The Jewish Light Home Improvement Issue 2017

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Volume 7, Number 7 Late Summer / Home Guide 2017

Serving the Local New Orleans, Northshore, and Baton Rouge Jewish Communities

These Photos Capture Israel's Beauty and Diversity

By Andrew Tobin

JERUSALEM (JTA) — When the world sees photographs of Israel, they are often accompanied by reports of conflict and violence.

But a photo exhibition that opened in mid June at the Jerusalem Theater aims to capture the country in a more flattering light. The images, which were on on display through July 28, show Israel’s people and geography from a variety of angles — from flocks of birds descending on the Hula Valley to a little boy carrying a rainbow flag.

“I wanted to do something beautiful that would display the country’s inherent diversity,” said Karen Lehrman Bloch, the exhibition’s American co-curator. “I’m not trying to beauty-wash Israel, I just think everyone has already seen enough of the conflict.”

The exhibition is based on Bloch’s book “Passage to Israel,” which is filled with 200 images by 34 photographers taken across Israel and Jewish settlements. The book, published in 2016, led to an exhibition in New York that featured a performance by the Jewish reggae star Matisyahu.

In the Jerusalem version, 30 photos by 21 photographers are on display.

Kara Meyer, the other co-creator, added two images by a young ArabIsraeli photographer to the exhibition, which otherwise is dedicated to the work of Jewish Israelis.

Bloch plans to show the photos next in Tel Aviv and elsewhere in Israel, and then on an international tour. More photos from the book can be found at the “Passage to Israel” website. ì

“Agamon Hula: Chaos” by Tzachi Yaffe (Courtesy of “Passage to Israel”)

“Supermarket During Purim” by Udi Goren (Courtesy of “Passage to Israel”)

“Tel Aviv Beach” by Itamar Grinburg (Courtesy of “Passage to Israel”)

“Kidane Mihret, Ethiopian Church Interior” by Dor Kedmi (Courtesy of “Passage to Israel”)

“Umm el Fahem, Summer 2011” by Ammar Younis (Courtesy of “Passage to Israel”)

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JCRS Camp Scholarship

(504) 836-7595 Fax (504) 836-7039

650 Poydras Street, Suite 2304 New Orleans, LA 70130

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So far THIS SUMMER, JCRS has offered over $200,000 in scholarships for more than 330 Jewish kids to attend camp!!

Our JCRS Camp Scholarship recipients from across our sevenstate region are attending 42 different Jewish camps from coast to coast.

At JCRS, we recognize the value of Jewish sleep-away camp as a unique opportunity for fun, personal growth and Jewish identity building. Jewish summer camp allows children to enjoy new social and learning experiences is a special environment that nurtures Jewish identity. We provide needs-based partial scholarships for children between ages 9 and 16 to attend Jewish non-profit sleep away camps in the U.S. and Canada.

We need your help to continue and strengthen this important program. Please support our Camp Scholarship Program with a generous donation today.

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE JCRS CAMP SCHOLARSHIP AID PROGRAM, VISIT https://jcrs.org/services/campscholarship-aid.

DONATE TODAY!!

For more information on JCRS programs and services, or how you can help...call our office at (800)729-5277 or visit our newly re-designed website: www.jcrs.org Jewish Children's Regional Service (JCRS) P.O. Box 7368 Metairie, LA 70010

Pentagon 9/11 Attack Survivor Supports Pro-Israel State Laws Pro-Business Tax Reformer Supports Sanctuary City Ban Pro-Life Pro-Veteran & First Responder

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JCRS Oscar J. Tolmas Hanukkah Gift Program Hanukkah Gift Program forms are AVAILABLE NOW!

•Monthly Payment Plans • Drywood Termite Fumigation

Best Wishes

JEWISH LIGHT

Late Summer/ Home Guide 2017

Every year, JCRS looks forward to brightening the Hanukkah celebrations of families where parents have indicated to JCRS that they can use help in providing gifts for their children.

The JCRS Oscar J. Tolmas Hanukkah Gift Program provides boxes of gender and age-appropriate gifts to the homes of Jewish youth during the Festival of Lights. We will be ordering thousands of gifts and a limited number of gift cards.

Each child in recipient families is eligible to receive a set of eight small gifts (one for each night).

Recipient families must live in the following states : Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas.

If you want to register, please fill out a form completely - one for each child. Please note if child requires special needs. The Hanukkah registration form is available at: https://JCRSformstack.com/forms/ hanukkah_registration_form.

You must fill out individual registrations for each child. The form will list examples of typical gifts already available and you can indicate your child's overall interests.

Make sure to put accurate mailing information on the form and notify us if your address changes before December 2017 or has already changed. New Orleans area families will pick up their boxes in our office in Metairie, LA. Dallas families will pick up their gift packages at a place and time to be determined.

Please share this information to those Jewish families who might be interested in our program.

Questions about the program can be forwarded to ned@jcrs.org or colleen@jcrs.org To learn more about the JCRS Oscar J. Tolmas hanukkah gift program, visit https://jcrs.org/services/ hanukkah-program. ì

Northshore Table Tennis Club Traditional Jewish participation in Table Tennis on the Northshore of Lake Pontchartrain has emerged from the cramped confines of the garage and is now ready for primetime recognition at the Northshore Table Tennis Club.

The newly minted club is playing on competition level Stiga 385 tables at the recently completed Abita Recreation District #11 facility at 22519 Hwy. 36 in Abita Springs, LA. We are providing a comfortable and welcoming environment for table tennis enthusiasts ( no matter whether your status is beginner,

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intermediate or advanced) to indulge their passion for the sport.

We currently have 4 active Jewish members and would like to invite others to participate.

The club offers a full slate of monthly sessions including Tuesday & Thursday evenings from 6:30 to 9:30 & Saturday mornings from 9:30am to 12:30 at a low cost of $5.00 per session. Instruction sessions can be arranged through our club coach.

Please visit our Facebook site @ Northshore Table Tennis Club for further details. ì

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Community News

JEWISH LIGHT

Annual Hannah G. Solomon Award Luncheon WHAT:The National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) will host its Annual Hannah G. Solomon Award luncheon. The lunch honors a person who, through volunteer leadership, has brought forth social change while supporting NCJW values. The yearly event is a pivotal affair that, through the honoring of accomplished community leaders, builds awareness and showcases the importance of NCJW’s causes.

NCJW is a grassroots organization of volunteers and advocates who turn progressive ideals into action. Inspired by Jewish values, NCJW strives for social justice by improving the quality of life for women, children, families and by safeguarding individual rights and freedoms.

WHEN: Monday, October 16, 2017 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

WHERE: Marriott Hotel,

Address: 555 Canal Street, New Orleans, LA 70130 Event Highlights: Every year the NCJW honors an individual that has brought forth impactful social change fighting for NCJW issues through volunteer leadership.

Through an undying passion to make the world a better place for the well-being and education of children and a strong belief in women’s health and personal empowerment, Ms. Kim Sport exemplifies the activist legacy of our founder, Hannah Solomon.

After retiring from an accomplished and renowned legal career in 2000, Sport chose to dedicate her time volunteering in many nonprofit organizations in the Greater New Orleans area. Sport utilized her legal and persuasive skills to advocate and raise millions of dollars. The areas that Sport made

If your group has an event that you would like for us to include on the Community Calendar please e-mail the information to jewishnews@bellsouth.net. All submissions are subject to acceptance by the Editor. ì meaningful and impactful strides include: support for education and children’s rights, (Dollars for Scholars, childcare accreditation, United Way’s Women’s Leadership Council for pre-school children) the health of women with breast cancer (American Cancer Society, Susan B. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation Race for the Cure) and the implementation of legislative change in domestic violence issues (Louisiana Commission to Prevent Domestic Violence). Sport exemplifies volunteer leadership that brings forth social change. ***For more detailed information see attached detailed biography. *** WHO: The Hannah Solomon event selection committee and lun-

cheon hosts are NCJW President Barbara Kaplinsky, Event CoChairwomen Mimi Schlesinger and Sue Singer Committee Members: NCJW Vice President Sarah Covert, Barbara Bresler, Vivian Cahn, Millie Davis Kohn, Joyce Pulitzer, Loel Samuel, Dana Shepard, Ann Thompson, and Liz Yager.

HOW: To purchase tickets go online log onto www.ncjwneworleans.org. As of the publishing of this alert, ticket process have yet to be determined. ì

Table of Contents Community News

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Chai Lights

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Education

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Bookshelf

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Sports

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Jewniverse (Jewish Culture & History)

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Entertainment

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Financial

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Health

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Please learn more about Troy’s Platform Background and Postion at www. troyhenry.com “Uniquely Qualified To Serve” ;

The Nosher

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Southern & Jewish

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Focus on Issues

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National

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Kveller

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Jewniverse (Jewish Culture & History)

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; ; ;

20 years of service in E.B.R. Parish School System • French & English Teacher at Baton Rouge Magnet High • Supervisor of Foreign Languages for all E.B.R. Parish schools, K-12 • Assistant Principal in middle & high school 16 years as practicing attorney in Louisiana & in Mississippi Married to attorney Johnnie Matthews for 43 years 3 Adult children: 6 grandchildren

I pledge to uphold the law and to treat everyone who comes before me with dignity and respect.

It’s about justice, not politics.

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JOHNELL MATTHEWS # 22 CANDIDATE FOR CITY COURT JUDGE

ELECT: JOHNELL MATTHEWS, #22 CITY COURT JUDGE

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Chai Lights ChaiLights features announcements of births, B'nai Mitzvahs, engagements, weddings, and honors. To request your special event be published in The Jewish Light send your material to United Media Corp., P.O. Box 3270, Covington, LA 70435 or e-mail jewishnews@bellsouth.net. Events are published on a first come, first served basis, as space permits. Photographs are welcom; professional ones preferred. The must be clear and in focus. ì

Best Wishes to all of my Jewish friends and supporters!

The Honorable Erroll G. Williams Orleans Parish Assessor’s Office www.nolaassessor.com

#11

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Judge Tracey Flemings

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& Ryan Williams.

To Kathy & Neil Rabin on the Mazel Tov...

To Moish & Kohava Pomeranc birth of their grandson Jaden Levi for the Bar Mitzvah of their Cohen. grandson.

To Drs. Wesley & Norman Temple Sinai Mazel Tov...

Galen for their golden wedding To Lauren & Todd Cohen. anniversary.

To Sean & Kathryn Anderson To Rabbi Zalman & Libby on the birth of their baby Seth Groner upon the birth of their son Clarence.

Mazel Tov as well to and to grandparents, Rabbi Yossie Seth’s sister Tessa, grandparents & Chanie Nemes! ì Dr. A.J. & Devie Friedman, and great grandmother Edna Scheinuk.

Beth Israel To Patricia Barnett on the Mazel Tov... engagement of her grandson To Joe & Lee Blotner on the Yaakov Teles to Arielle Wernick. birth of a great-granddaughter!

To The following members for Parents are Brittany (Thomas) their installation as National and Efraim Prero of Chicago.

Grandparents are Pam (Blotner) Council of Jewish Women Greater and Stuart Thomas of Memphis. New Orleans Section board members: Big sister is Daliah Yehudis Prero Barnett (Board and the new baby is Sarah Rayzel • Patricia Member,Nominating Committee ("Rosie") born May 27, 2017 Member) weighing 8 1/2 lbs. May she grow • Sarah Covert (Vice President) to a life of Torah, family, and good • Maddie Fireman (Board Member) deeds.

To parents, Taylor & Georgia • Robin Giarrusso (Board Member) Vaughn and to grandparents, • Robin Goldblum (Board Member) Blayne & Eddie Gothard, on the • Barbara Greenberg (Nominating Committee Ex-Officio Chair, Vice adoption of a beautiful baby boy...

President) August Wayne Vaughn.

To grandparents, Dr. Lance & • Susan Kierr (Ex-Officio Past President) Karen Turkish on the birth of their • Rollie Rabin (Vice President) first grandchild, and parents Corey

Chabad

& Hallie Turkish Brinn on the birth of their first child, Harper Sloan Brinn. Born June 12th, weighing in at 7 lbs. 2 oz. and measuring 19 1/2 inches.

To Rebecca Fisher on her graduation from Bowdoin College, where she double majored in Neuroscience & Gender Women's Studies and for acceptance in a cancer research position at Mass General Hospital in Boston.

To Joel & Paula Teles Picker on their 49th Anniversary.

To Dr. Mark & Rochelle Adler Effron on their 40th Anniversary To Leon & Debbie Katz Pesses on their 40th Anniversary.ì

Gates of Prayer

Mazel Tov...

To Jennifer Sutton upon her completion of a two year Leading Educators Fellowship.

To John Shalett on his election as Chair of the State Board of Social Work Examiners.

To Estelle Reiner on the birth of her great grandson Nadav Dorsch.

Parents are Rabbi Joshua & Stephanie Dorsch.

To Robyn & Richard Hubbard on the birth of their grandson Owen Ryan Williams. Parents are Lauren www.thejewishlight.org

To Doris Baron for being elected as a 2017-2018 officer of Tulane University Women’s Association.

