The Jewish Light 2020 Election Issue by The Jewish Light

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Volume 10, Number 9 Elections 2020

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

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October 12, 2020 MORRIS BART, SR. LECTURE SERIES: LOOKING BACK ON SICILIAN NEW ORLEANS In this talk, historian and author Justin Nystrom discusses the process of conducting research for his 2018 book Creole Italian: Sicilian Immigrants and the Shaping of New Orleans Food Culture, and how interviewing members of the community helped him to explore the idea of what it not only meant to grow up as someone of Sicilian descent in New Orleans, but what these memories collectively revealed about the wider contributions made by Italian-American culture in shaping the city's identity. Register In Advance After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. No charge members and non-members Zoom Meeting Time: 11:00 am - 12:00 pm Location: Virtual J Contact: Rachel Ruth Phone: 504-897-0143 Email: rachel@nojcc.org

October 12, 13 and 14, 2020 FILM - LOVE IN SUSPENDERS This year The Cathy and Morris Bart Jewish Cultural Arts Series will feature four movies shown in socially distant screenings at the Uptown JCC. In addition, three authors will speak in virtual book events held in partnership with the Nashville and Memphis Jewish Community Centers. The first film this year will be Love In Suspenders. Tami, a widow in her 60's and Beno, a widower in his 70's, are both grieving the loss of their loved ones. A chance encounter brings the two together. Despite a ""bumpy"" first meeting, clashes in personali-

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ties and lifestyles, as well as interfering children and neighbors, they fall in love. A humorous, honest and heartfelt look at love the second time around. Reservations are required. No charge members and nonmemers Time: Mon Oct 12: 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm Tues Oct 13: 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm Wed Oct 14: 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm Location: New Orleans JCC - Uptown 5342 St. Charles Avenue New Orleans, LA 70115 Contact: Judy Yaillen Phone: 504-897-0143 Email: judy@nojcc.org

October 19, 2020 THE 2020 ELECTIONS AND THE JEWISH VOTE Join us for a nonpartisan analysis of this November's election is designed to inform audiences about the diverse and significant roles Jews have played in American politics. Leading the conversation will be Dr. Steven Windmueller, a specialist on political issues and Jewish Affiars. About The Speaker A specialist on political issues and American Jewish affairs, Dr. Windmueller holds a doctorate in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania and has held academic appointments at several major institutions of higher learning. He has appeared in nationally syndicated media offering commentaries on Jewish public affairs matters. Dr. Windmueller has served as a consultant and program resource specialist to a wide array of institutions including the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Federation of the Silicon Valley and the St. Louis Jewish Federation. In the summer of 2014, Dr. Windmueller served as a scholarin-resident for the 26th Nahum Goldmann Fellowship Program in Montevideo, Uruguay, and taught

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at the Chatauqua Institution, a nationally recognized adult education center. Over the years, his articles and monographs have appeared in a wide array of Jewish and general publications and books. His Pewfunded research on the major national Jewish community relations agencies appeared in a recent publication, Jewish Polity and American Civil Society: Communal Agencies and Religious Movements in the American Public Square (Roman and Littlefield, 2002). Join On Zoom Password: 917576 Time: 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm Location: Virtual J Contact: Judy Yaillen Phone: 504-897-0143 Email: judy@nojcc.org

October 20, 2020 LECTURE WITH DR. TOMÁS MARTÍN Medieval Manuscripts Of The Marciana Library In Venice, Italy: The Song Of Roland Morris Bart, Sr. Lecture Series The Italian Renaissance poet, Petrarch, believed that the Republic of Venice deserved a public library worthy of La Serenissima’s grandeur. Two hundred years later in St. Mark’s Square, construction began on Jacopo Sansovino’s architectural masterpiece–the Marciana Library. Since its completion in the late sixteenth century, the Marciana has become one of Italy’s greatest public repositories of richly illuminated medieval manuscripts. In this lecture, Dr. Tomás Martín of Loyola University will offer a peek at the medieval treasures of the Marciana. Through a historical and visual presentation of a unique collection of manuscripts that once belonged to the Dukes of Mantua, Dr. Martín will share his research into the manuscripts of the collection and his passion for the epic poetry composed on the illuminated folios of their parchment. REGISTER IN ADVANCE After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. No charge members and non-members Zoom Meeting Time: 11:00 am - 12:00 pm

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Location: Virtual J Contact: Rachel Ruth Phone: 504-897-0143 Email: rachel@nojcc.org JCC BOOK CLUB - THE FLIGHT PORTFOLIO By Julie Orringer “Bighearted, gorgeous, historical, suspenseful, everything you want a novel to be” (—Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Less), a new book inspired by the World War II story you've never heard—the real-life quest of an unlikely hero to save the lives and work of Europe’s great minds from the impending Holocaust In 1940, Varian Fry traveled to Marseille carrying three thousand dollars and a list of imperiled artists and writers he hoped to help escape within a few weeks. Instead, he stayed more than a year, working to procure false documents, amass emergency funds, and arrange journeys across Spain and Portugal, where the refugees would embark for safer ports. His many clients included Hannah Arendt, Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, and Marc Chagall, and the race against time to save them is a tale of forbidden love, high-stakes adventure, and unimaginable courage. Reviewed by Debbie Pesses, Former New Orleans JCC Jewish Enrichment Director All JCC Book Club discussion are now held virtually. For more information, please contact Judy Yaillen. If you would like to be placed on our Book Club email list, send an email to Beth Orgeron with your request. Join Book Club On Zoom Meeting ID: 846 4355 9341 Zoom Password: jccbooks Time: 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm Location: Virtual J Contact: Judy Yaillen Phone: 504-897-0143 Email: judy@nojcc.org

October 26, 2020 SENIORS ON THE GO: JEWISH ROMA It is time to take a trip! Even though we cannot currently travel physically, we can travel virtually. Join us on a two-hour tour of Rome's Jewish Quarter led by Micaela Pavoncello, whose company Jewish Roma Walking Tours has been leading tours of the city THE

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since 2003. On October 26, let Micaela lead us on this journey as we take a brief respite from our homes and travel through Rome via photos and videos. Micaela will show us the life of Roman Jews from emancipation until today, through the war and the Nazi occupation, and will describe the structure of Rome's Jewish community with many funny anecdotes only a native can share. This program is generously brought to us by Cathy and Morris Bart. REGISTER IN ADVANCE After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. No charge members and non-members Zoom Meeting Time: 10:30 am - 12:30 pm Location: Virtual J Contact: Rachel Ruth Phone: 504-897-0143 Email: rachel@nojcc.org

November 9,10, and 11, 2020 FILM - MOSSAD! This year The Cathy and Morris Bart Jewish Cultural Arts Series

will feature four movies shown in socially distant screenings at the Uptown JCC. In addition, three authors will speak in virtual book events held in partnership with the Nashville and Memphis Jewish Community Centers. MOSSAD! was a box-office smash in Israel, featuring the creative support of legendary filmmakers David Zucker and Avi Nesher, MOSSAD! is a riotous sendup of the Mossad, Israel's revered national intelligence agency. When an American billionaire is kidnapped in Israel, operative Guy Moran teams up with the CIA's best agent to try and save the day-with wildly entertaining results. Starring Tsahi Halevi from Fauda. Reservations are required. No charge members and nonmembers

I want to say thank you to my friends and supporters in the Jewish Community. It has been an honor to serve as your judge for 25 years, and I sincerely appreciate your prayers, and your support.

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Best wishes to all my many friends in the Jewish Community!

Mon, Nov 9: 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm Tues, Nov 10: 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm Wed, Nov 11: 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm New Orleans JCC - Uptown Location: New Orleans JCC - Uptown 5342 St. Charles Avenue New Orleans, LA 70115 Contact: Judy Yaillen Phone: 504-897-0143 Email: judy@nojcc.org

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JCRS Creates Disaster/Covid-19 Relief Program DREAM Program Designed to Assist Jewish Families Financially Impacted By Covid-19 and Natural Disasters

Matching Gift Opportunity Through the End of the Year D.R.E.A.M. Program: Disaster Relief Emergency Aid Matching Program to assist families experiencing extreme financial challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters, flooding and other crises. Lorne Abony of Austin, Texas has agreed to match total donations made to this program through the end of the year up to a $36,000. Michael Goldman of New Orleans who is Treasurer of JCRS and as a longtime member of TemIn response to Hurricane Harvey in ple Sinai in Lake Charles that was October 2017, JCRS delivered 115 heavily damaged in Hurricane Hanukkah boxes for Greater Houston Laura says, “This relief program is children, families and special needs vitally important as so many famiadults, many of whom were affected by flooding in large areas of the lies have been impacted by the ecoJewish community. (L>R: Melanie nomic downturn caused by the panMusser, JCRS Houston Area Service demic and in the wake of recent Coordinator, Ned Goldberg, JCRS Executive Director, and Lu Dorfman, extreme weather events. I know Congregation Beth Yeshuran Executive many Jewish families that can use Director (former). some financial relief. Who better Jewish Children’s Regional Ser- than JCRS to step in and bridge the vice (JCRS) is establishing the gap?”

With the matching gift challenge, JCRS hopes to raise a minimum $100,000 fund to provide aid relief to Jewish children and families experiencing hardship during periods of extreme economic challenges, unemployment, natural disasters, and social isolation. Disaster Relief funds will be approved for families with minor children who demonstrate need from within the region as direct monetary grants, reimbursement for extraordinary expenses in relation to the crisis, or in the form of gift cards to retailers such as WalMart. Financial assistance within this program will be time-limited and support to families may be onetime or carried out over a period of months. To make a qualifying matching gift or for more information about the JCRS Disaster Relief Program, contact Mark Rubin (mark@jcrs. org) or Ned Goldberg (ned@jcrs.

org). They can also be reached at (800)729-5277. ABOUT JCRS: Established in 1855 as an orphanage in New Orleans, JCRS is currently the oldest existing Jewish children’s social service organization in the US, as well as the only regional Jewish child welfare agency in the country. JCRS provides needsbased scholarships for summer camp experiences, college aid and assistance to children with special needs. Additional outreach programs include the Oscar J. Tolmas Hanukkah Gift Program and the PJ Library program for Jewish children ages 12 and under. www. jcrs.org P.O. BOX 7368 | METAIRIE, LA 70010-7368 | JCRS.ORG | TEL: 504828-6334 | INFO@JCRS.ORG 

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USA Looking Back At A Crazy Jewish Year Of Politics THE

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By Ron Kampeas

Clockwise from top left: President Donald Trump, Laura Loomer, Joe Biden, Senator Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, Rabin Square in Israel, Ambassador David Friedman (Getty Images / JTA montage)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — To prepare for Rosh Hashanah, take a break, my editor said. Let’s take this moment to look back at the crazy year in politics, he said. So, I did — but it wasn’t a restorative break. In 5780, the news didn’t stop. Shana tova to my readers, and here’s hoping we’ll get a bit of a breather in 5781. Here are some takeaways and highlights from the

past Jewish year. The Jews of impeachment Last fall, the story was President Donald Trump’s impeachment — doesn’t that feel like a biblical millennium ago? It’s easy to forget the sheer number of Jewish players at the heart of the ordeal, from Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to the whistleblower Alexander Vindman to the Democrat committee chairs who led the proceedings, like Adam Schiff. I rounded up the long list here. The fact that the Democrats’ three lawyer witnesses were Jewish also caught the eyes of people like Ann Coulter, who said there was “too little ethnic diversity” on the panel. Annexation anxiety Another bombshell development that feels long ago at this point, especially after Tuesday’s signing

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of the Israel-Bahrain-United Arab Emirates normalization deals, was the possibility of Israel annexing parts of the West Bank. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had pushed for the action as early as July 1, but the Trump administration put the brakes on it. I covered the intense response to Netanyahu’s goal, which critics warned would permanently damage the possibility of a two-state solution. A Democratic senator proposed legislation against the annexation, and some of the most prominent pro-Israel voices in Congress came out loudly against it. Even AIPAC, the biggest pro-Israel lobby in the country, allowed lawmakers their criticism here. Biden, Democrats and Israel Among the 20-plus candidates who vied for the Democratic nomination, Joe Biden had the longeststanding and closest relationship to the pro-Israel community. Once the former vice president was the nominee, he made clear that he would hew to his bona fides: Biden said he would not consider conditioning assistance to Israel nor boycott the AIPAC lobby’s annual conference, and he nixed including the word “occupation” in the Democratic Party platform. But the Israel-skeptical progressives in the party are not going away; in fact, they are gaining strength. “The Squad” remains in place, and the quartet of first-term congresswomen is expected to be bolstered by new members who ousted longtime pro-Israel stalwarts. Republicans and Jews, waiting out Trump The Republican congressional leadership, joined by the Republican Jewish Coalition, spent a good part of the year attempting to purge

extremists from the party’s ranks (and the convention) — and then retreating into silence when some of the same extremists were endorsed by President Trump. It didn’t help that Trump has made it his mission to purge from the party the foreign policy interventionists like John Bolton who once comprised the wing of the party most favored by politically conservative Jews. Or that the very themes the extremists peddled seeped into the Republican convention messaging. How to pitch Trump to the Jews remained the main Republican Jewish dilemma this year. Trump made the work interesting with Rosh Hashanah greetings in which he berated Jews for voting for Democrats and again appeared to conflate American Jews with Israel. Loomer looming Earlier this month I spoke to Laura Loomer, the Jewish rightwing provocateur who was kicked off Twitter for her Islamophobia. She’s running for a House seat against a Jewish incumbent, Lois Frankel, who’s a moderate establishment Democrat. Frankel calls Loomer a bigot; Loomer says Frankel does the bidding of jihadists. The whole thing was a very Jewish slice of the culture wars. The Abraham Accords I was at the White House this week as the foreign ministers of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain joined Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to sign the Abraham Accords — treaties opening up normalized diplomatic relations between their countries and Israel. It was a historic moment, and I parsed the messaging at the signing event. My colleagues explained the nuts and bolts and significance of the deals. 

