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Cedar Village names Linton Sharpnack as interim CEO & Pres.

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For Jews fighting Ebola, specialty is psychosocial therapy

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Four killed in terrorist attack in Jerusalem synagogue

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Sen. Graham vows to block ‘bad deal’ on Iran nuclear program

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Book Review: Violins of Hope,

by Dr. James A. Grymes

The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati invests funds in The Jewish Hospital/Mercy Health-Cincinnati Mercy Health C i n c i n n a t i announces that a $16 million investment from the Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati to The Jewish Hospital, which Mercy Health purchased in 2010, will help grow the Graduate Medical Education (GME) program and expand the E m e rg e n c y Department at the nation’s oldest Jewish hospital.

The partnership between Greater Cincinnati’s Jewish philanthropic foundation and the Catholic healthcare system will extend the legacy of care at The Jewish Hospital, which was founded in 1850 to care for the Jewish community in Cincinnati and was the first hospital of its kind in the country.

The Mercy Health Foundation will work with other partners to match up to $6 million for the GME program. The $22 million overall investment will be the largest private gift in the history of Mercy Health, formerly called Catholic Health Partners.

"When the Jewish Foundation decided six years ago that the Jewish Hospital should be sold, it was very important that we find a partner that would ensure that the hospital maintained and strengthened its commitment to excellent health care -- and Mercy Health has been that partner," said Jewish Foundation Chairman Michael R.

Oestreicher. "Mercy Health has not only honored The Jewish Hospital's name, traditions and brand, its investment in the hospital's growth and expansion will help it continue its historic role as a first-class teaching hospital."

The Jewish Hospital will use $10 million to help expand the Emergency Department. The new ED will occupy the first floor of a new tower at Galbraith and Kenwood roads that is already under construction and should be complete in 2016.

The Jewish Foundation sold the hospital to Mercy Health in 2010 and Mercy Health committed to

invest $75 million to improve the building and expand the GME program. Since then, the two organizations have worked closely together, with Mercy Health investing more than $50 million in capital and technology and another $75 million for the current expansion.

“Sustaining The Jewish Hospital as a leader in clinical innovation helps our patients and the communities we serve,” said Michael Connelly, president and chief executive officer of Mercy Health. “We treasure our role as stewards of the historic legacy of The Jewish Hospital that extends back to 1850 and we are thrilled to be a partner

with the Jewish Foundation in extending that legacy.”

This donation will enable The Jewish Hospital to offer all-private patient rooms, adding more than 140,000 square feet in the new fivestory tower. The new building also will include inpatient ICU services, orthopaedic and neurology services, comprehensive cancer care services, including the Blood Cancer Center, a nationally recognized bonemarrow transplant unit and blood cancer treatment center, and the Liver and Pancreas Center.

The new campus also will house an expanded GME program and Mercy Health will try to double the GME endowment to $12 million by 2020.

Participation of Jewish students and residents from Israel and other countries will remain a focus but the program will expand as the new space enables the GME to fill more of its federally approved residency slots. The donation comes through the Mercy Health Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Mercy Health.

“Mercy Health Foundation shares the determination of the Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati to continue to build on the 164-year history of The Jewish Hospital as a leader in healthcare programs and innovation,” said Foundation President Roger LaGreca.

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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2014

Overnight Jewish camp and Israel travel fair provided information on grants

By Beth Kotzin Assistant Editor Making a decision about summer camp and/or Israel travel for your children can be a daunting task - just trying to choose which program is the best fit is difficult enough. But with camping and travel grants through the Jewish Foundation and Jewish Federation of Cincinnati, at least one part of the process is much easier.

At the camp fair, held on Sunday, November 16, 2014, attendees had the chance to learn about the camp grant program, managed by the Federation, in which children in the Cincinnati Jewish community can receive up to $1800 for their first year at a minimum of 3 weeks camp program, and up to $900 for a two-week program at any of the approved camps on the Jewish Foundation for Camps list. Grants up to $1000 are available for their second year in a minimum of 3 weeks program, and up to $500 for a two-week session.

Cincinnati is the only community that offers 2 years of camping grants, and these grants do not need to be used consecutively or at the same camp.

It’s important to know that these grants are not need-based and are not contingent on other scholarship or financial aid dollars. In fact, additional need-based grants may be

available for those who qualify, and information about those can be found from your congregational rabbi.

Also, your “first year” does not necessarily mean your first year at a Jewish overnight camp; “first year” refers to the first time a camp grant is used. Applications for the camp grant program can be found online or at the Federation office.

High school students ages 16-18 as well as young adults ages 18-26 can take advantage of the Israel grant program. Thanks to The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati, this is the only community in the world that offers young people up to $11,500 for two separate Israel travel opportunities: high schools students can receeive one for up to $6,500 and then another for up to $5,000 once they graduate. Much like the camp grants, these grants are not needbased. In comparison, Memphis only offers up to a $3500 grant, Columbus, provides awards up to $1,500, and Pittsburgh only provides teens with $750 Israel travel grant applications are accepted year-round, but must be submitted at least two months before payment is due to the trip provider.

The process for these grants is relatively simple: pick a trip, register with the trip provider and pay the needed deposits, then complete the

application and pre-trip survey.

Within 10 days of application submission, both the student traveler and one parent will receive an email notification indicating the traveler’s eligibility for the grant. After that, there are a few forms to sign and agreements to return, and once that’s done, , the trip provider will be paid the amount granted (which depends on the cost of the trip chosen).

There were both overnight and day camps present at the fair, as well as booths showcasing Israel trip options that ranged from youth group and overnight camp-type trips to gap year programs. An Israeli-style dinner was provided, as well as a fruit smoothie bar and that old camp favorite - s’mores. The fair was wellattended, with all registrants receving a camp/Israel fair insulated tumbler at check-in.

Aaron Slovin, Executive Director of Camp Livingston said “For our Cincinnati families, the camper grants make all the difference.

Lowering the barrier of entry for Jewish Camp experiences makes the expense manageable, and it drastically increases the amount of interested families that reach out. These grants are setting the benchmark for the rest of the country.”

Summer internships in Israel available, 100% paid for

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The Jewish Federation of Cincinnati—in partnership with The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati and the Jewish Agency for Israel—will once again offer summer internships in Tel Aviv through Onward Israel.

This eight-week program, June 10–August 6, is designed as a follow-up peer experience for young adults who have already traveled to Israel. It is open to undergraduate and graduate students, ages 19-26, who are originally from Cincinnati.

The students will work closely with an Onward Israel coordinator

to find internships in their fields of study, with the goal of benefiting their future careers by gaining experience in the areas where Israel has a global competitive edge.

Cincinnati participated in Onward Israel for the first time this past summer, sending a group of 24 young adults to join more than 1,000 others from around the world.

“I had the opportunity to go to Israeli schools and teach Israeli kids baseball for the first time in their lives, and I helped out the National Team as they prepared for the

European Championships in Slovenia,” said Onward Israel participant Aaron Goldhoff, a University of Arizona student who interned at the Israel Association of Baseball. “It felt like I was truly helping to do something good for one of the first times in my life.”

Onward Israel interns live in newly constructed single studio apartments in a student village at the University of Tel Aviv. They work four days a week, with one day of INTERNSHIPS on page 22

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was held at The Venue Cincinnati.

Diane Slovin, Special Events and Volunteer Manager, stated, “We want to thank all of the participants who supported these two events for an important cause. These two wonderful events helped increase the visibility of elder abuse in our community.”

Women’s Philanthropy of the Jewish Federation created Thanksgiving packages for JFS food pantry clients Feeding people is a deeply felt Jewish value, and nobody feels it more than the women in our community. That’s why 30 women from Women’s Philanthropy of the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati came together this past Sunday morning to package over 140 kosher and nonkosher Thanksgiving meals for clients at Jewish Family Service (JFS)’s Heldman Family Food Pantry, part of the Barbash Family Vital Support Center.

“All this work makes a big difference,” Sandee Golden, Food Pantry and Volunteer Manager at Jewish Family Service, said. “While we always provided turkeys for Thanksgiving, this will be the first time we have been able to give our pantry clients such a complete and wholesome Thanksgiving meal.”

Thanks to the Women’s Philanthropy planning committee of the Federation—Laura Berger, Ali Bernstein, Chrissie Blatt and Bryna Miller—the event was a success.

The committee identified 30 women they felt would be interested, and almost everyone said yes. In addition, each woman signed up to bring

36 items to put in the packages.

“I was thrilled to come together with other women and provide a festive holiday meal for needy families in our community. In just one hour we fed over 100 families, reconnected with old friends and met new people,” reflected Miller.

Green beans, canned corn, stuffing and mashed potato mixes, applesauce, and desserts filled the tables in the Barbash Family Vital Support Center. The women packaged each box and tied it with a bow. Special

touches included Thanksgiving napkins and a special prayer translated by a Mayerson JCC volunteer into English, Hebrew and Russian.

Women’s Philanthropy didn’t go so far as to throw in the kitchen sink, but they thoughtfully provided everything else needed for a full Thanksgiving meal. The women wanted to make sure the Food Pantry’s clients are able to cook the turkeys they receive, and so they donated roasting pans as well.

Before leaving, the women took

tours of the facility and were given the chance to select “snowflakes” with holiday wish list items for clients of Jewish Family Service’s Adoption Connection.

“The event was incredibly meaningful. Not only was Women’s Philanthropy able to provide the makings of a wonderful Thanksgiving meal, we got to learn about all of the great things Jewish Family Service and the Federation do in our community all year long,” said event chair Laura Berger.

The Women’s Philanthropy planning committee was inspired by Cincinnati Hunger Awareness Initiative (CHAI), an ongoing outreach program that supports JFS’s Heldman Family Food Pantry and addresses “food insecurity” in the Cincinnati area. The program enables congregations, schools, and other Jewish agencies to sponsor and work at the food pantry for one month. Responsibilities include collecting food and volunteering to stock pantry shelves. In return, JFS provides education and interactive programs on food insecurity awareness.

HUC-JIR leaders led delegation of Reform movement leaders to meet with Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin

Andrew R. Berger, Chair, Board of Governors, seated, left; Israel President Reuven Rivlin, seated, center; Rabbi Aaron D. Panken, Ph.D., HUC-JIR President, seated, right; with members of the HUC-JIR Board of Governors.

and consideration of those in Israeli society who need help. We are, after all, one people and our beloved State of Israel must continue to value each and every one of its citizens to the greatest extent possible. We share your

immense hope for the future, and hope to be your partner in ever greater ways.”

President Rivlin welcomed the delegates and said, “I can say to all of you, we are one family and the connection between all Jews, all over the world, is

very important to the State of Israel. I welcome you here, and want to tell you that I know so many Jerusalemites now that are grandfathers and grandmothers, and only came here to study at the Hebrew Union College, but have now been here for three generations.”

On the issue of the current tensions in Jerusalem and across Israel, the President said, “Jerusalem is a microcosm of the ability of all the people of the region to live together. It is a place where we can find out if we can live together or if we are doomed to continue in the tragedy that we have endured for over one hundred years. I believe we have to bridge social gaps, for the societies to live together and to progress. We must build confidence measures because we are going to live here together forever. We are not doomed to live together, but destined to live together.”

HUC-JIR on page 22

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

VOL. 161 • NO. 18 THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2014 27 CHESHVAN 5775 SHABBAT BEGINS FRIDAY 5:00 PM SHABBAT ENDS SATURDAY 6:01 PM THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE CO., PUBLISHERS 18 WEST NINTH STREET, SUITE 2 CINCINNATI, OHIO 45202-2037 Phone: (513) 621-3145 Fax: (513) 621-3744 publisher@americanisraelite.com editor@americanisraelite.com production@americanisraelite.com RABBI ISAAC M. WISE Founder, Editor, Publisher, 1854-1900 LEO WISE Editor & Publisher, 1900-1928 RABBI JONAH B. WISE Editor & Publisher, 1928-1930 HENRY C. SEGAL Editor & Publisher, 1930-1985 PHYLLIS R. SINGER Editor & General Manager, 1985-1999 MILLARD H. MACK Publisher Emeritus NETANEL (TED) DEUTSCH Editor & Publisher BETH KOTZIN SAUNI LERNER Assistant Editors YOSEFF FRANCUS Copy Editor JANET STEINBERG Travel Editor ROBERT WILHELMY Dining Editor MARIANNA BETTMAN NATE BLOOM IRIS PASTOR ZELL SCHULMAN PHYLLIS R. SINGER Contributing Columnists JENNIFER CARROLL Production Manager BARBARA ROTHSTEIN GREG SPITZ Advertising Sales JULIE BROOK Office Manager e Oldest Eng Th

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Rabbi Aaron D. Panken, Ph.D., HUC-JIR President, and Andrew R. Berger, Chair of HUC-JIR’s Board of Governors, led the largest delegation of Reform Movement leaders to date to meet with Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin in Jerusalem on November 11, 2014..

President Rivlin hosted over fifty North American and Israeli Reform Movement leaders on the Board of Governors of Hebrew Union CollegeJewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) at his residence in Jerusalem.

In greeting the President, Rabbi Panken stated, “We are here to sustain and build the connection between North American Jewry and Israel. We are here to demonstrate our solidarity with the people and State of Israel and express our support for many of your efforts. In your days as President, you have shown true leadership in the areas of rights for the Arab citizens of Israel, reconciliation between diverse groups,

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the clothes they are wearing.

The first event, The Shalom Sprint, a 5K walk/run, took place on Sunday morning, October 5 at Corwin Nixon Park in Mason. On Thursday night, October 23, the second event, Sounds for Silence, a concert featuring The Rusty Griswolds

Est. 1854

including a full range of health care and supportive services and a coordinated system of care. Funds raised will be used to offset costs incurred for medical care, social services, nursing care, therapy, and other necessary items. Often, elder abuse victims arrive at Cedar Village with only

• ca

Cedar Village sponsored two new events in October to benefit The Shalom Center for Elder Abuse Prevention at Cedar Village, the only elder abuse shelter in Ohio.

The Shalom Center provides a safe haven for individuals over the age of 65 who are victims of abuse,

r in Am ape er sp i

Cedar Village hosted two events benefitting the Shalom Center for Elder Abuse Prevention

THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE (USPS 019-320) is published weekly for $44 per year and $1.00 per single copy in Cincinnati and $49 per year and $2.00 per single copy elsewhere in U.S. by The American Israelite Co. 18 West Ninth Street, Suite 2, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202-2037. Periodicals postage paid at Cincinnati, OH. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE, 18 West Ninth Street, Suite 2, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202-2037.

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

LOCAL • 5

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2014

Cedar Village names Linton Sharpnack as interim CEO & President Linton Sharpnack, chief operating officer of Cedar Village Retirement Community, has been appointed Cedar Village’s interim CEO and president. Sharpnack will serve in that role until the Cedar Village Board of Trustees appoints a successor to Carol Silver Elliott.

