Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle 11/03/2017

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November 3, 2017 | 14 Cheshvan 5778

NOTEWORTHY LOCAL Bernstein talks pro-immigration, community cooperation JCPA president visits smaller Pa. towns.

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Candlelighting 5:56 p.m. | Havdalah 6:55 p.m. | Vol. 60, No. 44 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

Historic trunk opens up learning opportunities at Temple David

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Local women say ‘MeToo,’ recount stories of abuse in Jewish settings By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer

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carrier had been housing Passover dishes in Harry and Patty Schneider’s garage before the Monroeville corps learned of its existence. During a conversation with students from Gateway Middle School, Symons told them of the temple’s desire to create a display based upon luggage. “We had heard the story of Eva Edelstein, wife of Rabbi Jason Edelstein, Temple David’s rabbi emeritus, and how she had escaped quickly in the middle of the night and how her mother had packed a small bag for her before they escaped, and it inspired the idea of a suitcase,” said Symons. “We weren’t sure whether we wanted a period suitcase or an artistic suitcase, but we knew that we wanted something that would display our congregants’ artifacts from before the war and during the war,” she added. As soon as Symons finished explaining to the students about the congregation’s

ny woman who thinks she is safe from sexual harassment and assault just because she is working or socializing in a Jewish space should think again. Last month, social media users found their Facebook and Twitter feeds flooded with “#MeToo” posts from women disclosing that they too had been victims of sexual assault or harassment. Within two days after the initiative was launched by actress Alyssa Milano, “#MeToo” had been tweeted about a million times, according to CBS News. Facebook displayed more than 12 million “posts, comments and reactions in less than 24 hours, by 4.7 million users around the world.” While Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein’s sexual assaults became national news, with more than 80 women coming forward with personal accounts of sexual abuse by the film producer, many women in Pittsburgh’s Jewish community were reminded of traumatic episodes in their own lives, often occurring within Jewish institutions, or perpetrated by Jewish men whom they had been taught to trust. Some of the local accounts occurred years ago, yet several of the victims were reluctant to share their stories publicly for fear of “backlash,” as one source put it — even given the assurance of anonymity. Those who did agree to go on the record for the Chronicle have been given pseudonyms to protect their identities. Sara, an executive at a local Jewish organization, still feels betrayed when she recalls being molested twice when she was in her teens: first by a teacher at the Jewish high school in Canada she was attending, and then by the husband of a faculty member who worked at that high school after a

Please see Trunk, page 16

Please see #MeToo, page 16

Federation searching for new home

More accessible building desired. Page 4  This 70-year-old trunk “symbolizes the fortitude of the Jewish people,” says Rabbi Barbara Symons. Photo by Rabbi Barbara Symons

LOCAL Uniting Opposite Views

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

M Israeli-Palestinian program promotes dialogue, partnership. Page 5

embers of Temple David took a suitcase full of dishes and filled it with relics of mixed emotions. The group’s creation, a multifaceted Holocaust memorial, will be dedicated Nov. 9 during the congregation’s Kristallnacht program. “Our memorial is a result of a working group coming together and sharing ideas and stories over the past year,” said Rabbi Barbara Symons, spiritual leader of the Monroeville-based synagogue. The intention was that it would “be a two-part thing;” specifically, that the installation would serve as a monument while also being educational, explained Debbie Maier Jacknin, an artist and a member of the 12-person committee. Almost accidentally — through discussion, learning and a bit of luck — the group discovered a 70-year-old handcrafted trunk. Made of brown-painted wood, the antique

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Headlines Iran deal done for the wrong reasons, says former chair of House Intelligence Committee — LOCAL — By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer

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t is not realistic to think that Congress can just chuck the Iran nuclear deal, according to former Michigan congressman Mike Rogers, a Republican who served in the House from 2001-2014. He does, however, feel strongly that the U.S. and its allies can and should put pressure on Iran that will cause it to curtail its nuclear program. Rogers, a former FBI agent and national security commentator on CNN, chaired the House Intelligence Committee for four years and had an insider’s view to the negotiation of the Iran deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). He shared some insights on the JCPOA, on ISIS and on Hezbollah with the Chronicle in advance of his Oct. 30 appearance at the Embassy Suites Downtown as the keynote speaker for AIPAC’s annual Pittsburgh event. The JCPOA, Rogers said, was done “for the wrong reasons.” “Believe me, I opposed this deal, I don’t like this deal, I think this was a terrible deal in the long term,” he said. “I think they were in a hurry to get it done,” Rogers continued. “I think they were looking for a win for President Barack Obama and not necessarily a win for international security. I think that seemed to edge out a commonsense approach to this, including by the way, giving them cash up front and opening up this economic commerce without extracting what many in the national security space believed were

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EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT Email: newsdesk@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org BOARD OF TRUSTEES David Ainsman, Chairman Evan Indianer, Vice Chairman Gayle R. Kraut, Secretary Andrew Schaer, Treasurer Richard J. Kitay, Immediate Past Chairman

Jonathan Bernstein, Gail Childs, Elizabeth F. Collura, Seth Dresbold, Milton Eisner, Malke Steinfeld Frank, Tracy Gross, Catia Kossovsky, Andi Perelman, Amy Platt, David Rush, Charles Saul GENERAL COUNSEL Stuart R. Kaplan, Esq

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p Former Michigan congressman Mike Rogers Photo provided

more solid commitments on the program.” Pitfalls of the JCPOA include allowing Iran to maintain centrifuges and “leaving them with uranium to continue testing.” “Now we’ve left the tools that they need for a breakout period on a nuclear weapon,” Rogers said. “I thought all of that was just not great. I happened to see it from the inside as chairman of the Intelligence Committee, and some of the concessions and the giveaways that they were giving away up front made no sense for a real and sustainable nuclear deal. It just made no sense.” Members of the Obama administration, instead, were focused on “talking about the president’s legacy and how this will be a legacy issue for the president,” Rogers said. “When I heard language like that I knew we were in

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trouble. I knew they were willing to give things away that you’d normally not even consider, knowing what you’re trying to accomplish.” The cash that Iran obtained with the signing of the JCPOA — more than $100 billion — has enabled that regime to “promote instability in the region,” Rogers said. “We’ve seen it in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen. Clearly, they’re engaged in Syria in a way that is troubling as it’s right on the Israeli border.” Although the deal is “bad for the United States,” European allies were eager to get it done to pave the way for trade with Iran, Rogers said. “They wanted to be open for business, and they were eager to do it,” Rogers noted. “I get that, and I appreciate that. But at the end of the day, that unleashed this maligned presence across the Middle East with cash to do it.” That cash helped fund the Quds Force — the arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard responsible for terror operations abroad — which previously had been “starving for money,” he said, “without asking for a change in that behavior. The Quds Force may have been directly or indirectly responsible for maybe as many as 600 American deaths in Iraq. When you’re willing to give that away, something doesn’t seem right to me.” While Rogers does not think it is realistic to dismantle the deal with the support of U.S. allies in Europe, he would like to “hold [Iran’s] feet to the fire on certain elements of the deal.” To put pressure on its nuclear development, Rogers would “try to push them back in the box on their missile development, their missile testing. Those are all in violation of U.N. sanctions. I think we ought to go back to our allies and say, ‘Let’s go down this

path of tightening on their ability to develop, obtain and test more sophisticated, more accurate missile systems.’ I think we might have more success there.” It is important for the U.S and its allies to “use our pressure points to try to push [Iran] back into being a good global citizen,” he said. “And I would start pushing back significantly on their support of terrorism in the region and destabilization. All our European allies know that. Some of them shrug, but we need to re-engage in that. This, to me, is where that diplomatic piece is so important. “Undoing the nuclear deal will cause a lot of problems,” he continued. “So, we need to understand that, and we need to be realistic.” In addition to putting pressure on Iran because of its missile development and testing, he said, there also needs to be pressure on its “engagement in international terrorism” by putting sanctions on its financial institutions. “You can ramp back up some pretty serious sanctions with cooperation from Europe with what is now a growing body of evidence that Iran is engaged in supporting terrorism and destabilization efforts across the Middle East,” Rogers said. While Iran poses a significant threat to the security of both the U.S. and Israel, the more immediate threat, according to Rogers, is “the vacuum of ISIS leaving Raqqa — which is a great thing, but now how do we continue to combat what we know will be a military campaign for ISIS that shifts to more asymmetrical, terrorist-focused events?” That shift will be “dangerous,” he said, Please see Iran deal, page 20

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Headlines JCPA president urges improving relationship with African-American community, supporting immigration Part of the mission of the JCPA, and the more than 125 JCRCs across the country which are under its umbrella, is to forge and strengthen relationships with other religious By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer and ethnic groups, as well as community or the last several weeks, David Bern- civic leaders, because “we can’t afford to be stein, president and CEO of the Jewish isolated in our own cities,” Bernstein said. The JCPA recently received a matching Council for Public Affairs, has been grant for its Criminal Justice Reform Initiaon a de facto tour of Pennsylvania, visiting tive from the Leon and Toby Cooperman seven cities all told, including Philadelphia Family Foundation. That project “seeks both and Pittsburgh, both of which have established and active Jewish community rela- to create a national Jewish effort on criminal justice reform and to strengthen relationtions councils, or JCRCs. But the visits to some smaller commu- ships with communities of color,” according nities, including York, Redding and Allen- to a JCPA news release. “We are doing a lot on criminal justice town, were intended to help re-establish or reform and African-American/Jewish relarelaunch JCRCs in response to the current tions, ” Bernstein told the Chronicle. “The political and social climate. Jewish community is not nearly engaged as “For many years, JCRCs were on the decline,” we once were with the African-American Bernstein said. “We’re starting to see new JCRCs community, and because of that, there is a popping up in cities that were once scaling back, growing sense of alienation. We have a stake in and we feel that it is because Jewish commuthat relationship and a stake in African-Amernities are correctly perceiving the need to be icans knowing who we are and what we stand externally leveraged and connected.” for. And that means we have to be engaged in Bernstein was in Pittsburgh last week to who they are and what they stand for, too.” meet with professional and lay leaders in the community, to talk about improving relations Bernstein anticipates funds from the with the African-American community, how recent grant to “seed a lot of work at the local best to support immigration policies in the and state levels, so that local communities are HR_102101_Eartique(DA)JewishChronicle_Sept2017_1(3)_V1 8/30/17 10:15toAM Page with 1 a lot more empowered engage AfriU.S. and the threat of anti-Semitism.

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Examining the Jewish community’s response to contemporary U.S. immigration policy is also prominent on the agenda of the JCPA. “We’re very concerned about the direction of immigration policy in this country,” Bernstein said. “It’s not just a numbers game. It’s about America’s fundamental narrative and how it sees itself — or doesn’t see itself — as a home for immigrants. “I think immigration is a bellwether of American tolerance and we are concerned that these cutbacks in immigration will undercut our basic commitment to being a nation of immigrants,” he added. “That said, we have to understand that immigration can create challenges for communities, and we have to be engaged in those challenges as well. No country has an unlimited immigration policy, and neither should the United States. So, we have to be involved in what a thoughtful and reasonable immigration policy looks like.” In addition to African-American relations and immigration policy, the subjects of anti-Semitism and Israel always loom large for the JCPA. Bernstein sees anti-Semitic threats coming from both the political left and the right and

can-Americans and build these relationships.” While the JCPA is not the only Je w ish g roup working to forge relationships with the African-American community, it p David Bernstein Photo by Toby Tabachnick is one of the only “mainstream Jewish groups in this space,” according to Bernstein. Bernstein acknowledged the difficulty between the two ethnic groups that arose last year when the Movement for Black Lives published a policy statement that included language condemning Israel’s relationship with the Palestinians, using terms such as “genocide” and “apartheid” to describe the actions of the Jewish state. Bernstein favors forging connections and communications with the African-American community as a way to combat misunderstanding and misinformation. “We can either condemn that and hope it goes away or we can find people within the movement to engage and hope that they come to know us and understand us better,” he said. “I favor the latter.”

Please see Bernstein, page 15

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Headlines Healthcare conversation takes center stage at JAA’s annual meeting — LOCAL — By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

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he only debate that emerged from “Healthcare: the Great Debate” was whether a debate had actually occurred. The proposed event, which served as the keynote to the annual meeting of the Jewish Association on Aging, presented a panel of diverse medical professionals, including Andrew W. Gurman, past president of the American Medical Association; Martin Gaynor, E.J. Barone Professor of Economics and Health Policy at Carnegie Mellon University; Daphna Gans of the David Geffen School of Medicine UCLA and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research; and Karen Wolk Feinstein, president and CEO of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation. With Feinstein serving as moderator and probing participants with assorted inquiries, the conversation illuminated a murky subject. “There’s a lot of confusion about healthcare today,” said Mitchell Pakler, JAA board chair. “There is misunderstanding. People just don’t understand healthcare or where we are going, and with the current political environment, the consumer is the one who gets lost.” “This is a topic we all care a lot about,” noted Feinstein.

That assertion was overwhelmingly agreed upon by the invited speakers, who told the more than 100 attendees at Levy Hall in Rodef Shalom that universal healthcare is a “moral obligation,” that the Affordable Care Act should be “fixed” and not revoked and that people are mostly to blame for the system’s shortcomings. As opposed to healthcare being a “privilege or a right,” it is actually “a mitzvah,” said Gaynor, who like Gurman, delighted listeners with sprinklings of Hebrew and Yiddish terms throughout the remarks. “The system has a lot of problems that need to be addressed, but we first have to agree that it’s a moral obligation that everyone is covered,” said Gans. “We need to build on the successes of the Affordable Care Act and fix what’s wrong with it,” added Gurman. The ACA “brought insurance to 20 million people,” said Gaynor. “At this point, what is necessary is to reinvest in programs and encourage younger people to get into the pool,” adding that “if only sick people get insurance, then the market collapses.” Shared responsibilities are intrinsic to universal healthcare, but what steps are needed to bring Americans on board with this mindset, asked Feinstein. “Culture has much to do with the situation”, said Gurman. “We can’t just superimpose the demands of a single-payer system

on the masses, there is always an out. Whether in Israel from the Kupat Cholim or in England from the National Health Service, there is an escape valve. In Canada, the escape valve is the United States.” As much as people may be beating the drum on universal healthcare or a singlepayer system, there are harsh realities to be faced, explained the panel. “We’re not talking about waiting an hour and a half in your doctor’s office reading Field and Stream from 1980 but weeks or months to get care,” said Gaynor. “Patients can end up waiting eight to 12 months for a 15-minute surgery,” added Gurman. Certainly technology could ease burdens, noted the speakers. But, asked Feinstein, what role will it play moving forward? “Technology will develop and aid problems with geography,” said Gans, who described a disparity in health due to patients’ locales. For those people based in remote areas, “technology could create a collaboration,” she explained. One need only look back to the transition from steam to electric power to appreciate what lies ahead, said Gaynor. “It is not just having technology at hand, but learning how to use it. We don’t figure things out overnight. Everyone has to be pushed to do certain things. We’ve got the technology; we need the human organizations to catch up.”

