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Remembering Edward Rothenberg From the Chicago Tribune Archives: “Clad in blue and gold sweaters, matching skirts, bobby socks and saddle shoes, (the cheerleaders) led the crowd in cheers for Roosevelt High School’s Roughriders. Then their high school heroes—Lou Landt, Mickey Rotman, Morton “Mookie” Miller, Jerry “Moose” Malitz and Ed Rothenberg—took the court, ready to play another basketball game. “That’s what it was like when Roosevelt was the best team in Chicago in 1952.” Edward Rothenberg, age 77, passed away unexpectedly on May 28, 2012—the 7th day of Sivan, 5772. Born in Chicago, Ill., on December 8, 1934, he was the youngest child of the late Benjamin and Bertha (nee Ellison) Rothenberg. Mr. Rothenberg grew up in Albany Park, a Jewish neighborhood on Chicago’s North Side. He attended Theodore Roosevelt High during a time when the city was extremely segregated, and both racism and anti-Semitism were at a high. It was evident from an early age that Mr. Rothenberg was athletic. A fast runner, he distinguished himself as a star basketball player at Roosevelt High School. In regards to the anti-Semitism felt at that time, fellow teammate Fred Rosen once commented, “We almost had to fight our way out of every gym in Chicago.” A natural rivalry was created between the Roosevelt Roughriders, a predominantly Jewish team, and the DuSable Panthers, an AfricanAmerican team. In spite of the rivalry, the friendships ran deep because of the rejection and violence both teams faced during this turbulent time. In 1952, when Ed was team captain, the Roughriders won the city basketball championship game against the Panthers, going into triple overtime and sudden death. According to Ben Joravsky, a Chicago basketball historian, that game was “the best high school basketball game ever played in Chicago.” In later years, a documentary called “Team Colors” was filmed showcasing the Bronzeville
Edward Rothenberg
area Panthers and the Albany Park Roughriders. Following high school, Mr. Rothenberg received several scholarship offers for basketball. He accepted at the University of Cincinnati—a powerhouse school for basketball in the day—where he spent nearly two years. While there he shared a room with baseball great, Sandy Koufax. Mr. Rothenberg had a great rapport with the coach in his first season, as his stats showed he scored 217 points in 14 games. The coach remarked that he was an “excellent scorer, at his best under pressure. He scores best with an unorthodox jumping one hander termed the half-gainer.” Unfortunately, anti-Semitism continued at UC, both on and off the court, and Mr.
Rothenberg eventually left. Upon finishing his undergraduate education in business at DePaul University in Chicago, he returned to Cincinnati to work in real estate, and completed two masters’ degrees at Xavier University in Corrections and Child Psychology. After working as a real estate salesperson for three years, he went into business for himself as a real estate investor and broker. Over the years he owned and managed residential and commercial investments. Mr. Rothenberg taught real estate courses at the University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati Technical College and Raymond Walters. Additionally, he taught investment seminars to the public and continuing
education courses to real estate agents. Mr. Rothenberg occasionally contributed articles to The American Israelite. In the last year, two articles were published for the paper. In the first, he shared the joys of playing on a senior basketball league at the JCC, and in the second, written as a letter to the editor, he cautioned people to reconsider a reverse mortgage. Mr. Rothenberg loved his family and he understood the value of Jewish community activity. He spent a lot of time at the old JCC with his family, and he was a very involved father, going to the library, on bike rides, and coaching soccer teams. Although his family never belonged to a synagogue in his youth, Mr. Rothenberg loved being Jewish. He referred to the Torah as “The big book of his people.” Mr. Rothenberg volunteered at the Rothenberg Preparatory Academy near Over the Rhine. He also volunteered for Meals on Wheels, played Scrabble with residents at Cedar Village, and gave of his time at SCORE—an organization providing free and confidential business counseling. He even channeled his basketball skills as an assistant coach to players at Rockwern Academy. “One thing I learned from Ed are there are so many facets to a person’s personality, and it’s not possible to challenge what’s in each person’s heart. There’s no single way to figure out from the outside what a person really is. We only see the tiniest fraction of their life. We don’t know all of their good deeds,” commented Rita Rothenberg. Surviving relatives include his soul mate, Rita Rothenberg; his children, Daniel, Sarah, Naomi, Judith and Nathan; his grandchildren, Maddie and Henry; and his brother, Seymour. Mr. Rothenberg was predeceased by his siblings, Sophie and Lenny. Funeral services were held at Weil Funeral Home on May 31, 2012, and officiated by Rabbi Yisroel Mangel. The family would appreciate memorial contributions to the Cincinnati Jewish Community Center, Jewish National Fund, Hadassah, or Cedar Village.
LOCAL • 3
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2012
Invites t he commun ity to hear
Hal Weitzman Midwest Bureau Chief Financial Times
Latin Lessons: How the U.S. “Lost” Latin America
A group photo of some people from both communities who will be traveling to Israel.
Monday, Sept. 10 7:30 P.M. CINTAS CENTER, XAVIER UNIVERSITY
Cedar Village prepares for first-ofits-kind interfaith mission to Israel Two nonprofit retirement communities — Cedar Village Retirement Community in Mason and Otterbein Senior Lifestyle Community in Lebanon — are preparing for a groundbreaking interfaith mission to Israel. Cedar Village and Otterbein will be taking the 6,000-mile journey to better understand each other’s faiths. Otterbein is connected to the United Methodist Church; Cedar Village is affiliated with the Jewish community. An interfaith mission to Israel of older adults has never before been done. In Israel, they will visit sites significant to Judaism and Christianity, including some that are only hundreds of feet apart in the Old City of Jerusalem. They also will attend services at Jewish and Christian places of worship while continuing to have discussions about Christianity and Judaism throughout the trip.
The mission, called Building Bridges at Any Ages, will leave Oct. 24 and return Nov. 4. Thirty people will be traveling, including eight Cedar Village residents and five Otterbein residents. Some are in their late 80s. “We believe that this kind of mission demonstrates many things,” said Carol Silver Elliott, Cedar Village CEO and president.
A photo of Rabbi Gerry Walter, Cedar Village’s Director of Pastoral Care, with two travelers.
“It reminds us once again that age is just a number. These participants are setting an example for all of us — that learning and being openminded are possible at any age.” Leading up to the trip, the travelers are participating in eight educational sessions, jointly led by a pastor and a rabbi, to learn more about each other’s faiths. In addition, Rev. Barbara Schnecker of Otterbein and Rabbi Gerry Walter of Cedar Village have assigned three books for the mission participants to read about the religions. On the weekend before the mission departs, Otterbein residents will attend Jewish services at Cedar Village, and Cedar Village residents will attend Christian services at Otterbein. “This is an opportunity to understand what we, as Christians and Jews, have in common and what sets us apart and to do so in a healthy, constructive manner,” Schnecker said. “It’s a chance for us to experience different religious perspectives while remaining true to our own personal religious identity.”
The idea for the interfaith mission grew out of two prior Cedar Village missions to Israel. Jewish and Christian employees accompanied Cedar Village residents on those trips. The interest of the Christians and Jews on the trips to learn about each other’s religions led Cedar Village to consider planning a mission that would generate a deeper level of interfaith sharing and learning. Cedar Village approached Otterbein’s leaders, who immediately embraced the idea for an interfaith mission. During the World Choir Games in July, Cedar Village hosted a performance by the Ankor Choir from Israel. Otterbein residents who will be on the interfaith mission joined their Cedar Village counterparts for that concert. “It is wonderful to see the relationships developing between our folks and theirs, and it makes our anticipation for the upcoming interfaith mission even greater,” Elliott said. The choir director invited the mission participants to connect with them while in Israel, possibly for a rehearsal.
An expert on Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Chile, Hal Weitzman will show how Iran is gaining hold in South America as U.S. influence declines. His new book will be available for sale. This event is free and open to the public.
Questions? Call AJC at (513) 621-4020.
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Cincinnati Film Festival selects Kinderblock 66 In its third year, the Cincinnati Film Festival will bring brave and beautiful films and their filmmakers from around the world to showcase in our wonderful city. Held from Sept. 6 – 14, one of the films to be shown focuses on a significant yet unknown story from the Holocaust. After mid-1944, and the Allied landings at Normandy, World War II appeared to be nearing its bloody end. In the East, the Soviet Army offensive pushed the Nazi war machine back toward Germany’s borders. From the West, the U.S. and British armies pushed through France and Belgium toward the Rhine. But even as the war’s likely
outcome became clearer, the Nazis continued to fight tenaciously and to carry out their effort to exterminate the Jews of Europe. During 1944, the gas chambers continued operating at Auschwitz-Birkenau until the late fall. The Buchenwald concentration camp, located near Weimar, in Germany, was a central camp in the Nazi slave labor empire, and prisoners were brought to it from camps throughout the Nazi system. Transports arrived at Buchenwald from Auschwitz in spring and summer 1944, and in early 1945, the Nazis forced tens of thousands of Jewish prisoners westward on death
marches. Unknown thousands of prisoners died, shot by guards along the roads or frozen in open cattle cars. The survivors were then forced into new camps where chances of survival were limited – prisoners were forced to perform harsh labor, given starvation rations, and subjected to terror and wanton brutality. Established in 1937, Buchenwald was one of the largest and most well known German concentration camps. Early in its history, there had been Jewish prisoners at Buchenwald, but most had been killed or sent to Auschwitz to die in 1942. Now, in 1944, the Jewish population of Buchenwald rose again as
The American Israelite “LET THERE BE LIGHT” THE OLDEST ENGLISH-JEWISH WEEKLY IN AMERICA - EST. JULY 15, 1854
VOL. 159 • NO. 7 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2012 19 ELUL 5772 SHABBAT BEGINS FRIDAY 7:41 PM SHABBAT ENDS SATURDAY 8:42 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 YEHOSHUA MIZRACHI MICHAEL SAWAN Assistant Editors ALEXIA KADISH Copy Editor JANET STEINBERG Travel Editor MARIANNA BETTMAN NATE BLOOM IRIS PASTOR RABBI A. JAMES RUDIN ZELL SCHULMAN RABBI AVI SHAFRAN PHYLLIS R. SINGER Contributing Columnists JOSEPH D. STANGE Production Manager ERIN WYENANDT Office Manager e Oldest Eng Th
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the camp was flooded with some of the remnants of decimated European Jewry. Among these were a large and growing number of teenage boys, many of whom had lost family members in the ghettos and camps of Nazi-occupied Poland, or in the more recent Hungarian deportations to Auschwitz-Birkenau. The German Communist-led underground at Buchenwald, which administered the camp on a day-today basis, recognized this influx of children and youths as requiring a special response. The underground made a conscious decision to do what might be possible to protect the youths. The children were coming in such numbers that leaders in the clandestine conspiracy decided to establish a new children’s block, block 66. The location of the barrack was furthest away from the main gate and Nazi SS gaze, and the area was so horrible and disease ridden, the SS guards seldom went there. European Jewish children from all over the continent were transferred into the barrack in early 1945. The block was led by Antonin Kalina, a Czech Communist and his deputy, Gustav Schiller, a Polish Jew. The youths in the block did not work and were protected against being sent out of the camp. The block leaders watched over the children and cared for them to the extent possible, seeing in these youths hope for the future. They strove until the last days of the war and beyond to keep them from danger and alive. On April 11, 1945, Buchenwald was liberated. Nearly 1,000 boys survived. On April 11, 2010—65 years later—several of the surviving boys from block 66 returned to Weimar and to Buchenwald. This film tells their story. The film will be shown on Sunday, Sept. 9, at 11:30 a.m. and Tuesday, Sept. 11, at 7 p.m. at the Esquire Theatre.
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back to the U.S., where she received her new liver. Without the excellent care at Hadassah Hospital, her daughter surely would have died. Eternally thankful, Bonnie began volunteering for Hadassah, and in 2010, she was a guest speaker at the Hadassah National Convention in Florida. “Prior to Jessa’s illness, Hadassah was an organization I was vaguely familiar with but it certainly was not front and center on my radar screen. And now it has become of the utmost importance to me, and has now given me the vehicle in which to express my thanks for what they did for me and my family and my newly acquired passion for the work they do both in the United States and Israel and beyond.”
Est. 1854
Bonnie Juran Ullner
years, I have been crisscrossing the country from Alaska and Hawaii to Maine and Mexico, demystifying cooking and teaching fearless, fussless, easy ways to elegant cooking to all ages (including tots and
moms/dads). My recipes are user friendly and the style is simple, unique and loaded with hints and tips. Everything can be made ahead or frozen, takes about 20 minutes preparation time, and tastes fabulous.” Bonnie Juran Ullner is very excited to become the next Cincinnati Chapter president. Three years ago, her youngest daughter was in Israel on a Federation trip, when she fell deathly ill and was taken to Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem. The doctors there correctly diagnosed Wilson’s disease and began treating her for it, while arranging with Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York to procure a needed liver transplant. Hadassah Hospital doctors and staff flew with her in an adapted El Al jet
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The Cincinnati Chapter of Hadassah will hold its Opening Meeting/Installation Luncheon on Monday, Sept. 10 at 11:30 a.m. at Carrabba’s Italian Grill. All are invited to attend as we install our new president, Bonnie Juran Ullner and other new board members, as well as thank out-going co-presidents Sharon Casper and Bobbi Handwerger. Chef and cookbook author Sheilah Kaufman will present a delightful program about the history of the Jews and chocolate, including a chocolate tasting. Over the years, Kaufman has earned a name for herself as a “chef extraordinaire” with her uniquely refreshing, creative yet practical approach that demystifies gourmet cooking. The author of 26 cookbooks, she said, “For the past 40
r in Am ape er sp i
Bonnie Juran Ullner, Hadassah’s new Cincinnati Chapter president
THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE (USPS 019-320) is published weekly for $44 per year and $1.00 per single copy in Cincinnati and $49 per year and $3.00 per single copy elsewhere in U.S. by The American Israelite Co. 18 West Ninth Street, Suite 2, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202-2037. Periodicals postage paid at Cincinnati, OH. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE, 18 West Ninth Street, Suite 2, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202-2037. The views and opinions expressed by the columnists of The American Israelite do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the newspaper.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2012
BARRY KAPLAN
LOCAL • 5
“SERVING THE LOCAL REAL ESTATE COMMUNITY FOR 24 YEARS.”
