Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle 6-12-20

June 12, 2020 | 20 Sivan 5780

Candlelighting 8:33 p.m. | Havdalah 9:42 p.m. | Vol. 63, No. 24 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

Jewish Pittsburghers spring to action after the death of George Floyd

NOTEWORTHY LOCAL My New Summer

Chabad centers collaborating during coronavirus crisis

By David Rullo | Staff Writer

Parlaying camp skills into a permanent job

D

protests even though, “it’s not without anxiety that we do things like come together in large crowds for moments that we hope are peaceful but might turn violent. It’s about peaceful protests and the right to free expression,” said Symons, who directs the JCC’s Center for Loving Kindness.

For the last three years, Symons said, the Center for Loving Kindness has been engaged in conversation about privilege and “how it impacts our neighbors and how we redefine the term ‘neighbor’ from geographic terms to a moral concept.”

“Self-education” is a first step individuals can take to learn about “systemic racism and white privilege,” Symons suggested. “A second step is to just acknowledge the people in our lives who are not like us and how difficult this is for them.”

The 412 Black Jewish Collaborative, created in 2019, has been working to catalyze

espite — or perhaps because of — the social distancing mandated during the pandemic, the Chabad centers of Pittsburgh have found new ways to collaborate and bring unique programming to the Greater Pittsburgh Jewish community.

The new virtual events are attracting large numbers of people together from across the region, a scenario that was more difficult to muster when hearing a speaker required crossing a bridge or going through a tunnel.

“We’re trying to do programs that aren’t just another class,” explained Chabad of Squirrel Hill Rabbi Yisroel Altein. “We’re trying things that are out of the ordinary and that we may not have done on our own but that we can join together and offer as a dynamic program for all the different Chabad centers together.”

That type of dynamic programming was on full display Tuesday, May 19, when Chabad of Squirrel Hill, along with partners Chabad of Monroeville, Chabad of the South Hills, Chabad Young Professionals, Chabad of CMU and Chabad House on Campus welcomed Rivkah Slonim for her presentation “What Hollywood Gets Right and Wrong About the Show ‘Unorthodox.’”

The Zoom event was viewed on over 250 computers and devices. Since more than one person could watch the presentation on each device, that means that the actual number of attendees could have been closer to 300 or 350. In fact, so many people tuned into the event, Altein had to subscribe to a higher Zoom plan minutes before the program was scheduled to start to accommodate all of the viewers.

Building on of the success of this initial program, Altein’s wife and Chabad of Squirrel Hill co-director, Chani Altein, created the

Please see Floyd, page 14

Please see Chabad, page 14

Page 3

LOCAL Cyril Wecht speaks out

The former Allegheny County Coroner looks at the Floyd case Page 5

 Pittsburghers protest the death of George Floyd on Grant Street on June 1.

Photo courtesy of Ron Symons

LOCAL A new face at CDS

By David Rullo | Staff Writer

I Aaron Walker to head Jewish Life and Learning Page 7

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n the wake of George Floyd’s death during his arrest by Minneapolis police officers, Jewish Pittsburghers have expressed outrage and solidarity with the black community by attending protests and vigils, creating learning opportunities and working to find other ways to show their support.

Since Floyd’s death on March 25, Rabbi Ron Symons, director of Jewish Life at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, has attended protests downtown and in East Liberty.

“With the murder of George Floyd, once again, we have uncovered the ugliness of racism, of institutional racism, of systemic racism, of police brutality,” Symons said.

“We have a responsibility to not just have this one be the ‘next one’ but be ‘the one’ to move the nation.”

It is important to participate in peaceful

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LOCAL Jewish esports

LOCAL Youth on racism

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Headlines Playing the long game: Lost Tribe connects Jewish youth through esports — LOCAL —

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

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hen Lost Tribe Esports was launched in 2016, some people questioned the organization’s founder, Lenny Silberman, on the likelihood of teens congregating online, for prolonged periods, with limited in-person activity.

Two and a half months into a pandemic, during which time schooling transitioned to a virtual setting, live sports disappeared and digital engagement largely supplanted face-to-face meetings, the idea to bring home-bound Jewish teens together by the click of a button almost seems prescient, explained Silberman, a former Pittsburgh resident.

Lost Tribe’s plan to coalesce Jewish youth was in place well before people began sheltering indoors, and while the pandemic is this “big black cloud over the world,” Silberman said, “there is a silver lining, and that lining is gaming.”

From the start, Lost Tribe has been a hub for socialization, fun and competition. But as life grew discordant throughout March and April, a surge of new members joined the digital community.

Since March 15, 2020, the organization has welcomed 2,966 new gamers and social media followers. “That’s a 517 percent growth since the COVID-19 shutdown began,” noted Brian Soileau, Lost Tribe’s director of Community & Project Management.

Those rising figures mirror a larger trend.

Nintendo Switch “more than doubled its sales of a year ago while selling a record

number of hardware units in the U.S. for a March month,” reported the NPD group, a market research company.

U.S. video game usage during peak hours increased 75% during the first week that the quarantine went into effect, noted Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg, during a conversation with Bloomberg Markets.

“As the quarantines are lifted,” a correction will occur, Jason Lake, founder and CEO of Complexity, a gaming organization, told the Washington Post, but even with the eventual decrease, “esports has been forever popularized in a meaningful way.”

Lost Tribe sees its place within the digital stratosphere of players, consoles and software as the “global home base for Generation Z Jewish gamers.” As such, the nonprofit hosts regular online tournaments, monitors communication, ensures a safe space and partners with multiple Jewish organizations, so that users develop bonds within the greater Jewish community, noted Silberman.

“We see ourselves as facilitators,” he said.

“We see ourselves as creators. We see ourselves as inventors. We see ourselves selling popcorn at intermission. We see ourselves doing whatever it takes to have impact.”

Making an impact, though, will require more than a single season on Madden NFL20 or a visit to the arena in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

For that reason, Lost Tribe is committed to “the long game,” explained Silberman.

Given the current situation with COVID19, kids are “gaming a lot right now. We know that. We want to try and make it so that there’s a positive experience and that they might learn something, they might do

didn’t create virtual gaming that kids are playing. This is the way Generation Z socializes.” Lost Tribe simply meets kids “where they are.”

In recent months, an increasing number of organizations has recognized the value in this approach and joined with Lost Tribe in promoting Jewish youth engagement.

Apart from early partners BBYO and the JCC Maccabi Games, synagogues from both coasts and Jewish youth groups, such p Gamers at 2019 BBYO convention

Photo courtesy of Lost Tribe Esports as NCSY and USY, have reached out to work with Lost Tribe, explained Silberman.

While partnership and user growth something, they might make new friends are cause for celebration, Silberman has an and be involved with other organizations. So even greater goal. when I say, ‘the long game,’ it’s not a three“All roads lead to Israel,” he said. “Could month, six-month, a year potential, it’s really you imagine having all these different looking at three years down the road and culminating experiences in Israel where staying the course.” kids will be able to not only play together, Nearly 35 years in Jewish communal life but have a traditional Israeli Jewish has given Silberman a bird’s-eye view of teen experience of touring, education and engagement and the struggles organizations meeting new friends?” face when vying for young people’s attention.

As it currently stands, many of Lost Prior to founding Lost Tribe, he was CEO of Tribe’s users “would never think about going Henry Kaufmann Camps, a vice president at to Israel. It’s just not who they are, it’s not JCC Association of North America, director their DNA,” Silberman said. That calculation of Emma Kaufmann Camp and director changes, however, with partnerships and of sports and recreation at the Jewish opportunities. If a gamer can go to Israel, Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh. enjoy some competition, meet others in the “I’ve been doing this since my first days at startup and gaming space, “and by the way, the Pittsburgh JCC. You got to go where the experience a little Jewish education, how teens are at. When the teens were in front of cool is that?”

Mineo’s, I went in front of Mineo’s. When the Playing the long game will require additeens were hanging out at the ball field — if tional effort, noted Silberman, but when Lost it was Allderdice, or Minadeo or Wightman Tribe gets there it will be next-level. PJC — I went wherever they were to be able to Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ bring them into activities at the JCC,” said Silberman. “We didn’t invent esports. We pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Headlines My New Summer seeks to save this season — and those to come — LOCAL —

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

F

or college students and recent grads whose summer plans have been upended by the pandemic — and for those who could just use some guidance parlaying camp experience into a permanent job — My New Summer is here to help.

Founded by Squirrel Hill resident Andrew Exler, a former BBYO regional director, My New Summer helps Jewish camps and campers with job placement and professional development needs. “At the end of the day, our mission is to help camp people prepare for what’s next,� said Exler, 29.

Understanding “what’s next,� however, requires appreciating what came first.

During his senior year at Ohio University, Exler interviewed for a sales position with a professional sports team. “I will never forget sitting in the room and this guy is looking at me, and looked at my resume, and asked me, ‘Where’s your real resume?’ And he was just berating me and saying that having camp on there was a joke and that I needed real experience.�

As a soon-to-be college grad, Exler didn’t know what to say. He had completed an internship with the University of Pittsburgh’s

p Andrew Exler, left, Brad Lewis and Phillip Gelman at Emma Kaufmann Camp

Photo courtesy of Andrew Exler

athletics department and at Ohio University, but the majority of Exler’s experience came from his time at Emma Kaufmann Camp, where for 16 summers he rose through the ranks of camper, counselor, unit head and ultimately, athletics supervisor.

After experiencing the discomfort of having to defend himself to a potential employer, Exler drove home and called a mentor. “Basically, what I said was, ‘What do I do moving forward? Because I can’t take camp off of my resume or else I’ll have nothing, and I can’t lie.’�

Exler’s mentor asked him a question,

ON YOUR GRADUATION FROM ALLDERDICE HIGH SCHOOL 2020

Please see Summer, page 15

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media marketing that led to the creation of his own firm, Andrew Exler Consulting.

As a consultant, Exler relied on his own talents and developed partnerships nationwide. He eventually began wondering what would happen to others who, like him, had dedicated their summers to camp.

As he started asking around, it became clear that not only were camp staffers affected by COVID-19 closures, but college students who had secured summer internships were also seeking alternative endeavors after those previous commitments cratered.

Exler reached out to a friend, Tyler Pepe, who also worked at BBYO and spent multiple summers at an overnight camp, and pitched the idea of a space for “camp people� to virtually connect, network, receive interview advice and gain resume help. Pepe became co-founder, and last month My New Summer launched.

Within weeks, the organization, which is currently seeking nonprofit status, built a platform and attracted more than 150 LinkedIn members. “We’re receiving resumes every day,� said Exler. And, along with questions from job seekers are requests from employers “asking if they’re able to partner.�

My New Summer already has had several success stories, but Exler is particularly

Times like these are why we¡re here

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which nearly eight years later rests at the heart of My New Summer: “How are you going to sell your camp experience?�

That question helped Exler realize that he had acquired expertise that would be valuable to future employers. “Because of camp, I have interpersonal communication skills, my time management skills were perfected, I know how to handle grieving processes, I know how to handle disputes, I can come up with resolutions to any argument, I can deal with programs, I can work together,� Exler said. “As a unit head, I was managing 25-plus staff and 200-plus campers. Another summer, I was the athletics supervisor, so I was managing staff, I was putting on tournaments,� as well as handling “other responsibilities that you don’t think about when you’re at camp because camp is supposed to be fun.�

For Exler, the trick became articulating his abilities to those who simply saw summers wasted away. “At that moment I kind of realized that with my other job interviews I’m just going to sell the hell out of everything I learned at camp,� he said.

In the ensuing years, Exler took positions in the Jewish world (BBYO KMR regional director; director of content and strategy at Lost Tribe Esports) and elsewhere. He worked for his father’s accounting practice and amassed an understanding of social

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JUNE 12, 2020â&#x20AC;&#x192;3

Headlines Advocating for the black community is a Jewish responsibility, say Pittsburgh students

for me because I can’t breathe.” world’ very literally: Take care of the environment, take care The North Allegheny of the planet. Now reflecting Intermediate High School back on that, it’s not just about

By Kayla Steinberg | Staff Writer student says her view of racism, that. It’s about the people in the shaped by her experiences in li Sigman, 21, remembers that after the world and how we have to make Pittsburgh, was shaken by George shooting at the Tree of Life building sure that we are preserving the Floyd’s death. “I wasn’t really in October 2018, there was an lives of everyone.” aware of the level of [racism] in As executive board members outpouring of support, including the Islamic other places in the country,” she Center of Pittsburgh raising money for those for the Pitt Hillel Jewish Student said. “I was in a bubble at first, directly affected by the attack, and Christian Union, Sigman and Dash have and this burst the bubble.” ministries providing a stream of doughnuts helped create social media  A poster created by Floyd’s death also has Jessica Daninhirsch and bagels for students at the Hillel Jewish posts for Hillel JUC in the spirit after the death prompted Daniel Hochman, of tikkun olam and tzedek, of George Floyd.

University Center of Pittsburgh. a rising sophomore at Pitt and Image provided by interorganizational liaison for Now, in this moment, the Pitt junior tzedek tirdof (justice, justice Jessica Daninhirsch. finds it imperative that Jews stand with the you shall pursue). The posts Pitt Hillel JSU, to reflect more include resources for education and activism, deeply on racism and justice. “George Floyd’s black community.

“So many other communities came and offer support for fellow student groups death was recorded, but [I’m] just thinking and supported the Jewish community in like Pitt’s Black Action Society. about how many deaths are not recorded,” he “We’re here to stand with the other orga- said. “There’s never justice for them.”

Pittsburgh,” he said. “They did such a good job of being there for us and being our allies that nizations at Pitt and in Pittsburgh and in our While these students support the black we want to show that we are also amazing allies, country,” said Sigman. “It’s so important that we lives matter cause, some struggle with the and we want to be there for other communities are with them and we try to use our resources Black Lives Matter network, which considers not only in their time of need but at all times.” and our privilege to amplify their voices.”

