Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle 6-5-20

June 5, 2020 | 13 Sivan 5780

Candlelighting 8:29 p.m. | Havdalah 9:38 p.m. | Vol. 63, No. 23 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

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JCC begins to reopen children’s Jewish programs organizations respond to George Floyd’s death, protests

NOTEWORTHY LOCAL The Sound of Jewish Music

By Philissa Cramer | JTA

Annual event goes virtual

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conversation about reopening because they “are a critical part of what daily life in the Early Childhood Development Centers will look like.”

Many aspects of daily life will be different from pre-COVID-19 days, according to Baron.

Changes to the program start with child drop off. Parents will not be able to enter the Squirrel Hill building; instead, they will drop off students at the driveway on Darlington Avenue. A JCC staff member will greet the family at their door where every person in the car will be screened and have their temperature taken.

Because of social distancing guidelines, children will be separated by classroom and the JCC will be making an effort to have the same teacher with the same group of children every day, hopefully eliminating the need for “a lot of subs,” Baron said.

Common areas, including the gym and

ewish groups are expressing outrage over the death of George Floyd — a black man killed last week by a Minneapolis police officer who has subsequently been charged with third-degree murder and seconddegree manslaughter — and solidarity with the sweeping national protests that have followed.

The City of Pittsburgh was under overnight curfews on Saturday, Sunday and Monday night in response to protests that began peacefully but turned violent. Saturday night, downtown, the violence resulted in vandalized storefronts, looting, police cars set ablaze, and several police officers and three journalists injured. On Monday, what began as a peaceful protest in East Liberty turned violent as well, with nine police officers injured and 20 people arrested.

On Sunday, the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Community Relations Council, in a statement, said it is “heartbroken by the senseless and unnecessary death of George Floyd at the hands of law enforcement in Minneapolis several days ago. We stand with the African American community and all communities of color in mourning the deaths of Mr. Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and countless others who have lost their lives simply because of the color of their skin. We commend Pittsburgh Chief of Police Scott Schubert for speaking out against this atrocity and for taking steps to use it as a teachable moment at the Pittsburgh Police Academy.

“We recognize that the riots in downtown Pittsburgh yesterday were sparked largely by those who are not part of any community of color and who are seeking to widen the racial divide throughout the region. Unfortunately, the Jewish community is all too familiar with

Please see JCC, page 12

Please see Floyd, page 12

Page 3

LOCAL The making of a paramedic

 Liza Baron, director of early childhood development of JCC of Greater Pittsburgh; Kelly Gumina, assistant director; Sarah Grimm, education program coordinator; and Katie Plofker, education program coordinator welcome kids back to the JCC.

Spotlight on Yitzy Nadoff

Photo by Fara Marcus

Page 5

By David Rullo | Staff Writer

LOCAL

T

Pandemic playlists

Music lovers share their tune picks Page 14

he Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh reopened its Squirrel Hill and South Hills Early Childhood Development Centers on Monday June 1, and plan to open its summer day camps on June 22 in Squirrel Hill, the South Hills and Monroeville.

JCC leadership and staff have been planning the school’s reopening since Governor Tom Wolf closed Pennsylvania day care centers and schools on March 16.

“Certainly, since we’ve closed, we’ve been talking about what it would mean to reopen,” explained Liza Baron, director of the Squirrel Hill ECDC. “We did a backward design, thinking if this is the date we are going to open, what needs to happen before that. It was particularly important to the JCC that we provide our families and educators some notice.”

Baron said that it was crucial to the ECDC that the educators were part of the

keep your eye on PittsburghJewishChronicle LOCAL

Helping the hungry

LOCAL

Realtors busy again

COMEDY

The Larry David of rap

Headlines South Hills man partners with local restaurant to battle food insecurity — LOCAL —

By David Rullo | Staff Writer

L

ong before the COVID-19 outbreak, Evan Dreyer was “agitated about food insecurity.”

“I’ve never gone to bed hungry, except maybe on Yom Kippur and Tisha B’Av,” explained the South Hills resident, “and this is something I view as an American disgrace.”

Over the years, Dreyer and his family have volunteered at soup kitchens and with Meals on Wheels.

When the pandemic began to affect Western Pennsylvania, Dreyer, an ophthalmologist, said he found himself with more free time and a growing desire to help.

“I came across an article about restaurant workers being furloughed and laid off and decided to see if I could find out anything about that,” he said.

Dreyer, the co-owner of Glaucoma Cataract Consultants, found a restaurant workers’ support site online that eventually led him to Don Mahaney, the owner of Scratch Food & Beverage in Troy Hill.

Mahaney was also concerned “that people who were food insecure would have to compromise themselves in some way to get their daily needs met,” Mahaney said. So he transformed Scratch into a pay-what-you-can restaurant and opened a small market that also operated with a pay-what-you-can model for “everyday household needs.”

“We started working with the Greater Pittsburgh Restaurant Workers Mutual Aid group and the Allegheny YMCA to get food to people who have no means,” Mahaney explained. “Then we partnered with a couple

of other organizations, including Wesley Family Services, helping to service seniors and get them groceries.”

When Dreyer learned about what Mahaney was doing, he decided to help with Scratch’s mission and set up a GoFundMe page to collect donations.

“I’m not really much of a fundraiser,” Dreyer said. “I would rather have dental work without anesthesia than call people and ask them for money, but this is something I believe in and figured I would give it a shot.”

Dreyer reached out to his friends and acquaintances. “I contacted everyone in my email contacts, most of the folks in my professional circle and whoever was on my Facebook page.”

The campaign raised more than $2,000 and, through Dreyer’s own matching contributions, now totals almost $4,000 in donations. That money is going directly to Scratch Food & Beverage and the meals it is providing to the community.

Mahaney said the impetus to use Scratch as a vehicle to help those in need came before he closed his doors on March 13.

“I saw what happened in Italy and what was beginning to happen in New York,” he said, adding that it was his understanding of the food distribution chain that made him say, “Oh God, we need to do something, and we need to do it quickly.”

Because farmers don’t grow food for local populations, but instead grow one crop for big contracts, when those contracts are gone, farmers are unable to distribute food elsewhere, according to Mahaney.

“Now, dairy farmers are dumping milk on the ground and taking pigs and chickens to slaughter with no market afterwards,” he said.

“That does a lot to the cost of those foods.”

p Scratch Food & Beverage has converted into a pay-what-you-can restaurant complete with a small market of household needs.

Photo courtesy of Don Mahaney

Mahaney’s goal is to do more than just provide food for those in need.

“I don’t want to go back to where we were,” he said. “I want people to have a strong and visceral tie to their local food growers. That drives the cost down.”

Scratch distributes more than 2,000 meals a week throughout Allegheny County, according to Mahaney. About half of the meals, which are delicatessen-style sandwiches that come pre-packaged but unassembled, are paid for through donations.

Mahaney anticipates opening his restaurant at some point now that Allegheny County has moved into Gov. Tom Wolf ’s green phase, but he does not expect to see “full dining rooms in the near future. There is just no way that

we’re ever going to be seeing our dining room space filled with people until it’s utterly safe for that to happen. So, we need to make a lot of modifications here.”

Dreyer is affiliated with three South Hills congregations: Beth El Congregation of the South Hills, the Carnegie Shul and Chabad of the South Hills. He believes it is his Jewish faith that has informed his belief in helping those in need.

“Would I be this passionate if I were Catholic? Probably,” he said. “But I happen to be an observant Jew, and this is part of me.” PJC David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Headlines Not even a pandemic can silence The Sound of Jewish Music — LOCAL —

By Justin Vellucci | Special to the Chronicle

L

ynn Berman is no neophyte when it comes to performance.

The Squirrel Hill woman, a teacher for the Allegheny Intermediate Unit by day, leads local classes in Israeli dance and has performed for years with the Jewish a cappella group Kol Shira.

Even she admits, though, that the task of mounting a virtual concert’s bravura finale is a bit of challenge.

At 7:30 p.m. on June 9, audiences will tune into YouTube to listen as The Sound of Jewish Music annual women’s concert goes online in the time of COVID-19 and social distancing. It’s Berman’s job that night to use a prerecorded session to bring down the house.

With this Herculean task in mind, Berman helped to choose a song for all the performers to belt out (“T’fila”), a key and a tempo. Then she did what any corona-producer does — she videotaped and emailed, videotaped and emailed. Berman even added two musical performers on clarinet and guitar.

“What we should get in the end is a really beautiful montage of everybody singing

p The a cappella group Kol Shira will be a featured act during the Sound of Jewish Music concert on June 9.

Photo provided by Chani Altein

together,” Berman said. “It’s always been a feel-good moment at the end of the concert — it’s really, really rewarding.”

Chabad of Squirrel Hill’s Chani Altein initially wasn’t sure what COVID-19 would do to the annual women’s concert, which has been a staple of Jewish Pittsburgh for nearly a decade.

“I thought, ‘This has been my favorite event of the year for the past nine years but I guess

we’ll have to hold off this year,’” said Altein, the event’s producer and main organizer. “Then, someone recommended we do it virtually.”

The women volunteers for this event — this year, it’s free to watch, though registration online is required — aren’t just doing it virtually, they’re doing it big time and with style. The evening will feature performances by some 20 women from across the

spectrum of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community, as well as the group Kol Shira. There will a coronavirus parody of the camp song “Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah,” and words of inspiration from Shelly Itskowitz, whose brother battled COVID-19 in a monthlong coma, and others. The work of local artists will be displayed and Maria Caruso of the Squirrel Hill dance studio Bodiography is slated to perform a dance number.

If anything, Altein said, the virtual format freed up the women to do things that geographically used to hamper them. This year, women will be singing from throughout Pittsburgh, as well as from Israel and the United Kingdom.

“It’s a great opportunity to showcase women in the community who don’t often get to perform publicly,” Altein said.

One of the women showcased will be both familiar and, in at least one sense of the word, foreign.

Amy Schwartz, a mother of seven and grandmother of eight, lived in Pittsburgh for about 14 years after living in Atlanta. She made aliyah to Israel about five years ago.

Schwartz will set her alarm for 2 a.m.

June 10 in Jerusalem to watch her singing performance with Kol Shira take place online.

Please see Music, page 13

The highest form of Wisdom is Kindness

Lee and Lisa Oleinick PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

JUNE 5, 2020 3

Headlines Startup coach Ilana Diamond says time is ripe to begin a business — LOCAL —

What the Green Phase I Means for the JCC

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

While “green” may make us think go, we know we must be ever mindful of the health and safety of all of us.

In a safe and modified format following CDC and local guidelines and regulations: ͻ tĞ ĂƌĞ ƉƌĞƉĂƌŝŶŐ ƚŽ ƌĞƐƵŵĞ ŽƵƌ ĨŝƚŶĞƐƐ ĂŶĚ ǁĞůůŶĞƐƐ services in the near future ͻ ĂLJ ĐĂŵƉ ƉƌŽŐƌĂŵŵŝŶŐ ǁŝůů ďĞŐŝŶ :ƵŶĞ ϮϮ ŶĚ ĨŽƌ ƚŚŽƐĞ ǁŚŽ ĂƌĞ ŶŽƚ ƌĞĂĚLJ ƚŽ ĨƵůůLJ ƌĞͲĞŶƚĞƌ ƉƵďůŝĐ ĞŶǀŝƌŽŶŵĞŶƚƐ͕ ŽƵƌ ƌŽďƵƐƚ ŵĞŶƵ ŽĨ ǀŝƌƚƵĂů ƉƌŽŐƌĂŵƐ ǁŝůů continue.

For virtual programming, camp registration and donations, go to jccpgh.org

Let’s reopen, reimagine and rebuild community together.

We look forward to seeing all of you at the JCC as soon as possible

lana Diamond has a penchant for “the early stages of things,” acknowledged the managing director of Hardware and AlphaLab Gear & Riverfront Ventures at Innovation Works.

So, it’s no surprise that her myriad career responsibilities include coaching startups.

“I really love to learn about new ideas and new industries and new technology,” said Diamond, who for the past seven years, has nurtured nascent physical product companies. Through that work as well as her previous 16-year stint as president and CEO of Sima Products Corporation, a consumer electronics company whose customers include Walmart, Target and Best Buy, Diamond has developed an expertise in physical products.

While COVID-19 has altered the field, changes began nearly a decade ago, explained the Squirrel Hill resident.

“If you went back a little more than seven years, maybe the past 10 to 15 years, this interest in investing in early-stage companies was almost exclusively in software,” said Diamond. “People were of the opinion that physical products were difficult to scale” due to the hardships involved in making prototypes.

