January 19, 2018

Volume XXIV, Issue II | www.jvhri.org Serving Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts

Weddings

3 Shevat 5778 | January 19, 2018

A Birthright journey from participant to fellow

BY LEAH GRAFF Being Jewish is a privilege.

Throughout my journey with Judaism, this is a fact I have come to realize. From preschool at the Jewish Community Center through my confirmation at age 15, I was taught that being Jewish is special and a way of life to be cherished. This idea has held firm in my heart. It has been an anchor from which I have lead my life. Growing up, I knew someday I would go to Israel. But I did not expect to be invigorated by the country itself, as well as by the program that gave me my first Israel experience.

When I was deciding where to attend college, a Hillel center on campus was very important. I

wanted to be able to meet other Jewish people, participate in programming and High Holy Day services. During my freshman year at the University of Rhode Island, I did just that. At the beginning of the spring semester, I learned that Hillel was planning a Birthright trip for the following summer. I jumped at the chance to fi nally go to Israel and see the place I had been learning about my whole life.

With other participants from URI, I went through some introductory processes, and we were ready for our adventure.

That fi rst trip to Israel seems as if it were another lifetime ago, but I can still remember every magical moment. It helped me grow in such a way that I cannot imagine where I would

Remember our roots

be today if I had not gone on that trip five years ago. From the minute we stepped off the plane at Ben Gurion Airport to the sad day when we said goodbye to “our soldiers,” every second is engraved on my soul forever.

Our programming included all the classic Israel spots. We went to the Western Wall, where I cried tears of pure joy as my hand touched this magnificent wall fi lled with people’s hopes and prayers. For a few nights, we stayed on a kibbutz in the BIRTHRIGHT | 18 PHOTO | LEAH GRAFF

Leah Graff making a new friend during her Masa Israel Teaching Fellowship.

7 Israelis who have made a deep impact on life in America

BY GABE FRIEDMAN

PHOTO | JTA, IMAGNO/GETTY IMAGES

A Jewish family in Jedrzejow, Poland, circa 1900.

BY BEN SALES NEW YORK (JTA) – Jews were “undesirable.”

They were “of low physical and mental standards.” They were “fi lthy.” They were “often dangerous in their habits.”

They were “un-American.”

So read a report submitted to the House Committee on Immigration in 1924, written by the director of the United Stated Consular Service and approved by the secretary of state. That

year, Congress passed a bill that drastically slashed immigration from Eastern and Southern Europe, responding to xenophobic feelings across the country.

The bill didn’t mention Jews, but they were affected. In 1921, according to JTA at the time, 120,000 Jews came to America.

After the law was passed, that number fell to around 10,000.

The headline on that article was ROOTS | 22

JTA – When Natalie Portman was named the 2018 winner of the $1 million Genesis Prize, known as the “Jewish Nobel,” it was in part an acknowledgement of her Israeli roots.

While the Oscar-winning actress mostly grew up in the United States, Portman – née Herschlag – is also Israeli. Her father, Avner Herschlag, grew up in Israel, and her mother married him there. The family moved to the U.S. when she was 3.

Portman’s facility with Hebrew was on display when she directed and starred in the Hebrew-language fi lm “Tale of Love and Darkness,” based on the book by Israeli writer Amos Oz. She earned the Genesis Prize for “her commitment to social causes and her deep connection to her Jewish and Israeli roots,” said Stan Polovets, the Genesis Prize Foundation chairman.

Portman is far from the only Israeli-in-America success story. Israelis have made significant contributions to just about every industry and facet of

PHOTO | SEAN GALLUP/GETTY IMAGES FOR BURDA MEDIA

Daniel Kahneman American life, from academics to pop music. Here are some of those who have had the biggest impact in American society while living 5,000 miles away from their first home.

Daniel Kahneman – Economist, psychologist, author Human beings are not robots – sometimes they make irrational decisions, and they are always complex.

That idea might sound like common sense, but before economist and psychologist Daniel Kahneman started his Nobel Prize-winning work in the 1970s, economics plugged people into equations just

as they would other sets of numbers. Kahneman’s work with his Israeli research partner Amos Tversky (he died from cancer in 1996) on concepts such as cognitive biases and prospect theory helped change that and effectively launched the field of behavioral economics – which in turn has influenced several other fields. His 2011 book “Thinking, Fast and Slow,” which summarized much of his research, has sold over a million copies around the world.

Few have had such an outsized impact on multiple fields of knowledge as Kahneman, 83, a Tel Aviv native who grew up in France during the Holocaust and returned to Israel for college. He became a professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem before moving to Canada in the late ’70s and eventually settling at Princeton University in 1993.

In 2002, he won the Nobel Prize in Economics for “having integrated insights from psychological research into economic science.”

ISRAELIS | 11

2 | January 19, 2018

INSIDE Business 21-22 Calendar 10-11 Community 2-7, 18-20, 26-27 D’Var Torah 7 Food 12 Nation 11, 22 Obituaries 23-24 Opinion 8-9 Seniors 25 Simcha 27 Weddings 13-17

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The Jewish Voice

Faith leaders gather at vigil to fight poverty

BY FRAN OSTENDORF The cold didn’t keep away the crowd for the 10th annual Fighting Poverty with Faith Vigil Jan. 3 at the Rhode Island State House in Providence.

For the last decade, faith leaders have joined with state government leaders and others to call on legislators to recognize poverty issues with legislation in the General Assembly. The gathering, organized by the Rhode Island Interfaith Coalition to Reduce Poverty, takes place at the start of each new year.

Those in attendance this year heard from Rev. Nikita McCalister, senior pastor of Bethany Baptist Church in

Pawtucket, along with Governor Gina Raimondo and senate president Dominick Ruggiero.

The afternoon started with the annual clergy march from Gloria Dei Lutheran Church to the State House. Students from the Jewish Community Day School of Rhode Island sounded shofars in the rotunda. The name of each member of the house and senate was read aloud and they were asked to “govern with wisdom, care and compassion.”

Rev. McCalister called to audience to action by saying, “Standing here, surrounded by more than 60 clergy persons reminds me that faith leaders participated in the ratification PHOTOS | ELIZABETH FRIAR PHOTOGRAPHY

Rabbi Alan Flam speaks. of the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Rights ... And now, we continue to affirm the separation of church and state while attesting to the power of faith to shape the contour and framework of our government, institutions, mores and values of our society.”

The Interfaith Coalition released its advocacy platform for the legislative session at the vigil. Key initiatives in-

THIS ISSUE’S QUOTABLE QUOTE “Israel is the place where I came alive.”

Rabbi Howard Voss-Altman and Rabbi Sarah Mack in the procession to the State House.

clude prohibiting housing discrimination, expanding access to quality childcare and early learning, allowing qualified Rhode Islanders to obtain driver’s licenses regardless of immigration status and monitoring federal actions regarding the Children’s Health Insurance Program and Medicaid.

At the conclusion of the vigil, Maxine Richman, member VIGIL | 3

ESTABLISH YOUR LEGACY TODAY.

Invest in our Jewish community tomorrow.

Creating your legacy shows the ones you love most just how important they are to you because you are committing to their future. A legacy gift—such as an endowment—promises that your generosity and vision will have an impact far beyond your lifetime.

With a Jewish Foundation Federation legacy, you guarantee that the most vulnerable among us know they are not alone. You support community programs and services that welcome everyone.

You show your children and grandchildren how precious they are to you.

Through your Jewish Federation Foundation legacy, you have the power to ensure Jewish families will not just survive—they will thrive.

And that is timeless.

Your investments should grow with you—and for you.

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

Let’s grow together.

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FROM PAGE 2

January 19, 2018 |

| VIGIL

Students from the Jewish Community Day School of Rhode Island sound shofars. of the advisory committee to the coalition, told the crowd that alleviating poverty must be a top public policy priority.

“All Rhode Islanders need and deserve a pathway out of poverty and a road to economic security,” she said.

FRAN OSTENDORF (fostendorf@jewishallianceri .org) is the editor of The Jewish Voice.

Rev. Nikita McCalister delivered the keynote.

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4 | January 19, 2018

The Jewish Voice

‘My Hero Brother’: A journey to the summit, a journey to the heart

BY LARRY KATZ

join us for an

Open Sing!

Rhode Island Communities Honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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“My Hero Brother� tells the remarkable story of a group of young Israelis with Down syndrome who embark on a demanding trek through the Indian Himalayas, accompanied by their brothers and sisters. As the siblings deal with formidable physical and emotional challenges, unresolved confl icts come to the surface and heart-warming friendships develop. The difficult trails and poignant relationships, set against the richly colorful backdrop of India, open new horizons and greatly deepen the viewer’s understanding of people with special needs and their families. The fi lm will be shown on Wednesday, Feb. 7, at the Alliance’s Dwares Jewish Community Center in Providence. A facilitated discussion on the different initiatives for people with special needs in Israel will follow the screening.

Yonatan Nir, the fi lmmaker, has said that he hopes that the audience members will be inspired. “In all my fi lms, including my previous fi lm ‘Dolphin Boy,’ for example, I tend to choose protagonists whose lives are not perfectly fi ne. I like it when a fi lm is following a real process of rehabilitation ‌ In the course of the fi lm, I hope that the viewer will undergo an experience that will change his way of looking at the main characters: not as

ill-fated people who have been given a chance to experience a brief release from suffering, but rather as human beings blessed with qualities many of us yearn to have, struggling with their limitations in an highly admirable and courageous way, with the ability to open the hearts of those around them and turn them into better human beings.�

This is an award-winning fi lm, having received many prizes in Israel and elsewhere, including both the audience prize and the best documentary prize at the 2017 Santa Barbara Film Festival.

February is Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month and the film is being shown across the U.S. It is filled with music by Ehud Banai, a leading Israeli singer and songwriter.

The screening on Feb. 7, at 7 p.m. at the Alliance’s Dwares JCC, 401 Elmgrove Ave., is free as part of the community’s Israel at 70 celebration. Dialogue is mostly in Hebrew, with English subtitles. For more information, contact Tslil Reichman, the community shlichah, at treichman@jewishallianceri.org or 401-421-4111, or visit jewishallianceri.org/israel-70 for a full list of events.

LARRY KATZ (lkatz@ jewishallianceri.org) is director of Jewish life and learning at the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island.

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Please tell them you saw their ad in The Jewish Voice.

EDITOR Fran Ostendorf DESIGN & LAYOUT Leah Camara Rachel Bell ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT Chris Westerkamp cwesterkamp@jewishallianceri.org 401-421-4111, ext. 160 Karen Borger ksborger@gmail.com 401-529-2538

CONTRIBUTORS Cynthia Benjamin Seth Chitwood Stephanie Ross Sam Serby COLUMNISTS Michael Fink Rabbi James Rosenberg Daniel Stieglitz THE JEWISH VOICE (ISSN number 1539-2104, USPS #465-710) is published biweekly, except in July, when it does not publish.

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A scene from the film.

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All submitted content becomes the property of The Voice. Announcements and opinions contained in these pages are published as a service to the community and do not necessarily represent the views of The Voice or its publisher, the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island.

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Rhode Island Foundation awards nearly $36,000 to Jewish charitable organizations PROVIDENCE – The Rhode Island Foundation has awarded nearly $36,000 in grants to five Jewish community charitable organizations through the Bliss, Gross, Horowitz Fund.

The work ranges from a collaboration with the Islamic School of Rhode Island to restoring the historic Sons of Jacob synagogue in Providence.

“We are delighted to provide additional support to Jewish charitable organizations serving greater Providence. We are eager to see how these projects engage their community and the community at large,” said Neil Steinberg, president and CEO of the Foundation.

Bliss, Gross, Horowitz funds proposals that develop connections between the Jewish community and greater Rhode Island, deepen the understanding of Jewish culture through scholarship and historic preservation or provide for basic human needs such as food and housing.

This year’s recipients are: The Jewish Community Day School of Rhode Island (JCDSRI) received two grants totaling $15,700. The organization will use $7,400 to fund a schoolwide initiative that will address how to define and implement Jewish pluralism at school and in the community at large.

“Our families come from all over the spectrum of Jewish belief and practice. The initiative will include a professionally facilitated series of discussions regarding our vision of pluralism and eventually will culminate in a schoolwide Shabbaton where we will put this vision into practice,” said Alison Walter, JCDSRI’s development director.

JCDSRI also received $8,000 to fund its Partners in Peace program, which is a joint program with the Islamic School of Rhode Island (ISRI).

The project will give fi fthgraders from both schools an opportunity to explore, discover and learn together for three hours every week during the spring semester. The program will begin with a jointly planned Martin Luther King Jr. Day event, during which students and families from both schools gather to celebrate Dr. King’s vision of peace and justice.

Jewish Family Service received $5,000 to provide homebased mental health counseling to home-bound seniors and disabled clients who cannot access services in an office setting.

“Home-bound clients tend to have multiple stressors to cope with: complex medical conditions, long-term mental health issues and case management

needs said Meghan Cavanaugh, clinical director of JFSRI’s Counseling Center.

The Foundation awarded $7,500 to facilitate a strategic planning process with the leadership teams of Jewish Family Service and Jewish Seniors Agency, which soon will combine to become one entity, Jewish Collaborative Services.

“Our goal is to develop a three-year plan that will establish long-range goals for the new agency and its programs that further the mission of the organization, will identify future opportunities and will establish metrics that will guide future resource allocation,” said Susan Bazar, executive director of the Jewish Seniors Agency.

The Rhode Island Jewish Museum received $3,000 to launch a fundraising campaign to restore the historic Sons of Jacob synagogue at 24 Douglas Ave. in Providence as a place of worship and a museum of immigrant life in Rhode Island.

“We will transform this venerable monument of Jewish Life into a center that will reflect the accomplishments made by Rhode Island Jewish immigrants, showcase the creations of local artists and provide outreach and opportunities for the Smith Hill neighborhood,” said Larry B. Parness, treasurer.

“The museum will be an important resource for education, research and service to our community and all of Rhode Island.

Temple Emanu-El received $5,000 for Singing the Dream Open Sing, a community-based event where people of all ages, races and diverse beliefs from local churches, synagogues, community choral groups and the community-at-large will gather to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. through music and song. The event is scheduled for Sun., Jan. 28, at 2 p.m. at the Central Congregational Church in Providence.

Over the years, the Bliss, Gross, Horowitz Fund has awarded more than $273,000 in grants. The fund is supplemented by grants from the Sock/Myers Memorial Fund.

The Rhode Island Foundation is the largest and most comprehensive funder of nonprofit organizations in Rhode Island. In 2016, the Foundation awarded a record $45 million in grants to organizations addressing the state’s most pressing issues and needs of diverse communities. For more information, visit rifoundation.org.

– Submitted by the Rhode Island Foundation

January 19, 2018 |

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6 | January 19, 2018

The Jewish Voice

Golda Meir’s life and politics still resonate today “Lioness: Golda Meir and the Nation of Israel,”

By Francine Klagsbrun (Schocken 2017) 2017 Jewish Book of the Year award from the Jewish Book Council.

REVIEWED BY BETTINA BERCH With access to close associates as well as to recently declassified American, British and Israeli materials, Francine Klagsbrun has constructed an extraordinary biography of Golda Meir and the state she helped to build. It is wellresearched, well-written, and well-edited; there is nothing in this doorstop of a volume that is irrelevant or unnecessary.

Where there’s background a non-specialist reader might need, she sketches it in efficiently and keeps going. Even trickier, she strikes the right tone – occasionally critical but always respectful. She acknowledges that Golda, as she is called throughout the volume, took some secrets with her (mostly about her lovers) but does not try to second-guess what might have been said in letters she has not seen nor in conversations she has not heard.

Having opted for a straightforward, chronological approach, Klagsbrun opens with Golda’s roots in Kiev, where threats of pogroms pushed her family, like so many others, to escape to the United States. Golda grew up in Milwaukee, but joined her

older sister’s Socialist-Zionist circles in Colorado. The Goldawe-know emerges in 1921, when she and her young husband and her sister’s family set sail for Palestine. Their horrible passage (strikes, deaths, hunger) was only a prelude to the stark realities of life in the yishuv – cramped/communal housing, outdoor plumbing, food shortages, unemployment and the constant threat of violence. For Socialist-Zionist true believers, like Golda and her sister, such difficulties were just part of the package, making them work longer and harder.

Klagsbrun charts Golda’s progress from “new arrival” to political insider, paying attention to turning-point moments – times when she took key positions or sided with particular factions. Golda was instinctively strategic. Apparently, the only time she didn’t follow her gut instinct, when she allowed herself to be convinced that the Yom Kippur War was not imminent, resulted in the only major error she ever thought she’d made.

Hard work and good instincts took Golda most of the way, but her reputation for “straight talk” made her a particularly effective politician. Whether dealing with allies like BenGurion, or foes like Sadat, she spoke her mind and people knew it. If they didn’t like it, that was their problem, not hers. Golda’s bottom line was

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always clear – the survival of the nation of Israel, for all Jews throughout the world.

For many sixties leftists and second-wave feminists, Golda Meir was no hero. She was close with Nixon and Kissinger. Her American tours were always fundraisers for Israel Bonds or the UJA. She ridiculed hippies and characterized feminists as bra-burners and man-haters.

So how is it, that in 2017, an 800+ page biography of Golda Meir can be an absolutely riveting page-turner? Timing has a lot to do with it. While Middle East politics have changed in the decades since Golda’s death, so many issues she dealt with – the settlements, refugees, terrorism – still shape Israeli life today.

And for American readers outraged by the 2016 election, it’s impossible not to wonder if Hillary’s campaign might have been stronger with a healthy dose of Golda-style grit. There’s a lot to think about here, long after the endnotes are over.

BETTINA BERCH is the author of the biography, “From Hester Street to Hollywood: The Life and Work of Anzia Yezierska” and teaches part-time at the Borough of Manhattan Community College. This review was originally published by the Jewish Book Council, jewishbookcouncil.org. It is reprinted with permission.

JAN 18 THRU

FEB 18

See ‘Golda’s Balcony’ Feb. 11 at the JCC As part of the community’s celebration of Israel’s 70th anniversary, the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island presents “Golda’s Balcony, a staged reading featuring Bobbie Steinbach,” directed by Judy Braha, on Sunday, Feb. 11, at 3 p.m. at the Dwares Jewish Community Center, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence. Admission is $10 ($8 for members).

“Golda’s Balcony,” a drama by William Gibson, focuses on particular periods in the life of Golda Meir, the American school teacher who became Israel’s prime minister, serving during the Yom Kippur War. Don Aucoin from the Boston Globe, said, “Steinbach commands your attention throughout ‘Golda’s Balcony.’

Her Meir is a portrait in steel forged by fire, yet entirely human, too, brutally honest about her own failings and about the personal toll taken by her responsibilities as a stateswoman and her devotion to the state of Israel. Steinbach is most compelling when Meir is wrestling with the moral and ethical dilemma she confronts during the Yom Kippur War, especially after she puts Israel on nuclear alert. That step, she knew, could spell catastrophe and even spiral into a confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union.”

Visit jewishallianceri. org/israel-70 for a full list of events and updates to programming, as well as for reservations for “Golda’s Balcony.”

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jvhri.org

January 19, 2018 |

7

Pharaoh’s free will and our own free will We make choices every day.

We get up in the morning and decide what to eat for breakfast, where to go from our homes, whom we will see, RABBI what we will JEFFREY say and what GOLDWASSER we will do with our lives. That’s the theory, anyway.

There has been speculation from scientific circles in recent years which challenges the very idea that human beings have free will. Among the most famous of these is a study by the neurologist Benjamin Libet.

In his study, Libet showed that impulses to initiate some body movements are sent by the brain fractions of a second before we become consciously aware of them. The study suggests that our conscious awareness is the last part of us to find out what we are actually doing.

Our subconscious, our nerves and muscles all have decided what we will do before our consciousness ever finds out. The

conscious mind comes up with the explanations, or the rationalizations, for our behaviors only after the fact. Libet concluded that the whole idea of free will may be an illusion.

Libet’s study raises serious philosophical, moral and religious questions. It even has implications for criminal justice. If our bodies decide to do things without the involvement of the thinking, reflecting, considering parts of our brains, how can people be held responsible for their actions? If we do not choose to do things with the part of us that is capable of making moral decisions, is morality meaningful?

These are questions that were considered by the ancient rabbis long before Libet’s study. In this week’s Torah portion (Bo), God tells Moses, “Go to Pharaoh for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his servants so that my signs may be displayed in his midst” (Exodus 10:1). A classical midrash (Bereishit Rabbah 13:3) asks whether God denied Pharaoh the ability to freely choose his actions by hardening his heart. It troubles the rabbis

‘The Soap Myth’ with Ed Asner comes to New Bedford Seven-time Emmy Awardwinner Ed Asner and Johanna Day will star in a staged reading of Jeff Cohen’s play, “The Soap Myth,” at The Zeiterion Performing Arts Center on Jan. 27 at 7 p.m. The readings, directed by Pam Berlin and will also feature Ned Eisenberg and Blair Baker, and serve as a tribute to International Holocaust Remembrance Day, also on Jan. 27.

This performance is the only New England appearance on a seven-venue tour and is presented in partnership with Jewish Federation of Greater New Bedford with assistance from the Bristol Community College Holocaust Center.

Asner, who is beloved for the character of Lou Grant and the 2009 feature film “UP,” will perform the role of Holocaust survivor Milton Saltzman and Day will perform the roles of Holocaust scholar Esther Feinman and Holocaust denier Brenda Goodsen.

“The Soap Myth” takes place more than a half century after the end of WWII when a young journalist sets out to write an article about a Holocaust survivor and his crusade regarding the Nazi atrocity of soap. The play dramatically

explores how a person survives and questions who has the right to write history – those who have lived it and remember, those who study and protect it, or those who would seek to distort and desecrate its very existence.

“The Soap Myth” was originally produced Off-Broadway at the Roundabout Theater in 2012 by the National Jewish Theater Foundation. A film of that production was broadcast nationally on PBS and is in the permanent collection of Britain’s Digital Theatre.

The Zeiterion Performing Arts Center is a nonprofit organization with a mission to provide New Bedford and the region with performing arts programming of excellence that inspires, educates, engages and entertains. Tickets are available for purchase at www. zeiterion.org, by calling 508994-2900, or in person at the box office at 684 Purchase St., New Bedford, Mass. Zeiterion Box Office hours are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and two hours before each performance.

– Submitted by the Jewish Federation of Greater New Bedford

that God eventually punished Pharaoh for actions he may not have been free to choose.

Rabbi Yochanan said, “Does the ‘hardening of Pharaoh’s heart’ provide heretics with grounds to claim that Pharaoh had no way to repent?” Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish answered, “Let the mouths of the heretics be stopped up… When God warns a person once, twice, and even a third time, and he still does not repent, then God’s heart closes against repentance… Thus it was with wicked Pharaoh. Since God sent five times to him and he took no notice, God said, ‘You have stiffened your neck and hardened your heart, so I will add to your uncleanness.’”

Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish says that when people freely and repeatedly choose a path that goes against God, they close themselves from divine compassion. As they harden themselves, God responds by hardening against them.

From a psychological perspective, this could be understood as a natural consequence of indulging in behavior that is willfully ruthless and cruel. The more

people become used to behaving in uncaring ways, the more they become deaf to any call toward compassion.

God does not deny free will to Pharaoh, Rabbi Shimon may be arguing. Rather, Pharaoh’s own choices remove him from the ability to be moved by ethical concerns.

How shall we reconcile this with what modern science teaches us about free will? Libet’s research suggests that our behavioral choices are more on the instinctual level than on the conscious level. Acting ethically may be more of a habit than a conscious decision. Through repetition, we inure ourselves to behaving well or behaving poorly. Morality may be more about subconscious patterns of behavior than we had imagined, but it is still something human beings can nurture within themselves, even on a Pavlovian level.

That is also, in a curious way, what the midrash suggests. Pharaoh did not lose his

free will because of a divine thunderbolt. Through his own behavior and choices, Pharaoh trained himself toward the kind of hardhearted behaviors that stripped him of the ability to do otherwise. That is why God says that Pharaoh’s heart was hardened; it was the consequence of his own choices.

And what does that teach us about ourselves? Be very careful about the choices you make in life. Every time you choose to respond to another person with care and compassion, you are setting an unconscious pattern that will be repeated.

Every time you choose to be indifferent or unresponsive to the needs of others, you train yourself to be as stubborn and unmovable as Pharaoh.

RABBI JEFFREY GOLDWASSER is the spiritual leader of Temple Sinai in Cranston.

He is the author of the blog “Reb Jeff,” from which this d’var Torah is adapted.

Candle Lighting Times Greater Rhode Island January 19 January 26 February 2 February 9

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8 | January 19, 2018

OPINION

Backyard bird buffet brings joy to winter The following column ran Jan. 8, 2016. It’s one of my favorites and is as true today as it was then.

We still fill multiple feeders no matter EDITOR the weather.

Our cat, now FRAN a gray tigerOSTENDORF stripped girl, loves “Cat TV” just as much as the cats that came before her. And the squirrels still wait in line for space at the feeder. Enjoy!

For as long as I can remember, wherever I have lived, there have been bird feeders in my backyard. My current home is no exception. Backyard birds have always been . a source of endless fascination You start to recognize their songs and their behaviors. Our cat is especially fond of the entertainment that we call “Cat TV.” Don’t worry, he’s an indoor cat and the birds seem to realize that he’s not a threat.

As a matter of fact, we have multiple feeders – different types for different seeds that nourish different birds. Stop by on any given day and you’ll see quite a variety of birds if you look out the windows toward the backyard.

And just in case you are wondering, the squirrels get their share, too. More than their share. At one point, we had as many as nine squirrels living in and around our yard. (The eight big oak trees nearby and their acorns are just as big a draw as our feeders.) The recent arrival of a fisher cat, along with a lightning strike that took down one of the trees that housed several nests, has reduced the squirrel population a bit.

Sometimes we aren’t too diligent about filling our feeders on a regular basis. With the rush to get out in the morning, the birds do take a backseat to jobs, appointments, errands. But we try, especially in the winter.

This week, we were gone for a few days. The feeders had been empty for about a week. Would the birds return?

I was happy to come downstairs on Sunday to find a line of birds waiting for breakfast: Cardinals, black-capped chickadees, purple finches.

All the regulars were back.

As were two squirrels, parked on either side of the big feeder, fattening up for the cold temperatures promised later in the week. It’s reassuring to know that the word gets out so quickly.

Sometimes, those chickadees are waiting on the deck rail while we fill the feeders.

I suspect that we could train them to eat out of our hands, but we don’t want them too domesticated. The chickadees are among our favorites.

Among the smallest backyard birds, they are fearless and are almost always the first to hit the feeders after they are filled.

My husband is the big driver for our bird-feeding activities. He’s always trying different feeders and foods to see who eats what. Hummingbirds, orioles, grosbeaks, woodpeckers. He’s trying to attract new species to our breakfast room windows.

He got the feeding habit from his father, who would go out in the yard in the middle of winter in his slippers to hang pieces of bread and other foods in the cherry tree outside the kitchen windows. (Living on a small lake, his dad also fed the fish every morning.)

My mother fed the birds, too, until a reported rodent problem in the neighborhood led to a bird feeder ban by the homeowner’s association.

There is a rhythm to life at the feeder. The birds and animals change with the seasons and every year there is something new. The blue jays disappeared completely for a couple of years. Some years, there are lots of cardinals and some years only a few.

Goldfinches were rare last year, and we haven’t seen our resident oriole family for a while.

But there is an optimism to it all, especially in the middle of a cold, dreary winter, when optimism is really welcomed.

There will always be birds that will come and enjoy. And they will always entertain all of us, including the cat.

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

The Jewish Voice

The Zimmerman in Bob Dylan Robert Allen Zimmerman was born in Duluth, Minnesota, on May 24, 1941.

He spent the majority of his childIT SEEMS hood, including his high TO ME school years, in Hibbing, RABBI JIM about 60 ROSENBERG miles northwest of Duluth.

His father and mother, Abram and Beatie, whose parents were immigrants from Eastern Europe, sent both him and his younger brother David to the local synagogue for their Jewish education leading to Bar Mitzvah at age 13.

Zimmerman, calling himself Bob Dylan, arrived in New York City in 1960. Within a few years, he became a leading voice of the ’60s protest movement against social injustice here at home and against the war in faraway Vietnam. His 1964 song, “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” became the anthem of many college undergraduates.

By the early ’80s, I had more or less lost track of Dylan’s ever-evolving musical output.

I was only vaguely aware that, according to some, Dylan had converted to Christianity in 1978, and that during the following three years he had produced three albums of bornagain gospel music: “Slow Train Coming” (1979), “Saved” (1980), “Shot of Love” (1981). I did not know that in his public performances from November 1979 through May 1980, Dylan chose to sing only “the songs that reflected his newfound faith.” I did not know that during this period Dylan introduced many of his newly composed songs with what amounted to Good News minisermons. Since those three gospel albums appeared, people have debated whether they represent a “forever” commitment or yet another one of Dylan’s Picasso-like phases.

In the recently published “Bob Dylan: A Spiritual Life” (BP Books, WND Books, 2017), Scott Marshall attempts to answer this question. For the first third of the book, I remained unimpressed and

unconvinced. It seemed to me that Marshall was obsessed with proving that, whatever his relationship to the Jewish people, Dylan has stayed committed to the belief that Jesus is the Messiah. To make his point, Marshall appeared to be taking Dylan’s notoriously ambiguous and slippery public statements out of context and to assume that the lyrics of his songs are an unmediated statement of his innermost beliefs. I initially felt that Marshall knew from the outset what he wanted to “discover” in his spiritual biography and was all too willing to force the facts to fit into his preordained conclusions.

However, as I traveled further into his well-researched book, I began to see that my skepticism was perhaps unwarranted. Marshall does bring up considerable evidence to bolster his position.

To take but one of many possible examples: Dylan has continued to include in his public performances an energetic version of “In the Garden,” a song he originally wrote for his second gospel album, “Saved.” The lyrics are unambiguously Jesus-centered; each of its five stanzas asks a different question: “When they came for Him in the garden did they know?...When He spoke to them in the city, did they hear?...When He healed the blind and the crippled, did they see?...Did they speak out against Him, did they dare?...

When He rose from the dead, did they believe?

Marshall deserves credit for highlighting a number of the views brought by those who see Dylan as Jewish to his core. He tells the story of Howard Rutman, lifelong friend of Dylan, who bonded with him in the 1950s at a Jewish summer camp in Wisconsin. When Dylan returned to Minnesota to have Rutman, who had become a dentist, work on his teeth, Rutman noticed that Dylan was wearing a heavy gold cross encrusted with rhinestones.

Marshall reflects upon the dentist’s insistence that Dylan is “a Jew, you know, a Jewish guy. And his soul, too. He’s really Jewish.” Marshall, who maintained throughout his book that Dylan has remained loyal to his “knee-buckling experience” of Jesus, nevertheless muses: “Was (the den-

tist’s) famous friend, who sat in that dental chair and later shared a Kosher meal with him, really any less Jewish than he was back when he canoed, swam and banged on the piano at Camp Herzl in Webster, Wisconsin, in the 1950s? Sure, Dylan made an unpopular move, but can ethnicity and cultural identity be stripped away because of personal beliefs?”

Again, to Marshall’s credit, he offers several instances of Dylan’s continuing connection with the Jewish community after his so-called born-again years. Among them, attending the Bar Mitzvah ceremonies of his sons, one of them at Jerusalem’s Western Wall; studying with various Chabad rabbis; showing up at synagogues for Yom Kippur worship.

In other words, Marshall seems to be asking: Can the Zimmerman be extracted from the Bob Dylan? At a certain level, this is an easy question to answer. Of course, the 76-year-old Dylan preserves some elements of the Zimmerman within him. The hard question, the unanswerable question is this: What is the relationship between the writer and the performer of “In the Garden” and the man who feels the need to worship at a synagogue, however infrequently?

Marshall draws upon Bert Cartwright’s updated version of “The Bible in the Lyrics of Bob Dylan” (1992), Cartwright writes, most perceptively: “Ultimately there remains for Bob Dylan a tension between viewing the Bible as an artist and the Bible as a source of ultimate revelation.” Dylan is an artist, an inscrutable artist who eschews being labeled.

An artist who refused to go to Stockholm to be honored for receiving the 2017 Nobel Prize for Literature.

I suspect that not even Dylan can explain to himself how the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament have come to live within the songs he has composed. I suspect that not even Dylan can fathom the depths of the Zimmerman that continues to live within him.

JAMES B. ROSENBERG is rabbi emeritus at Temple Habonim in Barrington. Contact him at rabbiemeritus@ templehabonim.org.

COLUMNS | LETTERS POLICY The Jewish Voice publishes thoughtful and informative contributors’ columns (op-eds of 500 – 800 words) and letters to the editor (300 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, 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

jvhri.org

January 19, 2018 |

9

On becoming a digital Jew in ’18

BY MARC RUSSMAN I am a digital Jew. Who am I? Judaism is rich with an abundance of digital content from diverse sources such as cable TV networks, audio podcasts, social media outlets, Web pages and live streams. A rapidly increasing supply of resources enables Jews worldwide to “practice” Judaism – digitally. This trend could be simply the logical progression of technology innovation. Or, on the other hand perhaps we are witnessing an inflection point in Jewish identity, the evolution of the digital Jew. Digital sources deliver cultural, social, educational, spiritual and ceremonial alternatives to the traditional approach of congregational Judaism. Digital engagement can help you enrich and expand your Jewish life without ever leaving home.

Is Jewish identification with a congregation about to go the way of the shopping mall and be replaced by an array of lowercost, yet high-quality online options? A new movement may very well be evolving underneath our own fingertips – digital Judaism – with potential for reshaping how we think, learn, affiliate and observe. And, you may already be a part of it.

Observance A digital Jew can observe Shabbat, study Torah, monitor political and cultural life in Israel and connect with the global Jewish community. Digital Jews use Internet of Things (IoT) devices such as smart phones, tablets, digital personal assistants and streaming appliances to support ritual observance. Judaism in 2018 is both real and virtual, communal and private.

Digital Jews are not disassociated loners or outcasts.

Rather, they are connected, as well as affiliated, but in a different way. Judaism is moving

through a seed change that will accelerate with the pace of innovation. Technology adoption can be a disruptive force. And, Jewish organizations need to prepare to be all in.

The virtual Jewish community is a welcoming place for a Shabbat or Yom Tov service via livestream. Central Synagogue in New York is a must see livestream for digital “warmth” when a congregational experience isn’t accessible. Clergy at Central Synagogue never fail to welcome their global digital congregants at the outset of each and every service via livestream, the Jewish Broadcasting Service (JBS) or other methods. For some congregations, digital participation is a form of outreach from the congregation with no strings attached. Virtual congregants are accepted as part of an expanding definition of Jewish diversity.

Dozens of other congregations across North America stream services and celebrations and can be found in every time zone by searching for “Attend Shabbat Services Online” in your favorite search engine.

Learning The digital Jew can study Torah with podcasts from Jerusalem (Pardes), the Jewish Theological Seminary (Conservative movement) or in just 10 minutes a week with Rabbi Rick Jacobs of the Union for Reform Judaism.

It only takes a few keystrokes to immerse yourself in a sea of Jewish genealogy, geography, politics or vegetarianism. Rabbi Google identifies more than 798 million instances with search word “Jewish” and 21 million with search word “Torah.”

Practice Need the help of a virtual “Shabbat goy”? Try Amazon Echo or Google Home to turn lights on or off, heat the oven or secure your home. It takes a liberal interpretation of halakhah (Jewish law)

to accept these devices as Kosher equivalents, but, for a modern digital Jew the assistance provided is a step in the right direction addressing the spirit of the law.

Need rabbinical advice? Perhaps your digital personal assistant can answer the challenging existential questions Jews have asked for generations: SIRI: Am I my brother’s keeper? Answer: “Sorry, I don’t see ‘Keeper’ in your contacts list.”

ALEXA: If I am not for myself, who will be for me? Answer: “Sorry, I don’t know that one.”

Well, maybe we have to wait for a newer release of the software.

Dedication In the song “Seasons of Love” from the Broadway hit musical “Rent,” we learned there are five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes in a year (excluding leap years).

This is a pretty good number for a digital Jew to memorize.

We also discovered from this song that a year can be measured in sunsets, midnights or cups of coffee. How many of these moments in 2018 will you spend connecting and engaging with digital Jewish content?

OK GOOGLE: How do I become a better digital Jew in 2018? Answer: “Resolve to try.”

You guessed it, I made that answer up, but I believe the essence of the answer is correct.

Maybe the true answer lies in the numbers. How many moments will you spend in online study and learning; observing Shabbats, holidays or yahrtzeits virtually that otherwise might have been missed; forming social connections and friendships that counter isolation; gaining insights that were previously illusive?

Identity versus Identification Digital Jews are forming an identity that comes from filling their personal cloud with Jewish content from any of the

more than 140 podcasts with keyword “Jewish”; 138 with keyword “Torah”; or more than 180 with keyword “Israel.” Regardless of your religious affiliation, there’s a place in your Jewish cloud to further your ideology. No application process, building fund or annual dues required that maybe were an obstacle in the past.

It is a common maxim that being Jewish is expensive. But, isn’t it ironic that there is almost no cost to building a robust digital Jewish identity? However, there is no substitute for identification with a congregation, organization or movement. Commitment to building a digital Jewish identity doesn’t have to come at the expense of affiliation.

Meaningful digital religious experiences are happening and may very well challenge

conventional notions of identification. The challenge facing congregations may well be how best to integrate the digital Jewish experiences in a meaningful way to fill gaps.

2018 will be a uniquely Jewish year. A secular “chai” year of Jewish change and adaptation.

How many of your 525,600 minutes will you use toward becoming a digital Jew? Poke your toe into the waters of Jewish digital content. What’s going on here may well be the start of a new movement. It can be a technological gift or a threat to tradition.

Digital Judaism is a daily festival. Chag sameach. Learn, pray, share, subscribe, view, listen and grow in the chai year 2018.

MARC RUSSMAN is an observer of irony and inuendo in daily life at reasonable rates (marc.russman@gmail.com)

Groups call on Israel to keep African migrants WASHINGTON (JTA) – The Jewish Council for Public Affairs, an umbrella body for Jewish public policy groups, is the latest Jewish organization to call on Israel’s government not to expel tens of thousands of Africans seeking asylum status.

A number of liberal Jewish groups, chief among them HIAS, the leading Jewish immigration advocacy group, has decried Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recently announced plans to force some 38,000 migrants to choose between expulsion and jail. Most now move freely in the country and are able to study and do some jobs.

“We urge the government to suspend its plan to deport Eritrean and Sudanese asylumseekers who entered the country between 2007-12, and develop a comprehensive policy for non-

Jewish asylum-seekers that safeguards human dignity and human rights, in compliance with Israel’s obligations under the 1951 Refugee Convention,” said a Tuesday [Jan. 16] JCPA statement. “We believe that such a policy would ensure Israel’s security, and honor Israel’s values as a compassionate, Jewish and democratic state.”

Some 60,000 asylum seekers from countries torn by war and suffering under repressive regimes arrived in Israel between 2007 and 2012, when Israel built a fence along the border with Egypt that ended the influx.

About 20,000 of them have taken up an Israeli offer to leave for African destinations with several thousand dollars of cash. Many of these have reportedly been robbed and kidnapped into slavery, and in some cases murdered.

LETTERS Re: Jerusalem! Jerusalem! (Jan. 5)

Rabbi Jim Rosenberg’s column initially and eloquently itemizes the many reasons Jerusalem rightfully occupies a central place in the Jewish psyche (both historically and personally) since King David 3,000 years ago made Jerusalem the capital of the united monarchy of Judah and Israel.

However, near the end of his column and after presenting all the Jewish ties to this ancient/ modern city, he goes on to deride President Trump’s recent decision to move the United States Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem by 2020. Why? According to him we are not the only people who consider the city sacred. Now he continues, the U.S. cannot be an honest broker in any “peace process.”

It is almost 10 years since the Palestinians sat down with Israelis to negotiate peace. If there were talks to take place in the near future, removing Jerusalem from the table would not be the impediment to achieving an agreement. They have had numerous opportunities over many years to sit and negotiate when Jerusalem WAS on the table.

The Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the holy capital of a new state. For centuries they have had their more important holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Jerusalem is our only holy city. Ramallah is the natural capital of a proposed Palestinian state. Let’s not forget when the Jordanians held East Jerusalem, Jews could not worship

at the Western Wall. Jewish gravestones were used for paving roads and building latrines.

The Jordanians destroyed every bit of Jewish living that existed in the “Old City.” Jerusalem is not negotiable. Taking it off the table makes the U.S. a more honest broker.

In contrast, members of ALL faiths since 1967, have had free access to their holy sites. Most inhabitants are prospering. Arabs and non-Jews from around the world come to take advantage of Israeli institutions like Hebrew University, Hadassah hospital and everything else a great city offers. Jerusalem rightfully belongs to her caretakers, the Jewish people.

Judi Dill Providence, RI

Re: The Providence pugilist (Nov. 24)

Dear Geraldine, “Why Young Montreal?” Your delightful article brought great pleasure to Monty’s daughter (my 90-year-old mother) and Monty’s grandchildren, including me, and it found its way to us all over the country.

Thank you!

We’re all curious about what made you write Monty’s story – since living it was the backdrop of our childhood. He was an amateur magician when

he wasn’t in the ring, and he pulled enough quarters out of my ear to make me feel rich.

Nancy Horvitz Bachrach New York, NY Geraldine Foster replies: I chose to write about Young Montreal because the column I write for The Voice has to do with the history of the Jews in RI, and Morris was certainly a part – an interesting part of – our shared history.

We want to hear from you Comments on articles appearing in The Voice can be addressed in a Letter to the Editor of approximately 300 words. Send electronically to editor@jewishallianceri.org or via mail to 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence, RI 02906. Please include your name, city and state of residence and contact information (which we will not print).

10 | January 19, 2018

Ongoing Alliance Kosher Senior Café. Kosher lunch and program every weekday.

Dwares JCC, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence. Noon lunch; 1 p.m. program. $3 lunch donation from individuals 60+ or under 60 with disabilities. Neal or Elaine, 401-421-4111, ext. 107.

West Bay Kosher Senior Café. Kosher lunch and program every weekday.

Temple Sinai, 30 Hagen Ave., Cranston.

11:15 a.m. program; noon lunch. $3 lunch donation from individuals 60+ or under 60 with disabilities. Steve, 401743-0009.

Duplicate Bridge. Dwares JCC, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence. Mondays noon-2 p.m.: 0-20 masterpoint game.

For less-experienced players. $5 per day. Mondays and Wednesdays noon-3 p.m.: Open stratified game for experienced players at all levels. $7 per day.

Tuesdays and Fridays 11 a.m.-2 p.m: Open stratified game for players at all levels. $7 per day. Thursdays 1:30-3:30 p.m.: Guided play. Beginners and those seeking to hone skills play under the guidance of nationally known instructor Bart Buffington. $6 per day. Information, Bart Buffington at abarton295@ aol.com or 401-390-9244.

Through March 8 Plein Air Artists. Bunny Fain Gallery at Temple Habonim, 165 New Meadow Road, Barrington. Wednesday and Thursday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Friday, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. and by appointment. Annual exhibit of artists from the summer 2017 Lifelong Learning Collaborative Plein Air class. Information, 401-245-6536 or gallery@templehabonim.org.

Friday | January 19 Shababa Friday/PJ Library Story Time. 10-11 a.m. Dwares JCC, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence. Welcome Shabbat with singing, dancing, jumping and celebrating as a community.

Children and their caregivers listen to music, gather for stories, play games, create a craft, eat a snack and make new friends. New-andimproved PJ Library Story Time incorporates more music and movement as Dayna Bailen, Shababa song leader, and Shlomo, the sloth puppet, entertain ages 5 and under. Guest readers bring PJ Library books, and open art studio time is available. All are welcome. Free. Information or to RSVP, Dayna Bailen at dbailen@ jewishallianceri.org or 401-421-4111, ext. 108.

T.G.I.F. Thank G-D It’s Friday. 5:45-7 p.m. Temple Torat Yisrael, 1251 Middle Road, East Greenwich. Shabbat songs and story with Rabbi Aaron Philmus followed by a kid-friendly Shabbat dinner. Donations welcome. Information or to RSVP, Torat Yisrael Office at 401-885-6600.

Shabbat Hallelu. 6:30 p.m. Temple BethEl, 70 Orchard St., Providence. Light refreshments and sangria followed by 7 p.m. services. Experience the joy of Shabbat with Cantor Judy Seplowin and the Hallelu Band as we open the doors to worship through musical presentation and congregational singing. The food is sponsored by the Benefactors Fund. Information, Temple Beth-El office at 401-331-6070.

Annual MLK Day Shabbat. 7:30-9 p.m.

Temple Sinai, 30 Hagen Ave., Cranston.

Shabbat services feature a musical

CALENDAR tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. and the prophetic challenge to continue the fight for civil rights. Information, Dottie at 401-942-8350.

Kabbalat Shabbat Service. 7:30-9 p.m.

Temple Torat Yisrael, 1251 Middle Road, East Greenwich. Shabbat service followed by an Oneg. Information, Stephanie Reinsant at stephanie@toratyisrael. org or 401-885-6600.

Saturday | January 20 Children’s Shabbat Program and Jr. Kiddush Club. 9:30-11:15 a.m.

Congregation Beth Sholom, 275 Camp St., Providence. Weekly program and Jr. Kiddush Club for children. Activities include prayer, parashah, play time and a special Kiddush. Three age groups: Tots, Pre-K thru 1st grade and 2nd grade and up. Located in Kids Room, Social Hall and Chapel on the lower level. Big kids of all ages and backgrounds are encouraged to join prayer services in the main sanctuary. Information, office@ bethsholom-ri.org.

Shabbat School. 9-11 a.m. Temple Torat Yisrael, 1251 Middle Road, East Greenwich. Pajamas and Hot Chocolate Theme. 9 a.m.: Class times, Grades K-5. 9 a.m.: Torah discussion with 6/7 Graders and congregants. 9:45 a.m.: Shabbat service followed by a light Kiddush. Information, Stephanie Reinsant at stephanie@toratyisrael.org or 401885-6600.

Musical Bingo. 6-8 p.m. Temple Sinai, 30 Hagen Ave., Cranston. It’s Bingo and Name that Tune at the same time. Listen to tunes from many decades and play bingo to win great prizes. Cost: $10 per person, maximum $30 per family for food, drink and fun!

“Cuba’s Forgotten Jewels: A Haven in Havana.” 7-9:30 p.m. Congregation Beth David, 102 Kingstown Road, Narragansett. Premiere of this powerful film that tells the story of Jewish immigrants who fled to Cuba to avoid the Holocaust. RSVP, Sally Chorney at smchorney1@verizon.net.

Sunday | January 21 Day of Play. 10:30-11:30 a.m. Jewish Community Day School of RI, 85 Taft Ave., Providence. A morning of design and creative play for 3- to 5-year-olds facilitated by JCDSRI teachers. This is a great way to learn about JCDSRI and enjoy a fun-filled morning. Free. Information, Naomi Stein at nstein@jcdsri.org or 401751-2470.

Monday | January 22 Canasta. 7-9 p.m. Temple Torat Yisrael, 1251 Middle Road, East Greenwich.

Learn to play. Open to all; coed. Free.

Information, Stephanie Reinsant at stephanie@toratyisrael.org or 401885-6600.

Monday Night Meditation. 7:45-8:30 p.m. Congregation Beth Sholom, 275 Camp St., Providence. Meditation instruction for all levels. If you are looking for accessible spiritual practices to help transform your life, consider this class. This 13-part series focuses on little-known classic and modern Jewish meditation techniques.

Open to all. Future dates: 1/29, 2/5, 2/12, 2/26, 3/12, 3/19, 3/26, 4/9, 4/23, 4/30, 5/7, 5/14. Free. Advance registration required. Information, rabbi@ bethsholom-ri.org.

The Jewish Voice

Tuesday | January 23 Yoga. 6-7 p.m. Temple Torat Yisrael, 1251 Middle Road, East Greenwich. Cost: $30 for 3 sessions paid in advance; $12 per session at the door. Open to all. Bring a mat. Information, Stephanie Reinsant at stephanie@toratyisrael.org or 401-885-6600.

Tuesday Night Talmud. 7:45-8:30 p.m. Congregation Beth Sholom, 275 Camp St., Providence. Join Rabbi Barry Dolinger’s class in the study of the fourth Chapter of Berachot: “The Timing of Prayer.” Free. Future dates: 1/30; 2/6, 2/13; 3/20; 4/3, 4/4; 5/1, 5/8, 5/15. Information, office@ bethsholom-ri.org.

Wednesday | January 24 Mah Jongg. 7-9 p.m. Temple Torat Yisrael, 1251 Middle Road, East Greenwich.

Open to members and non-members.

Bring your friends and your Mah Jongg card. Free. Information, Stephanie Reinsant at stephanie@toratyisrael.org or 401-885-6600.

Thursday | January 25 Finding Work-Life Balance: (401)j D’var in the Bar with Rabbi Zerin.

7-9 p.m. The Grange, 166 Broadway, Providence. Finding balance and integration in all aspects of your life: what does Judaism have to say about being available at all times? Does Jewish practice inform your decision about work and life? What can Jewish tradition teach us about the need for restorative spaces? D’var in the Bar is a collaborative conversation on contemporary Torah topics that takes place periodically throughout the year. Each conversation will be led by a different speaker on a different theme. This year’s series is “Being Millennial, Being Jewish,” about Jewish in postmodernity. Ages 21+.

Free. Information, Dayna Bailen at dbailen@jewishallianceri.org or 401421-4111, ext. 108.

Friday | January 26 Being Muslim in RI. 7:30-9 p.m. Temple Sinai, 30 Hagen Ave., Cranston. Dr. Sevdenur Cizginer, assistant professor of medicine at Brown University, and physician at RI Hospital and the Miriam Hospital, will speak about her groundbreaking work to provide care for elderly surgery patients and her experience as a young, professional Muslim woman in RI. An Oneg will follow services. Information, Dottie at 401-942-8350.

Kabbalat Shabbat Service. 7:30-9 p.m.

Temple Torat Yisrael, 1251 Middle Road, East Greenwich. Shabbat service followed by an Oneg. Information, Stephanie Reinsant at stephanie@toratyisrael. org or 401-885-6600.

Saturday | January 27 Taste of Shabbat Service. 9-11 a.m.

Temple Torat Yisrael, 1251 Middle Road, East Greenwich. 9 a.m. Torah discussion and 9:45 a.m. Shabbat service followed by a light Kiddush. Information, Stephanie Reinsant at stephanie@ toratyisrael.org or 401-885-6600.

Children’s Shabbat Program and Jr. Kiddush Club. 9:30-11:15 a.m. Congregation Beth Sholom, 275 Camp St., Providence. Weekly program and Jr. Kiddush Club for children. Activities include prayer, parashah, play time and a special Kiddush. Three age

groups: Tots, Pre-K thru 1st grade and 2nd grade and up. Located in Kids Room, Social Hall and Chapel on the lower level. Big kids of all ages and backgrounds are encouraged to join prayer services in the main sanctuary.

Information, office@bethsholom-ri.org.

K’Tantan PJ Havdalah/Rock-a-Baby Concert. 5:30 p.m. Temple Beth-El, 70 Orchard Ave., Providence. Celebrate Shabbat and holidays with children from birth to age 5. Gather for joyful singing and community dinner. All are welcome. Funded by The Frances & David Friedman Family Fund.

Information, Temple Beth-El office at 401-331-6070.

NEAT’s Annual Drama and Musical Production. 8 p.m. New England Academy of Torah, 450 Elmgrove Ave., Providence. For women and girls only, ages 6-106. Cost: $12 adults | $8 students thru grade 12 and children.

Information, NEAT at 401-331-5327.

Sunday | January 28 Adult Education: Israeli Life. 9-10:30 a.m. Temple Torat Yisrael, 1251 Middle Road, East Greenwich. Health benefits of an Israeli diet. Information, Stephanie Reinsant at stephanie@toratyisrael.org or 401-885-6600.

Day-at-the-J! Roots to Fruits. 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Dwares JCC, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence. 9:30-10:30 a.m. Fitness workshop: This workshop, led by J-Fitness staff, begins with 30 minutes of “movement” followed by a nutrition discussion and Q&A. Babysitting available. 10:30-11:30 a.m. PJ Library Story time: Hear stories about Tu B’Shevat and celebrate the birthday of the trees with us. For children under age 5. 1-3 p.m. Art Studio: Build your own terrarium, created to look like a miniature garden or forest. Sign up for a start time of 1 or 2 p.m. Price: $10 | Members: $6. Babysitting service: For children ages 6 months to 6 years, on a first-come, first-served basis. A 24-hour advance reservation is required. Your child(ren) will be supervised by caring, experienced and CPR/First Aid-certified staff. Information or to sign up, Michelle Cicchitelli at mcicchitelli@jewishallianceri.org or 401-421-4111, ext. 178.

NEAT’s Annual Drama and Musical Production. 2 p.m. New England Academy of Torah, 450 Elmgrove Ave., Providence. For women and girls only, ages 6-106. Cost: $12 adults | $8 students thru grade 12 and children.

Information, NEAT at 401-331-5327.

Singing the Dream. 2-5 p.m., Central Congregational Church, 296 Angell St., Providence. Rhode Island communities honor Martin Luther King Jr. with an open sing. $5 includes refreshments. Register at, singingthedream. eventbrite.com.

Monday | January 29 Canasta. 7-9 p.m. Temple Torat Yisrael, 1251 Middle Road, East Greenwich.

Learn to play. Open to all; coed. Free.

Information, Stephanie Reinsant at stephanie@toratyisrael.org or 401885-6600.

Monday Night Meditation. 7:45-8:30 p.m. Congregation Beth Sholom, 275 Camp St., Providence. Meditation instruction for all levels. If you are looking for accessible spiritual practices to help transform your life, consider this class. This series focuses

on little-known classic and modern Jewish meditation techniques. Open to all. Future dates: 2/5, 2/12, 2/26, 3/12, 3/19, 3/26, 4/9, 4/23, 4/30, 5/7, 5/14.

Free. Advance registration required.

Information, rabbi@bethsholom-ri.org.

Tuesday | January 30 Introduction to Talmud. 10-11:30 a.m.

Temple Sinai, 30 Hagen Ave., Cranston. In three classes, Rabbi Goldwasser will offer a general introduction to the creation of the Talmud and its place in Jewish tradition and will explore some famous passages from Tractate Berachot, which explores the meaning and limitations of prayer.

Future meetings on 2/6 and 2/13 in the chapel. Information, Dottie at 401942-8350.

Yoga. 6-7 p.m. Temple Torat Yisrael, 1251 Middle Road, East Greenwich. Cost: $30 for 3 sessions paid in advance; $12 per session at the door. Open to all. Bring a mat. Information, Stephanie Reinsant at stephanie@toratyisrael.org or 401-885-6600.

Movie Night: “In Search of Israeli Cuisine.” 7-9 p.m. Temple Torat Yisrael, 1251 Middle Road, East Greenwich.

This documentary chronicles the 70+ cultures that make up the Israeli people, each with wonderful and unique food traditions. Follow Michael Solomonov as he visits vibrant eateries, fine restaurants, home kitchens, wineries, cheese makers, organic kitchens off the beaten track. Additional local screenings around the state will be held in the spring. Solomonov will appear in person at the Dwares JCC on Wednesday, May 2. This event is part of Rhode Island’s Israel at 70 Celebration sponsored by the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island and generously funded by the Dr. James Yashar & Judge Marjorie Yashar Fund at the Jewish Federation Foundation. Information, Stephanie Reinsant at stephanie@toratyisrael.org or 401-885-6600.

Tuesday Night Talmud. 7:45-8:30 p.m.

Congregation Beth Sholom, 275 Camp St., Providence. Join Rabbi Barry Dolinger’s class in the study of the fourth Chapter of Berachot: “The Timing of Prayer.” Free. Future dates: 2/6, 2/13; 3/20; 4/3, 4/4; 5/1, 5/8, 5/15.

Information, office@bethsholom-ri.org.

Wednesday | January 31 Taste of Tu B’Shevat. 9-11 a.m. and 4-6 p.m. Dwares JCC, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence. Members and guests can sample the seven species eaten during the holiday. Information, Michelle Cicchitelli at mcicchitelli@jewishallianceri. org or 401-421-4111, ext. 178.

Mah Jongg. 7-9 p.m. Temple Torat Yisrael, 1251 Middle Road, East Greenwich.

Open to members and non-members.

CALENDAR | 11

You can post your community calendar information to The Voice calendar online, accessible at jvhri.org or jewishallianceri.org.

It only takes a few minutes to register and fill in the form. Your listing will appear both on The Jewish Voice website and the Alliance website and selected items will also be published in the Voice.

Contact editor@jewishallianceri.org with any questions.

NATION | CALENDAR

jvhri.org

FROM PAGE 1

| ISRAELIS

Adam Neumann – Co-founder and CEO, WeWork The concept of the office space has changed thanks in part to this Israeli-American entrepreneur.

WeWork, co-founded by Neumann in 2010, offers an upgrade over the local cafe to freelancers, small startups and others who don’t work in an office. A WeWork space usually looks like a startup’s pipe dream, often complete with colorful couches, spacious café areas and air-hockey tables.

Neumann and his business partner, Miguel McKelvey, clearly tapped into a big market: Today the company has locations in 23 U.S. cities, as well as spots in over a dozen countries, and is worth nearly $20 billion. The shared workspace model seems here to stay.

Neumann, 36, actually spent his fi rst two years in Indianapolis before his mother relocated to a kibbutz near the Gaza Strip. After growing up there and serving in the Israeli Navy for five years, he moved to New York to attend Baruch College.

He dropped out with four credits left to graduate but fi nished his degree earlier this year.

Gal Gadot – Actress, model There are fi lm roles, and then there is Wonder Woman.

In male-dominated Hollywood, female superheroes are few and far between. Playing this iconic DC Comics character comes with myriad responsibilities and pressures: be a role model to women and girls, toe the line between confidence

FROM PAGE 10

PHOTO | FRAZER HARRISON/GETTY IMAGES

Gal Gadot and sexiness, help the fi lm succeed and spawn sequels.

Gadot, a former Miss Israel who had previously had small roles in a few “Fast and Furious” movies, pulled it off, turning “Wonder Woman” into a blockbuster while inspiring woman around the world. Off screen, she has earned praise for refusing to work with a producer accused of sexual misconduct.

Gadot, now 32, grew up near Tel Aviv, served in the Israeli army and only recently moved to Los Angeles. Guest-hosting “Saturday Night Live,” she spoke briefly in Hebrew to her family back in Israel – no small gesture in an era of anti-Israel boycotts.

Haim Saban – Media mogul, producer, philanthropist How did a guy who wrote music for cartoons become one of the

| CALENDAR

Bring your friends and your Mah Jongg card. Free. Information, Stephanie Reinsant at stephanie@toratyisrael.org or 401-885-6600.

Thursday | February 1 “The Joys and Oys of Parenting: Insight and Wisdom from the Jewish Tradition.” 7 p.m. Dwares JCC, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence. Join Jewish Book Council author and professor of psychology at Rutgers University, Maurice J. Elias, Ph.D., as he discusses his book “The Joys and Oys of Parenting: Insight and Wisdom fr om the Jewish Tradition.” Parents and grandparents are invited to learn how today’s understanding of child development is illuminated and supported by thousands of years of Jewish wisdom.

Elias will provide insight on practical skills that can be easily implemented.

This free event is s a partnership program between PJ Library, the David C. Isenberg Family Early Childhood Center and the Jewish Community Day School of Rhode Island. Babysitting will be available with prior registration for $5 per family. You can use your babysitting punch card. Information, Michelle Cicchitelli at mcicchitelli@ jewishallianceri.org or 401-421-4111, ext. 178.

Delve Deeper: A Program of Intensive Jewish Study. 7-9 p.m. Temple Emanu-El, Bohnen Vestry, 99 Taft Ave.,

Providence. Thursdays 2/1-5/10. This new adult education initiative brings dynamic teachers who are experts in their fields to teach in-depth, university-level courses to a diverse group of adult learners in Rhode Island. The third semester: “The Rabbis and Their Legacy: An Introduction to Rabbinic Judaism” with Professor Michael Satlow. Registration is required, and space is limited. $200 for the semester. Information, including a link to register, teprov.org/institute/ delvedeeper.

Saturday | February 3 Children’s Shabbat Program and Jr. Kiddush Club. 9:30-11:15 a.m. Congregation Beth Sholom, 275 Camp St., Providence. Weekly program and Jr. Kiddush Club for children. Activities include prayer, parashah, play time and a special Kiddush. Three age groups: Tots, Pre-K thru 1st grade and 2nd grade and up. Located in Kids Room, Social Hall and Chapel on the lower level. Big kids of all ages and backgrounds are encouraged to join prayer services in the main sanctuary.

Information, office@bethsholom-ri.org.

Hollywood Havdalah. 5:30-8 p.m. Temple Emanu-El, 99 Taft Ave., Providence.

Celebrate the end of Shabbat with crafts, havdalah and a movie. Information, Shoshana Jacob at shosh@teprov. org or 401-331-1616.

most powerful media moguls, political donors and pro-Israel forces in the U.S.? The answer begins with “Power Rangers.”

Saban, who was born in Egypt but grew up in Tel Aviv, joined a band after serving in the Israel Defense Forces. He then became a concert promoter and eventually immigrated to the U.S. in 1983, where he lived a comfortable life as a cartoon music composer. He discovered the “Power Rangers,” which was first a show in Japan, in a hotel room during a business trip and instantly fell in love with the campy teenage superheroes.

He immediately bought the rights to the show, but shopped the idea around to American executives for years before one – Margaret Loesch at Fox – bought it. Since the show’s debut in 1993, “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers,” has netted billions of dollars in TV profits and merchandise. Saban grew his fortune by investing in other media ventures and became one of Los Angeles’ most generous philanthropists (among other things, a research clinic at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles bears his name).

Saban, 73, has also poured millions into Democratic politics over the years – notably he gave Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential campaign $15 million. As a staunch Israel backer, he supports and hosts the annual Saban Forum on Israel, which brings together political leaders from the U.S. and Israel to debate topics related to the Jewish state.

Saban also was a key supporter of what became the IsraeliAmerican Council, which aims to boost the Israeli and Jewish identity – and political clout – of Israelis living here.

Itzhak Perlman – Virtuoso violinist, educator, disability rights advocate

PHOTO | JTA

January 19, 2018 |

11

ger speed – his energy and love of playing, usually communicated through a signature wide grin, has helped make him an international music icon. He also fosters young musicians through the Perlman Music Program, which he founded with his wife in 1994.

Outside of music, Perlman has passionately advocated for rights for people with disabilities. After being awarded the Genesis Prize in 2015, he pledged his winnings toward improving the integration of people with disabilities into Israeli and American society – with a specific focus on his adopted hometown of New York.

Einat Admony – Chef, restaurateur Falafel is one of the most popular foods in Israel and the rest of the Middle East. Can it take the U.S. by storm the way hummus has? If it does, Einat

Itzhak Perlman Perlman’s introduction to the international spotlight came in 1958, when the prodigy performed on “The Ed Sullivan Show” at the age of 13. But he had already been playing the violin for about a decade – and had been living with paralyzed legs from a bout of polio for nearly the same amount of time.

Fast forward several decades, and the New York-viaTel Aviv native has earned 16 Grammy Awards, a Presidential Medal of Freedom and the title of “world’s greatest living violinist.” As a performer, Perlman is not only known for his smooth tone and effortless fi n-

PHOTO | NEILSON BARNARD/GETTY IMAGES FOR THE NEW YORK CULINARY EXPERIENCE

Einat Admony ISRAELIS | 22

Humans of Tel Aviv The “Humans of Tel Aviv” photography exhibit is on display from February 1 through March 2.

Also join us for special “Humans of Tel Aviv” workshops with photographer Erez Kaganovitz Sunday, February 25 Dwares JCC | 401 Elmgrove Avenue, Providence 1:00pm Human Rights and the Public Sphere

Using photographs, explore the present tensions among different social groups in Tel Aviv.

4:00pm Humans and the Social Fabric of Tel Aviv

The amazing social fabric of Tel Aviv will be unraveled for you by the life stories of the different Humans who participated in this project, and you’ll discover why Tel Aviv is one of the most liberal cities in the world.

Visit jewishallianceri.org/israel-70 for a full list of Israel at 70 events.

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

FOOD

12 | January 19, 2018

The Jewish Voice

White bean soup has a secret Israeli ingredient

BY SONYA SANFORD (The Nosher via JTA) – I recently stumbled upon a Yemenite Jewish cookbook from the early ’60s called “Yemenite & Sabra Cookery,” by Naomi and Shimon Tzabar. It’s the type of cookbook I especially love to discover; the kind that covers a rare topic and is unusually designed. This one has beautiful wood-block print images scattered throughout. The recipes are more like sketches of how to make something rather than being clear directives.

The fi rst page of the book features a recipe for zhug, a classic Yemenite hot sauce, and a few pages later there’s one for a very simple white bean soup.

I’ve been a longtime fan of topping white bean soup with homemade pesto or herb sauce.

Creamy rich white beans are well complemented by fragrant earthy fresh herbs.

As I skimmed through each page, these two recipes jumped out at me, calling to be combined.

Zhug (or skhug; pronounced s-kh-oo-g) is found throughout the Middle East, and was brought to and made popular in Israel by Yemenite Jews. It is used to add heat to many dishes, from falafel, to shwarma, to schnitzel, to sabich.

There are countless recipes for zhug, but it is always made with a combination of hot green or red peppers and cilantro/ coriander. Often you’ll fi nd it includes spices such as cardamom and caraway.

Zhug is spicy, vibrant and complexly fl avored with the combination of these herbs and spices. It’s not your average hot sauce.

This white bean soup is simple at its core and made with leeks, carrots, celery and just a few other ingredients. You can use chicken broth or vegetable broth for the liquid – even water will work.

If you have the time, or an Instant Pot (yes!), making the white beans from scratch will make the soup significantly better. For one, you can infuse the beans as they cook and soften with extra flavor from garlic and bay leaf. Then, the infused cooking liquid can also be added to the soup.

You can cook the white beans and make the zhug several days in advance. Once everything comes together, and the soup is served and topped with the herby zhug, it makes this dish that much more impressive.

My fi rst spoonful instantly warmed me. The spice and heat from the zhug, and the comfort of the creamy white beans, somehow elicit the feeling of heat from strong sunlight somewhere very far away.

White Bean Soup Ingredients For the soup: 1 cup dry white/cannellini beans, or 2 (15-ounce) cans (about 3 1/2 to 4 cups) Oil, as needed 1 large onion, diced small 1 large leek, white part only, diced small 1 carrot, diced small 1 rib of celery, diced small 1 Roma tomato, chopped small (or 1 tablespoon tomato paste) 6 cloves garlic, peeled and divided 2 large bay leaves, divided 3 sprigs thyme, leaves removed 10 cups (2 1/2 quarts) chicken broth, vegetable broth or water

White bean soup.

A spoonful of fi nely chopped parsley or cilantro stems (leftover from the zhug) Salt and pepper, to taste Juice of 1/2 lemon, or to taste For the zhug: 5-10 small jalapeno peppers (5 for mild, 10 for hot), sliced in half and deseeded 1 bunch cilantro 1 bunch parsley 1 large clove garlic, peeled 1 tablespoon ground cardamom 2 teaspoons caraway seeds (optional) 1 teaspoon Kosher salt Juice of 1/2 lemon 1/4 cup oil (a mild neutral oil: sunflower, canola, grapeseed, etc.)

Directions If using dry beans: Soak the beans overnight. In a large pot or in an Instapot, cover the dried beans with 3-4 inches of water. Add a large bay leaf and 4 peeled cloves of gar-

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lic to the pot. Simmer beans until tender.

To a large pot, add a generous drizzle of oil over medium heat, and add the diced onion, leek, carrot and celery. Sauté the vegetables until softened, about 6-8 minutes. Add the chopped tomato (or tomato paste), 2 peeled garlic cloves, 1 bay leaf, thyme and chopped herb stems to the pot. Stir and sauté for another minute.

Add the liquid to the pot. If I’ve made the beans from dried, I like to add a few cups of the bean cooking liquid in addition to broth.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Bring to a simmer and allow to simmer for 20 minutes.

Add the cooked or canned beans to the pot and simmer for another 20-25 minutes.

Taste and season as needed.

Turn off the heat and add the lemon juice.

PHOTO | JTA

At this point, you can serve the soup as is. However, I prefer to remove about a third from the pot. I blend the remaining soup until light and creamy, using an immersion blender. I add the remaining soup back to the pot. This makes the soup satisfyingly smooth, with pops of beans and vegetables.

To make the zhug: To a food processor add the de-seeded jalapenos, parsley, cilantro, garlic, cardamom, caraway and salt. Pulse until fi nely chopped.

If you don’t have a food processor, you can also chop the ingredients fi nely by hand. Transfer the chopped mixture to a bowl.

Add the oil and lemon juice, and stir until combined. Zhug will last up to 2 weeks in a wellsealed container, or it can be frozen for up to 3 months.

Serve soup topped with zhug to your taste. Serves 4-6.

SONYA SANFORD is a chef, food stylist and writer based out of Los Angeles who specializes in modern Jewish cooking. Follow Sanford at sonyasanford.com or on Instagram @sonyamichellesanford.

The Nosher food blog offers Jewish recipes and food news.

Check it out at TheNosher.com.

WEDDINGS

jvhri.org

January 19, 2018 |

13

Local rabbis explain Jewish weddings

BY SAM SERBY What makes a wedding Jewish?

You probably already know that a Jewish wedding cannot take place from sunset on Friday until after dark on Saturday, and that both the groom and the bride must be Jewish. But there’s more. The Voice spoke to three Rhode Island rabbis – Rabbi Jeffrey Goldwasser of Temple Sinai in Cranston, Rabbi Marc Mandel of Touro Synagogue in Newport, and Rabbi Yossi Laufer of Chabad of West Bay Chai Center in Warwick – to find out.

Our sources made the perfect experts because, in addition to their positions as rabbis, they all have experienced the traditional Jewish wedding themselves. Rabbi Goldwasser shares, “My favorite customs of marriage, of course, are the ones that were most meaningful to me when my wife and I were married 23 years ago.

Rabbi Mandel says, “Jackie and I were married in Los Angeles, and we had our Huppah outdoors in February, and it was warm and beautiful.”

Rabbi Laufer recalls, “I remember how spiritual it felt to be under the Huppah after fasting all day. The Torah teaches that one is cleansed and forgiven from all their prior sins at their Huppah as on Yom Kippur. The joy and the dancing that everyone had at our wedding was definitely something to be remembered. They were happy not because we were moving out of our parents’ houses, but because another Jewish couple has gotten married, something the Talmud calls a miracle as great as the miracle of the splitting of the Red Sea when the Jewish people were leaving Egypt.”

The couple’s role in the ceremony Rabbi Goldwasser: A Jewish wedding service is called Kiddushin, which means “holiness.” A Jewish wedding ceremony is about sanctifying the relationship between the people who are getting married and calling their relationship a sacred union. That is not different from the way that weddings are understood in other religious traditions, but the emphasis is a bit different in Judaism. The declaration of holiness is affirmed, not just by the officiant, but by the couple themselves. The officiant of a Jewish wedding ceremony is known as a m’sader/et kiddushin, literally, “The arranger of holiness.” The officiant puts the ceremony together, but it is the members of the couple who marry each other and declare their union to be sacred.

The Jewish Wedding Essentials HUPPAH Rabbi Goldwasser: A Huppah is a wedding canopy that represents the sacred

the Jews conquered the city, the bride conquers the groom by protecting him with her love.]

home and relationship that the couple are creating for themselves. [My wife and I] designed and created our own Huppah cover; it has hung over our bed everywhere we have lived since our wedding day.

The Rabbi’s Role Rabbi Goldwasser: Every time a couple asks me to officiate at a wedding it is a special moment for me. It is a powerful reminder that Jewish tradition continues to have power and meaning for young people as they begin their lives together, that they are committed to transmitting Judaism to their children, and that they want one of the happiest days of their lives to be connected to the ways of Jewish joy.

KIDDUSH CUPS Rabbi Goldwasser: Kiddush cups are the ones from which the couple drinks to complete the blessings of betrothal and marriage under the Huppah.

RINGS Rabbi Goldwasser: Rings are also traditional symbols of marriage in Judaism, a token of consideration that makes the vows of marital obligation complete. ed to a private room for yichud before greeting our wedding guests; it gave us a private moment to look into each other’s eyes and to say, “Yes, we are really married now!” [Jewish law forbids a man and woman who are not married from being secluded together. Entering the yichud room together is symbolic of their married state.]

The Top Traditions BADEKEN KETUBBAH Rabbi Marc Mandel: A ketubbah [Jewish prenuptial agreement] represents the groom’s total commitment to his bride.

Rabbi Goldwasser: [My wife and I] wrote the words of our ketubbah, declaring our commitment to care for one anoth-

er, to create a loving Jewish family together, and to strive to work for a better world together. We had our witnesses, dear old family friends, sign our ketubbah; it still hangs in its frame in our bedroom.

YIHUD ROOM

Rabbi Goldwasser: The ritual of Badeken [the ceremony where the groom veils the bride prior to the wedding ceremony] recalls the veil that hid Leah’s identity from Jacob.

Rabbi Goldwasser: Immediately following our wedding ceremony, we retreat-

Rabbi Mandel: There is so much energy in the room at that time.

BREAKING OF THE GLASS Rabbi Mandel: The breaking of the glass under the Huppah is quintessentially Jewish. [The breaking of a glass has many meanings, one of which is breaking with the past. It also recalls the Talmud, which states, “Joining two people in marriage is as difficult as splitting the sea.”]

DANCING Rabbi Mandel: The dancing shows that it is a joy to fulfill the mitzvah of rejoicing with the bride and groom.

NUMBER SEVEN Rabbi Laufer: The number seven is significant in the ceremony. The groom places the ring on the bride’s seventh finger [it correlates to the seven days of creation of the world.] The bride circles the groom seven times. [The bride, by circling the groom, expresses her power over him. The seven circuits evoke the biblical story of Joshua leading the Israelites into the Promised Land. The wall around the groom’s heart is being compared to the wall that protected Jericho, but came tumbling down after the Israelites followed God’s command to walk around it seven times. As

Rabbi Mandel: It’s important to make sure that all the steps in a Jewish wedding are done correctly and in an organized way. The couple is counting on you!

Rabbi Laufer: All the customs and traditions help bring God into the couple’s wedding and marriage, and it is the rabbi’s responsibility to make sure it is all done correctly and that they get blessed with a holy and proper Jewish marriage.

Final Words of Wisdom Rabbi Goldwasser: In my last meeting with the couple before the wedding, I always give this advice: “Forget the old saying, “Love conquers all.” It’s not true. Know that the qualities that will keep your marriage healthy and strong – much more than love – are your qualities of compassion, forgiveness, patience, and commitment to something larger than yourselves. You may not feel like you are in love with your spouse in every single moment of your marriage, but your kind and open-hearted commitment to each other will get you through hard times.”

Rabbi Mandel: Marriage is like investing in the stock market. You are in it for the long run, so don’t let the bumps along the way get you nervous or upset.

Rabbi Laufer: Remember that, after marriage, it is no longer “me versus you.” Instead, it is “we.” Instead of seeing two separate people, see yourselves as a family. A successful Jewish marriage requires a Jewish house filled with meaning and purpose. And the best place to find Jewish meaning and purpose is in the Torah.

It encourages keeping a Kosher kitchen, observing Shabbos, following the Laws of Family Purity [abstaining from the physical expression of love for a number of days a month], and a full Jewish education for the children.

SAM SERBY is a freelance writer who lives in East Greenwich. He previously worked at the Peres Center for Peace in Tel Aviv.

14 | January 19, 2018

WEDDINGS

The Jewish Voice

The five W’s of weddings

BY LARRY KESSLER Weddings are becoming more original, say some longtime area event planners. And, even those that incorporate traditional themes are tailored to the couples’ needs and wants.

We spoke with three professionals, who shared how they view the evolution of weddings, and what you should expect when planning or attending one.

WHERE: Think Outside the Box Bonnie Gold, of Gold Events in Central Falls, has been helping people get married for 30 years. Many of those weddings took place at non-traditional sites. “From what we have seen, people are being more creative with what they want, not always having their weddings at hotels or large function halls,” she notes.

Gold Events has done “tented weddings on farms, or at people’s homes, ceremonies in an antique store and the reception at a night club.” One wedding she organized in an antique store had a personal connection for Gold: It was her daughter Emily’s marriage. She explains that Emily likes antiquing so much that she chose to get married in a Vermont store, with the reception held in a nearby renovated mill.

“Camps are another place that some of our clients have utilized,” she says, describing one wedding that took place at Camp Canonicus in Exeter. The ceremony was held lakeside, and the party continued all weekend with guests staying in log cabins on the property.

Sherri Klein, a Cranstonbased wedding and event planner for more than 30 years, agrees that it’s important to cut the cookie cutter. She helps couples across New England organize their big day, working with traditional venues, especially those in Newport. For Klein, taking care of the couples is paramount. Her priority is “what is more important to that bride and groom. Every one of my

weddings has been totally individualized,” she says. It helps to have the freedom to listen only to the couple, as Klein believes that “there are no rules anymore.” And when there are no societal restrictions on what’s acceptable and appropriate, anything is possible!

Well, not anything. For instance, unwelcome documentation is often out of the question, no matter what the venue is.

Klein has noticed that the age of social media has made people weary of cell phones, and “most weddings are asking to be cellfree.” With many ceremonies lasting only about a half an hour, she says couples would “rather leave it to the professional photographers” and videographers to capture the moment than have everyone snapping out-of-focus pictures and filming grainy videos. Furthermore, Klein says couples want their guests to just “enjoy the moment” without recording it all on social media.

WHO: Be Willing to Collaborate Ralph Arguin, the ownermanager of Country Gardens Events in Rehoboth since 2001, has planned about 200 weddings over that span. He says they’ve changed significantly, especially with respect to traditions. “The couples today have been getting away from tradition. [With] younger couples, it’s more about the day they want for themselves,” Arguin explains. This creates conflict and “a little bit of a struggle” between the newlyweds’ and their parents’ or grandparents’ wishes. Consequently, he often plays the role of a mediator, telling couples that “this day isn’t just about you” and suggesting that they need to incorporate some of those traditions so that the wedding “becomes a blend of the two” and keeps their parents feeling vested.

WHEN: Take Advantage of Technology Another area of change, Arguin says, is the role that inter-

net plays, with many couples starting their planning online rather than with parents or friends. “They go out on searches,” looking for everything – flowers, event planners, music and venues.

In addition, the internet can help couples find the best deals. Since the recession of 2008, he’s found that people are more cost-conscious. Children of baby boomers, who may have been hurt by the economic downturn, were indirectly affected. “The burden was thrown on the couple, and it forced everyone to look at weddings in a more frugal way.

It’s just starting to change back now,” he thinks.

WHAT: A Thank-You Is Always in Fashion Gold observes that one thing that doesn’t seem to be going out of style is the custom of the wedding party buying gifts for the bridesmaids and groomsmen. She has seen people spend a low of $60 to as high as $180 for each gift. Some of the popular women’s gifts have included bracelets, necklaces or earrings, while the men have given such items as cuff links, flasks and monogrammed weekend bags.

Other newlyweds approach gift-giving in a more practical way, with tradition taking a back seat. Klein has found that, lately, brides and grooms offer to pay for a part of the wedding party’s attire – the dress, the handbags – rather than give presents.

Similarly, Arguin feels that planning a wedding on a budget has extended to the wedding party’s gifts, with couples turning to simpler presents, such as monogrammed beer glasses for the groomsmen and bracelets for the bridesmaids.

PHOTOS | RICKY KODNER

Non-traditional venues work for many people. Camp JORI in Wakefield rents space for weddings and other events.

Above, a look at tables for fall weddings.

The fireplace in JORI’s dining hall offers an area for photos and candles.

WHY: Because All You Need… … is Love.

LARRY KESSLER is a freelance writer who can be reached at lkessler1@comcast.net.

Gift ideas for bridesmaids and groomsmen

BY LARRY KESSLER Wondering what to give the members of your bridal party?

Bridal party gifts are becoming more practical. Here’s an assortment of groomsmen and brides maid party gifts that are popular on one Web site, Beau-coup.com, which offers an array of suggestions available for a range of prices: For her Bridal party gifts include: Tote bags, ranging from as low as $11.95 to $30; gift boxes,

$24.50; cosmetic bags, $13.95; weekender bags, $52 to $65; many different robes, $27 to $60; fancy hangers, $11.50 to $21.95; necklaces, $24 for pearls, various prices for others; many bracelets priced from $15 to $30; personalized Turkish towels for $40; notepads from a low of $3.62 to a high price of $34.50; makeup bags, $21; tumblers and water bottles, $24.95; pajama sets, ranging in price from $42 to $60.

For him Groomsmen gifts include: Personalized men’s waxed

bags, leather for $69.95 and duffle for $79.95; a travel tie case, $40.95; the perfect gift for New England Patriots’ fans, a tail-gate backpack cooler chair for $54.95; a personalized stainless-steel growler (decanter), $53.95; a wall-mount bottle opener, $39.95; flasks ranging from $20 to $30; a pocket knife for $24.95; money clips, $24.95; cuff links, $34.95; pocket watches, $39.95 and $51.95; a harmonica for $22.36; a baseball bat, $25 and ball, $29.95.

The JORI dining hall was transformed for the weddings.

Parties of many sizes can be accommodated. Guests can stay in the cabins and use the camp facilities.

SHARE YOUR JOYFUL EVENTS AND HAPPENINGS by submitting them for Simchas or We Are Read publication in The Jewish Voice. Email to: editor@jewishallianceri.org or mail to: The Jewish Voice, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence, R.I. 02906

WEDDINGS

jvhri.org

January 19, 2018 |

15

7 Things to do before your wedding

BY JORDANA HORN (Kveller via JTA) – I’ve been married twice. Some might think if I failed at it once that means I’m not so good at marriage. Personally, I’d say, like Peppa Pig’s father, that “I’m a bit of an expert.”

I mean, two marriages means two weddings, right?

I’m a pro. So let me give you some unsolicited advice as to how to have the best one – yes, ideally one – ever.

1

Think about premarital counseling.

As a prerequisite to marriage, the Catholic faith requires a course of premarital counseling set by the church called pre cana. No equivalent really exists in Judaism, but I did appreciate it very much when our rabbi offered an opportunity to sit and meet with him a few times to discuss how we wanted our lives to look as a married couple. (I would also love to go back in time and see what we said, since I am sure we didn’t really think we would have six kids, but that’s another story.) Ask your rabbi if you can do the same. It’s a good way to talk about things you may not have already discussed, like how religious you want your life to be, how you want to raise any kids, how you want to handle money and so forth.

2

Get a genetic screening.

Here’s another one you may not have discussed: genetic screening. Before marrying, get tested for Jewish genetic diseases! Most people get reassuring results, but even if you both test positive as carriers, there are options to help you have healthy children. The national nonprofit JScreen offers those with Jewish lineage subsidized

testing for more than 200

genetic diseases. Their testing is meant for anyone with Ashkenazi, Sephardic or Mizrahi backgrounds, as well as interfaith couples.

You can do the test at home.

After registering online, you just spit in the container JScreen sends you and FedEx it away in their prepaid mailer. While genetic testing can be expensive, JScreen has a set fee of $149 for people with medical insurance. It’s super common to be a carrier for some kind of genetic disease: One in three Jews is a healthy carrier. The crazy part is you have no idea without testing.

So be tested today and get peace of mind.

3

Signed, sealed, delivered.

You’re probably going to want a ketubbah, a Jewish marriage contract. While I have a rabbi friend who refers to it somewhat pejoratively as an “Aramaic document of acquisition,” I see it as an opportunity to frame your marriage and mutual Jewish future. In the secular world, you may be considering a prenup. As a Conservative Jew, I am a tremendous advocate of the Lieberman clause, in which both parties to the marriage agree not to withhold a “get” – the Jewish instrument of divorce – should the marriage not hold. Including this clause in your ketubbah is a statement on behalf of women’s rights. There are many websites with ketubbah options. Personally, I like the great array of options and artists on the surreally named thisisnotaketubah.com.

4

you used for the thank you notes or how big your centerpieces were. Take time every day to talk about something not wedding-related.

You know, like why you like each other, or a movie you saw. If you can, write a letter to your partner (offer them the chance to do the same for you, but this is optional, not mandatory) to be opened on your fi rst, or 10th, anniversary.

On the f lip side, if there are warning spots of trouble between you, don’t sweep them under the rug. Talk about the problem. Do you differ on fundamental issues, like whether to send kids to Hebrew school or what you believe, spiritually and politically? If you’ve got concerns, it’s not “just jitters” – and even if it were, this is a litmus test for how you deal with stress (and this is just the good kind of stress).

You are going to need to spend the rest of your lives talking to each other when problems arise, so set a good precedent for how you handle things now. If you don’t like the answers, you may need to have a more serious discussion that yes, could include postponing or calling off the wedding.

Don’t compromise your future because you already paid for the caterer.

5

Plan the ceremony.

The core of the wedding is the ceremony, not the party (I know – shocking!), so take time to focus on that element.

What would make the ceremony more meaningful to you and your partner? When I asked the cantor at our synagogue for traditional wedding music, he gave us a CD of music performed by our synagogue’s band, and I chose a song and sang it with them as I circled my groom. I will never be able to think about that without simultaneously smiling and crying.

6

Think beyond yourselves.

Use the kiddush cup your partner’s great-grandfather brought over from Russia, even though you think it’s hideous. Use the tallis the entire family has been married under rather than the f loral Huppah of your dreams. At the end of the day, you’re not making a wedding for Pinterest – you are making it for your family, past and future.

Honor those people.

And, for that matter, honor your guests by making the registry easy to navigate (and easily refundable), the seating comfortable and the food plentiful. Today’s bridal magazines would have you believe “It’s All About You!” It isn’t.

And newsfl ash: It won’t, and shouldn’t, be.

7

Be kind.

Figure out ways to pay your happiness forward. Write thank yous not only to those who gave you gifts, but to those who are giving their time: your officiant, the photographer. Be kind to everyone. Give your centerpieces to a nursing home or hospital. Donate a portion of your gifts, if they are monetary. Make sure you tell people how thrilled you are that they took the time to come and be with you to celebrate this milestone in your life, and how you hope they will be there for every special day to come.

Wishing you transcendent happiness that will shine more light into the world!

Editor’s Note: This article was sponsored by and produced in partnership with JScreen, whose goal of making genetic screening as simple, accessible, and affordable as possible has helped couples across the country have healthy babies. To access testing 24/7, request a kit at JScreen.org or gift a JScreen test as a wedding present.

Kveller is a thriving community of women and parents who convene online to share, celebrate and commiserate their experiences of raising kids through a Jewish lens. Visit Kveller.com.

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Talk to each other.

This often gets lost in all the meetings with the florist, the band, etc. No one is actually going to recall what card stock

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16 | January 19, 2018

WEDDINGS

The Jewish Voice

Marriage: The greatest trip of your life

BY LARRY KESSLER Thirty years ago this Valentine’s Day, I proposed to my girlfriend in my column in the newspaper where I was working. We were married later that year, and in October we will celebrate our 30th anniversary.

Thirty years certainly pales in comparison to being married 50, 60 or 75 years, but all of those milestones have one thing in common: Staying married for the long haul requires much more than the romantic version of love seen on Hallmark Channel movies.

W hile romance is appealing, the initial excitement has to translate into mature love and friendship and requires as many ingredients as found in your grandmother’s favorite kugel or chicken soup. A fter your wedding day, being together through the years while raising children requires patience, understanding, cooperation, empathy, putting your ego in check, knowing when to say nothing – and a huge sense of humor.

It helps if you marry your best friend. But even then, you should live by these five guidelines: • Remember your anniversary, and her birthday, with flowers and an appropriate gift.

• Don’t fear compromise or giving in; think of resolving conflicts as passing daily exams.

• Even if you never learn how to fold towels or sheets properly, it still doesn’t hurt to wash your own clothes and run the dishwasher. Learn to wield a mean vacuum, and do more than just the expected.

• Bring home flowers once in a while when it’s not her birthday or Valentine’s Day. • Grooms who become husbands should learn to say “yes dear” a lot.

Chances are that those aren’t the types of things that you may be thinking of as you prepare to get married, or on your wedding day. You’re likely, at the moment, more concerned about those prenuptial meetings with your rabbi, trying to resolve the seating arrangements in a civil manner, book the hall, cut the guest list down to a manageable level, get a decent band and book hotels for your out-of-town guests.

While dealing with those details remember that you’re not just planning for one day, but for a lifetime. That’s why, whatever you wind up spending on your big day and the honeymoon – and there’s no fault in doing those economically – you should realize

what is obvious but is sometimes forgotten: Your wedding day will be only the beginning, not the end of the marriage experience.

After the wedding and honeymoon, you’ll come to realize that your life together will be epic at times, but also mundane, ordinary and tedious.

You will face countless challenges (especially dealing with your parents and in-laws).

Some things – like cleaning out your parents’ home – will be a struggle. There will be days of utter joy and exuberance, but also times of sorrow and heartbreak.

You will share many simchas, first days of schools, Bar and Bat mitzvahs, graduations and eventually your kids’ weddings. You will also have to mourn the passing of many loved ones. One day you’ll look back at your wedding video and it will be bittersweet because of the people who are no longer alive.

You will, in short, experience life.

And that’s why you’ll always hold your wedding day close to your heart and will regard it as the starting point for the greatest trip of your life.

LARRY KESSLER is a freelance writer who can be reached at lkessler1@comcast.net.

More you in your wedding (Family Features) – A wedding day is filled with symbolic tradition, from varied religious customs to the never-ending circle reflected in the rings and the types of flowers accentuating the celebration. Even with all the traditional rituals to consider, nearly every bride and groom can find ways to give their special day some unique touches that reflect their personality and love.

Music sets the mood for every wedding, and it’s an easy place to put your own spin on the celebration. Whether you forgo the traditional bridal march entirely or simply look for an arrangement that gives an updated twist to the classic version, let guests know this isn’t your average wedding by setting the festivities against a soundtrack that lets your true character shine.

The wedding party is intended to be a collection of those nearest and dearest to the bride and groom, who help ensure the day goes off without a hitch and who lead fellow revelers in celebrating the start of the new couple’s life together. There’s no reason this group must be limited to women on her side and guys on his.

Photography is an essential element of your big day, but think beyond the images

you’ll capture throughout the wedding and reception.

Photos lend a personal touch, no matter what your color scheme or theme. Integrate photos of the two of you at various stages of life, together as a couple and with loved ones (perhaps even some you’re honoring in memoriam). You can display these at a table with the guest book, as part of the table centerpieces, or even on the gift table. Or take things digital and load all your images into a slide show set to music.

Make favors meaningful.

Maybe it’s a memento from a place with special meaning to you both, or a bottle opener shaped like a bicycle to represent the way you met. Just think about the moments and things that define you as a couple and do some searching online.

Serve up a menu that shows guests more about your life togethe. Make your main course the same food you enjoyed on your first date or during another monumental moment in your courtship. Or plan the entire menu around a region that you hold close to your heart.

Weddings are filled with traditions, but that doesn’t mean you can’t put your own touches on the day for a special event filled with memories that are uniquely your own.

WEDDINGS

jvhri.org

January 19, 2018 |

17

Preparing for after the wedding You’ve found the one – that was the easy part. Now on to the challenge of ensuring that the wedding goes without a hitch and that PATRICIA the marriage RASKIN will be long and fruitful.

No pressure whatsoever. Preparing for the big event and for your new life requires so much energy and generates so much excitement that the Jewish custom dictating the couple spend the first week after the wedding focused on each other makes absolute sense. That way, they can not only continue the celebration but also devote themselves solely to their new union – something that’s hard to do during the chaotic planning stage.

In “The First Week,” an essay on chabad.org, Maurice Lamm clarifies the origin of and the reason for the custom: “Moses ordained that both celebration and commemoration be followed by a seven-day taperingoff period, during which one might ponder and accept the intensity of the event and allow it to be gradually integrated into the psyche.”

It’s easy to spend a leisurely week with your loved one, but what should you do if you get

the blues once the celebration is over and you have to return to reality? How should newlyweds balance their everyday tasks, chores and errands with the additional responsibilities of their marriage? Rachel Torgerson’s article, “5 Tips for Dealing with Post Wedding Sadness,” published on knot. com, offers some ways to cope with the melancholy.

Her first tip is to “recognize that your wedding isn’t the same as your marriage.” She makes a valid point – it’s smart to approach life from a realistic perspective, realizing that life’s not a perpetual party and the sparks don’t always fly, especially during stressful times. Acknowledging this from the get-go will make the transition to marriage easier.

Think of this period as the exciting beginning, the seeds you plant to grow something deep and lasting. The bond, commitment and support that develop are far greater and more enduring than the butterflies felt during the infatuation stage of the relationship.

Still struggling to adjust?

Consider consulting the pros, as Torgerson’s second tip, “Be open to premarital counseling,” suggests. Rabbinical premarital counseling and classes are a great place to start. To get an idea of what questions you should ask, which issues you

may face, and what details can be annoying and disruptive, consult some topical literature.

The more prepared you are – whether it be through research or discussion – the lower your chances of suffering from postmarital blues.

Now that you understand that life’s much more about the mundane, how do you enliven those ordinary happenings to make them more appealing? Well, it’s all about your perception and approach. Torgerson’s third tip, “Make everyday events exciting and important,” is sound advice. The more grateful we are for what we have and the more joy we find around us, the more happiness we will attract into our lives.

Her fourth tip is to “redefine your relationship with your family.” That means that you should treat your spouse as your primary family. While your parents, siblings and relatives still play an important role in your life, your relationship with them will be different now that you are married.

You may want to talk with your close ones about this to ensure that they don’t inadvertently interfere with the foundation you are building in your new marriage.

Torgerson’s fifth tip is an extension of the fourth; she advises to “look to your new spouse.”

You are working on strengthening the bond you have just begun. The process involves time,

effort, effective communication and even some occasional discomfort. But if you can get through the hard conversations, you are on your way to a fulfilling and lasting marriage.

PATRICIA RASKIN, president of Raskin Resources Productions Inc., is an awardwinning radio producer and Rhode Island business owner.

She is the host of “The Patricia Raskin Show,” a radio and podcast coach, and a board member of Temple Emanu-El, in Providence.

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18 | January 19, 2018 FROM PAGE 1

COMMUNITY

The Jewish Voice

| BIRTHRIGHT

north where we would sit as a group and learn about each other’s backgrounds, interests and reasons for taking the trip.

We took a boat ride where we danced to local music. At the Dead Sea, this new clique of friends laughed as we covered ourselves in mud and floated in the warm, salty water. At Yad Vashem, we leaned on each other as we witnessed the horrors our ancestors endured. On one of the hottest days of the trip, we struggled to climb to the top of Masada. In the desert, we sat in silence taking in the peace and the star-fi lled sky.

Israeli soldiers traveled with us and quickly became close

friends. Being able to bond with people the same age, but leading completely different lives, was inspirational. I was only 19 during the experience, and it changed my perspective on life.

Every place we went, everything we saw, all the information given to us, made me realize that there was so much I did not know. The connection I felt to Israel was unlike anything I had ever experienced. That feeling of belonging, of fitting in and of genuine happiness was a feeling I fell in love with and did not want to leave. Birthright is only 10 days, but it was the best 10 days of my life. I knew that it was not over for me and Israel.

PHOTOS | LEAH GRAFF

Leah Graff, right, at the Kotel during her Birthright trip in 2012. With her is Marissa Nunez who was a student at the University of Hartford.

Fast forward to the beginning of my senior year in college and it was time to decide what I was going to do next. There was only one thing I wanted: to go back to Israel. One day, I sat down at my computer, opened up trusty Google and typed, “post graduate programs in Israel.” This led me to my next life-changing Israeli venture, Masa Israel Teaching Fellows (MITF). I have always loved working with children so when I found an affordable 10-month program where I would teach English to elementary school students I went through the application process. I was accepted – my dream was coming true.

After graduating from college and working for the summer, I packed my bags and was off.

MITF was a lot like Birthright, new friends, travel around Israel, programming opportunities and so much personal growth.

One day, I got an email from a program I had never heard of, Birthright Israel Fellows.

It was offering all Masa participants the chance to apply for a three-year fellowship to staff Birthright trips. I was ecstatic and applied immediately. About a month later, my acceptance notification arrived, and I could not have been more thrilled. I was going to get to guide other young Jewish people like myself on their fi rst experience in Israel.

There was a week-long training by the iCenter, a group of knowledgeable and wonderful Israel educators who taught all of the new fellows what it

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A staged reading featuring Bobbie Steinbach Sunday, February 11, 2018 at 3:00pm Dwares JCC | 401 Elmgrove Avenue Price: $10 | Members: $8 Golda’s Balcony, written by William Gibson and directed by Judy Braha, follows the trajectory of the life of Golda Meir.

The performance is part of Rhode Island’s Israel at 70 celebration and is presented by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc.

Graff found a lizard during her first Birthright trip as a staff member. She was on a hike to Banias Falls. means to be a Birthright leader. After this training, I began to look for staffi ng opportunities right away. I found one and scheduled a trip with Israel Experts and went on to lead my fi rst Birthright trip this past September. I will lead another one this month.

All of my experiences with Israel have shaped me into the person I am today and continue to mold my life. None of it would have been possible if it were not for that fi rst trip with URI Hillel. The leaders of my group and our Israeli soldiers guided us through a very spiritual, religious, and often turbulent place and showed us its beauty.

I will forever be grateful to the Birthright Israel Foundation and to the URI Hillel Center for opening my eyes to all that this breathtakingly amazing place has to offer. Israel is the place where I came alive, and I am honored to be a leader for future Birthright participants.

LEAH GRAFF of Easton, Massachusetts, is serving as a Birthright Fellow. She went on a Birthright trip as a Freshman at the University of Rhode Island. Registration for late spring/summer Birthright trips opens Jan. 30. For more information visit birthright.com.

The next URI Hillel trip is May 24-June 5.

Holiday lecture On Jan. 1, 35 people gathered for a morning of Torah study and a lecture by Rabbi Gibber of the New England Rabbinical Col-

lege. Rabbi Gibber spoke about the parameters of honoring one’s parents. A breakfast was enjoyed by all.

For a full list of events and updates to programming, visit

jewishallianceri.org/israel-70

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

PHOTO | KOLLEL

Rabbi Gibber shares insights into honoring one’s parents.

COMMUNITY

jvhri.org

A Jewish forgetting of Ben Franklin

BY SHAI AFSAI Benjamin Franklin’s influence on Judaism occurred posthumously, primarily through his autobiography, and by way of Sefer Cheshbon ha-Nefesh (Book of Spiritual Accounting) written by the maskil (Jewish enlightener) Rabbi Menachem Mendel Lefin. It introduced Franklin’s “Art of Virtue” to a Hebrewreading Jewish audience and influenced the 13 Middos. Jewish scholars, including rabbis, have often been unaware of, confused about, or uncomfortable acknowledging this influence,

while Franklin specialists have been largely oblivious to it.

Moreover, in recent years, some Orthodox Jews have become uneasy with the notion that Lefi n, the author of a rabbinically-sanctioned and instrumental Judaic work, could have been a maskil, as well as with the notion that a mussar (Jewish ethical instruction) book based upon a gentile’s writings could have received rabbinic approval. The Jewish Orthodox response has been to largely write Franklin or Lefi n out of the history of mussar.

Yet, the proof remains. In the second part of Franklin’s autobiography, the nearly 80-year-old revolutionary recounts how, as a younger man, he contrived a program to break his bad habits and to acquire and establish good ones. His self-reform program centered on 13 virtues, each of which was given a week of close attention. Franklin monitored progress and setbacks through daily recordings in grid charts.

After 13 weeks, he’d resume the cycle, so that – over the course of a year – each trait would be carefully worked on for four weeks.

Early on, Franklin recognized that his method could be of great use to others and intended to expand upon it by publishing it as a book, but he died before he could do so. In 1808, Lefin published Cheshbon ha-Nefesh, facilitating the incorporation of the “Art of Virtue” into the mussar thought and practice. Although Lefin stated outright in Cheshbon ha-Nefesh, which was first published anonymously, that its innovative method was not his own discovery, he did not name Franklin or cite the autobiography there. This aided in the eventual widespread Jewish forgetting of the fact that Franklin originated the method.

One example of this omission is Feldheim Publishers’ 1995 Hebrew-English edition of Cheshbon ha-Nefesh, which is silent about Franklin’s influence.

In addition, its back cover offers a misleading depiction of the book’s character-improvement system, suggesting – contrary

to Lefi n’s acknowledgement that the technique preceded him – that the method is unique to Cheshbon ha-Nefesh, was formulated by Lefi n, and was designed specifically for Jews.

“CHESHBON HANEFESH, fi rst published in Lemberg in 1812 [sic], presents a unique system for self-improvement and the development of positive character traits. Employing sophisticated psychological techniques and charts to monitor one’s progress, this method was designed specifically for bnei Torah [those engaged in the study of Torah] and is as applicable today as it was when it was fi rst formulated, nearly 200 years ago.” Just as an acknowledgment that Franklin’s “Art of Virtue” influenced Lefi n is absent from the Feldheim edition, so is the mention of Lefi n’s affiliation with early Haskalah (the Jewish Enlightenment).

An even starker illustration of the lack of credit is evident in a popular poster put out by Torah Umesorah (the National Society for Hebrew Day Schools), in which neither Franklin nor Lefi n are recognized in connection with the “13 Middos.”

Instead, the focus on the character traits in these posters (as well as in decorative artwork of the traits occasionally found in Orthodox Jewish homes) is attributed entirely to Rabbi Israel Salanter, the father of the Mussar movement. Just as Franklin was left out of Cheshbon haNefesh, both he and Lefi n are left out of the “13 Middos.”

January 19, 2018 |

However, the evidence speaks for itself. Franklin chose the following virtues as his focus: Temperance, Silence, Order, Resolution, Frugality, Industry, Sincerity, Justice, Moderation, Cleanliness, Tranquility, Chastity, and Humility.

For comparison, here are the 13 Middos: Truth, Alacrity, Diligence, Honor, Tranquility, Gentleness, Cleanliness, Patience, Order, Humility, Justice, Thrift, and Silence.

SHAI AFSAI (ggbi@juno.com) lives in Providence. His article, “Benjamin Franklin and Judaism,” will appear in Journal of the American Revolution, Annual Volume 2018 (Westholme Publishing, April 2018).

PARENTING WORKSHOP We know that parenting is on e endeavors, but we also know of the greatest of all human how challenging it can be!

The Joys and Oys of Parenting: Insight and Wisdom from the Jewish Tradition Thursday, February 1 | 7:00pm | Dwares JCC Join Jewish Book Council author and professor of psychology at Rutgers University, Maurice J. Elias, Ph.D, as he discusses his book The Joys and Oys of Parenting: Insight and Wisdom from the Jewish Tradition. Parents and grandparents are invited to learn how today’s understanding of child development is illuminated and supported by thousands of years of Jewish wisdom. Dr. Elias will provide insight on practical skills that can be easily implemented.

This free event is a partnership program between PJ Library, the David C. Isenberg Family Early Childhood Center, and the Jewish Community Day School of RI.

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20 | January 19, 2018

COMMUNITY

The Jewish Voice

A new film, ‘1945,’ to be shown Feb. 10 at Temple Emanu-El

BY PAMELA HANZEL Arts Emanu-El takes you back to 1945 with a compelling new film of the same name. “1945” was written by the novelist and screenwriter Gabor Szanto, whose short story, “Homecoming” (2004), serves as the basis for the film.

This is not a Holocaust film.

It is a film that dissects life in a provincial village, and investigates the effect that events had on the Hungarian population as a whole, without limiting itself to the Jewish population. The village in which the film is set suffered the evils of the Holocaust in 1944. The first frame of the movie takes place one year later when two orthodox Jewish men return home and disrupt the established rhythm of village life. This reappearance forces local residents to confront the terrible events of the previous year: the forced deportations, what they did and did not do, what happened to the belongings left behind and who made which decisions.

According to the film’s director, Ferenc Torok, this is a period in Hungarian history that is not overly represented in either film or literature.

Torok finds the film interesting from two perspectives: It is set in 1945 when the German troops were gone and Soviet “liberators” were stationed in a country that was preparing for democratic elections. It is a social tableau that portrays life in Hungary just after the war. It explores new beginnings

and how society must overcome trauma, start a new journey, and confront the past in order to undertake a new life. It is a drama that confronts the audience with real-life situations.

“1945” concentrates on the point of view of the locals who share guilty secrets about illgotten gains. For some, their remorse becomes overwhelming, while for others their determi-

nation to keep their comfortable new homes and fine furnishings, including traditional Jewish candelabra and Hebraic art, overrides any compunction to behave in an ethical manner.

With little dialogue, we are able to examine village life, and matters of conscience by what we see in the film. Other noteworthy elements of the film are its melancholy score, which recalls forgotten Jewish melodies from Tibor Szemzo (“The Tree of Life”), as well as spot-on period production design by Dorka Kiss, and the very well-conceived costume work of Sosa Juristovszky. The film also contains striking blackand-white lensing.

Ted Koppel called the film “extraordinary” and “amazing.”

“This film is truly, and I mean it in the best sense of the word, Hitchcockian: in the manner in which it creates a sense of suspense and dread – it’s just an

extraordinary film. I urge you to see it,” he writes.

Eric Goldman of The Jewish Standard writes: “Powerful…director Forenc Torok is a master.

Beautifully photographed, raises important questions, and gives us a perspective on a Hungary seemingly ready to tackle difficult questions. I highly recommend it.”

Arts Emanu-El’s objective is to reach out and invite others in the community who wish to enjoy and expand their knowledge of interesting and entertaining Jewish culture. The film will be shown Saturday, Feb. 10, at 7:30 p.m. Light food fare will be served. Tickets: $12 in advance; $15 at the door. For information, please call Temple Emanu-El at 401-331-1616 and inquire about a link to purchase tickets.

PAMELA HANZEL is chair of Arts Emanu-El at Temple Emanu-El.

Noah Feldman speaks on religion and government Noah Feldman – one of Esquire magazine’s “75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century,” Harvard’s Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, and Bloomberg News commentator – will be the featured speaker at Central Congregational Church’s annual Darrell West Lecture Series on Religion and Politics. The event will take place on Jan. 26 at 6:30 p.m. at the church.

Feldman’s lecture “Divided

by God? Religion and Government in America” will address the tension between Americans’ daily affirmation that worship is central to daily life and the fact that the U.S. Constitution separates church from state. The speech will follow a welcome by series sponsor Darrell M. West, senior vice president of the Brookings Institution, former Brown University professor, and Central Congregational Church member. The evening will conclude with a question-and-answer forum open to the audience and a book signing.

Feldman has become well known for his ability to frame and explain complex and sensitive issues in foreign policy, politics and religion. A former law clerk for Supreme Court Justice David Souter, he has been called “one of the stars of his generation” by Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan. He is currently senior adjunct fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and the author of seven books, including “The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State” (2008), which was excerpted in the New York Times Sunday Magazine, and “Scorpions: The Battles and Triumphs of FDR’s Great Supreme Court Justices” (2010), which Publishers Weekly called “a first-rate work of

narrative history.” His newest title is “The Three Lives of James Madison: Genius, Partisan, President” (2017), a sweeping reexamination of one of the founding fathers who helped form and transform the nation.

As the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, Feldman specializes in constitutional studies, with emphasis on the relationship between law and religion, constitutional design, and the history of legal theory. He speaks four languages, including Arabic and Hebrew, and he is an expert on Islamic philosophy and law, the separation of church and state, and the United States Supreme Court. His weekly column for Bloomberg News focuses on real-time analysis of today’s major legal cases. Feldman is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School and earned a doctorate in Islamic thought from the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.

The Darrell West Lecture Series on Religion and Politics provides an open forum on the intersection between religion and politics. Feldman will be the 13th lecturer in the series. Previous speakers have included internationally-known author and activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali; Washington Post columnist and Georgetown University professor E.J. Dionne; Mara Liasson, NPR national political correspondent; Juan Williams, Fox News political analyst; and Dr. Elaine Pagels, renowned Princeton University scholar and author of “The Gnostic Gospels.”

Central Congregational Church is at 296 Angell St., Providence. The lecture is free and open to the public. For more information contact 401-331-1960 or go to centralchurch.us.

BUSINESS

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January 19, 2018 |

21

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22 | January 19, 2018 FROM PAGE 1

| ROOTS

blunt: “America shuts her doors to immigration.”

The nativist rhetoric of a century ago found new expression in the reported vulgar words of President Donald Trump at a recent meeting of lawmakers.

While congressmen in the 1920s may not have used Trump’s language, they were also opposed to letting in people from so-called undesirable countries – like Italians, Slavs and Jews from Eastern Europe. Chinese immigrants were banned altogether. Sen. David Reed, for whom the 1924 law was named, also wanted to let in more immigrants from “Nordic” countries.

An amendment to the 1924 law that aimed to restrict immigration even further was “aimed chiefly at the Jews who, [a senator] asserted, have been emigrating to American in disproportionately large numbers.” Disproportionate Jewish immigration from Russia, the senator told JTA, was “unfair to the predominating population of those countries.”

The senator denied being anti-Semitic. His amendment failed. Reforms in the 1950s and 1960s did away with the quotas.

This prejudice had been around for decades before the 1924 law. A report from 1891 prepared by Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge lumped Jews, Italians, Poles and others into “races most alien to the body of the American people.”

“In the eyes of politicians in the 1920s, undesirable immigrants included Jews, Italians

and Slavs,” said Jonathan Sarna, a professor of Jewish history at Brandeis University. “In the eyes of nativist politicians today, undesirable immigrants are Haitians and Africans, Latin Americans. Once it was us who were that way.”

Jews at the time, Sarna said, would be quick to admit they came from difficult conditions that they were happy to escape.

Emma Lazarus’ poem on the Statue of Liberty, “The New Colossus,” called some immigrants “wretched refuse.” The difference, Sarna said, is that the poem, and Jews, saw those difficult conditions as a reason to let immigrants into the country, not to refuse them.

“For many Jews and for a great many Americans, when they think about their own roots, they came from places people would not describe particularly kindly,” he said. “They looked at America as a refuge from those places – the land of the free and the brave where they had great opportunities and achieved wonderful things.”

But it bears noting that Jews were just a small portion of the immigrants who faced this bigotry after World War I, said Hasia Diner, director of the Goldstein-Goren Center for American Jewish History at New York University. Southern Italians, who were considered boors impossible to educate, had it far worse, she said.

“The view was they could not fit into the American orientation toward progress and doing bet-

The Jewish Voice ter, and would be forever manual laborers stuck at the very bottom,” Diner said of attitudes toward Southern Italians. She said Jews, by contrast, were viewed as “a little too successful, a little too pushy, getting on that American track too fast. They were viewed as competitors.”

Sarna and Diner both said that similar fears animated the nativisms of the 1920s and today.

In both cases, they said, these derogatory comments were based in a fear of the other from a foreign culture, who will disrupt white American society.

“There was a fear that these immigrants would change the country, which in fact they did, making it less Protestant, less Central European and Nordic and so on,” Sarna said. “Today it’s the same. Lo and behold, the president wants more immigration from Norway, so in that sense, from a historical perspective, nothing’s changed.”

Salty language aside, some have suggested that the president’s comments can be understood as a blunt way of talking about a recurrent debate in American society: Does the United States accept immigrants as part of its duty to extend freedom and opportunity to those struggling around the world, or should its first consideration be what’s best for the United States? Other countries – including Australia, Canada, Great Britain and New Zealand – use a points system to favor immigrants with more education and experience, for example.

Sarna rejected the idea that Trump was simply expressing a preference for highly skilled

immigrants, saying that if that’s what he meant, he would have said that.

“There are people from all sorts of countries who commit crimes, but when we ascribe

FROM PAGE 11

those sins to the whole group, that’s the essence of racism,” Sarna said. “The problem here is that instead of using objective criteria, we’re utilizing racial and geographic criteria.”

| ISRAELIS

Admony will be one of the big reasons why.

Admony, 46, is an Israeli chef who has revolutionized the Israeli food scene in New York and plans on expanding her brand across America and the world. She is in talks to open outposts based on her popular falafel joint Taim, which puts a hip spin on the Israeli staple, in Los Angeles, Chicago, Australia and Japan.

But Admony, who moved to New York from Israel in the ’90s and worked at a slew of restaurants before opening her own, is not merely a falafel expert. Her other New York eateries, Balaboosta and Bar Bolonat, have made her one of the foremost ambassadors of Israeli cuisine in the U.S., along with fellow Israeli-Americans Michael Solomonov and Alon Shaya. Admony also plans to open a restaurant dedicated to couscous in New York named Kish-Kash.

Lyor Cohen – Music executive Run-DMC, Jay-Z, LL Cool J, A Tribe Called Quest, Kanye West. Those are just a few of the many rap artists Lyor Cohen helped usher into the mainstream through his many

prominent roles over three-plus decades in the industry, including a tenure as the head of Def Jam Records and as chairman of the Warner Music Group.

It has been argued that Cohen, 58, was an integral part in rap’s takeover of the mainstream pop music universe.

In the ’80s, just as hip-hop began its ascent to the top of the charts, Cohen worked as a manager and talent scout for Russell Simmons’ Rush Artist Management. He worked out Run-DMC’s landmark endorsement deal with adidas, one of the first commercial pacts for a rap group, and has been seen as a trailblazer ever since.

Cohen left Warner Music in 2012 to start his own label, and last year became the head of music at YouTube, where he plans to make the service compete in the streaming realm against giants like Spotify and Apple Music.

The son of Israelis, Cohen was born in New York but spent five years as a child on a farm outside Tel Aviv before moving with his parents to Los Angeles. He has shifted between American coasts ever since.

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OBITUARIES

jvhri.org

Dr. Martin E. Felder, 87

CARLSBAD, CALIF. – Martin E. Felder, M.D. passed away on Dec. 31, 2017, in Carlsbad, California.

He was born and raised in Fall River, M a s s a c hu setts.

He g raduated from Brown Un ive r s it y in 1952, and from Tufts University medical school in 1956. Felder entered an internship and residency program at Ohio State University, and during that time also joined the U.S. Public Health Service, completing his service as a lieutenant-commander.

Felder started his private practice in Providence in 1963 and became instrumental in the development of Brown University’s medical school. When he retired from the medical school in 2003, the university honored him as an Emeritus Professor for his dedication to teaching. He served as chief of general surgery at the Miriam Hospital, and was a member of numerous medical societies, including the New England Surgical Society.

He was an avid golfer, a Silver Life Master in duplicate bridge, and collected and was a connoisseur of fi ne wines.

He is survived by his wife, Velma Felder of Carlsbad, his sister Avis Burger of Scottsdale, Arizona, his son Mark Felder of Laveen, Arizona, his son Lawrence Felder of Scottsdale, and four grandchildren, Charles Felder, Emily Felder, George Felder and Madaleine Felder.

As was his wish, any donations in Dr. Felder’s memory may be made to the public library of one’s choice.

Estelle Goldsmith Fradin, 88

CRANSTON, R.I. – Estelle Goldsmith Fradin, of Cranston, passed away on Jan. 8.

She was the loving wife of the late Jack Fradin. They were married for 56 years. She was the daughter of the late Milton and Cora Goldsmith of

Providence and the beloved mother to her three children, Neil Fradin and his wife, Jackie, Charles Fradin and his wife, Susan, Ruth Singer and her husband, David. She was the adored grandmother to Emily, Noah, Sam, Melanie, Daniel and Josh. She was the dear sister of Howard Goldsmith and his, wife Sharon, and the late Betsy Yetra and Sid Goldsmith.

Estelle was a retired beloved educator, teaching kindergarten for 38 years in the Providence and Cranston school systems. During this time she was instrumental in redesigning and revising the kindergarten curriculum. Upon her retirement she was honored by the City of Cranston with a playground dedicated in her name. She remained very active in organizations dealing with children, including cochairing the advisory board of the home instruction for pre-school children and youngsters program. She also served on the executive board of the National Council of Jewish Women, and participated in Hadassah’s project with the Hasbro Children’s Hospital. She spent many years working with Special Olympics in their fundraising program. She was a graduate of Syracuse University where she was a sister member of the Sigma Delta Tau Sorority.

Contributions in her memory may be made to the Jack Fradin Scholarship Fund, c/o URI Foundation, 79 Upper College Road, Kingston RI 02881.

Sharon A. Garber, 74

CRANSTON, R.I. – Sharon A. Garber, of Cranston, passed away on Jan. 8. The wife of Dr. Perry Garber for 51 years, she is also survived by her daughter and son-in-law, Stacy and Adam Bozek of Rye, New York. She was the mother of the late Jolie Savoie. Also surviving are cherished granddaughters Katherine and Abby Bozek of Rye, her

brother, Joel Licker of Cranston, Molly Garber (the late Dr. Martin Garber) of Cranston and dear nieces and nephews.

Sharon was born on Dec. 29, 1943 in Providence to the late Kate and David Licker. Donations in her memory may be made to the RI Community Food Bank, P.O. Box 817, Providence, RI 02901-9986.

Arlene Guttman, 90

EAST GREENWICH, R.I. – Arlene Guttman, of East Greenwich, died Jan. 10 at St. Elizabeth Home. She was the beloved wife of the late Dr. Alfred Guttman. Born in Lynn, Massachusetts, a daughter of the late Samuel and Leona (Wollner) Clebnik, she had lived in East Greenwich for 3 1/2 years, previously living in Framingham, Massachusetts. She was among the founding members and earliest employees of the Danforth Museum in Framingham, and she retired from Citizen’s Bank at age 83 after providing exemplary customer service for 25 years. Arlene was a member of Temple Beth Am, Hadassah and B’nai B’rith.

She was the devoted mother of Risa Guttman-Kornwitz and her husband, Dr. Norman Kornwitz, of East Greenwich and the late Karla Hergenrother. She was the dear sister of the late Myra Bromfield. She was the loving grandmother of Jenna Kornwitz, Alyssa Kullgren and the late Jacob Kornwitz. Contributions in her memory may be made to NEADS, P.O. Box 1100, Princeton, MA 01541.

Virginia Hochman, 102

NEW BEDFORD, MASS. – Virginia Betty (Rosen) Hochman passed away Jan. 8. She was the wife of the late Samuel J. Hochman; they were married for 53 years.

She was born in New Bedford, a daughter of the late Abraham and Rose (Edelson) Rosen.

She was a teacher in New Bedford area schools for 50 years

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and took great pleasure any time she was approached by a former student or colleague.

After retiring, she continued to volunteer at the New Bedford Jewish Convalescent Home and the New Bedford Women’s Center. In 2011, the YWCA celebrated their 100th anniversary by recognizing 100 outstanding women from Southeastern, Massachusetts; she was recognized at the State House as one of the top 100 women.

Virginia was a member of Congregation Tifereth Israel and a former member of Hadassah.

She is survived by her children Michael Hochman and his wife, Charlene, Elissa Salvatore and her husband, Philip, and Robert Hochman and his wife, Paula; grandchildren Jonathan and his wife, Sabina, and Aimee and her husband, Jeffrey; and great-grandchildren Jack, William, and Brandon. She was the sister of the late Leah Som-

23

mer and Daniel Rosen.

Contributions in her memory may be made to the New Bedford Jewish Convalescent Home, 200 Hawthorn St., New Bedford, MA 02740.

Stanley Koval, 93

WARWICK, R.I. – Stanley Koval died Jan. 11 at Brentwood Nursing Home.

Stan was the husband of Barbara ( Kommel) Koval for 67 years. Born in Brooklyn, New York, a son of the late Hyman and Jeanne (Rind) Koval and the late Clara Koval, he was a lifelong New York resident. Stanley was a WWII Navy veteran, serving stateside. He attended Long Island University. He was an avid sportsman OBITUARIES | 24

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24 | January 19, 2018 FROM PAGE 23

OBITUARIES

| OBITUARIES

and loved all of New York’s cultural offerings, including theater, museums and concerts. In addition, he loved to travel.

He was the devoted father of Jeff Koval of Warwick and Paul Koval of San Francisco, California. He was the dear brother of the late Ruth Shapiro and Shirley Woda. He was the loving grandfather of Greg and Emily.

Contributions in his memory may be made to the American Parkinson Disease Association, P.O. Box 41659, Providence, RI 02940.

Dr. Robert S. Luber

DELRAY BEACH, FLA. – Dr. Robert S. Luber passed on Dec. 12, 2017. He was a resi-

dent of Cranston for most of his life before moving to Delray Beach in 2004. He was the beloved husband of the late Arlene (Bernstein) Luber for 39 years. He was the son of the late David and Gertrude (Seidman) Luber.

Born in Providence, Bob graduated from the University of Rhode Island in 1947 and went on to earn a Doctor of Podiatry degree from the New York College of Podiatric Medicine in 1950. Bob spent his working career in private practice as a podiatrist in Providence. He was a veteran of the Army, serving in a medical unit from 1950 through 1953 in the United States and

The Jewish Voice Europe, and in the Army Reserves until 1960.

Bob enjoyed golf, tennis, duplicate bridge, watching sports, photography, reading books, and good food with friends. He was a fan of the philharmonic and stage theater. He was a longtime member of Temple Beth-El and Crestwood Country Club.

He is survived by his son Martin Luber of Santa Monica, California, daughters Mindy Redlich and her husband, Ried, of Cumberland, Judy Rzucidlo and her husband, David, of Dayville, Connecticut; grandchildren Trevor Rzucidlo, Devon Rzucidlo, Sarah Redlich, and Alysa Redlich. He is also survived by his sister Nancy Rosenbaum of Cranston. Contribution in Bob’s memory may be made to Temple Beth-El or a charity of your choice.

Rosalind Perlman, 97

ASK THE DIRECTOR

BY MICHAEL D. SMITH F.D./R.E. Shalom Memorial Chapel

Question: Why does a “Kosher” casket have to be made of wood?

N.L., Warwick Dear N.L., In keeping with halakhah (Jewish Law), a Jewish person is supposed to return to the earth from which he or she was formed as soon as possible after death. Metal caskets do not allow the natural processes to happen in a reasonable time and some even prevent the person from returning to the earth at all. Wood caskets are biodegradable and are in keeping with halakhah.

QUESTIONS ARE WELCOMED AND ENCOURAGED. Please send questions to: ShalomChapel@aol.com or by mail to Ask the Director, c/o Shalom Memorial Chapel, 1100 New London Ave., Cranston, R.I. 02920.

NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. – Rosalind Perlman passed away Jan. 12. She was the wife of the late Murry Perlman. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of the late Aaron and Kate (Karger) Katz.

She was the beloved mother of Marc Perlman and his wife, Claire, and Alan Perlman and his wife, Anne; loving grandmother of Adam, Benjamin, Daniel and his wife, Natalie, Sarah, Leah and her husband, Michael, and Maris and her husband, Jason; and devoted great-grandmother of Myles, Brady and Asher.

Contributions in her memory may be made to your favorite charity.

Marilyn Schwartz, 83

WARWICK, R.I. – Marilyn S. Schwartz died Jan. 9 at Brentwood Nursing Home.

She was the beloved wife of David Schwartz for 61 years.

Born in Providence, a daughter of the late Samuel and Sophia (Weltman) Horovitz, she had lived in Cranston before moving to West Warwick in 1999. She was a bookkeeper for the Jewish Federation of Rhode Island and Rhode Island National Guard.

She was the devoted mother of Sharon Schwartz-Vanderhoff and her husband, Earl, of Cranston. She was the dear sister of the late Eunice Greenfield and Ethel Horovitz. She was the loving grandmother of Zachary and Shayna.

Contributions in her memory may be made to Chabad of West Bay, 3871 Post Road, Warwick, RI 02886.

William Schwartz, 84

NEW YORK, N.Y. – William Schwartz of New York died on Dec. 20, 2017. Bill was born on May 6, 1933, in Providence, the son of the late Martha (Glassman) Schwartz and the late Morris Schwartz. Bill is survived by his beloved wife Bernice of almost 61 years, his two children Alan G. Schwartz and Robin Jacobs (Dr. Baruch Jacobs), and four grandchildren: Jessica, Mark, Gabriella (Benjamin Kalmanowiz), and Martha Jacobs.

He is survived by his sisters Tillie Orleck, of Cranston, and Elaine Zundell and his brother and sister-in-law Norman and Cynthia Schwartz, of Pawtucket.

Bill graduated fi rst in his class from Boston University School of Law. He completed post-graduate Special Legal Studies at Harvard Law School.

He also received a master’s degree from Boston University and doctorates in Humane Letters from Hebrew College and Yeshiva University. Immediately upon graduation from the Boston University School of Law he joined the faculty of the university’s law school – the youngest person to ever do so.

Bill served as a professor of law for over 62 years. He taught at Boston University for 35 of those years and was University Professor of Law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law until his passing. He was also a member of Harvard Medical School’s Frances Glessner Lee Institute. In 2015, the Boston University Law School’s library was dedicated in honor of William and Bernice Schwartz. Together with his wife Bernice, Bill endowed the Schwartz–Jacobs campus of the R.A.S.G. Hebrew Academy in Miami Beach, Florida.

Bill authored more than 66 law journal articles and 18 scholarly books.

In addition to teaching, Bill practiced law privately for nearly 30 years at the law fi rm of Cadwalader, Wickersham, & Taft LLP. He served as a director of Viacom, the Sperry and Hutchinson Company, and chairman of the board and director of the UST Corporation. He also served as general director (CEO) of The Association of Trial Lawyers of America. He was the fi rst honorary member of the National College of Probate Judges.

Bill will be remembered for his great energy, his love of the law and teaching, his unsurpassed intellect, ready wit,

kindness, generosity, decency, dignity, and respect for others.

Bonnie P. Sweberg, 65

WARWICK, R.I. – Bonnie P. Sweberg died Jan. 8 at Philip Hulitar Inpatient Center. She was the beloved wife of Mark Sweberg for 29 years. Born in Lynn, Massachusetts, and raised in Marblehead, Massachusetts, a daughter of the late Morris and Beverly (Ziman) Phillips, she was a longtime resident of Warwick.

She practiced therapy in Johnston for 20 years. Bonnie graduated from University of New Hampshire, Class of ’74 and continued her education at Suffolk University with a Master’s in Counseling, Class of ’81, and Smith College School for Social Work, Class of ’85.

She was a member of Temple Sinai and the former Temple Am David.

She was the dear sister of Kenneth Phillips and his wife, Claudia, of Oak Park, California. She was the loving aunt of two nieces and one nephew.

Contributions in her memory may be made to Temple Sinai, 30 Hagen Ave., Cranston, RI 02920 or American Cancer Society, 931 Jefferson Blvd., #3004, Warwick, RI 02886.

Ruth Snyder, 91

CRANSTON, R.I. – Ruth Snyder, 91, died Jan. 6 at Rhode Island Hospital. Born in Brockton, Massachusetts and raised in Dorchester, Massachusetts, where she graduated from high school, she was a daughter of the late Isaac and Etta (Dvorsis) Snyder. She had lived in Providence, previously living in Cranston and Milton, Massachusetts.

She was a photo colorist in Boston and Providence and a lithographer for Advertisers’ and Engraving Co., Heritage Color and National Bickford.

Ruth retired in 1986 and traveled extensively. She was an artist and a member of the East Greenwich Art Club. She was a life member of Hadassah and a member of Temple Sinai. Ruth was a sister of the late Fanny Rapoport and Victor and Frank Snyder, She was the aunt of the late Robert Rapoport and his sister Dorothy Lipson. Ruth is survived by her beloved niece and nephews, great-nieces and greatnephews and great-great-nieces and great-great-nephews.

Contributions in her memory may be made to Temple Sinai, 30 Hagen Ave., Cranston, RI 02920.

www.jvhri.org Your only Rhode Island Online Jewish Newspaper

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25

REMEMBER THE PAST From the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association

The hidden figures behind Providence’s Hebrew Loan Associations

BY GERALDINE S. FOSTER In one of his articles for the R.I. Jewish Historical Association Notes (Vol. 2, No. 1), David Adelman included an item from “1001 Valuable Things Free,” published in a 1955 pocket edition by Bantam Books. The item was headed “Where you can borrow money without paying interest,” and the answer was the Hebrew Free Loan Society.

Readers were advised to consult “your classified directory for the one nearest you.”

Whether the Hebrew Free Loan Associations in Rhode Island listed their phone numbers in the 1955 equivalent of the Yellow Pages is a question, as is whether non-Jews took advantage of the opportunity.

Rhode Island had four Hebrew Free Loan Associations chartered by the state: Pawtucket/Central Falls, Woonsocket and two in Providence.

Countless small businesses depended on the Free Loan for start-up funds or to tide them over a difficult time. Borrowed money paid for tuitions and the start of professional careers, unexpected medical bills, emergencies and more.

The fi rst Providence organization, Gemilath Chesed, originated in the North End and held its fi rst meeting on Feb. 4, 1903. The minutes stated that the gentlemen present “voted to loan money to make up a fund for use by the organization ....”

The list of the initial contributors included the name of one woman – Lena Lewando, the sister of Dr. Saul Lewando. The doctor, in addition to his practice, owned a millinery shop, where Miss Lewando worked.

As George Goodwin pointed out in an article in RIJHNotes, she contributed the goodly sum of $50, like most of the men – but she is conspicuously absent

from the photo of the founders and the fi rst Board of Directors.

Two years and one month later, the Jews of South Providence decided to form their own Gemilath Chesed. Among the fi rst to lend money to fund the new association was a woman, Sarah Saluck. Since we don’t have a photo of the founders and fi rst Board of Directors of the South Providence Hebrew Free Loan, we do not know if Saluck was included in the group.

We do know a bit more about Saluck than about Lena Lewando. The name Sarah Saluck – misspelled – appears on a charter granted to the South Providence Ladies Aid Society.

Her great-granddaughter, Jeanette Edelston Bernstein, told me how each Friday, Saluck would travel by streetcar to one of the local hospitals, where she was one of the volunteers who brought Shabbat meals to the patients.

Saluck must have been a woman of some means. In the summer season, she visited Adler’s Hotel, in Sharon Springs, New York, for the mineral baths.

And she donated a Torah in memory of her husband to the Robinson Street Synagogue.

That Torah played a large role in the history of the fi rst Conservative synagogue in Providence, Temple Beth-Israel.

In the summer of 1921, a small group of men decided the time had come for an alternative to both Reform and Orthodox Judaism. Harry Rosen was one of the founders of the new congregation. As the High Holy Days were approaching, they hired a hall on Niagara Street, arranged for a student rabbi to lead the services, and sold tickets. Aaron Cohen of Twin Florists lent palm trees and greenery to brighten the rather drab interior. But there was a problem – no Torah.

A request to borrow a Torah was made to the Robinson Street shul. The answer was a vociferous no. If other congregations were approached, we do not know.

Rosen remembered his grandmother’s gift of the Torah, and asked for her permission to borrow it. Although “old school” in her attitude to Judaism, Saluck agreed, and used her influence with the officers to get them to lend the Torah. The services could now proceed and the new congregation was launched.

The Hebrew Free Loan Associations are an integral part of our history in Rhode Island.

Two women were a part of that history, not mere footnotes.

GERALDINE S. FOSTER is a past president of the R.I. Jewish Historical Association. To comment about this or any RIJHA article, contact the RIJHA office at info@rijha.org or 401-331-1360.

The Path Chosen Today, I was thinking how events in our lives shape us and make us who we are.

Sometimes I think, “If this had happened instead of MAY-RONNY that, what ZEIDMAN would my life be.” I then think, “What a waste of time. This is the path you choose, and this is who you are.”

A few things stand out as having shaped my life.

One Friday evening at Temple Am David in Warwick, I was listening to Rabbi Bernard Rotman. He pointed out that many of us bring our children as far as Bat or Bar Mitzvah and do not give our children further Jewish education. This leaves our children to practice Judaism with the education of a 13-year-old child. He asked the congregation if they would use a doctor with the education of a 13-year-old. This thought jarred me. I was in my twenties, and I knew at that very moment that my children would continue their Jewish education through high school. I am happy to say all three of my sons attended classes and graduated from the Harry S. Elkin Midrasha.

Rabbi Rotman’s words were a defining moment in my life. Not only did my children need more

Jewish education, but I did as well. I became the Adult Education chair at Temple Am David and attended classes every year.

I brought more Jewish ritual into our home. This was not difficult since I had loved Jewish ritual since I was a child.

Another major event that shaped my life occurred when a friend asked me if I would host a tea and invite five of my Jewish friends. Of course, I said yes without hesitation. I had no idea of why I was asked to do this, but I trusted my friend.

On the afternoon of the tea, my friends arrived as did a speaker, a young woman named Esta Cohen who was the then president of the Young Women’s Division of the Jewish Federation of Rhode Island. She was pleasant and charming. After a little Jewish geography, she told me she had gone to Hebrew school at Temple Emanu-El with my husband Robert Sock.

As I listened to her speak, my mind kept saying to me, “You are a reasonably intelligent person. Why don’t you know about the needs of the Rhode Island Jewish community?

Why don’t you know about the needs of the Jews around the world? And why don’t you know anything about the needs of the Jewish people in Israel?

From that day, I began a volunteer path that led me to my life’s work.

I have been blessed to have worked for the State of Israel Bonds, United Way of Southeastern New England, Jewish

Federation of Rhode Island and the Sandra Bornstein Holocaust Education Center.

I have had the joy of working with outstanding, imagina-

tive and dedicated volunteers as well as working for organizations that support moral imperatives that are important to me.

MAY-RONNY ZEIDMAN is the executive director of the Sandra Bornstein Holocaust Education Center.

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26 | January 19, 2018

The Jewish Voice

The Beatles are coming to Temple Sinai

BY DEBORAH JOHNSON You can tell a lot about a person based on his or her favorite Beatle. You were a fan of Ringo?

You tended to support the underdog. Paul? You were superficially addicted to good looks and insufferable cuteness. Only the would-be intellectuals favored John. And then there’s George. The fans of George were unclassifiable. Perhaps they were wishy-washy and noncommittal. Perhaps they thought he needed mothering.

Or maybe they really appreciated good guitar playing. Who knows? You can test these theories on Feb. 10 when Temple Sinai hosts “All We Need is Love,” an evening of Beatles love songs made even sweeter with a buffet of festive desserts.

If you relate the quote to the one about loving thy neighbor, the Beatles verse becomes the band’s most Jewish statement ever. In fact, it is positively biblical. This got us thinking about the band members’ Jewish connections. The obvious ones were their supporting cast. Among many, two stand out. Brian Epstein, who discovered the Beatles at the Cavern Club in Liverpool, managed the band until his death in 1967.

And Richard Lester, the director of the Beatles films, “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Help,”

played a crucial role in their careers. But what about the Fab Four themselves? While George doesn’t seem to have any Jewish connections, the others do.

After I successfully guessed our temple administrator Dottie Swajian’s favorite Beatle, we engaged in a fierce discussion with Rabbi Jeffrey Goldwasser about whether or not Ringo Starr is Jewish. The rabbi won – he is not. By the way, Ringo’s last name is Starkey, not the more Jewish-sounding Starsky.

Nonetheless, a group of radical French-Canadian separatists assumed that Ringo’s prominent nose indicated a Jewish heritage and made a series of death threats when the Fab Four arrived to perform in Montreal in 1964. Ringo responded with, “The one major fault is, I’m not Jewish.” John added a characteristic quip, “He’s having a Bar Mitzvah tomorrow.”

The only Jewish connection Ringo has going for him is his 37-year marriage to Barbara Bach – born Barbara Goldbach.

If I had to designate a Beatle as the most Jewish one, I’d have to choose Paul. In a 2013 HaAretz article, Paul is described as having “a love affair with all things Jewish for the past half-century – including collaborators, business associates, girlfriends and wives.”

McCartney’s first wife, Linda Eastman, was Jewish. So was his third wife, Nancy Shevell.

All but one of McCartney’s children are Jewish.

In 2008, McCartney was one of the few media giants to accept an invitation from the Israeli government to celebrate Israel’s 60th anniversary, despite calls for an official boycott. One of the many militant protesters, Omar Bakri Muhammad, an Islamist activist, said, “If he values his life, Mr. McCartney must not come to Israel. He will not be safe there. The sacrifice operatives will be waiting for him.”

Nonetheless, McCartney responded, “I got explicit death threats … but I’m coming anyway … I have no intention of surrendering. … I do what I think, and I have many friends who support Israel.” The Tel Aviv concert went on without incident.

And what about enigmatic John? John and Yoko’s famous “Peace Bed-In” at the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel in 1969 showed much consideration of Israel. John greeted the nation of Israel directly over radio broadcast and sang “Hava Nagila.” He went on to wish “peace to the people of Israel” and to sing with Yoko – also in Hebrew – a verse from “Oath for Jerusalem” by Israeli singer/songwriter, Akiva Nof: “Je-

rusalem, we all swear, that we will never abandon you, from now until forever.”

DEBORAH JOHNSON is the cantor at Temple Sinai in Cranston.

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Pictured here at the event (from left to right) are: John Holiver, CEO, CharterCARE Health Care; Dr. Joseph Mazza, medical staff president; Dr. Peter DeBlasio; and David Kobis, president of Fatima Hospital.

DeBlasio receives 2017 Distinguished Service Award

MAZEL TOV – Roberta and Ken Schneider of Rumford are proud to announce the engagement of their son, Justin Lewis Schneider, to Emma Louise Wolstencroft. A fall 2018 wedding is planned with Rabbi Ethan Adler officiating.

NORTH PROVIDENCE – Dr. Peter DeBlasio Jr., an ophthalmologist who has been on staff at Our Lady of Fatima Hospital for more than 35 years, was presented with the 2017 Distinguished Service Award for his many contributions at the annual CharterCARE Health Partners’ Medical Staff physician reception on Dec. 11.

Each year, the medical staff at Fatima Hospital recognizes physicians who have served with distinction for more than 20 years.

DeBlasio has served as chief of Ophthalmology at Fatima and director of the Ophthalmic Diabetes Clinic since 1990. He has served on numerous boards and committees at Fatima

PHOTOS | FRAN OSTENDORF

Travels!

The children in PreK at the David C. Isenberg Family Early Childhood Center went to Israel recently with Tslil Reichman, the community shlichah. They even had some time to explore the big floor map of the country.

including service as president of the medical staff. Dr. DeBlasio completed a Glaucoma Fellowship from Harvard Medical School/ Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. He completed a residency in Ophthalmology at Rhode Island Hospital. DeBlasio received his medical degree from the University of Bologna Faculty of Medicine and Surgery and completed clinical training at the Brown University Program in Medicine.

DeBlasio is a member of several professional societies and is past president of the Rhode Island Society of Eye Physicians and Surgeons. Outside of the medical profession, he is well known for his musicianship and practice of the art of Tai Chi.

28 | January 19, 2018

The Jewish Voice

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