American Israelite - December 29, 2011

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THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2011 3 TEVET, 5772

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CINCINNATI, OH Candle Lighting Times Shabbat begins Fri. 5:06p Shabbat ends Sat. 6:07p

VOL. 158 • NO. 23 SINGLE ISSUE: $2.00

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At Chanukah, Czech Jews marvel at blessings of Havel’s revolution

Jewish Foundation awards Senior Services grant to Cedar Village $2.6M investment will strengthen Cedar Village, spur collaboration among local agencies

Krohn Conservatory Hanukkah lighting

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When the Jews went to North Korea

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In a remote New Mexican valley, a Jewish skiing legacy...

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Ambar arouses ardor for Indian food

The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati is proud to announce a five year, $2.6 million grant to Cedar Village, an investment which represents the first installment of the Foundation’s broader initiative to enhance senior services in the Cincinnati Jewish community.

Cedar Village will use these funds to complete renovation of its Rehabilitation Center and develop a series of new community-oriented partnerships with three local Jewish agencies: the Mayerson JCC, Jewish Family Service (JFS) and Jewish Vocational Service (JVS).

“Caring for our seniors is an essential value in our community, and this will be the first of a series of investments intended to make Cincinnati one of the best Jewish communities in the country in which to grow older,” said Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati President Michael R. Oestreicher. “This grant is an expression of confidence in Cedar Village’s ability to provide excellent care on its own campus, and to partner with other agencies, in other locations, to serve even more individuals and benefit the entire community.”

“We are thrilled to be the recipients of this investment from The Jewish Foundation, helping us to not only enhance our work at Cedar Village but to also expand its services throughout the community,” said Carol Silver Elliott, Cedar Village CEO and president. The new Rehabilitation Center includes the comprehensive therapy space now open for inpatients and outpatients of all ages, as well as the renovation of inpatient space for 50 short term rehabilitation patients. In addition, a new ambulance entrance

and dedicated elevator for admissions will round out the first phase of the project.

In Phase II, Cedar Village will be developing an aquatic therapy center, with two individual therapy pools and one larger, warm water pool. “In addition to therapeutic use, the larger pool will be a wonderful setting for warm water exercise,” Silver Elliott said. “We’re working

cessful in a warm water setting.

While adding these new features in Mason, some of the grant funding will also be spent by Cedar Village and the Mayerson JCC, which will team up with a view to offering rehabilitation services on site at the JCC location in Amberley. This would provide more therapy options for outpatients and expand the role of both organizations. Plans will be

“Caring for our seniors is an essential value in our community, and this will be the first of a series of investments intended to make Cincinnati one of the best Jewish communities in the country in which to grow older.”

Michael R. Oestreicher

closely with the JCC to design and implement exercise programs for the pool that can be used by Cedar Village residents. And those seniorfocused programs will be open to JCC members over 65 as well, which we are very excited about.” Cedar Village and the JCC are also planning to make the larger pool available for some additional programs during those hours when it will not be in use for therapy. One of those programs will likely be preschool swim lessons which can be very suc-

developed during the coming year.

In addition, grant dollars will be allocated to a partnership in which Cedar Village will contract with JFS to provide additional social work services for the Shalom Center for Elder Abuse Prevention at Cedar Village. The Shalom Center is a virtual shelter for abused elders, offering a safe haven for crisis stabilization stays of 90 to 120 days. “The Shalom Center is the first elder abuse shelter in Ohio and one of only a handful in the nation,” said

Silver Elliot. “The Jewish Foundation’s investment will enhance our ability to go beyond the program’s walls, providing community outreach and education which are so vital.”

Yet another aspect of the Foundation’s investment involves Cedar Village working with JVS to explore senior workshop programs, modeled on Yad L’Kashish in Israel.

That effort is focused on finding ways for older adults to continue to feel productive and do meaningful work in settings that are conducive to meeting their needs.

Along with the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati, Cedar Village, the Mayerson JCC, JFS and JVS, The Jewish Foundation has been participating in a working group designed to prepare the Cincinnati Jewish community for the future of aging services. The effort is focused on first assessing and meeting today’s needs, and then gaining a better understanding of how to adapt to the demands of a rapidly growing aging population, which will require new models of senior service delivery in the future.

In announcing this grant, the Foundation emphasized that it is not the only financial contributor to the overall senior services initiative.

Foundation leadership specifically expressed its appreciation to all of the individual donors and solicitors who helped to provide additional funding for these projects.

“While the Foundation is proud to assist in these initiatives, individual generosity and charitable giving are still critically important, and we are eager to continue partnering with other investors in the future of our Jewish community,” said Oestreicher.

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THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2011

Maccabeats perform to a sold-out crowd at the J The Maccabeats rocked the house at the JCC on Sunday, Dec. 18, before a sold-out crowd. The a cappella group delivered a performance to more than 600 guests, surpassing expectations. The Maccabeats have performed all over the world, from Israel to London, and appeared at the JCC for one concert co-sponsored by the Cincinnati Community Kollel and the Mayerson JCC. “The concert was a magnificent expression of Jewish joy and pride which moved everyone there. We all should be congratulated for hosting this memorable

event which drew members from across the spectrum of Jewish life.

These young men are inspiring role models for my children, who have been listening to their autographed CD since Sunday,” said Tamar Poupko Smith.

The popular Maccabeats concert is just one example of the many unique opportunities the JCC offers the community to enjoy world famous arts and cultural events. This year, the J has featured internationally known personalities such as Joshua Foer, CBS correspondent Jim Axelrod, “Bee Season” author Myla

Goldberg, and productions by ensembles from the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Playhouse in the Park.

Exclusively at the JCC, Feb. 4 – 16, 2012, the Jewish & Israeli Film Festival will present several award-winning international films.

“Under the auspices of the Wolf Center for Arts and Ideas, we are excited to bring a variety of exceptional programs and productions to the community. These unique opportunities for adults and children are often offered at little cost,” said Courtney Cummings, JCC Cultural Arts Coordinator.

Kids can play all night at JCC New Year’s Eve Bash & Overnight Wondering how to keep the kids entertained on New Year’s Eve? Drop them off at the J! Both parents and children can have fun welcoming in 2012, with the help of the New Year’s Eve Bash & Overnight at the Mayerson JCC. Parents get to enjoy their adult evening plans while their children are having fun at the J doing what kids love to do! It’s the coolest party around for grades K-8, with special separate activities for grades K-5 and 6-8.

If your kids love to play games, splash with friends in the waterpark, see a movie and munch on

kid-friendly foods—and what kid doesn’t—sign them up now for the JCC New Year’s Eve Overnight.

Advanced reservations are required and space is limited.

From 7 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 31, to 8 a.m. on Sunday, Jan. 1, kids can enjoy the J’s New Year’s Eve party which is tailor made just for them! They can play all their favorite games and they even get their own bubbly toast and noisemakers at midnight, as well as a light breakfast in the morning.

Debbie Lempert’s two children, Hannah and Zachary, attended the last JCC New Year’s Overnight.

“They absolutely loved it! All their friends went and they had the best time. They especially love the counselors at the J. And it was so nice not to have to worry about getting a sitter, and to know that they were safe, having fun and enjoying their own activities,” remarked Debbie.

“We have age-appropriate activities for tweens and kids in grades 6-8 that they really enjoy.

The JCC New Year’s Overnight is just such an awesome event, and the kids are so excited to spend the night at the J,” said Matt Steinberg, Teen Coordinator.

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Wise Temple’s Winter WiseUP projects Wise Temple congregants will volunteer for a wide range of WiseUP social action projects during the winter months.

WiseUP’s purpose is to encourage and inspire Wise Temple members to work as a community to fulfill the ongoing sacred obligation to repair the world. By doing so, participants can bring greater meaning to their lives, as well as to the lives of those whom they are serving. WiseUP projects provide congregants with opportunities to help those who are disadvantaged or in need.

Several of the projects this winter focus on providing food to Cincinnati’s vulnerable. On Sunday, Jan. 15, Tricia Gold will coordinate volunteers age 9 and older who will prepare and host a brunch at the Bethany House for homeless women and their children. After brunch, the WiseUP team will help the children with fun and engaging arts and crafts and other activities.

The following Saturday, Jan. 21, volunteers will help receive, sort and pack donated food items

for the Freestore Foodbank under the direction of Project Leader Mert Friedman.

A few weeks later, on Sunday, Feb. 12, the Wise Temple Sisterhood will sponsor its “Day of Beauty” at the YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter. The event, coordinated by Julie Kantor, will feature food, a motivational speaker and pampering for the residents.

On Sunday, Feb. 19, WiseUP volunteers will prepare and serve hot lunch to Cincinnati’s homeless and less fortunate neighbors.

Stacey Bie and Adam Tunis are the coordinators for this Over-theRhine Soup Kitchen event.

In addition to these off-site activities, Wise Temple will welcome its Interfaith Hospitality Network (IHN) guests. During the week of Feb. 19, families who are temporarily homeless will experience Wise Temple’s warmth. Cochairs Margie Burgin and Deb LaFrance have scheduled and coordinated over 50 volunteers who will help guests feel welcome at Wise Center.

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Dean Jonathan Cohen of Hebrew Union College lights the menorah.

Jewish Discovery Center builds Jewish pride with ‘Menorah of Freedom’ in Mason

By Rita Tongpituk Assistant Editor

Crowd looks on as Rabbi Kalmanson lights the first candle to celebrate Chanukah in Mason.

“I grew up in the Soviet Union where it was difficult to live as a Jew. Raising my children in America, we can proudly express our Jewish traditions,” said Irene Garrett, mother of three young girls. “It is always a challenge to instill pride into my children when so much of the surrounding culture seems to be different. Jewish Discovery’s Chanukah menorahs are an important development to

help our girls’ Jewish education.”

The “Light up the Night” celebration that began at sunset on Dec. 20 lasted for several hours.

Even though light raindrops tickled noses, the event was wellattended by some 300 people from the Jewish community and the general public. Adults were smiling while children engaged in fun activities and Chanukah treats were distributed to attendees.

MENORAH on page 20

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

VOL. 158 • NO. 23 THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2011 3 TEVET 5772 SHABBAT BEGINS FRIDAY 5:06 PM SHABBAT ENDS SATURDAY 6:07 PM THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE CO., PUBLISHERS 18 WEST NINTH STREET, SUITE 2 CINCINNATI, OHIO 45202-2037 Phone: (513) 621-3145 Fax: (513) 621-3744 publisher@americanisraelite.com editor@americanisraelite.com production@americanisraelite.com RABBI ISSAC M. WISE Founder, Editor, Publisher, 1854-1900 LEO WISE Editor & Publisher, 1900-1928 RABBI JONAH B. WISE Editor & Publisher, 1928-1930 HENRY C. SEGAL Editor & Publisher, 1930-1985 PHYLLIS R. SINGER Editor & General Manager, 1985-1999 MILLARD H. MACK Publisher Emeritus NETANEL (TED) DEUTSCH Editor & Publisher BARBARA L. MORGENSTERN Senior Writer YEHOSHUA MIZRACHI RITA TONGPITUK Assistant Editors ALEXIA KADISH Copy Editor JANET STEINBERG Travel Editor SONDRA KATKIN Dining Editor MARIANNA BETTMAN NATE BLOOM IRIS PASTOR RABBI A. JAMES RUDIN ZELL SCHULMAN RABBI AVI SHAFRAN PHYLLIS R. SINGER Contributing Columnists LEV LOKSHIN JANE KARLSBERG Staff Photographers JOSEPH D. STANGE Production Manager MICHAEL MAZER Sales ERIN WYENANDT Office Manager e Oldest Eng Th

ewish N h-J ew lis

The Jewish Discovery Center in Mason pioneered a groundbreaking event held on the first night of Chanukah last week by lighting a giant 12 foot tall silver menorah. This is the Mason area’s first public outdoor lighting ceremony, with global impact and significance for the entire Jewish community. Last year’s Chanukah program was highlighted with a six foot tall glow-in-the-dark menorah. According to Rabbi Yosef Y. Kalmanson, director of the Jewish Discovery Center, there are over 15,000 lighting ceremonies throughout the eight nights of Chanukah that take place in 75 countries.

“This is the first time we will come together as a community to light a public menorah in the area,” said Rochel Kalmanson, education director of the center. “We have received extraordinary support from the wider community. What a wonderful way for all freedom loving people to come together and celebrate religious freedom. This is sure to build Jewish pride.”

Adding a festive and lively atmosphere throughout the evening were talented musicians who played traditional Chanukah songs that included “Ma’Oz Tzur” (Rock of Ages), “Sevivon Sov Sov Sov,” “I have a little Dreidel” and “Chanukah, Oh Chanukah.”

Judah Maccabee, portrayed by Usher Friedman, added to the Chanukah ambience as attendees had the opportunity to have their photo taken with the Chanukah legend. Smiles abounded as seasoned photographer Tony Terentowicz was on hand to capture the photo ops. Also visibly present were local police officers, news vans, reporters and photographers documenting the historical event as it unfolded.

Early in the program, Rabbi Kalmanson gave an eloquent speech as the crowd listened attentively while holding their own lit candles, meant to increase the light. He thanked the public officials who made this 10-year endeavor become a reality, followed by a group of Discovery Hebrew School students singing the candle-lighting blessings.

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Shawn Wyatt and the Rockwern Academy Student Choir.

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Est. 1854

On Wednesday, Dec. 21, Krohn Conservatory held a menorah lighting event in honor of Hanukkah. The event featured the Rockwern Academy Student Choir and guest speaker, Dr. Jonathan Cohen, dean of Hebrew Union College.

Bio-dome comes to mind when you walk into Krohn Conservatory. Exotic plants and trees you’ve never heard of surround you in almost every room, setting up an almost jungle-like atomosphere.

With all this around, Dean Cohen enlightened a crowd of Jews and Gentiles on the miracle and tradition of lighting a menorah on Hanukkah. He spoke of the Greeks and the destruction of the Jewish Temple and how one jug of oil lasted for eight days.

He brought with him two menorahs from the Skirball Museum that really brought history to life. One used oil the other candles.

The oil menorah was made in the late 1800s in Palestine. It made its way to Europe where it was captured by the Nazis and later recovered by the U.S. Marines, who then donated it to the museum. This menorah crossed three continents and was

over 120 years old.

The candle menorah was originally made in 1909 in Berlin. It was one of the first of what we consider as a modern day menorah, switching from oil to candles.

Adorned with an eagle on it that people might mistakenly think of as the Nazi symbol, rather it shows that it was from an AustroHungarian designer. This menorah was seized by the Nazis and later recovered by U.S. Marines.

After hearing the back stories for these menorahs the only sound in the room that could be heard was the blessing being recited over the candles for the first time in over 70 years.

The whole event was topped off with the musical serenades of the Rockwern Academy Student Choir, led by Director Shawn Wyatt. The students sang Hanukkah classics such as “Hanukkah oh Hanukkah” and “Sevivon, sov, sov sov.”

Afteward the Conservatory served blue bagels and Hanukkah cookies provided by Marx Hot Bagels while the kids were able to draw and color their own dreidels.

Also they provided Hanukkah gelt—chocolate wrapped coins— and actual dreidels so that the kids could play.

It was an amazing event that really brought the story of Hanukkah to life.

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By Yehoshua Mizrachi Assistant Editor

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Krohn Conservatory Hanukkah lighting

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LOCAL • 5

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2011

Inclusive ‘Fitness and Friends’ program for young adults with and without disabilities at the JCC Since the Mayerson JCC and Access started the YPs at the JCC program a little more than a year ago, hundreds of young professionals have participated in everything from exercise classes and special events, to pick-up games and pool parties at the J, all created specifically for their demographic. And while everyone between the ages of 21-35 in the community is welcome to take part in these programs, most of the activities have not necessarily been geared for YPs with disabilities—until now!

Thanks to the vision of popular JCC group exercise instructor and membership director, Lorri Munafo, a brand new inclusive initiative specifically geared for young adults with intellectual disabilities was recently created in partnership with Access, an initiative of The Mayerson Foundation, and the YPs at the JCC program.

Fitness and Friends: Where Fun has No Limitations, is an eight-week series open to young adults with and without disabilities who want to “exercise and socialize” together. It will take

place every Sunday at 11:15 a.m. at the Mayerson JCC, beginning on Jan. 8 and will include a low impact group exercise class and activity where the emphasis will be as much on “hanging out” as it will be on “working out.” After the first class, participants are invited to enjoy a free lunch in the J Café and a chance to spend some down time in the lounge playing Wii, video games, pool, cards and more. Lunch after the first class will be provided compliments of The Mayerson Foundation. After all subsequent classes in the series, lunch can be brought from home or purchased at the J Café.

According to the Inclusive

Fitness Coalition, people with disabilities have a higher risk of developing chronic health issues such as diabetes, depression and heart disease. Unfortunately, due to attitudinal, social and programmatic barriers that may limit their inclusion in fitness-related offerings such as exercise classes, sports teams and recreational events, their efforts to participate in these forms of physical activity can be very difficult. “Thanks to Fitness and Friends, as well as other inclusive programs such as Camp at the J, our JCC is breaking down barriers and giving people of all abilities a chance to make meaningful connections

with one another,” said Josh Rothstein, YP outreach and engagement coordinator.

“People with disabilities want to work out for the same reasons everyone else does—to stay well, active, and to be part of the community,” explained Munafo.

“While the JCC is inclusive of everyone, regardless of ability, we want to send an even more welcoming message, especially to the many young adults in our community with intellectual disabilities who have not had the same opportunities to take advantage of the age-specific programming we offer. I have been so inspired by the clients with disabilities that I currently work with one-on-one, that I thought it would be great to create a series that would allow YPs with and without disabilities to get to know one another in a fun and active atmosphere,” she added. “I have wanted to do something like this for a very long time and am glad to be partnering with Access and the YPs at the JCC program to help insure that the program is populated with participants of all abilities!”

“I’ve never done anything like this before,” said Karly Saeks, a 21-year-old young adult who attends the Project Launch program at the University of Cincinnati for students with intellectual disabilities. “My family has belonged to the J for a long time but I never took any of the exercise classes before. I am excited about hanging out with some of the people I know who go to Access. It’s going to be fun to meet new people. I hope everyone will enjoy it. I know I will!”

The first class in the Fitness and Friends program is free to all participants with an advance RSVP to Lorri Munafo at the JCC, and open to all young adults who can take part independently, without a one-on-one support person.

A special focus group for parents of young adults with disabilities will be conducted for those who want to stay and give their input, ideas and suggestions for other programs and events the JCC might consider hosting in the future. Tours of the facility will also be available for parents and participants upon request.

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2011 in review JTA Staffer Jewish Telegraphic Agency JANUARY Jews worldwide mourn the passing of Debbie Friedman, a popular singer and songwriter who is widely credited with reinvigorating synagogue music and best known for her composition “Mi Shebeirach,” a prayer for healing that is sung in many North American congregations.

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), the first Jewish woman elected to Congress from Arizona, is shot in the head during a public campaign appearance in Tucson, triggering a national outpouring of sympathy and prayer. First responders later credit the emergency bandage colloquially known as “the Israeli bandage” with saving lives in the aftermath of the shooting that left six dead and 13 wounded.

Newly leaked maps detailing Palestinian and Israeli negotiations over the West Bank in 2008 show how close the two sides were on some issues—and how far apart they were on others. With Lebanon in turmoil and a Hezbollah-backed prime minister poised to take power in Beirut, Israel is concerned at the prospect of a tectonic shift in the regional balance.

FEBRUARY Massive street protests drive Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, an ally of Israel and the United States, from power.

Coming on the heels of a similar turn of events in Tunisia, Mubarak’s fall raises hopes that a wave of democracy has been unleashed and fears—especially in Israel—that what is being called the Arab Spring will end with radical Islamic forces in power.

U.S. Rep. Jane Harman, a tough-talking Jewish Democrat from California, suddenly decides to quit Congress in a sign of the precarious position of the Democratic Party’s centrist bloc.

An annual survey from The Chronicle of Philanthropy finds that America’s most generous citizens gave less in 2010 than they have over the past decade, with Jews remaining among the top givers.

At the Academy Awards, Jewish winners included Israelborn Natalie Portman for her portrayal of a tortured ballerina in “Black Swan” and 73-year-old “The King’s Speech” screenwriter David Seidler, himself a stutterer whose paternal grandparents perished in the Holocaust. Oscars were handed out as well to American filmmakers Kirk Simon and Karen Goodman for “Strangers No More,” a short documentary on the Bialik-Rogozin

School in south Tel Aviv, and Susanne Bier, the Danish directorwriter of “In a Better World” who studied for two years at the Hebrew University and the Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem.

An Israeli backpacker is among the dead after an earthquake hits Christchurch on New Zealand’s South Island. The city’s Chabad house is destroyed.

Actor Charlie Sheen’s rant against his Jewish boss is called borderline anti-Semitism by the Anti-Defamation League and, after some additional outbursts by Sheen, results in his eventual firing from the popular CBS sitcom “Two and a Half Men.” MARCH The fashion house Dior fires acclaimed designer John Galliano after a video surfaces of him praising Hitler.

In a terrorist attack in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Itamar, five members of the Fogel family are massacred as they sleep. Two Palestinians in their late teens are arrested; one is found guilty by an Israeli military court. The other suspect is awaiting trial.

Israel’s Navy intercepts a ship laden with weapons bound for Gaza.

Jewish and Israel groups begin sending aid to Japan as it struggles to respond to a massive earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis.

American Jewish contractor Alan Gross is sentenced to 15 years in prison in Cuba for subversive activities. The United States says Gross was in the country to help Cuba’s Jews.

A car bomb explodes in central Jerusalem, killing one.

Groups on the Jewish left express outrage after a Knesset subcommittee votes to convene hearings on J Street, the Washington-based lobby that calls itself “pro-Israel, pro-peace.”

NGOs condemn the hearing as part of an Israeli government campaign to target NGOs critical of Israel.

Academy Award-winning actress Elizabeth Taylor, who maintained a support for Israel after converting to Judaism in the late 1950s, dies.

Protests sweeping the Arab world spread to Syria.

APRIL Richard Goldstone, author of the controversial U.N. report on the 2009 Gaza War that accused Israel of war crimes, withdraws the central tenet of that report in an Op-Ed piece in the Washington Post. That prompts an unsuccessful drive by Israel and its supporters to void the report formally in the United Nations.

A bomb explodes outside a

Chabad center in Southern California. The suspect turns out to be Jewish.

Obama picks Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Jewish Democrat from Florida, to chair the Democratic National Committee.

The Union for Reform Judaism names Rabbi Rick Jacobs as its choice to succeed Rabbi Eric Yoffie at the helm of the movement. Jacobs comes under fire for his affiliations with J Street and the New Israel Fund. He is later confirmed by the union’s board.

The Palestinian Hamas and Fatah factions announce that they are reconciling, prompting calls for the U.S. government to cut off aid to the Palestinian Authority.

However, a Hamas-Fatah unity government fails to materialize.

MAY Osama bin Laden is killed in Pakistan by U.S. forces, prompting questions about whether the liquidation of al-Qaida’s leader makes a follow-up attack more or less likely and whether Jews could be a target.

JTA launches its online digital news archive, for the first time making widely available on the Internet more than 90 years of English-language Jewish reporting.

In a controversy over the Israel positions of Jewish playwright Tony Kushner, the City University of New York first cancels, then reinstates, plans to grant Kushner an honorary degree.

Capping more than three decades of legal drama, a Munich court rules that former Ohio autoworker John Demjanjuk, 91, was a Nazi war criminal.

Thousands of Arabs storm Israel’s borders from Syria, Lebanon and elsewhere to mark the Nakba —the anniversary of the “catastrophe” of Israel’s founding.

Caught unprepared, Israeli forces hold the crowds back and more than a dozen Arabs are killed.

The arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn in New York on sexual assault charges represents a particularly harsh blow for many in France’s Jewish community.

Law enforcement officials would later report that major questions have emerged about the credibility of his accuser, but not before he resigns his post at the International Monetary Fund. His planned candidacy for the French presidency is considered dead.

San Francisco approves a ballot measure for November to outlaw circumcision of minors in the city. A judge later strikes the ban from the ballot, saying the city has no authority to ban circumcision.

2011 on page 21

Seeking Kin: An Israeli finds his American cousins

By Hillel Kuttler Jewish Telegraphic Agency BALTIMORE (JTA) — As a genealogy enthusiast and author of this column, I can experience no gratification greater than facilitating a family’s reunification. Less than two months after “Seeking Kin” debuted, we hit paydirt thanks to our readers.

The column’s first installment presented Eliyahu Finkelstein, an 88-year-old Shoah survivor in Israel who sought his American cousins.

Courtesy of Zecil Gravitz

Zecil Gravitz’s father, Moses Kopeicka, is pictured with his mother, Zeisl Finkelstein Kopeicka (left), and his sister.

Finkelstein’s uncle left a Ukrainian shtetl in the 1920s, settled in Philadelphia and was believed to have changed his name to Sam Stone. The branches of his family have been separated ever since.

Several details in the article rang a bell for Vermont’s Zecil Gravitz, none greater than this: Sam’s daughter was a hunchback.

As a young girl in Philadelphia, Gravitz took trips near and far with her parents, Sarah and Moses Kopeicka. Several times in the late 1920s and early 1930s, the family crossed the Delaware River to visit cousins a few miles away in Camden, N.J. Gravitz clearly remembers the hunchback daughter, but not the first names of the girl or her parents. She is sure, though, that Finkelstein’s recollection is slightly off and that the relatives’ surname was not Stone.

“My father’s cousins in Camden were the Steins. The daughter was a hunchback. That stood out in my 9-year-old mind,” Gravitz, now 90, said by telephone from her winter home in Florida.

The Stein daughter went on to work in Camden’s municipal offices, perhaps for the courthouse, Gravitz remembers her father saying. Gravitz knows nei-

ther what became of the family nor precisely how the Kopeickas of Philadelphia and the Steins of Camden were related, just that it was through her paternal grandmother, Zeisl Finkelstein Kopeicka.

“I never asked. Children don’t ask,” she said. “All I know is that they were related to my father on the Finkelstein side.”

Circa 1931, Gravitz and her parents sailed to Palestine and visited several more Finkelstein relatives. One cousin she met was Wolf Finkelstein, but she didn’t remember precisely where he lived. She also visited Miriam Finkelstein, who lived on Kibbutz Yifat in the Galilee.

In my follow-up conversations, neither Gravitz nor Finkelstein were sure of their precise connection. However, they mentioned the same cousins in Israel, which confirmed their being related to one another. Finkelstein volunteered the information that a Kopeicka relative from Ukraine was a doctor — apparently Gravitz’s grandfather Michael. He also said that his own grandfather Shmuel often mentioned the name Kopeicka.

Finkelstein recalled that a Kopeicka relative immigrated to Israel and was killed during Arab riots in Jaffa after the United Nations approved the 1947 partition plan that ushered in a Jewish state. The victim, Gravitz explained later, was her father’s brother, Binyamin, also a doctor, who had two daughters, Sima and Yehudit.

Finkelstein also established how he is related to those whom Gravitz met during the 1931 visit.

Wolf and Miriam were siblings whose father, Avraham, was the brother of Finkelstein’s grandfather Shmuel. Wolf and Miriam had three other brothers: Chaim, Aharon and either Shimon or Shimshon, who was the only sibling to remain behind in Ostroh, Ukraine, rather than make aliyah with the rest of the clan in the 1930s. He married but was killed in the Shoah, Finkelstein said.

Finkelstein remains in touch with cousins in Israel whom he met after making aliyah in 1948.

In Gravitz, he now has found an American cousin — just not the one he’d expected.

Gravitz has visited Israel 12 or 13 times, but not since 2002. If she makes it back, she’ll visit the graves of her parents on the Mount of Olives, and of her paternal grandparents in Tel Aviv. She’ll also be glad to meet her “new” cousin, Eliyahu. The two have not conversed yet by telephone, but Gravitz plans to write to him.

SEEKING on page 21

NATIONAL • 7

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2011

When the Jews went to North Korea

By Ron Kampeas Jewish Telegraphic Agency WASHINGTON (JTA) — When a delegation from the American Council for World Jewry went to North Korea, its agenda was typical of visits by Jewish organizations to developing nations: promote outreach to Israel, offer to broker assistance and training, gently raise problematic defense relations with Israel’s enemies.

Pyongyang’s agenda was much simpler but just as timeworn: Get to know these powerful Jews.

The two meetings, in 2008 and 2009, offered a window into the operation of the most cloistered country in the world — and, many believe, the most dangerous — and how communist North Korea may engage as it gently teases apart the curtains.

The death this week of longtime isolationist leader Kim Jong II and the apparent succession of his 20-something son, Kim Jong Un, has led to abundant speculation about whether the son will expand or squelch the ginger openness launched by his father.

Jack Rosen, the founder of the American Council for World Jewry who took the trips to Pyongyang, said his group first made overtures to the North Korean delegation at the United Nations. It took considerable time and bureaucracy, but

Courtesy of Alex Murphy via Creative Commons

Republic of Korea soldiers stand guard at the border, keeping their eye on a North Korean soldier, July 13, 2011. Jack Rosen, a Jewish leader who visited North Korea twice in recent years, says the West should seize the transition after Kim Jong Il's death as an opportunity for outreach.

the invitation from North Korea eventually came through.

Rosen, a top New York lawyer who has been a fundraiser for presidential candidates of both parties, described North Korea as a country both remote and surreal.

“The discipline and fear permeated every element of society we came across,” Rosen told JTA. “Everything was a fine-tuned machine. Children would line up in a large public square several times a day. At a certain time of evening,

there were long lines at the bus stations — and then just as suddenly you didn’t see anyone, there were no people in the street.”

One factor that Rosen said motivated his outreach to Pyongyang was North Korea’s increasing openness at the time to outside assistance. His group cleared the visit with the U.S. State Department.

Yet when they arrived in North Korea, much of the initial talk from the country’s officials non-

plussed the Jewish delegation, as it focused not on the Middle East or appeals for assistance but on nuclear diplomacy.

“The first time we went,” Rosen recalled, “they were engaged in long discussions about the six-party talks and America’s intentions” — talks aimed at exchanging assistance for North Korea’s agreement to dial back its nuclear weapons program that had been suspended in 2007.

It quickly became evident that the North Koreans were interested in the visit because they viewed American Jews as critical to influencing the U.S. power establishment.

This was typical for Asian nations exposed to cliches about Jews but not to actual Jews, observed Norm Levin, a Koreas expert who has published a number of studies of the peninsula.

“They, like many Asians, have all kinds of stereotyped images of the Jews,” Levin said. “Many of them are quite favorable, although as biased as any stereotype of the Jews. Because everybody else sees the Jews as an important group — smart, successful, creative and powerful, and what do they know, they’ve never seen a Jew — they say if they’re that important, we should pay attention to them because maybe at one point they could be helpful to us on issues related to the U.S.”

Rosen recalled that when he gently pressed the Koreans on Middle East issues they seemed surprised — but hastened to organize a meeting with a top Foreign Ministry official.

“They were surprised we highlighted the issue to them; it wasn’t part of the official program,” he said.

Much of the talk focused on the country’s arms sales to Iran and Syria. North Koreans reportedly designed the nascent Syrian nuclear reactor destroyed by Israel in 2007, although North Korea denies the accusation. In their conversations, Rosen said, the North Koreans said they had no choice but to sell arms to such rogue states, as others were cut off to them.

Rosen, in an account of the trips he published in 2010 on the American Council website, said the expectation was not that North Korea would cease such activities but instead would be more sensitive to Western sensibilities about relationships with rogue states.

“We are hardly in a position to broker a nuclear agreement with North Korea, but the Council’s outreach has sensitized North Korean officials to U.S. and Jewish concerns over exporting materiel and technology to third countries,” he wrote.

NORTH KOREA on page 21

West Point’s Jewish choir sings for the president and diversity

By Edmon J. Rodman Jewish Telegraphic Agency LOS ANGELES (JTA) — It doesn’t get more “only in America” than this: A Christian president with an African-born Muslim father throws a Chanukah party at the White House, and the featured act is the West Point Jewish Chapel Cadet Choir — a group that serves as a beacon of Jewish pride and identity at the nation’s top military academy, while also boasting a non-Jewish conductor and plenty of non-Jewish members.

And one more twist.

When the Jewish choir performed at the White House Chanukah party earlier this month, it chose to serenade the commander in chief with a song of peace.

“We were invited there for the party, a big honor,” said Cadet Evan Szablowski, 20, the choir’s nonJewish conductor, a junior from Bakersfield, Calif.

After performing for arriving guests such holiday favorites as “Maoz Tzur,” “Who Can Retell” and “Oh Chanukah,” the 34 singing cadets — a group of men and women — were directed to file quickly into the Diplomatic Reception Room for a photo with President Obama and the first lady.

“Then the president came in,” Szablowski said, “and in a big booming voice welcomed us. He and Michelle shook our hands.

The president looked into each of our eyes.”

Moments after the photo was taken, “totally out of nowhere, [the president] asked if we can perform,” recalled Szablowski, who spoke to JTA shortly after completing his final in “Mathematics and Networks for Counter Insurgency.”

From its repertoire of Jewish songs, the chorus quickly decided to perform one of the group’s favorites, “Lo Yisa Goy.” But first, Szablowski recounted, the group explained that the song is based on the words of the prophet Isaiah, which translated from Hebrew includes the famous passage, “Nation shall not take up sword against nation; they shall never again know war.”

“It’s probably the coolest thing I have ever done at the academy. We were giddy,” Szablowski said, adding that about halfway through the performance it hit him — “a Jewish choir was performing for the president of the United States.”

It was a thrilling experience for the cadets, said Susan Schwartz, the “officer in charge,” or faculty adviser, of the chorus and the cam-

pus Hillel who accompanied the group on the trip.

“They met their commander in chief,” Schwartz said. “Afterward they were bouncing off the walls.”

“We received a warm reception,” said Allyson Hauptman, an alto in the chorus who is a sophomore double majoring in international law and IT systems.

Hauptman, who attended Hebrew school and had a bat mitzvah in Philadelphia, felt that seeing such a high level of support of Jewish culture in public was “heartwarming.”

According to Schwartz, the West Point Jewish Chapel Choir has been in existence for more than 60 years, with the most recent White House performance coming six years ago during the presidency of George W. Bush.

At the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in New York, 60 to 70 cadets identify as Jewish in a total population of 4,500, according to Schwartz.

Part of the group’s mission, the chorus and Hillel adviser said, is to make people aware that there is Jewish life at the school charged with educating the future leaders of the U.S. Army.

In the last year the group has performed at synagogues in Palm Beach, Fla., and Rockville Centre,

N.Y., and the Hillel at Yale, as well as at the dedication of the Arlington National Cemetery’s Jewish Chaplains Memorial.

Especially for older Jews who have served in the armed forces, Schwartz has found that the group serves as a point of connection.

The Jewish Chapel Choir is one of several singing groups at West Point, including Protestant, Catholic and gospel, that serve as a form of outreach, showcasing the cadets’ and the institution’s religious diversity.

The choir itself is a diverse group, with Szablowski and other non-Jewish cadets taking part.

“All of these cadets are going to be officers, and they need to become aware of other cadets’ needs,” said Schwartz, who is Jewish and grew up in North Miami, Fla. “There is an expectation that they will respect our traditions.”

“I have learned more about Jewish culture than the beautiful songs,” said Szablowski, who only a few years earlier was the drum major at his high school in a region of California not known for having a large Jewish population.

At West Point he sees his fellow choir members as “really just a group of friends.”

“If I have Jewish members in

my platoon, I will be able to understand them more,” he said.

The non-Jewish members of the chorus “learn a little bit of Hebrew and Jewish culture through the songs,” Hauptman said.

According to Schwartz, some of the Jewish members, who were more “secular” in their Jewish identification when they first come to West Point, learn a bit, too.

“They find a Jewish home at West Point,” she said.

In addition to the private concert, Obama received a few early Chanukah gifts from the chorus.

The Jewish chaplain at West Point, Rabbi Maj. Shmuel Felzenberg, presented the first family with West Point Jewish Chapel coins.

Additionally the cadets “wanted me to give him one of our kipahs,” said Schwartz, speaking of the gray head covering imprinted with the chorus’ name. The group had the kipah made from the same fabric used for the full dress uniforms they were wearing the day of the party.

According to Schwartz, the president said, “I have several yarmulkes, but none like this one.”

Edmon J. Rodman is a JTA columnist who writes on Jewish life from Los Angeles.

8 • NATIONAL

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For Jews, Vaclav Havel wasn’t just a friend but a champion of freedom

By Ron Kampeas Jewish Telegraphic Agency WASHINGTON (JTA) — Vaclav Havel was a friend of the Jews and of Israel, but prominent Jews who mourned his passing last week said the Czech leader’s greatest legacy was his universal message of freedom.

“Vaclav Havel was one of the few islands of intellectual freedom in the sea of totalitarian rule,” Natan Sharansky told JTA, speaking of the late 1960s and the 1970s, when both he and Havel were struggling against communist rule — Havel in the former Czechoslovakia and Sharansky in the former Soviet Union.

Havel, a dissident playwright and human rights champion, helped lead Prague’s 1989 Velvet Revolution and was a hero in the Cold War struggle for democracy in Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe. In 1977 he was a coauthor of the human rights manifesto Charter 77, which became the catalyst for the Czech dissident cause.

Just weeks after the collapse of communism, Havel was elected president of Czechoslovakia, on

COurtesy of David Short via Creative Commons

Memorial candles in Prague for Vaclav Havel, who died last week.

Jewish groups and leaders said the former Czech president was a symbol of freedom, Dec. 18, 2011.

Dec. 29, 1989.

After the Czech Republic and Slovakia separated into two countries in 1993, he was elected president of the Czech Republic and served until 2003.

Sharansky learned of — and said he was not surprised by — Havel’s Jewish connections later

in life. But in 1977, when Sharansky was sent to Siberia, what gave him succor was the universalist message of Charter 77.

“He played an important role in keeping the spark alive,” said Sharansky, who is now the chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel. “He launched a counter

attack which liberated people intellectually, and then physically.”

Havel demonstrated his commitment to Jewish causes by making one of his first foreign trips after becoming Czechoslovak president a three-day visit to Israel in April 1990. He was accompanied by 180 Czech Jews. In 2010 he was one of the founding members of the Friends of Israel group of international political figures.

Havel’s last public appearance was on Dec. 10, when he met with the Dalai Lama and signed an appeal in support of dissidents around the world. He died Sunday at 75, apparently from respiratory ailments.

Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust memorialist and Nobel peace laureate who met frequently with Havel after he became president of Czechoslovakia and then of the Czech Republic, said Havel was proud of his nation’s Jewish heritage.

“He spoke a lot of Jewish philosophy and study,” Wiesel said Tuesday in a phone interview with JTA. HAVEL on page 19

At Reform biennial, energy, Obama and handwringing over the next generation

By Uriel Heilman Jewish Telegraphic Agency NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. (JTA) — The metaphors abound.

To Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the next president of the Union for Reform Judaism, it’s a gas station. To Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the outgoing president, it’s an anchor. To Stephen Sacks, the incoming chairman of Reform’s board, it’s a supermarket.

They’re all talking about the Reform synagogue, and they all agree on one thing: It’s not a place you can find very many Reform Jews from post-bar/bat mitzvah age through their 30s.

“Most synagogues are not meeting the needs of that demographic,” said Rabbi Elissa Koppel, 39, of Temple Beth El in Hillsborough, N.J. “Synagogues need to think differently about how to reach them. I think it’s always been a challenge, but there’s more awareness of it now.”

Reform activists and leaders cite several reasons for the disaffection of young Jews: the difficulty of competing for young people’s attention given the distractions of the modern world; the ethos of individualism in American life; a growing preference for virtual social networks over physical ones; parents

The 2011 biennial conference of the Union for Reform Judaism was the movement’s biggest ever, and many participants said it was the most energetic they had ever attended, Dec. 17, 2011.

who emphasize soccer practice over Jewish tradition; a declining sense of obligation to belong to communal institutions.

And then, of course, there’s the deterrent of Reform synagogues themselves.

“The standard model is not working for the younger generation,” said Rabbi Larry Sernovitz, 39, of Old York Temple Beth Am in Abington, Pa., near Philadelphia.

“A lot of programming is based on the 50s and 60s set — one size fits all. But American Jews have become more assimilated and are

moving away from organized synagogue life. The movement has to change along with that.”

The Reform movement is facing a host of challenges, from an economic downturn that has left some synagogues unable to make ends meet to the Union for Reform Judaism itself, which is undergoing a transition at the top and is six months away from completing an 18-month assessment to decide the movement’s future. But Reform leaders say their greatest hurdle is figuring out how to engage young Jews, most of whom leave Reform

synagogues “with the last hora of the bar/bat mitzvah party,” as Jacobs puts it.

One need look no further than Yoffie’s own children, whom he talked about in his Shabbat sermon at the Reform biennial conference held Dec. 14-18 at a hotel just outside Washington. His daughter, Adina, attends a Modern Orthodox shul, and his son Adam, 28, finds temple boring and doesn’t go much at all, according to Yoffie.

“They agree on what they don’t want,” Yoffie said. “They don’t want their synagogue to be the synagogue of their youth.”

In a time of decreasing affiliation with communal Jewish institutions across the denominational spectrum, concern is growing in the Reform movement that unlike previous generations, the young Jews leaving Reform synagogues now will never return.

“A newer trend indicates that fewer and fewer Jews will even join for their children,” Jacobs said in his biennial address Sunday morning. “Of all the movements, Reform Jews lead the way and — this ain’t a happy one — we lead the way in leaving when childhood education is over.”

BIENNIAL on page 22

National Briefs Congress conditions Palestinian aid on dropping statehood bid WASHINGTON (JTA) — A newly passed congressional appropriations bill maintains the level of assistance for Israel while conditioning funds for the Palestinians on them dropping their statehood recognition bid.

An omnibus appropriations bill passed last week and awaiting President Obama’s signature funds assistance to Israel at $3.075 billion, consistent with a 2007 memorandum of understanding that averages such aid at $3 billion annually over 10 years.

The funding was spared from across-the-board cuts toward slashing the deficit.

Funding for Palestinians is also approved by the legislation, but no amounts are specified.

Instead, the president must submit specific requests to appropriators in both Houses, allowing Congress greater leverage over how the money is spent.

Furthermore, should the Palestinians gain statehood recognition through any international body in the absence of negotiations, the funding will be suspended, although the president is able to waive the provision.

The Israeli embassy in Washington welcomed the new conditions.

“We view these measures as essential for returning the Palestinians to direct talks without preconditions, as endorsed by the Quartet,” said a statement issued Thursday, and referring to the grouping of the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations. “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stands by his commitment to negotiate all core issues leading to a viable and permanent twostate solution.”

The bill, by approving appropriations for the Palestinians — even in the absence of specific figures — effectively lifts holds placed on Palestinian funding because of the Palestinians’ initial bid for statehood recognition launched in September at the United Nations.

The Israeli embassy statement said it “welcomed” this development.

Israel had sent mixed signals over the holds placed on Palestinian aid; on the one hand, Israeli officials sought to send a clear message to the Palestinians that they would be penalized for unilaterally seeking statehood; on the other hand, Israel’s defense establishment sees the Palestinian Authority as critical in keeping the peace in the West Bank.

NATIONAL / INTERNATIONAL • 9

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2011

At Chanukah, Czech Jews marvel at blessings of Havel’s revolution

By Ruth Ellen Gruber Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Courtesy of Taos Ski Valley

Taos Ski Valley, New Mexico’s largest ski area, was started by a Jewish refugee from Germany whose family still owns the resort.

In a remote New Mexican valley, a Jewish skiing legacy at Taos

By Uriel Heilman Jewish Telegraphic Agency TAOS, N.M. (JTA) — One of the most wonderful things about skiing is the sense of seclusion, the incomparable quietude and serenity of standing atop a 12,000-foot peak surveying miles and miles of snow-covered emptiness. Somehow the prosaic concerns of the everyday world don’t seem to reach there.

So when I scheduled a few days off last winter from my job as editor of a 24/6 Jewish news outlet to go to Taos Ski Valley in a remote corner of New Mexico, I was looking forward to being completely disconnected from my work life. BlackBerries don’t work on black-diamond slopes.

But one evening apres ski, I made a rather unexpected discovery while flipping through the local coffee table book on the history of Taos. The ski area’s legendary founder, Ernie Blake, whose family still owns Taos, immigrated to America from Germany in 1938. My parochial instincts immediately perked up.

It turns out the timing was no mere coincidence. Blake’s original name was Ernst Hermann Bloch, and the family left Nazi Germany on the eve of World War II because he was Jewish. His remarkable journey took him not just from the Alps to the Rockies, but from a life as an Olympicscaliber German athlete to an interrogator of Nazis in the U.S. Army to founder of a world-class ski area in a state better known for its deserts.

Like so many other Jewish refugee families from Europe, the Blakes assimilated in America.

Though he married a Jewish woman and had a bar mitzvah, Blake didn’t talk much with his family about his Judaism, and his descendants no longer really consider themselves

members of the tribe.

“We didn’t know we were Jewish, essentially; we didn’t pay any attention,” one of Blake’s daughters, Wendy Stagg, told me.

“We did Christmas in a secular fashion. We gave gifts and had a tree. My younger brother is active in Christian churches. The rest of us are essentially agnostic or nonbelievers.”

But if not for Blake’s religion, he may never have come to America and there would have been no Taos Ski Valley, one of the last family-run ski areas in the country.

The way I saw it, I owed my ski trip to Blake. So between rides up Kachina Peak (elev. 12,481) and runs down Upper Totemoff, I resolved to find out more about this Jewish man behind New Mexico’s largest ski mountain.

Born in Frankfurt in 1913 to a Swiss mother and a German father, Blake spent most of his childhood in Switzerland, where his athletic prowess bloomed on the slopes of St. Moritz and as a hockey player on the ice ponds nearby. If not for his religion, he would have been a shoo-in to be on the German ice hockey team in the 1936 Olympics, which also happened to be the first Games to include alpine skiing.

Blake actually met Hitler once, in January 1933, when Blake, then a pilot in the Swiss Air Force, went to hear Hitler give a speech in Frankfurt shortly before his appointment as German chancellor.

“We were not impressed,” Blake recalled years later in an interview with Rick Richards, author of “Ski Pioneers: Ernie Blake, his Friends and the Making of Taos Ski Valley.”

Blake’s family had never been religious, but that didn’t make any difference in Nazi Germany. In 1938, after a visit by the Gestapo to the family home, Blake’s father

made the fateful decision to move the family to the United States.

The 25-year-old Blake ended up in New York, where he took a job in the winter department of Saks Fifth Avenue. On weekends he’d ride the so-called snow train to the Adirondack Mountains to teach skiing.

At the time, the ski industry in the United States was in its infancy. Skis were made of wood, not the fiberglass composites they are today, and until the first rope tow was installed in Vermont in 1934, downhill skiers had to climb the mountain themselves. The first chairlift went up in 1936 at Sun Valley, Idaho.

It was in December 1940 at the top of a chairlift on Mount Mansfield in Stowe, Vt., that Blake met the woman who would become his wife: Rhoda Limburg, a Jewish World War I orphan from England who had been adopted by a Jewish New York state Supreme Court justice.

It wasn’t quite love at first sight, but by summer Blake would follow Rhoda to Santa Fe, where Rhoda was taking art classes. The trip afforded Blake his first glimpse of the Taos area — then little more than a sleepy town near one of New Mexico’s active native American pueblos.

That summer the couple decided both to marry and make New Mexico their home. Rhoda, 93, still lives there. Blake died in 1989.

On their honeymoon in Sun Valley, the pair encountered a problem common to ski enthusiasts, which Rhoda said almost ended in divorce: She wasn’t a skier, and he couldn’t abide spending his honeymoon on the bunny hill. They resolved to ski apart, and the marriage held together.

SKIING on page 22

PRAGUE (JTA) — On the first night of Chanukah, I stood in the splendid reception hall of the U.S. ambassador’s residence in Prague as the ambassador himself lit the first candle in an imposing gilded menorah and chanted the blessings over the flames.

Since it was the first night of the holiday, these included the Shehecheyanu – the thankful blessing recited when reaching a special or long-awaited moment: “Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe who has given us life, sustained us, and allowed us to reach this occasion.”

How strangely fitting to recite this, I thought, at this very time and in this very place. Two days earlier Vaclav Havel had died, and many people were still in shock at the loss of the shy dissident playwright who had led the Velvet Revolution that ousted the communist regime in 1989 and gone on to become Czechoslovakia’s — and then the Czech Republic’s — first democratic president and enduring moral compass.

Masses of candles in Havel’s memory were glowing on Wenceslas Square, site of the huge demonstrations that had toppled the regime. And plans were going ahead for the somber state funeral.

Why at this sad moment of mourning did I feel that the Shehecheyanu was fitting?

It was because, in a way, I felt it was a blessing that honored Havel himself, for without him and the impact he had had, this Chanukah evening — and what it represented — could not have taken place.

Joined by his family and a few guests, Ambassador Norman Eisen lit the first candle ahead of his official holiday reception for hundreds of diplomats and political and cultural figures.

Throughout the evening, the menorah blazed at one end of the hall, while a huge decorated Christmas tree glittered at the other.

“It’s my first Christmas tree ever,” Eisen, the son of an Auschwitz survivor from the former Czechoslovakia and an observant Jew who had had the residence kitchen koshered, joked to the crowd as waiters threaded through with trays of latkes.

Eisen opened his welcoming remarks by asking for a minute of silence in Havel’s honor. Then he told the story of the residence — a mansion that had been built by a wealthy Jewish family, the Petscheks, in the late 1920s. The

family left in 1938, before World War II broke out. During the war it served as the residence of the head of the German army occupying Prague. Afterward, the mansion became Czechoslovak property until 1948, when the United States purchased it.

There were quite a few Jews at the reception, old friends of mine from the Prague Jewish community such as Leo Pavlat, the director of the Prague Jewish Museum, who delightedly told me how he and Eisen had seats next to each other in synagogue. I was there to make a formal presentation of a big website project I am coordinating on Jewish heritage in Europe.

I couldn’t help but think back.

The postwar communist regime had carried out a policy of persecution aimed at stifling Jewish life, and the state-appointed community leadership had followed the party line, routinely issuing statements critical of Israel. In May 1989, Pavlat had spearheaded a group of young Prague Jews who sharply criticized these regime-approved aparatchiks. He and his friends warned that Jewish life in Czechoslovakia was “in danger of extinction.”

The Velvet Revolution, with Havel as its reluctant hero, changed everything.

One of Havel’s first acts as president was to reinstate full religious freedom. And one of his first state trips abroad was to Israel – bringing with him an entourage of 180 Prague Jews. By the end of 1990, Pavlat was serving as a diplomat in the Czechoslovak embassy in Israel.

He remained there until 1994, when he returned to Prague and took up the directorship of the Jewish Museum.

At the ambassador’s reception, I reminisced about those heady days, and about Havel’s impact, with Tomas Kraus, who has served as executive director of the Federation of Czech Jewish communities since 1991. Kraus had helped organize Havel’s first trip to Israel and had been part of the Jewish delegation that accompanied him.

“It was exciting,” Kraus recalled. “It was part of the ‘Velvet Europhoria.’ Everything that we had not dared to dream of was immediately possible. The Holy Land had been a philosophical term for us, an image of something that you would never be able to reach — only in a dream. And then, overnight, it was a reality.”

CHANUKAH on page 22

10 • INTERNATIONAL / ISRAEL

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

International Briefs

Israel Briefs

Iran threatens to cut off Mideast oil (JTA) — Iran will close the Strait of Hormuz if its oil exports are subjected to foreign sanctions, the Islamic Republic’s official news agency reported.

“If they impose sanctions on Iran’s oil exports, then even one drop of oil cannot flow from the Straits of Hormuz,” IRNA quoted Mohammad Reza Rahimi, Iran’s first vice-president, as saying, referring to Western countries.

Oil from Persian Gulf countries travels through the Straits of Hormuz on its way to oil-importing countries around the world.

The strait is the Persian Gulf’s only outlet and is bordered by Iran, Oman and the United Arab Emirates.

Sudanese media accuses Israel of attacking convoy JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s Air Force allegedly attacked weapons convoys traveling from Sudan to the Gaza Strip, the Sudanese media reported.

The two convoys reportedly were smuggling Iranian weapons to Gaza earlier this month when they were hit by war planes. At least two people were killed and several wounded in the strikes, according to the reports.

Israel has not responded to the reports, which have been denied by the Sudanese army.

Sudan’s foreign minister in April blamed Israel for a bombing attack on a car near the country’s port city that killed two. Israel also was accused in 2009 of a deadly strike on a convoy of trucks in eastern Sudan suspected of being arms smugglers transporting weapons bound for Gaza.

Meshaal: Palestinian unity will lead to mass protests (JTA) — Palestinian unity will spur mass popular protests against Israel, Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal said.

“Now we have a common ground that we can work on — the popular resistance, which presents the power of people,” Meshaal said Thursday in an interview with the Associated Press in Cairo, where Hamas and Fatah agreed this week on the terms for Hamas joining the Palestine Liberation Organization, a precursor to unity.

Meshaal likened such protests to those characterizing the so-called Arab Spring, which has so far toppled leaderships in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya; has spurred mass uprisings in Syria, Yemen and Bahrain; and has spurred reforms in other countries.

There have been few such Palestinian protests, aside from a few early spurts separately targeting Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.

Meshaal said that Hamas could agree to a Palestinian state that exists within 1967 lines, but that it would not describe this as a permanent solution. Nor would he renounce violence against Israel.

Israel has said that it would cut off the Palestinian Authority in the event of its formal unification with Hamas. The Fatahdominated PA currently controls the West Bank, while Hamas controls Gaza.

Kobi Gideon / Flash90 / JTA

Haredi Orthodox men clash with police in the Israeli city of Beit Shemesh, Dec. 26, 2011.

Rally in Beit Shemesh protests exclusion of women JERUSALEM (JTA) — Hundreds participated in a rally in the Jerusalem suburb of Beit Shemesh against gender segregation and violence against women by haredi Orthodox extremists.

The rally Tuesday evening was held near a national religious girls school which has been at the center of the controversy. It is the school attended by 8-year-old American immigrant Na’ama Margolis, who was featured in an Israeli television news program, saying she was afraid to walk to school following harassment by local haredi Orthodox men.

The rally was organized on Facebook. More than 4,000 users responded on the Hebrew Facebook page, “1,000 Israelis are going to Beit Shemesh to protect little Na’ama” that they will be attending. Organizers had expected some 10,000 people to participate.

Israeli President Shimon Peres urged Israelis to attend the rally.

“Today is a test for the nation, not just for the police. All of us, religious, secular, traditional ... must as one man defend the character of the state of Israel against a minority which breaks our national solidarity,” Peres told reporters Tuesday.

“Discrimination against women goes against the tradition of the Bible and the principles of Judaism,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the audience at an adult Bible contest gathering Tuesday evening as the rally was getting underway.

The rally comes a day after clashes between haredim and police in two neighborhoods of Beit Shemesh, a northwestern suburb of Jerusalem with a population of

80,000. Two residents were arrested.

About 300 haredi Orthodox men threw stones at police and burned trash cans Monday after the police removed a sign calling for the separation of the sexes on city streets, Haaretz reported. The signs had been replaced after being removed the previous day.

Rioters on Sunday reportedly

Orthodox men, the Beit Shemesh municipality said it would install hundreds of security cameras in areas where harassment of women was occurring.

News teams from two Israeli television channels were attacked by haredi Orthodox men attempting to film in the city on Sunday and Monday.

Kobi Gideon / Flash90 / JTA

Haredi Orthodox men argue with secular Israelis in Beit Shemesh following demands that authorities crack down on religious extremists who want stricter gender segregation in the city, Dec. 26, 2011.

surrounded and threw stones at the city workers who removed the signs. Some reportedly called the police who came to break up the riot “Nazis.”

One sign called for women to cross the street in front of a local yeshiva; another called for women to dress modestly in public. The sign removal began Sunday evening, when it was assumed that residents would be in their homes lighting Chanukah candles, Ynet reported.

Following media reports of attacks on women by haredi

Netanyahu over the weekend called on the Israel Police to act aggressively against violence against women in the public sphere.

The order came from Netanyahu Saturday night through Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch following the television news report about Na’ama.

Netanyahu reportedly also spoke with Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein to make certain that laws against excluding women from the public space were enforced.

Beit Issie Shapiro named Israel’s most efficient nonprofit JERUSALEM (JTA) — Beit Issie Shapiro, a special needs organization in Raanana, was recognized as Israel’s Most Efficient Non-Profit Organization.

The efficiency monitor Midot cited Beit Issie Shapiro after it was chosen by a public committee. The award was judged according to impact on society, leadership, management practices, financial planning, ethics, transparency and collaboration with others to increase its circle of influence.

Midot presented the awards earlier this month at its annual conference at the Suzanne Dellal Centre in Tel Aviv.

Supreme Court President Emeritus Meir Shagmar headed the committee, which was formed in cooperation with MaalaBusiness for Social Responsibility, Sheatufim-the Center for Civil Society and GuideStar Israel, an online resource about nonprofits in Israel.

Beit Issie Shapiro in the past 30 years has grown from serving 16 children with disabilities to helping 30,000 people annually.

The organization also helps train thousands of therapists in Israel in its new therapies, and conducts research and shares best practices internationally.