“If you wanted to create one or two prototypes of a physical product, you needed really expensive equipment that really wasn’t available to the general public for the most part, especially if it was an electronic,” said Diamond, who has served as a board member and advisor to both the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh and the Jewish Healthcare Foundation.

With the advent of makerspaces, however, much changed. Whether at universities, in community centers or elsewhere, makerspaces enabled people to create products with newfound ease. Similarly, the use of open source software expedited the ability

p Ilana Diamond at Alphalab Gear

4 JUNE 5, 2020

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

to “hack together a piece of hardware really quickly and get it in a customer’s hands and get feedback,” said Diamond.

The third significant change came by way of crowdsourcing, according to Diamond. For years, “if you wanted to sell your product to the general public, you had to convince whoever the buyer was for your category to try it.”

Doing so presented considerable risks to the buyer, she explained. When the viability of crowdsourcing emerged, though, “all of a sudden people who had a good idea for a product could take it right to the public.” As a result, if the product caught on, and perhaps raised substantial funds, retailers began paying attention and investors became “willing to fund it.”

These changes predated the current pandemic, but COVID-19’s effects are already becoming clear, Diamond said.

“Location based retail has changed — it will probably still exist but not in the form that it did before — so for folks who have a product, they’re thinking about other ways of distributing it to customers,” as well as how to adjust business models, she explained. Similarly, “people are now thinking about how will the changes that happened as a result of COVID impact my business in the long run?”

While those already involved in the field will need to reckon with new realities, the current climate nevertheless presents the young with some good opportunities.

For so many reasons, an ideal time to found a startup is “early in your career,” said Diamond.

Because startups often don’t make money, those who work on them largely do so with a certain passion and also may be accustomed to living on less, and although fiscal hardships may be easier to bear at a younger age, the benefit of startup involvement is the acquisition of skills, she continued.

“When you join a startup somebody will just say, ‘We need this new product developed.’ You might have the full scope of responsibility for an entire product, which is Please see Diamond, page 13

Photo courtesy of Ilana Diamond and AlphaLab Gear

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Headlines Yitzy Nadoff: The making of a Jewish EMT

p Carrying a coffin out of Beth Shalom after the Tree of Life massacre

— LOCAL —

By Justin Vellucci | Special to the Chronicle

I

saac “Yitzy” Nadoff — part of the latest generation of a notable local Jewish family — grew up in Squirrel Hill, but his story as a Pittsburgh paramedic actually starts some 6,000 miles away.

At 18, Nadoff moved in with a transplanted Pittsburgh family, the Aharons, in Hashmona’im, Israel, and joined the Israel Defense Forces, just months after graduating Yeshiva Ateres Shmuel in Waterbury, Connecticut. Once rigorous training ended, conflict broke out between Israel and the Palestinians, and Nadoff rushed to serve on the front lines as a combat medic.

“I found out that we were moving up to the Syrian border. The soldiers that were there were getting sent south. They would be on the first ground force to go [into Gaza].

We would be taking their place on the Syrian border and would be the second wave to go into Gaza, should it come to that,” said Nadoff, now 26, of Squirrel Hill.

“I was able to see Syria without any binoculars; I was less than a kilometer away,” he remembered. “Later that night, we had a briefing on the rules and regulations for operating on the border. During the briefing, we heard a whistle overhead. A mortar was inbound from Syria. Our captain stopped speaking, looked at us and gave a small smile, which said, ‘This is it, we’re in it now.’

The mortar landed on a hilltop nearby, we all breathed a sigh of relief and the briefing continued. We spent many nights in the bomb shelter.”

David Nadoff, father to Yitzy and his nine siblings, said his son’s conscientiousness and caution gave him comfort while Yitzy was serving with the IDF. “It never occurred to me to worry about him on the front lines,” he said. “He’s good at his job … and he’s a driven kid.”

For all the anxiety that one might expect a Pittsburgh teenager to experience in a war zone, the younger Nadoff stressed the service was what he expected it to be.

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

p Receiving the Combat Medic Pin while serving in the IDF.

Photos provided by Yitzy Nadoff

“I understood what living for others meant, drawing on what I saw growing up and seeing how my parents lived to help others,” Nadoff said. “Over time, my motto became ‘We work so that we may help others that can no longer help themselves.’”

Nadoff, who became an EMT in 2016 and was sworn into the ranks as a Pittsburgh paramedic earlier this year, is far from the first in his family to live by such directives.

The family’s roots in Pittsburgh stretch back more than 100 years. Nadoff ’s grandmother was an assistant principal of the Yeshiva Girls School and his grandfather was a respected community leader and mohel who performed more than 4,000 brit milot.

In Pittsburgh’s Jewish community, which is close-knit and connected, the Nadoff name is familiar.

“I have treated two Jewish women who, after seeing my name tag, asked me if I was related to the mohel, Rabbi Nadoff,” Nadoff said. “One of them lived next door to him on Shady Avenue many years ago and my grandfather had done all of their children’s and grandchildren’s circumcisions.”

For Nadoff, the sense of duty imbued by his Jewish values and upbringing are inextricable from his dedication to saving and preserving the lives of Pittsburghers as a paramedic. And his family’s role in the Jewish community is important to him.

“Yitzy’s not a foolhardy kid — he puts on his seat belt, he dots his i’s and crosses his t’s,” said Nadoff ’s father. “Yitzy is very aware, and we all are, that we have roots in the Pittsburgh Jewish community.”

About a year ago, Chief Ronald Romano of the city’s Bureau of Emergency Medical Services asked Nadoff where he saw himself in five years’ time.

“Still living in Pittsburgh, possibly raising a family, still working with the city and continuing the legacy that my family has been creating here since 1916,” he responded, almost automatically. “[This job] takes a toll on you after a while,” Romano told the Chronicle. “So, it’s good to have that enthusiasm.” “[Nadoff] must be doing his job because I’m not hearing otherwise,” Romano laughed,

stressing the comment was high praise for somebody new with the crew. “He’s been a good employee — I hope he’ll continue.”

Any discussion of emergency services and Judaism in Pittsburgh is tragically incomplete without mentioning the Oct. 27, 2018, massacre at the Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha building on Wilkins Avenue in Squirrel Hill. The attack, which occurred as Nadoff attended a bar mitzvah service just one mile away at Shaare Torah Congregation, moved him deeply, and right from the start. He even volunteered with the chevra kadisha to deep clean the synagogue after the shooting, something he recorded in harrowing tones in a blog entry last year.

“Our FBI escort with us, we began to clean,” Nadoff wrote. “On our hands and knees.

Spraying and scraping and wiping. The floor, the drain, the walls, the cabinets, the fridge door. The smell of blood was thick in the air.

For hours we worked, getting all of the major areas. Then we went over the floor again, tile by tile, inch by square inch, making sure we missed nothing, all the while answering questions from the FBI team who had never seen anything like this, anything like the work that we did. They asked questions in the most respectful manner; they really wanted to understand — it was easy to tell that they cared and were so affected by this atrocity. We explained that according to Jewish law, blood is holy. The verse in Deuteronomy states that the blood ‘is the soul,’ so we go out of our way to collect all that we can in order to bury it.”

Not all Nadoff ’s days in emergency services since joining the city force have been as rattling. COVID-19, in fact, has been a bit of a dry period.

“Ironically, our call volume has dropped during the pandemic,” Nadoff said.

“Pittsburgh was lucky that we shut down when we did, mainly because we have less cases than other cities in the country. But, since more people were staying home, there were less people interacting with each other, leading to less car accidents or even less calls because people are weighing going to the hospital against the minor issue that they have,” like toothaches, for example.

Despite the decline in the volume of

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

calls due to COVID-19, Nadoff remained vigilant, as did his peers.

“Even though the call volume was lower, the potential risk was higher,” he said. “Any patient can potentially have COVID-19, and the last thing that we want is to bring it home to our families or bring it to work, infecting our personnel, and then causing manpower issues, inhibiting our ability to service the city.”

Nadoff ’s time in Israel remains formative for him. He remembers two incidents, back to back, that resonated — and gave him a sense of direction.

“I was walking out of the Old City, I was wearing my uniform and had my kippah on my head,” Nadoff said. “As I was walking up the stairs to the street, I was approached by a middle-aged Chassidic gentleman who evidently did not approve of religious Jews being in the army. As he passed me he turned and gave me a look and then spat at me, mentioned something about how the army is a terrible place, and walked away. I just watched him walking away and thought to myself, ‘Him, too, I am willing to die for.

It doesn’t matter that he hates me. He is a Jew — and that’s enough for me.’”

The very next day in a different neighborhood, Nadoff passed another Chasidic man, this one with his son.

“I heard the child excitedly say to his father, ‘Look, Abba! There’s a police officer!’”

Nadoff said. “His father looked at me and then said to his son, ‘No, that’s a solider, and he watches over us.’ As I walked away, I couldn’t stop thinking about the encounter I had the day before and this one. The juxtaposition of the two helped me see my role in a new light: Even though some people are against me, there are also those who belong to the same faction who appreciate me. I found it interesting that I didn’t go to the army for reasons of Zionism, or anything like that — I’m not sure why I went. But interactions like these furthered my resolve and gave me the reasons for going.”

And for coming home. PJC Justin Vellucci is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.

JUNE 5, 2020 5

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 FRIDAYS, JUNE 5, 12 WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10 The JCC with Vitalant (formerly Central Blood Bank) is hosting drives for desperately needed blood donations in our Squirrel Hill and South Hills facilities in controlled and safe environments following CDC and Allegheny County guidelines. 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

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 SUNDAY, JUNE 7 Congregation Beth Shalom invites you to join them in reading and discussing the Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Angels in America: Millennium Approaches”

by Tony Kushner. “Angels in America” takes place in another time, not too far away from our own, and in another pandemic: HIV affected millions of Americans who struggled to survive, love and heal in the midst of a debilitating disease. 1 p.m.

Participants are asked to register ahead of time to Rabbi Markiz at jmarkiz@bethshalompgh.org.

meet online. 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.

Goodman in this weekly Parashah Discussion: Life & Text. 12:15 p.m. For more information, visit bethshalompgh.org/life-text.

page, or on many of the organizing partners’ pages. Activities begin at 8 a.m. facebook.com/ events/193968948365048

q THURSDAY, JUNE 11 Classrooms Without Borders, in partnership with South Hills Jewish Pittsburgh, presents the film “Shalom Italia” and a post-film discussion with the film’s producer, Tamar Tal Anati. RSVP to receive a link to the film. The post-film discussion will be offered on Zoom. RSVP to receive link.

3 p.m. jewishpgh.org/event/shalom-italia-post-filmdiscussion-with-film-producer-tamar-tal-anati

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 clichéd. 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 FRIDAY, JUNE 12

q FRIDAY, JUNE 26

“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

As part of the Continuing Legal Education Series, Rabbi Danny Schiff 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/2019-2020-continuing-legal-educationseries-5/2020-06-26

q MONDAY, JUNE 15

q SUNDAY, JUNE 28

Heaven? Hell? Nothing? Nowhere? Learn about Jewish Views on the Afterlife with Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh 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-viewson-the-afterlife

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 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

q MONDAYS, JUNE 8, 15, 22, 29 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. q TUESDAY, JUNE 9 Attend (virtually) “The Sound of Jewish Music,” a celebration of Jewish music, art and words of inspiration, presented by women from all parts of our community, on the theme of “Far Apart, Close at Heart.” There is no charge for this event, but registration is required at SoundOfJewishMusic.com in order to get the link for the event. 7:30 p.m. q TUESDAYS, JUNE 9, 16, 23, 30

q SUNDAYS, JUNE 7, 14, 21

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

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.

Join the JCC’s Center for Loving Kindness Director Rabbi Ron Symons for a Lunch & Learn at 12:15 p.m.

To register, email Rabbi Ron at rsymons@jccpgh. org and he will send you the link to join. For more information, including weekly topics, visit jccpgh. org/event/jccpghvirtual-new-classes/?cflk=0.

q SUNDAYS, JUNE 7, 14, 21, 28

q WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10, 17, 24,

Join a lay-led Online Parashah Study Group to discuss the week’s Torah portion. All classes

Bring the parashah alive and make it personally relevant and meaningful with Rabbi Mark

q WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17 Join JFCS as it celebrates 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’

Jewish Association on Aging COVID-19 testing update

A

ll Jewish Association on Aging communities continue to remain COVID-free, including AHAVA Memory Care Center, Charles Morris Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, Weinberg Village, Weinberg Terrace and the New Riverview, according to Tinsy Labrie, director of marketing and public relations at the Jewish Association on Aging.

