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HUC-JIR historians will lead tour of Jewish landmarks in Cincinnati

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Hillel works to keep talent in Cincinnati

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For Ramallah’s man in The Hague, ICC drive is reluctant duty

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Zell’s Bites: Memory Lane

Jewish Family Service’s initiative to prevent domestic violence October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, but unfortunately, awareness of Domestic Violence is necessary every month of the year. With high-profile cases like NFL runningback Ray Rice in recent news, it’s more important than ever to recognize the signs of an abusive relationship.

After Rice was arrested and charged with aggravated assault for attacking his fiancé Janay Palmer, many speculated as to why Palmer went on to marry the man who brutally and visibly assaulted her. The harsh criticism of her decision to stay with Rice inspired a hashtag, and victims of domestic violence took to Twitter to shed light on the cyclical, toxic nature of unhealthy relationships.

“Because I was raised in a society that says it's the woman's fault,” one woman wrote. “Because I didn't know emotional abuse was Domestic Violence” or “I thought I could heal their wound.”

Story after story poured through the Twitter feed, revealing the fear, the shame, the doubt of thousands of victims. Their experiences make it clear that leaving an abusive relationship isn’t as simple as walking through a door.

Sometimes there are children involved.

Sometimes there’s nowhere else to go, or there’s pressure to stay and try to fix the relationship. In nearly every example, the victim is burdened with a crushing sense of isolation and loneliness. As a result, they’re often in need of financial or emotional assistance before they can choose to remove themselves and their children from a dangerous situation.

To address that need within the

Some healthy relationship GREEN FLAGS: Does your partner: View you as an equal?

Respect you and treat your fairly?

Make you feel safe (emotionally and physically)?

Listen to you?

Value your opinions?

Discuss disagreements peacefully?

Allow the relationship to go at your pace?

Communicate openly and honestly?

Make family and money decisions together with you?

Compromise?

Trust you?

Jewish Community, Jewish Family Service has created an initiative known as DVASH (Hebrew for honey). The mission of DVASH is to bring the sweetness of honey to the lives of everyone who has suffered as a result of Domestic Violence, whether male or female, child or adult.

“Many victims of Domestic Violence feel as if they are fighting their battle alone. During the month of October, which is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, we invite you to wear a purple ribbon in support of countless men, women,

and children who have courageously survived abuse,” says Linda Kean, Director of Family Life Education.

Jewish Family Service offers helpful information on identifying and preventing gender violence and can be used as a tool to encourage a dialogue and raise awareness. The following information, adapted from the Family Violence Prevention Project of the YWCA of Greater Cincinnati, can help both teens and adults identify the differences between healthy and unhealthy relationships.

Some unhealthy relationship RED FLAGS Does your partner:…

Get jealous easily?

Ask you to account for every moment?

Threaten to hurt, you, your loved ones, your pets?

Try to manipulate you with lies or promises?

Make you feel you don’t have the right to say "no" or disagree?

Isolate you from family, friends, work or school?

Make decisions for you?

Control all of the money?

If you think someone you know may be suffering, Jewish Family Service can help connect individuals to a variety of resources, including anonymous hotlines and support services for victims and survivors.

“Every member of our community can take a stand and help put an end to Domestic Violence,” says Kean. For additional resources, please contact Jewish Family Service.

LOCAL • 3

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2014

HUC-JIR historians will lead bus tour of Jewish landmarks in Cincinnati As part of a new photo exhibition focusing on Cincinnati neighborhoods, Hebrew Union CollegeJewish Institute of Religion will be offering a bus tour of Cincinnati’s historic Jewish sites, including many that are seldom visited.

Historians from HUC-JIR will be leading the Jewish Queen City Bus Tour on Sunday, Nov. 2 from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Landmarks that were central to the birth and growth of the Jewish community in the 1800s will be featured.

“Throughout its history, the Cincinnati Jewish community has been one of the most important Jewish communities in North America,” said Lisa Frankel, director of programs and administration for The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives at HUC-JIR. “Anyone who wants to study the history and view firsthand where the Jewish community settled and lived, the synagogues and institutions they established, and how they evolved and migrated to new sites in and around Cincinnati, will find this tour fascinating.”

Frankel and Dr. Dana Herman, academic associate and managing editor of the American Jewish Archives Journal, will be leading the tour.

The tour will begin at the

George S. Rosenthal, Chestnut Street Cemetery, ca. 1958, collection of Cincinnati Museum Center

Clifton Campus of HUC-JIR, which itself is historic. It has played a central role in Judaism for nearly 140 years.

The tour will head Downtown to the Chestnut Street Cemetery, the oldest Jewish cemetery west of the Allegheny Mountains.

From there, the tour will visit other Jewish sites in the Downtown and West End areas, including the Plum Street Temple, where congregants from Isaac M. Wise Temple continue to worship.

Another stop will be at the building that served from 1866 to 1904

as the Ahabath Achim Synagogue.

Then, the tour will travel to Avondale, where Jews began migrating at the end of the 19th century. The tour will stop at the Walnut Hills Cemetery before ending at HUC-JIR. There is a fee for the tour and space is limited. Registration is required by calling Nancy Dowlin at HUC. Free parking will be available at HUC-JIR. The tour is related to the exhibition of photos taken in the 20th century by three Jewish photographers, Daniel J. Ransohoff, George S. Rosenthal and Ben Rosen. Their stunning photos document old Cincinnati neighborhoods, including some that played a key role in the city’s Jewish history.

The 60 black-and-white photos are being exhibited at the Cincinnati Skirball Museum and the AJA on the HUC-JIR campus.

The exhibit, which is being displayed Oct. 22 through Dec. 21, is part of FotoFocus, the citywide biennial celebration of photography.

The Skirball Museum is open Tuesday and Thursday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Sunday, 1 to 5 p.m.

The AJA is open Monday to Thursday, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

BIRTHS • BAT/BAR MITZVAHS • ENGAGEMENTS WEDDINGS • BIRTHDAYS • ANNIVERSARIES

Wise Temple’s next Mitzvah Morning is October 26 Several Sunday mornings throughout the year, Wise Temple will be hosting Mitzvah Mornings, a time when members from our community will come together and do something good for others. Over 30 adults and 45 children came together on the first Mitzvah Morning on Sunday, September 21 and worked on several projects benefitting Lighthouse Youth Services, Overthe-Rhine Soup Kitchen and Interfaith Hospitality Network of Greater Cincinnati.

Wise Temple’s next Mitzvah Morning is October 26 from 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM. Although projects start at 11:00 AM, religious school families can join the projects in progress at 11:45 AM. Members can come for the entire time or just a portion. One of the Mitzvah Projects is the annual Thanksgiving Turkey Collection that benefits the Over-the-Rhine Soup Kitchen. Volunteers can donate a cooked turkey which Cincinnati’s oldest soup kitchen

ANNOUNCEMENTS ARE FREE!

will use during the Thanksgiving holiday. Donated turkeys should be cooked and sliced and placed in gallon freezer bags. Or, if time is limited, donate a foil-wrapped cooked turkey and volunteers will do the slicing. Drop off the cooked turkeys at Wise Center on Mitzvah Morning between 11:00 AM and 1:00 PM. Another project, headed by Cindy Burgin, benefits Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio.

This project is perfect for adults ages 21 and older. It involves assembling important information kits used for PPSWO’s outreach programs at health fairs, community festivals, and campus events.

PPSWO works to ensure affordable, quality reproductive health care to all individuals and these kits are important to its mission.

PPSWO uses 500 to 2000 kits at each event.

Steve Rudich will lead a cooking project benefitting both the Caracole House and Halom House. His group will prepare

home-cooked dinners to the Caracole House, which provides safe, affordable housing and supportive services for individuals and families living with HIV/AIDS and the Halom House, a non-profit Jewish agency that provides 24 hour residential support for adults with developmental disabilities.

A project perfect for religious school families involves volunteers making fun dog toys from household items to benefit Save the Animals Foundation, a no-kill shelter which is currently home to over 600 dogs and cats.

Volunteers can even make a toy to take home to their pet as well.

Mitzvah Mornings at Wise Temple are a fun and easy way for members to fulfill their obligation for tikkun olam as well as learning more about the agencies in greater Cincinnati that operate 365 days each year to make the world a better place.

Place your FREE announcement in The American Israelite newspaper and website by sending an e-mail to articles@americanisraelite.com

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Hillel works to keep talent in Cincinnati At their October 29th Annual Meeting, Cincinnati Hillel will celebrate its successful past year and look ahead to several exciting new initiatives in the coming year. The entire Cincinnati community is invited to join the celebration in the Amberley Room at the JCC at 7:00 p.m.

Members of Hillel’s student board will lead the meeting with Hillel President Ronna Schneider.

Marcie Bachrach, Joshua Blatt, Cindy Cohen, Anita Dock and Ingrid Epstein will be welcomed as new members of Cincinnati Hillel’s board of directors. The Colman and Florence Hanish Award will be presented to Hillel Executive Committee member Bryna Miller.

The meeting’s focus will be on the new Careers Cincinnati program and on Hillel’s response to the rise in

overt anti-Semitism in the world, particularly on social media.

Careers Cincinnati is a joint project with Hillel at Miami University that was recently funded for three years by The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati. This program will help keep talented students in Cincinnati after their graduation by placing them in summer internships in their fields while connecting them to mentors, to networks, and to the quality of life opportunities in Cincinnati and Jewish Cincinnati.

Cincinnati Hillel’s response to the rise in anti-Semitism and antiIsrael activities is based on providing support for Hillel students and on building stronger relationships with other student groups.

The one-hour meeting will be followed by a dessert reception in the gallery.

arating the natural from the supernatural dissolve as ill-fated pledges, unfulfilled passions, and untimely deaths ensnare two families in a tragic labyrinth of spiritual possession. Based on the play by S. An-ski, the film was shot on location in Poland in 1937, and evokes the cultural richness of both shtetl commu-

nities and Polish Jewry on the eve of World War II. Admission is free, but there is a charge for the pizza dinner.

For the dinner, please RSVP by Monday, October 27.

As Rabbi David Siff explained, "The Dybbuk is about a young woman possessed by a wandering spirit in need of

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

VOL. 161 • NO. 11 THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2014 29 TISHREI 5775 SHABBAT BEGINS FRIDAY 6:27 PM SHABBAT ENDS SATURDAY 7:28 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

Northern Hills to screen ‘The Dybbuk’ In keeping with the spooky spirit of the season, Northern Hills Synagogue will show the classic Yiddish horror movie "The Dybbuk." The screening will take place on Wednesday, October 29, beginning at 6:30 pm, as part of Northern Hills' pizza/movie night series.

In the film, boundaries sep-

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an exorcism. Filmed almost 40 years before The Exorcist with none of the technology, it's far more spooky. Come and enjoy!"

For more information, please call Northern Hills Synagogue.

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

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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.

LOCAL / NATIONAL • 5

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2014

Temple Beth Sholom to host Rabbi Gary Zola

Temple Beth Sholom to show film, ‘Orchestra of Exiles’ on November 7

Temple Beth Sholom, Middletown, OH, will be hosting Rabbi Gary Zola on October 29 at 7:30 p.m.

The Rabbi's lecture is titled: "Jews in the South during the Civil War". Some of the topics to be covered are: Jewish Slave holders in the South; Jews who held high positions in the Confederacy and Jewish men who served valiantly for the the South during the war.

Temple Beth Sholom in Middletown, OH, will be screening “Orchestra of Exiles” on November 7, 2014 at 7:30 p.m.

The movie features Itzhak Perlman, Zubin Mehta, Pinchas Zukerman, Joshua Bell and others, and is the suspenseful chronicle of how one man helped save Europe’s premiere

Rabbi Zola is the director of the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of The American Jewish Archives, is nationally recognized for his knowledge of the American Jewish experience, who lectures widely, publishes and has represented the Jewish community on many committees for our government and our community.

This event is free and open to the pubic. Refreshments will be served afterwards.

JVS Career Services adds two more certified professional resume writers to their staff Adding to the list of professional career development services available at JVS Career Services, the Professional Association of Résumé Writers and Career Coaches recently awarded the Certified Professional Résumé Writer Certification (CPRW) to Dedra Perlmutter and Michelle Pinsky, after successful completion of the CPRW Certification Program.

CPRWs are the career industry’s leading experts in the development of strategic résumés. Since 1991, CPRWs have demonstrated their knowledge, talent and writing expertise in meeting the industry standard of excellence. In order to receive certification, CPRWs must:

Pass rigorous testing demonstrating knowledge of the components of a well-written résumé and how best to utilize them in order to showcase experience, talent and strengths.

Create a distinctive look for a résumé that balances print, fonts, white space and appropriate graphics that will differentiate its look from the hundreds of other résumés that may cross the desk of HR managers.

Be current with industry trends and know how to create a document that appeals to employers’ specific needs.

Perlmutter and Pinsky are Career Consultants with JVS Career Services and members of the PARW/CC. JVS Career Services has a total of three CPRWs.

The Jewish dressmaker FDR turned away

By Rafael Medoff WASHINGTON (JTA) – Was the Jewish “lady tailor” who ran a Prague dressmaking shop a potential Nazi spy? The Roosevelt administration apparently thought so.

The Jewish Museum Milwaukee recently opened a remarkable exhibit about the late Hedy Strnad, a Jewish-Czech dressmaker who with her husband, Paul, attempted to immigrate to the United States on the eve of the Holocaust.

The exhibit has its roots in a December 1939 letter sent by Paul to his cousins in Milwaukee asking them to help seek permission for him and his wife to come to America. Paul enclosed eight of Hedy’s clothing design sketches. He knew the U.S. authorities would

turn away refugees who might have trouble finding employment; Hedy’s sketches demonstrated her professional skills.

Testimony submitted to Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust museum, by the Strnads’ niece, Brigitte Rohaczek, provided the Milwaukee exhibit designers with additional information. She shared poignant memories of her vivacious Aunt Hedy – her real name was Hedwig – and the dressmaking shop she owned and operated in Prague.

Hedy – a “lady tailor,” as Rohaczek described her – sometimes had her seamstresses sew clothes for Rohaczek’s dolls.

The directors of the Milwaukee museum came up with an innovative way to remember the Strnads: enlisting the costume makers from DRESSMAKER on page 22

Dedra Perlmutter and Michelle Pinsky

Jewish musicians from obliteration by the Nazis during WWII. In the early 1930’s Hitler began firing Jewish musicians across Europe. Overcoming extraordinary obstacles, violinist Bronislaw Huberman moved these great musicians to Palestine and formed a symphony that would become the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. With

courage, resourcefulness and an entourage of allies including Arturo Toscanini and Albert Einstein, Huberman saved close to 1000 Jews - along with the musical heritage of Europe.

This event is free and open to the public. There will be refreshments served afterwards.

6 • NATIONAL

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So you want to convert to Judaism

By Uriel Heilman NEW YORK (JTA) – Dear Friend, I understand you’re considering converting to Judaism. Shalom aleichem!

What sort of conversion would you like?

If Orthodox, the answer is no, no, no. Tradition dictates that prospective converts be rebuffed three times as a test of their true commitment.

For a more welcoming denomination, try Reform Judaism. In 1978, then-movement leader Rabbi Alexander Schindler called for discontinuing the custom of rejection and instead responding “openly and positively to those God-seekers whose search leads them to our door.”

This summer – 36 years later – the Conservative movement followed suit.

