Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle 1-3-20

January 3, 2020 | 6 Tevet 5780

Candlelighting 4:48 p.m. | Havdalah 5:51 p.m. | Vol. 63, No. 1 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

Year in review: Chronicle’s top stories of 2019

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LOCAL Honoring the dead

Students learn the art of Jewish casket making on Mitzvah Day. Page 2

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Musical exposing early 20th-century anti-Semitism ‘postponed indefinitely’

by Point Park

By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer

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LOCAL

Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh enters new home After nearly six decades at 234 McKee Place in Oakland, the umbrella organization headed a mile and a half southwest to 2000 Technology Drive. With its abundance of

oint Park University’s spring production of “Parade,” a musical that tells the true story of Leo Frank, a Jew lynched in Marietta, Georgia in 1915, has been “postponed indefinitely” following protests by some Conservatory Theatre students.

The Tony Award-winning show was scheduled to be performed in April and was to be directed by Rob Ashford, a Point Park alumnus and Tony-Award winning choreographer who worked on the Broadway production of “Parade” in 1998.

Frank was a Jewish factory manager who was wrongly accused, convicted and sentenced to death for the alleged raping and murdering of 13-year-old Mary Phagan in Atlanta in 1913. After several appeals failed, his sentence eventually was commuted to life in prison by Georgia Governor John Slaton, citing evidence not presented at trial.

In 1915 Frank was kidnapped from prison by a group of men and lynched in Phagan’s hometown. He was pardoned posthumously by the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles in 1986.

Frank’s trial, conviction, appeals and death garnered national media attention and inflamed anti-Semitic feelings throughout the country. Both the reformation of the then-defunct Klu Klux Klan and the creation of the Anti-Defamation League have been attributed to the case.

Last fall, in anticipation of producing “Parade,” Steven Breese, artistic director of Point Park’s Pittsburgh Playhouse and dean of the university’s Conservatory of

Please see Stories, page 14

Please see Parade, page 15

Muslim-Jewish alliance

 Polly Sheppard, a survivor of the Charleston church shooting, hugs Barry Werber, a survivor of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.

Photo by Adam Reinherz

The Jewish backstory of Salem’s Market and Grill.

Page 3

LOCAL Judaism basics

Understanding the mysterious prohibition against shatnez.

Page 4

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

I

n traditional Jewish practice, shiva culminates with the mourner rising, opening the door and walking outside.

Re-entering life outdoors signifies a key moment in the aftermath of loss, burial and consolation, demonstrating that a new period has begun — though anyone who’s dealt with loss knows well the mourning continues, whatever the calendar might say.

The year 2019 was this community’s walk outdoors. Throughout the year, as our top stories show, efforts were made to return to life post-loss, but the road ahead wasn’t always discernible. Local events, national news stories, seemingly casual moments in each of our lives reignited sensations of pain, confusion, horror and even anger.

There were potholes on the road to healing, and yet there was inspiration and joy, too. It was a year of grappling with the unimaginable, and then deciding to move forward with hope in our hearts.

Since 1962, this newspaper has chronicled the ups and downs of the Pittsburgh Jewish community. The year 2019 will go down as both one of the most troubled and one of

the richest years in the community’s history, and we were honored to cover it. We look forward to serving as witness and narrator in the years to come.

Below, the top stories of 2019.

JANUARY

Terror survivor visits Polly Sheppard, a survivor of the 2015 shooting at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, visited Pittsburgh for a private event with members of New Light Congregation. Sheppard recounted both the moments she spent with the white supremacist killer who murdered nine black worshippers and the years of healing that followed. Sheppard was one of several survivors of terror who came to Pittsburgh throughout the year.

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WORLD Understanding Monsey

WORLD Prepping for the WZO

WORLD Jersey City unites

Headlines Casket building honors classic Jewish practice

p Rabbi Daniel Wasserman teaches students how to clamp boards.

— LOCAL —

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

A

fter passing through an unlit industrial kitchen and descending a flight of sawdust-covered stairs, the boys arrived in a cold windowless basement where two tables with wooden dowels, yellow glue, black metal clamps and unadorned sheets of wood — everything necessary for building a casket — had been prepared. Moments after the 12 teenagers divided themselves between the two workstations in Shaare Torah Congregation’s unfinished basement, construction began. Mallets and instructions were distributed.

Photos by Adam Reinherz

Strike the dowels with vigor, cautioned Rabbi Daniel Wasserman.

None of the 250 caskets built by Gesher HaChaim Jewish Burial Society had ever ruptured, but Wasserman had seen others whose faulty construction yielded horrific effects.

As the students oriented themselves to the tools — none of the teenagers had constructed a casket before — Wasserman interspersed directions with storytelling.

Members of the Jewish burial society had assembled caskets for nearly eight years, but two boxes were worth mentioning: In 2013, Yaakov Posin, then a student at Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh, was among those who participated in an after-school woodshop club run by Jason Small, a

p Natan Marcus, left, and Benji Marcus wipe glue from a freshly made casket.

Squirrel Hill resident and Shaare Torah congregant. Small helped the students weld pipes to create a menorah and use wood to make a kitchen knife block. When it came time for the final project, Small invited Wasserman, who encouraged the students to apply their skills to casket making. The students agreed.

It was impossible to foresee whose body would ultimately occupy the container, but shortly after completion, Wasserman received a call. T.J. Posin, a Wheeling, West Virginia, resident, had died. Wasserman took the student-made chest, traveled across state lines, retrieved the body and performed the pertinent rituals.

During the burial, which he co-officiated with the then local rabbi, Beth Jacowitz

Chottiner, Wasserman noted that Posin’s casket was built by a volunteer teenage corps — whose members included Posin’s grandson.

The first responsibility of burying the dead rests with the family, then the community.

That’s the way it was done for thousands of years, Wasserman said at the time.

The second casket tale involved Louis Zelkowitz, a Pittsburgh-based driver.

Zelkowitz’s mother Reva died on Friday, Nov. 6, 2015. Shortly after nightfall, when Shabbat ended on Nov. 7, Wasserman and Louis Zelkowitz descended the darkened staircase at Shaare Torah, turned on the fluorescent lights and built a casket.

Please see Casket, page 20

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Headlines Salem’s Market and Grill represents Muslim-Jewish cooperation — LOCAL —

By David Rullo | Staff Writer

S

p Salem’s Market and Grill is a gathering place for people of all races, religions and nationalities.

Photo by Jim Busis

might surprise some: Muslims and Jews.

Shortly after arriving in the U.S. from Libya in 1977, Salem’s father Massaud began to search for halal meat. Unable to find any certified as following the Islamic law, Massaud sought out kosher meat. As Abdullah explains it, “When Muslims are unable to find halal meat, they are supposed to find kosher meat.”

Massaud’s quest took him to Murray Avenue Kosher, but he was worried that the meat being sold at the Jewish supermarket

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wasn’t butchered according to Jewish dietary laws. The owner, Wilfred Weiss, offered to take him to the slaughterhouse where the market bought its meat, alleviating his fears.

Massaud began to buy lamb and other meat from Weiss, not only for his family but for friends and neighbors as well. Soon, he was purchasing so much meat that it became difficult to deliver and store.

Massaud’s friend owned an Indian grocery store on Atwood Street that was struggling. In the early ’80s he offered to

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tepping into Salem’s Market and Grill is a bit like entering an updated and less cosmopolitan version of Rick’s Café from Casablanca. While you won’t find Vichy France or be asked for your papers, you will encounter an international eatery frequented by a melange of citizens seeking good food and a welcoming atmosphere.

Owner Abdullah Salem has worked hard to create a gathering place for people of all races, religions and nationalities. Muslims, Jews and Christians sit at the halal restaurant’s communal tables. Police officers, shift workers, lawyers, accountants, architects and construction workers share conversation and talk about the various Pittsburgh neighborhoods they call home.

The employees are just as diverse as the customers. Americans, Somalians, Algerians and Kenyans prepare and serve the Middle Eastern menu to a long line of customers that pause only when the restaurant closes, or business is paused each Friday for midday weekly prayers.

While the Strip District restaurant’s staff and clientele is more inclusive than most locations in the city, its history highlights cooperation between two communities that

rent Massaud the back half of the store to sell meat to the Muslim community. Salem’s Market was born.

Anxious to find a use for unsold meat, Massaud decided to begin offering hot dishes at lunch to the local college community. There was only one problem: The store didn’t have an oven. So Massaud’s wife began cooking curry at home each day that was sold in the store.

As Abdullah recalls, it didn’t help the first-generation American or his siblings at school.

“I would go to school smelling like curry all the time,” he said. “The other kids would make fun of us. It’s rough when you’re young and you look foreign and you smell like curry.”

Both the market and the food, which grew to include stews and other dishes when the family bought a stove for the location, were a success. The family wanted to move to a larger site but loans that charge interest are not permitted in the Muslim religion.

Murray Avenue Kosher owner Weiss offered Salem a $250,000 no-interest loan.

Weiss’ influence goes well beyond simply supplying the family a loan on a handshake and the promise that “you’ll pay me back when you can.” He also assisted the market find suppliers for the beef, lamb and chicken

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Headlines Shatnez: Stitching together a mitzvah — LOCAL —

By David Rullo | Staff Writer

O

rthodox Judaism requires a level of mindfulness and intent in many facets of life that many nonOrthodox Jews may not consider. For example, an Orthodox Jew must check the food they buy to ensure it is kosher, be aware of what time holidays and Shabbat technically begin so they don’t miss lighting the proper candles in the proper order, and even follow certain rules that pertain to the appropriate time for sexual intimacy.

While not difficult, these observances require a level of attention not necessarily found in other religions, or even in nonOrthodox denominations of Judaism.

One of the more obscure prohibitions that requires particular care is against combining sheep’s wool and linen, known as shatnez.

It first appears in Leviticus 19:19: “You shall not breed your animal with diverse kinds, you shall not sow your fields with diverse kinds and a garment that is a mixture of diverse kinds, shall not be put on by you.”

Then the prohibition is restated in Deuteronomy 22:9-11, this time with an explanation of what types of diverse kinds Shatnez is commonly found in men’s suits. cannot be mixed: “You shall not sow your p vineyard with diverse kinds, lest the growth be forbidden, the seed that you will sow and the produce of the vineyard. You shall because Cain brought from the not plow with an ox and donkey worst of the offering to God, together. You shall not wear a that was flax, and linen mixture of fibers, wool and comes from flax. Abel linen, together.” brought from the best The word “together” is of the offering, that is important because while sheep, and wool comes it is prohibited to wear from sheep. Cain a garment made of wool was jealous of Abel; Judaism and linen, it is not prohibbecause of it abuse and Basics ited to wear a linen shirt murder enter the world. and wool pants.

The Zohar says that’s why Why are these two fabrics we separate wool and linen.” expressly forbidden to mix? According to Margaret Angel of Squirrel Hill Rabbi Danny Schiff, foundation scholar at learned how to check for shatnez after the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, retiring from a law career. She was looking we have no clear explanation. at a sweater inherited from her sister and one “Obviously, we are a people of separation. of her daughters-in-law asked if the garment There is no question about that. We separate contained shatnez. That question intrigued Shabbat and the days of the week; males Angel enough that she decided to get into and females; humans and God; humans the business of shatnez checking.

While the mixture is typically found in and animals; meat and milk; and on and on.

She traveled to Lakewood, New Jersey, to expensive clothing, it’s still a risk to assume a Here, too, we have a separation of a fabric study with Rabbi Yosef Saygh at the yeshiva less expensive item scored from the bargain from the plant world and a fabric from Beth Medrash Govoh. Angel calls Sayagh rack doesn’t violate the prohibition. the animal world. “the dean of shatnez checkers.”

As Angel explained, anything made with “The thing that’s difficult to understand is Both Barrocas and Angel agree that “recycled materials” may contain shatnez. Why? that we are permitted to wear other fabrics it’s very simple to begin the process of Because the manufacturer may have reused from the plant and animal world together. examining a fabric: “Look at the label.” material and scraps from other inexpensive So why these two? We don’t have any The label is only the beginning of the garments. This type of material is commonly clear indications.” examination, though. Angel and Barrocas used for slipper pads and winter coats.

Rabbi Moshe Barrocas professionally both compare fibers under a microscope to While clothing like suits and sweaters examines fabrics for shatnez locally. He decide whether it contains wool. may seem obvious, there are more unusual agrees with Schiff that the commandment Shatnez is commonly found in men’s suits items that might require a closer look. not to mix wool and linen “does not neces- and winter coats. Even garments that say Angel has examined both “baseball gloves sarily make sense.” they are 100% wool may contain shatnez and Ugg boots.”

He notes that while the Torah doesn’t because the label may only refer to the outer In addition to clothing, Barrocas offer any reason for the prohibition, one layer. Often, the two fabrics are mixed in cautioned that carpets may contain wool may be found in Kabbalah and the Jewish linings, beneath collars and in shoulder pads and linen mixed. The prohibition, he said, mystic tradition.

— parts of clothing that many people don’t should be applied to anything that you might “The Zohar says we don’t wear shatnez even know are there. derive comfort from.

Photo by ChamilleWhite/via iStockphoto.com

“We really have to ask the question: Are we prepared to follow a commandment because it’s part of the Torah, given that there is not the slightest moral challenge?”

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Schiff said that he loves to teach about shatnez because it raises the fundamental question of whether you are willing to follow a mitzvah simply because God commanded it.

“We really have to ask the question: Are we prepared to follow a commandment because it’s part of the Torah, given that there is not the slightest moral challenge?” he said.

“I think it raises a fundamental philosophical issue,” he added, “which takes us into the whole area of, are we observing commandments because we have ascribed meaning to them or because they come from an external source?