Only one JAA community — Charles Morris — has seen a positive case of the coronavirus among its residents and staff; one employee tested positive in April. Contact tracing indicated that employee’s exposure was within the wider community, and not at Charles Morris, and subsequent tests have come back negative, according to information provided by the JAA. In its newest guidance for long term care facilities, the Pennsylvania Department of Health suggests that wide scale testing occur regularly. The JAA has moved into this testing phase as part of its precautionary safety protocol.

“As with other COVID screening, testing at JAA occurs NOT because of an actual virus outbreak but to assure an outbreak does not happen,” Labrie wrote in a prepared statement.

6 JUNE 5, 2020

p Clinical staff from the Squirrel Hill Health Center helps with testing JAA staff for COVID-19.

Photo provided by Tinsy Labrie

The JAA is piloting a testing program with the Squirrel Hill Health Center to test a limited number of staff using easily

administered oral cheek swabs.

Swab tests were provided by the Allegheny County Health Department to various

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

countywide community health centers, including Squirrel Hill Health Center. Susan Friedberg Kalson, president and CEO of the SHHC, reached out to JAA’s president and CEO, Deborah Winn-Horvitz, to collaborate on testing to protect JAA’s vulnerable residents and staff who care for them.

On Friday, May 29, the SHHC’s Dr. Alex Suarez and other SHHC staff were on JAA’s campus outside the AHAVA Memory Care Center to conduct testing of JAA staff and other community members who came to the site.

All completed tests were sent overnight to a lab in California. Results were expected in two to three days.

Testing at the JAA will continue on Friday, June 5, from 9 a.m. to noon. Tests are free and members of the public are welcome to be tested, with priority given to underserved and vulnerable populations, according to the JAA. To save time and secure a testing appointment, SHCC recommends registering in advance at https://allegheny. curativeinc.com/welcome. For more information, call the Squirrel Hill Health Center at 412-422-7442. PJC — Toby Tabachnick PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Headlines Wendy Bennett helps keep history from fading — LOCAL —

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

M

usha Reiza Plotkin, along with her daughters Nechama and Bassia, applied for refugee status in the United States on Dec. 12, 1918. Nearly 100 years later, the Plotkins’ application, complete with surgical-grade staples, photographs, foreign stamps and writings in multiple languages, made its way into the hands of Wendy Bennett, a Squirrel Hill-based paper conservator.

Plotkin’s descendants wished to preserve the application and decided that Bennett, who is Jewish and a local expert in paper preservation, was the perfect person to do so.

After reviewing the materials and agreeing on a plan with Plotkin’s descendants, Bennett performed one of several surface cleans before removing the application’s thick fasteners. With the moderately soiled pages now separated, the conservator straightened the folds, aligned the tears and humidified each leaf. After drying and flattening, she mended the tears with conservation-grade papers and adhesives.

Though not yet complete, the Plotkin application, with its cleaned photographs and repaired pages, is almost ready to take on new life.

“I can’t wait to see it,” said Dee Selekman, Plotkin’s granddaughter. “After hearing about everything that’s on it, such as the stamps from the different countries, it will be interesting to look at it more closely.”

Years before Selekman and her daughter Aviva Lubowsky set out to conserve the application, Selekman had heard of her grandmother’s travels from Russia to the United States. Unlike other Jewish immigrants who crossed the Atlantic en route to Ellis Island, the Plotkins departed Yokohama, Japan, and sailed across the Pacific before arriving at Angel Island Immigration Station, a 740-acre island in San Francisco Bay. Between 1910 and 1940, Angel Island received 500,000 immigrants representing 80 ethnic groups, according to a report in the Jewish News of Northern California.

Another Plotkin family artifact, a January 1919 ship ledger from the Empress of Japan, an oceanliner built around 1890, denotes travelers whose last permanent residences included Russia, China and Japan.

As a child, Selekman was told about the voyage. She hopes the newly conserved leaves will help future generations appreciate that narrative, too.

Prior to her days applying enzymes and gels to antiquated leaves, Bennett, a Taylor Allderdice High School graduate, studied art history and Asian studies as an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley. With a disinterest in academia, but a penchant for science, Bennett completed her graduate work at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University.

“I was very lucky to do my internship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I worked in the Asian Conservation Studio, and I got to treat 14th-century and 15th-century paintings on silk and paper. It was a privilege, and that PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

p Wendy Bennett

informed the rest of my conservation work,” said Bennett. Learning not only the requisite procedures for treatments, but the “beauty and elegance, gave me a full appreciation for the materials I was using, and for the traditions that had been around for so many years.”

In the nearly three decades since Bennett’s days as a graduate student, she has overseen numerous unique projects — many of them in her Squirrel Hill studio.

“Cleaning, humidifying, flattening and mending with Japanese paper and wheat starch paste are what I call bread-and-butter kind of activities for someone like me,” she said.

While document-specific labor is common, Bennett also works on fine art, such as drawings and watercolors.

In Pittsburgh — unlike in New York City and other large global metropolitan areas, where the market enables conservators to specialize not only in oil paintings, but those of particular eras and styles — conservators are more “generalists,” said Bennett. Taken as a whole, however, “conservation is a very small profession.”

One of the most common questions Bennett has heard in her more than 30 years in the field is: “If something has faded, can it be brought back?”

In general, “if something has faded it’s because it’s been inappropriately displayed. It’s received too much light,” she said. The reason a conservator can’t just “color in those lines again is because those lines were made by a printing press or those lines were made by the artist,” continued Bennett. “It’s not a conservation technique to color in. If we do inpainting, it’s on an insert that we have put there, but we don’t overpaint. We don’t apply pigment or media overtop the original. That’s not considered a conservation best practice.”

A lot of people don’t like hearing “no” for an answer, but the paper conservator has a solution: Place items that are light-sensitive on walls that “don’t get as much light” and occasionally rotate pieces to other spaces so that “nothing is receiving too much light at any time.”

Education, like conservation, said Bennett, is just another means of “keeping things from fading.” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

p Plotkin application before treatment (top) and during (bottom)

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Photos courtesy of Wendy Bennett

JUNE 5, 2020 7

Headlines Wait and hurry up: Local real estate agents describe the challenges of working in a pandemic — LOCAL —

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

W

hen Cheryl Gerson, a local Jewish real estate professional, was told to stay home from work it was “strange,” she said.

“It’s hard,” echoed Sherri Meyer a real estate agent whose office is in Squirrel Hill.

“We’re so used to working 24/7 and then we were not allowed to do anything.”

COVID-19 reoriented concepts of work and home, but as Gerson, Meyer and other local agents noted, professionally navigating a pandemic proves especially challenging for those whose work is home.

“The two months of sitting idly by was frustrating,” said Melissa Reich, senior vice president of residential sales at Rubinoff Realty. “It all happened at the peak of the spring market.”

In mid-March, real estate activity essentially froze between buyers, sellers and agents, as per statewide COVID-19 related restrictions.

Professional in-person activities, including inspections and appraisals, were largely halted.

In early April, the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors sought to overturn

p Cheryl Gerson

p 503 Linden Ave., one of Cheryl Gerson’s listings

Gov. Tom Wolf ’s ruling that real estate agencies are nonessential businesses. The 35,000 member group filed an amicus brief supporting a lawsuit against Wolf and requested that the governor designate real estate services as a life-sustaining business; however, it wasn’t until May 19 that limited

operations were permitted again.

“This industry impacts numerous types of businesses and Pennsylvania homebuyers who are in the process of, or considering, purchasing a home. It’s critical that these businesses, regardless of whether they are in red phase or yellow phase counties, strictly

Do you know a GRADUATE of the CLASS of 2020?

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8 JUNE 5, 2020

Photos courtesy of Cheryl Gerson

adhere to all appropriate guidelines and guidance,” said Wolf in a statement.

The governor’s mid-May guidelines noted that “all businesses, even those that are authorized to maintain in-person Please see Real Estate, page 9

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

June 5, 1967 — Six-Day War begins

Israel launches a pre-emptive strike on the Egyptian air force at 8:15 a.m., destroying 204 aircraft within an hour. Ground troops roll into the Sinai, and the Six-Day War quickly pulls in Jordan and Syria.

June 6, 1944 — Allied forces land at Normandy

U.S. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower orders the largest amphibious assault in history, sending Allied troops onto the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, as the ground war to liberate France from the Nazis begins.

June 7, 1930 — Magen David Adom founded

Ma g e n D av i d Adom (Red Shield of David), Israel’s Red Cross affiliate since 1950, is born as the emergency medical service for the Jewish community of Palestine after the Arab riots of 1929.

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

June 8, 1971 — First El Al 747 takes off

The first El Al flight using a Boeing 747 jumbo jet departs Lod Airport for London and New York. The flight carries 400 passengers on a plane nicknamed “The Flying Elephant.”

June 9, 1967 — Troops move into Syrian Golan

After an aerial assault, Israeli troops launch a ground offensive into the Syrian-controlled Golan Heights on the Six-Day War’s fifth day and gain control of the mountains before a cease-fire.

June 10, 1930 — Arab leaders admit failure of not cooperating

Frederick Kisch, the head of the Jewish Agency’s political department, records in his diary that almost all Arab leaders acknowledge they failed by refusing to participate in talks about the future of Palestine.

June 11, 1947 — Emma Gottheil dies

Emma Gottheil, one of the first female Zionist leaders, dies in New York at age 85.

She was a delegate to the Second Zionist Congress, and she helped found the group that became Hadassah. PJC

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Headlines Real Estate: Continued from page 8

operations, must minimize opportunities for personal interaction because such interactions provide greater opportunities for the transmission of COVID-19. Businesses must employ remote or virtual methods of doing business whenever and wherever possible.”

When those guidelines were released — including their requirements that “no more than the real estate professional and two people” be inside a property at one time, and that all parties must wear masks on-site — and working began to be permitted, “we had a huge influx of homes that came back on the market,” said Denise Serbin, of Howard Hannah. Similarly, there were “a lot of buyers that were really chomping at the bit to get into the homes because for two months we couldn’t get buyers into those properties.”

It was “gangbusters,” echoed Reich. That first weekend “we were armed with COVID specific addendums, gloves, masks and booties, and we hit the ground running.”

Much hasn’t changed during the past two weeks, as real estate professionals described feverishly driving throughout the area with ample supplies of personal protective equipment en route to meeting with clients.

“I think all agents were concerned for everybody’s safety and health,” said Jill Portland, real estate broker owner at RE/MAX Realty Brokers.

Where the professionals differed, however, was in their perception of the local market.

— WORLD — From JTA reports

Montreal synagogue ransacked by vandals before Shavuot

Vandals ransacked a small Montreal synagogue sometime after it closed weeks ago due to the COVID-19 pandemic in what was described as one of the worst local synagogue desecrations in memory.

The damage at the Kol Yehouda Sephardic congregation included tallitot, or prayer shawls, and tefillin stuffed in toilets; Torah scrolls cut up and tossed on the floor; other religious items seriously damaged; and illegibly scrawled anti-Semitic graffiti.

The small congregation is housed in a private residence in the largely Jewish suburb of Côte St. Luc. Police were investigating the attack as a possible hate crime but face the challenge of finding out when the incident actually happened.

“Clearly, no one can go inside and not be sensitive to what happened,” said congregant Ralph Amar, who discovered the vandalism on May 27 when he passed by to pick up some items for the Shavuot holiday.

He called the incident “heinous” and a “carnage.”

Similarly, David Birnbaum, provincial parliamentarian for the electoral district where the synagogue is located, called the incident a “disgusting, cowardly” act.

B’nai B’rith Canada CEO Michael Mostyn was “appalled” by “this disgusting act of anti-Semitism on the eve of … Shavuot,” the

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p Melissa Reich

p David Knoll

Photo courtesy of Melissa Reich

Photo courtesy of David Knoll

“ Unlike previous years, many buyers will slowly dip their toes in the water instead of

”

jumping in the pool.

— DAVID KNOLL, PARTNER AT FIFTH & GRANT REAL ESTATE SERVICES

“We’re so far behind on listings. There’s nothing out there,” said Meyer. That’s partially because “people just don’t move that much, and there isn’t anything for them to move to.

If you’re looking for a bigger house there isn’t much to move to, or if you’re looking for a condo or a smaller house there isn’t much if you want to stay in the neighborhood.”

“We’ve had a shortage of inventory and we have a lot of people wanting property in Pittsburgh,” echoed Portland.

Serbin had a different perspective.

“The real estate market is thriving,” she said. “We picked back up very quickly.

Fortunately, there were enough people who didn’t lose their jobs and the economic system didn’t affect them personally.”

“Homes have continued to sell once the market was reopened,” said David Knoll, partner at Fifth & Grant Real Estate Services, however, potential buyers haven’t necessarily emerged unscathed from the pandemic. “Unlike previous years, many buyers will slowly dip their toes in the water instead of jumping in the pool.”