The impediment, though, is money, explained the economist. “Anything in healthcare that is one person’s cost is another person’s income, and that makes it difficult to change,” said Gaynor. “In the immediate, we need to address the ACA. As for the longer term, we need to address healthcare costs,” added Gurman. During the question-and-answer session much of the same sentiment from the mostly harmonious discourse was expressed. “Getting everyone healthcare will be hard; bringing down the costs of healthcare will be harder,” said Gaynor. The takeaway from the discussion is that there is “no easy solution for universal healthcare coverage. It is certainly at the [forefront] of everyone’s minds,” said Deborah Winn-Horvitz, JAA president and CEO who, like others, praised the panel following the well-regarded event. “This was an outstanding program. It was informative, educational, had a sense of humor entwined in it and it touched upon a lot of different issues in healthcare,” said Sara Guttman of Squirrel Hill, who added that apart from raising a lot of questions, “it made you want to do a little more research on your own.”  PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

Federation sells its building but remains in place — LOCAL — By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

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professionals — a more suitable space with a “more modern work environment” was needed, explained Hertzman. Respondents of a past survey of Federation staff and community members revealed that they preferred a site with free parking for visitors and employees, a flexible multi-

purpose space and both a dairy and meat kosher kitchen. A new home should be easily accessible by public transportation and should be “green and maximize natural light,” the survey concluded. “There is recognition today that we have meetings in very small groups, and our

conference rooms are limited,” Hertzman said earlier. “If you’re meeting with three people, it’s strange to have such a large space. We currently don’t have space that lends itself to creativity or creative thinking.” A news release said the search for a new location that “will be more inclusive for all community members and more accessible to people with disabilities” continues. While the Federation has given itself three years to locate a new home, the interim will be spent in place, as the organization has decided to lease back the space from Walnut Capital. Additionally, per the agreement, the Federation may preserve particular elements of the property, such as its stained glass windows. Details regarding the sale and purchase price were not disclosed by Hertzman. In a statement, Jeffrey Finkelstein, the Federation’s president and CEO, praised the opportunities presented by the sale. “This move will be great for the Jewish Federation staff and volunteer leadership to create an exciting environment in which we can work in an even more collaborative way,” he said.  PJC

epresentatives from the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s board of directors have announced that the organization will sell its Oakland-based headquarters to Walnut Capital. “We went through an extremely thorough and competitive bidding process to identify the best strategic partner,” said Adam Hertzman, the Federation’s director of marketing. “We were impressed with Walnut Capital’s proven innovation in enhancing communities through thoughtful, impactful development. With the sale of the building, our organization will be able to grow its reach by focusing less on time-consuming and costly operational issues and more on meaningful initiatives that support our mission.” The properties, located at 234 McKee Place and 242 McKee Place, have been home to the Federation since the 1955 merger of the United Jewish Fund and the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies. Given the organization’s growth — its one-time employment of fewer than 15 individuals has expanded p The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh building at 234 McKee Place. Photo courtesy of the Jewish Federation of Greater PIttsburgh to a staff of more than 60 full-time

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Headlines Israeli settler, Palestinian activist come together at Federation program — LOCAL — By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer

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hich narrative is right: the Palestinians’ claiming they are occupied refugees on land that historically belongs to them, or the West Bank settlers’ claiming that same land as their own, given to them by God in the Torah? Can both narratives be right? That is indeed the position of a network of Palestinian and Israeli grassroots advocates in the West Bank that call themselves Roots. The nonviolent activists look to each other as partners to an ultimate peace and, through dialogue and joint programming, come to recognize their neighbors’ connection to the land as being just as valid as their own. Two representatives from Roots, Orthodox settler Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger and Palestinian Christian Antwan Saca, were in Pittsburgh last week to address an audience including Presbyterians and Jews at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, a graduate theological school of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) located in East Liberty. While members of the Presbyterian Church are generally divided in their positions on the Israel/Palestinian conflict, in 2016, the church passed a series of resolutions at its General Assembly against Israel, supporting the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against the Jewish state and approving a report that labeled Israel’s “policy trajectory of continued settlements and brutal occupation” as “deeply troubling.” The program at the PTS, which drew 113 people, was sponsored by the Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, in cooperation with the PTS and Christian Associates of Southwest Pennsylvania. “We wanted to give the Jewish community and the Christian community the opportunity to hear a unique perspective on the Israeli/ Palestinian conflict that most people haven’t heard before,” said Josh Sayles, director of

in every fiber in our being,” he said. “We see ourselves as a link in a tradition going back 3,000 years. The land of Israel is an integral part of our identity.” Saca, in turn, described the victimhood created among his people when “700,000 Palestinians were kicked out of our land, creating Palestinian refugees.” That victimhoodbased identity has led, Saca said, to “resilience, resistance,” and the aim to “achieve rights.” It was not until three and a half years ago that Schlesinger “realized p Settler Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger (center) that the power and righteousness of and Palestinian Christian Antwan Saca my identity was so overwhelming, it address an audience including Presbyterians and Jews at the Pittsburgh Theological blinded me from seeing the PalesSeminary. The Rev. Liddy Barlow (right) tinian story,” he said. “Palestinians moderated the event. Photo by Jim Busis were like the background noise on the radio. I was blind, but I didn’t the CRC. “It’s a perspective that maintains know I’d been blind for 33 years.” the dignity of both the Jewish and the PalesSchlesinger saw the light one day when tinian people, recognizes the humanity in all he was driving two friends, pastors, in Gush sides and forces everyone to think outside the Etzion, and stopped to pick up a hitchhiker. box. It was the Jewish Federation’s intention He told the pastors that he would stop to not so much to attempt to come up with a pick up anyone — and then it hit him. solution to the conflict at this program, but That was, in fact, a lie, he realized. He to give people the opportunity to come at the would only stop to pick up Jews. conflict from a different angle.” That was what led Schlesinger to try to get Schlesinger, one of the founders of Roots, to know the Palestinians in the neighboring was raised in New York as a Zionist and communities and to create opportunities for made aliyah at the age of 18. others to do the same. “I didn’t want to be on the sidelines of For Saca, though he had been engaged in Jewish history,” he told the crowd gathered at the nonviolent struggle for peace between the PTS on Oct. 25. Schlesinger, who lives in the two sides since he was a child, it was not the Gush Etzion, a cluster of settlements south until he began dialoguing with Jews that of Jerusalem in the West Bank, had his life he came to realize the Israelis’ “argument “completely transformed three and a half years for security was coming out of the fear the ago when I met a Palestinian for the first time.” Jewish community has felt over 2,000 years Saca was born in Jerusalem in 1984 to of anti-Semitism,” he said. a Christian family from the city of BethNow, through Roots’ joint projects and lehem. He is a graduate of the Arab Amer- workshops, Jews and Palestinians can create ican University of Jenin and has a bachelor’s trust and understanding. degree in public law. The organization offers activities every Schlesinger described the intensity of day to engage the two populations with each commitment that the settlers feel for the land. other. Sixty children join together in a youth “Our Jewish identity is deeply embedded group that has visited both the Yad Vashem

Holocaust center and a destroyed Palestinian village. A women’s study session focuses on both the Quran and the Torah. Roots is a way to “try to find a way to be reconnected with the land without stepping on the backs of the Palestinians,” Schlesinger said. While Roots has a political vision, it is not a political movement, stressed the rabbi. “We are working to create dignity and rights for now,” he said. “We are preparing the human groundwork for a future peace plan.” The message the activists wanted to leave with the crowd was that it is “OK to be pro-Palestinian, and it’s OK to be pro-Israel,” Schlesinger said. “But we’d like you to be pro-Israel and to be pro-Palestinian at the same time. We are really on the same side — the side of peace and reconciliation.” The program, Sayles said, was successful in achieving its aim of exposing its audience to a new way of looking at the conflict. “Almost everybody that I talked to that was unfamiliar with Roots said they had never heard that perspective before,” Sayles said. Sayles compared the work of Roots to the path that led to the ultimate resolution of the conflict in Northern Ireland. “So many experts that presidential administrations have sent into the region to try to solve the [Israel/Palestinian] conflict are often people who had experience in the conflict in Northern Ireland,” Sayles noted. “And when you look at the Protestants and the Catholics and their narratives in Northern Ireland, both sides sat down with conflicting narratives that if you believe one, it was impossible for the other to be true. But both sides sat down and said, ‘We’re sick of fighting. Even though our narratives don’t add up, I believe your narrative, and you believe mine. Let’s have peace.’ And I believe Roots is a step in that direction.” Schlesinger and Saca also met with a group of about two dozen interfaith clergy on Oct. 26 at Temple Sinai.  PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

Lauren Rosenblatt to oversee Chronicle’s digital content — LOCAL — By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

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auren Rosenblatt has been named digital content manager for the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle. For Rosenblatt, a University of Pittsburgh graduate and former intern at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Los Angeles Times, the opportunity to direct the Chronicle’s digital presence is a welcome challenge. “We just launched a brand new website, and I’m excited to bring all of our coverage to as many people as possible,” she said. While the Chronicle has long reached its audience through print, Rosenblatt seeks to broaden the paper’s digital presence.

Through enhancing the Chrona biannual publication that icle’s social media presence, focused on a different human uploading fresh material online value each semester. and distributing a regular During her summer experie-newsletter, Rosenblatt intends ences with both the Times and to bring both weekly stories Post-Gazette, her reporting and daily updates to a digitally responsibilities included focused demographic. President Donald Trump and “I want to make the Chronhis administration, HPV as a icle more accessible by allowing Lauren Rosenblatt potentially mandated vaccine people to be able to connect and breaking news with a with us more easily.” hyperlocal focus. Such varied assignAchieving that objective is a task that ments, which included attending press Rosenblatt is well equipped to handle. As an briefings at the White House, engaging undergraduate, she regularly engaged with with scientific leaders and interviewing a fellow students while serving as managing man who jumped from the second-story editor of The Pitt News and as the founder window of his wood-frame home to escape and editor of Hillel JUC’s 70 Faces Magazine, a fire, furthered Rosenblatt’s commitment

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to providing accurate and expeditious pieces, as well as developing a relationship between a paper and its consumers. The latter is something that Rosenblatt, a runner who spent four years with Pitt’s cross-country club, considers one of her most exciting tasks. “The Chronicle is the voice of the Jewish community here. I look forward to learning what people want to see,” she said. Accordingly, Rosenblatt welcomes inquiries, suggestions and concerns regarding the Chronicle’s digital platforms. Readers may contact her at lrosenblatt@pittsburgh jewishchronicle.org or 412-228-4547.  PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz @pittsburghjewishchronicle.org. NOVEMBER 3, 2017 5


Calendar life to voices that were silenced by the destruction of the Semer record label during Kristallnacht. The concert is presented in partnership by the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh and JCC Pittsburgh’s Center for Loving Kindness and Civic Engagement. Visit jfedpgh.org/semer for more information and to purchase tickets or contact Christina Sahovey at csahovey@hcpgh.org or 412-939-7289 with any questions.

q FRIDAY-SATURDAY, NOV. 3-4 The kick-off to celebrate Rabbi Jamie Gibson’s 30th year at Temple Sinai will begin with a musical weekend. Since his early days, Gibson has shared his love for Jewish music with the congregation and brought the joy of song and harmony to services. Noted cantor and Gibson’s dear friend, Benjie Ellen Schiller, will be a featured guest and speaker during the Friday night Shabbat service. In addition to duets featuring Schiller with Cantor Laura Berman and Gibson, the Temple Sinai band and Intergenerational Choir will participate. Schiller is professor of cantorial arts at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music. Her work involves training cantorial and rabbinical students to bridge the gap between performance and spiritual leadership. She serves as cantor of Bet Am Shalom Synagogue in White Plains, N.Y., with her husband, Rabbi Lester Bronstein. Saturday’s concert, Jamie & Friends, will feature Schiller along with local area cantors and soloists as well as a local church choir. The program will include Jewish music by composers such as Debbie Friedman and Max Chaikin. Pittsburgher Andy Leo and the Homewood Baptist choir are among the “friends.” The evening, which is free and open to the community, begins at 7:30 p.m. with a Havdalah service with the concert to follow at 8 p.m. The Friday Shabbat service at 6:30 p.m. will be followed by a Shabbat dinner. Reservations are required. Visit templesinaipgh.org/ for more information and to RSVP, or contact Drew Barkley at 412-421-9715, ext. 111 or drew@templesinaipgh.org. There is no charge for the Saturday night concert, but reservations are required for planning purposes. More special events to celebrate Gibson’s 30 years are planned for 2018.

q THURSDAY – SUNDAY, NOV. 2-5

q MONDAY, NOV. 6

The National Council of Jewish Women Pittsburgh Section will hold its 47th Designer Days fundraiser at Thriftique, 125 51st St., NCJW’s upscale resale store located in Lawrenceville. Abundant free parking is available in the plaza lot. Buy tickets at is.gd/LttIkc.

The Community Day School Class of 2018 families invites the community for Comedy & Cake featuring comedian Benji Lovitt from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at 6424 Forward Ave. There will also be an auction and dessert. The program will help raise funds to send the CDS eighth grade graduating class to Israel in the spring. RSVP and pay online at comday.org/CDSIsrael. Contact Jenny Jones at jjones@comday.org or 412-521-1100, ext. 3207, for more information.

q SUNDAY, NOV. 5 There will be a panel discussion at Rodef Shalom Congregation based on the book, “Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resistance and Finding Joy” by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. The panel will be moderated by Rabbi Sharyn Henry, Rodef Shalom Congregation, and consists of Rabbi Aaron Bisno, Rodef Shalom Congregation; Rabbi James Gibson, Temple Sinai: and Rabbi Daniel Schiff, Foundation Scholar at the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. There is no charge. Visit rodefshalom.org/calendar/rscalendar for more information. J Street Pittsburgh and Partners for a Progressive Israel are co-sponsoring a program with Mekomi (My Place) at 3:15 p.m. at the Carnegie Library in Squirrel Hill. Mekomi is an Israeli organization working to build the next generation of progressive Israeli officials. The program includes Bar Gissin and Ido Stossel, who will speak about the current atmosphere of political and social activism in Israel that is being generated and organized by the younger generation and their vision for Israel’s future. Gissin is the national chairperson of Young Meretz and the development coordinator at the Center for Equality & Shared Society in Givat Haviva. Stossel is a political adviser and data analyst. Following the address, there is a reception with Mekomi. The address will be provided upon RSVP. Register at adam@jstreet.org. q SUNDAY – MONDAY, NOV. 5-6 Going Beyond Memory, a conference on synagogue archiving, will be held at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. Visit americanjewisharchives.org for more information and to register.

6 NOVEMBER 3, 2017

Moishe House Trivia Night, Wednesday, 6:30 p.m. at Social in Bakery Square. Visit facebook.com/moishehouse.pittsburgh/ for more information. As part of Beth El Congregation’s First Mondays Series, Dan Kamin will discuss “Charlie Chaplin’s Red Letter Days” from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; lunch is from 11:30 a.m. to noon. Kamin is a mime artist and Chaplin expert who trained Robert Downey Jr. for his Oscarnominated performance in “Chaplin.” There is a $6 fee for this program. RSVP in advance at bethelcong.org or 412-651-1168 by Nov. 3. q WEDNESDAY, NOV. 8 The World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh will hold a luncheon with Ambassador Thomas Pickering from noon to 1:30 p.m. at the Duquesne Club, Main Room, 325 Sixth Ave. Pickering served more than four decades as a U.S. diplomat. He last served as under secretary of state for political affairs and has served as ambassador to the United Nations, Russian Federation, India, Israel and Jordan and holds the personal rank of career ambassador. This event is presented in partnership with the Iran Project. Visit worldpittsburgh.org/event/10299/ for more information and to register. q THURSDAY, NOV. 9 Temple David will present a Kristallnacht Commemoration and Holocaust Memorial Dedication at 7 p.m. at 4415 Northern Pike, Monroeville. For additional information, contact the Temple office at 412-362-1200.

q SUNDAY, NOV. 12 The third annual Jewish Comedy Adult Night Out will be held at 7:30 p.m. at the Hollywood Theater, 1449 Potomac Ave., featuring Avi Liberman, who has performed on the CBS “Late Late Show” with Craig Ferguson and the Comedy Central network. Drinks and appetizers will be available. For more information and registration, visit chabadsh. com or contact mussie@chabadsh.com or 412-344-2424. Event organizer is Chabad of the South Hills. The cost is $25.

The Art of Grieving: Exploring One of Life’s Inevitable Experiences will be held at 7 p.m. at Rodef Shalom Congregation, 4905 Fifth Ave. Join Sheila K. Collins, Ph.D. as she shares her perspective on love, loss and healing. Visit rodefshalom.org/collins for tickets. The first 20 people to RSVP will receive a signed copy of Sheila’s award-winning book “Warrior Mother: Fierce Love, Unbearable Loss and the Rituals that Heal.” Books will also be available for purchase the evening of the event. Visit SheilaKCollins.com for more information about Collins. The event cost is $15/public and free for Rodef Shalom members. Moishe House Book Exchange from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Bring a book (or two or as many as you want). All leftovers at the end of the event will be donated. Visit facebook. com/moishehouse.pittsburgh/ for more information. q FRIDAY, NOV. 10 Shabbat Around the World, an Israeli-style Shabbat dinner, will be held at 6 p.m. at Chabad of the South Hills, 1701 McFarland Road. Call 412-344-2424 for reservations. The event website is chabadsh.com; the cost is $18/individual, $54/family max. q SATURDAY, NOV. 11 The Congregation Beth Shalom Centennial Gala, a party celebrating Beth Shalom’s 100th year, will be held from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. at the Pittsburgh Marriott City Center and will include dancing to the Boilermaker Jazz Band and DJ Jeremy Czarniak. The charge is $180 per person. Contact pghgala@gmail.com or visit bethshalom.org/events for more information. The Semer Ensemble Klezmer Concert will be held at 7:30 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, Katz Theater. Tickets are $18 for general admission, $10 for students and free for Holocaust survivors. Some tickets may be available at the door for $20 general admission and $12 for students. The Berlin-based Semer Ensemble plays music from 1930s Berlin, and gives new

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The Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Men’s Club and Sisterhood will co-sponsor a program featuring Dr. Bruce Rabin, aka Dr. Stress. Rabin will discuss “Understanding and Managing Stress for Better Mental and Physical Health.” Breakfast will be served at 10 a.m. followed by Rabin’s presentation at the Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Pavilion. RSVP at 412-521-6788 or aspeck88@yahoo.com. Suggested donation is $5. The Jewish Women’s League Mikva event, “Dealing with Life’s Challenges” with Ruchie Koval, will be held at 7:30 p.m. at Congregation Poale Zedeck. Contact nina@aishel.com or 412-225-5121 for more information. Forgotten Stories from the Homefront: Jews in Western Pennsylvania During World War I will be presented from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives at the Heinz History Center. A century ago, as Jewish soldiers from Western Pennsylvania were fighting in battles overseas during World War I, their Jewish communities were fighting a separate set of battles back home. These local battles were about patriotism, civil rights, Zionism, fundraising, unionism, religious traditions and communal bonds. Through an array of stories, researchers Tammy Hepps and Eric Lidji will show how world-changing events challenged and enhanced the identities of typical Jews living where we live today. Admission is free. Visit heinzhistorycenter.org/events for more information. q TUESDAY, NOV. 14 Chabad of the South Hills will hold its lunch for seniors at noon. The Mt. Lebanon Police Department will hold a safety presentation on frauds, cons and scams at 1701 McFarland Road. Contact barb@chabadsh.com or visit chabadsh.com for more information. There is a $5 suggested donation. Jewish National Fund (JNF-USA) will honor Steelers owner Art Rooney II and his wife, Greta Rooney, at the annual Tree of Life Award Dinner in Western Pennsylvania at 6 p.m. at the Omni William Penn Hotel. During the event, attendees will hear from guest speaker Bret Stephens, an op-ed columnist at The New York Times and a Pulitzer Prize winner. The Tree of Life Award is a humanitarian award given in recognition of outstanding Please see Calendar, page 7

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Calendar Calendar: Continued from page 6 community involvement, dedication to the cause of American-Israeli friendship and devotion to the peace and security of human life. This year’s award honors the Rooneys, who, along with their support of JNF, are active in a number of philanthropic causes. Proceeds from the dinner will benefit JNF’s vital work in Israel, striving to bring an enhanced quality of life to all of Israel’s residents and translate these advancements to the world. Sponsorship information and tickets are available online at jnf.org/wpatol. Contact Jason Rose at jrose@jnf.org or 412-521-3200 for more information. q WEDNESDAY, NOV. 15 The Translation Fellowship Program is part of the Yiddish Book Center’s translation initiative to train and mentor a new generation of Yiddish translators and publish newly translated works. Up to 10 translation fellows will be selected to receive yearlong mentorship and training to complete booklength projects in Yiddish translation. Each fellow will receive a grant of $5,000 and will attend three two-day workshops at the Center to workshop his or her writing in a rigorous collaborative environment led by seasoned literary translators and other experts in the field. Applications are due Nov. 15. Contact Sebastian Schulman at translationfellowship@yiddishbookcenter.org or visit yiddishbookcenter.org/translationfellowship for more information.

AARP Squirrel Hill Chapter 3354 will hold its monthly meeting at 1 p.m. at Tree of Life Congregation, Wilkins and Shady avenues. This month’s speaker is Mary Bock, who speaks on consumer affairs issues. Everyone is invited; membership is not required. Contact Ilene Portnoy at 412-6837985 for more information. q THURSDAY, NOV. 16 Jewish Healthcare Foundation consultant Jonathan Weinkle, M.D., FAAP, will lead a continuing education workshop on building a covenant between patient and provider based on communication. The workshop runs from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the QI2T Center, 650 Smithfield St., Suite 2600. The cost is $30, which includes dinner; needbased scholarships are available. RSVP to Ben Johnston at bjohnston@prhi.org. Lynda Schuster will speak at 7 p.m. at Rodef Shalom Congregation about her book, “Dirty Wars and Polished Silver,” chronicling her time living through a war on a kibbutz in Israel, reporting on uprisings in Central America, dodging rocket fire in Lebanon and serving as ambassador in Costa Rica, Shuster’s story is about one woman’s quest for self-discovery. q FRIDAY, NOV. 17 Friendsgiving Shabbat Potluck, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Moishe House. Join at the house for Kabbalat Shabbat services, followed by potluck dinner. Bring a vegetarian comfort food dish to share. All are welcome. Visit facebook.com/ moishehouse.pittsburgh/ for more information.

q FRIDAY-SATURDAY, NOV. 17 AND 18 q WEDNESDAY, NOV. 29

Temple Emanuel, Beth El Congregation and the JCC-South Hills present South Hills Torah Weekend. This year’s theme is Harmony of Spirit, Harmony of Sound. Bill Strickland, founder of the Manchester Bidwell Group, Manchester Craftsmen Guild and Akko Center for Arts and Technology in Akko, Israel, will speak during the 6:30 p.m. Shabbat service at Temple Emanuel on Friday. David Fabilli, known to Pittsburgh radio listeners as David Jaye, will speak about the history of jazz and Jews in Pittsburgh during the 9 a.m. Shabbat morning service at Beth El. The weekend will conclude at the Jewish Community Center of the South Hills with Havdalah and a Saturday evening concert at 7 p.m. with local jazz musician Ken Karsh. Visit templeemanuelpgh. org or call 412-279-7600 for more information.

Adulting with MoHo: Stress Management, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., at Moishe House. Come over to make stress balls and learn about destressing techniques with community member and occupational therapist Samantha Stern. Visit facebook.com/ moishehouse.pittsburgh/ for more information.

q SUNDAY, NOV. 19 Yonina in Concert, the Israeli singing duo, will be presented from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh’s Katz Theater. Known for their positive vibe and soft harmonies, Yonina’s acoustic concert in Pittsburgh will feature favorite covers from their weekly online videos along with songs from their debut album. Visit tinyurl.com/yoninapgh for more information and to purchase tickets. Author Dorit Sasson will speak about her service with the Israel Defense Forces and her book “Accidental Soldier” at Parkway Jewish Center, 300 Princeton Drive. The program will be followed by brunch and an early

opportunity to shop at the Sisterhood’s Chanukah Gift shop. Contact PJC parkwayjc@ verizon.net or 412-823-4338 for the time and more information.  Moishe House Sees Art, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Carnegie Museums of Art. Meet at the house at 1:30 p.m. to take the bus together or meet at the 4400 Forbes Ave. entrance. Visit facebook. com/moishehouse.pittsburgh/ for more information. PJC

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The Allegheny County Bar Association Recommends You

VOTE YES! KEEP THESE QUALIFIED JUDGES ON THE BENCH

S U P E R I O R C O U R T O F P E N N S Y LVA N I A

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Jacqueline O. Shogan ALLEGHENY COUNTY COURT OF COMMON PLEAS

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Kelly E. Bigley Criminal Division

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Michael E. McCarthy Orphans’ Court

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Cathleen Bubash Family Division

Headlines Why victims of terrorism care about a Philly fistfight in 1784 — WORLD — By Ron Kampeas | JTA

W

ASHINGTON — The case of Joseph Jesner v. Arab Bank is a bid by about 6,000 Israelis who have been harmed by Palestinian terrorism to get redress from Jordan’s Arab Bank, which delivered money to the groups carrying out the acts. Yet when the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in the case on Oct. 11, the contretemps most often cited was between a French official and a French adventurer in Philadelphia in 1784. Jesner, in which the petitioners allege that Arab Bank provided financial services to various terrorist groups, is an important test of corporate liability abroad for acts of terror. Lawyers for Jesner, the father of a 19-year-old man murdered in a Tel Aviv bus bombing in 2002, and the other Israeli litigants who have joined the suit say a 1789 statute known as the Alien Tort Statute allows them to sue the Arab Bank for facilitating terrorist attacks between 1995 and 2005. That argument, which has been rejected by lower courts, reached the Supreme Court in part because it addresses a divide between the court’s conservative and liberal justices over the modern application of a law initiated by events of 1784. That’s when the top French diplomat in the country at the time, a nobleman named François Barbé-Marbois, allegedly was assaulted by an adventurer named Charles Julian de Longchamps. A disagreement arose as to whether Longchamps was to be tried in Pennsylvania or France. The French government was not happy that Barbé-Marbois lacked the means of civil redress. A Pennsylvania court sentenced Longchamps to two years in prison, and the controversy is believed to have led to the passage of the Alien Tort Statute, allowing a U.S. court to consider lawsuits between non-U.S. parties if the issues “touch and concern” the United States. Congress appeared eager to show that

the baby nation was ready, as the statute put it, to consider tort, or civil wrongs, “committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States.” The statute lay dormant for nearly two centuries, but was revived in the 1980s when human rights advocates used it to sue Latin American torturers on behalf of their victims, also Latin Americans. On Oct. 11, the high court’s liberal justices seemed sensitive to arguments advanced by the human rights community, as well as an array of former counterterrorism officials, that the United States should continue to play a robust role in policing human rights abuses wherever they occur. The conservative justices worried about judicial overreach, in this case into matters best left to the foreign policies of the administration of the day. Both concerns kept circling back during oral arguments to the 1784 encounter in Philadelphia. Conservatives wondered whether the writers of the 1789 law would have considered corporations like the Arab Bank as individuals. “I mean, we passed this statute to avoid foreign entanglements because we wanted to provide a forum for someone like the French ambassador in the Longchamps affair,” Chief Justice John Roberts said to Jeffrey Fisher, the attorney appearing on behalf of the plaintiffs, “but I’m wondering if extending it to corporate liability is, in fact, going to have the same problematic result of increasing our entanglements, as it obviously has here with respect to the government of Jordan.” Justice Stephen Breyer, one of the liberal flank’s three Jewish justices, said that according to current international norms — the “law of nations” to which the 1789 statute refers — a corporation could be considered liable under the statute. He alluded to the fact that the Arab Bank has offices based in New York, making it subject to redress under an anti-terrorism treaty. Please see Victims, page 15

The Honorable

John “Jack” McVay Jr. Civil Division

“In order to ensure our justice system works as effectively as possible, keeping qualified, experienced judges on the bench is critical. The Allegheny County Bar Association encourages you to “vote yes” to retain these hard-working judges who have faithfully and effectively served all of us for the past 10 years.” – Hal D. Coffey, President, Allegheny County Bar Association

Paid for by the ACBA Judicial Excellence Committee (PAC), a political action committee of the Allegheny County Bar Association. James Ehrman, Treasurer.

8 NOVEMBER 3, 2017

p Israeli police and aid workers search the scene of a suicide bomb attack on a bus in Tel Aviv. Photo by Rahanan Cohen/IDF/Getty Images

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Headlines Orthodox Union’s new project says women don’t need to be rabbis to be leaders — NATIONAL — By Ben Sales | JTA

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EW YORK — The Orthodox Union is founding its own division to advance women as congregational leaders, as well as to promote Jewish study and communal participation for women in Modern Orthodoxy. The announcement comes nearly nine months after the group, an umbrella association of centrist Orthodox synagogues, issued a ruling banning those synagogues from hiring women for clergy roles. The Department of Women’s Initiatives, which will launch Nov. 1, aims to increase women’s participation in synagogues in a way the O.U. feels is consonant with Orthodox tradition. “I think it’s important for women to hear what they can do,” said Adina Shmidman, the department’s incoming director. “This department is really focused on the positive, and the will to continue and find opportunities for women. I think positivity and enthusiasm and uniting women through Torah study is primary, whether it be personal leadership opportunities or communal leadership roles.”