Fusion Family Funday School kicks-off the New Year to a super sweet start “No reading, no writing, just real hands-on Jewish holiday fun for everyone!” That’s the motto of Fusion Family’s Funday School, a brand new series for interfaith families with young children who are looking for an engaging way to learn a little something, or a little something more, that they didn’t know before about Jewish holidays and traditions. First up in this interactive series is Gummy Yummy New Year, a free event where families can get their New Year off to a super-sweet start on Sunday, Sept. 9 at 3 p.m. in a private shelter at Weller Park. Guests will get to treat their taste buds to a delicious assortment of candy, cupcakes and other confections while they participate in a special program starring Miss Meliss, known for her engaging
stories and whimsical songs that bring basic Jewish concepts to life for children and parents alike! And, as a way to help young participants reflect upon their actions in the past year and think about the changes they hope to make for the New Year to come, they will have the chance to take part in an environmentally friendly Balloon Release. In addition, participants will also get to make candy necklaces and other craft projects, decorate cupcakes, sample baked goods from Busken and take a trip to the “Candy Bar!” Plus, kids are sure to love the larger-than-life Candyland game where they will become the actual game pieces and advance along the giant game board to win prizes as they wind their way to the finish line. Of course after the event, families will be able to stay and play on the adja-
cent playground and enjoy the rest of the afternoon at Weller Park together. The Gummy Yummy New Year event is a program of Fusion Family which is an initiative of The Mayerson Foundation. It’s free with advance reservations and open to all families in the Jewish community with children 10 and under in which at least one parent is Jewish and the other is not, or in which one or both parents have converted to Judaism. Older siblings and grandparents are always welcome. In addition to hosting free events throughout the year, Fusion Family offers six free New Traditions Toolkits to interfaith and conversionary families with children under the age of 10 who live FUSION on page 22
Rabbi Elana Dellal becomes the ‘Open Dor’ program director at Temple Sholom By Joshua Mizrachi Assistant Editor Temple Sholom has selected Rabbi Elana Dellal to lead their new program called “Open Dor.” This project will engage young professionals and young families in relationship building. It will be done by implementing innovative programming and interactive workshop opportunities. There is a Havdallah picnic to welcome Rabbi Dellal on Saturday Sept. 15,
at Temple Sholom from 6 – 8 p.m. Rabbi Dellal comes with experience in outreach. She was the executive director of Hillel Cincinnati. She has been very involved with community throughout her teenage years, volunteering at a nursing home, nannying for a girl and teaching music, and was also involved with youth groups. Rabbi Miriam Terlinchamp said, “Rabbi Dellal is a wonderful person. She is full of energy. She is charged with bringing in young
Rabbi Klaven returns to Valley Temple for Selichot Rabbi Marshal Klaven, director of Rabbinic Services for the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life headquartered in Jackson, Miss., will return to the Valley Temple bimah this weekend. Rabbi Klaven will be the scholar-in-residence during an adult education program on Saturday, Sept. 8 at 8 p.m., titled, “To Plant or Not to Plant Seed: Homosexuality and the Bible.” A reception will follow the adult education session, and the Selichot service will begin at 10 p.m. Rabbi Klaven served as rabbinic intern in 2008-09 during his final year of studies at HUC-JIR. “We are delighted to welcome Marshal back to Valley,” said Rabbi Sandford Kopnick. “He was a very popular intern, and we’re looking forward to the way he brings his profound warmth and sensitivity to his study topic,” Rabbi Kopnick added. Rabbi Klaven currently serves as a circuit rabbi in the southern
Rabbi Marshal Klaven
United States, helping small and struggling congregations with rabbinic services. He visits inmates in various prisons, and provides Judaism in remote areas as well as cities with dwindling Jewish populations. Rabbi Klaven is a native of St. Louis, Mo. and an alumnus of Goldman Union Camp Institute. Rabbi Klaven will also deliver the sermon at Friday night services and participate in the Shabbat morning service at Valley Temple.
families who won’t have to pay money. She is to make them understand and feel comfortable overall.” The “Open Dor” program is a trial program that will run one year. Rabbi Dellal will have a 10hour work week. They are hoping that Rabbi Dellal’s energy and unique skill trade will connect with young families and professionals and will make this program a success. This will allow them to continue the project in the future.
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United Center Chicago October 25th & 26th • 2 nights Hilton Garden Inn Oakbrook • Dinner & Show “XANADU” at the Drury Lane Theatre • Motorcoach Transportation • Dinner at Weber Grill • Chicago City Tour • Tickets are on the Club Level ($316.00) seats • Box Lunch and Snacks on way to Chicago • Stop at Shapiro”s Deli in Indianapolis on return!
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Talk on Iran ‘red lines’ comes after U.S. general distances himself from Israeli strike By Jacob Kamaras JointMedia News Service Following U.S. General Martin Dempsey’s statement that he won’t support an Israeli strike on Iran and the report that the Islamic Republic has doubled its uranium enrichment capacity at Fordow, Israeli officials and others are expressing concern over America’s commitment to preventing a nuclear Iran and helping to defend Israel against that threat. Dempsey, chairmain of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters the following in London on Aug. 30 regarding the possibility of a unilateral Israeli military strike: “I don’t want to be complicit if they choose to do it.” He also said the “international coalition” applying pressure on Iran “could be undone if [Iran] was attacked prematurely.” The New York Times reported Monday that U.S. President Barack Obama is now considering setting “red lines” – points that, if reached, would prompt America to take military action against Iran. However, Yedioth Ahronoth reported the same day that the U.S. has indirectly told Iran it won’t support Israeli military action if Iran agrees to “steer clear of strategic American assets in the Persian Gulf.” The U.S. used “covert back-channels in Europe” to convey this message to Iran, according to the newspaper. White House Spokesman Jay Carney said the Yedioth Ahronoth
Courtesy of the White House
President Barack Obama reflects while standing in the White House ground floor corridor in 2009. Obama might currently be mulling America’s “red line” for a military strike on Iran, the New York Times reports.
report is “false” and that the U.S. doesn’t “talk about hypotheticals,” according to Reuters. On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet that the international community is failing to set a “clear red line” for Iran over its nuclear program. Netanyahu said Iran “doesn’t see determination” from other countries that they will do what it takes to stop its nuclear quest. Netanyahu’s warning followed that of Israeli Vice Prime Minister Moshe Ya’alon, who said Aug. 31 that “our friends in the United
States” are “in part responsible” for the fact that Iran doesn’t fear international action against its nuclear program. “There are many cracks in the ring closing tighter on Iran,” Ya’alon said. According to the quarterly report issued last week by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran has doubled its uranium enrichment capacity at its underground facility in Fordow. Fordow, located 130 kilometers from Tehran, is the location where many in the West suspect that Iran is secretly carrying out its nuclear pro-
gram. The IAEA report states that the number of centrifuges at Fordow increased to 2,140 from 1,064 in May, but adds that the new centrifuges are not operational yet. The IAEA also expressed concerns about Parchin, a military site south of Tehran that it wants to inspect for evidence of past nuclear weapons development. “Since 2002, the Agency has become increasingly concerned about the possible existence in Iran of undisclosed nuclear related activities involving military related organizations, including activities related to the development of a nuclear payload for a missile,” IAEA Director-General Yukiya Amano wrote in the report. Netanyahu said Sunday that the IAEA report “confirmed what we have been saying for some time” in Israel. While the Obama administration has repeatedly stressed that there is still time for diplomacy and sanctions to work in Iran, former U.S. Ambassador to the UN John Bolton told Ma’ariv that “time is on [Iran’s] side and they will continue with what seems like a well thought-out plan, mostly because they believe that the United States under Obama’s leadership will do nothing.” The Wall Street Journal published an editorial Saturday stating that while Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s threats to wipe you off the map have “the ring of honesty,” Obama – who has said the U.S. “will always have Israel’s back” – leads an administration that is trying “to sell to the public a make-believe world in which Iran’s nuclear intentions are potentially peaceful, sanctions are working and diplomacy hasn’t failed after three and half years.” “Not only is there waning confidence that Mr. Obama is prepared to take military action [against Iran] on his own, but there’s also a fear that a re-elected President Obama will take a much harsher line on an Israeli attack than he would before the first Tuesday in November,” the editorial said. Carney, the White House spokesman, said last week that Obama “has made clear frequently he is determined to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.” Obama has said the U.S. position on Iran is that “all options are on the table” to prevent a nuclear Iran. The president’s critics, on the other hand, question whether his administration would seriously consider a military option. Presidential candidate Mitt Romney highlighted the Iranian issue in his address to the Republican National Convention on Aug. 30, saying every American “is less secure today because [Obama] has failed to slow Iran’s nuclear threat.”
National Briefs New Maryland elementary public school named for Holocaust survivor (JTA) – A new public elementary school named after a Holocaust survivor opened in Silver Spring, Md. The Flora M. Singer Elementary School, whose name was unanimously approved by the Montgomery County Board of Education on May 8, opened its doors to students on Monday. Singer, who died in 2009 at the age of 79, spent three years hiding in a Belgium convent during World War II with her two sisters, according to Bethesda Magazine. A few years after reuniting with her father in New York City in 1946, Flora married Jack Singer and raised their two children in Silver Spring and Potomac, Md., where she taught in the public school system. Singer, who frequently traveled to share her personal story, was reportedly inspired to action when she encountered a flier on her car suggesting that the Holocaust was a hoax. “My mother said that she felt a cold chill down her spine when she saw that,” said Singer’s daughter, Sandra Landsman, in a YouTube video produced by Montgomery County Public Schools. “She felt it was very important to keep that memory alive and to let people know that she had lost family and she had lost friends.” L.A. synagogue starts Russian-Hebrew school class (JTA) – A Conservative synagogue in the Los Angeles area is starting a Russian-language religious school program. Congregation Beth Meier will start the program on Sept. 9 for children ages 6 to 8, at its Studio City campus, according to the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles. The program is designed to help the children build their Russian-language skills while learning about Judaism and Jewish culture, Rabbi Aaron Benson told the newspaper. The class will mirror the congregation’s English and Hebrewlanguage Jewish studies classes, he added. The approximately 100-family congregation has about one dozen Russian-speaking families, Benson said. He hopes the new program attracts additional Russian Jews living in the San Fernando Valley, Hollywood and elsewhere.
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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2012
Jews in the Bible Belt’s small towns face curiosity, ignorance By Holly Leber Jewish Telegraph Agency CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – Sometimes, Benjamin Rosenthal thinks about leaving the small town of Indianola, Miss., pop. 11,000, where he spent most of his life. He wants to go somewhere bigger, with more Jews. “It’s very easy to lose your identity in the Bible Belt in a town when you are the religious minority,” said Rosenthal, 25. In the Bible Belt, religion rules and Jesus is king, particularly in the small towns and cities that make up the region in the U.S. South. Jews comprise less than 1 percent of the population in the South, according to Louis Schmier, a professor of history at Valdosta State University in Georgia, with most living in large cities like Atlanta and Charlotte. Some so-called circuit rabbis travel hundreds of miles to different congregations, often with fewer than 50 members. One of the first questions a newcomer in the South is typically asked is “What church do y’all go to?” A self-described “displaced New Yorker” from Manhattan’s Lower East Side, Schmier, 70, moved South in 1962 with his own stereotypes. “My image was that on Saturday night every Southerner got himself liquored up, put on his sheet and went out looking for – ” he said, using two unquotable terms for Jews and blacks. In reality, he said, “They’re a nice people down here.” Nice, and often curious, says Rosie Perlstein, whose husband, Shaul, is rabbi of Chabad Lubavitch of Chattanooga. “People are always calling and always want to learn about” Judaism, she said. “People ask in a nice way. They’re polite. They’ll ask about different holidays.” The Perlsteins moved to Chattanooga from Brooklyn in 2009. While many people have a respectful curiosity about Judaism, others think it’s their duty to spread the word of Jesus, the rabbi said. “It’s impossible to stop in the South,” he said. The Perlsteins say that drive is not born of malice, but simple ignorance of other beliefs. This is a common sentiment expressed by Southern Jews. “The rank-and-file citizenry here knows Judaism and respects Judaism, but doesn’t understand Judaism, doesn’t understand why we don’t accept Christ into our heart as our savior,” said Robert Goldsmith, executive director of the Blumberg Family Jewish Community Services of Dothan, Ala. His wife, Lynne, is one of the traveling rabbis, as is Debra Kassoff. Based in Jackson, Miss., Kassoff
Courtesy of Rob Goldsmith
Rabbi Lynne Goldsmith, left, and her husband Rob Goldsmith, in front of their synagogue, Temple Emanu-El of Dothan, Ala.
makes a nearly 450-mile round-trip to Greenville, Miss., every other weekend. Rosenthal is among her congregants, traveling 30 miles to Greenville’s Hebrew Union Temple. Kassoff previously had been director of rabbinic studies at the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life in Jackson, which runs the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience, from 2003 to 2006. While there, she traveled a six-state region, conducting services in different cities that did not have a full-time rabbi. “There’s a world of difference between a Boston sensibility and a Jackson or Greenville sensibility,” said Kassoff, who served as the rabbi at Temple Emanu-El in Marblehead, Mass., from 2006 to 2010. “In Boston there is a large Jewish community. People can be Jewish, but not really show up,” she said. “In a place like Greenville, that is not as possible. It’s not possible to take for granted that there will continue to be services. We don’t have the same critical mass.” It is the lack of critical mass that led Kassoff to suggest holding services only every other week at Hebrew Union, and also led the Blumberg Family Jewish Community Services to launch the Family Relocation Project in Dothan, which offers up to $50,000 financial assistance to Jewish families willing to relocate to Dothan for at least five years. Stephanie Butler, 34, her husband Ken, also 34, were one of less than five families to take up the offer. In 2010, they left St. Petersburg, Fla. for Dothan. The Jewish community in their new home, she said, is close-knit, but very small indeed. Of more than 66,000 residents, only 65 families in the area are Jewish. “Here there are people who have never met someone who is Jewish,” she said. “Whether or not I feel responsible for educating them, they always have a lot of questions. They have an interesting perspective about Jews being the chosen people. They’re like, ‘Oh, I respect you so much.’And I’m like,
‘you don’t know me.’ They have preconceived notions about who and what Jews are.” Still, she said, she has not experienced bigotry or anti-Semitism during her time in Dothan. Likewise, said Kassoff, many of her congregants in Greenville have told her they have encountered confusion, but not cruelty. Rosenthal, however, said he has experienced some mild instances of anti-Semitism. As a child, “I got told I was going to Hell because I killed Jesus. It frustrated me to no end,” he said. One time, he added, a colleague asked him what he was doing for Easter. “You know,” she said, “because that’s the day y’all killed our lord and savior.” The Perlsteins’ experience has been a little different. They say their family’s devotion to their religion evokes a certain respect, particularly in an area where faith has such a stronghold. “I think people see that we’re Jewish, and that we’re proud of our religion and we hold it strong, and I feel like people have a strong respect for that,” Rosie Perlstein said. “Maybe it’s because they’re so religious. The idea of being proud of who you are instead of working on assimilating, I’ve found people to really respect that.” She said her family is in Chattanooga to stay – on a mission to enrich the Jewish community in a small city in the Bible Belt. Rosenthal, on the other hand, says he’s not certain he’ll remain in his small town. He had left Indianola for the University of Memphis, where he was active in Hillel and surrounded himself with Jewish friends – an experience that differed greatly from the private, Christian-based school he had attended growing up, where students prayed in Jesus’ name daily. After college, he moved back to Indianola, where he works as assistant director of information services at South Sunflower County Hospital. “It is a lot better than it was when I was a child,” he said. “Coming back and being more mature helped.”