Israel an “apartheid state” in the invest/divest Jessica Daninhirsch, 16, hopes to share “Cut Military Expenditures Brief ” on the Sigman is one of many Pittsburgh students who consider supporting the black commu- black voices using art. On a spare canvas website of Movement for Black Lives, which nity in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death she found in her house, Daninhirsch wrote includes Black Lives Matter. the names of black people who died at the to be a Jewish responsibility.

Still, these students back the cause of racial “When I first learned about tikkun olam, it hands of police. Six faces in the center — one justice. “It’s one thing not to support a movement was very environmental-based,” said Dionna belonging to George Floyd — line a white or an organization because they don’t support JC TurnUpLife2020_Eartique 6/8/20 9:42 AM 1 that reads in all caps: “Say my name Israel,” said Sigman. “What’s really important is Dash, a rising junior at Pitt. “It was ‘repair thePagebubble

— LOCAL —

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supporting the ideals that we can all agree on.”

To do so, he reads and shares news sources, signs petitions and donates. “As a white male American, it is so important now more than ever for me to use my voice and use my privilege to amplify the voices of those who don’t have the same privilege and the same resources as I do,” he said.

Dash suggests voting in smaller elections for local government officials and reading — she keeps her own book list.

“I want to know more about the African American perspective of what it’s like to be black in America and what it’s like to face violence like this,” she said. “I think reading more will just show me what privilege I have that I don’t even realize.”

Hochman, too, has been reading books by black authors, and he shares posts to his Instagram stories including quotes and videos from black people and lists of blackowned businesses.

He considers all of us responsible for becoming better, actively anti-racist allies.

“Make it a part of your everyday life to fight against racism,” he said.

“There’s just so, so much that needs to be done.” PJC Kayla Steinberg can be reached at ksteinberg@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Headlines Forensic pathologist Cyril Wecht talks George Floyd, police — LOCAL —

By Toby Tabachnick | Editor

F

ormer Allegheny County Coroner and renowned forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht has seen many incidents of police abuse of power over the years. Wecht became an outspoken advocate for police reform following the 1995 Jonny Gammage case in Pittsburgh — when after a traffic stop, police held Gammage to the ground in a prone position, applying pressure to his body, and within seven minutes, Gammage was dead. The cause of death was found to be “asphyxiation due to pressure applied to the chest and neck.”

The George Floyd case, Wecht said after repeatedly viewing the videotape of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck as Floyd called out, “I can’t breathe,” is the most “egregious” incident of its type he has ever seen.

Wecht spoke with the Chronicle by phone about the Floyd case last week. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

You have said, “This case is extremely barbaric.” What do you mean by that?

I have been involved with other cases involving positional asphyxiation, compression asphyxiation. You’ll recall Jonny

1996-2006, I conducted an open inquest in every police-related death, pursuit, apprehension, arrest, incarceration. Every police-related death was subject to an open inquest in which the officers involved were called in to testify under oath.

The second point I want to make is, I hope that my words and comments, which became a national matter on Jonny Gammage, contributed in some way to the outcry that was heard and as a result of that case — which was 1995, and there were others like it — every state police agency, every large police agency of a local nature, many other groups and organizations nationally, the Canadian Mounted Police and so on, adopted this as a regulatory guideline, a prohibition within their protocol, of not placing someone in a prone position with their face down, already compromising their breathing and then kneeling into them and further compromising. That is prohibited.

You are supposed to sit somebody up. In this case, it was very simple. He was already handcuffed, just sit him up, place him against the tire or fender of the car. What was the problem?

three minutes Chauvin continues to apply that pressure. He looks at people, he knows he’s being videoed, he knows other officers are there. I think what he is saying is “screw you” to the world, to the African Americans — and there are white people there too — who are screaming and yelling and trying to p Dr. Cyril Wecht Photo provided by Dr. Cyril Wecht get him off, and he is saying “screw you.”

Not to diminish the significance and Gammage here in Pittsburgh and Charles Dixon, also in Pittsburgh, an African horrible circumstances of these other cases American male [who, in 2003, was smoth- — Charles Dixon, Jonny Gammage, to be ered by police officers who had posed specific in terms of their Pittsburgh locale him face down and applied pressure while — but in terms of what was done, the time arresting him]. And I’ve had probably period, the circumstances, the apprehension over the years now a dozen cases like this, and so on, they don’t come near the scenario of different kinds. I truly mean, without of the circumstances of this case. engaging in hyperbole, that this was the most egregious, savage, barbaric. It was After the Jonny Gammage case, you became an advocate for protocols prohibabsolutely atrocious.

What this Derek Chauvin is doing is going iting police from doing this sort of on for about nine minutes. For approxi- thing, didn’t you? mately, two minutes and 53 seconds — and Yes. In that regard I want to mention two these are the official records — George Floyd things. Number one, and this is important to has gone completely limp, is not uttering a me, in the 20 years in which I was coroner, sound, let alone a word, and for almost two separate tenure periods, 1970-1980 and

What do you make of the different reports coming out of the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s office and the private Please see Wecht, page 16

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JUNE 12, 2020 5

Headlines From picking locks to designing face masks, life is just a series of puzzles for this Squirrel Hill man to solve — LOCAL —

By David Rullo | Staff Writer

M

arc Tobias enjoys solving puzzles.

The security expert, attorney and author has made a career of breaking locks and helping security companies solve problems they did not know existed.

“When I was 15, I started picking locks,” Tobias recalled. “My parents thought I would end up in prison.”

The future lawyer, though, had no interest in a life of crime. Instead, he majored in law enforcement and journalism in college, went on to law school and had ambitions to join the police.

Despite his bona fides, Tobias said his parents implored him “not to tell people you pick locks. Just tell them you’re going to be a lawyer.”

Respectability came after publishing his first book, “Locks, Safes and Security,” while still a senior in college.

“Once I was published, they said, ‘It’s OK, you can tell people you pick locks,’” he recalled with a laugh.

Tobias found a different sort of puzzle to solve earlier this year. In March, when people

p A kippah-turned-face mask developed

by Marc Tobias Photo by David Rullo

first were required to wear face masks because of COVID-19, and demand outstripped supply, he found a solution in a piece of clothing found in every Jewish home: a kippah.

“I looked at it and thought, ‘Well, there’s no difference between a yarmulke and a face mask except how you wear it,’” he said.

The Squirrel Hill resident is used to thinking outside the box. Co-director of Security Laboratories, which consults with manufacturing and law enforcement clients worldwide on lock designs, the analysis of

security vulnerabilities and legal liability issues, Tobias holds 13 patents and also invents various products for clients.

“To me, it was obvious,” he said. “It’s just like some of the other patents I have — you figure out what the need is and then figure out the way to solve the engineering side of it.”

When Tobias mentioned his mask/kippah concept to Friendship Circle of Pittsburgh Executive Director Rabbi Mordy Rudolph, Rudolph put him in touch with Dina and Sarale Seewald, owners of ikippahs.com.

The Seewalds and Tobias designed the masks based on his original idea, had them manufactured in China and a month later were holding samples.

“We got our first shipment of 120 in Pittsburgh and they’re all gone. Everyone wanted one,” Tobias said.

Getting the samples, though, was easier said than done in the age of the coronavirus.

“Our first prototypes were blocked by customs,” Tobias explained. FedEx was the original shipper but because of issues between the U.S. and China, the order was delayed. Tobias and the Seewalds were eventually able to get the face masks into the country using a different company to ship the order.

To ensure the masks met current health

Please see Masks, page 16

2020-2021 Slate* & Board of Directors

NCJW

Officers

[virtual]

ANNUAL MEETING

President...................................Teddi Horvitz Vice President....................Andrea Glickman* Vice President............................Olivia Payne* Interim Treasurer.......................Paula Garret Interim Secretary........................Judy Cohen* Immediate Past President.Debby Levy Green

June 16

7:30-8:30pm with guest speaker

Sheila Katz

CEO of NCJW, Inc.

Sheila leads a network of 90,000 members and supporters across the country by living Jewish values and turning progressive ideas into action. She is the founder of Mitzvote, a program helping students register to vote, and she remains a long time advocate for equal pay, inclusion for people with disabilities, and survivors of sexual assault.

6 JUNE 12, 2020

standards, Tobias gave some to doctors he knew who approved of the design.

“They have an insertable filter that we’re told is better than an N95 filter, so it’s clever,” Tobias said.

Because of the passion Tobias has for Friendship Circle, he has underwritten the cost of 1,000 masks with some friends and donated them to the organization.

“One, because they need masks and two, because they’ve had no fundraising this year,” he said. “They may sell some of them and generate some profits. We think it’s a good idea and would help them.”

The masks come in three designs: one with the American flag, one all black, and one that is dark blue with red lettering that reads “Make America Healthy Again,” not because he is attempting to make a political statement but because “I thought it would be a good play on words,” Tobias said.

Tobias’ idea has been embraced outside of Pittsburgh as well. “iKippahs.com is actually selling the masks now,” he said. “We really helped create a business for them. They sell them on their website. They’re tickled to death.”

Tobias is a transplant to the Steel City. He

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Board Members Tanya Bielski-Braham Rachel Clark Lynn Farber* Barb Ginsburg* Mallory Gold Lissa Guttman Leah Kamon Karen Lightman Anne Witchner Levin Dani Rovenger Lynne Siegel

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Headlines Spotlight on Aaron Walker, new head of Life and Learning at CDS — LOCAL —

By Justin Vellucci | Special to the Chronicle

C

ommunity Day School will welcome a new head of Jewish Life and Learning this summer.

Aaron L. Walker, an Indiana-bred Jewish educator who recently completed a dual master’s degree at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City, will succeed longtime CDS administrator Tzippy Mazer, who is retiring, as of July 13, the school announced last week.

There are values central to a CDS education, Head of School Avi Baran Munro said in the announcement: “Intellectual curiosity, authentic Jewish self-expression, creative and critical thinking, compassionate leadership, engaged citizenship and tikkun olam.”

“It is with these values in mind that bind us together as a school community and in the spirit of tremendous hope that I announce the hire of Aaron L. Walker,” Munro said.

“We believe Aaron Walker is the animating force we’ve been seeking to deepen our Jewish life and learning at CDS and to excite the community at large about our school as Pittsburgh’s hub for Jewish excellence and engagement.”

Walker, who grew up in Bloomington, Indiana, and is moving to Pittsburgh from New Jersey, has held leadership and program development roles at Jewish institutions in New York City, including at Romemu, a progressive Jewish community, and at B’nai Jeshurun and Park Avenue Synagogue, two congregations that place a premium on high engagement and participation, school officials said.

In addition to his degrees from the Jewish Theological Seminary, Walker holds a master’s degree in food history from University of Toronto and an undergraduate degree in history with concentrations in music history, art history, and Jewish Studies from Oberlin College.

“Being able to do this full-time, aligned with my love of tefillah — that gets me going,” Walker told the Chronicle. “I’ll have the whole day to concentrate on connecting all of the dots. I want independent, critical thinkers and I’d really like to be in a position to help teachers do more of what they do.”

Walker harbors a “big tent” view of Judaism and Jewish life. He currently belongs to a Reconstructionist congregation but has taken part in Conservative and Modern Orthodox minyans, is active with youth groups in the Reform movement and attended JTS in New York, an academic and

p Aaron Walker

Photo courtesy of Aaron Walker

spiritual center for Conservative Judaism.

“My hope is … that I’ve touched enough of the different denominations that I can be respectful and care about that,” Walker said.

The diversity of experience will serve him well at CDS, school officials said.

“Approximately 40% of CDS families identify as unaffiliated with a denominational movement or synagogue, and many of our students come from interfaith families who look to CDS as their partner in raising Jewish children,” said Jennifer Bails, director of marketing and communications for CDS. “Community Day School students develop

the knowledge and skills to engage comfortably, confidently, and joyfully in Jewish lives of their own choosing.”

Walker’s excitement for his new role is palpable. He said he’s particularly interested in developing a rapport with CDS students, whom he hopes to nurture in the ways of tikkun olam and Jewish life.

“It’s exciting to start something, see if others are interested and run with — that’s joyous,” he said. “I love being part of a community where there’s more opportunity for the average Jew to have buy-in.”

Walker is also a passionate fan of opera, Gilbert and Sullivan and Jewish music. He hopes, in Pittsburgh, to continue his search for the definitive dairy noodle kugel.

Patti Kahn got to know Walker when he taught second- and sixth-graders about Judaism and Jewish history this academic year at Temple Sinai, a Reform congregation in Summit, New Jersey.

“We lucked out: We had him for a year,” said Kahn, the temple’s director of education. “He is a stellar teacher, partly because of his Jewish knowledge but partly because of his exuberance with children. His students loved him.”

“I really hate to see him go,” Kahn added.

Please see Walker, page 15

Calendar >>Submit calendar items on the Chronicle’s website, pittsburghjewishchronicle.org. Submissions will also be included in print. Events will run in the print edition beginning one month prior to the date as space allows. The deadline for submissions is Friday, noon. q FRIDAY, JUNE 12

q SUNDAYS, JUNE 14, 21, 28 Join a lay-led Online Parashah Study Group to discuss the week’s Torah portion. No Hebrew knowledge is needed. The goal is to build community while deepening understanding of the text. For more information, visit bethshalompgh.org/ online-parashah.

information, including weekly topics, visit jccpgh. org/event/jccpghvirtual-new-classes/?cflk=0. q WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17 Join JFCS as they celebrate World Refugee Day and Immigrant Heritage Month. There will be performances, stories from refugees and immigrants, videos from community leaders across the city and state, featured restaurants, featured immigrant-owned stores, and more. Just follow along on the Facebook event page, on JFCS’ page, or on many of the organizing partners’ pages. Activities begin at 8 a.m. facebook.com/ events/193968948365048

“Two Cities, One Story” is a new online series partnering the Rauh Jewish Archives with a Jewish archive in another city. Told in collaboration with Jeremy Katz of the Cuba Family Archives at the Breman Museum in Atlanta, it will look at the life of Rabbi Jacob Rothschild. “Jack” was a Pittsburgher who grew up at Rodef Shalom Congregation and became a leading Jewish figure in the civil rights movement. 10 a.m. Free. thebreman.org/Events/0612-2020-Summer-Speaker-Series

q MONDAY, JUNE 15

q FRIDAYS, JUNE 12, 19, 26; JULY 3 WEDNESDAYS, JUNE 17, 24; JULY 1

Join Rabbi Jeremy Markiz in learning Masechet Rosh Hashanah, a tractate of the Talmud about the many new years that fill out the Jewish calendar at Monday Talmud Study. 9:15 a.m.