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This Map Shows The 20 Congressional Districts With The Most Jews By Ben Sales

A map shows the 20 congressional districts with the most Jews. (Laura E. Adkins/JTA)

(JTA) — About one-third of American Jews live in just 20 of the country’s congressional districts. Nearly half of those districts are in New York, and all but one of them is represented by a Democrat. Meanwhile, the district with the most Jews in the country is also the site of Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump’s Florida estate. Those are among the findings from a recent study analyzing Jewish voting patterns. Key findings from the study, which was conducted by the Jewish Electorate Institute and the Steinhardt Social Research Institute at Brandeis University, were published online Aug. 25. The study, like previous others, found that Jewish voters are more Democratic and politically liberal than the country at large. It also found, similar to earlier research, that Jewish

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voters tend to be older than average. What’s new here is that the researchers were able to identify not only how Jews vote but where they cast their ballots. The study found that the majority of Jewish adults live in four states — New York, California, Florida and New Jersey. “In all of the so-called battleground states, not only Florida but places like Pennsylvania and Ohio and Michigan, those are states where if something similar to 2016 happens in 2020, Jews are large enough in number in those states where they could make a difference,” said Leonard Saxe, director of the Steinhardt Social Research Institute. Approximately one-third of Jewish adults, about 1.8 million, are concentrated in just 20 congressional districts among the 435 across the United States. The district with the most Jewish voters, Florida’s 21st, is drawing a lot of attention this year for its race between two Jewish candidates, the Democratic incumbent Rep. Lois Frankel and Laura Loomer, an antiIslam provocateur who won the Republican nomination and Trump’s

endorsement. Loomer released an ad this week that used Holocaust imagery and Yiddish to attack Frankel as an opponent of Jewish interests. The district covers southeastern Florida cities such as Palm Beach, Boynton Beach and Delray Beach, and includes 152,000 Jewish adults, according to the study. In total, the district has about 524,000 registered voters. According to the study, the district is 24.3% Jewish, and more than half of those Jewish adults are older than 65. The two adjacent districts down the South Florida coast, the 22nd and 23rd, also crack the top 20 for Jewish voters. Both are also represented by Jewish Democrats: Reps. Ted Deutch and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, respectively. Most of the other districts in the Jewish top 20 are in New York and New Jersey, including seven in New York City and two on suburban Long Island. The second-largest Jewish district overall, New York’s 10th on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, has 151,000 Jewish adults and is represented by longtime congressman Jerry Nadler, a

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Jewish Democrat. The other New York City districts cover large swaths of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. The lone district on the list represented by a Republican, Rep. Chris Smith, is New Jersey’s 4th, which includes the heavily Orthodox city of Lakewood. That district is about 10% Jewish, with 51,000 Jewish adults, according to the study. The rest of the top 20 districts are in Los Angeles County and the suburbs of Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Boston. Overall, eight of the top 20 Jewish districts are represented by Jews. Saxe said the list of the most Jewish districts is a key data point ahead of the 2020 census, which will likely lead to congressional redistricting. “The concentration of Jews and whether that concentration is allowed to continue, whether it’s not, will be an important issue,” he said. “In those districts where Jews are 10% or more of the population, they’re also a very significant force in choosing members of Congress.” 

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Considering Withdrawal From Americans For Peace Now Event Memorializing Yitzhak Rabin By Ron Kampeas

US Representative Alexandria OcasioCortez addresses the virtual 2020 Democratic National Convention, livestreamed online and viewed on a laptop screen from London, England, on August 19, 2020. (David Cliff/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

(JTA) — Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, the popular progressive New York congresswoman, is withdrawing from an Americans for Peace Now event memorializing Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli prime minister a Jewish extremist murdered in 1995 for his efforts to achieve peace with the Palestinians, a spokeswoman said. A person close to the talks between Ocasio-Cortez and the pro-two states group told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the decision was not yet final. A person associated with the presidential campaign of Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee, told JTA that should Ocasio-Cortez withdraw, it would be “problematic.” “She could have rejected the invitation for any number of reasons,” the Biden campaign associate said. “But if she agrees and then pulls out, she’s creating problems for her own party.” Ocasio-Cortez on Friday told Alex Kane, a writer with Jewish currents that she was reconsidering the invitation to appear at the event. “Hey there — this event and my involvement was presented to my team differently from how it’s now being promoted,” she told Kane. “Thanks for pointing it out. Taking a look into this now.” Kane later quoted a source as saying that that the invitation to Ocasio-Cortez was not framed as a memorial, but as a review of the Oslo peace process launched by Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in 1993. Americans for Peace Now has since Aug. 29 framed the Oct. 20 event as a Rabin THE

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memorial. It falls close to the 25th anniversary of Rabin’s assassination as he left a peace rally in Tel Aviv, on Nov. 4, 1995. Also scheduled to appear at the event are Rabin’s granddaughter, Noa Rothman, and actor Mandy Patinkin, who last month released a video saying “I’ll be hosting a virtual memorial event for Yitzhak Rabin.” A number of pro-Palestinian groups and figures had lacerated Ocasio-Cortez for agreeing to attend, describing Rabin, who was an officer in the 1948 Independence War, as a war criminal for his order to expel Arabs from their hometowns in that war, and for calling for brutal measures to repress the First Intifada, or Palestinian uprising, when he was defense minister from 1987-1990. “His legacy is one of violence and dispossession for Palestinians,” Adalah Justice Project, a pro-Palestinian advocacy group said on Twitter in announcing that Ocasio-Cortez had pulled out of the event. “Thank you, AOC, for listening to the lived experience of the Palestinian people.” Rabin, elected prime minister in 1992, was the first Israeli prime minister to recognize the Palestine Liberation Organization as the legitimate representative of the Palestinians and formed a bond with Arafat, who publicly mourned his passing, and who made a rare and risky visit into Israel to relay condolences to Rabin’s widow, Leah. 

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Meet The Top 15 Jewish Political Donors In This Election Cycle By Ron Kampeas

Businessman Tom Steyer, then a Democratic presidential hopeful, speaks at the Rev. Al Sharpton Minister's Breakfast in North Charleston, S.C., Feb. 26, 2020. (Logan Cyrus/AFP via Getty Images)

(JTA) — George Soros may draw some of the most vociferous criticism, but he’s hardly the biggest political donor in this cash-heavy election cycle — Democrat or Republican. In fact, Soros is 24th on the largest givers in this cycle, and Jewish donors on both the right and left populate the list above him. That’s according to Open Secrets, which provides the top 100 individuals or married couples donating to the 2020 campaign. Among the top 25 on the list, 15 are Jewish or of Jewish origin. They include Tom Steyer, No. 1 on the list, and Donald Sussman, who have joined Soros in the litany of Democratic donors criticized by Republicans. Miriam and Sheldon

Adelson are No. 5 — their money goes exclusively to Republican candidates. Plus, there’s a host of Jewish donors who have drawn little public attention despite giving in the multimillions. The Open Secrets rundown is up to date as of Sept. 8. With the final weeks of the campaign seeing an accelerated fundraising push, the rankings are likely to change. Here’s what you need to know about the big-spending Jewish donors seeking to influence this year’s high-stakes elections, especially those whose giving has made the most waves. 1. Tom Steyer Amount given so far: $54 million to Democrats Steyer tops the list by far. The hedge funder, who was among the candidates seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, has donated over $54 million to Democrats — and, intriguingly, $35 to Republicans. Lest you think Steyer is leading this cycle because of his own campaign, he has resided in the top three since the 2014 congressional cycle, and most of his money has

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gone to outside groups backing an array of Democratic candidates. (Steyer has endorsed Joe Biden and is fundraising for him.) Steyer, whose father was Jewish and who identifies as ethnically Jewish, is a practicing Episcopalian, although in his youth he practiced Judaism and included a rabbi in his wedding. 4. Stephen and Christine Schwarzman Amount given so far: $28.4 million to Republicans and $8,400 to Democrats Stephen Schwarzman is CEO of Blackstone, an investment management firm, and served on one of Trump’s council of business advisers until they all shut down after the deadly neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville in 2017. Trump equivocated in condemning the rioters, and businesses came under pressure to cut ties with the administration. Schwarzman told Reuters he got messages calling him a Nazi. “It was pretty clear that the country itself felt like it was going out of control,” he said at the time. “We decided there was too much pressure for too many people all running public companies.” His first major donation to Israel was in 2018, when he gave the National Library $10 million. 5. Sheldon and Miriam Adelson Amount given so far: $28 million to Republicans Sheldon Adelson, 87, is a Las Vegas-based casino magnate and Miriam, 74, is a physician. They are major givers to an array of Jewish and pro-Israel causes, as well as to medical research. Adelson’s endorsement of Trump in May 2016 opened the floodgates to Jewish donors who until then had been skeptical of the candidate. Their ongoing support for Trump has been in question: Trump reportedly berated Sheldon Adelson last month for not giving enough to the campaign as Biden’s fundraising began to outpace the incumbent’s. But Adelson bellied up this month and has pledged $50 million to elect Republicans and send Trump back to the White House. Adelson may be hedging his bets: He reportedly has paid $87 million for the residence of the U.S. ambassador in suburban Tel Aviv, possibly as a means of preventing Biden from moving the embassy back to that city (although Biden has said he has no intention of doing so). Trump says his move of

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the embassy to Jerusalem was one of the highlights of his presidency. 6. Donald Sussman Amount given so far: $22.3 million, all to Democrats save for $5,600 to Republicans Sussman, 74, launched his investment career at age 12, in 1958, when he bet that the Cuban revolution would drive up the price of sugar. He’s known for his close ties to the Clintons — he was a major backer of Hillary’s 2016 presidential campaign. Sussman said he was dumping money into her campaign because of her pledge to take money out of politics, and he acknowledged the irony. In his charitable giving, he appears to be particularly proud of his relationship with Israel’s Weizmann Institute, listing his position as deputy chairman of its international board of governors and his honorary doctorate from there on his official bio. Sussman was married to a Maine congresswoman, Chellie Pingree, from 2011 to 2016 and continues to be heavily involved in the state. He has given $100,000 to groups backing Sara Gideon, who is challenging incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins. Despite his stakes in the New England state (he is on friendly terms with his ex, and for a period owned MaineToday, a media company) Republicans there have endeavored to depict Sussman as an interloper, or in the state’s lingo, “from away.” In a radio interview, Collins singled out three “from away” Jews, including Sussman, as backing Gideon’s campaign. 7. James and Marilyn Simons Amount given so far: Nearly $21 million to Democrats James Simons has been called one of the smartest Wall Street financiers of all time, thanks to his contributions to string theory and his application of mathematical breakthroughs to investment banking. Born to a Jewish family in the very Jewish Massachusetts suburb of Brookline, Simons’ net worth is over $23 billion. He and his wife set up the Simons Foundation, one of the largest charity groups in the U.S., in 1994. 9. Michael Bloomberg Amount given so far: $19.3 million to Democrats Bloomberg, who runs an eponymous media empire, was a threeterm mayor of New York, elected as See POLITICAL DONORS on Page THE

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POLITICAL DONORS Continued from Page 8 a Republican and then as an Independent. He endorsed Hillary Clinton for president in 2016 and in his speech at the Democratic convention excoriated Trump as a con man, earning the Trump sobriquet “Mini Mike.” Bloomberg, 78, mounted a campaign for the presidency this year and initially polled well — until he was eviscerated in his first debate by a rival, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who depicted Bloomberg as Trump lite. During his run, Bloomberg had pledged $1 billion to electing whomever won the nomination. Once he quit the race, however, he seemed to have forgotten his promise (and also a vow to pay the salaries of his staffers through the election, whatever happened). But he’s back: Bloomberg said this month that he will spend $100 million in Florida, a swing state won by Trump in 2016 and critical to his reelection. He has already donated $16 million for paying the fees of former felons. (Floridians voted overwhelmingly in a 2018 referendum to allow former felons to vote, rolling back a Jim Crow-era law. Jewish groups backed the initiative. The GOP-led legislature effectively scuttled the initiative by passing a law requiring that the ex-felons pay outstanding fines and court fees. Challenges are wending their way through the courts.) Florida’s Republican attorney general says Bloomberg’s donation may be criminal and wants the feds to investigate. 10. Jeffrey and Janine Yass Amount given so far: More than $13 million, mostly to Republicans Jeffrey Yass, a trader who cofounded the Susquehanna International Group, is the lone libertarian on the list. In the 2016 cycle he gave $2.8 million to Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul’s campaign. Major beneficiaries of his largesse include Save the Children and the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. 12. Deborah Simon Amount given so far: $12.5 million to Democrats Simon is the daughter of Mel Simon, the lata billionaire businessman and movie producer who was involved in Jewish philanthropy. Deborah Simon and her sister, Cynthia Simon-Skjodt, have long given to progressive and Jewish causes such as the Anti-Defamation League. Based in Indiana, Simon has been a longtime ideological opponent of Mike Pence, the vice president and former governor of the THE

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state known in part for his antiabortion stance. This year, she has said she will “do anything” to unseat Trump. Simon also donates to the U.S. Holocaust Museum and talked with the museum’s magazine this summer. “The Holocaust was a formative part of my Jewish identity,” she said. “The danger of xenophobia and the rising hatred we’re seeing around the world and in this country is very troubling to me.” 13. Henry and Marsha Laufer Amount given so far: $11.8 million to Democrats Henry Laufer worked closely with James Simons at his pioneering Renaissance Technologies, a quantitative hedge fund, and also became a billionaire. Marsha Laufer, his wife, was the Democratic Party chair in the Long Island, New York, town of Brookhaven for seven years. Outside of the presidential race, the Laufers have given to several individual Democratic politicians, including Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, a former chair of the Democratic National Committee. 16. Joshua and Anita Bekenstein Amount given so far: Nearly $11 million to Democrats Joshua Bekenstein is a co-chairman of Bain, the global finance company co-founded by Mitt Romney, the former Republican presidential candidate and now Utah senator. Along with his wife, Bekenstein has given to an array of candidates and PACs this cycle, as well as to the Democratic Party. Residents of suburban Boston, they also operate a donor-advised fund

through the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Boston. 18. Bernard and Billi Wilma Marcus Amount given so far: $9.7 million, all to Republicans save for $6,900 to Democrats Marcus, 91, co-founded Home Depot and has long been a major donor to Jewish causes, looming large in the Atlanta area. This year he took on the Jewish Future Pledge, dedicating at least 50% of his charitable giving to Jewish causes, and his eponymous foundation gave $20 million to the Jewish Education Project to help lower the cost of youth trips to Israel. Marcus is all in for Trump. His pro-Trump posture — he gave Trump’s campaign $7 million in 2016 — has led to boycotts of Home Depot, although he retired as the hardware chain’s chairman in 2002. The New York Times, reporting this week that the Republicans were trying to get the Green Party on the presidential ballot to siphon votes from Biden, revealed that Marcus funded an identical campaign in 2016. It may have worked: The votes for the Greens were greater than the margin of Trump’s key victories in Wisconsin and Michigan.

