Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle 10-2-20

October 2, 2020 | 14 Tishrei 5781

Candlelighting 6:42 p.m. | Havdalah 7:37 p.m. | Vol. 63, No. 40 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

NOTEWORTHY LOCAL A safe Sukkot

Creating connections during COVID-19 Page 2

Studying Community: Volunteerism as an expression of Jewish values

Please see Rosenblum, page 20

Page 3

LOCAL An unlikely team

 From left: Bob Silverman joined CRC Assistant Director Laura Cherner, Cindy Goodman-Leib and CRC Director Joshua Sayles before marching in the 2018 EQT Equality March.

Photo courtesy of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh

Page 7

K

A

Please see Volunteerism, page 12

JAA rabbi retires

This is the 10th in a 10-part series, exploring the data of the 2017 Greater Pittsburgh Jewish Community Study through the people it represents.

atie Holmes converted to Judaism in 2017, the same year she began volunteering for The Aleph Institute.

The 37-year-old has a strong interest in the prison system and believes no one should be judged for the worst moment in their life. She finds it unjust that, for many serving prison time, their offense becomes the sum total of who they are in other

By Justin Vellucci | Special to the Chronicle

people’s eyes, she said.

Holmes is among the 39% of Jewish Pittsburghers who engage in volunteerism, according to the 2017 Pittsburgh Jewish Community Study, commissioned by the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh and conducted by researchers at Brandeis University.

The Squirrel Hill resident had a Conservative conversion but is now converting to Orthodox Judaism, partially

Seidman says ‘so long’

By David Rullo | Staff Writer

Rabbi Ephraim Rosenblum, beloved educator at Yeshiva Schools, dies at 85 respected rabbi, longtime educator and icon of Pittsburgh’s Orthodox Jewish community has died.

Rabbi Ephraim Rosenblum, who educated hundreds of Jewish children during a five-decade Yeshiva School career and served as rabbi during that same time at the Squirrel Hill shul Kether Torah, died on Sept. 21. He was 85.

Born in Montreal, Canada, Rosenblum moved to New York City, when, starting as a teenager, he met on several occasions with the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, and developed a passion for the Chabad movement. He and his wife, Miriam, married in 1961 and, shortly thereafter, moved to Pittsburgh to dedicate their lives to religious education.

“Rabbi Rosenblum was one of the second generation of leaders who helped the Yeshiva School expand into the multifaceted entity it eventually became,” said Eric Lidji, director of the Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives at the Heinz History Center. “His skills as a religious educator were especially important in 1975, when a public schoolteachers’ strike led many local Jewish families — some with limited religious school experience — to move their children to the three local Jewish day schools. Every student who passed through Yeshiva Schools over more than half a century forged a connection with Rabbi Rosenblum.”

Rabbi Yisroel Rosenfeld, who heads Chabad of Western Pennsylvania, said Rosenblum connected deeply with students he taught at the school — and often kept in touch with them well past the time they were in his classroom.

LOCAL

Rabbi remembers Muslim business partner

$1.50

keep your eye on PittsburghJewishChronicle LOCAL

Rabbi’s 1831 pandemic work

LOCAL

CMU student heads to Turkey

FOOD

Soup for Sukkot

Headlines Is the Sukkah safe? Local leaders grapple with an unprecedented Sukkot

p Vintage photo of sukkah building at Beth Shalom

— LOCAL —

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

S

ukkot begins Oct. 2 and, like the holidays preceding it, it’s going to be a bit weird. Anyone longing for densely populated sukkah hops will be out of luck.

That exercise in pushing aside a stranger for that last piece of kreplach after kiddush — forget about it. And, if communally shared bowls of snacks even exist anymore, best think twice before dipping in your hand alongside those of fellow eaters.

Even with COVID-19 adjustments, Sukkot is still predicated on celebrating outdoors, welcoming guests and fraternizing. And for that reason, although it may be a quieter, smaller affair this year, local spiritual leaders and Jewish professionals are striving to ensure participants enjoy a meaningful holiday experience.

In order to limit the number of people

Photo courtesy of Congregation Beth Shalom

gathered on-site, Temple David in Monroeville is replacing its “large sukkah” with a “family-size” model and asking congregants to reserve a designated time for usage, said Rabbi Barbara Symons.

Although the space is smaller than in years past, congregants should still arrive ready for the holiday, but come empty handed, as Temple David will provide registrants a table, chairs, printed blessings for recitation, a lulav, etrog and a children’s project, said Symons.

Chabad of Squirrel Hill’s Rabbi Yisroel Altein likewise is encouraging people to schedule time in a sukkah.

This year, advance registration is required to join the Altein family in their 500-squarefoot sukkah. For the past 17 years, the Alteins hosted seasonal meals with 45 attendees.

Not this year.

“We’re maxing it at 12 people at a time,” said Altein.

As they’ve done for months, congregations’ leaders are relying on medical experts and CDC guidelines to navigate the path forward.

Eili Klein, a professor of emergency medicine at Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, offered suggestions for a safer holiday, including inviting only one family to a meal as opposed to inviting several unrelated individuals, but cautioned that even in that scenario, time inside the sukkah should be limited and participants should have ample room to distance.

“Any activity which has mixing with a large group of people either serially or in a big group is not a safe activity,” said Klein.

At Hillel JUC, staffers are adhering to health guidelines while trying to preserve the spirit of the holiday.

“Hillel JUC is holding very strictly by university policies and will not be gathering students in the sukkah communally this year,” said Danielle Kranjec, senior Jewish educator at Hillel JUC. “While this breaks our hearts, we know that keeping everyone safe takes precedence over everything else.”

Balancing safety and Sukkot on a college campus requires creativity, so as a solution, the Oakland-based Jewish university center ordered five individual pop-up sukkahs, available for borrowing, so students can fulfil the mitzvah of sitting in a sukkah without the risks of larger gatherings, said Kranjec.

Zoom programs, such as edible sukkah making, also will be offered to enhance the students’ holiday, according to Dan Marcus, Hillel JUC’s executive director.

At Kesher Pittsburgh, co-leaders Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife and Sara Stock Mayo are committed to hosting regular services.

If weather cooperates, there’s a possibility of an in-person but distanced Kabbalat Shabbat on Oct. 9, but, if it’s rainy or too cold, Kesher Pittsburgh will meet online, said Fife.

Dealing with the weather is nothing new

for this time of year, as rain and Sukkot are intricately bound.

The Mishna notes that during Sukkot, the world is judged on how much rain it will receive in the coming year. Other rabbinic literature indicates that because Jews venture outdoors to connect with God during the holiday, if it happens to rain on Sukkot it can be interpreted as a divine rebuke. At the end of the holiday, on Shemini Atzeret, Israel’s rainy season begins and a special prayer for rain is offered. Also, one suggestion for the lulav and etrog’s symbolism is that the species demonstrate an agricultural reliance on rain.

Rain or shine, the holiday is about connecting with God, explained Rabbi Levi Langer, of the Kollel Jewish Learning Center.

The idea is that no matter where people are, even in the Diaspora, they can commune with the divine and find a religious experience, said Langer, an idea that’s particularly relevant today.

“We weren’t able to attend shul for many months,” he said. “And we had to kind of create the religious experience, and find some relationship with the Almighty and with prayer in surroundings that were not the usual ones.”

Whether it was having seders that barely resembled past gatherings, saying yizkor alone, or going virtual for the High Holidays, COVID-19 has required Jews to adapt while making the days meaningful.

“I think there’s a certain sense that Sukkos represents that,” said Langer. “Wherever the Jew goes, even if we’re not in the old comfortable familiar surroundings, we can always create a connection with the divine and be able to experience it in a palpable way.” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org. Additional reporting by JTA.

5915 Beacon St., 5th Floor Pittsburgh, PA 15217

Main phone number: 412-687-1000

Subscriptions: 410-902-2308 SUBSCRIPTIONS subscriptions@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org 410-902-2308 TO ADVERTISE Display: advertising@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org 412-721-5931 EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT Email: newsdesk@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org BOARD OF TRUSTEES Evan Indianer, Chairman Gayle R. Kraut, Secretary Jonathan Bernstein, Treasurer Gail Childs, Dan Droz, Malke Steinfeld Frank, Seth Glick, Tammy Hepps, Richard J. Kitay, Cátia Kossovsky, David Rush, Charles Saul, Evan H. Stein GENERAL COUNSEL Stuart R. Kaplan, Esq. Jim Busis, CEO and Publisher 412-228-4690 jbusis@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

2 OCTOBER 2, 2020

EDITORIAL Liz Spikol, Editorial Director 215-832-0747 lspikol@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org Toby Tabachnick, Editor 412-228-4577 ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org Adam Reinherz, Staff Writer 412-687-1000 areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org David Rullo, Staff Writer 412-687-1047 drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org Kayla Steinberg, Digital Content Manager 603-714-8742 ksteinberg@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org ADVERTISING Kelly Schwimer, Sales Director 412-721-5931 kschwimer@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org Phil Durler, Senior Sales Associate 724-713-8874 pdurler@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

PRODUCTION Jennifer Perkins-Frantz, Director Rachel S. Levitan Art/Production Coordinator CIRCULATION Bill Sims, Director of Circulation 410-902-2315 Subscriptions subscriptions@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org 410-902-2308 Published every Friday by the Pittsburgh Jewish Publication and Education Foundation 5915 Beacon St., 5th Floor Pittsburgh, PA 15217 Phone: 412-687-1000 FAX: 412-521-0154 POSTMASTER: Send address change to PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE, 5915 BEACON ST., 5TH FLOOR PITTSBURGH, PA 15217 (PERIODICAL RATE POSTAGE PAID AT PITTSBURGH, PA AND AT ADDITIONAL MAILING OFFICES) USPS 582-740

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Manuscripts, letters, documents and photographs sent to the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle become the property of this publication, which is not responsible for the return or loss of such items.

The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle does not endorse the goods or services advertised or covered in its pages and makes no representation to the kashrut of food products and services in said advertising or articles. The publisher is not liable for damages if, for any reason whatsoever, he fails to publish an advertisement or for any error in an advertisement.

Acceptance of advertisers and of ad copy is subject to the publisher’s approval. The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle is not responsible if ads violate applicable laws and the advertiser will indemnify, hold harmless and defend the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle from all claims made by governmental agencies and consumers for any reason based on ads appearing in the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle.

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Headlines After 25 years, Rabbi Eli Seidman retires from JAA — LOCAL —

By Justin Vellucci | Special to the Chronicle

R

abbi Eli Seidman had very clear goals before coming to Pittsburgh.

Before the rabbi joined the Jewish Association on Aging in April 1995 as director of pastoral care, he served as a U.S. Army chaplain. For eight years, he counseled soldiers in Washington state, New York and overseas in Germany, just as the Berlin Wall fell.

“I wanted to gain good experience so I could get a position at a hospital or a home for the aged,” said Seidman, 66, of Squirrel Hill, whose final day with JAA falls on Simchat Torah, Oct. 11. “It really gave me joy when I applied here to work with the elderly.”

Seidman, the son of a schoolteacher and a rabbi who served Hillel at George Washington University, grew up in Washington, D.C., and was ordained by Yeshiva University in 1980. When his chaplaincy with the military ended, he and his wife, Terri, who was raised in Columbus, Ohio, had two young children.

“We were looking for a friendly, supportive community and Pittsburgh fit the bill,” Seidman said. “We’re adopted Pittsburghers.”

At JAA, Seidman became a jack of all trades, counseling residents and aiding with

the common denominator and the staff here have tremendous respect for him.”

“No one was better suited for the job,” JAA President and CEO Deborah Winn-Horvitz said. “All of us who know and admire him will certainly miss his affable approach and ability to share perfect words of encouragement and support when we needed them most. We wish Eli and Terri every wonderful p Rabbi Eli Seidman celebrates New Year’s Eve at the JAA. He moment they have will retire next week after 25 years.

Photo provided by the JAA ahead of them. And we thank the rabbi for his extraordinary service life and death rites, as well as leading services and helping guide the staff as the commu- to our community.”

Seidman said his father had a large nity celebrated holidays — both Jewish and secular. There, he gained quite a reputation, influence on his work.

“My role model was my dad,” Seidman fellow staff members said.

“He’s a strong character but he’s very said. “He wasn’t a rabbi in a pulpit setting. approachable,” said Sharyn Rubin, JAA’s He was a rabbi in the chaplaincy sense.”

At the JAA, Seidman stressed, he needed to director of resident and community services.

“He wears these silly ties, these thematic be many things for many people — not just ties, for every holiday. He walks around Jews of different beliefs or schools of thought, in costume. Some people, when they [see but for Christian residents and atheists as well. a] a rabbi, they look up and gasp. With “Everyone is a spiritual being,” he said.

Rabbi Seidman, they smile. … He’s like “That’s what my Army chaplaincy taught me.”

To that end, Seidman conducted modified services for everything from Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July to Martin Luther King Jr. Day. “I tried to get everybody together under the banner of ‘We are all children of God,’” Seidman said.

Seidman has an ability to transcend boundaries, religious divides and all sorts of labels, according to Rubin.

“He was all of the things you’d want a rabbi to be,” she said. “He’s not above being a bingo caller. He’s just very involved. It’s a hard act.

But he had the ability to be rabbinical and approachable — and that’s not easy.”

In addition to his work at the JAA, Seidman served as a chaplain part-time at two Pennsylvania state prisons and also counseled Jews for 18 years through the Jewish Residential Services agency. While he plans — at least for now — to stay in Pittsburgh, he also wants to stay active and is looking forward to the volunteer opportunities that present themselves after the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’ve seen the JAA grow and I’ve seen a lot of changes here — that’s been very heartwarming to me and very encouraging to me,” Seidman said. “I think nothing lasts forever and no one is irreplaceable. I hope to see the JAA continue to grow and be involved in spiritual growth.” PJC Justin Vellucci is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.

YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD SOURCE FOR ALL OF YOUR EYE CARE NEEDS

Comprehensive Medical Eye Care (Glaucoma/Cataracts/ Macular Degeneration/ Diabetic Retinopathy Management)

Total Family Vision Care Exams for Eyeglasses

Same Day Eye Emergency Services

Outside Prescriptions Welcome

lappeneyecare.com PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Contact Lens Specialist Multifocals/Astigmatism Gas Permeable & Scleral Lenses

4048 Beechwood Blvd.

Pittsburgh, PA 15217 PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

412-421-9274 OCTOBER 2, 2020 3

Headlines Lawfare joins Point Park prof ’s legal team in discrimination suit — LOCAL —

By Toby Tabachnick | Editor

A

nonprofit network of legal professionals that defends the civil rights of Jews and the pro-Israel community will be helping a local professor in her case against Point Park University.

The Lawfare Project, whose work includes offering legal help to university and college students and faculty who contend their rights are violated through anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, will now help fund and assist professor Channa Newman in her employment discrimination suit against Point Park.

Pittsburgh attorney Jim Lieber continues to serve as attorney on the case as well.

Newman, a Holocaust survivor who has U.S., Israeli and Czech citizenship, has been employed by Point Park since 1964. She filed suit against the university earlier this year claiming that Point Park allowed a concerted effort, led by anti-Zionist faculty and students, to create a hostile work environment for her.

She alleges that professor Robert Ross, an outspoken critic of Israel, used his position at the university to promote “highly anti-Zionist views and activities” — including accusing Israel of “apartheid” and “ethnic cleansing” — and to “foster the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)

4 OCTOBER 2, 2020

p Channa Newman talks to supporters at community event

movement against Israel.” Additionally, Ross attempted to establish a class called “Israel: A Settler State,” according to the complaint.

Newman claims that Ross and others retaliated against her because she did not acquiesce to their one-sided presentation of the conflict.

Photo by Toby Tabachnick

The anti-Zionists on campus sought to have Newman removed from her position, she claims, through the filing of a “bogus” Title IX complaint in which a student alleged that Newman made an insensitive comment about the #MeToo movement. Title IX

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

protects people from discrimination based on sex and is commonly invoked in cases of sexual harassment.

Newman, who currently chairs the department of humanities and social sciences and is a professor of French and cultural studies, was exonerated from the Title IX charges, but not before she had endured significant maltreatment from the university, she claims, including having her classes canceled mid-semester, being suspended from campus and being denied access to her email.

Lieber, Newman’s attorney, reached out to the Lawfare Project to see if it was interested in joining his client’s legal team, according to Ziporah Reich, director of litigation for the Lawfare Project.

“This is a textbook example of anti-Semitic discrimination in the workplace,” Reich said.

“And that’s exactly the type of Jew-hatred the Lawfare Project is dedicated to fighting.

Yeah, this was right up our alley, and I was glad to come on board.”

At its core, Reich explained, the case “is about professors that have come onto the university campus and have tried to use their classrooms as a platform to disseminate really vicious lies about the situation in the Middle East regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict, and vicious lies about Israel itself.”

When Newman spoke out against it, Reich Please see Newman, page 13

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Headlines Rabbi’s pandemic edicts save lives — during the cholera crisis of 1831 visiting researcher at Hebrew University’s Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry.

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer Even before the cholera outbreak, there was recognition that Poznań was overn the midst of a 19th-century global populated, and there were various efforts pandemic, one rabbi advocated for a to encourage people to move to nearby High Holiday season of social distancing, cities and towns. So, when Eger responded abbreviated services, reduced to the reality that disease can singing and absolute transparrapidly spread in a tightly packed ency regarding one’s health prior area, the residents accepted the to entering a synagogue. The directives, said Zisook, who in rabbi, before disseminating the 2018, as a fellow at the European communal edicts, worked in University Viadrina, conducted concert with medical experts and research in Poznań. local governmental authorities.

Jennifer Rudin, a PittsburghUltimately, having successfully based infectious disease doctor, spared the lives of thousands, the spent Rosh Hashanah reading rabbi was heralded. When a repre- Portrait of Silver’s translation of Eger’s sentative of Frederick William Rabbi Akiva guidelines.

III, King of Prussia, knocked on Eger of Posen “There was a sensitivity to the Eger’s door on Sept. 5, 1831, it was (1761-1837) Photo courtesy of the community, to the communiChabad Library via ty’s needs and to doing whatever Shabbat. The representative opened Wiki Commons an officially sealed document and was needed to preserve life,” said read aloud the royally signed letter. For his Rudin. “As I read it, it was so overwhelming efforts in combating the rages of cholera, to me that the rabbi, under the needs of the Eger, a master Talmudist and community people and the devastation that this cholera titan who represented more than 60,000 Jews epidemic was causing, was so capable of in the city of Poznań, had been venerated. giving direction and informing others what The cholera pandemic would last was proper to do to save their lives.” another six years, and kill approximately The city’s low mortality rate was a credit to 250,000 people across Asia, Europe and Eger and the members of Poznań’s rabbinic the Americas, but Eger’s work embodied court, wrote Andrej Simcha Neuschloss in the biblical principle of “v’chai bahem,” that “Rabbi Akiba Eger: His Life and Times.”

Jewish law demands vitality.

Eger was well aware of his constituents’ Nearly 200 years after those efforts, habits, and when it came time for the High as more than a million people have died Holidays of 1831, he used his authority to worldwide due to COVID-19, Eger’s great- ensure that safety measures were in place. great-great-great-grandson Rabbi Shimon Apart from dictating that large and Silver of Young Israel of Pittsburgh trans- lengthy in-person gatherings should be lated into English his ancestor’s written avoided, he wrote that those who do attend regulations, warnings and general rules of services are obligated to eat something conduct, and submitted the work for inclu- warm before arriving, and that the synasion in a High Holidays pamphlet published gogues themselves should only permit half by the Kollel Jewish Learning Center. of their seats to be filled. Additionally, local Originally written in German, then trans- authorities would ensure that certain praclated into Hebrew almost 50 years ago by tices were followed.

Rabbi Nosson Gestetner, the material is “To maintain order an army guard will notable for several reasons, explained Silver. be seated at every entrance to a shul, people Despite writing in German, Eger engaged will be expected to show him the tickets, and in code-switching: Whenever referencing special police officers will also be responsible a synagogue, Rosh Hashanah or Yom to maintain Kippur, he printed those words in Hebrew this arrangement in the shuls,” wrote Eger. for emphasis. Eger also urged people to be Some tension did exist between the Jewish honest as to whether they were experiencing community and its non-Jewish neighbors, symptoms of cholera. but by and large relations were good, and “I think there’s a certain commonality the governmental powers appreciated Eger’s between what happened then and what’s efforts, said Zisook. happening now,” Silver said. “It’s an old There is an overlap between the thing. People don’t want to stay home. They 19th-century cholera pandemic and the don’t want to tell anybody about their condi- current coronavirus pandemic, but undertion. They don’t want the restrictions. That’s standing each period’s historical context part of what he was dealing with, and what is critical, explained Menachem Butler, a he was commended for.” program fellow at The Julis-Rabinowitz Eger also was dealing with a densely popu- Program on Jewish and Israeli Law at lated city where Jews, who were working Harvard Law School. largely as peddlers, shoemakers and in Butler, a historian whose family has lived metal trades, were living in close quarters, in Pittsburgh for more than a century, said he explained Yoni Zisook, a doctoral candiPlease see Cholera, page 13 date at City University of New York and a

— LOCAL —

I

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

OCTOBER 2, 2020 5

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.

for $30. 11 a.m. To register, visit foundation. jewishpgh.org. q

THURSDAY, OCT. 8

You may have eaten in a sukkah on Sukkot before, but have you ever eaten a sukkah on Sukkot? Now’s your chance! Moishe House Pittsburgh’s Edible SukkahMaking is back, but this time it is on Zoom.

Sign up by Thursday, Oct. 1 for contactless delivery of edible sukkah-building supplies to your door for the event. 2 p.m. For more information and to register, visit facebook. com/moishehouse.pittsburgh.

Join Pittsburgh’s Jewish young adult community to celebrate Sukkot in the virtual sukkah together with Wine and Wisdom. Bring your own wine and discuss the idea of shelter and what that currently means for many people in our community within the context of Sukkot. An expert from the Fair Housing Partnership will join to enhance the discussions. Hosted by The Tree of Life Young Jewish Community, Repair the World, Moishe House, Temple Sinai Young Adult Group, Beth Shalom Derekh, and The Jewish Federation’s Young Adult Division.

7:30 p.m. jfedpgh.org/wine-wisdom

q

q

q

SUNDAY, OCT. 4

SUNDAYS, OCT. 4, 11, 18, 25

MONDAYS, OCT. 12; NOV. 9; DEC. 14

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. For more information, visit bethshalompgh.org.

Join Classrooms Without Borders in Israel — virtually. Monthly tours with guide and scholar, Rabbi Jonty Blackman, via Zoom. 7 p.m. For more information and to register, visit classroomswithoutborders.org.

q

q

MONDAYS, OCT. 5, 12, 19, 26

Join Rabbi Jeremy Markiz in learning Masechet Rosh Hashanah, a tractate of the Talmud about the many new years that fill out the Jewish calendar at Monday Talmud study. 9:15 a.m. For more information, visit bethshalompgh.org. q

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 7

The Jewish Studies Program at the University of Pittsburgh presents the film “Dwelling in Traveling: Jews in Calcutta” and a Zoom discussion with director Subha Das Mollick and author Jael Silliman.

8 p.m. To register visit, calendar.pitt.edu/ department/jewish_studies_program. q

EDNESDAY, OCT. 7; W THURSDAY, OCT. 15

Joshua Andy leads Classrooms Without Borders’ book club discussion of “The S.S. Officer’s Armchair.” Educators attending this program are eligible to receive Pennsylvania Act 48 continuing education credits. Book author, Daniel Lee, will join for a discussion at the conclusion. 7 p.m.

For more information and to RSVP, visit classroomswithoutborders.org. q

WEDNESDAYS, OCT. 7, 14, 21, 28; NOV. 4, 11

The 21st century is already 20 years old.

In that time, the Reform movement has produced more responsa than any other non-Orthodox movement. What have these pieces taught us about 21st century Judaism? In 21 C Reform Responsa, Jewish Community Foundation Scholar Rabbi Danny Schiff will examine two decades of responsa for their statements about contemporary Judaism. Six sessions

6 OCTOBER 2, 2020

TUESDAY, OCT. 13

Join the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Pittsburgh Holocaust Center for Preserving Holocaust History through Artifacts, Archives and Research, a live digital program, exclusive to the Pittsburgh community, featuring the Museum’s National Institute for Holocaust Documentation and its work to collect, preserve, and make accessible to the public this vast collection of records of the Holocaust and support the museum’s wide-ranging efforts in the areas of research, exhibition, publication, education and commemoration. 12 p.m.

For more information and to register for this free event, visit hcofpgh.org. q

THURSDAY, OCT. 15

Be an informed consumer and join the Security and Exchange Commission to learn how to protect yourself from financial fraud and from potential scams during the COVID-19 pandemic. Representatives from the SEC, the United States Attorney's Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania and the FBI will be present.

10 a.m. Submit questions in advance to SECSeniorOutreach@sec.gov. To register, email usapaw-rsvp@usdoj.gov. q

T HURSDAYS, OCT. 15; DEC. 3; FEB. 18; March 18; MAY 6; JUNE 17

We live in a time of multiple challenges.

Controversial issues and struggles confront us daily. But the truth is that Jews have never desisted from addressing tough problems. In this year’s Continuing Legal Education Series, Jewish Community Foundation Scholar Rabbi Danny Schiff will dive into a range of “tense topics” — difficult and troubling issues that are both

powerfully emotional subjects and have substantive legal ramifications at the same time. Get up to 12 CLE ethics credits. With CLE/CEU credit: $30/session or $180 all sessions; without CLE/CEU credit: $25/ session or $150 all sessions. 8:30 a.m.

For more information and to register, visit foundation.jewishpgh.org. q

FRIDAY, OCT. 16

The Jewish Studies Program at the University of Pittsburgh presents on Zoom a Work in Progress Colloquium “The Pornography of Fools: Antisemitism and Sexual Fantasy” with Aidan Beatty at 1 p.m. To register visit, calendar.pitt.edu/ department/jewish_studies_program. q

Cheshvan is the first new month of 5781.

Take a moment with the Moishe House community to set intentions for the month ahead. We can keep the Rosh Hashanah energy going and provide accountability for each other in achieving our goals.

This will be the first occurrence of a new monthly Rosh Chodesh event. For more information and to register, visit facebook. com/moishehouse.pittsburgh. q

SATURDAY, OCT. 17

Join Moishe House Pittsburgh for Shabbat Unplugged and practice Shabbat with a restful break from technology at Friendship Park. Feel free to chat, read a book, study Torah, throw a frisbee or do whatever else relaxes you and brings you joy. Snacks and hand sanitizer will be provided.

Attendance capped at 25. 1 p.m. For more information and to register, visit facebook. com/moishehouse.pittsburgh. q

Nonfiction magazine. Gutkind delivers his new memoir “My Last Eight Thousand Days: An American Male in His Seventies.”

To register, visit pittsburghlectures.org/ lee-gutkind.

SUNDAY, OCT. 18

The Jewish Cemetery and Burial Association will hold its annual unveiling ceremony at the Chesed Shel Emeth cemetery located at 498 Oakwood Street Pittsburgh PA 15209. Rabbi Eli Seidman, director of Pastoral Care at the Jewish Association on Aging, will officiate.

11 a.m. For additional information, call 412-553-6469 or jcbapgh@gmail.com.

ONDAYS, OCT. 19, 26; M NOV. 2, 9, 16, 30; DEC. 7; FEB. 1, 8, 15, 22; MARCH 1, 8, 15

Most people associate the term “Haftarah” with opaque prophetic reading on Shabbat morning. This course, “Haftarah,” will attempt to make the opaque sparkle.

Choosing selectively from the most interesting Haftarah portions, Jewish Community Foundation Scholar Rabbi Danny Schiff will seek to imbue meaning in these powerful prophetic passages.

Fourteen sessions for $70. 9:30 a.m.

For more information and to register, visit foundation.jewishpgh.org. q

THURSDAY, OCT. 22

Join Chabad Young Professionals, OneTable, Moishe House, Repair the World and the Young Adult Division of the Jewish Federation as they come Together at the Virtual Table to commemorate the tragic events of Oct. 27, 2018, with an eye toward the future. Hear from young adult leaders, pray together and create together q SUNDAYS, OCT. 18, 25; NOV. 1, 8, 15, 22; DEC. 6; JAN. 31; FEB. 7, 14, 21, 28; as we prepare for Shabbat the following day. Shabbat kits are available only to MARCH 7, 14 those who register by Oct. 8. Everyone is What does Jewish tradition have to say welcome. 7 p.m. For more information and about God, Torah, mitzvot, suffering, to register, visit jewishpgh.org. messiah, Israel…? In this special course, q MONDAY, OCT. 26 Pittsburgh Rabbis on Jewish Belief, Jewish Community Foundation Scholar Book launch of “Bound in the Bond of Life: Rabbi Danny Schiff will host 14 Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Writers Reflect on the Tree rabbis, each teaching a session on of Life Tragedy” by the Katz Center for fundamental aspects of Jewish belief.

Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Fourteen sessions for $70. 10 a.m.

Pennsylvania. Panel discussion moderated For more information and to register, visit

by Beth Kissileff and Steve Weitzman with foundation.jewishpgh.org.

Barbara Burstin, Laurie Eisenberg and Adam Shear. 7:30 p.m. For more information q SUNDAY, OCT. 18 and to register, visit calendar.pitt.edu/ The Jewish Studies Program at the department/jewish_studies_program.

University of Pittsburgh presents the q FRIDAY, OCT. 30 annual Israel Heritage Room lecture.

This year’s topic is “The Making of Put on your warmest costume and come Shtisel” by director and co-creator to the Moishe House backyard for a Yehonatan Indursky. 2 p.m. For more socially distant spooky Shabbat dinner. information, visit calendar.pitt.edu/ The candles will be lit promptly at 6 p.m., department/jewish_studies_program. but you are welcome to come as early as 5:30 p.m. A vegetarian meal will be provided. q MONDAY, OCT. 19 Attendance will be capped at six guests.

Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures presents For more information and to register, visit Lee Gutkind, founding editor of Creative facebook.com/moishehouse.pittsburgh. PJC

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Headlines Rabbi remembers Muslim business partner, forges ahead with business — LOCAL —

By Kayla Steinberg | Digital Content Manager

I

t was an unlikely pairing: Betzalel Menachem Mendel Bassman, an Orthodox Jewish rabbi and scholar from Chicago who worked in his father’s scrapyard, and Dr. Abdulhaq Alkhalidi, a Muslim Iraqi scientist with Parkinson’s disease who developed innovations in the oil recycling business and was a contractor for the U.S. military.

And yet when the two met for coffee in Pittsburgh, they hit it off.

Bassman, 35, was looking for a new venture within the environmental sector Mendel Bassman after moving to Photo by Chaya Bassman Pittsburgh and found Alkhalidi while researching cooking oil recycling. A friend suggested Bassman consider tire recycling, and he pitched the idea to Alkhalidi.

A week later, Alkhalidi was on board.

Alkhalidi brought scientific expertise, Bassman had business savvy, and together, they founded Smart Tire Recycling in 2014.

At first, they tinkered in Alkhalidi’s garage five to 10 hours a week. “We were kind of walking up walls for about two to three years until we got some serious traction,” said Bassman.

That traction came after moving into a larger garage in 2018, hiring part-time engineers, raising funds through angel investments and filing for a patent.

Smart Tire Recycling has about a dozen competitors in the U.S., Bassman approximates, but he believes his company stands out with its practical and marketable solution.

Here’s the gist: A 20-pound scrapped passenger tire contains about two pounds of steel, one gallon of oil and five pounds of carbon black. While today’s tire recycling facilities repurpose some of the materials — like using rubber for playgrounds — they don’t recover the original materials. So fresh carbon black, oil and steel are needed for each new tire.

That’s where Smart Tire Recycling comes in. It works to “unbake” tires into reusable components that could eventually make new tires. It’s like if you went to a bakery, Bassman said, and the baker said he’d turn the ciabatta back into water, oil, yeast and flour, and use them for a new loaf.

p Left to right: Jeremiah Miesel, Abdulhaq Alkhalidi, COO Carlos Cabral, CTO Lacramioara Schulte and CEO and co-founder Mendel Bassman in 2017 Photo by Roy Bradbury

In a good way. And he was always pushing the envelope, and the engineers were always trying to take his ideas and make them reality. [He was] a genius in terms of seeing things way ahead of their times.”

“It’s hard for me to understand what he’s doing, really,” Alkhalidi’s brother Laigh told the Chronicle, speaking by phone from Iraq. The two kept in touch when Alkhalidi moved to the U.S., and Laigh supported his brother’s partnership “I like to see the relationship between a Jewish and Muslim to be good,” he said.

“Muslim and Jewish, they are cousins.”

Bassman is proud of the message inherent in his partnership with Alkhalidi.

“I always told people that Al and I, when we’re done solving the problem of tire recycling in the world, we’re going to sell peace in the Middle East,” he said. “One of our engineers is also a part-time pastor, so we have a rabbi, a pastor and an Iraqi scientist working together.”

Faith was key for them. “To do a start-up, especially a start-up in hardware, you’re literally walking in the dark. We almost closed down like five times in the six years,” said Bassman. “Faith got us through many, many very dark days.”

But things are brighter now because of Alkhalidi’s efforts. Smart Tire Recycling is scaling up to a pilot plant, perfecting its technology and raising funds through crowdfunding.

“I would not rule out the idea that he’s praying for us up there,” said Bassman. PJC

If successful, Smart Tire Recycling could company, Bassman said. offset the global need for carbon black by “In his laboratory, when I first went there, Kayla Steinberg can be reached at ksteinberg@ 40%, Bassman hypothesized, potentially there was a big sign that said, ‘Still dreaming,’” reducing the environmental impact of recalled Bassman. “He was always dreaming. pittsburghjewishchronicle.org. tire production.

This spring, Bassman and Alkhalidi edged closer to success. Smart Tire Recycling’s machine started functioning consistently, and the company hired its first full-time engineer.

But in early June, Bassman stopped hearing from Alkhalidi.

“He was a little bit of a mad professor, so I was very used to him not answering the phone,” said Bassman. But, after a few days of silence, Bassman learned that Alkhalidi had died. He was 69.

His vision left an indelible mark on the p Abdulhaq Alkhalidi with lab technician John Salter in September 2016 Photo by Mendel Bassman

STORIES COME TO life HERE. Connect with Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle.

In your mailbox or all the time online at pittsburghjewishchronicle.org 5915 Beacon Street, 5th Floor, Pittsburgh, PA 15217 PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

OCTOBER 2, 2020 7

Headlines CMU student leaves school to work at Turkish refugee camp — LOCAL —

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

R

oni Sosis doesn’t expect you to uproot your life, join an NGO and relocate to a refugee shelter. But increasing your compassion and awareness of global crises, that’s a reasonable request, said Sosis, who next week, after taking a leave of absence from Carnegie Mellon University, will join an NGO and relocate to a refugee shelter in Turkey for a minimum three-month stay.

TIAFI, a large community center in Izmir, Turkey, primarily serves Syrian refugees. The area has several organizations that provide various services for refugees, but TIAFI’s appeal is that it also offers food, legal aid and educational programs, said Sosis.

Sosis’ interest in helping those in crisis began p Roni Sosis, right, and fellow Carnegie Mellon University students participate five years ago, when they started following in IMPAQT, a CMU program for fostering relationships between students at the Photo courtesy of Roni Sosis reports of Middle Eastern migrants increasingly university’s Pittsburgh and Middle East campuses. seeking refuge in the European Union.

“It was a story and a struggle I connected national headlines, Sosis followed the story. people, and language is a huge part of that.”

Prior to the coronavirus crisis, Sosis At CMU, Sosis pursued a dual major of with immediately,” said Sosis, 20.

Although careful not to equate expe- global studies and creative writing, and a planned to enhance their Arabic skills by spending the summer in Jordan after riences, Sosis recalled the challenges of minor in Arabic studies. adapting to new people and cultures when Being able to communicate with people in receiving a U.S. Department of State Critical moving from Connecticut to Israel at 3, the Middle East in their language is critical, Language Scholarship. Because of the moving around within Israel and then said Sosis, an Israeli citizen: “Whether working pandemic, however, Sosis instead attended toward peace or any progress in the region, it’s an online institute based in Oman. heading back to Massachusetts at 7.

JC 2018_Eartique 3/5/18 3:46 PM really Page 1essential to be able to show respect to That experience helped Sosis master the AsOpn theRadarFIN refugee crisis continued capturing

Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

This week in Israeli history

We’re taking hearing aid technology in a whole new direction.

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

Oct. 2, 1947 — Jewish Agency accepts partition plan

David Ben-Gurion, the chairman of the Executive of the Jewish Agency, formally accepts the two-state partition plan proposed a month earlier by the U.N. Special Committee on Palestine. Arab leaders reject partition.

With 360º access to the world around you.

Oticon Opn.™ features a revolutionary microchip that

adjusts and balances all sounds in your listening environment, not just the ones directly in front of you.

Debra L. Greenberger, M.S., CCC-A Serving the Pittsburgh area for over 25 years

The last stop you’ll make in successful hearing aid use

Call to schedule a demonstration today!

Squirrel Hill ~ 2703 Murray Ave ~ 412.422.8006 ~ eartique.com 8 OCTOBER 2, 2020

language while increasing knowledge of the Middle East and its residents. It was also the impetus for taking a leave of absence from school and volunteering abroad.

“In the time of COVID when so many other volunteer opportunities around the world have stopped, the need for volunteers in refugee camps is one of the few that’s still really prominent and essential because volunteers are the ones providing the basic necessities,” said Sosis.

Initially, Sosis planned to go to a Greek refugee camp, but had to switch to Turkey due to COVID-19 and the recent fires at the Lesbos-located Moria camp that have displaced nearly 13,000 people. Sosis leaves for Turkey next week.

CMU’s spring semester begins Feb. 1, but Sosis isn’t keen about returning on time.

“It’s kind of up in the air,” Sosis said The rising junior is committed, however, to making significant contributions at the Turkish camp.

“I’ll be working in the kitchen and working with children, working on the info line, and using my Arabic,” said Sosis. “I’ll be able to communicate with people, which will be really important. It’s a huge benefit to people to say hi and ask how their day is going in their language, so I’m really excited to go and bring what I can.” PJC

Oct. 3, 2018 — Chancellor Merkel visits Israel

German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives in Jerusalem for the first time in more than four years to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid growing U.S.Europe tensions over Iran.

Oct. 4, 2003 — Suicide bomber strikes Haifa restaurant

A female Palestinian Islamic Jihad suicide bomber kills 18 Jews and three Arabs and injures 60 others at Maxim restaurant in Haifa. The beachfront restaurant, co-owned by Jews and Arabs, is known as a symbol of coexistence.

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Oct. 5, 1898 — Painter Nachum Gutman born

Painter Nachum Gutman is born in what is now Moldova. He paves the way for a generation of Israeli artists, writers, painters and sculptors by adopting a style that moves away from European influences.

Oct. 6, 1973 — Yom Kippur War begins

More than 70,000 Egyptians infantrymen and 1,000 tanks cross the Suez Canal on bridges erected overnight while Syria bombards Israeli positions in the Golan Heights, starting the Yom Kippur War.

Oct. 7, 2009 — Crystallographer Yonath wins Nobel in chemistry

Cr ystallographer Ada Yonath, part of the chemistry faculty at the Weizmann Institute, becomes the first woman from the Middle East to win a science Nobel Prize when she shares the chemistry award.

Oct. 8, 1989 — Israeli Idol Hagit Yaso Is born

Singer Hagit Yaso, the 2011 winner of Israel’s version of “American Idol,” is born in Sderot to parents who escaped an Ethiopian village by walking four months through the desert to Sudan. PJC PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Headlines ban the Nordic Resistance Movement and rid its violent propaganda from our streets.”

— WORLD —

Sweden allocates $1.1 million for its first Holocaust museum

From JTA reports

Far-right activists stage anti-Semitic hate speech incidents in Scandinavia on Yom Kippur

Sweden has allocated $1.1 million to prepare for the opening of the country’s first Holocaust museum.

The Ministry of Culture said that the government was giving the money to the Living History Forum, a Stockholm-based government agency that educates about the Holocaust, human rights and tolerance. The money will go toward collecting documents and interviewing Holocaust survivors to make up the museum’s exhibits.

In 2018, Sweden said it was planning to build a Holocaust museum with a focus on survivors from the Scandinavian country and a center devoted to Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust.

Many of the details of the museum, including when it will open, its location and whether it will operate as an independent government agency, are still undecided.

Lawmakers are debating whether the museum should be located in the capital, Stockholm, or in Malmö, a city that has seen intense anti-Semitism in recent years.

“The Holocaust is a crime against humanity that is unparalleled in our history,” the Culture Ministry said in its statement.

“Its memory and lessons must continue to be preserved and communicated about. Never again must something similar to this happen.”

Several incidents involving anti-Semitic hate speech occurred in Scandinavia in what the World Jewish Congress said was a coordinated campaign by neo-Nazis on Yom Kippur.

Most of the incidents recorded last week in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Iceland involved the circulation of anti-Semitic pamphlets, sometimes in the form of small posters near Jewish community buildings.

There was no violence in any of the incidents.

In Norrköping, a city located about 70 miles southwest of the Swedish capital of Stockholm, a handful of men from the Nordic Resistance Movement stood outside the local synagogue on Monday, which was Yom Kippur, with flags of their movement, the Jewish Central Council wrote in a statement. The synagogue was empty at the time.

“The Jews circumcise their babies so rabbis can suck blood from the penises of newborns and according to the Talmud they may have sex with children from the age of 3,” one of the posters seen at that demonstration said.

The World Jewish Congress in a statement saying the effort was “a string of coordinated actions on Yom Kippur targeting Jews” called on the nations to follow Finland’s example from earlier this year “and move swiftly to

Dutch city of Haarlem withdraws honor from rapper who downplayed the Holocaust

that I can recognize my mistakes and take responsibility for the things I have said or done in the past,” he said.

Darryl Danchelo Osenga will no longer become the official poet of Haarlem, a city in the Netherlands, after his past comments dismissing the severity of the Holocaust caused a firestorm.

City officials said they had discussed some of Osenga’s past statements with him before appointing him city poet and he had distanced himself from them, according to Algemeen Dagblad, a Dutch newspaper. But after he was appointed, advocacy groups raised concerns about a 2012 song that called the Holocaust a “cover up for dumb sheep” and a “joke” compared to slavery.

Two days after announcing Osenga’s appointment, Haarlem withdrew it.

“After the appointment was announced, new quotes from Darryl Danchelo Osenga emerged that are at odds with values ​​that the municipality of Haarlem stands for,” the city said in a statement, according to the newspaper.

Osenga, who performs as Insayno, posted a statement on his Facebook page Friday lamenting his loss of the honor and reporting that he was receiving death threats because of the criticism. “Every person makes jokes they thought were funny but in the end they weren’t,” he wrote.

“The difference between me and all the people who comment on me, threaten me with death, call me names, hate, spam my pages with the most disgusting messages is

Israel per capita deaths from the coronavirus surpass US

Israel’s daily number of deaths from the coronavirus is higher than the United States on a per capita basis, according to a new report.

Israel’s daily rate over the last week has been an average of 3.5 deaths per million people.

The U.S. rate was 2.2 deaths per million.

The report was published by the Coronavirus Information and Knowledge Center, a task force formed by the Israel army’s military intelligence with cooperation from the Health Ministry, according to Israeli media reports.

Israel also has a higher infection and mortality rate per million people than the United States, France, Britain, Italy, Austria and South Korea, Haaretz reported, citing the report.

The Ministry of Health reported 1,507 deaths overall from the coronavirus as of last week.

Health Minister Yuli Edelstein told the Kan national broadcaster that there is “no chance” that the new lockdown recently imposed in Israel will be lifted at the end of the Sukkot holiday on Oct. 11.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu echoed the remarks, saying on Facebook Live that “the closure will last a month and maybe much longer. Targets and indices have been set and they will dictate how long it will last.” PJC

helping you plan for what matters the most

3 YEARS FREE print edition

27, 2019

| 29 Kislev

5780

Candlelight

THY

NOTEWOR

LOCAL look back rabbis Female

onicle.org rghjewishchr 52 | pittsbu

J focuses cial UR clusion or’: Finan on in nearly po 2019 ‘Poor or affects almost rgh during bu ity tts bil ennial Pi sta Bi in of Jewish a quarter ing 4:42

December

alah 5:46 p.m. | Havd

p.m. | Vol.

62, No.

| Staff Writer

Rullo Jews from 5,000 Reform gathered ore than America gh 15 across NorthDec. 11 throu ial. go Bienn in Chica Judaism’s several of Reform s from for the Unions and lay leader ns, including Professional rgh congregatio e David, Pittsbu n, Templ e Reform Congregatio and Templ Rodef Shalom uel of South Hills m Eman g. f Shalo Temple the meetin Bisno, of Rodef at Rode ed . rs leade Sinai, attend to Rabbi Aaron the “tremenat the pulpit Spiritual ated According on 27 years ial illustr enthusiasm reflect the Bienn Page 2 ment and Shalom, liberal, t of excite ion for the dous amoun g the direct enter, now, about findinJudaism as we y.” progressive e of the 21st centur ing theme LOCAL style a recurr engage third decad interfaith d out that we can Holidays, Bisno pointe included “how there g that were we of the meetin tion … those How do genera our not there. the next that were are now part of ” and those and cases? sky people that in some Lubow individuals reach the by generations years in among provided by Aviva two ies Photo mic realit community, ial occurs every featured of econo in the East year’s event Pritzker, The Bienn diversity unity. who live J.B. city. This of Jewish is a great Bonnie, rah different Illinois Gov. There the Jewish comm S one-quarter insecu- a Alan and including r, histor ian Debo in mic joined among the Israel speakers families L’Simcha End, are rs who face econo young and Writer Jodi Kantoamba ssador to Life*Or author Rabbi both celebration | Senior Staff r urghe g ent are for nick Tree of e forme Pittsb Presid at Episcopal and Bonni ican-born, defyinof Lipsta dt,

By Toby Tabach e* wish and URJ Calvary and Shabb r Bonni rity. Alan Amer type Shapiro Page 3 worship his partne rely on governon stereo while Daniel ns that s; daily a comm lan* and to ng sessio Rick Jacob Jew. And not have 125 learni pment, memberthe poor found Jewish they did es; and nce to t, early unity a servic leadership develo they have ment assista couple d ing comm developmen social throu gh L covere and Study last ction LOCA in a they ement tion and but the conne rough survive, the fourth ship engag and youth educa center here, matters This is have been Chabad exploring ood Money tive of years rthodox. series, choice. far childh leadership. have no Hills Execu the 10-part are non-O 2017 shame and they are also justice of the that uel of South a lot of tted They Many Jewish the data “I have Temple Eman Hoffman noted ming the alone . admi Pittsburgh Leslie rs are welco from through Greater tor urghe how ties. and guilt,” who previDirec Study unity showcased to Jews of all identi Jewish Pittsb finan cially, sents.

Comm own Alan, 34, is Biennial all those le it repre ran his urgh. strug gling to the 2017 movement among the peop ent ously Reform in Pittsb ntly you’re there, all those differ Jewish according “When face busin ess Pittsburgh e from erent the are curreassisGreater free ent peopl ed by the how diff “We introduces Pittsburgh.” commissionPittsburgh differ ns, you realize medical of Loan e ing Study, Free ance, er receiv is outsid locatio not only Hebrew of Great Judaism ing.

Community food assist WIC includes Brandeis al coach tance , born this Jewish Federation researchers at Jewish of Reform ing face now ue to be the base nce and financi ter was Page 5 local That chang who contin cted by down daugh utility assista of ny our condu 25% — compa and to cover Ashkenazi Jews, In fact, assistance had to close my savings page 15 I University. sufficient ses; 13% cannot see URJ, past June. same time.”

Please Alan and households lack by expen run the living d ss in s of aroun e side busineshut down as well - three month page 4 A creativ to be see Poor, lly tumul 29, had Please our financia been a Bonnie, “It’s ly due to 2018 “most al lives,” he said. tuous personcouple of years.”

ART challenging eye on

By David

M

A

Renew Today!

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.

$1.50

keep your

nicle JewishChro Pittsburgh LOCAL

LOCAL re adventu Antarctic Holiday

‘Stones

and Roses’

www.marks-law.com

We help families understand the strategies, the benefits, and risks involved with elder law, disability and estate planning.

412-421-8944 4231 Murray Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15217

card magic

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

Complete the form and mail or call 410.902.2308

;

Renew my FREE 3 YEAR subscription to the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle.*

leslie@marks-law.com

Did You Know?

Steinfeld Cemetery– New Brighton, Beaver County

Name (Please print) Signature

Date

* Signature and date required to be valid by the US Postal Service. Restrictions apply.

Address City Phone

Leslie A. Dutchcot, Esq.

State

For more information about the JCBA, to inquire about plot purchases, to view full histories, to volunteer, and/or to make a contribution please visit our website at www.jcbapgh.org, email us at jcbapgh@gmail.com or call the JCBA 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

Zip

Email

Residents eligible to receive the free three years subscription must live in the city of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County or the five surrounding counties.

Raphael Steinfield was the pioneer Jewish resident of New Brighton. In 1864, he and others established the Tree of Life Synagogue in Beaver Falls. He also donated the land for the Tree of Life Cemetery. The majority of the burials are members of his family and occurred between 1888 and 1919. By the late 1980s, the Steinfeld Cemetery had fallen into disrepair, and a group from Beaver Falls, working with a committee of the United Jewish Federation in Pittsburgh, assumed responsibility for maintaining it. In 1997, JCBA acquired the cemetery through the board leadership of William Stark and Louis Zeiden. It is included in a “History of Beaver County” by Reverend Joseph Bausman, and is located in the Marion Hill section of New Brighton.

Mail to: Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle | 5915 Beacon Street, 5th Floor, Pittsburgh, PA 15217

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

OCTOBER 2, 2020 9

Opinion Getting ethnic studies right — EDITORIAL —

C

alifornia’s Gov. Gavin Newsom is expected to sign into law Assembly Bill 331 this week, which will require public high schools to offer an ethnic studies course by 2025, and to begin making the course a requirement to graduate by 2029.

While the innovative educational effort is commendable, there are particular issues of concern to many groups, including the American Jewish community.

Critics of the proposed ethnic studies curriculum argue that at its core it is a far-left, highly ideologized narrative, dividing the world into two distinct camps: the oppressors and the oppressed. The curriculum, critics say, does not focus on teaching about the richness and complexities of various ethnic groups or their historical struggles.

It does not promote cultural understanding.

Instead, it creates divisiveness. Not surprisingly, Jews are cast as oppressors.

Last year, California’s department of

education rejected the first draft of the proposed ethnic studies curriculum. Among the more vocal critics of the draft was the California Legislative Jewish Caucus, which claimed the proposed curriculum effectively erased the American Jewish experience, omitted material on the issue of anti-Semitism, denigrated Jews and singled out Israel for condemnation. Critics also charged that the curriculum included an anti-Semitic trope and an anti-Israel lesson plan explaining the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.

It’s not just the California Jews who are upset at the content of the proposed curriculum. Several other ethnic groups in California are also upset, and have joined with the local Jewish community in an informal alliance to try to get the proposed curriculum modified. Some of these other ethnic groups say that their history has been distorted to fit the anti-Western, pro-Marxist revolutionary ideology of the authors, while others note that they have been omitted from the curriculum altogether.

The caucus worked with the department of education to redesign the curriculum, and a new proposal is now being considered by the state’s Instructional Quality Commission.

While the new curriculum is seen as a significant improvement, critics are still concerned that it has anti-Semitic components, and fails to describe the full historic and cultural scope of American Jewry.

The California Jewish community has been unified in its effort on this issue, and is currently lobbying for four reasonable changes to the model curriculum and its process: proper description of the Jewish American experience and teachings about anti-Semitism; ensuring that denigrating content about Jews and Israel, including support for BDS, is removed; inclusion of sample lessons reflecting the diversity of Jewish Americans; and a recommitment to transparency and the proper processes for the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum.

Critics of the model curriculum’s Jewish content argue that drafters appear to lack an understanding of what

American Jews are. According to Tyler Gregory, the executive director of the San Francisco JCRC, “The Department of Education doesn’t understand that Jews are an ethnic group. They’re looking at us like a religious group. And of course, we’re not just a religious group. And there are many ethnic-based hate crimes against the Jewish community as well. So they don’t understand us, which is ironic, because that’s the whole point about putting the Jewish community in, so that people understand Jewish identity.”

Ethnic studies programs can promote pride, broaden understanding and be a means of weaving Americans from disparate backgrounds together. They should enable students to see themselves and their classmates as actors in the broader American experience — a particularly important objective as America continues to move toward becoming a majority-minority country. We hope that California will ultimately serve as a model of how to create such a program. For now, it has some work to do. PJC

Diplomacy built Israeli-Arab peace.

The private sector will sustain it.

Guest Columnist

Dana Stroul

L

ess than 100 years after Israel’s founding as the homeland for the Jewish people in 1948, the “ArabIsraeli conflict” appears to be winding down. The Sept. 15 White House ceremony celebrating a peace treaty between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, and a peace declaration between Israel and Bahrain, marks another advance in Israel’s regional integration. It also delinks resolution of Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians and the creation of an independent Palestinian state from the broader question of its acceptance by the rest of the Arab world.

As the normalization train moves forward, the most pressing question is when, not if, another country jumps aboard.

Though the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains unresolved, the promise of a warm peace among Israeli, Emirati and Bahraini citizens and businesspeople has the potential to change the region in profound ways by demonstrating the tangible, real-world benefits of people-to-people ties and cooperation.

The Bahrain and UAE agreements mark the third and fourth Arab governments to normalize relations with Israel. Egypt made peace in 1979 and Jordan in 1994.

But there are profound differences from what was negotiated with two countries that fought Israel on the battlefield. For the UAE and Bahrain, there are no territorial exchanges required or historical baggage to

10 OCTOBER 2, 2020

overcome. Moreover, the accelerated timeline from summer announcement to fall signing ceremony underscores the expansive relationships between Israeli and Arab countries already developing for decades out of public view.

Though the United States played a critical facilitation role, the architecture for normalized relationships well predates 2020. Two major regional security trends prompted unofficial ties between Israel and countries in the Middle East years ago.

First, alarm at Iranian nuclear ambitions and support for terrorist groups throughout the region. Second, fear of Islamism in both its violent extremist form such as al-Qaida and ISIS, but also its social-political form most recently manifested in Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated parties in Egypt and Turkey. This shared view of regional threats opened opportunities for cooperation in the security and intelligence sectors, and also relationship building.

Building on the foundation of security collaboration, Israel and Gulf governments and private sectors were already testing the waters of expanded engagement.

Oil-dependent Arab governments, recognizing the urgent need for economic diversification, desire access to Israeli know-how in technology, alternative energy, irrigation and desert agriculture, health care and science. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated these trends with specific interest in medical sector collaboration.

Israeli-Arab cultural engagements were also already accelerating. In 2018 an Israeli judo team, and in February 2020 an Israeli cycling team, competed in the UAE. Israel was invited to present a booth at the

Dubai World Expo 2020, now postponed until 2021. Planning for an Israeli team at the World Cup 2022 hosted in Qatar is underway, including Israeli spectators.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Oman in 2018, and thousands of Moroccans and Israeli tourists visit each other’s countries every year.

The texts signed at the White House are noteworthy for their future-oriented vision of partnership and mutual benefit. Israel, the UAE and Bahrain must now focus on the practical steps required to scale up relations — civil aviation agreements, banking relationships, navigating each other’s private sectors, and preparing hotels and tourism sites to receive new groups of foreigner visitors.

Other governments in the region are watching closely as they consider bringing their own relationships with Israel out from under the table. How tangible are the economic benefits? Can the Emirati and Bahraini models be replicated to effectively prepare citizens for interaction in this refreshed strategic milieu?

To be sure, these important normalization agreements do not augur a new Middle East or remove the most pressing threats to Israel, especially on its borders. The regime in Iran continues its pursuit of a nuclear weapon and its support for a terrorist threat network.

Lebanese Hezbollah remains entrenched with its missile arsenal on Israel’s northern border. Also in the north, a civil war rages on in Syria with dictator Bashar al-Assad working hand in hand with Iran and Hezbollah. An active ISIS affiliate retains the ability to launch lethal attacks in Sinai on Israeli’s southern border.

To the east, the fragile yet obstinate

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Palestinian Authority continues to muddle through in the West Bank. And to the west, Hamas retains control of the Gaza Strip, using the area to launch explosive balloons and rockets at Israeli population centers as recently as the same day as the White House ceremony.

Going forward, the U.S.-Israel relationship will mostly remain unchanged. Despite criticism from certain members of Congress directed at specific Israeli government policies, the ironclad commitment to Israel’s security will hold fast. The long-standing U.S. priority to improve relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors will continue. This is a matter not just of national security — coordinating counter-Iran and counterterrorism policies — but also of interest in ensuring that Israel is able to thrive as the Jewish and democratic state. Both the Trump administration and the Biden campaign pledged to continue the important work of normalizing ties between Israel and its neighbors in the region.

What remains elusive, however, is a viable peace process between Israel and the Palestinians that leads to two states. Indeed, bipartisan resolutions lauding the UAE and Bahrain normalization agreements — in the House of Representatives and the Senate — highlighted the long-standing U.S. priority to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict so that both peoples are ultimately able to live side by side in peace and security. PJC Dana Stroul is the Shelly and Michael Kassen senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Previously, she covered the Middle East on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Opinion Ruth Bader Ginsburg balanced being American and Jewish — her delayed funeral is no exception Guest Columnist Jonathan D. Sarna

A

s news of the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg spread on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, a common question heard in discussions among American Jews was “When will she be buried?”

As a longtime scholar of American Jewish

life, I understood that the question behind that question was whether, in death, Justice Ginsburg’s family would comply with longstanding Jewish tradition that mandates prompt burial. Or, in accordance with longstanding American tradition, would her burial be delayed so that mourners might pay her respects?

In death, as in life, American Jews looked to see how Justice Ginsburg balanced being an American and being a Jew.

Dust returns to the earth

To honor the dead, Orthodox Jews perform

— LETTERS — Be lenient in judgment of others

In the article about Rabbi Moishe Mayir Vogel’s work at the Aleph Institute with Jewish prisoners (“A person cannot be ‘canceled’: Aleph Institute’s Rabbi Vogel on forgiveness,” Sept.

25), Rabbi Vogel counsels us: “We‘re fallible, we make mistakes. … Anyone can do teshuva …. We take an accounting … did we do right, and if not … where can we improve.” This was such an appropriate message to read in the Chronicle a few days before Yom Kippur. Our sages have taught that on Yom Kippur G-d judges us according to how we judge others. If we are lenient with our judgment of others, G-d is lenient with his judgment of us.

Simone Shapiro Squirrel Hill

Theme of teshuva in ‘Field of Dreams’

I enjoyed David Rullo’s article “Your COVID-19 High Holiday season movie guide” (Sept. 18), but I believe he missed mentioning a beautiful and excellent movie. This movie is not Jewish in an obvious manner (think Hashem being hidden in Megillah Esther). This movie, however, is totally appropriate for the High Holidays because its underlying theme is essentially about teshuva.

That movie is “Field of Dreams” (1989). Those familiar with this movie understand that once the baseball themes are stripped away, it is really about the main protagonist performing an incredible act of teshuva for the pain he caused his father. (Is it Hashem who is prompting him along the path back?) If you have not thought about the aspect of teshuva in this movie, please do so. It is beautiful movie about a beautiful trail back to his father.

Harve Linder Atlanta, Georgia

burials as quickly as possible, sometimes within just a few hours.

That’s not always possible, of course.

Funerals can be delayed when the death falls on the Sabbath — a day of rest in the Jewish faith when no burials are performed — or on a Jewish holiday. They can also be delayed to accommodate the needs and considerations of close relatives traveling in from afar.

The practice of burying Jews swiftly is so deeply ingrained, however, that in 1995, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was far from Orthodox and whose funeral was attended by leaders who rushed in from

around the world, had his funeral performed and was buried within just two days of his assassination.

If Justice Ginsburg’s family did not follow Jewish tradition by delaying her burial, in other respects they honored that tradition to the hilt. For example, the wooden casket lying in repose at the Supreme Court and in state at the Capitol remained firmly shut. And in keeping with Jewish practice, there was no public viewing of her body and, apparently, no embalming. Far from Please see Sarna, page 13

My question to you as a Jew: Do you not care about justice? Do you not care that Trump has divided our nation more than any other president in the history of the U.S.?

Marlene Marcus Pittsburgh

Harris or Pence?

The last line of Barbara Burns’ letter in the Sept. 25 Chronicle asks: “Are you prepared to have Kamala Harris as your president?” I ask her: “Are you prepared to have the Christian conservative Mike Pence as your president?”

Janet Markel Pittsburgh

Dismay at Jews supporting Trump

As I struggle to find the sweetness in 5781, I’m grateful my beloved parents, of blessed memory, are not alive to witness some of their fellow Jews supporting Trump. My father, who was so proud of Jewish intellect and accomplishment. My mother, who lost her whole family because people voted for Hitler in 1933. When another white supremacist megalomaniac extols the genetic makeup of a mob of mostly Scandinavian descent, when he turns the U.S. Attorney General into his own personal attorney, when he drains our collective coffers to make the über-rich wealthier, when he invites and covers up foreign interference in our elections, when he hands the U.S. Postal Service over to a Republican fundraiser bent on dismantling it, when he deliberately corrupts even the institutions tasked with saving us from a virus he’s repeatedly lied about and catastrophically mishandles… But there’s no point in going on. Some of my fellow Jews don’t care. You wear Trump 2020 on your yarmulkes, apparently believing that supporting a serial adulterer, liar, grifter, and cheat who believes he’s part of a master race can be reconciled with obedience to the Master of the Universe.

I don’t know how I can forgive you.

Michele Feingold Pittsburgh

Trump’s actions for Israel do not outweigh harm to US

As a Jewish American who identifies as a Democrat, I feel compelled to explain to letter writer Barbara Berns why for me an end to the Trump administration is critical.

I care a great deal about Israel, but this is my country. Even accepting the premise that moving the American embassy to Jerusalem and the agreements (not peace treaties, because there never was a war) with the UAE and Bahrain were beneficial to Israel, how can these moves outweigh the harm Donald Trump has done to the United States?

Where to begin? Mishandling and making light of the COVID-19 pandemic? Withdrawal from the WHO at this moment when worldwide cooperation is so important? Denial of the need to address climate change and withdrawal from the Paris accords? Regarding immigrants and asylum seekers as sub-human? Caging their children? Working to end the Affordable Care Act? Praising and admiring dictators? Planting doubt about the validity of the upcoming election?

There is no need to debate whether President Trump made the alleged disparaging remarks about our military heroes. He has made enough disgusting remarks which are recorded.

The events at Charlottesville when marchers chanted “Jews will not replace us,” and our president said there were good people on both sides, should tell Jewish Americans what Donald Trump thinks of us.

Barbara M. Grossman Squirrel Hill

Ready for Harris

Yes, Barbara B. Berns, I am ready to have Kamala Harris be our president. If Joe Biden is elected (please God) and something happens to him (God forbid), I would be more than happy to have Kamala Harris as our president. Trump is a liar, cheat and racist who cheated on all of his wives. He makes fun of people with disabilities and sides with the white supremacists. He is dividing our nation more than any other president in the history of the U.S. He is now saying if he does not win he will not leave the office because of mail-in ballots.

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

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:

Website address:

letters@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

Address & Fax: Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle 5915 Beacon St., 5th Flr., Pittsburgh, PA 15217

Fax 412-521-0154

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

OCTOBER 2, 2020 11

Headlines Volunteerism: Continued from page 1

because of her work with Aleph and the influence of Rabbi Moishe Vogel, the executive director of the institute’s northeast region.

“I think volunteering has definitely helped my journey,” Holmes said. “There is a great deal of information you have to learn, and I get frustrated when I can’t remember every detail, but when I get out in the community and actually work with someone to perform a mitzvah, then I feel connected to Judaism again and that helps me to continue the process.”

Holmes, a project coordinator at the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy, worked with Aleph’s Dorothy Program, visiting patients in state hospitals, long-term medical facilities, nursing homes and those confined in private homes. Because of the pandemic, she hasn’t been able to visit patients so she’s been helping with other tasks, such as distributing groceries and food donated as part of Aleph’s partnership with the 412 Food Rescue, and delivering clothing to the National Council for Jewish Women. Holmes said she hopes to eventually assume leadership positions for the causes she supports, a trend shared by 15% of Pittsburgh’s Jewish population, according to the Community Study.

South Hills native and Reed Smith attorney Max Louik joined the board of directors at the Midwife Center for Birth & Women’s Health earlier this year. Prior to his involvement, the center did not have a lawyer on its board, he said. He feels strongly about the organization’s mission, partially because of the experience he and his wife, Kate, had during the birth of their two daughters.

Louik also serves as co-chair of Temple Emanuel of South Hills’ LGBTQ+ Committee, which is transitioning to the Reform congregation’s Diversity Inclusion Committee. And, at work, Louik participates in his firm’s Name Change Project, which provides pro bono legal name change services to low-income, transgender, gender nonconforming and nonbinary individuals.

“I believe that volunteering, giving of your time in these type of endeavors, is a mitzvah,” he said, “and certainly informed by the Jewish moral and ethical teachings of my parents, community and congregation.”

Louik believes it is important for Jews to give of their time to both secular and Jewish causes.

“I’ve never approached it from the perspective of ‘I should be doing some things Jewish and some things secular’ but it is important, I suppose, to show that Jews, consistent with our moral values, do more than serve their own communities,” he said.

Since his graduation from Brandeis University, Louik has volunteered for and helped lead a variety of organizations including South Hills Jewish Pittsburgh, where he served on the board, and AmeriCorps.

About 28% of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community volunteers with a non-Jewish organization.

Volunteerism is over-represented in Pittsburgh’s Jewish community when compared to the rest of the country.

According to the Corporation for National & Community Service, 29% of Pittsburgh residents volunteer, ranking 16th in the 12 OCTOBER 2, 2020

“ Volunteering is an excellent example of one of the ways someone can express their Judaism or feel connected to Judaism,

”

outside of ritual observance.

— RAIMY RUBIN top 51 metropolitan areas measured. The Pittsburgh Jewish community edged out the top-ranking metro area, Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, Minnesota/Wisconsin, 39% to 37%.

Volunteering can be an expression of one’s Jewish identity, according to Raimy Rubin, the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s manager of impact measurement.

“Volunteering is an excellent example of one of the ways someone can express their Judaism or feel connected to Judaism, outside of ritual observance,” he said.

The Community Study categorizes the Pittsburgh Jewish community into five overarching patterns of Jewish behavior based on responses to a broad range of questions. Those categories are: “immersed,” “connected,” “involved,” “holiday” and” minimally involved.” Volunteering for Jewish causes coincides with engagement: 41% of those identified as “immersed” and 33% of those identified as “connected” volunteered for Jewish organizations during the month studied in the survey; conversely, only 1% of those “minimally involved” did so.

For Rubin, that makes sense.

“When you’re in that ‘immersed’ category, very often your life is enmeshed in the Jewish community,” he explained. “Whether you’re spending your time in a synagogue or at your kid’s day school, that’s where your social circle is. That’s where your extracurricular life is outside of work. So, in many ways, that’s your ecosystem and where you want to give back and volunteer your time.”

For Cindy Goodman-Leib, professional and volunteer activities overlap. The executive director of the Jewish Assistance Fund has volunteered for a variety of Jewish organizations including the Federation’s Community Relations Council, where she served as board chair. She would be considered “immersed” according to the Community Study.

Goodman-Leib, who lives in Squirrel Hill, has volunteered with the Anti-Defamation League and 2 For Seder. Her belief in tikkun olam also has been reflected in the time she has given to secular organizations such as the Center for Victims, Reading is Fundamental and Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto’s Education and Neighborhood Reinvestment Transition Team.

Goodman-Leib traces her desire to stand up for the marginalized — Jewish and non-Jewish alike — to an event that occurred in her affluent, Philadelphia high school: A minority teammate was threatened with a knife by another student.

“Somebody had made it very clear she wasn’t supposed to be there,” recalled Goodman-Leib. “That was the first opportunity I had to be fully present with somebody.

I couldn’t take away the pain and fear she felt but I could be there with her. And that was my introduction to racial justice.”

Goodman-Leib is a member of Beth Shalom Congregation and has served on the Conservative synagogue’s board of directors.

She was recently named the board chair for Hillel at the Klehr Center for Jewish Life at Franklin & Marshall College and serves as a board member for the Meanings of October 27, an oral history documenting reflections from the 2018 shooting at the Tree of Life building.

“I believe in the power of presence and the power of relationships and the inclination people have to be connected and part of a community,” she said. “So, when something happens and you wake up and start your day and you wonder what to do about the feelings you’re feeling, volunteering provides people an opportunity to do something meaningful and make a difference in the world. I’m motivated to volunteer because of how much I’ve gained in my life.”

South Hills resident Bob Silverman is the immediate past chair of the CRC, taking the role after Goodman-Leib’s tenure. The Pittsburgh native led the board during the Oct. 27 Tree of Life building massacre and through the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd. His CRC work included forging and maintaining relationships with communities outside of the Jewish sphere.

“The Muslim community, the Hindu community, certainly the Black community,” he said. “We would partner with these various communities to show our support.”

Silverman is part of the 50-64 age demographic, which, along with the 35-49 group, is most likely to take leadership roles in Jewish organizations. As a member of Beth El Congregation of the South Hills, he is also a Conservative Jew who, according to the study, have the highest level of volunteering in leadership roles.

Silverman has worked to instill the importance of volunteering to his sons, ages 18, 23 and 25. His youngest son is helping register voters for the upcoming elections.

“I feel that the Jewish religion certainly talks about tikkun olam and welcoming the stranger into your home,” Silverman said.

“There are many aspects of Judaism that talk about giving and looking outside of your own self, there’s a lot of messages there. I feel that it is a very strong aspect of Judaism.”

Nina Butler runs Bikur Cholim, a grassroots nonprofit that assists patients and their families who wish to observe Jewish traditions while being treated in area hospitals. A member of Squirrel Hill’s Orthodox community, Butler also devotes some of her time to chair the Arc of Greater Pittsburgh, a division of Achieva, which empowers and supports

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

people with disabilities and families.

As an Orthodox Jew, Butler’s volunteerism in secular organizations is relatively uncommon. The Community Study reports that while 32% of Pittsburgh’s Orthodox Jews volunteer, only 10% devote time to non-Jewish causes.

A guiding principle in Butler’s work, she said, is “am echad” — one people responsible for one another — and she understands the needs of families caring for a sick member.

Her son suffered from cystic fibrosis and passed away in 2004.

“We practically lived in the hospital,” she said. “Receiving is so difficult, but we were so broken. My volunteering to assist people with sick family members won’t bring my son back but the knowledge I acquired over those 24 years is now serving a positive purpose.”

Butler also has volunteered with JFCS, Congregation Poale Zedeck and the Special Needs Task Force at the University of Pittsburgh, serving at one time on all of those organizations’ boards.

Chris Hall, a member of Congregation Beth Shalom, believes it is possible to both support Israel and work to strengthen the local community through his synagogue membership.

“American Jews have a lot of things to worry about at home,” Hall said. “I would lump the pandemic and upcoming election into that. At the end of the day, Americans are capable of doing more than one thing at a time by dedicating our efforts to justice and safety and security in America while also thinking about what’s happening in Israel.”

Hall is the chair of Derekh, the Conservative congregation’s adult education program. The committee runs several hundred events every year. Hall finds most of his volunteer opportunities through Beth Shalom but also has been making phone calls leading up to the election.

One outside factor shaping volunteerism in the Pittsburgh Jewish community has been the COVID-19 pandemic. Until the virus forced the closure of businesses and activities, Julie Harris had not volunteered.

The New Light Congregation member worked as a freelance musician with Chani Altein, co-director of Chabad of Squirrel Hill, playing music for the Sound of Jewish Music program, as a music teacher at Community Day School and did some private tutoring.

Once schools closed, the 59-year-old found herself with available time and reached out to Chabad to see how she could help. She now delivers Shabbat packages to Pittsburghers who are homebound.

“When everything shut down, I actually had the time to volunteer because there went all my gigs,” she said. “I had nothing but time on my hands. I wanted to do something with my day and continue with some structure.”

Taking a closer look at volunteerism, like other topics in the Community Study, helped create a larger portrait of Jewish Pittsburgh, noted the Federation’s Rubin.

“We group people into these categories that we manufacture, and the data tells us where each person falls,” he said. “Volunteering isn’t quite as strong an indicator of Jewish engagement as attending a Passover seder, but it is an indicator, and when you begin to group it with other traits it begins to paint a picture.” PJC David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Life & Culture Chickens on a plane: A Yom Kippur ritual is performed by air for Jews in locked-down Melbourne — RELIGION —

By Philissa Cramer | JTA

A

Melbourne, Australia, pilot took to the skies with three chickens Sunday to carry out a pre-Yom Kippur ritual that was otherwise off limits for that city’s locked-down Jews.

Kapparot, practiced by some Orthodox Jews, involves swinging a live chicken over one’s head three times and reciting a prayer to transfer sins to the bird. The chicken is then slaughtered and donated to the poor.

This year, with large gatherings off limits because of the coronavirus pandemic, those who practice the ritual have struggled with how to carry it out. A Brooklyn organization is offering to deliver chickens to people’s homes. (A picture in a New York Times story about low rates of mask-wearing in Brooklyn’s Orthodox neighborhoods showed a man holding a live chicken, with

Newman: Continued from page 4

said, “that’s when the professors decided that they wanted to oust her, they wanted to get her off campus. They didn’t like the fact that she was objecting to their propaganda.”

Point Park has denied all claims of wrongdoing contained in the complaint.

The university declined to comment for this article.

Ross maintains the claims against him in Newman’s complaint are false.

“I continue to stand in solidarity with those on the front lines of struggles against misogyny, racism, anti-Semitism, and other forms of exploitation and oppression,” Ross

Sarna: Continued from page 11

preserving the body, Jews believe, following the book of Ecclesiastes in the Hebrew Bible, that “the dust returns to the earth as it was” — the sooner the better.

A fitting rest

Justice Ginsburg also received, for the first time in American Jewish history, a traditional Jewish funeral in the Great Hall of the Supreme Court. Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt, a Conservative rabbi of Congregation Adas Israel in Washington, D.C., and a friend of Ginsburg’s whose husband once served as PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

p An airplane circled Melbourne Sunday for locked-down Jews who could not conduct the pre-Yom Kippur ritual of kapparot.

YouTube screenshot via JTA

down. So an enterprising philanthropist with access to an airplane decided to conduct a symbolic version above the heads of all of Melbourne’s Jews, by flying with chickens in circles over the city.

The hourlong, low-altitude flight was reported by the website Dan’s Deals, a popular budget travel site run by an Orthodox Jew who lives in Cleveland. The site showed the flight’s path over the city, with a dense set of circles over the city’s heavily Jewish neighborhoods, including Caulfield and St. Kilda.

According to Yeshiva World News, an Orthodox news service, the plane carried three chickens, two male and one female. It is traditional for men to swing male chickens and women to swing hens.

“I don’t think anyone here thinks they could be yoitze [having fulfilled one’s ritual obligation] with the fowl flyover,” a Melbourne resident wrote in a comment on Dan’s Deals. “But it was definitely a nice start to the day.” PJC

no explanation of why.) In Israel, where the government has imposed stringent rules meant to reduce sky-high COVID-19

infections, kapparot is among the permitted reasons for travel.

In Melbourne, the entire city is locked

wrote in a Sept. 24 email to the Chronicle.

“The allegations expressed in this lawsuit are not supported by any evidence or semblance of truth. They are, rather, an attempt to use anti-Palestinian sentiment to deflect blame for a professor’s inappropriate and traumatizing behavior toward a victim of sexual assault.”

For now, the case is on hold while Judge Mark Hornak of the Pennsylvania Western District Court deliberates on a motion to dismiss the case filed by Point Park. If Newman prevails on the motion to dismiss, the case will proceed into the discovery phase.

“We’re really hoping Lawfare brings great expertise in terms of dealing with the anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist

claims,” said Lieber.

The Lawfare Project, said Newman, is a welcome addition to her legal team.

“Combating anti-Semitism in general is as important to me as defending myself against it,” she said. “Lawfare joining the case shows that the case truly has national implications.”

Anti-Zionism in the form of classroom propaganda is a “systemic problem on campuses,” Reich said. “This is not unique.

Lots and lots of students all over the country are complaining that anti-Israel professors are using their classrooms and platforms to disseminate lies and propaganda about Israel and Zionism.” PJC

Cholera:

Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

the justice’s law clerk, presided alongside Chief Justice John Roberts.

The service included all the familiar components of a Jewish funeral including a stirring eulogy, recitation of the 23rd Psalm and the chanting, in Hebrew, of the late medieval prayer El Maleh Rachamim: “God full of mercy … grant fitting rest.” The prayer recited at Justice Ginsburg’s funeral included the justice’s full Hebrew name, Yita Ruchel bat Celia, which includes her mother’s name but untraditionally not her father’s.

Usually, burial in a Jewish cemetery follows immediately upon a Jewish funeral, individual mourners reverently accompanying the casket to wherever the cemetery is located. There, around the open grave, additional prayers

including a special kaddish, a praise of God, are recited and the casket is lowered.

Mourners and community members then personally participate in the powerful act of filling in the grave, shoveling a spadeful of dirt atop the casket, each thump reinforcing the finality that death represents.

In the case of Justice Ginsburg, that didn’t happen in a Jewish cemetery. Instead, after lying in state, her casket was transported to Arlington National Cemetery for a private burial service. Arlington, a national and nondenominational cemetery, has no special section set aside for Jews and explicitly forbids some traditional Jewish rituals such as manually lowering the casket and filling in the grave.

Two identities

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Continued from page 5

is excited to share the material with students.

When Rabbi Doniel Schon, associate dean of the Kollel Jewish Learning Center, asked Silver several weeks ago to submit an article for the organization’s High Holidays pamphlet, he wasn’t expecting the work to eventually show up in a Harvard Law School class, but its lessons apply broadly.

“This document shows historically what Jews did in this situation, and we always look for precedent,” he said. PJC

The traditional Jewish elements in Justice Ginsburg’s funeral and the departures from Jewish tradition connected with her burial both reflect aspects of her identity. She took great pride in her Jewish heritage but broke with most traditional Jewish practices.

In death, as in life, she cherished two identities — being an American and being a Jew — even when they failed to easily harmonize. Her Jewish funeral and Arlington National Cemetery burial speak to her quest to balance these two identities. PJC Jonathan D. Sarna is the Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University.

OCTOBER 2, 2020 13

Life & Culture

8QLYHUVLW\ RI 3LWWVEXUJK

-HZLVK 6WXGLHV 3URJUDP

Sukkot means soup season

)DOO (YHQWV :HGQHVGD\ 2FWREHU WK SP RQ =RRPb 'ZHOOLQJ LQ 7UDYHOOLQJ $ ILOP DERXW WKH -HZV RI &DOFXWWD 4 $ ZLWK 'LUHFWRU 6XEKD 'DV 0ROOLFN DQG DXWKRU -DHO 6LOOLPDQ

6XQGD\ 2FWREHU WK SP RQ =RRP

$QQXDO Î&#x2013;VUDHO +HULWDJH 5RRP /HFWXUH 6KWLVHO 'LUHFWRU &R &UHDWRU <HKRQDWDQ Î&#x2013;QGXUVN\ 7KH 0DNLQJ RI 6KWLVHO &R VSRQVRUHG ZLWK +LOOHO -8& DQG &KDEDG DW 3LWW

0RQGD\ 2FWREHU WK SP HYHQW RQ =RRP

%RRN /DXQFK E\ WKH .DW] &HQWHU IRU $GYDQFHG -XGDLF 6WXGLHV DW 8QLYHUVLW\ RI 3HQQV\OYDQLD IRU %RXQG LQ WKH %RQG RI /LIH 3LWWVEXUJK :ULWHUV 5HIOHFW RQ WKH 7UHH RI /LIH 7UDJHG\ (GLWHG E\ %HWK .LVVLOHII DQG (ULF /LGML (YHQW PRGHUDWHG E\ %HWK .LVVLOHII DQG 6WHYH :HLW]PDQ 3DQHO ZLWKb%DUDEDUD %XUVWLQ /DXULH (LVHQEHUJ $GDP 6KHDU

0RQGD\ 1RYHPEHU WK SP RQ =RRP 5HPHPEUDQFH RI .ULVWDOOQDFKW &R VSRQVRUHG ZLWK WKH 'HSDUWPHQW RI *HUPDQ

7XHVGD\ 1RYHPEHU WK SP RQ =RRP

/HFWXUH (SLGHPLF DQG WKH 0DUJLQDOL]HG RI 6RFLHW\ $ 9LHZ IURP WKH -HZLVK 3DVW 1DWDQ 0HLU 3RUWODQG 6WDWH 8QLYHUVLW\ &R VSRQVRUHG ZLWK WKH -DFN %XQFKHU &KDLU LQ -HZLVK 6WXGLHV DW WKH &DUQHJLH 0HOORQ 8QLYHUVLW\ 'HSDUWPHQW RI +LVWRU\

7R UHJLVWHU IRU WKHVH YLUWXDO HYHQWV SOHDVH YLVLW MHZLVKVWXGLHV SLWW HGX RU RXU )DFHERRN 3DJH 8QLYHUVLW\ RI 3LWWVEXUJK -HZLVK 6WXGLHV 3URJUDP

By Jessica Grann | Special to the Chronicle

T

he festival of Sukkot is the beginning of soup season at our home, and this is just the right recipe to serve over the holiday, in the sukkah. It is flavorful and chock-full of fresh end-of-summer vegetables. I use a time-saving shortcut by using store bought chicken broth and canned beans, but nobody is the wiser.

This recipe makes a big pot that serves eight people. If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re having a smaller crowd this year, thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s OK. Make this recipe as is, freeze half, and save yourself some time down the road. The addition of beef fry and fresh herbs makes for a complex flavor, but this soup is not heavy and is perfect for the early autumn season.

The recipe is easy: You just chop, sauté and stir until all of the ingredients are combined.

The vegetable measurements also donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to be exact. If you have fresh produce, and have a little more or a little less of my suggested amounts, just add it to the pot as is.

Tuscon white bean and vegetable soup Ingredients: 4 ounces beef fry (typically comes in 8-ounce packages) 3 cartons of store-bought chicken stock, 32 ounces each 1 15-ounce can cannellini beans 3 tablespoons olive oil 1 large yellow onion, about 3 cups diced 4-5 stalks celery, about 1.5 cups chopped 5 cloves garlic, sliced 1 large zucchini, about 2 cups sliced 3 large carrots, about 2 cups sliced 3 medium tomatoes, about 2 cups roughly chopped 2 big handfuls fresh spinach 1-2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, to your taste

Photos by Jessica Grann

&R VSRQVRUHG ZLWK WKH )LOP DQG 0HGLD 6WXGLHV 3URJUDP 6FUHHQVKRW $VLD DW WKH $VLDQ 6WXGLHV &HQWHU WKH -DFN %XQFKHU &KDLU LQ -HZLVK 6WXGLHV DW WKH &DUQHJLH 0HOORQ 8QLYHUVLW\ 'HSDUWPHQW RI +LVWRU\ DQG &ODVVURRPV :LWKRXW %RUGHUV

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; FOOD â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

3 strands fresh thyme 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt ½ teaspoon coarse ground black pepper

In a large stock pot heat the olive oil over medium heat, add the onion, and sauté for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the celery and sauté for 5 minutes. Next, add the beef fry and sauté for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally so that the meat does not stick to the bottom of your pot.

Add the sliced carrots, garlic and zucchini and sauté for an additional 5 minutes.

Adding the vegetables in this order, as opposed to all at once, keeps them firm and allows the individual flavors to come out.

Add the chopped tomatoes, herbs, salt and pepper and sauté for a few minutes more before adding the rinsed and drained cannellini beans and the chicken broth.

Bring to a moderate boil over medium heat and cook for 10 minutes, before turning the heat down to low.

Simmer, uncovered, for 45 minutes.

Remove the leftover thyme strands before serving into bowls.

An additional tip is to plug an electric crock pot into your sukkah, and serve the soup from there. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s much safer than carrying hot bowls in and out of your home. Enjoy this recipe and have a beautiful holiday!â&#x20AC;&#x201A; PJC Jessica Grann is a home chef living in Pittsburgh.

www.pittsburghjewishchronicle.org 14â&#x20AC;&#x192;OCTOBER 2, 2020

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Headlines ‘Tehran’ is a groundbreaking Israeli spy show about immigrant identity — STREAMING —

By Lior Zaltzman | JTA

I

t all started in 2014, with an email that arrived in Dana Eden’s inbox with the subject line: “Tehran.”

“I said to myself, ‘Oh my God, that’s an amazing title,’” said Eden. “That’s a show I would really want to see, I hope that what’s written inside will be as good as the title is.”

What was inside were three possible opening scenes to “Tehran,” a thriller about a young Israeli Mossad agent in Iran. Eden would go on to create the show for Israel’s KAN11 broadcaster along with Maor Cohen and Moshe Zonder, a head writer for the Israeli hit “Fauda.” The show debuted on KAN earlier this year and the first three episodes are available to global audiences on Apple TV+.

“Tehran” revolves around protagonist Tamar Rabinyan, a Mossad agent played by Niv Sultan. Rabinyan is in Iran for her first mission — to hack into an Iranian nuclear reactor and help facilitate an Israeli Air Force attack on the site. When her mission fails, Tamar is stuck in Iran with intelligence officers on her tail.

But while the spy story of “Tehran” is suspenseful and captivating, it’s the human aspect of the show, the way it explores the identity of Iranian immigrants to Israel and how they struggle to feel a sense of belonging, that is most compelling. Tamar immigrated with her family to Israel as a child and her Mossad operator is of Persian background as well.

Eden says “Tehran” tries to answer painful questions about Iranian Jews’ lived experience.

“What do you do when you immigrate from a country and your homeland becomes your enemy country?” Eden said. “Where is your home? Where is your loyalty? Where do you put yourself?”

Sultan learned Farsi for the show. She thought that as the daughter of an Arabicspeaking Moroccan immigrant, she could easily master the Iranian tongue. But Farsi took her by surprise.

“The pronunciation of Farsi is so different than Hebrew, or Arabic, I had really to change things in my mouth in order to say those words,” Sultan said.

The show is unparalleled in its production values for an Israeli series. The crew remodeled entire streets and houses in Athens to look like the Iranian capital. Iranian refugees flew in from all over Europe to take part as extras.

“We also had an Iranian immigrant into Israel, he was in charge of authenticity on set, that it will look Iranian and authentic,” said Eden, who like most Israelis has never been to Iran. “And also he was in charge of the language, [ensuring] that [the cast] speak Farsi in an authentic way.”

The cast features Navid Negahban, who has appeared in “Homeland,” “Legion,” and “Aladdin,” and Shaun Toub, who has been in “Homeland,” “Snowpiercer” and “Iron Man.”

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

p Niv Sultan as Tamir Rabinyan in “Tehran”

Photo courtesy of Apple TV+ via JTA

p Shaun Toub plays Faraz Kamali.

Photo courtesy of Apple TV+via JTA

Toub plays Faraz, a top Iranian intelligence agent who is the cat to Tamar’s mouse.

Toub is an Iranian Jew, but he said he didn’t draw on his personal experience for the role. “As an actor, I am blessed to say that I really approach a character in a way that I really take Shaun Toub, myself, out of it,” Toub said.

Still, he says Faraz was an incredible role to play. And he has been surprised by how many Iranians have enjoyed the show.

“I have been at the business for 33 years, and I’ve been waiting and hoping that that one day, there will be characters, as Persians and Iranians, that show [our] complexity as

humans, you know, as doctors, as engineers, and not just terrorists,” he said.

Sultan, a 28-year-old rising Israeli star, says she was also drawn to Tamar’s complex, flawed character.

“She’s not, you know, the cliche of another Mossad Israeli superhero saving the world,” Sultan said. “She’s a real person. She carries so many colors. And she’s so strong, physically and emotionally, but she’s also afraid and insecure and makes mistakes.”

Zonder said the story is only superficially about the war between the Mossad and the Iranian nuclear program. Its core is a tale of identity, immigration and family roots.

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

“The most moving reactions were from the people that families came from Iran,” Zonder said. “All of their lives, they were ashamed of their parents, and grandmother and grandfather, ashamed of their heritage. And after seeing the show, they become proud of it.”

He added: “And they’re ashamed of themselves — of being ashamed for all those years.”

At the end, Eden says, her message for Jewish audiences is “to be proud.”

“We’re all immigrants. And wherever your homeland is, be proud of it and feel connected to it. And don’t lose your roots.

Always feel Jewish. And don’t ignore your past. Embrace it,” she said. PJC OCTOBER 2, 2020 15

Life & Culture Michael Oren published a book of short stories.

He’s more worried about the future of literature than democracy.

— BOOKS —

By Ben Sales | JTA

Y

ou may know Michael Oren as a cable news commentator on Israel and the Middle East.

You may know him as the Israeli ambassador to the United States during Barack Obama’s first term, when he had the fraught task of managing a rocky AmericanIsraeli relationship, or later as a member of Israel’s Knesset. Perhaps you’re acquainted with Oren as the author of three bestselling history books.

What you may not have known is that he also writes fiction. At least I didn’t. I’ve interviewed Oren several times and read his nonfiction, and I had no idea that the American-born Israeli author and politician was a novelist and writer of short stories until this year.

Oren, 65, has just come out with his third work of fiction, a collection of short stories called “The Night Archer.” It’s a change from his better-known works, which were authoritative and deep Middle East histories or, in one case, a controversial diplomatic memoir.

“The Night Archer” spans historical eras and settings, sometimes crossing into fantasy.

16 OCTOBER 2, 2020

his name as a novelist?

“People want to pigeonhole somebody in a career path, say this guy’s a historian or this man’s a diplomat,” he said. “At the risk of wanting too much, I’d like to be known for myself. This is who I am, without characterizing it.”

Oren did say that publishing fiction feels liberating in an era when, as the cliche goes, the truth is often stranger. He wrote many of these p Michael Oren speaks at Bar-Ilan University in Israel in 2014.

Photo by Yoni Reif via JTA stories in the mornings during his term in Knesset, from 2015 to 2019, Many of the stories have nothing explicitly before heading to work as a member of a centrist party that no longer exists. Knesset to do with Judaism or Israel.

He’s been out of government service for members are not allowed to publish books more than a year following a decade spent while in office, so he had to hold onto the mostly as a public official. Oren lives not in stories until he left public service.

If anything, Oren said nonfiction has Jerusalem, Washington, D.C., or New York City, but in Jaffa, the ancient sister city to Tel become difficult to write in an era when Aviv. He still writes op-eds and comments facts are continually called into question. His on the news, but in a recent phone inter- gripe with the literary world, he said, is that view with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, he the published word has become too policed. sounded relatively relaxed amid the dismal Like other thinkers and writers who advoCOVID-19 news in Israel. cate a broad exchange of ideas and criticize a After this book, his next project is another supposed narrowing of the scope of acceptwork of fiction, a novel set in a Jewish suburb able discourse, Oren chafes at the notion that in the early 1970s, when he grew up. authors can only write novels based on their With success as a historian, ambassador personal experiences and identities.

“The lines have been blurred,” he said. and politician, is Oren now hoping to make

“I feel it more as a nonfiction writer, someone who’s trying to write, for example, op-eds. That makes it very difficult.”

He added, “Writing is about freedom, is about imagination. Today there is tremendous pressure to limit that freedom, to say you can only write about exactly who you are and nobody else, lest you be accused of, among other things, cultural appropriation.”

One thing he’s less stressed about, he said, is the current political situation — despite a renewed lockdown in Israel that has raised concerns over limits to the freedom of assembly and the turbulence surrounding the upcoming American presidential election.

“I think democracy is being challenged in many different ways; I don’t think it’s on the verge of collapse,” he said. “I think democratic institutions are stronger than that.”

He added, “I have a historical perspective that leads me to be calmer about these things. Where I am not calm is the threat from public opinion as it is driven by social media. In Israel and the United States, it’s not the government clamping down on artists, it’s social media, and that threat is very real.”

“The Night Archer” offers a rebuttal to the claim that authors can write only about who they are. The stories’ protagonists range

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Please see Oren, page 19

Restaurants

Taj Mahal INDIAN CUISINE 7795 McKnight Road Pittsburgh, PA 15237

412.364.1760

Italian Restaurant and Wine Bar

TajMahalinc.com

The Taj Mahal is Western PA’s finest Indian restaurant. Its numerous awards, designations, recognition (by no less than the Indian Embassy and delegation) and sheer volume of business, both in the restaurant and through its renowned catering, is evidence for that fact. They have also been featured in numerous cooking exhibitions, taste testings and even on television. From their incredible lunch buffet (served 7 days a week), to their dinner specialities and their exquisite classic catered weddings (oftentimes for more than a 1,000 guests), the Taj Mahal’s reputation and legacy has grown to incredible heights. So whether it’s lunch, dinner or a catered event, the Taj Mahal stands ready to serve you.

3473 Butler Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15201 412.586.4347 | sentirestaurant.com Free off street parking after 6:00PM

New Dumpling & Sushi House Chinese & Japanese Restaurant

GreenTree We are offering our limited 661 Andersen Drive • Foster Plazamenu, Building 7

family style menu and our weekend features.

15220 Call Pittsburgh, for details:Pa 412-921-1062

Phone 2 • Fax 412-921-1065 Phones 412-921-106 are answered Tuesday thru Saturday

11am till 7pm and pickup is from 2pm till 7pm.

Please check out ourLunch website and facebook page GreenTree

For private functions please contact Linda Sciubba OPEN FOR MOTHER’S DAY

Hours:

We are offering our limited 661 Andersen Drive • Foster Plazamenu, Building 7 family style menu and our weekend features.

Pa 15220 11:30AM-9:00PM Mon. 11:30AM-2:00PM Tues.-Fri. Call Pittsburgh, for details: 412-921-1062

Sat. 5:00PM-9:30PM Phone 2 • Fax 412-921-1065 Phones 412-921-106 are answered Tuesday thru Saturday

ALL DAY FREE DELIVERY ON ALL ORDERS OVER $10 TO LIMITED AREA. No calls for delivery any later than 1/2 hour before closing.

Serving both Chinese and Japanese lunch specials.

Hours MON. CLOSED | TUES., WED., THURS. & SUN. CLOSED AT 9:30 pm FRI. & SAT. CLOSED AT 10:30 pm Dim Sum served Fri., Sat. & Sun. from 11 am-3 pm

Great food! Great service! Great value!!

2138 Murray Ave. Squirrel Hill | Pittsburgh, PA 15217 (Between Phillips & Douglas)

11am till 7pm and pickup is from 2pm till 7pm.

Please check out ourLunch website and facebook page GreenTree

TEL: 412.422.4178 • 412.422.6427 • 412.422.9306

first

For private functions please contact Linda Sciubba OPEN FOR MOTHER’S DAY 661 Andersen Drive • Foster Plaza Building 7 Hours:

BE THE

Pittsburgh, Pa 15220 11:30AM-9:00PM Mon. 11:30AM-2:00PM Tues.-Fri. Sat. 5:00PM-9:30PM Phone 412-921-106 2 • Fax 412-921-1065 Lunch

For private functions please contact Linda Sciubba

Hours:

restaurant that

Mon. 11:30AM-2:00PM Tues.-Fri. 11:30AM-9:00PM Sat. 5:00PM-9:30PM

readers see on the

first friday of every month!

ADVERTISE IN THE RESTAURANT SECTION RESERVE YOUR SPACE no later than NOON FRIDAY. Contact Phil Durler, Senior Sales Associate 724-713-8874 • pdurler@pittburghjewishchronicle.org

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

OCTOBER 2, 2020 17

Headlines

Torah

Rabbis urge PA Jews to vote Pure water ‘Jewish values’

Rabbi Shimon Silver Sukkot I Leviticus 22:26 - 23:44

O

p Clockwise from top left: Rabbi Doris Dyen, Rabbi Jamie Gibson, Rabbi Seymour Rosenbloom, Deborah Lipstadt and Rabbi Joshua Runyan.

T

wo Pittsburgh rabbis, and a former editor-in-chief of the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, were panelists at a Sept. 24 Zoom program hosted by Back to Blue, an initiative of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party.

Reform Rabbi Jamie Gibson and Reconstructionist Rabbi Doris Dyen, both of Pittsburgh, and Orthodox Rabbi Joshua Runyan of Philadelphia, a former editorin-chief of the Chronicle, joined Jewish historian Deborah Lipstadt for the discussion

titled “Voting our Jewish Values.” Also on the panel was Conservative Rabbi Seymour Rosenbloom of Elkins Park, Pennsylvania.

During the one-hour discussion, each rabbi made the case for casting a vote for Joe Biden in the upcoming presidential election.

Other topics covered included anti-Semitism from both the political right and left, and the increase of public displays of religion in the U.S. PJC — Toby Tabachnick

THE BEST OF THE IN YOUR EMAIL INBOX ONCE A WEEK.

Sign up on the right hand side of our homepage.

www.pittsburghjewishchronicle.org 18 OCTOBER 2, 2020

n Sukkos, there is a special mitzvah called nisuch hamayim, pouring of the water. This is part of the temple service. Communal olos, burnt offerings, are brought daily. Additional olos are offered on Shabbos, Rosh Chodesh and yomim tovim.

Wine libations are poured on the altar with each olah, proportional to the animal type and the number of olos. On Sukkos, a water libation is poured together with the wine.

This mitzvah is not mentioned anywhere in the Torah. It is hinted in slight grammatical changes in the words used for libations in the various Sukkos offerings in Parhas Pinchas. Otherwise, it is purely Torah Sheb’al Peh, oral transmission. Why would this be the case? If it is indeed critical to the validity of the offerings, it should be stated explicitly!

Furthermore, while we have various ways to commemorate many aspects of temple service nowadays, we have nothing to commemorate nisuch hamayim. In temple times, there was much fanfare in the drawing of this water, the shoaivah. It was done with excessive joy and festivities, and some of that remains today in the form of simchas bais hashoaivah, celebratory gatherings during the nights of Sukkos.

However, the actual mitzvah of water libation has no distinct memorial. Other offerings are mentioned in the prayer services, in keeping with the term “uneshalma parim sefasainu (we shall make up for the bulls with our lips).” In musaf of Sukkos, we could mention in the excerpt “uminchasam veniskaihem … veyayin vemayim kenisko (with wine and with water according to its proportional libation),” but there is no such inclusion. Only wine is mentioned, as it is for every other yom tov. Why? In Parshas Vayikra the Torah describes bris melach, the covenant with salt. Every offering must be accompanied with salt.

On the second day of Creation, Hashem separated the upper waters from the lower waters. When the lower waters complained that they were being relegated, Hashem promised them that they would be used on the mizbaiach, the altar in the temple service.

This refers to salt with every mincha, meal offering, and nisuch hamayim on Sukkos. If salt is considered water, due to its water of crystallization, why is there a need for a separate nisuch hamayim? Salt is used every day!

Moreover, every day wine is used. Wine has water content, just like salt. Indeed, there is more water in wine than in salt crystals.

Blood is also thrown on the mizbaiach every day. Blood also has more water than does salt. (Blood even has some salt in it as well.)

In the Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 16a), Hashem tells Israel: “On Sukkos there is judgment on the water. Therefore, pour out water before Me [so I will give the water a favorable judgment]!” There are separate judgments for grain on Pesach and for trees on Shavuos. The whole world is judged on Rosh Hashanah. All these also require water for their survival. Why is the judgment of water not incorporated into these other judgments?

There must be a dedicated judgment on pure water. Water as is, having its own life and its own

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

identity. Many commentaries believe that water was the first item created. Earth was a ball of water. Water is a primary mineral from which everything else derived. But there is still water itself — lower waters and upper waters, rain, seas and rivers. There is a defined amount of water in Creation, that will never increase or decrease.

This is recycled and redistributed all the time.

Some goes into plant and animal life. Some is absorbed in minerals. Some is recycled in bodies of water. Some ice melts, and some water freezes.

What happens and where it happens is planned

by Hashem. The judgment on Sukkos is on this recycling and redistributing.

The Sefer HaChinuch mitzvah 173 (immersing in a mikveh or spring for ritual purification and cleansing) says the following: The simplest way to explain the immersion of the tamei, ritually defiled, is that one should think of himself or herself after the tevila as though he was created afresh at that moment.

As we know, the world was completely water before mankind existed as the verse says: “The Spirit of G-d was hovering over the face of the water …” (Beraishis 1:2).

Water is released by mankind in urination.

Washing hands with water is required after this. There is a brocha on this, asher yatzar.

Water is used to wash the hands first thing in the morning. This is also based on the concept of renewal every morning. There is a brocha on this as well.

The mitzvah and avoda service of nisuch hamayim seems to be easier and less significant than any other mitzvah. It requires taking plain water. It is poured on the mizbaiach. The mizbaiach is traditionally built on the spot from where Hashem took the earth to create Adam. Indeed, according to one version, this is where the entire Creation began, and expanded from here. A stone was taken from this spot and pushed in place in the Holy of Holies, where the holy ark would rest. That was the foundation stone of the universe.

The mizbaiach also represents going back to the beginning. Stones and earth are also very basic minerals. When there is judgment on the water, it, too, is renewed and refreshed.

Water is very common. There is no explicit mention of this mitzvah in the Torah. It is all Torah Sheb’al Peh. And there is nothing to commemorate the libation. It doesn’t even get a mention in musaf. It is as though Hashem is saying: “I’m asking something so minor and small of you, so that this judgment on something so critical should go well!” An offering that costs nothing, just drawing some pure water. Not like an animal, or even a flour offering. Certainly not as costly as an esrog!

The point is to understand that something so ubiquitous is only this way based on Hashem’s judgment. It should remain so ubiquitous, with a favorable judgment. It is a lesson for all service to Hashem. Every seemingly minor thing that might go unmentioned has critical far-reaching force. A jug of plain pure water, when used in service of Hashem, can change the world.

Think about that next time you wash hands in the morning, after relieving, or for a meal. All acts of service — with a jug of plain water! PJC Rabbi Shimon Silver is the spiritual leader of Young Israel of Greater Pittsburgh. This column is a service of the Vaad Harabanim of Greater Pittsburgh.

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Obituaries KAUFMAN: Marlene (Rofey) Kaufman.

Passed away on Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2020.

She was married to the love of her life, the late Marvin L. Kaufman. Daughter of the late Celia and Leonard Rofey. Loving mother of Jodi (Kaufman) and Guy Gabriel of Tucson, Arizona, Dana Mark Kaufman and Cheryl Kaufman, of Miami Beach, Florida. Adored Nana of Lindsay Kaufman of Miami, Florida and Spencer Kaufman of New York, New York. Sister of Rhoda Rofey of Pittsburgh and Paula (Rofey) and Dan Singer of Tucson, Arizona. Also survived by many loving nieces and nephews. Marlene will be sadly missed by her family and friends. Services and interment private.

Contributions may be made to the Makea-Wish Foundation, 707 Grant St., #3700, Pittsburgh, PA 15219. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family-owned and -operated. schugar.com LIEBERMAN: Eleanor “Hope” Lieberman, age 90 on Sept. 24, formerly from Johnstown, Pittsburgh and Coconut Creek, Florida.

Preceded in death by her devoted husband, Morris. She was the daughter of the late Oscar and Florence (Schwartz) Suchman and devoted sister to the late Isadore Suchman, Lillian (Hodes) and Zelma (Kaufman).

Mother of Steve (Suzy) and Wayne (Bridget).

Grandmother of Meric (Vanessa), Brianna and Kira Lieberman, and great-grandmother to Bradley, Morgan and Deborahann Ward. Survived by her sisters-in-law Faye Schwartz and Barbara Lieberman, and her many friends at Wynmoor and the Bridge.

Hope fought for her life daily; hit by a car as a child, the early loss of her husband, cancer, heart problems, dementia and finally COVID-19. She never gave up and always kept her rare sense of humor. Services and interment will be private. Contributions in Hope’s memory may be made to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 100 Raoul Wallenberg Pl. S.W., Washington, D.C. 20024. Arrangements entrusted to the Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family-owned and -operated. schugar.com

Oren: Continued from page 16

from an aide to a Spanish conquistador to a Protestant preacher’s wife to a pair of lesbian schoolteachers vacationing on a beach. (In a wink at readers, the teachers reminisce about a promising but mischievous former student named “Horenstein,” two letters away from Oren’s original last name, Bornstein.)

There are a handful of Jewish and Israeli stories in the mix, as well as others that speak to Oren’s background: In one, an aging and underappreciated Israeli archaeologist contemplates a dilemma. Another is told from the perspective of a bored teenager at an American Passover Seder, and another centers on a social-climbing couple in D.C. There’s one featuring an Israeli politician.

One story narrates the life of a Holocaust survivor with unkempt hair who became an iconic writer about the Shoah in America after a period living in France. Oren said that despite the similarities in biography PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

STEPT: Rosalie Gail (Weintraub) Stept, 83, lost her courageous battle with cancer and passed away peacefully at home on Sept. 26, 2020, in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

Born Jan. 14, 1937, in Pittsburgh to the late George and Anne (Dickman) Weintraub.

She is preceded in death by her devoted husband of 58 years, Alan Philip Stept. She is survived by beloved brothers Mort (Ellen) Weintraub of Williamsville, New York, and Richard (Micki) Weintraub of Boynton Beach, Florida, and sister-in-law Edythe Eisenburg of New York, New York. Beloved mother of five children and their spouses: Susan (Michael) Isard of Alexandria, Virginia, Steven (Camille) of Oakland, California, Sheldon of Hillsborough, New Jersey, Stanton (Sharon) of Germantown, Maryland, and Sharon Stept of Newport News, Virginia; beloved grandmother of seven grandchildren, Ashley, Melissa, Leslie, Zachary, Rebecca, Shayna and Jaden; and most recently born great-granddaughter Brittany Gail. Known since her youth by her middle name “Gail,” she was blessed to have many dear friends and was very active in the local community for 60 years. She was a member of Beth Shalom Temple, a life member of Hadassah whose vision is to strengthen a connection to Israel, bringing healing and justice to the world, and active in the Conemaugh Hospital Junior Auxiliary and Johnstown Symphony Auxiliary. An avid mahjong player, she enjoyed teaching others in recent years at Laurel View Village and the Johnstown Public Library. Her passion for sharing and helping others was often combined with her delight of cooking and baking. She loved strangers and friends equally and often stayed connected by sharing gifts of her world-class mandel bread or noodle kugel prepared with love and warmth. She had the gift of gab and a strong spirit that will remain in our hearts.

A graveside service was held Tuesday at Grandview Cemetery with Rabbi Irvin Brandwein officiating. John Henderson Co. is in charge of arrangements. henderson funeralhome.com PJC

and appearance, it is not about Elie Wiesel specifically, but rather “a composite of several Holocaust survivors I’ve known.”

Although they cover a broad spectrum of historical eras and settings, the stories share a motif of characters attempting to escape an oppressive situation — domestic unhappiness, a saintly public persona or the hostile estate of a foreign ruler.

Oren told JTA that he did not view his fiction writing as an escape from his public duties. He was glad to serve in those positions and to be able to write on his own time.

But now, after years of speaking for a prime minister or a party, he has written a book that, at its core, is about trying to escape the bonds that limit us.

“All human beings have secrets, and all people feel constrained in certain ways,” he said. “The major theme of the whole book is freedom and it’s about people seeking freedom, seeking liberation and learning that freedom itself is an objective to which you can strive, but it’s always going to be challenged.” PJC

Jewish Association on Aging gratefully acknowledges contributions from the following: A gift from …

In memory of …

A gift from …

In memory of …

Anonymous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Frieda Gelman Margolis Sylvia & Norman Elias . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kenneth C. Elias Sharon Knapp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Beloved Departed Mrs. Alvin Mundel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alvin Mundel Marc Rice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aaron Joel Schwartz Howard Zeiden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Louis Zeiden Howard Zeiden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Louis Zeiden

THIS WEEK’S YAHRZEITS — Sunday October 4: Esther Aronovitz, Jack Bergad, Cecilia Weis Bluestone, Frances Sylvia Brown, Ann Colker, Annette Klee, Charles Kovacs, Bernard S. Labbie, Fannie Lieberman Lawrence, Sadie Moldovan, Joseph Moskovitz, Samuel H. Richman, Louis M. Sachs, Aaron Joel Schwartz Monday October 5: Sylvia Auslander, Leo Berkowitz, Gilbert B. Cramer, Iris Cummings, Murray Feiler, Rose Fisher, Jack Hirsch, Joseph Louis Hochman, Rose Isaacson, Sophia Korsunsky, Sam Nadler, David Nathaniel Racusin, Walter Jacob Robins, Myer Shapiro, Ben Shrager Tuesday October 6: Ida M. Breman, Sam Chizeck, Judith Kochin Cohen, Lillie Levy, Shirley Watchman Loefsky, Selma Luterman, Selma Luterman, Esther Mallinger, Rose L. Miller, Sarah Mormanstein, Lena Newberg, Sadye Breman Novick, Rose Cohen Rattner, Mollie Robins, Joseph Scott Wednesday October 7: Allen A. Broudy, Fannie Sulkes Cohen, Shachny Grinberg, Jeanette Gross, Rebecca Herman, Anita Lois Hirsch, Pauline Klein, Paul G. Lazear, Clara M. Oberfield, Harry Pearl, Melvin N. Rosenfield, William Sable, Tillie Scott, Jacob Soffer, Samuel Supowitz, Louis Zeiden Thursday October 8: Harry Americus, Jacob Feigus, Ruth Klein Fischman, Harry Girson, Samuel W. Gould, Albert Halle, Samuel W. Jubelirer, Jacob Samuel Kuperstock, Jack H. Mar, Samuel Moskowitz, Nathan Osgood, Anna Paris, Eli J. Rose, Anna Rosenfeld, William Rosenstein, Bertram W. Roth, Cantor Harry P. Silversmith, Mary Cotler Weiner, Louis H. Zucker Friday October 9: Ismor Davidson, Goldine Lapidus, Rebecca Lederman, Belle B. Maharam, Esther Mankin, Isadore Nadler, Esther Pomerantz Silverman, Anne S. Slesinger, Evelyn Ziff Saturday October 10: Jeanette Berkman, Meyer Bernstein, Ben Cohen, Blanche S. Cohen, Leona Yorkin Dym, Warren G. Friedlander, Clara Goldstein, Meyer Haltman, Toba Markovitz, Edith Murstein, Fannie Scheinholtz, Yetta E. Segal, Moses Weinerman

PITTSBU RGH NEWEST ’S FUNERA L HOME

• Serving the Pittsburgh Jewish Community with Traditional Jewish funerals • Specially Developed Taharah Room with Mikva facilities for Chevra Kadisha • Accommodations for Shomer • Guaranteed advanced funeral planning LOCALLY OWNED and OPERATED

DEBORAH S. PRISE Licensed Jewish Funeral Director

1650 GREENTREE ROAD • PITTSBURGH, PA 15220 412.563.2800 • FAX 412.563.5347

SERVING Scott Twp., Greentree, Carnegie, Mt. Lebanon, Upper St. Clair and Bethel Park

www.pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

OCTOBER 2, 2020 19

Headlines Rosenblum: Continued from page 1

“He gave special, individual care to everyone and his dedication wasn’t just sitting in the class or teaching well,” Rosenfeld told the Chronicle. “It was, ‘Once a student, always a student.’ In the Chabad community, he was one of the elders and we looked up to him.”

Rosenblum, who served as principal of Yeshiva Schools in the 1980s, deeply understood Torah and often shared wise words about the subtler meanings of it. He also was an adept and engaging storyteller, friends said. He led by example; all three of his sons became rabbis.

“I don’t think he ever asked or encouraged us to go this particular route,” said his son Rabbi Yossi Rosenblum, who recently took over the top leadership spot at Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh. “He was, for us, a role model for how we wanted to be. We wanted to be like him.

“He recognized that in education you have to establish a connection with each kid as an individual,” Yossi Rosenblum, continued.

“He was brilliant. He knew the Chumash word for word and he had this ability to connect. He realized everyone was different and had to be treated that way.”

Many developed a deep respect for the rabbi. When his funeral procession went through Squirrel Hill en route to Montefiore Cemetery in Queens, New York, throngs of community members filled the streets.

Those who knew Rosenblum from Kether Torah, the Orthodox congregation where he served as rabbi beginning in the mid-1960s, about a decade after it moved from the Hill District to Squirrel Hill, echoed sentiments of respect and admiration.

“As a synagogue rabbi, he would just want people to be comfortable, even if it meant giving up something of himself,” said attorney Philip “Fishel” Milch, who attended Kether Torah and now is president of the Kollel Learning Center. “He tried to understand people where they were at. He was always more interested in making sure people were respected and comfortable.”

Milch said he was honored to have

p Rabbi Ephraim and Miriam Rosenblum at the bar mitzvah of their grandson Nochum Photo by Eliran Shkedi

Rosenblum as a teacher in the 1970s during his middle school years at the yeshiva.

“He was an excellent, excellent teacher,” said Milch. “He gave students a sense of the importance of study and a sense of his love for them.”

“When people typically begin describing something of great magnitude with the word ‘words can’t begin to describe’ or something of that sort, they are often telling on themselves that THEY lack the words,” Eli Nadoff,

another student of the rabbi, wrote in a letter to Rosenblum’s family. “It appears obvious to me that the art of language is insufficient as a medium to properly describe Rabbi Ephraim Rosenblum.”

At Kether Torah, week in and week out, a small and often casual group of observant Jews gathered alongside Rosenblum. The shul sometimes only had enough men for minyan on Shabbat and, during Shabbat services, people would even break into

Rosenblum’s sermon mid-sentence to ask questions, friends remembered.

Dr. Marc Rice was in his late teens when Rosenblum came to Pittsburgh and started leading Kether Torah. He said Rosenblum “really cared about people and even as a teenager, you could feel that.”

“When he would lead services, when you listened to that man daven, when you listened to him pray, it was the sound of a man having a conversation with God — you could hear how incredibly heartfelt it was,” said Rice, who grew up in Squirrel Hill and now lives in Fox Chapel.

Rice remembered that, during one Shabbat service, a man came from outside the congregation to beg for money.

Rosenblum not only didn’t kick the man out; he said the congregation would show him greater support if he came the following week during Purim, when supporting those in need is an even greater mitzvah. The man did, in fact, return.

“He wanted to make sure everyone could make tzedakah on Purim,” Rice said. “This is the kind of guy he was.”

In later years, when Rice was working at the former St. Francis Medical Center in Pittsburgh, Rosenblum would stop by Rice’s office, carefully close the door, and go through religious texts with him.

“That was just his thing — he just wanted to make sure I could get learning in,” Rice said. “I know there are a lot of good rabbis.

But this guy was so human, so loving of people. I almost feel now like I’ve lost my father again. He was such a special guy.”

“This was an exceptional person,” Rice continued. “I would say the only consolation is that his son Yossi is much like him.”

Rosenblum is survived by his wife, Miriam Rosenblum, and children, Fraidy Gurevitch of Crown Heights, New York; Rivky Raices of Skokie, Illinois; Rabbi Yossi Rosenblum of Pittsburgh; Chanie Baron of Columbia, Maryland; Rabbi Yehoshua Dovid Rosenblum of Caracas, Venezuela; Rabbi Mendy Rosenblum of Pittsburgh; and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. PJC Justin Vellucci is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.

Real Estate BUYING OR SELLING?

Contact me today to discuss all of your real estate needs!

CONDO FOR SALE

REALTOR SERVICES

CONDO FOR SALE • $444,000 Three bedrooms Two and half baths Integral garage Fabulous deck and view

Are You Buying or Selling a Home?

Let Us Guide You Through the Process!

Helen Eaton

Office: 412-421-9120 ext 241 Cell: 412-915-8801 Real Estate Services

www.howardhanna.com

CALL THE SMITH-ROSENTHAL TEAM TODAY.

Smith-Rosenthal Team

Jason A. Smith & Caryn Rosenthal Jason: 412-969-2930 | Caryn: 412-389-1695 Jasonasmith@howardhanna.com Carynrosenthal@howardhanna.com

5501 Baum Blvd.

Pittsburgh PA 15232 Shadyside Office | 412-361-4000

20 OCTOBER 2, 2020

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Real Estate FOR SALE

FOR SALE

95 EAST WOODLAND ROAD

FOR SALE

COMING SOON! Magnificent

First Time offered! Private road. 6 bedroom 3.5 bath unique home. Beautiful architectural appointments.

French Chateau style Home

SQUIRREL HILL • $185,000 • BEACON PLACE

of Distinction on the Chatham University Campus. Resting on a pastoral one acre professionally landscaped lot, this stunning 5,000 square foot home is a true country estate in the heart of the city of Pittsburgh!

Contact Denise Serbin for a private tour of

HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE

FOR RENT

FOR RENT

5125 Fifth Ave.

RENTAL OPPORTUNITY

”Finest in Shadyside”

Beautiful rental opportunity on quiet, residential street: Recently renovated. Two unit duplex. Upper unit available.

The apartment has: 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths including tub.

Eat-in kitchen, expansive living room and separate area SENIOR REAL ESTATE SPECIALIST for dining room/playroom/office. Renovated bathrooms, them withthroughout, care and confidence. newMove hardwood and carpet freshly painted.

Outdoor space offers large, wrap-around porch, flat backyard and detached garage. Washer/dryer included. Central heat/air. $2,525/MO. PLEASE CALL 412-956-2092.

412-661-4456

www.kaminrealty.kamin.com

h THE BEST OF THE IN YOUR EMAIL INBOX ONCE A WEEK.

SENIOR REAL ESTATE SPECIALIST

MoveMove them with care and confidence. them with care and

confidence.

I have received specialized education to help those age I have received specialized education to help those 50+ through lifestyle age 50+ through lifestyle transitions. transitions.

Valerie Wecht M.Ed.

RE/MAX REALTY BROKERS

412-721-1121 I have received specialized education to help those age 50+ through lifestyle transitions. vwecht721@gmail.com Valerie Wecht M.Ed. 412-721-1121 vwecht721@gmail.com

SQUIRREL HILL • $330,000 First Time offered! Renovated house with possible 3-5 bedrooms, c/a, 2 car detached garage and in the Colfax School District. Just what you have wanted. Unbelievable first floor living space. Too much to list.

FOX CHAPEL • $1,100,000 Situated behind Shadyside Country Day school on 3+ acres. Fabulous rustic contemporary with wrap around deck, stone patio, hot tub, fire pit. 4 bedrooms, 5.5 baths. Wonderful 3 car garage. Unbelievable first floor living space.

Too much to list.

SQUIRREL HILL • $220,000 • IMPERIAL HOUSE New listing. 2 bedroom/2 bath in move in Lovely condition. Enjoy beautiful screened in balcony. Building has many amenities including pool, exercise room guest suites, and party room.

SQUIRREL HILL • $1,125,000 For the most discriminating buyer. Fabulous 6 year young grand property with a gourmet great room kitchen, 6 bedrooms, 4.5 baths, unbelievable living spaces, coveted 3 car attached garage, wonderful yard. Finished and unfinished spaces approximately 7,000 square feet, a whole house generator. Must see!

SHADYSIDE CONDO • $1,200,000 • 5000 FIFTH AVE Rare find. Lovely updated 1.5 units. Approximately 4,500 square feet with a 3 car side by side garage. Enjoy top

floor with skylights. 3 bedrooms, den, 3.5 baths including his & hers bath in master suite. Must see.

DOWNTOWN • $975,000 Gateway Towers. Primo sensational double unit. Over 3000 square feet. 4 bedrooms, 4.5 baths. View of all three rivers.

New windows installed (approx $70,000). The best unobstructed space and views in Pittsburgh. This is a full service building and PET FRIENDLY.

OAKLAND • DITHRIDGE HOUSE • $345,000

SENIOR REAL ESTATE SPECIALIST SENIOR REAL ESTATE SPECIALIST

South facing balcony. Updated 2 bedroom, 1.5 Bath lots of storage and a pantry. Convenient to shopping, restaurants, libaray and transportation Occupant must be 62. See with Kate White 412-310-0765

New Listing! Move in condition. Renovated. Unbelievable storage and closets in unit. Enjoy a balcony. Enjoy the proximity to shopping, the movies, library and restaurants. This is a Senior building. Occupant must be 62+ years

Squirrel Hill Office 6310 Forbes Ave. , Pittsburgh, PA 15217 412-480-6554 mobile/preferred 412-421-9120 office deniseserbin@howardhanna.com

Denise Serbin, Realtor

Needs to be updated, but a real jewel.

SQUIRREL HILL • BEACON PLACE CONDO • $140,000

this stunning home!

2 & 3 Bedrooms Corner of Fifth and Wilkins Spacious 1500-2250 square feet

MURDOCH FARMS • $899,000

5608 Wilkins Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15217 412-521-1000

New listing! Desired spacious 3 bedroom (rarely come on market). 2.5 bath, in-unit laundry, balcony, in building

with lots of amenities. Pool, exercise room, guest suites, indoor parking and so much more. Rare find!

JILL and MARK PORTLAND RE/MAX REALTY BROKERS 412.521.1000 EXT. 200 412.496.5600 JILL | 412.480.3110 MARK

Business & Professional Directory AUTOS WANTED

BUYING

A U T O S WA N T E D 7 2 4 - 2 8 7 - 7 7 7 1 BUYING CAR$ $UV$ T R U C K $ VA N $ Denny Off$tein Auto $ale$ or DONATE YOUR VEHICLE for a TAX DEDUCTION RECEIPT from B’nai Abraham Synagogue Butler, Pa.

BUYING:

FREE Legal Title Transfer FREE Vehicle Picked up

RE/MAX REALTY BROKERS

Grandma & Pap’s VERY Old Clothing, Costume Jewelry, Hats, Purses, Shoes, Fur Coats/Stoles, Wedding Gowns, Quilts/Textiles.

Quantity preferred, will pick up.

Toll Free 888-736-7242

TUTORING

Virtual Writing Tutor Extensive experience as middle and high school English teacher, University Pittsburgh Writing Center consultant,

pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

and college admission essays tutor.

Contact Kelly Schwimer to schedule your advertising kschwimer@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org • 412-721-5931 advertising@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Affordable Landscaping Shrub & Tree Trimming, Retaining Walls, Clean ups, New Plantings, Sodding, Seeding, Grading, Concrete Work Mulching with shredded hardwood mulch

Edward 412-951-3437

PA#36491

5608 Wilkins Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15217

SHOWCASE YOUR PROPERTIES EVERY WEEK IN THE PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Sign up on the right hand side of our homepage.

LANDSCAPING

Virtual tutoring with patience, enthusiasm, and encouragement!



FIND IT IN THE BUSINESS & PROFESSIONAL DIRECTORY

Contact Ronna Edelstein: RonnaEdel@gmail.com

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

OCTOBER 2, 2020 21

Community Memorializing life with light

Shofar cries heard in Dormont

National Council of Jewish Women - Pittsburgh Section; Bend the Arc Jewish Action: Pittsburgh; Repair the World Pittsburgh, and others, honored the life of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Sept. 26 with a havdalah service and speeches from local community members recapitulating Ginsburg’s robust legal career. t Gathering at the steps of the 6th Presbyterian Church

p Rabbi Doris Dyen (back row, center) traveled to Dormont Sept. 20 and blew the shofar for members of the havurah Makom HaLev.

p ‘For the Jewish people there was light and joy, gladness and honor.’

Photos by Brian Cohen

p Havurah members take a break from the blasts.

Photos by Danielle Ventresca

Kesher Pittsburgh celebrates High Holidays

p Maggie Feinstein, Ziva and Eric Lantzman enjoy Kesher Pittsburgh’s Rosh Hashanah Havdalah

22 OCTOBER 2, 2020

p Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife, left, Sara Stock Mayo and Jonathan Mayo gather outside Rodef Shalom Congregation with friends from the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh during the parking lot “carcophony” shofar blast.

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Photos courtesy of Kesher Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Community What’s new at Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh

Casting sins into the depths of the sea (or the Monongahela River)

p Galya Belman, left, Perri Berelowitz and Kayla Goldwasser gather after votes were counted in the Middle School Girls election. p Rodef Shalom Congregation held a tashlich service on Sept. 20 at the Labyrinth at the Waterfront.

Photo courtesy of Yael Eads

Twisting and turning at Hillel JUC More than 80 Pitt students participated in a virtual challah braiding event hosted by Pitt’s Challah for Hunger group. Students received premade challah or challah dough from Hillel JUC and braided challah, while learning about food insecurity from Repair the World Pittsburgh. t Isaac Kravatz proudly displays his work.

p Play and learning collide in computer coding class.

u Hanging around with Sami Semiatin and Eva Shterengarts

p Three students, three screens, there’s a math problem in this somewhere.

Photos courtesy of Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh

Listening from below t Rabbi Barbara Symons conducted Temple David’s shofar drive-in service on September 20 while congregants gathered in the parking lot and listened to Stan Beck blow the shofar.

Photo courtesy of Temple David

t Samantha Sherman showcases her challah.

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Photos courtesy of Hillel JUC

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

OCTOBER 2, 2020 23

24 color

KOSHER MEATS

Empire Kosher Fresh Ground Turkey

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

Sold in 1 lb. pkg.

• 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.

4

49 lb.

Price effective Thursday, October 1 through Wednesday, October 7, 2020

Available at 24 OCTOBER 2, 2020

and PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG