December 27, 2019 | 29 Kislev 5780
Candlelighting 4:42 p.m. | Havdalah 5:46 p.m. | Vol. 62, No. 52 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
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‘Poor or nearly poor’: Financial URJ focuses instability affects almost on inclusion a quarter of Jewish Pittsburgh during 2019 Biennial
NOTEWORTHY LOCAL Female rabbis look back
By David Rullo | Staff Writer
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Spiritual leaders at Rodef Shalom reflect on 27 years at the pulpit. Page 2 LOCAL Holidays, interfaith style
Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha joined Calvary Episcopal for celebration Page 3 LOCAL Money matters
Hebrew Free Loan introduces free financial coaching. Page 5
There is a great diversity of economic realities among individuals and families in the Jewish community. Photo provided by Aviva Lubowsky
Alan and Bonnie, who live in the East End, are among the one-quarter of Jewish lan* and his partner Bonnie* wish Pittsburghers who face economic insecuthey did not have to rely on govern- rity. Alan and Bonnie are both young and American-born, defying ment assistance to a common stereotype of survive, but the last couple Studying community the poor Jew. And while of years have been rough they have found Jewish and they have no choice. This is the fourth in a connection through a “I have a lot of shame 10-part series, exploring Chabad center here, they and guilt,” admitted the data of the 2017 are non-Orthodox. Alan, 34, who previGreater Pittsburgh Jewish They are also far ously ran his own Community Study through from alone. Many business in Pittsburgh. the people it represents. Jewish Pittsburghers are “We are currently struggling financially, receiving medical assisaccording to the 2017 tance, food assistance, Greater Pittsburgh Jewish utility assistance and WIC Community Study, commissioned by the assistance — our daughter was born this Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh past June. I had to close my company down and conducted by researchers at Brandeis around the same time.” University. In fact, 25% of local Jewish A creative side business run by Alan and households lack suffi cient savings to cover Bonnie, 29, had to be shut down as well in three months of living expenses; 13% cannot 2018 “mostly due to our financially tumultuous personal lives,” he said. “It’s been a challenging couple of years.” Please see Poor, page 4
By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer
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ore than 5,000 Reform Jews from across North America gathered in Chicago Dec. 11 through 15 for the Union of Reform Judaism’s Biennial. Professionals and lay leaders from several Reform Pittsburgh congregations, including Rodef Shalom Congregation, Temple David, Temple Emanuel of South Hills and Temple Sinai, attended the meeting. According to Rabbi Aaron Bisno, of Rodef Shalom, the Biennial illustrated the “tremendous amount of excitement and enthusiasm about finding the direction for liberal, progressive Judaism as we enter, now, the third decade of the 21st century.” Bisno pointed out that a recurring theme of the meeting included “how we can engage the next generation … those that were there and those that were not there. How do we reach the people that are now part of our community, by generations in some cases?” The Biennial occurs every two years in a different city. This year’s event featured speakers including Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, author Jodi Kantor, historian Deborah Lipstadt, former ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro and URJ President Rabbi Rick Jacobs; daily worship and Shabbat services; and 125 learning sessions that covered leadership development, membership engagement and development, early childhood and youth education and social justice leadership. Temple Emanuel of South Hills Executive Director Leslie Hoffman noted that the Biennial showcased how welcoming the Reform movement is to Jews of all identities. “When you’re there, among all those different people from all those different locations, you realize how different the face of Reform Judaism is outside of Pittsburgh.” That changing face now includes not only Ashkenazi Jews, who continue to be the base Please see URJ, page 15
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Headlines Female rabbis reflect on 27 years at Rodef Shalom — LOCAL — By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer
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he Reform movement had been ordaining women rabbis for 16 years by the time Sharyn Henry was ordained in 1988. Still, in Pittsburgh the idea of a female Jewish spiritual leader was relatively new then and women rabbis faced some complicated, and often humorous, issues that their male counterparts did not. There are experiences particular to female rabbis that remain today, although it is not always easy to parse out if divergent treatment is due to gender, cautioned Henry, rabbi at Rodef Shalom, who moderated a panel discussion on Dec. 17 at the synagogue. The panel included all four women who have served as rabbis for that congregation over the past 27 years. The third program in Rodef Shalom’s “Wisdom, Wine, and Cheese” adult education series, the discussion included Rabbi Debbie Pine, who arrived at Rodef Shalom in 1992 as an assistant rabbi and is now the vice president of strategic philanthropy at The Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore, appearing via live video; Rabbis Jessica Locketz, currently rabbi and director of education at Temple Emanuel of South Hills, and Sharyn Henry, who both began their work at Rodef Shalom in 1999; and Rabbi Amy Hertz, who served the congregation for five years beginning in 2008 and who now is the director of congregational learning at Temple Isaiah in Lexington, Massachusetts, appearing via live video. All four rabbis praised the training and acceptance they received while at Rodef Shalom, while also noting a few awkward or inappropriate responses by some community members. They also recounted challenges
p Rabbi Sharyn Henry and Rabbi Jessica Locketz
faced during their service to other congregations outside of Pittsburgh. As the first full-time female rabbi in Kansas City, Missouri, for example, Henry dealt with a local funeral director who encouraged clients to delay funerals if the male rabbi was not available rather than use her services. “The funeral home director just didn’t accept that women could be rabbis,” Henry said, “so he would say things to people like, ‘Well, the rabbi is out of town, but there is this new young assistant woman rabbi.’ And then they would be like, ‘Oh, we will wait for him to come back.’ He didn’t think I should be doing
Photo by Toby Tabachnick
funerals, so he presented me in a way that was like, why would you want to have me there?” Although almost a half century has passed since Sally Priesand was ordained by the Reform movement as its first female rabbi, one of the first questions female rabbis still are asked is “what do you want to be called?” noted Henry. The implication is that a female rabbi does not necessarily want to be addressed in a formal manner as her male counterparts most often are. “It’s a question particular to female rabbis,” she said. “I don’t know how often a male rabbi is asked that.”
Pine, who is married to Rabbi Andrew Busch, said she has found “there is more that we share as male and female rabbis than areas where we differ,” and that being a woman in the rabbinate can work to one’s advantage. She recalled being ordained in 1992 as a member of one of the first Reform rabbinic classes which was half women. At that time, she said, in looking for job placement, “it was actually an advantage to be a woman. The women in my class did better overall in placement and there was tremendous Please see Rabbis, page 20
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Headlines Tree of Life joins with Calvary Episcopal for interfaith celebration — LOCAL — By Justin Vellucci
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ozens of Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha congregants and Pittsburgh Christians alike gathered under one roof at Calvary Episcopal Church Dec. 22 to celebrate Chanukah and Christmas in an interfaith celebration of common values and community bonds. The day started at 11 a.m. Sunday with the church’s annual Christmas service, crowned with a Nativity scene featuring five dozen children dressed as shepherds and angels, six sheep, a donkey and an ornery 1-year-old camel named Abe who refused to walk all the way to the altar. It continued at noon with a Chanukah party resplendent with songs, crafts, food and a few lessons about the connections between the faiths and the holidays. People were met at the front door by a statue of Jesus on the crucifix; in front of him sat a lighted menorah. “This is Pittsburgh — it’s a community,” said Tree of Life President Sam Schachner, shortly after Rabbi Jeffrey Myers played acoustic guitar and led the interfaith group through a rousing rendition of “I Have a Little Dreidel.” “To be able to share in this, it’s a wonderful thing.”
p An interfaith holiday celebration was held at Calvary Episcopal Church with members of Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha. Photo by Justin Vellucci
Donald Kaplan is no stranger to the bonds between different faiths. He’s Jewish, raised by interfaith parents, and has started a family with his wife, Emily, who is Episcopalian. The construction consultant and native Pittsburgher smiled broadly on Dec. 22 as his 3-year-old daughter, Eliza, spread primary-colored paint over a popsicle-stick Star of David.
“I think all of this just speaks to the level of community,” said Kaplan, who lives on the North Side. “There’s a shared knowledge and that’s endearing at this time. It’s more inclusive. For my daughter to know these two things can coexist, it’s special.” Nearby, Jennifer Blaze, who is a nondenominational Christian, watched her
3-year-old granddaughter, Maya, paint a Star of David, too. Jennifer’s sister converted to Judaism and attends services at Tree of Life. She laughed when asked how it felt to watch Christian children take part in Chanukah-themed crafts at church on a Sunday. “It’s wonderful,” Blaze said. “We embrace it — absolutely.” The relationship between Tree of Life and Calvary Episcopal Church is not new. The church’s pastor, Rev. Jonathan Jensen, jump-started a collection at the church to rebuild the Tree of Life facility the day after the October 2018 shooting in Squirrel Hill claimed the lives of 11 congregants. “Those are the things one’s supposed to do,” Jensen said. But he didn’t stop there. He reached out to the congregation and offered his building, which is used by several community groups, for services during the transition period. About 50 Calvary members volunteered to serve during Tree of Life’s High Holiday services at the church this year. Tree of Life responded by sending dozens Sunday morning to celebrate Christmas alongside their new friends. “I’ve never heard of a Christmas pageant Please see Interfaith, page 20
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Headlines Poor: Continued from page 1
afford to cover an emergency $400 expense; and 13% have skipped at least one rent, mortgage or utility payment in the past year. Twenty-three percent of Pittsburgh’s Jews describe themselves as “just getting by” “nearly poor,” or “poor.” Twenty-four percent are not confident in their ability to afford their own retirement. Seventeen percent have annual household incomes of below $25,000. Financial insecurity cuts across boundaries of age and denomination. For Alan, who was raised in a Conservative congregation, and Bonnie, who was raised by Orthodox parents, life has been hard since 2015, when Alan had to suspend operation of his business due to a licensing issue. During the eight months it took to get things sorted out, the business suffered damage to its brand and the loss of employees. While his business was in flux, Alan never missed payroll, but he did have “to make the difficult decision to not pay the government; I didn’t pay payroll tax during the slow period,” he said. That decision led to issues with the IRS, which compounded the couple’s troubles. And, to make matters worse, in October 2018, Alan discovered that three employees had been stealing from his company for the past two years. While the money stolen amounted to just $5,500, said Alan, it was
ER T S EGI
“a lot, especially for a small business that was struggling.” “There were a lot of bad cards being dealt from 2015 until I had to close the business in June 2019, shortly before our child was born,” Alan said, adding that the couple’s wedding, which had been planned to take place before the birth of their child, had to be postponed. Bonnie currently goes to school 40 hours a week to learn computer programming while Alan stays home to “watch the baby and do odd jobs here and there.” From June to September, the couple made rent money by liquidating items from their now defunct company. “Every month it felt like we made it by the skin of our teeth at the last second,” said Alan, who now works at a restaurant on the weekends when Bonnie is not at school so they don’t have to pay for childcare. “We are holding out until (Bonnie) graduates when she is hopeful she will get a job, and we can afford childcare and I can start looking for my next true career,” Alan said. Financial insecurity can have an effect on Jewish communal participation. Alan and Bonnie cannot afford to pay dues to a mainstream congregation, and are uncomfortable asking for a waiver. Their connection to the Jewish community is now through the Chabad of Monroeville. Rabbi Mendy Schapiro has helped the couple with a baby-naming ceremony and has given them money from his discretionary fund to buy food for the High Holidays and Passover.
The couple also attended High Holiday services at Chabad.
Facing the stigma
There is “a stigma in the Jewish community as well as the secular community about being in a financial struggle,” Alan said. Although, on social media, other “20 – and 30 – somethings are trying to de-stigmatize that, I noticed that de-stigmatization ends when you get financial help from the government,” he said. “There is still a tremendous amount of stigma against people who use food stamps or WIC or have medical assistance. There is a lot of shame that I associate with having to use these benefits. I feel that particularly in the Jewish community — not that there is an intentional stigma — but I feel like we are so close and we want to share with everyone in the community how good we are doing.” Sara*, 45 and single, has similar feelings. Struggling “to make ends meet,” she relies not only on government assistance, but on her family. Although she is not as involved in Jewish communal activities as she once was, she occasionally accompanies her family to the Reform congregation to which they belong. “I’m on food stamps and health benefits, Medicaid,” said Sara, who lives in the East End. “I hate the fact that I’m on it. It’s hard. It is somewhat of an embarrassment getting help from the government. People like me don’t want to be on it. There is a stigma attached, but I don’t know what other resources are out there.”
Working as an aid for a child with special needs, and as a part-time babysitter, she loves her work. “The problem,” she said, “is I’m not eligible for (employee) benefits” because her hours vary each week and do not consistently total 20. Her family, she said, “makes sacrifices” so that she “can live in a safe neighborhood, and have a safe car.” But sometimes expenses arise for which she needs extra help. “I recently needed a few thousand dollars for vision therapy that health insurance didn’t cover,” Sara said. She was able to get funding from the Hebrew Free Loan Association of Pittsburgh to help pay for some of the sessions. HFL is one of five local Jewish organizations that come under the umbrella of JFunds, which includes the Jewish Assistance Fund, the Squirrel Hill Food Pantry, the Jewish Scholarship Service and Israel Travel Grants. JFunds’ organizations served 700 households last fiscal year and distributed $1.3 million, according to Aviva Lubowsky, who coordinates JFunds. Because two JFunds’ affiliates — HFL and SOS Pittsburgh, which is administered by the Squirrel Hill Food Pantry — are nonsectarian, not all those helped by JFunds are members of the Jewish community. “Almost all the JFunds organizations have the capacity and want to serve more people and disburse more money,” Lubowsky Please see Poor, page 14
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Headlines Hebrew Free Loan Association adds free financial coaching to services offered — LOCAL — By David Rullo | Staff Writer
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ost people know that the Hebrew Free Loan Association of Pittsburgh is a resource providing interest-free loans for anything from home improvements and renovations to life cycle events to small business needs, rent or utility bills or summer camp. Beginning January 7, HFL will offer a new service to the Pittsburgh region: financial coaching. The service will focus on long-term financial goals of individuals and families, rather than HFL’s existing services that help meet immediate needs. According to Aviva Lubowsky, HFL’s director of marketing and development, the idea for the financial coaching was incubated after a conversation with area rabbis who asked how people with chronic financial needs could be helped. She explained that the Squirrel Hill Food Pantry has case workers to assist people on a short-term basis but there was nothing to assist those with different needs. Lubowsky said the issues experienced by these people are more “big picture scenario� and include “decreasing debt, creating a budget or spending plan, assistance getting on a payment plan for student loans, raising credit scores and planning for retirement.� While the Squirrel Hills Food Pantry provides aid based on income requirements, the new service is available to anyone, regardless of income or religious affiliation. Lubowsky described the financial coaching as a way for people to become empowered and meet “their financial goals.� HFL has hired Shay Port, a certified public accountant with more than 20 years in the financial service industry to provide the financial coaching and offer an occasional workshop in the community.
Port has worked as a financial coach for a decade, at both JobLinks, a program of the Oakland Planning and Development Corporation, and most recently her own company, Financial Wellness with Shay Port. Port said that she was already familiar with HFL before taking the position. “Aviva and I found ourselves showing up at a lot of the same community meetings and economic development summits,� Port said. She even took out a loan herself from HFL and was so impressed with the process that “I referred a lot of people to them, clients of mine. It’s such an incredible product. I was thrilled when Aviva asked if I would be interested in providing financial coaching.� Port views financial coaching as a “holistic approach� to financial planning, that differs from the assistance people receive from a CPA. “Historically, when people have an issue, they’ll go to an accountant and ask for help. With an accountant it’s a very top line approach, very transactional. Coaching is completely different. It really addresses where the client is at any given moment.� Perhaps one of the biggest differences between financial coaching and HFL’s existing services is that the new program is client driven. Port explained that the client is ultimately the one steering the process when they meet. “I have plenty of clients who are very good at managing their money but want a set of fresh eyes that might know something they don’t. They might want someone who can point something out or help them tweak their plans. If you’ve got a lot of problems and can’t save or you’re not investing, coaching is definitely for you. Maybe your budgeting is not really as good as you would like, we can work on that.� “Budgeting is about making choices. It’s you deciding where you want your money Please see Coaching, page 14
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MDDSJK RUJ _ _ -+) 'ULYH _ 3LWWVEXUJK 3$ p Shay Port, right, meets with a client during a financial coaching session. Photo by Christopher Kendall
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Headlines Holiday card project sends thousands of greetings to soldiers — LOCAL — By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer
S
ixteen years and several hundred thousand holiday cards ago, Laura Landerman-Garber, a current Hollis, New Hampshire, resident who left Forest Hills nearly 32 years ago, was sitting in her dentist’s office perusing a magazine. Thanksgiving was approaching, and as Landerman-Garber waited to be seen, she read an article about American traditions. In the piece the author described a familiar practice of seasonal gathering, and encouraged readers to make time to write cards to troops. “It spoke to me,� said Landerman-Garber, so after arriving home, the mother (and now grandmother) informed her family that the “ticket to turkey� was attained through composition. More than a decade passed and Landerman-Garber’s family continued to write. Along the way, neighbors and friends joined the exercise. Collectively, the group sent cards to the Wounded Warrior Project, New Hampshire Veterans Home and the Naval Hospital.
p Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, left, and Laura Landerman-Garber
Photo courtesy of Laura Landerman-Garber
In 2017, the project took on additional meaning after a family friend was deployed. Landerman-Garber decided to send cards to his ship, unaware that nearly 5,000 people occupied the USS Theodore Roosevelt, a Navy aircraft carrier. “It didn’t stop me,� said LandermanGarber. “I’m a grandmother and we grandmothers don’t mess.�
I n - Ho m e Care S e r v i ce s
She reached out to members of her Hillsborough County community asking for help. After contacting Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and congregations of different faiths, she called her governor and senators. Word quickly spread and LandermanGarber received nearly three times her request. A total of 17,000 cards arrived at her JC Present Girl 2019_Eartique 4:58she PM house, and through the aid of 12/9/19 politicians,
sent every well wish abroad to the soldiers. Shortly thereafter, the project grew again, she explained. Landerman-Garber was attending a spaghetti dinner in the basement of a local church and met a World War II veteran. “He made me promise that if I did it again that I would do all five branches,� she recalled. This was someone “who liberated the camps and saved us all,� said LandermanGarber. “That’s a big promise I’m making to a hero, so there’s no stopping me now.� Pursuant to the veteran’s request, Landerman-Garber expanded her efforts, and in 2018, the one-time Tree of Life congregant — she attended preschool, Hebrew school and received confirmation as well as got married and named her daughters there — formed a nonprofit corporation, Holiday Cards 4 Our Military-NH Challenge, and began accepting donations to offset postage costs. That year Landerman-Garber set a goal of sending out 25,000 handwritten holiday cards — 5,000 to each branch of the military. She received 50,000 instead. When it came time to strategize for 2019, Landerman-Garber was invited to Washington, D.C., to meet with politicians Page 1
Please see Cards, page 16
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Headlines Shadyside resident completes 2019 Antarctic Ice Marathon — LOCAL — By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer
S
hadyside Jewish resident Sheila Snyder recently returned from Union Glacier Camp, located 600 miles from the South Pole, where, with a group of fellow international travelers, she ran the 2019 Antarctic Ice Marathon. Prior to departing Pittsburgh International Airport for a series of flights leading to Earth’s southernmost continent — stopovers included Atlanta, Georgia, Santiago, Chile and Punta Arenas, Chile — Snyder, 25, had never run farther than 13.1 miles. In fact, her intention when arriving at the full-service private camp was to run the half marathon distance, like she did in Brooklyn months earlier. But plans changed after Snyder met Canadian octogenarian Roy Jorgen Svenningse. “Roy is 84 years old and we stopped to get water together, and he kind of looked at me and he’s like, ‘You’re doing well,’ and I was like, ‘Thank you. I just finished a half and I think I’m going to call it quits,’ and he was like, ‘I’m doing the full. You know what would be really awful is if you look back and you start running, and you’re like, I’ve done
p Sheila Snyder, on the course
all these races, but I didn’t complete a full marathon in Antarctica.’ So I kind of just kept going,� recalled Snyder. Challenging conditions threatened Snyder’s convictions, as temperatures hovered around 5 degrees Farenheit with 31 m.p.h. winds.
shoes and relied on layered clothes and hiking gear to weather the 26.2 mile route. Though windbreaker pants, glove liners and ski mittens helped, being on a course where runners remained largely out of view from one another created a “surreal� experience, she said. “At times I was like, ‘Wow, I’m in the middle of nowhere by myself in a place that’s totally desolate and freezing temperatures.� Union Glacier Camp is located below the Ellsworth Mountains and is accessible by a 4.5-hour chartered flight from Punta Arenas, Chile. The private camp is operated by Antarctic Logistics & Expeditions LLC and is open November through January, when the weather is least oppressive. Average windchill temperatures during the Antarctic Ice Marathon are –4 degrees Fahrenheit, according to race organizers. The course is nearly 2,300 feet Photo courtesy of Sheila Snyder above sea level. “I wasn’t physically ready for this event. “At times it felt like I was being pushed I didn’t really train for it,� said Snyder. backwards, especially because of the snow Nonetheless, “I kind of felt like I was and the ice,� said Snyder. “It was kind mentally ready. I just kept telling myself that of like running on sand, except it was I’m going to complete it after I talked with slippery and cold.� Snyder wore La Sportiva trail running Please see Marathon, page 20
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Calendar Pennsylvania for 25 years. Enjoy toe-tapping tunes, sing-a-longs and period dance music. Lunch begins at 11:30 am and the program starts at 12:00 p.m. Please call 412-561-1168 to make a reservation. $6. bethelcong.org. q WEDNESDAY, JAN. 8 Join the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Young Adult Division for Ladies’ Night Out. Make kokedama, a form of Japanese garden art. Sip some wine and enjoy a relaxing evening creating a beautiful accent for your home or office! $25 includes kokedama making, wine and snacks. 7 p.m. 5135 Penn Ave. For more information and to register, visit jewishpgh.org/event/ yad-ladies-night-out.
q SATURDAY, JAN. 11
q THURSDAYS, JAN. 9, FEB. 6, MARCH 5, APRIL 2, MAY 7, JUNE 4
q SUNDAY, JAN. 12
Facilitated by local clergy, the ChristianJewish Dialogue at Rodef Shalom (4905 Fifth Ave.) explores topics of similarities and differences. Themes range from wedding rituals to the story of Noah. Attendees are invited to join for any and all sessions. 12 p.m. Free and open to the public. q FRIDAY, JAN. 10
q SATURDAY, JAN. 25 Get ready to party like a rock star at Community Day School’s Rock-n-Roll Annual Party. The 10th annual fundraiser will be held at 7:30 p.m. at Nova Place, 100 S. Commons in Pittsburgh’s North Side. Honorees include: Dr. E. Joseph Charny (Community Leadership Award); Kara McGoey, Ph.D. (Volunteer of the Year); and Tzippy Mazer (Lifetime Achievement Award). The event will feature a silent auction to raise funds for the CDS Class of 2020 Israel trip, as well as a luxury raffle. $150/person, $75 first-timer rate, $50 alumni (ages 21-30). For tickets, visit comday.org/cdsrocks or contact Jenny Jones at jjones@comday.org or 412-521-1100, ext. 3207.
q FRIDAY, DEC. 27 Every year has dozens of Shabbats and eight nights of Hanukkah, but only one Shabbanukkah night, so come celebrate Moishe House’s Hanukkah Party Shabbat dinner at 7:30 p.m. Moishe House events are intended for young adults age 22-32. Message a resident or the page for the address. For more information, visit facebook.com/events/1116667678535345. q SUNDAY, DEC. 29 Join New Light Congregation at 6 p.m. for the synagogue’s Hanukah party. The party includes dinner and a special screening of “Memories of Pittsburgh’s Jewish Hill” by Ken Love. To make reservations, call Barbara Caplan, 412-521-4332. $18/per person. 5915 Beacon St. q FRIDAY, JAN. 3 The Zionist Organization of America: Pittsburgh Israel Scholarship Program is accepting applications Jan. 3 through Feb. 29, 2020. The program is designed to encourage student participation on approved
8 DECEMBER 27, 2019
Rodef Shalom Congregation presents the 2020 Milton E. Harris Interfaith Lecture “Why Is It Always the Jews?” featuring Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin. Anti-Semitism is history’s oldest ideology. What provokes this intense hatred? Join preeminent Jewish thought leader Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin for an interfaith lecture and luncheon at Rodef Shalom Congregation (4905 Fifth Ave.) 11:30 a.m. No cost for clergy. Questions? rodefshalom.org/rsvp Bob Dylan has journeyed from Judaism to Christianity and back again. How do his
Join Rodef Shalom (4905 Fifth Ave.) for a continuation of our discussions centered on “Mahloket Matters: How to Disagree Constructively - Unit 2 – Fear War or Trust Peace.” Presented by scholar-inresidence Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin at 12:45 p.m. $5. To register, visit rodefshalom.org/rsvp. Walk-ins welcome.
Join Congregation Beth Shalom Sunday mornings for Lox & Learning at Beth Shalom, a breakfast of bagels and lox sponsored by Beth Shalom’s Men’s Club and learn more about our fellow congregants’ fascinating jobs and hobbies. The event is free. Shoshanna Barnett is currently a software engineer at Uber in Pittsburgh. She will be speaking about how she makes complex ideas simple using data visualization, from energy storage to driverless cars. 10 a.m. bethshalompgh.org/events-upcoming Inspired by Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin’s book, “Searching for My Brothers: Jewish Men in a Gentile World,” the Jewish Masculinities Panel Discussion will examine the experiences and philosophies of being and raising Jewish men. The panel includes, Rabbi Salkin, Rayden Lev Sorock, Peter Rosenfeld and Nathan Rybski. Free and open to the public. All are welcome. 10:30 a.m. 4905 Fifth Ave. rodefshalom.org Please see Calendar, page 9
educational trips to Israel. Up to three ZOA Scholarships, $1,000 each, are available to students who will be visiting Israel on a structured study program this summer and entering their junior or senior year of high school in the fall of 2020. Applicants must be Jewish and permanent residents of Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Washington or Westmoreland counties. All applicants must be participating in an approved program and submit a qualified application. Priority may be given to those who have never visited Israel or have not received a ZOA scholarship. For complete details about the scholarships, contact ZOA Executive Director Stuart Pavilack at 412-665-4630 or pittsburgh@zoa.org.
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>>Submit calendar items on the Chronicle’s website, pittsburghjewishchronicle.org. Submissions will also be included in print. Events will run in the print edition beginning one month prior to the date as space allows. The deadline for submissions is Friday, noon.
songs illuminate his spiritual journey? Join Rodef Shalom’s Scholar-In-Residence Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin for “Rock of Israel: How Does it Feel?” a dinner and a discussion about this rock legend. 6:45 p.m. 4905 Fifth Ave. $15 for adults, $10 for kids, $20 for non-members. rodefshalom.org/rsvp
q SUNDAY, JAN. 5 Have you ever wondered what a preschool based in Jewish values and inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach looks like? Visit Temple Ohav Shalom Center for Early Learning’s Open House at 1 p.m. to find out more. This is a great opportunity to talk with the education team, meet parents, and tour the school. 8400 Thompson Run Road. enterforearlylearning.org. q MONDAY, JAN. 6 Beth El Congregation hosts First Mondays with Rabbi Alex Greenbaum, its monthly lunch program, featuring the Banjo All Stars. This group has been entertaining Western
q SUNDAY, JAN. 5 Deborah Gilboa, aka “Dr. G,” presents “What’s Happy Have to Do With It? Raising Resilient Kids in an Online World” at 4:30 p.m. at the JCC Squirrel Hill (5738 Forbes Ave.). For more information and to register, visit jewishpgh.org/event/knowledge-noshwomens-lunch-break-to-educate-3. Presented by Women’s Philanthropy of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, the National Council of Jewish Women and the Jewish Women’s Foundation.