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Marcus also backs congressional candidate Laura Loomer in South Florida. Mainstream GOP Jews have endeavored to ignore Loomer, who is Jewish and a self-declared Islamophobe. She’s run a campaign that has incurred the wrath of mainstream Jewish groups for likening Democrats to Nazis. Trump has enthusiastically endorsed Loomer — he lives in the district. 22. Paul Singer Amount given so far: $8.8 million to Republicans Singer, 76, is a hedge funder who eased the Republican Party (somewhat) into accepting rights for LGBTQ people (his son is gay). He has a tenuous relationship with Trump and was the initial funder of the opposition research that led to revelations about Russian attempts to infiltrate the Trump campaign. But by last year he was on the Trump train, saying Democrats posed a socialist threat to the United States. 23. Stephen and Susan Mandel Amount given so far: $8.8 million to Democrats Stephen Mandel, a hedge fund manager, and his wife both grew up in Jewish families. Their philanSee POLITICAL DONORS on Page

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Israel

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Israel Hits Daily Record Of Nearly 7,000 New Coronavirus Cases As Government Debates Tighter Restrictions

Jews May Not Be Able To Visit The Western Wall — But They Can Still Have Their Prayers Placed There By Marcy Oster

By Marcy Oster

Technicians carry out a diagnostic test for coronavirus in an Israeli lab, July 2, 2020. (Yossi Zeliger/Flash90)

(JTA) — As Israel racked up a record nearly 7,000 new coronavirus cases in one day, the government met to consider tightening restrictions, including banning synagogue prayer and public protests. The coronavirus cabinet met Tuesday for several hours but failed to make any decisions about further restrictions to stop the spread of the deadly virus. The cabinet began meeting again on Wednesday afternoon with plans to approve new restrictions by the end of the day. Among the decisions being weighed are the complete closure of synagogues and a ban on outdoor services, though it is not clear if it would apply also to Yom Kippur, the Kan public broadcaster reported. Also under consideration is the halting or limiting of protests in front of the prime minister’s resi-

dence in Jerusalem. Other restrictions could include limiting employees in private businesses to 50% and closing Ben Gurion Airport. Several rabbinic leaders called for the closure of synagogues, even for Yom Kippur, to halt the spread of the virus, including Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau and Rabbi David Yosef, the son of former Shas party leader and former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. Israel conducted more than 61,000 coronavirus tests on Tuesday, with the rate of those testing positive at a high of 11.3%. On the same day, the country passed a milestone of 200,000 cases of the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic. Some 634 people were listed in serious condition, including 171 on respirators. The so-called coronavirus czar, Dr. Ronni Gamzu, has said that 800 serious patients is the upper limit that hospitals can handle, a number that Israel is expected to pass by the end of the week. The Health Ministry on Wednesday called on hospitals to hire paramedics and more medical staff to meet the demands. 

Worshippers at the Western Wall pray in enclosed areas meant for 10 people at a time in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus, March 15, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

(JTA) — A visit to Israel and the Western Wall before Yom Kippur is pretty much out of the question due to coronavirus restrictions, but Jews can still have their prayers placed between the stones of the holy site. The Jewish Agency for Israel has started a campaign to collect the prayers and messages from Jews in Israel and around the world and pledged to place them in the Kotel.

Israel’s borders have been closed to most noncitizens since early in the pandemic. The country entered a national lockdown last week hours before the start of Rosh Hashanah. “Between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the Western Wall and its plaza are normally packed with visitors. This year, due to restrictions, it’s not possible to come to Jerusalem and place notes with our prayers between the stones of the Western Wall, the holiest place for the Jewish people,” Isaac Herzog, the Jewish Agency’s chairman, said in a statement. “As an organization whose mission it is to strengthen global Jewry and its relationship with Israel, we thought it would be fitting to facilitate this important act for so many this high holiday season.” 

Israel Delivers First Iron Dome Defense System To The Us Army By Marcy Oster

An Iron Dome missile battery seen near Tel Aviv, July 15, 2018. (Ben Dori/ Flash90)

(JTA) — Israel delivered the first of two Iron Dome missile defense system batteries to the U.S. Army. The U.S. and Israel signed an agreement for the purchase of two batteries a year ago from its developer, the Haifa-based firm Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. The batteries will be employed in “THE MOST WELL TRAVELED VEHICLES ON EARTH”

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the defense of U.S. troops against ballistic and aerial threats, Israel’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday in a statement. On Wednesday, Defense Minister Benny Gantz visited Rafael’s Leshem Institute for an event marking the delivery of the first Iron Dome missile to the U.S. In March, the Army canceled plans to purchase more of the batteries because of difficulties integrating them into its existing air defense systems. Congress has given Israel more than $1.5 billion to produce Iron Dome batteries. In 2014, the U.S. and Israel signed a co-production agreement that would allow parts of the Iron Dome system to be produced in the United States. Since it was deployed in 2011, Iron Dome has intercepted over 2,400 rockets fired at Israel from Gaza. Along with Iron Dome, Israel employs several other defense systems, including David’s Sling, Arrow-2 and Arrow-3.  THE

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G lobal Outside Of Israel, Tiny Monaco Has The Highest Ratio Of THE

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Jews In The World. Here’s Why The Community Is Growing. By Cnaan Liphshiz have about 400 semicircular seats upholstered in purple velvet. “Having facilities like this really helps bring people in,” Torgmant said. Rabbi Daniel Torgmant inside the Synagogue Edmond Safra in Monaco, March 7, 2018. (Cnaan Liphshiz)

MONACO (JTA) — This tiny wealthy country on France’s southeastern coast is famous for its beautiful beaches, coastal mansions and splendid casinos. Outside of Israel, Monaco also has the highest ratio of Jewish inhabitants of any country in the world, at over 5%, according to statistics provided by its two rabbis. To be fair, the city-state’s total population is only about 38,600, making it one of the world’s smallest nations. But its some 2,000 Jews are cultivating a growing community thanks in part to a luxurious synagogue opened in 2017. Synagogue Edmond Safra, which was buoyed by a donation of more than $10 million by the Safra banking family, is housed inside a building that is shaped like a Torah scroll, its cylinder featuring Jerusalem stone tiling. The structure is oriented to see the Mediterranean and the famed Monaco marina — but has no windows to view them. The Safra congregation isn’t new, but Daniel Torgmant, its rabbi since 2010, says the new building “has quite simply been an engine for communal growth.” Because of its attractiveness and prime location, “it allows us to attract a lot of people passing through Monaco, or Jewish people whose connection to Judaism is still in its infancy.” Designed to resemble the far larger Edmond J. Safra Synagogue in Manhattan, the Monaco version has a flat roof that boxes in and conceals a domed ceiling with wooden panels that is revealed only in the interior to dazzling effect. The interior’s artificial lighting is so ample that it sustains blooming orchids in pots affixed to woodpaneled circular walls. Several wooden circles, each one larger than the previous, surround the rabbi’s pulpit. They ripple outward in the direction of the pews, which THE

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Israeli entrepreneurs, and Frenchand English-speaking Jews with ties to the banking sector. The Chabad synagogue’s appearance pales in comparison to Safra. Situated on the ground floor of a residential building, its prayer hall can hold about 80 people and lacks the stylish kind of furniture on display at Safra.

A view of Monaco’s Port Hercule in 2017 (John Greim/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Like the vast majority of the population here, most of the principality’s Jews were born abroad. Many are millionaires who have come to the tax haven country, where earnings require neither reporting nor sharing with the government. Others are middle-class employees in the tourism, gambling and banking sectors. The resulting Jewish population is a relatively new and diverse community whose members speak different languages and come from disparate cultural backgrounds. There is a bit of religious diversity as well, even though both of the state’s synagogues — Safra and a Chabad-Lubavitch movement outpost — are technically Orthodox. Each has members who are not very strictly Orthodox in their own homes, including many Russianspeaking Jews who own businesses,

Rabbi Tanhoum Matusof reads from the Book of Esther on Purim in Monaco, Feb. 28, 2018. (Courtesy of the Jewish Cultural Center of Monaco)

“The Jews who live here don’t come to us for material reasons, they tend to be well-off,” Tanhoum Matusof, the Chabad emissary who runs the Jewish Cultural Center of Monaco with his wife, Chani, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. He recalled one congregant who wondered why the synagogue needed a mikvah, a ritual bath, seeing as so many of its congregants have their own pools. “They need us for spirituality and a sense of community, which is something you don’t need a beautiful building to give.” Still, the Matusofs do take into account the standard of living to which many Jews in Monaco have

become accustomed. Their mikvah, for example, resembles a prestigious spa, and holiday celebrations are sometimes held at one of the city’s ritzy hotels rather than the synagogue. “Listen, one has to understand one’s audience,” Matusof said. At Matusof’s synagogue, which has about 200 regular congregants, services are held in English for the convenience of the many congregants who don’t speak French. English is also sometimes used at the Safra synagogue, but French is more dominant there. The relative simplicity of Matusof’s synagogue also has its charms for some of Monaco’s middle-class Jews, like the family of Mahnaz Grosjen, an Iran-born mother of two. She and her family moved from Geneva, Switzerland, to Monaco seven years ago at the request of her husband’s employer. “I was actually not looking forward to raising teenage kids in a very materialistic place,” said Mahnaz, who works as a fashion designer. “We’re not from the jet set. I actually like that our synagogue looks like any other normal synagogue in Paris or London. I think it sends the right message.” But even some of Monaco’s Jewish millionaires also feel more at home at Matusof’s synagogue, See MONACO on Page

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Jewish Woman Who Helped Take Down SexTrafficking Ring In 1930S Honored In Buenos Aires By JTA Staff

A view of the Raquel Liberman tile in Buenos Aires. (Screenshot from YouTube)

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA) — Raquel Liberman, a former prostitute who escaped from and helped destroy a sex-trafficking ring, is getting public recognition in Buenos Aires, the city where she became known as a symbol of feminist resistance. On Wednesday, city representatives installed a tile with Liberman’s name on the street close to where a brothel she worked in was located, in the Jewish neighborhood of Once. Liberman grew up in Warsaw, Poland, and moved to Argentina in 1922 with her husband and two sons. After her husband died, she left her children with a foster family and entered a prostitution net-

work managed by Jewish immigrants. She saved money and escaped the network, called Zwi Migdal, but eventually was forced to return. She escaped for a second time in December 1929, then went to the police. Her court testimony began a process that ended up breaking down the Zwi Migdal. Liberman applied for a visa to return to Poland in 1934 but died the following year of thyroid cancer. The text on the tile reads “Here Raquel Liberman was exploited 1900-1935. Her fight continues.” Last year, the city’s government voted to rename a subway station after Liberman. Government officials have no timeline yet for the project. “Our zone is the area of the Raquel Liberman story — the brothel, the Zwi Migdal and also the police station,” Silvia Collin, a district president in Buenos Aires, told the state-run media outlet Telam. 

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MONACO Continued from Page 11 which they say has a younger and more international congregation. “It’s a small, humble place but it’s warm and vibrant,” said Aaron Frenkel, the Israel-born owner of the Loyd’s Group of real estate and aerospace industries, who has lived many years in Monaco with his Croatia-born wife and their five children. He is also the president of the Limmud FSU Jewish organization. “Maybe it reminds me of Bnei Brak,” he said, referencing the religious Israeli city where he grew up that is home to hundreds of small synagogues. “Whatever the reason, my synagogue here feels like home.”

A man walks outside the Synagogue Edmond Safra in Monaco, March 7, 2018. (Cnaan Liphshiz)

The core of Torgmant’s congregation, the rabbi says, is Sephardic Jews older than 60, though the new building has helped bring young families into the fold. Visits to the Safra synagogue have quadrupled since the building’s renovation, and the number of bar mitzvahs and ritual circumcisions have increased dramatically, to about 50 a year, Torgmant said. Before the coronavirus shut down international tourism, the Safra synagogue’s opening led to an increase in the number of Jews who came there for Shabbat services from cruise ships. They typically dock at the glitzy marina, which is surrounded by cafes and restaurants (it also boasts an openair skating rink that remains open well into April). “It really made things much more dynamic here. It’s like a beacon of light that brings Jews here,” Torgmant said. One of the families drawn to the light are Borya and Masha Maisuraje, Russian Jews who are originally from the Republic of Georgia and own a shipping company in Kaliningrad, Russia. They moved to Monaco in 2009 but “had very little to do with Judaism” before the opening of the new synagogue in 2017, Borya said. That year, they decided to plan a bar mitzvah for their youngest son, Alexei. “It’s welcoming here, it’s a place you immediately feel comfortable

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in,” Borya Maisuraje said. “We suggested it to Alexei and he immediately said yes.” Monaco does not have a Jewish school, though both synagogues provide Sunday and Hebrew schools, as well as youth activities during vacations. More observant parents send their children to one of the Jewish schools in Nice, a French city about 10 miles away and also the source for Monaco’s fresh kosher food. Unlike Nice, where many Jews feel unsafe, walking around with a kippah is no problem in Monaco — anti-Semitic incidents are extremely rare and police have a robust presence. There is about one officer per 70 residents, more than four times the European Union average. A parliamentary principality with its own royal house, Monaco has a land area that’s smaller than Central Park and is the world’s most densely populated country, according to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Population Division.

Jews pray at the Jewish Cultural Center of Monaco in 2018. (Courtesy of Rabbi Tanhoum Matusof)

Millionaires constitute a third of the population — a ratio higher than anywhere in the world, according to the 2019 Knight Frank Wealth Report. The annual GDP per capita in Monaco was $185,000 in 2018, more than three times the figure for the United States. The Safra and Chabad synagogues each have a mikvah and a large garden. The latter amenity allowed them to host outdoor services throughout the High Holidays, despite local measures that either severely limited or banned gatherings in closed spaces to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Matusof says Monaco’s mild Mediterranean weather allows the community to comfortably spend hours on end in the sukkah, or ritual hut that Jews build for the Sukkot holiday. “We always enjoyed having a yard because it means our synagogue has its own sukkah on Sukkot,” the rabbi said. “We just never thought our sukkah would end up being our synagogue.”  THE

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Education

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We Run Jewish Day Schools In NY. To Reopen Safely, We Need Our Community’s Support. school employees across the country from North Carolina to Los Angeles are preparing to return to in-person work in buildings filled with students and employees. Next month, schools in the New York Tri-state area, the region with the largest concentration of Jewish day schools in the country, plan to join them. We will be the first sector of the professional Jewish community to do this. Don't miss the voices that kept the Jewish world talking and thinking all week long. As a Jewish community, we have honored and supported our frontline workers — the senior living staff, clergy and others — during this pandemic. They all deserve deep appreciation and extra care for the risks they take on behalf of all of us. Day school employees are about to become frontline workers, too. As people who are steering some of the Tri-state region’s 250-plus Jewish schools toward reopening, we are acutely aware of the risks that

Jewish day schools in New York are working to reopen amid the pandemic. Their leaders say they need support. (Pedro Pardo/AFP/Getty Images)

(JTA) — Since March, Jewish day schools have expanded their roles in the community to provide Jewish life and engagement 24/7. We have organized memorial services, supported families in financial duress and served important public health roles. We have done all this while launching an entirely new product overnight — full-time online learning. Now we are planning to go back to school. This month, Jewish day

