July 2020

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JEWISH RHODE ISL AND

EDITOR Fran Ostendorf DESIGN & LAYOUT Leah Camara ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT Peter Zeldin pzeldin@jewishallianceri.org 401-421-4111, ext. 160 CONTRIBUTORS Cynthia Benjamin, Larry Kessler, Michael Schemaille COLUMNISTS Michael Fink, Geraldine Foster, Patricia Raskin, Rabbi James Rosenberg, Daniel Stieglitz

VOLUME XXVII, ISSUE VII JEWISH RHODE ISLAND

(ISSN number 1539-2104, USPS #465-710) is published monthly.

PERIODICALS Postage paid at Providence, R.I. POSTMASTER Send address changes to:

Jewish Rhode Island, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence, RI 02906.

PUBLISHER

The Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island, President/CEO Adam Greenman, Chair James Pious, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence, RI 02906.

401-421-4111; Fax 401-331-7961

MEMBER of the

Rhode Island Press Association.

Keeping up with the news IN PAST YEARS, July marked the beginning of the lazy, hazy days of summer. Warm temperatures and the vacation season sent us outdoors to crowd parks and beaches. Sneak a day off from work to go to a ballgame? Great idea! Take half a day for a picnic at the beach? Yup. Dinner overlooking the ocean? Great idea.

This year, of course, is different.

After months at home, keeping ourselves safe from the coronavirus, some of us are just starting to venture outside.

The parks and beaches have only recently opened, with new rules and regulations in place. A trip to the beach now takes extra planning: parking passes, masks, social distancing must all factor into a fun day by the water.

Outdoor activities such as weddings, family gatherings and vacations have ON THE COVER: been canceled.

On June 29, Campers And forget the were welcomed back ballgame. Major league baseball to the Dwares JCC is still finalizing in Providence with the details of an a socially distanced abbreviated, 60high-five. game season that PHOTO BY GLENN OSMUNDSON won’t begin until the end of July.

We’ve schooled at home. We work from home. Now we are supposed to vacation at home. It’s tough on the psyche. Yet some of us are still wary about venturing out at all.

Some businesses have started to reopen, but others have announced that they will remain closed, or have limited hours, for months to come.

Your Jewish Rhode Island staff is splitting our time between working remotely and at our office in the Al-

liance’s Dwares Jewish Community Center. One week at home followed by one week at the office. When we are at the JCC, we wear masks.

I’m developing quite a mask wardrobe. I bet many readers can relate.

Fortunately for me, my sister-in-law has designed some great masks and is prolific at making them.

In Rhode Island and Massachusetts, staying at home has produced a flattened curve and a cautious sigh of relief. But we can’t help being horrified by the reports from elsewhere in the U.S., where COVID-19 is seemingly out of control. Each day, the numbers get worse. And the photos are reminiscent of those coming from New York City only a few weeks ago.

No wonder I hear people saying that they just don’t want to go out yet. Even some of the most diehard dine-out fans say they have no interest in eating inside a restaurant until they feel safer. Restaurants are working hard to counter these fears, but some of us need a little more time to see how the new safety protocols work out.

And while we are still somewhat insulated from the world outside our doors due to the virus, the world has continued to move at high speed.

Even as some people return to work, the unemployment numbers are increasing dramatically. We’re losing famous brands and favorite local stores and restaurants daily. And Americans are on edge as we wait to see if more federal relief is in sight,

or whether more closures will occur.

Political races are heating up, with a continued polarizing effect on the country. Big stories from the past four years are resurfacing – from the border wall to Russia to health care.

And social-justice issues – most notably discussions of policing and Black Lives Matter – are driving change across the country.

You might say the news is changing at a dizzying pace.

How do you keep up? In our house, not surprisingly, we turn to a variety of media and mediums. Print newspapers, online newspapers, broadcast and cable news. And yes, we listen to news from all sides, because that’s really the best way to form an opinion. When you are tasked with sorting out what’s happening in the world, isn’t it good to know that you have some knowledge of all the issues? Whether you agree or disagree, at least you’ve listened and been exposed to a wide variety of facts and data. I encourage all our readers – young and old, left, right and center – to do that.

Meanwhile, change is coming to Jewish Rhode Island. With this issue, we say goodbye to Karen Borger, longtime JRI independent advertising representative. Karen’s knowledge of the community and its businesses have been invaluable to all of us at Jewish Rhode Island. Her ideas have stretched beyond selling advertising to include many good stories in the years she and I have worked together.

Karen has decided that now is the time to retire. We wish her many hours of good reading in her backyard and much joy from family and friends, including her favorite pup, Elsie.

Fran Ostendorf, Editor

THE MISSION OF JEWISH RHODE ISLAND 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.

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UP FRONT was deeply interested in mussar, which began solidifying as a literary genre in the 11th century, as well as in bringing beneficial contemporary gentile knowledge to his fellow Jews.

Lefin’s “Sefer Heshbon Ha-nefesh” (“Book of Spiritual Accounting” or “Book of the Accounting of the Soul”), which he published anonymously in 1808, introduced Franklin’s list of virtues and character-improvement technique to Hebrew readers, though without mentioning Franklin or his autobiography by name.

Approved by 12 rabbis in its first edition, Lefin’s book – including Franklin’s technique – was soon incorporated into the mussar tradition, and became popular among Eastern European Yeshivah students.

Born in 1952, Klein grew up in Cleveland, Toronto and Brooklyn, New York, and studied at the Rabbinical College of Telshe and Mesivta of Eastern Parkway Rabbinical Seminary, in Brooklyn. He is the author of “Meetings with Remarkable Souls: Legends of the Baal Shem Tov” (1995), “Kabbalah of Creation: Isaac Luria’s Earlier Mysticism” (2000), and “A Mystical Haggadah: Passover Meditations, Teachings, and Tales” (2008).

Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, I sat down with Klein for an interview, transcribed below, about mussar, his work as a prison chaplain, and his effort to introduce Franklin’s virtues and Lefin’s teachings into a California rehabilitation program.

It seems to me that the two spiritual movements in Judaism that most resonate with contemporary Jews are Hasidism [the Jewish mystical movement that began in the first half of the 18th century] – especially Chabad and Breslov Hasidism – and mussar. In Providence alone, I know of four mussar-related courses or study groups. How did you come to mussar?

Rabbi Eliahu Klein

Rabbi brought Benjamin Franklin’s virtues and Jewish ethical practice to Calif. inmates

BY SHAI AFSAI

I

met Rabbi Eliahu Klein and his wife, Cynthia Scheinberg, at Shabbat meals about a year and half ago, soon after they moved from Berkeley, California, to Providence, following Scheinberg’s appointment as a dean at

Roger Williams University.

At one of these Shabbat meals, I mentioned to Klein that I would be giving a talk at the Rhode Island Jewish Museum/Congregation Sons of Jacob Synagogue on the link between Benjamin Franklin and mussar (applied Jewish ethics, or practical Jewish ethical instruction). This is a relatively obscure subject, but to my surprise Klein told me that he was familiar with Franklin’s influence on mussar, and that as part of his chaplaincy work in California, he had created a program for inmates based on Franklin’s virtues and Jewish ethical practice.

When Franklin (1706-1790) composed his now-famous autobiography, he included a description of a self-improvement method that he had devised when he was in his twenties.

This method revolved around 13 behavioral traits that Franklin referred to as virtues (temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moder-

ation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity and humility) and to each of which, in succession, he allotted a week of close attention and reflection.

His progress and setbacks in mastering the virtues were tracked daily in a grid chart he designed, which had the seven days of the week running horizontally and the 13 virtues running vertically. After 13 weeks, Franklin began the cycle again, so that over the course of a year, each behavioral trait could be carefully worked on for four weeks.

Nearly 20 years after Franklin’s death, and halfway across the world from Philadelphia, Rabbi Menahem Mendel Lefin of Satanów (1749-1826), in Podolia, completed and published a Hebrew work based on the character-improvement technique that Franklin had outlined in his autobiography. Lefin, an early Eastern European maskil (proponent of the Haskalah, the Jewish Enlightenment),

I was raised in a mussar family. The origin of my interest in mussar is my father. He was a student at the Rabbinical College of Telshe, in Cleveland, Ohio. He practiced heshbon ha-nefesh [taking stock of one’s personality and conduct] using the charts in Lefin’s book, and kept a mussar diary.

My father worked on this for a time and it benefited him. I was interested in mussar to some extent, though not as much as in Hasidism. I didn’t think of “Heshbon Ha-nefesh” again until Feldheim Publishers reprinted the book [in 1996]. I was drawn to it. It was practical. It seemed like a gentle, good way to develop a radar of your inner soul.

When did you decide to also make mussar a focus of your teaching?

After 9/11, I had a big change. I’d been studying Kabbalah and Hasidism since the ’70s. By the mid-’80s, I had a group of students and we studied Lurianic Kabbalah. That group was the basis for my book “Kabbalah of Creation.”

After 9/11, I really doubted everything I studied about Kabbalah. I questioned whether these were the appropriate teachings for dealing with this horrendous event. I felt at the time there had to be something more substantial people could grasp with their hearts and minds.

I was so stunned and became so numb. Kabbalah was a theoretical, esoteric teaching, sophisticated intellectually – but did it affect my spiritual growth? I wasn’t sure. I wondered: How does Kabbalah make a tikkun [repairing the world]? I felt 9/11 called for a different teaching, much closer to people’s hearts. I suddenly turned to mussar. I felt it was more fundamental in its theories that people could practice daily and see the benefit, change, refinement and purification of the body, mind and heart. After 9/11, I started teaching more mussar-style texts, and there was an interest.

Even people actively engaged in mussar study may not necessarily know about Franklin’s connection to Jewish character improvement. How did you learn about this?

Andy Heinze, who prayed at my synagogue in Berkeley, published a book [“Jews and the American Soul: Human Nature in the Twentieth Century,” 2004] with a chapter on Franklin and mussar. I read Nancy Sinkoff’s article CONTINUED ON PAGE 17

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COMMUNITY VOICES

A pandemic of worries

SPE A

featured many aspects of the in-person relay. Yet both events left me with an empty feeling –they weren’t nearly as spiritually or emotionally fulfilling as the live events they had replaced. That’s because people thrive on human interaction at such events.

Races are meant to be both athletic competitions and a chance to socialize, while the strength of a fundraiser such as the Relay For Life is its human connections.

Watching LARRY KESSLER videos of survivors and luminaries dedicated to cancer victims and survivors can be inspirational, but the experience is infinitely more meaningful if you are actually there, watching survivors circle a track lit up by the • Virtual versus real-world luminaires. living: As I wrote last month, But, of course, that would I tried to make the best of it fly in the face of government when a favorite road race and and health officials’ repeatmajor charitable event were ed warnings that we must forced online. They turned adhere to “social distancing” out well enough, as I pushed as the “new normal.” These myself in the 5K despite runofficials’ lack of empathy for ning alone, and the virtual what we humans are missing Relay For Life fundraiser for is why I’m extremely worried the American Cancer Society

K IN

G OU

T

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been a worrywart. I would often redo my homework in a bid for perfection, and I’d repeatedly study for tests.

(Although this resulted in reasonably good grades, it was no help when it came to getting a decent score on the math SAT.) Excessive worrying followed me into adulthood – which is why I started going gray in my 20s. And with that kind of a track record, it’s easy to imagine how being in the midst of a pandemic has intensified my worrying.

My concerns include many of the issues we’re all dealing with, and these will be the topic of today’s column, which I call “COVID-19 Pandemic Worrying 101”:

about our future – especially when I hear so-called experts speculate that handshakes and hugs will become history.

Such an outcome would strip us of our basic humanity.

• Eating out: I worry whether the new restrictions will ever be lifted so we can once again feel at ease while eating at restaurants. The current rules for dining out in Rhode Island and Massachusetts might be necessary, but they’re still too severe to let most people feel relaxed.

That’s why I still prefer getting take-out food and eating it at home.

• Attending concerts, shows and sporting events: I wonder whether these events will ever be the same. In order to attend, will we all be required to have a smartphone (I still own a “dumb” flip one) that reveals, Big-Brother style, our personal medical data? Will we be unable to sit next to anyone, depriving us of companionship and conversation? Will large

gatherings be off-limits to people older than 60 as ageism becomes both acceptable and encouraged in a society where senior citizens are not viewed as part of the general population? Will wearing masks become permanent as government bureaucrats try to impose even more control over our lives; will we be told to wear them constantly in an attempt to reduce the spread of the common cold and the flu? That may sound extreme, but all bets are off these days.

• Travel: My wife and I will soon be mostly retired, and we had planned on traveling, especially to warmer climates during the winter. We also wanted to take some big trips, such as visiting Alaska.

But now – between the rules in other states, on airlines and at hotels and resorts – I wonder if this is feasible.

Even taking a short vacation has become problematic.

Going to Maine, for instance, where we’ve spent a week in past summers, wouldn’t be

possible now as the state has a mandatory 14-day quarantine period for all out-of-state tourists, except for those from Vermont and New Hampshire, unless you can produce a negative test result taken within 72 hours – which isn’t practical considering the lack of testing for those who are asymptomatic.

The bottom line: Traveling has become so restrictive that staycations appear to be the only sensible solution for the foreseeable future.

