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May 4, 2017 | 8 Iyar, 5777 May 5 | 9 Iyar 5777 Parshat Acharei Mot/Kedoshim Light Candles: 7:47 PM CANDLE LIGHTING Shabbath ends: 8:50 PM
CONNECTING THE DC, MD, & VA JEWISH COMMUNITY
Supporting Our Survivors
ISSUE #7 Published Bi-Weekly
In honor of Yom HaShoah, Kol HaBirah explored the day-to-day experiences of many Holocaust survivors living in our community and the resources in place to support them. See ad on page 16
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By Suzanne Pollak A 100-year-old woman chatted briefly as she got her hair done at the salon in the Charles E. Smith Life Communities’ Hebrew Home in Rockville, Maryland, where she lives. It was just one of the many things she was rushing to accomplish before Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. As one of the dwindling number of remaining Holocaust survivors who lived through the brutality and inhumanity of the concen-
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(PHOTO CREDIT: SUZANNE POLLAK)
JScreen: Improving Access and Dispelling Myths About Genetic Testing By Hillary Kener
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This Holocaust menorah has a prominent place in SmithKogod Residence in Rockville.
Don’t we know all there is to know about Jewish genetic diseases already? Stories of families like Randy and Caroline Gold’s suggest otherwise. The Golds were a typical Jewish couple: active in the Jewish community, hopeful of starting a family someday. They heard through friends
that they should request their doctors screen them for Jewish genetic diseases before getting pregnant. Not really sure how many diseases they were being tested for, the Golds, like many, presumed the panel offered was standard and that they were in the clear when the results came back with no matches.
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‘I Think Striking Syria Was Absolutely Right’ Bret Stephens talks values-based foreign policy with Kol HaBirah at JNF event. By Rachel Kohn On April 23, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bret Stephens was the guest speaker at the Jewish National Fund’s (JNF) annual community breakfast, held at B’nai Israel Congregation in Rockville, Maryland. Stephens spoke eloquently and expertly on American foreign policy and its future under the new administration. Formerly a foreign affairs columnist and the deputy editor of the editorial page at The Wall Street Journal, Stephens raised eyebrows with his recent move to the op-eds section of The New York Times. He was editor in chief of The Jerusalem Post from 2002 to 2004, and
holds the distinction of having interviewed every Israeli prime minister since Shimon Peres. After the event, we sat down to discuss his own new transition and his thoughts on Trump, Israel, and the importance of values-based American foreign policy. What prompted you to leave the Wall Street Journal for the New York Times? I had 16 great years at the Wall Street Journal, it’s a fantastic newspaper, but we live in a world where it’s a miracle when people stay in a job for three years. I felt it was time to stretch my legs and speak to a different audience, and offer them
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