October 24, 2014

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

30 Tishri 5775 | October 24, 2014

BAR|BAT MITZVAH and ELECTIONS

BAR AND BAT MITZVAH PROJECTS ARE PERSONAL AND FULFILLING Rhode Island kids get into the habit of tikkun olam

BY IRINA MISSIURO imissiuro@jewishallianceri.org

COURTESY | ELICE FAMILY

It’s amazing what you will fi nd if you type “mitzvah project” into a search engine. Numerous sites offering various ideas invite teens to click the buttons. Are you into sports? Well, we’ve got a perfect one for you, then! More of an artist? Musician? Computer whiz? No worries – plenty of tzedakah initiatives to choose from. It’s akin to a buffet, one that beckons with a slew of dishes designed to appeal to every taste. The preteen is limited only by appetite. However, why not leave the restaurant altogether and

Dora Elice (top row, second from left) with her Flames of Hope teammates.

teach your child how to fi sh, as the saying goes?

Recommend to your child that he build the mitzvah project out of the pieces that reflect not only worthy causes, but also those that are meaningful to him. Specifically, instead of MITZVAH | 20

Interested in their views on leadership? Rhode Island candidates for statewide office and mayor of Providence, make a statement on pages 12-15.

Midterm elections: Jews facing off and other close races to watch

BY RON KAMPEAS AND ANTHONY WEISS JTA – With midterm elections just around the corner, four races for the House of Representatives in particular are catching our Jewish eyes.

In California, succeeding Waxman: Ted Lieu vs. Elan Carr California’s 33rd Congressional District, stretching along the Pacific Coast and extending into the west side of Los Angeles, is one of the wealthiest districts in Congress and encompasses some of the most glamorous real estate in the coun-

try: Malibu, Beverly Hills, Bel Air. When incumbent liberal stalwart Rep. Henry Waxman announced his retirement, the 18-candidate primary for the seat turned into a national punchline, attracting a Kardashian-endorsed spiritual guru, an NPR host and a hard-partying former NBC executive.

But as befits the successor to Waxman, a legislative workhorse, the two candidates who emerged – State Sen. Ted Lieu, a 45-year-old Democrat, and Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Elan Carr,

Elan Carr and Ted Lieu.

MIDTERM ELECTIONS | 29

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2 | October 24, 2014

The Jewish Voice

Two sanctuaries: Spiritual neighbors on the East Side

INSIDE Arts 25

BY GEORGE M. GOODWIN

Bar|Bat Mitzvah 19-23 Business 26-27 Calendar 8 Classified 27 Community 2-6, 18, 25, 32-33, 35 D’var Torah 7 Elections 12-15 Food 16-17 Nation 9, 24, 29 Obituaries 30-31 Opinion 7, 10-11 Seniors 28 Simchas | We Are Read 34 World 24

THIS ISSUE’S QUOTABLE QUOTE “The important thing is that the experience is linked to Torah.”

It may sound ridiculous: comparing two sanctuaries, especially when they represent different religious and architectural traditions. The point, however, is not to affirm the superiority of one over the other. Rather, the juxtaposition is intended to be mutually beneficial, showing, perhaps, how one sanctuary illuminates its sister.

Chabad House on Hope Street and the Society of Friends Meetinghouse on Olney Street are only a few blocks apart but, within the glow of Roger Williams’ heritage, are spiritual neighbors. Both buildings, which serve tiny congregations, are small and unobtrusive. Neither is adorned with such symbols as spires, domes, bell towers or colored windows.

Chabad is literally a house, for it was built around 1920 as a three-decker apartment. It is also a house in the sense that, upstairs, it is the successor to Providence’s Hebrew Sheltering Society. Much newer, the Friends Meetinghouse was built on the Moses Brown campus in 1954, after its previous home, on North Main Street, was demolished for the construction of a firehouse. Like Chabad, the new meetinghouse also houses other facilities: a kitchen and “multipurpose” rooms. The new meetinghouse, the same age as Temple Beth-El, is fortunate to be

surrounded by greenery, some open spaces and the occasional sounds of children.

Some might say that Chabad House is an architectural oddity or orphan; its congregants could daven anywhere. Providence’s Chabad, part of a global network, is connected in many ways to its parent sanctuary at 770 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, and to the Rebbe’s nearby resting place. Both these pilgrimage sites are further accessible through rabbis manning telephones and the latest hightech media. Some Chabad houses are so closely connected to 770 that they replicate this architecturally unremarkable building.

The Friends Meetinghouse, designed by Albert Harkness and built in a generic Georgian revival style, is part of the New England Yearly Meeting. Its parent sanctuary is Newport’s Friends Meetinghouse, which was begun in 1699 and remains Rhode Island’s oldest extant house of worship. (The Newport Historical Society has maintained this enormous wooden structure as a museum since the 1970s.) Of course Jews and Friends, fellow outcasts from more desirable places, were neighbors and business rivals in colonial Newport. Forbidden use of Newport’s Common Burial Ground, laid out in 1665, they consecrated their own cemeteries.

Chabad House on Hope Street.

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FROM PAGE 2

October 24, 2014 |

SANCTUARIES

Providence’s Chabad House and Friends Meetinghouse descend from the same religious and architectural principle, essentially the Third Commandment, which forbids the making of graven images. Some historians would explain that both religions exemplify an iconoclastic tradition, which, in its severity, deprives worshippers of visual instruction and pleasure. Other observers would readily argue, however, that such an absence of representational imagery, while denying idolatry, actually empowers reflection and prayer.

In terms of congregational dynamics, the Chabad and Friends sanctuaries are probably not farther apart. While Judaism encourages scattered moments of silence, Friends gather in silence and arise to speak only when they are so moved. Although Jewish worship does not require rabbinic or cantorial leadership, Friends function without clergy (or a panoply of local, self-help organizations).

There are of course many other obvious religious and architectural differences between the Chabad and Friends sanctuaries. For instance, Chabad faces east toward Jerusalem, though congregants turn westward when they welcome the Sabbath bride. Typically, when Orthodox readers and worshippers face the aron kodesh (ark), they display their backs to one another.

Of course within Orthodox tradition, men and women are seated separately. By contrast, all Friends are integrated within their pews. Without the need to

read or sing aloud from a holy text or prayer books, Friends face one another.

Although the Friends Meetinghouse is free of ornamentation and liturgical objects, Chabad House offers many visual references (and more than a little clutter). In addition to such obvious objects as a handsomely shaped aron kodesh, an embellished parochet (curtain), and ornate rimonim (Torah finials), there are a ner tamid (eternal light), candlesticks, kiddush cups, and mezzuzot as well as kippot and tallit. Chabad’s plethora of books, donors’ plaques, pushkes, and portraits of the Rebbe offer further visual enrichment.

In contrast to the meetinghouse’s bare brick exterior, Chabad’s unexpected presence, opposite a pizza parlor and a Mexican restaurant, is confirmed by a large, metal hanukkiyah. Indeed, for the sake of summoning a Minyan, Rabbi Yehoshua Laufer is known to stand on the sidewalk and ask passersby (men only) if they are Jews. If so, they are commanded to help.

Chabad House and the Friends Meetinghouse are united by their reverence for light. At Chabad, light, which is revealed through rows of windows along its eastern and southern walls, signals Shabbat’s beginning and end as well as the passage of other holy days. Indeed, light, one of the Lord’s first creations, symbolizes holiness and enlightenment. The sanctuary of the Friends Meetinghouse is sur-

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The Society of Friends meeting house on Olney Street. rounded on three walls by high, curtainless windows. Friends are also guided and warmed by an unflickering inner light.

In my opinion, neither of the East Side sanctuaries can be considered austere or sanctimonious. Rather, each is magnificent in its reticence and yearning. Embodying peace and goodness, both sanctuaries are springboards for improving ourselves and our world.

GEORGE GOODWIN, a member of Temple Beth-El, has edited the “Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes” for 10 years.

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The Jewish Voice

Judith Frank on ‘All I Love and Know’ Women’s Alliance celebration features award-winning author

BY ROBIN KALL HOMONOFF I had the pleasure of receiving a copy of “All I Love And Know” in advance of its release in July. I curled up with that book and, it might sound cliché, but I could not put it down. When Lezli Pious asked if I would co-chair the Women’s Alliance Campaign Celebration with her, I glanced at my copy of “All I Love And Know” and agreed to co-chair, hoping that this book would be considered.

Happily it was chosen, and I am thrilled it is fi nding its way to our community of readers.

The book tells the tale of how, upon the sudden death of Daniel’s brother and sister-in-law in the bombing of an Israeli cafe, Daniel and his partner Matt are tasked with rearing the couple’s two young children. While trying to do the honorable thing, this instantly built nuclear family hits a host of issues: two sets of less-than-thrilled grandparents, the Israeli government and the grieving process itself.

Judith Frank holds a B.A. from the Hebrew University, and an M.F.A. and Ph.D. from Cornell University. She is the author of “Crybaby Butch,” which was awarded a Lambda Literary Award in 2004. In 2008, she received a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship for “All I Love and Know.” She has been a resident at Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony, and has published short fiction

in The Massachusetts Review, other voices, and Best Lesbian Love Stories 2005. She teaches English and creative writing at Amherst College, and lives with her partner and two children in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Robin: “All I Love And Know” has been out for three months. How have you found the reaction to be? Is there anything surprising or particularly pleasing about the response?

Judith: Many people have told me how moved they were by it, and a writer never tires of that! I’ve been a little surprised by the warm response from Jewish publications and audiences; I’d expected that a novel as critical of Israel as this one is would get some scathing reviews. But even where reviewers are critical, of either the portrayal of the Israel/Palestine confl ict or the portrayal of gay life, they’ve been conscientious about separating out their personal feelings from their assessment of the novel. I fi nd that very classy and touching.

Robin: What was the nugget that sparked the story?

Judith: The terrorist attack, the death of a twin brother: that’s what got me going.

Robin: What was one of your favorite parts of the story to write? One of the most difficult?

Judith: I loved writing from Matt’s point of view, because he just lets all those feelings we usually censor – feelings that our partner’s troubles

will impinge on our lives, for example – flow (and is promptly ashamed by them). The hardest thing to write was Daniel’s grief. I wanted him to grieve throughout the novel, because that’s what would really happen. I wanted to go deep into that grief, and show how it can harm and change a person – I felt I needed to represent that human experience –

el can be reflected and digested through the arts. How does “All I Love And Know” give a sense of perspective about what’s happening in the Middle East?

Judith: In two ways, I think.

First, it expresses the ambivalence that increasing numbers of American Jews are grappling with in their relation to Israel. Second, it seeks to bring forward elements of Palestinian experience that we don’t see represented in the press.

Robin: Are you able to read other works of fiction while working on your own?

Judith: I am. But I can’t read book reviews: the language of judgment is crippling when I’m trying to write.

Judith Frank

but I also wanted readers to stay with Daniel, to care about him and to root for his and Matt’s relationship.

Robin: Given your background, how do you distinguish your views from those of your characters?

Judith: My characters represent a range of views. But even where their views are similar

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to mine, as in the case of Daniel and Matt, the ways those views intertwine around their emotions are different. Daniel and Matt have almost the exact same politics – but they still fight about them, because they’re coming from different life experiences and subject positions.

Robin: You cover a multitude of topics in “All I Love And Know.” What can your readers learn from reading about your perspectives on gay marriage, adoption and the Israeli/Palestinian confl ict?

Judith: I’m not sure I think of my novel as teaching people things. I guess my hope is that they will empathically engage with characters who may be different than they are, and that that engagement will open them up a little.

Robin: I’ve heard you talk about the way in which the current events are shared in a nov-

I’ve heard it’s nearly impossible to get into one of Judy’s courses at Amherst College, so don’t get shut out from this fabulous event!

EDITOR’S NOTE: Judith Frank will be speaking at the Women’s Alliance Fall Campaign Celebration on Nov. 6 at 7 p.m. at Ledgemont Country Club. For more information about this event or to RSVP, contact Danielle Germanowski at dgermanowski@jewishallianceri.org.

ROBIN KALL HOMONOFF is Rhode Island’s own book maven. From author interviews to events with best-selling authors, Robin shares her love of books wherever and whenever possible. Connect with her on Facebook.com/readingwithrobin and follow her on Twitter @robinkall and online at www. readingwithrobin.com.

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October 24, 2014 |

5

Temple Emanu-El to host Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson

BY EDUCATIONAL WEEKEND COMMITTEE/ TEMPLE EMANU-EL This year’s scholar-in-residence at Temple Emanu-El is one of America’s most prolific writers of contemporary Jewish thought, and the dean of two rabbinical schools in Los Angeles and Germany, Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson, DHL. Rabbi Artson (www.bradartson.com) is the dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, vice president of American Jewish University in Los Angeles, and now serves as dean of the new Zacharias Frankel Rabbinical School, a Conservative seminary in Potsdam, Germany.

He is the author of 10 books and over 250 articles. He will focus on his two most recent books, “God of Becoming and Relationship” and “Passing Life’s Tests” during his visit to Providence.

Rabbi Artson’s impending visit from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2, has attracted a diverse and committed

constituency. Rabbi Elan Babchuck of Temple Emanu-El has worked to recruit the committee, and said about the work of planning this weekend, which will feature one of the rabbis who ordained him in 2012, “Rabbi Artson has been a mentor and teacher of mine for many years. Long before I ever sat in his classroom as a rabbinical student, I was studying his books. Years later, I’m thrilled to be able to bring his colorful, insightful wisdom to our community. His inspiring talks on modern Jewish thought, special needs, Process Theology and tikkun olam (among many other topics) will undoubtedly have a similar effect on our community as they have had on me.”

Dayna Gladstein, a committee member, who was introduced to Rabbi Artson’s work by Babchuck, said, “As a newcomer to the concept of Process Theology, I was interested in learning about it, but was not expecting a personal growth experience, which resulted in a deeper un-

Arie Kaplan to speak at the RI Jewish Historical Association fall meeting On Nov. 2 at 2 p.m., the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association will hold its fall meeting at Temple Sinai, Cranston. Author and international lecturer Arie Kaplan will speak on “Wizards of Wit: Jewish Comedy from Caesar to Seinfeld.”

Kaplan is an award-winning author. Most notably, he is the author of the critically acclaimed nonfiction book “From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books” (Jewish Publication Society, 2008), which was named a Booklist Editors’ Choice: Books For Youth winner in 2009. It was also a 2008 finalist for the National Jewish Book Award, a 2009 Sophie Brody Honor Book (awarded by the American Library Association), and a 2009 National Best Books 2009 Awards Finalist (awarded by USA Book News). Kaplan’s newest nonfiction book is “Saturday Night Live: Shaping TV Comedy and American Culture,” which

derstanding of what it means to be Jewish in today’s world. After reading, “God of Becoming and Relationship,” I am completely hooked.

“Rabbi Artson has found a way to connect the dots of the present, past, and future, of creation and evolution, and of life and death which honors the rich traditions of the past while reconciling the complexities of our technology savvy, scientifically advanced, demanding world of inequity and imperfection. He is witty, deeply knowledgeable and personally committed. I am overwhelmed by his ability to transcend the conventional and engage our curiosity in the exploration of the essence of Jewish life in a way which offers hope, choice and wonder to all of creation.”

The theme for the weekend is “On Three Things,” which will

CONTRIBUTING WRITER Irina Missiuro

feature Rabbi Artson’s refreshing take on the “three things” referred to in the following traditional Jewish text (Pirkei Avot, Ethics of Our Fathers):

Event Co-Chairs Mayer & Judy Levitt and Edward & Susan Odessa invite you to

a ‘scandalous’ campaign finale

was published by Lerner in September.

His literary career has taken him around the world on countless speaking engagements in order to promote and discuss his books, comics, cartoons and graphic novels. He’s an indemand public speaker specializing in pop culture related subjects, and he’s lectured at such venues as the 92nd Street Y (New York City), the Skirball Cultural Center (Los Angeles), the Nevele Grand Resort (The Catskills), the Connecticut Historical Society, The Krakow Jewish Culture Festival (Krakow, Poland) and the Trondheim Jewish Cultural Festival (Trondheim, Norway).

The meeting is free and open to the public. A reception will follow.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, contact Anne Sherman at 401331-1360 or rjhist@aol.com.

savethedate 12 | 7 | 2014

Sunday, December 7, 2014 Temple Emanu-El 99 Taft Avenue, Providence 7:00pm Community-Wide Event featuring Joshua Malina, star of “Scandal” and “The West Wing”

an evening with

joshua malina

star of television’s “Scandal” & “The West Wing”

For more information and to RSVP, contact Michele Gallagher at 401.421.4111ext. 165 or mgallagher@jewishallianceri.org.

2015 Annual Campaign Community-Wide Event

ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT Tricia Stearly tstearly@jewishallianceri.org 401-421-4111, ext. 160 EDITOR Fran Ostendorf

Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson

“Simon the Righteous used to say, on three things the world stands: on Torah, on prayer, and on acts of loving kindness.”

During our weekend, Rabbi Artson will invite his audience to examine how Torah, prayer, and loving kindness weave together in their own lives, and how they might activate these three areas in more meaningful ways. The titles of his talks throughout the weekend are: “Embracing the God You Actually Love,” “The Torah of Human Dignity and Kindness,” “Self, Identity, and Choice,” “Conversations about Tomorrow,” and “Lessons I’ve Learned from My Autistic Son.” To register (events are free and open to the community, with the exception of dinner on Oct. 31), go to teprov.org/Artson. For questions, contact Rabbi Elan Babchuck at ebabchuck@teprov. org or 401-331-1616.

Karen Borger ksborger@gmail.com 401-529-2538

EDITORIAL CONSULTANTS Irina Missiuro | Judith Romney Wegner

COLUMNISTS Dr. Stanley Aronson, Michael Fink, Rabbi James Rosenberg and Daniel Stieglitz

DESIGN & LAYOUT Leah Camara

MEMBER of the Rhode Island Press Association

THE JEWISH VOICE (ISSN number 15392104, USPS #465-710) is published bi-weekly, except in July, when it does not publish.

PERIODICALS Postage paid at Providence, R.I. POSTMASTER Send address changes to: The Jewish Voice, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence, RI 02906.

PUBLISHER The Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island, Chair Sharon Gaines, President/CEO Jeffrey K. Savit, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence, RI 02906.

Phone: 401-421-4111 • Fax 401-331-7961

COPY DEADLINES: All news releases, photographs, etc., must be received on the Wednesday two weeks prior to publication. Submissions may be sent to: editor@jewishallianceri.org.

ADVERTISING: We do not accept advertisements for pork or shellfish. We do not attest to the kashrut of any product or the legitimacy of our advertisers’ claims.

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

6 | October 24, 2014

COMMUNITY

A fashionable afternoon comes to Temple Beth-El Fashion will be in full force on Dec. 7, from 3-6 p.m. at Temple Beth-El with a professional runway show by LIGHTS/ FASHION/PHILANTHROPY – a “fashion-event” production and entertainment company – and Donahue Models.

The event includes a pop-up boutique of local up-and-coming designers, a silent auction, entertainment, hors d’ouvres and “mocktails” and the reveal of the makeover winner, who will be chosen at random.

The winner will receive a free cut and color at Makeovers Salon.

On the day of the event, she will have her hair styled and her makeup professionally applied. Then she’ll walk the runway wearing a designer outfit showing off her new look.

Nominations for the “make-

over winner” must be received

by Nov. 16.

Nominate yourself, a deserving friend, relative or co-worker or neighbor – there’s no limit to how many women you can nominate – with the nominee’s name and contact information.

Attendees and nominees need not belong to Temple Beth-El or its Sisterhood.

Send your nominations to janmweiner@hotmail.com or Jan Weiner, 112 Sayles Ave., Pawtucket, R.I. 02860.

Ticket prices for the fundraiser are $45, $75, $100 or $180.

RSVP by Nov. 16 to Temple Beth-El’s Sisterhood, 70 Orchard Ave., Providence, with your name, contact information and payment.

Funds will be used for programming at Temple Beth-El.

The Jewish Voice

Conference highlights climate change

BY MARTY COOPER mcooper@jewishallianceri.org Rhode Island Light & Power recently sponsored “Interfaith Action on Climate,” for Rhode Island clergy and interested lay people at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Providence. The conference, attended by more than 125 people, featured Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse from Rhode Island and state Rep. Art Handy, as well as Brown University Professor of Environmental Studies and Sociology, Timmons Roberts. Rabbi Sarah Mack, of Temple Beth-El, Providence, and president of the Board of Rhode Island Rabbis, provided the devotion to begin the program.

A leading advocate for climate awareness on the Senate floor, Whitehouse spoke of the need to reduce carbon pollution and to protect our nation’s water and

air. He said he also believes that Rhode Island is in a unique position to be a leader in the clean energy economy. After citing examples of how the water levels have risen in our state, the senator said that he voices the same message to his senate colleagues weekly. The threat of climate change is real, and we must address the issue now. It will not just go away.

Roberts addressed the issue of

inequality and its effects on our ability to fight global climate change.

Handy, a champion of civil rights issues and the environment, delivered a strong message for our state to continue to make progress in relation to climate change. The chair of the Rhode Island House Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, Handy was the lead sponsor of the Resilient Rhode Island Act to coordinate a process to prepare for, and respond to, climate change.

Rhode Island Light & Power is an affiliate of National Light & Power, which includes more than 14,000 congregations throughout 40 states.

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

First phone-a-thon of the 2015 campaign season a roaring success

BY HILLARY SCHULMAN

hschulman@jewishallianceri.org

On Oct. 20, members of the Rhode Island Jewish community came together at Jewish Family Service to eat, laugh and raise funds for the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island’s 2015 Annual Campaign.

Nine dedicated solicitors quickly raised $12,751 by closing 61 gifts.

Jewish Family Service graciously hosted the phone-a-thon with CEO Erin Minior and

Israel Study/Travel Grants and Scholarships We’re making it affordable for Jews in high school, gap-year, college, and post-secondary programs (through age 26) to experience meaningful trips to Israel.

The Rhode Island Jewish community supports an Israel experience as an integral part of a student’s education and growing Jewish identity.

Applications are available online. To find out if you’re eligible and to apply, visit jewishallianceri.org today.

Submission deadlines: • October 31, 2014 for winter programs • December 2, 2014 for spring programs • March 16, 2015 for summer, fall, and year-long programs

President Amanda Isenberg, demonstrating what it means to truly partner with core agencies. They shared anecdotes and stories of community members helped by JFS with the dollars that the Jewish Alliance has allocated to the agency in the last few program years.

With the Alliance’s help, JFS has been able to provide essential counseling services, offer the Kesher program, and run the Kosher Senior Café for community members and seniors in need.

A special thank you goes to Richard Silverman, Ken and Roberta Schneider, JFS Chief Executive Officer Erin Minior, JFS President Amanda Isenberg, Aaron Guttin, Mira Biller, Simon Lichter, and the 2015

ACCEPT

the

Phone-a-thon Chair Marc Gertsacov, for making the many phone calls that resulted in this accomplishment.

You, too, can help the Alliance raise funds to secure a better future for our Jewish community. The next phone-athon will be held at the Jewish Alliance on Nov. 24 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. If you are interested in supporting the Jewish Alliance’s 2015 Annual Campaign, please contact Michele Gallagher at 401-421-4111, ext. 165, or mgallagher@jewishallianceri. org.

HILLARY SCHULMAN is the development associate in philanthropy at the Jewish Alliance.

CHALLENGE

SEE things DIFFERENTLY Get Your HANDS Dirty FIND Your VOICE MAKE Some NOISE MAKE Something BETTER Fit in by STANDING OUT

Applications received after the deadline may be considered pending availability of funds.

For more information contact Elanah Chassen at 401.4214.4111 ext. 140 or echassen@jewishallianceri.org.

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D’VAR TORAH | OPINION

thejewishvoice.org

Totally equal… sometimes

BY YEKATERINA GINZBURG-BRAM Between Yom Kippur services, I had the opportunity to ask my synagogue’s three wonderful rabbis a question. Why, I wished to know, do Conservative Jewish services alternate between including and not including the matriarchs in the Amidah recitation? Who makes the decision regarding when our mothers (and, implicitly, women in general) matter?

Needless to say, I received highly courteous, nuanced and informative answers. I learned that, while the Conservative movement is committed to gender equality and inclusion, the “Mamas and Papas” version of the Amidah alternates with the “Papas only” version because some congregants prefer to pray the way they’ve always done.

The rabbis expressed great empathy for my confusion and frustration and referred to the current state of affairs as a compromise.

While I am most grateful for their insight into the situation, I must admit I cannot bring myself to be satisfied with this response. If the argument for inclusion states, “Women are full, equal, necessary participants in Judaism, a fact we must recognize and honor in all our prayers,” while the argument against it states, “It used to be acceptable to imply that women mattered less than men, so we should still be able to do so,” can we really believe both positions have equal validity? Have we not changed many of previously standard Jewish practices (separate seating in shul, opposition to openly gay clergy and not counting women as part of a Minyan are some changed tra-

Israel study|travel grants, scholarships are available The Jewish Alliance of Greater R.I. is making it affordable for Jews in high school, gap year, college and post-secondary programs (through age 26) to experience trips to Israel.

The Rhode Island Jewish community supports an Israel experience as an integral part of a student’s education and Jewish identity. Information and applications are available online at jewishallianceri.org Submission deadlines are Oct. 31, 2014, for winter programs, Dec. 2, 2014, for spring programs, and March 16, 2015, for summer, fall and yearlong programs. Applications received after the deadline may be considered, pending availability of funds.

For more information, contact Elanah Chassen, ext. 140, echassen@jewishallianceri. org.

I want my imahot

ditions that come to mind) precisely because we now deem them discriminatory?

Now, some may (and did) say that, regardless of the words coming from the bimah, I’m free to personally pray the way I choose. Of course I can, and I do, muttering my foremothers’ names at breakneck speed like a tongue-twister in order to answer, “Amen” on time, but here’s the thing: The voice from the bimah matters because it’s perceived as the official voice of our movement. Torah readers no longer chant those infamous words from Leviticus aloud because Conservative Judaism does not condone – and will not give the appearance of condoning – their hateful homophobia.

Shouldn’t the movement be just as careful not to appear to condone sexism?

Others point out that other women don’t mind reciting “patriarchs only” prayers. I may well be a crazy feminist/ t roublemaker/touchy-feely thought police (some of the nicer terms I’ve heard throughout my life): Still, I must wonder how much of that stems from conviction rather than acceptance born of habit. For too long, society trained women to settle for less in far too many things, and punished those who dared to dream outside the box. Even the young girls of today will most likely fi nd themselves fighting an uphill battle for equal treatment at some point; we can give them no better weapon than the un-

shakable conviction that they deserve no less.

Compared to most other concepts, equality leaves remarkably little room for nuance and compromise: “mostly equal” or “totally equal, sometimes” still means “unequal.” If one of us must sit at the back of the bus, we’re not on the same journey; civil unions are not marriages; 78 cents to a dollar never makes for a one-to-one ratio. While society at large is progressing toward this conclusion, we Jews already know it better than almost anyone: our rituals should reflect this knowledge.

Sarah endured unimaginable trials in silence. Rebecca left her home and family, took risks and schemed to ensure that we’d become the nation of Jacob – Israel. Leah gave and nurtured life for so long and to so many, too often without the rewards of love or gratitude.

Rachel died in pain and was left behind in a roadside grave, all for the sake of one more tribe. These Biblical foremothers birthed and suffered, struggled for and shaped the destiny of our people at least as much as their male counterparts did. We are truly their children. We should always be proud to say their names.

YEKATERINA GINZBURGBRAM, a resident of Providence, is a member of Temple Emanu-El and an elementary school art teacher in the Providence Public Schools.

October 24, 2014 |

Living in an imperfect world Torah Portion Noah

BY RABBI LESLIE Y. GUTTERMAN

I am grateful to my beloved predecessor at Temple Beth-El, my cherished teacher William Braude, who shared something new with me about this week’s familiar Torah portion. It begins with the words: “These are the toldot, the generators (i.e., genealogical line) of Noah.

If you look carefully, Rabbi Braude told me, you will see that the Hebrew word toldot appears 13 times in the Torah.

He noticed that in 11 of the 13 times the word has one letter missing. In other words, it is spelled imperfectly. There are only two instances where the word is spelled “perfectly” with all its letters intact. The fi rst is found in the second chapter of the Book of Genesis: “These are the toldot of heaven and earth.”

The second instance is at the conclusion of the Book of Ruth, which contains the geneology of King David, the ancestor of the Messiah.

One might say that at the beginning of creation the world was perfect. And in the time of the Messiah perfection will be once more restored. But in the meantime, we fallible human beings are destined to live in an imperfect world. The challenge for all of us is how to live with the imperfection of ourselves and others. Otherwise we are doomed to be disappointed.

Our Sages were always comparing Abraham and Noah.

Abraham always came out on top. Even though Abraham was never considered to be a perfect man, the patriarch was called “whole-hearted.”

In other words, Abraham was characterized by sincerity, integrity and genuineness. These are traits we can emulate. It’s not perfect but certainly good enough.

LESLIE Y. GUTTERMAN is senior rabbi of Temple Beth-El in Providence.

Candle Lighting Times Greater Rhode Island Area Oct. 24 .............................. 5:31 Oct. 31 ............................. 5:21 Nov. 7 ............................... 4:13 Nov. 14 ............................ 4:06

Save the Date for

Shabbat Shabbang!

THEY SEE COLOR WAR.

YOU SEE COLLABORATION.

Friday, November 21 5:30 - 8:30pm Dwares JCC 401 Elmgrove Avenue, Providence

Ziplining. Waterskiing. Shabbat under the stars.

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A Shabbat dinner and more!

Join us for a Shabbat dinner designed to welcome community members of all ages into our building to enjoy a fabulous meal, new friends, and fascinating program offerings.

First-time campers, get up to $1,000 off with OneHappyCamper.org or special rates through BunkConnect.org!

More details to follow.

For more information contact Elanah Chassen at 401.421.4111 ext. 140 or echassen@jewishallianceri.org.

7

For more information contact Michelle Cicchitelli at 401.421.4111 ext. 178 or mcicchitelli@jewishallianceri.org.

8 | October 24, 2014

CALENDAR

The Jewish Voice

CALENDAR Ongoing Alliance Kosher Senior Café. Kosher lunch and program every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Dwares JCC, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence. Noon lunch; 1 p.m. program. $3 lunch donation from individuals 60+ or under 60 with disabilities. Know Your Candidate series: Oct. 27. 1-1:30 p.m., Seth Magaziner, candidate for treasurer; 1:30-2 p.m., Buddy Cianci, candidate for mayor of Providence; 2-2:30 p.m., John Carlevale, candidate for secretary of state.

Nov. 3. 1-1:30 p.m., Gina Raimondo, candidate for governor. Neal or Elaine, 401-421-4111, ext. 107.

Am David Kosher Senior Café. Kosher lunch and program every weekday.

Temple Am David, 40 Gardiner St., Warwick. 11:15 a.m. program; Noon lunch. $3 lunch donation from individuals 60+ or under 60 with disabilities. Elaine or Steve 401-732-0047.

Through Oct. 30 Traditional Works and Photography.

Gallery at Temple Habonim. Lynne Mehlman works in oils and pastels. Bonnie Jaffe captures moments in photography.

Marc Jaffe shows the uniqueness of people through photography. Gallery hours are Wednesday and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Friday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and by appointment. 165 New Meadow Road, Barrington. Information, call 401-245-6536 or email gallery@templehabonim.org.

Through Dec. 5 Gold, Paper, Scissors. By Naomi Geller Lipsky. gallery (401). Naomi uses quilling, gilding, painting and other techniques to create artistic designs inspired by her love for Jewish heritage. Dwares JCC, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence.

Information, Erin Moseley, director or Arts & Culture, 401-421-4111, ext.

108, emoseley@jewishallianceri.org

Friday | Oct. 24 Shabbat service at Temple Sinai.

Includes Shireinu, the community chorus of Temple Sinai. Services are open to the public. An oneg Shabbat follows. 30 Hagen Ave., Cranston.

Saturday Oct. 25 The Edwards Twins. 8 p.m. Temple Torat Yisrael. 2 brothers – 100 stars. One Night Only! General admission, $35; VIP seating with meet-and-greet after the show and wine, cheese, dessert and a CD, $75. 1251 Middle Road, East Greenwich. Call the office for more information, 401-885-6600.

Sunday | Oct. 26 Kroll Educators Conference. 8:30 a.m.–noon. Dwares JCC. What Makes a Great Teacher? Special guest Elizabeth Green. Open to all educators and parents. No charge. RSVP to Lynne Bell

Thursday | Nov. 6

at 401-421-4111, ext. 156, or lbell@ jewishallianceri.org.

The Igbo Jews of Abuja. 7-8:30 p.m.

Opening at the Hillel Gallery. There is widespread belief among the Igbo of Nigeria, dating back to the 18th century, that they are descendants of the tribes of Israel. And exhibit of Shai Afsai’s photographs and interviews from his three visits to the Abuja (Nigeria) community and its four synagogues in 2013 and 2014. 80 Brown St., Providence.

Build it at SHAS. 10-11:30 a.m. Striar Hebrew Academy’s Early Learning Center offers a fun building program for children, ages 1 to 5. Meet the teachers, see the center and meet other families while engaging in building activities. 60 Ashcroft Road, Sharon, Mass. Information, striarhebrew.org.

Brez & Pez Play Klez. 2:30 p.m. Temple Habonim. Clarinetist and mandolinist Fishel Bresler and accordionist Cory Pesaturo, joined by klezmer percussionist Michael Goldberg, present a program of klezmer music. 165 New Meadow Road, Barrington. Information, templehabonim.org, or 401-245-6538

Monday | Oct. 27

Jewish Genealogy and Accessing your Family Tree. 7-8 p.m. Congregation Agudas Achim. Jay Sage, past president of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Boston and co-editor of their journal will present. Free and open to the public. 901 N. Main St., Attleboro, Mass. Information, 508-222-2243 or office @agudasma.org

Tuesday | Oct. 28 Lunch and Learn. 12:15-1:15 p.m. Study a bit of Torah with Rabbi Naftali Karp over lunch in a one-hour session to explore relevant Jewish topics using ancient wisdom as the guide. Bring a brown bag lunch; be prepared for a lively discussion. Weekly sessions through Dec. 9. Dwares JCC, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence. RSVP 401632-3165. Drop-ins welcome.

Temple Torat Yisrael Lunch and Learn with Rabbi Philmus. Noon. Each participant orders from the menu and the group studies Jewish sources addressing current issues. Everyone is welcome. T’s Restaurant, 5600 Post Road, E. Greenwich.

TNT! (Tuesday Night Talmud). 8-9 p.m. Open to men, women and teens of all levels and backgrounds. This is a collaborative group study of the first chapter of Masechet Berachot, tractate dealing with blessings. Meets weekly in the rabbi’s study at Congregation Beth Sholom, 275 Camp St., Providence. For information, 401-621-9393.

Welcoming Your Baby into Your Interfaith Family. 7 p.m. Temple BethEl. A practical discussion of Jewish ceremonies for welcoming and naming a child. Taught by Rabbi Sarah Mack and Kit Haspel, Ph.D. $18 per family; preregistration requested. Information, contact Rabbi Mack at 401-331-6070 or rabbimack@temple-beth-el.org.

Wednesday | Oct. 29 R.I. Friends of Israel. 7-9 p.m. Program introduces Stand with Us, a new proIsrael voice in Rhode Island with Avi

Calendar Submissions Nov. 7 issue, THANKSGIVING | VETERANS – must be received

by Oct. 29 Nov. 21 issue, TRAVEL – must be received by Nov. 12

SEND ALL CALENDAR ITEMS TO: editor@jewishallianceri.org with the subject line “CALENDAR.” Calendar entries may be edited for content, length and relevance. Please submit two weeks prior to issue of publication.

Quilling 101. 6-9 p.m. Discover the art of quilling with Naomi Geller Lipsky and learn how to shape paper strips into a vast variety of designs. gallery (401) at the Dwares JCC. $25; $18 members, includes all supplies. Preregistration required. Information, Erin Moseley, director of Arts & Culture at 401-4214111, ext 108, or emoseley@jewishallianceri.org.

Shalom by Naomi Geller Lipsky Posnick, representative. Dwares JCC, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence. Register at StandWithUs-RI.eventbrite.com.

Friday | Oct. 31 Light in a Time of Darkness. 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Conference celebrating the life and work of Aristide Sousa Mendes, who saved nearly 30,000 refuges, including 10,000 Jews fleeing Nazi tyranny. Includes film and speakers.

Jackson Arts Center Auditorium, Bristol Community College, 777 Elsbree St., Fall River, Mass. RSVP to Joanne Petrasso 508-678-2811, ext. 2442.

Email: Joanne.Petrasso@bristolcc.edu Co-sponsored by LusoCentro and BCC Holocaust Center.

Sunday | Nov. 2

Jewish Family Service 85th anniversary celebration. Noon. Ledgemont Country Club. Honoring Peri Ann Aptker and David C. Isenberg. Brunch, raffle and entertainment. $75. Information,

401-331-1244, or jfsri.org.

Tuesday | Nov. 4 Lunch and Learn. 12:15-1:15 p.m. Study a bit of Torah with Rabbi Naftali Karp over lunch in a one-hour session to explore relevant Jewish topics using ancient wisdom as the guide. Bring a brown bag lunch; be prepared for a lively discussion. Weekly sessions through Dec. 9. Dwares JCC, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence. RSVP 401632-3165. Drop-ins welcome.

Wednesday | Nov. 5

21st Century Zion: America, Israel & The Challenges of a New Era. With Ari Shavit, author of “My Promised Land.” 7 p.m. Brown University, Wilson 102 (on the Main Green, between George and Waterman streets). Sponsors include Brown RISD Hillel, Brown Students for Israel and J Street U Brown. Information, 401-863-2805, or brownrisdhillel.org.

Introduction to Judaism. 7-9 p.m.

Thursdays through March 12. Presented by the Reform Temples of Rhode Island. Faculty will include Rabbis Goldwasser, Gutterman, Klein and Mack; Cantors Seplowin and Siegel; and Cantorial Associate Kabler. Registration required. $160 per person; $225 per couple. Classes at Temple Beth-El, 70 Orchard Ave., Provodence. Information, JGilson@temple-beth-el.org, or 401331-6070.

Sunday | Nov. 9 Pops Concert. 2 p.m. Temple Sinai.

Features Rhode Island Wind Ensemble.

Free. Suggested donation of a nonperishable food item to be donated to the R.I. Community Food Bank. 30 Hagen Ave. Cranston.

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NATION

thejewishvoice.org

October 24, 2014 |

9

Study: Miami Jewry sees first gain since 1975

BY URIEL HEILMAN (JTA) – For the first time in four decades, Miami Jewry is growing.

That’s the official finding of the new Miami Jewish population study released Monday by the Greater Miami Jewish Federation.

The Jewish population of Miami-Dade County increased 9 percent over the last decade, to 123,000 from 113,000 in 2004, according to the survey. That makes it slightly larger than the Jewish community of Atlanta and slightly smaller than West Palm Beach, Fla. The findings confirm trends long suggested by anecdotal evidence, as Miami has become a magnet in recent years for Latin Americans, including Jews from Venezuela, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Brazil and Peru. Many have come to the United States seeking greater economic or political security, finding in Miami a U.S. city with a strong Latin identity and not too far from home.

Miami has a higher proportion of foreign-born Jewish adults than any other American Jewish community, at 33 percent, according to the study; 51 percent of all of Miami’s 2.6 million residents are foreignborn. Researchers also found a 57 percent increase over the last decade in Hispanic Jewish adults in Miami.

The survey, titled “2014 Greater Miami Jewish Federation Population Study: A Portrait of the Miami Jewish Community,” represents the first concrete evidence of Jewish growth in Miami since 1975.

“In the past decade, we have seen a flow of new Jewish residents, as well as an increase in the length of residency in Miami,” Michelle Labgold, the federation’s chief planning officer, said in a statement. “This is significant news because Miami’s Jewish community experienced a steady decline in population between 1975 and 2004.”

Miami remains the smallest of the three heavily Jewish South Florida counties – Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach. A 2005 survey counted 256,000 Jews in Palm Beach County, and a 2008 study found 186,500 Jews in Broward.

Together, the three counties’ 550,000 or so Jews make up the third-largest Jewish metro area in the nation, behind New York and Los Angeles.

Of Miami’s foreign-born Jews, the largest group by far is Israelis. Some 5,180 Miami Jews were born in Israel, and approximately 9,000 adults consider themselves Israeli.

About 3,700 Miami Jews were born in Cuba; 2,854 in Argentina; 2,643 in Venezuela; 2,537 in Colombia; and 2,220 in Canada.

Part of Miami’s recent growth is Orthodox. Compared to the last federation study, in 2004, the number of people

residing in Orthodox Jewish households grew by 41 percent – “mostly due to a significant increase in the average size of Orthodox households,” the study reported. The survey also found the overall percentage of Jewish Miami households identifying as Orthodox up to 11 percent from 9 percent in 2004; the number of Reform Jewish households up to 31 percent from 27 percent; the number of Conservative households down to 26 percent from 32 percent; and “just Jewish” households steady at about 32 percent.

Miami has about 47,000 Jews

under age 35; 43,000 Jews aged 35-64; and 40,000 age 65 and older. The largest growth since 2004 was in the 18-34 age range and the 65-74 range (the baby boomers); both grew by 26 percent in the last decade.

The numbers weren’t all good for the Jewish federation.

The study found that giving to Jewish causes had decreased among Miami Jews, with a steep decline in gifts to the federation: Only 32 percent of respondents said they gave to the federation, down from 42 percent in 2004.

Miami’s Jews live mostly in North Dade, South Dade and

the Beaches, with North Dade growing fastest – up 19 percent since 2004. The study also found about 7,000 Jews living in the downtown area, mostly young adults.

The survey found relatively high rates of Jewish attachment. Only 16 percent of couples reported being intermarried, 74 percent said being Jewish is “very important to them” and eight in 10 children have had some type of formal Jewish education, such as Jewish day school, Hebrew school or private tutoring. Sixty-two percent of respondents said they were “very” or “extreme-

ly” attached to Israel.

Twenty-nine percent of respondents said they cannot make ends meet or are just holding on financially. Thirtyfive percent of households said they needed some kind of social services in the past year.

The study interviewed 2,020 Jews and had a margin of error of 2.2 percent. It was conducted

by Jewish demographer Ira Sheskin, a professor of geography at the University of Miami who has authored 43 Jewish federation population studies.

10 | October 24, 2014

OPINION

It’s all about our choices Life is about making choices.

Anybody who knows me has certainly heard me say that often. My kids would tell you they hear it all too often.

But with each choice we grow a little bit. It helps us become the person we are today. And it doesn’t matter whether EDITOR you are a toddler on the FRAN pl ayg r ou nd , an adult in OSTENDORF the office or the editor of this paper.

Every two weeks I have to make a choice. What am I going to write about in this column? Sometimes, it’s a tough choice. I’m naturally a rather private person, so finding something that is both personal to me and important to the community can be tough.

Often, I wonder if anybody will care. Because of that, in the last issue I made a choice to end this column with a reminder that we always like to hear from our readers.

Wow. That was a good choice.

As you can see from looking at the next page (but wait a minute, finish the column first!), you chose to respond with more letters than I’ve seen since I started this job in April.

Every letter is civil; each one is interesting; and we’ve run everything we received by our deadline for this issue.

You’ve made me one happy editor. And, more important,

we have a valuable dialogue going in our community. And I’m glad The Voice can facilitate that. It’s one of the multitude of choices we’ve made here…to be many voices as a community newspaper.

Now here’s something else that’s pretty important. And it’s also about choice. Nov. 4 is Election Day. I’ve already used this column as a platform to remind you to vote, and I’m going to do it again because it’s one of the most significant choices you are going to make all year. The Community Relations Council of the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island and The Jewish Voice got together to ask the candidates who want to represent Rhode Island statewide and in Washington a simple but critical question we felt needed an answer: As a leader, how will you use your leadership skills to improve our state and our country? On Oct. 10, we ran the responses from those running for Congress.

Today we have the rest of the candidates’ answers. We also included responses from the Providence mayoral candidates because those impact a large portion of our readership. We hope you find this information useful.

And we hope you will exercise your right and obligation to choose who runs our government by voting. The choice you make is a personal one. But start by making the choice to vote in the first place.

LETTER Re: Have you voted yet? (Oct. 10)

I just finished reading Geraldine Foster’s “Remembering the Past” article about her memories regarding voting.

The story brought back memories of Election Day as I grew up. The year was 1952 or 1953. My parents were adamant about voting, and I accompanied them to the polls.

I watched as they voted on those big machines.

We went home and waited to watch the returns on the old black-and-white TV. The polls closed at 9 p.m. Then the results slowly trickled in. Bedtime came. No results were final. We argued about bedtime.

I wanted to stay up to continue watching. They said no. Guess who won?

The next morning Dad went out and purchased The Providence Journal, the morning edition of the ProJo. We read and talked about the results.

Some results were heard on WEAN’s Ed Pearson radio show.

Fast forward to the 1980s. I

am now married. My daughters went to the polls with my wife. I voted later, after work.

Returns were watched on a color TV. As soon as the polls closed, the stations released exit polls declaring the winners with as little as zero percent of the vote counted.

It is now 2014. Votes are counted electronically. Winners are known almost immediately. We watch on cable TV and electronic devices. By 11 p.m., we have heard all the speeches. Bedtime is here.

Since 2010 I have served as a poll worker. Here I am able to see parents bringing their children with them to vote. It gladdens me to see this routine, as Geraldine Foster mentioned, continue.

Please vote in the upcoming election. Give your children this memory so they can pass this democratic right on to the next generation.

Gerald Sherman Cranston, R.I.

The Jewish Voice

Songs we will never hear My undergraduate years at Columbia, 1962-1966, corresponded with the height of the folksinging craze which, centered in New York City’s Greenwich Village, spread throughout the land. Armed with my guitar and my long-neck 5-string banjo, I was a regular performer at the on-campus Post Crypt, an intimate student hang-out directly behind the crypt IT SEEMS of St. Paul’s Chapel.

TO ME To this very day, when it is RABBI JIM late at night and I am too ROSENBERG tired to read or to write, I take a trip down memory lane on YouTube to remind myself how such greats as Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Neil Young looked and sounded 50 years ago; I then proceed to check out their recent performances to see what the passing decades have done to them.

While time has painted their hair gray, all three of them remain powerful presences onstage.

Phil Ochs, writer and singer of topical and protest songs, contemporary and sometime rival to Dylan, seems so fresh and wholesome in his ’60s performances; but I can’t turn to YouTube to see how he performs as an old man because on Friday, April 9, 1976, at the age of 35, he hanged himself.

In order to begin to understand what led a young man with such seeming promise to take his own life, I read two biographies: Marc Eliot’s “Death of a Rebel, Starring Phil Ochs and a Small Circle of Friends” (Anchor Books, 1979) and Michael Shumacher’s “There But for Fortune: The Life of Phil Ochs” (Hyperion, 1996), which covers much of the same ground.

Before reading these books, I thought I would find that the story of Phil Ochs was essentially that of a talented and decent young man brought to his tragic end by his uncontrollable manic-depression reinforced by his descent into the maelstrom of alcoholism. But I have come to learn that his life story is far more complicated.

To paraphrase a line from the contemporary Russian poet, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, for most of his brief life, Ochs was stretched like a wire between the city of Yes and the City of

No. In the city of Yes, he was a prodigious talent; time after time his overflowing creative energy enabled him to translate today’s headlines into tomorrow’s songs.

In one of his early efforts, “The Power and the Glory,” Ochs offered his audience a recurrent chorus of proud patriotism: “Here is a land full of power and glory/Beauty that words cannot recall/Oh her power shall rest on the strength of her freedom/ Her glory shall rest on us all.”

Yet some of the verses call into question the quality of our country’s freedom: “Yet she’s only as rich as the poorest of the poor/ Only as free as the padlocked prison door.”

Ochs had a disarming sense of humor; nowhere was it more in evidence than in his mildly subversive “Draft Dodger Rag:” “Yes, think of my career, my sweetheart dear, and my poor old invalid aunt/Besides I ain’t no fool, I’m a-goin’ to school/ And I’m working in a DEE-fense plant.”

Count among the many other Phil Ochs songs that have stood the test of time: “There But For Fortune” (given a boost when performed and recorded by Joan Baez), “I Ain’t Marching Any More,” “Changes,” “Crucifixion” (about JFK).

At his best and most focused, Ochs was able to harness his enormous energy to organize large-scale public events. On the evening of May 9, 1974, he managed to persuade such luminaries as Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie to donate their talents to celebrate the life of Salvadore Allende, 29th president of Chile and one of Ochs’ political heroes, who had lost his life in a military coup on Sept. 11, 1973. The program of song, dance, poetry, drama and political speeches drew a sellout crowd to Madison Square Garden’s Felt Forum. Net proceeds went to Chilean refugees. When Ochs was good, he was very, very good…

But … there was a dark side to Phil Ochs; he lived too often in the city of No. People who knew him best saw that beneath his bravado, beneath his delusions of grandeur, was a fragile young man tormented by indecision, insecurity and stage fright. He had dropped out of Ohio State University not once but twice – the second time with only a se-

mester to go for his degree.

Both of his biographers agree that Ochs could never get enough love or approval. He treated his wife, his daughter and the other women who came and went in his life as appendages to his career – sometimes useful, often in the way. He was a performer who knew how to make love to his audience, but his overweening narcissism and inconsiderateness rendered him unable to experience the tangled but richly rewarding bonds of one-on-one intimacy.

The last year or two of Ochs’ life (as he exhibited increasingly worrisome signs of physical and mental deterioration resulting

from his untreated manic-depression and deepening alcoholism), were a nightmare for Ochs and for those who tried to help him; drunk and violent most of the time, he was a menace to himself and to others. By the end of June 1975, Ochs seemed to have made a break with his psychic identity and adopted the persona of John Butler Train.

As his biographer Michael Shumacher puts it: “With his huge pot belly, filthy clothes, confrontational attitude and arsenal of strange weapons, Train could not have been more different from the Phil Ochs of the sixties.

Train was Mr. Hyde on the loose – a tortured, violent being incapable of freeing the Dr. Jekyll trapped inside.” By now Ochs/ Train was walking through the valley of the shadow of death.

There was a man; he is no more. Phil Ochs died before his time. Because he cut off his life in the middle, we will never hear the words and the melodies that might have been.

JAMES B. ROSENBERG, rabbi emeritus at Temple Habonim in Barrington, can be contacted at rabbiemeritus@templehabonim.org.

COLUMNS | LETTERS POLICY The Jewish Voice publishes thoughtful and informative contributors’ columns (op-eds of 500 – 800 words) and letters to the editor (250 words, maximum) on issues of interest to our Jewish community. At our discretion, we may edit pieces for

publication or refuse publication. Letters and columns, whether from our regular contributors or from guest columnists, represent the views of the authors; they do not represent the views of The Jewish Voice or the Alliance.

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

OPINION

thejewishvoice.org

Re: Letters to the Editor/Brown Teach-in (Oct. 10/Sept. 26) I was at the event at Brown University, where the PLO ambassador gave a talk, that Nina Tannenwald referenced. According to Ms. Tannenwald, all the non-students were collectively punished because a couple walked out of a different event. The punishment of not being able to ask questions had only the effect of censoring the open exchange of ideas. In fact, at the event, there was never any explanation given as to why questions by non-students were banned. The event turned out to be a one-sided talk by a representative of the PLO spouting

As we are all too aware, there have been many recent anti-Israel and anti-Semitic incidents, events and demonstrations on college campuses across this nation and in Europe.

It is happening closer to home. Brown University has held several recent events that have been stacked (by speaker, panelists, issues, line of questioning) to present a strong proPalestinian point of view.

One such event was the “teach-in” panel on the Gaza War. reported on by Marty Cooper (Sept. 26) and commented on by Nina Tannenwald (Oct. 10).

The main issue that seemed to bother Ms.Tannenwald was the one moment of “disruptive behavior” by an “older couple” whom she specifically notes as being Jewish. Perhaps they reacted out of sheer frustration to the panel’s extremely skewed presentation.

distorted views of Israel, with a large part of the audience unable to challenge him. This is not the kind of event I expect at a university that is supposed to encourage intellectual debate.

Next time Brown University, Hillel or the Jewish students, plan on arbitrarily punishing a group of people for something they had nothing to do with, I hope they state it clearly when the event is advertised. I want to know when my right to free speech is going to be denied.

Harry Feld Providence, R.I.

As a reprimand for their supposedly “disruptive behavior,” at a second follow-up event featuring as the only speaker the PLO Ambassador to the U.S., who gave a very smooth and practiced presentation with inaccurate information about Israel, no one from the community was allowed to ask a question or make a comment on what was said. For the most part, the students seemed passive and accepting of what was presented and offered no real challenging questions. One of the co-sponsors of this event was Brown RISD Hillel.

If silencing the voices of interested, mature adults from the community who have knowledge, background and history is Ms. Tannenwald’s version of free speech, then she has a lot to learn despite her academic credentials.

Judi Dill Providence, R.I.

LETTERS

October 24, 2014 |

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Re: Elections

As Election Day approaches, I remind community members of Congressman David Cicilline’s strong, unwavering support of Israel and his understanding of the significantly important relationship between our two countries.

As a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Cicilline has strengthened our alliance with Israel and supported Israel as she faces great challenges in the region.

He was an original co-sponsor of the Iron Dome Support Act, co-sponsored legislation that recognizes the special relationship between our two countries, co-sponsored the Visa Waiver for Israel Act, and was a co-sponsor of the Nuclear Iran Prevention Act,

which would place additional sanctions on Iran. Recently, he supported an effort to provide an additional $225 million in funding for Israel’s Iron Dome Anti-Missile Defense System, helping advance Israel’s efforts to defend itself from Hamas attacks on its civilian population.

Additionally, Congressman Cicilline has a very strong presence in our local Jewish community, as a former member of the Temple Beth-el Board of Directors, a member of the AIDS Task Force on the Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Rhode Island, and a member of the Rhode Island AIPAC Committee.

I was both concerned and

disappointed recently to hear his Republican opponent, Cormick Lynch, on WPRI’s “Newsmakers” program.

When asked whether the United States should provide additional assistance to Israel, he said, “we’ve done a lot for Israel” and should not provide additional support, demonstrating a lack of understanding of the critical importance of our only true ally in the region.

We can’t afford to lose a strong supporter of Israel in Washington. Please join me in supporting Congressman David Cicilline, on Nov. 4.

David M. Hirsch Providence, R.I.

Re: Shabbos Project (Oct. 10) After reading testimonies from people all over the world regarding their participation in the Shabbos Project, allow me to submit mine.

I am a Narragansett, 63-yearyoung wife, mother, grandmother and retired teacher.

Always searching to develop my Jewish connection and identity, I have been honored that 20 local people ages 7 months to 69, including my daughter and granddaughters, will be sharing a “KEEPING IT TOGETHER” Shabbos.

When we talked about sharing a Shabbos together, their “YES, YES” response was without hesitation. They are all bringing a favorite food

item and their own enthusiasm to share.

My husband and I will “skip the gym” next week, and move furniture out of our living room to set a cozy, heimish table for 20.

I have been using the Shabbos Project sites, thanks to Providence Kollel Rabbi Raphie Schochet’s constant communications. For further guidance, I joined a terrific Shabbos Project Touro Synagogue committee with Rabbi Mandel in Newport. I used the Shabbos Project website and a compilation of a user friendly guide that a committee person kindly put together with a plethora of copy and pasted

Hebrew/Transliterated/English prayers, suggested traditions to follow, inspirational stories, ice breakers, Noach Torah study discussion text with questions, and songs to sing. Some of us are attending a Great Rhode Island Challah Bake in Providence on Oct. 23.

I once learned that a big part of Shabbos is the joyous anticipation and earnest preparation for the next Shabbos, and I am certainly experiencing this wonderful phenomenon as we get closer to Oct. 24.

Gramma Shelley Parness Narragansett, R.I.

An open letter to the community Re: A response to the Brown University Gaza presentation referred to by Nina Tannenwald. The title of this “TeachIn” should have been “Let’s Bash Israel.”

My wife and I are the ones who left since it became quite evident that the purpose of this panel discussion was not to present a balanced discussion of issues related to the recent conflict in Gaza but to simply indoctrinate the members of the audience to pro-jihadist views and the evils of the Israeli government during the Gaza campaign. There was nothing ever mentioned about the terror tunnels built by Hamas to infiltrate Israeli territory for the purpose of murdering hundreds of Jews during their celebration of Rosh Hashanah or the incessant barrage of rockets launched at civilian populations in Israel.

When the presentations were completed, it was announced that the format of the questionand-answer period was to collect four questions before responding. This was a ploy used by the moderator to screen questions and respond to those

he deemed “appropriate.” Is this what Nina Tannenwald has in mind when she notes in her letter that Brown University has recently been grappling with free speech issues?

When the first question was asked about why the panel was so imbalanced, and the moderator declined to answer it, I challenged this format by saying “answer the question.” His childish reaction was, “This is my show!” My response was “The deck is stacked.” at which time my wife and I left the auditorium in protest. It is healthy to discuss and debate controversial issues in a public forum.

Unfortunately, this episode was an attempt to stifle debate and discussion. It is a shame that in our own Jewish community we have Jewish academics who sympathize with such anti-Israel points of view.

Ezra L. Stieglitz, Ph.D. Professor, Rhode Island College Chair, Israel Task Force, Community Relations Council Providence, R.I.

On behalf of The Louis and Goldie Chester Full Plate Kosher Food Pantry, I want to thank the community at large for all of your support during the most recent Yom Tov season. It is with an overwhelming sense of gratitude that the congregations across the state of Rhode Island had kosher food drives to benefit our clients. We also are appreciative of the support we get from the congregations that collect food for us each month.

If you know of anyone in need of food, please contact

Susan Adler at the pantry, 401-621-5374, or your congregational rabbi. All information is confidential. Also contact us if you would like to partake in a food drive. Again, thank

you for this wonderful mitzvah.

Ken Schneider Chairperson The Louis and Goldie Chester Full Plate Kosher Food Pantry

12 | October 24, 2014

ELECTIONS

The Jewish Voice

Voting is your obligation

BY MARTY COOPER mcooper@jewishallianceri.org Voting is an obligation, not just a right.

On November 4, Rhode Islanders will elect a number of community leaders to positions that will affect all of us in our state and nation. In the past few issues, The Jewish Voice, and the Community Relations Council of the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island have published a series of articles to help you stay informed about the candidates and the issues to be considered when we go to vote.

In this, the final part of the series, we are publishing the remarks made by candidates for statewide offices, including governor, lieutenant governor, general treasurer, attorney general and secretary of state. We also are publishing remarks for the candidates for the office of mayor of Providence.

We asked each candidate a very simple question, but a very important one: As a leader, how will you use your leadership skills to improve our state and country? Our intent is to provide you with personal information from the candidate to help you make a decision on who you personally feel is the better candidate.

This year there are a total of seven statewide issues on the ballot. A previous edition of the Jewish Voice provided unbiased information about each state issue. We did not include any local issues that may be on the ballot in your town.

For more information about the issues, as well as where to find your polling place, please visit the Secretary of State’s website, sosri.gov. Simply go to “Election and Voting” and then select

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2014 Election Information. There is a handbook that can be downloaded that provides detailed information about the issues. And, you can learn about who is running for office in your community.

Of course, “there is an app” that is available called RI VIC APP. The app is free to download online for Apple devices and for android devices. RI VIC is incredibly user-friendly and is perfect for anyone looking to learn their voter status, find out where to vote, research district information, and even get GPS directions from your current location to your polling place, and more.

As in the primary election, poll workers will ask you to show a photo ID when you vote at your polling place. Voter ID strengthens the public’s faith in the integrity of our elections by enabling poll workers to match a voter’s name to their face. Please make sure your photo ID is valid and has not expired and includes your current address.

Acceptable photo IDs include: a Rhode Island driver’s license, a U.S. Passport and a State of R.I. or a U.S.-governmentissued ID card as well as an ID card from an educational institution, U.S. military ID card, a government-issued medical card and a voter ID. As a 501(c)(3), we do not endorse any candidate. We also felt we should not endorse any statewide issue.

We do hope you take the time to do the following: Learn who the candidates are in regard to the issues facing us and to exercise your right to vote.

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

As a leader, how will you use your leadership skills to improve our state and country?

Allan Fung – (R) Governor

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ORTY-FIVE years ago, my parents set out to begin a new life in search of the American dream. They traveled halfway around the world and settled in Rhode Island. Our state offered opportunity for them and for my sisters and me. I am running for governor because that dream of a better life is missing for too many of our young people who leave the state to find that opportunity.

This state welcomed my parents and gave them a chance for a good life. That is the Rhode Island I want for every resident.

My parents started a small business – a Chinese restaurant – and at 9 years old, I was right there with them, after school and on weekends, washing dishes, busing tables and serving customers. I learned the value of a hard-earned dollar and the hard work it takes to succeed in business. Growing up in South Providence gave me a genuine understanding of the challenges facing many residents of our state and of the importance of a quality education, which truly can transform a child’s future.

As mayor, I worked with the people of Cranston to make our city a better place to live and work. We rescued a distressed community and turned Cranston into an opportunity community. Leadership requires bringing people together to solve the most difficult problems and that is exactly what we did. We negotiated pension reforms securing future benefits for retirees and saving millions of dollars. Through innovation and consolidation, we cut costs and balanced budgets without a property tax increase for three straight years.

Strong fiscal management resulted in cumulative budget surpluses in each of the past three years.

Our success is evident in more than 1,000 new jobs that we brought into Cranston over the past few years. By working together, we attracted new businesses without forgetting about those that struggled with us through the difficult times. That is exactly what I will do as governor in every community throughout the state. I want to put people back to work by turning around our economy and making Rhode Island the best place to run a business in the Northeast. I will be the Chief Economic Development Officer for the State of Rhode Island and under my leadership, we will make Rhode Island once again, open for business.

As a leader, how will you use your leadership skills to improve our state and country?

As a leader, how will you use your leadership skills to improve our state and country?

Gina Raimondo – (D) Governor

Robert J. Healy Jr. – (M) Governor

AM running for governor because Rhode Island is in a jobs crisis. We’ve had one of the highest unemployment rates in the country for years. Far too many of our friends and neighbors are out of work, and families are struggling. Our roads, bridges and schools are crumbling, and we have cities and towns on the verge of bankruptcy. We are long past shortterm solutions and small tweaks.

As treasurer, I’ve shown that I have the courage to take on the tough issues and solve big problems. When I first ran for office and confronted a $7 billion pension liability – one of the worst pension systems in the entire country – many told me that the problem was too difficult and too risky for my own personal politics. But by bringing people together, pension reform passed with overwhelming majorities in the General Assembly. Now cities and towns have saved millions of dollars, people’s pensions are protected and we can invest in job creation.

I will be a governor who takes this same bold approach to fixing our economy. Before running for office I worked with small companies, helping to create over a thousand jobs. I know what it takes to get people back to work in good middle-class jobs.

The story of Rhode Island is that we used to be a place that made things. But then the factories closed and the jobs went overseas and our leaders didn’t do nearly enough to develop new industries. I have a comprehensive strategy to create thousands of jobs by building on areas where Rhode Island can be strong: marine science, green technology, industrial design and medical devices. By making Rhode Island a hotbed of innovation and ensuring our workers have the skills to make these products, we can turn around our economy in a way that rebuilds the middle class.

I have the experience to create jobs, and I have a proven track record of getting big things done in elected office. This is the most important election for Rhode Island in decades, and I will bring about critical change for our state.

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TRUE leader inspires others to greatness instead of seeking greatness.

That being so, I would lead in a manner that is respectful of the people. I prefer to lead by suggestion rather than by imposition.

A good leader seeks consensus, logically assesses all points of view, adopts a strong, yet tentative course of action, presents it to those being governed for their approval and then acts in a strong manner to implement the determined course.

A leader must inspire and lead by example. Words alone do not create results. A leader must be willing to work, silently, unassumingly, in a manner of setting a course that those being governed recognize as good. Bad leaders are imprisoned by their own ideas and, as such, cannot govern in the best interests of all.

By tolerance of independent freedom of thought and action, a leader understands that the people are the owners of their government and that the role of leader is temporary.

A good leader will always listen to the people seeking redress, not always agreeing, but attempting to put all views into a perspective.

Good leaders are loved when they are least intrusive and yet productive. Results are more important than receiving credit for obtaining them.

The best leadership is in a way that allows people to act for themselves so that they determine that they have accomplished their goals without leadership.

Governing in an open transparent manner is governing by example. To be too attached to one’s ideas is counterproductive to succeed as a leader.

Taking this approach, I feel that I can represent the interest of the people in a manner that gives them peace, liberty, access to justice and the safety and wellbeing everyone deserves.

It is with this philosophy that I can use my leadership skills to improve our state and country.

ELECTIONS

thejewishvoice.org

October 24, 2014 |

13

As a leader, how will you use your leadership skills to improve our state and country?

As a leader, how will you use your leadership skills to improve our state and country?

Catherine Terry Taylor – (R) Lieutenant Governor

Dan McKee – (D) Lieutenant Governor

AM seeking to rebuild our economy by calling attention to a key group of missing people.

Rhode Island is tied for first nationally in share of population age 85 and older, but only 11th in share of population age 65 to 85. Furthermore, we’re the only state that has lost total population over age 65. Given that the national share of people over 65 has increased due to the aging of the Baby Boomers, that discrepancy shows that we’re losing population in the age 65 to 85 range.

This is a catastrophe. Tourism and hospitality comprise our second-largest industry. The natural customers for those art, entertainment, recreation and food businesses are people with free time and disposable income—in other words, healthy retirees. Losing those people also means we lose an immense amount of business acumen and local knowledge. Our elders should be contributing in all sorts of ways to our communities, not fleeing.

Fortunately, the reasons people leave are manmade. People love our state – its natural beauty, the quality of life – but dislike the government. My program of tax relief, volunteer and transportation opportunities, and good government reforms will keep this critical group in Rhode Island.

We should exempt Social Security benefits, veterans benefits, military pensions and Rhode Island state and municipal pensions from the state income tax. We can raise the estate tax threshold and lower the real estate conveyance tax for people over 65. We can work with municipalities to lower property taxes, or at least provide property tax relief to seniors through freezes or increased homestead exemptions.

We must also create positive reasons to stay. Making Rhode Island more attractive to young families will keep grandparents here who might otherwise move closer to their grandchildren. We can also increase access to meaningful volunteer opportunities for seniors, drawing on their knowledge and experience to enrich our communities.

Ethics reform is the final piece. Restoring Ethics Commission jurisdiction over the General Assembly, providing the governor with a line-item veto, tightening the judicial nominating process and subjecting moral obligation bonds to voter approval will change our culture of corruption and build trust in government.

I have the skills and experience working in a bipartisan fashion with all stakeholders to effect these reforms. When we implement my vision, we will attract more customers to our Ocean State and grow our economy around this rapidly increasing class of crucial consumers.

Y leadership skills, honed by 30 years as a small-business owner and 12 years as mayor of Cumberland, are centered on intelligent bi-partisan and pragmatic problem-solving.

It has been my experience that consensus building, rather than point scoring, is the key to answering the challenges of business and running a municipality.

Whether it is the managers in my business or the Cumberland Town Council, I have found that listening to different points of view and finding common ground results in good business decisions as well as good public policy.

As lieutenant governor, I will have three statutory responsibilities in addition to the constitutional responsibility to succeed the governor if he or she is unable to complete the term of office. These three responsibilities are: a) Chair the Long Term Care Coordinating Council b) Chair the Small Business Advocacy Council c) Co-chair, with the governor, the state’s Emergency Management Agency.

Each of these three responsibilities can and should be leveraged to improve our state.

One of Judaism’s most revered traditions is to honor and care for our elders. As chair of the Long Term Coordinating Council, I will work diligently to solve the challenge of rebalancing state Medicaid funding for long-term care in light of the rapid trend to keep our elders in their homes as long as possible with communityand home- based medical and support services.

I believe our small business community has too often been overlooked in our state’s economic development policies and programs. The reality is that, collectively, small businesses are the backbone of our community and a powerful generator of jobs. My chairmanship of the Small Business Advocacy Council will focus on three key initiatives: 1) conducting an in-depth analysis of our business tax code and identifying changes that can be proposed to make our business taxes competitive with neighboring states; 2) streamlining business licensing and other regulations and enforcing compliance to protect our existing businesses from predatory competitors who try to skirt these requirements; and 3) identifying strategies to align our workforce development programs with the needs of our small businesses.

And with respect to emergency management policy, I will continue my advocacy for implementing statewide emergency dispatch. Such a move will improve dispatch while, at the same time, saving our municipalities hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.

Finally, I will continue my leadership to bring municipal leaders together to identify ways in which regionalization and consolidation of services can save taxpayer money while improving the quality and capability of essential services.

As a leader, how will you use your leadership skills to improve our state and country?

As a leader, how will you use your leadership skills to improve our state and country?

John M. Carlevale Sr. – (R) Secretary of State

Nellie Gorbea – (D) Secretary of State

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Y top priority upon assuming office addresses this. I believe we need to revitalize and re-educate the young people and adults of this state. One substantial remedy is to restore civics education in our schools. I’ll work with members of the general assembly and the commissioner of education to restore civics education.

Along with this initiative, I’ll provide civics education to adult Rhode Islanders within the office of secretary of state in the form of adult classes, seminars, guest speakers and workshops. I shall also recruit retired teachers and other civic-minded people to help in this initiative.

Statewide, I ran for political office; challenged 155 R.I. election laws in federal court; organized nonpartisan political conventions and have produced a public affairs television show (State of the State) for 22 years.

Nationally, my good example was noticed and copied. As a regulatory administrator, I had national impact because other states consulted with me and copied R.I.’s child care laws. My federal court case has been cited in many ballot access cases.

Why is it important that voters elect me rather than my opponent? I believe that Rhode Islanders deserve and need a secretary of state who supports the Voter ID Law. I support Voter ID and will fight any legislative effort to repeal it, because it is doing what it was intended to do, that is, to prevent people from representing themselves as others and voting in their place.

My opponent’s position on Voter ID has prompted me to run for this office. Nellie Gorbea wants to repeal Voter ID. She is out of step with most Rhode Islanders who support Voter ID and understand its intent and its effectiveness. A recent Providence Journal editorial asserted “Voter ID succeeds.” I agree.

I am frequently asked: How has your experience prepared you to become secretary of state? My career in human services as social worker, child development specialist, regulatory administrator and college professor enabled me to make changes in government agencies. I helped reorganize the delivery of social casework services; I provided consultation to child care agencies; promulgated, administered and enforced standards for child care and worked closely with the general assembly and other state regulatory agencies. I developed curriculum, wrote grants and negotiated contracts.

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ELLIE has deep roots in Rhode Island and is proud to be raising her three daughters here with her husband Steve D’Hondt. You can see her commitment to serving our community in the many organizations she has helped lead, including: United Way of Rhode Island, the Women’s Fund of Rhode Island, Salve Regina University, Providence Chamber of Commerce – Innovation Providence Committee, RI Free Clinic, Gateway Healthcare, Neighborhood Health Plan of RI and the RI Latino Political Action Committee. She is founding president of the RI Latino Civic Fund. Nellie’s leadership has been recognized by many: Providence Business News awarded her one of the 2009 Women to Watch; she received the 2013 César Estrada Chávez Award Committee and the 2013 Latino Public Radio Community Excellence Award. Nellie has over 20 years in the private and public sectors. A working mom and former deputy secretary of state (2002–2006), Nellie is ready to lead that office on day one. She is a graduate of Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs and holds a master’s degree in public administration from Columbia University.

As secretary of state, Nellie will make sure that businesses find it easy to start and thrive and that government not only works for people, but looks out for them too. Nellie will shine a light on government, how it works and who is trying to influence government.

My leadership experience in the public and private sectors enables me to find comprehensive solutions to the challenges our state faces. As a former deputy secretary of state, I know how to make government work for people. For example, the secretary of state plays a critical role in ensuring that our elections are fair, fast and accurate. I want to ensure that all eligible voters can and do vote so that we can have a healthy and representative democracy that works for everyone. Our democracy is at its best when people actively participate in our elections by voicing their concerns in the voting booth. Elections should inspire people with the hope of electing leaders who will bring people together that will work together to better Rhode Island.

14 | October 24, 2014

ELECTIONS

The Jewish Voice

As a leader, how will you use your leadership skills to improve our state and country?

As a leader, how will you use your leadership skills to improve our state and country?

Ernest Almonte – (I) General Treasurer

Seth Magaziner – (D) General Treasurer

HODE ISLAND needs experienced and ethical elected leaders who will rise to the challenge and be honest and transparent with voters. For far too long, our state and our people have suffered from the failed policies of politicians content with telling people what they want to hear instead of having honest conversations about the problems facing our state.

The leadership lessons I’ve learned over the course of my career – particularly those that are a result of my experience as auditor general, where I helped Rhode Island’s cities and towns recover from devastating deficits – have uniquely positioned me to understand what Rhode Island needs from its next general treasurer.

Throughout my career, I have proven myself as a professional who is prepared to have the difficult conversations required to solve the problems facing our state.

The job of treasurer is highly technical. It is not an entrylevel position. Over the course of my 35-year career as a CPA and auditor, hard work has positioned me as a leader in the fields of finance and accounting, both locally and nationally.

I have the education, experience, ethics and maturity to step into that office and start getting the job done on day one. I don’t need any on-the-job training.

I served for 15 years as Rhode Island’s auditor general. I also chaired the Audit Advisory Committee at the United States Department of Defense and was elected the first public sector chairman of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, a national organization of more than 380,000 members.

I decided to run for office after three of my five sons graduated from college and couldn’t find jobs in Rhode Island. When they looked in states like Massachusetts, North Carolina and New York, all three had multiple job offers in a matter of weeks.

To me, that’s unacceptable. We cannot afford to export our next generation.

I am invested in Rhode Island. I grew up here, raised my family here and have worked here my whole life.

I am ready to lead as Rhode Island’s next general treasurer.

OR too long, insider politics and mismanagement have been holding our state back. Rhode Island has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, and too many Rhode Islanders are struggling to make ends meet.

If we want to turn things around, we need to elect new leaders with fresh ideas to get our economy back on track.

Our leaders need to focus on growing the economy and putting people back to work. I’m running for treasurer because that office can and must be an engine for economic growth and job creation. I’ve put forth a plan, called the Blueprint, which details the ways in which I’ll use the treasurer’s office to get Rhode Island back on track.

My Blueprint includes plans to invest more of Rhode Island’s dollars locally, to create jobs here at home. I propose new and innovative ways to rebuild our state’s infrastructure, putting people back to work repairing roads, bridges and schools. During the New Deal era, when millions of Americans were unemployed, our leaders put people to work building the infrastructure that made our country strong. Today, in Rhode Island, we need leaders who will do the same.

The Blueprint also outlines my plan to direct more of the state’s investments locally, to create jobs here at home. The treasurer’s office oversees billions in taxpayer funds, the vast majority of which are currently invested in other states and countries. By investing more of these funds locally, we will help Rhode Island businesses to grow and employ more people.

Our public pension system has been plagued by mismanagement and underperformance for too long. I will use my experience as a successful, privatesector investment professional to bring a steady hand to our state’s finances, delivering strong returns for our public pension system, work to reduce fees and manage the state’s investments transparently. I look forward to bringing my investment experience to the treasurer’s office to ensure that the people who work hard every day for our state will have the dignity of a secure retirement.

Despite our challenges, I am deeply optimistic about the future of our state.

I know that with new leadership and the right priorities, we will bounce back.

As a leader, how will you use your leadership skills to improve our state and country?

As a leader, how will you use your leadership skills to improve our state and country?

Peter F. Kilmartin – (D) Attorney General

Dawson Hodgson – (R) Attorney General

OR the last four years, it’s been my privilege to serve Rhode Islanders as attorney general. This position is the culmination of a lifetime of public service, community leadership and commitment to the safety and security of all Rhode Islanders. Put simply, I have always used my leadership skills to improve the lives of my neighbors and fellow citizens, and I am eager to continue that work.

I am a Pawtucket native and proud public-school alum, and my personal and professional goal has always been to protect and support my community. I served as a police officer in my hometown for 24 years, rising through the ranks and became the officer in charge of prosecution and retired with the rank of captain. In that time, I also earned my law degree, in order to better serve Pawtucket as an advocate as well as a prosecutor.

Throughout my two decades in the state legislature, I continued to focus on public safety, security and rule of law. I authored and help to pass bills regarding child predators, witness protection, texting while driving, pension abuses, and domestic violence, among many others – all issues I have continued to work on as attorney general.

In my current role, public safety is my job and my highest priority – and I am proud to say that, alongside some of the finest civil servants in the state, I have led the office in taking major steps to make our communities safer. We sponsored new laws creating harsher penalties for gang violence and illegal firearms, dedicated staff and attorneys to helping victims of child and domestic abuse, and prosecuted fraud and arson cases statewide. My office also helped establish the Veterans Court, secured several multimillion-dollar settlements for the state and enacted the first major update to Access to Public Records Act in 15 years.

My record – and my lifetime of effective, practical service to the people of Rhode Island – speaks for itself, and I take pride in that. Together, we’ve accomplished an incredible amount, but there is still so much more to achieve. I look forward to leading the office of the attorney general for another four years and to continuing our hard, important work toward ensuring the safety and security of Rhode Island’s future.

UBLIC safety and public integrity are core functions of the attorney general, and the focus of my campaign and administration when elected. As a former state prosecutor and current member of the Senate Judiciary committee, I have worked both on the front lines of our criminal justice system as well as crafting the laws and policies that we count on to safeguard our communities.

I believe that nowhere in Rhode Island is it acceptable for any parent to put their children to bed at night to the sound of gunfire in the street. Sadly, that is a covenant that is broken right now. I bring a wraparound approach to criminal justice matters: balancing innovative enforcement actions against gangs and guns, with targeted community investments that address the social and economic root causes of criminal activity.

I believe fixing Rhode Island’s reputation for political corruption and incompetence is critical to fixing our economy. Doing so requires state-level leadership on public integrity issues and a single point of accountability for resolving them. I am asking the people of Rhode Island for that responsibility.

As attorney general my first action will be to organize a multidisciplinary Public Integrity Unit to coordinate investigation and enforcement actions across criminal, civil and administrative venues such as the Ethics Commission. This approach ensures we will bring the right tools to bear and stop avoiding our responsibility to police our political culture. The first case we will take up is 38 Studios, where I will undertake a comprehensive review of the criminal, civil and administrative investigations and report to the people by May 1, 2015.

As a husband and father of two young boys, my family is committed to the future of Rhode Island. As a state senator for the last four years, I have been a leader who is unafraid to stand up for what is right. Combined with my experience as a prosecutor in the attorney general’s office, these credentials have prepared me to fix a broken justice system, and restore trust in government.

I invite you to visit my website DawsonHodgson.com where you can learn more about my life, my experience and my vision for making Rhode Island a better home for all of us.

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ELECTIONS

thejewishvoice.org

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As a leader, how will you use your leadership skills to improve our state and country?

As a leader, how will you use your leadership skills to improve our state and country?

Daniel S. Harrop – (R) Mayor of Providence

Jorge Elorza – (D) Mayor of Providence

OLITICALLY, leadership means organizing a group of people to achieve a common goal. But leaders are also teachers. Most importantly, they teach by example. This has little to do with policy, about whether the tax rate should be higher or lower – there are good leaders on both sides of this issue. Rather, leadership is about inspiring people to follow your vision and moving them to work together to fulfill that goal. In this mayoral election, Providence is looking to restore jobs and its educational system. It is looking for an ethical, honest, experienced administrator as mayor. The election has become less about specific proposals, unfortunately, and more about leadership style and substance and history. If then the mayor, as a leader, is also a teacher, the most powerful tool the mayor has is being a role model. The mayor must lead by example.

A mayor’s personal history must be beyond reproach.

The mayor teaches ethics and honesty by how he conducts his own life. And this is no abstract concept. Providence needs development to solve our financial problems, and all corruption is inimical to the process of sustainable development. Corruption creates unsustainable inefficiencies and inherent weakness in the economy for the long term. Corruption extracts much of a city’s wealth for personal gain, making the private sector weak and unemployment high. Corruption is unattractive to corporations looking to expand. It is not conducive for local business development.

When corruption is low and government acts ethically, there is a perception, hence a reality, that it is safe to do business in this place. The perception that there is a “need” for envelopes filled with cash to be floating around city hall will kill further economic development in Providence.

As such, I will lead the most ethical, honest, open and diverse administration this city has ever seen. This will have positive implications for government at all levels. The ethics commission will be reconstituted and honored, and would be given greater authority by me to call out problems. We must all work together to be sure there is culture of honesty in city hall, and this will be the greatest booster for the revitalization of Providence.

As a leader, how will you use your leadership skills to improve our state and country?

Vincent A. Cianci Jr. – (I) Mayor of Providence

A

October 24, 2014 |

S MAYOR, I’ll use my leadership experience to put Providence back on the right track. We’ve had a decade of decline in this city resulting in underperforming schools, soaring deficits and unemployment, and streets on which our residents don’t feel safe.

Public safety is a mayor’s top priority because without it, businesses will not come to the city. Consequently, property values will stagnate, and unemployment will climb. We need more police officers, but more importantly, we need a new strategy. Community policing is all but dead in Providence. I was proud to start it when I was mayor, and I’ll be proud to bring it back when I’m mayor again, so that our police officers will work with neighborhoods to solve problems before they become crimes.

Another major area of concern is the state of our Providence public schools. We have schools desperately in need of repairs. We have parents who feel powerless to engage in their children’s educational experiences. We have students who, somewhere along the way, lose their enthusiasm for learning as well as students who are successful achievers.

We have to better accommodate the individual needs of all students, all stakeholders. I will shorten bus routes, refocus the school department around neighborhood schools and better integrate businesses with our technical schools.

Taxes are too high. Property taxes are through the roof, the car tax is an incredible burden on Providence residents, and our commercial tax rate is prohibitive in attracting new businesses. We need to expand our tax base, and my plan for developing the Providence waterfront will do just that. Additionally, I plan to make Providence business friendly by streamlining the commercial building and permitting process and creating other incentives for businesses to set up shop in Providence.

When it comes to arts and culture, my record is clear. I was one of the first mayors in America to recognize the importance of the arts and to aggressively market Providence to artists. I helped save the building occupied by the Providence Performing Arts Center. We must continue our work to create a thriving cultural mecca.

Because a thriving arts and culture scene is essential to marketing our city and improving its quality of life.

Providence’s best days are still ahead, so together, let’s write the next chapter in Providence’s history – a chapter of safe streets, improved education, more jobs and a better quality of life.

T

15

HE City of Providence faces very serious challenges, and there’s a lot at stake in this election for every resident of this great city. My vision for moving Providence forward is rooted in the West End where I grew up and witnessed working-class families struggling to get by, minority communities struggling to find work, college students willing yet unable to remain in the city after graduation and small-business owners held back by red tape. It was during this formative time that I learned the value of hard work and the basic human right of equality for all regardless of race, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation.

I strongly believe a rising tide lifts all boats, and Providence can’t afford to return to an outdated pay-to-play style of management that benefits only a few. To improve the quality of life for all residents we must move forward in a new direction as One Providence.

My top priorities in office will be improving public safety, expanding affordable education, investing in a working waterfront and creating a transparent and friendly government and business climate.

It’s time to make targeted investments in our schools so that we can provide every child in Providence a world-class education. I’ve also proposed launching new community schools to match comprehensive social services with public schools to support children both inside and outside of the classroom.

To improve our local economy, I’ve proposed a plan for a citywide broadband network so that our most underserved communities get a fair shot at success.

I have a comprehensive public safety plan to reduce the amount of violence in our city. As mayor I will work with city, state and federal partners to put more cops on our streets with a focus on community policing so they can build relationships in the communities they serve.

Finally, I’ll instill an efficient, customer service-oriented approach in City Hall, so that Providence’s business leaders can spend less time filing paperwork and more time creating jobs.

The bottom line is we need a mayor who can lead by example and who will prioritize transparency and integrity in city government. Providence’s current budget challenges are rooted in reckless fiscal management. I will be a mayor who surrounds himself with the best and the brightest, who opens up City Hall and lets in fresh air, fresh blood and new ideas.

Your vote counts, vote Nov. 4

T

HE learned scholar Hillel said, “Do not separate yourself from your community.” While he may not have been thinking of the election process, which is germane to our community, he certainly was telling us to take the community to heart and to exercise your role in it.

In American democracy, there is no stronger and more important role for us to exercise than to vote. While the simple act of voting may seem simple or superfluous, it really is not.

Our good scholar Hillel also said; “Do not say, ‘when I have time I will learn,’ for perhaps you will never find the time.” This statement is extremely relevant today as it relates to our election process. In September, we had a few short weeks to learn about the candidates running for office in our state during the primary election. Now, we have only a few days to learn more about the candidates as well as the statewide ballot issues that confront us. Many of us will say to ourselves, “I’ll do the research tomorrow,” only to find that tomorrow came and went.

Like virtually all past elections, this one too will have serious ramifications for our community; the city or town in which we live, our state and our nation.

Do not separate yourself from the community in this election. Be a part of the fabric we call community, vote. And, please do not put off the time to learn more about the candidates and the issues. Take that moment and do it.

Please take the time to read the comments made by the candidates in The Jewish Voice. The last issue included comments from candidates running for the U.S. Congressional offices. It also had information about the statewide issues on the ballot. You can access all candidate responses in The Jewish Voice by viewing the “Community” page on the Jewish Voice website.

Looking to do a mitzvah? Looking for a ride to your polling place?

The Community Relations Council and the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island want to make sure you vote this Election Day, Nov. 4. If you need a ride, please let us know by contacting Wendy Joering at wjoering@jewishallianceri.org or call 401-421-4111, ext. 169. Please provide your name, a phone number where you can be reached and your address. If you need additional assistance, please let Wendy know. We will do our best to find you transportation.

To help people get to the polls, we would like to ask you to consider volunteering. Please let us know the area of the community where you can assist as well as the best times. Contact Wendy Joering at wjoering@jewishallianceri. org or call 401-421-4111, ext. 169.

16 | October 24, 2014

FOOD

The Jewish Voice

Sprucing up the modern simcha

BY DIANA BURMISTROVICH JNS.ORG –If the words “kosher catering” conjure up visions of bland and unhealthy food, and memories of bar and bat mitzvahs past still haunt you, remember that planning your upcoming simcha doesn’t have to be a monotonous process full of seen-it-befores or triedthat-onces. With the help of creative kosher catering professionals—or by simply looking within yourself—your special day can be one of a kind.

By including yourself in the process of creating (not just planning) your simcha, the event itself automatically creates a more personal feeling.

One way to do this is by making invitations by hand, which allows control over color scheme, font, and design; you can make the invitation an extension of your celebration’s theme or personal interests. Imbuing the invitation with your personal style makes the atmosphere both more memorable and more meaningful.

Rebecca Friedman of Asheville, North Carolina-based Farmer’s Daughter Catering suggests crafting your own ta-

ble centerpieces as a way to infuse personality into the event’s ambiance. She also mentions that many clients want to work with the party planner, rather than allowing the planner to have total control.

Others may break from the traditional styles such as separate meals for adults and kids.

“When working with a client, I always ask them what they’re envisioning with regards to the flow of the celebration,” Ellen Vaknine, vice president of sales & marketing for New York City’s Espirit Events kosher caterer, tells JNS.ORG. Vaknine notes that for simchas this year, she is seeing more people “opt for stations,” without having a formal sitdown dinner. That way, children, young adults, and adults have the option of spending more time together, and kids don’t have to face the ubiquitous schnitzel and pigs-in-a-blanket offered at so many simchas.

Even for the parents who do choose to have “kid food,” Vaknine suggests updating the presentation with funky touches.

Soup can be served in eggshell bowls, and kebob skewers can be made from bamboo.

Customizing menus to in-

PHOTO | ELLEN VAKNINE

Soup shooters in egg shells from New York City kosher caterer Espirit Events. clude today’s culinary trends is another way to modernize an event. Friedman – who specializes in catering using only organic and local ingredients, and typically provides farm-totable food options – notes the growing trend in using vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, and dairyfree foods as part of the simcha menu.

PHOTO | FARMER’S DAUGHTER CATERING

Tiny ice cream sundaes make for passable treats to save sit-down time.

Friedman suggests looking into old family recipes that can be used as part of the catering menu. That will create a catering menu that many guests haven’t seen before, and relatives will enjoy the sentiment.

Whether it is through person-

alizing decorations or bypassing traditional fare, party planning doesn’t have to be dreaded and stressful. With just a little bit of creativity, and by recognizing exactly what you want, you can make your dream a reality.

Try these pumpkin goodies for a taste of fall

BY THE VOICE STAFF We love this time of the year.

The trees are decked out in reds, yellows and golds. Warm, sunny days are followed by cool crisp nights, just chilly enough for an extra blanket or two. And as we’ve been reminded by the holidays just passed, the harvest means there are apples, all sorts of winter squash and lots of pumpkins to choose from in the markets.

We do love the taste of pumpkin. This year, it seems as if we are being bombarded by pumpkin products in the grocery

store aisles, at the coffee shop and just about everywhere else.

If you haven’t yet tired of pumpkin, here are a few favorites to try.

Pumpkin Apple Squares Crust:

1 cup flour 1/2 cup quick cooking oatmeal 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 1/2 cup butter Combine all of the above in food processor till crumbly, spread in 13 x 9 pan and bake in 350 degree oven 20 minutes.

Filling:

2 (15 ounce) cans pumpkin 2 (12 ounce) cans evaporated milk 4 eggs 1-1/2 cups sugar 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg 3 apples, peeled and cubed Combine all above ingredients, except apples, and combine with electric mixer (or food processor). Pour over baked crust — then spread apple chunks gently over mixture.

Bake 45 minutes in preheated 350 degree oven or until knife

inserted in center comes out clean.

Five minutes before filling is baked sprinkle topping over filling and continue baking until done

Topping

1 cup brown sugar packed 3/4 cup chopped pecans 4 tablespoons butter

Topping 2 No Nuts

3/4 cup flour 1/3 cup brown sugar 3 tablespoons granulated sugar 6 tablespoons cold butter Generous amount cereal (cin-

namon toast crunch or anything you prefer) For both toppings, combine all ingredients in food processor and pulse until crumbly, then spread over filling and continue baking until done.

Pumpkin Bread Pudding 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin 2 cups milk or light cream 4 eggs 3/4 cup sugar A little pure maple sugar 1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional) 1/2 of a 1 pound loaf of cinnamon raisin bread or pumpkin bread, buttered on 1 side and cubed 2 apples peeled and chopped 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon Whisk pumpkin, milk or cream, eggs, sugar, maple syrup and chopped pecans in a large bowl.

Fold in buttered and cubed cinnamon-raisin or pumpkin bread and peeled and chopped apples.

Spread in a buttered 13 x 9-inch baking dish and refrigerate 2 hours, then bake at 350 degrees until set, 45 minutes.

Do not overbake as the pudding will be dry. At 45 minutes, center should still be a little undercooked and it will continue cooking when removed from oven.

FOOD

thejewishvoice.org

October 24, 2014 |

Israelis growing hungry for vegan diet

BY BEN SALES

vegan lawyers, vegan teachers.

Everyone can be vegan.”

The alternative and the mainstream mingled freely at the festival, where people wearing baggy tie-dyed pants and shirts reading “Proud To Be Vegan” mixed with families enjoying picnics. The food stands lining the park offered everything from vegan cakes and ice cream to vegan shwarma, Israel’s trademark spiced lamb dish.

Even Domino’s Pizza had a booth showcasing its vegan pies – first sold in Israel. Ido Fridman, the vice president of marketing for Domino’s Israel, said the company has sold about 300,000 vegan pizzas since launching the pie last year.

Israel’s vegan boom comes at a time of heightened awareness of animal welfare on factory farms.

A Hebrew-subtitled lecture on veganism has garnered nearly a million views on YouTube in a country of just 8 million people.

One-fi fth of the country tuned in to see a vegan activist win the latest season of the Israeli version of the “Big Brother” reality television show. And a popular investigative news show has broadcast six segments exposing the mistreatment of animals in Israel’s meat and dairy industries.

The heightened consciousness around animal welfare has bolstered vegan activists. Founded just two years ago, VeganFriendly has seen attendance at its festival jump 25 percent this year. Another animal rights group founded two years ago, Free 269, recently opened Israel’s first sanctuary for animals from factory farms and has

spawned dozens of offshoots in other countries.

“There’s the virality of Facebook and YouTube, so the messages and the pictures and videos are exposed to tons of people,” Paz said. “It helps that people are used to eating falafel and Israeli salad.”

Israeli veganism took root in secular liberal circles, but religious Israelis are joining the movement, too.

Yehuda Shein, the chairman of Behemla, a religious organization that advocates against animal cruelty, says he is undeterred by the time-honored custom of eating meat on Shabbat and holidays.

“There’s no commandment to eat meat,” Shein said. “People make their own adjustments.

They stop eating meat, they do something else. But our goal is to bring the information to the public.”

Veganism is not entirely a new development in Israel. The African Hebrew Israelites have abstained from animal products for decades. While activists have cheered the recent growth in vegan awareness, veteran vegans fear it may be a passing fad.

Arie Rave, who started the vegan Buddha Burgers restaurant in Tel Aviv eight years ago and is about to open his sixth franchise, said he hopes new adherents take it seriously.

“People don’t become vegan in one day,” said Rave, whose restaurants are filled with posters touting veganism’s moral, health and ecological benefits.

“It’s not one day or one conversation. It’s not just a menu. It’s an ideology.”

TEL AVIV (JTA) – The music pounded, the liquor flowed, dancers filled the floor and khinkali meat dumplings and kababi skewers – staples of traditional Georgian cuisines – sat on almost every table.

That was back in February, before Nana Shrier, the owner of the hip Tel Aviv bar and restaurant Nanuchka, saw a television news report about factory farming. Then everything changed.

Horrified by how animals are treated in industrial meat and dairy production, Shrier stripped all the animal products from the menu – from cheese to eggs to chicken and steak – and made the restaurant entirely vegan.

It wasn’t an easy shift. Retaining the restaurant’s Georgian character has forced Shrier to get creative, finding meat substitutes and trying new dishes. She has also noticed that customers order less hard alcohol when they don’t eat meat. But none of that matters to her.

“We understood that there’s no price worth paying to create animal products, to see, to sell, to produce or to buy them,” she said. “The atmosphere is pleasant, but I would have paid any price. I would have lost half my business for this.”

According to the activist group Vegan-Friendly, Shrier is one of approximately 300,000 vegans in Israel. At nearly 4 percent of the country, activists say Israel has the highest per capita vegan population of anywhere in the world. And the trend appears to be accelerating.

A survey conducted in January found that 8 percent of Israelis are vegetarian and nearly 5 percent are vegan. Four years ago, Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics reported that just 2.6 today to chat one-on-one. percent of Israelis were vegetarCallCall today to chat one-on-one. ian or vegan.

Some 7,000 Israelis have acJ e f f re y G.Brie r,CLUChFC cepted the “Challenge 22” to go Licensed insurance agent/producer contracted vegan for 22 days since the iniLicensed insurance agent/producer contracted tiative was launched in May by with UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company with UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company the animal rights group Anony40 17512 9 9 0 mous (no connection to the hacker collective). About 250 Israeli restaurants are now certified “vegan friendly” by the group of the same name, meaning that at least one-quarter of their dishes contain no animal products.

AARP member to enroll in an AARP Israel is also frequently includ-You must be an You must be an AARP member to enroll in an AARP Insurance Ifareyou Medicare Supplement Insurance Plan.

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by UnitedHealthcare Company. staples like falafel and hummusPlans, insured UnitedHealthcare

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AARP for the use of its intellectual property. These fees are contain no animal products.UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company pays royalty fees to used for the general purposes of AARP. AARP and its And Tel Aviv’s second annualAARP for the use of its intellectual property. These fees are affiliates are not insurers.

Vegan-Fest drew more thanused for the general purposes ofagents, AARP . AARP and its AARP does not employ or endorse brokers or producers.

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“The makeup of the commuNot connected withresidents). or endorsed by thePolicy U.S. Government New York form No. GRP nity is the biggest change,” saidIslandia, NY for or the Federal Medicare states Program. plans may be In some Omri Paz, founder of Vegan-79171 GPS-1 (G-36000-4).

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Thank you, East Side, for supporting me in the primary.

We have more work ahead, and I know the next mayor is important to our whole state.

I ask you to please join me in supporting Jorge Elorza for Mayor on November 4.

SENATOR Paid for by Friends of Gayle Goldin, Rachel Colaiace, Treasurer

17

18 | October 24, 2014

COMMUNITY

The Jewish Voice

Sitting together in a Sukkah of peace

BY JUDY KAYE Palestinian peace activist, Ali Abu Awwad, met with 20 people over lunch in an East Side sukkah on Oct. 12, under a perfect autumn sky.

The predominantly Jewish gathering, which included people from across the political spectrum, heard Awwad tell his personal story of transformation from teen combatant to nonviolent peace activist.

Born on the West Bank in 1972 and raised in a politically active refugee family, Awwad took part in the first intifada and was sentenced to 10 years in an Israeli prison. There he engaged with educated Palestinians and was exposed to the teachings of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Along with his mother and 5,000 other prisoners, Awwad participated in a 17-day hunger strike in 1993 and was released after the Oslo Accords. This experience had a powerful impact on him, he said. “I learned that nonviolence is much more difficult than violence, and is more effective at changing hearts. To take strong action that doesn’t harm, kill or threaten anyone, you have to believe in yourself

PHOTO | JUDY KAYE

Palestinian peace activist Ali Abu Awwad meets with some of the guests in the writer’s sukkah, from left, Margaret Wool, Barbara Holtzman, Judy Kaye, Susan Sklar and Gerry Tyler. and be proud of who you are.”

While many Palestinians turned to state-building during the ensuing years, others were frustrated with continued Israeli occupation and settlement construction, and caused a rash of suicide bombings. “Both sides were committed to anger,” said Awwad. When his brother Youssef was killed by the IDF during the second intifada, Awwad knew he had to make

a choice. “How many Israelis should I kill to feel better? That would not bring my brother back or lead to a solution.”

He met members of the Bereaved Families Forum, an organization of Israelis and Palestinians who have lost family members in the conflict, and for the first time, “I saw Israelis cry – something I had never imagined was possible. They came to me with respect, not

to humiliate or arrest me.” Awwad understood, “though our political and daily living conditions were not equal, our pain was equal.” He realized that the divergent stories told by Israelis and Palestinians “are both true. We need to fit them together somehow, not be blind to the other side.”

Another major turning point in his life came when he met Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger, with

Let them be the

reason

whom he founded Roots, an organization promoting dialogue, outreach and community engagement between Palestinians and Israelis in the Gush Etzion area.

The rabbi had been invited by an American pastor to attend a small gathering of Israelis and Palestinians. Schlesinger posts on the Friends of Roots web site (www.friendsofroots.net/), “I had never met Palestinians as an equal, had never socialized with one... I looked into their faces and saw – despite my prejudices – human faces… I heard stories of deep connection to the land, of exile, of suffering, of humiliation, of loved ones lost in the conflict – they were authentic and they were real. And they affected me deeply.”

When three Jewish teenagers were kidnapped and murdered this summer, Awwad went to visit one of the families. After the Gaza war started, he initiated a fast against the violence, coinciding with Ramadan and the 17th of Tammuz, a Jewish fast day. To his amazement, 140 settlers joined him in this interfaith protest. “Settlers were giving fasting Muslims water and dates! The media does not show this,” said a passionate Awwad.

Awwad had critical words for some elements of the peace movement. “I don’t like the terms ‘left wing’ and ‘right wing,’ ‘pro-Israel’ or ‘proPalestinian.’ We should all be PEACE | 25

Building community and making the world a better place is what we do everyday. But we need your help to do it for tomorrow.

When you leave a bequest or a planned gift at the Jewish Federation Foundation, you touch each one of us. You leave your children and grandchildren a precious inheritance and a lasting testimony to your love and values.

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

There are many ways to create your legacy.

Let us show you a few.

BAR|BAT MITZVAH

thejewishvoice.org

October 24, 2014 |

19

Paula Bodo offers ‘bar and bat mitzvah out of the box’ This tutor loves seeing tears on the bimah

BY IRINA MISSIURO imissiuro@jewishallianceri. org Paula Bodo, a bar and bat mitzvah tutor, estimates that she’s helped roughly 200 children get ready for the big day. Twelve years ago, she decided to work not only with synagogue members, but also with families that didn’t belong to a congregation, such as those in The Friday School. Bodo jokingly calls her services “bar and bat mitzvah out of the box,” meaning that her process is atypical.

She explains that her ability to be extremely patient is a draw since many kids have learning difficulties. Bodo says that perfecting the chant is the easy part. What’s more challenging for students is the spiritual part – connecting to the reading.

To make the kids feel at ease, she takes some time to chat when they arrive at her house for the lesson. Bodo asks the children about their week, about anything that might be preventing them from focusing on their studies. Since 12- and 13-year-olds go through many changes and often feel scared and hesitant to learn, Bodo establishes trust with her students by creating an environment in which they feel safe to share worries and concerns.

When she notices that the child’s chin is quivering, she closes the book and just lets them talk about the causes of their anxiety. Since she’s easy to talk to (“You have to be very sensitive”) the kids usually open up.

Bodo reveals that she’s always loved children. She even organized a summer program for the neighborhood toddlers

at the age of 8, she says with a laugh. Many adults have told her that they hated their bar and bat mitzvah preparations and Hebrew school studies, Bodo says. To ensure that her students don’t walk away feeling this way, Bodo doesn’t enforce anything. Instead, she casually inquires how practice went during the week and gently suggests that they do the best they can. Once they know that she thinks it’s OK to make mistakes, they are more likely to try hard.

Bodo values encouragement because she has benefited from the support of kind people. She lived in Israel and Holland, finally settling in Rhode Island.

While looking for some guidance on how to support her two sons, she reached out to the Bureau of Jewish Education, hoping for a connection.

Since she didn’t have a degree or credentials, there wasn’t much that she could do.

A BJE employee’s suggestion that she learn how to drive offered a concrete goal. Once she obtained her license, she started teaching Hebrew at the JCC, Temple Sinai, Temple EmanuEl and the Alperin Schechter Day School.

Even though she was having a successful year, Bodo felt frustrated because her work hours were scattered throughout the day, a huge inconvenience for a single mom. Stability soon arrived. While teaching at Temple Beth-El’s religious school, she learned that she particularly enjoyed tutoring children with special needs. Those oneon-one sessions transitioned to bar and bat mitzvah lessons, which she’s been offering for the past 20 years or so.

Bodo sees herself as a coach.

Paula Bodo Since the students do most of their work when they’re at home, she devises a system for each child to facilitate the learning process. She’s open to

“It was hard to sing in front of a lot of people, and she made it easy.” constructive criticism, encouraging the kids to let her know if her technique is not working for them or to suggest an alternative. Those students who need more help than others can get some extra hand-holding whenever they require it. Bodo asks them to call her in the eve-

ning so they can chant together. To keep track of their studies and their preparation, she sometimes requests that they text her to let her know about their progress. Whenever Bodo observes the need for more parental involvement, she teams up with Rabbi Sarah Mack and Cantor Judy Seplowin of Temple Beth-El. Together, they work with the families to make sure that the child remains the priority.

Even though Bodo has learned a tremendous amount throughout the years, she still reads books and articles on education to stay current. She would love to tutor full time, but Rhode Island is not big enough to allow her that option. She also works as a professional house painter and keeps busy with activities that include leading worship services at Temple Beth-El, hosting concerts with Community MusicWorks and raising her youngest son, who is 14.

Despite having tutored for more than two decades, Bodo gets emotional during bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies. She loves it when people cry, showing their feelings. Bodo elevates the occasion, believing the rite of passage to be more important than a wedding.

She says, “I go to all the services and often bring tissues.

They’re my kids, and I like to

be supportive.”

Both the kids and their parents appreciate Bodo’s dedication. Jodi Goodman sees Bodo’s contribution to her son’s bar mitzvah preparation as a gift, “I imagine that Ethan may look back on his bar mitzvah experience years down the road and recall it positively and with a fondness for Paula.

Her patience, encouragement and creativity made her an ideal partner! He looked forward to their appointments and felt confident and happy on his day.”

Besides attending the ceremony, Bodo relishes seeing the child transform from believing that he can’t do it to knowing that he can. That’s why Bodo always emphasizes the positive, pushing her students softly, “Even if you do less, you will do it well.” Jillian Brosofsky, a teen who worked with Bodo to prepare for her special day, says about her teacher, “She was very comfortable to be around.” Her sister Sarah agrees, “It was hard to sing in front of a lot of people, and she made it easy.”

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

BAR|BAT MITZVAH

20 | October 24, 2014

Jillian and Sarah Bresofsky at their tennis match.

FROM PAGE 1

MITZVAH suggesting cookie-cutter projects, lead your child to broad concepts, which he could then mold into his own venture. After all, the more invested the person is in the endeavor, the more chances he has for success.

Since most synagogues require children to complete a mitzvah project, the students’ enthusiasm for the cause stems mostly from their personalization. While fulfilling the requirement, many realize how valuable their service is and appreciate having signed up

for the challenge. By the end of their project, kids are wholly devoted; they’re not simply checking off a box.

Jillian Bresofsky collaborated on a mitzvah project with her twin sister Sarah. Asked about the criteria for choosing the project, Jillian says, “Do what you’re going to be excited about. It won’t be over after your bat mitzvah.” Sarah adds, “It doesn’t have to be a chore.”

The girls, longtime tennis players, organized and participated in a fundraiser tennis match against two teachers at Nathan Bishop Middle School in Provi-

The Jewish Voice

dence.

Spectators donated money and canned goods to the Rhode Island Food Bank. The sisters, who also sold baked goods at the event, raised $140 and collected 50 cans. They plan to hold another tournament next year.

Gabe Insler wanted to work with a cause that was dear to him. His mother was diagnosed with cancer in 2013, and Insler chose to focus on a project that helps those in his predicament.

He’s currently writing and illustrating a children’s book on the subject. Insler says it’s been an emotional experience, but he is carrying on because his personal story might make it easier for others to cope with adversity.

Spiritual leaders often guide children in their quest to customize a mitzvah project. Rabbi Barry Dolinger, of Congregation Beth Sholom, personalizes the experience for every child.

He says, “Based on the notion that each soul is different, I usually work with a student and his or her family to craft a project that best meets the desires of that child, and let them do most of the work in making it happen (after all, that’s what responsibility is all about!).”

Similarly, Temple Am David requires the kids to design and implement personal tzedakah projects that are later approved by a spiritual leader.

Rabbi Richard Perlman reminisces, “One thing that stands out as a wonderful memory among many was when one

student, Cory Charness, collected money to send fans to the Sarah Herzog Children’s Center – Afula. We brought his donation during a temple trip to Israel on his behalf and that meeting developed a wonderful relationship with Temple Am David, our entire community and ultimately ended in bringing the Emunotes to Rhode Island.”

Rabbi Sarah Mack, of Temple Beth-El, elaborates on the congregation’s refusal to proscribe the project, which the students choose themselves. She says, “I think that the Mitzvah Mania program is one that successfully teaches our b’nai mitzvah

“The bar and bat mitzvah students realize that they changed not only someone else’s life, but also their own.” students that part of being a member of the adult Jewish community involves tikkun olam. Through the process, they also learn that it is not always a straight path to finding the way to meaningfully contribute their time and resources. That is also part of the journey – to find their individual passions and skills and then use these gifts to give back.”

When Dora Elice was begin-

ning to explore the details of her upcoming bat mitzvah, the project she chose was obvious to her from the start.

Elice is focusing on breast cancer awareness because her grandmother, great aunt and a friend’s mother have all survived the disease. She says, “I want to help people feel better after their diagnosis.” So far, she has organized “MBe Pink,” a fundraising and awareness day at Moses Brown School.

It includes such concepts as “Pink Out,” or donating money to wear pink to school, a Pink Bake Sale and a T-shirt Elice designed. All funds will benefit the Gloria Gemma Breast Cancer Resource Foundation.

In addition, Elice organized a team of 15 to walk in the foundation’s Flames of Hope Run/Walk series on Oct. 12, raising $4,600. Elice says, “It’s important to make a personal impact.” Because of her connection to the cause, she keeps finding ways to stay involved.

Her mother, Shari Elice, says, “We didn’t realize the extent to which she’d mobilize the community.” Her school was so inspired by her efforts that it will continue the endeavor, making the fundraiser an annual event.

Upon completion of their mitzvah project, kids are often surprised by how much they benefited from the experience.

Many feel they’ve grown, become more morally responTZEDAKAH | 21

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October 24, 2014 |

21

Jillian and Sarah Bresofsky FROM PAGE 20

TZEDAKAH

sible. Observing themselves within the context of poverty, illness and age, they begin to appreciate their status in society, the extent of their abilities. Menucha Krinsky, who engaged in a learning project focusing on humanity’s creation through one person, interviewed Holocaust survivors about their experiences. She says, “I have to remember that I am very lucky to be living in a time where something like the Holocaust is not around.”

Children finally comprehend what it means to “make the world a better place.” Previously, when they heard the phrase, it was merely something people said about doing something nice for someone else. Now, the expression takes on a new meaning – they witness firsthand the effect their tzedakah has on those who are not as fortunate; they comprehend the hugeness of their commitment to tikkun olam and to Torah.

Jonathan Rosenzweig, who taught string instruments to underprivileged kids as part of Community MusicWorks’ orchestra program, says that he was glad to be able to connect with and be respected by the students. “I learned that any time I spend volunteering, it is highly appreciated. I have something to give and make a difference in their lives.”

Ethan Goodman, who worked at Mount Hope Day Care Center, helping teachers with the transition after the childrens’ rest time, was hoping to mirror Noah since his Torah portion was about Noah’s Ark. Like Noah, a role model to the Jews, Ethan tried to be a leader to the kids. He says, “Working on the project made me realize that kids do have a lot of needs, and that my parents weren’t being

dramatic about what it takes to raise them.” His mother, Jodi Goodman, adds, “I think he imagined that it would be all fun and not ‘work’ and learned something about himself and the largeness of making commitments. He came away feeling that his contribution was significant and valued.”

After completing the project, these preteens will go on to make a difference, despite not having a requirement. They’ve understood that mitzvah is a

“They’ve understood that mitzvah is a way of life, an entire mindset – not an individual act that satisfies a need.” way of life, an entire mindset – not an individual act that satisfies a need. Rosenzweig was surprised at the change within himself. “At the beginning, I was only planning on spending my time during the mitzvah project volunteering, but by the end of the year, I am planning and looking forward to spending time helping them during the winter weekly,” he says.

Krinsky says that she was very nervous at first because she was afraid of feeling sad.

However, after listening to one woman’s tale, she became motivated to learn more. “Most of the people with these amazing stories are dying; there aren’t many stories that are left. That is why I wanted to learn about this, so I could pass on the stories and tell my children one day. I don’t want these amaz-

ing stories to never be heard again.”

The bar and bat mitzvah students realize that they changed not only someone else’s life, but also their own. From now on, they are bound to the knowledge that they are capable of contributing on an ongoing basis – whether they’ll advocating for someone’s rights, donating their time or inspiring

others – living according to Torah is for the rest of their lives.

Rabbi Jeffrey Goldwasser, of Temple Sinai, says, “I have seen students derive great meaning and satisfaction from collecting some used sporting equipment for kids who don’t have any. I have seen students organize a schoolwide day of action that educates hundreds of people and raises thousands

of dollars. The important thing to me is that the experience is linked to Torah – that students learn that this is what it means to be a Jew.” IRINA MISSIURO is a writer and editorial consultant for The Jewish Voice.

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BAR|BAT MITZVAH

The Jewish Voice

The skywalk through the Costa Rican rainforest.

Women of the Wall bus ads promoting bat mitzvah at Kotel JERUSALEM (JTA) – Women of the Wall launched an ad campaign on public buses in Jerusalem to promote bat mitzvah ceremonies at the Western Wall.

Unveiled on Oct. 12, the ads feature Israeli girls ages 11 to 14 wearing a prayer shawl and holding a Torah scroll in front of the Western Wall. The ad reads in Hebrew: “Mom, I too want a bat mitzvah at the Kotel.”

The girls featured in the ads – including Ashira Abramowitz-Silverman, the daughter of Yosef Abramowitz and Rabbi Susan Silverman, and niece of comic Sarah Silverman – have either had a bat mitzvah with Women of the Wall or are planning one.

“The Western Wall Heritage Foundation, overseen by Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, runs a lucrative and active industry of bar mitzvah celebrations for boys at the Western Wall,” the Women of the Wall said in a statement. “The foundation offers no such ceremony for girls; in fact Rabinowitz actively prevents any type of bat mitzvah ceremony for girls by refusing women access to Torah scrolls at the holy site.”

The bus campaign is part of Women of the Wall’s efforts to be allowed to read from a Torah scroll in the women’s section of the Western Wall when they hold their monthly prayer service for Rosh Chodesh, the new month.

A destination event is possible

BY ELLEN PADERSON The Yerushalmit Movement, a group that aims to make Jerusalem a more pluralistic city, recently began a running a bus advertisement featuring photos of women from Jerusalem pictured from the shoulders up.

The women include a mix of secular, modern and haredi Orthodox, and Arab.

Several of the ads already have been vandalized in haredi Orthodox neighborhoods.

The campaign reportedly is the brainchild of Jerusalem City Councilwoman Rachel Azaria, who was not permitted to run ads on buses during her campaign because of bus company fears that their vehicles would be damaged.

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JNS.ORG – Today, with families more spread out than they used to be, the idea of a destination function is more appealing than ever. Having guests travel to one location can be efficient, fun and serve as a vacation at the same.

There can also be cost savings with a destination bar mitzvah or bat mitzvah. It can cost less to go away for a week than to pay for one large threehour event. All sorts of options are available. Among popular destinations for bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs are the historic synagogues with sand floors (used to muffle sounds when prayers were held secretly) in St. Thomas and Curacao, the Costa Rican rain forest, and the centuries-old synagogue in Barbados. Bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs on cruises are also a great option—really fun for multigenerational families.

They can have the ceremony in the St. Thomas synagogue during the port call, or in the cruise chapel. I work with a

cantor who prepares the child for the ceremony and usually joins us at the resort or on the cruise ship. Families should choose the destination based on what is convenient for their family but, more importantly, on what is of interest to the special boy or girl.

While we’re used to the idea of booking a hall and caterer in our hometown, the idea of doing it in another city, state, or country can be intimidating.

But with the Internet you can see, and sometimes even go on, “virtual tours” of venues. You can also maintain close contact with everyone you need to work with to make the day perfect. Of course, the services of a professional makes things smoother, easier and gives you access to places and people that you may not otherwise fi nd.

ELLEN PADERSON owns Smiles and Miles Travel, www. smilesandmilestravel.com.

This story was fi rst published by www.Jewish.Travel, the online Jewish travel magazine.

BAR|BAT MITZVAH

thejewishvoice.org

October 24, 2014 |

A video can capture that special day

BY KEITH ELLIOTT A bar or bat mitzvah is a day filled with anticipation and one to be treasured. You will certainly want to protect these precious memories so they may be passed from generation to generation as a family heirloom.

Still photography plays an important role in capturing any celebration, but many of us may not realize that a professional videographer is often able to capture so much more than still pictures can.

Imagine if our parents had the technology 40 or 50 years ago to create a beautiful film of their special day, allowing you to relive all those special moments, hear their words as they read aloud from the Torah, witness their candlelighting ceremony, hear the toasts, see all the guests, and join the entire family as they danced the Hora. A professional video can capture the emotions, the joy and the excitement of the day like nothing else.

Today’s bar and bat mitzvah videos are produced at much higher quality than even a few years ago. Most video companies are now using high-definition cameras and editing systems to

create stunning pictures and sound of both the service and the party afterward. But more important than the equipment used, is the skill and experience of the videographer, and their ability to creatively capture the moments you’ll cherish for a lifetime.

Gone are the days of film or even tape. Your child’s video will be carefully edited and preserved on a DVD or high-definition Blu-ray disc. You may even wish to share it with friends and family over the Internet through YouTube, Facebook or other social media formats. The finished video may include the fully edited service, party or both.

The cost of a professional video can vary from about $1,200 to $3,000 or more, based on your location, and the features that you choose to include in your package.

While the technology of today is impressive indeed, the true

value of your video remains in the skillful way the memories are captured and presented for you to share with family and generations to come. Professional videography will allow you to relive all the cherished moments – even those that you surely missed the first time. The pride you felt, the sounds you heard, the tears you shed, and excitement you experienced are all part of the magic of capturing one of the most important days in a son or daughter’s life in a well-produced video.

When years of planning are finally over and the special day has come and gone, there is often no better way to relive all the joys than through the sights and sounds of a video. Please consider the value of such a timeless heirloom as you look forward to your child’s bar or bat mitzvah in the near future.

KEITH ELLIOTT owns East Coast Video.

celebrations 2015 January 25, 2015

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24 | October 24, 2014

WORLD|NATION

NEWS BRIEFS Jerusalem elects two chief rabbis

JTA – The Jerusalem City Council elected two new chief rabbis, including Rabbi Shlomo Amar, the former chief rabbi of Israel.

Amar was tapped as the city’s Sephardi chief rabbi on Oct. 21.

Rabbi Aryeh Stern was picked as the Ashkenazi chief rabbi.

Both had the support of Mayor Nir Barkat.

Stern is a modern Orthodox rabbi and was backed by the Jewish Home party. Amar had the backing of the Shas party.

The city has not had a chief rabbi since 2003.

“It is in my intention to serve as the rabbi of all Jerusalemites: secular, modern Orthodox and haredi alike,” Stern said in a statement following the announcement of his election.

“The Jerusalem Rabbinate is a great merit, but it also comprises a hefty responsibility. I will make sure that the religious services will become accessible and friendly, and will serve as an outstanding model for all of the other rabbinates in Israel.”

Israeli Chief Rabbinate: Freundel’s conversions are valid

JTA – The Israeli Chief Rabbinate said it will recognize all past conversions performed

by Rabbi Barry Freundel, the Washington rabbi charged with voyeurism.

On Oct. 21, the Rabbinate clarified that it was joining the Orthodox Rabbinical Council of America in affirming the validity of the conversions, a day after the Rabbinate said it would be examining their validity.

“The Chief Rabbinate of Israel clarifies that the Rabbi Freundel affair has no effect on the policy of recognizing conversions performed by him in the past,” Rabbinate spokesman Ziv Maor wrote to JTA in a text message.

Maor also wrote that until further notice, the Rabbinate will not recognize future conversions performed by Freundel.

“I’m pleased to see that the Rabbinate clarified the matter and acted relatively quickly in order to alleviate any further suffering on the part of Rabbi Freundel’s victims,” said Rabbi Seth Farber, director of the ITIM Jewish Life Advocacy Center, which pushed the Rabbinate to recognize the conversions.

Israeli-American ‘Big Brother’ star wins Jewish Moscow beauty pageant

JTA – Linor Shefer, an IsraeliAmerican reality television star who was born in Ukraine, won Moscow’s first Miss Jewish Star beauty pageant.

Shefer, a former contender on the Israeli version of “Big Brother,” beat 19 other contes-

The Jewish Voice

SanDisk headquarters in Milpitas, California U.S. to honor Israeli founder of flash storage company

Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org – Dr. Eli Harari, the Israeli founder of the SanDisk flash storage company, has been named as one of the nine 2014 recipients of the U.S. National Medal of Technology and Innovation.

Harari will receive the medal at a White House event later this year.

“These scholars and innovators have expanded our understanding of the world, made invaluable contributions to their fields, and helped improve countless lives,” President Barack Obama said in a statement.

According to the White House, the medal “recognizes tants on Oct. 19 in Moscow’s Metropol Hotel, according to the STMEGI association of Mountain Jews.

Second place went to Emma Tabachnikova of Ukraine and Marianne Golushkin of Uzbekistan was third, the Israeli Russian-language news site haifa. vibirai.ru reported.

A panel of four judges selected the winners. The jury included Dorit Golender, Israel’s ambassador to Russia, according to the pageant’s website.

The pageant was sponsored by more than a dozen companies and groups, including the Russian branch of the Hillel

PHOTO | WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

The SanDisk corporate headquarters in Milpitas, Calif. those who have made lasting contributions to America’s competitiveness and quality of Jewish network, and was open to any unmarried woman under the age of 30 who is Jewish according to halachah, Jewish religious law.

Winners will receive prizes selected by the sponsors, the competition’s charter said, but it did not specify what they are.

Shefer, 29, moved with her family to Karmiel in Israel’s North at age 5 from the city of Berdychiv in northern Ukraine. She moved to Los Angeles in 2006 to work in show business. She also lived in New York and worked in real estate before moving back to Israel to be with her family. She served

life and helped strengthen the nation’s technological workforce.” in the Israeli Air Force.

In the United States, Shefer volunteered to strengthen intercommunal ties within U.S. Jewry by participating in the activities of the Russian American Jewish Experience.

Before entering “Big Brother” earlier this year, she began volunteering in Israel.

“I hope to complement my work for Jewish communities in Israel and in the United States with more work for Jews in Russia and elsewhere, to help Jewish values grow in young people today,” she said in a statement about the pageant.

ARTS|COMMUNITY

thejewishvoice.org

October 24, 2014 |

25

SNL’s Top 10 Jewish moments

BY JANA BANIN

ously overt than this 1980 fake ad for Jewess Jeans, a parody of a Jordache commercial.

The best line is the tag line: “You don’t have to be Jewish.

But it wouldn’t hurt.”

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (JTA) – Happy birthday to “Saturday Night Live,” now into its 40th season. To mark the occasion, we’ve assembled a list of our 10 all-time favorite Jewish moments on SNL (they’re like butter, so good Coffee Talk and Hanukkah Harry didn’t make the cut):

1. “The Hanukkah Song”

10. Saving ‘Soviet Jewelry’

Gilda Radner scores as Emily Litella on a Chevy Chase-hosted Weekend Update segment, with her classic talking-head rant trying to figure out what all the fuss is about over Soviet Jewelry.

Best line: “Save Soviet jewelry?! Where are we going to put it? I say keep it over THERE, with all their ballet dancers!”

9. Jonah Hill Grossman

as

tion”) and closed it with a flashback of a rap he performed at his bar mitzvah.

Best line: “Please don’t forget I’m black, please, don’t forget I’m Jewish/I play ball like LeBron and I know what a W-2 is.”

Evan

Meet Evan, a 6-year-old from a broken home who frequents Benihana and communicates entirely via Borscht Belt jokes.

Best line, delivered to the chef: “I love your showmanship but careful with those knives, you’re giving me flashbacks to my bris. I don’t know if I should clap or cover my shmeckle!”

2. Jewess Jeans

join forces to serenade Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – with genius results.

Best line: “You can deny the Holocaust all you want, but you can’t deny that there’s something between us.”

8. Jewish Willy Wonka

In 2011, Ben Stiller hosted just as Yom Kippur was coming to a close. Naturally, after all the fasting, he was feeling rather woozy during his monologue – so woozy he conjured up Jewish Willy Wonka (Andy Samberg).

The two traveled together to a world full of giant pickles and mustard. Singing ensued.

Best line: “You’re in a magical world of Jewish foods. It’s every taste you’ve ever imagined, from salty to fishy.

7. Iran so far

In this Digital Short from 2007, Andy Samberg, Adam Levine and Jake Gyllenhaal

FROM PAGE 18

6. Sabra ‘Price Is Right’

Tom Hanks channels his inner shady, pushy Israeli as Uri, a game-show host who tries to convince contestants that the merchandise they see is not as crappy as it appears to be.

Best line: “Watch him,” Uri says to his lackey (pre-Zohan Adam Sandler) when Chris Rock takes the stage.

5. Jacob the Bar Mitzvah Boy explains Hanukkah

Weekend Update is paid a visit by our favorite 13-yearold (Vanessa Bayer), who gives dreidels and gifts his signature awkward bimah speech treatment.

Best accessory: The oversized Yankees yarmulke.

Best line: “It’s no Xbox 360!”

4. Elijah the Prophet Passover seder

at-

tends a

This version of Elijah (Jerry Seinfeld circa 1992) doesn’t just slip in for a sec and take an obligatory sip of wine. He pulls up a chair, demands something better than Manischewitz and cracks a bunch of jokes (some corny, some dirty).

Best line: “What is this, a matzah ball? Or are you going to put a chain on it and demolish a building?”

3. Drake’s bar mitzvah rap

Anyone wondering if Drake would play the Jewish card during his stint as SNL host in 2014 didn’t have to wait long for an answer. He began his opening monologue with a bio (black, Jewish, Canadian, former star of “Degrassi: The Next Genera-

PEACE

‘pro-solution.’ ” Added Awwad, “Israeli leftists in Tel Aviv tell me proudly that they refuse to speak to settlers. But there are now half a million settlers – how can we make peace without engaging them? Better for us to agree to manage our disagreements - nonviolently.”

He is often asked why Palestinians ‘educate kids to hate.’

“If you grow up under occupation, you don’t need a curriculum to teach you to hate. It is the same with children growing up in Sederot under rocket fire – you learn to hate Palestinians.” In Awwad’s view, Palestinian violence is based mostly on revenge, not hate. “People cannot resist extremism unless they are living under normal life conditions. Ex-prisoners get released into the same occupation, an environment which creates more fighters. You can’t expect Mandelas in Gaza.”

Despite this assessment, Awwad has dedicated himself to building a mass movement of Palestinian nonviolence, and urges Israelis to organize their own nonviolent mass protests.

“I wish that every American Jew could hear Ali Abu Awwad’s story,” remarked Ellen Goodman after the program.

“He’s a person who has every reason to be infused with rage.

Instead he is dedicating his life to making peace between Jews and Palestinians. He has not chosen an easy path. His story embodies hope for the future.”

“This was my first time meeting a Palestinian who advocated nonviolence as a way to build trust toward a two-state solution,” noted Harry Feld.

“I applaud Ali’s efforts.” Another attendee commented, “I have heard many Israeli and American Jewish peace activists speak about Palestinians’

willingness to coexist with Israel if granted freedom and human rights. Still, it is far more effective to see and hear that perspective directly from a Palestinian.”

To Awwad, the crux of the matter is clear. “Palestinians need freedom. Israelis need security.” How can we get there?

“The path to Palestinian freedom should run through Jewish hearts and minds.” Steve Schwartz wrote after Awwad’s visit, “I was honored and ennobled by being in his presence.”

To learn more about Ali Abu Awwad’s peace activities with Rabbi Shlesinger, go to http:// www.friendsofroots.net/.

JUDY KAYE lives in Providence. She is a diversity professional, a member of Temple Emanu-El and co-chair of J Street RI.

A lot of what Radner did felt Jewish on some basic level, but there was nothing more hilari-

A bunch of centuries after the original Hanukkah miracle, Adam Sandler bestowed upon the Jewish people a second one. This modern Maccabee, if you will, appeared on Weekend Update in 1994 and belted out a clever, catchy tune that became an anthem of Jewish pride, calling all tribe members to put on their yarmulkes and tell their friend Veronica that Hanukkah is not just a sad little holiday that exists in the shadow of Christmas but something special in its own right. Something special that happens to be observed by a lot of famous people.

Best line: “Paul Newman’s half Jewish, Goldie Hawn is too, put them together what a finelooking Jew.”

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Whose risk is it anyway?

Webster’s Dictionary explains risk as a hazard, danger, peril, exposure to loss, injury or destruction. Often in life we measure risk as the potential of losing somet h i n g of value, weighed against potential to gain something of value. Must we indepenRETIREMENT dently measure future CAFE value when the only constant ANDREW the future MILLER holds is change?

Should we rely on the past to offer us confidence in our future?

The retirement plan industry today is vastly different from that of 1974, when the Employee Retirement Income Security Act was passed. Today we are far more accountable to modifying potential detriments and newfound risks to our retirement, such as life expectancy risk, deflationary risk, market volatility risk, mortality risk, inflation risk, withdrawal rate risk and long-term care risk. Each of these risks has the potential to create future erosion, and the only way to recapture this erosion is to avoid it in your planning years.

Of all the risks mentioned, longevity risk is, hands-down, the most dangerous. Over

time, with improved medical technologies and health awareness, people have been living longer and longer. The Social Security Administration reports that a married couple age 65 today carries a 73 percent chance that one of them will live to 85 years old and a 47 percent chance one lives to 90. Longevity risk has become a risk multiplier for all other risks because the longer we live, the more likely that we will be affected by all other risks. We need to think like an actuary and begin with the end in mind. In other words, if we knew we were going to die tomorrow it would not matter if the stock market crashed next week, the IRS announced an increase in taxes, or health care and pharmaceutical inflation continued to rise.

However, what if we live to 100 or older? We would have a much greater risk of being impacted by all these threats. We must remain focused on the foundation for all retirement savings. Why do we give up current enjoyment of our earnings for retirement tomorrow?

We do this in order to have a dependable income stream once we reach our definition of retirement that is sustainable and does not interfere with our legacy planning wishes. It only makes sense, then, to understand what future retirement income needs look like so we can efficiently position our risk accordingly. In other words, understanding how retirement income streams work economically defines how to

allocate our savings today.

Researchers at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College recently studied retirement preparedness.

In the study they reviewed 10 surveys of consumer finances run by the Federal Reserve.

Of all the results considered, the most convincing was the wealth-to-income need ratio. This ratio remained unchanged over time, despite longer lives, declining Social Security replacement rates, rapidly rising health care costs and low interest rates. People retiring in the future may continue to have less and less resources than past generations.

Rather than fighting emotions around these systemic risks (risks we have no control over), we must tailor different elements of all our risks to make the most of things we can control, yet still evaluate factors somewhat or completely out of our control.

When we concentrate on these non-systemic risks (risks within our control), we tend to subdue our emotions around systemic risks and focus on the welfare of our family. Jack Welch once said, “Control your own destiny or someone else will.” Until next time remember, “The only thing forever is yesterday.”

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SENIORS

The Jewish Voice

Where lies mercy, and where is understanding to be found?

The world cowers as it now confronts yet another pestilence originating in some remote forest. In recent years, humanity has been affronted by a succession of alien infectious diseases, novel forms of environmental intox ic at ion and eccentric ways of inflicting harm upon its inhabitants OF SCIENCE (e.g., the occasional & SOCIETY use of poison gases).

Yet, it wonSTANLEY M. ders now, ARONSON, M.D. nervously, what unspeakable sins must have been undertaken by people to justify the terrors wrought by wave upon wave of new contagions.

Collective memories are poor, and so people speculate why the past seemed so blissful and innocent, conveniently ignoring such recent calamities as HIV/ AIDS, Legionnaires’ disease, Lyme disease, toxic shock syndrome and Hanta fever – all emerging in the last few decades. And now, some have concluded, there is the imminence of Ebola virus, the microbiological prelude, they fear, to a global Armageddon (in Hebrew, har Megiddo).

Many of these known infectious diseases, such as West Nile, Hanta, Rift Valley, Malta, Marburg, Lassa or Ebola, bear

names of exotic geographic sites, hinting that such alien infections could only have arisen in steaming jungles without a trace of “civilization.” Ebola received its name from an undistinguished river tributary in northeastern Congo, where the first case was identified. Of course, people conveniently forget such infectious entities as Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, St. Louis encephalitis, San Joaquin fever and Colorado tick fever, all bearing names of geographic sites with-

“Collective memories are poor, and so people speculate why the past seemed so blissful and innocent.” in the United States.

Yet, solely in terms of infectious, communicable disease, men and women have never been healthier. Within their lifetimes, many readers might remember the relentless scourges of diphtheria, measles, smallpox, pertussis and rubella, all now controlled (and, in most of the world, eradicated). Poliomyelitis, once global in distribution, has now been confined to northern Pakistan, neighboring Afghanistan and parts of northern Nigeria. The remainder of the world is poliofree, and our school children learn that the disease, some-

times called infantile paralysis, is a bygone affliction of medieval days such as the Dancing Mania or King’s Evil.

And smallpox? It is now 37 years since the last case of natural smallpox was documented in an East African health worker. Only the very elderly of physicians, such as this writer, have ever seen a case of smallpox. And, similar to the Lindy Hop and men’s vests, it has been relegated to the distant past.

But not all encounters with pestilence have been joyous victories. Consider a disease, presumed to be infectious, that was first documented in the April 1917 issue of a Viennese medical journal, written by a neurologist named Constantine von Economo.

This mysterious disease ultimately afflicted close to onehalf million humans, particularly in Europe and the U.S. The ailment began, innocently, with moderate malaise, low-grade fever, headache and some muscle aches. But, within days, these banal symptoms were superseded by deepening confusion, paralysis of eyeball movement and, often, an inappropriate sleepiness. And so it was initially called encephalitis lethargica (EL). Many physicians noted a curious resemblance of EL to Parkinson’s disease, although the latter was more globally distributed, much slower in clinical progression and affecting the elderly, in general.

The EL epidemic coincided, in the U.S. with the 1917-20 pandemic of influenza, and many

then thought that the two disorders were somehow related, perhaps EL representing a late sequel of the flu. This etiological thought has not been verified, and EL remains a two-fold mystery: First, what caused it? A virus, a bacterial agent, perhaps? And second, what factor(s) accounted for its essential disappearance since 1927?

Our globe is a vast biological jungle populated with countless organisms – unicellular, invertebrate and vertebrate – all competing for survival against other creatures, as well as contending with climate changes that, randomly, make survival and propagation easier for some species but not for others. Many

humans, nurtured in the naïve belief that the world was expressly created solely for them, now wonder why they feel so afflicted. These folk are trapped within a dream – the obsessed, contentious interval between the womb and the grave sometimes called life. But with all of life’s hazards and imponderables, those who are now contending with the horrors of new pestilences may ask, is life really worth living? That is a question for a newborn, not for an adult.

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

Movies and books made for an interesting, relevant summer vacation Well, I congratulated the Warwick Showcase for bringing us both “Magic in the Moonlight” and also “Calvary,” two movies that did not attract big crowds but offered stories with content as well as style. I have to add my

SKETCHBOOK MIKE FINK

best wishes to Imax for the 3-D presentation about the plight of lemurs in Madagascar. A diverse and endangered species of ancient primate uniquely evolved upon an isolated island, our weird but wonderful “cousin” creature has to adapt to a diminished world, regularly burned to prepare for human development at the expense of other denizens derived equally from Eden. I believe that before World War II, Madagascar was one of several alternative avenues of survival for Jews! That’s about the only hook I can use to make the documentary narrated by Morgan Freeman relevant to our readers.

Then, I’d like to salute the East Providence cinema that took on “America,” a series of re-enactments and interviews, arranged rhetorically to confront the current anti-American academic fashion, with a return to classic narrative patriotism. The imagery and the script had many virtues. It had eloquent logic and a tone of patient dignity – up to a point. In all honesty, I think it dragged on much too long and repeated

its icons and major scenes too insistently. We had to stare at the Mount Rushmore statues of our presidents, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., and at the sculpture of the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima just too many times. (I found myself squinting at my watch, assuming the movie was reaching its climax and summation. But alas! Not yet.)

Nevertheless I found the movie admirable, and sat, utterly alone at the first matinee, fascinated by its unusual, even unique, perspective. And what was “Jewish” about it, other than the voice of Professor Alan Dershowitz? Only this: The Jews were in general the most generous new Americans, who projected their hopes upon the legends and lore of this land, pledged their allegiance and loyalty. The Statue of Liberty held a special meaning for the Jews not only fleeing pogroms and death camps, but also seeking not merely dreams of opportunity, but also dreams of the pursuit of happiness in its fullest, not merest, meanings.

Mostly, I am writing to remind myself and my readers that movies have a responsibility, audiences have a responsibility, and cinemas have a responsibility to add to the industry of entertainment a chance for artists and poets to ply their trades as well.

My summer vacation was made up not simply of strolling the shoreline and basking in siestas but also of books and movies!

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

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NATION

thejewishvoice.org FROM PAGE 1

MIDTERM ELECTIONS a 46-year-old Republican – are decidedly low-key figures who share a number of similarities.

Both are serving members of the military’s JAG corps (Lieu for the Air Force, Carr for the Army), both belonged to Jewishfounded fraternities.

Carr’s mother emigrated as a child from Iraq to Israel and subsequently to the United States. Carr himself grew up in New York speaking Hebrew and Arabic with his family, and he put the latter skill to use when he served in an anti-terrorism unit in Iraq. He argues that his Iraq experiences will serve him well as a “shaper of opinion” on foreign policy, and particularly on Iran and Israel – key issues in the seventh-most Jewish district in the country.

Carr’s interest in Israel, in particular, is something he shares with supporter Sheldon Adelson, whom the candidate describes as a “close personal friend.” Adelson has donated to the Carr campaign and hosted a fundraiser for him.

Lieu is an immigrant himself, having arrived in the United States from Taiwan at age 3 with his parents. He has authored bills on everything from greenhouse gas reductions to indoor tanning salons, and he touts his legislative experience as one of his strengths.

Voters, Lieu says, are “very aware that they’re losing a phenomenal legislator” in Waxman, who has endorsed Lieu. “With me, you have a track record.”

Registered Democrats in the district substantially outnumber Republicans, 43.4 percent to 26.8 percent. Raphael Sonenshein, the executive director of California State University, Los Angeles’ Pat Brown Institute – a nonpartisan public policy institute – says that Carr has the right profile for a Republican to be successful here, but given the partisan tilt of the district, he is “a substantial underdog.”

– Anthony Weiss In New York, eyeing a new Republican Jew in Congress: Lee Zeldin vs. Tim Bishop Is adding a new pitch in his second bid to unseat Democratic Rep. Tim Bishop in New York’s 1st Congressional District: Congress needs a Jewish Republican.

Zeldin’s religion, and its scarcity among Republican politicos, is by no means his main focus.

Local bread-and-butter issues and the economy have dominated the campaign of this 34-yearold Iraq War vet who has served in the state Senate for four years.

But replacing former Rep. Eric Cantor, the former House majority leader, as the only Republican Jewish lawmaker in the Congress has been part of Zeldin’s outreach both in his eastern Long Island district and in making his case to donors nationally.

Zeldin, who met with Cantor after Cantor resigned following

his primary loss in Virginia in June, called the former majority leader an “important voice in reaching out to the Jewish community to encourage them to be more open-minded toward supporting Republican candidates.”

Top conservative Jewish figures, including National Review publisher Bill Kristol, former George W. Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer and Republican Jewish Coalition executive director Matt Brooks, have traveled to New York to help make Zeldin’s case.

Bishop, who acknowledges facing a tough challenge from Zeldin, told JTA that he did not think Zeldin’s religion would be a factor in the vote.

“My understanding is now that Eric Cantor has left the Congress, he is telling others he will fill that void,” Bishop said in an interview. “This is not a race about electing someone Jewish.”

Bishop noted that both he and his opponent have strong proIsrael voting records.

“One thing we are almost unanimous on is the importance of a strong U.S.-Israel relationship and that our posture toward Israel will be protective,” Bishop said.

This is the fourth time Bishop has faced a Jewish challenger.

He defeated Zeldin in 2008, and in 2010 and 2012 he edged Randy Altschuler, an investment banker.

Bishop says he is a more natural fit for Jewish voters, who tend to vote Democratic and hold liberal positions on such issues as immigration, health care and education reform.

On each of those issues, Zeldin and Bishop stake out opposing views. Bishop favors a path to citizenship for undocumented migrants; Zeldin says securing the borders must be a primary priority. Zeldin wants to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, while preserving elements like mandating coverage for people with pre-existing conditions; Bishop wants to keep it but tweak it.

Zeldin wants to toss out the federal Common Core standards for schools; Bishop wants to reform them.

Bishop says he backs continued congressional oversight of any Iran deal. Zeldin says Congress needs more aggressive oversight of the nuclear talks.

“We need to be much stronger and more consistent with our messaging to actually stop Iran’s efforts to obtain a nuclear weapon,” Zeldin told JTA, calling for increased sanctions.

Ben Chouake, the president of NORPAC, the pre-eminent proIsrael political action committee in the Northeast, said pro-Israel donors are not focusing on the Zeldin-Bishop race because they are not so impressed with Bishop, and Zeldin has been slipping in the polls.

“It’s OK to have a good voting record on our issues if you’re from Anchorage, but if you’re from Long Island, people expect

Lee Zeldin

Tim Bishop

more of you than a voting record,” Chouake said. “They expect leadership.”

– Ron Kampeas

special interests. It certainly hasn’t prevented Romanoff from bringing in the big money, as both candidates had raised well over $3 million by the end of the second quarter. However, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced recently that it was cutting off its television advertising in the district – a move that some analysts took as a sign that Romanoff’s chances might be slipping. Nonetheless, the result will likely remain in doubt to the very end.

“It’s obviously a very close race,” said Seth Masket, an associate professor of political science at the University of Denver.

“Coffman probably maintains a very slight lead, but both are very strong candidates.”

Masket says Romanoff may be saved, ironically, by the difficulties of his fellow Colorado Democrats running for re-election as senator and governor. Their close races have caused the state and national parties to pour millions into voter turnout efforts across the state, which might mitigate the greater tendency of Democratic voters to ignore non-presidential elections.

That could be a godsend for Romanoff. Asked what would make the ultimate difference in the election, Romanoff bluntly responded, “Turnout.”

– Anthony Weiss

In Colorado, tight race in a changing state: Mike Coffman vs. Andrew Romanoff Colorado has spent the past two years in political upheaval, and perhaps no district embodies its contradictions better than the 6th Congressional District. The site of the 2012 Aurora movie theater shooting, the 6th wraps around the east side of Denver, encompassing upscale suburbs, multiracial workingclass communities and old-line conservative Colorado natives.

The two candidates – Rep. Mike Coffman, a 59-year-old Republican, and former Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, a 48-year-old Democrat – embody that split nature perfectly.

Coffman is a Coloradan since childhood and a former Marine who has represented the district since 2008. His maternal grandfather was an Iraqi Jew who moved to the French concession in Shanghai, where his mother grew up. She met his father, a U.S. soldier doing demilitarization in the area at the end of World War II. Long a conservative, Coffman has been forced to moderate his rhetoric since redistricting turned the 6th from a conservative redoubt into a swing district.

Coffman has worked to paint the Washington-born, Ohioraised Romanoff as a snooty outsider, sneering in a September debate, “You went to a private prep school, Harvard, Yale.” A former Wexner fellow, Romanoff presents his career in public service and education – ranging from teaching at the Community College of Aurora to working at the Southern Poverty Law Center to serving in the statehouse – as springing from his Jewish upbringing.

“I think it’s shaped who I am in almost every way,” he told JTA. “I take the obligation we call tikkun olam seriously.”

Romanoff and Coffman have focused heavily on domestic issues, particularly economic.

Romanoff has also played up his refusal to take money from political action committees, or PACs, as freeing him from

In Illinois, who’s the favorite in Chicago? Brad Schneider vs. Robert Dold Brad Schneider and Robert Dold, locked in a neck-and-neck race for a Chicago-area congressional seat, present a dilemma for some Jewish voters.

Dold, 45, is a Republican social moderate in the tradition of now-Sen. Mark Kirk, his predecessor in the 10th Congressional District. Dold, who held the seat for one two-year term before losing narrowly to Schneider in 2012, represents what many Jewish community leaders have said they long to see: a pro-Israel hawk who strives to keep a national party that has tilted rightward since 2010 on a more even keel.

Schneider, the 53-year-old incumbent, represents a prototype Jewish Democrats want to preserve: a young, liberal Jewish lawmaker who makes Israel a central focus and casts it as a

October 24, 2014 |

29

natural issue for Democrats.

Jewish voters “are looking for a fiscal conservative and social moderate, someone who can be in the tradition of Mark Kirk,” Dold said in an interview.

“People are tired of excuses and they want Washington to work.

I have a track record of working with the other side.”

Schneider, almost echoing Dold, pitched himself in an interview as a “fiscally moderate, socially progressive” candidate, and in making his case slips into the Hebrew he learned on multiple visits to Israel.

“Two things I talk about is tikkun olam,” he said, using the phrase for repairing the world, and “l’dor v’dor,” from generation to generation. “We can’t leave an environment beyond repair.”

On issues like the Affordable Care Act and Israel, the candidates sound similar notes: Each favors tweaks to Obamacare but not repeal, and each says he will stand up to the administration if it gives too much away in nuclear talks between Iran and the major powers.

Dold says “there’s no question” that Schneider is pro-Israel, but chides him for not speaking out more against the administration – for instance, when Secretary of State John Kerry warned earlier this year that Israel one day could become an apartheid state.

Schneider notes that this year he initiated a bipartisan letter pressing the administration to increase Iran sanctions at a time when it was resisting such calls.

He also points out that Dold voted to repeal Obamacare during his term in Congress; Dold says he now favors bipartisan fixes for Obamacare.

Jewish officials say Schneider has the edge in part because, with a background as an activist with the American Jewish Committee and with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, he is so steeped in the community.

“You couldn’t ask for a better friend to Israel,” said Marcia Balonick, the director of JACPAC, a political action committee with a focus on Israel, abortion rights and church-state separation. “In his former life he was an active member of the Jewish community, he speaks fluent Hebrew, he’s already taken several missions to Israel.”

JACPAC in the past has sought out moderate Republicans to endorse, including Kirk, in part to help preserve that wing of the party. Dold has told the group that he would resist attempts to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court ruling enshrining a woman’s right to an abortion, but will not vote for funding for abortions for poor women, which is a non-starter.

NORPAC, a leading New Jersey-based pro-Israel political action committee, endorsed Schneider under the “friendly incumbent” rule for pro-Israel givers: Do not alienate the lawmaker in office.

– Ron Kampeas

OBITUARIES

30 | October 24, 2014 Lois J. Anttio, 73

WARWICK, R.I. – Lois J. Anttio died Oct. 1 in Spain. Born in Providence, a beloved daughter of the late Harry and Nellie (Levine) Moseff, she was a lifelong Warwick resident. She was a Warwick schoolteacher for 37 years, retiring in 2001. She volunteered at both the Providence Performing Arts Center and at Ronald McDonald House.

Devoted mother of George Marc Anttio of Warwick and David Joshua Anttio of Palm Bay, Fla. Dear sister of Barbara Moitoza of Coventry. Loving grandmother of Lucille Paisley Anttio.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in her memory may be made to the Ronald McDonald House, 45 Gay St., Providence, R.I. 02905.

Lillian B. Bernstein, 87

EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Lillian B. Bernstein died Oct. 13 at R.I. Hospital. She was the beloved wife of the late Robert L. Bernstein. Born in Haverhill, Mass., a daughter of the late Wadsworth and Agnes (Leonard) Burrill, she had lived in East Providence for over 50 years, previously living in Providence.

She was a life member of the Jewish Chautauqua Society; a life member and past officer of Hadassah; a member of Kiwanis International Fdn., where she received the Tablet of Honor; a member of JFRI; Temple BethEl and its sisterhood, where she

served as vice president; Miriam Hospital Women’s Assn., where she was a founder, past president and recipient of the 1994 Outstanding Woman of the Year Award; and she served on the board of Ben Gurion University.

Devoted mother of Roderick M. Bernstein and his wife, Gloria, of Cranston; Joel S. Bernstein and his wife, Jean, of East Providence; and the late Sheryl L. Bernstein. Dear sister of Irving Burrill of Newburyport, Mass., and the late Leonard Burrill.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in her memory may be made to Miriam Hospital Women’s Assn., 164 Summit Ave., Providence, R.I. 02906 or Temple Beth-El, Providence, 70 Orchard Ave., Providence, R.I. 02906 or Ben Gurion University of the Negev, 1318 Beacon St., Ste. #8, Brookline, Mass. 02446.

Rabbi Joel I. Braude, 74

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Rabbi Joel I. Braude died Oct. 17. He was the husband of Paz (Daquio) Braude. A son of the late Rabbi William and Pearl (Finkelstein) Braude, he had been a lifelong resident of Providence.

Besides his wife, he is survived by his children, Yosef, Yonathan and Yohji, and his brother Ben Braude. He was the brother of the late Daniel Braude.

Jennie (Jean) Dwares, 100

ENCINITAS, CALIF. – Jennie

OBITUARIES We print death notices of approximately 300 words for people with ties to our circulation area. There is no charge. We will print a photo if submitted and a small flag for veterans. Please submit obituary and photo to editor@ jewishallianceri.org and indicate if a photo and/or a flag should accompany the obituary.

The Jewish Voice

(Jean) (Caras) Dwares, formerly of Pawtucket and Providence, died on Oct. 7 at Seacrest Village Retirement Residence in Encinitas, Calif. She celebrated her 100th birthday in August.

She was born in Lawrence, Mass. When she moved to Rhode Island, she founded Keene Advertising Specialties of R.I., where she worked for many years until her retirement.

She was preceded in death by her husband Philip N. Dwares, her parents Ida and Max Caras and her siblings Esther (Caras) Kesselman, and Samuel and Ernest Caras.

She is survived by her son Leonard Dwares and his wife Ellin of Wilmington, Del., and her daughter Brenda (Dwares) Burkholder and her husband Franz of Carlsbad, Calif. Jennie is also survived by her four grandchildren and her six great-grandchildren.

Foundation, and the Democratic Party. She was the first woman president of Woodcraft Rangers, a youth group, and served on its board for half a century. She also served on the advisory board of Hebrew Union College’s School of Jewish Communal Service for more than three decades.

Mrs. Goodwin was an excellent cook and gardener, a better bridge player than golfer, a fierce UCLA Bruins and Dodgers fan, and a world traveler.

She is survived by her three children: Theodore and Susan Goodwin of Sacramento, Calif.; George and Betsey Goodwin of Providence; and Betty and Keith Klevan of Los Angeles.

She is also survived by her five grandchildren and many nephews and nieces.

Donations may be made to the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association or Temple BethEl’s Braude Library.

Madeline R. Goodwin, 88

Lee Bennett Kaufman, 64

LOS ANGELES – Madeline R. Goodwin, a communal activist, died on Sept. 30. She was the wife of the late Eugene S. Goodwin, a prominent Beverly Hills attorney. They had been married for 63 years.

Mrs. Goodwin’s family had deep roots in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Her paternal great-grandfather, Samuel Rosenthal, fought with the Union during the Civil War and established a printing business lasting four generations. The daughter of George and Marion Rosenthal, she followed in his footsteps to Cornell University.

She spent almost her entire adult life in Los Angeles and, for the same length of time, was a member of Wilshire Boulevard Temple. She considered her uncle and aunt, Rabbi Edgar and Evelyn Magnin, to be second parents.

She supported numerous organizations, including: CedarsSinai Hospital, Jewish Federation, United Way, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, ACLU

SHARON, MASS. – Dr. Lee Bennett Kaufman died on Aug. 14 in Sharon Mass. Beloved husband of Sheri Randy (Mullen).

Loving father of Jaime Brooke.

Devoted son of his late parents Irving and Martha (Brotman) Kaufman of Providence.

Cherished son-in-law of Ernie Kunsberg Mullen of Philadelphia, Pa., and Atlanta, Ga. Dear brother of Roberta Greenberg of Cranston. Brother-in-law of Linda and Jeff Servin of Philadelphia. Survived by nieces and nephew, Lauren Servin, Judith Liner, Richard Greenberg and Debra Steiner. He will also be remembered lovingly by aunts, uncles and cousins.

He practiced podiatric surgery for 34 years in Taunton, Mass. He was an active member of the American Podiatric Association and was involved with a multitude of specialty groups.

He was also a former member of Temple Sinai of Sharon, Mass.

Donations in his memory may be made to the Conquer Cancer Coalition, P.O. Box 973, Fram-

ingham, Mass. 01701.

Joan R. Konopky, 79

CRANSTON, R.I. – Joan R. Konopky died Oct. 16 at Cedar Crest. She was the beloved wife of the late Marvin Konopky.

Born in Brookline, Mass., a daughter of the late Casper and Ethel (Fader) Levine, she had lived in Cranston for over 50 years. She loved to dance as a child, becoming involved with ballet. She was also an avid Red Sox fan.

Devoted mother of Kenneth Konopky and his wife, Sandra, of Midlothian, Va., and Beth Lewis and her late husband, Daniel, of Cranston. Loving grandmother of Amber, Evan and Ryan.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in her memory may be made to the American Heart Association, 275 Westminster St., Providence, R.I. 02903.

Robert I. Krasner, 84

BOSTON – Robert I. Krasner died Oct. 9. He was the husband of Lee (Friedman) Krasner; they were married for 50 years.

He was born in Providence, a son of Jacob and Lillian (Siebel) Krasner.

He earned a master’s degree and Ph.D. in biology from Boston University. He received his master’s degree in public health at the Harvard School of Public Health at age 68. He served as professor of biology at Providence College for 50 years. Since his retirement, he served as Professor Emeritus at Providence College. He was the author of many textbooks and articles, including “The Microbial Challenge” and “Microbe Hunters.” He continued to write textbooks and articles until his passing. He was invited to study microbiology at The Pasteur Institute and tropical diseases at Hebrew University in Israel. He founded and directed a summer science program for high school students for 30 years. He was an Eagle Scout and camp director of Boy Scout Camp Yawgoog in OBITUARIES | 31

OBITUARIES

thejewishvoice.org

FROM PAGE 30

OBITUARIES

Rhode Island for many years.

He served as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Army in Japan following the Korean War. He was a beloved husband, father and grandfather. He was compassionate, caring, loving and generous in every aspect of his life.

Besides his wife Lee, he is survived by his children: Prof. Jon Krasner of Franklin, Mass.; Drs. Lisa and Andrew Sussman, of Dover, Mass.; and his siblings; Harold Krasner of Cranston; Frima Marquez of Las Cruces, N.M.; and Blanche Levine of Scottsdale, Ariz. He also leaves six grandchildren; Benjamin, Joshua, Noah, Harris, Simon and Julina. He was the brother of the late Alvin Krasner.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in his memory may be made to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute Leukemia Program, 450 Brookline Ave., Boston, Mass. 02215.

Norman Max, 95

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. – Norman Max died Oct. 17 at South Kingstown Nursing & Rehabilitation Center. He was the beloved husband of the late Gertrude (Konopky) Max. Born in Pawtucket, a son of the late Harry and Katie (Konisky) Max, he had lived in Warwick for over 20 years, previously living in Pawtucket. He was the former owner of Rex Supply Co., Pawtucket, for over 25 years, retiring in 1992. He was a WW II Army veteran, serving in the Philippines. He was a former member of Congregation Ohawe Shalom.

Devoted father of Willi Tetelbaum of Narragansett and Stanley M. Max of Scarborough, Maine. Dear brother of the late Leo Max, Sidney Max, Ruth Fain and Fay Levin. Loving grandfather of Jodi and Lisa. Cherished greatgrandfather of Suki and Rowen.

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

Morton L. Meyers, 92

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Morton L. Meyers passed away at the Tockwotton Home in East P r ov idenc e on Oct. 13.

He was the b e l o v e d husband of Wilma (Fox) M e y e r s .

They were married for 64 wonderful years.

Born in Providence, he was the son of the late Samuel and Edith (Rakusin) Meyers.

He proudly served in the U.S. Army during WWII in the European Theater of Operations as a mobile radar operator, Morton was a member

of the Jewish War Veterans. He was employed by the John Hancock insurance company for 35 years, retiring in 1984, and he was a life member of Jenks Masonic Lodge #24 in Pawtucket.

Besides his wife, he is survived by his three children to whom he was a devoted dad, Dr. Steven P. Meyers and his wife Dr. Barbara Weber of Pittsford, N.Y.; David Meyers and his wife Beth of Cranston and Sara Ata and her husband Edizkan Adil Ata of Lincoln. His greatest joy were his grandchildren, Anna R. Meyers of Cranston and Noah D. Meyers of Pittsford, and he was so proud to witness their bat and bar mitzvahs.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Beacon Hospice or Tockwotton Home.

Elwin M. Rosenbaum, 91

CRANSTON, R.I. – Elwin M. Rosenbaum, died Oct. 13 at Kent Regency. He was the beloved husband of Nancy Rosenbaum.

They were married for 66 years.

Born in Providence, a son of the late Louis and Ruth (Cohen) Rosenbaum, he had lived in Cranston for over 57 years, previously living in Providence.

He was co-owner of National Trading Company, retiring in 2003. Elwin was a WWII Army veteran, serving as an airborne paratrooper in Germany. He was a member of Temple Beth-El and Providence Fraternal. He was an avid golfer. He was active in coaching children’s sports teams.

Devoted father of Barbara Rosenbaum and her husband, Paul Levitt, of Providence and Steven Rosenbaum and his wife, Dr. Sara, of Newport.

Dear brother of the late Robert and Lloyd Rosenbaum. Loving grandfather of Joanna, Molly and Lucy.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in his memory may be made to the Temple Beth-El Minyan, 70 Orchard Ave., Providence, R.I. 02906 or the San Miguel School of Providence, 525 Branch Ave., Providence, R.I. 02904 or your favorite charity.

Phyllis (Sydell) Stambler, 90

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Phyllis (Sydell) Stambler, passed away peacefully in her Providence home on Oct. 11. She was the wife of the late Arthur Stambler. Born in Providence, she was the daughter of the late Morris and Marion Sydell; she lived at Laurelmead on Blackstone Blvd. for the past few years and previously in Wickford.

She married shortly after graduating from Hope High School and moved with her husband to the Washington, D.C., area. They resided in suburban Washington until their divorce after 30 years. She then married Arthur Stambler, a dyed-in-thewool Washingtonian until Phyllis introduced him to the appeal of R.I., where they moved and

together owned and operated the radio station WWON (now WOON) and its FM affiliate.

She leaves her three children; Susan Tash of Saunderstown, Peter Schildhause (Deon) of San Francisco, and Richard Shieldhouse (Stephanie) of Jacksonville, Fla., six grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren, all of whom will miss her presence in their lives.

In lieu of flowers contributions in her memory may be made to Home and Hospice Care of R.I., 1085 N Main St., Providence, R.I. 02904.

Avis Young, 87

WEST PALM BEACH, FLA. – Avis Young died peacefully Oct. 20. She was the beloved wife of the late Manuel Young and the loving daughter of the late Frank and Elsie (Kornstein) Swartz.

She was born in Providence, where she lived most of her life until moving to Delray Beach, Fla. She was a life member of Hadassah and Temple EmanuEl. Devoted mother of Sherri Noon and her husband, David, of Needham, Mass., and Rhonda Weisberg and her husband, Lee, of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. Dear sister of Lorie Litsinger and her husband, Richard, of Boca Raton, Fla. Loving grandmother of Melissa and her husband, Ian, Matthew, Jillian and her husband, David, Billie and her husband, Cory, and Jody.

Cherished great-grandmother of Levi, Rachel and Meirav.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in her memory may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association, 245 Waterman St., Providence, R.I. 02906.

October 24, 2014 |

31

Christian commander of Zionist pioneers to be buried in Israel JNS.ORG – The Christian leader of the British Army’s Jewish Legion, which fought the Turks during the first World War and included soldiers such as renowned Zionist pioneers Ze’ev Jabotinsky and Joseph Trumpeldor, will be buried in Israel next month.

The transfer of the ashes of Lt. Col. John Henry Patterson from Los Angeles, California, and his subsequent burial in the Jewish state on Nov. 10, have been coordinated by the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Irish-born Patterson was a friend of Netanyahu’s father, historian Benzion Netanyahu. The name of Benjamin Netanyahu’s brother Yonatan, who was killed in the 1976 Entebbe operation, was inspired

by Patterson’s name.

“Col. Patterson was one of the founders of the Jewish Legion, the first Jewish military force since the Bar-Kokhva Revolt, which served as the basis for the eventual founding of the Israel Defense Forces,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “My father and mother always spoke warmly of Col. Patterson, who worked with my father during the 1940s in the United States to promote the Zionist idea.”

Patterson’s ashes will be buried in the Moshav Avihayil Military Cemetery near Netanya, which was founded by veterans of the Jewish Legion. The request to bury the ashes in Israel was made by

Patterson’s grandson, who said that it was his grandfather’s wish to be buried next to his Jewish Legion comrades. The planned date of Patterson’s burial will be his 147th birthday, and comes just a few months before the 100th anniversary of the Jewish Legion’s founding.

Patterson was a “true righteous among the Gentiles, one of the greatest friends our people had in the British military, whose contribution to renewing Hebrew militarism at the beginning of the last century and the national liberation of the Jewish people was of great importance,” said Yossi Ahimeir, the director of the Jabotinsky Institute, according to Haaretz.

“In all of Jewish history we have never had a Christian friend as understanding and devoted as [Patterson],” Jabotinsky himself is known to have said.

Zionist leader Kalman Sultanik dies at 97 JTA – Kalman Sultanik, a Zionist leader and former vice president of the World Jewish Congress, has died.

Sultanik, who also was a member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council and president of the Federation of Polish Jews, died Oct. 19 in New York. He was 97.

He was a member of the World Zionist Executive for many years representing the World Confederation of United Zionists. For four decades he served on the Executive of the Jewish Agency for Israel, and was chairman of the American Section of the World Zionist Organization.

Sultanik was elected vice president of the World Jewish Congress in 1977 after serving the organization in several leadership posts. Working with then-WJC president, Edgar Bronfman, Sultanik was instrumental in opening a dialogue with the Polish government in the late 1970s and, in the next three decades, laying the groundwork for the renewal of Jewish life and the restoration of Jewish proper-

Kalman Sultanik ties and cemeteries in Poland.

The native of Miechow, Poland, was a Jewish community and Zionist activist prior to World War II. During the war he was part of the underground resistance against the Nazis and spent time in several concentration camps.

Sultanik was sent on the death march to Theresienstadt, from where he was liberated in 1945.

Sultanik was a delegate to the 22nd World Zionist Congress in Basel in 1946, rep-

resenting the survivors of the death and concentration camps in Germany. In 1947 he was elected to the Central Committee of Liberated Jews in Munich.

He was named secretary general of the General Zionist Constructive Fund in 1948.

The following year he became secretary general of the World Confederation of General Zionists in Israel, and in 1952 its director.

The Polish government in 1988 appointed Sultanik to a seat on the International Auschwitz Museum Council, which he served as deputy chairman. As chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee of the Auschwitz Museum, he raised some $30 million from European governments for the upkeep of the site. He was awarded the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Poland Reborn in 1995.

In his 70s, Sultanik earned his law degree from LaSalle University in Chicago.

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32 | October 24, 2014

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Touro Fraternal Association and The Jewish Voice announce the

HANUKKAH 2014 Art & Writing Contest What’s the Contest About?

Students in grades 1-4 are invited to DRAW or PAINT a picture and; Students in grades 5-8 are invited to write a SHORT ESSAY on either of these themes: • My Family at Hanukkah • What Hanukkah Means to Me

Who’s Eligible?

Jewish students grades 1 thru 8.

Are there Prizes?

Prizes will be awarded in each category: First Prize - $108 Second Prize - $72 Third Prize - $36 First prize winner’s school or synagogue will receive a technology-related gift valued at approximately $720 (ex. laptop, computer station, camera...)

Entry Details • • • •

Visit thejewishvoice.org or tourofraternal.org Download entry form Include name of school or synagogue on entry form Submit hard copy of drawing or essay with entry form to: Entries must be Subject: Hanukkah Contest postmarked The Jewish Voice no later than 401 Elmgrove Avenue November 23 Providence, RI 02906

Winners Announced...

• A panel of judges will be chosen by Touro Fraternal Association and The Jewish Voice • In celebration of Hanukkah and to present the prizes to the winners, Touro Fraternal Association will host a Hanukkah party December 14

45 Rolfe Square, Cranston, RI www.tourofraternal.org

Touro Fraternal Association reserves the right to determine the range and scope of gifts.

Symphony on a Sunday

PHOTO | BRENDA GAYNOR

Guest soloist Rhiannon Banerdt performing W.A. Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 with the Narragansett Bay Symphony and Music Director Benjamin Vickers at the Dwares Jewish Community Center on Oct. 19. The orchestra will next perform Dec. 13 at Providence Country Day School in East Providence. It returns to the JCC on March 8, 2015. For information about the group or its performance schedule, visit http://nabscorchestra.weebly.com.

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thejewishvoice.org

Drivers give TLC clients a little extra care and guidance each day

BY CYNTHIA YOKEN

When people hear the words Adult Day Services, they might say that is not for their loved ones. They might say that they are feeling anxious and apprehensive about putting a loved one on a bus; they might be scared.

At the To Life Center Adult Day Services (TLC), your loved one is greeted by the smiling faces of our drivers.

Drivers, such as Steven Shapiro, are the first people our clients see in the morning. Clients are greeted with a smile and a reassuring “good morning,” that they will be having a productive and meaningful day at the To Life Center Adult Day Services.

Steven Shapiro reflected on the following, “we are family to our clients as they are to us; we look forward to seeing them.” He also said, “ it is very rewarding being able to see the excitement on our clients’ faces when we go on field trips and to see the look of accomplishment at the end of the day.”

Adult Day Services is a program that is structured, yet flexible. A comprehensive program, it provides a variety of health, social and related services, in a protective setting during daytime hours. TLC provides respite for the families of those who attend, and it also helps by preventing premature placement in a nursing home.

The To Life Center offers physical and occupational therapy, art therapy, Tai-Chi, computer lab, celebrations, nutritional meals, shower/

The Holocaust Education and Memorial Committee of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Bedford is sponsoring a variety of programs to further the understanding of the Holocaust. With this year’s theme: The Rise of Anti-Semitism in the World, the committee’s goal is to teach students and the community about anti-Semitism in the world today and to reflect on the consequences of anti-Semitism leading up to the Holocaust in the 1930s.

On Oct. 29, local students will see “Through the Eyes of a Friend: the World of Anne Frank.” The Zeiterion Theater is a partner in presenting this play at Dartmouth High School at 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.

On Oct. 31, the committee, in conjunction with Bristol Community College Holocaust Center and the LusoAmerican Center, is offering a conference, “Light in a Time of Darkness,” in the Jackson Arts Center on the BCC Fall River campus. The conference, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., will discuss the role of Aristide de Sousa Mendes, the former Portuguese Consul in Bordeaux, who signed visas to assist Jews in escaping from France to Portugal. Mendes will also be discussed at a breakfast held at the Tifereth Israel Synagogue in New Bedford on Nov. 2 at 10 a.m.

The following two programs

PHOTO | SUSAN ADLER

personal care, medication administration, registered nurse, health education and much more. If you would like further information about TLC, please contact Susan Adler at 401-351-2440, ext. 107, or sadler-jeri@jsari.org. TLC is a program of Jewish Seniors Agency of Rhode Island and a partner agency of the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island.

When people ask you “who drives the bus,” you can tell them the To Life Center Adult Day Services does, and they know how to take care of those who want to maintain their

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independence while being sensitive to their limitations and respecting their dignity. Who really is driving the bus are Steve Shapiro and our other team of drivers who guide our clients each and every day with a familiar smile.

SUSAN ADLER (sadler-jeri@ jsari.org) is director of Jewish Eldercare of Rhode Island and To Life Center Adult Day Services.

33

New Bedford area Holocaust education events

BY SUSAN ADLER

Steve Shapiro drives for the To Life Center Adult Day Services

October 24, 2014 |

coincide with the 76th anniversary of Kristallnacht, which occurred in Germany and Austria on Nov. 10, 1938, and demonstrated anti-Semitism at its worst. Synagogues and Jewish businesses were destroyed by Germans seeking revenge for the assassination of a German diplomat in Paris.

On Nov. 9, Gaylen Ross, the director of the film “Killing Kastzner: The Jew who Dealt with the Nazis,” will speak about the making of this controversial film at the Tifereth Israel Synagogue at 2 p.m. The film explores how one man could be viewed as both rescuer and betrayer. By viewing this film, the community will also learn about anti-Semitism and the situation in Hungary in 1944.

On Nov. 16, at 3 p.m., also at the Tifereth Israel Synagogue, Dr. Ilana Offenberger, a professor at UMass Dartmouth, will speak on “Following Kristallnacht in Vienna: the November Pogrom of 1938 and its Impact on Emigration.” Offenberger will also discuss the rise of anti-Semitism today in Vienna and Germany.

Events at Tifereth Israel Synagogue and BCC are free and open to the public.

CYNTHIA YOKEN is cochair of The Holocaust Education and Memorial Committee of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Bedford.

34 | October 24, 2014

SIMCHAS | WE ARE READ

MARRIAGE – Jean Reuter and Adam Finkelman were married on Aug. 16 at the Rhode Island Country Club in Barrington with Rabbi Sarah Mack and the Honorable David Bazar officiating.

The bride is the daughter of Rhonda and Richard Reuter and the groom is the son of Karen and Alan Bergel and Susan and Roy Finkelman.

Alison Reuter, sister-in-law of the bride, was matron of honor and the bridesmaids were Brit-

tany Boyne, Jamie Hendrickson, Manali Patel and Kathleen Christian. Alex Finkelman, brother of the groom, was the best man and Corey Finkelman, brother of the groom, and Michael Reuter, brother of the bride, were groomsmen. Elizabeth Stamm and Christopher Williams were ushers. Madeleine Reuter, niece of the bride was the flower girl and Benjamin Reuter, nephew of the bride was the ring bearer.

The bride graduated from

The Jewish Voice

the University of Rhode Island and received an M.B.A. from Northeastern University. She is a marketing program manager at Swipely in Providence. The groom graduated from ColbySawyer College and received a master of science from Plymouth State University. He is an environmental scientist. The couple visited Positano on Amalfi Coast of Italy on their honeymoon and live in Rumford.

ENGAGEMENT – Anne and Bill LeBlanc of Salem, Massachusetts, along with Rachel Hurlich of E. Greenwich and Harold Hurlich of Warwick, proudly announce the engagement of their children, Howard Hurlich and Renée LeBlanc.

Renée graduated from UMass Dartmouth in 2005 with a degree in finance and Northeastern University in 2014 with a master’s degree in nonprofit management. She currently works in sponsored research administration at MIT as a fiscal officer. Howard received a degree in business from Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania in 2000, and is in ETF operations as an assistant vice president at State Street Bank.

The couple reside in Somerville, Massachusetts. A November 2015 wedding in Salem is planned.

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MARRIAGE – Ellen Kaufman, daughter of Monte and Shirley Konicov of Warwick, and Barry Ellin, son of Robert and Irene Ellin of Pikesville, Maryland, are happy to announce their marriage. The ceremony took place at Beth Tfiloh Synagogue, Pikesville, on Aug. 24.

WE ARE READ | CHICAGO – Kara Marziali and her husband Adrien Mercure recently visited Chicago to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary. This photo was taken at 360 CHICAGO (formerly, the John Hancock Observatory) which soars 1,000 feet above Lake Michigan and offers the most breathtaking views of the Windy City. Of course, The Voice was there!

COMMUNITY

thejewishvoice.org

Celebrating Sukkot

Community members gathered Oct. 13 at the sukkah behind Chabad House on Hope Street.

The celebration included students from the University of Rhode Island, pictured above right, who traveled to dance into the sukkah that measures about 800 square feet. Brown Prof. Ben Kimia talks with Reb Mendel Laufer from Chabad at Brown in the photo above left.

The congregational sukkah at Temple Beth-El in Providence.

On the Orchard Avenue side of the building, sukkot by three artists were on display.

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October 24, 2014 |

35

36 | October 24, 2014

The Jewish Voice

Let’s change the world together.

March of the Living New England Delegation 2014

You have the power to make a difference in the world. Serve a hot meal to a poor child in a village in Ukraine. Deliver medicine to a fragile Holocaust survivor in Israel. Build a roof over the heads of a homeless family. Give a local teenager her first Israel experience.

When you connect with the Jewish Alliance, you put the Jewish values of compassion, generosity, and responsibility into action.

Contribute to the Annual Campaign and you’re helping to care for our entire Jewish community—at home, in Israel, and around the world. To learn more or to donate today, visit us at jewishallianceri.org or call 401.421.4111.

Be part of our vibrant and thriving Jewish community by donating to the 2015 Annual Campaign.

Be part of the greater good.

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