 meters (about 50 feet) deep, and has several exits. Its final exit was discovered in farmland near Ein Hashlosha.

The residents of Ein Hashlosha heard digging and alerted the IDF, which then uncovered the tunnel.

Eshkol region local council head Haim Yalin said the tunnel entered 400 meters (a quarter mile) into Israel and “looks like the New York subway and rejected Iran’s proposal to halt uranium enrichment to 20 percent.

Strategic Affairs, Intelligence and International Relations Minister Yuval Steinitz called the Iranian gesture “a joke.”

“Capping enrichment at 20 percent is less significant now that Iran has 20,000 centrifuges,” Steinitz said. “Israel is ready for a real, serious diplomatic solution, meaning an Iranian nuclear program that operates similarly to Canada and Mexico’s nuclear infrastructure: Iran could generate electricity at its reactor, but would need to purchase the nuclear fuel to operate it from other countries.”

Pope Francis I reiterates desire to visit Israel (JNS) – Pope Francis I reiterated his desire to visit Israel next year during a visit to the Vatican by Israeli Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein last week During the meeting, after Edelstein urged Pope Francis to visit Israel, the pontiff emphatically replied, “I’ll come! I’ll come!” The pope had accepted an invitation to visit the Jewish state earlier this year during a meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres.

Knesset members thwart anti-

was apparently meant for abducting troops.”

The starting point of the tunnel is located in the village of Abasan AlSair, located between the town of Khan Yunis and the border fence with Israel. Over the weekend, special forces of Israel’s Yahalom Combat Engineering unit conducted extensive engineering tests at the tunnel to examine whether it contained explosives.

Defense Minister Moshe (Bogie) Ya’alon said Sunday that the discovery of the “terror tunnel” on the Gaza border “serves as additional proof that the Hamas terror organization is continually preparing for a confrontation with the state of Israel and to carry out terror attacks, if it feels they are made possible, despite the cease-fire that it has been coerced into by IDF deterrence.”

“The IDF’s discovery of the tunnel warrants commendation because it prevented attacks against Israeli civilians who live near the border and against Israeli soldiers in the area,” Ya’alon said.

“The IDF and Israel’s security forces must continue to take action to expose future attempts by Hamas and other terror organizations to harm Israel’s citizens and soldiers. It is the duty of all the relevant bodies to be extremely vigilant, because our basic assumption is that terror groups in Gaza are constantly digging tunnels to use in terror attacks at the earliest opportunity,” he added.

Israel move at Geneva meeting (JNS) – Members of Knesset Meir Sheetrit (Hatnuah) and Aliza Lavie (Yesh Atid) were able to thwart an anti-Israel initiative promoted by Palestinian representatives at a recent meeting of the InterParliamentary Union in Geneva.

The Palestinians tried to insert an “emergency motion” into the agenda that called for all parliaments to boycott Israel and condemn settlement construction, Israel Hayom reported.

Iran appointment to U.N. disarmament committee slammed by Israel (JNS) Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, compared the recent appointment of Iran to the U.N. First Committee on Disarmament and International Security to “appointing a drug lord CEO of a pharmaceutical company.”

“Rather than provide a global stage for Iran’s defiance and deception, the U.N. should shine a spotlight on the regime’s ongoing pursuit of nuclear weapons and its support for terrorism across the globe,” Prosor wrote in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, The Associated Press reported.

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One in 800,000 at Rav Ovadia’s funeral

By Ben Sales JERUSALEM (JTA) – I didn’t need to ask directions.

Stepping out of the Jerusalem Central Bus Station, I saw them, men in hats and coats walking together slowly, a steady stream moving east along one of Jerusalem’s central thoroughfares to the funeral of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.

At 5 p.m., an hour before the funeral, the streets were already closed to cars, the capital’s rush-hour rigmarole giving way to foot traffic that was softer but no less intense.

From a distance it looked

homogenous. Aerial photographs would later show a sea of black choking the broad avenues of haredi Orthodox northern Jerusalem. But as the group coalesced, men in polo shirts mixed with boys in sweatshirts and soldiers in full uniform, some still holding their guns. Knit kippot bobbed in the crowd with black hats, Sephardi haredim in wide fedoras walked with Ashkenazi hasidim in bowlers. A man in a black coat made conversation with another in short sleeves. Women, almost all in modest dress and vastly outnumbered, mostly stood to the side.

The men talked, they shook

hands. A few took out their cellphones, perhaps not ready to begin the public mourning of a leader who, to many, still felt so close. Everyone in Israel knew Ovadia Yosef’s name, but in public his followers hardly used it, opting instead to call him Maran, our master.

On the sidewalk, a half-dozen men stood at a long table offering a sugary orange drink. Behind them, a speaker blared a recording on loop, quoting a common blessing: “‘To give life to every living soul!’ Come say a blessing over a Courtesy of Yaakov Naumi/Flash90

FUNERAL on page 22

Hundreds of thousands of mourners attended the funeral procession of Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef who was buried at the Sanhedriya cemetery on Oct. 7, 2013.

Watchdogs of Palestinian incitement failing to stir alarm

By Ben Sales TEL AVIV (JTA) – In late July, the Palestinian Authority’s official television channel featured a girl reciting a poem with the words “our enemy is Satan, Zion with a tail.”

Two days earlier, the Palestinian Authority minister of religious affairs had compared the recently restarted Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations to an ancient treaty signed and then broken by the Prophet Muhammad, who went on to conquer those he had pledged to leave in peace.

And every week, Palestinian Authority television hosts four programs focusing on freed Palestinian prisoners or the families of those still held in Israeli jails.

These examples are part of a recently released report covering the period from July to September com-

Israel Briefs IDF chief: Next war will see missiles fall on Tel Aviv (JNS) Israel’s enemies will target Israel Defense Forces headquarters in Tel Aviv with long-range missiles to spark the next war, IDF Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz said last week.

Speaking at a conference at BarIlan University, Gantz warned that Israel’s next conflict could start in a number of ways, including “a precision missile attack on the General Staff building at the heart of the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, or a cyberattack on a site providing essential services to Israelis.”

IDF reserve colonel beaten to death in Jordan Valley terror attack (JNS) Israel Defense Forces reserve colonel Sariya Ofer was killed Thursday night in the Jordan

piled by Palestinian Media Watch, a nonprofit that looks for evidence of what it considers “hate incitement against Israel and Jews” in official Palestinian Authority media.

To PMW founder and director Itamar Marcus, the tenor of Palestinian media is evidence that whatever its leaders might profess about their desire for peace, the Palestinian Authority remains deeply hostile to Jews and Israelis.

But Marcus is virtually alone in that assessment.

Most major Israeli and Palestinian media analysts say the examples cited by Marcus are either misinterpreted or isolated incidents.

In August, a Tel Aviv judge rejected expert testimony from Marcus on that basis, ruling that he did not quote the largest Palestinian media and took examples out of context.

“The expert Marcus’ testimony Valley village of Brosh Habika in a suspected terrorist attack.

Ofer was reportedly beaten by at least two Palestinian men wielding iron bars and axes. His wife, Monique, sustained minor injuries.

Israeli President Shimon Peres said in a statement. The PA did not denounce the attack.

Israeli left-wing activists attend Arab celebration calling for murder of Jews (JNS) Israeli left-wing activists from the Yesh Din organization celebrated with Arabs at the formerly Jewish community of Homesh in Samaria. During the celebration, a banner was waived depicting a religious Jewish man with a spear through his mouth.

Lockheed Martin chooses Israeli-developed pilot helmet for advanced F-35 jets (JNS) – Lockheed Martin, which is producing advanced F-35 stealth fighter jets to be shipped to Israel, announced that it has chosen to manufacture a pilot’s helmet for the jets co-developed by the Israeli company Elbit Systems.

is not balanced, and is essentially biased, especially as it’s clear that he used quotations from insignificant newspapers,” the judge, Dalia Ganot, wrote.

Negative portrayals of Jews and Israelis in official Palestinian media and school textbooks have long been a concern of American and Israeli officials. One of the first conditions of the 2003 “road map” to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks was a requirement that both Israelis and Palestinians end the incitement against each other.

In 2009, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the United States would deal only with Palestinian leaders who recognized Israel and committed to nonviolence. Members of Congress have signed multiple letters denouncing Palestinian incitement.

Those concerns were inspired in

Facebook acquires Israeli startup Onavo (JNS) – Facebook announced the acquisition of the Israeli mobile analytics startup, Onavo, as part of a larger plan to reduce the number of people without Internet access.

