December 20, 2019 | 22 Kislev 5780
NOTEWORTHY
Candlelighting 4:38 p.m. | Havdalah 5:42 p.m. | Vol. 62, No. 51 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
Poland’s chief rabbi embraces Pittsburgh partnership
Happy Chanukah!
LOCAL New leadership
Maria Cohen takes the reins at Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition. Page 2
Insights gained at Conservative movement biennial
Please see Conservative, page 14
Please see Poland, page 14
Yeshiva Schools introduces jiujitsu training. Page 4 LOCAL Mission possible
Rabbi Jeremy Markiz discusses recruitment and retention.
Photo courtesy of Rabbi Seth Adelson
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ay leaders and staff from Pittsburgh’s Jewish community returned from Boston optimistic about the future of the Conservative movement and their place within the fold. Apart from providing participants the chance to enjoy a meaningful Shabbat, last week’s convention, “20/20 Judaism,” hosted by the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, granted a forum to network, strategize and reassess. As a leadup to the Dec. 6-10 event, participants were told: “On the eve of the next decade, it is more critical than ever for USCJ, the RA (Rabbinical Assembly) and our community to come together to address the ways that our movement approaches Israel, the
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Jewish family, spirituality, inclusion and other topics that will shape the future of Conservative Judaism.” Andy Schaer, USCJ’s treasurer and a member of Beth El Congregation of the South Hills, described the convention’s tone as “awesome.” “It was positive and energizing, and the content was great,” he said. Marissa Tait, director of youth programming at Congregation Beth Shalom agreed. “I thought it was incredible,” said Tait. “Every session I went to was useful.” Speakers particularly stressed the importance of educating youth, “which for me was really exciting.” Tracks concerning the future of the
The good fight
Leonard Felman recalls his mysterious involvement in a 1969 Israeli mission.
By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer
fter a childhood spent in Patchogue, New York, Michael Schudrich visited Poland five times in the 1970s. By the time the Jewish day school graduate completed Stony Brook University in 1977, Schudrich felt called by the Eastern European country and its Jewish inhabitants, so when a professional opportunity arose in 1990, he jumped at the chance. Poland is nearly 4,200 miles from New York, but in some ways accepting employment in “The Land of Fields” was a chance to come closer to home, as between 1983 and 1989 Schudrich worked in Tokyo, Japan, as a rabbi. Pulpits in Poland and Japan had placed Schudrich thousands of miles from the south shore of Long Island, where his father served as a Conservative rabbi, but comparisons between Warsaw and Tokyo are realistically few, he explained. The communities were about as similar as “apples and oranges,” he said. “Tokyo is fundamentally expatriates, foreigners or foreign Jews coming to Tokyo to work for several years for multinational companies, or young people just coming to hang out. In Warsaw, it’s people who have lived there for generations but have recently discovered they’re Jewish.” Schudrich offered insight into Warsaw’s Jewish community, and his own biography, during a trip to Pittsburgh last week. “Most people don’t realize that of the 3.5 million Jews before the war, 90% were murdered during the war by Germans and accomplices, leaving 10% alive — 350,000,” he said. For those remaining Polish Jews, a series of choices impacted current communal realities, as after the war Polish Jews debated whether to leave Soviet-occupied communist Poland or remain but suppress
LOCAL
By Adam Reinherz I Staff Writer
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