8 • INTERNATIONAL
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Hungarian intellectuals relieved to see anti-Semitic play scrapped By Cnaan Liphshiz Jewish Telegraph Agency It’s a relieved Judit Csaki from Budapest that calls journalists with the anticlimactic news: The dramatic news conference on state-sponsored anti-Semitism that she had scheduled for next week is canceled, as Budapest Mayor Istvan Tarlos has just announced the scrapping of plans to stage an anti-Semitic play at a city-funded theater. For the international journalists, her call merely means searching for a new item. For Csaki, a theater critic, and her peers, it is reassurance that someone in power still checks the rampant anti-Semitism that Hungarian intellectuals – Jews and non-Jews alike – say they see as growing. The canceled play, “The Sixth Coffin,” is set in 1920 France and features a group of powerful Jews plotting to destroy Hungary and plunge humanity into another world war shortly after World War I had ended. The drama was set to premiere early next year in Budapest’s renowned New Theatre, which had received $500,000 last year from the
Courtesy of B. Molnár
A demonstrator outside the New Theatre in Budapest was part of a crowd of more than 1,000 protesting the appointment of the theater’s new director, Gyorgy Dorner, Oct. 22, 2011.
municipality. For Csaki and Adam Fischer, the general music director of the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra, the issue was a test case, indicative of increasing government tolerance to anti-Semitic behavior. They and other intellectuals formed an unofficial working group called It Cannot Be that lobbied Tarlos, actors’ associations and the local media to stop the staging of what they regarded as “incitement.” The mayor had been
silent on the issue until Tuesday’s announcement. “Some blame the mayor for letting the whole thing balloon into what it is,” Csaki said. “Others blame him for appointing an extreme rightist as director of the New Theatre and for never actually condemning the play. But I don’t agree. At least the mayor said something.” On Sept. 4, Fischer, Csaki and other members of the It Cannot Be group were going to announce an international petition calling for a boycott of New Theatre because of the staging of the anti-Semitic play. That was before the mayor’s announcement that Gyorgy Dorner, a rightist actor and director of the New Theatre, told him that the theater would scrap the controversial play and would perform an earlier play by Istvan Csurka, who wrote “The Sixth Column.” The mayor said the new play would be “about a completely different subject.” Fischer told JTA that his involvement in the issue “has to do with my family, and all the other victims of the Holocaust. But it is not the Jews alone, not
even the Hungarians alone, that worry me; I do believe that tendencies in Hungary ... are a danger for the whole of Europe.” The play’s plot revolves around two Hungarian scientists who invent a time machine that shows the 1920 signing of the Treaty of Trianon – part and parcel of the Versailles Peace Treaty that ended WWI. The machine shows how powerful Jews orchestrated the part in which Hungary loses 72 percent of its former territory. According to the script, which was not made public but was obtained by JTA, four Jews had decided to “dismember Hungary” and agitate the hostility that erupted into World War II. One of the Jews, Edmond James Rothschild —presumably the famed Baron Edmond de James Rothschild—is a member of the secret society of Jews and others. Later in the play, Rothschild says that “countries must keep blaming each other for their strife. I have no interest in giving money for peace.” Rothschild is a close friend of Leon Trotsky, the communist Soviet leader. “Thus, the capitalist and the communist Jews are intertwined
as the two faces of Jewry,” says Sandor Radnoti, a philosopher and arts scholar at Eotvos Lorand University who is among the intellectuals who criticized the play. Fischer says the staging and sponsoring of “The Sixth Coffin” would have been part of an ongoing process of growing acceptance of anti-Semitism in Hungary. “Things that were unthinkable five years ago are acceptable today,” he recently told the newspaper Nepszabadsag. “An artist must speak up when a publicly funded theater in the capital of an EU country plans to show antiSemitic pieces – something that has not happened since the war,” he said, referring to the end of World War II, during which Hungary was led by a pro-Nazi government. Noting that the ultranationalist political party Jobbik, whose leaders have made anti-Semitic remarks, is the country’s third largest party, Fischer also told Nepszabadsag, “It’s not that there is a far-right party in the Parliament, but that the parties in power don’t suppress rampant anti-Semitism, thereby encouraging it.”
Theologian urges interfaith dialogue among women International By Donald H. Harrison JointMedia News Service TECATE, Mexico – The Rev. Dr. Serene Jones – 16th president of the Union Theological Seminary, a New York City institution that was founded in 1836 – suggests that “somewhere around 80 percent of the world’s religious people are women, which means that the work that women are doing around the world is motivated by that.” “Religious stories are within [women’s] imaginations as they are doing the labor of everyday life,” Jones says in an interview in Mexico at 72-year-old Rancho La Puerta, where exercise, meditation, healthful nutrition, and spirituality are staples of visitors’ experience. Despite the statistical reality, it is mostly men who conduct works of interfaith dialogue – but Jones is trying to change that. In conjunction with the nearby Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), with which its academic courses are cross listed, the Union Theological Seminary is in the process of setting up an experiment in which 12 Christian, Jewish and Muslim women – the latter drawn from the ranks of Columbia University – will be divided into small groups to meet together regularly and, if funding can be found, live together. “They will live together consciously, and twice a week they will cook together, pray together and pray separately, and they will
Courtesy of Union Theological Seminary
The Union Theological Seminary in New York (pictured) is partnering with the Jewish Theological Seminary in an experiment in which 12 Christian, Jewish and Muslim women will be divided into small groups to meet regularly and, if funding can be found, live together.
talk about their spiritual experiences,” Jones says. “The idea behind this is if you want to completely understand another religion then you need to understand how the women, in terms of daily life, practice things. So I hope that the women – in fact, I know they will – will talk about clothes, talk about food, talk about health, talk about their bodies, and those are the things that don’t come into the classroom but those are the things that are making the future.” The dozen women will journal about their experiences, and with
guidance from a professor, may develop recommendations for a program “for a longer-term vision and a more substantive experience, but we have got to get it going to find out what is there,” Jones says. Jones believes her work “has to be global in purpose.” “It has to be international because the world is increasingly interconnected,” she says. “It has to take economics very seriously because we can see where we are right now as a nation: everything hinges on these questions of poverty and economic distribution.” When applying to be president of the Union Theological Seminary, Jones told those interviewing that issues of gender “were not going away and that the biggest social change that any of us confronted in the 20th century was that birth control created the possibility that women would have productive work lives, and that is true globally and still reverberations are being felt. “And then finally I told them that in the midst of all this change that would be happening, the most important thing to pay attention to was not necessarily the world of logical ideas but the world of beauty because of the deep unconscious levels that compel social transformation,” she says. “It has to do with affections and desires more than it does ideas and that (therefore) we needed to be a seminary that helped people understand our unconscious lives and
what it is that shaped our desires.” Many liberal rabbis say they feel more in tune with liberal Christian ministers than they do with Orthodox rabbis because their worldviews are more similar. Does Jones sense that in the future, religions might realign based more on concepts of social justice than on theology? Jones says the younger generation of religious leaders appears more interested in social justice issues than in whether they are Christian or Jewish. “I guess my pause is that I think moving toward a social-justice-inspired new thing is all very positive and good, but there is so much in our traditions that is necessary for that to go in the right direction, that we need to make sure that we don’t lose, because it is not a natural thing for people to care about each other,” she says. “That comes out of our religious traditions.” She explains that in both Judaism and Christianity there is a basic teaching that “people are created equally by God and that you cannot eradicate them, you cannot kill them; it is wrong. That is counter-intuitive when you look at evolutionary biology.” Jones adds that it is necessary “to have spaces in our social life where we insist on these counter-intuitive things like fundamental respect for the integrity of individual human life.” THEOLOGIAN on page 22
Briefs Brussels mayor apologizes for ‘42 deportations but ‘won’t pass judgment’ BRUSSELS (JTA) – The mayor of Brussels has apologized to the Jewish community for the municipality’s Holocaust-era “role” in deporting Jews, but added he would “not pass judgment.” Speaking to a crowd of a few hundred people on Sunday at a ceremony at Brussels City Hall, Mayor Freddy Thielemans said, “I want to officially extend apologies in the name of the City of Brussels to the Jewish community.” He also said, “It is not my place to pass judgment but I of course acknowledge the role the municipality and political and administrative authorities in the City of Brussels played in the deportation of Jews.” If not for the registration of Jews by the Belgian city, the deportation of Jews from Brussels in 1942 “would have never had the same impact,” Thielemans said. Complicit municipal authorities were therefore “partially responsible” for the result, he added. Eli Ringer, the honorary chairman of the Forum of Jewish Organizations, which represents Flemish Belgian Jews, told JTA that this was the first formal recognition of complicity by a Brussels mayor.
ISRAEL • 9
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2012
Migron evacuation: A look back and a look ahead By Israel Hayom JointMedia News Service The evacuation of all 50 Jewish families in Israel’s Migron outpost was completed on Sunday evening without major incident. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the successful and peaceful evacuation – but vowed that his government would continue to strengthen Jewish communities in the West Bank. Speaking at an event to celebrate the opening of the new Lod District Court, Netanyahu said, “We are committed to following the rule of law in this country. This is a clear line that I follow, even on sensitive days like these. We honor court orders and we also strengthen the settlements, there is no contradiction between the two. I welcome the fact that the Migron issue, like that of Ulpana before it, ended through dialogue and responsibility and without violence while honoring the court ruling. That is how it needs to be and that is how it will be.” Israeli police said on Sunday that Jewish residents left Migron quietly for temporary housing in another neighborhood, Givat Hayekev, but eight youths who came to Migron to protest against the eviction were arrested for attacking police. Some 70 Jewish youths ensconced themselves into two buildings at the outpost on Saturday night ahead of the expected evacuation, despite opposition from other residents. Far Right MK Michael Ben Ari (National Union) was among those who had to be forcibly removed from the site. The area has now been declared a closed military zone, and Israeli Defense Ministry staff stayed on site Sunday to pack up the belongings of the residents. Almost all
Courtesy of Oren Nahshon/FLASH90
Former Jewish residents of Migron, assisted by volunteers, move in to their new home of Givat Hayekev.
