Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle 5-15-20

May 15, 2020 | 21 Iyar 5780

Candlelighting 8:12 p.m. | Havdalah 9:18 p.m. | Vol. 63, No. 20 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

Look for the helpers: Jewish Pittsburgh’s volunteers at full force during pandemic

NOTEWORTHY LOCAL Summer camp

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airport and I got really antsy about it. As soon as they got out of the car, I started wiping everything down in the back and all the doors.”

Shortly after that airport pickup, the South Hills native decided to stop driving for Uber during the pandemic and to instead look for ways to help others however he could.

“I had already made myself available to a few people, but I mentioned to Rabbi Aaron Meyer that I was available to deliver food to people from Temple Emanuel of South Hills

lthough synagogues are shuttered, the pulpit still calls. With the coronavirus pandemic creeping into mid-May, local rabbis remain committed to serving congregants, many of whom they haven’t seen for months.

“I think that one of the things that might be forgotten is that people still have their regular needs,” said Rabbi Barbara Symons, of Temple David. “Regular relationship challenges, medical challenges and mental health challenges don’t go away even if we’re facing a pandemic.”

Pastoral care isn’t necessarily different during this period, “but it’s hard not to be with someone face to face,” said Rabbi Sharyn Henry, of Rodef Shalom Congregation.

Rabbi Yossi Berkowitz, of the Kollel Jewish Learning Center, has tried to approximate in-person contact by ambling throughout his Squirrel Hill neighborhood on Shabbat and “stopping to say hi from a distance,” but agreed that “it’s definitely a challenging time.”

Berkowitz, who runs Kollel Konnections, a Torah-learning social outlet for young professionals in the greater Pittsburgh area, continues to meet with study partners over Zoom, and said that he tries to make most phone calls through video conferencing platforms because “when I see someone it feels like there’s a personal connection.”

Symons has similarly taken to video calling congregants, and said that she shares her cell phone number “far and wide.”

“I’m just making sure they know they can get in touch with me,” said the Monroeville-based rabbi.

Henry regularly checks in on 13 individuals currently participating in the congregation’s “Adult B Mitzvah” program.

Please see Helpers, page 14

Please see Pulpit, page 14

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LOCAL Virtual academy

Not just for seniors anymore Page 3

WORLD Nursing in New York

 Ron Richards stands in front of the car he bought to use as an Uber driver but now uses to pick up groceries for the South Hills community.

Photo provided by Ron Richards.

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Pandemic and the pulpit: Rabbis address challenges of COVID-19

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

Parents await decisions on 2020 sessions.

COVID-19 has changed life for former Pittsburgher.

$1.50

By David Rullo | Staff Writer

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on Richards stopped taking Uber customers on March 9 due to fears over COVID-19, which was just beginning to infect residents in Pittsburgh and its surrounding communities. He made his decision two weeks before Gov. Tom Wolf issued stay-at-home orders for Allegheny County.

“Before that it was starting to get a little sketchy, but I had my wipes and was being diligent about keeping my car clean,” Richards said. “I picked up a couple at the

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Headlines Fate of some Jewish summer camps still unknown — LOCAL —

“ We actually have a beautiful brochure

By Justin Vellucci | Special to the Chronicle

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etween her two children — Max, 5, and Zoe, 11, both students at Community Day School — Robin Freyberg has six camp payments to make this year. Thanks to COVID-19, she doesn’t even know if her kids will end up going to camp and what, if anything, camp might resemble.

“I am so desperate to have some sense of normalcy for my children this summer that, if the camps open, I will send them,” said Freyberg, a Squirrel Hill parent and a clinician at UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital. “The thought of them being stuck at home for all that time is sad.”

If organizations end up canceling programming this summer, Freyberg said she’d rather push her six camp payments to 2021 than seek a refund.

“We’re fortunate that we’re both working and working from home but it’s complicated — I can’t be home all day to entertain them,” Freyberg said. “I hope, eventually, the kids will have camp.”

The answer to the big question — “Will Jewish summer camps in Greater Pittsburgh open for operation this summer?” — was, as of press time, a resounding “We don’t know.”

“We have not gotten word of any decisions,” said Jason Kunzman, chief program officer with the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh. “Guidance continues to come out and is relatively fluid at this point.”

Kunzman said guidance on whether — or how — to open James & Rachel Levinson Day Camp in Monroeville, or Emma Kaufmann Camp, an overnight camp near Morgantown, West Virginia, will come from county and state health officials, governors’ orders and the American Camp Association.

outlining all the fun that was planned before p Campers at the JCC’s J&R Camp in 2018 Photo courtesy of the Jewish

Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh.

“We’re doing everything in our power to make camp happen,” Kunzman said. “But, obviously, the health of our campers, families and staff are the top priorities.”

“Our goal right now is to piece it all together and make the best decision we can while offering an amazing camp experience,” he added.

The summertime fate of Camp Gan Israel, a camp organized by Chabad that in recent years has taken place on-site at Pittsburgharea schools, also remains unclear. Since Pittsburgh Public Schools is not renting its space for the summer, CGI camp — or some variation of it — likely would occur at the Chabad building in Squirrel Hill, on the corner of Forbes Avenue and Beechwood Boulevard.

Rabbi Yisroel Altein of Chabad said there are, tentatively at least, three plans for Camp Gan Israel this summer.

Plan A is a full summer session with swimming, trips and activities planned as usual, Altein said. Plan B is a modified schedule that accommodates government guidelines and tries to maintain the maximum amount of fun as possible. Plan C is a virtual camp to keep campers happy and connected, despite the challenging circumstances.

“We’re committed to making sure the kids have some kind of CGI experience,” Altein said. “We definitely will be able to make the

we realized that, as they say, ‘Man plans

”

and God laughs.’

— BAYLA OSTER, CAMP GAN ISRAEL PROGRAM DIRECTOR guidelines work to make a plan. We just don’t have the guidance for June, July and August.

We’re trying to prepare for what we can.”

The process of planning Camp Gan Israel’s summer session starts as early as October, said Bayla Oster, the camp’s program director.

“We actually have a beautiful brochure outlining all the fun that was planned before we realized that, as they say, ‘Man plans and God laughs,’” Oster said. “Since then, it’s been a bit of a waiting game to see how the pandemic would unfold.

“The past few months have demonstrated that this pandemic is unpredictable,” she continued, adding Chabad was waiting to book flights for counselors as far-flung as Illinois and California. “Right now, we’re a month and a half away from camp. We expect to make final decisions about programming in the next few weeks, but until then, it’s about seeing what happens and praying that things will get better.”

Both the JCC and Chabad were very clear, though, about one thing: If any family cancels its camp plans due to circumstances related to COVID-19, they will be issued a full refund.

Jonathan Weinkle is a Squirrel Hill physician who planned to send his three sons to Camp

Young Judaea Midwest, a summer camp in Waupaca, Wisconsin. He said CYJ sprang into action when threatened with possible closure or adjustment due to COVID-19.

“There has been a river of activities from the very first days of the schools being closed,” Weinkle said. “They’ve been doing baking activities and alumni activities and all sorts of things to keep the spirit of camp going.”

CYJ could not be reached for comment by press time.

Will Weinkle send his three sons if the Wisconsin camp opens?

“I think there’s no good answer to this question,” he said. “From an emotional standpoint, closing camp is going to be devastating for the kids ... Jewish summer camp is a big driver with the community and with Jewish identity. The question is, ‘Is it safe?’ We want everything to be safe.”

Weinkle floated the idea of having pseudo-mini-camps with fewer than 10 children at a time culled from those who planned to attend each larger camp.

“I would like to not see it completely lost but there’s always some danger out there Please see Camps, page 15

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Headlines Virtual Senior Academy not just for seniors — LOCAL —

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

A

popular online program for senior citizens is broadening its reach in light of COVID-19. While the Virtual Senior Academy, launched by the Jewish Healthcare Foundation in August 2017, remains a tool for Allegheny County seniors to connect and learn through video conferencing, efforts are underway to expand the technology to include intergenerational activities.

“When COVID started to escalate in our community, we had internal conversations and decided to put a lot of effort and resources behind the program,” said Mara Leff, director of innovation at the Jewish Healthcare Foundation. “There was this idea of can we bring younger folks into the program to have interactions with older adults? Everyone is isolated right now, everyone is feeling the effects of the quarantine, so we were looking to try new things.”

With 62 facilitators and more than 1,000 users, VSA was designed as an online opportunity for learning and socializing. Of the 26 current courses being offered, subjects range from printmaking with household materials to introduction to social psychology.

Depending on the facilitator and the material

presented, courses can last several weeks. Other lessons are simply one-offs.

This summer, VSA will transition from its home at the Jewish Healthcare Foundation to the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh. The move, which is intended to increase usage of VSA, is aided by a $175,000 grant from the Jewish Healthcare Foundation. Even prior to relocation, however, the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, one of several program partners, had increased its involvement in the platform. Through courses and informational sessions taught by staff from AgeWell at the JCC and the Center for Loving Kindness, the JCC is striving to reach a potentially isolated audience.

Beth Schmidt, 57, began p Filomena Varvaro takes a class on the Virtual Senior Academy. using VSA almost two years ago after seeing a notice posted at the Shaler North Hills Library. she said. Prior to the pandemic, she attended said Schmidt, who participates in “‘Coffee The flyer mentioned topics including “a few a week. Now, I take a lot more because Connect,’ where you can talk to other people. astronomy, travel and dance. Schmidt there isn’t a lot to do.”

It’s very interesting.” returned home, registered, “which was very Given the stay-at-home order, VSA has easy to do,” and began taking classes online, become a good resource for socialization, Please see Virtual, page 15

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MAY 15, 2020 3

Headlines COVID nurse shares observations from New York City — LOCAL —

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

W

hen Sarah Levine, a senior staff nurse at NYU’s Langone Hospital, arrived on March 23 at the Kimmel Pavilion’s 16th floor — a space usually dedicated to patients requiring neurological attention — a lot had changed.

Two days earlier the floor was “converted into a COVID-ICU, and on March 22 we got our first patient,” said the Levine, who grew up in Squirrel Hill.

During the prior week, New York City’s historically heavily populated streets were vacant. Images of a deserted Times Square or shuttered Radio City Music Hall circulated online, along with information about a rising pandemic. On March 15, the NYC Health Department reported 1,028 new cases of COVID-19. A day later, the office counted 2,116. By March 20, the tally was 3,985.

When Levine began her shift on March 23, the patients no longer included those hospitalized due to strokes, brain surgeries or spinal procedures. Instead, they were oxygen depleted patients being attended to by a corps of advanced medical professionals.

“I saw all the providers literally just standing in a circle with their iPhones out looking on Google and reading up on the

p Sarah Levine

Photo courtesy of Sarah Levine

news about Italy,” said Levine, 29. “They were just bouncing ideas off one another, like, ‘OK, well they tried this. What about this? Oh no, no, that didn’t work here so let’s try that.’ It was just like a process of elimination. And, yeah, it was just wild. It was really wild.”

Prior to that night, the Kimmel Pavilion’s

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16th floor was a specialized territory where Levine and colleagues tended to patients’ lumbar drains or spoke with individuals whose loved ones required neurological care.

In mid-March, Levine was told the floor’s patients were being relocated and that her responsibilities were changing.

“The first time I walked in I honestly didn’t know what to expect,” she said.

It wasn’t as though Levine was new to nursing. She received her bachelor’s degree from Robert Morris University in 2015 and took a job at NYU Langone shortly thereafter, but her professional focus was not pulmonary. She was a neuro-ICU nurse and had grown familiar with the work.

“Usually, when you get assigned to a patient, the doctor gives you all these orders and a plan of care. You see how the night’s going to go,” she said. During that first shift under the new paradigm, it was difficult to grasp that “that wasn’t happening,” she said.

“You look up to all these advanced medical practice professionals, and if they don’t have the answer who does?”

The situation was unlike any Levine had seen. “As a nurse, you’re like, ‘OK, what do I need to do?’ And you kind of don’t know.

So you only do what you do know, which is hanging the next medication, you look at the patient’s vital signs and you make sure they’re OK. I think that’s what everybody was trying to do, just doing what we know

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and just going from there.”

In the weeks that followed there were “successful extubations, and we were happy about that, but we still lost a lot of people,” Levine said.

As of May 8, 14,162 individuals had died due to COVID-19 in New York City, according to the city’s health department.

New cases, hospitalizations and deaths are declining, but the period has taken its toll, said Levine.

Beforehand, conversations about morbidity “were more expected from the family,” she said. “Either the patient was transitioning into comfort care or transitioning” into code status. “As many family members that wanted to were able to come up and be with the patient. It was more of a healing environment.”

Addressing mortality in a COVID-19 setting “has been really tough,” said Levine.

“I think the family members just aren’t expecting this. They don’t know what to do.”

During the past two months, Levine’s end-of-life discussions have typically occurred after a doctor has called and asked the patient’s loved ones to come to the hospital.

When the family arrives, they “see the nurse first, they don’t see the doctor, and they ask me, ‘Well, how is he really doing?

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Headlines Late checkout: Rabbi with Pittsburgh roots forced to wait out pandemic 2,400 miles from home — LOCAL —

By David Rullo | Staff Writer

W

hen Rabbi Yehoshua Rosenblum left his home on Thursday, March 12, to celebrate the wedding of a former community member, he never dreamt he was beginning a journey that would keep him, and his family, away from their house and adopted country for months.