“Tradition has often not done

PART 1 OF A SERIES CONVERTING TO JUDAISM much to encourage it. That must change,” Arnold Eisen, the chancellor of the movement’s Jewish Theological Seminary, wrote of conversion in a Wall Street Journal column in July. “Why? Because Judaism needs more Jews, and has a lot to offer them.”

Are Americans finding the call to Judaism appealing? We have no idea. None of the major Jewish denominations keeps comprehensive records on converts.

About 200 Orthodox converts per year are certified by the Rabbinical Council of America, but not all Orthodox conversions go through the RCA system. Likewise, the Reform movement’s collection of conversion certificates at the American Jewish Archives in

Cincinnati – about 800-900 are added per year – is purely voluntary and not limited to Reform converts.

There is some survey data, however. The Pew Research Center’s 2013 poll of 3,475 American Jews counted 52 converts – 1.6 percent of respondents. Fifty-four percent of them identified as Reform, 27 percent as Conservative and 8.5 percent as Orthodox.

A 2011 community survey by UJA-Federation of New York found that fewer than 2 percent of interviewees identified as converts. Yet more than 5 percent said they were born outside the faith but considered themselves Jewish despite not having formally converted.

But quality is more important than quantity anyway, no?

So why are you converting? Is it for the argumentation? The jokes?

Our secret gefilte fish recipe?

If it’s because you’re in love with a Jew, you’re in good company. Up to one-third of Orthodox converts

and two-thirds of Conservative converts choose Judaism for this reason, according to rabbis involved in conversion programs. Conversion may be unnecessary if you’re open to a Reform wedding: Reform Judaism permits interfaith marriages, though roughly half of all Reform rabbis still abjure officiating at them.

Many non-Jews become “Jews by choice” because they’re spiritual seekers. Others are already involved in a Jewish community. Especially in the Reform movement, many converts are longtime community members who formally join the faith only after years spent married to a Jew, raising children as Jews and attending synagogue.

That doesn’t mean newbies aren’t welcome, of course. After 14 weeks or so in a Reform Introduction to Judaism course, you may be invited to join the Jewish people – even if you don’t yet feel fully Jewish.

“A more traditional approach to

conversion might say you go through a period of study, you get tested and then you’re ready to convert,” said Rabbi Josh Bennett of Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Mich., the largest Reform synagogue in the United States. “The Reform movement at Temple Israel argues that conversion is somewhere in the middle of the process.”

Just make sure you’re committed: Once you convert, there’s no going back (according to most opinions).

You can, however, go for more.

In fact, a substantial proportion of Orthodox converts are one-time Reform and Conservative converts who want the imprimatur of an Orthodox conversion, or individuals raised as Jews who subsequently realized they didn’t qualify as Jewish according to traditional Jewish law, or halachah.

Ready to join? You’ll have to go

Population Study: A Portrait of the Miami Jewish Community,” represents the first concrete evidence of Jewish growth in Miami since 1975.

“In the past decade, we have seen a flow of new Jewish residents, as well as an increase in the length of residency in Miami,” Michelle Labgold, the federation’s chief planning officer, said in a statement. “This is significant news because Miami’s Jewish community experienced a steady

decline in population between 1975 and 2004.”

Miami remains the smallest of the three heavily Jewish South Florida counties – Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach. A 2005 survey counted 256,000 Jews in Palm Beach County, and a 2008 study found 186,500 Jews in Broward. Together, the three counties’ 550,000 or so Jews make up the third-largest Jewish metro

CONVERT on page 19

Miami Jewry sees first gain since 1975

By Uriel Heilman (JTA) – For the first time in four decades, Miami Jewry is growing.

That’s the official finding of the new Miami Jewish population study released Monday by the Greater Miami Jewish Federation.

The Jewish population of Miami-Dade County increased 9 percent over the last decade, to 123,000 from 113,000 in 2004, according to the survey. That

makes it slightly larger than the Jewish community of Atlanta and slightly smaller than West Palm Beach, Fla. The findings confirm trends long suggested by anecdotal evidence, as Miami has become a magnet in recent years for Latin Americans, including Jews from Venezuela, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Brazil and Peru. Many have come to the United States seeking greater economic or political security, finding in Miami a

U.S. city with a strong Latin identity and not too far from home.

Miami has a higher proportion of foreign-born Jewish adults than any other American Jewish community, at 33 percent, according to the study; 51 percent of all of Miami’s 2.6 million residents are foreign-born. Researchers also found a 57 percent increase over the last decade in Hispanic Jewish adults in Miami.

The survey, titled “2014 Greater Miami Jewish Federation

MIAMI on page 20

Are your state’s U.S. legislators speaking out against the Iranian and Palestinian threats?

By Jacob Kamaras and Alina Dain Sharon (JNS) – When circulated in both houses of the U.S. Congress, letters articulating the pro-Israel narrative on issues such as the Iranian nuclear threat and Hamas terrorism garner broad bipartisan support. Yet that support isn’t unanimous. How are federal legislators from your state weighing in on foreign policy issues prioritized by the Jewish community? JNS.org provides a picture through an analysis of three recent legislative letters.

As nuclear talks between Iran and the P5+1 powers approach a Nov. 24 deadline for a final deal, more than 80 percent of the U.S. House of Representatives (354 of 435 members) signed an Oct. 1 letter to Secretary of State John Kerry expressing concern over Iran’s “refusal to fully cooperate” with inquiries from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N.-affiliated nuclear watch-

Courtesy of State Department

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (in center, left side) prepares to sit down with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (in center, right side) in Vienna, Austria, on July 14, 2014, before they begin a bilateral meeting. In an Oct. 1 letter to Kerry, more than 80 percent of the U.S. House of Representatives called for the secretary of state to press Iran on becoming more transparent about its nuclear program.

dog.

“We believe that Iran’s willingness to fully reveal all aspects of its nuclear program is a fundamental

test of Iran’s intention to uphold a comprehensive agreement,” state the letter’s authors, House Foreign Relations Committee Chairman

Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) and Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY). “As you (Kerry) wrote in the Washington Post earlier this summer, if Iran’s nuclear program is truly peaceful, ‘it’s not a hard proposition to prove.’ The only reasonable conclusion for its stonewalling of international investigators is that Tehran does indeed have much to hide.”

Following the summer war between Israel and Hamas, 88 of 100 members of the Senate signed a Sept. 23 letter calling for both the demilitarization of Gaza and the discouraging of unilateral Palestinian Authority (PA) actions at the Untied Nations. In June, the same number of senators signed a letter opposing the unity deal between Hamas and PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party.

Seven senators didn’t sign both letters: Harry Reid (D-NV), Bob Corker (R-TN), Patrick Leahy (DVT), Rand Paul (R-KY), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and

Tammy Baldwin (D-WI).

When contacted by JNS regarding the fact that they didn’t sign a letter, most legislators didn’t respond. Those who did respond cited administrative or timing-related issues as the cause of their nonparticipation.

The office of U.S. Rep. José Serrano (D-NY) cited “administrative oversight” as the reason Serrano didn’t sign the letter on Iran’s lack of nuclear transparency, while expressing support for the letter’s contents. “Like a majority of my colleagues in Congress, I am extremely concerned with Iran’s lack of cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) efforts to bring greater transparency to Iran’s nuclear program. Iran must fully cooperate with the IAEA on this issue while negotiations are underway, and the issue of transparency needs to be a central element of any STATE on page 21

NATIONAL • 7

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2014

Rabbi in voyeurism case seen as distant and – until now – morally strict

By Ron Kampeas

Courtesy of Alexa Drew

On Oct. 12 at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan, Jacob Kamaras (right) and scribe Zerach Greenfield complete the final letter in a new Torah scroll for the U.S. military. Behind Greenfield is an emotional Philip Kamaras, Jacob's father. At left is Rabbi Yisroel Reisman, leader of the Agudath Israel of Madison congregation.

Torah scroll for the U.S. military re-writes a legacy

By Jacob Kamaras (JNS) – Have you ever seen your name engraved on a tombstone? It’s almost an out-of-body experience.

Death stares you in the face. Of course, the grave belongs to one of your family members, but the fact that your name is etched in stone is inescapably personal. You ask: When will it be my time? What happens between now and my end?

Who am I? Why am I here? Who will I become?

I’ve had that experience multiple times at the grave of my grandfather and namesake, Sgt. Jacob Kamaras (U.S. Army Air Corps, 7/8/194211/30/1945). I stood and cried alongside my father, Philip, who lost Jacob on Oct. 6, 1964. Jacob died at the age of 56; Philip was 8, and his sister Deborah was 12.

Fifty years have passed. I’ve been alive for 28 of those years.

During that time, my grandfather has remained mostly a mystery to me. He has been defined by his absence—primarily, the fatherlessness experienced by his children from a young age. But on Oct. 12, 2014, a different narrative on Jacob came to the fore.

It had been my father’s desire to mark Jacob’s 50th yahrzeit by commissioning the writing of a Torah scroll in his memory. A Torah leaves a tremendous physical and spiritual legacy. Our 613 commandments— the complete guide (supplemented and elucidated by oral law) to the Jewish way of life—are all there to be seen written in ink on parchment.

Each Monday, Thursday, and Saturday, and on Jewish holidays, we bear witness to those commandments by reading portions from the Torah at prayer services. Both the physical scroll and its message are passed down from generation to generation, and over time, the Jewish people are inextricably linked by tradition.

Who should receive a Torah

written in Jacob’s memory? That was no easy question for my family, but after giving the matter serious thought, it was clear to me that because Jacob was a U.S. Army veteran, Jews serving in the military should benefit from a Torah whose creation he inspired. My father agreed. And in fact, I was already aware of a program established for this purpose.

When they visit Jewish troops, U.S. military chaplains often find themselves without Judaism’s most essential ritual object—a Torah. The Jewish Welfare Board (JWB) Jewish Chaplains Council, a program of the Jewish Community Centers Association of North America, has 60 Torahs at major military installations around the world. But since these full-size Torahs are too large to transport with ease, the JWB in 2009 established the “Torahs for Our Troops” program to address chaplains’ needs in the field and aboard ships to have small scrolls that accompany them from site to site. Four of the lightweight Torahs commissioned by the JWB have been used in Iraq, Qatar, Afghanistan, and on ships. The fifth such scroll, which my family donated, is slated to ride aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) aircraft carrier. (More specifically, my family subsidized a mid-size Torah scroll, a size that works well for ships. Due to the changing needs of the military, the writing of smaller scrolls such as the first four commissioned by the Torahs for Our Troops program is no longer a priority.)

On Oct. 12, my family hosted a dedication for our Torah at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan. It was an unforgettable day. Members of all branches of the military—Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard—were on hand for the color guard. “Taps,” the unmistakable SCROLL on page 21

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Rabbi Barry Freundel was known to the Washington Jewish community as a champion of moral rectitude. But on Tuesday, the spiritual leader of Kesher Israel congregation for the past 25 years, was charged with the most intimate of transgressions: voyeurism.

Freundel, 62, was taken away Tuesday in handcuffs, after uniformed officers and plainclothes detectives from the Metropolitan Police Department searched his home in the Georgetown section of Washington. A local NBC affiliate reported that the rabbi had installed a clock radio with a hidden camera, called the “Dream Machine,” in the women’s showers of the congregation’s mikvah, or Jewish ritual bath.

The arrest marks a startling turn in the career of a rabbi known as a

National Briefs Sears removes swastika ring for sale on website (JTA) – The retailing giant Sears removed a swastika ring offered for sale on its website.

The item was listed under the “men’s punk rock style” jewelry collection.

“This gothic jewelry item in particular features a Swastika ring that’s made of .925 Thai silver,” the item description read. “Not for Neo Nazi or any Nazi implication.

These jewelry items are going to make you look beautiful at your next dinner date.”

After consumers called attention to the item, a Sears representative responded via Twitter: “This item is a 3rd party Sears Marketplace product that does not abide with our guidelines and is being removed.”

The item also was for sale on Amazon though it is listed currently as unavailable.

Penn State students sentenced for vandalizing Jewish frat (JTA) – Two Penn State students who pleaded guilty to spraypainting anti-Semitic graffiti on a mostly Jewish fraternity house were sentenced to community service and probation.

Eric Hyland, 20, was sentenced last week in Centre County Court to 200 hours of community service and two years probation, and ordered to pay $6,000 restitution.

Last month, Hayden Grom was sentenced to 300 hours of commu-

national leader in establishing precepts for conversion and as a strict moralist, who just last month railed against the corrosive effect of pornography on marriages. His synagogue, Kesher Israel, is one of the most prominent in Washington; Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and New Republic Literary Editor Leon Wieseltier are members, and former Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman is a former congregant.

The synagogue board in a statement said it had reported Freundel to authorities. “Upon receiving information regarding potentially inappropriate activity, the Board of Directors quickly alerted the appropriate officials,” the statement, posted on the congregation’s website, said. “Throughout the investigation, we cooperated fully with law enforcement and will continue to do so.”

Cathy Lanier, the city’s police

chief, is set to meet Sunday night at another Orthodox shul, Ohev Sholom — The National Synagogue, to discuss privacy issues related to the case, Ohev Sholom stated in an alert to the community, citing “what images may exist, from what time period, whether those images may have been disclosed or distributed, and how will those images be treated with sensitivity by law enforcement and prosecutors.”

The Forward on Wednesday reported that the Rabbinical Council of America investigated Freundel over the summer on a separate allegation of sexual impropriety. The RCA never took action because the complainant was not able to provide evidence. An insider said the RCA never notified the synagogue’s board of directors of this charge.

Congregants told JTA they were

nity service and two years probation.

Last November, Hyland and Grom spray-painted swastikas and anti-Semitic words and images on the Beta Sigma Beta fraternity building, on cars parked outside the house and on a dumpster. Their actions were captured on security cameras.

Zuckerberg announced Tuesday on his official Facebook page that he and his wife, Priscilla Chan, will make the donation.

“We need to get Ebola under control in the near term so that it doesn’t spread further and become a long term global health crisis that we end up fighting for decades at large scale, like HIV or polio,” Zuckerberg wrote. “We believe our grant is the quickest way to empower the CDC and the experts in this field to prevent this outcome. We are hopeful this will help save lives and get this outbreak under control.”

Swastikas drawn on Yale dorm steps (JTA) – Swastikas were drawn in chalk on the steps of a Yale University dormitory.

The swastikas were discovered early Sunday morning on the New Haven, Conn., campus. The Yale Police Department was investigating but had no leads as of Tuesday, the Yale Daily News reported.

“I condemn this shameful defacement, perpetrated anonymously under cover of night,” Yale dean Jonathan Holloway wrote Monday evening in an email to the campus community. “There is no room for hate in this house.

“The use of the swastika violates our values of respect, thoughtfulness, generosity, and goodwill. I Following the discovery of the swastikas, Yale students gathered outside the dorm to write messages of support for the Jewish community as part of a chalk mural.

Sunday’s incident comes after several incidents of swastikas drawn on campuses, including at Emory and Eastern Michigan.

Facebook’s Zuckerberg and wife pledge $25 million to fight Ebola (JTA) – Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg pledged $25 million to the Centers for Disease Control Foundation to help fight the Ebola virus.

RABBI on page 21

Historic Buffalo synagogue demolished despite demonstrators (JTA) – The oldest synagogue in Buffalo, N.Y., was demolished despite the efforts of two demonstrators who chained themselves to a pillar in the building.

The Jefferson Avenue building was demolished on Saturday after the demonstrators, identified as David Torke and Rabbi Drorah Setel, were peacefully removed and detained by police, the Buffalo News reported.

Police said the building posed a safety hazard and thus was condemned. Preservationists said it should have been listed as a historical landmark.

The building, which was designed in 1903 by A.E. Mink, once was the home of Congregation Ahavath Sholem, also known as the Jefferson Avenue Shul.

At first the demolition crew did not realize there were people in the building. Eight other demonstrators remained outside the structure.

8 • NATIONAL / INTERNATIONAL

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

From opera house to House of Commons, Diaspora Jews are the target

By Ben Cohen (JNS) – Next week, the opera “The Death of Klinghoffer” opens in New York. Rightly castigated for its invocation of unpleasant Jewish stereotypes and its apologia for the Palestinian terrorists’ murder of an elderly Jewish tourist in a wheelchair, its staging for the umpteenth time since it was first produced at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1991 has been interpreted by some in the Jewish community as signaling a “normalization” of antiSemitism.

Indeed, this was the focus of a panel last week, organized by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) in New York, in which I was privileged to participate. Inevitably, our exchange wasn’t simply restricted to the content of “Klinghoffer,” but spanned a range of issues from the perilous situation in the Middle East, presently caught in the pincers of Islamic State atrocities and rising Iranian power, to the explosion of anti-Semitic violence in Europe over the summer.

Reflecting on what was said at the panel, it’s clear to me that the issues which animate our side of the debate are utterly removed from the concerns of the opera’s defenders.

Our awareness that the source of the savage attacks on Israel is the same genocidal ideology that has caused such appalling suffering to Christians, Kurds, and Yazidis

International Briefs Heirs to German Jews sue Swiss bank UBS to recover inheritance (JTA) – The relatives of German Jews whose art collection was seized by the Nazis have sued UBS, claiming the Swiss bank cheated them out of their inheritance.

The family of Ludwig and Margret Kainer – the children of their cousins – filed lawsuits in New York and Switzerland contending that the bank never made an effort to find them.

According to the lawsuit, UBS created a fake foundation in which to place the proceeds of the sales of artworks once owned by the couple, The New York Times reported.

When Christie’s auctioned off the Degas work “Danseuses” for nearly $11 million in 2009, the auction catalog reported that it was part of a restitution agreement with the heirs of Ludwig and Margret Kainer, according to the newspaper.

The lawsuit contends that the foundation, which ostensibly sup-

Courtesy ofAmelia Katzen

On Sept. 22, 2014, demonstrators protest the New York Metropolitan Opera’s production of the anti-Israel opera “The Death of Klinghoffer.”

forces us to confront how antiSemitism is an integral element of the global assault on human rights.

By contrast, for the other side, there’s only one issue that matters, only one obsession that imposes itself on all of us: “Palestine” and the Palestinians.

It’s an obsession that manifests itself far beyond the hallowed halls of the Metropolitan Opera. Look at the House of Commons, Britain’s parliament, which voted overwhelmingly in favor of recognition of a Palestinian state after a debate that kept the honorable members up until the wee hours. I doubt that they would have paid the same courtesy to the Yazidis, 10,000 of whom remain stranded on Iraq’s Mount Sinjar, surrounded on all sides by Islamic State terrorists and without food, clothing, or proper shelter.

Similarly, not a single British parlia-

mentarian issued a word of condemnation of Turkey’s bombing of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) positions in Iraq, despite the enormous contribution this socialist organization has made to the war against Islamic State barbarism.

Much the same can be said of the U.S. State Department and the White House, both of whom go apoplectic whenever Israel builds so much as a bathroom extension in eastern Jerusalem, but are largely silent in the face of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s atrocities.

It seems as if our declining western civilization can summon the courage to speak loudly on foreign policy only if the policy question involves our ally, Israel, supposedly punishing innocent Palestinians. But is this anti-Semitism? In my view, yes, it is.

ports the health and education of Jewish youth, has collected proceeds from other sales and restitutions, the Times reported.

trumped-up charges of treason.

Fewer than 100 Jews live in Toledo, which prior to the Spanish Inquisition was home to one of the Iberian Peninsula’s largest Jewish populations.

Anti-Semitic graffiti in Spain due to media coverage of Gaza, watchdog group says (JTA) – A Spanish pro-Israel group said the recent spraying of anti-Semitic graffiti in Toledo was the result of media coverage of the latest Gaza war and the IsraeliPalestinian conflict.

The Madrid-based Action and Communication on the Middle East lobby group, or ACOM, made the assertion over the weekend in connection with the Oct. 4 spray-painting of dozens of epithets on Jewish heritage sites in the Old City of Toledo. Two days later, police arrested a 32-year-old in connection with the graffiti, lavanguardia.com reported.

One of the epithets was spraypainted on the foot of a statue of Samuel Levi Abulafia, who in the 14th century founded Toledo’s El Transito Synagogue. It read “No Jews!” and featured dollar signs.

Abulafia, or Samuel Levi, served as treasurer under Peter I, the King of Castile, until his death in 1360 in Seville, where he was tortured on

Pope Paul VI, first pontiff to visit Israel, moves closer to sainthood ROME (JTA) – Pope Paul VI, the first pontiff to visit Israel, has moved a step closer to sainthood.

Pope Francis beatified Paul VI at a Vatican ceremony Sunday at the close of a synod of bishops.

Paul VI, who reigned from 1963 to 1978, opened the Roman Catholic Church to formal dialogue with the Jewish world..

Paul’s trip came more than a year before the landmark Nostra Aetate declaration of 1965, which opened the way to Catholic-Jewish dialogue and was one of a number of reforms enacted at the Second Vatican Council.

Francis visited Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority at the end of May, in part to mark the 50th anniversary of Paul VI’s trip.

Swiss art museum reportedly to accept Gurlitt collection (JTA) – The Swiss art museum

At the ISGAP panel, I made the point that what attracts the western intelligentsia to the Palestinian cause is the same dramatic point upon which “Klinghoffer” hangs. It used to be said by the anti-Semites that the “Jews are our misfortune.”

Now that has been twisted—the Jews are the cause of their own misfortune as well. Since they “dispossessed” the Palestinians—I’m not quoting the historical record of the 1948 War of Independence here, but one of its tenuous, yet dominant, interpretations—the Jews bring misery on themselves. Klinghoffer was killed because he was seen as a representative of a people whose state was created at the expense of another. Similarly, the Jews attacked in Paris, Malmo, Manchester, and other cities in the last few months were targeted for the same reason. In other words, the purported victims aren’t actually innocent, and that’s as sexy a theme for a dramatist as it is for a Palestine solidarity activist burning with hatred for the Jewish state.

Here’s my overriding point, though, and it’s a sad one to make in the midst of the Jewish festivals that come with the celebration of the Jewish New Year: we can expect much more of the same in the coming months. In January, for example, we will mark the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. I confidently predict that Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms will be awash with com-

parisons between Gaza and the death camp crafted by the Nazis, as well as missives from the less subtle Israel-haters complaining that we’re weeping over dead Jews when we should helping live Palestinians (and nobody else).

Diaspora Jews are, when all is said and done, a soft target, and increasingly the “Palestine” solidarity movement understands this. A recent article for Middle East Monitor, a pro-Hamas website, made the point that because the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement can’t hope to eliminate the vibrant, multi-billion dollar trade between the west and Israel, its energies would be better spent on confronting the shadowy “Israel Lobby,” the real power behind the Middle East policies of western governments—far more influential than, I don’t know, the Qataris, who these days own half of London and Paris yet somehow have no voice in policy formation!

What does this really mean? It means pick on the Jews, stop them lobbying for Israel, stop them even identifying with Israel. It’s a reflection of the attitude that led Arab regimes, after Israel’s creation, to turn on their defenseless Jewish populations because they were too cowardly and incompetent to win on the battlefield. And it’s the direction that the Palestine solidarity movement, as well as its Arab and Islamist backers, is heading down.

We must be prepared.

that German art collector Cornelius Gurlitt named as its sole heir reportedly agreed to accept the bequest of hundreds of works, which may include Nazi-looted art.

The Bern Art Museum’s decision was reported by the Swiss newspaper Sonntagszeitung.

According to the newspaper, the museum will only accept works for which there are no restitution claims.

In a tweet Monday, however, the museum said the newspaper report was inaccurate and that a final decision will be made during a board of trustees meeting at the end of November.

The collection reportedly is worth about $1.26 billion.

began Sunday. The Warsaw Jewish community and the board of the city’s Praga District cooperated in the effort.

“The project is important for the simplest reason: It will be a kind of act of historical justice,” Gierszewski said.

The headstones had been used for part of a pergola and stairs at the park. Demolition of the pergola began last week and is expected to last until Nov. 30.

Headstones used in Warsaw park returning to Jewish cemetery WARSAW, Poland (JTA) – Jewish headstones used after World War II to help build a gazebo in a Warsaw park are on their way back to a historic Jewish cemetery in the city.

The return of the headstones from Praga Park to the Brodno Jewish Cemetery – the largest Jewish cemetery in Poland and among the biggest in Europe –

Israeli hikers among fatalities in Nepal avalanche (JTA) – A blizzard and avalanche in Nepal have killed more than a dozen trekkers, including at least two Israelis.

Extreme weather conditions spurred by the remains of Cyclone Hudhud struck the mountainous country on Tuesday, killing 17 hikers, including the Israelis, according to a report by the French news agency AFP. Other reports have varied, with the BBC placing the death toll at 21 trekkers in addition to three yak herders.

About a week ago, two Israeli tourists were killed in a rafting accident on the Apurimac River in Peru.

INTERNATIONAL / ISRAEL • 9

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2014

For Ramallah’s man in The Hague, ICC drive is reluctant duty

By Cnaan Liphshiz THE HAGUE, Netherlands (JTA) – Loading a newly released video of a beheading in Syria on his smartphone, Nabil Abuznaid, the Palestinians’ ambassador here, shakes his head in disbelief.

“Look at those animals,” he says, referring to the fighters from the ISIS jihadist group who carried out the decapitation. “Do you think Israelis are immune from this craziness? Me, I’m even more scared of this fundamentalism.”

To Abuznaid, who has represented the Palestinian Authority in the Netherlands for the past five years, such barbarity is a sign that the Israelis and Palestinians should resolve their differences peacefully and stand united against the shared threat of extremism.

But on Abuznaid’s desk, under a life-size portrait of the late PLO leader Yasser Arafat, are documents connected to a move that could undo 24 years of efforts to find common ground: The Palestinian Authority’s plan to expose Israel to war crimes charges at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Abuznaid says he is advancing the motion with little enthusiasm.

But if P.A. Foreign Minister Riyad

al-Maliki is to be believed, within the year the Palestinian Authority will accede to the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC in 1998, which would give the U.N. tribunal jurisdiction to probe war crimes investigations against Israel.

Both the Palestinians and Israelis consider the move a game-changer, a step after which a negotiated twostate solution may be all but impossible.

“This is not the Palestinian preferred choice because going to the ICC is the final divorce: one-way move, no way back,” said Abuznaid, 60, a former lecturer in international relations from Hebron who spent a few months in an Israeli jail in the 1980s for his membership in the PLO. “I don’t think Palestinians and Israelis are ready for a final divorce.”

If the Palestinians move ahead with their plans, it is Abuznaid who will be the P.A.’s point person on the matter. Abuznaid says his family is from Haifa, where they lived before Israel’s establishment in 1948, when they left along with hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled or were driven out of Israeli-controlled areas during the War of Independence.

As a young man, Abuznaid

believed in the Palestine Liberation Organization’s strand of radicalism.

He was a self-described revolutionary who thought Israel had to be destroyed. But over time his politics have softened, and today even his Israeli detractors consider him a pragmatist.

“Let the person who is living in my family’s house in Haifa enjoy the beach there and I will enjoy my life in Hebron and we can be friends,” he says. “There is no choice but to divide the land.”

Equipped with good English and a political science degree from James Madison University in Virginia, Abuznaid climbed the PLO ranks to become a personal adviser to Arafat, serving under him during the Oslo negotiations. Abuznaid later returned to the United States to serve as deputy head of the Palestinian Authority’s mission in Washington, among other positions.

His wife, Lubna, and their two children are living in the United States.

“Abroad I’m a diplomat who receives the red carpet,” Abuznaid says. “But when I return home, I need to wait in my car for a boy the age of my son who’s treating me like I’m barely human,” he says of the soldiers who check his papers when he crosses the Allenby Bridge

Courtesy of James Madison University

Nabil Abuznaid, the Palestinian Authority's ambassador to the Netherlands, speaking at James Madison University in Virginia, Oct. 6, 2014.

between Jordan and the West Bank.

Unlike his position on checkpoints – a longstanding Palestinian gripe – Abuznaid’s reluctant attitude to the ICC move seems out of sync with Ramallah’s public defiance. Yet despite the rhetoric, it’s not clear how eagerly the Palestinians are to play the ICC card.

In July, the Palestinian Authority’s justice minister and the general prosecutor in Gaza sent an official request for an ICC investigation of alleged war crimes committed by Israel this summer during its campaign against Hamas in Gaza.

The following month, during Maliki’s visit to The Hague, he told reporters that accession is “only a matter of time and will occur this year.”

But a letter from ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda leaked last month states that Maliki was asked to confirm the request contained in the July letter and declined to do so.

“A decision was taken to go ahead with the ICC move, yes,” Abuznaid said. “But it’s not final until the papers are submitted. So it’s still something that can be avoided.

Because if we realize the ICC option, what then? How would we go forward with the peace process?

The day we sign, things will be different between us and the Israelis.”

It’s impossible to know if Abuznaid’s qualms may merely be part of a strategy that keeps the ICC option as a bargaining chip in the Palestinians’ diplomatic chess match with Israel, or if he is expressing a genuine aversion to what could be a grand but ineffective gesture.

Haim Divon, Abuznaid’s counterpart at the Israeli Embassy in The Hague, believes it’s the latter.

“As a pragmatist, Mr. Abuznaid knows an ICC bid would lead nowhere and only poison the atmosphere,” Divon said.

Israeli defense minister reflects on Gaza, Abbas, and U.S.-Israel relations

By Shlomo Cesana (JNS) – Less than two months after the conclusion of Israel’s Operation Protective Edge, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon says he is “morally at peace” with the Jewish state’s decisions during the 50-day summer war with Hamas.

“When I examine whether force needs to be used, I [give] myself three tests,” he says. “The first test is whether I would be able to look at myself in the mirror after the bombing or the operation that I would have approved. Then, I examine the situation from a legal perspective, in terms of our law as well as international law. If everyone were to participate in the discussions surrounding the approval of an operation, they would see for themselves that we deal with very complex dilemmas, like when to shoot, like the principle of ‘thou shalt not kill,’ or the sanctity of life, versus the notion that ‘if someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first.’And yes, I am at peace with the decisions we made during the course of Operation Protective Edge.”

In the following interview with Israel Hayom, Ya’alon gives his thoughts on the Gaza war, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, U.S.-Israel relations, and the Arab world.

During the Gaza operation, was bombing the house Hamas commander Mohammed Deif was

believed to have been in, knowing his wife and daughter were there, the right decision?

“That is exactly the kind of dilemma that I described asking myself whether I would be able to look myself in the mirror after approving such an operation. That decision was the right one.”

Israel decided not to topple Hamas’s rule in Gaza. Can you explain why?

“We did not arrive at Operation Protective Edge by surprise. The cabinet has been debating this issue since the current government was first established. There were preliminary meetings on the Gaza Strip and other fronts, in case we are attacked from Lebanon and from Syria and from even further places. That is why we held in-depth discussions.

Many options were raised, among them operational plans that involved entering Gaza, conquering it, and cleansing the territory. After a costbenefit analysis, we concluded that it was not the right move right now to attempt such an operation. We realized that there is no one that could take our place once we conquer and cleanse: not Mahmoud Abbas, not the Egyptians, not the Arab League, and not the U.N. That means that if we went in there, we would get stuck there.”

Many Israelis have described a sour taste left in their mouths by the way the Gaza operation ended.

Perhaps they feel that Hamas cannot

Courtesy of Secretary of Defense

U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and Israeli Minister of Defense Moshe Ya’alon (right) speak with members of the K-9 Special Forces Unit at Camp Adam in Israel on April 23, 2013.

be defeated?

“First of all, the question is, what would constitute a victory? People long for the victory of the Six-Day War. In military terms, that was certainly a spectacular victory: the annihilation of our Arab neighbors’ armies. But how long after that war did the war of attrition begin? Not very long at all. Therefore, the question of how to define a victory is interesting, and requires close examination. I assert that victory is bringing the other side to agree to a ceasefire on your terms. That is how we looked at the equation before the operation and after it. And indeed, we brought Hamas to agree to a

cease-fire in a way that ran contrary to their wishes. That is undoubtedly an achievement. There is victory on the ground because of the heavy price that the Gaza Strip had to pay.

I expect that they will think twice before escalating violence again in the future.”

Is Abbas still a partner for peace?

“Abbas has never said that he recognizes us as the nation state of the Jewish people. He also never said that if a compromise is reached, even one that adheres to his vision of 1967 borders, it would end the conflict and the [Palestinian] demands.

He never said that he has given up on demanding refugee rights. So

where can we go with him? He is a partner for discussion; a partner for managing the conflict. I am not looking for a solution, I am looking for a way to manage the conflict and the maintain relations in a way that works for our interests. We need to free ourselves of the notion that everything boils down to only one option called a [Palestinian] state. As far as I am concerned let them call it the Palestinian Empire. I don’t care.

It is an autonomy if it is ultimately a demilitarized territory. That is not a status quo, it is the establishment of a modus vivendi that is tolerable and serves our interests.”

Are you rejecting the idea of a two-state solution?

“Call it whatever you want. The political separation has already happened, and it is a good thing that it has. We are not controlling the lives of the residents of Gaza or Judea and Samaria. This separation is important. I would encourage and reinforce governability, the economy and the residents’ ability to live in dignity and economic comfort. But to derive something so black and white from that? State or no state?

Let’s put the terminology aside.”

You sparked a media firestorm when you were quoted as describing U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry as “obsessive and messianic.” Did you disrespect Israel’s closest ally?

“Did you hear me say it?

RELATIONS on page 19

10 • ISRAEL

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

Temple Mount tensions reach a boiling point during Sukkot

By Shlomo Cesana and Gideon Alon (JNS) - After the latest Islamic riots on the Temple Mount, Israeli Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch warned that further disturbances will prompt Muslims to be prohibited from entering the compound. Muslim violence at the Temple Mount has reached a boiling point over routine Jewish visits to the holy site during the holiday of Sukkot.

In a policy change since the beginning of the Jewish New Year, instead of closing the Temple Mount to visitors after Muslim rioting, the Israel Police pushes the rioters back inside the Al-Aqsa mosque and leaves the Temple Mount compound open. But the policy may change again if the current situation persists, Aharonovitch said.

“If the Jews cannot go up to the Mount, the Muslims will not go up to the Mount,” he said.

Aharonovitch’s comments followed another tumultuous morning at the Temple Mount on Monday. Overnight Sunday, dozens of youths—among them members of Hamas and the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel—congregated for a riot, amassing rocks, firecrackers, and Molotov cocktails inside the Al-Aqsa mosque in order to clash with police and dis-

Israel Briefs Anti-Semitic graffiti sprayed on Temple Mount JERUSALEM (JTA) -Graffiti equating the Star of David with a swastika was found painted on the Temple Mount.

The graffiti in blue paint was found Sunday in at least three places on the Temple Mount, according to reports. Israel Police are investigating.

Two days earlier, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said in a speech in Ramallah that Jews should be prevented from entering the Temple Mount and that Palestinians should protect the site, home to the Al-Aksa Mosque.

“It is our sacred place, AlAksa is ours, this Noble Sanctuary is ours. They have no right to go there and desecrate it,” Abbas said last Friday.

On Saturday, Abbas called Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount “a herd of cattle.” He also said that he would take legal action to prevent Jews from

Courtesy of Hadas Parush

Israeli Border Police officers guard the entrance for Palestinians to the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City on Monday, Oct. 13, 2014. Earlier that day, Palestinian rioting at Al-Aqsa forced Israeli security forces to limit the number of Palestinians allowed to enter the Temple Mount compound.

rupt the holiday routine for Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount.

Additionally, the youths also built improvised barricades to prevent police from locking them in the mosque, nailing shoe racks to the doors. They erected wooden obstacles inside of the mosque, planning to throw rocks and shoot fireworks at the police from behind the obstacles.

After learning of the riot plans, the Jerusalem District police department prepared to foil the riot. Immediately following early morning prayers, a police force entered the Temple Mount compound to surprise the youths, who

barricaded themselves behind the improvised obstacles and hurled rocks and firecrackers at the officers.

The police officers repelled the attackers with anti-riot equipment, removed the barricades, and locked the mosque’s doors with the masked rioters inside. Later in the day, police arrested four Arab youths suspected of involvement in the Temple Mount violence.

Locking the rioters inside the mosque allowed the police to keep the Temple Mount open to more than 900 visitors to the site.

Aharonovitch visited the Western Wall on Monday and

ascending to the site, which is holy to both Jews and Muslims.

northeast of Ramallah. Another 5year-old Palestinian girl also was injured.

Residents of the Palestinian town accused the driver, 29, of the Yitzhar settlement, of deliberately hitting the girls, who were walking home from kindergarten.

The driver told police he did not stop after striking the girls because he feared for his life due to the crowd that had gathered around the injured girls, according to Ynet. He stopped in the nearest Jewish community, Ofra, where he reported the accident and turned himself in.

Israel Police said a preliminary investigation showed that the incident was an accident, according to Ynet.

Israeli-Arab doctor killed fighting for ISIS JERUSALEM (JTA) -- A doctor who worked as a resident at a hospital in southern Israel was killed while fighting for ISIS. The family of Othman AbdalKian, 26, from the Bedouin village of Hura, near Beersheba, confirmed to Ynet that he had been killed fighting for the jihadist group.

The hospital confirmed to the Israeli media that he failed to show up in May at the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, where he was supposed to do an elective month, after which the hospital learned he had joined the Islamic State.

More than a dozen IsraeliArabs reportedly have joined ISIS in recent months, according to reports.

Palestinian girl dies after being hit by settler driver JERUSALEM (JTA) -- A Palestinian girl died after being hit by a car driven by a Jewish West Bank settler who fled the scene.

Einas Khalil, 5, died hours after being struck near the central West Bank town of Sinjil, located

Daughter of Hamas' Haniyeh treated at Israeli hospital JERUSALEM (JTA) -- A daughter of Gazan Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was treated this month at a Tel Aviv hospital, according to reports.

Haniyeh's daughter received emergency treatment at Ichilov Hospital, the hospital confirmed, according to Haaretz. She remained hospitalized in Israel for about a week.

The hospital did not name the daughter -- Haniyeh has 13 chil-

addressed the situation.

“We will not permit disturbances on the Temple Mount, or rocks to be thrown at Jewish homes, or gravestones to be smashed on the Mount of Olives,” he said.

The Temple Mount issue also came up during Monday’s meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in Jerusalem.

“It is not that Israel is in any way changing the status quo [on the Temple Mount],” Netanyahu said. “We’re not. I’m committed, and Israel is committed, to maintaining the status quo exactly as it’s been for many decades. What we’re seeing are Palestinian extremists who are instigating violence through incitement. The incitement is spread by false and baseless rumors that we are threatening the Muslim holy places.”

Netanyahu said Israel “scrupulously maintains the protection of the (Muslim) holy sites, the right of all religions to worship in their holy places, and will continue to do so, maintaining order, maintaining freedom of worship.”

“That freedom was actually guaranteed only after Israel reunified the city of Jerusalem in 1967.

And in fact Israel is the only country in the Middle East that fully, unstintingly, continuously, and constantly protects the freedom of

worship and the access to the holy sites of worship,” he said.

Knesset Interior Committee Chairwoman MK Miri Regev (Likud) said Monday, “Years of ineffective action by the police in the face of Muslim rioters on the Temple Mount have led to a situation where Muslims don’t have to account to anybody.”

“The reality in which Muslims intentionally attack police officers and use violence to keep Jews from visiting the Temple Mount is the result of police laxity in dealing with the radical rioters,” said Regev.

Deputy Knesset Speaker MK Moshe Feiglin (Likud) said, “Hamas and the Islamic State have seized the Temple Mount.

The prime minister’s statements about a victory over Hamas and sending a message of deterrence to Hezbollah are being smashed on the rock of reality at the Temple Mount.”

Meanwhile, Aharonovitch, Jerusalem District police chief Major-General Yossi Pariente, other police officers, and Jerusalem Municipality officials held a meeting with Yaron Ravid, general director of CityPass, the company that operates the Israeli capital’s light rail system.

Ongoing rock-throwing attacks by Arabs have damaged about 40 percent of the city’s trains.

dren -- and did not disclose her ailment.

Ichilov Hospital said it treats more than 1,000 patients each year from the Gaza Strip and Palestinian Authority.

"It is time to honestly admit that Israeli society is ill – and it is our duty to treat this disease," Rivlin told the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities on Sunday at a conference titled "From Xenophobia to Accepting the Other."

The epidemic of violence is not limited to one sector or another, it permeates every area and doesn’t skip any arena. There is violence in soccer stadiums as well as in the academia. There is violence in the social media and in everyday discourse, in hospitals and in schools."

Israeli follower of fugitive rabbi drowns in Belgian river (JTA) -- A follower of Rabbi Eliezer Berland, an accused sex offender who fled Israel, drowned in Belgium while swimming in a river near Antwerp.

The body of Nissim Levy, 27, was buried last week in his hometown of Ashkelon.

Levy was in Belgium to be near Berland, head of the Shuvu Bonim religious seminary. Last year Berland fled Israel amid allegations that he sexually assaulted at least two female followers, including a minor.

Berland, who is living in a southern suburb of Amsterdam with scores of his supporters, apparently was in the Antwerp area for the weekend.

Rivlin: Violence an epidemic in Israeli society JERUSALEM (JTA) -- The epidemic of violence permeates every sector of Israel, the country's president, Reuven Rivlin, said in an address.

Palestinian teen killed by Israeli troops after throwing firebomb JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian teenager in the West Bank who threw a firebomb at them.

Baha Samir Bader, 13, reportedly was shot in the chest in a town near Ramallah on Oct. 16.

The Israeli military said troops fired at the teen when he threw a firebomb at a unit leaving the village of Beit Liqia, according to the Times of Israel.

SOCIAL LIFE • 11

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2014

ANNOUNCEMENTS CINCINNATI JEWS IN THE NEWS

BIRTHDAY

isted in Deloitte Cincinnati USA 100 are: Gary Heiman, Standard Textile; Ken Cohen, Cohen Recycling; Steven J. Kaplan, G&J Pepsi-Cola Bottlers, Inc.; Marvin H. Schwartz, Topicz; Steve Shifman, Michelman; Leonard H. Berenfield, Berenfield Containers, Inc.; Adam P. Bortz, Towne Properties; Louis Guttman and Stephen Guttman, Hills Properties/Inverness Group; and C. Thomas Schwartz, The BMW Store/Cincinnati MINI.

N

L

BIRTHDAY ris Bellos celebrated her 60th birthday by dining out at Sotto with many of her good friends. A fabulous time was had by all. Happy 60th, Iris!

I

Top row: Kathy Bellos, Julie Brook Bottom row: Rose Kapor, Lisa Bernstein, Iris Bellos, Leah Smith, Nina Paul

umerous friends and relatives gathered to celebrate the 100th birthday of a grand lady, Virginia Felson.

Her celebratory party was held at the Mansion at Wellspring, where she now resides. Virginia previously lived on Rose Hill, East Walnut Hills at the St. James and then the Regency before settling in at Wellspring.

She traveled the world with her late husband, Dr. Ben Felson, and has 5 children.

12 • CINCINNATI JEWISH LIFE

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20TH ANNUAL JCC ADAMS CLASSIC On Thursday, June 19, the Mayerson JCC held its 20th Annual JCC Adams Classic fundraiser recognizing the JCC Early Childhood School at Losantiville Country Club. This year’s event raised more than $150,000 to support the many critical programs and services of the Mayerson JCC. This year’s tournament included a record breaking 156 golfers, 20 tennis players, 136 sponsors, and over 50 volunteers who made sure the day went smoothly.

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CINCINNATI JEWISH LIFE • 13

14 • DINING OUT

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Stuffed eggplant at Cafe Mediterranean example of tasty Turkish cuisine

By Bob Wilhelmy Tasty is good. Tasty vegetarian, health-wise, is even better, according to didactic dietitians. Earlier this year, stuffed baby eggplant was added to the bill of fare at Café Mediterranean by Fahri Ozdil, owner of the restaurant. We featured a bit about the dish in this column back then. The appetizer is vegetarian, which is central to Turkish food tradition, according to Ozdil.

Over the summer, the eggplant appetizer has been a crowd pleaser at the restaurant. “People love the eggplant. We serve it cold; it’s eggplant you don’t find on a menu (in other restaurants). People think eggplant is bitter, not good; they don’t like it because of strong bitterness. But in Turkey, we have 500 dishes with eggplants, so we know eggplant and how to make it wonderful. Peoples, they come here (to Café Mediterranean), not sure they want to try it. I tell them, try it and you will be surprised how good it is,” he said.

Ozdil is squarely on the money.

If you do try this generously-sized appetizer, I’m betting you love it.

The stuffed eggplant could be a modest lunch or even an evening entrée paired with a salad or another appetizer (hummus in our case) for a healthy, tasty meal.

Here’s how it’s prepared: red and green bell peppers, onion and garlic are sautéed in olive oil, spices and herbs, along with pine nuts and raisins. The tricky, time-consuming part is preparation of the eggplant shell in which the sauté is placed before baking. The eggplant is sliced in half, the seedy pith is scooped out, and the remaining shell is salted and allowed to cure and “sweat” out the bitterness for three hours. That’s important, says Ozdil, since the brining part takes all the bitterness out, and leaves a delicate, delicious shell to cradle the stuffing.

Next the shell is filled with the veggie sauté, and placed in an oven for about an hour. When baked, the dish is allowed to cool and is refrigerated, and served cold. Patrons can request the appetizer be heated, but Ozdil suggests (as do I) you eat it cold. Mine was served cold, and every morsel was a wonder of flavors not often found in a strictly vegetarian dish.

According to Ozdil, the key to all the special flavors he and his kitchen staff are able to bring to the table starts in Turkey. He could use locally available spices and herbs to season his recipes. That would be easier; far cheaper, too. He refuses to do that, instead traveling to New York City four times yearly on buying trips. There he buys from purveyors who import direct from his Turkish homeland. Products such as Turkish oregano are more potent, he claims.

The flavor profiles are Mediterranean, and different than

Fahri Ozdil, owner, in the dining area.

A vegetarian baby eggplant served cold.

the same herbs and spices available here, he added.

Again in the flavor department, while the vegetables used at Café Mediterranean come from the U.S, many are raised locally for added freshness and pick-at-peak flavor.

Ozdil explained that he has suppliers in Indian Hill and other local areas.

All that extra effort adds to the quality and flavor of every dish on the restaurant’s menu, he said.

In addition to the eggplant appetizer, we also enjoyed the hummus.

This classic Mediterranean commu-

The exterior of Café Mediterranean.

nal dish is made from scratch in Ozdil’s kitchen. The chickpeas are reduced to a creamy puree, along with sesame oil and a hint of garlic.

With the fresh, warm pita bread, the hummus is a delightful accompaniment: a perfect start to or complement for a meal.

Soon, Café Mediterranean plans to introduce the Turkish “pizza,” which actually is a flatbread made for centuries in his homeland. The flatbread is very thin, and the topping is unlike any pizza topping we’ve seen. The base is ground

lamb, cooked and then mixed with red and green bell peppers, onion, parsley and garlic. There is no cheese, no tomato sauce or chunks of tomato. The mixture is spread on the flatbread dough and placed in a special oven for baking.

Just now, that special oven is the sticking point, since it has not been installed yet. But keep the flatbread on your personal radar screen. If Ozdil’s enthusiasm level is any gauge, the flatbread will be another delicious addition to the Café Mediterranean menu.

Ozdil has seen an increase in Jewish patronage in the last year, he said. Many families order carryout foods in quantity for their home holiday celebrations. And many also dine in the restaurant, being especially attracted to the many vegetarian dishes and kebabs on the menu.

See you at Café Mediterranean!

Cafe Mediterranean 9525 Kenwood Road 745-9386

DINING OUT • 15

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2014

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16 • OPINION

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‘The Death of Klinghoffer’ an injustice to our father’s memory

By Lisa and Ilsa Klinghoffer NEW YORK (JTA) – On Oct. 8, 1985, our 69-year-old wheelchairbound father, Leon Klinghoffer, was shot in the head by Palestinian hijackers on the Achille Lauro cruise ship. The terrorists brutally and unceremoniously threw his body and wheelchair overboard into the Mediterranean. His body washed up on the Syrian shore a few days later.

Beginning on Oct. 20 for eight performances, a baritone portraying “Leon Klinghoffer” will appear on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera and sing the “Aria of the Falling Body” as he artfully falls into the sea. Competing choruses will highlight Jewish and Palestinian narratives of suffering and oppression, selectively presenting the complexities of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The four terrorists responsible for his murder will be humanized by distinguished opera singers and given a back story, an “explanation” for their brutal act of terror and violence. Operagoers will see and hear a musical examination of terrorism, the Holocaust and Palestinian claims of dispossession – all in fewer than three hours.

Since the Met Opera’s decision to stage “The Death of Klinghoffer” by composer John Adams became public several months ago, much has been said and written about our father. Those opposed to the opera’s appearance in New York have elevated his murder at the hands of terrorists into a form of martyrdom. To cultural arbiters and music critics, meanwhile, his tragic story has been seen merely as a vehicle for what they perceive to be artistic brilliance.

For us, the impact and message of the opera is much more deeply felt and tragically personal.

Neither Mr. Adams nor librettist Alice Goodman reached out to us when creating the opera, so we didn’t know what to expect when we attended the American debut at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1991. We were devastated by what we saw: the exploitation of the murder of our father as a vehicle for political commentary.

Over the years we have been deeply distressed with each new production of “Klinghoffer.” Critical views of Israel permeate the opera, and the staging and props of various productions have only amplified that bias. To have it now produced in New York – in our own backyard – by the country’s most prestigious opera company is incredibly painful.

We have always been strong supporters of the arts, and believe they can play an important role in examining

and understanding significant world events. “Klinghoffer” does no such thing. It presents false moral equivalencies without context and offers no real insight into the historical reality and the senseless murder of an American Jew. The opera rationalizes, romanticizes and legitimizes the terrorist murder of our father.

Long ago we resolved never to let the last few minutes of Leon Klinghoffer’s life define who he was as a man, husband and father. Opera patrons will only see Leon Klinghoffer presented as a victim – he was so much more.

Our father was an inventor who loved to work with his hands. After his stroke, he continued to use his one good arm to repair anything that needed fixing. Every Saturday night he and our mother, Marilyn, would get dressed up and go out dancing. Family and friends meant everything to him.

He was on a cruise with our mother, celebrating their 36th anniversary with a group of lifelong friends who summered together on the Jersey shore, when terrorists took over the ship, announced a hijacking in progress, and separated the Jewish passengers from those on board.

The terrorist thugs who murdered Leon Klinghoffer didn’t care about the good, sweet man our father was. To them he was just a Jew – an American in a wheelchair whose life they considered worthless.

As the years have passed, we have tried to ensure that his murder would not be forgotten or, worse, co-opted or exploited by those with an agenda. We believe his ordeal should continue to serve as a wake-up call to civilized society about the dangers of terrorism. We have dedicated our lives since the tragedy to educating people about the danger of terrorism, and putting a personal face on victims and their families through the Leon and Marilyn Klinghoffer Memorial Foundation of the Anti-Defamation League.

Our father was one of the first American victims of Middle Eastern terrorism. Today with the memory of 9/11, the reality of al-Qaida and ISIS, and countless other attacks and threats, Americans live under the deadly threat of terrorism each and every day.

Terrorism is irrational. It should never be explained away or justified.

Nor should the death of innocent civilians be misunderstood as an acceptable means for drawing attention to perceived political grievances.

Unfortunately, “The Death of Klinghoffer” does all of this and sullies the memory of our father in the process.

Correction In the October 16, 2014 issue of the Israelite, the article entitled “Jewish Federation holds contest to collect camp and Israel trip memories” contained an error. One of the winner’s names was incorrect; Jordan Newman was one of the winners, not Jordan Baker. We apologize for the error.

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

Dear Editor, In past Letters to the Israelite, I have written of the strong military support the Obama administration has provided Israel. Very true.

Iron Dome saved countless Israeli lives (and prevented a more aggressive Israeli response). There is the lack of commensurate political support, however. In a time when Israel and Jews, in particular, are being attacked in Europe, the Obama administration can’t avoid a dose of hyperbole and outright antiSemitism. In the last 2 weeks this has been highlighted by two events.

The first was when Israel announced new housing permits for a Jewish neighborhood of Jerusalem (‘occupied’). The amount of land relative to the large adjacent Jewish neighborhoods where it would be located was inconsequential. But, taking their cue from Israel’s Peace Now organization (who can’t muster more than 10% of the seats in the Israeli Knesset), the Obama administration called this ‘land grab’ a move to undermine the peace process.

If only this were true…And it gets worse, terribly worse.

After meeting with several world leaders in Egypt regarding what to do about ISIS, Secretary of State Kerry issued the following statement, “There wasn’t a leader I met with in the region who didn’t raise with me spontaneously the need to try to get peace between Israel and the Palestinians, because it was a cause of recruitment and of street anger and agitation that they felt –- and I see a lot of heads nodding –- they had to respond to,” he told gathered diplomats. “People need to understand the connection of that. And it has something to do with humiliation and denial and absence of dignity”.

So now you have it! The war between Sunni Islam and Shiite Islam is not because they hate each other and deny each other’s interpretation of Islam. It’s because of the Jew! The disintegration of Iraq is not because Obama withdrew US troops and did not leave political stability on the ground or because Obama tolerated Iraqi Shiite persecution of the Sunnis. It’s because of the Jew! The Syrian Civil War that has pitted Alawite Moslem against Sunni Moslem, left 200,000 dead, a million wounded, 3 million

refugees, is not because of intraMoslem rivalry, the West’s and Obama’s indifference to it, or Obama’s toleration of the use of poison gas. It’s because of the Jew! The replacement of Libya’s Qadaffi (who was moderating his policies) with anarchy and bloodshed, is not because Obama had no strategy.

It’s because of the Jew! The creation of ISIS (or Al Qaeda) is not because it was funded by the Gulf States, in particular the racist Sunni Wahabi Saudi regime. It’s because of the Jew! The lack of an enlightened educational system in the Middle East, legal systems, human rights, clitoral mutilation, female humiliation, gay and lesbian murder, beheadings, hands cut off for thievery, is not because of Middle-Age, despotic rulers. It’s because of the Jew! If only it were so simple...

Israeli Economy Minister Naftali Bennett put it best when he said that “even when a British Muslim beheads a British Christian there will always be someone who blames the Jews.”

Shame on Obama and Kerry!

Ray Warren Amberley Village

Opening the gates for Israel’s slain Olympians in Rio de Janeiro

By David Kirschte (JNS) – The week of Yom Kippur, I learned that Ben Berger had died at age 97. Ben lived a long, good life punctuated by a singular, terrible tragedy—he outlived his son, David, who was one of 11 Israeli Olympians murdered by Palestinian terrorists during the horrific Munich Massacre of the 1972 Olympics.

The murder of the group that became known as the “Munich 11” is a stain on the Olympics that has marred them to this day. David was an outstanding weightlifter, a Zionist, and the only American on the Israeli team. Ben, along with other athletes’ surviving family members, lobbied for a minute of silence at the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics to mark the 40th anniversary of the tragedy. But the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has continued to refuse to honor the fallen Israeli Olympians.

I met Ben three years ago when he came to speak at the unveiling of a Munich 11 memorial sculpture in front of JCC Rockland in West Nyack, N.Y. By then, the JCC had formed a strong bond with Ankie

Spitzer, who lost her husband Andrei during the kidnapping and the botched rescue effort. Ankie and Ilana Romano have led the charge from Israel for a minute of silence at the Olympics’ opening ceremony.

Their efforts started with the Montreal games in 1976 and continued through the London games.

They are tireless and determined women whose husbands were taken from them all too soon. They don’t intend to let the IOC, or the world, forget.

When Ben came to speak, our JCC was gearing up to host the JCC Maccabi Games in 2012, which we were dedicating to the memory of the murdered Israelis. While each year at the JCC Maccabi Games— an Olympic-style teen athletic competition—JCCs honor the Munich 11 as part of the opening ceremony.

Our local community took on an added task. We were going to reach for the impossible. We were going to get that minute of silence in London through an online petition. Almost 112,000 signatures later, we hoped that our efforts would pay off.

I stood, along with Ankie, Ilana, and members of our JCC leadership before IOC President Jacques Rogge prior to the London

Olympics and handed over that hefty document. The IOC’s answer was “no.” But certainly we did not fail. The entire world heard us.

Now, it seems that the IOC has heard us, too. Ankie and Ilana have just participated in the various commemorations in Israel of the 1972 murders, and Ankie reports that attendance was greater than it has been in years. She notes that the Olympic Committee of Israel, under new leadership, has committed to making the minute of silence happen in at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. The IOC, under Thomas Bach’s leadership, recently committed funds to a memorial in Munich honoring the slain Israelis. There appears to be heightened concern and a will to acknowledge that something needs to be done regarding what happened in 1972. For the first time since she sat stoically at the Montreal Olympics, waiting for the IOC to do something, Ankie feels hopeful that it might.

Our petition, and what we did, changed things. It was a crazy idea.

But it shows just how far determination and a just cause can take you.

Yet Ben Berger’s death reminds us OLYMPIANS on page 21

JEWISH LIFE • 17

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2014

because of those 50 righteous… (should) the Judge of the entire earth not act justly? And perhaps there are 45… or 40… or 30… or 20... or 10?” (Gen. 18:23-32) Abraham charges God with injustice and then bargains with God as if the Almighty were a market vendor, in order to save the wicked city of Sodom.

But Noah, when confronted with the prospect of a flood destroying all of humanity, is quite satisfied to accept God’s decision and build an ark to save only himself and his immediate family.

Apparently the first Hebrew must be concerned for all of humanity.

Noah’s lack of human sensitivity left him wanting in God’s eyes.

That’s precisely what the midrash says: Had Noah lived in Abraham’s generation and been compared to him, he would not have been considered anything at all.

It goes even further than that, however. God actually gives in to Abraham’s demand. He says specifically, “I will not destroy (Sodom) because of even 10 righteous people” (Gen. 18:32). But as the Torah reports, there were not even 10 righteous in the city: “The men of Sodom surrounded the house (to sodomize the strangers), from the youth to the aged, the entire people from end to end (of the city)” (Gen. 19:4). God even invites Abraham to enter into dialogue with Him, saying, “Shall I hide from Abraham that which I am about to do?” (Gen. 18:17) God then goes on to declare that He has elected Abraham as the first Hebrew because of his sense of justice and righteousness, before inviting Abraham to argue with Him on the basis of these concepts (Gen. 18:18-22).

The point is clear: To be the elected of God, one must stand strong against the injustices of the world. God recognizes that the world is not perfect; He wants us to complete and perfect it. He wants us to force Him to intercede to make certain that the good and the compassionate triumph over the evil and the destructive. He doesn’t want us to accept the world as He created it; He doesn’t want us to accept human nature in the fullness of its evil potential. Noah apparent-

ly did not believe that humanity had the power to repent. Abraham believed that even Sodom was ultimately redeemable.

Noah may have been righteous and wholehearted as an individual, but he lacked the strength and the boldness to confront God’s decision and to oppose the wicked ways of the world. This characteristic is built into his name, which means “ease.” Rashi says that he received that name because he created an easier method of reaping wheat from the ground. God elects the one who challenges Him and is willing to go to war to fight the evil terrorists who captured Lot. God wants us to swim against the current, to put our lives on the line, in order to perfect the world in the Kingship of the Divine. That’s what it means to be a Hebrew (Ivri): to stand in opposition on one side (ever in Hebrew), even if everyone – even God – stands on the other.

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

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T EST Y OUR T ORAH KNOWLEDGE THIS WEEK’S PORTION: NOAH (BRAISHITH 6:9—11:32) 1. How old was Noah when the flood started? a.) 500 years b.) 600 years c.) 650 years 2. How long was Noah in the ark? a.) Six months b.) Ten months c.) One year 3. What did Noah do after he left the Ark? a.) Made sacrifices to Hashem fig branches into the ark. Rashi 4. C 11:1 Everybody spoke Hebrew. Rashi 5. A 11:31

EFRAT, Israel - Noah may have been righteous and wholehearted as an individual, but he lacked the strength and the boldness to confront God’s decision and to oppose the wicked ways of the world.

“Noah was a righteous man, wholehearted in his generations; Noah walked together with God” (Gen. 6:9) If, indeed, Noah was a righteous, wholehearted partner of God, why is he not the first Hebrew? He seems to have had all of the necessary qualifications.

The classical biblical commentary Rashi generally follows the midrash in praising every one of the biblical personalities, even those who do not come off so well in a simple reading of the biblical text.

In the case of Noah, however, Rashi cites a midrash that turns great praise into shameful degradation.

While the Bible states unambiguously that Noah was “a righteous man, wholehearted in his generations,” Rashi comments, “And there are those who explicate this phrase to Noah’s detriment: In accordance with his generation, he was righteous; had he lived in the generation of Abraham, he would not have been considered anything at all” (Rashi, citing BT Sanhedrin 108). Why this denigration when the Bible itself is so complimentary? Rashi and the midrash even take the next phrase, “He (Noah) walked together with God,” to indicate that Noah was lacking: “In the case of Abraham, the Bible says, ‘Walk before Me and be wholehearted’ (Gen. 17: 1). Noah required Divine support to uphold him, whereas Abraham was strong and progressed with his righteousness on his own (without any need of external support)” (Gen. Raba 30:10). What could possibly cause these commentaries to overlook the positive and seek out the negative?

The Maharal of Prague magnificently explains that Abraham and Noah each faced a similar challenge, but they reacted in radically different ways.

When God informs Abraham that he is going to destroy the wicked people of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham immediately challenges the decision and actually debates with the Lord Himself: “Will You then destroy the righteous with the wicked? Perhaps there are 50 righteous… will You destroy and not forgive the place

(Gen. 18:23-32) Abraham charges God with injustice and then bargains with God as if the Almighty were a market vendor, in order to save the wicked city of Sodom.

b.) Plant a vineyard c.) Build a city d.) Tell the world about the flood 4. Who built the Tower of Babel a) Noah b) Babylonians c) All sorts of people 5. In what country does Avrom first appear? a.) Ur Kasdim b.) Charam c.) Aram

17th of the second month and the ground dried the 27th of the second month. The extra 11 days of make a full solar year.

3. A,B 8:20,9:20 Noah brought grape vines and

by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin

SHABBAT SHALOM: PARSHAT NOAH GENESIS 6:9-11:32

Written by Rabbi Dov Aaron Wise

ANSWERS 1. B 7:11 2. C 7:11,8:14 the generation of the flood were punished for a solar year. The flood started the

Sedra of the Week

18 • JEWZ IN THE NEWZ

JEWZ

IN THE

By Nate Bloom Contributing Columnist More than Minyan of Innovators The new popular history, “How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution,” by WALTER ISAACSON, 62, is already a best seller. To his credit, Issacson does discuss the Jewish background of five of the most important “innovators”. But it occurred to me that one could write another book just about the “unidentified as Jewish” innovators mentioned in Isaacson’s book. The five “biggies” he notes were/are Jewish are JOHN VON NEUMANN (1903-1956), a brilliant mathematician who made essential contributions to computer programming and design; ANDREW GROVE, 78, is the engineer who turned Intel into the world’s largest maker of microprocessors; ARTHUR ROCK, 88, was a founder of Davis & Rock, a San Francisco venture capital firm that was one of the first venture capital firms in existence. It provided the seed money for Apple and Intel, among others; and SERGEY BRIN, and LARRY PAGE, both 41, who are the co-founders of Google. Here’s a few of the book’s brilliant Jews not identified as Jewish in the text: PAUL BARAN (1926-2011) was a co-inventor of packet switched network computing. STEWART BRAND, 75, is famous as the creator (1968) of the “Whole Earth Catalogue” (which Steve Jobs said was incredibly important to young computer geeks)—and as a cofounder (1985) of “The Well”--one of the first virtual on-line communities; and TERRY WINOGRAD, 62, a still-active Stanford computer science professor who has been a mentor to many brilliant students, including Larry Page.

Nice to note: one of his daughters is a rabbi.

Isaacson doesn’t overlook the contribution of women in this male-dominated field. There’s a nice section on the six women who were recruited, near the end of WWII, to program the first electronic general-purpose computer (“ENIAC”) for the Army. Issacson notes that two of the six were Jewish: RUTH LICHTERMN TEITELBAUM (1924-1986) and MARILYN WESCOFF MELTZER (1922-2008). As you might have guessed, the work of these six “Rosie the Programmer (s)” was not generally known for decades.

Movie Notes “Birdman” opened in a few theaters last week and opens in many more this Friday, Oct. 24. It stars Michael Keaton as an actor

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NEWZ

famous for playing a movie superhero (“Birdman”)---but wants “respect” as the star of a Broadway show. I wish I could say that “Birdman,” which is already being touted for many Oscars, has many Jewish connections. But there’s only one big one---the cinematographer is the great EMMANUEL LUBEZKI, 50, a six-time Oscar nominee (won for “Gravity”).

Lubezki is a Mexico born-and raised “landsman” who has long lived in America. The film’s director, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, is also from Mexico.

It’s rare for a reviewer to single out a movie’s cinematography, but almost all reviews have gushed about how Lubezki's camera work and editing to give the impression that “Birdman” was filmed in one continuous long take. The New York Times review says the following about his work on Birdman: “Mr. Iñárritu, who has staged and shot the movie so that it looks like everything that happens, from airborne beginning to end, occurs during one transporting continuous take. The camera doesn’t just move with the story and characters, it also ebbs and flows like water, soars and swoops like a bird, its movement as fluid as a natural element, as animated as a living organism. Mr. Iñárritu’s partner in illusionism is the director of photography, Emmanuel Lubezki, a Houdini of fluid camera movements whose genius is for keeping you watching rather than distractedly wondering. The camerawork in 'Birdman' is an astonishment, and an argument that everything flows together, which in this movie means the cinematography, the story, the people, even time and space.”

There are credible reports that Richard Gere has signed to play J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER, the late “father of the atom bomb”.

The bio-pic is being directed by Israeli JOSEPH CEDAR, 46. It’s definite that EZRA MILLER, 22, will play the title role in a movie version of the comic book character “The Flash.” I think Miller (“Perks of Being a Wallflower”) is a brilliant actor who raises the level of everything he's in. So, this “Flash” may slow down and show us his colors.

You might have caught a story in the lesser gossip press (that was re-reported as fact in a few Jewish media outlets)---that MILA KUNIS, 31, and Ashton Kutcher had a “kabbalah welcoming party” for their newborn daughter, WYATT. The source of this story is the Brit tabloid, the Sun. Trust me, this party is just another in the Sun’s long line of tall tales.

FROM THE PAGES 150 Y EARS A GO The congregations of this city progress daily in every respect. The K.K. Bene Israel at its late meeting raised the salary of Rev. Dr. Lilienthal to $3000 per annum and the salary of the Hazan, Rev. Mr. Mayer, to $800.

The Sexton, Mr. May, a man of nearly seventy years of age refusing to accept a pension was appointed messenger of the congregation with a salary of $400 per annum for life and free dwelling. The office of Shamesh was declared vacant. The plan for building a Temple was reagitated and also an $18,000 donation was subscribed at the spot by 32 members. This sum will be increased to $50,000 which will enable them to build, as their present building and the seats sold in the new Temple will realize about $75,000.

Married, Sunday, Nov. 13, at Mount Vernon, Ind., by the Rev. B.L. Fould of Evansville, Ind., Mr. Benjamin Loewenhaupt to Miss Rachel Rosenbaum, both of this city. – November 18, 1864

125 Y EARS A GO Quite the swellest affair of the season will be the ball given

by Miss Lillie Levy, at the palatial mansion of West Eighth Street, in honor of her friend, Mrs. Friend, nee Friedlander, next Friday night.

The Juvenile Sewing Society was lately organized for the purpose of giving a fair for the benefit of the poor. The members meet each week at a different girl’s house for the purpose of sewing.

The members are: President, Miss Fannie V. Goldstein; Vice-President, Miss Leah Rexinger; Secretary, Miss Stella R. Frankenstein; Treasurer, Miss Rebecca Bauer; Purchasing Committee, Misses Florence B. Wise and Nellie Benzinger; and the Misses Lotta G. Frankenstein, Estella Sommers, Sarah Weil, Gertie Freiberg, Florence D. Marks, Josie Henle, Selma Samuelson, and Jessie, Ray, and Clarice Solomon. The society is doing very nicely.

Mr. and Mrs. Louis Mayer of Walnut Hills and Mrs. Fannie Thurnaur were called to New York by the sudden death of Mrs. Mayer’s father, Mr. Leopold. – October 31, 1889

100 Y EARS A GO A daughter, Florence Ruth, as born to Mr. and Mrs. D.L. Okrent (Hanna Hirschberg) on Sunday, October 6.

Hannah Levy, wife of Moses Levy of 3227 Harvey Avenue, Avondale, died on Monday, October 19, aged forty-four years. Funeral services were held in the mortuary chapel of the Walnut Hills Cemetery on Wednesday afternoon.

Mr. and Mrs. J. Mincovsky of 709 West Sixth Street, announce the engagement of their daughter, Leona, to Mr. Joseph Kaplan, all of Cincinnati, O. At home on Sunday, October 25, 1914.

In honor of their tenth wedding anniversary, Mr .and Mrs. Moses Cohn of 234 Hearne Avenue, Avondale, a surprise party was tendered them by their relatives and friends at the Sinton Hotel on Friday night. It was an affair greatly enjoyed by all present – October 22, 1914

75 Y EARS A GO The marriage of Miss Gertrude V. Kahn, daughter of Mr. David Kahn and the late Mrs. Kahn, to Mr. Stanley S. Straus, son of Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Straus will take place Saturday Nov. 11th, at 6:30 p.m., at Losantiville Country Club.

Rabbi David Philipson will officiate with Rabbi James G. Heller asking the blessing.

Mrs. Joseph Shelt, sister of the bride, will be matron of honor, and Mr. Charles Straus will be his brother’s best man.

After a wedding trip to the West Coast, the young couple will be at home on Mitchell Avenue.

Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Deutsch celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary with a family dinner on Tuesday, Oct. 17th.

Misses Leah Posner, Frances Scheer and Merle Gilman are members of the committee of pledges of the active chapter of Delta Phi Epsilon. They were in charge of a Halloween party last Friday night.

Mrs. Baldina Dreyfoos, 64, of Vernon Manor, passed away Thursday, October 26th. She was the widow of Dr. Max Dreyfoos, Cincinnati physician.

She is survived by two daughters, Mrs. Grauman Marks and Mrs. A. Edgar Miller, Cincinnati; four brothers, Dr. Max B., David, Maurice and Otto Levy, all of Chicago, and one grandchild. Services were held on Sunday from Weil Funeral Home. – November 2, 1939

50 Y EARS A GO Gene Mesh now is associated with Goldman, Cole and Putnick, attorneys, 911 First

National Bank Building.

He obtained the degree of juris doctor at Chase College of Law and recently was admitted to the Ohio Bar. Mr. Mesh was elected to Phi Alpha Delta, law fraternity, and Order of Curia for academic excellence for a four-year average in the upper 10%. In 196263, he won the annual scholarship for ranking highest in his class. He holds the American Jurisprudence prize in trusts and code pleading.

Mr. Mesh obtained his undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan. Mr. and Mrs. Mesh and their three children reside at 8421 Arborcrest Drive.

Mr. and Mrs. Allan J. Sanker (Vera Hollander), 1288 Paddock Hills Avenue, announce the arrival of a son, David Allan. He has a sister, Amy. The grandparents are Mr. and Mrs. Louis Sanker of Cincinnati, and Mrs. David Hollander and the late Mr. Hollander of Indianapolis. – October 29, 1964

25 Y EARS A GO Leslie Friedman and Brian Phillips have chosen to share the joy of their Bat-Bar Mitzvah, as they are close cousins. We, Peggy and Nat Friedman and Anita and Larry Phillips, would be honored to have our family and friends celebrate our Simcha with us on Saturday, Nov. 11, at 9:00 am, at Adath Israel Synagogue.

Leslie is the granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Rich and the late Blanche S. Rich and Mrs. Sam Friedman and the late Mr. Friedman. Brian is the grandson of Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Rich and the late Blanche S. Rich and Mr and Mrs. Sidney Phillips and the late Jean Simkin.

Dr. Bryan D. Brook, a national and international consultant in the mental health field, has recently published a book entitled “Design Your Love Life.”

Dr. Brook is the son of Deborah Dunn Brook and Frank C. Brook of Cincinnati. – November 2, 1989

10 Y EARS A GO Don and Bari Marks (nee Shokler) announce the arrival of their son, Micah Serozhia.

Grandparents are Bob and Gerry Shokler and the late Victor and Carol Marks.

Died, Blanche Vigran, age 100, October 31, 2004 (17 Cheshvan, 5765).

– November 11, 2004

COMMUNITY DIRECTORY / CLASSIFIEDS • 19

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2014

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 Domestic Abuse Hotline: For help in an urgent domestic violence situation, contact the 24-hour Protect Hotline at 888-8729259.

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 • jewishcincinnati.org Jewish Foundation (513) 214-1200 Jewish Information Network (513) 985-1514 JVS Career Services (513) 936-WORK (9675) • www.jvscinti.org Plum Street Temple Historic Preservation

CONVERT from page 6 before a three-judge religious panel called a beit din, declare your fidelity to the faith and probably take a dip in the mikvah – required by Orthodox and Conservative, encouraged by Reform.

Oh, and there’s the little matter of your foreskin. If you’re an uncircumcised male, you’re going to have to get rid of it – at least if you’re converting Orthodox or Conservative. If you’re already medically circumcised, they’ll make do with a symbolical drawing of blood from your place of circumcision, a ritual called called hatafat dam brit.

Ready to move on to some of conversion’s benefits? I thought so.

For one thing, you can have a Conservative or Orthodox wedding (assuming you get the corresponding conversion). Membership in the tribe also entitles you to Israeli citizenship. But beware: Depending on who converted you, you may be subject to some restrictions in Israel.

The Orthodox-controlled Chief Rabbinate in Israel does not recog-

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 Sha’arei Torah (513) 620-8080 • shaareitorahcincy.org Congregation Shevet Achim (513) 426-8613 • shevetachimohio.com 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

nize non-Orthodox conversions, so you won’t be able to marry a Jew there if you converted Conservative or Reform. Orthodox converts must prove their Jewish bona fides, and the Chief Rabbinate has been known to look suspiciously even on some rabbis affiliated with the Rabbinical Council of America.

Still interested? I hope you’re not in too much of a rush. Like a good brisket, conversion takes time.

Both the Conservative and Reform movements offer Introduction to Judaism classes throughout the United States that meet for about three hours weekly over the course of 14 to 18 weeks.

Adam Greenwald, a Conservative rabbi and director of the Miller Introduction to Judaism program at American Jewish University in Los Angeles, says he encourages prospective converts to have at least three months of “active Jewish living” before they take the plunge. Don’t worry: That doesn’t mean you have to commit to observing Conservative Judaism in all its facets.

“What I tell people is, in order to

EDUCA EDUCATION Chai Tots Early Childhood Center (513) 234.0600 • chaitots.com Chabad Blue Ash (513) 793-5200 • chabadba.com Cincinnati Hebrew Day School (513) 351-7777 • chds.shul.net HUC-JIR (513) 221-1875 • huc.edu JCC Early Childhood School (513) 793-2122 • mayersonjcc.org Kehilla - School for Creative Jewish Education (513) 489-3399 • kehilla-cincy.com Mercaz High School (513) 792-5082 x104 • mercazhs.org Kulanu (Reform Jewish High School) (513) 262-8849 • kulanucincy.org Regional Institute Torah & Secular Studies (513) 631-0083 Rockwern Academy (513) 984-3770 • rockwernacademy.org Sarah’s Place (513) 531-3151 • sarahsplacecincy.com Yeshivas Lubavitch High School of Cincinnati (513) 631-2452 • ylcincinnati.com ORGANIZATIONS ORGANIZATIONS American Jewish Committee (513) 621-4020 • ajc.org American Friends of Magen David Adom (513) 521-1197 • afmda.org B’nai B’rith (513) 984-1999 BBYO (513) 722-7244 • mayersonjcc.org 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 (937) 886-9566 • jwv.org NA’AMAT (513) 984-3805 • naamat.org National Council of Jewish Women (513) 891-9583 • ncjw.org ORT America (216) 464-3022 • ortamerica.org State of Israel Bonds (513) 793-4440 • israelbonds.com

convert they need to be engaging with all of the areas of Jewish life,” Greenwald said. “If they say ‘this is how I currently reflect my Jewish commitments in my diet,’ and there’s some intentionality around it, that’s sufficient for our purposes.”

Orthodox conversion requires commitment to all of the Torah’s 613 commandments and the minutia of rabbinic law, so expect to spend a year or more studying with a rabbi or religious mentor.

“There has to be a sense there’s a fluency for how to live life as an observant Jew – Shabbos, kashrut, lifecycle, family purity, basic concepts of Jewish philosophy and history,” said Rabbi Mark Dratch, executive vice president of the Rabbinical Council of America.

“There’s no expectation that a potential convert will know everything.

That’s more than a lifetime challenge.”

Once you do convert, remember: You’re in good company. You’ll be joining the patriarch Abraham, the biblical Ruth and Sammy Davis Jr. Maybe you’ll even run into Gwyneth Paltrow at the mikvah.

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EREZ Taxi Service Transportation for shopping, doctor appointments, airports

513-917-7264 RELATIONS from page 9 Someone said that I said it. Our relationship with the U.S. is very important. First and foremost it is important to us, and I hope it is important to the U.S. too. The defense relationship between us is excellent. My personal relationship with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is also excellent, as is the relationship between the Defense Ministry and the Pentagon and between the IDF and the U.S. military. That doesn’t mean that there are no disputes, even between friends.

“We disagree on how to handle the Iranian nuclear program, on what to discuss with the Iranians: only terrorism and missiles, or centrifuges too? There have been debates on how to confront Egypt with [former President Hosni] Mubarak and with the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Americans’ relations with [current Egyptian President] Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. There were disagreements and we saw things in this way or in a different way.

Legitimate arguments behind closed doors. Obviously there were disagreements on the topic of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, regarding the level of its centrality in the context of the Middle East, whether it is the source of the regional instability or whether it was caused by something else.

“We have a lot of shared interests with the U.S., and that outweighs the disputes. Certainly there are shared values on which the two countries are founded.

The disputes stem from differences in attitudes and worldviews.

Their perspective from there is different than our perspective from here. Disputes are allowed.

We have disputes amongst ourselves too—in the analysis of the situation, in the diagnosis and the prognosis.”

What’s your assessment of the security situation on Israel’s northern front?

“As far as we can see, Hezbollah is not looking to escalate the conflict at this time. The [recent] skirmishes in Har Dov were localized, with Hezbollah seeing fit to respond to actions

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

(513) 531-9600 they attributed to us. Hezbollah has 100,000 rockets and missiles, mainly from Iran and Syria. This organization is dependent on Iran, that is the problem.

“We are preparing for the possibility of escalation, from any direction, not just Lebanon. Even before Operation Protective Edge, but also now after it, anyone who tries to threaten us with rockets already understands that we will exact a very dear price. In the Dahiyeh in Beirut [during the 2006 Second Lebanon War], we destroyed 70 buildings, and in Gaza some people were saying that 7,000 buildings were completely destroyed. The conclusion is clear: At the end, they pay a heavy price for operating against us. If Hezbollah attacks, they will pay a heavy price. Lebanon will pay a heavy price. Offense is still the best defense.”

Does Islamic State pose a threat to Israel?

“Right now, the Islamic State group is far away from us. It can only pose a threat to us if it conquers Syria from the west and in our direction. That is not the case today.”

Israeli relations with Egypt are improving, but like Israel’s interactions with other moderate Arab countries, they’re not being made public. Why? “Yes, unfortunately the State of Israel is still seen as out of place in the region, so it is difficult to achieve normalization. I assert that any relationship requires first and foremost a set of interests.

“We have peace with Jordan and with Egypt, and it has gotten stronger in recent years as a result of interests. You can see clearly, as the prime minister said in his address to the U.N. General Assembly, that the diplomatic horizon is not in Ramallah but in other Arab capitals. Without ceremonies, without agreements, and on the basis of shared interests. If we and the Sunni states share enemies like Iran, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Shiite axis, global jihad groups, and al-Qaeda, all the better.”

20 • BUSINESS

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Former Cincinnatian Daniel Barach is Founder and CEO of Turnaround Stocks, LP, based in New York

By Beth Kotzin Assistant Editor Daniel Barach realized at a young age that there was more to a successful company than just making money.

His father was CEO of a Fortune 500 company here in Cincinnati, and Barach saw first-hand the impact that was made when his father took on that position. “People can make an impact,” he said. If the CEO is a good fit, you can see the dramatic affect on stock price.

Barach took that to heart, and that idea became part of the

basis he built his company on.

He also learned from his mother, a social worker with JFS. She helped him understand how to read people, and Barach now utilizes the psychology of management in his assessment of CEOs at the companies he works with. “Alot of my investment strategies come from my upbringing here,” says Barach.

Barach’s company is called Turnaround Stocks, LP. He named it that because he focuses his funds on companies that are going through a change, a turnaround if you will. These companies are experiencing a

change in leadership, and it’s a unique approach to lean towards those firms in investing.

Barach is a one-man organization, which provides him with a huge advantage. With no employees to worry about, or control systems to manage, he can devote all his time to his passion: thinking about stocks.

His first fund began with 6 investors and grew to 99, and began at $2 million and exploded to $157 million, with many investors from the Cincinnati Jewish community. In fact, Barach’s first fund's stock portfolio roughly tripled the average

annual performance of the S&P 500 over its first 10 years; about 21 percent versus 7 percent annually.

His newest fund kicked off in July, 2014, with 5 investors and he projects a similiar trajectory of growth..

He gets his clients mostly through word-of-mouth, although he is legally allowed to advertise as well. He also mentions that historically, smaller, less “mature” funds perform better, likely because they are “hungrier.” And those fund managers out schmoozing and wining and dining clients aren’t the high performers you might

expect, because they are too busy entertaining and not spending quality time researching their funds and what’s best for their clients.

Daniel Barach grew up in Amberley Village, and graduated from Cincinnati Country Day School. He received his B.A. in Psychology from Trinity College, and went on to graduate from Harvard University’s Business School. With family and good friends still in town, Barach enjoys visiting Cincinnati as often as he can, and still roots for the Bengals and the Reds.

What to expect from Continuing Care Retirement Communities

By Ken Paley Contributing Writer For many older adults a retirement community is the way to go. They often describe the experience as a cross between a resort hotel, college, and summer camp, and they find they have more time to enjoy the things they like to do when they aren't worried about taking care of a house or condo. Many also don't want to be a burden on their children as they get older and the whole family has a sense of peace of mind knowing their parents are active, happy, and safe and that there are health care professionals close by should the need arise.

Many retirement communities offer several levels of care in addition to independent living and these are known as Continuing Care Retirement Communities or CCRCs. The most common offerings include assisted living, nursing care (also known as skilled nursing) and memory support.

Assisted living is for people who may need some help with

some activities of daily living (ADLs) such as getting dressed, bathing, putting in eye drops, taking medications, cooking etc.

Although most communities have specific floors or buildings for assisted living, at least one CCRC in our area offers service packages where a resident does not have to leave their apartment home should their health care needs change and they need some assistance. This avoids another move where you have to leave your neighbors and often downsize to a smaller apartment in another part of the building or campus. In effect this “enriched living” assistance is brought to you rather than you having to move.

Nursing care, where there is a nurse on duty 24/7 is available to those who need around-theclock care. Rehabilitation services are also available for those who are moving in for just a short term stay possibly after something like a surgery or stroke, and usually long term residents and short term rehab residents live separately.

Memory support can be part of nursing care or assisted living depending on the resident's medical conditions and how much assistance they need.

This level of care is for adults with cognitive impairment brought on by Alzheimer's or dementia caused by other conditions such as vascular problems, a stroke, trauma, etc. They are usually located in a secure area and offer special programs and activities specifically for folks with memory or other cognitive issues.

Unfortunately the quality, philosophy of care, and the variety of services offered by CCRCs can vary widely so it is important that you do your homework and ask the right questions when deciding which one is right for you or your loved one. One thing you can check is whether or not the community is accredited by any independent industry examiners.

For example both Deupree House and Marjorie P. Lee in Hyde Park earned the stamp of approval from the international-

ly recognized Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) and the Continuing Care Accreditation Commission (CCAC). CARFCCAC is an independent nonprofit accreditor of human services that sets standards of excellence in the industry.

Accreditation demonstrates a provider's commitment to continuously improve service quality and to focus on the satisfaction of the persons served.

Besides the reputation, location, and financial stability of the community, it is important to know if it is run by a for-profit or a not-for-profit company.

There are often differences in culture, compassion, and quality of care between the two. When profit is the main driver of the business, and dividends are paid to owners and shareholders, other things like staffing and quality of care can be compromised. On the other hand, if a not-for-profit doesn't have a professional management team or enough funding, the business and service can also suffer. This

is where longevity and reputation of the community can be helpful in your decision-making process. But the main difference between the two is that most every not-for-profit will not ask you to leave if you outlive your financial resources and can no longer afford to live there. Besides Medicare, they also accept Medicaid payments, which apply mainly to a nursing home scenario. This is possible because of endowments and philanthropic support to the organization. A for-profit company has no obligation to keep you if you can no longer afford the rent and many do not take Medicaid or even Medicare. if you run out of funds you will be moved out of the community.

With people living longer these days it isn't unusual that they can easily outlive their funds, not to mention the fact that an emergency could drain their resources unexpectedly.

MIAMI from page 6

residing in Orthodox Jewish households grew by 41 percent – “mostly due to a significant increase in the average size of Orthodox households,” the study reported. The survey also found the overall percentage of Jewish Miami households identifying as Orthodox up to 11 percent from 9 percent in 2004; the number of Reform Jewish households up to 31 percent from 27 percent; the number of Conservative households down to 26 percent from 32 percent; and “just Jewish” households steady at about 32 percent.

Miami has about 47,000

Jews under age 35; 43,000 Jews aged 35-64; and 40,000 age 65 and older. The largest growth since 2004 was in the 18-34 age range and the 65-74 range (the baby boomers); both grew by 26 percent in the last decade.

The numbers weren’t all good for the Jewish federation. The study found that giving to Jewish causes had decreased among Miami Jews, with a steep decline in gifts to the federation: Only 32 percent of respondents said they gave to the federation, down from 42 percent in 2004.

Miami’s Jews live mostly in North Dade, South Dade and the

Beaches, with North Dade growing fastest – up 19 percent since 2004. The study also found about 7,000 Jews living in the downtown area, mostly young adults.

The survey found relatively high rates of Jewish attachment. Only 16 percent of couples reported being intermarried, 74 percent said being Jewish is “very important to them” and eight in 10 children have had some type of formal Jewish education, such as Jewish day school, Hebrew school or private tutoring. Sixty-two percent of respondents said they were

“very” or “extremely” attached to Israel.

Twenty-nine percent of respondents said they cannot make ends meet or are just holding on financially. Thirty-five percent of households said they needed some kind of social services in the past year.

The study interviewed 2,020 Jews and had a margin of error of 2.2 percent. It was conducted

by Jewish demographer Ira Sheskin, a professor of geography at the University of Miami who has authored 43 Jewish federation population studies.

area in the nation, behind New York and Los Angeles.

Of Miami’s foreign-born Jews, the largest group by far is Israelis. Some 5,180 Miami Jews were born in Israel, and approximately 9,000 adults consider themselves Israeli. About 3,700 Miami Jews were born in Cuba; 2,854 in Argentina; 2,643 in Venezuela; 2,537 in Colombia; and 2,220 in Canada.

Part of Miami’s recent growth is Orthodox. Compared to the last federation study, in 2004, the number of people

FOOD • 21

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2014

Memory Lane Zell’s Bites

by Zell Schulman Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to meet interesting, caring and wonderful people who came into my life and became very special friends. Mrs. David Frisch, lovingly called “Moke” by her grandchildren, great grandchildren and close friends, was one of these.

Though she is no longer with us, the times we were together will always be with me, especially, Monday Night Dinners. Mondays family restaurants were closed so Monday night dinner with family and friends became a tradition and is still carried on by the next generation.

Moke gave me this recipe for a twice-baked Jewish cookie called Mandlbrot, a kind of "Jewish biscotti," which is baked first as a loaf, then sliced and baked again.

They’re great for dipping in coffee or tea and became one of our family’s favorite cookies, which I bake for many of our Jewish holidays and family celebrations. They can be made ahead of time, and they freeze well and still have a great taste when ready to be served.

MOKE’S MANDLBROT Makes 3 dozen Ingredients 3 teaspoons baking powder 1 cup sugar 1 teaspoon salt 3/4 cup vegetable oil 1 teaspoon nutmeg 1 teaspoon vanilla 3 large eggs 3/4 cup finely chopped almonds or walnuts OLYMPIANS from page 16 of life’s frailties, and how the things we hold dear are often forgotten when we pass. David Berger’s murder, and the deaths of his teammates, should not be relegated to the dustbin of sports history with the passing of their families. Ben’s cause has outlasted him, but we can still make it right. The Olympics in Rio de Janeiro are less than two years away.

As Yom Kippur came to an end, my thoughts were drawn back to Ben Berger and his quest for justice.

Topping 1/2-cup sugar mixed with 2 teaspoons cinnamon Method 1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a cookie sheet or cover it with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg together; set aside.

2. Place the eggs and sugar in the large bowl of an electric mixer.

Add the oil slowly, in a steady stream, beating continuously. Add the vanilla. Turn the mixer. to medium speed and alternately add the sifted ingredients with the chopped nuts.

3. Remove the dough from the bowl onto a lightly floured surface; divide the dough in three pieces.

On the prepared cookie sheet, shape each piece into a long, flat, loaf, about 1-inch high.

4. Score each loaf at 1/2-inch intervals with the tip of a sharp knife. Sprinkle each loaf well with the cinnamon-sugar topping. Bake in the preheated oven, 15 to 20 minutes.

5. Remove the Mandlbrot from the oven and slice the loaves on the cookie sheet, where scored. Lay each piece flat on its side. Sprinkle with the cinnamon-sugar topping.

6. Return the sliced pieces to the oven and bake 5 to 6 minutes , just until it begins to turn a little golden.

Remove the loaves from the oven and turn each piece over. Sprinkle with the cinnamon-sugar topping and return to the oven and bake 5 to 6 minutes more. These should be golden brown. Allow them to cool about 10 to 15 minutes, then store them in an airtight container.

Zell’s Tips: For those watching their cholesterol, use 1 large egg and 4 egg whites, or 1 large egg and a 1/2 cup of egg substitute. Cut the sugar amount to 1 cup total, and leave out the salt. Only use 1/4 cup of nuts. The consistency is correct and the flavor may not be as rich, but it is still tasty.

Our JCC has committed to continue that work and will make another effort in support of the Munich 11 families, in hopes that the IOC will grant that minute of silence. Ben didn’t live to see his son finally memorialized, as he deserved.

The final service of Yom Kippur, Ne’ilah, is referred to as the closing of the gates. Let’s not allow the gates to close on any other family member. They warrant that honor, respect, and closure.

Let’s keep the gates open wide for Rio.

STATE from page 6 final agreement. Failing to do so only raises questions as to what Iran’s intentions truly are,” Serrano said in a statement provided to JNS. Douglas Rivlin, director of communications for U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), told JNS, “The staff occasionally misses opportunities for the Congressman to express an opinion he feels strongly about.

The Congressman was unaware of the (Iran) letter and would certainly SCROLL from page 7 musical piece known for being played at military funerals, rang through the air. Rear Admiral Rabbi Harold Robinson, director of the JWB Jewish Chaplains Council, recounted inspiring stories of Jews who served in the military. The sofer (scribe) completed the Torah’s final letters, and we sang and danced with the scroll to celebrate. My sister presented a moving video she produced about Jacob’s life and legacy, featuring interviews with my father and aunt. A series of speakers—some who had firsthand knowledge of the aftermath of Jacob’s death, and others who got to know my family later in life—reflected on the significance of the occasion.

In my own speech, I addressed a question that consumed my thoughts leading up to the event: What’s in a name? Like my grandfather, I have no English middle name, but I do have two Hebrew names: Chaim Yaakov. My lack of a middle name isn’t lost me. There’s always a blank space where the middle name RABBI from page 7 shocked by the allegation. They described Freundel as somewhat aloof and said he delegated much of the personal outreach to his wife, Sharon.

“He came off as academic, intellectual, a space cadet, head in the clouds,” said one former male congregant, a young professional. “The word was out — if you wanted an emotional experience, someone who would hold your hand, go to Rabbi Shemtov,” this congregant said, referring to the senior Chabad rabbi in Washington, Levi Shemtov. “If you wanted rigorous study, go to Kesher.”

“He wasn’t a super warm and cuddly rabbi,” said another male congregant, who, like others interviewed for this story, asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the issue.

“He would answer whatever she’elahs you had,” this congregant said, using the Hebrew term for questions regarding Jewish law. “He was more than happy to share his thought process from a religious perspective. He was very much the doctor-rabbi.”

Freundel is a on the faculty of Georgetown University’s law school and Towson University in Maryland.

Yet another former congregant, a woman, acknowledged Freundel’s reputation as distant, but said his compas-

have signed on if he had known about it.”

The office of U.S. Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) said it didn’t believe it was contacted about the Iran letter, but noted that Shimkus is a co-sponsor of the Nuclear Iran Prevention Act, which reasserts the U.S. policy of preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons through sanctions.

U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel’s (DNY) office said it missed the deadline to add Rangel’s signature to the Iran letter.

“I join my colleagues in requesting Secretary Kerry to urge Tehran to fully disclose its nuclear activities as they pose a serious risk to the United States and our allies,” Rangel said in a statement provided to JNS. “As international threats continue, it is vital that we require Tehran’s compliance with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as part of the negotiations between the P5+1 and Iran in order to show our commitment to securing peace and security.”

should go. For me, that represents Jacob’s absence and my duty to fill that void. Then the fact that Chaim, meaning “life,” is part of my Hebrew name can be taken literally—I am Chaim Yaakov, or as I’d like to think of it, “Life of Jacob.”

My name is my life. It’s who I am. It represents my family’s past, my own present and future, and my family’s future.

A name can derive from a variety of inspirations—a deceased family member, a life experience, or simply an appealing entry in a book of names. Regardless of the scenario, every name has a story, and I believe it’s one of our jobs in this world to craft that story as our lives progress. For me, the story of my name is fairly obvious from the outset, but the story continues to evolve.

My family’s newly dedicated Torah scroll is undoubtedly an important chapter in that story. The new Torah is not only a fitting tribute to my grandfather the veteran, but it also represents the re-writing of his legacy—which was previously defined by his absence. This

Torah exists because Jacob served our country in the military. This Torah exists because Jacob and his wife Sylvia started a family that was able to support its creation. Now, this Torah will allow Jews to exercise the privilege of religious freedom at the most crucial time, while they defend America. Although tradition looks forward to a time when all Jews settle in the land of Israel, the Jewish people survive and thrive because of their current devotion and endurance in the Diaspora. As it travels on the Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, my family’s Torah will be no small part of that journey.

My grandfather’s story is no longer about the tombstone bearing my name. Quite the opposite, Jacob’s legacy is about life—the English translation of Chaim, the first part of his Hebrew name. In the face of war and adversity, Jacob’s Torah will give our soldiers new life, new meaning, and new inspiration.

It’s a legacy defined not by absence, but by enormous presence.

sion was manifest through his intellect.

Freundel, a leading rabbi for conversions, was known for his strict adherence to the precepts laid down by the RCA, but would also take care to guide closely converts through what could be a protracted and arduous process. “He has fought so hard for those who wished to make a halachic conversion to Judaism,” this congregant said, using the term for conversion according to Orthodox Jewish precepts.

“He would not cut corners, but he was a voice of reason with the rabbinate.”

Freundel hewed a centrist line in some of the recent controversies affecting Orthodoxy: He was among the first to embrace the notion of women presidents for Orthodox congregations, drawing ire from some right-wingers.

But he rejected attempts on the Orthodox left to create a class of women clergy, or “rabbahs.” He was known, congregants said, for dismissing rabbis he believed were his intellectual inferiors.

Just last month he told the Washington Jewish Week that the Orthodox community was afflicted by changes in sexual mores. “The lack of sexual morality that pervades this society is all over the place,” he said, “and the Orthodox community, no matter how traditional, is not immune from this, and it creates terrible problems.”

He went on to say: “Pornography and its accessibility is wrecking marriages. It’s two keystrokes away. You get on the computer, you hit the button twice and you’re there. I have not counseled a couple in any level of relationship in the last five years where pornography hasn’t been an issue.”

Rabbi Mark Dratch, the RCAexecutive vice president, noted Freundel’s role as the chairman of the RCA committee negotiating shared precepts for conversion with the Israeli rabbinate, which in recent years has accused American modern Orthodoxy of laxity in its approach. But Dratch said Freundel was just one figure in an ongoing process, and that it would not be affected by his departure.

“Hopefully it doesn’t mean anything, because the process and the protocols are larger than any one individual,” he said.

Dratch extended the RCA’s sympathy to Freundel’s alleged victims.

“We have a lot of empathy for the alleged victims, for all women now who feel vulnerable who come to the mikvah, as well as for the family and for the rabbi himself,” Dratch said.

“There’s too much we don’t know to pass judgment, but if true, we are outraged by the behavior of a rabbi in general and especially in an area of religious practice.”

22 • OBITUARIES

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

D EATH N OTICES JONAS, Hilda, died September 12, 2014; 17 Elul, 5774.

CARL, Alfred, age 85, died October 14, 2014, 20 Tishrei, 5775.

ANTEN, Toby, age 82, died October 14, 2014; 20 Tishrei, 5775.

LITTENHOFF, James, age 66, died October 15, 2014; 21 Tishrei, 5775.

BRATSLAVSKY, Ilya, age 28, died October 16, 2014; 22 Tishrei, 5775.

GARDNER, Elaine E., age 87, died October 17, 2014; 24 Tishrei, 5775.

BLATT, Gladys, age 82, died October 18, 2014; 24 Tishrei, 5775.

BANKER, Helen J, age 88, died October 20, 2014; 26 Tishrei, 5775.

O BITUARIES JONAS, Hilda , 1913-2014 After an extraordinarily full life of over a century, the internationally known harpsichordist and pianist Hilda Jonas passed away peacefully at her home in San Francisco on September 12, 2014.

She was born in Düsseldorf, Germany, in 1913 to Anne and Moritz Klestadt, and had a very happy childhood. At the ripe young age of 5, she began taking piano DRESSMAKER from page 5 the Milwaukee Repertory Theater to create clothing based on Hedy’s sketches.

The resulting exhibit, “Stitching History from the Holocaust,” is a powerful and moving way to introduce an individual, personal dimension to Holocaust remembrance. It

lessons, and aside from excelling at that, she especially enjoyed languages, literature, and math at school. Little did she imagine how her life was to become intertwined with major world-historical events.

In 1932 she entered the Cologne Conservatory, but was dismissed one year later because of being Jewish – the first of increasing restrictions imposed on her and other Jewish citizens in 1930s Nazi Germany. She completed her music degree at the Gumpert Conservatory in Düsseldorf, also traveling to Switzerland to study with Rudolf Serkin, and to France for lessons with world-famous harpsichordist Wanda Landowska.

Discovering the harpsichord gave her career a new focus, and her friendship with Landowska continued for years. Because of her frequent border crossings to study and perform, the Gestapo arrested Hilda in 1935, but after three hours of interrogation, she was miraculously released. Even at 22 years old, she turned adversity into strength.

By the mid-1930s she was restricted to performing for the Kulturbund deutsche Juden features eight outfits – among them fitted blouses and blazers, paired with A-line skirts, and knee-length dresses that cinched at the waist.

Why were the Strnads denied admission to the United States?

America’s immigration laws at the time made it difficult for refugees such as the Strnads to enter, and the way the Roosevelt administration

(Cultural Association of German Jews), as well as house concerts in Jewish homes. She met Gerald Jonas, a law student and close friend of her older brother Fred in 1928, and they were married in January 1938. Their marriage lasted for sixty-nine years, until he died in 2007.

They fled Germany in May 1938, and first went to Australia, but this proved unsatisfactory for them. After only six weeks there, they set sail for the U.S. They had to change ships in Honolulu, but having completely fallen in love with Hawaii at first sight, they decided to stay.

For three and a half years Hilda’s career as a performer and teacher flourished in Honolulu, including as a soloist with the Honolulu Symphony and radio broadcasts on the “Voice of Hawaii.” Everything changed, however, on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. As holders of German passports and technically “enemy aliens” (even as refugees), they were interned by U.S. military authorities. Because she was 8 months pregnant with her first child, the authorities released Hilda shortly. She spent the next three weeks lobbying for the release of her husband Gerald and her mother Anne Klestadt, both of whom remained interned. Just one day after she won their release, they rushed to the hospital for the birth of daughter Susanne. But Hawaii, like California, now had a fortress mentality, so they soon left for the mainland, settling in Cincinnati, Ohio for thirty-three years.

In Ohio, her musical career continued to thrive, and she performed as a soloist with the

Cleveland Orchestra and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, including its prestigious May Festival; she also gave recitals in New York and many other cities.

Invitations to perform abroad included concerts in Austria, France, Italy, Israel, New Zealand, and Australia. In a magnanimous act, she accepted the invitation for a recital to mark the 700th anniversary of the founding of Düsseldorf.

Her second daughter, Linda, arrived in 1945. As Hilda balanced career and family, her daughters grew up accompanied by her piano lessons to both children and adults, and her mother Anne was also an integral part of the household during those years.

In 1975 Hilda and Gerald moved to San Francisco, where they spent the rest of their lives.

Here too she continued to perform, at museums, art galleries, and her favorite—the Episcopal Church of Saint Mary the Virgin. She played her final public recital there at the age of 86—J. S. Bach’s The Goldberg Variations, to a standing ovation. During the San Francisco years, she also gave numerous recitals—at community centers, museums, colleges, universities, churches, synagogues, and radio stations—up and down the California coast and inland, primarily in northern and central California. She also recorded four CD's, mainly Bach.

As a teacher Hilda took a special interest in her students, and many remained life-long friends.

Her humanity shone through with everyone she encountered, and she actively looked for ways to give back to the community. In Honolulu she gave fundraising concerts for European refugees at

the Governor’s mansion, and she later became a dedicated supporter of Hadassah. Her commitment to fairness and justice has always been an inspiration to her family and friends. She also had a very special relationship with her three grandchildren—Rebecca, Emily, and Daniel. And her greatest pleasure in the last few years of her life was the birth of her three greatgrandsons.

Hilda will be remembered for her warmth, generosity, sparkle, and also her extraordinary memory, including very early childhood recollections. She did not hesitate to speak of what happened in Germany, well aware that the way to prevent such a tragedy from happening again required the memory to be kept alive. Throughout her life she remained the consummate optimist, always finding the best in humanity, and without trying, showing that sense of humanity by her very presence.

As a beloved wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, Hilda is predeceased by her husband Gerald Jonas, and survived by her daughters Susanne Jonas (her predeceased husband Thomas Holleran) and Linda Jonas Schroeder (her husband David Schroeder), her granddaughters Rebecca Bodenheimer (her husband Lázaro Moncada Merencio) and Emily Alexander (her husband Paul Alexander), her grandson Daniel Schroeder (his wife Sylvie Schroeder), her three great-grandsons Julián, Jayden, and Felix, and her niece Julie Keefer. In lieu of flowers, please make donations in her name to the charity of your choice.

implemented those laws made it even harder.

Franklin Roosevelt’s State Department piled on extra requirements and bureaucratic obstacles. In an internal memo in 1940, Assistant Secretary of State Breckinridge Long sketched out his department’s policy to “delay and effectively stop” refugee immigration by putting “every obstacle in the way,” such as requiring additional documents and resorting to “various administrative devices which would postpone and postpone the granting of the visas.”

The annual quota of immigrants from Czechoslovakia was small – just 2,874 – but even that quota was not filled in any year during FDR’s 12 years in office.

In 1940, the year the Strnads wanted to immigrate, the Czech quota was only 68 percent filled; nearly 1,000 quota places sat unused.

Even though there was room in the quota, and even though Hedy was a successful businesswoman and the couple had relatives in the United States, the Strnads’ applications were turned down.

At the same time the Strnads were seeking a haven, refugee advo-

cates were trying to convince the Roosevelt administration to permit European Jews to settle in areas that were at the time U.S. territories but not states, such as the Virgin Islands and Alaska.

After Kristallnacht in November 1938, the governor and legislative assembly of the Virgin Islands offered to open its doors to Jewish refugees, but Roosevelt personally blocked the proposal.

In public and private statements, FDR claimed that Nazi spies might sneak into America disguised as refugees. U.S. officials imagined that if spies reached the Virgin Islands, it would put them within easy reach of the mainland United States. (No Nazi spies were ever discovered among the few Jewish refugees who were let into the country.)

As for proposals to settle Jews in Alaska, Interior Secretary Harold Ickes Jr. noted in his diary that Roosevelt said he would support the plan only if no more than 10 percent of the settlers were Jews – so as “to avoid the undoubted criticism that we would be subjected to if there were an undue proportion of Jews,” FDR explained.

Shortly after, the administration pushed through legislation that made it even more difficult for Jewish refugees to qualify for U.S. visas. The “close relatives” edict, as it was called, barred the entry of anyone who had close relatives in Europe.

The theory was that the Nazis might take their relatives hostage in order to force them to become spies for Hitler.

An interesting theory, but there was no evidence to substantiate it.

With all doors shut, the fate of Paul and Hedy – and countless other Jewish refugees – was sealed. They were sent first to the Terezin concentration camp, an hour north of Prague.

Then they were deported to the Warsaw Ghetto.

What exactly happened next is unclear. They may have been murdered in Warsaw, or they may have been deported, along with the other Jews of Warsaw, to the Treblinka death camp and perished there.

The “Stitching History” exhibit, open through Feb. 28, is a fitting tribute to a life taken too soon. It is also a sad reminder of a time when the U.S. government regarded Jewish refugees – even a lady tailor from Prague – as a danger.