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Calendar Calendar: Continued from page 8
q TUESDAY, JAN. 14 Enjoy a delicious lunch and a presentation on nutrition by Comfort Keepers at Chabad of the South Hills’ Senior Lunch. $5 suggested donation. 1701 McFarland Road. 12 p.m. Wheelchair accessible. Call to preregister: 412-278-2658. chabadsh.com q SUNDAY, JAN. 19 Join Community Day School and PJ Library Pittsburgh with your children (ages 2-5) from 10-11 a.m. for PJ Invention Time featuring PJ Library story, snack and fun building inventions with a Jewish holiday theme using recycled materials. Free and open to the community. CDS Annex Building (2740 Beechwood Boulevard). comday.org/pjinventiontime Join the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Young Adult Division for a tour of Cinderlands Warehouse, 2601 Smallman St. 2 p.m. Free. For more information and to register, visit jewishpgh.org/event/youngadult-brewery-club-at-cinderlands-warehouse q TUESDAY, JAN. 21 Attend the next Rodef Shalom Book Club Meeting as we discuss “Memento Park,” 2019 Association of Jewish Libraries Jewish Fiction Award-winning novel by Mark Sarvas. Copies of the book are available in the Lippman
Library. Wine, cheese and crackers will also be served. This event is free and open to the public. 6:30 p.m. 4905 Fifth Ave. Temple Emanuel of South Hills is hosting $camJam, a free informative evening on financial and investment scams targeting seniors. Speakers from the PA Department of Banking and Securities, the PA Office of the Attorney General and the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office will present. 7:30 p.m. Free. Registration is encouraged to templeemanuel@templeemanuelpgh.org or 412-279-7600. For more information, visit templeemanuelpgh.org/event/scamjam. q THURSDAY, JAN. 23 The Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh presents “Generations Speaker Series: Deborah Leuchter Stueber.” Stueber will recount the story of her parents, Kurt and Edith Leuchter, surviving the Holocaust, fighting Nazis in the French Resistance and making a new life in America. Free, but advanced registration required at hcofpgh.org/generationsspeaker-series. 7 p.m. Mt. Lebanon Public Library, 16 Cast Shannon Boulevard q SUNDAY, JAN. 26 Women of Rodef Shalom and Brotherhood present the next Rodef Shalom Movie Night. “School Ties” is set in the 1950s and exposes bigotry in an upper-crust prep school. Free and open to the public. 7:30 p.m. 4905 Fifth Ave. Attendees are encouraged to wear old school ties, caps and sweatshirts in keeping with the spirit of the film. PJC
q SUNDAY, JAN. 26 Be amazed and mystified by world renowned master illusionist Ilan Smith at Chabad of the South Hills’ “Magical Evening” at 7 p.m. at the Carnegie Stage (25 W. Main St.) Reserve tickets at chabadsh.com/magic or mussie@Chabadsh.com or 412-344-2424. Early bird special: $36 before Jan. 6. Starting Jan. 6 couvert is $50.
Info sessions for prospective EKC families nt discou a t n e v e r l Specia ister or refe g e or if you r o registers f wh friend 2020 er Summ
Learn about what sets EKC apart from other overnight camps SQUIRREL HILL
Sunday, January 5 • 4 pm
FOR LOCATION AND TO RSVP Aaron Cantor acantor@jccpgh.org or 412-339-5412
Children welcome • Pizza and snacks There is no obligation to register at this event.
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DECEMBER 27, 2019 9
Headlines — WORLD — From JTA reports
Polish city refuses to install memorial stones for Holocaust victims Authorities in the Polish city of Szczecin declined to put in place memorial stones commemorating Jews murdered during World War II because the country’s Institute of National Remembrance feared visitors to the city might think the perpetrators of the crimes were Poles. Gudrun Netter, who was born in Szczecin — which before the war was a German city — applied to the authorities there to commemorate her father with a memorial stone, or Stolperstein, placed in front of his former home. The letter she received from the city’s architect, Jaroslaw Bondar, said that such a memorial should state that the German Reich was responsible for the death of the Jewish victim. “The Institute of National Remembrance carries out activities aimed at preventing the dissemination in Poland and abroad of information and publications with untrue historical content that harms or defames the Republic of Poland or the Polish nation and that is why it cannot agree to disregard this key fact,” said the letter signed by Bondar. Memorial stones appeared in several Polish cities after long and arduous processes. In 2016, the Institute of National
Remembrance issued a negative opinion on the possibility of placing the stones in Warsaw. In 2018, the institute did not agree to install them in Krakow, recognizing that “the German specific artistic and memorative concept” is not commemorative for quantitative reasons, and the project is “highly controversial and contrary to the culture of memory adopted in Poland.” Stolperstein is a concrete cube with a brass plate bearing the name of the person commemorated placed in the sidewalk. It is usually placed near the victim’s last residence. The creator of the stones is the German artist Gunter Demnig.
Columbia University accused of anti-Semitic discrimination in first case since Trump executive order
A federal complaint has been filed against Columbia University accusing the school of anti-Semitic discrimination. It is the first case filed since President Donald Trump’s executive order on combating anti-Semitism, which grants Jewish students the same protections as other minority groups. The complaint requests a formal investigation by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights into alleged anti-Semitic discrimination at Columbia. It was filed by the Lawfare Project on behalf of a Jewish Israeli-American undergraduate who says he has been a victim of anti-Semitic discrimination over the past year. Jonathan Karten told The Jerusalem Post
that he decided to go forward with the complaint after he learned that a well-known professor in the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies at Columbia had endorsed Hamas’ military wing, the al-Qassam Terrorist brigade, “with impunity.” Karten’s uncle, Sharon Edri, was kidnapped and murdered by a Hamas cell in Israel in 1996. According to the Lawfare Project, Jewish students at Columbia “have endured systematic discrimination from tenured professors and anti-Israel groups,” including Students for Justice for Palestine and Columbia University Apartheid Divest. Columbia students and faculty also host Israel Apartheid Week, which has included bringing virulently anti-Semitic speakers to campus. The university did not respond to media outlets seeking comment.
Discrimination case reopened in Argentina against actress who compared Maduro supporters to kapos
A discrimination case in Argentina against the Venezuelan actress and model Catherine Fulop, who compared supporters of President Nicolas Maduro to Jews who helped the Nazis during the Holocaust, has been reopened. The federal Justice Department has accused Fulop of a hate crime for violating the country’s anti-discriminatory law. Argentina’s appeals court decided in late November to reopen the
case and appoint a special prosecutor. In May, Fulop said that Jews were “fierce torturers of their own people” during a radio interview held on Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day. In talking about Venezuelan supporters of the Maduro regime, she said that some Jews also collaborated with Adolf Hitler, calling them “sapos” instead of the correct term kapos, or collaborators. “Why do you think Hitler survived, because he did it all alone? No, because among the Jews there were the worst, the torturers inside the concentration camps. The ‘sapos’ were the Jews themselves who tortured their own people. This is happening in Venezuela,” Fulop said on the most listened-to news program on AM radio in Argentina. The phrase triggered strong criticism on social media and the Argentine Jewish political umbrella DAIA condemned the celebrity’s statement. Fulop later apologized in a tweet to her more than 1.6 million followers. Prosecutor Mariela De Minicis closed the case after the apology. But Argentina has had an anti-discriminatory law on the books since 1988 and Jewish attorney Jorge Monastersky filed a complaint naming himself the victim of discriminatory behavior by Fulop. The appeals court accepted the attorney’s complaint and reopened the case, ruling that the anti-discriminatory law was violated, and sent the case to city prosecutor Gustavo Galante, who specializes in discriminatory crimes, to rule. PJC
This week in Israeli history Dec. 30, 2002 — Ruling: Reservists must serve in territories
— WORLD — Items provided by the Center for Israel Education (israeled.org), where you can find more details.
So long as we live, they too shall live, for they are part of us.
We Remember Them.
Dec. 27, 1925 — Moshe Arens born
Moshe Arens, a Likud Knesset member who serves as Israel’s defense minister three times and foreign minister once, is born in Kovno, Lithuania. He is ambassador to the United States in 1982 and 1983.
Dec. 28, 1907 — Linguist Ze’ev Ben-Chaim born Ze’ev Ben-Chaim is born in Mosciska, Galicia, in present-day Ukraine. Ben-Chaim is regarded as one of the greatest scholars of Hebrew and Aramaic, including extensive research into Samaritan traditions.
Dec. 29, 1946 — Irgun conducts Night of the Beatings
Lee & Lisa Oleinick 10 DECEMBER 27, 2019
Dec. 31, 1898 — Israel Museum founder born
Eliyahu Dobkin, a signer of the Declaration of Independence who founds the Israel Museum, is born in Bobruysk, Belarus. He is a leader in Jewish Agency immigration from the 1930s to the 1950s.
Jan. 1, 1837 — Earthquake devastates Safed
A massive earthquake starts a landslide that kills thousands and causes extensive damage in the Jewish and Arab sections of the Upper Galilee mountain city of Safed (Tzfat).
Angry that the British whipped Irgun member Benjamin Kimkhi, the underground militant movement flogs British soldiers in Netanya, Rishon LeZion and Tel Aviv in the Night of the Beatings.
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The Israeli Supreme Court rules that IDF reservists may not refuse to serve in the West Bank and Gaza. The court fears that letting soldiers refuse assignments will turn “the people’s army … into an army of peoples.”