“I travel fairly often, going where the Jewish community has immigrated to around the world,” Rosenblum explained.

“It’s a common thing. Usually, it is in and out. If I need to, I stay the weekend and am back on Monday, which is exactly what I was doing on this trip.”

Rosenblum is a Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi originally from Pittsburgh and now living in Venezuela. While traveling from the country’s capital of Caracas to see former community members is not unusual, bringing his entire family is a rare occurrence.

Rosenblum, his wife and 10 children — four of whom live with the couple and six older children living in various spots across the globe — had been invited by a member of the bride’s family to attend a wedding

p Rabbi Yehoshua Rosenblum and his family begin their journey from Caracas, Venezuela.

Photo provided by Rabbi Yehoshua Rosenblum

being held in Miami, Florida.

“At the time, it didn’t seem that profound, it just seemed like a very nice gesture on behalf of one of our community members who invited me and my whole family,” the rabbi said.

At first, he resisted the offer due to the logistics of traveling with such a large throng of people.

“This individual persisted,” Rosenblum

said. “He insisted that he wanted this to be a family reunion and he wanted to see us all together. He prevailed.”

As the Rosenblum clan prepared to leave for the wedding, the COVID-19 pandemic was just beginning to impact the Western hemisphere. In Venezuela, the first confirmed cases of the virus were not reported until the day after the family left for their trip.

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“We were leaving on a Thursday for a wedding in Miami and would be back on Monday,” Rosenblum said. “A normal weekend, right?”

As the family checked the news on Saturday night after Shabbat, they found that the “the borders were closed. There were no flights going back to Venezuela,” Rosenblum recalled. “And when I say closed, I mean closed tight. There was no way back and that status quo has been maintained both ways.”

Had this been a typical trip, the rabbi said that he would have been separated from his wife and children as well as his community, which “would have included Pesach, and then who knows when I would have been able to get back?”

Given that the family made travel plans six months prior to their trip, before COVID-19 was a mitigating factor throughout the globe, Rosenblum can’t help but feel there was a bit of divine intervention.

“Sometimes God gives us a little window into his thinking,” he said.

With no way home and no plans for a prolonged stay in Miami, the rabbi and his family were forced to travel to his mother-inlaw’s home in Toronto, Canada. The addition Please see Wait, page 15

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Headlines Bris celebrations changing during COVID-19 — LOCAL —

By Justin Vellucci | Special to the Chronicle

W

hen parents Evan Stein and Jackie Friedman held a brit milah for their first son, Sam, in January 2018, more than 100 people gathered in the ballroom at Congregation Beth Shalom in Squirrel Hill to mark the occasion.

What a difference two years and a pandemic makes.

Stein and Friedman’s second son, Ronen, was born last month and the couple was not sure how to address the bris in the age of COVID-19. After debating the option of having a doctor circumcise Ronen at West Penn Hospital, where he was born, they met with Rabbi Seth Adelson of Congregation Beth Shalom and decided to instead stick with the traditional Jewish rite, performed by a mohel, but just scaling it down to make sense in light of current health guidelines.

A few people met at Stein’s parents’ house for the brit milah, which was conducted in mid-April by mohel Rabbi Elisar Admon.

About 30 to 35 family and friends “attended” the low-key service via Zoom. Sam’s brit milah, by comparison, had been pretty lavish.

“This time around, it was much more about the occasion,” Stein said. “That’s what we did and then we left. It was almost

mohels showing up in masks and wearing gloves.

Other changes have come as a bit of a surprise.

As more people join by Zoom and other teleconferencing methods, there often is increased participation in the actual service.

More people are doing planned readings, though the medical procep Rabbi Elisar Admon performs a brit milah for the Steins’ son, dure at the center Ronen.

Photo provided by Evan Stein of the brit milah is more intimate more religious, more of a religious expe- when it is shared among immediate family, rience, because what was happening was said Doyle, who is also a physician.

“In some ways, it’s been really nice,” Doyle really the focus.”

Though COVID-19 has turned much of said. “Some of (the families) have even said, the world upside down, two of the region’s ‘Why didn’t we do this in the past?’”

Doyle, who lives in Highland Park, also mohels — Admon and Dr. Kerra Doyle, who both live in the East End — continue continues to conduct circumcisions at Excela to be busy as ever. Some of the changes in Westmoreland Hospital in Greensburg, where ritual circumcision among custom-following she specializes in obstetrics and gynecology.

Doyle said she has not seen any specific Jewish families due to the pandemic are to be expected — fewer people witnessing the trends of Jewish families opting for circumcircumcision in person, for example, and cision in her Westmoreland County hospital

versus in the home. But she does have several brit milot scheduled in the coming weeks.

She sees advantages in performing the rite — often with a rabbi joining via Zoom or Skype — around the new baby boy’s closest relatives.

“I think we’ve changed our minds to what it means to be present,” Doyle said. “That’s been really special.”

Admon said he has heard of some Jewish families opting for a hospital circumcision instead of a bris during the pandemic. One family he said he knew chose to circumcise their son on the second day in the hospital.

“I cannot argue with that,” Admon said.

“It’s the parent’s choice.”

Stein, for one, is very happy with Admon and the service he led in Stein’s parents’ home. It was quite different from what they experienced with their first son.

For Sam, his first son, “it was the Jewish rite of the circumcision and the main event was brunch,” he laughed.

Stein said his second son’s brit milah seemed to echo Jewish values relating to the importance of the home, as well as religion’s place within it, even more.

“I guess, when you look back at the customs, (doing it at home) is traditional,” Stein said. PJC Justin Vellucci is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.

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Headlines Jewish Pittsburgher remembered on 50th anniversary of Kent State shootings — LOCAL —

By Toby Tabachnick | Editor

F

ifty years ago, on May 4, 1970, a 19-year-old Jewish woman from Pittsburgh was shot and killed by members of the Ohio National Guard during a campus protest against the Vietnam War in Kent, Ohio.

Allison Krause, whose family was affiliated with Parkway Jewish Center in Monroeville, was among three other college students at Kent State University killed that day. Sandra Scheuer and Jeffrey Miller also were Jewish.

The fourth victim was William Schroder.

Krause and Miller were protesters, while Scheuer and Schroeder were bystanders.

Following the Kent State shootings there were protests across the country and a national student strike. Kent State was closed for six weeks. In Washington, D.C., five days after the shootings, there was a demonstration against the war by 100,000 people.

“Allison was my true north,” her sister, Laurel Krause, told the Chronicle last week, speaking from her home in northern California. “She was loved by everyone. She was popular, attractive and smart. She was who I looked up to.”

Allison and her younger sister Laurel were

both born in Cleveland, Ohio sense, that the guardsmen to Doris and Arthur Krause. would shoot in unison, and The Krause family relocated no one has ever wanted to look at it.” to Pittsburgh and lived in the borough of Churchill from In 2010, to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the 1962 to 1967, then moved Kent State shootings, Laurel, to Wheaton, Maryland. along with filmmaker Emily In the summer of 1969 — Aigner Kunstler, formed the Woodstock summer — they Kent State Truth Tribunal. moved back to Churchill, Kunstler filmed more where Laurel entered high than 80 participants and school. Allison, who was four p A watercolor portrait of witnesses of the shooting, years older than Laurel, soon Laurel and Allison Krause. and forensic experts, to headed off to Kent State to Portrait by Roger Ballas create a historical record. begin her college education.

“We are looking to find accountability,” Allison was an honors student who Laurel said. “always had a book in her hand,” her sister This year, in anticipation of the 50th annirecalled. “And she just had a happy spirit. versary of killing of the four students, the Allison stood for peace.”

Kent State Truth Tribunal launched a new When the National Guardsmen opened fire website.

On May 4, the nonprofit presented on the group of unarmed students on May 4, a virtual Kent State teach-in, featuring Allison was shot in the left side of her body. academic scholars, survivors and “other She died later that day from her injuries. notables, ” Laurel said.

Originally planned as For the past 50 years, Laurel has been a live event, the program had to switch to an tormented by her sister’s death, suffering for online format because of the pandemic, with decades from post-traumatic stress disorder. the interviews conducted via Zoom.

She has sought solace by pursuing truth and The video teach-in, which runs about four justice, she said, in memory of Allison. hours, can be viewed at truthtribunal.org.

“When Allison died, I asked her to come in Professor Mickey Huff of Project Censored, me and she did,” Laurel said. “I needed to find a nonprofit media watchdog organization, out what happened to her. It never made any

interviewed academics, protesters, and Kent State shooting survivors for the video.

The film is intended to enrich “understanding of this important historical event and provide context for where we are as a society today especially on matters of war and peace, civil and human rights, and how we can work together to create a more just and equitable world,” according to the website.

Kent State University also virtually commemorated the 50th anniversary of the shootings with a 47-minute video, which can be viewed at kent.edu/may4kentstate50.

Days before Allison was killed, she said, “Flowers are better than bullets.” That phrase ultimately became the epithet on her tombstone. She is buried in Betty Rosenberg Parkway Jewish Center Cemetery in Wilkins Township. Her parents, who lived in Pittsburgh until their deaths — Doris in 2016 and Arthur in 1988 — are buried there as well.

Laurel plans to continue to honor Allison’s legacy by seeking “accountability” for her sister’s death and the death of the other students shot on May 4, 1970, and to help ensure the right of others to peacefully protest.

“It’s about coming to terms with harmony and living in peace,” she said. PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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MAY 15, 2020 7

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 SUNDAY, MAY 17 Do you find prayer meaningless and opaque, or significant and powerful? Rabbi Danny Schiff’s course Jewish Prayer will explore the challenging nature of prayer. It will delve into the fundamental features of how and why we pray. Schiff, Foundation Scholar at the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, will describe the origins and structure of Jewish services and will engage in a close study of a number of central prayers within the liturgy.

This webinar is designed to give fresh insights into Jewish prayer with the goal of opening new doors of understanding. 10:30 a.m. jewishpgh.org/event/ jewish-prayer-2020-04-05/2020-05-03 The Rauh Jewish Archives is hosting an online Hebrew Institute Reunion. The Hebrew Institute was the first community-wide Jewish educational institution in Western Pennsylvania. It opened in the Hill District and later followed the Jewish population to Squirrel Hill. The reunion will include a brief history of the Hebrew Institute by Rauh Jewish Archives Director Eric Lidji and an announcement about a project to collect the stories of former students of the school. If you have any photographs or documents from your time at the Hebrew Institute, please bring them to show. 11 a.m. To register, visit heinzhistorycenter.org/events/hebrewinstitute-reunion.

YAD Fitness Club is going virtual with JCC trainer Daniel Holc. Work up a sweat and stay in shape while at home. You must register to receive the Zoom link. Free. 1 p.m. jewishpgh.org/event/yadfitness-club-virtual-trainer-session-with-daniel-holc q TUESDAY, MAY 19 The classic Jewish text Pirkei Avot is regularly studied in the weeks between Pesach and Shavuot.

In Pirkei Avot — The Wisdom Verses of the Mishnah, Rabbi Danny Schiff will teach Pirkei Avot utilizing Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz’s book “Pirkei Avot — A Social Justice Commentary.” You will need the book (available online), but no prior knowledge is required. 7 p.m. jewishpgh.org/event/pirkei-avot-thewisdom-verses-of-the-mishnahvirtual/2020-04-13 The Chabad Centers in Pittsburgh present What Hollywood Gets Right and Wrong about the Unorthodox. A no-holds-barred Q&A with Rivka Slonim, education director at the Rhor Chabad Center at Binghamton University and acclaimed activist and lecturer. Slonim will unpack stereotypes in cinema's depiction of Chassidic life. 7:30 p.m.

Free. To register and receive the Zoom information please contact your local Chabad center or visit unpacking.eventbright.com. q TUESDAYS, MAY 19, 26 During this time of uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus, the Center for Loving Kindness-JCC Pittsburgh presents a new series, “Comforting Conversations.” Members of the Center for Loving Kindness team talk with members of the community about topics you and your family may be dealing with right now. There is a new conversation each Tuesday. jccpgh.org/event/comfortingconversations/?cflk=1

COVID-19 Emergency Assistance Financial Assistance is available to the Western PA Jewish Community for immediate and pressing expenses

q THURSDAYS, MAY 21, 28

New Light Congregation Rabbi Jonathan Perlman and Islamic Center of Pittsburgh Imam Chris Caras lead The Omer and Ramadan, a five-week virtual class in the discussion of Ramadan, Eid al-Fatr, Hajj, Passover, Shavuot and the counting of the omer. Classes conducted via Zoom. Free.

7 p.m. To register and for a complete list of class topics, visit newlightcongregation.org/events/theomer-and-ramadan.

Explore iconic artworks throughout history in Art and Quarantine Stories that relate to our current moment with the JCC’s American Jewish Museum Director Melissa Hiller. 12:15 p.m. Free. To register, email Melissa at mhiller@jccpgh.org and she will send you the link to join. For more information, including topics, visit https://jccpgh.org/event/ jccpghvirtual-new-classes/?cflk=0.

q TUESDAYS, MAY 19, 26; JUNE 2, 9, 16 Join the JCC’s Center for Loving Kindness Director Rabbi Ron Symons for Lunch & Learn at 12:15 p.m.

To register, email Rabbi Ron at rsymons@jccpgh. org and he will send you the link to join. For more information, including weekly topics, visit jccpgh. org/event/jccpghvirtual-new-classes/?cflk=0. q WEDNESDAY, MAY 20 We’ve all been on dates and thought, “That was great, but it would have been even better if it lasted for only three minutes, lacked even the slightest romantic undertones and was on Zoom.” Fortunately, such a perfect date is now possible at Moishe House Pittsburgh’s second-ever Speed-Dating-but-Platonicand-On-Zoom event! Join us to stay connected or make some new friends. As with all our virtual events, feel free to invite any friends who might like to participate, even if they don’t live in Southwestern Pennsylvania. 7 p.m. RSVP via Facebook or email for link. facebook.com/events/757766125031176 q THURSDAY, MAY 21 Chabad of Squirrel Hill presents a lunchtime lecture on The Origins of Jewish Humor with Rabbi Mendel Kalmenson, executive director of Chabad of Belgravia, London, and author of the popular books “Seeds of Wisdom,” “A Time to Heal,” and “Positivity Bias.” 12 p.m. Free. Zoom information can be found at chabadpgh.com/virtual. Registration encouraged at chabadpgh.com/humor.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Young Adult Division presents Mix it up! Young Adult Virtual Mixology Lesson (Part 3) with mixologist Abbey Fakas. Abbey will teach us how to mix up some delicious mocktails (Strawberry Balsamic Vinegar Shrub) using basics from your pantry. This free event will be held over Zoom conference call. Participants will receive the link to participate upon registration.

5 p.m. jewishpgh.org/event/yad-mixology-3 The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Foundation Scholar, Rabbi Danny Schiff, presents The Human Body in Judaism. The seven-session course will explore the reaction of Judaism to the way in which we treat our bodies, ranging from tattooing to cosmetic surgery to hair cutting.

10:30 a.m. jewishpgh.org/event/the-human-body-injudaismvirtual/2020-03-26q

q WEDNESDAY, MAY 27 Classrooms Without Borders, in partnership with South Hills Jewish Pittsburgh, presents the film “Box for Life” and a post-film discussion with the film’s producer, Uri Borreda. RSVP to receive a link to the film. The post-film discussion will be offered on Zoom. 3 p.m. jewishpgh.org/event/box-for-life-postfilm-discussion-with-film-producer-uri-borreda-rsvpto-receive-link-to-film Does the pandemic have you yearning for the stability of old traditions? As thrilling as it is to engage in platonic speed-dating on Zoom, have you found yourself longing for some good old-fashioned romance? The kind with a matchmaker? Satisfy your nostalgia by joining Moishe House on a journey to Anatevka as we screen the classic “Fiddler on the Roof.” (Spoiler alert: Not everything was perfect in the old country either!) As with all our virtual events, feel free to invite any friends who might like to participate, even if they don’t live in Southwestern Pennsylvania. 7 p.m. RSVP via Facebook or email for link. facebook.com/events/227315425366031 The Jewish holiday of Shavuot celebrates the receiving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. Tikkun Leil Shavuot traditionally brings the entire Pittsburgh Jewish community together for allnight Jewish learning. The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh will host an online version the night before Shavuot so all can participate.

9 p.m. to midnight. Pre-registration required at jewishpgh.org/tikkun. q THURSDAY, MAY 28 Join Classrooms Without Borders for a weekly book discussion of Hadley Freeman’s “House of Glass: the Story and Secrets of a TwentiethCentury Jewish Family” with Dr. Joshua Andy on Zoom. Freeman’s book centers on her discovery of her family’s history after the death of her grandmother, Sara Glass. Freeman weaves history and the contemporary rise in anti-Semitism together in a family narrative of the 20th century.

4 p.m. https://classroomswithoutborders.org/ hadley-freeman/ PJC

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Headlines Jerry Stiller was a mensch.

He could act with the best of them, too.

— NATIONAL —

By Curt Schleier | JTA\

T

he first thing Jerry Stiller said to me when we met was a compliment.

Several weeks earlier, I had interviewed him over the phone for an article tied to an appearance in an HBO miniseries. But Stiller’s roots were always in the theater, so despite his successes, it wasn’t surprising to find him in the smallish regional Westport Country Playhouse in Connecticut, where I had arranged to meet him.

He was starring in “After-Play,” a brilliant examination of life at midstage as seen through the eyes of two couples who go out for a post-theater drink. A discussion about the play they’ve just seen leads to talk about the various scars that life inflicts, such as parents who are hurtful to children who have gone astray.

It was a grueling performance. He was on stage for nearly the entire 90 minutes, without intermission, and ran the gamut

of emotions from joy to anger to unbearable sadness. I was leery now: Given how draining his performance was, I felt that the conversation I’d anticipated would not actually happen.

As it turns out, Stiller loved the playwright — literally. She was also his co-star on stage and in real life: Anne Meara. Perhaps that was the reason there was a particular bounce to his step as he greeted well-wishers in a hospitality tent set up behind the theater.

A jazz guitarist (who gave him two CDs), a show business agent and some people who knew him years ago popped in to say hello.

When I introduced myself, he excused himself from those folks.

“I was trying to figure out which one you were,” Stiller said.

He couldn’t understand how I’d managed the article based on our brief phone conversation, and he made it seem as though it was the best thing ever written about him.

Typically, celebrities can be your best friend when you help them promote their latest ventures, but after that they understandably disappear.

But Jerry Stiller wasn’t typical. For several years after that late 1990s interview and the play, I’d receive High Holiday cards from him and Anne, who I met briefly that evening. I had his phone number and email address, and he always made himself available if I needed a quote. In fact, once an editor at a paper, knowing my relationship with Stiller, wanted me to ask him a favor. Someone died, and the editor wanted to know if Stiller would write a tribute. He did.

In fact, over the many times I asked something of him, the only time he declined was when I wanted his help arranging an interview with his son, Ben. He wouldn’t get involved in that.

The last time I saw Stiller was about five years ago. Ben was appearing in a Broadway show and dad was there every night to watch and cheer him on. I went over at intermission and reintroduced myself. It took him a few seconds, but he remembered and greeted me enthusiastically. We spoke until the start of the second act.

News of his death prompted me to return to the stories I’d written about him,

and while much of his professional (the Stiller and Meara act, “Seinfeld” and “The King of Queens”) and personal life have been covered, I realized that he told me some things over the years that I haven’t seen elsewhere.

It started on Jerome Street in the largely poor East New York section of Brooklyn — the first of a series of brief stops on the road to adulthood.

“I remember very distinctly that we moved 11 times in the first 13 years of my life,” Stiller recalled. The moves invariably were tied to staying one step ahead of a pursuing landlord.

“If there was a dark side to my life, it was moving around all those times. It meant you were losing friends every time you move,” he added. “And when we were kids, we always had to do something to get the kids in the new neighborhood to include you in punchball games and stickball games.”

His father was a cab driver, not the best of professions during the Depression. Finally his Please see Stiller, page 10

Pro-BDS groups protest Point Park president’s Chronicle op-ed

S

everal groups advocating for boycotts, sanctions and divestment from Israel have sent letters to Point Park University’s president, Paul Hennigan, criticizing him for an opinion piece he penned that was published in the April 10 issue of the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle (“Anti-Semitism in all forms, including BDS, has no place at Point Park”).

Hennigan submitted the piece in response to Chronicle articles reporting on a lawsuit filed by Channa Newman, a longtime Point Park professor, claiming, among other things, that the university had discriminated against her by allowing faculty and student proponents of BDS to launch a “bogus” Title IX investigation against her in retaliation for her not acquiescing to anti-Israel activities on campus.

Hennigan stated in his Chronicle piece

that he had had several conversations with local Jewish leaders to learn about the Jewish community’s concerns.

“All forms of anti-Semitism, which includes support for the BDS movement, generally defined as Palestinian-led campaign promoting various forms of boycott against Israel, has no place at Point Park University,” Hennigan wrote in his opinion piece.

An open letter to Hennigan by Jewish Voice for Peace, American Muslims for Palestine and Friends of Sabeel North America was sent to Hennigan and posted on FOSNA’s website last week. The letter states, in part: “President Hennigan, through your statement, you tell Palestinian students that they cannot demand their rights and protect their families from harm. Students who care about universal freedom and justice are being told they cannot take peaceful action

in support of upholding international laws and norms. Jewish students who do not want the Israeli government to use their religion to justify oppression are being told they cannot engage in boycotts or advocate for divestment. In fact, all of these students should be commended for standing up for what is right, even when it is not popular.”

The letter was endorsed by several organizations and individuals, including Dr. Robert Ross, a professor at Point Park whom Newman claims in her lawsuit sought to undermine her.

Ross declined to comment to the Chronicle, although he did acknowledge that he is a member of FOSNA. Another letter was sent to Hennigan from the Pittsburgh Palestine Solidarity Committee, which was also endorsed by many organizations and individuals. That letter states, in part:

“It appears that you came to your conclusion after meeting with members of a subgroup of one community that supports the Israeli government. As president of an important university in the city of Pittsburgh, one would expect you to gather information from several sources, especially from those who are most harmed by the actions of that same government.”

In an email to the Chronicle, Point Park, through a spokesperson responded: “As an institution of higher learning, Point Park University welcomes outreach and intellectual discourse on issues of importance.”

“The University appreciates and has benefited from dialogue with those who are knowledgeable on all perspectives of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” PJC — Toby Tabachnick

Jewish and Chinese groups together condemn racism

T

he Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh and the Organization of Chinese Americans Pittsburgh Chapter released a joint statement on May 6 condemning anti-Semitism and anti-Asian racism connected to the spread of the coronavirus.

“Going back as early as mid-January, well before coronavirus spread throughout the United States in large numbers, Asians and Asian Americans — our families and our businesses in Pittsburgh and beyond — have seen a significant increase in hate directed toward our community,” said Marian Lien, president of OCA Pittsburgh, in the

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statement. “Asian restaurant workers are being harassed after finishing up their shifts.

White supremacists have shouted ‘white power’ at us, and still others tell us we don’t belong. In the last several days, a Pittsburgh city sign in Squirrel Hill was vandalized by a bigot who placed a homemade ‘Nuke China’ sticker on the pole. Many in our community are terrified and intimidated, and we have done nothing to deserve such hatred.”

Likewise, the Jewish community has been targeted by anti-Semites who are blaming Jews for the spread of the pandemic. These claims have been made particularly by white supremacists who charge that COVID-19 was created by Jews seeking to profit from it.

There also have been reports of white supremacists planning to use the virus to harm Jews by spreading it to Jewish institutions, but the FBI so far has found no evidence of physical attempts to do so in the Pittsburgh area, according to the statement.

“In Southwestern PA white supremacists are ‘Zoom bombing’ virtual meetings at various Jewish institutions,” said Bob Silverman, chair of the CRC. Zoom bombing is a term describing when those not welcome at online Zoom events hack into those events and display hate symbols or otherwise disrupt the meetings. “What’s more, hackers have attempted cyberattacks on a number of our organizations, either for financial

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

gain or with the intent to cause harm to our community,” Silverman added.

The CRC and the OCA Pittsburgh Chapter, “stand in solidarity with each other against the unfounded hate directed toward both communities in the wake of the pandemic,” the statement continued.

“We recognize the profound impact that COVID-19 has had on all marginalized communities and that Pittsburgh is at its best when it is a welcoming place for all. We encourage all Pittsburghers, no matter their race or religion, to persevere and stay safe as we traverse these trying times together.” PJC — Toby Tabachnick MAY 15, 2020 9

Headlines Stiller: Continued from page 9

young woman with an appointment before his, an Irish-American girl named Anne.

She came out of the office screaming that the agent had chased her around the room.

Gentleman that he was, Stiller invited her for

a cup of coffee.

She immediately impressed him by sticking some of the silverware in her purse for later use at home.

“I thought she was kind of interesting,

father landed a job as a bus driver — after his wife and sister-in-law cashed in a small Irish Sweepstakes winning ticket, enough to pay $500 to someone at the bus company for a job.

Stiller caught the acting bug at the Henry Street Settlement, which at the time largely served Jewish immigrants living on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

“It ignited a spark in me that made me want to become an actor,” he said.

His first role came in a high school play, where he played Hitler. It was a comedy in which the German dictator went to heaven and was reformed.

“It made me aware for the first time that I love making people laugh. And from that point on I knew that I wanted to become an actor,” he said.

“The theater lifted me up.”

After school and a stint in the military, Stiller did what all young actors did: made the rounds. At one agent’s office JC ReSound Rechargeable 11/12/18 9:42 AM Page 1 event in Universal City, Calif., Feb. 17, 2008.

Jerry Stiller at a fundraising he was introduced to FIN_Eartique the p

someone with guts like that,” Stiller told me.

He would marry Anne Meara, who would later convert to Judaism. Stiller told me that she was chiefly responsible for the family’s observances of the faith, like getting Ben and his sister Amy off to Hebrew school and making holiday meals.

Years later, Stiller actually had to turn down the role of Frank Costanza on “Seinfeld” when he was first contacted about it. He had just gone into rehearsal for a play in New York (“Three Men on a Horse” with Tony Randall and Jack Klugman). Another actor was cast and appeared in one episode, but when that didn’t work out, the “Seinfeld” people contacted him again.

This time he accepted, fortunately for all of us viewers.

Stiller remembered the end of his first show, when the cameras stopped rolling and the cast was called out to the audience’s applause.

“That night, when they introduced the actors after the show and he came to me, the audience clapped a little louder.

My eyes met Jerry Seinfeld’s,” Stiller said, “and we knew that something was in the air.”

