Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle 1/19/2018 by Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle

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January 19, 2018 | 3 Shevat 5778

Candlelighting 5:05 p.m. | Havdalah 6:08 p.m. | Vol. 61, No. 3 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

NOTEWORTHY LOCAL A new crop of pinball wizards garner national attention

White Oak Jewish community can be revived, say leaders

Esports draws players and audiences. Page 3

T White Oak but affiliate with the congregation nonetheless. Most of the members of both congregations are senior citizens. It is a familiar story: a once-thriving Jewish community in a steel town dwindles when the industry declines and its population migrates to larger urban centers. But Rabbi Moshe Russell, spiritual leader of Gemilas Chesed, believes that White Oak can and should have a Jewish resurgence. A father of nine children — the oldest just 17 years old — Russell is on a campaign to get the word out that White Oak just may be one of the region’s best kept secrets. “We are trying to look forward to see how we can attract people to come to White Oak,” Russell said, citing the community’s many amenities, including the low housing costs and the relatively short 20- to 30-minute commute to Squirrel Hill. Free busses are available to transport children to Squirrel Hill’s day schools, he noted, and snow is plowed from the streets usually before dawn. The community is perfect for a young Jewish family, said Russell, who is originally

he Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which became law last month, will be changing the financial landscape for many individuals, with alterations in the code ranging from the treatment of alimony payments to changes in the alternative minimum tax rules. But for nonprofit organizations, one of the biggest effects of the new tax laws stems from the doubling of the standard tax deduction — to $12,000 for individuals and $24,000 for couples. Because fewer taxpayers will be itemizing deductions now, one incentive to donate to charity has been removed. Taking advantage of the deductions still available in 2017, in December alone, 20 donors opened new donor-advised funds at the Jewish Community Foundation of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, according to Sharon Perelman, director of planned giving at the Foundation. Contrast that to the five new donor-advised funds opened in December 2016 and just 10 during the entirety of 2016. Donor-advised funds allow donors to contribute assets to a fund, from which they can direct distributions to specific charities later. The rush to open these funds in December was to take advantage of itemized deductions before the law changed, Perelman said. “Seventy percent of people who used to benefit from charitable deductions won’t be able to in 2018,” she said. “But there is still good reason to set up [donor-advised funds] now. As long as you will exceed $24,000 in

Please see White Oak, page 20

Please see Donor, page 20

A decade of embracing Steel City’s future

Page 7 NATIONAL Here comes the judge

Ellen Ceisler one of two Jewish jurists to join appellate bench. Page 21

Jewish Community Foundation sees spike in new funds due to changes in tax law By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer

LOCAL

Audrey Russo marks 10 years at Pittsburgh Technology Council.

$1.50

 One of two sanctuaries at Gemilas Chesed in White Oak By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer

ake a drive down Lincoln Way, the main drag in White Oak, and get ready to be struck with a wave of comfort — the feeling that if you stop into one of the family-owned restaurants lining the street, you will probably be served by a seasoned waitress with a beehive hairdo and cat-eye glasses on a chain around her neck who will call you “Hon.” White Oak, just 16 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, is a small community of about 8,000 residents, with quiet tree-lined streets, a low crime rate, low taxes and affordable housing (an 1,800 square-foot, four-bedroom house in good shape goes for about $150,000). It also happens to have two synagogues, a newly remodeled mikvah and an eruv. There is a solid Jewish infrastructure in place in this Pittsburgh adjacent suburb, but the community is nonetheless running out of Jews. The borough’s Orthodox congregation, Gemilas Chesed, is down to about 50 members, and the Reform congregation, Temple B’nai Israel has fewer than 100 families on its rolls — many who live outside of

Photo by Eliran Shkedi

keep your eye on PittsburghJewishChronicle LOCAL

HS2 acquires LunaMetrics

WORLD

Michael Oren says shoot to kill

WORLD

Trump’s J’lem recommendations

Headlines Charles Morris sanctions are surprising to some — LOCAL — By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

n one of the largest state sanctions against a nursing home, the Pennsylvania Department of Health fined the Charles M. Morris Nursing and Rehabilitation Center $235,000 after an investigation spurred by an accidental death last fall of one of its residents due to improper bedrail use. The agency also downgraded the Jewish Association on Aging facility’s operating license from 12 months to six months. The sanctions followed a determination last fall that the center was not in compliance with health regulations and a subsequent finding that Charles Morris had since brought itself back into compliance. The delayed announcement of the financial penalty is not surprising, said April L. Hutcheson, communications director for the Department of Health. “The timing of the financial sanction is often later.” More perplexing to some is the actual figure. “I have never seen a fine like that, or reduction, that I can recall,” said Bruce Martin Ginsburg, a Philadelphia-based personal injury attorney whose firm has handled nursing home malpractice cases for more than 15 years. As for how the Department of Health arrived at the $235,000 figure, “there’s a calculation, but we’re unclear exactly what the math is,” said Russ McDaid, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Healthcare Association. “The calculation is based on a per-instance, per-day basis,” said Hutcheson. “There is not a formula. The law describes the department’s ability to assess fines.” As for the nearly quarter-of-a-million-dollar fine, the department representative placed it in perspective. “It is not the largest recorded

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in the state,” she said. “St. Francis near Philadelphia was fined more than $700,000 in December 2017 after its license was revoked.” Still, fines in the several-hundred-thousand-dollar range are concerning, said McDaid. “That’s [money] that is no longer available for use at the patient bedside.” Alan Meisel, a professor of law and psychiatry and founder of the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Bioethics and Health Law, criticized such high penalties.

“It’s a troubling trajectory, and I’m hopeful that we’ll see an end in sight, but we certainly don’t think so at this point,” said McDade. From a federal standpoint, that wish may soon be granted. Last month, The New York Times reported that “the Trump administration is scaling back the use of fines against nursing homes that harm residents or place them in grave risk of injury.” The move is “part of a broader relaxation of regulations under the president,” said the paper.

“ To impose a penalty on [nursing homes] makes things worse.”

— ALAN MEISEL, UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH

“One of the reasons why nursing homes have difficulties providing high-quality services is because of fiscal [difficulties],” he said. “They are very expensive to run, and they don’t always get adequate funding, especially from Medicaid, to do it. To impose a penalty on them makes things worse.” But issuing sizable fines follows a recent trend in the commonwealth, one that has been encouraged by the administration of Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf. A report by the Philadelphia Inquirer showed that by May of 2017, the Department of Health had already “fined nursing homes more in the first four months of [2017] than in the previous three years combined, as regulators started using a more rigorous penalty system after coming under fire for going too lightly on substandard care.”

“For the longest time the government’s approach was to impose fines and sometimes to shut down the nursing homes, and it became clear over a period of time to federal regulators that it’s counterproductive,” said Meisel. McDade agreed. “All things being equal, we believe we need to find a way to put those dollars to use so that the facilities can make the types of changes they believe they need to make or make the investment in their staff, make the investment in reducing turnover, the investment of putting processes and procedures in place,” he said. “They can’t do that if significant amounts of discretionary dollars are being taken out of their hands and put in state coffers somewhere.” As for Charles Morris, “the state obvi-

p The Charles M. Morris Nursing and Rehabilitation Center File photo

ously has a real microscope on this facility,” said Ginsburg. Even so, state health law provides an appellate procedure for nursing homes. “Once an order is issued, there is a 30-day appeal period,” said Hutcheson. “If no appeal is filed, the order will take effect.” “Charles Morris cooperates fully with the Pennsylvania Department of Health which oversees our quality of care,” Charles Morris administrator Phil Ricci said in a prepared statement. “We appreciate and value the department’s important role in our industry and strive to adhere to the highest standards of care it expects.” “After the department’s recent audit of our facility, we submitted a plan of correction that addressed each of their concerns,” he added. “The department subsequently approved the plan and informed us that we are in full compliance with their regulations. Now that the department has determined to revisit its resolution of these issues, we intend to work with the department and the procedures it provides to resolve these issues.” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz @pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Headlines Lenny Silberman says esports is the next Jewish programming frontier — LOCAL — By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

enny Silberman, the man who built a sustainable after-school basketball program, revitalized a Jewish summer camp and solidified the Maccabi Games as the marquee event for young Jewish athletes, is exploring the newest frontier. For the past 20 months Silberman, who prior to becoming CEO of Henry Kaufmann Campgrounds in New York City served as continental director of the JCC Maccabi Games, director of Emma Kaufmann Camp and athletic director of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, has pursued the possibilities of esports. Sometimes referred to as electronic sports, esports or competitive gaming, the growing global phenomenon pits video-game players against one another in often highly watched and monetized competitions. ESL One New York, a September 2017 esports event at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, featured eight of the world’s top teams competing in “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive,” a multiplayer “shooter” game, for $250,000 in prizes.

Silberman attended the Sept. 16-17 event and described the experience in a recently published article on ejewishphilanthropy.com. While it is common for several thousand people to attend such competitions, the bulk of viewers tune in online. Esports Charts, an analytical service that follows esports, reported that ESL One New York, garnered 5,307,744 views and 5,874,067 total hours watched. Although much attention has been given to the multitudinous marketing and economic opportunities afforded by esports, Silberman has an alternative angle. Given the booming interest in esports, “we have an opportunity on so many different levels to engage and then re-engage Jewish youth,” he said. For nearly two years, Silberman, has researched and discussed the possibilities of integrating esports into Jewish life, and although there is online competition that is often centered around violent games, he is more interested in other electronic contests. That people of all ages may be interested in gaming — be it scoring a digital touchdown or building a visual bridge — might be puzzling to some, statistics confirm that the reach of video games far exceeds teenage hands.

“Gamers age 18 or older represent 72 percent of the video-game-playing population, and the average gamer is 35 years old,” according to the 2017 report of the Entertainment Software Association. “On one hand, it’s teenagers” who are gaming; “on the other, it’s children and teenagers and college students or students at Hillel. It’s endless,” said Silberman. “My thinking is that there’s an opportunity for discussion sake.” Whether it is bringing Jewish youth together to play video games against one another at a local Jewish Community Center or to have youth groups or summer camps or day schools or regions compete, the “potential is endless,” said Silberman. “The idea is that you’re meeting kids where they’re at.” Silberman has spent his career anticipating trends and creating supportive programming for youth advancement. Given the next generation’s proclivity to digital connections, esports is ripe for the picking, he explained. “A lot of this is about Generation Z and the millennials and how they get their daily information and games.” Research conducted by the Media Insight Project (an initiative of the American Press

Institute and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research) revealed that in 2015, 88 percent of millennials reported that they get their news from Facebook “regularly.” The ESA adds that “65 percent of American households are home to someone who plays video games regularly, and 67 percent of American households own a device used to play video games.” “We know that people are connecting more through the internet and online communities; the challenge is how do you make it Jewish,” said Silberman. The former Pittsburgher and Jewish professional, who, in 2016, after three decades of promoting sports, summer camps and Judaism, was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, hopes that others will join him in strategizing a path forward. “I’m not good in science. I’m not really good in math,” he said. “God just gave me the ability to see things a little differently around kids and families and meaningful activities, and I think that’s what we’ve got going on here.” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz @pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Headlines After 13 years and tremendous growth, Robbin Steif says goodbye to LunaMetrics — LOCAL — By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

unaMetrics, a Pittsburgh-based analytics consultancy, was sold last month to HS2, a digital transformation agency founded and headquartered in Chicago. The transaction was “one of the things that I am the most proud of,” said Robbin Steif, LunaMetrics’ founder and CEO. Although Steif will stay on for most of 2018 and aid the transition between both businesses, her time at LunaMetrics is coming to a close. Such expiration marks the culmination of an endeavor started in 2004, when Steif, while seated in a coffee shop, scrawled out the idea for LunaMetrics on a napkin. Since that time, LunaMetrics, a pioneer and early partner of Google analytics, has grown from a single-person venture to a company with 37 employees and approximately $10 million in sales in 2017, said the Harvard graduate. Building the business enabled Steif to both experience the growing pains of a startup and reap the benefits of an established operation. Through 13 years of toil, Steif learned valuable lessons about management, negoti-

p Robbin Steif

Photo courtesy of Robbin Steif

ation and compromise. But with deference to her dedicated staff, the CEO shared that while she should have known more when she started, those around her provided aid. “I really have many of the people who report to me to thank for that because some of them are really fabulous in terms of understanding those kinds of things,” she said. Looking back on LunaMetrics’ growth, Steif is still amazed at the journey. When asked to extract counsel from the path taken, she said, “I don’t know if I have great advice except for do the best job you can of creating a

work environment that your people will love, because going to a job you love every day is a whole lot better than going to a job you hate.” Upon her eventual leave of LunaMetrics, Steif is uncertain as to where she may go. “I’m just not sure. I don’t know that I will work in the future, I might do a nonprofit. I would like to spend part of the year living in Los Angeles, where my daughter and future son-in-law live. There’s a whole lot I don’t know yet.” What Steif does know though is that she has become an advocate in some regard. “I’m always pushing my daughter to negotiate for everything she does, for every job, because I think it’s so important that women negotiate,” she said. According to payscale.com, “women earn 76 cents for every dollar earned by men.” As for why Steif tries to drive this and similar statistics home with her daughter, “I want her to make more money, and I want her to make as much money as her male colleagues do,” she said. Being cognizant of figures, trends and data is what enabled Steif to successfully build LunaMetrics, a company whose clients have included BJ’s Wholesale Club, CareerBuilder, Caterpillar, GNC, Leading Hotels of the World, PBS and Teach for America.