“If it’s the latter, then essentially it’s a statement of humility.” PJC David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Calendar >>Submit calendar items on the Chronicle’s website, pittsburghjewishchronicle.org. Submissions will also be included in print. Events will run in the print edition beginning one month prior to the date as space allows. The deadline for submissions is Friday, noon. q FRIDAY, JAN. 3 The Zionist Organization of America: Pittsburgh Israel Scholarship Program is accepting applications Jan. 3-Feb. 29. The program encourages student participation on approved educational trips to Israel. Up to three scholarships, $1,000 each, are available to students who will visit Israel on a structured study program this summer and entering their junior or senior year of high

school in the fall of 2020. For complete details, contact ZOA Executive Director Stuart Pavilack at 412-665-4630 or pittsburgh@zoa.org. q SUNDAY, JAN. 5 Have you ever wondered what a preschool based in Jewish values and inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach looks like? Visit Temple Ohav Shalom Center for Early Learning’s Open House at 1 p.m. to talk with the education team, meet parents and tour the school. 8400 Thompson Run Road. enterforearlylearning.org Deborah Gilboa, aka “Dr. G,” presents “What’s Happy Have to Do With It? Raising Resilient Kids in an Online World” at 4:30 p.m. at the JCC Squirrel

Hill (5738 Forbes Ave.) For more information and to register, visit jewishpgh.org/event/knowledge-noshwomens-lunch-break-to-educate-3. Presented by Women’s Philanthropy of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, the National Council of Jewish Women and the Jewish Women’s Foundation. q MONDAY, JAN. 6 Beth El Congregation hosts First Mondays with Rabbi Alex Greenbaum featuring the Banjo All Stars. This group has been entertaining Western Pennsylvania for 25 years. Enjoy toe-tapping tunes, sing-a-longs and period dance music. Lunch begins at 11:30 a.m. and the program starts at noon. Call 412-561-1168 to make a reservation. $6. bethelcong.org

Serve as a volunteer tax preparer this 2020 tax season. United Way’s Free Tax Prep volunteers help ensure that low-income, working families receive high-quality tax assistance. Volunteers will be trained and certified. CPE, CLE and CE credits are available for CPAs, tax attorneys and registered agents/paid preparers. 5:30 p.m. 2000 Technology Drive. For more information and to register, visit swpafreetaxes.org. q TUESDAY, JAN. 7 Community WellTalk is an introduction to the 10.27 Healing Partnership and presentations by local wellness practitioners about their practice Please see Calendar, page 6

Monday nights at 7:30 p.m., Carnegie Music Hall, Oakland Tickets: $15-35 There There is the shattering debut novel by Tommy Orange.

Named a Pulitzer Prize finalist, the instant classic is a stunning portrayal of urban Native American life.

Author photo: Rolex-Bart Michiels

Author photo: Tamara Poppitt

Novelist Esi Edugyan’s Washington Black is an epic adventure about a boy who rises from slavery to become a man of the world.

A New York Times 10 Best Books of 2018, this lush travelogue asks, what is true freedom?

Author photo: Elena Seibert

Author photo: Tom Storm

Carmen Maria Machado’s genre-bending Her Body and Other Parties was a finalist for the National Book Award.

Her memoir, In the Dream House, reveals the history and reality of abuse in queer relationships.

Author of The English Patient and recipient of the Golden Booker, Michael Ondaatje’s newest novel is Warlight, a story of violence and love, intrigue and desire, set in post-World War II London.

Thursdays 7 p.m. and Sundays 2:30 p.m., Carnegie Lecture Hall, Oakland

Dan Gemeinhart is a former teacher-librarian and author of five middle grade novels.

His latest heartwarming novel The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise was named a 2019 Parents’ Choice Award Winner.

Author photo: Derek Fowles

Author photo: Sonya Sones

Linda Sue Park is the author of more than two dozen books.

Among her titles are the 2002 Newbery Medal winner A Single Shard, and the New York Times-bestseller A Long Walk to Water.

Author photo: Courtesy of Author

Author photo: Garret Jones

Eisner Award winner Jim Rugg is a Pittsburgh-based comic book artist and illustrator of the cult classic graphic novel The PLAIN Janes. Jim’s other books include Street Angel, Afrodisiac, Notebook Drawings, and Supermag.

FREE with a library card

Jarrett J. Krosoczka is a New York Times bestselling author and illustrator. Jarrett became a National Book Award finanalist with Hey, Kiddo, a profound memoir about growing up in a family grappling with addiction.

7:00 p.m., Carnegie Lecture Hall, Oakland Tickets: $33, includes a copy of the book Author photo: Hugh Chaloner

Author photo: Elizabeth Eagle

Internationally bestselling author Colum McCann returns with Apeirogon (named for a shape with a countably infinite number of sides), an epic story rooted in the real-life friendship between two men united by loss.

From the Man Booker Prizewinning Irish author Anne Enright, Actress is a brilliant and moving novel about fame, sexual power, and a daughter’s search to understand her mother’s hidden truths.

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Calendar Calendar: Continued from page 5 and healing services. There will be time to learn something new about healing practices and get a chance to meet practitioners. The event will be hosted at JCC Squirrel Hill – Levinson Hall at 6 p.m. For more information, visit 1027healingpartnership.org. q WEDNESDAY, JAN. 8 Start off the new year with a Blanket Fort and Movie Night at Moishe House. Bring your best fort-building supplies; snacks and movie provided. Moishe House events are intended for young adults, 22-32. Please message a resident or the page for the address.

Join the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Young Adult Division for Ladies’ Night Out. Make kokedama, a form of Japanese garden art. Sip some wine and enjoy a relaxing evening creating a beautiful accent for your home or office. $25 includes kokedama making, wine and snacks. 7 p.m. 5135 Penn Ave. For more information and to register, visit jewishpgh.org/event/yad-ladies-night-out. q THURSDAYS, JAN. 9, FEB. 6, MARCH 5, APRIL 2, MAY 7 & JUNE 4 Facilitated by local clergy, the Christian-Jewish Dialogue at Rodef Shalom (4905 Fifth Ave.) explores topics of similarities and differences. Themes range from wedding rituals to the story of Noah. Join for any and all sessions. 12 p.m. Free. q FRIDAY, JAN. 10 Rodef Shalom Congregation presents the 2020 Milton E. Harris Interfaith Lecture “Why Is It Always the Jews?” featuring Scholar-In-Residence Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin. Anti-Semitism is history’s oldest ideology. What provokes this intense hatred? Join preeminent Jewish thought leader Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin for an interfaith lecture and luncheon at Rodef Shalom Congregation (4905 Fifth Ave.) 11:30 a.m. No cost for clergy. Questions? rodefshalom.org/rsvp Bob Dylan has journeyed from Judaism to Christianity and back again. How do his songs illuminate his spiritual journey? Join Rodef Shalom’s Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin for “Rock of Israel: How Does It Feel?” a dinner and a discussion about this rock legend, 6:45 p.m. 4905 Fifth Ave. $15 for adults, $10 for kids, $20 for nonmembers. rodefshalom.org/rsvp q SATURDAY, JAN. 11 Join Rodef Shalom (4905 Fifth Ave.) for a continuation of discussions centered on “Mahloket Matters: How to Disagree Constructively – Unit 2 – Fear War or Trust Peace.” Presented by Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin at 12:45 p.m. $5. To register, visit rodefshalom.org/rsvp. Walk-ins welcome. q SUNDAY, JAN. 12 Join Congregation Beth Shalom Sunday mornings for Lox & Learning at Beth Shalom, a breakfast sponsored by Beth Shalom’s Men’s Club and learn more about fellow congregants’ jobs and hobbies.

The event is free. Shoshanna Barnett is currently a software engineer at Uber in Pittsburgh. She will be speaking about how she makes complex ideas simple using data visualization, from energy storage to driverless cars. 10 a.m. bethshalompgh.org/ events-upcoming Inspired by Rabbi Salkin’s book, “Searching for My Brothers: Jewish Men in a Gentile World,” the Jewish Masculinities Panel Discussion will examine the experiences and philosophies of being and raising Jewish men. The panel includes Salkin, Rayden Lev

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Sorock, Peter Rosenfeld and Nathan Rybski. Free and open to the public. All are welcome. 10:30 a.m. 4905 Fifth Ave. rodefshalom.org Temple Emanuel of South Hills presents Bagel Bytes, a monthly brunch and speaker program. This month’s guest speakers are Jim Busis, CEO and publisher of The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, and Peter Smith, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette religion writer. 10:30 a.m.

Free. 1250 Bower Hill Road. For more information, visit templeemanuelpgh.org/event/bbbjan12.

Beth El Congregation will host an adult education movie night on the film “Labyrinth and Lies.” Based on a true story, the film follows a German prosecutor determined to bring to justice to former Nazis who returned to their pre-war lives. $10. The event will begin with dinner at 6 p.m., followed by a discussion with Rabbi Alex Greenbaum at 6:30 p.m. and the film at 7 p.m. Visit bethelcong.org for more information and the RSVP or call 412-561-1168. q TUESDAY, JAN. 14 Enjoy a delicious lunch and a presentation on nutrition by Comfort Keepers at Chabad of the South Hills’ Senior Lunch. $5 suggested donation. 1701 McFarland Road. 12 p.m. Wheelchair accessible. Call to preregister: 412-278-2658. chabadsh.com q WEDNSDAY, JAN. 15 The Squirrel Hill AARP chapter will hold its first meeting of 2020 at 1 p.m. in the Falk Library in Rodef Shalom Congregation, 4905 Fifth Ave. Included with the business meeting will be an updated legislative report, senior health advice for the winter months and an update on the club’s monthly “lunch outs” events. Anyone who is a member of the national AARP is eligible to join the local chapter, but all interested seniors are invited to attend the monthly meetings. January’s guest speaker will be Michael H. Marks, principal attorney at Marks Elder Law. For more information, contact President Marcia Uram at 412-731-3338.

Make some new friends across generations at Moishe House’s Intergenerational Bingo Night with the JAA and the residents of Weinberg Terrace.

The Jewish Association on Aging warns that the residents take their bingo “very, very seriously,” so be prepared for a pretty intense night. Think you can handle it? The fun begins at 7 p.m. 5757 Bartlett St. facebook.com/events/2059923740777207 q FRIDAY, JAN. 17 MoHo Goes to Racial & Economic Justice Shabbat Dinner at 6:30 p.m. Join Moishe House for a meaningful Shabbat dinner to learn about racial and economic justice here in Pittsburgh, led by Repair the World, at the East End Cooperative Ministry, 6140 Station St. Over a vegan-friendly meal, Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy will be honored by exploring local injustices and learning how to take action to make Pittsburgh livable for all. For more information, visit facebook.com/events/2526493907598441. q SUNDAY, JAN. 19 Join Community Day School and PJ Library Pittsburgh with your children (ages 2-5) from 10-11 a.m. for PJ Invention Time featuring PJ Library story, snack and building inventions with a Jewish holiday theme using recycled materials. Free. CDS Annex Building (2740 Beechwood Boulevard). comday.org/pjinventiontime Join the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Young Adult Division for a tour of Cinderlands Warehouse, 2601 Smallman St. 2 p.m. Free.

For more information and to register, visit jewishpgh.org/event/young-adult-brewery-club-atcinderlands-warehouse.

q TUESDAY, JAN. 21 Attend the next Rodef Shalom Book Club Meeting for a discussion of “Memento Park,” 2019 Association of Jewish Libraries Jewish Fiction Award-winning novel by Mark Sarvas. Copies of the book are available in the Lippman Library.

Wine, cheese and crackers will be served. This event is free and open to the public. 6:30 p.m.

4905 Fifth Ave. The coziest night of the month is back! Escape the bitter winter with a night of puzzles, warm drinks and Harry Potter audiobooks at Moishe House.

7 p.m. Message a resident or the page for the address. facebook.com/events/498882994069101 Temple Emanuel of South Hills is hosting $camJam, a free informative evening on financial and investment scams targeting seniors. Speakers from the PA Department of Banking and Securities, the PA Office of Attorney General and the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office will present. 7:30 p.m. Free.

Registration is encouraged to templeemanuel@ templeemanuelpgh.org or 412-279-7600. For more information, visit templeemanuelpgh.org/event/scamjam. q WEDNSDAY, JAN. 22 Dr. Barbara Burstin will speak about her book, “Sophie: The Incomparable Mayor Masloff,” and the journey of Sophie Masloff, the daughter of Romanian Jewish immigrants who grew up in the Hill District to become the first female and Jewish mayor of Pittsburgh. 4 p.m.

501 Cathedral of Learning q THURSDAY, JAN. 23 If you get a little bit too excited about dinosaurs, evolutionary theories of altruism or other nerdy topics relating to natural history, come to Nerd Nite’s Natural History Nite with Moishe House Pittsburgh for an incredible chance to meet your fellow nerds over some drinks. Nerd Nite is a lecture series that’s a mix between a TED talk, a happy hour and freshman orientation. Admission is $5, but if you sign up through Moishe House by Tuesday, Jan. 21, they will pay for your ticket and provide transportation from the house in Squirrel Hill. Spirit 242 51st St. 6:30 p.m. For more information, visit facebook.com/events/564137781088558.

The Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh presents “Generations Speaker Series: Deborah Leuchter Stueber.” Stueber will recount the story of her parents, Kurt and Edith Leuchter, surviving the Holocaust, fighting Nazis in the French Resistance and making a new life in America. Free, but advanced registration required at hcofpgh.org/ generations-speaker-series. 7 p.m. Mt. Lebanon Public Library (16 Cast Shannon Boulevard). q SATURDAY, JAN. 25 Get ready to party like a rock star at Community Day School’s Rock-n-Roll Annual Party. The 10th annual fundraiser will be held at 7:30 p.m. at Nova Place, 100 S. Commons, in Pittsburgh’s North Side.

Honorees include: Dr. E. Joseph Charny (Community Leadership Award); Kara McGoey Ph.D. (Volunteer of the Year); and Tzippy Mazer (Lifetime Achievement Award). The event will feature a silent auction to raise funds for the CDS Class of 2020 Israel trip, as well as a luxury raffle. $150/person, $75 first-timer rate, $50 alumni (ages 21-30). For tickets, visit comday.org/cdsrocks or contact Jenny Jones at jjones@comday.org or 412-521-1100, ext. 3207. q SUNDAY, JAN. 26 Beth El Congregation of the South Hills will host the Musicians of Steel for a 412 Food Rescue Benefit Concert at 7 p.m. Free, donations are accepted

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at the door or online with your RSVP. 100% of the money collected will support 412 Food Rescue. This program will feature the chamber music of Mozart in honor of his birthday. 1900 Cochran Road. To register, visit eventbrite.com/e/concert-series-presented-bymusicians-of-steel-tickets-86383323847.

Be amazed and mystified by World Renowned Master Illusionist Ilan Smith at Chabad of the South Hills’ “Magical Evening” at 7 p.m. at the Carnegie Stage (25 W. Main St.) Reserve tickets at chabadsh. com/magic or mussie@chabadsh.com or 412-3442424. Early Bird Special $36 before Jan. 6. Starting Jan. 6 couvert is $50.

Women of Rodef Shalom and Brotherhood present the next Rodef Shalom Movie Night. “School Ties” is a thought-provoking film set in the 1950s that exposes intolerance and bigotry in an upper-crust prep school.

Free and open to the public. 7:30 p.m. 4905 Fifth Ave. Attendees are encouraged to wear old-school ties, caps and sweatshirts in keeping with the spirit of the film. q TUESDAY, JAN. 28 Join the ladies of E3 for An Evening at Manchester Bidwell with Bill Strickland at 6:30 p.m. For questions, contact Rachel Gleitman at rgleitman@ jfedpgh.org or 412-992-5227. For more information or to register online, visit jewishpgh.org/event/ e3-15. Free. 1815 Metropolitan St., 15233. RSVP by Friday, Jan. 24. q WEDNESDAYS, JAN. 29 & FEB. 12, 19, 26; MONDAYS, FEB. 3 & MARCH 2 Join Beth El Congregation for their annual Winter Speaker Series beginning Jan. 29 at 7 p.m. Free and open to the community. 1900 Cochran Road. For more information, including speakers and topics, and to RSVP, visit bethelcong.org/events/winterspeaker-series/2020-02-03. q THURSDAY, JAN. 30 Join the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Young Adult Division for Trivia Night at Bingham Tavern (321 Bingham St.). Arrive by 7 p.m., trivia begins at 8 p.m. For more information and to register, visit jewishpgh.org/event/young-adult-barclub-trivia-at-bigham-tavern. q FRIDAY, JAN. 31 Put on your finest flapper dress and celebrate the decade with a throwback to last century’s 20s at Moishe House’s Roaring Twenties Shabbat.

A vegetarian dinner will be provided. Message a resident for the address. facebook.com/ events/2537242869706899 q SATURDAY, FEB. 1 Join Congregation Beth Shalom (5915 Beacon St.) for Sisterhood Shabbat, as they honor Marlene Behrmann-Cohen, Ilanit Helfand and Pat Weiss, along with speaker Danielle Kranjec. Sisterhood Shabbat celebrates the women in Beth Shalom’s congregation and presents an opportunity for all to learn together. bethshalompgh.org/events-upcoming q MONDAY, FEB. 3 Beth El Congregation hosts First Mondays with Rabbi Alex Greenbaum, its monthly lunch program, this month featuring Abby Mendelson. Mendelson will present “Jewish Hollywood: Then and Now.” Mendelson has written 13 nonfiction books and teaches at Point Park and Chatham universities.

Lunch begins at 11:30 a.m. and the program starts at noon. 1900 Cochran Road. $6. For more information and to register, visit bethelcong.org/events/firstmondays-abbymendelson. PJC

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Headlines After a machete stabbing on Chanukah, Monsey’s Orthodox Jews are defiant but searching for answers — NATIONAL —

By Ben Sales | JTA

W

hen a man wielding a machete burst into a Chanukah party at a rabbi’s house in the New York City suburb of Monsey, Joseph Gluck sprang into action.

Seeing the attacker, Gluck, the administrator of the Orthodox synagogue next door, helped evacuate party guests from the house.

Then he came back and threw a coffee table at the attacker’s head. As the attacker fled, having stabbed five Chasidic Jews, Gluck took down his license plate number.

“I definitely made a decision,” Gluck said. “I saw nobody was doing it. Somebody has to do it.”

On the morning of Sunday, Dec. 29, Gluck was just one of the party guests who spoke to a row of reporters camped outside the house where the attack occurred the previous night. He was running on fumes.

“I didn’t sleep yet. I tried,” he said, echoing some others involved in the trauma. “My big son came into my bed and wouldn’t let me sleep for the next hour, and then I had to come here.”

Many in the large Orthodox community of Monsey, a quiet hamlet with a population of a little more than 18,000 people, were feeling increasingly cautious on Sunday. Chasidic Jews milling around the stabbing site — the home of Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg, who lives next door to a synagogue he leads — rattled off a list of recent attacks on their community.

The past month has seen another stabbing nearby, a shooting in a Jersey City kosher supermarket that left four dead and a seemingly endless list of anti-Semitic incidents in the Orthodox neighborhoods of Brooklyn.

“You will have parents who will tell their children to wait inside when the bus comes,” said Aron Wieder, a Rockland County legislator who has lived in Monsey for more than two decades. “You will see people who will think twice to walk in the street late at night when it’s dark. People look over their shoulders.”

But some of Monsey’s Orthodox residents projected defiance. They said they would not lock their synagogue doors, would not change their lifestyle, would not let the attack define how they live or what they believe.

The synagogue next door — which the attacker, identified as 37-year-old Grafton Thomas, failed to break into after leaving the rabbi’s house — remained completely accessible on Sunday, and people rotated in and out of a packed sanctuary. Following morning prayers, the men inside sat down to a hot breakfast of bagels, eggs and hash browns, singing a traditional Chasidic melody as a rabbi taught a lesson on the Torah. In a room in the back of the bustling building, containers of oil for lighting Chanukah candles stood ready for the taking next to a donation box.

Police cars drove down the street, and a handful of volunteer guards from the Chaverim, a local Jewish security service, paced around the synagogue. But passersby could also hear music blasting from another synagogue down the street, which was holding a ceremony to dedicate a new Torah scroll. A PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

p Joseph Gluck, who witnessed the attack on Dec. 28, 2019, speaks to reporters the day after.

p A handful of Monsey residents gathered to show support for the local Orthodox community on Dec. 29, 2019.

p A security guard stands outside the rabbi’s house where the stabbing took place.

Photos by Ben Sales via JTA.org

couple blocks away, a parade float topped with a giant regal crown stood ready to join the ceremony. Little kids scampered around it, waving colorful flags or wearing cardboard crowns.

“On the one hand, there was a situation here, and everything changed,” said Tzvi Rottenberg, the rabbi’s nephew, who witnessed the attack. “But on the other hand, we’re Jews

— we believe everything comes from heaven and we don’t know if it was because of this or that. Because we’re Jews of faith, we know that Jews were always victimized.”

Of the five people injured, three had been released from the hospital. The others, Nachman Ingorsky and Yosef Neiman, reportedly were in critical condition.

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Neiman, a retired fishmonger in his 70s, had undergone three surgeries since the attack, according to Rottenberg, the rabbi’s nephew.

Rottenberg said both men are dedicated followers of the rabbi. Neiman in particular, he said, is known for his pleasant disposition.

Since retiring, he has spent much of his time studying Torah in and around the synagogue.

“He’s one of the most important people in the community,” Rottenberg said. “He’s here always. He’s a very happy, social person. He always has something nice to say.”

Local leaders are now turning their attention to the cause of the attack and what, if anything, can be done to stem what feels like a rising tide of anti-Semitism.

Wieder sees Saturday’s stabbing as the final link in a chain that began with anti-Semitic incitement on social media several years ago. As the local Orthodox population has ballooned, and religious Jews have moved into the towns surrounding Monsey, some non-Jewish residents have objected to the community’s growth.

Some of the protests, especially ones that characterize all Orthodox Jews as a bloc, have been widely denounced as anti-Semitic. A recent ad put out by the county Republican Party intoned that “If they win, we lose,” and said “Aron Wieder and his Ramapo bloc are plotting a takeover.”

“First you had people posting, anonymously, terrible things about the Orthodox Jewish community, then you had people posting not anonymously,” he said. “Then you have the soft attacks, like the ones you see in Brooklyn when somebody would run up to you and throw your hat off or throw a stone at a building. And then you start seeing stabbings, shootings.”

Yossi Gestetner, a local resident and co-founder of the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council, said Orthodox Jews moving to a new city is often portrayed negatively. He called on local law enforcement to lay out how anti-Semitic offenders would be punished so that future attackers may be deterred.

Michael Specht, Monsey’s town supervisor, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that he hopes to obtain license plate readers for all vehicles entering and exiting the town. Police also have increased patrols throughout the town.

“So many things that are covered about the Orthodox community are addressed as if it’s a big crisis or big problem,” he said. “You can’t win. Everything about Orthodox Jews is packaged in the negative and it doesn’t help.”

Political and community leaders have made clear that they consider the attack anti-Semitic, and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called it domestic terrorism. But beyond that, officials said that the suspect, who was arrested Saturday night, has not made his motive clear as of press time.

Alexander Rosemberg, the Anti-Defamation League’s regional director of community affairs, pointed out that the suspect is from a half-hour outside Monsey.

“You have to take every single event for what it is,” he said, adding that the attack certainly appeared to be anti-Semitic. “Many people are exploiting the Jewish community for many different reasons. I don’t think it would be fair to the police or to the community if we drew a direct Please see Monsey, page 20

JANUARY 3, 2020 7

Headlines Vying for seats at World Zionist Congress, liberal newcomers like Peter Beinart hope to block Israeli settlements funding — NATIONAL —

By Ron Kampeas | JTA

T

he list includes names like Peter Beinart, the liberal writer; Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president of the liberal Middle East policy group J Street; and Sheila Katz, the CEO of the National Council of Jewish Women.

No, it’s not an ad for a symposium on the Upper East Side, but a slate of first-time candidates seeking seats in the 38th World Zionist Congress, the legislative authority of a 120-year-old Zionist organization that helps determine the fate of $1 billion in spending on Jewish causes.

Elections, which are open to Jews 18 and over anywhere in the world, are held every five years. The next ones will be held between Jan. 21 and March 11.

The candidates hope to steer funding away from Jewish settlement expansion in the West Bank and toward causes like expanding rights for women and minorities. The second paragraph of the group’s platform notes its opposition to “the current policy of permanent occupation and annexation,” which it calls “unjust” and a threat to Israeli democracy.

Liberal Jewish groups already hold a majority of the American Jewish community’s 145 seats in the congress, but they have mainly used them to advocate for more religious pluralism in Israel. The new candidates hope to nudge those groups toward addressing the Israeli occupation of the West Bank more directly and to registering the unhappiness of some in the American Jewish community with the status quo there.

“My view of the American Jewish establishment and the Zionist establishment is that it is morally corrupt by defending the indefensible, for defending an occupation that holds millions of people occupied,” Beinart said in an interview.

The first-time candidates are running on the Hatikvah slate, which for years represented a small coterie of liberal Zionist groups. This year, Hatikvah aggressively expanded its outreach to liberal groups with greater name recognition.

“We want to bring in new folks,” said Hadar Susskind, a longtime Jewish activist who is directing Hatikvah’s campaign.

Among those newbies vying for spots on the body founded by Theodor Herzl in 1897 are a number of prominent Jewish liberals not known firstly for their activism around Israel, including former Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and Rabbi Sharon Brous, the founder and senior rabbi of the progressive Los Angeles congregation IKAR. Organizers hope that outreach to their fans — coupled with liberal disaffection with Israel’s right-wing government and an easier-than-ever elections process — will more than double the list’s representation.

Hatikvah currently holds eight of the

8 JANUARY 3, 2020

p Jewish Israelis seen in the West Bank settlement of Shavei Shomron in November 2019.

“ This is a way for progressive American Jews to shape the Israel we want, and we have every right to work and invest

”

in and create that kind of Israel.

— RABBI JILL JACOBS

145 seats in the American contingent in the congress. There are 152 slots allocated for Americans in the incoming congress.

Representation is divided about equally among Israel, the United States and the rest of the Diaspora.

Herbert Block, the director of the American Zionist Movement, which runs the elections, said enthusiasm appeared to be high across the political spectrum.

“There’s more early engagement in the process now,” Block told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in an interview. “There are more slates running across the board, there are more candidates running. Overall there’s more interest, which hopefully will lead to more engagement.”

Winning seats in the congress is the chief mechanism for Jewish Americans to influence the leadership of the Jewish Agency and the Jewish National Fund and the $1 billion a year those groups spend on Jewish education in the Diaspora and development projects in Israel, including in the settlements.

Voting is done online and costs $7.50; it’s $5 for those 25 and under. Voters must be 18 or

over, reside in the United States and be Jewish.

Over 56,000 U.S. voters took part in the 2015 elections, and Susskind said appeals from the new candidates joining the Hatikvah list could easily expand that number and result in a bigger piece of the pie for the list.

“The impact of this election is $5 billion in Israel and around the world” over the next five years, he said. “And that $1 billion a year comes down to the fact the elections decide on the leadership, but also who sits on boards of the Jewish Agency, Keren Hayesod (the United Israel Appeal) and the Jewish National Fund.”

The majority of the 145 seats in the outgoing congress are held by the Zionist arms of the non-Orthodox movements: Reform’s ARZA holds 56 seats and the Conservative movement’s Mercaz holds 25. The Vote Torah list of Orthodox Zionists holds 24 slots.

In an email blast to its members, J Street said that the $1 billion in annual funding “has a huge impact on the lives of Israelis of all religions and backgrounds as well as Palestinians in the occupied territories.”

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Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images via JTA.org

The NCJW’s Katz said the effort is a means for the venerable Jewish women’s group to advance the rights of Israeli women, minorities, refugees and the LGBTQ community — all classes that NCJW seeks to protect in the United States.

