Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle 8-6-21

August 6, 2021 | 28 Av 5781

Candlelighting 8:11 p.m. | Havdalah 9:12 p.m. | Vol. 64, No. 32 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

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Anti-Defamation Small local shuls get an assist from Jewish Community Legacy League and Hillel Int’l now Project

NOTEWORTHY LOCAL Threading together

working together to document antisemitism on campus

Rodef Shalom Sewing Group is the tie that binds, for 115 years and counting Page 3

By Ben Sales | JTA

O

LOCAL

States and Canada to successfully navigate challenges, prepare for the future and ensure an enduring community legacy.

Noah Levine, the JCLP’s senior vice president, said the organization works exclusively with small congregations and focuses on one thing: helping to plan for what comes next.

For some congregations, he explained, that means dealing with questions of legacy once the decision has been made to close; for others, the JCLP helps with issues of sustainability.

A legacy plan, Levine said, might include arranging for care for a congregation’s cemetery, and deciding what to do with its Sefer Torahs, archival material and building. If the congregation has funds remaining after it closes, the plan could include creating an endowment to send local children to Israel, for example, or sponsor scholarships to Jewish day schools or summer camps.

Leadership succession, congregant involvement and fundraising are all issues that surround sustainability, he said.

ver the last year, Jewish college students took it upon themselves to combat antisemitism at their schools. Now, two major Jewish organizations are working together to play a stronger role in fighting antisemitism on campus.

Some of the student activists documented incidences of antisemitism at colleges nationwide, often submitted anonymously, while others have taken a confrontational tone on social media. With some portraying themselves as the ideological successors to early Zionist activists, the students often argue that anti-Zionism and antisemitism overlap.

In a new partnership, Hillel International and the Anti-Defamation League are aiming to take a more traditional approach to the same issues — one that they say will not always treat anti-Israel activity as antisemitism.

Hillel and the ADL will together create a college-level curriculum on antisemitism and jointly document antisemitic incidents on campuses in the United States. But not every student government resolution endorsing the movement to Boycott, Divest from and Sanction Israel, known as BDS, will wind up in the groups’ database.

“Anti-Israel activism in and of itself is not antisemitism,” an ADL spokesperson told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “Situations vary widely with BDS, we will carefully evaluate each one and make a determination based on our criteria for antisemitism.”

For example, the ADL spokesperson told JTA, a BDS resolution alone would not count as antisemitism, “but if a student was excluded

Please see Legacy, page 8

Please see Campus, page 8

‘It Couldn’t Happen Here’

Dor Hadash hosts reading of play about 10/27 shootings Page 5

LOCAL Getting to know: Eden Sittsamer

It’s been two years since she made Pittsburgh her home — but she’s happily singing the city’s praises already.

Page 6

p Gemilas Chesed in White Oak hopes more people will see the inside of their sanctuary through their membership in the JCLS’s small synagogue coalition.

Photo by Eliran Shkedi

By David Rullo | Staff Writer

C

ongregation Emanu-El Israel’s president Irene Rothschild has found help preparing for what she called “the inevitable.” Beth Samuel Jewish Center’s cantor, Rena Shapiro, has been given an opportunity to learn from — and share programming with — other congregations across Western Pennsylvania. Barry Rudel, executive director of the Jewish Cemetery and Burial Association, has been able to present his organization’s mission to area congregations. Gemilas Chesed Synagogue’s vice president, Larry Perl, has been given an opportunity to promote his shul.

The leaders of these small congregations — and others in Pittsburgh and surrounding areas — are all grateful for the help they have been given by the Jewish Community Legacy Program, a nonprofit started by a David Sarnat, a longtime Jewish professional, in 2010.

The JCLP’s mission, according to its website, is to provide resources and solutions for small Jewish congregations in the United

keep your eye on PittsburghJewishChronicle LOCAL

JCC reinstitutes mask requirement

NATION

Jews of Key West

NATION

Jackie Mason and Me

Headlines Fashion trends evolve along with the course of the pandemic — LOCAL —

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

L

ast summer Michael Rubinstein couldn’t give a dress away.

Loungewear, however, now that was all the rage.

“We sold a lot of sweatpants and pajamas,” said Rubinstein, owner of Footloose Galleria. “That’s what people were living in — sweatpants.”

There’s since been a shift in fashion, even if not everyone’s ditched that uber-comfy trend. Now, well into summer 2021, and with the pandemic at a different stage, Rubinstein said he’s noticed a change in purchases, and customers are looking for clothes that are a bit nicer.

“It’s not super formal,” he said, “but definitely several levels up from sweatpants.”

E.B. Pepper, owner of the eponymous women’s boutique in Shadyside, agreed.

“People are tired of wearing their lounging clothes,” she said.

Since the mask mandate shifted, and going out for dinner became a thing again, there’s been a demand for classier items. Along those lines, Pepper said, the most common request customers have is for wedding attire.

It doesn’t matter whether it’s a black-tie, garden party or country club affair, whatever was postponed last year is happening now.

Based on The Knot’s survey of 7,600 couples nationwide, 32% of those whose original wedding dates were between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2020, held the ceremony last year but pushed the reception to a later date; 15% postponed the entire wedding until 2021.

With so many weddings finally taking

place, Pepper said, people need dresses.

Justin Sigal, owner of Littles Shoes in Shadyside, hasn’t noticed an overwhelming demand for formal shoes or a total return to pre-pandemic fashion. Instead, there’s been an evolution from slippers and athletics to “everyday dress and dress-casual shoes,” he said.

At this point, he said, customers are leaving their houses either to go on vacation or out for dinner and a movie, and so what’s being worn in public is different from what was worn at home a year ago. Sigal added that he’s still noticing the “outdoorsy” look, but the summer season may be a factor in that fashion trend, too.

Come the fall, once school starts again and more workers head back to offices, Sigal thinks there could be a greater demand for dress shoes. For now, however, the biggest sellers are Dr. Martens and Sperry boat shoes. Both are favored by college students who are preparing for a likely return to campus in the coming weeks, he said.

Ellen Levick Martahus, owner of Allure, a women’s clothing store in Bloomfield, said that after spending such long periods of time at home, customers are expressing a sense of excitement.

“I think people are thrilled to be able to get something new and be able to wear it,” she said.

Allure specializes in unique seasonless clothing, often with jewelry to match. The constant thread among its pieces, though, is versatility. Each item can be mixed and paired with another, she said, like a “really interesting kimono can be worn with jeans or over a silk dress.”

Please see Fashion, page 13

p A mannequin dressed in Allure’s versatile and stylish clothing

Photo courtesy of Ellen Levick Martahus

p From left: Manager Sommer Eperthener, Owner Michael Rubinstein and Manager Dana Rutka of Footloose.

Photo courtesy of Michael Rubinstein

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Headlines Rodef Shalom Sewing Group continues to stitch for good — LOCAL —

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

N

ancy Rosenthal, Susanne Gollin, Phyllis Klein and Caroline Liston sat before six Singer sewing machines in the Rodef Shalom Sisterhood Room last Tuesday. While the gathering was a bit smaller than what it was prior to the pandemic, Rosenthal said, it was wonderful being together in person.

For much of the past year, members of the Rodef Shalom Sisterhood Sewing Group met over Zoom. Participants still sewed pieces for various charities, chatted and helped each other with difficult stitches, but the digital get-togethers just weren’t the same.

Rather than their usual two-hour in-person sessions, the virtual meetups lasted just 60 minutes. And it wasn’t so easy to set up a sewing machine and concentrate on the work while operating Zoom, said Rosenthal.

“To really be able to be with one another is a totally different experience,” she said.

Now that the group has been back together in person for almost a month, “we’re able to help each other a little more.”

During last week’s session, Rosenthal and her peers cut fabric, stitched pieces and affixed buttons to make dish towels. Some members also made colorful stuffed clowns.

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p Nancy Rosenthal and Susanne Gollin; Left back row: Caroline Liston and Phyllis Klein

Photo by Adam Reinherz

The types of items created depends on needs, explained Rosenthal. Sometimes the group makes blankets, sometimes it’s hats, other times it’s children’s rompers. There were periods when the group was even making head coverings for cancer patients.

The congregation’s sewing group dates back 115 years and “was one of the original committees established at the first

organizing meeting of the Sisterhood in 1906,” according to Rodef Shalom’s archivist Martha Berg.

Early records indicate the Sewing Committee — it later was renamed the Rodef Shalom Sisterhood Sewing Group — purchased its first sewing machine in June, 1906. Berg assumes that was a foot-operated machine because in 1908 the head of the

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Sewing Committee reported the purchase of an electric motor for her machine.

Caroline Liston, of Penn Hills, remembers joining the group more than 40 years ago.

“I was really young and it was a wonderful way to plan my week away from two children,” she said. “It was relaxing.”

Liston, 74, said that when she and a friend first started attending the weekly meetings, they added some diversity to the longstanding cohort.

“We lowered the average age by half,” she said, adding that she enjoyed being around the older women because they had lived through interesting times and were able to offer unique perspectives and insights.

Phyllis Klein’s family has been connected to Rodef Shalom for more than seven decades. Klein, a Swiss Elm Park resident, remembers her mother’s neighbors coming to the sewing group years ago.

“After some time, I decided as a member to find out what it was about,” Klein said.

What she discovered, almost eight years ago, was a friendly group of women who also enjoyed making things for others, she said.

That commitment to charity has been at the heart of the group’s mission for more than a century, said Berg.

In 1920, the Sewing Committee made Please see Sewing on page 8

AUGUST 6, 2021 3

Headlines Temple Ohav Shalom looks to the future with new youth hire — NATIONAL —

By David Rullo | Staff Writer

H

“

CALLING ALL LEGACY DONORS! Help a friend or family member secure their legacy and be entered for a chance to win a $1,000 grant for your chosen Jewish organization!

For more information, contact Cheryl Johnson at cjohnson@jfedpgh.org.

e just hit all the right notes,” said Shara Taylor, recalling her initial interview with Grant Halasz, Temple Ohav Shalom’s first director of ruach and youth engagement. “He was spot on.”

Talyor, who served on the search committee for the position, recalled that after Halasz’s first interview, “people were just speechless. He exudes youth and enthusiasm. It was just the perfect fit.”

Halasz will be responsible for much of the music at the Allison Park Reform congregation, including leading songs at Shabbat services, and working with the temple’s youth.

Halasz grew up in Centerville, Ohio, a suburb near Dayton. His love of Jewish music was incubated during summers at camp. After years of attending day camps at his local JCC and Chabad center, he spent a summer at the Union of Reform Judaism’s overnight Kutz Camp at the suggestion of his rabbi, Judy Chessin of Temple Beth Or in Dayton, when she learned he played guitar.

Next, Halasz, 23, spent two summers at Camp GUCI (Goldman Union Camp Institute) as a counselor and song leader, then a summer at a URJ camp in Cincinnati, Ohio, and then back to Camp GUCI as head song leader.

Halasz, who is new to Pittsburgh, earned his bachelor’s degree in Judaic studies at the University of Cincinnati, where he was a member of the Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi and served as the co-chair of Jewish life on the Hillel student board.

In terms of his interests and experience, for Halasz the new position at Ohav Shalom checks all the boxes. He said he’ll be in charge of much of the congregation’s

PITTSBURGH LIFE & LEGACY® PARTNERS Beth El Congregation of the South Hills Community Day School Congregation Beth Shalom The Friendship Circle of Pittsburgh Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh Jewish Association on Aging Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh Jewish Family and Community Services

Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh Jewish Residential Services Kollel Jewish Learning Center National Council of Jewish Women, Pittsburgh Section Rodef Shalom Congregation Temple Emanuel of South Hills Temple Ohav Shalom Temple Sinai Yeshiva Schools p Grant Halasz

4 AUGUST 6, 2021

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

“musical moments,” and that Rabbi Jeremy Weisblatt told him that he should work on building up the youth group and coming up with new programs for teens and younger children during the High Holidays. Halasz added that he’ll be involved in the religious school and other parts of congregational life.