Facebook will also turn Onavo’s Tel Aviv office into the company’s first Israeli headquarters.

Founded in 2010, Onavo focused on intelligence concerning mobile application data.

Iran sanctions shouldn’t be lifted, Netanyahu tells EU (Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday held a series of interviews from his office in Jersulem with European media outlets with the aim of convincing EU countries not to lift Iran sanctions.

“No deal is better than a bad deal, and a bad deal would be a partial agreement which lifts sanctions off Iran and leaves them with the ability to enrich uranium or to continue work on their heavy water plutonium, which is what is needed to produce nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu

part by the rhetoric of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who while ostensibly pursuing a peace settlement with Israel was making fiery statements in Arabic on Palestinian television calling for Israel’s destruction.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has largely eschewed his predecessor’s occasionally bloody rhetoric, instead emphasizing a desire for a two-state solution to the conflict and repeatedly denouncing violence against Israel. In his Sept. 26 address to the United Nations, Abbas said the Palestinians “firmly repudiated violence and affirmed an ethical, principled rejection of terrorism in all its forms.”

Moreover, a comprehensive study of Palestinian and Israeli textbooks funded by the U.S. State Department this year found that

Palestinian textbooks largely do not demonize Israel or incite hatred.

“Dehumanizing characterizations of the other are rare in both Israeli and Palestinian schoolbooks,” the study found.

“As a policy they’re very careful not to incite,” said Yaakov Cohen, an expert on Palestinian media with the Middle East Media Research Institute. “Abu Mazen” – Abbas’ nom de guerre – “has his own line.

He’s against a return to the violent conflict. He always talks about not going back to an intifada.”

Still, Marcus is unconvinced. He noted that on the day Abbas addressed the U.N. General Assembly, a Fatah official spoke in Abbas’ name at a memorial service for a terrorist, whom the official called “the most noble of the noble.”

told The Financial Times.

Four Israelis were arrested in connection with the attack.

Abbas on Palestinian state: ‘No peace without Jerusalem as its capital’ (JNS) – Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on the topic of a future Palestinian state that there will be “no peace without Jerusalem as its capital.”

“I will not compromise on the 1967 borders as the border for our Palestinian state; there is no peace without Jerusalem as its capital,” Abbas said on Palestinian TV, reported WAFA, the official Palestinian Authority news agency.

‘Price tag’ attack hits Palestinian elementary school JERUSALEM (JTA) – Jewish extremists broke into an elementary school and threw stones in one of two “price tag” attacks on Palestinian villages in less than 24 hours.

Israeli media reported that teachers and students at the school in Jalud, a Palestinian village about 20 miles south of Nablus, locked themselves in classrooms during the attack on Wednesday afternoon.

WATCHDOGS on page 22

Israel-based Teva announces 5,000 layoffs JERUSALEM (JTA) – Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, headquartered in Israel, said it was laying off 5,000 employees.

The layoffs, which were announced Thursday, will take place at Teva sites worldwide and amount to 10 percent of the company’s workforce, according to the Israeli business daily Globes.

Italian ‘Apprentice’ to film in Jerusalem JERUSALEM (JTA) – The Italian version of “The Apprentice” will film an episode of the reality show in Israel.

Five of the contestants and a crew of about 40 will film next week in Jerusalem.

The contestants will be sent on a search for five symbols located around the city, including a menorah, to expose them and the Italian viewing public to sites of tourist and cultural significance.

SOCIAL LIFE • 11

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2013

SUKKAH RAISING AND PIZZA IN THE HUT! Sukkot at Adath Israel Congregation this year was very exciting. They celebrated sukkot with two big annual programs for the whole congregation. On Sunday, September 15, in conjunction with the religious school, hundreds of kids and adults helped decorate the Adath Israel Sukkah! There were many different craft stations and there was lots of food too! Everyone helped hang up the decorations in the Sukkah followed by a live sukkot song session in the sukkah. Then on Tuesday, September 24, Adath Israel held their annual Pizza in the Hut dinner. Families and congregants of all ages gathered together for food and fun and fulfilled the mitzvah of eating in the sukkah.

ANNOUNCEMENTS BAR MITZVAH ebi and Joel Varland are proud to announce the Bar Mitzvah of their son, Perrin Sunshein Varland on Oct. 5, 2013.

The Bar Mitzvah took place at Rockdale Temple.

Perrin is the brother of Carly, Toby and Oliver Varland. He is the grandson of Sylvia and Bob Maltz and Barb and Jerry Varland.

D

More photos on Page 12

DEGREE RECEIVED ndrew J. LaFever, son of Michael & Monica LaFever and grandson of Mimi and the late Maurice Ninio,received his Masters degree from The University of Cincinnati Carl H. Lindner School of Business August 10, 2013. He also received a Graduate Certificate in Marketing.

A

BIRTH lberta and Bob Schneider announce the birth of their grandson, Max Carmelo Gould.Max is the brother of Sophia Gould. He is the great grandson of Rose Schneider.

Proud parents are Beth and Matt Gould of Sudbury Ontario.

A

ANNOUNCEMENTS ARE FREE! BIRTHS • BAT/BAR MITZVAHS • ENGAGEMENTS WEDDINGS • BIRTHDAYS • ANNIVERSARIES Place your FREE announcement in The American Israelite newspaper and website by sending an e-mail to articles@americanisraelite.com

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12 • CINCINNATI JEWISH LIFE

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SUKKAH RAISING AND PIZZA IN THE HUT! Continued from Page 11

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2013

CINCINNATI JEWISH LIFE • 13

14 • DINING OUT

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Pomodori’s features quality ingredients with a home-made touch Bob Wilhelmy Dining Editor “Home-made” is an important concept for his restaurant business, according to Tim McLane, owner of the Pomodori’s pizza in Clifton and Montgomery. And home-made or, more accurately, hand-made in the Pomodori kitchen, reaches to foodstuffs that most other pizza places buy as packaged commodity items.

“We make our own pasta,” he said. “And once you’ve eaten fresh pasta, you can tell the difference between fresh and the dry stuff.” He is right about that.

The “dry stuff” is the pasta used in just about every restaurant in the Greater Cincinnati area.

Pomodori’s uses flour from durum wheat, but does not use a lot of the other additives found in the massmade dry stuff. Typically, the dry stuff has a shelf life of two and a half years. Preservatives? You think? Just maybe?

So, Pomodori’s features fresh pasta, made in its kitchen. Fresh pasta has a more tender finish than the brittle, dry stuff. Freshly made pasta provides a more uniform texture and a more pleasing sensation on the palate. My sense is that you will notice the difference – I know I can.

The pasta being fresh means that it is not pre-boiled (before you arrive, perhaps even at the beginning of the day!) and then “dropped” in boiling water again when you place an order for it.

That practice is called re-thermalizing, which is a euphemism for re-heating or re-cooking. It’s similar to being given left-overs, don’t you think?

Fresh pasta takes no longer than a few minutes to cook, according to Robby Gasperetti, a manager at the Clifton location of Pomodori’s. When the pasta comes to your table, it’s hot and it’s fresh, and it is better. The veggie pasta is really good, he says.

“It’s a sauce made with white wine and extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), and it has a sauté of onions, mushrooms and artichokes. Have that pasta with one of our Caesar salads, and that is a really good meal.”

We tried the Roma & goat cheese pasta, which features a creamy sauce, the fresh tomatoes, fresh basil, and fresh-pressed garlic, all done up in EVOO. Notice the repetitiveness in that sentence: fresh everything, including the pasta.

All that said, we recommend you go to Pomodori’s for the pizza as well as the pasta. We enjoyed the Mediterranean “wood-fired” pizza on our latest visit. The wood-fired emphasis is significant, because Pomodori’s was the

Mark Rysdon, chef, hand “spinning” and shaping a pizza dough.

An apple dessert pizza and a margherita pizza.

first pizza place to have a woodfired oven in Ohio, sliding out its first pizza 29 years ago.

The oven is fired by hardwood.

Its baking area reaches 650 to 700 degrees, and the stone bake surface will hold five to six pizzas at a time, according to Mark Rysdon, pizza chef. McLane said the wood-fired oven dates at least back to Roman times, and recent excavations of Pompeii revealed those folks were using such ovens more than 2,000 years ago. So, old

technology, but oh what a pizza!

What about the Mediterranean pizza? Toppings include: onion, tomato, spinach, garlic; and feta, mozzarella and provolone cheeses, with EVOO as part of the mix.

“We use ‘exotic’ ingredients in everything we do,” Gasperetti said. Our ingredients are all top of the line, like the parmesan cheese.