For more information, visit bethshalompgh.org/ mondaytalmud.

Are you tired of seeing those unrealistic, formulaic romantic comedies where the protagonists find love on a four-minute Zoom call? Fortunately, the next Moishe House speed-dating event won’t be so cliché. Not only is it platonic — falling in love is STRICTLY prohibited — but it’s also being hosted on a platform that only moderately resembles Zoom. Let’s be glad we’re finally setting realistic expectations for ourselves! 7 p.m. icebreaker.video/ events/EN8gCzugfxqtGZijL2x7

q TUESDAYS, JUNE 16, 23, 30

q WEDNESDAYS, JUNE 17, 24

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

Bring the parashah alive and make it personally relevant and meaningful with Rabbi Mark Goodman in this weekly Parashah Discussion: Life & Text. 12:15 p.m. For more information, visit bethshalompgh.org/life-text.

The JCC, with Vitalant (formerly Central Blood Bank), is hosting a drive for desperately needed blood donations at the Squirrel Hill and South Hills facilities in controlled and safe environments following CDC and Allegheny County guidelines. 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

(South Hills appointments on Friday, June 12 only.)

Appointments strongly encouraged. Visit vitalant.org and click on the “Make an Appointment” button and search with group code C189 (Squirrel Hill location) or C438 (South Hills location). q SUNDAYS, JUNE 14, 21 This six-week Introduction to Judaism course will cover an overview of love and sex, life cycles from birth to death, the Holocaust, Israel and the Jewish mission to heal the world. 2 p.m. For more information and to register, visit bethshalompgh.org/ intro-to-judaism.

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Heaven? Hell? Nothing? Nowhere? Learn about Jewish Views on the Afterlife with Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Jewish Life and Learning Director, Rabbi Amy Bardack. This event is for young adults (21-45). 8 p.m. Register to receive the Zoom link. jewishpgh.org/event/jewish-views-on-the-afterlife q MONDAYS, JUNE 15, 22, 29

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

q TUESDAY, JUNE 23 Join Beth Shalom’s Quarantined Book Club as they read “The Invisible Bridge” by Julie Orringer.

Everyone is invited to join. 4 p.m. bethshalompgh. org/6-23-20-quarantined-book-club-the-invisiblebridge-by-julie-orringer

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q THURSDAY, JUNE 25 Join the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh and the Ben Gurion Society as they explore a few treasures of the Rauh Jewish Archives with Director Eric Lidji. Register to receive the zoom link.

8 p.m. jewishpgh.org/event/treasures-of-the-rauh q FRIDAY, JUNE 26 As part of the Continuing Legal Education Series, Rabbi Danny Schiff, foundation scholar at the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, will explore Coronavirus in Jewish Law. Exploring Jewish texts, Rabbi Schiff will present the unique insights of Judaism on complex contemporary topics. Get up to 10 CLE ethics credits or Social Work Continuing Education Units (CEUs). With CLE/CEU credit: $35/session. Without CLE/CEU credit: $30/ session. 8:30 a.m. jewishpgh.org/event/2019-2020continuing-legal-education-series-5/2020-06-26 q SUNDAY, JUNE 28 Looking for a way to do tikkun olam while social distancing? Join Moishe House Pittsburgh and the Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition (SHUC) for A Socially Distant Cleanup. SHUC will be providing gloves and trash bags to participants in Squirrel Hill who sign up in advance, and some Squirrel Hill businesses will be offering discounts to those who participate. All participants should wear a mask and gloves. Be sure to avoid touching your face (or your phone!) with your gloves on, wash hands afterward, and obey social distancing protocols. Afterward, please go to the Moishe House Pittsburgh Facebook page and share a post (ex. weirdest find, best passerby reaction, a pic of you in your hero garb collecting garbage). 10 a.m. facebook.com/events/349790269315425 PJC

JUNE 12, 2020 7

Headlines Healing Rivers Project helps those dealing with trauma move beyond victimhood — LOCAL —

By Justin Vellucci | Special to the Chronicle

A

bout six months after the shooting at the Tree of Life building in Squirrel Hill, Rabbi Ron Symons visited the Healing Rivers Project.

The first-of-its-kind project, built from the ground up as a complement to curricula by the South Side group Center for Victims, was new that spring — and blossomed with the glow of a new kind of innovation.

An educational initiative, Healing Rivers provides a safe space for exhibit attendees to reflect on the meanings of trauma, support and self-care, as well as to seek ways to heal.

Walking through the exhibit, Symons said he had an “aha” moment.

“I said, ‘This has to be shared — and not just with those most impacted by what happened to the congregations in the Tree of Life building,’” said Symons, the senior director of Jewish Life at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh. “I realized the interfaith community would benefit greatly from having these kinds of conversations.”

So, Symons did what came naturally. He brought Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs

and others to Healing Rivers and, together, they studied Torah. One passage stood out — Moses’ treatment of Aaron and Eleazar on Mount Hor. “Was Moses victim-centric? Was he trauma-informed?” Symons asked. “The answer is ‘No.’” Stephanie Walsh is the executive in residence at Healing Rivers and boasts 42 years of professional experience dealing with trauma. She talks about the exhibit — which was built, in part, through the eyes of the Pittsburgh firm Visionary Effects — in terms of the emotions and themes it stirs.

“How does our brain work? How does our nervous system work?” posed Walsh. “We’re built on the same model and all of us are human beings. We are formed from infancy up on the experiences we have in the world.

“All of this leads up to that your history does not dictate your destiny — with wellness strategies, you can mitigate your risks,” she added.

“We talk about racism, social injustice, medical inequities, educational inequities, refugees — these are all things that are sources of trauma.”

The Healing Rivers exhibit does not assign blame; mostly, it breaks down humans’ physical, emotional and spiritual reactions to outside factors. Walsh said it refuses the “you’re damaged” tag and looks at the ways the brain and body are overworked, just by

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p The Healing Rivers Project

doing the jobs expected of them.

Or, as Symons puts it: “We can’t change the weather but we can dress for it. Not every day is going to be rainy. But you’ve got to be okay when it rains.”

Gay Fogarty joined the board of Center for Victims after experiencing the Healing

Rivers exhibit. It was that powerful and that profound, she said.

“It was the broadest definition I have seen for trauma,” Fogarty said. “And the final part is: ‘Here’s help!’”

Please see Healing, page 15

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

June 12, 2014 — 3 teens abducted, killed

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June 15, 1970 — Refuseniks arrested before flight

A plot to steal a commercial aircraft to escape the Soviet Union is foiled when 12 dissidents, all but two of whom are Jewish refuseniks, are arrested at Leningrad’s Smolnoye Airport.

June 16, 1933 — Haim Arlosoroff killed

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June 13, 1947 — Diplomat and judge Elyakim Rubinstein born

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June 14, 1985 — TWA flight 847 hijacked

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Photo courtesy of the Healing Rivers Project

Two Lebanese terrorists hijack TWA Flight 847 between Athens and Rome and force the 727 to fly to Beirut. The hijackers kill a U.S. Navy

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Haim Arlosoroff, who has just returned from a mission to Germany to arrange Jewish emigration in exchange for the import of German goods in Palestine, is fatally shot in Tel Aviv.

June 17, 2010 — Haredim jailed in school discrimination case

Thirty-five haredi fathers of girls attending a Chasidic school accused of discrimination in Emanuel are jailed after refusing a Supreme Court order to send their daughters to a different school.

June 18, 1992 — Painter Mordecai Ardon dies

Painter Mordecai Ardon, known for using religious symbolism and developing artwork from realistic to abstract, dies at age 95. He directed the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts from 1940 to 1952. PJC

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Headlines — WORLD — From JTA reports

AIPAC says it stands ‘shoulder-to-shoulder with the black community’ The American Israel Public Affairs Committee issued a public statement in support of the black community, saying the recent death of George Floyd is a “shattering reminder of the injustice and inequities that Black Americans still endure in our society.”

The statement comes a week after AIPAC sent a letter to its African-American members saying it was “horrified” by the Floyd killing.

“The scourge of racism, intolerance and inequality must end,” the pro-Israel lobby said in a statement released on Twitter Sunday evening.

“AIPAC is deeply and unshakably committed to the core American values of equality, freedom and justice,” the statement continued. “We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Black community in its ongoing struggle for the same rights and respect to which all Americans are entitled.”

Israeli parliament women’s committee will be led by a man

Israeli feminist groups responded with outrage on Monday after it was announced

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

that a male lawmaker had been chosen to lead a parliamentary panel tasked with advancing gender equality in the country.

Oded Forer, a member of the rightwing Yisrael Beiteinu party, succeeded the outgoing chair, parliament member Aida Touma-Sliman, as head of the Knesset Committee for the Advancement of Women & Gender Equality — despite being the only man on the committee and having little experience dealing with gender issues.

The Israeli feminist group Kulan decried Forer’s appointment as a move “that pushes women out of decision-making mechanisms” and “a joke at the expense of women in Israel.” It also described the issue as a “cynical” political play to placate the Yisrael Beiteinu party and the larger parliamentary opposition that it belongs to.

The choice of Forer “rub[ed] salt in [the] wound” caused by the number of women in Israel’s 120 seat parliament, which has dipped to only 29, argued the Center for Women’s Justice, an advocacy group.

“This comes at a time where Israeli women are facing a crisis, with domestic violence at an all-time high and the coronavirus exacerbating women’s social and economic inequality,” the group said in a statement on Facebook. “More than ever, the Committee for the Advancement of Women needs a qualified and expert leader at the helm. This is not that.”

Reports of domestic violence increased by

112 percent during the lockdown imposed

by Jerusalem to limit the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, and 11 women have been murdered by their partners since the start of the year.

“At what point are women’s needs and rights going to be taken seriously?” Israeli activist Shoshanna Keats Jaskoll told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “What are we saying to women? [That] your needs don’t really matter so much.”

After dramatic rise in COVID19 infections, Israel halts reopening plans

Israel is hitting an “emergency brake” on its ongoing reopening of the economy due to a sharp rise in the rate of coronavirus infections in recent days.

Some 800 new COVID-19 cases were identified in the past week, as opposed to a total of about 300 infections of the coronavirus confirmed in the two weeks before that.

Plans to reopen railway transportation have been scrapped but will be revisited next week. The reopening of cultural and sport venues will be pushed back at least a week from June 14. The Education Ministry also said Sunday that 130 schools and kindergartens have closed in the past 10 days due to student and staff coronavirus infections.

One exception is event and wedding halls, which will be allowed to reopen with

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

250 people, as long as they wear masks and observe social distance protocols.

Israel allowed restaurants, bars, hotels and houses of worship reopen in late May. Earlier last month, schools opened days after the government gave them the green light to do so, prompting debate and confusion.

Israeli woman granted religious divorce after 14 years of trying

An Israeli rabbinical court granted a religious divorce to a woman who was prevented from marrying for 14 years after her husband moved abroad.

Vicky Tzur was granted a Jewish writ of divorce, known as a get, in Netanya this week. Tzur’s husband signed a divorce agreement last week after receiving special permission to leave his house during the coronavirus pandemic in order to do so.

In 2006, Tzur’s husband filed for divorce and left the country but refused to grant her a get. Under Orthodox Jewish law, that rendered Tzur an agunah, literally a “chained woman” unable to remarry.

In 2019, she filed a civil lawsuit against her husband for damages resulting from his refusal to grant her a divorce and was awarded over $200,000.

Tzur was assisted in securing the get by the Jerusalem-based Yad La’isha organization. PJC

JUNE 12, 2020 9

Headlines The first female chancellor of JTS shares her plans for the seminary – and getting through the pandemic — NATIONAL —

By Shira Hanau | JTA

S

huly Rubin Schwartz’s appointment as the Jewish Theological Seminary’s eighth chancellor comes just in time for the historian to guide the institution through a period of unprecedented crisis management.

The flagship university of Judaism’s Conservative movement recently completed a major renovation project of its Morningside Heights campus in New York City. The renovated building had been scheduled to open with fanfare March 22.

That dedication was canceled as the coronavirus pandemic first descended on the United States. Instead, the building sits empty as the seminary grapples with the uncertainty that all universities are facing right now: Should classes be held in person? Can students safely make their way to campus?

Will donors be able to sustain their support?

Schwartz, who helped lead the transition to virtual learning back in March, believes her long history inside the institution makes her the right person to guide the school through a crisis.

“I know what needs to be done,” Schwartz,

JTA: How does it feel to assume this role at a time when there’s so much uncertainty due to the coronavirus pandemic? What are your goals as you assume this new position?

Schwartz: I have a long history with JTS – my parents are alumni, I am an alum, my late husband was an alum, and my son is a graduate of JTS and I built my career there for the last 30 years, so this is an institution that I am extremely dedicated to.

And I’m now the provost, so I’ve been very involved in addressing the needs that have been posed by the pandemic in shifting us all to p Shuly Rubin Schwartz was named the eighth online learning in a matter of chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary in its days. So I feel very grateful to 134-year history.

Photo by Ellen Dubin Photography be able to take on this role at this time. I know what needs to be done and I feel privithe first woman to lead the seminary leged to be able to serve in this capacity at in its 134-year history, told the Jewish this really difficult time.

The first goal is a very immediate one and Telegraphic Agency.

We spoke with Schwartz about her plans that is, in a way, crisis management. What’s and the future of denominational affiliation. the fall going to look like? That’s what all institutions of higher ed are occupied with.