To the following members for being honored for their dedication, leadership,and generosity on behalf of Jewish children and families at the Jewish Children’s Regional Service’s 6th annual Jewish Roots: Past, Present, and Future event: Joan Berenson Robert Cahn Lisa Heller Howard Prince Phyllis Stern To Abby Botnick, daughter of Michael Botnick and granddaughter of Faye & B. Botnick, for earning rave reviews for her portrayal of Rosie in Rivertown’s production of “Bye Bye Birdie.”

To Sally Forman on being named acting CEO of the Idea Village.

To Jimmy Fried for being on the cover of and profiled in the May/ June Louisiana Society of CPA’s magazine Lagniappe, and being recognized as the oldest living past president of the Louisiana Society of CPAs. THE

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To Judy Haspel and Lawrence Williams, and great-grandmother Julanne Haspel, on the birth of grandchild and great-grand-child Finley Paige Williams. Mazel tov as well to parents Christopher & Jessica Williams.

To John Shalett on his election as Chair, Louisiana Board of Social Work Examiners. Mazel tov as well to Judy Haspel, who completes her three-year term as Chair.

To Alon & Emily Shaya, whose home was featured on apartmenttherapy.com.

To Chuck Stokes, who has been appointed as interim President & CEO of Memorial Hermann Healthcare System in Houston in addition to his current role as Executive Vice President.

Mazel Tov to our Grads…

To Rachel Sara Bressler, daughter of Lee & Tamie Bressler, who graduated summa cum laude from Emory University with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Spanish. Rachel started working at Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. as a business tech analyst in May. To Isabella Danzig, daughter of Joshua & Giselli Danzig, who graduated from the 8th grade at Phyllis Wheatley Community School. Isabella will attend De La Salle high school in the fall.

To Owen Dodd, son of Mike & Tracey Dodd, who graduated from the 5th grade at Isidore Newman School.

To Reina Evans, daughter of Jennifer & Craig Evans, who graduated from St. Edward’s University with with a B.S. in Behavioural Neuroscience with honors. Reina will start a four-year PhD program in Applied Social and Community Psychology at North Carolina State this fall, where she will work as a TA and continue her research in the school’s Teen Health Lab. To Hillary Erin Haspel, daughter of John Haspel and Amy Gainsburgh-Haspel, who graduated from the University of Denver with a master’s degree in social work with honors. Hillary has accepted a job with the Mental Health Center of Denver at Skyline Academy.

To John Karlin, son of Richard & Lisa Karlin, who received a master’s degree in structural engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

To Joshua Kreiger, son of Dr. THE

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& Mrs. Monte Kreiger and the grandson of Mildred Kreiger, who received a PhD in Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Joshua will join the faculty at Harvard Business School.

To Camille Liederman, daughter of Keith and Luanne Liederman, who graduated from the University of Massachusetts and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.

To Elizabeth Lowenburg, daughter of Harry Lowenburg and Jane Mauldin, and granddaughter of Anne Lowenburg, who received an M.A. in Education from the University of Colorado, Denver.

To Sara Lowenburg, daughter of Harry Lowenburg and Jane Mauldin, and granddaughter of Anne Lowenburg, who received an M.A. in Museum Studies from New York University.

To Zachary Lowentritt, son of Joshua Lowentritt, who graduated from De La Salle High School.

Zachary will attend the University of New Orleans in the fall to study computer science.

To Taylor A. Lyles, daughter of Jack & Pamela Lyles, who recieved an M.S. in Advanced Athletic Training from the University of South Carolina.

Taylor has accepted a job at the Tulane Institute of Sports, and has been assigned as the Assistant Athletic Trainer for Women’s Sports at Loyola University.

To Mathilda Mayer, daughter of Joshua & Jill Mayer, who graduated from Lusher Charter School. Mathilda will attend Vassar College in the fall.

To Joshua Stein, who graduated from Loyola University Law School. ì

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To Randy Roig on being presented the 2016-2017 Outstanding Mentor Award by the LSU School of Medicine Faculty Assembly.

To Karen & Lance Turkish on the birth of their granddaughter Harper Sloan Brinn and to great grandmother Harriet Stern.

To Jenny Katz and Greg Nichols on the birth of their daughter Emma Ruth Nichols.

To Kimberly & Aaron Novod on the birth of their daughter Josephine Viola Novod.

To Lisa & Adam Horwitz on the birth of their son Logan Joseph Horwitz and to big sister Maja Horwitz. ì

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Send editorial to us via e-mail at jewishnews@bellsouth.net or reach us by phone at (504) 455-8822. Our mailing address is United Media Corp. P.O. Box 3270, Covington, LA 70434 • To place advertising in THE JEWISH LIGHT, call United Media Corp. at: New Orleans (504) 455-8822 Northshore (985) 871-0221 Baton Rouge (225) 925-8774 THE JEWISH LIGHT carries Jewish Community related news about the Louisiana Jewish community and for the Louisiana Jewish community. Its commitment is to be a “True Community” newspaper, reaching out EQUALLY TO ALL Jewish Agencies, Jewish Organizations and Synagogues. THE JEWISH LIGHT is published monthly by United Media Corporation. We are Louisiana owned, Louisiana published, and Louisiana distributed.

United Media Corporation has been proudly serving the Louisiana Jewish Community since 1995. Together, we can help rebuild Louisiana. We thank you for the last 22 years and we look forward to an even brighter tomorrow.

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If you have a condolence that you would like for us to include in Life Cycle please e-mail the information to jewishnews@bellsouth.net. All submissions are subject to acceptance of the Editor. ì

Gates of Prayer

ROSES IN STOCK COLORS

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(CONDOLENCES)

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CONDOLENCES To Nancy Kancher on the death of her mother Sylvia Berman Rosenberg.

To Stacy Horn Koch on the death of her mother, Marilyn Rose Levy Horn.

To Zed Kesner on the death of her brother, Mitchell Becker.

To Mindy Caplan on the death of her brother, Louis Marshal Sloan.

To Helene Plotkin on the death of her brother, Allan Tatar.

To Myra Krassenstein & Steven Redstone and Larry & Brian Krassenstein on the death of their son and brother, David Ari Krassenstein.

To Anne Meldon on the death of her brother, Jerry Meldon.

Gates of Prayer IN MEMORIAM Lester Wainer Albert Patent

Temple Sinai

IN MEMORIAM Frank Brauner, husband of Janet Brauner and son in-law of Shirley Schiffman.

Deborah Cotton.

Marian Meyer Berkett aunt of Babette Cohn Sears, Margaret Mayer, and Denis Mayer.

Nancy Meyers Marsiglia wife of Michael Marsiglia, mother of Mike and Joseph Marsiglia, grandmother of Will, Max and Sam, and sister of Katherine “Kitty” Meyers Cohen.

Eli Murov, son of Ellis Murov and Luz Molina, and stepbrother of Maitland Frilot and Caroline Beth Israel Frilot Crosby.

CONDOLENCES May their memories be for a To Bradley & Daniela Bain on blessing. the loss of Daniela’s maternal grandmother, Betty Koretzky Touro Synagogue Boskis.

IN MEMORIAM To the family & friends of Judy Agular, cousin of Randal Seymour Schram on his passing.

To Irwin & Judy Lachoff and Pick and Lisa Conescu.

Sylvia Berman Rosenberg, Benah Klafert on the loss of uncle mother of Leona Stich. and brother, Gerson Lachoff.

Father John C. Arnone.

To Barbara Burk & Family on Deborah Cotton. the loss of Bernard Burk.

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PJ Library's Free Books for Kids Spur Jewish Connections, Study Finds

Education

Harold Grinspoon, the founder of PJ Library, reads one of the program’s books with a gaggle of children. (PJ Library)

By Ben Sales

NEW YORK (JTA) -- Families that receive free Jewish children's books from the Massachusettsbased PJ Library say the program has helped them feel more connected to their Jewish communities, with interfaith families especially saying it has spurred them to celebrate Jewish holidays and Shabbat and to learn more about Judaism, a new study found.

The study, released Tuesday by PJ Library and the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, found that 69 percent of participating families say the program has helped them feel more connected to their Jewish communities, whether by attending programs run by PJ library itself or activities run by local Jewish institutions.

Respondents also say the program helps them feel "more knowledgeable and confident" about how to engage in Jewish traditions with their children (83 percent), and 91 percent say the program is a valuable parenting tool.

More than half of intermarried couples who subscribe said the program makes their family more likely to observe Shabbat, and 64 percent said it makes them more likely to observe Jewish holidays. Nearly 90 percent of intermarried respondents said the books helped them learn more about Judaism, according to the triennial survey.

More than 25,000 users responded to the survey, which was conducted with the external evaluation THE

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firm Informing Change.

The program, launched in 2005 by the Grinspoon Foundation, now sends one book a month and occasional music CDs to 170,000 children ages 6 months to 8 years among 125,000 families in the United States and Canada. A parallel program, Sifriyat Pijama, operates in Israel. PJ Library estimates that its books are read 6.5 million times a year. Local Jewish federations and other institutions partner with the foundation in covering costs.

The findings confirm the goals of the program's founders, who hoped that bringing parents and children together over Jewish-themed books would not just be worthwhile in its own right, but inspire them to connect with other Jewish programs and institutions.

“We take seriously that each night parents are inviting us to join their family during one of the day’s most treasured moments before bedtime,” Winnie Sandler Grinspoon, president of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, said in a statement. “Parents have told us that the PJ Library books their families receive each month not only help them feel more capable of raising Jewish children, but also make them more excited to pass on the traditions and beliefs they cherished in their own childhoods or have come to cherish as adults.”

The survey also found that subscribers' had relatively high Jewish involvement. While the 2013 Pew

Research Center's study of American Jews found that 30 percent do not affiliate with a denomination, the number was only 10 percent for PJ Library subscribers.

And while the Pew study found that the intermarriage rate since 2000 is 58 percent, it's less than half that, 28 percent, among PJ Library subscribers.

The study's authors said they were not surprised that PJ Library families are more likely than the general population to be affiliated with Jewish organizations, since families usually hear about the program through synagogues, federations or Jewish community centers.

Among subscribers, satisfaction rates are high. Nearly two-thirds of subscribers, according to the study, read the books at least weekly, and 95 percent read them at least once a month. Virtually all respondents -99 percent -- said they have been "influenced or supported by PJ

Library." A majority of families responded that the books made them more likely to use a charity box or to increase their Jewish involvement in some other way, and 83 percent said it helps them feel more knowledgeable and confident about how to engage in Jewish traditions with their children .

"Books are a natural way to invite people into a global community and to pass values and traditions onto the next generation, ensuring our children and their children grow up connected to their Jewish heritage,” said Harold Grinspoon, a real estate developer in western Massachusetts and the founder of PJ Library.

Responses to the study, which was funded by the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, were gathered between November 2016 and January 2017. The study had a 1 percent margin of error. ì

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An Israeli's Alphabet Combines Hebrew and Arabic to Promote Understanding

By Andrew Tobin TEL AVIV (JTA) -- Middle East peace may remain out of reach, but at least the Hebrew and Arabic languages have found a compromise.

Israeli typography designer Liron Lavi Turkenich has created a stylized writing system that merges the two ancient alphabets, allowing Hebrew and Arabic speakers to read the same words. Her hope is that Aravrit will promote coexistence in Israel and beyond.

“I believe Aravrit sends a message that we’re both here, and we might as well acknowledge each oth-er,” Turkenich told JTA. “That applies to Jews and Arab Israelis, but also to Israel and the Palestinians and Israel and the Arab world."

Israelis have been receptive. Over 1 million people have watched a Hebrew-language video introduc-ing Aravrit since it was posted last week

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on Facebook by Kan, Israel's new broadcasting authority. Doz-ens left positive comments. A version of the video with English subtitles was released Monday.

“I think maybe this explains the crazy success of the Hebrew video: We can do something caring for the other side just by reading, without having a solution," Turkenich said.

Turkenich, 32, was inspired to create Aravrit by the road signs in Haifa, the mixed Jewish and Arab city where she was born and has lived most of her life. Although many of the signs feature Arabic -along with Hebrew and English -she realized that she had always ignored the lettering. Arabic tends to ap-pear smaller on official signage and, like most Israeli Jews, she cannot read it.

For her final undergraduate project, Turkenich set out to combine Hebrew and Arabic lettering in a way that would allow them to “live together,” as she put it She started by revisiting the work of French ophthalmologist Louis Émile Javal, who in the late 19th century found that people can read pretty well using only the top half of Latin letters. With some experimenting, Turkenich discovered that the same is true of Arabic -- and by happy coincidence, the opposite holds for Hebrew.

"In Hebrew, most of the identifying characteristics of letters' forms are near the bottom part," she said.

"When I went to check Arabic, I crossed my fingers that they would be on the top half -- and they were!"

Based on this insight, Turkenich combined each of the 22 letters in Hebrew with each of the 29 in Ara-

bic to create an Aravrit alphabet with 638 characters. Vowels are used as needed for legibility -below the Hebrew letters and above the Arabic ones, per the languages' respective rules. Turkenich tested the Hebrew elements on herself and her friends. For advice on the Arabic, she turned to Arab-Israeli commuters on her daily train ride from Haifa to Tel Aviv.

"Whenever I heard someone speaking Arabic, I would ask them if they had time to answer a few questions. They always said yes," she recalled, noting that she now has Arab friends who help.

Since graduating in 2012 from Shenkar, a college of engineering, design and art in Ramat Gan, Turkenich has further developed Aravit into a writing system. She has incorporated alternative forms of letters in both languages -- some Hebrew letters take on a different form at the end of words -- and connected the Arabic elements in traditional cursive style. The changes have given her the flexibility to craft each word in a unique way, and she is working on writing down the rules.

Turkenich said she gets lots of requests to write Aravrit, including recently from the head of a small mostly Jewish city in Israel that she declined to name. She also teaches and gives lectures about her work in Israel and around the world. Last year, Aravrit was exhibited at The Museum of Islamic and Near Eastern Cultures in Beersheba.

Language of course can be a political issue in the Jewish state.

Hebrew and Arabic both have sacred roots, and are central to the identi-

ties at stake in the Arab-Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Earlier this month, Israeli ministers backed a bill that would constitutionally enshrine the country's Jewish status and make Hebrew the only official language, demoting Arabic from that status -and, critics say, fur-ther marginalizing the 20 percent of Israelis who are Arab.

But Turkenich said her goal is to build on the languages, not subvert them. In Aravrit -- itself a hybrid of the Hebrew words for Arabic and Hebrew -- sentences follow the grammar rules of Arabic on top and Hebrew on the bottom, she noted, and the lettering retains the most prominent features of each script. A word like "peace," for example, would read as "salaam" on top and "shalom" on bottom.

"Both Hebrew and Arabic have incredible histories. We should not erase them," she said. "It's the same as the political situation: We can't start from scratch."

Arabs are not the only Israeli minority group Turkenich is interested in. While earning a master's de-gree in typeface design from England’s University of Reading in 2015, she developed a typeface called Makeda, the name Ethiopians use for the Queen of Sheba, which works for Amharic, Hebrew and Lat-in letters. She hopes it will be used for Israeli government and legal documents relevant to the coun-try’s 135,000 Ethiopian Jews.

"Makeda is a little less idealistic than Aravrit," Turkenich said, laughing. "That was me growing up." ì

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9 Jewish Books to Read

By Victor Wishna (JTA) — Sure, winter might seem like the ideal time of year for curling up with a good book — but summer is when you might actually have time to read.

So before these warm months all too swiftly fade to fall, here are some Jewish-themed titles, from a wide range of genres, to fill your beach bag (or tablet) for the season.

A bonus: These works, from an international smattering of authors, are equally enjoyable while riding in an overcrowded bus on your way to work.

Al Franken, Giant of the Senate (Twelve)

By Al Franken Franken may be best known for his years on "Saturday Night Live" and his popular satirical books, but he needed to contain his comedic chops in preparation for his current gig: U.S. senator from his home state of Minnesota, which he earned by the narrowest of margins after a recount in 2008. Yet once he was comfortably re-elected in 2014, he said he could finally be

funny again. It was worth the wait: This new memoir features plenty of Franken’s patented political and polemical comedy — including numerous takedowns of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz ("an obnoxious wrench in the gears of government") — along with some touching reflections on his childhood in “St. Jewish Park” (as the Minneapolis suburb St. Louis Park is known), his family life and, of course, his winding career path from 30 Rock to Capitol Hill.

Heretics (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

By Leonardo Padura, translated by Anna Kushner A celebrated Cuban journalist and author, Padura is best known in the English-speaking world for his series of mysteries set in Havana featuring Lt. Mario Conde.

In this newest adventure, as interpreted by Kushner, Conde is hired by a descendant of the Kaminsky family, who were among the German Jews who made a voyage of the damned from Hamburg to

Neal Auction Period Antiques, Fine Paintings & Decorative Arts

Bookshelf

Havana and back again aboard the refugee ship St. Louis in 1939. The Kaminskys had carried with them a rare Rembrandt painting. Both the family and the painting disappeared during the war, but the Rembrandt reappeared decades later at a London auction. In pursuit of the truth, Conde must navigate layers of anti-Semitism, the corruption of contemporary Cuba and the ghosts of history.

Man of the Year (Flatiron Books)

By Lou Cove Do you remember 1978? Cove, a former journalist whose resume includes senior roles with the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, Reboot and the National Yiddish Book Center, will never forget it. His quirky new memoir recalls his 13th year — traditionally a time of transition for any Jewish boy — when his family leaves New York City for Salem, Massachusetts, and a seemingly humdrum small-town existence.

This purgatory is interrupted by the arrival of a stranger from California, his father’s old friend Howie — he

may be better known to readers of that month's issue of Playgirl as Mr. November. But as Cove recounts in funny, touching prose, Howie isn’t satisfied with a single month: He wants young Lou to lead his campaign to become the magazine's, yes, Man of the Year.

The Matrimonial Flirtations of Emma Kaulfield (Arcade Publishing)

By Anna Fishbeyn This debut novel by actress, comedian, writer and web producer Fishbeyn elevates the literary romcom with inventive language and a distinctive immigrant identity twist.

The title character has grown from a See 9 JEWISH BOOKS on Page

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Important Fall Estates Auction September 9 & 10, 2017

1. Lin Emery (b. 1926), “Flower Dance,” 1990, polished aluminum, h. 47 in. 2. Ida Kohlmeyer (1912-1997), “Synthesis 92-3,” 1992, oil on canvas, 42 x 60 in. 3. Ida Kohlmeyer (1912-1997), “Symbolic Pole I,” 1991, painted aluminum, h. 90 in.

4038 Magazine Street • New Orleans, LA • 504.899.5329 • www.nealauction.com The successful bidder agrees to pay a buyer’s premium in the amount of 25% of the hammer price on each lot up to and including $200,000, plus 10% of the hammer price greater than $200,000. LA Auc. Lic., Neal Auction Co. #AB-107, Alford #797, LeBlanc #1514

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Sports

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NASCAR's First Israeli Driver Is an Unlikely Success Story

By Gabe Friedman (JTA) — Israeli race car driver Alon Day’s rise to the highest ranks of NASCAR has been an unexpected one for a variety of reasons Here’s one of them: The 25-yearold has done the bulk of his training on computer-screen simulators.

That’s because Israel didn’t have a motor sport track until this year.

On Sunday, he became the first Israeli to compete in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series — the sport’s highest league of competition — when he raced the No. 23 car for the BK Racing team at the Sonoma Raceway in Southern California. Though Day finished 32nd among the 38 drivers after being involved in a collision, his participation in the race was still significant.

While NASCAR has made efforts to diversify its pool of athletes, the sport’s fans and drivers remain mostly white and Christian — at times to a controversial extent.

Day, by contrast, wears his Israeli and Jewish identities proudly. His car for Sunday’s race sported a few

Israeli flag stickers, and he also had Stars of David on the left arm of his racing suit and on his belt. He has previously driven a car featuring an Anti-Defamation League sticker (even if the ADL was not an official sponsor of the vehicle).

It’s pretty remarkable, given that it is unknown if a Jewish driver has ever made it to the top tier of NASCAR. Day, speaking to JTA from a taxi following his flight to California on Thursday, is well aware of the unlikeliness of his story — one that involves Israeli go-karts, plenty of computer games and a Florida attorney eager to get a Jewish driver into the NASCAR mainstream.

“I’m going to make history for myself and for my country, Israel,” the Tel Aviv resident said.

Day grew up in Ashdod, where he learned about NASCAR from playing video games such as Grand Prix Legends. Motor sports have never been popular in Israel, in part because an old British Mandate law (dating to the days when the British

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Alon Day sitting next to his car during qualifying for the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ 4th Annual Mid-Ohio Challenge in Lexington, Aug. 12, 2016. (Jonathan Moore/Getty Images)

ruled Palestine) that banned any cars that could be used for more than commuting was only recently scrapped.

In his early teens, Day became champion of the country’s only semi-professional motor sport league: go-karting. His father, realizing his son’s potential, sent him to compete in Europe. He began racing in Formula Three and was on a trajectory toward Formula One, among the top racing leagues in the world.

But a couple of years ago, Day decided to switch gears (pun intended). He shifted from driving the Formula One open cockpit style of car to stock cars, the ordinary cars that have been modified to be raced in NASCAR It was mostly a business decision, because the world of motor racing is driven by sponsorships.

Since Israel’s business ties with the U.S. are much stronger than those with Europe, Day recognized he had a greater likelihood of being sponsored to drive for NASCAR. “It’s definitely much easier for me to get sponsorship here in the states than in Europe,” he said.

Based on his strong start in Europe and the U.S. — he raced a full season in a sub-league of the Indy 500, the U.S. version of Formula One — Day was selected early last year to be a part of the 2016-17 NASCAR Next program, which highlights young, up-andcoming racers.

That happened to be right around the time that Phil Robertson, the controversial member of the “Duck Dynasty” clan, delivered an eyebrow-raising speech before a NASCAR race in Forth Worth, Texas.

“All right Texas, we got here via Bibles and guns, I’m fixin’ to pray to the one who made that possible,”

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Robertson said. “I pray Father that we put a Jesus-man in the White House.”

Robertson’s pre-race prayer didn’t sit well with David Levin, a Jewish lawyer from Florida and longtime NASCAR fan. Levin had just waded into the world of NASCAR sponsoring, and the reality star’s rhetoric gave him extra motivation to do something he had long wished for: He would find and help promote a Jewish driver into NASCAR’s top circuit.

Day called it perfect timing.

“It’s just kind of karma,” he said.

Since then, Levin has raised significant sums of money to support Day — he’s even enlisted a former NFL player as a backer. Drivers need sponsors to cover the costs of fuel, a pit crew and its tools, as well as salaries for the driver and his or her manager. In return, sponsors get stickers of their brand logo on their drivers’ car. Over the course of a full season, one sticker can cost over $1 million.

“I don’t really know how he does it, he makes magic,” Day said.

“And somehow I’m driving in the car.”

Depending on the results of the Sonoma race — and if Levin can continue to work his “magic” — Day said his goal is to race in the next Cup Series race at Watkins Glen in western New York in August.

Meanwhile, Day is gaining recognition in Israel, where he was named Athlete of the Year in 2016 by the Sports and Culture Ministry.

He points to the newly opened race track in Arad and an article about him in Yediot Acharanot, one of Israel’s biggest newspapers, as signs that motor sports are on the rise in the Jewish state.

Day himself is contributing to car racing’s increased visibility in Israel. Alongside his fledgling celebrity, he opened a racing “gym” in Tel Aviv with an old go-karting buddy. The gym houses several driving simulators, which are basically higher-tech versions of arcade games. The building has turned into an all-ages school where Day teaches pupils about racing, as well as about difficult situations a driver See NASCAR on Page THE

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Jews in Comic Books

How American Jews created the comic book industry.

Jewniverse

By Arie Kaplan

(JTA) Jews built the comic book industry from the ground up, and the influence of Jewish writers, artists, and editors continues to be felt to this day. But how did Jews come to have such a disproportionate influence on an industry most famous for lantern-jawed demigods clad in colorful tights?

First Comic Books The story begins in 1933. During that year, the world experienced seismic changes in politics and pop culture. An unemployed Jewish novelty salesman named Maxwell Charles “M.C.” Gaines (née Max Ginzberg) had a brilliant idea: if he enjoyed reading old comic strips like Joe Palooka, Mutt and Jeff, and Hairbredth Harry so much, maybe the rest of America would, too.

Thus was born the American comic book, which in its earliest days consisted of reprinted newspaper funnies. Gaines and his colleague Harry L. Wildenberg at Eastern Color Printing soon published February 1934’s Famous Funnies #1, Series 1, the first American retail comic book.

Rival comic book publishers sprang up immediately. However, by the mid-1930s publishers were already starting to exhaust the backlog of daily and Sunday strips that could be reprinted. The easiest way to fill the demand for new comic book features was for publishers to tap writers and artists who couldn’t get work anywhere else, either because they were too young, too inexperienced, or Jewish–in most cases, all three. Advertising agencies had anti-Semitic quotas, and newspaper syndicates only occasionally took on a token Jewish cartoonist like Milt Gross or Rube Goldberg. But the comic book companies were mostly run by Jewish publishers like Timely Comics’s Martin Goodman or DC Comics’s Harry Donenfeld. It was a situation similar to that of the early motion picture industry, in which Jewish THE

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directors, producers, and studio executives who’d faced anti-Semitism in other industries built an industry of their own.

Because the comic book stories were being written and drawn largely by inexperienced teenagers, they were often crude rip-offs of the popular newspaper strips of the day, such as Tarzan or Buck Rogers. Enter writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, the creators of Superman. In 1938, DC Comics published the Man of Steel’s first adventure in the pages of Action Comics #1. Superman was an instant hit. Literally dozens of

Red Skull. Captain America’s alter ego Steve Rogers could be seen as a symbol for the way Jews were stereotypically depicted as frail and passive. That is, until he took a serum that transformed him into the robust Captain America. The serum was created by “Professor Reinstein,” an obvious nod to famed Jewish physicist Albert Einstein.

And Superman gave such a pounding to Nazi agents from 1941-45 that, according to legend, Nazi Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels jumped up in the midst of a Reichstag meeting and denounced the Man of Steel as a Jew.

led in the spring of 1954 to the publication of The Seduction of the Innocent, based on Jewish psychologist Frederic Wertham’s sevenyear-long study of the effects of comic books on America’s youth.