Most pizza places use the cheaper stuff. We use Parmesano Reggiano, which is the best,

The signage outside the Clifton location.

imported from Italy. Our cheese pizza is the same, and we use gruyere and fresh mozzarella, along with a good fontina. You notice the quality in the taste; better flavor. It’s just much better than the stuff you find on the average pizza.”

The Mediterranean choice features the homemade dough, which Rysdon and co-workers can be seen “spinning” and fist-catching at a counter near the wood-fired oven. That’s classic Italian, as

done in the Old Country. The dough is from scratch, made fresh daily.

For dessert, try the apple pizza.

Yummy! In fact, that word “yummy” applies to everything we tried.

See you at Pomodori’s.

Pomodori’s 121 West McMillian Clifton, OH 513-861-0080

DINING OUT • 15

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2013

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16 • OPINION

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How to inspire a Jewish future in America

By Yossi Prager NEW YORK (JTA) – Last week, the Pew Research Center released the first national demographic study of Jewish Americans in more than a decade. Like all such studies, there are disagreements at the edges about the accuracy of some of the results, but the study’s most significant findings have been generally accepted.

The big news is that one in five self-identified American Jews does not identify as Jewish by religion (one in three among younger Jews), and that even among Jews by religion, the intermarriage rate since 2005 is 55 percent. Looking only at the non-Orthodox, since 2005 more than 70 percent of the marriages have been intermarriages.

The big question now is how funders and Jewish organizations respond to this data.

By itself, the news that one-fifth of America’s Jews do not see themselves as Jewish by religion might not be disastrous. After all, there are many Israelis who identify with the Jewish people who call themselves “secular.” The problem is that the Pew study found that unlike Israeli “chilonim,” most of whom see themselves as integral members of the Jewish people and actually perform more than a few Jewish rituals as a matter of course, American “Jews of no religion” are unlikely to raise their children as Jews, be attached to Israel, give to Jewish causes or see being Jewish as important in their lives.

One Jew of no religion who was interviewed for the study described himself to Slate this way: “Six months ago I told a friendly Pew pollster that I consider myself Jewish but not religious, that my wife is not Jewish, and that my daughter is being raised ‘partially Jewish,’ in Pew’s terms. And as an intermarried Jewish nonbeliever, I think it’s time we anxious Jews stopped worrying and learned to love our assimilated condition – even if it means that our children call themselves half-Jewish and our grandchildren don’t consider themselves Jews at all.”

In short, most Jews of no religion have both feet out of the Jewish community – or at least are on their way to the exit sign.

The astonishingly high intermarriage rate among recent marriages outside of Orthodoxy is so important because according to the Pew study, nearly all children of two Jewish spouses are being raised as Jewish by religion, while only 20 percent of children of intermarriages are being raised exclusively as Jewish. Some of these couples are Jews of no religion and others are headed for the exits anyway. Others might be seen as having one foot within the Jewish

community and one foot out.

So what to do?

Without offering firm policy recommendations, which should be carefully developed, here are initial principles: • We should recognize the big picture. In the aggregate, the many programs developed by Jewish philanthropists and organizations after the 1990 population study that first showed alarming intermarriage rates have failed to stem the tide of assimilation. (It will be interesting to see whether the Pew study supports the contention that Birthright Israel increases Jewish identity and participation.) There is likely nothing that can be done to attract Jews heading for the exits, and the programmatic efforts should focus on those who at least have one foot still within the community.

• Based on the Pew study, at least in America, Judaism will endure across generations almost exclusively in families that identify with Judaism as a religion. (It is less clear to me what level of observance or participation generates a “tipping point.”) The reasons are less clear, but I imagine that part of the answer stems from the famous Ahad Ha’am saying, “More than the Jews have kept the Shabbos, the Shabbos has kept the Jews.”

Or, as Rabbi David Wolpe wrote in his thoughts about the study: “As a countercultural tradition in America, Judaism asks a great deal of its adherents. Judaism is a behavior-centered tradition. It is primarily enacted in a language strange to most American Jews [Hebrew] and requires an extensive education to understand its fundamentals. ... That which is continually diluted will eventually disappear.”

• Along these same lines, we should measure the likely success of programs based on whether they offer the intensive and immersive education needed to give participants an understanding of the power and beauty of Jewish values and practices. Anything less will fail to give participants sufficient motivation to make the commitment of time, energy and money needed for engaged Jewish life. Programs that attempt to “meet people where they are” can only be justified if they actually succeed in attracting Jews to more substantive ongoing programs.

• Every business owner knows that it costs less to retain a customer than to attract a new one. While economic considerations may not be the only relevant ones, it is far more cost effective to invest in Jews who are closer to the core of the engaged AMERICA on page 19

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Pew points the way toward more avenues to Jewish life

By Andres Spokoiny NEW YORK (JTA) – Since the release of the Pew report on American Jews, the question I’ve been asked most often is what surprises me about it.

What surprises me most is that anybody is surprised.

The Pew report points to a series of phenomena that are well known in the world today: identity fragmentation, radical free choice, embracement of diversity, and the breakdown of organizational and ideological loyalties.

Jews are, as Tolstoy said, like everybody else, only a little more so.

For many of these phenomena we are the canary in the coal mine, the early adopters and the over adapters.

The report is not good or bad news. It shows us a reality we can’t ignore anymore. It is up to us to see the opportunities hidden in this new reality. There are a few things we should be thinking about here.

One, inclusiveness is no longer optional. In a highly diversified community like ours, inclusiveness – of mixed marriages, of people with disabilities, of different sexual orientations, of different ideologies and levels of observance – is not optional. We can no longer think in terms of a majority including a minority because in our highly diverse world, everybody is in one way or the other part of a minority.

Two, we need more avenues to Jewish identity. Those of us who grew up in communities where the main expressions of identity were secular (Zionism, Hebrew, arts and culture) are not surprised to learn that more than 30 percent of young American Jews do not identify as religious in any way. But it would be

foolish for us to think that they have a weaker potential to identify themselves meaningfully as Jews.

If we don’t want to lose 30 percent of our people, we need to work much harder at developing alternative avenues for Jewish engagement.

We significantly underinvest in Jewish culture as a way to foster Jewish identity.

The report makes self-evident that one of the main tasks of Jewish leadership needs to be opening as many gateways as possible to Jewish life without being judgmental about which ones are more authentic. The more doors we open, the more people will come in. As the Talmud says, the Torah is a heart with many rooms. In a context of extreme uncertainty, we can’t foresee which ones will be successful in offering a good avenue for engagement.

Three, nothing is either/or. The Pew report shows that American Jews don’t see their identity in either/or terms. However, those of us in leadership positions usually do. In a world of fragmented, plural identities, we need to break loose from old definitions that condition our thinking and action. The concepts of religion, culture, nation and people are 19th-century ideas created to respond to the specific reality of European Christianity. They are not adequate (and never were) to describe the Jewish experience.

Things shouldn’t be either/or in terms of communal funding. We shouldn’t invest in culture at the expense of investments in education or synagogue life. Rather we should look at the synergies that will materialize if we stop looking at those areas as unconnected silos.

Skeptics will say that hard choic-

es must be made because resources are scarce. But excluding any part of Jewish expression will only shrink the pie further. Exclusion is a vicious circle. We should not look at funding as a zero-sum game because new initiatives and matching grants can bring new philanthropic resources to the Jewish community.

Four, organizational paradigms are inadequate. Legacy Jewish organizations in many cases are stuck in paradigms inherited from the Industrial Revolution. They are pyramidal, centralized, top-down structures that rely heavily on the loyalty of their constituents and donors.

Yet Jews don’t think in terms of organizational loyalty anymore.

Pew and other reports like Committed to Give and NextGen Donors show that Jews don’t give to organizations but to causes.

Organizations need to see themselves as tools for donors and users rather than vice versa.

This is not merely semantics. It implies seeing the relation between missions and users, donors or members in a completely different light.

Organizations need “network weavers” rather than fundraisers, facilitators rather than directors, and catalysts instead of organizers.

The Pew report and others show that this is a time of bubbling creativity in the Jewish community.

Rather than announcing doom, the report could spur us to create mechanisms that capture and catalyze that energy.

Five, we need new ideological leaders. The report shows that Jews haven’t ceased searching for values and meaning. But the ideological movements of the past PEW on page 19

JEWISH LIFE • 17

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2013

show him (which turned out to be Canaan) and considered him worthy of becoming a great nation and a blessing for the world. Why Abraham? Maimonides concludes that Abraham must have discovered ethical monotheism through his own rational thinking and therefore merited God’s election.