We’re predicated on building community as an academic community and as a Jewish community, so on the one hand we’ve learned pleasantly how to forge community in a virtual way. We had to do a lot of that in a triage way, now we have to be involved in the process of figuring out how to do that more planfully. I imagine we’ll do some kind of hybrid in terms of our teaching. Longer term, we have a new campus that is just about finished so my next goal is to get us back inhabiting that campus.

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How are you thinking about that and how do you envision the seminary operating this fall?

The campus will enable us to enact a commitment to community, to Jewish learning in an environment of a living, vibrant Jewish community. It just so happens that it will help us with all of the new requirements that we couldn’t have imagined. We have a big new atrium that will make social distancing more possible than it would have before and there’s a new residence hall with single-use bathrooms. We didn’t do it with a pandemic in mind, but the design will be conducive to that.

One of the things we’ve learned over the last few months is that there are ways to greatly expand the reach of our community.

So while our first priority are our degree students who are in house, there’s enormous opportunity out there in the world. There’s a lot of hunger out there for this kind of serious, critical, engaged Jewish learning that JTS offers. So I’m excited to think about ways to build on that so we can reach a much broader community.

My last important goal is to deepen the

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

teaching we do in the area of ethics to help students grapple with the daunting ethical challenges of our age and to help them figure out how they will model those values in their social justice work.

You helped introduce a number of social justice initiatives at List College. Are there any projects you have in mind for rabbinical students at the seminary that have to do with social justice? What do you think should be the role of social justice work for Conservative rabbis and leaders?

I think it can play a role for all JTS students; only two of our schools are focused on training Conservative clergy. I think this is something that permeates our curriculum as a whole. There’s nowhere else where you can get a degree in Jewish ethics. I feel strongly that our work in ethics should come from a deep sense of understanding and commitment to our obligation as Jews and be involved in social justice.

In a world where young people are less loyal to denominations than previous generations, how do you keep the Conservative movement relevant to the next generation?

And to what extent do you view this demographic issue as part of your role at JTS? I believe that American Judaism’s strength comes from the fact that there are so many different ways to express one’s Judaism and one’s Jewish identity, and all of these are important. I think that Conservative Judaism is a compelling approach to living an integrated life as an American and as a Jew, where both are important and where I don’t have to compartmentalize one part of my life or another in order to feel fully present. That form of Judaism has something very compelling to offer to Jews, whether they want to identify formally with a denomination or not. Joining groups is not so fashionable — that’s OK. I’m more concerned about the ideas, and what will inspire and ignite the passions of Jews to find their own way to connect meaningfully with Judaism and the Jewish people.

Obviously you are taking over at a precarious moment financially. How are you preparing for this challenge?

Every institution of higher learning is revisiting its finances. We’re all in this together, we are monitoring it closely and we don’t know, we don’t have all the answers. I feel very fortunate that JTS has been around for 134 years, we have the kind of financial and physical resources that will enable us to figure this out. JTS has an endowment, it has a new building, the campus is beautiful and so we’re not fearful, we’re very well poised to meet these challenges.

The challenges are there. Enrollment looks great now, I hope that that continues.

But so much is uncertain in terms of the public health challenges as we know. I think that JTS is strong and secure, and it’s also a relatively small institution, so it will be able to pivot more quickly to be back on campus more quickly. PJC PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

We are excited to announce the opening* of our Squirrel Hill and South Hills fitness and indoor aquatic facilities to our members.

On Monday, June 15, our fitness facilities will reopen for: t Cardio and Weight Training t Personal Training One-on-One On Thursday, June 18, our indoor swimming pools will reopen for lap swim only

For details on our reopening, please go to JCCPGH.org Our virtual programming will continue actively as we transition into this next phase.

*The health and safety of our community is the JCC’s top priority. Every decision made regarding our Phase 1 reopening has been through the lens of the health and safety of our members and staff.

The JCC has worked closely with long time partner, the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative, for continued guidance in our multi-phased reopening plan.

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JUNE 12, 2020 11

Opinion As a community convener, Federation looks to the future Guest Columnist Jeffrey Finkelstein

A

s Kermit the Frog says, it’s not easy being green On June 5, Pennsylvania began the “green” reopening phase after the pandemic stay-at-home order. Although this change relieves businesses that lost revenue and individuals suffering from isolation and financial distress, thousands of Jewish families in Pittsburgh will continue to experience painful repercussions from the pandemic.

As the Jewish Federation works to bring people together across our community to solve complex pandemic-related problems, we have a unique view on how the virus, the lockdown and the subsequent steps to reopen affect Jewish agencies, synagogues and Jewish life. Although the current picture is challenging, I know that we can work together collaboratively, creatively and cooperatively to deploy new thinking and new models.

A survey currently in the field seeks to understand more fully the impact the last few months have had on members of our community. Jewish Federation hired the Cohen Center at Brandeis University, the same group that compiled and presented

the results of our 2017 Jewish Community Study, to complete this study. Understanding both feelings and “facts on the ground” will help guide our data-informed response. We are also in constant contact with our eight beneficiary agencies to understand what they hear as well as their own financial and operational challenges.

Federation plays the key role of convener.

When I try to explain our communal structure to people outside our Jewish community, I often contrast our organization to that of the Catholic community, in which the local Diocese oversees churches, schools and social services. Instead, the Jewish community has independent agencies and synagogues. The old line “Judaism does not have a pope” is absolutely true, so a convener needs to bring the disparate and unique parts of our community together to learn, to communicate and to act.

From providing major content, advice and support around how to apply for the PPP loans that nearly every Pittsburgh Jewish institution requested, to conducting sessions about security and considerations around reopening, our Federation has and continues to act centrally when it makes sense instead of having everyone “making Shabbat for themselves.”

This Pittsburgh Jewish community cooperates and collaborates more than most on this continent. Federation has, for example,

brought people together for 15 years for our Tikkun Leil Shavuot. This year, we produced a Shavuot learning program online with rabbis and teachers reflecting our Jewish diversity. An incredible 911 participants joined in the learning; we achieved much more working together than going it alone.

Our Federation has consolidated a fund of almost $2 million for COVID-19 needs from three different sources: repurposing Federation dollars and dipping into emergency reserves; approaching a small number of major donors and requesting additional support; and receiving a grant from our own Jewish Community Foundation. To date, we have allocated or repurposed over $1 million toward providing food, health safety and financial support for those most in need locally and internationally. These dollars along with an expected increase in the 2020 Community Campaign will immediately alleviate some of the pain and struggles. But these dollars alone will not plug all the holes.

As we enter this early part of the green phase, I believe we must struggle with questions beyond the obvious one of how and when to reopen. As finances likely tighten over the next few years, where can we collaborate more? Can we envision changes to our Jewish institutions, many which were already struggling before COVID-19, before we are forced to do so? Do we have too many underutilized buildings that require care

and maintenance? Could we redirect those maintenance dollars toward engaging people with Judaism and caring for those in need?

Can we think about new structures to put us on a path toward achieving our institutional missions? What pandemic-related learning can we apply later about how to provide online content and virtual Jewish community engagement? What would we want the Jewish communal landscape to look like if we started from scratch? We need to address these questions and more.

Jewish Federation learned our own lesson from our decision to sell our 60-year-old building in Oakland and to lease space.

We gave up some of our identity, but we lowered maintenance and upkeep costs and gained the flexibility to rethink how much space we may need. By applying learnings from remote work during the pandemic, the Federation is already rethinking our business processes to be more efficient and effective.

In “The Muppet Movie,” Kermit sets off on a challenging journey to make people happy.

Similarly, the power to create change is in our hands. The time is now.

In Jewish Federation’s role as convener, we welcome facilitating the conversations about new models for Jewish life. Are you ready for your journey? PJC Jeffrey Finkelstein is the president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.

A plea on behalf of Brian Jordan Bartels, 20 Guest Columnist Rabbi Moishe Mayir Vogel

B

rian Jordan Bartels is the young man charged with the destruction of a police car and with inciting riots in Pittsburgh on Saturday, May 30. He was taken into custody by the police.

Others are being sought by the police for engaging in violence during the protests following the death of George Floyd.

Unfortunately, so many individuals get caught up in the heat of the moment, and act in ways that they regret and are embarrassed about later. I think we have all been down that road, and in our daily prayers we ask for forgiveness and that our actions not be held against us.

The question is, should these individuals get bail and be released on their own recognizance, or should they be kept in prison because they have been charged with a violent crime — one which has brought tremendous fear to the community at large — and for the massive destruction they were a part of?

After decades of locking people up en masse, I think we have to look closely at the purpose of prison, the benefits and harms associated with those penal institutions, as 12 JUNE 12, 2020

well as the pain and suffering incarceration brings to the families of the offenders (or suspected offenders).

I think we can all agree that those who have committed crimes and disrupted, brought havoc and destroyed property should be punished, and that they should be forced to pay for their crimes to deter them and others from future crimes.

However, prison may not always be necessary for offenders, when bail or release on their own recognizance — which somewhat assures the court that they will return for trial — is adequate. Especially in today’s world where, due to technology, running from the law is so much more difficult, and reintegration into society after incarceration is challenging, imprisonment is fast becoming an ineffective and overall detrimental method of dealing with certain circumstances and crimes.

And so, I turn to the courts. Please do not warehouse those who have been accused of doing wrong or who have been convicted of being involved in the riots or melee that have hurt all of us. Our goal is to punish but not to destroy, to sanction but not to remove hope. These individuals should be required to repay society and those who were hurt — physically, emotionally or financially — and that can only be accomplished by allowing them to become productive members of society.

Mass incarceration does not help society,

does not help the individual, and does not help the families of those being charged.

As we watched the young man surrender to the police, he was accompanied by his parents. Nationally, for every person who is incarcerated, there are, on average, 16 family members who are adversely affected.

Individuals like Bartels will do well with the courts ordering them to community service and to programs like the Aleph Institute Alternative Sentencing Program, programs which provide educational and rehabilitative services while providing for the individual to be productive in the community. Such programs can do immense good by making sure those charged will be able to better repay society, instead of draining resources in a prison. These individuals will then be able to become productive, repair the damage they have caused, and make society a better place.

At Aleph Institute, with over 30 years’ experience working with individuals who have wronged society, made mistakes — some very serious mistakes — we recognize that with help, with training and education, they can and want to become productive members of society.

As King David tells us in Tehilim (Psalms), “Yitamu Chatoem min haaretz,” wipe the sins from the earth — the sins and not the sinners — our rabbis explain.

When the sin is against property, maybe prison is not the solution and is not the

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best form of rehabilitation. For many, prison serves as a breeding ground for more crimes and has destroyed countless lives. For those suffering from mental illness, incarceration has devastating effects, and for those suffering from dependency issues, prison does not correct or provide necessary solutions.

My teacher and mentor, the late Lubavitcher Rebbe of blessed memory, when discussing incarceration, suggested belief in G-d and education is the solution — teaching those who failed or are in trouble (and how much more so before they get into trouble), and providing education and rehabilitative programs for them, their families, and society broadly.

May the killing of Mr. George Floyd lead to a change in our thinking about how we look at individuals, how we arrest and prosecute, so that we become a society where every life matters, regardless of color, race, religion or background. Humans are valuable, each and every one. We are made in the image of G-d and we should be treated that way. If we trip up we should be punished in a humane way, not tossed into a warehouse to be dealt with later, but assisted in standing up again, proud, productive, and a valued member of society. PJC Rabbi Moishe Mayir Vogel is executive director of The Aleph Institute — North East Region.

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Opinion Pandemic perks?

During these surreal and challenging days, have you found any silver linings?

Maybe spending more time at home has given you a greater appreciation for your family.

Maybe you have found inspiration through an online Jewish course. Or maybe you finally have the time to learn to knit or play the sax or master Portuguese. We want to hear all about it!

Send your “Pandemic Perk” to Toby Tabachnick at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org, along with your name, neighborhood and photo. Your submission could be included in print and on our website, pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

A blessing in disguise

My husband transitioned to hospice care the same day my employer ordered everyone to work from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I was working, and therefore still earning a paycheck, and I was able to be at home with my husband during the remaining weeks of his life. My employer was incredibly

— LETTERS — Jewish response to vandalism during protests was inadequate

It was astonishing and disheartening to read the responses of various Jewish organizations to the death of George Floyd. The Chronicle carried something like five pages of expressions of appropriate sympathy. Jewish leaders expressed varying degrees of outrage, but not one word of reflection or perspective, much less concern, about the ravages that accompanied the protests, though Jews, of all people, should fear mobs and lawlessness.

Lest an example be needed, the riots resulted in the vandalism of synagogues and Jewish businesses in Los Angeles. But not one of the statements from Jewish organizations — including the Anti-Defamation League, which was founded to defend Jews — took any note of that. The Chronicle itself, which gave significant space to articles on real estate and entertainment, relegated the news of the L.A. attacks to the third of four JTA reports of world events of Jewish interest. The ADL’s reaction? “Anti-Semitism is never OK.” Something less than a passionate denunciation.

Does the “systemic change” that the ADL insists must occur “now” have anything to do with Jews?

The Jewish community vigorously addresses the second part of Hillel’s question, “If I am only for myself, what am I?” But it sometimes seems that the answer to the first part — “If I am not for myself, who will be for me?” — is no one. Not even us.

Ann Sheckter Powell Pittsburgh

compassionate and permitted me to work whatever hours I could spread over 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Any hours fewer than the requisite 40 hours for the week were credited to FMLA (the Family and Medical Leave Act). Had there not been a pandemic, I would have had no choice but to take the entire time my husband was in hospice care as unpaid FMLA. My heart aches for the unfortunate COVID victims (and other patients) who died alone in the hospitals and whose loved ones were unable to be with them. I was blessed because I was able to be with my husband the entire time.

This certainly is not your usual “perk” but to me the pandemic turned out to be the silver lining behind the cloud.