Dr. Wertham condemned most of the genre — especially crime and horror comics–for having contributed to juvenile delinquency. As the outcry following the publication of Seduction of the Innocent grew, so did the call for government intervention. The Hearings Before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary opened in Manhattan federal court on April 21, 1954.

Bill Gaines had to cancel his entire line, except for MAD, which became a magazine to escape censorship. Thanks to writers and cartoonists like Al Jaffee, Will Elder, Frank Jacobs, and Mort Drucker, MAD soon became well-known for a certain urban Jewish sensibility.

MAD had a huge influence, helping to pave the way for modern comedy as we know it.

The Marvel Age The comic book industry took awhile to fully recover from the damage that Wertham had wrought.

That changed when Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber) decided to develop a new type of superhero book. For 1961’s Fantastic Four, Lee teamed with his frequent collaborator, artist Jack Kirby (born Superman author Jerry Siegel during his US Army service in Hawaii circa 1944.

Jacob Kurtzberg), to create a group (Wikimedia) of superheroes who weren’t sunny Superman clones were rushed into A Bad Influence or optimistic like rival company production by rival comic book After the war, however, comic DC’s heroes. One member of the publishers, and suddenly the comic sales started to drift off. One reason Fantastic Four, Ben Grimm (aka book industry had a future. for this was the increasing concern The Thing) felt like a freak because According to most comic book that comics were a bad influence on See COMIC BOOKS 20 historians, Superman’s creation the nation’s children. In 1947, Max on Page heralded the beginning of the so- Gaines’s ne’er-do-well son Bill Best wishes to our many friends! called “Golden Age” of comic Gaines assumed control of his late G eorGe’s Auto Body shop books, the era during which the father’s company Educational Specializing in Auto Painting and Repairs visual grammar of the medium was Comics, renamed it Entertaining established. It was also a time when Comics, and over the next few 486-7626 • 486-7644 many classic characters were cre- years phased out the wholesome ated. There was nothing overtly titles like Picture Stories from the Jewish about the characters created Bible in favor of gory, lurid titles 4615 Earhart Blvd. (Carrollton Area) during this era. However, occasion- like Tales From the Crypt and The ally a comic book character would Vault of Horror. The new EC was a “THE MOST WELL TRAVELED VEHICLES ON EARTH” emerge that had certain Jewish sig- hit. In 1952 an EC humor comic nifiers. After America became book created by Harvey Kurtzman involved in World War II, Timely often featured Yiddish words like Comics superhero Captain Ameri- “ganef,” “feh,” “oy,” and “fershlugca’s Jewish creators Joe Simon and giner” in the stories. That humor www.paretti.com Jack Kirby pitted their star-span- title was MAD. LAND ROVER 4032 VETERANS BLVD. 887-2969 gled warrior against the Nazi agent This anti-comic book sentiment NEW ORLEANS www.thejewishlight.org

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Entertainment

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There's an Orthodox Version of 'Shark Tank' Eli Pasternak, front, and partner Shmuel Blumenfeld pitching a business that helps private retailers sell products on Amazon at The William Vale hotel in Brooklyn, May 22, 2017.

By Ben Sales

Wishing my many friends & supporters in the Jewish Community a Happy New Year.

R. Reid Falconer

Representative, District 89 Louisiana House of Representatives

12 Late Summer/ Home Guide 2017

NEW YORK (JTA) -- At the opening of the most recent season finale of “Shark Tank,” the ABC reality show about startup entrepreneurs, a male model stripped and posed in front of a group of investors, showcasing a business that combines drinking wine and painting pictures.

At the beginning of a takeoff of "Shark Tank" in Brooklyn, an Israeli in a beige kippah, gray blazer, pink shirt and blue jeans stood before a panel of five investors -two with black kippahs and beards, one in an ankle-length dress with long sleeves. Before the show, a woman in a wig had discussed camera work in Yiddish with one of her employees. Now the cameras were rolling and the Israeli entrepreneur pitched his product, which allows real estate brokers to virtually tour interactive, 3-D renderings of their properties.

Welcome to BizTank, the haredi Orthodox version of "Shark Tank."

At their core, "Shark Tank" and BizTank are the same: Entrepreneurs pitch their businesses to investors, who fire off a round of questions and then decide whether or not to invest. But there are two big differences: Almost everyone on BizTank is Orthodox Jewish, and the program is a lot more heimish.

On "Shark Tank," the cast of investors includes Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and businesspeople such as Barbara Corcoran and Kevin O'Leary, with guest appearances by celebrities like Ashton Kutcher. Some of the investors on BizTank aren’t easily Googleable; among the most wellknown names is Ronn Torossian, a prominent Jewish public relations professional with ties to the Israeli right.

And while BizTank has been meeting and filming since April 2016, it’s unclear when and in what format the show will air. Currently its biggest media exposure is in a column in Ami Magazine, a haredi publication that helps produce the program.

But Joel Klein, the creator of BizTank, doesn’t sound concerned www.thejewishlight.org

about signing a TV contract. He says the point of the show isn’t to garner viewers; it’s to connect (mostly) Orthodox Jewish entrepreneurs with (mostly) Jewish investors. If everyone makes a little money, that doesn’t hurt either.

“In general, the frum community is business-minded,” said Klein, using a Yiddish word connoting traditionally observant Jews.

“They have great ideas, but there are certain cultural boundaries that make it hard for them to get out to the outside market. And in general, for investors to get into the community is something hard. We give access to the frum business owners to get connected with the right investors.”

BizTank is shot in the basement of the William Vale, a chic, high-rise hotel in the ultra-hip neighborhood of Williamsburg — also the home to a sizable Hasidic community. But for now, the videos are shown only to a wider group of about two dozen investors to see if they are interested in the entrepreneurs' pitches. Klein has invested in production values in case he makes a TV or web series out of the show, but he has no concrete plans to do so.

So far, BizTank has fielded some 30 startup pitches, ranging from Avoke, an avocado smoothie company, to a device, pitched by a Holocaust survivor, that helps people with arthritis button their shirts.

The entrepreneurs end their presentation with an “ask” — generally an investment amount in exchange for a percentage of the company.

The investors take turns asking questions about everything from the business model to the product See SHARK TANK on Page THE

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The Billionaire Who Founded Birthright Has a Private Zoo

FINANCIAL

By Ben Sales MOUNT KISCO, N.Y. (JTA) – When Michael Steinhardt strolls around his 55-acre backyard for 90 minutes every morning, one of his favorite animals to see is the scimitar-horned oryx, whose antlers sweep back from its head like the swords for which they are named.

But Steinhardt didn’t much like finding out that a (literally) horny oryx had stabbed a zebra to death during a testosterone-fueled mating season three years ago.

The zebra incident is, thankfully, an outlier on his sprawling estate about an hour north of Manhattan, home to at least 30 species of animals as well as more than 100 birds. It’s been called a “private zoo,” but that’s true only in the sense that St. Peter’s Basilica is Pope Francis’ local church.

I rode north for an hour on a train expecting animals in cages, a few serene ponds with exotic fish, maybe some petting opportunities.

I didn’t expect to pass a spiral bamboo climbing structure (for humans), to take a walk across a rickety rope bridge in the middle of a forest, or to find owls squawking at me, Harry Potter-style, in the middle of the day, causing me to re-evaluate whether the expression “night owl” is really even accurate.

Soon after, we come across two century-old tortoises humping, the bottom one slowly crescendoing up on her wrinkled legs as her lover cranes his long neck diagonally downward. The "guy on top," Steinhardt informs me, is named Sexton -- for John Sexton, the past president of New York University. The reason?

"Sexton was the boss of NYU and this guy is the boss of the tortoises," explains Steinhardt, an NYU trustee.

Then Steinhardt tells me I can ride another tortoise, bareback, a few feet away. Usually I try to remove myself from the stories I cover. But I mount the reptile.

“Tortoise equestrian” is generally not the first phrase that comes to mind when discussing Steinhardt, the hedge fund billionaire who helped create Birthright, the free 10-day trips to Israel for young Jews. But Steinhardt’s zoo, at around 15 years old, is only slightly younger than Birthright – and it reveals a totally different side of the THE

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man’s personality.

Steinhardt fashions himself as the disruptive Jewish innovator – outspoken about the shortcomings of American Judaism, discussing it in full, extemporaneous paragraphs and ready to put his money where his mouth is. He has embarked on venture after venture – first the free Israel trips, then a network of Hebrew-language charter schools, now a museum of natural history at Tel Aviv University that will open this summer. The museum is a way for Steinhardt to merge his love of fauna with his love of Israel -- especially because he says he's not allowed to import Israeli animals across the ocean.

He is eager to defend all of these programs with statistics proving their worth. And despite his very high profile, Steinhardt says his Jewish initiatives are really about other people – the half-million Jewish young adults who have gone on Birthright, say, or the students who attend the charter schools.

But the zoo is all about Steinhardt himself; he made it solely so he and his family could live among beauty. Steinhardt likes to meander from field to field, introducing visitors to red kangaroos, marmosets or wallabies, an Australian marsupial.

"I decided to do this because I really love animals and I thought that this would create more joy for my family and I than anything else I could do," he says.

Seconds later, he is back to being a tour guide.

"Directly in front of you is a female ostrich," he says, pointing.

"To the right is a group of guanacos. There are four different varieties of South American cameloids: They are alpacas and llamas and vicunas and guanacos."

Steinhardt's love of animals began with the parakeets and fish he had as a child, and as an adult he has built an ecosystem of flora and fauna from across the globe. If Steinhardt is a kind of Moses with

Birthright, on a mission to bring the Jews (briefly) to Israel, here he is Noah – animals from all over the world now surround him two by two.

He feels a tranquility on the grounds because they are blissfully free of the kinds of problems his philanthropy is trying to solve. In Israel, the Jews fight with the Palestinians. At his zoo, the swan lies with the capybara.

"What we do differently here is we have a variety of disparate animals together," Steinhardt says.

"Even though I'm used to it, it still feels like a treat."

Many of the animals on the estate roam on rolling hills enclosed with wooden fences. The swans and capybaras -- the world's largest rodent -- lounge on the bank of a pond among scattered landscaped trees and stones. Some of the more carnivorous animals do live in cages – like a group of serval cats – though the enclosures lead out to small, separate fields. The marmosets, a New World monkey species, live in tall, rectangular cages with a complex branch infrastructure tailored for climbing. Birds flit and perch inside an aviary.

Steinhardt has no method for choosing his animals. Seeing one he likes, he’ll see if he can get it. He has a dealer he trusts, and also will make deals with zoos. The capybaras, for example, were adaptable to the climate, and he liked that they could stay underwater for long stretches. Now he’s negotiating a large donation to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, D.C., possibly in exchange for red pandas, though Steinhardt says he has little space to expand.

He is vague about his zoo’s specs – how much it costs to run (Steinhardt ignores the question), how he stays within regulations governing private zoos (it’s all legal, he assures: "The local police are perfectly nice.") and how many people he

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employs to tend to the animals (his answer: “1.2 percent of the male population of Nicaragua,” which comes out to roughly 34,000 people. He is kidding.).

At the end of the walk through the zoo, plus a visit to his private strawberry garden, we hop on a golf cart that takes us through much of the rest of the estate – sloping paths through unmanicured forests, water trickling down a rock sculpture, a large, boxy house in a clearing that Steinhardt is building for his daughter’s family.

And then, at the finish of the odyssey, we see the zedonks. Halfzebra, half-donkey – Steinhardt prefers the word “zonkey” – they stand in a trio, brown pack animals covered in black stripes, a puffy black mane and pointy ears sprouting from their necks and heads. Not far away are camels, which we all but ignore. The zedonks approach us warily, intruders in their habitat, and let us observe them.

But by then, Steinhardt is transforming back into the billionaire philanthropist – taking business calls, coordinating logistics for how we would leave. We have been with the animals for more than an hour.

Now it is time to return to America, its Jews and their problems. ì

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Inside the $125 Million Jewish International Aid Industry A volunteer with the organization World Jewish Relief works with refugees in Greece. (Minos Alchanati)

By Ben Sales

NEW YORK (JTA) -- Eighty percent of Jews live in two countries -- Israel and the United States -- but Jewish organizations are spending more and more of their money elsewhere.

Jewish aid to the developing world -- the impoverished set of countries your zayde called the “third world” -- has grown quickly in the past couple of decades. What used to be a handful of groups has grown to become a constellation of organizations working on anything from solar power in Rwanda to agricultural sustainability in Nepal.

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Together, the groups aid millions of people.

Jewish global service efforts come from across the Jewish world and provide funding and personnel to a range of causes and places.

Now, for the first time, a survey has quantified the industry’s basics: where it works, how many people it helps and how much money it spends. The survey was conducted in March by Olam, an umbrella organization for Jewish global service groups, and was shared with JTA on Monday.

Here are five indicators that explain this booming sector.

Jewish groups spend at least $125 million in the developing world.

While it doesn’t compare to the billions Jews give every year to Israel, the amount Jews give in this sector tops well over $100 million annually. Of the 47 groups Olam covers, 26 reported operating budgets that total $125 million in funding for international development.