However, this is not a necessary conclusion. The last verses of the portion of Noah, which identify Terah as the father of Abraham, Nahor and Haran, also record that “Terah took his son Abram, and Lot, the son of Haran, his grandson, and his daughter-in-law Sarai… and they departed with them from Ur Kasdim to go to the Land of Canaan; they arrived at Haran and they settled there… and Terah died in Haran” (Gen. 11:31, 32).

Why must scripture tell us that Terah had originally set out for the Land of Canaan if he never reached it because he died on the way in Haran? The Bible will soon record a fascinating meeting between Abraham and Melchizedek, king of Shalem (Jerusalem, capital city of Canaan, see Ramban ad loc), and the text goes on to identify him as a “priest of God Most High” to whom Abraham gives tithes (Gen. 14:1820). Is it not logical to assume that there was one place in the world where the idea of a single God who had created the world and created the human being in His own image was still remembered from the time of Adam, and that place was Jeru-Shalem, Canaan, Israel? And if Terah had left Ur of Kasdim to reach Canaan, might it not have been because he wanted to identify with that land and with that God of ethical monotheism?

And if Abraham, Terah’s son, had joined his father in the journey – while Nahor had not – may we not assume that Abraham identified with his father’s spiritual journey even though his brother did not?

From this perspective, we understand why this story is followed

by God’s command to Abraham: Conclude the journey you began with your father and reach the destination, and perhaps the destiny, which unfortunately eluded him.

We now can similarly understand a heretofore difficult verse at the conclusion of God’s

Covenant Between the Pieces with Abraham, wherein He guarantees the patriarch “you will come to your fathers in peace and will be buried in a good old age” (Genesis 15: 15).

To which of Abraham’s fathers will he come in peace after he dies? Which direct ancestor of Abraham was righteous?

According to the version we have just suggested, the verse refers to Terah, who repented in his journey to Canaan.

Abraham, then, emerges as the true continuator of his father’s mission. The biblical message, through the lives of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, is that it behooves us to continue in our parents’ footsteps and to pass down the mission of ethical monotheism from generation to generation. Indeed, we must even attempt to improve upon their vision and accomplishments and to take proper advantage of the new possibilities the unique period in which we live may provide for us.

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

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LITTLE KNOWN CINCINNATI FACTS The Manischewitz Company is headquartered in New Jersey.

Where are the founders buried?

Manischewitz was founded in Cincinnati by Dov Behr and Nesha Manischewitz in 1888. They are interred in Beth Hamidrash Hagodol Cemetery in Covedale. The world’s top matzah manufacturer was based in Cincinnati until it moved to New Jersey sometime after World War I. Its Cincinnati plant closed in 1958.

This quiz provided by Jewish Cemeteries of Greater Cincinnati.

T EST Y OUR T ORAH KNOWLEDGE THIS WEEK’S PORTION: VAYERA (BRAISHITH 18—22) 1. Why did Avraham pray that fifty righteous people would save Sodom? a.) Would include from all walks of life b.) Ten people from each city c.) Half of a hundred 2. Avraham compared himself to which element? a.) Water b.) Fire c.) Earth and ashes 3. Avraham said to which king that Sarah was his sister?

Avimelech answered that he was unaware of the stolen wells and he did not suspect any member of his court of such conduct. Sforno 5. A 22:20-24 Avraham heard of his brothers children and grandchildren so he would not worry that Issac would be forced to marry a Canaanite woman. Sforno

EFRAT, Israel – “And the two of them went together... And the two of them went together” (Genesis 22:6, 8).

In previous commentaries, I have queried which of the two major protagonists of the akeda (binding of Isaac) story suffered the greater test: Abraham (Abram), the father who had to take the responsibility for the sacrifice of his son, or Isaac, the son who had to undergo the anguish of being laid out upon the altar. I have offered the interpretation of my mentor, Rav Moshe Besdin, who explained that Abraham received the command directly from God, which made his acquiescence almost understandable; Isaac is even more praiseworthy, because he only heard the command from his father, yet he was still willing to submit himself to the sacrificial act. In doing so, Isaac becomes the paragon of the ideal Jewish heir, who continues the traditions of his father even though he cannot be certain of their truth because he himself has not heard the Divine command.

However, Isaac is not the only biblical model of a continuator among the founders of our faith.

What about Abraham, the very first patriarch, who is pictured by the midrash as well as by Maimonides as a rebellious and a revolutionary iconoclast?

Abraham’s father, Terah was a prominent Chaldean idolater, a leader of the royal council, a purveyor of idols and idolatry.

Abraham – as a result of his own reasoning and his individualistic understanding, smashed his father’s idols and ideals in favor of his newly discovered vision of ethical monotheism.

I would submit that the midrashic and Maimonidean picture of Abraham the iconoclast, the breaker of his father’s idols, is not the only possible understanding of the patriarch’s early life; indeed, a careful reading of the biblical text might very well lead us to an opposite conclusion.

Maimonides seems to base his acceptance of Abraham as the midrashic rebellious son upon the fact that the Bible is uncharacteristically silent about why God suddenly commanded Abraham to leave Ur of the Chaldees for the unknown land which God would

To which of Abraham’s fathers will he come in peace after he dies?

Which direct ancestor of Abraham was righteous?

a.) King of Sodom b.) Avimelech king of Gerar c.) Nimrod 4. With whom did Avraham have a dispute over water rights? a.) Avimelech king of Philistines b.) Lot c.) King of Sodom 5. Whose descendants are listed? a.) Nachor brother of Avraham b.) Lot Avraham's nephew c.) Avimelech king of Philistines

3. B 20:2 Avimelech was an honest person who would not take a wife against her will, but Avraham felt there there was not enough fear of Hashem to prevent it. Ramban 4. A 21:21-26 Avraham felt that Avimelech as king should have taken care of the issue and there were known wicked people in his court.

by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin

SHABBAT SHALOM: PARSHAT VAYERA Genesis 18:1 -22: 24

Written by Rabbi Dov Aaron Wise

ANSWERS 1. B 18:24 2. C 18:27 In the course of Avraham's prayer for Sdom, he compares himself to earth and ashes. He would have been earth by the war with the kings and ashes by Nimrod without Hashem's mercy. Rashi

Sedra of the Week

18 • JEWZ IN THE NEWZ

JEWZ

IN THE

By Nate Bloom Contributing Columnist At the Movies “Carrie”, which opens on Friday, Oct. 18, is the third film production of the Stephen King horror novel about a teen girl with telekinetic powers. The 1976 film version, which most have seen, starred Sissy Spacek as Carrie and PIPER LAURIE, now 82, who was Oscar-nominated for her performance as Carrie’s wacko religious mother, Margaret. The new version stars Chloë Grace Moretz as Carrie, with Julianne Moore as Margaret. Handsome newcomer ANSEL ELGORT, 19, co-stars as the “nice boy” Tommy Ross, who takes Carrie to the prom.

Elgort’s father is ARTHUR ELGORT, 73, a famous fashion photographer. Opera director Grethe Barrett Holby, Ansel’s mother, isn’t Jewish.

The new version is directed

by KIMBERLY PEIRCE, 46, who is best known for directing and co-writing “Boys Don’t Cry” (1999). Her mother is Jewish.

The 2012 Israeli film, “Zaytoun,” opens soon in theaters near me. But like a lot of indie or foreign films, it has or will play in a very limited number of theaters. I checked and the film is already available on DVD and via just about every on-demand service.

Directed by ERAN RIKLIS, 58, “Zaytoun” stars STEPHEN DORFF, 40 (“Blade,” “Something”) as Yoni, an Israeli pilot who is shot down in 1982 over Beirut and taken prisoner by Palestinians living in a Lebanese refugee camp. Among his captors is Fahed, a ten-year-old whose father is killed in the bombing raid that Yoni participated in. Fahed’s father’s greatest wish was to plant his prized olive tree in his home village in Israel. Fahed realizes he can use Yoni to get past the border and fulfill his father’s wish. Their journey is a large part of the film.

Dorff is the son of STEVE DORFF, 65, who has composed a lot of TV scores and, believe it or not, has co-written a slew of Country music hits. The younger Dorff was recently asked by a New York TV station if his father being Jewish influenced him to take the role and what he did to research his role.

Here’s part of what he said: “My dad is Jewish; my mother is Catholic, but I didn’t grow up religious. I’m sure my dad and grandparents are happy I made this Israeli film… I learned Hebrew… worked with the government and air force there. I was allowed access to El Al cap-

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

NEWZ

tains who were captured and tortured around the time of the story.”

