Volume XX, Issue XXXV | www.thejewishvoice.org Serving Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts
19 Av 5774 | August 15, 2014
JEWISH WOMEN IN BUSINESS
Holocaust Memorial ready for building Next stage in development will bring project to completion BY FRAN OSTENDORF fostendorf@jewishallianceri.org The proposed Holocaust Memorial, to be built in downtown Providence, is about to pass another milestone. Plans have been fi nessed, added to and finalized. A chunk of funding has been raised. Now, it’s just about ready to be built. And Herb Stern is feeling pretty good about all that. The project that got its start about 10
years ago has had to scale many hurdles. The faithful supporters, and a committee that may be the longest serving group in the Alliance, are looking at fi nally seeing some return on their investment of time and money. “The perseverance of this committee is to be commended, and the committee is grateful for Jeffrey Savit’s support,” he says. This is a cause that Stern is MEMORIAL | 6
GREETINGS FROM RI! An IDF soldier displays a letter sent from members of the Rhode Island Jewish community including campers at JORI. For an update from Israel, see page 31.
MIRIAM ROSS RI HOUSE DISTRICT 4 DEMOCRAT
www. m iriam rossri.com
Paid for by Friends of Miriam Ross • Armand Almeida, Treasurer
An artist’s rendering of the finished Holocaust Memorial.
For ‘hardcore’ Jews displaced by Ukrainian fighting, Israel beckons BY CNAAN LIPHSHIZ JTA – Each time he dispatches a car into Lugansk, Rabbi Shalom Gopin readies himself for hours of anxious anticipation. The scene of brutal urban warfare between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian separatists, this eastern Ukrainian city now has no regular power supply, running water or cell phone reception. Mortar rounds can fall without warning. Much of the population, once 450,000, has fled. But despite the risks, Gopin, the city’s exiled chief rabbi, has dispatched more than a dozen cars to Lugansk, each one intended to quietly ferry
Jews to a camp he runs for the internally displaced in Zhytomyr, near Kiev. More than 117,000 people are internally displaced within Ukraine, the United Nations reported earlier this month. Over the weekend of Aug. 9-10, Gopin welcomed several cars to Zhytomyr carrying a total of 13 passengers. For Gopin, each arrival brings relief, but also sadness over the disintegration of a community he has spent 15 years building. Initially intended to provide temporary shelter for Jews fleeing the fighting in the east, the facility, which functions mainly as a summer camp, is now home to 250 displaced
Ukrainians. Gopin says more than half have no plans to return. “It’s a sad reality,” Gopin told JTA. “Many people are now realizing the bad situation may remain, so people who never even thought about making aliyah are going ahead with it. The city, my home, is emptying of Jews as it slowly consumes itself out of existence.” The Jewish Agency for Israel, the quasi-governmental agency responsible for facilitating immigration to Israel, is expecting more than 3,000 arrivals from Ukraine this year – a 33 percent increase over the 1,982 Jews who imUKRAINE | 13
SEASONED EXPERIENCED TRUSTED
“THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR EXPERIENCE.”