September 26, 2014 by Jewish Rhode Island

Volume XX, Issue XXXVIII | www.thejewishvoice.org Serving Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts

2 Tishri 5775 | September 26, 2014

The colors of fall

5774: Year in review BY JTA STAFF (Part two of three parts) NEW YORK – Read about the highs and lows of 5774 – and everything in between.

Ariel Sharon

January 2014

Ariel Sharon, the controversial warrior-turned-statesman who served as Israel’s prime minister from 2001 until 2006, when he was rendered comatose by a stroke, dies at age 85. Brooklyn Hasidic real estate developer Menachem Stark is kidnapped, his lifeless body later found in a dumpster. The New York Post provokes outrage among many Jews with a cover calling him a slumlord and a headline asking, “Who didn’t want him dead?” Months later, a construction worker is arrested for the killing.

YEAR IN REVIEW | 16

FALL HOME AND GARDEN

YEAR IN REVIEW

PHOTO | DAVID SCHWARTZ, CONSULTING ARBORIST, SCHWARTZ TREE CARE INC.

See home and garden beginning on page 18

s summer ends and fall begins, the plant world struts its stuff with dazzling displays of colors. The reason for this gorgeous color change lies in the plant’s natural mechanism. During the growing season, plants manufacture their own food through the process of photosynthesis; this manifests as chlorophyll. As the growing season comes to a close, the chlorophyll dissolves and is put into storage for the plant’s future use. This process unmasks one of nature’s secrets, and with the chlorophyll gone, the underlying colors become visible. This provides us with a majestic show. At left are two PeeGee Hydrangias, trained into tree form, under the graceful branches of a native red maple (Acer Rubrum).

Singular sukkah

At harvest festival, artists put a modern spin on historic hut

BY FRAN OSTENDORF fostendorf@jewishallianceri.org

Many elements go into designing a sukkah. The halachic piece, of course, is important. But then there are the esthetic and practicality aspects. It is the thought process that ties it all together, and artist Nora Rabins has done her homework. Rabins has refi ned her knowledge of exactly what components are needed to construct a sukkah, she said, and then infused the classic elements with her interests in connecting with people, in sustainability and in working with found materials.

“The sukkah itself should be more playful and inviting,” she said. “That will make it more accessible. I’m planning an interactive element.” Rabins, along with artists Jonathan Bonner and Wendy MacGaw are each designing a special sukkah to be built and displayed outside Temple Beth-El in Providence, beginning Oct. 8 and continuing through Oct. 17. This installation is part of the Orchard Avenue Sukkot Harvest Festival at Beth-El on Oct. 12 from noon to 4 p.m. The project, funded by The Rhode Island Foundation and Residential PropSUKKAH | 34

Nora Rabins

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The Jewish Voice

Four prints at Brown RISD Hillel

INSIDE Business 28-29

HIDDUR MITZVAH

Calendar 8 Classified 29

BY GEORGE M. GOODWIN

Community 2-6, 8-9, 12-13, 23, 25, 34 D’var Torah 7 Food 14-15, 26 Home & Garden 18-22, 24 Obituaries 31-32 Opinion 10-11 Seniors 30-31 Simchas | We Are Read 35 World 16-17 Yom Kippur 27

THIS ISSUE’S QUOTABLE QUOTE “The process of teshuvah… is never fully complete.”

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Brown University’s Glenn & Darcy Weiner Center. Through the integration of three historic structures under a common roof, this may be America’s most imaginatively designed Hillel house. Numerous donors and two architectural fi rms – Haynes/de Boer of Providence and the Babcock Group of Salt Lake City – deserve our gratitude. The Weiner Center also is notable for the display of numerous works of art. Many belong to temporary exhibitions shown in the fi rst-floor gallery. Other works of varying size, media and quality are scattered among offices, hallways, alcoves and two sanctuaries. I am particularly intrigued by a set of four handsomely framed prints (actually linocuts) created in 2002 by Sol LeWitt (19282007), a prominent and prolific American-Jewish artist. Each signed print, 27 by 27 inches, is the last impression in an edition of only 10. I caught a glimpse of LeWitt’s cerebral work in 1967, quite early in his career, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Soon it became familiar to me at many New York muse-

ums, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the Wadsworth Athenaeum in his native Hartford, Connecticut. In 1993, after seeing his immense retrospective exhibi-

tion of murals, which he called “wall drawings,” at the Addison Gallery of American Art, in Andover, Massachusetts, I became a huge fan. My recent visit to see more than 100 of his “wall

drawings” at MASS MoCA, in North Adams, Massachusetts, left me even more enthralled. Our RISD Art Museum has

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PHOTO | GEORGE GOODWIN

The prints outside Hillel’s Englander Beit Midrash.

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September 26, 2014 |

PHOTOS | JEWISH ALLIANCE

Fun for all!

The 12th Annual Dwares JCC 5K Road Race and Youth Races, sponsored by The Miriam Hospital and Eastside Pediatrics, were held Sept. 14. The sun was shining, the runners were smiling and the community came out to participate and enjoy the day. The overall male winner was William Sanders of Wethersfield, Connecticut. Katie DiCamillo of Providence was the overall female winner.

12th Annual

Making their own monsters

Artist Jason Freedman works with a participant in Uncle J’s Monsters Drawing Workshop at gallery (401) Sept. 18. Freedman’s exhibit of Monsters Who Don’t Know They’re Monsters is at gallery (401) at the Dwares JCC, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence, through Oct. 17.

Thank you to our sponsors:

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The Jewish Voice

Congregation Sons of Jacob: North-End’s hidden jewel BY TOBY ROSSNER Standing proudly at the intersection of Douglas and Orms Streets is Congregation Sons of Jacob, the second oldest orthodox synagogue in Rhode Island and the last remaining Jewish house of worship in the North End of Providence. The building at 25 Douglas Ave. is a historical and architectural treasure struggling to remain afloat. Today the congregation is barely able to gather 10 men to form a minyan each morning, said President Harold Silverman.

Founded in 1896 as a place of worship for the large number of Russian and Polish Jews immigrating to the North End, the Sons of Jacob’s first building was on Shawmut Street. The congregation moved to its current location in 1906; the second floor sanctuary was completed in 1922, and its unusual art deco, hand-painted decorative aspects remain untouched today. Murals cover the front wall and ceiling. Painted curtains and faux marble surround the ark, trompe l’oeil fixture hangers “hold” an elegant crystal chandelier. The ceiling is a mural of the sky with clouds. The signs of the zodiac around the ceiling were painted by “artistically inclined” Sam Shore (president of Sons of Jacob from 1923-1936). Orthodox holiday services are held in the main sanctuary and are open to the public, free of charge. Oct. 3 Kol Nidrei services begin at 5:40 p.m. Oct. 4 Yom Kippur Services begin at 8:30 a.m., as do all holiday morning services. Daily non-holiday davening hours are Monday through Fri-

Inside Congregation Sons of Jacob, above. At left, is the exterior of the building. day at 6:30 a.m., Saturday at 8:30 a.m., and Sunday at 7:30 a.m. throughout the year. These are open to the public at no charge. Contact President Harold Silverman at 274-5260 or congsons@hot ma i l.com for

additional information. EDITOR’S NOTE: The Touro Synagogue in Newport, founded in 1658, is the oldest Jewish house of worship in Rhode Island and is the oldest Jewish house of worship that is still

Let them be the

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standing in North America. TOBY ROSSNER (tobyross@ cox.net) was the director of media services at the Bureau of Jewish Education from 1978 to 2002.

Some things never change. Like the way each generation plans and builds for the next, ensuring that the foundation of Jewish life remains strong. When you leave a bequest or a planned gift at the Jewish Federation Foundation, you touch each one of us. You leave your children and grandchildren a precious inheritance and a lasting testimony to your love and values.

For more information on establishing your Jewish legacy, please contact Trine Lustig, Vice President of Philanthropy at 401.421.4111 ext. 223 or tlustig@jewishallianceri.org.

There are many ways to create your legacy. Let us show you a few.

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Self Reﬂection by Marc Jaﬀe

ART AT TEMPLE HABONIM

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ences as a captain in the IDF. He also talked about his trip to Poland and spoke of looking forward to being in Rhode Island and meeting people in the community.

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FROM PAGE 2

PRINTS many LeWitt prints and drawings, the fi rst acquired in 1974, which typically explore geometric patterns and shapes without alluding to metaphorical content. The museum also owns an austere wooden sculpture, about 7 feet high, wide, and deep, which resembles a modular city or a three-dimensional equation. Presently on display in the Chase Wing’s lobby is a somber “wall drawing,” based on a 1980 schema, which, I think, is underwhelming. Each of LeWitt’s prints at Brown RISD Hillel has a striking central image: an encircled geometric shape energized by vivid primary and secondary colors. Perhaps the opposite is also true: bright colors defi ne an encircled shape. Each print represents a progression in geometric complexity: from a shape with only three points in the fi rst print to one with seven in the last. Inevitably, the sixpointed shape, especially when viewed at Hillel, resembles a Jewish star. A key attribute of LeWitt’s art is either its purity or anonymity. There’s no evidence of a smudge, a wayward line or a hurried passage. His art is primarily one of conceptualization. Accordingly, assistants or students have executed most of LeWitt’s drawings, prints, murals and sculptures according to his specifications. Much of his own apprenticeship consisted of studying art while a guard at The Museum of Modern Art. It’s a valid question whether LeWitt’s objects are illuminating, elusive or, possibly, both. Do they demonstrate spatial

A “wall drawing” at Massachussets Museum of Contemporary Art. and perceptual truths or are they merely amusing riddles and puzzles? I would never argue that LeWitt probes the heart’s heights or depths, but he has achieved something curious and compelling – perhaps magical. Unfortunately, LeWitt’s four prints on the Weiner Center’s fourth floor are not displayed sequentially. Two, with fiveand six-pointed stars, are hung, appropriately, near the entrance to the Englander Beit Midrash, but a third is located in a nearby corner. Like a stepchild, the fourth print is relegated to the foyer of the Dorenbaum Library. Surprisingly, the LeWitt prints were not purchased for the Weiner Center. Originally

gifts of Robert Feldman, class of 1958, the linocuts are on longterm loan from Brown’s David Winton Bell Gallery. It’s debatable, however, whether LeWitt’s art is adaptable to any context. For example, the American Embassy in Berlin has a huge “wall drawing” inside its main entrance. The predominant shapes are five-pointed stars: one brightly colored, the other black and white. But are these American stars or simply eye-catching motifs? Opposite the embassy’s entrance is a vast work by another American Jew: Peter Eisenman’s architectural sculpture, Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, which was dedicated in 2005. What do LeWitt’s stars mean

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when seen from this context? As a member of Beth Shalom Rodfe Zedek, a Reform congregation in Chester, Connecticut, LeWitt was invited to design its synagogue, which was completed in 2001. Once again, the artist brought forth a concept, which was executed by an architect, Stephen Lloyd. The sanctuary, resembling in its stark, geometric framework the destroyed wooden synagogues of Poland, serves as a subtle Holocaust memorial. By contrast, LeWitt’s painted ark decoration, consisting of an encircled, six-pointed star, seems far too obvious. Its bold colors feel carnivalesque. With these paragraphs, I’d like to bury a hatchet. In the late 1920s, my paternal grand-

PHOTO | GEORGE GOODWIN

father and one of LeWitt’s relatives, probably an uncle, were engravers and angry rivals in New Britain, Connecticut. They probably belonged to the same shul, B’nai Israel, but gave up speaking to one another. Today, however, both families can enjoy Sol’s renown. GEORGE GOODWIN, a member of Temple Beth-El, has edited the “Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes” for 10 years. EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is part of a series about Hiddur Mitzvah (enhancement or beautification of the Divine Commandment).

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D’VAR TORAH

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Shabbat Shuvah the time of repentence BY RABBI ELYSE WECHTERMAN The Shabbat in between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is called Shabbat Shuvah (The Sabbath of Repentance or Return). Falling in between these two most holy days, this Shabbat, and all the days in between, are our time to focus on the task of repentance, of return and repair before the great shofar sounds at the end of Yom Kippur, indicating that our chance – at least for this year – is over. Often, when I talk about repentance, I am met with a great deal of skepticism, from Jews and others. We have a popular notion in our society that the religious call to repent is a matter of going through a few prescribed motions to clear a guilty conscience. We think that no real change is required, that it’s a gimmick: “Say three Hail Marys and three Our Fathers” in a Catholic slang; “pray extra hard on Yom Kippur and fast a little longer” might be the Jewish version. Skeptics suggest that if all it takes is a few extra prayers to get rid of your transgressions, how serious can the process really be? As with most things spiritual, it is never that simple. Although I am most familiar with the teachings of the Jewish tradition, I know that none of the world’s major traditions preach a belief that a few ritual practices will get you off the hook for bad behavior. It is much more nuanced than that – the prac-

tices, in all the traditions, are designed to help an individual gain some insight, reflect on his or her shortcomings and make real and lasting changes – that’s the hope of all this praying, reciting, fasting and other stuff. The process of teshuvah (Turning and Returning) is just that: a process. And it is

“… Elul – the month whose name is an acronym for “I am my beloved’s; and my beloved is mine.” never fully complete. Maybe that’s why we are given not just one day (Yom Kippur); nor even one week (the days in between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur); but really an entire month and a half, starting at the very beginning of Elul way back on Aug. 27. Teshuvah starts with the basic notion that every human soul is inherently holy and perfect; after all we are created in God’s image. However, life is uncertain, things happen, and humans – though perfect in our souls – are inevitably, inherently and inescapably flawed. We are bound to make mistakes both large and small. The Jewish tradition teaches that teshuvah, the process of repentance and forgiveness, was created before human beings. Why? Because by definition, we will stumble. But God, the tradi-

tion teaches, has given us the gift of a way out and a way up from our mistakes. There is no direct translation of the word “sin” in Hebrew. There are different degrees of transgressions, but the word used to describe the common mistakes and errors most of us make are described as a het. Oddly enough, the word comes from the realm of archery and refers to “missing the mark.” Of course there are people who do very bad things. And of course we have to, as a society, deal with that. But the spiritual process of teshuvah deals with the many ways in which most ordinary human beings miss the mark again and again: We lose patience with our loved ones, we are jealous of others, we are judgmental of ourselves and others, we make ourselves feel better by putting others down, we ignore problems and are complacent – you know the stuff I’m talking about. This is what teshuvah is all about. And the Jewish tradition, like others, provides a specific plan and specific period of time in which to deal with these errors and imperfections. The holy month of Ramadan in the Muslim tradition and the period of Lent in the Christian tradition are all based on a similar need for a process and time for introspection and repair. The Jewish process of teshuvah works like this: prayer, repentance and giving of oneself are the the three prescribed methods. However, for transgressions against

other people, none of this matters (or “works”) until actual repair is made, directly to the individuals affected, if possible. Furthermore, the efficacy of this process is one only measured in hindsight. Teshuvah works when you are confronted with the same circumstances and choose not to make the same mistake again. Some of us won’t know for a lifetime how well we have worked the process. For me, this process is a joyful one. That doesn’t mean it’s easy. I have to apologize, make amends and work on myself just as much as anyone else. But knowing that I can, that the world is such that tomorrow is always a day to do better and that life is always a journey toward wholeness makes facing my imperfections bearable. The process of teshuvah in our tradition is done in the context of love: God’s love for us, our love for each other. That’s why it starts in the month of Elul – the month whose name is an acronym for “I am my beloved’s; and my beloved is

mine.” This Shabbat, Shabbat Shuvah, is a culmination of the process, a reminder that we have to begin now to move ahead for the next year. But here is the secret: This opportunity is available to us every moment of every day of the year and not just at a special season. We are called by the sounding of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah, by the fasting on Yom Kippur, by the Haftarot read in synagogue on this Shabbat to start the process now. But for the true penitent, the one committed to improving him or herself over time and with patience, the gates of teshuvah are always open. May the coming year (5775) bring joy, blessing and peace to all of us. RABBI ELYSE WECHTERMAN (ewechterman@gmail. com) teaches in a variety of Jewish and secular settings throughout the region. She lives with her husband and two children in Attleboro, Massachusetts.

Candle Lighting Times Greater Rhode Island Area Sept. 26.....................6:16 Oct. 3 Erev Yom Kippur.6:56 Oct. 4 Yom Kippur ends.7:05 Oct. 8 Erev Sukkot.......... 5:56 Oct. 9 Sukkot.................... 6:57 Oct. 10 .............................. 5:52

MAKE A DIFFERENCE! Rhode Island area schools seek part-time Hebrew and/or Judaica teachers, as well as music specialists for the 2014/15 school year. For more information contact Larry Katz at the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island at 401.421.4111 ext. 179 or lkatz@jewishallianceri.org.

celebrations 2015 January 25, 2015

8 | September 26, 2014

CALENDAR | COMMUNITY

Touro Fraternal announces 2014 education grants

CALENDAR Ongoing

Alliance Kosher Senior Café. Kosher lunch and program every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Dwares JCC, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence. Noon lunch; 1 p.m. program. $3 lunch donation from individuals 60+ or under 60 with disabilities. Neal or Elaine, 401-421-4111, ext. 107. Am David Kosher Senior Café. Kosher lunch and program every weekday. Temple Am David, 40 Gardiner St., Warwick. 11:15 a.m. program; Noon lunch. $3 lunch donation from individuals 60+ or under 60 with disabilities. Elaine or Steve 401-732-0047.

Through Sept. 28 Shmattes. Hillel Gallery. An exhibition project that explores the issue of cultural Jewish identity through T-shirts. These T-shirts have been acquired from all over the contemporary Jewish world – eBay auctions, bat and bar mitzvahs, youth conferences, independent visual artists, among many other sources. The project’s goal is to “track” through these T-shirts the ways in which individuals and institutions deal with the question of Jewish identity when that identity is not about religion. 80 Brown St., Providence.

Through Oct. 17

Monsters who don’t know they are monsters. Gallery (401). Local artist Jason Freedman’s first solo exhibit showcases 50 colorful character portraits from his folio of more than 1,000 monsters… who don’t know they are monsters. Wine and light snacks served. Dwares JCC, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence. Information, call Erin Moseley, director of Arts & Culture and NextGen Engagement, 401-421-4111, ext. 108.

a lively discussion. Weekly sessions through Dec. 9. Dwares JCC, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence. RSVP 401632-3165. Drop-ins welcome.

Wednesday | Oct. 1

Cranston Senior Guild. 1 p.m., Tamarisk Assisted Living, 3 Shalom Drive, Warwick. The guest speaker will be a Holocaust survivor. There will be refreshments and raffle. All men and women 50 years + are welcome to join. You do not have to be a Cranston resident.

Friday | Oct. 3 Is this Jazz? Concert series. 9 p.m. AS220. Features Alon Nechushtan, Israeli-born pianist who travels the world with his trio. 115 Empire St., Providence.

Tuesday | Oct. 7 Lunch and Learn. Topic: Pondering the Existence of God. 12:15-1:15 p.m. Study a bit of Torah with Rabbi Naftali Karp over lunch in a one-hour session to explore relevant Jewish topics using ancient wisdom as the guide. Bring a brown bag lunch; be prepared for a lively discussion. Weekly sessions through Dec. 9. Dwares JCC, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence. RSVP 401632-3165. Drop-ins welcome.