Jan. 2, 2002 — Operation targets arms bound for Gaza
Israeli navy commandos take off from Eilat in helicopters at night for a pre-dawn raid the next morning on the Karine-A, a ship carrying 50 tons of Iranian weapons from Yemen to Gaza via the Red Sea. PJC
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Headlines Pittsburgher helps rebuild Chicago Jewish neighborhood — NATIONAL — By Ben Sales | JTA
D
ecades ago, Congregation Ner Tamid would fill to capacity on the High Holidays, spilling over into three separate services to accommodate 1,000 worshippers. In its heyday, the Conservative synagogue’s red brick building cut an impressive figure on a street corner in West Rogers Park, the first of many local centers of Jewish life to be built in the neighborhood. Nowadays, a remnant of the congregation has merged with a nearby egalitarian prayer group. They meet in a storefront, drawing about 45 people on a regular Shabbat. The congregation left its building more than a decade ago, but its old street corner is still burgeoning with Jewish life. Today it’s home to Yeshivas Tiferes Tzvi, an Orthodox school for boys that has almost doubled in size in the past decade. Together with its sister school for girls, the yeshiva boasts more than 1,000 students. Principal Rabbi Nosson Muller is already planning a $20 million expansion. “We’re bursting from our seams already,” Muller said. “There’s a recognition from the lay leadership that we have to up our game.” That street corner tells the story of this historically Jewish district, which has seen its Jewish population rise, fall and begin to rise again through an influx of mostly haredi families. At the community’s peak in the early 1960s, West Rogers Park had some 47,000 Jewish residents, according to “Driving West Rogers Park,” a 2017 documentary. By 2000 that had plummeted to 20,000, according to the Chicago Jewish News, while other ethnic communities moved in. Current estimates say the Jewish population is back up to approximately 25,000 and growing. “I don’t think the issue was ever that West Rogers Park was going to die as a neighborhood and be abandoned, but it was going to die as a Jewish neighborhood,” said Howard Rieger, a former CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America and former CEO and president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. Rieger, who grew up near West Rogers Park, applied his community organizing skills to the area’s Jewish renewal, serving until this year as president of the Jewish Neighborhood Development Council of Chicago. “Our mission has been to preserve a Jewish neighborhood in the context of a very diverse community,” he said. Located on the northern end of Chicago and also called West Ridge, the neighborhood is quiet. The Jewish population boomed in West Rogers Park in the 1930s as people moved from older and more crowded Jewish neighborhoods to the south and west. A generation later, Jews moved farther north to the suburbs, eventually taking some of their institutions with them. “After World War II they wanted a home
p Howard Rieger, a former president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, stands in a new kosher section in a West Rogers Park grocery store. Photo by Ben Sales
of their own,” Irving Cutler, author of “The Jews of Chicago,” said in a 2010 interview on a local Jewish TV program, explaining that the GI bill offered low interest rates for single-family homes. “Most of them moved north into Albany Park, West Rogers Park, Rogers Park, and they kept moving into (suburbs like) Skokie, Lincolnwood. And they’re still moving further north and northwest, especially.” Devon Avenue, the main commercial thoroughfare, used to be full of Jewishowned businesses. Rosenblum’s, the largest Judaica store in the area, left in 2010. Nearly a decade later, its storefront is still vacant. Some Jewish spots remain on a segment of Devon that is still honorarily called Golda Meir Boulevard. Tel Aviv Kosher Bakery, for example, stands between Dehli Darbar Kabab House and Anmol Barbecue Restaurant, a Pakistani halal place. Devon is also home to the first location of Patel Brothers, a national Indian grocery store chain. Zoom out a little on Google Maps and Devon is covered by the words “LITTLE INDIA.” “People used to come for women’s dresses for weddings and bar mitzvahs,” said Rabbi Burton Wax, a former owner of Rosenblum’s who worked in the Jewish book business for 45 years. Now, he said, “There’s very little there in terms of Jewish businesses.” Today, the Jewish institutions that dot the neighborhood are schools, social service agencies and synagogues — 27 synagogues, to be exact, nearly all of them Orthodox. In 1992, the community installed an eruv, a symbolic boundary that permits observant Jews to carry objects in public on the Sabbath, spurring observant families to move in. In 2016, a sprawling new Jewish Children’s and Family Services building opened. Ida Crown Jewish Academy, a coed
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Orthodox high school, moved out of the neighborhood that year and was replaced by the Veitzener Cheder, a Chasidic school. Transplants to the neighborhood, like Muller and the district’s alderman, Debra Silverstein, said families are drawn by the neighborhood’s intimate atmosphere, a quieter life and lower prices than they may find in New York, combined with a wealth of Orthodox Jewish institutions. Silverstein, who unseated the incumbent alderman in 2011, has focused on sprucing up the neighborhood’s physical appearance, including widening Devon’s sidewalks, installing new lights and filling potholes. She has also made sure that on Shabbat, there is no city construction work in the neighborhood and police run extra patrols near synagogues. Silverstein also arranged for extra garbage pickup during the Muslim holiday of Ramadan following the traditional large evening meals for the month-long observance. “We’re working together to create an environment that’s nice for people to live with their Jewish faith,” she said. “Devon Avenue was looking a bit rundown and dirty, and we were able to clean it up.” Rieger’s Jewish organization has also spearheaded projects to improve what he calls the neighborhood’s “public face.” He organized a protest to get the city to deal with an abandoned movie theater and the surrounding overgrown parking lot. Today the building is a working storage facility and the former parking lot is a park. Rieger also lobbied officials to clean up a park and nature trail, and to link two disconnected halves of a walking path with a pedestrian bridge that’s currently under construction. He was also part of a group that successfully pushed for a new library in West
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Rogers Park. His next goal: a new fire station. He said it’s important to maintain the local Jewish community because so many brick-and-mortar institutions already exist here and because having a Jewish neighborhood in Chicago’s city limits helps the larger Jewish community maintain clout in the city. “We’re protecting an investment,” Rieger said. “I see us as the communal insurance policy.” One thing longtime residents note is the lack of internal Jewish diversity in the neighborhood, which had Orthodox, Reform and Conservative communities half a century ago. Now the only active non-Orthodox congregation is the egalitarian Mah Tovu. “People who wanted to send their kids to public school mostly wanted to move to the suburbs,” said Sam Fox, a former president of Mah Tovu. “This neighborhood has not been an attractive one for young families unless they were frum and wanted to be close to the frum institutions,” he added, using a Yiddish term for Orthodox observance. In a sense, Jewish diversity has been supplanted by interethnic diversity. Fox related that his neighbors include Chaldean Iraqi, Irish and Japanese families. Although residents say there isn’t a lot of interaction among the different communities, they all say West Rogers Park is a successful model of a diverse neighborhood where everyone feels safe and comfortable. Ranjana Bhargava, a longtime resident, said Jewish families have felt comfortable dining at her house because her kitchen is vegetarian. Rieger said religious Muslims, for example, use the local JCC’s separate workout facilities for men and women. “One of my former colleagues said it’s going to be safe and stable because you’ve got all of those synagogues there,” said Ashish Sen, vice chairman of the Chicago Transit Authority, recalling a conversation he had when he moved to the neighborhood in the 1980s. “The kids are all studying for medical school, so you don’t have to worry about street gangs.” Indian residents of the neighborhood may be following the Jewish example. Sen said that recent South Asian immigrants have tended to move directly to the suburbs, leaving Devon as a largely commercial center for the community. Branches of Patel Bros. in the suburbs, he said, are much bigger than the West Rogers Park location. No one in the neighborhood said they expected Jewish West Rogers Park to be what it once was — a religiously Jewish diverse cross-section of synagogues, stores and restaurants. But Rieger said the change is not something to be lamented. He’s happy that West Rogers Park’s Jewish community appears not just to be surviving but thriving. “What was here in the 1960s and the ’50s — I used to hang out here — it’s never coming back,” he said. “How many Jewish merchants do you have nowadays? People go into the professions, people go into academia. It’s a changing world.” “We’re not going to see that again. So we have to build the new reality.” PJC DECEMBER 27, 2019 11
Opinion Thank you, Sandy Koufax Guest Columnist Ray Werner
I
t was a few years after Mazeroski destroyed the Yankee dream for the ages, made Mickey Mantle cry like a baby, and created a million seats in Forbes Field, if you believe everyone who says they were there for the seventh game. Make that a million plus one. I was there. The ’60 World Series. Yeah, I love baseball. But this was 1963. I was going to Duquesne University, working in a funeral parlor for a free room, dating my future wife who lived next door, studying at Carnegie Library in Oakland across from Forbes Field, and grabbing as many Pirate baseball games as I could. Believe this? They opened the outfield gates in the seventh inning and you could just walk in. True. Get lucky, it would go to extra innings. Sundays, for a buck you could buy a seat in the bleachers and see a doubleheader. Right on the third base line. And If you had another dollar, you could have a couple beers and a hotdog. I liked to get there early for batting practice. Must have seen a couple dozen games that summer. We were playing the Dodgers, the ones from Los Angeles, late of Brooklyn. I was
hankering to see Sandy Koufax, maybe the greatest left-hander ever, then or now. He had 25 wins and five losses in ’63. Yogi Berra said, “I can understand how he won 25. I can’t understand how he lost five.” Willie Stargell said, “Trying to hit Koufax is like trying to drink coffee with a fork.” One of the greatest days in his career, Stargell said, was the day Koufax retired. What a season he had in ’63. Had an ERA of 1.88, struck out 308 with 11 shutouts. In back-to-back games, he struck out 31, a record that will hang forever. Won the Cy Young and MVP. Yeah, the Dodgers also won the World Series. I was in the bleachers, hoping to see the Man. The Dodgers infield were shagging balls, the coach hitting them down the line to Maury Wills and other infielders. There was just a handful of us in the bleachers, several fans a few rows behind me and one old guy about a dozen rows in front of me, all by his lonesome. And there he was, the great Sandy Koufax, about 30 yards up the line, just standing there, chatting with another Dodger. I was close enough, if I had the nerve, to have gone down and quietly, respectfully, asked for his autograph. But I didn’t have the nerve. Still, it was a sunny day that just got a little sunnier. Out of nowhere, a ball came down the line like a shot and Koufax had to skip out of the way to avoid it. No big deal. No doubt happened a lot.
Right away, this old guy several rows in front of me jumped up and cupped his hands and yelled at the top of his booming voice. “Hit that Jew on the head and kill ’im.” And he sat down quickly like he never said it. Sandy Koufax and the other player looked over at the bleachers. They heard it. Did I just see Koufax smile? They quickly turned back to their conversation, like it never happened. It happened, all right. I turned around to look at the few other fans near me. We were incredulous. But we just shrugged it off. Went back to watching infield practice. So did the old guy in front of us. Koufax never flinched. Never retaliated. Never came over to ask who yelled such a vicious slur. And I wondered how many times over 162 games this happened to him. Had to be plenty. His esteem with me skyrocketed. Fast forward to 2018 and the horrific hate crime at the Tree of Life building. We live a 10-minute walk from there. Like all of Pittsburgh, we were devastated. Before mass the next day at neighboring St. Bede, where I’m in the choir, we wondered what hymns to sing. What would be appropriate? One we selected was the gorgeous “We Have Only One Life to Live.” A young lady in our choir burst into tears. One of the victims, Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz, was her personal physician. Our pastor, Fr. Tom Burke, who also
is chaplin for the Pittsburgh Police, said our mass would of course be offered for the victims. And after mass, “Let’s make a procession up to the synagogue and pay our respects.” There were flowers in the vestibule to take with us. Even our feeble parishioners with walkers made the two-block hike up Wilkins Avenue. The crime scene was packed with camera crews from everywhere. One of our choir members started to sing the St. Francis classic, “Let There Be Peace on Earth.” We joined in and so did most everyone else, including the cameraman beside me. A chill went up our spines. That hymn was never sung more beautifully, ever. A few weeks later, doing a little yard work, the Tree of Life still on my mind, I stopped and stared at our flower boxes. And I’m back in the bleachers at Forbes Field. That liner nearly hits Sandy Koufax. That old man cups his hands and expels his hatred. Koufax looks over at me and smiles. And I see something else. Something more. A resilience that is “Stronger Than Hate.” Compelling. Penetrating. Promising. I see the pride, the courage, the love of my Jewish neighbors, of all of Pittsburgh. We will never let this happen again. Not in this city. Thanks for the smile, Sandy. PJC Ray Werner is a playwright and former advertising executive and lives in Point Breeze.
Want interfaith kids to love Chanukah? Expose them to Jewish traditions year-round. Guest Columnist Roberta Rosenthal Kwall
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uring a season where signs of Christmas seem to be on every corner, many Jewish parents in interfaith families struggle with how to meaningfully incorporate — and get their children excited by — the Jewish side of their tradition. But parents who really want to effectively help their kids fall in love with Chanukah will have to make a year-round commitment. When Jews marry people from other religions with distinct cultural traditions, they often find it comfortable and even desirable to raise their children either in dual cultural-religious traditions or in a home defined as culturally Jewish without any religion. The term “interfaith” does not really describe the majority of intermarriages in our increasingly secular American society. Instead, most mixed marriages can more accurately be termed “intercultural.” While these parents have the best of intentions, Christianity is the majority religious culture in the United States, so parents trying 12 DECEMBER 27, 2019
to create and preserve a sufficiently rich transmissible Jewish tradition are fighting an uphill battle. Of course, this reality does not just impact Jews in mixed marriages during the month of December. It is relevant to families seeking to transmit Jewish tradition throughout the year. Parents who want to expose their children to a meaningful appreciation for Jewish tradition must be prepared to celebrate more Jewish tradition in their homes all year round. Parents also need to be conscious of providing their children with enough Jewish cultural capital to compensate for a world in which the majority religious culture is not Jewish. Consider, for example, how much children can learn from a Shabbat dinner every Friday night preceded by lighting the candles and a prayer over the wine and challah. Shabbat dinner does not have to be an all-night affair, but it does need to be crafted as something special and important. The harvest festival of Sukkot also presents endless possibilities for creating wonderful, fun-filled family memories, including the construction of a sukkah, a portable backyard structure for eating and sometimes even sleeping. Who doesn’t love a weeklong party dining al fresco and sleeping under the stars? Jewish religious tradition furnishes a detailed path for living that extends to all
areas of human activity. This path, known as halacha (Jewish law), covers far more than ritual: It extends to virtually all areas of human activity including business, medical matters, clothing and sex, just to name a few examples. Although the vast majority of Jews in the United States do not meticulously follow halacha, many Jews still cherish particular religious rituals and cultural traditions that are a product of the law. Chanukah is among the most familiar examples, as is the Passover seder. Many Jews, including those who are intermarried, still want to expose their children to some of these traditions. Since the 1970s, the rate of intermarriage in the American Jewish community has climbed steadily, reaching 58% by the beginning of the 21st century. According to the 2013 Pew Center Portrait of Jewish Americans, 71% of non-Orthodox Jews who married between 2000 and 2013 married non-Jews. The Pew Report shows that only 20% of intermarried Jews are raising their children exclusively in the Jewish religion, and 37% are not raising their children to be Jewish at all. The remaining intermarried couples are raising their children either partly Jewish “by religion” (25%) or Jewish but “not by religion” (16%). These categories make sense given the study’s finding that over 60%
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of Jewish Americans see being Jewish as a matter of ancestry or culture rather than as a matter of just religion, or as a combination of religion, ancestry and culture. The playing field between Jewish cultural tradition and Christian cultural tradition is not level because the Jewish tradition is the minority one in this country. As a result, it takes more of an investment of time and energy to craft a plan for any family’s Jewish journey. But when families celebrate Jewish traditions consistently and joyfully in a way that is feasible for their lifestyles and levels of observance, children cannot help but learn how beautiful Jewish tradition can be. Such a remixed approach to Judaism also emphasizes the development of personal meanings in connection with various rituals and traditions. The overall goal, in December and year-round, should be to teach children that Jewish tradition represents a unique and meaningful way to experience life. PJC Roberta Rosenthal Kwall is the Raymond P. Niro Professor at DePaul University College of Law. She is the author of “Remix Judaism: Preserving Tradition in a Diverse World” (forthcoming February 2020, Rowman & Littlefield) and “The Myth of the Cultural Jew: Culture and Law in Jewish Tradition” (Oxford U. Press).
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Opinion The response to the Jersey City shooting exemplifies the dangers of not taking Chasidic Jews seriously Guest Columnist Meyer Labin
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he horrific shooting in Jersey City was unfortunately the third deadly anti-Semitic attack at a Jewish institution in recent years. The victims of this attack were members of the Orthodox Satmar movement, a Chasidic community known for being insular and conservative. It was encouraging that this fact didn’t minimize the shock and grief felt by the entire Jewish community, who came together in solidarity and were united in collective shock in the wake of this horrific event. A video released by the progressive group Jews for Racial and Economic Justice featured Jews from many denominations sharing their condolences addressing “the Satmar community.” There were hundreds of donations made to the several online fundraisers established in the wake of the tragedy. This outpouring of love manifested offline, too, as many secular Jews from all over the United States contacted the bereaved Ferencz and Deutsch families. Some came to express sympathy and solidarity in person.