“The board of trustees expects a smooth transition for the residents and staff,” said Cedar Village Board Chair Barbara Reed. “Cedar Village's success in recent years is due to the collective efforts, hard work and dedication of the entire Cedar Village community.”

Sharpnack has an extensive experience in the management of hospitals and health care facilities as well as in nursing. He came to Cedar Village as a hospice consultant in June 2013 and assumed the role of chief operating officer in September 2013.

As COO, one of Sharpnack’s major responsibilities has been the launch of VillageCare, a program that supports healthy aging wherever older adults might live in the Cincinnati or Dayton areas.

VillageCare includes comprehensive health and wellness examinations and services to upgrade the homes of older adults to help them stay safe and independent.

“During this transition period, Cedar Village intends to continue

Linton Sharpnack

its role as a leader in providing innovative services for older adults,” Sharpnack said.

Sharpnack served as director of clinical operations, chief nursing officer, director of nursing, clinical coordinator and staff nurse at the Extended Care Campus of a hospital system in Cleveland. He also was president and CEO of a 140-bed acute care hospital; and vice president for a medical equipment provider.

He has a diploma in nursing from the M.B. Johnson School of Nursing, a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Lake Erie-Garfield Senior College, a bachelor’s in nursing from Ursuline College and an MBA from Case Western Reserve University.

Twenty-one volunteers from Rockdale Temple planted trees at Salway Park Twenty-one volunteers from Rockdale Temple, ages 15 to 85, planted trees at Salway Park with the Groundwork Cincinnati/Mill Creek for Taking Root Campaign on Sunday afternoon, November 9th, 2014.

The Rockdale Temple Environment Committee selected the Taking Root project this year for one of the activities for the 7th Annual Mitzvah Palooza event.

Each year Rockdale Temple members participate in several projects to make our community a better place. Mitzvah Palooza, a daylong event, took place this year on Sunday, November 9th. There were lectures at Rockdale Temple in the morning and a variety of hands–on activities in the afternoon.

One of the Mitzvah Palooza afternoon activities was this treeplanting event. The organization’s goal is to plant 2 million

trees in the tri-state region by 2020, one tree for every person living in the eight counties of Ohio and Kentucky. The purpose is to replace trees lost to various environmental stressors including the Emerald Ash Borer and Asian Long Horned Beetle. So far over 57 thousand trees have been planted in the 8-county greater Cincinnati region.

Members at Rockdale made donations to purchase trees and volunteered their time that Sunday afternoon to plant them. Lora Aberto, Education Director for Groundwork Cincinnati, helped organize the planting event, finding a suitable location and additional funding to purchase and plant 8 large and a dozen small trees with support from other organizations including a local nursery, Ohio Environmental Education Fund, and the City of Cincinnati.

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Sen. Lindsey Graham vows to block ‘bad deal’ on Iran nuclear program

By Israel Hayom

Courtesy of Yonatan Sinde

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) at the President's Residence in Jerusalem on Jan. 4, 2014.

(JNS) – The U.S. Senate has the right and duty to examine any nuclear deal reached with Iran, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said, vowing that the Senate would block a “bad deal” with the Islamic Republic.

In Graham’s view, a bad deal is any agreement that permits Iran to enrich uranium.

“Today, there are new bosses in Washington,” Graham said in interview with Israel Hayom, referencing the Republican Party’s recent retaking of a Senate majority. “The biggest losers, after the midterm elections, are Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Iranian nuclear program.”

Graham said he intends to submit a bill in January to the new Senate majority leader, expected to be U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell (RK.Y.), that would require President Barack Obama to allow the Senate to review any agreement with Iran on the nuclear issue.

“With Iran, we do not want to end up getting the same result we got with North Korea, which ultimately, despite the negotiations and the agreements, became a nuclear power,” Graham said. “It is very important that the Senate examine the agreement [with Iran]. Today, a majority of senators from both parties oppose the idea that Iran will enrich uranium.”

So what kind of agreement

would Graham accept?

“If the agreement is good for the U.S., Israel, and other U.S. partners and if it protects the national security of the U.S.—then we will support it,” he said. “However, if the agreement is bad, then we will oppose it, and I will personally make sure it does not pass.”

The New York Times, however, reported before the midterm elections that Obama plans to bypass Congress on the Iran nuclear issue.

“The U.S. Senate has not only the right, but also the duty, to examine the agreement,” Graham said. “It is Congress which voted for the sanctions against Iran and it is Congress which is supposed to cancel them, if needed. I find it strange

that the president said it was necessary to go to Congress regarding action in Syria and Iraq, but does not need Congress in the case of an agreement with Iran. I assure you that the Senate intends to engage in a tough fight to bring the agreement before us. The regime of the ayatollahs is the big loser of the midterm elections.”

Regarding the dangers that would be posed by a “bad” nuclear agreement with Iran, Graham said, “One must understand that a bad deal with Iran could change the face of the world. I don’t think there is a single Israel who could sleep well at night knowing that Iran is capable of developing a nuclear bomb.”

At D.C. confabs, U.S. and Israel present a united front one another.

“Ron, you’d better damn well report to Bibi that we’re still buddies.

You got it, right?” Biden said Monday, picking out Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer, known for his closeness to Netanyahu, from the crowd at the annual Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly, this year taking place outside Washington in Oxon Hill, Md. The next afternoon, at the conference’s close, Netanyahu was right back atcha in a video-linked address.

“And by the way, Ron, you can tell Vice President Biden that I know we’re still buddies, we’ll always be buddies,” Netanyahu said from his

library.

Dermer spoke Saturday night to the Israeli American Council, a crowd that would be more skeptical than most of claims that the Obama administration had Israel’s back.

But the ambassador went out of his way to show that not only was the alliance close, it was unprecedentedly close, and the recent hiccups were not unusual.

Dermer praised the “the moral, political and strategic support that Israel has enjoyed for over six decades from Republican and Democratic administrations, including from the Obama administration.”

“Today the depth of that support

comes in the form of unprecedented security cooperation and intelligence sharing, record military assistance and missile defense funding and backing at the United Nations and other ways,” he said.

The loquacious Biden in his Jewish Federations speech could not resist the repeated use of the “L” word.

“I once signed a photo to Bibi: ‘I don’t agree with a damn thing you say, but I love you,’ “ he said. “We love one another and we drive one another crazy — I’m serious. That’s what friends do. We are straight with one another.”

Crazy may be overstating it, but the relationship sure has been fraught:

From anonymous Israeli government accusations over the summer that Secretary of State John Kerry was engaging in a “terrorist” attack on Israel by backing a cease-fire agreement with Hamas that had been shaped by its Qatari backers; to Netanyahu’s lecturing U.S. TV audiences on how un-American it was for the Obama administration to oppose Israeli building in eastern Jerusalem; to an anonymous Obama administration official telling journalist Jeffrey Goldberg that Netanyahu’s behavior on the peace process and on Iran was “chickenshit.”

National Briefs

must pass several more stages before construction can begin.

Frequent American criticism in recent weeks of Israeli construction plans have made for a tense time in U.S.-Israel relations.

U.S. continues to oppose Israeli construction in Jerusalem neighborhoods (JNS) – The United States issued its latest criticism of Israeli construction in the Jewish state’s capital of Jerusalem following the preliminary approval of plans to build 200 new housing units in the Jewish religious neighborhood of Ramot, which is located beyond the 1949 armistice line.

“We are deeply concerned by this decision, particularly given the tense situation in Jerusalem, as well as the unequivocal and unanimous position of the United States and others in the interna-tional community opposing such construction in east Jerusalem,” State Department spokes-woman Jen Psaki said Nov. 12.

Yet according to Brachie Sprung, a spokeswoman for the Jerusalem Municipality, the Ramot housing units may actually be years away because the project

Amid instability in Israel, FIDF galas across U.S. raise funds for soldiers’ wellbeing (JNS) – At a time when Israel faces an increasingly unstable security situation-including re-cent vehicular attacks on Jerusalem’s light rail stations, stabbings, tension at the Temple Mount, and Arab riots-Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) is raising money at record-high lev-els for programs that enhance the wellbeing of those protecting the Jewish state.

FIDF, which raises more than $80 million annually, says it “offers a range of programs that ad-dress the educational, social, economic, recreational, spiritual, and cultural needs of the IDF sol-diers as well as the families of soldiers fallen in defense of the State of Israel.”

Among other programming, the organization supports bereaved families, supports “lone soldiers” whose families live outside of Israel, runs medical programs for

wounded soldiers, and builds recreational centers as well as synagogues and educational facilities for soldiers.

This fall, FIDF has been hosting gala fundraisers around the country. On Nov. 6, the organization’s Western Region raised a record of more than $33 million in Beverly Hills, Calif. Other recent FIDF galas took place in Chicago ($2 million raised); Long Island, N.Y. ($1.4 million raised); Michigan ($1 million raised); Boston ($800,000 raised at the gala and $4.1 million raised by the region this year); northern New Jersey ($600,000 raised at the gala and $3 million raised by the region this year); Philadelphia; Ohio; San Francisco; San Diego; Baltimore; and Scars-dale, N.Y.

police, Ian Elias shot and killed himself. The daughters, who attend the Portland Jewish Academy, were recovered unharmed.

The girls are staying with close family friends, who are acting as guardians for the state, which took temporary custody of them.

The day school brought in counselors and rabbis to speak to staff on Tuesday, and additional counselors for students on Wednesday.

The Oregonian reported that Ian Elias had a long history of mental illness, drug and alcohol abuse, and erratic, abusive behavior. His ex-wife had obtained restraining and stalking orders against him, and the Portland Jewish Academy and Mittelman Jewish Community Center also had obtained orders to keep him off their properties.

The day school had hired extra security to provide protection against Ian Elias.

while also receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in public benefits.

Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, and George Venizelos, the assistant director of the New York field office of the FBI, announced the indictments on Thursday charging 14 defendants with conspiracy to commit bank fraud related to mortgages on properties in three counties, two in New York City.

The indictment also charges several of the defendants with additional crimes, including making false statements to lenders, aggravated identity theft and theft of public money. Thirteen of the defendants were arrested Thursday and will be arraigned in federal court in White Plains, N.Y. The defendants include real estate developer Irving Rubin, as well as his brothers, sons, wife and various in-laws. A real estate lawyer and real estate appraiser are also charged in the case.

The defendants are accused of fraudulently obtaining more than $20 million in loan proceeds in connection with more than 20 fraudulent loans. The majority of the loans went into default and were not repaid.

By Ron Kampeas WASHINGTON (JTA) — Joe and Bibi? Still buddies. U.S. and Israel? Still allies. Agreement on Iran and the Palestinians?

Well.

The governments of President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were back on joshing terms this week, but the deep differences that led to recent namecalling exchanges still percolated.

Netanyahu and Vice President Joe Biden, as well as top aides in both governments, used back-to-back conferences this weekend to get the message across loud and clear: We love

Portland Jewish community shaken by murder-suicide (JTA) – A murder-suicide in Portland, Ore., has left two Jewish day school students orphaned.

Portland police said that Ian Elias, 47, killed his ex-wife, Nicolette Elias, 46, at her home and then fled across town with his two daughters, ages 8 and 9, the Oregonian newspaper reported Tuesday. After a confrontation with

Hasidic family charged in $20 million fraud case NEW YORK (JTA) — More than a dozen members of a prominent Satmar Hasidic family in New York were charged with lying to obtain $20 million in mortgages

CONFABS on page 19

NATIONAL • 7

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2014

At inaugural conference of Israeli-American group, a sense of tentativeness

By Ron Kampeas WASHINGTON (JTA) – There were bagel breakfasts, a Friday night kiddush in English and Hebrew, and plenty of talk about how to keep the grandkids Jewish.

In some ways, the inaugural conference last weekend of the Israeli American Council was much like other Jewish gatherings, except the Jews were Israelis and a lot of what makes Jewish America what it is remains alien to them – for instance, bagels, bilingual blessings and fears of assimilation.

“We need to know each other better,” said the IAC’s chairman, Shawn Evenhaim, pronouncing what might have been the conference theme.

A sense of tentativeness pervaded

the conference, the first since the IAC was founded in Los Angeles seven years ago. Last year, the organization began opening chapters across the country. The conference is part of its bid to integrate Israelis into the American Jewish community.

“Israeli Americans – No Longer Bystanders?” was the title of one session. “Israeli-American Double Identity: Comfort vs. Conscience?” was another.

Sessions frequently became emotive confessionals that addressed an array of obstacles to Israeli assimilation into the American Jewish community – among them a distaste for community life formed around a house of worship, the liberal political leanings of U.S. Jews and a lack of Israeli familiarity with fundraising.

At times, the conference seemed to veer into psychodrama.

“Our two homelands are like mother and father, we want them to love one another,” said the narrator of a slideshow that included animations of falafel and Israeli flags.

“I think a certain regrettable loneliness among many Israelis living here longer than they anticipated is being addressed,” said Rabbi Levi Shemtov, who heads Washington’s Chabad office and led the Friday night kiddush.

Some 600,000 Israelis live in the United States, according to the IAC, which now has six chapters across the country. U.S. Census figures report about 100,000 Americans born in Israel. The conference drew over 750 participants from 23 states.

Courtesy of Shahar Azran

Israeli American Council founder and chairman Shawn Evenhaim and actress Noa Tishby at the council's first national meeting in Washington, Nov. 7, 2014.

One year after boycott vote, Israel issue still divides ASA

By Anthony Weiss LOS ANGELES (JTA) – Members of the American Studies Association gathered last year for their annual meeting and a vociferous debate on the wisdom of initiating an academic boycott of Israel.

One year later, the debate is over and the boycott resolution has long since passed – but the aftereffects are still being felt.

Attendees at this year’s meeting, held last week in this city, reported receiving death threats and hate mail over their positions on the boycott.

Others have been accused of antiSemitism or spoke of colleagues cowed into silence for fear of hurting their careers.

The boycott debate and the subsequent public backlash have left advocates for both sides, as well as many in the middle, feeling besieged.

“When people make broad political gestures, as the ASA did with this action, the intent is to polarize the debate – and by that measure the ASA has succeeded beyond their wildest dreams,” said Micki McGee, director of the American studies program at Fordham University.

The tense atmosphere for the ASA’s annual meeting was apparent before it even started. A statement by the ASA leadership in December that it would not collaborate with “scholars who are expressly serving as representatives or ambassadors of [Israeli] institutions” led to questions over whether Israeli scholars could even attend. The ASA confirmed that they could and three did, as well an administrator from Haifa University who encountered no difficulties.

The association also employed stringent requirements for media credentials, insisting on a photo ID and extensive verification that journalists and their publications covered higher education and were not “advocacy publications.”