“The long term effects will shake out in next few months,” said Reich. For now, “I still think we are trying to satisfy the needs of the spring market.”

Sitting at home for two months was “torturous,” she added. “We are ready to service our buyers and sellers, and we are eager to get the job done with the limitations we are facing.” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

holiday marking the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people.

Israeli police kill autistic Palestinian man, protests follow

Israeli Border Police shot and killed an autistic Palestinian man in Jerusalem that they believed to be armed but was not.

One of the officers was placed under house arrest and the second was released from police custody and placed under restrictive conditions.

Israel’s defense minister, Benny Gantz, has apologized for the killing of Ivad Halak, 32, on May 30 morning in the Old City.

Protesters in Jerusalem and Jaffa calling for justice for Halak compared the incident to the killing of George Floyd, an African American man, by a white police officer in Minneapolis.

The Border Police officers who chased Halak had been told he was a suspected terrorist and was carrying a gun and ordered him to stop walking, according to reports.

Halak ignored their orders, likely because he didn’t understand the orders as a result of his autism, and the suspicious object he was holding turned out to be his cellphone, according to reports.

“We tell him every morning to keep his phone in his hand so we can be in contact with him and make sure he has safely arrived at the educational institution,” Halak’s father, Kheiri, told the Kan public broadcaster.

Halak, of eastern Jerusalem, was heading to a school for students with special needs, where he also worked. He fled on foot after

the police continued to yell at him. Police shot him at least seven times during the chase.

“We are really sorry about the incident in which Iyad Halak was shot to death and we share in the family’s grief,” Gantz, also the prime minister-delegate, said at the regular weekly Cabinet meeting, Haaretz reported.

“I am sure this subject will be investigated swiftly and conclusions will be reached.”

The shooting came less than a day after a car-ramming attack in the northern West Bank attempted to run down Israeli soldiers.

The Palestinian driver was shot and killed.

Synagogues in LA vandalized during protests

A synagogue in Los Angeles was vandalized with graffiti reading “F**k Israel” and “Free Palestine” as protests against the police killing of George Floyd swept the city.

Protests have continued for several days in dozens of cities across the United States.

In Los Angeles, the graffiti was spraypainted on the walls of Congregation Beth Israel in the Fairfax district, the Jewish Journal reported. Amid particularly intense protests in the district, several Jewish businesses and restaurants were damaged and looted, Haaretz reported.

Sabbath-observant Jews told Haaretz that they heard helicopters on Saturday and, toward the end of Shabbat, a Hatzalah emergency vehicle drove down the streets urging people to return to their homes.

Several synagogues in Los Angeles were vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti over Saturday, including Kehillas Yaakov, a storefront shul, Hamodia reported.

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

“Vandalism is never OK. Anti-Semitism is never OK. The answer to hate and bigotry is not more hate. We are better than this Los Angeles,” the Anti-Defamation League of Los Angeles tweeted in response to the first report of the Beth Israel vandalism by journalist Lisa Daftari.

AIPAC cancels next year’s policy conference

AIPAC has canceled its 2021 policy conference, citing the “continued uncertainties created by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Betsy Korn, the president of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, made the announcement in a letter sent to the organization’s membership.

The annual conference had been scheduled for March 7-9 in Washington, D.C. One of the first signs that the deadly virus had hit American shores earlier this year was AIPAC’s announcement immediately following this year’s conference that two of those in attendance were infected. That conference, which ran Feb. 28-March 2, drew 18,000 activists to Washington.

“While we will sorely miss seeing our AIPAC family in Washington and connecting in person as a pro-Israel community, what truly binds us together is our shared commitment to ensuring the safety and security of America and Israel,” Korn said in the letter. “AIPAC will continue to find new and creative ways over the coming year for us to connect online and in person to advance the U.S.-Israel relationship.

“The impact of COVID-19 will make this a different and challenging year.” PJC

JUNE 5, 2020 9

Opinion Who we were, who we are now Guest Columnist Liz Spikol

I

n the beginning of the 20th century, not too long after my maternal great-grandfather arrived in New York from Eastern Europe, the police commissioner of New York City, Theodore Bingham, published a treatise titled “Foreign Criminals in New York,” in which he described the inherent criminality of two groups that were perceived as a non-white menace at the time: Jews and Italians. The Russian Hebrews, as he called Ashkenazi immigrants, “are burglars, firebugs, pickpockets and highway robbers — when they have the courage; but, though all crime is their province, pocket-picking is the one to which they seem to take most naturally.”

Bingham described the threat of Jewish boys under 16, “who are being brought up to lives of crime,” he wrote. “Many of them are old offenders at the age of 10. The juvenile Hebrew emulates the adult in the matter of crime percentages, 40 percent of the boys at the House of Refuge and 27 percent of those arraigned in the Children’s Court being of that race. The percentage of Hebrew children in the truant schools is also higher than that of any others.”

This insistence on seeing Jews as criminals — even when they were children — was

nothing new by the time Bingham published his paper in 1908, and persisted for years afterward, as historian Aaron Welt wrote in the journal “American Jewish History.”

“Life in New York exacerbated the distrust many Jewish immigrants had of state agents, especially following experiences of police brutality or corruption,” Welt wrote. And Bingham did not improve matters: “[His] approach to law enforcement represented a 19th century tradition that progressive reformers increasingly viewed as archaic and counterproductive. Trained in the military, Bingham implemented martial hierarchy in the NYPD … he expressed admiration for the strict surveillance and draconian tactics of authoritarian police departments of Europe, especially the Italian carabinieri.

Unsurprisingly, the commissioner often called for loosening the rules over policemen’s use of nightsticks.”

How things have changed. Today, most white Jews do not reflexively fear the police.

We are not regularly stopped and challenged to account for ourselves; we are not mistaken for each other after an APB goes out; we are not shot during traffic stops. If I approach a police officer for help, I know I will be treated decently, albeit with characteristic Philadelphia brusqueness. When I explained to an officer last year during a traffic stop that I didn’t know my headlight was out, he apologized for the inconvenience and explained why he had to give me a ticket though he wished he didn’t have to. When

I was regularly reporting on real estate, and trespassed on building sites in the course of my work, a cop would occasionally call to me, “Miss! You can’t be there!” without getting out of his cruiser. I’d make some friendly remark and he’d smile and wave and off we’d both go.

Yet had I been born when my grandmother was, in 1910 in New York, I would have grown up as a vision of criminality and threat to the police; I would have lived in a community where I had to be corralled and controlled. I can’t imagine the physical tension my relatives must have felt in their shoulders every day when police officers came to the neighborhood, how exhausted they must have been from trying to behave well despite knowing that behavior had nothing to do with it. It wasn’t about what they did; it was about who they were.

And that’s what it’s like for black Americans today, who are saddled with the perception of “inherent racial traits of criminality,” as Welt wrote of the Jews. A black man can’t be unaware of a broken headlight, as I was, because getting pulled over can be life-threatening. He can’t throw on a hoodie and pop out to the ATM without watching his back. If he’s drinking coffee, birdwatching, going for a jog or talking on the phone, he has to be vigilant, always, because he is being watched and assessed, his “danger” manifest simply by the color of his skin. When I look on neighborhood listservs or on NextDoor and see a post, “Saw someone suspicious today … ” I know that someone suspicious will be a black

male. Unfailingly. Had I lived in New York in 1910, I’m quite sure I would have been seen as suspicious, and shooed off a stoop with a broom like a rat before I even had a chance to knock. But now I can knock on any door and be granted entry — a small white woman like me, so harmless. Meanwhile black people are arrested trying to enter their own homes.

They are killed eating ice cream on their own couches and sleeping in their own beds.

Something happened over the years to transform white Jews into people who are no longer physically feared by the rest of society.

Our whiteness, which could not be seen 100 years ago, is now all that’s seen unless we wear clothing or jewelry to indicate who we are. In my college years, during a semester abroad in Spain, I was the subject of vicious anti-Semitism until I stopped wearing my Star of David necklace. African Americans in the U.S. cannot remove their blackness.

While race may be a social construct, white Ashkenazi Jews have the ability to pass through society at its highest levels without being harassed or arrested. This is a kind privilege that black people can never experience. Our entire culture has to change if we want black Americans to undergo the kind of transformation other white ethnic groups did. Which is to say: from suspect to citizen.

As I write this, there are still headlines of chaos in many U.S. cities, of protests and looting. I don’t know what’s going to happen Please see Spikol, page 20

The future of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community Guest Columnist Rabbi Aaron Bisno

H

ere’s a proposal: Pittsburgh’s liberal Jewish congregations can no longer afford the polite fiction that they are so distinct one from another that all could not benefit from joining forces.

Indeed, I believe all of our city’s nonOrthodox congregations and minyanim share too much in common and stand to achieve so much more in partnership for us to remain committed to anything even resembling the go-it-alone mindset of yesteryear.

This is not a manifesto for merger nor a cri de coeur for collaboration; it is, rather, an urgent plea for our entire community to organize and prioritize in altogether new and bold ways.

I first called for a courageous conversation about our then-present circumstance in 2011. Nearly a decade later, once more am I calling for our entire community’s volunteer, professional and rabbinic leadership to abandon what Sigmund Freud referred to as “the narcissism of our small differences” and to encourage one another to think in wholly new ways.

Warning: “Thinking differently” is more difficult than it at first appears.

10 JUNE 5, 2020

Thinking in new ways is hard because we find safety in the familiar and we are protective of what we know. Over millennia (and in each of our own lifetimes, to be sure) this penchant for the predictable has caused us to grow adept at creating and recognizing patterns that help us map our thinking.

Changing our thinking is, therefore, a challenge, because our relationship to our maps are embedded far below the surface level. And significantly, within these schemas, we have embedded assumptions and narratives upon which we rely to know both where and who we are.

How then can we move past the maps that took us this far and the patterns in which we have invested so much? And even more, how does an entire community pivot to achieve new outcomes?

There are three immediate actions we must take if our community is to overcome our own biases and blind spots and become that which we need now and, most significantly, that which we hope to bequeath to the next generation.

First, we must rigorously diagnose our circumstance; we must challenge our essential assumptions; and most painful of all, we must reconsider how our long-cherished, desired outcomes are best achieved going forward.

In the words of William F. Buckley, “The beginning of wisdom is fear of the Lord. The next best thing is to take stock of reality.”

Easier said than done, of course. Change itself is never easy and thinking our way into new ways of accomplishing a goal is even harder.

Therefore, we must ask better questions.

We must force ourselves to stop looking at the reality we face through the same lens we have always used.

As Albert Einstein taught: “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.”

The core mission of every congregation, nonprofit agency and Jewish communal organization remains the same as it ever was, and yet we must now think and go about our work in wholly new ways.

Further, if Einstein was correct and the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, we would be crazy to double down on what got us here.

In crises, leaders have latitude to ask questions, to experiment, and to take risks on new outcomes with far less resistance within the system than systems at stasis typically allow. We must not allow this current crisis to go to waste.

So, ask not: “What keeps you up at night?”

Ask rather: “What gets you out of bed in the morning?”

Or, paraphrasing the words of the late Robert Kennedy, “Ask not, ‘why?;’ dream and ask, ‘why not?’”

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Third and finally, we must work tirelessly for shared outcomes and the greatest common good.

Why? Because no one congregation can solve its own challenges if it goes about that work solo; it is simply folly to believe otherwise.

Thus, in a spirit of Clal Yisrael, before we begin to ask our new and better questions, we must stipulate that we are all in this together and only by our working together shall our Jewish community thrive (let alone survive).

Ten years ago Rodef Shalom, the congregation I’ve served for 16 years, adopted a strategic plan that presciently anticipated the synergies and new combined models of Jewish community that would be required going forward.

And now, with even greater urgency, I reiterate that we share far more in common with our neighbors than we have heretofore imagined. For I believe that it will be in our working together that we shall accomplish far more on behalf of the Jewish community than if we are to persist in working independently and, therefore, at cross purposes.

In the powerfully prescient words of William Jefferson Clinton, “building networks of creative cooperation… is the key to overcoming the challenges, both great and small, of our newly interdependent world.” PJC Rabbi Aaron Bisno is spiritual leader at Rodef Shalom Congregation.

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Opinion The Royal Reach: A remembrance of Norman Lamm Guest Columnist Richard M. Joel

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here are those whose light continues to shine. This week, we mark the passing of Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm, president emeritus of Yeshiva University, at age 92, after a long illness and a splendid life.

Norman Lamm wrote of the Royal Reach.

He refers to King David, who, in his Psalm 27, told God his only wish was to live in

the House of the Lord. Indeed? David was presumptuous enough to aspire to sitting with the Lord? Talmudists argue the issue.