structures at the site – except for those on one lot where the ownership is still being investigated – will be demolished by Sept. 11. Yariv Oppenheimer of Peace Now – the group that started the legal challenge against Jewish residents of Migron – welcomed the evacuation and said it “proves that when the police wants to, it can peacefully and quickly evacuate even the largest outpost.” The next battle in the West Bank is expected to be over the outposts of Amona and Givat Asaf. Israel informed its High Court of Justice that both would be removed by the end of 2012, but the court has not yet presented its final ruling on the matter. The Yesha Council – an umbrella organization of municipal councils in West Bank Jewish communities – therefore believes that the government still has the opportunity to retroactively authorize these outposts, as it did recently with Bruchin, Sansana and Rechelim. The High Court’s ruling last
week that Migron residents must leave by Sept. 4 ended a legal saga that dated back to 2006, when the Peace Now movement petitioned the court on behalf of alleged Palestinian landowners who claimed the Jewish community had illegally usurped their property. In August 2011, the court ruled in favor of the Palestinian plaintiffs and ordered the outpost removed by April 2012. Shortly before the deadline elapsed, the residents and government announced a deal to relocate the community, but the court struck it down, saying it would be inappropriate to overturn a final ruling in a case that had been thoroughly litigated. The agreement, which would have allowed the residents to stay for an additional three years, also failed to fully comply with the High Court’s decision to remove the homes and left an opening for their future re-occupation by stipulating that the army will get to decide their fate. In a last-ditch effort, the resi-
Coalition looks to make Jerusalem a home for all Jews By Rachel Marder JointMedia News Service JERUSALEM – Once Techila Nachalon began noticing both secular and religious friends leaving Jerusalem because they could not afford housing or find jobs, she knew the phenomenon was serious. “There is a real danger for the ability of Jerusalem to stay a place that you can first live in and also [a place that] people can be connected to,” says Nachalon, 36, an Orthodox mother of four. “If Jerusalem becomes a place of only haredim and Arabs and all the other people feel disconnected, that has a dramatic influence on Israel as a whole.” Nachalon, along with four other activists, in June founded a coalition called Yeru-Shalem (the latter
half of the word meaning “whole”) to create an open public space despite the ills created by Jerusalem’s demographic reality: For decades, given the high birth rates of ultra-Orthodox and Arab families, the rising cost of living, including home prices and municipal taxes, the city – home to roughly 801,000 people – has become a more difficult place for populations like the national-religious and secular to feel at home in. According to the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, the percentage of ultra-Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem is 3.6 times greater than their percentage in Israel as a whole. In 2009, while 12,800 people moved to Jerusalem, 19,900 residents left the city, and 51 percent of those who left moved to surrounding suburbs like Modi’in and Jewish
neighborhoods in the West Bank, where it is cheaper to live. While Jerusalem’s non-haredi school enrollment rose for the first time in 15 years this year, it’s too soon to tell whether the trend is reversing. “We are alone here in an uphill battle to keep the city creative, dynamic, inclusive and pluralistic against some very alarming demographic political and cultural trends, and by doing this we feel that we’re not just doing this for our quality of life but for the entire Jewish world,” says Yeru-Shalem co-founder Dr. Elan Ezrahi – a Reform Jew, chairman of the City Gardens Community Council, and former executive director of Masa-Israel Journey – in an interview with JNS over breakfast in Jerusalem. COALITION on page 20
dents attempted to convince the court that the land had been properly purchased in a recent transaction. In its ruling last week, the court conceded that it could not ascertain the authenticity of the purchase documents, but even if the land had been lawfully obtained, this would not constitute sufficient grounds to overturn the original decision, because the homes were not properly licensed. The court said only one plot in Migron would be spared evacuation, as it may lie on state property. Netanyahu, who at first wanted to have the Migron evacuation delayed by a few years to placate members of his coalition, said he would comply with the High Court’s ruling while at the same time bolstering the Jewish presence in the West Bank. In Ulpana, June’s orderly evacuation of the roughly 30 families in that com-
munity was made possible in large part because of the government’s promise to build hundreds of new housing units in Beit El and other communities in the West Bank. Migron residents spent their last Shabbat at the outpost over the weekend, holding study sessions and engaging in prayer, alongside special Shabbat meals and related events. “This was a very uplifting Shabbat but also very heartwrenching,” one resident said on Saturday. “The feeling is that this may be our last Shabbat; it has begun to sink in.” On Saturday night, residents congregated outside the outpost’s synagogue to discuss what lies ahead. Binyamin Regional Council head Avi Roeh paid a visit to the community, bringing along with him members of his social service apparatus.
10 • ISRAEL
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In Rachel Corrie suit dismissal, one small question is key By Ben Sales Jewish Telegraph Agency HAIFA, Israel – The verdict by an Israeli court in the case of Rachel Corrie, an American activist killed in Gaza by an Israeli military bulldozer in 2003, may have captured international attention and touched on a range of ethical issues at the center of Israel’s military operations. But at its core, Tuesday’s ruling on whether Israel was responsible for Corrie’s death nine years ago hinged on one simple question: Did the bulldozer driver who ran over Corrie see her or not? The judge in Haifa District Court ruled that he did not. Corrie’s family maintains that he did. Larger issues were part of the proceedings and their surroundings: What are the responsibilities of civilian activists in an armed conflict? Does a civilian area with terrorist activity count as a war zone? What distinguishes between an organization that peacefully opposes the Israeli occupation of Gaza and one that aids terrorists?
Courtesy of Ben Sales
Anti-occupation activists demonstrate outside the Haifa District Court in advance of the verdict on whether Israel was responsible for activist Rachel Corrie’s death in 2003, Aug. 28, 2012.
Those matters, however, took a back seat to the actual reasoning of the legal ruling by Judge Oded Gershon. Corrie, a 23-year-old from Olympia, Wash., has become a sym-
bol for some American and other groups that oppose Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and its policies toward Gaza. Her parents founded the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice, which “supports
Cyber warfare’s new reality adds to Israel’s already complex battlefield By Ben Sales Jewish Telegraph Agency TEL AVIV – As the frequency of suicide bombings increased in the 1990s, Israelis began to realize that their conflicts had shifted from the conventional battlefield to their streets, buses and cafes. Now the country – along with the rest of the world – is adapting to a new battlefield, one that defense experts call the “fifth dimension”: computers. The impact cannot be underestimated, says Dror Mor, CEO of the Sdema Group, an Israeli company that specializes in homeland security protection. “A big part of the next war, wherever it is in the world, will be cyber warfare to silence infrastructure, electricity, communications, movement of planes and trains,” he says. Land, air, sea and even space have been battlefronts for decades or centuries, but cyber warfare has gained prominence in the past few years and will continue to advance. Although some industries have been computerized for more than 50 years, increasingly complex viruses have made computers more vulnerable than ever to cyber attacks. Several viruses already have figured prominently in the Middle East. In 2010, the Stuxnet virus hit computers in Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities, and observers say it set back the Islamic Republic’s alleged nuclear weapons program by as much as two years. Three months ago, Iran
Courtesy of Elbit Systems
Cyber security developers like those seen here from Elbit, an Israeli defense electronics company, will need to play an increasingly integral role in halting more complicated computer viruses.
acknowledged that another virus, allegedly created by Israel and the U.S. and called Flame, had infected its computers. According to the Washington Post, the virus tapped into Iranian computer networks and accessed intelligence. And earlier this month Gauss, a virus related to Stuxnet, hit personal computers in Lebanon and Israel, enabling the cyber attackers to access financial data and the social network profiles of tens of thousands of people. “The tech sector has become more open, which is good for business, but when that happens it’s bad for security,” says Avi Weissman,
chairman of the Israeli Forum for Information Security. “States have learned to take advantage of this to create malicious code.” As Gauss showed, cyber warfare threatens private companies and governments. Transportation systems are especially vulnerable, Mors says. “Someone can go in the system, confuse the stoplights and create big economic problems,” he says. A crisis also would ensue, Mors adds, “if you get into the Israeli train system and put two trains on the same track that have no idea that they’re going toward each other.” As to private companies, vulnerability to cyber attacks means that the actions of ordinary office employees could lead to a breach in a system’s security. “It’s a cultural change as to how an organization deals with protection,” Mor says. “You’re in an organization, you have a laptop and a flash drive. The flash drive you use with your computer and the computer in the office. How do we create a separation between the company network and the outside world?” Mor adds that the dangers stretch even beyond national defense and safeguarding civilian infrastructure. “If they stop the creation of cottage cheese, you think there will be a problem here?” he asks rhetorically, referring to a staple of the Israeli diet. “People can’t live without cottage cheese.” BATTLEFIELD on page 22
grassroots efforts in pursuit of human rights and social, economic, and environmental justice,” according to its website, and a play titled “My Name Is Rachel Corrie” opened in London in 2005. On March 16, 2003, Corrie was an activist with the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement, which was protesting in the southern Gaza city of Rafah during the second intifada. Her supporters say she was acting as a human shield for a house that was about to be demolished by the Israeli army when she became enveloped in the pile of dirt created by an armored bulldozer as it moved toward the house. Corrie died soon after in a nearby hospital. The Israeli military denies that a house demolition was taking place. Her parents brought a lawsuit in Israel that accused the state of responsibility for their daughter’s death. But in clearing the state of all charges, Gershon said that Corrie voluntarily risked her life by entering a place where there was daily live fire. Moreover, the Haifa judge
said the bulldozer driver did not see Corrie as she was standing behind a pile of dirt, and that Corrie did not move out of the way when she saw the bulldozer moving toward her, instead climbing on the pile of dirt. Corrie “put herself in a dangerous situation opposite a bulldozer when he couldn’t see her,” Gershon said, reading the verdict. “She didn’t move away like anyone of sound mind would. She found her death even after all of the IDF’s efforts to move her from the place.” Gershon also dismissed charges that the state tampered with the evidence in its investigation into Corrie’s death. He added that the demolition of the home by the Israel Defense Forces on that day was an “act of war” and the area was a closed military zone. The judge reserved some of his harshest words for Corrie’s organization, saying ISM was “mixed up in terror” and accusing the group of aiding terrorists behind a facade of human rights activism. CORRIE on page 22
Israel bracing for ‘more tense and Islamist’ region in the coming year By Israel Hayom JointMedia News Service Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Director of Military Intelligence Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, in his annual intelligence assessment to Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz and the IDF general staff, warned on Monday that Israel will face an increasingly volatile region in the coming year, one that is “more tense and Islamist in nature than before.” According to Kochavi, the area is “experiencing a series of crises, both regional and internal, which add to the overall sensitivity of the players involved and could lead to unexpected flare-ups.” Kochavi said the annual intelligence assessment “is the result of a long and thorough process of research and analysis.” “The work is led by the research unit and utilizes all of the existing intelligence-gathering bodies in the intelligence branch, as well as ones created in the passing year,” he said. In related news, foreign weapon sales by the U.S. tripled last year to $66.3 billion as Persian Gulf states sought to build up their military supplies amid growing tensions with Iran, a new report said. U.S. arms sales reached a record high, up from $21.4 billion in 2010 and $31 billion in 2009, according to a study by the U.S. Congressional Research Service.
Weapons sales declined amid the global economic downturn but increasing tensions with Iran over its nuclear weapons program have seen Gulf countries spend billions of dollars on defense procurement. Foreign arms sales have become increasingly important to weapons makers as the Pentagon’s budget flattens because of U.S. deficit-reduction requirements. U.S. military deals with Saudi Arabia topped $33.4 billion last year, according to the report. Agreements included the purchase of 84 advanced F-15 fighter planes and upgrades of 70 of the F-15 fighter planes in the current fleet, said the report. The United Arab Emirates purchased Lockheed Martin’s Theatre High Altitude Area Defence system in a deal valued at $3.49 billion last December and 16 Chinook helicopters for $939 million. Oman acquired 18 F-16 fighters for $1.4 billion. For more evidence of its increasingly precarious position in the Middle East, Israel need not look any further south than neighboring Egypt. Arab League SecretaryGeneral Nabil Elaraby told The Cairo Review of Global Affairs in an article published this week that Egypt should amend its 1979 peace treaty with Israel because the latter is violating the accords with respect to the Palestinians. BRACING on page 22
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2012
ACCESS’ REDS GAME & DUCK TOUR EVENT Jewish young professionals have certainly been enjoying some of the best that Cincinnati has to offer over the past few months! On May 22nd, YPs got to root on the home team when the Reds took on the Braves at the Great American Ballpark. Before the game, everyone enjoyed drinks and appetizers together on the patio of the Holy Grail. Then, on June 6th, YPs rode in comfort and in style in their own private Duck while exploring some Cincinnati landmarks on land, then rolling into the river to round out their evening of sightseeing fun. Access is an initiative of The Mayerson Foundation for Jewish young professionals 21-25. PHOTOS CONTINUED ON PAGE 12.
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Grapevines and Saratoga chips at Mecklenburg Gardens By Michael Sawan Assistant Editor I’m lucky enough to have visited Mecklenburg Gardens on a late summer afternoon. It felt like I was on vacation in Germany, sitting under the vine covered awnings, surrounded by vibrant vegetation, fresh air, and the enticing smell of traditional German food. More than anything I was impressed by these grapevines. All along the western wall of the restaurant they spread over white lattices, creeping fully up to a simple skeleton of a roof over the outdoor seating area of the restaurant. They looked sturdy, like they had been thriving for years. Being under the canopy of leaves was like relaxing in the woods someplace, with a coolness that is a welcome relief from the heat of the day. The colors that seep through the leaves are even more impressive, gradating from glowing yellow to cool green. There were even small grapes, white and hazy against the leaves. If not for the occasional sounds of traffic passing right outside the wall of vines, I would forget I was in Cincinnati. The music and flair match the German summer garden feel, with traditional German oom-pah music playing unobtrusively in the background and plenty of “bier” signs decorating whatever the vines missed. And, of course, all the signs are for German brands, old ones. I imagine you might get a puzzled look if you asked for anything different. I decided to try several things on this visit, ordering the Mecklenburg Sampler and a Chicken Schnitzel Sandwich. The sampler was diverse, offering three fried pickles, three sauerkraut balls, and a large latke (called, of course, a potato pancake) with caramelized apples and sour cream. I first tried the sauerkraut ball and was pleased by its texture. The outer layer was fried to a light crisp, allowing the insides to cook to a smooth, warm consistency. The taste was similarly smooth, not overpowering as sauerkraut can occasionally be. Mecklenburg’s also supplied a small cup of thousand island dressing, which turned out to be a surprisingly pleasing compliment. The zest of the dressing muted the sauerkraut even further, making a sweet n’ tangy composite taste that left me craving more. I moved on to the fried pickles, a food that I had heard of but never tried. In fact, for some reason I was under the impression that it was exclusively carnival food, but that’s simply not the case. Mecklenburg’s version of the dish was surprisingly light, with the batter providing a subservient crispness that more than made way for the crunch of the pickle. The warmness of the pickle was quickly appreciated, as was the salty zest that comes naturally to all pickles. This appetizer came with a
(Clockwise) An outside view of the south-west corner of Mecklenburg Gardens, prominently displaying the restaurant’s signature grapevines; An impressive network of grapevines on the south side of the restaurant; One of the few spare walls on the patio, accordingly covered with signs for German-made beer; The Mecklenburg Sampler, featuring fried pickles, sauerkraut balls, and the extremely impressive latke with caramelized apples and sour cream; The Chicken Schnitzel Sandwich with home-cooked Saratoga Chips.