Tuesday | Oct. 14 Lunch and Learn. Topic: Pondering the Existence of God. 12:15-1:15 p.m. Study a bit of Torah with Rabbi Naftali Karp over lunch in a one-hour session to explore relevant Jewish topics using ancient wisdom as the guide. Bring a brown bag lunch; be prepared for a lively discussion. Weekly sessions through Dec. 9. Dwares JCC, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence. RSVP 401632-3165. Drop-ins welcome.

Through Oct. 30

Thursday | Oct. 23

Traditional Works and Photography. Gallery at Temple Habonim. Lynne Mehlman works in oils and pastels. Bonnie Jaffe captures moments in photography. Marc Jaffe shows the uniqueness of people through photography. Gallery hours are Wednesday and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Friday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and by appointment. 165 New Meadow Road, Barrington. Information, call 401-245-6536 or email gallery@templehabonim.org.

Gold, Paper, Scissors. Opening reception for exhibit by Naomi Geller Lipsky. 7 p.m. gallery (401). Naomi uses quilling, gilding, painting and other techniques to create artistic designs, inspired by her love for Jewish heritage. Dwares JCC, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence. Wine and light snacks will be served. Information, contact Erin Moseley, director or Arts & Culture, 401-421-4111, ext. 108, emoseley@jewishallianceri.org.

Tuesday | Sept. 30 Lunch and Learn. Topic: Pondering the Existence of God. 12:15-1:15 p.m. Study a bit of Torah with Rabbi Naftali Karp over lunch in a one-hour session to explore relevant Jewish topics using ancient wisdom as the guide. Bring a brown bag lunch; be prepared for

The Jewish Voice

Sunday | Oct. 26 Kroll Educator’s Conference. 8:30 a.m.–Noon. Dwares JCC. What Makes a Great Teacher? Special guest Elizabeth Green. Open to all educators and parents. No charge. RSVP to Lynne Bell at 401-421-4111, ext. 156 or lbell@ jewishallianceri.org.

Calendar Submissions

Oct. 10 issue, SENIORS | ELECTIONS – must be received by OCT. 1 Oct. 24 issue, BAR & BAT MITZVAH – must be received by Oct. 15

SEND ALL CALENDAR ITEMS TO: editor@jewishallianceri.org with the subject line “CALENDAR.” Calendar entries may be edited for content, length and relevance. Please submit two weeks prior to issue of publication.

CRANSTON – Touro Fraternal Association, the largest independent Jewish fraternal order in New England with more than 600 members, announces its 2014 grant recipients. Once again, Touro has been able to assist the children of its members with funding for their higher education endeavors. Ten young men and women have been selected to share a total of $30,000 in financial aid for education. Three of the recipients received $3,000 scholarship grants. Seven others shared a total of $21,000 in interest-free loans from the Association’s Leo Greenberg Memorial Scholarship Fund. Ten applications for grants were received. This year’s recipients included two incoming freshmen and an older graduate student.

The 2014 grant recipients are:

Helene Fischman, daughter of Burton Fischman of Mundelein, Illinois, is a master’s degree candidate at The University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, where she is working toward her Master’s Degree in Fine Arts. Helene hopes to become a teacher at the university level. Stepha n ie Greenberg, daughter of Jeffrey Greenberg of Pawtucket, is a freshman at the University of Rhode Island, where she is studying pharmacy. Stephanie is also interested in robotics and has

Stephanie Greenberg volunteered in numerous capacities. Rena Levin, daughter of Michael Levin of Cranston, is a freshman at New York University in New York City. Rena is studying liberal arts. Rena has been very active in BBYO and plans to join Hillel. Regular Touro members, their spouses and children, and children of deceased Touro members enrolled full time for the 2014-2015 academic year in an accredited institution of higher learning were eligible for the grants. Regular members, their children and children of deceased members similarly enrolled could apply for the interestfree loans. Since the fund was established in 1981, approximately

Helene Fischman

Rena Levin a half million dollars has been distributed to students.

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September 26, 2014 |

Breast cancer survivor Sara Masri: Everything happens for a reason On June 6, 2013 – just days prior to her 39th birthday – Eastside resident Sara Masri was diagnosed with breast cancer after a routine mammogram. Reflecting on the people and experiences she has encountered since her diagnosis, Masri saw purpose in her breast cancer experience. However, like so many others touched by the disease, Masri had her fair share of challenges – starting with the task of breaking the news to her then 8-year-old daughter. “When my husband Aaron and I explained it to Julia, she was hysterical,” explained Masri, a Long Island native who relocated to the Ocean State because of a job offer 13 years ago. “All she kept saying was, ‘Mommy, you’re going to die.’ We had to assure her that I had great doctors, excellent medicine, and that even though I was going to be really sick, I would be fi ne.” Masri knew she had to remain strong. “With little kids, I refused to let myself show any fear in front of them,” said Masri, who also has a 5-year-old son named Noah. Masri, the assistant director of development at Meeting Street School , had to take time off because of treatment. She indicated that when the time was right, she wanted to return to work “full force.” That time came in March 2014. “Since I went back to work, my energy level has actually been better than ever.”

Masri has a family history of cancer, was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer, and is of Ashkenazi Jewish heritage–factors that prompted her doctors to recommend genetic testing for BRCA, also known as the “breast cancer gene.” Individuals carrying one of the BRCA mutations have an increased chance of developing breast and ovarian cancers as well as other cancers. Masri indicated that she heard about BRCA from a friend who was diagnosed with breast cancer. “One of the things I didn’t realize about BRCA is that family history of these two cancers on the father’s side is as important as the mother’s side,” she added. “My father’s sister, grandmother, aunt and cousin had one or both of these cancers, but I did not know that increased my risk.” Upon learning of her own diagnosis, Masri was a little hesitant conducting research on her own. “The Internet can be a scary place when you’re searching for information about breast cancer. You have to be judicious about where you look for information.” Thanks to her “very responsive” doctors and nurses, as well as the Gloria Gemma Breast Cancer Resource Foundation, she found the information and support that she desired in a less “scary” manner. The Gloria Gemma Breast Cancer Resource Foundation, celebrating its 10th-year mile-

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Sara Masri stone, offers free breast health education, awareness and support programs statewide in addition to some parts of Massachusetts and Connecticut. Masri’s friend and former colleague – also a survivor – fi rst told her about Gloria Gemma’s Young Survivors program, which offers resources and support to women diagnosed with breast cancer before age 44. “Mandy Zito, coordinator of the Young Survivors program, is wonderful and has kept me involved with Gloria Gemma,” said Masri, who also walked the runway at the local nonprofit’s annual fashion show at Rhodes on the Pawtuxet in May.

“My husband, who doesn’t really like the spotlight, escorted me and ended up actually loving every moment of the experience,” recalled Masri, who had just completed treatment and surgery at the time. “The best moment was when my daughter was cheering me on and telling everyone ‘That’s my mommy!’ I was fi nally able to let out a huge sigh of relief, and I knew that it was just the beginning of good things to come.” Good things did come for Masri, just a couple months thereafter when she was asked to model in Gloria Gemma’s 2015 “Celebrate Hope, Celebrate Life” calendar. The calendar features other BRCA positive individuals and will be unveiled at the Flames of Hope: A Celebration of Life, which takes place at Station Park in downtown Providence on Oct. 10-12. The 2015 “Celebrate Hope, Celebrate Life” calendar is made possible by sponsors South County Hospital, Admirals Bank and 21st Century Oncology, and supporting sponsors RI Rehabilitation Center and Dr. David L. Renaud, DDS. Masri elaborated on her personal motivation behind continued participation with Gloria Gemma’s various programs and initiatives. “People have to know their family history, and if you catch breast cancer early like I did, you have broader options,” she said. “Knowing gives you the power to make decisions.”

“Early detection saves lives,” said Maria Gemma, executive director of the Gloria Gemma Breast Cancer Resource Foundation. “That’s really the message that we’re working to spread through our various programs and annual Flames of Hope event in October.” On Oct. 10, the event kicks off with the unveiling of the Foundation’s 2015 “Celebrate Hope, Celebrate Life” calendar at a special evening ceremony. On Oct. 11, “Celebration Village” at Station Park will come alive at 3 p.m. with education, support, live entertainment and food for the entire family. That evening, the captivating Illuminations of Life Ceremony will take place on the State House steps facing downtown Providence and will conclude with a torch procession – considered to be the pinnacle of the threeday event – down to the Waterplace Basin during WaterFire Providence. The celebration will conclude on Sunday with the Flames of Hope Run/Walk Series, made up of three races: the signature Gloria Gemma 5K, Kids Fun Run and Pink Pump Palooza. Registration is now open at www.flamesofhoperi.com. FOR MORE INFORMATION and the complete schedule of the Oct. 10-12 Flames of Hope: A Celebration of Life, visit www. gloriagemma.org and www. facebook.com/GloriaGemma.

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10 | September 26, 2014

OPINION

A peek behind the scenes New Year’s greetings from The Jewish Voice staff! We wish all our faithful readers a healthy and sweet year. You’re reading an issue dated Sept. 26. How did that happen when we were supposed to be in shul? Well, as some of you know, the paper is in the works long before the actual issue date. The minute one issue comes out, we start thinking about the next issue … someEDITOR times even before. FRAN Articles are planned, OSTENDORF and written, in advance. If you’ve tried to submit one, you know that the due date is 14 days in advance of publication. You also know that we can – and do – push that date for late-breaking news, events that happen closer to our issue date and for a variety of other reasons. Our advertising deadline is well in advance of publication date as well. The paper is produced Monday through Wednesday of the week of publication. By that time, we usually have all the articles, ads and everything we need to put the puzzle together. A decision is made, based on advertising and content, about how large the paper should be. The ads are then mapped out, based on content, paid position, size and where the color is in the paper. Once the ads are in place, the content is roughed in. Cer-

LETTER

tain pages are themed, such as community, news, food, seniors, etc. This process really does take several days. The paper has to go to the printer by the end of the day Wednesday. Sometimes, that means a late night. But on this short week, we tried to get the paper done Tuesday. Nobody could work erev Rosh Hashanah. In fact, our offices were closed. That pushed the whole process ahead a day. As I write this, I have no idea exactly how this will turn out or how late the staff will end up working Tuesday. But it’s safe to say that if you are reading the paper, we made our deadline! You also probably noticed that your paper this week has some heft to it. Inserted in the middle is our annual Guide to Jewish Living. That publication is also completed well in advance of this week. In fact, we’ve been working on it all summer. Our summer intern checked and rechecked all the listings. Our advertising sales staff did a great job of reaching out to advertisers to be included in the 2015 edition of this guide to all things Jewish in our area. We hope you’ll keep the guide around and refer to it often. And don’t forget our advertisers. They help keep us going. Let them know you saw their ad in The Voice or in the Guide to Jewish Living. As always, if you see something in the paper or the Guide that you want to comment on, let us know. We’re always happy to hear about community news and events. The inbox is always open even when the office is closed.

Re: Honey (Sept. 12)

Irina Missiuro’s artice was, to me, the most enjoyable piece of the Sept. 12 Jewish Voice. Smart, humorous and very informative, she delivered a fresh and light, yet intellectual, survey of honey, some

of its history and its benefits. I’m still chuckling over “Your keys are on the desk.” I look forward to more from Irina Missiuro. Barry Rubin Cranston, R.I.

ERRATA In the Sept. 12 edition of The Voice, an article “ECC to benefit from Isenberg’s inspiration” contained some incorrect information. David Isenberg’s daughter-in-law Amanda was responsible for bringing the condition of the preschool playground to his attention. We regret the error.

OUR MISSION The mission of The Jewish Voice is to communicate Jewish news, ideas and ideals by connecting and giving voice to the diverse views of the Jewish community in Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts, while adhering to Jewish values and the professional standards of journalism.

The Jewish Voice

What happened to Mattapan? In March 1973, Rabbi Samuel Korff delivered a eulogy for Charles Shumrack, a longtime member of Congregation Kehillath Jacob who was murdered in his first-floor apartment in the Boston neighborhood of Mattapan. In the course of his remarks, “Korff then challenged future historians to determine ‘how it was possible IT SEEMS for a Jewish community of TO ME 40,000 souls to be emptied in RABBI JIM the course of two years and ROSENBERG how so much crime was concentrated in the short space of 40 blocks.’ ” Though not cited till near the end of the book, Rabbi Korff’s question haunts almost every page of Hillel Levine’s and Lawrence Harmon’s “The Death of an American Jewish Community, A Tragedy of Good Intentions” (The Free Press, 1992). Korff’s question sits at the center of a circle of additional questions. What happened collectively to the 90,000 Jews of Roxbury, Dorchester and, finally, Mattapan, the last of Boston’s contiguous Jewish neighborhoods to disappear? At one time Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan constituted the vital heart of Boston Jewry, with Blue Hill Avenue calling to mind the Bronx’s Grand Concourse. More broadly, is it inevitable that when blacks move into a Jewish neighborhood, Jews will flee to whiter pastures, predominately in the more affluent suburbs? Consider Harlem, the home to nearly 200,000 Jews prior to World War I. By 1930 only 3,000 remained, “the exodus attributed by social scientists to deteriorating housing stock, fear of street crime and Jewish upward mobility.” In the spring of 1968, 28-yearold Rabbi Gerald Zelermyer, fresh out of the Conservative movement’s Jewish Theological Seminary, became the rabbi of Temple Beth Hillel in Mattapan. Deliberately refraining from applying to relatively wellto-do suburban congregations, Zelermyer felt himself ready, willing and able to cast his lot with a synagogue that was acknowledged to be in a “chang-

ing” inner-city neighborhood. On the afternoon of June 27, 1969, the rabbi opened the front door of his parsonage at 41 Glenhill Road to find two black teenagers standing in front of him; one of them handed him a scribbled note saying, “lead the Jewish racists out of Mattapan,” while the other young man threw a vial of powdered acid onto his face, causing severe burning but no permanent damage.

“What were the bankers thinking? That the Jews, known for their tolerance and liberalism, would embrace this opportunity for social and racial integration?” A few years later Zelermeyer became the rabbi of what was then called Temple Beth Torah in Cranston. Though my wife Sandy and I came to know Rabbi Zelermyer and his wife Heske during the years they were in Rhode Island, he never mentioned the acid attack, nor did he ever speak of his frustration at not being able to help stabilize the Jewish community of Mattapan, Boston’s last innercity Jewish neighborhood. The subtitle of Levine and Harmon’s book, “A Tragedy of Good Intentions,” seems to me more than a little ironic. The behavior of many of the real estate agents, who took advantage of an ill-conceived red-lining scheme proposed by the Boston Banks Urban Renewal Group (B-BURG) consortium, is the epitome of bad intentions. As one anonymous broker wrote concerning the blockbusting games he played with his vulnerable clients: “And it got to a point that to have fun while we were working, we would try to outdo each other with the most outlandish threats that people would believe…I’d go from street to street with the [black] buyer… I’d ring the doorbell and say, these people want to buy your house. If the lady said no, I’d say the reason they’re so interested is that their cousins, aunts, mother, whatever, it’s a family of 12, are moving in diagonally

across the street…” In retrospect, it is also not easy to attribute good intentions to the decision of the BBURG consortium of Boston banks “to take a certain area and designate it with a red pen (“red-lining”)…Mattapan and parts of Dorchester. We’re going to finance minorities in this particular area, so they can get a house with no money down.” According to Levine and Harmon, writing in the early 1990s, “although the program [is] now considered a classic example of racial discrimination in the urban housing markets, the banks themselves prospered.” The red-lined area just happened to be Boston’s last relatively stable neighborhood of working class and middle class Jews. What were the bankers thinking? That the Jews, known for their tolerance and liberalism, would embrace this opportunity for social and racial integration? Unfortunately, those Jews remaining in Boston’s inner-city neighborhoods tended to be older and less affluent than their co-religionists who were already “making it” in the nearby suburbs: For this reason, they were almost invisible to Boston’s established Jewish leadership, who managed to overlook ‘the dirty little secret’ of class division within the Jewish community.” In the second-to-last chapter of “The Death of an American Jewish Community,” activist Michael Ansara asks regarding the destruction of Boston’s inner-city Jewish community, “Could it have been stopped?” Echoing the question posed by Rabbi Samuel Korff in the eulogy he delivered in March 1973, Ansara answers his own question: “The answer is multiples of yes. It did not need to happen. There could have been different outcomes because bankers made different decisions or because there was a real process in organizing the communities that were involved…The bottom line is that [the banks] didn’t care to really look at the impact of their policies. Does that make you a crook? No! Does it make you a very damaging institution that is not socially responsible? Absolutely.” JAMES B. ROSENBERG, rabbi emeritus of Temple Habonim in Barrington, may be contacted at rabbiemeritus@templehabonim.org.