All of this took place against a broader academic landscape beset by budget cuts and worries about diminishing job opportunities and curbs on academic freedom. The tone of the gathering was captured in a Friday afternoon session called “Scholars Under Attack.”

Still, ASA officials said they stood by the boycott.

Curtis Marez, a past president of the association and chair of the ethnic studies department at the University of California, San Diego, said the ASA has experienced a net gain of individual members and no net loss of institutional members in the wake of the boycott. The organization also just completed the largest fundraising campaign in its history, bringing in $50,000.

“Passing and maintaining the boycott has been well worth it,” said Marez, who serves on the ASA Council and the organization’s executive committee. “Even with the boycott, the ASA is thriving.”

Asked about the death threats that he and other members of the ASA Council have received, Marez said, “Getting discussion of these issues going, if it means a few emailed death threats, is a worthwhile cost given what Palestinians face every day.”

Mohammed Wattad, an ArabIsraeli professor at the Zefat College School of Law in northern Israel, derided the boycott as an assault on democratic principles and suggested that the ASA was trying to have it both ways by saying that Israeli professors were still welcome.

“The trouble is that the ASA’s resolution to boycott Israeli academia is fake,” Wattad said. “One has the feeling that the ASA is trying to tiptoe between the raindrops.”

Unlike last year’s meeting, there were no sessions this time debating the boycott. Instead, there was one modestly attended session opposed to the boycott and numerous others where speakers voiced criticisms of

Israel as well as their support for the academic boycott and the larger Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

For the critics, the boycott is a violation of academic freedom and the democratic ideal of free exchange of ideas. It is also, some say, outside the ASA’s zone of expertise.

“I’m not opposed to the ASA taking a political stance,” said Michael Rockland, who founded the American studies department at Rutgers University. But, he added, “I feel that Israel-Palestine has absolutely nothing to do with the

study of American society and culture.”

Supporters of the boycott say that this is precisely why a boycott is needed – to raise awareness that the issues in Israel-Palestine are relevant to their discipline.

“It woke up American studies to the significance of Palestine in some of their own studies,” said Sondra Hale, a professor emerita of anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Hale said issues of Palestinian indignity can link to Native American studies, and that Israeli settler colonialism links to the study of Africa and the

African-American experience.

Debate over these issues on campuses has been anything but academic.

Nancy Koppelman, a professor of American studies at Evergreen State College in Washington state and a boycott opponent, said she has “been accused of wanting to kill babies in Palestine.” McGee, at Fordham, said she received hate mail accusing her of anti-Semitism.

At the conference, too, both sides employed highly charged rhetoric.

8 • INTERNATIONAL

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

For Jews fighting Ebola, specialty is psychosocial therapy

By Uriel Heilman JTA) – Even amid the unceasing horrors of Sierra Leone’s Ebola epidemic, it was a case that stood out.

A 5-year-old boy had been found in his home in a remote village, the lone survivor in a house riddled with the corpses of family members. He needed to be extracted; the bodies needed to be buried.

The operator who took the call at the Freetown hotline that coordinates the dispatch of ambulances, police and burial teams was shaken.

Enter IsraAid. The lone Israeli or Jewish disaster relief organization on the ground in the Ebola zone, IsraAid is providing psychosocial counseling and training to service providers – health workers, social workers, teachers, police -- dealing

Courtesy of IsraAid

IsraAid psychosocial trauma specialists Hela Yaniv, left, and Sheri Oz leading a counseling and training session for service providers in Sierra Leone, Oct. 27, 2014.

with Ebola patients in Sierra Leone.

The locals staffing Freetown’s Ebola hotline are among those receiving counseling.

“Dealing with the psychosocial trauma is critical to addressing the Ebola outbreak,” Shachar Zahavi, IsraAid’s founding director, told JTA

in an interview. “A major deterrent to treatment is that people don’t trust one another. If you don’t feel well, your family immediately hides you and you then infect your entire family. We’re trying to teach police, social workers, health workers and teachers how to deal with people who are afraid of them – and how to manage their own stress and anxiety.”

Last month, IsraAid’s work earned the organization a letter of praise and thanks from Sierra Leone’s first lady, Sia Nyama Koroma. She also happens to be a psychiatric nurse, and when IsraAid held a two-day psychosocial counseling workshop last week in Freetown, Koroma cleared her schedule to attend the entire program, according to Zahavi.

A 13-year-old organization funded in part by U.S. Jewish institutions and federations, and supported by the Israeli government, IsraAid honed its techniques in other disasters, such as the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the 2013 typhoon in the Philippines. But IsraAid staffers say Ebola is their most challenging crisis.

“It’s more difficult than other disasters, mostly because it’s an ongoing disaster and it’s scary,” said Yotam Polizer, IsraAid’s regional director for Asia and now the person in charge of the Africa response.

Polizer spent most of October in Sierra Leone and will head back there next week from his home base in Japan.

EBOLA on page 22

In France, new chief rabbi embraces change PARIS (JTA) – The first thing Haim Korsia did after becoming chief rabbi of France was give his new office a thorough cleaning.

Next he redecorated to give the space a more modern look, placing his 30-inch model of a nuclear submarine – a gift from his previous stint as senior military chaplain – amid the volumes of scripture on his bookcase.

But it was what Korsia, 51, did next that convinced many French Jews that this short and energetic

man, who assumed the title in June, was serious about modernizing the religious institutions of a crisisstricken community still reeling from an increase in anti-Semitic violence and scandals involving two of Korsia’s predecessors.

In July, Korsia appointed a woman, Dolly Touitou, to one of two new positions created to handle complaints against French Jewry’s religious services organization — a bold move in a predominantly Sephardic community, which has been slower than others to embrace gender egalitarianism. Before 1990,

women could not vote in Consistoire elections, nor could they stand for office themselves until 2006, when a French judiciary body overruled the prohibition.

“Appointing a woman was a signal of where Rabbi Korsia stands on women’s role in the Jewish community,” said Rabbi Moche Lewin, an adviser and friend.

Korsia also staked out an unorthodox position on those born to non-Jewish mothers and Jewish fathers, embracing them as “seed of Israel” even though they are not considered Jewish according to tra-

ditional religious law. He also issued a directive against honoring anyone who refuses his wife a religious bill of divorce in response to a scandal that exploded on the watch of his predecessor.

Yet Korsia seems reluctant to overstate his progressive agenda.

That’s understandable in a country where chief regional rabbis speak openly about women as duty bound to serve men and where, as recently as 2006, a chief regional rabbi from Strasbourg opposed the election of any woman to a position of leadership within his Orthodox Jewish

community.

“I wouldn’t say we need reforms exactly, but we do need movement, very much so,” Korsia told JTA in his office at the headquarters of the Consistoire, the Orthodox-leaning organization that employs Korsia and has provided religious services to French Jewry since its establishment two centuries ago under Napoleon.

Stepping into office amid major shifts in the groups that make up this large community – including

International Briefs

peace initiative and might exacerbate anti-Semitic tensions that we saw last summer,” Roger Cukierman, head of CRIF, said in a statement.

tion, 32 percent of respondents agreed with the statement that “Jews use to their own benefit their status as victims of the Nazi genocide” compared to 56 percent of respondents from the Muslim group and among those who voted for the far-right National Front party in 2012. Among voters for the Front de Gauche far-left party, the assertion had a 51 percent approval rating.

Chronicle reported.

Several speakers during Sunday's debate said they did not agree with the policies of Yachad UK but felt it should be included as a member of the umbrella organization.

Yachad UK has also called for support of the Arab peace initiative offering Israel normalized relations with the Arab world in exchange for a return to the pre1967 borders, as well as a "just solution" to the Palestinian refugee issue that would be "agreed upon" by the parties.

According to the law, suspected terrorists will be placed under “temporary exclusion orders” that will bar them from the country unless they submit to strict conditions, including monitoring and de-radicalization programs.

By Cnaan Liphshiz

French-Jewish umbrella group: recognizing 'Palestine' may stoke anti-Semitism (JNS) – CRIF, the umbrella group representing France's Jewish community, issued a statement suggesting that the French government's upcoming vote on Palestinian statehood would cause a rise in anti-Semitism and diminish France's role in the IsraeliPalestinian peace process.

A bloc of Socialist lawmakers put forth a proposal for the recognition of “Palestine” in the French National Assembly, to be voted on Nov. 28, while a similar proposal was also put forth in the French Senate. Both votes would be purely symbolic, as President Francois Hollande has ex-clusive power over foreign policy decisions.

“In France, after the antiSemitic riots this summer, (recognizing a Palestinian state) would certainly not be understood as a

French Muslims see Jews controlling nation's economy, media (JTA) -- New surveys conducted in France suggested that Frenchmen of Muslim origin were far likelier to espouse anti-Semitic views than the general population.

In the two surveys, which were conducted in recent months, 74 percent of respondents who self-identified as observant Muslims agreed with the statement that Jews have too much influence on French economics, compared to 25 percent in the general population.

The assertion that Jews control the media received an approval rating of 23 percent in the general population group and 70 percent among practicing Muslims.

A total of 1,580 people older than 16 were polled after Sept. 25 by the IFOP polling company and the Foundation for Political Innovation.

Among the general popula-

British Jewry umbrella votes to include 'pro-Israel, propeace' group (JTA) -- The umbrella organization for British Jewry accepted for membership a group that backed the recent nonbinding parliamentary vote recognizing a Palestinian state.

On Sunday, the Board of Deputies of British Jewry voted 135 to 61 to accept Yachad UK, which calls itself "pro-Israel, propeace." The group supports a twostate solution and takes British Jews on fact-finding tours of the West Bank.

The group needed a two-thirds majority for acceptance, and the vote had been delayed twice before, the London-based Jewish

U.K. to bar jihadists returning from Middle East (JNS) – British Prime Minister David Cameron has unveiled a sweeping new anti-terror law that seeks to protect the United Kingdom from jihadists returning from Syria and Iraq by render-ing them “stateless.”

Cameron, who made the announcement while addressing the Australian Parliament, said that Britain had to take action to deal with the threat posed by “foreign fighters planning attacks against our people,” The Telegraph reported.

FRANCE on page 21

Islamic State and al-Qaeda reconcile in Syria, promise joint terror attacks (JNS) – The Islamic State and al-Qaeda have reportedly reached a deal to reconcile their dif-ferences and coordinate joint terror operations in Syria, according to high-level Syrian opposition sources.

A commander in the Free Syrian Army told The Associated Press that the two terror groups recently met in the Syrian town of Atareb, where they agreed to halt infighting and open up a new joint front against the Kurds in northern Syria.

Sources indicate that a number of terror factions attended the meeting, including Islamic State, the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front, the Khorasan Group (an alQaeda affiliated terror group), and two smaller groups, Jund al-Aqsa and Ahrar al-Sham.

ISRAEL • 9

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2014

Four killed in terrorist attack in Jerusalem synagogue American-born yeshiva head Rabbi Mosheh Twersky among the victims

By Yair Rosenberg The Scrikk/Tablet - This morning, four Israelis were murdered during morning prayers at their synagogue in Har Nof, Jerusalem, when two Palestinians reportedly attacked the worshipers with knives, axes and guns. At least eight others were wounded in the assault, many seriously, including local police who engaged the assailants in a gun fight and ultimately dispatched them. The attackers have been identified as cousins Uday and Ghassan Abu Jamal, residents of East Jerusalem.

Yosef Pasternak, who was at the synagogue during the assault, told Israel Radio that “I saw people lying on the floor, blood everywhere.

People were trying to fight with [the

attackers] but they didn’t have much of a chance.” Another witness recalled how “two people came out with their faces half missing, looking like they’d been attacked with knives.” A medical volunteer at the scene told Bloomberg that the attackers cut off the arm of a worshiper who was wearing tefillin (phylacteries), a ritual object worn

by Jews during morning prayers.

Among the victims was American-born Rabbi Mosheh Twersky, a longtime rosh yeshiva at Yeshivas Toras Moshe in Jerusalem.

Twersky was the son of the late Rabbi Dr. Isadore Twersky, the Talner Rebbe and founder of the Harvard Center for Jewish Studies, and Dr. Atara Soloveitchik. He was the grandson of Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, American Modern Orthodoxy’s founding father.

The brutal attack drew widespread international condemnation.

“Murdering worshippers at prayer in a synagogue is an act of pure, unadulterated evil,” U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro said in a statement. “While terrorist organizations like Hamas, true to form, are already praising these murders, anyone else who places a claim to responsible leadership must clearly condemn this outrage and any acts of incitement that can inspire events like these.” Diplomats and world leaders from the United Kingdom to Australia labeled the attack “barbaric” and “horrific.” Former British Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, at the Vatican for an interfaith colloquium on marriage, led the assembled faith leaders in prayer for the victims.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas also condemned the attack, though his Fatah party’s official Facebook page celebrated it.

British TV reported that local mosques in Gaza used their loud-

Symbol of Jerusalem’s progress, light rail becomes terror target

By Ben Sales JERUSALEM (JTA) – It’s 3 p.m. on a Thursday and the Jerusalem light rail is packed with secular and religious, Jew and Arab, as it heads east from the city’s Central Bus Station.

From there it passes some of the city’s most crowded venues, stopping at the Mahane Yehuda open market and coursing down Jaffa Street until it hits the city center, where the train cars empty out onto a thoroughfare loud with foot traffic.

By the time it reaches the station in the Arab neighborhood of Shuafat, the train is nearly empty and the scene is desolate. The waiting area is missing a roof and the ticket machines are boarded up – the result of riots that broke out there in July following the murder of 16year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir.

The first service of its kind in Israel, the Jerusalem light rail was intended as a symbol of a forwardlooking metropolis, a sleek, efficient and clean mode of transportation that united the city’s disparate halves and connected Jerusalem’s far-flung neighborhoods to the city center.

But after two Palestinian drivers rammed their vehicles into crowds waiting at light rail stations in recent weeks, the train has become enveloped in the mounting tensions in Israel’s capital city. The attacks killed four people, including a 3month-old girl, and injured 22.

“There’s a bad atmosphere in Jerusalem,” said Ozel Vatik, spokesman for Citypass, the company that runs the light rail. “The light rail is a microcosm of Jerusalem. It runs in the central spaces of Jerusalem. So what happens in

Courtesy of Yonatan Sindel

A concrete security barrier at a light rail station in Jerusalem, Nov. 6, 2014. Four people have been killed at light rail stations in two separate attacks in recent weeks.

Jerusalem happens in the light rail, for better or worse.”

When service began in 2011, the light rail aimed at easing congestion on Jerusalem’s ancient roads.

Running down the central Jaffa Street, a windy thoroughfare once choked with bus traffic, the trains encounter few stoplights and run at an average speed of 15 miles per hour. The electric trains make less noise and consume less energy than buses and have reduced air pollution on Jaffa Street by up to 70 percent, Vatik said.

