December 2021

The Voice of Greater Rhode Island’s Jewish Community

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Which team are you on?

HAVE YOU LISTENED to the first podcasts from Jewish Rhody Media? It’s a terrific series on leadership called Chutzpah!

There’s a new episode every other Thursday, featuring Adam Greenman, president and CEO of the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island (and Jewish Rhode Island’s publisher) interviewing business leaders from around little Rhody.

These Jewish movers and shakers have many interesting stories to tell, as well as tips on leadership. It’s definitely worth a listen – at roughly 30 minutes each, you can quickly learn a lot.

And be sure to listen until the end, because that’s when Greenman asks some lighter questions, including one that’s been particularly relevant this month: How do you spell Hanukkah?

Are you team Hanukkah or Chanukah?

There are many ways to spell the holiday in English, but the big question for those of us involved in print is: Do you start the word with “H” or “Ch”? (This is true for many words spelled with a het/ chet.) After that, there are a variety of spellings involving multiples – or not – of “n” and “k.”

Some people choose to use an underlined H as an indicator of the ch sound.

This can be problematic with our print newspaper, and we do not use this method.

And sometimes, I’ve learned, opinions and usage vary even within families. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been team H. My sister, on the other hand, seems to use Ch. How is that possible?

For Jewish Rhode Island, we rely on the wisdom of the Associated Press Style-

book, which dictates grammar, spelling and other issues for many publications.

AP says: Hanukkah.

The “Dictionary of Jewish Words,” by Joyce Eisenberg, another guidebook that we commonly consult, also says Hanukkah. So that’s the spelling you will see in Jewish Rhode Island. (However, since our advertisers submit their own ads, you will see a variety of spellings in those ads, which we don’t edit.)

If you’ve ever wondered why the newspaper uses certain spellings instead of others, as in the case of Huppah instead of Chuppah and hag instead of chag, for example, the same rule applies: our stylebooks dictate one spelling over another, even though people are pretty evenly divided on how they spell these words.

What’s it like in your family? We all have an opinion and at Jewish Rhode Island, we’d love to hear yours.

As for chutzpah with a Ch? Well, the “Dictionary of Jewish Words” uses that spelling for that classic Yiddish word.

You can find links to the Chutzpah! podcasts on the Jewish Rhode Island website home page (jewishrhody.org) or on Apple Music and Spotify, where you can also subscribe to receive notices when new episodes drop. The latest is out on Dec. 2 and features Rabbi Sarah Mack of Temple Beth-El, in Providence.

In this season of shorter days and longer nights, I hope your family’s hanukkiah burned brightly, shedding light and hope on the season.

Hag sameach!

Fran Ostendorf, Editor

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EDITOR Fran Ostendorf DESIGN & LAYOUT Alex Foster ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT Peter Zeldin | 401-421-4111, ext. 160 pzeldin@jewishallianceri.org CONTRIBUTORS Cynthia Benjamin, Larry Kessler, Robert Isenberg, Emma Newbery COLUMNISTS Michael Fink, Patricia Raskin, Rabbi James Rosenberg, Daniel Stieglitz

VOLUME XXVIII, ISSUE XII JEWISH RHODE ISLAND

(ISSN number 1539-2104, USPS #465-710) is published monthly except twice in May, August and September.

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ON THE COVER: Harpist Laura Cole plays for guests of the Kosher Senior Cafe at their first in-person lunch in May. PHOTO BY GLENN OSMUNDSON

4 | DECEMBER 2021

Jewish Rhode Island | jewishrhody.org

UP FRONT

The Alef Beats in 2019, before the pandemic.

PHOTO | DIYI ZHANG

The Alef Beats Zoomed through lockdown, emerged still singing

BY ROBERT ISENBERG

A

ny singer will tell you that a cappella really only works

when all the singers are together in person. The Alef Beats are no exception: the Jewish-themed singing group thrives on live energy.

WHETHER THEY SING in Hebrew or English, a sacred choral piece or an Israeli pop song, The Alef Beats need each other.

It has been so since the group was founded in 2005 to showcase the musical talents of students from

Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design.

With proximity comes harmony and energy. But when a global pandemic hits, how do you stoke that energy through a year of isolation?

“Music over Zoom doesn’t really work,” says Arenal Haut, a sophomore medical anthropology major at Brown and a Baltimore native. “It doesn’t sync up right. A lot of the times we would mute ourselves on Zoom because it would cause feedback.

I’d be singing in my room, seeing someone else mouth the words, but not be able to hear them. It was a very weird experience.”

The Beats’ pandemic

saga began around Purim in 2020, when the group was scheduled to perform a holiday concert at the two schools’ joint Hillel, at 80 Brown St., Providence. The group had been maintaining its usual rigorous rehearsal and performance schedule, and there was nothing strange in the lead-up to the holiday concert – except for recent headlines. Like the rest of the world in March 2020, members had heard of COVID-19, but weren’t sure what to make of it.

“A day or two before it [the concert], [Brown] sent out an email saying, ‘Only 100 people can show up for this concert, due to COVID,’ ” recalls Zachary Reiss, a junior majoring

in history and economics at Brown. Originally from Chicago, Reiss is one of the Beats’ music directors.

“We ended up giving a concert, but it was really weird, because they canceled the reception after.

We all thought, ‘This is weird, but maybe things will be OK,’ ” he said.

But it wasn’t OK. The nation went into lockdown, and Brown students were told to vacate campus for their own safety.

“I think at first, we didn’t know what to do,” continues Reiss. “I think no student groups knew what to do, especially student groups like a cappella groups, that are all about coming together and singing, which is something

you really can’t do over Zoom.”

But The Alef Beats rolled with the punches. They remained social, using video conferencing to meet regularly. They refined their computer skills and produced Zoom-based music videos, covering Maggie Rogers’ “Alaska,” Yaniv Ben Mashiach’s “Ad Sof Haolam,” and Dudu Tassa’s “Ma’aliot.”

“As COVID went on, as being stuck inside went on, we became more comfortable doing virtual rehearsals and recording ourselves,” Reiss said.

By the fall of 2020, the time had come to consider new members. Most activities on Brown’s campus CONTINUED ON PAGE 5

DECEMBER 2021 | 5

jewishrhody.org | Jewish Rhode Island

What’s in a name? In the case of Hanukkah, a lot

home for me,” says Monica Roy, a computer science major at Brown. Roy’s family originally came from India, but she grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was close with the Jewish community there.

She attended many B’nai Mitzvot and even worked at a Jewish preschool summer camp.

“From the very get-go, [The Alef Beats] really helped me feel like I was someone who belonged at Brown,” she said.

Roy also embraces the challenge of learning Hebrew and Yiddish lyrics.

“I am definitely someone who enjoys learning languages, especially ones that are linguistically distant from each other,” says Roy, who has studied both Spanish and Korean. “Through this lens that interacts with music, I see it as this way to learn more about people in different parts of the world.”

The Beats’ repertoire is all over the map – literally – and connections to the Jewish diaspora can be heavy or light. Standards from “Fiddler on the Roof” have obvious significance; “Superstition,” by Stevie

Wonder, is known to refer to the stories of Daniel and Jacob in the Torah. Some members are well versed in Israeli singers who are little known in the U.S., and The Beats’ vocal arrangements may be the first version their audience has ever heard.

When The Alef Beats were finally able to come together for in-person rehearsals, the reunion was emotional. Many members had spent the year seeing each other only on screens; newer members had never met their fellow singers in person.

“At first, there was that moment of, ‘Wow, I can’t believe this is you, we’re actually in person, this is amazing,’ ” remembers Reiss. “And then we got to the experience where we started singing. That’s an experience that was amazing, but I also never want to replicate again, because that would mean that we hadn’t sung in person for a year and a half.”

Since then, their ranks have only grown. The Alef Beats ran another round of auditions this September, and added seven new members, bringing the group’s

R

TO R A H

were still remote, so The Alef Beats held auditions over Zoom.

Haut was one of the singers to audition. Like most members, Haut had sung in high school, and sought a place in college for crooning and camaraderie.

The audition experience was strange, but Haut knew she wanted to join The Alef Beats.

“There are a lot of a cappella groups on Brown’s campus,” she said. “But I really like that [The Alef Beats] have a lot of fun.

I like that we have this specific thing that makes us different from the other groups. The biggest thing is the people; everyone is so friendly. It really is like a family.”

The Alef Beats celebrate Jewish culture and rehearse in the Hillel building, but the group itself is diverse. Members study everything from geology to political science.

Haut estimates that half the members are Jewish, like herself, but even among that half, religious observance varies widely.

“It instantly felt like a

The word Hanukkah means inauguration, or dedication

thinking of as we light the Hanukkah candles? Yes, we should remember the military victory. Yes, we should remember the miracle of the oil. And yes, we should eat delicious oily foods and exchange gifts. But may I suggest that we also ask ourselves (and those around us): to what are you rededicating yourself this year? What ideals, actions and values did you identify during the pandemic that you want to continue? Which practices or traditions that lapsed do you want to bring back into your life?

May this year’s Hanukkah inspire us to live lives of greater holiness, dedicated to serving the noblest of causes.

Greater Rhode Island December 2021 Dec. 3

Dec. 17

3:56 pm

Dec. 24 4:00 pm Dec. 31 4:05 pm

MICHAEL FEL is the senior rabbi at Temple Emanu-El, in Providence.

total to 18.

“Our first rehearsal, once we accepted our new members, was really, really exciting,” says Haut. “Just hearing all the energy and sound that they brought to the group, and hearing how amazing it was when we were all together.”

To see The Alef Beats’ concert schedule or order their first album, “No Time for Getting Old,” visit https://thealefbeats. wixsite.com/home.

ROBERT ISENBERG (risenberg@jewishallianceri.org) is the multimedia producer for the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island and a writer for Jewish Rhode Island.

3:55 pm

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D' VA

(as in the number of days in the holiday) and the second letter, nun, is the first letter in the word nerot, meaning candles. The last three letters in Hanukkah, vav, kaf and hey, are an acronym for vehalakhah k’veit Hillel, meaning that the way we light the candles is in agreement with the teaching of Beit Hillel (who taught that we add a candle each night, instead of starting with eight and then taking one away each night). Impressive for a five-letter word!

So what is the central idea that we should be

nalist Shoshana Kordova, the first letter, het, represents the number eight

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we realized that another answer was right before us: the name of the festival itself.

The word Hanukkah means inauguration, or dedication, and reminds us of how Judah the Maccabee and his brothers rededicated the Temple in Jerusalem after they defeated Antiochus IV, in 167 BCE. The Temple, having been defiled with an idol, needed to be cleansed and rededicated.

From this, we learn that the holiday is about dedicating ourselves, and the world around us, RABBI to a sacred MICHAEL FEL purpose.

Incidentally, the Hebrew spelling of Hanukkah also tells us a lot about how to celebrate the festival.

According to Haaretz jour-

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DURING RELIGIOUS SCHOOL a few Sundays ago, I challenged my sixth- and seventh-grade students to identify the central idea of Hanukkah in as few words as possible.

As you can imagine, some mentioned giving and receiving presents, while others proclaimed their love of latkes and doughnuts.

After sharing a few laughs, we began taking a deeper dive into the historic and spiritual aspects of the festival.

Correctly, some stated that Hanukkah celebrates our ancestors’ military victory over our oppressors. Others, rightly, spoke of the importance of miracles and never giving up.

And then, of course,

Candle lighting times

The Jewish Voice Rep: Peter Zeldin B&W spot ad: 2" X 3" December 3, 2021 – Seniors Deadline - November 22, 2021 Submitted - November 12, 2021

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CALENDAR HIGHLIGHTS FOR COMPLETE MONTHLY LISTINGS, VISIT JEWISHRHODY.ORG

Ongoing

Kosher Senior Café and Programming. In-person lunches 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Monday – Thursday and Friday, 12/3 (see listing below), at the Dwares JCC, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence; Fridays (except 12/3) at Temple Sinai, 30 Hagen Ave., Cranston. In-person and Zoom programming includes “Exercise for Everyone” with exercise science professional Laura Goodwin on Mondays and Wednesdays from 11-11:45 a.m. and chair yoga on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:30 a.m.-noon followed by lunch and a guest speaker or discussion from noon-1 p.m. The second Tuesday of the month is “Susie’s Corner” with Susie Adler from noon-1 p.m. The third Thursday of the month is a book chat with Neal Drobnis from noon-1 p.m. Suggested donation: $3 per lunch for those age 60 and older as well as for younger adults with a disability. Other adults may purchase a meal for $6.50.

Information and RSVP, Neal Drobnis at neal@jfsri.org or 401-421-4111, ext. 107.

Music with Raymond Buttero via Zoom. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays 3-4 p.m. Temple Sinai's pianist performs. Link at templesinairi.org. Information, dottie@ templesinairi.org or 401-942-8350.

Project Shoresh Ladies Partners in Torah Night. Sundays 7:458:45 p.m. Providence Hebrew Day School, 450 Elmgrove Ave., Providence. Partner-based study group.

Study your choice of texts, English or Hebrew, ancient or modern, with on-site facilitators available. Let us know if you need a "study-buddy."

Free. Information, Naftali Karp at naftalikarp@gmail.com or 401-6323165.

Advanced Beginner and Intermediate Conversational Hebrew Classes. Mondays 6:30-7:30 p.m. thru 12/13. Temple Emanu-El and the Jewish Alliance invite you to improve your speaking skills.

Offered via Zoom; Intermediate also offered in-person at the Dwares JCC. 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence. Cost: $100 per person.

Information, Toby Liebowitz at tobyaane@gmail.com.

Temple Torat Yisrael Men's Club Game Night. Mondays 6-8 p.m.

1251 Middle Road, East Greenwich.

Socialize and join in the fun with table tennis and card games. Information, Temple@toratyisrael.org.

Beginner and Advanced Conversational Hebrew Classes.

Tuesdays 6:30-7:30 p.m. thru 12/14.

Temple Emanu-El and the Jewish Alliance invite you to improve your speaking skills. Offered via Zoom;

Beginner also offered in-person at the Dwares JCC, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence. Cost: $100 per person. Information, Toby Liebowitz at tobyaane@gmail.com.

Project Shoresh Men's Partners in Torah Night. Wednesdays 7:45-8:45 p.m. Providence Hebrew Day School, 450 Elmgrove Ave., Providence. Partner-based study group. Study your choice of texts, English or Hebrew, ancient or modern, with on-site facilitators available. Free. Information, Naftali Karp at naftalikarp@gmail.com or 401-632-3165.

Delve Deeper: “Creativity & Resilience: Jewish Life in Eastern Europe 1500-2020.” Wednesdays 7:30-9:30 p.m. thru 12/8. Explore via Zoom this world unto itself but also closely interlinked with the surrounding Slavic and Christian milieu. Instructor: Natan M. Meir, Ph.D., Lorey I. Lokey Professor of Judaic Studies, Portland State University. Information, Morty Miller at mortymiller1945@gmail.com.

Temple Habonim Lunch and Learn via Zoom. Thursdays noon-1:30 p.m. Join Rabbi Howard Voss-Altman for weekly Torah discussion.

No Hebrew fluency or any background in Jewish textual analysis needed. Free. Information, Adina Davies at office@templehabonim. org or 401-245-6536.

“Love Our Neighbor” – Insights from the weekly Torah portion to enhance your relationships – with Rabbi Naftali. Thursdays 7:30-8:15 p.m. thru 12/10. Examine the weekly Torah reading and be amazed at how topical and relevant the Parsha’s (weekly Torah readings) ideas and concepts are for your relationships. Via Zoom. Information, Naftali Karp at naftalikarp@ gmail.com or 401-632-3165.

Temple Sinai Shabbat Services.

Fridays 6 p.m. 30 Hagen Ave., Cranston. Join us in song, prayer and reflection in-person or on Zoom. With Rabbi Jeffrey Goldwasser and Cantor Deborah Johnson.

Zoom link at templesinairi.org.

Information, dottie@templesinairi. org or 401-942-8350.

Project Shoresh Lively Kabbalat Shabbat. Fridays. Services will begin at the commencement of Shabbat. Providence Hebrew Day School (side entrance), 450 Elmgrove Ave., Providence. Welcome Shabbat with a few inspiring words, melodious songs and traditional services. Open to all. Information, Naftali Karp at naftalikarp@ gmail.com or 401-632-3165.

Cape Cod Synagogue Shabbat Services. Fridays 7 p.m. On 12/3, 6:30 p.m., when Family Shabbat Services take place. 145 Winter St., Hyannis, Mass. With Rabbi David Freelund. In-person and livestreamed on multiple platforms (website, Facebook, Cape Media, YouTube and Community Television Comcast channel 99). In-person for all ages with mask – proof of vaccination needed for 12 and older.

Information, 508-775-2988 or capecodsynagogue.org.

Temple Beth-El Torah Study.

Saturdays 9-10:30 a.m. (No Torah Study second Saturday of the month or 12/25.) 70 Orchard Ave., Providence. Delve into the weekly portion with Rabbi Sarah Mack and Rabbi Preston Neimeiser. In-person only. Information, Joie Magnone at jmagnone@temple-beth-el.org or 401-331-6070, ext. 100.

Temple Beth-El Shabbat Morning Service. Second Saturday of the month 9-10:30 a.m. 70 Orchard Ave., Providence. Shabbat morning minyan with lay participation incorporating study, Torah and Haftarah readings. Multi-access: in-person or livestream through webpage or on Facebook. Information, Joie Magnone at jmagnone@ temple-beth-el.org or 401-3316070, ext. 100.

Temple Torat Yisrael Virtual and In-Person Shabbat Services. Saturdays 9:30-10:30 a.m. 1251 Middle Road, East Greenwich. Led by Rabbi Aaron Philmus. Information or Zoom link, Temple@toratyisrael. org.

Temple Habonim Torah Study via Zoom. Saturdays 10-11 a.m. Rabbi Howard Voss-Altman leads Torah study on current portion. Information, Adina Davies at office@templehabonim.org or 401-245-6536.

Temple Sinai Shabbat Breakfast & Torah Study In-person and via Zoom. Saturdays 9:30-11 a.m. Temple Sinai, 30 Hagen Ave., Cranston. Interactive discussion with Rabbi Jeffrey Goldwasser or others in our community. Zoom link at templesinairi.org. Information, dottie@templesinairi.org or 401942-8350.

Cape Cod Synagogue Shabbat Services. Saturdays 10:30 a.m.

145 Winter St., Hyannis, Mass. With Rabbi David Freelund. In-person and livestreamed on multiple platforms. Services are in-person with proof of vaccination; must wear a mask. Services also available online via website, Facebook and YouTube.

Information, Cape Cod Synagogue at 508-775-2988 or capecodsynagogue.org.

Temple Sinai Shabbat Morning Service in-person and via Zoom.

Saturdays 11 a.m. (10:30 a.m. when celebrating a Bar or Bat Mitzvah)-noon. Temple Sinai, 30 Hagen Ave., Cranston. Information, templesinairi.org or Dottie at 401942-8350.

Friday | December 3

Kosher Senior Café Hanukkah Celebration. 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Dwares JCC, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence. Festive meal and music by Stanley Freedman & Sounds of Simcha. Suggested donation: $3 per lunch. Information and RSVP (required), Neal or Elaine at 401421-4111, ext. 107.

Temple Torat Yisrael Virtual Kabbalat Shabbat Services.

5:45-6:30 p.m. Led by Rabbi Aaron Philmus. For information or Zoom link, Temple@toratyisrael.org.

Project Shoresh Community Shabbat Hanukkah Dinner. 6 p.m.

Mishkon Tfiloh, 203 Summit Ave., Providence. Celebrate with the whole community. Cost: Adults $18, Young Professionals/Students $15, Children $13, Family Max. $54.

Information and RSVP, projectshoresh.com.

Temple Beth-El Shabbat Service.

7-8 p.m. 70 Orchard Ave., Providence. Multi-access: in-person or via Zoom or Facebook Live.

Information, Joie Magnone at jmagnone@temple-beth-el.org or 401-331-6070, ext. 100.

Saturday | December 4

Temple Emanu-El Hanukkah Dance Party featuring Ezekiel's Wheels.

5-7 p.m., 99 Taft Ave., Providence.

Hanukkah celebration including food, Klezmer music and fun. For all ages.

All attendees over the age of 12 must be fully vaccinated. Free. Sponsored by the Edwin S. Soforenko Foundation. Information and RSVP, teprov. org/holidays.html.

PJ Library and Temple Habonim “Pajama Hanukkah.” 5:30-7 p.m.

Temple Habonim, 165 New Meadow Road, Barrington. Come in your pajamas to dance and sing with Rock-a-Baby. Light the Havdalah candle and the menorah. Suggested for ages 7 and under. N95 (without vents), KN95 or KF94 masks required. Information, Adina at office@templehabonim.org or 401245-6536 or Lyndsey at lursillo@ jewishallianceri.org or 401-421-4111, ext. 141.

Chanukah Habayit – Dedication & Opening of CBS' New Space. 7-9 p.m. Dwares JCC, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence. Information, office@bethsholom-ri.org or 401236-7536.

Sunday | December 5

Super Sunday 2021. 9 a.m.-noon.

Dwares JCC, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence. Join the Jewish Alliance of Greater RI for its single biggest fundraising day of the year.

Co-chaired by Brauna Doidge and Abigail Anthony. Opportunities available for in-person or remote volunteers. Information, jewishallianceri.org/SuperSunday/.

The Alef Beats A Cappella Concert at Temple Habonim. 11:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m. 165 New Meadow Road, Barrington. In-person concert including Hanukkah songs. The Beats sing in all styles and formats, including Israeli and American pop/ rock, old country Yiddish melodies, show tunes and arrangements of modern Hebrew liturgical songs.

Free. For all ages. RSVP (required) and information, Adina at office@ templehabonim.org or 401-2456536.

Hanukkah Spectaculah. 3-6 p.m.

Biltmore Park, between Exchange Terrace & Dorrance Street, Providence. The Department of Art, Culture + Tourism, in collaboration with the Jewish Alliance of Greater RI, Brown RISD Hillel, the Board of Rabbis of Greater RI, Kosher for the People and Congregation Beth Sholom, presents live klezmer music, treats, a cash bar, art-making and more. Information, Larry Katz at lkatz@jewishallianceri.org or 401-421-4111, ext. 179.

Grand Car Menorah Parade. 3:45 p.m. Depart from local Chabad center and travel to meet in Providence, ending at the Rhode Island State House with the lighting of an outdoor menorah. Sponsored by Chabad centers in Rhode Island.

For more details and to reserve a spot and menorah, contact your local Chabad. Providence: 401273-7238; Warwick: 401-884-7888; Lincoln: 401-499-2574.

Temple Beth-El Hanukkah “Festival of Laser Light” Show. 4-5 p.m. 70 Orchard Ave., Providence.

Celebrate Hanukkah with a dazzling laser light show for the whole family that brings the Hanukkah story to life. Free. RSVP (required) and information, Joie Magnone at jmagnone@temple-beth-el.org or 401-331-6070, ext. 100.

Wednesday | December 8

Israeli Culture Series and Behind the Book present “Twelve Tribes: Promise and Peril in the New Israel” with author Ethan Michaeli. 7-8:15 p.m. “Twelve Tribes” explores tribalism in Israel by weaving together personal histories of ordinary citizens to reveal the country’s extraordinary, polyphonic diversity as well

DECEMBER 2021 | 7

jewishrhody.org | Jewish Rhode Island

CALENDAR as its volatility. Via Zoom. Free.

Information, Larry Katz at lkatz@ jewishallianceri.org or 401-4214111, ext. 179.

Thursday | December 9

Core Connects RI Book Group: “What Would You Do If You Weren't Afraid” by Michal Oshman. 7:30-8:30 p.m. With its uplifting belief that you already have all the ingredients within and around you to lead a joyous life, this audiobook will help you to reconnect with your courage.

Via Zoom. Information and RSVP, coreconnectsri.com or Elissa Felder at CoreConnectsRI@gmail. com or 401-241-9631.

Friday | December 10

Temple Torat Yisrael TGIS Musical Family Shabbat with Rabbi Aaron Philmus. 5-5:30 p.m. 1251 Middle Road, East Greenwich. Say goodbye to the work week with friends and family with a musical service led by Rabbi Aaron Philmus. In person only. Information, Temple@toratyisrael.org or 401-885-6600.

Temple Torat Yisrael Virtual Kabbalat Shabbat Songs & Torah Services. 5:45-6:30 p.m.

Led by Rabbi Aaron Philmus.

For information or Zoom link, Temple@toratyisrael.org or 401885-6600.

Temple Beth-El Shabbat Service. 7-8 p.m. 70 Orchard Ave., Providence. Multi-access: in-person or via Zoom or Facebook Live. Information, Joie Magnone at jmagnone@temple-beth-el.org or 401-331-6070, ext. 100.

Saturday | December 11

Kids’ Night Out. 6-10 p.m.

Dwares JCC, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence. Activities will include gym time, board games and a movie with popcorn. Pizza will be served. Ages: 5-12. Price: $50 | Members: $40 | Sibling discount: $25 for nonmembers and $20 for members. Information or to register, Jim Rawl at jrawl@ jewishallianceri.org or 401-4214111, ext. 140.

Sunday | December 12

Congregation Beth David Story Time and Crafts with PJ Library. 9:45 a.m. 102 Kingstown Road, Narragansett. Have fun as we explore a variety of PJ Library books and participate in crafts and games. Free. Synagogue membership not required. For ages 2-8. Information, Amanda Stevens at greenspan.amanda@ gmail.com.

Friday | December 17

Temple Torat Yisrael Friday Night Live (FNL). 5:45 p.m. 1251 Middle Road, East Greenwich.

Musical Shabbat service with Rabbi Aaron Philmus and the TTY Band. Followed by in-person dinner with takeout option. Zoom available. Adult dinner (chicken marsala or baked scrod, soup, salad, rice pilaf, dessert): $26.95 | Kid’s meal (chicken nuggets, soup, salad, rice, dessert): $14.95.

Information, Temple@toratyisrael. org or 401-885-6600.

Temple Beth-El Shabbat Service. 7-8 p.m. 70 Orchard Ave., Providence. Multi-access: in-person or via Zoom or Facebook Live. Information, Joie Magnone at jmagnone@temple-beth-el.org or 401-331-6070, ext. 100.

Sunday | December 19

Temple Torat Yisrael Sprouts Program – Shabbat. 9:30-10:30 a.m. 1251 Middle Road, East Greenwich. Active program to learn about Jewish culture and holidays with Rabbi Aaron and Morah Leah. For children ages 3-5 and their parents. Open to the community. Cost: $10. COVID precautions will be taken. Activities will be outside, weather permitting. Dress accordingly. Information, temple@toratyisrael.org.

Monday | December 20

Core Connects and Cong. Beth Sholom Vision Board Making.

6:30-8 p.m. Dwares JCC. 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence.

Information and RSVP, coreconnectsri.com or Elissa Felder at CoreConnectsRI@gmail.com or 401-241-9631.

Greater Providence Hebrew Free Loan Association For more than 110 years we have been lending a Helping Hand to members of the Rhode Island, Southeastern Massachusetts and Nearby Connecticut Jewish Communities.

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Thanking our Jewish neighbors for their support over the past 30 years!

Friday | December 24

Temple Beth-El Kabbalat Shabbat Service. 5:45-6:15 p.m.

70 Orchard Ave., Providence.

Multi-access: in-person in the Chapel or via Zoom or Facebook Live. Information, Joie Magnone at jmagnone@temple-beth-el.org or 401-331-6070, ext. 100.

Temple Torat Yisrael Virtual Kabbalat Shabbat Songs & Torah Services. 5:45-6:30 p.m. Led by Rabbi Aaron Philmus. Information and link, Temple@toratyisrael.org or 401-885-6600.

Friday | December 31

Temple Beth-El Kabbalat Shabbat Service. 5:45-6:15 p.m.

70 Orchard Ave., Providence.

Multi-access: in-person in the Chapel or via Zoom or Facebook Live. Information, Joie Magnone at jmagnone@temple-beth-el.org or 401-331-6070, ext. 100.

Join us for half price appetizers and pizza daily 4-6pm Visit us at Stockfoodgroup.com 762 Hope Street, Providence 421-4114

8 | DECEMBER 2021

Jewish Rhode Island | jewishrhody.org

COMMUNITY VOICES | OPINION Root causes of campus anti-Semitism

Farrel I. Klein Providence, RI

Send us your photos!

Are you traveling? Take us along on your trip and snap a photo for “We are Read.” Then send it to editor@jewishallianceri.org with your name and where you’ve been. We haven’t seen your photos in so long. It will be nice to travel with you. Jewish Rhode Island looks great against an ocean sunset or a monument at noon. See you soon.

TWO EMACIATED MEN are starving on a raft in the midst of an unnamed sea. One of them picks up a spyglass to look more closely at a circling gull, which suddenly dives and plucks a fish from the saltwater. The bird, fish in its claws, makes its way to the very top of the raft’s wobbly mast. As the bird shifts its position, it drops the fish to the deck, landing between the two men.

The men’s moment of joy quickly turns to desperate aggression, for there is clearly not enough fish for the two of them to share.

The men begin a shoving match, and one pushes the other into the shark-infested waters.

The one still on the raft is overcome with guilt or conscience – is there a difference? – and extends what appears to be a crude paddle to his flailing comrade. However, when he sees that the gull has returned for its meal, the man drops the paddle and chases the bird away, leaving his partner to drown and/or to be devoured by the sharks.

The man grabs the small fish, stuffs it into his hungry mouth, and quickly

EM

chokes to death on its brittle bones, just as a rescue vessel is bearing down on the rudderless raft with no one left on board to rescue.

This story is told without a word being spoken during the nine-minute 2005 animated film, “The Raft (Das Floss).” Jan Thuring, who both wrote and directed the film, has received RABBI JAMES a number ROSENBERG of awards for his animated masterpiece. Though no words are spoken, the plot is accompanied by Marius Lange’s music.

The animation in “The Raft” is a world apart from the Disney Donald Duck cartoons of my childhood.

The two men on the raft are meticulously constructed life-size puppets with exaggerated facial distortions reflecting their struggle to stay alive; their skin is shown to be dried up and blistered by sun and salt. In short, the animation technique in “The Raft” is designed to intensify the grim reality rather than to transport viewers into the far “safer” land of make-believe.

S TO M

E

Thank you for printing an article about anti-Semitism on campus [November 2021]. It would be helpful to probe the root causes of anti-Semitism among the supposedly enlightened academics. One of the prevailing delusions among the intellectual elite is that disparities in wealth or performance must be because of racism. If one person or group is successful and another is not, according to this delusion, it must be because the more successful have exploited the less successful. This justification is used to nullify the Martin Luther King "I have a dream" vision of people being judged by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin.

This logic prompts universities to admit applicants with lower grades and test scores because of racial preferences. Typically, Jews need higher scores than other ethnic groups to be admitted to selective colleges. Going back to the flawed premise that the more successful got there by exploiting the less successful, Jews must be part of the oppressor class. Israel is a successful democracy in a geographic area where poverty and tyranny are the norm. There are legitimate grievances Arabs may have against Jews in Israel but these pale in comparison to the oppression endured by the citizens of Lebanon, Syria or Iran. Again, success means you are oppressing somebody in this logical system. Jews and Israel are successful, so any actions (anti-Semitism, BDS, cancelling) against us are considered justifiable.

A complex moral dilemma

IT S E

LETTER

As I have continued to reflect upon possible “moral lessons” found in the story of “The Raft,” I have come to realize that what at first seems to be a simple tale of reward and punishment turns out to engender far more questions than answers.

At first glance, the man who chokes to death on the bones of the fish that he hopes will keep him alive, for at least a bit longer, appears to deserve his fate; nevertheless, his dire circumstances might well allow for other possible approaches.

There is a story told almost a millennium ago that adds perspective to the moral complexity of the story of “The Raft.”

We read in our Talmud (Bava Metzia 62a): “Two men were walking along the way (in the desert).

One of them was holding a flask of water. If they both drank, they both would die; but if one of them drank, he could make it back to the settlement.

“Ben Petura explained, ‘It is better that they both drink and die together, so that one does not see the death of his friend.’

But Rabbi Akiba came and taught on the basis of a verse from Leviticus (25.36): ‘You should live (by performing a mitzvah) and not die.’ That is to

say, your life takes precedence over the life of your friend.”

Rabbi Akiba (50?-135) is one of our people’s most authoritative sages, and many of us might agree with his decision regarding this complex moral issue. But many others might side with Ben Petura’s contradictory opinion that “it is better that they both drink and die together, so that one doesn’t see the death of his friend.”

The story of the two men on the raft shares significant similarities, but also significant differences, with this ancient Talmudic tale. Were Rabbi Akiba alive today, how would he evaluate the moral responsibilities of those two starving men? I do not know. I cannot know.

Does the structure of the silent narrative of “The Raft” lead the viewer down a path to moral certainty? Or does the film encourage us to live with our own unanswered, our own unanswerable moral questions? For me, my only certainty is that there is no certainty.

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

Contact him at rabbiemeritus@templehbabonim.org

Massachusetts lawmakers vote to require genocide education in high schools

BY PENNY SCHWARTZ BOSTON (JTA) – Against a backdrop of disturbing revelations of anti-Semitic incidents, including many in local schools, Massachusetts lawmakers this week approved a bill that will require genocide education in all public secondary schools.

“An Act Concerning

Genocide Education,” which also establishes a public-private trust fund to support curriculum development and training for educators, is now on the desk of Republican Gov. Charlie Baker.

Once signed, Massachusetts would become the 21st state to require some form of Holocaust education in secondary

schools, according to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial and Museum. Legislation around Holocaust education has occasionally proven controversial in other states; in the past year, Arizona passed a similar law after much debate over the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of anti-Semi-

tism, while an effort in Louisiana was mired by partisan swipes around “critical race theory” and ultimately abandoned.

The text of the Massachusetts bill is broader than some of the bills passed in other states: It mandates only the teaching of “genocide,” which it CONTINUED ON PAGE 9

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 Alliance.

DECEMBER 2021 | 9

jewishrhody.org | Jewish Rhode Island

OPINION

Moving to Denmark, a country with few fellow Jews, strengthened my Jewish identity

BY REBECCA NACHMAN This article originally appeared on Alma.

GROWING UP, one of my favorite books was “Number the Stars,” Lois Lowry’s middle-grade novel about Denmark’s effort to smuggle its Jewish citizens to Sweden during World War II. The operation, which saved 7,220 of Denmark’s 7,800 Jews, has been remarkable to me since I first read about it: while other European countries gave in to anti-Semitic propaganda and followed Hitler’s rule, Denmark resisted. A common explanation today is that Danes didn’t see their Jewish neighbors as “others” – they were just as Danish as anyone else. Why wouldn’t they help their fellow Danskere?

Almost 80 years after the rescue of the Danish Jews, I moved to Copenhagen for grad school. Today, Denmark’s Jewish population stands at around 6,000, most of whom are congregated in the greater Copenhagen area. Coming from the Boston area, which is home to 248,000 Jews, and having attended Brandeis University, a historically Jewish

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8 defines as a series of specific acts “committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group,” and never mentions the Holocaust directly. As such, its passage is also being celebrated by a coalition of more than 60 groups, many of them non-Jewish, including the Armenian National Committee.

Jewish groups, including the Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, have backed the bill, too, and see its passage as a win for Holocaust education.

“Genocide education affords us a powerful tool in combating hate and anti-Semitism while honoring the memories of all who suffered in genocide,” Robert Trestan, the New England regional director of the ADL,

college known for its robust an extremely atheistic counJewish population, landing try, with most people not in a country with such a being involved in any form small Jewish population was of religious life. Here, I’ve a big adjustment. But to my had to make an effort to meet surprise, I preferred it. other Jews, and in doing so, Growing up, my family I found an amazing Jewish attended community. a Reform Despite DenOf course, this isn’t mark’s small synaJewish population, gogue, I to say that being there’s an official went to Jewish commuJewish summer Jewish in Denmark nity, Det Jødiske Samfund, a Jewish camp and museum, an Hebrew is always idyllic.

Orthodox synaschool, gogue, a Reform and I had a bat mitzvah – but the whole synagogue, a Chabad house, a Jewish elementary school, time, I felt like I was just youth groups and an annual going through the motions. cultural festival. There’s At no point did I feel any sort even a Jewish-Muslim biker of Jewish community, nor club (yes, you read that did I feel the need for one. right) that works to combat Plenty of my friends and anti-Semitism and Islamteachers were Jewish, my ophobia in Denmark and classmates knew about Jewcreate mutual understanding ish holidays, and there is no between the two religious shortage of Jewish delis and minorities. And this year, Judaica stores in Greater Copenhagen will host a gathBoston. Being Jewish wasn’t ering of Jewish young adults something I consciously from all over Scandinavia. thought about because it was Whether it’s services at the so normalized in my setting.

Reform synagogue, challah But in Denmark, I’m often the first Jewish person some- baking at Chabad, or Shabbat dinner with the Jewish one has (knowingly) met. youth movement at the Great The Evangelical Lutheran Synagogue, I’m never at a Church is the national reliloss for Jewish events to gion, but Denmark is overall

attend.

I appreciate that the community isn’t strictly divided by denomination – I see the same familiar faces no matter which synagogue or organization I go to. While I never felt like I found my place in Greater Boston’s fragmented Jewish population, I immediately felt welcome in Jewish Denmark. When we’re such a small minority (only 0.1% of the population), the need for a community is more pressing. Having to deliberately seek out Jewish life has made the connections I’ve forged all the more special.

Danish society is notoriously hard for foreigners to integrate into, but through the Jewish community I’ve been able to make Copenhagen feel like home.

Of course, this isn’t to say that being Jewish in Denmark is always idyllic. In 2014 the Jewish school was vandalized, and in 2015 a terrorist attacked the Great Synagogue. I personally haven’t experienced anti-Semitism here, but I know that my experience as a recent transplant is different from those of Jewish Danes who have spent their lives here, and from those who more clearly present as Jewish.

That being said, I still feel significantly safer as a Jew here than I did in the U.S. (I have yet to hear a Dane compare vaccines to the Holocaust, baruch hashem).

I still think of “Number the Stars” often, especially when I’m at the same synagogue that the Jewish characters attended, or when I walk past a site that was mentioned in the book. I have no Danish heritage, so I’m not personally connected to the rescue of the Danish Jews. But, as schmaltzy as it sounds, I feel a sense of poetic beauty in finding a Jewish home in the same tiny Scandinavian country that came together to save thousands of us so many years ago.

said in a joint statement with the JCRC. “As stewards of the New England Holocaust Memorial, JCRC honors the sacred obligation to lift up the experiences of those who survived the Holocaust in our own Greater Boston community, using their stories as a lesson to future generations about the consequences of unchecked hatred and intolerance,” said Jeremy Burton, JCRC’s executive director.

The law requires each school district to file a description each year of its plans for genocide education.

The Genocide Education Trust Fund, the public-private trust established by the law, will support training and resources for educators; its funding will come from the state, private donations and fines imposed for hate crimes or civil rights violations.

The bill was long in the

north of Boston, a middle school hockey player accused teammates of racist and homophobic hazing and spreading a joke about Jews being killed in the Holocaust in a group chat. A week later, swastikas were found painted in the school.

“We have seen signs that these incidents are institutional” and have been going on for years, Trestan told JTA. “This law is designed to help with long-term, institutional change.”

Democratic Rep. Alice Peisch, a lead sponsor of the Massachusetts House bill, said she was motivated by concern that knowledge of the history of genocide is waning.

“This bill will ensure that the Commonwealth’s students are educated about genocides, making them more aware of behaviors and practices that can lead to it so that the past is not

repeated,” Peisch said last week when the House passed the law.

Massachusetts Senate President Karen Spilka, a Democrat, said she felt a deep personal connection to the issue.

“As a Jewish woman and the daughter of a World War II veteran who saw the horrors of a concentration camp firsthand, I believe it is our responsibility to ensure we educate our children on the many instances of genocide throughout history so that they can learn why it is so important that this history is not repeated,” she said in a statement posted on Twitter.

Passage of the bill is a hopeful sign, Trestan said.

“This gives us all optimism,” he said. “It’s an investment in the state’s future leaders.”

making, with similar proposals filed in prior legislative sessions. Trestan told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the bill is especially compelling at a time when grim reminders have surfaced about the enduring prevalence of anti-Semitism in schools and school sports have surfaced.

In Massachusetts, several recent news stories have shed light on disturbing patterns of anti-Semitism.

A Chabad rabbi was stabbed outside of a Boston Jewish day school this summer; his assailant has been charged with a hate crime. In Duxbury, a suburb south of Boston, an investigation found that a high school football team used anti-Semitic and Jewish terms, including “Auschwitz” and “rabbi,” to call plays during practices and games; the coach was subsequently fired.

More recently, in Danvers,

REBECCA NACHMAN is a Global Health master’s student at the University of Copenhagen. 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.

10 | DECEMBER 2021

Jewish Rhode Island | jewishrhody.org

FOOD

Beth-El’s new community cookbook dishes on COVID-19, traditions

BY ROBERT ISENBERG

Community Microgrant Initiative The Jewish Alliance encourages Jewish individuals to explore opportunities to come together on their own terms... with funding provided by the Jewish Alliance.

Individual Grants (Up to $500) These grants are intended for individuals in the community to offer their own programming and content that is uniquely relevant to them, their interests, and their immediate community. This can be in the form of a Shabbat dinner, a park meet-up, a Jewish learning group, a holiday gathering, or something more creative and innovative.

Traditionally under-served or under-acknowledged populations are strongly encouraged to apply.

For more information, including applications and timeline, visit www.jewishallianceri.org/MicroGrants/

JEWISH ALLIANCE of Greater Rhode Island

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

by five Sisterhood members: Lilliane Birch, Deb Gordon, Marcy Cohen, Debbie Barshay and Bramson. They started the project in January 2021, both as a way to maintain community during the lockdown and to raise money through sales of the book.

They had already occupied themselves during the pandemic with rock painting, greeting cards, and a virtual artist tour, but “Recipes and Memories” offered an opportunity to celebrate personal traditions as well as document the lockdown expe-

THERE YOU ARE, flipping through your new cookbook, “Recipes and Memories that Nourished Us Through the Pandemic.” You see artwork and photographs. You recognize faces from the Sisterhood of Temple Beth-El, in Providence, whose members published this new volume.

You see family recipes, handed down for generations.

Then you see “Kille Platschen.”

“I’ve never heard this term,” says Kate Bramson, the Sisterhood member who edited the book.

“I Googled it a lot, and I don’t really see a translation for it, but it’s what her family called it.” It’s a type of cookie.

“Recipes and Memories” is a colorful collection, fully compiled and published during the COVID-19 pandemic. The 50 recipes, Members of the committee discuss the crowdsourced cookbook via Zoom from Beth-El rience. So the call for recicommunity members, are pes went out to the Beth-El a welcome addition to any kitchen, but the real pleasure congregation.

“We found out that we all of flipping through the book have different strengths,” is its anthology of family says Barshay, who spearlore. The same dishes, such headed the project. “And as gefilte fish, are prepared yet we all work together so and spelled several different well. We complemented each ways, in keeping with family other.” traditions.

The temple’s Sisterhood “Everyone writes down a recipe differently. There were dates back to 1913, and participation remains strong, with times when I realized I had around 50 paid members. For no idea how this person is safety’s sake, most Sisterexplaining the recipe,” says hood activities continue to Bramson, who often corretake place virtually; the book sponded with contributors itself was created almost to clarify their decades-old directions.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 11 The book was developed

DECEMBER 2021 | 11

jewishrhody.org | Jewish Rhode Island

FOOD CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10 entirely over Zoom.

“This is a passion project,” says Gordon, who designed and laid out most of the book. “I needed something during COVID. Visually, it became a group effort, to merge our sensibilities and aesthetics.”

When a proof copy was printed last summer, the team was able to get together in person to review their work. They marveled at the range of recipes, the wealth of anecdotes, Elaine Sandy’s many photographs and artist Robin Halpren-Ruder’s colorful cover.

“To see it in person, it was unbelievable,” says Barshay.

“For such a lonely year,” adds Gordon, “it was a reminder that it wasn’t so lonely. It just made me smile.”

Hardcover copies are available for $72. The digital edition, which contains only recipes, is $18. To order, go to temple-beth-el.org/community-2/sisterhood/. All funds raised go to temple projects that the Sisterhood supports, such as the Women’s Seder, Sisterhood Shabbat and holiday receptions, plus temple improvements (such as kitchen renovations), the religious school and student-leadership programs.

The group shared two recipes from the book.

ROBERT ISENBERG (risenberg@jewishallianceri.org) is the multimedia producer for the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island and a writer for Jewish Rhode Island.

Cinnamon Buns

Gefulte Fish

This recipe for cinnamon buns nourished us through COVID in a couple of ways. For one, my mother used to make them quite often during my childhood and afterwards, when she used to visit us. So, we would think of her when eating them, and that was comforting. Also, they are delicious and make a great breakfast treat.

– Lilliane Birch

This is my mother’s recipe for gefulte fish. She was a Holocaust survivor who endured Auschwitz for 2 years. Making the fish reminded us of her strength and courage. If she could survive Auschwitz, we could survive the pandemic.

– Lilliane Birch

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine in a dough mixer, or mix and knead by hand:

4 onions – grate 2 and chop 2 1 1/2 pounds whitefish, tilapia or scup, grated in blender 2 tablespoons salt 6 tablespoons sugar 3 eggs 1 carrot, sliced 1/4 to 1/2 cup matzah meal

INGREDIENTS 5 cups flour 2 tablespoons water 1 tablespoon yeast 1 teaspoon sugar Warm in a saucepan: 1 stick margarine or butter 2/3 cup milk Add final ingredients: 1 cup sugar 2 large eggs A pinch of salt Cinnamon Sugar

DIRECTIONS Measure flour into bowl. Make a small depression in center of the flour. Add water, yeast, and sugar. Let rise about 10 minutes, until yeast bubbles a little.

In a saucepan: Warm the butter in the milk until it is lukewarm or a little warmer, but not hot. Add to the flour mixture.

Then add sugar, eggs, and salt. Let dough rise for about 2 hours. Punch dough down. Roll out dough.

Sprinkle cinnamon sugar all over it. Roll it up and cut it into separate buns. Put buns on cookie sheet to rise again for about an hour.

Bake for about 15 minutes. Buns should be brown all over.

The number of buns will depend on how big you slice them in the first place.

INGREDIENTS

DIRECTIONS In a bowl, mix 2 grated onions, the fish, 1 tablespoon salt, 3 tablespoons sugar, and 3 eggs. Then add 1/4 cup matzah meal.

Fill a wide pot half full with water.

Add 2 chopped onions, 1 tablespoon salt, 3 tablespoons sugar, and the carrot. Bring the pot to a slow boil.

Drop a test ball into the boiling water.

If it doesn’t hold together, add up to 1/4 cup more matzo meal. Make about 24 fish balls. If your hands get sticky, wet them. Add the fish balls, and keep the pot partially covered. Slow boil for an hour. Scoop balls out onto serving dish.

Scoop out carrot slices and place on top.

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DECEMBER 2021 | 13

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FOOD

5 unexpected products at Kosherfest 2021

BY JULIA GERGELY (NEW YORK JEWISH WEEK VIA JTA) – “Honey, I think I may have a buyer!” a man in a black suit yelled into his phone, pacing up and down his 10’ x 10’ booth displaying dozens of bottles of South African Kosher wine. “But we have to move now.”

Kosherfest, the largest Kosher-certified product trade show in the world, returned to the Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus, New Jersey, this year, after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic. From restaurateurs to tour group operators to hotel chains to supermarkets, “every kind of Kosher decision-maker will find opportunity and inspiration at Kosherfest,” according to the event’s website. The show is co-produced by Diversified Business Communications and Lubicom, and Kosher Today, a trade journal.

More than 300 different exhibitors made the trip to Secaucus in mid-November, all vying for an opportunity to pitch their products to biggest names in the Kosher industry. Some vendors opted for flashy displays, decking out their booths to resemble a real bakery counter or cafe.

Some vendors, like Brooklyn’s venerable Flaum Appetizing, chose instead to showcase the breadth of their wares, offering an impressive spread of samples that included slices of pizza, pasta, hummus, dips and cheese. In addition to food, there were booths for supplements, dishware and plastic utensils.

If the food itself doesn’t get the message across, a brand’s spokesperson will. Some companies even hire outside people to hype their products for the two-day event.

Chanie Engel, who could be found at the Mehadrin Dairy booth this year, used a microphone to get festival-goers’ attention. She’s worked various booths at Kosherfest over the course of 15 years. “They fight over me,” Engel told the New York Jewish Week, lowering her microphone. “I’m the best.”

While pushing Gevina Farms Greek yogurt, she chats up attendees by guessing their accents. “You’re

from Dallas,” she says to one man. “You’re from Midwood,” she tells another.

Her friend, Dena Tocker, used to represent the dairy booth – until Engel was hired, that is. This year she went fleishig (meat), holding down the fort at KJ Poultry from Monroe, New York. “I don’t even need a microphone,” she said. “I’m loud enough without it.”

Although Kosherfest was smaller this year – Covid-related travel restrictions meant a limited international presence – Tocker was happy to see that many businesses had made it through the pandemic “It’s nice to be back,” she said.

While it may be a large business convention, at its heart, Kosherfest felt like a Jewish gathering.

Bee's water And, like any Jewish gathering, it seemed that most attendees were there to eat. So we did. The food samples were both plentiful and varied, from kimchi to gelato to Slivovitz. And while much of the fare was what you’d expect – pastries, cold cuts and kugel – here are five of the most interesting items that you might see at your local Kosher supermarket soon.

Although Ben’s Best is based in Florida, Kosher buyers can order online and have its dry-cured meats shipped anywhere.

Good Raz Vitamin D3 Drops

With Standard Time upon us, it’s important to get extra vitamin D wherever you can.

Winner of Kosherfest’s Best New Product in the category of Health and Wellness, Good Raz (pronounced “raze”) developed tasteless, odorless, water-soluble Vitamin D3 drops to put in your morning coffee or water. It’s good for kids who don’t like swallowing pills, and the water-soluble technology means it will absorb into your system more quickly than pills, the manufacturer claims.

A bottle costs $19.99 and lasts 4 months.

Cary & Main Kosher Maple Crème

From St. Johnsbury, Vermont, Cary & Main brought a taste of the Green Mountain State with their maple creme, a delicious, creamy maple spread that’s pareve (neither meat nor dairy). The spread

Bee’s Water

Bee’s water is turning an age-old cure for sore throats – honey – into a prepackaged beverage packed with vitamins and flavor. There are five different flavors, including blueberry and cinnamon, and an organic line on the way. It tastes like bottled-up Rosh Hashanah that you can enjoy all year. A 12-bottle variety pack is currently selling for $35.99.

Ben’s Best Kosher Charcuterie

Gone are the days of wondering what prosciutto, bacon or chorizo might taste like.

After working at a top Kosher restaurant in Paris, French Chef Benjamin Lapin spent years researching and developing charcuterie recipes made with 100% Kosher beef.

The KJ poultry booth served cold cuts, and was one of the catchiest and most well-attended vendors. (Julia Gergely)

Attendees at Kosherfest, a food industry trade show held in Secaucus, New Jersey, arrive with empty tote bags on each shoulder, ready to fill up with product samples and vendors' business cards, Nov. 9, 2021. (Julia Gergely) could go on toast, crackers, baked goods or you can eat it straight out of the jar (which retails for $18.75). There are two varieties, Golden and Amber, and both are “handcrafted by artisans in a small Vermont town as picturesque as you imagine it to be,” according to the web site.

Tauri-Gum

Cannabidiol or CBD-infused products have taken over the food industry in recent years, and the Kosher industry is no different. Tauriga Sciences, a life sciences company based in Wapping-

ers Falls, New York, returned to Kosherfest this year with six different flavors of Tauri-Gum, chewing gum that’s infused with CBD or CBG (cannabigerol), both of which are non-intoxicating and allegedly reduce inflammation and provide stress relief, among other health benefits.

Fun fact: The influencer and activist Adina Miles-Sash, known on Instagram as FlatbushGirl, is the brand’s chief marketing officer. A pack of eight pieces ranges from $17.99 to $22.99 depending on flavor, with subscription options available.

Our Mission: To improve the quality of life for those we serve.

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Elder Care Services Providing care all over Rhode Island Call to schedule a free, non-salesy and no obligation family consultation.

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14 | DECEMBER 2021

Jewish Rhode Island | jewishrhody.org

CELEBRATING 2021

After a year without camp, Camp JORI was back in the summer of 2021 with the usual camp activities like swimming.

PHOTOS | GLENN OSMUNDSON

Celebrating Jewish life in Rhode Island A year in photos

W

e asked photographer Glenn Osmundson

for some of his favorite photos from assignments in 2021.

Here is a slice of life as the community slowly opened up again after many months of COVID closures.

Pauline Namerow, of Providence, left, talks with Beverly Mann, of Warwick, in May, during the first in-person lunch at the Kosher Senior Café at the Dwares Jewish Community Center.

In May, Scott Kaplan gives his father Murray a hug after giving him a Rolex watch as a retirement gift on the last day of the Rainbow Bakery in Cranston. Deby, his mother, in the foreground, also received a watch.

DECEMBER 2021 | 15

jewishrhody.org | Jewish Rhode Island

CELEBRATING 2021

Swimming at Camp JORI.

Camp JORI activities included archery.

Motorcyclists arrive at Praise Tabernacle Church in Cranston during a June rally to support Israel.

Participants of all ages attended the rally to support Israel in June.

The Voice of Greater Rhode Island’s Jewish Community

JEWISH RHODE ISLAND

Follow us on Instagram

@JewishRhody Harold Labush and his wife Jerri Labush of Cranston look over Passover items at the newly opened Bubbies Market and Deli in Providence.

16 | DECEMBER 2021

Jewish Rhode Island | jewishrhody.org

COMMUNITY VOICES

A picture is worth 1,000 words SKE

T

I’VE BEEN GOING around saying “bad photos are better than good ones.” Now, what do I mean by that?

Well, I came across piles of pictures my dad had taken, from a distance, while we posed on the front stoop, or by the old Dodge sedan.

“Smile!” is what we ask of our models when we snap a photo, but I have always detested that command and its fake patriotic cliche.

The big grin is a mask that hides the truth, a lie we insist on. (It sells things and wins votes?)

My current top choice for my favorite antique photo portrait of my brother and me poses a problem. What were we thinking, my sibling and I? We are wearing the same outfits, knickers and caps, and holding hands with our lovely mom at the front gable.

He is standing straight and

CH

smiling evenly. I, on the other hand, have let my knickers sag, with the long stockings drooping. My head is tilted down, and I look either sad or mad. Why? Is the answer that it was just a momentary reaction to the tedium of the task at hand, or a hint as to the past, or the future, of my boyhood in the family hierarchy?

MIKE FINK I was the youngest of a trio of boys. I had already discovered my failures. I was demoted from the glee club into a “listener.” I relied on my brother or mother to sketch illustrations for the papers I had to produce for school. I couldn’t even see a ball, let alone catch or toss it, unlike my eldest bro. So I had not inherited the talents and skills that existed in my gene pool. They had already gone to my elders.

Do these disappointments

BOOK

explain my stance in that old photo? Yes, I suppose so.

But I did have one thing up my sleeve. I could stand up to talk, to ask, to stare at words on a page. I guess that’s how I turned out to be an English major and, in due time, teacher. But what could I instruct? I did not desire to be a learned lad, instead preferring to be one of the guys. I was successful enough in that part to be elected class president before graduating into high school. I won by a single vote, against a graduating sports hero!

Fast forward (whew!) beyond college and graduate schools, and, just two years after earning a master’s in teaching, I found my calling, my career, my vocation at the Rhode Island School of Design. Home again, after sojourns in Paris, in New York, in intellectual Boston, I rediscovered my house, my haven, my heaven.

Students came from farms and factories both for an education and to seek employment among the thriving

industries in this town, the state, the “colony” where the American Industrial Revolution had been established and welcomed refugees seeking what our founder Roger Williams had promised: “soul liberty,” a marvelously vague phrase for the privacy of one’s purpose to pursue. It suited me from day one. I could rattle on and babble on about what I had learned during my journeys and voyages, and since I had the myopic gift of perfect spelling and punctuation, combined with a yearning for the essence of poetry (ambiguity, ambivalence, irony, paradox – in a word, nonsense), I had designed my destiny!

And I appealed to artists, makers, outcasts, newcomers.

I am proud of the loyal friendships of alums who confuse their own courtesy with the illusion that their particular genius was encouraged by me.

So I see in the snapshot a prediction, to a point, of our future careers. My smiling sibling taught architecture,

also at RISD, putting up a practical structure on the good ground. I taught “literature” – through movies, the funnies, graphic novels, anthologies – and translated my personal distress into a recognition of the existential human dilemma (as artists in every genre must come to recognize and enjoy), which is the essential doom and dismay that confront us.

And with my birthday coming up this month, in December, the day is short, and the future is cold and uncertain.

But my smile as I write this is sure, and will endure.

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

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COMMUNITY VOICES

Signs of life reemerge in 2021

SPE A

10. SHOTS PROVIDE A BIG BOOST: We’re fully

vaccinated and got our boosters. It has given us the confidence to venture out more than we did in 2020, and to see people we sorely missed.

9. ON THE RUN AGAIN:

Among the things that being vaccinated empowered me to do was to return to actual road races, as opposed to the virtual kind. I ran the Arnold Mills Road Race, in Cumberland, on the Fourth of July; a 5K to benefit a hospice in August; and another 5K, in late

K IN

G OU

T

FOR THE SECOND YEAR in a row, it’s going to be a bit of a challenge for those of us whose year-end letter-writing ritual consists of composing a thoughtful message – instead of relying on social media – to convey our best wishes to our friends and family members, while also getting them caught up on our lives.

That’s because, even though vaccines have allowed many of us to more or less resume our normal activities, travel hasn’t necessarily been included in this crawl to normalcy, thanks to a dizzying array of restrictions at various destinations. For example, it would not have been easy for me to visit my relatives in Canada this past summer.

Nonetheless, I managed to be more social in 2021 than in 2020, which has enabled me to pen a somewhat more interesting family newsletter early enough to send it to those whose holiday celebrations began with Thanksgiving or, just three days later, Hanukkah.

I’m sharing the essence of that newsletter here in hopes of making you laugh, since the old adage that “laughter is the best medicine” has never been truer.

I’m also sticking with a Top 10 format, which worked out well last year, even though there was barely anything interesting to write about as most of the year seemed straight out of an old episode of “The Twilight Zone.”

So, here’s 2021’s Top 10, titled, “Escape from ‘The Twilight Zone’ (sort of) …”:

LARRY KESSLER September, to help a Cumberland farm. It felt liberating to once again run with others – even if my times showed the ravages of my 69 years.

8. RELAY FOR LIFE:

Volunteering for the Relay For Life of Greater Attleboro, a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society, was particularly satisfying this year as we had two in-person events in June (after a year of mostly virtual experiences). During the run-up to the events, I filmed a couple of spots on local cable TV, and, if you’re battling insomnia, I’d be happy to send you the links.

7. SPORTS: Even though I

decided against returning to Fenway Park to cheer on the Red Sox, seeing fans back at the ballpark made watching the games much more enjoyable, especially

during the playoffs.

6. DINNER WITH OTHERS:

We enjoyed family dinners celebrating birthdays, and, in October, Lynne and I treated ourselves to an anniversary dinner at a restaurant at Patriot Place, in Foxboro, in the shadow of Gillette Stadium.

The stadium is the same place where, in February and March, Lynne got vaccinated, and where, in March and April, I accompanied a friend for his vaccinations.

5. FRIENDS: Both Lynne

and I were pleased to see more people this year, some of whom we hadn’t seen in person since the pandemic started. I continued having picnic lunches with friends in the spring and summer, but by fall, I started meeting them in restaurants that weren’t crowded. It was just another baby step toward normalcy.

4. ARIANNA: Our older

daughter is still teaching

in Revere, and moved to Malden, both in Massachusetts. She also ran a decent half-marathon in New Hampshire in the fall and has her sights set on running a marathon in the future.

3. ALANA: Our younger

daughter is halfway through her junior year at Johnson & Wales University, in Providence, where she’s majoring in culinary arts and sports nutrition.

She’s investigating some intriguing internships for her senior year. She is also a runner, and joined me at the two summer races. She won her age group in the 5K race, thanks to her blazing speed, which left her white-haired dad in the dust.

2. LYNNE: She’s still working

part time as a speech language pathologist, which left her plenty of time to spearhead some major house projects: new windows, repaving the driveway, new blinds and curtains, and

bringing in a trainer to help calm down our stubborn and noisy dog Buddy.

1. OUR MESSAGE TO YOU:

We wish you a new year full of hope, and a year full of worry-free travel, where your concerns won’t include wondering whether a fellow passenger will assault a flight attendant over wearing masks. We wish you a future where we’ve achieved herd immunity, so we can all live without worrying about a lethal virus threatening our lives.

Whether you’re celebrating Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa or Festivus, be healthy and safe, so you can enjoy only simchot in 2022 L’chaim, my friends.

LARRY KESSLER (larrythek65@gmail.com) is a freelance writer based in North Attleboro. He blogs at larrytheklineup.blogspot.com.

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DECEMBER 2021 | 19

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COMMUNITY VOICES

A happy old age

L

HEA

Y L I VI

NG

TH

ences that each additional year of life brings yield a wisdom which the most accomplished young prodigy cannot equal.

“It describes Abraham as one who ‘grew old and came along in days’ (Genesis 24:1) – his accumulated days, each replete with learning and achievement, meant that with each passing day his worth increased.

PATRICIA Thus, a ripe old age is RASKIN regarded as one of the greatest blessings to be bestowed upon man.”

And having a happy old age is a win-win for all generations: as we age and gain wisdom, we can add more value to our world and society, and our knowledge and our experience can be passed down to influence the coming generations.

For more than 90 years, American donors have provided vehicles, training, and supplies to Israel’s national paramedic and Red Cross service, equipping them to treat the sick and injured under the most difficult circumstances and to save lives.

In fact, this past year Magen David Adom’s 30,000 EMTs and paramedics have been on the front lines in the fight against coronavirus while also contending with terrorist and rocket attacks, riots, car accidents, and other threats to Israeli lives.

Make a difference in Israel by supporting Magen David Adom.

Help save Israelis at afmda.org/saving-lives-2021 afmda.org

PATRICIA RASKIN, owner of Raskin Resources Productions, is a media host, coach and award-winning radio producer and business owner. She is on the board of directors of Temple Emanu-El, in Providence. She is a recipient of the Providence Business News 2020 Leaders and Achievers award.

Visit JewishRhody.org to hear the latest episode or to catch up on a favorite

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COVID-19 HAS BEEN HARD on the elderly – but it hasn’t devastated them.

In the May 4 issue of AARP The Magazine, the title of an article by Christina Ianzito says it all: “Older Adults Give Their Mental Health High Marks, Polls Find.”

She writes, “In many ways COVID-19 has been particularly hard on older adults, who are more vulnerable to complications from the virus.

But when it comes to their mental health, the older they are, the better they’ve felt, according to recent surveys.”

Ianzito sites a newly released University of Michigan poll in which two in three adults ages 50-80, or 65%, rated their mental health as excellent or very good; 27% rated it as good; and 8% as fair or poor.

“More than 80 percent said their mental health is as good as, or better than, it was 20 years ago,” Ianzito wrote.

The article “Growing Old,” posted at Chabad.org and based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, states, “The Torah considers old age a virtue and a blessing. Throughout the Torah ‘old’ (zakein) is synonymous with ‘wise’; the Torah commands us to respect all elderly, regardless of their scholarship and piety, because the many trials and experi-

It’s not too late to save a life in Israel this year.

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20 | DECEMBER 2021

Jewish Rhode Island | jewishrhody.org

COMMUNITY

OBITUARIES 24 | BUSINESS 26

PHOTO | ZOEY JOERING

Former Holocaust center leader reflects on education and the future

BY FRAN OSTENDORF

N

ot many people can say they have touched as many

parts of the Rhode Island Jewish community as has May-Ronny Zeidman.

FROM HER YEARS at the Women’s Division of the then Jewish Federation of Rhode Island to her tenure as the head of the Sandra Bornstein Holocaust Education Center (SBHEC), in Providence, she’s put her energy into Jewish causes.

“I can’t work for a cause I don’t believe in,” Zeidman said.

The native Rhode Islander started out as a volunteer, worked for State of Israel Bonds when there was a Providence office, worked at United Way, briefly wrote a column for The Jewish Voice, and even had a beauty salon busi-

ness. All while remaining had been through terrible an active volunteer. times. And both groups In October, after 16 years were entitled to have what at the Holocaust center, she they wanted. So one group stepped down as its execufocused on what became the tive director to launch into Sandra Bornstein Holocaust retirement. The SBHEC Education Center, while the board of directors recently other built the Holocaust hired Wendy Joering as the memorial in downtown new executive director.

Providence.

“It’s time for the agency Around the world, more to have new eyes and a new than 370 organizations are vision,” Zeidman, 77, said in affiliated with the Associa recent interview. ation of Holocaust Organi“I believe in Holocaust education, I “Holocaust centers rely believe in genocide education. Any on survivors, or children group of people who have been murdered of survivors, to tell the just because they could be need to be remembered,” she stories. We have a very said.

Zeidman said that small window...” the volunteers who started Providence’s zations, a network for the Holocaust center were a advancement of Holocaust “dedicated group” that education, remembrance worked with two groups and research. of survivors. One group But, Zeidman said, wanted a memorial and one “Holocaust centers rely on sought Holocaust educasurvivors, or children of tion. People in both groups survivors, to tell the stories.

We have a very small window. Holocaust centers have got to find a way to stay in business.

“I want to see our Holocaust center expand their mission. They say ‘never again,’ but what does that mean? Anti-Semitism has got to be added to the mission. The mission has to change to include something else. To me, it has to be fighting anti-Semitism.”

“I had three goals for my work,” she continued. “I wanted the Holocaust center to be attractive and visible.

And it is, with thanks to the Bornsteins [Sandra and Richard]. I wanted Holocaust and genocide education taught in schools. The law was passed. I wanted to have an endowment that financially shored up the agency. It’s the endowment that keeps the place going.”

During her tenure, the Holocaust center’s endowment grew to over $2 million, Zeidman said.

“I want people to know that I had 16 years working

with wonderful people and they were always good and kind and generous to me. I have nothing but good memories,” she said.

Zeidman who admits that she gets bored easily, said she plans to continue to volunteer and to spend time with family. She has three adult sons and six grandchildren. She also will continue the needlework projects that she loves. So far, that includes approximately 15 embroidered tablecloths, countless tallit bags and too many needlepoint projects to count.

All that, plus a blog where she reflects on family and writes about life stories.

If you’d like to be put on the list to receive the blog, contact her at zeidman323@ gmail.com FRAN OSTENDORF (fostendorf@jewishallianceri.org) is the editor of Jewish Rhode Island.

DECEMBER 2021 | 21

jewishrhody.org | Jewish Rhode Island

COMMUNITY

Touro donates $25,000 to Miriam Hospital Cancer Center TOURO FRATERNAL ASSOCIATION, headquartered in Cranston, recently made a $25,000 special allocation to The Miriam Hospital’s new Center for Innovative Cancer Research. Touro's donation will be utilized by the Providence hospital, which plans to convert office space into a state-of-the-art center that will contain four oncology suites for clinical trials of new cancer drugs.

“Touro has always had a special connection with Miriam Hospital,” said Barry Schiff,

chairman of Touro's Community Involvement Committee.

“Our organization has had a long history of supporting Miriam, which was founded in 1926 by the mothers of eight Jewish doctors who were told their sons were not allowed to practice medicine at another hospital in Rhode Island.”

Last year, Touro donated meals to the front-line workers at Miriam at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Miriam is one of many charitable causes supported on an annual basis by Touro,

the largest independent Jewish fraternal organization in the Northeast. Other beneficiaries this year have included Jewish Collaborative Services, the Louis and Goldie Chester Kosher Food Pantry, Camp JORI, the URI Hillel, Operation Stand Down, the Rhode Island Military Organization, the Rhode Island Community Food Bank, Crossroads Rhode Island and Amos House.

More information on Touro is available at the website: info@tourofraternal.org or by calling 401-785-0066.

Dr. Howard Safran (second from right), chief of oncology at the Miriam Hospital, accepts a $25,000 donation from Touro Fraternal Association to the hospital's Center for Innovative Cancer Research. Representing Touro are, from left, Jeffrey Davis, vice chairman of the board of directors; Barry Schiff, chairman of the Community Involvement Committee; and Stevan Labush, chairman of the board of directors.

Alex Foster: Creative communication SINCE OCTOBER 2020, Alex Foster has been the Graphics Producer for the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island. As a designer, Alex’s artistic and organizational influence can be seen throughout the Alliance’s Dwares Jewish Community Center building, in Providence, online, in social media and in promotional materials for programs and initiatives. And if you’re reading this in Jewish Rhode Island, you’re seeing Alex’s work laying out the pages.

This profile is the third in a series of first-person essays by staff members.

BY ALEX FOSTER AS A KID, I liked to draw. I had a strong interest in art, especially anything strange or creepy. I remember looking at the activities on the backs of cereal boxes and thinking, “There’s an adult out there getting paid to doodle.”

I took art classes and kept it up as a hobby, but I never really considered art as a professional option. I wonder if casual jabs at the “starving artist” cliche might have scared me off.

Fast forward to my third year of undergrad at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh, when I was wrapping up the final requirements of a B.A. in archaeology. I was studying Andean cultures and had a specific interest in iconography and ancient artistic records.

At the same time, I was beginning a new elective class in typography and, somewhat accidentally, discovered the delightfully practical field of graphic design.

While a little unsure of my long-term career goals, I was

presented with an opportunity to join an archaeological dig in Peru. Eager to travel, I put design on hold and signed up.

Soon I boarded a plane to Lima and linked up with a crew of mostly American students. After landing, we drove off the beaten path, into the Chao Valley of Peru.

I loved the duality of gritty fieldwork and then returning to the lab to map and catalog.

With my passable art skills, I asked if I could draw and document the art on some of the more interesting ceramic artifacts. The professor obliged, and later I was very excited to see my drawings published in the dig’s final summary.

The trip was a formative experience on many levels, and by the time I returned to New York, I’d decided to pursue a career in graphic design. Unfortunately, I soon graduated – but with some clever credit-accounting, I was able to do so with a B.A. in anthropology and minors in archaeology, studio art and graphic design.

This was 2008, the height of the Great Recession, and even experienced designers were struggling to find work.

I made do by managing a toy store, and began building a freelance portfolio in my spare time. This wasn’t ideal, but I was making a living in the Adirondack Mountains of New York and gradually improving as a designer.

While talking to a friend with his own career frustrations, we decided to make bold use of our untethered

youth by joining the Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms program and moving to Hawaii.

We lived in a small off-grid shack and toiled daily restoring a defunct coconut farm.

When the solar panels had enough charge, I continued doing freelance design work.

Through hitchhiking and networking, I eventually found a very interesting job at a wilderness-therapy program for at-risk youth.

I wasn’t specifically trained for the work, but I turned out to be a capable camp leader.

As an absolute bonus, it was here that I met Lynne, a perfectly capable camp leader in her own right and a totally awesome future wife.

Eventually, Lynne and I hung up our grass skirts and moved back to the mainland to get serious about careers and our futures.

We moved to St. Petersburg, Florida, where she had professional and family connections. I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to year-round palm trees, so that plan sounded good to me.

All the hours spent watching Photoshop tutorials finally paid off when I secured a job at a print shop.

Later, I was hired by a small marketing agency, where I had the opportunity to work on much larger projects and came to appreciate the unique space that design maintains between art and business.

Lynne’s career moved us to Buffalo, New York, for a few cold, snowy years. I continued working for the

Evan Foster's illustration of his dad at work. marketing company remotely – before it was cool.

Around this time, my father retired and was looking for a project. I helped him with some branding and design work, and eventually the small project became a small company.

With two other partners, we design board games and license them to Alex Foster larger publishers. The company has grown slowly over the years, and to date we’ve published nine games, with more on the way.

Lynne and I had two beautiful babies and moved to Providence, where I continued to work as a freelance designer.

After a while, working from home in a new city felt isolating and uninspiring.

My search for a creative team and in-house design work was not made any easier by the sudden onset of the pandemic. Then I heard a rumor that the Jewish Alliance was looking for a designer.

Now, for a little over a year, I’ve had a great opportunity to serve this community.

Some of my favorite projects to date have been designing the look of the Top Nosh event campaign and the puzzle-like challenge of the monthly newspaper layout.

As a father, I love sharing my creative gifts with my kids. I’m delighted to see that my son, Evan, 5, has a strong interest in art. I will do my best to help him and his sister, Juliet, 3, grow creatively as they explore their own interests.

22 | DECEMBER 2021

Jewish Rhode Island | jewishrhody.org

COMMUNITY

Providence Hebrew Day School celebrates 75th anniversary

Rabbi Klatzko spoke to attendees.

PROVIDENCE – Providence Hebrew Day School/New England Academy of Torah held its 75th-year anniversary celebration on Nov. 21 at the Alliance’s Dwares Jewish Community Center.

“It’s rare to find so many members of staff remaining in one school for so long. And their impact on students has been extraordinary,” said Rabbi Peretz Scheinerman, the dean.

PHDS principal Miriam Esther Weiner, who has worked with the staff for 25-plus years, was among the honorees. Weiner is a well-known board member for the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island and an advocate for Jewish education in the state.

Rabbi Abraham Jakubowicz made a moving speech as he accepted the awards on behalf of himself and the eight other honorees. Rabbi J., as he

Honorees and leadership of Providence Hebrew Day School. is affectionately known, said that he and his wife – who was also honored – have seen tremendous growth in the local Jewish community, and that living in Providence has helped them raise a family rooted in Jewish traditions.

Alumni from as far away as Miami and Orlando, Florida, flew in to express their deep hakoras hatov, or gratitude, to the staff at New England Academy of Torah, which they said gave them an “education that will last a lifetime.” They especially pointed to Marsha Gibber and Miriam Lipson, who were both honored at the event, as exceptional role models and teachers.

Also honored were Rabbi Shmuel Taitelbaum, an alumnus of the New England Rabbinical College; Beth Ber-

man and Susan Sugarman, for their devoted service to the General Studies department; and master teacher Shiffy Yudkowsky, daughter of Rabbi and Mrs. Jakubowicz.

Today’s Providence Hebrew Day School/New England Academy of Torah builds on the shoulders of Tom Perlman and Malcolm Bromberg, who were major supporters of the school for many years, as well as many other founders, builders and lay leaders of the school for the past 75 years.

PHDS is now the hub of Torah for the local Orthodox community, and hosts Congregation Sha’arei Tefilla, a thriving shul; the Providence Community Kollel, under the leadership of Rabbi Raphael Schochet; and Project Shoresh, an outreach agency under the direction of Rabbis Naftali and

Noach Karp, brothers who both married Jakubowicz daughters.

The 75th-year anniversary celebration was chaired by Tzippy Scheinerman and her committee, whose artistic flair for decor, table setup and food design is well known in Providence.

Providence Hebrew Day School was founded in 1946 with a handful of students. The school now offers a comprehensive program in all subject areas, including STEM, English, social studies, Judaic Studies and Hebrew language.

For more information about PHDS/ NEAT, contact Rabbi Peretz Scheinerman, dean, at pscheinerman@ phdschool.org or 401-490-5150.

Submitted by Providence Hebrew Day School

JCDS’s Havdalah program Business Disputes

Two side by side graves in Shindler Section 6E plots 73 & 74. $5400.00 Includes perpetual care.

Map showing exact location provided upon request.

Call Ron: 561-733-8961 or 401-474-7954

PHOTOS | JCDSRI

Jewish Community Day School of Rhode Island in Providence recently hosted a family Havdalah program with more than 80 students, families and grandparents attending.

DECEMBER 2021 | 23

jewishrhody.org | Jewish Rhode Island

COMMUNITY

Brown students launch guide for ‘tackling antisemitism, while committing to justice for all’ ON THURSDAY NIGHT, Nov. 18, is that it was produced by the Narrow Bridge Fela group of Jewish students lows of Brown University with a diverse set of agendas, unveiled a new resource backgrounds and opinions titled, “Love Thy Neighwith regard to Israel and bor: A Guide for Tackling Zionism, who came to the Antisemitism While Comtable to wrestle it out, so as mitting to Justice for All” to be able to more honestly (lovethyneighborguidebook. and productively confront com). The guidebook is anti-Semitism together. intended as an introduction The students attempt to to the issue of anti-Semiconvey in one guide the best tism, especially as it relates of what they gleaned from to Zionism and Israel, and the various resources they applies to the campus conresearched. They write text. from a place of humility, Jewish Rhode Island acknowledging that this recently caught up with project comes out of a desire Rabbi Michelle Dardashti, to uncover their own blind Associate University Chapspots on anti-Semitism (and lain for the Jewish Commuparticularly where it does nity at Brown University and doesn't intersect with and Rabbi at Brown RISD anti-Zionism) and to help Hillel, to find others do the out a little about same. As they the guide and the write on page project. Here’s 8, “Everyone what she had to has blind spots say. when it comes What distinto anti-Semiguishes this tism, and none resource from of us can sucthe many others cessfully fight being produced this issue on by colleagues of our own.” (You mine at Jewish can check out groups across the their bios on A copy of the new political specpages 11 and 12 trum in the realms guide. of the guide.) of Israel and The students anti-Semitism education/ are trying to work out for activism (from the Anti-Defthemselves and their peers amation League to Hillel the answers to deep quesInternational, to JFREJ, tions and their feelings on Stand With Us and more) complicated issues, many of

Isaac Goldman Sonnenfelt talks to the crowd in the lobby at the Brown RISD Hillel.

Rabbi Michell Dardashti, Brown associate chaplain for the Jewish Community, wraps up the speaking program. which are further confused by social media, and share what they learned with a broader audience. The project is shepherded by me, supported jointly by Brown RISD Hillel and the Brown University Office of the Chaplains, and funded by the Dorot Foundation.

Love Wallace, an employee at Brown, from East Providence, right, and Talia Mermin, a Brown student from Berkley, CA, look over posters at Brown RISD Hillel.

PHOTOS | GLENN OSMUNDSON

For more about the Narrow Bridge Project, go to www.brown.edu/campuslife/spiritual-life/chaplains/ programs-projects-andevents/narrow-bridgeproject Download the PDF version

of the guidebook at www. lovethyneighborguidebook. com.

You can reach Rabbi Dardashti and the Narrow Bridge Fellows at NarrowBridgeProject@brown.edu.

Program to explore little-known ‘green’ practice in the Bible

BY LARRY KATZ ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE and social justice are epitomized in a biblical practice that few Jews are aware of, especially outside of Israel. Rabbi Gideon Shloush will discuss this ancient practice, shemitah, on Jan. 12 on Zoom.

Shemitah occurs every seventh year, and is known as the Sabbath Year. During this year, the land in Israel lies fallow and all debts are forgiven.

Rabbi Shloush will speak about how these actions are carried out in Israel today, and still enable Israelis to produce food to feed the population. He will explain how

shemitah furthers Jewish decades as rabbi of a congreideals of environmental and gation in Manhattan. As pressocial justice and love for the ident of the New York Board land of Israel. of Rabbis, he has met with the The free program, “Shemitah and Environmental Justice,” will take place a few days before Tu b’Shevat, the Jewish holiday known as the New Year of the Trees. On the Jewish calendar, this is a shemitah year.

Shloush is the director of the Department of Jewish Heritage for the Keren Kayemet, Rabbi Gideon Shloush a partner agency of the Jewish National pope and the United Nations’ Fund. He made aliyah to Israel earlier in the pandemic, secretary-general, as well as working with White House after serving for a couple of

staff members and many interfaith leaders. Rabbi Shloush has taught Bible and Judaic Studies for 17 years at Yeshiva University – Stern College for Women.

The program is being presented in partnership with the Community Relations Committee, a central part of the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island. The CRC’s goal is to heighten community awareness, inspire civic and social-justice engagement, encourage deliberation on key issues for the Jewish community, and build meaningful partnerships with key stakeholders, such as elected officials, civic leaders and faith communities. Environ-

mental justice has been a priority issue for the CRC for the past two years.

“Shemitah and Environmental Justice” takes place on Wednesday, Jan. 12, at 6 p.m. on Zoom, and is the fourth in this year’s Israeli Culture Series, which takes place on the second Wednesday of each month. For more information, contact Amit Moshe Oren at 401-421-4111 or AOren@jewishallianceri.org.

To register for the program, go to www.jewishallianceri. org/ICS-Shemitah.

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

24 | DECEMBER 2021

Jewish Rhode Island | jewishrhody.org

OBITUARIES Helen Abrams, 102 CRANSTON, R.I. – Helen Abrams passed away peacefully on Nov. 12.

She was born in Boston on June 1, 1919, but considered herself “Rhode Island born and Rhode Island bred.” She loved summers at the beach at Narragansett, playing bridge and playing golf at Potowomut Golf Club.

She gave back to her community through her tireless activities starting as a Girl Scout leader, PTA member, a member of Hadassah, a charter member of the East Greenwich League of Women Voters and former president of the Cranston League of Women Voters. She was instrumental in the development and implementation of the Cranston Home Rule Charter and, after her retirement, enjoyed delivering Meals On Wheels with her beloved late husband, Harold Abrams, to whom she was married for 69 years.

Upon moving to Wethersfield Commons in Warwick, she was known to have welcomed new neighbors, and she organized an exercise class when she was in her 90s.

Helen grew up in East Greenwich, the daughter of the late Julius and Rachel (Brenner) Abrams. She graduated from the University of Rhode Island and moved to Cranston in 1953 with her young family. After returning to school to earn a teaching certificate, she taught English at Cranston High School East for 15 years.

Helen’s greatest joy was her family. She was the devoted mother of Anne Schwartz (David) of Richmond, Vir-

ginia, and Dr. Jane Abrams (Dr. John Paul MacDuffie) of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Ellie Wasser (Dr. Marvin) of Cranston, and the dear sister of the late Jordan Abrams and Sara Frank. Her eight grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren have been nurtured, protected and inspired by her.

She was a member of Temple Sinai where, until recently, she was a regular participant in Torah study and religious services. Contributions in her memory may be made to Temple Sinai, 30 Hagen Avenue, Cranston, RI 02920.

Joseph Beckler, 99 TAMARAC, FLA. – Joseph Beckler passed away on Nov. 25.

He was the beloved husband for 75 years of the late Selma Ruth Beckler, who passed away five days before Joseph. He was the son of the late Morris and Ida (Meltzer) Beckler; devoted father of Mark Beckler and Francine Zeitz (David); loving grandfather of Chaim Zeitz; dear brother of the late Gussie Goodman and Anna Carnavale.

Joseph had lived in Tamarac for 12 years, previously he was a longtime resident of Warwick. He worked for American Insulated Wire in Pawtucket for over 40 years and was a member of the Local 1203 IBEW. After retirement he worked at Hertz Rental Car in Warwick, where he was referred to as “Uncle Joe.” Joseph was a member and former officer of the Loyal Family Circle. He enjoyed

projects around the house and garden and took pride in his family car. Joseph loved spending time with his family and playing card games with friends.

Contributions in his memory may be made to JAFCO at jafco.org/donations or American Heart Association, 1 State St., #200, Providence, RI 02908.

Selma Beckler, 93 TAMARAC, FLA. – Selma Ruth Beckler passed away on Nov. 21.

She was the beloved wife of Joseph Beckler for 75 years. She was the daughter of the late Harry and Anna (Milivsky) Nozick; devoted mother of Mark Beckler and Francine Zeitz (David); loving grandmother of Chaim Zeitz; dear sister of the late Arthur Nozick.

Selma had lived in Tamarac for 12 years, previously she was a longtime resident of Warwick. She worked as a secretary for a local finance company. Selma was a member of JAFCO and life member of Hadassah. She was family oriented, finally convincing her husband, Joseph, to move full time to Florida to be closer to family. She loved traveling, was an avid reader and an excellent cook.

Contributions in her memory may be made to Kings Point Hadassah, c/o Hadassah Florida Broward, 1325 S. Congress Ave., Ste 209, Boynton Beach, FL 33426 or JAFCO at jafco.org/donations.

Richard Blacher, 70 PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Richard E. Blacher passed away on Oct. 10.

He was the beloved son of Marcia C. Blacher and the late Stanley P. Blacher and dear brother of John M. Blacher, all of Providence.

Dick was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes at the age of 15. He spent five days at the Joslin Diabetes Clinic in Boston where he learned how to control his condition. Two days following his discharge, not one to “give in,” he left on a five-week cross-country teen tour to which Dick had thoroughly looked forward. He enjoyed his trip immensely, especially the Rocky Mountains and New Orleans.

In 1969, Dick graduated

from Hope High School where, in his senior year, he became captain of the golf team and was awarded The Providence Journal-Bulletin Best Golfer Trophy. In 1973, he graduated from Brown University. He then attended Cornell University’s Samuel Curtis Johnson School of Management and graduated with an MBA in Marketing.

Dick held important managerial marketing positions at two steel firms in Connecticut until he incurred a serious case of Lyme disease. The condition took one and onehalf years to diagnose due to the lack of medical knowledge at that time. A prolonged period of treatment followed.

A lover of popular music, Dick acquired a very large disc collection of his favorite musicians and performers.

He also had a keen intellect and was a voracious reader.

Later in life, Dick became an avid fly fisherman and made a wide circle of friends to whom he became very close.

Richard’s family would especially like to thank the exceptional nurses, physicians and other professionals of The Miriam Hospital and the Special Care Unit.

Martin Feibish, 90 NORTH PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Martin Feibish passed away on Nov. 12 at home, from complications of Parkinson’s Disease. He was the beloved husband of Gloria (Zias) Feibish for 66 years. Martin was born in The Bronx, New York City, a son of Max and Ada Feibish, and moved to Providence in 1962. He was the devoted and dear brother of Norma Shorin (deceased) and loving uncle of Carol Desforges (John) and Loraine Schwartz (Marty) (deceased).

Martin was a devoted husband and friend, caring, compassionate, fair minded, non-judgmental, a good listener, philanthropic, and always ready to lend a helping hand to anyone in need. He had extensive community involvement in Jewish charitable organizations such as the Sandra Bornstein Holocaust Education Center, The Adele Decof Foundation for Cancer Research, and the Bureau of Jewish Education, where he was the recipient of a special “Builder of Jewish Education” award. He helped to raise funds for many of these organizations.

Martin enjoyed a stellar reputation in the financial services industry as an honorable, capable, effective and highly intelligent professional, and received numerous awards for his service and production. He taught many courses on insurance at the University of Rhode Island Extension. He was a CLU and attained higher levels of recognition throughout his business career. His photograph is in the Phoenix Mutual Insurance Company’s Hall of Fame.

Martin also excelled in sports, and was an avid golfer, proud of achieving two Hole-in-One awards, tennis player, and when he was young, played baseball. He was so good at baseball, he was selected to play on the St. Louis Cardinal’s farm team league. He rejected the offer, choosing college over baseball.

One of Martin’s aides, who cared for him during his final illness, called him a “beautiful soul”, and many others thought of him as a very special person.

Contributions the American Parkinson Disease Association (APDA) of RI, P.O. Box 41659, Providence, RI 02940; or HopeHealth Hospice and Palliative Care, 1085 North Main St., Providence, RI 02904; or Sandra Bornstein Holocaust Education Center of RI, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence, RI 02906 would be appreciated.

Sonya Garfinkle, 99 PROVIDENCE, R.I. – With profound sadness we announce the passing of Sonya (Goldman) Garfinkle on Nov. 27. She left us while sleeping peacefully at her home in Wingate Residences of Providence. She was a loving and remarkable mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and friend to all whose lives she touched.

Sonya was born Nov 7, 1922, in Ottawa, Canada.

In 1983, she lost her husband, William (Wicky) Garfinkle after more than 30 years of marriage. Upon retiring as the controller for General Fabrics Company in Pawtucket, she moved to Florida to begin again, living a rich life filled with new friends and experiences.

She was the beloved mother of Rose Garfinkle of Asheville, North Carolina, Arthur Levin (Debra) of Pawtucket,

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jewishrhody.org | Jewish Rhode Island

OBITUARIES and David Levin (Denise) of Rye Beach, New Hampshire.

She had a special connection with granddaughter Bethany Levin whose true relationship was more like that of a daughter, and who provided daily contact and support. Sonya was a proud grandmother to Tess, Adam, Liza, Robbin and Eric, and great-grandmother to Samantha, Jessica, Jared, Jordan, Riley, Micah and Alexander.

Sonya was funny and feisty, generous and thoughtful, smart and sharp, with a huge and loving heart. She adored her family and friends and people just gravitated to her. She loved mahjong, old movies, traveling, and talking with her dear friends, Bobbi and Rosalie, every single morning just to check in. She will be dearly missed and forever in our hearts.

Donations be made in Sonya’s memory can be made to the Democratic National Committee, The Humane Society of the United States, or a charity of your choice.

Judith Helfgott, 81 FOSTER, R.I. – Judith Helfgott, of Foster, died Nov. 17.

She was the beloved wife of the predeceased Martin Helfgott for 53 years. Born in Hartford, Connecticut, she was the daughter of Nathan and Rose (Yarosky) Mirsky.

She was the devoted mother of Jack Helfgott (fiancé, Angela) and Leslie Dinerman (husband, Norman). She was the dear sister of Cynthia Sockut, the predeceased Charles Mirsky, and Leabeth Scandura (husband, Tony). She was the loving grandmother of Jennifer (husband, Adam), Max (wife, Rebecca), Emma (husband, Matt), and Annie; and the great-grandmother of Lilah. She also leaves behind her companion, Joe Gardner.

She lived in Foster for 58 years and was the owner and operator of Helfgott Farms.

She served the town of Foster as past acting town clerk, past president and member of the Foster School Committee. She was a member of Temple Beth Israel in Danielson, Connecticut; and was past co-president and secretary of its sisterhood.

A special heartfelt thanks to home care aide and friend Lynette White, Beacon Hospice, Kristina, and Ross.

Contributions in her memory can be made to Temple Beth Israel Preservation

Society: TBIPS P.O. Box. 105, Taftville, CT 06380.

Sandra Krinsky, 80 WARWICK, R.I. – Sandra Krinsky passed away on Nov. 3.

She was the beloved wife of the late Joel Krinsky. She was the dear sister of Annette Grant (Jason) of Providence and Jordan Richman (Sandra) of Westwood, California. She was the loving aunt of Marc Fain (Christine) of North Kingstown.

Born in Providence, a daughter of the late Arthur and Rita (Fishbein) Richman, she was a resident of Warwick, previously living in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. A graduate of Bryant College, she was a former member of Temple Beth-El in Providence. Sandy loved reading, walking, knitting and spending time with friends and family.

Contributions in her memory may be made to American Cancer Society, 931 Jefferson Blvd. #3004, Warwick, RI 02886 or the charity of your choice.

Gloria Lefkowitz, 88 CRANSTON, R.I. – Gloria Lefkowitz passed away on Nov. 17 at Westview Nursing Home. She was the beloved wife of the late Carl Lefkowitz. Born in Providence, a daughter of the late Isador and Dorothy (Bernstein) Krasnoff, she had lived in Cranston for over 35 years.

She was the customer service manager for Citizens Bank for 23 years, retiring in 1995.

Gloria was a past treasurer and board member of Temple Torat Yisrael and member of Cranston Senior Guild.

She was the devoted mother of Jess Lefkowitz of East Greenwich and Neil Lefkowitz of North Carolina. She was the dear sister of Charles Krasnoff and his wife, Harriet, of Lake Worth, Florida.

She was the loving grandmother of Kayla, Michael, Sidney, and Jasmine. She was the cherished great-grandmother of Madison and Mason.

Contributions in her memory may be made to Parkinson’s Foundation, 200 SE 1st St., Ste. 800, Miami, FL 33131.

Mark Leyfman, 76 JOHNSTON, R.I. – Mark Leyfman died Oct. 14 at home.

He was the beloved husband of Maria (Malyar) Leyfman for 57 years. Born in Siberia

in 1945, he was the son of the late Yaakov, an architect, and Nina (Serlina) Leyfman.

Mark’s father passed away when he was 9 years old, and by age 16 he was working full time during the day to support his family, and going to school at night.

Eventually establishing a successful career as an electrician in Kiev, Mark had to give up this occupation when he and his family fled Ukraine and immigrated to America. Seeking religious freedom, Mark and his family settled in Pawtucket but eventually moved to Johnston, where he lived for over 30 years.

Mark loved to sing, play chess and card games, and he was an avid traveler. Mark and his wife, Maria, always traveled together and made many friends along the way.

Upon arriving in Rhode Island, Mark became a passionate fan of the Bruins and Celtics.

Mark was also quite the romantic and loved surprising his longtime wife, Maria, with flowers. Mark loved his wife’s cooking, but would often insist on going out to eat just to give her a break.

He was the devoted father of Yanina Katz and her husband, Ronald, of Lincoln. He was the dear brother of the late Lev Leifman. He was the loving grandfather of Emily, Trisha and Dylan.

Contributions in his memory may be made to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (Greater New England Chapter), 300 Jefferson Blvd., Ste. 101, Warwick, RI 02888, https://www. nationalmssociety.org/Chapters/MAM/Donate.

modeled in New York City and then studied at Boston University and Higgins Business School in Boston. She later worked as a bookkeeper for the Outlet Company and in the retail industry. She was an active member of her community serving on the Barrington Scholarship Committee and was a volunteer

at the election polls for many years.

Gloria’s passion for life was contagious. She loved listening to music with her husband Aaron, who was a music educator and professional musician. Gloria loved to dance and was always the CONTINUED ON PAGE 26

Gloria Lichtenstein, 97 Gloria Louise Lichtenstein (Shanahan) died Nov. 1 surrounded by her loving family. She was the wife of the late Aaron Lichtenstein. She lived in Barrington for over 36 years before moving to West Palm Beach, Florida, and East Providence. She was born in Winthrop, Massachusetts, and was the daughter of the late Patrick and Esther Shanahan of Revere, Massachusetts.

Gloria was a proud Navy Veteran serving in the WAVES during WWII. During her time in the Navy, she worked as a teletype operator in Washington, D.C., and San Diego. After WWII, she

Certified by the Board of Rabbis of Greater Rhode Island Jacquelyn Aubuchon, Funeral Director

26 | DECEMBER 2021

Jewish Rhode Island | jewishrhody.org

BUSINESS

A PACE fund lets you endow your annual gift to the Alliance

BY SARA MASRI “We established a PACE fund so the work of the Alliance will go on when we are not here to fund it.”

– Myrna and Hershey Rosen EVERY YEAR, nearly 1,500 people make donations to the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island’s annual community campaign. This enables the Alliance to fund programs, both locally and overseas, that make our community strong and vibrant. But when donors pass away, their annual gift is usually lost.

There is a way to ensure that not only is your annual campaign gift made in perpetuity, but that your commitment to the community is never forgotten.

A Perpetual Annual Campaign Endowment (PACE) is a permanent fund endowing your annual campaign gift – a lasting legacy to benefit the community. It can be created through a gift made during your lifetime or through an estate plan, and can offer tax benefits for you and/or your estate.

A PACE fund can be started the following ways: • A gift of cash or other assets • A bequest or trust distribution • Designating the Jewish Federation Foundation as the beneficiary of your life insurance, IRA or other

retirement plan. (The JFF manages the Jewish Alliance’s endowment in partnership with the Rhode Island Foundation.)

• Converting a donor advised fund to a PACE fund A Lion of Judah Endowment is a special kind of PACE fund. More than 70 women in our community are Lions – they make an annual campaign donation of $5,000 or more. A LOJE allows these women to perpetuate their annual Lion of Judah gift.

In some cases, these endowments can be started to fund an annual campaign gift during the donor’s lifetime, giving the donor the peace of mind of knowing that the gift will continue for generations to come.

This year, thanks to the forethought of generous community members, the Alliance’s annual campaign will receive nearly $515,000 from these endowment funds.

The list [at right] includes all endowment funds that contribute to the Alliance annual campaign.

For more information about establishing a PACE or LOJE fund to continue your legacy, contact Sara Masri at smasri@jewishallianceri.org or 401-421-4111, ext. 223.

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

Alice Bernstein and Family Fund Anne Berkelhammer Krause Lion of Judah Endowment Fund Benton and Elaine Odessa Family Fund Bertram M. and Phyllis R. Brown PACE Fund Carolyn, Celia and Theodore Cohen Fund Congregation Ahavat Shalom Endowment Fund Deanna and Fanny Berger Memorial Fund Diane M. Salmanson Memorial Fund Donald Salmanson Israel Trip Fund Donald Salmanson Restricted Fund Donald Salmanson Scholarship Fund Dora Sherman Memorial Fund Dorothy K. Fishbein Memorial Fund Dr. Henry H. and Lore Bahr Memorial PACE Fund Erwin Englander Fund Fred and Lorraine M. Kelman Family Fund Gloria and Martin Feibish Restricted Fund Goldman Family PACE Fund Grace Kennison Alpert Lion of Judah Endowment Fund Helen Meyer and Claus Meyer PACE Fund

Herta and Bruno Hoffman PACE Fund Hurvitz Family PACE Fund Ira S. and Anna Galkin Family Endowment Fund Ira S. and Anna Galkin Family PACE Fund Jenny and Aaron Klein Endowment Fund Kaplan Family PACE Fund Kenner Family Fund in memory of Lena and Jacob Kenner Melvin S. and Eleanore Frank Endowment Fund Mitzi Berkelhammer Lion of Judah Endowment Fund Myrna K. and Harris N. Rosen PACE Fund Ruth Goldstein Memorial PACE Fund Sagan-Oken Family Fund Samuel and Sona K. Morein Fund Samuel J. Chester PACE Fund Sol M. and Claire S. White Fund Stanley Ehrlich PACE Fund Stanley M. Goldstein Memorial Fund II Stone Memorial Fund in Memory of Albert Stone Sydney P. Cohen Family Fund Sylvia and Harold Greenfeld Family Fund Thaler Family PACE Fund Victor J. and Gussie W. Baxt Fund

OBITUARIES CONTINUED FROM PAGE 25 first and last person on the dance floor. She loved cooking and dining with her family and friends. She was an avid mahjong and bridge player and a member of the Cranston Senior Guild. She was a past member of the United Brothers Synagogue. She loved to read and travel, and she lived in many places in the U.S. during her life, including Massachusetts, California, New York, Colorado, New Mexico and Florida, until she settled in Rhode Island.

Her family was most important to her, and she cherished spending time with them to share her wisdom and philosophy on life. Her family loved her “Gloriaisms.” She especially adored her four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. She

was loved by many and will be forever cherished.

She is survived by her children, Sheila Lichtenstein of Bristol, Michael Lichtenstein and wife Deborah (Bea) of Jamestown, and Debra Nicholas and husband Robert of Seekonk, Massachusetts. She was the loving grandmother to Emma Lichtenstein and husband Jesse DeLaughter of West Roxbury, Massachusetts; Hannah Graves and husband Douglas of Jamestown; Sean Nicholas and wife Daniela of Pawtucket; and Kyle Nicholas and partner Michaela Hadley of Shoreline, Washington.

She was Grandma Glo to her six beloved great-grandchildren Ruth, Eve and Charlie DeLaughter; Harry and Eliza Graves; and Liliana Nicholas. She is survived by her sister, Marion Argenbright, and numerous nieces and

nephews. In addition to her parents and husband, she was also predeceased by her two brothers, Daniel Shane and Myron Shanahan, and her sister, Ruth Jarmak.

Donations can be made to Women Veterans Alliance https://www.womenveteransgiving.org/donate/ or United Brothers Synagogue https://unitedbrotherssynagogue.org/.

Leonid Stukalov, 91 PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Leonid Stukalov died peacefully on Nov. 14. Born in 1930 in Gomel, USSR, he enjoyed a happy childhood in a large household shared by his parents Rafail and Leah (Sheyman), sister,

maternal grandparents and twin uncles. At the outset of the German invasion in 1941, the uncles joined the army while the rest of the family followed Leonid’s father, an engineer at the local industrial facility, to the Ural Mountains where the plant was relocated to assist the war efforts.

After WWII, Leonid was admitted to Leningrad Institute of Construction Engineering. He earned his engineering degree in 1954, and his career brought him to locations from Siberia to Kazakhstan until he eventually settled in his native Gomel (currently in Belarus).

In 1957, he married Faina Liskovich (1930–2017), also an engineer. Their six decades of marriage were marked with much love and dedication to each other.

Leonid enjoyed many hobbies in his lifetime – from his motorcycle to boating and fishing, billiards, singing and traveling. A resident of Rhode Island since 1989, he was an avid follower of politics and supporter of all things Jewish. He was a Temple Emanu-El member, and he particularly enjoyed his trip to Israel.

Leonid is survived by his sons Sam (Irina) and Michael (Marina), granddaughters Regina Stukalov (Ronny Karbunara), Ida Eleff (Michael) and Ronit Zippel (Moshe), and great-grandchildren Giuliana, Ethan, Sophia, Ori and Hadassah. He is also survived by his sister Anna Entin, her children Michael and Larisa, and their children Amy, Elliott and Emily.

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