dish of ranch. I could imagine some people enjoying the combination, but for my money the fried pickle was great in and of itself. The latke was easily the lord, king, and master of the Mecklenburg’s Sampler. It was downright beautiful, a crispy brown cake of pan fried potato toped with caramel glazed apple slices, a complimentary shade of reddish-yellow brown, and a thin lattice of even flowing, off-white sour cream. The combination of flavors was like seeing a familiar friend in a new wardrobe: I’m used to latkes and applesauce, so the caramelized apples were a great surprise. It did everything that applesauce would have done, but with more body. The slight resistance offered by the
apple, the sweetness of the crisped sugar, and a tasteful amount of cinnamon really tied the dish together. The sour cream, besides looking nice, also gave the latke an ever so slight drag, keeping the dish from being over sweet and harkening back to the flavor of the crisped potatoes. The grand finale of the afternoon was the Chicken Schnitzel Sandwich, with a side of Saratoga Chips and a pickle and orange slice garnish. The Chicken Schnitzel is apparently new to Mecklenburg’s, but a welcome addition. It came topped with lettuce, tomato and honey mustard sauce, all on a sort of pretzel-reminiscent bun. The combination of it all was the dishes best feature, with each part con-
tributing equal portions to make the whole picture, the big impression of a big sandwich with big taste. At one moment you’d recognize the bun, a full bodied white bread bun with a pretzel-colored coating. Except for the lack of chunky salt it essentially was a pretzel, as far as I could tell. The chicken was the next thing to notice, a nice crunchy schnitzel texture with a bit of a bite that comes from proper frying. The honey mustard, tomato and lettuce all functioned together, giving a body to the chicken that really made the sandwich feel full. The show got stolen, however, by the side of Saratoga Chips. They were cooked in house and it showed, with each chip being a unique version of the others. They
were in that perfect zone between just-done and burnt, just slightly blackened. This added zing to the saltiness of the potatoes, which in turn added yet another good flavor to the Chicken Schnitzel. Overall the dish was like a series of all stars that still managed to deliver a stand-out team performance. For good food, a great patio and a brief afternoon trip to Germany, Mecklenburg Gardens is the obvious choice. Their hours are Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. – 9 p.m.; Friday, 11 a.m. – 11 p.m.; Saturday, 5 p.m. – 11 p.m.; closed Sundays. Mecklenburg Gardens 302 East University Ave. Cincinnati, Ohio 45219 513-221-5353
DINING OUT • 15
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16 • OPINION
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Dear Editor, If Barack Obama is re-elected, he will become a Lame Duck President (term-limited and won’t have to worry about a third campaign). The effect of this will yield an unprecedented level of presidential edict, decrees and orders (PEDOs). As a Lame Duck he will not only have the power to issue these PEDOs, but will also have the power to enforce them. Come on Klein, you say, the Supreme Court Of The United States (SCOTUS) can and will issue rulings against any president who over-steps his bounds. True. However, there are two things wrong with relying on SCOTUS to protect us from a president “overstepping his bounds.” 1) The amount of time (years) it takes for court reviews will
allow many PEDOs to have significant impact: example, how he circumvented Congress with the now de facto Dream Act. 2) SCOTUS has only the power to judge — it does not have any enforcement powers. Enforcement of laws and PEDOs are left to the Executive Branch. In other words, when BO declares a new PEDO via executive order, he — and only he — has the power and right to enforce that new rule. Conversely, if SCOTUS declares one of his PEDOs to be illegal or unconstitutional, he — as the enforcer of the Court’s rulings — has the power to ignore or refuse to enforce the Court’s findings. Yeah, I know, Congress can void PEDOs, but if either branch is controlled by the Democrats. If you think FDR over-
stepped his powers — you ain’t seen nothing yet. Sincerely, Chuck Klein, Cincinnati, OH Dear Editor, I agree with Cherie Rosenstein. I too am appalled by the disrespectful tone and unwarranted venom cast by the letters against Obama. They’ve accused him of killing a woman, and not paying his income taxes for 10 years. Oh wait. That was Democratic leaders casting lies, distortions and unsubstantiated charges against Romney. I’ve noticed this about Liberals, they are always accusing their opponents of doing the very things they, themselves, always do.
The last thing I would expect is anyone bragging about Obama’s guidance of our economy during this recession, or for many, depression. Even Obama will not run on his record. Rather, he will distract from it and cast personal attacks on Romney. He cannot defend his record. He spent nearly a trillion dollars on the stimulus, with only a large national debt to show for it. Blaming Bush was reasonable, if not accurate, in 2008, 2009, and by a stretch in 2010. After three and a half years already — give me a break. Obama himself said early on that he would not deserve reelection if by 2012 he had not turned the economy around. The first two years of his administration he had complete control of the White House and both Houses of Congress. True, he inherited a bad situation, but he then proceeded to make it even worse. With capable and decent leadership, three and a half years is more than enough time to remake a weak economy and turn it around. Obama is neither of these. None of the positive things for
which Ms. Rosenstein credits Obama, with regard to Israel were originated by him. They were continuing programs that he inherited. This is also typical of Obama’s supporters. They try to make him look like macho man, who is solely responsible for any good thing that happened during his tenure. They will even release top secret information in this effort. I know I will not change Ms. Rosenstein’s opinions, nor all those other brain washed individuals who will not look at the facts and draw a rational conclusion. I would hope, though, that most Jews, if not the general public, see the facts as they are, and not how they are told what they are by others, or how they would like them to be. Don’t trust the press. In large part, it is biased, and will not report negatives about Obama or positives about Romney. The information is available on the internet. Google it. You will find a vast amount of info the press will not report.
mail. That allows me to ensure that my words are well-chosen; I can weigh them, edit them, and reedit them until I’m satisfied that they are clear and reasonably beyond mischaracterization. And precisely for that reason, some reporters are miffed by my policy. Written responses, they gripe, are too impersonal and formal. What they really mean, though, is that such responses are too efficient, too clear, and too difficult to manipulate. (What’s more, they leave a paper – well, electron – trail.) And so those reporters punish me. Not to worry; it’s nothing as painful as my beloved first grade rebbe’s ruler on my fingers when I misbehaved. My penalty consists
only of the addition of the words “… responded by e-mail” before whatever words of mine were quoted. It’s a sort of whine, like what one hears in schoolyards (“Teacher! Jimmy won’t talk to me!”), and meant to convey to readers that a considered written response is somehow inferior to a comment offered in a conversation. In truth, of course, it’s superior. Rare is the first off-the-cuff or conversational comment that is as accurate or informative as a duly considered one. As Leon Wieseltier once remarked about blogs, the idea that our first thoughts are our best thoughts is thoroughly ridiculous.
Sincerely, Jerome C. Liner, Cincinnati, OH
Journalism and Sausages By Rabbi Avi Shafran Contributing Columnist Some reporters have punished me over the past few years for doing something they don’t like – asking that they pose their questions by e-mail. Some background: As the media liaison for Agudath Israel of America, I regularly receive inquiries from members of the press about an assortment of issues, mostly about Agudath policies or initiatives but about all manner of things Jewish as well. Although there are responsible journalists out there, competition for “eyeballs” tends to color, and often distorts, much reportage. During my early years on the
job I freely spoke with any and all reporters, confident that what I thought was my openness and good will would force my inquisitors to treat me, and our community, fairly. I was in for a surprise. The first few times I was misquoted or my words mischaracterized, I assumed I hadn’t been sufficiently clear or that the reporters had made innocent mistakes. Eventually, though, I sobered and realized that some reporters were – are you sitting down? – not really interested in accuracy or truth. They were seeking, rather, some quote to plug into the article they had already written (at least in their heads), on a quest to get some words from me to “massage” or use in a selective way to
fit their preconceptions. And disturbingly often, their products seemed calculated to cast the Orthodox Jewish community in an unfair light. And so it was that I discovered journalism’s dirty little secret: Reporters, despite their pledges to provide facts in an objective way, are just as biased and close-minded as mere mortals. And their proffered credentials as purveyors of truth make their biases all the more pernicious. After confronting that painful truth, I made the decision that, excepting reporters I have come to know as fair-minded and objective, I would generally respond to journalists’ questions not in person or by telephone but only by e-
JOURNALISM on page 19
Saints or sinners? Meet Rachel Corrie’s allies By Ben Cohen JointMedia News Service I am writing this column with great reluctance. In a rational world, the accidental death of Rachel Corrie, the pro-Hamas activist who was crushed by a bulldozer in Gaza almost 10 years ago, would no longer have a place in the news cycle. Sadly, we do not live in a rational world, and therefore Corrie’s fate – along with her insidious group of allies that mushroomed following her death – continues to plague us. Here’s what we know: After much careful deliberation, an Israeli court in Haifa finally dismissed a civil suit brought by Corrie’s parents, ruling that her death was not a
homicide, but a consequence of Corrie’s decision to stand in front of an armored bulldozer whose driver could not see her. Further, we know that Israel is a country where the clear separation of powers that is essential to democracy exists. Israel’s courts are not beholden to the government or the IDF. Rather, they are robustly independent, unafraid of reaching decisions that might be unpopular with the imperatives of whomever happens to be in government. Case-in-point: In 2003, Israel’s Central Elections Committee (CEC) banned Balad, an anti-Zionist party based among Israeli Arabs, from running in the elections of the same year. The CEC argued that Balad’s rejection of Israel’s character as a
Jewish state disqualified the party’s participation. But Israel’s Supreme Court overruled that decision, thereby allowing Balad to run in the elections. One of Balad’s leaders, Ahmad Tibi, praised the court for “blocking the anti-democratic avalanche of the right-wing.” Yet, when an Israeli court arrives at a decision that the “Zionism is racism” chorus disagrees with, all of a sudden the entire judicial system is corrupt. In responding to the Corrie verdict, Amnesty International talked, ludicrously, of a “pattern of impunity” when it comes to alleged violations by the IDF. (Clearly, Amnesty does not remember the case of Lt. Col. Ya’akov Gigi, who was imprisoned and demoted in 2008 after being
convicted in the wrongful killing of a Palestinian civilian.) Former President Jimmy Carter, who depicts Israel as an apartheid state, dutifully chimed in with similar wording: “The court’s decision confirms a climate of impunity, which facilitates Israeli human rights violations against Palestinian civilians in the Occupied Territory.” Frankly, we shouldn’t expect anything else from individuals and groups like these. They are predisposed to believe the slander that Israeli institutions are built on the principle that Jews are more equal than non-Jews. Still, the cumulative effect of these statements leads unwitting readers to believe that the only issue worth considering is Israel’s behavior. Their authors do
not – indeed, will not – ask what Corrie was doing in Gaza in the first place, nor do they question the ugly, genocidal politics that this deeply misguided young woman subscribed to. Corrie was a member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) – a misnomer if ever there was one, since Palestinians are the sole subject of the dubious “solidarity” which they offer. You will not find ISM volunteers in Syria, documenting the unspeakable atrocities committed by Bashar al Assad’s regime. You will not find them in Russia, monitoring the kangaroo court that recently convicted the feminist punk band Pussy Riot to ALLIES on page 19
JEWISH LIFE • 17
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2012
first person account of Jewish history: “My father was a fugitive, almost destroyed, by the Aramean (his uncle, Laban). He went down to Egypt…where we were afflicted and given heavy labor….The Lord took us out of Egypt and brought us to this land, flowing with milk and honey…” (Deut 26:5-10). We recite and explicate these words every Passover Seder, the evening when we celebrate our freedom. Although it is now almost 4,000 years since these events took place, we still recite it in the first person, as it is Biblically written. The Egyptian experience is a seminal one for the Jews; we dare not forget it and we must re-live it every day of our lives: “You must love the stranger (the other), because you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Deut 10: 19). Jewish ritual turns our history into a contemporary, personal experience – which cannot and dare not be forgotten. Likewise, regarding the declaration after giving the tithes to the priests and the poor, the householder declares that we are now living in Israel, we are sharing with those who teach us morality, we are sharing with those who are weaker and poorer than us. We remember Amalek – and we remember that we must destroy Amalekism. We have not forgotten! Shabbat Shalom Rabbi Shlomo Riskin Chancellor Ohr Torah Stone Chief Rabbi – Efrat Israel
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T EST Y OUR T ORAH KNOWLEDGE THIS WEEK’S PORTION: KI TAVO (DEVARIM 26:1—29:8) 1. Where does one bring first fruits of the crop? a.) To a Kohen b.) To a Kohen in the Holy Temple c.) To a Levite 2. How does one make the declaration when he brings first fruits? a.) Speech b.) Write c.) The Kohen says it for him 3. What does a person do after giving first fruits? 4. B 26:5 Lavan the Aramean tried to destroy Jacob after Jacob fled from his house with his family and possessions. 5. A 26:5 Jacob did not go down to Egypt until later
Efrat, Israel – “I have cleared out the consecrated portion from the house…I have not transgressed any of your commandments; and I have not forgotten” (Deut 26:13). This week’s Biblical portion is filled with crucial ritual and social commandments, the blessings and the curses which comprise our third Covenant with the Lord, and a concluding crescendo of promise that if we keep God’s commandments, we will inherit our land and succeed in all of our undertakings. Ki Tavo opens, however, in a rather unusual way. Throughout the Five Books of our Torah, God and Moses are the “speakers,” as it were, whereas the Israelites must hearken and do, carry out and obey. Our portion uniquely begins with two speeches to be made by the householders themselves: the first is a quintessential thanksgiving – history recited by the individual bringing his first fruits to the Holy Temple, and the second is a declaration made by the householder when he has discharged his tithe obligations due to the Kohen – Levite ministers as well as to the poor of Israel. Let us begin with the second of these speeches: “You shall declare before the Lord your God: ‘I have cleared out the consecrated portion from the house (and the fields; the percentage of the harvest which is ‘holy’ unto God, which – although I may have planted, nurtured and reaped – nevertheless belongs not to me, but rather to those to whom God wants me to give gifts) and I have given it to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow in accordance with all Your commandments which You commanded me; I have not transgressed any of your commandments, and I have not forgotten’” (Deut 26:13). Why does the householder conclude, “I have not forgotten”? If he has fulfilled all of his commitments, he clearly has not forgotten the commandments of the tithes! Moreover, there is no parallel to such a declaration associated with any other group of com-
mandments. Rashi, interprets, “I have not forgotten to make the proper blessings” on the various tithes (ad loc). A blessing before a ritual commandment certifies that this ritual is an act of service and devotion to God. In the performance of a social commandment, however, the act “for the sake of heaven” is only secondary; giving the tithe to the poor is salutary whatever my true intent may be. Moreover, the generally accepted halakhic rule is that “the lack of a blessing – even when performing a ritual act – does not vitiate or detract from the act itself.” Hence it would be strange for the Bible to be so concerned about the utterance of the blessing. I believe that the words “I have not forgotten” in this context carry a different meaning. You will remember that the previous Biblical portion, Ki Tetze, concludes with the command: “Remember what Amalek did to you on the road after you left Egypt; he chanced upon you on the road, attacking from behind all of the straggling, weaker people lingering in the back, those of you who were weak and weary; he did not fear God. Therefore, when the Lord your God grants you secure rest from all your enemies roundabout, in the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under the heavens; do not forget” (Deut 25:17-19). Amalek is the archenemy of Israel; my revered teacher and mentor, Rav Joseph B Soloveitchik, would often cite his renowned grandfather, Rav Hayim of Brisk, who taught that Amalek is not to be seen as a specific nation. Amalek is the prototype of any nation in any generation and in any part of the world who – for no reason and without provocation attacks the weakest and most unprotected group, in particular, it singles out the people of Israel as the target of its destructive plans. Amalekism is the philosophy and raison d’être of Haman, Hitler, Stalin and Ahmadinejad. If the earth is to be home for free peoples created in the image of God to live in security, then Amalekism and all that it stands for must be wiped off the face of the earth. “Remember… Do not forget” is the Biblical message which concludes Ki Tetze. Ki Tavo opens with the farmer bringing his first fruits to the Temple and giving a
a.) Have a Passover seder b.) Goes home c.) Celebrate 4. Who tried to destroy our ancestor (Jacob)? a.) Og b.) Aramean (Lavan) c.) Pharaoh 5. Where did Jacob go after somebody tried to kill him? a.) Egypt b.) His father Isaac c.) Mount Seir
2. A 26:5 A person would raise his voice to proclaim the kindnesses of Hashem who took him out of Egypt. 3. C 26:11 Along with the declaration a person would sing.