• Schools and colleges: I worry that too many academic institutions will fall back on offering virtual instruction or a mix of classroom and online learning. That approach may be deemed necessary, but it will unquestionably cheat today’s students out of what they deserve: a well-rounded education that includes participation in extracurricular activities and sports. Trying to be excessively cautious is one thing, but at what point CONTINUED ON PAGE 17

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Jewish Rhode Island | jewishrhody.org

COMMUNITY VOICES

SKE

T

Nicotine nostalgia: An autobiography in ashtrays

ONCE UPON A TIME it was tobacco that told your life story. A cigar if you sought success, or found it, even briefly.

A pipe for contemplation or peaceful philosophizing in armchair. The BOOK ancigarette H that C created Marlene Dietrich behind the veil of smoke, or Bette Davis or Barbara StanMIKE FINK wyck. (They might snuff out the Camel or Chesterfield or Lucky Strike or Old Gold before finishing it; it bothered my thrifty father.)

But I’m more focused at the moment on the dish into which you smashed the cork-tipped smokes (we had no respect for mentholated)

and tracing the history of the ashtray in the houses and chapters of my personal progress. So here goes: It seems that there was a stand-up contraption given to my parents on the occasion of their wedding in 1926. It moved from their first residence to their second house (where I still dwell), on the East Side of Providence.

It was a gift from Sophie Tucker! The famed singer, comedian, actress and radio personality was living in Hartford, Connecticut, and I don’t quite know why she felt like honoring Moe and Betty with a thing inspired

by Greek column designs. It held a basin with a ball and chain, so you could crush out the smoking tip before letting the butt fall into the ash

heap inside the column.

When my elder brothers learned to imitate their – our – dad and take up packs and their companion matchbooks, they would gather around that fancy ashtray and lay out their plans.

If either of my siblings was not at home, it would be up to me to entertain guests ... always around that contraption. It also had little clamps to hold matches. No, we didn’t have the “Aladdin lamp lighters” that graced fancy parlors; we puffed away in a little knotty pine “den” that faced the backyard.

The second ashtray: A copper tray with curved corners and embossed Greek masks of comedy and tragedy, the grin and the sad frown. You could rest your cigar or knock out the Briggs from your pipe – curved maybe, mahogany, or perhaps ivory – upon that dish. There was also a pewter variation with an etched abstract design at its center.

This takes me through public school, before my departure for my Ivy League life and its attendant travels, voyages, pilgrimages. I brought back ashtrays as mementos for my family. A

few were from Paris. In one, a student with a long scarf is waiting to walk around and into a circular “Napoleon” – a ‘urinoir’ then common, especially in student CONTINUED ON PAGE 17

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COMMUNITY VOICES

A street, a venue, apartment houses: The story behind their names

BY GERALDINE S. FOSTER IN THE YEARS OF MY YOUTH, I often wondered why streets had the names they did. Of course, I knew that famous people and historic events were memorialized in that way, but not all street names followed this pattern.

When we moved to Providence, we lived on Reynolds Avenue. I wondered: Who was Reynolds? Certainly not Barney Reynolds, the mayor. The street was there long before his election to office.

Were there actually pottery shops on Potters Avenue?

Why change Conanicus Street to Fifth but not Overhill Road to Seventh?

And for whom was Golemba Lane, in South Providence, named?

Archival materials at the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association offer a possible answer to that last question. They indicate that one person with that last name (and his family) lived in Providence – indeed in all of Rhode Island – in the early 20th century, when the street name first appeared.

The year 1893 was an important milestone in the life of Morris Golemba. According to the naturalization records of the U.S. District Court for Rhode Island, compiled by David Adelman, he arrived in 1888 and became a citizen in 1893.

Morris Golemba and his wife Fanny (Gordon, who arrived around 1891), had two daughters, Sadie and Betty, and a son, Frank (who would become a lawyer, was active in the Republican Party and served a term as Cranston city solicitor). The family resided at 205 Willard Ave., in Providence, according to the 1895 City Directory.

Sources reveal that Golemba changed occupations several times over the years, from jeweler to grocer to owner of a dental lab in downtown Providence, with at least one other business venture in between. However, in the memoirs of his contemporaries, he is remembered as the proprietor of Golemba’s grocery store (c. 1896-1906), where their families shopped for food and where one young man got his first job.

Over the years, the Go-

lemba family moved from Willard Avenue to Bogman Street and then to Hamilton Street. Any indication that they lived or he did business on Golemba Lane has eluded me.

Golemba was active in his community. Recorded in the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association’s Notes (Vol.1, #2) are three official documents that mention him: in a charter issued on April 12, 1896, for an organization named The Workingmen’s Money Saving Association of Providence, R.I.; in a charter issued on Aug. 22, 1898, for the South Providence Thrift Association; and in a charter issued on Feb. 3, 1899, for the South Providence Enterprising Association. Morris Golemba was listed as a founding member for all three organizations. Their purpose was to encourage each other in business and to assist sick members. Additionally, the first two groups assisted the widows and orphans of deceased members.

Was Golemba perhaps honored with a street name for his community activism? We may never know.

Over time, Golemba Lane disappeared into the many redevelopment projects in South Providence.

In a recent email, a Jewish Rhode Island reader, Steve Kane, closed by asking if I was aware that Roseland, in Taunton, Massachusetts, was named for his greataunt Rose Kaplan. I was not, but I knew of the Roseland ballroom, although I was too young to be admitted.

Of Rose Kaplan’s life, very little is known. While a young child, she and her family emigrated from Russia to Boston. School did not interest her, but music did.

After eighth grade, she found work in a garment factory.

She saved her money, and, in 1926, bought a large barn in Taunton for $2,000 at an auction. She decorated it in rustic fashion and turned it into a very successful venue for barn dances.

Once again, Kaplan saved her money. Very soon, she was able to tear down the barn and replace it with the three-story building she named Roseland.

In its day, Roseland was the epitome of glitzy elegance.

The glamorous décor included a revolving crystal ball, centered high above the huge dance floor, mirrored walls, chandeliers, padded booths and potted palms.

For almost 20 years, though the Great Depression, Prohibition, World War II and gas rationing, Roseland was the destination for people from all parts of New England who enjoyed jazz, swing and dancing to the music of the big bands. Harry James, Benny Goodman, the Dorseys, Glenn Miller, Paul Whiteman, to name just a few, all appeared there. Also drawing large crowds were the dance contests featuring professional dancers.

Steve Kane’s father said that on Saturday nights, the

dance floor was so crowded, you could not put your hand in your pocket.

Roseland was Rose Kaplan’s American Dream come true. But in 1947, a fire destroyed the venue. Fortunately, no one except Rose was there, and she escaped.

She rebuilt the building, but not the appeal. The heyday of ballrooms, swing and big bands was fading away, replaced by rock ’n’ roll and other music genres. The new music and Roseland were not compatible.

After the death of her husband, Rose Kaplan went into seclusion in the penthouse atop Roseland. She died in 1990. The building was auctioned in 1992 to pay debts.

My late friend and col-

league Eleanor Horvitz told me this final story. A row of smallish apartment houses, built in the 1940s, line a block on Thackery Street in Providence. The builder, Lawrence Paolino, wanted to honor his wife, Gertrude, by naming them for her, using her Yiddish name, Gittel. But her daughter, Esther (Mrs. Louis Chester), thought the name lacked élan and was not fancy enough, so a French touch was given to Gittel, and the Gettelle Apartments came into being.

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.

News Brief OPEN AGAIN. Touro Synagogue National Historic Site has reopened with a modified schedule that includes public access to the grounds and outdoor history presentations by Touro Synagogue guides.

The synagogue building and the Loeb Visitors Center remain closed. The grounds

will be open Sunday to Friday, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., weather permitting. For updates, consult the “Visit” page at tourosynagogue.org or the Touro Synagogue Facebook page.

For more information, email tours@tourosynagogue.org or call 401-847-4794, ext. 207

ALL ARE WELCOME!

To learn more about Summer J-Camp and the measures put in place to ensure the safety of our campers, please visit jewishallianceri.org/summer-j-camp/ 401 Elmgrove Avenue Providence, RI 401.421.4111 jewishallianceri.org

Dwares Rhode Island

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COMMUNITY VOICES | OPINION

Thanks and hope

Suzanne Grossman Riverside, RI

AMERICA IS BROKEN; our country has physical vulnerability: “When I was become the “Dis-united States.” eleven (1986) my highest priority was We routinely pledge allegiance the simple security of my body. My to “one nation … indivisible, with life was the immediate negotiation of liberty and justice for all.” Yet our violence. …” “one nation … indivisible” remains He insists that even with a Black deeply divided by race and by class, man in the White House, he was still by “haves” and living in an America where white “have-nots,” men go unpunished when they kill while the Blacks: Trayvon Martin (Florida), promise of Eric Garner (Staten Island, New “liberty York), Michael Brown (Ferguson, and justice Missouri), Ahmaud Arbery (Georfor all” gia), Breonna Taylor (Louisville, means Kentucky), George Floyd – a list that liberty and goes on and on …. Will white men at justice for last be punished for murdering Black those who men?

RABBI JAMES can pay for it Coates argues that in America, ROSENBERG and who happen to the deck is stacked against Black be white. people. To his way of thinking, We Americans are living through a to his way of feeling, the rest of his threefold crisis: the as-yet-unchecked countrymen “believe themselves to and devouring coronavirus pandembe white,” an invented construct that ic, our economic collapse, and an keeps Black people at the bottom of explosion in race relations precipisociety’s barrel so that everybody tated by the Memorial Day murder else can participate in the false and of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black destructive American Dream of “beman, by a white Minneapolis policeing white” – that is to say, not being man. A series of videos has shown the Black. world how the officer kept his knee At his most bitter, most angry, most on his handcuffed victim’s neck for 8 despondent, Coates writes: “And so minutes and 46 seconds, sadistically to challenge the police is to challenge snuffing out Floyd’s life as the Black the American people who sent them man cried out again and again, “I into the ghetto armed with the same can’t breathe … I can’t breathe.” self-generated fears that compelled As a nation, we have come to see the people who think that they are how these three crises are interconwhite to flee the cities into the Dream. nected, for it is Black Americans – The problem with the police is not indeed, all people of color – who have that they are fascist pigs but that disproportionately borne the burden our country is ruled by majoritarian of both the virus and the ensuing pigs.” precipitous loss of jobs. Suddenly, we It remains to be seen whether the white Americans are beginning to widespread, mostly peaceful protests feel the pain embodied in the words following the slaying of George Floyd “Black lives matter.” have brought our society to a tipOf all that I have read, seen and ping point, whether we will find the heard about what it means to be Black courage and the compassion to bring in America, nothing has touched forth what Abraham Lincoln called my mind and my heart more deeply “the better angels of our nature.” Will than Ta-Nehesi Coates’ 2015 book, most of us “who believe that we are “Between the World and Me,” his cri white” at last accept Coates’ diagnode coeur, his unburdening of the soul, sis, and work together to address our which takes the form of an extended original sin, our endemic illness, the letter to his only child, his son Samdisease of racism that began to infect ori, who was 15 years old when the us the day a ship of slaves sailed into book was written.

Jamestown, Virginia, in August 1619?

I reviewed Coates’ book in the Sept.

A few weeks ago, as I was taking 4, 2015, issue of what was then called my morning bike ride up BlackThe Jewish Voice. What strikes me stone Boulevard, in Providence, I most about Coates’ examination of saw the following notice written in being Black in America is his sense of well-formed blue-chalk letters in the

EM

S TO M

E

I WANT YOU TO KNOW how much I appreciated the editorial [Hope amid the horrors] in June’s Jewish Rhode Island. You nailed it during this terrorizing storm we are uncomfortable and unsure of how to navigate.

I applaud your clear approach to defining problems and sharing effective solutions. Calling our attention to the unexpected improvement in the environment (since the quarantine) provided much needed personal relief from daily reports of tragedies, and horrendous working conditions healthcare professionals, patients, and hospitals endured because of lack of essential supplies.

How was this possible in America in the 21st Century?

I appreciate your attention to the horror that hovers over African Americans and people of color in America. Who are we kidding telling the world America is the home of the free, the best example of a melting pot of differences, where “all men/humans” are created equal and entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?”

Your call for action with suggestions of how everyone can contribute to removing America’s system of injustice enhanced the editorial.

It raised it from an opinion to a powerful message motivating readers to assume responsibility and act purposely to improve the greater good. Your suggestions to right our wrongs are clear, simple and intelligent; exceptional because they can and should be enacted in all age groups. Jews, above all, should never need reminding about the horrors of racism. Immediate action to eliminate it should be automatic. Racism, like viruses, becomes rampant killing innocent people who suffer under the spell of individuals who are immune to atrocities, inequality, and disenfranchisement. We must do everything possible to eradicate it.

Thank you for giving me a sense of hope that there’s a chance “we will emerge from this turmoil as better people, as a better community, and as a better country.” I pray to G-d you are right.

Fixing broken America

IT S E

LETTER

designated bike lane: “The East Side is complicit.” Those words stung me then, and continue to sting me now.

For 33 years as rabbi of Temple Habonim, I lived a life of white privilege in Barrington. During these past 13 years of retirement, I have continued to live a life of white privilege in our sun-filled condo in the “complicit” East Side of Providence.

It is true that as a rabbi I have tried to reach out to Rhode Island’s Black community. I have had the privilege of preaching at the historic Congdon Street Baptist Church, in Providence.

I have attended more Martin Luther King Jr. Day breakfasts than I can count, although I have always sat at the all-white Kosher table – no bacon, please – sponsored by the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island. And over the years I have engaged in serious dialogue with leaders of Rhode Island’s Black community. But, sadly, though I have enjoyed the company of many Black acquaintances, in the course of my 76 years, I have never had a single Black friend.

Part of my excuse – which, of course, is no excuse – is that I have perceived the need for ethnic and religious diversity in America almost exclusively through the lens of my Jewishness. As a congregational rabbi, I have endeavored to celebrate our Jewish distinctiveness while expanding our interfaith relationships within the broader “salad bowl” of American culture. I use the metaphor of “salad bowl,” not “melting pot,” because I most certainly do not want our religious and cultural individuality to melt into an amorphous blob.

Charles Dickens began his 1859 novel, “A Tale of Two Cities,” with these well-known words: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness ….”

It is up to all of us Americans to determine through our collective words and deeds whether we will transform this here and this now into the best of times or the worst of times.

JAMES B. ROSENBERG is rabbi emeritus at Temple Habonim, in Barrington.

Contact him at rabbiemeritus@templehabonim.org.

News Brief Heads Up! Look for the Rhode Island Coalition for Israel’s (RICI) banner, “STOP Anti-Semitism,” displayed on Rhode Island’s own Big Blue Bug adjacent to Route 95 in downtown Providence from July 13 to 27.

For more info:

www.RI4Israel.org.

Jewish Rhode Island 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 Jewish Rhode Island or the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island.

Send letters and op-eds to: Jewish Rhode Island, 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).

JULY 2020 | 9

jewishrhody.org | Jewish Rhode Island

OPINION

Reflections on an extraordinary three years Remarks from the Alliance Ninth Annual Meeting

BY ADAM GREENMAN THE LAST THREE MONTHS have been incredibly challenging for all of us. For many, it has meant increased stress and worry; for others, the loss of a job or reduced hours; and for some, it has meant the loss of a loved one.

I’m so grateful to Rick [Reamer] for joining us tonight to help us understand that moving beyond this moment is possible. And I know it can be hard in moments like this to think beyond the last three days, or even the next three. But as I wrap up my third year at the Alliance, I hope you will indulge some of my reflections on this journey, and join me as we look at how we can build the next three years together.

There is a certain amount of hubris that comes with being a CEO. And three years ago, when I spoke with Mitzi Berkelhammer, Sharon Gaines and the rest of the CEO search committee, I thought a lot about the things I would bring to the Alliance and the ways I could change the organization and the community. What I never thought about was how the organization and the community would change me and my family.

Some of you know that my first day at the Alliance was shared with my daughter Alexandria, who had her first day at J-Camp. In fact, that’s really the day that her Jewish journey began. Sure,

our culturally Jewish interfaith family celebrated Hanukkah, and had a seder every Passover, but I’ll never forget the smile on her face at the end of that first day of camp. I’ll never forget the way she came home and said, “Mom, Norah [her sister], we’re Jewish!”

That first day sparked a curiosity and a pride in her Jewish roots that has only grown over the last three years. In that time our family has joined a temple, participated in Jewish book clubs, read PJ Library books together, and I’m now in not one, but two, Torah study groups – and that is a sentence I’d never thought I’d utter.

There are so many in our community with a similar story. It is clear they are looking for connection, and just needed an entryway, and someone to let them know they are welcome.

This year we launched a new strategic planning process. During our conversations with people in the community, we heard so often that they were craving a greater connection with each other. That need has only amplified in the midst of a pandemic that has forced us to be apart.

We heard that people want to work together to create a better community, and they want our community’s Jewish agencies to be more closely aligned in the work we do together. They want us to address security and anti-Semitism, but they also want us to address issues that transcend our

community, like racial justice. Issues that have only become more important to engage in over the last few months. We heard this in Providence, and throughout greater Rhode Island. We listened closely, and we built our new strategic plan to address these key areas.

A few months ago, we were sitting down to dinner, when my daughter Alexandria said, “I want to have a Bat Mitzvah.” In that moment, Alex was making a choice to take a big step in her Jewish journey, and we are excited to help her take it. Alex will be 13 in 2023. So, what will our Jewish community look like then? How will the changes and promises we make today impact the Jewish world that she and Norah grow into? Let’s dream for a minute together.

Let’s imagine it’s June 30, 2023. It’s Shabbat, and we can finally rest after a busy couple of years. What does that Shabbat look like? For the Greenman family, it means it is our turn to host the monthly Shabbat Book Club we are part of.

Alexandria is almost 14 now, so she watches all of the kids while the adults get together, just like we have every month for the last three years. You see, what started as a conversation about reading books through a Jewish lens has turned into a monthly Shabbat tradition, and one that is replicated throughout Rhode Island thanks to the Alliance.

But that isn’t all that is happening. Across town, CONTINUED ON PAGE 13

Stop using Israel as an excuse not to support Black Lives Matter

BY MAAYAN BELDING-ZIDON This story originally appeared on Alma.

TAKE A MOMENT and remember where you were when you first heard about the shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. I was in Tel Aviv getting ready to go to the movies after Havdalah. I didn’t end up going — I spent the whole night glued to the news, like so many of us did. I replayed the events over and over in my mind, but when I did, it wasn’t Tree of Life that I was picturing — it was my synagogue.

Scrolling through my newsfeed the next day, every Jew I knew was changing their profile picture, posting news and prayers and stories about how the deceased reminded them of their uncle, their bubbe. Next to all that, as if in a parallel universe where Jews were not shot for being Jews, the rest of my friends were posting pictures as if it were any other Sunday: mimosas at brunch,

walking the dog, the last glimpses of fall foliage.

The worst part, though, were the non-Jews who did acknowledge the shooting — but who rushed to condemn the Zionist occupation of Palestine in the same breath.

As if the dead daveners in Pennsylvania were in some way guilty for Israeli security actions halfway around the world.

How dare they, I thought.

How dare they rush to qualify their solidarity when our dead aren’t even in the ground?

If we expect people to show up for our pain, we have to show up for theirs. And for Black people in America, the pain of police brutality is not only counted in the death toll: Its shadow hangs heavy over all people of color in every interaction with the police, in every city and town across America, every day.

In 2016, Jewish voices from across the U.S. political spectrum came out in opposition to the platform of the Movement for Black Lives, which claimed that U.S. military

aid to Israel makes the U.S. complicit in “the genocide taking place against the Palestinian people.” Many progressive Jewish organizations denounced only this section and endorsed the rest of the platform, calling for an end to mass incarceration, demilitarization of the police, etc.

Other, mostly small-c conservative Jews seized on this as an opportunity to distance themselves from Black Lives Matter as a whole. The platform’s antagonism toward Israel was the ultimate proof that the movement was, in fact, a threat to everything “we” stand for — in essence, a threat to the assimilation of Jews into undifferentiated American whiteness.

Far more common than those who denounced Black Lives Matter outright, though, were those who silently took a few steps back from the movement. You know who you are. You know that there’s racism in America; you’re against it, obviously, but you really, really don’t want to get into an internet

fight about Israel.

Maybe you’re a college student who feels alienated by the BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) activism on your campus. Maybe you’re a proud Zionist who deleted Dua Lipa’s new album from your Spotify library after she reposted an anti-Israel screed. Maybe you haven’t thoroughly thought out your position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and you’re just sick of people expecting you to take sides just because you’re Jewish. Whatever the reason, you’re one of those people who just wouldn’t be comfortable rolling up to a Black Lives Matter protest with your Star of David necklace out, knowing that you might run into someone holding a Palestinian flag.

I see where you’re coming from, I really do. And I’m here to tell you that you need to show up anyway.

I am an Israeli citizen and a proud Zionist. I oppose BDS because I believe full civil rights and security for Palestinians will only be achieved through Israeli-Palestinian

dialogue and trust building.

By the same token, I cannot refuse to engage with Black Lives Matter. The history of racism and white supremacy in the United States is violent and painful, like that of Israel and Palestine. No American of good conscience can simply opt out of racism in America — no more than Israelis can simply ignore the existence of Palestinians or vice versa.

I am Jewish, I am Israeli, but I am also a white American. My history and identity is inextricably tied to the history of slavery and the ongoing oppression of Black people and all people of color.

A more just America will never be possible without a deep reckoning with what divides us, and that conversation cannot even begin while white police officers have their guns aimed at Black people’s heads.

Black and Jewish Americans have a common enemy on the rise: white supremacy. At present, more Black people are immediately CONTINUED ON PAGE 15

10 | JULY 2020

Jewish Rhode Island | jewishrhody.org

D’VAR TORAH

Life passes by speedily: Use this time wisely

D’ VA

DURING THE COVID-19 CRISIS, us and leave us unprepared many people have remarked for new challenges. on the way that time seems to This week’s portion begins be moving both more slowly with the inexplicable laws and more quickly than usual. of the Red Heifer and passes During this “stay at home” quickly to the story of the Istime, we can feel raelites in the wilderness of that the days Tzin, again grumbling just melt into about not having one another enough water. The and that transition from time is one section to the zipping other goes like along at a this: “The entire faster pace Israelite commuthan usual. nity came to the Simultaneouswilderness of Tzin RABBI JEFFREY in the first month ly, the constant GOLDWASSER waiting and …” (Numbers 20:1). hoping for a However, the seemreturn to “normal” has us ingly simple transition hides feeling that time has come to a secret. The time it takes to a standstill. We are trapped get to the “first month” is not in a time warp in which our a matter of days or weeks. It perception of time is distortis actually 38 years that pass ed at both ends. by without comment.

This week’s double Torah How do we know that the portion (Chukat-Balak) has story of the Israelites’ gruma hidden message about how bling about water happened we perceive time and how, if 38 years after the laws of the we are not paying attention, Red Heifer? You can discover the long years can rush past this only by looking back to

R

TO R A H

the beginning of the Book of Numbers and by peeking ahead to the end.

Numbers begins by telling us that it had been two years since the Israelites left Egypt.

All of the stories prior to the Red Heifer in Numbers took place during that year. However, in the book’s final portion (Mas’ei), we read a list of all the places where the Israelites camped during their 40 years of wandering. There we see (in Numbers 33:36-37) that the wilderness of Tzin was the penultimate stop on their journey, before coming to the edge of the frontier with the land of Israel, 40 years after leaving Egypt. In the blink of an eye, 38 years passed.

This passage of time helps to explain what happened in Tzin. For the second time during the Israelites’ journey, Moses responded to the people’s complaints about not having enough water. In the first instance (Exodus 17:1-7), 38 years earlier, Moses had followed God’s instructions to

strike the rock to cause water to flow to slake the Israelites’ thirst. In the second instance, God told Moses to “speak to the rock” to make the water flow. The text tells us, however, that Moses ignored God’s instructions. He called the Israelites “rebels” and, instead of speaking to the rock, “he raised his hand and struck the rock twice” to produce the water.

What happened? Did Moses remember the long-ago success of hitting the rock and fall back on a familiar action to produce the desired result? After 40 years of leading the Israelites through the wilderness, had Moses come to believe that he didn’t need God’s instructions anymore and could just rely on his previous experiences?

Was Moses, in his old age, just confused about what to do, and followed an old and familiar action?

We can’t be sure why Moses lost patience with the Israelites and decided to strike the rock instead of following God’s instructions to speak to it. It does seem, though, that God was not pleased with Moses’ choice. God tells Moses that, because of what he did at Tzin, “You shall not lead this congregation into the land that I have given them” (Numbers 19:12).

Thirty-eight years is either a very short time or a very long time. It is short enough for Moses to believe that what worked before will work again nearly four decades later. It is short enough that it passes in the time it takes to pause between two verses. But 38 years is also long enough for Moses to forget that God – not Moses himself and his experience – is the source of his wisdom and authority. Thirty-eight years is long enough to grow weary, and unkind to the people he had devoted his life to serving. Thirty-eight years may have been long enough to convince Moses that he knew it all, when, in truth, he seems to have forgotten it all in one moment.

We may not notice the changes that can happen in us as we grow older, but those changes can take us along wrong paths and undo us. That’s not an indictment against Moses or against us. It’s just part of what happens in our short,

temporary lives. We cannot stay forever energetic, optimistic and hopeful.

Eventually – seemingly in the blink of an eye – we can grow dependent on our old tricks, cynical about the changes in the world around us, and pessimistic about the future.

Maybe that’s part of what happened to Moses.

Life is short. Moses took note of this when he wrote in Psalm 90, “At daybreak, [people] are like grass that renews itself … but by dusk, it withers up and dies.” And the psalm says that our lives “pass by speedily and we are in darkness” – life can pass us by.

But the We never psalm also relose the minds us that, deopportunity spite our tendency to gain to lose track of wisdom time, we can find if we have hope and a heart to meaning even as we age. do so.

Moses wrote, “Yes, teach us to count our days, that we may obtain a heart of wisdom” (Psalms 90:12).

We never lose the opportunity to gain wisdom if we have a heart to do so. If we keep our attention on that which is eternal, and not focused on our own imperfect and brief experience, we can continue to grow wise as we grow old.

And that, I believe, is also a lesson for us as we sit in our homes experiencing the paradox of days that are so short and months that are so long. Instead of focusing on our boredom or on our impatience and fear, we can use this time to renew our focus on our most foundational values – caring for people, connecting with family, creating justice in the face of oppression, learning from our tradition. That is how we can make this a time for saying “yes” to counting our days.

RABBI JEFFREY GOLDWASSER is the spiritual leader of Temple Sinai, in Cranston. This essay is adapted from an entry in his blog, at www.rebjeff.com.

JULY 2020 | 11

jewishrhody.org | Jewish Rhode Island

FOOD

A passion for baking and babka

BY MICHAEL SCHEMAILLE WHEN TEL AVIV NATIVE Guy Hanuka enrolled at Johnson & Wales University, he was already an experienced baker.

Hanuka graduated from JWU last year with an Associate of Sciences degree in Baking & Pastry Arts. Today he is the proprietor of Buns Bakery, which features Jewish and Israeli specialties such as challah, babka, rugelach and burekas, which he calls “staples of our [Jewish] culture.”

Hanuka’s warmth and energy are immediately apparent, and to hear the story of how baking took him around the world is to also hear how passionate he is about his art.

Hanuka’s story also emphasizes his tremendous passion for his community.

Hanuka became a baker after four years’ service in the Israeli Army, where he attained the rank of staff sergeant. As a 22-year-old civilian he was attracted to the food industry and said, “One day I saw a bread-baker. A real bread-baker, you know?

I’d never seen anything like that.” That fascination kept Hanuka in Tel Aviv for the next seven years, honing his craft and rising to become head baker at multiple bakeries, working seven days a week, 350 hours a month.

When he was asked to open a new bakery in Shanghai, China, Hanuka seized the opportunity. Further travels brought him to the Culinary Institute of America, in Hyde Park, New York, where he was amazed by what he saw.

As Hanuka began to research baking programs to advance his training, a recommendation from celebrated baker Jeffrey Hamelman convinced him to look at JWU, where he enrolled in 2017.

Now settled in Rhode Island, Hanuka has been pursuing his dream of owning his own bakery; he opened Buns Bakery in March, as a virtual storefront. Hanuka said, “I think the coronavirus is what pushed me to it, because we were forced to live in the present. It’s now.”

Hanuka currently bakes to-order out of Hope & Main, a Warren-based culinary

business incubator. For social distancing and safety, all orders are picked up at outdoor locations on Friday and Saturday.

There’s a cheeky sense of humor to Buns’ offerings, which rotate regularly. A recent Shavuot special was the ricotta-filled “Welcome Back Cotta” babka, and the “Holla!” challah is a regular offering. With a nod to his adopted home state, Hanuka also offers his “Bur-RI-kas” burekas, which are available with a variety of fillings.

Word travels fast, and Hanuka explained that he wasn’t ready for the support he’s had from the Jewish community, “I thought I’d have to drive around with these babka and beg for people to try it, because I believe in it…. but the people just responded amazingly to it, and we get new customers each week.” Hanuka emphasized that the sense of community, and listening to customers’ feedback, is critical to his work.

Hanuka said that his products are “meant for gatherings, to bring people together. It’s not just a babka; it’s not just the product, but it’s an experience of sharing, of togetherness.”

“Before the whole idea of Buns Bakery…living in Johnston it was hard for me to find the Jewish community, Buns Bakery really made me find the community, and that’s the best thing that’s happened to me.

“I’ve traveled the world,” Hanuka said, “and I realized that the view is amazing everywhere, but what makes the difference is the people.

To me, it’s the people. It’s not worth [doing] without a community.”

Hanuka plans to eventually open a storefront bakery in Providence, offering not just baked goods but Israeli foods, as well. At present, Buns Bakery can be found on Facebook, on Instagram@ bunsbakeryri, bunsbakeryri. squarespace.com, or at 401425-9544.

MICHAEL SCHEMAILLE (mschemaille@jewishallianceri.org) writes for Jewish Rhode Island and the Jewish Alliance

Guy Hanuka in the kitchen.

PHOTO COURTESY | GUY HANUKA

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12 | JULY 2020

Jewish Rhode Island | jewishrhody.org

COMMUNITY

Saying goodbye!

THE JEWISH COMMUNITY DAY SCHOOL OF RHODE ISLAND held an outdoor graduation on June 12. Family members of the graduating fifth-graders attended in person while many friends, family and fans watched a Facebook livestream of the event!

Students delivered thoughtful speeches in English and Hebrew about their experiences at JCDSRI,

their understanding of the four values of the school (chesed - kindness, kehillahcommunity, achrayut - responsibility and kavod respect) and their connection to the JCDSRI community.

The graduation was followed by an all-school celebratory car parade!

Check out the JCDSRI Facebook page to view the full graduation ceremony.

PHOTOS | JCDSRI

End of the year at PHDS TO CELEBRATE THE LAST DAY OF school, June 17, all Providence Hebrew Day School students were invited to the home of Miriam Esther Weiner, their principal, to receive end-of-the-year treats. When they arrived at the balloon-decorated house each student received a Tradition soup (for carrying on the Jewish traditions during distance learning) and a small bag of candy prepared by the student council.

All parents received a copy of the book “From Djerba to Jerusalem” as a token of the school’s appreciation for the additional efforts they put into

their children’s learning over the past few months.

On June 16, every PHDS graduate (including students in two cities in Rhode Island and three in Massachusetts) received a personal delivery of a balloon bouquet, a collage of their time at PHDS with thoughts from their teacher, a yearbook, a graduation gift, a personal letter from Mrs. Weiner and a diploma.

Also on June 17 the eighth grade enjoyed a virtual video graduation, featuring greetings from the dean, Rabbi Peretz Scheinerman, and the president, Pinny Berlin, and

PHOTO | PHDS

speeches from student council presidents Sarah Kivman and Moshe Yudkowsky. Mrs. Weiner then shared special traits of each graduate,

accompanied by pictures of them from their years at school starting in pre-K.

JCC sponsors Summer Food Service Program for Children J-CAMP AT THE DWARES JCC, a program of the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island, announces the sponsorship of the Summer Food Service Program for Children. This program is designed primarily to provide meals to children at our day camp from June 29 – Aug 28, 2020. All campers are eligible to receive free meals while participating in the program.

J-Camp at the Dwares JCC is located at 401 Elmgrove Ave. in Provi-

dence. Our camp day runs from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Each week, campers participate in a variety of activities focused around specific themes. Campers are split into groups by age, allowing them to fill their days with exciting, age-appropriate activities and challenging opportunities to discover new interests, develop new skills and explore their surroundings. At times, all

campers come together as a group to help build community.

Special programs are planned throughout the summer. Weekly schedules allow children to rotate through a variety of activities, including specialties many have grown to love. Campers do this in groups known as pods.

The Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island is an equal opportunity organization. The Jewish Alliance of

Greater Rhode Island does not and shall not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, color, religion (creed), sexual identity, gender expression, age, or nationality in any of its activities or operations.

For more information or to register, please visit the camp website at jewishallianceri.org or contact Aaron Guttin at 401-421-4111, ext. 140.

JULY 2020 | 13

jewishrhody.org | Jewish Rhode Island

COMMUNITY

Alliance ‘zooms’ through annual meeting

BY FRAN OSTENDORF

A

BOUT 100 PEOPLE GATHERED VIA ZOOM on June 17 for the ninth annual meeting of the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island. The meeting wasn’t all that different from

the large gatherings of the past – while you couldn’t schmooze with other participants, you could still see them. And, in reactions similar to those at meetings of synagogues and organizations throughout the area, attendees said they enjoyed seeing friends and neighbors gathered together even on a screen.

The somewhat abbreviated meeting – it lasted an hour – opened with a d’var Torah by Rabbi Michelle Dardashti, of Brown University and Brown RISD Hillel. Rabbi Barry Dolinger, of Congregation Beth Sholom, in Providence, the Alliance’s vice chair of Governance, presented the slate of officers and board members.

A vote was taken by a show of hands on Zoom.

Rabbi Michael Fel of Temple Emanu-El, in Providence, installed the officers and board members, while encouraging them to be courageous and strong. On screen, “jazz hands” congratulated the new team. The process was repeated for the Jewish Federation Foundation and the Alliance Realty Board.

Remarks by James Pious, chair of the board, focused on the work of the Alliance in the last year, including arranging for renewable energy, forming a partnership with Congregation Beth Sholom, raising funds for relief and recovery from COVID-19 and strategic planning.

“The last year has provided us with a great map to follow into the 21st century,” Pious said, citing goals focusing on increasing connections throughout the community, increasing collaboration between agencies

and synagogues, and making Judaism accessible to all.

“With great challenge comes great opportunity. I’m confident that we will emerge a stronger, more vibrant Jewish community.”

In a presentation particularly relevant to today, Frederic Reamer, a professor in the School of Social Work at Rhode Island College, spoke on “Coping with Adversity: Lessons Learned During Challenging Times.” Reamer, who is also the host and producer of “This I Believe New England,” a National Public Radio program of interviews and essays, talked about how we all look for meaningful ways to cope with adversity.

“We are living in a remarkably challenging time … we are saturated and overwhelmed with this cascade of troubling news,” he said.

“All of us search for meaningful ways to cope with adversity.”

Reamer told the stories of three young men who had coped with incredibly challenging situations and turned their lives around. These are men he’d met while serving on the Rhode Island Parole Board.

Reamer’s message: They faced adversity, coped with adversity and learned from adversity.

They all had a sense of purpose, he

FROM FREDERIC REAMER’S PRESENTATION

said. “They recognized possibilities beyond one’s self and a way to contribute to the commonweal.”

“We need hope now,” Reamer said. “And the Alliance is all about giving people hope.”

Adam Greenman, president and CEO of the Alliance, closed out the meeting with reflections on the past three years and an outline of the next three, including a look at the community under the new strategic plan. You can find his remarks on page 9.

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

Beth Sholom finds a home at JCC IN JUNE, THE JEWISH ALLIANCE of Greater Rhode Island and Congregation Beth Sholom announced a partnership in which Congregation Beth Sholom’s classes and services would be moving to the Alliance’s Dwares JCC in Providence. The move provides a home for the congregation following the sale of their East Side building at the corner of Camp Street and Rochambeau Avenue.

Of the move, Alliance President & CEO Adam Greenman said, “I’m incredibly excited to welcome Congregation Beth Sholom to the Dwares JCC. We are focused on working with other organizations to enhance Jewish life in Rhode Island, and this partnership does just that.”

The sentiment was echoed by Beth Sholom’s rabbi, Barry Dolinger, who said, “We’re absolutely thrilled to be moving into the Alliance. [The move] will allow us to focus on our vision to bring relevant, empowering, and inclusive Torah to the wider community. The Alliance’s welcoming space…will allow us to lean into a brand of lay-led tefillah that is intentional and transformative. This will be a better location for folks throughout the community to check out what we’re doing. The Alliance has been so collaborative and enthusiastic in making it work, and we are deeply grateful for a mutual collaboration” The move is expected to take place in July.

– Michael Schemaille

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9 teens involved in the Breaking Bread program are coming together, Jews and Muslims, for Shabbat dinner, to continue their exploration of the similarities between the religions and cultures. Earlier in the day on June 30, 2023, kids participated in J-Camp throughout the state, in collaborations between the Alliance and local synagogues to provide great summer programming that focuses on Jewish values and core issues in our community. They were also provided with ideas to bring that experience back to their Shabbat dinner tables that evening.

And in Newport, the Havurah, Temple Shalom and Touro Synagogue have all gotten together at Touro for a collective Shabbat dinner, where they are celebrating the Sabbath together before they each perform the Friday

night service according to their traditions.

All of this is happening at the same time that services are taking place at synagogues and congregations throughout Rhode Island.

Back to the present. This more connected, more collaborative greater Rhode Island Jewish community is possible. I know it, because I’ve seen it.

In the last three months, this community has united to address COVID-19.

We raised nearly $250,000 in six weeks to help our community members in need. Our staff at the Alliance worked tirelessly to develop a virtual JCC, to help local agencies, and to develop plans to make sure everyone who was in need received assistance.

I am so grateful to work with all of them every single day. Our Board of Directors under Jamie’s [Pious] leadership made clear from the very

beginning of this crisis that we would do whatever we could to keep our community strong and vibrant, and they haven’t wavered in their commitment. I’m grateful for their leadership in this community every single day.

In particular, I want to thank Vince Mor, who is stepping off the Board this year, and I want to thank the new Board members who are stepping up to join us in this journey. And I want to thank Jamie for his incredible partnership this year. Jamie, I’m not sure you knew what you were getting into when you said yes to being the chair.

But in the last three months, as I’ve spoken to you nearly every day, I’ve seen your leadership firsthand, and I mean it when I say I couldn’t do this work without you.

Our community’s agencies, institutions and synagogues have been incredible partners, and we have

worked together so closely to make sure needs are addressed, and that a stronger community will emerge from this crisis, one that is more collaborative and facilitates greater connections between people.

We are already creating the stronger, more vibrant community that we all deserve. A stronger, more vibrant community where Alexandria, Norah, and every child and adult, can see themselves in and can flourish. I’ve never been more confident that the June 30, 2023, I talked about is not just a vision, but our destiny. And it’s possible because of all of you. So thank you for all you do today to help us build that stronger, more vibrant Jewish community of tomorrow.

ADAM GREENMAN is President and CEO of the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island.

14 | JULY 2020

Jewish Rhode Island | jewishrhody.org

COMMUNITY

OBITUARIES 19 | BUSINESS 16

Nancy Katz bringing her community-infused artwork to the JCC – and you can help

BY MICHAEL SCHEMAILLE FOR ARTIST NANCY KATZ, community is essential.

It is at the heart of all her work, which began in the 1980s, when she volunteered with the NAMES Project AIDS Quilt.