Donna L. Wolfson Monroeville perpetrated against black people by police. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. The Chronicle showed Jewish and non-Jewish black people, integral to the fabric of the Pittsburgh Jewish community, that their lives don’t matter like white Jewish lives murdered by white supremacist violence at Tree of Life. Black people are family members, friends, caregivers, neighbors, and colleagues. First of all, they are human beings worthy of care. The same level of care black people provide to white people here. Black lives are valuable, and every person should honor the blood taken from their ancestors to build this country.

The Movement for Black Lives is not a new one, but the culmination of more than 400 years of black people shouting their struggle and their demands, and not being heard. It is the response to the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on black people in the U.S.; the response to the anti-black racism that permeates every facet of U.S. law; the response to white journalists slandering the largest civil rights movement in world history; the response to white people dedicated to a return to “normalcy” while black people and allies of all colors are in the streets, and dying, for the survival of black people.

Wholehearted solidarity putting white bodies and resources on the line for black people is cause for celebration. It is the greatest challenge to white supremacy because caring for black lives is antithetical to white supremacy culture. Each day these protests continue we all come closer to regaining our humanity.

Black people in the U.S. have called all people to action in this moment. We must listen without defensiveness, and we must focus, interrogate ourselves and our culture, and show up with our whole selves in the Movement for Black Lives.

Black Lives Matter.

David Warga Uptown/Soho

A vision for multiracial democracy — it may not be too late

The systems of white supremacy and racism plague every aspect of our lives — the police, public health, public housing, public education, transportation, immigration, religious institutions, and the list goes on. To build a truly radical future where each person’s life has value, people of all faiths, races, sexuality, gender identities, and abilities will have to dismantle these systems and create something new.

I am speaking now to our local Jewish leaders who are and have historically been predominantly white men. The time for statements has come and gone. Widespread police brutality against black people is staring us in the face and our Torah demands that we cannot ignore this suffering. President Trump called on our military to attack protesters. It is not partisan to acknowledge that this is unlawful, unconstitutional, and a hilul Hashem. As an active member of the Pittsburgh Jewish community, I need you to use your speech and your actions to lift up black leaders, dismantle your own white-dominant and patriarchal work environments, embrace anti-racism practices so Jews of color and our black neighbors can trust Jewish institutions, and allocate more funding and share more services with the black community.

I welcome the opportunity to do this work in partnership. I don’t have all the answers, but I have some ideas and we can figure out the rest together guided by black wisdom. There is still time for us to build this world from love.

Yael Silk, a leader of Bend the Arc: Pittsburgh Squirrel Hill

Chronicle’s coverage of George Floyd protests falls short

Following the horrific murders of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Tony McDade (SAY THEIR NAMES!), black people in all 50 states are saying, “Enough is enough!” Black people have filled the streets with sadness and righteous anger over the deliberate murder of black people by police. They are pleading with white people, again, to have frank conversations about race and challenge anti-black racism in ALL white spaces.

The Chronicle’s coverage of the protests did not honor and uplift black people and the Movement for Black Lives (what black leaders and organizers have asked of allies); rather it was a one-sided retelling putting black lives in danger.

The Chronicle, in this moment, ignored the call to end police brutality and the demand for justice and liberation. Instead, white writers followed the lead of the police. The same police that fired chemical weapons, rubber bullets, and cloth-wrapped shotgun pellets at protesters on June 1, as we marched into Shadyside, a white neighborhood, from East Liberty and Larimer, black neighborhoods.

The Chronicle claimed protests as part of the Movement for Black Lives have caused harm to police and property downtown. There is no mention by the Chronicle of the state violence PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Presidential leadership crucial in the wake of George Floyd death

I appreciate the strong and impassioned reaction from local faith institutions in the aftermath of the horrifying murder of George Floyd at the hands of a 19-year veteran of a major city police force (“Jewish Organizations Respond to George Floyd Death, Protests,” June 5).

Racism, conscious and unconscious, did not begin with Donald Trump nor, sadly, will it end with him, but leadership can be so critical at a time like this, in which healing is so badly needed. Our country has no leadership in the White House.

At a time when we seek reassurance, comfort, and unity from a president, we are receiving the opposite: hatred, intolerance, hyper partisanship, Twitter attacks on foes, lies, distortions, division, militancy. At a time in which the nation bleeds and cries out for empathy, understanding, and kindness, we are faced with a leader who declares himself to be the “law and order” president, going so far as to quote a racist police chief of the 1960s: “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” So much for due process of law.

In a ridiculous, insulting and abhorrent stunt, the president presided over a violent repression of peaceful protesters so that he could walk across the street from the White House to a church for a photo opportunity while holding a bible. Condemnation for the repression and bible stunt has appropriately flowed not only from Democrats, but from traditional allies, including Christian leader Pat Robertson and many Republican U.S. senators.

Our president has made a lifetime of fanning the flames of racism. In the 1970s, he and his father faced federal charges for refusing to rent their apartments to minorities. After the Central Park Five were apprehended for a crime they did not commit, Trump smeared them, placing full-page newspaper ads calling for the death penalty to be imposed. The exoneration of the men did nothing to change Trump’s tenor toward them and he has never backed off from a belief in their guilt despite DNA evidence to the contrary.

For six years, Trump perpetrated a racist birther hoax against the predecessor he despises, Barack Obama. When Colin Kaepernick engaged in a silent, dignified protest by kneeling during the playing of the National Anthem, Trump characterized him and other black athletes as “sons of b------.” To Trump, there are “s---hole countries”: those that are populated by black and brown residents. As he seeks to limit both illegal and legal immigration, he has expressed a fondness for Norwegians whom he would welcome to come here to live.

When our president calls the family of the late George Floyd purporting to be sympathetic, expresses revulsion for what befell him, and calls for justice in the case, how are we to believe him, given his dishonorable history?

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Oren Spiegler Peters Township JUNE 12, 2020 13

Headlines Floyd: Continued from page 1

and elevate black and Jewish relations in the Pittsburgh region.

The organization officially went public on June 4, 2020, when it issued a statement on Facebook calling for solidarity between the two communities. Since then, it has suggested reading material, published a list of black-owned businesses to support, promoted peaceful protests and posted links to important news articles.

While the Collaborative was not created as a reaction to Floyd’s death, the organization’s board came “together as friends and colleagues and is saying, ‘we can’t wait any longer, we need to do something now,’” said Josh Sayles, director of the Federation’s Community Relation Council.

Sayles hopes that the reaction to Floyd’s death will “stay in the news cycle long enough to create substantial structural changes, but even if it doesn’t, I promise you, we will still be here and doing this work for years.”

412 board member Gina Winstead explained that the organization has been working to figure out “how we can support and listen to each other in a more intimate way, so the initial response is something more closely resembling empathy than indifference.”

Like Symons, Winstead believes that education is an important tool so that people will be more familiar with “systematic racism and unconscious bias and privilege and the lived black experience.”

Winstead, who serves as the director of membership engagement and as the director of diversity and inclusion for the Pittsburgh Technology Council, and vice president of

“ I feel and hope people are going to build on this. It’s inspiring to see the young

”

people there protesting.

— BOB SILVERMAN Women in Technology Pittsburgh, noted that right now, much of the burden is falling on the black community to suggest ways for people to help.

“That’s really difficult,” she said. “Having someone buffer those requests can help.

That’s what we want the 412 to do. Rather than ask your black friends how to help, we can be a landing spot to help people learn how to engage.”

The Collaborative is funded by the Heinz Endowments and the Pittsburgh Jewish Community Foundation; the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Community Relations Council is its fiscal agent.

The Pittsburgh Jewish community is filled with “passion and a desire to do whatever we can to help the black community,” said Bob Silverman, who chairs the Federation’s Community Relation Council.

It’s important, he explained, “for us to listen and respond to what they want us to do.

That’s a very important part of the equation.”

The South Hills resident hopes that Floyd’s killing may be an inflection point from which real change can occur.

“It’s not just one city where these senseless acts of violence have occurred, where there

have been protests,” Silverman said. “It’s happening in every state and other countries and isn’t dissipating. It didn’t dissipate when all four of the officers were charged. I feel and hope people are going to build on this. It’s inspiring to see the young people out there protesting.”

The 10.27 Healing Partnership, founded after the shooting at the Tree of Life building in October 2018, also has been advocating for change, according to Maggie Feinstein, that organization’s director.

“The Jewish community said to us from day one, ‘You must respond to hate-induced violence not just from 10/27,’” she said. “I think it’s important for us to recognize that violent crimes based on race, ethnicity and gender identity are uncalled for and we really have to stand up and stop them.”

The Jewish community has “had a front seat to what this feels like,” Feinstein continued, but noted that “we don’t know what it feels like to happen as frequently or without a name or without an obvious place in history. It happens all the time.”

The 10.27 Healing Partnership’s resources are available to anyone that needs them, Feinstein said, even while social distancing because of COVID-19.

Chabad: Continued from page 1

program “Shabbat in an Hour” with cook and author Reyna Simnegar on June 4.

“I was toying with the idea of doing a cooking demo about Persian cooking with Reyna Simnegar,” Chani Altein said. “On the heels of the ‘Unorthodox’ program, I reached out to the other Chabad women and they were all in.”

The rebbetzin sees two advantages in creating these types of virtual programs with the other Chabad centers: cost and egalitarianism.

“It’s a great way to bring costly programs without paying as much, that pulls from all of our different communities,” she explained prior to the event. “At first, I thought the cooking demo was going to be women only, because when I have cooking classes, they are women’s classes, but some of the other Chabad houses said they preferred to open it to women and men. So, it turns out, this one will probably be mostly women with a sprinkling of men.”

Time and convenience contributed to the success of the first event about “Unorthodox,” said Chabad of Monroeville Rabbi Mendy Schapiro, and that is why it makes sense to continue this type of collaborative programming in the short term.

“When it comes to these types of events, it has to be really interesting for people to put it on their calendar and say, ‘I want to leave 14 JUNE 12, 2020

p More than 250 members of the Pittsburgh Jewish community participated in a Zoom Q&A with Rivkah Slonim presented in partnership will all of the local Chabad centers.

Screenshot provided by Rabbi Yisroel Altein

my house, take a few hours and go out.’ Even if they are only once a week or once a month.

What this does is allow us to bring the joy of Judaism through programming to all of our communities.”

Schapiro is quick to point out that it does not make sense to share all of the programs the various Chabad centers offer.

“There’s a balance,” he said. “On the one hand, every community has their rabbi and rebbetzin that they’re friendly with, there’s a personal connection that brings them to

events. When it comes to daily classes and events, it makes sense to keep it local. Then there are larger programs that we can present without the barrier of travel, online, and take advantage of the opportunity.”

In fact, there is one annual program the Chabad centers have collaborated on for years, noted Yisroel Altein: the commemoration of the yahrzeit of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. That program, too, will now be offered online by all of the local Chabad centers.

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“We’re holding what we call ‘Canopy Conversations’ for people that feel the need to connect to a live person,” she explained.

“We have a staff member who will be outside the JCC under a tent three days a week and anyone is welcome; anyone who is experiencing pain, sadness, anger and wants to talk with someone.”

In addition to in-person conversations, the center has content available online, including meditation and mindfulness tools.

Community Day School also has been active in responding to Floyd’s killing. The Jewish day school changed its Facebook profile photo to an all-black image on Tuesday, June 2 as part of “Black-Out Tuesday” on social media.

The school’s educators and counselors are using “Jewish values” to support students by “offering opportunities to think critically about what is happening,” according to Jennifer Bails, director of marketing and communications at CDS. Resources, including articles, books and videos are being shared with students. And, a virtual event titled, “Voices of CDS” is being created for students in grades 4 through 8 to “continue learning and explore ways they can take action to work toward racial equality and pursue a more just world.”

For Symons, the answer lies within the individual.

“It’s a painful, painful time,” he said. “We’re going to dissipate that pain through our ability to bring healing and wholeness to the world.

It starts with one conversation, one awareness of ‘Oh, I didn’t know that was offensive.’ One awareness that I can reach across my comfort zone and understand who you are.” PJC David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

“We’re showing a documentary called ‘The Rabbi Goes West,’ with a colleague in Montana,” Yisroel Altein said. “Following that, we are going to do a Zoom question and answer with him.”

Altein realizes that after three months of social distancing and sheltering at home, there is a chance people are beginning to get “Zoomed out.” He also knows that despite entering the green phase and the lessening of restrictions, “as we move into the real world, it’s going to take time for us to figure out what that means. People are still expecting social distancing and are still struggling with what that looks like.”

Because of that uncertainty, the rabbi ventured “we probably have some more time online.”

With the success of attracting a virtual audience for events presented in partnership with the other Chabad centers, Yisroel Altein is interested in seeing if the same results can be attained in the physical world.

“I’d love to see how these types of events would turn out in the real world and find unique programming we can share,” he said.

Even a rabbi realizes, though, that in Pittsburgh, there are certain limitations that may be too hard to defeat.

“Would you cross a river?” he asked with a laugh. PJC David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Headlines Summer: Continued from page 3

happy to talk about his initial hires, Jewish Pittsburgh natives and current college students who all had summer internships or programs canceled before joining the nascent organization.

“I was supposed to be in Philadelphia working at a video production company, doing what all of my peers do,” said Abbe Cohen, an incoming junior majoring in film and media art at Temple University. “I was kind of stuck and didn’t want to sit at home and waste this summer.”

Cohen became My New Summer’s content manager, helping the organization develop graphics for social media and assisting with the website.

Toby Lazear was supposed to be a merchandising intern at The TJX Companies in Framingham, Massachusetts.

“I found out it was canceled the first week

Walker: Continued from page 7

“I’m a real fan.”

Walker admits he has big shoes to fill and praised Mazer for maintaining a collegial and supportive tone with the school’s staff.

Mazer and Walker will be working together on the transition, school officials said.

Healing: Continued from page 8

Fogarty has a Ph.D. in organizational development but when she speaks her background and studies in social work are evident.

“I’ve seen people who see themselves as the victim and as a victim it’s always somebody else’s fault,” Fogarty said. “This really said, ‘Yes, you are the victim. But you can turn this around.’”