Israel has 30,000 registered non-profit and voluntary organizations, 4,000 of which provide a variety of welfare, educational and support services.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2011

SOCIAL LIFE • 11

Smores at Cub World with Pack 613

12 • CINCINNATI SOCIAL LIFE

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Smores at Cub World with Pack 613

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2011

CINCINNATI JEWISH LIFE • 13

14 • DINING OUT

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Ambar arouses ardor for Indian food

By Sondra Katkin Dining Editor Outside Ambar India Restaurant, it was a wet, rainy day and people looked like shadows against the dim walls of the Ludlow/Clifton shopping area. Gladly stepping into the bright, cozy interior, I noted that the tables and booths were not crowded together. White tablecloths, an appreciated extra for someone who is easily chilled and doesn’t want to touch cold surfaces, added to the warm ambiance. They suggest that the restauranteur cares about the comfort of his diners and how his food is presented. Caring is the key to owner, Jassi Singh’s attention to details. “I live here, so I want to make everyone happy. From anywhere in the room, it’s easy to see what’s happening—if somebody needs something, they are all visible. Good service and good food are most important in this business,” he explained. “We’ve been the best Indian restaurant since 1995, with the best basmati rice in the city,” he added. Because Ambar—his first venue—was so successful, it was followed by Akash (downtown), Baba (Oakley), Guru (Crescent Springs, Ky.) and Kanak (Montgomery). Critics have been unanimous in praising Ambar, awarding it four and a half to five stars. The “Jainy” Appleseed of Punjabi style delectable, he has brought and trained chefs from India, who have started their own establishments.

Singh informed me that Punjab, in Northern India, was an attractive area for invaders because of its spices, temperate weather and topography. Although only two percent of the land, it produces 80 percent of its food. The last wave of conquerors before the British were the Mughals from Iran and Iraq, who as meat eaters, added to the Indian table. After the British occupation brought chicken masala to England, it became more popular than fish and chips. Astounding!

According to legend, an Indian chef (not chief) served chicken tikka, marinated white meat chunks, to an Englishman. He requested a sauce for his chicken. Eager to please, the cook created a savory tomato sauce with fresh herbs—customized, culinary compliance.

Chicken tikka, one of the specialties cooked in the tandoor, a clay oven that produces delicious, moist fish and chicken, is one of Ambar’s most popular entrees. If you enjoy drama with your food, this is a good choice. It makes its presence known before you see it, with a luscious sizzling sound. Then your server places the skillet plate on your table and you inhale the fragrance of the herbs and spices brought to fruition in the tandoor, accompanied by tomatoes, lemons and green peppers. The basmati rice on the side is mixed with saffron and cumin seed with fresh

(Clockwise) Jassi Singh and his wife Raman Kaur invite diners to enjoy delicious delights at Ambar; Cheerful, cozy interior at Ambar; Moist and mesmerizing chicken tikka with flavorful basmati rice; Tempting trio: chewy naan, smooth mango lassi and warming dal/lentil soup; Three savory condiments to relish.

peas for extra texture and flavor. All the entrees are accompanied by three sauces with different levels of heat.

The mildest, the tamarind (imli) is very popular in India. The root is stronger than ginger but when boiled and combined with herbs and spices, has a tart, fruity taste, redolent with cinnamon and cardamom. It was my favorite and it’s not because it was the mildest. I can take the heat. But you don’t have to — they will offer you the spice level you are comfortable with. The next strongest sauce is the onion chutney, a mixture of raw onions, tomatoes and peppers.

Singh told me that people who like spiciness will sometimes eat this by itself. I could understand it better if they dipped their fluffy/chewy naan, hot and fresh from the tandoor, into the relish. Or they could choose the papardam, the light, crispy, gluten free lentil cracker, as the carrier or conveyance of convenience. The third and hottest is the mint, Singh’s favorite. He describes it as “very

refreshing — lemony with a bite.”

The diner has several options to cool down an overheated palate.

The rice and naan are the obvious since they will absorb the spicy “liquors;” but for an even tastier variation there are two yogurt mixtures that are marvelous. If you have a sweet tooth, try the mango lassi.

This yogurt/mango magic drink is thick and fruity. I asked Singh why it tasted so good. His answer: “It’s all in the expertise of the yogurt making.” I’ve had some that were a bit sour and runny. Not here. Raita is the other choice; the yogurt is mixed with minced cucumbers, tomatoes and mint. There is no need to worry about spiciness in the yellow lentil, dal soup. It has the right balance of broth and body, slightly thick, pleasantly spicy with cumin, coriander and green cardamom. Did you know there is both green and brown? I’ve had the brown and enjoyed its smoky, mildly spicy taste. Singh brought me some of the

green which he says is so fragrant that people use it as a breath freshener. While chewing it, I was immediately transported to a forest with a burbling spring. Wait, that’s the Irish Spring commercial. But it does convey that feeling with an intriguing flavor that makes you want more.

Ambar offers many vegetarian dishes. One of the most popular is a Northern Indian delicacy, saag paneer. When I eat it, I think that I don’t really need a dessert because the cheesy creaminess of the spinach/cheese casserole leaves you feeling the same contentment.

If I must have a dessert, my favorite is ras malai, a homemade cheese confection soaked in cream and rose water that your tongue will wrap around like a ribbon on a present. What a gift! A favorite with Ambar’s diners is gulab jamun, fried cheese balls soaked in honey and served warm. This dessert is served with the Ambar India special, a sampler that includes appe-

tizers, chicken and lamb, soup, rice, vegetables and naan served on a silver platter. When my husband, Steve and I first began patronizing Ambar — it’s so close to the Esquire theater — we ordered that to accustom ourselves to the food.

It’s a good way to have a variety of tasty choices.

There is a parking lot behind the restaurant but it fills quickly, so come early if possible or take advantage of the public parking lot across the street (free for the restaurant’s customers). Ambar serves alcoholic beverages and is open seven days a week: Monday to Thursday, 11 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. and 4:30 – 9:50 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. and 4:30 – 10:20 p.m.; Sunday, 11:30 a.m. – 9:30 p.m. Catering is available.

Ambar India Restaurant 350 Ludlow Avenue Cincinnati, OH 45220 513-281-7000

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16 • OPINION

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‘Questions Aren’t Fatal’

My question, I immediately realized, wasn’t much of one. A fundamental datum about Avraham, I knew but didn’t consider, is that he spent his days tirelessly spreading the word about the Creator of all, and sharing elements of His Torah (whose laws, the Midrash teaches us, were known to, and studied by, our forefathers).

Did I really think, Rabbi Weinberg was saying to me, that Avraham’s efforts had had no effect on the society of his day, or on laws enacted by leaders of the time?

Young (and not so young) Jews will always have questions about our religious tradition, or mesorah; and asking questions is the only way to ascertain and internalize truth. Some claim that teachers of Torah today don’t allow certain

Rabbi Shafran is an editor at large and columnist for Ami Magazine

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

Dear Editor, The American Israelite published a JTA article quoting the claim in the Forward that AJC revenues have “plunged” when they compared 2006 revenues of $62 million to an absolutely erroneous figure of $10.6 million in 2009.

You can’t always believe what you read! A few points will set the record straight.

The Forward misreported the figure for total 2009 contributions to AJC by covering only the second half of 2009, the year when we changed the closing date of our fiscal year.

Calculating the full 12-month calendar year 2009, the total was actually $36.3 million.

The Forward claimed the high point of AJC fundraising was $62 million in 2005, but this figure included more than $10 million for the Centennial endowment campaign and other one-time gifts.

Like many non-profit organizations, AJC suffered a decline in 2009. But in 2010, AJC revenues increased to $38.7 million.

AJC is listed in the Chronicle of Philanthropy among the Top 400

for 2010—AJC is #363—after dropping off the list in 2009.

With one million non-profits in the U.S., AJC’s placement in this prestigious list speaks to our strength.

Furthermore, the AJC Cincinnati Regional Office had its best results ever this fall. We thank our numerous local supporters who showed their confidence in AJC’s global Jewish advocacy. They understand the importance of AJC’s mission.

1.Enhancing the well-being of the Jewish people and Israel; 2. Advancing human rights and democratic values in the U.S. and around the world.

Sincerely, Barbara Glueck Director, AJC Cincinnati Regional Office Cincinnati,OH

T EST Y OUR T ORAH KNOWLEDGE THIS WEEK’S PORTION: VAYIGASH (44:18-47:27) 1.) Who said, “How can I go up to my father without the youth?” a.) Judah b.) Benjamin c.) Joseph 2.) Joseph describes himself as whose father? a.) Benjamin b.) Pharaoh c.) Ephrayim and Menashe 3.) Who said, “Is my father still alive?” a.) Judah when they reached Egypt. Joseph and his two sons, and Yocheved Moshe's mother was born when they came to Egypt.

5.) C—Chapter 47, verse 6. Goshen was fit for grazing cattle, well suited to support Joseph’s brothers.

This also conveniently separated the Hebrews from the Egyptians who treated sheep as a deity. Rashi

It is more than mildly intriguing that a single Hebrew word serves as the translation of both “the universe” and “forever.” And the word — olam — is itself, significantly, rooted in the word for “hidden.”

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

b.) Joseph c.) Shimon 4.) How many were in Jacob’s family when they came to Egypt? a.) 12 b.) 70 c.) 120 5.) Where did Jacob’s family live in Egypt? a.) Everywhere b.) Along the Nile c.) Goshen

ventional translation of father: Which is a parent or a teacher.

3.) B—Chapter 45, verse 3 When Joseph revealed his identity to his brothers he startled them to the point where they could not speak. They sold him as a slave and now he was viceroy of Egypt. R Bchai.

4.) B—Chapter 46, verse 27 They were 66

When, as a teenager, I first read about the Code of Hammurabi, the ancient set of social laws dating from the time of our forefather Avraham, I was greatly troubled.

Elements of the code, instituted by a king of the First Babylonian Dynasty, bear clear similarities to various of the Torah’s laws. What, I asked myself, were laws that would only be given to the Jewish People at Sinai doing inscribed on tall stones centuries earlier?

So naturally, I brought my question, like countless others about science, history and other things, to my rebbe, Rabbi Yaakov Weinberg, the late Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Ner Yisroel in Baltimore. He just looked at me in his inimitable, sympathetic way, and posed a question of his own. “And Avi,” he said with deliberation, “just what do you think Avraham Ovinu spent his entire life doing?”

issues to be raised. If that is true (and I hope it’s not), it is lamentable. Because no question, honestly asked, is a bad question. And if a teacher doesn’t feel adequate to the task of correctly answering one, that’s also fine. In such cases, both teacher and student can — and should — go to someone more knowledgeable to learn more.

Many even seemingly formidable questions are easily toppled.

Before Rabbi Weinberg pointed me in the right direction, Hammurabi’s Code seemed a terrible challenge, although it wasn’t one at all. And many other questions I had in my youth about Torah met similar fates.

That’s not to say, though, that all questions are answerable.

As important as it is to be able to pose queries it is equally vital to recognize that there are questions whose answers are simply beyond human ken. For instance, when we ponder the limits of time or of space, comprehension eludes us entirely. It is more than mildly intriguing that a single Hebrew word serves as the translation of both “the universe” and “forever.”

And the word — olam — is itself, significantly, rooted in the word for “hidden.”

Human minds are hard-wired to go haywire when they try to wrap themselves around concepts like infinity or eternity. And science comes up punch drunk, too, when it tries to comprehend the very small (sub-atomic physics reads like fantasy) or the very large (cosmology reads like mysticism).

And then there are many matters even here in our own macroscopic lives that likewise befuddle us, questions seemingly without answers. Not only “big” ones like how to reconcile free will with Gd’s omniscience (about which Rabbi Akiva starkly, defiantly states in Avos (3:19): “Everything is foreseen, but permission [to choose] is granted”) but “smaller” ones as well, like “Why did I have to be born [fill in the blank]?” or “Why did [ditto] have to happen to me?”

Part of maturity, in fact, is accepting that there are answers that, trapped as we are with limited brains in a physical world, are offlimits to us. Recognizing, that is, the import of a wise Yiddish expression: “Fun a kashya shtarbt men nisht” — loosely translated, “questions aren’t fatal.”

When I have the opportunity to address a group of young people and there is time for questions, I always offer as a preface words that my own children have often heard.

“I can accurately answer any question you may have,” I boast. “As long as you realize that ‘I don’t know’ is a perfectly valid answer.”

Written by Rabbi Dov Aaron Wise

ANSWERS 1.) A—Chapter 44, verse 34 Judah guaranteed to return Benjamin to Jacob. Judah even promised to be a slave (verse 33) to win the release of Benjamin.

2.) B—Chapter 45, verse 8.”Father” here means a friend or patron. (Rashi) This is not the con-

Rabbi Avi Shafran Contributing Columnist

JEWISH LIFE • 17

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2011

Sedra of the Week

by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin Efrat, Israel — Reuben spoke to them saying “Did I not speak to you saying ‘Do not sin against the boy’, but you would not listen . . .”

(Genesis 42:22).

Harking back to the Biblical portion of Toldot, it is fairly clear that Isaac’s initial intention was to divide the material blessings (berakhot) and the religious leadership (bekhorah); Jacob was to receive the bekhorah of religious leadership and Esau the berakhot of material blessings. Rebecca convinces him that Jacob can and must utilize the techniques (hands) of Esau when the occasion demands it, so both the blessings and the first-bornship must go to the same son! Jacob’s tent of Torah study must have the technological, financial and military back-up to spread the values of ethical monotheism throughout the world.

However, we will see that Jacob himself repeats the division that his father had attempted. He gives the material blessings — fruitfulness and a double portion of land — to Joseph, while the prize of religious leadership—the scepter of leadership goes to Judah (Gen 49:8-10, see Targum and Rashi). Why does Jacob pass over his first-born, Reuven, in favor of his fourth son, Judah?

We cannot help but admire the virtuous “stiff upper lip” of a self sacrificing Reuben, who attempted to quell his brothers’ anger against Joseph and save him from destruction at their hands. Even though he is the one with the most to gain from the removal of Joseph, it is Reuven who comes to Joseph’s rescue.

The Midrash emphasizes this when Leah names Reuben: “And Leah conceived and bore a son, calling his name Reuven, because she said ‘the Lord has seen into my affliction, now my husband shall love me’” (Genesis 29:32).

In Hebrew, these words may be seen as an acrostic from Reuben.

Hence the Midrash expands on the acrostic, “See (re’u) the difference between my son (Reuben) and the son of my father-in-law (Esau);

SHABBAT SHALOM: PARSHAT VAYIGASH GENESIS 44:18–47:27

We cannot help but admire the virtuous “stiff upper lip” of a self sacrificing Reuben, who attempted to quell his brothers’ anger against Joseph and save him from destruction at their hands. Even though he is the one with the most to gain from the removal of Joseph, it is Reuven who comes to Joseph’s rescue.

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Reuben did not sell his birth-right to Joseph and still he did not protest when Jacob gave Joseph the coat of many colors; moreover, he sought to extricate him from the pit” (Gen 39:20-22).

My revered teacher Harav Joseph B. Soloveitchik suggested that Reuben received his capacity to express largesse toward Joseph from his long suffering mother, Leah. When Leah says: “The Lord has seen my affliction,” the Targum explains, “My shame has been revealed before G-d — that is to say before G-d and not before anyone else, Leah sobbed into her pillow but she did not say a word to anyone else. She swallowed her pride and accepted her status in the eyes of her husband as long as she could fulfill her mission to bear and nurture many of the future tribes of Israel! Similarly Reuben believed that as the first-born, he had to protect the brothers from jeopardizing their position as “the tribes of G-d” even if that meant forfeiting his own chance for the bekhorah patrimony.

However, with all his good intentions Reuben does not succeed in saving Joseph from imminent death. He doesn’t read his brothers’ thoughts and feelings perceptively enough. When the brothers said, “Let us kill him and cast him into one of the pits,” Reuven responded, “Let us not destroy a life...Do not shed blood, cast him into this pit which is in the desert, but lay no hand upon him” (Genesis 37:21,22).

When Reuben sees that they want Joseph dead, he implores them not to strike the death blow,

but rather to allow Joseph to die “naturally” in the pit. The verse concludes by informing the reader that Reuben’s intent was to rescue Joseph after the brothers dispersed — but by then it may be too late.

Reuben might well find a dead brother when he is finally able to come to the rescue. Reuben gets “A” for effort, but he does not fulfill his mission to save Joseph.

When Jacob hears that the brothers have told the Grand Vizier about their youngest brother Benjamin and that he has insisted that Benjamin accompany them on their next journey to Egypt, he is disconsolate. Jacob refuses to give up Benjamin saying, “You have made me bereft of children; Joseph is gone, Simeon is gone, and now you wish to take Benjamin away (from me)” (Genesis 42: 36).

Reuben again courageously “steps up to the plate” but with a strange “promise”: “You can slay my two sons if I do not bring (Benjamin) back to you. Put him in my care and I will return him to you” (Genesis 42:37). Father Jacob obviously refuses to accept such a guarantee — and doesn’t even mention it in his refusal.

In both of these instances, Judah succeeds where Reuben fails; Judah not only has the right intentions, he also has the ability to enter the minds of his adversary and make the kind of offer they will willingly accept.

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

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18 • JEWZ IN THE NEWZ

JEWZ

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By Nate Bloom Contributing Columnist LIFT A CUP, WISH THEM MANY MORE Each year at this time, media outlets publish a list of celebs that died in the last year. I thought, instead, of giving you a list of Jewish celebs, over 80, who are still with us — a happy list. But such a list was too long for this column. As I did research, I noticed that a lot of Jewish celebs 85 years old and older were WWII veterans — and there were two famous “unexpected” celebs that really fought — saw combat — in the Israeli War of Independence.

So, on New Year’s lift a cup to these famous Jewish “Greatest Generation” guys, living representatives, in some sense, of the 500,000 Jews who served in the American armed forces during WWII — and drink another toast to the last two persons, below, who fought for Israel’s survival.

The people below, unless otherwise noted, are actors and/or comedians MARTY ALLEN, 89; ALLEN ARBUS (“M*A*S*H”), 90; ALAN BERGMAN, Oscarwinning songwriter, 86; MEL BROOKS, 85; SID CAESAR, 89; BILL DANA (“Jose Jimenez”), 87; HAL DAVID, lyricist, 90 (partner of BURT BACHARACH); KIRK DOUGLAS, 95; SHECKY GREENE, 85 ; STAN LEE, comic book writer, 88; TONY MARTIN, singer, 98; CARL REINER, 89, DON RICKLES, 85; AL ROSEN, baseball player and 1953 AL/MVP; 87; LARRY STORCH (“F-Troop”), 86; ABE VIGODA, 90; MIKE WALLACE, journalist, 90; ELI WALLACH, 96; JOSEPH WAPNER, real life and TV show judge, 92.

Israeli War of Independence: VIDAL SASSOON, hairdresser, 83; and Dr. RUTH WESTHEIMER, columnist, 83.

HEARTWARMING STORY Here’s a real nice holiday season “brotherhood” tale. As I write this, holding the second spot on the Billboard Magazine “100 hottest holiday songs” chart is a new tune called “Mistletoe,” sung by teen phenom Justin Bieber. Bieber, who comes from a religious Canadian Catholic family, is managed by SCOOTER BRAUN, 30, a practicing Jew. Braun discovered Bieber, then a complete unknown, by accident while looking at YouTube videos in 2007. He tracked Bieber down with some difficulty and persuaded Bieber’s reluctant mother to allow Bieber to come to Atlanta and record.

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The rest is showbiz history.

“Mistletoe” was written by ADAM MESSINGER and Nasri Atweh, two young Canadians who now live and work mostly in Los Angeles. They write songs and produce under the name, “The Messengers.” A very recent press release about a charity toy drive The Messengers were helping noted their respective backgrounds: “Considering Nasri’s Christian/Palestinian roots and Adam’s Jewish background, The Messengers are utilizing their diverse cultures to rewrite the holiday season in the spirit of fun and hope for every child. Toys collected by the drive will be donated to Children Affected by Aids Foundation. In addition, all monies raised will go to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.”

The late ELIZABETH GLASER, who contracted AIDS through a blood transfusion following childbirth, was the Jewish wife of actor PAUL MICHAEL GLASER (“Starsky and Hutch”).

SURPRISING HOLIDAY STORY Besides writing this column, I also write for a Jewish-foundation funded website called Interfaithfamily. (It aims to keep in the Jewish community, or bring into the Jewish community, persons and families of mixed religious background.) For some years, I have written an annually updated article for them called, “Jews Who Wrote Christmas Songs.” This year, as I say in my article, seven out of 10 of the most “played-on-the-radio” holiday songs were written or cowritten by Jews.

Three songs that always make the list of “top holiday songs” are “Rudolph, the Red-Nose Reindeer,” “Holly Jolly Christmas,” and “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.” All three were written by the late JOHNNY MARKS, who I found out was Jewish about five years ago. “Rudolph” was based on a 1939 poem of the same name by the late ROBERT MAY, who was Marks’ brotherin-law. (Millions of copies of the poem, in the form of a booklet, were distributed by a department store as a good will gesture.) I did a lot of research digging out May’s hitherto “hidden” Jewish background, and I just wrote a biographical article on Marks and May for the site above. I urge you to read it. Among other things — you’ll find out that May wrote “Rudolph” as his Jewish wife lay dying of cancer, and he ran the poem’s verses by his 4-year-old Jewish daughter and his wife’s parents. It’s a fascinating story in many other ways, too.

FROM THE PAGES 100 Y EARS A GO Mr. Leo Lucas and Miss Gisella Lackner were united in marriage on Wednesday evening.

Rabbi Mielziner officiated.

Mr. and Mrs. M. B. Hyman, of Lebanon, Ohio, was buried in the Montifiore Cemetery, Lick Run, last Friday morning. Rabbi Mielziner officiated.

Dr. and Mrs. Joseph Stolz and son, of Chicago, were in the city this week to be present at the celebration of the 75th birthday of Mrs. Fanny L. Rauth, the mother of Mrs. Stolz.

The visit of Judge Julian Mack, of the Federal Court of Commerce, to this city was made the occasion of a luncheon given in his honor at the Businessmen’s Club by a number of his friends and admirers, of whom there were about 50 present.

Mr. Max B. May presided. The speakers were Judge O. M. Sater, Judge John A. Caldwell, of the Juvenile Court, Mr. Elliot Pendleton and Mr. Bernard Bettman, Collector of the Port and until recently president of the Board of Governors of the Hebrew Union College, all of whom spoke in the most laudatory terms of the professional worth of Judge Mack, and of his valuable philanthropic work. Judge Mack replied in fitting terms. Among the other pleasant things that he said was that, though the exigencies of his career might call him to other places, Cincinnati was in his heart of hearts still his home, which he loved above all. The affair was an unusually pleasant one, and will long be remembered by those whose good fortune it was to be present. — December 28, 1911

75 Y EARS A GO Benjamin Berg, 65, of 825 Blair Avenue, passed away at Jewish Hospital Saturday, Dec. 26th.

Mr. Berg is survived by his father, Abraham Berg; a daughter, Mrs. I. A. Cohen, of Cincinnati and Los Angeles; a son, Isadore A. Berg; two sisters, Mrs. Jennie Hoffert and Miss Anne Berg; and three brothers, Isadore, Ralph and Harry Berg.

Mrs. Sarah Kahn Rosenbaum, 67, of 3576 Bogart Avenue, passed away suddenly at Miami, Fla., Saturday, Dec. 26th.

Mrs. Rosenbaum, widow of Mendel Rosenbaum, is survived by two daughters, Mrs. Reva Miller and Miss Rose Rosenbaum, and six sons, Meyer, Louis, Samuel, Harry, Sol and David Rosenbaum.

Mr. and Mrs. S. A. Waxman, of Virginia Apartments, have left for New York to spend the holidays with their sons, Abner and Stanley, and to attend the wedding of their

niece, Miss Doris Heckman, to Mr. Harold Goldberg, which took place Friday, Dec. 25th, at the Unity Club, Brooklyn.

Sidney A. Mendelsohn, 3547 Rosedale Place, Cincinnati, and Miss Annette Ferguson, 105 Dorset Road, Syracuse, were married Friday morning, Dec. 25th, at her home.

Miss Dorothy Becker, a junior at Wellesley, is spending the December recess with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Becker, of Ft. Thomas, Ky. — December 31, 1936

50 Y EARS A GO The marriage of Miss Barbara Copian, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Harold R. Copian, Wyoming, Ohio, to Arnold M. Rabkin, son of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Rabkin of Amberley, took place Sunday, Dec. 24, at 12:30 p.m. at the Pavilion Caprice in the Netherland Hilton.

Rabbis Fishel J. Goldfeder, Murray Blackman and Stanley R. Brav officiated. Dr. Victor E. Reichert gave the blessings before the dinner which followed the ceremony.

Miss Nancy Copian was her sister’s maid of honor. The matron of honor was Mrs. Larry Crisenbery of Lebanon, Ohio. The other attendants were Miss Judy Coplan, sister of the bride; Mrs. Arnold Sher and Miss Carol Bamberger.

The bridegroom’s father was best man. The ushers were the Messrs. Joseph Brant, Joseph Levine, Morton Rabkin, Alan Wolf and Marvyn Youkilis.

Harry Kaplan, a charter member of Beth Jacob Synagogue of Price Hill, passed away Friday, Dec. 22, at Jewish Hospital. His age was 93.

His residence had been at 3828 Glenway Avenue, Price Hill.

He is survived by two daughters, Mrs. Rebecca Spiegel and Mrs. Sam November; three sons, Isadore, Herman and Nathan; seven grandchildren; and eight greatgrandchildren, all of Cincinnati. — December 28, 1961

25 Y EARS A GO The marriage of Carolyn Wendy Abrahms and Jeffrey Samuel Coleman took place Aug. 17 at The Palm Beach Hilton, Palm Beach, Fla. Rabbi Steven Abrahms, brother of the bride, officiated.

The bride is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Abrahms, of Boyton Beach, Fla., formerly of Wyoming, and the granddaughter of Mrs. Edith Machles, of Scarborough, N.Y. The bridegroom is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Malcolm Coleman of Wyoming

and the grandson of Mrs. Emma Shaengold of Cincinnati.

Following a honeymoon to St. Thomas, the couple reside in Atlanta.

Mr. and Mrs. Andrew M. Schott (Dr. Sally Richard) announce the birth of a son, Daniel Edward, Dec. 23.

Grandparents are Mr. and Mrs. Robert Schott, all of Cincinnati.

Great-grandparents are Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Richard, Sr., and Mrs. Olga Schott of Cincinnati and Dr. and Mrs. Sigmund Weiss of North Miami Beach, Fla. Roslyn (Roy) Weiss, of 5300 Hamilton Avenue, passed away Dec. 26.

She was the wife of the late Herman Weiss, the mother of the late Jacqueline Weiss and the sister of the late Dan A. Collier.

She is survived by a nephew, Dan Collier of Cincinnati, and a niece, Peggy Peters of Rockville, Md. — January 1, 1987

10 Y EARS A GO Sidney Meyers of Palm Beach, Fla., passed away of natural causes December 12, 2001. It was his 97th birthday. Mr. Meyers was born in Cincinnati, the son of the late Mitchell and Bessie (Jaffe) Meyers.

Mr. Meyers served as board chairman of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, from which he later received an honorary doctorate of human letters. He was a president of Isaac M. Wise Temple and a councilman in Amberley Village.

He was a member of Losantiville Country Club and numerous other social and civic organizations.

His wife, Claire B. Meyers, predeceased him by three years. He leaves his children, Mitchell and Jacqueline Meyers, as well as his grandchildren, Pamela and John Margaritas of Westport, Conn., Barry Meyers of Snow Mountain, Vt. and Eliot and Michele Meyers of Cincinnati. There are two greatgrandchildren, Jason Margaritas and Maxwell Meyers. Mr. Meyers was the brother of the late Leona Rosenthal, Philip Meyers, Albert Meyers and Melville Meyers.

Members of New Hope Congregation donated an ambulance to the American Magen David for Israel at a ceremony held Dec. 16 at Cincinnati Hebrew Day School.

Stuart Susskind, New Hope treasurer, symbolically turned the keys to the vehicle, which was on display in front of the school, to ARMDI chapter president Ernst Kahn. The ambulance is dedicated to the memory of Rev. Manfred Rabenstein, the former spiritual leader of the congregation. — December 27, 2001

CLASSIFIEDS • 19

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2011

COMMUNITY DIRECTORY COMMUNITY 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) 722-7226 • mayersonjcc.org Camp Livingston (513) 793-5554 • camplivingston.com Cedar Village (513) 754-3100 • cedarvillage.org Chevra Kadisha (513) 396-6426 Cincinnati Community Mikveh 513-351-0609 • cincinnatimikveh.org Fusion Family (513) 703-3343 • fusionnati.org Halom House (513) 791-2912 • halomhouse.com Hillel Jewish Student Center (513) 221-6728 • hillelcincinnati.org Jewish Cemeteries of Greater Cincinnati 513-961-0178 • jcemcin.org Jewish Community Center (513) 761-7500 • mayersonjcc.org Jewish Community Relations Council (513) 985-1501 Jewish Family Service (513) 469-1188 • jfscinti.org Jewish Federation of Cincinnati (513) 985-1500 • shalomcincy.org Jewish Foundation (513) 514-1200 Jewish Information Network (513) 985-1514 Jewish Vocational Service (513) 985-0515 • jvscinti.org Kesher (513) 766-3348 Plum Street Temple Historic Preservation Fund (513) 793-2556 Shalom Family (513) 703-3343 • myshalomfamily.org The Center for Holocaust & Humanity Education (513) 487-3055 • holocaustandhumanity.org Vaad Hoier (513) 731-4671 Workum Fund (513) 899-1836 • workum.org YPs at the JCC (513) 761-7500 • mayersonjcc.org

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

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

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

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 Hadassah (513) 821-6157 • cincinnati.hadassah.org Jewish Discovery Center (513) 234.0777 • jdiscovery.com Jewish National Fund (513) 794-1300 • jnf.org Jewish War Veterans (513) 204-5594 • jwv.org NA’AMAT (513) 984-3805 • naamat.org National Council of Jewish Women (513) 891-9583 • ncjw.org State of Israel Bonds (513) 793-4440 • israelbonds.com Women’s American ORT (513) 985-1512 • ortamerica.org.org

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production@ americanisraelite.com HAVEL from page 8 The European Jewish Congress called Havel a “great friend of the Jews” who “did much to confront anti-Semitism and teach the lessons of the dark chapter of the Holocaust during his two terms in office.”

The American Jewish Committee in a statement recalled how Havel in 1991 expressed of the Holocaust and anti-Semitism his “metaphysical feeling of shame of the human race, of mankind, of man. I feel that this is his crime, his disgrace.”

A statement from the Federation of Czech Jewish Communities said that Jews had respected Havel as a statesman and a world-renowned writer, and felt close to him “as a friend who had an understanding of human concerns and joys.”

Wiesel said he often wondered how a fellow writer dared enter the political sphere.

“I asked him once, why did he want to become president, you are already a great writer and a great playwright,” Wiesel recalled. “As president you have adversaries, as playwright no one was your enemy.”

Havel responded, according to Wiesel, that he was the only one capable of overseeing the peaceful split of the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

“My nation had to split,” Wiesel recalled Havel as saying.

“Only I could do that, to split a nation in peace.”

Sharansky said Havel’s courage as a dissident long outlasted Czechoslovakia’s emergence from communism. It was Havel’s reputation that led Sharansky to convene the 2007

• • • • •

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(513) 531-9600 Democracy and Security International Conference in Prague in 2007.

Havel, along with Sharansky and former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, was a co-chairman of the conference, although Havel was mostly absent — his illness already had hobbled him. But his message pervaded the proceedings.

“His moral clarity, his courage, his charm, his sense of humor really influenced many people at the conference,” Sharansky said.

“His experience was their experience whether they came from Egypt, from Iran, from Iraq, from Sudan.”

Havel and Aznar were cofounders of Friends of Israel, a grouping of European leaders who sought to counter the burgeoning anti-Israel rhetoric on the continent.

That’s where his appreciation for Jews and Israel and his deep commitment to human rights converged, said Josh Block, the group's U.S. director.

“People who have the experience of fighting intolerance and repression understand how important it is to stand for those countries that stand for democracy and freedom,” Block said.

It was a stance that the proIsrael community appreciated, said Daniel Mariaschin, the executive vice president of B’nai B’rith International.

“At a time when many European leaders find the opportunity to upbraid Israel, he would stand his ground, seeing Israel as a strong democracy in the place of nations,” he said.

(Ruth Ellen Gruber contributed to this report from Prague.)

20 • NEWS

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

MENORAH from page 4 Deerfield Township Trustees President Pete Patterson lit the torch to kindle the lights of the menorah, followed by the City of Mason’s new mayor, David F. Nichols, who lit the Shamash.

Afterward, Rabbi Kalmanson climbed the ladder to light the first candle of Chanukah — making history in the process by sending a message of peace, hope and Jewish pride.

Mason-area dignitaries attending the event included Nichols and Patterson, as well as Victor Kidd, vice mayor, Don Prince, Charlene Pelfrey and Tom Grossmann, former Mason mayors, Chris Romano, Deerfield Township trustee, and Jim Childers, manager of Deerfield Towne Center.

“We are grateful to the Deerfield Towne Center for hosting this historical event,” said Rabbi Kalmanson. “We know that a little light dispels much darkness.

Chanukah is a time for celebrating the freedom to openly celebrate our values; this giant menorah proclaims that message to the world.

The symbolism of the Chanukah lights is that we can light up extreme darkness with even a small flame. We should also be cognizant to increase that light each night, for the goodness we do must never remain stagnant. We strive to increase in performance of mitzvot, the light of Torah, for each Jewish person is a Lamplighter who brightens our surroundings.”

He added, “The Jewish community is so proud to be a part of this historical event. We are excited to participate, as this is the first public display of Jewish pride and Jewish practice in the Mason area.

The Jewish Discovery Center is providing a Jewish infrastructure for every single Jewish person in the area’s growing Jewish community, and this program provides unity, light, and joy.”

Rabbi Kalmanson pointed out that even more than reading and talking about tradition, children and adults learn best when experiencing the values firsthand. The lighting event allows individuals to be a part of something greater than themselves in building memories that turn into tradition for themselves and future generations.

“Traditions give us a sense of our heritage, allowing us to relive the energy of the initial moment while connecting us to our past and linking us to our future. Starting this new lighting tradition for the Mason area amplifies the Chanukah experience and highlights the traditions we follow, while creating new memories to remember and cherish in the future,” said Rabbi Kalmanson.

Rabbi Kalmanson’s speech: We are so fortunate that we live in a free society, where our city and neighbors are not just tolerant but embrace us for who we are and

(Clockwise) Mason-area dignitaries from L to R: Former Mason Mayor Don Prince, Rabbi Kalmanson, Mason Mayor David Nichols, Deerfield Township President Pete Patterson and Deerfield Township Trustee Chris Romano; Rabbi Kalmanson lights a menorah candle on the first night of Chanukah; (L to R) Mosaic artist Joyce Kaufman, Judah Maccabee (Usher Friedman) and Allen Miller. Miller said, “My wife gave me this hat because she knew I would wear it;” Coloring and other activities for the children; Judah Maccabee with Lauren Aknin.

what we stand for. And for this we must give thanks to G-d Almighty.

— CANDLE. Let’s light up the night!

Over the past few weeks, I get the annual phone calls about how difficult it is to be a Jew during this time of year. At schools, businesses and public places the non-Jewish holiday displays are ubiquitous.

Coupled with songs and parties – it’s simply everywhere.

How do Jews remain proud at this time of year, especially in places like Mason, Ohio? How can we compete against such great odds? Indeed, we cherish the religious freedom that our great country affords us. But we are, after all, a minority.

At its core, the tradition of Chanukah, and specifically the lighting of the menorah, is a call for the amplification of light and tolerance. Chanukah embodies the mission of Jews in this world. Each of us is called upon to be “a streetlamp lighter.” Our Divine mandate is to be a Light Unto the Nations.

We are to go out into the public square and kindle the nearly extinguished flame of individual souls, one soul at a time. This is why we

strive to place a Menorah in public places. Each candle we light symbolizes the Mitzvot — the Divine deeds that we do. And every fulfilled Mitzvah kindles the flame of a soul and restores it to G-d.

We must realize that we are not alone in this feat. Millions of us are doing the same thing around the world. In fact, this year’s stats show that there are over 15,000 such Public Lighting Ceremonies in 75 countries. Our tradition is with us. G-d is with us. We must remember that a Jew is never alone.

The Maccabees might have been physically outnumbered, but they recognized that all of their fellow Jews were with them. A Jew is never alone.

If we are alone, we do indeed feel outnumbered. But just as every American soldier fighting overseas can feel the support of the entire country behind him, every Jew can feel the soul of our people pulsating within her singular body, no matter where.

The juxtaposition of Chanukah in the secular calendar creates an extra reminder for us that a Jew is never alone.

But just like the Maccabees, we must spring into action — proclaiming our faith to ourselves and our children and drawing our spiritual swords. If we, as Jews, embrace this wonderful gift – miracles can happen.

I want to take a special moment to thank Jim Childers and his team here in Deerfield Towne Center for hosting us and for making this Giant Menorah happen. Jim, you are making history. Thank you!

A thank you goes to all our volunteers for spreading the word and for putting this beautiful program together. These things don’t happen by themselves. Thank you!

Thank you to our men and women in uniform, who proudly protect our country, our city and our township. Thank you, officers, for joining us tonight.

And a special thank you to our elected public officials for joining us in making history. President of Deerfield Township Trustees, Mr. Pete Patterson, City of Mason Mayor, Dave Nichols; Vice Mayor: Victor Kidd; Former Mason Mayor: Don Prince; Former Mason Mayor: Tom Grossmann, who proclaimed Mason Mitzvah Day in

2008; and my dear friends Former Mason Mayor: Charlene Pelfrey and her husband Pastor Jerry Pelfrey.

A big round of applause for everyone who braved the weather and came out to show solidarity and unity as we make history tonight!

I call upon President Pete Patterson to get us started by lighting the torch.

I call upon Mason Mayor, Dave Nichols to light the Shamash with the torch, as my Hebrew School class sings the three blessings over the candle lighting.

Don’t forget to get your picture taken with Judah Maccabee. Your pictures will be posted on our website afterward.

Please watch carefully, so that you can do this at home with your own Menorah. If you don’t have one, you can get one at the table. I encourage each of you to light your own Menorah at home by the window, so that the flames can be seen from the outside, as we each light up the night on our own block. For more info on the hows and whens, and for the blessings, check our Jewish Discovery Center website.

NEWS • 21

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2011

2011 from page 6 Obama delivers a major speech on Mideast policy in which he states that Israeli-Palestinian negotiations should be based upon “1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps.” The formulation sparks a fiery debate over whether the president was simply reiterating longtime U.S. policy or pressuring Israel. Soon after, the president holds a tense news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Both leaders speak to thousands of pro-Israel activists at the annual AIPAC policy conference. Later, Netanyahu receives multiple ovations during remarks to a joint session of Congress.

After a deadly tornado strikes Joplin, Mo., the Jewish community sends help.

In the Chasidic village of New Square, N.Y., an arson attack that leaves a Jewish man severely burned raises questions about religious violence in the name of fealty to a rebbe.

The Obama administration says it will not participate in the so-called Durban III conference at the United Nations in September to mark the 10th anniversary of the U.N. anti-racism confab in South Africa, which turned into an anti-Israel hate fest. By midSeptember, other countries boycotting the conference include Canada, Australia, Israel, Germany, the Czech Republic, Italy and the Netherlands.

JUNE One of the most ardent proIsrael Democrats in Congress, New York’s Anthony Weiner, is engulfed in scandal over lying about illicit messages sent on Twitter and eventually resigns. In a special election held in September to fill the seat in Weiner’s heavily Democratic district, Republican candidate Bob Turner wins an upset victory in a race many describe as a bellwether for national discontent with Obama.

Yale University shutters its Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Anti-Semitism, saying it failed to meet certain academic criteria. Critics, however, claim the program was killed for shining a light on Muslim anti-Semitism.

Cottage cheese, a national staple in Israel that has seen its price rising steadily, becomes the focus of a consumer revolt and a symbol of frustration with the high cost of living in the Jewish state. Later, the protests broaden and focus on the shortage of affordable housing in the country, with mass demonstrations and tent cities popping up in Tel Aviv and elsewhere.

JULY The lower house of the Dutch parliament passes a ban on kosher slaughter, spurred on by the unlikely convergence between animal

rights activists and the country’s far-right, anti-Muslim movement.

After a flotilla of ships to Gaza fails to launch from Greece, protesters announce a planned “fly-in” to Israel to protest its treatment of the Palestinians.

Jewish communities in New York and Houston are rocked, respectively, by the murder of 8year-old Leiby Kletzky, who was abducted walking home from summer day camp in Borough Park, Brooklyn, and a car crash that instantly killed Josh and Robin Berry, 41 and 40, and left two of their three children paralyzed from the waist down.

For the first time since 1945, the Maccabi Games — the socalled Jewish Olympics in Europe—are held in a Germanspeaking country. Maccabi officials said the crowd made up the largest gathering of Jews in Vienna since the Holocaust.

Israel passes a law that penalizes those seeking to boycott Israel or West Bank Jewish settlements.

American Jewish groups slam the law as undemocratic.

As media mogul Ruport Murdoch’s News of the World is engulfed in a phone-hacking scandal and shuts down, some Jews worry that a pro-Israel voice in the media will be muted.

British Jewish singer Amy Winehouse, 27, dies.

Anders Behring Breivik, a Norwegian anti-Muslim extremist who wrote a manifesto expressing sympathy for Israel’s plight, bombs a government building in Oslo and goes on a killing spree on the nearby island of Utoya, killing 77.

Israelis protesting the absence of affordable housing and the high cost of living in Israel stage massive demonstrations, erecting a sprawling tent city in Tel Aviv and blocking roads around the country.

Amid the crisis, the prime minister cancels an overseas trip and proposes a series of changes. The movement gains steam throughout the summer, culminating in a protest of hundreds of thousands in early September. A few days later the tent city in Tel Aviv is disassembled. Activists vow to continue their campaign.

AUGUST Standard & Poor’s says ratings for the loan guarantees that Israel obtains from the United States dropped commensurate with its downgrading of the U.S. credit rating.

The Obama re-election campaign hires Ira Forman, the exchief of the National Jewish Democratic Council, as its Jewish outreach director.

The brother of Yankel Rosenbaum, the Jewish scholar murdered in the 1991 Crown Heights riots, decries the Rev. Al Sharpton’s participation in a synagogue event on the riots’ 20th

anniversary. Sharpton pulls out of the event and pens an Op-Ed in the N.Y. Daily News acknowledging that he made some mistakes during the riots.

Obama calls for Syrian President Bashar Assad to resign in the wake of attacks by his government that have killed thousands.

Eight Israelis are killed in a terrorist attack along the EgyptIsrael border that sparks a diplomatic crisis with Egypt when Israeli troops pursuing the terrorists open fire on Egyptian soil and three Egyptian security forces inadvertently are killed. Israel quickly apologies but expresses concern that terrorists from Gaza are using the Egyptian Sinai as a route to attack Israel. Meanwhile, Israel and Gaza rocket crews trade airstrikes and rocket fire.

Libyan rebels topple Muammar Gadhafi from power, but fighting between Gadhafi loyalists and rebels continues in points around Libya. With Gadhafi the third Arab dictator to fall in nine months, analysts wonder if Syria’s Assad is next.

Menachem Youlus, a rabbi who claimed that he rescued Torah scrolls lost during the Holocaust, is arrested on fraud charges and accused of fabricating the stories.

Hurricane Irene churns up the East Coast of the United States, flooding towns, disrupting transportation and killing more than 30 people, including three Jews, one of whom dies trying to save a boy and his father from electrocution.

The boy later succumbs, becoming the fourth Jewish death reported in the historic storm.

SEPTEMBER Lauren Bush, granddaughter of the first President Bush and niece of the second, marries Ralph Lauren’s son in a ceremony presided over by an ordained rabbi.

Turkey expels Israel’s ambassador to the country and downgrades diplomatic and military ties.

The Obama administration confirms it will veto any U.N. Security Council resolution recognizing Palestinian statehood ahead of an anticipated U.N. vote on a Palestinian state.

An Egyptian mob breaks into the Israeli Embassy in Cairo, ransacking the building and tearing down its security walls. Israeli personnel are stuck inside for hours until Egyptian commandos arrive at the scene. The Israelis later are evacuated from the country by Israeli Air Force jets. The attack exacerbates fears in Israel that it is losing a once-reliable ally to the south.

A California court finds 10 students affiliated with the Muslim Student Union at the University of California, Irvine, guilty of two misdemeanor counts for disrupting a speech in February 2010 by Israel’s ambassador to the United

States, Michael Oren.

Some 15 countries announce before the Durban Review Conference known as Durban III that they will boycott the proceedings. The one-day session receives little attention amid all the goingson at the United Nations.

The Palestinians submit their bid for statehood recognition to the U.N. Security Council. In speeches at the U.N. General Assembly, President Obama rejects the Palestinians’ unilateral approach, saying that Israel’s security concerns are legitimate and must be addressed. In dueling speeches in the same forum, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas trade charges of ethnic cleansing.

OCTOBER After five years of being held captive by terrorists, Gilad Shalit is released. Israel makes a huge trade releasing 477 Palestinian prisoners including more than 200 who had been involved in terror attacks against Israel, in exchange for Shalit.

NOVEMBER Argentine female Jewish boxer defends title in Buenos Aries.

Carolina Raquel Duer, 33, is the World Boxing Organization’s super flyweight champion. Making the third defense of her title, Duer defeated Maria Jose Nunez by a technical knockout in the third round. Duer knocked down her Uruguyan opponent with a left cross, Nunez scrambled to her feet before her cornerman—also her husband—threw in the towel to stop the fight.

Sex segregation spreads among Orthodox. An online expose revealed that women on a New York City-franchised bus were required to sit in the back, those who seemed to be least outraged were the women who actually ride the bus and live in the two heavily Orthodox Brooklyn neighborhoods it connects. The revelation that gender segregation was enforced on a bus franchised by the city raised the hackles of New York officials, who soon pressured the private bus company holding the city franchise to reverse its policy.

But to many who live in the haredi Orthodox world, the practice of sex segregation, which appears to be spreading increasingly into the public sphere in Orthodox communities, is an unremarkable fact.

DECEMBER Regge singer Matisyahu shaves off his beard causing speculation on his religiosity.

Yeshiva University is rocked by a censorship scandal of the student run newspaper, the YU Beacon.

The Beacon strikes out on its own, declaring independence and forefeits school funding.

SEEKING from page 6 “It gives me the chills because the history of the family is very interesting,” Gravitz said of Finkelstein. “It’s wonderful. His branch of the family survived because of him — the Finkelstein branch we were never told about much. … It takes courage [for him] at 88 to start looking. It’s nice that I found out about him.”

Finkelstein described himself as “satisfied” to discover an American relative, and looks forward to communicating with Gravitz. He said he wishes he had launched his search 40 years earlier. If Gravitz and her husband, Sidney, visit Israel, “I’ll provide them with the greeting a king would receive,” he promised.

He delivered a message for JTA, too.

“I want you to know something,” Finkelstein said. “I very, very much appreciate this.”

Please send a message to Seeking Kin at JTA if you would like our help in searching for long-lost friends or family. Please include the principal facts in a brief email (up to one paragraph) and your contact information.

NORTH KOREA from page 7 That outreach makes sense, Levin said.

“If and when leadership changes in North Korea, they’re being able to go to the Rolodex” and reinitiate contact with Jewish interlocutors “could have potential value,” Levin said.

The North Koreans, Rosen said, were interested in the potential Israel had for educating its professionals, particularly in agricultural techniques. Outside experts say most North Koreans live at subsistence level.

“We found it interesting to see how openly they wanted to discuss more engagement with Americans, and took the time to talk about Israel to learn more about agricultural techniques,” he said. They also were interested in investment.

Rosen relayed the North Koreans’ interest in such engagement to Israeli and American officials, but nothing came of it.

Levin said Israel’s expertise in agriculture, water conservation and economic development would be a natural for North Korea to seek.

“It’s no secret their economy is a disaster,” he said. “They need help from A to Z and don’t have a lot of places they can turn to.”

The uncertainty in this transition period has made the need for outreach sharper, Rosen said.

“The big question here is, do we understand the risk in the days ahead after the death of Kim Jong Il of destabilization?” he said. “We ought to understand there are opportunities here we need to take a close look at.”

22 • OBITUARIES D EATH N OTICES SCHWARTZ, Janie, age 60, died on December 21, 2011; 25 Kislev, 5772.

ROBINSON, Jack B., age 89, died on December 21, 2011; 25 Kislev, 5772.

RUBENSTEIN, Dr. Eli, age 89, died on December 27, 2011; 1 Tevet, 5772.

O BITUARIES SCHWARTZ, Jacqueline Helen Lipsky This world lost a beautiful BIENNIAL from page 8 In an interview with JTA, Jacobs added, “If we don’t start thinking differently about youth, it’s certainly not a bright and rosy future.”

The bleak prognosis for the movement was belied by a biennial that many participants described as the most energetic they had ever attended.

“I’ve felt inspired by this conference,” said Jonah Kaplan, 25, of Springfield, Mo. “My belief in the movement has been reaffirmed. It’s important to get some Yiddishkeit and Jewish vigor and Jewish identity, and be surrounded by people like me who share the same passion for Judaism that I do.”

Nearly 6,000 people attended the biennial, making it the biggest Reform conference in history and the first to be sold out, and featured speeches by President Obama, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, among others. It also was the last biennial SKIING from page 9 With war raging in Europe, Blake soon joined the U.S. Army as an intelligence officer, interrogating top Nazis, including Hermann Goering, in his native German. Concerned about his Jewish-sounding name, the Army had him change it to Blake.

Blake flew to Europe on the day of the Normandy invasion and joined Gen. George Patton on the front. He was with the Patton when the U.S. Army encountered the first Nazi concentration camp in 1945.

The experience, Blake’s son Mickey said, always haunted his father.

Nevertheless, Blake never felt comfortable identifying outwardly CHANUKAH from page 9 That trip to Israel, he said, was “a very symbolic way to show what Czech foreign policy would be. It was a very important sign of what

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wife, mother and friend on December 15, 2011. Jacqueline (Jackie) Schwartz of Wyoming, Ohio, age 68, died peacefully following a courageous battle with breast cancer.

Jackie was born on June 28, 1943 and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y. She was a devoted daughter to the late Aaron and Ruth Lipsky. She married her husband Joel in 1966. After having two children, whom she adored, Jackie moved to Cincinnati and was a stay-at-home mom spending her time being a dedicated and loving mother. After her children grew older, she began working at several ladies apparel stores and most recently worked

for J.Crew. As her many loyal customers can attest, Jackie had a keen fashion sense and was a pleasure to work with.

Jackie loved spending time with her family. Her family has many fond memories of her visits to Cape Cod and Chicago. She enjoyed playing games with her grandchildren, cheering them on at their activities, celebrating their birthdays and buying gifts for them.

Jackie was loved dearly by her family and friends. Her grandchildren called her “Meema Jackie.” She was a loving and thoughtful wife, mother and grandmother and her loss leaves a void that can never be filled.

Jackie was a daughter, sister, wife, mother, grandmother, aunt, sister-in-law, cousin and loyal friend. This wonderful woman will be remembered and missed by everyone who knew her.

Jackie is survived by her husband, Joel Schwartz; her daughter, Ellen (Scott) Schwartz Abramson, of Sandwich, Mass., and her son, Brian (Lisa) Schwartz, of Hawthorn Woods, Ill.; and her grandchildren, Evan, Alec and Emma Abramson and Carly Schwartz. She is also survived by her sister, Pauline Leopold, of Sarasota, Fla., as well as her brother- and sister- in-laws, nieces, nephews and friends.

The family would like to

thank her many close friends, extended family and devoted medical team for their help and comfort during her illness. Your thoughtfulness and compassion will never be forgotten.

The funeral and burial took place on Sunday, December 18.

Memorial donations may be made to Susan Komen for the Cure at komen.org or to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Attn: Donor Services, P.O. Box 650309 Dallas, Texas. 75265.

To sum up a life is a difficult task and goodbyes are not forever. Until we meet again, our beautiful mother and grandmother.

Because we knew you…we have been changed for good.

with Yoffie at the helm. Jacobs, who has been the rabbi at the Westchester Reform Temple in Scarsdale, N.Y., will take over as president in January after 16 years of Yoffie’s leadership.

Sessions at the five-day conference covered everything from “Yoga Shalom: The Embodiment of Prayer” to “Is America Abandoning Church-State Separation? Implications for the Jewish Community.”

For many of the rabbis, cantors, lay leaders and teens from the National Federation of Temple Youth in attendance, the main motive for coming was to reconnect with old friends and be energized by the thousands of fellow Reform faithful.

The conference was a mix of old and new, reflecting some of the changes made by the movement over the last generation and some it has not made. The weekday prayer services consisted of participatory singing, guitar playing and even storytelling and meditation — part of a revolution in Reform prayer

led by the late singer-songwriter Debbie Friedman. But the Shabbat morning service was more formal and operatic, sending some congregants — mostly young people, but also gray-haired ones — out of the room and into the hallways to chat and fiddle with their phones.

Yoffie over the years has tried to make Torah a renewed focus of the movement, pushing for more Jewish study, Shabbat observance, the adoption of some kind of Jewish dietary ethos and the practice of mitzvot. To some degree the push has taken hold, though not always in step with traditional Jewish practice.

The communal Friday night dinner was kosher style, not kosher, there was a single challah at each table rather than the traditional two, and Shabbat candles were lit after Kabbalat Shabbat services, more than three hours after sunset.

At services, instead of the traditional “maariv” blessing on Friday night, the congregation chanted a piece of prose written by Anne

Frank. On Saturday, aliyot went to groups rather than individuals, and the selection from the weekly Torah portion amounted to just 11 verses — excluding the passage from the weekly portion that Obama had cited the day before in the d’var Torah he used to open his speech.

“We’re not a halachic movement and we don’t profess to be,” Yoffie told JTA. “We now have a Reform Judaism that is in a certain sense more traditional. We’re also more radical. We live with the contradiction.”

The question for the Reform movement isn’t how close or far it can get from halachah, or Jewish law, but whether it can interest the 80 percent of Reform Jews who stay away from the synagogue for two or three decades after their bar mitzvah.

Jacobs says that if young people aren’t going to come to the synagogue, the movement will just have to bring the synagogue to them. How that is to be done is not exactly clear. Jacobs, whose own temple hired a rabbinic intern to

work outside the synagogue to engage people in Jewish life, is starting by launching a campaign for youth engagement and going on a listening tour to learn about innovative and successful models.

Rabbi Jonathan Hecht, 51, of Temple Chaverim in Plainview, N.Y., says the movement has to move away from synagogues being bar-mitzvah factories — what Jacobs called a gas station to “fill up the next generation with Jewish gas” and what Sacks called a “supermarket where Reform Jews come to purchase services.”

“We are at fault for creating a model based on ‘You come to synagogue when your kids are in third grade and you’re out in eighth grade,’ ” Hecht said, lamenting that kids “see Reform Judaism as something you do at one time in your life, like college.”

It’s a question, he said, of resources.

“Are we willing to add more camps, more full-time youth workers?” Hecht asked. “Where are we putting our efforts?”

as Jewish — though it’s said that he gave generously to the local New Mexico UJA — and Blake kept his new name after the war.

“I feel it’s not fair to be marked, to wave a flag and allow others to make judgments before they know who and what you are,” Blake said in an interview for Richards’ book.

By 1949, Blake and his wife had settled in Santa Fe, where his ski career took off. Blake helped run both the Santa Fe ski area and Glenwood Springs ski basin in Colorado, traveling between the two in a small plane he piloted himself. It was on these trips that he spotted the remote peaks about 20 miles northeast of the town of Taos. He decided to start his own ski area there.

At first, people thought he was crazy. Aside from the logistical challenges involved — getting permits from the National Forest, carving ski runs, buying equipment, hiring staff — there was no established market for skiing in the area. The closest big city was Albuquerque — a place that wasn’t all that big, didn’t have many skiers and had its own local ski hill much closer by. Taos was more than three hours away.

But Blake persisted, and Taos gradually took shape, from a ski hill with little more than a rope tow and a couple of steep runs to the world-class ski area it is today, with 1,300 acres spread over 110 trails serviced by 13 lifts. The area, in the Sangre de Cristo range of the

Rocky Mountains, averages about 300 inches of snow per year.

Taos’ distance from a major city and its operation by the Blake family has helped keep its intimate feel. It doesn’t have a ritzy atmosphere or cookie-cutter base village, and it lacks the crowds that have made skiing at other resorts as much about waiting in line as schussing.

Blake’s legacy is still palpable on the mountain. Four ski trails are named after the German officers who tried to assassinate Hitler in July 1944. One slope, Al’s Run, is named for a Jewish doctor friend of Blake’s who supported the development of Taos and so loved skiing that he kept going even after a heart condition forced him to take to the

slopes with an oxygen tank strapped to his back.

And, of course, the mountain is still filled with Blake family members, whom you might spot working the register at the cafeteria, as Stagg does, or leading a ski lesson for kids. Until Blake’s death, he was doing some of those things himself.

“It’s a family business,” Stagg says.

One instructor I had recalled the radio spots Blake used to run late in the season, when the spring thaw already had begun. The skiing might not be so good, he would acknowledge in his thick German accent, “but ‘dere are still plenty of girls and’ dere is still plenty to drink.”

his priorities would be.”

On the domestic front, too, Kraus recalled, Havel had been extremely important. Not just with his condemnation of anti-Semitism, but with the active role he played in

addressing issues such as restitution of Jewish property and in awarding one of the highest state honors to Nicholas Winton, who organized the Czech kindertransport to rescue some 669 main Jewish children on

the eve of World War II. “Today we can look back into history over these past 22 years,” Kraus said. “Sometimes you don’t realize that you are living through history.”

He went on, “Havel’s passing will leave a very big gap. Since he left office, he was in a position without concrete power. But sometimes a moral authority is stronger than armies.”

2011 CALENDAR Special Issues & Sections J ANUARY

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Rosh Hashanah Jewish Year in Review

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Gift Guide

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Event Planning Guide

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