by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin
SHABBAT SHALOM: PARSHAT KI TAVO DEUTERONOMY 26:1 – 29:8
Written by Rabbi Dov Aaron Wise
ANSWERS 1. B 26:3,4 The first fruits were placed before the altar in the Temple, to show they were given to Hashem who in turn gave to the priest. Sforno
Sedra of the Week
18 • JEWZ IN THE NEWZ
JEWZ
IN THE
By Nate Bloom Contributing Columnist SOMETHING FUNNY AT THE CINEMA “Bachelorette” co-stars Kirsten Dunst, LIZZY CAPLAN, 30, and ISLA FISHER, 36, are featured as three bridesmaids for a girl they made fun of in high school. Too much wedding-eve partying leads to a mishap with a wedding dress and then everything spins out of control. This indie film, directed and written by Leslye Headland, was a big hit at the Sundance film festival. (Opens Friday, Sept. 7.) NEW TV SEASON Here are new TV shows premiering this month with a “Jewish connection”: The NBC series “The New Normal” starts on Tuesday, Sept. 11, (9:30 p.m.). Andrew Rannells and JUSTIN BARTHA, 34 (“The Hangover”), co-star as Bryan and David, a gay Beverly Hills couple. Into their life comes Goldie (Georgia King), a Midwest waitress who has just moved to Los Angeles with her young daughter and her small minded grandmother (ELLEN BARKIN, 58). Goldie agrees to be the surrogate mother of the guys’ baby. Starting the same night (9 p.m.), also on NBC, is “Go On,” a comedy/drama starring Matthew Perry as Ryan King, a sportscaster who joins a support group to try and cope with his wife’s death. The series focuses on King and the varied members of the group, including the mysterious “Mr. K.” Mr. K (BRETT GELMAN, 35) is so weird that the other group members are too afraid to ask him what he’s grieving about. Gelman is a stand-up comedian with a long list of TV guest spots. The NBC series “Guys with Kids” starts on Wednesday, Sept. 12, at 8:30 p.m. JAMIE LYNN SIGLER, 31 (“The Sopranos”) co-stars as a stay-at-home mom who convinces her husband to take over a lot of the child care so she can have some “alone time.” Her husband’s buddies include a divorced father with custody of his infant child and a stay-athome dad with four kids. Also on NBC is “Revolution,” a sci-fi series whose premise is that suddenly and mysteriously electric power is no longer available anywhere on Earth. Fifteen years after this worldwide power failure, people are living in small communities and such order that exists is provided by local militias. This series was created by ERIC KRIPKE, 38 (“Supernatural”), a Toledo native. “Iron Man” director JON FAVREAU, 45, co-produces the
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show and directed the pilot episode (starts Monday, Sept. 17, at 10 p.m.) Also starting on Sept. 17 (9 p.m.) is “Mob Doctor,” a Fox show. JORDANA SPIRO, 35 (“My Boys” on TBS) stars as a Chicago heart surgeon who lives a dual life. She’s a top hospital resident who moonlights treating the ailments and bullet wounds of local mafia members. Her brother’s gambling debts forced her to make a secret “deal with the devil” to treat these gangsters. Starting on Monday, Sept. 24 (8:30 p.m.) is the CBS series, “Partners.” The series was created by and is based on the lives of the writer/producers of “Will and Grace,” DAVID KOHAN, 48, and MAX MUTCHNICK, 47. DAVID KRUMHOLTZ, 34, plays Joe, an architect who, like Kohan, is “straight.” His business partner and best friend, Louis, is gay (like Mutchnick). Their great friendship and business relationship is challenged when Joe gets engaged and Louis begins dating a hunky guy. The ABC series “The Neighbors” centers on Marty (Lenny Venito) and Debbie Weaver (JAMIE GERTZ, 46), a nice couple who buy a home in an exclusive development. They find out that all their neighbors are space aliens who have been stationed on Earth for 10 years, disguised as humans, while they await instructions from their home planet. The Weavers are the first humans the aliens really get to know. The aliens and the Weavers learn they have much in common – like child rearing problems. (Starts Wednesday. Sept. 26, 8:30 p.m.). MAINSTREAMING YIDDISH I’m always charmed and amused when a non-Jewish celebrity correctly uses a Yiddish word that most non-Jews don’t know. In the Aug/Sept. AARP magazine, there’s an interview with Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones. Both said they were proud of their kids – then Jones added, with a laugh, “I’ve kept them safe. I’ve kept them alive.” Streep then said: “Yeah, kineahora. You don’t want to say what you’re grateful for. It’s enough to say I’m happy for them. I’m happy.” (AARP told its readers that ‘kineahora’ was a Yiddish version of “knock on wood.”) On the first day of the Republican convention, Chris Matthews of MSNBC said that the primary season began with freezing in Iowa and “shvitzing” in humid Tampa. A bit later, correspondent HOWARD FINEMAN, 63, congratulated Matthews for working “shvitzing” into his report.
FROM THE PAGES 150 Y EARS A GO
75 Y EARS A GO
Our friend Isaac Simon who, having returned lately from the law school of Cambridge, Mass., practiced law for a short time in this city with Rufus King, Esq., volunteered in the gun boat service of the Mississippi and received the commission as Master’s Mate, with a good prospect of advancement. Isaac is an active and well informed young man who will make his mark anywhere. We wish him the best of success in the service of his country. – September 5, 1862
Arrangements have been completed for the festivities to precede the National Leagues’ last night game of the season, to be played at Crosley Field Friday night, Sept. 3rd, between the Reds and the St. Louis Cardinals. Heading the pre-game program will be the two-mile steeple chase race between Joe McCluskey, 5,000 meter and indoor steeplechase champion, and Eino Pennti, 10,000 meter titleholder. The races will be under A.A.U. supervision. Preceding the steeplechase will be an exhibition by the championship drill and degree tram of the Eagles. Fireworks will feature Constitution Day. Friday’s night game will be followed by an off day Saturday and doubleheader Sunday – last home appearance until Tuesday Sept. 14th, when the Reds will return for the closing home stand. – September 2, 1937
125 Y EARS A GO “Rome Under Nero” is filling our streets, hotels and stores with thousands of visitors who are making business lively in all branches. The spectacle is drawing average audiences of 10,000 and will be a financial success. Its artistic merits were acknowledged from the first. The Order of Cincinnatus has established a claim on the gratitude of the citizens of Cincinnati, that should lead to a vast increase in the membership of the Order, and it is to be sincerely hoped that it will. – September 2, 1887
100 Y EARS A GO Featuring the famous Newcastle (Ind.) and Richmond (Ind.) nursery products, the HillHeller Co. has just opened a beautiful floral shop at 532 Race street and is prepared to furnish fresh flowers for all occasions. This enterprise, which will sell “direct from nursery to consumer,” is declared to be absolutely unique in the floral industry and will be welcomed into the Queen City. The Hill-Heller Co. is a combination of the well-known enterprises of Heller at Newcastle and the Hill Co. and the Lemon Co., of Richmond, all of which are famous in the nursery world. The merger was made for the purpose of selling direct to the consumer, and the Cincinnati concern will receive fresh flowers at least twice a day from the celebrated mammoth Hoosier nurseries and supply Cincinnati on short demand. A unique feature of this new establishment will be the crack decorator of the Hill-Heller Co., just secured from one of New York City’s largest floral shops. He makes a feature of artistic effects for wedding parties, dinners, banquets, etc., and will prepare special corsage bouquets and mount floral pieces for funeral works. – September 5, 1912
50 Y EARS A GO Suburban Drycleaning Laundry, described as Southwestern Ohio’s first all-service fabric care center will open officially this weekend at 7990 Reading Road at Sunnybrook Drive, between Roselawn and Reading, in Thriftway Center. Edward H. Cole, president, said that all facilities will be demonstrated in operation this Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Sept. 6, 7 and 8, between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. Souvenirs, prizes and informal modeling are planned. “Greater Cincinnati families now may choose standard or selfservice cleaning – whichever fits their needs – at the same convenient location,” Mr. Cole said. “As professional drycleaners, serving thousands of local families for more than 50 years as the Art Dry Cleaning Co.,” Mr. Cole said, “we’ve observed the rapid growth of the self-service idea here and nationwide. This growth indicates that many people want and will use these facilities. “We decided to design a new drycleaning/laundry center in which we would combine the economy, speed and convenience of self-service with the knowledge and skill we had developed as professional cleaners. “We believe that our new Suburban store incorporates the finest equipment available and offers our customers the most complete range of garment and home furnishings care services in this part of the country.” Consultants will be on hand to explain the operation of the new self-service equipment and to assist
patrons in preparing clothes and home furnishings for most effective cleaning. – September 6, 1962
25 Y EARS A GO Adath Israel Synagogue will begin to make its Sabbath and High Holy Day services available by telephone to those who are unable to attend. These services will be available through a special project called Adath Israel Dial-A-Service. The first broadcast via telephone hook up will begin Saturday, Sept. 19, the Sabbath prior to Rosh Hashanah (Sept. 23). These broadcasts will be of particular interest to those who are hospital or home bound because of illness, young children, etc. This program is part of Adath Israel’s ongoing community service and outreach program. This project will be available to both the general Jewish community and Adath Israel members as a public service. Funds for this project are being made available through the generosity of the Edward and Esther Reiner Memorial Fund. – September 10 1987
10 Y EARS A GO In a letter to the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra announced that it would extend its ticket exchange policy because of scheduling concerts on the High Holy Days. Writing to JCRC director Michael Rapp, Steven Monder, CSO president, asked his help in notifying the public about the extension. A Cincinnati Pops concert, featuring Garrison Keillor of National Public Radio’s “Prairie Home Companion,” is scheduled for the weekend of Rosh Hashanah. “Those Pops subscribers who wish to observe Rosh Hashanah on Friday, September 6 and Saturday, September 7, may exchange their tickets (at no charge) for the Sunday, September 8, Pops concert at 7 p.m.,” wrote Monder. “Or they may exchange their tickets for a future Cincinnati Pops or Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra concert during the 2002-2003 season.” Monder also addressed the fact that the Pops concert was scheduled during the holiday. “Maestro Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra appreciate the significance of this high holy day and are respectful of those who observe it.” He went on to say that the Pops orchestra and administration “does everything reasonably possible to avoid conflicts with Jewish holidays and will make every effort to do so in the future.” – September 5, 2002
CLASSIFIEDS • 19
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2012
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) 722-7258 • mayersonjcc.org Camp Chabad (513) 731-5111 • campchabad.org Camp Livingston (513) 793-5554 • camplivingston.com Cedar Village (513) 754-3100 • cedarvillage.org Chevra Kadisha (513) 396-6426 Cincinnati Community Kollel (513) 631-1118 • kollel.shul.net Cincinnati Community Mikveh (513) 351-0609 • cincinnatimikveh.org Eruv Hotline (513) 351-3788 Fusion Family (513) 703-3343 • fusionnati.org Halom House (513) 791-2912 • halomhouse.com Hillel Jewish Student Center (Miami) (513) 523-5190 • muhillel.org Hillel Jewish Student Center (UC) (513) 221-6728 • hillelcincinnati.org Jewish Cemeteries of Greater Cincinnati 513-961-0178 • jcemcin.org Jewish Community Center (513) 761-7500 • mayersonjcc.org Jewish Community Relations Council (513) 985-1501 Jewish Family Service (513) 469-1188 • jfscinti.org Jewish Federation of Cincinnati (513) 985-1500 • shalomcincy.org Jewish Foundation (513) 214-1200 Jewish Information Network (513) 985-1514 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 • btzbc.com 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 • btzbc.com
Congregation Ohav Shalom (513) 489-3399 • ohavshalom.org Congregation Ohr Chadash (513) 252-7267 • ohrchadashcincinnati.com Congregation Sha’arei Torah shaareitorahcincy.org Congregation Zichron Eliezer 513-631-4900 • czecincinnati.org Golf Manor Synagogue (513) 531-6654 • golfmanorsynagogue.org Isaac M. Wise Temple (513) 793-2556 • wisetemple.org Kehilas B’nai Israel (513) 761-0769 Northern Hills Synagogue (513) 931-6038 • nhs-cba.org Rockdale Temple (513) 891-9900 • rockdaletemple.org Temple Beth Shalom (513) 422-8313 • tbsohio.org Temple Sholom (513) 791-1330 • templesholom.net The Valley Temple (513) 761-3555 • valleytemple.com
EDUCATION Chai Tots Early Childhood Center (513) 234.0600 • chaitots.com Chabad Blue Ash (513) 793-5200 • chabadba.com Cincinnati Hebrew Day School (513) 351-7777 • chds.shul.net HUC-JIR (513) 221-1875 • huc.edu JCC Early Childhood School (513) 793-2122 • mayersonjcc.org Kehilla - School for Creative Jewish Education (513) 489-3399 • kehilla-cincy.com Mercaz High School (513) 792-5082 x104 • mercazhs.org Kulanu (Reform Jewish High School) 513-262-8849 • kulanucincy.org Regional Institute Torah & Secular Studies (513) 631-0083 Rockwern Academy (513) 984-3770 • rockwernacademy.org Sarah’s Place (513) 531-3151 • sarahsplacecincy.com
ORGANIZATIONS American Jewish Committee (513) 621-4020 • ajc.org American Friends of Magen David Adom (513) 521-1197 • afmda.org B’nai B’rith (513) 984-1999 BBYO (513) 722-7244 Hadassah (513) 821-6157 • cincinnati.hadassah.org Jewish Discovery Center (513) 234.0777 • jdiscovery.com Jewish National Fund (513) 794-1300 • jnf.org Jewish War Veterans (513) 204-5594 • jwv.org NA’AMAT (513) 984-3805 • naamat.org National Council of Jewish Women (513) 891-9583 • ncjw.org State of Israel Bonds (513) 793-4440 • israelbonds.com Women’s American ORT (513) 985-1512 • ortamerica.org.org
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JOURNALISM from page 16 Even my “e-mail only” policy, however, is no match for a determinedly unscrupulous journalist. This past May, for instance, a reporter “on deadline” for a Jewish paper in New Jersey emailed me 13 questions (the norm is one or two), each of which would have taken a good 10 minutes to reply to in a complete and clear fashion. I didn’t have two hours to offer him that day, and so I apologized and sent him some primary material that included most of the information he sought.