“It was the social worker in me that came

of May. By the second week of May I was already looking into different opportunities and that’s when I stumbled onto My New Summer,” said Lazear, an incoming junior at Penn State University’s Schreyer Honors College. “Andrew was my old BBYO regional director. I reached out and he told me how I can get into the LinkedIn group.”

Lazear, a supply chain management major who is also pursuing a concentration in marketing, completed a form and sent over her resume.

“I am a very extroverted person. I love interacting with people. Being at home has been difficult,” said Lazear.

Exler hired Lazear to become the organization’s relationship associate. That position, she said, enables her to “interact with different people and be the gatekeeper,” so to speak, by overseeing access to the LinkedIn group and assisting members of the digital community.

“I really enjoy it,” Lazear added. “It’s nice to help students who are going through the

same situation I went through.”

Cohen agreed.

“I come from a perspective of understanding what it was like to have your plans change this summer,” she said.

There’s been a lot of learning over the past month, but there are basically three takeaways, said Exler: managing the immediate needs of those whose summer plans fell through; defining the organization’s role, so that, while building the brand which Exler and Pepe currently bankroll, potential funders can see the direction it is headed; “and then just really continuing to hear what our partners want from us.”

In accomplishing those aims, Exler is conscious of pigeonholing himself.

Whereas the organization is looking to work with employers seeking camp staff, and camp staff members seeking employment, being a “camp person” is not necessarily synonymous with diving out of a canoe or organizing a relay race.

“For us, if we’ve learned anything, it’s that

we’ve definitely found a need in the middle, which is the camp community, but understanding that the term ‘camp people’ can be very broad. It’s not just somebody who went to camp, but it might be someone who grew up in synagogue life or a youth group, or they’ve done Israel travel,” he said.

The staff of My New Summer has plans for its future that include traveling to meet potential partners, but has had to adapt to COVID-19 realities, like the rest of the world, noted Exler.

Even so, there is value in appreciating the present, explained Cohen.

“The biggest thing for me is that this is a time when you can still gain experience,” she said. “You can still move forward. You can have a lot of experience, a little experience, only camp experience, but My New Summer is here to help you move forward during this time.” PJC

“Community Day School will always be my home and my family, and I couldn’t be more proud of the work our team of educators has accomplished over my nearly half-century tenure,” said Mazer, who’s retiring as head of Hebrew and Jewish Studies after decades of service to the school. “I look forward to working with Aaron over the coming weeks to help ensure his smooth transition to our school community and I am excited about all

the ways he will deepen learning and build community at CDS.” Walker, for his part, said coming to Pittsburgh, in a way, speaks to a desire to return to the surroundings of his youth.

Bloomington, Indiana is home to Indiana University, which has nearly 50,000 students, roughly the size of Greater Pittsburgh’s Jewish community. By comparison, Bloomington’s 2018 population didn’t break 90,000.

“In Pittsburgh, you’ve got three college towns stuck in one place,” he said.

When he starts the new job, it won’t be a matter of “‘Here’s the new, bold ways of doing things I learned in New York City,’” he said. “That’s not fun and that’s not what I want.” PJC

out” at the exhibit, she added. “I said, ‘This is a wonderful thing. People need to see it.

People need to hear it.’”

The exhibit is supported, in part, by a portion of an $3.86 million Antiterrorism and Emergency Assistance Program grant from the Office for Victims of Crime of the U.S. Justice Department.

“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, when the

grant was announced. “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.”

Though the exhibit was not built in response to or connection with the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, Symons said it greatly helped him process his feelings about the traumatic incident in his community.

“There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t remember the events of Oct. 27, 2018,”

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

Justin Vellucci is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.

Symons said. “But I am better prepared to live my life fully because of what I learned at Healing Rivers.”

Though the exhibit is now largely closed due to COVID-19, Center for Victims officials said they’re not going anywhere. For inquiries and to schedule trainings, please contact Stephanie Walsh at 412-482-3240, ext. 500 or swalsh@ centerforvictims.org. PJC Justin Vellucci is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.

Local Chabad centers reopen for services, announce day camp opening dates

A

s Allegheny County entered the green phase on Friday, June 5, loosening restrictions that had been put in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19, local Chabad centers took their first tentative steps toward reopening.

The Lubavitch Center of Pittsburgh resumed minyanim on Wednesday, June 3, with restrictions, according to its Facebook page.

Shabbat services were planned at the Lubavitch Center and Chabad of Squirrel Hill beginning Friday, June 5, and at Chabad of the South Hills on Saturday, June 6.

Rabbi Mendel Rosenblum, director of Chabad of the South Hills, announced the PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

resumption of Shabbat services by email. As with the minyanim at the Lubavitch Center, preregistration is required and is limited to 25 people. Additional restrictions, including requiring a face mask to be worn by all in attendance, have been put in place.

Rosenblum pointed out that if anyone did not feel comfortable attending, they could still reach out by email to have a name read during the recitation of the Mi Shebeirach and Kaddish prayers.

Rabbi Yisroel Altein said that Chabad of Squirrel Hill is able to accommodate its typical number of attendees but asked that anyone who regularly attends services at another synagogue, and is interested in

attending services at Chabad of Squirrel Hill, should reach out in advance so he can plan accordingly.

In lieu of post-service kiddush, Chabad of Squirrel Hill will be offering Shabbat to-go kits.

Chabad of Monroeville was scheduled to reopen on Sunday, June 7. It will resume regular Shabbat services beginning Saturday, June 13.

“We distributed a survey among our community,” Rabbi Mendy Shapiro, of Chabad of Monroeville, said. “It was split down the middle, some were nervous, which is OK, and some were interested in resuming services with restrictions including face

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

masks and social distancing.”

Camp Gan Izzy day camp will reopen at Chabad of Squirrel Hill on Monday, June 29, with modifications including a four-hour day and no transportation provided.

“We are looking forward to opening,” said Altein. “The governor’s allowance for children not having to wear masks was a big sigh of relief, allowing us to open camp.”

Registration is now open for the Lubavitch Center’s Camp Gan Izzy day camp, which opens on Monday, July 6.

Chabad of the South Hills has not announced a decision about its day camp. PJC — David Rullo JUNE 12, 2020 15

Life & Culture Historic Jewish choices in China can inform Jewish values today, says author — BOOKS —

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

W

hen Jonathan Kaufman wrote “The Last Kings of Shanghai,” published last week, he could not have known how timely its lessons would be.

Still, he was not surprised.

“I’ve written three books, and although I didn’t intend this, all three basically deal with the role of Jews in crisis and in moments of incredible historic transition, whether it’s the civil rights movement in the United States, the rise of Nazism and communism in Europe, and now the rise of China across the world,” said the Pulitzer Prize winner.

“One of the things I’ve learned is that Jews for various reasons often find themselves in these positions — Jews are not just a Middle East story, just because we started in Jerusalem doesn’t mean that that’s the only place where we’ve had influence,” Kaufman noted. “Every place they go they seem to feel compelled in some ways to get involved in the great issues of the day, often on different sides of them. One of the things we have to accept in Jewish history is that Jews are very diverse, and I think that all three of my books have sort of connected the fact that Jews always seem to be at the center of these great historical moments and they face moral and political choices. Examining those choices is part of what I find so compelling.”

Kaufman’s new book traces the history of the Kadoorie and Sassoon families. Both originally from Baghdad, the two Jewish dynasties navigated Chinese politics and

Wecht: Continued from page 5

medical examiner that was hired by Floyd’s attorneys?

I have been quite critical that the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s office spoke out as quickly as it did and made a statement “no physical evidence of a struggle.” That was premature for three reasons. Number one, you don’t release your findings in a case like this until you have seen microscopic autopsy tissue slides; two, you have gotten back the toxicology report; and three, most importantly in this case, a brain has to be fixed in formalin for two weeks or more. The consistency changes and the brain is examined by a forensic neuropathologist with special stains that are not used or found in a regular pathology laboratory, special stains are done

Masks: Continued from page 6

moved to Pittsburgh from South Dakota in 2016 after his best friend in South Dakota died. The Temple Sinai member’s grandparents, father, aunt and uncle had all 16 JUNE 12, 2020

economics for more than 175 Between Blacks and Jews in years, while enabling the counAmerica,” can provide insight to try’s international rise.

Jewish readers now.

“These two families basically “We all have myths that we stood astride Shanghai business walk around with, as a country, and politics, and the politics of as a people, as a religious group.

China, really, from the 1840s to We all grow up in Sunday the present day,” said Kaufman, School as Jews and sort of learn a former China bureau chief a history, which makes us look for The Wall Street Journal. good. And there’s lots of reasons His book provides insight into to feel proud to be Jewish, and China’s growth and the correto understand that Jews have The Last sponding actions of two Jewish p accomplished a lot and also Kings of Shanghai families, but also is “a lesson Photo courtesy of been persecuted, but I think Viking/Penguin the more I learned about Jewish in how history moves and how empires fall. Covering 200 history, and the more I explore years of history, and these families wrapped it, you begin to discover that Jews have also up in every stage of it, is a window into faced choices and they sometimes have made when things seem good they may turn bad wrong choices, or choices that at the time again, and when things seem bad they may might have seemed right but in retrospect, turn good again.” turned out to be wrong,” said Kaufman. “I Kaufman’s outlook can remind readers would hope that if my books do anything, that “the world has gone through tough they make Jews realize that their history is times before, and people have survived and more complex, and that just being Jewish thrive. In some ways I think that can give and believing a certain set of values, doesn’t a useful perspective to some of what the mean you always live by those values.”

United States is going through now.”

Decades ago Kaufman was researching Kaufman, who has held senior positions “Broken Alliance” when he learned a lesson at Bloomberg News, The Wall Street Journal that still resonates with him today. and The Boston Globe, and is currently “One of the African American activists I director of the Northeastern University spoke to turned to me and said, ‘You know, School of Journalism, said he never antici- you can go to synagogue on Saturdays, but pated that his newest book would arrive amid being holy surely means how you act the a global pandemic and nationwide protests other six days of the week.’ And I think that’s following the killing of George Floyd, but a very powerful statement, and something believes “The Last Kings of Shanghai,” as well that, especially in the United States, now as as his earlier works, “A Hole in the Heart of Jews have risen to such powerful positions, the World: Being Jewish in Eastern Europe” influential positions, we sometimes have to and “Broken Alliance: The Turbulent Times ask ourselves,” said Kaufman. to show evidence of hypoxia. And with a nine-minute period of diminished oxygenation, I am sure that such changes would have been evidenced, and will be if that brain examination is to be conducted. Obviously, it had not been performed at that time one or two days later.

The other criticism that I have of that Hennepin County Medical Examiner is, the way I’m reading it, he places the heart conditions first and then he said, “and/or associated with that positional asphyxiation of the neck and compression.” That is incorrect. As Michael Baden pointed out correctly in his second autopsy, it is the compression of the neck which is the principle factor here leading to the death.

I’m not saying that [a preexisting heart condition] should not have been mentioned, but it’s not to be given out as the primary cause of death.

That’s the proper way. Compression of the neck resulting in asphyxiation and contributing would have been any cardiac conditions which he claims to have found significant contributing factors.

lived in Squirrel Hill. When he decided to find a new home, Pittsburgh was “the only logical choice.”

“I have all these memories of my cousins taking me to IKC’s [the Irene Kaufmann Center] and Isley’s. When I used to come here, 90% of the signage on Murray Avenue was in Hebrew. Now, because of the universities,

everything has radically changed.”

Having helped to solve the puzzle of manufacturing face masks and getting them into the hands of those in need, Tobias has already found his next puzzle to solve.

“I was talking to [director of Friendship Circle] Rivkee Rudolph and she mentioned the problem of face masks and deaf kids because

Is there anything else you want to add?

This case emphasizes something I have been saying for many, many years and that is an educational, professional, procedural revolution in law enforcement, to upgrade the requirements in terms of eligibility to apply. Do extensive psychological testing on individuals, have extended, expanded educational pre-official employment training with a lot of discussions by many people including psychologists and psychiatrists and others, then, at least every few years, occasional psychological training.

It is very important to find out what kinds of people you are putting in these positions.

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

p Jonathan Kaufman

Photo by Glenn Turner Photography

“This is something that the Kadoories and the Sassoons really thought about and were really challenged on,” Kaufman continued.

“What does it mean to be Jewish? What do Jewish values mean? Do those Jewish values extend beyond Jews?”

“There’s always this ability to learn and to make choices,” he added. “I would hope that all these books kind of open up a conversation where Jews can sort of look at our own history and say, ‘Are we making the right choices now, did we make the right choices then and how can we do things better?’” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

And with all of that, their pay should be increased. It’s about time for America to wake up, law enforcement officers, school teachers, these are important, two major segments of our society. To underpay them as we do while ball players and athletes of different kinds make in the millions of dollars, talk about blatant hypocrisy and arrogance.

We have to wake up here and deal with law enforcement in the way it is necessary, and this case highlights that. And this case also highlights a deep-seated racism that continues to exist in America.

I can only hope that people will learn and that, while George Floyd paid the price of his life, that society will have gained something regrettably from his death. PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

nobody can see their lips,” Tobias said. “So, we’re going to get together with some of her people to figure out how to design a face mask for deaf kids because it’s a real problem and I think I know how to design it already.” PJC David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Life & Culture Amid pandemic, these young Jews and their elderly friends are finding new ways to connect — COMMUNICATION —

By Renee Ghert-Zand | JTA

W

hen the COVID-19 pandemic began, 15-year-old Samantha Renzulli immediately thought about how it would affect her elderly friends at Jewish Senior Services, a long-term care facility in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Renzulli had met some of the residents through Better Together, a school-based Jewish intergenerational program, and she worried about their isolation.

“I was aware of the loneliness the residents must have been experiencing, as they were unable to have visitors or leave their rooms,” Renzulli said. “As I thought back to all the fun times I shared with the residents, it saddened me to think of their lack of companionship during this time.”