David could have wished for triumph over his enemies, for conquest or glory. But he dared to transcend normative aspirations.

For he displayed the Royal Reach, daring for greatness as befits a king.

Norman Lamm believed it was our challenge to reach high, to dream large dreams, to dare to dream, as we learned from David.

Norman Lamm believed in the capacity of Jews and all people of good will to aspire to greatness in their lives. But not the greatness

of wealth or power or fame; the true greatness of meaning and goodness. Norman Lamm taught us to aspire, but to aspire to a values-driven life, informed by Torah values.

He believed that the Jewish story, our laws, sacred wisdom, sense of history and destiny, informed by Western values and knowledge, was the Royal Reach that could help us build a better world.

Rabbi Norman Lamm was a rabbi, scholar, educator and philosopher who invested his life in building and sustaining what we call Modern Orthodoxy. He helped fashion that critical segment of the Jewish community

that aspired to a life of “Torah UMadda” synthesizing the splendor of Jewish thought and law with the wisdom of Western civilization — the arts and sciences — to fashion a life worth living in a world worth living in. He believed in the guidance of God, His divine discipline, in the future of a vibrant Jewish people and in the wonder of the State of Israel.

A brilliant scholar, captivating speaker and learned thinker, he authored 10 books, led synagogues in Massachusetts and New Please see Lamm, page 20

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 in 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.

Nurturing relationships, getting back to Jewish roots

I normally work at the JoS. A. Bank men’s store in Mt. Lebanon, but in staying at home I have made the best use of my time, finding new stimulations and connections with people.

The best part of my day is time with my grandchildren in Baltimore and in Washington, D.C. I put on my silly hat and have activity time with them every day. We started out by reading kids’ stories, then added kids’ bingo, cute animal videos on YouTube, show and tell, playing with puppets, and even giving the kids turns to read. I bring the books (which I borrowed from an online library) up on my iPad while FaceTiming on my phone so I can show them the book while I read to them. I was also able to show them the animal videos this same way. We spend 15-30 minutes daily.

I also spend time each day contacting friends, relatives and previous co-workers. We either

talk or FaceTime. I have been in touch with over 100 people, many whom I haven’t talked to in over 40 years. I also reconnected with my confirmation class from Monessen, and we now have monthly Zoom reunion calls.

I have gotten more involved with Judaism through Zoom Talmud study, Pittsburgh Jewish history and weekly discussion groups with Beth El and Rabbi Alex Greenbaum and have taken a class from Chabad.

I went through old family pictures and movies from over 50 years ago. I videotaped the movies on my phone and took pictures of the old family pictures, and sent them out to three generations. Most of the recipients had never seen these and it gave us common ground to reconnect with our heritage.

I have made exercise part of my daily routine and either walk or use the treadmill 40 minutes every day to attempt to stay in shape.

I also was able to watch every day of the Pittsburgh Jewish Film Festival.

Finally, we were supposed to be in Israel and Jordan the past two weeks, so we used YouTube videos to visit the sites we would have seen. We also have virtually traveled all around the world from the pyramids, to Paris and Rome, to Machu Picchu and the Galápagos Islands.

I felt it important to maintain social contacts, reestablish my Jewish roots, and to help keep family connected.

Ron Wilen Bridgeville

Annexation of the West Bank is not in Israel’s best interest

— LETTERS — Remembering Kent State and the Krause family It was with great sadness and reflection that I read your recent article about Laurel and Allison Krause (“Jewish Pittsburgher remembered on 50th anniversary of Kent State shootings,” May 15). An unimaginable tragedy for the Krause family and for America.

Fifty years ago I had just returned from serving as an infantry platoon leader in Vietnam. I can assure you that the National Guardsmen unequivocally violated every rule, regulation and protocol regarding crowd control and should have never had ammunition or fired on unarmed students.

On a more personal note, in the mid-’80s I delivered the Krauses’ mail on Bryn Mawr Road and it would fill me with sadness knowing how heartbroken they were losing Allison.

Thank you for your thought provoking article and may we pray “never again.”

David G. Beistel Monroeville

Advice to the helpers

In this day and age when we’ve seen a return to racism and anti-Semitism, it is heartwarming to see so many organizations and individuals giving to others. Giving forward is beneficial to the hearts of those who are giving to others, too.

Recently, I came across an expression that I’d like to pass along to those who are giving forward, whether by financial help, phone calls, visits to shut-ins or free food distribution.

I thought this expression was written by Mark Twain but it was one he often quoted and I have not been able to trace the origins of the author. The expression is this: “Do not judge my story by the chapter you walked in on.”

Please, please think about this as you help people. Their lives were not always like they are now and you may lighten their mental load by asking about their past.

Regarding Jonathan Tobin’s column of May 22, 2020 (“Is the Jewish state asking for trouble by annexing settlements?”) and Stuart Pavilak’s letter of May 29, 2020 (“Sovereignty not annexation”), Tobin and Pavilak argue that Israel should proceed with annexing parts of the West Bank following the Trump peace plan announced earlier this year. Arguments are presented for why Israel has a right to the land, why this does not damage prospects for peace, and that the settlements should be considered accepted facts on the ground. Both writers are persuaded that annexation is morally acceptable and is best done now when the Trump administration supports annexation.

But what is best for Israel? Rather than discuss what is defensible or feasible, is annexation good for Israel? Will Israel be better off annexing the parts of the West Bank in the Trump plan? Here is the best informed answer: “Any unilateral annexation of territory or extension of sovereignty to the West Bank will put Israel’s security and safety along with the well-being of its citizens at risk.’’ Those are the unequivocal views of 25 retired military leaders from Israel, including heads of Mossad, Shin Bet, national security advisors and commanders of the Israel Defense Forces from an Aug. 27, 2019, letter to our House of Representatives. I will take their views over those of the letter writers or Jared Kushner.

Annexation is most likely to lead to the collapse of the Palestinian Authority, increased insecurity for Israel in controlling the West Bank and reduced prospects (however dim they are now) of peace and a negotiated two-state solution. Annexation does not change the life of the settlers or the facts on the ground; their lives will remain the same. There are almost no national security officials who can speak freely who support annexation. You will not be able to find them. That tells me annexation is not in Israel’s best interest. Hence, it is not in the United States’ best interest.

Mark Fichman Pittsburgh

Shirley Holtzman Schwartz Squirrel Hill PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

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JUNE 5, 2020 11

Headlines JCC: Continued from page 1

playground, will still be used, however there will be no “mixing of groups of children,” according to Baron.

Another difference created by the pandemic is the number of students enrolled in the ECDC. The JCC would typically have up to 200 children registered for a typical summer session, but this season it is expecting about 75, Baron said.

Infants under the age of 12 months, she noted, will not be registered for the ECDC “until it feels like the time is right.”

The JCC has canceled the 2020 session at its overnight Emma Kaufmann Camp due to the pandemic, but is planning to open its day camps before the end of June.

Campers and their parents can expect a new look to day camp this summer. The daily drop off procedure will now include a health screening and temperature check.

Staff will escort children into the facility

and drop them off at their camp group, explained the JCC’s chief program officer, Jason Kunzman. Campers will remain throughout their time at camp with the same group, which will be limited to no more than 10 children. “Physical distancing” will be imposed between the various groups, Kunzman said.

Unlike previous years, the Monroeville camp will not provide bus transportation for families.

In establishing its new protocols, the JCC worked with the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative to “break down the camp day into its respective components, deconstructing and then reconstructing what the day has to look like to accommodate physical distancing, as well as cleaning and/or disinfecting in between groups’ use of common areas and/or equipment,” Kunzman said.

PRHI, a subsidiary of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation, is a nationally recognized leader in process improvement in healthcare settings and, since 2018, has partnered with the JCC in five areas, according to Kunzman.

Those areas include “consumer engagement, staff engagement, safety and security, health enhancements and sustainability.”

The Jewish Healthcare Foundation has been providing PRHI’s services in kind to the JCC for the last two years, according to Kunzman. Once the impact of COVID-19 forced the JCC to close its doors, he reached out to JHF President and CEO Karen Wolk Feinstein, asking if PRHI’s resources could be redeployed to help the JCC “begin building and vetting processes related to reopening.”

Both the JCC’s ECDC and day camp programs utilized PRHI’s services as they prepared to reopen their doors.

In addition to PRHI, the JCC is closely following guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control, which means that counselors, ECDC educators and JCC staff will be wearing masks throughout the day.

Camp staff also will be carrying what Kunzman called a “sanitation pack.” He explained that “they will have a variety of materials to help in real time” with cleaning

Floyd: Continued from page 1

how it feels to be targeted simply because we are different while simultaneously being scapegoated by the perpetrators of violence.

We look forward to continuing to collaborate with, listen to and learn from our partners in the African American community and law enforcement to make Pittsburgh a more equitable, safe and inclusive place for all who live here.”

Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Congregation, one of the three Pittsburgh congregations attacked by an anti-Semitic gunman on Oct. 27, 2018, said in a prepared statement on Monday that it is “horrified by the murder of George Floyd. We reach out to our African American friends in this time of pain as our country grieves his death and condemns the scourge of systemic racism.

“Our Declaration of Independence states: ‘that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.’ These words are derived from the book of Genesis, where our Creator created all humanity in the Divine Image.

If these words are to have meaning, we must move beyond them being a dream for some and make them a reality for all people.

Racism in every form must be stopped.”

The Jewish Council for Public Affairs, an organization working with 130 local groups across the United States, tweeted an image of two dozen black men, women and, in one case, a child who have been killed by police officers, writing: “JCPA condemns the killings of Black Americans by law enforcement.

We stand in solidarity and will do everything in our power to see through systemic changes in law enforcement and in our criminal justice system. We agree with Rep Lewis that all protests should be nonviolent.”

The CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, Jonathan Greenblatt, connected George Floyd’s death to “an explosion of racist murders and hate crimes” across the United States: “We stand in solidarity with the Black 12 JUNE 5, 2020

p Protesters in Minneapolis, Minnesota, demonstrated against the death in police custody of George Floyd, May 29, 2020.

Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images via JTA.org

community as they yet again are subject to pain and suffering at the hands of a racist and unjust system. While it is a necessary first step in the pathway towards justice that former Officer Derek Chauvin was taken into custody yesterday, it is simply not enough. Based on the horrifying cell phone footage that has rightfully outraged Americans across the country, it is clear that the three other former officers who participated in Mr. Floyd’s death need to be held responsible for their actions to the fullest extent of our legal system. The Hennepin County District Attorney and local investigators must do everything in their power to ensure the wheels of justice turn swiftly.

As an organization committed to fighting all forms of hate, we know that this brutal death follows an explosion of racist murders and hate crimes across the U.S. “As an agency that has stood for justice and fair treatment to all since our founding in 1913, we know that this has occurred at a time when communities of color have been reeling from the disproportionate

health impacts and economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic. In short, systemic injustice and inequality calls for systemic change. Now.” Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, reiterated his group’s commitment to ongoing action: “The national rage expressed about the murder of Mr. Floyd reflects the depth of pain over the injustice that People of Color — and particularly Black men — have been subjected to throughout the generations. In recent months we have seen, yet again, too many devastating examples of persistent systemic racism, leading to the deaths not only of Mr. Floyd but of other precious souls, including Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery.

“We remember others before them: Eric Garner. Tamir Rice. Trayvon Martin. Sandra Bland. Oscar Grant. Philando Castile. Walter Scott. Terrence Crutcher. Samuel Dubose.

Michael Brown. The list feels endless, and so too is our despair. But as we recite the

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the disinfecting. The pack will include “hand sanitizing gloves, disinfectant wipes and hand sanitizer to name a few. Every group will have a sanitation pack assigned to a counselor and that pack will be following the group around over the course of the day.”

Opening the JCC’s ECDC and day camps are just the start of returning to “business as usual” for the JCC. Kunzman said that while there is no date set for any other service to open, thought has already begun about how to keep people safe.

“We want to get the early childhood process down first and make sure that we have planned appropriately,” he said. “Then we can afford ourselves the opportunity to revise that plan. Once we get that done we can move onto the next challenge which is, how do we open with a number of service lines happening at the same time and ensure the safety of everyone in a building at the same time.” PJC David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

Mourner’s Kaddish for them all, we say now, again: We will not sit idly by.

“Our country simply cannot achieve the values of ‘justice for all’ to which it aspires until we address ongoing racism in all sectors and at all levels of society. We remain in solidarity and action with the NAACP’s urgent #WeAreDoneDying campaign, whose policy demands cover areas of criminal justice, economic justice, health care, and voting, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disproportionately impact Black Americans.”