ALLIES from page 16 two years imprisonment on the charge of “hooliganism.” Nor will you find them in Venezuela, the homicide capital of the world, standing alongside the innocent civilians murdered by gangsters aligned with the tyrant Hugo Chavez. And you will not find them in these places for two reasons. Firstly, the ISMers have a soft spot for authoritarian regimes, so long as these are sufficiently antiAmerican. Secondly, they are cowards: Israel and the Palestinian territories are ideal spots for war tourists of this ilk, since, statistically-speaking, there is very little chance of death or injury at the hands of the IDF, and you can get a shower and a decent meal at the end of a day’s “solidarity” work. At the same time, the ISM is not stupid. It is an integral part of the current of opinion that has essentially beatified Rachel Corrie. Since she died, her supporters have portrayed her as an unimpeachably noble soul, on a par with – unbelievably – Anne Frank. Writing this week in Counterpunch, an online antiSemitic rag that is a favored destination for the ISM, Jennifer Loewenstein had the temerity to conclude, “I believe Anne Frank would have agreed with Rachel’s
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In his article, he informed his readers that I had “declined to directly respond to” and “failed to answer” his questions, leaving the impression that he had posed a simple question or two and that I had been purposefully evasive. Clever fellow. The “Fourth Estate” is an important part of a free society. But when its members elevate prejudice over principle, the results can be ugly. It didn’t take much interaction with the world of media for me to realize that like a sausage, journalism is something whose ingredients you might not really want to know. mother, Cindy, who – when asked if she thought Rachel should have moved away from the bulldozer – replied, ‘I don’t think that Rachel should have moved. I think we should all have been standing there with her.’” Raiding the memories of the Holocaust to score points for the Palestinians is a long-established tactic of the ISM and similar groups. But what really matters here is the moral gulf that separated Anne Frank from Rachel Corrie. Read Anne Frank’s diary, and what comes across is a humanism extraordinarily rare for someone so young. Corrie, by contrast, frequently accused Israel of practicing genocide – an absurd claim, given the year on year increase in the Palestinian population – while happily taking up membership in a group that seeks to destroy Israel with what it euphemistically terms the “onestate solution.” There are few examples in history of nations giving up their right to self-determination without bloodshed. A single state from the Mediterranean to the River Jordan would have to be imposed on Israelis, and most of them would have to die or be expelled for it to take shape. That bald reality is the true legacy of Rachel Corrie, one that leaves her and her allies not as saints, but as sinners.
20 • LEGAL
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What Happens if A Horse Kicks You in the Head? Legally Speaking
by Marianna Bettman Every now and again, a case argued at the Ohio Supreme Court is just plain fun to listen to. And so it was with Smith v. Landfair, argued just before the Court took a summer recess. 25-year-old Roshel Smith was employed as barn manager at her father Ernie’s horse stable, located on the Wayne County fairgrounds. Mr. Smith had 15 years of experience in horse training as a stable operator. 79-year-old Donald Landfair boarded two of his horses there, including 2-year-old Green Acre Annie (“Annie”). Mr. Landfair had been involved with horses for nearly 60 years. He had brought his horses to Mr. Smith’s stable to be trained for harness racing. The extent to which Annie was trained was disputed. COALITION from page 9 Yeru-Shalem’s other founders include Elisheva Mazya, CEO of New Spirit, an organization that works to keep young people in the city through housing, cultural and employment opportunities; Shaike El-Ami; and Jeffrey Swartz, a new Jerusalem resident and former CEO of Timberland. While the activists come from different backgrounds, they say what unites them is their love for Jerusalem and their desire to make the public sphere more open and more firmly connected to Diaspora Jewry. They strive to make Jerusalem a city that is welcoming to all Jews, near and far. “Jerusalem will be a multicultural center open to dialogue and based on tolerance,” the group’s mission states. In particular, the coalition will “promote a cultural agenda that is inclusive and universal.” Jerusalem’s demographic changes, as well as recent battles between haredim and the city over gender segregation on buses and police arresting women for wearing talitot at the Western Wall, are also likely having a negative impact on the city’s relationship with Diaspora Jews. Part of the coalition’s work, therefore, will be educating Diaspora Jewry on the social ills Jerusalem faces in order to strengthen its bond with its home. Nachalon has found that at conferences in the Diaspora she has
One day, Mr. Landfair took Annie elsewhere to be shod, even though Mr. Smith had told Landfair that this didn’t seem like a good idea because Smith thought Annie was too skittish to be trailered. The trip to the blacksmith was uneventful. But on the way back, when Landfair was trying to untrailer Annie, she was spooked by an Amish horse-drawn wagon. Annie subsequently knocked Landfair to the ground. He was able to hold on to Annie’s lead. When all this happened Roshel had been standing by the barn watching her father train a horse. She heard a commotion and went over to help Landfair, because she was afraid Annie would step on him. Instead, Annie kicked Roshel in the face, knocking her out cold. She sustained serious injuries to her teeth and jaw. To be sure, there’s nothing at all fun about this aspect of the case. Roshel sued Landfair for money damages caused by his negligence in the handling of his horse. Here’s where things get interesting. Ohio has a statute that grants immunity for all kinds of equine activities. An immunity means that for some kind of policy reason, injured persons cannot sue for tort damages for conduct that would be considered negligent if it weren’t for that immunity. The government, attended, addressing social trends in Jerusalem has felt taboo. She is not afraid of showing the less flattering side of the city. Rather than focusing on keeping Jerusalem as the undivided capital and talking about the Arab-Israeli conflict, she would like to hear Diaspora Jews also engage with Israel more intimately, “not the Jerusalem of heaven, the Jerusalem of Earth.” “It’s like Israel of milk and honey or Israel of gold. Don’t touch it. It’s like a picture. I was like, there’s so much behind the picture,” she says. Ezrahi would like to make Jerusalem inclusive spiritually, on a practical level – meaning that when non-Orthodox Jews who live in the city and Jews from around the world are in the city on Shabbat, they should be able to celebrate in their own way. “[It should be] that the public space in Jerusalem is a place where every voice can be heard and every person can be respected. That Shabbat is a time where people can express their way of celebrating,” Ezrahi says. For instance, the coalition has started brainstorming ideas for Shabbat events for locals and visitors, including community centers and groups leading “social tours,” dialogues, Shabbat services of various kinds, and activities like cycling, communal havdalah, learning activities, storytelling, and yoga sessions. Other proposed activities from
for example, has sovereign immunity in many circumstances. And generally, through the common law, courts have granted immunities for conduct in sports activities. Here’s the law of Ohio, as set by the Ohio Supreme Court: “Between participants in a sporting event, only injuries caused by intentional conduct, or in some instances reckless misconduct, may give rise to a cause of action. There is no liability for injuries caused by negligent conduct.” The thinking behind this is that not only do we as a society want to encourage people to participate in and watch sporting activities, but those who do participate or watch know the kinds of risks to expect in doing so. The Equine Immunity statute is consistent with these principles. First, under any statute, it helps to start with a definition. “Equine” means a horse, pony, mule, donkey, hinny, zebra, zebra hybrid, or alpaca. Those of you who know me know I am utterly “citified.” Once, when I was running for office and found myself at a county fair, I almost gave the trophy in a pigmy goat contest to a baby sheep. Need I say more? I had to google the word “hinny.” It’s the offspring of a male horse and a female donkey. And an irate reader of my blog commented that surely the legisla-
tors must know that alpacas are not equines, but camelids, because they are not hooved. They have two toes on each foot, and are related to camels, llamas, guanacos, and vicunas. Who knew? But I digress. Among those who cannot sue for tort damages under the equine immunity statute are spectators. So the issue in this case is whether Roshel Smith was a spectator. If so, she cannot recover damages from Landfair. If not, she can. The first thing to do would be to check in the definition section of the statute. But spectator isn’t a defined term. That’s what the Ohio Supreme Court has to decide in this case. At the argument before Ohio’s high court, Mr. Landfair’s lawyer argued that Roshel was an observer, watcher, or bystander of what happened. She knew or should have known that she had put herself in a position where she could see, watch, interact with or encounter equine activities. Thus Roshel was a spectator, and couldn’t sue him. The Ohio Horseman’s Council filed an amicus curiae brief in support of Landfair. The Council argued that the Court should adopt the plain meaning of spectator, which should include anyone viewing an equine activity, including the unloading of a horse. Since Smith witnessed Landfair unload Annie, she qualifies as a spectator under the statute, and
Courtesy of Studio Adler Photography
The five members of the Yeru-Shalem Coalition’s steering committee (l-r): Dr. Elan Ezrahi, Shaike El-Ami, Elisheva Mazya, Tehila Nachalon and Rabbi Uri Ayalon.
members of the coalition include holding a series of festivals highlighting local music, street culture, theater and poetry; interfaith dialogue; social action events; establishing a center for Jewish ethics and humanistic interpretations of Judaism; and an international conference every two or three years. Many visitors to Jerusalem “don’t feel at home” because the city “kind of shuts down” on Shabbat, says Ezrahi. He is not talking about getting the municipality to stop fining those few restaurants that choose to stay open on Shabbat, but rather making the city more vibrant and pluralistic on the day of rest.
The coalition is prepared to face an uphill battle. Mazya’s New Spirit has for the last two summers sponsored outdoor concerts on Saturday afternoons. The last one in particular on June 30, held in the city’s downtown area, sparked some haredi ire. Hundreds of members of the ultra-Orthodox Eda Haredit sect in Jerusalem have clashed with police for most Saturday afternoons of the last two years over the opening of a parking lot on Shabbat. While Nachalon says she would not attend the concerts as an Orthodox Jew, she fully supports New Spirit’s initiative, as over 1,000 young people in the city
therefore can’t sue for her damages. Roshel Smith’s lawyers argued that “spectator” is not synonymous with “bystander.” Just being present and seeing a horse being taken from a trailer does not make a person a spectator. Being a spectator connotes willing involvement, while a bystander may just happen to be somewhere, and may not even be looking. A spectator is an individual who physically places herself at an equine activity for the purpose of perceiving that equine activity. Since Smith did not physically place herself with the purpose of watching Landfair unload Annie, she argues that she cannot be deemed a spectator. The plaintiffs’trial lawyers association filed an amicus curiae brief in support of this position, and presented most of the argument at court on Roshel’s behalf. The oral argument of this case was quite lively, and involved a lot of shaggy horse hypothetical questions. Like, what if you are watching the firetrucks at a Fourth of July Parade and a stray horse runs by and injures you? Are you a spectator at an equine activity? So what’s the answer? We don’t know yet. It will probably take the court several months to decide this case. I promise an update when it does. Meanwhile, this would have made an excellent exam question for my torts students. have turned out for them. But Nechumi Yaffe, a 36-yearold Hasidic mother of three who teaches History at a Beit Yaakov school in Jerusalem, says she only supports efforts to keep secular Jews in Jerusalem, strengthen cultural activities and connect with Diaspora Jews “as long as it doesn’t break Shabbat.” “It’s important for the town to have young people but it can’t change the core of what the city stands for,” she says in a phone interview. “Jerusalem has a special place for spiritual Judaism.” Regarding activities that could potentially break Shabbat according to Orthodox tradition, such as playing music, she had one request: “Just do it in Tel Aviv. It’s okay. Do it in Nahariyah, do it in Eilat. Don’t do it in Jerusalem.” Ezrahi says haredim are welcome to join the coalition, though he does not suspect any are interested. Nachalon sees national – not just local – implications for the city’s demographic challenges. “The demography here is going to be the demography in Israel in 20 years, maybe less,” she says. “If we can confront issues here we have a chance nationwide. But if we fail here it also has a meaning nationwide.” Mazya feels the same way. “I see Jerusalem as a symbol for all the challenges and solutions that Jewish society as a whole is facing,” she says.