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our employees are taking to return to school, and we want to demonstrate our care in every way we can. But the decisions we are making and the expenses we are incurring are not things that each school should be handling on its own. Nor should they be solely the purview of the increasingly contracting realm of day school funders. Caring for our frontline workers is the responsibility of the Jewish community as a whole. Together with a handful of local colleagues, we are spending at least $5 million on costs like facilities upgrades, additional space, ventilation upgrades, additional staffing and PPE, with the largest among our schools spending more than $1 million. With the costs continuing to mount and uncertainty about whether the plans we make today will be enough next month, the full tally of resources needed to make our schools safe is unclear. What is clear is that we cannot cover these on our own without cutting deeply into other priorities. We recognize and appreciate that there are institutions trying to support us. National and local organizations have offered timely, thoughtful and effective professional development the whole way through this pandemic. Others have offered support and tools, such as tuition assistance for the most financially vulnerable students, the opportunity to purchase some PPE in bulk at slightly reduced prices or starting a listserv for the hundreds of school-specific COVID medical advisory committees to share ideas. A national consortium of funders initiated a grant and loan program to which day schools, among other institutions, could apply. All of this is appreciated, but none of this is enough. Each individual school is still left to figure out how to “make it work” during

the most confusing and volatile time of our generation. This is the case for America’s 13,000 school districts, too. A coordinated response, with resources to support the unprecedented needs, would help all schools figure out ways to bring children back to school while keeping them and their teachers safe. While a national response is not emerging, it is not too late for a more significant coordinated Jewish response. Already, we have examples to learn from, in the sort of efforts under way in a number of places, like both Bergen County and Metro West New Jersey, Boston and Toronto to name a few. In some areas, regional medical committees have been convened to lead all Jewish institutions through the labyrinth of COVID-related decision making, or money has been raised to support all regional schools See DAY SCHOOLS on Page

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Education A Great School TEACHER. ORGANIZER. forADVOCATE. Every Child. As a public school teacher and special education administrator, community organizer, and equity advocate for kids I am running for Orleans Parish School Board – District 7 to: l

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DAY SCHOOLS Continued from Page 13 in procuring PPE. We need community-wide leadership. Here are four concrete opportunities for a national and regional leadership to make a real difference in the lives of our day school employees. First, bring together the best epidemiologists, infectious disease specialists and pediatric experts to set best practices for our community. Each school has convened its own medical advisory committee. Each newly released guidelines from federal, state, city and industry group sources require significant review and analysis. They do not provide clarity on their own, and most definitely do not provide clarity when read together. They are

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also changing: In the last week, the federal, state and city guidelines were all revised, forcing us to rethink our planning once again. We need to know what to do to protect our staff and children, and these decisions should not be made school by school. We need to standardize policies and best practices for our community overall. Second, make sure every school can procure and implement proper PPE, testing and HVAC/ventilation systems to protect our teachers and other employees to the level of best practices. Most importantly, pay for this. Many of us cannot even afford to purchase medical grade masks for all our teachers. Schools are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars, in some cases upwards of a million, each to address ventilation, replace furniture to comport with social distancing rules, procure PPE and hire the additional staff needed to implement all the changes. Without support, schools with fewer resources will have to sacrifice either safety or educational quality, while schools with more resources — those whose parents can pay higher tuition, or have a robust alumni base, or own their buildings instead of renting — may be able to afford both. Third, support the wellness of our staff members — our community’s frontline workers. Our staff members are scared, exhausted and committed to learning whatever they need to in order to continue to serve each child, a herculean effort during these times. A great educator can teach through all sorts of personal upheaval, but a person cannot be a great educator unless they are

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inspired. Inspiration is hard to come by when you have “nothing left.” We need to offer real mental health services to all Jewish day school staff members. That means developing a system to support the emotional and spiritual wellness of Jewish day school leadership and educators and, again, having that system paid for. Finally, please do not make us jump through hoops to access the extra funds we need to ensure that our day school students and teachers are safe and learning. Make grants easier to access, with quicker turnaround time, and a timeframe that actually works within the context of schools, which never have months to spare before putting programs and procedures into place. There is little time to spare. Teachers — this critical demographic of Jewish communal frontline workers — are coming back to school next month. Our community needs to act now to ensure their safety and wellness. 

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POLITICAL DONORS Continued from Page 9 thropic giving has centered on education issues. This year, in addition to donating to Democratic candidates across the country, Mandel has donated $2 million to the Lincoln Project, a PAC founded by former Republicans to prevent Trump from winning reelection. 24. George Soros Amount given so far: $8.2 million to Democrats Soros, 90, is a Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor who made his billions as a hedge funder. He launched his philanthropy in the 1970s, advancing democratic movements in South Africa and then as the Soviet empire began to crumble, in Central and Eastern Europe. His emphasis was the introduction of free markets, which first earned him praise from conservatives. That dissipated once he turned his attention to liberal and Democratic politics, and especially when he spoke out against the Iraq War launched by President George W. Bush in 2003. He spent a record $27 million in 2004 to oust Bush, including millions on MoveOn, the group that along with the Howard Dean campaign set the standard that year for online fundraising. (Adelson has said that Soros’ outsized ’04 spending spurred his own big spending: In the 2008 cycle, the casino magnate spent $30 million on Freedom’s Watch, a failed effort to set up a conservative counterpart to MoveOn, and Adelson broke spending records in 2012 in a losing bid to unseat Barack Obama — at least $100 million, possibly as much as $150 million.) Soros within the Jewish world has staked out a confrontational posture, deriding AIPAC in 2007 as overly influential and the next year becoming the main funder of J Street, a liberal rival to the proIsrael giant. His foundation, Open

Society, has also funded civil society groups in Israel that are sharply critical of its government. As his ranking suggests, Soros has not been as major a player in presidential fundraising this year as he has been in the past. His focus in recent years has been on funding candidates for prosecutor who favor justice system reforms. In July, Open Society pledged to spend $220 million over five years to fund racial justice groups, its response to the protests this summer against police brutality. Soros’ newsworthiness this cycle has less to do with what he’s given and more to do with how he has become a target. Some on the right, including Trump, have leveled baseless slanders against Soros, accusing him of everything from being behind illegal immigration to rioting in cities, as well as having been a Nazi collaborator. The smears led to a failed bombing attack on Soros in 2018 and helped spur the gunman who slaughtered 11 worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue the same year. 25. Steve and Connie Ballmer Amount given so far: $7.5 million to Democratic groups Steve Ballmer is the former Microsoft CEO and current owner of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers. His mother was Jewish and, through her, he is related to the late Jewish comic Gilda Radner. At Microsoft, he sat on a council of world leaders convened by the Jewish National Fund and made multiple trips to Israel to ramp up Microsoft operations there. He also reportedly prepared as an adult to have a bar mitzvah ceremony. This year, almost all of Ballmer’s giving — $7 million — went to Everytown for Gun Safety Victory Fund, the PAC associated with the gun control advocacy movement. Connie Ballmer gave $500,000 to Unite the Country, a PAC that is supporting Biden. 

Want To Catch Up On 5780 In Jewish Pop Culture? Start Here, With The Almas. By Gabe Friedman

(Image by Grace Yagel)

(JTA) — Do you ever wish there were a fun Jewish version of the Oscars? Or the Grammys? What about a roundup of the best Jewish moments from across the vast reaches of the internet over the past year? Alma, one of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s partner sites at 70 Faces Media, does all of that and more in its second edition of The Almas, a collection of the best Jewish movies, television, books, music, and celebrity and internet moments of 5780, the past Jewish year. It’s not your typical list. In the television category, for instance, an award goes to “The Show We’re Sitting Shiva For” (it’s “Schitt’s Creek,” which finished its run this year). In the music category, there’s

a “Best Jack Antonoff Production” mention — referencing the Jewish songwriter and how he’s now ubiquitous in the world of pop hit writing (the award goes to Taylor Swift’s “Folklore” album, to give you an idea of his popularity). But there are more traditional awards, too, like Breakout Jewish Artist (rapper Doja Cat) and Breakout Actor (Adam Sandler, for his star dramatic turn in “Uncut Gems “). “This past year has obviously been very different than any others in recent memory, but with so many people stuck at home and consuming more media than ever — and with very few things that feel worthy of celebrating — we wanted to go into the Jewish New Year once again reflecting on all the exciting, unique ways Jews have represented ourselves in the media and on the internet,” Alma editor Molly Tolsky said. Check out the full slate of awards at h t t p s : / / w w w. h e y a l m a . c o m / t h e almas-5780 

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Michael Oren Published A Book Of Short Stories. He’s More Worried About The Future Of Literature Than Democracy. By Ben Sales

Michael Oren speaks at Bar-Ilan University in Israel in 2014. (Yoni Reif)

(JTA) — You may know Michael Oren as a cable news commentator on Israel and the Middle East. You may know him as the Israeli ambassador to the United States during Barack Obama’s first term, when he had the fraught task of managing a rocky American-Israeli relationship, or later as a member of Israel’s Knesset. Perhaps you’re acquainted with Oren as the author of three bestselling history books. What you may not have known is that he also writes fiction. At least I didn’t. I’ve interviewed Oren several times and read his nonfiction, and I had no idea that the American-born Israeli author and politician was a novelist and writer of short stories until this year. Oren, 65, has just come out with his third work of fiction, a collection of short stories called “The Night Archer.” It’s a change from his better-known works, which were authoritative and deep Middle

East histories or, in one case, a controversial diplomatic memoir. “The Night Archer” spans historical eras and settings, sometimes crossing into fantasy. Many of the stories have nothing explicitly to do with Judaism or Israel. He’s been out of government service for more than a year following a decade spent mostly as a public official. Oren lives not in Jerusalem, Washington, D.C., or New York City, but in Jaffa, the ancient sister city to Tel Aviv. He still writes opeds and comments on the news, but in a recent phone interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, he sounded relatively relaxed amid the dismal COVID-19 news in Israel. After this book, his next project is another work of fiction, a novel set in a Jewish suburb in the early 1970s, when he grew up. With success as a historian, ambassador and politician, is Oren now hoping to make his name as a novelist? “People want to pigeonhole somebody in a career path, say this guy’s a historian or this man’s a diplomat,” he said. “At the risk of wanting too much, I’d like to be known for myself. This is who I am, without characterizing it.” Oren did say that publishing fic-

tion feels liberating in an era when, as the cliche goes, the truth is often stranger. He wrote many of these stories in the mornings during his term in Knesset, from 2015 to 2019, before heading to work as a member of a centrist party that no longer exists. Knesset members are not allowed to publish books while in office, so he had to hold onto the stories until he left public service. If anything, Oren said nonfiction has become difficult to write in an era when facts are continually called into question. His gripe with the literary world, he said, is that the published word has become too policed. Like other thinkers and writers who advocate a broad exchange of ideas and criticize a supposed narrowing of the scope of acceptable discourse, Oren chafes at the notion that authors can only write novels based on their personal

experiences and identities. “The lines have been blurred,” he said. “I feel it more as a nonfiction writer, someone who’s trying to write, for example, op-eds. That makes it very difficult.” He added, “Writing is about freedom, is about imagination. Today there is tremendous pressure to limit that freedom, to say you can only write about exactly who you are and nobody else, lest you be accused of, among other things, cultural appropriation.” One thing he’s less stressed about, he said, is the current political situation — despite a renewed lockdown in Israel that has raised concerns over limits to the freedom of assembly and the turbulence surrounding the upcoming American See MICHAEL OREN 17 on Page

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MICHAEL OREN Continued from Page 16 presidential election. “I think democracy is being challenged in many different ways; I don’t think it’s on the verge of collapse,” he said. “I think democratic institutions are stronger than that.” He added, “I have a historical perspective that leads me to be calmer about these things. Where I am not calm is the threat from public opinion as it is driven by social media. In Israel and the United States, it’s not the government clamping down on artists, it’s social media, and that threat is very real.” “The Night Archer” offers a rebuttal to the claim that authors can write only about who they are. The stories’ protagonists range from an aide to a Spanish conquistador to a Protestant preacher’s wife to a pair of lesbian schoolteachers vacationing on a beach. (In a wink at readers, the teachers reminisce about a promising but mischievous former student named “Horenstein,” two letters away from Oren’s original last name, Bornstein.) There are a handful of Jewish and Israeli stories in the mix, as well as others that speak to Oren’s background: In one, an aging and underappreciated Israeli archaeologist contemplates a dilemma. Another is told from the perspective of a bored teenager at an Amer-

ican Passover Seder, and another centers on a social-climbing couple in D.C. There’s one featuring an Israeli politician. One story narrates the life of a Holocaust survivor with unkempt hair who became an iconic writer about the Shoah in America after a period living in France. Oren said that despite the similarities in biography and appearance, it is not about Elie Wiesel specifically, but rather “a composite of several Holocaust survivors I’ve known.” Although they cover a broad spectrum of historical eras and settings, the stories share a motif of characters attempting to escape an oppressive situation — domestic unhappiness, a saintly public persona or the hostile estate of a foreign ruler. Oren told JTA that he did not view his fiction writing as an escape from his public duties. He was glad to serve in those positions and to be able to write on his own time. But now, after years of speaking for a prime minister or a party, he has written a book that, at its core, is about trying to escape the bonds that limit us. “All human beings have secrets, and all people feel constrained in certain ways,” he said. “The major theme of the whole book is freedom and it’s about people seeking freedom, seeking liberation and learning that freedom itself is an objective to which you can strive, but it’s always going to be challenged.” 

Natalie Portman’s Debut Children’s Book Makes 3 Classic Tales ‘Gender-Safe’ By Gabe Friedman

Natalie Portman at the "Queen & Slim" premiere at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, Calif., Nov. 14, 2019. (Emma McIntyre/Getty Images)

(JTA) — Actress, director and Academy Award winner Natalie Portman can add another title to her resume: children’s book author. The Israeli-American movie star rewrote three classic children’s stories — “The Tortoise and the Hare,” “The Three Little Pigs” and “Country Mouse and City Mouse” — to be more “gender-safe,” in her words, with fewer male pronouns THE

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and more gender diversity. She wrote about the thinking behind the project in a letter on the book’s website. So, I’ve been reading the “regular” books to my daughter that I had previously read to my son, but I’ve been newly struck by the fact that nearly all the characters in these books are male — including the animals. I started noticing that when I pointed out animals in real life, I tended to use the pronoun he. “See the duck? What does he say?” “Oh look at the doggie! What’s his name?”… In response I started changing the pronouns in my daughter’s classic books. Portman announced the book, titled “Natalie Portman’s Fables,” on Instagram on Tuesday. It goes on sale Oct. 20. 