What Makes Up “Sexy”??

As you probably heard by now, Esquire magazine named actress SCARLETT JOHANSSON, 28, its “Sexiest Woman Alive” for the second time (the first time was in 2006).

“Nobody” is disputing her win – but “on paper” – she should be beaten out by a lot of other female film stars. Yes, she has a curvy figure – but she is pretty short (5’3”) and, at some angles, her face isn’t that classically pretty (her nose is certainly not a “button”).

But, like MILA KUNIS, 30, another Jewish actress who tops “sexy” lists despite being less than classically beautiful, Johansson glows with an appealing energy and intelligence that transmutes into that elusive thing, “sexiness.”

Johansson is on the cover of the October issue of “Interview” magazine and inside she is interviewed by director DARREN ARONFOSKY, 44, (“Black Swan”).They cover everything from her SAT scores; to politics; to her upcoming films (which includes an adaptation of a Truman Capote story that she is directing and co-wrote. It films this summer.) In short, it’s a smart interview that would not be out of place on PBS and it’s at a level that so many other celebs would be incapable of maintaining. No wonder that smart directors are bowled over by Johansson. (‘Google’ “Johansson and Aronofsky” and you’ll easily find the interview on line. It includes a new photo shoot of Johansson).

SKYPE-IN’ with the Rabbi Last July, I reported that SNL star Seth Meyers, 39, whose paternal grandfather was Jewish, was engaged to marry lawyer ALEXI ASHE, 30. I noted that Ashe’s mother was the daughter of Holocaust survivors and that her father was a Jew-by-Choice – and I predicted that she would have a Jewish wedding. Well, the couple wed on Sept. 1 and Meyers appeared on the Letterman show last week and disclosed a lot of wedding details. He said that the rabbi who his wife “grew up with” presided at his wedding. He added that before the wedding he and the rabbi conversed via a Skype hook-up. Meyers commented that talking to a rabbi via Skype seemed to him to “combine something very old and something very new.”

FROM THE PAGES 150 Y EARS A GO

75 Y EARS A GO

The concert at the Melodron Miss Fannie Marshuetz, a young lady of our city, who lately returned from Europe, where she has enjoyed the training of some excellent vocal masters, made a very successful debut on Tuesday evening before a very appreciative and flattering audience. After Kukel’s introductory piano solo, which in itself contains sufficient music to be admired, though gaining much by the way of the nimble-fingered artist handles it, and after a well sung quartette by four Cincinnati favorites, Miss Marshuetz delighted us with Donizetti’s very beautiful but equally difficult aria, “O luce di quest anima.”

Mr. Powers sang well.

He has an excellent voice and seems to throw his very heart into the song. We like Mr. Powers.

He is a very excellent tenor. – November 13, 1863

From a fellow columnist, Al Roth, in the “News Record”, we steal the following which he reprinted from the “Mississippi State Spectator”:

125 Y EARS A GO Mike Lipman, one of the best known characters about Cincinnati, is dead. He began life as a circus clown, was afterward part proprietor of a large circus, and quite wealthy; failed and became a pawn broker, who was constantly in trouble with the police, and finally became insane and died. He was notably freehanded and generous, and the anecdotes that are told of him would fill a volume. In spite of his faults, and they were many, he was generally liked by those who knew him, and there are many who were helped by him in time of need who will hear with regret of the death of Mike Lipman, the pawn broker.

Miss Celia Rothchild, of 3007 Wabash Avenue has left for Cincinnati to pass several weeks with friends in that city. – October 19, 1888

100 Y EARS A GO The Hebrew Union College of Cincinnati, OH opened this year with about 83 students, the largest number ever registered at one time.

Mr. and Mrs. Louis Gershunny of Covington, KY announce the engagement of their daughter, Bessie, to Mr. Joseph Kaplan of Chicago, IL. Sol E. Bacharach, formerly of Cincinnati, died in New York, Monday night, October 13, 1913 in his 73rd year. Funeral Friday in New York.– October 16, 1913

Desired Qualities of a Date: 1. Dress well.

2. Don’t eat too much on dates.

3. Be able to hold a pleasant conversation.

4. Don’t eat too much on dates 5. Don’t be snooty.

6. Don’t eat too much on dates.

7. Be a good dancer.

8. Don’t eat too much on dates.

Miss Marianne Sickles, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. H. George Sickles of New York City, and formerly of Cincinnati, is freshman representative in “Wigs and Queues” dramatic club, and has been invited to serve on the business staff of “The Bulletin”, Barnard College’s semi weekly newspaper. – October 20, 1938

50 Y EARS A GO Judy Deckelbaum, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Myron Deckelbaum, of 1868 Larchwood Place, will become a Bas Mitzvah at Adath Israel, Lexington Ave and Reading Rd, Friday October 25th at 8:30 pm.

She will conduct the entire service, read the sedra, and chant the Haftora in braile.

The braile prayer books and bible have been provided by the Institute for the Jewish Blind.

Judy has been an excellent student. A few years ago she was elected Queen Esther for the Purim parade.

Relatives and friends are invited to worship with the family and to attend the kiddush following the services.

Mrs. Jule Silverman, 1543 Shenandoah Avenue wishes to thank Rabbis David I. Indich and Bernard Greenfield, relatives and friends, for their kind thoughts and good wishes during her recent illness at the Jewish Hospital. She is recuperating at home. – October 17, 1963

25 Y EARS A GO Holocaust Survivors of Cincinnati invite you to attend their annual social to be held Saturday, October 29, 8:30 pm at the Jewish Community Center.

Home made desserts and refreshments will be served. Dietary

laws observed. Entrance: $2 per/person.

No reservations required.

For more information, call Etta Fischer, Tolly Logan, or Ruth Levine.

Carrie Goldhoff has joined Jewish Hospital as Manager, practice consulting. She will assist the medical staff with marketing needs and in general practice operations.

Goldhoff graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in social work in 1983 from the University of Georgia in Athens.

She received her Master of Business Administration and her Master of Hospital and Health Administration degrees from Xavier University in 1987.

Before joining Jewish Hospital, she was employed as a healthcare consultant at Ernst and Whinney.

Goldhoff lives with her husband in Clifton.– October 27, 1988

10 Y EARS A GO Netanel (Ted) Deutsch, Publisher of “The American Israelite”, has named Iris Ruth Pastor Editor of the newspaper, effective October 28 Pastor, a Cincinnati native, succeeds Stanley H. Bard who served as Managing Editor since January 2001. Bard will assume new duties as Executive Director of the Narcolepsy Network, a national non-profit organization with headquarters in Cincinnati.

Pastor brings more 20 years of media experience to the position. She is the former co-publisher/editor of “Cincinnati Kids” and the creator of the syndicated column, “Incidentally, Iris.”

During the past 10 years, Pastor traveled throughout the country speaking about personal development, with a focus on empowerment and bridge-building skills.

Rabbi Eliot Marrus will teach a full course on Conservative Judaism, its history, approach to Jewish law and observance, theological positions, and its development as a major movement in American, Israeli and world Judaism at Congregation B’nai Tzedek. Using Conservative Judaism: Our Ancestors, Our Descendants, by Rabbi Elliot Dorff, as primary text, the course will combining lectures, discussions and text study. There is no charge for the course, except for the cost of the text, and the classes are open to the community. – October 23, 2003

COMMUNITY CALENDAR / CLASSIFIEDS • 19

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2013

COMMUNITY CALENDAR

DO YOU WANT TO PLACE A CLASSIFIED?

October 17 6:30 pm – JVS Career Services Firing Up Your Job Search Wise Temple

October 25 7:15 pm – Installation of Rabbi Karen Thomashow, Rabbi Rachel Maimin, and Rabbi Sydney Henning Wise Temple

October 18 6:15 pm –got shabbat?

Wise Temple

October 27 5:30 pm–30th Annual Cincinnati Associates Tribute Dinner for HUC-JIR Hyatt Regency Cincinnati

Send an e-mail including what you would like in your classified & your contact information to

November 3 Sarah’s Place Women’s Retreat Embassy Suites Conference Center

business@ americanisraelite.com

October 20 4:00 pm–Concerts on Clifton with Constella Cincinnati: Chamber music featuring Mahler, Mendelssohn, and Schoenfield HUC–JIR Scheuer Chapel October 22 1:00 pm – American Sign Museum Tour and lunch for Seniors Wise Temple October 24 5:30 pm–Opening reception for the Boris Schatz Collection at HUC Skirball Museum

November 10 5:30 pm–Remembering the Kristallnacht Program Mayerson Hall. HUC November 24 5:00 – 7:00 pm Overnight Jewish Camping and Israel Travel Fair Adath Israel Congregation

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

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

(513) 703-3343 • myshalomfamily.org The Center for Holocaust & Humanity Education (513) 487-3055 • holocaustandhumanity.org Vaad Hoier (513) 731-4671 Workum Fund (513) 899-1836 • workum.org YPs at the JCC (513) 761-7500 • mayersonjcc.org CONGREGATIONS 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

or call Erin at 621-3145

ADVENTURE from page 5 gram is administered by the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati.

Since the start of this hallmark program in 2000, the Jewish Foundation’s Trustees have shown their deep commitment to our young people, with the ultimate goal of creating strong, devoted Jewish leaders.

They understand that these are the best investments a community can make in its future.

“Numerous studies confirm that overnight Jewish camping and educational experiences in Israel powerfully contribute to life–long Jewish identity, Jewish education, leadership development and connection to Israel,” said Jewish Foundation President Michael R. Oestreicher.

“This year’s incentive grants put Cincinnati at the forefront of American Jewish communities encouraging these experiences.”

First-year camping grants of up to $1,800 are available for a session of at least three weeks (or $900 for a two-week session). Second-year grants are also available: up to

AMERICA from page 16 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

Jewish community, whether they are children or young adults. The study tells us that these, too, are Jews at risk of assimilation. Investment in these young people is our community’s best chance for increasing retention of an energizing nucleus that has the potential to reverse the trends painfully evident in the study.

We all prefer good news to bad.

This has caused some commentators on the Pew study to celebrate the number of Jews regardless of their commitments or argue that the PEW from page 16 200 years – Reform, Conservative, Orthodoxy and ultra-Orthodoxy – are all modern phenomena created as different responses to the encounter between Judaism and the realities of the 19th and 20th centuries. They are historical, and we’d be ill advised to see them as timeless. They may not be fully adequate to respond to the different set of challenges facing Jews in the 21st century.

SENIOR SERVICES

• • • • •

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

(513) 531-9600 $1,000 for a session of at least three weeks (or $500 for a two-week session).

Jewish high school students (ages 16–18) from Cincinnati are eligible for a one-time grant of up to $6,500 for travel to Israel on an approved peer educational program.

Post-high school students (ages 1826) can receive an additional grant of up to $5,000.

Barb Miller, Director of Community Building at the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati, said, “Think about it – every single Jewish child in Cincinnati can receive over $14,000 to take advantage of all that Jewish camping and Israel travel have to offer. I don’t believe there is another city in the world offering such amazing opportunities.”

Children, teens and their families are encouraged to attend the Overnight Jewish Camping and Israel Travel Fair, November 24, 5-7 p.m., at Adath Israel Congregation, to meet with representatives from a variety of overnight Jewish camps and Israel trip providers.

answer is to be more “welcoming” of those who are heading for the exits.

There are no easy fixes. The only way to retain the next generation will be to inspire them to desire and love substantive Jewish life. If enough Jews can be so inspired, the Jewish future will be far rosier than the snapshot offered by the Pew study.

Yossi Prager is the executive director-North America of the Avi Chai Foundation

So maybe instead of lamenting the lack of connection to modern Jewish ideologies, we should be working on creating postmodern ideologies. This is not a purely philosophical issue. It’s about the critical question of what Judaism as a culture, religion and civilization has to offer to those of us who yearn for meaning in an uncertain world.

Answering the question of why be Jewish is just as important as how to be Jewish.

20 • ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT / BOOK REVIEW

Lainey’s Blog Live from Israel

by Lainey Paul I never know how to properly start a blog entry, and I'm getting tired of the classic, "Well, long time no talk!" but it just seems to be the best transition! I'll work on something better for next time, I promise.

I want to clear the air a bit since from my last post I feel people might have gotten the wrong impression from what I was trying to convey. No, I'm not second guessing any of the decisions I've made, and am most certainly not getting ready to pack my bags and come on home.

What I was trying to express was the "imaginary wall" (I guess you could call it that) I had gotten to and started bumping my head on. I'm going on month TEN of my army service. While that might not sound like a whole lot of time, when put into the perspective of FOUR years, it's the perfect amount of time where the newness and excitement about serving in the "holy army" starts wearing off and the incredible, intense and lengthy commitment I've gotten myself into, begins to fully sink in.

I still undeniably believe that this was one of the best decisions I've ever made, but that doesn't mean I can't freak out a little when reality sets in and I realize I'm pretty much married to the IDF for four years. Good thing one year is almost over!!

I shouldn't get too excited yet, because I have a feeling in these next couple of months, they're really going to make us show that we truly deserve moving onto the second year...if you know what I mean. But I'll keep you all posted on how it's going, don't you worry.

It's crazy for me to think that the Chaggim are already over!

One really awesome perk about my unit, though, is that I don't have to close holidays (stay on base) since we don't do guard duty and they don't have anything else for us to do. So I got off for a long weekend for Rosh Hashanah and I went "home" to the kibbutz. It was super crazy since it was three days of chag (because of Shabbat) and two

seudot (huge meals) were required each day. Seven seudot and probably seven pounds later, I returned to the army for a week in the shetach (away from base) so we could lose everything we gained over the new year.

That was not a good week for me. I fasted on Sunday for Tzom Gedaliah so I couldn't participate in any activities Sunday. Monday I had to go to the emergency room since I started losing feeling in my right hand which was super fun. I mean hey, at least I got to watch movies in the waiting room! Everything is ok, though, I'll hopefully finish the year in one piece. Because I was in the emergency room for most of the day Tuesday, I obviously couldn't participate Tuesday either. And then Wednesday all activity got cancelled since we got in a lot of trouble for something that had happened on the base and we had to go back early.

It was a very unsuccessful week unfortunately - not one of those weeks where you have that sense of accomplishment and that feelgood feeling in the pit of your stomach. Oh well! On to the next.

That Shabbat was Yom Kippur and I was supposed to go to Jerusalem to visit everyone on my old gap-year, Nativ, but I had to go back to the kibbutz and pack for my trip to America instead. Unfortunately I had a really difficult fast and ended up fainting in the middle of shul at the end on Nehilah. I probably had everyone on the woman's side hovering over me, and even some male doctors as well. I did, however, wake up and open my eyes to the blowing of the shofar which was very powerful. I timed it perfectly I guess!

Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were very relaxed days before our ten days off for Sukkot.

Sunday and Monday we basically sat in a room for the entire day talking about our feelings. The first day was more general problems the entire group had, while the second day was focused purely on personal problems. Each person was given 20 minutes, and in that time everyone else in the group spoke about them - what they like, dislike, strengths, weakness, areas for improvement, etc. It was very eye opening and moving to hear what everyone had to say. It was so amazing how open everyone was being and nothing (and I mean nothing) was held inside. I even asked special permission to speak in English for this seminar so I could better express myself, and to my surprise my wish was granted! Everyone was utterly in awe as I spoke and they kept saying, "Wow, you're a real per-

son!" It was incredible! I feel like my group certainly met the "real" Lainey.Up until this point, I have not been allowed to speak a word of English. My commanders were even in shock and made it a point to personally come up to me and say how amazing it was to hear me speak and they can't wait to hear specifically what I have to say about them. I guess when you're use to hearing someone speak like a five-year-old, it could be an incredible difference hearing them in their first language. It felt really good!

Tuesday we volunteered with kids to help build a garden and a sukkah which was great. I love that we're able to have those days where we also give back, though I guess I'm giving back everyday!

By Tuesday night I was on a plane back to the USA! I flew straight to Los Angeles to spend Sukkot with my Grandma, Mom,siblings (and nephew) and cousins. It's hard that not all my family lives in one place but I'm really happy I got to see everyone. I even got to help one of my close friends move into UCLA as a freshman,which was awesome.

It just so happened to be perfectly timed for when I was in LA. Saturday night I took the all nighter to Chicago where I was picked up by a friend on my garin (he was on his month vacation from the army). He took me on a nice little tour of Skokie where I got to meet his family. I then visited some family friends in their Sukkah and then we headed to my roommate's brother's engagement party. That was also perfect timing that I happened to be in Chicago when two of my garin friends were also home and that it just so happened to be her brother's “L'chayim”! It was so nice being there with her and we all had an wonderful time. I then headed to a great Mexican dinner with my ex babysitter turned older sister who I haven't seen forever, before she dropped me off at the Megabus where I overnighted it to the University of Cincinnati.