COLUMNS | LETTERS POLICY The Jewish Voice publishes thoughtful and informative contributors’ columns (op-eds of 500 – 800 words) and letters to the editor (250 words, maximum) on issues of interest to our Jewish community. At our discretion, we may edit pieces for

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OPINION

thejewishvoice.org

September 26, 2014 |

The difference between Scottish nationalism and Zionism BY BEN COHEN JSN.ORG – I will confess that, over the last week, I felt more anxious than I’d anticipated about the outcome of the Scottish independence referendum. In case it’s not clear why, I’m a British citizen who has lived in the United States for the past decade. Over that period, as with many arrivals to these shores, my attention has been consumed far more by domestic issues here, just as my concern with the finer details of politics in my native land has faded. Yet the spectacle of Scots voting on whether to leave the United Kingdom stirred something in me. I couldn’t observe it with the same dispassionate mindset that I might bring to a similar referendum in say, Quebec, or in the Catalan or Basque regions of Spain, and I found myself spending more and more time reading and worrying about it. That, I suppose, is what happens when identity meets politics – one’s judgments become less clinical and more emotional. I became impatient with the Scottish nationalist assertion that independence was justified because a majority of Scots didn’t vote for the current Conservative-led coalition government, and the related (not unjustified) complaint that London’s politicians were ignoring Scotland’s needs. After all, large parts of England – the country where I grew up – as well as Wales and Northern Ireland could say much the same, and they weren’t agitat-

ing to dismantle the 307-yearold union. Similarly, when I learned that the (just now resigned) Scottish nationalist leader Alex Salmond had rounded on 2014 as the year for the referendum on the grounds that it marks the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn – when the forces of the Scottish King Robert the Bruce vanquished the English army of King Edward II – I experienced a spark of anger. That anger was compounded by the sight of pro-independence campaigners mocking political leaders campaigning for a “no” vote as “our imperial masters.” I thought to myself, “The Scots haven’t even thought through key practical consequences of independence, like which currency to use or the prospects for European Union membership, and here they are summoning the spirit of a medieval military skirmish.” On the day of the referendum, though, it was clear that practical considerations were of greater importance in deciding which way to vote than any nationalist impulses. The Scots opted, by a clear majority of 55 percent, against independence, and the union was saved. That doesn’t mean all the underlying questions around the referendum have been resolved – a fundamental transformation of how power is distributed among the nations and regions of Britain will surely be forthcoming – but the United Kingdom as a political

unit will survive. When I heard the result, I was flooded with relief. Again, those emotions are intimately connected to identity. For immigrant communities in the U.K., Jews among them, the idea of “Britishness” always seemed more expansive and generous than “Englishness” and “Scottishness.” The two latter categories are tied up with notions of ethnicity and belonging to the land, whereas the former is more civic in orientation, implying that one’s ethnic background or religious beliefs should not be a barrier to participating fully in national life. I therefore found myself pleased, on Friday morning, as both a citizen of the U.K. and as a member of its Jewish community. Let’s face it: Jews in Europe have rarely thrived under nationalist leaders. In the last century, nationalists across the continent reminded us constantly that we were an alien presence that didn’t belong. In this one, there’s been a shift in that narrative. The left-wing populism that underlies the nationalist movement in Scotland and elsewhere in western Europe is distinctly unfriendly to Israel, seeing the Jewish state as an outpost of the same “imperial” system that they themselves are fighting against. That was why Alex Salmond, while advocating for an independent Scotland, still found the time to compare Israel to the genocidal thugs of the so-called “Islamic State,” and to call for an arms

Brown University teach-in panel addresses Gaza ramifications BY MARTY COOPER Why Gaza Matters: The War and its Consequences, was the theme of a teach-in at Brown University Sept. 10 at the Starr Auditorium. The program was sponsored by the Brown University Middle East Studies department and the Watson Institute. The room was filled to capacity with an audience of more than 110 that included several members of the Rhode Island Jewish community. The event was open to the public, and the program was also webcast. The purpose of the program was to educate, and inform the community about the people of Gaza and the ramifications of the recent war. The program featured five speakers: Professor Beshara Doumani, a Watson faculty fellow and director of Middle East Studies; Omer Bartov, professor of European History as well as German Studies; Sa’ed Atshan, a postdoctoral fellow in International Studies, Melani Cammett, a member of the Watson Institute and professor of Political Science; and Nina Tannenwald of

the Watson Institute, director of the International Relations program and a senior lecturer in Political Science. Doumani acted as the moderator. The panel addressed several issues of concern with regard to the people of Gaza, including: a historical context going back to pre-1948, the media’s portrayal of the recent fighting, the perception and beliefs of Americans concerning the war and human rights in regard to international law. Among the highlights of the program: Sa’ed Atshan, who has family and friends living in the region, spoke out against the portrayal of the U.S. and international press coverage of the war. He cited several examples of pro-Israel articles and said that the media did little to highlight the significant numbers of Palestinians killed and injured due to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. He also said that, for years, the people of Gaza have lived in what he termed an “open-air prison,” which he blamed on Israel. Omer Bartov, an Israeli, said that, for decades, the world has

constantly missed opportunities to bring peace to the region and cited examples. Melani Cammett used recent polls, such as Gallup and Pew, to highlight the political tension of the conflict. Nina Tannenwald provided provocative thoughts on how the world will look at the both Hamas and Israel with regards to possible violations to international law. While there was certainly tension in the audience, it came to the surface during the question-and-answer period of the program. Several in the audience questioned why the panel was “stacked” with pro-Palestinian supporters. Others made statements that were in support of Israel or commented on the need to negotiate for peace. Many members of the audience felt that their questions were either inadequately answered or not answered at all. One thing everyone agreed on was that Hamas was, and still is, a terrorist organization. MARTY COOPER is the Community Relations director for the Jewish Alliance.

embargo against Israel. Should we conclude from this that nationalism is inevitably inconsistent and hypocritical, and that we should therefore dispense with all of its expressions, including Zionism? The answer, to my mind, is a resounding no. Nationalisms are formed in response to the surrounding conditions that nurture them. For the Jews of Europe, Zionism was a means to ensure survival in the physical sense of that word. For the Jews of Israel, Zionism reinforces the sense of a common destiny, of flourishing as an independent society even as too many of their neighbors question their right to be there in the first place. However disadvantaged Scotland has become in the decades since Margaret Thatcher’s government was in power, no one has ever challenged the existence of a country called Scotland. Mercifully, the Scots have never experienced the sheer barbarism of a modern-day genocide. Zionism, moreover, was always a practical, outward looking movement. Its leaders negotiated with international leaders as varied as the Ottoman Sultan and the British prime minister. It aspired to “normalize” the Jews as part of the community of nation-states, rather than endlessly dwelling on past centuries of Jewish victimhood. It envisaged close cooperation, rather than conflict, with the neighbors of an eventual Jewish state. What can we learn from this? Simply, that tensions between political identity and political arrangements are not pre-ordained. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern

Ireland, to give it its full name, is a fundamentally decent, civilized idea that demonstrates how different nations and communities can live together and share sovereignty. Many Israelis have wished for a similar system in the Middle East, in which they would participate – fully and securely – in some sort of regional federation with economic and political benefits for all members. As of now, though, there is precious little sign of such an entity emerging. Perhaps, then, the slogan of the “No” campaign in Scotland – “Better Together” – carries an important message for the Middle East. We are better together when we participate together as sovereign equals, instead of conferring greater rights on one particular nation on the basis of a highly dubious reading of history. Of course, Israel and its neighbors are arguably further from that goal now than at any other time – but it’s precisely at desperate moments like these that a grand vision is needed for what a sustainable peace might look like. Hence, the Scottish independence referendum may yet have a positive impact on the wider world. Just not in the manner that the nationalists intended. BEN COHEN is the Shillman Analyst for JNS.org and a contributor to the Wall Street Journal, Commentary, Haaretz, and other publications. His book, “Some Of My Best Friends: A Journey Through Twenty-First Century Antisemitism” (Edition Critic, 2014), is now available through Amazon.

Obama talks Middle East crises on Rosh Hashanah call WASHINGTON (JTA) – In his annual Rosh Hashanah call with American rabbis, President Obama focused on crises in the Middle East. “He spoke about the complexities and dangers of the Middle East and the challenges facing the world,” said Rabbi William Gershon, one of two rabbis who posed questions to the president during the call. Gershon said there were 900 clergy who called in. “In general, he spoke about seeking our help in domestic issues, and more importantly foreign policy issues,” said Gershon, the president of the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly and also senior rabbi at Congregation Shearith Israel in Dallas. Gershon said he could not go into further detail, as the call was off the record. In its statement describing the call, the White House said that Obama, as he has done in the past, began by “noting the important role of the American

Jewish community in advancing key domestic priorities.” Obama, the statement said, continued with a focus on the Middle East. “He reaffirmed our efforts, working with allies, to degrade and destroy ISIL,” the jihadist group also known as Islamic State or ISIS, “his commitment to preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, and our collective responsibility to respond to the sharp increase in global anti-Semitism,” the statement said. “He also reaffirmed his unshakable commitment to Israel’s security, his support for Iron Dome,” the anti-missile system Israel used to deflect rocket attacks during Israel’s war this summer with Hamas, “as well as his support of a sustainable peace through a twostate agreement.” Also asking a question during the call was Rabbi Leonard Matanky, an Orthodox rabbi at Congregation K.I.N.S. of West Rogers Park in Chicago.

12 | September 26, 2014

COMMUNITY

The Jewish Voice

Indulge in wine and chocolate On Nov. 2., Rhode Island Hadassah will host their fi rstever Chai Luncheon featuring R.I. woman’s cardiac specialist, Dr. Barbara Roberts. Heart-healthy red wine and chocolate will be on the menu. The event will be held at Noon at the River Farms Condominium clubhouse in West Warwick. FOR MORE INFORMATION call 401-596-2846.

Planning committee members are: top (left to right) Graphic Designer, Michele Keir; Co-president, Judy Schoenfeld. Bottom (left to right): Co-president, Jane Kondon, Co-president Sue Mayes.

Documentary film and discussion at URI Honoring the memory of Aristides de Sousa Mendes The Portuguese section of the URI Department of Modern Classical Languages & Literatures with co-sponsorship from URI Hillel and the Holocaust Education and Resource Center of RI will screen the documentary “…With God against Man” followed by a discussion facilitated by Professor Dan Subotnik of Touro College on Oct. 1 at 7 p.m. at the URI Multicultural Center, 74 Lower College Road, Kingston. The fi lm honors the memory of Aristides de Sousa Mendes,

a Portuguese consul in France during WWII who disobeyed the orders of his government, granting visas to 30,000 refugees including 12,000 Jews. This heroic feat was characterized by the Holocaust historian Yehuda Bauer as “the largest rescue action by a single individual during the Holocaust.” This 2013 fi lm follows a group of visa recipient families, along with members of the Sousa Mendes family, as they embark on a pilgrimage retracing their families’ foot-

Aristides de Sousa Mendes steps of 73 years earlier. Following the fi lm, Subotnik will share the story and answer questions about his own parents and how they were rescued by Aristides de Sousa Mendes. This event is part of URI Diversity Week and is free and open to the public. For more information contact Judy de Oliveira at judyd@mail.uri. edu or Amy Olson at amyolson@mail.uri.edu.

Welcoming baby into an interfaith family BY KIT HASPEL Having a baby is a seminal moment in the life of a family. Most traditions have some way of marking that event and welcoming the baby as a blessing into the family and the community. Judaism is no exception. For boys a clear way of doing so has been in existence for centuries. The Torah tells us that all boys are to be circumcised eight days after birth; and the basics of the ritual surrounding this act (called a bris or brit milah), including the giving of his name, have been formalized for many years. Having a naming ceremony for a girl (called a brit bat or simchat bat) is a relatively recent development, leaving more open both the when and the what of the ritual. Also recent is the advent of the brit shalom, a ceremony for boys that does not involve circumcision, often because the circumcision has already occurred in a hospital. In my six years experience running Mothers Circle (a program for non-Jewish women raising Jewish children) I have found that interfaith families appreciate help with a naming ceremony for a boy or a girl, but a greater concern is often about the bris, both about circumcision itself and/or about how to have it done. I was raised in a classical Reform family. My brother was circumcised (in a hospital), but then most boys were circumcised in the 1950s so it wasn’t an issue. The fi rst bris I attended was that of a nephew when I was well into my 20s. So I understand how people who are not Jewish can react to the whole idea with ambivalence. There are really two issues here: whether or not to circumcise at all and whether or not to do it outside of a hospital. For someone born and raised Jewish, circumcision itself is usually a no-brainer, a kind of “of course.” We do it because the covenant with Abraham is fundamental to our faith and the bris is the mark of the covenant. But to an outsider, this may not be so clear. One woman from Mothers Circle looking for

a spiritual meaning was frustrated since all answers seemed to her to boil down to “just because.” Many non-Jewish parents have little trouble with circumcision, but the idea of being present for it can be profoundly troubling. Better that it be done out of sight in the hospital. I was thus struck by the statement of one Catholic woman who works as a health professional. She said she had seen circumcisions done in the hospital and she had seen them done at home; and in her opinion home is much better. In the hospital the baby is strapped to a board with no family around. At a bris, the baby is held and is able to be comforted by his mother immediately afterward. But fortunately, the time of welcoming a child of either sex into a family is primarily a time of great joy and celebration. Both the difficult and the joyous will be discussed at a workshop being conducted jointly by the Jewish Alliance and Temple Beth-El called “Welcoming Your Baby into Your Interfaith Family,” to be held at Temple Beth El on Oct. 28. For parents of boys the bris question is always a big one. But there are many other issues to talk about. How do I as the non-Jewish parent feel included in the process? How do I include my family of origin so that they feel a part of things? The bris or naming ceremony is frequently the fi rst clear statement made to a grandparent of another faith that their grandchild will indeed be raised Jewish. How can we handle this with love and sensitivity? For more information about this workshop, contact Rabbi Sarah Mack at 401-331-6070 or rabbimack@temple-beth-el.org. And, if you’re a Mom of another faith background, raising Jewish children and are interested in learning about more than birth ceremonies, consider joining the next session of Mothers Circle, a free series of 15 classes dealing with life cycle issues, Jewish holidays and the basics of running a Jewish home. FOR MORE INFORMATION about this program, contact Michelle Cicchitelli at 401-421-4111, ext. 178 or mcicchitelli@jewishallianceri.org. KIT HASPEL is the former director of Interfaith Outreach at the Alliance. Mothers Circle is a program created by the Jewish Outreach Institute and funded locally by the Jewish Alliance.

COMMUNITY

thejewishvoice.org

September 26, 2014 |

Eastside Marketplace keeps its hard-earned reputation Scott Laurans and Brian Pacheco promise no changes BY IRINA MISSIURO imissiuro@jewishallianceri.org You’ve been looking forward to an uneventful weekend during which you could pretend you’re having a “staycation.” A call from a faraway relative threatens the beckoning indolence – you now have to retreat to the kitchen for some unwanted baking, boiling and broiling. No need to steam, though – Eastside Marketplace is just a ride away. Your secret is safe with us – don’t worry. Your uncle will have no doubt that you, the great chef, have prepared the feast in honor of his arrival. So, go ahead, offer him some brisket to go with the mashed potatoes – its recipe is a special treat created by Monica, the wife of the store’s president, Scott Laurans. In the morning, you can continue the charade by unveiling the lox-and-chive cream cheese to spread on the bagels. Is the beloved curmudgeon staying through lunch? Don’t despair – serve him some chopped liver to accompany such fare as knishes, kugel and whitefish. By now, you’re probably hoping that Uncle Shmuel heals from his surgery soon so he could visit, but there are other reasons to wish him a fast recovery, as well as to shop at the market. Despite the Eastside Marketplace’s sale, the fresh produce and the prepared foods, for which the store is known, will remain the focus. Ahold USA, the corporation that bought the store in July, is not planning to change the way it operates, Laurans emphasizes. He says that the new owners are not about to start fiddling with what clearly works. Laurans is a great believer in consistency, “You’re as good as your last meal.” Hence, the store’s famous spit-roasted chickens are always four pounds – double the size of the birds sold at other stores, he maintains. Shoppers have caught on, scooping up 400 of them per week, says Brian Pacheco, the store’s general manager. Laurans knows that the customers expect the foods to have the same great taste that

brings them back to the store, and he refuses to disappoint them. To keep shoppers happy, Laurans, along with Pacheco and Deb Miller, the head chef, invents new recipes and concepts to try out. Some, including pasta night, are clear winners, he says. Others, such as Asian stir-fry, aren’t as successful, Laurans admits. Currently, the store is testing rice bowls that feature a protein and vegetables. So far, they’ve proven popular – a point of pride for Laurans, whose wife devised the recipe, among many others. To uphold the reputation for excellent food, the store is constantly refi ning its recipes, many of which came courtesy of Nancy Starziano, past general manager whose food expertise was paramount in expanding the market’s menu. Laurans sees the store’s acquisition in the same vein – as a refi nement rather than a change. He has no doubt that Ahold USA will maintain not only the integrity of the market, but also the offerings its customers have grown to love. Laurans, who is nearing 70, explains that the idea to sell emerged after he realized he was “too old” to sign a 20-year lease. Concerned about the community and the employees, he was appeased after meeting James McCann, CEO of Ahold, and Jim Sylvia, vice president of real estate for Ahold. Their proposal was a pleasant surprise – Laurans was thrilled that the corporation was planning to keep the name, the operation and the employees. Moreover, Ahold agreed to continue the market’s tradition of supporting community. Laurans says, “I couldn’t think of a better outcome. It’s always about money, but this wasn’t about money.” To him, the store was always “more of an avocation than a vocation.” Laurans has great confidence in Ahold, stating, “Any organization that runs 800 stores has to know something about running supermarkets. We can learn from them as well as vice versa.” As someone who’s owned the market since 1981, Laurans

Scott Laurans, left, and Brian Pacheco in the produce department of the Eastside Marketplace. is not being bold in his assertion that he can teach the giant Ahold a thing or two. He acknowledges that the store has had to use the trial-and-error method to achieve respect. “Most supermarkets are pretty boring,” he claims. Laurans thinks that the problem is in the way they’re run – by efficiency experts rather than by great merchants selling worthy products. “It’s really about the food,” he declares. Laurans knows that today’s customer is educated more extensively about food than the customer of 20 years ago. That’s one of the reasons the store offers deli meats and cheeses

Bake a challah with Jews worldwide The Great Rhode Island Challah Bake will take place Oct. 23 in the Dwares JCC Social Hall, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence, from 7 to 9 p.m. Each challah making station will receive all the ingredients to make a challah and a prepared amount to create a braided challah. Men, women and children are invited to participate and learn. Cost is $10 per challah making station; 200 people will be admitted. This is part of The Shabbos Project 2014, a worldwide

event to keep Shabbat in unity, taking place Oct. 24-25. Challah bakes will take place worldwide on Oct. 23. RSVP to TheGreatRIChallahBake@ gmail.com or register and send fees to The Shabbos Project RIJCC, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence, R.I. 02906.

from all over the world, selling four times as much cheese as a similarly sized supermarket. Continually evolving since its opening, the market has grown by 10,000 square feet and by 40

percent in new products. To discover novel offerings, Pacheco, Laurans and department managers visit stores locally and nationally, try vendors’ suggestions and attend exhibit shows. In addition, the consumer often acts as the change agent. Laurans says that the shoppers are much more health-conscious now. He has the figures to substantiate the claim – the percentage of sales in produce has doubled since the store’s opening. One of the draws of the market is its insistence on offering organic produce at the same price as traditional one. What originally started as a promotion to compete with Whole Foods, the store that moved into the neighborhood in 2004, became so successful that the gimmick became Eastside Marketplace’s trademark. Laurans sees Whole Foods as a great competitor that presents a fun challenge and allows for a smarter, more informed customer. He thinks that the market’s “job is to allow the customer to make a choice,” an opportunity made easy by being able to select traditional, as well as whole foods. Laurans says that loyal patrons have been very supportive upon fi nding out about the sale of the store. He explains that one set of their shoppers is relieved that the store’s staying the same, while another set is skeptical that it will. Laurans jokes, “The Ahold executives are more concerned about keeping everything the same than we are.” Pacheco promises to continue the charitable donation, the discount program for students and seniors and, of course, the kosher meat operation on Thursdays.

BROWN UNIVERSITY – PROGRAM IN JUDAIC STUDIES ELGA K. STULMAN LECTURE

Zionism, Palestinism, Post-Diasporism: New Forms of Polish Jewish Political Thinking in the 1930s

SPEAKER: KENNETH B. MOSS, PhD is the Felix Posen Professor of Modern Jewish History at the Johns Hopkins University. His first book Jewish Renaissance in the Russian Revolution (2009) examines the idea of a modern Jewish culture and its relationship to Jewish nationalism and socialism through the lens of Hebrew and Yiddish cultural life during the Russian Revolution. Jewish Renaissance was chosen as a co-winner of the 2010 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature. Moss is now working on East European Jewish political culture and political thought in the age of the nation-state, in a book provisionally entitled The Unchosen People. His work has appeared in Journal of Modern History, Jewish History, Jewish Social Studies and Journal of Israeli History, among other venues. MONDAY, OCTOBER 20 |5:30 PM |PETTERUTI LOUNGE FAUNCE HOUSE, 75 WATERMAN ST., PROVIDENCE

14 | September 26, 2014

FOOD

The Jewish Voice

Break-fast pickle? Try cucumber salad and your own cream cheese BY SHANNON SARNA MyJewishLearning.com – The last thing anyone wants to do after fasting and sitting in synagogue is to start cooking and prepping a complicated or heavy meal. The dishes I like to serve for Yom Kippur can all be made in advance – in fact, they are better when prepared well ahead of time. And not just for the sake of your sanity. A quick pickled cucumber salad is a standard in my home and a dish I learned to make from my grandmother. It’s slightly sweet, just a tad spicy, and the crunch of the cucumber is really satisfying next to a bagel schmeared with cream cheese. You need to make this recipe ahead of time to properly allow the cucumber to absorb the flavors. Anyone can break open a tub of cream cheese for a breakfast. But if you make your own

custom cream cheese flavor – like the Chipotle Cream Cheese Spread below – your family and guests will think you spent hours and hours in the kitchen. Making your own cream cheese is very easy and a fun way to take the spread up a notch. If butternut squash kugel and a coffee cake had a baby, the Cakey Crunch Sweet Potato Kugel below would be the result. It is absolutely delicious, but I make sure to warn people: It’s highly addictive; you won’t be able to eat just one portion. It is also the perfect dish to make ahead and reheat once the fast is over.

Quick Pickled Cucumber Salad Ingredients

1 large seedless English cucumber 1 onion, thinly sliced 6 tablespoon white wine

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All Ingredients Kosher Appetizers

ChoPPed liver • herring in Wine & CreaM ChoPPed herring • gefilte fish • stuffed CaBBage To Complement Your Entree

Potato & Meat Knishes • Kugels (aPPle, traditional) Breaking the Fast

Whole Whitefish • nova lox • lox Bits Whitefish|tuna salads Baked Goods

Preparation

Cakey Crunch Sweet Potato Kugel vinegar 3 tablespoons water 2 or 3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill 2 tablespoons sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon pepper Pinch crushed red pepper (optional)

Preparation

Slice cucumber 1/4- to 1/2-inch thick. In a medium bowl, whisk together vinegar, water, sugar, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper and dill. Add thinly sliced cucumbers and onions to bowl and mix until liquid coats all the cucumbers and onions. Place salad into container and allow to chill several hours or overnight. Serves 14

Challah • BoBKas • KiChel • honey CaKe • Wonder CaKe Mandel Breads • Bagels • Breads • rolls • Pastries

Chipotle Cream Cheese Ingredients

2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, room temperature 1 to 2 tablespoons chipotle in adobe (depending on your tastes), minced 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon white pepper 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Preparation

In a mixing bowl, combine minced chipotle and liquid, salt, pepper and garlic powder. Add softened cream cheese and mix until combined thoroughly. Serve with fresh bagels and sliced avocado. Serves 12-14

Cakey Crunch Sweet Potato Kugel Ingredients

8 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Boil sweet potatoes in large pot of water until tender, around 2025 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Drain the sweet potatoes and mash in a large bowl. Add vanilla, brown sugar, nutmeg, salt and orange juice or orange-flavored liqueur and mix well. Grease a 9 by 11-inch baking dish. Layer half of the sweet potato mixture evenly in the baking dish. Sprinkle marshmallows over the top. Add remaining sweet potato mixture on top of marshmallows and spread evenly using an offset spatula or knife. Sprinkle yellow cake mix evenly over the top of sweet potato mixture. Pour melted butter or margarine evenly over the top of the cake mix. Bake for 60 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature. Serves 16 SHANNON SARNA is editor of The Nosher blog on MyJewishLearning.com, where these recipes originally appeared.

Kugel: The ultimate holiday comfort food BY THE VOICE STAFF

Call Early! The Holidays are here We Can Help! Order Now!

3-4 heaping tablespoons brown sugar 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 1/4 cup orange juice or orangeflavored liqueur 8 ounces mini marshmallows 1 box yellow cake mix 2 sticks margarine or butter, melted

If you’re looking for a new kugel recipe, we found these in the JTA files. One sweet, one savory and both sure look tasty.

Vegetable Kugel

1 bunch (6-8) carrots 14 white mushrooms 1 potato, peeled 1 medium onion 2 cloves garlic 1 (10 ounce) package frozen spinach, defrosted 2 eggs

1 1/2 cups matzah meal (or flour) 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Using a food processor, grate the carrots, mushrooms, potato, onion and garlic. Place in a large bowl. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Fold into a greased 7 x 11-inch, ovenproof casserole. Bake for 5060 minutes, or until top is crispy and vegetables bubble. Yields 18 squares.

Challah Custard Kugel

1 pound challah, broken into bite-size pieces Sweet butter for greasing pan, plus 4 tablespoons at room temperature 1 (8 ounce) brick reduced-fat cream cheese, at room temperature 3/4 cup maple syrup 12 eggs 3 cups 2 percent milk 2-1/2 teaspoons vanilla 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 10 x 15-inch ovenproof casserole and spread challah pieces evenly throughout. Place 4 tablespoons butter, cream cheese and maple syrup in a microwave-safe container. Cover and microwave for 1 minute on high power. Mix well with a fork and pour evenly over challah. In a large bowl, mix remaining ingredients until blended. Pour evenly over challah-cream cheese mixture. Press challah down with a spatula to moisten. Let rest 5 minutes. Bake for 30 minutes, or until casserole bubbles and top is golden brown. Serve immediately, or prepare ahead, refrigerate and reheat. Recipe freezes well. Yields 40 squares

FOOD

thejewishvoice.org

September 26, 2014 |

Open Sesame: In Brooklyn, an Israeli’s artisanal halva and tahini seeds new interest in the fatty but nutritious staple BY SHANNON SARNA NEW YORK (JTA) – An expert “raw halva” maker, Shahar Shamir has been creating allnatural sesame spreads – and serving them to friends and family – for years. So when the native Israeli’s plan to open a Brooklyn cafe hit some snags, he took his friends’ suggestions and started selling his halva spread instead, calling the business Brooklyn Sesame. (www.brooklynsesame. com/main.sc) In Israel it is common to eat halva or tahini with breakfast, as a snack or for dessert. And while the fat content of tahini has scared away some Americans, growing numbers are realizing that good fats from items like nuts and sesame can produce long-term health benefits and even help with weight loss. (www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/09/01/344315405/cutting-back-on-carbs-not-fat-maylead-to-more-weight-loss) In fact not eating tahini spread actually caused Shahar to gain seven pounds last year, he said. When he took a break from making his tahini spread and there weren’t any open jars lying around, he was tempted to nosh on more caloric foods. “When I eat my tahini, I am not eating other junk, and I believe sesame and honey are great for digestion,” he said. Brooklyn Sesame’s spreads come in six varieties including pistachio, cocoa, black caraway seeds and toasted coconut. Have a halva craving? The halva spreads are available in more than 25 stores in the New York area and one store in Massachusetts, or you can order online. (www.brooklynsesame. com/Halva-Spread_c2.htm) You can also try whipping up one of Shahar’s signature recipes this holiday season and use some rich, sweet tahini to usher in the New Year. The following recipes are courtesy of Jorg Thoene, Leah Koenig and Shahar Shamir.

Apple and Coconut Halva Baklava Tarts Ingredients

1 small Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and fi nely chopped Zest of 1 lemon 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar 1/2 cup fi nely chopped pistachios 1/2 cup fi nely chopped walnuts 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon cardamom 6 sheets thawed fi lo dough 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted (or substitute vegetable or coconut oil) 1/4 cup Brooklyn Sesame Halva Spread with Toasted Coconut, divided Honey, for drizzling

red pepper flakes, and continue cooking, stirring constantly, until fragrant, 1-2 minutes. Add the meat back to the pot along with the wine, stock, and tomatoes; bring mixture to a simmer, then reduce heat to low, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, until meat is cooked through, about 1 hour. Stir in the dates and Halva Spread, turn up heat to medium-low, and continue cooking, uncovered and stirring occasionally, until fruit softens and the stew thickens slightly, about 5 minutes. (It will continue to thicken as it cools.) Season with salt and pepper to taste. To serve, transfer stew to a shallow bowl, sprinkle with parsley.

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and set aside a 12-cup muffin tin. In a bowl, stir together the apple, lemon zest, lemon juice and brown sugar; let stand for 10 minutes until it gets juicy. Stir in the pistachios, walnuts, cinnamon and cardamom. Place 1 sheet of fi lo dough on a cutting board (cover the remaining sheets with a damp towel so they do not dry out), and gently brush all over with the melted butter. Place a second sheet on top of the fi rst and continue in this fashion, alternating brushing with butter and stacking fi lo sheets until there are 6 layers. Use a sharp knife to cut the fi lo sheet into 12 squares. Arrange 1 square into each well of the muffin tin, pressing it into the bottom and side. Spoon 1 teaspoon of Halva Spread into the bottom of each cup, then fi ll two-thirds full with the apple-nut mixture. Brush edges of each pastry with a little more melted butter; bake until the pastry is golden, 15-20 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes in the tin, then carefully remove tarts to a wire rack. Just before serving, drizzle each tart with a little honey.

Lamb Stew With Dates and Black Caraway Halva Spread Ingredients

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided 3 pounds lamb stew meat, cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes 2 yellow onions, fi nely chopped 2 carrots, peeled and chopped (optional) 4 garlic cloves, fi nely chopped 1 teaspoon ground cumin 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, or more to taste 1/2 cup dry white or red wine 1-1/2 cups beef or vegetable stock 1 (14-ounce) can diced tomatoes, with their juice

1/4 cup chopped dried dates 3 tablespoons Brooklyn Sesame Halva Spread with Black Caraway Seeds Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper Finely chopped fresh parsley, for serving

Preparation

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large Dutch oven or heavybottomed pot set over mediumhigh heat. Working in batches (do not crowd the pan), add the lamb cubes and sear, turning with

tongs, until wellbrowned on all sides. Transfer browned lamb to a plate and set aside. Add remaining tablespoon of oil to the pot, then add onions, carrots, if using, and a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and lightly browned, 5-10 minutes. Add the garlic, cumin and

Happy Rosh Hashanah Best wishes for a New Year bright with the promise of hope, health & joy.

L ’shanah tovah!

cianciformayor.com Paid for by Friends of Buddy Cianci, Charles R. Mansolillo, Treasurer

16 | September 26, 2014 FROM PAGE 1

WORLD

YEAR IN REVIEW

JTA and MyJewishLearning, which includes the popular parenting website Kveller. com, announce their intention to merge. The Israeli government announces that it plans to invest more than $1 billion over the next 20 years to strengthen the Jewish identity of Diaspora Jews, particularly young Jews, but the details remain fuzzy.

for the British-based charity Oxfam. She says she and Oxfam have “a fundamental difference of opinion in regards to the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.” The Israel Air Force is accused of attacking a warehouse of advanced Russian-made S-300 missiles in the Syrian port city of Latakia. Israel declines to comment on the attack. A federal judge tosses out a $380 million sexual abuse lawsuit fi led against Yeshiva University by 34 former students of its high school for boys. The suit alleged that the university ignored warnings of assault by two faculty members between 1969 and 1989. In dismissing the lawsuit, Judge John Koeltl rules that the statute of limitations has expired.

Rabbi Avi Weiss The Chief Rabbinate of Israel reaches an agreement with the Rabbinical Council of America to accept automatically letters from RCA members vouching for the Jewish status of Israeli immigrants. The agreement follows a temporary suspension by the Chief Rabbinate in accepting such letters from at least one well-known RCA member, Rabbi Avi Weiss of Riverdale, N.Y. Two modern Orthodox high schools in New York stir controversy with decisions to allow girls who wish to lay tefillin to do so. UJA-Federation of New York, the largest Jewish federation in North America, names attorney Eric Goldstein as its new CEO and successor to longtime CEO John Ruskay. Actress Scarlett Johansson comes under criticism for serving as a spokeswoman for the Israeli company SodaStream, which has facilities in the West Bank. Johansson, who is Jewish, stands by SodaStream and resigns as a global ambassador

Abraham Foxman Abraham Foxman announces he is stepping down as national director of the Anti-Defamation League after 27 years in the post. Foxman, a child survivor of the Holocaust and one of the highest profi le American Jewish leaders, says he will step down in July 2015. Henry Waxman, Longtime California Rep., announces his retirement. Waxman had represented California’s 33rd District since 1975 and was considered the dean of Jewish lawmakers. Jewish philanthropist and humanitarian Anne Heyman, founder of the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village in Rwanda, dies

inspiration A weekend of

Saturday, Oct. 11

The Jewish Voice

during an equestrian competition in Palm Beach, Fla.

Mark Zuckerberg

February 2014

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, top the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s list of the top 50 U.S. donors to charitable causes in 2013. In December, the couple gave 18 million shares of Facebook stock, valued at more than $970 million, to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. The government of Spain approves a bill to facilitate the naturalization of Sephardic Jews of Spanish descent. Staff at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem go on strike as the hospital, facing a huge deficit, teeters on the edge of bankruptcy and fails to pay its workers. Alice Herz-Sommer, the 110-year-old Holocaust survivor and concert pianist whose life is the subject of a documentary that a week later would win an Oscar, dies. The Giymat Rosa Synagogue in Zaporizhia, in eastern Ukraine, is fi rebombed and sustains minor damage. The attack comes amid growing turmoil in Ukraine following the overthrow of President Viktor Yanukovych.

March 2014

AIPAC leaders emphasize bipartisanship and mutual respect at the group’s annual policy conference in Washington. The conference follows a bruising period in which the pro-Israel lobby had championed a new Iran sanctions bill only to back down when it became clear the bill lacked the necessary support from the White House and congressional

Democrats to pass. Israeli aircraft, in one of many low-level skirmishes over the course of months, strike several targets in the Gaza Strip after Palestinians fi re rockets into Israel, sending Israelis into bomb shelters. David Hellman, a New York personal trainer, pleads guilty to using violent means to force recalcitrant husbands to give their wives a Jewish writ of divorce, or get. Hellman, who faces up to 20 years in prison and a fi ne of $250,000, was one of 10 men arrested in October 2013 in an FBI sting operation. Yeshiva University is at risk of running out of unrestricted cash in the near-term future, warns Moody’s Investors Service, which says deep and growing operating deficits are likely to continue at the university due to “poor fi nancial oversight and high expenses.” In May, Y.U. will announce that the Montefiore Health System is assuming operational control of Y.U.’s Albert Einstein School of Medicine. Ehud Olmert, former Israeli Prime Minister, is found guilty of accepting bribes in the corruption case involving the Holyland real estate development in Jerusalem. Olmert, who is convicted of receiving about $150,000 in bribes through his brother Yossi, becomes the fi rst former Israeli prime minister to be convicted of taking a bribe. The crime carries a possible sentence of 10 years in prison.

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FlamesOfHopeRI.org

Casino magnate and conservative backer Sheldon Adelson buys another Israeli newspaper, Makor Rishon, making him the owner of several of Israel’s major right-wing media outlets and two of the country’s four major newspapers. After weeks of near breakdowns in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks brokered by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Israel suspends all negotiations after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party signs a unity accord with Hamas, a designated terrorist organization. President Obama responds by saying it may be time for a pause in Middle East peacemaking. Kerry later expresses regret for saying that Israel risks becoming an “apartheid” state or a nonJewish one if the two-state solution is not implemented. U.S. negotiators blame Israel for the talks’ collapse. Gennady Kernes, the Jewish mayor of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, is shot in a suspected assassination attempt that leaves him in critical condition. The shooting comes amid growing violence between Russianbacked Ukrainian separatists in eastern Ukraine and forces loyal to the new Ukrainian government in Kiev. Kernes is airlifted to Israel for treatment. YEAR IN REVIEW | 17

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April 2014

Mobilized by the death of Samuel Sommers – the 8-yearold son of Rabbi Phyllis and Michael Sommers whose struggle with leukemia was documented on a popular blog called Superman Sam – 73 rabbis shave their heads to raise $600,000 for pediatric cancer research. American-Jewish contractor Alan Gross goes on a hunger strike to protest his imprisonment in a Cuban jail and the lack of American assistance. Later in the year, in ailing health and with no prospect of release, Gross bids goodbye to his family during a prison visit. White supremacist Frazier Glenn Miller, 73, kills a man and his grandson outside the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City and then

shoots to death a woman at a Jewish assisted-living facility a few blocks away. None of the victims is Jewish, highlighting the diverse constituency served by America’s Jewish institutions.

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WORLD

thejewishvoice.org

FROM PAGE 16

YEAR IN REVIEW

The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations rejects J Street’s bid for membership. J Street, the liberal Washington group that lobbies for increased American pressure to bring about a Mideast peace deal, lost its bid for membership in the main communal group on foreign policy issues by a vote of 22-17, with three abstentions. J Street needed the support of two-thirds of the conference’s 51 members to gain admission.

dogs.” His girlfriend is heard countering that as a Jew, Sterling should know better than to advocate discrimination and citing the Holocaust as an example of where racism can lead. An arm of the private equity fi rm Bain Capital purchases the Manischewitz Company, the iconic producer of kosher packaged goods, for an undisclosed sum. According to The New York Times, the new owners are expected to promote kosher as an indication of quality food rather than just a religious designation.

September 26, 2014 |

Israel’s August tourism numbers sag JTA – Israel’s August tourist numbers took a sharp downturn from the previous year’s figures. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, 182,000 visitor entries were recorded for the month in Israel, down 36 percent from August 2013. Of the visitor entries, 164,000 were tourists staying more than one night, 32 percent fewer than August a year ago. During the month, hundreds of rockets were fi red at Israel, including Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, amid the Israeli military’s operation in Gaza. Foreign airlines canceled fl ights

for at least two days after a rocket landed near Ben Gurion Airport in central Israel. It is estimated that Israel’s tourism industry generates about $11 billion annually and is responsible for creating 200,000 jobs domestically. “The tremendous blow to tourism suffered by the Israeli economy in all areas of Israel as a result of canceled visits is a factor in the economic slowdown,” Tourism Ministry director general Amir Halevy said in a statement. “Everyone understands the importance of rehabilitating tourism as an engine for economic growth.”

It is not unusual for Israel’s tourism numbers to dip during times of violence. This year’s August statistics were lower than all the August statistics from 2007 to 2013, but 49 percent higher than August 2006, the time of the Second Lebanon War, with 122,000 entries. This week, the Tourism Ministry is convening all the Israel Government Tourist Office directors from around the world to formulate a plan for attracting tourists to Israel.

Plans for Rome Holocaust museum in jeopardy

Donald Sterling

Cardinal John O’Connor

Los Angeles Clippers’ owner Donald Sterling is banned from the NBA for life and fi ned $2.5 million after being caught on tape making racist comments to his girlfriend. He is heard saying that his views reflect the way the world works, and as evidence he says that black Jews in Israel “are just treated like

Genealogical research reveals that the late archbishop of New York, Cardinal John O’Connor, technically was Jewish. O’Connor’s mother, Dorothy Gumple O’Connor, was born Jewish but converted to Catholicism before she met and married O’Connor’s father.

ROME (JTA) – City authorities in Rome may drop the idea of building a $30 million Holocaust museum in the city with the apparent backing of the Rome Jewish community. After years of delays on the project, the community’s board issued a statement that seems to back plans for a smaller exhibit in a former shopping center in a Rome suburb. Plans were announced a decade ago to build a stateof-the-art Shoah museum on the grounds of Villa Torlonia, wartime dictator Benito Mussolini’s residence, where ancient Jewish catacombs also are located. Financial and bureaucratic problems have stalled the project in the central part of Rome for years. Funds were fi nally freed up

and architectural plans approved in 2012, but since then there has been no movement. As a result, Holocaust survivors and their families this summer launched appeals and petitioned the Rome Jewish community and City Hall to speed up plans in order to inaugurate a Shoah museum before they passed away. Proposals were floated to drop the Villa Torlonia plan and install a permanent Holocaust exhibit in a building already standing – a former shopping center in EUR, a southern suburb of the city. The exhibit would be inaugurated on next year’s International Holocaust Memorial Day, Jan. 27, the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Responding to the petition, the board of the Rome Jewish

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community issued its statement that appeared to support the idea. The board said that a Holocaust museum should be completed within a rapid time frame, take into consideration the “economic difficulties” of the country, and have a “decorous and dignified” structure. It urged the museum founders to “consider any concrete and immediate proposal” that respects those “mandatory requirements.” A mayoral spokesman offered no explanation for the delays in building the museum, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported, and added that it was understandable the Jewish community would be skeptical of whether it would be built anytime soon.

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18 | September 26, 2014

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The Jewish Voice

How to winterize your garden and enjoy nature A three-month checklist, events to attend, resources to consult BY IRINA MISSIURO imissiuro@jewishallianceri.org It’s true. Adults are somewhat like children. In the spring, when everything is blooming, we like to focus on our gardens, tending to them whenever we can. We see the growth, the beauty, the fruits of our labors. We smell the flowers. Literally. However, in the fall, when it’s time to put away the toys, we’d rather not be involved. Can’t someone else do the tedious chores that are necessary to prepare the garden for the winter? No. Yes, it’s a process, but it’s one you can conquer. Here’s how.

September tasks:

Fertilize the lawn in the first half of the month. Plant spring bulbs, vegetable seeds, evergreens, perennials and transplants. Transplant shrubs and herbaceous plants, watering liberally for the first week. Collect seeds for next year’s sowing. If needed, aerate or dethatch the lawn. Sow grass seed. After the newly seeded grass is three inches tall, mow the lawn. Pot up cuttings of annuals for the winter. Remove tomatoes, squash and zucchini plants as they thrive in hot weather. Transplant broccoli, kale and cabbage into their place. Dig up herbs to grow indoors. Sow seeds for greens such as spinach and lettuce. Pick pears and store them to ripen. Amend the soil with manure or compost.

October tasks:

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Stop mowing the lawn when the temperature reaches around 50 degrees. Discard dead plants, diseased foliage and plants that could potentially become weeds. Place debris (excluding any with fungus) into a compost pile. Prepare soil for spring planting. Prevent dehydration by watering evergreens regularly throughout the few weeks before the frost. To retain soil moisture and minimize the chances of soil heave, cover the roots of perennials with a couple of inches of

mulch. Wrap evergreens in burlap or protect them from drying winds with a screen. Leave perennials standing to insulate the crowns, mark the spot in the spring and provide a food source and shelter for the birds. Harvest herbs to dry or freeze-dry. Note garden changes to make in the spring.

November tasks:

Secure all vines to protect them from strong winds. Winterize roses. Clean up the planting beds. Keep watering the evergreens. Throw two inches of straw over strawberries. Stake raspberries. Remove the tops from asparagus plants, cover beds with manure. Dig up tubers for storage in cardboard boxes or crates lined with paper. Avoid plastic and store in a cool, dry place. Mow, lime and rake the lawn. Compost the leaves. Drain and put away hoses. Clean, oil and restock gardening tools. Make soup with your broccoli, kale and cabbage.

Some events to attend:

Greenhouse Vegetable Production in Containers Sturbridge Publick House, 277 Main St., Route 131, Sturbridge, Mass. Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2014, from 9:30 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. Educational program on containergrown greenhouse vegetable production. • Growing Greenhouse Tomatoes and Cucumbers in Containers Rich McAvoy, University of Connecticut • Perfecting Biocontrol in Greenhouse Vegetables Carol Glenister, IPM Laboratories, Locke, N.Y. • Growing Bench-Top Greens Brian Krug, University of New Hampshire • Diseases and Disorders of Greenhouse Tomatoes, Cukes and Greens GARDEN | 24

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September 26, 2014 |

Understanding Shmita, Israel’s agricultural Shabbat BY BEN SALES TEL AVIV (JTA) – When Rosh Hashanah comes later this month, Israel’s Jewish farmers won’t just be celebrating the start of a new year. They’ll be marking a year in which they are prohibited from doing their jobs. Called Shmita, the Torahmandated, yearlong farming hiatus is felt across Israel, affecting its fields, supermarkets and, of course, its politics. The genesis of Shmita is Exodus, which commands the Israelites, “Plant your land and gather its produce for six years. But on the seventh let it lie fallow and it will rest …” Other biblical mandates prohibit planting, trimming or harvesting crops during Shmita, amounting to a total prohibition on farming. In advance of Shmita, which takes place every seventh year, here are seven things you should know about Israel’s sabbatical year. What is Shmita? According to the Torah mandates, the Shmita year is something like an agricultural Shabbat. Just like everyone is commanded to rest for a day at the end of every week, Shmita is a chance to let the land rest for a year after six years of work. It’s easy to calculate when Shmita comes around: Start from year zero in the Jewish calendar – that would be 5,775 years ago – and count off every seven years; this is Israel’s 466th Shmita. The concept of the sabbatical year has spread to academics and clergy, many of whom receive sabbaticals to travel and study. And the root of the word “shmita” has found contemporary usage in Hebrew. Israelis use the word “mishtamet” to refer to someone who dodged mandatory military conscription. How was Shmita observed in the past? Because the commandment applies only in the biblical land of Israel, it became largely theoretical once the Jews were exiled by the Roman Empire

PHOTO | YAAKOV VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

A field near Rosh HaAyin in Israel, left barren for the 2007–2008 sabbatical year of Shmita. after the Bar Kochba revolt in 136 C.E. Generations of Jewish farmers in Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere had no religious imperative to let the land rest. But once Jews started returning to Palestine in the 1880s and founding kibbutzim, Shmita again became relevant – and problematic. At a time when Jewish farmers were struggling just to keep their farms viable, a year of no production would have been a deathblow. To skirt that problem, rabbis in Israel created something called the “heter mechirah,” or sale permit – similar to the sale of leavened food before Passover. The permit allowed Jewish farmers to “sell” their land to local non-Jews for a token amount, then hire non-Jews to do the forbidden labor. That way, because it wasn’t “their” land, Jews could keep their farms going without sin. How is Shmita observed in contemporary Israel? As Israel’s population and agricultural sector expanded, so too has the hand-wringing over Shmita. Here are some of the Jewish legal acrobatics they use to get around it. The sale permit: Israel’s Chief Rabbinate allows every farm to register for a sale permit like those allowed in the 1880s, and the Rabbinate “sells” all the land to a non-Jew for about $5,000 total, according to

Rabbi Haggai Bar Giora, who oversaw Shmita for Israel’s Chief Rabbinate seven years ago. At the end of the year, the Rabbinate buys back the land on the farmers’ behalf for a similar amount. Bar Giora chose a non-Jewish buyer who observes the seven Noahide laws – the Torah’s commandments for non-Jews. Greenhouses: Shmita only applies if the crops are grown in the land itself. Therefore, growing vegetables on tables disconnected from the land steers clear of violating the commandment. Religious courts: Farmers aren’t allowed to sell their crops, but if crops began growing before Shmita started, people are allowed to take them for free. So through another legal mechanism, a Jewish religious court will hire farmers to harvest the produce, and the religious court will sell it. But you won’t be paying for the produce itself; you’re only paying for the farmer’s labor. You get the produce for “free.” Wink. Nudge. Not observing Shmita: Most large-scale Israeli farmers use a sale permit in order to obtain rabbinic certification for their crops, Bar Giora says. But some small, nonreligious farmers who sell their produce independently ignore the sabbatical year completely and do not receive kosher certification. What happens to fruits, veg-

etables and other plants that grow on their own during Shmita? Just like Jewish environmentalists can connect to the idea of letting the land rest, social justice-minded Jews can appreciate that whatever grows on the land during Shmita is, in theory, supposed to be free for anyone, especially the poor. When Shmita is first mentioned in Exodus, the Torah says the crops should be for “the poor of your nation, and the rest for wild animals.” But given that almost all farmers in Israel get around Shmita in one way or another, walking onto a farm looking for a free lunch is ill advised. How does Shmita affect you if you’re not a farmer? Because all kosher-certified produce cannot violate Shmita, Israelis shopping in major grocery stores and outdoor markets don’t have to worry about Shmita. But religious Jews – and businesses – that don’t trust the legal loopholes just buy their produce from non-Jewish farmers in Israel. An organization called Otzar Haaretz, or Fruit of the Land, seeks to support Jewish farmers specifically and is organizing farmers who use religious courts and the greenhouse method to sell to supermarkets in Israel. Customers who wish to buy from Otzar Haaretz can pay a monthly fee

to get a discount on its produce. Shmita has an impact beyond the produce stands, too. Mickey Gitzin, founder of the religious pluralism organization Be Free Israel, says that while the “the idea that the land should rest” is a positive one, Shmita can have a negative effect on public parks. As public property, the parks cannot be sold to a non-Jew. And because they remain under Jewish ownership, some public community gardens don’t receive care during Shmita. What does this mean for Jews outside of Israel? Although they’re not obligated to observe Shmita, Jews outside of Israel have found ways of commemorating the year. At Hazon, a Jewish sustainability organization, the Shmita Project aims to engage in a study of the textual sources of Shmita and develop programs to mark the year without letting the land lie completely fallow. Another group, the Shmita Association, has purchased a grid of 4-square-foot plots of land in Israel that Jews abroad can purchase for $180 and then let lie idle, enabling them to observe Shmita without being an Israeli or a farmer. What does this have to do with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Because they don’t want to buy from Jewish farmers during Shmita, some haredi Orthodox Jews buy from Palestinian West Bank farms. But during the past couple of Shmita cycles, there has been backlash against buying Palestiniangrown produce. Jerusalem Post columnist David Weinberg urged Israelis last week to avoid supporting Palestinian farms. “Primary reliance on Arab produce is neither realistic nor acceptable for health, nationalistic and religious reasons,” he wrote. During the Shmita year that began in 2007, Israel’s health and agriculture ministries said there was no elevated risk to eating produce grown in the Palestinian territories.

20 | September 26, 2014

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The Jewish Voice

Rows of etrog plants in the Bycer backyard.

A lemon tree grown to learn about etrogs.

The etrog orchard of Scottsdale Brown grad grows the golden citrus in his backyard BY MARC ADLER I was recently in Phoenix, Arizona, for my son Jonathan’s graduation from Arizona State University. I had read about Matt Bycer’s etrog orchard in various Jewish magazines and wanted to see it. I had some extra time, so I arranged to pay him a visit. When I met Matt Bycer at his etrog orchard in Scottsdale, I immediately gave him

a Rhode Island souvenir – a bottle of Eclipse coffee syrup. He thanked me, and, to my surprise, asked “Where is the Del’s?” I never imagined there would be a Rhode Island connection. Matt told me he got his undergraduate degree from Brown in 2001, majoring in physics. He even taught Sunday school at Temple Emanu-El. He went on to law school at the University of Arizona in

Tucson. He is now a practicing patent attorney. When he moved to Tucson he became observant, being influenced by Chabad. He also studied with Rabbi Jordan Brumer, who he followed from Tucson to the Phoenix area where the rabbi does outreach to college students. But why grow etrogs? Matt told me he was concerned that there would be no good sources in the United States

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for etrogs during the Shmita year in Israel. That is the seventh year of the cycle in Israel when, according to Jewish law, fields must lie fallow. When I walked into Matt’s backyard, it was not what I had expected. Having been to an etrog orchard at Kfar Chabad in Israel, I expected something on the scale of an apple orchard that you might see in Rhode Island. Matt’s home is a typical Phoenix-area house on perhaps one-half acre; his house takes up half the land. You walk through his home to the backyard, and you see rows of small trees planted in wooden crates. It is all very neat and

well cared for, but it looks more like a tree nursery than an orchard. The trees are perhaps 3 to 4 feet tall. His hobby, a labor of love, is both time-consuming and dollar consuming. He has about 200 trees. Each one requires three gallons of water every day. It takes him two hours each morning during summer (winter and spring he says he doesn’t have to water every day) to carry buckets of water to his plants. Tap water doesn’t work because of its hardness. All the water must be treated to correct the pH level before ORCHARD | 21

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Matt Bycer, etrog farmer, lawyer and Brown University grad. FROM PAGE 20

ORCHARD

it reaches the etrog tree. Each wooden container costs close to $30. Soil and water are expensive. Matt only uses the best fertilizer, and he uses organic methods to keep the pests in check. When he first plants the seeds there is only a 10 percent success rate. Matt explained to me that he planted four types of etrogs: Chazon Ish (Israeli/Greek), Yanover (Italian), Yemenite and Moroccan. Each has its own market. He is excited that this year he has his first flowers and first fruit. But because of the Torah prohibition on orlah fruit, (fruit from a tree

in its first 3 years after planting) he must wait three years before picking his first crop – that will be in 2016. His goal is to be fully producing for the 2021 Shmita year. At that time, he hopes to sell 1,000 etrogs and pay for the project. Matt showed me a new irrigation system that he will be installing. Partially donated by Jon Sigona of Perfect Water Technologies in Scottsdale, it consists of two large plastic water containers on cement blocks. Plastic tubing is run to each plant ending with a drip system. There is a water pretreatment unit. The system

September 26, 2014 |

PHOTOS | MARC ADLER

A water treatment filter sits inside the Bycer home. It purifies the water before watering the etrog plants.

Matt showed me his lemon uses Israeli technology. Since Matt needs more time to at- tree and the thorns on it. He tend to his growing family, is learning a lot about growthis will save him the labor of ing etrogs from his lemon schlepping water to each plant. tree. The lemon (and etrog) I asked Matt about the differ- can be scratched by thorns in ence between a $50 and a $500 the branches. Etrogs are ofetrog and how he would maxi- ten covered in burlap bags to mize his crop value. He said protect them from scratching. there are several criteria, in- Imagine the labor it takes to cluding size, shape (how sym- wrap 1,000 etrogs in bags. metrical), and how scratched Matt says he loves the work. the etrog is. The cleaner the It’s a hobby, however, since etrog, the more it costs; the both he and his wife Elisheva more perfectly shaped, the work plus attend to their two higher the price. And Italian daughters Nava who is 2 years etrogs are usually 1the costliold Page and Talya who is 5 months. JVH_9/26/2014_Layout 9/18/14 9:14 AM 1 est. I asked Matt what he would

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22 | September 26, 2014

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The Jewish Voice

Is your home ready for winter? StatePoint – It’s time to start preparing your home to make sure it can efficiently handle colder weather. “There are many small, lowhassle items you can complete to ‘winterize’ your home,” says David Andreozzi, principal of Andreozzi Architects and the American Institute of Architect’s (AIA) National Chair of CRAN, the AIA’s Custom Residential Architects Network. “Prepping your home for the season ensures you aren’t dealing with major issues when they are harder to tackle, and can prevent costly repairs come springtime.” To help homeowners prepare, Andreozzi offers the following advice.

StatePoint – Preparing your home for colder weather can help ensure your family stays warm and safe, as well as save you money on energy-related costs and potential damage to your home’s structure. “I recommend homeowners do a thorough home inspection at least every five years,” says Tom Capuano of Pillar To Post Home Inspectors, a home inspection franchise. The experts at Pillar To Post recommend homeowners take the following steps to cover their bases.

Doors and windows

Check chimneys and gutters

Regular checks of your chimneys and gutters are both safety-smart and wallet-friendly. Fireplace dampers should be closed and functioning properly to protect against drafts and keep heating costs down. Leaving a damper open or using a broken one is the equivalent to leaving a window open when the air conditioner is running. While sometimes not as noticeable as a chimney draft, ice is another danger. It can build up in gutters quickly if there is debris there from previous seasons. In order for ice to melt and drain properly, drains must be clear. Clean your gutters when it’s warm to prevent clogs and costly replacements.

Prepping your home for cold weather pays off

Remember watering systems

This is especially important for new home buyers who may not think to look for this. Water trapped in an outdoor faucet, spigot or irrigation system can cause a pipe to burst if ice settles inside. Make it part of your winterizing routine to ensure that outdoor plumbing and pipes are clear before temperatures drop.

Designing for weather

In the design process of your home, it is important that your home is sealed correctly to account for local weather. An architect can advise on how to prevent unwanted drafts. If you

have an older home or apartment, use self-adhesive weather stripping to seal cracks in windows and doors, too.

Create a timetable

The change of seasons means maintenance. Create a checklist of tasks with a timetable so you are never scrambling at the last minute. Small items that often slip between the cracks can be taken care of in a timely fashion – like changing batteries in smoke detectors or cleaning the pilots of the heating system. Andreozzi recommends using a professional twice a year to help tick off some of the trickier items, such as sealing windows.

If you can feel cool air coming through the bottom of the door, replace the weather stripping and door sweeps to save about one-third of your average annual heating and cooling costs. Next, caulk drafty windows and replace old single-pane windows with thicker, more modern versions. Install storm windows and insulate walls and attics.

Chimney and flue

Annual inspections of the chimney and flue minimize the threat of chimney fires. Additionally, add a chimney cap to keep out moisture and ensure your chimney has an appropriate liner to separate system emissions from the home’s structure. Inspect and maintain chimney flashing.

Outdoor areas

Ensure gutters and downspouts are flowing freely. Clogs can cause water to make contact with the foundation walls of your home and creep under your roofing. Seal cracks in your home’s foundation to prevent moisture intrusion. Seal decks and

fences to prevent the wood from rotting. The roof takes the brunt of the cold weather, so repair leaks, however minor, and replace loose shingles. Winterize pipes with insulation, especially those that are exposed to the elements or located in unheated areas. Know where your water shutoff valves are located so they can be turned off in case of a pipe leak. Trim tree branches that could potentially fall onto your home or driveway. Check with your local municipality about regulations.

Thermostats

Programmable thermostats can cut energy bills by $100 or more each year. For every degree your thermostat is adjusted, you can save up to 1 percent on energy bills.

In-home leaks

Repair leaking faucets and toilets, which can add up to 20 gallons of water per person per day. Also consider lowflush toilets and showerheads. Low-flush toilets use less than 1.6 gallons of water per flush and low-flow showerheads use up to 36 percent less water. Some local water departments offer rebates for making the upgrade. If you don’t have the time or knowledge to inspect your home for problem areas, certified home inspectors can quickly check all areas of your home and will give you a report of your home’s condition. Home inspections and prepping for the cool weather can help protect your family and your pocketbook.