Sheila Katz, executive director of the National Council of Jewish Women, said this: “We will not remain silent. As a national organization made up of over 100,000 advocates in communities around the country — including Minnesota — we are outraged and devastated by the murder of George Floyd.

Mr. Floyd was murdered by multiple police officers who held him down with their knees, however, the underlying cause of his death is systemic racism. It is both unacceptable and exhausting that in 2020, we still need to insist over and over again: Black Lives Matter. …

“Through legislative reform, local activism, and by educating NCJW advocates, we will make sure each individual we engage helps end the toxic culture of racism that permeates our country. For now, it is important to support Black and Brown communities and the leaders spearheading the peaceful, anti-racist responses unfolding.

Together, we will make sure the memory of George Floyd will be for a blessing.”

In a tweet, the Jewish Federations of North America said: “This week has reminded us yet again that we have a long way to go in our work towards a more just society for all. We will not stop fighting for a world free of racism and bigotry in all of its forms. #JusticForGeorge #StandingTogether” The Rabbinical Assembly, the international association of Conservative and Masorti rabbis, called for sweeping changes to policing in America: “We join in the collective call for peace and Please see Floyd, page 19

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Headlines Music:

Diamond: Continued from page 3

“It was fantastic — I love them and I loved singing with them. Of all my musical experiences in my life, that was the most exciting,” Schwartz said. “This is very, very dear to me.”

Berman, the woman tasked with orchestrating the virtual finale, stressed The Sound of Jewish Music is far from the work of amateurs.

“Year after year, the music has gotten better and better,” said Berman. “It’s one of those events where I tell people, ‘You’ve got to hear this music! It’s really good!’”

What Altein, Berman and others stressed, though, was the sense of community that connects the evening’s performers. There are Orthodox Jews and Reconstructionist Jews and some who consider themselves unaffiliated. Some women are socially liberal, some conservative. (The organizers ask that no men view the performance, as some women’s religious beliefs discourage them from singing in front of men, Altein said.)

“We come together over the music,” said Berman. “We’re all there, singing together and that’s what brings us together. It’s a whole range of the face of this Jewish community.” PJC Justin Vellucci is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.

Continued from page 4

something a big company could never allow you to do because there’s too much risk, but in a startup there isn’t another choice, and so people have a much wider range of responsibilities and get to try a much wider range of activities.” When that happens, the value isn’t merely being able to assess “what you really like and what you don’t” — the benefit is getting “a chance to try things and fail, and then turn them around and fix them.”

Those who are tasked with doing more with fewer resources can acquire a “useful skill” that’s appealing to future employers, said Diamond who noted that several investors and corporate partners come to AlphaLab Gear with a specific interest in startups fully aware that those same early stage companies may fail. “They want to hire those people because those people have initiative, and they have problem solving skills, and they have the ability to just figure out a creative solution that won’t be expensive to a problem.”

With more than 20 years of experience helping companies from beginning to exit, Diamond understands the processes involved.

Within Pittsburgh, she said, there are beneficial resources, such as StartNow and Innovation Works, available to those interested in exploring the possibilities of starting a company.

JCC offers summer 2020 food program

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he Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh will continue its summer food program beginning this month, offering free kosher and kosher style meals to children, ages 18 and under, as part of a United States Department of Agriculture program locally administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

The meals will be provided to all children regardless of race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability.

The JCC has been participating in the USDA program “for many summers to help fill children’s food needs when school is not in session,” according to Roberta Mintz Levine, director of marketing and engagement for the JCC of Greater Pittsburgh.

“This year, as we all know, the situation brought about by the COVID-19 crisis has probably created new, critical needs that can be helped by this program,” she said.

GET THE

p Ilana Diamond at Alphalab Gear

Still, there are significant challenges today, she acknowledged.

“I think that now more than ever, I know that unemployment is really high and a lot of people are, whether by choice or not, rethinking what they’re going to be doing after this crisis, but I would encourage people to think broadly about starting businesses,” Diamond said.

Previous constraints, such as “investments or thought processes from the way things were,” are often mitigated and present an opportunity

Photo courtesy of Ilana Diamond and AlphaLab Gear

for startups to “move quickly, and to really seize the opportunities, or deliver what customers want in the post-COVID world.”

While the current economic upheaval “is scary, and it creates a lot of concern, and it certainly does eliminate some opportunities for people,” she noted, “it also is a huge opportunity to try something new.” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

Chronicle receives journalism grants

The JCC has adapted some of its meal distribution practices in light of the pandemic.

On Tuesdays, two meals will be handed out to each participant; on Thursdays, three meals will be handed out. Parents can pick up the meals, and no meals will be consumed on site.

Those picking up the meals are required to wear masks and practice safe social distancing.

Kosher meals will be provided on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the JCC in Squirrel Hill, 5738 Darlington Road, June 1-August 21, from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Kosher style meals will be provided at 261 Rosecrest Drive in Monroeville, June 22-August 21, from 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

For more information, email sfsp@ jccpgh.org. PJC

T

he Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle was awarded two journalism grants in recent weeks to help defray unexpected costs due to the COVID-19 crisis.

The Facebook Journalism Project Community Grant Program approved the Chronicle’s application for a grant of $5000 to fill immediate gaps and pay unexpected costs associated with covering the impact of COVID-19. That grant program is run in partnership with The Lenfest Institute for Journalism and The Local Media Association. The Chronicle was among 400

North American local news organizations, and among only five news organizations in Greater Pittsburgh, to receive an FJP Community Network grant.

The Chronicle was also awarded $5000 from the Google News Initiative’s Journalism Emergency Relief Fund. That fund received more than 12,000 applications from more than 100 eligible countries. Grants went to more than 5,300 small and midsized newsrooms around the world. PJC — Toby Tabachnick

www.pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

— Toby Tabachnick

news. THEN GET THE FULL STORY. ❀ In the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle.

For home delivery, call 410.902.2308.

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JUNE 5, 2020 13

Life & Culture Pondering the perfect pandemic playlist — MUSIC —

By David Rullo | Staff Writer

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he quarantine playlist. It’s a thing.

Pop, rock, energetic songs, one-hit wonders, ’80s music, songs that make you think of college, artists you should have listened to before now. Americans are engaging with music in ways they hadn’t pre-COVID-19. For some, that means creating their own playlists. For others, it’s listening to curated music on streaming services like Spotify or Pandora, or just grabbing their favorite CDs or albums, a set of headphones and finding a quiet room to listen to music in a way they haven’t in years. “In today’s climate, what makes a good playlist is anything upbeat,� said Mark Davidson, the author of the blog “Heard But Not Seen,� which focuses on new and live music.

While the 20-year music biz veteran — he’s worked as a booking agent for independent bands and Ticketmaster — and his wife are home during the pandemic, they’re listening to “stuff with a good rhythm. You know, we’re not going for singer-songwriter, mellow, coffeehouse-type stuff.�

Davidson believes that once people are able to go out and interact with music the way they did in the past, the playlists created during a listener’s time at a home will serve “like an old-school mixtape did. It will capture a moment in time. Like a tape from that one year in college when you hung out with that group of people. These playlists will be similar.�

Australian roots rockers The Teskey Brothers, Irish musician Dermot Kennedy and George Ezra are all new artists the blogger is exploring while at home. He is also listening to the Black Crowes and brass bands.

Jonathan Fischer, a manager for Advanced Robotics Manufacturing, spends his spare time moonlighting as a DJ at events for the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, South Hills Jewish Pittsburgh and other organizations and local families.

He thinks that the quarantine playlist is here to stay. “We’re not going to totally go back to the way we were,� Fisher predicted. “We’re

creatures of habit. I have playlists for everything now. I am not going to go back and delete those playlists. I am probably going to go back and add to them. I think we’ll continue to use music as a way to socialize even if we’re still isolated, which is kind of weird.�

Music streaming service Spotify has confirmed that themed playlists have become the modern mixtape, shaped by how the coronavirus is affecting people’s lives. The company conducted a data analysis of its users between April 17 and May 17 and found that playlists using keywords related to “haircut� and “hair dye� have seen a 50% rise. Popular songs on these lists include “Complicated� by Avril Lavigne and “High Hopes� by Panic at the Disco.

Music lists related to baking have seen a 20% rise in popularity. Many of these include the song “Watermelon Sugar� by Harry Styles. Not surprisingly, the theme “work from home� has seen a huge increase, rising over 100%. Dolly Parton’s 1980 hit “9 to 5� has seen a resurgence on these lists, hitting the sweet spot between both subject matter and nostalgia.

Fischer said he has created playlists based on his activities and emotions. “Working out, easy listening, quarantine blues. I even have a playlist for driving. They’re all very curated.� “I actually don’t like listening to the new stuff that’s out there right now,� he continued.

Instead, Fischer is opting for instrumental music and soundtracks that evoke particular memories and emotions.

One band currently on repeat for the DJ is the brass band Too Many Zooz, a “busking band� out of New York City.

Al Rosenthal has been working from his South Hills home since March. Typically, the attorney does not have a lot of time to explore music outside of his commute, when he mostly listens to satellite radio. “Since I’ve been home for two months, I’ve been listening to music more often and in different ways than I normally do,� he said. “I’ve found myself drawn back to ’90s music and female vocalists. I made a playlist of things like Veruca Salt, Letters to Cleo and Elastica. “When we first went to quarantine, my theme song was the Talking Heads’ ‘Life in Wartime,’� he said with a laugh, “which I thought really captured the mood.�

celebrations IN THE

p Screenshot of a Spotify COVID-19 playlist

Mood is a recurring theme in Rosenthal’s listening choices. “As the stock market was crashing and news of layoffs was mounting and everyone was concerned about the economic situation, I pulled out the Kinks’ ‘Low Budget’ album from 1979, which is written during and about that period of economic dislocation.�

Rosenthal said he’s also been exploring concept albums and listening to albums from start to finish, “which my life doesn’t normally allow me to do.�

Other local Jewish Pittsburghers have been using music as a way to find comfort and cope with quarantine in the age of the coronavirus.

Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh President and CEO Jeff Finkelstein recently took part in a popular Facebook trend, posting 10 albums that influenced his taste in music. While still focused on the business of running Federation, he noted that he’s been listening to the decidedly unmusical Harvard Business Review Management Tip of the Day “and lots of ’80s music while I exercise.�

Brian Schreiber, president and CEO of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, has been going into the office every day, overseeing his organization’s services. When he does have an opportunity to listen to music, he focuses on three “retro acts: Arik Einshtein (classic Israeli singer), the Beatles and Billy Joel.�

For Drew Barkley, executive director of

Temple Sinai, it has been the Americana of Emmylou Harris and the Latin-tinged blues of Santana, and similarly styled music heard on Pandora’s artists’ stations. The Harris station “brings in a lot of the recently departed John Prine,� Barkely said.

As Americans have shifted away from spending time in their cars and at gyms — both places where music is traditionally consumed — music streaming has actually gone down in favor of gaming, YouTube, television and Netflix.

That’s true for Melissa Haviv, assistant director of Classrooms Without Borders. “My son and I are watching all the Marvel movies in the official Marvel Cinematic Universe Timeline. We recently completed both volumes of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ and it is now my ‘playlist of the week’. Who knows what next week will bring?�

Haviv is quick to point out, though, that she still listens to music and that her tastes are varied. “I can go from Disturbed to Nora Jones to ‘Shrek’ — one of my favorite playlists — in a snap,� she said.

How has the COVID-19 outbreak affected the way you listen to music? Have you created playlists? Are you spinning vinyl from your high school days? Send an email to letters@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org and tell us what songs have gotten you through these unusual days of sheltering-in-place.  PJC David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Life & Culture Coronavirus puts film, theater projects in limbo — THEATRE & FILM —

By Curt Schleier | JTA

E

mma Seligman is trying to stay optimistic.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the 25-year-old came extremely close to fulfilling every film student’s fantasy: having her debut indie film played at coveted festivals and becoming an up-and-coming name to know in the industry.

Her film “Shiva Baby” involves both of the terms invoked in its title: a sugar baby — or a young girl who receives money or other material gifts from a wealthy older man in exchange for company, and often sex — who attends a shiva, or Jewish mourning get-together at the house of the family of the deceased. When protagonist Danielle goes to a family shiva gathering, she unexpectedly encounters her sugar daddy, along with his wife and new baby.

Originally a short film and her NYU thesis, it was accepted in the South by Southwest short film program, where it received a sufficiently positive reaction to encourage Seligman to expand it to a feature.

“There are a lot of sugar babies at NYU, though it’s somewhat secretive,” she said on the phone from her parents’ house in Toronto, where she has moved back to weather the virus quarantine. “I wanted to make a film about them, but from the perspective of a Jewish family.”

Last December, while she was working on a final edit of the film, South by Southwest gave Seligman a Hanukkah gift: the news that “Shiva Baby” was also accepted into the Austin-based fest’s feature pool. It was a big deal for the first-time director because to find a distributor, independent filmmakers and their films need to be seen at festivals.

But like everything else, South by Southwest was canceled, leaving the potential of Seligman’s entire project at risk.

Seligman isn’t alone — the rest of the country’s film festivals, full of works by up-and-coming artists craving their first mass exposure, have either been canceled, postponed or set up to screen online, without the same cachet as an in-person fest.

“It didn’t come as a complete surprise,” she said about South by Southwest.

COVID-19 hasn’t only been rough on indie artists. Established stars have also seen their expensive projects and gigs fall into limbo, as Broadway theaters, cinemas, and clubs and venues of all sizes have shut down.

David Bryan (nee David Bryan Rashbaum) is the keyboardist for Bon Jovi, but he has also written musical scores for multiple plays. He won a Tony Award for his work on the hit Broadway show “Memphis,” and his newest musical, “Diana,” about British royal Princess Diana, was in previews, just weeks away from opening, when Broadway shut down on March 12.

His bandmates had delayed releasing their new album and starting an international tour to accommodate Bryan’s theater schedule. But now both the album release and tour have been postponed — moreover, Jon Bon Jovi announced that the band may PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

p The release of Emma Seligman’s indie film “Shiva Baby” was delayed because of the coronavirus.

Photo by Sharon Attia via JTA

p David Bryan performs with Bon Jovi at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York, on May 6, 2011.

Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage/Getty Images/via JTA.org

p A scene from “Shiva Baby”

Photo by Maria Rusche via JTA.org

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

never tour again.

More bad news followed. On Friday, March 13, Bryan met with members of the play’s creative team and continued to work on revisions. The next day he met with friends. On Sunday, he began experiencing flu-like symptoms, including headaches and a fever. He was tested and the following Saturday found out he had COVID-19.

Bryan admitted he was frightened at first, but the infection didn’t invade his lungs, and he didn’t need to be hospitalized. A second test revealed he is now virus free.

Broadway is set to be closed until at least January. But will “Diana” ever see the stage?

Whenever Broadway reopens, will audiences follow? Will fans crowd stadiums and arenas if the band tours?

Bryan, who once said his childhood rabbi “made me the person I am,” won’t hazard a prediction.

“I can definitely tell you what happened yesterday, but tomorrow’s a mystery,” he said.

Still, Bryan claims to be the “ultimate optimist.”

“When science tells you it’s OK to come back, we’ll come back,” he said.

Comic Gilbert Gottfried — who has appeared in dozens of films but is perhaps best known as the voice of the duck in the Aflac commercials — is ensconced with his family at his in-laws’ home in the Berkshires (the in-laws are in Florida).

“It’s funny to think that I’ll look at my date book and see on this day we were supposed to be here, and then we were supposed to fly to this other state and do press for this club, and it’s all crossed out,” he said about his stand-up touring schedule. “There’s a lot of paranoia. Whenever I’m outside and I get any kind of tickle in my throat or ache or pain in my body, I tell myself, ‘Uh-oh, this is it.’”

Surprisingly, though, Gottfried seems comparatively at ease with his situation. He still records his podcast (modestly titled “Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast”) and offers personal greetings in his uniquely grating voice through cameo.com.

“This is the first time in my life that anyone has called me level-headed. Pretty soon people will refer to me as rugged,” he said.

Back in Toronto, Seligman sounds hoarse over the phone.

“My older sister is here and we’re at each other’s throats,” she said, “but it’s all with love.”

Ironically, some copies of “Shiva Baby” had already been distributed to a few critics, some of whom published reviews that would have appeared had the festival run as scheduled. The Hollywood Reporter and Indiewire offered favorable critiques, among others, exactly the kind of response that likely would have netted Seligman some form of distribution.

Now, obviously, she’s “really sad” but can “see some light.” Seligman is searching for other venues where “Shiva Baby” can find an audience — potentially online — from her childhood home.

“Right now, [moving back in with your parents] feels more socially acceptable. A lot of people have gone home,” she said.

“It’s strange. But I personally don’t mind. I think it’s kind of fun.” PJC JUNE 5, 2020 15

Life & Culture Pennsylvania comedian Lil Dicky has found his true calling — being the Larry David of rap — COMEDY —

By Gabe Friedman | JTA

I

f you haven’t heard of the comic rapper Lil Dicky, and you are at least tangentially interested in rap or comedy, you should familiarize yourself with him.

Of course, you’ll need to be OK dealing with a good amount of blatant vulgarity. You read his name correctly — Lil Dicky, real name Dave Burd, has become an industry success story despite turning the norms of the rap world upside down with his stage name. Instead of touting an excess of raw masculinity, he makes fun of the diminutive size of his package.

The irony is that Burd, a white 32-year-old from suburban Philadelphia with a Jewfro, is actually quite good at rapping, something that he has incorporated into his brand (with varying levels of success, depending on what kind of rap fan you ask). His road to fame began with viral YouTube music videos, including “Ex-Boyfriend” in 2013, which now has 39 million views.

Burd’s rap delivery is more narrative than artistic, and his tracks often sound like they were constructed to accompany music videos and succeed on the internet.

But his allure also stems from his direct selfconsciousness, and his willingness to mock himself, the rap world and the concept that a privileged white Jewish guy could achieve any success as a rapper. “$ave Dat Money,” featuring the real stars Fetty Wap and Rich Homie Quan, is about just that — saving money instead of blowing through it. In “Professional Rapper,” from his 2015 debut album of the same name that made it to No. 7 on the Billboard chart, Lil Dicky embarks on a job interview of sorts with Snoop Dogg to become a real rapper (in which he mentions he started his career with the help of his bar mitzvah money).

Now Burd has something else that might be the best use of all of his talents yet: an FX sitcom.

The show, which premiered in March and is now available to stream on Hulu, is called

p Dave Burd, right, with Taylor Misiak in an episode of “Dave.”

“Dave.” It’s a fictionalized version of Burd’s rise to stardom, taking place in the uncertain phase after his initial viral YouTube fame, before his career really gets on track. Standouts of the cast include Andrew Santino, a comedian who plays Burd’s friend and manager, and Davionte “GaTa” Ganter, Burd’s real-life hype man who plays the same role on the show.

But in addition to being consistently funny, the show allows Burd to amplify his insecurities and anxieties and bring them to a new level. If Larry David or Woody Allen were also born in 1988, they might have made something similar.

There are plenty of tangible and funny Jewish moments throughout the show. A favorite of mine comes when Burd’s team — consisting of his manager, his hype man and his producer, who’s also his childhood friend, and black — visit his parents’ house

Screen shot from YouTube via JTA.org

in Cheltenham, near Philadelphia, before Lil Dicky’s first gig in the city the next day. At dinner, Burd’s parents bring out a notebook with a list of questions about the concert that read like a Jewish worry frequently asked questions page: what types of bills should they bring, and can they take photos of the performers with their cellphones?

In a broader sense, though, the entire show is infused with a Larry David-esque sense of anxiety and unease. Inside, Burd is never quite comfortable in the various worlds he navigates — a relationship, sex (for very graphic reasons), music writing, performing, interactions with black people, even success. His blowup at a meeting with record label executives over the level of creative freedom in his lucrative record label contract feels like it could fit in an episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

news JEWS CAN USE.

In episode 8, Burd meets the real-life super producer Benny Blanco, a similarly Jewfroed guy who wears a Star of David among other pieces of bling around his neck, at his swanky L.A. house. Blanco, born Benjamin Joseph Levin, describes his looks as Andre the Giant meets Danny DeVito, as his attractive girlfriend wanders downstairs to make out with him.

Burd watches in amazement, but Blanco explains his appeal: He has worked with some of the biggest artists in the world, from Justin Bieber to Rihanna to Kanye West.

Meanwhile, his girlfriend says that he and Burd “kind of look like brothers.”

Both guys respond at the same time: “It’s ’cause we’re both Jewish.”

It’s played for humor, but there’s another point hiding in the scene — maybe guys like Burd belong in the business after all. PJC

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Torah

Pittsburgh congregations The blessing of unity targeted in 2018 massacre donate moment in time and history was too fundamental to equivocate. Even though we have $200,000 to Public Safety been rightly described as contentious, arguRabbi Eli Seidman Parshat Naso | Numbers 4:21-7:89

T

he three Squirrel Hill congregations attacked on Oct. 27, 2018, at the Tree of Life building have donated $200,000 to the Pittsburgh Public Safety Department.

Pittsburgh City Council introduced a resolution on May 26 authorizing the acceptance of the donation.

“The three congregations, New Light, Dor Hadash and Tree of Life, through this donation, wish to express our extreme gratitude to the Pittsburgh Police and other first responders for their actions on that horrible day,” said New Light Congregation co-president Stephen Cohen in a prepared statement. “It was only due to the immediate actions taken by the officers that the shooter was ultimately captured. They selflessly and without hesitation pursued the shooter into the building while seeking to protect the remaining congregants being held hostage.

“Some of the officers were injured,” Cohen continued. “Through this donation, we honor all the officers involved that day and the entire City of Pittsburgh Department of

Public Safety for putting community first.

We will forever be in their debt.”

The congregations’ boards intend the donation to be used for vehicles and equipment for active threat and mass casualty situations, “because two of the survivors of the deadly attack on Tree of Life are alive today due to the efforts of our Police and Tactical Medics,” said Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich in a statement.

“Pittsburgh Public Safety is incredibly grateful for this generous grant,” Hissrich added. “Even during this very uncertain time, the board of trustees of the Tree of Life, New Light and Dor Hadash congregations, along with the Independent Committee, deemed our city’s first responders worthy recipients of the money,” which came from donations to the three congregations.

The funds, Hissrich said, “will go toward equipping first responders with the resources they need to protect Pittsburgh.” PJC — Toby Tabachnick

B

ehold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers (and sisters) to dwell together in unity. (Psalm 133.)

Last week, we celebrated the joyous holiday of Shavuot, the festival of the Giving of the Torah. We read Exodus 19 which describes how the Israelites encamped close to Mount Sinai.

They (Israelites) “ journeyed from Refidim, and they arrived in the desert of Sinai, and they encamped in the desert, and Israel encamped there opposite the mountain.”

Rashi points out that when the Torah says Israel encamped opposite the mountain, it switches to the singular, as if the nation did so as one. “As one man, with one heart.”

Rashi says that in this venture, all of the people were united and unanimous.

Rabbi Noach Weinberg z”l wrote that unity was a “necessary prerequisite before Hashem could give us His Torah.” This

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mentative and stiff-necked, on this we were all very clear. The Torah is, and always will be, our lifeline. It connects us to Hashem and to each other for all time. We were as united on this point at Mount Sinai as we have ever been. A similar insight can be derived from this week’s Torah portion of Naso. When the Kohanim were commanded to bless the people (Numbers 6:24-26), the blessing was stated in the singular. Again, the commentators say this teaches us that there is no greater blessing than that of unity. We ought to focus not on the differences between us, but on the fact that each of us is beloved and created in G-d’s image.

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Obituaries

MARGOLIS: Herbert Margolis, 92, of Silver Spring, Maryland, passed away on May 22, 2020, after a prolonged illness. He was born on Nov. 3, 1927, to Sarah and Ezra Margolis. Herb grew up in Masontown, Pennsylvania, attending Masontown High School from which he graduated in 1945.

He then received his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Pittsburgh.

He remained a diehard Panthers fan throughout his life. He was a World War II veteran having started his Navy service

Floyd: Continued from page 12

reflection during civil unrest, but understand that to achieve this end we must act. For these reasons, the Rabbinical Assembly calls on legislators at the national, state, and local levels to fundamentally change their approach to law enforcement and the justice system so that they serve and protect all Americans, regardless of race nor ethnicity. We encourage our own members to reach out to other communities, to Jews of Color, as well as to local law enforcement to help lead and shape these endeavors within the community.

“United in purpose, we will dismantle the systemic racism all too embedded still within American law enforcement and its justice system. The firing and we hope prosecution of the four Minneapolis police officers involved in this one egregious murder is a necessary step, but it cannot be the only action against structural injustices that have plagued generations and continue to this day. We must forever strive for a free and just society for all people.”

J Street released this statement: “J Street stands in solidarity with communities of color all across the nation today as they express continued shock, grief and anger at the killing of George Floyd.

“The killing of Mr. Floyd is but the latest in a horrific and seemingly never-ending string of assaults on the lives of African Americans and other people of color. We join all who are calling for arrests, criminal charges and justice related to Mr. Floyd’s death.

“Most importantly, we speak as an organization whose identity is primarily, though not exclusively, Jewish and whose work is grounded in the values upon which our community was raised and a core belief in the fundamental equality, worth and dignity of every human being. We understand all too deeply the pain of centuries of antisemitism, hatred and tragedy. We relate to the different yet all-too-familiar experience of PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

a few weeks after V-J Day. Herb practiced law in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, for 60 years including many years as the solicitor for the Uniontown School District and Fayette County Redevelopment Authority.

He was respected by his peers as being knowledgeable, hardworking and highly ethical. In his younger days, he enjoyed playing sports including softball, and also played saxophone in a band. Throughout his adult life, he relished the Wednesday afternoons and Sunday mornings spent with his golfing buddies. His highest priority in life, however, was his love for his family and the pride he had for his children and grandchildren. Herbert is survived by his wife of 67 years, Barbara; sons Jim, Gary and Tom (Robin) and daughter Sara Pacque-Margolis (Michel); grandchildren Derek (Lisa), Kyle, and Malaika Pacque, Rebecca Rossi (AJ), Josh and Jenny Margolis. Donations may be made in Herbert’s memory to Promote Care Prevent Harm https://promotecare preventharm.org, the Anti-Defamation League Support ADL’s Work or the charity of your choosing. Private funeral arrangements were provided by Don R. Crawford Funeral Home on May 24, 2020. PJC communities of color who, in this country, have experienced centuries of bigotry, violence and oppression. Many members of the American Jewish community are people of color who in this moment are confronted with an onslaught of rising and often interrelated anti-Jewish and anti-black hatred.

“As Jews, we can recognize a society pervaded by fundamental and structural racism. It has been clearly demonstrated in the coronavirus pandemic, whose victims are disproportionately black, brown and Native American. It is demonstrated every day in the way American citizens and noncitizens living among us are discriminated against in education, employment and day-to-day interactions based on the color of their skin or the accent of their speech.”

B’nai B’rith International President Charles O. Kaufman and CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin issued the following statement: “When a person of color cannot go out jogging for fear his life will end and cannot have a police encounter that does not result in his death and cannot even go bird watching without being harassed, we are at a dangerous, heartbreaking and somber time in our society.

“In light of the ongoing unrest in America’s cities in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd, we call on communities to come together to heal and to address that which divides us.

“Firing, arresting and charging with murder and manslaughter Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in Floyd’s death is just the start. The officers with Chauvin must also be held accountable.

“Serious and significant reform of our criminal justice system and promoting and understanding the principles of equal justice to honor Floyd and others targeted because of the color of their skin must be swiftly addressed on a local and national level.” PJC This article originally appeared on JTA.org. Additional reporting by Liz Spikol and Toby Tabachnick.

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

In memory of …

Nancy Bowytz ................................................................................................................................Louis Bowytz Edward M. Goldston ..................................................................................................................... Stella Leedy Michael and Anne Levin ............................................................................................ Morris Shakespeare Marvin & Roberta Levine ........................................................................................................ Morris Levine Marvin & Roberta Levine .....................................................................................................Roberta Levine Irma and Leonard Morris...................................................................................................Mary Segal Eger Linda Rattner Nunn ................................................................................................................ Samuel Rattner Deborah Rogal ............................................................................................................................ Barbara Rogal Richard, Mindy, & Logan Stadler ............................................................................ Fannie S. Lattanzio Mr. & Mrs. Neil Rosenstein.......................................................................................... Norma Rosenstein

THIS WEEK’S YAHRZEITS — Sunday June 7: Lillian Amper, Beatrice K. Barnett, Dr. Milton Bilder, Meyer M. Braun, Belle Farber, Ida A. Friedman, Leonard Hyman Gettleman, I. Max Greenfield, Charles L. Jacobs, Stella Leedy, Stella Brown Lipschz Leedy, Carl Lipson, Ralph Leon Markowitz, Cele Monheim, Alta M. Orringer, Morris Shakespeare, Sarah Teplitz, Sara Weinberg Monday June 8: Sybil B. Berkman, Florence Boodman, Herman Braunstein, Sherman B. Golomb, Louis Rider, Cecelia M. Schmidt, Libbie R. Seiavitch, Hilda Z. Silverman, Gertrude Simon, Irving Spolan, Sara Titlebaum, Abraham Weiner, Chava Wekselman Tuesday June 9: Jennie Bleier, Jacob Garber, Mayme Gerson, Morris B. Green, Lillian Handmacher, Leah Kramer, Helen Langer, Robert Langer, Evelyn Letwin, Samuel A. Lichter, Abe Mazer, Abraham Rothenstein, Morris A. Schwartz, Betty Silberblatt Wednesday June 10: Israel A. Brahm, Howard Finkel, Tillie L. Gallagher, Dr. Harold Saul Kaiser, Leroy A. Klater, Jack Masloff, Fannie Miller, David Reubin, Anshel Rosen, Sylvia Rosenblum, Minnie Schilit, Benjamin B. Sklar, Sidney Whitman Thursday June 11: Sylvia Barmen, Barney B. Dobkin, Stanley Flansbaum, Belle Goldman, Saul Goldstein, Fanny Kurfeerst, Jacob Landay, Max H. Leib, Esther Littman, Joseph Morantz, Max R. Morgan, Nathan Roth, Geraldine Sadowsky, Jennie Santman, Margery L. Selkovits, Helen P. Suttin, Bertha Weisberger Friday June 12: Casper Alman, Leah Bloom, Louis Bowytz, Mary Segal Eger, Sadye Klee Gardner, Oscar Green, Sarah Haltman, Rae Kreger Hepps, Rose Kramer, Jack Kenneth Kruman, Shirley F. Levenson, Joseph Pickholtz, Hyman Shapiro, Mollie Silverblatt Saturday June 13: Edith S. Adler, Sarah Bass, Benjamin Block, Usher Z. Cohen, William Congress, Suzanne Dolgin, Hyman Elovitz, Louis Fienberg, Ida Leah Hurwick, Cheri Glick Jak, Jessie Levine, Fannie Lipsich, Dr. Theodore Lundy, Dorothy Glickman Mandelblatt, Erwin Lawrence Rubenstein

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Opinion Spikol: Continued from page 10

or even what the mood will be when this piece comes out in a few days. But whatever transpires, we must not forget how we got here.

We must summon the experience of our relatives who feared the police with good reason, who were unable to walk a street with the lightness of being and anonymity many

Lamm: Continued from page 11

York, was a professor of philosophy and, for 27 years, served as president of Yeshiva University, until his retirement in 2002.

Thousands of students, thousands of rabbis, educators, physicians, lawyers, businesspeople, social workers and psychologists prepared themselves for a values-driven life under his stewardship.

He was unafraid to engage in the intellectual issues of the past 60 years, the challenge of values in a post-modern world, the struggle to maintain a life of nuance and complexity at times of absolutes and correctness. He fought to position Modern Orthodoxy as an unafraid, Maimonidean philosophy that saw Torah as nuanced, timeless yet dynamic.

As president, he enhanced the faculty,

of us — though not all — enjoy today. We must understand how oppression can turn to rage, how poverty engenders desperation, how feeling undermined, second-guessed and unseen every single day can bring people to the brink when their hearts are broken.

My heart is broken too. It’s broken for the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Freddie Gray, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, Philando Castile, Trayvon Martin, Ahmaud Arbery

and so many others. It’s broken for the independent business owners whose livelihoods are compromised when their stores are looted. It’s broken by the white supremacist groups fomenting violence by posing as protesters and skewing the narrative. It’s broken by our division, our tragic rupture.

Growing up, I was taught to celebrate Jewish resistance and uprising. At 21, I stood at Masada and breathed in the spirit of my ancestors’ determination. Each year I

celebrate the might of the Maccabees and our freedom from slavery at Passover. We Jews know how it feels to be raging, to be broken, to live in terror of our fellow human beings.

We know how it feels to want to fight back.

I hope we can all hold hope in our hearts for each other and move forward to live together without fear. We have to find a way. PJC

built new schools and programs, elevated the discourse of Jewish community and Orthodoxy, and dealt with the myriad challenges of leading Yeshiva University.

A private public man, he craved the safety and harmony of home and family. He was, first and foremost, a husband and soulmate of his beloved wife, Mindy, who succumbed to COVID-19 in April. They were a wondrous couple, warm and regal at the same time. They raised four wonderful, joyful, proud children and were blessed with grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

When I succeeded him as president in 2003, he offered me guidance, friendship, support, even intimacy. From the beginning, we would meet regularly. He told me he would give me any advice I asked for, on the condition that I would in no way feel bound to take his advice. Our meetings were wonderful sessions where he would privately share his views on Torah, on Jewish issues,

on his hopes and fears. I could and did tell him anything, and trust him completely.

On my fifth anniversary, he wrote me a note, where, I believe, he revealed much of his heart: “I am the only one who knows what you are going through in your quotidian activities: the aching feeling that you are not getting enough done, that worry that there is no time for all that has to get done, the spectre of potential failure; and, far more significantly, the joy of achievement and pleasure you have as more and more students are exposed to the teachings of YU.” But I think his most profound impact will have been made by Norman Lamm the philosopher, who authored over 10 books, championed concepts of Torah Umadda, The Royal Reach and Faith and Doubt.

Online (LammHeritage.org), over 800 of his sermons are digitized and categorized, and are contemporary life lessons. Dr. Lamm

posited a Jewishness that is complex, not simple; textured, not flat; Technicolor, not black and white. In “Faith and Doubt,” he charged the Jewish people to be in conversation with the world: “If we have nothing to say to the world, we must stop talking. If we have something important to say, even if we can only intuit it, and are unsure about how to formulate it, we must keep trying. Then, even if we do a great deal of stammering, we ultimately will articulate that which will again distinguish us as a ‘light unto the nations.’ For we have, then, a vital message for modern Jews and modern man.”

In a sense, he will continue to teach us, and all are better for it.

May his memory be for a blessing. PJC

Liz Spikol is the editorial director of the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle.

Richard M. Joel is president emeritus and Bravmann Family University Professor of Yeshiva University.

U

nfortunately, once again a major community crisis, this time the coronavirus pandemic, is underlining the necessity of a local Jewish newspaper and website that keeps you informed about — and in touch with — the Pittsburgh Jewish community.

We’re responding to this crisis with all hands on deck (even if it’s from our homes) to bring you what you need to know and want to know about our community: organizations, events live or virtual, plans canceled or postponed, hardships and help, friends and neighbors.

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We depend heavily on advertising. If organizations cancel events, they don’t advertise them. When businesses close and their customers lose confidence, they cut advertising. No one knows how long the upset of normalcy will last.

That’s why we need you, our readers and supporters, now more than ever. Please help us continue our mission of bringing you the Pittsburgh Jewish news you rely on and now need more than ever.

Help us tell the story of our community in crisis, and how once again we will show amazing resilience to continue to thrive into the future. Your emergency gift today helps make this possible and helps connect increasingly isolated people in our community, including the elderly and infirm.

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21

Community It’s time to Tikkun

Flower power

Tikkun Leil Shavuot, a communitywide Shavuot learning program organized and administered by the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, was held virtually on May 27. More than 20 Jewish educators hosted individual Zoom talks dedicated to various Jewish subjects.

Residents and staff at the Jewish Association on Aging celebrated flower week.

u Rabbi Yaier Lehrer discusses the challenge of ancient liturgy for the modern Jew.

u Rabbi Aaron Meyer discusses the trolley problem from a Jewish perspective

Screenshots courtesy of Jim Busis p Liz and Ed make art from flower petals

Welcome back The Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh’s Early Childhood Development Center opened on June 1. Staff marked the return of students and families with balloons and signs.

p Good day, sunshine!

p Kelly Gumina, left, and Liza Baron stand ready to welcome students.

p Ruth gives AHAVA Executive Director Kelie Schneider a hug.

p Scott Fech and Rick Soria drop off their child for school.

Photos courtesy of Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh

22 JUNE 5, 2020

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Photos courtesy of Jewish Association on Aging

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Community Birthdays are the sweetest t Natalie K, center, celebrates her 90th birthday with Harriet, left, and Jude at Weinberg Terrace.

Photo courtesy of Jewish Association on Aging

Learning continues near and far

p Community Day School Pre-K student Elihu Braasch introduces his favorite plants to friends and teachers during a live CDS@home classroom session.

p Abigail and Maya Amos put the “distance” in distance learning as they logged onto classes during a family RV trip.

Photos courtesy of Community Day School

Getting ready for green Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh staff readied facilities for eventual reopening.

p Scrubbing off the dirt

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p Updating the facility

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Photos courtesy of Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh

JUNE 5, 2020 23

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