The congregation’s president, Yuval Kossovsky, said the ruach and youth engagement position is important in the evolution of the Temple Ohav Shalom.

“This was the right piece to fill in,” he said.

“We needed someone who had an engaging voice and personality, and the rabbi needed a good partner. This seemed the most appropriate way to do that.”

Kossovsky thinks Halasz is the right person for the job as the congregation embraces technological advances driven by the pandemic, and looks for new ways to engage members — both virtually and in-person.

“There seems to be a big change in the way we need to engage,” Kossovsky said.

“The traditional sort of Hebrew school and liturgy is not working for a lot of young folks, so, what do we do? How do you give them a good enough feeling that when it’s time to make their parents’ religion theirs, they have an affinity?”

Ohav Shalom, Kossovsky stressed, is looking to the future.

“It’s about the connection,” he said. “How do we use the technology? I don’t think it’s going away. I don’t know what the future holds, but I know it’s changing. I think that Grant is going to bring a lot to our program.”

Taylor said it was Weisblatt who first learned of Halasz and brought him to the attention of the search committee.

“I’m excited about the new vision that we’re executing with Grant,” Weisblatt said.

“I love his experience and focus on experiential worship — his willingness to pay homage to tradition, to stand on tradition and then move it forward.”

Judaism has a history of being experiential, Weisblatt said, and Ohav Shalom’s Judaics curriculum is moving in that direction.

“Now we have someone that is educated in it and has lived it and helped bring it to life,” the rabbi said.

“He will, I think, help fulfill our vision and dream in the North Hills.”

For Halasz, who considered going to rabbinical school before accepting the position at Ohav Shalom, the future is now.

“It’s very exciting,” Halasz said. “I’m looking forward to the opportunity and making it my own. It’s going to be a lot of fun.” PJC

Photo courtesy of Grant Halasz

David Rullo can be re ache d at dr u l l o @ pittsburghjewishchornicle.org.

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Headlines Dor Hadash hosts reading of play about 10/27 shootings — LOCAL —

By Justin Vellucci | Special to the Chronicle

O

n Oct. 27, 2018, Pittsburgher Carrie Mannino watched the white supremacist attack at the Tree Of Life building unfold in a series of text messages while she was studying theater at Yale University.

Over the next few days, the media shined its spotlight on Squirrel Hill and the three congregations targeted in the attack: Tree of Life, New Light and Dor Hadash, where Mannino became a bat mitzvah years earlier.

“It was very strange and surreal for me to see my community talked about on this international level — suddenly, everybody was talking about my community,” Mannino told the Chronicle in a recent interview. “I wanted to go through that grieving process with my community.”

Mannino’s process of healing led her toward what would become her next theater project: a staged reading of a play about the 2018 massacre, culled from pages and pages of interviews with those who were on the front lines.

“Just for my own grieving and healing process, I needed to talk to people,” Mannino said.

Mannino graduated from Yale University

p Carrie Mannino

Photo courtesy of Carrie Mannino

in 2020; her thesis project in playwriting was “It Couldn’t Happen Here,” the documentary play about Pittsburgh and its Jewish community in the aftermath of the antisemitic attack which left 11 worshippers dead and two seriously wounded.

Mannino will stage a virtual reading of the play — which was selected for the Yale

Playwrights Festival and awarded the Yale Playwriting Award — in late August. She will serve as the reading’s director, then plans to edit the Zoom footage of the reading into a proper performance piece, she said.

The play is based on interviews with everyone from Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, for whom Mannino interned during college,

to area artists and prominent members of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community.

“In this country, there are so many mass shootings [and] the media moves so fast,” Mannino said. “I really wanted to talk to people about what that process looks like. I was trying to tell a story about trauma and how a community processes something unfathomable like this.”

She added that she “wanted to tell a fuller story of what it means to be a Pittsburgher, what it means to be from the Squirrel Hill community.”

Mannino was bitten early by the documentary theater bug. While a student at Winchester Thurston School, she was involved with a staging of “The Laramie Project,” a play based on interviews that chronicles the reaction to the 1998 murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard in Wyoming.

Haley Platt, on the other hand, is new to documentary theater but is excited to be taking part as an actor in “It Couldn’t Happen Here.” The University of Pittsburgh graduate — who does not hail from the city — interned alongside Mannino in the mayor’s office and saw, up close, the interviews of Peduto and his chief of staff, Dan Gilman.

“After our first reading of the script as a full cast, we were all in tears — because even Please see Play, page 13

HADASSAH GREATER PITTSBURGH

Join us in Pittsburgh’s Fight Against Antisemitism MONDAY, AUGUST 16, 2021 · 7 PM ET / 6 PM CT Register by August 12 · Free Online Event · Open to Everyone

www.hadassahmidwest.org/PittsburghFight

Hadassah Greater Pittsburgh is pleased to present a timely and informative virtual program focusing on the fight against antisemitism. Our distinguished panelists representing local and national organizations will discuss the unfortunate rise in antisemitism and the steps that our local community is taking to combat this trend. We invite you to attend this virtual event and to participate in the Q&A following the presentations.

Laura Cherner, Director of Community Relations Council (CRC) at the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, will be serving as the Moderator for the panel discussion. Our featured panelists include Shawn A. Brokos, Director of Community Security at the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh; James Pasch, ADL Regional Director - Cleveland Office; and Dan Marcus, Executive Director and CEO of The Edward and Rose Berman Hillel Jewish University Center of Pittsburgh.

Hadassah Greater Pittsburgh c/o Hadassah Midwest - Detroit, 5030 Orchard Lake Road, West Bloomfield, MI 48323 248.683.5030 | midwest@hadassah.org | www.hadassah.org/midwest ©2021 Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Inc. Hadassah, the H logo, and Hadassah the Power of Women Who Do are registered trademarks of Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Inc.

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AUGUST 6, 2021 5

Headlines Getting to know: Eden Sittsamer — LOCAL —

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

T

hroughout Eden Sittsamer’s childhood, she and her father, Murray, often traveled about 300 miles east, from Farmington Hills, Michigan, to Squirrel Hill. Nestled inside the East End neighborhood was a score of family members — aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, even a great-grandmother. Jack Sittsamer was her grandfather, a Holocaust survivor who survived six German concentration camps and told his tale to 100,000 listeners nationwide.

“We would come to Squirrel Hill multiple times a year to visit, and Squirrel Hill was kind of all that I knew of Pittsburgh — and I loved it,” said Sittsamer, 24.

So after graduating Michigan State University two years ago with a degree in human capital and society, she accepted a job as a diversity and workforce development specialist at UPMC and moved to Pittsburgh. Ultimately she decided to live in Lawrenceville, as she was already familiar with Squirrel Hill and wanted to explore.

“I’d gone out to dinner here, like once or twice as a visitor, and I just happened to find a great place for me to live,” she said.

blossoming. But then, when COVID-19 materialized in March 2020, both came to a halt. Work went remote and she found herself spending more time alone.

But, intent on maintaining her social life, Sittsamer found ways to be with her Jewish peers, online. First, she joined a virtual game night Shabbat through Federation’s Young Adult Division and later facilitated a similar event for newcomers.

And as the pandemic stretched on, her involvement with the Federation grew, and she began to host a Jewish young adult book club and joined YAD’s outreach and engagement board.

One activity led to the next and, in the process, “I p Eden Sittsamer Photo courtesy of Eden Sittsamer found friends, which is so nice,” she said.

Two weeks ago she started a new job.

During her first few months as a Pittsburgher, Sittsamer eagerly investigated After nearly two years as a diversity and her surroundings, returning to nostalgic workforce development specialist at UPMC’s haunts and venturing to new locations, and Center for Engagement and Inclusion — through organizations like OneTable and which had allowed her to work closely the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, with JFCS’ Career Development Center to she became friends with other Jewish young help people who had difficulty getting jobs adults. Her network and new life were find employment opportunities at UPMC

— Sittsamer became a talent acquisition coordinator with Duolingo, a Pittsburghbased language learning app.

“I’m already kind of moving into my next chapter here in Pittsburgh, which is really funny,” Sittsamer said, “since not all that much time has passed.”

It may have only been two years since Sittsamer made Pittsburgh her home — and the bulk of that period was dominated by the pandemic — but she’s happily singing the city’s praises already.

“I try to spread the Pittsburgh gospel, but I also just try to invite people to come visit me,” she said. When she hears of new people who are moving to Pittsburgh, she tries to connect them or meet up with them, “and let them know that there’s a Jewish community here and there’s young adults here who they can connect with and who will kind of show them around.”

Sittsamer may be an advocate for the city and its Jewish community, but there’s still one thing she can’t quite get behind.

“I haven’t become a big Pittsburgh sports fan,” she said. “I just feel like a fan of Pittsburgh, as a region and as a place in my heart.”

Who can blame her? It’s tough to stop loving the Detroit Lions... PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Calendar Submit calendar items on the Chronicle’s website, pittsburghjewishchronicle.org. Submissions also will be included in print. Events will run in the print edition beginning one month prior to the date as space allows. The deadline for submissions is Friday, noon.

SUNDAY, AUG. 7 Beth El Congregation of the South Hills presents a special drive-in presentation of the movie “Oh God!” The night will begin with a short havdalah service.

Bring a lawn chair, blanket and snacks. Water and cookies will be provided. Shown in the parking lot, weather permitted. In case of inclement weather, the movie will be shown indoors. 9 p.m. bethelcong.org

SUNDAY, AUG. 8 Join Shaare Torah Congregation for Justice for People with Mental Illness. This free breakfast program will introduce you to some of the practical things you can do to make situations more just for people whose symptoms, medications or interpersonal methods make it difficult to handle stressors alone. Presenter: Linda Tashbook, author of “Family Guide to Mental Illness and the Law.” 8:30 a.m. Free.

Join the 10.27 Healing Partnership for our third annual Rosh Chodesh Elul program, “Welcome the Month of Elul with Inspiration and Community.” This event is dedicated to helping community members prepare for the coming of the High Holy Days and anticipate the arrival of the third commemoration of 10/27/18.

A diverse group of community scholars and teachers will hold sessions inspiring participants to be awake, prepared and grounded as we head into this spiritual and reflective time. Free. 2:30 p.m. Temple Sinai, 5505 Forbes Ave. bit.ly/3Bd1gH0

SUNDAYS, AUG. 8- AUG. 22, 29 Join a lay-led Online Parashah Study Group to

discuss the week’s Torah portion. No Hebrew knowledge is needed. The goal is to build community while deepening understanding of the text. 8:30 p.m.

For more information, visit bethshalompgh.org.

SUNDAYS, AUG. 8- AUG. 22 The Book of Job is one of the most powerful pieces of writing in the Hebrew Bible. Focused on the question of “Why do the righteous suffer?” this book has universal significance. In this course, Rabbi Danny Schiff will offer a journey through the core themes raised by the Book of Job. $70. 10 a.m. foundation.jewishpgh.org

MONDAYS, AUG. 9 Join Congregation Beth Shalom for a weekly Talmud study. 9:15 a.m. For more information, visit bethshalompgh.org.