Some of those groups are small initiatives, each with a budget of under $100,000 -- all of which goes to the developing world. Others are sprawling organizations like the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, which dedicates a small but still sizable portion of its $300 million budget to international development.

The reported budgets range from $60,000 to $45 million -- the median budget is just shy of $1 million.

Some of the largest are the American Jewish World Service and the refugee aid group HIAS, each of which has a budget of approximately $40 million.

The groups reach 3 million people ...

The Jewish global service world spans a wide range of causes.

Many of the groups work on some form of women’s empowerment and education, while a handful focus directly on goals like alleviating hunger or expanding access to technology.

Altogether, through seminars, direct aid, education or employment programs, the groups help 3

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million people. As with the budget figures, five of the groups dominate the field, accounting for 92 percent of the people reached. Because the individual data of the groups has been kept confidential, the survey does not indicate which five groups these are. ... and enlist nearly 2,000 volunteers.

Much Jewish international aid work is done either by funding local nonprofits or sending professionals to coordinate aid. But some of the nonprofits’ most visible work is through volunteer programs that send young Jews to work on the ground in the developing world. In total, 19 of the groups surveyed send 1,850 volunteers to do aid work. Of those volunteers, most of them went on short-term programs lasting a week or two, most were college students and nearly all were Jewish. Like the overall Jewish population, nearly four-fifths came from North America or Israel.

The survey found that organizations also use the volunteer trips to reinforce Jewish identity. Eightyone percent of volunteer experiences had some form of Jewish curriculum, as well as a structured way to observe Shabbat.

“The [Diaspora] Jewish organizations -- many of them were started with a Jewish identity experience or a Jewish education piece,” said Dyonna Ginsburg, Olam’s executive director. “You have a tendency among the non-Israeli organizations to be more focused on the volunteer aspect, and among the Israeli organizations to be more focused on professional areas of expertise.”

The field has expanded rapidly since 2000 and is increasingly centered in Israel.

Some Jewish global service groups are more than a century old.

But two-thirds -- 20 of the 30 that responded to the survey -- were founded in the 21st century. In addition to helping countries across the globe, the organizations also come from countries the world over.

While many are based in the U.S. and Canada, others are found in

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South Africa, Australia or Mexico.

But the plurality of the groups come from the country that’s also the biggest beneficiary of Jewish charity: Israel. The Jewish state is home to 27 of Olam’s 46 member groups, ranging from Brit Olam, an international volunteering group, to Innovation: Africa, which provides solar and agricultural technology to African villages.

Ginsburg says the Israeli global service world has ballooned in recent years due to Israelis’ increased affluence. Also, she adds, Israeli groups can focus on specific areas of international development without having to worry about being their country’s “Jewish” representative in the field, like the American Jewish World Service or Australia’s StandUp. “There’s this general sense at least among some that Israel is in a place where it can not just think of meeting its own needs, but [can] share some of that with others,” she said. “Many of those are niche organizations with specific areas of expertise, in agriculture, in clean tech, in health care, education, et cetera, so they don’t see themselves as the Israeli or Jewish voice.”

South Asia and East Africa attract the most groups Jewish service efforts span what activists sometimes call the “global south,” where much of the world’s poverty is found. In total, the groups provide services or aid in 69 countries. But two regions are especially popular aid destinations: South Asia and East Africa.

A dozen groups are active in India, with its vast geography and massive population, while eight are active in Nepal, four in Myanmar and three in Sri Lanka. East Africa’s countries also attract the attention of a range of groups, from 11 that are active in Uganda to nine in Kenya and six in Rwanda.

Notably, both regions have remote Jewish communities. The Abayudaya Jewish community lives in the hills of central Uganda, and the B’nei Menashe hail from the eastern Indian province of Manipur. ì THE

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JEWISH LIGHT

Keep These 10 Pantry Staples Around for Easy Any Time Dinners

NOSHER

(food)

(Shannon Sarna is the editor of shakshuka and beyond. heck it out The Nosher.) at wwwTheNosher.com. ì The Nosher food blog offers a day. I like pairing mine with some dazzling array of new and classic frozen kreplach, egg noodles and Jewish recipes and food news, from veggies for the ultimate comforting Europe to Yemen, from challah to dinner.

4. Broths Whether you are making soup, rice, pasta, stew or curry, having broths in your pantry is an absolute must. I tend to keep homemade OPTIMA chicken stock in the freezer and computer services store-bought vegetable broth in my 985.892.2484 cabinet. You can also make a simsusanna@optima.services ple vegetable broth using leftover vegetable peelings — waste not, www.optima.services want not.

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5. Israeli couscous covington, la 70433 It’s not quite pasta (OK, techniServing the Northshore cally it’s pasta), but it’s super fun to for 14 Years make as a side dish, main dish or even added to a can of store-bought tomato soup.

6. Pizza dough Pizza dough is incredibly versatile, comes in many varieties (whole grain, plain, whole wheat, herb) and can be frozen to use at a later date. I love buying a few bags of the whole grain pizza dough from Traditional yet guilt-free.

Whole Foods and pulling it out By Shannon Sarna when I am in a pinch for dinner. ed foods which aid in digestion 7. Puff pastry (um, kimchi!).

Puff pastry can be used for sweet 3. Jewish penicillin, otherwise and savory dishes. You can store it known as chicken soup, has garin your freezer for flaky dinner nered this nickname because chickdeliciousness when you need it. en soup has actually been scientifi8. Coconut milk cally shown to help treat colds. In Coconut milk will turn humdrum truth, chicken soup is the original pureed soup into something creamy Jewish food (particularly Ashkebone broth. and luxurious, and it is a quintes4. Israeli salad is as about as delisential ingredient in many Indian- nazi) really gets a bad rap as being overwhelmingly fat laden, obesitycious and fresh as it gets: chopped and Asian-inspired dishes. inducing dishes lacking fresh fruit veggies, herbs and some lemon 9. Lentils Lentils, like chickpeas, are cheap, and vegetables. But Jewish food is juice.

5. Not only is shakshuka ubersatisfying and delicious sources of diverse, vibrant and even uses fresh, protein you can keep on hand for seasonal vegetables, herbs, colors trendy right now, but it’s easy and easy cooking. I like to keep French and spices. Here are a few surpris- good for you – vegetarian, made lentils and red lentils around for ingly healthy, traditional foods to with with lycopene-loaded tomaenjoy with none of the (Jewish) toes, roasted, peppers, eggs and soups, curry and mujaderra. guilt. often other veggies like kale, egg10. Eggs 1.

Traditional tzimmes from plant, mushrooms or spinach. And You may not think of eggs as a pantry staple, but if you have eggs Martha Stewart is actually packed there are so many ways to make it.

6. Tahini, made from raw sesame in your refrigerator and a loaf of with sweet potatoes, carrots and bread in your freezer, then you’ve dried fruit — fiber, veggies and seeds, is considered a good fat. got dinner. We loved having break- fruit all in one sweet, delicious side Drizzle it on salads and veggies or bake into some brownies. Hey, fast for dinner growing up — pan- dish.

2. Sauerkraut and pickles are that’s healthy, right?? cakes, scrambled eggs and some delicious, but also serve an impor7. Mujaderra is a delicious vegan fruit is satisfying, easy comfort tant dietary purpose: The good bacdish ,packed with fiber and protein food at its best. But of course, you can make lots of other things with teria help your body digest more from the lentils and is also super effectively. And almost every cul- easy to prepare. ì eggs, too. ture has its own version of ferment-

Chickpeas are easy, cheap and high in fiber. (Wikimedia Commons)

By Shannon Sarna (The Nosher via JTA) -- Keeping a stocked pantry is a deep love of mine; it must run in my blood. My mother also was obsessed with having backups of her favorite products in the basement. There were always boxes of pasta, cans of beans, soup and tons of stuff in our second freezer.

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Until recently we lived in an apartment, and my desire to keep a stocked pantry was limited by space (although I still tried to stock as best I could). But now with more space in a house, along with a second fridge and freezer downstairs, I like to be ready for anything: impromptu guests, at-the-ready weeknight dinner or just extra reserves in case of zombie apocalypse.

But you don’t need a second freezer or walk-in pantry to keep dinner-perfect staples in your house.

Just a few key products will help ensure there is always something to make for dinner.

Here are some of my favorite pantry staples, and dishes you can make with them.

1. Canned tomatoes and tomato sauce Having canned tomatoes (included diced ones) and tomato sauce on hand is essential, at least in my Italian-Jewish-American house. In fact, I cannot keep enough cans of tomato in my house.

2. Chickpeas Chickpeas are easy, cheap, high in fiber and a good source of vegetarian protein. My kids love to eat them plain, I love to roast them as snacks, and I also like to add them to pasta, stews and other dishes.

Did I mention they are super cheap?

I literally buy them by the caseload from Costco.

3. Matzah ball soup mix Matzah ball soup, all day every THE

JEWISH LIGHT

7 Jewish Foods That Are Surprisingly Healthy

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Southern & Jewish

THE

JEWISH LIGHT

A Southern Shabbat… On A Train How the City of New Orleans Carried Us through the Sabbath

By Alachua Nazarenko

In my previous position at the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life (ISJL) as an Education Fellow, I had the pleasure of celebrating Shabbat in a different southern community almost every week. In my current position, I don’t travel nearly as much, and I can’t help but miss my Shabbat celebrations on the road,

lighting candles, drinking wine, and singing songs in congregations spanning from Texas to Virginia.

So, when the opportunity arose for me to celebrate Shabbat in multiple southern cities in one night, I couldn’t pass it up.

How did I do it? A ride on the rails.

My husband Erik and I recently celebrated our one year wedding anniversary, and decided to celebrate with a trip to Chicago. While Chicago is one of the few cities to which there are direct flights from Jackson, we opted to make the journey on the City of New Orleans Amtrak train, which travels overnight between New Orleans and Chicago with a stop in Jackson. We booked the tickets to leave on a Friday afternoon, and Erik had an idea: “What if we did Shabbat on a train?”

In the weeks leading up to our departure, we both became more and more excited about the idea.

Erik was looking forward to the new experience, and I was thrilled

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to once more have a traveling southern Shabbat experience. On the day of our departure (after scouring Amtrak’s website for its fire policy and seeing nothing that lead me to conclude that we would be kicked off and/or arrested), we packed up our travel Shabbat candleholders, matches, tealights, and a bottle of wine, and boarded our train.

As the sun began to sink low against the southern backdrop, Erik and I headed into our sleeper car to welcome Shabbat. We lit the candles, drank some wine, and were even able to say hamotzi over a roll we’d

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saved from dinner. We interspersed Shabbat prayers and songs with Arlo Guthrie tunes, and our Shabbat candles glowed across the Mississippi Delta and into Tennessee. It was a joyous and meaningful time, but I can’t say I’m surprised, as it is the Shabbat celebrations that I’ve had on the road that have always stood out in my mind as the most significant. I am thankful to be able to add Shabbat on a train to my cadre of traveling southern Shabbat experiences. ì

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Fewer Marriages and Fewer Children Means Fewer Jews Doing Jewish

By Steven M. Cohen and Sylvia Barack Fishman

Rabbi Jonathan Roos blows the shofar for nursery school children at Temple Sinai synagogue in Washington, D.C., Sept. 30, 2016. (Evelyn Hockstein/for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

(JTA) -- On Jan. 16, 1949, Toby Fassman married Max Cohen (Steven M. Cohen's parents, now both of blessed memory). At 24, Toby was among the last of her circle of friends in Brooklyn to marry, and several jokingly remarked that Max had rescued her from lifelong singlehood.

Today, if a 24-year-old Jewish woman were heading for the huppah, most would presume that she’s either Orthodox or reckless. Indeed, of 25- to 54-year-old American Jews who are not haredi, fully half are unmarried. While marriage rates peak around age 40 at 71 percent, they drop again to just 57 percent among those 10 years older. Of those 45-54, 13 percent have never been married and another 21 percent are divorced or separated.

These patterns of marriage -- and non-marriage -- are just a few of the startling findings we reveal in a new report published by the Jewish People Policy Institute in which we analyze data from the Pew Research Center’s Portrait of Jewish Americans survey.

Of course, the rise of singlehood, late marriage and non-marriage is not at all unique to American Jews, but is endemic to American society in recent years. As the Pew Research Center reports, "The share of Americans who are married is at its lowest point since at least 1920."

But for Jews and Jewish life, the postponement of marriage or lifelong singlehood hold disturbing consequences for Jewish community. While intermarriage has long been understood as inhibiting Jewish engagement and connection, the same is almost as true of non-marriage.

Take, for example, synagogue membership among non-haredi THE

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Jews aged 25-54: It reaches a healthy 65 percent among the inmarried, but only a paltry 22 percent among the non-married and an even tinier number, 13 percent, among the intermarried. While almost all in-married Jews attend Passover seders (93 percent), that’s true of just over half the intermarried or non-married (53 percent and 59 percent, respectively). And not only do the in-married act more Jewish, they feel more Jewish.

Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) say that being Jewish is very important to them, as compared with just 40 percent of the singles and 25 percent among the intermarried.

All over the Jewish world outside of Orthodoxy, we see shrinking numbers and older participants and fewer young Jews involved in organized or institutional activities.