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Major League Baseball’s Official Historian On Jews In Baseball And Making Sense Of The Weirdest Season Of All Time By Stephen Silver

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John Thorn has been Major League Baseball's official historian since 2011. (Courtesy of MLB/background by Grace Yagel)

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(JTA) — From Hank Greenberg to Sandy Koufax to Alex Bregman, Jews and baseball go way back, to the 19th century. It’s not just players and fans — the participation even extends to the role of official baseball historian of Major League Baseball. The first man to hold the title, the legendary Chicago sportswriter Jerome Holtzman, was Jewish, and an inductee to the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. Holtzman died in 2008, and in early 2011, the official baseball historian role went to John Thorn, a prolific historian and author. Thorn, the

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inated at the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia and is now available in “virtual” form. This season, which started in July rather than April because of the coronavirus pandemic, will be of particular interest to historians. There have been whole weeks of games postponed in the wake of infections and some players have opted out of the season over COVID fears. Among the wacky, thousands of cardboard cutouts with fans’ faces have filled the stands. Thorn, 73, spoke with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency earlier this season about the most unusual of seasons, his work and the connection between the American game and American Jews. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. JTA: Tell me a bit about the role Judaism has played in your life. Thorn: Judaism has played a great part in my life, in terms of my

Players wearing masks at first base at a game at Oracle Park in San Francisco, Aug. 2, 2020. (Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)

son of Holocaust survivors who was born in a displaced persons camp, remains in the role today. His works include “Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game,” a study of the often controversial question of how and when, exactly, baseball was invented. He also consulted on “Chasing Dreams: Baseball and Becoming American,” an exhibition on Jews and baseball that orig18 Elections 2020

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birth, and childhood and circumstances, and as I have written elsewhere, just when you think that maybe you’re not so Jewish, the world will remind you. So, as I’ve become older, it’s clear that Judaism is a central part of my life and my worldview, though I am no longer religious. See BASEBALL on Page THE

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BASEBALL Continued from Page 18 I went to an Orthodox Hebrew school, and after my bar mitzvah, have scarcely been in a synagogue since. So my appetite for organized religion of any sort is slim, and no greater for Judaism. I will say that while Wikipedia has me as being born in Germany, this always irritates me because I was born in the American-occupied sector of Germany, in a displaced persons camp. My parents are Holocaust survivors, and we had three visas we applied for — Australia, Argentina and the U.S. — and were prepared to take whichever came first, and that turned to be the United States. So I came here at age 2 1/2.

the promotions department, to the marketing department, to legal, to general services and an extraordinary level of contact with the media, sometimes on deadline, who need the answer to an historical question, or need me to provide historical perspective on a current controversy. I also write a blog for Major League Baseball called Our Game, which has been going for 10 years now, and I contribute to that at least once a week and often more. I know you’ve done a lot of work on the origins of baseball, and I think there was a commission you were on related to that. I’ve been to Cooperstown, and I actually lived in Hoboken for a time [which have both been men-

Happy New Year And An Easy Fast To All My Family And Friends In The Jewish Community! - Franz Goodman Zibilich

Mike Minor of the Oakland Athletics walks through the stands that are filled with cardboard cutouts during a game against the Houston Astros at RingCentral Coliseum in Oakland, Sept. 10, 2020. The cutouts have become a fixture for most teams this season. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

How did it come about that you became Major League Baseball’s official historian? Well, at age 63 I guess I became this overnight sensation, courtesy of the commissioner, who appointed me to this post. But I had been writing baseball books since 1974 and had created the official encyclopedia for Major League Baseball, which was called “Total Baseball.” It went through eight editions, 1989-2004. So I was not exactly an unknown quantity, either to the commissioner or to the baseball community. But this position of baseball historian — and I’m now in my 10th year — has been well-suited to me, I enjoy it. And I will be happy to continue with it for as long as I continue to show up. What does the job entail? What do you do on a day-to-day basis? Availability, and other duties as assigned, is the most important part. So I respond not only to the Office of the Commissioner, but also to THE

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tioned as the birthplace of the game.] What’s the short answer of who invented baseball, and where was it invented? The short answer is no one invented baseball and it wasn’t invented anywhere. You may have [been to] Cooperstown, and you may have lived in Hoboken, and both of those places have laid claim to a bogus invention, and it’s thus a bogus claim. Baseball was played in other places, including in New York City, prior to any record of its being played in Hoboken, or being played in Cooperstown. So we have dated baseball in literature to, at least, 1791 in North America, and in all likelihood it was played in New England in the 1730s. There’s a large swath of Jewish baseball fans who pay close attention to Jewish baseball players and keep tabs on up-and-coming JewSee BASEBALL on Page

I am the product of a mixed marriage. My Jewish mother Bernice Pearl Goodman Zibilich and my dad Robert “Bob” Zibilich, a Catholic, raised my sister Gretchen and me to follow the teachings rooted in our Jewish heritage to make the world a better place. I hope you will find my record exemplifies that teaching and will honor me with your vote.

Wishing All My Family And Friends In The Jewish Community L’Shana Tova for a good and sweet year!!! Re-Elect Judge Franz Zibilich Orleans Parish Criminal District Court, Section L

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BASEBALL Continued from Page 19 ish prospects. Have you had much of an interaction with this subculture, and is that something you pay attention to? Yes, some. There’s a set of Jewish Major League baseball cards, there are people who argue about who was the first Jew in Major League Baseball, who was the first Jew of the amateur era to play baseball. So I’ve gotten caught up in such things, as I was the chief curatorial consultant to the National Museum for American Jewish History exhibition called “Chasing Dreams.” The key to that exhibition, I believe, and its subsequent success and its touring success, has been to identify Jews as not unique as outsiders in baseball, and being brothers under the skin with AfricanAmericans and Latinos in particular, but earlier, Italians and Irish and other nationalities, [including] Native American. When you were the curatorial consultant, what did that entail exactly? I was the baseball expert. I interacted with other consultants on behalf of the museum, helped secure artifacts, helped to position the exhibition and its companion book. Turning to the current baseball season, obviously there’s a lot about it that’s completely unprecedented, from the pandemic to

how short it is to the lack of fans. What stands out to you most about this year, and what do you think future historians will say about it? That this was a year unlike any other. The pandemic of 1918 and 1919 barely affected baseball. They were able to get through two regular seasons, and didn’t miss a World Series, and no player at the Major League Baseball level died, although one umpire did. The shortened season, the delayed season, the possibility of statistical anomalies — all of this must be viewed by subsequent generations with historical perspective. The mere placing of an asterisk alongside somebody’s record, how do you view it? Does the asterisk help you with anything? My view is that it doesn’t. What’s something about baseball, or baseball history, that most fans think they know but is actually wrong? Well, for starters, that it was invented anywhere, and at any particular time. [Early baseball reporter] Henry Chadwick had the right line, echoing Harriet Beecher Stowe: He said “baseball had no father — it was like Topsy, it just grew,” referring to the character Topsy in “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” For a hundred years or so, the National Association of Professional Baseball Players was regarded as the first major league, even though it lasted only from 1871 through ’75. When the MacMillan Baseball

Thank you to my friends in the Jewish Community for your continued support. I appreciate your vote!

Encyclopedia of 1969 came out, there was the creation of a special baseball records committee to review the status of all of the variant or challenging major leagues, besides the two extant ones, the National League and the American. So, the National Association, because of its erratic scheduling and procedures, and gambling, and drunkenness and a variety of moral and practical failings, was demoted as a major league. And Major League Baseball was redefined as having begun on Feb. 2, 1876, with the founding of the National League in New York City. What other leagues have there been that have been classified as major or considered as major? The American Association, The Union Association, The Players League, the Federal League, the American League, of course, which survives. But we have never given consideration to the Negro Leagues. And this seems to me a possibly fruitful area for research. I know you’re an historian, but let’s talk about baseball’s future. How do you feel about the future of the game? Do you think baseball’s going in a good direction and is as popular as it should be? I think baseball’s in a momentary

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period of crisis, but that is true of all sports because we have to make do without spectators, we have to create cardboard cutouts in the stands and artificial noises, it’s very very peculiar. So I think the future of baseball, and any other sports, ought not to be judged by the events of 2020. The aging demographics of baseball fans is certainly a concern, and the shifting allegiances of younger fans is also a concern for me because the allegiance is not so much to the team in your locality, but to a team of fantasy players, or players on whom you placed bets, and you have devised your own drafts and your own leagues and your own game, and what you’re checking in the morning is not the box score of the Mets or the Yankees, but rather the box score of those players on your draft roster. 

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Bette Midler Shines As An Angry Jew In HBO’s‘ Coastal Elites’ By Curt Schleier

Bette Midler stars in "Coastal Elite." (HBO)

(JTA) — HBO debuts playwright Paul Rudnick’s “socially distanced satire” film “Coastal Elites” on Saturday — and the star of the show is Bette Midler, whose Jewish character symbolizes the divide between America’s liberal cities and its heartland. The film is built on five remotely filmed monologues from characters based in either New York or Los Angeles during the COVID-19 pandemic. Midler plays Miriam Nessler, a retired New York City school teacher who may be the quintessential coastal elite. And one who is unapologetically Jewish, who also gets arrested for taking a red Make America Great Again hat off of a pedestrian on the street and running away with it. “He’s wearing jeans and a windbreaker, and the hat — the red hat. You know the one. The MAGA hat. In New York City, two blocks from the Public Theater,” Nessler says of the hat-wearer. “It’s like me going to Nebraska, wearing a yarmulke, waving a rainbow flag while reading a book!” Despite her words, Nessler doesn’t quite look down at the rest of the country. But the truth is that she is by self-definition “a liberal Jewish woman. On the census,

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and on that night. His parents, he and doesn’t make any sense at all.” Mandy Patinkin blows shofar in says, “were very good liberals and also deeply curious. And they TV tribute to Ruth Bader Ginsemphasized real engagement in life.” burg’s dying wish Trump quoted as saying that Jews Rudnick, who has written other screenplays, plays, and novels, says are ‘only in it for themselves’ NYC health department warns of where it says religion, I don’t put he is “grateful for that great Jewish down Jewish. I put down the New comic tradition, a way of speaking ‘significant concern’ about COVIDYork Times.” that’s wry and skeptical and loving, 19 rise in largely Orthodox neighTo clarify, the print edition. all at the same time, which is nuts borhoods  “Reading the Times online is like having sex with a robot. It’s cleaner and faster, but you can tell the difference. New York Times online is for gentiles,” Nessler says. The other characters are Mark Hesterman (played by Jewish actor Dan Levy), a gay actor auditioning to play the first gay super hero in a big movie; Callie Josephson (Isa Rae), a wealthy black woman who went to private school with Ivanka Call 504.835.2545 Trump; Clarissa Montgomery (Sarah Paulson), a woman who or email rps@ridgewoodprep.com creates meditation videos; and for appointment Sharynn Tarrows (Kaitlyn Dever), a nurse from Wyoming who comes to New York to help during the Knowledge • Discipline • Wisdom pandemic. Besides the very funny jokes, at 201 Pasadena Avenue • Metairie, LA 70001 at the center of “Coastal Elites” is a www.ridgewoodprep.com sense of wariness, an unease because after all this time, after all the news, there is a national divide over something where there should be unity. Rudnick noticed about a year ago that “everybody I knew on every side of the political divide was in a permanent state of anger and heart break over the future of the country.” “Coastal Elites” is the result of that feeling. He was raised in a Jewish household, attended Hebrew school, had a bar mitzvah, but it was primarily “cultural Jewish. We’d focus on the Jewish traditions education and culture and civic responsibility.” At dinner the family would discuss what was in the Times that morning

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Entertainment

Rachel Bloom Is Helping Produce A Series Called ‘I’m In Love With The Dancer From My Bat Mitzvah’

(JTA) — The “Crazy ExGirlfriend” team is back with a show that sounds even more Jewish: “I’m In Love With The Dancer From My Bat Mitzvah.” The series, which has been put in development by the CW Network, is described as a romantic mystery comedy about a young woman just shy of graduating from college

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Sacha Baron Cohen’s Next Netflix Role Is Super Jewish And Super Relevant By Lior Zaltzman

By Curt Schleier

Rachel Bloom as Rebecca Bunch in "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend." (Screenshot from YouTube)

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who is romantically rejected. She then becomes obsessed with a dancer from her bat mitzvah and eventually involves her friends in a criminal conspiracy. It’s inspired by true events, Deadline reports. The show’s creator is Ilana Wolpert, who was an assistant on “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.” Rachel Bloom, the creator and star of “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” will help write and executive produce but not act in the show. Feeling nostalgic for “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”? Read about the show’s particularly Jewish humor and its 10 best Jewish jokes. 

This story originally appeared on Kveller. (JTA) — The timing couldn’t be more prescient for Aaron Sorkin’s newest film, “The Trial of the Chicago 7.” The movie by the Jewish “West Sasha Baron Cohen, right, as Abbie Hoffman in "The Trial of the Chicago 7." (Niko Tavernise/Netflix)

Wing” creator, which is coming to Netflix on Oct. 16, is about the Jewish anti-war activist Abbie Hoffman, who was tried along with six others for conspiracy and inciting to riot for their role in the 1968 protests at the Democratic National Convention. Hoffman is played by none other than the Jewish actor Sacha Baron Cohen. It’s his second super-Jewish dramatic role for the streaming service after playing the Israeli spy Eli Cohen in the 2018 miniseries “The Spy.” The first teaser trailer for the movie premiered this week, and so much of it feels so timely and familiar — even if depicts events from more than 50 years ago. Especially familiar are the clips of scenes from anti-war protests, which led to a violent showdown between the yippie protesters and law enforcement, including police and the National Guard. “The whole world is watching,” we hear a crowd chant. A sign with Black Power fists that reads “An attack on one of us is an attack on us all” looks like it could have come from any of the Black Lives Matter protests in recent months. Seeing the fear and the determination of the protesters as they face armed guards also feels incredibly current. In fact, it makes you realize how little has changed over the past half-century — besides the hairstyles and the outfits, of course, plus the fact that nobody’s wearing a mask. With an unruly, curly mane and an East Coast drawl, Cohen is perfect as Hoffman. The actor is known for his immersive, overstated satire and grand theatrics, after all, and Hoffman was known for his theatrical style and comical methods for his anti-war activism. Cohen’s latest project, Showtime’s “Who Is America,” was an attempt to mock and shine a light on the injustices and hypocrisy by U.S. politicians. As the Jewish father of three

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told the Anti-Defamation League last year, his life and work have always been informed by activism. “As an undergraduate, I traveled around America and wrote my thesis about the civil rights movement, with the help of the archives of the ADL,” he told the crowd at the ADL’s 2019 Never Is Now Summit on Anti-Semitism and Hate. “And as a comedian, I’ve tried to use my characters to get people to let down their guard and reveal what they actually believe, including their own prejudice.” Lately, Cohen is going back to using his own voice for his activism. (“This is the first time that I have ever stood up and given a speech as my least popular character, Sacha Baron Cohen,” he told the ADL crowd last year.) He’s brandished scathing critiques (sometimes even laden with Nazi analogies) of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter for their role in aiding the spread of misinformation, fomenting hate and conflicts in this country and abroad. In his ADL speech, he called YouTube, Google, Facebook and Twitter “the greatest propaganda machine in history.” So it makes sense that he was cast by Sorkin to play Hoffman, one of the most well-known (and controversial) anti-war activists in U.S. history. That’s true even if Cohen (jokingly) insists on Twitter that it was a mistake: As an infamous anti-war activist, Hoffman frequently got in trouble with the law and spent seven years in hiding to avoid the authorities. He was also deeply Jewish. In many fascinating online interviews, you can hear Hoffman talk about how he sang “hum hum” instead of “Jesus” in Christmas carols while attending the prestigious Worcester Academy boarding school in Massachusetts. (“They had just started letting Jews in,” he said.) But perhaps the best Jewish video clip of Hoffman shows him making gefilte fish and telling a story about how he made the Jewish delicacy for the legendary author and pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Spock: Will gefilte fish be featured in a scene in “The Trial of the Chicago 7”? We don’t know yet — but we can hope.  THE

JEWISH LIGHT

THE

Health

JEWISH LIGHT

Rapid Covid-19 Screening Test Developed In Israel To Rabbis pray at Western Be Used In Major European Wall for Trump’s recovery By Marcy Oster Airports By Marcy Oster gers with ICTS Europe, a security provider at major airports in 23 countries, Newsight announced in a statement on its website. A trial of the test last month involving some 400 people at Sheba showed about 95% accuracy. Israeli travelers enjoy a celebratory “Tests will be immediate, affordarrival at Ben Gurion Airport, March 23, 2020. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90) able and monitored, so that airports (JTA) — A rapid COVID-19 and airlines can optimize the level screening test developed in Israel of safety by mitigating the risk of will be used to screen passengers in COVID-19 infection,” the statement said. ELECT #96 several European airports. In the pilot phase at the airports, The test involves gargling with a those who test positive for the corosmall amount of special mouthwash navirus will have to take the regular and spitting it into a test tube. Virusight Diagnostic, a newly swab test, The Times of Israel formed Artificial Intelligence health reported. The gargle test uses SpectraLIT, care venture between Sheba Medical Center’s ARC Innovation Cen- Newsight Imaging’s portable and ter and Newsight Imaging, has accurate spectral analysis device, to signed a strategic letter of intent for determine the presence of the rapid screening of airline passen- COVID-19 virus.  ELECT #96 ELECT #96

Israeli chief rabbis pray for President Trump in Jerusalem, Oct. 5, 2020. (Screen shot from YouTube)

(JTA) — Leading Israeli rabbis prayed at the Western Wall for President Donald Trump’s recovery from the coronavirus. Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch, the rabbi of the Western Wall, recited a traditional Jewish prayer for healing on Trump’s behalf on Monday morning, days after the American president announced he had contracted the virus. Israel’s two chief rabbis were also in attendance, as were U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and Jerusalem

Mayor Moshe Leon. The prayer asked God to heal the president using the traditional Hebrew formulation “Donald John, son of Fred.” The prayer came during the traditional recitation of Birkat Kohanim, or the “priestly blessing,” which typically attracts tens of thousands of people to the Western Wall. Numbers were limited this year to those who live within about a half-mile of the site. 