So she and her fellow students at the Merkaz Community High School for Judaic Studies resolved to find new ways to maintain connections to the seniors. Since mid-April, students’ families have paraded in long caravans of decorated cars around the residence every Friday as residents and staff look on from balconies. They’ve also delivered more than 130 bouquets of donated flowers for residents, and a trove of books, toys and toiletries for staff members and their families.

On Mother’s Day, Renzulli and her young friends shared with the seniors a “musical mitzvah mashup” video they created especially for them.

In normal times, Better Together, a project launched in 2014, pairs students from Jewish day schools and congregational Hebrew schools with the residents of senior centers for meaningful in-person interactions.

During the pandemic, students at many of the schools have found innovative ways to continue connecting with their elder “buddies” despite social distancing protocols.

The experience has spurred Better Together to introduce a modified version of its program that can be replicated in communities across the country. Called Better Together in a Box, it’s a free, downloadable curriculum designed for the upcoming summer of social distancing, when camp, internships and many other Jewish summer activities will be cancelled.

Better Together in a Box includes materials for teen learning sessions on Jewish values like leadership, responsibility, empathy, wisdom and wellness. It suggests virtual intergenerational activities, such as cooking, fitness and art, which can be done synchronously or not. It also offers some participating organizations a modest grant to help fund their program, if they meet certain requirements.

“What we mean by ‘in-a-box’ is that it is a ready-to-use curriculum, and that it is designed for doing things virtually, or at least not in person,” said Bess Adler, Better Together’s program director.

Organizers are hoping camps, youth groups, congregational schools and Jewish PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

p Jewish students brought flowers, signs and good cheer to staff appreciation day at Jewish Senior Services, a long-term care facility in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Photo by Margery Verlezza

p Beren Academy student Dina Kirshner and Medallion resident Marcene Goldman plant flowers together at a pre-pandemic Better Together event in Houston.

Photo by Ari Kellerman

day schools will utilize the curriculum for youths ranging in age from middle school to high school.

Yolande Dauber, 101, is eager to continue participating in Better Together this summer. A resident of The Medallion, an assisted living residence in Houston, she has enjoyed her conversations with her young buddy from the Robert M. Beren Academy, a modern Orthodox day school in Houston.

“It’s nice to mingle with young people,” said Dauber, who once worked as a middle school guidance counselor in her hometown of Brooklyn. “They have interesting ideas, and I enjoy hearing about their plans

for the future.”

Dauber misses hugging and kissing the students as they arrive at The Medallion but understands that she can’t meet them in person for the foreseeable future. Adept at using her computer and Kindle, she is confident she’ll be able to participate in online activities organized by Beren Academy students this summer.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, students from the school have been calling their senior buddies to wish them Shabbat Shalom, and created videos for them.

“Some of the residents even made selfie videos and sent them back to us in return,”

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said 17-year-old Natanya Ruben, who will participate in Better in a Box this summer following canceled plans for a family trip to South Africa.

Not all seniors are able to use technology.

Rabbi Ari Kellerman, the Judaic studies principal at Beren Academy’s middle and high schools, has been trying to come up with other activities. A consultant to Better Together in a Box, he devised the idea of a Buddy Box, where teens can send their elderly partners fun items such as craft project materials along with video cards with filmed clips of themselves offering greetings and project instructions.

Until now, students have produced elaborate works based on their yearlong interactions with their senior buddies, such as photography exhibitions, documentary films, large quilts and travel scrapbooks reflecting global destinations that have played important roles in the seniors’ lives.

Now, the focus is a bit different.

“COVID poses such a big challenge,” Kellerman said. “We need to shift from thinking so much about fun activities to making sure our seniors are okay.”

Devra Aarons, director of the Contra Costa Midrasha, a community-based weekly Jewish educational program for 8th through 12th graders in Walnut Creek, California, said the emphasis now must be on maintaining relationships and cultivating empathy. Her students are partnered with residents of The Reutlinger, in nearby Danville.

“I find that the teens are very good with coming up with ideas for using videos and other tech,” Aarons said. “Maybe we’ll just focus on teaching the seniors how to use the technology at first. That could be a good way to stay connected.”

In Connecticut, Renzulli has taken the lead in designing intergenerational activities. With her planned five-week summer language-immersion program in Spain cancelled, she said one of her main priorities this summer will be focusing on “bringing love and joy” to residents of Jewish Senior Services, and “showing them and the nurses at their aid that our community is here to support them.”

Renzulli’s mother, Laurie Renzulli, said the project has helped boost her daughter’s spirits during this challenging time.

“The weekly meetings for planning and execution of the activities have helped tremendously during this time of home education and limited social interactions,” she said. “Each week there have been deliverables to accomplish, and when each weekly mitzvah hits a milestone or completion, Samantha feels she has made a positive difference in our community and the world.” PJC This story was sponsored by and produced in collaboration with a foundation that wishes to remain anonymous, and is part of a series titled “On the Bright Side: Stories of innovation and resilience from Jewish non-profits.” This article was produced by JTA’s native content team JUNE 12, 2020 17

Life & Culture In Sephardi culture, rice prep is an art form — FOOD —

By Linda Morel | Special to the Chronicle

Persian Rice (Pollo) Pareve or Meat | Serves 9 people

Equipment: 2½-quart nonstick saucepan.

A nonstick pan is essential.

2 medium-size carrots, or more if needed 3 cups basmati rice 1 cup raisins, or any dried fruit, such as cranberries, cherries or barberries (typical of Persian cuisine) 2 tablespoons turmeric, plus more for dusting Salt to taste Black pepper to taste ⅓ cup vegetable or canola oil, plus more for coating saucepan 1 cup chicken or vegetable stock 1 potato, white or sweet

Dice the carrots until you fill ½ cup. Reserve.

Place the rice in a strainer and rinse it well under cold water. Move it to a large bowl.

Add the carrots and raisins. Stir together, making sure the carrots and raisins appear equal in color. If not, add more of one so both colors are equally brilliant. Add 2 tablespoons turmeric, salt and pepper, stirring until well combined. Add the oil and stir.

18 JUNE 12, 2020

Photo by ALLEKO/iStockphoto.com

R

ice is a grain with endless possibilities. While Ashkenazi Jews often relegate it to the side of their plates or see it as a sponge to mop up sauces and gravies, in Sephardi culture, rice preparation is revered as an art form.

In the Ashkenazi world, rice is usually served white and plain. Maybe butter is added, but that’s about it.

However, Sepahrdi rice recipes are studded with spices, herbs, vegetables, fresh and dried fruit, beans, and nuts, which add texture, color and intense flavor to a delicate grain that can stand alone but is enhanced by additional ingredients. Many Sephardic recipes call for basmati or jasmine rice, both long-grained varieties.

The most renowned of all Sephardi rice dishes is Persian rice, which is famous for its thick crunchy crust.

“Persian rice is meant to be al dente, not soft and gushy like a lot of other rice dishes,” says Hadar Orshalimy, an Israeli-American singer, songwriter, musician and artist. She comes from a large, Persian Jewish family, which hails from Iran. She learned how to make Persian rice from her grandmother.

Treasured like jewels, rice recipes and cooking techniques are frequently passed down from one generation to the next in families. Young women, often before they marry, learn how to make rice by observing a mother or grandmother in the kitchen.

Because this precious grain is so stunning, it’s time to reimagine rice. Think like a Sephardi cook and move rice from a sideshow to the center of the table where it belongs.

Here is Hadar Orshalimy’s recipe.

Pour in the stock and stir again, making sure ingredients are well blended. Reserve.

Peel the potato and cut into slices about ¼-inch thick. Pour a thin coat of oil into the bottom of the saucepan. Dust turmeric over the oil, creating an even yellow layer.

Arrange potato slices in a single layer over the turmeric-oil. If you have too many slices, use them for another purpose. Spoon the rice mixture over the potato layer and even it out with the back of a spoon.

Move the pot to the stove. Slowly pour in enough water so it is about ½-inch above the rice. Important note: You don’t want your rice to be sticky or mushy, so it’s better to start with less water and add it as you go, as long as you keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t burn.

Place a dish towel over the pot. Cover the towel with the pot lid. If the towel touches the burner, then fold over the corners and tuck them under the pot lid to avoid burning the towel. Cook on a high flame for about 2 minutes, and then reduce to a medium flame in order to crust the potatoes and rice that are on the bottom, called Ta’adik. Check every few minutes to make sure there’s a layer of water above the rice. If not, slowly add a little more water.

After 15-20 minutes, check to see there’s water bubbling above the rice. If not, add water 1 tablespoon at a time. Reduce the flame to low. Taste the rice every few minutes. When its texture is al dente, soft on the outside but firm on the inside, the rice is ready.

Find a plate that is larger in diameter than the saucepan. Remove the saucepan’s lid and the towel. Place the plate over the saucepan.

Turn over the saucepan onto the plate, using

an oven mitt to hold the bottom so you don’t burn your hands. Place the plate on a kitchen counter.

Thump the bottom of the saucepan with the towel and/or a spoon to encourage the rice to loosen. Lift the saucepan and the rice should slide onto the plate. It will retain the shape of the saucepan and exhibit the world renowned crunchy crust of Persian rice.

Serve immediately.

Pink Rice from Rhodes Pareve | Serves 6 1 tablespoon olive oil, or more, if needed 2 shallots, diced fine 5 cloves garlic, minced Kosher salt to taste ⅛ teaspoon oregano, or more, if desired 1 Italian plum tomato, diced fine 1 cup basmati or jasmine rice 2½ cups water 2 teaspoon tomato paste 1 tablespoon. parsley, chopped fine

In a large saucepan, heat the oil over a medium flame until warm, about 1-2 minutes. Add the shallots, garlic, salt and oregano. Sauté briefly until fragrant.

Add the tomato and stir until it gives off some of its juice.

Add the rice and stir until the grains are coated. Drizzle in more oil, if mixture is dry. Pour in the water, followed by the tomato paste. Stir until the tomato paste dissolves. Cover the saucepan and reduce the flame to low.

Simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add more water if it bubbles away too quickly. Continue to simmer for another 5

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to 10 minutes, stirring often, until the rice is no longer firm in the center.

Move to an attractive bowl and sprinkle with parsley. Serve immediately.

Israeli Yellow Rice Meat or Pareve | Serves 6 1 tablespoon olive oil, or more, if needed 4 garlic cloves, minced ½ teaspoon turmeric ⅛ teaspoon kosher salt, or more if desired 1 cup basmati rice A couple saffron threads, optional 2½ cups water 1 chicken or vegetable bouillon cube 1 tablespoon cilantro, chopped fine

In a large saucepan, heat oil over a medium flame until warm, about 1-2 minutes. Add garlic, turmeric and salt and sauté. Add the rice and stir until grains are coated with oil.

Slowly drizzle in more oil, if the mixture is dry and rice is sticking to the pot. Add the saffron threads and stir. Pour in the water, followed by the bouillon cube. Stir briefly.

Cover the pot and reduce the flame to low.

Simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

The bouillon cube should be completely dissolved. Check to see if more salt is needed and add gingerly, if desired. Add more water if it bubbles away too quickly. Continue to simmer for another 5 to 10 minutes, stirring often, until the rice is no longer firm in the center.

Move to an attractive bowl and sprinkle with cilantro. Serve immediately. PJC Linda Morel is a writer for the Philadelphia Exponent, an affiliated publication.

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Celebrations

Torah

Engagement

Moses: A paragon of humility

FELDMAN: Susie and Bruce Feldman of Monroeville are excited to announce the engagement of their son, Seth, to Elizabeth Shollenberger, daughter of David and Mary Jo Shollenberger of Pottsville, Pennsylvania.

Seth is the grandson of the late Lois and David Shapiro and the late Dr. Joseph and Shirley Feldman, all of Squirrel Hill. Elizabeth is the granddaughter of Delores and the late Benjamin Shollenberger and Marie and the late Chester Fuss, all of Pottsville.

Seth graduated with a Bachelor of Science in entrepreneurship/business management from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He is a sales representative for Cintas.

Elizabeth is a graduate of Duquesne University with a Bachelor of Science in biology and a Master of Science in education from Slippery Rock University. Elizabeth is a biology teacher at Moon Area High School.

Seth and Elizabeth will be married in Pittsburgh in August 2021.

Bat Mitzvah

Birth

NAVEH: Abigail Judith Naveh, daughter of Barak and Lisa Naveh, will celebrate becoming a bat mitzvah on Saturday, June 13, at Rodef Shalom Congregation.

Abigail has an older sister, Gabriella. She is the granddaughter of Peter and Susan Gonsenheimer and Jacob and Edie Naveh.

Abigail attends Community Day School and loves playing basketball and the violin, running and spending time with family and friends. For Abigail’s service project, she is collecting monetary donations for a scholarship fund and sports equipment, all to benefit Jimyse Brown’s Hidden Gyms, a sports and recreation program.

RAFSON HAKIMI: Sarah Rafson and Jedd Hakimi of Pittsburgh welcome their first child, Asa Reuben Rafson Hakimi, into the world. Asa was born May 18. His grandparents are Roger and Sally Rafson of Pittsburgh and Dalya and Farokh Hakimi of Toronto, Ontario. Asa’s great-grandparents are Dr. Learita Garfield Scott of Bethesda, Maryland, and Rivka Shafizadeh-Hakimi of Israel. Asa’s bris and naming ceremony was held on Zoom and attended by hundreds. PJC

Rabbi Zalman Gurevitz Parashat Behaalotecha Numbers 8:1-12:16

T

here is a story told about Rabbi Rivkin who was the chief rabbi of the Rabbinical Council of the U.S. and Canada. He once was in court to testify on a religious matter. He was introduced as the chief rabbi of the Rabbinical Council of the U.S. When he got up to speak he added: “and Canada.” The judge turned to him and asked: “Isn’t humility a Jewish thing?” The Rabbi replied: “Most definitely, but what can I do — I’m under oath!”

In this week’s Torah portion, we read how the Almighty proclaims that Moses is the most humble man that ever existed and there will never be anyone as humble as him. While it is obvious that Hashem can predict the future, we are taught that every person has free will, so how did Hashem know that there will never be anyone as humble as Moses?

We can understand this by first understanding what humility is in Judaism.

Typically, humility is understood to mean a low self-regard and sense of unworthiness.

In Judaism, that is not the case. You must always recognize your self-value and realize you are needed in this world, and that life for the more than 7 billion people on this planet would not be the same without you.

You are part of G-d’s master plan.

You must also understand that all the talents you have, and everything you accomplish, are only thanks to the tools and opportunities that G-d gave you. While you can take credit for your hard work, you never know whether if G-d had given the

While we have free will to do good or bad, G-d decides what gifts to give each one of us. same opportunity to someone else, they might have used it in a more effective and productive way.

Take those who are blessed with wealth and give charity: If they fully recognize that the wealth they have is a blessing from G-d in order to give tzedakah, they are not going to feel proud about how much tzedakah they give — just as the bank teller is not Please see Torah, page 22

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

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Obituaries KALSTONE: Shirley A. “Shirlee” Kalstone, age 88, of New York, New York, formerly of McKeesport, died Thursday, May 21, 2020. She was born in Pittsburgh on Sept. 2, 1931. She is the daughter of the late James Comoroda and Irene (Russell) Coneby and the wife of the late Lawrence M. Kalstone who died Oct. 4, 2017. She studied at the University of Pittsburgh.

She was an internationally recognized expert on pets, and traveled worldwide in that pursuit. She was author of “The Complete Poodle Clipping and Grooming: The International Reference”; founder of “Intergroom” in 1981 and organizer of that international conference for 20 years. She judged grooming contests in many countries and was the author of 15 other books about dog and cat breeds and their care and grooming, including “How to Housebreak your Dog in 7 Days.” She was a regular contributor to pet industry periodicals.

She and her husband were interested in purebred dog memorabilia, collecting rare books and art works illustrating the history of various breeds. Their unique collection of more than 100 antique dog-headed walking sticks is now part of the American

Kennel Club in New York. She also loved the opera. She will greatly be missed by her family and friends everywhere. Shirlee is survived by her niece, Sally (Donald) Garson of New Jersey; nephews, Bernard (Cheryl) Feinman of Pittsburgh and Paul Feinman (Kala Shaffer) of Asheville, North Carolina; great-nieces and greatnephews, Lori (Michael) Coscia, Merritt B. (Angela) Feinman, Matthew (Kellie) Garson, Andrew (Stacy) Garson; and many great-great-nieces and nephews. Graveside services were held on Thursday, May 28, 2020, at Temple Cemetery with Rabbi Paul Tuchman officiating. Arrangements

by Strifflers of White Oak Cremation and Mortuary Services (412-678-6177). To share a memory or condolence, please visit strifflerfuneralhomes.com.

LEVIN: On Thursday, June 4, 2020, beloved wife of the late Meir Levin. Loving mother of Helen Klein (Roger) and Erwin Levin.

Cherished grandmother of Joshua Klein, Sarah Levin (Ian Fishman), Andrew Klein and Laura Levin. Great-grandmother of Mae Fishman. Paulina was a Holocaust survivor. Services and interment were private. Contributions in Paulina’s memory may be made to the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh, 826 Hazelwood Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15217. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. schugar.com

OHRINGER: Jack Friedman Ohringer passed away on May 25, 2020, just two days after his 75th birthday. Jack fought through the worst of his two-week hospit a lizat ion and intubation from COVID-19; he was extubated on May 22.

The day after being extubated, on May 23, which was his birthday, he twice told his wife, Jamie, that he loved her on a brief FaceTime call before passing unexpectedly two days later. Jack is survived by his wife, Jamie Szabadi; Kara and Zack, his two stepchildren whom he adored; his three siblings Cecia, Lee and David; and scores upon scores of relatives, lifelong friends and work associates from across the country. Jack was born and raised in Pittsburgh, and was lovingly known as “Mr. Personality,” especially during his Gamma Phi days at Taylor Allderdice High School, from which he graduated in 1963. He had many jobs in the city during his teenage years and his time at Robert Morris College, including working and managing the family business, which was a delicatessen products manufacturer. Jack enjoyed many interests throughout his life, like dancing (including once on “American Bandstand”) and owning his own speed boat. He always had a passion

for boating and water skiing so he enlisted in the United States Coast Guard and completed his full duty with an honorable discharge. After the Coast Guard, Jack spent several more years working alongside his parents in Pittsburgh, until he set his sights on new careers in Los Angeles, where he lived for the next 54 years until his death. He worked as a stock broker, a retail manager, a property and shopping center manager, a property developer and finally a contractor, which filled the majority of his professional career. Jack, “Mr. Personality,” will be sorely missed and remembered fondly for his unique ability to make everyone he talked to feel loved and special. In lieu of flowers, if you choose to make a donation, it may be sent to: Cedars Sinai Medical Center, attention Paola Werstler, 8700 Beverly Blvd., Suite 2416 Los Angeles, CA 90048. Make checks payable to Cedars Sinai. On the memo line, please add: IMO Jack Ohringer COVID Nursing Support, or to make a gift online, go to: https://giving.cedars-sinai.edu/d .

For “Designation” select “other” and add “Nursing” in the comment section. Please fill in your information for the gift details.

At the end of the page, under the “Tribute Information” section, select “In Memory of ” and note Jack Ohringer as honoree.

Please see Obituaries, page 22

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ferent law governing Inherited IRAs and retirement plans. The stock market seems jittery and that may continue for a long time. Your own finances and family situation could change significantly between the time you draft your wills, trusts and beneficiary designations and the time of your and/or your spouse’s death.

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JUNE 12, 2020 21

Obituaries Obituaries: Continued from page 21

SELTMAN: Rita S e lt m a n (nee Weinstein): Loving w i fe , m ot h e r, grandmother, and great-grandmother passed away on Wednesday, June 3, 2020, after a valiant fight against cancer.

Cancer may have won, but well or ill, Rita taught us all to enjoy and make the most of every day. There was always room for one more at Rita’s table. Her warm and gracious spirit will be missed by all.

Together with the love of her life, Dr. Morton Seltman, Rita enjoyed traveling the world,

Torah: Continued from page 20

full of pride when he or she gives you cash from your account.

While it is very important to recognize the gifts you have to give (physical, emotional or spiritual support), you also need to understand you were given your talents so you can

continuing her education and spending time with her family and friends. Rita was a lifelong Pittsburgher, having attended Taylor Allderdice High School and the University of Pittsburgh. Besides her husband, she is survived by her sister Elayne Smith, her brother Dr. Sanford Weinstein and her blended family’s children: Randi Goldmann (Martin Forman), grandchildren Max, Jake and Ross; Bernie Goldmann (Melisa Wallack), grandchildren Lilyana, Mercer and Grey; and Richard (Barry Buck); and her husband’s children: Marty Seltman (Janet), grandchildren Jake (Cortney), great-grandchildren Noah, Ari and Isaiah; and O.E. Zelmanovich (partner Rayden Sorock), great-grandchild Calder; Howard Seltman (Kathy McIntyre-Seltman), grandchildren Maddie (John Trimpi), great-grandchildren, Azalea and Kol; and Rachel Jern (Alan Jern), and Susan Segal (Lee), grandchildren Ben (Feliz

Molina), Emily (deceased) and Jessica. She is loved and deeply missed by her family and friends. Services and interment were private.

Memorial donations may be made to Grow Pittsburgh (https://growpittsburgh.org or 6587 Hamilton Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15206), whose mission is to teach people how to grow food and promote the benefits gardens bring to our neighborhoods. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. schugar.com

them share with others and make the world a G-dly place.

In the shtetl, there was once a wealthy man who was known to be not too intelligent. But his accountant was known to be one of the more intelligent people in the shtetl. One time, when the rich man was in a good mood, he turned to his accountant and asked: “Why is it that I am not so smart, and I am the rich man, while you are known

to be so smart and you are working for me?”

The accountant answered: “You know that if G-d gave me all that money you have, there is no way I would ever hire you for anything.”

Now we can understand how G-d knew that Moses would be the most humble man to ever walk on the face of the earth. The more gifted you are, the more humble you can be. While we have free will to do good or bad, G-d decides what gifts to give each one of us. And He

SURLOFF: Elsa Faye Surloff passed away peacefully in her home of over 65 years on May 28, 2020, at the age of 90 with her daughter Ellen Surloff at her side. The rest of the family was with her spiritually but unable to travel to Pittsburgh due to the pandemic.

Elsa was the beloved wife of the late Earl Surloff with whom she enjoyed 40 years of marriage; the devoted daughter of the late

decided that Moses would be the most gifted human to ever exist. So, because Moses was the most gifted person (and recognized that his gifts were gifts from G-d) there can never be anyone with more humility than him. PJC Rabbi Zalman Gurevitz is the rabbi at the Rohr Chabad Jewish Center in Morgantown, West Virginia. This column is a service of the Vaad Harabaim of Greater Pittsburgh.

PITTSBU RGH NEWEST ’S FUNERA L HOME

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Samuel and Evelyn Maryn; the loving mother of Ellen Surloff and Sam Surloff (Joanne Van Emburgh); and the loving grandmother of Mallory Falk, Joshua Falk and Emily Surloff.

Elsa was a graduate of Peabody High School and the University of Pittsburgh, an excellent golfer, dedicated Pittsburgh sports fan, avid reader, crossword puzzle aficionado and outstanding bridge player. Services and interment were private. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to: Earl R. Surloff Memorial Endowment, Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh, 2000 Technology Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15219 (established in 1992, this fund supports educational programs for teens about the Holocaust and anti-Semitism) or to: The Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh (jccpgh.org), 5738 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15217. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. schugar.com PJC

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THIS WEEK’S YAHRZEITS — Sunday June 14: Hyman Berkowitz, David J. Cohen, Lawrence Stephen Fisher, Ada Gilles Frank, Herbert S. Goodman, Rae Horovitz, Milton Klein, Rebecca Leff, Sarah Mollie Lewis, Louis Meyers, Harold Middleman, Abraham N. Miller, Rose Morgan, Molly Moskovitz, Rae Rader, Harry Recht, Ben Sussman Monday June 15: Rachel Americus, Isadore Becker, Clara Bluestone, Florence Fredericks, Esther Lang Glick, Julius Goldberg, Rose Goldstein, Fannie Goltz, Goldie Graff, Rose Azen Horewitz, David Rosenfield, Libby Silberblatt, Rae Solomon, Phillip Weiss, Morris Zinman Tuesday June 16: Dr. Hyman Bernstein, Howard J. Friedman, Elsie Lichtenstul Goldbloom, Benjamin Horne, Julie Katzman, Minnie Reich, Ida S. Segal, Nathan Shaer, Ethel Silver, Irene Feldman Weiss Wednesday June 17: Nathan Baum, Frank Bennett, Della B. Berman, Marine Private Alan Bernstein, Sarah Bernice Fine, Judith Friedberg, Ike Friedken, Ida S. Frieman, Samuel Gordon, Milton Samuel Horowitz, Morris I. Lieberman, Isaac Lincoff, Janet Gutkowska Mirow, Sara Pollack, Barney Snyder, Bertha Weinberg Thursday June 18: Eugene Bernard Barovsky, Norman L. Berger, Louis Cohen, Hyman Danovitz, Hattie Kaufman, Dr. J. Kalman Leon, Emanuel Samuel Levin, Miriam Levin, David Levine, Esther Levine, Julius Moskovitz, Ruth Perlmutter, Fred Rosen, John J. Roth, Louis Siskind, Clara S. Sniderman, Mollie Weiss Friday June 19: Mollie Apter, Erwin Becker, Barry Birner, Lena Caplan, Abraham Fink, Sarah Friedman, Sarah Sandra ”Goldberg”, Arthur Klein, Eva Miller, Hyman Moravitz, Donald L. Samuels, Louis Shapiro, Barbara Lucille Solomon, Rosella Herzberg Wanetick Saturday June 20: Dr. Mortimer Cohen, Libbie Cohen, Benjamin Friedlander, Harold Goldstein, Diane Golbitz Hamilton, Louis Klein, Frank Kopelson, Lilian Miriam Krasik Kurtz, Max Marcovsky, Jean Smolevitz Marshall, Ethel Miller, Saul Oliver Neft, Maurice A. Nernberg, Ethel Riesberg, Sarah Turk, Lawrence S. Williams

22 JUNE 12, 2020

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Community Click well together

Shabbat Shazoom

p Community Day School sixth-grader Mika Loberant and her mother, Meirav Loberant, log in together and recite the “Blessings over children” during the last full-school Kabbalat Shabbat service of the 2019-2020 academic year.

Photo courtesy of Community Day School

Hope is an open window t Bernie and Jane celebrate his 90th birthday together at Charles Morris Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.

p Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh Early Childhood Development Center staff wishes viewers a Shabbat Shalom.

Photo courtesy of Jewish Community of Greater Pittsburgh

Dignity, discussion and distance More than 200 people, including approximately 35 Pittsburghers, attended the international Kavod v’Nichum conference. Originally scheduled to be held in Pittsburgh June 7-10, the conference, which included five plenary sessions and 32 workshops, was moved online due to the COVID-19 crisis. Pittsburgh is scheduled to host next year’s Kavod v’Nichum conference in June 2021.

u Doris is visited by family.

Photos courtesy of Jewish Association on Aging

p Jordana Rosenfeld, left, and Rachel Butler, highlight the importance of engaging younger members in the reclaiming of ritual death care in modern society.

Screenshot courtesy of Pat Cluss

Wishing all a good week Voting day t Ethel reviews an absentee ballot at Weinberg Village.

Photo courtesy of Jewish Association on Aging

p Rabbis Aaron and Emily Meyer, of Temple Emanuel of South Hills, lead a havdalah service with their children on June 6.

Screenshot by Adam Reinherz

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JUNE 12, 2020 23

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