That’s true of Reform temples, Conservative shuls, membership organizations and federation campaigns. And all the wonderful alternative innovations – independent minyans, Chabad Houses, Base Hillels, Moishe Houses, social justice initiatives, Israel advocacy left and right – are simply not anywhere near compensating for the losses in legacy institutions.

To understand why non-Orthodox Jewish activity at home and community is in such decline, we need only look at diminished numbers of young adult and middle-aged Jews who live with a spouse, and specifically a Jewish husband or wife.

Child-rearing strongly shapes stronger connections with things Jewish, even beyond marrying someone Jewish (by birth or conversion), in dramatic contrast with being single or married to a nonJew. Those raising a child in the Jewish religion vastly surpass childless adults in Jewish engagement, and the childless in turn surpass those raising non-Jewish children.

Take, for example, synagogue membership: 65 percent among those raising Jewish-by-religion children, 25 percent for those with no children at home, and 0 percent for those raising non-Jewish children. We see the same pattern for seder attendance: 96 percent, 56 percent, 28 percent. And so it goes

Focus Issues on

for one indicator of Jewish engagement after another.

In displaying a close connection between family status and religious involvement, Jews are not at all unique or even distinctive. Religious engagement has long been linked to life cycle. Americans -including Jews — increasingly join religious institutions and practice home-based rituals shortly after they have children. Sylvia Barack Fishman's research found that intermarried Jews and spouses are often surprised at the strength of their feelings about religious identification after -- but not before -- their children are born. The baby boom of the postwar years occasioned a building boom of churches and synagogues. For Jews (and others), what is new is the extended years of singlehood and religious detachment, posing unprecedented challenges to Jewish families, communities and institutions.

So, recognizing that children – specifically Jewish children – are so vital to Jewish engagement, we can ask: How many Jews in the parenting years (25-54) outside of

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the haredi world are raising Jewish children? The startling answer is less than a third, and even less (21 percent) if we’re talking only about children whose religion is Jewish.

Fully 60 percent of this 30-year cohort has no children at home and 8 percent are raising non-Jewish children.

What will it take for Jewish engagement at home, in the community, in institutions and elsewhere to thrive? Probably the most critical answer: Jews will need to start marrying, marry younger, marry Jewish spouses and raise Jewish children. Over the past few decades, among those Jews outside of Orthodoxy, the relevant trend lines have moved in the opposite directions: less marriage, later marriage, intermarriage and fewer Jewish children – probably about 1.4 for non-Orthodox Jews, far below the 2.1 needed for population replacement.

There are strategies that reverse these negative trend lines. It turns out that Jews who are more conSee FEWER JEWS on Page

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80% of Reform Rabbis Are Democrats. That's Higher Than Any Other Clergy.

By Ben Sales NEW YORK (JTA) -- The vast majority of Reform and Conservative rabbis affiliate as Democrats, according to a new study.

The study, published Sunday by Yale University, found that more than 80 percent of Reform rabbis, and about 70 percent of Conservative rabbis, affiliate as Democrats.

Both were among the top five most Democratic clergy of the Jewish and Christian denominations in the United States, with Reform rabbis topping the list.

Among Orthodox rabbis, nearly 40 percent identify as Democrats and a quarter as Republicans.

By contrast, Evangelical pastors are almost all Republicans, as are

most Baptists. The Black Protestant African Methodist Episcopal clergy, as well as Unitarian ministers, are heavily Democratic. Catholic priests are evenly split between Republicans and Democrats.

Anyone familiar with American Jews won't be surprised by the data.

Solid majorities of American Jews consistently vote for Democrats -70 percent voted for Hillary Clinton in the November presidential race -- with polls showing that Orthodox Jews are more likely to vote Republican. Reform Jews have been on the front lines of protests against President Donald Trump.

"The overwhelming majority of non-Orthodox Jews look at Jewish

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values and Jewish tradition, and their understanding of them, and come out in a place that's fairly liberal on the American political spectrum," said Mark Pelavin, chief program officer for the Union for Reform Judaism. "I don't think there's anything new there."

Orthodox Jews make up about 10 percent of the American Jewish population, various studies show.

One-third, or 35 percent, of all U.S. Jews identify with the Reform movement, 18 percent identify with Conservative Judaism, 6 percent with other movements and 30 percent with no denomination, according to the Pew Research Center.

The Yale study also shows that rabbis' political views track with congregants' views on policy. For example, 40 percent of Orthodox rabbis are Democrats, and some 40 percent of Orthodox congregants are pro-choice, while about 30 percent of congregants believe gays and lesbians should be legally allowed to marry. Likewise, large majorities of Conservative and Reform rabbis are Democrats, and large majorities of their congregants are pro-choice and pro-gay marriage.

The study noted that clergy tend to be more politically polarized than their respective congregants, which Jewish sociologist Steven M. Cohen said is unsurprising. Leaders, Cohen said, tend to be more involved and more ideological than their followers.

"Clergy in general are more politically active and more likely to take on the distinctive patterns of their followers, more than the followers themselves," said Cohen, a professor at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.

"Elites tend toward political poles more than the masses, and clergy are part of the elites."

The split among Orthodox rabbis reflects Orthodox voters' focusing more on individual issues than an overarching political ideology, said Nathan Diament, executive director of the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center. He added that, regardless of the movement's reputation for political conservatism, most of its con-

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gregations are still located in "blue" states.

"It's not about parties, it's about issues," Diament said. "In recent years, I would say, from the Orthodox community, there's been a sense that Republicans have positions that are more attractive with regard to policy on Israel. On the other hand, a lot of people in the Orthodox community, including rabbis, believe in supporting social welfare safety-net programs, which is something that would put them more aligned with Democratic political positions."

In total, the data cover 130,000 clergy, including approximately 2,700 rabbis. The data were collected via denominational websites cross-referenced with voter registration records. Some denominations and religions -- including Mormons and Muslims -- are not included due to lack of reliable clergy lists.

The data also show that the Reform rabbinate is the secondmost female of any denominational clergy. Forty-five percent of Reform rabbis are women, as opposed to an average of 16 percent across the denominations surveyed. About a quarter of Conservative rabbis are women; nearly all the Orthodox clergy are men.

"In recent years, the Democrats have been more on the side of rights in regard to women [and] women's health issues," said Rabbi Hara Person, the chief strategic officer for the Reform movement's Central Conference of American Rabbis. "It would seem to me that the more women you have as clergy, the more you're going to lean toward Democrats."

An analysis of the data by The New York Times found that rabbis on average lived in the most affluent neighborhoods of any clergy.

The median household income of Conservative rabbis' neighborhoods is nearly $100,000 on average, compared to a national median household income of $53,000. The Times article noted that average neighborhood income does not necessarily reflect pastors' salaries. ì THE

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Michael Steinhardt Thinks American Jews Need to Stop Focusing on Religion

By Ben Sales

Michael Steinhardt in New York, April 12, 2012. (Scott Eells/Bloomberg/Getty Images)

Mt. Kisco, N.Y. (JTA) — Michael Steinhardt has poured millions of dollars into ventures for American Jews. But he’s no fan of American Judaism.

The hedge-fund billionaire turned mega-philanthropist is best known as the founder of Birthright Israel, the 10-day free trip to Israel for Jewish young adults. More recently, he’s founded a network of publicly funded Hebrew-language charter schools. His latest endeavor is a natural history museum at Tel Aviv University that will host exhibits on the flora and fauna of Israel and the Middle East.

JTA visited Steinhardt at his New

York estate, where he spoke about why he thinks American Jewish education needs to change, what to do with the hundreds of thousands of Birthright alumni once they return home, and why he’s not worried about college students who rail against Israel.

JTA: You’ve spoken a lot about how the American Jewish community needs to promote secular Jewish culture. Is that what you’re trying to do with your network of charter schools? Can that work if the schools are publicly funded and most of the students aren’t Jewish?

Steinhardt: These are charter schools, and as charter schools they are open to anyone and they have, on average, no more than 50 percent Jewish students in the school.

But these schools teach Hebrew in a way that is demonstrably superior to Jewish day schools.

Jewish kids in the charter schools will learn a great deal about Israel in these charter schools. The schools fund a trip to Israel and there’s a great deal of emphasis on Israel,

Zionism, stuff like that, but zero [on Judaism] as a religion.

And you prefer it that way, as an atheist?

I don’t think you came here to talk about my theology, but it’s tempting me to say I truly believe that the time of Jewish history that we have to devote far more energy to is the last 300 years. The last 300 years is the most enlightened — it is when Jews really shined. I would use the word superior, except people blanch when I use that word.

But it’s really what I mean: Jews have accomplished so much, so inexplicably out of proportion to their numbers, in these 300 years, and it’s one of the great failures of Jewish education that that’s not focused on at all.

Israel is also getting more religious, and you’ve criticized its government and business world. Why do you feel so positively about Israel if it has some of the same flaws you criticize in American Jewry?

The modern state of Israel is the

Jewish miracle of the 20th century, but it’s the secular part of Israel that’s the miracle. It’s the extraordinary achievement, it’s the technology, the military, the development of a society out of nothing using Zionist ideals, taking people from terrible places and making them Israeli citizens. Israel has become, for me, the substitute for religion.

Are you worried that that secular society is not nearly as dominant in Israel as it was 40 years ago?

The people I know in Israel are overwhelmingly secular. Tel Aviv University, the natural history museum, is truly modern, secular institutions. I’ve been critical of a few things in Israel, [but] Israel is to me the most moral state on this planet, [even] with the occupation, with the differences between rich and poor, with the other issues… but it’s really an exceptional place.

I have a house in Jerusalem and I like Jerusalem a lot, but if you go to See STEINHARDT on Page

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Kveller A New Website Aims to Bring Jewish Millennial Women Together

By Gabe Friedman

(JTA) — If you’re a young Jewish woman — or if you just happen to love "Broad City” or wacky recollections of Jewish summer camp — there’s a new website for you.

Alma, which was launched Tuesday by 70 Faces Media (JTA’s parent company), aims to be a resource for millennial women navigating the often fun, sometimes tricky years of early adulthood.

Readers can expect everything from personal essays — the wideranging topics include grief and figuring out what to do after college — to slideshows of embarrassing bat mitzvah photos.

Alma will have a "Jew-ish" angle, said editor Molly Tolsky — meaning a blend of secular and Jewish content, with the goal of addressing all aspects of a young

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women's life, including careers, relationships and spirituality.

“The purpose is to form an online community of Jewish women, and particularly women who are 'unaffiliated' and not really involved in Jewish organizations," she said.

Tolsky, 30, had been the editor of Kveller, a Jewish parenting website (also a 70 Faces Media property), for three years.

Alma enters a crowded field of female-first websites — such as Bustle and Refinery29 — geared to the 20- and 30-something set. But Tolsky is confident Alma's niche will create a “more intimate” online community than its counterparts.

“I started to crave the kind of community Kveller had created, but for women in my age bracket,” she said. “I wanted a place to talk about dating and building up a career and dealing with family issues — and figuring out where your Jewish identity fits into all that." ì

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COMIC BOOKS Continued from Page 11 cosmic rays had transformed him into an orange, granite-skinned monster. With Ben Grimm, Lee and Kirby were using a superhero as a metaphor for Jews, African-Americans, and other minorities.

During this period of rapid growth, Martin Goodman’s company, once known as Timely, would officially be named Marvel Comics, and this era would be remembered as the “Marvel Age” of Comics (roughly 1961-1970).

Throughout this period, Lee and/ or Kirby created or co-created many classic characters, including Spider-Man, the Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, and Nick Fury. Lee and Kirby would also expand the “superhero as outsider” metaphor with other creations, such as 1963’s X-Men. Featuring a group of superpowered mutants who tried to help the very people who feared and loathed them for being different, X-Men was a potent allegory for being “born different.” And in the late 1970s, Jewish comic book writer Chris Claremont would introduce openly Jewish characters into the X-Men like Kitty Pryde, who often wore a Star of David necklace. Claremont would also provide a new backstory for the X-Men’s arch nemesis Magneto, explaining that the villain’s hatred of humanity resulted from his childhood spent enduring the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps.

Graphic Novels By the mid-1980s, the novellength comics narrative, or “graphic novel,” was riding its first wave of mainstream popularity in part thanks to Art Spiegelman’s groundbreaking work Maus. A memoir in comics form about Spiegelman’s father’s experiences during the Holocaust, the book also involved a

frame story about Spiegelman’s dysfunctional relationship with his father in the present day. Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of Maus is that the characters in the book are drawn as animals: Jews are mice, Germans are cats. In 1992, a year after part two of Maus was released, Spiegelman’s work won the Pulitzer Prize, the first such honor for a graphic novel or comic book.

Of course, Spiegelman wasn’t the first person to popularize the graphic novel; Will Eisner, creator of the 1940s comic strip The Spirit, created the graphic novel A Contract With God in 1978. A collection of four stories about the Bronx tenement life of Eisner’s youth, A Contract With God‘s title story involved Frimme Hersh, a pious Jew who renounces his faith when his young daughter dies. And Harvey Pekar, an unassuming Jewish file clerk from Cleveland, has spent the past 30 years chronicling the minutiae of his life in the pages of the autobiographical comic book series American Splendor.

Today, Jewish-themed graphic novels are more common than ever before. This wealth of new work includes graphic novels such as James Sturm’s The Golem’s Mighty Swing, Miriam Katin’s We Are On Our Own, Ben Katchor’s The Jew of New York, and Joe Kubert’s Yossel: April 19, 1943. We can only guess what the future has in store for Jewish comic book creators.

But the proverbial writing is on the wall–and in this case, that writing is encased in a word balloon.ì

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This Dating Site Connects Jews of Middle Eastern Descent

Jewniverse

By Josefin Dolsten

Eldelala connects Jews of Middle Eastern descent who are looking for love. (Lior Zaltzman)

NEW YORK (JTA) — These days, there’s a dating site or app for just about any group you can imagine, from men with beards (and their admirers) to a farmers-only site. There’s even an app matches people based upon shared dislikes — as in “I saw you, too, hate paying extra for guacamole.”

But one day it dawned upon Cynthia Shamash, a New Yorkbased dentist, that it was still hard for Mizrahi Jews, or Jews from the Middle East and North Africa, to meet each other.

Shamash, who published a book in 2015 about her Jewish family’s 1972 escape from Iraq, was traveling around the United States, giving talks about her background.

Iraqi Jews who had come to hear her speak would frequently come up and introduce themselves.

“We are so dispersed,” she told JTA. “They felt a connection.”

These conversations got Shamash, 53, thinking about how the next generation of Jews of Iraqi descent would stay connected to their heritage.

“I thought the way to perhaps make things approachable for their children,” she said. “I sensed that they would have liked the children to meet Mizrahi Jews, but geographical issues are a problem, [and] it wasn’t going to happen.”

She thought that connections made online could be the answer.

To that end, Shamash launched Eldelala — which means “the matchmaker” in Arabic — in April.

So far, the site has only about 50 members from around the world, including from the U.S., Canada, England, the Netherlands, and Sweden — who range in age from 21 to 72. Shamash is hoping to introduce the site in Israel as well.

Initially, she intended the website to be only for Jews of Iraqi descent, but shortly after its launch, THE

JEWISH LIGHT

she decided to expand it to all Mizrahi Jews. Current members trace their family histories to countries including Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Morocco.

The site works a little bit differently than dating apps such as Tinder, in which users swipe “yes” or “no” on profiles that provide scant information other than photos. On Eldelala, users answer a questionnaire about themselves regarding topics such as religious observance, willingness to relocate and what they are looking for in a partner.

Matches are made the old-fashioned way — by Shamash and two other matchmakers, who read the profiles and introduce members whom they think are compatible.

Sharon Arazi, a 28-year-old retail manager from Great Neck, New York, has Iraqi, Syrian and Lebanese ancestry. She signed up for Eldelala in May because she prefers to date someone who shares her Mizrahi background, she said, noting common food, music and mentalities. “We understand each other, so that would be important to me.,” Arazi said.

She said she is drawn to how the site uses real-life matchmakers, as opposed to algorithms.

“I really like the idea of matchmaking,” she said. “I find it very difficult to meet people out and about.”

Arazi has already received two suggested matches from Shamash.

She declined to meet the first match after realizing that he was much more observant than she was, but she is hoping to meet a second possible suitor soon. (Out of the handful of matches Eldelala has initiated since April, one is still in touch, according to Shamash.)

Arazi tried other dating platforms without success, she said. At the moment, she’s using only Eldelala and Sephardic Connection, a site run by Torah Ohr Hebrew Academy in Great Neck.

Around half of Eldelala stillsmall user base indicates that they would be willing to relocate for love.

“That’s pretty telling of how important it is to them” to find a partner with a shared background, Shamash said.

Still, Shamash’s goal is not to

discourage marriage between Jews of Middle Eastern descent and those from other backgrounds, she said, pointing out that she has been married to her husband, an Ashkenazi Jew, for 25 years.

“I didn’t make it in any way so there should be no mixing [between Mizrahi and non-Mizrahi Jews],” she said. “I just believe that this availability should be there.”

Members do not have to be 100 percent Mizrahi to join the site — in fact, Eldelala is open to Jews of other backgrounds who are interested in Mizrahi culture.

The site will remain free until

December, when it will cost $20 per month. But Shamash said that no one will be excluded from joining the site due to financial constraints.

Ultimately Shamash — who has not returned her native Iraq since leaving as a refugee — sees Eldelala as a way to connect Mizrahi Jews who are no longer living in their home countries. She explained: “If we don’t have the land under our feet and we’re floating — it’s a culture that is floating and dispersed — why not use [technology] as the ground under our feet, and find each other?” ì

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Spotlight

Ed. Smith’s Stencil Works, Ltd. An enterprising young man of twenty-three, Edward Smith came to New Orleans around 1865 to start a business that would bring him fortune and set him on a career for life. Known as a carpetbagger from Baltimore, Maryland, he sought that fortune in the South where reconstruction after the Civil War was well underway. His unique business was founded two years later at 427 Natchez Street near Magazine Street during the Reconstruction Era in New Orleans.

Ed was a gaunt man with a beard that reached below his sternum, hardly fitting the profile of the Yankee swank. Upon arriving in New Orleans, he was soon enamored with the beauty and excitement of the port city, and promptly fell in love with his future wife, Julia, a New Orleans native. Before the war, Ed was a “turner” by trade, a now-antiquated job title for someone who used special tools to make shapes out of wood or metal. Having found his home in the Crescent City, the industrious young man established himself in an obscure specialty:

manufacturing log hammers for cypress timber. Companies ordered their logos or brands to be put onto the tips of heavy iron hammers that were struck onto the end of each log to identify their property. The timber business boomed on the Mississippi’s west bank where cypress trees still stood in thick groves and toppled by the thousands. It was an oddly profitable line of work for Smith, as timber was constantly being shipped from New Orleans to help rebuild the war-torn cities throughout the South.

Ed soon began manufacturing other products such as stencils, stamps, and seals – practical but overlooked items which no one else in town was making at the time. His stencils were often simple and utilitarian: large letters to brand a ship’s hull, or crisp scripts for the sides of soda crates. His company was responsible for many of the markings identifying shipments leaving the U.S. from the Port of New Orleans to destinations all over the world. But Ed’s shop also handmade brass and copper stencils of

22 Late Summer/ Home Guide 2017

breathtaking craft and intricacy.

Several of these antiques hang in the shop today: Hercules tackling the Nemean lion, the U.S. Capitol, and an enormous restored copper stencil made in 1930 for the shop’s own storefront.

Ed. Smith’s stayed a family business through a circuitous pathway of inheritors for over 140 years in downtown New Orleans. In 1922 it moved From Natchez Street to 426 Camp Street, and later occupied the former Picayune Building at 326 Camp Street between Gravier and Poydras Street when the latter was widened in the 1960’s. In 2008, it was bought by Michael Rowan, an employee who had been with the company for more than 20 years, and who remains the sole owner.

The business was then moved to 4315 Bienville Street in the heart of Mid-City, nestled between Carrollton Avenue and the celebrated cemeteries. It occupies the old Mid-City Post Office building which was built in 1959 and served as the postal station for the Mid-City area until 1998. When renovating the

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building, Rowan insisted that the hallmark and familiar features of the old post office be kept - from the shiny terrazzo flooring to the characteristic brick façade, to the 35-foot flagpole that stands in front of the building. He even rescued the original set of eight-and-a-halffoot-tall cypress display cabinets from the Camp Street location, which he had fully restored and now greet customers as they walk into the shop today. Other relics on display include antique tools and instruments (the ones that aren’t still being used in the shop), oldfashioned stamps and stencils, and even the very delivery cart that was used by Ed Smith in the early days downtown to peddle his wares to local customers.

The shop still bears Ed Smith's name and makes stencils, but is now outfitted with the latest hightech sign-making equipment. It also still relies on tried and true methods, sometimes using techniques, machinery and dies dating back to See ED SMITH'S on Page THE

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JEWISH LIGHT

ED SMITH'S Continued from Page 22 the turn of the century. The business is the exclusive manufacturer of the star and crescent badges worn by New Orleans police officers, and makes most of the official seals of New Orleans’ notary publics, attorneys, engineers and architects. The company that bears his name also arranges the forging of the bronze historic markers that appear in nearly every line of sight in the French Quarter.

Retaining the original name has brought much business, recognition and growth to the company. “It was the right thing to do,” says Rowan.

“People are already familiar with the name and associate it with longevity, quality and experience.”

Indeed, the owner, general manager, and production manager have been with Ed. Smith’s for a combined total of almost 60 years.

Half as old as the City of New Orleans itself, Ed. Smith’s Stencil Works, Ltd., remains a manufacturSTEINHARDT Continued from Page 19 Tel Aviv, it’s a phenomenal world.

It’s a world unto itself.

More than half a million young Jews have gone on Birthright, but when they come home they’re caught by the same Jewish institutions you’ve criticized. Is that an issue?

Guess what? They don’t succeed in catching them. The way I dealt with it, and still deal with it, is to create Birthright post-programming.

Some organizations that we created seem to be doing OK, such as One Table [a group that facilitates Shabbat dinnerts]. There are other organizations that seem to be doing better.

But it’s a real issue. There are all sorts of things to deal with. There are 60 to 70 percent intermarriage rates [among young non-Orthodox American Jews], a falloff in synagogue attendance. There’s all sorts of things like that. There are no easy answers, but the best answer to date is Birthright. I’m tempted to say it has saved a generation.

But there are reports that Birthright’s numbers are shrinking. It recently began accepting applicants who attended an organized Israel trip in high school. Why is that?

The numbers we’re taking this year will be a record. If you’re saying we used to have huge waiting THE

JEWISH LIGHT

er and installer of custom signs, stencils, stamps, seals and many other products, and thanks to the company’s extensive knowledge and experience, it is able to offer customers personalized signage solutions for almost any need. There is no typical Ed. Smith’s customer as the company works with all types of industries and sectors, large and small, public and private, with both lists and we don’t anymore, you’re absolutely correct. I think Birthright has almost become a community norm and a large percentage of the age cohort of 18 to 26 goes on Birthright.

Having trips to Israel has become a popular engagement for the Jewish world and that may be one of the reasons we don’t get the huge excess of waiting lists.

I think I’m too old, too ornery to be a believer those 10 days, Birthright, can change your life. You can’t imagine how many people come back and say, ‘This has changed my life.’ But it’s still 10 days, and they’re 18 or 21 or 26.

Has it really changed their life? I don’t know.

Do you see criticism of Israel’s policies as a threat to Birthright’s impact on Jewish college students?

You can’t avoid that being part of the message. Israel is a complicated place in a strange part of the world and there are plenty of issues to deal with. There are a substantial number of Jews who believe that Israel should leave the settlements, leave the West Bank.

I think most of us understand the occupation for what it is and what it isn’t. The more one understands about Israel, the more comfortable one becomes with the politics of the Israeli government.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.ì

businesses and individuals.

Today, the 150-year-old business has 15 employees and over 3,500 active customer accounts, including the oil and gas industry, marketing and advertising firms, government contractors, restaurants, the movie industry, lawyers, churches, the tourism industry, stadiums and sports venues, casinos and fairgrounds, festivals and events, parks,

museums, offshore and maritime industries and Mardi Gras krewes.

You name it, and Ed. Smith’s Stencil Works can do it!ì

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BACKYARD LIVING In Louisiana, we are fortunate to be able to enjoy the outdoors – even in August – if you have the proper outdoor space and amenities. At Backyard Living, we realize that your pool or spa is one of the most important purchases you'll make as a homeowner, so we're here to offer our experience and expertise to help you create the perfect custom design for a pool, spa or backyard environment that will enhance your lifestyle and complement your home all year long. We have served many of New Orleans’ most distinguished home builders, and many home owners, with yards of every shape and size imaginable. As a custom pool-builder, we specialize in the design and installation of in-ground pools, spas, waterfalls, and outdoor kitchen areas. We also have extensive experience in pool renovations and modernization. And, since we realize that your pool or spa is just one element in the overall look of your yard, we also install fountains and offer the latest designs in pool furniture to help complete and compliment your personal style.

Here, we are blessed with great weather, amazing food and a culture like no other. Celebrating our unique lifestyle is what Backyard Living is all about! Our new Lakeview retail store features the outdoor furniture, outdoor kitchens, products and services to help you get the most enjoyment from your backyard, sunroom, patio, or pool area. We carry the finest brands in outdoor furniture and accessories to design the perfect space that will last years to come. And if you need help deciding on what will fit, and where, we offer free outdoor space planning from our experienced staff designers.

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THE

Spotlight

JEWISH LIGHT

Reverse Mortgage Loans – Reversing the Bad Rap

By Becky Rolland Over the years these loans have gotten a bad rap because of misinformation. Designed for borrowers who are at least 62 years old, reverse mortgages allow homeowners to borrow against the equity in their home.

The borrower, who may choose to receive the loan payment in a cash lump-sum, as a monthly payment stream or as a line of credit, is not obligated to make monthly mortgage payments unless certain events take place. The homeowner is obligated to pay the real estate tax or property insurance bills that become due and to keep up with any maintenance/ repairs on the property the entire life of the loan. Upon the death of the last remaining borrower or eligible non-borrowing spouse, the reverse mortgage becomes due and must be paid in full. The loan will also become due in any event in which the borrower or non­borrower's spouse fails to comply with the terms of the loan.

