September 12, 2014

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

17 Elul 5774 | September 12, 2014

HAPPY ROSH HASHANAH

LET THE RENOVATIONS BEGIN Phase 1 underway with preschool upgrade

BY FRAN OSTENDORF fostendorf@jewishallianceri.org Last fall, Donald and Bonnie Dwares announced a major donation to the Alliance Jewish Community Center to help update and renovate the building. The process started, and behind-the-scenes work has been going on ever since. Renovations are now in full swing.

Visitors to the now renamed

Dwares JCC have grown accustomed to seeing signs of construction around the building.

But some haven’t even noticed the work despite the signs in the lobby. Early portions of the project included work on the HVAC system. The women’s locker rooms have been updated and so has the aquatics area.

But the Alliance JCC Early Childhood Center (ECC) had remained untouched.

Now, thanks to a gift pledged

by David C. Isenberg and family, the preschool is in the process of a major upgrade. Phase one has begun of what will be a total building renovation with an eye to updating all the facilities in very visible ways.

“I want the community to know that the Dwares RENOVATIONS | 26

PHOTO | JEWISH ALLIANCE

The old boilers had to be dismantled, and have been removed.

ECC TO BENEFIT FROM ISENBERG’S INSPIRATION

BY FRAN OSTENDORF

fostendorf@jewishallianceri.org

He started with the playground and moved on to the whole preschool. And David Isenberg couldn’t be prouder.

“It’s an honor and a privilege to be able to do this,” he said of helping the Alliance JCC Early Childhood Center as it moves toward what Isenberg hopes will be a worldclass facility. Isenberg has made a gift of $250,000 to help accomplish this. “If people could say ‘Wow, I want my kids to attend the Alliance

JCC ECC,’ that’s a real nice gift,” he says.

He believes that the children of our community deserve a good start. And that begins with preschool. His children got that at the JCC, and his grandchildren have benefited, and he wants that to continue.

“There’s a meaningful history here,” he says. Add to that the many recent accomplishments and innovations in curriculum that will only be enhanced by a top-notch ISENBERG | 27

Ideas for your holiday table.

See pages 18-22

Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, in Geneva, they have reached an agreement on a framework for Syria to destroy all chemical weapons.

5774: The year in review

BY JTA STAFF (Part one of three parts) NEW YORK – Read about the highs and lows of 5774 – and everything in between. Part one covers events from September through December 2013.

September 2013

The United States and Russia reach a deal to rid Syria of its arsenal of chemical

weapons, prompting Jewish groups to suspend their efforts lobbying for U.S. strikes against Damascus.

Rabbi Philip Berg, founder of the Kabbalah Centre in Los Angeles and teacher of Jewish mysticism for A-list celebrities, dies at age 86.

William Rapfogel, the ousted leader of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty in New York, is arrested on

charges of grand larceny and money launder ing.

Investigators later say the scheme involving Rapfogel netted $9 million in illicit funds, including $3 million for Rapfogel himself. Rapfogel pleads guilty the following April and, in July, is sent to prison for 3-1/2 to 10 years.

In his address to the U.N. General Assembly, President YEAR IN REVIEW | 24

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The Jewish Voice

Meet some oblivious monsters at gallery (401)

INSIDE Arts 29-29

Jason Freedman, a ‘pencil and pixel kind of guy,’ on his friendly creations

Business 34-35

BY IRINA MISSIURO imissiuro@jewishallianceri.org

Calendar 8 Classified 35 Community 2-6, 8-9, 12-13, 16, 26-27, 32, 40, 42 D’var Torah 7 Food 18-22 Israel 15 Nation 14, 24-25, 29-31 Obituaries 38 Opinion 10-11 Rosh Hashanah 23 Seniors 36-37 Simchas | We Are Read 41 World 24-25, 33, 39

THIS ISSUE’S QUOTABLE QUOTE “L’Shanah Tovah Tikatevu . May you be inscribed for a good year.”

To say that Jason Freedman draws monsters is an understatement. He doesn’t just draw them – he brings them to life.

His creatures are fi lled with glee, and looking at his troublemakers evokes merriment.

Like the monsters, which he describes as “off-beat, colorful and full of life,” their creator is joyful and fun. This stay-athome dad is having a great time drawing, and yet, he’s slightly self-conscious about the amount of enjoyment he feels and credit he receives for something that’s essentially playtime.

“Monsters who don’t know they’re monsters” came into being by chance. In second grade, Freedman’s son was embarrassed by the notes his dad would put inside his lunchbox, so Freedman engaged his inner elementary school student and sketched a drawing instead of writing a message. The Nov. 4, 2009, exchange (every card bears a date) of slightly cheesy for winsomely clever proved successful. Freedman and his daily drawings were a huge hit.

At every lunch, his son Danny looked forward to discovering what his dad had dreamed up.

True to his philosophy, “Some-

Jason Freedman thing different every day,” Freedman continues sketching new pictures to amuse his kids – his daughter Kenzie also expressed enthusiasm for the lovable creatures.

Freedman shares with pride that almost all of the monsters make it back home from school.

Their wrinkled and stained state never deters the kids from

wanting to save them so that they can look through their collection at a later point. When Freedman came to pick up Kenzie from camp this summer, he was surprised to fi nd that she shared the monsters she’d received in dad’s daily letters with her friends. Hearing the girls in her cabin rave about the drawings, Freedman took

out his business cards and presented them with more colorful creatures.

Looking at the monsters, one is prompted to assign meaning to them. Freedman reveals that listening to people’s stories about his creations is his favorite part of the process. It’s always interesting to him to fi nd out what other people see. The drawings undergo a number of changes until they reach the fi nal version (one that’s been outlined with marker, as well as given a background, cleaned up, colorized and shaded using GIMP – GNU Image Manipulation Program). While the end result might differ substantially from the initial sketch, Freedman holds dear his beginning fl ights of fancy.

He doesn’t have a defi nite idea of the type of drawing he will make until it’s done. He starts by sketching shapes and seeing where they take him. Sometimes, Freedman doesn’t know the nature of the beast until he turns his emerging idea upside down. Then, he notices the outlines of discernible body parts, the number of which he always tries to vary from monster to monster. One creature may have only two horns while the

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FROM PAGE 2

MONSTERS

other has four. Nevertheless, despite their physical differences, the monsters share trademark amiability. They’re not scary at all. In fact, they appear as if they’d be thrilled to play a game of hide-and-go-seek, providing you don’t mind that some of them walk sideways.

Just as he never knows where the pencil might lead him, Freedman is open to any spontaneous inspiration. He says that one of the most popular monsters appeared to him during lunch with his daughter.

As they were sitting outside of a fast-food restaurant, they noticed Gentle Giant kneeling down and reaching toward a tree. Freedman promptly captured the monster with his phone camera and sketched him once he got home. Who knew that some of the best creatures loiter around, hoping for a handout of fries?

A self-taught artist, Freedman doesn’t believe in excuses.

When someone told him, “I can’t draw a straight line,” he responded, “That’s why I use

a ruler.” Gaining confidence took some time. The realization that he shouldn’t judge himself against other artists helped strengthen his resolve. After all, Freedman says, everyone can be creative in his own way.

He began fi ne-tuning his creativity at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he dabbled in photography and played various instruments in the Minuteman Marching Band. There he met Karen, a twirler in the band, and they fell in love. Freedman says that his wife is very encouraging and supporting of his work. He

L’Shanah Tovah

Wishing you and your family a year of sweet blessings filled with abundant joy, peace, and happiness.

‫שנה טובה‬ On behalf of the board and staff at the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island, we wish you a happy, healthy, and sweet 5775.

Sharon Gaines

Chair of the Board

Jeffrey K. Savit President & CEO

says that he chose to call his creations Uncle J’s Monsters because he was used to being known as the approachable uncle to Karen’s many nieces and nephews.

He says he is “genuinely grateful to Erin Moseley [director of Arts & NextGen Engagement at the Dwares JCC] for the opportunity to not only exhibit [his] monsters but also her offer to host [his] fi rst solo show.”

Freedman is “super excited to see all [his] friends and fans at the Opening Night reception on the 11th of September [at 7 p.m.]

– the more the merrier.” At the

September 12, 2014 |

3

show, he’ll present 50 original prints mounted on wood panel boxes, hand-numbered and signed.

Freedman’s plans include pursuing more gallery shows and participating in local art festivals. He’s also looking into expanding online sales of UJM prints and other goods that might include a book and Tshirts. His major dream, however, is to collaborate with a local university animation program. Freedman says, “To see my monsters come to life would be excellent!”

4 | September 12, 2014

COMMUNITY

The Jewish Voice

He’s learning about Rhode Island and teaching us about Israel

BY FRAN OSTENDORF fostendorf@jewishallianceri.org “Awesome” is how Gilor Meshulam describes his fi rst weeks in Rhode Island. The Israeli shaliach (emissary) to the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island paid a visit to The Voice office at the end of his second week in Rhode Island, and we had a chance to get to know him better.

We’ve been reading his reports during Operation Protective Edge in the newspaper since July.

But now, he’s in Rhode Island, meeting rabbis, educators and other community members and traveling around the area, learning about his home for the next year or two Gilor served in the Army for 6 1/2 years, including the infantry corps, the Givati Brigade and as an officer. Because everyone serves in the military, he says Israelis feel like all the soldiers are their children. “I would be stopped in the street and get hugged.” He was discharged with the rank of captain.

Gilor is from Herzliya where his parents still live. He has an older sister and brother, three nephews and a niece.

He says he is looking forward to learning about life in Rhode Island. Among the many things he learned during his orientation? “They taught us how to tie a necktie,” he says. And he studied common American English phrases and their meanings to someone accustomed to Israeli directness.

English is no problem for Gilor, although he insists he reads and writes better than he speaks.

He’s been studying English in school since fi rst grade.

“I come with a lot of humility,” he says. He looks forward to learning “what it’s like to be Jewish outside of Israel, to really understand the spectrum of Judaism.”

And he looks forward to representing Israel in

PHOTOS | FRAN OSTENDORF

Gilor Meshulam the community, and the ability to be able to show all sides of Israelis that comes from living in the community. Plans include “Experience Israel” nights scheduled approximately one Tuesday evening each month. The fi rst is scheduled for Sept. 23 at 7 p.m. at the Dwares JCC, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence. Gilor will offer an Israeli perspective on the holidays of Tishrei, focusing on observances and celebrations.

BACK TO SCHOOL AT ECC Children at the Alliance JCC Early Childhood Center enjoyed the warm weather out on the playground during the first week of school.

FRAN OSTENDORF is editor of The Jewish Voice

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JCDS – Whole school opening day shout-out.

September 12, 2014 |

5

PHOTOS | JEWISH COMMUNITY DAY SCHOOL OF RHODE ISLAND

PHOTO | PHDS

PHDS – On the first day of school, left to right, Shifra Bracha, Yosef Tzvi, Moshe Chaim and Dovid Azriel Purec wait excitedly outside of Providence Hebrew Day School.

School started Aug. 26.

JCDS – Top left, An exercise in teamwork and collaboration in fourth grade: The Marshmallow Challenge!

JCDS – Bottom left, Outdoor opening day assembly: schoolwide game of “Rock-Paper-Scissors” to build community.

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

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 | September 12, 2014

COMMUNITY

Rabbi Raphie Schochet

The Jewish Voice

PHOTOS | IRVING SCHILD |

Lior Zommer

First R.I. Friends of Israel Dinner benefits soldiers

BY REGINA SCHILD More than 70 people gathered at Congregation Ohawe Shalom on Aug. 24 for an evening of prayer, pride and inspiration in honor of the Israel Defense Forces. Lior Zommer, New England regional director of the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces expressed enthusiasm for this first-ever Rhode Island event.

The evening began with a prayer for soldiers who died in Operation Protective Edge offered by Rabbi Raphie Schochet, Rosh Kollel of the Providence Community Kollel. Rabbi Schochet also led the group in a prayer for the safety of Israel and Jews throughout the world.

Alyse Teitelbaum, whose sons are both IDF soldiers, served as mistress of ceremonies. Her younger son is currently in basic training. Barbara Japhet read a moving letter from son, Nathan, who is on active duty with the Nachal unit. Yuri and Barbara’s son made aliyah last year. In the letter, Nathan thanked the Rhode Island Jewish community for their ongoing prayers and support, and the FIDF for “care packages that include clean underwear, socks and bug spray.”

Maor Mintz, summer Israeli shaliach (emissary), talked about his personal experience as a soldier and his appreciation for having received basic items for his unit from the FIDF. Friends of the IDF was established in 1981 by a group of Holocaust survivors as a not-forprofit organization.

Its mission is to support educational, social, cultural and recreational programs for the soldiers and their families.

Three of the areas they fund and support were highlighted at this event. The IMPACT Scholarship program assists combat veterans with their post-service education, as most of the young men and women begin their military service right out of high school. The DIGNITY Program provides financial assistance to families of soldiers in extreme financial need due to a lapse in income while their family member is on active duty. The LONE SOLDIER program provides support, holiday celebrations and roundtrip flights to visit families during furlough, for young men and women from all over the world who choose to leave their homes and serve in the IDF. The FIDF’s New England regional annual event will be held this year at the Westin Waterfront Hotel in Boston on Oct. 30.

The Honorable Ron Dermer, Israeli ambassador to the United States, will be the guest speaker. For information, go to newengland@fidf.org.

The RI Friends of Israel strives is to raise awareness, educate the community and increase solidarity with the people of Israel. The group’s has now become the Rhode Island chapter of “Stand With Us,” an international organization dedicated to informing the public about Israel and combating the extremism and anti-Semitism that often distorts the issues.

D’VAR TORAH

thejewishvoice.org

September 12, 2014 |

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The battle within

“My yetzer ha-ra made me do it!”

BY RABBI ANDREW KLEIN As the High Holy Day season and the New Year 5775 are about to begin, it is time for us to engage in the serious process of heshbon ha-nefesh: taking a spiritual accounting of our souls, making amends for our shortcomings of the past year and promising to do better in the year to come.

Even though the New Year hasn’t yet begun, we know that as soon as it does, we will encounter our old friend, our yetzer ha-ra, our inclination toward evil, who is eager and willing to provide us with many opportunities to stray from the path of our resolve to do good in the New Year.

Jewish tradition teaches us that we each have two inclinations, or instincts, within us at

all times. We have our yetzer ha-tov, our inclination pulling us toward good, and our yetzer ha-ra, our inclination pulling us toward evil. The two are in constant tension with each other as we make our daily decisions.

Rabbinic literature explains our yetzer ha-ra not as actual evil but rather as a force that powers human energy and is essential to life. This inner potential is capable of leading us toward the force of evil, but when we discipline this instinct and direct it toward good, our yetzer ha-ra adds creativity and constructive energy to our lives.

Another way to more fully grasp the magnitude of our yetzer ha-ra is to understand its root, yatzar. The word yetzer is found in our daily morning blessing, Elohai N’Shama,

CANDLE LIGHTING SCHEDULE 5774 -5775 (2014–2015) Providence, Rhode Island September, 2014

October, 2014

5 6:56 12 6:36 19 6:35 24 Rosh Hashanah 6:21 25 Rosh Hashanah (after) 7:22 26 6:16

3 Erev Yom Kippur 4 Yom Kippur 8 Erev Sukkot 9 Sukkot 10 Sukkot 15 Hoshanah Rabbah 16 Shemini Atzeret 17 Simchat Torah 24 31

November, 2014 6:04 7:05 5:56 6:57 5:52 5:44 6:46 5:41 5:31 5:21

7 14 21 28

4:13 4:06 4:01 3:57

which begins, “The soul that explicitly), no one would build you have given me, O God, is a a house or have children or enpure one. You have created it gage in commerce.” Our yetzer, and ‘yatzar,’ formed it, breathed our inclination, is our life force; it into me. …” The Hebrew root, it is necessary. It is up to us to yatzar, means to form, to fash- learn how to use it and channel ion, to create. it. Our free will and the choicPerhaps rather than having es we make in life determine two distinct inclinations, we whether our yetzer will lead us have one that can go in two dif- toward good or evil. ferent directions. Our yetzer, In Pirke Avot 4:1, we read, our inclination, is not good, nor “Who is mighty? The one who is it evil; it is vital to our liv- subdues his yetzer.” Again, our ing, and it comes from God. We rabbinic literature teaches us learn from a Midrash in Gen- that it is not our job to eliminate esis Rabbah 9:7 that, “were it our yetzer, simply to control it, not for our yetzer (implying our to refuse to yield to its temptayetzer ha-ra but not 8/21/13 stating1:24 so PMtion Rosh Hashanah_3x10 Pageand 1 to use it toward our

good.

May the year 5775 bring us all health, happiness and increased awareness of the magnitude and positive channeling of our yetzer, both ha-ra and hatov.

L’Shanah Tovah.

RABBI ANDREW KLEIN (rabbiklein@templehabonim. org) is rabbi of Temple Habonim in Barrington and secretary/ treasurer of the Board of Rabbis of Greater Rhode Island.

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Daylight savings time ends Nov. 2. 2014

December, 2014 5 3:55 12 3:55 19 3:57 26 4:01

January, 2015 2 4:07 9 4:13 16 4:21 23 4:30 30 4:38

February, 2015 6 4:47 13 4:56 20 5:05 27 5:13

Daylight savings time resumes March 10, 2013

June, 2015 5 12 19 26

Erev/Pesach 6:53 1st day of Pesach 7:58 2nd day ofPesach 6:59 7th day of Pesach 7:00 8th Pesach ends 8:06 7:08 7:15

1 8 15 22 23 Erev Shavu’ot 24 Shavu’ot (after) 29

July, 2015 7:56 8:00 8:03 8:04

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7:23 7:31 7:38 7:45 8:58 8:59 7:51

August, 2015 8:04 8:01 7:59 7:52 7:45

7 14 21 23

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7:06

The above times are for Providence, RI. Other areas around the region may vary by a few minutes.

Courtesy of Chabad Rhode Island

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May, 2015

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The Miriam Hospital wishes you a happy rosh hashanah. miriamhospital.org

8 | September 12, 2014

CALENDAR | COMMUNITY

The Jewish Voice

CALENDAR Ongoing

Sunday | Sept. 14

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. Neal or Elaine, 401421-4111, ext. 107.

12th Annual Dwares JCC 5K and Youth Races. 9 a.m. for Youth Races or 10 a.m. for 5K. Community event to promote The Alliance and its connection to the community. Volunteers needed.

Contact Robyn Goldstein at rgoldstein@ jewishallianceri.org. 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence.

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.

Blast of Broadway. 5:30-9:30 p.m. To benefit the New Bedford Jewish Convalescent Home. RSVP. Valet Parking.

200 Hawthorn St, New Bedford, Mass.

02740

Through Sept. 28

Shmattes. Hillel Gallery. An exhibition project that explores the issue of cultural Jewish identity through T-shirts.

These T-shirts have been acquired from all over the contemporary Jewish world – eBay auctions, bat and bar mitzvahs, youth conferences, independent visual artists, among many other sources. The project’s goal is to “track” through these T-shirts the ways in which individuals and institutions deal with the question of Jewish identity when that identity is not about religion. 80 Brown St., Providence.

Through Oct. 17

Monsters who don’t know they are monsters. Gallery (401). Local artist Jason Freedman’s first solo exhibit showcases 50 colorful character portraits from his folio of more than 1,000 monsters … who don’t know they are monsters. Wine and light snacks will be served. Dwares JCC, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence. Information, call Erin Moseley, director of Arts & Culture and NextGen Engagement, 401-421-4111, ext. 108.

Through Oct. 29

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.

Friday | Sept. 12

Jewish Community BYO Picnic Dinner and Shabbat Service. 6 p.m. dinner, 7 p.m. service. Camp Avoda, 23 Gibbs Road, Middleboro, Mass. Bring your own food, drinks and table service. Keep it kosher, please. Information, Rabbi Anne Heath, 781-956-8673 or rabbi. taunton@verizon.net or jewishtaunton. com.

Monday | Sept. 15

Travels in Jerusalem and the West Bank. 7 p.m. Tom Padwa and Joanne DeVoe will talk about their trip to the area and show photos and maps.

Weaver Library, East Providence. More information, Tom at tomp@qis.net, 401247-3004.

Tuesday | Sept. 16

Lunch and Learn. Topic: Why Does God Care If I Am a Good Person? 12:151:15 p.m. Study a bit of Torah with Rabbi 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 401-632-3165

Thursday | Sept. 18

Leisure Club. 10 a.m. – 10:50 a.m. Cathy Santaniello of the East Side YMCA will discuss “Exercise for Better Health.”

11:10 a.m.–noon. Kara Marziali, director of communications at the Jewish Alliance, will speak on “From Tom to Tennessee” Part 2, A Brief Examination of Tennessee Williams and the Autobiographical Elements in “The Glass Menagerie.”

An Evening on the East Bay. 6-9 p.m.

The East Bay Center honors R.I. Dept. of Health Director Dr. Michael Fine and Barrington Police Chief John LaCrosse.

Blithewold Mansion, Gardens & Arboretum, Bristol. Tickets $50. Order online at EastBayCenter.eventbrite.com.

Tuesday | Sept. 23

Lunch and Learn. Topic: Why Does God Care If I Am a Good Person? 12:151:15 p.m. Study a bit of Torah with Rabbi 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 401-632-3165.

Calendar Submissions

Sept. 26 issue, FALL HOME & GARDEN – must be received

by Sept. 17 Oct. 10 issue, SENIORS | ELECTIONS – must be received

by Oct. 1

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.

The Girls in the BBYO

Ruth Paige Levin came through with the identities of the girls in this photo, from a Purim carnival in 1947 or ’48, she says. Left to right, they are Charlotte Gilden, Elaine Lecht

and Ruth Paige. She says the BBG group used to meet at the JCC when it was on Benefit Street.

Ruth went on to become leader of the Judy Ann Leven BBG, one of the groups that still meets.

Miriam program features Wendy Schiller The Miriam Hospital Women’s Association presents “Political Insights with Wendy Schiller: 2014 Election.” This evening of dynamic and timely discussion is Oct. 9 at 6:30 at the hospital, 164 Summit Ave., Providence.

Schiller is associate professor of political science and public policy at Brown University and has authored books and articles about American

politics. Her most recent book, “Electing the Senate: Indirect Democracy before the Seventeenth Amendment,” will be published in Fall 2014.

She has been a contributor of national and local news outlets.

RSVP by Oct. 6 as seating is limited. Call 401793-2520 and leave name, telephone number and number of guests. A light dinner will be served at 5:45 p.m.

COMMUNITY

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September 12, 2014 |

9

Delivering a sweet year to Jewish seniors

BY SUSAN ADLER Rosh Hashanah is unique because it is both serious and festive. It is a time of spiritual renewal through prayer and deep personal reflection. It is also a time for families and friends to get together, make amends, ask each other’s forgiveness and strive to make the next year better. Imagine the feeling of being secluded from your faith because you are in a nursing home. Imagine the feeling of helplessness because you are not able to attend a Rosh Hashanah service.

Jewish Eldercare of Rhode Island (JERI), a program of Jewish Seniors Agency is an outreach program that visits with Jewish seniors in nursing homes, hospitals and at home, and provides a multitude of programs, both secular and religious, in assisted living facilities and nursing homes. The mission of the JERI program is to bring the traditions of our faith to Jewish seniors so our loved ones know they are not forgotten or abandoned.

Each year we deliver honey cake and applesauce to people in nursing homes so they can taste the sweetness of the Jewish New Year. These gifts are generously donated by the Women’s Association of the Jewish Seniors Agency of Rhode Island.

The sweetness of the New Year and traditions are being shared in 48 facilitates across

of each service: “L’Shanah Tovah Tikatevu – May You Be Inscribed for a Good Year.”

For further information about Jewish Eldercare of Rhode Island please contact Susan Adler at 401-621-5374 or email at sadler-jeri@jsari. org.

If you have a loved one with whom you would like us to connect, please contact us.

JERI is a partner agency of the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island.

SUSAN ADLER is director of Jewish Eldercare of Rhode Island.

PHOTO | JERI

The JERI team includes, left to right, Rabbi Natan Schafer, Rabbi Ethan Adler and Susie Adler. the state of Rhode Island. Services are conducted by the JERI team led by Rabbi Ethan Adler, Susie Adler and Rabbi Natan Schafer. It is our duty and obligation to give our Jewish seniors the opportunity to partake in a service so they too can help usher in the New Year and be inscribed in the book of life for the coming year.

The miracles we get to see and experience each year are something that we are grateful for. We observe not as bystanders but as participants as we pray together and wish each other shanah tovah. Wit-

nessing the miracle of someone with dementia locking eyes with you as you are saying the Shema, with a glimpse of recognition; looking at someone with such emotion that they are weeping since they get to listen to the shofar being blown for one more year; this makes one realize the meaning of Rosh Hashanah. It is an honor to observe family members who attend our services look at their loved ones with such pride, admiration and reflection.

We are taught that one of the central themes for both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kip-

pur is reflecting on the past year and moving forward to the next year.

It is our privilege at the JERI program that we get to say the following and the end

10 | September 12, 2014

OPINION

Thoughts on the season This is the season of introspection.

How do you prepare for the High Holy Days?

Do you clean, cook, bake?

Do you sign up for one of the many available study sessions centered around the month of Elul? Perhaps you sit down and take stock of relationships with those around you. Or maybe you are gearing up for a flood of relatives who will soon descend on your home.

EDITOR Many look back at the previous year FRAN and evaluate OSTENDORF what’s happened before looking ahead. It’s difficult to move on without understanding where you’ve been.

I’ve chosen to conquer a few personal fears.

The seniors from Temple Sinai asked me to speak at their September meeting. Normally, I’d run in the other direction.

Most people who know me, know that I say I can’t speak in front of more than three or four people. But their representative, Helen Abrams, was most gracious and persistent.

What a lovely group of ladies – and men! It was a pleasure to meet them and discuss The Voice with them. I don’t think I stumbled much along the way, and they gave me some valuable input on the kind of paper they’d like to see. In turn, I tried to explain to them a few aspects about putting out our little paper.

Buoyed by my newly conquered public-speaking fear, I’m moving to my ongoing fear that nobody really cares about

personal words in a column.

So here are some personal thoughts: I’ve been editor of The Jewish Voice for about five months. I’m grateful to all the readers I’ve met, whether in person or by phone or email, who have offered encouragement over the course of this “honeymoon” period. Taking the reins of a paper like the Voice is a big responsibility. It is literally the voice of a community. Everyone in the community seems to feel a connection and everyone has an opinion. Thank you for voicing that opinion, and then stepping back and waiting to see what the new editor does.

To the staff of The Voice, I can only offer unabashed gratitude. We are an extremely small group. The paper would not get published without each of you giving 150 percent.

Have I forgotten to say thank you often enough? I’ll try to be better at that in 5775.

To the volunteers who help when we need it: Thank you, thank you, thank you!

My thanks to the staff of the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island who step up with articles and ideas and support when they are needed most.

My family has been nothing but supportive. Readers have met them in these columns.

You’ll continue to meet them in coming columns. That’s’ because I’m very proud of every member of my family. I love them all and am thankful to be wife, mother, sister, aunt, cousin and daughter every single day.

Best wishes to each and every reader for a sweet and healthy new year.

L’shanah tovah!

Re: Letter to the Editor (Aug. 29)

With regard to Anne Schwartz’s comments on my Aug. 15 letter, I’d like to remind her that Israel’s creation was the result of British colonialism and Zionist opportunism after WWI (and deemed illegitimate by many Orthodox Jews). Just like in North America, indigenous peoples were removed from their land by more technologically advanced, aggressive powers.

All occupied people fight back.

Further, Israel argues that it can invoke the right to self-defense under international law as defined in Article 51 of the UN Charter. The International Court of Justice, however, rejected this faulty legal interpretation in its 2004 Advisory Opinion.

The ICJ explained that an armed attack that would trigger Article 51 must be attributable to a sovereign state, but the armed attacks by Palestinians emerge from within Israel’s jurisdictional control.

Israel does have the right to

defend itself against rocket attacks, but it must do so in accordance with occupation law and not other laws of war. Occupation law ensures greater protection for the civilian population. Also, the 1949 Geneva Convention, signed by Israel, specifically bars collective punishment, due to the WWII civilian atrocities Ms. Schwartz mentions in her letters.

The Likud Party Charter, while not using language as heinous as Hamas’, specifically denies Palestine’s legitimacy. Regardless, both Hamas and Likud modify these statements in everyday discourse.

(The recent unity government [Hamas-Fatah] accepts all principles negotiated by the PLO, namely, recognition of Israel. Likewise, Netanyahu says he’s for a two-state solution despite the wording of the party charter.)

Paul Hoffman E. Greenwich, R.I.

The Jewish Voice

Alive in the world of unanswerable questions “I didn’t think he’d do it.

“I really didn’t think he would.

“I thought he’d say, whoa, hold on, wait a minute. We made a deal, remember, the land, the blessing, the nation, the desc endent s as numerous as the sands on the shore and the stars in the sky. You IT SEEMS said: through Isaac you’d TO ME make my name great. I RABBI JIM have kept my ROSENBERG word.

Don’t you go back on yours.”

James Goodman begins his book, “But Where Is the Lamb?

Imagining the Story of Abraham and Isaac” (Schocken, 2013), by imagining Abraham’s thoughts after hearing God’s command to slay his son Isaac.

The story, known in Jewish tradition as Akedah Yitzhak (The Binding of Isaac), is told in Genesis 22:1-19 and is read year after year in synagogues throughout the world on the second day of Rosh Hashanah.

Goodman argues that we Jews are a “revisioning” people; but though we continue to revise, we do not erase. To put it another way, though we are a people who cherish the art and the craft of commentary, who celebrate what the rabbis call “davar acher, another explanation,” we simultaneously remain loyal to the original text.

And so it is with our people’s treatment of the Binding of Isaac, “the long and protean life of 19 lines of ancient literature;” we guard every word – indeed every syllable, every letter – even as we wrestle with varying and often self-contradictory explanations of the story’s multiple meanings.

“But Where Is the Lamb?” guides us through well over 2,000 years of interpreting Genesis, Chapter 22. The author outlines the differing approaches to the Akedah taken by such significant ancient and Medieval Jewish personalities as Josephus, Philo, Rashi and Maimonides. He brings us into

An attempt to pry apart the anti-Semitic from pro-Palestinian rhetoric can be difficult. Recently, as seen across Europe, the two tend to both overlap and intensify mutually. Condemning Israel’s various policies is not a direct act of anti-Semitism, though opposing Israeli military action against Hamas in Gaza is sympathizing with a deeply anti-Semitic, jihadist group that is bent on destroying the Jewish state. To condemn Israel is to side with the aggressor; brutes who barricade

the 20th century by showing the reader how Israeli poets like Chaim Guri and Yehuda Amichai weave the Binding of Isaac into their work.

Nor does Goodman limit his discussion to Jewish interpreters of the Binding of Isaac; he includes a variety of Christian and Muslim commentators on the story as well. He offers an especially challenging chapter on the 19th century Danish philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard, whose “Fear and Trembling” presents a mind-bending portrait of Abraham as the Knight of Faith.

“I’d be happy to think that in every generation there have been some who have acknowledged the mystery, strangeness, even inhumanness of Abraham’s silence.”

Though “But Where Is the Lamb?” contains elements of what might be called an “objective” and rather scholarly account (32 pages of endnotes) of the history of akedah interpretation, the book is, at same time, highly subjective and delightfully idiosyncratic. Goodman makes clear that his “attention is fixed on the rewriting and revision of one short story” (Genesis 22:1-19). Nevertheless, for century after century this one short story has remained fluid and radically unfixed in meaning: “…neither the author nor his editors nor his first readers got to say what the words meant once and for all.”

While Goodman presents the reader with a rich potpourri of interpretations of the Akedah, he is not afraid to address his own preoccupations: “I’d be happy to think that in every generation there have been some who have acknowledged the mystery, strangeness, even inhumanness of Abraham’s silence.”

It seems to me that here, Abraham’s silence is a reflection of the silence of the author, the

Re: Cease-fire

human progress, oppress their women, who value death as we value life, and who teach their children to hate and to kill. To acknowledge the legitimacy of Hamas is to reconcile oneself to anti-Semitism and to bigotry.

Hamas is a gross stain on the land, a posse of bigots and fanatics who carry out violence against their Jewish neighbors to demonstrate their allegiance to their self-proclaimed “righteous” god. But no god who teaches hate is just. Hamas has given Israel no other option but

teller of the story, the silence that is the very genius of Biblical narrative. As Goodman points out, the “ancient Hebrew writers [have] harnessed the awesome literary power of the unseen and the unsaid.”

For five decades I have been living with the many unanswerable questions raised within those 19 lines in Genesis, Chapter 22: What kind of God would order a father to murder his son? What kind of father would raise his knife to slay his son in blind obedience to what he perceives to be a Divine Voice?

What kind of son – if we assume, as did many of the ancient rabbis, that Isaac is a grown man in his 30s – would remain supine and passive, a willing partner, an accomplice in the murderous act of his apparently deranged father?

To move out of the orbit of Jewish tradition into the fiery intensity of Kierkegaard’s dark and oppressive question: Are there times when the truly religious person is forced to choose between obedience to God and obedience to one’s own moral conscience?

In the Akedah Abraham faces an impossible choice.

Speaking more generally, Judaism cannot provide me with definitive answers to my most urgent questions: Why have I been born only to be destined to die? Why are so many decent, loving individuals condemned to lives of constant sorrow and suffering? On the other hand, why do so many despicable people literally get away with murder? The questions are endless, the answers never to be found.

Nevertheless, at its deepest level, Judaism does provide me with a structure of texts and rituals that enable me to live with courage and dignity in this world of unanswerable questions. Indeed, it is these very questions that infuse me with vitality; it is the power of these unanswerable questions that keep me alert and alive.

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

to fight. There reaches a point where the end strategically justifies the means. That point in action has been reached. When all attempts at extending peace fail, regardless of the severity of the outside threat being posed, a sovereign state has the obligation and the right to protect its own people by way of harsh military force. The time for appeasement is over.

Michael Levy Hamilton College, N.Y. Warwick, R.I.

OPINION

thejewishvoice.org

September 12, 2014 |

11

Amid declining Jewish caucus in Congress, rising concerns over communal influence

BY RON KAMPEAS WASHINGTON (JTA) – From 31 in 2009 to a likely 19 in January, the unofficial Jewish caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives is shrinking fast.

Jewish lawmakers have traditionally been the first stop for Jewish lobbyists seeking inroads for their issues, including Israel, preserving the social safety net, and keeping church and state separate. Additionally, lawmakers generally seek guidance from colleagues most invested in an issue.

Fewer Jewish lawmakers means the community could lose influence in areas where its voice has been preeminent.

“The Jewish community is going to have to work harder,” said one veteran official who has worked both as a professional in the Jewish community and a staffer for a Jewish lawmaker.

The 31 figure was the highest Jewish representation ever in the House, matched only in the early 1990s. The numbers dropped in part because of victories by the Tea Party wave of conservative Republicans in 2010 and a spate of retirements by veteran lawmakers elected in the 1970s and ‘80s.

“We’ve lost a lot of seniority,” said the congressional staffer who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue, noting in particular the retirement this year of Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., the senior Democrat on the Energy Committee, elected in 1974 and the dean of the unofficial Jewish caucus.

The lower profile of Jewish lawmakers is seen as well in the context of shifts in how Democrats — traditionally the redoubt of Jewish voters — are treating Israel. These have been exacerbated by tensions between the administrations of President Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“You saw that article in the New Yorker that said ‘Bibi has a Republican view of the world,’ ”

Letter

Jewish House members, present and past, clockwise from left, John Yarmuth, Nita Lowey, Jerrold Nadler, Henry Waxman, Brad Sherman and Howard Berman. one Jewish Democratic insider said, referring to a recent story on shifting perceptions of the AIPAC pro-Israel lobby that roiled the professional Jewish community in Washington.

“That resonated,” said the insider, who also spoke anonymously because of the sensitivity of the issue.

But Jewish lawmakers likely to be re-elected told JTA that a smaller Jewish caucus should not be cause for alarm.

“Jewish representation is still strong in Congress, and we are serving in positions of influence,” Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., the senior Democrat on the powerful Appropriations Committee, told JTA in an email.

Lowey also insisted that Jewish values would continue to be represented by House Democrats, who are pushing such issues as “access to quality

education, college affordability, sensible gun safety measures to keep our communities safe, access to affordable health care and addressing climate change.”

In addition to Lowey, Jewish leaders in the House include Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., the senior Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, and Rep. Sandy Levin, D-Mich., the senior Democrat on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., said 19 members — 4 percent of the body — was still about twice the estimated Jewish representation in the population. In addition, Jews have constituted 10 percent of the Senate, a proportion not likely to shift after the midterms in November.

“We still, compared to other religious and ethnic minorities,

Re: Tickets for the holidays (Aug. 29)

The Voice published a letter from a Warwick woman seeking “tickets for the holidays,” explaining that she and her husband “are empty-nesters who do not belong to a synagogue.” She seemed to think it obvious that people without children at home have no need for synagogue membership. In my mind she has a “Brigadoon” complex.

Remember the old Broadway show about Brigadoon, the Scottish town that rises up out of the mists every hundred years? This woman expects a synagogue to rise up every autumn so that she can attend Yom Tov services. Meanwhile, who does she think has been providing throughout the

year for everything from repairing the roof to paying the rabbi’s salary to buying lightbulbs? Who has been maintaining the schoolrooms for a new generation of Jewish-thinking children? Who is aware that without a reliable revenue stream the synagogue will not survive into another High Holy Day season? It’s the members, that’s who – many of whom are empty-nesters, as I am.

I’ve been retired for 15 years and must live modestly, but I couldn’t imagine NOT supporting my congregation so that it will always be there for me.

Myra B. Shays Providence, R.I.

WENDY RESPONDS: We agree and respect your concerns regarding sustaining synagogue life in Rhode Island.

The High Holy Day Ticket Initiative is a one-time opportunity for people.

After someone participates once, they may not participate again. Eagerly endorsed by the synagogues, this program has opened the doors for many and has led to new synagogue memberships. It is a wonderful way to welcome people and introduce or reintroduce the lifelong benefits of synagogue membership.

I wish you a happy and sweet New Year!

have far beyond our percentage in the population,” she said in an interview.

Waxman said Jews in Congress, in both parties, made valuable contributions both on their community’s behalf and to the country.

“For the most part, Jewish members in Congress have lived up to what Hillel had to say when he said that if I am not for myself, who will be for me, and if I am not for others, who am I,” he told JTA. “We care about issues of particular Jewish concern such as Israel, anti-Semitism, our Jewish brethren in other countries, the fight for Soviet Jews to be able to emigrate to Israel or anywhere else. But there are other issues I consider Jewish issues as well, which is to fight for a more just society for everyone to succeed to the extent their

abilities will take them, that every child should have health care and education and not have impediments such as as an inability to move from class to the other.”

Other leaders who have left the stage in recent years include Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., the House majority leader felled by a Tea Party-associated challenger in a primary earlier this year and the sole Jewish Republican in Congress; Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., the Holocaust survivor who was the body’s preeminent voice on human rights, who died in 2008; Rep. Howard Berman,D-Calif., the one-time chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee who lost an election in 2012; and Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., who until he retired in 2012 was the top Democrat on the Middle East subcommittee.

A measure of the shrinking caucus is that it’s not at all clear yet which member will succeed Waxman in convening occasional informal meetings of Jewish members, according to congressional insiders.

A number of younger Jewish members are rising through the ranks — Rep. Ted Deutch,DFla., succeeded Ackerman in helming Democrats on the Middle East subcommittee.

“We need to encourage more Jews to run,” Schakowsky acknowledged.

Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., one of the lead Israel champions in the House, said support for Israel was undiminished. He noted the overwhelming vote last month to add $225 million to existing funding for Iron Dome, the anti-missile system that protected Israelis during the recent Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

“Look at the Iron Dome vote,” he said. “Four Republicans and four Democrats voted against.

Support for Israel is at a very high level.”

CAUCUS | 30

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).

OUR MISSION

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

12 | September 12, 2014

COMMUNITY

The Jewish Voice

Best Wishes for a Happy New Year Law Offices Of ROnaLd c. MaRkOff Law Offices of Ronald C. Markoff 144 Medway Street Providence, RI 02906

Telephone (401) 272-9330 Facsimile (401) 751-4842 email: office@ronmarkoff.com

COURTESY | TOM PADWA

J Street’s Rhode Island members meet with Sen. Jack Reed On Aug. 27, members of J Street R.I.’s steering committee met with Sen. Jack Reed to discuss the need for strong U.S. leadership to help advance Israel-Palestinian peace negotiations following the cease-fire in Gaza. From left to right: Howard

Boksenbaum; Rabbi James Rosenberg; Phil Rosen; Sen. Reed; Judy Kaye, co-chair, J Street R.I.; Tom Padwa, chair, J Street R.I. advocacy committee; Shaina Wasserman, N.E. regional director, J Street; Gerry Tyler.

URI Hillel board retreat Members of the University of Rhode Island Hillel Student Board gathered for a mini-retreat on Sept. 7. Pictured left to right in the front row: Attar Chalif, Shayna Sage, Hannah Kaplan, Ben Richter, Kayla Nitzberg. In the back row, left to

COURTESY | AMY OLSON

right: Ariel Marcus, Rachel Miller, Lauren Cohen, Ben Nachtigal.

Not pictured: Rachel Amundson, Ellie Rosen, Jaclyn Rubin, Lauren Smith.

GUIDE TO JEWISH LIVING WATCH FOR IT IN THE SEPTEMBER 26 ISSUE.

COMMUNITY

thejewishvoice.org

Ethan Adler completes rabbinic studies

BY BETH DWORETZKY No matter what you call him – Ethan, Reverend Adler or a Red Sox fan – for almost 30 years, Congregation Beth David of Narragansett has called Ethan Adler their spiritual leader.

And as of Aug. 18, the congregation can now also call him Rabbi.

In a recent interview, Rabbi Adler shared that he had always planned to become a rabbi, carrying on the tradition on both his mother’s and father’s sides of the family. In fact, when he was newly married to his wife Wendy, he contemplated studying at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City during the week and commuting home on the weekends. However, he and his wife started a family, other priorities arose and the timing was never quite right until a few years ago.

Up until now, Ethan was Rev (Reverend) Adler for Congregation Beth David. This is an honorary title some synagogues give to someone with the knowledge and experience to lead their community. With encouragement from his friend and colleague Rabbi Richard Perlman, Ethan applied to the Vaad HaRabbonim of America (The American Board of Rabbis).

Taking advantage of the advent of distance learning, the Vaad HaRabbonim has developed a remarkable course of study that, when successfully completed, qualifies the student for S’mikhah (certificate of rabbinical ordination). The Vaad credited Ethan for his many years of experience teaching children, youth and adults and for officiating at many Jewish life cycle events, as well as meeting the diverse needs of the com-

Ethan Adler munity. Ethan then continued his study of Talmud and Jewish law with the Vaad, and. after passing the required examination, received his certification, thus earning the title of Rabbi.

Now that Ethan is Rabbi Adler, he assures us that he won’t lose his sense of humor and will continue to use it from the bimah. “Prayer is serious business. Humor gives it the human touch and keeps congregants’ attention, as they are always listening for the next one-liner.” The only thing he expects to change, in terms of his leadership role, is that he hopes to be more involved with the Rhode Island Board of Rabbis and with rabbinic programs throughout the state.

To Rabbi Adler, the favorite aspect of his leadership role in the community is “the honor and privilege of having families’ confidence and trust and to be present at and help them observe life cycle events, both the joyous ones and the sad ones. I am privileged to be able to be present for families experiencing difficult times.”

On a happier note, Rabbi Adler

says he is always “thrilled to officiate at a baby-naming, which represents a world of potential, the future.” He has presided at the weddings of some of the babies he’s named and even led their children’s bar/bat mitzvah services – a true l’dor vador (from generation to generation) experience.

From the very first service Ethan led at Congregation Beth David, he realized it was a very special place. The congregation accepted Ethan and his family, and he was thankful for their love, support and care when his first wife Wendy passed away.

He is equally grateful for the congregation’s support in happier times as well, such as the Aufrufs for his marriage to Lori and for his daughter Jennifer and her husband Seth, and his daughter, Dori, and her husband Jason, and now also for his ordination.

CBD and the Jewish community at large will honor Rabbi Adler on Sept. 28 at 6:30 p.m. at Congregation Beth David, 102 Kingstown Road, Narragansett. His brother, Rabbi Elan Adler (visiting from Israel) and Rabbi Richard Perlman will preside over the ceremony welcoming him into the rabbinate.

This will be followed by a brief service and dessert buffet.

CBD invites the entire community – members and nonmembers alike – to help celebrate this event. Please RSVP to Lori Adler (401-789-9029 or swambo42@hotmail.com) or Gladys Jacober (ghj1221@aol. com) no later than Sept. 18 if you plan on attending.

BETH DWORETZKY is a member of the board of directors at Congregation Beth David.

Project Shoresh Learners’ Program for the High Holy Days

BY IRINA MISSIURO imissiuro@jewishallianceri. org Rabbi Naftali Karp is organizing the Learners’ Program again, just in time for the holidays. He says that it has been a fantastic success for the past two years. Shorter than many typical High Holy Day programs, the Learners’ Program is intended to enable the participants to understand what the holidays are all about, reflect on the year gone by and look forward to the future. During some breaks in the service, program participants will engage in study sessions. Rabbi Karp, along with others, will lead interactive discussion groups. He says he is looking forward to the event and to the new beginning, “It is my fervent wish and prayer that all merit meaning, growth and peace as we head toward a new year.”

Staying together is more im-

portant than ever now. Karp says, “The world is in a very precarious state at the moment, and we all want to feel grounded and have some sense of security. This is the time!”

Come to ask questions about the holidays, get inspired, bond

with other community members and grow as a Jew. Also, he says, you’ll enjoy some refreshments and educate your kids in the children’s program. If the latter interests you, be sure to reserve the spots ahead of time.

Due to popular demand, the organizers have added a 40-minute study session that will run on the eve of Yom Kip-

pur.

Moshe Moskowitz shares, “I was nervous about joining the program, and I’m one of the rabbis! What an amazing experience. It was a great opportunity to learn more about the real meaning of the High Holy Days, and I highly recommend it.”

Join Karp on Sept. 25 and 26, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. The program takes place at 450 Elmgrove Ave., Providence. Sound interesting? RSVP, spaces are limited. Contact Karp directly at 401-632-3165 to make arrangements.

Don’t think you can make it? No worries; there are other programs you can attend. For instance, Partners in Torah Night, a lively, partner-based study group, is starting up again. Learn more about it here: projectshoresh.com/partners-in-torah-night.html.

September 12, 2014 |

13

14 | September 12, 2014

NATION

The Jewish Voice

Is the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge a model for Jewish fund-raising?

BY MAAYAN JAFFE JNS.ORG – The hottest month of summer was ice cold, as thousands of people poured buckets of ice water over their heads to raise awareness about amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and money for researching the fatal neurological disease. In just a few weeks, three million donors helped raise more than $100 million, blowing the $2.7 million the ALS Association raised during the same time period last year out of the water.

The Facebook frenzy created by the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has now been replaced by back-to-school photographs, but the results have left leading Jewish organizations asking themselves, “Is this the fundraising wave of the future?”

“I don’t believe fund-raising is going in that direction,” said J.M. Schapiro, 2014-15 fundraising campaign chair for The Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore.

Schapiro told JNS.org that while the Ice Bucket Challenge was “fun and exciting,” there was “an extraordinary confluence of events that brought it together. … I don’t believe it is something you can manufacture.” But he still believes there are best practices fundraisers can learn from the ALS campaign.

“How do you look at things differently, [and] use social media and other new ways to raise money?” Schapiro said, noting some of the items he and his campaign team are discussing.

The Jewish National Fund (JNF) is at the forefront of new media use. It recently formed a digital marketing committee, with leaders from the upper realms of technology superstars, such as AOL. JNF CEO Russell Robinson said the orga-

ration to come up with something different and unique for their own organizations.

AEPi fraternity members run a nationwide fund-raising campaign each year, donating the proceeds to Israeli and Jewish causes or other efforts that members feel passionate about. For decades, the organization has charged its campus chapters with determining how to raise the money at their schools. Some efforts have been more successful and novel than others. Some have caught on almost as much as the Ice Bucket Challenge, albeit on a local level.

PHOTO | KIM QUINTANO VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Anthony Quintano from Hillsborough, N.J., performs the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. nization launched the hashtag #PoweredByJNF and is now actively using text-to-pledge mobile fund-raising technology.

“We are spending an enormous amount of time studying digital space and being pioneers, making sure we are at the forefront,” said Robinson.

“Where the people are, we have to be.”

Robinson told JNS.org that he thinks one of the challenges for Jewish organizations is to not take themselves so seriously in the digital realm. Often,“we are too conservative in the Jewish community,” and when it comes to social media, “you have to be a little bit funny” to be successful, he said.

Jay Feldman, managing di-

rector of the Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) Foundation, said he agrees that social and new technology was certainly “the secret sauce” of the ALS campaign, but that what struck him as the most impressive aspect of the effort was the “peer-to-peer, grassroots” component. He said the initiative was low-barrier, while the impact was tremendous.

Feldman explained that when it comes to making something go viral, “you never know what is going to morph.” He said Jewish organizations should use the Ice Bucket Challenge as an opportunity to take a hard look at how creative their marketing efforts really are, and as inspi-

“One of the challenges for Jewish organizations is to not take themselves too seriously in the digital realm.”

At the University of Missouri, for example, the fraternity a few years ago launched the AEPi Rock-A-Thon, in which its members would spend 72 hours rocking in a rocking chair on campus. Students and community members were so impressed they also started rocking, and today the whole city of Columbia, Mo., is involved.

“They put a rocking chair in the center of town for a threeday event with musical performances and vendors. The news stations come out and the mayor gets involved,” Feldman told JNS.org.

Yeshiva University (YU) had its own Ice Bucket Challengelike success a few years back

when the Maccabeats’ “Candlelight” Hanukkah song went viral on YouTube, recalled YU President Richard Joel. To date, more than 9 million people have watched the “Candlelight” video.

Feldman said one has to be careful about “romanticizing” social media and e-philanthropy.

“I think those tools are valuable, but traditional methods of engaging donors still exist,” he said.

Joel expressed a similar sentiment.

“It is not just Internet fundraising, but [asking] ‘Do you have the kind of message that people will own?’” he said.

The Associated’s Schapiro saw that firsthand last Hanukkah, when the federation ran its #whatisyourissue campaign for its young adult division.

The organization proposed eight issues of importance to the Jewish people, and then at its annual “Latkes and Vodka” event asked participants to narrow those issues down to three.

After the event, campaigners focused their fund-raising messaging to the younger cohort around the issues they identified as most important to them: Israel, special needs, and community building.

“We raised 25 percent more from that audience last year than in years prior,” Schapiro said.

This year, Schapiro launched the “100-Day Challenge,” calling on philanthropists to donate before the end of the calendar year. He sent personal letters to donors and has witnessed a strikingly large and eager response.

“People come up to me in restaurants, say they got my letter, and make a pledge,” he said. “Everything is about relationships. Ninety-nine percent of the ice bucket challengers called out their friends, called on those relationships. It’s the same thing we are doing with the Associated campaign, we are leaning on our relationships for help.”

“The federation system has been around for more than 100 years and we have found that our people-to-people network has withstood the test of time,” said Jerry Silverman, president and CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America.

“Not to throw cold water on a one-off campaign, even a wildly successful one, but our success is our sustainability.”

The real question, JNF’s Robinson believes, is what happens next for ALS? “Will people still remember about ALS in six months?” he asked. “Will these donors still be engaged, still want to give?

This will be the next challenge.”

MAAYAN JAFFE is a freelance writer in Overland Park, Kan. Reach her at maayanjaffe@icloud.com or follow her on Twitter, @MaayanJaffe.

ISRAEL

thejewishvoice.org

In Israel, hockey is on the rise. Scenes from the Canada-U.S. showdown at the 2013 Maccabiah Games at the Canada Centre in T.

Sabras and slap shots: North Americans bring hockey know-how to Israel

BY HILLEL KUTTLER BALTIMORE (JTA) – Drew Koike knew a bit about Israel: its capital, location, climate and biblical roots. But it never dawned on the 14-year-old Washingtonian that hockey existed in the country.

That was until earlier this year, when the coach of his hometown hockey program invited Koike and two other young charges on a summer trip to Israel to play and teach the sport.

The quartet spent 11 days there, mostly at the ice rink inside Canada Centre, a sports facility in the northern town of Metula.

Joining them were four Canadians, notably Laurie Boschman, a former National Hockey League veteran, and Tessa Bonhomme, who played for the Canadian women’s gold medalwinning team at the 2010 Olympics, as well as two teenage goalies.

For the eight North Americans, mostly non-Jews, venturing to the Middle East meant sharing their wisdom with more than 50 Israeli children devoted to the sport in a country with almost no hockey consciousness.

The visit grew out of the trip to Washington, D.C., four months earlier of 24 kids from the Canada Israel Hockey School, a program located at the Metula rink.

In equal measure, the visit to Metula reprised the hockey camps run there nearly two decades ago by the late Roger Neilson, a longtime NHL coach and observant Christian who loved Israel. Returning to Canada, Neilson would rave about each summer’s experience.

His programs are credited with having planted the seeds of hockey in Israel.

“Our plan from Day 1 was to start up the camp the way Roger Neilson used to do – bring kids here from North America from different backgrounds,” said Mitch Miller, an Ottawa resident who assembled and accompanied this summer’s group with plans to make it an annual event.

Miller and fellow Canadian Zach Springer were the only

Jewish members of the North American delegation. And of the five teenagers, just Koike had been abroad before.

“I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I’ve had a great time,” Koike said . “The idea of hockey in Israel sounded like two cool things put together.”

Boschman, who scored 229 goals for five teams in a 14-year NHL career, had run hockey clinics for youths in four European countries while working for a Christian group, Hockey Ministries International – but never in Israel.

In Metula, he and Bonhomme, a defenseman who starred at Ohio State, led morning and afternoon on-ice drills along with midday training sessions.

Springer and his friend, Jack Moore, both 15 from Kingston, Ontario, imparted knowledge of the goalie position to their Israeli peers. By week’s end, Springer said, the two were particularly gratified by the progress shown by one of the Israelis.

Teaching in the program “was one of the main reasons I went,” Springer said.

All the while, the Washington coach, Tom Newberry, was instructing two dozen Israeli coaches seeking certification

by U.S.A. Hockey, the Coloradobased organization that promotes youth hockey and oversees coaching; Newberry is its Southeast director.

The Ice Hockey Federation of Israel will honor the certifications, he said, with a goal of developing an indigenous certification program.

Newberry said the aim this summer was “to use this group of [Israeli] coaches and see what works.”

Newberry’s 12 hours of classroom instruction and some on-ice work centered on what he called “the science behind at h lete - development .” T h at included training coaches to teach fundamentals like skating and stick-handling at age-appropriate levels, along with helping the adults fashion a coaching philosophy that includes a positive approach and recognizing when kids aren’t grasping a skill,

then re-teaching it.

“It’s extremely positive to be in a room with a bunch of people who are eager to learn. They’re fully engaged, taking copious notes,” Newberry said of the sessions. “It’s exciting to know that … these gentlemen are really more than coaches; they’re students of the game.”

With only three ice hockey rinks in Israel – the others are in Maalot and Holon – most of the participating coaches came from in-line hockey programs.

“These are people who are quite passionate about hockey,” Boschman said. “That’s really fun to see in a non-traditional hockey market.”

Throughout the program, Newberry updated the parents of the three Washingtonians on the Hamas bombings of Israel, which were occurring far from Metula.

“We’re not letting it bother us,” he said of the attacks. “We’re completely safe, enjoying the country, the friendships and the incredible food.”

Before the hockey program started, the visitors spent several days touring. From Metula, they also took side trips to the Sea of Galilee, the old city of Acre, and the kibbutz and Druse village where several of the Israeli players live.

The mother of one Israeli player told them she’d moved the family to Metula to be closer to the rink.

Of the Israeli players, Koike said, “They’re fun to be with and fun to play hockey with. They’re really talented and work hard.”

When a U.S.-born soldier the group ran into asked about Bonhomme’s gold medal, she took it from her pocket, draped it around his neck and took his photograph.

Miller called the experience “a great first step” in deepening hockey’s presence in Israel. By next summer, he hopes to bring so many American and Canadian youth players that a second program needs to be organized.

Said Miller: “They’re not saying ‘Next year in Jerusalem’ but ‘Next year in Metula.’ ”

September 12, 2014 |

15

Sending warmest wishes to Rhode Island’s Jewish community as you celebrate the New Year. L’shanah tovah!

ANGEL TAVERAS, MAYOR | CITY OF PROVIDENCE

Temple Torat Yisrael 1251 Middle Road East Greenwich, RI 02818 www.toratyisrael.org (401) 885-6600

May Your New Year be Filled with Happiness and Good Health Programs for all ages, Pre K to 7 Sunday School.

We look forward to welcoming you to our community!

Email us at welcome@toratyisrael.org.

16 | September 12, 2014

COMMUNITY

The Jewish Voice

Executive Director/Synagogue Administrator Wanted Tifereth Israel Congregation of New Bedford, MA is seeking an Executive Director/Synagogue Administrator to join a team of professional and lay leaders working to ensure the ongoing vibrancy of Jewish congregational life and to build upon our reputation as a welcoming community.

He or she will serve as a representative of the Officers and Directors of the synagogue in administering the affairs of the congregation. The successful candidate will often be the first person a member or prospect speaks to in the synagogue for information regarding a problem.

Duties of the position can be tailored to match the attributes of the right candidate. We will consider responses for both full-time and part-time arrangements. We offer a comprehensive benefits package. Compensation will be commensurate with experience.

A complete job description may be obtained by e-mailing our office.

Email a letter of application, resume, and salary requirements to our office at: office@tinewbedford.org. Put “Application for ED/Admin” in the subject line.

Jeffrey G. Brier CLU, ChFC, CASL Licensed Insurance Agent of Genworth Life Insurance Company Brier & Brier 245 Waterman Street, #505 Providence, RI 02906 jbrier@brier-brier.com · www.Brier-Brier.com 401-751-2990 Long term care planning options for businesses and individuals

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Does anyone remember Big Bear Market pictured here?

REMEMBER THE PAST

From the archives of the R.I. Jewish Historical Association

KEEPING IT KOSHER

BY GERALDINE S. FOSTER

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The High Holy Days will soon be here. Time to start preparing for those festive meals that are part of the holiday celebration. For my mother, this posed a particular problem. My father, who disliked most vegetables, had been a dedicated vegetarian from his teens. The rest of us were dedicated meateaters. Somehow she managed to reconcile the disparate tastes while making certain that everything was kosher.

One problem my mother did not have was finding a kosher butcher where she could pick and choose which chicken she wanted or have the meat cut especially for her. According to the 1950 Providence City Directory, there were 25 identifiable kosher meat markets in Providence, most of them in South Providence, others in the North End and East Side. Then, as now, on receiving the bill, there was that sigh that needed no words to say, “It’s so expensive to keep kosher.”

The problem was even more acute in 1910. Kimberly Nusco portrayed this situation and the events that followed in an article in “R.I. Jewish Historical Notes” (“The Kosher Meat Boycott of 1910,” Vol. 14, No. 1, 2003).

According to Nusco, the average income of the Jewish residents of South Providence varied between $10 and $15 a week, 60-65 percent of which was generally spent on food. For the women, tasked with providing food for their families, the rising costs were a major concern.

The price had tripled in the past three years. They also worried

about the sanitary conditions of the shops and suspected some of the meat came from sick or dying cows. It was time to take action.

On June 21 of that year, according to newspaper accounts cited by Nusco in the RIJHA article, some 700 women packed Bazar’s Hall to air their grievances. A smaller number later met in the Workman’s Circle Library. There was unanimous agreement to begin a strike against the six kosher butchers located in their area. Who issued the call for the mass meetings is not known, nor did there appear to be any connection to the violent protests that occurred in New York and New Jersey the previous April. Strikes, simultaneous to the Providence action, also occurred in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and Brockton, Massachusetts.

A delegation presented a list of demands to the butchers. These included “fresh and healthy meat wrapped in a clean paper and not in newspaper as is custom in some shops, and respectful treatment of customer, and a reduction in the price of all kinds of meat” (page 103).

Three of the butchers agreed to consider the petition; three rejected it outright.

The following morning at 5:30, women protesters appeared on Willard Avenue between Gay and Hilton Streets, the location of the shops, to urge potential customers to join the boycott.

The demonstration remained peaceful. The rancorous activity came from the other side, most notably from the wife of one of the butchers. However, at

the end of the day, police were called for fear of possible trouble. It proved unfounded. Five policemen were easily able to disperse the crowd of 500 pickets, sympathizers and gawkers.

Six days later, a headline in the Journal and Evening Bulletin predicted that the “Kosher Butcher War” would soon end. Although the butchers had agreed to improve the sanitary conditions of their shops, they agreed to nothing more. What had changed? Three members of the community who had previously owned stores in the neighborhood agreed to reopen in the vicinity of Willard Avenue, sell meat at cheaper prices and comply with all the other demands of the strikers.

At that point, Nusco wrote, the newspapers lost interest in the situation, which left no way to assess the efficacy of the boycott or the new competition. The offending six shops remained in business while suggestions that a meat cooperative be formed remained merely suggestions.

In retrospect, the strike was an act of community solidarity organized and carried out by women – primarily immigrants – acting on their legitimate grievances. These women, despite their status, had grasped the possibilities of political action, a freedom available to them here in the “goldena medina” of America.

GERALDINE FOSTER is a past president of the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association. To comment about this or any Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association article, email info@rijha.org.

thejewishvoice.org

September 12, 2014 |

17

18 | September 12, 2014

FOOD

The Jewish Voice

Journey to a Rosh Hashanah Challah

BY FRAN OSTENDORF fostendorf@jewishallianceri.org Baking challah is a weekly ritual in many households. It can be a daylong affair. The mixing, the kneading, the hours of rising, then the braiding and, fi nally, more rising. But the results are unparalleled. Usually.

I have to admit I have a problem with braiding. I’ve never been able to braid my daughter’s hair, and I certainly can’t braid a challah with any fi nesse. It doesn’t matter that I’ve been trying since early high school.

Braid the dough, turn around and it comes apart. Let it rest, same result. So the round Rosh Hashanah challah is my favorite. I can make a spiral that gets rave reviews. I admit that I want to try a braided round.

I’ve studied the diagrams, and they don’t look too complicated.

But I may let that wait for another time.

Anyway, this project results from another challenge. About three years ago, I started using a bread machine for my

PHOTOS | SALLY OSTENDORF

All the ingredients mix easily in the food processor.

High Holy Day challah. What a wonderful timesaver. All the ingredients go into the pan, turn on the machine and walk away until it’s time to shape and bake. At last, I could multitask and the resulting dough was perfect. That is, until last year when the machine stopped working mid-rising. No amount of coaxing could get it to start.

So, I’m back to uncharted territory. A tasty recipe needs to be reinvented.

No bread machine. And certainly no braiding.

This recipe is not written for a bread machine. I just adapted it to my machine from the be-

The raisins took a little bit of persistence to knead in.

ginning. This year, I decided to use a food processor for the mixing.

The results were attractive and tasty. The bread didn’t rise as high as last year when I left the dough in the bread machine to knead. But it’s certainly an acceptable looking loaf for my table. And my house on a late August Sunday smelled fantastic.

Here’s the recipe, courtesy of King Arthur Flour. It has just enough sweetness for the new year but it’s not too sweet to take its rightful place at the dinner table. You can choose to use raisins or not, depending

on your taste and tradition. I use a little extra honey in the loaf without raisins, but you may need a little extra flour in that loaf too because of the liquid. I never needed extra flour in the bread machine, but I certainly did in the food processor.

You could form this is into a long traditional braid. But this is the season of the round challah, symbolizing continuity of the years. So that’s how I did it.

Raisin Challah

Courtesy of King Arthur Flour

DoUgH

1/2 cup lukewarm water

6 tablespoons vegetable oil 1/4 cup honey 2 large eggs 4 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour 1-1/2 teaspoons salt 5 teaspoons instant yeast 1-1/2 cups golden raisins, packed

Topping

1 large egg beaten with 1 tablespoon cold water 2 tablespoons coarse white sparkling sugar (optional)

DireCtions

1. To make the dough: Combine all of the dough ingredients CHALLAH | 19

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FOOD

thejewishvoice.org

September 12, 2014 |

The longer the rope, the better the spiral. This challah, right, turned out nicely.

FROM PAGE 18

CHALLAH

except the raisins, and mix and knead them, by hand, mixer or bread machine, until you have a soft, fairly smooth dough.

2. Allow the dough to rise, covered, for 2 hours, or until it’s puffy though probably not doubled in bulk.

3. Gently deflate the dough, and knead in the raisins.

4. Lightly grease a 9-inch round cake pan.

5. Roll the dough into a 30- to 36-inch rope. If it shrinks back, walk away and leave it alone for 10 minutes, then resume rolling. The longer the rope the more distinct

the spiral, but if it isn’t exactly 36 inches long, don’t stress; just get as close as you can.

6. Coil the rope into the prepared pan, starting in the center.

7. Cover the challah gently with lightly greased plastic wrap or a proof cover, and allow it to rise for about 60 to 90 minutes, until it’s puffy and pretty much fi lls the pan.

8. Near the end of the bread’s rise, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. 9. Whisk together the egg and water. Brush the risen dough with the egg mixture. Sprinkle with coarse white sugar,

if desired.

10. Bake the bread for 20 minutes, tent it with foil and bake for an additional 15 to 20 minutes, until it’s a deep, golden brown, and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center registers 190 degrees F. 11. Remove the bread from the oven, and after a minute or so carefully transfer it to a rack. Cool the bread to lukewarm before cutting it.

FRAN OSTENDORF is editor of The Jewish Voice.

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20 | September 12, 2014

FOOD

The Jewish Voice

Honey – the soul of flowers, the dream of bees A new look at this sweet nectar

BY IRINA MISSIURO imissiuro@jewishallianceri. org In the 15th century, people believed that honey was the soul of flowers. Let’s expand the metaphor, and think of honey in feminine terms and of bees in masculine terms. Honey is the soul of the flower, her family. Bee, has to work very hard to collect the nectar, sometimes stinging some rivals in the process. Ultimately, his efforts pay off when Nectar (the bride) transforms into Honey (the wife). The man has now found the woman who will become the unifying force in his family unit; or the soul, as the ancients believed. True, times have changed, but over the centuries, the woman has been the core, the one who gathered everyone near the hearth.

But before the man can call out, “Honey, I’m home,” he has to choose from numerous possibilities. So many types, so little time! There is enticing

Black Locust, the Elizabeth Taylor of honeys. She’s powerful, smoldering and hard to resist. Next, who can forget about Alfalfa, the friendly yet dazzling girl-next-door, the Natalie Portman of honeys? Clover’s the popular one, beckoning with the brandy coloring and the Scarlett Johansson voice. Dandelion is blond, but like Gwyneth Paltrow. And we must include Orange Blossom, who prefers to dye her hair, recalling Goldie Hawn’s lightness in color as well as in personality. Eventually, Bee chooses the Honey he likes the most. While the word “honeymoon” implies that the first month of marriage is the sweetest, the following months are not too shabby either; after all, Honey never

spoils, remember? But men should keep in mind that, unless they want their women to make a beeline for Utah, the beehive state, they should take care of them. Yes, Honey is sweet and kosher, but she has a complex taste and won’t stand for heated arguments. When they happen, she just gets all granulated and sulks. Rescue her by taking her on muchneeded vacation in the microwave and, afterward, shield her from direct sunlight so she can remain wrinkle-free. You don’t want her to wind up at the apiarist now, do you?

Men, take care of your Honey – she improves your memory (“Your keys are on the desk!”), helps you fall asleep, soothes you during illness and comforts you with sweetness when

you’re upset. Yes, she sometimes can be hard to handle – after all, she’s a concentrated nectar – what did you expect?

She’s worth the effort, though.

But you probably know that by now. In case you needed some reassurance, here are two instances of people going above and beyond the normal means to obtain Honey. In 1984, cosmonauts constructed a honeycomb on a space shuttle in zero gravity.

The same year, the French established a beehive on the roof of an opera house. So much trouble just for Honey; you can handle your wife’s occasional nagging on firm ground.

You’ve already got her – don’t lose your Honey now!

Other than telling it like it is, Honey is devoid of negativity – she’s fat-free, cholesterol-free and sodium-free. A glowing energy booster, she’s the only one who embodies all the substances necessary to sustain you. Who else is going to make sure you get your antioxidants?

Pinocembrin alone is worth its weight in gold; if it weren’t for Honey, you’d never see it. Why do you think they found Honey in King Tut’s tomb? That man knew what was good for him.

Honey’s worth it.

FOOD

thejewishvoice.org

The flavor of honey and apples blend beautifully in this glazed cake for Rosh Hashanah Honey-glazed apple cake Recipe courtesy Golden Blossom Honey

Ingredients

Cake: 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed 2/3 cup shortening 3 eggs 3/4 cup GOLDEN BLOSSOM HONEY 3-1/2 cups flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teapoon soda 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon allspice 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup brewed coffee, cooled 3 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, coarsely chopped 1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped 1/2 cup raisins Syrup: 1/2 cup GOLDEN BLOSSOM HONEY 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1 tablespoon butter

DireCtions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan.

In a large bowl beat together brown sugar and shortening until well combined. Add eggs one at a time, beating well. Add honey and mix well.

In a separate bowl, combine

flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and salt. Add dry ingredients to honey mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the coffee. Beat until combined.

Stir in apples, walnuts and raisins.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake approximately 1 hour or until cakes tests done. Let cake cool 10 minutes on a rack.

Meanwhile prepare syrup.

Place syrup ingredients in a small pan. Bring to a boil, re-

COURTESY | GOLDEN BLOSSOM HONEY

move from heat.

Leaving cake in pan, place on a plate large enough to catch any syrup that may seep out.

Poke a few hole in top of cake with skewer or toothpick. Pour syrup over cake and let cool. Remove cake from pan.

September 12, 2014 |

21

Kosher wines complement your meal

BY THE VOICE STAFF We asked Eric Taylor, general manager of Bottles in Providence, for his recommendations of what to drink with Rosh Hashanah meals of all sorts. Here’s what he had to say: “It’s no wonder when I mention kosher wine people scoff.

Growing up on the cloying sweet Manischewitz or Mogen David would make me scoff too.

However, with so many more people drinking wines in the United States, the availability, quality and affordability of kosher wine has increased dramatically in the last four or five years. Of the kosher wines that I’ve tasted, the conclusion that I come to is that these are really great wines that just happen to be kosher. For the coming holidays I recommend the following for lighter meals like fish or roasted chicken: • Terra Vega Chardonnay, Chile $8.99. Full bodied with flavors of apples and pears. A great value.

• Ariel Riesling, Israel $12.99.

A dry-style Riesling with lots of ripe peach and honeysuckle flavors.

• Barkan Classic Pinot Noir, Israel $13.99. Lighter style red

with gentle light fruit flavors like ripe raspberries.”

“For richer dinners, with foods like brisket or lamb, I recommend these wines: • La Tour Pavee Bordeaux Superieur, France $16.99. Big bodied red with concentrated dark fruit flavors like black cherry and currants with hints of violet and licorice.

• Teal Lake Chardonnay, Australia $15.99. Rich, creamy and luxurious with big ripe apple and tropical fruit flavors that can stand up to richer foods.

• Gabriel Cabernet Sauvignon, Israel $21.99. One of the finest bottles of wine to come out of Israel, deep dark color with very complex and rich flavors of red berries, smoke, leather and cocoa.”

“While I have made some specific recommendations, remember: The first rule of wine pairing is to drink what you like regardless of what is being served. Also, there are many kosher Champagnes and Prosecco available – they make a great way to begin or end a special meal as they pair well with anything from light appetizers to desserts and everything in between.”

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22 | September 12, 2014

F00D

The Jewish Voice

Save the stress: Here’s an easy and pleasing Rosh Hashanah menu

BY SHANNON SARNA MyJewishLearning.com When the Jewish New Year comes around, many people stress for weeks leading up to the holiday and break out their most complicated recipes to impress guests. But when I entertain around the holidays, I prefer to rely on a few go-to dishes that are simple to prepare, pack a delicious punch and still impress my friends and family despite my lack of stressing.

Forget the chicken soup and start the New Year on a sweet note with this Sweet and Spicy Sweet Potato Soup. It doesn’t require a million ingredients or lots of time, but people will be asking for the recipe as soon as they taste it. Made with dried peppers, coconut milk and roasted sweet potatoes, this soup is one of my favorites to make, serve and eat.

A perfect roasted chicken marinated with citrus and herbs is a wonderful counterpoint to a rich brisket on the table. Marinating for at least several hours will ensure a moist chicken everyone will talk about.

And while challah should be served to start the meal, Balsamic Apple Date Stuffed Challah is so delicious you may want to serve it as the grand finale.

Rosh Hashanah has a late start this year, so enjoy this last week of late summer, don’t stress about menu planning and instead make a menu of simple, delicious delights that people will only think consumed your September.

dairy, you can serve with a dollop of creme fraiche or sour cream. If you are serving this soup pareve, drizzle with good quality olive oil and some chopped candied pecans or walnuts.

Serves 6-8.

Shannon’s Perfect Roast Chicken Ingredients:

Sweet and Spicy Sweet Potato Soup Ingredients:

10 medium sweet potatoes 3 tablespoons olive oil plus extra 1 medium onion, diced 2 carrots, diced 2 quarts chicken or vegetable stock 1 (14 ounce) can coconut milk 1/4 cup brown sugar 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper 1 teaspoon paprika 2 teaspoons coarse sea salt 2-3 small dried chili peppers (if using medium-sized dried chili peppers, just use one) Creme fraiche (optional) Olive oil for finishing (optional) Candied pecans or walnuts (optional)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix brown sugar, cayenne pepper, paprika and salt in a

small bowl. Cut sweet potatoes in half and place on foil-lined baking sheet. Spread brown sugar spice mixture all over sweet potatoes and drizzle with olive oil. Roast sweet potatoes for 35-45 minutes or until completely soft. Set aside and let cool.

In a medium to large pot, heat 3 tablespoons olive oil, and saute onions and carrots until translucent and soft, around 4-6 minutes. Add 2-3 cups of stock, and simmer for 5 minutes.

Add sweet potato flesh. Using an immersion blender, blend all vegetables until smooth. Add remaining stock and dried chili peppers.

When the soup is heated through and flavors have blended, around 20-30 minutes, add coconut milk. Remove the dried chili peppers before serving.

Note: the longer you let the chili peppers sit in the soup, the spicier the soup will be.

If you are making this soup

!‫שנה טובה ומתוקה‬ May 5775 be a year of

blessings, joy & peace!

1 whole chicken, rinsed 1 orange, zested and sliced 1 lemon, zested and sliced 1 tablespoon fresh chopped rosemary 6 cloves garlic 1/2 tablespoon fresh chopped thyme 3 tablespoons olive oil 1/4 cup white wine Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

In a small mixing bowl, whisk together rosemary, thyme, olive oil, wine, orange zest, lemon zest and the salt and pepper.

Add the chicken to a large plastic bag that seals, and pour the wet mixture over the chicken.

Add the orange and lemon slices as well as the whole garlic cloves.

After you seal the bag, make sure the entire chicken is covered with the marinade. Refrigerate for 2 to 24 hours before roasting.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. If you like, you can stuff some of the garlic cloves and citrus slices under the skin or in the cavity of the chicken. Roast the chicken for 45-55 minutes or until a meat thermometer reads 165 degrees. Serves 4-6.

Balsamic Apple Date Stuffed Challah Ingredients:

For the challah dough: 5 cups flour 1/2 cup sugar 2 tablespoons honey 1/2 tablespoon salt 2 teaspoons vanilla 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg 1/4 cup vegetable oil 1-1/2 tablespoons yeast 1 teaspoon sugar 1-1/4 cups lukewarm water 2 whole eggs 1 egg yolk For the filling: 3 gala apples, peeled and diced 1 cup pitted dates, chopped 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cinnamon stick 1/4 cup water 1/4 cup red wine 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar 1 tablespoon sugar For top of challah: 1 egg 1 teaspoon water 1 teaspoon honey 1 tablespoon sanding sugar 1 tablespoon thick sea salt 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Preparation:

In a small bowl, place yeast, 1 teaspoon sugar and lukewarm water. Allow to sit around 10 minutes, until it becomes foamy on top.

In a large bowl or stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, mix together 1-1/2 cups flour, salt, sugar, honey, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg. After the water-yeast mixture has become foamy, add to flour mixture along with oil. Mix thoroughly.

Add another cup of flour and eggs. Mix until smooth. Switch to the dough hook attachment if you are using a stand mixer.

Add another 1-1/2 cups flour, and then remove from bowl and place on a floured surface.

Knead remaining flour into dough, continuing to knead for around 10 minutes (or however long your hands will last).

Place dough in a greased bowl, and cover with damp towel. Allow to rise 3-4 hours.

To make the filling, place apples, dates, salt, cinnamon stick, water, red wine and sugar in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Continue to simmer on medium heat until the mixture is reduced. Add the balsamic vinegar, and simmer another 2-3 minutes. Cook the mixture around 10-15 minutes in total.

Remove from the heat and allow to cool 5 minutes. Remove cinnamon stick.

Place mixture in a food processor fitted with a blade attachment, and pulse until smooth.

After the challah has risen, cut the dough in half. To be as precise as possible, use a scale to measure the weight.

Using a rolling pin, roll out the first half of dough into a rectangle. Spread around half, perhaps slightly less, of the apple-date mixture in an even layer, leaving 1/2 inch all around without filling. Working quickly, start rolling up the dough toward you. Try and keep the roll relatively tight as you go. Pinch the ends when you finish.

Create a pinwheel-shapedchallah by snaking the dough around and around in a circle around itself. When finished, tuck the end under the challah neatly and pinch lightly.

This doesn’t have to be perfect – remember, as long as it tastes good, almost no one (except maybe that judgmental greataunt) will care what it looks like.

Repeat with other half of dough.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Allow challot to rise another 30-60 minutes, or until you can see the size has grown.

Beat 1 egg with 1 teaspoon water and 1 teaspoon of honey.

Brush liberally over each challah. Combine sea salt, sanding sugar and cinnamon, and sprinkle over each challah.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until middle looks like it has just set and the color is golden.

Yields 2 medium loaves SHANNON SARNA is editor of The Nosher blog on MyJewishLearning.com, where these recipes originally appeared.

ROSH HASHANAH

thejewishvoice.org

A new way to prepare for the High Holy Days

BY TSAFI LEV MyJewishLearning.com – I’m advocating a new angle on heshbon ha-nefesh, “soul’s accounting,” that we do in preparation to the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

This soul work begins with the ancient Greek dictum “know thyself?” Or, to put it more rabbinically, “know before whom you stand?” I ask myself: What am I afraid of?

Deep down, what are my real hopes?

An investment of time and focus in anticipation of the holidays elevates the experience. Without the prep work, is there any doubt that five-hour services could be a drag? It’s like showing up to the Olympic marathon having not stretched, not worked out and perhaps not having run in an entire year (or more). The results won’t be good.

I base my approach on practices of the Penn Resiliency Project, of Positive Psychology – this soul’s accounting tackles our fears and hopes for the coming year head-on and in a practical way.

Here are the steps: For each of the categories of your life (friends, relationships with each family member, work, personal health, etc.), do the following: 1) List three things that you are most afraid will happen in the coming year. (I encourage you to be honest with your fears – just let the realistic and un-

BY RUTH ABUSCH MAGDER SAN FRANCISCO (MyJewishLearning.com) – Here is a radical proposal for the New Year: Forget the guilt and instead lean into what you love to become the best possible version of yourself.

The liturgy for the Jewish New Year has us taking a long hard look at all the mistakes we have made in the previous 12 months. Soul searching is good, but for the most part, if we are honest, we already know where our faults lie and, if we were able to change them with ease, we would have already done so.

This is not to say that we should forgo striving to be our best selves. On the Jewish calendar, the month leading up to Rosh Hashanah is called Elul.

One rabbinic interpretation of this name is that it is an acronym for the Hebrew Ani L’Dodi v’Dodi Li, “I am for my beloved

founded flow out of you.)

2) List three things that you deeply hope will happen in the coming year.

3) List three things that are most likely to happen this year.

You’ve just put pen to paper about your worries and your hopes as well as what is most realistically going to happen.

Reality is most often found in that middle ground between worst and best.

Now, list steps to take: A) For each of your fears listed, give yourself three simple steps to take to prevent the worst from happening.

B) For each of the things you hope will happen this year, give yourself three simple steps that would help make that happen.

Having the opportunity to be honest about our fears and hopes, and creating realistic steps about how to prevent or coax them along, has a tremendous empowering effect on our spiritual preparation for the New Year. It leads to greater joy and to greater optimism.

RABBI TSAFI LEV is a CLAL Rabbis Without Borders Fellow.

He is the rabbinic director of New Community Jewish High School in West Hills, Calif., and a lecturer for the Fingerhut School of Education Master of Arts in Education program at the American Jewish University. This story originally appeared on the Rabbis Without Borders blog on MyJewishLearning.com.

23

The Shofar Factory

Rabbi Yossi Laufer works on a shofar during the 2012 Chabad Shofar Factory.

PHOTOS | JAY SUSSMAN

Jay Sussman of East Greenwich tries out the shofar he made during a Chabad Shofar Factory in 2012

PHOTO | DENISE RUBIN

Trying out a new shofar at the Chabad Shofar Factory Sept. 8 at Congregation Beth David in Narragansett.

Give up the guilt: A proposal for the New Year and my beloved is for me.” A lovely romantic notion, the rabbis also take it to be a tribute to God’s love for us. It is not accidental that the month leading up to the New Year is one that takes love as a main theme.

Love can be a powerful force for change, easier to embrace and more satisfying than guilt.

There are many ways to use love as a means of encouraging yourself to its best self.

Love exists on many planes; elevating any one of them improves the world. Here are three concrete suggestions that focus on love of self, love in relationships and love as an element of community.

Make a list of the things you love about yourself. The list should contain no fewer than five significant things. Take time to think about each of these attributes. Why do you love this about yourself? Generosity? Creativity? Silliness?

Ambition? Consider how each

September 12, 2014 |

of these qualities helps you be a positive presence in the world.

Think back to a time in your life when those elements of your self were being fully expressed. Are you making the most of these gifts right now?

Ask yourself what you might do to expand the impact of that strength in the world.

If you are struggling to make a list, then ask for help from those around you.

Part of the process of preparing for the New Year is repairing relationships. While I believe that apologies are important, taking time to focus on what works in relationships is important as well. Set aside time with those with whom you are close. Tell them what you love and appreciate about them.

Give them examples of how this strength inspires you or affirms something about the world. The more concrete the better.

Knowing they are appreciated and truly seen for who they are

will help them start the year in a better place and strengthen your relationship. If there is repairing to be done, spelling out the love first will set the stage for positive engagement.

What do you love to do? Lean into your talents to make a difference in the community around you. Volunteering can be about need, but it can also be about sharing a passion and capacity.

Play sports? Then offer to coach Little League. Bake?

Then bring cookies to firefighters, bread to shut-ins. Sing?

Take your talent to the local hospital.

Sure, any of this takes time, but if you volunteer to do what you love, you will get a great bang for your buck. The parts of you that you love will have a chance to shine and your passion will inspire others. Studies show those who give feel great.

And the world will be a better place.

When love takes center stage, we poise ourselves for success.

When we feel strong about ourselves, we are more capable of hearing the criticism that will undoubtedly come. When we know we are lovable, loved and capable of sharing love, then we can work toward making the New Year that Rosh Hashanah ushers in one of light, goodness and change.

RABBI RUTH ABUSCHMAGDER PH.D. is the rabbi-inresidence at Be’chol Lashon and the editor of the blog Jewish&. A culinary historian and mother of two, she lives and meditates in San Francisco. Follow her on Twitter @rabbiruth.

(This story originally appeared on the Rabbis Without Borders blog on MyJewishLearning.com.)

NATION | WORLD

24 | September 12, 2014

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says the evolution of same-sex marriage reflects the genius of the U.S. Constitution.

FROM PAGE 1

YEAR IN REVIEW

Obama says the U.S. focus in the Middle East will be keeping Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and advancing IsraeliPalestinian peace. Meanwhile, in a meeting with U.S. Jewish leaders, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas says he is more hopeful now for peace than he was in in 2005.

The Foundation for Jewish Culture, a 53-year-old organization dedicated to promoting Jewish culture and the arts, announces it is closing.

Larry Ellison, CEO of the technology company Oracle, is ranked as the richest Jew in the United States, according to the Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans, which puts Ellison at No. 3. Other Jews making the top 20 are Michael Bloomberg (10, $31 billion); Sheldon Adelson (11, $28.5 billion); Sergey Brin (14, $24.4 billion); George Soros (19, $20 billion); and Marc Zuckerberg (20, $19 billion).

Ruth Bader Ginsburg becomes the fi rst U.S. Supreme

Court justice to preside over a same-sex marriage, the wedding ceremony of Michael Kaiser and John Roberts.

October 2013

A landmark study of U.S. Jews by the Pew Research Center fi nds the Jewish intermarriage rate has risen to 58 percent and that among the 22 percent of American Jews who describe themselves as having no religion, two-thirds are not raising their children as Jews.

The survey also estimates the U.S. Jewish population at 6.8 million, roughly the same estimate arrived at by Brandeis University researchers analyzing 350 separate population studies.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, a pan-European intergovernmental organization, overwhelmingly passes a resolution calling male ritual circumcision a “violation of the physical integrity of children”

The Jewish Voice

and putting it in the same class as female genital mutilation.

Israeli President Shimon Peres joins the chorus of voices protesting the decision. In November, the group’s leader assures Jews that the council does not seek to ban Jewish ritual circumcision.

A day after meeting with President Obama, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells the U.N. General Assembly that Israel is ready to go it alone against Iran should it come close to obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the Israeli sage who founded the Sephardic Orthodox Shas political party and exercised major influence on Jewish law, dies at age 93.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is named the fi rst recipient of the Genesis Prize, a $1 million award for a renowned professional capable of inspiring young Jews. The prize is funded by a consortium of Jewish philanthropists from the former Soviet Union.

Arieh Warshel, a U.S. professor born and educated in Israel, and ex-Weizmann Institute professor Michael Levitt are among the winners of the 2013 Nobel Prize for chemistry.

Two Orthodox rabbis from the New York area and two accomplices are arrested for allegedly kidnapping and beating men to force them to grant their wives religious Jewish divorces, or gets.

Israeli forces discover a “terror tunnel” running from Gaza to an Israeli kibbutz. The tunnel is full of explosives and ends near an Israeli kindergarten.

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Janet Yellen is named head of the U.S. Federal Reserve, becoming the third (in a row) American Jewish head of the central bank, and the fi rst woman to hold the post.

Movement leaders at the centennial conference of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism in Baltimore agree that significant rejuvenation is needed if Conservative Judaism is to reverse its negative trajectory.

November 2013

Semen Domnitser, the former Claims Conference employee who was found guilty of leading a $57 million fraud scheme at the Holocaust restitution organization, is sentenced to eight years in prison. The scheme entails falsifying applications to two funds established by the German government to make restitution payments to Holocaust survivors.

In a survey of 5,847 European Jews, nearly one-third of respondents say they “seriously considered emigrating” from Europe because of anti-Semitism.

German authorities begin taking steps to identify the provenance of more than 1,400 works of Holocaust-era art found in the Munich home of Cornelius Gurlitt.

Joseph Paul Franklin is

executed for killing a man at a St. Louis-area synagogue in 1977. Franklin, 63, shot Gerald Gordon outside the Brith Sholom Kneseth Israel synagogue as Gordon left a bar mitzvah.

Franklin also is convicted of seven other murders throughout the United States and claims credit for 20 deaths between 1977 and 1980.

Forty families belonging to the haredi Orthodox extremist group Lev Tahor consider fleeing their Quebec homes out of fears that Canadian welfare authorities are poised to seize their children.

The United States and a coalition of world powers reach a six-month agreement with Iran to curb the country’s nuclear program in exchange for some sanctions relief while negotiations for a fi nal settlement on Iran’s nuclear program are conducted. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pans the deal as a “historic mistake.”

The deal goes into effect on Jan. 20.

December 2013

Swarthmore’s Hillel chapter becomes the fi rst to join the so-called Open Hillel movement, which challenges Hillel International’s guidelines prohibiting partnerships with groups it deems hostile toward Israel. Hillel boards at Vassar and Wesleyan soon follow suit.

The Union for Reform Judaism announces at its biennial conference in San Diego that it has sold off half its headquarters in New York and is investing $1 million from the proceeds to overhaul the movement’s youth programming.

The membership of the American Studies Association endorses a boycott of Israeli universities. The controversial decision comes after months of debate and prompts several American schools to with-

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JVH_9/12/2014_Layout 1 9/3/14 1:57 PM Page 1

September 12, 2014 |

25

draw from the association in protest and dozens more to condemn the move.

Gal Gadot, an Israeli actress who is a former Miss Israel, is cast as Wonder Woman in the upcoming film “Batman vs. Superman.”

Jacob Ostreicher, a New York businessman held in Bolivia since 2011, returns to the United States, in part thanks to efforts by actor Sean Penn.

Ostreicher was managing a rice-growing venture in Bolivia when he was arrested on suspicion of money laundering and accused of doing business with drug dealers.

The Native American and Indigenous Studies Association becomes the third U.S. academic body in less than a year to recommend that its members boycott Israeli universities.

After being pardoned by Russian President Vladimir Putin, former Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky is released from prison and leaves Russia, where he spent 10 years behind bars.

Ph i la nt h ropist Edga r Bronfman dies in New York at 84. An heir to the Seagram›s beverage fortune, Bronfman was a longtime advocate on behalf of Jewish causes. He served as the head of the World Jewish Congress and financed many efforts to strengthen Jewish identity.

Amid a public debate in France over an allegedly anti-Semitic gesture called the quenelle, the French media publish a photo of a man performing it outside the Toulouse school where four Jews were murdered. Several French cities later announce they have banned performances by the comedian who popularized the salute, Dieudonne M’bala M’bala.

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26 | September 12, 2014

COMMUNITY

The Jewish Voice

Work on the new classrooms is moving along. At left, old offices are demolished. Above, a classroom takes shape. The location is the ground floor of the Dwares JCC in the area that some remember as the Bureau of Jewish Education.

PHOTOS | FRAN OSTENDORF

FROM PAGE 1

RENOVATIONS

renovations have begun,” said Jeffrey Savit, president and CEO of the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island. “I

encourage everyone to come see our beautifully renovated pool. The women’s locker room has been nicely updated, and

t s b J raising funds to raise the community

the men’s locker room will be updated soon.”

“Bonnie and I are thrilled to see the start of the major renovations to the center, and especially in the preschool area,” said Donald Dwares. “David’s original contribution to the school inspired us to make our gift to the center as we felt that the JCC is the most important Jewish service institution in the community, and it was defi nitely in need of a complete overhaul.”

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Dwares also said, “I’m looking forward to the public seeing exactly what the JCC will look like in the future. It will knock their socks off and, needless to say, add a wonderful sense of pride to the entire Jewish community.”

In 2012, the Isenberg family originally gave a gift to update the playground.

Now, they have pledged $250,000 to renovate the entire preschool.

“It will knock their socks off and, needless to say, add a wonderful sense of pride to the entire Jewish community” Three new classrooms are in the works. And the present classroom layout will change.

Age-related classrooms will be grouped so teachers can collaborate more easily. Eventually, even the entrance to the preschool will move to the planned Dwares JCC entrance at the back of the building.

According to Daniel Hamel, chief operating officer of the Alliance, the preschool renovations will continue throughout the school year until the entire space is renovated. “We’re expanding into new space and renovating existing space,” he said.

Work on existing classrooms will be done so nobody will feel much disruption, according to Nicole Katzman, director of the Early Childhood Center. The result will allow increased enrollment in the preschool and

infant toddler center. And the newly upgraded facilities will enhance the programming quality.

“I am so excited that phase one of the Dwares renovations has begun, and I look forward to welcoming our preschool families to the David C. Isenberg Family Early Childhood Center,” Savit said.

Once the preschool renovations are complete, this fall, attention will shift to the main entrance of the building. By the end of the project, it is anticipated there will be two new entrances, an updated upstairs lobby and a new downstairs lobby, enhanced security and a better flow throughout the building. The Holocaust Education Resource Center and the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association will be relocated to areas with better access and a higher profi le. Handicapped access will be much improved.

All these upgrades are designed to enhance the membership experience and make the building a more inclusive community center, welcoming to all.

“It’s going to be a better, more inviting experience coming into the building,” says Hamel.

And, as Harold Foster, facilities committee chairman for the Alliance, pointed out, “This project and all other projects included in the Dwares JCC renovations are being funded in full by private donations earmarked solely for this effort.

“No monies from the Alliance operating budget or monies that would have otherwise been allocated elsewhere are being used or will ever be used in the renovations,” he said.

FRAN OSTENDORF is editor of The Jewish Voice.

COMMUNITY

thejewishvoice.org

Isenberg Family Playground.

A nice playground, he believes, can make a difference when a family is choosing a school for a preschooler. And it allows the school to continue to innovate its programming as well. “I like to feel that the playground has made an impact,� he says with a smile.

And Isenberg points out that enrollment has gone up since improvements were made to the playground.

Imagine what will happen when the preschool is renovated. “It’s a big decision as to where you send your children,� he points out. There’s nothing more important than a child’s developing mind. And he credits Katzman for having a vision that he shares for the preschool.

Inspired by his deep roots in the community, he’s giving back in order for the community to have an even better school. “I want parents to become part of the community; I want them to have a lot of pride in the school. � “David believes in what we’re doing here,� says Katzman. “He wants the children to have a place to succeed.�

Isenberg’s interest in the children of Providence isn’t confined just to the Jewish community. He’s been involved with the Providence Children’s Museum for a number of years.

Isenberg grew up in Providence, a wonderful, embracing community, he says. He went into business – Chex Finer Food – with his father 45 years ago. “I worked with my dad till he was

September 12, 2014 |

27

82,� he says. He maintains that most people don’t know what it’s like to start a business unless you have one. And that is a good thing, it seems. Now, sons Jeremy and Michael are in the business. “They’ve done a terrific job,� he says. “I hope the younger generation takes note of these acts of giving and taking care of things,� says the proud father and grandfather. “I want parents to become part of the community; I want them to have a lot of pride� in the school.

And he looks forward to seeing the David C. Isenberg Family Early Childhood Center take shape.

FRAN OSTENDORF is the editor of The Jewish Voice.

David Isenberg

ISENBERG

facility. “And there’s the Jewish values.� Sponsoring the Early Childhood Center maintains the good deeds Isenberg says he values most: “Helping out, giving back, making a difference.�

I have a vision that if the facility could be world-class, everything good could follow.� “It’s very exciting when good things are going on,� he says.

And he sees tremendous possi-

bilities in the preschool.

Isenberg’s interest in helping the preschool started several years ago when his granddaughter mentioned the condition of the playground. In his typical style, he was inspired to act.

Pretty soon, he was talking to ECC director Nicole Katzman about exactly what was needed to fix it up.

And since 2012, the kids have been playing on the David C.

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28 | September 12, 2014

ARTS

The Jewish Voice

PHOTO | DAVID HOLLOWAY/TCM

Film educator Eric Goldman (right), organizer of “The Projected Image: The Jewish Experience on Film,” in conversation with Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne.

Turner Classic Movies showcases ‘broad sweep’ of the Jewish experience on film

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BY MICHELE ALPERIN JNS.ORG – Since 2006, the Turner Classic Movies (TCM) cable and satellite TV network has hosted “The Projected Image,” a month-long showcase examining how different cultural and ethnic groups have been portrayed on the big screen. At last, after previously covering African Americans, Asians, the LGBT community, Latinos, Native Americans, Arabs, and people with disabilities, the annual series is delving into Jewish fi lm this month.

“The Projected Image: The Jewish Experience on Film,” whose fi rst segment aired Sept.

2, runs again on each of the next four Tuesdays at 8 p.m. EST. New Jersey-based fi lm educator Eric Goldman organized the showcase with TCM producer Gary Freedman.

“I [wouldn’t have been] thrilled with doing ‘The Image of the Jew,’ whether it was a good or bad depiction,” Goldman told JNS.org. “I wanted it to be ‘The Jewish Experience.’

I wanted a broad sweep – how Israel, the Shoah (Holocaust), prejudice, and anti-Semitism affect Jews.”

Freedman, who had produced several of the aforementioned cultural showcases for TCM, had been pushing for a Jewish festival for several years. He told JNS.org that he has a particular love for Israeli fi lms, attributing his feeling to the Jewish state’s fi lm industry being relatively new, innovative and freewheeling with storytelling, and surprisingly apolitical.

The moment when the Jewish fi lm showcase was conceived came when TCM got the rights to “Gentleman’s Agreement,” an 1947 Academy Award-winning fi lm about a reporter who pretends to be Jewish to cover a story about anti-Semitism and personally experiences bigotry and hatred.

Goldman, the founder and president of the Ergo Media video publishing company, worked

with Freedman to develop the showcase’s seven themes: the evolving Jew, the immigrant experience, the Holocaust, Israeli classics, the Jewish homeland, tackling prejudice, and coming-of-age stories. During the selection process, the organizers found that fi lms were sometimes difficult to obtain or too expensive, but they ultimately assembled a lineup of fi lms that they consider reflective of Jewish life and its challenges.

“I wouldn’t have been thrilled with doing ‘The Image of the Jew,’ whether it was a good or bad depiction.”

For the Israeli segment, Goldman wanted to feature rarely screened early fi lms. One target was the 1949 fi lm “Sword in the Desert,” made by an independent producer with Universal Studios and starring Dana Andrews, Jeff Chandler, Steve McNally, and Märta Torén, which tells the story of illegal immigrants coming ashore in Mandatory Palestine and running from the British. TCM initially had difficulty getting its hands on “Sword in the Desert,” but ironically, after failing with Universal and major U.S. archives, organizers found what Goldman called “a somewhat anti-British fi lm” at the British Film Institute.

Also included is the fi rst fi lm produced in Israel, 1955’s “Hill 24 Doesn’t Answer,” which was directed by a Brit. “They didn’t feel anyone in Israel was capable [of producing a fi lm] yet,” said Goldman.

The “Hill 24 Doesn’t Answer” cast included international actors as well as Israelis, three of whom wound up playing important roles in Israeli culture:

Haya Harareet, who played opposite Charlton Heston in “Ben-Hur”; Margalit Oved, who became a dancer and choreographer; and Arik Lavie, who became a well-known Israeli balladeer.

The 1964 fi lm “Sallah” got caught up in Israeli bureaucracy. Although TCM had an agreement with Israel to obtain the fi lm, it had not yet been sent and no one in Israel was answering the network’s calls. As time was running out and TCM was getting frantic, Goldman came to the rescue. “I have had many dealings with Israeli fi lm people, and it’s not atypical for something to get lost,” he said.

Goldman made lots of calls and didn’t take no for an answer.

Finally, he spoke to the general manager who had access to the fi lm – with a baby crying in the background – and the problem was resolved.

Goldman said he was not initially so thrilled about showing “Exodus,” based on Leon Uris’s book of the same name, as part of the TCM series because so many people have already seen it. But after introducing the fi lm at last year’s New York Jewish Film Festival, expecting to leave promptly after his 5-10 minute talk before the screening, he watched the fi lm and changed his mind. “[‘Exodus’] is long and a little dated, but so important in terms of the impact it had on American Jewish life and how Americans in general perceived Israel and connected with Israel,” he said. “For most people, it was their fi rst opportunity to connect with Israel visually.

Goldman chose a couple of controversial fi lms to illustrate the “tackling prejudice” theme.

One was 1934’s “House of Rothschild,” whose production the Anti-Defamation League tried to stop. In fact, when Goldman saw the opening scene – in MOVIE | 29

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September 12, 2014 |

29

News Briefs She and her musician husband, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, were divorced earlier this year.

Jewish leadership initiative hires Gali Cooks

Gwyneth Paltrow reportedly converting to Judaism

JTA – Actress Gwyneth Paltrow reportedly is converting to Judaism.

The New York Post reported that Paltrow, the daughter of a Jewish father, was converting, citing “sources.”

Paltrow has been following the Kabbalah movement for several years and is friends with Michael Berg, co-director of the Kabbalah Centre in Los Angeles, according to the Post.

P a l t r o w ’s r e p r e s e n t a t i v e did not respond to questions from the newspaper.

Her father is the late fi lm producer Br uce Pa lt row and she reportedly is descended from a long line of Eastern European rabbis.

Paltrow told an event in London hosted by the Jewish community’s Community Security Trust that she wants to raise her children, Apple, 10, and Moses, 8, in a “Jewish environment.”

FROM PAGE 28

New sergeant is highestranking Hasid in NYPD history

JTA – A Hasidic New York Police Department officer was promoted to sergeant, making him the department’s highestranking Hasid ever.

Joel Witriol of Brooklyn attended the promotion ceremony Sept. 5 in traditional Hasidic garb, according to the New York Post.

His Sabbath observance will be accommodated at his new post in the 13th Precinct in Manhattan.

Witriol joined the force in 2006 at age 24, becoming the fi rst Hasidic officer, the Post reported. He started as a volunteer auxiliary officer in 2003.

His brother also is a member of the NYPD, which has many Jewish officers but few hasidim, according to the NY1 television station.

MOVIE

which a Jewish moneylender, played by British actor George Arliss, puts a coin in his mouth to test its authenticity – he said he squirmed a little.

But when viewers “see where the fi lm goes and [that] it is portraying how this Jew—who is forced to be a moneylender, who can’t own land—is persecuted by the Prussians,” they should realize that the Prussians were stand-ins for Germans and that “House of Rothschild” is an anti-Nazi fi lm, explained Goldman.

The actual version of the fi lm that TCM is using sheds light on the history of fi lm. The concluding scene is in Technicolor, a three-color process that produced magnificent color and did not fade with time, according to Goldman. When the fi lm was made, the creators of Technicolor were trying to convince studios to try it out, and they decided to incorporate 3-4 minutes of it in the concluding scene of “House of Rothschild.”

Both “House of Rothschild” and “Gentleman’s Agreement” were produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, who was in his 30s and sought to fight prejudice.

He was the only head of a ma-

jor fi lm studio at the time who wasn’t Jewish.

The third “tackling prejudice” fi lm is 1947’s “Crossfi re,” about a man apparently murdered by a soldier who was part of a group that had just gotten out of the army. The last fi lm in that category, “Focus,” was drawn from an Arthur Miller novel, but flamed out quickly in theaters because it was released right after the 9/11 attacks, when fewer people were in the mood to go to the movies.

TCM’s Holocaust segment opens with 1953’s “The Juggler,” starring Kirk Douglas as a survivor having difficulty integrating into Israeli society.

It was shot in Israel at a time when nobody in America was producing similar fi lms. The director, Edward Dmytryk, a Polish Catholic who grew up in an anti-Semitic household, was behind three fi lms Goldman considers among the most philo-Semitic ever made: “The Juggler,” “Crossfi re,” and “The Young Lions” (1958), which tackled antiSemitism in the military.

The opening fi lm of the Holocaust segment is Orson Welles’s “The Stranger” (1946), about a Nazi war criminal who escapes

JTA – Gali Cooks was named executive director of the Jewish Leadership Pipelines Alliance, a newly formed group aimed at fi nding and developing leaders for Jewish nonprofits.

Cooks, the founding director of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation’s highly regarded PJ Library, will start in her new post on Oct. 13, the alliance announced Sept. 8. She also was the executive director of the Rita J. & Stanley H. Kaplan Family Foundation.

“Gali brings a unique professional skill set, a start-up mentality and deep institutional respect to this role,” said Rachel Garbow Monroe, CEO of The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation and chair of the Jewish Leadership Pipelines Alliance. “Her passion will help us support, champion and build efforts that will ensure a vibrant future for Jewish nonprofits across North America.”

The alliance was convened to address what is expected to be a major turnover of senior executives at Jewish nonprofits in the next five to seven years.

to America, marries a judge’s daughter, and tries to make a place for himself. He is pursued by a Nazi hunter, played by Edward G. Robinson, who confronts the Nazi’s wife and, when she refuses to believe him, screens for her footage from the Holocaust. “The footage was compiled by Americans, largely to show to Germans; it was not really seen in this country to a great extent, and here it was in middle of a fictional fi lm,” said Goldman, adding that Wells was very liberal, passionate about rights and freedom, and a staunch opponent of bigotry and prejudice.

Kicking off the series on Sept.

2 were “The Evolving Jew” and “The Immigrant Experience.

“The Evolving Jew” featured two of the four fi lm versions of “The Jazz Singer”: Al Jolson’s early sound fi lm from 1927, and the 1952 remake starring Danny Thomas. The juxtaposition of the two versions illustrates societal change over time.

“In the 50s [version],” said Goldman, “both father and son were college grads and the rabbi was called ‘Dr.,’ and you see where the Jew has come in the years in between [the two versions].”

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The Jewish Voice

Henry Waxman’s retirement ends era in L.A. Jewish politics

BY ANTHONY WEISS LOS ANGELES (JTA) – When Rep. Henry Waxman, who will turn 75 in September, retires at the end of this year after 46 years in elected office, it will mark more than just the end of a storied career as one of the most prolific lawmakers in Congress.

It will also draw the curtain on a generation of Jewish politicians in Los Angeles.

In 2012, Waxman’s longtime friend and ally Rep. Howard Berman lost his reelection battle to fellow Rep. Brad Sherman after redistricting left them competing for the same seat.

This is also the final year in office for L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who has been a dominant figure in local politics since 1975.

“It is the end of an era,” Yaroslavsky told JTA. “We’re all parts of the same generation.

We can all finish each others’ sentences.”

When Waxman, who is a Democrat, announced his retirement from Congress in January, President Obama hailed him as “one of the most accomplished legislators of his or any era.”

Waxman established a national reputation for shepherding landmark legislation like the Affordable Care Act and the 1990 revisions to the Clear Air Act and leading dramatic congressional hearings on such matters as tobacco and AIDS policy.

“He became probably the

FROM PAGE 10

greatest warrior in the last 50 years for federal social policy, and probably the most remarkable member of the House of Representatives to serve since the Johnson era,” said Raphael Sonenshein, executive director of the Pat Brown Institute at Cal State Los Angeles, a nonpartisan public policy institute.

Neither Waxman’s person nor his personality are outsized.

His modest height – he stands 5 feet, 5 inches tall – and his soft, precise manner of speaking belie his giant political stature and the bulldog reputation he attained on Capitol Hill. Now he’s winding down his career in relative quiet, collecting awards and sorting through the papers he has accumulated since he was elected to Congress in 1974.

“When I think about the things I wanted to do, so much of that has happened,” Waxman told JTA in an interview in his office, ticking through a laundry list of policies for which he has pressed: health care reform, tobacco regulation, nutrition labels, the Clean Air Act. His spare district office on Wilshire Boulevard sits a few miles west of the once-Jewish Boyle Heights neighborhood where he was born. It’s also on the edge of West Los Angeles, where Waxman and much of the rest of the city’s Jews moved as they prospered. The area has served as the base for his political career.

Waxman was born to the children of Jewish immigrants

CAUCUS

Nonetheless, pro -Israel groups have noted the tendency

among Democrats in particular — and Jewish Democrats

from Bessarabia. When he was relatively young, his family moved from Boyle Heights to South-Central Los Angeles, an increasingly African-American neighborhood where his father opened a grocery store.

“I always felt that living in an area that wasn’t solid Jewish made me even more Jewish,” Waxman said.

Politics ran in the family bloodlines. His uncle, Al Waxman, published a pair of local newspapers, including one that opposed Japanese internment during World War II, and was appointed to L.A.’s first committee on air pollution – then promptly was kicked off when he fingered major local industries as culprits. Waxman’s parents brought him up with liberal values and an allegiance to the Democratic Party.

“We always talked about politics,” Waxman said. “My parents imbued me with an attachment to the Democratic Party and to the fact that government is essential to the role nobody else would play to make this a more just society.”

Waxman and Berman met as members of the Young Democrats at UCLA and began their careers battling against the city’s conservative establishment. They were part of the political reform coalition between blacks and white liberals (many of them Jews) led by future mayor Tom Bradley.

The two rising Jewish politicians also took on the state Democratic machine led by State Assembly Speaker Jesse Unruh, building their own political operation (along with Berman’s younger brother, political consultant Michael Berman) that came to be known as the Waxman-Berman Machine.

Using then-innovative political tactics such as targeted direct mail, slates of favored candidates, and tapping Waxman’s affluent base in West Los Angeles for campaign funds, they helped elect an entire cohort of like-minded politicians to office in California. Many, though certainly not all, were Jews.

They initially opposed Yaroslavsky in favor of a Bradley ally, but Yaroslavsky subsequently became a close political partner.

“They really represented the high water mark of Jewish political officeholding in Southern

California, and then it spread their influence to Washington,” Sonenshein said. “From the city to state to county to the U.S. Congress, these guys were at the forefront.”

In 1974, Waxman was elected to an open seat for Congress.

For the next 40 years, Waxman used his secure perch in western Los Angeles – aided by friendly districts drawn by Michael Berman – to become one of the most influential domestic policy legislators in the country. The walls of his district office feature framed front pages from the Los Angeles Times commemorating the passage of the Affordable Care Act, one of Waxman’s capstone achievements.

His secure perch wobbled in 2012 when an independent redistricting commission redrew his district, making it less Democratic and less Jewish. Waxman survived the closest race of his career against a self-funded independent, Bill Bloomfield, who spent millions of dollars of his own money in the race and came within eight points of Waxman.

Though he’s stepping down, Waxman says he is confident he could have kept winning. But he says he didn’t want to spend a year raising money and campaigning only to return to the minority in the House of Representatives.

Besides, he said, 40 years in Congress “was a good, round number.”

among them — to criticize Israel in tougher tones than was imaginable a decade ago.

During the recent Gaza war, Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Ky., who is Jewish, told MSNBC, “I fail to see what an Israeli incursion into Gaza, how that’s going to solve the long-term problem.

Gaza is itself a problem and the Palestinians are essentially quarantined there; that’s the polite word.”

In that July 26 broadcast, he called the civilian deaths in Gaza a “tragedy of enormous proportions.”

Even among Jewish lawmakers not known for directly challenging Israel, there has been a change in tone. Last week, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., met with Yair Lapid, the Israeli finance minister who has been critical of Netanyahu’s recent settlement expansion bid, and

on Twitter aligned himself with Lapid – and by implication Obama.

“Agree w/Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid on need to return to negotiations & being against any swift changes in the West Bank right now,” Nadler tweeted.

Yarmuth, in an interview with JTA, said support for Israel – including his own – was unassailable but more “nuanced,” in part because of support for members

by J Street, the Jewish lobbying group that forcefully backs U.S. involvement in bringing about a two-state solution.

“American Jewry has become more nuanced in its opinions on the Middle East with regards to opinions on Israel and the Palestinians,” Yarmuth told JTA. “J Street reflects that diversity.”

How best to pitch Israel to liberals and Democrats has been

the focus of pro-Israel groups in recent months. Most recently, Frank Luntz, a Republican political consultant and pollster who has worked with centrist pro-Israel groups, last week addressed a monthly meeting of Jewish professionals and noted with alarm what other pollsters have found: Israel is hemorrhaging support among traditional Democratic constituencies, including women and minorities.

In a Powerpoint presentation obtained by JTA, Luntz – famous for shaping the language that brought Republicans to congressional power in 1994 – suggested progressive-friendly phrases when making Israel’s case. Among “words to use,” he suggested “mutual understanding and mutual respect.”

Among “words to lose,” he derided “Israel is not stalling” and “Peace takes two.”

Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., another lawmaker endorsed

by J Street, said the long-range view on Israel among Jewish lawmakers was the same, regardless of whether they were more ideologically aligned with AIPAC or J Street.

If Jewish members are divided, he said, it is over “different ideas over how to make Israel viable for eternity.”

Rep. Henry Waxman

RON KAMPEAS is JTA’s Washington bureau chief.

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31

Showbiz meets shtetl : Helping Hollywood get Hasidim right

BY MIRIAM MOSTER NEW YORK (JTA) – When it comes to Hasidic characters in movies, film consultant Elli Meyer believes that the real deal trumps a random actor in costume.

But that approach isn’t without its challenges.

Meyer, a New York-based Lubavitcher Hasid, recounted one occasion when he was hired to cast extras for a film but refused upon learning that shooting would take place on Yom Kippur.

“Who told you to hire Jews?” one of the producers said, according to Meyer, though ultimately the shooting was postponed.

Meyer is among a handful of Jews from haredi Orthodox backgrounds who have carved out an unusual niche in show business as occasional consultants on films and TV shows aiming to authentically depict Hasidic life.

These consultants often find themselves having to dispel misconceptions about Hasidim as they advise on language, costuming and plot, sometimes even stepping into rabbinic roles as explainers of Jewish law.

Meyer, 59, has been doing this kind of work for a decade. In 2014 alone he has acted in, consulted on or done casting work for more than half a dozen TV shows or movies.

He said he was motivated to get into the consulting business because he was appalled by the sloppiness of many depictions of Hasidic Jews.

“They think they can slap on an Amish hat and a long black robe, and they’ve created a Hasid,” he said of directors and producers in general.

Isaac Schonfeld, a graduate of Yeshiva Shaar Hatorah high school in Queens and an Orthodox Jew, has consulted on several independent films.

Most recently, Schonfeld consulted for the 2013 comedy “Fading Gigolo” directed by John Turturro, who stars as a novice prostitute being pimped out to female clients by a friend played by Woody Allen. One of the major plot lines focuses on a budding romance that develops between Turturro’s character and a lonely Hasidic widow who hires him as a masseur.

Schonfeld brought Turturro and several crew members to a regular social gathering he runs in New York called Chulent that is popular among many former Hasidim and others on the margins of the haredi world.

Other acquaintances of Schonfeld also helped with the film. One, Malky Lipshitz, contributed religious artwork and consulted with Vanessa Paradis, the French actress who played the Hasidic woman in the film. Others submitted voice recordings for actor Liev Schreiber to use to practice his inflection in his role as a mem-

ber of a Hasidic community patrol vying for the widow’s affections.

Schonfeld pointed to one significant change that resulted from his advice. He said that Turturro had planned to name the Hasidic widow after a friend’s wife named Avital, wrongly believing it to be an authentic-sounding Hasidic name. Schonfeld noted that some people have a tendency to believe that Israeli and haredi names are interchangeable.

Film consultants do not always agree with one another on what makes for the most authentic depiction of Hasidim.

Schonfeld recommended similar alternatives that would be more plausibly Hasidic but would still accommodate Turturro’s attachments and artistic considerations. In the end Avital was named Avigal.

But the naming of characters was a minor challenge compared to another conundrum: finding a word for “pimp” in Yiddish to be used in a scene before a rabbinic court where

Allen’s character is accused of providing a male prostitute for a Hasidic woman. Finding the one word, “alfons,” rarely if ever used in contemporary Hasidic parlance, required a significant amount of research on Schonfeld’s part.

When it comes to meticulousness, “Fading Gigolo” does not stand alone. “Felix and Meira,” a forthcoming independent Canadian film that follows a Hasidic woman from Montreal who engages in an extramarital affair with a non-Jewish man, also required significant research, consultation and visits to the haredi community.

Several former Hasidim consulted for the film in varying capacities. Rivka Katz, formerly a Lubavitcher Hasid, consulted on the script, while Luzer Twersky and Melissa Weisz, who attended Satmar Hasidic schools growing up, both acted and consulted. Twersky plays the protagonist’s husband and Weisz has the part of a Hasidic woman, a minor character in the film.

They pointed to the verisimilitude of a scene set during a Shabbat meal.

“The shtreimel [fur Hasidic hat] was real, the bekeshe [frock coat] was real, the chicken soup was real,” Twersky said of the scene.

Even though it was not shot on the actual Sabbath, the scene seemed so authentic that

Weisz, who acted in the scene, said that on a visceral level it felt wrong to be engaging in unShabbat-like activity like filmmaking.

Afterward, when conversation turned to the movie, “I got mad,” Weisz recalled, “because they shouldn’t be talking about that on Shabbos.”

But film consultants do not always agree with one another on what makes for the most authentic depiction of Hasidim.

On Twitter, Twersky had criticized the 2010 movie “Holy Rollers,” starring Jesse Eisenberg as a drug-running yeshiva student, for its costuming choices and other issues. He tweeted: “guys with peyos don’t wear short suits and fedora hats.”

Meyer, who worked on the film, says he advises a “mish-

mosh look,” piecing together the hat from one Hasidic sect and the side curls of another, unless the director has a particular sect in mind.

To Twersky, that was one of several of the film’s failings.

But he acknowledges that departures from authentic portrayals of Hasidic life are not always such a bad thing.

“We need to get over the fact that we don’t own the story of Hasidic Jews,” Twersky said.

He noted that artistic considerations often result in departures from reality.

“Nobody wants to see regular people doing regular things,” Twersky said. “That’s not a movie.”

32 | September 12, 2014

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The Jewish Voice

PHOTOS COURTESY | BROWN RISD HILLEL

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How Jewish reporters in Muslim lands hide their identity

BY RON KAMPEAS WASHINGTON (JTA) – Don’t bring it up. If it comes up, change the subject. If you can’t change the subject, consider an outright denial.

Those are some of the strategies used by Jewish reporters working in the Arab and Muslim Middle East to conceal their religious heritage.

The dangers facing Jewish journalists in the region became evident last week after the beheading of a dual AmericanIsraeli citizen, Steven Sotloff, by the jihadist group Islamic State, or ISIS. It’s not known whether ISIS was aware that Sotloff was Jewish. Colleagues believe his kidnapping by ISIS-affiliated terrorists in 2013 in Syria was one of opportunity and not a deliberate targeting. James Foley, another journalist kidnapped by ISIS and beheaded last month by the terror group, was Catholic.

However, Sotloff’s family in South Florida, his friends and colleagues – indeed much of the journalistic community – went to lengths to conceal his family’s deep involvement in the Jewish community and his Israeli citizenship in order not to draw his captors’ attention to a factor that may have exacerbated his ordeal. JTA did not report on his captivity for the same reason.

The captors of Daniel Pearl, a Wall Street Journal correspondent kidnapped and beheaded by terrorists in Pakistan in 2002, made a point of his Jewishness.

In the video showing his execution, they included Pearl saying “My father is Jewish, my mother is Jewish. I am a Jew” among his final words.

“We send our deepest condolences to the family of Steven Sotloff,” Pearl’s parents, Judea and Ruth, said in a statement

emailed to JTA. “We know too well the pain of such horrific loss. Once again the world has seen the horror of terrorism in action. We continue to find strength in the belief that united, civilization will triumph and humanity will prevail.”

As ethnic and sectarian origins loom large in every encounter, keeping Sotloff’s Jewish identity under wraps made sense, said Janine Zacharia, who has reported in the region for the Washington Post.

“For me, the first question whenever I met anyone in the Arab world was ‘where are you from,’ and they weren’t asking whether it was the United States or Canada — it was ‘are you a Muslim or a Jew?’ ” said Zacharia, who was based in Jerusalem for the Post from 2009 until 2011 and who now lectures at Stanford University.

“I would say, ‘I’m from New York or D.C.,’ and if they persisted, I would say ‘My grandfather is from Greece,’ which is true. I didn’t want to say what my religion was,” she said.

A not her Jer u sa lem-base d correspondent who asked not to be named because she is still reporting throughout the region said she drew on the experiences of extended family who are Christian to pretend she was as well.

“You hear it in conversation.

‘You’re not a Jew, are you?’ ” said this correspondent, who knew Sotloff. She said it was especially pronounced in Libya during the overthrow of Muammar Gadhafi there in 2011.

“There was so much indoctrination against Jews, but they didn’t know Jews.”

Suspicion of Jews is not straightforward, correspondents said. Often it is wrapped into other issues – for instance, being based at Jerusalem, which

hundreds of foreign journalists are. Many governments in the region tend to ban entry to correspondents, regardless of religious heritage, who are based in Israel.

When they are allowed in, Jerusalem correspondents traveling to Arab countries go to lengths to cover up any Israel ties: ripping tags out of clothes, leaving Israeli cash with trusted friends in transit cities, shutting down social media accounts.

It’s not just an Israel address that can raise mistrust. First impressions in the region often take into account one’s background and presumed loyalties.

Aaron Schachter, who was based in Lebanon and Jerusalem for the BBC in the last decade, said that in Lebanon, asking one’s background was a natural opening conversational gambit. But when the answer was “Jewish,” he said, there was a patina of suspicion that he called “creepy.”

“In Lebanon it was slightly threatening because everyone pays attention to what you are – Sunni, Shia – and it’s not unusual for someone to call attention to it, but at a point it’s vaguely threatening” for Jews, said Schachter, now an assignment editor for The World, a Public Radio International program.

“I know what you are,” he recalled an interlocutor affiliated with Hezbollah, the Lebanonbased group that repeatedly waged war with Israel, as saying. The man drew the conclusion, correctly, that Schachter was Jewish from his first name.

“I know they’re going to try to figure out who you are, whether a Maronite Christian or Orthodox Christian,” Schachter said.

“But when you have someone say ‘I know what you are,’ what is the purpose of that in the course of the conversation we’re

having?”

One thing journalists quickly learn is that the Jewish “tells” in the West don’t mean much in the Middle East. Jewish names obvious in the West are not at all so in the region, and stereotypical “Jewish looks” among westerners are indistinguishable from the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern features that are common throughout the Middle East.

“My name might have been Miriam Leah Goldbergstein, and I wouldn’t have worried,” said Lisa Goldman, who reported for various outlets in Lebanon and then in Cairo during the Arab Spring in 2011.

A non-Jewish Baghdad correspondent for a major U.S. outlet recalled that in 2009, she and another American staffer were alarmed when they learned that a U.S.-based staffer for the outlet was on his way in for a reporting stint. From his looks and name, she said, they immediately surmised he was Jewish.

Stoking their alarm was the fact that local Iraqi hires were unabashed in their anti-Jewish hostility, at least in conversation with the non-Jewish American staffers, said this correspondent who asked not to be named to speak freely.

So she and the other American devised a plan: The incoming reporter would be met in Amman, Jordan, by the local Iraqi hires and taken out for dinner before traveling to Baghdad. Neither the incoming reporter nor the Iraqis knew the true agenda of the dinner, and the Iraqis were not told that the reporter was Jewish.

Afterward, she recalled, she casually asked the local hires for their impressions of the newcomer — would he fit in? Their reactions were universally positive; no one had guessed he was

Jewish.

“It’s an issue,” said this correspondent, who knew Sotloff and after his kidnapping obsessively tracked on the Internet whether his Jewishness was exposed.

“There’s so much conspiracy indulgence,” she said. “There’s so much suspicion about spies, Israeli spies.”

Jamie Tarabay, a senior staff writer for Al Jazeera who is not Jewish, said the anti-Jewish hostility alarmed her during her reporting in Baghdad for a number of major U.S. outlets.

“All I know is that people who might have been Jewish in Baghdad, you kept it quiet, you did not talk about it,” she said.

Goldman said that the educated professionals she encountered in Lebanon and Egypt were at pains to distinguish between Jews and Zionists.

“People’s minds are very muddled, they talk about the people of the book, the tolerance that the Prophet had for the Jews, but they are aware most Jews support Israel as an identity issue,” said Goldman, now the director of the Israel-Palestine initiative at the New America Foundation, a think tank.

Goldman recalled a casual conversation she had in her pidgin Arabic with a cab driver in Cairo in 2011, during the uprising. The mood was festive and it began well, she said. “’Where are you from?’ ‘Canada.’ ‘Walla! Are you a Christian?’ ‘No I’m Jewish,’” Goldman recounted. “He must have changed color five times and went silent.”

She asked an Egyptian friend later about the encounter and was told that years of anti-Jewish government propaganda had left its mark. “ ‘He was probably wondering where your horns were,’ ” her friend told her.

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35

Israeli-founded company SuperDerivatives sells for $350 million Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org – Financial giant Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) has agreed to purchase the Israelifounded SuperDerivatives for an estimated $350 million.

The deal is for cash and is expected to be wrapped up some time in the last quarter of this year. ICE is assessed to be worth some $20 billion.

SuperDerivatives was founded in 2000 by Dr. David (Dudi) Gershon to bring transparency to option pricing, a complex field that uses complicated

mathematical formulas and models to arrive at pricing.

Its business headquarters are located in New York, and the company also has a research and development center in Tel Aviv.

ICE Chairman and CEO Jeffrey C. Sprecher told The Wall Street Journal that SuperDerivatives “is an innovative developer of valuable derivatives data and technology, and will play a key role in extending our financial market clearing and data capabilities.”

Madoff trustee Irving Picard seeks review of decision aiding Merkin JTA – The trustee charged with recovering funds for victims of Bernie Madoff’s fraud scheme said he will appeal a ruling that would decimate a lawsuit against financier J. Ezra Merkin.

Irving Picard asked a New York bankruptcy court on Sept.

5 to finalize a decision severely curtailing his $565 million lawsuit against Merkin, the hedge funder who helped fuel Madoff’s business, so that Picard could appeal to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, according to a report by the legal news website Law360.

The bankruptcy court decision, which was issued by Judge Stuart Bernstein on Aug. 12, dismissed 9 of the 13 charges filed

by Picard against Merkin on

the grounds that Picard could not prove that Merkin knew of Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. Merkin’s hedge funds were heavily invested with Madoff. Both men are Jewish.

Bernstein allowed the remaining charges, totaling $315 million, to proceed against Merkin, according to Reuters.

Picard’s move is the latest in a flurry of legal decisions and counter moves that have taken place over the last few weeks regarding the fallout from the Madoff financial fraud.

On Aug. 9, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Picard’s effort to overturn Merkin’s $410 million settlement, as well as the Fairfield Greenwich Group’s $80 million settlement

with the New York State Attorney General’s office. Picard had argued that the settlements inhibited his ability to recover funds for Madoff’s victims.

Meanwhile, on Aug. 28, Picard asked in a separate case for the right to replead in a suit against several banks, arguing that a pair of district court rulings earlier in the year had altered the legal standard for such cases.

In addition, on Aug. 22, Bernstein ruled that investors whose employers had invested retirement funds with Madoff could not recover their money, a ruling that Picard supported.

Picard has recovered a reported $9.8 billion out of an estimated $17.3 billion of principal lost in Madoff’s investment scheme.

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Emma Lazarus’ Newport connection

BY TOBY ROSSNER Almost everyone knows that Emma Lazarus wrote “The New Colossus,” the famous sonnet inscribed on a bronze tablet at the entrance to the Statue of Liberty. Already a famous poet in 1883, Lazarus was asked to contribute a poem to an auction to raise money for the statue’s Bartholdi Pedestal.

Very few of us are familiar with Lazarus’ 1867 poem “The Jewish Synagogue at Newport.”

Touro Synagogue, built in 1763, is the oldest standing synagogue still in use in the United States. When “The Jewish Synagogue at Newport” was composed, Touro Synagogue was not open for worship services because the Jewish population of Newport had dispersed after the Revolutionary War. Lazarus was familiar with Touro Synagogue because her family spent their summers in

Emma Lazarus Newport along with many others of New York’s cultural elite.

Even though Touro was officially closed, it was well maintained and was occasionally used for special occasions.

Lazarus’ poem was written as a response to Henry Wadsworth

Longfellow’s poem “The Jewish Cemetery at Newport.” The last stanza of the Longfellow poem included the phrase “dead nations never rise again.” Lazarus concentrated on the “living power” of the synagogue: “The sacred shrine is holy yet.”

“The Jewish Synagogue at Newport” used the same title format and the same meter as “The Jewish Cemetery at Newport.”

From Longfellow’s “The Jewish Cemetery at Newport”

How strange it seems!

These Hebrews in their graves, Close by the street of this fair seaport town, Silent beside the never-silent waves, At rest in all this moving up and down!

Emma Lazarus’ “In the Jewish Synagogue at Newport,” published in Lazarus’ 1871 collection “Ademtus and Other Poems” Here, where the noises of the busy town, The ocean’s plunge and roar can enter not, We stand and gaze around with tearful awe, And muse upon the consecrated spot.

No signs of life are here: the very prayers Inscribed around are in a language dead; The light of the “perpetual

lamp” is spent That an undying radiance was to shed.

What prayers were in this temple offered up, Wrung from sad hearts that knew no joy on earth, By these lone exiles of a thousand years, From the fair sunrise land that gave them birth!

How as we gaze, in this new world of light, Upon this relic of the days of old, The present vanishes, and tropic bloom And Eastern towns and temples we behold.

Again we see the patriarch with his flocks, The purple seas, the hot blue sky o’erhead, The slaves of Egypt, – omens, mysteries, – Dark fleeing hosts by flaming angels led.

A wondrous light upon a sky-kissed mount, A man who reads Jehovah’s written law, ‘Midst blinding glory and effulgence rare, Unto a people prone with reverent awe.

The pride of luxury’s barbaric pomp, In the rich court of royal

Solomon— Alas! we wake: one scene alone remains, – The exiles by the streams of Babylon.

Our softened voices send us back again But mournful echoes through the empty hall: Our footsteps have a strange unnatural sound, And with unwonted gentleness they fall.

The weary ones, the sad, the suffering, All found their comfort in the holy place, And children’s gladness and men’s gratitude ‘Took voice and mingled in the chant of praise.

The funeral and the marriage, now, alas!

We know not which is sadder to recall; For youth and happiness have followed age, And green grass lieth gently over all.

Nathless the sacred shrine is holy yet, With its lone floors where reverent feet once trod.

Take off your shoes as by the burning bush, Before the mystery of death and God.

New $250M fund announced for child survivors of Holocaust NEW YORK (JTA) – Germany and the Claims Conference are establishing a $250 million fund for child survivors of the Holocaust.

The fund will provide one-time payouts of approximately $3,280 (2,500 euros) to Jews born in 1928 or later who spent at least six months in Nazi concentration camps, in ghettos, in hiding or living under a false identity during World War II. The payouts are in addition to any other payments the survivors receive or have received.

Slated to open Jan. 1, the new fund is meant to recognize “psychological and medical trauma caused during their deprived childhoods,” Claims Conference President Julius Berman said.

Germany will provide approximately 75 percent of the money for the program. The balance will come from the Claims Conference’s so-called Successor Organization, which is funded by the sale

of Jewish properties recovered in the former East Germany for whom no heirs could be found.

The deal is subject to approval by the German Bundestag and the board of the Claims Conference. Once ratified, the Claims Conference will publish details about applying.

Greg Schneider, executive vice president of the Claims Conference, said the suffering these victims endured as children – the fund covers those who were 18 or younger during the war – is having an impact in their later years.

“Witnessing unimaginable atrocities, deprivation from proper nutrition and a range of injurious experiences has had a cumulative effect and are resulting in late-onset problems that only now are manifesting as physical and psychological symptoms,” Schneider said.

Warsaw monument to honor Poles from Shoah JTA – A design competition will be held for a memorial in Warsaw to Poles who saved Jews during World War II. Sigmund Rolat of the Remembrance and Future Foundation announced the competition at a news conference Sept. 8 in Warsaw.

Rolat, a Polish-born Holocaust survivor and philanthropist, said the designs would be judged by an international jury and the winner will be announced in April. The memorial is scheduled to be dedicated in the fall of 2015.

Rolat said the project will be financed entirely by Jews in Israel and other countries.

“This memorial will be an expression of gratitude, not of the [Polish] government or the city [of Warsaw], but of those Jews who were saved,” he said, according to Polish Radio.

More than 6,000 Poles have been named Righteous Among the Nations by the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Israel.

The monument is to be located on the site of the Warsaw Ghetto, near the new Museum of the History of Polish Jews, which

will have its grand opening on Oct. 28. Plans for the monument were originally announced a year ago.

The Warsaw City Council in March approved plans and appropriated funding for a second monument to the Polish Righteous, this one in the shape of a giant winding ribbon inscribed with the names of Poles who saved Jews, to be located next to the All Saints Church on Grzybowski Square, not far from the Nozyk synagogue.

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September 12, 2014 |

37

Pilgrimage to the West: Dreams, hopes, reality The travails of newly arrived immigrants and the tragedies that marked their fi rst few decades in the slums of lower Manhattan are well-documented by writers who placed more faith in authentic documentation than in nuanced mythology.

There are, indeed, many Jewish immigrants, who arrived about the onset of the OF SCIENCE 20th century and & SOCIETY established themselves STANLEY M. w i t h i n months of ARONSON, M.D. arrival.

Their children then attended college and their great-grandchildren were appointed as judges on some high court. But for every one such “successful” family, for every glicklicheh geschichte, there were at least five other families who lived their abbreviated lives in unforgiving poverty, subjected to a sequence of medical problems while struggling in urban anonymity.

An immense wave of newcomers to these shores, from 1870 to 1910, had altered the demographic profi le of the United States: From a population mainly Protestant with ancestry principally from the British Isles, to a population more diversified in geographic origins, religion and ethnicity. There had been writers, amidst this sea of diversity, who provided detailed chronicles of the lives of the Jewish immigrants to New York, Jews and non-Jews.

One such social scientist was

an immigrant himself. Jacob August Riis (1849-1914) was born in Denmark, found his way to these shores as a child, worked in a succession of laboring jobs and –through tenacity, innate skills – rose to become a major voice in understanding the plight of immigrants. Riis became a leader in social reform and a writer demanding equity and better living conditions for these newly arrived populations.

Although not Jewish himself, Riis wrote extensively of immigrant struggles to survive in an unfamiliar environment. At one point, he observed, “They [the Jewish immigrant families] have no training in hygiene; their homes are hopeless, the grind too unceasing. The teachers [of their children] have little hope for their students – and their future.” A grim picture.

The 10th Ward of lower Manhattan, the home of the great majority of Jews in the fi rst decade of the 20th century – and by all accounts, one of the dirtiest and most congested enclaves – was paradoxically deemed the healthiest in the borough, with Jewish mortality rates for tuberculosis, measles and scarlet fever substantially lower that amongst non-Jews.

Yet, another category of communicable disease, the venereal disorders, was not unknown amongst immigrant Jews, but with rates appreciably lower than amongst non-Jews. In the words of Michael Gold: “Earth’s trees, grass, flowers could not grow on my street; but the rose of syphilis bloomed by day and night.”

Sociologists of that era concluded: “Jews on the whole were physically healthier than their neighbors, both immigrant

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and Yankee.” The measure of healthiness among the newly arriving Jews, therefore, was exemplary – but only when compared to neighboring groups.

The vision of comparative good health among the immigrant Jews of lower Manhattan declares that their mortality and morbidity rates for a list of communicable diseases were measurably lower than their non-Jewish neighbors. Yet, insurance companies continued to deny life insurance policies to Jewish workers, particularly those in the fur industry.

These public health summary reports had no way of expressing, in statistical language, the physical development of the immigrants. Numerous summaries do provide meager descriptions of distorted vertebral columns allegedly associated with poor posture or permanent spinal distortion. This was attributed to their occupation which required them to hunch over sewing machines for an average of 13 hours per day.

These published public health reports did not touch upon yet other measures of well-being.

And certainly, by whatever names were applied to this category of ailment (depression, neurosis, hopelessness, mental alienation, hysteria, neurasthenia, etc.), the recently transplanted Jews were heavily burdened and more so than their non-Jewish immigrant neighbors. Psychiatric distress culminated in a high rate of suicide among these immigrant Jews. And so, the whispered

phrase (“. . .ehr genumen di gez,” he took the gas) served to announce yet another tortured life abbreviated through selfdestruction.

For the Jews of Eastern Europe, the pogroms and encroaching social instabilities of shtetl life, culminated in a massive migration to these shores, and particularly to New York City. They then confronted unintelligible responses to their

many insoluble problems. The inevitable erosion of their traditions and the pains of dislocation left many ill-equipped to negotiate life in brash America.

Most succeeded in the painful transformation, but not without a residue of emotional distress.

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

Study: Test all women of Ashkenazi descent for BRCA defect JERUSALEM (JTA) – All women of Ashkenazi descent should be screened from age 30 for the BRCA gene mutation that causes breast cancer, an Israeli study recommends.

The study, by a research team headed by Ephrat Levy-Lahad of Shaare Zedek Medical Cen-

ter, was published last Sept. 5 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

Until now, Ashkenazi women have been tested for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes only if a close blood relative had breast or ovarian cancer or were identified as carrying the gene.

The research was conducted on a random group of Jewish women of Ashkenazi origin who did not necessarily have a family history of the disease.

Many of the women identified during the study as being mutation carriers would not have known otherwise, according to the study. The mutation can be handed down to women through their fathers.

38 | September 12, 2014 Leonard Geller, 89

WARWICK, R.I. – Leonard Geller, of Greenwich Farms, died Aug. 26 at home. He was the beloved husband of Esther (Friedman) Geller for 67 years.

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., a son of the late Harry and Rose (Wasserman) Geller, he had lived in Warwick for 1 1/2 years, previously residing in Rockville Centre, N.Y. Leonard served in the Navy in WWII, then attended Brooklyn College on the GI bill, graduating in 1948. That year, as captain of the math team, he won the individual and team William Lowell Putnam awards in mathematics. He then graduated from MIT in 1951, where he received his doctoral degree in mathematics from his mentor, Dr. Norbert Weiner. He had a career as a nuclear engineer and consulted internationally.

After retiring, he joined his wife in their rare and antiquarian book business, Elgen Books.

A quiet scholar, Leonard was never happier than when surrounded by his family and his books.

Devoted father of Mark Geller and his wife Jocelyn of Colorado Springs, Colo., Joshua Geller and his wife Anna of Beacon, N.Y., and Naomi (Geller) Lipsky and her husband Edward Haskell of Johnston. Dear brother of the late Edward Geller, Frances Klausner, Bertha Morgenstern and Gladys Klein. Loving grandfather of Aaron, Julia, Hannah, David and Tenzin.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in his memory may be made to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1 Battery Park Plaza, 25th floor, New York, N.Y. 10004-1405.

OBITUARIES Dr. Michael M. Gold, 93

BARRINGTON, R.I. – Michael M. Gold, M.D., of Greenwood Avenue, died at Miriam Hospital on Aug. 27.

He was the beloved husband of Linda (Orloff) Gold for 28 years. Born in Newport, the son of Harry and Ernestine (Kosch) Gold, he lived in New York, New Jersey, Vermont and, finally, Rhode Island for the last 20 years.

During WWII, he was a lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air Corps and served as a navigator on a B-17. In 1944, his plane was shot down, and he spent 16 months in a POW camp in Nazi Germany. After the war, he earned a B.S. degree from Columbia University and a medical degree from the University of Rochester. He then finished his specialty training in gynecology and obstetrics at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York.

The first gynecologist and obstetrician in Ocean County, New Jersey, Dr. Gold practiced medicine in Lakewood and, later, was recruited to become the director of the Southern Vermont Women’s Health Center in Rutland, Vt. At Paul Kimball Hospital in Lakewood, Dr. Gold was given the award of Doctor of the Year in 1984. Although he retired in 1997, after 40 years of medical practice, he served as a volunteer peer counselor for a group of Korean War veterans suffering from PTSD. Dr. Gold was also featured in Thomas Childers’ well-known history, “Soldier from the War Returning” and, in 2010, he was given the Rhode Island Aviation Hall of Fame Presidential Award.

The Jewish Voice

Besides his loving wife, Linda, he is survived by his brother, Robert Gold, and his wife LaDonna, his daughter-inlaw, Sue Gold, his wife’s children, Steven, Laura and Jeffrey Schwartz, his grandchildren, Hannah and Jacob Gold, Alexander and Olivia Cardile and countless friends. Sadly, his cherished sons, Daniel, Joseph and Steven Gold, all predeceased him.

Dr. Gold will always be remembered for his caring, empathy, consideration of others and warmth, as well as for his keen sense of humor.

Ruth N. Kaplan, 87

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Ruth N. Kaplan (Goldblatt) died Aug. 28.

She was the wife of the late Joel Kaplan. Born in Providence, a daughter of the late Abraham and Lucille (Turcott) Goldblatt, she was a lifelong resident of Rhode Island. She was a member of Temple Beth-El. She is survived by her daughter Stacey Kaplan and was the sister of the late Anita Daniels and Berton Goldblatt.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Temple Beth-El, 70 Orchard Ave., Providence, R.I. 02906.

Leonard L. Levin, 85

LINCOLN, R.I. – Leonard L. Levin, of Old River Road, died Sept. 5 at Philip Hulitar Inpatient Center, P rov idence.

He was the beloved husband of Carol (McLaughlin) Levin for 28 years. Born in Providence, a son of the late Paul and Lena (Sweet) Levin, he had lived in Lincoln for 40 years.

Leonard was the owner of Levin Plating in Pawtucket for

over 50 years, retiring in 2003.

He was an Army veteran serving in the Pacific Theater. He was a Charter Member of Kirkbrae Country Club, a member of Touro Fraternal Association and a former member of Temple Sinai.

Devoted father of Gary Levin and Debra Deletetsky, both of Cranston, and Steven Levin and his wife of North Providence. Dear brother of Irving Levin of Cranston and the late Harold Levin. Loving grandfather of Jason, Adam, Jonathan, Michael and Taylor.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in his memory may be made to Home & Hospice Care of R.I.

Dr. Donald B. Shahon, 90

NEW BEDFORD, MASS. – Donald B. Shahon, M.D., died peacefully in the company of his family on Aug. 30 in New Bedford.

Born in Boston, Dr. Shahon graduated from Tufts University with a degree in biochemistry in 1944 and received an M.D. from Tufts University School of Medicine in 1949.

After serving in the Medical Corps of the U.S. Army during the Korean War, Dr. Shahon held numerous research and surgical positions at the University of Minnesota and other institutions. He received a Ph.D. in surgery from the University of Minnesota in 1960 after which he returned to the Boston area, where he began his medical practice. He served as a clinical instructor in surgery at Harvard Medical School and Tufts University School of Medicine. Dr. Shahon was married to the late Selma C. Shahon for 68 years and is survived by a sister and brother, five children, 17 grandchildren and a great-granddaughter.

Contributions in his memory

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.

NOTICE! Lincoln Park Cemetery and its offices will be closed on observance of the following holidays: Thursday, September 25: First Day of Rosh Hashanah Friday, September 26: Second Day of Rosh Hashanah Thursday, October 9: First day of Sukkot Friday, October 10: Second day of Sukkot Thursday, October 16: Shemini Atzeret Friday, October 17: Simchat Torah Lincoln Park Cemetery 1469 Post Road, Warwick, RI 02888 Telephone 737-5333 Fax 732-1293

may be made to New Bedford Jewish Convalescent Home.

Eileen G. Weber, 72

SAN DIEGO, CALIF. – Eileen G. Weber, formerly of Providence, passed away on Aug. 6. She was the daughter of the late Kurt and Annelie Weber, the loving sister of Kenneth Weber and his wife Linda (Golditch) Weber of San Francisco, Calif. She is survived by her niece Stacey (Weber) Loomis, nephews Matthew Weber and Michael Weber.

A graduate of the Beth Israel School of Nursing in Boston, Mass., she received an M.S. degree in education and counseling and mental health from Antioch University.

Eileen worked for several years as a registered nurse in Providence and moved to Hollywood, Florida, in 1985 and to San Diego in 2007. She was also an accomplished artist and took great joy in creating many beautiful paintings in her later years.

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

World Rashi Fein, a ‘father of Medicare’

JTA – Rashi Fein, a Harvard professor known for his contributions to medicine and social policy, has died.

Fein, a professor emeritus of economics of medicine at Harvard Medical School, was the brother of Jewish activist and writer Leonard Fein, who died nearly a month ago.

He was instrumental in the development of U.S. health policy, beginning with the Truman administration. Fein served as a senior staff member of President Kennedy’s Council of Economic Advisors and is considered by many as one of the “fathers of Medicare,” according to the Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action. Fein served on the Advisory Committee of the alliance.

“A love of his Yiddish heritage, a passion for social justice and a strong Zionist, he was always available to consider, discuss and critique policies undertaken both by the U.S. and Israeli governments,” the alliance said in a statement.

Fein also served as a senior fellow in the Brookings Institution’s economics program and as chair of the National Advisory Committee for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Scholars in Health Policy Research Program from 1994 to 2002.

He was honored by national and local organizations for his contributions to medicine and social policy.

WORLD

thejewishvoice.org

September 12, 2014 |

39

Biblical archaeology sees golden age in Israel, dark age in rest of Middle East

BY SEAN SAVAGE JNS.ORG – At a time when many archaeological sites and antiquities throughout the Middle East are being looted and destroyed, the City of David Foundation on Sept. 4 hosted its annual conference to enable the general public to experience some of the most important archaeological discoveries in Jerusalem in recent years.

A special portion of this year’s conference was devoted to the theme “Jerusalem of Gold,” highlighting several never-before-seen golden artifacts.

“The people in ancient times, like today, used gold for the most important things in life. It shows what they held dear and what was most important to them,” Ahron Horovitz, senior director of Megalim, the City of David’s Higher Institute for Jerusalem Studies, told JNS.org.

The main themes of the artifacts on display related to war, beauty and holiness or sanctity.

Among the golden artifacts is the largest cache of gold coins ever discovered in Jerusalem, comprising 264 coins that date back to the end of the Byzantine period in the 7th century CE. The coins were found in the “Givati Parking Lot dig” conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority in the City of David neighborhood.

The coins are unique in that they were minted in Jerusalem, not in Constantinople – the Byzantine imperial capital – and were likely made in preparation for the Byzantine war against the Persians.

“The coins were found stacked one on top of another and were never dispensed,” Horovitz said. “There may be a story of intrigue here as to why they never were used, such as it being stolen.”

Additionally, a golden medallion featuring inscriptions of a menorah, shofar and Torah scroll is on display for the very

first time. The medallion was found in the Ophel excavation south of the Temple Mount and was believed to have been hung on a Torah scroll as a breast plate.

The discovery of the Jewish medallion, dating back to the time of upheaval in Jerusalem during the Persian-Byzantine wars, was a surprise for archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar, who unearthed the artifact. There are normally not many Jewish items found from that period.

Mazar estimated that the medallion originates from the Persian conquest of Jerusalem in 614 CE. That year, many Jews helped the Persians conquer Jerusalem from the Byzantines, only to have the Persians turn against the Jews and ally with the Byzantine Christians later on, leading to the Jews’ expulsion once again.

“These finds tell us about the Jewish presence in Jerusalem in the late Byzantine period, which we didn’t know much about,” renowned Israeli archaeologist Dr. Gabriel Barkay, who spoke at the City of David conference, told JNS. org.

“The artifacts help us understand that there was a strong messianic desire of the Jewish people at that time; many of them likely came from abroad in hopes of construction of the Third Temple,” he said.

Horovitz said the artifacts highlight the special bond Jews have with Jerusalem, as well as Jewish continuity in the holy city.

“It shows us that the Jews have a very special bond and connection with Jerusalem that continues to today,” he said. “So when modern day Israelis come and see these artifacts, they can feel that they are part of Jerusalem from a long time ago.”

Another golden artifact on display was an earring made of gold inlaid pearls and emeralds that dates back to the Roman

period. A copy of this earring was given to First Lady Michelle Obama by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when she visited Israel in 2013.

Finally, one of the most unique and rare items on display was a golden bell discovered by Eli Shukron, an Israeli archaeologist and former director of City of David excavations for the Israel Antiquities Authority.

Throughout the years, Shukron has made a number of very significant finds from the period of the Second Temple of Jerusalem in and around the

PHOTO | EILAT MAZAR/CITY OF DAVID FOUNDATION

This golden medallion featuring inscriptions of a menorah, shofar and Torah scroll was on display for the very first time during the the City of David Foundation’s annual conference on Sept. 4 in Jerusalem City of David, including the Pool of Siloam (mentioned numerous times in the Old and New Testaments), tunnels leading from the Western Wall, an ancient pilgrim road to Jerusalem, and the legendary citadel captured by King David when he conquered the city from the Jebusites.

One of the items Shukron discovered during his excavations of one of the Western Wall tunnels was a golden bell believed to have been part of the official vestments of the high priests of the Jewish Temple.

Described in Exodus 28:31-35, the priestly robe, also known as the “ephod,” was a sleeveless purple-blue or violet garment worn by the high priests that was fringed with small golden bells alternating with pomegranate-shaped tassels of blue, purple, and scarlet wool.

The golden bells were a necessary part of the ephod and needed to ring when the high priest entered the Holy of Holies.

“At first I just thought it was a ball and didn’t realize it was the golden bell from the high priests until I shook it and heard the ringing,” Shukron told JNS.org. “No other artifact from the high priests like this has ever been discovered before.”

The City of David conference came amid a perilous time for Middle East archaeology, as sites from North Africa to Iraq have come under assault by Islamic fundamentalists and looters taking advantage of the breakdown of central governments.

“I think it is an atrocity,” Horovitz said. “Islamic fundamentalist groups are on an ongoing crusade to destroy antiquities because they consider it against their religion, or they fear that their religion will be undermined by excavations that will show things that they are not happy about.”

The situation for artifacts is particularly dangerous in Syria and Iraq, where the Islamic State jihadist group has taken over large swathes of territory.

According to a report by The Guardian in June, Islamic State looted about $36 million in antiquities from the al-Nabuk region in Syria.

Reports indicate that much

of the illegal smuggling, which is taxed by the Islamic State, is done by local Syrians and Turkish nationals, who then smuggle the artifacts across the border into Turkey and sell them to international antiquities traffickers on the black market.

Meanwhile, in the Iraqi city of Mosul, which was conquered by the Islamic State in June, the terror group has already destroyed important religious sites such as the Tomb of Jonah (the famous biblical prophet who was swallowed by a whale), and has threatened the Mosul Museum, which contains numerous artifacts from the nearby ancient city of Nineveh.

“These areas are where human culture began; they are the cradle of civilization. [Islamic State] is destroying the heritage of mankind,” Horovitz said.

The frightening situation in the Middle East stands in stark contrast with Israel, which has one of the most robust and highly regulated antiquities departments in the world and is eager to preserve the country’s diverse past.

Nevertheless, the City of David Foundation, which works with the Israel Antiquities Authority in excavating important areas in Jerusalem, has come under intense scrutiny from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which has called on the City of David to halt historical excavations.

“We should think about proper care of the cultures of the past,” Barkay said. “Instead of condemning these acts of looting that go on all the time in these Arab countries, UNESCO is obsessed with excavations and acts of preservation in Jerusalem because of political reasons.”

He added, “UNESCO should deal with salvaging the heritage of mankind instead of political matters.”

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40 | September 12, 2014

The Jewish Voice

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

PHOTOS | E. BRESLER

The preparation area of the renovated mikveh features bright lighting, marble counters, and artistic glass sinks.

Who’s Eligible?

Rhode Island mikveh dedication ceremony

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.

BY ELLY K. LEYMAN On the afternoon of Aug. 24, more than 80 Rhode Island community members and rabbinic dignitaries from Rhode Island and New York assembled in the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island’s Board Room at 401 Elmgrove Ave. in Providence. The event celebrated a Hanukkat ha-Bayit – the dedication of the new Mikveh Nachman v’Raizel.

The opening welcome and remarks were extended by Rabbi Barry Dolinger of Congregation Beth Sholom (CBS) of Providence.

The esteemed Rosh Yeshivah (Dean) of Yeshiva Gedola of Providence, Rabbi Eliezer Gibber, expressed noteworthy words of Torah, as he lauded Rabbi Shmuel Taitelbaum of Providence, the founder of the mikveh project and his tireless work to bring it to fruition. Rabbi Taitelbaum thanked all supporters and attendees for making this project a reality.

Rabbi Yitzchok Zilberstein of New York, is the father and father-in-law of the late Raizel and Nachman Glauber, of blessed memory, for whom the Rhode Island mikveh is now named. Rabbi Zilberstein spoke eloquently from the heart of the importance of and uniqueness of mikva’ot.

On behalf of Mikvah USA, he spoke of the work of this New York based-organization that

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supports the establishment and re-building of mikva’ot nationwide. Mikveh Nachman v’Raizel of Rhode Island received a generous endowment from Mikvah USA. Rabbi Raphie Schochet, director of the Providence Kollel and the Va’ad Ha-Kashrut of R.I., spoke in appreciation of all donors and contributors, both locally and afar, and of the dedicated work of the members of the Rhode Island community. A plaque presentation followed.

Dr. Steven Schechter, president of the Va’ad Ha-Kashrut of R.I, sent a warm message of congratulations and gratitude.

Ruchama Szendro of Providence was the coordinator of this unique event, which included a lovely refreshment table. She was thanked for all her efforts.

One of the highlights of the afternoon was a mikveh tour.

The mikveh’s entrance is behind the JCC walls. As I toured the mikveh, I saw a beautiful place, fulfilling the promise of serenity and modernity with beautifully appointed rooms. This is open to the community, and has special relevance for the community’s women. It is more than a “ritualarium,” it is a “Spa for the Soul.”

A mikveh is of tremendous importance for any Jewish community. It is the central point for exercising family purity laws, for brides the night before their wedding, for immersion for conversions, and more. As a ‘body of

Rabbi Yitzchok Zilberstein speaks on behalf of Mikvah USA. living water’, mikveh evokes the similarly spelled Hebrew word tikvah which means “hope.”

Mikveh Nachman v’Raizel looks forward to providing and strengthening the spiritual connection and Jewish identity and heritage to the Rhode Island community. Donations are gratefully accepted.

For further information, please call MLARI (Mikveh Ladies Association of Rhode Island) at 40l-621-9109 and go to mikvah.org or mikvahusa.org ELLY K. LEYMAN is a freelance writer & program coordinator in Providence. She may be reached at elly207@gmail.com

SIMCHA | WE ARE READ

thejewishvoice.org

WE ARE READ – In Israel for a family wedding in August are (left to right) Audrey Kupchan, husband Sam Havens and her sons, Dan DeLuca and David DeLuca.

The photo was taken at Kibbutz Ramat Rachel where family and friends spent the weekend after the wedding, which was in Jerusalem. The West Bank is in the background.

Let her be the

reason.

There are many ways to create your legacy.

Let us show you a few.

September 12, 2014 |

41

100TH BIRTHDAY – Lottie Posner celebrated her 100th birthday with her family and friends at Laurelmead.

At left, Hinda Semonoff, a longtime friend, wishes her well. Above, Son, Ralph Posner, his wife Maria and granddaughter Vicky wish Lottie a very happy birthday.

In the Jewish community, caring for one another is a top priority, and our Jewish values inspire us to take action.

These same values teach us to care for the next generation, too.

By making a legacy gift to the Jewish Federation Foundation of Greater Rhode Island, you ensure that our Jewish community remains strong. You leave your children and grandchildren a priceless inheritance and a lasting testimony to your 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.

42 | September 12, 2014

COMMUNITY

The Jewish Voice

PHOTOS | MARTY COOPER

No winners, no losers

Everyone had a good time Sept. 9 at the annual statewide Mah Jongg tournament at the Dwares JCC. “The whole idea was to be social,” said Carol Desforges, who organized the event. It was a “decent turnout,” she said. There were 13 tables of four players each and 13 volunteers. Everyone went home with a prize and enjoyed an afternoon with an emphasis on socializing, not competing.

The Jewish Voice Fall Home and Garden Issue September 26 SAVE

Women’ s Alliance Campaign Celebration

the

DATE

Thursday, November 6 @ 7pm • Ledgemont Country Club

} Promote your company’s home improvement | landscaping and real estate services now.

Get your home and gardens ready for fall and winter your ad will be seen by more than 20,000 ‘ready for fall’ readers.

Ad reservation deadline is September 17.

Call our sales representatives now for premium placement.

Tricia Stearly 421-4111 ext. 160

Karen Borger 529-2538

featuring Judith Frank author of All I Love and Know

7pm Main Presentation 8pm Dessert Reception and Book Signing Minimum gift to the 2015 Annual Campaign: $118 If you have never made a gift to the Jewish Alliance, we invite you to make a starter gift of $54.

For more information contact Danielle Germanowski at 401.421.4111 ext. 109 or dgermanowski@jewishallianceri.org “A tender novel that deals with the emotional riptides left by an act of terrorism... It is a brave, moving, and deeply compelling book... about the ways even love and family devotion are challenged when the worst occurs.”

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September 12, 2014 |

thejewishvoice.org

Let’s change the world together.

The Jewish Alliance has been supporting Jewish life for nearly 70 years. Today there’s still vital work to do. And we need your support.

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

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The Jewish Voice

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