The one line traverses the full breadth of the city, from Mount Herzl in the west to Pisgat Zeev in the east, along the way passing the Central Bus Station, City Hall, the Old City and several Arab neighborhoods beyond the so-called “seam line” between the Jewish and Arab halves of Jerusalem. Citypass hopes to expand the existing route to reach Hadassah Medical Center in Ein Kerem in the west and Hebrew

University in the east as well as the city’s southern neighborhoods.

The train’s eastern section has eased access to the city center for residents of poorer neighborhoods like Shuafat. But some worry the physical link between east and west will make the city harder to split under a future Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty.

“On one hand it creates an illusion of a united city, and the recent events in the city prove that it is not,” said Yudith Oppenheimer, executive director of Ir Amim, a nongovernmental organization that advocates for Arab Jerusalemites. “On the other hand, because they never dealt with transit in the Palestinian neighborhoods, it’s a transit tool that serves the Palestinians in the city.”

As unrest has increased of late in Jerusalem, the light rail’s crowds, central route and easy access from the street have made it attractive to LIGHT RAIL on page 22

Courtesy of AHMAD GHARABLI

Israeli emergency services members and security personnel stand outside a synagogue that was the scene of an attack by two Palestinians on worshippers in the ultraOrthodox Har Nof neighbourhood in Jerusalem on November 18, 2014.

speakers to broadcast congratulations, while Reuters and the Jerusalem Post reported that “Gazan revelers in Rafah handed out sweets

and brandished axes and posters of the said perpetrators in praise of the deadly attack.”

10 • ISRAEL

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

Jerusalem tensions, simmering since the summer, start to boil over

By Ben Sales TEL AVIV (JTA) – Tensions in Jerusalem have run high since last summer, but have recently crossed over into lethal violence.

In the past two weeks, there have been three attacks, in which motorists have plowed into crowds of people — killing, among others, a 3-month-old baby and and injuring dozens; two of the attacks took place Wednesday, one at a Jerusalem light rail station and another at a military installation in the West Bank settlement bloc of Gush Etzion.

Meanwhile violence has erupted in recent days at the Temple Mount, a sacred site for Jews and Muslims.

Just last week, Israeli activist

Yehuda Glick, who advocates for Israel to lift the ban on Jewish prayer at the Temple Mount, was shot at close range and seriously wounded outside a Jerusalem conference center.

Adding to the uneasy atmosphere was Israel’s approval of more than 1,000 new homes to be constructed in east Jerusalem — angering the city’s Arab residents and drawing condemnation from the United States and the international community.

Experts say the attacks are the result of a slow burn of anger that began with the July murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir, the 16year-old burned alive by Jewish extremists, and that is rooted in Arab

dissatisfaction with the expanding Israeli presence in the city and the perceived neglect of the city’s Arab residents.

Following Abu Khdeir’s murder, which the perpetrators said was retaliation for the kidnapping and murder of three Jewish teens, unrest has gripped the eastern part of the city. Rioters took to the streets in Jerusalem in the days after the murder and sporadically throughout Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza; there were numerous rock-throwing incidents and repeated damage to the Jerusalem light rail station in the eastern neighborhood of Shuafat.

Israeli Police Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that the perpetrator of Wednesday’s attack on pedestrians

at a light rail station lived in Jerusalem and was connected to Hamas, but acted on his own.

Rosenfeld said police will heighten patrols and conduct a strategic assessment of security threats in the city.

“What we’re seeing now are lone-wolf attacks that are a result of ongoing incitement,” said Boaz Ganor, executive director of the International Institute for CounterTerrorism at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. “The incitement began with Hamas and spread to other forces. These forces understand these messages as a call to action.”

One of the conflict’s most volatile flashpoints is the Temple

Is she Jewish? Rabbinate says yes, Israel says no

By Ben Sales

Mount, which Muslims refer to the Noble Sanctuary. The day after the attack on Glick, Israel closed the Temple Mount to all worshipers. It was reopened the following day, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to maintain the status quo, which prohibits Jewish prayer at the site.

In recent days right-wing Knesset members have visited the site, which some see as a provocation.

Jordan on Wednesday recalled its ambassador from Israel due to clashes at the Temple Mount. And after Israel temporarily closed the site last week, Palestinian Authority TENSIONS on page 19

Israel abounds with immigrants who are considered Jewish by the state but not by the Orthodox Chief Rabbinate under its stricter qualifications. Varsanyi is the rare case in which the opposite is true.

Born to a Jewish mother, Varsanyi meets the Chief Rabbinate’s standards for who is a Jew. But Israel claims Varsanyi isn’t Jewish because her mother converted to Christianity.

Varsanyi says her mother is Jewish and it was her great-grandmother who converted – in 1930.

“It’s like they tell you, ‘Come, make aliyah, you’re Jewish, you’re one of us,’” Varsanyi said, using the

Hebrew word for immigration to Israel. “But when you’re already here, they say ‘You’re second-class, you’re not one of us. So you might as well leave.’ “ Born under Hungary’s Communist regime to a Jewish mother and a non-Jewish father, Varsanyi grew up barely aware of her Jewish heritage. But a growing interest in her Jewish roots led her to study Yiddish literature and culture at university and to register for a 10day Birthright Israel trip. Next came a year abroad at the University of Haifa, where she met her Israeli future husband. After a stint working for the Jewish Agency for Israel in

Budapest, she immigrated in 2011.

Varsanyi gained citizenship under the Law of Return, which requires only one Jewish grandparent for an immigrant for automatic citizenship. Varsanyi’s maternal grandfather was unambiguously Jewish.

But when Israel’s Interior Ministry saw a document concerning her great-grandmother’s conversion, they refused to register her as Jewish, claiming she was raised Christian. To be recognized as Jewish, the ministry told Varsanyi, she needed to convert.

Except Varsanyi can’t convert because she is already Jewish

according to Jewish law, which doesn’t recognize conversions to other religions. The chief rabbinates of both Israel and Hungary consider Varsanyi, her mother, her grandmother and her great-grandmother to be Jewish.

“It’s hard to imagine anybody more committed to the Jewish people than someone like Anna,” said Rabbi Seth Farber, the founder of Itim, an Israeli organization that guides people with religious status issues through Israeli bureaucracy.

“They’re simply not looking at the facts. This woman’s basic rights are

Israel Briefs

Schindler will be constructed to preserve his memory.

The Custodian of the Holy Land, Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who heads the Franciscan order in Israel, welcomed the decision.

silent on recent terror attacks on Israelis despite the fact that recent cartoons published by the Palestinian Fatah party’s have encouraged Israeli Arabs to run over Jews with their cars in order to “protect” the AlAqsa Mosque.

The probe, dubbed the Goldstone Report, alleged that Israel had intentionally targeted civilians, though Goldstone later personally retracted the allegation. Israel rejected the original report as inaccurate and biased.

Oskar Schindler’s grave in Jerusalem Catholic cemetery to be refurbished (JNS) – Forty years after his death, authorities have decided to refurbish the burial site of Oskar Schindler, the German industrialist who helped save thousands of Jews during World War II. Schindler is buried in the Catholic cemetery on Mount Zion in Jerusalem.

The Jerusalem Development Authority, the Custodia Terrae Sanctae, the Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Ministry, and the Jerusalem Municipality have launched a joint campaign to renovate and landscape Schindler’s grave site and erect a memorial there.

The construction, which is expected to cost around $524,000, will include revamping pathways to the cemetery and Schindler’s grave, and building shaded seating areas nearby. Rooms near the burial site are also slated for renovation, and an indoor site commemorating

Synagogue firebombed in northern Israel as violence persists (JNS) – A historic synagogue that dates back to the 18th century and is located in an Arab town in northern Israel was firebombed with a Molotov cocktail on Wednesday as the recent spate of violence throughout the Jewish state persists.

The synagogue had just been renovated this year in an indicator of positive interfaith relations in the area, t Additionally, a mosque near Ramallah was burned on Wednesday. Investigations into the perpetrators of both incidents are ongoing.

“Those who encourage and allow attacks on mosques and against Palestinians should expect a response,” Islamic Jihad said in a statement, the Jerusalem Post reported.

Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Ron Prosor, meanwhile, accused the U.N. Security Council of staying

Israel bars U.N. investigators of Gaza operation JERUSALEM (JTA) – Israel denied entry to members of a commission appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate possible war crimes committed during Israel’s Gaza operation this summer.

Israel on Wednesday did not permit the so-called Schabas Commission to enter Israel from Jordan, then announced it would not cooperate with the investigation.

In July, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized the council for choosing to investigate Israel rather than nearby crisis zones such as Iraq or Syria, and implied he would not cooperate with U.N. investigators. The operation was ongoing at the time.

Following the end of the last Gaza conflict, in early 2009, Israel refused to cooperate with a U.N. investigation led by the South African jurist Richard Goldstone.

Arafat’s widow calls for talks rather than armed struggle (JTA) – The widow of Yasser Arafat denounced violence and accused Hamas of “genocide” in the Gaza Strip on the 10th anniversary of the Palestinian leader’s death.

In an interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Suha Arafat argued that the Palestinians’ best hope lies in negotiation rather than armed struggle.

closely match those of a poll commissioned last month by Israel Hayom, which found that 79 percent of Israelis oppose the legislation.

The bill’s next destination is the Knesset House Committee..

Netanyahu has said the bill to ban free newspapers “shames the Knesset.”

TEL AVIV (JTA) – In 2012, Anna Varsanyi was married in an Orthodox Jewish ceremony conducted through Israel’s Chief Rabbinate.

Two years later, the Hungarian immigrant has made a life in Israel, settling with her husband in the central city of Modiin and working a desk job in a hospital. She is weeks away from having her first child.

But when the baby won’t be Jewish, according to the State of Israel.

Varsanyi, 30, is the victim of an unusual bureaucratic mix-up.

Poll: 77% of Israelis oppose bill to ban free newspapers (JNS) – A new poll found that 77 percent of Israelis oppose the bill to ban free newspapers in Israel, which passed its preliminary Knesset reading on Nov. 12. The legislation targets the free daily Israel Hayom, the country’s top-read print newspaper for more than four years.

In the survey, conducted by Panels Politics Polling, 15 percent of Israelis supported the bill and 8 percent had no opinion. The results

JEWISH? on page 19

Metal detectors to scan Muslim visitors to Temple Mount ‘when necessary’ JERUSALEM (JTA) – Israeli police will use metal detectors to scan Muslim worshippers going to the Temple Mount, Israel’s public security minister said.

The detectors will scan for guns and other weapons made out of metal, Yitzhak Aharonovich told Israel’s Channel 1 on Wednesday night.

Muslim worshippers have had free access to the site since 2000, when the use of detectors was discontinued. The Temple Mount has been the site of escalating violence of late.

During a police ceremony in Jerusalem on Thursday, Aharonovich vowed to restore calm to the Temple Mount, as riots continued to flare in eastern Jerusalem.

SOCIAL LIFE • 11

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2014

ANNOUNCEMENTS CNCINNATI JEWS IN THE NEWS

BIRTH achel Loftspring Pelchovitz and Dr. Daniel Pelchovitz are thrilled to announce the birth of their daughter, Mila Eliana Pelchovitz, born October 29, 2014 in Chicago.

She weighed 6 lbs 14 oz and measured 19.5 inches.

Grandparents are Randy and Bonnie Loftspring, Ellen Essig, and the late Dr. Sheldon Pelchovitz.

Great grandparents are the late Harris and Marge Loftspring, Alan and Sara Feldman, the late Dr. Joel and Thelma Essig, and the late Samuel and Ettie Pelchovitz.

R

ileen Bloustein, MFA was recently honored as Legendary Leader for the May We Help Organization.

Eileen's story was highlighted in a video at the November 6th Legendary Leadership Dinner.

E

Eileen third from the left.

THE GREAT ESCAPE It was an all-inclusive mini vacay getaway for Jewish young professionals from across the region when Access hosted The Great Escape 2014 weekend at Camp Livingston in Bennington, Indiana on August 16th and 17th. Participants enjoyed 600 acres of fresh air and fun, including lakefront activities, a ropes courses and a climbing wall, sports, a campfire and much more! Access is an initiative of The Mayerson Foundation for Jewish young professionals, 21-35.

Photos continued on Page 12

Mila Pelchovitz

12 • CINCINNATI JEWISH LIFE

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THE GREAT ESCAPE Continued from Page 11

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2014

CINCINNATI JEWISH LIFE • 13

14 • DINING OUT

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20 Brix Wine Shop good stop for holiday season wines, related gifts

By Bob Wilhelmy Restaurants with retail shops give the public one more reason to dine out, and 20 Brix in Old Milford is the perfect example.

The retail wine-shop area of the restaurant enjoys its busiest time of the year from Thanksgiving to the beginning of January, according to 20 Brix owner, Hunter Thomas. As one enters 20 Brix, the wine shop is to the right. Of course, you may want to pop in and pick up a bottle of wine and be on your way. But 20 Brix diners can “shop” their wine choice as well, and have it brought to the table for them.

On a recent visit there, I spent at least 15 minutes looking at the labels and the pricing of the bottles, each waiting to be enjoyed with food in the restaurant. The vintners are small-name producers offering modest outputs, perhaps a few hundred cases, and almost never more than 2,000 cases annually. So, for those of us who want wine with the meal, 20 Brix is a pleasant variation on the typical.

“We have a very good selection of wines and gifts for this time of year, along with our wine tastings on Tuesdays,” Thomas said. The wine tastings range from $45 to $100 per person, and include food prepared to complement the wine being tasted.

First and foremost, though, 20 Brix draws its crowds because of the food that is prepared in its scratch kitchen. This time of year at 20 Brix is when the menu switches to heartier, cold-weather dishes and seasonal ingredients more readily available in winter.

One entrée that caught my eye is the roasted delicata squash.

Delicata is a squash variety relatively new to the scene in our Midwest area. It looks as if it belongs in the gourd family of the type you’d use in a Halloween or Thanksgiving table decoration.

Gnarly, grooved elongated sides and the shape of a bloated cucumber—that’s a delicata. The skin is variegated with patches of dark green and light yellow, and the underbelly of a ripe squash is pumpkin orange. Don’t let the ugly duckling appearance fool you though: the squash is one of the best-tasting of all varieties. You eat it skin and all, and if roasted by itself in cross-cut slices of half an inch or so, with a little kosher salt, each slice is like candy.

The 20 Brix squash is accompanied by a chef’s mélange of escarole, butternut squash, feta cheese, black-eyed peas and a lemon-herb crème, all sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds. My bet is you’ll love this vegetarian specialty of the house.

“We try to shift our menu to accommodate seasonal changes

The wine-shop area where patrons may select wines at retail prices.

The outdoor signage of 20 Brix.

and we use a lot of local growers,” Thomas said. “We had tomato risotto on the menu during the summer when great tomatoes were available and plentiful. Now we’ve switched to a lemon risotto dish (with broccoli, miso, parsley, parmesan cheese and spiced pecans—hold the scallops).

