HAKOL LEHIGH VALLEY The Voice of the Lehigh Valley Jewish Community
JULY/AUGUST 2015 | TAMUZ/AV/ELUL 5775
Community garden grows produce and creates friendships By Laura Rigge HAKOL Editor 2015 ANNUAL CAMPAIGN Closing a successful year. See pages 8-11.
JEWISH HERITAGE NIGHT IronPigs game is a home run! See pages 12-13.
On July 8, volunteers from across the Jewish Lehigh Valley gathered at Camp Olympic in Emmaus to work their community garden plot together. “I can’t believe how big everything has grown,” said volunteer Alicia Zahn. “Last month, everything had barely sprouted.” The volunteers were there as part of a larger effort coordinated by master gardener Bob Yoder of The Barn. When he started the interfaith gardening operation seven years ago, Yoder’s mission was twofold: to provide produce to the underserved populations of Lehigh Valley and to bring people of different classes, races and faith backgrounds together. “Our main goal is build unity in the community,” Yoder said. Today the gardens are tended
by over 40 volunteers at sites in Whitehall and Macungie as well as the site at Camp Olympic in Emmaus that the Jewish volunteers tend monthly. At Camp Olympic, the volunteers from Temple Beth El, Congregation Keneseth Israel, Muhlenberg Hillel and BBYO are led in their gardening efforts by master gardener Joe Vincent, a Lutheran who was brought into the project by Yoder. Vincent was intrigued by the idea of “bringing together people of different religions to do something productive and informal.” Besides the social impacts of the project, the crops themselves are thriving. The main crops Vincent has focused on are corn and string beans, but the garden also boasts neat rows of sweet potatoes, Swiss chard, and beets. Vincent said while the growing season got off to a rough
start with a late frost, the rain has helped produce a successful crop of vegetables. “We almost lost the sweet potatoes to the frost,” he said, pointing to the now flourishing rows of plants, “but they came back.” “The fresh produce is truly appreciated by Allentown's underserved population,” said Amy Morse, one of the volunteers helping to weed the garden at Camp Olympic. Morse also
noted that the project has given them “opportunities to work alongside our Allentown neighbors, forming friendships as well as growing veggies.” If you are interested in volunteering at the community garden, the next scheduled session at Camp Olympic is Aug. 12 at 6:30 p.m. For more information, contact Bob Yoder at 610-762-5379 or e-mail him at drbob@ptd.net.
Next steps for the Iran nuclear deal siders and Iran experts. Here’s what we found out. THE U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL Action: The U.N.’s sole lawmaking body must now endorse the deal. Likely consequence: Endorsement The five veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council – France, Britain, China, the United States and Russia – are among the six, along with Germany, that signed off on the deal. Among the remaining rotating members, only one, Jordan, has expressed skepticism about the Iran talks.
MAKE A CONNECTION See the Senior Living Special Section.
No. 378
CONGRESS Action: Congress by law must review the deal, but may not attempt to amend it. Likely consequence: Disapproval
com.UNITY with Mark Goldstein 2 JFLV 2015 Honor Roll
8-11
Jewish Family Service
14
Jewish Community Center
15
Jewish Day School
16
LVJF Tributes
18
Community Calendar
22-23
Portraits of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, right, and the former Ayatollah Khomeini looking out over Tehran. Non-Profit Organization
702 North 22nd Street Allentown, PA 18104
U.S. POSTAGE PAID Lehigh Valley, PA Permit No. 64
By Ron Kampeas Jewish Telegraphic Agency Editor’s Note: As this issue was going to press, the P5+1 nations announced the nuclear agreement with Iran. Time and allocated space did not allow a full presentation on the agreement and its opposition. The nuclear deal with Iran 20 months in the making is now done — at least as far as negotiations go. The accord, announced July 14, still faces hurdles, although they likely won’t keep the deal from going ahead. So what happens next? We read the laws, perused the speeches, scanned the deal and canvassed congressional in-
Congress, by law, gets the full text of the deal within five calendar days of the agreement in English, and thanks to an amendment proposed by Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in Persian as well. Congress has 60 days to consider a deal and another 12 days to send a joint resolution to President Barack Obama, should they resolve to do so. “In the coming days, Congress will need to scrutinize this deal and answer whether implementing the agreement is worth dismantling our painstakingly constructed sanctions regime that took more than a decade to establish,” Corker said in a statement. He and his ranking member, Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., co-authored the law mandating congressional review. Leaders in the Senate and House of Representatives could bring resolutions to either approve or disapprove the Iran deal directly to Iran deal Continues on page 3