FIRST PERSON / AUTOS • 21
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2012
The gold portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer This Year in Jerusalem
by Phyllis Singer This month, “This Year in Jerusalem” is focusing on a New York museum instead of life in Israel. During an August trip to New York to see family, I visited the Neue Galerie on the Upper East Side, founded in the 1990s by philanthropist and art collector Ronald Lauder, today president of the World Jewish Congress, and his friend Serge Sabarsky, art dealer and museum exhibition organizer. The museum, which opened in 2001, showcases early 20th-century German and Austrian art. The centerpiece of the museum’s collections and exhibitions is a 1907 golden portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer by Austrian artist Gustav Glimt; the painting has a Cincinnati Jewish community connection. For years, the portrait and four other Klimt paintings were the focus of a restitution battle between Maria Altmann, the elderly niece of Ferdinand BlochBauer, a wealthy Jewish Austrian sugar magnate, and his wife, Adele, and the Austrian government. Altmann, who passed away in 2011, lived in Los Angeles. Her lawyer during the seven year battle with the Austrian government was E. Randol Schoenberg, grandson of composer Arnold Schoenberg. And here’s the Cincinnati connection: Randol Schoenberg is married to former Cincinnatian Pamela Mayers, daughter of Howard and Marlene Mayers. (Allen and I were actually at their wedding. I don’t remember the year, but it was before we made aliyah – and before Randol became famous in the world of art restitution.) According to reports in the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, The New York Times and other media, five Klimt paintings owned by the Bloch-Bauers were seized by the Nazis in Vienna in 1938. After the war, the paintings were taken over by the Austrian government. The portrait of Adele BlochBauer became the centerpiece of the Austrian National Gallery. Art History.com noted that
Adele Bloch-Bauer, who died in 1925, asked her husband in her will to donate the Klimt paintings to the Austrian State Gallery upon his death. When the Nazis took over Austria in 1938, Ferdinand BlochBauer fled to Switzerland. His property, including the Klimt paintings, was confiscated by the Nazis. In his 1945 will, Bloch-Bauer designated his nephew and nieces, including Maria Altmann, as the inheritors of his estate. But after the war, the Austrian government took over the paintings claiming that Adele Bloch-Bauer had determined that the pictures were to stay in Austria. After a protracted court battle in the United States and in Austria, binding arbitration by the Austrian court established in 2006 that Maria Altmann was the rightful owner of the Klimt paintings. A break in the case came in 2004 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Austria could be sued in a U.S. federal court. Following that decision, the Austrian government agreed to binding arbitration. In January 2006, a three-man court of Austrian legal experts decided unanimously that five Klimt paintings, including the gold portrait of Adele, belonged to Altmann and her four co-heirs. They determined that Ferdinand, not Adele, had been the rightful owner of the Klimt paintings, and, therefore, according to his will, the paintings should go to his heirs. Subsequently, Lauder purchased the Bloch-Bauer golden portrait for the Neue Gallery for a reported $135 million (Lauder has refused to acknowledge the price). According to the JTA, Schoenberg predicted that Altmann’s victory will encourage additional museums and governments to arrive at settlements regarding other cases of art stolen from Jews by the Nazis. When I visited the museum, the magnificent gold-flecked wallsize (54” x 54”) portrait was part of a special exhibition of Klimt’s paintings and drawings, marking the 150th anniversary of the artist’s birth. Although the special exhibition ended Aug. 27, the portrait remains part of the museum’s permanent collection. If you are in New York, I recommend you visit the gallery, which is located at 86th Street and Fifth Ave., not far from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim and the Jewish Museum. Best wishes for a Happy and Healthy New Year.
Evoque—The power of presence The Range Rover Evoque, an SUV? Hardly, it defines the power of presence. Land Rover has pushed the boundaries of what an SUV can be when combined with raw sensuality. At first look this car will capture anyone’s eyes. The way the smooth, chic design moves with such primal power, it’s bound to grab your attention. This car is not just superficial in nature.The inside is loaded with features that add to the car’s stunningly gorgeous personality that can only be described as magnetic. Birthed from the LR2 (Land Rover 2), the Evoque changes the face of crossovers everywhere, with its 240-horsepower, turbocharged four-cylinder engine. It’s coarse on the go, with plenty of drivetrain noise and noticeable turbo lag, but the smallville drivetrain loses nothing to the heavier, less strong LR2 and it sets the Evoque apart from the bigger Rovers that luxuriate in eightcylinder streams of torque. It’s an eye grabbing piece of work no different than a lady in red and as peppy as an Acura RDX, with similar fuel economy of 19/28 mpg. With an engaging blend of dynamic handling and refined engineering, it’s also the most sustainable Range Rover ever. Its compact footprint and advanced technology deliver exciting performance together with reduced fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, according to Land Rover.
2012 Range Rover Evoque
With EPA fuel economy estimates of 18 mpg city/28 mpg highway. There are three packages. The Pure, the Prestige, and the Dynamic. Each one has its own accent and specialty that will give you the style and choice you want in this sleek automobile. Land Rover took their time in designing the interior. Though this time, they have done their customers a great serivce, with an efficient yet elegant design. The instrumentation is arranged smartly behind the steering wheel. In the middle dash is a 5inch color LCD driver information center. This is, of course, optional at a price of $1,750, the hard diskbased GPS navigation comes
through clear through an 8-inch high-definition touch-screen display, mounted in the center stack. The screen is big and clear and the system is easy to use. A new partnership with high-end audio provider Meridian has resulted in an available 825-watt sound system that ranks among the best in class, complete with a hard drive-based jukebox, single CD player and AM/FM/HD/Sirius tuner with dual device Bluetooth Audio streaming and iPod control via USB connection. The MSRP starts at $43,995 and goes to $52,895. If you want to make a statement and have real power of presence, this is the beast for you.
22 • OBITUARIES D EATH N OTICES KICHLER, Caroline, age 75, died on August 28, 2012; 10 Elul, 5772. SHUR, Bonia, age 89, died on August 30, 2012; 12 Elul, 5772. ROBENS, Ann, age 98, died on August 31, 2012; 13 Elul, 5772. KLOTZ, Eleanor, age 79, died on September 1, 2012; 14 Elul, 5772. FINE, Roy, age 95, died on September 1, 2012; 14 Elul, 5772. BATTLEFIELD from page 10 Defense threats, however, especially concern information security experts in Israel, a country where national security issues dominate conversation. In fact, last year Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched the National Cyber Staff, which is charged with improving Israel’s defenses against cyber warfare. Israel has not fought a full-scale conventional war against another country in nearly four decades, principally fighting terror groups since the 1980s. Still, the biggest cyber threats come from countries, which have the necessary manpower to develop and execute a damaging attack, according to Isaac BenIsrael, a professor of security and diplomacy at Tel Aviv University and former head of military research and development for the Israeli Defense Forces and Defense Ministry. “Terror groups work with small groups of people, so the likelihood that they’ll attack our system is small,” Ben-Israel says. Israel also is the birthplace of internationally well-regarded information security companies such as the Sdema Group. But some experts say the country remains unprepared to meet potential cyber threats. “We’re OK relative to the world, but we are not OK relative to the threats in the region,” BenIsrael says. Weissman of the Israeli Forum for Information Security points out that Israeli companies do not invest enough in cyber defenses because the dangers don’t seem as real as those of bombs. “This cyber threat seems far away, so why put money into it?” he asks. “Organizations don’t bring in enough people, they cut corners.” And, Weissman says, the government’s budget is too tight to invest the money it should to prevent cyber attacks. “Israel has a lot of problems: religious people and secular people, Arabs and Jews,” he says. “There aren’t any teeth to Israeli regulations because there isn’t money.”
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FUSION from page 5 in Greater Cincinnati. The program helps families incorporate Jewish traditions into their lives by providing Jewish ritual items and other resources. The Shabbat Starter Kit, for example, comes complete with candlesticks, a kiddush cup, candles, a fresh challah, matzo ball soup mix and Shabbat matches. Other New Traditions Toolkits offer items for Passover, Hanukkah, Purim and the High Holidays as well as one with a mezuzah and tzedakah box. All include an easy to understand step-by-step guidebook with an explanation of each holiday, transliterated and translated prayers, recipes, online resources and more. Many Fusion Family participants have never observed a Jewish holiday before. However, after attending an event, or receiving a New Traditions package, they often go on to celebrate Shabbat, Hanukkah and other holidays. Some end up joining the JCC, sending their children to Jewish preschools and/or camps, and there are some who have even THEOLOGIAN from page 8 Jones says she has been involved with Jewish and Christian colleagues in numerous campaigns in Israel and other parts of the world to promote justice. “The kind of organCORRIE from page 10 “There’s a big gap between the organization’s declarations and the character of its actions,” Gershon read from the verdict. “ISM activities include placing activists as human shields for terrorists,” and “financial, logistical and moral assistance to Palestinians, including terrorists.” But speaking at a news conference following the verdict, the Corrie family and its lawyer presented a narrative that contradicted the judge’s. The lawyer, Hussein Abu Hussein, called Corrie and the other ISM volunteers “all peaceful BRACING from page 10 Elaraby, 77, was appointed secretary-general in July 2011, after a brief stint as Egyptian foreign minister in the first government of the post-Hosni Mubarak era. “Israel is violating every day what they have committed themselves to do,” Elaraby said. “What I’ve been asking is look at every step taken by Israel and see whether it really fits with its commitments,” Elaraby said. “I’ll tell you: no. I’ll just give you one example: Camp David, and I was there. They committed themselves that [UN Resolution] 242 would apply to every single front, or to every single country, which accepts
It’s a “Gummy Yummy New Year” where kids can visit the “Candy Bar,” decorate cupcakes, make edible necklaces and more!
become members of a congregation. And while many have increased their level of their Jewish engagement, Fusion Family’s mission is simply to give them a chance to connect with one another and with Jewish life in a way that feels comfortable for
them. For some, attending Fusion Family events or making a recipe provided in one of the boxes is the only Jewish thing they do, or may ever do for that matter. But that’s perfectly okay with Fusion’s organizers who know that before that, many weren’t doing anything
Jewish at all! To RSVP for Fusion Family Funday School’s Gummy Yummy New Year or to begin receiving the free New Traditions Toolkits, please consult the Community Directory in this issue for Fusion Family’s contact information.
izing I have done has been as much with Jews as it has with Christians,” she says. “I love traveling in Israel, I love Israel. It’s a beautiful, powerful state and its vision of justice and social problems is remarkable in the world today.”
Small steps toward mutual understanding between religions can be taken in the U.S. with such programs as the 12 women of Christian, Jewish and Muslim faith living together, Jones believes. Another step was recently taken during the
10th anniversary observance of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. At the Trinity Chapel, a church at Ground Zero, Jones participated with a Muslim woman and a rabbi in a four-week program on trauma, recovery and religious traditions.
activists. The army did not try to stop them. There was no command that it’s a closed military area. There was no threat to the lives of the soldiers. How could he say that?” Hussein added that the driver of the bulldozer must have seen Corrie, as she was protesting in one spot for five hours before she was run over. The Corrie family said it planned to appeal the verdict, which it must do within 45 days. Cindy Corrie, Rachel’s mother, blamed the ruling on “a wellheeled system to protect the Israeli military and the soldiers who conduct actions in that military, to
provide them with impunity at the cost of all the civilians who are impacted from what they do.” “This was a bad day not only for our family but a bad day for human rights, for humanity, for the rule of law and also for the country of Israel,” she said. Craig Corrie, Rachel’s father, said after the ruling that though they had sued the state, he rejected “the idea that simply making some of these things known is an attack on Israel.” Israeli anti-occupation activists, he said, have supported the Corries “from the first moment we’ve done this.” The Corries grew most passionate, however, when discussing
what happened on the day their daughter died. They contradicted a statement from Israel’s State Prosecutor’s Office declaring that “the driver of the bulldozer and his commander had a very limited field of vision, such that they had no possibility of seeing Ms. Corrie.” Corrie’s sister, Sarah Corrie Simpson, still wants answers from the driver. “I can say without a doubt that I believe my sister was seen as that bulldozer approached her,” she said. “I hope someday he will have the courage to sit down in front of me and tell me what he saw and what he feels.”
to live in peace with Israel. Fine. Palestinians have said for 20 years now we have recognized Israel, but they don’t want to apply 242, they don’t want to withdraw, they don’t want to stop the settlement activities. They have tens of thousands of prisoners who have been there for over 20 years. They are acting in a wrong way. They claim that they have withdrawn from Gaza, but they are surrounding Gaza and any day they will go and kill people in Gaza and go out. They are the occupiers. It’s not necessary in occupying a territory to be in every single yard of territory. They are outside but they are occupying it. So, everything is wrong. You need to rectify the relations. This is not going to work at all. You need to
rectify the relations to have a healthy relationship in the future.” Elaraby said that the new situation in the Middle East would change the dynamic of the ArabIsraeli conflict. “The way that the Israelis were using brute force and not taking into consideration the rights of the people around them, particularly the Palestinians, will have to change,” he said. “But they are reading it wrongly. They are claiming to the Americans, to the Europeans, ‘It is changing here. We don’t know what will happen. We will not talk unless they accept our conditions.’ They have to realize that if they want to live in peace with their neighbors, they have a chance to do that. But they have to
live in peace, they have to act according to the rules of international law everywhere. [The Arab peace plan] has been there 10 years there now, and it’s still there. Ten years, they’ve not reacted to it.” Elaraby said the Egypt-Israel peace treaty should be amended on the security front, as well as the commercial area. “People in Egypt under the former regime have added things which are not in the treaty,” he said. “People say Camp David requires Egypt to sell gas to Israel. Gas was not there at that time. Camp David and the treaty speak about the right of Israel to bid for oil which Egypt does not need. But people think that it contains obligations on Egypt to sell oil to Israel, which is not true.”