MONDAY, AUG. 9 Join Classrooms Without Borders for a virtual tour of Israel. Monthly tours with guide and scholar Rabbi Jonty Blackman via Zoom. 7 p.m. For more information and to register, visit classroomswithoutborders.org.

TUESDAY, AUG. 10 The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Volunteer Center’s August VOOM will be tree tending in Squirrel Hill with Tree Pittsburgh. Meet on Murray Avenue near Forward (across from parking lot between Starbucks and GetGo). Be prepared to get messy and dress appropriately. 6 p.m. Register at jewishpgh.org/event/voom-with-tree-pittsburgh.

WEDNESDAYS, AUG. 11-18 Join New Light Congregation for a weekly examination of Maimonides’ Mishna Torah Book on Repentance led by Rabbi Jonathan Perlman. Examine

This week in Israeli history — WORLD — Items provided by the Center for Israel Education (israeled.org), where you can find more details.

August 6, 2015 — Actress Orna Porat dies

Stage and screen actress Orna Porat dies at 91 in Tel Aviv.

Born a German Christian, she moved to the Land of Israel with a Jewish British officer she met after World War II.

August 7, 2002 — Palestinian cabinet OKs Israeli troop withdrawal plan

The Palestinian Authority Cabinet agrees to proposal

by Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer to withdraw the IDF from parts of the Gaza Strip and Bethlehem during the Second Intifada.

August 8, 1984 — Linguist Avraham Even-Shoshan dies

Avraham Even-Shoshan dies at 77 in Tel Aviv. From 1946 to 1958, the linguist worked on the New Dictionary of the Hebrew Language, now known as the EvenShoshan Dictionary.

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August 9, 2006 — Wider Lebanon offensive is approved

Israel’s Security Cabinet approves expanded targets in the Second Lebanon War to achieve five goals, including the return of two soldiers Hezbollah abducted at the start of the war in July.

August 10, 1979 — Bank of Israel founder dies

Economist David Horowitz dies at 80. As the first director-general of the Ministry of Finance, he lobbied for the creation of a central bank and was named the Bank of Israel’s first governor in 1954.

August 11, 2017 — Holocaust survivor dies as world’s oldest man

Holocaust survivor Yisrael Kristal, an artisan candy maker from Poland recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s oldest living man, dies in Haifa one month before his 114th birthday.

August 12, 1991 — Nasser friend Yeruham Cohen dies

Yeruham Cohen, a soldier known for befriending Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser, dies at 75. He was an intelligence aide to Gen. Yigal Allon in 1948 when he met Nasser during truce negotiations in the Negev. PJC

the journey of the soul, sin, forgiveness and the meaning of the High Holidays. 7 p.m. To register, email janet@newlightcongregation.org.

THURSDAY, AUG. 12 Classrooms Without Borders, in partnership with the German Academic Exchange Service, is excited to offer the opportunity to watch the film “Oma and Bella” and engage in a post-film discussion with director Alexa Karolinski and Jeffrey Yoskowitz, an expert on Eastern European Jewish cuisine and its history. Moderated by Kathleen Gransow, program director, German Academic Exchange Service. 3 p.m. classroomswithoutborders.org/ oma-bella-post-film-discussion Join Moishe House Pittsburgh for an old-fashioned game night. Enjoy the house game collection or bring a game or two to share. Snacks and drinks will be provided. 7 p.m. facebook.com/ moishehouse.pittsburgh

Fund presents Continuing Legal Education, a sixpart CLE series taught by Foundation Scholar Rabbi Dr. Danny Schiff. Earn up to 12 CLE credits. Each session is a stand-alone unit; you can take one class or all six. 8:30 a.m. With CLE credit: $30/session or $150 all sessions; Without CLE credit: $25/session or $125 all sessions. For a complete list of dates and topics, visit foundation.jewishpgh.org/continuinglegal-education.

TUESDAY, AUG. 24 Join Moishe House Pittsburgh in learning the Hebrew at Aleph Bet 101. Meant for the beginner, learn in a low-pressure environment with residents Charlie and Sam as teachers. 7 p.m. facebook.com/ moishehouse.pittsburgh

FRIDAY, AUG. 27 Join Moishe House Pittsburgh in bringing together long-time community members with new friends during Shabbatluck. Enjoy a phone-free, homey gathering. Contributing food is optional, but making a toast is mandatory. Your toast can be as simple as “L’chaim” or as comprehensive as sharing a goal for this community. 7 p.m. facebook.com/ moishehouse.pittsburgh

WEDNESDAY, AUG. 11; SEPT. 14 See Israel with the one you love. Honeymoon Israel is open to couples of all cultural, racial, religious, gender and sexual identities who are looking to create connections with each other and to Jewish life. Open to couples with at least one Jewish partner. Each trip includes 20 diverse couples from the same city.

Learn more at one of three information session: Aug. 11 at 6 p.m., Sept. 14 at noon or 6 p.m. jewishpgh.org/ honeymoon-israel

SUNDAY, AUG. 29 Join Classrooms Without Borders, The Ghetto Fighters House, South Africa Holocaust and Genocide Foundation for a discussion with Loung Ung, author of the bestselling memoir and the critically acclaimed 2017 Netflix original movie directed by Angelina Jolie, “First They Killed My Father.” For more information, visit classroomswithoutborders.org/loung-ung.

TUESDAY, AUG. 17 From the recent conflict with Gaza to the internal political upheaval in Israel, there is a necessity to get an educated view from the “inside.” Classrooms Without Borders is offering an opportunity to hear from in-house scholar Avi Ben-Hur as he helps us navigate and understand what is happening with the cease-fire with Hamas and the change of leadership of the Israeli government. 2 p.m. classroomswithoutborders.org/israel-update-2021

Have you been frustrated on dating apps this summer? Maybe it’s because your pandemic dating skills are rusty, or just because conversations never seem to go anywhere? If so, join Moishe House Pittsburgh for their “dating app clinic.” They’ll help edit your profile, take a new photo if needed, give advice about matches and share favorite dating app stories. 2 p.m. facebook.com/moishehouse.pittsburgh

WEDNESDAY, AUG. 18 Donate much needed blood during the Jewish Association on Aging’s blood drive in cooperation with Vitalant (aka the Central Blood Bank) at the JAA’s Squirrel Hill campus location, 200 JHF Drive, 15217.

Free parking and a Vitalant insulated lunch bag.

10 a.m. Appointments recommended but not required.

Use code W243 at donateblood.centralbloodbank.org.

Join the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh on Zoom to learn more about the Mega Mission 2022.

The mission will take place in Israel June 13-21, 2022.

This is your chance to hear the details and ask all your pressing questions. RSVP required to receive Zoom link. 7 p.m. jewishpgh.org/event/21-mega-mission2022-general-information-session-7-11-2021

THURSDAYS, AUG. 19-JUNE 30, 2022 The Alan Papernick Educational Institute Endowment

MONDAY, AUG. 30 Join Beth El Congregation for its Speaker Series with guest Seth Kibel. Kibel will present “The Jews of Tin Pan Alley,” exploring the lives and music of celebrated Jewish songwriters, whose achievements would come to dominate that body of work known as the “Great American Songbook.” Classic recordings, rare video clips, and “live” performances from the instructor will make this program as exciting as the music itself.

12 p.m. bethelcong.org

SUNDAY, SEP. 12 Join the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh for their 2021 annual meeting “Open Windows.”

This year’s honorees are Meyer “Skip” Grinberg and Rabbi Moshe Vogel. 5:30 p.m. jewishpgh.org/ annual-meeting PJC

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AUGUST 6, 2021 7

Headlines Legacy: Continued from page 1

“We ask the congregations to identify what issues are important to them,” Levine continued. “We don’t have any barriers between us and the congregations.”

JCLP, which is based in Atlanta, works with about 13 congregations in and around Pittsburgh and partners with the Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives at the Heinz History Center and the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.

The organization is making an impact in Western Pennsylvania, said Sharon Perelman, director of planned giving and associate director of the Jewish Community Foundation at Federation, and a member of JCLP’s board of directors.

“They work to help the synagogues plan their legacy and plan for the future before the future happens to them,” she said.

One example of the type of help provided

by JCLP, Perelman said, was the sale of a series of bronze sculpted figures titled “Procession I” by American-Jewish sculptor Elbert Weinberg. The figures were sold to Rodef

Campus: Continued from page 1

from the debate because he or she was Jewish, then it might be counted.”

The Hillel-ADL partnership, which will begin in the coming academic year, follows a spike in reported antisemitic incidents on campus. In the school year that ended in 2021, the ADL tallied 244 antisemitic incidents on campuses nationwide, an increase from 181 the previous school year. Hillel has a presence on more than 550 campuses and says it serves more than 400,000 students.

Accusations of antisemitism on campus have received significant attention from large Jewish organizations for years. Some Jewish leaders have long said anti-Zionist activity on campus constitutes antisemitism, especially as a string of student governments endorsed BDS. Hillel International prohibits partnerships with, and the hosting of, campus groups that support BDS. Anti-Zionist groups have at times targeted Hillel; last week, Students for Justice in Palestine at Rutgers University

Shalom Congregation by Temple Beth Israel in Steubenville, Ohio, when it closed.

The Pittsburgh Jewish Community Foundation acts a type of back office for local small congregations that don’t have a budget for a staff to assist with endowment funds, Perelman said. The foundation creates a fund that the congregation controls, and handles investments.

“I think we’ve been really helpful, saving them time and money,” she said.

She said that even a difficult decision, like closing, can become an “aha” moment for a congregation.

“It’s heartwarming to see these different synagogues come to terms with what will be best for the community down the line,” she said.

A recent addition to the JCLP’s offerings is a small synagogue cohort connecting shuls across Western Pennsylvania.

The idea, Levine said, was initially tried with a group of Central Pennsylvania synagogues in 2019 prior to the pandemic. It was then modeled in Ohio and Mississippi.

The Western Pennsylvania cohort includes more than a dozen congregations. Over the next year, Levine said, leaders of all the cohort

members will give presentations to prompt collaboration and joint programming.

“It’s a good opportunity for small congregations to come together,” he said.

The program will kick off Aug. 25 as Eric Lidji, director of the Rauh Jewish Archives, presents “Spirit of the Western Pennsylvania Jewish Community” virtually to cohort members.

Lidji’s talk will be followed by a virtual Sh’mita seder on Selichot on Aug. 28, led by Cantor Rena Shapiro of Beth Samuel Jewish Center in Ambridge. The program will include a discussion about the sabbatical year, a seder and a Selichot service.

This fall, Rabbi Lenny Sarko of Greensburg’s Congregation Emanu-El Israel, will discuss his work creating a Sefer Torah in braille.

Emanu-El’s president, Irene Rothschild, said the congregation hadn’t given much thought to its legacy before meeting with Levine several years ago.

“We weren’t thinking about the solution, but we know, and have known for a while, that it’s probably going to be inevitable at some point,” she said. “We’re doing our best to prolong that inevitability.”

The JCLP helped Emanu-El develop a

criticized the school’s Hillel in a statement endorsed by other campus groups.

In addition, the ADL has documented white supremacist propaganda campaigns on campuses nationwide.

Multiple national groups have filed complaints with the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights based on campus antisemitism allegations. In 2019, President Donald Trump signed an executive order mandating “robust” enforcement of civil rights protections for Jews on campus and including some anti-Israel activity in the definition of antisemitism. Pro-Palestinian activists said the order would have a chilling effect on free speech on campus.

The ADL and Hillel International plan to develop a curriculum about the history of antisemitism and how it manifests currently.

They will also survey schools nationwide to provide a better picture of the state of antisemitism on campus, and will create a dedicated system to tally incidents of antisemitism at colleges and universities, including a portal for students to report incidents confidentially.

The ADL did not detail how it would

verify whether confidentially submitted incidents actually occurred, beyond telling JTA they would be judged by the methodology the group uses in its annual audit of antisemitic incidents. The methodology states that “ADL carefully examines the credibility of all incidents, including obtaining independent verification when possible.”

In recent months, the student activists have formed their own organizations to further their online activism, called the New Zionist Congress and Jewish on Campus. The New Zionist Congress hosts an online book club and discussions about Zionism, while Jewish on Campus records stories of college antisemitism on its Instagram account, which has posted more than 400 times and has 32,000 followers.

The ADL said its partnership with Hillel would “complement” student activism and that the group “will firmly support wellmeaning student-led efforts to push back against antisemitism on campus.”

The effort with Hillel is also the third partnership with an external organization that ADL has announced in the past two weeks.

Sewing: Continued from page 3

699 garments that were dispersed between the Gusky Orphanage, Jewish Home for Babies, Temporary Home for Children, Zoar Home, Pittsburgh Home for Babies, the Red Cross, Hadassah, Erie Orphanage, Irene Kaufmann Settlement, United Hebrew Relief, Montefiore Hospital, Pittsburgh Association for the Improvement of the Poor, and individuals. A few years later, a subcommittee of the Sewing Committee established what was called “cutting for the Blind,” where members cut out materials towels, aprons and other items, and delivered them to the Workshop for the Blind for 8 AUGUST 6, 2021

p Nancy Rosenthal and Elaine Rybski in the Rodef Shalom gift shop

Photo by Adam Reinherz

completion, added Berg.

Throughout the years, the sewing group has received countless donations of yarn, fabric, thread, pins, needles and scissors, said Susanne Gollin, 67, of Highland Park.

Members of Rodef Shalom’s sewing group keep busy each week with an abundance of supplies and a firm commitment to helping those in need. There are enough supplies, organized across shelves and in cubbies throughout Rodef Shalom’s Sisterhood Room, to enable the group to continue to make a host of donatable items for the foreseeable future.

Elaine Rybski, manager of Rodef Shalom Gift Corner, credited members of the sewing group with providing many of the items currently in the store, including baby

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

long-range planning committee, she said, with a mission statement. The committee created a capital campaign and legacy plan, which she described as akin to a living will.

Rothschild said that some members initially panicked when they learned of the congregation’s plans.

“We said, ‘We’re not going away, it’s like a will. When the situation arises, we’ll have a plan.’ That was the best thing to come out of the committee.”

Gemilas Chesed’s vice president, Larry Perl, said the Orthodox synagogue in White Oak is a small congregation that offers amenities that might be hard to find in a large city, including affordable housing and a family-like community.

The shul, he said, is just beginning to work with the JCLP cohort and he is looking forward to sharing all that Gemilas Chesed has to offer.

No matter where a congregation is in its life cycle, JCLP works under the same premise, Levine said.

“The existence of a congregation is based on the people.” PJC David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

p A view of the University of Iowa campus.

The school was the site of a heated debate over antisemitism and anti-Zionism this year.

Photo by Wikimedia Commons

It recently launched a partnership to combat antisemitism with the Union for Reform Judaism, and last week began an initiative with PayPal to research how extremists use online financial platforms. PJC

blankets, aprons and knit hats.

It’s an impressive collection, said Rybski, and the sale of the items generates thousands of dollars for Rodef Shalom projects, including congregational picnics, educational endeavors and social justice initiatives.

Rosenthal said she’s proud of what the group has accomplished, both recently and throughout its history, but hopes it will make an even larger impact.

“We need more people to volunteer and to come and give their skills,” she said.

“There’s a lot of need for people who don’t have anything.” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Headlines — WORLD — From JTA reports

Jewish groups lead opposition to bill forcing foundations to pay out targeted donations within 15 years

Dozens of Jewish organizations are spearheading an appeal by nonprofits to stop a bill that would force the disbursement of donor-advised funds within 15 years.

Jewish federations have become major clearinghouses for donor-advised funds, which allow donors to funnel charitable giving through an existing foundation to a dedicated cause. There now is no time frame for foundations to disburse the donations.

The Jewish Federations of North America drafted a letter making the appeal to the leaders of the Senate Finance Committee in response to a bill introduced last month by Sens. Angus King of Maine, an Independent who caucuses with Democrats, and Chuck Grassley of Iowa, a Republican. Dozens of national and local Jewish groups signed on.

Donor-advised funds “are the simplest, most flexible, and most economical way for philanthropists to make these gifts,” said the letter to Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., the committee’s chairman, and Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, its top Republican. “They encourage donors and their families to develop long-term giving plans and ensure that charities have the resources to realize their philanthropic visions far into the future.”

The funds provide advantages for the giver and the foundation: The donor gets the tax break up front, even though it may take years for the foundation to disburse the funds, and is spared the headache of setting up a private foundation. The foundation charges administrative fees.

An additional appeal for Jewish groups is how administering the funds deepens a relationship with a donor. For Jewish federations and other Jewish groups, facilitating a donation to a favored non-Jewish cause is seen as a means of keeping the donor interested in Jewish causes.

A number of major Jewish and non-Jewish groups have signed onto the letter, among them the Anti-Defamation League, the Union for Reform Judaism, the American Jewish Committee and the American Red Cross.

King and Grassley, in a release last month, cited nonprofits that back their initiative.

“Charitable dollars ought to be doing the good they were intended for, not sitting stagnant to provide tax advantages for some and management fees for others,” Grassley said in the release. “The reform measures we are putting forward will ensure that the incentives for charitable giving actually result in money going to charities.”

100-year-old former Nazi camp guard to stand trial as accessory to murder of 3,500 prisoners

A 100-year-old former Nazi concentration camp guard has been indicted in Germany for being an accessory to murder in 3,500 cases.

The defendant, who was not named in the German media, is scheduled to go on trial in October in the Neuruppin district court for his service at Sachsenhausen, Reuters reported.

Court sessions requiring the defendant’s presence will be limited to about two hours a day because of his age.

The defendant was said to have worked as a guard from 1942 to 1945 in Sachsenhausen, a camp near Berlin where some 200,000 people were imprisoned and 20,000 murdered.

Germany has prosecuted several accused accomplices to Nazi war crimes since the 2011 conviction in Munich of former concentration camp guard John Demjanjuk, who had been living in the U.S. before being arrested, deported and tried for his role at Sobibor. He was found guilty as an accessory in the murders of nearly 30,000 Jews there and died in 2012.

The Demjanjuk case set a precedent that being a guard at a death camp was sufficient to prove complicity in murder. Few of the guards are still alive, however, and thus the number of prosecutions is dwindling.

Trump mandated some settlement products labeled as being from Israel. Some GOP senators want it to become law

Seven Republican senators are backing a bill that would enshrine as law one of former President Donald Trump’s final orders — requiring products from the portion of the West Bank controlled entirely by Israel to be labeled as originating in Israel.

The Anti-BDS Labeling Act introduced

this week by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., refers to the movement to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel.

It comes on the heels of the controversy surrounding ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s recent decision to pull its products out of the West Bank. Republican lawmakers, however, have been talking about enacting the Trump order since Dec. 23, when the lame-duck president issued the measure less than a month before leaving office.

Biden has not rescinded the order, which applies to goods manufactured in Area C, which is under Israeli control. Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had contemplated annexing the area.

The bill has no chance of passage in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Area C is where Jewish settlements are concentrated, although it also includes a Palestinian population.

Also in the West Bank are the much smaller Area A, which is under total Palestinian Authority control, and Area B under joint Israel-P.A. control. Under Trump’s order, products from those areas are labeled as coming from the West Bank.

In addition to Cotton, the bill is being backed by Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott of Florida; Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty of Tennessee; Ted Cruz of Texas; and John Boozman of Arkansas.

BDS generally refers to boycotts of all of Israel, not just of settlement goods. In announcing its new policy, Ben & Jerry’s said it did not adhere to the tenets of BDS. PJC

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Opinion

Deborah Lipstadt is a good first step — EDITORIAL —

W

e applaud President Joe Biden’s announcement last week naming Deborah Lipstadt as the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism. The selection of Lipstadt is widely recognized as a good one — even if many are concerned that it took the administration far too long to make the appointment for this increasingly important and sensitive position.

Lipstadt’s qualifications are impressive.

She is a renowned Holocaust scholar, and a professor of modern Jewish history and Holocaust studies at Emory University.

For decades, she has been a go-to expert on issues relating to the Holocaust and has established herself more broadly as a credible and thoughtful voice on antisemitism.

Until now, Lipstadt may be most famous for being portrayed by actress Rachel Weisz in the 2016 movie entitled “Denial,” a film that recounted the story of Lipstadt’s 1996 defense in an English court against a libel charge for calling Holocaust denier David Irving a Holocaust denier. Lipstadt won that case and went on to write “History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier.”

More recently, she wrote the influential book “Antisemitism: Here and Now,” which was published in January 2019.

As a position within the State Department, the special envoy’s responsibility is to address antisemitism abroad, not within the U.S. Nonetheless, the special envoy has no domestic equivalent and so is the leading voice within the U.S. government on the issue of antisemitism.

Lipstadt’s reputation and expertise make her a solid choice for the special envoy

position. She has the gravitas and the experience to elevate the office and is a trusted and thoughtful voice. She has the courage necessary to call out antisemitism, and will doubtless bring those strengths to her work of tracking and reporting on antisemitism abroad and lobbying governments to address the issue.

Nonetheless, we remain troubled by the administration’s delay in making the special envoy appointment. The continuing rise in antisemitism, in the U.S. and abroad, needs to be addressed with the full support and prestige of our government. The delay in the special envoy appointment raises questions about the intensity of the administration’s concerns about antisemitism, and with that, sensitivity to the concerns of our community.

Going forward, the administration has a clarifying opportunity. The important

position of White House Jewish liaison remains unfilled. The Jewish liaison acts as a point person between the Jewish community and the White House — serving as the administration’s voice to our community and the person charged with gathering consensus on issues that affect our community.

The Biden administration has promised to name a liaison but has not yet done so.

We urge the prompt selection of someone with similar experience, knowledge and reach that Lipstadt brings to her position, rather than a more junior, entry-level staff person, as has been rumored. The selection of an experienced and respected liaison will elevate the dialogue between the White House and our community, and will send a clear message that the Biden administration takes the Jewish community seriously. PJC

Ben & Jerry’s survey results

L

ast week, the Chronicle asked its readers in an electronic survey how they felt about Ben & Jerry’s recent announcement that it would halt sales of its products in what the company referred to as the “Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

Readers were given a choice of five responses: “I like it but I think they should go further”; “I like it”; “I don’t like it, but it won’t change what I buy”; “I don’t like it, and I won’t buy Ben & Jerry’s”; and “I don’t know.”

Of the 271 people who responded to the survey, a large majority (67%, or 178 people) responded “I don’t like it, and I won’t buy Ben & Jerry’s,” and another 9% (24 people) responded “I don’t like it, but it won’t change what I buy.”

Only 54 people (20%) said they either like Ben & Jerry’s decision or like it “but think they should go further.” Eleven people (4%) responded “I don’t know.”

One hundred people submitted additional written responses to the question. Here is a sample of what they wrote: “Once again Israel (and the world of Israel) is picked out of all the groups of peoples of this world to be demonized.”

“They are expressing their political views. This is not an Israel ‘boycott.’ It is ONLY about the occupied West Bank.

One cannot say they are boycotting Israel since they are open for business in Israel.”