The department will have a budget in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and provide guidance, networking and funding p Adina Shmidman Photo courtesy of the O.U. for women who want to be professional leaders in Orthodox synagogues. It will also promote women as congregational scholars-in-residence and encourage women to take on lay leadership roles at synagogue. In addition, it will encourage the physical expansion of women’s spaces in synagogues. Also, the department will offer high-level women’s classes in Torah study, as well as programs for youth. And it will form a think tank to analyze programs and resources for Orthodox women. Conceived three years ago, the department is in part a response to the ascendance of women to public leadership roles during the past few decades, O.U. leaders said. They also noted that there is a much wider range of educational opportunities available to Orthodox women than in the past. A synagogue with an entirely male senior staff, said

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O.U. President Moishe Bane, risks unintentionally sidelining half its membership. “It’s difficult to expect that when men are the primary communal leadership that they’ll understand and appreciate the roles women play and should be playing, and the needs they have,” Bane said. “I think there’s a recognition in the Orthodox Union that the world is changing rapidly, and people’s expectations are changing rapidly.” In February, the group issued a ruling barring women from holding a title such as “rabbi,” or even from serving without title in a role in which she would be performing “common” clergy functions such as ruling on legal matters, officiating at life-cycle events, delivering sermons from the pulpit during services, leading services and serving as a synagogue’s primary authority. The same ruling urged an expanded role for women as teachers and pastoral counselors, and as lay leaders and professionals. The Rabbinical Council of America, another Orthodox umbrella group, has also issued a ruling against women clergy. Four Orthodox synagogues that are O.U. members currently employ women in such positions — all of them graduates of Yeshivat Maharat, a liberal Orthodox women’s seminary in Riverdale. Women

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who graduate from the seminary receive the title maharat, a Hebrew acronym for “Jewish legal, spiritual and Torah leader” that avoids conferring the title “rabbi.” But earlier this year, the O.U. sent representatives to these synagogues asking the female clergy to change their titles. According to a recent survey, a majority of U.S. modern Orthodox Jews either fully or somewhat agree that women should have “expanded roles in the clergy.” More than one-third either fully or somewhat support a woman holding a position with “rabbinic authority.” A solid majority says a woman can serve as president of a synagogue — a lay position. The Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance website currently lists over 80 women who have served as presidents of Orthodox congregations. Bane and Allen Fagin, the O.U.’s executive vice president, said the department’s establishment is not a reaction to fallout from the ban. Rather, Bane said the ban itself was a result of the department’s planning process, which included an examination of Jewish legal limits on women’s leadership. The department will advance women Please see Women, page 15

NOVEMBER 3, 2017 9


Headlines From JTA reports

Netanyahu to appear via satellite at General Assembly Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address the Jewish Federations of North America’s annual General Assembly next month via satellite on the last day of the conference. Netanyahu will be interviewed live from Israel, as he was last year. He appeared in person at the 2013 and 2015 General Assemblies and by satellite in 2014 and last year. The General Assembly will be held in Los Angeles Nov. 12 to Nov. 14. Reports last week said that an address by Netanyahu had not been confirmed, which was considered unusual that close to the event. “We are thrilled to once again have Prime Minister Netanyahu with us at this year’s GA, as we have now for so many years running,” said Richard Sandler, chair of the Board of Trustees of the Jewish Federations of North America, in a statement. “It’s a clear display of how important the relationship between Israel and the North American Jewish community is viewed by the Israeli government and by the prime minister himself.” Tensions between Netanyahu and the U.S. Jewish community have sharpened in recent months in the wake of his freeze of a plan for an expanded egalitarian prayer section at the Western Wall, favored by the Reform and Conservative movements who claim a

majority of affiliated North American Jews. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, who, prior to his presidency, had tense relations with non-Orthodox Jews, is scheduled to speak in person at the conference. Rivlin has endeavored to reach out to non-Orthodox streams since he assumed the presidency in 2014. His appearance at the General Assembly is the first time that Rivlin will speak to a major Jewish audience outside of Israel, according to JFNA. ‘One wall for one people,’ Sharansky says during visit to egalitarian space The Jewish Agency for Israel remains committed to the principle “one wall for one people,” Natan Sharansky said during a visit to the Western Wall. Reiterating his support for an agreement that would have formalized a prayer section outside the control of the Wall’s current Orthodox authorities, Sharansky, chairman of the executive of the Jewish Agency for Israel, visited the egalitarian section of the Western Wall on Monday. He was accompanied by a delegation of dozens of members of the Jewish Agency’s board of governors, from around the world. The Israeli government in June suspended the agreement it reached in 2016 to expand and upgrade the egalitarian prayer section at the southern end of the Western Wall. The government had negotiated the agreement with the Reform and Conservative movements along with the Women of the Wall

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— WORLD —

group and the Jewish Agency. The agreement put the upgraded egalitarian section on equal footing with the single-sex section and allowed it to be run by a special committee with no input from the Chief Rabbinate. Monday’s delegates were accompanied by government minister Tzachi Hanegbi, who has been charged with coordinating efforts to find a solution to the crisis over the cancelled Western Wall deal. “While it was important that the members of the Board of Governors had the opportunity to hear from Minister Hanegbi as a representative of the government, we have seen no progress on any of these issues since the government’s regrettable decision in June, and no directions toward progress were evident today,” Sharansky said. “What was frozen four months ago remains frozen. We nevertheless remain committed to the principle originally articulated by Prime Minister Netanyahu: one wall for one people.” Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, and Rabbi Steven Wernick, CEO of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, also joined the group and spoke to them at the wall. Jewish Agency board members are scheduled to hold meetings on Tuesday at the Knesset with dozens of Israeli lawmakers from both the ruling government and opposition parties. They plan to discuss the ramifications of the government’s suspension of the Western Wall agreement and its advancement of a bill to establish the Chief Rabbinate’s exclusive

authority over conversions conducted in Israel. In July, the Israeli government announced that despite the freeze of the agreement that it would go ahead with the physical expansion and upgrade of the egalitarian section, at a cost of about $5 million. Hamas tunnel discovered under UN school in Gaza A Hamas tunnel was discovered under a United Nations school in the Gaza Strip. The tunnel was discovered on Oct. 15 by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, which runs the school, and Israeli authorities were notified, the UNRWA said in a statement released Saturday. The school was immediately closed and the tunnel sealed, according to the statement. The school reopened 10 days later. “The presence of a tunnel underneath an UNRWA installation, which enjoys inviolability under international law, is unacceptable. It places children and Agency staff at risk,” the UNRWA said in the statement. “The Agency again demands full respect for the neutrality and inviolability of United Nations premises at all times. Any activities or conduct that put beneficiaries and staff alike at risk, and undermine the ability of UNRWA staff to provide assistance to Palestine refugees in safety and security, must cease.” It is the second time this year that a Hamas tunnel has been discovered under a U.N.-supported school in Gaza.  PJC

This week in Israeli history Nov. 7, 1944 Hannah Senesh dies

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

Nov. 3, 1878 Petah Tikvah is founded Petah Tikvah (Gateway of Hope), today Israel’s fifth largest city, is established by a group of religious Jews wishing to leave Jerusalem and establish an agricultural moshav.

Hannah Senesh (Szenes), the poet and Haganah fighter who parachuted into Nazi-occupied Europe to rescue Jews, is executed by Hungarian firing squad in a Budapest prison courtyard.

Nov. 8, 1936 Maccabi Tel Aviv FC (soccer) loses final match in the US

Nov. 4, 1995 Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, a prominent actor in virtually all of Israel’s modern history, is assassinated by Yigal Amir at a peace rally in Tel Aviv.

Nov. 5, 1933 Judah Magnes outlines Hebrew University expansion

In a speech marking the opening of the 1933-34 academic year, Judah Magnes, president of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, outlines an expansion plan for the university.

Nov. 6, 1884 First Gathering of the Hovevei Zion takes place

Delegates convene in Katowice (presently southern Poland) for the first gathering of the Hovevei Zion (Lovers of Zion) movement.

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Playing its final match of an 11-match American tour, the Maccabi Tel Aviv Football Club loses 4-1 to an American all-star team at Yankee Stadium in front of 20,000 spectators.

Nov. 9, 1952 Chaim Weizmann dies

Chaim Weizmann, a leader of the Zionist movement and the first president of the State of Israel, dies at his home in Rehovot after a yearlong illness.  PJC

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Headlines Making Havdalah the ‘high’ point of the week — NATIONAL — By Lucy Cohen Blatter | JTA

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EW YORK — Marijuana entrepreneur Catherine Goldberg was working on an event with the Orthodox founders of Mitzva Herbal, a company that makes kosher-certified cannabis-infused edibles, when she shared her dream of uniting marijuana-loving Jews over Friday night dinners. “They were, like, ‘Cat, we can’t smoke on Shabbat,” Goldberg, 28, recalled. “So I figured Havdalah, instead, was perfect.” Thus “Chai Havdalah” — in which “chai” is pronounced “high” — was born. Since July it has become a somewhat regular event, advertised by word of mouth, that marks the end of Shabbat with the traditional Havdalah blessing alongside the less traditional acts of smoking marijuana and eating cannabis-infused edibles. So far there have been five Chai Havdalah events, mostly in the herb-friendly states of California and Colorado. But two weekends ago, on the second floor of a brownstone in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood, about three dozen people gathered to smoke pot, listen to the sounds of a local hip-hop duo, bid farewell to Shabbat and usher in a new week. “I love being Jewish and I love weed, so it made sense to bring my two passions together,” Goldberg said on Saturday night, wearing a shirt with the words “Let’s Get Chai.” “I wanted to show people that Judaism can be really fun and it doesn’t mean you have to go to temple. I wanted to build a community around food and a new way of doing things.” Plus, she added, “Jewish people have been proven to have high rates of anxiety, and weed helps with anxiety.” Unlike Colorado, where recreational marijuana use became legal in 2014, and California, where possession is legal and adults may buy from licensed retailers beginning next year, marijuana is not legal in New York. Nonetheless, Goldberg said, “I’ve always wanted to do events in New York because I know there are so many great artists who would take part.” Every Chai Havdalah gathering has featured some sort of performance. In Brooklyn, KillinH8 rapped about topics including Judaism and gender nonbinary identity. One half of the group, “Hila the Killa,” sang some lyrics in Hebrew. Goldberg, who lives in L.A., is on a mission to spread the gospel of marijuana — she frequently writes about her passion for High Times magazine. In a recent column, she explained how cannabis can help fulfill the Jewish ideal of tikkun olam, or healing the world. “Once we heal ourselves, we can heal our friends and family,” she wrote. “There’s a massive amount of sickness and sadness and suffering in the world. Cannabis can’t fix any of those problems. But it can help us feel calmer, smarter and more focused. It can help us eat to be stronger and feel less pain. It can help put us in the mindset to perform at our best in order to take on the challenges of the world.”

p Cannabis-infused Jewish delicacies, of various levels of potency, get top billing at a Brooklyn Chai Havdalah event. Photo by Lucy Cohen Blatter

p Karen Benezra, left, and Catherine Goldberg lead the Havdalah blessings at a recent Chai Havdalah event in Brooklyn. Photo by Lucy Cohen Blatter

“ I love being Jewish and I love weed, so it made sense to bring my two passions together. I wanted to show people that Judaism can be really fun and it doesn’t mean you have to go to temple.

— CATHERINE GOLDBERG Goldberg said she grew up “super Reform” in Florida, but started to get more involved Jewishly while at Sarah Lawrence College in New York, when she began attending Congre-

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gation Beit Simchat Torah, a Manhattan synagogue with a congregation that is largely gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer. “I hated going to temple in Miami; I was

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always worried that someone would find out that I was gay,” she said. “Or I was just frustrated that I had to dress up. CBST was just an amazing place to be myself.” Around the same time, she got into marijuana — partly, she said, to help with her anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder. In addition to hosting marijuana-focused events, she curates a cannabis gift box called The Weekend Box and runs BrainBuzz, a content marketing company for the cannabis industry. She’s keen to promote marijuana’s positive effects, especially in helping to reduce pain and “quiet the mind,” which is why she uses it. Goldberg uses cannabis several times a day, starting with her morning coffee. And there are many applications, she noted. Cannabis-infused lotion, for example, should be in every old-age home in the country, she said. “It’s a great, natural painkiller,” she said. (She had some on hand at Saturday’s event and rubbed it on a reporter’s hands — no immediate effects were felt.) “I think the sense of joy and warmth and community that comes out of these events is a great way to start the week,” she said of the Chai Havdalah parties. “Also, since we don’t serve alcohol, no one ever wakes up with a hangover. It’s just a new way to socialize and have fun.” Of course, like any good weed event, tasty food is included. The “chef du cannabis” in Brooklyn was Alex Koones, who runs Babetown, a monthly popup supper club for queer women and trans and non-binary people, and also dabbles in weed-infused cooking. “I use weed oil or butter the same way I’d use regular oil or butter,” Koones said. For the squash latkes, for example, the onions were sauteed in weed oil. Other edible options included pumpkin blintzes and pear rugelach. Karen Benezra, whom Goldberg met through CBST, performed the Havdalah service at the event. Holding a rainbow-braided candle, Benezra led the group in tunes from Debbie Friedman as Goldberg stood by wearing a shirt featuring a Star of David drawn with rolled marijuana joints. While Benezra said she’s not a regular user of marijuana the way Goldberg is, she is pro-cannabis. “I recognize that it has a lot of medicinal purposes we’re just learning about,” she said. Goldberg is also making her dream of a weed-friendly Friday night dinner a reality: Her first Elevated Shabbat dinner, which will pair courses with different types of marijuana, will be in Los Angeles on Nov. 3. Adults 21 and older with medical marijuana cards may smoke marijuana, even though it’s Shabbat, when tradition forbids smoking of any kind. “It’s a much more laid-back, Reform-type of party,” she said. Goldberg plans to keep more Jewish-cannabis events coming. “We’re gonna do a medicated seder, a ‘Let’s Get Lit’ Chanukah event and something for Purim, too,” she said. “There’s a lot of stuff happening.” “I want weed to be as mainstream as coffee and energy drinks. I want people to understand that this is a plant-based medicine that Hashem grew.”  PJC NOVEMBER 3, 2017 11


Opinion Drawing Dershowitz — EDITORIAL —

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or decades, civil liberties lawyer and Harvard Law School professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz has been a riveting and sometimes polarizing public figure, speaking out forcefully and provocatively on a long list of issues, many of them unpopular and controversial. A self-described liberal Democrat, he is a fearless debater and a staunch supporter of Israel. It was this last point that apparently got under the skin of a college cartoonist at the University of California at Berkeley, who penned an editorial cartoon criticizing Dershowitz and his support for Israel that appeared Oct. 13 in the school’s Daily Californian student newspaper. The cartoonist is no Mike Lukovich or Herblock, and he clearly doesn’t like Dershowitz. The drawing depicts a grinning Dershowitz with his head poking through a cardboard cutout bearing an Israeli flag and the silhouettes of happy children. The sign

We wish the cartoon had not been published. It was poorly executed and its message is jumbled. It is, in a word, sophomoric. reads “The Liberal Case for Israel,” which was the topic of Dershowitz’s recent speech on the campus. Hidden behind the sign, Dershowitz’s foot crushes a man with a Palestinian flag and his hand cradles an Israeli soldier shooting an unarmed man soaking in a puddle of blood. UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ, in a letter to the editor, called the cartoon “offensive, appalling and deeply disappointing.” We agree. The cartoon seems to imply that Dershowitz is a front, a distraction and an enabler of the deaths that unfortunately sometimes occur in confrontations between

the Israeli military and Palestinians, many of them wielding weapons. Appalling as well is the implication that Dershowitz himself is somehow crushing Palestinian nationalism. But Christ also decried the cartoon as anti-Semitic. “Its anti-Semitic imagery connects directly to the centuries-old ‘blood libel’ that falsely accused Jews of engaging in ritual murder,” she wrote to the newspaper. Dershowitz seconded the accusation. The newspaper’s editor, Karim Doumar, wrote a letter of apology: “The criticism we have received reaffirms for us a need for a more

critical editing eye, and a stronger understanding of the violent history and contemporary manifestations of anti-Semitism.” We see how the cartoon reduces Israel to the (cartoonish) image of oppressor of the Palestinians. It likewise turns Dershowitz into a cartoonish figure. Both are offensive, and deserve to be called out. But frankly, we don’t see the blood libel, even as we see the element of anti-Semitism inherent in the cartoon’s grossly unfair depiction of the Jewish state. Dershowitz is not depicted using any of the familiar anti-Semitic tropes (hooked nose, haredi garb), and there is nothing resembling ritual murder going on. But that doesn’t excuse the offending product. We wish the cartoon had not been published. It was poorly executed and its message is jumbled. It is, in a word, sophomoric. This unfortunate experience presents a good opportunity for the student contributors and editors of the Daily Californian to learn a bit more about Israel and its conflict with the Palestinians. We hope they take their lessons seriously.   PJC

Each of us can — and should — reduce political polarization Guest Columnist David Bernstein

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here are numerous theories as to why our political environment is so polarized and dysfunctional: echo chambers created by the internet, radical politicians elected in gerrymandered districts, the role of money in politics, angry economically marginalized voters and the pervasive use of negative campaigning. All are contributing factors to the abysmal state of American politics. There are also various and sundry proposals for large-scale structural fixes that might, over time, return a semblance of civility to American political life. Count me in. What part can we, individual citizens, play in restoring civility to our democracy? It starts with guarding our own tongues. A few weeks ago, President Donald Trump’s Justice Department announced it was rescinding the executive order that created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a policy that allowed some people who illegally entered the U.S. as minors to be granted a deferment from deportation and eligibility to work. As a longstanding supporter of immigrant rights, my organization, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, opposed the administration’s move. I reviewed a draft public statement, which declared that it was “inhumane” to end the DACA program. I paused at the word inhumane (a previous statement did use the

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At the end of the day, just as important as it is to implement our policy agenda, is to leave a society in place that’s capable of talking about disagreements and fashioning solutions, imperfect though they may be. term) and asked that it be removed and that the language be toned down. The next day, I spoke to a well-respected community leader about the DACA program. “I actually support the president’s decision,” he said. “I am a strong supporter of the DREAM Act (legislation before Congress that would provide similar protections as DACA), but I don’t think such policies should be made by administrative decree.” He further argued that immigrants come to this country precisely because “we are a nation of laws. I want to preserve that.” I didn’t agree with him, but neither could I honestly regard his argument as “inhumane.” Had I used the term, implying he and his fellow travelers lack empathy, I would have surely alienated him and made future policy discussions more difficult. Unfortunately, much of the rhetoric coming from opposing sides of hotly contested policy issues does just that.

Let there be no misunderstanding: when my organization takes a stance on an issue we deem in the best interest of our community and the broader society, we spare no effort to win the day. Nonetheless, even as we push for our policy positions, we also recognize that most of the people on the other side might have a valid, even if mistaken point. What’s more, these people are our neighbors. They vote in the same elections. They care about improving this country just as much as we do. And they aren’t going away. Indeed, both the right and left cling to the pernicious fantasy that, once and for all, they will vanquish the other and get their way. But American politics is a pendulum that swings in one direction for a time and then swings back. One side will triumph on a set of policies, fail to produce the promised utopian reality and spark political change in the opposite direction. There will be no

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total victory or total defeat of the right or the left. We are stuck with our disagreements, partial victories, set-backs and imperfect compromises. If we are never going to completely vanquish our political adversaries, perhaps we can preserve the possibility of compromise. Perhaps we can advocate in such a way that doesn’t denigrate and avoid ad hominem attacks. Perhaps we can both advance our political agendas and leave room for constructive dialogue and working together on issues about which we agree. Perhaps we can protect our increasingly fragile democracy. It’s even possible that by advocating in a more civil manner, we can better influence people who are sitting on the fence on a given debate. Fiery rhetoric fires up the base, but rarely brings along the undecideds. At the end of the day, just as important as it is to implement our policy agenda, is to leave a society in place that’s capable of talking about disagreements and fashioning solutions, imperfect though they may be. If you too want a less polarized political discourse, ask yourself this: Are your actions and statements — your Facebook posts, dinner discussions, rally signs and letters to the editor — contributing to division or reducing it? It’s not enough to complain about incivility. We must be civil ourselves. Being a little less scorching in how we express our views can go a long way in preserving our democracy. And that’s worth fighting for.  PJC David Bernstein is president and CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs.

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Opinion Arab American group’s inflammatory rhetoric Guest Columnist Myron Kaplan

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n Sept. 22, an event was telecast to potentially millions by Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN) that could fan the flames of hatred against Jews and Israel. C-SPAN is a repeat offender in such circumstances, as has been documented by CAMERA. The event was a part of the annual conference of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) in Washington, D.C. The first key session was a one-anda-half-hour panel discussion, “One State or Two State Solution: What’s Best for the Palestinians?” The panel’s judgment, in effect, was that what’s best for the Palestinian Arabs is the elimination of all Jews from the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the River Jordan. The four Palestinian American panelists rejected the two-state solution, characterizing it as unjust while advocating either a Palestinian-dominated one-state solution or all-out resistance to the presence of Jews in the entirety of what is now Israel and the West Bank. But the one-state solution would be unviable for Jews, given the predilections of Muslim Arab pluralities. At 35 minutes into the discussion, California-born panelist Noura Erakat, a professor of law and a human rights attorney, unleashed a

racist diatribe, unquestioned by the other three panelists, likening Israeli “settler colonization” — by which she means the presence of any Jews between the Sea and the River Jordan — to a cancer, charging that either the two-state solution or the one-state solution is like “using Tylenol to address the cancer … instead of chemo. … The thing we need to do is remove the cancer. … If we admit that the West Bank is occupied, we have to admit that Tel Aviv and Haifa are occupied as well as Jerusalem.” Thus the panel’s solution is, in effect, a no-Jews solution. ADC bills itself as “the largest Arab American grassroots civil rights organization in the United States” while presenting itself as a unity group of Christian and Muslim Arabs, and this is reflected in the makeup of the Sept. 22 panel. ADC often portrays Israel as the prime enemy of Middle East Arabs, Muslims and Christians alike. But this falsehood is contradicted by realities, including that Israel is the only country in the Middle East where the actual number of indigenous Christians has increased in recent years while various Arab countries have laws barring Palestinians from citizenship and various professions. Meanwhile, several Middle East countries are engaged in intra-communal upheaval with Shiite and Sunni Muslims regularly killing each other. ADC’s problematic history includes falsely characterizing Israel as an “apartheid state” and Zionism as racist, and praising terrorist entities Hamas and Hezbollah. ADC’s extremism is exemplified by a 2014 false pernicious charge — “Israel is committing

a massacre in Palestine … brought on by Israel’s U.S.-sanctioned illegal occupation of Palestine,” which was documented in the Washington Times and Huffington Post. The panel wrongly charges, “There are upwards of 600,000 Israeli settlers moving illegally into Palestinian land. They represent the greatest obstacle to the creation of a Palestinian state and realization of a two state solution.” Additionally, “[Palestinians] are removed from their homes and displaced to create new settlements. … We have to embark on a process of settler decolonization. … Israel is a settler colony.” First, it is untrue that the establishment of Jewish communities in the West Bank displaces Palestinians. These communities, comprising less than six percent of the West Bank, have been built essentially exclusively on property that was state land under Ottoman, British, Jordanian and now Israeli administration, or property purchased from private owners. Second, the legal right of the Jewish people to reconstitute their own state in their ancestral homeland was granted by the Allied Powers of World War I at the 1920 San Remo conference. And the Jewish presence in the territory was recognized as legitimate in the Mandate for Palestine adopted by the League of Nations in 1922, which provided for the establishment of a Jewish state in the Jewish people’s ancient homeland. Third, during the period 1948-1967, when Jewish communities were absent from the West Bank, a state of hostilities existed against the Jewish state based on the desire to destroy Israel. So, the settlements issue as a major obstacle to a

peace agreement is a bogus one. Likewise, reflecting ADC’s positions, the panel expounds on the “occupation” myth: “All of Palestine is occupied,” it charged. “You don’t just say the West Bank is occupied and the Gaza Strip is occupied. All of Palestine, all of it is occupied.” However, the reality is that Jews have continuously lived in their ancestral home in the Holy Land, including Jerusalem. In 1948, the re-establishment of the Jewish nation of Israel, with the capacity of caring for Jewish refugees, was supported by the United Nations. Israel sought to accommodate the Arabs, but was immediately rebuffed by Arab armies that attempted to annihilate the Jewish state. Thereafter, Arab forces attacked, or gathered to attack, Israel several times in order to destroy it. Jews cannot be deemed to occupy their own rightful country, including the West Bank (Judea and Samaria). Israel is the obligatory and legal military occupational authority of the West Bank, having taken the territory from Jordanian occupation in self-defense in the 1967 Six Day War. But the land is not “Palestinian.” It is disputed. Hence the need for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Obviously, reliable information about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is not to be expected from groups such as ADC, peddling hate and propaganda, and sometimes aided and abetted by C-SPAN.  PJC Myron Kaplan is a senior research analyst for CAMERA, the 65,000-member Bostonbased Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America.

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Life & Culture Holocaust survivor recalls Kristallnacht, Jews of Shanghai — LIFESTYLE — By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer

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y 1938, Jews in Berlin were facing outrageous discrimination and persecution. But it was not until Kristallnacht, Nov. 9 and 10 of that year, that German Jews seriously started to think about seeking refuge in Shanghai. The Chinese city already had a tenable Jewish population, thanks to an immigration wave of Sephardic Jews in the mid-19th century and Russian Jews in the early 20th century. Because no entry visas were required to enter Shanghai until August 1939, it became a viable choice for thousands of Jews escaping Nazi persecution. Margit Diamond, a resident of Weinberg Terrace in Squirrel Hill, was just 10 years old when her aunt, Lucie Hartwich, a teacher, left Berlin for Shanghai and began a journey that ultimately would lead to the education of a generation of Jews in China. Diamond, 89, recalled her aunt — her mother’s sister — as running a successful school for Jewish children, housed in a synagogue in Berlin, after Jews had been banned from both attending and teaching at the public schools. On the morning of Nov. 10, 1938, the phone in the small apartment that Diamond shared with her mother rang. It was Hartwich, telling Diamond’s mother not to send her daughter to school that day. “My mother said, ‘Why? What’s the matter?’ And my aunt said, ‘Don’t you know what’s going on outside? Don’t you know the synagogues are burning? They set them aflame. They are throwing rocks through the windows of Jewish stores and they are going from house to house picking up Jewish men and presumably taking them to police stations,’” Diamond recalled. Because Diamond’s father had already passed away and the Nazis would not be around looking for men in their apartment, Hartwich asked her sister if her own husband could stay there. “So, my mother said ‘Of course,’” Diamond said. “My uncle came, and he was the first of a whole slew of people. Some of them we didn’t know. My best friend’s father, she and her family lived in the same apartment building where we lived, was the next person. He brought somebody that he knew but that we didn’t know. And of course, we didn’t have beds for everybody, or rooms. By the end of the day, one man was sleeping in a deck chair — I remember that very vividly.” About half a dozen men ended up staying with Diamond and her mother after Kristallnacht. “This was a problem until my mother made rules,” she said. “Wives and family are not to come and visit. Nobody is to come and visit because we lived on the second floor. We didn’t know if the people who

p Margit Diamond, a resident of Weinberg Terrace, was just 10 years old when her aunt, Lucie Hartwich, left Berlin for Shanghai. Photo by Toby Tabachnick

“ You can’t imagine how many of her ex-pupils who came here had fabulous careers as lawyers and doctors and

God knows what .

— MARGIT DIAMOND, RECALLING HER AUNT, LUCIE HARTWICK

lived on the third floor or on the first floor would denounce us. “No phone calls. And the most difficult thing for my mother was, she used to shop just for her and me. Now, she had a whole bunch of men to feed. She went all over Berlin. She used to take the tram, and she would buy small quantities all over the place. But she had to do this almost daily. In the meantime, the atmosphere wasn’t too optimistic in our apartment. The men were edgy.” After a time, Diamond’s uncle was among the first to leave the apartment, heading out with his wife on a ship to Shanghai. Many of the families who had sent their children to Hartwich’s school were also on that ship, Diamond said.

While on the month-long voyage, Hartwich realized “that once the people got to Shanghai, if they wanted to work, they’d have to be able to communicate, and very few of them knew much English. So, my aunt went to the captain of the ship and she said, ‘Listen. Will you let me have your dining room when you’re not using it? I’m going to have all these people speaking English by the time we arrive in Shanghai.’” The captain agreed, and Hartwich got to work. “She actually succeeded,” Diamond said. “They were all speaking English by the time they got there.” A wealthy passenger on the ship, Horace Kadoorie, took notice of Hartwich’s work

and was impressed. The Kadoorie family were Sephardic Jews who emigrated from Baghdad in 1880 and settled in the Far East, according to the Israel-Asia Center. “My aunt had no idea who she was talking to,” Diamond said. “When they were three or four days out of Shanghai, Mr. Kadoorie said to her, ‘Mrs. Hartwich, not only are there hundreds of people on this ship, but there are lots of children who have made it to Shanghai, and they will need an education. I will build you a school and you will run it.’ She got off the ship, and she had many of her own pupils from Berlin.” Members of the Kadoorie family were “pivotal players in the development of business giants such as the Hong Kong & Shanghai Hotel Co. and China Light and Power,” states a description on the Israel-Asia Center website. The Kadoories not only had profitable business ventures, but also were invested in philanthropic pursuits. Among those pursuits was the establishment of the Shanghai Jewish Youth Association (SJYA), the school which Horace Kadoorie tapped Hartwich to lead. The SJYA, also known as the Kadoorie School, opened in November 1939, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum archives. About 700 students studied there, with the instruction in English, because of the assumption “that the pupils would soon be emigrating to English-speaking countries.” That assumption turned out to be correct, according to Diamond. “The majority of her students ended up in San Francisco,” she said. There are several historical books about the Jews of Shanghai that reference the work of Diamond’s Aunt Lucie. “There is a lot my aunt forgot to tell us, incredible things she had done,” Diamond said. Hartwich’s husband died a few weeks before they left Shanghai, soon after the war. Because of her reputation as a superior educator, she was recruited to go to Australia to teach, but she was only there a short time, Diamond said. Hartwich then moved to San Francisco. “You can’t imagine how many of her ex-pupils who came here had fabulous careers as lawyers and doctors and God knows what,” Diamond said. Diamond, who lived through Kristallnacht and was saved from being murdered by the Nazis by being sent to England on the Kindertransport, sees parallels between 1930s Germany — where Jews were reluctant to see the dangers of anti-Semitism and leave — and contemporary America. “In Germany, they kept thinking ‘It’s not going to get any worse. We’ll just sit it out,’” she said. After a pause, she added, “They are doing it here too, I want to tell you. Mark my words. I’ve seen this before.”  PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

www.pittsburghjewishchronicle.org 14 NOVEMBER 3, 2017

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Headlines Bernstein: Continued from page 3

advises that while both must be addressed, they must be addressed differently. “One need not speak of the threat of anti-Semitism on the left when dealing with White Supremacy,” he said. “And one need not speak about anti-Semitism from the right when dealing with anti-Israelism. They are very different and they require very different strategies. But they both exist and

Victims: Continued from page 8

“Now when you look at this case, what [the plaintiffs] have cited is, for example, the international convention for the suppression of the financing of terrorism, which we’ve ratified, which says that states must take necessary measures to enable a legal entity located in its territory or organized under its laws to be held liable,” he said, addressing the Arab Bank’s lawyer, Paul Clement. “That

Women: Continued from page 9

as teachers, professional staff and pastoral counselors. But Bane said a woman should not be “the face of the synagogue.” “One of the most important conversations we believe needs to take place in our community is to define appropriate job descriptions and titles for women who will serve as synagogue professionals, in roles that are consistent with Jewish law, consistent with tradition, but are extremely important within the shul,” he said. Sharon Weiss-Greenberg, director of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, said she hoped the O.U. would make good on its promises to advance women and invest more in women’s programs. Along with positive actions, she recommended that the O.U. stop actively opposing Orthodox women clergy and the congregations that employ them.

we have to be in a position to combat them. “For us to contain anti-Israelism on the left, it requires us to engage with progressive fence-sitters, people who are willing to contemplate a more nuanced perspective on Israel,” Bernstein opined. “And so fundamentally it is an engagement strategy. I think anti-Semitism on the far right is more of an isolationist strategy, to make sure these groups that are small in number but are extremely dangerous remain on the margins of society.” Because the current political environment is so “polarized,” he said, the JCPA —

which seeks to be a voice of the wider Jewish community, beyond party lines — finds itself “doing more work on the fly, helping local Jewish communities respond to emerging challenges,” according to Bernstein. “We have to be nimble,” he said. “We find it is important to give ourselves space to respond to emerging challenges and not to be so maxed out on issue campaigns that we can’t actually respond to changing environments. I would say our volume of emerging policy challenges has probably tripled after the election, so we have to be able to face those and

guide our network to face those as well. “Sometimes it feels like we are double traumatized,” he continued. “It’s the trauma of the original policy issue and then the trauma of having to navigate the discussion in the Jewish community about it. I think too many Jews upset about the direction of the country engage in a kind of displaced rage in which they attack others similarly concerned but go about it expressing it differently.”  PJC

sounds like a corporation. And it sounds like the relation is the same as the international norm to the individual who struck the French ambassador in the street.” Fisher pushed back against Roberts’ theory that allowing the case to proceed could complicate U.S. foreign policy, arguing that should the courts quash the plaintiffs’ bid to seek redress, Israel — like France in the 1780s — would have cause for alarm at how the United States conducts its foreign policy. “Imagine Israel’s view if our financing — if our entire finance system — could be

used and accessed ... to commit terrorist attacks, make them easier, make them more deadly, make the funding more effective,” the attorney said. “If suits like this were taken away, Israel and countries like it might well have a complaint to the United States.” The Trump administration, not weighing in on either side, nonetheless has filed a brief. A Justice Department lawyer, Brian Fletcher, said the government would prefer that the court preserve the use of the 1789 statute for use against corporations, but also argued that Jesner did not meet the standard

of U.S. involvement to merit consideration in U.S. courts. The case will be decided before next July. The courts are separately considering a lawsuit against the Arab Bank brought by U.S. litigants who were victims of terrorist attacks in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Barbé-Marbois, for what it’s worth, survived whatever wounds were inflicted by Longchamps and went on to negotiate the Louisiana Purchase. He died in 1837 at the ripe old age of 92.  PJC

Weiss-Greenberg spoke without knowledge of the department’s establishment. “They list all these things that women can and should be doing,” she said, referring to the O.U.’s Jewish legal ruling. “Actions speak louder than words. Let’s hear from women — women who are not token women, who are highly educated, passionate and invested.” Shmidman is the kind of synagogue leader the O.U. hopes to develop more of. She has a doctorate in educational psychology and serves her community as the rebbetzin, or rabbi’s wife, of her synagogue in the Philadelphia suburb of Lower Merion, Pennsylvania. In 2015, she founded the Rebbetzin to Rebbetzin Mentoring Program under the auspices of Yeshiva University, which pairs younger rabbis’ wives with more experienced rebbetzins who guide them on how to serve and navigate their communities. While Shmidman hopes to continue training rebbetzins, she wants to expand leadership and learning opportunities for

other women as well. The department will push synagogues to offer classes for women on par with what men receive — such as a Daf Yomi, which covers a page of Talmud daily — as well as weekly or monthly women’s learning groups and mother-daughter study programs. But Shmidman said she also wants to move beyond formal “frontal learning.” She suggested, as an example, a model where participants each study texts and teach them to each other. “Text study is extremely important, but classes on mind, body, soul, there’s so many avenues where Torah can come through beyond text study,” she said, adding that a goal will be “helping people find God and Torah in all areas of their lives.” One of the department’s goals is to make the synagogue a friendlier space for women, who sit separated from men during prayer and, often, Torah study. Fagin said that at some synagogues, the women’s section of

the sanctuary feels isolated from the men’s section and that it’s not always accessible. “There’s no question that shuls are organized in many ways around specific activity that is typically engaged in by men, often not by women,” Fagin said. “There were physical things that could be done to be more conducive to the physical participation of women in prayer.” Bane acknowledged that among Jews to the right of the O.U., some of the department’s activities may be controversial. But he said the group hopes to show that just because Jewish law is primary doesn’t mean Jewish women need to be secondary. “We’re not suggesting that these parameters are appropriate for every community, [but] they’re appropriate for the Orthodox Union community,” he said. “Although our Jewish law is eternal and our value system is eternal, we have to be attuned to how we have to adjust our focus for the values of the time.”  PJC

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

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Headlines Trunk: Continued from page 1

aspiration, Schneider, who had also shared his experiences with the Gateway group, approached the rabbi and informed her that when his family was in a displaced persons’ camp in Austria, his father had made two trunks. “I have one, would you like it?” Schneider asked the rabbi. From there, Symons, Jacknin and other committee members later traveled to Schneider’s home and observed the carefully constructed box. “It’s just fantastic,” said Jacknin, a stainedglass mosaicist whose grandfather had been arrested during Kristallnacht. With the Schneiders’ blessings, those on hand loaded the crate into Symons’ automobile. “Now my car had this aroma that was like walking through the cattle car at the Holocaust Museum,” said Symons. But apart from possessing a historically reeking chest, which, as etched into the wood, explains that it transported Gedale Schneider’s belongings to Washington, Pa., Temple David’s working group wished to do more with the container. They then commis-

#MeToo: Continued from page 1

Shabbat dinner at their home. “It happened 40 years ago, but I can say that it made me stronger,” Sara said. “But whenever I drive by the places where it happened, it still conjures up bad memories.” Sara remembered sitting in the last row of a bus while traveling with a troupe of Jewish actors to perform in a show. A teacher at her Jewish high school was sitting next to her and put his hand “down and up my shirt,” she said. “He was not much older than me, but I was under 18,” Sara said. “This was not accidental touching. I remember the guy and I remember his name. He was married to a woman that I knew. I didn’t feel physically in danger, but I felt physically violated. And I had to keep seeing him and his wife again.” Sara did not tell anyone what happened. “This was the mid- ’70s,” she said. “There was no reporting. First of all, it’s a guy you know, and he’s a teacher, so that’s a challenge. Then, you know the wife, so that’s another challenge.” Sara recalled the other incident that happened in a Jewish context that has left its mark on her psyche. She had been invited to Shabbat dinner at the home of a female faculty member to whom Sara had grown close and confided during the time of her parents’ divorce. After dinner, the woman offered that her husband would drive Sara home. “I knew this man from synagogue and from being at their house for dinner,” Sara said. “We got in the car, and he drove about a half mile from his house, then pulled over to the side of the road. He’s bigger than I am and much older — a generation older. He’s in his 40s, with grown children. He reached over and grabbed me by the shoulders, and threatened me to not tell his wife.” 16 NOVEMBER 3, 2017

“ Anytime you have something that you can look at, that you can see, that you can touch, it makes it real; it makes the

story come to life a little more.

— DEBBIE MAIER JACKNIN

sioned a local artist to create a removable Lucite cover so that interchangeable items could be exhibited within the case. The first contents will be siddurim formerly belonging to Werner Bendorf, father of Robi Bendorf, a temple member. When Werner fled from his home in Dornheim, Germany, he brought along the books as well as a leather satchel with important papers, said the son. In June 1940, Werner took the printed materials, placed them inside the bag and buried them “inside the barn that was

attached to Everett and Dina Schutter’s farmhouse near Wilp, Holland. This is the place my parents, Leni and Werner Bendorf, were being hidden by the Schutters and where I was born,” said Robi. “When my parents retrieved the satchel in approximately May 1945, the papers were deteriorated to the point of not being usable, but the books were in the condition that they are now,” he added. After some time the texts will be replaced by other items belonging to temple members so that the education continues. In that vein,

“ We need to talk about it, to tell our daughters these things happen and that it’s OK to fight back. And I hope people don’t think they are insulated

in a Jewish setting.

— SARA, A VICTIM OF SEXUAL ABUSE He pulled Sara toward him and began to take off her clothes. “I remember yelling, kicking and reaching for the door,” she said. “He kept threatening that if I told his wife, I would lose her [as a confidant]. But I got the hell out of Dodge.” Sara walked home and told herself she would never tell anyone what happened until he died. She wanted to protect his wife, she said. “Part of not coming forward is thinking, ‘Do you want to ruin their life?’” she said. “But part of me wonders if he did it to someone else.” Sara knows it is important to tell these stories to empower other women. “We need to talk about it, to tell our daughters these things happen and that it’s OK to fight back,” she said. “And I hope people don’t think they are insulated in a Jewish setting.” Rebecca, an executive now in her 50s and living in a Pittsburgh suburb, can still remember her fear of being raped in a grapefruit grove while volunteering on a kibbutz in Israel when she was a college student. “I was 19,” she recalled. “I was on a

six-week program with AZYF [American Zionist Youth Foundation], and we were spending four weeks working on a kibbutz. This guy had been the field adviser, and he had taken us out in trucks to the cotton fields. We were weeding. He asked me to go with him to get the group its morning snack.” When they got to the grapefruit grove, he began chasing Rebecca, with the intent to rape her, she said. “I somehow convinced him not to,” she said. “I told him that I was religious and would be ruined if he violated me. He had a wife and kids on the kibbutz. I think he was in his 40s.” She recalled being “really scared.” She also felt “betrayed.” “I felt like I was in a safe space,” she said. “It didn’t occur to me that this could happen, or that Jews would do this.” Rebecca did report the incident to the head of the program, who was “horrified,” she said. And she never saw her attacker again. For Rachael, a Squirrel Hill native now in her 40s, a sexual assault in the gym at Congregation Beth Shalom that occurred when she was in middle school is still

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the monument will be placed in Temple David’s main lobby so that as many people as possible are able to “look in and have a learning opportunity,” explained the rabbi. “Anytime you have something that you can look at, that you can see, that you can touch, it makes it real; it makes the story come to life a little more,” said Jacknin. “We are proud that we have put ‘Never forget’ into action at Temple David,” said Symons, who encouraged the community to attend the Nov. 9 program, as it will feature both the installation as well as remarks from Rabbi Edelstein, Eva Edelstein and Harry Schneider. There is nothing like hearing something firsthand, but “as our survivor community is dying out, we need to find other effective ways of telling the stories and telling what happened,” said Jacknin. In that way, there is a lot of purpose being placed in the old object, explained the rabbi. Said Symons: “The trunk symbolizes to me the fortitude of the Jewish people, the generosity of a survivor and the opportunity to share journeys, even those we wish we had not been on.”  PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz @pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

etched in her memory. “I think I was 13 or 14,” she said. “I hadn’t been to Beth Shalom in a while and I was in the gym on the fourth floor playing with a basketball. There was this guy who was probably about 18 and he was also playing with a basketball. He came up behind me and pressed his body against mine.” Rachael later found out who he was and that he was Jewish. She was not scared, she said, and she did not report the incident to anyone. Now she wonders if she should have told someone. “Maybe I should have said something,” she said, adding that now she had some feelings of guilt because of the possibility that he could have assaulted other girls too. On Nov. 12, the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh will host a program called “#MeToo, a Jewish Perspective” as part of the Global Day of Jewish Learning. The study session about harassment and abuse will feature Foundation Scholar Rabbi Danny Schiff and Danielle Kranjec, the Hillel Jewish University Center senior Jewish educator. “Any sexually abusive behavior is patently unacceptable,” Schiff said. “Nevertheless, it has become absolutely clear that abusive behavior toward women is rife in our society.” Schiff and Kranjec will be addressing abuse through the lens of Jewish texts. “We want to reflect on the instances of sexual abuse within our sources and the reality that the sexual abuse of women is by no means a new phenomenon,” Schiff said. “Most importantly, we want to explore the insights offered by our tradition as we attempt to address the widespread misconduct from which far too many continue to suffer.”  PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Celebrations

Torah

Wedding

The story of Lot’s wife

Moidel/Randall: Debra and Brian Moidel of Mt. Lebanon are pleased to announce the marriage of their son, Justin Bradley Moidel, to Honor Elizabeth Randall, daughter of Nancy Bueti Randall and Paul Randall of Stony Brook, N.Y. The wedding took place on Sunday, Aug. 20 at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Rabbi Alex Greenbaum offiPhoto by Daphne Youree Photography ciated. Justin’s brother, Brandon Moidel, was the best man, and Honor’s sister, Giovanna Randall, was the matron of honor. Justin is the grandson of Leonard Shufler (and the late Phyllis Shufler) and the late Ruth and Bernard Moidel of Pittsburgh. Honor is the granddaughter of Giovanna Bueti (and the late Serafino Bueti) and the late Christine and Henry Randall. Honor received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in art and bachelor’s degree in psychology from Carnegie Mellon University. She went on to complete a master’s in social work from the University of Pittsburgh. She works as a behavioral health therapist at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. Justin received his Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. He went on to complete a master’s degree in robotics from Carnegie Mellon University. He works as a senior design engineer at Kerotest Manufacturing Corporation. Justin and Honor reside in Pittsburgh.

B’nai Mitzvah Myer Markowitz, son of Michelle and Pace Markowitz of Mt. Lebanon, will become a bar mitzvah on Saturday, Nov. 4 at Temple Emanuel of South Hills. Myer is the grandson Irene Luchinsky of Pittsburgh and the late Harold Luchnisky and Anita and Martin Markowitz of Pittsburgh. Myer is the greatgrandson of Ruth Sandler of Beachwood, Ohio, Lillian Markowitz of Beachwood (formerly of Pittsburgh) and Sadie Luchinsky of Baltimore.

Ethan Shorr, son of Tina London and Nick Shorr, will become a bar mitzvah on Saturday, Nov. 4 at 9:30 a.m. at Congregation Dor Hadash. Jesse Alan Ufberg, son of Dr. Aaron and Janie Ufberg, will become a bar mitzvah on Saturday, Nov. 4 at 9:30 a.m. at Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El in Wynnewood, Pa. Grandparents are Mel and Bette Spokane of Cranberry Township and Murray and Margie Ufberg of Upper Gwynedd, Pa.  PJC

30-DAY PRICE

PROMISE

The Ibn Ezra explains what happened. There seems to have been a flow of hot sulphur and fire. This seems to have burned her body and converted it to a monument of salts. There must have been a miraculous narrow path through the river for the family of Lot to run. It was so close that it could easily grab them and pull them in. The moment Lot’s wife looked back, she was grabbed by the river. She showed that for her, at least, this was home. She considered herself a part of the local society. “Lest you are wiped out (together with the locals) in the sin of this city!” Therefore, she herself became a monument for them. They themselves had no monuments. But she, who did not belong but attached herself to them and was punished with them, became a monument for them.

Rabbi Shimon Silver Parshat Vayeira Genesis 18:1-22:24

W

hen the family of Lot was being urged to flee the destruction of Sedom, they were told, “Do not look back!” Lot’s wife looked back — and she was turned into a pillar of salt. What was so terrible about looking back? Is it not natural to have a little curiosity? True, they needed to hurry. But why not sneak a peek? No looking at all! After the punishment had already begun, they would surely be taught a lesson by seeing it. Maybe they should actively look. Many explanations are given, all of which are valid, but they are all on a deeper level. There is a simple explanation that rings true to all of us wherever we might find ourselves. My Rosh Yeshiva once made a rule that if a boy is caught in the kitchen at night stealing food, he must be thrown out of Yeshiva. On Purim, in jest, the Rosh Yeshiva was asked whether his crime was the reason for his being thrown out or a symptom of his character, which was the real cause for his being expelled. One of the faculty answered, “You missed a third possibility. The fact that he is in the kitchen means that he is not really in the Yeshiva. Yeshiva boys belong in the study halls or in their dorm rooms, and not in the kitchen. If he is not really part of the Yeshiva, he does not belong and should be expelled.” Lot and his family were being informed that they did not belong in Sedom. They were a part of the family of Avraham. This was the reason that they were being spared. It was now time for them to leave. Leaving meant not looking back. True, they could not live too close to Avraham. They had to separate, for the reasons mentioned in last week’s parsha. But they did not belong here, in Sedom. “Escape to the mountain! For if you do not escape, you will be caught up in the destruction of this place, where you really do not belong!” Lot’s wife became a netziv, which is similar to the word matzeivah — a monument of salt.

The moment Lot’s wife looked back, she was grabbed by the river [of hot sulphur and fire]. She showed that for her, at least, this was home. She considered herself a part of the local society. Lot’s wife is a monument for all Abrahamic family members who become attached to societies that are antithetical to our values. They become so attached that when those societies go down and we are able to escape, they wish they could stay behind.  PJC Rabbi Shimon Silver is spiritual leader of Young Israel of Greater Pittsburgh. This column is a service of the Vaad Harabanim of Greater Pittsburgh.

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Obituaries BEDO: George Andrew Bedo passed away on October 25, 2017, aged 71. Beloved and adored husband and best friend of Connie Schwartz, father of Jessica Bedo, Emily Fitzpatrick (Michael) and Daniel Bedo (Molly) and Nagypapa to Dominick, Connor and Asher. Loved and admired by stepsons Bart (Daryn) and Peter (Lynn Rodgers) Schwartz and Grandpa to Evan, Stuart, Aaron and Michael. George was a registered architect who practiced in Pittsburgh for forty years on many of our region’s most prominent buildings including the Phipps Conservatory, the Veterans Retirement Home, the IBEW, numerous hospitals including those in the UPMC and Allegheny Health System and many university and public school buildings. He was a graduate of the architecture program at Carnegie Mellon University and Mt Lebanon High School. Born in Budapest, Hungary, George escaped with his parents Andrew and Lilly Bedo, both Holocaust survivors, in 1956 during the Hungarian Revolution by hiking through the forest and running through a Russian-guarded mine field to safety in Austria. George’s father’s profession as a petroleum and metallurgical engineer brought them to the U.S. after living in Paris for two years. George was extremely well read and educated and enjoyed reading and sharing his knowledge of world history. He and his wife loved to travel and sightsee. He was highly cultured. His wife remarked that he was the only man she knew who would attend the opera with her. He

attended his first opera in Budapest when he was 5. He and his wife were subscribers to the Pittsburgh Symphony and Opera and enjoyed the theater. After George retired they wintered in Delray Beach, Fla., where they enjoyed a full retirement experience. Contributions can be made to the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh, 826 Hazelwood Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15217 in memory of George’s grandparents, aunt and uncle (for whom he is named) and two cousins, Matthew and Joseph who were killed by the Nazis. Services were held at the Homewood Cemetery Chapel. COHEN: Rhea Cohen, age 93, of Reynoldsburg, Ohio, formerly of Shadyside, on Friday, October 27, 2017. Beloved wife of the late Norman Solow and the late Joseph Cohen. Beloved mother of Ronald L. (late Jo Ann) Solow of Reynoldsburg, Sharyn Lieberman of Columbus, Ohio, and Barbara Cohen of Pittsburgh. Sister of Beverly Marks of Pittsburgh and Anne Etta Hussbaum of Cherry Hill, N.J. Grandmother of Nick Solow, Amy Solow, Neila Windland and Jaime Lieberman. Great-grandmother of Natalie and Ethan Windland and Raiden, Kendall and Mason Solow. Graveside services and interment were held at Beth Shalom Cemetery. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. DONNENBERG: Edith Donnenberg, on Saturday, October 28, 2017. Beloved wife of the late Leon Donnenberg; loving mother of Albert (Vera) Donnenberg of Pittsburgh, Jeanne (Greg) Mulligan of Baltimore and

Michael (Paula Fernandes) Donnenberg of Baltimore. Sister of Bernard Aronow, the late Joseph Aronow and Jeanne Aronow Gray. Grandma of Rachel (Chris) Hunter, Rebecca Donnenberg, Eric and Stephen Mulligan, Leah and Sarah Donnenberg, Aaron Krol, Samuel, Gabriel, and Noah Donnenberg; great-grandmother of Andrew and Madeline Hunter. Services were held at Rodef Shalom Congregation. Interment West View Cemetery of Rodef Shalom Congregation. Contributions may be made to Hadassah Medical Organization, c/o Hadassah, 1824 Murray Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15217 or to a charity of the donor’s choice. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. FRIEDMAN: Isabelle Harriet Friedman of Monroeville, previously of Johnstown. April 25, 1926 – October 26, 2017. Born in Somerset, Pa. Daughter of Louis and Pauline Weiss of Somerset and later, Philadelphia. Sister of Julia Hoffman, Sylvia Weiss, Rose Weiss, and Norman Weiss, all deceased. Surviving are her husband of 67 years, Wallace L. Friedman of Monroeville, daughters Norma Samide (Jeff) of Ligonier, Barbara Alenia of Oregon, and Phyllis Shapiro (Sam) of Monroeville; grandchildren Sean Shapiro of Pittsburgh, Matthew Shapiro of Monroeville, and Rosie Samide of Boston. Isabelle’s greatest joy in life was her family, her children and later her three grandchildren. She spent countless hours with them, reading to them, playing games, coloring and nurturing their creativity with “toys” such as her button collection and kitchen pots and utensils. All

three developed into fine young adults and their Grammy was very proud of them. Isabelle had volunteered for an animal shelter and Meals on Wheels program, so memorial contributions may be made to Humane Animal Rescue, 6926 Hamilton Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15208 or any other local animal rescue/shelter; or any local food bank or Meals on Wheels. GOTTLIEB: Frank P. Gottlieb, on Tuesday, October 24, 2017. Beloved son of the late Abraham and Nettie Bondy Gottlieb. Beloved brother of Florence Gottlieb Krakoff (late Samuel) of Industry and Marcus A. Gottlieb (Carole) of Pittsburgh. Nephew of Janet Bondy Eisen (Bernard). Uncle of Richard Krakoff, Lisa Krakoff Biancucci (Richard), Michael Gottlieb (Laurie), Linda Gottlieb Gordon (Alan), Amy Gottlieb Cook (David) and the late Daniel Krakoff. Also survived by many cherished great- and great-great-nieces and nephews, numerous cousins and countless friends. Raised in Midland, Pa., Frank was a journalist who graduated from Duquesne University. He was a Vietnam veteran and former news director at KQV News Radio. He was the recipient of the Golden Quill Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011. Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. Interment at Temple B’nai Israel Cemetery, McKeesport. Contributions may be made to a charity of the donor’s choice. Please see Obituaries, page 20

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James Lange, CPA and Attorney The Los Angeles Times recently ran a column

entitled Science proves it: Money really can buy happiness. “An international research team has demonstrated that you really can make yourself happier by paying other people to do your timeconsuming tasks.” The crux of the article is that people who spend money on a time-saving purchase report greater life satisfaction. I have written before about retiring from the things in life that you don’t love doing. In fact, I’ve been advocating and living this philosophy for years. Now studies from Harvard Business School and others are proving it. There are basically four ways I want to spend my waking hours: 1. Working 2. Recreation/exercise/play 3. Being with family and friends 4. Travel Now, let me share a few things that aren’t on that list: shopping for food, cooking, cleaning, laundry, mowing the lawn, shoveling snow, and maintaining the house, our cars, and even my bicycles.

My wife, Cindy, doesn’t like doing any of these things either. Earlier in my career, with few exceptions, Cindy and I did all those chores. (OK, she did a lot more than I did). Now we hire people to do these chores which frees up our time. One of the interesting conclusions from the research was that the positive effect of buying time was true for people of all income

know…I can hear the voices challenging me… it won’t be done as well if I don’t do it. You may be right. But perhaps the trade-off is worth it. With the free time, you can engage in activities that give you pleasure and reduce your level of stress. In previous articles, I have written on the value of spending money on experiences in-

“ There is considerable research that shows people benefit from buying pleasurable experiences. But this research shows that you might also want to consider buying your

way out of experiences that are not pleasurable. levels. You didn’t have to have a lot of disposable income to benefit. The other interesting tidbit was that “few people do it even when they can afford it.” In their sample of 850 millionaires, only about half reported spending money on outsourcing disliked tasks! I was recently with clients who have a beautiful second house in the country. They love being there. Sort of. They were complaining that it seemed like when they were up there, they spent the entire time doing chores to maintain the place. I suggested they hire some help. That’s what I do for my little place in the country. I

stead of material things. For instance, taking the family on a vacation or arranging a getaway with old friends. There is considerable research that shows people benefit from buying pleasurable experiences. But this research shows that you might also want to consider buying your way out of experiences that are not pleasurable. I frequently attend continuing education seminars and/or give presentations in different cities. When I travel for business, I take a couple of extra low-stress days with my “bought time” and enjoy the city. Just this year, I have attended

events in Cleveland, Toronto, San Francisco and Chicago. I also presented at the Pennsylvania Bar Institute in Philadelphia and at a national estate planning conference in San Diego. All the cities mentioned are wonderful places to spend at least a couple of days to unwind. So, think about giving up your apron and lawn mower and buying some happiness. Just so you know, in the future my column will appear once a month instead of every other week. As much as I enjoy writing these columns, we are so busy at work that I am pressed for time—even with my “bought time,” there are still only 24 hours in a day. P.S. If you want to read the full report on buying time, you can find it online on the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences web page at www.pnas.org. If you are interested in more financial information (we have written 5 best-selling financial books, many peer-reviewed articles, have 185 hours of our radio archives, etc.), we encourage you to visit our website, www. paytaxeslater.com. It has a wealth of valuable free material of special interest to IRA and retirement plan owners, or please call (412) 521-2732 for a free copy of The Ultimate Retirement and Estate Plan for Your MillionDollar IRA or to see if you qualify for a free second opinion consultation.

The foregoing content from Lange Financial Group, LLC is for informational purposes only, subject to change, and should not be construed as investment or tax advice. Those seeking personalized guidance should seek a qualified professional.

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NOVEMBER 3, 2017 19


Obituaries Obituaries: Continued from page 19

KUBER: Martha Kuber, on Wednesday, October 25, 2017. Beloved wife of the late Morton Kuber. Loving mother of Michele Adair and Barbra (Brian) Lohman. Cherished grandmother of Kevin, Elle, Brett and Spencer Lohman and Erin Adair. Services and interment private. Contributions may be made to Family Hospice and Palliative Care, 50 Moffett Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15243. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. ROSENTHALL: Harry B. Rosenthall, age

Iran deal: Continued from page 2

“because they’re going to lash out, not only in Europe, as we have seen — and that has certainly inspired events in the United States — but many of the analysts believe that surely they are going to attempt to lash out at Israel, because that is one of the things they think can bind together other extremists. That to me is the most immediate. We’ve

57, of Jupiter, Fla., Formerly of Pittsburgh, on Sunday October 22, 2017. Husband of Lara; father of Alexa Rosenthall; son of Charles and the late Trudy Rosenthall; brother of Ellen (Leonard) Sebula and Eric (Christine) Rosenthall and the late Ruth (Paul) Casselberry; also survived by nieces and nephews. Memorial contributions can be made to Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League, 3100/3200 N Military Trl, West Palm Beach, FL 33409. Graveside service and interment held at Torath Chaim Cemetery.

Jean (Samuel) Jacobs and Ronna (Richard) Levin. Adored bubbe of Brad Shutzberg, Bruce Jacobs M.D., Jill Prouty, Myra (Jacobs) Englert, Jeremy Levin, Elyce Levin and nine great-grandchildren and many nieces and nephews. She is survived by her sister, Goldie Baldinger. Graveside services and interment were private. Contributions may be made to Allegheny Health Network Hospice and Palliative Care Program, 4818 Liberty Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15224. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc.

SHUTZBERG: Bessie Shutzberg, 93, passed away on October 22, 2017. Beloved wife of the late Joseph E. Shutzberg. Cherished mother of Irwin (Lisa) Shutzberg,

WINTNER: Ruth S. Wintner, on Tuesday, October 24, 2017. Beloved wife of the late Allan J. Wintner. Beloved mother of the late Louis Wintner. Daughter of the late

got to try to get our arms around it, and that is going to be a very heavily intelligence-focused, special capability-focused pushback.” Hezbollah, another serious threat to Israel, is now “battle hardened” from its time fighting in Syria, and its military leaders and combat veterans are “now returning, and knowing their propensity to blur the lines between conventional warfare and terrorism, this presents a real problem,” Rogers said. Hezbollah has increased not only its arsenal of rockets, Rogers said, but has also

improved the capability of those rockets, “meaning Iran is clearly sharing technology.” Despite the threats of Iran, ISIS and Hezbollah, Rogers nonetheless sees some good news coming out of the Middle East. The question is whether the United States will take this opportunity in history to capitalize on it. “I think Saudi Arabia talking about being a moderating force in Islam is huge and significant, and we ought to do everything that we can do [to encourage that],” he said. Egypt, as well, has indicated willingness to

Abraham and Bessie Schulman. Ruth graduated with high honors from Taylor Allderdice High School in 1942. She worked as an executive secretary for the Pittsburgh Board of Education for more than 30 years. She belonged to Rodef Shalom and their Sisterhood since 1946. Services were held at Rodef Shalom Temple. Interment West View Cemetery of Rodef Shalom Congregation. Contributions may be made to the Rodef Shalom Biblical Garden, 4905 Fifth Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15213. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc.   PJC

be “a moderating influence on Islam.” “This gives us the building blocks to start pushing against extremism and the constant development of the next generation of jihadists,” Rogers explained. “This is a good news, long term fix on the influence of Islam that needs to happen. And it needs to happen from senior Islamic leaders like Saudi Arabia, like Egypt.”  PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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20 NOVEMBER 3, 2017

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DLINE NOTICE DLINE adline for all NOTICE copy and art –

FOR SALE FOR SALE

~ FOR SALE ~ ~inFOR BonitaSALE Springs, ~ Fl.

nd classified adline for alladvertising, copy and artpress – ses, simcha advertising, announcements d classified press – is noon Friday es, simcha announcements – is noon Friday to press at noon on Tuesday and regret

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ALE LE

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(approx 1810 ft.) In a Bundled Golfsq. Community In a Bundled Golf Community 3 Br's/2 full baths, over sized kitchen with office stainless steel sized appliances,custom wood 3 space, Br's/2 full baths, over kitchen with office n Hilton Head’s most cabinetry, granite tops,master bathroom space, stainless steelcounter appliances,custom wood ntion, Hilton Head’s most “Sea Pines”. completegranite w/ duel sinks, custom mirrors cabinetry, counter tops,master bathroomand ion, “Sea Pines”. lighting, w/ lrg. duel stall shower, lrg. walk-in closet with complete sinks, custom mirrors and hen; w/d; deck; sleeps 6; lighting, stall shower, lrg. walk-in closet with CONDOMINIUM • $1,350,000 custom lrg. shelving. POINT BREEZE METROPOLITAN hen; w/d;tennis deck; sleeps 6; • $445,000 ool and on property; custom shelving. and tennis on property; bathroominhas custom kolfrom beachNEW and golf. LISTING! Unique town2nd. home/condo a new cabinetry,quartz, NEW LISTING! Rare three bedroom custom-designed 2nd. bathroom has new cabinetry,quartz, custom k from beach and golf. lighting and mirror. converted mansion on 2 plus acres. spacious penthouse in one of Pittsburgh’s most eeks (II and RCI) lighting andEnjoy mirror.3 room with lanai which looks out onto a lake eks (IIApprox. and RCI) bedrooms, 2.5 Baths, 2 car Great int. Garage. Wonderful distinguished buildings. Floor to ceiling windows Fees: $750 Great with lanai with whichgorgeous looks outsunset onto aviews. lake and room the golf course, Approx. $750floor plan with 10 foot wFees: Living in Florida. open ceilings, wood burning bring natural light into the large living and dining and the golf course, with gorgeous sunset views. Living in Florida. fireplaceFFF in a wonderful great room. This is one of areas with access to a lovely outdoor deck. The large —One Dollar!!! FFF —One sing feesDollar!!! four town homes that enjoy their own swimming pool well-appointed exquisite eat-in gourmet kitchen ng fees IT opportunity. FAST IN THE CLASSIFIEDS tennis court. Do not missSELL this rare has a pass thru to the dining room. The master -781-1212, ifand interested. CLASSIFIEDS SELL IT FAST IN THE 781-1212, if interested. suite includes a luxurious bath and a huge dressing

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FOR SALE room closet. The amenities of the building include 2 SALE 5529 Dunmoyle: Spectacular FOR 8 br, 4½ bath parking spaces, two guest suites, catering kitchen, home. Formal living and dining rooms, first floor wine and storage lockers, library, conference/party family room, wonderful rear porch that is the room, a resistance pool, and an extensive exercise expanse of this grand home. Beautiful architectural FOX CHAPEL MEWS - $349,000 area. Outdoors, the serene grounds boasts a putting FOX CHAPEL MEWS - $349,000 EXQUISITE 3 bedroom condo-Completely renovated with magnificent built-ins. In features — woodwork, windows, highrenovated ceilings and EXQUISITE 3 bedroom condo-Completely with magnificent built-ins. green, koiInpond, waterfall and a gazebo. unit balcony,great room, in-unit laundry.Building has many amenities -pool,guest unitmore. balcony,great room,room in-unitand laundry.Building has many amenities -pool,guest suites, library,party much more. High end unit ready for move-in. much suites, library,party room and much more. High end unit ready for move-in. SHADYSIDE • $1,985,000 MURDOCH FARMS - $525,000 NORTH OF FORBES • $1,250,000 MURDOCH FARMS - $525,000 with integral FIRST TIME OFFERED! Great 4 bedroom 2 bath and 2 1/2 baths home FIRST TIME OFFERED! Spectacular Brandon Smith FIRST TIME Great 4 bedroom 2 bath and 2 1/2 baths garage onOFFERED! one of Pittsburgh's finest streets. Magnificent livinghome roomwith withintegral fireplace, Designed architect David Ross ofhome garage onby onepremier of Pittsburgh's finest streets. Magnificent room with fireplace, mini manse home on a most desirable 6 bedroom first floor den and much more. This is theliving you want. G floor den and much more.This is the home you want. Design Alliance. 4 br, 3½ baths, open concept INfirst street. The home has been meticulously restored. SQUIRRELHILL HILL SUMMERSET - SUMMERSET Dsunken SQUIRREL N kitchen, a dining room with -6 -$569,000 ft. windows, Enjoy magnificent wood and marble floors, detailed AT FRICK PARK SOLD E AT FRICK -4$569,000 - SOLD PFIRST TIMEliving OFFERED! Spectacular BR , 2 full Baths and 2- 1/2 plaster bath town home. large sunken roomPARK with 10 ft. ceilings. Great moldings, a floating staircase, antique FIRST TIME OFFERED! Spectacular 4 BR , 2 full Baths and 2- 1/2 bath town home. Owner thought of every detail. Beautiful amenities through out the entire home, Owner thought of every detail. Beautiful amenities through out the entire home, room/kitchen. Living and master br have even the bonus ofroom two washers and dryers. Enjoy resort living as the home is brass xtures throughout. Light pours in from the even the bonus of two washers and dryers. Enjoy resort living as the homefiis directly across fromviews the pool the fitness center. DON'T MISS THIS! private directly deck space with ofand CMU, Oakland across from the pool and the fitness center.and DON'T MISS THIS! enormous windows and French doors. Lush, private Downtown from this lovely private location. The SHADYSIDE $230,000 SHADYSIDE - $230,000 garden with a large terrace and fountains. A 3-car FIRST TIME OFFERED! 3 bedroom townhome Maple Heights. Beautiful yard, FIRST TIME townhome on on Maple Heights. Beautiful lower level denOFFERED! opensgreat to3 bedroom abuiltins, private patio. Recently garageyard, and much more. There is a possibility of central integral garage great builtins, central air,air, integral garage . . installed heated driveway and walkway to front purchasing an additional lot that is adjacent to this SHADYSIDE CONDO - $195,000 - SOLD SHADYSIDE CONDO - $195,000 SOLD steps. Lower level also Chic has radiant heat. Trulyair, a laundry -room property. This is truly a find. FIRST TIME OFFERED! and cozy.2 central in unit,balcony FIRST TIME OFFERED! Chic and cozy.2 BR,BR, central air, laundry room in unit,balcony and garage. PET FRIENDLY! GREAT LOCATION! treasure with many amenities. and garage. PET FRIENDLY! GREAT LOCATION!

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NOW PRESENTING 5 EDGEWOOD ROAD This totally renovated contemporary home is designed to perfection. Located on an acre of luscious landscaping that sets it apart from anything on the market. The open floor plan is designed for one floor living with additional rooms downstairs that open to a beautiful pool and entertaining area. Open ceilings, tons of new windows, new floors. A top quality chefs kitchen, new master suite and bath for 2, etc. Perfect for the person who wants to scale down and live in luxury. Fox Chapel very close to the Highland Park Bridge! Call for more information. STAY TUNED FOR MORE CONDOS COMING ON THE MARKET!

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT CHERYL GERSON CHERYL.GERSON@PITTSBURGHMOVES.COM 412.401.4693 TAMARA SKIRBOLL • 412.401.1110

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NOVEMBER 3, 2017 21


Community Celebrating Women’s Philanthropy

p At the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Hannah Kamin Annual Lion of Judah event on Wednesday, Oct. 26, Rabbi Shira Stutman, director of Jewish programming at the innovative Sixth & I Historic Synagogue, Washington, D.C., shared ways to pass Jewish tradition intergenerationally in her talk, L’dor va dor: Learning From Millennials About How to Live a Jewish Life That Matters. The event was presented by the Federation’s Women’s Philanthropy.

p From left: Laura Dinkin, Bernice Meyers and Debbie Graver, event chairs of the Lion of Judah event, were among 100 attendees at the luncheon, which took place at the Green Oaks Country Club in Verona.

p Chair of Jewish Federation’s Women’s Philanthropy Sue Berman Kress, left, and Women’s Philanthropy co-chair Jane Rollman, right, pose with guest speaker Rabbi Shira Stutman. Attendees at the annual luncheon are women who have made a significant individual or household commitment to the Federation’s Community Campaign or created a permanent endowment to ensure their significant campaign commitments in perpetuity.

p From left: Guest speaker Rabbi Shira Stutman joins Sydney Sadick and Amy Kamin at the Lion of Judah luncheon. The event, introduced in 1972 in Pittsburgh, celebrates the commitment of Hannah Kamin, Amy Kamin’s mother, to the preservation of the worldwide Jewish community and the dedication of present-day women philanthropists who have committed ongoing support of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community.

22 NOVEMBER 3, 2017

p From left: Three generations of Lion of Judah endowment participants, Leah Berman Kress, Rose Berman and Sue Berman Kress, hold a graphic that represents the endowment, which will benefit Pittsburgh’s Jewish community in perpetuity. The Lion of Judah is an internationally recognized designation for women philanthropists. Photos by David Bachman

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Community Going kosher

Healthcare at the JAA At the Jewish Association on Aging’s annual meeting on Oct. 24, the JAA hosted a conversation on Healthcare: The Great Debate with panelists, Andrew Gurman, immediate past president of the American Medical Association; Karen Wolk Feinstein, president and CEO of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation; Martin Gaynor, E.J. Barone Professor of Economics and Health Policy at Carnegie Mellon University; and Daphna Gans, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. The JAA celebrated accomplishments over the past year and honored its volunteer of the year, Sheryl Milch, who has served seniors at Anathan Club Adult Day Services for more than a decade.

p The Hillel Jewish University Center has taken a classic Pittsburgh tradition and made it into a kosher student engagement opportunity. Each month at the William Pitt Union, Jewish students have the opportunity to make their own kosher Primanti-style sandwich, while socializing and engaging in informal Jewish learning. The program has grown over the last year from 25 to more than 60 students attending regularly. Photo provided by Hillel Jewish University Center

Learning at Temple David

Temple David discussed rituals in the first of its “9 in 9” study programs: what they are; why they are done; and how they affect Jews. Each month congregants study together from October through June to learn more about rituals, tzedakah and acts of loving kindness, Jewish leaders throughout the ages, diversity in Judaism, Kabbalah, Jewish art, death and dying, Psalms and Israel today.

p Sheryl Milch, center, received the Volunteer of the Year Award during the Jewish Association on Aging’s annual meeting. Sharyn Rubin, left, and Debbie Winn-Horvitz presented the award.

p Hal Lederman, Bob Gordon and Larry Rosenzweig discuss what the 1885 Pittsburgh Platform says about Jewish rituals.

Photo provided by Temple David

At the JCC t Prekindergarten learners from the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh’s Early Childhood Development Center create paper structures, just one of many STEM projects incorporated into their curriculum.

u October was Breast Cancer Awareness month and staff members of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh chose a day last month to promote awareness of this disease.

Photos courtesy of Matt Unger for the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh

p From left: Andrew Gurman; Karen Wolk Feinstein; Mitchell Pakler, JAA board chair; Debbie Winn-Horvitz, JAA president and CEO; Martin Gaynor; and Daphna Gans Photos provided by the Jewish Association on Aging

Staying fit The Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh with partner Tivity Health celebrated the SilverSneakers 25th anniversary last week. The JCC, which has been a partner with SilverSneakers since 2004, is one of the largest SilverSneakers sites in the country with more than 5,900 enrolled SilverSneakers participants between the South Hills and Squirrel Hill JCC locations. SilverSneakers helps members achieve increased strength and endurance, find better health and longevity and make lasting friendships.

u June Labovitz, SilverSneakers member, and Jamie Boyer pose for a photo at the Tivity Health SilverSneakers 25th anniversary celebration, “Live Healthy, Live Long.”

Photo courtesy of Tivity Health

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24 NOVEMBER 3, 2017

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