ON ELECTION DAY Let’s Elect a Judge That Has a Proven Track Record of Service to Our Communities

GARY JU D G E

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Represented 7,000 citizens • Negotiated 1000’s of fair and just Plea Bargains • Conducted 750 jury WainwrightForJudge.com Paid fortrials by the Committee to Elect GaryDeath Wainwright Penalty Judge • Tried two Cases • Conducted thousands of evidentiary hearings. (504) 510-1919

PERSONAL • Admitted to the Louisiana bar on December 23rd 1989 • Graduated from the Southern Law Center in 1989, Cum Laude • Graduated with Bachelor in Business Administration from Millsaps College, Magna Cum Laude • Husband to Melissa, and father to Nola and Gary

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Early Voting October 16 through October 25, 2020 Election Day - Tuesday, November 3 Paid for by the Committee to Elect Gary Wainwright Judge (504) 510-1919 THE

JEWISH LIGHT

P R O S E C U T O R . P U B L I C S E R VA N T. Chris Cox is well-prepared for the bench. He served as the Jefferson Parish Executive Assistant District Attorney, an Assistant United States Attorney, the Chief Operating Officer of Jefferson Parish, and an Adjunct Professor at Tulane Law School. He is a principled attorney who will preserve the rule of law. Chris Cox will be a disciplined jurist who thrives on legal precision. Jefferson Parish will be safer and stronger with him as Judge. E A R LY V O T I N G : O C T O B E R 1 6 - 2 7

E L E C T I O N D AY : N O V E M B E R 3

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Elections 2020

other public spaces safe. ting the virus and continue to The devices use HEPA (high be used nightly to assure that efficiency particulate air) filtra- their children are arriving every tion technology that is designed morning to a hospital grade envito capture 99.97% of all air parti- ronment,” Headley said. “I think cles, with added UV-C light that the fact that our machines can THE JEWISH LIGHT sterilizes viruses, mold or other run nightly presents the biggest dangerous particles in the air or advantage we h ave over our on surfaces. competitors, which only provide “We h ave married the two a one-time or weekly disinfection technologies in a way that nobody using foggers and other standard else has done,” said AMPOL Chief equipment.” Executive Officer Kirk Headley. Headley said AMPOL has 20 “It basically pulls air through to 25 of the devices available for This story is brought by AMPOL. the filter and captures 99.97%to of you purchase or rent. AMPOL teams the particles, then releases much have been using them for several that contain the virus.” AMPOL, a Louisiana-based “The cleaner air on the other side. months on disinfection jobs. best method would be to What does not get caught in theand decon“We’ve been using them on for each hallway in the environmental cleanup install one That means that parents of filter is exposed to the UV-C light most every disinfection job we SURFACES school,” Headley said. school students can be reassured tamination company, has created and sterilized. It’s essentially a do,” Headley said. “We’ve used DISINFECTION For gymnasiums or other large that surface and air disinfection new that use two technolodoubledevices scrubbing of the air.” them in hotels, pharmacies, 1st Layer Thetoaireliminate sanitizer boxes are offshore living quarters, offshore spaces, AMPOL often uses its UV actions are taken, and best efforts gies and sterilize nearly ideal for classrooms and school platforms, schools, universities UV DISINFECTION Hogs, which are large indusare made for their children to be all airsince particles. The nowWe’veHEPA offices they can be devices used andare used them in offices. 2ND Layer fansand equipped with a UV light when students staff are on a lot of industrialtrial settings, safe at school. available in and Louisiana to keep the premises. The boxes can also because we have provided differ- filters. These must be run POST DISINFECTION and HEPA “With AMPOL, the school can schools and other public spaces safe. be set up in school hallways over- ent sizes of the machine, it allows 3RD Layer ATP TESTING when people are not around because get certified results from Ampol’s The devices use HEPA night, with classroom doors left (high us to useeffithem in any size space.” the high open, to disinfect airborne virus Headley said of AMPOL has velocity of the fan speed. preventable methods that are being ciency particulate air) filtration particles in a single hallway. worked with its certified indusThe UV devices can be used in used in terms of combatting the session or during business hours technology thatwould is designed to h cap“The best method be to trial ygienist as its teaming multiple settings in addition to virus and continue to be used install99.97% one for eachof h allway in the when workers are present. Some ture all air particles, partner with to make sure the devices including school,” Headley said. are as effective as schools, possible. Their to us assure theirairchildren device gives a muchthat more handling system to ensureclients AMPOL hotels, conducts arestaudisinfection, nightly Vista,have Chalmette, Venice and AMPOL the boxes added UV-C light that sterilizes For gymnasiums or other large work and researchrants, h as shown office buildings, health facilcomprehensive cleaning of the cleaner air inside a h ome or Port Arthur, Texas. For more its staff first test the high touch are arriving every morning to a running during those times, when viruses, moldoften or other dangerous spaces, AMPOL uses its that the air in a room or space is surfaces before cleaning. After air, along with AMPOL’s propri- building. information on AMPOL HIGH INTENSITY KILLS UP TO 99% and its ities, retail stores, pharmacies, grograde environment,” UV HEPA Hogs, which sterilized if it is exchanged six cleaning, clients are shown hospital OF VIRUSES disinfection work is particles in the airareorlarge on surfaces. etary surface cleaning tech“This is going toother becomeAMPOL moreBROAD-SPECTRUM services, visit www.ampol.net. UV DISINFECTION AND BACTERIA entertainment industrial fans equipped with a times per hour. cery stores, malls, Headley said. “I think the fact that niques. This h elps us achieve common,” he said. “I imagine before and after real-time inforThe statements made within taking place. For other clients, that have married the two techUV“We light and HEPA filters. These “Basically, we use the height, venues, concert halls, exhibition hospital-grade cleanliness for there will come a day when you this article have not been evalumation to show how effective our machines can run nightly presmust be run in when work after hours. nologies a people way are thatnotnobody elsewidth of any room AMPOL’s process is when it our clients.” length and able to buy an air takes condi- place ated by the U.S. Food and Drug centers, stadiums, cruise ships, the biggest advantagewon’t webehave around because said of the high veloc- to calculate the CFM needed,” comes to disinfecting viruses ents Headley said some companies tioner without this. Cleaner air Administration. These state“With our system, it can be done has done,” AMPOL Chief government hospitals ity of the fan speed. Headley said. “When we are facilities, over our competitors, which only is healthier for everyone.” that manufacture air condiand other substances. ments and the products of this when people are there because it is Executive Officer Kirkin Headley. The UV devices can be used filtering the air sixand timesmovie per hour, theaters. tioners areausing UV-C techThe disAMPOL corporate office company are not intended to “We are always pushing provide one-time or weekly multiple settings pulls in addition to that is the considered to be sterilized ourselves to be the disinfection nology. In those cases, a special is located in NewaIberia. sealed system,” Headley “It basically air through Other diagnose, treat, curesaid. or prevent Headley said AMPOL develinfection using foggers and other schools, including hotels, restau- and hospital-grade clean.” are in only Bayou sound leader,” Headley said. “This UV-C box is installed in the AMPOL facilities“The any disease. is when the fan is filter and captures 99.97% of the oped the UV devices earlier in rants, office buildings, health Headley said each box is standard equipment. We are filterpulling air through the filter, so particles, thenstores, releases facilities, retail phar-much sealed, and a latched door covers 2020, around the onset of the ing the air six times per hour, macies, grocery malls, side. the UV-C light portion. A latch cleaner air onstores, the other What which is considered to be sterilized that is something people someentertainment venues, concert is attached to theCOVID-19 box to keep it pandemic. The compatimes consider.” does not get centers, caughtstadiin theclosed filterinisplace, ny halls, exhibition hasallows all necessary disinfection which and hospital-grade clean.” ums, cruiseto ships, door to be opened when the Headley said the devices have exposed the government UV-C lighttheand licenses and experience working in facilities, h ospitals and movie bulb needs to be replaced. While 337-317-4135 been proven to work. When sterilized. It’s essentially a double varietysaidof settings, including theaters. the boxes are safe,a Headley LAFAYETTE AMPOL conducts a disinfection, scrubbing ofAMPOL the air.” Headley said devel- people should not anthrax and other hazardlook directlycleanup at oped the UV devices earlier the UV-C light, since harm its staff first test the high touch surousit can cleanup, among other projects. in 2020, around the onset of the eyes, similar to the effect of faces before cleaning. After clean“We saw the need to make a betthe COVID-19 pandemic. The looking directly at the sun. company has all necessary disinter machine “Our boxes are designed where for cleaning the air,” ing, clients are shown before and fection licenses and experience the light is enclosed,” h e said. Headley said. “We came up with after real-time information to show working in a variety of settings, “When the box is on, you never the idea of using what’s already how effective AMPOL’s process is including anthrax cleanup and should open the lid. It h as to other hazardous cleanup, among remain closed.” there, but making a machine to fit when it comes to disinfecting virusother projects. Since the boxes on are safe, Headthe back of the negative air “We saw the need to make a ley said they can be operated with Headley said each box is sealed, es and other substances. machine. As far as I know, we are better machine for cleaning the professional oversight in spaces “We are always pushing ourselves and a latched door covers the air,” Headley said. “We came that are occupied, the such as schools only ones to have done this.” to be the disinfection leader,” HeadUV-C light portion. A latch is up with the idea of using what’s that are in session or during busiThe devices differ from foggers, ley said. “This device gives us a already there, but making a ness hours when workers are attached to the box to keep it sprayers and other disinfection machine to fit on the back of the present. Some AMPOL clients much more comprehensive cleaning closed in place, which allows the negative air machine. As far as have the boxes running during because those only apparatuses of the air, along with AMPOL’s I know, we are the only ones to those times, when other AMPOL door to be opened when the bulb disinfect surfaces. Standard disinproprietary surface cleaning techhave done this.” disinfection work is taking place. The devices differ from For other clients, that fection equipment has no effect on needs to be replaced. While the work takes niques. This helps us achieve hospiboxes are safe, Headley said peofoggers, sprayers and other disin- place after hours. virus particles found in the air. The air sanitizer boxes are ideal tal-grade cleanliness for our clients.” fection apparatuses because “With our system, it can be ple should not look directly at the “With our UV equipment, we do those only disinfect surfaces. done when people are there The AMPOL corporate office is for classrooms and school offices UV-C light, since it can harm the Standard disinfection equipment because it is a sealed system,” not just kill the virus particles. We located in New Iberia. Other since they can be used when students eyes, similar to the effect of lookhas no effect on virus particles Headley said. “The only sound also circulate clean, virus-free air AMPOL facilities are in Bayou and staff are on the premises. The found in the air. is when the fan is pulling air ing directly at the sun. back into the space we are disinfect“With our UV equipment, we throug h the filter, so that is Vista, Chalmette, Venice and Port boxes can also be set up in school Since the boxes are safe, Headley do not just kill the virus parti- something people sometimes ing,” Headley said. “With AMPOL, Arthur, Texas. For more informahallways overnight, with classroom cles. We also circulate clean, consider.” said they can be operated with prowe protect against all methods of tion on AMPOL and its services, virus-free air back into the space Headley said the devices have doors left open, to disinfect airborne AMPOL HEPA Hog, an industrial fan equipped with HEPA filters and ain UVC AMPOLthat UVC Airare Sanitizer, a UVC lightbox connected with a standard negative air fessional oversight spaces we are disinfecting,” Headley been proven to contracting work. When visit www.ampol.net. the virus, both highvirus particles in a single hallway. light capable of sterilizing large industrial spaces. occupied, such as schoolsmachine that that aresterilizes in 99.97% of particles in the air. said. “With AMPOL, we protect

Health

SURFACES DISINFECTION

1st Layer

air ﬁltration and UV lighting New Air Filtration And UV Lighting DevicesNew Can Wipe Out devices can reduce COVID-19 risk DISINFECTION Covid-19 From Our Schools And Other Indoor Public Spaces inUV schools and other indoor spaces

2ND Layer

3RD Layer

By Amanda McElfresh amcelfresh@theadvocate.com This story is brought to you by AMPOL.

AMPOL, a Louisiana-based environmental cleanup and decontamination company, h as created new devices that use two technologies to eliminate and sterilize nearly all air particles. The devices are now available in Louisiana to keep schools and other public spaces safe. The devices use HEPA (high efficiency particulate air) filtration technology that is designed to capture 99.97% of all air particles, with added UV-C light that sterilizes viruses, mold or other dangerous particles in the air or on surfaces. “We h ave married the two technologies in a way that nobody else has done,” said AMPOL Chief Executive Officer Kirk Headley. “It basically pulls air through the filter and captures 99.97% of the particles, then releases much cleaner air on the other side. What does not get caught in the filter is exposed to the UV-C light and sterilized. It’s essentially a double scrubbing of the air.” The air sanitizer boxes are ideal for classrooms and school offices since they can be used when students and staff are on the premises. The boxes can also be set up in school hallways overnight, with classroom doors left open, to disinfect airborne virus particles in a single hallway. “The best method would be to install one for each h allway in the school,” Headley said. For gymnasiums or other large spaces, AMPOL often uses its UV HEPA Hogs, which are large industrial fans equipped with a UV light and HEPA filters. These must be run when people are not around because of the high velocity of the fan speed. The UV devices can be used in multiple settings in addition to schools, including hotels, restaurants, office buildings, health facilities, retail stores, pharmacies, grocery stores, malls, entertainment venues, concert halls, exhibition centers, stadiums, cruise ships, government facilities, h ospitals and movie theaters. Headley said AMPOL developed the UV devices earlier in 2020, around the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company has all necessary disinfection licenses and experience working in a variety of settings, including anthrax cleanup and other hazardous cleanup, among other projects. “We saw the need to make a better machine for cleaning the air,” Headley said. “We came up with the idea of using what’s already there, but making a machine to fit on the back of the negative air machine. As far as I know, we are the only ones to have done this.” The devices differ from foggers, sprayers and other disinfection apparatuses because those only disinfect surfaces. Standard disinfection equipment has no effect on virus particles found in the air. “With our UV equipment, we do not just kill the virus particles. We also circulate clean, virus-free air back into the space we are disinfecting,” Headley said. “With AMPOL, we protect

against all methods of contracting the virus, both high-touch surfaces and airborne particles that contain the virus.” That means that parents of school students can be reassured that surface and air disinfection actions are taken, and best efforts are made for their children to be safe at school. “With AMPOL, the school can get certified results from Ampol’s preventable methods that are being used in terms of combatting the virus and continue to be used nightly to assure that their children are arriving every morning to a hospital grade environment,” Headley said. “I think the fact that our machines can run nightly presents the biggest advantage we h ave over our competitors, which only provide a one-time or weekly disinfection using foggers and other standard equipment.” Headley said AMPOL has 20 to 25 of the devices available for purchase or rent. AMPOL teams have been using them for several months on disinfection jobs. “We’ve been using them on most every disinfection job we do,” Headley said. “We’ve used them in hotels, pharmacies, offshore living quarters, offshore platforms, schools, universities and offices. We’ve used them in a lot of industrial settings, and because we have provided different sizes of the machine, it allows us to use them in any size space.” Headley said AMPOL has worked with its certified industrial h ygienist as its teaming partner to make sure the devices are as effective as possible. Their work and research h as shown that the air in a room or space is sterilized if it is exchanged six times per hour. “Basically, we use the height, length and width of any room to calculate the CFM needed,” Headley said. “When we are filtering the air six times per hour, that is considered to be sterilized and hospital-grade clean.” Headley said each box is sealed, and a latched door covers the UV-C light portion. A latch is attached to the box to keep it closed in place, which allows the door to be opened when the bulb needs to be replaced. While the boxes are safe, Headley said people should not look directly at the UV-C light, since it can harm the eyes, similar to the effect of looking directly at the sun. “Our boxes are designed where the light is enclosed,” h e said. “When the box is on, you never should open the lid. It h as to remain closed.” Since the boxes are safe, Headley said they can be operated with professional oversight in spaces that are occupied, such as schools that are in session or during business hours when workers are present. Some AMPOL clients have the boxes running during those times, when other AMPOL disinfection work is taking place. For other clients, that work takes place after hours. “With our system, it can be done when people are there because it is a sealed system,” Headley said. “The only sound is when the fan is pulling air through the filter, so that is something people sometimes consider.” Headley said the devices have been proven to work. When

POST DISINFECTION ATP TESTING

HIGH INTENSITY BROAD-SPECTRUM UV DISINFECTION

AMPOL conducts a disinfection, its staff ﬁrst test the high touch surfaces before cleaning. After cleaning, clients are shown before and after real-time information to show how effective AMPOL’s process is when it comes to disinfecting viruses and other substances. “We are always pushing ourselves to be the disinfection leader,” Headley said. “This

device gives us a much more comprehensive cleaning of the air, along with AMPOL’s proprietary surface cleaning techniques. This h elps us achieve hospital-grade cleanliness for our clients.” Headley said some companies that manufacture air conditioners are using UV-C technology. In those cases, a special UV-C box is installed in the

air handling system to ensure cleaner air inside a h ome or building. “This is going to become more common,” he said. “I imagine there will come a day when you won’t be able to buy an air conditioner without this. Cleaner air is healthier for everyone.” The AMPOL corporate office is located in New Iberia. Other AMPOL facilities are in Bayou

Vista, Chalmette, Venice and Port Arthur, Texas. For more information on AMPOL and its services, visit www.ampol.net. The statements made within this article have not been evaluated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. These statements and the products of this company are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

KILLS UP TO 99% OF VIRUSES AND BACTERIA

AMPOL HEPA Hog, an industrial fan equipped with HEPA filters and a UVC AMPOL UVC Air Sanitizer, a UVC lightbox connected with a standard negative air light capable of sterilizing large industrial spaces. machine that sterilizes 99.97% of particles in the air.

WWW.AMPOL.NET

touch surfaces and airborne particles

337-317-4135

LAFAYETTE

WWW.AMPOL.NET 24 Elections 2020

www.thejewishlight.org

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JEWISH LIGHT

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JEWISH LIGHT

Shwarma Chicken Kebabs: Perfectly Spiced, Quick To Make And Oh-So-Juicy By Chaya Rappoport This recipe originally appeared on The Nosher.

(Chaya Rappoport)

them and toss with greens, olives, hummus, tomatoes, red onion and good olive oil for a perfect lunch. INGREDIENTS: For the kebabs: • 4 or 5 4-ounce skinless, boneless chicken thighs, trimmed of excess fat and cut into 1/2-inch cubes • 1/4 cup olive oil • 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin • 1 teaspoon ground black pepper • 1 teaspoon ground turmeric • 1 teaspoon sea salt • 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika • 3/4 teaspoon garlic powder • 3/4 teaspoon ground coriander • To serve: • parsley • lime wedges • thinly sliced red onion • hummus • laffa bread

If you think chicken kebabs sound boring, I don’t blame you. Usually they are. And dry. But not this recipe. This recipe pays homage to one of the earliest forms of cooking: roasting meat on a spit over a fire. Roasting smaller cuts, like kebabs, became popular in areas like the Middle East, where firewood was scarce, as they proved more practical to cook over small fires. According to food historian Gil Marks, the word is derived from the ancient Persian “kabab,” which most likely stemmed from Aramaic. Today, their popularity holds fierce. Shish taouk, kebabs of marinated, spiced The RIGHT Qualifications! chicken, are enjoyed in Egypt, Syria, Turkey and The RIGHT Choice for JUDGE! Jordan. In Iran, kebab koobideh, kebabs of ground meat mixed with parsley and chopped onions, are served alongside rice and yogurt. In Israel, kebabs of spiced ground meat are ubiquitous at holiday barbecues. Shwarma, while not exactly a kebab, is probably the most internationally beloved example of spit-roasted meat. Its flavorings — cumin, turmeric and coriander — inspired these kebabs. Bright with lime and onion, and made with juicy chicken thighs instead of breasts, they take mere minutes to cook on a hot grill (you could do this on a grill pan, too). Plus they’re so versatile: delicious PROTECTED THIS CITY AND with rice, perfect with warm CRIME VICTIMS AS A PROSECUTOR laffa bread and hummus, and refreshingly offset by tzatziki, DEFENDED RIGHTS AND ADVOCATED JUSTICE FOR ALL AS AN ATTORNEY tahini or even bright arils of pomegranate. 22 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE IN I never do, but if you CRIMINAL DISTRICT COURT have leftovers, unskewer Paid for by the Committee to Elect Lon Burns Judge THE

JEWISH LIGHT

NOSHER

(food)

DIRECTIONS: 1. Combine the spices in a bowl. Add the cubed chicken and olive oil; mix well to combine. Cover and refrigerate for a minimum of 30 minutes, and up to 12 hours. The longer it marinates, the tastier it’ll be! 2. Take 12-15 wooden or metal skewers. If you’re using wooden skewers, soak them for half an hour so they don’t burn and catch fire on the grill. Thread the marinated chicken onto the skewers — I like to thread them longways so there’s more surface area to grill. 3. Preheat the grill to mediumhigh heat and grease it by dipping a few paper towels in vegetable oil then, using tongs, rub them carefully over the grates until glossy. 4. Place the kebabs on the grill and cook until golden brown, around 5-6 minutes per side. Use tongs to turn them. They should be charred in places. 5. Transfer to a platter and scatter with parsley and sliced red onion. Squeeze with fresh lime. Serve with warm laffa bread and hummus. 

Thank you to all of my friends and supporters in the Jewish Community!

Judge Tammy Stewart Juvenile Court, Section B

On November 3, PLEASE ELECT

RICHARD DUCOTE

22ND JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT, DIVISION J (St. Tammany & Washington Parishes) ∙One of the nation’s leading child abuse/domestic violence litigators and law reformers ∙Wrote over 25 laws for child abuse and domestic violence victims ∙National Organization of Forensic Social Work’s Sol Gothard Lifetime Achievement Award ∙Southeast Louisiana United Way Legislative Champion ∙Judge Richard Ware Memorial Award from Louisiana Children’s Trust Fund Board

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL I EVER ACCEPT

CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS!

TRUSTWORTHY REPUTABLE & READY ducoteforjustice@gmail.com For more information visit Facebook: @DucoteForJustice

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318 E. Boston St. ∙ Covington ∙ 985-898-2755 Elections 2020

The Nosher

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The New Foodie Normal: Instead Of Travel And Tours, One-On-One Chef Video Lessons By Karen Chernick slowed. Then restaurants closed. and spice maven Lior Lev Sercarz. Then, finally, so did the markets. Kevin Fink, a Texas-based chef Baum’s company, called Deli- on the platform, says that classes cious Israel, was out of work. And yet, she noticed that people seemed Delicious Experiences connects customers with chefs for one-on-one video lessons. (Joann Pai/ Courtesy of Delicious Experiences)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — The reservations were rolling in, and Inbal Baum was preparing for her busiest summer yet of food tours through Israel’s famed open-air food markets. Her decade-old tour company and its team of over 20 guides were ready to lead thousands of international guests to markets in places like Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, where they would try curated samples of foods ranging from hummus and bourekas to lachoch bread and ma’amoul cookies. That was before the coronavirus pandemic. First, the arrivals of tourists

Shoppers are back at Israeli outdoor markets, such as this one in Tzfat, pictured July 15, 2020, but Delicious Experiences lives on. (David Cohen/Flash90)

Inbal Baum’s business brought tourists to Israeli markets for a decade. (Delicious Experiences)

more interested in food than usual — they just weren’t flying anywhere to try new dishes. Instead, they were cooking, baking and pickling in their home kitchens nonstop. So Baum thought of another avenue to reach her foodie clientele while simultaneously supporting other food industry pro#120 fessionals who, like herself, found themselves floundering over#120 night: In late May she launched Delicious Experiences, a website that connects home cooks with leading chefs and culinary experts (mostly U.S.-based, some international) for one-on-one private workshops via video chat. The platform offers tailored classes in cooking, baking, mixology, cake decorating and food photography. Many of the instructors are Jewish, and many of the courses are Jewish-themed. When Baum compiled a wish list of culinary celebrities and started reaching out to potential instructors, she was surprised by how many of them said yes. “Really insanely great chefs were very open to doing this,” she said. “A lot of these chefs see their own futures in some kind of 16th online format, and so this is a perfect way to give them a platFor More Information form to start off that process.” visit our website at Instructors include Michelin w w w.elec tethanashley.com Star restaurateur and sommelier Etheliya Hananova, James Beard Award-winner Nate Appleman, and a range of Israeli chefs, including Nir Mesika, Roy Ner,

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are “always something that I get asked to do, and traditionally, we just don’t have time.” In the age of COVID-19, reaching clients online is more feasible for some chefs. Beyond the time factor, these types of live private experiences were never a high priority in the food industry. “It’s actually something that’s super uncommon in the food world. Well, was uncommon,” adds New York-based Jake Cohen, another chef on the platform and author of the upcoming cookbook “Jew-ish: A Cookbook: Reinvented Recipes from a Modern Mensch.” “It’s something that’s changed drastically. Almost overnight we saw this complete shift in how people reacted to food and what they were craving.” Shiry Yosef, an entrepreneur in Tel Aviv who loves drinking cocktails at bars and restaurants but had never made one at home, tried a craft mixology class on Delicious Experiences with Singapore-based bartender Joseph Haywood. They decided to focus on gin and whisky. “It’s not a substitute for travel or for dining out,” Yosef said. Still, she added, “I actually loved that I was in my own kitchen with my own ingredients. It made it feel like something that I will repeat at home.” When Baum tried the cocktail class herself, she also felt it was an advantage being in her own kitchen

— despite the fact that she doesn’t have any cocktail-making tools. “We don’t have a shaker,” she said. “He’s like, ‘Do you have a water bottle?’ And right behind me was my daughter’s sippy cup, and the chef was like, ‘That’s perfect! You can even strain it.’” Baum argues that doing these workshops at home, in the same kitchen clients use daily, makes them much more likely to recreate the dishes later. She claims, as someone who regularly takes cooking classes overseas when she travels, that the dishes are always tricky to reproduce at home since you never have the same tools or ingredients. “But all of a sudden, when you do it in your kitchen, you learn that you don’t need a rolling pin — you can actually just use a wine bottle or a paper towel thing,” she said. “Or, in Israel we don’t have halfand-half — it doesn’t matter. It’s something that a recipe’s not going to tell you. When there’s a chef on the other side they’ll tell you what to mix, part cream, part whatever.” Israel’s markets have opened back up again, despite a rise in COVID-19 cases across the country — but what people want has changed, Baum says. Going out to restaurants doesn’t seem to hold quite the same appeal. “Now you can still go out and you can still order in. But none of us really want to as much anymore,” Baum said. “The kinds of experiences that we might have done before are maybe a little less exciting or appealing right now. But we still want do things.” Cohen sees being a foodie as meaning something different now. “This new world has created an environment in which, if anyone prioritized good food in their life [before], that means that now they have to prioritize learning how to cook at home,” he said. 

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‘Who By Fire?’ Isn’t Just A Metaphor This Year — But We Still Have Time To Change Course By Rabbi Jennie Rosenn

The Bobcat Fire continues to burn through the Angeles National Forest in Los Angeles County, north of Azusa, California, September 17, 2020. (Kyle Grillot / AFP via Getty Images)

NEW YORK (JTA) — As the founder of a new organization building a Jewish movement to confront the climate crisis, the leadup to the High Holidays this year was painfully resonant. “Who by fire?” the Unetaneh Tokef prayer asks. “Who by water?” This year, we will recite the prayer amid unprecedented fires, destruction and toxic smoke in the West and flooding in the South, where a series of slow-moving storms have left communities underwater. Both of these disasters are fueled by climate change and the policies and inaction that continue to make it worse. Most years, the shofar blasts awaken us. This year, we are already painfully awake. Millions of Americans are living through the unimaginable. Those of us in other parts of the country are pierced by daily images of destruction and surreal statistics. We talk with family, friends and colleagues out West who tell us it is “apocalyptic.” We catch a glimpse of what will soon be our reality — if not by fire then by water, or heat, or drought. The devastation of climate change is not a distant future. It is now. During the month of Elul leading up to Rosh Hashanah, we read in the Torah that God gives us the choice of blessing or curse, and enjoins us to choose the path of blessing. This is the painful question before us: Now that we are awake, will we choose blessing? Will we put our nation and world on a path of blessing, or will we continue to stand by and watch the curses unfurl? THE

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Scientists explain that what is happening right now with our climate is the cascade effect, in which a series of quickening trends overlap, triggering and amplifying each other. And there is another cascade effect: the painful convergence of the climate-fueled fires, racial justice and COVID-19. The climate crisis does not affect everyone equally. Communities of color and economically marginalized people are overburdened with toxic air and water, heat and lack of access to health care. These challenges are compounded by the fires, disproportionately sickening Black, Brown, Indigenous and low-income people and further increasing their risk of contracting the respiratory virus COVID-19. We are awake. Half of Americans now rank climate as a top political priority, up from roughly one-third in 2016, and three out of four now describe climate change as either “a crisis” or “a major problem.” The numbers are even higher for Jewish Americans, with 80% saying they are “concerned” or “very concerned” about the climate crisis. This year, the sounds of the shofar ask what we will do now that we are awake. How will we commit our lives — our time, our skills, our resources — to the work of redeeming our world? This year, how will we contribute to the creation of a more just, livable and sustainable world for all people for generations to come? There is no question that changing our personal behaviors and greening our institutions is necessary. But even if every Jew and

Jewish organization reduces its carbon footprint, we will not avert the most catastrophic impacts of climate change. To do this, we must make change on a systemic level. We can do this in four ways: First, we can advocate for common sense policies at the federal, state and local levels that sharply cut demand for energy for coal, oil and gas, mandate aggressive timelines to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions and protect communities most impacted by climate change and other historical inequities. Second, we can move our money. We must leverage the power of Jewish institutional investments and pressure banks and other firms that are financing the drilling, mining and burning of fossil fuels. To avoid more climate disasters like mega fires and supercharged storms, we must keep coal, oil and gas underground, where it belongs. Third, we can build a movement to confront the climate crisis and change the political landscape. By joining together and showing up when it counts, the Jewish community can bolster broad-based efforts to drastically reduce emissions, create millions of living-wage clean energy jobs and ensure justJewish Lite 4.9x3.1 Ad2.qxp DeWayneaWilliams transition for

workers in polluting industries. Finally, we must vote with climate at the front of our minds. Last week, the new Jewish climate organization Dayenu launched Chutzpah2020, mobilizing Jews across the nation to call on elected leaders to have the chutzpah to take big, bold, urgent action to confront the climate crisis and educating and mobilizing voters across the country ahead of Election Day. On Rosh Hashanah we were wide awake, and now must each ask ourselves what we will do to put us on a collective path of blessing — one where our actions can begin to avert the evil decree so clearly facing our Earth and everyone on it. This year, when we heard the plaintive notes — tekiah, shevarim, teruah — how will we heed the shofar’s call? 

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Not Feeling It In Zoom Synagogue? Going Outside Could Help. By Tiffany Shlain

A woman wades in a lake. (Getty Images)

(JTA) — This year, you can quiet a congregation of Jews with a press of your mute button. It’s hard to believe. During a normal High Holiday season, synagogues are packed, and services are accompanied by a

cacophony of on- and off-key singing, random coughs, babies crying and an impatient chorus of “Is it over yet?” from both children and bubbes. Just as the Beatles’ managers hired “screamers” to amplify the excitement at their concerts, I have been imagining rabbis bringing in a soundtrack of “sighers” and “yasher koachers” to make online services feel a little more normal. Things are not normal, though — and that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. During the month of Elul and the

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10 days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we take account of our lives and resolve to make changes. This year, we have been forced to create entirely new rituals and patterns of life. I, for one, really didn’t want to spend the High Holidays glued to a Zoom screen. So in this extraordinary year when the periods have turned into ellipses, with time blurring as screens take over every aspect of our lives, I’m prioritizing unplugging and finding my own way to mark the occasion. So many of the Jewish holidays fall on Shabbat this year. I’ve always thought the brilliance of Shabbat is that it gives the run-on sentence of time a period, a chance to pause and catch your breath, reflect and reset. The universe is clearly telling us we need to take a break. For the past decade, Shabbat means 25 screen-free hours for our family, what we call our Technology Shabbat. We felt the screen overload before the pandemic, and now we feel it 10 times more. Our Tech Shabbats have instilled clear boundaries and allowed us a weekly recharge. If Shabbat is the end of a sentence, the High Holidays are the end of a chapter in your Book of Life. Who wishes their chapter featured more screen time? As my 11-year-old daughter Blooma once said to me, “No one at the end of their life is going to think, ‘I wish I spent more time scrolling.’” One of my favorite memories growing up was a rogue gathering organized by my parents and their friends, a gaggle of Detroit Jews who had moved to Northern California, in 1974. It was called Temple Without Walls. For the High Holidays, these rebel Jews of Marin decided to leave their Jewish cathedrals in the city made from Jerusalem limestone and bring the services out to the redwoods, to the top of Mount Tamalpais in a dramatic 4,000 seat amphitheater, 2,000 feet above sea level, complete with fog and sweeping views of the Bay. In the 1960s, that same amphitheater hosted the very first outdoor music festival, paving the way for Woodstock, Lollapalooza and Coachella (a fantastic name for a law firm, by the

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way). I was 4, sweating under my black velvet dress, but I was happy. It was epic and beautiful, an indelible spiritual experience I will never forget. I felt an awe and humility inspired by nature’s vast vistas. Thinking back to that moment, and moments in Muir Woods, river rafting down the Grand Canyon, taking a walk near the ocean, I can see clearly that nature is what connects me to something larger than myself, a big enough space for the perspective you need on your life and the world for High Holidays. The last part of our fall holiday cycle, in fact, honors the value of being in nature: On Sukkot, we are encouraged to spend as much time outside as possible, even if it’s just in our backyards looking at the stars and the vastness of the sky. Nature is what connects us to something larger than ourselves, a big enough space for the perspective you need on your life and the world. Research backs this up. In one study, after participants were sent to a grove of enormous eucalyptus trees, they exhibited more prosocial behavior like empathy and generosity. The researchers theorized that the awe induced by the towering trees reminded the subjects of their role in the larger world. It’s been a year of questioning and rethinking everything. What rituals will we bring forward from this time? More time in nature, more time with family, more homecooked meals, more connecting with people we really feel close to, more thinking about what really matters to us? We’ve spent so much of the past six months sheltered in place. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel called Shabbat a sanctuary in time. Spending Shabbat and the holidays in the sanctuary of nature feels like the spiritual practice we need. So, this year, in addition to some temple Zooms, my family is heading outside to create our own Temple Without Walls. This is a time to get our priorities in order. Perhaps that involves more wind, birds and vistas — more trees and fewer screens. 

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Judaism

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From Camp ‘Rabbi’ To Pursuing Justice: How Judaism Animated Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Life By Ben Sales

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg speaks at a naturalization ceremony at the National Archives in Washington, DC, on December 14, 2018. (Jeff Reed/Wikimedia Commons)

JTA) — In its obituary of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, The Guardian wrote that the late Jewish Supreme Court justice “abandoned her religion.” That couldn’t be more wrong. While Ginsburg, who died Friday at age 87 after 27 years on the high court’s bench, was not known for her ritual observance, she spoke frequently about how Jewish values inspired her, and she was active in Jewish causes and with Jewish organizations. As Ginsburg would note in speeches, she was the only justice

with a mezuzah affixed to her office door. A poster on the wall read “Tzedek, tzedek tirdof,” the Hebrew injunction from the Torah meaning “Justice, justice shall you pursue.” She also once wore that line woven into one of her jabots, or collars worn on her Supreme Court robes. “I am a judge born, raised, and proud of being a Jew,” she wrote in an essay for the American Jewish Committee in 1996. “The demand for justice runs through the entirety of the Jewish tradition. I hope, in my years on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States, I will have the strength and courage to remain constant in the service of that demand.” She would sometimes say, “What is the difference between a bookkeeper in New York’s garment district and a Supreme Court justice? Just one generation.” Here’s a timeline of the most Jewish moments and motifs in the life of RBG, from her childhood to

recent years. As a teenager, she acted as her camp’s “junior rabbi” and wrote an essay about the importance of remembering the Holocaust. Ginsburg, born in Brooklyn in 1933 and raised in the Jewish neighborhood of Midwood, grew up in an observant home and attended the East Midwood Jewish Center, a Conservative synagogue. In the summers she would attend Camp Che-Ne-Wah in the Adirondacks, where she was unofficially called her camp’s “junior rabbi” and would lead Shabbat prayers. Barely a year after the Holocaust ended, a teenage Ginsburg wrote an essay in her synagogue bulletin titled “One People” about the importance of a world free of prejudice. She republished the essay in her 2016 book “My Own Words.” “We must never forget the horrors which our brethren were subjected to in Bergen-Belsen and other Nazi concentration camps,”

she wrote. “There can be a happy world and there will be once again, when men create a strong bond towards one another, a bond unbreakable by a studied prejudice or a passing circumstance.” She was disillusioned with Jewish observance at age 17 when women weren’t counted in a prayer quorum at her mother’s shiva. Presaging her pioneering work for women’s rights, Ginsburg would relate that she stopped feeling connected to Jewish ritual at 17 because of the absence of a minyan at her mother’s shiva, as women were not counted. Even though there was “a house full of women,” she said in a 2008 speech at Washington, D.C.’s Sixth & I Synagogue, no prayer was held because 10 men were not present. In her college dorm, she felt discriminated against when all the See RUTH BADER on Page

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Judaism RUTH BADER Continued from Page 29 Jewish women were placed on the same floor. In her freshman dormitory at Cornell University (from which Ginsburg graduated in 1954), Ginsburg discovered that she and the other women in her corridor were all Jewish. She told a documentary she felt that they were placed together “so we wouldn’t contaminate” other students. She and her husband sent their kids to Hebrew school. Speaking to the Jewish Telegraph Agency in 1993, when Ginsburg was nominated (and confirmed) for the Supreme Court, her husband, Martin Ginsburg, described the family as “not wildly observant,” though he said they went to a traditional Passover Seder with relatives. Later in life, in 2015, Ginsburg co-authored a feminist reinterpretation of the Passover story with Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt. The Ginsburgs sent their kids to Hebrew school when they lived in the New York area, but Martin Ginsburg told JTA that they didn’t join a synagogue when they moved to Washington, as the kids had grown up. She visited Israel in the 1970s for a conference on Jewish law — and kept going back. As an attorney, while arguing a series of landmark women’s rights cases before the Supreme Court in the ’70s, Ginsburg also “actively participated” in the American Jewish Congress’ Commission on Law and Social Action. Also, during that decade, she attended a conference in Israel discussing the position of

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women under secular and halachic laws in Israel and America. For decades after that trip, Ginsburg continued to travel to the country and comment on its legal system. In 2000, she was honored along with other American and Israeli Jewish feminists at the Knesset. Five years later she was part of a group that advised Israel not to adopt an American-style constitution because it would give the country’s judges less freedom. At an event on that subject, she said, “I admire Israel and I admire Aharon Barak,” Israel’s former chief justice. More recently, in 2017, she received a lifetime achievement award from the Genesis Prize Foundation in Israel. She was supposed to receive the Genesis Prize itself, known as the “Jewish Nobel,” but declined because she feared that the $1 million cash prize could violate ethics laws. When a soldier wanted to wear a kippah in the military, Ginsburg stood up for him in court. In 1984, S. Simcha Goldman, a Jewish soldier, fought in court against a military policy that banned him from wearing a yarmulke on duty. Ginsburg’s appeals court declined to hear his case, but Ginsburg dissented from that decision. “A military commander has now declared intolerable the yarmulka Dr. Goldman has worn without incident throughout his several years of military service,” she wrote. “At the least, the declaration suggests ‘callous indifference’ to Dr. Goldman’s religious faith.” She also played a role in the Jonathan Pollard case in which Pollard, an American Jewish defense official, was convicted of spying

for Israel. Pollard was sentenced to life in prison, and Ginsberg’s appeals court declined his appeal of that sentence. (Pollard was released in 2015 after 30 years in prison.) In her confirmation hearings, she spoke about how her Jewish heritage impacted her views on civil rights. Appearing before the Senate in 1993, Ginsburg said her ancestors “had the foresight to leave the old country when Jewish ancestry and faith meant exposure to pogroms and denigration of one’s human worth.” During questioning, she spoke about how country clubs would bar admission to Jews and said, “One couldn’t help but be sensitive to discrimination, being a Jew in America during World War II.” In a later speech at Brandeis University, she said that Louis Brandeis, the first Jewish Supreme Court justice (and the school’s namesake), inspired her legal work on behalf of civil rights and civil liberties. She stayed involved in Holocaust remembrance. Ginsburg, perhaps making her 13-year-old self proud, was active with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum as a Supreme Court justice. In 1993, months after she joined the court, she presented the

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museum’s Medal of Remembrance to Emilie Schindler, widow of Oskar Schindler, whose story of rescuing Jews during the Holocaust had recently been told in the film “Schindler’s List.” In 2004, she gave a speech at the museum on Holocaust Remembrance Day on the role of the law in preventing atrocity. “In striving to drain dry the waters of prejudice and oppression, we must rely on measures of our own creation — upon the wisdom of our laws and the decency of our institutions, upon our reasoning minds and our feeling hearts,” she said. “And as a constant spark to carry on, upon our vivid memories of the evils we wish to banish from our world. In our long struggle for a more just world, our memories are among our most powerful resources.” She presided over a mock trial of Shylock from “The Merchant of Venice.” Alongside a staging of the Shakespeare production, Ginsburg presided over a mock appeal of the guilty verdict given to Shylock, the play’s main character and an infamous anti-Semitic stereotype. The event was held to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Venice’s historical Jewish Ghetto. Ginsburg’s courtroom, unlike Shakespeare’s, found in Shylock’s favor. Her granddaughter called her “Bubbie.” In recent years, Ginsburg was known as the “Notorious RBG” and was idolized by legions of liberal Americans — among them many Jews. But her granddaughter, Clara Spera, gave a more personal perspective on the Supreme Court justice in a 2018 essay: “You may know her as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, or affectionately as the Notorious RBG, but to me she’s Bubbie,” Spera, herself a lawyer, wrote in Glamour. “Bubbie with whom I spend most High Holy Days. Bubbie who took me to see ‘The Book of Mormon,’ where we both laughed until we cried. Bubbie who loves going to the movies. Bubbie at whom I get a kick out of poking fun. Just a Bubbie like any other.” 

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