Photo by Michael Buckner/Getty Images via JTA Something special. PJC

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

May 15, 1947 — U.N. forms special panel on Palestine

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At the request of the British government, the United Nations establishes its Special Committee on Palestine, which in the fall recommends the partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states.

May 16, 1967 — Egypt tells Sinai peacekeepers to leave

Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser requests the withdrawal of the U.N. peacekeeping force from the Sinai. The U.N. troops can’t stay without his permission. The Six-Day War begins 20 days later.

May 17, 1948 — Soviet Union recognizes Israel

Hoping to gain a socialist ally in the Middle East despite opposing Zionism at home, the Soviet Union announces its official recognition of Israel. The Soviets help Israel obtain arms through intermediaries, especially Czechoslovakia.

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May 18, 1965 — Spy Eli Cohen executed

Syria hangs Israeli spy Eli Cohen in a public square in Damascus. Cohen had infiltrated the highest levels of Syrian society as businessman Kamel Amin Thaabet and secured valuable intelligence.

May 19, 1966 — U.S. agrees to sell bombers to Israel

President Lyndon Johnson’s administration announces the first U.S. sale of warplanes to Israel. Israel becomes the No. 1 export customer for the A-4 Skyhawk light bomber, which enters service in Israel in 1968 as the Ayit (Eagle).

May 20, 1948 — Bernadotte named peace mediator

Count Folke Bernadotte, a Swedish diplomat, is appointed by the U.N. Security Council as the mediator for Middle East peace efforts just days into Israel’s War of Independence.

Lehi assassins kill him in September 1948.

May 21, 2017 — Spy Shulamit Cohen-Kishik dies

Shulamit “Shula” Cohen-Kishik dies at age 100 in Jerusalem. Married to a Lebanese Jewish businessman, she gathers intelligence in Lebanon for the Mossad from 1948 until her arrest in 1961. PJC

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

ON BEHALF OF OUR ENTIRE COMMUNITY: To the people on the front lines caring for seniors, homebound individuals, people with illnesses and all those seeking help …

To the people meeting the tremendous increase in need …

To the educators and others broadcasting learning, prayer, events and emotional support from a distance …

To everyone working remotely and in person to support Jewish Pittsburgh in a time of crisis …

The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh thanks all of you, the professionals working in Jewish organizations, for your dedication to providing relief during the coronavirus pandemic.

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PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

MAY 15, 2020 11

Opinion Annexation is a mistake Guest Columnist Editorial Board Mid-Atlantic Media

T

here’s a good reason why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to annex parts of the West Bank is being criticized by friends of Israel on the left, right and center. That’s because it’s a bad idea. As described in a New York Times op-ed by Daniel Pipes, one of Israel’s more forceful right-leaning advocates, a territorial annexation move at this time would be like Israel shooting itself in the foot, as the move threatens to alienate many within the full range of Israel’s supporters, and embolden her foes.

Although President Donald Trump’s peace plan allows Israel to annex 30% of the West Bank, it does so only if Netanyahu accepts the Trump plan, including willingness to talk to the Palestinians about a two-state solution. Admittedly, that’s a low bar. But that concession is not part of Netanyahu’s public talking points in the annexation discussion.

Should Biden and the Democrats win in November, their more nuanced approach to Israeli-Palestinian issues could present a real problem for a post-annexation Netanyahu government.

Nonetheless, it appears that U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman offered Netanyahu yet another helping hand when he said last week that “U.S. support for settlement annexation is not contingent on the Palestinian response to Netanyahu’s willingness to hold talks.” But even that lifeline doesn’t seem to have prompted a change in position by Netanyahu. And that is a very curious development, since the politically savvy Netanyahu unquestionably recognizes the significant risk of failing to do exactly as told by his White House patron. There has to be something else going on, but no one is explaining what that is.

Netanyahu knows that the Trump plan is a total non-starter for the Palestinians.

So, perhaps he recognizes that making any move in reliance upon the plan is simply rubbing salt in the open wound of rejection. At the same time, Netanyahu knows that even among long-standing, reliable friends of Israel in the Democratic Party and elsewhere, there is real nervousness about his annexation agenda. Indeed, a centrist group of congressional Democrats recently circulated drafts of a letter to Israeli leaders warning that annexation would have far-reaching, unwelcome consequences

for U.S.-Israel relations. All of this while 30 former top national security officials in past Democratic administrations called for opposition to settlements and the occupation to be included in the party platform for the first time.

Further complicating the mix is presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s warning that efforts to achieve his much preferred two-state solution could be endangered by Israel’s unilateral annexation activity. Should Biden and the Democrats win in November, their more nuanced approach to Israeli-Palestinian issues could present a real problem for a post-annexation Netanyahu government.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is visiting Israel this week. When he meets with Netanyahu and his partner Benny Gantz, we urge him to echo Pipes’ warning that unilateral annexation of the West Bank “would probably damage Israel’s relations with the Trump administration, the Democrats, Europeans and Arab leaders, as well as destabilize the region, radicalize the Israeli Left, and harm the Zionist goal of a Jewish state.”

We don’t often agree with Daniel Pipes.

But on this issue, we do. PJC

Remembering a quiet friend Guest Columnist Laurie Zittrain Eisenberg

T

he Pittsburgh Jewish community is painfully aware of the anti-Semitic attack of Oct. 27, 2018, in which congregations Tree of Life, Dor Hadash and New Light lost a combined total of 11 beautiful souls; another seven people were wounded. In the immediate aftermath of the assault, supportive messages and objects of consolation seemed to appear, magically or miraculously, in a sprawling sidewalk memorial, and were a great comfort to the afflicted congregations and the community at large.

Later, however, we realized that the gifts of condolence were neither magical nor miraculous, but rather the handiwork of good people whose hearts ached for our loss. Their instincts were humanitarian: to do something tangible to let us know that we were not alone, that they mourned with us, and that together we would survive and eventually thrive again. As proclaimed by the signs appearing all over the neighborhood — ubiquitous even today — we are “Stronger Together” and “Stronger than Hate.”

Over time, we discovered backstories to some of the anonymous contributions to the makeshift memorial, and in every case, knowing their origin stories made already touching items even more poignant. As we recover, we are able to think more about others than ourselves, and we are interested in knowing what moved individuals to leave artifacts among the flowers. What were their intended messages for us and/or for visitors to the memorial? What did the act of

12 MAY 15, 2020

choosing or creating their gift and leaving it at the sidewalk mean to them? Some have obvious messages and relevance, whereas others are intriguing precisely because their intent is less clear.

Thus was born the stories collection project. We reexamined items, looking for clues to their donors. Some we tracked down; others left gifts anonymously, so we reached out to the public via social media and the press, directing people to a webpage where they could upload their stories. That site is still open at treeoflifepgh.org/stories.

The centerpiece of the memorial were 11 white wooden Stars of David, each bearing the name of a victim, which materialized on the synagogue property barely 24 hours after the shooting. Astute observers noticed that the stars were affixed to white wooden crosses. They were the creation of Gregory Zanis, a carpenter from Aurora, Illinois, and the founder of Crosses for Losses, whose mission was to erect crosses in honor of victims of mass shootings. I had the privilege of interviewing Zanis twice during my research into the stories behind the makeshift memorial and found him a compassionate man who had found his calling in trying to bring some measure of comfort and peace to communities suffering from gun violence.

Zanis’ motivation was his strong GreekOrthodox Christian faith, which deeply reveres the Old Testament. Zanis recalled witnessing acts of anti-Semitism and racism in his youth and rejected them as antithetical to his religious beliefs. He had made individual Stars of David for Jewish victims among those of previous massacres, but never for an attack whose victims were exclusively Jewish. He was hesitant at first, worried about inadvertently making a cultural misstep. His wife convinced him

that he must honor the Pittsburgh victims, insisting that “excluding them would itself be an ‘act of hate.’”

His friend Anne Rosenberg, who met Zanis a year earlier at the Las Vegas shooting site, where she had brought therapy dogs, similarly argued that no one but he could honor the victims in the manner that mourners at these terrible events have come to expect.

The day after the attack, Rosenberg and her colleagues from Crisis Response Canines met Zanis upon his arrival in Squirrel Hill, where he felt conspicuously out of place in his Crosses for Losses truck. He parked a few blocks away from the synagogue and walked the perimeter for more than an hour, until he felt he knew where God wanted him to place the stars: behind the police tape and directly in front of the synagogue building, where some flowers and stones already lay.

When he returned to his truck, confused passersby asked him, “Don’t you know the victims are all Jewish?” They were overcome when he showed them the stars, and asked to assist Rosenberg’s team in off-loading and carrying them to the site.

Zanis was relieved to have members of the local Jewish community help install the stars. As the procession moved toward the synagogue, other onlookers joined in.

Rosenberg recalled making an effort to ensure that those who identified themselves as friends or relatives of a specific victim were able to help carry their loved one’s star.

Zanis carried the last one, carefully holding the cross side against his chest, so only the Star of David was visible.

Talking about his contribution to the memorial, Zanis returned repeatedly to two themes. The first was that he was doing God’s work and sought no personal attention; he revealed that during the 20 years

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of his Crosses for Losses activity, from 2000 to 2020, every U.S. president had requested meetings and photographs with him at one of the sites, and that he had rebuffed them all. The second was his concern that he might have unintentionally offended the Jewish community by simply showing up with the stars. He seemed genuinely relieved to hear that the congregations cherished and appreciated his contribution, and that the horizontal bars of the crosses on which the stars were mounted created shelves on which visitors could pile little stones — a traditional Jewish mourning custom. They were perfect.

After 20 years, 800,000 miles and more than 27,000 crosses, Zanis retired in December of 2019, citing the emotional toll of the endeavor. He assumed that his constant fatigue and frequent pain were the result of too many nights sleeping in his truck en route to mass murder sites and his perpetual immersion in incidents of tragedy and death. In March of 2020, however, he received a diagnosis of bladder cancer and passed away on May 4, 2020. Lutheran Church Charities of Northbrook, Illinois, is continuing the Crosses for Losses project.

With Greg Zanis’ death, the Jewish community has lost a quiet friend. May his memory be for a blessing. PJC Laurie Zittrain Eisenberg is on faculty in the History Department at Carnegie Mellon University and a board member of Tree of Life Congregation. This piece is an excerpt from her essay, “Sharing their Stories: Reciprocating the Compassionate Response to the Tree of Life Massacre,” which will appear in “Bound in the Bond of Life: Pittsburgh Writers Reflect on the Tree of Life Tragedy,” edited by Beth Kissileff and Eric Lidji, forthcoming from the University of Pittsburgh Press this fall.

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Opinion Telling the Coronavirus story Guest Columnist Anndee Hochman

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ecently, a friend shared a joke.

Question: What’s the difference between COVID-19 and “Romeo and Juliet”? Answer: One is coronavirus; the other is a Veronacrisis.

Ha ha ha.

But it made me wonder whether we’d come to an important juncture in dealing with this invisible, insidious germ: the moment when we find mordant humor in the midst of grief and panic.

After my friend, who is also my housemate, told the joke, she and her partner and my partner and I sat in the living room, eating gluten-free brownies marbled with tahini (sounds weird, but delicious) and riffing about inventions that would help us through this crisis.

“What if there was a thing you could carry — like the back-up camera on your car — that would beep if you got within six feet of another person?”

“How about a wand that would sleuth out coronavirus clinging to your faucet or light switches? You could scan the house each night and know where to clean.” In the absence of such technology, we’ve stepped up our household hygiene; the last person to bed now bleach-spritzes the kitchen counters, the doorknobs, anything we’ve been pawing all day long.

My brother-in-law, phoning from his San Francisco apartment, where he’s sequestered with his wife and daughters, suggests a rubber band — one end attached to your wrist, the other to your pocket — that would allow you to move your hand, but not as far as your face.

Just try to scratch that itchy eyebrow and — boing! — your fingers would spring back.

Even after we disperse for bed (it’s my turn tonight to wipe the doorknobs), I keep imagining: a pocket holster for hand sanitizer, a

How will we tell the story of coronavirus, years from now? Will we mark it as the moment when the world turned — first, like a tightening screw, then into a new era of collaboration and equity? self-cleaning cell phone, a virtual-reality deep-tissue massage.

It’s too soon to know what large or small innovations, what poems or plays or epic novels, will come from this crisis. I’m buoyed by the ways humans have found to reach toward one another when we can’t literally touch: church services via Zoom; concerts to which one can buy an online ticket and listen from the couch; the New Yorkers applauding

Teens in quarantine

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Missing others

I hate living like this. I need to be around other people who understand me, sometimes more than my family. I need to be able to daven with a minyan, and learn with other people in person. I miss the discussions we have and had during class, recess, lunch or whenever — whether they are about politics, Hallel on Yom Ha’atzmaut, Chalav Yisrael or even what classes we like and what test is coming up.

Asian Americans need our support Particularly as a member of a religious minority which has been targeted for discrimination and scapegoated over virtually the entirety of our history, and as one who had the good fortune to attend school with a diverse group of individuals of many races and national origins, it sickens me to read multiple accounts of persistent harassment of Asian Americans over what the president used to refer to as the “the Chinese virus.”

Ignorant, bigoted individuals are placing blame for the crisis where it does not belong, on innocent individuals of Asian descent who are being targeted throughout the country for intimidation, threatened and spat upon. It is reported that business is significantly depressed at many area Chinese restaurants, and not by any means due only to our current period of semi-isolation. This aberrant behavior represents the epitome of “the ugly American,” and some of the reasons it is taking place today is due to the war of words against China engaged in by many elected officials and a lack of leadership at the national level against baseless hatred toward minorities. When television spots with a political aim assert that China is “killing our people,” some will lash out in an incendiary and irrational manner.