There Jake Picked my up at 4:45 am. What a nice brother! I spent the rest of the night with him in his apartment (I can't believe my little brother has a college apartment!!!).

I had a fantastic visit and though it wasn’t super long, I’ll certainly take what I can get. I had great bonding time with my brother, celebrated my mom’s birthday with her, spent time with Max and Dad, and saw friends I hadn’t seen in months! I certainly would call that successful :) Shana Tova! Until next time...

Lainey

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife,

by Francine Prose

By Sue W. Ransohoff Book Reviewer Anne Frank, Anne Frank: what an icon she is, and has always been!

We know a fragment of her life, and that fragment has embedded itself in our minds: the two plus years she spent in the Annex, her diary, and her horrific death.

What do we not know?

Francine Prose, author and in this case historian, has looked at her life, and has expanded and enriched what we know about this unique individual.

We learn that Anne Frank was no angel; she was subject to the same friction with her mother that 98% of teenaged girls are; as well as to illadvised crushes on whatever boy is available - and in her case, there was only one.

Prose devotes the first part of her book to The Diary of Anne Frank, which had three existences: the first, written by the quite young Anne Frank; the second, her revision of the first and the third, the compilation by her father. Although Prose never loses sight of the basic horror of the event, this segment is a fascinating lesson in creative writing, melded with the apparently built-in genius of Anne Frank. Prose points out that Frank knew, young as she was, how to develop a character, how to thread into her narrative here and there aspects and characteristics of the residents of the Annex: Peter, the Van Pels couple, until we know these people - neither lovable nor evil - but very real, very three dimensional individuals. Prose asserts that a fourteen-year old girl could not have carried this out. A two-years-older, more mature writer, could only have done the revision. Two years made a notable difference.

She next approaches the whole story of the publishing of The Diary.

It's a fascinating narrative. Looking back, we wonder how there could ever have been any doubt that this was a unique and memorable work.

But it was, as we know, turned down by a number of editors and publishers. Some called it “dull,” “a dreary record of family bickering.” But at Doubleday, an assistant named Judith Jones, found the book at the bottom of a slush pile, “I couldn't stop reading,” she reports, and went to Frank Price, a senior staffer at Doubleday, to insist that the book be published. It would be easy to say “the rest is history,” and, of course, it is, but one of triumph that is also sullied by conflicts of interest, greed and pettiness.

Otto Frank, Anne's father, has been both lauded and criticized for his part in the publishing of the Diary: he edited, partly for a worthy written style, and partly to protect his daugh-

Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife, by Francine Prose

ter's name from any connection with the sexuality of a teenager, whose growing maturity was surely enhanced by the strictures of captivity.

When the book was published, it was reviewed in The New York Times by Meyer Levin, a rave review that contributed to its instant success.

But this was not a purely written review; Levin was interested in producing the play, a clear conflict of interest.

Then, however, we retrace time to the life after the Annex for Anne Frank… It is known that she died in Bergen-Belsen… of starvation, typhus, and all the ills that beset concentration camp victims. Her life, her memoir, and her death have focused our attention on the Holocaust perhaps as much as that of any victim, because she was young, because she was so unusually gifted, because she worked hard to utilize her gift - and because she left it to us. We will always wonder: if she, like her father, had survived, what might she not have accomplished? How many other “Anne Franks” were there whose records did not survive, nor did they? The answers to these questions are unknowable.

Francine Prose takes us to the horrific details of her end of life days, and her death. At one point she threw away all her clothes because they were infested with lice, she was, despite the cold, wrapped only in a blanket. Life was hell. She was not yet sixteen when she died.

The writer, Francine Prose, covers in great detail and as a result of admirable research, the making of the play about Anne Frank, and finally the film. Regrettably, both were mired in dissention, ambition, money-grubbing. The writer Meyer Levin became obsessed with the subject, and was increasingly both seriously troubled and a troublemaker.

Lawsuits between him and Otto REVIEW on page 22

AUTOS • 21

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2013

rotary gear selector that has become an interior focal point for corporate cousin Jaguar. The standard 8-inch central touchscreen controls most infotainment and climate control functions and is easy enough to use, if sometimes slow to respond. The overall appearance of the dash, par-

ticularly the center stack and console, is classy but high-tech.

Extensive use of aluminum and other lightweight measures help the 2013 Range Rover Evoque to be one of the lightest models in its class.

The ride is sophisticated and beautifully executed, particularly with the

adjustable suspension of the Dynamics package. Placing a fourcylinder engine in a Range Rover might seem like a recipe for epic slowness, but it's actually quite a punchy engine, with a pleasingly sporty ride.

MSRP begins at $41,145.

Range Rover Evoque

Range Rover Evoque Just like luxury sedans, the wide range of luxury compact crossovers follow a fairly safe and predictable script, particularly when it comes to exterior styling. But Land Rover's 2013 Range Rover Evoque definitely is the extrovert in a playground of mostly reserved playmates.

In U.S. showrooms you'll find the Evoque fitted only with allwheel drive and the fairly serious Terrain Response System that allows you to fine-tune the traction characteristics. Add in a responsive turbocharged four-cylinder engine and you're buying one of the more efficient yet capable small luxury crossovers around.

The Evoque is the only model in the segment to offer a two-door hatchback body style in addition to the utility segment's standard fourdoor hatchback configuration. The two-door Coupe looks sharky and serious. With the 2013 Land Rover Evoque, you also won't find the traditional hierarchy of trim levels – Land Rover instead sells more or less one basic Evoque with “design themes” – four for the four-door and three design themes for the two-door Coupe.

The Evoque's assertive styling means there's nearly as much space than in its boxier rivals. But for the way most people use a luxury crossover, the Evoque holds its own in terms of features, functionality and all-weather capability.

The 2013 Land Rover Range Rover Evoque is a small luxury crossover SUV available in fourdoor and two-door (Coupe) body styles. The four-door starts with a new basic but comprehensive trim level called "Pure." On top of that one can add the Pure Plus, Pure Premium, Dynamic and Prestige packages. The 2013 Evoque Coupe comes in Pure Plus, Pure Premium and Dynamic themes.

The four-door Evoque Pure comes standard with 19-inch wheels, front and rear foglights, automatic wipers, a rearview camera, front and rear parking sensors, a power liftgate, driver-selectable drive modes, dual-zone automatic climate control, a tilt-and-telescoping steering wheel, power front seats (six-way driver, four-way passenger), partial leather upholstery, an auto-dimming rearview mirror, Bluetooth phone and audio connectivity, a touchscreen electronics

interface and an 11-speaker sound system with a CD player, an auxiliary audio jack and two USB audio jacks. Pure Plus adds a panoramic sunroof and full leather upholstery.

The Pure Premium package adds adaptive xenon headlamps with automatic high beams, a blind-spot warning system, a 360-degree parking camera system, keyless ignition/entry, a navigation system with voice controls and a 17-speaker surround-sound audio system with a 10-CD changer.

The Dynamic package includes all Pure Premium equipment but features a sportier ambience with unique 19-inch wheels, different trim inside and out, a rear skid plate, different color choices and perforated leather. The Adaptive Dynamics package adds an adaptive suspension to the Dynamic package.

The Prestige (four-door only) is similar in concept to the Dynamic but features more luxurious design items. It also gets richer, more supple leather as well as additional front seat adjustments.

A Climate Comfort package consists of heating for the front seats, steering wheel, windshield washer jets and windshield. Other Evoque options include 20-inch wheels, satellite and HD radio, a rear-seat entertainment system and parallel parking assist.

Every 2013 Range Rover Evoque comes with a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine that generates 240 horsepower and 250 pound-feet of torque. It drives all four wheels through a six-speed automatic transmission. EPA fuel economy estimates are respectable at 18 mpg city/28 mpg highway/22 mpg combined.

Standard safety features on all 2013 Range Rover Evoques include antilock brakes, stability and traction control, trailer sway control, front side airbags and side curtain airbags.

Also standard are parking sensors and a rearview camera.

The 2013 Range Rover Evoque's emphasis on design extends to its interior, where rich, multitone combinations of leather, plastics and metal combine in the various design themes, resulting in a cabin that certainly has more flair than the standard designs found in most other luxury crossover interiors.

Visual interest centers on the “floating” center stack and the

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Zimerman joined the Federation in September 2012 as Assistant to the Director of Community Building.