To understand how the reverse mortgages got a bad rap, you need to know some of its history. Although reverse mortgages officially started in 1961, up until 2008, only a limited amount of reverse loans were processed and all of them were at an adjustable rate. Everything changed when the Federal Housing Administration (FH A) began to allow fixed rates on these loans. Borrowers began asking for lump sum cash payment at closing rather than receiving money over time and borrowing went from 36% to 80% of the homes principal limit. Unfortunately, by February 2012, 1 out of every 10 reverse mortgages were in default because the borrowers could not meet their real estate tax or insurance obligations.

NEW RULES NEW SUCCESS In 2013 and 2014 the FHA announced new rules and regulations in order to help reverse mortgages get back on track. The new guidelines require that a borrower undergo a financial assessment to ensure that the loan is suitable for them and to set aside a portion of the loan proceeds for future use, such as covering property taxes and insurance for years to come.

Originally designed to help cash-poor older people stay in their home and as a loan of "last resort", reverse mortgages are now attracting a younger crowd. According to a recent survey by MetLife Mature Market Institute, boomers aged 62 to 64 now representing represent 20 percent prospective borrowers and nearly half the people considering a reverse mortgage today are under 70.

"Reverse mortgages have now become a component of retirement planning. With the Baby Boomer generation living longer, they are now choosing to tap into their home equity in order to maintain a certain lifestyle in their aging years without having to worry about making a monthly mortgage monthly payment. I know there is a lot of misinformation out there. I believe borrowers who receive factual and accurate information will be better able to make the right decision about whether a reverse mortgage fits into their retirement plan," says Marilyn Cox, a Reverse Mortgage Specialist (NMLS #685994) with Home Bank.

Cox, who is a member of the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association, explained how she advises someone who is considering a Reverse Mortgage at Home Bank. "First, I ask the borrowers what they are looking to accomplish. Are they looking for extra cash to supplement household income, make home improvements, or pay off a mortgage and/or credit card debt? Is it important for them to stay in your current home throughout retirement or would they consider downsizing and/or renting at some point in the future?" Once Cox determines whether the borrower is a "good fit" for a loan, she sends them to speak with an independent certified approved counselor (a requirement of the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development).

After the counselor explains the features, advantages and obligations of a reverse mortgage to the borrower, the borrower receives a counseling certificate that must be presented to the lender. Once the borrower has completed the counseling, Cox provides a minimum of three different loan options. "Before we complete the application for a reverse mortgage, I make sure the borrower understands all of the different payment options (fixed, lump sum, a line of credit or a combination of these) and understands the total cost of the loan," Cox said.

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JEWISH LIGHT

UNDERSTANDING LESA In April, 2015, The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development added an additional financial tool to assist reverse mortgage lenders.

Before approving a Reverse Mortgage, lenders are required to perform a credit history analysis and a cash flow / residual income analysis. If a borrower does not meet the criteria set forth by HUD, the lender is required to withhold a Life Expectancy Set-Aside (LESA) from the Reverse Mortgage proceeds. These funds will be utilized for the payment of property charges during the life expectancy of the borrower. Similar to the concept of an escrow account or a set aside to pay forward mortgage taxes and insurance, this LESA is calculated based on the youngest borrower's age and life expectancy and helps plan for these ongoing payments. It allows them to plan for future payments in advance, removing the possibility that they will exhaust their proceeds and end up unable to meet their obligations.

Using a reverse mortgage is no longer just for the cash poor and house rich. Instead, reverse mortgages can be used strategically as one part of a retirement income plan to help defer Social Security benefits or reduce cash outflow from traditional mortgage payments. Reverse mortgages, if used properly, are a great financial or investment strategy. That being said, in order for a reverse mortgage to be successful for you, you must first have a good understanding of the risks and costs associated with this type of loan. This means that you should find out as much information as you can, find a reputable lender, and make sure your decision to enter a reverse mortgage fits overall into your retirement plan.

This article first appeared in the February 2017 Issue of Lifestyles 55 Plus Magazine (formerly known as Senior Living), and is reprinted with permission.

For more information please contact Marilyn Cox, Reverse Mortgage Specialist (NMLS #685994) with Home Bank at (504) 378-3153 or Marilyn.cox@homebank.com

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SHARK TANK Continued from Page 12

nected to other Jews through their adolescent and young adult years are more likely to marry, to marry younger, to marry Jews and to have Jewish children. Camps, youth groups, Israel travel, campus activities and young adult communities all build Jewish social networks – more Jews in relationships with more Jews.

These interventions of course contribute to Jewish cultural capacity and religio-ethnic commitment.

But as important, if not more important these days, is that they build friendships that lead to marriage or romantic connections.

Only by increasing the opportunities for Jews to marry, and to marry Jews, will we be able to significantly bend the trend lines. Creating more Jewish marriages and filling more Jewish baby carriages inevitably leads to seeing more Jews in the pews, as well as other places where Jewish engagement gets acted out.

We may not be able to move the average age at marriage below 24.

But perhaps by providing opportunities we can increase the sheer number who marry and who marry at a younger age, when they stand a better chance of becoming engaged Jewish parents.

(Steven M. Cohen is research professor at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, and director of the Berman Jewish Policy Archive @ Stanford University. Sylvia Barack Fishman is the Joseph and Esther Foster Professor of Contemporary Jewish Life in the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University, and also co-director of the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute.) ì

and the company’s valuation. After the Q and A, each investor offers a few pieces of advice and say whether or not they’re in.

About half of the pitches have drawn some investment from the program's investors, Klein says, noting that one of the most successful companies to pitch has been WaiveCar, a California car-sharing company. Taken together, investments from BizTank in the companies total about $4 million. Klein says the show has hundreds of entrepreneurs on a waiting list.

Besides the identities and religious garb of the people on set, little is explicitly Jewish about BizTank content. Klein, a certified business consultant, has long side curls and speaks with a Yiddish accent. But not all the investors are haredi. On Monday's show, Torossian didn't wear a kippah, and the panel of five investors included Inbar Haham, a secular Israeli startup investor.

“It was my first exposure to the haredi community in New York,” said Haham, who invested in the Israeli traffic navigation app Waze and recently co-founded her own investment fund. “They’re warm people. It was a pleasure to talk to them. Speaking professionally, I was impressed by the level of knowledge.”

Not all the entrepreneurs are Jewish, either.

At the May 22 taping, the first and third presenters of the day's total of six were men wearing kippahs. They pitched, respectively, the real estate product and a software solution that helps private retailers on Amazon produce and market their products.

Between them was Danielle

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Settembre, a 22-year-old hairdresser who was pitching a disposable hairbrush with a detachable, reusable handle. Settembre, who is not Jewish, applied to be on BizTank after her sister wrote about it in the New York Daily News.

Her product, she said, was a cheap and sanitary alternative to the brushes that hairdressers reuse day after day.

Settembre piqued the investors’ curiosity, though one -- Anthony Pinkesz, a real estate investor -sounded skeptical. He wondered why she couldn’t just produce a cheaper version of her Americanmanufactured product in China -and without the reusable handle.

Just make a cheap brush, he said, and throw it away after one use.

“Just buy the brush,” he told her.

“You're getting it in China for 50 cents.” Salons, he said, “would buy a hundred pieces” at a time.

Settembre weathered Pinkesz’s line of questioning with aplomb, and before she left the set, three investors expressed interest in meeting with her.

Settembre told JTA that she had previously pitched RenewBrush to "Shark Tank" but never heard back.

But when she called BizTank, Klein’s wife and partner, Leah, not only accepted Settembre’s pitch but worked with her to polish it before she appeared on the program.

“When I went to BizTank, they followed up right away,” Settembre said. “Joel’s wife, Leah, was very caring. It was cool to see a community come together and not only help their community, but help others that are not in the community.

To me, it’s very old-fashioned. I love old-fashioned morals.” ì

NASCAR Continued from Page 10 encounters on normal roads.

When he’s not abroad racing, Day typically spends three to four hours a day practicing on the race track simulations.

“I’m 25 now, but I still use simulators like I’m 10 years old,” he said with a laugh.

Day says he celebrates Jewish holidays, recites the Kiddush blessing over the wine on Friday nights and is proud to talk about his service in the Israeli army.

Although he is an anomaly in the

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white Christian world of NASCAR, he points out that many stock car racing fans — some of whom are evangelical Christians — are big supporters of Israel, which has helped make him feel comfortable in the United States.

“I think they like seeing someone without that Southern accent, does not have the American flag [on a car] … does not believes in Jesus,” he said. “I’ve gotten tons of media because I’m different.” ì

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9 JEWISH BOOKS Continued from Page 9 10-year-old Soviet refusenik and new American into a beautiful, allbut-assimilated New York University grad student engaged to “one of her own people” -- a handsome, Russian-born Jew. But when a random encounter with a stranger turns into a torrid affair, Emma finds herself torn between the wants and needs of love and career, which are intertwined with the bonds and burdens of her family and heritage. If that all sounds a little heavy, take note that it’s all pretty hilarious, too.

Red Shoes for Rachel: Three Novellas (Syracuse University Press)

By Boris Sandler, translated by Barnett Zumoff Sandler, who retired last year from his post as editor-in-chief of the Yiddish Forverts, is among the most prolific of the small circle of contemporary authors and poets writing in Yiddish. This 2010 award-winning collection of three novellas, just now available to English readers thanks to the work of translator Zumoff, mixes magic realism, satire and even a bit of autobiography, reflecting the author’s experience of living in Soviet Moldova, Moscow, Jerusalem and New York. Sandler’s work often centers on the disrupted world of Eastern European Jews who have been scattered to foreign lands, and the title novella is a perfect example: a Coney Island encounter between a Brooklynborn woman and a Moldovan Jewish immigrant, two children of Holocaust survivors raised in very different societies.

Swell (Lee Boudreaux Books)

By Jill Eisenstadt In the wake of 9/11, a Jewish man and his non-Jewish wife move their family from Manhattan's Tribeca to a house in Rockaway, Queens, that his father buys them on the condition that the father gets to live there — oh, and that the wife converts to Judaism. Also, the house is haunted. Sounds crazy, no?

But this kooky setup for Eisenstadt’s third novel is only the backdrop for the cast of characters she unfurls, including the 90-year-old former homeowner who murdered her son on the premises, plus the ex-lifeguard and firefighter who witnessed it (and has a secret of his own).

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Bookshelf

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JEWISH LIGHT

The Weight of Ink (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

By Rachel Kadish At 576 pages, Kadish’s third novel may not exactly be light reading, but it will be deeply satisfying to anyone who enjoyed Geraldine Brooks’ "People of the Book." The story traces the narratives of two women in London who are separated by more than 300 years, yet are tied together by the discovery of a cache of Jewish documents that were penned in the 17th century — but by whom? A heated race by modern-day academics to solve a mystery unfolds into a historical epic that transports readers back to the days of Shakespeare, Spinoza and the Great Plague, uncovering some rich details of Jewish life in the 1600s along the way.

The Worlds We Think We Know (Milkweed Editions)

By Dalia Rosenfeld After two decades of publishing fiction in journals and racking up a series of writing awards, Rosenfeld — who made aliyah two years ago — has debuted her first collection, winning praise from contemporary Jewish literati such as Cynthia Ozick and Gary Shteyngart. The 20 touching stories bounce between the U.S. and Israel, from the kosher co-op at an Iowa college, to the streets of New York, to a Jerusalem retirement home and beyond. The collection explores the intersections of American, Israeli and Jewish identity, with a sometimes haunting sense of history and always a current of wry humor.

Yitzhak Rabin: Soldier, Leader, Statesman (Yale University Press)

By Itamar Rabinovich More than 20 years after Rabin’s assassination, this new biography is by one of his closest aides — Rabinovich served as Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. during Rabin’s final years as prime minister. The compelling tome adds new layers to the story of one of Israel’s most wellknown and admired leaders, thanks to original research and unique personal recollections. Most interestingly, the author offers new insights into Rabin’s relationships with leaders such as Bill Clinton, Henry Kissinger and King Hussein of Jordan, as well as a sophisticated analysis on the repercussions of his murder that echo to this day. ì

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4 Bedrooms 3 1/2 Baths

5 Bedrooms · 4 Baths · 6.37 Acres 13030 Stonelake, Folsom · $569,000

4964 Folse · $665,000

More listings at www.CarolynTalbert.com

More listings at www.CarolynTalbert.com

4 Bedrooms 3 Baths Pool

1408 Pomona · $579,900

1-888-351-5111, LLC

More listings at www.CarolynTalbert.com

3 Bedrooms · 2 Baths

4900 Picone · $439,900 More listings at www.CarolynTalbert.com

3 Bedrooms

4 Bedrooms

3 Bedrooms

2 1/2 Baths

2 1/2 Baths

2 Baths

Pool

4800 Tartan · $469,000

4524 Hessmer · $399,000

1621 Stanford · $249,900

More listings at www.CarolynTalbert.com

More listings at www.CarolynTalbert.com

More listings at www.CarolynTalbert.com

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