A focus of our president should be to ensure that the members of a group whose presence here enriches us are treated with respect, civility and fairness. That is probably as likely as Mr. Trump giving an Oval Office address to promote racial unification as he expresses outrage over the slaughter of an African American man at the hands of two gun toting white Georgia vigilantes, apologizing for perpetrating what he knew from the start was a racist birther hoax against Barack Obama, the predecessor whom he despises, reversing his comment that there were “very fine people” on both sides of the Charlottesville, Virginia “Unite the Right” rally 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. Mail, fax or email letters to:

Please see Hochman, page 16

I miss hanging around in the Kollel, schmoozing Shabbos afternoon and just being around people.

I am nervous, because I am the only one in the class who still doesn’t know what their plan for next year is and I am not able to be around those people who would remind me that even if I stay at Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh, I can still survive, thrive and not be a wimp or loser.

I need to be able to decide what to get by seeing it in the store, not by knowing exactly what I want when ordering. I need to be able to learn and get educated without staring at a screen for hours at a time. Most of all I need and want to be around other people.

he Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle would love to hear your voices. What is it like being a teenager in the age of the coronavirus? How are you coping and what do you miss?

Send your thoughts, along with your name, neighborhood and a photo to Toby Tabachnick, editor: ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

— LETTERS —

out their windows every night in a citywide cheer for health care workers.

How will we tell the story of coronavirus, years from now? Will we mark it as the moment when the world turned — first, like a tightening screw, then into a new era of collaboration and equity? Will it be the time when we finally understand that we are in

Chaskie Yolkut, 14 Squirrel Hill

horror of 2017, or ever mouthing the words, “I was wrong” or “I apologize.”

I offer my moral support to the Asian American community and my moral and financial support to favorite area restaurants owned by these individuals, which I am now patronizing more than in the past, currently for take-out food. They need us now, more than ever. May American values ultimately shine as we welcome all nationalities to our country and treat all as our equals.

Oren Spiegler Peters Township

Community reminded to seek professional help for pandemic-related anxiety

To follow up on the Chronicle’s informative May 8 article about 12-step programs (“AA meetings evolve to meet needs during pandemic”) and their importance — for which we may use technology to attend such a meeting, even on Shabbat — I would like to remind the community that those suffering anxiety or other mental health related issues need to be checked on by their families and friends.

This isolation and disruptive life exacerbates mental health challenges, and those challenges need to be addressed by medical professionals. Please be there for others, and be in contact with medical professionals if you need help.

With blessings for good health for all.

Rabbi Moishe Mayir Vogel, executive director, The Aleph Institute Squirrel Hill

Letters to the editor via email:

letters@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

Address & Fax: Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle 5915 Beacon St., 5th Flr., Pittsburgh, PA 15217

Fax 412-521-0154

Website address: pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

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MAY 15, 2020 13

Headlines Helpers: Continued from page 1

at no charge,” said Richards.

Across the Pittsburgh Jewish community, volunteers have stepped up to help those most vulnerable to the coronavirus.

While some individuals and companies have had the ability to deliver thousands of face masks and other proactive gear to first responders and vital organizations in need, others are working to make a difference in their own backyard.

Leslie Miller volunteers with the Jewish Association on Aging, visiting residents at the Charles Morris Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, but due to guidelines put in place by the JAA, Miller is unable to visit the residents she used to see on a regular basis.

Miller, who is retired, volunteers with the JAA because she wants to give back to her community.

“It’s a wonderful place. They take such good care of people and I miss everyone there very much,” she said.

Miller has made a couple of “very good friends” at Charles Morris, she said, and has maintained those friendships even without seeing the residents in person.

“I sent one person some books because she’s an avid reader, with another I talk on the phone,” Miller explained. “I send cards to another lady, anything to just try and stay connected.”

It is Miller’s goal to help the residents remain positive, but she acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic has been hard on the seniors with whom she is in touch.

“It’s very tough,” she said. “I offer a lot of reassurances, but they are isolated.”

Nina Butler is a member of Congregation

“ We were fortunate that every member we asked to make these ‘reaching out’ phone calls enthusiastically accepted immediately and expressed disappointment that we

”

didn’t have more names to give them.

— NINA BUTLER, MEMBER OF CONGREGATION POALE ZEDECK Poale Zedeck and is part of the team assembled by Rebbetzin Anna Yolkut to reach out to the congregation’s senior and most vulnerable members.

“We combed through our membership creating a spreadsheet,” Butler explained, “and then we went through the membership again, almost like matchmakers.” The volunteers worked to pair seniors with other members who had “the time and patience to be able to reach out several times per week for a warm and leisurely call.”

The goal was to have the pairs assembled before Passover because, for many, it would be their first holiday alone.

“We were fortunate that every member we asked to make these ‘reaching out’ phone calls enthusiastically accepted immediately and expressed disappointment that we didn’t have more names to give them,” Butler said.

Congregation members have been thrilled with the volunteer outreach, according to Yolkut.

“It’s been wonderful to see that many of the seniors we have reached out to expressed

p Rabbi Aaron Meyer interviews Brian Schreiber, of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh.

Screenshots courtesy of Rabbi Aaron Meyer

Pulpit: Continued from page 1

In recent weeks, the rabbi has shifted to phone calls, texts and emails, as well as disseminating pre-recorded messages in which she reflects on the week, offers Jewish teachings and invites responses.

“I’ve been trying to be really honest in these videos,” she said. “Some people live alone and their feelings of loneliness are exacerbated.” It’s been important to talk about “the ups and downs of what people are going through.”

During the past two months, Rabbi Aaron Meyer of Temple Emanuel of South Hills has been creating content-rich videos to stir engagement.

“I think that we’re in a unique time where 14 MAY 15, 2020

the only limit is our own creativity,” said Meyer. There is no a rabbinical roadmap, so “we’re trying lots of different things just to go to lots of different people.”

Through residential art tours, online trivia sessions and interviews with local leaders on myriad topics, the rabbi has overseen and produced hours of digital content. The process has introduced him to changing patterns in Jewish behavior.

“I think that synagogues have been asked to make about 10 years’ worth of transformation in about 10 days, and the reality is we should have been doing a fair bit of this before COVID-19. We know patterns of affiliation are changing, that we need to reach beyond our walls in a way we’ve never done before, and so to be able to connect with people, whether they’re snowbirds in Florida, or former members in New Jersey,

that what we’re doing is above and beyond by people in their community of their own initiative,” she said. “Many people said they feel wrapped in support. They have neighbors reaching out, they have friends reaching out, and they have family reaching out.”

Lynn Rubenson is a member of Temple Sinai who has assisted in the past with cooking food for the Reform temple’s “caring freezer.”

“A bunch of us get together a couple of times a year and make vegetable lasagna or soup or quiches or bread. It’s usually pretty full,” she said. “When everyone had to start shutting down, we got a few calls from people who couldn’t get to the store or were waiting for financial resources to come in, so I delivered food to them.”

The assistance Rubenson and Temple Sinai have provided has extended to those beyond the congregation’s membership.

“We received a call from an elderly woman who lives with her adult daughter who has a disability. She isn’t a member but called Temple looking for help, so I brought her

over a big bag of food,” Rubenson said.

Rubenson also has worked within the larger community as well.

“Early on, someone had posted on the app Nextdoor that they had an unopened box of 100 surgical masks,” she said. “I knew that Charles Morris was looking for more masks.

I was able to pick them up from this woman’s porch and drop them off at Charles Morris.”

For Rubenson, volunteering is part and parcel of the Jewish community’s mission.

“I think people are doing what they might be doing on an everyday basis, they’re just stepping it up more,” she said. “It’s just what we should be doing for each other.”

Janice Keilly is one of the Temple Emanuel members Richards has shopped for since he stopped driving for Uber.

“When this started and I could not get out, I called Ron and said, ‘I will gladly pay you to do this shopping for me,’” recalled Keilly. “He told me he was not accepting any payments.

He said he would do it because he wanted to help me. He suggested I could donate to Rabbi Meyer’s discretionary fund because he’s going to be using that money to help people who are having difficulties.”

Keilly said that she and Richards have developed a symbiotic shopping relationship: “I feel like I don’t even have to give him a list anymore. He knows what I use and what I eat and sometimes even calls me with suggestions from the store.”

The South Hills senior is appreciative of the help Richards has provided.

“He has never said no,” she said. “It works out beautifully. I can’t believe how kind a person can be, how kind Ron Richards is.” PJC David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

constructs that support us as we do mitzvot, and as we engage in a religious tradition that has a time cycle different than the rest of society. And my fear is that as we become further and further removed from the support of intimate community those connections will weaken and people will move from feeling a sense of responsibility to being consumers of content produced p Rabbi by synagogues without the requisite p Rabbi Barbara Sharyn Henry Symons Photo courtesy of buy-in and active participation.”

Photo by Savannah Butler

Barbara Fisher Symons agreed that the eventual reopening of synagogues will require or California, or those who are putting their discussion about the use of technology. kids to bed and can’t make it to a Friday Apart from investigating “how and night service, we’ve proven the value of using when will we reopen, or how will we stay this as a point of connection.” in touch with the entirety of the congreMeyer has adapted to his changing role, gation,” a newly formed Temple David but noted the irony that may manifest committee is exploring “how will we use when synagogues reopen: “My biggest technology to connect with one another,” fear with this use of technology is that said Symons. “Reopening can’t just be about we’re changing relationships with syna- antiseptic use, but has to do with the lessons gogues from a shared belief and familial brought forward.” connection to that of content provider and The days ahead may bring difficult consumer in a way that’s really challenging, conversations. and we need to make sure we don’t go too “Our lives have been upended,” but there far down that road. is also a “wonderful takeaway,” the rabbi “The value of engaging in a local noted: the value of relationships. PJC spiritual community is in many ways relational,” he continued.

Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ “It is our relationships and our cultural pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Headlines Camps: Continued from page 2

— this is way worse than the flu,” he said.

“Whatever is the most we can do without inviting danger, that’s what we should do.”

Nearly all Reform Jewish summer camps, and at least one Conservative camp, will remain closed for the 2020 summer,

Virtual: Continued from page 3

Run by Age-Friendly Greater Pittsburgh, the coffee shop-based program asks participants to refrain from using their devices and engage in face-to-face conversations. Obviously, because of the pandemic, the possibility of meeting up in a local cafe doesn’t currently exist. But the recurring course still encourages participants to meet up (albeit digitally), have a conversation and combat loneliness.

Along with “Coffee Connect,” Schmidt has enjoyed other VSA offerings, such as those dedicated to managing stress and promoting good health.

An hour-long course last week, presented in partnership with Venture Outdoors, was titled “Fit With a Physician,” and featured Dr. Terence Starz, who offered medical advice and reflections on area foliage and wildlife,

Wait: Continued from page 5

of 12 house guests may seem like a lot, but that is not the final count.

“We also have three of my nephews staying with us, who are children of my sister-in-law and brother still in Venezuela,” Rosenblum pointed out. “My sister-in-law is also staying here, so there are 17 of us total.”

While the rabbi is isolated and removed from his South American community, his schedule remains full.

He explained that daily life has become “more and more defined as time goes on. I still have to deal with things in Venezuela

according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

The Reform movement, the largest in the United States, was the first to suspend its official summer camp network. It’s the first time in more than 70 years that the movement is suspending its camps.

The Reform movement is also canceling all of its trips to Israel and other locations, as well as all in-person youth activities. A statement from the Union for Reform Judaism said that

if it ends up becoming possible to open the camps, “doing so will be our top priority.”

A handful of Reform camps not run by the Union for Reform Judaism are not bound by the decision.

Ramah Darom, a Conservative Jewish camp in Georgia, is also canceling its 2020 summer.

An email to the camp community said that Georgia’s regulations currently would not allow them to operate the camp, which was

while strolling through Mellon Park on a socially distanced walk.

Schmidt said she’s enjoyed VSA because of its “welcoming” nature.

“It’s a wonderful free resource, and our end goal is to get it to as many people as we can, and to help them feel more connected and engaged with their community,” said Leff.

In an April 2020 report from Pennsylvania’s Department of Aging, the PA Council on Aging called VSA a “viable option for those looking to connect virtually,” and noted that “the free service offers the opportunity for older adults to teach classes themselves, continue their learning and develop connections with others of similar interest from the comfort of their own home or residence.

Connecting older adults to resources so that they can access these networks will reduce the instances of social isolation.”

Councilperson Erika Strassburger, District 8, has promoted VSA since its inception.

Now, amid the COVID-19 crisis, she is thinking about the program and its ability to foster community in new ways.

When the stay-at-home order went into place, Strassburger began hearing from parents “who were thrust into this new world of basically having two jobs: their full-time job, if they were fortunate enough to have a job and be able to work from home, and then caring for their children and their schooling,” she said.

Because of VSA’s catalogue of live diverse content, Strassburger reached out to Leff and inquired about expanding the demographic.

Leff agreed, and with help from city officials and local partners, VSA broadened its base.

Since March 23, 92 people have joined VSA’s more than 1,000 previously registered users, and in some cases parents have created accounts for children as young as 5 years old, noted Scotland Huber, chief communications officer at Jewish Healthcare Foundation.

Child-centered teachings on the platform

and we have a school and teachers. We have other rabbis there, thank God, my father-in-law is the chief Chabad rabbi and he’s there.”

There are approximately between 7,000 and 7,500 Jews living in Caracas. Rosenblum said almost all are affiliated, making the community seem much larger.

If not for COVID-19, staying in touch with a community 2,400 miles away might have proved difficult. Because of the pandemic, though, he is able to use the same technology rabbis in Pittsburgh are using to stay engaged with members of their congregations that live down the street from them.

“Just today, I finished my first class on Zoom, I have another at 4:30 p.m. and still

another at 9:30 p.m. I also teach bar mitzvah lessons and continue to do that while I’m here on Zoom,” he said.

Although the rabbi and his family reside in Venezuela, his Pittsburgh roots run deep.

His parents live in Pittsburgh, as well as two of his brothers, one of whom, Rabbi Mendel Rosenblum of Chabad of the South Hills, is his twin.

Ironically, Rosenblum is trading information with a Venezuelan who now lives in New York that went home to visit his parents and is now likewise unable to travel back home.

“He lives in Brooklyn and we’re in touch every day, comparing notes — ‘What did you hear?’ ‘What did you find,’” Rosenblum said.

The ex-pat is working to remain

scheduled to open in early June. The camp’s medical committee decided that, even if regulations change, it would be “untenable” to manage the risk posed by COVID-19. Camp Ramah in Canada announced on May 11 that its first session this summer is cancelled. PJC Justin Vellucci is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh. Ben Sales, of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, contributed to this report.

remain limited, but there is a push toward increasing age-appropriate lessons.

One offering currently listed is “GRAN: Intergenerational Story Corner,” a 45-minute course featuring readings and activities dedicated to a particular topic. On May 8, the subject is respect, so apart from enjoying passages from R.J. Palacio’s “Wonder,” a New York Times bestselling children’s novel, participants have the opportunity to make a bookmark, color downloadable images or write responses to prompts about respecting others.

Efforts are still underway to transition VSA into a tool that’s both usable for senior enrichment and child-directed engagement, and Strassburger is optimistic about the path ahead.

Said the councilperson, “This is going to be sort of a one-stop shop for all sorts of neat classes for all ages.” PJC Adam Reihnerz can be reached at areinherz@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

upbeat during his time away from the community he loves.

“There’s a beauty to this time,” he said.

“Despite the negative news, we are all together and bonding. God has given us this gift of time and togetherness.”

Regardless of the uncertainty of the pandemic, Rosenblum has been able to keep his sense of humor: “I joke with people because a lot of times they think a rabbi might have an answer to these types of questions. When they ask me, ‘When is this going to end?’ I tell them, ‘I was asked not to say anything.’” PJC David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

Victims of Pittsburgh synagogue shooting awarded funds from Office for Victims of Crime

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he Office for Victims of Crime of the U.S. Justice Department announced a $3,863,606 Antiterrorism and Emergency Assistance Program grant for the victims of the Oct. 27, 2018 massacre at the Tree of Life building. The Shabbat morning attack left 11 people dead and seven others, including five police officers, injured.

There were 31 people inside the building at the time of the shooting. Scores of others, including family members and first responders, also were adversely affected.

“Eleven innocent people lost their lives and many others were wounded or left deeply scarred by an appalling act of hate committed as they were engaged in the most hallowed

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act of devotion called for by their faith,” said Katharine T. Sullivan, principal deputy assistant attorney general of the Office of Justice Programs, in a prepared statement.

“The taking of innocent lives in a house of worship is not only a shocking crime, it must be a particular abomination in the eyes of God. We grieve for those who were taken, extend prayers to all who are left to mourn and send our support to those walking the long road of healing and recovery.”

“We empty our hearts to the members of the Tree of Life, Dor Hadash and New Light Jewish congregations in the wake of this incomprehensible tragedy,” said Jessica Hart, director of the Office for Victims of

Crime, in a prepared statement. “We recognize that programs being supported by this funding are lifelines to this community; and we pray the services and hope they offer will provide an unwavering foundation for those impacted by this act of hate.”

Almost one in every five hate crime offenses reported to police in 2018 was prompted by religious bias, according to the FBI. The Antiterrorism and Emergency Assistance Program grant “will provide supplemental funds to the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency’s Office of Victims’ Services to support victims by providing individual and group mental health counseling, trauma training

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for therapists and counseling and Stress First Aid for first responders,” according to a press release. “Funding also supports reimbursement for Family Assistance Center costs, victim-related expenses for the three congregations and the Center for Victims Healing Rivers Project, a first‐of‐its‐kind interactive exhibit and wellness center designed to help individuals heal their past trauma and unlock a better future.”

The grant money comes from the Crime Victims Fund that is financed by fines and penalties paid by convicted federal offenders. PJC — Toby Tabachnick MAY 15, 2020 15

Life & Culture With college trips to Israel canceled, new website offers virtual tours — VIRTUAL LIFE —

By David Rullo | Staff Writer

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o paraphrase an idiom: “If you can’t come to Jerusalem, Jerusalem will come to you.”

When COVID-19 began to affect countries across the globe, organizations that had been coordinating and planning trips to Israel were forced to postpone or cancel tours. This created a particular problem for Isaac Minkoff.

As the IACT coordinator for Hillel Jewish University Center in partnership with Combined Jewish Philanthropies, Minkoff is tasked with creating unique educational opportunities and trips to Israel with organizations like Birthright Israel and the Maccabee Task Force.

In other words, Minkoff used to work bringing students to Israel but since the coronavirus pandemic, he has been trying to figure out how to bring Jerusalem to his students.

When the pandemic hit, Minkoff, a University of Pittsburgh graduate, was charged with creating an Israeli experience for students who would not have the opportunity to physically walk through city streets in Jerusalem or visit the country’s historic sites.

He found a solution when Eric Esses, CEO of Upstart Ideas and a partner with CJP, approached IACT coordinators from across the country with the idea of creating a website for students to explore.

The result is Israel Street View. The website utilizes Google Street View, a function of Google Maps and Google Earth that provides interactive panoramas for many of the world’s streets, to bridge the gap between Israel and those unable to visit the country.

Israel Street View, according to Minkoff, is “an immersive experience for our students.”

“We can’t have them walk through a shuk in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv,” he said, “but we can post immersive 360-degree imagery that gives them a flavor of what it will actually be like when they are able to go to Israel.”

Visitors to the site can choose a category and then click on a panoramic photo of a popular attraction in the country, including

Hochman: Continued from page 13

it together, living and dying and gasping on this fragile knob of a planet? That our fates are inextricably tied — that if I cough and fail to cover my mouth, you could get sick?

My father’s mother hoarded twistie-ties and bits of string, aluminum foil and free rain bonnets from the bank. A drawer full of plastic shoehorns. Buttons jumbled in old medicine vials. She’d boast of making a whole tray of cinnamon cookies with a single egg.

Those weren’t idiosyncrasies; they were habits honed by the Depression, the necessary scrimp-and-save of a woman whose husband was gradually disabled from multiple 16 MAY 15, 2020

p Israel Street View offers users a panoramic, 360-degree view of various sites across Israel.

the Western Wall, a cable car in Haifa or the view from Mt. Arbel. The goal is to leave the user with more than simply the memory of a photo of a location on a map.

Minkoff served as co-editor on the team of 13 that created the site, overseeing the blurbs written about the various locations available to view and the website’s written content.

It was exciting “to create the language that we’re using to communicate the importance of each area,” he said, and hopes that the writing communicates “the importance of each area, what each place feels like, what it smells like, what it represents.” He also hopes the blurbs are “as visceral as possible, creating an emotional connection to the imagery without actual being there.”

The interactive experience of Israel Street View does not necessarily end when students close their browsers and walk away from their computers.

For those who live in Israel or have been to the country and think a point of interest should be included, they can click the “Add a Street View” option and submit their suggestion. As long as Google Street View has an image of the location and the site’s

administrators agree that the spot is compelling, it will be added.

Allowing for the addition of a growing number of locations and images means that Israel Street View is never finished. “The project isn’t done,” Minkoff explained. “It’s still growing. That’s why it’s so exciting for me.”

The site offers students and educators an opportunity to use technology in a way that is different than what they might experience in other virtual classroom settings.

“We’re adapting our educational models based off of what we think is most accessible to students,” Minkoff said. “We’ve found that a lot of our students are a little fatigued of the Zoom call.”

The intention is that students will find and use the technology on their own terms, according to Minkoff.

“The website is constantly advertised on social media — Instagram, Facebook — so students are seeing it and they’re liking it,” he said. “I’m allowing them to find it on their own, wherever possible.”

Hillel JUC Executive Director and CEO Daniel Marcus said he was disappointed that the more than 100 students in the

sclerosis, a young mother forced to work — typing, shorthand — to feed her family.

We all carry the stories of our eras, our personal and collective traumas. After my great-uncle died of melanoma at the age of 37, my mother — his protégé and adored niece — pored over medical journals, a self-taught course in what caused cancer.

Years later, as a parent, she drove me nuts by prohibiting dental X-rays, hand-stamps visible only in ultraviolet light, and any candy containing red dye #2.

What will be the legacy of this unnerving time? Will my daughter, decades from now, insist that guests pump a glug of hand sanitizer at the door? Will we adopt new ways of greeting — a bow, perhaps, like the Japanese, or a flutter of jazz hands when we meet for

the first time? Or will we simply return, once the crisis has passed, to former habits, our auto-pilot, atomized lives?

This is the story I want to tell about coronavirus: That we woke up. That we grasped how much our world relies on fundamental trust, how even a handshake is a gesture of good will: no, nothing in my palm can hurt you.

I hope we learn that life is kinder (and air quality improved) if we drive less, shop efficiently, stagger our working hours and telecommute more, if our jobs allow. I hope it is a rebel yell to care for the most vulnerable, to weave a robust safety net that cushions the old, the ill, those with disabilities, those without citizenship. I hope it is reminder of whose work is truly essential — and a call to pay those workers what they deserve.

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Photo provided by Isaac Minkoff

Pittsburgh area who had planned trips to the Jewish state this summer would not be able to go. He does, however, see the Israel Street View program as “a unique educational tool that provides the opportunity to visit Israel together with the students.”

“It is also a resource that students can use on their own to familiarize themselves with the geography of Israel and see what to expect when we can physically travel together, hopefully in the near future,” Marcus said.

And while Minkoff and his team developed the website with college students in mind, they aren’t the only ones that can utilize the site.

“The initial idea was, ‘how do we compensate for the pandemic and the people who were unable to go to Israel?’ but anyone can use it. A 15-year-old can show it, a teacher can use it, you can be sitting with your spouse in your living room and take a look,” he said. “It’s for anyone, no matter your age or capabilities. As long as you have access to a computer you can use the site.” PJC David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

Coronavirus is so serious. We need to cry.

We have to laugh. A joke, even a lame one, works by ratcheting up tension, then releasing it. It’s not a cure, but it’s a tonic, a momentary easing of that ribcage vice, the tangle of dread that wakes me each morning, vague until I remember, like a punch: Oh, yeah. Pandemic.

I hope comedians are scribbling on the backs of envelopes, writing routines that will help us laugh — gently, ironically, and without demeaning another human being.

Why did the coronavirus cross the road?

I don’t know. Wait for it. PJC Anndee Hochman is the author of “Anatomies: A Novella and Stories” and an essay collection, “Everyday Acts & Small Subversions.” She lives in Philadelphia.

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Life & Culture A duo of duck For sauce: 1 pint fresh blueberries 1 cup port wine ½ cup chicken broth ¼ cup orange juice 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar 2 tablespoons honey For garnish: ½ an orange zest

— FOOD —

By Judah Cowen | Special to the Chronicle

W

hile being home the entire week of Passover this year, I had time to experiment with some dishes for my kosher catering business, Elegant Edge. I had not cooked duck for several years and with the extra time I knew I would have during the holiday, I ordered two ducks to experiment with.

One of the dishes was a duck duo that was inspired from a stage, or internship, I did in a French restaurant in Israel while in culinary school. I hope you enjoy this recipe, which I think is something different and fun. I’m now thinking about creating a duck special for one of our new take-out menus!

Photo by Judah Cowen

Duck duo

Butcher duck so you get 2 legs with thighs, 2 wings, 2 breasts or buy separated.

Roast whatever is left together with any fat for about 1 hour to make duck fat.

Strain and store.

Duck Confit 2 duck legs with thighs frenched 4 duck wings, trimmed 1 shallot or ½ red onion Herbs: 3 springs of thyme, plus if you have

other fresh herbs like rosemary or parsley it will only enhance flavor 1 lemon sliced 2 gloves of crushed garlic 1 bay leaf 3 tablespoons salt ¼ teaspoon black pepper 1 cup duck fat For garnish: chopped parsley

1. Layer bottom of small pan or container with half the salt, shallots, herbs, lemon slices and crushed garlic. Put the duck skin side up and then put the other half of the ingredients on top of it. Cover and refrigerate. It is best if you can let it sit 1 or 2 days,

but if you have not planned that far ahead poke some holes in the skin and it will speed up the process and should be good to go.

2. Preheat the oven to 225 F. Melt the duck fat. Wash the duck off to remove the salt and marinade. In a clean pan, arrange the duck pieces in a single layer. Pour the melted duck fat over the duck and place in the oven. Cook for about 2-4 hours until duck is tender and could be pulled off the bone.

Duck Breast Seared 2 boneless duck breasts 2 teaspoons salt ¼ teaspoon black pepper

Judah Cowen is a Pittsburgh-based chef and owner of Elegant Edge Catering Company.

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1. Dry the duck breasts and score the skin/fat in a diamond pattern; make sure not to cut into the meat. Season with salt and pepper. Place skin side down in a cold skillet. Put skillet on medium heat and try not to move it too much or really at all. Cook until most of the fat is rendered and skin is crispy — about 6-10 minutes depending on size. Flip and continue cooking for another 2-3 minutes on medium until internal temp is between 135-165 F, depending on whether you want rare to well done. Take out of pan and let it rest for at least 10 minutes 2. Add the blueberries and the rest of the sauce ingredients — besides those for the garnish — into the pan in which you just cooked the duck. Simmer for about 7-10 minutes.

3. Slice duck breast and spoon blueberry sauce on top of breasts, then sprinkle orange zest on top. PJC

For a complete list of activities and how to help the JCC recover, go to JCCPGH.ORG

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

MAY 15, 2020 17

Celebrations

Torah

Birth

Mip-nei Dar-khei Shalom: For the sake of the ways of peace

HERBST: Drs. Leah and John Herbst of Danville, Pennsylvania, announce the birth of their son, Elliot Joseph. He was born March 24, 2020, at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville. Elliot is the grandson of Jan and Cliff Spungen of Mt. Lebanon and Dianne and Don Herbst of St. Louis, Missouri. He is the great-grandson of Ruth Croop of Mt. Lebanon, and Marge Audrain and Mary Herbst of St. Louis. Elliot is named in loving memory of his paternal great-grandparents, Edy and Ed Spungen.

Bat Mitzvah

ROSENTHAL: Ana Rosenthal, daughter of Benjamin Rosenthal and Rachel Rosenfeld, and sister of Jack, became a bat mitzvah on Saturday, May 3, on Zoom, with Rabbi Jamie Gibson of Temple Sinai officiating. Her virtual simcha included the participation of her grandparents, aunts, uncle and cousins, connecting from Pittsburgh, California, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Israel. Many other dear family members and friends, and her beloved dog Rusty, joined the Zoom event in a show of love and support. Ana is the granddaughter of Jerry Rosenfeld and the late Sandy Rosenfeld of Pittsburgh, Carl and Jadwiga Rosenthal of North Conway, New Hampshire, and Judi Rosenthal of San Jose, California. PJC

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Rabbi James A. Gibson Parshat Behar-Bechukotai Leviticus 25:1-27:34

I

n this week’s Torah portion, BeharBechukotai, we read: “If your kinsman, being in straits, comes under your authority, and you hold him as though a resident alien, let him live by your side, do not exact from him advance or accrued interest, but fear your God. Let him live by your side as your kinsman.

“Do not lend him your money at advance interest, or give him your food at accrued interest. I, the Eternal, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, to be your God” (Leviticus 25.35-38).

The Torah teaches repeatedly that we cannot turn a blind eye to the suffering that goes on around us. This teaching is a powerful reminder of our responsibility to each other as Jews. But what about the wider world in which we live? Do we have any charge to care for non-Jews who also find themselves “in straits,” especially these days, when so many of our neighbors are in dire straits?

There is a passage in the Babylonian Talmud that deals directly with this. In Massechet (tractate) Gittin (divorces) we find the following discussion: “The Mishna teaches: One does not protest against poor gentiles who come to take gleanings, forgotten sheaves and the produce in the field, which is given to the poor although they are meant exclusively for the Jewish poor, on account of the ways of peace (mipnei dar-khei shalom).”

This means we can’t stand on our exclusivity of Jewish rights, even if the Talmud thinks they are, in fact, legitimate. “For the sake of the ways of peace,” we accept non-Jews taking the produce of the field which is dedicated to the Jewish poor. But the passage goes on to offer something even more remarkable: “Similarly, the Sages taught in a baraita (Tosefta 5:4): One sustains poor gentiles with poor Jews, and one visits sick gentiles along with sick Jews and one buries dead gentiles along with dead Jews. All this

is done on account of the ways of peace (mip-nei dar-khei shalom).”

In commenting on this passage, Moses Maimonides (1135-1204) notes in his Hilchot Matanot Ani-yim (“Gifts to the Poor”) 7:7: “They provide for and clothe the poor of gentiles along with the poor of Israel for the sake of peaceful relations (see Babylonian Talmud Gittin 61a and Bava Batra 9a). And if there is a poor person who goes door to door, they are not obligated to give him a large gift, but rather they give him a small gift. It is forbidden to turn away a poor person who asks empty handed, even if you give him a single dry fig, as it is said, (Psalms 74:21) Let not the downtrodden be turned away disappointed; [let the poor and needy praise Your name].”

I have spent more than 30 years in Pittsburgh working with both Jewish and non-Jewish poor and suffering. Over that time, some have questioned my priorities, declaring that my first and sole responsibility is to the Jewish people and its needs.

I profoundly disagree. Some have said derisively that I must believe in tikkun olam, the repair of the world, a concept that appears nowhere in Torah or rabbinic text, except as a mystical concept in medieval literature.

I can only answer that this phrase, mipnei dar-khei shalom, does appear in the Talmud and Tosefta, as cited above. As a consequence, I work to ease the plight of Pittsburgh’s hungry and destitute, mipnei dar-khei shalom. I work to foster better relations between Jews and Christians and Muslims and Hindus and others, mipnei dar-khei shalom. I work to combat racism in our region and stand with African American and Latinx leaders, as well as those who work with immigrants who feel alone and under siege, mipnei dar-khei shalom, for the sake of the ways of peace.

This is not, of course, the exclusive Jewish value by which Torah commands us to live. Other Jewish values, like Torah study and prayer, Jewish ritual practice, integrity in relationships, standing with our people in good and bad times, all are essential to leading a fulfilling, Jewish life. PJC Rabbi James A. Gibson is senior rabbi at Temple Sinai. This column is a service of the Greater Pittsburgh Rabbinic Association.

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Obituaries BERMAN: Evelyn R. Berman: 97, of Pittsburgh, passed away of natural causes on May 5, 2020. A Pittsburgh native and graduate of Westinghouse High School, Evelyn was always the smart, adorable redhead and was married for 62 years to George Berman, who predeceased her in 2010. After raising their four children, she earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree of arts in education from the University of Pittsburgh, and for many years devotedly served as an elementary teacher in the Pittsburgh Public Schools.

Formerly of Highland Park and Squirrel Hill, she is remembered lovingly by her sons, Mark (Beth) Berman and Robin (Nancy) Berman, and her daughter, Cantor Laura Berman; five grandchildren, Lia (Michael) Berman, Richard (Ellen) Stern, Dan (Laura) Berman, David Stern and Sam Berman; five great-grandchildren, other relatives and friends, particularly those from the Canterbury Place care team who became endeared to her during her recent three years residence. Her eldest, Gwen Berman Stern, predeceased her in 2009. Known for her love of reading and puzzles, ever-present smile, warmth, spirited love of life, and perseverance, Evelyn grew ever more loving as she aged — a beautiful legacy. Evelyn had asked that donations be made to the Children’s Section of the Squirrel Hill Branch of Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, services and interment are private. Shiva will be observed virtually and a memorial service will be planned for a later date. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. schugar.com GELLER: Rose Geller (05/16/1947— 05/03/2020) passed away very peacefully on May 3, 2020. She courageously fought a three-year battle with cancer. Rose was an incredible inspiration and friend to many people. Rose is survived by her loving husband of 60 years, Dr. Joshua Geller of Pittsburgh; sons David Geller of Orlando; Aaron (Sharon) Geller of New Hampshire; Gary Geller of Pittsburgh; and three grandchildren. If you wish to donate in honor of Rose, please consider the Susan G. Komen Foundation as Rose lost her mother at the age of 12 to breast cancer (ww5.komen.org.)

Funeral services were held Friday, May 8, 2020, and were livestreamed at us02web. zoom.us/j/84975136600. Services entrusted to Beth Shalom Memorial Chapel, 640 Lee Road, Orlando, Florida. bethshalommemorialchapel.com LALLI: Marvin J. Lalli, 80, of Pittsburgh passed away on May 6, 2020, in Boca Raton, Florida. Marvin was born in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, to Nick and Jennie Lalli on Jan. 17, 1940. He celebrated the last bar mitzvah at the Canonsburg Synagogue and he graduated from Canonsburg High School in 1957.

Marvin went on to earn a degree from the

Duquesne University School of Pharmacy in 1962 where he would later serve as the president of the alumni association, earn his PharmD, and teach. Marvin also served in the U.S. Air Force. He spent the majority of his career working in the university hospitals in Pittsburgh for Eli Lilly & Co., and later Roche. Marvin’s contributions to his community were abundant, including to his beloved Beth El Congregation in the South Hills of Pittsburgh, the Community Liver Alliance, and — in recent years — mentoring Pittsburgh Public Schools students via the United Way. Marvin is survived by his wife, Myra Katzman Lalli of Pittsburgh; son Ian Lalli of Doylestown, Pennsylvania; son Howard Lalli of Atlanta, Georgia; daughter Diane Lalli Saketkhou of Boca Raton, Florida; brother Bernie Lalli of Cecil Township, Pennsylvania; sister Frieda Lalli of Pittsburgh; ten grandchildren; and many cousins, nieces, nephews and great-nieces and great-nephews. Perhaps most notably, Marvin is survived by myriad friends. As his mother, Jennie, might have said: Marvin never met a stranger. Services and interment private. Memorial donations may be made to Beth El Congregation or the Community Liver Alliance. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. schugar.com NADZAM: John Thomas Nadzam, 75, of Squirrel Hill, died on Tuesday, May 5, 2020. Loving husband of Eileen Zytnick Nadzam; brother of Richard Nadzam and the late Charles, James, Robert and Ann Nadzam; and a son of the late George and Alice Nadzam. John had two master’s degrees and was a professor at the community college until his retirement. He was a student of yoga, tai chi, aikido, meditation and philosophy. A memorial service will be held at the Olmo Ling Meditation Center, 1101 Greenfield Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15217 on June 25, 2020. Time to be determined.

John’s family would like to extend a special thank you to AHN Healthcare at Home: Home Hospice and the Olmo Ling Center for Meditation. Professional Services Trusted to D’Alessandro Funeral Home & Crematory, Ltd. (Lawrenceville), dalessandroltd.com ROSENFELD: Barbara Rosenfeld, on Thursday, May 7, 2020. Beloved wife of Al Rosenfeld. Sister of Patricia (late Marvin) Rosenthale and Judith Baer. Aunt of Stephen ( Jessica) Sinaiko and Daniel (Marina) Sinaiko. Great-aunt of Nathan, Rachel, Alessandra and Emma Sinaiko. Services and interment private.

Contributions may be made to Rodef Shalom Congregation, 4905 Fifth Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15213. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. schugar.com

Please see Obituaries, page 20

www.pittsburghjewishchronicle.org PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

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

In memory of …

A gift from …

In memory of …

Patricia & Charles Bluestone & Family ......Marian B. Unger

Fred Rubin ......................................................................... Martin Rubin

Sherry Cartiff ..........................................................................Helen Zeff

Goldie Samuels............................................................................Mother

Sherry Cartiff .........................................................................Morris Zeff

Suzanne Serbin...............................................Edward A. Lenchner

Robert and Ellen Garvin .............................................. Ruth Garvin

Patricia Green Shapiro............................................ Rose Ziff Stern

Clarence “Code” Gomberg .......................................Anne Marks

Patricia Green Shapiro.........................................Ida Stern Cohen

Libby Israel .................................................................Jennie Jacobson

Rosalyn Shapiro ...........................................................Irving Shapiro

Marcia S. Lieberman.......................................Leonard Silverblatt

Susan Snider ....................................................................Edwin Snider

Janice Mankin ................................................................ Saul Fineberg

Merle Stolzenberg .......................................Irving M. Stolzenberg

Beverly S. Marks..............................................................Ruth Schenk

The Rev. Marcia A. Tremmel ......................Sylvia A. Livingston

Marc Rice ..........................................................................Sylvia Gerson

Iris Amper Walker ..........................................................Lillian Amper

THIS WEEK’S YAHRZEITS — Sunday May 17: Herman Barnett, Myer D. Berman, Ida Burns, Robert K. Finkelhor, Henry Fried, Ernest Gartner, Elise K. Goldman, Martin S. Kaiserman, Arthur Seymour Markowitz, Joseph Price, Sylvia Shaer, Meyer Weinberg Monday May 18: Herman Barnett, Rae Rubin Farber, Jennie Gross, Adolph Hersh, Edward A. Lenchner, Lizzie Lieberman, Helen G. Match, Arnold Ivan Meyers, Mary Rotter, David Rubenstein, Morris L. Sands, Lillian Goodman Smith, Ed Snider*, Fannie Rosenthal Weinberg Tuesday May 19: Edna Ruth Goldberg Abelson, Gitel Busis, Morris Fivars, Herbert L. Friedlander, Sol S. Goldstein, Wolf Morris Kaiser, Clara Sigal Kwall, Jack H. Lembersky, Louis Marcus, Mildred Greenwald Miller, Zalman Miller, Aaron Pattak, Hildegard Perlstein, Isadore Rosen, Nathan Sadowsky, Leo E. Sattler*, Anna Stein Wednesday May 20: Ida Stern Cohen, Charles Friedberg, Jean K. Gefsky, Emil Geminder, Samuel Goldberg, Irving Levenson, Sarah Holstein Lindenberg, Joseph Orlansky, Hyman Rogal, Ida Sacks, Helen Werner Thursday May 21: Dr. Henry H. Black, Abe Bortz, Ida Eisen, Mollie Klater, Macy L. Leuin, Sophia Meyer, Irwin Pariser, Betsy Sachs, Milton Sadowsky, Henry L. Schutzman, Herman S. Schwartz, Mary Sinaikin, Meyer J. Slotsky, Benjamin Solomon, Harry Tyson, Bessie Chait Weinberg Friday May 22: Henry M. Abrams, Maurice D. Azen, Joseph H. Breman, Isadore Brody, Irving Caplan, Ralph Covel, Theodore T. Davidson, Harry Feldman, Jennie Kramer, Donald W. Levenson, Anna Levy, Eva Cohen Roth Levy, Martin Lewinter, Bertha Esther Miller, Raymond Rosenson, Samuel Schwartzman, Lillian Staman, Jeanette Stern, Clara Stevenson, Rebecca Zwibel Saturday May 23: I. Aleck Brand, Lillian Braun, Henry Cramer, Meyer M. Diznoff, Pesach Aaron Katz, Shirley Kress, Dorothy Natterson Maas, Edward Pearlstein, Abe J. Perlman, Mollie Reich, Emil Rosenthal, Rose Steinberg, Rose Stern, Esther Miller Swartz, Esther Weinberg, Milton Saul Weinberg, Rachel Dugan Weisberg

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Obituaries Obituaries: Continued from page 19

SCHAFFEL: Miriam Glassner Schaffel, age 95 of Lincoln, Massachusetts, formerly of Pittsburgh.

April 12, 2020.

Beloved wife of the late Edgar L. Schaffel and sister of the late Leonard E. Glassner and the late longtime companion of Leonard Weitzman. Loving mother of Margie Schaffel and husband Peter Belson of Brookline, Massachusetts, and Jane Pace and husband Jack Pace of Danvers, Massachusetts. Also survived by her grandson, Aaron Belson and his wife, Ashley Delehunt, of Durango, Colorado, and her granddaughter, Hannah Belson of Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Memorial service will be held in Pittsburgh at a later date. The family requests memorials to Massachusetts COVID-19 Relief Fund, care of Foundation for Business Equity, 265 Franklin St., Box 304, Boston, MA 02110, or online at macovid19relieffund.org; the COVID-19 relief fund of The Pittsburgh Foundation, at pittsburgh foundation.org/emergency-fund-release or to The Pittsburgh Foundation, Five PPG Pl., Suite 250, Pittsburgh, PA 15222; or to Community Access to the Arts, 420 Stockbridge Road, Suite 2, Great Barrington, MA 01230 or cataarts.org. To share a memory or offer a condolence, visit concordfuneral.com.

Nurse: Continued from page 4

What does it really mean?’ And I just don’t know what to say, because it’s just bad. I don’t want to say that usually the doctor is calling you because your loved one is going to die in an hour. So I try to say, ‘He probably called you just because the medications that we’ve been using are maxed out. We’re doing what we can, but the doctor wanted you to be here just in case something happened, and we wanted you to talk with your loved one in case he passes. We didn’t want you not to see him, or not to be able to say goodbye.’”

With COVID-19, the difficulty is that many family members “still don’t realize” what’s happening, she said. “It’s different

SELIG: Selig, Don; of Bethel Park, passed away on Wednesday, May 6, 2020, at the age of 80. He was born to the late Salomon Selig and Elly (Stern) Selig.

Beloved husband to the late Judie (Leff) Selig for 47 years. Father of Jamie (Nate) Bennett and Steven (Haliel) Selig. Loving grandfather of Elizabeth Bennett, Greg Bennett, Bailey Bennett, Shayna Bennett, Eliana Bennett, Yishai Selig, Jonah Selig and Sivia Selig. Loving brother of Sam (Joy) Selig of Israel. Also survived by nieces and nephews, and great-nieces and greatnephews. Services and interment private.

Contributions may be made to Beth El Congregation to the Rabbi’s Discretionary Fund, 1900 Cochran Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15220, or to Amedisys Hospice Foundation, 480 Johnson Road, Suite 230, Washington, PA 15301. The family of Don Selig wants to thank the Amedisys Care Team for the care, support and love that they provided to him and the family during this time. You are all amazing. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. family owned and operated.

SILVERMAN : Thomas Nelson Silverman, Esq., 76, departed this world, Monday, May 4, 2020, from his beloved home in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Tom relocated to Palm Beach County where he was held in high esteem

by the community practicing for more than 45 years as an AV Preeminent rated attorney with an emphasis in taxation, estate planning and trust and estate administration. Tom was destined to be a lawyer — it was his true calling and absolute passion. He enjoyed helping others through difficult periods of their lives, ultimately becoming the prime pillar of support for them and their families.

One of Tom’s proudest moments was when he became the president, secretary and general counsel of The Kantner Foundation, Inc. a not-for-profit corporation in which he gave of himself tirelessly for more than 25 years, celebrating its commitment to the education and entrepreneurship of future generations. As a graduate of Harvard Law School and founder and senior partner of his law firm, Thomas N. Silverman, P.A., Tom utilized his utmost knowledge and education to serve others selflessly. He had a knack for turning clients into friends and friends into clients, and took joy in encouraging others to experience the same independence that his education provided him. He was a true self-made man, phenomenal mentor, and valued confidant. While his work gave him much purpose, Tom found true happiness and joy in embracing his role as a husband and father. His pride sought his family through the highs and lows of their lives — as a beloved husband

to Nina (Brookner), his wife of 33 years; a devoted father to his two children, Sam and Faren; and a Grampi to Harry, his daughter’s fur baby. His fondest memories were those with him and his family traveling the world together as a complete family unit.

Yet, he also valued intimate one-on-one moments between Nina, Sam and Faren. He spoke to each of his children at least once daily, and supported their passions and unique values. Tom shared a special bond with his daughter, his “little one,” and cherished his role of being a Grampi to Harry.

Tom was also an avid reader, nature lover, professional Italian food eater and sensitive, generous soul. He had numerous friendships exceeding more than 50 years that he enjoyed dearly. His thoughtfulness knew no bounds, as he continued to support his family unconditionally throughout his life and posthumously. As a family, my mother, brother and I are grateful to have had a wonderfully exceptional man in our lives who taught us about partnership, trust, mutual respect, true character, grit, kindness, love and staying connected as a family. We know that his soul is at peace and reunited with his previously deceased mother and father, Phyllis Lhormer and Sidney Silverman, his stepfather, Arch Lhormer, and dearly loved furry friend, Lucky Silverman. Due to the ongoing pandemic, services and interment will be private. Donations in Tom’s memory can be made to Wounded Warriors Project (woundedwarriorproject.org), as he was a war veteran himself. PJC

from when patients pass in the neuro-ICU. I don’t know what it is, but family members seem to be more aggressive with end-of-life care with COVID patients. They want to do a lot more. They don’t feel like it was these patients’ time, like it came too soon, like one day they were fine and the next day they’re dying. So it’s just very difficult to explain to them what is actually happening.”

Levine works three 12-hour night shifts per week. To get to work, the Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh graduate takes the subway from Washington Heights. In April, the commute was easier, as Hertz provided free vehicle rentals to New York City health care workers.

Once the Hertz program ended on April 30, Levine returned to her regular mode of travel, “which was actually really scary,” she said. “It was just me, by myself, which was good. It was

nice to see nobody on the subway.”

But there was something unnerving, she said, about coming to “the Times Square stop and it’s completely empty.”

In recent days, there have been more “people on the subway and I want to tell them to go home, stay home, it’s not over yet, but people are getting antsy,” she said.

Levine stays grounded by phoning her family frequently.

“I used to call them maybe once a week,” she said. “I call them every day now. I speak to my sister (in Israel) a lot. I Zoom with my nieces and nephews as much as I can. I try to schedule FaceTiming with my friends, and I work out when I can. I’m just doing a lot of self-care.”

Levine said she understands that quarantining is difficult, especially in a city like

New York where many people lack large residential spaces like those in Pittsburgh, but it’s important to practice social distancing.

The recommendations are challenging, but if two months of caring for 18- to 90-yearolds, some of whom were otherwise healthy prior to COVID-19, has proven anything, it’s that perseverance and responsibility are the ways forward, she explained.

“We still have people coming in. COVID is still here. We still don’t know exactly the pathophysiology of it all,” said Levine.

“People think that they’re untouchable for whatever reason, and they can’t get it, but everybody can get it. We just need to hang in there. Everybody’s in the same boat.” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

Maker of Star of David memorials outside Tree of Life dies at 69

G

reg Zanis, who for the last 20 years made and delivered memorial markers to the sites of mass shootings, died May 4 of cancer. He was 69.

Zanis founded Crosses for Losses as a tribute to his father-in-law who was killed in 1996, according to USA Today.

“It really helped me with my grieving process,” Zanis said in 1999.

Since the late 1990s, Zanis made more than 26,000 crosses to honor the victims of massacres and erected them at shooting sites including Columbine, Newtown,

20 MAY 15, 2020

p Tree of Life building

Photo by Maureen Kelly Busis

San Bernardino, Parkland, Las Vegas, Thousand Oaks, Dayton and El Paso.

Shortly after the massacre at the Tree of Life building on October 27, 2018, Zanis came to Pittsburgh and placed 11 Star of David memorials outside the synagogue to honor each of the 11 victims who were killed during the anti-Semitic rampage.

Zanis retired from his organization in late 2019, according to

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

USA Today, saying the work had become too much for him personally and financially.

“I had a breaking point in El Paso,” USA Today reported Zanis saying, referring to the massacre at a Walmart there. “I hadn’t slept for two days, it was 106 degrees and I collapsed from the pressure when I heard there were two more victims of the mass shooting.”

The Illinois resident built all the crosses, Stars of David, and crescent moons for Muslims, by hand, according to CNN. PJC — Toby Tabachnick PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

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DOWNTOWN • $975,000 Gateway Towers. Primo sensational double unit. Over 3000 square feet. 4 bedrooms, 4.5 baths. View of all three rivers. New windows installed (approx $70,000). The best unobstructed space and views in Pittsburgh. This is a full service building and PET FRIENDLY. UNIVERSITY SQUARE • OAKLAND • $140,000 2 bedroom updated welcoming corner unit with lots of light. One of the few with lots of windows. Easy living. All utilities and taxes are included in monthly fee.

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Upper and lower unit available. Both apartments have: 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths including tub. Eat-in kitchen, expansive living room and separate area for dining room/ playroom/office. Renovated bathrooms, new hardwood and carpet throughout, freshly painted. Outdoor space offers large, wrap-around porch, flat backyard and detached garage.

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MAY 15, 2020 21

Community Mother’s Day at JAA Families enjoyed Mother’s Day at the Jewish Association on Aging with window visits and a parade.

p Vehicles line up outside of Riverview Towers for the parade.

p Hope the car is parked.

p Families enjoy Mother’s Day at JAA.

p Through the looking glass

Digital Zionism

Shabbat Shalom

p Bnei Akiva of Pittsburgh hosted its annual Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha’atzmaut ceremony over Zoom.

Screenshot provided by Benjamin Marcus

p Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Young Adult Division hosted a Virtual Spiritual Shabbat Social with Chabad Young Professionals, OneTable and Repair the World on May 1.

Screenshot courtesy of Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh

22 MAY 15, 2020

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Photos courtesy of Jewish Association on Aging

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Community No bib, no problem

Zooming ahead t Shira Sutofsky, of Squirrel Hill, ran 13.1 miles on May 4. Like others who planned on completing the half marathon, relay and marathon distances, Sutofsky was forced to readjust plans following the 2020 DICK’s Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon canceling due to COVID-19.

Photo courtesy of Shira Sutofsky

Surprise, you’re appreciated Yeshiva Schools teachers woke up to a surprise on May 4. Each teacher was recognized as being an amazing online teacher with a yard sign.

Chabad of Squirrel Hill Bar and Bat Mitzvah Club students enjoyed recent learning sessions.

p Boys learned about Aaron, the first high priest, and the importance of peace.

Rabbi Aaron Herman shared tips on mediation.

p Girls learned about Miriam and her example of faith, and designed a mezuzah cover with kits they received.

Screenshots courtesy of Chabad of Squirrel Hill

Challah baking takes on greater purpose Chabad of Squirrel Hill provided DIY Challah Kits. Donations made toward the project supported the family of Rabbi Benny Wolff, a Chabad rabbi of Hanover, Germany, who tragically died from COVID-19, leaving behind a wife and eight children. u Aaron and Eli Fisher enjoy shaping their challahs.

Photos courtesy of Chabad of Squirrel Hill

p Girls Hebrew language teacher Ravid Pasternak stands beside her sign.

p Girls elementary teacher Ella Rittri and her son Yonah.

Photos courtesy of Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

p Mrs. Rhoda Serbin, 89, bakes challah for the first time.

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

MAY 15, 2020 23

KOSHER MEATS

Empire Kosher Fresh Boneless Chicken Breasts

All- natural poultr y whole chicke ns , breast s , wings and more All-natural, corn-fed beef steaks, roasts, ground beef and more Variety of deli meats and franks Available at select Giant Eagle stores.

Visit gianteagle.com for location information.

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Price effective Thursday, May 14 through Wednesday, May 20, 2020

Available at 24 MAY 15, 2020

and PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

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