“We’re proud we will take a seat at the table to advocate on behalf of women and feminists in our movement,” she said.

Morton Klein, the president of the conservative Zionist Organization of America, is acutely aware of the changes that an expanded Hatikvah list could bring.

He noted that at least one group on the expanded Hatikvah list, Americans for Peace Now, supports boycotting settlement goods.

“They are opposed to any funding past the 1967 lines, which we fought for, for kindergartens,” Klein said. “These are Jewish people who need help. Some of these groups are harshly critical of Israel, yet they’ll be involved in what the education looks like in Israel.”

Rabbi Jill Jacobs, the executive director of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, another new addition to the Hatikvah list who has long campaigned against funding for the settlements, said the longstanding policy of affording two-thirds of World Zionist Congress seats to the Diaspora belies the cliche that nonIsraeli Jews should stay out of Israeli politics.

“This is a way for progressive American Jews to help shape the Israel we want, and we have every right to work and invest in and create that kind of Israel,” she said.

Ken Bob, director of the liberal Zionist group Ameinu, which has long been part of the Hatikvah list, said the recruitment effort is also a means of outreach to young liberal Jews, a constituency many see as increasingly estranged from Israel.

“There’s a double win,” Bob said. “We can promote our progressive Israel agenda, but also it’s a way to bring in younger Jews who haven’t found ways of connecting to any organized activity.” PJC

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Headlines Two weeks after deadly shooting, blacks and Jews in Jersey City unite for holiday charity drive — NATIONAL —

By Ben Sales | JTA

A

ll day Monday, Dec. 23, volunteers trickled in and out of the Mary McLeod Bethune Life Center in Jersey City’s Greenville neighborhood, lining up boxes upon boxes of pretzel challah, soup mix, hummus, turkey and chocolate. Trucks backed up to the community center to unload pallets of food and toys from nearby Jewish vendors.

Thirteen days earlier, and just four blocks down Martin Luther King Drive, two shooters entered the JC Kosher Supermarket, killing three people during a gun battle with police and shaking this African American neighborhood with a growing Chasidic community. (The shooters had killed a police officer before taking a van to the market.)

On Monday, the feeling could not have been more different, black and Jewish volunteers working together on a charity drive on the second night of Chanukah and two days before Christmas. The food and presents were delivered to hundreds of local families in need.

“We’ve been in communication since the tragedy on Dec. 10 trying to find ways to work

together as a community,” said Pam Johnson, a drive organizer and the leader of the Jersey City Anti-Violence Coalition Movement. “We wanted to make sure that we sent a clear message of solidarity, that we are all in this together.”

The drive was born of an informal meeting Thursday, Dec. 19, between Jewish community leaders and local officials. By Monday, with the help of Masbia, a network of Brooklyn soup kitchens, a handful of kosher food vendors, Jewish-owned toy companies and a nonprofit came together to rustle up supplies.

“A lot of nice words are being spoken, and, yeah — unity, unity — but we wanted to find a way to really show the community that from now on, unity means more than words,” said Benny Polatseck, who volunteered at the event. “There needs to be more awareness in the Orthodox community that we live together in the community. We have to acknowledge and see one another.”

Some 40 cases of soup mix, 12 cases of chocolate, 20 cases of hummus, 60 cases of turkey slices and 30 cases of pudding arrived on pallets, much of it from Kayco, a kosher food company. Yoni’s Pretzel Challah, in Please see Charity, page 10

p Rabbi Moshe Schapiro shows a toy to a child during the charity drive in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Photo courtesy of Benny Polatseck via JTA.org

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Headlines Charity: Continued from page 9

the nearby town of Saddle Brook, delivered some 300 loaves each of challah and ciabatta.

The Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty supplied stacks of baking kits with oil, flour, baking soda and other staples. Toys4You brought dolls, building sets and ball games.

On Monday, families lined up around the block to receive the goods. Johnson estimates that 250 families benefited from the drive. A team of 10 volunteers from across the community was there to set up, staying past 8 p.m.

“It felt amazing — it’s more than amazing,” said Chesky Deutsch, who has lived in Greenville for two years and was an organizer of the drive. “We moved into this community, and I see these people every day, and I see some of them are really desperate, really, really in need, and I really feel for them, so it felt amazing to actually do something.”

Deutsch and Johnson both said that Greenville’s black and Jewish residents share common priorities: keeping their kids safe and the neighborhood affordable. They plan to meet in the coming days to see how they can continue collaborating. Other neighborhoods in and around New York City with African American and Jewish residents have seen interethnic tensions in the past, something Deutsch says has been largely absent in Greenville.

“Is it working together on public policy?”

Deutsch said. “Is it working together to

p Rabbi Moshe Schapiro, left, Chesky Deutsch and Pam Johnson talk during the charity drive in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Photo courtesy of Benny Polatseck via JTA.org

have continuous ways to actually materially support the community? We have to figure that out. The intention from both sides is that we only see good and positive stuff coming out from working together.”

“Greenville, Jersey City, should be the example of how a community (is) not only coexisting but literally living door by door

in harmony,” he added.

Johnson said there are no particular tensions between blacks and Jews in Jersey City; the black community’s concern about gentrification isn’t specifically directed at Jews. She hopes that the charity drive will lead Greenville’s residents to collaborate on a shared agenda that transcends

ethnic background.

“Events like yesterday (are) something that shows a clear unity in our community as far as it pertains to everyone feeling like they’re being thought about and their cries are being heard,” Johnson said. “If we’re united as a community, we can demand and force our elected officials to create policy.” PJC

This week in Israeli history Jan. 6, 1942 — Toledano installed as chief rabbi

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

Jan. 3, 1919 — Faisal-Weizmann agreement signed

\

Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann and Emir Faisal, son of Sharif Husayn of Mecca, sign an agreement pledging mutual respect and cooperation between Arabs and Jews in the Middle East. The League of Nations’ creation of British and French mandates blocks the accord.

Jan. 4, 1935 — Mosul-Haifa pipeline opens

JSS is accepting scholarship applications! Apply today if you are a Jewish high school senior or student enrolled in an undergraduate, graduate or technical school with financial need with residency in Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Washington or Westmoreland county.

Apply by February 12, 2020: jfcspgh.org/jss

10 JANUARY 3, 2020

A pipeline spanning 590 miles from Kirkuk, Iraq, to Haifa begins carrying oil from the Mosul fields to the Mediterranean Sea. The pipeline remains in operation until Israel’s independence in 1948.

Jan. 5, 1930 — Mapai Party founded

Two socialist-leaning political movements, David Ben-Gurion’s Ahdut Ha’avodah (Labor Unity) and Joseph Sprinzak’s Hapoel Hatzair (Young Wo r k e r Party), merge into Mapai, which dominates politics in Israel’s early decades.

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Rabbi Jacob Moshe Toledano, a native of Tiberias and the chief rabbi of Alexandria, Egypt, returns to the Land of Israel to assume the post of the Sephardi chief rabbi of Tel Aviv and Jaffa.

Jan. 7, 2010 — Early Hebrew inscription deciphered

University of Haifa professor Gershon Galil announces that he has deciphered the earliest-known Hebrew writing, an inscription found at Khirbet Qeiyafa in 2008 on a pottery shard from the 10th century B.C.E.

Jan. 8, 1978 — Rose Halprin dies

Rose Luria Halprin, a two-time national president of Hadassah who held numerous leadership positions in the Jewish Agency during the British Mandate, dies in New York at age 83.

Jan. 9, 1873 — Hayim Bialik born

Hayim Nahman Bialik, Israel’s national poet, is born in Radi in northwestern Ukraine.

After going to Kishinev to cover the aftermath of the 1903 pogrom, he writes the poem “In the City of Slaughter.” He makes aliyah in 1924. PJC PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Headlines — WORLD — From JTA reports

New York City to launch three initiatives to combat anti-Semitism

New York City will launch three initiatives aimed at combating anti-Semitic hate crimes.

Mayor Bill de Blasio made the announcement at a dramatic news conference Dec. 29 at the central branch of the Brooklyn Public Library following weeks of anti-Semitic assaults and vandalism that have plagued the city and state.

“I don’t want people to forget that we’ve confronted hatred in this city before, we’ve confronted division,” de Blasio said. ”We have done it before, and we will do it again.”

On Saturday night, an assailant broke into the Monsey, New York, home of Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg and used a long machete to stab guests gathered for a Chanukah celebration. Five people were injured in the attack, which authorities have deemed a hate crime, and two remain hospitalized.

Three weeks earlier, two gunmen opened fire at a kosher supermarket in Jersey City, New Jersey, killing three people. The man and woman had killed a police officer prior to coming to the market, where they were shot dead in a lengthy gun battle with police.

First, the New York Police Department will increase its presence in Jewish neighborhoods, such as Borough Park, Crown Heights and Williamsburg, all in Brooklyn.

The city will add lighting and security cameras to better protect Jews in those neighborhoods, which have been the major targets of the recent spate of attacks.

Second, the mayor will create Neighborhood Safety Coalitions to serve as watchdogs to help the NYPD in its efforts to stop anti-Semitic attacks before they happen. The coalitions will be comprised of New Yorkers from diverse backgrounds.

The third initiative will address anti-Semitic hatred with schoolchildren.

“We have to reach our young people more effectively,” de Blasio said. “Our young people have to understand this history, but we have to teach it to them. We will be adding immediately in these communities in Brooklyn additional curriculum in our schools starting next month to focus on stopping hate.”

Before the mayor’s remarks, Rabbi Bronwen Mullin of Congregation B’nai Jacob in Jersey City told the Jewish Telegraphic

Agency that some members of the local black and Jewish communities have already joined together to address the hate crimes.

She said that rising economic tensions caused in part by gentrification is affecting both communities and could be contributing to interethnic tensions.

“I can’t draw a direct line like that,” she said, “but there is a lot of anger about systematic injustice.”

After the attacks, Mullin put out a call to black activists to build coalitions and end gun violence.

“We had a joint Chanukah and Kwanzaa candle lighting,” she said. “Everyone wants to do real work to address these issues.”

A theme of the news conference was the diversity of the group that had been assembled behind the speakers, which included Police Commissioner Dermott Shea, New York state Attorney General Letitia James, U.S. Reps. Hakeem Jeffries and Yvette Clarke, City Comptroller Scott Stringer and Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.

Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, the executive vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis, opened the news conference.

“Christmas has ended,” he said. “Chanukah will end tomorrow night. New Year’s, on the secular calendar, will begin the next day. We should be celebrating this week, celebrating life and not an attack on life.”

Suspect in Monsey Chanukah attack had journals with references to Hitler

Prosecutors filed federal hate crimes charges against the man who allegedly attacked several individuals with a machete during a Chanukah celebration at a Chasidic rabbi’s home in Monsey, New York.

“Officials said they had recovered handwritten journals expressing anti-Semitic views, including references to Adolf Hitler and ‘Nazi culture,’ and drawings of a Star of David and a swastika, according to the complaint” against 37-year-old Grafton Thomas, The New York Times reported.

Thomas’ phone revealed he had recently searched online for phrases like “Why did Hitler hate the Jews,” “German Jewish Temples near me” and “Zionist Temples” in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and on Staten Island.

The attack in Monsey left five people injured; one remains in critical condition.

Thomas was arrested that night in Harlem after fleeing the party by car.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan filed the charges.

Al Sharpton gathers black leaders for meeting with NY rabbi in wake of Monsey attack

A group of African American clergy and civil rights leaders gathered by the Rev. Al Sharpton met with a New York rabbi in the wake of the attack on Jews in Monsey.

The African American leaders met Dec. 30 with Rabbi Marc Schneier, president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, to condemn the spate of attacks on Jews in New York in recent weeks.

“I am terribly disturbed by the recent anti-Semitic attacks on Jews, and particularly because they were perpetrated by members of the African American community,” Sharpton said at a news conference following the meeting. “Rabbi Schneier and I have worked together for many years to bring our respective communities closer together. Today, we must work together to start to repair the damage and terrible pain these acts have caused.

“We in the African American community know all too well how abhorrent hatred, based on physical appearance or religious observance, is. We cannot now be a part of something that members of our community are doing to other people.”

Schneier said he discussed with the leaders “concrete ways the Jewish and African American communities can come together to promote our common interests and stem the differences that lead to such violent acts of hatred.” He added that Sharpton’s leadership “will help us repair the damage these acts of domestic terrorism have caused our two communities.”

Sharpton is founder of the National Action Network, a civil rights organization with chapters throughout the United States.

In May, the civil rights activist and MSNBC host acknowledged at a Reform Judaism gathering his role in stoking division, recounting how the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s widow reprimanded him for his “cheap” rhetoric. Sharpton reportedly has expressed regrets privately to Jewish leaders for the incendiary rhetoric that helped fuel the Crown Heights riots in 1991 in which a yeshiva student was killed by black protesters.

The demonstrations were sparked by the accidental killing of a black child in Brooklyn by a car driven by a member of the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s entourage.

Guardian Angels to patrol Jewish neighborhoods

The Guardian Angels said it would start patrolling in Brooklyn after an increase in anti-Semitic attacks in the area.

The group’s founder, Curtis Sliwa, told NBC News that the patrols would be in Crown Heights, Williamsburg and Borough Park.

The Guardian Angels is a private, unarmed crime-prevention group.

The announcement came in the wake of at least eight attacks on Jews in Brooklyn since Dec. 13, and hours before the attack at a Chasidic rabbi’s home in Monsey, New York.

Sliwa said local leaders of the LubavitchChabad movement asked for his group’s help. He said that he believes the Guardian Angels patrols will stop the attacks.

“We’re a visual deterrence in our red berets and our red satin jackets,” he said.

“Nobody’s going to commit an attack when we’re around.”

Employee of London Jewish group assaulted near home

A senior employee of a Jewish organization in London was injured in an assault that police said was a hate crime.

Police in London arrested a man in connection with the assault on Melvyn Hartog, the head of burials for the United Synagogue, the United Kingdom’s union of Orthodox Jewish synagogues.

The suspect, whom the (London) Jewish Chronicle identified only as a 33-year-old man from east London, is suspected of committing a “racially or religiously aggravated assault causing actual bodily harm,” the paper reported.

Hartog was struck in the back of his head and kicked. He needed stitches for a wound across the back of his head.

The suspect was released on bail.

Man threatens shoppers at kosher butcher in London

A man walked into a kosher butcher shop in the London neighborhood of Stamford Hill and shouted invective against Jews.

The incident took place in Royal Meats, the British anti-Semitism watchdog group Campaign Against Anti-Semitism reported.

The man walked into the store and demanded food, which he apparently expected to receive for free. In response to being asked what he would like to purchase, he responded by allegedly shouting “You f***ing Jews, I am German, you f***ing Jews are bad people.” He then pointed his fingers at shoppers in a gesture that looked like a gun firing, according to the report.

He then left the store and boarded a public bus. A report was filed with police. PJC

Security grant applications available for nonprofits

A

pplications will be available this month for security grants from the commonwealth for nonprofit communal facilities such as synagogues, JCCs and senior centers, according to the Pennsylvania Jewish Coalition. The grants will be made pursuant to Act 83 of 2019.

Act 83 authorizes $5 million to be awarded to organizations throughout Pennsylvania by June 30. The Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency will administer the allocations. The application process will be disclosed on the PCCD website at pccd.pa.gov.

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Each individual nonprofit community or communal facility has options for applying for grants.

For example, grants up to $25,000 ($5,000 minimum) will be made outright, without matching funds, while grants above that threshold, up to $75,000, will require a 33% match. Grants above the $75,000 threshold, up to $150,000, will require a 50% match.

Applications will be reviewed on a firstcome, first-served basis.

Security enhancements can include safety and security planning; buying safety and

security equipment; and buying security-related technology. The latter may include, but is not limited to metal detectors; protective lighting; surveillance equipment; emergency communications equipment; electronic locksets; deadbolts; trauma kits; theft control devices; safety and security training; threat awareness and response training; upgrades to existing structures that enhance safety and security; vulnerability and threat assessments; specialty-trained canines; and any other safety or security-related project that enhances safety or security of the nonprofit organization.

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

The PJC recommends that any nonprofit organization interested in obtaining a grant prepare in advance for the application process. While not required, such organizations may want to contact the state police for a free security assessment.

The shooting at the Tree of Life building in 2018 was a catalyst for speeding passage of the bill that became Act 83, with the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Community Relations Council instrumental in the process.

—Toby Tabachnick JANUARY 3, 2020 11

Opinion Security must be the priority — EDITORIAL —

O

n the morning of the seventh day of Chanukah, American Jews awoke to news of yet another violent anti-Semitic attack — the heinous intrusion of a machete-wielding man into the private home of a rabbi in Monsey, New York.

The invader attacked and seriously injured five people celebrating Chanukah in the home of Chasidic Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg, then tried to force his way into a nearby synagogue but was unable to enter. Fortunately, an eyewitness recorded the license plate number on the perpetrator’s escape vehicle, and he was apprehended shortly thereafter in Harlem, covered in blood, according to news reports.

He was charged with five counts of attempted murder and one count of burglary.

This brutal anti-Semitic attack — particularly chilling because it was committed in a private home — comes on the heels of 12 others in the state of New York in the last three weeks, and is the second stabbing of a Jew in Monsey since Nov. 20. Since Dec. 13, there have been eight reported assaults

on Jews in Brooklyn, including victims being struck on the face and head. In Jersey City, a kosher grocery was the site of an anti-Semitic shooting that left three innocent people dead and another three wounded on Dec. 10.

In addition to the recent spate of violent attacks in New York state, anti-Semitic acts have been rampant elsewhere throughout the United States and Europe. Synagogues and other Jewish institutions continue to be defaced almost daily with swastikas while tombstones in Jewish cemeteries are regularly toppled or destroyed. On Dec. 22, at a large Persian synagogue in Beverly Hills, a man broke in and vandalized Torah scrolls and shredded siddurs. And on Dec. 27, a man entered the Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters located at 770 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn and threatened to shoot up the place, although no injuries were reported.

Of course, our community acutely shares the pain of our fellow Jews in New York and elsewhere when they are violently targeted just for being Jews. Barely 14 months since three Pittsburgh congregations were targeted inside the Tree of Life building, our hearts break with each new report of another anti-Semite aiming to injure or murder us

because of how we look or how we pray — or because of some age-old, or new, conspiracy theory that seeks to place the blame of the world’s woes on us.

It has become obvious that the hate that is festering against Jews cannot be attributed solely to white supremacists — although they are certainly responsible for much of it — as some of the perpetrators in New York and elsewhere have been people of color, including the suspect in Monsey.

And it also has become clear that anti-Semitic violence cannot be stopped just through stricter gun legislation — although that could certainly help — because not all the attacks have been committed with guns, including the attack in Monsey.

There is something more complicated going on here, and until we figure out how to stop it, our communities must do all they can to protect themselves. Long gone are the days when any Jew can reasonably believe “it can’t happen here.”

It is “heart-wrenching to see the holiday of Hanukkah violated yet again” following last week’s “hateful assaults,” tweeted ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt. “We are outraged because the answer is clear: the Jewish

community NEEDS greater protection…

Whether worshiping in synagogue, shopping in the supermarket or celebrating at home, Jews should be safe from violence.”

This month, nonprofit communal facilities such as synagogues, Jewish Community Centers and senior centers may begin applying for state-funded security grants pursuant to Act 83 of 2019, which authorizes $5 million to be awarded to organizations throughout Pennsylvania by June 30.

The grants, for which applications can be accessed at pccd.pa.gov, can be used for security enhancements, including metal detectors, protective lighting, electronic locks and trauma kits. Organizations are encouraged by the Pennsylvania Jewish Coalition to contact the state police for a free security assessment to help prepare for the grant application process.

With anti-Semitic attacks happening in Jewish institutions, on the street, and now in a private home, we urge everyone to take whatever steps they can to ensure their own safety. Now, there is state funding available to harden our facilities. We urge our communal leaders to take advantage of that funding. PJC

in size with each cycle — is a Jewish success story. Agudath Israel of America, a haredi Orthodox organization, has taken this on as one of its premier projects, and has helped move the daf yomi effort and the daily study of Talmud by tens of thousands of Jews into the mainstream.

Talmud study is traditionally done by two study partners. While this chavruta approach continues, class study has also spread, with multiple daf yomi classes taught daily in many cities and offered through online podcasts. Social media, with its ability to reach almost everyone almost everywhere, and the readily accessible translations of the Talmud text that is available to all, are unifying tools that Rabbi Shapiro could never have imagined.

Another welcome advancement is the

growing number of women who have taken up serious and consistent Talmud study, something that was discouraged throughout most of Jewish history. A global Siyum HaShas for Women, organized by Hadran, is expected to draw more than 3,000 women to Jerusalem’s Binyanei Ha’Uma on Jan. 5.

Recently, at a Jewish communal event, someone said she almost felt like asking “Why be Jewish?” after hearing so much bad news about the spread of anti-Semitism.

Jewish study provides an answer. And the Siyum HaShas celebration of the completion of the seven-and-a-half-year Talmud cycle offers another. We applaud that impressive achievement and the success and satisfaction such an accomplishment brings.

A new cycle begins this week. It’s never too late to join. PJC

On the same page

J

— EDITORIAL —

ews often observe that “our” New Year comes in the fall, not on Jan. 1. But Jan. 1, 2020, became a very special day of Jewish celebration — not of the Earth’s annual trip around the sun, but of something that goes to the core of Jewish culture and identity. At MetLife Stadium in New Jersey and Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, some 100,000 Jews gathered to celebrate the completion of the seven-and-a-half-year cycle of studying a page of Talmud a day, with many more watching simulcasts of the proceedings and otherwise engaged in their own celebrations here and around the world.

For centuries, Talmud study was the glue that held widely dispersed Jewish

communities together, as they explored the intricacies of Jewish law and scholarship through careful review of the intricate and sometimes obscure texts and teachings of those who perfected the study of oral Jewish law. In 1923, Rabbi Meir Shapiro, a Polish Chasidic rabbi, began a program with the goal of having Jews around the world studying the same page of Talmud each day — daf yomi, or daily page. The celebration this week of the completion of the study of the six “orders” of the Talmud, or Siyum HaShas, is the 13th cycle since Shapiro’s time.

The growth of this program and its focus on uniting Jews through daily study — at every conceivable level and involvement — is noteworthy. And the statistics are impressive: The mounting number of active participants — more than doubling

My Chasidic community taught me to avoid non-Jews, but I decided to live differently. What if they were right?

Guest Columnist Eli Reiter

W

hile a shooter was firing rounds of ammunition into two Jews in Jersey City, New Jersey, a kosher market worker and a police officer simply for who they are and where they were, I was halfway around the world, in Paris. More specifically, I was hurrying past a Parisian cafe where I was made to feel humiliated for 12 JANUARY 3, 2020

p Chasidic Jews visits the Kazimierz district of Krakow, Poland in March 2019.

Photo by Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images/JTA

being visibly Jewish exactly a year prior.

The attack felt more personal to me, a proud Brooklyn Jew. The Jewish community in Jersey City is comprised largely of Chasidic Brooklyn Jews who can’t afford living across the bridge. An anti-Semite went after my home community, the largest Jewish population in the world outside of Israel.

When I travel, I always wear a yarmulke.

I refuse to hide my Jewishness — the argument that assimilation will offer Jews safety fails when I consider the yellow stars that assimilated, cultured German Jews were forced to wear as their

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

community was systematically murdered. So I wear my kippah when I travel as a proud banner to counter the cheer that “Jews will not replace us.”

I was taught in yeshiva that Jews merited being saved from slavery in ancient Egypt because they didn’t change their names, their language or their clothing. Their refusal to assimilate was their ticket out.

In Brooklyn, I heard the message that sticking to my tight-knit Jewish community was the clearest path to safety — that the best way to save myself from anti-Semitism was Please see Reiter, page 13

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Opinion Will Bernie Sanders become the first Jewish president?

Guest Columnist Jonathan Tobin

W

e’re still more than a month away from the first actual votes being cast in the Democratic presidential race. But an analysis piece published on the influential Politico website last week reminded observers of a possibility that many are ignoring: Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders could win and ultimately become the nation’s first Jewish president.

While generations of American Jews have dreamed of a day when one of their own won the White House, a Sanders presidency would actually not be good for Israel and Jewish interests.

The Politico article reported that Sanders’ resiliency has impressed Democratic insiders. Despite suffering a heart attack in October — something that reminded voters that he is 78 — Sanders has remained in the top tier of contenders.

While acknowledging that he has won both the affection and loyalty of much of the party’s left-wing base, not least for his strong showing while opposing Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination in 2016, a lot of pundits disparage his chances.

They say that despite the party’s clear tilt to the left since the victory of President Donald Trump, Sanders is too radical and would easily be beaten in November.

Reiter: Continued from page 12

to simply avoid interacting with non-Jews.

I’m working on unlearning this narrative.

I proudly travel while Jewish, across nearly 30 countries so far. But recent events have made me question my own conclusions about my place in the world.

Last year, after a red-eye from New York on the last day of Chanukah, I arrived in Paris’ city center with enough time to take part in a Parisian ritual, at least according to the movies — sip an espresso on a table with a checkered tablecloth. I found the perfect cafe and ordered espresso in the little French I memorized on the plane. I sat in the booth and took off my beanie, revealing a yarmulke.

I tried to get comfortable as I took in the scene — the pretty bar, the checkered pattern and the non-kosher food I could only enjoy with my eyes. And the waiters, who were all wearing uniforms. One was heading my way. He didn’t look happy. He was yelling in French. His body language told me he didn’t want me there. I surmised that to him, I was poison. Humiliated, I paid the 2 euros for my coffee, downed it and headed out into the cold.

The event challenged my place in the world. The liberal beliefs I held close, that the Holocaust is now behind us and that Jews are welcomed in Western society, didn’t hold up in light of this experience.

I was caught between the idea that Jews PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Yet Sanders has not faded the way some other candidates who were once highly touted have done in the past year.

He is currently in second place in the RealClearPolitics average of national polls, trailing only former Vice President Joe Biden. He is a threat to win three out of the first four early voting states, with the average of polls showing him leading in New Hampshire, a close second in Iowa and in contention in Nevada. That means that although Biden remains the frontrunner, it would be foolish to assume that Sanders can’t be the Democratic nominee.

Though his extreme positions horrify moderates, Sanders is utterly authentic and, despite his long tenure in Congress, can’t be accused of being part of the establishment, as can be said of Biden. Indeed, being a socialist outlier makes him seem more genuine to voters who are tired of conventional politicians, the same factor that helped elect Trump.

Moreover, his radicalism has won him both affection and loyalty from those in the Democratic base who think that choosing the candidate conventional wisdom deems more electable will be just as much of a disaster for their party in 2020 with Biden as it was when Hillary Clinton was the nominee.

Sanders’ irascible demeanor also endears him to primary voters, much as it did when unelected superdelegates and party rules that favored Clinton were needed to beat him in 2016. On top of that, the Democrats’ proportional voting rules that eliminate winner-take-all outcomes

should never integrate because assimilation will be our downfall and the idea that best way to combat anti-Semitism is to be even more public with my Jewishness — caught between the push to assimilate and the need to stick to my guns as a Jew and wear my Jewishness more proudly.

But that was only in France, where earlier this month another Jewish cemetery was filled with graffiti swastikas. Not in the United States, where I was safe. This was in Europe. It wasn’t like this in America.

This juggling act came to mind when I accidentally passed the cafe after making a wrong turn on the day of the New Jersey shooting, exactly a year later. I remembered the awning and the layout, including the wicker chairs outside under the electric heaters. I hurried past it.

As I traveled to the airport, I read more about the shooting and how it is being investigated as an act of domestic terrorism with anti-Semitic and anti-police intent.

I am now back in New York, my former city of safety. But today it feels more like being in Europe as a Jew, with or without a kippah. France was where I realized that I could stay safe in my tristate shtetl, but Jersey City taught me that staying here will never offer complete security. My hopefulness in my place in the world is waning. PJC Eli Reiter is a New York based educator, storyteller and writer. This article first appeared at JTA.org.

will ensure that Bernie remains a factor even if he loses the early states.

His capturing the Democratic Party in 2020 might still be less likely than the scenarios predicting a win for Biden, or a turn of events that would allow Buttigieg or even a second-tier contender to catch fire and win the nomination. But the Politico analysis does require an evaluation of what a Sanders’ nomination or presidency (despite the GOP’s open rooting for Sanders to be their opponent, matchup polls with Trump predict such a race would be a toss-up) would mean for Jewish interests and Israel.

Though he is Jewish and has repeatedly said that he supports Israel’s existence, there is also no doubt that Sanders is the Democratic contender who is the most critical of Israeli policy and the most sympathetic to the Palestinians. Though other Democrats may agree with his scorn for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, most of them would hesitate to hurl epithets like “racist” at him, as Sanders has done.

Every one of the other Democratic candidates would reinstate the dangerous 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and likely revert to President Barack Obama’s policy of seeking more “daylight” between America and Israel. But Sanders goes further by seeking to also create a “proPalestinian” foreign policy. In the past, that has led him to call for the end of the blockade of Hamas-run Gaza, as well as issuing scathing and fallacious critiques of Israel’s efforts to defend its border and people against attacks from a coastal enclave governed by terrorists.

While this wouldn’t advance a two-state solution that both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority have no interest in, it would bring U.S.-Israel relations to a historic low point, while emboldening the Jewish state’s foes to a point where they might consider war a reasonable option.

On the domestic front, Sanders would not merely end Trump’s policy seeking to enforce laws against anti-Semitic activity on college campuses. His active opposition to anti-BDS laws and his close ties with advocates of this variant of Jew-hatred could potentially unleash a wave of anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic activity throughout the country.

That reminds us that Sanders has the support of most of the nation’s most notorious left-wing anti-Semites, such as Reps.

Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), as well as fellow BDS advocate Linda Sarsour. His refusal to repudiate these figures sets an ominous precedent that would come into play when it comes to staffing an administration, which can be expected to be populated by fellow radicals hostile to Israel and indifferent at best to anti-Semitism.

More to the point, the person who would be responsible for this catastrophe would be insulated from criticism simply by the fact that Sanders and his apologists would claim that as a Jew, he could not be termed hostile to his own people. Seen from that perspective, such a Jewish president might be the worst thing yet to befall American Jewry. PJC Jonathan S. Tobin is editor in chief of JNS, where this article first appeared.

— LETTERS — Clarifying JFCS Squirrel Hill Food Pantry servies

David Rullo’s recent article “Hebrew Free Loan Association adds free financial coaching to services offered” (Dec. 27) included the statement “While the Squirrel Hills Food Pantry provides aid based on income requirements, the (HFL) new service is available to anyone, regardless of income or religious affiliation.” I write to clarify the services available at the JFCS Squirrel Hill Food Pantry.

Our pantry provides multiple social services which include food assistance and critical needs support. The food pantry provides one-time emergency food packages regardless of income/circumstance or address. Ongoing food assistance is available to qualified residents of the 15217 zip code, and those who keep kosher regardless of address in our Greater Pittsburgh region. Critical Services provides social work support, guidance and resource coordination with no income eligibility requirements.

Anyone having trouble with SNAP or Medicare/Medicaid benefits, or unsure of what resources are available are welcome at the JFCS Squirrel Hill Food Pantry. Our doors are open five to six days per week and we are here to serve the entire community. The pantry’s Critical Needs Hotline is 412-742-4215 or critical@jfcspgh.org. I can also be contacted directly at 412-742-4219 or mbolton@jfspgh.org.

Matthew Bolton, director, JFCS Squirrel Hill Food Pantry

We invite you to submit letters for publication. Letters must include name, address and daytime phone number; addresses and phone numbers will not be published. Letters may not exceed 500 words and may be edited for length and clarity; they cannot be returned.

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JANUARY 3, 2020 13

Headlines Stories:

Community responds to familiar story Continued from page 1

p The Jewish Federation moved into its new home in Oakland in January.

Photo by Adam Reinherz

natural light, movable furniture, multiple meeting spaces and parking spaces, Federation’s new home represents another chapter in an organization whose history dates back to 1912.

FEBRUARY

Temple Emanuel of South Hills announces new rabbi Temple Emanuel of South Hills announced the hiring of Rabbi Aaron Meyer, an Erie native, as the congregation’s next senior rabbi. Meyer, whose start date was July 1, succeeded Rabbi Aaron Meyer

Photo provided Mark Joel Mahler, who

by Temple retired in 2018 after 38 Emanuel of South Hills years as the senior spiritual leader of Temple Emanuel. Rabbinical transitions continued, as months later Rabbi Cheryl Klein stepped down from serving Congregation Dor Hadash as lay cantor, and Rabbi Leonard Sarko assumed the pulpit at Congregation Emanu-El Israel (CEI) in Greensburg.

MARCH, APRIL & MAY

Independent committee releases report allocating $6.3 million

p Meryl Ainsman and David Shapira explain the allocation of the Victims of Terror Fund.

Photo by Toby Tabachnick

An independent volunteer committee, charged with allocating money donated to the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Victims of Terror Fund, released a report explaining the distribution of nearly $6.3 million collected. The report noted recipients included victims’ families, survivors, officers and congregations, but stated: “No amount of money can compensate for the loss of a loved one’s life; no amount of money can fully compensate for a life that has been violently knocked off course and suddenly filled with unanticipated and daunting obstacles; and no amount of money can ever completely heal our hearts or our communities.”

14 JANUARY 3, 2020

p Andrea Wedner, left, and Michele Rosenthal light a candle in memory of Poway murder victim Lori Gilbert-Kaye during an April 29 vigil at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh’s Katz Theater.

Photo by Joshua Franzos

In the closing weeks of April, community members gathered to mark the killing of Lori Gilbert-Kaye of Poway, California, and the murder of more than 250 people who died during a series of terrorist bombings in Sri Lanka. Gilbert-Kaye’s murder inside the seemingly safe space of a synagogue occured exactly six months after the attack at the Tree of Life building.

During a public vigil at the Jewish

p Dr. Sidney Busis poses with his family in the mid-1960s. Photo courtesy of the Busis family

p Ninth-grade girls learn how to use coding software.

countless committees at the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.

Milton Fine, a hotel magnate whose passion for the arts and Judaism enhanced the lives of Pittsburgh residents, died at 92. In 2007, Fine and his wife Sheila Reicher established the Fine Foundation, Milton Fine Photo courtesy of which supports projJewish Healthcare ects in arts and culture, Foundation Jewish life, science and medicine, primarily in the Pittsburgh region. To date, the Fine Foundation has provided more than $35 million in grants to more than 350 nonprofits.

girls’ school and the preschool. It goes from 6 weeks old all the way through high school,” said Rabbi Yisroel Rosenfeld.

Residents offer insights and issue call at national convention

p Many Pittsburgh faith leaders gathered at a vigil for Sri Lanka held at the Heinz Memorial Chapel in Oakland.

Photo by Jim Busis

Mourning communal stalwarts Sidney Busis, an accomplished otolaryngologist, died at 97. Busis served as president or chairman of organizations including Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh and Jewish Family and Community Services, oversaw the establishment of the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh and was a board member of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Busis’ wife, Sylvia, died at 94 nearly two months later. Sylvia Busis served as president of the Hillel Jewish University Center and chair of the University of Pittsburgh Israel Heritage Room Committee and worked with

p Stones were placed on each seat before a Pittsburgh panel at a Jewish cemetary conference.

Photo courtesy of Alisa Fall

Following the events of Oct. 27, 2018, representatives from Pittsburgh’s Jewish burial societies performed unimaginable tasks, which they talked about after traveling to Colorado for the 17th Annual North American Chevrah Kadisha and Jewish Cemetery Conference.

Participating in the conference was a chance to prepare others, said Malke Frank, co-founder of the New Community Chevra Kadisha of Greater Pittsburgh: “We were suggesting they go back to their synagogue and talk with their caring committee or rabbi or chevra members and work through a plan to deal with the issue should it ever happen, to discuss within a congregational framework death and traditional Jewish practices and to forge relationships with other Jewish communal organizations, like we did, so people already have a tradition of working together.”

JULY

Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh celebrates 75 years Seventy-five years ago the Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh began a venture rarely seen outside of New York City. In 1943, after Rabbi Sholom Posner moved to Pittsburgh, he opened the city’s first Jewish day school.

Since then, the school has educated thousands. Current enrollment is approximately 450 students. “We have the boys’ school, the

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

AUGUST

Tisha B’Av in Pittsburgh marked by demonstration and mourning A group of about 100 people marked

p Protestors gathered for a Tisha B’Av program.

Photo courtesy of Rabbi Mark Asher Goodman

JUNE

Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh President and CEO Jeffrey Finkelstein reiterated remarks made a half-year earlier at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum, and said, “Unfortunately, they still resonate today. I’m sick and tired and frustrated and angry that I have to use them again.”

During a public vigil for those killed in Sri Lanka, nearly 200 community members traveled to Heinz Memorial Chapel in Oakland to observe Pittsburgh’s faith leaders offer ancestral prayers, lay a wreath and engage in collective song.

Prior to marking the attacks in California and Sri Lanka, members of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community supported the Muslim community in Christchurch, New Zealand, after a series of attacks on two mosques left 51 people dead. Months after the murders, the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh sent more than $650,000 to Christchurch.

Photo provided by Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh

the traditional day of mourning outside Pittsburgh’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office, on the South Side, trying to call attention to the mistreatment of migrants and refugees. Rabbis Jeremy Markiz and Mark Asher Goodman organized the public program, which included reflections, readings, songs and a shofar blast.

Throughout the year, members of the Pittsburgh Jewish community took to the streets to voice displeasure. In May, nearly 350 people marched against gun violence from Temple Sinai to Schenley Park. Five months later, 14 Jewish activists from Bend the Arc were arrested after protesting a visit to the Steel City by President Donald J. Trump.

SEPTEMBER

Student artwork boosts Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha exterior A public art project jointly sponsored

p Laurie Zittrain Eisenberg, Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, Stephen Cohen and Ellen Surloff stand next to windscreens with printed art.

Photo by David Rullo

by Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Congregation, Congregation Dor Hadash and New Light Congregation welcomed more than 200 entries from students 18 and younger. There were 101 pieces that were ultimately chosen for printing on the decorative windscreens, which replaced a collection of tarps on the chain-link fence in front of the building.

The sidewalk gallery was a testament to support received, said Tree of Life board Please see Stories, page 15

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Headlines Stories: Continued from page 14

member Laurie Zittrain Eisenberg: “In the aftermath of the attack, our neighbors, our city, people were so loving and so kind, they rushed to our side and supported us. We received so much art – sculptures and paintings and sketches, quilts and knittings – it was impressive how many people turned to art to express their feelings to us.”

OCTOBER

Resiliency center opens at Squirrel Hill Jewish Community Center The 10.27 Healing Partnership, a newly created Pittsburgh Resiliency Center, opened to the community.

Maggie Feinstein, director of the center, described it as “a safety net, that is supposed to be able to provide services and activities that are not already provided Maggie Feinstein

Photo courtesy of in the community Maggie Feinstein and make sure we are

Parade: Continued from page 1

Performing Arts, praised the musical, saying its message was timely.

“This particular piece speaks to our society now in an important way,” Breese told the Chronicle. “Injustice is at the center of it and we have to look at what we consider just and unjust and how we treat people. These things are really on the surface of society right now.”

But some Point Park students viewed “Parade” differently, and in recent weeks argued that there are too few minority roles in the show. They also took issue with the show’s conclusion that implies that Jim Conley, a black janitor and Frank’s main accuser, was the actual perpetrator of the crimes, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

There is historical evidence, however, that Conley was guilty of the assault and murder of Phagan. Among that evidence was the sworn statement of Alonzo Mann, who worked at the factory as a teenager. In 1982, Mann told The New York Times that he saw Conley carrying Phagan’s corpse to the basement where she eventually was found.

Conley threatened to kill Mann if he ever revealed the truth, Mann told The Times.

Point Park students also protested “Parade” because of its difficult imagery — including Confederate flags, KKK hoods and a lynching — pointing to “their lack of faith in both the conservatory and the university’s ability to properly ensure the well-being of students participating in the production,” according to The Globe, the university’s student newspaper.

“Students were also concerned that this year would not be the correct time to put on the production, due to concerns of injustices faced by minorities both within the university and the city of Pittsburgh,” The Globe reported.

“Pippin” will be produced in place of “Parade.”

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

able to attend to the needs of people in the aftermath” of the attack at the Tree of Life building. The Squirrel Hill-based center is located at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh and is free to anyone in need of its services.

Oct. 27, 2019, dedicated to volunteering, Torah study and gathering Thousands marked the one-year c om m e m or at i on of the attack at the Tree of Life building by volunteering, studying Torah and attending a public program at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum in Oakland. Throughout the day, the words “remember,” “repair” and “together” were used as a tagline for the numerous events, including dedicated reflection and Torah study at Rodef Shalom Congregation in Shadyside, delivering cookies to first responders, serving lunch to those in need and cleaning nearby cemeteries. The public memorial in Oakland, organized by the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, served as a capstone to the day’s events.

