Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle 10-11-19 by Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle

October 11, 2019 | 12 Tishrei 5780

Candlelighting 6:29 p.m. | Havdalah 7:25 p.m. | Vol. 62, No. 41 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

Baldwin teachers shine educational light on anti-Semitism

NOTEWORTHY LOCAL Surgeon visits from Africa

Remembering Jerry Rabinowitz

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Local Holocaust survivors featured in new photo exhibit By David Rullo | Staff Writer

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Between the students’ questions and the need to contextualize the atrocity within the broader history of anti-Semitism, Shaner decided to organize a daylong training for teachers. He reached out to Echoes & Reflections, an organization that provides secondary educators access to substantive Holocaust education. “There are not enough school disticts in the area that are doing a competent job of Holocaust education,” said Shaner. “We need more training if we’re going to do a better job.” Although area teachers continue to field individual inquiries related to the shooting, Echoes & Reflections took a larger approach to the topic by addressing educational strategies, such as integrating instructional enhancements, for teaching contemporary manifestations of anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial. “Teachers are on the front lines of having to help students kind of wrestle with and process experiences that are going on, violent experiences of all sorts,” said Lindsay Friedman, Echoes & Reflections’ managing

uigi Toscano’s lack of Holocaust education inspired his project “Lest We Forget.” “When I was 18, I was in school but didn’t have a good history teacher,” said the German-Italian photographer. “I had so many questions. I decided to travel alone to Auschwitz. I was very naive, thinking there was someone there that could give me answers to the questions I had, but there was no one. I remember standing in front of a mountain of shoes. That experience stayed with me a long time.” As the political climate in Germany and Europe changed, Toscano decided to do something to fight what he viewed as a growing sense of hate from the right. “In the beginning, it was very hard for me. Everyone said, ‘This was so long ago, forget it.’” Toscano persevered, and with a small amount of initial funding from the city where he lived, traveled to Austria, Israel, Ukraine, the United States and throughout Germany photographing Holocaust survivors. Those portraits have been exhibited in large public spaces, including outside of the United Nations in New York City, at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C., and at Kansas City’s Memorial Courtyard at the National WWI Museum and Memorial. The Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh is bringing “Lest We Forget” to the University of Pittsburgh beginning Oct. 17 to commemorate the Oct. 27 shooting at the Tree of Life building. Unique to Pittsburgh will be 16 never-before-seen portraits of local Holocaust survivors, including two who recently died, Sam Gottesman and Herman Snyder.

Please see Baldwin, page 12

Please see Photos, page 12

LOCAL Pediatrician finds value in stillness

Michael Zilibowitz visits from Australia to offer insights about child development Page 3 NATIONAL ‘Notorious RBG’ comes to PA

An exhibit on the Supreme Court Justice opens at the National Museum of American Jewish History. Page 6

 Harrison Middle School English teacher Daniel Shaner, center, organized last week’s workshop at Baldwin High School. Photo by Adam Reinherz By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

ne year after last October’s shooting at the Tree of Life building, Baldwin area students still struggle with their community’s relationship to the crime. Kathy Hawk, a music teacher at J.E. Harrison Middle School and a graduate of Baldwin High School, explained that when it was discovered that the shooter had also graduated from Baldwin, students wanted to know whether she knew him. Hawk didn’t, but said his photo is in yearbooks from her era. Caitlin Caponi, an English, language arts and special education teacher at Brentwood Middle School and fellow Baldwin graduate, was similarly asked questions about the person who killed 11 Jews on Oct. 27, 2018. Students wanted to know “why does he hate?” and “why would he shoot people who were defenseless?” said Caponi. Daniel Shaner, a teacher at Harrison, covers the Holocaust in his English class. “It would be pretty hard for students” not to bring up the attack, he said. “This hit pretty close to home for some of them,” said Hawk.

Chabad House on Campus will honor University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Patrick Gallagher on October 26 during Homecoming Weekend. See ad on page 14.

Headlines Jewish surgeon from Africa honors memory of Jerry Rabinowitz — LOCAL — By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer

ooking ahead to a possible retirement in 2020, family practice physician Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz had just one plan in mind: to volunteer with Dr. Rick Hodes, a Jewish American who has spent the past 31 years in Ethiopia saving lives as that country’s only spine surgeon. Rabinowitz had been following Hodes’ career for years and was an ardent admirer of his work, although the two had never met. Tragically, Rabinowitz never had the chance to retire, or to offer his services as a compassionate and skilled physician in a country beset by poverty and disease. Instead, the longtime member of Congregation Dor Hadash was murdered at age 66 by an anti-Semite on Oct. 27 along with 10 other worshippers at the Tree of Life building. Hodes was in Pittsburgh just prior to the High Holidays at the invitation of Miri Rabinowitz, Jerry’s widow, to deliver a Selichot lecture for Dor Hadash in memory of Jerry and marking 11 months since his death. “Rick had been a lifelong hero of Jerry’s,” said Miri Rabinowitz, whose sister is married to a colleague of Hodes’. Miri Rabinowitz is a research scientist in the department of neurosurgery at UPMC. She works for Dr. David Okonkwo, who specializes in complex spines. It was “beshert,” she said, that while in Pittsburgh, Hodes also addressed UPMC’s neurosurgery department. Hodes, a devout Jew who grew up on Long Island, is the medical director for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) in Ethiopia. He has been in charge of the health of Ethiopians immigrating to Israel, and has worked with refugees in Rwanda, Zaire, Tanzania, Somalia and Albania. He is also the senior consultant at a Catholic mission,

p Dr. Rick Hodes (right) and his son, Dejene Hodes, after his son’s successful spine surgery. Photo provided by Dr. Rick Hodes

providing medical services to those afflicted with heart disease, spine disease and cancer. Selected as a CNN Hero in 2007, Hodes has been the subject of several books and documentaries. He practices in one room in a hospital in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. Just as Jerry Rabinowitz had been a fan of Hodes, Hodes also has become a fan of Rabinowitz since learning about his life in preparation for the Selichot address to Dor Hadash. “This is a guy who connected so well to his patients,” Hodes told the Chronicle. “He touched his patients back in the days of AIDS when everybody was afraid of AIDS patients. He would hug his AIDS patients. He had a personal connection to them. They would call him and he would call them. He was like the model compassionate physician.” Rabinowitz also had a keen sense of humor, Hodes learned. “He was just a great guy. I never thought I would end up speaking at his memorial service, but I just admire him so much from what I learned.” Several hundred people gathered on Sept. 21 for Dor Hadash’s Selichot and memorial service for Rabinowitz, the only member of Dor Hadash who was killed during the Oct. 27 attack. Another member of Dor Hadash,

Dan Leger, was shot; he was seriously wounded and is recovering from his injuries. “Jerry really has such a blessed memory,” said Hodes. “One of the stories that I told was that it was his personal custom, whenever they were asking mourners to stand and say Kaddish, he would always stand and always say Kaddish. And someone said, ‘Jerry, it seems like you are always mourning. Have you lost that many people?’ He said, ‘No, not at all, but I feel like I should stand in respect for people who died because maybe when I die nobody will stand for me.” In fact, several hundred people attended the funeral for Rabinowitz, filling the Katz Theater of the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill. The JCC streamed the service in its gym, which was also full, to accommodate the massive crowd. Hodes headed to Ethiopia in 1984 and 1985 to assist those affected by the famine. He returned to Africa a few years later to teach, ostensibly for one year. He has been there ever since. He stayed, he said, because “in every sense of the word, I can’t think of anything better to do.” Most of his patients are very poor, with many living in mud houses, some without electricity. Some are homeless, including homeless spine patients, many of whose bodies are startlingly distorted prior to Hodes’ care.