“Being involved in that fueled my sensibility in community art-making,” Katz said in a recent interview. “My identity as a Jewish woman gave me an imperative to actively do something about the AIDS crisis.”

Katz eventually became the NAMES Project’s director of education and outreach, before leaving to make her own art, and to help others do the same. Since then, she has facilitated workshops and educational programs in Jewish communities across the country.

Last year, Katz and her husband became permanent fixtures in Rhode Island’s Jewish community.

“We had been living in the woods of western Massachusetts … it was lovely, a beautiful place, but we were craving to be more integrated in a diverse, larger Jewish community,” she said.

Katz, 64, describes finding such a community in Rhode Island as “a discovery … incredibly impressive and powerful in its diversity and openness,” and fondly recalls her introduction to the community. She said that before she had even thought about moving to the state, friends connected her to Rhode Island Jews, and they “showed up in my life before I had a place to live [in Providence]!”

And the community came together to provide shelter and fellowship late last year, when Katz arrived in Providence only to learn that her new home wouldn’t be ready for another 40 days.

Today, even under COVID-19 restrictions, Katz has continued to grow her connections. Already, she is connected to Jewish communities around the country; she has facilitated more than 150 workshops and classes nationwide, helping people of all ages to make their own mezuzot, challah covers, painted-silk tallitot and more. Her work, in the form of Torah covers and ark curtains,

can be found in synagogues from California to Massachusetts.

In collaboration with her husband, stainedglass artist Mark Liebowitz, Katz has also designed and installed stained-glass windows in several synagogues. Katz and Liebowitz met in 2005 in Houston, where they were both vendors at the Union for Reform Judaism’s biennial celebration, and married in 2009.

Katz said that when she met Liebowitz, she “knew very little about glass,” but that “Mark saw the possibility of collaboration right away and encouraged me to design for glass early on.”

Her first joint project with Liebowitz, at Temple Emanuel of the Pascack Valley, in New Jersey, “was a true testament to our ability to collaborate. Members of that synagogue’s design committee take full responsibility for us getting married!”

The couple now lives on Providence’s East Side and works out of Nancy Katz|Wilmark Studios, in Pawtucket, where they hope to soon be able to reopen their doors to the community.

Katz’s passions for community and glass were cemented when a Georgia synagogue commissioned her to create an interactive project that would become a permanent fixture. She created a tree-shaped community mosaic tiled with glass “gems,” each of which features a small piece of art from a member of the community. The project was installed last year in Temple Sinai Atlanta’s new education wing.

Katz has now been commissioned by the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island to create a mosaic tree for the Alliance’s Dwares Jewish Community Center, in Providence, as part of a larger project titled “Jewish Roots – Growing Community through Art.” The tree is expected to be installed in September.

Since social distancing makes it impossible for Katz to run an in-person gem-decorating workshop, as she had done in Atlanta, the Jewish Alliance will instead mail complimentary “creativity kits” to anyone who signs up to participate. The kits will include art templates, instructions and a few surprises to help beautify peoples’ homes.

“I was thinking about this time, and the absence of accessibility to a space that’s specifically designed to be a communal, spiritual space. We’re going to embellish the space, and we anticipate the time when we all can get back into it.

People will be creating in their homes,

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Finished jewels from some past projects but we’re bringing the home to the space, and ultimately we will bring things from that space home with us,” she said.

Katz says everyone is invited to participate in “Jewish Roots.”

“One of the things about this project that’s so fun is that a 2-year-old, who’s just learning to play with materials, and a professional artist have the same credibility in creating something, and I love that. I think there’s nothing more powerful than for somebody to be able to point to something that they have been a part of and say, ‘I was part of that. I helped build it.’ I love to create situations where people take pride, [where] they have the opportunity to create something, and then it has meaning for them,” she said.

Asked if she had a message for the community, Katz said, “I want them to know that they’re going to be part of a permanent fixture at the JCC, that they’re invited to engage, and that no skill is required. All that’s required of them is an open heart and spirit; the theme of this whole endeavor is that we’re all here for each other.”

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MICHAEL SCHEMAILLE (mschemaille@jewishallianceri.org) writes for Jewish Rhode Island and the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island.

JULY 2020 | 15

jewishrhody.org | Jewish Rhode Island

NEWS

Are you looking for information about Black Lives Matter?

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an explanation from the Israel Action Network about the official and unofficial positions of Black Lives Matter and the Movement for Black Lives and how their positions on Israel and the Palestinians have evolved. The Israel Action Network is part of the Jewish Federations of North America.

What is Black Lives Matter?

Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a non-centralized grassroots social justice movement organized by regional chapters urging society to value Black lives and recognize their marginalization.

The now international movement originated in America in 2013 following George Zimmerman’s acquittal for the death of Black teen Trayvon Martin. As details of the shooting unfolded, two Black and LGBTQ social justice leaders, Alicia Garza and Patrisse Cullors, created the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter in response to Trayvon Martin’s death. The hashtag quickly spread and birthed a 21st century millennial-driven civil rights movement.

Decentralized, non-hierarchical and tech-savvy, BLM differs in structure from past American civil rights groups.

Differences within BLM

Every local chapter (including within those within the same city) have their own unique chapters of BLM, characterized by micro-regional expressions of activism: some prefer protests, and some prefer direct action strategies, like shutting down public highways. For instance, west coast BLM leader Patrisse Cullors has endorsed the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement and has participated in a “Black for Palestine” delegation to the Palestinian Territories. On the other end of the spectrum is a group called “Campaign

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9 threatened by white supremacy than white Jews. In the long haul, though — and Jewish history teaches us to always keep an eye on the long haul — dismantling

Zero.” Unlike BLM’s more unpredictable west coast chapters and sub-groups, Campaign Zero does support engagement with the political system and one of its leaders, DeRay Mckesson, served as a mayoral candidate in Baltimore.

Recently, divides between BLM chapters have become more apparent. In the wake of George Floyd’s murder in May of 2020 and the recent protests condemning police brutality, BLM chapters have taken different approaches to dealing with this important issue. For instance, Campaign Zero has formulated a plan to institute eight major changes to police entities that are projected to decrease police-caused deaths by at least 70%. Some BLM chapters, however, are pushing back against this initiative by deeming it not enough of a radical change. This illustrates clearly that BLM is an overarching movement which contains many different identities.

How is BLM Different from the Movement for Black Lives?

On August 1, 2016, the Movement for Black Lives (MBL) released a national platform claiming to represent the views of over 50 organizations, with 29 of them listed as part of the “United Front,” which is the list of signatories that are also member organizations. This list includes the organization Black Lives Matter Network (BLMN), which is the decentralized grassroots social justice organization most closely associated with Black Lives Matter.

The document included 40 policy suggestions, divided into six categories, which range from economic policies to matters relating to the criminal justice system, and called for the suspension of American military aid to Israel. Neither the Movement for Black Lives nor the Black Lives Matter Network has formally endorsed BDS. The 2016 MBL document is now no longer available on its website.

It is critical we understand that Black Lives Matter is not necessarily represented in its entirety by the Movement for Black Lives platform or by the Black Lives Matter Network – there are other nationally focused groups that take a different approach and are sometimes in disagreement with other segments of BLM.

white supremacy is essential for the safety and security of American Jewish communities as well.

Solidarity across racial and ethnic lines is never easy. If it were, we’d already be doing it. Fortunately

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for the American Jewish community, we are blessed with an abundance of Jews of Color, and specifically Black Jews, who are already leading the conversation on race and the Jewish community: MaNishtana, Rabbi Sandra Lawson, Michael Twitty, Amadi Lovelace, Tema Smith, Rebecca Pierce and so, so many more.

White Jews, our job during this historic moment is to show up not only for our Black fellow Jews but all Black Americans in their hour of need — and to lift

How is BLM intertwined with the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict?

On August 19, 2014, Michael Brown was fatally shot by white police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, MO. Protests, both peaceful and violent, ensued, lasting for months at a time. Simultaneously, Israel was in the midst of Operation Protective Edge with the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. As protesters in Ferguson were being tear-gassed by police, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza started tweeting at Ferguson protesters, advising them to insulate themselves from tear gas and using the hashtag #Ferguson. This ignited the “From Ferguson to Palestine” call to action that many activists continue to invoke today.

Very quickly, Black and Palestinian activists began to use social media as a tool to express support and solidarity with each other. This confluence of events created the perfect storm for collaboration and increased kinship between the groups. Those employing the “Black for Palestine” effort believe that Black Americans and Palestinians are similar victims of repressive, armed, and largely white colonialist governments. Generally speaking, both believe that their movements are perceived to be illegitimate by outsiders and share a narrative of dehumanization, oppression, and resilience. The sense of shared experience between both peoples has coalesced into an intentional coupling and conflating of their narratives.

In 2015, over a thousand Black activists and organizations signed a “Black Solidarity Statement with Palestine” endorsing BDS. This occurred around the same time that Patrisse Cullors opted to endorse the BDS movement. A select group of Black Lives Matter activists and West Bank Palestinians have travelled across the Atlantic to visit one another and strengthen their ties. It must again be stated that this document does not reflect the views of all BLM chapters or activists. There are many activists that have very little knowledge of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and/or are not affiliated with the BDS movement.

them up as treasured leaders and members of our communities at all times.

White supremacy is a much bigger threat to American Jews than BDS is to the State of Israel, but even if it weren’t — even it were not in our self-interest as Jews to stand in solidarity with Black America against hate and bigotry — I would join the protests anyway, because as an observant Jew, I am obligated to do so by the Torah.

Because Black people were made in the image of God. Because my Black brother’s

blood is calling out from the ground. Because I cannot stand idly by while my Black neighbor’s life is threatened.

Because it matters.

MAAYAN BELDING-ZIDON is a writer and pluralistic Jewish educator. She lives with her Israeli wife and three cats in Rishon LeZion. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media or Jewish Rhode Island.

16 | JULY 2020

Jewish Rhode Island | jewishrhody.org

BUSINESS

Now is a good time to start planning for your financial future have managed to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, graduations and even a bris on Zoom!

So, what does all of this have to do with personal finance? A lot more than you might think ….

Self-quarantining is giving us a sneak peek of what life could be like in retirement.

While most of us look forward to JASON E. it does SIPERSTEIN retiring, present some challenges that we need to face: We lose our routines, some social connectedness, and some or all of our incomes.

I have spoken with many clients, and have found that

& S E NS S R

D O LL

A

all meals at home, learned to bake bread, and learned what we can and can’t live without.

I am sure this story sounds familiar – this is life for many of us during the pandemic. And while it is a lot more stressful and frightening than either my wife or I could have imagined, we try to look for the silver lining.

We are blessed that we have our health, and our jobs, and can spend more time with our baby daughter.

The hardest part for us is the social distancing. Still, we

E

AT 6 A.M., WE HEAR our 8-month-old baby start to babble through the monitor.

My wife heads to the baby’s room to offer her a bottle, and I quickly shower, put on my usual work attire (dress shirt, gym shorts and slippers), and take the dog for her morning walk. The day has begun.

We are now halfway through 2020. My wife reminds me that it is day 82 of our personal quarantine. We are both working from home.

She has claimed our home office, and I am left with the dining room table.

While self-isolating, we have tried things we normally would have never even thought about. We have given each other haircuts, groomed our dog, cooked just about

they generally fall into two groups – those who say “I am never retiring!” and those who say, “I want out!”

Whichever group resonates with you, it is important to have a plan in place, and to challenge every aspect of that plan. For example, don’t just count on the income from working forever because changes in health and the economy can quickly force you to change lanes.

Developing a financial plan is just about the most important thing you can do for the security of yourself and your family. The other big item that I would suggest that everyone move to the top of their priority list is an estate plan.

Only half of Americans have an estate plan. I think

one of the many reasons for this is that creating one is uncomfortable – no one likes thinking and talking about their own mortality. But the more prepared we are in this area, the easier it will be on our loved ones when we pass.

Now is as good a time as any to have a glass of wine and start a dialogue.

Now, please excuse me while I go get the next baby bottle ready. I hope I have left you with a couple of things to think about during these strange times.

JASON E. SIPERSTEIN, CFA, CFP, is the president of the Financial Planning Association of RI and president of Eliot Rose Wealth Management. Contact him at jes@eliotrose.com.

Alliance’s COVID-19 emergency campaign makes immediate impact

BY SARA MASRI

THE JEWISH ALLIANCE of Greater Rhode Island’s COVID-19 Emergency Relief and Recovery Campaign has raised over $235,000 from close to 400 donors. As of midJune, over $30,000 had been allocated to 150 individual households, as well as organizations doing direct service work in the community.

The goal of the campaign, co-chaired by Rich Glucksman and Amanda Isenberg, is to help individuals struggling financially due to the pandemic.

To determine the commu-

nity’s needs, the Alliance brought together leadership from agencies and synagogues throughout the state.

To ensure that the funds were distributed in a community-minded and effective way, a distribution committee was appointed to review all requests.

“From the beginning of this crisis, the Alliance worked closely with its partners in the community to understand the need and take action,” said Alliance President and CEO Adam Greenman. “Our synagogues and agencies have helped identify people in need, and

have helped us to get help to those who required it most.

We continue to meet weekly with our agency partners, and I’m inspired by their work. It demonstrates the power of our strong, vibrant community.”

Food insecurity was the first need that was expressed by individuals and families.

In many cases, these were families that had never requested assistance before, but due to job loss, additional people living at home or less access to food, they were now in need.

The campaign was able to restock the shelves at The Louis & Goldie Chester Full Plate Kosher Food Pantry, in Providence, more than once thanks to an $8,500 grant from the Women’s Alliance Endowment Fund and other allocations. The campaign also helped to provide Kosher grab-and-go breakfasts and lunches for children until the program was shifted to the Providence Parks De-

partment. The Alliance also worked with local restaurants, such as Garden Grille and Providence Bagel, to prepare meals for those in need.

The campaign has also provided: • Assistance in paying for funerals and facilitating the donation of food for shivah.

• Fabric and mask donations for the staff at The Phyllis Siperstein Tamarisk Assisted Living Residence, in Warwick, as well as community members.

• Gift cards for individuals and families to offset the costs of groceries, medications, gas and hygiene products.

• Care packages for families with young children, in conjunction with Henry Bear’s Park.

The distribution committee anticipates that the remaining funds will be used for similar things, as well as financial assistance for rent, utilities and medical needs.

The committee has re-

Business Disputes

ceived feedback from aid recipients about the importance of so many people stepping up to give so significantly. One mother stated that she was “moved to tears” when she realized “there are people who really get what we are going through.” Another mother said her family “felt so blessed to have such generous, giving people in our community.”

The Talmud states, “Kol Yisrael arevim zeh bazeh” – “All Jews are responsible for each other.” In this time of great need, many kind and charitable people took this to heart – and had an immediate impact on the lives of their friends and neighbors in the community.

The economic impact of the COVID-19 crisis will be felt for months to come. To help support the COVID-19 Emergency Relief and Recovery Fund, go to jewishallianceri. org/emergency-fund, call 401421-4111, ext. 165, or send a check to Relief and Recovery Fund, c/o Jewish Alliance, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence, RI 02906 If you are in need of emergency support, mental health services or have other needs, please contact Jewish Collaborative Services at 401-3311244.

SARA MASRI (smasri@jewishallianceri.org) is chief development officer at the Jewish Alliance of Greater RI.

JULY 2020 | 17

jewishrhody.org | Jewish Rhode Island

COMMUNITY Salanter in Eastern Europe in the 1840s] was truly a universal path that could benefit anyone from any ethnic and religious tradition.

SHAI AFSAI (shaiafsai.com) lives in Providence. His “Benjamin Franklin’s Influence on Mussar Thought and Practice: A Chronicle of Misapprehension” appeared in the Review

of Rabbinic Judaism 22:2 (2019). That article, along with the above interview, was completed with support from the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities. A longer version of the interview was published in the May 18, 2020, issue of The Jerusalem Report.

smoking. But I wanted to use it to illustrate a story, and so I asked my bro to try to remember it and evoke it with his magic pen – a talent I had often relied on to add some humor and zest to my memoirs. He came through, and I add that image to this collection.

I gave up all forms of tobacco half a century ago and more. It was the day they were giving out free packs on the steps of The Arcade, in Providence, and I thought, “If they’re pushing them on you, it ain’t for our sake, but for theirs, to hook you – and I’m not a fish.” So I stopped then and there, forever, and I’m still around. So far.

I’m writing this tale not for any purpose good or bad, but just for the fun of it. I could write about the pins on my lapels, my caps, sneakers,

neckties, scarves, cups and cars, and narrate the progress of my life and career, so be glad I stopped at this account of ashtrays, once the center of social life in America. Cigarettes were 25 cents a pack back then, and you didn’t have to toss the butt out the window of your car – just crush it out in the builtin ashtray in your vehicle, please.

There is a seldom-read Aesop fable about a woman who finds a bottle in a river, smiles, and treasures it; the illustration and moral of that odd tale state and show, “What pleasure it is merely to remember the instruments of one’s past!”

it’s instructive to remember that before immunizations became routine for chicken pox, mumps, measles and German measles, students were expected to get these diseases, and to “share” them with their siblings. The Boston schools were never closed to protect against the

spread of these diseases; I got them all.

Finally, I worry about whether we’ll ever get back even part of our “old normal” lives.

MIKE FINK (mfink33@aol.com) teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design.

WORRIES FROM PAGE 5 does that approach become harmful to students?

Although different eras can’t be compared, it’s telling that when I started school in the late 1950s, I did so without a polio vaccine (in my early elementary years, I received both the Salk and Sabin vaccines). In addition, in this era when it seems that large swaths of the American public are unaware of history beyond what can be found on the latest social media posts,

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The warden went for it, and it was very successful while it was going on. The inmates cooperated and shared their struggles and growth. Nine guys went through the whole program. They were lifers or long-term inmates who had a desire to change.

When I asked the guys that took the full course what motivated them, most said it was the power of Jesus. I was trying to divorce it from religion, but the reason many of these people are alive is because they made a commitment to deep religious practice. Their new belief systems

neighborhoods. I thought this might amuse and surprise – and maybe slightly shock – neighbors who might drop by via the front or side doors for a nice nicotine spell.

I have to admit that I pocketed a pub ashtray that advertised the trademark of a common continental aperitif – St. Raphael, as I recall. I brought that back from the area around the Sorbonne. I also purchased a proper ashtray, with the image of a miniature French dog – no, not a poodle, but a toy greyhound surrounded by fleur-de-lis.

I guess I’m about ready to close this account, but wait! What happened to that first ashtray? I gave it to my brother in Newport, and maybe his daughter threw out the nasty thing, partly to discourage her dad from

AUDI

How was this Franklin and mussar program received?

NICOTINE FROM PAGE 6

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After the U.S. government federal receivership took over the California prison medical system in 2006, the warden at the Deuel Vocational Insti-

There are other true paths that can change your perspective of how to be or not be in the world. But I had the goal of teaching a form of Judaism I believed in. Using the charts from Benjamin Franklin and “Heshbon Hanefesh,” you develop a heightened awareness that creates change in a natural way, and I thought these inmates could benefit. It’s a very easy way to monitor how you react and respond to people and situations. I saw it would be very wise not to have the program come across as totally Jewish, but to also focus on Benjamin Franklin: “Even Benjamin Franklin worked on himself, and you can too!”

In the final analysis, I discovered that the mussar movement [a movement centered on character refinement and the concentrated study of mussar texts, which was begun by Rabbi Yisrael

AUDI

Was it this realization about non-Jewish inmates being engaged in forms of repentance that gave you the idea of using Benjamin Franklin and mussar in the prison setting?

What made you think mussar could be a good conduit for non-Jews to engage with ethical values?

Did you gain a new perspective on mussar from working with these men?

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Eventually, in 2005-2006, I pursued hospital chaplaincy training. There, I received a new type of training to help patients and their families in crisis. I had to be with people who were going through major surgeries or dying, and their families, and I had to be the kind of person who could support them. I had been asking Ha-Shem [God] to guide me to do useful work, and I found it. I helped many people pass on to the next world.

After the conclusion of the training, I chose prison chaplaincy. My prayer was to work with people I could actually transform on some level. I had a problem doing this, though. When I started prison chaplaincy, I had an agenda to get Jewish inmates siddurim [prayer books] and spread God’s light in prison – but then I met lifers who committed horrendous crimes. I had no authority to exclude anyone from Jewish services.

For many of these nonJews, the draw to Judaism was just getting access to Kosher food, in which food items are individually packaged and can be bartered or sold.

I wondered: What am I doing in the prison? And what I found out is that there were all kinds of people aside from Jews that were doing their versions of teshuva [repentance] that I hadn’t thought about.

turned them around.

BMW

Why did you decide to go into prison chaplaincy?

tution, in Tracy, California, reached out to chaplains to create rehabilitation programs. One of the chaplains suggested a program focused on imperatives for successful parole, and I came up with the Practicing Ethical Values program, which was turned into a DVD and shown to all incoming inmates.

I designed the program, an inmate named Mike D. and I selected the virtues [from Franklin’s autobiography and Lefin’s “Heshbon Ha-nefesh”] and he constructed the categories [i.e., Being/Personality Traits, Living/Life Skill Traits and Action/Social Responsibility Traits].

The reason why I wanted to create this program was because I discovered that there was no actual program for inmates to literally work on themselves, on the issues that may have brought them there. After talking with a lot of inmates, I got the sense that few of them had societal or familial familiarity with ethical values.

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RABBI FROM PAGE 4 [“Benjamin Franklin in Jewish Eastern Europe: Cultural Appropriation in the Age of the Enlightenment,” in the Journal of the History of Ideas, 2000]. I was surprised by this connection, but it made sense to me. I remembered my father mentioned, many years ago, some sort of connection between Franklin and “Heshbon Ha-nefesh.”

There was some awareness in the Yeshivah world that something in the book was from Franklin. The chart and the virtues are Franklin’s, but Rabbi Lefin’s commentary on each virtue, or midah, is based on the principles of Torah.

LARRY KESSLER (larrythek65@ gmail.com) is a freelance writer based in North Attleboro.

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COMMUNITY | OBITUARIES Frances Agronick, 90

WARWICK, R.I. – Frances Agronick died June 9 at home. Born in Providence, a daughter of the late Maurice and Gladys (Askins) Kushner, she had lived in Warwick for more than 30 years, previously living in Cranston. She was an administrative assistant for IBM. She was the mother of Sandra Agronick of Narragansett; Debra Agronick (Gunter Leirer) of Provincetown, Massachusetts; and Richard Agronick (Laura Soeder) of Smithville, New Jersey. She was the sister of the late Harold Kushner, Beatrice Rose and Doris Kushner. She was the aunt to several nieces and nephews. She was the longtime companion of the late Richard Xavier Lubin and former wife of the late Perry Agronick.

Contributions may be made to the American Heart Association, 1 State St., #200, Providence, RI 02908.

Barry Cohen, 88 PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Barry Cohen died June 24 at HopeHealth Hulitar Hospice Center. He was the husband of Pauline (Dress) Cohen for 67 years.

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, a son of the late David and Rose (Weinstein) Cohen, he had lived in Providence, previously living in Cranston.

He was founder and president of P&B Manufacturing Co., in the 1950s. Starting from humble beginnings in his parents’ cellar, he grew the business and employed hundreds of fellow Rhode Islanders. He was owner of Alison Reed Group as well as other local companies, until his retirement. He was known as the “Gentleman of the Jewelry Business.” He was a member of the Manufacturers, Jewelers and Silversmiths of RI. Barry was co-chair of the Israel Bond movement in the 1960s.

He was a member of Temple Sinai in Cranston for more than 60 years. He had many philanthropic endeavors.

Barry was a graduate of Hope High School, Class of ’49 and Bryant College.

He was the father of Lawrence (Maryann), Holly, Mitchell and Sharon (Jennifer). He was the grandfather of Benjamin, Edward, Liberty, and David. He was the brother of Charlotte Cohen.

He was the brother-in law-of Samuel and Jeffrey Dress.

Contributions may be made to Animal Rescue of RI, P.O. Box 458, Wakefield, RI 02880 or HopeHealth Hospice, 1085 North Main St., Providence, RI 02904 or a charity of your choice.

H. Jack Feibelman, 99 CRANSTON, R.I. – H. Jack Feibelman died June 19. He was predeceased by wife Hannah and son Jeffrey.

Survivors include Jeffrey’s widow Jaine Feibelman; daughter Barbara (Kenneth Orenstein); daughter-in-law Caryl Feibelman; grandchildren Andrew Feibelman (Elaine), Marcy Feibelman, Matthew Orenstein (fiancée Kim Starbuck), Clare Feiner (Jake); and great-grandchildren Harlyn Feibelman and Graham Feiner.

Born Hans-Joachim Feibelmann in Berlin, Germany, to Clare (Arnholz) and Siegfried Feibelman. Due to the rise of the Third Reich, his parents sent Jack to live with an aunt and uncle in Arkansas.

Within two years, he graduated from high school and business school to become self-supporting in order to guarantee his parents immigration affidavits, which he did. After moving to New York City, he landed a job with Coro Jewelry and was relocated to Providence.

Jack served in the Army, Air Force Division. He went to evening classes at Northeastern and earned a Bachelor of Science in Business.

Jack met Hannah Davis at Narragansett Beach and they married in 1946. Becoming part of Hannah’s Davis/Kotler/Zimmerman clan helped him cope with the loss of more than 18 family members in the Holocaust.

Jack advanced at Coro, and in 1966 he formed Feibelman & Krack, a jewelry manufacturers’ representative. As a separate venture, Jack established A & H Manufacturing Company to manufacture

and market his revolutionary earring hanging-display card. With son Jeffrey, he expanded the product’s uses and dramatically grew the business.

Jack was a member of Temple Beth-El and Temple Sinai, and of the Jewish Federation’s Endowment Committee. He served on The Miriam Hospital’s board of governors and its Foundation board, which honored him in 2014 as Miriam Hospital Person of the Year.

In 2001, Jack received a Master of Arts degree in English from Brown University. His thesis documents family’s story and traces his forebears’ German roots back to 1360.

Contributions in his memory may be made to The Miriam Hospital Foundation, Development Office, PO Box H, Providence, RI 02901.

Marion Finklestein, 91 CRANSTON, R.I. – Marion Finklestein died June 21 at Steere House. She was the wife of the late Philip Finklestein. Born in Buffalo, New York, a daughter of the late Harry and Rose (Kaminsky) Seigal, she had lived in Cranston for more than 25 years, previously living in Warwick.

She was a bridal consultant at the former Bride’s Showcase in Warwick for 18 years, retiring in 1985. Marion enjoyed playing mahjong and bingo, and cheating at Rummy Q, but her favorite activity was spending time with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

She was the mother of David Stein and his wife, Kathy, of Bethel Island, California, and Beth Canaan and her husband, Nathan, of Cranston. She was the sister of the late Harry Richards, Max Labois and Helen Feldman.

She was the grandmother of Justin, Kara, Katy, Adam and Michael. She was the great-grandmother of Jacob Jaxson, Ryan Jade and Hunter Philip.

Contributions in memory of her husband may be made to Alzheimer’s Association, 245 Waterman St., #306, Providence, RI 02906.

Gerald Fishman, 87 STAMFORD, CONN. – Gerald Fishman (Jerry) passed away on June 4 in Stamford, Connecticut, after a decade living with Parkinson’s Disease . He was born in 1933 and raised at Homecrest, The Hebrew Home for Boys in Yonkers, New York.

After starring on the basketball team at Roosevelt

High School, he went on to earn a bachelor’s degree at SUNY Oswego. He joined the U.S. Army, serving in Germany as a mapedic with the 3rd Armored Division.

Upon his return he married his wife of 60 years, Judy Denner Fishman.

They moved to Stamford in 1963. He received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the College of New Rochelle. He was a teacher at Harrison High School for 30 years and a high school tennis coach for 45 years, serving several years as the chairman of the New York State Boy’s Tennis Association, section 1.

His second career was as the sole proprietor of George’s Clocks and Watches, specializing in the tuning and repair of grandfather clocks. Jerry was treasurer of the Beth El Cemetery Association and served on the board of the Temple Beth El men’s club.

He is survived by his wife Judy, of Stamford; his three children, Shari and Zachary Weinberger of Providence; Merri and Howie Kapiloff of Glenrock, New Jersey; David Fishman and Robin Zucker of Los Angeles, California; and his seven grandchildren, Michael Weinberger and Yuu Taniguchi; Hillary Weinberger; Amanda Weinberger; Nathan Kapiloff; Jason Kapil-

off; Owen Fishman and Reese Fishman.

Donations may be made to Gallery Night Providence.

Renee Flink, 90 PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Renee Lampert Flink of Providence died peacefully on June 21.

She was born on Aug. 26, 1929, to Anna and Morris Lampert, and raised with her sister Miriam in New Bedford, Massachusetts. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Mount Holyoke College in Northhampton, Massachusetts. Shortly after college she met and married Alan Flink of Providence.

They were married for 68 years.

Renee is survived by Alan, their three children, Marc and his wife, Margaret; Philip and his wife, Anne; and Peter; grandchildren Andrew and his wife, Anna; Sarah, Hannah, Philip, Leanne and Trevor; and her great-grandchild Zoe. She was predeceased by her grandchild Madison and her sister Miriam Hurwitz.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 20

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OBITUARIES Following graduation from Mount Holyoke she worked as a social worker. While raising her family in Providence, Renee volunteered tirelessly for many social and political causes, including the improvement of community schools and the advancement of women in the workplace.

She was a long-time, passionate supporter of women’s rights and volunteered at Planned Parenthood during the organization’s most turbulent time in Rhode Island.

Planned Parenthood recognized Renee’s dedication in naming her Volunteer of the Year.

Renee was close to her sister Miriam and her husband Herbert Hurwitz of Newton

Massachusetts, their three children Martin Hurwitz, Ann Forster and Peter Hurwitz, and their grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

For many years, the Flink and Hurwitz families shared weekends, vacations and a ski house in Maine.

Donations can be sent to Planned Parenthood or to a charity of your choice

Sophie Garelick, 104 PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Sophie Irene (Sherman) Garelick died June 15 at Steere House, due to COVID-19. She was the wife of the late Harry Garelick, and mother of the late Max J. Garelick; and also of Frank M. Garelick and Jon S. Garelick.

Sophie was born on May 12, 1916, in Woonsocket, to the late Max and Sara (Fineberg) Sherman. She was the youngest of five children, who also included Mary, Sam, Bess and Barney, all of whom pre-deceased her.

She was a 1934 graduate of Woonsocket High School.

She married Harry Garelick, then a partner in Garelick Brothers Farms, in February 1936. She leaves her son, Frank, of Cranston and his partner, Lisa Jones; and Jon and his wife, Clea Simon; three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

A child of the Depression, Sophie often described the hardships her family underwent. Her father died when she was 11. She revered her mother. “My mother did everything.”

Though she had worked at several jobs briefly during her life she always described her occupation as “homemaker,” while her husband worked at Stadium Trading, Inc., with her two brothers.

An industrious artisan, through the years she created many beautiful braided rugs that eventually graced the homes of her children and other family members. Her work also included embroidery and needlepoint, bedspreads, tablecloths and many pillows. She also refinished furniture and painted all manner of decorative lamp bases, boxes and other objects. Like her sister Bess, she also produced oil paintings.

In later years, she and her husband — to whom she was married for 55 years until his death in 1991 — lived in North Providence. She moved into Steere House just prior to her 100th birthday. In her last years, she was visited not only by her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, but also by nieces and nephews and sometimes non-relatives who recalled her generous support through the years.

Donations can be made to Steere House, 100 Borden St., Providence, R.I. 02903.

Barry Glucksman, 77 PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Barry Zion Glucksman, born Nov. 1, 1942, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, passed away on June 2. He had valiantly battled multiple sclerosis for 27 years without

complaint, but complications from COVID-19 came on suddenly and took Barry too soon.

He was the son of the late David and Pearl (Bekelman).

Barry moved from New Bedford to Providence at age 4, graduated from Hope High School in 1960, and from Providence College in 1964.

At a Halloween dance, a mutual friend introduced him to a young girl from the Catskill Mountains in New York, who was studying at Bryant College. The two soon fell in love and Barry and Suzanne were happily married in 1966. Barry worked in sales for Rhode Island’s jewelry industry, including at Klitzner’s, Felchweir, Sharon Industries and Cathedral Art Metal before finally retiring from Barry Glucksman and Associates, aka Amcraft, due to health issues.

He and Suzanne raised three rambunctious boys: Rich, Dan and Andrew. He especially enjoyed family gatherings with his older sister Sylvia (deceased), whose children Arnold, Robert and Sharon jokingly called him “Uncle Barry” even though they were around the same age; and his brother Albert, whose children Anne, Mark, William and Michael will miss their uncle’s smile and outgoing personality.

Barry enjoyed sailing on Narragansett Bay, and especially overnights in Newport Harbor and rafting-up with friends. He made road trips to the Catskills memorable – he took pride in tying luggage and skis to the roof rack, telling crazy cowboy stories, teaching his boys to read maps (pre-GPS days), challenging them with math questions and only once leaving their pet dog at a rest-stop (they did go back to save him). Barry loved to run, and his MS diagnosis didn’t stop him from exercising. He enjoyed swimming and even won gold in the Senior Olympics. Barry and Suzanne enjoyed traveling; they cruised the Caribbean, made a meaningful trip to Israel, and celebrated their 40th anniversary in Hawaii.

Barry leaves behind his wife of 54 years, Suzanne (Schwartz); and his sons, daughters-in-law and grandchildren: Richard and Priscilla, Hannah and Ella; Daniel and Jennifer, Eddie and Oz; and Andrew and Lucia, Ethan and Thayer. He was the brother of his late sister Sylvia and late brotherin-law Joseph Feingold, and leaves behind his big-brother

Albert and his wife Barbara, of Barrington; sister-in-law Beverly Paige (Monticello, New York); sister- and brother-in-law Mindy and Howard Schwartz (Coral Springs, FL); and many nieces and nephews.

His family is truly appreciative to all the caregivers, family and many friends – including those at the MS Dream Center – who shared in providing care and compassion throughout the years. Most recently, Barry lived at Steere House. His entire family is deeply grateful for the staff members’ warmth, sensitivity and attentive care.

Donations may be made to Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center’s “General Activities Fund,” 100 Borden St., Providence, RI 02903, or the MS Dream Center, 155 Gansett Ave., Cranston, RI 02910

Hazel Grossman, 98 LANTANA, FLA. – Hazel Grossman passed peacefully in her sleep on June 23 in Lantana, where she had lived for the past four years, She died one month short of her 99th birthday. She was a lifelong resident of Providence where she raised her family.

She was the beloved wife of the late Stanley Grossman, Hazel is survived by her children Richard, Nancy and Scott; her grandchildren Erica, Alexa, Carolina and David; and her three greatgrandchildren; Katelyn, Matthew and Kelly. Hazel lived a long and beautiful life.

We remember her with love.

William Hoffman, 72 CRANSTON, R.I. – William J. Hoffman died June 18 at HopeHealth, Providence. He was the husband of the late Mildred (Sullivan) Hoffman.

Born in Providence, a son of the late Jacob and Marilyn (Manekofsky) Hoffman, he was a lifelong Cranston resident. He was a real estate appraiser, retiring 20 years ago. William was a member of Temple Beth-El. He was the father of Shayna and Joseph Hoffman, both of Cranston. He was the brother of the late Martha Sue Hoffman. He was the dogfather of Katie and Mitzi.

Contributions may be made to HopeHealth, 1085 North Main St., Providence, RI 02904.

Maxine Horovitz, 85

WORCESTER, MASS. – Maxine (Torman) Horovitz, CONTINUED ON PAGE 21

JULY 2020 | 21

jewishrhody.org | Jewish Rhode Island

OBITUARIES born Maxine Benjamin, passed away on June 1 from natural causes.

Maxine had resided at the Eisenberg Assisted Living in Worcester for the last four years.

Maxine was born on Feb. 1, 1935, to Sarah and Dr. Barnard Benjamin, and lived in Attleboro, Massachusetts during her childhood. Maxine had two sisters: Beverly (Benjamin) Kaplan (who predeceased her), and Julia (Benjamin) Holz of Manila, Philippines.

She had two daughters from her marriage to Herman R. Torman (who predeceased her in 1985): Susan Torman Kessel, of Wynnewood, Pennsylvania; and Barbara F. Cohen, of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. Maxine had four grandchildren: Sarah, Andrew, Rachel and Noah.

Maxine was an elementary and kindergarten teacher who taught in the Warwick school system for 25 years.

She resided in Warwick until she retired to Boynton Beach, Florida, and Atlanta, Georgia. She moved to Worcester to be close to her immediate family.

After Herman’s passing, Maxine was remarried to Frank Horovitz (who predeceased her), with whom she spent more than 20 years enjoying retirement in Florida and Georgia. She loved her family and traveling, and was loved by all who knew her.

Contributions may be made to the Eisenberg Assisted Living Employee Fund, 631 Salisbury St., Worcester, MA 01609.

Anita Kerzner, 96 PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Anita Shirley Kerzner passed away on June 5.

She was the wife of the late Harold L. Kerzner.

Born in Central Falls, she was a daughter of the late Edward and Anna (Mogilevkin) Kalman.

Anita and Harold lived for 65 years in the house they built in 1949, in the Darlington section of Pawtucket.

Anita is survived by her son Jay J. Kerzner and his husband Paul Colarik, of San Diego, California; her niece Sheila (Glassman) Gleckman

and her husband Robert, of Connecticut; dear friend Sylvia Weber; two grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, and many other nieces, nephews and cousins. She was the mother of the late Barry M. Kerzner and sister of the late Daisy Kalman, Morris Kalman and Dorothy Loupus.

After raising her sons, Anita earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from Rhode Island College and Salve Regina University, and became a social-work advocate for her adult daycare clients.

She was an active member of Congregation Ohawe Sholam of Pawtucket and served as president of the Jewish War Veterans Women’s Auxiliary and the Sisterhood.

Anita enjoyed time with family and friends, theater, golfing, cooking and international travel.

Anita studied languages including French, Portuguese and Spanish, and she spoke fluent Yiddish, which she enjoyed teaching to her caregivers at Hallworth House in Providence, where she spent her last years. She survived COVID-19 but succumbed to its after-effects.

Anita will be interred at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego, California, next to her husband of 75 years.

Contributions in her memory may be made to Jewish Collaborative Services of Rhode Island, 1165 North Main St., Providence, RI 02904 or www.jcsri.org.

Louise Moss, 87 RIVERSIDE, R.I. – Louise Moss died June 20. She was born in Akron, Ohio, and was a graduate of the University of Akron. After moving to Massachusetts, she worked as a senior statistical analyst, determining Navy missile test firing accuracy, and Navy and Air Force missile inertial guidance system component reliability. The last 20 years before she retired, she worked for General Electric at MIT/Lincoln Laboratory as a senior computer software engineer.

In 1994, after retiring, she moved to Bristol, and then to Riverside, adopting the Ocean State as her home. Over the years she volunteered for several organizations. She was a member of Lifelong Learning Collaborative (LLC), an organization with peer-led classes for seniors.

She is survived by her son, Daniel Leonard Moss, and her daughter and son-in-law, Linda Sue and Richard Sohn,

and her granddaughter, Hannah Sheryl Sohn.

Donations may be made to The Public’s Radio, One Union Station, Providence RI 02903, or to the charity of your choice.

Carl Perelman, 88 CRANSTON, R.I. – Carl E. Perelman died June 10 at Tamarisk Assisted Living.

Born in Providence, a son of the late Charles and Eva (Kurzman) Perelman, he had lived in Warwick for one year, previously a longtime resident of Cranston. He was a retired truck driver and worked for various companies in Rhode Island. Carl was an avid Boston sports fan, especially of the Red Sox. He was the father of Richard Perelman of Cranston and Linda Brennan (Peter) of River Forest, Illinois. He was the brother of Samuel Perelman (Donna) of Narragansett. He was the grandfather of Laura, George, Martha, Phoebe, Max and Lucy. He was the longtime friend of Edna Rubin.

Contributions may be made to Tamarisk Assisted Living, 3 Shalom Drive, Warwick, RI 02886.

Gilda J. Resnick, 93 JOHNSTON, R.I. – Gilda J. (Baker), Resnick died June 12 at her daughter’s home. She was an exceptionally beautiful and devoted wife, mother, sister and Bubbie.

She was the wife of of the late Earl J. Resnick for more than 50 years.

Born in Providence, she was a daughter of the late Archie and Anna (Davis) Baker.

Earl and Gilda spent many years in Delray Beach, Florida. She returned to Rhode Island five years ago to spend more time with her family.

Gilda was proud of earning a bachelor’s degree in gerontology from the University of Rhode Island, Class of 1980, and even prouder of her work as activities director for Summit Medical Center. She spoke fondly about being the only Jewish altar girl for the priest who came to serve the residents there. Ahead of her time, Gilda also worked in a series of other occupations to

financially assist her family.

She cherished her family most of all and was a strong advocate for her husband, mother and brother.

She was the mother of Deb Cicero (Fred) of Malden, Massachusetts; Ken Resnick (the late Claudia) of Roanoke, Virginia; Sharon Gilstein (Andy) of Warwick; and Frima Palumbo (Peter) of Johnston. She was the sister of Elayne Goodman of Boca Raton, Florida; and the late Jason Baker. She was the grandmother of Amy, Amanda, Victoria (Glenn), Ana and Eddie. She was the aunt of several nieces and nephews. The family wishes to thank the staff of Hope Hospice for their compassionate care.

Contributions may be made to HopeHealth Hospice, 1085 N. Main St., Providence, RI 02904.

David Robinson, 72 PROVIDENCE, R.I. – David A. Robinson, 72, passed away peacefully June 11. He was the son of the late Lester and Janet (Kaufman) Robinson, Born in Providence, he grew up with his late sister Diane Zapola and younger sister Deborah Siegel in a beautiful home overlooking Blackstone Boulevard.

In his younger years David was active, vibrant and always out to smile with his family, friends and community. He volunteered for years for many causes and organizations near and dear to his heart. In addition to being a self-proclaimed food critic, he loved all things Boston sports and watching UGA football games. His greatest passion was spending time at those games home and away with family and friends.

He is further survived by his niece Lauren Siegel; niece Michelle Cines and family; nephew Jeffrey Weinberg and family; and son Marc Robinson, Marc’s wife Sarah, and grandchildren Avery and Matthew Robinson.

Contributions may be made to The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, P.O. Box 98018, Washington, DC 200908018.

Selma Rosenthal, 88 Selma Leah Rosenthal passed away June 16. Born in Providence on New Year’s Day, 1932, to David and Sadie Rosenthal, she earned an announcement in The Jewish

Herald as the first Jewish baby born that year.

Selma entered first grade at 5 and graduated from Hope High School at 16. She went on to the Rhode Island College of Education for a teaching degree.

In her own words, Selma was a survivor, and indeed she was. In 1957 she married her first husband, Robert Lipsey, whom she met on a blind date. They were married for six years in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where she gave birth to their daughter Amy. In 1963, she tragically lost her husband in a fire, leaving her to raise Amy on her own.

She moved to Cherry Hill, New Jersey and met Norman Rosenthal (on another blind date), whom she married in 1966. She adopted Norman’s children, Jeffrey and Marilyn, and Norman adopted Amy. They were married for 26 years before he died, and she always referred to him as “the love of her life.”

She believed in education and built a professional teaching career that spanned 40 years. Selma taught in both public and private schools before retiring from Kellman Academy in Cherry Hill.

She loved to read, completed the New York Times Sunday puzzle easily, and enjoyed “salty” language. She never passed up an opportunity for time with her children and grandchildren – using many of those occasions to teach and share her wisdom.

Selma is survived by her children Amy (Ortlieb) Rosenthal, Marilyn Rosenthal and Jeffrey Rosenthal; grandchildren Nicole, Emma and Andrew Ortlieb; and sons-in-law Chris Ortlieb and Mark Tavlarides.

Dale Salmanson, 70 PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Dale Azimow Salmanson, of Providence, Newton, Massachusetts, and Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, died June 20.

Dale is survived by Jerry Salmanson, her husband of 13 years; her daughter Ilissa Wood Lipworth (Jared) of Potomac, Maryland; her son Ethan Wood (Stefani) of Sharon, Massachusetts; four grandchildren, Emma and Alexandra Lipworth and Sadie and Meyer Wood; and her brother Josh Azimow. Dale will also be lovingly rememCONTINUED ON PAGE 22

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Jewish Rhode Island | jewishrhody.org

COMMUNITY

HEA

NURTURING AND HONORING ourselves can be especially challenging during this time of COVID-19.

To help cope with the current roller-coaster ride of the pandemic, the economy, race issues, politics and global warming, try checking in with yourself every PATRICIA day. Are RASKIN you tired?

Do your muscles ache? Are you angry? Are you overloaded with information? Do you need a kind word, reassurance or a hug? We are so much more effective when we pay attention, take care of what’s in the way, pause, and then continue on.

A simple walk outside, just breathing, talking to a friend on the phone, giving your loved ones a hug, or going to a place where you can inhale the beauty of nature may be all you need to find balance. Even when we must follow social-distancing protocols, summer offers so much opportunity to be outside and enjoy the fresh air that is needed for physical, emotional and mental well-being.

The following is a story from my book “Pathfinding: Seven Principles for Positive Living.”

A man and a woman were strolling along a crowded sidewalk in a downtown business area. Suddenly one of them exclaimed, “Did you hear that meow?”

They both stopped and listened intently. “There it is again. Didn’t you hear it?” asked the one who had heard the kitten a second time.

“How can you hear that kitten’s meow in this frenzied city?” her companion asked.

The woman smiled but did not explain. She simply took a quarter out of her purse and dropped it on the sidewalk, causing a dozen people to look around for the loose change.

“We hear,” she said, “what we listen for.”

Listen for the things that bring joy and inner peace, especially in this time of crisis.

Step out on faith and you’ll get faith-lifts wherever you go. As Rabbi David Cooper wrote on his website, www.rabbidavidcooper.com, “In Judaism, the Kabalistic idea that creation is taking place in each and every moment brings an acute sensitivity to everything … an entirely new perspective that sees things as they are.”

OBITUARIES FROM PAGE 21

causes. Dale also channeled her love of Broadway into directing many memorable theater productions at her children’s schools and at the temple.

Dale’s passing comes after a five-year battle with a rare form of dementia. Her family offer their endless appreciation to the caregivers who kept her safe and to the doctors who are so committed to putting an end to this tragic disease.

Donations may be made to the MGH FTD Unit, mail to: Alexandra Van Strien, Mass General Development Office, 125 Nashua St., Ste. 540, Boston, MA 02114. Gifts may also be made online.

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bered by Jerry’s children, David Salmanson (Debra) of Miami, Florida; and Lauren Salmanson Levin (Jeff) of New York City and their children.

Dale was born to Esther Himmel Azimow and Isaac “Ike” Azimow on Feb. 10, 1950 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She graduated from Hazelton High School in 1967 and from Boston University in 1971. She earned a master’s degree in special education from Suffolk University in 1971 and taught for several years in the Boston area. She earned a second master’s degree in public relations from Boston University’s College of Communication in 1990. She held a variety of professional roles, from assistant producer of the WBZ-TV Boston news show to marketing for companies in the beauty and home furnishings industries.

Dale was a longstanding member of Temple Beth Avodah in Newton. She was president of the Temple Sisterhood in the 1980s and volunteered for many charitable

PATRICIA RASKIN, owner of Raskin Resources Productions, is a media host, coach and award-winning radio producer and business owner.

Florence Tilles, 98 PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Florence (Trinkel) Tilles passed away May 30 at Hallworth House, Providence. Flo was the wife of the late Norman Tilles.

Born in Providence, on July 4, 1921, the daughter of Benjamin and Carrie Trinkel, she was predeceased by her twin brother, Bernard “Buddy”

Meal site manager Elaine Shapiro delivers a meal.

JCS continues to serve Rhode Island

BY JEWISH RI STAFF THE BUILDING AT 1165 North Main St. may be closed to visitors and clients, but the folks at Jewish Collaborative Services have remained active and continue serving the community throughout the COVID-19 crisis.

All of their programs, from the Kosher nutrition, the Kosher food pantry and counseling to Lifeline, Adoption Options and kesher have continued operating.

Take JERI, for example.

The staff is staying connected to nursing home and assisted living residents by making phone calls and

Trinkel, who died in combat during WWII; brother Murray Trinkle; and sister, Doris Packer.

She is survived, by her three children: Sandra Tilles of Whitethorn, California; Donna Tilles and her husband Brian Stahl of West Roxbury, Massachusetts; and Barry Tilles and his wife Sarah Shoemaker of Norwell, Massachusetts; grandchildren Deva Wolf and Alice Tilles; great-grandchildren Sonya and Elijah Lustig, and many nieces and nephews.

Flo graduated from college in 1943 with a degree in sociology and psychology. She was an avid sportswoman and played golf into her 90s. Flo worked for 20 years as a social worker for the RI Division of Child Welfare. She loved theater, music, fashion, playing bridge and Rachel Maddow.

Flo worked diligently behind the scenes to support her husband as a founder of Trinity

delivering care packages during a time when these seniors can’t have any visitors.

Thanks to a donation from Friends of Jewish Seniors, JERI staff members, Susie and Dori Adler recently prepared more than 100 chocolate bars for delivery to nursing home residents at 26 facilities across Rhode Island. Each chocolate bar had an individually wrapped message.

Meal site members now get their meals delivered.

There are approximately 60 people getting meals five days a week. And they can participate in weekly online programming organized

Repertory Company.

After Norman died, she spent 13 years living at Laurelmead with many of her childhood friends. Flo outlived them all but she never lacked for companionship, as her charm and genuine interest in others attracted many new friends. After a fall with two broken legs, and legally blind, she chose to spend her final year at Hallworth House, where she received extraordinary love and care and found peace and contentment each day. The family is indebted to the staff, and especially grateful for the loving kindness and compassion that Flo was shown during her last days there when she succumbed to COVID-19.

Contributions may be made to Heart of the Redwoods Community Hospice, 464 Maple Lane, Garberville, CA 95542, or Trinity Repertory Company, 201 Washington St., Providence, RI 02903.

Marcia Wolf, 92 WARWICK, R.I. – Marcia Wolf died June 9 at the Green-

Susie Adler

by Neal Drobnis, nutrition coordinator.

FOR MORE INFORMATION on all of Jewish Collaborative Services programs, call 401-331-1244.

wood Center, in Warwick.

She was the wife of the late Sidney Wolf. Born in Poland, a daughter of the late Abraham and Rose (Graft) Kelberman, she had lived in Warwick for more than 50 years. She was a receiver for Ann & Hope in Warwick for more than 30 years.

She was the mother of Donna Morin and her husband Pierre, of Tiverton; and Stuart Wolf and his wife Kim, of Wells, Maine. She was the sister of Gertrude Aron of Warwick and Faye Cameron of California. She was the grandmother of Chelsea, Philip and Stephen. She was the great-grandmother of Scott, Charlie and Jackson.

Contributions may be made to Greenwood Center in Memory of Marcia Wolf, 1139 Main Ave., Warwick, RI 02886.

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INSTALLS ON NEW & EXISTING GUTTERS LIFETIME WARRANTY

THE LEAFFILTER SYSTEM Micromesh

15% OFF YOUR ENTIRE LEAFFILTER PURCHASE* Exclusive Offer – Redeem By Phone Today!

ADDITIONALLY Virgin Vinyl

10% OFF SENIOR & MILITARY DISCOUNTS

Hanger

Existing Gutter

PLUS!

THE FIRST 50 CALLERS WILL

CALL US TODAY FOR

A FREE ESTIMATE

1-401-735-0492 Promo Code: 285

Mon-Thurs: 8am-11pm, Fri-Sat: 8am-5pm, Sun: 2pm-8pm EST

RECEIVE AN ADDITIONAL

5% OFF

YOUR ENTIRE INSTALL! **Offer valid at estimate only

FINANCING THAT FITS 1 YOUR BUDGET! Subject to credit approval.

Call for details.

1

“My only regret is that I wish I had known about LeafFilter sooner.” –Doug L.

*The leading consumer reporting agency conducted a 16 month outdoor test of gutter guards in 2010 and recognized LeafFilter as the “#1 rated professionally installed gutter guard system in America.” *For those who qualify. **Offer valid at time of estimate only **One coupon per household. No obligation estimate valid for 1 year. CSLB# 1035795 DOPL #10783658-5501 License# 7656 License# 50145 License# 41354 License# 99338 License# 128344 License# 218294 License# 603 233 977 License# 2102212986 License# 2106212946 License# 2705132153A License# LEAFFNW822JZ License# WV056912 License# WC-29998-H17 Nassau HIC License# H01067000 Registration# 176447 Registration# HIC.0649905 Registration# C127229 Registration# C127230 Registration# 366920918 Registration# PC6475 Registration# IR731804 Registration# 13VH09953900 Registration# PA069383 Suffolk HIC License# 52229-H