“Over the past three weeks, leaders of the Pittsburgh Playhouse at Point Park University and the Conservatory of Performing Arts have held wide-ranging, honest discussions with students, faculty and staff regarding issues of diversity, inclusion and equity,” said Paul Hennigan, president of Point Park, in a prepared statement. “As we continue our dialogue and work together to enhance the culture at Point Park in a way that will lead to a more inclusive community, we have made the decision to postpone indefinitely our production of the show Parade, which was scheduled for April. Through my involvement in these discussions with the Point Park community, it is clear to me that our priority as a University must be our students, and we cannot allow a production to move forward that could overshadow our educational and developmental mission. We also would not be serving the best interests of our loyal patrons or the show Parade, a widely acclaimed and important musical that generates robust conversation about social awareness and societal change.”

A Point Park spokesperson said the university had no comment regarding the postponement of the show beyond Hennigan’s statement.

“Parade” has been performed by other university theater programs without incident in years past — including at Point Park in 2009 — and is scheduled to be produced this coming semester at Kent State University.

Boston University students performed “Parade” in 2016, directed by Clay Hopper, artistic associate at Boston University’s Center for American Performance. Hopper praised the musical for its thoughtful examination of the persecution of those considered to be outsiders.

The show “speaks very eloquently to being ‘other,’ and ‘otherized’ in America,” and in light of last year’s anti-Semitic massacre at the Tree of Life building in Pittsburgh, “Parade” is “particularly salient,” Hopper told the Chronicle.

NOVEMBER

Federation kicks off 2020 campaign

p Chefs Kevin Sousa and Michael Solomonov Photo by David Bachman

In an effort to raise $14 million for its 2020 campaign, the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh hosted a conversation with acclaimed chefs Michael Solomonov and Kevin Sousa at Rivers Casino. The evening afforded attendees the chance to hear Solomonov, a former Pittsburgher and multiple James Beard Awardwinner, field questions from Sousa, a Pittsburgh native and James Beard Award semifinalist.

DECEMBER

Goldberg House celebrates 5 years The Solomon and Sarah Goldberg House, a Community Living Arrangement on Shady Avenue in Squirrel Hill, marked its

Photo courtesy of Point Park University’s Pittsburgh Playhouse

Calling the cancellation of the show “a tragedy,” Hopper acknowledged that he was not surprised it happened, noting a trend on campuses toward “a simple, reflexive reactionary response to any material that in any way broaches the difficult — and I think rightly difficult — subject of race in America.”

“Any time there is an examination of a minority group or a group that is perceived as marginalized, and it depicts people who do the marginalizing of that group, I found that people just don’t even want to see that represented,” Hopper said. “I find that to be true of students. I don’t find that to be true of faculty members, I don’t find that to be true of most grown-ups that live in the world. I find it to be essentially intrinsic to the campus left.”

Hopper noted that the musical number that opens the second act of “Parade,” and is sung by African Americans, is particularly profound in showing the relationship between the black and Jewish communities in the South of the early 20th century.

“It’s really quite apt and it’s very astute,” he explained. “There is nothing in the play, I think, that speaks of racism in any way other than saying that it is a horrific thing that ends in killing people that are innocent.

It makes me wonder whether the people who pushed to have it canceled have ever actually read it or seen it.”

“If you can’t do ‘Parade’ in this moment with the rise of anti-Semitic violence all over

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

p Max Steinberg, left, Jason Baker and Kevin Ginsburg Photo courtesy of JFCS

fifth birthday. For half a decade, with the help of Jewish Residential Services and the Verland Foundation, Goldberg House has provided Jason Baker, Kevin Ginsburg and Max Steinberg a permanent living space with 24-hour care where Shabbat and Jewish holidays are celebrated. Similar to their work at Goldberg House, JRS and Verland are planning a second CLA in Squirrel Hill. The Mt. Royal Road house will again provide three individuals with intellectual disabilities a chance to enjoy a safe, well-maintained home, and the prospect of greater communal integration. PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org. the world, I’m not sure what you can do,” Hopper said. “It’s striking to me. It really is.”

Point Park’s Conservatory Theatre students also forced the cancellation of the musical “Adding Machine,” which was supposed to open in December. That show portrays racism, homophobia and sexism, and some students “were concerned that it was not clear enough that the show was ‘mocking’ the characters expressing racist sentiments,” according to The Globe.

Howard Sherman, director of the Arts Integrity Initiative at the New School for Drama, which is focused on creative and academic freedom in the arts, has been following the student protests at Point Park.

“With the cancellation of ‘Adding Machine’ and ‘Parade,’ it is evident that there is a great need within the Point Park theatre program for deep conversations about how race and ethnicity are represented in their productions, beginning with play selection, and perhaps encompassing their curriculum as well,” Sherman said in an email.

“There must be a place for challenging, socially aware work on stages everywhere, especially in academic programs,” he continued. “The thoughtful facilitation of that work for the participating artists and audiences, the contextualization of that work, is vital. As someone who advocates against censorship, seeing shows shut down worries me deeply, because arts must be allowed to be thorny and difficult. As someone who vigorously supports the diversification of theatre, for too long dominated by white male writers, I believe in work from a wide range of artists that authentically and conscientiously addresses gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, and disability. I hope that the promised exploration at Point Park will include artists and educators of color, and experts in diversity, so that the faculty and the students can forge a way forward together.” PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

JANUARY 3, 2020 15

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18 — THE

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Headlines

Torah

Launch of Amazon’s Hebrew storefront offers American expats a taste of home

Pharaoh’s rude question

— WORLD —

By Sam Sokol | JTA

W

alk into an Israeli post office or one of the many local stores that have lately been serving as ad-hoc delivery centers and you’ll be confronted by a jumble of boxes sealed with the tell-tale black and blue packing tape from Amazon.com.

Orders from the American online retail giant have surged in Israel in recent weeks, following the launch of the company’s Hebrew-language online storefront and the offer of free shipping from the United States.

American immigrants to Israel have long relied on sites like Amazon to purchase products unavailable to them in the Jewish state, but the available evidence suggests a surge in purchases of the kinds of everyday items that were previously not cost-effective to have shipped in from abroad.

“I bought toys for my grandchildren at a fraction of the cost, makeup, hair products.

My friend bought saline,” Ronit, a resident of the Jerusalem suburb of Beit Shemesh, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “It’s good for my wallet because a lot of stuff is just so much cheaper: Ziploc bags, shampoo, makeup.”

Emanuel Miller, a British immigrant living in Jerusalem, said he had placed around a dozen orders since free shipping was offered.

While he was initially skeptical, he realized he could save 25% on one-liter bottles of Listerine mouthwash.

“Not only that, but it comes directly to the customer, which is far more convenient than schlepping heavy bottles from the supermarket,” Miller said. “So I ordered, and in bulk.”

Comments on Israeli social media groups dedicated to finding deals on Amazon show that customers who previously restricted their purchases to more expensive or harder-to-get items, such as electronics and books, are beginning to buy household staples from the site.

“I have noticed that they prefer lowerpriced items like Kleenex tissues and Contigo water bottles,” Avi Parshan, the administrator of the Israel Deals on Amazon Facebook group, told JTA. “A surprising amount of people ordered Scott toilet paper, Slinkys and other toys.”

The Amazon offer is not without strings attached. Free shipping doesn’t kick in until shoppers spend more than $49, and orders over $75 are subject to Israel’s 17% value added tax, or VAT. Many customers try to tweak their orders to fall in the sweet spot between those numbers.

It’s also not clear how long the offer will last.

The company ran a similar promotion for a month and a half late last year. Customers then had to spend more than $75 to get free shipping, though there did not appear to be a limit on weight. Local media reported that Israelis were ordering furniture online.

The Israeli business daily Globes reported at the time that Amazon was likely “conducting 18 JANUARY 3, 2020

a trial to test the Israeli market” in order to see if “if Israeli consumers would be prepared to buy higher priced items and pay VAT in exchange for free shipping.” The experiment appears to have worked, because Amazon launched its Israeli website almost a year later.

According to Nir Ben Yona Sein, an Israeli consultant who runs several online tech sites, including one that aggregates Amazon deals, the retailer is trying to promote itself locally after that successful trial.

“It has only one purpose, in my opinion,” Sein said. “What they wanted to do is get the Israeli audience to know the platform well and buy more so they wanted to educate them to buy on the platform.”

Israel does not currently host one of the gigantic warehouses Amazon uses to facilitate cheap and fast delivery to customers in the United States and other countries, and many e-commerce experts cited in the Israeli press have dismissed rumors that the company is planning to build one.

But Sein believes the company’s recent moves portend a big change. Online purchases in Israel have been growing by 20% each year, according to Globes, and more than $3 billion in VAT-exempted goods are shipped into the country annually. Earlier this year, China Daily reported that Israelis imported some 65 million packages in 2018.

With its increased focus on an e-commerce market worth billions of shekels, Amazon may be “preparing for its next stage” when it opens a fulfillment center — either in Israel or in a nearby country, Sein speculated.

Whether that actually happens, Amazon’s increased presence in the local market will force local businesses to adapt, said Renana Peres, a researcher at Hebrew University’s Jerusalem School of Business Administration.

“The market will have to adapt and change as is already happening, but it’ll be on a much larger scale,” Peres said. “It won’t be the end of local business, it will just change the local market.”

There has also been widespread speculation that Amazon is using the increase in orders prompted by free shipping to streamline its local delivery system. Many consumers have complained about lost orders, or the splitting of orders into multiple parcels that wind up at different locations.

But despite these problems, many American expatriates express joy about the new service — not only at saving money, but also at reconnecting to a lifestyle they thought they had left behind.

“Free shipping makes an enormous difference,” said Judy Segaloff, who moved to Israel from Detroit. “Sometimes I would try to buy something on Amazon and (shipping) would cost more than the item I was purchasing.”

“We feel like we are living in (a) small turning point in Israel,” said Mordy Rapp, an American immigrant living in Beit Shemesh. “Amazon means access to those American products that we would otherwise never buy.” PJC

Rabbi Eli Seidman Parshat Vayigash Genesis 44:18-47:27

W

hen a verse or a section of the Torah seems random, it often becomes the subject of many of the classical biblical commentators. In their words, “It cries out to be interpreted.”

A section like this occurs in this week’s Torah portion of Vayigash. Joseph revealed his true identity to his brothers and they brought down the rest of the family to Egypt to live. Joseph was reunited with his father, and he (Jacob) met the Pharaoh.

do you attribute your remarkable longevity?

Some extraordinary good deeds, or mitzvot?

You must have done something special to merit so many years.

And Jacob was answering modestly: Not really. My accomplishments do not measure up to those of my father, Isaac, or my grandfather, Abraham.

Of course, Jacob was really a great man in his own right. He established the 12 tribes of Israel. But this passage was put into the Torah to show us his modesty and as a way to gauge ourselves. As the Talmud puts it, every person should ask him or herself, “When will my actions reach the level of those of my ancestors?”

As the Talmud puts it, every person should ask him or herself, “When will my actions reach the level of those of my ancestors?

The Torah states: “And Pharaoh said to Jacob, ‘How many are the years of your life?’

And Jacob answered Pharaoh, ‘I have lived 130 years. The years of my life have been few and bad, and they have not reached the years of my ancestors’” (Gen. 47:8-9).

We can understand Pharaoh asking a blunt question. After all, he was the king. He could certainly ask anything he wanted. But why would the Torah put in what seems to be “small talk”? And what is the meaning of Jacob’s answer to Pharaoh?

I once heard an interesting answer from a rabbi who was visiting Pittsburgh. He said that in reality, Pharaoh was asking: To what

My father’s yahrzeit was the first day of Chanukah, and I find myself asking that same question. He was a rabbi at George Washington University Hillel in D.C. and did many acts of kindness. Having his example as a goal before me is a source of inspiration and helps me to evaluate my own life’s goals.

Pharaoh’s rude question shows us that we must strive for goodness and aim high in our lives. Shabbat shalom. PJC Rabbi Eli Seidman is director of pastoral care at the Jewish Association on Aging. This column is a service of the Greater Pittsburgh Rabbinic Association.

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Obituaries

ENGEL: David A. Engel, age 66, died on Monday, Dec. 23, 2019. He was a beloved son of Edythe and the late Robert Engel. Brother of Dr. Phillip I. Lynch and wife Lila. Cousin to Margaret and Craig Sterling, Ellen and Dan Retting, Janet and Don Moritz, Bernice and William Printz, Susan and Richard Nernberg, Maurice and Nancy Nernberg and many more loving cousins and friends. David was a graduate of Shadyside Academy and attended Carnegie Mellon University. David did not have an easy life. When he was 4 months of age, David’s pediatrician discovered a tumor called a neuroblastoma; the treatment at the time was radiation. David was the first

infant to survive this type of cancer. He had various setbacks but he would say he had an interesting and good life. He was a foodie and a gourmet cook. He worked for Area for the Aging for twentysome years. On weekends he was a Red Cross volunteer helping families whose homes were hit by fires. The Year of the Disabled, he traveled to China, on another trip he visited India. He was an outdoor person, he loved camping and kayaking. His last days were at Charles Morris Nursing and Rehabilitation. Our family wishes to thank the dedicated nursing staff at Home Instead as well as attendants at Charles Morris. A memorial service will be held at a later date. Family suggests contributions to Humane Animal Rescue, 1101 Western Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15233 or Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, 1 N. Linden St., Duquesne, PA 15110. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. schugar.com GOLDSTEIN: Frances “Fran” Goldstein (Horowitz), on Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2019.

Beloved wife of the late Enoch A. Goldstein; loving mother of Amy (Grant Mason) Jaffe; mother-in-law of the late Dr. Daniel Jaffe; beloved grandmother of Natalie Rae Jaffe and Emmelia Avery Jaffe; step-grandmother of Jessica (Adam) Gross, Amanda (fiancee Jason) Mason, Collette (Ryan) Boehmer and Mitchell Mason; sister of Judy (Richard) Fenster; sister-in-law of Dr. Morton L. (Racelle) Goldstein and Bernice (the late Barry) Neft. Graveside service and interment was held at Beth Shalom Cemetery.

Contributions may be made to the Riverview Towers, 52 Garetta St., Pittsburgh, PA 15217.

Arrangements entrusted to the Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. schugar.com.

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THIS WEEK’S YAHRZEITS — Sunday January 5: Mollie Gilberd, Ida L. Gusky, Israel Herring, Eva Katz, Rose Levine, Lib H. Levy, Stanley Myles Perilman, Milton Henry Platt, Elsie Wintner Rosenberg, M. Alan Slone, Minnie Stein Monday January 6: Lepke Brown, Florence Burechson, Linda Elmaleh, Joseph L. Friedman, Anne B. Goldston, Harry Gordon, Fred Gottesman, Freda Halpert Gross, Irvin Grossman, William M. Kahanowitz, Bessie Levine, Joseph A. Mervis, Bessie Recht, Max Selkovits, Joseph Sigal, Harold Sylvan Soltman Tuesday January 7: Herbert Burechson, Nelson Carl Cotlov, Lena Diznoff, Fanny R. Goldstein, Jerome S. Goldstein, Louis S. Klee, Seymour Kramer, Leah Krauss Lenchner, Simon Linton, Anita Middleman, Abe Robin, Esther Rothman, Anna Ruben, Edward F. Stein, Estelle Strauss, Eleanor Lee Swartz, Rose Weinberger Wednesday January 8: Minerva Aschkenas, Rose Fruhlinger Berger, Joseph M. Cohen, Miriam L. Gallow, Harry Green, Max Greenberg, Rose Kalser, Harry Kaufman, Benjamin Knina, Louis Levin, Jack I. Mallinger, Esther Marks, Helen Rosenbloom, Louis Silverblatt, Florence Silverman Thursday January 9: Mary Dine, Saul Franklin, Diane Friedman, Eleanor Glasser, Lena Goldstein, Saul M. Gordon, Tillie Green, Rena R. Labbie, Herbert Lenchner, Lillian M. Levick, Samuel Moses, Leonard Rofey, Lilly E. Rosenberg, Zelda Sadowsky, Hyman Schwartz, Marion Segal, Rachel Seidenstein, Kenneth Zapler Friday January 10: Darlene D. Beck, Harold E. Caplan, Abraham Cohen, Molly Crea, Jacob Harry Feingold, David S. Finkel, Samuel Goldblatt, Phillip Jacobson, Louis C. Klein, Leonard L. Launer, Sidney Linzer, Hyman Mallinger, Marvin L. Olender, Seymour N. Seltman, Belle Skirboll, Dorothy Stein, Lena Steinfeld, Arthur J. Stern, Sam Warmstein, Edith Wolinsky, Saturday January 11: Dora S. Birnbaum, Hyman Bleckman, Violetmae Caplan, Alfred Engel, Sarah Gerson, Anna Lebovitz Glick, Jack Green, Benjamin Hushan, Helen Karnold, Sonia B. Lewinter, Henry Mustin, Carrie W. Nevins, Rose Rosenberg, Irvin Skirboll, Leo B. Stoller, M. D., Yetta Weiss, Jacob Wolk

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KHURGIN: Zinoviy Khurgin, on Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2019. Beloved husband of the late Fanya Khurgin. Beloved father of Marina Yurovsky. Brother of Yuliy Khurgin.

Grandfather of Daniel and Michelle Yurovsky. Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. Interment Beth Shalom Cemetery. schugar.com. PJC

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Graveside Services and Interment were held at B’nai Israel Cemetery. Contributions may be made to Adat Shalom Congregation, 368 Guys Run Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15238 or Jewish National Fund, 78 Randall Ave., Rockville Centre, NY 11570 or American Cancer Society, 320 Bilmar Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15205. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. schugar.com

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Headlines Casket: Continued from page 2

Hours later, on Sunday, Nov. 8, Reva Zelkowitz’s body and the box her son had built were buried at a graveside service at Agudath Achim Cemetery in Forest Hills, Pennsylvania.

As Wasserman narrated each story to the 12 students, he moved between the tables with power tools in hand. Interrupting his words was a finicky air compressor whose cacophonous rumblings added to the chorus of a buzzing circular saw and polymer staples blasting wood.

There are two purposes to having students perform these deeds, he said: “Number one, to demystify the process; and number two, to get everybody to have a part in the mitzvah.”

Months earlier, Rabbi Elisar Admon, a Hillel Academy teacher, approached David Chudnow of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh about the prospect of building caskets on Dec. 25.

For nearly 20 years, volunteers had participated in Mitzvah Day, a Dec. 25 Federation program that encourages people to join area groups to work on projects including visiting the elderly, distributing food to the hungry or delivering handwritten notes of gratitude to local first responders.

Hillel Academy students and staff had long contributed to Mitzvah Day, and Admon was eager for his students to participate again

Salem’s: Continued from page 3

it sells and with which it cooks. Lewis Greenwald, another Jewish wholesaler, became one of Salem’s main suppliers.

Abdullah recalls that in the beginning Greenwald would even control the price that they paid for meat: “He was so smart with how he helped us. When the price fluctuated, he wouldn’t charge us the higher price,

but wanted them to experience something different than in years past.

Chudnow, who this year oversaw 900 individuals partake in 60 different tasks, was immediately receptive.

“I love that Hillel Academy took the initiative to suggest a new project,” said Chudnow.

Mitzvah Day enables people to perform many good deeds throughout the day, but casket making occupies a special place in the history of Jewish practice, he explained.

The Talmud recounts that millenia ago rich and poor were segregated in death. Whereas the wealthy received opulent treatment upon demise, the poor were often made to feel ashamed. Rabban Gamliel II, a first-century Jewish leader and successor of Johanan ben Zakkai, demonstrated the frivolity and ill-intended consequences of such behavior by having his own body, upon death, wrapped in the simplest of shrouds. Rabban Gamliel’s act served as a model and became the norm for future generations, notes the Talmud.

In Pittsburgh, when Gesher HaChaim builds a casket, not only does the construction of a modest wooden box certify the belief that “rich, poor, known, unknown” are buried alike, but also the idea that “each casket is built by a member of the community,” said Wasserman.

By having a community build its own caskets, “it puts a frame, not only a noncommercial frame around it, but another Jewish lifecycle community coming together, cradle of the community, frame around it.”

In the United States, coffin costs can vary.

According to the Federal Trade Commission’s “Funeral Costs and Pricing Checklist,” consumers can expect to pay approximately $2,000 per casket, though prices can soar to $10,000 for mahogany, bronze or copper varieties.

Lincoln Heritage Life Insurance Company encourages purchasers to defray expenses by shopping from “third-party retailers like Amazon and Walmart.”

Those options range widely. Amazon lists a biodegradable pine option from Kent Caskets for $500 with free shipping. Walmart includes Overnight Casket’s Lincoln poplar model with mahogany finish, not including delivery, for $1,549.41.

At Gesher HaChaim, a standard 6-by-2foot casket costs $275. If there’s “any type of financial hardship,” however, that figure drops, explained Wasserman. The $275 represents the cost of materials, replacement of tools and occasional hiring of carpenters when volunteers are unavailable, he continued.

Midway through the Dec. 25 afternoon affair, the students broke for prayers. After resuming construction, several of the teenage engineers spoke about the day’s activities.

“I didn’t know there would be so much teamwork involved in building one of these,” said Aaron Kraut, a Hillel Academy senior.

“It was pretty cool learning how this was made,” said Tzvikah Guterson, a Hillel Academy junior. “It’s a lot more hands-on than other things we’ve done. It’s not that complicated. It shows that anybody could do this.”

Approximately eight volunteers regularly

meet for casket building, said Wasserman.

Most of the members are men, but anyone interested is welcome to participate.

“It’s not rocket science, but you do have to be careful,” he said.

Throughout the day, the students safely followed instructions. Admon was pleased with the volunteer activity and said classroom time would be dedicated to follow-up discussion: “Before they got here, everything was very abstract,” he said. “It will be interesting to see what types of questions they have.”

Even before arriving back to class, several students were already thinking about the larger issues.

“I thought it was going to be a lot creepier — I feel like anything associated with death is inherently creepy — but this was pretty cool,” said Reuven Kanal, a Hillel Academy junior.

Building caskets, apart from illuminating an often hushed topic, enables young people to understand an important value, explained Wasserman: “A community comes together to bury its own,” he said. “Somewhere along the way, they’re going to learn about this big mitzvah and they’re going to realize, ‘You know I did something. I had an experience that most people don’t have.’”

Elements of the lesson were already understood, noted Kraut: “Working together as a team will help us with basketball, in school and in life.” PJC

knowing he would make it back up when the price dropped. In the summertime we had no idea that the price had gone up for meat in the winter.”

As for that international staff the grill and market employs, many are refugees brought to the country through Jewish Family and Community Services.

“Our first trained butcher from Iraq, I believe,” Abdullah remembers, “came through JFCS.” South Hills Jewish resident Sara Spanjer said

she eats at the restaurant once or twice a week.

“It’s a very Pittsburghy place,” she said.

“You come here and everyone is so warm and nice. The food is fantastic. They recognize your face and say hi. It’s one of the most authentic places I’ve found.”

Her boyfriend, Darren Watzman, added it’s one of the most diverse locations in the city: “You see all different colors and ethnicities. It’s like the United Nations.”

Abdullah’s next project will be opening a food truck in Oakland on the Carnegie

Mellon campus, near the original store where his family’s journey began. In true communal fashion, the new truck is going to be situated right next to the kosher food truck.

“Talk about coexisting,” Abdullah said with a smile. The restauranteur gives a lot of credit to the city for his success.

“I think Pittsburgh is one of the most loving cities,” he said. PJC

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

David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

Monsey: Continued from page 7

line between anything until the facts are in.”

A handful of Monsey residents stood opposite the synagogue in an impromptu demonstration to show that the Orthodox community has allies in town. They held signs reading “Love your neighbor” and “Stand together against hate.”

In solidarity with Monsey, about 60 members of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community gathered Sunday night for a giant menorah lighting in Squirrel Hill, just blocks from the Tree of Life building, the site of the Oct. 27, 2018, attack on three congregations.

“The Tree of Life is horrified and saddened by the attack in a Rabbi’s home in Monsey, New York as they were celebrating Chanukah,” read a statement issued by Tree of Life. “This continued spate of anti-Semitic violence in the New York area and around the country is disturbing. … In the the Spirit of Chanukah, our light will continue to shine.” PJC Toby Tabachnick contributed to this report.

20 JANUARY 3, 2020

p Pittsburghers gathered on Dec. 29 for public menorah lighting in solidarity with Monsey’s victims.

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Photo by Barb Feige.

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Community CDS celebrates Chanukah

Friendship Circle

Community Day School students learned about the meaning of Chanukah and celebrated the holiday with special activities.

On Dec. 15, The Friendship Circle held its annual Girls Night Out with a unique theme of “Unicorns in Space!” Activities included decorating planet cookies, painting moon rocks and building marshmallow constellations. Friends enjoyed colorful face painting and created rainbow unicorn masks to show off in a GIF photo booth.

p Elihu Braasch examines various dreidels. p Girls Night Out participants build marshmallow constellations.

p Zachary Binder, Aner Barak and Ava Jones display their handmade mosaic Photos courtesy of Community Day School menorahs. p Attendees put their heads together after face painting.

Fun in Chicago

p Representatives of Temple Emanuel joined thousands of Jews from North America and worldwide at the URJ Biennial in Chicago, Illinois.

Photo courtesy of Temple Emanuel of South Hills

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p Friendship is sweeter than sugar.

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Photos courtesy of Friendship Circle Pittsburgh

JANUARY 3, 2020 21

Community Celebrating with communal protectors

Mitzvah Day 2019 Pittsburgh’s Jewish community and other volunteers helped people in need by lending a hand at local nonprofit organizations on Dec. 25. The annual Mitzvah Day project welcomed more than 900 people at sites throughout Greater Pittsburgh. The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh organized the program which was sponsored by Giant Eagle and Creative Kosher.

Photos by Joshua Franzos unless otherwise credited.

p Rabbis Daniel Wasserman and Elisar Admon traveled to Pittsburgh Police Department Zone 5 to light candles and share sufganiyot with members of the force.

Photo by Adam Reinherz

p More than 300 students from Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh and Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh participated in Mitzvah Day activities.

Dedication and dinner at Temple David

p Kids and adults teamed up with the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh’s PJ Library program to make snack bags for Ronald McDonald House Pittsburgh. p Temple David congregants gathered for a Chanukah dinner.

p Before lighting the first candle, congregants dedicated a stained glass memorial Photos courtesy of Rabbi Barbara Symons for Oct. 27.

22 JANUARY 3, 2020

p Volunteers assembled 100 lasagnas for distribution by Jewish Family and Community Services Squirrel Hill Food Pantry.

p Volunteers work on projects to help people in need.

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Community Mitzvah Day 2019

p Families of women who participate in the MOMentum program worked at Chabad of Squirrel Hill to make cookies for distribution by the JFCS Squirrel Hill Food Pantry.

p Hillel Academy High School boys helped build caskets for Gesher Hachaim Jewish Burial Society. Burying the dead is regarded as one of the highest forms of chesed (kindness) in Judaism.

p From left: Dave Chambers, Maureen Callan, Colette Hucko and Patty Littlepage served dinner at Light of Life Rescue Mission, North Side.

p Mitzvah Day volunteers cleaned toys at the Pittsburgh Toy Lending Library, Shadyside.

p At Brother’s Brother Foundation, North Side, volunteers sorted and packed donated medical supplies.

p Volunteers at Weinberg Village, Squirrel Hill, played bingo with residents.

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p Volunteers promoted children’s literacy through the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh’s Bringing Libraries and Schools Together program.

Photo by Jim Busis

p Mitzvah Day Chair Shoshi Butler, left, and her mother Nina Butler.

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Photo by Jim Busis

JANUARY 3, 2020 23

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Available at 24 JANUARY 3, 2020

and PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG