May 9, 2014

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

9 Iyar 5774 | May 9, 2014

TEENS & GRADUATION

THIS TEEN HAS SOUL Gotta Have Sole’s Nicholas Lowinger helps repair the world, one shoe at a time

BY IRINA MISSIURO imissiuro@jewishallianceri.org

PHOTO | IRINA MISSIURO

Gifts for graduates We’ve rounded up a list of ideas for your favorite student

BY IRINA MISSIURO imissiuro@jewishallianceri.org It’s that time of year. The trees are blooming and so are the teenagers. You probably have some young people in your life who are graduating this year.

To ease the usual conundrum – figuring out what to buy for a present – we have compiled a list for you of the 10 best gifts for graduates. There’s something for all the high school graduates here. Hopefully, you will GIFTS | 15

You’d be hard-pressed to fi nd an American who hasn’t heard the famous John F. Kennedy inaugural address, where he calls on the listeners to ask what they can do for their country. Nicholas Lowinger took those words to heart. An impressionable sixthgrader focusing on Kennedy for a history project, Lowinger was moved to make a difference. He says that the president’s words “had a major impact on me. I launched Gotta Have Sole Foundation that same year and also started encouraging youth to take action in their communities.”

The beginning

Many boys just want to get through their Torah portion at their bar mitzvah, more concerned about the party afterward than about the significance of becoming a man in the eyes

PHOTO | LOWINGER FAMILY

Nicholas Lowinger is making sure that children in shelters have new shoes and showing other teens that taking action is the right thing to do. of God. Not Lowinger, who took the concept of assuming responsibility for one’s actions to a whole new level.

At the ripe old age of 13, he

stumbled onto an opportunity to do good and has never looked back. Working on a community SOUL | 9

Odessa Jews make plans to evacuate if violence worsens JNS.ORG – Odessa Jewish community leaders said May 4 that Jews in the Western Ukrainian city are preparing to evacuate if violence there worsens.

Over the past few days in Odessa, violent clashes between proRussian and nationalist forces resulted in more than 40 deaths, according to reports.

About 30,000 Jews live in Odessa. Representatives of the

Ukrainian Jewish community insisted that the violence is not specifically targeting Jews. But Rabbi Refael Kruskal, who heads the Odessa-based Jewish philanthropic organization Tikva, said there were several Jews wounded in the clashes.

“Over the weekend we closed the [Great Choral] Synagogue [in Odessa]. We took all the students out of the center of the city

where the violence was, because we were worried it was going to spread. We sent a text message to everybody in the community on WhatsApp that they should stay at home over the weekend,” Kruskal told the Jerusalem Post.

“If it gets worse, then we’ll take them out of the city. We have plans to take them both out of the city and even to a different country if necessary, plans which we

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prefer not to talk about which we have in place,” he added.

Kruskal is also wary that the weekend of May 9, which marks the anniversary of Soviet Russia’s victory over Germany in World War II, could get very violent. He is considering setting up a camp away from the city where 600 Jews could stay while the fighting transpires.

Other Odessa Jewish orga-

nizations also have evacuation plans in place, including the Migdal International Center of Jewish Community Programs. The local Jewish community and the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews have fueled 70 buses, which are prepared for an evacuation if needed, said local Chabad-Lubavitch emissary Rabbi Avraham Wolf.

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INSIDE Arts 32 Business 28-29, 31 Calendar 8 Community 2-9, 12, 20-21, 23-24, 35 D’var Torah 13 Food 14 Nation 24-25 Obituaries 30-31 Opinion 10-12 Seniors 6, 26-27 Simchas 32, 34 Teens & Graduation 15-19 We Are Read 32 World 21

THIS ISSUE’S QUOTABLE QUOTE “Graduation is the celebration… of all the potential waiting to be realized.”

HIDDUR MITZVAH

Woonsocket’s B’nai Israel

BY GEORGE M. GOODWIN Although Temple Beth-El is widely known as an outstanding example of modern art and architecture, a slightly younger Rhode Island synagogue merits comparable attention. Indeed, B’nai Israel, built in Woonsocket in 1962, may have the fi nest ensemble of stained-glass windows in any American synagogue.

Founded in 1889 as an Orthodox congregation and later affiliated with the Conservative movement, B’nai Israel had only one previous home, a former Presbyterian church at Greene and Bernon Streets, which it purchased and renovated in 1904. Planning for a new structure began in 1944, but it was deferred because of immediate Jewish needs in Europe and Israel. By the late 1950s, synagogue leaders sought a building that would not only reflect their own selfesteem but perhaps impress their gentile neighbors. Indeed, when completed, the new B’nai Israel could have distinguished almost any community.

Arthur Darman, who had served as B’nai Israel’s presi-

COURTESY | RIJHA

B’nai Israel’s stained-glass windows in the main sanctuary are one of the building’s most striking features. dent since 1919, was most responsible for envisioning and funding the new edifice.

Though an immigrant with little schooling, he became one of Woonsocket’s most successful textile and real estate magnates as well as a notable bon vivant and epicurean. B’nai Israel also enjoyed the leadership and generosity of two brothers, Samuel and Israel Medoff, both successful businessmen.

Having been impressed by

Beth-El’s understated elegance, Woonsocket leaders interviewed Percival Goodman for their commission. Hoping to establish a separate identity and perhaps build something even more sensational, they selected Samuel Glaser, a Boston architect and a Conservative Jew, who had recently designed Newton’s Temple Shalom. Its brightly colored windows, designed by a Boston artist, were especially enchanting.

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Though trained as a traditionalist at M.I.T., Glaser became a fervent modernist. As an art collector and a Francophile, moreover, he was highly knowledgeable about avantgarde painters and sculptors.

He shared this enthusiasm with his younger sister, Vera (later the donor, with her husband Albert, of Brown’s List Art Building). No doubt Glaser quickly B’NAI ISRAEL | 24

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JCDSRI’s Professional Learning Community takes on Project-Based Learning (Part 2 of 2 parts)

PBL gets a real-life application in Providence

BY JAMIE FAITH WOODS In the Pre-K classroom at JCDSRI, Andrea Katzman writes the following about her experience applying the concepts of critique and multiple drafts to 4-year-olds: “Recently, we experimented with a different mode of reflection, that of creating multiple drafts. The book ‘An Ethic of Excellence: Building a Culture of Craftsmanship with Students,’ by Ron Berger, inspired us....Two students decided they wanted to experiment with this concept. Motivated by research they had done while preparing to build our space shuttle, they determined that they would draw an astronaut. After carefully studying a picture of an astronaut, the two students drew their first picture. Afterward, each student reflected on his choices and what he felt he might try to do differently for the next draft. Then his friend offered feedback, including what he liked (an important component of the critique process) and what specifically his friend might try next. ‘I like how you made the helmet a circle – it looks so round!’ shared one student. ‘I see that your astronaut doesn’t look like he has feet. Can you put them in next time?’ Each student drew four different drafts, including taking time between each draft to reflect on his own work as well as that of his peer. The next day, each child presented his work and experiences with creating multiple drafts to our kehillah during Circle Time conversations. Shared one student, ‘I like doing drafts. I get better at making an astronaut. I didn’t think I could do it. And now I can! I just had to keep practicing.’ Each time a new draft was shown, the two children heard gasps of astonishment from other children. Their audience expressed pride in each student’s progress and his dedication to the process.”

In the fifth grade classroom, the general and Judaic studies teachers have recently teamed up for a month-long interdisciplinary unit on the moon. The hope is that this will be projectbased learning, and the understanding is that students need preparation for this work. The current student desire is to create a lasting multimedia display in the school that incorporates what they’ve been excited about that they’ve learned as well as a book that highlights everything that has fascinated them in their study of the moon. The project can’t be planned until the students learn more, but they are driven to learn more to create something of worth.

The idea for studying the moon did not, however, come from

PHOTOS | JAMIE FAITH WOODS

The artistic display created by the fifth-grade during their project.

the students. Similarly, most of Berger’s amazing projects began as fortuitous opportunities initiated by his colleagues and friends.

My co-teacher Rabbi Andrea Gouze and I framed the unit with explicit big ideas that we shared with the students: Humans have been fascinated by the moon throughout time, as Jews we are connected to the moon via our lunar calendar, and the moon affects us and our planet. After we posted the big ideas, the students made explicit connections to them.

In general studies, they have read folktales and mythology from various cultures about the moon and pontificated about why people believe what they believe. This has prompted rich discussions about the nature of what we believe and why we believe certain things without scientific evidence. As fifthgraders move from being concrete to more abstract thinkers, the depth of these discussions reflects their developmental stage.

Using a student-initiated and created rubric, fifth-graders then chose to write their own folktales about the moon, but they used their science-based questions as jumping off points.

Just like ancient cultures used folktales to answer their genuine questions, so, too, have my fifth-graders. A fascinating moment of disequilibrium became apparent when a student asked, “Do you think it would be cool if I wrote about how the moon was formed?” His classmate’s response was, “Well, I’m not curious about that because I already know how the moon was formed.” I was anticipating that perhaps this student had been doing some outside research.

This student continued, “Well, God created the moon.” The two stared slightly in disbelief at each other. “Well … don’t you wonder how it was really created? I mean, like, scientifically.”

Students critique each other’s moon folktales.

With Rabbi Gouze, they’ve explored how and why the Jewish calendar came to be and our connection to the moon as Jews. They are currently writing their own midrashim that connect to the moon.

The more we learn about the moon from a physics and math view as well as through poetry and art, the deeper our connections to the moon. Rosh Hodesh had been a term and a time to these day-school students. Now their connection to the moon is deeper, and their critical thinking skills are strengthened.

They cannot help but feel and think more intensely about their connection to the moon as Jews.

At the end of the month, the students will begin the art installation replete with papier mache scale-model moons, clay scale models based on mass, their folktales, midrashim, poetry and other artifacts they deem worthy of presenting.

The current focus has been on learning content to make the project as rich as possible.

A fifth-grader absorbed in a book about the moon.

When the construction of the art installation begins, the focus will be on presentation and critique. The PLC helped me see this work is indeed an example of project-based learning.

JAMIE FAITH WOODS (jfwoods@jcdsri.org) serves as Teacher Leader for grades 2-5 at the Jewish Community Day School.

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4 | May 9, 2014

The Jewish Voice

Temple Habonim gallery features three area artists in May and June The May/June show in the gallery at Temple Habonim features works in three styles and media by three wellknown area artists: Angel Dean, Michael Guertin and Ruth Samdperil.

Angel Dean showcases her exceptional sense of design as well as her mastery of the technique of encaustics in her work. She was recently accepted into the prestigious “New England Wax,” a selective group of artists who work in the medium. Coupled with her sense of humor and her background in such areas as theater, music and photography, her sophistication adds to her subject matter and her art.

Michael Guertin is a digital media artist whose work is a series of time-mirror photographs. They suggest a surreal world, a glance through a carnival’s house of mirrors.

Each print has been produced from the camera’s recording of

the scene. Unlike traditional photographs, however, these prints have been created by piecing together strips from hundreds of video frames. His unusual rearrangements of real-world scenes use pattern and variation to dramatically contrast the static and the dynamic.

Ruth Samdperil is a prolific painter who accomplishes big statements with few brush strokes. She captures the essence of her subject with bold shapes to reveal the personality of her subject whether it is a landscape, a still life or a dear friend.

The Gallery is at 165 New Meadow Road, Barrington, and is open Wednesday and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Friday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and by appointment. For information, call 401-245-6536 or email gallery@templehabonim.org.

COURTESY | TEMPLE HABONIM

Angel Dean, “Off Target,” encaustic

Ruth Samdperil, “The Reader,” oil

Michael Guertin, “Winter Blues,” time/mirror photograph

Do you have a Father’s Day special you want to promote?

June 15th is dad’s special day; let’s do all we can to make all the dads feel special.

Advertise your “dad-centric” goods or services in our May 23rd Father’s Day issue.

(Deadline May 16)

Tricia Stearly at 421-4111, ext. 160 or tstearly@jewishallianceri.org Karen Borger at 529-2538 or ksborger@gmail.com

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New England Region participants had a chance to plant at Matan Graff ’s family moshav, left, and try out some fresh mint, above. Graff is the Israeli Shaliach (Emissary) for the Jewish Alliance. Below, they march from Auschwitz to Birkenau along with all the other March of the Living participants.

PHOTOS | MOL FACEBOOK

March of the Living 2014 The group of teens from Rhode Island who are participating in the March of the Living marched on April 28. Here is the New England blog entry from that date. It was written

by Rhode Island’s Lexi Kutenplon-Rayess and Rachel Steinmetz, a participant from one of the other New England groups: Today was Yom HaShoah, the day we all participated in “the March” from Auschwitz to Birkenau. Everyone started the day off with mixed emotions not knowing what to expect or feel, but once we got there the overwhelming amount of feeling of Jewish teens and survivors was comforting to us. We can all agree that seeing the “sea of blue jackets” marching between the two camps was a meaningful and powerful experience. Between the march and the ceremony, we all felt really proud to be there, walking in the path that our ancestors walked years before us.

The ceremony after the march was long, yet one of the most powerful Holocaust memorial services we have ever been to. There is something different about singing Eli Eli in America with tons of Jewish teens, versus singing it in Birkenau with survivors and other groups from around the world. We don’t think any of us will ever forget what we witnessed today. We really felt the significance of us coming back to remember the survivors and coming together as a Jewish community. As we stood surrounded by thousands of Jewish teens, adults, police officers, and diplomats — we realized how grateful we are to be Jewish.

TO READ MORE blog entries from the trip, go to http://molnewengland.com. To see more photos follow them on Facebook.

ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT Tricia Stearly tstearly@jewishallianceri.org 401-421-4111, ext. 160 EDITOR Fran Ostendorf CONTRIBUTING WRITER Irina Missiuro EDITORIAL CONSULTANTS Irina Missiuro | Judith Romney Wegner DESIGN & LAYOUT` Leah Camara

Karen Borger ksborger@gmail.com 401-529-2538 COLUMNISTS Dr. Stanley Aronson, Michael Fink, Rabbi James Rosenberg and Daniel Stieglitz MEMBER of the Rhode Island Press Association

COPY DEADLINES All news releases, THE JEWISH VOICE (ISSN number 1539- photographs, etc., must be received 2104, USPS #465-710) is published bi-week- on the Wednesday two weeks prior to ly, except in July, when it does not publish. publication. Submissions may be sent to: editor@jewishallianceri.org.

PERIODICALS Postage paid at Providence, R.I. ADVERTISING We do not accept advertisements for pork or shellfish. We do POSTMASTER Send address changes to: not attest to the kashrut of any product The Jewish Voice, 401 Elmgrove Ave., or the legitimacy of our advertisers’ Providence, RI 02906. claims.

All submitted content becomes the PUBLISHER The Jewish Alliance of property of The Voice. Announcements Greater Rhode Island, Chair Sharon and opinions contained in these pages Gaines, President/CEO Jeffrey K. Savit, are published as a service to the com401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence, RI 02906. munity and do not necessarily reprePhone: 401-421-4111 • Fax 401-331-7961 sent the views of The Voice or its publisher, the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island.

6 | May 9, 2014

SENIORS

The Jewish Voice

Rings and things: Remembering loss, moving toward life SEEKING FULL-TIME EDUCATION DIRECTOR/CANTORIAL ASSOCIATE Temple Habonim, a vibrant Reform congregation in the East Bay with 200 families is looking for a candidate to fill a new dual role position: Education Director/Cantorial Associate beginning June/July 2014.

Our ideal candidate is committed to and experienced in: • Making Jewish education fun, relevant, experiential and accessible to students.

• Inspiring teachers to build a community of learners.

• Developing and maintaining an inclusive atmosphere respectful of and responsive to the needs of diverse learners.

• Supporting engaged and thriving youth groups for teens.

• Song leading and guitar playing at worship services and school assemblies.

• Collaborating with spiritual leaders to create engaging worship experiences.

• Tutoring students in Hebrew proficiency.

Optimal qualifications include: a degree in general education or specialized training in Jewish Education, knowledge and experience with Reform Jewish education and curriculum development for pre-K – 10th grades, experience in youth and family Jewish programming, supervisory and administrative experience, excellent communication and organizational skills, knowledge of Microsoft Word and Excel. Competitive salary.

Please send resume to: Education Director Search Committee, Temple Habonim, 165 New Meadow Road, Barrington RI 02806 or by email to: employment@templehabonim.org.

BY ESTHER KUSTANOWITZ JTA – During shiva for my mother, my father gathered my brothers and me to share a letter in which she expressed some musings and last wishes. The letter also said that as the sole daughter, I had inherited her jewelry box.

In the room in which I had grown up in the 1970s, I opened the box to see the necklaces, bracelets, rings and clip-on earrings my mother had collected.

She had not worn them much over the last 16 years, as she grew considerably weaker from an illness she preferred to keep private.

Most of the jewelry was gifts from people who never knew how little my mother cared for trinkets — a sentiment I inherited — but the gold ring immediately flashed at me. Its large brown oval stone at the center of a sturdy gold cocktail-style setting seemed to oscillate between dark brown and hazel. I put the ring on my right hand.

Tracing my left hand with my right, I suddenly felt like a teenager in synagogue on Saturday mornings, with my mother’s hand lightly on mine, her fingers soothingly tracing my hand while I waited for services to end. I started to cry.

Once I put the ring on, it stayed on.

On a visit to Israel soon after, one of my first stops was to see my mom’s extended family. The Israeli cousins had immigrated to Petach Tikvah, which had been co-founded in the 1870s by their great-grandfather (my great-great-grandfather).

My mother had visited them on her honeymoon, walking down the street with her little cousins.

Her oldest cousin was now a grandmother. She grabbed my hand, tilting it back and forth to let the ring’s stone catch the afternoon Jerusalem light.

“It was your grandmother’s, yes?” she asked.

“No,” I said. “My mother’s.”

“Not possible,” my Israeli cousin asserted. “You see that setting? It’s a classic Jerusalem style, 1940s or earlier.”

I already knew the ring was important. But this moment transformed the ring into something more than an emotional tether to my mother. Suddenly it was an heirloom, something that connected me not just to the loss of and memory of my mother, but to her loss and memory of her mother. This ring was family.

My emotional attachment to the ring intensified; now I was fixated on both losses. Every time I looked at the ring, I felt connected to my mother and her mother. Remembering how REMEMBERING | 26

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Dor L’Dor event highlights American Jewish Film experience

BY TRINE LUSTIG tlustig@jewishallianceri.org The Dor L’Dor Bequest and Planned Giving Society of the Jewish Federation Foundation of Greater Rhode Island hosted an event at the home of Cheryl Greenfeld Teverow on May 1, featuring Eric Goldman, professor of fi lm at Yeshiva University. He spoke about the American Jewish experience in fi lm. The crowd saw short clips from a variety of different fi lms starting in the 1920s and illustrating the perception Americans had toward Jews as well as how Jews felt about themselves during that time.

Greenfeld Teverow thanked Doris Feinberg for her tenure as chair of the Jewish Federation Foundation as Jay Rosenstein will take the helm as chair in June. Greenfeld Teverow spoke about the Dor L’Dor Planned Giving and Bequest Society, which was established to honor those forward-thinking members of our community who have included the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island in their estate plans. She said, “Bequests made over the years have enabled us to provide scholarships for Jewish education, grants for Israel travel, Jewish overnight camping, helping needy seniors, Jewish preschool and the list goes on and on.” She noted that she established an endowment years ago with a life insurance policy naming the Jewish Alliance as the beneficiary. It has given her great pleasure to know that her endowment will continue to benefit the Jewish community in perpetuity.

Doris Feinberg announced to the group that she and Alan will be establishing a bequest to the Jewish Alliance.

Feinberg told the group, “While our gift to the Annual Campaign has current impact, a planned gift will resonate for generations. We are honored to leave this legacy to the Jewish community.” The endowment,

Dianne Newman, left, and Gloria Feibish

Ellie and Charles Elbaum

PHOTOS | TRINE LUSTIG

which has grown to $56 million, was established many decades ago with the foresight of Jewish leaders and has greatly benefited the Jewish community in Rhode Island and beyond.

In addition to the impact of the dollars raised for the Alliance Annual Campaign last year alone, the Jewish Federation Foundation endowment and Donor Advised Funds allocated over $1 million in grants to support the Jewish community.

FOR MORE INFORMATION about creating your own legacy, please call 401-421-4111, ext. 109.

TRINE LUSTIG is the Senior Development Officer of Financial Resource Development at the Jewish Alliance.

Left to right: Cheryl Greenfeld Teverow, Eric Goldman, Doris Feinberg and Sharon Gaines

CALENDAR | COMMUNITY

8 | May 9, 2014

The Jewish Voice

CALENDAR Ongoing

Alliance Kosher Senior Café. Kosher lunch and program every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Dwares JCC, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence. Noon lunch; 12:45 p.m. program. $3 lunch donation from individuals 60+ or under 60 with disabilities. Neal or Elaine, 401421-4111, 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.

Continuing through May 29

Local Artists Exhibit. Highlighting art from the community. Gallery (401) Dwares JCC, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence, Erin Moseley, emoseley@ jewishallianceri.org or 401-421-4111, ext. 108.

Lag Ba’Omer Parade and Community Picnic. 4:30 p.m. Sessions Street Park.

Clown show starring Bomer the Clown, outdoor games and races. In case of rain, program will be held at Chabad House, 360 Hope St., Providence. Sponsored by Chabad of R.I. and Congregation Beth Sholom.

Tuesday | May 20

Temple Torat Israel Lunch and Learn with Rabbi Amy Levin. Noon. The last Lunch & Learn with Rabbi Amy Levin.

Each participant orders from the menu and Jewish sources addressing current issues are studied. All are welcome; bring a friend. T’s Restaurant, 5600 Post Road, East Greenwich.

Wednesday | May 21

Three Area Artists in Three Mediums.

Temple Habonim, 165 New Meadow Road, Barrington. Wednesday and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Friday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and by appointment. For information, 401-245-6536, or email gallery@templehabonim.org.

American Jewish Perspectives to Peace in Israel. 7 p.m. Dwares JCC, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence.

Facilitated discussion about the role of the American Jewish community.

Panelists include: David Bernstein, executive director of The David Project; Rachel Lerner, senior vice president of community relations of J Street; and Martin J. Raffel, senior vice president of the Jewish Council on Public Affairs.

Sponsored by the Community Relations Council of the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island.

Tuesday | May 13

Thursday | May 22

Continuing through June

Blood Drive. 4-6 p.m. Bloodmobile at Temple Ohawe Shalom, 671 East Ave., Pawtucket. Bring driver’s license or other form of identification. www.ribc. org for appointment, sponsor code 0043.

Thursday | May 15

Leisure Club Activities. 10-10:50 a.m.

Katrin Jomaa, professor of Middle East Politics at URI, leads a program on “The Situation in Syria.” 11:10 a.m.-noon Dennis Hillard, director of the R.I. State Crime Lab leads a program “CSI: Rhode Island.” Temple Emanu-El, 99 Taft Ave., Providence.

Sunday | May 18

Breakfast and Speaker. 9 a.m. Breakfast and guest speaker, Ken Block. $7 per person. Open to the community. Sponsored by Temple Torat Yisrael’s Men’s Club at Temple Torat Yisrael, 1251 Middle Road, East Greenwich www. toratyisrael.org. RSVP to Alan Field at alanfield49@gmail.com or call the office at 401-885-6600.

3 on 3 Basketball Tournament. 10:30 a.m. Dwares JCC, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence. Teams of 4, 14 teams maximum. Register by May 12. Round robin format. Proceeds benefit teens attending 2014 Maccabi Games in Detroit. Contact Angela Sullivan at 401-421-4111, ext. 149 or asullivan@jewishallianceri. org.

Leisure Club Activities. 10-10:50 a.m.

Toby Rossner, former director of the library and teacher resource center of the Bureau of Jewish Education, leads a program on “Jewish Women Scientists.”

11:10 a.m.-noon Toba Weintraub, art historian, leads a program on “Italian Renaissance Art.” Temple Emanu-El, 99 Taft Ave., Providence.

Wednesday | May 28

Shavuot at Wright’s Dairy Farm. 4-6 p.m. Learn about where real dairy products come from during a tour of a working dairy farm. Bring a picnic and listen to PJ Library stories about Shavuot. Outdoor tour, dress appropriately.

Space is limited. RSVP required. $2 per person. Contact Michelle Cicchitelli (mchicchitelli@jewishallianceri.org) or 401-421-4111, ext. 178.

Sunday | June 1

“The Strudel Lady” 7 p.m. Presented by Temple Am David at the Dwares JCC, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence. Musical comedy about tradition, friendship, love and one woman’s journey to selfdiscovery. Includes adult subject matter.

Tickets $18. Visit www.grape-vine. com/offer/Temple_Am_David/The_Strudel_Lady or 401-418-1718.

Calendar Submissions June 6 issue, MAN OF THE YEAR – must be received by May 21 June 20 issue, HEALTH & WELLNESS – must be received by June 4

Send all calendar items to: editor@jewishallianceri.org with the subject line “CALENDAR.”

COURTESY | MARTY COOPER

On a mission to the Israeli embassy. Front row, left to right: Cliff Guller, Steve Woolf of JFNA, Lauren Frishman of JFNA, Dr. Julie Kopp Smily, Terry Smily. Back row: David Leach, Jill Padwa, Jeffrey Padwa, Bruce MacIver of JFNA, Jeffrey Savit, Alex Gaines, Rabbi Marc Mandel

Mission to D.C. gives a glimpse of policymaking

BY MARTY COOPER mcooper@jewishallianceri.org The nine participants in the recent Community Relations Council’s Washington, D.C., mission experienced meetings, briefi ngs and even managed a museum tour in what proved to be a meaningful and productive two days.

The Jewish Federations of North America’s Washington headquarters was the site of meetings to discuss the issues facing the Rhode Island Jewish community to be raised with elected officials. Policy lobbyists and analysts of the JFNA and Jared Feldman of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs spoke to such issues as: securing additional funding from the Emergency Food and Shelter Program to assist programs like the kosher food pantry and senior meals program; passage of the Behavior Health Information Technology legislation, sponsored by Sen. Whitehouse, that will provide essential funding for meaningful use of electronic records; improving access to Medicare coverage with regard to “Observation Stays” that fi xes an oversight in the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

President Barack Obama’s staff provided briefi ngs on ACA and the group met with the director for Israel and Palestinian Affairs. We were assured that the commitment of the United States to Israel is ironclad.

At the Israeli Embassy, the mission-goers met with Oren Marmorstein, counselor, Public and Academic Affairs, who asked that we remind our elected delegation to continue to pressure Iran during negotiations, pointing out Iran’s nuclear capability is not just

an Israel problem, but a global one.

Lunch with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Reps. Jim Langevin and David Cicilline provided more time to discuss issues and concerns and additional personal time with all the R.I. delegation including Sen. Jack Reed allowed mission participants to express themselves further. Members of the mission from the Cape Cod Federation met with Sens.

Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey.

“The Community Relations Council of the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island has by far the best rapport with their

congressional delegation than any other Jewish Federation organization,” said Jonathan Westin, health policy director for JFNA. A brief tour of the Holocaust Museum proved a meaningful addition to the trip.

Attending the mission in addition to myself were: Alex Gaines, Cliff Guller, David Leach, Rabbi Marc Mandel, Jill and Jeffrey Padwa, Jeffrey Savit, and, from the Cape Cod Federation, Dr. Julie Kopp Smily and Terry Smily.

MARTY COOPER is the Community Relations Director for the Jewish Alliance.

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FROM PAGE 1

May 9, 2014 |

9

SOUL also wants to train young people throughout the country to start Gotta Have Sole chapters in their schools.

A new initiative Lowinger has begun under the Gotta Have Sole

service project, Lowinger devised a way to donate new shoes to homeless children. He says, “My program started with one small bin of donated footwear at my temple, Temple Sinai!”

The day-to-day

Currently, the operation is flowing smoothly. Lowinger and his volunteers fi ll shelters’ orders with new shoes provided by sponsors, which include Timberland and Stride Rite, from the Lowingers’ garage in Cranston.

Often, the teenager hands out the footwear himself, arriving at local shelters with packages that contain not only shoes, but also socks and positive messages that Lowinger writes for the recipients.

The obstacles

His biggest challenge to date, besides the lack of storage space for excess inventory, involves changing the public’s perception of homeless people. When Lowinger gives talks at schools, businesses and conferences, he wants everyone to understand that “just because a person is homeless doesn’t mean they deserve anything less than people who are in a more financially stable situation.” That’s why Lowinger always emphasizes that donations should consist only of new footwear. To get his point across, he asks everyone in the audience to switch shoes with the person nearby and move around. Afterward, people usually agree on the importance of a proper fit.

Lowinger’s motivation

Lowinger’s dedication to Gotta Have Sole is especially impressive considering his heavy workload at Wheeler School and extracurricular activities. A varsity tennis player who enjoys spending time with friends and family, Lowinger tries to organize his time wisely to get the most out of every day. His parents limit the number of hours he spends on philanthropic efforts to ensure that he leads a balanced life.

Lowinger doesn’t mind juggling it all though – the homeless children he helps inspire him. The teenager says, “The knowledge that the number of homeless children in America is increasing every day motivates me to serve this need.” He is happy to know that Gotta Have Sole is helping children attend school, participate in sports and be accepted by their peers.

Lowinger as motivation

A recipient of various recognitions, such as Kids Who Give Award, Charlotte Bacon Act of Kindness Award and Diller Teen

umbrella involves donating footwear gift cards to veterans who are living on or below the poverty line. So far, more than 600 veterans in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Florida have re-

ceived these cards.

IRINA MISSIURO is a writer and editorial consultant for The Jewish Voice.

Get involved Nick Lowinger says that he particularly enjoys living in Rhode Island because we have such a small community of people and they are willing to help spread his message. If you would like to contribute to Gotta Have Sole, you can click on

the donate button found at gottahavesole.org.

If you would like to send a check or new footwear, the address is P.O. Box 8379, Cranston, R.I. 02920. To donate space, email Nicholas at gottahavesole@gmail.com.

COURTESY | LOWINGER FAMILY

Nicholas Lowinger Tikkun Olam Award, Lowinger hopes others will follow in his footsteps by attempting to make the world a better place. According to Aaron Carlson, chairman of Newtown Kindness (an organization founded to recognize kids who perform acts of kindness and to foster a kindness mindset in children, in honor of one of the Sandy Hook victims), Lowinger is succeeding. Carlson says, “So many people have told me that Nicholas’ [award acceptance] speech was the motivation behind their own acts of kindness. … Nicholas truly has inspired so many other people, and we are so proud that he is part of our Newtown Kindness family.”

While visiting a shelter recently, Lowinger met an appreciative woman, who was staying there.

She donated a brand new pair of sneakers that didn’t fit her infant because she wanted another child to feel as good as her children felt when they received new shoes.

Whenever the Lowingers go on vacation, they bring footwear to a local shelter. The teenager received an email from a woman in California whose children received a donation. She wrote, “I make earrings and I want to give 50 percent to Gotta Have Sole because, when I needed help, you came all the way to San Francisco and gave my kids shoes. My faith in people has been restored.

Most of all, I’m inspired to give back.”

THINK JEWISH CAMP IS OUT OF REACH THIS SUMMER? THINK AGAIN.

The future

At present, 34 states are involved with Gotta Have Sole.

Eight high school chapters are active in five states. Lowinger has donated shoes to 15,793 children. He’s nowhere near done.

His goal is to reach more homeless children in all 50 states by the time he graduates from high school in 2016. The teen

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10 | May 9, 2014

OPINION

The Jewish Voice

The magic of six words

FROM THE EDITOR

Graduation is a milestone for the family Spring is a time of milestones: Weddings, births and especially graduations. This weekend I took a little drive (about 16 hours roundtrip) to see my daughter present her thesis project.

The product of a year’s worth of work, it was quite a milestone in her life… and, reEDITOR ally, in the life of the family as we’ve all been FRAN there to supOSTENDORF port her in the ways family members support one another through life’s challenges.

Next weekend, she graduates.

(Yes, that’s another 16-hour drive.) We’ve been through more than a dozen graduations for our two children, from preschool to high school, one college, one graduate school and fi nally this. And with this graduation, we’re probably done with the education milestones for a while. Whew!

For the last 20 plus years, our lives have centered around the children and moving them ahead through their formal education. And for longer than that, as parents, we’ve been an integral part of their lives.

Learning never stops, of course, but soon both will be on their own – launching careers and

their independence, perhaps in other cities.

My grandmother once said that every birthday was cause for a celebration (and so, we all gathered as extended family to celebrate with her whenever we could). I would argue that all milestones are worth celebrating as a family. And so, I suppose, it’s appropriate that this graduation occurs on Mother’s Day weekend when the extended family will all gather together for the weekend.

And on a weekend that centers mostly around her, my daughter has already asked what the three mothers want to do on that day after graduation – my mother, my sister, myself – with the daughters (my sister has a young daughter). I guess the boys can come along too!

Usually, on Mother’s Day, we work in the yard, getting the gardens ready for planting.

That tradition will have to wait for another weekend. (Please note, kids, you haven’t gotten out of it this year.) This Mother’s Day, we’re all about milestones. Oh, and driving, but I’m trying not to think about that part.

I hope you are able to celebrate your own milestones with as much good health and happiness as I am. And if you have a photo or some news to share, send us an email so you can share your simchas with everyone else. We’d love to be there with you through your images.

LETTER Re: Award-winning report

I am pleased to report that a Jewish Voice & Herald story about a painful subject, “AntiSemitic acts in Budapest stun Habonim congregants,” earned a third-place award in the Religion and Spirituality Category from the Rhode Island Press Association at its May 2 banquet. Of that April 26, 2013, story, the Idaho Press Association judges wrote, “Powerfully evocative of the shadows of the past. Very nicely written and not over-written. The facts speak for themselves.”

Thank you to Temple Habonim’s Rabbi Andrew Klein for recounting those troubling

experiences with me so that I, in turn, could share the story with readers of this newspaper.

Thanks, too, to Steve Jacobson, of the Dorot Foundation, who provided me invaluable context and historical perspective for this story.

Eleven entries were submitted in this category; Ed Fitzpatrick of the Providence Journal and Brian Jones, freelance writer for Rhode Island Monthly, earned second and fi rst place respectively.

Nancy Kirsch Providence, R.I. Kirsch is the former executive editor of The Jewish Voice.

I came to the “My Six-Word Memoir” exhibit at gallery (401) at the Dwares JCC about a week before it was scheduled to close on April 11. Within minutes, I realized that I could not absorb what was before me in a single visit; so I arranged to return just a few days later.

Upon entering the gallery for the fi rst time, I saw on the wall to my left the beginning of a sentence: “Ever ybody has a story to On the IT SEEMS tell…” facing wall TO ME was the conclusion of that sentence: “…

RABBI JIM and everybody ROSENBERG should have a place to tell it.”

Tastef u l ly displayed on six distinct wall spaces were 173 posters, 8.5 inches by 11 inches in size, constructed of card stock on foam core board, oriented in either portrait or landscape position – 173 unique life stories, each one told in but six words!

A brief sampling – a mere taste of the variety, insight, intelligence, humor and spiritual power of these entries: “Hot sun shining on my sand” “Pain, sorrow, wisdom, smile, always tomorrow” “Good or bad, all is HaShem” “Cancer came. She kicked its ass.” vs. “Friends, family missing, lost to cancer.”

A few of the memoirs made me laugh out loud: “Life is short, let’s eat chocolate” “Not Jewish? You’re breaking my heart.”

While I happened to fi nd these last six words extremely

funny, others told me that they found them poignant, even deeply sad; such diverse reactions illustrate the insight that art is in the eyes, ears and soul of the beholder.

The words themselves do not tell the whole story of gallery (401)’s six-word memoir exhibit. Each of the 173 posters is a unique work of graphic design, mounted upon a background of one of six solid colors: red, orange, dark or medium blue, dark green or yellow green.

Among the more whimsical graphic designs: on the poster,

“God is.

I am.

Thank You!” “Passionate fundraising Jewess, tennis, bridge aficionado,” the artist circles the letters of the word “tennis” to form a tennis ball and arcs the letters of the word “bridge” to form a span. On the poster with the words “I am part of a whole,” the artist manages to squeeze the five words “I am part of a” into the O of the word “whole.”

The idea of the six-word memoir is not new. According to certain literary sources – I cannot certify their veracity – Ernest Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in just six words. Hemingway’ alleged response: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” Be that as it may, it is well documented that in November 2006, Smith Magazine asked its readers to submit six-word memoirs. The rest, as they say, is history. Today, several six-word memoir online sites and numerous sixword memoir books continue

the concept. Jewish readers might be especially interested in “Six-Word Memoirs on Jewish Life,” one of a series of books edited by Smith Magazine. It includes the six words of such well-known members of the tribe as New York Mayor Ed Koch and author of the graphic novel “Maus,” Art Spiegelman.

Although the six-word memoir project has been a fact of life for several years, Erin Moseley, the Alliance’s Director of Art & Culture and Next Generation Engagement, deserves enormous credit for envisioning the six-word memoir as a community event. Collecting all these memoirs in one place, setting them in a creative dialogue with one another, helps to illuminate what makes us a diverse, yet essentially unified Jewish community.

Erin emphasized that the gallery (401) exhibit was a collaborative effort; she singled out for special mention Diane Cerep, Creativity Director, Michelle Cicchitelli, Director of Jewish Life, and Brian Sullivan, Director of Marketing.

In addition, Erin was careful to state that a large number of additional volunteers pulled together to make this extraordinary event happen. Our local six-word memoir project tells us who we can be when we work together.

In case you are wondering, my six-word memoir, printed on a background of medium blue, landscape orientation, was one of the 173 posters in gallery (401): “God is. I am.

Thank You!” JAMES B. ROSENBERG, rabbi emeritus of Temple Habonim in Barrington, can be contacted at rabbiemeritus@ templehabonim.org.

LETTER Re: A mother’s perspective (April 25)

I was about to discontinue my subscription to The Jewish Voice... when I serendipitously opened to page 36...A Mother’s Perspective!

Kudos to Kara Marziali for acknowledging how special your little fellow is... the lessons he teaches you every day and the voice to share with others who feel alone... and to those who do not understand that children are not made from cookie cutters.

Our schools have been inclusive since day one. We have been blessed to have several children who fall within the spectrum entrusted to our care. These children add so much to our community. They encourage and challenge us to be as creative as possible... their success depends on our creativity. I urge all educators and parents to support inclusive settings. They provide the most optimal learning envi-

OUR MISSION

COLUMNS | LETTERS POLICY

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 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 publication or refuse publication. Letters and columns, whether from our regular contributors or from guest columnists,

ronment for all children!

Thank you for sharing Edward with me. Let us always remain passionate and continue to nurture and foster the beauty in all of our children.

Please keep The Jewish Voice readers in Edward’s loop.

Lesley Nan Haberman Headmistress, The Family Schools New York City

represent the views of the authors; they do not represent the views of The Jewish Voice or the Alliance.

Send letters and op-eds to The Jewish Voice, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence, RI 02906 or editor@jewishallianceri.org. Include name, city of residence and a contact phone number or email (not for publication).

OPINION

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May 9, 2014 |

11

NEWS ANALYSIS

The debate continues: Fact-checking J Street and its critics

BY AMI EDEN JTA – The vote is over, but the debate rages on over the recent rejection of J Street’s application to join the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Depending on where you stand, the 22-17 vote rejecting the application was either about J Street’s own missteps or the conference’s failure to live up to its billing as the Jewish community’s vehicle for bringing together organizations from across the political and religious spectrum to forge a strong pro-Israel consensus.

With passions running high, it seemed like a good time for some fact-checking: Claim: J Street is beyond the communal pale.

J Street did not round up the votes, but in defeat it put to bed the argument that the group falls outside of the communal mainstream. If the Reform movement, the Conservative movement, the Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (a body bringing together the largest synagogue movements, several national organizations and scores of local community relations councils) say you belong in the Conference of Presidents, then by defi nition you are operating within the communal tent. You got a problem with that? Don’t shoot the messenger – take it up with all of the above, not to mention the prominent Jewish and Is-

raeli fi gures associated with J Street.

Claim: J Street is more left wing than the other dovish members in the Conference of Presidents.

I’ve heard the arguments, but I don’t see it. Yes, J Street has pushed for the U.S. government to exert pressure on Israel but so have other groups in the conference. J Street hasn’t endorsed a settlement boycott, or (unlike conference member Americans for Peace Now) even sort of endorsed a settlement boycott. And in sticking by the Obama administration’s side on Iran through various policy shifts, J Street has at times found itself to the right of some of those on the left in the Conference of Presidents.

Claim: J Street is just like any other left-wing group Well, no. When it launched several years ago, J Street came out swinging – not just at Israeli policies it thought were dangerous but also at the Jewish establishment. The group has demonstrated a willingness to take aim at individuals and individual organizations, some of whom have long memories and sharp elbows. The group and its supporters are outraged by any suggestion that J Street is not pro-Israel but have no problem questioning others’ commitment to peace. J Street hosts BDS supporters at its conference in the name of fostering dialogue and maintaining a big tent but has publicly pressured others

to boycott Pastor John Hagee and shun pro-Israel evangelicals.

So, yeah, J Street might fall within the conference’s and the community’s existing political spectrum, but the group sure has a way of getting under people’s skin. If you’re looking for another example of why, just check out this statement from J Street in response to the vote: “So,” J Street declared in its statement, “join us in thanking Malcolm Hoenlein for clarifying this situation and revealing to all what we’ve long known: a new voice is needed to represent the true majority of American Jews – and non-Jewish supporters of an Israel at peace.”

First off, why make it all about Hoenlein, the conference’s chief executive? By all accounts that I have seen or heard, whatever Hoenlein thinks about J Street, this process for better or worse was driven by the 50 member organizations, with plenty of openness and debate.

Second, why not use the electoral defeat as a way to dispel the notion that you are a sanctimonious organization that is incapable of playing nice with others (not an unimportant trait when you are trying to gain admittance to a politically and religiously diverse consensus-driven organization)? Maybe something like: “While disappointed that we failed to gain admission this time around, we appreciate the opportunity to apply and

LETTERS Re: J Street Challenge In rejecting the application by J Street for membership late in April, the mainstream Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations did the right thing. In effect, the Conference drew a de facto line between a “big tent” of participation and a “universal tent” which could include J Street, which according to one participant “has consistently taken the same positions as the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the National Iranian American Council (NIAC).”

That membership was supported by the arms of both the Conservative and Reform congregations was noteworthy, indicative according to columnist Samuel Rosner of the “fear” of their liberal constituencies which he characterized as one of the great successes of J Street.

The vote count reflected that one-half of the membership declined to support J Street’s application, considered an indication of the outlook of mainstream American Judaism regarding J Street.

Dr. Charles Jacobs – president of Bostonbased Americans for Peace and Tolerance, the group behind the new documentary “The J Street Challenge” – explained that J Street breaks a long-honored tradition between American Jews and Israel. “[W]e who do not live there or have our children on the front lines do not have the right to use our American power to circumvent Israeli democracy...

J Street’s entire program is designed to break this longstanding agreement,” Jacobs was quoted in JNS.org.

Howard Brown Wickford, R.I.

Thank you to the group that shared the movie “J Street Challenge: The Seductive Allure of Peace in Our Time” on March 30. One hour well spent learning. I am provoked to find out more about J Street and is J Street solving a problem or causing a problem. The movie, I think, is well done, clearly conveys its message with easy-to-understand interviews, images and explanations. The “J

Street Challenge” movie suggests we are being mobilized by J Street to pressure Israel’s decision on a certain type of peace. I would like to learn more about the potential cost or benefit to Israel and the world by accepting the proposed peace package.

David Altman Providence, R.I.

look forward to reopening the conversation at some point down the road. Meanwhile, we hope to fi nd ways to work with our fellow Jewish groups as we devote ourselves to securing a peaceful and democratic future for Israel.”

“J Street came out swinging – not just at Israeli policies it thought were dangerous but also at the Jewish establishment.”

Even some of those who voted for J Street have expressed frustration and/or disgust with the way the organization has at times conducted itself.

Of course, I can think of one or two right-wing members of the conference who are similarly skilled at driving folks crazy. But J Street is the one currently on the outside looking in. So to paraphrase an old joke: If you’re going to crap on someone’s front steps, don’t be surprised if they don’t let you in to get some toilet paper.

Claim: The Conference of Presidents no longer represents the full spectrum of the Jewish community You can argue that J Street belongs in the Conference of Presidents. You can argue that the existing voting rules are

out of whack, giving too much influence to smaller groups on the right over larger leftleaning and centrist groups.

But that doesn’t change the fact that, with or without J Street, J Street’s views are represented in the Conference of Presidents, and the conference continues to serve as the most diverse and reflective platform in the Jewish organizational world.

Period. Full stop.

Plus, it’s worth noting that the process doesn’t need to be over. Other groups have fallen short and then made it in down the road. All that said, it’s easy to understand why, if someone is a member of J Street – or just identifies with the organization’s stated commitments – he or she might feel slighted, not wanted, disenfranchised. This vote took place in a wider context, where J Street and its members have been consistently, harshly and sometimes unfairly attacked, and their motives and loyalty (as opposed to their ideas) questioned, with some of the group’s loudest opponents all but saying there is no room in the Jewish community for those who would criticize Israeli policies.

So, yeah, it’s complicated.

What do you expect? After all, we’re talking about the Conference of President of Major American Jewish Organizations.

AMI EDEN is the CEO and editor-in-chief of JTA.

With peace talks stalled, Israelis and Palestinians resort to old moves

BY BEN SALES JTA – Nine months of negotiations were supposed to propel Israelis and Palestinians into a future of peace. Instead, the collapse of talks is threatening to make the future look much like the past.

Israel’s decision last week to suspend negotiations a day after the signing of a reconciliation between the Fatah faction of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas has prompted both sides to resort to their old ways.

For the Palestinians, that means focusing on internal unity and a redoubled effort to win international recognition for statehood, particularly at the United Nations. For Israel, it’s a return to shunning the Palestinian political leadership.

“If the Palestinian Authority persists with efforts to reunite with Hamas, that is not only a game changer,” Michael Oren, Israel’s former ambassador to the United States, told JTA. “It is a game stopper.”

After weeks in which they teetered on the brink of failure, peace negotiations fi nally stalled April 23 when Fatah agreed to form a unified Palestinian government with Hamas, the ruling power in Gaza considered a terrorist organization by the United States, Israel and the European Union.

“Whoever chooses the terrorism of Hamas doe not want peace.”

The two groups split after violent clashes in 2007. Three previous reconciliation deals in 2007, 2011 and 2012 have gone unimplemented.

Israel responded to the reconciliation agreement as it had to earlier ones, declaring that it would not negotiate with Hamas and announcing economic sanctions against the PEACE TALKS | 12

COMMUNITY | OPINION

12 | May 9, 2014 FROM PAGE 11

The Jewish Voice

PEACE TALKS

Palestinian Authority. On April 24, Israel suspended the peace negotiations, five days before their initial nine-month term was set to expire.

“Instead of choosing peace, Abu Mazen formed an alliance with a murderous terrorist organization that calls for the destruction of Israel,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, referring to Abbas by his nom de guerre. “Whoever chooses the terrorism of Hamas does not want peace.”

Israel and the United States have called on Hamas to recognize Israel, commit to nonviolence and abide by previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements three conditions that have guided negotiations for a decade. But Hamas officials vowed never to recognize Israel.

Palestinian officials nevertheless moved to downplay the significance of the unity accord on the peace process, noting that an interim government set to be formed in the coming weeks would be made up of technocrats, not political figures aligned with Fatah or Hamas. Munib al-Masri, a Palestinian industrialist who served as a Fatah delegate to the reconciliation talks, told JTA that Abbas would continue to manage negotiations should they go on.

“All parties will abide by President Abbas regarding the political agenda,” al-Masri said.

“The most important thing is to have one voice for the Palestinians.”

Despite such hopes, Israel remains deeply wary of Hamas’ intentions. Naftali Bennett, chairman of the pro-settler Jewish Home party, said in a Facebook post that the P.A. has now become “the biggest terror group in the world” and vowed not to negotiate with murderers. Prior to the unity deal, Bennett had compared peace talks with Abbas to buying a car from someone who owns only half of it.

With prospects for a peace accord receding, several Israeli politicians urged the government to respond by unilaterally settings its own borders.

Bennett has encouraged Netanyahu to annex all areas of the West Bank that contain Jewish settlements. Oren argued that Israel should withdraw to a frontier it sets, creating a de facto Palestinian state.

“What are the borders that give us the maximum amount of

security and embrace the maximum number of Israelis?” Oren told JTA. “There are people on all sides of the Israeli political spectrum that have considered the necessity of taking our destiny into our own hands.”

Al-Masri said that absent direct negotiations, Abbas will turn again to various U.N. bodies for recognition, as he did in 2012 when the General Assembly accepted Palestine as a nonmember observer state. Israeli analysts said such diplomatic pressure will have little impact on the ground.

“Their position in the U.N. doesn’t mean anything,” said Avraham Diskin, an emeritus professor of political science at Hebrew University. “Life is one thing and declarations are another.”

Given the failure of previous attempts at Palestinian unity, experts are doubtful that the latest pact will succeed, not least because Hamas likely will not agree to hand over its weaponry and soldiers to Fatah control.

“They’re talking about a technocracy so they won’t have to split the pie between them,” Mordechai Kedar, an expert on Islamist groups at Bar-Ilan University. “They can’t agree on anything.”

Netanyahu thus far has not responded to calls for unilateral action, but the collapse of negotiations means his governing coalition will hold for the moment. Jewish Home had threatened to leave had Netanyahu agreed to withdraw from much of the West Bank.

Meanwhile, analysts were not expecting another wave of violence. Palestinian security cooperation with Israel has helped curb Hamas’ influence in the West Bank, but it’s unclear whether such coordination will continue if Palestinian reconciliation becomes a reality.

Oren told JTA it was difficult to see how the Israel Defense Forces could continue to cooperate with the Palestinian Authority once the P.A. unites with Hamas.

“The cooperation is about fighting Hamas,” he said. “How can the IDF fight Hamas with Palestinian security forces who serve under a government that includes Hamas?”

BEN SALES writes for the JTA from Jerusalem

JEWISH WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS

Jennie Grossinger 1892-1972

Resort was Jennie’s answer to the Grossinger family financial crisis

BY TOBY ROSSNER It began with a rocky and infertile farm in the Catskills.

It ended with the Catskill’s premier resort empire – 600 rooms, three swimming pools, a ski slope, a 1,700-seat dining room, a post office and an estimated income of $7 million a year. Who else could this phenomenal success story belong to but Jennie Grossinger?

Her commitment to solving her family’s financial crises began when she abandoned school at age 13 to sew buttonholes; then, she married her cousin Harry Grossinger in 1912. In 1914, Jennie convinced her mother and father to take summer boarders into their rundown, failing farm in the Catskills.

That first summer, the boarders added $81 to the family’s income. That winter, the house was spruced up and six rooms were added. Summer business picked up. The family members worked 18 hours a day. Grossinger’s took on its first hired hand, a chambermaid. Harry did not move to the Catskills to become business manager until success was assured, but he did his share from the beginning by

recruiting guests from New York.

In 1919 Jennie negotiated the purchase of a neighboring hotel, a lake and 63 wooded acres.

To generate business, Jennie employed masterful publicity gimmicks that included the gift of a free honeymoon to any couple who met at Grossinger’s and the training of professional boxers on the complex.

She plied her guests with vast quantities of kosher food, and she “created an atmosphere that combined urgent family solicitude for guests with an elegance that gave to many an opulent feeling they never enjoyed at home,” according to

Richard F. Shepard.

As Shepard noted, “For all that Mrs. Grossinger was the heart and soul of Grossinger’s, she was not considered to be a great business operator. She had the sagacity to choose perceptive associates, and she was naturally effective in human relations. An old employee recalled that she treated the workers as members of the family.

In the early days, when the family was pinched for ready cash, some of the help would not take their salaries from her but insisted on getting by on their tips. ‘Use it, Jennie,’ they would say.”

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

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the sixth in a series on the history of Jewish women entrepreneurs. The Richard F. Shepard quotes are from “Jennie Grossinger Dies at Resort Home,” obituary, in “The American Jewish Woman: A Documentary History,” compiled by Jacob Radar Marcus.

D’VAR TORAH

thejewishvoice.org

May 9, 2014 |

13

D’var Torah

Mazel Tov! Why? Now What?

BY RABBI NAFTALI KARP Mazel tov! Congratulations, graduates. Congratulations to the families! Congratulations to the friends! Congratulations to the communities!

Why am I congratulating everyone?

In Leviticus 19:2, the Torah states, “Speak to the entire community of Israel and tell them to be holy, for I, the Lord, am holy.” In general, Moses didn’t directly teach the entire nation; there was a system of teachers. Why did G-d want this command to be different?

Nachmanides explains that the directive to be holy warns us against becoming a “menuval birshus haTorah,” a disgrace within the parameters of the Torah. One can technically keep many of the laws of G-d but, at the same time, corrupt them and completely undermine the spirit of those laws.

If a person lives in a society that isn’t supportive of his values, it becomes very difficult for him to maintain his ideals. Perhaps the command to be holy was given openly to the entire nation since it’s crucial to have the support of others.

I congratulate everyone because, whenever a person accomplishes something, it is very rarely, if ever, an achievement that he could have done on his own, and while he should feel great about his success, he also needs to recognize and appreciate those who have helped him reach that milestone.

What is the celebration of a graduation? I decided to google, “Why am I excited to graduate?” Some top reasons were: to get away, have my own space, cook for myself and expand my network. While some of these are reasonable at best, they hardly seem worthy of all the celebration.

So, what is it?

“You shall not hate your brother in your heart; you shall reprove your fellow, and do not bear a sin because of him (Leviticus 19:17).” The Targum Onkelos translates the final phrase as, “and do not receive a punishment for his sin.” According to the Targum, it appears that if I didn’t rebuke my friend, I would be punished for his sin.

How do I become responsible for the sin that he perpetrated?

The Kli Yakar writes: Imagine a man is on an ocean voyage. He hears a sound coming from the cabin next door. As the noise continues, he finally knocks on his neighbor’s door.

When the door opens, he sees that his neighbor is drilling a hole in the side of the boat.

“What are you doing?” the man cries.

“I’m drilling a hole in my side of the boat.”

“Stop!”

“Why? This is my cabin. I paid for it, and I can do what I want here.”

“No, you can’t! If you cut a hole in your side, the entire boat will go down.”

We are one entity. For a person to say, “What I do is my business and doesn’t affect anyone else,” is categorically false.

My actions affect you, and your actions affect me; we are one unit.

The Targum is teaching us the extent of that connection.

What my friend does directly affects me – not because I am nosy, but because we are one entity, and I am liable for what he does. A member of my team erred, and I could have prevented his mistake. If I have done all that I could to help him grow and shield him from falling, I have met my obligation and will not be punished. If, however, I could have been more concerned for his betterment

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and more involved in helping to protect him from harm, then I am held accountable for his sin.

Graduation is the celebration of what has been accomplished until now and of all the potential that is waiting to be realized. In a certain sense, a graduate becomes a more active member of society, and the more responsibility he feels, the more he will accomplish and enjoy life.

“Graduation is the celebration of what has been accomplished until now and of all the potential that is waiting to be realized.”

Reb Bunim of P’shischa is quoted as having said that when he was young, he thought he could change the entire world.

As he got older, he saw he could not change the entire world, but at least he could change his city.

As time went on, he saw that even that was beyond his grasp, but he thought that he would be able to change his neighborhood. When he saw that was not working, he said, “I’ll attempt to change my family.” When that too failed, he said, “I’ll have to try only to change myself.”

But once Reb Bunim succeeded in changing himself, he saw that his family was different,

his neighborhood was different, his city was different, and, in a sense, the entire world was different.

We cannot go it alone. We need to work on ourselves, and then our families, and then our

neighborhoods and then our societies.

Mazel tov!

RABBI NAFTALI L. KARP is the director of Project Shoresh of RI. To subscribe to his short weekly email or to contact him, please email nkarp@projectshoresh.com or call 401-632-3165.

Candle Lighting Times Greater Rhode Island May 9..........................7:34 May 16.......................7:41 May 23.......................7:48 May 30.......................7:54

FOOD

14 | May 9, 2014

The Jewish Voice

Lag Ba’Omer calls for celebrating with bonfires and picnics It’s time to get outdoors after the long, cold winter Easy kale salad

BY CYNTHIA BENJAMIN

1 bunch kale, preferably flat kale (also called dino or lacinato kale) 1/4 cup lemon juice 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1/4 cup olive oil 1/4 cup sliced or slivered almonds 1/4 cup dried cranberries Black pepper, to taste

Lag Ba’Omer, which falls on May 18 (18 Iyar) this year, is an eagerly anticipated holiday in both the United States and Israel, where it is celebrated with bonfires, picnics and toy bows and arrows. Israeli children also look forward to Lag Ba’Omer parades, while American Jews enjoy gathering with friends and families outdoors after the long winter.

Food can be as simple as foil-wrapped potatoes roasted in the bonfire and wieners on sticks cooked in the fire. Dessert? Marshmallows toasted by the flames are a traditional favorite, and s’mores are also popular.

If you want to create a more elaborate spread or maybe a dish to bring to a Lag Ba’Omer celebration, you can look to your old picnic standbys – or create new traditions with these crowd-pleasing recipes.

The recipes were developed with simplicity in mind because no one wants to arrive at a picnic exhausted from a cooking marathon – and it’s not necessary, either.

Easy citrus salad

A variety of citrus fruits, such as pink grapefruit, white grapefruit, clementines, blood oranges, kumquats, oranges (avoid fruit that has a lot of seeds, such as tangerines) Sugar Water

Optional

Tarragon, cinnamon, mint or other spices Grand Marnier or another orange-flavored liqueur Wash the skins of each piece of fruit. Using a sharp paring knife and a cutting board, slice off just enough of the top and bottom of each fruit to expose the flesh. Then place the fruit on one of its now-flat sides, and cut away the rest of the skin,

Rinse kale thoroughly and dry as much as possible. Rip into bite-sized pieces and discard spines. Mix the lemon juice and salt, and pour over kale. Using your hands, massage the lemon juice mixture into the kale pieces for a few minutes, until they begin to soften and wilt. Place a heavy plate or a pan on top of the kale, and let sit at least a half-hour to further soften. Using your hands, toss kale with the remaining ingredients. Adjust seasonings. Chill. Serves 4.

with a generous amount of butter. Wrap in foil, and make sure to cover completely. Then wrap in a second layer of foil. Place potatoes in the embers near the edge of the fire; cover in embers as completely as possible (but make sure you know where they are!). In about a half-hour, start testing with a barbecue fork for doneness – bigger potatoes will take longer to cook through, perhaps as long as an hour.

When potatoes are tender, use tongs to remove them from the fire. Allow to cool for a few minutes, and then carefully remove the outer layer of foil. Serve with salt, pepper and more butter or butter substitute, or let your imagination run wild: maybe a cheese, chive and sour cream bar for the baked potatoes and honey butter or a brown sugar-cinnamon butter for the sweet potatoes.

Chicken kebabs

1 pound skinless chicken breasts 1/4 cup ketchup 1-1/2 teaspoons mustard 1-1/2 teaspoons honey 1 tablespoon soy sauce

PHOTO | RICH DUGAS

working from top to bottom and following the shape of the fruit.

When all the skin is removed, the fruit should still be round.

Then, turn the fruit onto its side, and cut into slices at least 1/4-inch thick.

Arrange the slices in a random single layer on a plate or platter that highlights the colors of the fruit – a white platter, for instance, works well. Add a few slices of fruit on top of the first layer to get a nice contrast in depth and color.

Prepare a simple syrup: Mix equal parts of water and sugar in a saucepan, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring constantly, until the sugar has dissolved. (This should be very quick, a minute

or two.) Let the simple syrup cool for 10 minutes, and then drizzle over the citrus.

Or: Add the spice/spices of your choice to the simple syrup once it boils. The process and amounts vary by spice, so check a cookbook or Internet source once you have chosen your spice. You can leave the chopped spices in the simple syrup or strain the syrup before drizzling on the fruit.

Or: Skip the simple syrup and instead use agave or honey (heat for a few seconds in the microwave so it thins a little) instead. Or: Skip the simple syrup and drizzle an orangeflavored liqueur over the fruit.

Chill before serving.

PHOTO | CYNTHIA BENJAMIN

Fire-roasted potatoes

Russet (baking) potatoes and/ or sweet potatoes Butter or margarine Aluminum foil

Cut chicken into uniform chunks about 1-inch square or bite-sized. Combine all other ingredients in a bowl, add chicken and mix to coat. Refrigerate, stirring occasionally, for several hours or overnight.

An hour before cooking, place wooden skewers in room-temperature water to soak.

When chicken is done marinating, thread onto skewers; leave a small space between each chunk. Cook in broiler or on grill, turning occasionally, for about 10 minutes. Test a piece to make sure it is cooked through before serving.

Serves 4.

Wash and dry potatoes. Using a fork, pierce each potato in several places. Rub the skin

CHEF CYNTHIA writes widely about food and blogs at Cruisin’ Kitchen (cruisinkitchen.com). She is a member of Congregation B’nai Israel in Woonsocket.

TEENS & GRADUATION

thejewishvoice.org

FROM PAGE 1

May 9, 2014 |

15

GIFTS

see that perfect present, but even if you don’t, maybe you’ll be inspired by an idea or a great-sounding store you might want to visit now that you’ve read about it here. Whatever the case, happy graduation and happy shopping!

Gift: Enameled and Jeweled Pewter Candlesticks-Jerusalem (Blue), $119.

These gorgeous candlesticks, adorned with Old Jerusalem scenery, will allow your graduate to celebrate Shabbat in style.

The pewter pair, decorated with 24K gold plating, enamel and jewels, comes in a deluxe gift box.

Buy it at: Temple Beth-El Judaica Web Store, temple-bethel.org. (The online gift shop is under the “Giving” tab. Click it to go to judaicawebstore.com.)

Gift: Chai Bracelets, $48.

These chic bracelets – as their name proclaims – celebrate life. Bring peace, prosperity and happiness to your graduate with these silk and beaded (in multiples of 18) pieces of art, each of which wraps around the wrist three times for “a triple chai.”

Buy it at: uncommongoods. com, an online marketplace that believes in creativity and expression of individuality. UncommonGoods is committed to the environment and philanthropy, printing catalogs on recycled paper and donating a portion of each order to non-

profit organizations.

Made by: The silk cords are micro-batch hand-dyed, and the bracelets are handwoven by traditional family weavers in India.

Gift: “Yiddish Wisdom: Humor and Heart from the Old Country,” Hardcover, $14.95.

Chris Milko, the manager of Frog + Toad, says that the book is one of their best-sellers. With more than 100,000 copies sold worldwide, this compilation of witty, practical and poignant folk sayings is newly illustrated and expanded to be cherished by generations to come.

Buy it at: Frog + Toad, 795 Hope St., Providence, 401-8313434. This is the best gift store statewide, according to Rhode Island Monthly readers. Offering a wide selection of locally made items and knickknacks from around the world, the store gift wraps your selection for free. Pop in to pick up the book for the graduate in your life.

Gift: Contribute in your graduate’s name to one of his or her favorite charities. Perhaps an act of tzedakah could celebrate an education milestone with a contribution to an education-oriented charity. Or if the graduate has a special

interest such as animals, a contribution to a local zoo or wildlife association might be a good option. You can also show your support of local synagogues and organizations with a gift in the graduate’s name. Many organizations welcome donations that would match a world of interests.

Gift: The Live-Edge iPad Stands in cherry or walnut, $50.

These stands gathered quite a few “likes” on Stock’s Facebook page. Now that iPads are the books of the future, present

one to your graduate, who will be pleasantly surprised by your sudden cool streak. Who knew?

Buy it at: Stock Culinary Goods, the home of “thoughtfully sourced, well-designed kitchen tools, cooking resources and gifts for food lovers.”

Yankee Magazine just gave the store “Best Gifts for the Gourmand” award in its “Best of New England 2014” issue. 756 Hope St., Providence, 401-5210101, StockPVD.com.

Made by: Matchless Carpentry in Wisconsin. Patrick Kelly, a contractor who studied architecture at the university level and boasts an AAS Historic Preservation degree, has embarked on a new venture, Matchless Made. The stands are his custom woodworking products.

Gift: “Timeless Advice” mugs from Asya Palatova’s Dacha line, $18. (photo on cover) Featuring clever sayings, such as “early bird gets the worm,” these mugs (also from Stock) will not only inspire your graduate with their messages but also keep him or her caffeinated and ready for those exams.

Made by: Asya Palatova, originally from St. Petersburg, Russia, who founded Gleena (clay) in 2002. The artist spent many childhood summers at her family dacha (country house), which continually inspires her organically shaped d e s i g n s . P a l at ov a s t u d ie d graphic design and worked for such impressive companies as Martha Stewart Living before earning an MFA from RISD with a concentration in ceramics. A couple of summers ago, I noticed her outstanding pieces at a RISD sale and marveled at their pure form.

Gift: Hamsa necklace, $28.

This stunning piece of jewelry will defend your graduate from the evil eye and remind him or her to use the five senses to praise God. Buy it at: Pie in the Sky, 225 Thayer St., Providence, 401861-3954. This store is fun for everyone. Stopping by with my kids, we couldn’t get enough of the dazzling jewelry, whimsical socks, classy journals and original cards. Strolling on Thayer, drop by to peruse and pick up the necklace for the graduate in

your life. The friendly proprietors even provide complimentary gift wrapping.

Made by: Blake Brothers, one of the premier wholesale sterling silver jewelry companies in the world for more than 30 years. Starting out as a small business with two showcases of American Indian Jewelry in 1974, it has become a national company with five showrooms stocked with sterling silver jewelry from all over the world.

Gift: Throws from in2Green, $149.

Your graduate will curl up with a blanket that’s just as visually appealing as it is cozy.

These come in several designs and colors. The warmth and personality of this environmentally friendly throw will help the young one during those nights of cramming.

Buy it at: Kreatelier, 804 Hope St., Providence, 401-4327995. The unique retail store also serves as an exciting meeting place in the middle of a lively neighborhood. This creative playground is filled with useful and environmentally conscious products designed by Kreate-

lier, local artists and companies from around the world. Stop by to pick up the throw and check out the colorful wares.

Made by: in2green. Two friends with textile, design and retail background wanted to make something striking and luxurious out of recycled materials. The company is proof that upcycling can succeed. T-shirt fabrics are re-fiberized back into colored threads and spun into beautiful cotton yarns, creating a unique color depth.

Their process helps reduce land and landfill use and eliminates additional cotton dyes or chemicals.

Gift: Star of David Post Earrings, $48.

These delicate earrings are accented with white pearls. Let your graduate express her pride about her heritage in style.

Buy it at: Green River Silver Co., 735 Hope St., Providence, 401-621-9092. Established in 1990, the company is one of Rhode Island’s largest importers of fine sterling jewelry from around the world. Owner John Goldman and his brother Dan

opened their first retail store in Providence in 1999. John travels the U.S. as well as to Mexico, India, Bali, Israel, Poland and Thailand to find one-of-a-kind jewelry.

Made by: Ruth Doron Designs, located in Molodet, a village in northern Israel. Doron, the designer and owner, graduated from the Shenkar School of Design in Israel. She creates necklaces, earrings, bracelets, brooches and Judaica using silver, gold, semiprecious stones and pearls.

Gift: Contemporary Black Electric Menorah, $34.99.

This item is 8-1/2 inches wide and 9-1/4 inches tall. Your graduate will host his or her first Hanukkah dinner with this energy-saving, low-voltage menorah made from durable steel and boasting a matte finish.

Buy it at: Traditions Judaica Gifts. TraditionsJewishGifts. com claims to “offer one of the largest collections of Judaica gifts in the world.” Give this place a try; after all, “It wasn’t a store built only on sales. It was a store built on traditions.”

IRINA MISSIURO is a writer and editorial consultant for The Jewish Voice.

16 | May 9, 2014

TEENS & GRADUATION

The Jewish Voice

Students of all ages will love these gifts

BY STATEPOINT Whether the students in your life are in high school and dreaming about their future majors, or in the middle of their college careers, you can shower them with gifts that quench their thirst for knowledge and foster their academic interests.

Stumped? Here are a few ideas to brighten the bookshelves and desks of your favorite scholars:

Make cramming easier

For dorm dwellers, book lights are crucial. When roomies are snoozing, night owls can use a book light that attaches to the pages of the book, or a task light that sits atop the desk, to keep studying in an unobtrusive manner.

Consider creating a care package full of snacks. But skip the junk food and instead fill up on “brain food.” Nuts, almond butter and popcorn are all great choices containing brain-boosting vitamins and minerals.

Simplify complex concepts

A standard textbook covering weighty subject matter sometimes can make things even more confusing for a student.

Help demystify some of the hard-to-grasp subjects with a new book series from DK Publishing, “Big Ideas, Simply Explained.” The fully-illustrated series uses innovative graphics and creative typography to cut through the haze of misunderstanding, untangles knotty theories and shed light on abstract concepts.

PHOTO | STOCKBYTE-THINKSTOCK.COM

There are five books currently available: “The Philosophy Book,” “The Psychology Book,” “The Politics Book,” “The Religions Book” and “The Economics Book,” which covers more than 100 economic concepts from Aristotle to the top economic thinkers of today, and is a 2013 Parents Choice Gold Book Award Winner. More information about these books and forthcoming titles including, “The Business Book” and “The Science Book,” is available at www.us.dk.com.

Broaden horizons

No matter what your scholar plans to study or is currently studying, you can round out his or her education with a great dose of classic cinema. Consider a set that features the collected works of a gifted director such as Ingmar Bergman or Akira Kurosawa. Or opt for a topical box set on a favorite subject, such as World War II or nature.

With the right tools, you can enrich and round out classroom learning in fun and interesting ways.

A Rich Inheritance In the Jewish community, caring for those in need has never gone out of style. Whether helping people in crisis, ensuring dignity for our elders, or assisting those in financial need - Jewish values have always inspired us to act. Those same values teach us to care for the next generation, too. By making a legacy gift, you ensure the Jewish community stays strong and vibrant.You leave your children and grandchildren a precious inheritance, and a lasting testimony to your values.

To learn more about making a legacy gift, contact Edward Bruckner at 401.421.4111 ext. 174 or ebruckner@jewishallianceri.org

1947, Center Parent Association Archival image courtesy of Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association.

401 Elmgrove Avenue | Providence, RI | jewishallianceri.org

TEENS & GRADUATION

thejewishvoice.org

May 9, 2014 |

17

It’s easy and fun to keep kids learning over the summer

BY STATEPOINT

Road trip fun

Long breaks from reading, writing and critical thinking can be detrimental for students. That’s why savvy parents ensure that kids keep learning over summer. With the implementation of the Common Core and Science Technology Engineering Math (STEM) Standards, bridging the gap between school years is more important than ever.

But you don’t need to replicate a classroom to reap the benefits of summer studies. After all, it’s called “vacation” for a reason. Here are few fun ways to keep kids’ brains on high alert all season:

Make summer road trips a bit less of a bore by stocking the car with fun games and activities.

The Ultimate Factivity Collection series includes doodle and coloring pages, puzzles, crafts, stickers, facts and activities that encourage learning. With titles

Guidance from parents fosters a healthy media diet in kids

BY STATEPOINT

Make math fun

The more interactive and hands-on you can make math, the more engaged kids will be.

So avoid drilling them with stale worksheets.

Play a board game such as “Monopoly,” and bestow the role of “banker” on your child. Or, let them handle the real thing on outings by letting them pay the ice cream vendor and the grocer. You can even consider capitalizing on the summer weather with a lemonade stand – it’s a great fi rst small business experience.

Supplement these experiences with tools that go beyond a standard workbook. For example, a new book, “Amazing Visual Math,” covers the essential math concepts learned in

PHOTO | MICHAEL BARKLEY-THINKSTOCK.COM

the fi rst years of school using interactive elements, including pop-ups, flaps and pull-tab elements. Designed to develop manual dexterity and sharpen visual skills, tools such as this can make a tedious subject entertaining.

Foster their interests

The school year can be hectic and isn’t necessarily an ideal time for a child to take on new hobbies. Summer however, is the perfect time of year to encourage kids to explore new interests through thematic summer camps, community classes and sports teams.

You can also nurture inter-

Give your child the gift of a lifetime...

the

such as “Animals,” “Fashion,” “Star Wars” and “LEGO Legends of Chima,” kids won’t suspect they’re learning.

To set up kids for a successful school year, fi nd activities that strike the perfect balance between learning and fun.

of

Start a savings plan while your child is young, and we’ll help invest in their future.

Enroll your child starting in grades 3 - 6 and you can give him or her an Israel experience later on in life.

A $150 yearly contribution from you, plus a $250 yearly investment from your synagogue and the Jewish Alliance, results in the Gift of Israel.

THERE IS NO BETTER INVESTMENT! Your return is 266% each year on your contribution, but the investment return is even greater on your child’s Jewish identity.

Learn more at jewishallianceri.org, or contact Elanah Chassen at echassen@jewishallianceri.org or 401.421.4111 ext. 140.

ests through nonfiction literature. Check out the “Eyewitness Books” series from DK Publishing with titles that cover a broad range of topics such as “World War I,” “Rocks & Minerals” and “Wonders of the World.” Newly updated this year and now available in paperback, these books can help bridge the gap between last school year and the next.

Friendly competition

Start a family competition to see who reads the most books this summer. Post the results on the fridge so everyone can see.

From TV to smartphones to social media, our lives are dominated by 24/7 media exposure. Despite this, many children and teens have few rules around their media use.

While media consumption by itself is not the leading cause of any health problem in the United States, it can contribute to numerous health risks, say experts. At the same time, kids can learn many positive things from “pro-social” media. The key is to teach children to make healthy media choices.

“It is time for a renewed commitment to change the way we address media use,” says Dr. Thomas K. McInerny, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). “In the same way you may need to guide children on how to eat nutritiously, you can foster a healthy media diet.”

In a digital world ever in flux, the AAP offers some key tips

for families looking to make smarter media choices: • Make a media use plan, including mealtime and bedtime “curfews” for media devices.

Media use plans take into account not only the quantity, but the quality and location of media use.

• Excessive media use has been associated with obesity, lack of sleep, school problems, aggression and other behavior issues. Limit entertainment screen time to less than one or two hours per day.

• For children under 2, substitute unstructured play and human interaction for screen time.

• Take an active role in your children’s media education by co-viewing programs with them and discussing values.

• Keep the computer in a public part of your home, so you can check on what your kids are doing online and how much time they are spending there.

Please join us in celebration as our community’s teens are honored for their accomplishments.

Thursday, May 22, 2014 | 22 Iyar 5774 Temple Emanu-El | 99 Taft Avenue, Providence 7pm Graduating Class of 5774 Jesse Brenman Makenna Kobrin Alexis Kutenplon-Rayess Rachel Mernoff Julie Penn Candace Powning Spencer Ruekberg Kevin Sock

‫אהרון יעקב‬ ‫חוה‬ ‫חיה‬ ‫שרה טובה‬ ‫אביבה בתיה לאה‬ ‫ליאורה‬ ‫מרדכי‬ ‫אשר‬

Plus Teen Awards and Achievements

TEENS & GRADUATION

18 | May 9, 2014

The Jewish Voice

Ten tips for parenting teens today

BY STATEPOINT Parenting a teenager can be an uphill battle. In addition to the problems you may have faced in your youth, a new host of issues are presented by texting, sexting, social media and cyberbullying, point out experts.

“Say the right thing and you’ll open up lines of communication. Say the wrong thing and it could lead to a fight or silent treatment,” says Joani Geltman, child development and parenting expert and author of “A Survival Guide to Parenting Teens: Talking to Your Kids About Sexting, Drinking, Drugs, and Other Things That Freak You Out.” (AMACOM).

Geltman offers her “Top Parenting Tips.”

PHOTO | DOBLE.D-FOTOLIA.COM

“lecture circuit.” Model what it means to be a good person so you don’t need to tell them.

They will “get it.”

• As uncomfortable as it may be, you have to talk about sex.

Do it with honesty, and understanding, not judgment. Talk about your own experiences when you were a teen, especial-

t s b J

ly those moments of which you are the least proud so that they will feel freer to share their questions and worries.

• When it comes to alcohol and drugs, make your house safe. Again, have honest discussions, sans judgment. Help them to anticipate new situations and problem solve about

oon s g n i h launc

raising funds to raise the community 1. How does Jboost.org work?

Jboost.org—the crowdfunding website for Greater Rhode Island’s Jewish community.

Crowdfunding /kroud•f ndING/: The collective effort of a group of people who pool their resources, networks, and ideas to benefit the greater good.

Coming together to raise the community by growing safety net services, promoting self-sufficiency, and increasing access to Jewish life in Greater Rhode Island.

2. Browse projects created by local Jewish agencies and synagogues.

Project I

This is you.

Log on to jboost.org

3. Find ones you like and click “Fund this Project.”

Fund this Project Commit any dollar amount — every bit helps.

ways to stay safe.

• Don’t rule with an iron fist.

This may have worked when the kids were younger, but teens need to be part of the rule making. Most kids are actually pretty reasonable when given the opportunity to have some control.

e

• Encourage teens to think independently. Restrain yourself from being chief problemsolver, so they can make good choices even when you’re not around.

• Try not to ask a zillion questions. You won’t get the answers you want anyway. Engage them in a conversation on a neutral topic before you start the interrogation.

• Refrain from going on the

• With their input, set limits with phones, computers and video games. Just like you let them eat only a few pieces of Halloween candy a night when they were younger, you need to see these devices in the same way.

• Express your appreciation and pride in your teens. Not for the good test scores or grades necessarily, but for moments of kindness and hard work.

There’s nothing more important than an out-of-the-blue “you’re a good kid, and maybe I don’t tell you that enough.”

• Find some fun with your teen. Hang out, watch TV, order pizza, go to the driving range, play a video game, listen to music, go get manis and pedis, bake a cake, take the dog for a walk, go shopping – anything that may give you a moment, maybe just a moment, of sweetness with your kid.

More parenting insights and information about the book can be found at joanigeltman.com.

When it comes to teenagers, the stakes can be high, with scary, emotional and even legal consequences. By being open and receptive, you can help navigate these treacherous waters.

Project II

Project III

Click to learn more about the project and host organization.

4. Finally, share the project with your social media network.

Spread the word to help your project get funding...

It’s that easy!

Proudly powered by

TEENS & GRADUATION

thejewishvoice.org

May 9, 2014 |

19

J-Camp CITs get the whole camp experience

BY JESSE SMOLOVER J-Camp at the Dwares JCC has an exciting opportunity for teens to become Counselors-in-Training this summer!

If you’re a teen going into grades 7-10 and you’re interested in working with children or in education, or you just want to be a part of our amazing summer J-Camp program, then our Counselor-in-Training (CIT) program is the perfect fit for you. CITs in J-Camp have a direct and crucial role while working with both the campers and the counselors, learning teaching techniques, being exposed to behavior management, planning and participating in tons of awesome games, and designing and running their own activities.

CITs will get to know and work with the campers each day. They will help the campers throughout the day and during pick-up and drop-off. One bonus to being a CIT at J-Camp is learning how to teach. CITs work intimately with Jcamp specialists by helping them run their programs and training with them on how to plan and implement programs in their specialty fields. “I liked how we were in different camps each week. It helped me get a better understanding for different age groups,” said CIT Julia Keizler.

Additionally, CITs will have their own daily sessions to learn pedagogical skills. They’ll learn positive teaching techniques, ways to identify and correct disruptive behavior before it happens, handle emergency situations, prevent bullying and many more techniques that will prepare them to plan, create and run their own activities.

“I feel like I was trusted more as a CIT.

Akiva Rosenbaum, a CIT, helps the J1 camp group at the Roger Williams Park Zoo. I like how the kids look up to us,” said Jacob Hammarstrom.

CITs also get Red Cross CPR and fi rst aid training, with the opportunity to get certified.

How do some of our CITs feel about the program?

“I like how we worked together,” said Michael Gerber.

“I like how we always have something to do with the kids,” said Kevin Alezker.

“I have to say, I was very nervous on the fi rst day. Now, I feel I have nothing to worry about. I love the kids, and the kids love me,” said Jozef Zekanoski.

If you want to have fun working with kids while learning how to be a leader, we hope you will join us this summer as

Save the Date

PHOTO | LAURELIN SITTERLY

a CIT at J-Camp!

FOR MORE INFORMATION, contact Shannon Boucher, sboucher@jewishallianceri.org, at 401-421-4111, ext.

147.

JESSE SMOLOVER is the J-Camp CIT Leader.

Third Annual Meeting Monday, June 16 | 7pm

Board Installations: Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island Jewish Federation Foundation Alliance Realty, Inc. Presentation of Leadership and Community Service Awards Special Guest Speakers: Alan Gill, Executive Vice President and CEO Dov Ben-Shimon, Executive Director of Strategic Partnerships American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) in celebration of JDC’s 100 years of service and impact Reception to follow Join us at 6pm as we honor Israeli Emissary Matan Graff

20 | May 9, 2014

COMMUNITY

The Jewish Voice

Did you know?

Honey bees are vital to many of the foods we eat.

The list of crops that won’t grow without the honey bee is long: apples, cucumbers, broccoli, carrots. It goes on and on.

In 2006, beekeepers fi rst noticed that the bees were abandoning hives in large numbers. Called Colony Collapse Disorder, researchers are now trying to learn about why this is happening.

This is not the fi rst time that beekeepers have noticed this problem. And the USDA has committed funds to study it.

But a solution still has not been found.

Fascinating honey bees On April 23, JCDSRI celebrated Earth Day with a garden party

by Whole Foods Market. Third grade students (left to right) Yishai, Lev, Jonah, Zosia and Elana, were mesmerized by the honey bees in an observation beehive with Celeste Nadworny. Everyone enjoyed making vegetable kebabs to nosh.

PHOTO | SUSAN SUGERMAN

Instilling healthy habits in teens Eating well, exercising are lifelong wellness skills

BY ANGELA SULLIVAN asullivan@jewishallianceri.org

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For many years America’s health has been under the microscope. It has become clear that the United States has an obesity problem that some are even calling an epidemic. This issue has become clearer now that even toddlers are overweight.

This is why health officials are especially concerned about weight problems among children. Over the past three decades, the number of overweight children in the U.S. has tripled. In 2009, it was reported that nearly 14 percent of preschoolers were overweight; among children ages 6 to 11 – almost 20 percent; and among adolescents ages 12 to 19 – more than 17 percent. More than 20 percent of American children between the ages of 3 and 5 are believed to be either overweight or at risk of becoming so.

Because this has become such an epidemic, health educators want to make sure that our youth, from toddlers to teenagers, understands what healthful eating and exercise really mean. It is important for teens and children to recognize the difference between dieting and eating healthy. Children should not be focused on dieting, which can lead to overindulging later on in life. Creating healthy eating habits is the best way to avoid having to diet. Following dietary guidelines, provided by helpful resources, such as MyPlate (the current nutrition guide published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture), is a great way to learn what you should be eating and what you should be avoiding, as well as familiarize yourself with appropriate portion sizes. While dieting lasts only a short period of time, habits are usually formed for a lifetime.

The teenage years can be a time during which many start to notice their body growing and changing. As this happens,

it is very important to take care of the body and fuel it with nutritious food, so that it may develop to its full potential.

Whether you are an athlete, musician, avid reader or video game expert, your body needs healthy food to achieve top performance.

During the teenage years, being active is extremely important as well. Exercise and physical activity will help you to feel not only healthy, but also mentally sharp. It can relieve stress and prevent depression.

Easy ways to stay active include playing outside. Besides, being physically active is fun!

It is much easier to create good habits than it is to change bad ones. This is the simple premise behind the Discover CATCH wellness program from the JCC Association. This program seeks to bring the gift of healthy habits to the youngest members of the community and their families. CATCH stands for Coordinated Approach to Childhood Health. Here, at the Jewish Alliance, we are hoping to bring the great ideas and values that drive this program to our youth. This program involves children from three years of age by teaching them healthy eating and exercise habits that they will carry throughout their lives.

We have found that, while it is very important to teach and instill these skills in children at a young age, it is even more important to continue teaching them as the children age.

We are extremely excited to be taking steps that will instill healthy eating habits and exercise skills in our youth. Be on the lookout for more buzz about the Discover CATCH program at the Alliance and the wonderful ways we will be leading these teens to a healthier lifestyle.

ANGELA SULLIVAN is a Fitness Professional and Membership Concierge at the Jewish Alliance.

COMMUNITY | WORLD

thejewishvoice.org

May 9, 2014 |

21

Community Relations Council to host panel discussion American Jewish Perspectives to Peace in Israel

While the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians seem to have faltered, the need for a peaceful solution is still urgent. What role should we play and how can the American Jewish community be helpful in the peace process?

On May 21, at the Dwares JCC, nationally recognized Jewish leaders will participate in a facilitated discussion about the hurdles facing peace and how we, in the U.S. can influence peace in the Middle East. Panelists for the program include David Bernstein, executive director of The David Project, Rachel Lerner, senior vice president of community relations of J Street and Martin J. Raffel, senior vice president of the Jewish Council on Public Affairs (JCPA).

As executive director of The David Project, which works to positively shape campus opinion on Israel, David Bernstein transformed and rebranded the organization. The David Project focuses on the need for expanding relationships with campus opinion leaders and investing resources and effort on each campus where the organization is active.

Rachel Lerner has devoted more than 10 years of Jewish community service and advocacy for Israel including director of the Israel Advocacy Initiative of the JCPA before coming to J Street. Lerner is responsible for helping to express the advocacy position of J Street to the Jewish community.

Martin J. Raffel serves as the

senior vice president and director of the Task Force on Israel, World Jewry & International Human Rights at the the JCPA. He is a primary resource on a broad range of Israel-related and other international issues for a field of 14 national and 125 local Jewish public affairs/ community relations organizations.

The panel discussion begins at 7 p.m. at 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence. The program is sponsored by the Community Relations Council of the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, contact Marty Cooper at mcooper@jewishallianceri.org or 401-295-7703

1482 Torah fetches record $3.87 million at Paris auction JTA – A 15th-century book of the Torah sold for a record $3.87 million at an auction in Paris.

Christie’s, which organized the recent auction, listed the buyer as “anonymous” and said the sale broke the mark for the most etxpensive Hebrewlanguage book. Three buyers attempted to outbid each other by telephone, the news website actualitte.com reported.

The book was printed in Hebrew in Bologna in January 1482, according to Christie’s.

“The volume represents the very fi rst appearance in print of all five books of the Pentateuch as well as the fi rst to which vocalization and cantillation marks have been added,” the

Christie’s website said.

Prior to the auction, Christie’s estimated the item’s worth at up to 1.5 million euros, or $2.08 million.

The back of the copy bears the signature of three 16th- and 17th-century censors testifying to its presence in an Italian library until at least the mid-17th century, according to Christie’s.

“Over the last hundred years only two copies of this rare edition have come to auction: the fi rst in 1970, printed on vellum and complete, the second in 1998, printed on paper and missing eight pages,” Christie’s added in a news release before the sale.

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PHOTO | JEWISH VOICE FILES

At last year’s Lag Ba’Omer celebration, Jim Shuster, left, and Dan Jaffee are surrounded by friends and family: (left to right) Ella Maher Santarpia, Evan Shuster, Hana Shuster and twins Lev and Ezekial Jaffee. The holiday, which falls on May 18, celebrates the counting of the Omer, a verbal counting of each of the 49 days between Pesach and Shavu’ot.

May 18 marks the 33rd day of the counting.

The copy sold was printed on vellum and is complete, apart from the rear free-end paper, and is “in exceptionally fresh condition,” the auction house said.

In 2012, the Paris office of Christie’s sold a 15th-century machzor, or Jewish High Holidays prayer book, for $2.41 million. It was created in Florence, Italy, and richly embellished with intricate designs.

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22 | May 9, 2014

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PHOTOS COURTESY | STEPHANIE MALINOW

Beth David women sew for foster children

BY STEPHANIE MALINOW Recently a group of women from Congregation Beth David

in Narragansett became aware of the plight of foster children throughout the state. These children, from infants to teens,

Gloria Winston to receive Miriam Hospital Women’s Association award The Miriam Hospital Women’s Association will honor Gloria Winston with the association’s 30th Recognition Award at its 117th annual meeting and luncheon on May 28 at Ledgemont Country Club.

Winston will be honored for her commitment to The Miriam Hospital both as a devoted, lifelong member of the association and as a dedicated volunteer whose kindness, warmth, knowledge and experience are valued by patients, their families and our hospital staff.

For information and reservations, contact Mary Ferreira at The Miriam Hospital Woman’s Association, 401-793-2520.

are often relocated on short notice, and they need personal items to bring with them as well as a bag to carry the items in.

As part of their commitment to tikkun olam, making the world a better place, the women decided to address these needs.

They organized sewing evenings to make brightly colored personal tote bags. Notices went out to congregants for donations of new hand towels, shampoo and soap, toothbrushes and toothpaste, hairbrushes and combs, and pencils

and small notebooks. The response was overwhelming. And so were the stories exchanged between the women as they crafted the special bags. One

has worked with special needs foster children in the school system. All the women brought enthusiasm, talent and a genuine concern for the children.

All items sewn and donated were delivered to DCYF at the end of April. This mitzvah project was organized by congregants Bernice Brandies and Stephanie Malinow.

woman had been a foster child herself. Another has a daughter who regularly cares for foster children in her home. A third

STEPHANIE MALINOW is a member of Congregation Beth David in Narragansett.

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401 Elmgrove Avenue | Providence, RI 02906 | 401.421.4111 | jewishallianceri.org

NATION | COMMUNITY

24 | May 9, 2014

The Jewish Voice

At Wrigley Field, Orthodox vendors go the way of Cubs wins

BY URIEL HEILMAN JTA – Longtime fans of the Chicago Cubs know there are a few mainstays they can expect when they visit Wrigley Field: ivy on the outfield walls, a strict no-wave policy rigorously enforced by fans and, most days, disappointing play by the hometown team.

But there’s one little-known quirk at Wrigley that appears to be fading away as the ballpark, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in April, enters its second century: the numerous Orthodox Jewish vendors who sell food and drinks in the stands.

A few subtle signs could give them away: a stray tzitzit strand flapping out of a jersey, a name tag reading Simcha, the minhah prayer minyan that used to take place in the outfield stands before or after games.

No one seems to know quite how it began, but for decades Wrigley Field vending was a redoubt of Orthodox Jews, most of them teenagers or early 20-somethings, and almost all of them men.

“I went to high school at Ida

FROM PAGE 2

PHOTO | JONATHAN DANIEL/GETTY IMAGES

A cotton candy vendor roams the Wrigley Field stands in 1994.

Crown Jewish Academy, and it was just like a rite of passage there,” said Jon Blumberg, 41, an investment fund manager who vended for five or six sum-

mers beginning in 1989. “Once you were at the age where you no longer were going to camp or didn’t want to be a counselor, it was just what guys did.”

The tradition long predates Blumberg. The late Rabbi Moshe Kushner, the Chicago Rabbinical Council leader and Camp Moshava-Wisconsin di-

too, must have been inspired by Chagall’s ravishing windows for Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital, but he recruited the littleknown Israeli painter Avigdor Arikha, then living in Paris, for B’nai Israel’s ornamentation.

One of Arikha’s early patrons, Baroness Alix de Rothschild, journeyed from Paris for the synagogue’s dedication.

Yet most Rhode Islanders have never made the drive.

Glaser’s sumptuous taste is displayed throughout his Woonsocket landmark. For example, Anni Albers, a German-born Jew trained at the legendary Bauhaus, received commissions for two magnificent sanctuary weavings. The

first, a shimmering parochet (curtain) measuring about five feet high by seven feet wide, is attached to the ark’s doors. Her second weaving, a long, diaphanous parochet, hangs over the ark.

Glaser also thought of commissioning Louise Nevelson, an acclaimed Jewish sculptor, to build a tableau of dark, wooden abstract forms to surround the ark. The cost would have been prohibitive, so he turned instead to one of his associates, who imitated her brooding and haunting compositions. In some sense, this was a Holocaust memorial without a name.

His imagination not yet exhausted, Glaser turned to an-

rector who died last October at age 68, vended in his youth.

Twenty years ago, it wasn’t unusual to have upward of 25 Orthodox Jewish vendors working the stands at Wrigley, selling everything from beer to peanuts.

It was seen as an ideal summer job for observant teenagers. The ballpark is a short ride from Chicago’s Orthodox neighborhoods, it wasn’t too onerous to join the union required to vend, you could make a decent amount of money in just four hours’ work and vendors could choose when they wanted to work and when they didn’t perfect both for Sabbath observers and teens uninterested in committing to a regular job.

Plus, there was the baseball.

“This was a dream come true,” said David Porush, 40, a lawyer who vended for a couple of years starting at age 16. “I’m a huge Cubs fan. I love baseball.

I love Wrigley Field. If you were a very big fan like me, I’d make $30 or $40 and then sit down to watch the game. But if you were a very aggressive vendor, you could make a lot of money.”

WRIGLEY FIELD | 25

B’NAI ISRAEL

sensed that the B’nai Israel commission represented an extraordinary professional and personal opportunity.

Designed to seat 260 in the main sanctuary, up to 400 more worshippers on folding chairs in the social hall and about 100 in the nearby chapel, the new B’nai Israel, configured around a garden courtyard, was so expansive that it could have easily accommodated a much larger congregation. By the time of its dedication, however, B’nai Israel’s membership had already reached its peak – about 200 families.

A highly sculptural form made of reinforced concrete, brick, wood and marble, B’nai

Israel feels both imposing and inviting. Its most striking feature is a constellation of 30 stained-glass windows, the tallest of which soar 22 feet. Although congregants, standing on Prospect Street, may think that eight triangular-shaped windows resemble a hanukkiah, they are intended in a much broader sense to represent creation. Such gorgeously colored blobs and shards have no identifiable imagery. By contrast, a group of 12 windows, each graced with a Hebrew letter, represent Israel’s tribes.

Percival Goodman had urged Beth-El leaders to commission Marc Chagall to design sanctuary tapestries. Samuel Glaser,

other leading Jewish artist, Ludwig Wolpert, an Israeli metalsmith living in New York. He crafted a Ner Tamid and Ten Commandments, with flowing Hebrew calligraphy, to preside above the chapel ark. Wolpert’s yahrzeit (memorial) lamp hangs in an adjacent alcove. His most magical sculpture may be the sanctuary’s Ner Tamid – nothing more than a silver ring supporting a crystal.

Needless to say, B’nai Israel’s magnificent adornments were of museum quality. This was not ironic, for a lower-level lounge included exhibition cases for the display of liturgical objects.

Unfortunately, Glaser did not receive another synagogue commission. Through the Lists’ patronage, however, he was able to build a new entrance and wing for New York City’s Jewish Museum in 1963.

Regrettably, it has been demolished, but B’nai Israel still quietly beckons.

GEORGE GOODWIN was coeditor of “The Jews of Rhode Island” (Brandeis University Press, 2004) and has edited the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes for a decade. He is a member of Temple Beth-El. EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is part of a series about Hiddur Mitzvah (enhancement or beautification of the divine commandment). In appreciation of Hiddur Mitzvah, The Jewish Voice will highlight Judaica collections in our synagogues and museums throughout our coverage area.

NATION

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FROM PAGE 24

WRIGLEY FIELD

Danny Altschul, now a partner at the accounting firm McGladrey, credits his five years of vending with helping pay for his wedding and the down payment on his house in the Chicago neighborhood of West Rogers Park.

“For those few hours you were out there it wasn’t the time to be lazy,” said Altschul, who could make up to $300 on a good day.

“You work hard, try to work swiftly and take advantage of an opportunity when you’re in a commission-based business.

It helped me pay for college.”

Like many of the vendors, Altschul also hawked wares at Chicago’s other sports arenas.

He remembers fondly the day he managed to sell 31 loads of pop (Midwest parlance for soda) at a Cubs-Astros day game and then headed downtown to Comiskey Park to work a White Sox night game.

Porush says he wanted to vend ever since he was a little kid, when he’d watch Orthodox vendors at Wrigley slip free beer, ice cream and peanuts to his father, a teacher at the Hillel Torah North Suburban Day School. The vendors were former students.

David Landsman, an accountant who now lives in New Jersey, used to cut school to vend on Opening Day and used a similar tactic to avoid trouble.

“In Chicago, everyone would play hooky on Opening Day,” Landsman recalled. “As long as I gave the assistant principal something from what I was selling, it was fine.”

In recent years, the stream of young Orthodox Jewish vendors has slowed to a trickle. Seniors at the two Orthodox high schools that served as the main feeders – Ida Crown and Skokie Yeshiva – told JTA through an administrator that students aren’t becoming vendors anymore. Vending isn’t as lucrative as it once was, the rising number of night games makes the

job less suitable for teens and the setting isn’t that compelling to young people.

“My kids, they don’t get it,” Blumberg said. “They don’t understand why you’d ever go to a Cubs game because they’re so pathetic. The ones who want to go say they want to go to the Sox.” The number of young Orthodox Jewish vendors at Wrigley has shrunk to just four or five, plus about an equal number of older full-timers, according to Joe Bulgatz, an Orthodox Jew in his 50s who has been vending at Wrigley and other sports venues in Chicago since 2004.

“Between the Cubs’ performance and the economy, a lot of people are just saying, ‘Hey, it’s not worth it,’ ” he said.

Bulgatz juggles his hours working in the credit department of a cable provider so he can supplement his income by vending at Wrigley and venues such as U.S. Cellular Field, the United Center and Soldier Field.

His modus operandi, he says, is to “provide the best quality service possible and make a connection with the fans, and make a kiddush Ha-shem at the same time.”

If he sees fellow Orthodox Jews, Bulgatz often drops a hint to let them know he’s a member of the tribe – informing them, for example, that the hot chocolate is kosher-certified.

Orthodox Jews have a few unique restrictions when it comes to vending. They can’t work on Shabbat or Jewish holy days, which cuts out about a quarter of the games. On Passover, they may not handle beer – often the most lucrative product – because it’s hametz, or leavened. And many won’t sell hot dogs for fear of unwittingly selling non-kosher meat to a Jew. Years back, when the hot dog buns apparently carried dairy ingredients, Orthodox vendors often debated whether selling

franks violated the Jewish law prohibiting profit from the sale of food that mixes meat and dairy, even if the meat isn’t kosher.

Rabbi Sholem Fishbane, kashrut administrator at the Chicago Rabbinical Council, says he fielded this question from a vendor’s mother not long ago. The prohibition, he says, applies only to foods in which the dairy and meat have been cooked together, so ballpark franks are OK (as long as you’re not selling them to a Jew).

As the kosher certification agency for the kosher food stands at the United Center, the rabbinical council maintains an onsite mashgiach, or kosher supervisor, at Bulls (NBA) and Black Hawks (NHL) home games. Wrigley has no exclusively kosher concessions – a subject of some consternation among Orthodox fans. A call to United Center’s kosher concessionaire, Kosher Sports Inc., was not returned.

With so many God-fearing Jews vending – and sometimes praying – at Wrigley, the Cubs’ dismal performance might seem like a challenge of faith.

Porush says he doesn’t see it that way.

“I’d like to think we’re getting our reward in the next world,” he said. “I’ve seen lots of heartache as a Cubs fan, and I think it is parallel to being a Godfearing Jew. We live through difficult times and all we can say is, ‘Next year in Jerusalem.’

A Cubs fan is always saying, ‘Wait till next year.’ That’s who we are.”

So what will happen first – the coming of the Messiah or a Cubs World Series title (the last was in 1908)?

“I really hope Moshiach comes first,” Porush said, “because the Cubs aren’t going to be a contender for at least another two years.”

BBYO New England region BBYO.org | 617-299-1925 | Ctopol@bbyo.org Casey Topol Pressburg, Program Director

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May 9, 2014 |

25

26 | May 9, 2014 FROM PAGE 6

SENIORS

REMEMBERING

it was on my hand instead of my mother’s, how she wouldn’t touch my hand again, the tears would return. Illogically, I’d even try to reach her through the ring, touching it in an attempt to access her wisdom, get her advice on how to cope with her loss.

Time passed. The open wound of loss grew a thin protective coating, shielding it from some of the elements. At the conclusion of my year of mourning, my friend Becca gave me a small blue hamsa whose bright, sparkling color seemed to recall both sky and ocean while symbolically evoking hope and transition at the end of a year of grief. The ring stayed on my finger, the two pieces symbolizing my emotional state: balancing between my designated time of grief and the echo of that grief that I’ll carry the rest of my life.

Every time I wore the hamsa or the ring, someone asked me about the stone, where I got it or what it meant. My hand would fly to my neck, juxtaposing ring and hamsa, and feeling my pulse, which reminded me of the activity of my blood, heart and lungs working together to move me forward.

Nearly two years after my mother’s passing, I was reading to my 7-year-old nephew Gil, who was sitting in my lap, tapping the stone with his finger at regular intervals.

“Doda Esther, why do you have this ring?” he asked.

“It belonged to Savta Shuly.”

“And why do you wear it now?”

“Because when I see it, I think about her, I remember

her and remember how much she loved us.”

“Oh.” There was a moment as Gil processed the information.

“Do you have another one for me?”

Stifling a sob, I said, “I don’t have another ring for you, but maybe the next time we visit Saba, we can look for something that belonged to Savta that you can keep. “OK, let’s get back to the book.” And we did.

Two minutes later, Gil very dramatically said, “Shushhhh!”

“What’s the matter, Gil?” He took my hand with the ring and raised it to his ear.

“Shhh! I hear Savta Shuly!”

I was caught between wanting to believe that my mother was trying to communicate through a piece of her jewelry and terror that my nephew might actually be a conduit to voices from beyond.

“You hear Savta Shuly? What is she saying?” I asked.

He listened closely to the ring for a few seconds, then lowered my hand and announced, “She says … BLAHBLAHBLAHBLAH,” before erupting into giggles.

I felt tears begin to form and realized we were both still grieving. But he was laughing.

And he wanted to ask questions, be close to his aunt and “get back to the story.”

If that wasn’t a message from my mother, I don’t know what is.

ESTHER D. KUSTANOWITZ is a writer and consultant based in Los Angeles. She blogs regularly at MyUrbanKvetch. com.

The Jewish Voice

The needless specter of dying in exile Few things in life are more subject to change than the range of therapies and palliative interventions that the modern physician can offer. Older physicians will recall that death had the controlling hand in the terminally ill patient; and when death became imminent, a OF SCIENCE physician’s skill was & SOCIETY measured by the deSTANLEY M. gree to which the ARONSON, M.D. dying process was eased. It was a quiet, non-heroic encounter, often with nurses, a rabbi and family sharing in a respectful acceptance of the impending biological reality.

These newly devised lifeextending measures have now prolonged the lives of many thousands. But by creating an expanded netherworld between life and death, the medical interventions have blurred the frontiers that separated the two. And, in so doing, they have placed a greater moral burden upon those physicians who now possess the means to alter, if only temporarily, these boundaries.

The 1940 physician, sitting helplessly at the bedside of the dying patient, was but an educated observer. The 2014 physician, with access to newer technologies, now confronts a growing list of possible interventions.

And, when choices are made, ethical dilemmas will inevitably arise.

An outsider may accuse the modern physician of needlessly prolonging the dying agonies; or, alternatively, of prematurely removing life supports. In either case, critics will contend that the physician is playing God ignoring the reality that virtually any medical intervention, such as vaccinations, will surely alter the span of life.

Ignorance of the intimacies of dying has also needlessly promoted the specter of euthanasia.

In recent years, the Rhode Island Board of Medical Licensure has yet to receive a single formal complaint accusing a local physician of euthanasia. The problem, therefore, is not some sinister intent that must be expunged or, at the least, guarded against.

Rather, the question is whether society will allow the concerned physician to factor in the

“The means of achieving a more humane quality of life in these terminal intervals are simple.” patient’s autonomous wishes when he or she decides upon one course or another; whether the patient – confronting a life with no joy, freedom from pain, meaning or future – shall have a critical voice in determining the choice and duration of therapies.

Today’s physician thinks not of euthanasia but rather of ways to ease those anxieties that confront the terminally ill individual – terrors such as the loss of dignity, loss of self-esteem, loss of social status, helplessness and, most of all, aggravated pain. Today’s physician recognizes that the customary mission of medicine – to diagnose ailments, treat disease and prolong life – no lon-

ger pertains when the patient has but days to live.

The most appropriate behavior, then, is to listen attentively and identify the patient’s needs, whether they be medical, social or spiritual. Foremost among these needs, frequently, is the management of intractable pain.

Today’s physician does not seek to shorten a patient’s life; rather, this physician seeks to enhance, to the extent possible, the quality of life during these terminal days or hours.

The concept of a system of rational and sensitive care for the terminally ill has been advocated for years by such leaders of the hospice movement as Edward Martin, M.D., medical director of Home and Hospice Care of Rhode Island. Both the Miriam Hospital and Rhode Island Hospital have now established inpatient palliative care units based on principles of patient-centered compassionate aid, the control of pain and a due regard for the autonomy of the dying individuals.

The enemy, then, is no longer death but rather the dehumanizing silences, the isolation, the helplessness, the unremitting pain, the abandonment – the dying in exile – that have relentlessly haunted so many in their final hours. The means of achieving a more humane quality of life in these terminal intervals are awesomely simple: They include an authentic respect for meaningful life, a steadfast commitment to the patient’s dignity, a nonjudgmental ear, a bolder use of pain-suppressing medication and an appreciation of the finiteness of life.

STANLEY M. ARONSON, M.D. (smamd@cox.net) is dean of medicine emeritus at Brown University.

Putting Life Into Living Jewish Seniors Agency of Rhode Island

Annual Meeting JSA puts life into living for hundreds of Jewish seniors every day.

Come see how we do it!

Thursday, May 22, 2014 at 7:00 PM at The Phyllis Siperstein

Tamarisk Assisted Living Residence 3 Shalom Drive, Warwick, Rhode Island

Installation of Officers Reception

Presentation of Maurice Glicksman Leadership Award RSVP by May 16 to JSA at 401-351- 4750 or jsa@jsari.org Visit our web site: www.jsari.org

SENIORS

thejewishvoice.org

May 9, 2014 |

27

Remembering an old friend

BY MIKE FINK Sara Kaiser poses as a model at RISD and at the Providence Art Club. She is a delicate young woman with refined features.

SKETCHBOOK MIKE FINK

I met her when she worked as a home companion for a friend of mine who required hospice care and has since passed away.

The patient left no relatives and arranged her own memorial ceremony at Swan Point, but that event took place only recently, four seasons later. There were no ashes in the brass jar on the altar table – only a few symbols of her personality. A vase of white hydrangea, her high school portrait, a few of her favorite things and a sheaf of articles about her activities and accomplishments in the community. One of those was her effort through the Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission to bring the Polish and Jewish subcommittees together in their aims and programs.

But this is about Sara, her Sunday-evening regular visitor, who sat by my friend’s bedside, kept her company and shared conversations with her. I asked Sara to have a private service with me to talk about the character of the remarkable person we both had the privilege to know. “She knit me this scarf and hat I’m wearing and made this bracelet. She was a brilliant artist and designer,” Sara started out.

She continued her tale. “I juggled a little and did a somersault to distract her from her fears and anxieties, and she gave me advice and counsel about my personal problems.

She taught me how to protect

myself from being stepped on or taken advantage of. She especially wanted me to meet you; she thought a lot of you!”

During her brief break from modeling – “it’s not easy, and I need to stretch after straining to be still and unmoving...” – Sara and I both sipped our small bowls of chicken soup. As we talked, I clinked my glass of wine against her glass of ice water to toast the memory of our lady of sorrows and of good cheer.

When it was my turn to wax nostalgic, I said, “Did I love her?

What is love? Not the kind of romantic love one might think of, no. She was much too shy and withdrawn for direct human touch. She hid behind her gestures of generosity and social activism. She only had her stray cat on her invalid bed for intimate touch. But through the gifts, of things and words, she created a wide world, of human beings, animals and images she caught with her camera.”

I tried to explain to Sara what had happened at the Swan Point service. The congregants were mostly strangers to one another or, worse, foes and rivals for the objects promised to them from the treasure chest of a home now sealed off to be sold and emptied of its contents. Well, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” played, and other nurses and neighbors told stories. A Hospice chaplain presented prayers. A fellow traveler, who had accompanied her to Italy, reminisced, “She liked Saint Anthony and Italian cuisine!”

And a couple of representatives of her political campaigns to help the poor beasts of Slater Park Zoo and the natural resources of its grounds, as well as enthusiasts for the local musical scene were present.

So, anyway, Sara and I had to rush through our luncheon and our one-on-one eulogy, but I found myself both moved and inspired by our rendezvous, especially because it was the phantom angel who had asked us to get together. I do have a photograph my friend had

Rockport, Mass., scene given to me. It’s of Rockport, Mass., a harbor she had loved to visit. A woman at the funeral – if that is what it had amounted to – had my friend’s ashes in her purse and intended to take them to Rockport and scatter them there in secret.

I am haunted by the spirit of the soul whose wishes brought me and Sara to this little table at the window across from the WWII Arcade on South Main St. Sara surprised me with her odyssey. “My family came to Rhode Island from Hitler’s Germany. One of my greatgrandparents survived the war because he was a dentist. His skills were useful to the Nazis; he could supply the murderers with gold from the teeth of the murdered.” “One of the four benches there declares, “Freedom From Fear,” I told her.

“I will send you my portrait,”

PHOTO | GLORIA GRZEBIEN

COURTESY | SARA KAISER, FROM A WATERCOLOR BY DEANE LAWRENCE

promised Sara, and I also offered the photograph of Rockport. For the remainder of that day, I felt as though I dwelt in a kind of a fairyland, where

spirits and souls reign and hold court.

MIKE FINK (mfink33@aol. com) teaches at RISD.

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28 | May 9, 2014

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30 | May 9, 2014 Nathan M. Berman, 98

WARWICK, R.I. – Nathan Berman died April 23. He was the husband of the late Arline (Clemens) Berman. Born in Boston, a son of the late Harry and Rose Berman, he lived most of his life in Natick, Mass., before moving to Rhode Island in 2004.

A graduate of Boston Latin School and the University of Massachusetts, Berman worked for many years as an executive with the former A. Sandler Shoe Co. He attained the rank of sergeant while serving in the U.S. Army during World War II and was a former member of Temple Israel in Natick.

He is survived by his children, David Berman of Providence and Mark Berman and his wife Susan of Kingston. In lieu of flowers, contributions in his memory may be made to the Providence Community Library, P.O. Box 9267, Providence, R.I. 02940.

George Herbert Borts, 86

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Professor George Herbert Borts, died May 2 in Providence. He was a son of the late Elias Alexander and Etta (Silberg) Borts, husband of Muriel “Dolly” (Levenson) Borts and brother of Lawrence (Beverly) Borts. He was the father of David (Lucia Fontes) Borts, Richard (Paulette York) Borts and Robert (Erin O’Cain) Borts. He was the grandfather of Alexander, Andrew and Liana Borts.

Borts was born in New York City on Aug. 29, 1927, and educated at Columbia University.

He received his A.M. in 1949 and his Ph.D. in 1953 from the University of Chicago, studying under Milton Friedman.

OBITUARIES He spent 63 years at Brown University, where he joined the Department of Economics in 1950 at the age of 23. During his career, he served as chairman of the Department of Economics at Brown, as the managing editor of the “American Economic Review” and as a visiting professor/research fellow at Hokkaido University, London School of Economics and the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Borts was an expert in international finance and transportation. He testified frequently before U.S. and Canadian regulatory commissions. During his long and distinguished career, he published numerous scholarly books, articles and monographs as well as commentary for the Providence Journal. A tireless advocate for the free market, he was also a dedicated educator and teacher. He advised both undergraduate and graduate students with equal dedication and led Brown’s Phi Beta Kappa chapter for many years. Borts served on many boards, including the Rhode Island School of Design, Dartmouth’s Amos Tuck School of Business, Rhode Island Blue Shield, Junior Achievement of Rhode Island and Temple BethEl. He also advised several political candidates on economic and tax policy.

Contributions in memory of George H. Borts may be made to Home & Hospice Care of Rhode Island, Philip Hulitar Inpatient Center or the Alzheimer’s Association, Rhode Island Chapter.

Malcolm C. Bromberg, 90

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Malcolm C. Bromberg died April 25. He was the husband of the late Ruth (Borod) Bromberg and the late Sylvia (Delfino) Bromberg.

Born in Providence, a son of the late Benjamin and Flora (Wolfe) Bromberg, he was a lifelong

The Jewish Voice

resident of the city. Bromberg attended Worcester Polytechnic Institute and was the president of Benny’s Inc., which was founded by his parents in 1924.

He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. Bromberg was a member of Temple Emanu-El and Congregation Beth Shalom in Providence, and was a member of Congregation Beth David in Narragansett. He was a Past Master of Redwood Lodge #35 AF & AM, a Past Grand Master of The Grand Lodge of Rhode Island F&AM, a 33rd Degree Mason and a member of several other Masonic organizations.

He had a lifelong dedication to Jewish Day School education.

He was an amateur radio operator, an avid fisherman and a talented artist.

He is survived by his children, Howard Bromberg and his wife Susan, Arnold Bromberg and his wife Jane and Judith Rosenstein and her husband Jay, all of Providence; his step-children Linda and Joan Wattman; his companion Natalie Weiner; his grandchildren Scott, Matthew, Shira, Avi, Michael and Samuel; and his great-grandchildren Talia, Allison, Jamie, Ayelet, Brandon, Galit and Noah. He was the brother of the late Barbara Abrams Pikelny.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in his memory may be made to the charity of your choice.

Herbert L. Brown, 96

CRANSTON, R.I. – Herbert L. Brown died April 25. He was the beloved husband of Sylvia (Rosen) Brown for 64 years, the devoted father of Andi, Ellen Effren (Jerry) and Heidi (Rich Moche) and adoring grandfather of Sydney and Jack Zelinka; Jay (Leigh) and Hilary Effren; and Isaac, Charlotte and Henry Moche. He is also survived by sisters-in-law Phyllis Brown and Trude Brown. He was predeceased by his brothers Bertram, Norman and Russell.

Son of the late Charles and Lillian (Beerman) Brown, he was born in Providence and lived his entire life in Rhode Island. He was a leading retailer with his men’s and boy’s apparel store, Herbert Brown Inc. He became a real estate broker and vice president of Henry W. Cooke Co., and later founded his own firm, Herbert Brown Realty. Brown was an exhibiting artist with shows at the Providence Art Club and the Rhode Island Watercolor Society. He served on the boards of Temple Emanu-El, the former Jewish Home for the Aged and the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Society; he was named an honorary board member of the Jewish Seniors Agency of Rhode Island. He was also an accomplished composer and poet. In lieu of flowers, contributions in his memory may be made to Jewish Seniors Agency, 100 Niantic Ave., Providence, R.I. 02907.

Marilynn C. Fink

CRANSTON, R.I. – Marilynn C. Fink, died April 30, at Cedar Crest Nursing Center, Johnston.

She was the beloved wife of the late Jacob P. “Jack” Fink. Born in Jersey City, N.J., a daughter of the late Max and Shirley (Shorr) Silverman, she had lived in Cranston and Boynton Beach, Fla. She was a bookkeeper for Louis Fink and Co., in Providence, for 27 years, retiring in 1985.

She attended the University of Connecticut and was a graduate of Bryant College, Class of ’48. She was the first president of the Bryant-Brown University Hillel. She was a member of Temple Am David and a founding member of Temple Torat Yisrael, served on its board and was a member of its Sisterhood.

She was a life member of Hadassah, a member of Women’s

American ORT and the Miriam Hospital Women’s Auxiliary.

Devoted mother of Sharon Fink-Custis and her husband Howard of Johnston and David Fink and his wife Heleene of Marblehead, Mass. Dear sister of Dyane Kreisler of Elmsford, N.Y., and Brenda Danovich of West Yarmouth, Mass. Loving grandmother of Rebecca Custis and her fiancé Ben Wong, and Adam and Bryan Fink.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in her memory may be made to Temple Am David, 40 Gardiner St., Warwick, R.I. 02888 or Hadassah, 121 Nanci Karen Drive, Warwick, R.I. 02886.

Naomi Gitman, 91

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Naomi Gitman, died Sunday, May 4, at Philip Hulitar Inpatient Center, Providence. Born in Worcester, Mass., a daughter of the late Isadore and Annie (Osterman) Nesvest, she was a lifelong Providence resident. Naomi was the secretary to the director of the former South Providence JCC, personnel officer for the State of Rhode Island and secretary to the chief personnel officer of the Social & Rehabilitative Services Department in Cranston. Upon retiring, she became manager of the Rhode Island Hemophilia Foundation. She was a frequent contributor to “Letters to the Editor” of the Providence Journal.

Devoted mother of Brenda Bedrick and her husband Gerry of East Greenwich, Marcia Summers and her husband Eugene of Newton, Mass., and Joyce Robinson and her husband Russell of Providence.

Loving grandmother of Amy and Charles Kantor, David and Jody Bedrick, P. Tyler Summers and Paige Robinson. In lieu of flowers, contributions in her memory may be made to

OBITUARIES | BUSINESS

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Miriam Hospital, 164 Summit Ave., Providence, R.I. 02906 or Philip Hulitar Inpatient Center, 1085 North Main St., Providence, R.I. 02904.

Edith Kameron, 98

SOUTH DARTMOUTH, MASS. – Edith Kameron, died May 3.

She was the wife of the late William Kameron. Born in South Milwaukee, Wis., a daughter of the late Harry and Fanny (Freedman) Wasserman, she had been a resident of Massachusetts for 70 years.

She graduated from Beth Israel School of Nursing in New York in 1936 and Southeastern Massachusetts University in 1975. She was a member of Tifereth Israel, New Bedford, and its Sisterhood and UMass Library.

She is survived by her sons Stan, David and Matthew Kameron; her sister Shirley Wasserman; nine grandchildren; seven g reat-g randch i ld ren; and her best friend Joyce. She was the mother of the late Joel Kameron and sister of the late Nathan, Sam, Morris, Eva and Rebecca Wasserman.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in her memory may be made to the Joel Kameron Fund, 124 Watertown St. Watertown, Mass. 12472 or to the New Bedford Jewish Convalescent Home, 200 Hawthorne St., New Bedford, Mass. 02740.

Bernice Karten-Cohen, 92

CRANSTON, R.I. – Bernice Karten-Cohen, Bernice, died April 26 at Steere House. She was the beloved wife of the late Reuben Karten and the late Gerald Cohen. Born in Providence, a daughter of the late Charles and Gussie (Pell)

Berson, she had lived in Providence, previously living in Cranston. She was vice president of New England Jewelry in Providence for 35 years, retiring in 1978. She was a member of Hadassah, Miriam Hospital Women’s Association, the former Jewish Home for the Aged Women’s Auxiliary and was a former member of Temple Torat Yisrael.

She was the devoted mother of Clifford Karten and his wife, Vicki, of Barrington and Karen Karten of Warwick. Stepmother of Wendy Moscovitz of West Greenwich and Debbie Tresvont of Portsmouth. Dear sister of the late Gertrude Anapol, Philip and Abraham Berson.

Loving grandmother of Max and the late Benjamin Karten.

Stepgrandmother of Jennifer, Jamie and Nicole.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in her memory may be made to Providence Animal Rescue League, 34 Elbow St., Providence, R.I. 02903.

Natalie Gladys Kopel, 92

NORTH PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Natalie Gladys Kopel died April 23. She was born in Lithuania on March 29, 1922, to the late Louis and Jenny (Flint) Kopel.

She was the beloved sister of the late Samuel and William Kopel.

She leaves behind her sister-inlaw, Sandra Kopel; nieces Lisa and Sheryl Kopel and Rienette Wasserman; nephews Eric and Keith Kopel and many grandand great-grand nieces and nephews.

Contributions in her name may be made to the charity of your choice.

Estelle Pulver Terry, 99

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Estelle

“Geri” (Gould) Pulver Terry passed away April 19.

She died peacefully in her sleep at home with her daughters at her side.

She is survived by her two daughters, Susan A b r a m s B r e n n a n (Pulver) of West Greenwich and Judith Pulver of Los Angeles, her two granddaughters, Loren Sipperly and Jody Ragosta and her four great-grandchildren, Olivia and Jack Sipperly, and Michael and Joseph Ragosta.

She was married to Joseph W. Pulver, who died in 1970, and later to Albert Terry, of Bridgeport, Conn., who died in 1989. She was born in New Britain, Conn., and spent her early years in Connecticut. She was graduated from Pembroke College in Brown University in 1935; she was active in the theater at Brown and became a loyal alumna. Always interested in the visual and performing arts, she was a founder of the Artists Series at Temple Beth-El that brought in worldrenowned musicians. She was a member and officer of many local charitable organizations, including the National Council of Jewish Women and the Miriam Hospital. She was a world traveler and had many friends here and in Florida where she had a home for many years.

Donations in her memory may be sent to Temple Beth-El, 70 Orchard Ave., Providence, R.I. 02906 or Brown University Annual Fund, P.O. Box 1877, Providence, R.I. 02912.

Intel to invest up to $6 billion in Israeli factory Fresh matzos are packaged on the production line at the Manischewitz manufacturing facility in Newark, N.J. Under strict rabbinical supervision at all times – over 1 million sheets of matzo are produced daily during Passover season.

Manischewitz Company sold JTA – The Manischewitz Company, well known for its Passover foods, was sold a week before the holiday.

Sankaty Advisors, an arm of the private equity fi rm Bain Capital, purchased the Newark, N.J.-based purveyor of kosher foods for an undisclosed price, the Associated Press reported on April 8. The deal had been fi rst disclosed late April 7 by the New York Times.

Under its new owner, Manischewitz is expected to promote kosher as an indication of quality food rather than

just a religious designation, according to the Times.

“This investment reflects our confidence in the Manischewitz brands and team,” Sankaty Advisors said in a statement.

“Manischewitz has earned a position as one of the most highly recognized brands in the world, and it has distinguished itself through a passionate commitment to producing the highest quality kosher products possible. We believe Manischewitz is well positioned to grow due to rising mainstream interest in kosher foods.”

JTA – The Intel Corp. will invest $5 to $6 billion in its southern Israel factory.

The company is fi ling an investment plan for the Kiryat Gat work with Israel’s Ministry of the Economy, the Israeli business daily Globes reported, citing company sources. Intel could receive a grant for about 5 percent of the job – some $300,000 million, according to Globes.

Intel, which has been operating in Israel for 40 years, has four development centers and two production plants in the country.

The company will make an official announcement in the coming weeks, according to reports.

May 9, 2014 |

31

Thomas Wolfe Pearlman, Esq., 86 PROVIDENCE – Thomas Wolfe Pearlman, Esq., died April 29.

He was the husband of the late Miriam (Vogel) Pearlman, and the son of Israel and Ida (Mines) Pearlman.

Pearlman was the father of the late Joshua Pearlman and the late Ann Pearlman. He is survived by his children, Rebecca Pearlman Sy and Roger Pearlman, seven of his 10 siblings and 11 grandchildren. He was a lifetime resident of Providence.

Pearlman graduated from Classical High School, where he was an all-state guard for the football team during his junior and senior years. He attended Brown University and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and, at the end of World War II, he graduated from Amherst College. He then attended Harvard Law School and, immediately after graduating, ran as a Republican for the Rhode Island State Legislature. Pearlman became the fi rst Republican to win a seat in his district in more 30 years, becoming the minority leader. Subsequently, he successfully ran for the Providence City Council and became the minority leader, serving in that capacity for many years. He also had a successful law practice.

Pearlman was very active in the Providence Jewish community, and he was the major benefactor of Providence Hebrew Day School (PHDS) for decades. He was the leading force behind the founding of the New England Academy of Torah (NEAT) and the New England Rabbinical College (NERC). Additionally, he was instrumental in the establishment of the dormitory of the boys’ division of NEAT on

Blackstone Boulevard.

At the funeral for Pearlman, Rabbi Eliezer Gibber, Rosh Yeshiva of NERC, commented that the Pearlman home was one of hachnasat orchim, especially to the students who boarded at the New England Academy of Torah. Many recall with great fondness the delicious meals they enjoyed and the divrei Torah that they were required to recit e.

As a respected attorney and political activist, Pearlman worked tirelessly for a Jewry that was decimated in the Holocaust. The Pearlman family understood that Jewish education in the aftermath of the Holocaust equaled Jewish survival and triumph. It was for this reason that the Pearlmans became historic champions of Torah education, not only making PHDS/NEAT the focus of their fi nancial contributions, but also spending countless hours each year cultivating and soliciting new donors for the school.

Rabbi Scheinerman, dean of PHDS remarked, “The Pearlman family has had a profound impact on the school by ensuring its sustainability and standard of excellence in education for many years. Today, as the school continues to grow, we realize that we cannot truly appreciate the magnitude of the legacy of the Pearlman family to PHDS/NEAT and the Providence Jewish community.

On June 15, Providence Hebrew Day School/New England Academy of Torah is dedicating the Lifetime Achievement Tribute to the memory of Thomas and Miriam Pearlman and in honor of the Pearlman family. No award could truly quantify the leadership role that the Pearlman family has held in the Providence community.

Cape Air announces service to Block Island

Cape Air, one of the nation’s largest regional airlines, will begin seasonal service to Block Island, R.I., beginning on May 22. Cape Air will offer daily fl ights between Block Island Airport (BID) and T.F. Green Airport (PVD) and between BID and Westchester County Airport (HPN).

Passengers also have the option to take Cape Air’s ground transportation from Westchester County Airport to 35th Street and 8th Avenue in midtown Manhattan, from T.F. Green and Westchester County Airports.

“After several years of collaboration with the Rhode Island Airport Corporation, we are thrilled to be able to start seasonal, scheduled service

to Block Island. Cape Air specializes in connecting passengers to some of the most desirable destinations in the U.S. and Caribbean,” said Linda Markham, president, Cape Air. “Block Island passengers on Cape Air will have access to connecting service on other carriers and commuter rail service to Providence and Boston via the convenience of T. F. Green Airport. Cape Air is a valued travel partner, offering seasonal service to the Cape and Islands for over 15 years.

This additional service is, hopefully, an indication of future growth,” said Kelly Fredericks, president and CEO of the Rhode Island Airport Corporation (RIAC).

32 | May 9, 2014

ARTS

The Jewish Voice

COURTESY | EAST SIDE DRAMA CLUB

Life Enrichment Director Karen Ferranti presents the East Side Drama Club with flowers after their production of “The Odd Couple.” From left to right: The Pigeon sisters, Morton Paige (“Felix”), and Lee Fiore (“Oscar”).

Theater ignites seniors’ youthful spirit EPOCH’s budding actors eager to take center stage

BY MELISSA BROOKS The East Side Drama Club was initiated in the fall of 2008 when five theaterloving residents suggested to Life Enrichment Director Karen Ferranti that they do drama readings. “I told them, ‘If you’re going to do that, we might as well perform it!’ ” Ferranti said. Although the group members were a little nervous, they set about organizing a theater production.

Their first performance was “Bell, Book and Candle” – John Van Druten’s successful Broadway play about a witch who grapples with losing her supernatural powers in order to follow her heart.

Although initially wary of performing, the group loved it. “It was a big success with both the actors and the audience,” Ferranti said. The performance was so successful, it launched an annual tradition.

Since then, the club has performed abridged versions of Stanley Houghton’s “Dear Departed,” George Kaufman and Moss Hart’s “The Man Who Came to Dinner,” Neil Simon’s “Brighton Beach Memoirs” and, most recently, Neil Simon’s “The Odd Couple.”

The group has steered toward comedies, partly because they’re more fun to perform and partly because the audience prefers them to dramas. When choosing which plays to perform, the group members always consider what their audience would like. “Everyone enjoys laughing,” Ferranti said.

Some of the East Side actors are living out an unfulfilled dream for the first time while others are reigniting an old passion. Morton Paige, for example, performed in high school plays but hadn’t acted since graduating more than 70 years ago. Now he’s a leading man. “I have the freedom now to explore being an actor,” Paige said. Last year, he starred as Felix in the club’s production of “The Odd Couple.”

Although these are informal productions, the group takes them seriously.

They stick to their rehearsal schedule and are passionate about putting on a

great show. And if the warm reception and regular bouts of laughter erupting from the audience tell us anything, it’s that this is one talented group.

“I wouldn’t be able to do what I do here if it wasn’t for how good they are,” Ferranti said. “You can’t create a longrunning program like this with just anyone.” Their talent grows every year.

Their first production exuded energy and made the audience laugh. “By the time they got to ‘The Man Who Came to Dinner,’ ” Ferranti said, “they were taking over the personalities of their characters. In ‘The Odd Couple,’ Morton Paige and Lee Fiore were Felix and Oscar.

They want to do it right. And they do – the East Side Drama Club’s plays are the best-attended programs at the community. It’s one of the only programs that the whole building consistently comes to watch. Among all the residents, staff and family members, they always have a full house.

The next play the actors intend to perform is Joseph Fields and Jerome Chodorov’s 1940 “My Sister Eileen,” which tells the story of Ruth and Eileen Sherwood’s move from Columbus, Ohio, to Greenwich Village to pursue careers in writing and acting, respectively. Casting and rehearsals will begin in the next few months, with a performance to follow in the fall.

These actors may be in their 90s, but these productions revitalize them with youthful energy. As Paige said, “I became a different person. It made me realize growing old was not so bad after all.”

Ferranti believes it’s because the plays give them something to work toward, look forward to and get involved in. No matter how old you are, a sense of community and accomplishment is important. So it comes as little surprise that the minute a play ends, the actors eagerly ask Ferranti, “What are we going to do next!?” just like young thespians, high on life.

MELISSA BROOKS is a writer who frequently covers senior activities, issues and events.

thejewishvoice.org

WE ARE READ | SIMCHA

May 9, 2014 |

33

COURTESY | MICHELE KEIR

PASSOVER SEDER – Participants pose for a photo with volunteer leader Michele Keir (center) after a splendid Seder that included sweet-and-sour-brisket and homemade Passover brownies. Laughter fi lled the room with the singing of Passover parody songs at the meal’s end. This was the fi rst-ever Seder at Greenwich Farms Assisted Living Residence in Warwick.

MACHU PICCHU – Monika Curnett went to Machu Picchu, Peru, and Ecuador in February and March. The Jewish Voice was right there with her.

Anne Frank tree sapling planted in D.C. JTA – A sapling taken from the tree that grew outside the attic where teen Holocaust diarist Anne Frank was hidden was planted at the U.S. Capitol.

The tree was planted on the west front lawn on April 30.

Saplings taken from the tree have been planted around the world. The tree, at more than 150 years old and weakened by a fungus, collapsed in stormy weather in Amsterdam in 2010.

Anne frequently wrote about the tree in her famous diary, which was discovered and published after the Holocaust.

She died at the age of 15 at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

34 | May 9, 2014

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The Jewish Voice

WINNER – Phyllis B. Solod was crowned Queen of KOPS (Keeping Off Pounds Sensibly) on April 12. She will represent Rhode Island in Milwaukee in July.

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CELEBRATING 56 YEARS – Art and Shellie Rubin, formerly of Cranston, now living in Greenacres, Fla., celebrated their 56th wedding anniversary aboard the Celebrity Equinox. They visited Grand Cayman; Cartagena, Columbia; Colon, Panama; Puerto Limon, Costa Rica; Belize City and Cozumel, Mexico. And The Jewish Voice was there with them!

BIRTH – Zev Meir Newman was born on March 28 to Dan and Adina Newman of Arlington, Va. Dan attended the Alperin Schechter Day School in Providence and Adina (Rosenthal) attended the South Area Solomon Schechter School in Stoughton, Mass. Proud grandparents are Jeff and Janice Newman of Pawtucket, Debbie Rosenthal of Bangor, Maine, and Jason Rosenthal of Naples, Fla.

RETIREMENT – After 35 years of service to Rocky Hill School, Lower School teacher and East Greenwich resident Donna Goldstein will retire at the end of this school year.

Goldstein started her career teaching math and science in grades five and six; then served as the Lower School computer resource teacher; and, most recently, taught core curriculum (math, history, language arts) to grade five.

AWARD – Benjamin D. Dugas, of Woonsocket, has won the Gladys C. and Sherwin J. Kapstein scholarship. The scholarship is awarded to a graduating Rhode Island College student whose higher education experience and activities reflect a deep commitment to promoting interfaith relationships. Dugas is a member of Congregation B’nai Israel, in Woonsocket, and is the son of Cynthia Benjamin and Richard L. Dugas. The Gladys C. and Sherwin J. Kapstein Family Fund was established in the endowment of the Jewish Federation Foundation of Greater Rhode Island in 1993.

COMMUNITY

thejewishvoice.org

May 9, 2014 |

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COMMUNITY CELEBRATES ISRAEL

BY LARRY KATZ lkatz@jewishallianceri.org Two events were held to celebrate Israel during the fi rst few days of May at the Dwares JCC. On May 4, about 50 people came to remember the Israeli soldiers who have fallen to ensure the creation and continued existence of the State of Israel.

For Israel’s Memorial Day (Yom HaZikaron) Elad Vilk (with the assistance of the Jewish Alliance’s shaliach, Matan Graff ) crafted and led a moving ceremony fi lled with readings, prayers and songs to commemorate those who sacrificed their lives for Israel.

Israel’s Independence Day (Yom Ha’Atzmaut) was celebrated on May 6 with two programs conducted by Mijal Ben Dori of Mercado Sound. At the children’s program, Mijal taught

dance steps to the participants so that they could dance to the music videos she presented.

She also taught about Israel through its music. The adult program followed a break during which Accounting for Taste sold Israeli foods, along with hot dogs and hamburgers. Mijal discussed how the past several decades of Israeli music reflected the ethnic origins of Israelis and changed under the influences of political and cultural events in Israel and around the world. Links to the music videos Mijal presented may be found at https://www.facebook.com/ notes/israel-the-soundtrack/ israel-the-soundtrack-list-ofsongs/111559888870445.

PHOTOS | JEWISH ALLIANCE STAFF

LARRY KATZ is Director of Jewish Learning for the Jewish Alliance.

Elad Vilk leads participants in the Yom HaZikaron program in songs and readings to commemorate those who gave their lives for Israel.

At the Alliance’s Yom Ha’Atzmaut celebration, children learned dances with Mijal Ben Dori.

36 | May 9, 2014

The Jewish Voice

Jewish Life & Learning: Experiencing Judaism for Life

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Our children are growing up in a world in which Jewish values compete with millions of other influences.

Our Jewish Life & Learning initiative offers scores of programs that help people of all ages to explore and celebrate their Jewish identity and find their place in our community.

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