However, her passion has always been working with Jewish youth, Israel travel and overnight Jewish camping.

Barbara Miller, Director of Community Building, said, “Karyn has demonstrated through her work at the Federation that she will go the extra mile, always reaching for the

best. We are thrilled that we could promote her to this position, as we know she will be extremely dedicated to helping parents and their children learn about their options for overnight camps and Israel trip providers.”

Zimerman grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa. She attended Habonim Camp as a teenager and spent a semester in Israel after high school. Her husband, Alon, whom she met in South Africa, is Israeli. The couple traveled many times to Israel, where Alon’s family

still lives. In 1999, the couple and their children immigrated to Cincinnati.

They chose to live in Cincinnati because they realized that it was a “…warm, welcoming and affordable place to live that offered many opportunities for raising a family,” said Zimerman.

Karyn’s children, Stefanie and Matthew, attended Yavneh Day School (now Rockwern Academy) through middle school. They both spent their summers at Camp Livingston and were recipients of

Israel travel grants from the Foundation in high school, which they used for a BBYO teen trip to Israel. Stefanie is now beginning her second year of service in the IDF after making aliyah, and Matthew is a sophomore at the University of Cincinnati. The family belongs to Beth Israel Synagogue in Hamilton, Ohio.

“Being actively connected to my Jewish identity and community has always been a core component of my life,” said Zimerman.

emony, blocked by the throngs that had arrived an hour, two hours before us.

Even the loudspeaker that broadcast the service seemed almost out of sight. Some men began to strategize, to find anywhere to sit or stand in peace. Dozens of boys climbed onto a ledge a story above the street, sitting in a row like fans on a bleacher.

The rest of us pressed on, most trying to draw as close as possible to the body, the remainder swept along with the horde. The small space between individuals evaporated as the thousands behind us pushed forward, packing us in a unified mass and forcing us on, past a row of ambulances, past a soldier standing straight on the roof of a van, almost at attention. Was he on duty, or was he one of the many just trying to get a better view?

We settled into place, some by

squeezing off into a side street, others using their elbows to create an inch of breathing room. With our view limited to the thousands surrounding us, only vaguely aware of the hundreds of thousands beyond, most of us turned our attention to the songs that coursed through the air, prayers of repentance usually sung ahead of the High Holidays.

Many of us murmured a traditional calland-response. Others whispered silently.

One man, spotting a friend sitting on a ledge across the street, called out his name with a smile. Another snapped a picture with his cellphone.

With the crowd, we said the Shema.

Over and over, we declared that God is the true God. We screamed the 13 attributes of mercy. We begged for forgiveness.

Afew of us began to cry, but the soft tears were soon outmatched by the

screams amplified by the speakers. Rabbi after rabbi repeated the same biblical phrases. Some, unable to control their wailing, recited their eulogies in a chant, almost as if they were reading Torah.

solved back into Jerusalem’s maze-like haredi district. The rest of us walked back to the bus station. Only then, catching the news, did I hear that 800,000 people had come to pay respects to Ovadia Yosef. It was 10 percent of the country.

Small fractions of that crowd overwhelmed the bus station, Jerusalem’s transportation hub, making lines impossible and schedules irrelevant. Buses bound for Tel Aviv, usually departing every 20 minutes, came and went as fast as they could fill up.

But one thing didn’t change. As soon as they were separated from the grief and the prayers, passengers began to scream, push and curse trying to board the bus – as if it were any other night at the Jerusalem Central Bus Station. Only then did it seem that things would, before long, return to normal.

WATCHDOGS from page 10

in my life, and there is absolutely no problem with that.” In September, Moshe Feiglin, a Knesset member from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing Likud party, responded to President Obama’s United Nations speech by noting the “historic truth: that there is no ‘Palestinian’ nation, no ‘Palestinian’ history and no ‘Palestinian’ national aspirations.”

The State Department study also found that schoolbooks in both Israel and the Palestinian territories “present unilateral national narratives that present the other as the enemy.”

“Both sides bear responsibility for violence and breaking agreements,” said Yizhar Be’er, a former journalist and the CEO of Keshev, an Israeli civil liberties organization that monitors the press. “We need to look at every state-

ment against what else was published.

What was there besides that? Was that the only thing in the media?”

Mousa Rimawi, the general director of MADA, a Palestinian organization that advocates for press freedom, said the perspectives reflected in media coverage emerge from discrepancies between the Israeli and Palestinian narratives.

“When there are some rocket attacks from Gaza, you find [Israeli] journalists and politicians who ask the government to invade Gaza or retaliate in massive actions, and when that happens they kill and injure thousands of Palestinian civilians,” Rimawi wrote in an email to JTA. “Palestinian media outlets host released prisoners because they consider them fighters for freedom, not terrorists.”

REVIEW from page 20

Unfortunately, those who are deniers are unlikely to change their erroneous beliefs.

At the very end, she talks of teaching the Diary and of the identification of teenagers with Anne… deeper and more intensely than she had anticipated.

It is clear that Francine Prose has uncovered numerous facets of the Anne Frank Diary in all its aspects; she has served to bring together expert research, professional writing, and, yes, deep emotion. There seems no end to our interest in this unusual girl and her tragic end; with a book like this we know just about all that we need to know about her and her impact upon our knowledge of that tragic chapter of history.

D EATH N OTICES

ADMINISTRATOR from page 5

UNGAR, Thomas “Tom,” age 78, died October 6, 2013; 2 Cheshvan 5774.

GOLDMAN, Mildred, age 85, died October 10, 2013; 6 Cheshvan, 5774.

LEVY, Bernard, age 89, died October 11, 2013; 7 Cheshvan 5774.

FUNERAL from page 10 cold drink to benefit the soul of Maran, may his holy righteous memory be blessed!”

The faithful heeded the call, crowding around a spigot, holding cheap plastic cups that formed a growing pile on the ground once the mitzvah was fulfilled.

Behind them, on the street, men and boys stood with oversized tins collecting charity. Paper printouts taped to the cans promised that Maran approved of the collection.

As the sun began to set, a traditional Sephardic chant pierced the air. It was not the funeral itself; we saw, minutes later, that we would not come close to the cer-

“There is an official policy of the P.A. to incite hatred against Israelis and to glorify people who’ve killed Israelis as heroes,” Marcus said.

Marcus’ view is supported by the Zionist Organization of America, which in a news release this month noted a recent Facebook post by a member of Abbas’ Fatah faction praising the attacker of a 9-year-old Israeli girl.

“The P.A. is not a peace partner,” the ZOAconcluded. “It is the incubator of war and hatred.”

Critics note that Israelis also engage in rhetoric that arguably qualifies as incitement.

In July, Israeli Economy Minister Naftali Bennett was widely criticized for saying he had “killed lots of Arabs

Frank ensued. His New York Times rave book review, helped in making the book a great critical and popular success, but by the end of this sordid chapter he believed, incredibly, that he had more rights to Anne Frank's legacy than did her father. He felt that he should be the play-write; others involved in the project increasingly wished he would just go away.

Both the play and the film were successes; one must believe that the inherent meaning of the diary somehow shone through the attendant disputes.

Finally, Prose tackles Holocaust Denial, and Anne Frank Denial, and does a great deal to refute them.

“My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen!” So began many of the eulogies, invoking the prophet Elisha’s mourning of Elijah, spoken now not only by Ovadia Yosef’s sons, but by colleagues, students, chief rabbis, politicians.

Two and a half hours after the funeral began, the sky dark and the air cold, the streets were still massed with people spilling out of alleyways, side streets, boulevards, houses. Tables once featuring bottles of water were now littered with empty cups. Only an hour later did the crowds begin to disperse, leaving behind streets freckled with trash. Myriads dis-

MASHUP from page 6 Charendoff: People felt that if everyone does their part maybe we’ll get there organically. I think this study shows if everybody does their part we’re not going to get there.

Cardin: There’s no silver bullet [but] there’s reason to be optimistic that we can, as a community, come together and address those issues and concerns.

Spokoiny: Organizational models need to adapt. They need to be able to operate more as a network than as a traditional pyramidal, topdown organization…

Organizations that have fundraising as their main, core task, like federations, should really be investing a lot in engagement in different ways.

Silverman: There definitely will need to really be a convening of real thought leaders and thinkers to really look at this from a sense of implications and strategy going forward; it’s not going to happen at the G.A. Steinhardt: I don’t see the community thoughtfully dealing with it… So much of this was obvious a long time ago, and the worthwhile question is not so much about the Pew study but about the community itself, to ask why the community is so lame in dealing with change.