“LunaMetrics has been on the leading edge of digital analytics for over a decade, and founder and CEO Robbin Steif has built a world-class, results-driven team that bolsters our talent base and strengthens our digital marketing strategy and analytics and insights practices tremendously,” said Phil Hollyer, HS2 Solutions co-founder and CEO, in a prepared statement. And though Steif, a former IBM employee whose first job out of school focused on direct-mail marketing, has quite a familiarity with numbers, there is one quantity that still captivates her. “On the final call, there were 25 people, that’s how involved this was,” said the winner of the Business Women First award and recipient of the Diamond Award for business leadership. “I want people to know that few sales people, and deep down I am a salesperson, get to do a deal as amazing as this one,” she said. “This was the deal of a lifetime; it was the largest, most complex, most involved deals I’ve ever done, and I don’t want to just keep it to myself. I just really want people to know that it was really cool.” Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz @pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Headlines Jewish learning for ‘everyone’ starts second season in Pittsburgh — LOCAL — By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer

uilding on 2017’s successful first run, Kulam: The Pittsburgh Community Beit Midrash launched its second iteration this week, boasting a slate of scholars primed to continue a new tradition of adult Jewish education in the Steel City. With an eye toward community building, Kulam’s founders, Peter Braasch and David Brent, have partnered with the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, headquartered in Jerusalem, to make Jewish learning accessible and meaningful to a diverse local population. The seven-session course, which is free of charge, is open to both men and women, regardless of previous levels of Jewish education or denominational affiliation.

“For me, it’s exciting for people to learn from one another in settings where they wouldn’t necessarily be together,” Brent said. “Every Jewish person has something to offer.” That everyone has something to offer when it comes to the study of Jewish texts is one of the basic premises on which Pardes was founded, said Rabba Yaffa Epstein, who serves as the director of education, North America, for Pardes. Epstein, who identifies as modern Orthodox, received Rabbinic Ordination from Yeshivat Maharat and holds a law degree from Bar-Ilan University. Epstein will be leading two of Kulam’s sessions, on Jan. 24 and Feb. 14. “Pardes is a nondenominational, coed Jewish learning institution, and a big part of our belief system is that all Jews are welcome, and all Jews should come and learn Jewish texts in a warm, safe environment,” said

p Rabba Yaffa Epstein

p Leah Rosenthal

“ When you delve into the text in a deep way, what you see is that these are universal questions, and they are age-old, and the Jewish tradition has a lot to say that is relevant to our

”

times.

— RABBA YAFFA EPSTEIN The weekly evening class at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh is featuring four scholars from Pardes to teach the foundational Biblical and Talmudic stories of the Jewish tradition. The first class was taught by Leah Rosenthal, a 20-year veteran of Talmud instruction at Pardes, on Jan. 17. Other classes are being held on Jan. 24, Feb. 14, March 7, March 21, April 25 and May 9. What sets Kulam — a Hebrew word which translates to “everyone” — apart from some other contemporary adult education programs is its incorporation of chavruta, in which students pore over a particular biblical or Talmudic passage with a partner, with each person bringing his own unique experiences and analytic prowess to the table. Among the approximately 60 people who studied at Kulam last year, said Brent, about 20 percent were unaffiliated with a congregation, with the remaining 80 percent divided equally among Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Jews. For about one-third of the participants, Kulam was the only Jewish learning activity in which they were engaged. About 40 percent were under the age of 45. Kulam is funded by grants and donations, including a fund that has been established at the Jewish Community Foundation of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. 6 JANUARY 19, 2018

Epstein. “So, what we are trying to build with Kulam is the same sort of concept of open, nondenominational, cross-communal learning, so all Jews are welcome to come and learn.” Kulam offers “a really deep dive into classic texts,” Epstein continued, “which means that every session will have some chavruta learning.” A Jewish learner does not need any particular background, practice or belief system “in order to have access to deep Jewish learning,” Epstein explained. “What you see when you delve into classic Jewish texts, even when you don’t have a strong learning background and even if you don’t know Hebrew or haven’t learned Talmud before — if the text is made accessible to you — is that the questions and the issues that the rabbis of the Talmud are dealing with are still very live and very real issues that we are dealing with today.” For example, Epstein said, Rosenthal’s session covered “the relationship between the land of Israel and the diaspora, which is a very live question in our day and certainly a very live question in the time of the Talmud. “It’s a bit of a surprise, because I think people think of the Talmud as details and rules and this law book,” Epstein added. “But actually, when you start to delve into

p Kulam’s founders, Peter Braasch and David Brent, have partnered with the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, headquartered in Jerusalem, to make Jewish learning accessible and meaningful to a diverse local population.

Photos provided by Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies

the Talmud — and the same is true with the Bible as well — when you delve into the text in a deep way, what you see is that these are universal questions, and they are age-old, and the Jewish tradition has a lot to say that is relevant to our times.” It is “empowering,” she said, to have students of various backgrounds studying these texts together and learning from each

other. “We’re saying to everyone, ‘Your voice is necessary as part of this conversation.’” The organizers of Kulam hope that it can become a “long-term project,” continuing, in some form, beyond its initial two-year run, Brent said. PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

Former New Light price tag: 700K

he price paid by Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh to purchase the building formerly housing New Light Congregation was $700,000, according to the Real Estate Transfer listings in the Jan. 14 edition of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The building at 1700 Beechwood Blvd. in Squirrel Hill is expected to be used by Chabad of Pittsburgh until next year, at which time Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh will use it to hold classes (see “Yeshiva

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Schools purchases former home of New Light Congregation,” Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, Dec. 22, 2017). Yeshiva is planning to renovate the building, and is expecting the total cost of purchase plus renovations to be “around $2 million to $3 million,” Yeshiva’s director of development, Chezky Rosenfeld, told the Chronicle last month. PJC — Toby Tabachnick

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Headlines Audrey Russo marks 10 years at Pittsburgh Technology Council — LOCAL — By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

en years at the top of Pittsburgh’s tech scene has gifted Audrey Russo a pretty clear picture of the Steel City’s landscape. Literally, there is a giant photograph of downtown Pittsburgh that hangs on the wall adjacent to her Oakland office. But figuratively as well, in directing the Pittsburgh Technology Council for the past decade, Russo has been privy to observing and facilitating a period of significant growth. “The world has changed and is changing more rapidly than ever” said Russo. “As a result, lots of things have changed with Pittsburgh and the community in terms of innovation and technology, and I’ve had the luxury of being a servant and trying to help move the needle and move the agenda forward so that Pittsburgh is on the world map particularly for innovation and technology.” Pittsburgh Technology Council is the region’s information technology trade association, representing more than 1,300 members across the local tech sector. The past decade has brought a change to the regional tech scene. In 2006, Google marked its physical Pittsburgh debut with two employees. By 2016, there were 450 workers in the Pittsburgh office, reported the Tribune-Review.

p Audrey Russo

Photo courtesy of Pittsburgh Technology Council

But Google isn’t the only company to locally flourish, others such as Uber, Duolingo and 4moms have helped reshape the city, Russo explained. Back then “the workforce in tech was 18 to 20 percent of the region’s payroll; now it’s like 30 or over 30,” she said. “The significance of reaching that number is that it creates the tipping point. When you start to get to 30 percent of the workforce, or 30 percent of anything, that moves the needle, it becomes a turning point, a pivot; it alters what people require of a community and what they require of a city and place they call home. So we can say, ‘Oh my gosh, Lawrenceville exploded,

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

Jan. 19, 1990 Arthur Goldberg dies

Arthur Goldberg, former United States Supreme Court Justice, secretary of labor and American ambassador to the United Nations, dies at the age of 81 at his home in Washington, D.C. Goldberg was an important drafter of U.N. Resolution 242 following the June 1967 War.

Jan. 20, 1942 Nazi plan for “Final Solution” is drafted at Wannsee Conference

Nazis draw up a plan for the “Final Solution” of European Jewry in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee.

Jan. 21, 1882 Groundwork for First Aliyah Is laid by BILU

Jan. 22, 2013 19th Knesset elections are held

Early elections are held following the October 2012 dissolution of the Knesset due to an impasse over the state budget.

Jan. 23, 1950 Knesset declares Jerusalem capital of Israel

and East Liberty is not the same as it ever was, and look what’s happening in Garfield.’ We can look at all the little patterns of what’s transformed, but part of it is that is we have people who require different amenities. If they are going to live in a place, and particularly people who are between the ages of 25 and 34 and are very highly educated, there are requisites on what makes it attractive for them to be here. So the proliferation of restaurants, and paying attention to air quality and what does it mean to need transportation and have direct flights, it doesn’t happen in a community that is not transforming.” And just as the city has shifted, so too have its employers. “While tech workers have increased, what’s really changed is this: For the first time, big global multinational companies need those skills,” she said. “Companies like PNC Bank, which five, six years ago used to contract out their engineering and design services, are now hiring specialized workers. They need people inside on their teams who actually know how to continue to iterate against those kinds of designs. These corporations are wrestling with, ‘Oh, we are now competing with the same skills as Google and Apple and Disney,’ so they’ve sort of had to wake up and now say, ‘We require this.’” As head of the Pittsburgh Technology Council, Russo works closely with companies such as PNC to “map out their people strategies.”

It is a gratifying task, said Russo, who, prior to overseeing Pittsburgh’s tech sphere, held positions at Reynolds Metals Company, Alcoa and MAYA Design, but what she is also proud of is her commitment to bolstering women’s opportunities in tech. “I work with a lot of startups and people building their ideas into a product or service,” she said. “It remains bad. The women in the world who have had companies with exits is really small.” “[Such paucity is due to] different challenges that women face. Number one, I think if they haven’t come up through a sort of finance career they might not have some of those natural connections that enhance the likelihood of investment capital necessary to scale their companies. “There hasn’t been that type of gravitas over the decades for women who are surrounded by other people, who have sort of gone through their own journey, who have been moms, providers, have multiple amounts of responsibility. They sort of have never seen it for themselves as an opportunity to build companies.” So what Russo does, even within the confines of her own home, is “coalesce those people” and “work together and figure out what people need and connect them.” “I’m trying not to sound gender specific,” she said, “but I do think that if we miss Please see Russo, page 25

Insuring Our Community

By a vote of 60-2, with members of Mapam and Herut abstaining, the Knesset adopts a proclamation declaring Jerusalem the capital of Israel.

Jan. 24, 1964 Eli Cohen is arrested on charges of espionage

Syrian police raid the home of Damascus businessman Kamel Amin Tha’abet, who is in fact a Mossad spy named Eli Cohen, and arrest him on charges of espionage.