“There are far superior ice creams. If they back away, I’ll buy BJ to acknowledge they have acknowledged their mistake.

But, their star is far dimmer and distant!”

“The situation involving Ben & Jerry’s and their corporate parent, Unilever, is more nuanced than headlines would suggest. Neither entity supports BDS. Ben & Jerry’s and Unilever will still create and sell products in Israel, supporting many. I think that there’s a lot about this decision that we still don’t know.”

“MAY THEY MELT IN HELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

“I completely oppose the BDS movement.

However, B&J’s took a stand on a specific issue rather than condemn an entire country. I can respect that.”

“No Unilever products as well.

There should be an organized boycott of all Unilever products.”

p Ben & Jerry’s co-founders Jerry Greenfield, left, and Ben Cohen serve ice cream follow a press conference announcing a new flavor in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 3, 2019 Win McNamee/Getty Images via JTA.org

“More proof of the success of the Palestinian Authority ’s extraordinar y ability to use the money given it by Western countries and the EU to buy world opinion that they are the Earth’s most downtrodden people.”

“More than worrying about ice cream, it would be good if everyone who supports

Israel would be more aware of life for the Palestinians in the West Bank. The Jewish people can do better.”

“I want to know when Ben & Jerry’s ice cream will stop being sold in China, which is tormenting Muslims.” PJC — Toby Tabachnick

— LETTERS — Ben & Jerry’s boycott is not in Israel

In “PA anti-BDS law could be triggered by Ben & Jerry’s Israel boycott” (July 30), the Chronicle wrote: “When Ben & Jerry’s announced last week it would stop selling ice cream in portions of Israel — the areas the company referred to as ‘Occupied Palestinian Territory’…”

Areas A, B and C are not, by any reckoning, portions of Israel. No one, including Israel, can say Areas A, B and C are Israel. I was born in Haifa; that is Israel and you will be able to buy Ben & Jerry’s there.

We invite you to submit letters for publication. Letters must include name, address and daytime phone number; addresses and phone numbers will not be published. Letters may not exceed 500 words and may be edited for length and clarity; they cannot be returned. Mail, fax or email letters to: Letters to the editor via email: Address & Fax:

Website address:

letters@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle 5915 Beacon St., 5th Flr., Pittsburgh, PA 15217 Fax 412-521-0154 pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

Mark Fichman Pittsburgh 10 AUGUST 6, 2021

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Opinion Where do you stand on the Ben & Jerry’s settlements boycott? Take our taste test Guest Columnist Andrew Silow-Carroll

T

he uproar over the decision by Ben & Jerry’s to stop selling its ice cream in “occupied Palestinian territories” is a sort of Jewish personality test. How you reacted is a good indication of what you think about the Israel boycott movement, Israel’s control of the West Bank and the future of the conflict.

Think of it in terms of, I don’t know, ice cream orders: Chocolate and vanilla For you, it’s a black and white issue. This is a boycott plain and simple, and any economic pressure put on Israelis is tantamount to antisemitism in that it applies a double standard to the world’s only Jewish state.

What others call the “occupation” isn’t really the point, because it’s up to Israel to determine its own fate, and Jews have a right to live where they choose in lands they control.

You agree with Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations and the United States, Gilad Erdan. He views the company’s decision as “the de-facto adoption of antisemitic practices and advancement of the de-legitimization of the Jewish state and the dehumanization of the Jewish people.”

Or as Israel’s newly installed president, Isaac Herzog, said, “The boycott of Israel is a new sort of terrorism, economic terrorism.

Terrorism tries to harm the citizens of Israel and the economy of Israel. We must oppose this boycott and terrorism in any form.”

Chocolate and vanilla swirl You fully support the settlements and reject the whole idea that there is a distinction between Jewish communities on either side of the Green Line. You think Ben & Jerry’s deserves a taste of its own medicine.

You probably agree with The Yesha Council, which represents the Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley: “We urge you to avoid doing business with companies boycotting hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens and offer our support for those companies who have refused to

boycott a significant portion of Israelis.”

Chocolate and vanilla, soft-serve You respect the right of people and individuals to criticize Israeli policy but believe even a targeted boycott of the Jewish settlements aids and abets the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS), which seeks to delegitimize Israel and erase a sovereign Jewish state from the Middle East.

You’d share a cone with the Anti-Defamation League, which tweeted, “We are disappointed by this decision from @benandjerrys. You can disagree with policies without feeding into dangerous campaigns that seek to undermine Israel.”

Freedom’s Choice Ice Cream, any flavor You think like a lawyer, and feel Jewish settlers have a civil right to buy Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. You are urging states to enforce anti-BDS laws and executive orders that punish businesses that cooperate in this form of discrimination.

“Ben & Jerry’s is discriminating against Jewish customers in Israel by eliminating the ability for customers to buy their product based on where they live,” as Hadassah

put it. “Businesses should not cater to the whims of hardliners who believe that only certain people from certain places are fit to be customers.”

Banana split You actually oppose the occupation, as some refer to it, but think even a targeted boycott focusing on the settlements is self-defeating, because it emboldens the Palestinians and hardens the Israeli right.

“The Palestinians will say, ‘We do not have to make any fundamental concessions; we will let the world pressure Israel,’ and the right-wing in Israel will only be strengthened with its endless claim of ‘See, the whole world is against us, the whole world is antisemitic,’” writes Marc Schulman in Newsweek.

Dove bar You are a critic of the Israeli settler movement and consider the occupation illegal and immoral. You believe the expansion of settlements is an impediment to the only solution that could guarantee security and self-determination for both Please see Silow-Carroll, page 12

More worried than ever about the threat of American antisemitism Guest Columnist William Daroff

O

n July 29, 2014, at the height of a conflict between Hamas terrorists and Israel, while rockets from Gaza were intentionally launched at Israeli civilians, three men of Palestinian descent threw Molotov cocktails at the Bergisch Synagogue in Wuppertal, Germany. The attack occurred at the end of Ramadan as anti-Israel protests flared in Western Europe.

If this inciting incident does not seem eerily familiar, the reader has not been paying enough attention (or their news sources have not deemed the recent surge in antisemitism worthy of coverage).

Over the past few weeks and months, as Hamas rockets again targeted Israeli civilians and the IDF responded, Jewish communities across the United States reported acts of violence, intimidation and abuse, both physical and verbal. In Skokie, Illinois, a vandal smashed a synagogue window and left a Palestinian flag at the door. In midtown Manhattan, a roving mob of anti-Israel thugs marched through the heavily Jewish Diamond District, harassing and beating passersby and diners and using fireworks as weapons to cause damage and intimidate

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Jews. In Brooklyn, men drove around the heavily Jewish neighborhood of Borough Park, harassing and assaulting Jews, and yelling antisemitic slurs and “Free Palestine.”

The men also kicked a synagogue’s doors and broke a car mirror. In Los Angeles, Jews eating at a kosher restaurant were beaten, intimidated and chased by people and cars waving Palestinian flags.

This type of violent reaction toward Jews in response to events in the Middle East

usually champion the causes of minorities facing violence.

This structural blind spot to blatant antisemitism in organizations committed to social justice and in media reporting leaves Jews vulnerable. Fortunately, lessons learned after the verdict in Germany are readily applicable in the United States.

Partially in response to Germany’s miscarriage of justice, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, an

This structural blind spot to blatant antisemitism in organizations committed to social justice and in media reporting leaves Jews vulnerable. used to be limited to Europe. Unfortunately, these events and many more compiled by the Anti-Defamation League demonstrate that the pattern of violent targeting of Jews has crossed the Atlantic.

The most frightening element of the 2014 incident in Germany was not the attack itself, however, but the aftermath. After several years, a German high court ruled that the attack was an expression of antiIsrael protest, and did not qualify as an act of antisemitism. Recently, we have seen the same equivocating in the reporting on this latest spike in antisemitism, while also facing the deafening silence from organizations that

intergovernmental body made up of 31 nations, came together to jointly adopt the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism.

Drawn from earlier work, and crafted with the input of scholars of antisemitism and representatives from around the globe, the definition quickly became the standard for identifying Jew-hatred.

The value of this definition is in its comprehensiveness and circumspection. The drafters synthesized ancient, medieval and post-Enlightenment forms of antisemitism with “New Antisemitism,” which manifests itself around the existence of the State of Israel while also explicitly noting, “criticism of

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Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.”

The document lays out 11 crucial examples of what could constitute antisemitism, but cautions that one must “[take] into account the overall context” surrounding words or actions. Recognizing that the Working Definition was written “not … to be a tool for academic researchers, but for those… who would put it to use,” the drafters imbued it with flexibility while also clearly maintaining red lines.

The consensus around this document is enormous, and includes many governments and institutions that are routinely critical of Israel. Just last week, Switzerland became the 36th country to adopt the definition, joining a host of nations worldwide, including Germany, Argentina, Canada, France and the United Kingdom. International organizations like the European Union, the United Nations and the Organization of American States endorsed it as well. Since President George W. Bush’s State Department adopted a similar definition in 2005, Republican and Democratic administrations alike have continuously recognized and endorsed it. Moreover, and perhaps most importantly, it has the nearly unanimous support of mainstream Jewish communities and institutions throughout the U.S. Please see Daroff, page 12

AUGUST 6, 2021 11

Opinion Silow-Carroll: Continued from page 11

Israelis and Palestinians: two states for two peoples. You also believe putting economic pressure on Israel, especially the settlements, is a legitimate, nonviolent form of political activism.

“Ben & Jerry’s decision is a legitimate, peaceful protest against the systemic injustice of occupation and a reminder that the settlements are, in fact, illegal under international law,” said J Street’s Jeremy Ben-Ami. Two scoops for two cones You oppose the BDS movement but worry that Israel is on the road to a one-state solution that will be either Jewish or democratic, but not both. You support the Ben & Jerry’s move because you insist on a distinction between Israel within the Green Line and the West Bank territories it has controlled since the Six-Day War. You might even belong to one of seven progressive Jewish organizations that sent a letter asking U.S. governors not to use state anti-boycott laws to punish Ben &

Daroff: Continued from page 11

and around the world.

In the wake of this latest wave of antisemitic violence across the United States, government, businesses and civil society must prioritize the adoption and application of the IHRA definition with its helpful and comprehensive examples. Schools and universities should incorporate it into their curricula to help students recognize bias.

Social media companies should use it to assess what constitutes hateful speech on their platforms. Law enforcement should apply its

Jerry’s. “Like Ben & Jerry’s, we make a clear distinction between the State of Israel and the Palestinian territories it militarily occupies,” the groups write. This differentiation “is rightly recognized and maintained in various ways by official U.S. policy and the constitutionallyprotected actions of private individuals and organizations.”

Cherry Garcia, Chunky Monkey, whatever you got You do not take a unified stance on BDS, Zionism or a just solution to the conflict, but believe the occupation denies Palestinians freedom and dignity by depriving them of civil, political and economic rights.

In other words, you are the Jewish group IfNotNow, which tweeted: “This is an important victory for the movement for Palestinian freedom. After years of pressure from Palestinian organizers, Ben & Jerry’s is modeling one way to hold the Israeli government accountable for the occupation.”

p Ben & Jerry’s truck parked in Jerusalem

Photo credit: Flickr Commons

Good Humor You are a satirical newspaper and find the whole situation absurd. You explain that Israel is protesting by pulling its ambassador out of the Ben & Jerry’s factory in Vermont.

“At press time, Häagen-Dazs agreed to act as a third-party mediator to help resolve the conflict,” The Onion reported. PJC

Ben & Jerry’s Sweet Like Sugar You fully support the BDS movement and see the Ben & Jerry’s decision as a major

victory in your anti-Israel campaign. You feel it is working; otherwise, why would Israel be working so hard to denounce, isolate and even criminalize the company for its actions?

“Our major #BDSsuccess with @benandjerrys sent shock waves through apartheid Israel reiterating its fear of the nonviolent BDS movement & its growing, strategic impact worldwide on isolating Israel’s regime of oppression against the Indigenous Palestinians,” tweeted the official account of the Palestinian BDS National Committee.

guidance to determine whether a hate crime has been committed. The federal government should consult it when considering instances of discrimination against Jews. The European Union already published a Handbook for the Practical Use of the IHRA Working Definition, which provides numerous ways in which the definition could be applied in order to better combat antisemitism.

To be clear, the IHRA definition does not constitute a speech code nor does it set legal penalties for violating its examples. It is simply a tool for defining antisemitism, not a mechanism for prosecuting it. The definition does not label individuals as antisemitic, but rather gives guidance regarding specific acts.

Its adoption represents only one step in the fight against antisemitism, but it is crucial to first define it in order to combat it.

After the ADL and the FBI tracked successive years of record highs in antisemitic incidents, and in the wake of the 75% spike over the last several weeks, it is time for America to acknowledge this wave as a serious challenge that ignores party, race, ethnicity or class. No one group is solely responsible for antisemitism, so it is the responsibility of all groups to combat it, and for businesses, universities and civil society to take antisemitism as seriously as any other form of prejudice and hate.

The American-Jewish community is more

worried than ever before about the threat of antisemitism. We need reassurance that when Jews are targeted as a group — for any reason — others will stand with us in condemning such pernicious hate. Europe’s adoption of the IHRA definition and its examples provided that assurance years ago. As a similar type of violence has come to our shores, it is America’s turn to do the same. PJC

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Andrew Silow-Carroll is the editor in chief of The New York Jewish Week and senior editor of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. This article originally appeared in JTA.

William Daroff became the Chief Executive Officer of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in 2020. This article originally appeared in Times of Israel.

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Headlines Fashion: Continued from page 2

Levick Martahus said that customers have expressed a desire to buy new clothes, but are holding true to pre-pandemic behaviors when it comes to spending.

“People don’t want to waste money on things they can wear for one season,” she said. When clothes are made with a “little bit

Play: Continued from page 5

people who are not from here are connected to this play,” said Platt, who is Jewish.

Zoe Levine, also an actor in the upcoming staged reading, met Mannino in the Jewish community — namely, through the organization Repair the World, whose mission centers around the Jewish concept of tikkun olam.

“I love theater and I look forward to continue doing it as a side love,” said Levine, a Jewish Erie native who graduated this year from Chatham University. “I saw this topic and it really resonated with me. I thought the

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better quality,” they can become “timeless.”

Allure has been located in Bloomfield for 29 years. Following government mandated shutdowns in March 2020, the store was closed for several months. Though unable to open her doors to customers, Levick Martahus still went to work every day. She described that time as “pretty devastating” and said the pandemic “affected every facet

of the fashion and garment industry... Some of the companies I’ve dealt with for 30 years had to go out of business.”

What helped give perspective, Levick Martahus said, was remembering her family’s origins.

“My very ancient relatives were peddlers in the old country, with a wagon, selling pins and needles and fabrics,” she said.

play could be so important.”

Levine was at Chatham on the morning of the 2018 shooting — just steps away from the Tree of Life building. Her memories speak to the impact Mannino’s play is trying to tap.

“For me, it’s a very present and traumatic memory,” Levine said. “It was very surreal to read it. The vigil at Forbes and Murray?

I was there. The Bend the Arc protest? I was there … It’s been kind of good for me to do this. The whole thing has been surreal but, ultimately, good for me.”

The play also has a champion in Maggie Feinstein, who heads the 10.27 Healing Partnership. She said she hopes to spread the word about readings of the play.

“We are happy to promote this message and we are happy to promote documentary theater,” Feinstein said. “People doing the hard work of asking questions and understanding other people’s views is admirable and great. I’m inspired by her courage.”

“It Couldn’t Happen Here” will be presented by Congregation Dor Hadash and screened via Zoom webinars on Sunday, Aug. 22 at 2 p.m. and Thursday, Aug. 26 at 7 p.m. Tickets are free and will be available online at the event page. PJC

There’ve been a lot of turns in the clothing business since the start of the coronavirus crisis, but customers are finally coming back.

The lesson, said Levick Martahus, is that “in any business, and in life, we always have to adapt to different circumstances.” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

Justin Vellucci is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.

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AUGUST 6, 2021 13

Life & Culture JCC reinstitutes indoor mask requirement

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p Mask wearing while working out.

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ffective August 4, the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh reinstituted an indoor mask requirement at all its locations. The policy, said President and CEO Brian Schreiber and Board Chair William S. Goodman in an email, pertains to “both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals of all ages for members, guests and staff.”

The JCC leaders noted that although a return to masking “may be a temporary inconvenience for some, your continued cooperation better protects you, your friends and neighbors, and our professional staff who have gone above and beyond to meet your needs during this prolonged epidemic.”

Since the start of the pandemic, the JCC has followed guidance from the CDC and local health authorities, and worked with medical and scientific experts. Through those partnerships and endeavors, noted organizational representatives, the JCC has served the entire community, as well as “operated child care and camping programs, restored fitness and wellness activities indoors, reopened locker rooms and supported ongoing public health and nutrition programs.”

Said Schreiber and Goodman, “The rapid onset of the Delta variant challenges us again

Photo by LightFieldStudios via iStock

to best serve you and mitigate exposing our members, volunteers and staff to this highly contagious variant.”

The JCC plans to continue all of its current programs and services — members can keep using the Henry Kaufmann Family Park in Monroeville on weekends through September 4. While masks are required indoors, masking will remain optional for health and wellness programs for adults held outdoors.

“We anticipate adding outdoor classes to the best of our ability during this next wave,” according to Schreiber and Goodman.

For its indoor operations, the JCC continues following “regular and rigorous cleaning protocols.” HEPA fan/filtration units and enhanced HVAC systems allow for “increased outside air flow,” the JCC leaders added.

Although this marks a “highly unusual period” in the organization’s 126-year history, Schreiber and Goodman reiterated their appreciation for member support.

“Thank you for standing with us,” they wrote. “With your continued cooperation we will get through this current phase together.” PJC — Adam Reinherz

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Life & Culture Jews of Key West make Margaritaville home

By Larry Luxner | JTA

K

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p From left: Sam Kaufman, vice mayor of the city of Key West, and Rabbi Yaakov Zucker stand in front of the Chabad Jewish Center of the Florida Keys & Key West.

In the 1890s, some of these early Jewish pioneers helped buy weapons for José Martí’s anti-Spanish revolution in Cuba, only 90 miles to the south. And in 1899 — just two years after Theodor Herzl’s first Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland — the Federation of American Zionists opened a Key West branch to raise funds for an eventual Jewish homeland in Palestine.

Congregation B’nai Zion, a nonaffiliated synagogue with about 100 members, is the oldest synagogue in South Florida. Established in 1887, it occupies an entire city block along United Street, not far from its original location at the Sidney M. Aronovitz U.S. Courthouse, named after a prominent Jewish lawyer and third-generation Key West resident.

“A lot of Jews come to Key West to disappear from the radar,” said the synagogue’s Israeliborn rabbi, Shimon Dudai, 76. “Most of the time they become family.”

There can be a disconnect between the Israelis and local Jews, Dudai said.

“Local Jews don’t mix much with the Israelis,” he said. “When I first came here, I went to every store and met all the Israelis.

I knew they were not the kind of people who would come to a place considered Reform. That’s the reason we’re not affiliated, although my congregation welcomes all streams of Judaism.”

Meir Mergi, 42, is originally from the Haifa suburb of Kiryat Ata. He’s lived here for 20 years, selling T-shirts, other clothing and local souvenirs at his Duval Street shop.

“I never planned to stay in America.

It was supposed to be a three-month vacation,” Mergi said. “Key West is the best place to be if you want a quiet life. I’m very happy here.”

From April to June of 2020, as coronavirus infections spiked across South Florida, Key West and the other islands were closed off to nonresidents. Police blocked the Overseas Highway at the boundary with Miami-Dade County.

“If you didn’t show an ID that you lived in the Keys, you couldn’t get in,” said Zucker, who is also a chaplain with the Monroe County Sheriff ’s Department.

“To get back into town, I had to write our Israeli guests a letter that they were coming to see me.”

These days, Kaufman is optimistic about the future. Crime is low and Key West is packed with visitors.

“There’s pent-up demand for tourism, it’s a safe place and it’s drivable,” Kaufman said.

p Key West, Florida, is much closer to Havana, Cuba, than to Miami, as is apparent on this storefront in Mallory Square

Photo by Larry Luxner

“During spring break, hotel rooms were going for $1,200 a night, so we’re not really suffering.”

In fact, some Jewish retirees moved to the Florida Keys during the pandemic to escape public health restrictions up north.

“I must have gotten at least 30 phone calls from people wanting to move to the Keys from New York and Chicago,” said Zucker, who hosted over 100 people at Chabad’s Passover seder this year. “After coronavirus, they want to be off the grid. They don’t want to be in big cities. People saw what happened, and nobody has insurance that some new variant won’t happen again.”

The Keys Jewish Community Center, located at Mile Marker 93 along the Overseas Highway, is the only synagogue between Key

West and Homestead on the Florida mainland.

The congregation’s president, Joyce Peckman, who settled here in 2003 from New York, said that about half of the 170 member families have second homes elsewhere, with some of them spending only a few weeks a year in the Keys. The JCC once had a Hebrew school with 10 children, but they all grew up and moved away. More than half intermarried, she said.

“If I had young children, I would not move here,” Peckman said. “The vibe here in the Upper Keys is very laid back. People came here for diving, fishing, relaxing and getting away from it all. But there are very few Jews, and if you have kids, you want them to be someplace where there are other Jewish kids.” PJC

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CHANGE OF ADDRESS

EY WEST, FLORIDA — On any given afternoon, hundreds of visitors here patiently line up for selfies next to a brightly painted, 12-foot-high concrete buoy marking the southernmost point in the continental United States.

Just behind this landmark, a less obvious monument overlooks the Atlantic Ocean for a few days a year: a menorah erected during Hanukkah by Chabad Jewish Center of the Florida Keys & Key West. Billed as “the nation’s southernmost menorah,” the gimmick is just one way that Rabbi Yaakov Zucker attracts Jews among the 2.5 million tourists who flock to the Keys annually.

“For a while, there was also a ‘southernmost Christmas tree’ and then they stopped putting it there. But I’ve continued my menorah tradition. People like these things,” said Zucker, 49, who often cruises up and down Duval Street, the epicenter of Key West’s famous party strip, in a modified golf cart, chatting up Jews and trying to convince men to put on tefillin.

Key West is the southernmost among a string of islands off the southern coast of Florida (called the Keys) that are linked to Miami via a 113-mile highway that crosses the water. While the COVID-19 pandemic devastated local tourism last year and large cruise ships have yet to return, Key West’s hotels are again packed with visitors. Most are Americans who arrive by car from the mainland, but the number of international visitors is growing.

Once Florida’s most populous city in the 19th century, Key West today doesn’t even rank in the state’s top 150. But among its 24,000 or so residents are about a thousand Jews, about one-third of whom are Israeli expats, according to Zucker. Another thousand or so Jews are scattered elsewhere in the Keys, mainly in island towns such as Islamorada, Key Largo, Marathon and Tavernier.

“When I first came to Key West, I called my dad up and said, ‘They must really love Jews here. Every store has a mezuzah,’” recalled Sam Kaufman, the vice mayor here and a regular at Chabad services.

That tradition dates back to the 1920s, when the local merchants’ association ruled that only people who resided permanently in Key West could operate businesses on Duval Street.

“The Jews weren’t full-time residents because there was no rabbi and no kosher food. So they left on Thursday night by boat and came back on Sunday,” Kaufman said. “After that ruling, the Jews became full-time residents.”

The Chabad center, housed in a former Lutheran church on Trinity Drive, is a relative newcomer to Key West. Jews have lived since 1886 in this laid-back fishing town nicknamed the Conch Republic, which has inspired hard-drinking celebrities from novelist Ernest Hemingway to songwriter Jimmy Buffett. That’s the year a massive fire destroyed Key West’s commercial district, creating opportunities for Yiddish-speaking peddlers and shopkeepers from New York, according to Arlo Haskell’s 2017 book, “Jews of Key West: Smugglers, Cigar Makers and Revolutionaries (1823-1969).”

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AUGUST 6, 2021 15

Life & Culture

Remembering my great friend, Jackie Mason z’’l

By Aliza Davidovit | Times of Israel

I

’ve walked the sidewalks of New York City in many shoes and loved it at every bend. I’ve walked them as a single girl in Louboutins; I’ve walked them as a rabbi’s wife; I’ve walked them as a journalist on the arm of famous people; I’ve walked them in running shoes catering to the homeless; I’ve walked them proud and at times lonely and disheartened. But never were my amblings through the spirited streets of Manhattan more entertaining than doing so with comedian Jackie Mason.

Sometimes it took 45 minutes to travel down one short block. Every passing stranger, with uncommon familiarity, stopped to say hello and get his autograph. “Aren’t you Jackie Mason?” the undecided would sometimes ask. Mason quickly replied, “I sure hope so because I’ve been cashing his check every week.” Then four seconds into the conversation, whether it be a Pakistani cab driver, a Jew from Borough Park or a farmer from Arkansas, they started to imitate him.

But he didn’t rush away. He engaged people and analyzed them on the spot. Within 10 seconds he could guess what a complete stranger did for a living and whether he was a divorcé, a lawyer, a patsy, an actor or a fraud. He was right 95 percent of the time. As he’d write out an autograph he’d say, “Hey mistah, you look to me like you’re a homosexual.” They’d laugh and fess up. He is one person that I never dared lie to or exaggerate; he was literally a living, breathing lie detector on the go who could smell manure while it was still in fodder form.

Jackie loved the attention. Often when we’d go for a walk together, he’d avoid a street and say, “It’s not a good street.” It took me many years to understand that a street was deemed “not good” if there were not enough people on it to recognize him, the busier the better. With shoulders back and a confident unique gait, he walked like the Big Apple was his for the taking.

What I liked most about Jackie was that he didn’t hobnob with the upper crust who’d sit around impressing each other with their own vain shallowness. Mason’s favorite hangouts were New York’s delis and diners. It is there, and in the very streets of the city that we both loved so much, that Mason found food for his humor, studied human behavior and explored the gridlock of colorful characters with whom he intersected. I think for many years it was through his eyes that I learned to understand New York — in the jungle your instincts must prevail. And I also learned from him that if you ask a question with enough chutzpah, people will actually answer. In many ways he taught me more about being a journalist than the institutions which educated me.

Jackie read through a variety of newspapers for at least five hours a day. He had a terrific memory. Then sitting in a café or deli, eating something fattening when his agent wasn’t there to see, he’d discuss the world with his inner circle of friends, I among them. The worst thing someone could do at those meetups, which were always filled with belly-aching laughter (he was hilarious on and off stage), was to say something stupid. The poor chap would end up with a humbling caustic tongue-lashing that they would not soon forget. It was my fear of being at the receiving end of one of those that forced me to make a choice, either to stay home, keep quiet or start reading newspapers eight hours a

16 AUGUST 6, 2021

day just to keep up. I chose the latter.

It was often at these daily rendezvous where Jackie created material for his shows. He’d borrow a pen, grab a napkin and jot down a few ideas running them by his friends. I don’t use the term often even though I’ve interviewed some of the most powerful people in the world, but he was “brilliant.” The mental acrobatics cultivated by his Talmudic training coupled with his extraordinary talents produced an agility of mind that I’ve never witnessed in anyone else; his ability to weave ideas together into a sidesplitting act was surely a gift from God. He rarely, if ever, called his friends by their proper name. With deep insight into people’s characters, he’d come to call them by a nickname that best described them. Despite all of my efforts at being a fancy blonde and a journalist, I was called, The Rebbetzin, i.e., meaning the rabbi’s wife. Others in the group included, The Dentist, The Ping Pong Player, The Judge, etc. I don’t believe he ever addressed me by my name. And as close as we were for 20 years plus, I wouldn’t be shocked if he forgot my name entirely.

We were an eclectic group of friends and sycophants each vying for his attention. When he gave you a compliment there was no better feeling in the world. When he criticized you, it was mortifying. Often, I had to shoulder the pain of those he chewed up and sometimes spat out. If he deemed you a user, a freeloader or a traitor you were out for good. It was never out of meanness but rather out of self-preservation.

Only once during our friendship did we have an argument, and it was over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. I was shocked Jackie screamed at me, he was shocked, docile as I am, that I answered back. A few days later we were back at the diner, friends again and a touch more appreciative of our friendship.

As a Canadian visiting NYC, I first saw Jackie Mason on Broadway when I was 19 years old.

I never laughed so hard in my entire short life.

But I knew there and then (while sitting in row 10, I think it was), that I was going to meet him one day. Eight years later, Jackie was my first big interview in the big city. As editor-in-chief of Celebrate magazine, I tried incessantly to gain an interview with him. I wrote numerous letters to his agent, but to no avail. How could I blame her? I was an unknown.

Characteristically, I would not take “no” for an answer. One day I found out that Mason was to make a very brief appearance at a fund-raiser on the Intrepid, the aircraft carrier museum on Manhattan’s West Side. I got myself in and paid each security guard to beep me with their gate number when Mason arrived so that I shouldn’t miss him. When I got the beep, I dashed over in my 4-inch heels to greet him. The first thing he said was, “Are you the girl who’s been looking for me?” My audacity paid off; Mason agreed to be interviewed.

I was living in Connecticut at the time and I was so afraid to be late for the interview we had scheduled that I convinced my now ex-husband to stay in a Manhattan hotel with me so that I would be on time and not stressed. Of course, I was out to impress and so I stayed at the Regency and was to meet Mason the next morning at 11 a.m. at the restaurant there. I showed up at 10:30 a.m. Eleven came and went. So did 11:30 and then 12. My heart sunk. He wasn’t showing up. I called his office and Mason had completely forgotten about the whole interview.

He called me to apologize and then rescheduled for another day saying he preferred to meet at a simple New York diner. And we did.

The next time I was less uptight. I drove in from Connecticut the same day to conduct the interview. The allotted one hour he gave me became four. But when I went back to my office to transcribe the taped interview, all that could be heard was New York traffic and the initial three words, “testing, testing, testing.” I called Mason, explained what had happened, and asked if we could try it again. He immediately consented and said, “Your questions were so good, I didn’t mind having an extra day to think about them again.”

As for the final article, Mason jokingly said it made him appear more interesting than he ever thought he was. We have been best of friends ever since. His death is truly a deep loss to all who knew him and loved him so much.

p Jackie Mason and the author at a Manhattan diner on Broadway

Photo courtesy of Alec Lorriane

p Jackie Mason in New York City recording his album “I Want To Leave You With The Words Of A Great Comedian,” Feb. 20, 1963

Photo by Popsie Randolph/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Although he often said that he did not believe in God, I didn’t believe him. Nonetheless, I pray that all the joy and laughter he gave us all will earn him a front-row seat in Heaven where he can hear the chazzanut music he loved so much.

Unlike many famous people I’ve interviewed, Mason didn’t deify himself either. He also wasn’t a jealous person or begrudging and always tried to give someone a professional break if he could.

And though he admitted to having an ego and jokingly said that his only fault was that he had no faults, he made no effort to render himself larger-than-life. He collected no memorabilia or press clippings, playbills, or anything of that nature in which he was featured. “I have nothing to gain by living in the past,” Mason said. “When you die no one cares except maybe one sisterin-law and two cousins because they care how

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

much they can collect. So why waste your time filling up closets with papers and tsotchkes.”

Instead, he suggests, “hang up two shirts.”

With a heavy sigh, I say goodbye to my friend.

The final curtain has fallen on the Jackie Mason Show and it is certain that the likes of him will never grace the stages of Broadway again.

He always said that he wanted no tributes, no flowers, no monuments, he simply wanted to be remembered as “still living.” And that much we can do for you dear Jackie. For in our hearts, in our memories and in our laughter, you are loved, still living and always will be. PJC Aliza Davidovit is a journalist and author with a master’s in Journalism from Columbia University. She writes a weekly biblical commentary: “The Source Weekly” PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

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Celebrations

Torah

B’nei Mitzvah

Stopping false prophets

Peyton James Kushon, son of Joseph R. and Jennifer Kushon will become a bar mitzvah at Adat Shalom d u r i n g Shabbat morning services on Saturday, Aug. 7, 2021. Grandparents are Pamela Kushon, the late Joseph F. Kushon and the late Sheila Ward-Linver.

Abigail Faith Kushon, daughter of Jos eph R. and Jennifer Kushon will become a bat mitzvah at Adat Shalom during Shabbat morning services on Saturday, Aug. 7, 2021. Grandparents are Pamela Kushon, the late Joseph F. Kushon and the late Sheila Ward-Linver. PJC

Noah Brostoff And Séverine Cambier Wedding Announcement Dr. Leon and Teresa Brostoff of Squirrel Hill are pleased to announce the marriage of their son, Noah, to Dr. Séverine Cambier, daughter of Philippe and Chantal Cambier of Feucherolle, France. They were married in a private ceremony on June 29, 2021. Noah is a biomathematical modeler at Immunetrics and is a graduate of Colorado College with a B.A. in mathematics and of Ohio State University with an M.S. in biomathematics. Severine is an engineer metallurgist at Arconic and graduated from the Université de Paris 11 with a B.S. in chemistry; from the Université de La Rochelle with an M.S. in material science; and from Ohio State University with a Ph.D. in material science and engineering. The happy couple lives in Squirrel Hill. PJC

p Noah Brostoff and Séverine Cambier

Federation announces Rudolph and Spector Award recipients

M

eyer “Skip” Grinberg Pittsburgh, the Jewish Cemetery and Rabbi Moishe and Burial Association of Mayir Vogel are Greater Pittsburgh, the Jewish this year’s recipients of the National Fund of Pittsburgh, Jewish Federation of Greater the Jewish Assistance Fund, the Pittsburgh’s Spector and Melanoma Action Coalition, Rudolph Awards, respectively. the Northern Israel Center for The Emanuel Spector Arts and Technology and the Memorial Award is the BairFind Foundation. A certiMeyer highest honor presented by p fied public accountant and a the Federation and “is given “Skip” Grinberg member of the Pennsylvania for exemplary service to the Bar Association, Grinberg is community in a single year or a financial planner at Luttner over the course of many years,” Financial Group. according to a press release.

Vogel was born in Manchester, The Doris and Leonard H. England, and was ordained at Rudolph Jewish Communal the Central Yeshiva Tomchei Professional Award “recognizes Tmimim Lubavitz, in Brooklyn, the exceptional personal and New York. He moved to professional commitment of a Pittsburgh in 1991 and founded Jewish communal professional The Aleph Institute - North East Rabbi Moishe Mayir Region, where he works with employed by the Federation or p one of its partner agencies. The Vogel federal, state and local officials Photos courtesy of the Jewish Federaton of to meet the religious needs of awardee is selected for his or GreaterPittsburgh her contribution to improving incarcerated Jewish men and the quality of services offered women and addresses the humanitarian in the community and to the enhancement needs of inmates’ families. He has testified of Jewish life.” before a Pennsylvania judiciary committee Grinberg has worked on behalf of the as a prison expert and worked with former community for more than four decades. He Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter’s office has served as president of the Pittsburgh to help write federal laws affecting Jewish Three Rivers Marathon, the Jewish Assistance inmates. Vogel continues to work with Fund and Community Day School. He also government officials on a daily basis. has chaired the Federation’s Community Both the Spector and the Rudolph Awards Relations Council and Partnership2Gether will be presented at the Jewish Federation program, as well as the Maccabi Youth annual meeting, on Sept. 12. PJC Games and Repair the World. Currently, — Sarah Abrams he is a board member of Yeshiva Schools of 18 AUGUST 6, 2021

By Rabbi Larry Freedman Parshat Re’eh Deuteronomy 11:26 - 16:17

I

’ve always had a soft spot for the tough sections of Torah, and Parshat Re’eh does not disappoint. I need look no farther than Deuteronomy 13: 2-19: What do you do if you come upon a false prophet? Answer: Get rid of ‘em!

Some context: Moses is talking to Israelites who either saw, or are the children of those who saw, the Revelation at Sinai. These were the children who grew up on stories of slavery and freedom from parents who were there. These Jews had no excuse not to believe the truth about God. And yet snake oil salesmen somehow infiltrated the people. Or worse, our own folks — people who should know better — turned into charlatans, mountebanks, those who might offer the quick fix of the seductive ease of idolatry.

I’m not surprised. Monotheism is hard.

Believing in one God is very challenging.

Idolatry offers a visual conduit, some icon or idol I can place in a cute little shrine in my house as a reminder. Call me a heretic, but idolatry is much easier. And that’s why these false prophets arise. Maybe they believe it. Maybe. Or maybe they can make a quick buck with their idol store in the marketplace.

Or maybe they just want followers in order to amass power. They pull this off because they know many people can’t handle the complexity and sophistication of an invisible God. Clearly, the parsha tells us, the lies these false prophets feed us can spread like a virus.

Their nonsense is a lie, but is a seductive lie that can easily infect other family members, the folks next door, the whole town if we don’t stop and check the spread. If it spreads,

if enough people follow the false prophets, the Israelites will turn into just another small idol worshipping tribe destined to fade from history, never to be heard from again.

And that is why, in very graphic terms, the parsha instructs that these peddlers of lies must be removed. No, not removed — killed, eradicated. And if a whole town bought into it? Destroy the whole town, all of it, even the cattle. Get rid of disinformation completely because it is a clear and present danger to the future of the Jewish people and imperils our goal to follow God in order to make the world a better place and make ourselves better people.

To be clear, I am not advocating killing any modern day snake oil salesmen. I am happy to leave that level of comeuppance to antiquity. But I do believe we can and should do more to stop modern day quackery, to do our very best to eradicate that which leads us astray, away from that which is true and good.

That which makes society better is good.

That which sows doubt in order to enrich others, that which threatens to keep us from making the world a better place needs to be dealt with firmly. Not that we shouldn’t keep an open mind. We should. In Deuteronomy 13:15 we are instructed to investigate and interrogate thoroughly. Maybe they aren’t false prophets. Maybe they have an important point of view. Fair enough. Let’s check it out. But after inquiry, if it turns out that indeed the prophets are false, the disinformation is in fact disinformation … well, we know what to do to save our society. PJC Rabbi Larry Freedman is the director of the Joint Jewish Education Program. This column is a service of the Greater Pittsburgh Rabbinic Association.

JEWISH CEMETERY BURIAL ASSOCIATION O F G R E AT E R P I T T S B U R G H RESTORATION ✡ PRESERVATION ✡ CONTINUITY

Community-wide Sacred Book Burial — Annual Unveiling Ceremony The JCBA is privileged to coordinate a Sacred Book burial for the Jewish community.

The burial will follow JCBA’s unveiling ceremony, and take place on Sunday, Aug. 15 at 11:00 a.m. at Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery, 498 Oakwood St. in Shaler, 15209.

Accepted materials include prayer books and/or any sacred texts that cannot be otherwise discarded. Materials can be picked up at any specified location by emailing the JCBA at JCBAPgh@gmail.com, or brought to the cemetery on Aug. 15th.

The community is invited to attend.

For more information please visit our website at www.JCBAPgh.org, email us at JCBAPgh@gmail.com, or phone the JCBA at 412-553-6469.

For more information about JCBA cemeteries, to volunteer, to read our complete histories and/or to make a contribution, please visit our website at www.JCBApgh.org, email us at jcbapgh@gmail.com, or call the JCBA office at 412-553-6469 JCBA’s expanded vision is made possible by a generous grant from the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Jewish Community Foundation

LEGAL NOTICE

The 2021 annual meeting of the JEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER PITTSBURGH will occur Sunday, Sept. 12, 5:30-6:15 p.m.

The meeting will be a free webinar.

For information, call 412-992-5251.

Link to the meeting will be supplied following registration.

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Obituary & Memorial Services FELD: Elena Feld, on Friday July 2, surrounded by her extended family.

She was loved and admired by many people whose life she touched. She was an optimistic and energetic woman who survived the Holocaust and found happiness in the USA, where she immigrated in 1979 with her two sons. She is survived by her two sons Bill Greenspan (Kathleen) of Pittsburgh and Dmitry Feld (Linda) of Lake Placid, New York. She left behind her six admiring grandchildren (Mark, Daniel, and Alan [Lilach] Greenspan, Dima Feld, Glenn [Tessa] Farley, and Maria [Angel] Navas), and 10 great-grand-children (Cayden, Jenna, Yadel, Moishe, Malka, Barry Greenspan, Elizabeth and Gemma Farley, and Angel and Delilah Navas) scattered from Louisville to Kentucky to Israel.

MEMORIAL SERVICES GOMBERG: Code Gomberg (July 5, 1922 April 11, 2021) A memorial service will be held on Aug. 21 at 1:00 p.m. at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum to remember and honor Code’s life.

KRASIK: Elaine Belle Krasik (1944 - 2020) A memorial service to remember and celebrate the life of Elaine Belle Krasik will be held at Congregation Beth Shalom, 5915 Beacon Street, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 15, 2021. All are welcome, but those attending must be fully vaccinated. A reception at Congregation Beth Shalom will follow the memorial service. May her memory be a blessing. A service of Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. schugar.com PJC

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THIS WEEK’S YAHRZEITS — Sunday August 8: Judge Samuel J. Feigus, Sherman Hershman, Stuart Irwin Holtzman, Joseph Kossis, Celia S. Landay, Simon Miller, Peter Michael Oresick, Ruth Pattak, Morris Rosen, Ann F. Schwartz, Benjamin Schwartz, Isadore Louis Sigal, Dorothy B. Solomon, Harry M. Solomon, Bessie Stein, Maurice Louis Swartz Monday August 9: David Bass, Gertrude Chotiner, Leopold Diamond, Louis Farber, Sadie Friedlander, Louis Friedman, Milton S. Gordon, Md, Rose Grace Halpern, Alihu Klein, Raschel (Ray) Levine, Anna Rabinovitz, Hinda Kuhl Rubenstein, Samuel Verbin, Adolph Wirtzman Tuesday August 10: Joseph Cooper, Max Eger, Louis Eisenfeld, Meyer Fiman, Pearl Greenfield, Abraham Pittler, Charles Shapiro, Cora M. Strauss Wednesday August 11: Sarah Americus, Alan Herbert Azen, Annie Berezin, Samuel Berger, Isadore A. Bernstein, Susan Dickter, Esther Streng Finegold, Rebecca L. Guttman, Anne Harris, Mary Garson Mazer, Marie G. Mundel, Louis Rosenbloom, Eli Spokane, Morris Toig, Louis Whiteman Thursday August 12: William Americus, Tillie Bennett, Samuel W. Berk, Zelda Glantz Chasick, Howard W. Jacobson, Mollie Kurtz, Sara Melnick, Sharon Lee Morton, Milton Moskovitz, David Pearlstein, Rose Rom, Alex Ruben, Fannie Shapiro, Leo Spiegle, Harry Treelisky, Louise Ziskind Friday August 13: Lillian Bergad, Florence Bertenthal, Fannie Cohen, Patty Danovitz, Lena Darling, Rose Gold, Dora F. Greene, Bernard J Harris, Jeanette Miller Horowitz, Leah Katz, Pearl Laufe, Selma G. Leventon, Natalie Myra Lewis, Harry Malkin, Laura Marcuson, Rabbi Pincus F. Miller, Stefanie Ann Miller, Sylvia Monsein, Harry L. Richman, Max Roth, Gwen Amy Shakespeare, Howard Snider, Oscar Wilson, Isadore Sidney Wolfson Saturday August 14: Anna Friedman Calig, Rose Calig, George H. Danzinger, Ella Friedman, Edith Goldstein, Liuba Horvitz, William M. Katz, Albert H. Levenson, Marcel Lucja, Frank Miller, Frances Rosen, Benjamin David Schwartz, Harvey Edward Thorpe, Becky Weiner, Annie Wirtzman, Nathan Zapler

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Families, Traditions, Connection

These are what make the High Holidays so important.

During this time of limited visiting, gatherings, services, and traveling, you can bring warmth and smiles to your family, neighbors, friends and community by sending New Years greetings through the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle.

l’Shanah Tovah 5782!

The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle will be deeply discounting ad space (for these greetings) in our High Holiday Issues, August 27, September 3, 10.

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AUGUST 6, 2021 21

22 AUGUST 6, 2021

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Community Summer fun continues at J&R Day Camp

p Check out this ace.

p Who are you calling chicken?

A shtickle summer study

And now we celebrate

Photos courtesy of Emma Curtis via Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh

Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh alum Ezra Kraut organized two weeks of summer Torah study at his alma mater. A kickoff event was held July 23 at Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh.

p Temple David in Monroeville celebrated two years’ worth of 10th Grade confirmations last weekend.

Photo courtesy of Rabbi Barbara Symons

After reading from his new book during a private event, author Abby Mendelson, left, is joined by Greater Pittsburgh Food Bank CEO Lisa Scales.

Proceeds from the book’s sale support the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.

p Zev Kraut, Ezra Kraut and Avika Skaist

Photo by Dr. David Brent

Rabbi Ron Symons and Senior Director of Facilities Sherree Hall put up a mezuzah at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh’s new fitness center entrance in Squirrel Hill.

Photo courtesy of Emma Curtis via Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh

p Reuven Kanal and Rabbi Yisroel Smith enjoy cholent and seltzer while studying.

Photos courtesy of Dan Kraut

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AUGUST 6, 2021 23

KOSHER MEATS

Empire Fresh Kosher Bone-In Split Chicken Breasts

• All-natural poultry — whole chickens, breasts, wings and more

3

99

• All-natural, corn-fed beef — steaks, roasts, ground beef and more • Variety of deli meats and franks Available at select Giant Eagle stores.

Visit gianteagle.com for location information.

ea.

Price effective Thursday, August 5 through Wednesday, August 11, 2021

Available at 24 AUGUST 6, 2021

and PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

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