“Also, we’ve switched our seafood offering to rely more heavily on cold-water catches, such as the red fish. The redfish is pan seared and it’s really very good.”

Thomas’ redfish is served with but-

A flatbread pizza from the Sharables section of the menu.

ternut squash (my second-favorite squash variety, BTW), black-eyed peas, pickled peppers, and jalapeno aioli. This dish is complemented by shrimp dumplings, which the kitchen will hold for you upon request. In fact, Thomas said his kitchen will do whatever can be done to accommodate Jewish diners in their menu choices—always good to know.

For our meat-loving diners, consider two entrée items at the top of the menu: the chili-braised beef short ribs and the steak frites.

Braised beef generally is one of my favorites, and you may wish to ask your server about this 20 Brix entrée. The dish is a perfect match for a cold winter evening when rosy cheeks bring on a hearty appetite. Pair with a glass or two of red wine and you have a feast.

The steak frites is a classic French preparation, with a modest twist.

The steak is a prime cut (the best USDA cut) done on a grill instead of the traditional cast iron frying pan, and done to your order (rare in my case). The fries are a per-

fect complement to the steak, with a tantalizing flavor brought out by smoked sea salt.

Entrée dishes at 20 Brix range from casual to formal, and the new menu gives every diner something to love. The sharables section is great for those who want to socialize over wine or beer. See you at 20 Brix in Old Milford.

20 Brix 101 Main St. Historic Milford 831-2749

DINING OUT • 15

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2014

RESTAURANT DIRECTORY 20 Brix

Izzy’s

Pomodori’s

101 Main St

800 Elm St • 721-4241

121West McMillan • 861-0080

Historic Milford

612 Main St • 241-6246

7880 Remington Rd

831-Brix (2749)

1198 Smiley Ave • 825-3888

Montgomery • 794-0080

7625 Beechmont Ave • 231-5550 Ambar India Restaurant

4766 Red Bank Expy • 376-6008

Slatt’s Pub

350 Ludlow Ave

5098B Glencrossing Way • 347-9699

4858 Cooper Rd

Cincinnati

8179 Princeton-Glendale • 942-7800

Blue Ash

281-7000

7905 Mall Road • 859-525-2333

791-2223 • 791-1381 (fax)

1965 Highland Pk. • 859-331-4999 Andy’s Mediterranean Grille

Sorrentos

At Gilbert & Nassau

Johnny Chan 2

8494 Reading Rd.

2 blocks North of Eden Park

11296 Montgomery Rd

Reading

281-9791

The Shops at Harper’s Point

821-6666

Asian Paradise 9521 Fields Ertel Rd

489-2388 • 489-3616 (fx)

9521 FIELDS ERTEL ROAD, LOVELAND Stone Creek Dining Co.

Kanak India Restaurant

9386 Montgomery Rd

10040B Montgomery Rd

Montgomery • 489-1444

Montgomery

6200 Muhlhauser Rd

793-6800

West Chester • 942-2100

Cincinnati

Keegans Specialty Seafood Market

Sukhothai Thai Cuisine

321-1600

2724 Erie Ave.

Montgomery

Hyde Park

794-0057

Loveland 239-8881 Baba India Restaurant 3120 Madison Rd

Bistro Grace 4034 Hamilton Ave. Cincinnati 541-9600 Breadsmith 3500 Michigan Ave.

8102 Market Place Ln

Tandoor Marx Hot Bagels

8702 Market Place Ln

9701 Kenwood Rd

Montgomery

Blue Ash

793-7484

891-5542 Tony’s Mecklenburg Gardens

12110 Montgomery Rd

302 E. University Ave

Montgomery

Cafe Mediterranean

Clifton

677-1993

9525 Kenwood Rd

221-5353

Cincinnati 745-9386

(513) 239-8881 asianparadiserestaurant.com

321-0181

Cincinnati 321-6300

The Best Japanese Cuisine, Asian Food & Dining Experience In Town

"Top 100 Chinese Restaurants in America"

Walt’s Hitching Post Padrino

300 Madison Pike

111 Main St

Fort Wright, KY

Holtman’s Donuts

Milford

1399 Ohio 28 • 575-1077

965-0100

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Parkers Blue Ash Tavern

514 W. 6th St.

Over-the-Rhine

4200 Cooper Rd

Covington, KY

214 W. Main • 724-3865

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16 • OPINION

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Voyeurism is a form of sexual assault

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

By Deborah Rosenbloom WASHINGTON (JTA) – With all the conversations surrounding the allegations against my congregation’s former rabbi, Barry Freundel, no one is saying what desperately needs to be said — that voyeurism is sexual assault and that eliminating sexual assault in our communities should be the direction of our next steps.

In emails, blogs and articles, the reaction to allegations that Freundel installed hidden cameras in order to view women in the mikvah has focused repeatedly on the specific location of the crime, the importance of making mikvahs safer and the abuse of rabbinic authority. But deciding to change who controls the mikvah is a narrow perspective on the wider issue of violence against women, and addressing this as an isolated incident would be a mistake.

Although considering policies to make our religious spaces safer is certainly worthwhile, it is important that we recognize voyeurism as a form of sexual assault, with its own place on the spectrum of violence against women.

Sexual assault is often thought to be synonymous with rape. But according to the National Institute of Justice, sexual assault encompasses a range of unwanted sexual behaviors, including voyeurism.

Whether the perpetrator is peeping through a window, hiding video cameras in locker rooms, posting illegally obtained intimate photographs or forwarding explicit private photographs intended for one viewer only, he is committing sexual assault.

The true nature of the crime is masked by the use of the word “voyeurism,” which makes it seem as if there were no victim.

This is an issue of substance and not merely semantics.

Think about it. When a robbery occurs, there is a victim — someone is robbed. When a murder occurs, someone is killed.

But voyeurism? Someone is “voyeured”? It’s as if there is no victim, only a perpetrator. The victim is the object — the thing that is watched. But women are not objects. This is not a victimless crime. And that’s the point.

Women know, whether consciously or not, that voyeurism is part of the continuum of violence against women, a continuum with catcalling on the less severe end and violent rape on the most severe end.

Hypersexualization and objecti-

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Sexual assault encompasses a range of unwanted sexual behaviors, including voyeurism.

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fication of women devalues women. When we see women as objects — when we dehumanize women — we enable violence.

With this understanding, our response to a high school student who forwards explicit pictures of his girlfriend to his teammates should not be “boys will be boys.” Nor should we dismiss concerns about websites that publish private, naked photos of celebrities as “the cost of fame.”

Actress Jennifer Lawrence named it correctly when hackers stole and posted her images online. This wasn’t about theft or pirating; this was a “sex crime.”

Only when we place voyeurism in the mikvah in this larger context — not as a one off, but as one more example of what is becoming normalized behavior in our society — can we ask and begin to find answers to how to end gender-based violence.

To accomplish this, I suggest that we start by asking three questions in each of our communities: * Does the environment allow all community members, even and especially the most vulnerable, to feel respected and valued? * Is there a way for any individual who feels devalued to communicate that safely to the leadership, and is the communication taken seriously? * Are checks and balances in place to assure that authority figures (both clergy and lay leaders) are held accountable for their words, their time and their actions?

Let’s use this opportunity to minimize the possibility of sexual assault, and then let’s turn to questions about rabbinic authority and women.

Turning the page on the special U.S.–Israel relationship

By Danny Danon (JNS) – The Nov. 4 midterm election results have obvious implications for American domestic policy. For us in Israel, however, the new Congress and the last two years of President Barack Obama’s administration present a unique opportunity.

Now is the perfect time to turn the page on U.S.-Israel relations.

Our two governments should use this time to work together as a united front against the challenges facing the free world. While there will of course continue to be areas of disagreement between our governments, we both have much to gain by putting these differences aside and placing the issues that unite us as our top priorities for the remaining years of the Obama presidency.

There is no denying that during the past few months we have witnessed some low points in U.S.-Israel relations, especially in terms of rhetoric used. Like most Israelis of all political persuasions, I was deeply disappointed—and even offended—by the crass words used by senior Obama administration officials to describe Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. That type of language should never be used in diplomatic parlance, let alone to describe the democratically elected leader of an American ally.

While these anonymous quotes ridiculing Prime Minister Netanyahu were troubling, it is the actions of the Obama administration in recent months that have close observers of this special relationship more concerned than ever. Continued U.S. economic and military support for Qatar is

one such example. As Qatar has openly increased its financial and logistical support for the murderous terrorists of Hamas, we did not see our American friends distance themselves from their Gulf ally. Instead, there have been too many instances of declared friendship between the world’s greatest democracy and the Middle Eastern monarchy that supported the terrorists who bombarded our cities in Israel this past summer.

Another example has been the official American reaction to Israel’s construction policy in our capital. I have lost count of the number of times the Obama administration has criticized our government’s decision to plan new housing in Jerusalem, even when these plans benefit both the city’s Jewish and Arab populations. When you compare the official statements coming from the Obama administration with the muted reaction to official Palestinian incitement against Israel and the Jewish people, the situation becomes even more troubling.

Just recently, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas sent a condolence letter praising a terrorist killed after he opened fire on the police officers attempting to arrest him for critically injuring an Israeli in Jerusalem the night before. It is puzzling how senior Obama administration officials view the building of homes in Jerusalem neighborhoods that everyone agrees will remain under Israeli sovereignty in peace agreements as more of a threat to peace than the culture of violence fostered by the PA. With the forthcoming swear-

ing-in of the new Congress, both of our governments should seize the opportunity to refocus our relationship. It goes without saying that name-calling and public spats in the media should be pushed aside. More importantly, however, our two countries should immediately begin to prioritize our joint efforts in facing the two main threats to peace and security in the Middle East, if not the entire world.

Though Islamic State is still small in numbers, it is quickly growing and capitalizing on the weakness of the Arab states in the region that have been crumbling before our eyes over the past few years. Here in Israel we do not see Islamic State as an existential threat, especially in comparison to other regional terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that Islamic State is a serious danger to the Middle East’s moderate regimes, and to our most important ally—the U.S. This is why we should redouble our efforts to destroy this despicable organization.

Even more importantly, now is the time for Israel and the U.S.— together with the international community—to work hand in hand to end the threat of a nucleararmed Iran. Through joint cooperation between our governments, we can work to improve the current agreement under negotiation.

I know that many in Congress share Israel’s conviction that a bad deal, which removes sanctions and leaves Iran with the capability to arm themselves with nuclear weapons with relative ease, is RELATIONSHIP on page 19

JEWISH LIFE • 17

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2014

Sedra of the Week

SHABBAT SHALOM: PARSHAT TOLDOT GENESIS 25:19 – 28:9

Our Bible mandates that “we remember history, understand the differences in each generation”, and respond accordingly (Deut. 32:7) Christian Embassy Jerusalem serve as Christian ambassadors for Israel throughout the world. Ohr Torah Stone has an Institute of JewishChristian Understanding and Cooperation through which we teach many thousands of Christians the Hebraic roots of Christianity and spread our united mission to bring a God of love, morality and peace to a world threatened by a god of power, suicide bombers and jihad.

Our Bible mandates that “we remember history, understand the differences in each generation”, and respond accordingly (Deut. 32:7) Rav Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin (Netziv, Dean of famed Volozhin Yeshiva) comments on our previously cited verse, “And Esau ran towards him [Jacob], embraced him, and fell on his neck, kissed him- and they wept,” differently from Rashi: “This comes to teach that Jacob too was aroused with compassion at that moment for Esau. And so it will be in the future, when the seed of Esau will be aroused with a spirit of purity to recognize the seed of Israel and their value, then we too must be aroused to recognize Esau. After all, he is our brother”

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T EST Y OUR T ORAH KNOWLEDGE THIS WEEK’S PORTION: TOLDOT (BRAISHITH 25:19—28:9) 1. What did Yakov serve Esav? a.) Meat b.) Milk c.) Lentils

Philistine c.) They saw that Hashem was with Isaac

2. What message did Hashem give to Isaac? a.) To go to Egypt b.) To stay in the land of the Philistines c.) To dig wells in the land of the Philistines 3. Why did Avimelech make a treaty with Isaac? a.) To share water from his wells b.) Isaac was given a town in the land of the

4. What was Esav's reaction to Yakov taking his blessing? a.) Happiness b.) Anger c.) Ambivalent 5. Which of the seven nations of Canaan is mentioned? a.) Emori b.) Philistine c.) Chitite

2. B 26:2,3 Issac wanted to go to Egypt during the famine. Hashem told him that it was not fitting for him to go to Egypt because he had been offered as a sacrifice to Hashem. Rashi 3. C 26:28,29 The treaty included Avimelech's statement to Isaac “go from us” that Isaac

would would do the same if necessary. Rashi 4. B 27:34,41 5. C 26:34,35, 27:45 Esav's wives were from the Chitite nation

EFRAT, Israel – “Rebecca (Isaac’s wife) conceived. And the sons within her struggled (or agitated)….”

(Gen. 25:21-22) The next three Biblical portions deal with the jealousy, enmity and strife unto death between Jacob and Esau, the twin sons of Isaac and Rebecca. The “bad blood” which sullied their fraternal relationship seems to have begun prenatally, while they were still in their mother’s womb. And the ramifications of their discord will extend at least into the next generation, with the enmity between Joseph and his tribal brothers, the sons of Jacob.

Rashi extends their struggle down through the generations: “Another interpretation: they strove against each other and they argued about the inheritance of both worlds.

In other words, this was the fight between Rome (Edom) and Jerusalem, Israel and Christendom, a religious battle for supremacy in this world as well as the world to come.”

Towards the end of their conflict in the Book of Genesis, the true historical identity of these brothers is even more precisely identified.

After Esau has spurned the birthright and married Hittite wives, after Jacob has deceived blind father Isaac and received the blessings under false pretenses, after Jacob was forced to leave his father’s house lest he be murdered by Esau, and after Jacob is on the way back from 22 years with Uncle Laban to return to his ancestral home in Israel, Jacob meets his estranged brother: “And Esau ran towards him, and he embraced him, and he fell on his neck and he kissed him; and they wept.” (Gen. 33:4) Here, too, Rashi comments: “And he (Esau) kissed him (Jacob); the word ‘he kissed him’ has dots above it (in the Masoretic text)….Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai says: ‘it is a known law that Esau (forever) hates Jacob….’” The Rabbis throughout the generations have identified Esau with Christendom, employing the connection between Esau and Edom (36:9), Edom and Rome (Titus), Rome and the Vatican.

And so it was for almost two millennia: the Catholic Church led a steady program of Inquisitions, autos da fé, forced conversions and crusading death by the sword, especially targeting the Jews (but not exclusively; Lutherans as well were occasional targets).

During that time, Catholicism adhered to its doctrine of

supersessionism, that the Church had replaced Israel as God’s chosen people. The Holocaust could never have taken hold throughout Europe as it did, with nation after nation in large measure happily partnering with the Nazis in the cruel extermination of 6,000,000 Jews - had it not been for the accusations of deicide instigating murderous pogroms emanating from the churches for almost 2000 years.

But within the last five decades, a sea-change has occurred within the Church. Perhaps this came about as a result of the many decent Churchmen who were sincerely shocked by the murderous outcome of church anti-Semitism; perhaps because the miraculous rebirth of the State of Israel completely trumped the Church’s prior theological position that the Jews were doomed to wander stateless because they rejected the divinity and messiahship of Jesus. Perhaps it was because the hierarchy recognized that the Church could not have become the substitute Jews in God’s eyes because, since the eternal God “does not repent of His covenants” (see 1 Sam. 15:29). For whatever reason—probably for all three—the Second Vatican Council under Pope Paul VI issued its landmark Nostra Aetate (“In our time”) encyclical in 1965, repudiating antiSemitism, rejecting the charge of deicide, and denying supersessionism by declaring that “Israel remains a chosen people”. Moreover Pope John Paul II begged forgiveness of the Jews for all the atrocities committed against them by the Church, and visited the Jewish State in the year 2000, when he met with our President and Prime Minister and prayed at the Western Wall for “the Jewish nation, his elder brother who remains the nation with whom God made His covenant.”

The fast-growing Evangelical Christian Churches, which developed in America rather than in Europe, were always very close to the Hebrew Scriptures and therefore to the Jews. They never had a history of anti-Semitism and they have proven to be the best friends we have.

Pastor John Hagee of San Antonio, Texas, has initiated Christians United for Israel, through which thousands of churches throughout the world support our State financially and politically in a Christian “AIPAC”.

Pastor Robert Stearns sends thousands of Christian university students to Israel in a kind of Christian “Birthright.” The International

Written by Rabbi Dov Aaron Wise

ANSWERS 1. C 25:34 Jacob prepared the meal to serve after the burial of Abraham. Abraham should have lived another five years, but Hashem did not want him to see his grandson Esav become a bad person. Rashi

by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin

18 • JEWZ IN THE NEWZ

JEWZ

IN THE

By Nate Bloom Contributing Columnist Hunger, Eating and More “Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part I,” opens on Friday, Nov. 21.

To make more money, the studio decided to take the last “Hunger Games” novel and turn it into two movies. Jennifer Lawrence stars again as the heroine, Katniss, with ELIZABETH BANKS, 40, returning as the ditzy chaperone Effie Trinket. The screenplay is

by DANNY STRONG, 40 (“Game Change” and “The Butler”).

On Nov. 21, at 9 p.m., the National Geographic Channel premieres “EAT: The Story of Food,” a six-hour miniseries.

The official description says: “The special satisfies every question you’ve ever had, and some you haven’t, about the evolution of food over the course of humankind, from our ancestors throwing raw meat onto a fire for the first time, to teams of lab technicians perfecting the crunch of a potato chip. More important, it will show how this evolution of what we eat and how we eat it has actually defined human civilization and cultures around the globe.” Over 70 chefs, food writers, and others in related fields are interviewed, including: TV chef NIGELLA LAWSON, 54; former NT Times restaurant critic and former “Gourmet” magazine chief editor RUTH REICHL, 64; journalist MICHAEL POLLAN, 59, who mostly writes about the food industry and healthy eating.

Michael, by the way, is the brother of actress TRACY POLLAN, 54.

Also appearing in the series is top Los Angeles-based chef ERIC GREENSPAN, 39. I have no doubt that “Nat Geo” gave him a slot on “EAT” because Greenspan is also the star of his own new Nat Geo series.

Entitled, “Eric Greenspan is Hungry,” it starts on Monday, Nov. 24, at 10PM. It doesn’t sound like Greenspan’s show is for vegans, the faint-of-stomach, or Jews who get turned-off watching other Jews violate every law of Kashrut: Here’s part of the show’s publicity release: “Eric goes directly to the source of local heartland recipes to meet the people who farm, raise, nurture, hunt and butcher animals such as bison, prehistoric gar, goat, crawfish, pig and wild turkey. It's meat unlike what you get from a purveyor. Eric and his cohort will break down the animal, butcher it and prepare the recipe all on location to crank out the best dishes.” His “cohort” is a guy named CAPTAIN

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NEWZ

MAUZNER, who has a few acting credits. He’s Jewish, too.

Crackle is a web-based TV channel, owned by Sony, which presents, for FREE, original TV series. It’s the home of the JERRY SEINFELD series, “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee,” now in its 4th season.

New episodes are posted on Thursdays, but can be viewed anytime after posting. Last week, SEINFELD, 60, rode with AMY SCHUMER, 33.

Another Crackle (2014) original, the 12episode legal/murder mystery thriller, “Sequestered,” can now be viewed in its entirety. It’s not bad at all. The cast includes the handsome JAMES MASLOW, 24; HEATHER KENT DUBROW, 45 (“Real Wives of Orange County”); and DINA MEYER, 45.

The Nov.22 episode of “Saturday Night Live” features, as its musical guests, MARK RONSON, 39, and Bruno Mars (whose paternal grandma was Jewish). Together they will perform “Uptown Funk,” a song from Ronson’s just released album, “Uptown Special.”

Ronson, the son of British Jews, was mostly raised in the States.

You may recall that his sister, SAMANTHA RONSON, 37, a DJ, was involved with Lindsay Lohan a few years ago.

The Jewish Wedding that Wasn’t On Nov. 8, Eric Trump, 30, son of Donald, and brother of IVANKA TRUMP, 33, wed TV producer Lara Yunaska under what the NY Post called a "crystal chuppah”. The “chuppah photo” in the Post merely showed a wedding awning made out of crystals, like those hung on a chandelier, and I have little doubt that the photo caption writer took it upon him or herself to call it a “chuppah.”

However, because of the socalled ‘chuppah’, a lot of the Jewish media is assuming she’s Jewish and some have called it a “Jewish wedding.” Well, a “Jewish” wedding needs a cantor or rabbi. However, presiding over this wedding was a ‘civilian’, publisher JARED KUSHNER, 33, the Modern Orthodox husband of Ivanka (who converted to Judaism). Bottom line: I checked out Yunaska’s family tree via family history sites---Lutheran on her father’s side—also Christian on her mother’s side. So—not a Jewish wedding, not a chuppah; and not a Jewish bride. Amusing sidelight: Eric does bear a remarkable resemblance to Jewish actor JONAH HILL, when Hill is moderately slimmed-down.

FROM THE PAGES 150 Y EARS A GO Betrothed, Miss Sarah Blatt to Mr. A. Eiseman, both of this city.

Also Miss Emma Goldvogel to Mr. Simon Silbernagel, both of this city.

The Hebrew Hospital Association being under the necessity of repairing their hospital building or rebuild it, bought a fine property for $20,500, a lot of ninety by two hundred feet, with a fine house located on high grounds, and perfectly suitable to the purpose. The furniture, etc., will bring the expense up to about $25,000, which sum will be raised by donations, and according to last accounts $15,000 had been subscribed already. The officers of the hospital, with A. Aub, Esq. at their head, it is but just to state, have been very energetic and active in the cause in which they are engaged.

We wish to give special notice that our Mr. Blatt, lately returned from Europe, has imported a lot of German Wines, consisting of Rowenthaler, Oppenhiemer, Niersteiner, Rudesheimer, , Scharlachberger, and the best brands which we are willing to sell at the very lowest gold prices. On hand and for sale at the Custom House. Oeitinger, Blatt & Co. – December 16, 1864

125 Y EARS A GO Mr. and Mrs. Harry Rosenbaum entertained a large party of young folks last Wednesday evening at their home on Francis Lane, Walnut Hills.

The affair was in honor of the Misses Fechheimer and was greatly enjoyed by all who had the good fortune to attend this meeting.

Miss Betty Huttenbauer and Miss Theresa Freund celebrated their birthday anniversaries together Sunday evening, and entertained a goodly company of relatives and friends at the residence of Mrs Freund, in Clifton.

An elegant repast was served, and the presents received by both young ladies were numerous and valuable.

Master Max, son of Mr. and Mrs. Jonas Spiegel, 494 West Eighth Street, will be Bar Mitzvah on Saturday, the 30th, at the Plum Street Temple. – November 28, 1889

100 Y EARS A GO Mr. and Mrs. I. Jacobs of 3442 Dury Avenue, Avondale, announce the engagement of their daughter, Selma, to Dr. Samuel J. Goldberg. All of Cincinnati.

Mr. Nathan Bernstein and Miss Edythe, daughter of Mr. and

Mrs. M. S. Wolf of Covington, KY, were married at the residence of the bride’s brother, 216 Piedmont Street, City, on Sunday evening, November 15.

Dr. Louis Grossmann performed the ceremony.

Mrs. Bertha, widow of the late Elias Kahn, died on Tuesday, November 17, at her late home, 2517 May Street, Walnut Hills.

Buruial took place at the K.K.S.I.A. Cemetery on Thursday morning, Rabbi Mielziner officiating.

Mary Weil, who died last Saturday, was buried on Sunday afternoon from the residence of her brother, Isaac A. Weil, 820 Hutchins Avenue, Avondale.

Burial was in the Clifton Jewish Cemetery. – November 19, 1914

75 Y EARS A GO The marriage of Miss Constance Vigran, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Sam Vigran, and Mr. Charles H. Okrent, was solemnized by Rabbi Louis Feinberg at the Hotel Alms Wednesday evening, Nov. 22nd.

Mr. and Mrs. Okrent will reside at 1215 Laidlaw Avenue.

A testimonial dinner is being arranged in honor of Dr. Albert H. Freiberg for Dec. 6th, at the Netherland Plaza.

This affair in honor of Dr. Freiberg, who recently retired as professor of orthopedic surgery at the College of Medicine, University of Cincinnati, is being arranged by a committee including Dr. Stanley Dorst, acting dean of the College of Medicine; Dr. Martin Fischer; Dr. R. S. Austin; and Dr. Mont R. Reid.

Miss Jane Rosen, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Harry L. Rosen, gave a farmers hop at the Hotel Alms last Friday night as a Thanksgiving entertainment for about 60 friends. – November 30, 1939

50 Y EARS A GO Dr. Stanley R. Brav of Temple Sholom was elected president of the Cincinnati Social Health Society’s board Monday, Nov. 16.

Mr. and Mrs. Harry Sonkin, 6800 Elbrook Avenue, announce the engagement of their daughter, Terry, to Mr. Jack Kassel, son of Mr. and Mrs. Jule Kassel, 1162 Towne Street.

Miss Sonkin attends Syracuse University. Mr. Kassel is a graduate in business administration, Denver University. A July wedding is planned.

Mr. and Mrs. Harold Gillett, 7632 Greenland Place, wish to invite their relatives and friends to worship with them on Sabbath

morning services, Dec. 5, at 9 a.m., at Ohav Shalom Synagogue, Section Road, when their son, Neal Allen, will be called to the Torah a Bar Mitzvah. A Kiddush will follow the services.

A reception in Neal’s honor will be held that evening from 8 to 12 midnight, at Ohav Shalom Synagogue. No cards.

The maternal grandparents are Mrs. Rose Likerman and the late Mr. Gershen Likerman. The paternal grandparents are Mr. and Mrs. Louis B. Gillett. – November 26, 1964

25 Y EARS A GO Mrs. Harris (Ora) Forusz announces the Bar Mitzvah of her son, Holbrook, on Dec. 2, at 10:45 a.m., at Plum Street Temple. Friends and relatives are invited to attend.

On Sunday, November 5, the Jewish Community Center’s prestigious Life Member Award was bestowed upon Albert J. Butchkes, Bernard L. Dave, and Charles B. Levinson in recognition of their successful team leadership of the Capital Campaign for Expansion and Renovation.

Tributes to the three men were given by Neal Bortz and Marvin Rosenberg to Albert J. Butchkes; Milton Schloss and Lenny Dave to Bernard L. Dave; and Kartan M. Mailender to Charles B. Levinson. The evening concluded with the premier performance of “Home”, a new contemporary dance work by Shawn Womack Dance Projects, which was commissioned in honor of and as a gift to the Life Member Award Recipients. – November 30, 1989

10 Y EARS A GO Jonathan Rosen, son of Oscar and Elana Rosen, grandson of Yehuda and Frida Rosen of Mexico City and Sig Kuper-Stein of Toronto, Canada, will celebrate becoming a Bar Mitzavh on Saturday, Dec. 12, 2004 at Ohav Shalom.

Andrea Sieger was among the 21 future Hadassah leaders selected from all over the United States to participate in an indepth training mission to Israel last month. The visit included a close-up of the new Center for Emergency Medicine at Hadassah Hospital and an update on Hadassah’s life-saving efforts in a time of terrorism. Sieger stopped to plant a tree to renew the Jerusalem area forests damaged by fire. – December 9, 2004

COMMUNITY DIRECTORY / CLASSIFIEDS • 19

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 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 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 Fund (513) 793-2556 Shalom Family (513) 703-3343 • myshalomfamily.org

CONFAB from page 6 Despite the recent love fests, the issues that underpinned the tensions remained.

It’s not yet clear whether Iran and the major powers will reach a deal by the Nov. 24 deadline, but Philip Gordon, the National Security Council’s Middle East counselor, told JTA that were such a deal achieved, in all likelihood it would allow Iran to continue enriching uranium at limited levels.

“We’ve said yes, we can imagine a small enrichment program, so long as we had confidence that if they try to break out, we’ll have plenty of time, and that’s the only deal we’ll accept,” RELATIONSHIP from page 16 worse than no deal at all. A comprehensive agreement can only be reached if the Iranians understand that the U.S. and the international community will not only leave the sanctions in place until this is achieved, but are willing to use any and all options available to us to prevent the ayatollahs from threatening world peace.

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

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

Gordon said during a Q&A at the General Assembly. (JTA’s Ron Kampeas moderated the session.)

Netanyahu in his remarks to the Jewish Federations gathering said that allowing Iran to keep any enrichment capacity would leave it as a nuclear threshold state.

“The worst thing that could happen now is for the international community to agree to a deal that would leave Iran as a threshold nuclear power and removes its sanctions,” he said.

Also percolating was blame laying as the Israeli-Palestinian peace process remained in tatters and violence intensified in Israel and the West Bank. This week, two Israelis have

been stabbed to death in terrorist attacks and one Palestinian was killed in the West Bank in clashes with Israeli troops.

For Netanyahu, blame had a single address: the Palestinians.

“The Palestinian Authority, which should also be working to calm tensions, has joined Hamas,” he said, in “fanning the flames.”

The Israeli leader referred to Palestinian praise for the gunman who two weeks ago attempted to kill a Jewish activist, Yehuda Glick, who seeks greater Jewish access to the Temple Mount, and to P.A. claims that Jews have no historical affinity to the site.

The key strength of the U.S.Israel relationship has always been its bipartisan nature. Despite periodic disagreements, our alliance has flourished over the past six decades—whether either a Democratic or Republican president is in the White House and whether either the Likud or Labor governs Israel. This call to refocus our ties on the important interests that bind us does not result from

the change to a Republican majority in the Senate, but from the fact that midterm elections have historically been a time for an American administration to take stock of its policies and plan appropriately for the remainder of its term. It is my hope that both sides will heed this call. There are too many important issues at stake and too many interests to safeguard for us not to do so.

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

business@ americanisraelite.com or call 513-621-3145 TENSIONS from page 10 President Mahmoud Abbas called for a “day of rage.”

“The Muslims fear and are mad that extremists want to take over the Temple Mount,” said Hebrew University Middle Eastern and Islamic studies professor Moshe Maoz. “The anger they have gets expressed not just on the Temple Mount but in all places, even in the Galilee and certainly in Jerusalem. They have the feeling that Israel is taking over.”

Israeli leaders have responded to the violence with harsh words.

President Reuven Rivlin, who has focused on promoting coexistence, took a tougher line Wednesday, saying, “We will not cease to build across Jerusalem, to impose law and order, by virtue of our sovereignty.”

In a speech Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called that morning’s terror attack “the direct result of the incitement

by Abu Mazen and his Hamas partners,” using Abbas’ nom de guerre.

“We are in the midst of a prolonged campaign for Jerusalem,” Netanyahu said. “I have no doubt we will win it. We are utilizing all the forces needed to restore quiet JEWISH? from page 10 being violated, and those of her unborn child are being violated.”

At first, the Interior Ministry’s decision had little effect. Varsanyi already had citizenship and was married, the two areas in which issues of personal religious status are most likely to cause problems.

But last year she began petitioning the ministry for a change in status, worried that her future children would not have their marriages recognized by the government.

“I think it’s ridiculous,” Varsanyi said. “Why would they force me to convert when I’m Jewish? If I didn’t have principles or problems I’d say let them win.

But I wouldn’t be able to face myself.”

The ministry has rebuffed her requests, claiming that her mother converted from Judaism before

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(513) 531-9600 and security to all parts of the city, but it may certainly be a prolonged fight and we must join together all the powers in our country for the fight.”

But terror attacks such as those on Wednesday may be difficult to prevent, says Ganor. Unlike organized attacks such as suicide bombings, they don’t necessarily involve a planning process that intelligence agencies can intercept.

And while the recent violence may spiral into future clashes, Maoz said a deeper cause of the unrest is Arab dissatisfaction with Israel’s presence in Jerusalem and its policies there, which they see as neglectful of the city’s Arab residents. According to a recent report by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Arab Jerusalemites receive fewer health, education and welfare services proportionally than do the city’s Jewish residents.

“This represents deep complaints that you can’t stop,” Maoz said. “The socioeconomic situation there is very bad. If it’s a united Israeli Jerusalem, why don’t they invest there? That’s also a reason for frustration.”

she was born. Varsanyi says this is not true, that it was her greatgrandmother who converted.

The ministry also has refused to rely on the Chief Rabbinate’s recognition of Varsanyi as Jewish, despite a 2012 law allowing it to do so. Interior Ministry spokeswoman Sabin Haddad told JTA that the ministry has asked the rabbinical court that declared Varsanyi Jewish for an explanation but has yet to receive a response.

After several rejections, Varsanyi has come to feel like the ministry’s employees “don’t give a crap.” She said she once met with a ministry official, who after reading her papers said, “I don’t know what you want because you’re not Jewish.”

“It was traumatic – I almost cried,” she said. “Like, ‘Welcome to Israel: You’re not a Jew.’ “

20 • ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT / BOOK REVIEW

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

At 97, Holocaust survivor and mandolin player Kessler gets her Lincoln Ctr. debut ByRaffi Wineburg For Emily Kessler, a Holocaust survivor, the prospect of performing at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall is less worrying than figuring out what to wear for the occasion.

“I came to the conclusion,” she said, in an interview at her apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, “that what is the difference between playing in front of three people instead of 300?”

At 97, Kessler is short and slightly hunched. Along with old photographs and birthday cards, prescription pill bottles are scattered throughout her apartment.

“Age is not easy,” she says.

Nevertheless, the soon-to-be 98-year-old is still sharp. And although she moves at a crawling pace to retrieve old black-andwhite pictures, when she sits down to play the mandolin, her fingers work just fine.

Kessler will perform and sing

Courtesy of Raffi Wineburg

Emily Kessler strums the mandolin in her Upper West Side apartment.

songs in Yiddish and Russian Monday night at the 80th Anniversary Benefit Gala for the nonprofit organization Blue Card — the only organization in the United States solely dedicated to providing assistance to Holocaust survivors like herself.

Kessler has been a Blue Card client for almost two decades.

They’ve arranged free dental work, orthopedic shoes and even all-expense-paid retreats in the Berkshires. Masha Pearl, Blue Card’s executive director, approached Kessler about playing

at the gala several months earlier.

Kessler, who likes to be prepared, started practicing right away.

“To be prepared,” she says, “is to respect other people, and to respect yourself, your dignity.”

She had no chance to prepare in 1941, when Nazi officers came to her home in Khmilnyk, Ukraine and shot her parents and brother in front of her. And nothing could have prepared the young widow (her husband, a Soviet soldier, was killed during the Nazi invasion) to care for her 2-year-old son in a Ukrainian labor camp, to treat the open sores on her wrists and arms with nonexistent medical supplies, or to gather the strength for work – construction and toilet cleaning – without food or water.

Somehow she did, however.

And her survival, which she calls a “miracle” still confounds her today.

“How did we manage there without food or water? I don’t know, for that, I try not to explain,

because it’s difficult.”

Kessler eventually escaped the camp, bringing her son along, using false papers. She lived on the run for two years before relocating to Kyrgyztan. There, in her late 20s, she tried to reassemble the broken pieces of her life. She graduated from university and worked as an editor in a publishing house.

But the damage was done.

After the war, the “catastrophe” as she calls it, Kessler was plagued by guilt, sadness. She lived in a constant state of mourning.

“I was very sad, not smiling. I thought, ‘I don’t have the right to smile’. It felt like a crime, like I was guilty of smiling.”

The mandolin, which she began playing at age 10 in her school band, symbolized a time of happiness, so Kessler avoided it entirely.

In Kyrgyztan, where Kessler

CONTINUED on next page

Violins of Hope, by Dr. James A. Grymes ly human stories in which Grymes captures the narratives of six violins and offers a profound connection to the musicians who played them.

One interesting aspect of this book is the depiction of the vast variety of feelings, emotions, and reactions of both the participants of the orchestras, and the other prisoners.

Of the former, there was guilt, or the lack of guilt. Some simply said ...

“I’m not doing it for them “ (the commanders) “I’m doing it for myself.” Others felt guilty because they had better food, and less exhausting work details as a result of being musicians.

The non–musicians were often angry for the same reasons.

In a situation unlike anything experienced before – or after – how would

By Sue Ransohoff Book Reviewer “Violins of Hope” tells the remarkable stories of violins played

by Jewish musicians during the Holocaust, and the renowned Israeli violinmaker, Amnon Weinstein, who restored the neglected and damaged violins bringing these inspirational instruments back to life.

Each chapter is dedicated to one violin and its players, places, and how it came into the hands of Amnon Weinstein.

The book starts with some descriptions of the horrors of concentration camp existence (it can hardly be called life) with which most readers are somewhat familiar.

It then takes us through aching-

one respond? There was no roadmap, no template for how one should behave or feel. In a time of starvation, feeling for one’s fellow–man might well not exist – and who could blame those those took advantage of their musical ability?

Even though the players got special treatment, it was by no means a guarantee of survival.

A Gypsy Orchestra played for the infamous Dr. Mengele’s birthday; asked if they should return another time they were told “That won’t be necessary” and the entire camp was exterminated the next day.

Now–famed Elie Wiesel, than 16 years old, heard a musician named Juliek play a Beethoven Concerto. “Never before had I heard such a beautiful sound,” Wiesel

later wrote.

“It was as though Juliek’s soul had become his bow.”

The next morning Juliek was dead.

This is a book of intense poignancy ... written by a man who is both a fine writer and also a respected musicologist. We are fortunate that he wrote as he did, and left us a testament of hope in the midst of Hell.

Henry Meyer, one of the musicians and survivors came to Cincinnati after being freed from the camps. He became the founding member of the well known LaSalle String Quartet. “Music saved my life,” said Meyer, “there is no doubt about it.”

The Silver Era: Rabbi Eliezer Silver and His Generation by Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff In this biography of Rabbi Eliezer Silver, Rabbi RakeffetRothkoff presents a complimentary but also honest assessment of a dynamic, scholarly, ambitious individual who accomplished a great deal in his lifetime. The book is divided into four major sections, which mostly follow Rabbi Silver’s life in a chronological fashion.

Along with the life of Rabbi Silver is interwoven a history of the Orthodox movement and rabbinate in the United States.

The first chapter is not about Rabbi Silver but describes the beginnings of the Orthodox rabbinate in the United States. The first orthodox rabbis came from Europe to New York. Most prominent among them was Rabbi Jacob Joseph, who for a time was the Chief Rabbi of New

York. It will come as no surprise that even in the early 20th century there were significant divisions among the Jews in the United Sates. The land-

scape for orthodox Rabbis was barren. There were few learned individuals, little in the way of kosher facilities, and a significant number of congregants worked on Shabbat.

Rabbi Silver’s early life is covered quickly. He was considered an ilui – an exceptional scholar – at a young age and was sent to study in the renowned Talmudic Academies in Vilna, a city that was often referred to as Little Jerusalem.

Instead of gaining an exemption from being drafted into the Russian army Rabbi Silver chose to emigrate to the United Sates. He arrived in the United States in 1907 to take a position in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and faced the barren landscape of the orthodox jewish scene described above. From there he moved to a position in Springfield, MA and

finally to Cincinnati, OH where he spent the majority of his years in the United States.

The author then spends the rest of the book focused on the major accomplishments of Rabbi Silver’s life: Kashrut certification – especially for meat – in the United States; building rabbinic institutions in the United States – in particular Agudas Harabanim and Agudas Israel.

Building a local community in Cincinnati and perhaps the greatest work of his life the Vaad Hatzaleh that saved thousands from the Nazi genocide in Europe, helped many survivors after the war, and helped build Torah institutions in the newly formed State of Israel.

Rabbi Rakeffet-Rothkoff writes in a readable style and presents information in a straightforward and

easy to digest fashion. While he does explore some of the conflicts that arose during Rabbi Silver’s career, he does not delve deeply into the tensions that ultimately led to Agudas Israel and the modern orthodox – as represented by Yeshiva University, Orthodox Union, and the Rabbinical Council of America – to part ways. He also spends little time on the rise of the native born Rabbis and the tension that caused with those who had come over from Europe.

Aside from that this book is recommended both for those who want to learn more about Rabbi Silver and for those interested in a glimpse of the history of the orthodox movement and the orthodox rabbinate in the United States.

FIRST PERSON • 21

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2014

Visiting the past through baseball Incidentally Iris

by Iris Ruth Pastor It all started with a small notice in the Cincinnati Business Courier in June, 2014: “Exclusive Long Time Reds Owner Selling Stake in Team.” The Nippert family trust was selling their ownership stake in the Cincinnati Reds – a stake that had been in the Nippert family for nearly 50 years.

Really, it started long before

CONTINUED from previous page lived after the war, anti-Semitism was still rampant. So at 60 years old, knowing no one in the U.S. and speaking scant English, Kessler immigrated to the United States (her son, who now lives in Michigan, immigrated several years after her).

“I was happy to leave,” she said. “I had an opportunity to go, and I took it.”

For five years though, she was still “not ready” to play music.

But walking in Manhattan one day in 1985, she saw a mandolin in the window of a music store.

“After time, you think to yourself, ‘how long should I be in mourning?’” she said. She bought the instrument, and has been playing for the last 30 years.

“It helped just to go away from the sadness,” she said. “It is not always good to feel this sad. I used to be on the street, and without any thinking, I would feel my heart to be full of tears. No more, now it’s okay.”

Things move slowly these days for Kessler. A cancer survivor who grapples with various health problems and relies on a pacemaker, she spends a good deal of time with doctors, but nonetheless manages to live on her own. She likes a light beer every so often, and going to Upper West Side cafes, although she thinks the portions are always too big.

She still goes on walks around the neighborhood, and is often asked what her secret is for living a long time. She shrugs, “I don’t know. My secret is that there is no secret.”

that. One sunny morning in the early 1970’s, my father called up the Cincinnati Reds ticket office inquiring about upgrading his two box seats in the new stadium - Riverfront. The fates were aligned right on that long ago day for the transplanted World War II veteran whose bride was a hometown gal. A journalist had just turned in two box seats right behind home plate. My dad grabbed them.

Or maybe it started shortly thereafter when my five sons constantly maneuvered to be the lucky one that my dad took to the game. It may have been just another cookie cutter stadium to the world, but to my five sons it was magical. All five of them became familiar with the trek down the ramp leading from the parking garage to the blue level.

All five of them learned to master the intricacies of the scoreboard above center field in the upper

deck. All five of them became fast friends with Murray, the deeply tan and lean divorcee, whose seat next to my dad’s was part of her divorce settlement.

I can still picture my sons little skinny kids with big eyes and too big Reds caps perched jauntily on their small heads running to keep up with their grandfather as they hurried to reach their seats in time for the opening pitch.

The unquestioned loyalty and undying love for the Cincinnati Reds became, with each game attended, more firmly entrenched within each of them. And even when they were no longer sitting beside my dad at a game, they avidly watched the Reds on TV, or listened to the games on the radio, or checked the scores in the newspaper and later on the Internet. Wherever they roamed sleep away camp - college - summer jobs - then real work in cities

miles and miles from Cincinnati – they followed the Reds.

None of my five sons settled in Cincinnati. And two of them are raising their sons and daughters in close proximity to the New York Yankees and the New York Mets. No matter. Reds t-shirts fill their children’s drawers. Reds caps hang on hooks in their closets. Reds banners adorn their walls.

Over the years, the glory of the Big Red Machine faded.

Riverfront Stadium was demolished in 2002. My dad died in 2012. And the good times seemed to cease. Until June 24, 2014, that is, when my son read that Cincinnati Business Courier article.

I know my dad, Pike Levine – who started this whole tradition – was happily looking down on his second oldest grandson, Frank, when the Reds announced last month that he had become the

FRANCE from page 8 increasing emigration and a religious awakening in some circles that is occurring in parallel to growing assimilation in others – Korsia sees the movement as “necessary on both levels: internally within the Jewish community to produce unity, and externally in how the community communicates with the non-Jewish world.”

In the external relations department, Korsia has it covered.

As the former senior chaplain in the French military, he speaks with patriotic passion in inclusive, nonsectarian terms about his country – a style that has earned Korsia much respect in political and media circles. His sense of humor, informal demeanor and broad interests – he admires the abstract art of Mark Rothko and Pierre Soulages and is a supporter of the Paris Saint Germain soccer team – also have endeared him to the French public. His recent comparison of nonMuslims in the Middle East to Holocaust victims earned him praise from the Vatican’s official radio station.

But it is Korsia’s willingness to challenge long-held positions among the French Jewish establishment that truly distinguishes him from spiritual leaders in this community of approximately 500,000, Europe’s largest.

Born in Lyon to an eminent rabbi who immigrated with his wife to France from Algeria in the 1950s, Korsia’s actions suggest a preference for inclusion and unity over the strict adherence to tradition.

“That is my No. 1 task: Strike a balance, find unity,” he said.

His peers confirm this.

“With Rabbi Korsia, there is no Ashkenazis and Sephardim,” said Avraham Weill, a senior rabbi from Toulouse. “He just doesn’t think along those lines.”

Courtesy of Alain Azria

Chief French Rabbi Haim Korsia, center, with Consistoire President Joel Mergui, left, and French army officers at a synagogue in Paris, Nov. 6, 2014.

Ashkenazim, who used to be the majority in French Jewry, currently are thought to make up slightly more than 30 percent of the community after the Holocaust and the waves of immigration by hundreds of thousands of Jews from France’s former colonies in North Africa in the 1950s – a movement that coincided with a larger migration of Muslims, who now number roughly 6 million in France. Many of the North African Jews set up their own synagogues in France, but in recent years the two contingents have moved closer to each other, with many synagogues having both Ashkenazi and Sephardic congregants.

Earlier this year, Korsia also held meetings with all senior French rabbis in which he reminded them of the dos and don’ts of handling divorce cases, after which he issued a statement against “showing respect to anyone who does the shameful act of spitefully refusing to give his wife a get,” using the Hebrew word for a religious divorce.

The actions were partly a response to the discovery of a video in which Korsia’s interim predecessor, Michel Gugenheim, was seen advising a

woman to buy a get from her ex-husband for $90,000. “L’Affaire du guet,” as the French media called the case, followed an earlier scandal that in 2013 forced Gugenheim’s predecessor, Gilles Bernheim, to resign after he was discovered to have plagiarized parts of two books and used an academic credential he did not possess.

On Bernheim, Korsia said he “did a lot of good and should not be judged by one error.”

On Gugenheim, Korsia said he had “no intention of judging predecessors.”

On issues of intermarriage, Korsia has also shown himself to be more accepting than his predecessors. Those he calls the seed of Israel “should be brought into the fold,” even though such children are not considered Jewish under Orthodox Jewish law.

And though he says the process that such individuals need to undergo before they can marry Jewish should remain unchanged, Korsia rejects the use of the word “conversion” to describe it.

“In such cases we’re talking about regularization, not conversion, because that’s like saying that they are not Jewish, and that’s not entirely

newest owner of a share in the Cincinnati Reds. And I know my dad will be happily looking down on his grandsons and great grandchildren on Opening Day 2015, when the family will all be sitting beside each other at Great American Ball Park – all wearing their Reds hats – all eagerly awaiting that first pitch – all still rooting for their hometown team.

Keep Coping, Iris Ruth Pastor PS For those of you who are Jewish Cincinnati history buffs, here’s a little background on Frank. He is named after his maternal great grandfather, Frank Friedman, who, with his wife Lily, owned Friedman Flowers.

Frank’s grandparents are Bev and the late Pike Levine and Hotche and the late Herb Pastor. He is the son of Iris and Steven Pastor and Gary Cohen, of Tampa. true,” the rabbi said.

Such notions are bound to irk traditionalists, according to Jean-Claude Lalou, who heads the progressive Future of Judaism group. Lalou says there are still no signs of genuine resistance to Korsia within the Consistoire, “perhaps because Rabbi Korsia has not yet applied these ideas.”

If such opposition does materialize, it wouldn’t be the first time. In 2004, then chief rabbi Joseph Sitruk forced Korsia, at the time an adviser to Sitruk, to cancel a planned trip to Auschwitz with the comedian Dieudonne M’bala M’bala.

Diuedonne has been convicted multiple times of inciting hate against Jews and become an international icon for anti-Semites and Holocaust deniers. But Korsia thought the trip “could turn Dieudonne around.”

Sitruk saw the matter differently and overruled him.

“Maybe Dieudonne would be a different person today had the trip been allowed to happen,” said Lewin, Korsia’s friend. “Now we’ll never know.”

Dieudonne’s provocations are believed to be one of the catalysts of a near doubling of anti-Semitic incidents in France in the first seven months of 2014 compared to the corresponding period last year. That increase, in turn, is among the causes of a record level of immigration by French Jews to Israel. For the first time in decades, more than 5,000 of them arrived in 2014.

But Korsia, who declined to speak about his family except to say that all his children live in France, sees a silver lining, fostering more unity among those who remain. As for those who leave, he believes many will return.

“Take it from me, being French is not something you can easily put aside,” he said. “Even if you try.”

22 • OBITUARIES D EATH N OTICES HESSE, Michael Bernard, age 72, died November 1, 2014; 8 Cheshvan, 5775.

KELLAR, John W., age 88, died November 7, 2014; 14 Cheshvan, 5775.

EDELSTEIN, Fanny S., age 91, died November 8, 2014; 15 Cheshvan, 5775.

MILLER, Jean S., age 91, died November 9, 2014; 16 Cheshvan, 5775.

MARKS, Emanuel I., age 90, died November 11, 2014; 18 Cheshvan, 5775.

MAROWITZ, Diane H., age 83, November 11, 2014; 18 Cheshvan, 5775.

SPITZ, Dr. Louis, age 78, died November 11, 2014; 18 Cheshvan, 5775.

GONSKA, Henry, age 91, died November 12, 2014; 20 Cheshvan, 5775.

BLASBERG, Emily R., age 98, died November 17, 2014; 25 Cheshvan, 5775.

O BITUARIES SPITZ, Dr. Louis Dr. Louis Spitz, M.D., was born in Cincinnati on March 3, 1936, son of Max and Rose (Signer) Spitz. He attended Walnut Hills High School, the University of Cincinnati, Ohio State University, and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.

He completed his internship at San Francisco General Hospital. He trained initially as a radiologist, and served in the United States

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Army, 11th Evac. Hospital, Pusan, Korea, and Kimbrough Army Hospital, Ft. Meade, Maryland, from 1964 to 1966. Upon his return to civilian life, Dr. Spitz trained as a psychiatrist and opened his first practice in 1969. He received his psychoanalytic training at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis, graduating in 1975.

Dr. Spitz was not only a practicing psychoanalyst; he was also a teacher, beginning as an instructor in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine in 1969, and continuing through appointments as Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Associate Clinical Professor, and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, a post which he held until his departure for the Washington, DC, area in 2003.

Beyond teaching and his practice, though, Dr. Spitz also believed strongly that expertise in the areas of psychiatry and psychoanalysis is a community asset that should be put to the service of that community and its members. One dramatic expression of this belief was his founding of the Psychiatric Emergency Service at Cincinnati General Hospital (now University Hospital) in 1972; it provided round-the-clock emergency care for patients experiencing psychiatric crises, including suicidal or homicidal thoughts. Dr. Spitz served as Director of the service from 1972 until 1977. Another example of his commitment to public service was his participation in a therapeutic/research project designed to provide care for and develop treatment for Vietnam veterans experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder, a project that result-

ed in Vietnam: A Casebook (1987), of which Dr. Spitz was a collaborating author.

Dr. Spitz was one of the founders of the Cincinnati Psychoanalytic Institute in 1973; he served there in several capacities, beginning as a faculty member in 1975, faculty advisor in 1980, Dean of Faculty (1981-6), Chairman of the Education Committee (1986-90), Associate Director (1988-89), Director (1990-95), and Associate Director of Operations (2002-03).

Upon moving to the Washington, DC, area, in 2003, Dr. Spitz established a new private practice and maintained an active schedule, teaching and supervising at the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute. He also served as Professor of Psychiatry at the George Washington School of Medicine and Health Sciences, and at the Georgetown University School of Medicine.

Dr. Spitz died on November 11, 2014, in Washington, DC. Survivors include his wife, Ritha, daughters Leslie and Tullan, three grandchildren, and one step-grandson. He is also survived by his brother, Dr. Harold B. Spitz, M.D. There will be a private graveside service for family on Friday, November 21, 11 AM, officiated

by Rabbi Shena Potter Jaffee, at the Garden of Remembrance in Clarksburg, Maryland, followed at 1 PM by a memorial service at Somerset I Clubhouse, 5600 Wisconsin Ave., Chevy Chase, Maryland. Contributions in Dr. Spitz’s honor can be made to the Cincinnati Psychoanalytic Institute, the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute, or a charity of choice.

INTERNSHIPS from page 3

EBOLA from page 8

contact, even handshakes, with other people; and eating only at three or four carefully vetted restaurants.

Most difficult of all will be trying to make sure not to touch his own eyes.

Relief workers say eyes are the most easily infected part of the body.

IsraAid is the only official Israeli presence in the Ebola zone. But while Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon declined a U.S. request to send Israeli military staff to Africa, the Israeli Foreign Ministry is sending equipment for three mobile medical clinics in the affected region. IsraAid has been tasked with receiving the two shipments going to Sierra Leone and Liberia, and helping integrate the clinics into existing international aid efforts run by such groups as International Medical Corps, Doctors Without Borders, and the U.S. and U.K. armies.

In the United States, the New York-based American Jewish World Service has been leading the Jewish effort to send financial help to the hot zone, funding 10 groups in Liberia and one in Senegal that are working to contain the Ebola outbreak.

These groups’ efforts include

using radio stations and rural media organizations to carry out public education campaigns combating Ebola’s spread; training and equipping volunteers to deliver hygiene materials and information pamphlets to local households; providing psychosocial support and counseling to Ebola survivors and their families; renovating a clinic to act as an Ebola quarantine and triage center; and in one case, providing primary medical care services to locals in light of the collapse of local health care systems.

“When the outbreak grew in intensity this summer, we consulted our existing grantees in Liberia to find out which resources they needed to respond to the epidemic in their communities,” said Ruth Messinger, the president of American Jewish World Service. “These local activist groups were well positioned to take this work on because they were already well-established and trusted members of their communities.”

AJWS has disbursed about $142,000 to its recipient organizations and raised about $820,000 from donors. Most of that sum has come in over the last six weeks, since AJWS increased its fundrais-

IsraAid has brought four Israelis to Sierra Leone: two psychosocial trauma specialists and two logistics experts. Next week another six will arrive, and Polizer is working on hiring a team of locals.

It’s hard to recruit Israelis to join the effort, organizational officials say, because they must be fit enough to work in grueling conditions required by Ebola protocols and be able to clear their schedule for at least six weeks: one week for training, three to four weeks in the field, and two to three weeks afterward to make sure they’re not infected.

And then there’s the fear factor.

“At least two to three times a day people start to freak out, worrying they have a fever, and they have to be calmed down,” Polizer said. “It’s very challenging.”

When he returns to Sierra Leone next week, Polizer said he’ll have to reacquaint himself with the demanding strictures of life in the Ebola zone, including taking his temperature every few hours; washing his hands with chlorine 20-30 times a day; refraining from any physical

group education and most weekends available for independent travel.

Cincinnatians will spend one weekend living with host families in Netanya, our community’s partnership city in Israel. In addition, students can take advantage of optional enrichment activities, including intensive Hebrew classes.

Program, travel, and living costs will be 100% covered for Cincinnati participants who are eligible for a HUC-JIR from page 4 Among the other members of the delegation were leaders of Jewish communal, organizational, and institutional life throughout the United States and Canada; Rabbi Rick Jacobs, President, Union for Reform Judaism; Rabbi Richard A. Block, President, Central Conference of American Rabbis; the Dean of HUC-JIR’s Jerusalem campus, Rabbi Naamah Kelman, the first woman rabbi ordained in Israel; and three of the Israeli rabbis who will be ordained this Thursday at HUC-JIR’s academic convocation at its Jerusalem campus, LIGHT RAIL from page 9 terrorists. Police have responded with concrete barricades at some stations and increased patrols. The Jerusalem municipality has also launched balloons and unmanned aerial vehicles to conduct surveillance over the train’s route.

“It’s a relatively easy target in terms of a vehicle’s ability to drive into people,” Israel Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. “It has a large number of passengers. We’re talking about a central area with a lot of movement.”

Cincy Journeys Israel Grant. This unique partnership enables hundreds of young adults to travel to Israel every year with the most generous grants program in the country.

Additional funding for Onward Israel is provided by the Jewish Agency for Israel.

Registration for Onward Israel is open now. Limited spaces are available. Students can apply by contacting Karyn Zimerman at the Jewish Federation. dedicated over fifty years ago.

"Our delegation from the Reform Movement's seminary was honored to be able meet President Rivlin at his official residence, and we were delighted by his warm welcome and kind words about the impact of our campus in Jerusalem,” said Berger.

“This is yet another concrete indication of the importance of this campus, both for the Year-In-Israel program for our stateside rabbinical, cantorial, and education students, but also for our growing ranks of Israeli Rabbis who are trained, ordained, and make their rabbinates there."

As they have always done after terror incidents, Jerusalemites were quick to carry on with their routines following the recent attacks, packing the trains at rush hour and focusing mostly on jostling into the crowded cars. But the attacks have also reminded riders of the potential for danger.

Hadas Meshi, a 17-year-old Jerusalemite originally from England, said security forces are trying to reassure residents following attacks.

“But it’s not really safer,” Meshi said. “The next day, you see it on people’s faces. Something is always going on somewhere.” ing goal to $1 million from $200,000.

Despite all the challenges of working with Ebola, Polizer said there have been moments of satisfaction. In IsraAid’s stress management workshops for relief workers and Ebola survivors, leaders employ a variety of tactics. Role play exercises are designed to help Ebola survivors cope with people who stigmatize or reject them because they’ve had the disease. Health workers practice movement and dance therapy to help cheer them up, and breathing exercises to help them relax.

The head nurse of one hospital outside Freetown came to one of IsraAid’s stress management sessions burnt out and afraid after having lost more than 35 colleagues to Ebola, Polizer recalled. Instructors helped the nurse with a relaxation technique in which participants close their eyes and imagine themselves in a safe place.

The nurse fell asleep, and when she awoke she was smiling. It was the first time since the outbreak began, Polizer said she told him, that she had enjoyed a proper sleep.

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