Despite the deep differences in the Jewish world, our historic bonds run deeper. When tragedy strikes, those differences are insignificant compared to the bonds of brotherhood and common destiny all Jews share. Grief is something most of us are unfortunately intimately familiar with, and loss is something to which we can all relate. And tragically, it is grief and loss that bring us together more than anything else. But as this tragedy has also brought my Satmar community under the spotlight, the responses from the general public and the wider Jewish world have underscored how little people know about Chasidic Jews, this community in particular. The reactions were a mix of love and sympathy, but also fascination and curiosity. The unfolding of the tragic events allowed outsiders a rare glimpse into the lives of an otherwise insular community, which from the outside can sometimes look enigmatic and even mysterious. The attack has compelled many people to look us in the eyes for the first time, and it felt at times as if they were surprised to discover humans who grieve and are in pain staring back at them. The haredi community is culturally and visibly different than any other group of people with whom you normally interact, and therefore our very existence sometimes
provokes a wide range of emotions, from curiosity to contempt. But it is important to keep in mind that these characteristics can make us easy targets for anti-Semites — and “othered,” sometimes even by our fellow Jews. Some of the assumptions about haredi Jews play into classic anti-Semitic tropes: We are often depicted as stingy, greedy, noisy and unfriendly. On the flip side, our communal piety is also sometimes overly romanticized and glorified. As a very distinct group, we are easily identifiable and easily branded. It takes only a few headlines to turn us all into slumlords, sexual predators or saints. But we aren’t any of that. We are a community with shared values and traditions, but that doesn’t give us all the same character traits. Many friends from different Jewish communities have reached out to ask how they can help and what they can do to make the community feel safer. While I cannot speak for the entire community, if there is one lesson to take away from the response to the tragedy, it is this: You may have your own opinions about our way of life, and you may even strongly disagree with it. But when Chasidic Jews are saying they are afraid and feel unsafe, it is the duty of all of us to stand up in their defense. Mere expressions of solidarity are not enough — nor is solidarity
that comes only after tragedy strikes. When we are being ridiculed or mocked for the way we dress or speak, it isn’t funny, it is worrying. When officials and neighbors in Jackson, New Jersey, or Rockland County, New York, single out Chasidim as bad neighbors or as a “threat to our quality of life” and tailor zoning laws to limit the community’s natural growth, it should be seen for what it is: good old-fashioned anti-Semitism that eventually leads to the sort of violence we saw last week in Jersey City. When Chasidim are harassed and targeted online or on the streets, they are not isolated events but a revelation of deeper anti-Semitic hatred that must be uprooted and fought with the same might as any other form of anti-Semitism. The murderous event didn’t happen in a void — it came after years of ignoring hate and mockery of Chasidic Jews. Our community hasn’t been taken seriously, and it is time for this to change. Jewish solidarity isn’t just soul-comforting — it saves lives. If we have the support of our Jewish brothers and sisters, we will feel a bit safer in our streets and such tragedies may be prevented in the future. PJC Meyer Labin was born and bred in the Satmar community in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to a family of 14. He is a father of three and currently resides in Jerusalem, where he writes for Yiddish publications.
Jewish veganism is worthy of study Guest Columnists Jacob Labendz Shmuly Yanklowitz
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ot long ago, if one were to have denied chicken-matzah-ball soup, meat-based cholents or kibbeh their due place on the Jewish table — not to mention Passover’s boiled eggs — they might have been dismissed for having no respect for Jewish cuisine or culture. This has changed in recent decades, as Jews have joined members of other communities in asking transformative questions about how the things that we eat affect the world in which we live and those with whom we share it. Many Jews — as Jews — now eschew the brutalization and killing of animals, electing instead to eat diets based in compassion and free of animal products. This vegan or vegetarian approach to life extends even to other spheres of production and consumption, sometimes posing challenges for people who observe Jewish law closely and traditionally. Yet this lifestyle no longer demands
of practitioners that they separate themselves from their Jewish communities. Our communities, rather, have begun to embrace this lofty change. In other words, Jewish veganism and vegetarianism are no longer marginal phenomena. In time, they may even become the Jewish norm — or so we hope. The Jewish vegan movement, if we may identify it as such, comprises a broad spectrum of ideologies and practices linked by a common bond and by references to the Jewish traditions and cultures which frame them. Reform and cultural Jews often have different approaches to negotiating the melding of Jewishness and veganism than do more traditionally observant Jews. Jewish veganism looks distinct and carries varied meanings in Israel and throughout the Diaspora. The relationships between veganism and other, often-broader ideological commitments varies by individual and community. We nonetheless perceive that veganism has emerged and continues to develop as a unifying lifestyle for Jews throughout the world, bringing us together in projects of cultural, political, ethnic and ethical activism and growth. Reflecting on Jewish veganism, we realize that our own stories form only a tiny part of a greater paradigm shift, one that has mainstreamed discussions of animal welfare
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and food ethics within and beyond our communities, as well as consumption practices formerly considered fringe. We notice with interest and pride how complex and multivocal Jewish vegan and vegetarian movements have become. Conversations and their source-bases have broadened, new traditions have taken root, and we have established varied communities of commitment and debate, which often extend beyond the ever-porous boundaries of the Jewish community. We love that Jewish veganism, like other minority veganisms, can challenge and transform the normative expectations around veganism, adding to its depth, beauty and inclusivity. Convinced that Jewish veganism has come of age and fascinated with its promises, we worked with scholars, activists and rabbis to produce a new edited volume, “Jewish Veganism and Vegetarianism: Studies and New Directions.” Published by SUNY Press, this collection of essays contributed by 19 authors explores the historical, theological, cultural and intellectual roots of Jewish veganism and vegetarianism, and charts burgeoning new trajectories in Jewish thought and practice. Our project “asks what distinguishes Jewish veganism and vegetarianism as Jewish … how Judaism, broadly considered, has inspired Jews to
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embrace such practices and how those lifestyles in turn have enriched and helped define Jewishness.” Co-editing “Jewish Veganism and Vegetarianism” has led us to conclude that the conversations around these topics, in the academy and within communities, has undergone an incredible transformation. The days when Jewish activists focused primarily on crafting arguments to legitimize their vegan and vegetarian lifestyles — according to Jewish laws and ethics — has largely passed, with the notable exception of Orthodox Jews in Israel. Deeply varied as they are, the perspectives, arguments and stories accessible in “Jewish Veganism and Vegetarianism” reflect only the beginning of a renewed and ever-unfolding discussion. They point to the potential of this moment for generating new vistas of Jewish culture and practice. We hope that readers will join us in charting its dynamic and ethical future. PJC Jacob Ari Labendz directs the Center for Judaic and Holocaust Studies at Youngstown State University, where he is the Clayman Assistant Professor in the Department of History. Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz is president and dean of Valley Beit Midrash and the author of 17 books on Jewish ethics. DECEMBER 27, 2019 13
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stressed. “We want to be seeing more Jewish applicants at HFL, more applicants overall at JAF, JSS and Israel scholarships.” But Lubowsky acknowledged that the stigma against those dealing with economic hardship “is absolutely a real thing, and it is a barrier to those people who feel the stigma ever coming to ask the community for help. We need to broaden and normalize the fact that people sometimes will need more money than they have. “One of the things that contributes to stigma is the perception that Jews are wellto-do,” Lubowsky noted. “But long ago, Jews were very poor. That is no longer in people’s consciousness. People seem to forget that our roots are a people of very meager means.”
Just getting by
Rebecca* and her husband John*, members of a local Reform congregation, have been struggling since 2006, since John’s former employer downsized and he took a buyout. The couple, in their early 60s, have two children living with them in their Swissvale home, the younger one in college and the older one with autism. “We are living paycheck to paycheck,” said Rebecca, who is currently working three jobs. John works the night shift at a grocery store so that someone can always be home for their child with autism. “With every paycheck, we have to look at what bill is that going to pay, what meds are due, and how much will be left over for food,” said Rebecca. She has tapped local Jewish organizations for help, including the Jewish Assistance Fund, which gave her $1,800 last year to cover auto expenses. The JAF provides grants to people requiring immediate financial assistance without expectation of repayment. Although Rebecca tried to get a loan from HFL to pay off some debts, she was declined because she had no co-signer, she said. “We are aware that one of the biggest barriers to our loans is the need to have a co-signer,” said Lubowsky, who serves as the HFL’s director of marketing and development. “Since we do not charge interest or take collateral, this is the agency’s only safety net. Having a community member share responsibility for the loan is also part of the philosophy of communal support that HFL embodies.” Still, knowing that “the co-signing piece is a frequent barrier,” about a year ago HFL “greatly loosened the requirements to be a co-signer to try to open the gates wider,” according to Lubowsky. Rebecca and John remain active at their Reform congregation and are grateful to receive a “major discount” in dues, Rebecca said, although the couples still struggles to pay the discounted rate. “But I send them something every month,” she said. “I am still paying off my younger son’s Hebrew education from three years ago. They have waived some previous bills completely, and I am grateful for that.” The family also receives a discount in membership dues at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, where Rebecca and her child with autism go to swim. Rebecca is sensitive to judgment she sometimes feels within the Jewish community. 14 DECEMBER 27, 2019
“I think it is assumed we are not working hard enough,” she said. “These three jobs are to keep us afloat. We are not on easy street.” And she is concerned about retirement. Jill*, a 42-year-old single mother with a 16-month-old, is worried about retirement. Living in the South Hills to be closer to her child’s father, Jill depends on SNAP and medical assistance. Because she does not have full-time childcare, she works a parttime schedule at an electronic manufacturing company, about 24 hours a week. “I don’t think of myself as a poor person in need,” said Jill, but she does “worry because I don’t know where I’m going career-wise.” Although there have been times when she was active in the Jewish community, she is less involved these days and has passed on attending some events because of the cost. “The young adult division pricing to some degree is cost prohibitive,” Jill said.
Orthodox aid
In the Orthodox community in which Ellen*, 49, lives in Greenfield, help is abundant, according to the single mother of a son in second grade and a teenage foster child. She relies on CHIP, low-income health insurance for her family, and the kindness of her friends and neighbors. The “support here is amazing,” said Ellen, who moved to Pittsburgh three years ago from the East Coast. She pointed to welcoming neighbors always willing to extend an invitation for meals, and to Miriam Rosenblum, who runs Keren Rachaim to help those in need and who “has money for women in the community for yom tov.” A teacher at local day schools, Ellen works about 20 to 25 hours a week. She received a grant from a JFund organization when her foster child came into her family, and Rabbi Moishe Mayir Vogel, executive director of The Aleph Institute “helped me buy clothes for him,” she said. Vogel regularly helps about 60 Orthodox Jewish families in Pittsburgh — working hand in hand with JFCS — and, with the help of a private foundation grant and government funding, provides services to those in need, he explained. “We work with 412 Food Rescue to provide fresh fruit, vegetables, bread, hundreds of pounds of food every week, discreetly, in a quiet corner in the middle of Squirrel Hill,” he said. “In addition to that, we are able to help families with a caseworker,” helping them to find loans or grants and addressing domestic abuse, which is sometimes triggered by financial problems. Ellen also praised the Orthodox community’s many gemachs — Jewish recycling programs that provide useful items for people to borrow — including one for medical equipment and one for clothing. “This community is amazing,” she said. “People make friends with you and they take care of you.” Jerry*, a divorced 63-year-old Washington, D.C., native who moved to Pittsburgh 15 years ago, agrees. Struggling for the past eight years with health issues, Jerry works full time in sales but also receives medical assistance from the government. His takehome pay “just barely covers basic expenses.” “I’m very impressed with Pittsburgh,” said Jerry, who is immersed in the Orthodox community and lives in Squirrel Hill. He
“ We need to broaden and normalize the fact that people sometimes will
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need more money than they have.