“It’s Judaism at its best,” the surgeon said. “We are saving lives who would otherwise die. We are turning people’s lives around.” Since 2006, he has performed more than 1,000 spine surgeries. He now sees 400 to 500 new spine patients a year, and tries to do about 100 surgeries annually. “I have perhaps the largest collection of the worst spines in the world,” he said. While the rate of spine deformities in America is 3%, with about 10% of those requiring surgery, according to Hodes, the rate is much higher in Ethiopia where there are old polio cases as well as a prevalence of the genetic disease neurofibromatosis and many cases of tuberculosis of the spine. Although Hodes is not married, he has five adopted children, “abandoned orphans” with health issues. “I wanted to help them, so I adopted them,” Hodes said. He added them to his health insurance, and has brought them to the United Sates for medical care. Although “minyans are tough” to form in his Ethiopian community, Hodes is nonetheless “observant,” he said. “I put on tefillin every day. I pray three times a day. I’m vegetarian.” He and the several children who now live with him — the five he formally adopted are grown — celebrate Shabbat at home every Friday night. Having Hodes in Pittsburgh to address Dor Hadash in memory of her husband was particularly meaningful, said Miri Rabinowitz. “Rick really was a hero of his,” she said. “Jerry often said that if Jews had saints, Rick would be one of them.” Part of the mission of Dor Hadash is “social action and healing the world, and Rick lives that every day,” she added. “And he’s just a living example of all that is good and all that is right.” PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Headlines Sydney pediatrician finds value in stillness — LOCAL — By David Rullo | Staff Writer

ichael Zilibowitz is a developmental and behavioral pediatrician with the Child & Family Health Services in Sydney, Australia. He recently attended the early childhood development Zero to Three annual conference in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Beforehand, the Jewish doctor visited the Jewish Healthcare Foundation. While in Pittsburgh, Zilibowitz sat down with the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle to discuss his work and the Watch, Wait and Wonder program. Tell me a little about your background and work. I’m the clinical lead of a child and family health team. We look after an area of Sydney, it’s the northern beaches of Sydney, about 300,000 people. Our team provides services and early intervention, trying to identify problems as early as possible to support children and families in their development. I’m part of a team that includes myself and another pediatrician, we have speech pathologists, occupational therapists and a large group of child and family health nurses who work in the community.

p Michael Zilibowitz

We provide a unique service, an early intervention program for vulnerable and at-risk children and families, that tries to provide a one-stop shop on our campus for children and their parents who often have intergenerational experiences of abuse and neglect. We provide both a home visiting program and an on-site therapeutic preschool. We take children from 1 year of age, but the home visits can start at birth. On-site we have early

Photo courtesy of Jewish Healthcare Foundation

childhood teachers, psychologists, social workers, speech pathologists, play therapists and a parenting program. Is there a reason you have these services grouped together? We know that parents who come from these backgrounds have terrible experiences with authority. They are very mistrusting, and one has to develop and gain their trust.

By providing all the services in one place, they aren’t going here and there. When that happens, they rarely make their appointments. When you have it all encapsulated, as I refer to it, a “basket of care,” the changes in the children are enormous. They’ve done some outcome studies, looking at speech, language and general development for the children. They are, I think, the best in the world, for this group of children. In the last 15 years, there has been a tenfold increase of adolescents experiencing emergencies in Sydney that include suicide and self-harm. Social media and all those things play a part, as do the increasing problems of mental health in the community, but it undoubtedly starts at the beginning. If you’re going to provide support to these types of communities and provide it with the level of intensity and staff needed and feature a wide variety of different models of support, then you can make a real difference. Is this an approach being adopted worldwide? It isn’t and that’s maddening and crazy because this is an approach that’s so obvious. It’s so obvious that if you’re going to treat the most vulnerable people in our community, they need a basket of care. We’ve shown that economically the cost of our services Please see Pediatrician, page 13

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OCTOBER 11, 2019 3

Calendar >>Submit calendar items on the Chronicle’s website, pittsburghjewishchronicle.org. Submissions will also 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. q SUNDAY, OCT. 13 Donate Blood. Save Lives. Schedule an appointment to give blood at Beth El Congregation of the South Hills between 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Walk-ins welcome. To make an appointment, visit vitalant.org, click on the Donate button and search with group code G0020005. q TUESDAY, OCT. 15 Revered author and spiritual activist Stephen Jenkinson with acclaimed musician Gregory Hoskins and his band come to Pittsburgh for one night only. Night of Grief and Mystery is part concert, part storytelling, part performance, all ceremony. It will rattle things loose and break your heart, it will make you whole and give you a new appreciation for what it means to be alive. In a time to tender, this is a chance to remember that life’s burdens are easier to carry together. Tickets are $40. Doors open at 6:15 p.m. This Is Red, 605 E 9th Ave, Pittsburgh, 15120. tiny.cc/mysterypgh. Classrooms Without Borders is excited to bring Dr. Nurit Jugend and her film, “They Played for Their Lives” to Pittsburgh. Jugend is an Israeli composer and music lecturer at Stanford University. She produced the powerful documentary about Jewish musicians whose lives were saved in the Holocaust by playing

music. The documentary follows the story of eight survivors. Joining her will be Frank Grunwald, one of the Holocaust survivors featured in the film, who will play a few songs on his accordion after the screening and answer questions. This event will take place in Rodef Shalom Congregation’s Levy Hall, 4905 Fifth Ave., at 7 p.m. and is open to the public. q WEDNESDAYS, OCT. 16 The Squirrel Hill AARP chapter will hold their Oct. 16 meeting at Rodef Shalom Congregation (4905 Fifth Ave.) at 1 p.m. All seniors are invited. Speaker Christine Sadowsky Trembulak, insurance professional, will discuss changes in the 2020 Medicare program along with various local plans available to all senior Pittsburghers. She asks you to bring your questions and will be pleased to make private appointments. The chapter will also launch a new community program collecting needed items for women and children at Women’s Center and Shelter. Donations can be brought to both the October and November meetings. For more information contact Marcia Kramer at 412-731-3338. q WEDNESDAYS, OCT. 16, 23, 30; NOV. 6 Jewish Family and Community Services presents Trauma Resiliency Group: An Integrative Approach to Healing, a free weekly gathering for anyone suffering the aftermath of the trauma of Oct. 27. Offered by Amy Lohr, LCSW, integrative psychotherapist, at JFCS, Room A/B, second fl., 5743 Bartlett St., Squirrel Hill at 4 p.m.

“Heal, Grow and Live with Hope” Nar-Anon and NA meetings every Wednesday evening at Beth El Congregation, 1900 Cochran Road, 15220 at 7:30 p.m. Come to the office/school entrance at the end of the building to be buzzed in. Call Karen at 412-563-3395 and leave a message for more information. q THURSDAY, OCT. 17 Join the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh at 4:30 p.m. at the Cathedral of Learning Lawn (4200 Fifth Ave.) for the opening of Luigi Toscano’s latest iteration of Lest We Forget. This internationally renowned exhibit that has traveled from Berlin to New York City is coming to the University of Pittsburgh campus this October. To learn more visit hcofpgh.org/lest-we-forget.

q SUNDAY, OCT. 20 & TUESDAY, OCT. 22 Rodef Shalom Congregation, 4905 Fifth Ave, is partnering with Rite Aid Pharmacy to offer two flu shot clinics from 9:30 a.m.-noon that are open to the public. Please RSVP so the pharmacist can bring an adequate supply of vaccines. Complete the screening questionnaire and consent form at rodefshalom.org/rsvp and bring the form to the clinic to expedite the process. Covered by most major health insurances. In the event that you do not have health insurance, the cost for the vaccine is $39.99. Questions? Contact Kristin Karsh at karsh@rodefshalom.org. q WEDNESDAY, OCT. 23

q SATURDAY, OCT. 19 Join other Pittsburgh Jewish young adults and enjoy an evening in the Beth Shalom Sukkah from 8-9:30 p.m. at Young Adult Wine & Wisdom in the Sukkah. Sip wine and share some words. Non-alcoholic beverages and nosh will be available. Visit jewishpgh. org/event/young-adult-wine-wisdom to register for this free event. q SUNDAY, OCT. 20 Donate Blood. Save Lives. Schedule an appointment to give blood at Temple Emanuel of South Hills between 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Walk-ins welcome. To make an appointment visit vitalant.org, click on the Donate button and search with group code G0020018.

Join the Lions of Judah for a thoughtprovoking discussion on the Changing Faces of Judaism, presented at 6 p.m. by Rabbi Jeremy Markiz, director of Derekh & Youth Tefillah at Congregation Beth Shalom. Free to attend. At the home of Diane Samuels (address provided upon RSVP). Dinner will be served. Dietary laws observed. Contact Rachel Lipkin Gleitman at rgleitman@ jfedpgh.org or 412-992-5227 for more details. q WEDNESDAYS, OCT. 23; NOV. 6, 20 In More than Manischewitz: A Taster of Jewishness for Interfaith Couples, participants tackle how to confront the challenges faced by today’s interfaith families. By the end of the 12 classes,

Please see Calendar, page 5

INVITATION TO OUR READERS

s we approach the one-year mark since the massacre at the Tree of Life building, the Chronicle would like to offer members and friends of the Pittsburgh Jewish community an opportunity to share their

thoughts in a special section in a commemorative issue of the paper which will be published on November 1, 2019. If you

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would like to join others in expressing your sentiments in a personal ad, please contact Kelly Schwimer for details. Deadline is 3 p.m., October 25, 2019.

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Calendar Calendar:

q SATURDAY, OCT. 26

Continued from page 4

Temple David (4415 Northern Pike, 15146) will conduct a special program, “Remembering October 27, 2018: From Darkness to LightFrom Embrace to Hope.” A family program will begin at 6:15 p.m. including a visit by a therapy dog, an original mosaic art project and a take-home project. At 7 p.m. “From Darkness to Light” a simple ceremony separating the Sabbath from the new week, called “Havdalah.” Families with young children may choose to leave afterward. At 7:30 p.m. “Embrace to Hope” begins. A comfort program through words and the songs of an interfaith choir that will honor first responders and features Brandi Gurcak, clinical coordinator for the Center for Victims, presenting “Creating Space for Hope.” A reception will conclude the evening. Open to the public. templedavid.org

students will be more knowledgeable and comfortable about Jewish ways of living and making informed family decisions together. Each session begins at 7 p.m. at the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh (2000 Technology Dr.) Visit foundation.jewishpgh. org/more-than-manischewitz. q FRIDAY, OCT. 25 Join other young adults beginning at 6 p.m. at Together at the Table: A Community Building Shabbat Dinner. Reflect on the past year and look forward to the future of Jewish Pittsburgh. Visit shalompittsburgh.org/event/young-adultcommemorative-shabbat-dinner to learn more. With the USC Shoah Foundation No-Cost Professional Development Opportunity, ITeach Seminar, educators will learn to use testimony to address challenging social climate issues such as contemporary antiSemitism and the rise in hate crime, learn how IWitness provides students a unique primary source that connects learners with contextualized first-person views of history through multimedia activities, and learn effective strategies to teach with IWitness, an educational website that offers students over 3,000 full life testimonies of survivors and witnesses to genocides. Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh (826 Hazelwood Ave.), 11 a.m. Free. To register, visit trainingreport. formstack.com/forms/pa_registration_form.

at 5 p.m. Registration is now open. Visit PittsburghOct27.org to learn more.

Celebrate with Chabad House on Campus at their 31st Anniversary Event dessert reception honoring University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Patrick Gallagher at the William Pitt Union, Tansky Lower Lounge (3959 Fifth Ave.) beginning at 8:30 p.m. Couvert: $54/person; $100 per couple; $1,800/VIP reserved seating for 10 guests. q SUNDAY, OCT. 27 Remember. Repair. Together. Join the Pittsburgh Jewish community for the one-year commemoration of the Oct. 27 massacre. Take part in community service opportunities (11 a.m.-1 p.m.), Torah Study (2 p.m.-4 p.m. at Rodef Shalom Congregation) and a community gathering at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall beginning

Donate Blood. Save Lives. Schedule an appointment to give blood at the South Hills JCC, noon-4 p.m. Walk-ins welcome. To make an appointment visit vitalant.org and use code C438. q MONDAY, OCT. 28 Music at Rodef Shalom presents: Theater Songs … The Music of Douglas Levine. Pianist, composer and music director Douglas Levine presents an evening of original musical theater compositions from the last 20 years. Performers include six outstanding local singers backed by an instrumental combo with Levine at the piano. The event is free, 7:30-9:30 p.m. 4905 Fifth Ave. q WEDNESDAY, OCT. 30 Celebrate with the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh at the CHUTZ-POW! Volume IV: Women’s Stories Launch Party beginning at 6 p.m. at Chatham University’s Boardroom (Woodland Road, 15232). Hear from the creators about the process of putting the book together. Light hors d’oeuvres served. Learn more at hcofpgh.org/cp4kickoff. q SATURDAYS, NOV. 2; DEC. 7 Join Lauri Lang, RDN LDN Concierge Wellness LLC for a four-part (once a month Sept.-Dec.) Holistic Nutrition and Wellness Series which will contain the following elements under four umbrella themes: interactive lecture with Q&A; featured

item for sampling and discussion; guided meditation and/or breathwork (pranayama). The three umbrella themes are: Oct. 5, 2019: Chronic Disease and Cancer Prevention; Nov. 2, 2019: Women’s Health Across the Lifespan; Dec. 7, 2019: Enhancing Immune Function, Vitality and Graceful Aging. Each workshop is 75 minutes in length. $59 for one workshop/$99 for all four. Visit sthielpilates. com for more information and to register. q SUNDAY, NOV. 3 Join the Jewish Federation Young Adult Division, PJ Library and Community Day School for some Noah’s Ark themed fun beginning at 1 p.m. at the Pittsburgh Zoo. Spend the afternoon at 2x2 at the Zoo with PJ Library learning about and getting up close and personal with some animals and participate in fun activities and crafts. Visit jewishpgh.org/ event/2-x-2-at-the-zoo for more information. Enjoy a night with friends, popcorn and fun when Rodef Shalom Sisterhood Movie Night Presents: Hester Street, starring Carol Kane. This event is free and open to the public. Refreshments are provided. No RSVP required. Rodef Shalom Congregation, 4905 Fifth Ave., rodefshalom.org. q MONDAY, NOV. 4 Jack Mostow presents “RoboTutor: $1 Million Finalist in the Global Learning XPRIZE competition” at First Mondays with Rabbi Alex Greenbaum. All First Monday events begin with lunch at 11:30 a.m., $6. To RSVP, call 412-561-1168. PJC

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Headlines ‘Notorious RBG’ exhibit comes to Pennsylvania

p Exhibit wall

Photo courtesy of National Museum of American Jewish History

— NATIONAL — By Eric Schucht | Jewish Exponent

n exhibit featuring Marvel Comics closed last month at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, but the National Museum of American Jewish History, near Independence Hall, is following up with a superhero exhibit of its own. That’s what Josh Perelman, NMAJH’s

chief curator and director of exhibitions and interpretation, said of “Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg,” which opened Oct. 4. The exhibit was inspired by and based on the 2015 New York Times bestseller of the same name by Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik, which tells the life story of the first Jewish woman justice to be appointed to the Supreme Court. The exhibit’s East Coast debut will be on display through Jan. 12. The ticket price, $9, is a reference to Ginsburg’s famous response to the number of women on the

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Supreme Court that would be enough. “For a museum that tells the story of the American Jewish experience, to focus on this particular individual feels like exactly the right person at exactly the right time,” Perelman said. “But just like we focus on American Jews as lenses into the larger history of this nation, by telling RBG’s story, we are also telling a larger story.” Ginsburg was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1933, and was one of few female graduates in her class at Columbia Law, where she

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later became the school’s first female tenured professor. She broke ground litigating sex discrimination cases, including in front of the Supreme Court, as general counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union in the 1970s, and helped to launch that organization’s Women’s Rights Project in 1973. She was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in 1980, and nominated for the Supreme Court Please see RBG, page 13

This week in Israeli history Chairman Yasser Arafat for negotiating and signing the Oslo Accords in 1993.

Oct. 15, 1894 — Prime Minister Sharett born

Items provided by the Center for Israel Education (israeled.org), where you can find more details.

SUNDAY • OCTOBER 13th • 8 am - 3 pm MONDAY • OCTOBER 14th • CLOSED TUESDAY • OCTOBER 15th • CLOSED WEDNESDAY • OCTOBER 16th • 8 am - 6 pm THURSDAY • OCTOBER 17th • 8 am - 8 pm FRIDAY • OCTOBER 18th • 8 am - 3 pm

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Photo courtesy of Columbia Law School

— WORLD —

Candle Lighting Time Friday, October 11, 2019 • 6:29 p.m.

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Oct. 11, 1938 — Arab congress rejects partition

After a four-day conference in Cairo, Arab leaders adopt the Resolutions of the InterParliamentary Congress, rejecting the proposal of the British Peel Commission in 1937 to partition Palestine into Arab and Jewish states.

Moshe Sharett, a signer of the Israeli Declaration of Independence who is the country’s first foreign minister and succeeds David Ben-Gurion to become Israel’s second prime minister in January 1954, is born Moshe Shertok in Kherson, Ukraine.

Oct. 12, 1938 — Peace educator Salomon born

Oct. 16, 1981 — Dayan dies

Gavriel Salomon, the founder of the Center for Research on Peace Education at Haifa University and a winner of the Israeli Prize in 2001, is born.

Oct. 13, 2011 — La Scala hires Barenboim

Composer Daniel Barenboim, who was born in Buenos Aires in 1942 and moved to Israel in 1952, is named the musical director of La Scala Opera House in Milan, Italy.

Oct. 14, 1994 — Rabin, Peres awarded Nobel Prize

The Norwegian Nobel Committee announces that Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres are sharing the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize with PLO

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Moshe Dayan — who was acclaimed a hero after the 1967 war, faced criticism after the 1973 war and played a key role in the 1978 Camp David peace talks — dies of a heart attack in a Tel Aviv hospital at age 66.

Oct. 17, 1880 — Jabotinsky born

Ze’ev Vladimir Jabotinsky, the father of Revisionist Zionism, is born in Odessa, Russia. An advocate of Jewish self-defense, he provides the intellectual foundation for what becomes the Likud party. PJC

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Headlines From JTA reports

Tree of Life victims to be remembered in Liverpool The Jewish community of Liverpool, England, is planning an afternoon of Torah study on Sunday, Oct. 27, in memory of the 11 people murdered in the Tree of Life building in Pittsburgh last year. Learning sessions will be led by four rabbis from four synagogues: the Allerton Synagogue; Lubavitch Liverpool; Chabad of Liverpool Universities; and the Childwall Synagogue. Participants will study the sedrah that corresponds to the calendar date of Oct. 27, 2018, Vayeira, and will focus on the themes of visiting the sick, Sodom and Gomorrah, the birth of Yitzchok and the Akeidah.

Prominent Connecticut rabbi found guilty of sexually assaulting former student

A prominent Connecticut rabbi was found guilty of sexual assault of a minor. A jury found Rabbi Daniel Greer, 79, the founding rabbi of the Yeshiva of New Haven, guilty of four counts of risk of injury to a minor after a week-long criminal trial in Connecticut Superior Court, the New Haven Register reported. Four second-degree sexual assault charges were dropped since the statute of limitations on the accusations had expired. Eliyahu Mirlis, 31, of New Jersey, accused the rabbi of raping and sexually molesting him hundreds of times from 2001 to 2005 when he was a minor and a student at the religious boarding school founded and headed by the rabbi. Sentencing was scheduled for November 20. Risk of injury to a minor, a felony, carries a maximum penalty of 20 years on each count, the newspaper reported. Greer will appeal the verdict, his attorney said. Superior Court Judge Jon Alander raised Greer’s bond to $750,000 following the verdict. Greer was released on Wednesday to home confinement after posting bail, and agreeing to wear an ankle monitor and to surrender his passport. The judge said Greer could leave home only to visit his lawyers’ offices, a doctor’s office, or a verified synagogue. In May 2017, a federal jury in a civil lawsuit ordered Greer and the Yeshiva of New Haven to pay Mirlis $15 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages. Greer, who was an activist on behalf of Soviet refuseniks, has served on the New Haven police commissioners’ board and as a chairman of the city’s Redevelopment Agency. Greer’s daughter, Batsheva, was one of five Orthodox students who sued Yale in the late 1990s claiming the Ivy League university violated their constitutional rights by requiring they live in coed dorms.

Photo of Jewish boy forced to kiss classmate’s shoes sparks outrage

Two reports of anti-Semitic bullying at schools in Australia are receiving widespread media coverage. A photo that allegedly shows a 12-year-old Jewish student being forced to kneel to kiss

the shoes of a Muslim classmate was circulated on social media. The incident occurred at the Cheltenham Secondary College in the town of Cheltenham, a Melbourne suburb, according to The Age, a Melbournebased newspaper. The report did not make it clear if the Muslim boy’s religion had anything to do with the incident. A second incident took place at the Hawthorn West Primary School in Melbourne, where a 5-year-old Jewish student was called a number of anti-Semitic insults, including a “Jewish cockroach,” according to The Age. Both Jewish boys have left their schools. Dvir Abramovich, chairman of B’nai B’rith’s Anti-Defamation Commission, said the incidents are part of a broader trend of anti-Semitic bullying. “There is mounting evidence that families are forced to take their children out of public schools and to enroll them in Jewish day schools due to a growing sense of insecurity and fear that their kids will be harmed simply because of who they are,” Abramovich told The Age. The mother of the boy in the photo said she was disappointed by the school’s lack of response. She told The Age that the school said it was not responsible for the incident since it did not take place on its campus. But the mother said she talked to the parents of the Muslim student, who disapproved of their son’s actions. Another boy involved in the incident was later suspended for punching the Jewish boy, The Age reported. Meanwhile, the boy at Hawthorn West Primary School was repeatedly subjected to anti-Semitic insults and teased because he was circumcised, his mother told The Age. The school sent the parents an apology letter last month, the mother said.

ZIONIST ORGANIZATION OF AMERICA PITTSBURGH

You’re invited to share this special evening with us Zionist Organization of America: Pittsburgh

2019 Awards Dinner Honoring

Lisa and Rabbi Stephen E. Steindel

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with ZOA’s Lifetime Achievement Award and

Marilyn Rabhan Swedarsky with the Ivan & Natalie Novick Community Leadership Award and

Steven D. Irwin, Esq. Marilyn Swedarsky

with the Israel Service Award

Guest Speaker Jonathan S. Tobin What American Jews Don’t Get About Israel.

Anti-Semitic incidents in Argentina more than doubled in 2018 over the previous year

Anti-Semitic incidents in Argentina soared by 107% in 2018 over the previous year, according to a new report. The 20th edition of the annual AntiSemitism Report prepared by the research body of the DAIA Jewish political umbrella group showed that nearly 90% of the 834 complaints filed dealt with incidents that occurred online, on social networks or on news websites. “We are losing the cultural battle against hate speech,” DAIA President Jorge Knoblovits said in presenting the figures. “Our efforts are not enough; the increase is fierce.” Knoblovits also said that the situation has become worse in 2019, with not only online but also physical attacks, including the assault of a rabbi in Rosario in June. The 2017 report from the DAIA’s Center for Social Studies had shown a 14% rise from the previous year. This year’s report also provided a study about attitudes toward Jews in Argentina by the Gino Germani Institute at the University of Buenos Aires. The survey of 1,443 people revealed that 87% “do not know or have a misconception about what is Zionism” and 61% agreed with the assertion that “Jews had too much power in financial markets.” PJC

Lisa and Rabbi Stephen E. Steindel

Tuesday, October 29, 2019 at 6:00 PM Steven D. Irwin

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Headlines Anti-Semitic hate crimes in NYC have risen significantly in 2019 — NATIONAL — By Ben Sales | JTA

he number of hate crimes against Jews in New York City has risen significantly over the first nine months of this year, part of a citywide rise in such offenses. The New York Police Department has reported 311 total hate crimes through September, as opposed to 250 reported through the same period in 2018, according to Deputy Inspector Mark Molinari, who heads the department’s Hate Crimes Task Force. Molinari said 52 percent of the reported hate crimes, or 163, have targeted Jews. Over the same period last year, the NYPD reported 108 anti-Semitic hate crimes. At a meeting Thursday with Jewish philanthropists, Molinari discussed the numbers and how to prevent anti-Semitic crimes in the city. He recounted a list of anti-Jewish hate crimes that had made the news just this week: • Two Jewish men had their hats knocked off by a group of teens. • A separate group of children broke the windows of a Brooklyn synagogue during Please see Hate, page 13

8 OCTOBER 11, 2019

p A Chasidic man walks by a police car in a Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn.

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Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

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Headlines Here’s what it’s like to grow up as a Jew in Iraq — WORLD — By Ben Sales | JTA

hen Ceen Gabbai argued with her first-grade teacher about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, she didn’t realize how big of a risk she was taking. The year was 2000 and students across the world held strong opinions about the Second Intifada, an outbreak of violence that claimed thousands of lives and began in September of that year. But Gabbai’s situation was different: She was one of the few Jewish students in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Standing up for Israel in a Baghdad elementary school was not an advisable move. “Saddam was all crazy about Palestine,” she told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “I go to school and they’re talking about what a horrible thing that is and how Israel was horrible. And I go and I’m like, ‘I think that’s a lie.’” Gabbai was called to the school office, took a letter home to her mother and her parents had a meeting with the principal. Soon after they moved homes and she switched schools. Following the episode, her parents did not talk with her about Israel or Judaism. Gabbai has had a dangerous life. Born a Jew under an Iraqi dictatorship, she endured constant anti-Semitism from a young age, then survived the American invasion of Iraq

p Ceen Gabbai with friends in one of Saddam Hussein’s castles, approximately seven years ago. The friends’ faces have been obscured for their safety at Gabbai’s request.

Photo courtesy of Gabbai

in 2003 and the years of war that followed. In 2015, Gabbai received asylum in the United States. She is now living in an Orthodox neighborhood in Brooklyn, raising a child, teaching elementary school and writing children’s literature. She does not look back fondly on the hardships she endured, but feels they taught her to persevere no matter the situation. “I was born as an Arab Jew for a reason: to take this thing — the fact that I’m an Arab Jew — and make the best out of it and be

good at it,” she said. “That’s what I do, be good at things that I’m in.” The Jewish community in Iraq dates back millennia, and the principal edition of the Talmud originated in study halls in what then was known as Babylon. Jews held prominent positions in government and business until the 1930s, and there were some 150,000 Jews in Iraq before the State of Israel was established in 1948. But conditions deteriorated in 1941, when Iraqis attacked their Jewish neighbors in what is called the Farhud, a two-day pogrom in which some 180 Jews were killed. By the early 1950s, most Iraqi Jews had left in an Israeli mass-emigration operation. “There’s a huge amount of nostalgia from Muslims and Christians in those countries for the joint life that Jews and non-Jews shared in Arab countries,” said Elhanan Miller, a rabbi who interviewed Gabbai for a series he’s conducting with Jews from the Arab world. “[For Jews], it’s a mix of nostalgia and a lot of hurt.” Gabbai said that though Iraqis purport to be opposed to Zionism but tolerant of Jews, she never felt accepted for who she was. Teachers would give her a hard time in class despite her good grades. One even gave her a copy of “Mein Kampf,” Adolf Hitler’s manifesto. “It was hard being Jewish because I felt like, if you’re Jewish, you don’t really have anywhere to belong to,” she said. “Wherever

you go, people ask you to leave. If you’re in the Middle East, people ask you to leave. In America, you have anti-Semitism. Wherever you go, people ask you to leave.” Gabbai’s family hid their Judaism from friends and neighbors, letting others believe they were Christian or agnostic. When her peers did find out, they would mock her. While Gabbai was growing up, the family had to move five times because of anti-Semitic harassment. “I was always saying, give me a chance to do something bad and then hate me,” she said. “I would be OK about that, but don’t just hate me for no reason. … It was about me personally, about something I don’t have a say in.” There were bright spots. Gabbai was scared of telling one of her close friends, a devout Muslim, that she was Jewish. But when she did, the friend accepted her, and the two remain close (though Gabbai never revealed her religion to her friend’s parents). And soon before Gabbai left, her friends recorded themselves in private singing “Hatikvah,” Israel’s national anthem, as a way of telling her they loved her. “I felt comfort in that because I knew they’re not using me as propaganda,” she said. “They’re not being like, ‘Hey, we’re friends with a Jew, we’re OK with a Jew.’ No, they were OK with me being Jewish, with me belonging to Israel in one way or another. So they did something Please see Iraq, page 20

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GUARDIANS, GUARDIANSHIP and POWERS OF ATTORNEY This is one in a series of articles about Elder Law by Michael H. Marks., Esq. Michael H. Marks is an elder law attorney with offices in Squirrel Hill and Monroeville. Send questions to michael@marks-law.com or visit www.marks-law.com.

People often ask me about becoming a Guardian for a family member, and about Guardianship in comparison to Power of Attorney. Becoming a Guardian means being officially appointed by the court following proceedings before a Judge. In asking to be appointed as a Guardian, you are asking the Judge to decide and to order three things:

An adult whose ability to receive and evaluate information effectively and communicate decisions in any way is impaired to such a significant extent that he or she is partially or totally unable to manage his or her financial resources or to meet essential requirements for his or her physical health and safety.

person does not have the capacity and ability to create a valid Power of Attorney arrangement. If you are trying to handle the affairs of someone who can’t sign or can’t understand a Power of Attorney, you may need to go to court to be appointed as Guardian instead, in order to have the legal authority to make To prove incapacity, evidence from a qualified decisions and take action on their behalf. This medical professional, usually a doctor, is may be needed so third parties such as a bank required, and proof must meet the standard of will agree to allow you to do so. “clear and convincing evidence.” Sometimes the Once you are appointed as Guardian of court finds a person to be partially rather than the Person or Guardian of the Estate for completely incapacitated, and may appoint a someone, you have a continuing obligation at guardian with limited, rather than complete a high level of responsibility to act strictly on behalf of the person for whom you have been powers. In comparison, a Power of Attorney is a private appointed Guardian, to report to the court written arrangement not involving any court regularly through a formal reporting system, proceedings, in which you appoint someone as and at times to ask the court for permission to

•

That the “alleged incapacitated person” is in fact incapacitated and unable to take care of their own affairs;

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That there is no existing adequate arrangement already in place to care for them, such as a working Power of Attorney relationship; and

your Agent under Power of Attorney to assist you or act for you. Power of Attorney is much simpler, faster and less expensive to create and implement.

To appoint an individual or social service agency as Guardian for the “incapacitated person.”

A Guardianship case is a big undertaking involving a court case, attorneys, a doctor, a judge, etc. Power of Attorney is most often preferable as an alternative to Guardianship – at least when the person has capacity and ability to choose and authorize someone under a Power of Attorney. Creating a Power of Attorney allows you to express what you want and to understand this step and its implications, especially when there is no other specific need for court supervision and involvement.

•

There are actually two jobs as Guardian, specifically Guardian of the Estate, in charge of someone’s money and finances, and Guardian of the Person, in charge of their placement, care and well-being. The same person can serve as Guardian in both ways, or there can be separate appointments, and two parties can be appointed as co-Guardians together. The definition of an incapacitated person for Guardianship purposes is:

When there is a dispute over who should be appointed as Guardian, the court will decide based on the best interests of the incapacitated person. The court often may appoint a social service agency that provides Guardianship services as Guardian, instead of an individual or family member. You can specify who you would like to be appointed as Guardian, if one is necessary, in your own Power of Attorney document.

The bottom line: try to get a Power of Attorney in place before you start a Guardianship case. At Marks Elder Law, we help people every day with issues like these. I invite your questions and feedback. Please let me know how I can help you and your family.

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Guardianship is needed however, when the

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take certain steps as Guardian.

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With the increasing costs of long-term care, having the help of a legal professional when planning for your family’s future can help you make better decisions that can result in keeping more of your money. We help families understand the strategies, the benefits, and risks involved with elder law, disability and estate planning.

Michael H. Marks, Esq. Linda L. Carroll, Esq. michael@marks-law.com member, national academy of elder law attorneys

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OCTOBER 11, 2019 9

Opinion I’m a rabbi in El Paso. Here’s how our community has started to heal after the deadly shooting. Guest Columnist Levi Greenberg

fter Shabbat ended on Aug. 3, I was distraught to learn that my quiet hometown of El Paso had become the site of one of the worst hate-motivated mass shootings in American history. I was distraught for the victims and their families and sickened by the thought of such carnage happening so close to home. Although we always hope each mass shooting will be the last one, that evening, a mass shooting took place in Dayton, Ohio, and two weeks later, another Texas massacre occurred in Odessa. All of this less than four months after my nephew and two nieces survived the hate-motivated shooting at the Poway Chabad, and 10 months after the Tree of Life building shooting in Pittsburgh. As a Chabad rabbi and fellow El Pasoan, I am involved in the local healing process. The most common and urgent question I hear when speaking with families of the victims, fellow El Pasoans and elected officials is, “How do we stop this madness? Enough!” As a society, we instinctively turn to our government and law enforcement

demanding answers and solutions, as if they can legislate away and uproot all hatred and evil. One local politician confided to me that relying on the state government in Austin to save Texas through legislation conveys a convenient and unsettling falsehood: Regular citizens are powerless to do anything other than tweaking things at the ballot box. He makes a strong point. Every human being can and must participate in healing society and ensuring that such hatred and horror does not strike again. Based on the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s deeply insightful prescriptions for society, we can go a long way to immunize our nation’s youth from the menace of hatred with a few simple actions. The Rebbe called to educate people of all ages and stages, and especially our youth, to become “givers” by giving money to charity every day — even a little bit. This was not an appeal for philanthropists to write out big checks, but for a grassroots campaign to train us all to become givers. People are more influenced by the things they do than by the knowledge they are taught. Jewish tradition teaches that whereas big checks get big things done fast, and must certainly be appreciated, encouraged and multiplied, giving frequently and consistently, even in small amounts, transforms us

into givers, helping to ensure that caring for others becomes central to our lives. Everyone should become a giver — it is within our reach. After sharing this concept with local community leaders, we started a citywide project called ARK (Acts of Random Kindness), gifting plastic charity boxes in a shape reminiscent of Noah’s Ark to schoolchildren. They are encouraged to put small amounts of money into their personal ARKs every day and, when full, to share the contents with the poor or a charitable organization. Although the giving happens at home, ARK motivates classroom discussions and school projects about kindness. Proving this thesis, a high school student who crosses the border daily from Juárez, Mexico, to attend school recently thanked his principal for hosting the ARK project and shared that, until now, he was apathetic to the rampant poverty in Juárez. Giving charity every day changed everything, and he is now more compassionate and sensitive to the plight of the less fortunate. When someone becomes a giver at a young age, it’s hard to hate others so blindly. Encouraging our youth to become givers is perhaps the closest we can get to stemming the tide of such hatred. Each Rosh Hashanah, we commemorate the creation of Adam, the first human, and the day

he crowned God King of the universe, bringing this idea to the forefront of the consciousness of every living being and thus illustrating how one single person can bring perfection to all creation. Each year we, his descendants, are called upon to follow in his path. Although the holiday observance and the mitzvah of shofar are uniquely Jewish obligations, the spirit of Rosh Hashanah is relevant to all humanity throughout the year. There is no need to wait for coordinated community efforts. Start the new year by affixing a tzedakah box prominently in your home, and encourage your family and guests to give daily (besides for Shabbat and the holidays, when our charity is meant to be channeled through giving our time and attention instead of physical money). But don’t stop with your home. Install a tzedakah box at your workplace, in your conference or waiting room, and encourage everyone to participate. Let’s help tzedakah become the focal point of our lives, demonstrating to God that we are worthy of His trusteeship to share our means with others. Kindness is contagious. One positive action can change the entire world for good. PJC Rabbi Levi Greenberg serves as associate rabbi at Chabad Lubavitch of El Paso. This column first appeared on JTA.org.

Yiddish: The secret handshake Guest Columnist Stacia Friedman

grew up in Wynnewood, a suburb of Philadelphia, but it might as well have been Minsk. Every day, after my father left for work in the city, Mom shrugged off her English, as if it were an itchy sweater, and slipped back into Yiddish. Not to speak with me, but to engage in marathon phone conversations with her mother, sisters and friends. Ironically, my mother was not an immigrant. She was born in Philadelphia but grew up in a Jewish section of the city where English was more of an option than a necessity. As a result, at the age of 5, Mom’s grasp of English was so tenuous she had to repeat kindergarten. Although I was purposefully excluded from my linguistic heritage, Yiddish, with its plaintive cadence and shrieks of laughter, was the soundtrack of my childhood. I played Shoots and Ladders and braided doll’s hair to a constant refrain of gevalts and oy veys. When I was sad, Mom told me not to “torture” my neshuma (soul), which I envisioned as a furry little animal. When I was happy, she proclaimed me to be “shane vie da velt,” as beautiful as the world. As any parent knows, kids have an instinctive curiosity about anything that

10 OCTOBER 11, 2019

is forbidden. The cake saved for company, the porcelain figurine that is not a “toy,” the schoolmate labeled a troublemaker. So, naturally, the more I was shut out of my mother’s native tongue, the more closely I listened. The first Yiddish phrase I managed to decipher, around the age of 8, was the one overheard most often. Schvaig der kinders du. “Quiet, the kid is here.” This phrase was repeated so frequently during weekend visits to my grandmother’s house, a cocker spaniel could’ve figured it out. Unable to follow the adults’ conversation further, I gleaned from their tone that Yiddish was the language of marital discord, unspeakable diseases, dirty jokes and curses. More than anything else, it was the language of secrets, the locked door I was always trying to pry open. By the time I graduated high school, I had a vocabulary of over a hundred Yiddish words, but no idea how to form a sentence. At the same time, I was obligated to learn a foreign language in school. If having a working knowledge of Spanish, French or German was an asset, why was Yiddish taboo? Eventually, I came to understand that Yiddish was not passed on to my generation because of its association with poverty and the Old Country. My Yiddish-speaking grandmother was illiterate and wore shmatas; my English-speaking grandmother wore pricey dresses from Bonwit’s and ran a pharmacy. I also sensed an unspoken fear. Yiddish was the language of persecution,

death camps, entire communities gone up in smoke. Cutting my generation off from the language of our ancestors was considered a moral imperative of assimilation. In America, you can pray as a Jew, eat as a Jew, celebrate as a Jew. But you must never speak as a Jew. To do so would draw unnecessary attention to our inherent difference from our neighbors. Hence, cowboy hats replaced yarmulkes. And yet, whenever and wherever Jews congregate, whether at Ben & Irv’s Deli in Huntingdon Valley, Murray’s in Bala or on the beach in Margate, Yiddish continues to flavor conversations like a spice used only for special dishes. While my contemporaries may not be able to indulge in the lengthy diatribes of previous generations, there is a certain glee in inserting bubkas, gonif or alta cocker into conversation. In this regard, Yiddish has become a secret handshake, a way of establishing connection with strangers on airplanes or in the dressing room at Marshall’s. (I confess to using Yiddish to get a better price on slipcovers and a fresher slice of lox.) Many Yiddish expressions, especially curses, fall into the category of untranslatable. It wasn’t until I read Talk Dirty Yiddish by Rabbi Ilene Schneider of Marlton, New Jersey, that I understood what my mother was actually saying in moments of exasperation at us kids. You should grow like an onion with your head in the dirt and your feet in the air! You should be a chandelier, hang by

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day and burn by night! And my personal favorite: Shit in your hat and use it for curls! Yiddish isn’t merely colorful; it is the linguistic Pantone. And yet, attitudes toward Yiddish remain ambivalent. Late night TV hosts, albeit Christian, sprinkle it into their monologues so liberally that putz and shvontz have become the lingua franca in Des Moines. At the same time, religious Jewish communities in Brooklyn and the Catskills, where Yiddish is still the primary language, are held suspect and considered an anachronism. As if to say, “Shah shah, don’t draw attention to your (our) Jewishness; it could ignite anti-Semitism.” Considering the recent uptick in anti-Semitism, perhaps our bubbes got it wrong. Turning Yiddish into a dead language in a single generation did not protect us Jews from murderous hate crimes, any more than speaking perfect English protected American-born Hispanics in El Paso. As we celebrate the holiest time of the Jewish year even as we remember those lost in an anti-Semitic massacre almost a year ago, those of us of Ashkenazi heritage would do well to reflect upon the cultural richness of our tradition, including the lost Yiddish of our ancestors. The language of secrets still has something to say to us about joy, sorrow and forgiveness. If only we would listen. PJC Stacia Friedman is a freelance writer living in Philadelphia.

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Opinion President validates anti-Semitic rhetoric Guest Columnist Dennis Jett, Ph.D.

n today’s hyperpartisan environment, there is little that could be said about the current occupant of the White House that would not be rejected by many. Here is something that will prompt such a response, but deserves to be said nonetheless: President Trump may be the most anti-Semitic president in history. The president’s supporters would immediately say that is ridiculous and point to the things he has done for Israel as proof that it is not true. His favorite child, her husband and their children are Jews. He moved the American embassy to Jerusalem and he has a peace plan for the Middle East. But none of that matters as much as his words. Besides, the peace plan is not going to be dead on arrival; it is already dead. Trump has not missed an opportunity to alienate the Palestinians and he assigned the task of coming up with a plan to his son-in-law, his bankruptcy lawyer and another one of his many lawyers. None of them had any experience in government, diplomacy or know much about the Middle East. Thus, they approached the problem the way Trump does everything: treating it as a transaction where the only thing to be determined is the price. The price, in this case, being what Palestinians would accept for selling their identity and their aspirations for a nation. As for moving the embassy, every president since Truman has considered the

idea and rejected it. They all recognized it would not enhance the ability of the United States to promote peace. But enhancing the American role is not Trump’s goal. His moves with regard to Israel are designed to pander to the one constituency he cannot afford to lose: evangelical Christians. Another payoff is pleasing Sheldon Adelson, the casino billionaire, who has contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to the Republican Party. But whether one questions Trump’s motives and the impact of his moves, despite his supposedly pro-Israel policies, he is a grave threat to Jews. Politicians must fire up their most loyal voters in order to get them to the polls in the highest numbers. Some, like Obama, did that by appealing to their hopes. Others, like Trump and Netanyahu, do so by stoking their fears. The latter motivated his voters in the last election by warning them that Israeli Arabs were going to the polls in record numbers. The former ignites his base through even more blatantly racist remarks. All Muslims must be banned, Mexicans are murderers, immigrants bring crime, drugs and disease to this country and so on. In reality, Trump does not want to solve the immigration problem, because if he did he would lose the ability to use it to inflame his most ardent supporters. Aside from using fear and hate to shore up his political support, another Trump tactic is a total disregard for the truth. In August, Trump hit the 12,000 mark for false or misleading claims according to the fact checkers at the Washington Post. While it is expected that politicians routinely stretch the truth, it would be impossible to name one who lies more frequently.

Another aspect of Trump’s disregard for reality is his penchant for conspiracy theories. His obsession with the false story that Vice President Biden urged a prosecutor in Ukraine to ignore a company that his son was involved in is one example. Whenever he begins a sentence with “some people say,” whatever comes next will be another exercise in conspiracist fantasies. But worst of all, Trump’s rhetoric encourages violence and validates the views of those who would use it. He asserted that among the neo-Nazis and white supremacists marching at Charlottesville there were “many fine people.” He claims that impeaching him would be an attempted coup that could spark a civil war. He says the military is on his side and he has told police they should feel free to mistreat the people they arrest. That kind of language is a nonsubtle endorsement of the use of violence. His meeting with the head of the National Rifle Association to discuss how the NRA could help bankroll his reelection also guarantees that no effort on background checks or other measures to curb gun violence will succeed on his watch. So what does Trump’s use of fear and hate, lies and conspiracy and his encouragement of violence mean for Jews? The Anti-Defamation League found that the number of anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S. went up 57% in 2017. It was the largest single-year increase ever, and the fact that it happened during Trump’s first year in power was not a coincidence. The incidents surged even before he took office. In the week after the 2016 election, there was a sharp spike in racist and anti-Semitic graffiti and vandalism,

that included the widespread use of swastikas. In the last election for governor in Florida, the Republican candidate said his Democratic opponent, an African American, would “monkey things up” if elected. That prompted the Democrat to say he did not know if the Republican was a racist, but that “the racists believe he’s a racist.” So while it can be debated whether Trump is an anti-Semite, what is clear is the anti-Semites think he is. His constant use of fear, conspiracies and lies sound like a prescription for how they can justify their hatred of Jews. As we mark the first anniversary of the Tree of Life murders, it is worth remembering that the killer drove 13 miles to get to that synagogue. He could have picked any number of Jewish facilities that were closer, but he chose Tree of Life because one of the congregations there works with the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric validated the killer’s perverted world view. Some of the blood of his victims is therefore on the president’s hands. Since the massacre, Trump’s rhetoric has only gotten worse. I fear that the killings will continue and some of those inspired by Trump will know where to look for targets. PJC Dennis Jett, Ph.D., is a former American ambassador whose career in the U.S. Foreign Service spanned 28 years and three continents. Prior to becoming a professor in the School of International Affairs at Pennsylvania State University, Jett was dean of the International Center at the University of Florida for eight years.

How Harry Potter can revolutionize engagement in Jewish learning Guest Columnist Isabel de Koninck

or many students I meet on campus today, Torah feels distant from their lived experience. Its structure resembles nothing of what they normally read, and the stories it offers feel distant from their everyday lives. I always assumed that bringing life’s big questions to Jewish texts was key to opening Torah to my students. What I failed to understand was that for many of the young adults I work with, even though life’s big questions are a part of each of our lives, engagement with them can feel terrifying, out of reach, or even at times, an act of intellectual posturing, rather than an act of meaning making. Just as much as students need a guide to help them experience the vitality of Torah, they need a guide to help them see their doorways into life’s big questions — doorways into the possibility that life can be

transformational and not just transactional. This spring, I had the opportunity to teach a course in the Great Works Seminar of the Drexel University Honors College. I knew I wanted this course to address the dual challenge of opening students to both Torah and life’s big questions, but I also knew that if I taught Torah directly, the only students who would register would be students already enthralled with Torah. This is where Harry Potter comes in. Inspired by the Harry Potter and the Sacred Text podcast, I developed the Potter Seminar as a part crash course in hermeneutics and religious studies’ approaches to sacred text, and part secular exercise in a sacred reading group. I decided that by teaching Harry Potter with the same tools used to teach Torah, I might be able to help my students find both their doorways into engaging with life’s big questions and their doorways into religious and spiritual life. Each week we read a section of the book and centered our reading around a theme — asserting that no matter the narrative, the text had something valuable to teach us. We explored the role, method and power of midrash through analyzing fan fiction. We considered how the lessons we learned from

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each character shifted depending on whether we insisted on the importance of chronological reading or whether we were willing to make meaning beyond chronology. We analyzed plain meaning and allegorical meaning. We used hevruta and journaling practices adapted from mussar tradition. Students learned how to make “toasts” that drew learning and blessing from the text, modeled on basic insights about crafting divrei torah. During the seminar, students spent 10 weeks exploring the polarities of selflessness and selfishness, questions of legacy and destiny, of friendship, power and privilege. They wrestled through how issues of race and sexuality are and aren’t tackled by their beloved Potter text. They realized that Fred and George Weasley have powerful lessons to teach about vulnerability, and Neville Longbottom is a guide to embracing the deepest meaning of bravery. The seminar helped students consider the value of categories like sanctity, spirituality and scripture in a world that extends beyond what anyone would typically think of as religious. By teaching students to deploy Torah learning techniques in this way, they could

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easily see the “magic” that occurs when we engage in sacred reading. They could easily experience the power of reading not to understand the narrative, but to understand themselves. Their engagement with the Potter text left them wanting more — they wanted to connect more deeply with each other as humans and think about their roles in the world differently. They wanted to find spaces where they could continue to reflect and grow and where they could have conversations that matter. This is where Potter leaves off, and only Torah and other sacred traditions go on. I hope that other teachers of Torah will see in my experience the opportunity to reinvigorate our contemporary relationship with the sacred and consider the unexpected ways they can invite their students into welcoming the category of sanctity more deeply into their lives. Doing so will bring more lovers and learners of Torah into a world that sorely needs them. PJC Rabbi Isabel de Koninck is the executive director and campus rabbi for Hillel at Drexel University in Philadelphia. OCTOBER 11, 2019 11

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director. “We want teachers to convey to students that anti-Semitism didn’t begin with the Holocaust, but it also didn’t end, and unfortunately now we have far too many tragedies and examples to help convey that.” Throughout the daylong workshop on Oct. 2, Esther Hurh, an education program consultant, shared pedagogical tools, including digital resources, for promoting both student reflection and a willingness to prevent future anti-Semitic and prejudicial acts. Hurh’s recommendations and her ability to frame the topic within a larger historical context was beneficial, explained Shaner. Among the 17 participating teachers, some noted their courses do not address anti-Semitism or the Holocuast but the training still presented ways to impart lessons learned. One history teacher plans on integrating concepts gained when exploring what it means to “form a more perfect union,” while another educator noted she’ll use the training to boost empathy in her classroom.

As for dealing with last year’s killings or other anti-Semitic events, there was discussion about how to teach in a way that doesn’t traumatize students, said Caponi. “We want to be able to teach in a way that empowers and doesn’t scare them.” Midway through last week’s workshop, during a scheduled lunch break, Shaner drew attention to five current Baldwin High School freshmen who were inspired by the Butterfly Project, a decades-old endeavor of the Holocaust Museum Houston that commemorates the murdered 1.5 million children. The Baldwin students spent their lunchtimes and free periods last year cutting, painting and arranging more than 140 paper and ceramic butterflies along an 8-by-8foot manufactured tree inside the Harrison building. As the students’ project neared completion, they separated 11 butterflies and positioned them above the rest. During the Oct. 2 program, Shaner displayed a replica of the creation — like the one gifted to congregational representatives last June at the Tree of Life building — and presented each of the five students a handmade ceramic butterfly necklace. “The jewelry is a meaningful

representation of our efforts,” said Ava Bell, a participating student. “This is a reminder that we were part of such an inspiring project that touched so many people,” ecoed Grace Spozarski. “I never realized how far it can go. What we can do in the future is unimaginable,” added fellow Baldwin classmate Eva Semieraro. “The thing that’s important to state is that we must remain informed as a society. We have to use tragedy as a way to propel forward,” said Caponi. Hawk noted that her eighth-grade Harrison choir students, like last year, will continue to sing and explore the lyrics of “Eli, Eli,” a song based on the 1942 Hebrew poem by Hungarian resistance fighter Hannah Szenes, and “Heal Us Now,” by Leon Sher. “That music says exactly what we’re trying to teach them,” she said. Even before last October’s attack, educational interest in the field was growing. During the past decade, district students, parents and colleagues have requested more education pertaining to anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, explained Shaner. Although the workshop will generate knowledge there is an unfortunate reality in hosting

it approximately one year after the attack, he added. “In a way, we have to deal with the cards that were dealt, and Tree of Life has given us an opportunity to reach a larger audience.” Yet with greater exposure comes more questions — many of which remain unanswerable. “I tell my students you can have evil in any church or organization or school,” said Hawk. “It’s very important, we, Baldwin, does not take responsibility for that young man’s actions, but we also cannot ignore the fact that we are part of the society that created it,” said Shaner. His actions were not “a result of what he was taught in this district, it was something deeper,” said Hawk. “Unfortunately, evil exists everywhere, it doesn’t mean it’s indicative of everyone in Baldwin.” “We have a vibrant community and everyone gets along,” said Shaner. “We are the tool that can solve it. The schools are the best weapon against ignorance and against hate, and I believe that every school should be taking this responsibility, not just Baldwin.” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz @pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

Photos:

said, “Do you know what happened? One of the people Continued from page 1 changed their mind.” The exhibit will be displayed on “The Holocaust Center’s good friend, the pathway from the Cathedral of Hal Waldman, shared information about Learning to the Heinz Memorial the exhibit from his brother, who saw it in Chapel. It will feature 60 life-size Boston,” said Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh portraits of Holocaust survivors. Director Lauren Bairnsfather. “I was The location is an outgrowth of a blown away by it.” conversation between Bairnsfather Bairnsfather didn’t believe, however, that and the university’s Senior Vice they could bring the exhibit to Pittsburgh Chancellor for Engagement and as it had previously only been shown in Secretary of the Board of Trustees larger cities. The Holocaust Center decided Kathy Humphry. to reach out to Toscano “after our city “We envisioned an exhibit that witnessed the terror of Oct. 27, 2018.” The would start a conversation about artist “agreed immediately.” the dangers of violence, hatred Toscano and his work are no strangers to and intolerance,” Bairnsfather said. anti-Semitism. His exhibit was targeted by “With ‘Lest We Forget’ we found vandals while on display in Vienna. Swastikas the perfect opportunity to make were spray-painted on several of the photoour shared vision a reality.” graphs along with phrases including “1 Humphrey added that she Photo by Luigi Toscano hoped the art installation would Jesus=6 million Jews.” Ten of the pictures p “Lest We Forget” photo exhibit at the Lincoln Memorial. spur dialogue and promote accepwere slashed with a knife. tance and inclusion. “Coming a year after the The photographer said he Tree of Life tragedy, the faces of Holocaust believes this sort of behavior survivors can remind us all of the need for has the opposite of the constant vigilance against hatred and bigotry intended effect. “After my of all kinds,” she said. “Our students, faculty, pictures were attacked, many and staff — along with visitors from around more people came, and they the city and the world — will benefit from were very interested. The the presence of this powerful statement.” younger generation came out. The exhibit is sponsored by the University There were many children of Pittsburgh; Hal and Diane Waldman and and we spent so much time Kelly, Katharine and Andy Waldman; the explaining things to them.” Allegheny Regional Asset District; Friends Toscano believes his of Israel Gospel Ministry; The Shear Family portraits can spark important Foundation and the Jewish Federation of debate and change ill-in- Greater Pittsburgh. formed opinions. He recalled Toscano believes his mission is simple. “I an experience in Austria when remember a woman said to me, ‘If we forget several people told him the the past, we are doomed to repeat it.’ I think Holocaust was a lie. “This isn’t it is necessary to stand against hate. I hope true,” I said. “Six million Jews my work is a powerful and emotional tool were killed, 2 million children. engaging people to do that.” PJC Do you see the people in these David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ photos? They are survivors.” p Luigi Toscano, left, photographs a local Holocaust survivor to be used as part of the “Lest We Forget” Pittsburgh exhibition. Photo by Tanya Bielski-Braham As a result, Toscano pittsburghjewishchronicle.org. 12 OCTOBER 11, 2019

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Headlines Pediatrician: Continued from page 3

are much, much cheaper than those of Family and Community Services, who have a whole range of other programs where they visit people in the home, send them to special preschools, provide programs for the parents. Our program is cheaper. An American economist, James Heckman, has shown the economic benefit of these programs, that for every dollar you invest you save about $17 in terms of teen pregnancy and incarceration. People who go through these programs have higher grades,

get better jobs, pay more taxes. You only see the rewards, though, way down the tracks. In many parts of the world, governments are starting to launch programs around the first thousand days, the first 2,000 days. I’m hopeful we’ll see these programs rolling out in a more comprehensive way. I know that you use the Watch, Wait and Wonder program, which is a child-led psychotherapeutic approach based on an infant’s spontaneous activity in free play. What can parents learn from this program? I have found the concept of Watch, Wait and Wonder a beautiful way to be with children. It recognizes that children innately know

what they want out of a relationship. We, as adults, need to be still and present and allow them to use our attention to explore what they need from us. Very often, we’re so much about teaching, about doing, people are so busy, there’s such an emphasis on taking children here, there and everywhere, to enrich their skills, that we’re forgetting that stillness is at the core of what we all need. Watch, Wait and Wonder helps parents be still and lets children lead them. It allows children to escape into their own inner world and communicate what they need from a relationship because play is a child’s work. It is akin to our dreams. Dreams are where we process challenges, difficulties, we celebrate

Last year, the “Notorious RBG” exhibit debuted at Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, coinciding with the 25th anniversary of Ginsburg’s appointment to the Supreme Court. The first-ever museum retrospective explores her legacy, as visitors follow Ginsburg’s journey from aspiring law student to lawyer and advocate for women’s rights to sitting on the nation’s highest court. Both Carmon and Knizhnik worked on the exhibit, which serves as a physical

exploration of their text. “The goal has always been to bring Justice Ginsburg’s story to everyone, for people to be able to connect to her story and to be inspired themselves to work for a more equal and just society,” Knizhnik said. “That’s really what the ‘Notorious RBG’ blog, our book and now this amazing exhibition are all about, is both celebrating the growth of those values, celebrating the work of Justice Ginsburg and also trying to bring her work to a larger

we see here in New York City,” Molinari said.” There aren’t roving bands of white supremacists, from khakis and tiki torches to hood-wearing people.” He added later, “Political ideology, religious ideology, we do not see that happen here in New York.” Molinari was speaking to a group of donors to the UJA-Federation of New York, an umbrella communal organization. Appearing alongside him was Deborah Lauter, who was hired recently to head the city’s new Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes following a career at the Anti-Defamation League and other Jewish organizations. Lauter stressed that one of the keys to preventing hate crimes, especially among kids of different backgrounds, is education and long-term partnerships between religious and ethnic communities. “The Jewish community at one point started withdrawing from its community relations agenda,” she said. “We’re feeling the repercussions now. This is hard work. You’ve got to do the long game on addressing these problems.”

At the event, UJA-Federation announced that it was doing just that as part of a set of new initiatives to combat anti-Semitism in America’s Jewish metropolis. Together with the local Jewish Community Relations Council, UJA is investing $4 million over two years in physical security upgrades for 2,000 Jewish institutions. It’s hiring six directors who will collectively coordinate communal security for Jews in the city’s five boroughs, as well as suburban Long Island and Westchester County, and a special coordinator for the area’s Jewish summer camps. The federation is also establishing a community relations security committee to work with other ethnic and minority communities. “Our hope is that this strategic investment will allow Jews across the region and people of all faiths to feel welcome in our institutions, secure in our communal spaces and generally safe,” said Alisa Doctoroff, UJA-Federation’s past president. “We need to be there for other people, for other communities, if we expect them to be there for us.” Molinari had some good news: Hate

crimes in September had declined compared to September 2018 after rising over the course of 2019 overall. According to Molinari, 87 percent of the anti-Semitic hate crimes this year have been what he called “criminal mischief,” generally vandalism involving the drawing of swastikas. The remaining 13 percent were person-to-person crimes, such as assaults. In order to be classified as a hate crime, an anti-Semitic incident needs to be an actual crime, as opposed to someone yelling an offensive phrase. But Lauter said age also was a factor in the swastika graffiti. Some of the vandals, she said, are teenagers who don’t know the symbolism and anti-Semitic history of the swastika. She called for Holocaust education in schools to illustrate that the Nazi symbol is more than a provocative sign. “The kids who are doing the swastika incidents don’t know from what a swastika is,” Lauter said. “That’s precisely the kind of thing that I want to look at. You need to make a statement. Kids don’t know from hate crimes.” PJC

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the Rosh Hashanah holiday. • Also during the holiday, a third group of kids harassed a Jewish woman, pulling off her scarf and wig. “Although the proximity is ridiculously close, those are not the same three groups of children,” he said. “I would love if one person in New York City committed all of my 311 hate crimes and I could lock up one person and make it go away. For the most part I’m dealing with 311 random individuals of very diverse backgrounds committing these hate crimes against different people.” That’s the challenge facing the city as it tries to stem a rising tide of hate in its precincts — much of it directed against Jews. Molinari said the criminal behavior doesn’t appear to be coming from members of high-profile extremist hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan or the far-right marchers who demonstrated two years ago in Charlottesville, Virginia. “The national narrative is not the narrative

David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

audience and really explaining those values in a way that everyone can access them.” Visitors will find various historic heirlooms and photographs of Ginsburg along with displays highlighting her writings, opinions and interviews. Featured artifacts include Ginsburg’s Supreme Court robe, one of her iconic jabots and a dress she wore onstage at the Washington National Opera in 2017. Photos chronicling her early life are featured throughout the exhibit along with breakdowns of her famous dissents from the bench. There’s also an outfit worn by Felicity Jones when she portrayed Ginsburg in the 2018 biopic On the Basis of Sex. Much of the exhibit is devoted to Ginsburg’s relationship with her husband of more than 50 years. Before he died in 2010, Martin Ginsburg wrote a letter to his wife from his hospital bed. His touching words are on display. “The exhibition is really bringing the spirit and the content of the book to life. ... Her life and her work are part of a broader history and a broader set of moments. So we’re really proud that the exhibition situates her in the context of that history,” Carmon said. “Justice Ginsburg thinks a lot about how to send a message to a future generation, that the constitution includes them, that the Supreme Court matters to them and it’s their Supreme Court, and capturing the spirit of that is so cool.” PJC

RBG: by President Bill Clinton in 1993. Ginsburg got her “Notorious RBG” nickname in 2013, after publishing a stream of passionate dissents pertaining to the Voting Rights Act. A New York University student, Shana Knizhnik, was inspired by Ginsburg’s legal actions, and created the “Notorious RBG” Tumblr blog, whose name referenced the rap star The Notorious B.I.G. The Tumblr went viral, and Ginsburg went from understated feminist pathbreaker to full-throttle pop-culture icon, such that it’s not uncommon to see fans dress like her for Halloween. T-shirts, pins and refrigerator magnets bear her image, and she’s been featured on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert — the host joined Ginsburg for her workout routine — and memorialized on Saturday Night Live in various sketches by comedian Kate McKinnon. Eventually, Knizhnik, now an attorney, teamed up with journalist Irin Carmon, a senior correspondent at New York Magazine, to write the RBG book. The authors have gotten to know Ginsburg well; she presided over Carmon’s wedding in 2017 and Knizhnik’s wedding last month.

achievements in dreams in symbolic ways. Children use play in the same way. Given a still parent available to them, they will use play and develop a greater capacity for play. Their imagination will grow and sometimes their development surges. Sometimes parents will say they see their children for their first time and fall in love with their children. It sets up a reciprocal relationship. There’s a wonderful quote from Donald Winnicott, who said, “Children get to know who they are through the reflection they see in their parents’ eyes.” PJC

p Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik Photo courtesy of National Museum of American Jewish History

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