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September 26, 2014 |

New Lion of Judah Stacy Emanuel with her mother Sheila Kaufman

PHOTOS | JENNIFER ZWIRN

Attending the Home Sweet Home event are, left to right, Susan Odessa, Cheryl Teverow, Cindy Feinstein and Susan Froehlich

Connecting us by connecting you

Wendy Joering shares at Women’s Alliance ‘Home Sweet Home’ BY JENNIFER ZWIRN jzwirn@jewishallianceri.org What began as a way to connect new families in the community to all things Rhode Island has since evolved into the vital role of assisting and comforting those in need. In a very short period of time, the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island Community Concierge, Wendy Joering, has become a communal touchstone for individuals requiring immediate and special attention and services across Rhode Island. Nearly 30 women gathered to share a compelling and heartfelt moment as Joering told her story on Sept. 18 at Susan Froehlich’s home in Pawtucket. Approximately $150,000 was raised for the 2015 Annual Campaign. The Alliance’s Lion of Judah (for women who donate more than $5,000 annually) “Home Sweet Home” event kicked off the Women’s Alliance 2015 Annual Campaign with Joering’s poignant message delivered through her professional experience and personal anecdotes. She explained just how essential it is for the community to support her role as it is a life force for so many. “The Community Concierge was initially part of the strategic plan for outreach, but it turned into a crisis management role rather fast in response to the floods that took place over Passover in 2010. People all over the state were displaced from their homes due to Hurricane Sandy, and Nechama, Jewish Response

to Disaster, moved into the JCC. Together we worked roundthe-clock for six weeks, helping Jewish community members – community members who sit next to us in temple and attend JCC events, community members who were living in motels because they lost their homes to flood damage, community members who were eating fastfood morning, noon and night because it was the only thing they were able to afford. All of this changed when we got involved. We saw progress, and we haven’t looked back.”

“Whatever it is, we will do it – we are committed to ensuring health, safety and wellness to as many throughout our community as we can.” And the great need for support continued long after the floods receded. In December of 2012, an anonymous donor approached the Alliance with the very generous goal of wanting to give away $25,000, all the while Alan Hassenfeld and Jeffrey Savit were creating the groundwork for Living on the Edge, Brandeis University’s Steinhardt Social Research Institute 2013 examination of the economic status of greater Rhode Island’s Jewish

community. The Living on the Edge initiative, now co-chaired by Alan Hassenfeld and Susan Leach DeBlasio, will empower the community to assist even more individuals and families with great need. The donor wanted someone from Jewish Family Service (JFS), Jewish Seniors Agency (JSA), and the Alliance to sit at the table alongside a local rabbi and a few members of the community-at-large. The committee would be called Helping Hands and the premise would be very simple: when an individual shows need and the committee votes “yes,” the rabbi sends a check to the landlord, the insurance company, the electric company, whatever entity requires payment. “We have since helped people avoid eviction, receive necessary medical attention and get air conditioners in the height of summer, and we continue to support those who need an extra hand, not as a Band-Aid but as a means to support long-term solutions. Our relationships have grown stronger with JFS and JSA as a result of this holistic collaboration.” Often, individuals requiring financial assistance need additional social services though they cannot afford them. “This is precisely where I step in – someone sees my name on the Alliance website or hears about Helping Hands through a synagogue, picks up the phone, and we begin the process of helping in whatever way we can. Whatever it is, we will do it – we are committed to ensuring health,

Wendy Joering,left, with Mitzi Berkelhammer safety, and wellness to as many throughout our community as we can,” said Joering. Most recently, Joering received an urgent call on a Friday afternoon requiring all hands on deck. An active senior member of the community called after being released from the hospital. She had been hit by a car, was in great pain, and worried about her finances. Joering offered comfort and reassurance to her while contacting JFS and her rabbi. Joering maintained contact with her throughout the process and scheduled a meeting to assess her financial concerns so Helping Hands could offer some peace of mind to a woman who admittedly has little to call her own. “Our community surrounded this woman and gave her the support she needed. She lost a child to cancer and has another son who is disabled. She has no family to help. She has the Jewish community.” While “Home Sweet Home” focused on the impact of Joering’s role throughout the community, the intimate event also

highlighted Vice Chair of Philanthropy Mitzi Berkelhammer’s recent mission to Israel and Greece, and the International Lion of Judah conference in New York City that was attended by Berkelhammer, Alliance Board Chair Sharon Gaines, Mindy Wachtenheim, Susan Leach DeBlasio and Froehlich. Also at “Home Sweet Home,” Sheila Kaufman, mother of Stacy Emanuel, proudly presented her daughter with a Lion of Judah pin, and remarked how special it was to be able to pass her Jewish values to her daughter. Berkelhammer commented, “We are so fortunate to be able to assist those in need in Rhode Island and around the world. We support the annual campaign because we believe in taking care of one another, be it nourishing our hungry, tending to our frail, or inspiring Jewish life for our next generation.” JENNIFER ZWIRN is in Grants, Planning and Endowment at the Jewish Alliance

24 | September 26, 2014

HOME & GARDEN

The Jewish Voice

Planting bulbs in fall will bring glorious colors to your yard in spring

FROM PAGE 18

GARDEN

M. Bess Dicklow, University of Massachusetts Extension Plant Disease Diagnostic Laboratory • Grower to Grower Panel Brad Clegg, Four Town Farm, Seekonk, Mass. Dave Volante, Volante Farms, Needham, Mass. Registration: $40 per person or $35 per person for 3 or more from same business. Includes morning refreshments and handouts. Two contact hours for pesticide recertification have been requested. To register, contact Tina Smith, 413-545-5306,

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with innovative exhibitors during dedicated tradeshow time to gather information on products and services that will benefit your business. Share ideas and build relationships.” To register, visit negreenhouse.org. Prices vary. URI Master Gardeners free soil pH tests Roger Williams Park Botanical Center, 1000 Elmwood Ave., Providence, R.I. 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. Oct. 4 and Nov. 1 To prepare, collect four to six samples from different locations in the area you are sampling. Go down three to six inches to the root depth to dig your sample. Place the samples in an open tray, mix well and allow them to air-dry overnight. Fill a paper bag with a half a cup of the sample and label it. Indicate where your soil sample was taken. 11th Annual Fall Carnivorous Plant Show The show is free with the purchase of regular admission to the Roger Williams Park Botanical Center, , Providence, 401785-9450, ext. 250 Oct. 4, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. and Oct. 5, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. More than 300 plants on dis-

play. Free seminars on growing and feeding carnivorous plants. R.I. Wild Plant Society First Thursday Botanizing Walks Free. Oct. 2, 10 a.m. to Noon, 4 Kings Way, Avondale Farm Preserve, Westerly, R.I., 401-7897497 “Take a walk with people interested in learning and sharing their knowledge of native plants. Contribute data to a citizen science project studying climate changes on plants.” R.I. Orchid Society happenings Roger Williams Park Botanical Center, 1000 Elmwood Ave., Providence, 401-769-0369 • Terrestrial Orchids, Oct. 25, 12:30 p.m. Most of the orchids cultivated today are air plants (epiphytes) but some are terrestrial (roots in the ground). Is the cultivation for these plants the same? This class will explain the needs for “land-locked” orchids. • Mimicking the Rainforest, Nov. 29, 12:30 p.m. Providing conditions similar to a rainforest is crucial to growing most orchids today. Learn how to provide these conditions in your home or apartment.

• What’s New in the Orchid World, Dec. 27, 12:30 p.m. Learn about discoveries and trends in the world of orchid culture and preservation.

Gardening resources:

URI Garden Hotline, Kingston Campus URI Outreach Center April through September, Monday through Thursday, 9:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m., 800-448-1011, gardener@etal.uri.edu “The mission of the [Master Gardener] Association is to work in partnership with the URI Outreach Center and RI Land Grant programs to educate residents of Rhode Island and surrounding areas in environmentally sound gardening practices through the dissemination of factual, research-based information. The Association organizes and operates the URIMGA comprised of graduates of the URI Master Gardener training course.” The Center for Agriculture, Food and the Environment at the University of Massachusetts Amherst 319 Stockbridge Hall, 80 Campus Center Way, Amherst, Mass. The center “integrates research and outreach education in agriculture, food systems and the environment.” Among other services, it offers plant problem diagnostics. These include tree fruit and small fruit, tree and shrub, turf, vegetable and floriculture. If you have questions on a home garden topic, email them to greeninfo@umext.umass. edu. You can also sign up for their Home Garden & Landscape email list here: extension. umass.edu/landscape/homegarden-email-list. The Rhode Island Horticultural Society 130 Gano St., Providence, 401272-0980. Its mission is to create a better understanding of gardening and horticulture and how they can improve our quality of life. The society aims to be an information resource for Rhode Islanders and visitors.

COMMUNITY

thejewishvoice.org

September 26, 2014 |

Dani Shapiro …. still writing… BY ROBIN HOMONOFF Dani Shapiro is the author of one of my favorite memoirs of all time – “Devotion.” I recommend it often and have heard time and time again how much it has meant to readers. Dani is also the author of five novels including “Black & White” and “Family History.” She has taught in the writing programs at Columbia, New York Universty, The New School, and Wesleyan University, and she is the co-founder of the Sirenland Writers Conference in Positano, Italy. Her most recent book, “Still Writing,” is sure to become a classic as Shapiro shares her insights in this gorgeous memoir of the writing life. Dani will be one of the guest authors at “An Evening With Authors” on Oct. 8. These are some of the questions I sent to Dani in anticipation of her Rhode Island visit. R O B I N : What are some of your favorite books on writing? DANI: Annie Dillard’s “The Writing Life,” Annie Lamott’s “Bird by Bird,” Stephen King’s “On Writing.” ROBIN: You lead various workshops from Kripalu to Sirenland. What are the top three things that participants hope to learn while in attendance? What are some of the surprising things they wind up leaving with? DANI: I have learned over the years, in teaching writing, that there are two different methodologies, depending on where a writer is in her development. There’s writing to get the words down on the page, and then there’s writing to get the words right on the page. The first is generative, and in those workshops and retreats, I bring

in various modalities ranging from meditation to yoga, in order to quiet and still the mind, to clear away the detritus, and to allow the writer freedom and permission to find her story. In the workshops and retreats that are for writers who already have manuscripts, we read closely, workshop intensively, and try to help the writer make the work the best it can be on its own terms. I think participants in my workshops hope to deepen their work, and find a community. I’m humbled by the way this happens, time and again. I think writers who attend my smaller retreats are often surprised by the bonds that quickly form among the students, and how real and sustaining those

bonds are, long after the retreats are over. ROBIN: How does your yoga practice inform your writing or vice versa? DANI: Both my yoga and my meditation practice are the only way I know to quiet my mind so that I can approach the page. We live in such a noisy world – as if the noise in our heads isn’t already

Dani Shapiro enough! When I feel overwhelmed, as I often do, by my flooding inbox, my commitments and responsibilities, if I unroll my yoga mat and do my practice, it’s as if my mind is swept clean and I can begin again. ROBIN: Oprah! Super Soul Sunday – what in the world was that like? I don’t know what to ask you first about this so anything you’d like to share from finding out you were to be her guest, to what it was like being with her. And was this your first experience with Oprah? DANI: It was definitely a peak experience for me, spending time with Oprah. Our conversation lasted well over an hour, and in preparation for it, my promise to myself was that I wanted to be present for it. I didn’t want to be nervous, or self-conscious, stuck in my head, worried about what I was going to say or how it was going to sound. I wanted to be in that extraordinary moment. I needn’t have worried, because one of Oprah’s great gifts is her intense presence and curiosity. Once we began speaking, of course the cameras were rolling but I forgot all about them. I was focused on the very intense

and moving conversation she and I were having. ROBIN: You and your husband are quite the creative power couple -what’s that like? What sorts of projects do you collaborate on? DANI: Haha! I don’t think of us that way. My husband, Michael Maren, is a journalistturned filmmaker. When I met him he was a war correspondent and then we went through the “Hollywood years” in which he wrote screenplays for major studios, but wasn’t very fulfilled, and in the last several years he’s turned to making his own films – his feature debut, “A Short History of Decay” was released last spring, starring Linda Lavin, Bryan Greenberg, Harris Yulin and others. I was very involved in that project. We share our work with each other, though we have very different processes. I tend to show him my work when it’s in process, while he waits until he has a draft he’s happy with before he gives it to me. I think what makes it work is that we are so completely a team. People sometimes ask me if we’re competitive with each other, being two writers who are married, and I can’t imagine such a thing. I really can’t. His victories and defeats are mine, and vice versa. We’re thinking of collaborating on a script and/or a TV series sometime soon. We have written a couple of scripts together in the past, most notably the script for my memoir “Slow Motion,” which Sony bought, and Reese Witherspoon was supposed

to star as me, but it never was made. Which is very often the story! ROBIN: Your top few summer reads? DANI: The last few novels I fell in love with are Jenny Offill’s “Dept. Of Speculation” and Elena Ferrante’s “My Brilliant Friend.” ROBIN: What are you working on now? DANI: My last two books are memoir, and so I’m very much hoping to begin a new novel soon. I miss writing fiction. Dani, along with best-selling authors, John Searles and Susan Jane Gilman, will be at An Evening With Authors on Oct. 8 at 7 p.m. in East Greenwich. Registration is at 6:30. This is Robin’s annual fund-raiser for breast cancer awareness month. Tickets are $30 and include an entertaining conversation-style interview with the authors plus dessert/coffee. Book sales proceeds will also benefit the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer. For more information, R o b i n . r e a d i n g w it h r o b i n @ gmail.com. ROBIN KALL HOMONOFF is Rhode Island’s own book maven. From author interviews to events with best-selling authors, Robin shares her love of books wherever and whenever possible. You can connect with Robin on Facebook.com/ readingwithrobin and follow her on Twitter@robinkall, online at www.readingwithrobin. com is updated constantly with all new author interviews and bookish information.

wishing you and your family a happy and healthy new year!

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26 | September 26, 2014

FOOD

The Jewish Voice

Take it outside: Hail kale (salad), bring on the beef (stew) BY SHANNON SHARNA MyJ e w i s h L e a r n i n g . c o m – During the summer we all relish al fresco dining. The moment we can bring our meals outside is always a happy one, and we schedule the summer months with picnics, barbecues and rooftop cocktails as much as possible. Then autumn arrives, and we box up our plastic ware and move indoors. But Sukkot offers us such a beautiful moment to extend our time outside and enjoy the tastes of early fall. Give me a salad with some roasted beets, and I am a happy lady. The Chopped Kale Salad recipe with Apples and Beets is satisfying and sweet with crunch from some walnuts and a hint of tartness from dried cranberries. The kale is hearty and will hold up well if you need to transport it to someone’s sukkah for lunch or dinner. Apple Cider Beef Stew uses one of my favorite fall treats, apple cider, to make a rich stew that is perfect to serve on a chilly fall day over some egg noodles or rice. It’s also a great alternative to cholent for a hearty Shabbat lunch in the sukkah. Sweet Potato Cupcakes with Toasted Marshmallow Frosting will have your guests asking incredulously, “are you sure these are nondairy?” And yes, they are. The sweet potato ensures a super moist cake even without milk or butter, and the slight spice sings of fall flavors. The marshmallow frosting is super easy to make and even more fun to toast using the oven broiler or a small hand torch if you have one.

Chopped Kale Salad with Apple and Roasted Beets Ingredients:

3 cups chopped fresh kale 2 medium beets 1/2 apple, diced

stock and balsamic vinegar and let come to simmer. Add salt and pepper. Place beef back into the pot, stir and cover cooking for 2 hours in preheated oven. At the 2-hour mark, add the potatoes. Taste the stew, and add more salt and pepper if necessary. Put stew back into the oven for another 45 minutes. Serve with rice or noodles. Yield: 6 servings

Sweet Potato Cupcakes with Toasted Marshmallow Frosting Ingredients:

1/4 cup chopped candied walnuts 1/4 cup dried cherries or cranberries Olive oil Balsamic vinegar Salt and pepper

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Wash and dry the beets. Place in tin foil and roast in oven for 45-60 minutes, or until soft. Allow to cool. Remove the outer peel of beets using hands or a vegetable peeler. Cut beets into bite-sized pieces. Place chopped kale in a large salad bowl. Add beets, apple, candied walnuts and dried cherries or cranberries. Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar or salad dressing of your choosing. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Yield: 4 servings

Apple Cider Beef Stew Ingredients:

3 pounds beef chuck, cut into 2-inch cubes Salt and pepper All-purpose flour 3 tablespoons olive oil 1 large onion, diced

Executive Director/Synagogue Administrator Wanted Tifereth Israel Congregation of New Bedford, MA is seeking an Executive Director/Synagogue Administrator to join a team of professional and lay leaders working to ensure the ongoing vibrancy of Jewish congregational life and to build upon our reputation as a welcoming community. He or she will serve as a representative of the Officers and Directors of the synagogue in administering the affairs of the congregation. The successful candidate will often be the first person a member or prospect speaks to in the synagogue for information regarding a problem. Duties of the position can be tailored to match the attributes of the right candidate. We will consider responses for both full-time and part-time arrangements. We offer a comprehensive benefits package. Compensation will be commensurate with experience. A complete job description may be obtained by e-mailing our office. Email a letter of application, resume, and salary requirements to our office at: office@tinewbedford.org. Put “Application for ED/Admin” in the subject line.

3 medium carrots, peeled and diced 3-4 garlic cloves 2 bay leaves 1 teaspoon cinnamon Pinch crushed red pepper 2 cups apple cider 1 cup red wine 1 cup vegetable or beef stock 2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar 4-5 medium Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Sprinkle salt and freshly ground pepper liberally over beef. Cover beef in light coating of flour. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a Dutch oven or other large oven-safe pot. Brown meat on all sides and then remove from pot and set aside on a dish. Add another tablespoon olive oil and saute onions, carrots and garlic cloves, scraping the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Add cinnamon, bay leaves and pinch of red pepper flakes, continuing to stir. Saute vegetables until transluscent. Add apple cider, red wine,

2 medium sweet potatoes 1 1/2 cups flour 1 teaspoon cinnamon 3/4 teaspoon ginger 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup vegetable oil 2 large eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. P i e r c e sweet potatoes with a fork and wrap in tin foil. Roast for 40-50 minutes or until soft. Let cool. Cut potatoes in half and scoop out flesh. Place in a food processor fitted with a blade and pulse until smooth. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add pureed sweet potatoes, sugar and oil to a large bowl. Beat on medium-high speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Add eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. Add vanilla. Add flour mixture in batches; beat just

until blended. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line and grease muffin tins. Fill muffin trays until 3/4 full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out cool. Allow to cool. Make frosting (see recipe below). Pipe frosting in a swirl on top of each cupcake. Using a handheld blow torch, gently drag the torch across the frosting, toasting the frosting until just lightly brown. Yield: 12 cupcakes

Marshmallow Frosting (half recipe)

(via Jennifer Shea of Trophy Cupcakes)

Ingredients:

8 large egg whites 2 cups sugar 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Preparation:

Place egg whites, sugar, and cream of tartar in the heatproof bowl of an electric mixer. Set over a saucepan with simmering water. Whisk constantly until sugar is dissolved and whites are warm to the touch, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer bowl to electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, and beat, starting on low speed, gradually increasing to high, until stiff, glossy peaks form, 5 to 7 minutes. Add vanilla, and mix until combined. Use immediately. Yield: enough for 2 dozen cupcakes SHANNON SARNA is editor of The Nosher blog on MyJewishLearning.com, where these recipes originally appeared.