— AVIVA LUBOWSKY
has received career counseling through Jewish Family and Community Services, and around the holidays, Rosenblum provides him with gift cards to buy food. He also has received a loan from HFL. Still, he had to move to a smaller apartment and continues to owe about $3,000 in back rent. He only has a little over $500 in savings, and cannot afford to attend some
of the dinners and Shabbatons in the Jewish community that he would like to join. “And I’m just assuming I won’t be able to retire,” he said. PJC
Coaching:
inflection point in a person’s financial health, Port understands that examining one’s financial situation is a daunting task. She urged people not to become consumed by their fears. “I go at their pace and try not to push people beyond where they’re ready to go. I listen. It’s all on their agenda. I don’t tell them where they should be focusing. They tell me. It’s step by step, based on their goals.” The new financial coaching program is being made possible by a grant from The Fine Foundation. The foundation supports projects in arts and culture, Jewish life and science and medicine in the Pittsburgh region. The 50-minute coaching sessions take place at HFL’s offices, 4307 Murray Ave. While they are free, appointments require a $10 deposit that is refunded at the end of each coaching session. Appointments are required and can be scheduled at hflapgh.org. PJC
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to go,” Port continued. “That is what I help people do … spend their money smartly.” The 2017 Pittsburgh Jewish Community Study reported that there is a wide diversity in income and economic needs among Pittsburgh Jewish households. In fact, 23% of those surveyed said they are “just getting by,” “nearly poor” or “poor.” On top of that, Lubowsky pointed out that “there are a lot of costs to being Jewish. We have specific costs related to our cultural and religious participations that create further demands. It’s important to recognize the economic diversity we have and respond to people’s goals.” Port feels that “one-on-one coaching is really a game changer, helping people reach their financial goals.” While that individual coaching can prove an
*Names have been changed. Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
Hillel JUC honored at Assembly
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illel JUC was among those feted at the Hillel Global Assembly last week. The “excellence in depth” award for student engagement was given to Hillel JUC’s Jewish Student Life team, along with representatives from Brandeis Hillel, Hillel at Butler University, Hillel at Susquehanna University, Hillel Jewish Center the University of Virginia, Indiana University Hillel, Jewish Life at Georgetown, Muhlenberg College Hillel, University of Delaware Hillel and Washington and Lee University Hillel. The award is not for a specific program or activity, but for achieving organizational excellence, explained Hillel JUC Executive
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Director and CEO Dan Marcus: “It is awarded for meeting the Hillel International excellence standard of engaging more than 30% of the undergraduate population at least six times in a school year, and having them participate in a high-impact activity, such as ongoing Jewish learning, visiting Israel or leading a campus community.” At Hillel JUC, 556 Pitt students and 139 CMU students fulfilled such goals last year. The international conference was held at the Omni Atlanta Hotel at CNN Center from Dec. 9 to Dec. 12. PJC — Adam Reinherz
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of the Reform movement in North America, but also “Jews of color, those on the LGBTQ+ spectrum, Jews by choice and interfaith families,” according to Rabbi Jessica Locketz of Temple Emanuel. “I think it’s becoming more of an umbrella for all sorts of people identifying with Reform Jewish principles.” Rabbi Amy Asin is the URJ’s vice president and director of strengthening congregations. During her presentation on Dec. 12, she introduced a term that proved popular among many of the attendees: “Jewish-adjacent.” Rodef Shalom member Susan Friedberg Kalson, the immediate-past chair of the resolution committee and current chair of the Commission on Social Action, explained that the term “goes back several decades” and includes “non-Jewish family members who interact with our movement.” “I know in the Torah,” she continued, “that there are examples of people we would now call Jewish-adjacent who are part of our community, although not a Jew.” The breadth of the Reform movement was on display Friday night when more than 5,000 Jews gathered for what was billed as the largest Shabbat service in the country, which included a 100-member volunteer-choir. “It is the highlight of the Biennial to be together with 5,000 Jews praying and singing and sharing Shabbat,” Locketz reflected. “It’s always amazing to share that with lay leaders who have never experienced it before.” For Lynn Magid Lazar, a member of the URJ board of trustees and a vice chair of the World Union for Progressive Judaism as well as a Temple Sinai member, a high point of the Biennial came during Shabbat services on Saturday, Dec. 14, when a Torah that survived the Holocaust in Czechoslovakia was transferred to David Maxa, a soon-to-be rabbi for the Jewish community of El Chajim Prahad in the Czech Republic. The Sefer Torah had been cared for by the North American Reform Jewish youth leaders at URJ Kutz Camp in Warwick, New York, since being loaned by the Memorial Scrolls Trust in London in 1974. The scroll will now go back to the trust before returning to the Czech Republic, where it was written in 1890. “It was an incredibly exciting moment. When the Torah was handed to him, it was amazingly emotional, when you think about the emerging, thriving communities in places like the Czech Republic,” Lazar said. During the Biennial, delegates approved three resolutions. The first supports those affected by the opioid crisis. In it, the Reform movement resolves to advocate for the importance of addressing substance abuse; engage congregations and leaders across the URJ to end the stigma around substance use; urge governments to support evidence-based approach for opioid use, increase the availability of opioid reversal medications, expand access to government-funded programs, authorize funding to address the increase in substance use and craft polices to limit prescription opioid abuse. It also calls for congregations to educate their members and include naloxone in their emergency preparedness kits. The second resolution calls for an end
p Rabbi David Maxa from Prague, Czech Republic, receiving his synagogue’s first Torah. The Torah was previously used by URJ Camp Kutz. Photo provided by Dale Lazar
p Susan Freidberg Kalson, chair of the Commission on Social Action of the Union for Reform Judaism (center), and social justice advocates from the Religious Action Center, including Rabbi Jonah Pesner. Photo by Dale Lazar
to private prisons. As Kalson explained it, “the bottom line is there’s a real inherent conflict of interest. You are making money by keeping people incarcerated and giving them the fewest possible resources because you want to keep making as much money as possible. That’s a problem.” The last resolution supports the study of proposals for U.S. slavery reparations. It does not define what form those reparations should take; it simply calls for a federal commission to study and develop proposals
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on the matter. By approving the resolution, the URJ became the first major Jewish movement to endorse the idea of reparations. Kalson said the URJ “wanted to put our flag in the ground and say, ‘400 years of systematic racism has damaged this country.’ It has, of course, damaged the descendants of slavery but it has damaged all of us. This is about how we right wrongs of the past so we can begin to heal.” Temple Sinai member Frank Schwarz has attended the last 13 Biennials. His wife performed as part of the volunteer choir
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during Shabbat service. He said the meetings are a chance for him to recharge his batteries, “and it fulfills this need every time.” He recalls Rabbi Jamie Gibson of Temple Sinai telling him once, “You can’t live on the mountaintop, but it’s nice to visit.” The next URJ Biennial will take place December 8-11, 2021, in Washington, D.C. PJC David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org. DECEMBER 27, 2019 15
Life & Culture ‘Stones and Roses’ exhibit links response to Antwon Rose and Oct. 27 shootings — LOCAL — By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer
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t’s said that every rose has a thorn, but at East End Cooperative Ministry, purple roses have stones. A new exhibit pairing the shooting of Antwon Rose II and the attack at the Tree of Life building features photographs, paintings and statements reflecting the period following the two 2018 events. Collectively, the exhibition’s materials demonstrate communal value, explained curator Julie Mallis, of Repair the World Pittsburgh: “The show is about how people have come together in response to violence.” “It highlights community actions in the last year and a half done with a lot of communities coming together in solidarity to support one another,” echoed Zack Block, Repair the World Pittsburgh’s executive director. The exhibit largely consists of photographs, paintings and explanatory words set against the Ministry’s white painted walls. Many of the images taken by Pittsburgh photographer Brian Cohen showcase local activists and members of Bend the Arc: Pittsburgh at protests and public gatherings. “Brian Cohen is an amazing photographer, and Repair the World has been a huge fan of his work for years,” said Mallis. “We knew that we wanted to feature Brian Cohen’s work to give context.” Mallis sifted through nearly 400 images before settling on approximately 15, including one photo of 11 yahrzeit candles encircling a pile of stones (placing stones on a Jewish grave is a traditional act of remembrance). Other photos detail the creation and placement of purple roses. Purple was Rose’s favorite color and the flower choice was an obvious nod to his surname. So in the aftermath of his killing on June 19, 2018, by an East Pittsburgh police officer, Bend the Arc began recruiting people to construct and hang purple felt
p One of the felt purple roses that were placed in honor of Antwon Rose II in the ‘Stones and Rosese’ exhibit. Photo by Brian Cohen
roses, explained Sara Stock Mayo, of Bend the Arc: Pittsburgh. The public art project meant to demonstrate “solidarity and love,” she said. “The beautiful and symbolic” actions were reminiscent of crafts collected and displayed throughout Squirrel Hill following the October 27, 2018, attack at the Tree of Life building. “There has been an overwhelming outpouring of love and support for the Jewish community in both word and deed. Volunteers participating in the purple rose project want other communities to have that same experience of being seen,” said Yael Silk, of Bend the Arc: Pittsburgh, in a statement. “I know for us in Squirrel Hill, part of what made me feel so incredibly overwhelmed with love and support was how other communities showed up for us,” said Stock Mayo. “I think what’s hard in these
situations is you never know what to do for other people, especially when a community is hurting so deeply. We wanted to reach out in some kind of loving way, and walking around Squirrel Hill gives me a sense of hope, and I think for other people to give back in that way felt significant.” Interspersed with Cohen’s photographs (and occasionally included within the images) are paintings from artist DS Kinsel, co-founder of BOOM Concepts, featuring the names of cities, including Pittsburgh, Poway, Charlottesville and others that have experienced gun violence in recent years. Other works from Kinsel include painted phrases or statements including “Detention Centers” and “President Trump, You Refuse to Build a Country Where We All Belong But We Will.” Several of Kinsel’s paintings were “used by the Jewish community and Bend the Arc
parents, Ethel “Inkie” Landerman and Edgar Landerman, instilled in her and her sister, Emily, at a young age. “My parents taught us about tzedakah and giving, and going beyond talking about being kind,” said Landerman-Garber who
Landerman-Garber said she is proud that she and her sister, a Fox Chapel resident, continue to uphold those values. But the fact that her project became a national story (she’s been covered by numerous outlets including CNN.com and ABC World News Tonight) doesn’t make it any more important than anyone else’s simple act of kindness, she explained. “I mean, this was a family tradition that started from a magazine,” she said. “If I had five cards next year instead of 175,000, that’d be fine p Cards, left and above because every act of kindness counts.” Photos courtesy of Laura Landerman-Garber The key message, she continued, is to discover the good and act on it. “It’s really easy to reach in and find it recalled as a child participating in civil and then do something about it.” PJC rights marches, visiting schools located in Braddock and “in the Hill” and baking Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ cookies to bring to volunteer sites. pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
Cards: Continued from page 6
and senior military officials. The trek paid off, as weeks ago she sent nearly 175,000 holiday cards to soldiers stationed overseas. Logistically, it required the local post office to open early at 5:30 a.m. on three separate occasions. “We bring donuts and coffee; it’s very hometown-y,” she said. Hollis, New Hampshire, has a population of 7,684, according to the 2010 census. It’s a place where people tend to help each other, such as during a recent rainstorm, recalled Landerman-Garber. “My husband was at work and I didn’t have anybody to help carry the boxes, so I called the fire department, and within minutes there were two firefighters there ready to carry them in.” That spirit of assistance was something her 16 DECEMBER 27, 2019
around their street action one year after the attack at the Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha synagogue,” notes an explanatory panel at the exhibition. Like Kinsel and Cohen’s works, the exhibition’s materials “share black, Jewish and intersectional solidarity across identity, coming together through ritual, art-making, collective grieving and organized action.” Complementing the exhibit’s aims are displayed works from the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh’s upcoming comic series. “‘CHUTZ-POW Volume 4’ tells stories of women in the Holocaust, incorporating topics of gender and sexuality as well as Muslim rescuers,” explained Lauren Bairnsfather, executive director of the Holocaust Center. “This volume celebrates women whose experiences resonate now, connecting the past to the present. For that reason, Julie Mallis and I saw a direct link with the ‘Stones and Roses’ exhibit. We are thrilled that visitors to the exhibit have a preview of the art by Marcel Walker.” Collaboration with Repair the World stems from the Center’s desire to leverage shared interests, continued Bairnsfather: “As the Holocaust Center increases outreach to educate about the dangers of anti-Semitism and related destructive ideologies, especially as Pittsburgh struggles to address inequality, we see the important role that Repair the World plays in building solidarity across communities.” “Stones and Roses” runs through April 21, 2020, and is presented in partnership with Bend the Arc: Pittsburgh, BOOM Concepts, Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives, Heinz History Center, The Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh, 1Hood Media and the East End Cooperative Ministry. Mallis hopes interested parties, including students, will make time to visit. “The show is about how people have come together in response to violence,” added Mallis. “It’s not a focus on violence, but on how people have reacted in real time.” PJC
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Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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Life & Culture ‘A latke-and-menorah Jew’: ‘Trust Exercise’ author Susan Choi talks about her Jewish identity — BOOKS — By Josefin Dolsten | JTA
O
n the day she found out she was being considered for the National Book Award, Susan Choi was swimming laps at her gym, trying to busy herself. “Early in my career I just learned to close my ears to awards season,” she said. “I think it’s distracting and really stressful.” When Choi emerged from the water, she found her phone flooded with emoji-filled congratulatory text messages. Her novel “Trust Exercise” had made the first cut. In October, she was named a finalist and last month she took home the prestigious award. The Brooklyn-based author’s comingof-age novel follows a group of students at a suburban performing arts school in the early 1980s. Two students there navigate the fallout of an intense relationship. The novel tells its story, which deals with issues of consent and sexual assault, from multiple perspectives that at times leaves the reader unsure of what actually transpired. Choi, whose father is Korean and mother is Jewish, started working on “Trust Exercise” about five or six years ago, but it came further into focus with the explosion of the #MeToo movement. In a first for the author, current events influenced her to the extent that she decided to tweak the ending of the novel before its publication earlier this year. “I kept saying to my agent, ‘I just don’t think the ending is what I want it to be,’” she told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in a phone interview. As dozens of allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein came out in the fall of 2017 and then against other prominent men, Choi said she was especially influenced by conversations on the topic with other women. Choi, 50, is no stranger to critical acclaim. Her novel “American Women,” which was based on the 1974 kidnapping of heiress Patty Hearst by a left-wing terrorist organization, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and was turned into a film that premiered earlier this year. She has won a number of awards, including the Asian American Literary Award, the PEN Emerging Writers Awards and the Lambda Literary Award, and has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. She grew up up in South Bend, Indiana, the daughter of a Korean immigrant father and an American-born Jewish mother whose parents had emigrated from Eastern Europe. There she saw no families that looked like hers — in fact, Choi says there were no other
Jewish or Asian people in her neighborhood. “My mother and father equally stuck out like sore thumbs,” she said. Things changed when she was 9 and her parents divorced. Choi moved with her mother to Houston, settling into a heavily Jewish neighborhood where many of her mother’s relatives lived. There Choi fit in as a Jewish person but not as partly Asian. “Suddenly I was much more of the anomaly,” she recalled. A reader might surmise that it is with her Asian identity that she feels more comfortable — given its appearance in her work compared to her Jewish roots. Choi’s first novel, “The Foreign Student,” which is inspired by her father’s immigrant experience, tells the story of a young man who moves to the United States after being traumatized by the Korean War. It won the 1999 Asian American Literary Award for fiction. And for six years, she has been working intermittently on a project inspired by her paternal grandfather, Choe Chaeso, a prominent Korean intellectual, and how he portrayed Japan in his writings during its occupation of Korea. But Choi says it’s with her Jewish identity that she feels the most at home. “I’m like a latke-and-menorah Jew,” she said. “I didn’t even have a bat mitzvah. My mom was just not up for it, which was fine, but culturally I feel much more comfortable in a Jewish context than I do in an Asian context.” Though she was the only partly Asian person in her Houston Jewish community, she was exposed to a different type of diversity. “I grew up in a large extended family of Jews who were vegetarians and atheists and left-wing and middle-of-the-road and more observant and less observant, and so I guess I internalized that there were so many ways to be Jewish, and I’ve never felt inadequate or worried about my Jewish identity,” she said. Choi never had a similar experience that related to her Korean roots. “My Asian identity is much more tentative, and I think about it more and I feel less secure there because I always feel like I don’t understand or I don’t know enough about it,” the author said. “I don’t speak a word of Hebrew because I went to Hebrew school four times and then I didn’t wanna ever go back, and my mom was like ‘Whatever’ — but it doesn’t make me feel bad about myself,” she continued. “But the fact that I don’t speak Korean makes me quite insecure. I do think it has to do with upbringing, and just growing up in a very diverse Jewish environment where there was that space to just be Jewish however you happen to be Jewish.” Still, Choi has yet to explore her Jewish identity in her writing.
p Susan Choi attends the “American Woman” premiere during the Toronto International Film Festival, Sept. 12, 2019. Photo by Ernesto Distefano/Getty Images
“It’s something that I’ve thought about for years mostly because I find my mom’s family’s stories so interesting,” she said. “But part of what has I think made me not go in that direction with my writing is there’s so much amazing literature about Jewish identity and Jewish experience, and I’ve never yet felt like I have something I can really add to this.” But she doesn’t rule out writing about it. “I think there are also possibly future projects for me that are going to draw on my family’s history — other aspects of it that I haven’t really explored — but I don’t know what those projects will be,” she said. For now, however, Choi has her hands full. She is in the process of adapting “Trust Exercise” into a screenplay for a miniseries. She is also figuring out if she is ready
to return to the project about her paternal grandfather — from which she took a break to write “Trust Exercise” — or whether it still needs more time to stew. She is also raising her two sons, aged 12 and 15, from her marriage to New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells, from whom she is now separated. That’s all in addition to teaching classes at Yale University, where she is on the English faculty, and trying to find time to go swimming, hiking and kayaking. Oh, and prepare for Chanukah. “I bought Chanukah candles this year on time, so I won’t be scouring the (store),” she said. “I actually have them in the house already because often it’s the case that I’m like, ‘Oh my God, it’s Chanukah and I have no candles.” PJC
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DECEMBER 27, 2019 17
Celebrations
Torah
Anniversary
A ladder for the bor Rabbi Jeffrey Myers Parshat Mikeitz Genesis 41:1-44:17
W Photo by Ed Opall
Photo by Jonny Finkel
Morton and Rosalie Opall (neé Gland) of Uniontown are celebrating 60 years since their wedding in McKeesport on Jan. 3, 1960. Retired owners of Opall’s Just Beds, the Opalls were longtime leaders in Uniontown’s Jewish community, active in the former Tree of Life Synagogue and in B’nai B’rith and Hadassah, respectively. They now worship at Temple B’nai Israel in White Oak. Since retirement, the couple enjoys frequent travel, spending winter months in Fort Myers, Florida, and visiting children in Richmond, Philadelphia and Tel Aviv. The Opalls met as teenagers at a BBYO event and remained together while Rosalie studied at the University of Pittsburgh and Morton served in Okinawa, Japan, with the U.S. Marine Corps. To friends, family and especially their three children, five grandchildren and a first great-grandchild on the way, Morton and Rosalie Opall are an example of how — through humor, mutual respect and a whole lot of love — a couple can live and work together for decades and remain best friends. PJC
Shabbat Chanukah
e are in the midst of the longest narrative in the book of Genesis, the story of Joseph. Thanks in part to Andrew Lloyd Webber, the basic elements of the Joseph story became well-known to many who might have been unfamiliar with his rise to power within Pharaoh’s court. It remains rather remarkable that an Israelite youth who interpreted dreams of prisoners becomes in charge of Pharaoh’s court and of all the land of Egypt. Pharaoh does so not because of Joseph’s resume, which is rather thin, but because he recognizes that the spirit of God dwells in him. Joseph seems to have reached
any negative impact that these two events have on him. Rather, it revels in his successes, first as the head of Potiphar’s household, and second as a powerful minister in the court of Pharaoh. Joseph possesses a remarkable well of strength that enables him to cope with these two low moments and rise above them. Trauma can take many forms, as we have learned so well here in Pittsburgh. Indeed, trauma can surface many years after. You may recall that this past summer, two teenagers from Parkland and a parent from Newtown took their own lives. Their own trauma must have been unbearable. Mental health specialists have taught me that it is likely that the delayed effects of trauma will surface in our neighbors. An individual event, or series of events, can be a catalyst. The answer to Cain’s question to G-d, “Am I my brother’s keeper,” must be a resound-
A traumatized individual may not recognize the signs yet need help beyond their own skill sets. If we see something, better to say
Inaugural Jerry Rabinowitz Memorial Scholarship awarded
p The presentation of the inaugural Jerry Rabinowitz Memorial Scholarship Photo provided by Alex Gardner
O
n Dec. 13, the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the Rabinowitz
family awarded the inaugural Jerry Rabinowitz Memorial Scholarship to Sarah L. Smith-Benjamin, M.D., a resident physician in the Department of Family Medicine. The scholarship honors the life of Rabinowitz, a member of Congregation Dor Hadash who was murdered on Oct. 27, 2018, during the anti-Semitic attack at the Tree of Life synagogue building. Rabinowitz, a doctor of family medicine, “was beloved by people at Penn, where he studied, and adored in Pittsburgh where he was very much a fixture of the community,” read a press release from Penn Medicine. Rabinowitz’s nephew, Elliot Rabinowitz, who also graduated from Penn Med, spoke about his uncle’s passion for not only medicine, but people. PJC — Toby Tabachnick
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or do something and be in error than not act and regrettably learn afterward that we were right in our assessment. the pinnacle of success. It is an incredible story, considering how low he has been. Not once, but twice, we find Joseph tossed into a pit, in Hebrew called a “bor.” The first is when his father has dispatched him to check up on his brothers who were shepherding the flocks in Shechem, and they tossed him into a “bor.” The second time is when he was imprisoned by Potiphar upon the accusation by his wife that Joseph tried to molest her. When Pharaoh cannot find someone to interpret his dreams, Pharaoh’s chief cupbearer recalls Joseph’s talents. Pharaoh sends for Joseph, and he is retrieved from the dungeon, also called a “bor.” Despite these two low points in his young life, with faith in the Almighty, Joseph is able to rise well above the bor moments and achieve greatness. What a remarkable figure Joseph is that he has the skills to integrate into his being two traumatic episodes and rise above them. The Torah never mentions
Rabbi Jeffrey Myers is the rabbi of Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Congregation. This column is a courtesy of the Greater Pittsburgh Rabbinic Association.
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ingly vocal “yes.” A traumatized individual may not recognize the signs yet need help beyond their own skill sets. If we see something, better to say or do something and be in error than not act and regrettably learn afterwards that we were right in our assessment. How fortunate we are to have the 10.27 Healing Partnership in our community, housed within the Squirrel Hill JCC, a safe space populated by professionals who are present for us when difficulties arise. Appointments are not needed. If you recognize someone you know who seems to be in their own personal bor, give them a hand or a ladder, and help them move upward toward a better future. It is our moral imperative. We are our sister’s keepers. Shabbat Shalom. PJC
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Obituaries BROWDIE: Dr. Gerald S. Browdie, on Friday, Dec. 20, 2019, a dentist whose career-long commitment to the health and well-being of children earned him smiles from fans of all ages, died on Friday at his home in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh. He was 88. Dr. Browdie, who grew up in Pittsburgh, was recognized not only as a clinician but also as an advocate for public health. His founding of a family dental center at Westmoreland Regional Hospital in Greensburg to provide care to children from families on medical assistance earned him recognition across both the region and his profession. For 30 years beginning in 1972, Dr. Browdie divided his time between a dental practice in Greensburg and the dental center, which under his direction expanded from treating 150 patients in its first year of operation to more than 25,000 annually. “Low-income parents can’t afford to take their children to the dentist,” Dr. Browdie told the Tribune-Review in 2002. “This is a serious problem in this country.” Generations of patients credited Dr. Browdie’s gentleness with easing their fears of visiting the dentist. Advocacy by Dr. Browdie helped to secure funding for the dental center from the federal Head Start program, the AFL-CIO’s national poverty fighting branch, the Pennsylvania Department of Health, Westmoreland County, and Westmoreland Regional Hospital, among others. The hospital later received a federal grant to open a second clinic in Waynesburg. In 1973, Dr. Browdie led the establishment of a separate department of dentistry at Westmoreland Hospital, where he served as a director of the hospital’s foundation. He was named to the American College of Dentists in 1984. Dr. Browdie received his undergraduate and dental degrees from the University of Pittsburgh and did his residency in pediatric dentistry at the University of Rochester’s Eastman Institute for Oral Health. A lifelong fan of sports, Dr. Browdie played varsity basketball for Fifth Avenue High School. He later served as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army’s infantry division at Fort Benning. Dr. Browdie is survived by his wife Lois; his son Brian; a daughter Stacy; his son-in-law Dan Cohen; a daughter-in-law Krista Dong; three grandchildren, Andrew, Maddie, and Josh; and his brother Leonard of Squirrel Hill. Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. Interment Beth Abraham Cemetery. Donations in memory of Dr. Browdie may be sent to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, 501 Martindale St., Suite 670, Pittsburgh, PA 15212. ISZAUK: Claire R. Iszauk, 90, of McKeesport, died Friday, Dec. 20, 2019, at UPMC Canterbury Place. Born in the Bronx, New York, Oct. 14, 1929, she was the daughter of the late Max and Ethel Weintraub Gland. Co-owner of the former David’s of White Oak, she served as secretary for the Congregation Gemilas Chesed and Temple B’nai Israel. Wife of the late David S. Iszauk, sister of the late Arlene Elias, she is survived by son Alan L. (Debbie) Iszauk of Monroeville, granddaughter Jenna Iszauk of
Cleveland, OH, sister Rosalie (Morton) Opall of Uniontown, brother-in-law Sherman Elias and sister in law Sondra (Joe) Mendlowitz, also nieces and nephews. She was a member of Congregation Gemilas Chesed and its Sisterhood, Temple B’nai Israel, Hadassah, B’nai Brith and the McKeesport Heritage Center. A service was held at the Hunter Funeral Home, Inc., 1600 Coursin St., McKeesport, PA 15132. Interment followed in the New Gemilas Chesed Cemetery. Contributions are suggested to Congregation Gemilas Chesed, Temple B’nai Israel, B’nai Brith Youth or Chabad of Monroeville. MEYERS: Karl F. Meyers, stockbroker (1933–2019), 86, died peacefully at home Dec. 17, after a long and debilitating illness. A stockbroker for all of his adult life, Karl was the devoted son of the late Alvin and Belle Meyers, loving father of four children, five grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews. Rachel Meyers, his wife of nearly 41 years, described him as a modest, compassionate and gentle man who cared deeply for his family and his Jewish faith. She said her mother, 102-year-old Carolyn Goldberg, was his biggest fan. “Karl had a keen moral fiber,” Rachel said. “But also, a dry wit and a penchant for gentle kidding.” A Pittsburgh native and graduate of Peabody High School and the University of Pittsburgh, class of 1954, Karl spent two years in the United States Army, primarily as a cryptographer in Taiwan after the Korean War. He founded the stock brokerage firm of Babbitt Meyers & Company in the Union Trust Building in the late 1960s and later was a vice president at several investment firms, including UBS Paine Webber, ending his career at Merrill Lynch in 2000. William A. Luttner, a friend and business colleague for 37 years, said Karl’s guiding business principle was client advocacy. “‘Be careful with your client’s money,’ Karl would always say,” Luttner recalled. “Don’t sacrifice quality for yield. Make patient decisions; the market is open every day,” adding “common-sense advice that isn’t so common.” Karl is survived by his daughter Beth Plotkins (Bob) of Kensington, MD and three sons: Alan (Sharon) of Pittsburgh, Andrew (Megan) of Denver and Noah (Kara) of Washington, D.C., and five grandchildren: Leah Plotkins, Jesse Meyers, Liesl Meyers, Anabelle Meyers and Ben Meyers. Services were held at Rodef Shalom Temple. Interment at Homewood Cemetery. The family suggests memorial contributions to the Jewish Family and Community Services, 5743 Bartlett St., Pittsburgh, PA 15217 or Squirrel Hill Food Pantry, c/o JFCS, 5743 Bartlett St., Pittsburgh, PA 15217 or Hebrew Free Loan Association, 4307 Murray Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15217 or Animal Friends, 562 Camp Horne Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15237. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. schugar.com PJC
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Adrienne Marks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Multiple Adrienne Marks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alvin Marks Adrienne Marks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Herbert Marks Beverly S. Marks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alvin Marks Beverly S. Marks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Freda Schwartz Beverly S. Marks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Annette Nussbaum Rona Mustin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Henry Mustin Larry Myer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Dora Zeidenstein Alan Nathan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . William Nathan Barbara & Marshall Ostrow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Charlotte Ruthrauff Toni Pentino . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Dorothy Schusterman Joan Privman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Maurice H. Margolis Faye S. Rosch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Multiple Faye S. Rosch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Edith and Sidney Singer Faye S. Rosch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Becky and Louis Schwartz Richard, Mindy, & Logan Stadler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Milton Henry Platt Selma P. Ryave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sol E. Podolsky Rhoda F. Sikov . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ella R. Finn Paula R. Singer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anna Rubin Cheryl Sober . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Norma Harris Linda & Martin L. Supowitz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Albert J. Supowitz Linda & Martin L. Supowitz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Albert J. Supowitz Marlene Terkel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Melvin Silverblatt Boris Weinstein . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lena Weinstein Dr. Larry Winsberg. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Frances Winsberg Gusky Roberta Zarin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . William Solomon
THIS WEEK’S YAHRZEITS — Sunday December 29: Milton Backal, Baruch Berenstein, Bert Bergad, Sydney Bertenthal, Fredric Alvin Green, Samuel M. Hyman, Philip Katz, Joseph Levy, Ella Markowitz, Louis Miller, Gust H. Oppenheim, Ralph Pecarsky, Sol E. Podolsky, Abraham W. Shapiro, Rae Specter, Bernard H. Weiss, Ann Whiser Monday December 30:Harry I. Alpern, Isadore Caplan, Samuel Finkel, Louis Gallet, George J. Golden, Joseph Goldhamer, Celia Kaddell, Charles Kanselbaum, Lina Kapner, Phillip Larry Katz, Louis Kessler, Sarah E. Kramer, Blanche Levine, Louis Monsein, Jacob Robinson, Shirley B. Samuels, Sarah Stein, Albert Zweig Tuesday January 1: Pearl Alinikoff, Ethel Berry, Beyne R. Bricklin, Ida Briskin, Sheldon A. Cohen, Thomas Cohen, Abe Darling, Charles Finesod, John J. Fischer, Morris R. Gordon, William L. Kann, Arnold Kanselbaum, Gertrude C. Kimball, William Krapin, Samuel Fishel Londo, Sgt. Max Marcus, Mollie Rubin Pretter, Joseph Recht, Harry Rice, Charlotte June Ruthrauff, Meyer M. Snyder, Erma R. Spielberger Wednesday January 2: Edna Sarah Bennett, Max L. Berg, Moses Bluestone, Paul Cooper, Sadie Mermelstein Feinberg, Celia Garber, Henrietta Goldman, Phillip Goodman, Nathan Greenberg, Rose B. Gross, Ethel Farber Hoyt, Yetta Klein, Dr. Marvin Kurfeerst, Celia Levin, Ruben Marcus, Samuel Neustein, Belle Mandell Rodin, Ruth Sachs, Bessie Sands, Abraham Schulman, Julius Shapiro, Louis Shapiro, Raymond Weinberg, Bella Zeman Thursday January 3: Anna Arnowitz, Freda Blumenfeld, Dora Cole, Anna Sanes Cukerbaum, Esther Davis, Caroline Falk, Theodore Gold, Abe Goldstein, Josephine Levine Gottlieb, Ada Hilsenrath, Anna Hinkes, Harry Kellman, Harry Klatman, Josiah Drotman Lazar, Harry Levinson, Samuel Mandelblatt, Abe Mullen, Sadie Segal, Jennie Shaffer, Tillie Simon, Louis B. Supowitz, William Zeidenstein Friday January 4: Berul Amstey, Fannie Berner, Florence G. Davidson, Joseph Goldhammer, Ethel J. Greenberg, Helene Tumpson Horewitz, Albert Marcus, David Miller, Edwin L. Miller, Fannie Pecarsky, Fannie Robinson, Maida Rothaus, Esther Levy Shapiro, Matthew Teplitz, Ida Sack Tobias, David Weinberger, Morris Wolf Saturday January 5: Bess B. Aberman, Abraham Boodman, Henry E. Green, Esther Ruth Karpo, Edward L. Kimball, David Labowitz, Reuben B. Lando, Anna Miller, Laura Roth Miller, Jerome Myers, Samuel Roth, Samuel Shaffer, Edward H. Talenfeld
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DECEMBER 27, 2019 19
Headlines Rabbis: Continued from page 2
excitement in large congregations about hiring women rabbis. It felt like a great time to emerge as a young rabbi. “I felt the same thing at Rodef Shalom,” Pine continued. “I felt so warmly welcomed and greeted, and it felt like there was such enthusiasm and excitement for a woman clergy, and especially for a young clergy.” And yet, there were comments made about or to Pine that would not have been made had she been a man. “Early on a congregant came to Rabbi (Mark) Staitman and said ‘Rabbi Staitman, the new rabbi doesn’t wear nail polish,’” recalled Pine. “And Rabbi Staitman said, ‘Yes--that’s because it is the tradition of Rodef Shalom that the rabbis don’t wear nail polish. Dr. (Rabbi Walter) Jacob didn’t wear nail polish, I don’t wear nail polish, so it is the tradition.’” The male rabbis at Rodef Shalom were
wholly supportive of their female colleagues, the panel members agreed. “Early on, my very first summer there, Mark (Staitman) and Walter (Jacob) left for the summer and left me there alone for a month which was great,” Pine said. “One of the families was having a bar mitzvah, and they said to Rabbi Jacob, ‘You know, we don’t think our family will be a hundred percent comfortable with a woman rabbi, so would you just stay and do the bar mitzvah?’ And Rabbi Jacob said without missing a beat, ‘Look you can have Rabbi Pine, or you can join another congregation.’ I did the bar mitzvah, and it was fine. So, I felt tremendous support from my colleagues coming in as a woman rabbi.” Locketz, who was the second female assistant rabbi to be hired by Rodef Shalom, found that “both Dr. Jacob and Rabbi Staitman were very kind and helped me learn how to do a funeral Rodef Shalom style, and how to do a wedding and how to do a pastoral care visit here,” she said. “And I felt like I was really welcomed into all of the congregation. I wasn’t pigeonholed
Interfaith: Continued from page 3
and a Chanukah party being held at the same time. But it can work in Pittsburgh. It works for us,” Jensen said. “I’ve been asked 100 times, ‘Why’d you do this?’ I say, ‘It’s the right thing to do. We’re neighbors. We’re Pittsburghers.’” The church has a lengthy interfaith resume. It hosted the first-ever radio broadcast of a religious service on Jan. 2, 1921, on the precursor to Pittsburgh’s KDKA. The pastor at the time asked the radio station’s two soundmen, who were Roman Catholic and Jewish, to dress in robes so they’d blend in. Alan Hausman — Tree of Life vice president of administration and finance, and the congregation’s Volunteer of the Year — blended in just fine Sunday. He wove throughout the crowds, mingling with members of both congregations and listening as others talked about the stainedglass windows at Calvary.
p Rabbi Jeffrey Myers Photo by Justin Vellucci
into what sometimes becomes the standard assistanceship roles of responsibilities. The three years I spent here were great years for me in learning how to be a rabbi.” Locketz did, however, recall, officiating at shiva minyans, where someone would say, “‘We don’t have 10 men here, can we still have the service?’ I would look at them and say, ‘Well, I’m leading the service, so I think we are OK without 10 men.’” Other experiences Locketz has had that are unique to being a female rabbi include the fact that “there is always someone who will say, ‘Oh, I’ve never kissed a female rabbi,’” Locketz said. “It’s like, well, now is not going to be the day.” While the Rodef Shalom community was welcoming to Hertz, she did find a “challenge in Pittsburgh outside of Rodef Shalom, in the greater rabbinic community of Pittsburgh,” she said. “I had wonderful colleagues but because of the size and because of the closeness of all of our colleagues, I often struggled personally with what it meant to be a female rabbi outside the safety of Rodef, what that looked like and
what that felt like in the larger community.” Even after serving Rodef Shalom for 20 years, Henry remains stymied by the fact that some members of her congregation are as focused on her appearance as they are on her sermons and ideas, she said. “I get about as much attention to what I say and how I do things as to what I look like, or what I wear, or my hair or my shoes or my clothes or my weight, or how big I was when I was pregnant,” Henry said. “I still feel that most of the conversations I have with people are not about ideas. It’s very challenging to do work and be up here and preach your heart out and do a sermon about something you believe in, and then to go to the oneg and to have people not say a word about it, but to tell me they like my dress or something. And I know they mean it as a compliment, and maybe they feel it is the only way to talk to me, but it is just so frustrating.” PJC
“I’ve been in this building so much, I could probably give tours,” laughed Hausman, a lifelong Squirrel Hill resident. Hausman said he saw the day’s activities as an illustration of the bonds between the two congregations. “This is all just an extension of sharing,” Hausman said. “In the end, we’re all the same. We all want the same things for our families. Our traditions are different but this is just a great way of sharing them.” He also said these sorts of interfaith moments were especially poignant for a congregation that had been shaken so much by the October 2018 shooting. “If we could all be a community like this, what happened to us last year wouldn’t have happened,” he said. Sarah Wilson is part of this growing community. She is a Calvary church verger, which means she’s responsible for helping to lead processionals and accompany readers to the lectern during Sunday religious services. “I think of the common faith stream between the Jewish faith and the Episcopal
faith,” said Wilson, whose father was an Episcopal minister and whose brother converted to Judaism. “We all started at the same place. So this is very meaningful to me.” For Michele Woltshock, the Tree of Life membership chairwoman who helped organize Sunday’s crafts for children, the event this week was all part of a larger narrative. On Dec. 8, there was another chapter in the story, when about 30 Tree of Life members, led by Myers, descended upon the “Christmukkah” pop-up bar at Bakery Square to celebrate holidays of multiple faiths. “I want people to know we are an active congregation, I want people to know we are small but mighty,” said Woltshock, who was born Christian and converted to Judaism. “This year and a half has brought us closer than ever. We are family. And joining these families is great.” “2020 is going to be our year,” she added. “This is the future now.” PJC
the first person from Pittsburgh to do so, was another opportunity to top expectations, explained Snyder, a mountaineer who in recent years has summited Aconcagua, Kilimanjaro and Mt. Blanc. “I’m not a runner so this for me was a huge challenge, and I actually didn’t really tell anybody about it because I was kind of unsure of how it would end,” she said. Snyder placed 10th out of 15 women. Lenka Frycova of Czechoslovakia took first in the division with a time of 4:40:38. William Hafferty of the United States placed first for the men, and set a new
course record with a time of 3:34:12. Snyder returned to Pittsburgh on Dec. 16, nine days after heading off for unknown adventures. With the marathon now behind her, she is eager to explore new challenges and perhaps tie them to fundraising efforts: “I’d like to contribute in some way.” Charity runs, walks and rides, in which individuals solicited others for nonprofit support, raised more than $1.39 billion in 2018, according to The Peer-toPeer Professional Forum. Apart from isolated stretches along a frozen course, much of Snyder’s Antarctica stay was spent with fellow travelers who also traversed a barren land in search of personal goals. What Snyder learned from her “once in a lifetime” experience, she said, is that “when you put your mind to something, you can really do anything.” PJC
Marathon: Continued from page 7
Roy, and then I ended up completing it.” After finishing the race in seven hours, 22 minutes and 36 seconds, Snyder donned a “Stronger Than Hate” emblazoned hat above her baklava. “I just felt like I was doing it for Pittsburgh,” she said. “I feel like we’ve overcome so much as a community and as a city, so it was kind of emotional.” Snyder, who works for her family’s multifamily housing real estate division, was encouraged by her mother to take part in the experience. Doing so was an opportunity to come “full circle,” explained Snyder: “Six years ago, I actually got a blood infection while I was in college. I was really sick, so sick that I could barely walk, and I had to take a semester off from the University of Michigan.” Finishing the marathon, and becoming 20 DECEMBER 27, 2019
p Sheila Snyder, triumphant
Photo courtesy of Sheila Snyder
PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE
Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
Justin Vellucci is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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21
Community School’s out for winter
Friday night is game night
Pitt students got into the Chanukah spirit early and celebrated the end of another semester at Hillel JUC’s annual Challah Ball. Students brought a donation or nonperishable food item for delivery to the Squirrel Hill Food Pantry. The event was sponsored by Challah for Hunger.
Area young adults gathered for a game night Shabbat club dinner. The program is a partnership between the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Young Adult Division and OneTable.
p Renee Cantor, left, Sam Wasserman, Sami Semiatin and Eric Le
Photo courtesy of Hillel JUC
p Not your mother’s mahjong
Photo courtesy of Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh
AgeWell holiday party AgeWell Pittsburgh is a collaboration between Jewish Family and Community Services, Jewish Community of Greater Pittsburgh and Jewish Association on Aging dedicated to improving the lives of seniors and keeping them independent and connected to the community.
L’chaim
Jewish young adults gathered for a tour and fun at Mindful Brewing. The program was supported by Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Young Adult Brewery Club.
p Staff from all three organizations gathered for the 2019 holiday party.
Photo courtesy of Jewish Family and Community Services
CDS at JAA Community Day School kindergarten students visited the Jewish Association on Aging and shared Hanukkah songs and personalized greeting cards. p Very mindful
Photo courtesy of Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh
Macher and Shaker Double l’chaim to New York Times Opinion writer and editor Bari Weiss who was named to The Forward 50 and The Jerusalem Post’s 50 most influential Jews of 2019. p Kindergarten Hebrew and Judaic teacher Michal Schachter leads the group in song. Photo courtesy of Jewish Association on Aging
22 DECEMBER 27, 2019
PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE
File photo by Sam Bloom
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Community Chanukah at CDS Early Childhood and Lower School students at Community Day School learned about the meaning of Chanukah and celebrated the holiday with various special activities.
p Reagan Richman displays her handmade mosaic menorah.
p Zachary Binder
Photos courtesy of Community Day School
Olive these photos Jewish Association on Aging staff and residents welcomed Chanukah with an exploration of olives.
p Naomi Alpern enjoys the sweetness of Chanukah.
p Eitan Mezare prepares for a delicious sufganiyah.
Chabad on campus
Jewish medical students enjoy a study break and get in the mood for Chanukah, picking up Menorahs and candles and enjoying latkes and lox at a Pre-Chanukah lunch with JGrads Pittsburgh on Dec. 12 in Scaife Hall at the University of Pittsburgh.
p JAA Mashgiach Eli Wilansky demonstrates how the menorah’s olive oil is made. p Carol Danhires, Charles Morris’ activities director, and a basket full Photos courtesy of of olives
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Jewish Association on Aging
p Students welcome Chanukah with Chabad on Campus.
PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE
Photo courtesy of Chabad on Campus
DECEMBER 27, 2019 23
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