Jan. 25, 1904 Herzl meets with Pope Pius X

During a two-week trip to Italy, Theodor Herzl meets with Pope Pius X in an effort to gain his support for the Zionist cause. PJC

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Calendar mingle with young adults (ages 21-45). There is no charge. Visit tinyurl.com/ycno9zd4 for more information and to RSVP.

 SATURDAY, JAN. 20 Beat the winter blues and party like you’re on an island vacation at Community Day School’s Sun & Schmooze: A Tropical Gala at 7:30 p.m. with dancing with DJ Sosa, and gourmet dinner stations with tropical flavors at the August Wilson Center at 980 Liberty Ave. All money raised will go directly to support educational programs at CDS and to provide tuition assistance for families in need. During the evening, CDS will honor members of the community. CDS alumni parents State Rep. Dan and Debbie Frankel will receive the Community Leadership Award and alumni parent Dana Himmel will receive the CDS Volunteer of the Year Award. Visit comday.org/gala for tickets. For more information on how to become an event sponsor while supporting Community Day School, contact Jenny Jones at 412-521-1100, ext. 3207, or jjones@comday.org.

 SATURDAY, JAN. 20 Shabbat Searchers: Exploring Sacred Spaces at 5 p.m. in the Rodef Shalom sanctuary. This is a pilot program exploring offsite Shabbat experiences for those who prefer life off the beaten path. Every other month the group will gather for an alternative Shabbat experience focusing on how one can view, use and be in sacred spaces. The program launches from Rodef Shalom’s home sanctuary before setting off to explore around the city. Contact frischer@ rodefshalom.org for more information.  SUNDAY, JAN. 21

>> Submit calendar items on the Chronicle’s website, pittsburghjewishchronicle.org. Submissions will also be included in print. Events will run in the print edition beginning one month prior to the date. The deadline for submissions is Friday, noon.  FRIDAY, JAN. 19 Community potluck dinner at 5:45 p.m. at Temple Sinai with an entrée of baked blueberry chutney chicken prepared by Chef Drew. Bring a nondairy side dish, salad or dessert (enough for 8-10 people). Shabbat service follows at 7 p.m. There is a $5 charge. Contact Judy Lynn Aiello at 412-421-9715, ext. 124, or judylynn@templesinaipgh.org or visit tinyurl.com/ydh2wuva to register.

Temple David celebrates its 60th anniversary in the Eastern Suburbs. The kickoff begins with the “Temple David: This is Us” display. There will be a dinner at 6 p.m. A Shabbat service will follow at 7:30 p.m. discussing the importance of “Jewish Archiving” with Eric Lidji, director of the Rauh Jewish History Program and Archives at the Heinz History Center. Refreshments will follow. Saturday there will be a Shabbat service at 10 a.m. with “Congregants reminiscing Six Decades.” Sunday the kickoff weekend ends with interactive stations about the past 60 years, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. and a discussion of “What Led to Temple David” by Eric Lidji at 11:30 a.m. For information, call 412-372-1200. Young Adult Shabbat after hours at 8:30 p.m. at Temple Sinai, a wine and cheese mix and

Congregation Dor Hadash, Congregation Beth Shalom’s program Derekh and the University of Pittsburgh’s Jewish Studies Program invite the community to a lecture at 10 a.m. by Justin Cammy titled “When Yiddish Was Young.” Cammy, associate professor of Jewish studies and comparative literature at Smith College, is a literary and cultural historian with research and teaching interests in Yiddish literature, Eastern European Jewish history, and Zionism and contemporary Israel. He holds a doctorate in Near Eastern languages and civilizations from Harvard University and a bachelor’s degree in Middle Eastern studies from McGill University. The lecture will be presented at Congregation Dor Hadash at the corner of Wilkins and Shady avenues in Squirrel Hill.

RSVP is required at admin@dorhadash.net or 412-422-5158.  MONDAY, JAN. 22 Beth El Congregation’s Adult Education Speaker Series presents Beth Kissileff, editor, author and freelance journalist, on “Tricksters, Thieves & Disguisers: Women’s Ways of Negotiation in the Hebrew Bible” from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at 1900 Cochran Road. The talk follows a wine and cheese reception. RSVP in advance at bethelcong.org or call 412-561-1168. The program is free and open to the community.  TUESDAY, JAN. 23 The Jewish Association on Aging presents a free program on Dementia & Benefits of Speech Therapy from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. at 200 JHF Drive. Sarah E. Wallace Ph.D., CCC-SLP will discuss speech and language issues common to people with neurocognitive disorders and ways to support loved ones dealing with this speech difficulty. Wallace is an associate professor and program director for the adult language and cognition clinic in the Speech-Language Pathology Department at Duquesne University. RSVP to Amy Dukes at 412-521-8295, adukes@jaapgh.org or visit tinyurl.com/ yatbbzuq for more information. Chabad of the South Hills holds its pre-Tu B’Shevat lunch for seniors at noon at 1701 McFarland Road. There will be a safety Please see Calendar, page 9

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Calendar Calendar:

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Continued from page 8 presentation by the Mt. Lebanon Fire Department and a special Tu B’Shevat program. Call 412-278-2658 to preregister. There is a $5 suggested donation.  TUESDAY, JAN. 23

AND THURSDAY, JAN. 25

The Pittsburgh OASIS Intergenerational Tutor Program is seeking volunteers (50plus) to tutor in Pittsburgh and Woodland Hills School Districts in grades K-4. An hour a week can change a child’s life. A two-day training class will be conducted from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at 411 Seventh Ave., Suite 525 (Duquesne Light Building). Contact John D. Spehar, Pittsburgh OASIS Tutoring program director at 412-393-7648 or jdspehar@ oasisnet.org for more information or to register. OASIS is an affiliate of Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council.  WEDNESDAYS, JAN. 24 TO MARCH 14 The Jewish Learning Institute presents Communication: Its Art and Soul, a six-week course taught by Rabbi Yisroel Altein. This course will contrast Jewish thought with scientific discovery to unearth the essence of communication and how to utilize its powers to better ourselves, our relationships and all of society at 7:30 p.m. at Chabad of Squirrel Hill, 1700 Beechwood Blvd. Visit chabadpgh.com for more information on continuing education credits and to register. The cost is $90.  FRIDAY, JAN. 26 Breakfast for Dinner Shabbat at Moishe House from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. with pancakes, eggs and mimosas. PJs are welcome (extra points for footsies). Visit tinyurl.com/ ybuurzsn for more information.  SATURDAY, JAN. 27 The Holocaust Center, in partnership with the Carnegie Mellon University Department of Modern Languages and Rodef Shalom Congregation, marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day with a screening of “Sterne” (“Stars”) at 7 p.m. at Rodef Shalom. The East German film is a drama about a sergeant in the Wehrmacht and how his life is changed by the establishment of a transit camp for Jews arriving from Greece. “Sterne,” which won the 1959 Special Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes International Film Festival, is a linguistic triumph, speaking to the diversity

 SUNDAY, FEB. 4

Beth El Congregation invites the community to the international project Empty Bowls from noon to 2 p.m. to raise money and awareness for those whose bowls are empty. Patrons will receive a simple meal of soup and bread and adults will be able to select a pottery bowl of their choice to take home. This event benefits local food pantries and the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. The cost is $18 adults/$6 kids, and at the door, $20 adults/$10 kids. Visit bethelcong.org for more information and to purchase tickets.

BOWLS

of Jewish victims of the Holocaust. The film features dialogue in Bulgarian, German, Greek, and Ladino. Because English subtitles were not completed until 1999, the film has gained new life in the 21st century. This is the first time Sterne has been screened in Pittsburgh. Visit hcofpgh.org/sterne/ for more information. The event cost is $10 and free for students with valid ID and survivors.

give the award annually. Visit jrspgh.org/ shore-whitehill for the nomination form and contact Jewish Residential Services at shorewhitehill@jrspgh.org or 412-325-0039 for more information.  THURSDAY, FEB. 1

Clues and Schmooze (with some Booze), a trivia event that includes a raffle, open bar and snacks, is set for Beth Shalom Congregation at 7:30 p.m. Trivia will be in teams of four. Bring your own team or be matched up at the door. Visit tinyurl. com/clues2018 for more information, including charges.

Beth El Congregation’s Adult Education Speaker Series presents Rabbi Ron Symons, senior director of Jewish Life at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, on “Back in the Garden: Tu B’Shevat and Global Warming” from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at 1900 Cochran Road. The talk follows a wine and cheese reception. RSVP in advance at bethelcong.org or call 412-561-1168. The program is free and open to the community.

 SUNDAY, JAN. 28



I-Volunteer & MoHo: Packing Medical Supplies from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. for targeted communities in need throughout the Western Hemisphere. Come to MoHo at 12:15 p.m. or meet at Global Links, 700 Trumbull Drive at 1 p.m. Visit tinyurl. com/ya7mujc3 for more information.

Temple David hosts a Young Family Shabbat Service and Picnic Dinner. The Shabbat service begins on the bimah at 6 p.m. and a picnic in the social hall will follow at 6:30 p.m. There is no cost. Chicken fingers, sides and drinks will be provided. Bring your picnic blankets. The event is for children under age 10 with their families and children of all ages in the family are welcome.

 NOMINATIONS DUE

BY FRIDAY, JAN. 31

The Shore-Whitehill Award nominations are open for 2018. The Shore-Whitehill Award, created in 1996, is named for Robert Whitehill and the late Barbara Shore and celebrates volunteers who promote inclusion of people with disabilities in the fabric of Jewish life through advocacy or direct service to individuals and families. Organizations that nominate awardees receive a grant of $1,000 to help underwrite the costs of a recognition event and/or inclusion activities. Awardees receive an original sculpture by the late Sylvia Plutchok, who was a Pittsburgh-based artist. The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh and Jewish Residential Services  SATURDAY, JAN. 20 Game Day, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., whether your favorite game is Telestrations or Apples to Apples, you can find it at Moishe House. Play one of its games or introduce players to your own game. Spend your Shabbat afternoon playing and snacking with your favorite Moho crew. Visit tinyurl. com/ybo2uz3f for more information.

FRIDAY, FEB. 2

 MONDAY, FEB. 5 Beth El Congregation’s Adult Education Speaker Series presents Ria David Ph.D. and Dr. Mark Perlin on “DNA Justice and the Jewish Question” from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at 1900 Cochran Road. The talk follows a wine and cheese reception. RSVP in advance at bethelcong.org or call 412-561-1168. The program is free and open to the community.  MONDAY, FEB. 5 Beth El Congregation of the South Hills, at 1900 Cochran Road, invites the community to its First Mondays program with Rabbi Alex Greenbaum and producer Bob Cahalan from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. for lunch and an audio-visual program on Pittsburgh that will illustrate Pittsburgh as a metropolitan city through photography and music. Segments include area economy, natural beauty, sports, special attractions, events, houses of worship, downtown, bridges and more. There is a $6 charge. RSVP at bethelcong.org or 412-561-1168.  WEDNESDAY, FEB. 7 Chabad of Squirrel Hill hosts an inspirational talk, entitled “Creating Light from Darkness” at its new location, 1700 Beechwood Blvd. at 7:30 p.m. The presentation will be given

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PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

by guest lecturer Dina Horowitz, a mother of seven from California whose life was turned upside down when her husband, Rabbi Yitzi, was diagnosed with ALS in 2015. The cost of the event is $10 per person. A soup bar will be available for guests to enjoy as well. For more information or to make a reservation, please visit chabadpgh.com/light or call 412-421-3561.  THURSDAY, FEB. 8 The Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh’s Generations Speaker Series with Judah Samet and Miriam Cohen. The free series is hosted in-person and live-streamed and consists of dialogues between Holocaust survivors and their family members. Samet will present his story, which includes surviving the horrors of Bergen-Belsen as a 7-year-old child alongside his brave mother. His sister, Miriam Cohen, will speak about being born in Israel after the war’s conclusion, and the experience of being raised by Holocaust survivors beside siblings who also survived the Holocaust. The program is at 6:30 p.m. at Wilkins and Shady avenues. Temple David and AgeWell Pittsburgh are partnering to offer a Caregivers Forum to learn what supports you need as a caregiver, be it a safe, nurturing place to talk, resources for your loved one or supports for yourself, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at 4415 Northern Pike, Monroeville. Coffee and light snacks will be provided. RSVP by Feb. 2 to Sybil Lieberman, AgeWell at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, at slieberman@jccpgh.org or 412-697-3514.  MONDAY, FEB. 12 Beth El Congregation’s Adult Education Speaker Series presents Rabbi Danny Schiff, Foundation Scholar at the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, on “Our Flawed Ancestors” from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at 1900 Cochran Road. The talk follows a wine and cheese reception. RSVP in advance at bethelcong.org or call 412-561-1168. The program is free and open to the community.  THURSDAY, FEB. 15 Men’s Philanthropy of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh presents its first social event of the year, Men’s Scotch & Cigars at Three Rivers Cigars, Inc. from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Join your fellow men for a cigar, a variety of scotch tastings and hors d’oeuvres. Limited to the first 30 registrants. Visit tinyurl.com/ yaglf48t to register and for more information. Rabbi Barbara Symons of Temple David holds a book discussion on “Forest Dark” by Nicole Krauss at the Monroeville Public Library, 4000 Gateway Campus Blvd. at 10 a.m. and 7 p.m.  TUESDAY, FEB. 20 The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh unveils the findings of the 2017 Pittsburgh Jewish Community Study at 5:30 p.m. at Rodef Shalom Congregation. County Executive Rich Fitzgerald will make the opening remarks. Register at tinyurl.com/ yd25xfqa or contact Chrissy Janisko at cjanisko@jfedpgh.org or 412-697-6652. PJC

JANUARY 19, 2018 9

Headlines Former ambassador says Israeli soldiers should shoot to kill terrorists — WORLD — By Ben Sales | JTA

f a Palestinian appears to be committing a terror attack, do they deserve to die on the spot? The answer is yes, says Michael Oren. The former Israeli ambassador to the United States, now a deputy minister in Israel’s Cabinet, tweeted late last month that the Israel Defense Forces should change its rules of engagement, such that soldiers should “shoot to kill” suspected terrorists, instead of just incapacitating them. “Soldiers who catch terrorists while carrying out attacks must be ordered to shoot to kill not neutralize,” Oren tweeted Dec. 27. “Soldiers responding to terror attacks cannot determine if terrorists are neutralized, as the current open-fire order states. Soldiers are not doctors. But they must ensure that the terrorists pose no further threat.” Oren’s comments touch on a debate that has coursed through Israeli society since 2015, when a wave of Palestinian stabbing attacks swept across Israel and Israeli forces killed many of the assailants. The debate intensified in 2016 when an Israeli soldier killed a terrorist who was already incapacitated or, in IDF-speak, “neutralized.” But Oren has a problem with just “neutralizing” attackers. Soldiers, he said, lack the necessary exper-

tise to know when an assailant can no longer cause harm, and killing is the only definite way to remove the threat. In his tweets, and again while speaking to a reporter last week, Oren raised the example of Omar al-Abed, who was convicted last week of murdering three Israelis in a July attack on the West Bank settlement of Halamish. Al-Abed was neutralized, but then tried to attack the Israeli paramedics who were treating him following the attack. “When the medics came to attend to him, he jumped up and could have killed them,” Oren said. “A young soldier in the middle of a terror attack is not a doctor. Even the term [neutralized] is very vague, highly subjective and non-medical.” Before becoming Israel’s ambassador to his native United States in 2009, Oren was a preeminent historian of the Middle East and Israel. He ended his term as ambassador in 2013 and was elected to Knesset two years later as part of the center-right Kulanu party. Oren’s position appears to contradict the IDF’s own code of ethics, which instructs soldiers to treat civilians with dignity and to “do all in their power to avoid causing harm to their lives, bodies, dignity and property.” Asa Kasher, one of the code’s co-authors, wrote in the Forward in 2016 that terrorists should be treated as civilians, not as enemy soldiers. “Soldiers are required to treat a terrorist wielding a knife as a criminal, not as an enemy in a battlefield,” wrote Kasher, a philosophy professor at Tel Aviv University. “The terror-

p Michael Oren attends a meeting in the Israeli parliament.

Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90

ist’s attempt to kill or injure ought to be foiled, but killing him is sanctioned only if there is no effective alternative — only if it’s a last resort.” Even the IDF’s own chief of the general staff has urged soldiers to show restraint, saying in 2015, “The army cannot speak in slogans such as ‘kill or be killed.’” Oren, who also was raised in the U.S., disputed the idea that “shoot to kill” runs counter to the code of ethics. He said he is only advocating the measure when terrorists are clearly in the midst of an attack. Determining whether someone is committing terrorism, Oren said, is easier than determining whether they are neutralized. “You see the person shooting, you see

the person stabbing,” he said, adding that when he served in the Israeli army, “We were taught to shoot to kill in overcoming a Syrian position. That threat is not eliminated until the terrorist is eliminated.” Oren isn’t alone in advocating deadlier measures for terrorists. Avigdor Liberman, Israel’s defense minister, wrote on Facebook in 2015 that “no terrorist should come out of an attack alive” and has sponsored a bill making it easier to sentence terrorists to death, which passed an initial Knesset vote on Wednesday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu advocated the death penalty for al-Abed, the Halamish terrorist. In July, al-Abed stabbed three family members to death in their home as they were eating Shabbat dinner. The military advocate general may seek the death penalty, but is not in this case, instead requesting four consecutive life sentences for al-Abed. Only one person has been sentenced to death in Israeli history: Adolf Eichmann, an architect of the Holocaust. Oren said that he is “ambivalent” about a bill mandating that terrorists receive the death penalty, but said that “shoot to kill” would solve the problem and would be supported by most Israelis. “That should be the standing order if you see someone in the midst of a terror attack,” he said. “Israelis themselves don’t understand this notion of neutralization. During the stabbings there hasn’t been a big outcry over ‘We should be trying to save these guys.’” PJC

Trump officials advised expanded Jewish prayer at Western Wall, none at Mount — NATIONAL — By Ron Kampeas | JTA

ASHINGTON — The annual State Department report on religious freedoms emphasizes Trump administration efforts to maintain the status quo on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount and encourage religious pluralism in Israel. In the report released this month, the Israel section reflects the importance that the Trump administration attached to tamping down tensions that exploded in July after terrorists killed two Israeli policemen on the Temple Mount and Israel installed new security measures there. It also casts the U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, whose nomination came under criticism from Jewish groups because of his previous lacerating attacks on liberal Jews, as a champion of pluralism. The report makes specific reference to attempts by non-Orthodox Jews to conduct prayer services at the Western Wall, which abuts the Temple Mount. “The U.S. Ambassador and embassy 10 JANUARY 19, 2018

officers spoke with government officials and Knesset leaders about the importance of maintaining the status quo at the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif and not escalating tensions through provocative actions or statements,” it said. “In meetings with government officials, embassy officers stressed the importance of religious pluralism and respect for non-Orthodox streams of Judaism.” The section on the Temple Mount, a site holy to Muslims and Jews, is unusually lengthy and documents in detail what appear to be official Israeli actions challenging the status quo. The “status quo” refers to agreements whereby the Waqf, the Muslim religious authority that answers to Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, holds religious authority on the Temple Mount itself. For decades the Waqf has banned Jewish worship on the plateau — in agreement with successive Israeli governments — while allowing Jewish visitors. “Despite the Israeli government’s policy prohibiting non-Muslim worship at the site, some Jewish groups escorted by Israeli police at the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount

performed religious acts such as prayers and prostration,” the report said. The declarations of U.S. sensitivity to Muslim claims to Jerusalem’s holiest site come just weeks after President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, precipitating a crisis in U.S.-Palestinian relations. “Incidents of attempted Jewish prayer at the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount increased from previous years, according to local NGOs, media, and Jewish Temple Mount movement groups, and occurred on a near-weekly basis,” it said. “During Jewish holidays, such as Passover, Tisha B’Av, and Sukkot, tens of Jewish Temple Mount activists engaged in prayer on the site. In most cases, Israeli police acted to prevent them from praying and removed them, but in other cases, some of which were documented on social media in photos and videos, the police appeared not to notice the acts of prayer.” Also addressed at length is Israel’s treatment of religious minorities, including detailed passages on non-Orthodox prayer at the Western Wall. “The Israeli government did not implement a cabinet agreement reached in January to establish a Reform, Conservative, and mixed gender

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

prayer platform along a separate portion of the Western Wall,” the report said. “Reform, Conservative, and women’s Jewish groups including some Orthodox Jewish women’s groups lobbied for the proposal, whereas ultra-Orthodox Jewish religious leaders and political figures continued to oppose the plan.” Friedman’s efforts to promote interfaith understanding get multiple mentions. “Embassy-hosted events, including an interfaith Ramadan iftar and an interfaith Thanksgiving dinner, promoted the reduction of tensions between religious communities and an increase in interreligious communication and partnership within society by bringing together representatives of many faith communities to advance shared goals and exchange knowledge and experience,” the report said. It refers to the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem as “occupied.” Friedman was reported in recent weeks to have urged the State Department to drop the nomenclature, although the State Department has described the reports as erroneous. The report also suggests that Israeli claims Please see Kotel, page 11

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Headlines Support for Israel among young evangelicals is solid but slipping, says new survey — WORLD — By Josefin Dolsten | JTA

EW YORK — A new study has some troubling news for Israel and its supporters, who have come to rely on the political and financial support of the 17 percent of Americans who identify as evangelical Christians. “Older American evangelicals love Israel — but many younger evangelicals simply don’t care,” reads the summary of the study released last month by the Nashville-based evangelical research firm LifeWay Research. And while the summary may overstate the case, the survey, underwritten by Chosen People Ministries (which seeks Jewish converts to Christianity), shows that young evangelicals are less supportive and more ambivalent about the State of Israel than their older counterparts. Though a majority of respondents aged 18-34 have a positive view of Israel, that number is lower than for all other age groups: 58 percent of millennials view the Jewish state positively, compared to 76 percent of those 65 or older. The survey, which included 2,000 respondents and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percent, also found that millennial evangelicals were the most likely to say they are unsure of how they see Israel, at 30 percent. That number was 16 percent for the group 65 and older. That gap, though not as dramatic as the report’s introduction would have it, could have significant policy implications. With more than 3.8 million members, Christians United for Israel is the country’s largest pro-Israel group. And while predominantly Jewish groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee are influential, many liberal American Jews have become more critical of Israel in recent years as its government has turned more to the right and failed to make concessions to non-Orthodox denominations. In 2012, CUFI noted a decline in support for Israel among younger Christians, said the group’s founding director, David Brog.

p Evangelical pilgrims pray on the Dead Sea shore in Ein Gedi.

Photo by Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images

That change was in part because millennial evangelicals are less likely to take the Bible literally, according to Brog. Evangelical support for Israel is often driven by theology. “Once you’re no longer bound to Israel through a literal interpretation of the Bible, that means you’re in play — you could be pro-Israel, you could be anti-Israel, depending on your view of the morality of the conflict,” he said. Brog said he also found that there was “an industry of taking young Christian leaders on trips to the Middle East, where they were fed a really dishonest view of conflict.” In a 2014 article, he cited the Telos Group, the Global Immersion Project and the Holy Land Trust as examples of organizations promoting what he called a pro-Palestinian or biased view of the conflict. Josh Ahrens, CUFI’s millennial outreach coordinator, said millennial support for Israel should not be taken for granted. “We should be concerned by a tendency on the younger generation to be ambivalent toward Israel, and we would be absolutely wrong to assume that as they get older they will just somehow come around to supporting Israel,” he said. Evangelicals support Israel for a variety of

reasons, said Stephen Spector, a professor at Stony Brook University who has published a book about Christian Zionism. Prophecies about Israel’s role in the end of days play a role for some evangelicals, although it is far from the only reason, according to Spector. God’s promise regarding the Jews in Genesis 12:3 (“I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse”), the belief that Jews are God’s chosen people and the fact that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East are all central to evangelical support for the Jewish state. “I think for most American evangelicals they just have the impression God loves the Jews, has chosen the Jews and they want to be on God’s side,” Spector said. Younger evangelicals are less likely to base their views of Israel on theology than older generations, said the Rev. Mae Cannon, the executive director of Churches for Middle East Peace, a coalition of 27 mostly liberal church denominations. “While people 55 and older, their view toward Israel may be very theologically founded, if they’re dispensationalists or Christian Zionists, these types of theologies are a little less prevalent or less overt in the millennial generation,” Cannon said.

much of this violence as being solely based on religious identity,” the report said by way of explanation. In releasing the overall report, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and his department emphasized countries that have “systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom.” These included Pakistan, Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Saudi Arabia was a notable entry: One of the Trump administration’s success stories has been the vast improvement of U.S.-Saudi relations, as opposed to tensions between the Saudis and the Obama administration. PJC

Kotel: Continued from page 10

on Jerusalem do not necessarily extend to largely Arab eastern Jerusalem. “The Israeli government formally annexed East Jerusalem in 1980, although no other government, including the United States, has recognized this annexation,” it says in a parenthetical aside in its Occupied Territories section. Trump had said that in recognizing the city as Israel’s capital, he was not determining a final status outcome for the city. One feature of the report was to include Palestinian terrorist attacks as possible violations of religious freedoms. “Because religion and ethnicity were often closely linked, it was difficult to categorize PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Dispensationalists believe that Israel as a nation will embrace Jesus in advance of the Second Coming. Cannon said that while “a zero-sum game” attitude regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is common among older evangelicals, younger Christians are more open to nuanced views. “I think millennials are some of the people who have the potential to think outside that framework,” she said. Race also plays a part, said the Rev. Tony Campolo, a leader of the evangelical left and a former spiritual adviser to President Bill Clinton. “Black people often identify with the Palestinians. Namely they see the Palestinians as a group of colored people oppressed by white domination,” Campolo said. Indeed, the survey found that 50 percent of African-American evangelicals had a positive view of Israel — the lowest among all groups. Many young white Christians are joining megachurches where pastors often preach a pro-Israel narrative, while black evangelical churches are increasingly identifying with the Palestinians over Israel, according to Campolo. “There’s a real split there,” he said. Sixty-two percent of the LifeWay respondents were white, while 20 percent were black, 13 percent were Hispanic and 5 percent belonged to a different group. Many other surveys on evangelicals tend to poll white evangelicals as a separate group, noted Spector, saying that including non-whites may result in lower levels of support for Israel. In 2014, CUFI launched the Israel Collective, an initiative targeting young Christians through short videos about Israel and trips to the country. Brog says it has been successful in swaying many young evangelicals. “Some of the worst manifestations of this turn against Israel were quickly neutralized, which is great,” he said. “But still at the end of the day you have a generation that’s approaching the issue differently, that is really saying, ‘before I choose which side I’m on, I want to know which side is more moral.’” PJC

t A view of the Dome of the Rock on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount

Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images

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JANUARY 19, 2018 11

Headlines Israeli hospital sends delegation to cholera-stricken Zambia — WORLD — By Josefin Dolsten | JTA

edical professionals from Israel are helping to treat cholera victims in Zambia, which is battling an outbreak of the disease. A delegation of two physicians and one water engineer from the Sheba Medical Center, Israel’s largest hospital, arrived Jan. 5 in the southern African country. More than 60 people in Zambia have died of cholera and more than 2,500 are said to have been infected since September, when the disease started spreading. The center, which is located in Ramat Gan, said Israel was the first country to send a medical team to Zambia. After evaluating the situation, the delegation advised the Zambian government about contaminated water wells in a neighborhood in the capital of Lusaka, Dr. Elhanan Bar-On, director of Sheba’s Israel Center for Disaster Medicine and Humanitarian Response, said from Lusaka. A second delegation, including two physicians, two nurses and a lab technician, arrived last week to aid local medical professionals in treating patients and set up a lab to facilitate diagnosing cholera.

p Dr. Elhanan Bar-On examines a patient in Lusaka, Zambia.

In Lusaka, the main market, schools and churches have all been closed to curb the spread of the disease. On Sunday, the government also declared a curfew. “It is considered a major disaster in the country,” Bar-On said. The disease, which causes watery diarrhea and in some cases can lead to severe dehydration in hours, has had a severe impact in the country, he said. “Closing down the market is causing a major economic problem, both on the macro level and definitely [on the micro level]. Farmers cannot market their produce, the traders in the

p A water engineer performs a test as a member of the Israeli team sent to Zambia along with two physicians. Photos courtesy of Sheba Medical Center

market are basically unemployed,” Bar-On said. Sheba’s director general, Dr. Yitzhak Kreiss, said that the center was hoping to help as many people as possible. “The innovative medical expertise and tactics employed by our experts are today being dedicated to helping the people of Zambia and saving as many lives as possible from the tragic cholera outbreak,” Kreiss said

in a statement. “Sheba Medical Center’s goal, which echoes the ethos of Israel, is to save lives and make a positive global impact.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pushed for closer ties with African countries. The Israeli leader recently made his third visit to the continent in a year and a half, where he met with leaders of 10 countries, including Zambia. PJC

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Opinion 7-Eleven sideshow — EDITORIAL —

eports and photos of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raiding 98 7-Eleven stores last week were quite jarring. According to ICE, the raids and resulting arrests of 21 allegedly undocumented workers was a warning to other companies against hiring undocumented workers. Twenty-one arrests is a drop in the bucket compared to the total number of people who live, work and pay taxes in this country, and do not have legal residency. But these raids were not designed to solve a problem; they were designed to make a statement. And the reason a statement was able to be made is because lawmakers have been unable to reach agreement on a coherent immigration policy. The 7-Eleven raids were a sideshow, but were incredibly threatening for many otherwise law-abiding immigrants. So too was the Trump administration’s recent pledge to deport nearly 200,000 people from El Salvador who were admitted to this country a decade ago under a program called Temporary Protected Status. Gov. John Kasich of Ohio and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, both former Trump

challengers, criticized the El Salvador move as anti-family and un-Republican. They argued in a New York Times op-ed against forcible removal of “the 10 million to 15 million undocumented immigrants” already here, and they asserted that “the case of 200,000 Salvadorans who accepted our invitation to live and work here legally would not even make a Top 10 list” of priorities. They’re right. No one is saying we shouldn’t enforce the law. But enforcement needs to be reasonable, equitable and respectful.

Until last week, we hoped President Trump largely agreed. Following an Oval Office meeting with a bipartisan group of senators last week, several claimed that Trump deflected their attempts to come up with a solution for the 69,000 “dreamers” who came to this country illegally as children and were to face deportation as early as March, by denigrating Africans, Haitians and Salvadorans as coming from “s---hole” countries. Trump denied that he made that comment in a tweet the

following day, as did two Republican senators who were at the meeting. Whatever the merits or shortcomings of the deal that was reportedly under consideration — it involved trading billions of dollars to fund a border wall with extending protections for dreamers — it was an honest attempt at a solution. In dismissing the proposed compromise, Trump reportedly told his visitors that instead of immigrants from societies primarily of color, he’d rather immigrants come from Norway. Upon hearing reports of that exchange, the Statue of Liberty must have shed a tear. The tired and poor don’t leave countries which are treating them well. They tend to leave places where things aren’t that great, and they come here — like many of our grandparents — searching for a better life. Moreover, history shows that immigrants fleeing persecution or poverty can and do become productive members of American society. We need to open our arms to those seeking refuge in 21st-century America under a comprehensive, caring immigration program, no matter their race, religion or ethnicity. Anything less is simply un-American. “Diversity has always been our strength, not our weakness,” said GOP Sen. Lindsay Graham in a statement following the meeting. “In reforming immigration we cannot lose these American ideals.” PJC

What Martin Luther King Jr. learned on a visit to Jerusalem Guest Columnist Rabbi Marc Schneier

n Easter Sunday in 1959, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. rose in the pulpit of his Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala., to deliver a sermon that focused on his just-completed visit, with his wife, Coretta, to Jerusalem and its holy sites. King’s trip that month to eastern Jerusalem and the nearby cities of Bethlehem, Hebron, Nablus and Jericho, all of which were then part of Jordan, came at the end of a month-long visit to India that he wrote about extensively later in his autobiography. However, little remains to us from his visit to Jerusalem, except for an audio recording and transcript of that late March sermon nearly six decades ago, which he titled “Pilgrimage to Non-Violence” and spoke movingly of walking in the footsteps of his two greatest inspirations, Mahatma Gandhi and Jesus. The sermon speaks of the deep impact of walking on the Via Dolorosa in the Old City, where Jesus was mocked and tormented, and how profoundly he connected Jesus’ vision of peace, love and justice with his own struggle for justice for African-Americans. King opened his sermon by lamenting that the two sides of Jerusalem — the Jordanian

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“ And I think we know today there is a struggle, a desperate struggle, going on in this world. Two-thirds of the people of the world are colored people. … There is a struggle on the part of these people today

”

to gain freedom and human dignity.

— MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.

eastern part and the Israeli western part — were sealed off from each other and therefore he was unable to cross to the Israeli side. “This city has been divided,” King said. “And if on your visa it is revealed that you are going into any Arab nation, you can only go to Israel without being able to … go back to an Arab country. … So this was a strange feeling to go to the ancient city of God and see the tragedies of man’s hate and his evil, which causes him to fight and live in conflict.” King told his congregants that when he came to the spot on the Via Dolorosa where Jesus stumbled under the weight of the cross, “The thing that I thought about at that moment was that … it was a black man that picked it up for him and said, ‘I will help

you,’ and took it on up to Calvary.” Simon of Cyrene, who carried the cross, is often depicted as a black man. “And I think we know today there is a struggle, a desperate struggle, going on in this world. Two-thirds of the people of the world are colored people. … There is a struggle on the part of these people today to gain freedom and human dignity.” Invoking the parlous condition of AfricanAmericans, most of whom were then still suffering under a regime of strict segregation and dire poverty, King said, “And so, this morning, let us not be disillusioned. Let us not lose faith. So often we’ve been crucified. We’ve been buried in numerous graves — the grave of economic insecurity, the grave of exploitation, the grave of oppres-

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sion. We’ve watched justice trampled over and truth crucified. But I’m here to tell you this morning [that] God has a light that can shine amid all of the darkness.” King concluded, “Know that God has the universe in His hands. And because of that, segregation will die one day. Because of that, all of the lands of Africa will be free one day.” The civil rights leader never got the chance to visit Israel, including West Jerusalem and the Christian holy sites of the Galilee. He was in the process of planning such a trip, with the strong support of the government of Israel, in 1967, but canceled in the wake of the Six-Day War. King was assassinated the following year. Nevertheless, we can take solace that King’s powerful experience in 1959 gave him spiritual fortitude that helped sustain his leadership of the civil rights movement during the climactic struggles of the 1960s. Those struggles liberated African-Americans from more than 300 years of slavery and segregation, and finally changed America into a country that began to live up to the promise of its founding documents. On this week which began with Martin Luther King Jr. Day, let us — Jews, Christians, Muslims and all people of conscience — reflect upon King’s only visit to Jerusalem in 1959. PJC Rabbi Marc Schneier is president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding and is the author of “Shared Dreams: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Jewish Community.”

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Opinion After Rubashkin, Orthodox Jews should be out front in sentencing reform Guest Columnist Dr. Adena Berkowitz

resident Trump’s decision to commute the prison sentence of Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin, the kosher slaughterhouse executive who served eight years in prison on bank fraud and money laundering charges, resulted in a vigorous communal discussion, especially within the Orthodox community. There was a great deal of relief among those who felt his original sentence was overly harsh. “The injustice of Mr. Rubashkin’s grossly excessive 27-year sentence was readily apparent to any fair-minded individual who reviewed the facts of the case,” Agudath Israel of America said in a statement following the commutation.

at Columbia Law School, in his 1973 book “Criminal Sentences: Law Without Order.” Frankel thought of them as a means of having meaningful (but nonbinding) standards for trial judges, and as a way of dealing with irrational and widely disparate sentences. Instead, writes Newman, “it led not merely to limiting the discretion of judges, but constricted it to an extent no one could have predicted.” Civil rights groups have long called for the elimination of harsh mandatory minimum sentences imposed for low-level offenses, and for judges to be given more discretion in sentencing. Congress is considering the bipartisan Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act, which would lower mandatory-minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenses and allow judges to reduce the sentences of those serving lengthy prison terms. All of us in the Orthodox community — from Chasidic and “black hat” to centrist, modern and open — should be able to agree on the need to forge ties with our brothers

All of us in the Orthodox community should be able to agree on the need to forge ties with our brothers and sisters in the non-Orthodox community In thinking about the case, my eyes were opened to the broader and longer-range implications stemming from Rubashkin’s release. In this country there are criminals behind bars who committed heinous crimes and deserve to be there, remain there and have the key thrown away. Yet at the same time, there are huge numbers of people in prison who, having received draconian sentences either for crimes that they did not commit or due to Federal Sentencing Guidelines, have to serve beyond what justice really demands. While programs such as the Innocence Project at Yeshiva University’s Cardozo Law School (of which I am a proud graduate) have helped free many wrongly imprisoned people, harsh and unfair sentencing “destroys lives and communities and costs taxpayers exorbitant amounts of money,” according to the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. Judge Jon O. Newman, who serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, has termed the Guidelines “incremental immorality” for “the irrational way in which under the guise of simply making arithmetic calculations, they pile on punishments to absurd lengths.” In reviewing a new memoir by Newman, his fellow jurist Jed S. Rackoff notes that the Guidelines were originally proposed by Judge Marvin Frankel, previously a professor

and sisters in the non-Orthodox community, non-Jewish faith-based communities and African American and Hispanic groups, and create a united platform to raise our collective voices to address this national problem. Scores of lawmakers, law enforcement officials and former attorneys general were involved in asking that Rubashkin’s sentence be commuted. We can well imagine a similar situation arising again, with a member of our community facing a harsh or wrongful sentence. But if others outside our daled amos (our four corners) see that we only care about our fellow Jews and not those outside our slice of the world, why should we expect them to care if such a situation were to happen again to one of us? The late Nobel Prize winner and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel once wrote that the task of every Jew is not to make the world more Jewish, but rather to make the world more humane. Raising our collective voices in this area, and working across the religious and ideological spectrum, will help us fulfill not only a humane mandate, but create a kiddush Hashem — a sanctification of God’s name — and a necessary tikkun (or correction) as well. PJC Dr. Adena Berkowitz is scholar in residence and co-founder of Kol HaNeshamah, an Orthodox outreach congregation located on the Upper West Side of New York.

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Headlines White Oak: Continued from page 1

from Chicago and who has been rabbi at Gemilas Chesed for nine years. In addition to his own family, so far there are two other families with young children at his congregation. Retirees looking to downsize and get away from the bustle of the city could also find White Oak desirable, he said. Russell has attended fairs hosted by the Orthodox Union, joining about 30 other “Featured Communities” in an effort to attract Jews to White Oak, but he has “not been successful in getting anyone,” he said. “There is a lot of competition with different cities.” His next campaign will be to promote White Oak in various Jewish newspapers in other communities, with the hope that people will visit White Oak, maybe over a Shabbat, to see what a great option it is. Gemilas Chesed was founded in 1886 in the nearby community of McKeesport. In 1963, the congregation moved to a large synagogue in White Oak, where it is still located. The building is now too big for its current congregation, which attracts only about 15 or 20 people for a Shabbat service and maybe 75 people for the High Holidays, if members bring family from out of town, according to Russell. The building has two beautiful sanctuaries, one which seats about 350 people. Still, the congregation manages to hold services for Shabbat each week, on Friday night, Saturday morning and Saturday evening. It also holds services twice a day during the week, although “we are starting to struggle with getting a minyan,” Russell said. The congregation is also “struggling” financially, he said, “but we are making ends meet.” It is costly to keep a large building running, and if Gemilas Chesed is unable to significantly add to its community, it will have to examine “other options,” said the congregation’s vice president, Larry Perl. “The issue is people,” Russell said. “At some point, if you don’t have a minyan, you’re out of business.” Although its membership has declined, those members who are left are “dedicated

Donor: Continued from page 1

itemized deductions and still have reason to itemize, you can dump money into these funds in big chunks and then have it paid out over time. With a donor-advised fund, you get the deduction as soon as you contribute to it.” Those who put money in a donor-advised fund before the changes in the tax law went into action made a good move, said Jim Lange, a registered financial advisor and president of the Lange Financial Group in Squirrel Hill. “I was encouraging my clients to do that,” said Lange. “That made a lot of sense, although the changes were announced right before the end of the year, so we didn’t have a lot of notice.” Because of the doubling of the standard deduction, “I was advising people to do their 20 JANUARY 19, 2018

p Top photo, from left: Larry Perl, Rabbi Moshe Russell and Elliot Greenman of Gemilas Chesed; above: Rabbi Paul Tuchman of Temple B’nai Israel Photos by Toby Tabachnick

to getting this going,” said Perl, a 50-year member of Gemilas Chesed. White Oak, Perl said, “is a growing

community. It’s not deteriorating. This is really like a best kept secret. I think if people found out what kind of community this is,

2018 donations in 2017,” he said. In addition to the standard deduction doubling, the other major impact of the new tax laws on a typical donor is a lower tax rate, so one would not be saving as much in 2018 as he would if he took the charitable deductions in 2017, Lange explained. Another strategy that many taxpayers employed at the end of 2017, and that Lange recommended, was to prepay 2018 congregational membership dues. Such was the case for several members of Beth El Congregation of the South Hills, who prepaid their 2018 dues last month. Others “made future donations for appeals,” according to Steve Hecht, executive director of Beth El. The number of congregants getting their donations in before the new law went into effect “was noticeable,” Hecht said. “People were thinking about the changes in the tax law and trying to pre-plan.” Although many of Beth El’s members will

not be itemizing their charitable deductions next year, Hecht said he is not concerned that contributions will decline in 2018. “When you have a synagogue, the synagogue is the membership, and the membership is committed to the mission,” he said. “The contributions will remain intact.” Likewise, Congregation Beth Shalom saw “a significant increase in donations in December,” as well as many pledge commitments being paid off, according to Rob Menes, executive director of Beth Shalom. Like Hecht, Menes said he is “not worried” that donations will go down in 2018 because of the tax law, but if they do, “we would look at other ways of funding.” “We’re all part of the community,” he continued. “The donors are us. We will make it work.” Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh also experienced an increase in donations at the end of December, according to Chezky Rosenfeld,

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they would want to move here.” Just a five-minute drive from Gemilas Chesed is Temple B’nai Israel, a Reform congregation that also had its beginning in McKeesport, 105 years ago. It moved to its current location in White Oak in 2000, having purchased its current building from Tree of Life/Sfard. Temple B’nai Israel is housed in a much smaller building than Gemilas Chesed and will be financially secure “for about 10 years,” said Rabbi Paul Tuchman, spiritual leader of the congregation. Nonetheless, “demographics is the big challenge,” Tuchman explained. “This is an older group.” The building, he noted, has no classrooms and no religious school. The majority of Temple B’nai Israel’s members do not live in White Oak but in Pittsburgh, Fox Chapel and Monroeville. Shabbat services at Temple B’nai Israel are held once each week, alternating between Friday night and Saturday morning. The services typically draw between nine and 25 people, according to Tuchman. Although he knows of no Jewish families planning to move to White Oak, Tuchman, a native Arizonian who has been at B’nai Israel for nine years, does think it is a great option. “It’s a quiet, comfortable place to live, and when I want to go to Pittsburgh, which is often, I go,” he said. “I like that situation a lot.” In addition to Shabbat and holiday services, Temple B’nai Israel also hosts some continuing adult education programs and social events. “We throw good parties at this place,” he said. “A synagogue is a place to pray, study and socialize. We do ‘socialize’ really well.” Tuchman does think it is possible to revitalize Jewish life in White Oak, but believes it may be a long time coming. “I think that when and if Pittsburgh becomes too expensive, more people will be looking for homes in smaller communities like this one, but I think it’s going to take a while,” he said. PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

director of development for Yeshiva. Rosenfeld did get in touch with some of Yeshiva’s donors, he said, to suggest end of year giving in light of the changes in the tax code. “There were people I spoke to about it,” he said. “I mentioned setting up donor-advised funds at the Federation’s [Jewish Community] Foundation to give the gift now and then distribute the funds later. A lot of people were looking into that.” Although there are many options of places to set up donor-advised funds, such as the Pittsburgh Foundation, Vanguard, or Fidelity, the Jewish community benefits from funds established at the Jewish Community Foundation because “the fee revenue supports the Jewish community,” said Perelman. PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Headlines Ellen Ceisler joins Pa. Commonwealth Court — NATIONAL — By Selah Maya Zighelboim | Special to the Chronicle

“H

ave you ever heard of the Commonwealth Court?” According to her campaign manager and son Daniel, Ellen Ceisler asked this question to everyone she met on the campaign trail. Regardless of the answer, Ceisler would then show that person an image of what during the campaign became famously, or infamously, known as “the pyramid,” a graphic showing the structure of the Pennsylvania court system. She even managed, Daniel Ceisler said, to put “the pyramid” in the hands of former Vice President Joe Biden. On Jan. 9, at Philadelphia City Hall, Ceisler was installed as a judge on the Commonwealth Court, where she will adjudicate civil and appellate actions brought by and against the commonwealth. Ceisler served as a judge on the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas for the past 10 years. She is one of two Jewish jurists elected to the state appellate bench last November. (Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Maria McLaughlin was elected to Superior Court.) “My mom wanted us to look up at her and see a judge who was engaged and effective and over-prepared for every trial,” Daniel Ceisler said. “And when we did, we saw the power of the law to protect the marginalized, secure the vulnerable and stabilize lives.” The Ceisler children’s father, Philadelphia politico Larry Ceisler, hails from Wash-

— WORLD — From JTA reports

Israeli ‘dreamer’ threatened with deportation An Israeli citizen living in California under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA status was jailed for nearly a week and threatened with deportation after making a wrong turn at the U.S.-Mexico border. Orr Yakobi, 22, is a senior at the University of California, San Diego. He was brought to the United States by his parents at the age of 7 and is a so-called “dreamer,” named after the DREAM Act that instituted the DACA program. Under DACA, Yakobi is prohibited from travelling outside of the country. Yakobi and a friend left an outlet mall in San Ysidro on Jan. 7 and made a wrong turn, accidentally getting on a ramp that led them straight to Mexico without the ability to turn around, NBC San Diego reported. Yakobi was detained at the San Ysidro Port of Entry and placed in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He spent several days at Otay Mesa Detention Center, where he faced deportation. A math and computer science major, he is two classes from graduating and is working as a freelance programmer, according to NBC San Diego. President Donald Trump cancelled the

p Supreme Court Justice Kevin M. Dougherty swears in Ellen Ceisler on a Bible held by her fiance, Chris Gorson. Photos provided by Ceisler campaign.

ington, Pa., where he grew up attending Beth Israel Congregation. Despite being the judge’s ex-husband, he was a strong and vocal backer of her campaign. Ceisler said that running a statewide campaign while also working as a trial judge was a challenge. Another challenge was that judges, unlike other elected officials, are prohibited from making promises, soliciting funds and expressing opinions. “I was always incredibly moved and honestly overwhelmed by the generosity of people throughout Pennsylvania willing to give me their time, energy and financial support to me when I couldn’t promise them anything in return,” Ceisler said. “When I shared these feelings with my supporters, the typical response was, ‘All we want, Judge, is

that you do justice, and that you are willing to do the right thing no matter how difficult that may be.’” In addition to Daniel Ceisler, other speakers at the installation included Ceisler’s daughter, Hannah; Jill Maderer, senior rabbi at Congregation Rodeph Shalom; and Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Debra McCloskey Todd. “What I can say about my mom that not a lot of young women can say about their mothers is that my mom is my best friend,” said Hannah Ceisler, a student at the University of Pennsylvania. “I go to her for advice before people my age because, unlike people my age, she actually has wisdom and experience.” Daniel Ceisler recalled that, when he came back to the United States from a year

program in September. Yakobi’s DACA status expires in March, though he may be able to renew it for two more years following a recent court decision temporarily reinstating the program. An online petition calling for Yakobi’s release had garnered more than 8,000 signatures. Several state and local lawmakers also had written letters on his behalf. Yakobi was unconditionally released on Friday, with no change to his DACA status. “It’s unbelievable,” Jacob Sapochnick, Yakobi’s attorney, told local news outlets. “I think it was a combination of everything, the political pressure, the logical argument, just trying to get him to finish his school.” President Barack Obama had launched DACA in 2011 after multiple attempts failed in Congress to pass an immigration bill that would settle the status of 11 million undocumented immigrants. The program protected those who arrived as children from deportation and granted them limited legal status.

of pairs of military boots and winter jackets in camouflage colors, according to the Israel Tax Authority spokesman. The Gazan importer of the consignment, which originated in China, was due to receive the cargo through the Kerem Shalom crossing, the only commercial crossing open between Israel and Gaza, which was closed on Sunday after the discovery of a Hamas terror tunnel running directly under the crossing. All items were handed over to the military, according to the Tax Authority. Thousands of items for military use have been seized in the past year, the statement said.

Military gear bound for Gaza seized by customs at Ashdod port Thousands of items of military gear bound for Gaza were discovered and seized by customs personnel at Ashdod port in southern Israel. The cargo included thousands of items of military clothing, including vests for holding military equipment, and thousands

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FDA approves drug for women with breast cancer caused by BRCA, the ‘Jewish gene’ Regulators in the United States have approved a drug for women with advanced breast cancer caused by BRCA gene mutations, which disproportionately affects Ashkenazi Jewish women. The Food and Drug Administration approved AstraZeneca PLC’s Lynparza for patients with inherited BRCA gene mutations who have undergone chemotherapy, the FDA said in a statement. The approval was announced on Friday. The drug has been on the market since 2014 for ovarian cancer, and recently has been approved to treat breast cancer. It is the first time any drug has been approved to

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overseas in December 2016, he returned to a changed country. In addition to catching up with his family, he spent that night discussing the political atmosphere. That was when his mother told him she was interested in running for a statewide judicial position on the Commonwealth Court. That was, he said, the first time he had even heard of the court. “The thing I remember most about that night was the passion you felt for a court that most Pennsylvanians don’t even know exists,” Daniel Ceiser said. Daniel Ceisler, who has had experience working on campaigns in the past, said his introverted mother had to push herself outside of her comfort zone and attend political events almost every night, meeting hundreds of people. She also dislikes driving but put 30,000 miles — more than the circumference of the Earth — on her car in less than a year, driving across the state. The event ended with Ceisler swearing in on a Bible and giving her own speech to thank her staff and family for their support during her campaign over the past year. “I’m so glad to be just your mom again, not your candidate — much less complicated,” Ceisler said, addressing her son during her speech. “That being said, I don’t think you will ever truly understand how grateful I am to you. You put all of your heart and soul and energy into helping your mother fulfill an amazing dream.” PJC Selah Maya Zighelboim writes for the Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia, an affiliated publication of the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle.

treat certain patients with metastatic breast cancer who have a BRCA gene mutation. “This class of drugs has been used to treat advanced, BRCA-mutated ovarian cancer and has now shown efficacy in treating certain types of BRCA-mutated breast cancer,” said Dr. Richard Pazdur, director of the FDA’s Oncology Center of Excellence and acting director of the Office of Hematology and Oncology Products in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “This approval demonstrates the current paradigm of developing drugs that target the underlying genetic causes of a cancer, often across cancer types.” Approximately 20 percent to 25 percent of patients with hereditary breast cancers and up to 10 percent of patients with any type of breast cancer have a BRCA mutation. BRCA genes are involved with repairing damaged DNA and normally work to prevent tumor development. However, mutations of these genes may lead to certain cancers, including breast cancers, the FDA statement said. The fast-tracked approval of Lynparza was based on a trial of 302 women with metastatic breast cancer and a BRCA gene mutation. The drug delayed the spread of the cancer for seven months as opposed to four months for women taking chemotherapy only, according to the FDA. Lynparza will cost $13,886 per month without insurance, the Associated Press reported, citing AstraZeneca. PJC JANUARY 19, 2018 21

Life & Culture This art studio in Berkeley is combining painting and prayer “The way we use creative process is a way of seeking new information, new insight and ideas that aren’t readily available at the intellectual surface,” said Allen. Kasowitz jumps in: The art is “a technology to kind of leave the head and tap into information that we have in our bones.”

The group then focuses on a certain word or phrase they studied — what they call an “intention” — and each person makes art based on it for an hour. The goal is not to create a finished product but to engage in the act of accessing an idea by making art. To that end, participants are told not to comment on

Both Allen and Kasowitz came to found the project in part due to dissatisfaction with traditional Jewish institutions. Allen loved By Ben Sales | JTA her Jewish summer camp as a kid but didn’t find the same kind of meaning in synagogue. ERKELEY, Calif. — In the middle of a She was ordained in 2014 at Hebrew College, traditional Friday night service in this a nondenominational seminary near Boston. artists’ district in the crunchy Kasowitz, who comes from a career mecca of Berkeley, a group of 40 in the nonprofit world, grew up in a worshippers paused their prayers traditional Conservative home, and to gather around a group of “found met Allen as he was branching out objects:” an empty picture frame, into Renewal and other alternative fake flowers, a doorknob. Jewish movements. Each attendee then sought out an But as much as the couple is object that — for whatever reason creating a new entry point for people — they felt called to. They told the to connect with Judaism, they also group what that object said about want to encourage more Jews to the personal journey they were on connect with art — something Allen in life. Then they kept praying. says makes people feel intimidated. Around the worshippers was So far, 4,000 participants have taken what looked like a mix between a part in its programs, which they small synagogue and an art classhave also brought to mainstream room. Above a hand drum, rows Jewish organizations like Hillel of pastel drawings hung loosely on and Hebrew Union College, the string under a bright sign with the Reform seminary. words “Works in Process.” A library “So many people come to our work mixing Jewish texts and books on who I don’t think would normally do art and psychology is nearby. Across creative things, and they’re drawn the room, freestanding shelves in by the Judaism,” she said. “We offered glue, glitter, pens, scisalways talk about, ‘Raise your hand sors and the like. if you were traumatized by your Some of the worshippers had made fourth-grade art teacher who told the artworks on the wall. Others had you you’d never be an artist,’ and it’s, come for the prayers, which — like like, always half the group.” many other informal Jewish prayer The mainstream movements have groups — mixed folk tunes and caught on to a degree to using art melodies by Shlomo Carlebach. But as a gateway to Jewish involvement. for the Jewish Studio Project, which Versions of an “Artists’ Beit Midrash” hosted the service, the goal was to — projects combing art and Jewish show the worshippers that those learning — have been held at things aren’t so different: that prayer Manhattan’s Temple Emanu-El Skircan be art, and art can be prayer. ball Center, Chicago’s North Shore “The first role God had was as Synagogue Beth El and at the Jewish creator, and then, later, we learn we Community Center in Milwaukee. were made in the image of this divine The Jewish Studio Project is thing whose role it is to create,” said also, in many ways, another of Jeff Kasowitz, who co-founded the many independent, progresthe Jewish Studio Project with his sive Jewish communities that have wife, Rabbi Adina Allen. “Our sprung up across the country in belief and value is that each one of the past couple decades. It hosts us is inherently creative even if we High Holiday services with eclectic think we’re not.” melodies and a mix of traditional Allen and Kasowitz founded the liturgy and contemporary readings. Jewish Studio Project in 2015 to It hosts occasional Shabbat services. merge their enthusiasm for tradiIt has classes on the weekly Torah tional Jewish study and ritual with portion and programs in advance their love for art. The project is hard of major Jewish holidays that to define, exactly: It’s an art studio, combine art and study. but it doesn’t teach art techniques. But Carle Brinkman, a friend It hosts Jewish prayer and study, of Allen and Kasowitz who regubut it’s not a minyan or congrelarly attends Jewish Studio Project Top photo: Rabbi Adina Allen and her husband, Jeff Kasowitz, founded the Jewish Studio gation. Its first immersive retreat p programs, says that even though Project in 2015 as a way for Jews to access their religion through art; above: Maya Abramson, starts next week, but the participants studio manager of the project, sits in its art space, called Studio Am. the organization deals with the same Photos by Ben Sales aren’t all coming from one commuthemes as other Jewish groups, it’s nity or workplace. The organization regularly hosts open each other’s work, and to “follow pleasure” getting at them in a way that feels new. Instead, the project hopes to create a hours in its space, called Studio Am (the — to do something that makes them feel “Engagement in Jewish text, ritual and new entryway to Jewish spirituality: not Hebrew word for “people”), where people fulfilled. They finish the process by describing tradition in this nonverbal way helps me just through the prayer book, the Talmud can come and make art as they wish. But their art through free-association writing. access ideas and feelings and concepts — or a social service mission, but through their flagship exercise is called the “Jewish “We’re not so much about art as we are internal wisdom that the art making can tap the process of making art. They use a mix Studio Process,” an art, writing and study about activating creativity,” Kasowitz said. into,” she said. of earthy language and new-age phrases program Allen and Kasowitz have run for “We’re not teachers of art technique. We’re When groups work with paint in the — Kasowitz likes the term “spiritual tech- groups in their studio and across the country. facilitators of spiritual process and creativity studio, she says, it feels like praying: “We ask nology” — to describe what they see as an The process begins with traditional Jewish activation. We believe deeply that when our for what we want, need, need to discuss, and emotional way of accessing Jewish life. They chavruta learning, where people pair off to creativity is activated, really good things then we need to let it go and see what gifts warmly finish each other’s sentences. delve into Jewish texts on a certain theme. happen in the world.” come back.” PJC

— ART —

22 JANUARY 19, 2018

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Celebrations

Torah

Birth

Looking inward for compassion, commitment

Goldberg: Jeremy and Lisa Goldberg of Camarillo, Calif., welcomed Zoe Barb Goldberg to their family on Dec. 22, 2017. Grandparents are Harold and Debbie Goldberg of Mt. Lebanon and Arnold Milner and the late Barb Friedman Milner of Oberlin, Ohio. Zoe Barb is named after her paternal great-grandmother Zelda Lowy of Wheeling, W.Va., and her maternal grandmother Barb Friedman.

Rabbi Barbara AB Symons Parshat Bo | Exodus 10:1-13:16

e are at the climax of the story of the Exodus. The final horrendous plague of killing the first born of man and beast has been described. Then follow the directions for that final and fateful night in Egypt including painting the doorposts with lambsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; blood so that God will pass over the Israelite houses and the plague of the death of the first born will be shut out.

actively participating in the Exodus. If we compare those doorposts to our own, many of us look at a mezuzah, be it on our own homes or on those of neighbors, synagogues and businesses, and use it as an identifying factor: This is a Jewish place. But letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s consider this further from the vantage point of our Israelite ancestors on that final night in Egypt. The mezuzahâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s message is directed to those within more than to those standing outside the door. The text within says, â&#x20AC;&#x153;You shall love Adonai your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might. â&#x20AC;Ś You shall be holy

Bar Mitzvah Doran Steinfeld, son of Aaron and Lisa Steinfeld of Mt. Lebanon, will become a bar mitzvah on Saturday, Jan. 20 at Temple Emanuel of South Hills.Â Doran is the grandson of Betsy and Bruce Goldstein and Ellen and Ed Steinfeld, all of Buffalo, N.Y.â&#x20AC;&#x201A; PJC

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Though God is everywhere, the wording is clear as is the English name of the holiday: God passes over the Israelitesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; homes. However, we have a logistical problem. If the doorposts are painted as a sign to God, from the vantage point of being above, God could not see those doorposts. God would have to be at ground level, looking in. I studied an insightful commentary about this portion that stated that God already knew which homes were Israelitesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; homes. Painting the doorposts was meant as a sign to the homesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; inhabitants themselves. The suggestion was that painting the doorposts was the way that the Israelites could signal to God that they were ready, that they were

to your God. â&#x20AC;Ś I am Adonai your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt.â&#x20AC;? We are to live those words by treating all who walk through that door, whether because they live there, are visiting or are providing a service, as made in Godâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s image. It means that right at ground level, we are to be compassionate and just, marking holy time and loving others. After all, the mezuzah points inward because that is where the commitment is, and our ancestors knew it. Rabbi Barbara AB Symons is the spiritual leader of Temple David in Monroeville. This column is a service of ther Greater Pittsburgh Rabbinic Association.â&#x20AC;&#x201A; PJC

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Obituaries BRAHM: Harriet S. Brahm, on Friday, January 12, 2018. Beloved wife of the late Harry A. Brahm. Beloved mother of Susan Gunn, the late Steven Brahm (surviving spouse Carla Brahm) and the late Robin Braun. Sister of the late Lilyan Sobel. Nanny of Jessica (Derek) Myers, Nicholas (Jackie Stange) Brahm, Rebecca (Mike) Lauriente, Cory (Heather) Brahm, David Braun and Rachel (Tyler) Meyerkord. Nanny to great-grandchildren Scarlett, Trevor and Ava. Harriet, Nanny to her family, long was the family matriarch. She adored her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Harriet was a lover of laughing, cooking, animals, the Steelers and entertaining friends and family. Everyone who knew her has a fond memory. She will be greatly missed, and her legacy will carry on. Graveside Services and interment were held at Mount Lebanon Cemetery/Beth El Section. Contributions may be made to a charity of the donor’s choice. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. MALNO: Gloria (Perilman) Malno passed away quietly in Scottsdale, Ariz., on January 9, 2018. She was deeply loved and survived

Russo: Continued from page 7

trying to help the next iteration of 50 percent of our population, then we’re missing out. So I think we need to take a much more upfront view on how to be more inclusive in the startup entrepreneurial world.” Russo credited Next Act Fund, a Pittsburgh-based angel investment community that focuses on “women-owned/led companies,” as making a positive impact. Sophia Berman, CEO and founder of Trusst Lingerie who last April shared a panel hosted by Next Act Fund and discussed the challenges of raising capital, described Russo as “an exceptional mentor, leader and friend. Not only is she fun to work with, she is thoughtful, open-minded and engaged. She is incredibly busy yet always manages to make time to help others and lend her guidance and sounding ear. I wouldn’t be where I am without her.” Brian Schreiber, president and CEO of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, similarly praised Russo. “Audrey is an exceptional regional leader and an

by her children, Ross, Ron and Deborah, her brother, David Saltzman, 7 grandchildren, 10 great-grandchildren and many nieces and nephews. She had wisdom that came from incredible, natural insight, just like her father Harry K. Saltzman. Her positive outlook on life inspired many successes and her opinions were valued by all. Arrangements by Sinai Mortuary of Arizona. POMERANTZ: Lowell G Pomerantz, age 56, passed away on January 6 from liver cancer. He is survived by his parents Martin and Phyllis Pomerant z , s ibl i ng s Michael, Ellen (Bentley) and Linda, sons Brendan (Whitney) and Lowell Jr., grandson Hunter, good friend Kim Ornellas along with many additional family members and friends. The funeral was held in Ventura, Calif. Donations can be made In memory of Lowell G Pomerantz to the Beth El Congregation Prayer Book Fund, 1900 Cochran Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15220. PJC

outstanding member of our board of directors,” said Schreiber. “She is a great person to vet an idea from conception to execution.” Erin Oldynski, co-founder of Prototype, a Pittsburgh-based feminist maker space, echoed earlier sentiments: “Audrey has been incredibly supportive and inspiring for us in our effort to build a local technology sector that has gender and racial parity. She pushes us to reach higher and dream bigger, and for that we are grateful.” Russo explained that in addition to seeing women given more opportunities to “get some traction,” she also wants Pittsburgh “to be known as a place where we were in industry at the turn of the 1900s, and now we’re a place where all people can build what they want in innovation and tech.” Achieving these goals is exciting, she explained, and even 10 years after arriving at the Pittsburgh Technology Council, it remains an honor to facilitate transformation. “It’s such a gift, being in this work,” she said. “Having an upfront view of the changes is such a gift.” PJC

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

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Anonymous ............................................... Miriam F. Kopelson Adalyn Pakler Baraff ................................ Esther Pakler Weiss Marc M. Bilder..................................................Sophia Meyers Faye Bleiberg ..................................................Diane Friedman Faye Bleiberg ..................................... Esther & Jack Mallinger Paula W. Callis .....................................................Meyer Weiss Bernard & Marilyn Caplan .................................. Phillip Caplan Hyla & Sandor Caplan................................... Zelda Sadowsky Allan H. Cohen .................................................. Esther Phillips Paula K. Cramer ...............Josephine “Giddy” Keizler Gottlieb Michael & Christine Cushner .................... Samuel J. Cushner Frank & Barbara DeLuce ..................................... Albert Shaer Sherman J. Farbstein.................................... Julia P. Farbstein Eileen S. Fox ..................................................... Mollie Samuel Mrs. Dorisgayle Gladstone ........................ Charlotte Charapp Marilyn Goldman .................................................. Morris Cohn Fred & Gail Greene........................................ David Silverstein Fred & Gail Greene...........................................Bessie Perman

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Fred & Gail Greene...........................................William Greene Marian Hershman & Family............................. Bess Levenson Jerrie Johnson .......................................................Abe Zwang Steven M. Katz ..................................................Maurice Smith The Leff Family .........................................................Issac Lieb The Leff Family ...................................................... Rose Wyatt Mrs. David Lieberman.....................................Charlotte Rubin Barbara & Amy Linder...................................Richard L. Linder Michael & Andrea Lowenstein .............William M. Lowenstein Sylvia L. Mason ............................................ Manuel L. Mason Stephen Maybaum............................................. Abner Crumb Larry Myer ...................................................Oscar Zeidenstein Marcia & Joel Platt ........................................... Madylene Platt Ian Raffel .......................................................Dr. George Raffel Arnold N. Wagner.................................................... Tillie Shillit Jane S. Walmsley ......................................... Nellie E. Rudolph Pauline Lipser Witkin...................................Beloved Departed Joan M. Zeiden ..................................................Albert Epstein

THIS WEEK’S YAHRZEITS — Sunday January 21: Irving E. Cohen, Nettie Galanty, Edith Lazear, Rheba Markley, E. Harry Mazervo, Oscar Robbins, Rebecca Rosenfeld, Gertrude Schugar, Pauline Silberblatt, Abraham Ulanoff Monday January 22: Herman J Brody, Rebecca Broudy, Rubin Davidson, Leonard A Fleegler, Raymond Goldstein, Jacob Graff, William Randall Greene, Anna Grossman, Sarah Haimovitz, Tina Kaminsky, Anna Kart, Rose Klein, Betty Kuperstock, Anne Bilder Mallinger, Joseph Cliff Ruben, Ida Seminofsky, Jack C. Siegel, Al W. Wolf, Rose Blattner Zionts Tuesday January 23: Abe Abramson, Harry Auerbach, Clara Deutch, Myer Feldman, Isadore F. Frank, Benjamin Harris, Bess M. Levenson, Albert Dale Malyn, Frank Miller, Sophie Paransky, Max Rosenfeld, Harry Schlesinger, Leon Stein Wednesday January 24: Sidney J. Alpern, Samuel J. Amdur, Julius Belle, Beverly Renee German, Harry Kalson, Tillie Krochmal, Charlotte Marchbein Lazar, Joseph H. Levin, Jeremy Marcus, Samuel Miller, Ida B. Shaffer, Edith Nayhouse Thorpe, Minnie Weller Thursday January 25: Anna Cohen, Celia Cohen, Julia P. Farbstein, Katie Fireman, Jennie Gold, Sarah Goldstein, Ruth W. Gusky, Louis Hinkes, Max Jeremias, Harry Kaplan, Marian Papernick Lindenbaum, Morris Lipkind, Alice Lipp, Manuel L. Mason, Harry Miller, Anna Schwartz, David S. Shermer, Albert Sherry, Ruth K. Slotsky Friday January 26: Jennie Bluestone, Charles Fishkin, Ida Karp, Freda Lenchner, Katie Middleman, Lillian Myers, Louis Rosenfield, Rebecca Schutte, Meyer H. Siegal, Maurice Smith, Harry L. Steinberg, Roslyn Weinberg Saturday January 27: Joseph Baker, Rebecca Belkin, Helen Citron, Max Elinoff, Rachel Grinberg, Minnie S. Kopman, Sylvan A. Mendlovitz, Wallace Norman, Ciril Perer, Manuel Regenstien, Anna Gross Rosen, Jacob Rosenberg, Jacob Rosenzweig, Pearl Sheckter, Morris Singer, Eleanor Goldberg Toker

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

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Community MLK Day at CDS Instead of taking the day off, students at Community Day School took on the essential themes of Martin Luther King Jr. Day for the third straight year in a day of learning and reflection. The guiding theme for this year’s experience was “Borders.” CDS librarian Whitney Philipps led the team of educators in planning the program. Students were invited to write a new story — one in which, like King, to dream of overcoming divisive borders that divide people and can help create a new reality. The day kicked off with a morning prayer service, including a keynote address by Pittsburgh theater director Adil Mansoor, who is a founding member of Hatch Arts Collective, a performing arts group committed to including queer and trans people of color.

p First-grader Sasha Svoboda and her classmates listen to King’s “I Have A Dream” speech while learning about what the civil rights leader taught us about being an “upstander.”

p Third-graders Zev Adelson, left, and Jordan Block pray and reflect during morning tefillah (prayer service) for the entire school on MLK Day.

p Kindergarten students Lilliana Haber, left, and Ella Levy use fingerprints to paint a dove to symbolize peace.

▲ Third-graders Benji Smuckler, left, and Gabriel Shapira work on a schoolwide art project exploring the ideas of acceptance, tolerance, and breaking down barriers to improve human understanding.

u Fifth-graders Tom Perel, left, and Alexander Velazquez attend a seminar on how political borders are drawn.

t First-grader Joshua Neiss completes a project about the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.

Photos courtesy of Community Day School

26 JANUARY 19, 2018

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Community At Hillel

White elephant joy

p Hillel Jewish University Center students on the winter Birthright trip pose with Taglit Birthright Israel CEO Gidi Mark at BaF Lachish Israel Defense Forces base. Hillel JUC had a full bus of 40 participants. The trip took place from Dec. 24 to Jan. 4. p NA’AMAT Pittsburgh held a post-Chanukah party, and attendees show off their white elephant gifts. Photo courtesy of NA’AMAT Pittsburgh

Face2Face Youth workers from Karmiel/Misgav, Israel, and from Pittsburgh met at Repair the World as part of a weeklong workshop to develop ideas for new opportunities for teen partnership programs between the two communities. The Face2Face workshop, convened by the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh-Partnership2Gether and the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh-The Second Floor, was an act of building bridges between Pittsburgh and Karmiel/Misgav. Experts guided the group to explore Jewish teen engagement, Jewish life on college campuses, the changing nature of American Jewish/Israeli relationships, gender/sexual identity, social justice and social media.

Photo by Matt Unger for the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh

Torah and Tea p Jadon Grove and Talia Solomon, president and vice president of the Carnegie Mellon University Hillel, respectively, pose in front of Café Hillel on the Birthright trip. Photos courtesy of Hillel Jewish University Center

Together in Song t New Light Congregation members participated in a collaborative celebration of the life and work of Martin Luther King Jr. at the Rodman Street Missionary Baptist Church on Jan. 14. Cantorial soloist Sarah Stock Mayo, center, joined the Rodman Mass Choir in singing.

Photo by Barry Werber

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p Chana Gittel Deray, left, read from her new book, “Kugel, Chaos, and Unconditional Love,” at Chabad of the South Hills’ Torah and Tea event on Jan. 11. Photo by Toby Tabachnick

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