Komen organization apologizes for Houston race’s Yom Kippur date JTA – The Susan G. Komen organization apologized for holding its Race for the Cure in Houston on Yom Kippur. Komen’s executive director, Ariana Higgins, told the Houston Chronicle that the foundation has learned its lesson following an outcry from the Jewish community. The foundation received “considerable community feedback,” according to the newspaper. In its unsigned letter of apology, the organization said it noticed five years ago that there would be a conflict and tried to change the event, but that the alternate dates offered on the crowded city calendar did not suit its needs. “Although we are aware of

the message that scheduling the Race for the Cure over this important holiday may send, we must express that we did not intend any disrespect or to undervalue the significance of this holy day,” the apology said. But Rabbi David Lyon of Houston’s Congregation Beth Israel wrote in a blog post, “Over the course of five years, any truly concerned organization would have found a better solution.” The rabbi said that he and his wife would no longer support the organization, and would find “other organizations that accept greater personal responsibility to honor the health of all women and their respective faith traditions.” Susan G. Komen, for whom

the race is named, reportedly was an observant Jew. The race is traditionally held the first Saturday in October, the start of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Some cities hold their race on the first Sunday of the month. This year, eight of the 138 races across the United States will be held on Yom Kippur, the Chronicle reported. “We’re already looking at future calendar dates and making sure we won’t encounter this in the future,” Higgins said. The closest Race for the Cure to The Jewish Voice circulation area takes place Sept. 28 in Boston, Massachusetts.

September 26, 2014 |

YOM KIPPUR

thejewishvoice.org

Why do we fast on Yom Kippur, and who shouldn’t? BY DEBORAH FINEBLUM JNS.ORG – Herut Shitrid vividly recalls the first Yom Kippur she fasted. She was only 10, but somehow she was able to make it through the whole day. “I felt proud,” she says nearly two decades later. “I was so proud that I could do it.” These days, Shitrid spends much of her time serenading with her harp the passersby at Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem’s Old City. But back when she was growing up in the southern Israeli city Beersheba, fasting on Yom Kippur was one way to emulate the adults’ process of teshuva–to repent, or to return to your faith and your highest self. “If we’re asking God to delete our sins, we have to show Him we’re willing to sacrifice a little bit,” Shitrid tells JNS.org. Indeed, that sense of overcoming our own bodily needs to invest every moment of the day in the act of repentance is one of the mainstays of the fasting experience. But afflicting ourselves comes in a number of forms. In addition to not working and eschewing food and drink, Jews on Yom Kippur traditionally don’t wear leather shoes or any other leather garment such as belts and coats, etc.; don’t bathe, swim or wash; don’t use perfumes or lotions; and avoid marital relations. Yom Kippur is a legal holiday in Israel, with no radio or TV, buses or trains, and certainly no shopping. (History buffs may recall that one Yom Kippur did see a broadcast: during the Yom Kippur War in 1973 to alert the Israeli citizenry to Egypt and Syria’s attack.) In today’s heavily secular Israel, along with bicycling

COURTESY | MAURYCY GOTTLIEB VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

A depiction of Jews praying in synagogue on Yom Kippur. on the (nearly empty) streets, fasting is one traditional observance that is stubbornly clung to – nearly three-quarters of Israelis planned to fast last year. No wonder Israelis of all stripes wish each other a “Tsom Kal” (easy fast) or “Tsom Mo’iil” (beneficial fast). Israelis, of course, are not alone in this practice. Regardless of what they do the rest of the day, many Jews fast on Yom Kippur. But why? “When we walk around with a full belly, we develop a sort of haughtiness, a sense of selfsatisfaction,” says Rabbi Avi Moshel of Jerusalem. “So in the 25 hours of fasting, we actually

put ourselves in a state of humility.” “Being hungry and thirsty reminds us that all we eat and drink, in fact, all we have in life, comes directly from God,” he adds. “The goal of the day is to bring ourselves down enough to sincerely ask for forgiveness, increase our awareness of God in our life and our commitment to hands-on Judaism, the religion of action.” The idea is that the prayers and spiritual and emotional tasks of the day are so compelling that they wipe food (more or less) out of our minds. Rabbi David Aaron of the Jewish education organization Isralight

likes to tell the story of the oldcountry rabbi who was asked by his students how many times a year he fasts. When he answered that he never fasts, they were shocked, asking, “You mean you eat on Yom Kippur? “Eat on Yom Kippur? Of course not!” the rabbi shot back. “On Yom Kippur I am far too busy doing teshuva to even have an appetite!” The point, Rabbi Aaron tells JNS.org, is that “when we are truly in the spirit of these days, the desire for food just falls away.” But who exactly should fast? Youngsters start fasting for real at bar/bat mitzvah age, but also beginning as young as age 9, Jewish tradition encourages children to postpone their meals a bit and skip the candy and ice cream treats. Besides little kids, who shouldn’t fast on the holiest day of the year? Women in their first 72 hours after birth, certainly, and even those during the first week should work closely with their rabbi and doctor to determine how much fasting they should do. As for pregnant women, all those except for the ones having high-risk pregnancies are expected to fast. The others need to again coordinate with their rabbi, doctor or midwife. Judaism insists that life comes first and gives guidelines for the sick to take in needed sustenance while respecting the spirit of the fast. After checking in with their rabbi and doctor, they typically restrain themselves to 30ml of water or food (one fluid ounce) every 10 minutes or so to prevent dehydration and weakness. It’s usually suggested that they focus on simple high-protein foods that have more power to strengthen

than empty calories. In the case of required medications, rabbis and doctors make provisions on a case-by-case basis. In fact, Jewish tradition is ready for them. An ancient High Holiday prayer book provides this blessing for someone sick before eating on Yom Kippur: “Behold I am prepared to fulfill the mitzvah of eating and drinking on Yom Kippur, as You have written in Your Torah: ‘You shall observe My statutes and My ordinances, which a man shall do and live with them. I am God. In the merit of fulfilling this mitzvah, seal [my fate], and [that of] all the ill of Your nation Israel, for a complete recovery. May I merit next Yom Kippur to once again fulfill [the mitzvah of] ‘you shall afflict yourselves [on Yom Kippur].’ May this be Your will. Amen.” But with the vast majority of Jews fasting, there is another, less spiritual benefit to hosts and hostesses everywhere: the break-fast, when the most humble hard-boiled egg is lauded for its luscious perfection. You will never have such appreciative guests at any other time during the year!

Tips for an Easier Fast

Carbo Load. Don’t overeat the night before, and focus on complex (whole grain) starches and fruits and veggies to give you energy on the big day. A good soak. Stay well hydrated in the days leading up to the fast as this reduces weakness during Yom Kippur. Just say NO… To alcohol, coffee and soda in the two days before the fast since these actually dehydrate you.

Sneakers on fast days: When spirit and letter collide BY BINYAMIN KAGEDAN JNS.ORG – The wider world of traditional Judaism is moving in fits and starts toward a renegotiation of the terms of halakhic observance. At question is the importance of social change in the understanding and application of the legal logic of the sages of old. In the last several years, voices from within the Orthodox fold have raised a formidable challenge to certain established norms of Jewish life and law, especially regarding the possibilities of female religious leadership. Though not as emotionally charged, there are many other points of striking dissonance between codified law and modern reality that dot the landscape of Jewish observance. One that has caused something of a stir lately is the ban on legumes and rice for Ashkenazi Jews on Passover, a rule that everyone seems to know and bemoan as an artifact of early-modern grain storage techniques. An-

other, which appears to have escaped popular scrutiny so far, is the injunction against wearing leather shoes on the fast days of Tisha B’Av and Yom Kippur – though the reason for the disparity in critical interest should not be hard to comprehend. Rabbinic law from the Talmud delineates five prohibitions that apply equally on Tisha B’Av, the day of greatest tragedy, and Yom Kippur, the day of gravest repentance. These are: eating/drinking, marital relations, applying cosmetics, bathing and wearing leather shoes. The intention is to create an experience of uncomfortable abstinence, in one case as a sign of mourning and in the other as a method of selfpurification. And yet for the observant Jew living in the age of Nike, the prohibition against leather shoes has only meant that twice a year, every year, on the two most solemn days of the year, we were allowed to wear our most comfortable shoes to syna-

gogue. True, not everyone came in gel-soled basketball shoes. Many opted for funky rubber flip-flops with socks or the ubiquitous white Keds. It isn’t as though the irony of the situation is lost on modern Jews. I recall my elementary school teachers taking the time to explain the reasoning behind the prohibition as that leather shoes were once the most comfortable kind of footwear, back when these rules were being written. Implicit in the inclusion of this clarifying detail was an acknowledgment that we are now living in the absolute reverse situation: that at this point in history, the leather shoe epitomizes podiatric discomfort. Traditional halakha stands firmly planted in an older order of things, in this case collapsing upon itself in a way that precludes any of its original meaningfulness. That the prohibition against leather shoes is really a prohibition against comfort –rather than stemming from some ritu-

al problem with leather itself, is demonstrated by Dr. Ari Zivotofsky of Bar-Ilan University. Zivotofsky cites a wealth of legal writings beginning with the Talmud that address the problem of what type of shoe ought to be worn on Tisha B’Av and Yom Kippur. The masters of the Talmud sported shoes of bamboo, reeds or palm branches, or wrapped pieces of cloth around their feet. Maimonides advised that whatever shoes are chosen should be flimsy enough so that the wearer feels virtually barefooted as they walk. Although many Jewish communities continue to “sidestep” the sneaker contradiction, some contemporary authorities have issued rulings intended to rescue the spirit of the law. Zivotofsky notes the opinion of Rabbi Yaakov Ariel of Ramat Gan, Israel, who adds to the prohibited list any non-leather shoe that one would commonly choose to wear day in and day out for their comfort, i.e., sneakers and other leisure footwear. Other

legalists such as Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky and Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch uphold the “protectiveness” approach by expanding the prohibition to any material construction that functions as well as leather. On the other side, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach manages to resolve the problem more leniently by asserting that all modern people fall under the Talmudic category of istinis, roughly meaning “persnickety.” In Rabbi Auerbach’s view, given our very low tolerance for physical discomfort, banning comfortable non-leather shoes on Tisha B’Av and Yom Kippur would be tantamount to unnecessary cruelty. Remember, don’t judge another man’s shoes until you’ve walked a mile in them. BINYAMIN KAGEDAN has an M.A. in Jewish Thought from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. He can be reached at bkagedan@gmail. com.

BUSINESS

28 | September 26, 2014

The Jewish Voice

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BUSINESS

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September 26, 2014 |

Today’s planning is tomorrow’s retirement “Retirement is so far away – I have plenty of time to plan accordingly. I’ll never stop working during retirement. I will claim my Social Security benefits as soon as I can. My spending will reduce when I retire.” S o u n d familiar? are RETIREMENT There many questions and CAFE much confusion conANDREW cerning reMILLER tirement. This column will offer readers a place to exchange ideas to create a climate where we can live a dignified retirement. Over the years, we have seen a major transfer of retirement risk and responsibility from employer to employee. There was a time when employees shared loyalty with their place of employment and, after 30 years of dedication, entered an honorable retirement with confidence in their employer and the government’s ability to protect the golden years. A major factor behind this dynamic shift in responsibility is life expectancy risk. As a result generations to come have newfound commitments to one another. Our discussions in this column will allow readers of all

ages to appreciate that retirement planning is nothing more than the measurement of risk. We will discuss how to customize the broad-spectrum of investment advice and subliminal messages. We have created a culture measured by our standard of living, no longer our quality of life. Rather than focusing on how and where to spend your wealth, the column will identify resolutions to help you enhance the development of your family’s needs. It is common today to plan and live in retirement overlooking consequences that are completely out of our control. This column will offer features that help us potentially isolate and transfer liabilities over which we have no control, and discuss planning behaviors. We must not confuse the quality of life with the standard of living. Indicators of the quality of life include not only wealth and employment but also physical, mental and financial health. It was Ralph Waldo Emerson who said, “The first wealth is health,” a brilliant quote as we measure life and our ultimate definition of retirement. Younger readers planning for retirement should learn what retirement looks like 20 and 30 years in the future. We should understand income streams taken in retirement economically define how to position savings today. By creating a vision

of retirement tomorrow – you’re more likely to take control of planning today. We will address uncertainties surrounding factors such as investment returns, inflation rates, living expenses and education planning costs. Younger planners struggle to understand how current retirement contributions will translate into future retirement income. The sooner we get on the right path, the greater impact we have on the results. Readers who are approaching their definition of retirement will learn about new complications and ways to avoid them –including how to maximize Social Security and Medicare, minimize taxes on your withdrawals, avoid penalties on minimum distributions from your retirement accounts. We will also discuss how to time your withdrawals due to market volatility risk and how to build income models that are right from the start. Then you can enjoy spending your money and perhaps leave your loved ones a meaningful legacy, too. Until next time remember, “The only thing forever is yesterday.” ANDREW MILLER is a Chartered Retirement Plan Specialist thru the College for Financial Planning. Retirement Café will appear once a month. Send questions or comments to amiller @ gmail.com.

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SENIORS

And Joseph was told: Ye shall eat the fat of the land Primitive societies invested much labor in growing or otherwise obtaining food. Drought, insect depredation and war periodically threatened the community’s food supply, making food central to tribal survival. And on those infrequent occasions when food was abundant, especially at harvest time, surely dietary moderation was abandoned. Episodes of communal gluttony were then periodic events, evolving OF SCIENCE g r a d u a l ly into ritual & SOCIETY feasts celebrating the STANLEY M. abundance ARONSON, M.D. of food and thus expressing thanksgiving. But during those trying intervals when food was scarce, human obesity provided clear evidence of one’s wealth and social stature. As recently as the early 20th century, Harry Goldin remembers his mother’s saying, “In America, the fat man is the boss, and the skinny man is the bookkeeper.” A century ago, the portly executive with a gold watch chain festooned over an ample abdomen, accompanied by a matronly wife, was an icon of established authority. He was symbolic of success, contentment, jollity and ownership. Consider, for example, literary figures such as Falstaff, Mr. Pickwick and even Santa Claus, all with excessive girth. And even Shakespeare’s Caesar reflects: “Let me have men about me who are fat; sleek-headed men as such as sleep o’nights; yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look; he thinks too much; such men are dangerous.” On the other hand, literary villains were typically alienated and bitter souls: gaunt creatures such as Iago, Cassius, Legree and Richard III, men consumed – made slim – by their inner fury, men who were both lean and mean. The morbid face of obesity emerged when life insurance companies undertook life-expectancy studies early in the 20th century. They discovered a statistical relationship between excessive body weight and shortened lifespan. Prospective epidemiological studies then defined obesity as a major risk factor in cardiovascular and endocrinological illnesses. As the 20th century matured, the alleged blessings of obesity became better known. And if the body masses of United States presidents are any criterion of the American self-image, we seem to have reduced our idealized weight from the

portly, sedentary McKinleys and Tafts to the spare and exercising Kennedys and Obamas. But the mere recognition of the serious clinical implications of obesity does not translate readily to easily achievable weight reduction. Eating, like sex, is one of those driving forces in life that remain after minimal biological needs are fulfilled. Man is the only animal that eats when he is not hungry, drinks when he is not thirsty and has sex in all seasons of the year. Many identify food as one of the central pleasures of life. Beyond its obvious nutritional role, food is central to every religious or secular ritual. Births, weddings, retirements and deaths are commemorated by a defining meal, often with prescribed foods.

“Man is the only animal that eats when he is not hungry, drinks when he is not thirsty and has sex in all seasons of the year.” What do we know about obesity? We know that it is more common in women and rural populations, and that there is an inverse relationship between obesity and socioeconomic status: 30 percent of the impoverished, 16 percent of the middle class and 5 percent of the upper class adults are overweight. In Europe and in the Western Hemisphere, obesity rates increase with one’s relative proximity to the equator. Obesity, it is sometimes said with a small measure of truth, is a southern trait. For the foreseeable future, then, eating seems destined to satisfy much more than hunger pangs. Its role, for many, is diverse, pervasive and tangled. For some, it is a cherished preoccupation; for others, an addiction; and for still others, an activity infiltrated with social imperatives, taboos, religious prohibitions and uncounted, swirling unconscious forces. Rhode Islanders, of course, are painfully aware of their weight gain; many engage in regimens to lose their added pounds. These exercises in painful self-denial are sometimes successful. Someone in Providence once commented: “I went on a diet, swore off drinking and heavy eating; and in 14 days I had lost exactly two weeks.” STANLEY M. ARONSON, M.D. (smamd@cox.net) is dean of medicine emeritus at Brown University.

The Jewish Voice

The seasons come and go In very neat lettering on the shoreline sands, somebody has printed “Summer 2014” and, farther along from the Towers to the Dunes Club, castles

SKETCHBOOK MIKE FINK

of sand are ready to crumble when the tide comes in. Robert Frost wrote, “Ah, when to the heart of man was it ever less than a treason, to yield and accept with grace the end of a love or a season?” Quietly I recite the poem to myself as I stroll and ponder on the brink of autumn. June, July, August and most of September are like the hourglass that used to sit on our old-fashioned stove with the fine grains like salt or sugar flowing downward until the egg was ready for breakfast. The sandpipers skip along the line of waves in quest

of tidbits to eat: an elegant, almost magical, sight. I smile in admiration of their delicate but determined beauty. I stoop to pick up a few shells or stones shaped by the steady rhythm of the moon-high surf or the mild and gentle ebbing. Even the quahog shells have purple, wampum-wealthy decorations, perhaps enhanced after the creatures within the carapaces have been consumed by the gulls. The sea is a fancy artist! The gulls look so fine here but not so fine in the dump where they line the roofs of the sheds for the recycling of our waste packaging. I stare at the mixture near the Canonchet portion of the town sandbar, of markings, footprints in the sands of time, made by the claws of the flocks of abundant seagulls and also by the treads of the tires of the machinery for cleaning up the human mess we vacationers leave behind us. That’s why I love the end of summer castle designs. They seem almost philosophical and poetic because the builders know their work is fragile and temporary and enjoy it for

that very reason. Lots of human prints also follow my own pathway, the little feet of the small-fry and the bigger toes and soles of the grown-ups. An anonymous artist has left a sandy mermaid made of seaweed and mud. My little granddaughter wants me to turn her into just such a mermaid. Her mom, my daughter, proclaims, “Dad, you look like the Sandman... the Grim Reaper!” And it earns a round of laughter. In a few hours everything will vanish, and the cellphones will be silent under the moonlight, while the music of the spheres – the ordinary waves, I mean – reassure me that there is a glorious futility and absurdity at the heart of the world and the universe. Sept. 21 will mark the end of a love and a season, the love of most of us in Rhode Island for the passing paradise of summer 2014 and the season that leaves us with a prayer of hope at our Rosh Hashanah for yet another lovely summer come 2015.

Cranston seniors meet Oct. 1 The Cranston Senior Guild will meet Oct. 1 at Tamarisk Assisted Living, 3 Shalom Drive, Warwick, at 1 p.m. The guest speaker will be a

Holocaust survivor. There will be refreshments and a raffle. All men and women 50 years and older are welcome to join (You do not have to be a

Cranston resident). You do not have to join if this is your first meeting.

SENIORS

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September 26, 2014 |

Jenny Miller, an advocate for those in need Practicing empathy one senior at a time BUSINESS PROFILE

BY IRINA MISSIURO imissiuro@jewishallianceri.org If you ask Jenny Miller, the president and owner of Senior Care Concepts, eldercare experts in Rhode Island, what the most important qualities of someone in her profession are, she’ll say, understanding and compassion. In the same vein, Miller’s favorite quote is “It’s nice to be important, but it’s important to be nice.” Her life choices mirror that philosophy. Miller’s achievements illustrate that empathy is crucial to her existence. Whether she’s teaching American culture and English language at a kibbutz, making a difference on the board of the Rhode Island chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association or solving community problems with the Rotary Club, Miller lives according to her grandmother’s guidance “to take every experience that you are faced with and do something to help others.” In fact, it was her grandmother who was her inspiration in life. When Miller was young, she looked up to the refi ned woman with whom she

drank tea out of china cups and listened to classical music. She, too, wanted to become a successful entrepreneur, not unlike the grandmother who, along with Miller’s father, ran a business. The granddaughter heeded the sage advice to listen to people, be compassionate and kind. Raised to believe that she could do anything as long as she put her mind to it, Miller absorbed the teachings. When her grandmother succumbed to Alzheimer’s in 2004, Miller knew that she needed to share her knowledge of caring for a sick elder with others who were dealing with a similar predicament. She opened Senior Care Concepts to assist families navigating the challenges of aging and the hurdles of the healthcare system. For more than 15 years, Miller has been offering in-depth assessments and long-term planning. When her clients arrive for help, they are feeling “overwhelmed,” “concerned,” “confused” and “stressed,” as Senior Care Concepts’ website indicates. Despite the fact that they all experience the same range of emotions, each treatment calls for a different approach due to varying levels of need. A certified case manager and a member of the National

Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers and The National and Rhode Island Associations of Social Workers, Miller is qualified to assist seniors in maintaining their well-being, independence and dignity. Along with her staff, she offers clients and their families personal, individualized service. Miller says, “Not everyone fits into the same mold.” Her goal is to ensure that a care plan will ease not only the clients’ health worries, but also their fi nancial concerns. Miller recalls a client who was suffering from the beginning stages of Parkinson’s disease when she came to Senior Care Concepts. This woman’s hope was to stay at home and live as independently as possible. Miller made that happen. After the client died, her family wrote to Miller, “We could not have done this without you. Your guidance, assistance and support allowed [the client] to live her life the way she wanted, and we learned that we needed to adapt, adapt, adapt, and we did!” Miller says that knowing how helpful she and her team are to such families is the best part of the job. Miller must be succeeding in accomplishing her objectives because her clients are not the

OB ITUARIE S Jan Feldman, 74

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Jan Feldman, D.D.S., passed peacefully with his family at his side Sept. 11. Beloved husband of Diane (Patrick). Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pa. on March 5, 1940, to the late Harry and Esther (Blender) Feldman. Dr. Feldman was a 1957 graduate of Central High School in Philadelphia and attended Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pa. Following college, Dr. Feldman graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in dentistry (1964). From 1964-1966, Dr. Feldman served as a Captain in the United States Armed Forces. He was deployed in the Army Dental Corps in Korea and Germany. Following his military service, he studied advanced endodontics at Boston University and received his D.D.S. (1969). Dr. Feldman practiced endodontics in Providence for 48 years and was on the dental faculty of Boston University for a decade. He was a member of the American Dental Association

and Rhode Island Dental Association and garnered numerous accolades for his expertise, including being a founding board member of the Schilder Institute for the Advancement of Endodontics. He served as the editor of the Rhode Island Dental Journal for over 20 years, and received the American Dental Association’s 2001 Dental Editor Award and the Pierre Fauchard Academy’s Award for Outstanding Service (2004). He was an avid golfer, tennis player and skier, longtime fan of the Red Sox and Patriots, lover of classical music, world traveler, a former member of Temple Habonim in Barrington and a current member of the historic United Brothers Synagogue of Bristol, and a board member of the Bristol Landing Condominium Association. Besides his loving wife of 27 years, he is survived by his children Tamra and Todd (Elizabeth) Feldman, Kim, Lauri (Geth), Bill (Cheryl), and Chris Mann, as well as grandchildren Molly, Noah, Quinn, and Teagan Feldman, Michael, Danielle, and Kelsey Mann, his sister Riva Kinstlick, and her children Michael (Nidhi) and Harriet Kinstlick. Donations, in lieu of flowers, may be made in Jan’s honor to the United Brothers Synagogue, 205 High St., Bristol, R.I. 02809.

Hyman W. Jacobson, 97

WARWICK, R.I. – Hyman W. Jacobson, of Tamarisk, died Sept. 14 at Tockwotton Home in East Providence. He was the beloved husband of the late Beverly (Brown) Jacobson. Born in East Greenwich, a son of the late Israel and Rebecca (Ellison) Jacobson, he had lived in Warwick for 15 years, previously residing in Providence. He was a salesman for the Outlet Co. for 35 years, retiring in 1983. Jacobson was a WWII Army veteran, serving stateside. He was a member of the Cranston Senior Guild. Devoted father of Judith S. Fogel and her husband, Herbert, of Delray Beach, Fla., and Narragansett and Bobbie Wallick and her husband, Marc, of Warwick. Dear brother of the late Frank Jacobson, Arthur Jacobson, Sadie Tatt, Mollie Pockar and Celia Elman. Loving grandfather of Jenny Miller and her husband, Eric, Jared Fogel and his wife, Kelly, Molly Fogel, Dr. Leah Bassin and her husband, Eliot, Adam Wallick and Julie Wallick. Adored great-grandfather of 4. In lieu of flowers, contributions in his memory may be made to the East Greenwich OBITUARIES | 32

Jenny Miller only ones who appreciate her hard work. In 2011, the National Association of Social Workers, Rhode Island Chapter, named her Social Worker of the Year in Aging. Her career accomplishments haven’t kept Miller away from her loved ones. Her parents and her husband are her biggest supporters, she says, and she feels that she’s extremely lucky to have an understanding family who appreciate everything she does. Mother of two, Miller says, “As the girls have gotten older, I have found a good balance.” She and her husband are raising their children with the time-honored Jewish values, namely “giving back to those in need and learning from those who have come before us.” The emphasis on performing mitzvot was part of her own upbringing, and now Miller is ensuring that the tradition

continues. Back when she and her siblings were young, her parents instilled the concept of tikkun olam in them. When the kids complained about receiving the wrong brand of jeans for Hanukkah, their parents showed them the kind of lives others lived by taking them to McAuley House in Providence. After preparing, delivering and serving Christmas dinner, as well as passing out gifts to the less fortunate patrons, the siblings never grumbled about their presents again. Moreover, a new ritual was born; for more than 20 years now, Miller has volunteered at McAuley during the holidays. Miller has also been teaching her daughters by example. For the past two years, she has visited the Dominican Republic with members of the Rotary Club of Providence. There, they built latrines and installed water fi lters to rural sugar cane communities. She never thought that she’d do something like this, but now can’t imagine not going back. Miller’s lesson is already paying off – after she’d shared with her older daughter that the kids lacked footwear, her daughter has started a collection of fl ip-flops through her school, Girl Scout chapter and the community. Next December, they plan to bring roughly 1,000 pairs of shoes to kids in Dominican Republic. After all, Miller thinks it truly is better to give than receive. IRINA MISSIURO is a writer and editorial consultant for The Jewish Voice.

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32 | September 26, 2014 FROM PAGE 31

OBITUARIES

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Jacob (Jack) Komros, 89

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Jacob Komros D.D.S., died peacefully in the company of his beloved family on Sept. 14 at the Philip Hulitar Impatient Care of Rhode Island Hospice, following a long illness. Born in Providence, he was the son of the late Rose and Hyman Komros, and the brother of the late Dr. Leonard Komros. He was predeceased by his beloved wife Frances Komros (Cohen). He is survived by his wife Rosalie Komros (Ruben), three daughters, Carol Gallivan (Komros) of Oak Park, Calif., Gail Hachenburg (Komros) of Medway, Mass., Judith Caron (Komros) of N. Attleboro, Mass., and five grandchildren. During WWII, he was an Ensign junior grade in the Navy, serving with distinction in the South Pacific. He did his undergraduate work at both Providence College and Trinity College. He received his D.D.S. degree at the University of Maryland Dental School in 1951. He practiced dentistry on Armistice Boulevard in Pawtucket until his retirement. He and his wife maintained a residence in both Pawtucket and Miami, Fla. Dr. Komros was president of the Rhode Island Association of Dentistry during his midcareer. He was an enthusiastic gardener and fisherman. He

had a life-long love of the sea, and enjoyed cruising the waters off Cape Cod with his children and grandchildren, where he and his wife and family maintained a summer home. Contributions in his memory may be made to the Multiple Sclerosis Association of America, National Headquarters, 706 Haddonfield Road, Cherry Hill, NJ 08002.

Carole Millman, 78

CRANSTON, R.I. – Carole Millman died Sept. 22 at home. Born in Providence, a daughter of the late Sidney and Mildred (Marks) Backman, she had lived in Cranston for 18 years. Carole was a bookkeeper for many years as well as a salesperson in several retail businesses. She was a graduate of Hope High School, Class of ’53. Carole was a member of B’nai B’rith, a life member of Temple Beth-El and its Sisterhood and a life member of Brown Hillel. She was the loving wife of the late Harvey Millman. Devoted mother of Richard Millman and his wife, Vickie, of Sommerville, NJ and Estelle Millman and her husband, Stephen DeQuattro, of Rumford. Dear sister of twins Samuel Backman and his wife, Carolyn, of Springfield, Va., and Adrienne Uffer and her husband, Martin, of Cranston. Loving bubby of Matthew, Joshua and Adam. In lieu of flowers, contributions in her memory may be made to Temple Beth-El, VNA Hospice, or Brown Hillel.

The Jewish Voice

Ruth B. Sauber, 90

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Ruth B. Sauber (Butler) died Sept. 17. She was the wife of the late Robert Sauber. Born in Philadelphia, Pa., a daughter of the late Edward and Sally (Brown) Butler, she had lived in Providence for over 50 years. She was a member of Temple Beth El. She is survived by her children, Richard A. Sauber and his wife Pamela of Washington, and Amy Quinlan and her husband Richard of Hingham, Mass.; and her grandchildren, Jessica, Elyse, Bryan, Matthew and Thomas. She was the sister of the late Selma Keiner. In lieu of flowers, contributions in her memory may be made to Brown University Medical School.

Charles M. Silverman, 84

RIVERSIDE, R.I. – Charles M. Silverman, of Riverside, previously of E. Providence, Bristol, E. Greenwich and Providence, died Sept. 13. He was the beloved husband of Nancy (Maningo) Silverman, to whom he had been married for 10 years. He was born in Providence, a son of the late William and Mildred (Marx) Silverman. A 1948 graduate of Hope High School, he was a U.S. Air Force veteran having served during the Korean conflict. He was the manager of the former Heller & Co. of Providence, a manufacturer of gold rings. He was the owner of the former Allyn’s Products Inc. of Providence, a wholesale sports fishing and tackle company. A self-employed artist specializing in lighthouse prints; he was a serious amateur photographer, an avid striper fisherman and sailor. He was involved in Operation Clean Sweep and was a co-founder of Operation Clean Government and was a longtime lobbyist at the Rhode Island State House. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his children, Linda and David Shefler, Alan and

Claudia Silverman and Laura Silverman; his step-children, Allan Rey, Amadis Ann and Aisobelle Joy; as well as his brother Michael H. Silverman, 4 grandchildren, 6 step-grandchildren and 1 great-grandson. In lieu of flowers, contributions in his memory may be made to the charity of your choice.

Marjorie E. Thompson, 60

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Marjorie E. Thompson (Drucker), of Providence, passed away Sept. 15 at Home and Hospice Care of R.I., peacefully surrounded by family and close friends. She was a lifelong educator, learner and artist. She came to Brown University as an undergraduate in 1970 (B.S. Biochemistry ’74; Ph.D. Anatomy ’79), continuing on to serve the university for 31 years as the associate dean of biology and undergraduate affairs. She inspired innumerable students as a trusted academic advisor and teacher of embryology, histology and scientific illustration. It was her great professional passion to help students navigate their undergraduate careers and move into the world as contributing members in their fields. She has maintained close ties with many former students who will fondly remember her “chalk talks,” yellow legal pad concentration maps, and wise guidance. Her other great passion in

life was music. Having played guitar since she was a young child, in 2000 she embarked on a second career as a songwriter, performer and, of course, teacher. She wrote songs and played finger-style guitar in the country blues genre. Her music is a rich illustration of the world, ranging from the surreal to the sublime to the hilarious. She has released seven studio albums, six instructional DVDs, taught many workshops at the Fur Peace Ranch Guitar Camp, and performed across the country and internationally. Together with her husband of 36 years, Ian, she raised a family of seven children. She declared her children and their tight-knit relationship one of her proudest accomplishments: “Together, you are an organism.” She is survived by her parents, Louis and Mildred (Yellin) Drucker; her husband, Ian Thompson; her children, Alexis Thompson (Sarah Bowman), Graham Thompson (Kamila Thompson), Ariel Thompson, Caitlyn Thompson, Riley Thompson, Zoë Thompson, Griffin Thompson; and her grandchildren, Holden and Petra Thompson-Bowman. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in her honor to Home and Hospice Care of R.I., 1085 N Main St, Providence, R.I. 02904.

OBITUARIES We print death notices of approximately 300 words for people with ties to our circulation area. There is no charge. We will print a photo if submitted and a small flag for veterans. Please submit obituary and photo to editor@ jewishallianceri.org and indicate if a photo and/or a flag should accompany the obituary.

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COMMUNITY

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COURTESY | NORA RABINS

Scale models for Case Study Sukkot from Nora Rabins. FROM PAGE 1

SUKKAH

erties, is co-sponsored by The Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island and (401)j and Residential Properties. It was conceived by Howard Ben Tre, according to Judith Moseley, executive director of Temple Beth-El. According to the grant proposal, the project was designed to give three artists a chance to create sukkot in the traditions and laws that defi ne the historic sukkah. However, each artist was charged to add contemporary interpretations that are innovative, and use a variety of materials that are sustainable and renewable. Rabins loves working with found materials. Whether she’s taking a group of teens to the scrap yard or poking around herself, she is always on the hunt for objects that will inform her work, which includes sculpture, metal-working and furniture design. Staying true

to her love of found materials, Rabins used AstroTurf as the inspirational foundation for her sukkah. She used the AstroTurf for the exterior skin. “I’m not determining the circumstance,” she says. “I’m working in the situation.” “This is such an interesting project because it’s a farm-totable event and a sustainable project,” she says. Add to that the nature of the harvest holiday and it poses an appealing challenge for her. Her roof will be at a slant, “reminiscent of post-modernist architecture,” she said. You have to be able to see the stars and some sun; it will all be there. Rabin is also challenging herself to do more. “I’m making it so I can live in this tiny home. All the elements – eating, sleeping, studying – will be there.” She has many ideas that she’s still working on for the interactive part. But

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her sukkah will be colorful and impactful. And it won’t be fi nished until it’s standing near the temple. She says she’s honing her ideas as she nears fabrication, which is taking place in her Pawtucket studio. This whole project has been a good fit for Rabins, who grew up in Baltimore with a Reform Jewish background. She is involved with many communitybased projects. Also, Rabins teaches welding at The Steel Yard in Providence and 3D Design at the college-level, including at Providence College. She works with adults with disabilities among other projects. Her undergraduate degrees in art and logic and her master’s in furniture design add to her multidisciplinary art background. “This has given me the opportunity to revisit some of my arsenal of ideas,” she says. If this is what goes into just one sukkah, the community will be in for quite an experience with the three. Installation begins Oct. 6 at the corner of Orchard and Butler avenues on the Eastside. Money from the grant will help fund artists’ materials, according to Moseley. Ben Tre will help artists move their fi nished sukkot from studio to the Orchard Avenue site. The festival will go on rain or shine. There will be music by Brez & Pez; food will be available and Moseley hopes the street by the temple will be closed off. “This is not just a Jewish event,” said Moseley. “We are making this a whole-community event.” FRAN OSTENDORF is the editor of The Jewish Voice.

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SIMCHA | WE ARE READ

September 26, 2014 |

BROMANS CELEBRATE 60TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY – Gerald and Rose Broman of Pembroke Pines, Florida (formally of Cranston and Warwick), celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary on Sept. 12, Jerry and Rose have two children and three grandchildren. A cruise with their children is planned to honor the milestone.

Touro Fraternal Association and The Jewish Voice announce the

EAGLE HONORS – Brian Molloy (second from right) of Troop 126, Franklin, Massachusetts, was elevated to Eagle Scout Aug. 9 in an Eagle Court of Honor. Brian’s project involved 65 volunteers totaling over 400 hours, managing the completion of two Tee-Pads at the Dacey Field Disc Golf Course in Franklin. Included among leadership positions Brian has held is Patrol Leader for his troop at the 2013 National Scout Jamboree. He is also a Brotherhood Member in the Order of the Arrow. Brian entered his junior year at Tri-County Regional Vocational Technical High School in September, enrolled in the electrical program. Pictured with Brian are his parents, Shelly and Peter Molloy (also an Eagle Scout) and his brother Sam, who is active in scouting. Proud grandparents are Pamela and Joel Cohen of Warwick and Carolyn Cohen of Bellingham.

AT THE LAKE – Robert N. Levin, M.D., a native of Providence, takes The Voice to the family house on Farwell Lake in Hanover T o w n s h i p, M i c h i g a n . He has worked as an interventional cardiologist in Royal Oak, Michigan, for the past 28 years. He and wife Sharon and two children, Jennifer and Jeffrey, live in Michigan.

HANUKKAH 2014 Art & Writing Contest What’s the Contest About? Students in grades 1-4 are invited to DRAW or PAINT a picture and; Students in grades 5-8 are invited to write a SHORT ESSAY on either of these themes: • My Family at Hanukkah • What Hanukkah Means to Me

Who’s Eligible?

Jewish students grades 1 thru 8.

Are there Prizes?

Prizes will be awarded in each category: First Prize - $108 Second Prize - $72 Third Prize - $36 First prize winner’s school or synagogue will receive a technology-related gift valued at approximately $720 (ex. laptop, computer station, camera...)

Entry Details • • • •

Visit thejewishvoice.org or tourofraternal.org Download entry form Include name of school or synagogue on entry form Submit hard copy of drawing or essay with entry form to: Entries must be Subject: Hanukkah Contest postmarked The Jewish Voice no later than 401 Elmgrove Avenue November 23 Providence, RI 02906

Winners Announced...

• A panel of judges will be chosen by Touro Fraternal Association and The Jewish Voice • In celebration of Hanukkah and to present the prizes to the winners, Touro Fraternal Association will host a Hanukkah party December 14

45 Rolfe Square, Cranston, RI www.tourofraternal.org

Touro Fraternal Association reserves the right to determine the range and scope of gifts.

36 |â&#x20AC;&#x201A;September 26, 2014

The Jewish Voice

The Orchard Avenue

Sukkot Harvest Festival Sunday, October 12, noon to 4 pm Artisan Sukkot! Music by Brez &Pez! on the front lawn of Temple Beth-El 70 Orchard Avenue, Providence

Sukkot by Artists Jonathan Bonner, Wendy MacGaw & Nora Rabins on view October 8-17, 2014

This event is free of charge, family-friendly, and open to the public. For more information, phone Temple Beth-El at 401-331-6070, email info@temple-beth-el.org, or visit our website,www.temple-beth-el.org.

The Rhode Island Foundation and Residential Properties have generously provided funding for this project. Concept by Howard Ben TrĂŠ.