Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle 9-13-19 by Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle

September 13, 2019 | 13 Elul 5779

FALL ARTS PREVIEW LOCAL Jazzing up the city

Candlelighting 7:15 p.m. | Havdalah 8:12 p.m. | Vol. 62, No. 37 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

Kosher Mediterranean food truck opens at CMU

$1.50

JCC annual meeting emphasizes value of community connections

Musicians talk Judaism and jazz. Page 12

LOCAL By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer

Playing Pumbaa

‘The Lion King’ arrives. Page 13

 Eager CMU diners stand in line at CMU’s kosher food truck.

Photo by Adam Reinherz

LOCAL From composer to filmmaker

Jackie Wang, a CMU freshman studying design, tried the falafel bowl. “It was new to he fine flavor of fresh kosher falafel is me, but I liked the flavor,” she said. Elan Biswas, a CMU freshman studying back at Carnegie Mellon University, computer science, liked his lunchtime boureka, and if a recent day was anything to go and lamb and turkey pita shawarma. by, students are appreciative. “It was all good,” said Biswas. Moments after Judah Cowen, of Such satisfaction is consisElegant Edge Catering, opened Fall arts tent with the university’s Tahini at the Tartan Express goals of keeping students Food Truck on Sept. 3, a preview happy and well nourished, stream of hungry patrons, coverage explained Pascal Petter, complete with caf-cards in begins on director of dining services hand, began to form. —student aff airs. Timothy Liu, a CMU page 11. “Our vision is to be a top junior studying decision ranked dining program that science, was excited about off ers a diverse portfolio of dining purchasing food from an outdoor destinations,” he said. Bringing Tahini to vendor. “A food truck provides a different CMU is “really a win-win not only for our atmosphere,” he said. “You can see what’s Jewish students on campus, and not only the happening in the back.” broader community around Oakland, but for Indeed, Cowen and several employees those looking for Mediterranean cuisine. It’s could be seen systematically preparing meals then delivering them through a sliding glass window. Please see CMU, page 22

Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

T Israel’s Nurit Jugend comes to town. Page 16

ollowing a uniquely challenging year, supporters of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh had much to reflect upon at the organization’s 124th annual meeting, held Sept. 9 in the JCC’s Katz Performing Arts Center. But the prevailing theme of the evening could be found within the name of the organization itself: “Community.” The meeting included the presentation of several awards to JCC volunteers as well as interfaith leaders from the broader community who join in the work of the JCC’s Center for Loving Kindness. James Ruttenberg, outgoing Pittsburgh JCC board chair, kicked off the evening by emphasizing the “core values” contained within the organization’s mission statement: “nurturing people, connecting community, each day through every age, inspired by Jewish values.” Those values, Ruttenberg said, were “our North Star before, during and after October 27.” The interfaith, community-based work of the JCC’s Center for Loving Kindness, headed by Rabbi Ron Symons, the JCC’s senior director of Jewish life, was highlighted as the inaugural Loving Kindness Award was presented to Daniel Tabares of Parkland, Florida. Tabares, a junior at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School, came to Pittsburgh last April along with a delegation of other students and adults from Parkland, to help Pittsburgh heal from the devastating effects of the massacre that occurred at the Tree of Life building on Oct. 27. The visit was organized by the Center for Loving Kindness. The Parkland constituency, including Please see JCC, page 22

keep your eye on PittsburghJewishChronicle

LOCAL Visit from a hero

LOCAL Fascinating history revealed

LOCAL Talking about security

Headlines Rabbi Ephraim Simon, a ‘regular guy’ whose organ donations saved two lives — LOCAL — By David Rullo | Staff Writer

abbi Ephraim Simon has spent his life trying to inspire others to live better lives. “As parents, we know that our children hear much more of what we do than what we say,” said Simon on the phone from his home in Teaneck, New Jersey. “They watch how we live our lives; a rabbi’s greatest sermon is the way he lives his life.” The way Simon has lived his life — having donated both a kidney and a third of his liver to two strangers — is certainly an example, as he’ll recount to a local audience when he visits Chabad of the South Hills on Sept. 17. “I talk to my children all the time about sacrificing for others, about not just being here for ourselves and gathering as many possessions as we can,” said Simon, who describes himself as a “regular guy.” His own journey with sacrifice began in August 2008, when he got an email about a 12-year-old girl who needed a kidney donation. “I couldn’t delete the email. I just sat staring at it,” he recalled. “I’m a father of nine children. I had a 13-year-old daughter and an 11-year-old daughter. She could have been mine. If it was my daughter, I would want someone to step forward.” Simon knew nothing about kidney donation then. “I thought it was like bone marrow, where there’s a one-in-a-million chance that you’re going to be a match.” In fact, what he learned from subsequent research was that as long as you have the same blood type as

p Rabbi Ephraim Simon

the person seeking the kidney, you’ll most likely be a match. After a short conversation with his wife and family, the rabbi offered

Photo provided by Chabad of the South Hills.

his kidney to the girl. As it turned out, she’d found another donor already. Rather than feeling relieved, Simon was

disappointed. “I had an opportunity to be an example of everything I talk to my children about and it slipped through my fingers.” He decided to donate a kidney to someone else, but it wasn’t as simple as he’d anticipated. “It’s supposed to be easy, but I kept trying and didn’t match anyone,” he said. “At this point, we’re seven or eight months from when I placed the first call and really want to be an example of how we’re supposed to live our lives and give to others.” He finally found a match in a father of 10 from Brooklyn, who was extremely sick. Simon donated the kidney in August of 2009 and the man made a full recovery. “The surgeon told him his kidney started working on the operating table. He came out of the anesthesia knowing he was better.” Now, he and the Brooklyn father, who were strangers before the donation, are good friends. “I’m actually going to one of his children’s wedding soon.” Simon found the experience “moving and powerful. I thought, ‘This is my family’s gift to the man’s family.’ We were able to help bring back this man’s health with God’s help and the help of the surgeons. My community was inspired.” The story of Simon’s generosity went viral online, inspiring others to come forward for living organ donation. “I lost track of how many people ended up donating kidneys because of my story — 30 or 40,” Simon said. The whole experience made Simon want to do even more. After some research, he discovered that he could donate part of his liver. This time, however, the process was “much more complicated. Almost no hospital, certainly Please see Rabbi, page 24

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Headlines The Jewish signature tablecloths of Western Pennsylvania director of the Rauh Jewish Archives, led me in 2014 to the first one I ever saw — from my family’s synagogue in Homestead — I By Tammy A. Hepps | Special to the Chronicle was confounded. Why did it exist? Who had the crazy idea to labor over something so n my local history research, I rely upon beautiful — and put food on top of it?! paper records, bronze yahrzeit plaques And then over the following year, six and stone matzevot. My favorite records, more turned up from Aliquippa, Donora, though, are those created in cloth and Uniontown, Ambridge, Latrobe and Adath thread. They are tablecloths, embroidered Jeshurun of Pittsburgh. Three of them were with names numbering in the dozens or new donations to the Rauh that showed up hundreds. When Susan Melnick, former at the perfect time. Two of them had been in the archives for some time, overlooked until Susan knew to check. Only one remains with its original congregation, Beth Samuels in Ambridge. And still they keep turning up — B’nai Jacob in East Liverpool, B’nai Israel in McKeesport and Na’amat in Pittsburgh — plus documentation of others, now missing, that were created in Kittanning and in Pittsburgh at Poale Zedeck, Tree of Life, the p In 1965, after 11 years of work, Wray Wheeler Jewish Home for the Aged and Ruth Saunders showed off the completed and the City of Hope. Jewish Home and Hospital for the Aged tablecloth I now know of about with more than 1,200 names of individuals who 15 local Jewish signature made donations. The current whereabouts of this tablecloths. All are long, tablecloth are unknown.

— LOCAL —

p The Sisterhood of Kneseth Israel Congregation in Kittanning spread its signature tablecloth across the dais at a banquet for the dedication of its new synagogue in June 1954. The current whereabouts of this tablecloth are unknown. Images courtesy Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives

white pieces of fabric. On some the names are elegantly organized, while on others the names are strewn about haphazardly. Some follow consistent patterns, and others are a riot of competing styles. Most are food-stained. What had initially seemed so odd to me was actually once popular across the region’s whole Jewish community. And yet, unlike

most of the curiosities I’ve rediscovered in my research journey, there was no prior scholarship to explain what I had found, not even a blog post or a tweet from someone else who had fallen for their charm. My friend Gena Philibert-Ortega, a specialist in Please see Tablecloths, page 24

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Calendar Local leaders meet with Homeland Security committee at Pittsburgh roundtable — LOCAL — By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer

effrey Finkelstein, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, and Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, spiritual leader of Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Congregation, addressed a congressional committee that came to Pittsburgh last week to discuss homeland security issues related to domestic terrorism. Chaired by U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the House Committee on Homeland Security held a public roundtable at the City-County Building on Sept. 4 seeking community input regarding what Congress should do to help stop mass shootings, such as the anti-Semitic massacre at the Tree of Life building on Oct. 27 that left 11 Jewish worshipers dead. Thompson was joined by U.S. Reps. Donald Payne Jr., D-N.J., and Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas. “We’ve hardened these facilities as much as we can,” Finkelstein said. “It costs millions and millions of dollars. Homeland Security has a grant program, and we have been a beneficiary of some of those dollars in the

past. It’s nowhere near enough to help us to make sure that our people stay safe. So I put that to all of you that are involved at Homeland Security.” Other local leaders in attendance at the Pittsburgh roundtable included Mayor William Peduto; Rich Fitzgerald, Allegheny County executive; Bob Winters, protective security advisor, Pittsburgh district, Cybersecurity and p Rabbi Jeffery Myers, left, and Jeffrey Finkelstein addressed the public roundtable. Youtube screenshots Infrastructure Security Agency, U.S. Department of Homeland Security; neighbor,” said Myers, “it can lead to in cities because of toasters, we would have Coleman McDonough, county police super- mistrust, fear, loathing and ‘h’ speech, which those toasters taken off the shelves.” intendent; and Pittsburgh Police Chief Scott ultimately leads you to unconscionable and Fitzgerald agreed. “It makes no sense to Schubert. Also in attendance was U.S. Rep. deadly actions.” have war weapons on the streets,” he said. Mike Doyle, who represents the Pittsburgh Several panelists agreed there was a need Schubert and McDonough both said that area, but is not a member of the Homeland to control violent speech, including online. assault weapons did not belong in the hands Security committee. “If it’s illegal to yell ‘fire’ in a movie theater, of citizens on the street. “Someone with a Myers called for a return to civil discourse we need to create laws where it is illegal to say, long rifle with a 100-round clip makes no and a tamping down on hate speech. Since ‘kill all Muslims’ on the internet,” said Myers. sense,” Schubert said. the massacre, the rabbi has avoided the word Peduto, referring to mass shootings as The committee will visit other communities “hate,” and instead refers to “h” speech, which an “epidemic,” called on Congress to enact devasted by mass shootings, including he said, “usually will lead to violent actions stricter gun legislation. Charleston and El Paso, Thompson as was the case in the Tree of Life shootings.” “If it were occurring with any other item told KDKA. PJC He argued for policies that would bring than a gun, there would be not only hearabout greater community understanding. ings like this, but actions taken,” the mayor Toby Tabachnick can be reached at “When you don’t understand your said. “If we saw mass homicides occurring ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Headlines — WORLD — From JTA reports

Canadian govt to appeal court ruling against West Bank wines The Canadian government said it would appeal a federal court ruling that wines made in the West Bank cannot be labeled “Product of Israel.” A July 29 ruling by the Federal Court of Canada said that Psagot- and Shiloh-brand wines made in Jewish-controlled parts of the West Bank were not Israeli since the territory is not considered part of Israel by the international community. Calling the wines Israeli products is “false, misleading and deceptive,” the Federal Court said. The country’s Consumer Packaging and Labeling Act requires that food products, including wines, that are sold in Canada “bear truthful, non-deceptive and non-misleading country of origin labels.” The Canadian Jewish News reported that Ottawa’s decision to appeal the Federal Court ruling was based on Canada’s human rights charter and other issues. The case goes back to 2017, when the Canadian Food Inspection Agency ordered liquor authorities in Ontario to pull bottles of wine made in Psagot and Shiloh off provincial shelves but then reversed the decision, apparently due to “intense” pressure from Jewish groups.

Winnipeg pro-Palestinian activist David Kattenburg then went to court to press the issue. Jewish groups are confident that the federal government’s appeal will succeed. “It is our expectation that the Federal Court of Appeal will overturn the lower court’s decision,” said Shimon Koffler Fogel, CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs. Non-Jewish Poles honored for saving Jews during Holocaust A U.S. Jewish foundation honored Polish non-Jews who rescued Jews during the Holocaust at an event in Warsaw. Some 30 rescuers in their 80s and 90s attended the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous ceremony at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jewry. “These are heroic people of exceptional character who risked their lives and often the lives of their families to save Jews during the Holocaust,” said Stanlee Stahl, the foundation’s executive vice president. “This special event is designed to recognize them and give them the proper honor they deserve.” Foreign diplomats, religious leaders and community leaders also were on hand. The event also marked the launch of a partnership between the foundation and Warsaw’s first kosher food bank, which was founded earlier this year under the leadership of Poland’s chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, with the support of Yad Ezra, a kosher food bank in Detroit. The food pantry based in the Nozyk Synagogue complex will

provide bimonthly food packages to needy non-Jewish rescuers — those who have been recognized as Righteous Among the Nations, or Righteous Gentiles, by the Yad Vashem Holocaust center in Jerusalem. The foundation provides monthly financial support to some 147 needy Polish rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust, and to a total of some 265 Righteous Gentiles living in 18 countries. Ruling says it’s legal to hold bodies of Palestinian terrorists The Israeli military can hold the bodies of Palestinian terrorists to use as bargaining chips in future negotiations, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled. The 4-3 decision overturns a 2017 ruling that said holding the remains of terrorists was unconstitutional, the Kan public broadcaster reported. The majority of the panel, including the high court’s president, Esther Hayut, said that temporarily withholding the bodies would fall under the heading of emergency defense measures. It also found that international law regarding armed conflict would allow such an action. In the earlier ruling, the court had called on the government to pass legislation complying with Israeli and international law that would give it the authority to hold terrorists’ remains. The family of Lt. Hadar Goldin, an Israeli soldier whose body has been held by Hamas

in Gaza since the Gaza War in 2014, has called on the government to hold Palestinian terrorists’ bodies until their son and the body of Sgt. Oron Shaul, captured in the same conflict, are returned. NBA star Enes Kanter hosts clinic for Muslim and Orthodox Jewish kids Boston Celtics basketball star Enes Kanter hosted a free basketball clinic in Brooklyn for Muslim and Jewish kids. The event was organized by Kingsway Jewish Center and the Turkish Cultural Center of Brooklyn to unite the Turkish Muslim community and the Orthodox Jewish community, News12 Brooklyn reported. “It’s just so much fun to go out there and speak one language, and that is sport,” said Kanter, a practicing Muslim. Kanter has been banned from returning to his native Turkey after being publicly critical of its president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Turkey revoked his passport in 2017 and issued an arrest warrant for Kanter, accusing him of being a member of a “terror group.” Kanter also hosted a basketball clinic in El Paso, Texas, to show his support for the Walmart shooting victims. Kanter and the Celtics covered the costs associated with the clinic and donated to the Victims Relief Fund. Earlier this year, Kanter fasted for the entirety of Ramadan during the playoffs while playing as a member of the Portland Trail Blazers. PJC

JEWISH COMMUNITY FOUNDATION

2 0 1 9 Fall Forum RODEF SHALOM CONGREGATION SEPTEMBER 22, 2019 10:30AM BRUNCH |11:15AM PROGRAM

Featuring: Dr. Erica Brown in conversation with Rabbi Danny Schiff Leading Issues In Contemporary Jewish Life The entire community is invited to join us in honoring Sandy and Larry Rosen with the GIFT OF CONSEQUENCE AWARD

RSVP online at jewishpgh.org/fall-forum or call Eric Probola at 412.992.5216. Dietary laws observed. This is a non–solicitation event. Sponsored by

The full inclusion of people of all abilities is a core value of the Pittsburgh Jewish community. To discuss disability–related accommodations, please call or email Eric Probola at eprobola@jfedpgh.org or 412-922-5216.

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SEPTEMBER 13, 2019 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 FRIDAY, SEPT. 13

45) and learn the Rhythms and Purposes of Jewish Living. Classes are taught by local rabbis and will be held every Monday at 7 p.m. at the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh (2000 Technology Drive). $180 per person, per year. Visit shalompittsburgh. org/melton-young-adult-education/ for more information and to register.

Gather together for Shabbat dinner as Shalom Pittsburgh kicks off their I-Volunteer series at 6:30 p.m. at Shaare Torah! I-Volunteer is for adults of all abilities to volunteer and socialize together. We’d love for you to join us for one event or all of them. Visit jewishpgh.org/ event/i-volunteer-shabbat-dinner-2 for more information and to register.

q TUESDAY, SEPT. 17

q SATURDAYS, SEPT. 14, 21

q WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 18

Rabbi Danielle Leshaw will lead a Derekh Study Series on several rebellion narratives within the Book of Numbers beginning at 12:45 p.m. at Congregation Beth Shalom (5915 Beacon St.). We’ll study prominent themes that surface in these texts: religious authority, entering the land of Israel, God’s (im)perfect Torah and communal obligation. Rabbi Danielle Leshaw is a senior educator and campus support director at Hillel International. Visit bethshalompgh.org/ events-upcoming for more information.

The Squirrel Hill AARP will hold their first fall public meeting at 1 p.m. The open meeting will be in the Rodef Shalom Congregation’s Falk Library (4905 Fifth Ave.). Handwriting analyst Michelle Dresbold will share her experiences in multiple trials and will discuss different handwriting styles and what they can reveal about a person’s personality. Contact Marcia Kramer for more information, 412-731-3338.

q SUNDAY, SEPT. 15 Join Women of Rodef Shalom for brunch with author Barbara Burstin who will discuss her latest book, “Sophie, the Incomparable Mayor, Masloff.” Burstin appears as part of the 85th Annual Solomon B. Freehof Book and Author Series beginning at 9:30 a.m. in Aaron Court. RSVP by Sept. 11 to gjkatz@aol.com. The Jewish Cemetery and Burial Assn. (JCBA) will hold its annual unveiling of headstones at the Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery on Oakwood Street, Shaler Township at 10:30 a.m. Headstones for Blyuma Gitlin, Joseph Weiss and Olga Klein will be unveiled. Rabbi Eli Seidman, director of pastoral care for the Jewish Association on Aging, will officiate. The community is invited to attend. For further information contact the JCBA at 412-553-6469, jcbapgh@gmail.com. The Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival and world-renowned klezmer clarinetist David Krakauer presents a special centenary concert celebrating the Zimro Ensemble’s historic global tour in 1919 at Rodef Shalom Congregation beginning at 7 p.m. For tickets visit pjmf.net q MONDAY, SEPT. 16 Join Rodef Shalom (4905 Fifth Ave.) at 4 p.m. for Urban Art: A Discussion as architect Kent Bloomer talks about his unconventional sculpture designed for the entrance to Freehof Hall. The fee to attend is $10 (congregation members $5). A reception follows. For more information, call 421.621.6566 x140. Beth El Congregation of the South Hills welcomes Peter Dinardo at 7 p.m. for Adult Ed Evenings. Dinardo will discuss free speech. The evening begins with a wine and cheese reception. $5 Visit bethelcong.org/events/ current-events/2019-09-16/ or call 412-561-1168.

Chabad of the South Hills presents “The Gift of Life” with Rabbi Ephraim Simon. Simon will share his story of donating a kidney and part of his liver to save two strangers. $10 in advance/$15 at the door. Visit chabadsh.com to register.

Join Temple Emanuel of South Hills at 7 p.m. for Israel’s Election – What to Watch For. Rabbi Aaron Meyer will lead a discussion on the implications of the Sept. 17 Israeli election. All are welcome for this free event. RSVP to templeemanuel@ templeemanuelpgh.org or 412-279-7600. q WEDNESDAYS, SEPT. 18, 25;

OCT. 2, 9

Jewish Family and Community Services presents Trauma Resiliency Group: An Integrative Approach to Healing, a free weekly gathering for anyone suffering the aftermath of the trauma of Oct. 27. Offered by Amy Lohr, LCSW, integrative psychotherapist, at JFCS, Room A/B, second fl., 5743 Bartlett St., Squirrel Hill at 4 p.m. This is a change of location from the previous sessions at the JCC. “Heal, Grow and Live with Hope” Nar-Anon and NA meetings every Wednesday evening at Beth El Congregation, 1900 Cochran Road, 15220 at 7:30 p.m. Come to the office/school entrance at the end of the building to be buzzed in. Call Karen at 412-563-3395 and leave a message for more information. q THURSDAY, SEPT. 19 Join Beth El Congregation of the South Hills for Drag Queen Bingo. Doors open at 6 p.m. $20 per person, includes bingo and show. Food, drinks and raffles. Visit dragqueenparties.com for tickets. The Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh presents Resistance and Resilience: Surviving the Nazis in Amsterdam at 7 p.m. Author Hedrika de Vries will share segments from her memoir “When A Toy Dog Became a Wolf and the Moon Broke Curfew” reflecting on a young girl’s memories of Nazi oppression during WWII Amsterdam for today’s world.

q MONDAY, SEPT. 16 – MAY 18 Join the first ever Melton Adult Jewish Learning course just for young adults (22-

6 SEPTEMBER 13, 2019

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Please see Calendar, page 7

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Calendar Calendar:

Murray Avenue Kosher 1916 MURRAY AVENUE 412-421-1015 • 412-421-4450 • FAX 412-421-4451

q WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 25 Continued from page 6

q SATURDAY, SEPT. 21 It’s a musical Selichot! Join Beth El Congregation and Temple Emanuel of South Hills for a South Hills Community Musical Selichot and Havdalah Service. The evening starts with dessert at 7 p.m. followed by services. Young Peoples Synagogue’s Selichot program begins at 10 p.m. with a social, followed with remarks by Rabbi Moishe Vogel of the Aleph Institute at 10:30 p.m., and Selichot services at 11 p.m. q SUNDAY, SEPT. 22 Conquer the unknown at the Steel City Showdown: Beast of the Burgh, 3-5 mile obstacle challenge through the JCC of Pittsburgh’s 100+ acre Henry Kaufmann Family Park woods. $55 for 9-9:45 a.m. heats; $50 for all other heats; $25 for kids race. Visit active.com/monroeville-pa/running/distancerunning-races/steel-city-showdown-2019 for more information and to register. Kids will get a fresh start by visiting Chabad of the South Hills’ Rosh Hashanah Farmers Market at the South Hills JCC at 2:30 p.m. They’ll go from booth to booth exploring the holiday’s culinary themes with unique recipes: round artisan challah, apple mocktails and more. Designed for children ages 3-11. To register call 412-344-2424. The Jewish Community Foundation presents the 2019 Fall Forum featuring Dr. Erica Brown in conversation with Rabbi Danny Schiff on Leading Issues in Contemporary Jewish Life at Rodef Shalom Congregation featuring the presentation of the 2019 Gift of Consequence Award to Sandy and Larry Rosen. Brunch begins at 10:30 a.m. followed by the program at 11:45 a.m. Visit jewishpgh. org/fall-forum to learn more and register. q MONDAY, SEPT. 23 Rodef Shalom Congregation presents CONNECTING: a photographic exhibit featuring work from the Akko Center for the Arts and Technology in Akko, Israel. Opening reception begins at 6:00 p.m., 4905 Fifth Ave. Plan to attend the Women’s Lunch Break to Educate: It’s Not Your Mother’s Federation … Jewish Young Adult Life in Pittsburgh from noon-1:30 p.m. at The Center for Women (1620 Murray Avenue). Bring your own bag lunch, drinks and dessert provided. The discussion features Alex Heit, Honeymoon Israel participant, Mark Pizov, co-chair of The SteelTree Fund and Danielle West, Pittsburgh PJ Library coordinator. Register by Sept. 18 at jewishpgh.org/knowledge-nosh-womenslunch-break-to-educate-2. q TUESDAY, SEPT. 24 Chabad of the South Hills presents a Pre-Holiday Seniors Lunch at 12 p.m. Enjoy a delicious lunch with honey cake and a presentation by the Jewish Association on Aging. Raffle prizes. $5 suggested donation, wheelchair accessible. For more information and to preregister, call 412-278-2658.

Learn about AgeWell and other community and government services available to seniors at a free presentation at Temple Emanuel (1250 Bower Hill Road) beginning at 7:30 p.m. Seniors will learn about services available to help them stay in their home and adult children will learn where to find help when they become caregivers. RSVP to templeemanuel@templeemanuelpgh.org or 412-279-7600. q SUNDAYS, OCT. 5; NOV. 2; DEC. 7 Join Lauri Lang, RDN LDN Concierge Wellness LLC for a four-part (once a month Sept.-Dec.) Holistic Nutrition and Wellness Series which will contain the following elements under four umbrella themes: interactive lecture with Q & A; a featured item for sampling and discussion; guided meditation and/or breathwork (Pranayama). The three umbrella themes are: Oct. 5, 2019 chronic disease and cancer prevention; Nov. 2, 2019 women’s health across the lifespan; Dec. 7, 2019, enhancing immune function, vitality and graceful aging. Each workshop is 75 minutes in length. $59 for one workshop/$99 for all four. Visit www.sthielpilates.com for more information and to register.

PRICES EFFECTIVE SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 15-FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2019 Candle Lighting Time Friday, September 13, 2019 • 7:15 p.m. MEAT SPECIALS

Chuck Steak

Dr. Barbara Burstin discusses her new book, “Sophie: The Incomparable Mayor Masloff” at First Mondays with Rabbi Alex Greenbaum at Beth El Congregration of the South Hills. All First Monday events begin with lunch at 11:30 a.m. $6 To RSVP, call 412-561-1168. q SATURDAY, OCT. 19 Join other Pittsburgh Jewish young adults and enjoy an evening in the Beth Shalom Sukkah from 8-9:30 p.m. at Young Adult Wine & Wisdom in the Sukkah. Sip wine and share some words. Non-alcoholic beverages and nosh will be available. Visit jewishpgh. org/event/young-adult-wine-wisdom to register for this free event. q FRIDAY, OCT. 25 Come together with other young adults beginning at 6 p.m. at Together at the Table: A Community Building Shabbat Dinner. Reflect on the past year and look forward to the future of Jewish Pittsburgh. Visit shalompittsburgh. org/event/young-adult-commemorativeshabbat-dinner to learn more. q SUNDAY, NOV. 3 Join the Jewish Federation Young Adult Division, PJ Library and Community Day School for some Noah’s Ark-themed fun beginning at 1 p.m. at the Pittsburgh Zoo. Spend the afternoon at 2x2 at the Zoo with PJ Library learning about and getting up close and personal with some animals and participate in fun activities and crafts. Visit jewishpgh.org/event/2-x-2-at-the-zoo for more information.

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1 Kugel • 2 Pints Salad • 2 Mini Challahs

2 Roasted Chickens 1 Qt. Chicken Soup 4 Matzo Balls Serves 4

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WEEKLY SPECIALS SPRING VALLEY KREPLACH $ 49

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ORANGE SPICED BONELESS CHICKEN BREAST $ 99

SWEET LEMON KUGEL $ 59

EMPIRE CLASSIC TURKEY BREAST $ 75

SHOR HABOR OVEN ROASTED TURKEY BREAST $ 25

VEGETARIAN CHOPPED LIVER $ 99

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429 16 OZ 11 6

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We are now taking your Holiday meat and poultry orders: 412-421-1015.

Rosh Hashana Menu 5780 • 2019 SOUP Chicken Soup Chicken Noodle Mushroom Barley Matzo Balls Kreplach

ENTREES BEEF Single Cooked Beef Brisket Stuffed Cabbage Sweet and Sour Brisket TURKEY Roast Turkey Leg Roast Turkey Breast Whole Roast Turkey with Stuffing

KUGELS Potato Kugel Noodle Kugel Apple Kugel Carrot Kugel

CHICKEN

SIDE DISHES Kasha & Bows Carrot & Prune Tzimmes Candied Sweet Potatoes Glazed Beets Farfel & Mushrooms Wild Rice w/Cranberries Roasted Vegetables Fruit Salad

Whole Roast Chicken Sherry Mushroom Boneless Breast Chicken Roast Chicken Legs Roast Chicken Breast Stuffed Boneless Chicken Breast Honey Mustard Glazed Leg Honey Mustard Glazed Breast

Order deadline is Sunday, September 22nd.

To our valued customers we wish you a happy and healthy New Year.

q MONDAY, NOV. 4 Jack Mostow presents “RoboTutor: $1 Million Finalist in the Global Learning XPRIZE competition” at First Mondays with Rabbi Alex Greenbaum at Beth el Congregation of the South Hills. All First Monday events begin with lunch at 11:30 a.m. $6 To RSVP, call 412561-1168. PJC

SALAD • DINNER ROLLS

Cut Up Fryer $

SHABBOS SPECIAL

SERVES 4

Whole Fryer $

MONDAY DINNER SPECIAL

BEEF STEW WITH POTATOES & CARROTS

Chuck Roast

q MONDAY, OCT. 7

TAKE-OUT SPECIALS

HOMEMADE SALADS & SOUPS DELI PARTY TRAYS

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We Prepare Trays for All Occasions UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF VAAD OF PITTSBURGH

CATERING SPECIALISTS DELICIOUS FRIED CHICKEN WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO LIMIT QUANTITIES.

SEPTEMBER 13, 2019 7

Headlines Former Obama speechwriter finds her own voice, in Judaism — NATIONAL — By Gary Rosenblatt | New York Jewish Week

arah Hurwitz, who says she was “kind of done with Judaism” after her Reform bat mitzvah at the age of 13, acknowledges that five years ago, if she had seen a book called “Here All Along: Finding Meaning, Spirituality, and a Deeper Connection to Life — in Judaism (After Finally Choosing to Look There)” on the shelf in her neighborhood Washington, D.C., bookstore, she would have no doubt passed it by “if it was written by a rabbi or professor. “But if I had seen that it was written by a political speechwriter, I probably would have been intrigued, and read it,” she told me the other day. And Hurwitz, who spent eight years in the Obama White House writing speeches for the president and first lady, is hoping that Jews like her, who grew up with limited knowledge of and engagement in Judaism, might do the same. That’s why she spent the last several years writing that very book (title above), available in bookstores this month from Random House. The result is a memoir that is fresh, compelling and insightful, blending Hurwitz’s story of professional success in the White House with her explaining how, in her mid-30s, an unlikely but deep dive into Jewish texts,

p Sarah Hurwitz Photo from The New York Jewish Week

history and tradition filled a void in her personal life. Given that most American Jews don’t explore Judaism seriously as adults, this 21st-century, sophisticated primer has the potential to influence many in her Gen X generation as well as younger Jews. That’s because Hurwitz brings her talent as a speechwriter to her exploration of Judaism. She describes her search to find “the beating heart” of an issue to make it vivid and 9 and personal. She writes that as someone with little serious Jewish education, her goal was to find Judaism’s “beating heart for myself and others — the places where we can live and feel Judaism’s wisdom in our lives, the parts of Judaism that feel like its deepest, most important truths.” In essence, she says, she has tried to write

the book she wishes she’d found five years ago, when she “first started learning about Judaism as an adult.” Before that, she noted, “I was unable to own my Judaism, but unable to disown it either. So, I mainly ignored it. And that worked out just fine for me. After all, I was busy.” That’s an understatement. After stints as a speechwriter on several “losing presidential campaigns,” including Hillary Clinton’s in 2008, Hurwitz was hired by then Sen. Barack Obama for his first presidential campaign and ended up helping Michelle Obama write the speech she gave at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. When Obama became president, she was hired as part of his speechwriting team (about six people), and occasionally worked on Michelle Obama’s speeches. Hurwitz says she very much enjoyed writing for the president, but “I just felt more comfortable in her [Mrs. Obama’s] voice, which is more similar to mine.” They shared a passion for issues dealing with children and women. “She knows who she is and what she wants to say. She sounds authentic because she is relentlessly authentic,” Hurwitz said of the first lady. “The woman you saw on TV is the woman I saw in the office.” In 2011, she made the switch and became Mrs. Obama’s head speechwriter, crafting and editing hundreds of speeches and traveling with the first lady across the U.S. and

around the world for the next six years. But with it all, Hurwitz felt something missing in her life. At 36, having recently broken up with a boyfriend and feeling lonely, she decided to take an introduction to Judaism class at the local JCC. What shocked her was seeing “the stale, rote Judaism of my childhood” transformed into “something relevant, endlessly fascinating and alive,” she writes. She had thought of herself as “a good person,” but the Jewish ethics she studied “set a much higher bar for honesty, generosity and basic human decency than I had ever thought to set for myself.” She took on more classes, lectures, retreats and personal meetings with rabbis. She interviewed dozens of Judaic thought leaders from every stream of Jewish life and began reading what grew to be as many as 200 books about Judaism, finding “deep moral wisdom” in the purpose of Jewish holidays and life cycle rituals, in sacred writings and the interpretations of the sages of old — as well as more recent liberal and sometimes experimental alternatives to traditional prayer. “As I continue to learn,” she writes, “my understanding of Judaism continues to deepen and change.” Chapter by chapter, she explains the basics — the Torah, mitzvot, prayer, Shabbat, the Please see Speechwriter, page 24

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DON’T GIVE ALL YOUR MONEY TO THE NURSING HOME! This is one in a series of articles about Elder Law by Michael H. Marks., Esq. Michael H. Marks is an elder law attorney with offices in Squirrel Hill and Monroeville. Send questions to michael@marks-law.com or visit www.marks-law.com.

People think that if you’re headed toward expensive long-term care such as in a nursing home or assisted living, that there’s nothing you can do to protect yourself financially.; that you’re just going to lose everything you ever worked and saved for. That’s absolutely not true! You don’t have to lose all your money when you go to the nursing home. There’s a lot that an elder law lawyer can do to help you get the care you need, AND save money for you. Nursing home patients and families get much, much better bottom line results when they get the right kind of advice If you or someone you know are headed toward expensive long-term care, I urge you to get proper legal advice and representation. You don’t have to just spend down your money by paying the nursing home. Here are some other strategies that can help protect and preserve your wealth for you or your children. (Many of these approaches are oriented toward getting Medicaid to pay for expensive nursing home care.) It’s never too late to act, even if you are already in the care facility. Spousal Immediate Annuity: For a married couple, if one spouse is going to the nursing home and the other is staying at home, this strategy can help you save virtually

8 SEPTEMBER 13, 2019

everything you have, except for just the cost of implementing the plan. Though it seems almost too good to be true, court challenges against this planning strategy have failed, and this planning avenue remains open for you to pursue. Gift and Annuity Strategy: For a single, unmarried person such as a widow or widower, this technique can help you protect about half of your remaining financial resources – which is better than having to spend it all! Asset Protection Trust: Under the right circumstances, both financially and given the expected timing of your need for longterm care, this approach provides significant asset protection along with probate and tax avoidance, and administrative efficiency. Exempt Gift Transfers: Although Medicaid rules generally prohibit making gifts as a way to protect your assets, certain gift transfers are exempt from the anti-gifting rules and will not cause problems for Medicaid eligibility. Exempt recipients or transferees can include: your spouse, a blind or disabled child or child under age 21, a prescribed special needs trust or a trust for the sole benefit of a blind or disabled person. There are also special rules for the allowable transfer of your primary residence. Personal Services Contract or Family Care and Compensation Agreement: This tool allows the transfer of your wealth to family caregivers, to compensate them when appropriate, and to protect assets against the potential cost of long-term care.

Prepaid Funeral and Other Prepaid Bills or Repairs: You can put money into a prepaid funeral or irrevocable burial trust account; you can buy a new car or upgrade an old car; you can do needed repairs to your home; or pay off an existing home equity loan or mortgage (though timing is important with these techniques). You can also prepay other expenses that would otherwise become due soon after, such as for insurance, taxes, rent, utilities, etc. Real estate strategies: Other strategies related to real estate or the primary residence exception can include buying a home instead of renting, purchasing a life estate interest in someone else’s home, purchasing a new shared home, or installment-sale-and-lease-back.

VA Benefits: May veterans and their spouses or widows may be eligible for VA “Aid and Attendance” benefits, which can help pay for home care or assisted living. The important lesson here is that there are many possible ways to protect assets when you or someone you love are headed toward expensive long-term care such as in a nursing home or personal care home/assisted living facility. Don’t walk away from your hard earned money without a fight. At Marks Elder Law, we help people every day with issues like these. I invite your questions and feedback. Please let me know how I can help you and your family.

helping you plan for what matters the most

www.marks-law.com

412-421-8944 4231 Murray Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15217

With the increasing costs of long-term care, having the help of a legal professional when planning for your family’s future can help you make better decisions that can result in keeping more of your money. We help families understand the strategies, the benefits, and risks involved with elder law, disability and estate planning.

Michael H. Marks, Esq. Linda L. Carroll, Esq. michael@marks-law.com member, national academy of elder law attorneys

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

linda@marks-law.com

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Rosh Hashanah Remembrances of Rosh Hashanah apples past By Linda Morel | Jewish Exponent

here is something about the simplicity of apple slices surrounding a little pot of honey that kindles the hope for a sweet New Year among Jews around the world. The combination of two sweets symbolizes a year sugared with good fortune. Each bite bestows dreams for the future and nostalgia for the past. Every family has its own traditions. Some people eat apples and honey at the beginning of the meal. I always serve these treats after the main course, because I consider their natural sweetness a dessert. But apples need not be reserved for dipping in honey. I like to sprinkle them into Rosh Hashanah dishes, something that is customary at Jewish New Year’s celebrations in dishes such as apple strudel, pies and tarts, as well as apple coffeecakes and babkas. I layer apples into noodle puddings, side dishes, and roasted chicken stuffing. With Rosh Hashanah starting on the late side this year, on Sept. 29, apple season will be in full swing. I adore riding into an orchard on a dusty wagon and picking my own apples for Rosh Hashanah. I come by this naturally, because I was born in

Syracuse, New York State’s apple country. One Rosh Hashanah in the 1990s, my Aunt Ruth waxed poetic about the apples from Syracuse where she’d lived for her first 68 years. By then, she’d retired to Delray Beach, Florida. “The thing I miss most about home are the apples,” she said. “I still dream about the juicy Northern Spys I used to buy by the bushel.” She longed for them more than the seasons changing or the leaves turning a bright McIntosh red. In Florida, a raft of Syracuse friends surrounded her. “But the mealy fruit they sell down here wrapped in cellophane is a sorry excuse for an apple,” she said. “Of course, we still dip apples in honey. It wouldn’t be Rosh Hashanah without them.” In the recipes below, Cortland, Gala or any baking apples are recommended. Apple and Acorn Squash Casserole | Pareve Serves 8-10 Nonstick vegetable spray 3 acorn squash 6 baking apples 3 tablespoons vegetable oil ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon ¼ teaspoon ground cloves Kosher salt to taste

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Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 7-inch-by-11-inch ovenproof baking dish with nonstick spray. Reserve. Cut the squash in half and remove the seeds. Coat a cookie sheet with nonstick spray and bake the squash for one hour, until soft. Cool to room temperature. Peel and core the apples. Cut them into slices about ⅛-inch thick. In a large pot, heat the oil over a low flame. Add the apples and sprinkle them

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with cinnamon, cloves and salt. Mix gently to coat the apples evenly. Cover the pan. Stir occasionally for 10 minutes or until the apples soften. Spread the apples across the bottom on the prepared baking dish. With a spoon, scoop the squash from its skin and dollop it evenly over the apples. With the back of a spoon, flatten the dollops to spread them as Please see Apples, page 10

SEPTEMBER 13, 2019 9

Photo by Iamthatiam/iStockphoto.com

— FOOD —

Rosh Hashanah

Apple and Challah Stuffing | Meat Serves 8

Apple Noodle Pudding | Pareve Serves 12-14

2 1 4 3

1 1 6 1 1 4 4

Continued from page 9

evenly as possible. Sprinkle the casserole with the topping below and bake for 20 minutes, or until the casserole bubbles and the topping is light brown and crunchy. Serve immediately. Topping 1 cup raw oatmeal, plus 2 handfuls. (Don’t use instant or quick cooking 1-minute oatmeal) ⅓ cup dark brown sugar ¼ cup flour 6 tablespoons margarine, melted

tablespoons olive oil medium onion, peeled and diced stalks celery, scraped and diced apples, skinned, cored and diced fine ½ teaspoon dried sage leaves, crushed 1 large round challah (or equivalent amount of leftover challah) 3 cups chicken broth Nonstick vegetable spray, if needed

cup golden raisins pound broad noodles eggs, separated cup sugar teaspoon amaretto teaspoon lemon juice baking apples, peeled, cored and diced Nonstick vegetable spray 6 tablespoons margarine, melted

Place the raisins in a bowl of hot water while assembling the ingredients. Prepare

CELEBRATE THE NEW YEAR IN OUR BEAUTIFUL SANCTUARY DOWNTOWN 810 FIFTH AVENUE

2019 HIGH HOLIDAY SCHEDULE Sun.

Sept. 29

Erev Rosh Hashana

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Mon.

Sept. 30

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Tues.

Oct. 1

2nd Day Rosh Hashana

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Tues.

Oct. 8

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Oct. 9

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PLEASE BE OUR GUEST — NO TICKETS REQUIRED Stanley J. Savage, Rabbi Ira Michael Frank, President For Information, call the office at 412.471.4443

A HAPPY AND HEALTHY ROSH HASHANA AND GOOD WISHES TO ALL FOR THE ENTIRE YEAR!

BETH HAMEDRASH HAGODOLBETH JACOB CONGREGATION

the noodles according to package directions. Drain them in a colander. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the egg yolks, sugar, amaretto and lemon juice. With an electric mixer, beat until the mixture thickens and appears creamy. Drain the raisins in a strainer. Add them to the egg yolk mixture, along with the noodles and apples. Stir gently. In another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff. Fold them into the noodle mixture. Coat a 10-inch-by-15-inch ovenproof baking dish with nonstick spray. Pour the noodle mixture into the baking dish and spread evenly. Drizzle the margarine on top. Bake for one hour, until casserole bubbles and the top browns lightly. Serve immediately. Apple Burst Bundt Cake | Pareve Serves 10 Make this cake a day ahead to let its luscious flavors intermingle. Nonstick vegetable spray 3 cups baking apples (about 3-4), peeled, cored and sliced thin 5 tablespoons sugar, plus 2 cups ⅛ teaspoon ground ginger ⅛ teaspoon cloves

⅛ teaspoon cardamom 3 cups flour ½ teaspoon salt 3 teaspoon baking powder 1 cup vegetable oil 4 eggs ¼ cup orange juice 1 tablespoon vanilla

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Generously coat a 9-inch Bundt pan with nonstick spray. In a bowl, combine the apples with 5 tablespoons of sugar and spices until coated. The apples will appear muddy. Reserve. Sift the flour, salt and the remaining 2 cups of sugar and baking powder into a large bowl. Add the oil, eggs, orange juice and vanilla. With an electric mixer, beat until smooth, at least 2 minutes. Drain the apples in a colander. Spread a third of the batter into the prepared Bundt pan. Spread half the apples over the batter, keeping the apples away from the sides of the pan. Spoon another third of the batter over the apples. Spread the remaining apples over the batter. Cover the apples with the last batch of batter. Bake for 15 minutes. Tent the Bundt pan with aluminum foil and bake for another hour or until the top of the cake is firm and a toothpick inserted inside returns batter free. Cool completely before unmolding. PJC

This week in Israeli history Sept. 16, 1977 — Dayan meets with Egyptian

— WORLD —

Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan holds secret talks in Morocco with Egyptian Deputy Prime Minister Hassan Tuhami to assess each side’s willingness to negotiate a peace agreement.

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

Sept. 13, 1984 — Peres becomes premier

Shimon Peres becomes Israel’s eighth prime minister, leading a national unity government combining his Alignment with Likud and six other parties. Peres agrees to serve as prime minister for two years, then yield the position to Likud leader Yitzhak Shamir.

Sept. 14, 1948 — Palmach integrated into IDF

Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion announces after a meeting with Palmach leaders that the Haganah strike force, formed in 1941, is being dismantled as an independent unit and integrated into the Israel Defense Forces.

Sept. 15, 2009 — Goldstone presents UN report

South African Judge Richard Goldstone presents his U.N.-sponsored “Report on the Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict,” criticizing Israel and Hamas for their actions in the fighting the previous December and January.

Sept. 17, 1978 — Camp David Accords signed

Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin sign the Camp David Accords, brokered by President Jimmy Carter. They sign a formal treaty in March 1979.

Sept. 18, 1949 — Compulsory education law implemented

The Compulsory Education Law, passed Sept. 12, goes into effect. It requires all children ages 5 to 15 to attend recognized educational institutions and provides for free elementary education; a 2009 law extends compulsory education through 12th grade.

Sept. 19, 1988 — Ofek 1 launched

Israel launches its first space satellite, the 340-pound Ofek 1, from an undisclosed location near the Mediterranean Sea. Named for the Hebrew word for horizon, Ofek 1 completes an Earth orbit every 90 minutes. PJC

810 FIFTH AVE. | PITTSBURGH, PA 15219 | 412.471.4443 10 SEPTEMBER 13, 2019

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Photo by Roman Samokhin/iStockphoto.com

Place the ingredients in a bowl and mix with a fork until well blended.

In a large pot, heat the oil over a medium flame. Sauté the onion in the oil until transparent, about 3 minutes. Add the celery, apples and sage. Stir until combined. Sauté until the celery and apples wilt, about 5 minutes. Break the challah into bite-sized pieces and add it to the pot. Stir until combined. Slowly drizzle in the chicken stock and stir until the mixture holds together. Use the excess stock for another purpose or discard it. Let the stuffing cool to room temperature. Option 1: Stuff a bird (8-pound chicken or a 10-pound turkey) and roast it as usual. Note: Stuffed poultry often takes longer to roast. Option 2: Coat a medium-size ovenproof casserole with nonstick spray. Move the stuffing to the prepared casserole and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until the stuffing bubbles at the edges. Serve immediately.

Apples:

Dark chapter of Jewish history revisited in ‘Parade’ at Pittsburgh Playhouse, with Ashford at helm — THEATER — By David Rullo | Staff Writer

ob Ashford returns to Pittsburgh to direct the Tony Award-winning musical “Parade” as part of the 2019-2020 season of Point Park University’s Pittsburgh Playhouse. Ashford is a Point Park University alum and a member of the original production’s cast for which he earned a Tony Award in his final Broadway role as a performer. The director is also an Emmy winner for his choreography work at the 81st Annual Academy Awards. “Parade” is a moving look into one of the darkest corners of Jewish American history. The musical retells the 1913 trial of Leo Frank in Atlanta, Georgia. Frank was a Jewish factory manager convicted of raping and murdering 13-year-old Mary Phagan. Frank appealed the decision several times, including to the United States Supreme Court, but each time the lower court’s decision was affirmed. Eventually, Gov. John M. Slaton commuted Frank’s death sentence to life in prison, citing evidence not presented at the original trail. In 1915 Frank was kidnapped from prison by a group of men and lynched in Phagan’s hometown. Despite the governor’s vow to punish those responsible, no one was ever arrested or charged. Frank was pardoned

p ‘Parade’ retells the 1913 trial of Leo Frank Photo courtesy of Point Park University’s Pittsburgh Playhouse

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posthumously by the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles in 1986. Fran k’s t r i a l, conviction, appeals and death garnered national media attention, inflaming anti-Semitic feelings throughout the country. Both the reformation of the defunct Klu Klux Klan and the creation of the Anti-Defamation League can be attributed to the case. In a press release announcing the 2019-2020 season, the Playhouse called “Parade” “a powerful, bold and moving theatrical experience that offers moral lessons about the terrifying effects of prejudice that should not be forgotten.” Artistic Director and Dean of the Conser vator y of Performing Arts

Steven Breese said “Parade” resonates “because the story is so powerful. When theater is powerful it reveals human suffering and joy and frailties and even the dark sides of humanity. When it does that well, it calls up in us emotions on the surface and things buried deep in our psyche. I have no doubt that Pittsburghers will find this to be particularly relevant.” Breese explained that Ashford “has had a long association with both ‘Parade’ and Alfred Uhry, who wrote the book, and Jason Robert Brown, the lyricist and composer. It is a huge win to bring him back to Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Playhouse. He is the perfect person to direct the production. We feel very excited and lucky to have him onboard.” Given the historical subject matter of “Parade,” new productions don’t tend to be radically different. But, as Breese points out, “Every time an artist approaches a production, they bring new ideas. There will be similarities to previous productions, of course, but knowing an artist like Rob, I’m certain he will bring new ideas and thoughts and nuances, making it worth revisiting, even if you’ve seen it before.” “Parade” is the right musical for the Playhouse to produce now, Breese said. “I am particularly excited about this season. It has a huge buzz about it and ‘Parade’ is a big part of that buzz. We must Please see Parade, page 23

SEPTEMBER 13, 2019 11

Fall Arts Preview Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival recreates the music of historic Zimro Ensemble — MUSIC — By David Rullo | Staff Writer

ormed in 1918 in St. Petersburg, Russia, by the clarinetist Simeon Bellison, the Zimro Ensemble introduced the world to Jewish concert works created during the previous decade. This innovative and exotic music combined folk themes and liturgical works to create a music that was proudly nationalistic with strong Zionist themes. The sextet’s name spoke to its Jewish roots, combining the Hebrew word for “singing” and an amalgam of letters from the word “klezmer.” Organized by the Society for Jewish Folk Music, the curious project existed for only three years. It made its American debut at a Zionist conference in Chicago almost 100 years ago on Sept. 17, 1919. According to cellist Aron Zelkowicz, the tour was a fundraiser “to raise money for a ‘temple of Jewish art’ in what was then Palestine. The musicians ended up immigrating to the United States and never made it to Israel.” Zelkowicz is the founder and director of the Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival, which has chosen the centenary anniversary to celebrate the historic global tour and music of the Zimro Ensemble. Mirroring the make-up of the original ensemble, the program features Zelkowicz, violinists Kelly

p Clarinetist David Krakauer Photo provided by the Pittsburgh

Jewish Music Festival

Hall-Tompkins and Nurit Pacht, Melissa Reardon playing viola, Kathleen Tagg on piano and clarinetist David Krakauer. Krakauer is one of the key innovators in modern klezmer music and a major voice in classical music. His work has been nominated for both Grammy and Juno awards. Zelkowicz said that Krakauer “studied with Bellison, so he is a direct descendant” of the Zimro Ensemble. “When I mentioned the idea to David, he was very excited and talked about the history of this endeavor and how it speaks to the incredible enthusiasm of the immigrant experience of Jews from Eastern Europe at the time to America.” While the Ensemble’s music was new to the American and international audience, it has rarely been heard in the intervening years. “It’s an obscure moment in musical history for anyone,” Zelkowicz said. “This is

not some project that classical music fans are familiar with or even Jewish music fans. This is an unknown story and I’m using the centenary to bring it back into the consciousness.” “I think we take for granted how much we know about music being created in other parts of the world,” Zelkowicz added. Coming as it did, before the age of the internet or even TV and radio, this was the first opportunity for the world to hear music made during a flourish of creation “in Eastern Europe around Jewish music that came from the shtetl, from the villages. If it wasn’t for the Zimro Ensemble, the Western world would have no knowledge of this music. This was a complete revelation for them.” The modern sextet will perform a program consisting of “Jewish Sketches No. 1 for clarinet and strings” by Alexander Krein; Solomon Rosowsky’s “Fantastic Dance for piano trio”; an arrangement of klezmer selections by Ljova; David Schiff ’s “Divertimento from Gimpel the Fool”; and “Overture on Hebrew Themes, Op. 34” by Prokofiev, as well as works by Stutschewsky, Zeitlin, Kaplan and Radzynski. The Prokofiev piece was written for the ensemble by the composer. According to the Milken Archive of Jewish Music, the work is the “offspring of an encounter between a small group of Zionist-oriented Jewish musicians committed to Jewish culture and a non-Jew who will always be counted among

the major and most influential composers of the first half of the 20th century.” The concert, titled “In the Footsteps of the Zimro Ensemble,” is Sunday, Sept. 15 at 7 p.m. at Rodef Shalom Congregation. Following their performance in Chicago, the original Zimro Ensemble played Carnegie Hall in New York on Nov. 1, 1919. The modern re-creation follows in their footsteps with a concert at the famed concert hall on Monday, Nov. 4. For those who enjoy the concert’s offerings, the Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival is releasing the fifth CD in its Russian Jewish Classic series, and the recording will feature the music of Alexander Krein, one of the composers whose work will be performed on Sept. 15. Zelkowicz believes that the music performed at the Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival connects not only to the immigrant experience of Jews from Eastern Europe and international music in the early 20th century but to something felt innately by Jewish Americans today. “It’s reported that when the Zimro Ensemble played at the Zionist conference in Chicago, the music did more to stir the Zionist passions that any of the speeches heard. It speaks directly to the Jewish soul.” PJC David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

Jewish jazz musicians get busy this fall and Jewish American musicians. “When you look at the Jewish tradition, you can’t miss some of those notes and intervals and some of the rhythms that are in it — they’re woven in there. It’s huge. You look at the songwriters, the players, the band leaders — the influence was pervasive. What was so attractive to Jewish Americans and Israeli American musicians is not only did jazz have the magnetism and draw of the music, but it had the draw of the American freedom of speech, the freedom of expression. I think that’s probably why today’s Israeli musicians — Avishai Cohen, Yotam Silberstein, all these great players — are attracted to it. It’s not just expressive, it’s self-expressive.” Perhaps the best-known contemporary Pittsburgh Jewish jazz musician is guitarist Ken Karsh. Karsh has been playing guitar since the age of 9 and attended both the Berklee College of Music and Duquesne University. He counts Pittsburgh legend Joe Negri as one of his early instructors. When Karsh isn’t gigging at the various clubs dotting Pittsburgh’s neighborhoods, he can be heard in musicals like “Grease” and “Fiddler on the Roof ” staged by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. Speaking of the influence his Jewish heritage has had on his music, Karsh said it’s one piece of the puzzle rather than a guiding force.

— MUSIC — By David Rullo | Staff Writer

arl Hines, Billy Eckstine, Art Blakey, Stanley Turrentine, Ahmad Jamal, George Benson — from the earliest days of jazz, Pittsburgh has contributed some of the biggest and brightest stars of the genre. Whether it was hot jazz, big band, bop, hard bop or smooth jazz, the clubs that populated the Hill District and East End, the North Side and downtown incubated names that became synonymous with the art form. While there is no question that jazz is primarily an African American form of expression, other minority and immigrant communities have contributed to the development of what has been called “America’s classical music.” Jewish songwriters and band leaders have written and performed some of the best-known songs in the jazz catalog. Indeed, without the contributions of artists like George and Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Benny Goodman and Buddy Rich, the landscape of jazz and the Great American Songbook would sound very different today. David Fabilli, known to Pittsburgh jazz fans as David Jaye, has produced more than a dozen albums and written liner notes for artists such as David “Fathead” Newman, Kenny Blake and Jimmy Ponder. He feels that there is a connection between the genre 12 SEPTEMBER 13, 2019

p Ken Karsh

Photo by David Roth, courtesy of Ken Karsh

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Please see Jazz, page 23

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Fall Arts Preview Jewish actor goes ‘whole hog’ in Disney’s ‘The Lion King’ — THEATER — By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer

lthough the character that actor Ben Lipitz has been playing in Disney’s “The Lion King” since 2002 — a pungent but easygoing warthog named Pumbaa — may not be kosher in the traditional sense, Lipitz nonetheless finds a connection between his alter ego’s essence and his own Jewish faith. “Pumbaa is the walking embodiment of hakuna matata, no worries,” said Lipitz, speaking from Cleveland, where he was performing in the touring production of the show before heading to Pittsburgh’s Benedum Center. “Pumbaa literally sees the best in everything and just wants to make it a little better. There is an everyman quality that we all identify with, and I think, especially Judaically, we all wish we could be like Pumbaa.” Lipitz, who as chalked up more than 6,000 performances as Pumbaa on Broadway and in the touring production, grew up in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, at a Conservative synagogue, and was active in BBYO and USY. As a teen, he considered two possible paths after high school: acting or a career as a Jewish communal professional. “It was such a formative part of my youth, being a part of the Jewish community where I grew up in Cherry Hill,” he said. His passion for theater ultimately won out, as he caught the acting bug in third grade when he played his first role, “Saul,” a Jewish reindeer in a holiday production.

p Nick Cordileone as Timon and Ben Lipitz as Pumbaa in ‘The Lion King’ North American Tour.

He has maintained “very, very deep ties to my hometown Jewish community,” and when he is on the road, he often reaches out through the Jewish Community Center network to offer acting workshops to youth in the towns he visits.

“ Pumbaa literally sees the best in everything and just wants to make it a little better. There is an everyman quality that we all identify with, and I think, especially Judaically, we all wish

”

we could be like Pumbaa.

— BEN LIPITZ “Saul was one of the lesser known reindeer,” Lipitz quipped. “It was a comic relief bit. And once I heard an audience laugh, and I knew that I could do that, the bug bit me from a very young age. So I grew up in the performing arts, always having a passion for it and I was fortunate to study for a Bachelor of Fine Arts at California Institute of the Arts, and I’ve been very blessed to have a career.”

Although he did not envision a career of being mostly defined by a single character, Lipitz has wholeheartedly embraced his destiny and is grateful for it. “I never anticipated a career with one production quite like this, but it speaks to how unique and special this show is that I stayed with it for so long,” he said. “When I was in college learning about theater and acting, I was possessed with

the idea of doing theater that made a difference, that really spoke to audiences, that had a profound impact on their lives,” he continued. “This is the kind of theater I dreamed of doing my entire career. All my formative years I wanted to have an impact on an audience in telling a story and changing people’s lives through the art and ‘The Lion King’ does that and a little bit more, I think.” His current appearance at the Benedum is his fourth run playing Pumbaa in Pittsburgh. The show, which opened on Sept. 4, will run through Sept. 29. Lipitz has connections to Pittsburgh. His niece lives in Squirrel Hill, and he has friends here as well. News of the Oct. 27 attack at the Tree of Life building hit him hard, he said, and he is pleased to come back to perform here in its wake. “As big a world as it is, it is also very small,” said Lipitz. “And like everyone, I was shocked and saddened, then proud of the resilience and the strength that was shown. “It could not be more present for me, the awareness of coming back before the anniversary and performing this particular show, which reaches across cultures and beliefs,” he continued. “There is a universality in it that I hope this is the kind of theater that brings people together to create a new dialogue, with its shared story, because everyone identifies with the story, with characters in the story.” Lipitz is married with two children, who are not only proud of their father’s work, but have taken the lessons of the show to heart. He recalled his son’s first day of first

Photo by Joan Marcus for Disney

grade, when a new teacher asked the children to draw a picture illustrating what their parents do. “My son, decked in all ‘The Lion King’ swag — as you can imagine, he loved the show — thought it was the coolest thing that his dad was Pumbaa,” Lipitz said. “So he drew a picture describing his dad as Pumbaa, and the teacher didn’t quite understand because he couldn’t articulate ‘my dad’s on Broadway.’ He just said, ‘my dad is Pumbaa.’” The teacher ended up sending his son to see the principal, who was aware of Lipitz’s role in the show. “The principal returned him to the class and the teacher, very authoritatively said, ‘Are you ready to rejoin class, Matthew?’ And the principal said, ‘We have something to tell you: Matthew’s father really is Pumbaa,’ and then proceeded to explain I was starring in the Broadway production. “To the teacher’s credit, she recovered quite nicely, I’m told, and said, ‘Do you realize how special that is? That’s very rare that your dad does that. I’m very sorry.’ And my son’s response to that was, ‘Hey, hakuna matata.’” The messages of the show “are reaching people, at least my kids,” Lipitz said. “I find there is a really beautiful Judaic lesson in that. It’s about tikkun olam, it’s about generosity of spirit, just to make the world a better place. And I think that’s what ‘The Lion King’ really does.” PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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SEPTEMBER 13, 2019 13

Fall Arts Preview Playback Theatre promotes understanding through storytelling There are currently about 10 actors who comprise Pittsburgh Playback Theatre, a non-profit. They meet every other week to practice their forms as a company. In addition to performances, the theater company also offers workshops. Its reach is expansive and diverse. The company has worked with the homeless, at schools, and with Holocaust survivors. Playback is also used in corporate settings to foster communication. Just this summer, Pittsburgh Playback Theatre did a performance in cooperation with the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh. The event, called “Inclusivity and Activism,” was focused on the Center’s exhibition of photographs by Emmai Alaquiva, “OpticVoices: Roots,” celebrating the story of the community’s roots. The massacre at the Tree of Life building was the subject of several of the photographs. The audience was a diverse mix, Mayo said, in terms of age, socioeconomics and race. People told their stories, including difficult ones from Oct. 27, and the actors played back the feelings and the stories to the audience. “As a drama therapist, my favorite term is ‘aesthetic distance,’” Mayo explained. “The

— THEATER — By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer

t’s a far cry from traditional improvisational theater, forgoing slapstick and easy laughs and striving instead for compassion and inclusivity. Pittsburgh Playback Theatre, now in its 35th season, is keen on continuing the work begun by local Jewish drama therapist and actor, Roni Ostfield, using theater as a means of education and social change. Ostfield was at the helm of the Pittsburgh group from its founding in 1985 until her death in 2013. Another Jewish actor, Sara Stock Mayo, now serves as the theater company’s managing director. Playback Theatre, an international phenomenon with companies in more than 40 countries, was developed in upstate New York in 1975 by Jonathan Fox and Jo Salas. Through improvisation, it is theater based on the real life stories and feelings of its audience members “in ways to bring communal understanding,” Mayo said. At its essence is the goal of connecting the actors and the audience to “what makes us human beings,” through experiencing one

p Actors with Playback Theatre bring real experiences to life.

Photo provided by Sara Stock Mayo

another’s stories, she explained. During a Playback performance, an audience member recounts a story from their own life. The actors then play back the story through improvisation funneled through a theatrical

form or structure. Music and metaphor often are employed to help convey meaning. Ostfield was a “pioneer” in the field of drama therapy, said Mayo, who considers the group’s founder as her mentor.

Please see Playback, page 23

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Fall Arts Preview What’s happening? A roundup of fall arts events — EVENTS — By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

etween comedy, lion cubs and clarinets, Pittsburgh is the place for entertainment this fall. With a bevy of Jewish performers and related events descending on the city, readers will find no shortage of ways to spend the upcoming season. On Sept. 15, Grammy-nominated clarinetist David Krakauer returns to Pittsburgh as part of the Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival for a special centenary concert celebrating the Zimro Ensemble’s 1919 global tour (see p. 12 for more). With reliance on a clarinet, string quartet and piano, the upcoming concert will re-create the Zimro sextet’s Eastern European Jewish folk music inspired program. Krakauer’s performance and the Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival will occur at Rodef Shalom Congregation in Shadyside. Less than two weeks later, Jewish Veg, Humane Action Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh Vegan Society will celebrate compassion with a night at the movies. The Sept. 24 event at Southside Works Cinema will feature a screening and discussion of “A Prayer for Compassion,” a 2019 film that follows Thomas Jackson andmembers of faith-based traditions as they explore the treatment of animals and what it means to follow a religious or spiritual path. “We are ashamed of our ancestors who owned slaves,” says Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz in the film’s trailer. “We are ashamed of our ancestors who believed in segregation. So too our grandchildren will be ashamed of what we are allowing to happen on our watch. Each of us has to ask ourselves a spiritual question, ‘What side do I want to tell my grandchildren I was on? Was I on the side of mercy and compassion or was I on the blind side that helped to perpetuate suffering?’” The following night, Rayna Greenberg and Ashley Hesseltine, hosts of “Girls Gotta Eat,” will record an episode of their popular podcast live at the Carnegie of Homestead Music Hall on Sept. 25. “Girls Gotta Eat” is a top comedy podcast on iTunes and regularly features guests and discussions related

p Chelsea Handler

Photos provided by The Lede Company

p Rayna Greenberg and Ashley Hesseltine, Girls Gotta Eat co-hosts, at the Hotel Williamsburg. Photo by Jeremy Jacobowitz

to sex, dating and relationships. Greenberg is a Squirrel Hill native who graduated from Community Day School and Taylor Allderdice High School. Her Instagram account, @One Hungry Jew, has almost 400,000 followers. Greenberg isn’t the only act coming back to the Steel City. After a recordbreaking engagement in 2013, Disney’s “The Lion King” will return to Pittsburgh. Fans of the Tony Award-winning Broadway show

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can see it live at the Benedum Center for the Performing Arts (see p. 13 for more) through Sept. 29. Those seeking to satisfy an academic craving can travel to Oakland, as the University of Pittsburgh’s Jewish studies program is planning a dozen events this fall. Between Sept. 12 and Nov. 17, resident and visiting lecturers will explore topics including Yiddish theater, Jewish books and anti-Semitism. On Oct. 6, an

exhibit titled “To Those Who Grasp It: Responding to October 27” will open at the Kimbo Gallery in William Pitt Union at the University of Pittsburgh and feature remarks from University of Pittsburgh “Tree of Life scholars,” according to program materials. On Nov. 1, comedian, entertainer, author and activist Chelsea Handler will perform at the Byham Theater. After seven years of hosting E!’s “Chelsea Lately,” Handler moved to Netflix where she hosted 120 episodes of “Chelsea” as well as a four-part documentary series titled “Chelsea Does.” Since 2018, Handler has worked with Emily’s List to help elect women to public office, register voters and campaign for candidates who fight for women’s rights. Handler was raised Jewish and had a bat mitzvah. Her family history was explored on TLC’s “Who Do You Think You Are?” during which Handler discussed her German grandfather’s role in the Holocaust. On Nov. 21, in Allison Park, there will be a tribute to Frank Sinatra and Barbara Streisand at Legacy Theatre (UPMC Passavant Campus). With accompaniment from a full orchestra, Bo Wagner and Donna Groom will perform Sinatra’s and Streisand’s legendary hits. No need to imagine the way they were — the music will remind attendees that happy days are here again. PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Fall Arts Preview Composer-turned-filmmaker preserves musician survivor testimonies — FILM — By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

urit Jugend isn’t a filmmaker, but the purpose of her upcoming visit is to present and discuss “They Played for Their Lives,” a 50-minute documentary about eight Jewish musicians whose lives were saved in the Holocaust by playing music. Jugend is an Israeli born composer who holds a doctorate in music composition from Stanford University and teaches regularly at the university’s continuing education program. “My life, career-wise, is about music on a day to day basis,” she said. Even so, the composer, whose works have been played by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Calwarts Contemporary Ensemble, Slovenian Symphony Orchestra and others, spent almost a decade creating the documentary. Originally, the idea was to present a series of lectures on music in the Holocaust, but as Jugend became more invested in the material, and spent greater time with the survivors, she felt it was necessary to preserve the stories on film. The first-time documentarian found the necessary funding and recorded eight survivors whose musical abilities facilitated their survival. “The film touches a lot on the power of music in saving people’s lives,” she said. Jugend’s work, which will be shown on Oct. 15 at Rodef Shalom Congregation, will include an opportunity for discussion with the filmmaker and the ability to hear Frank Grunwald, one of the Holocaust survivors featured in the film, playing a few songs on his accordion, explained Tsipy Gur, of Classrooms Without Borders. “This is a different way of bringing the Holocaust and its stories and history to life,” said Gur. Apart from the public program at Rodef Shalom Congregation, Classrooms Without Borders is bringing Jugend and Grunwald to different schools throughout the city. “We want to inspire students to really understand how helpful music is to their life and to the survival of the soul,” said Gur.

p Auschwitz women’s orchestra

Jugend, who grew up in Haifa and got a Ph.D. at Stanford, said she has better appreciated that concept since starting work on the film. “Until I spoke to the survivors, and we were in the process of making the film, I never imagined that music can be as powerful as saving lives,” she said. “Normally, we think about music, or we listen to music actively or passively, and we are exposed to music mostly for pleasure, and that makes sense. For me, music was about pleasure but mostly about self-expression, and it was there throughout my life. But I do admit that until making this film I never realized it had a power of saving lives, and that was a real amazing revelation for me.” Professionally and personally, music is present in all aspects of her life, but having to imagine it in the context of such terror was something different, Jugend explained. “As a composer I know what it takes for me to compose music: the setting, the peace and quiet, the time, maybe I need to go for a nice walk or spend a week in a cabin to find my

p Filmmaker Nurit Jugend and illustrator Ari Binus stand next to an illustration from the film. Photo courtesy of Ari Binus

16 SEPTEMBER 13, 2019

Film illustration by Ari Binus

“ We want to inspire students to really understand how helpful music is to their life and to

”

the survival of the soul.

— TSIPY GUR inspiration,” she said. But for musicians who worked during the Holocaust, the process of creation was obviously quite different. “I was fascinated,” she said. “Why did they choose to compose music at a time when they were so occupied in their minds to stay healthy and find food and fight for their lives? The idea of making music in that context and not having that peace and quiet — it really struck me how they were able to compose music under those conditions.” The music she encountered in her research was varied. “Some of that music is very strong and dramatic, and you can see the context of its writing, and some of it is very beautiful and dance-like,” she said. The latter pieces were “the ones that were more confusing because how could such beauty and dance-like music come out of such a place? I can only guess, but my feeling is that some people expressed what they were going through, their thoughts and feelings at the time, and some people might have escaped in their minds to different periods of time in their lives, the past, when they were with their family and safe and that was the way to cope with their reality.” Perhaps, she said, summoning the past

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with music was a way to travel backward, to better times. “Or the more dance-like and beautiful music was maybe a way of expressing hope for a better future.” Spending time with the survivors spurred Jugend to consider her own situation. “It was part of the process for me to put myself in their shoes,” she said. “It’s hard to make a film and be as involved on a personal level as I was, pretty much making it on my own over such a long time, without imagining yourself or your family.” Such a personal connection is why survivor testimony is so vital, said Gur. “This is the last generation to witness the survivors and hear their stories and apply it to now.” For that reason, Jugend created a postscreening guide for educators with survivor background and categorized topics of conversation to catalyze discussion. “By looking at history, we can learn a lot about what we want for our future,” said Jugend, who hopes the film will be seen by “children and their children way past when I’m gone. That’s the goal of the film.” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Fall Arts Preview Life is all about improv, says Point Park professor Media Innovation and a $60 million relocated Pittsburgh Playhouse. Keitel credited Paul Hennigan, Point Park University’s president, with supporting the growth, and noted how changes are improving the city. “There are hundreds more 20-year-olds living downtown,” said Keitel. “First come the artists and youth, then comes restaurants or movie theaters. Businesses are saying, ‘There’s all this youth. Let’s make more taco places or pizza places.’” Whether it’s students in previously desolate spaces or a parking lot that’s been turned into a park, Keitel appreciates Point Park’s place in transforming Pittsburgh. Keitel could tell you much more about what he appreciates, such as the ability to bike to work from his Squirrel Hill home, or that the Steel City is a wonderful place to raise a family, or about the area’s number of theaters, but what he really relishes is the chance to educate. “I love teaching because I love nurturing talent,” he said. “I wouldn’t tell the administration this, but I love what I do — I would do it for nothing.” Apart from teaching, Keitel is an Equity actor (a member of the union for stage professionals) and a director. Over the years, he’s played Edgar in “King Lear” at

— THEATER — By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

ich Keitel is funny, but he isn’t trying. “If people try to be funny, it’s not always going to be funny,” said the Point Park University professor of theater. “What I tell my students is, ‘Don’t try to be funny, try to be truthful.’” Keitel spoke with the Chronicle shortly before leading a three-hour class on improvisation, whose lessons have wider relevance, he said. “People are improvising every day in life. Everyone you have to deal with you have to listen to and play it back. Life doesn’t have a script. It’s good to know improv in that sense.” Born in New York, Keitel, a graduate of SUNY-Oneonta, moved to Pittsburgh in 1984 to pursue an MFA in theater from the University of Pittsburgh. After getting his degree in 1987, he traveled around the country teaching, acting and directing. Keitel returned to Pitt in 1991, and in 1997 left Oakland for downtown to become the chair of Point Park’s theater department. During his more than 20 years at Point Park, Keitel has observed a university evolution and neighborhood transformation that has brought Point Park a cinema department, a $2.5 million 4,000-square-foot Center for

p Rich Keitel teaches directing students at Point Park Unversity. Photo provided by Rich Keitel

Please see Improv, page 23

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Fall Arts Preview Pennsylvania native makes mark in Hollywood — FILM — By Jesse Bernstein

ecause it’s not actually a crime — and even if it were, the statute of limitations surely would have expired by now — Fred Raskin has a confession: When he was too young to buy a ticket to an R-rated movie, his mother would do it for him, buying two tickets, depositing her son in the theater, and then heading out to do something else. Thus, young Fred Raskin got an early crash course in the world of movies for adults. Today, Raskin, 45, helps make them. His latest effort as an editor, on Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood,” is his third movie with the iconoclastic director. It’s also the one that brought him full circle, in a way; a scene that features a dinner conversation between characters played by Al Pacino and Leonardo DiCaprio happened to be filmed at the restaurant where Raskin had his first serious networking lunch in Los Angeles, the one that connected him to the people that got him his first jobs in Hollywood. For the kid who spent his bar mitzvah money on a video camera, it’s all a pretty sweet deal. “Look, it all worked out,” he laughed. Raskin grew up in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, the oldest of four boys. His father, then a chemist, took Raskin to movies, too; Raskin believes that it was their trips — trips, multiple — to see “Raiders of the Lost Ark” during its initial release that first hooked him on the big screen. Attending elementary school in Upper Merion outside of Philadelphia, Raskin was happy. But as he grew a little older, he found that he wanted to take Judaism a bit more seriously. In fifth grade, he started to wear a kippah to school, which earned him some name-calling and the occasional trip in the hallway. Because of that derision, along with his desire to pursue Judaism in a more dedicated way, he asked his parents if he could go to day school. His parents had friends who sent their kids to a place called the Akiba Hebrew Academy, and in the fall of 1984, Raskin began taking the bus from King of Prussia to a nearby town. At Akiba (now the Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy), Raskin’s interest in film was nurtured. He has fond memories of Robert Zaslavsky — aka Doc Z — giving him VHS tapes of Scorsese, Hitchcock and

p Fred Raskin

Photo by Ryan Jaeger

“The Maltese Falcon.” To this day, he keeps in occasional contact with Head of Drama Dewey Oriente and Head of School Sharon Levin. Raskin holds onto a lot from those years, including a smattering of Hebrew. It was also around that time that he started to make movies, “slaughtering my brothers in all kinds of horrible ways for horror movies,” Raskin said. He began first with his parents’ Super 8 camera, and then moved on to the aforementioned bar mitzvah purchase. Of course it was juvenile — forgivable, given that he was a literal juvenile — but Raskin believes that other things that took others a bit longer to pick up in film school at New York University came easier to him because of what he did in those low-tech days. On one of his first days of film school, he and his classmates were told that perhaps one or two of them would have a career as a director when it was all said and done. Raskin decided that he’d pick up a craft, just in case, and thus his attraction to editing began. Given that an editor is mimicking the work of a director in some fashion — putting together a performance, deciding what a movie will actually look like, etc. — and the fact that it’s all done from the comfort of an

air-conditioned room was enough to seal the deal for him. The connections he made then led to connections in Hollywood, where he lunched with editors and assistant editors and assistant editors’ assistants, all of whom knew this or that person who gave him the next direction. All the while, he was sending out resumes, reading “The Hollywood Reporter” to try and get in early on recently announced movies. After some bizarre early work — working on three Rutger Hauer action movies in the span of three months, for example — he applied for and got a job as an assistant editor on Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Boogie Nights.” His work there led him to jobs assisting the editor Sally Menke on a few movies directed by Billy Bob Thornton. Menke edited every Tarantino movies until her death in 2010. Around the time Tarantino was getting ready to make “Kill Bill,” Menke called Raskin and asked if he was interested in joining her crew. Raskin accepted, and his introduction to Tarantino came when Raskin ordered a Filet-O-Fish from McDonald’s when the rest of the editing crew had meat. “And he said, ‘I always wondered who ordered the Filet-O-Fish,’” Raskin

remembers. “And I was like, ‘The guy who keeps kosher.’” Thus began a productive partnership, one that deepened as Raskin spoke frankly in editing meetings throughout the process. Raskin “came to join the Tarantino family,” as he put it, and after Menke’s death in 2010, the director asked Raskin to take up the task of editing his movies. Raskin happily obliged and, in addition to “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood,” he also edited “Django Unchained” and “The Hateful Eight.” Along the way, Raskin worked on bigger and bigger movies, editing both “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies and three entries in the “Fast and Furious” canon. Working on “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood,” Raskin worked with material and sequences that were as difficult as anything he’s ever handled. But then again, that’s exactly why he got into the business. “For me,” he said, “the things that are most gratifying are when I’m not sure how something is going to work, and it ends up working.” PJC Jesse Bernstein is a staff writer at the Jewish Exponent, where this article first appeared.

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Fall Arts Preview Two new books focus on relationship with Israel — BOOKS — By Jesse Bernstein

“Defending Israel: The Story of My Relationship with My Most Challenging Client” Alan Dershowitz All Points Books “We Stand Divided: The Rift Between American Jews and Israel” Daniel Gordis Harper Collins

he extent to which you can stomach Alan Dershowitz’s memoir, “Defending Israel: The Story of My Relationship with My Most Challenging Client,” depends firstly on how you measure his long association with late financier and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Surely, Epstein, along with Israel, would be in contention for Most Challenging Client. Dershowitz represented Epstein during his 2007 trial, and once said of the now-dead pedophile that he was the only person outside of his immediate family that received drafts of his books. He has been accused of having sex with one of Epstein’s sex slaves when she was a teenager. He denies the accusation. If you’re able to overlook this and just focus on the text, you’re still likely to be disappointed if you’ve, say, read any defense of Israel in the last 15 years. It is the most boilerplate of the boilerplate — the type of book that’s meant to be read and then completely forgotten, so that maybe you’ll buy the next one. There’s also the self-mythologizing. Dershowitz’s titanic self-regard is well-known by this point, and this book seems a product of that. Close to 300 pages dedicated to recapping debates, op-eds and cable news hits, a torrent of self-serving anecdotes, a selection of photos of Dershowitz with American and Israeli political leaders and the recapitulation of zinger after perfectly remembered zinger. Somewhere in the middle of a list of 57 different institutions of higher learning that Dershowitz has been invited to speak at, you are allowed to admit: This is tiresome. And even if every argument Dershowitz advances happens to be one that you agree with, you’d be hard-pressed to find something original. The difference between this book and his past Israel defenses — “The Case for Israel,” “The Case Against Israeli’s Enemies,” “The Case Against BDS,” etc. — is how much Rep. Ilhan Omar is mentioned. Daniel Gordis, meanwhile, has done something more substantive in his latest work. “We Stand Divided: The Rift Between American Jews and Israel” describes the growing divisions between American and Israeli Jews, how those divisions began to

p Defending Israel: The Story of My Relationship with My Most Challenging Client, by Alan Dershowitz

form and then mutate, and what might be done to reunite the two largest Jewish populations in the world. In his introduction, Gordis presents recent comments by two longtime Israeli diplomats as being broadly representative of these two sides. An Israeli diplomat named Alon Pinkas represents American Jews. Pinkas, once a policy advisor to Ehud Barak, locates the source of the division as being the religious leadership of Israel’s “dismissive attitude towards non-Orthodox Judaism,” as Gordis understates it. There’s also Israel’s “policies and actions” to blame, especially those undertaken during the Netanyahu years. Representing Israel is Tzipi Hotovely, Israel’s deputy foreign minister, who chastised American Jews for their audacity to criticize from the comfort of their lives, thousands of miles from the rockets of Gaza. Gordis claims that he wishes to challenge the conventional wisdom that American and Israeli Jews, making up 85% of world Jewry, are critical of each other because of what the other “does.” Rather, he writes, he wants to illustrate that the founding documents and ideas of America and Israel are actually far more divergent than most people realize, and that the true source of the conflict is what each country “is.” American Jews might think

p We Stand Divided: The Rift Between American Jews and Israel, by Daniel Gordis

they’re criticizing the proposed annexation of the West Bank or the treatment of the Women of the Wall, and Israeli Jews might really believe that what upsets them about American Jews is their insistence that they know what is best for Israeli foreign policy. But these problems, Gordis proposes, are the simple clash of those raised on universalist themes (American Jews) and those who were raised in a particularist context (Israeli Jews). He returns frequently to a marriage metaphor, wherein spats over an unmade bed or unwashed dishes are often indicative of deeper differences. He is willing to admit that each side’s criticisms are sometimes about unwashed dishes qua unwashed dishes — Americans and Israelis can still “reproach each other,” he writes — but addressing the unwashed dishes is not really the aim here. Gordis uses the bulk of the book to give a miniature history of the relationship between the Diaspora and Israel and to show why there are certain conflicts that actually cannot be resolved between the Jews of Ashkelon and the Jews of Abington. He cites sources both biblical and contemporary to back up his claims, to convincing effect. He locates the events at Sabra and Shatila as perhaps the key turning point of the relationship. These sections, expanded, could absolutely make a

compelling history on its own. In his conclusions, Gordis writes that American Jews must temper their criticism of Israeli policy; in return, Israeli Jews must cease their denigration of Diaspora life. A lot of his conclusions mostly come down to that formulation, i.e., asking that we all continue to feel free to make the same critiques of each other, with the hardest edges sanded down in an effort to recognize our mutual validity. It’s not a particularly energizing set of solutions, but it could be the best one we’ve got. (It’s also advice he might find useful the next time he writes about IfNotNow, which receives special scorn in this book.) Gordis’ main argument about these irreconcilable conflicts stands up to scrutiny, though it is one that does seem to elide the question of resolving the symptoms themselves. And it is inconceivable that one could write about these divisions without mentioning one of the great points of divergence in recent memory: that Israeli Jews, contra the majority of American Jews, have a deep affection for Trump. Regardless, this latest effort is more than worthy of discussion. PJC Jesse Bernstein is a staff writer at the Jewish Exponent, where this article first appeared.

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Opinion One approach to resolving unresolvable conflicts Guest Columnist Jim Busis

ecently I visited my daughter, who is working for the year in Rwanda. For most people, if they have heard of Rwanda at all, it is due to the genocide that took place just a quarter century ago. Our visit was focused on my daughter and the country today, not the genocide, but the genocide is impossible to ignore. Today, only 25 years later, Rwanda has made great strides toward moving past the genocide and in doing so has established a model of coexistence that could be instructive to Israelis and Palestinians. Historically, Rwanda had been settled and dominated by an ethnic group, the Hutu, who were primarily agricultural. Somewhat later, another ethnic group, the Tutsi, who were primarily herders, migrated into the region and came to dominate the Hutu. Some compare the structure of pre-modern Rwandan society to that of medieval Europe, with the aristocratic Tutsi ruling over the serflike Hutus, even if there was some comingling and social movement in both directions. When the Germans arrived at the end of the 19th century and began to assert colonial control, they did what many empires have done all over the world: They began by ruling through the existing king and his ruling class, which in this case meant the Tutsi. During World War I, the Belgians took control. As their power grew after the war,

they continued to work with the Tutsi and favored the Tutsi in education and jobs in the colonial administration. Belgian rule continued and exploited Tutsi domination over the Hutu, but it didn’t create it. After World War II, as the decolonization movement swept the world, the Hutu elites began advocating not only for independence from Belgium but also freedom from Tutsi domination. As Rwanda moved toward independence in 1962 and then as a new state, communal tensions became violent, with riots and massacres on both sides. However, as the minority, the Tutsis generally got the worst of it. All societal forces led to emphasis of identity, and to repression of or resistance to the other group. Virtually no serious efforts were made toward reconciliation or mutual understanding. p Visitors at the entrance to the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Rwanda. Photo by Jim Busis This episodic virtual civil war culminated in the genocide of 1994, when masses of Hutus, in an organized groups remain locked in bitter enmity today. Rwanda, it also includes small exhibits campaign, systematically killed an estimated But that’s not the case. In just one generation, about other recent genocides, including 1 million people in just four months. The the leaders of Rwanda seem to have forged a the Holocaust. It also wisely cautions that, vast majority of the victims were Tutsi, but unified society, where Hutu and Tutsi identi- although different genocides may share Hutus who defended Tutsis were also killed. ties have become a new Rwandan identity, and some features, each is unique in important Ultimately, a Tutsi rebel army gained control the past is acknowledged but doesn’t dominate ways. In the section describing the origins of of the country and of the government. Their the present. What dominates the present is the Rwandan genocide, it seemed to downsuccessors remain in control today. building a better society for the future. play the centuries of Hutu-Tutsi tensions You might expect to hear that the Tutsis The Kigali Genocide Memorial is a real turned the tables on the Hutus, or that the two gem. Besides the main exhibits about Please see Conflicts, page 21

Anti-Semitism doesn’t discriminate. Why should we? Guest Columnist Joshua Runyan

lmost two decades into the 21st century, few people — and they’re getting fewer with each passing day — deny that the scourge of anti-Semitism we so triumphantly relegated to the pages of the 20th century has reared its ugly head once more. Not that anti-Semitism ever really went away, but from Pittsburgh to Poway to the handful of predominantly Jewish enclaves throughout Brooklyn, N.Y., headlines of deadly and other vicious attacks have demonstrated that to be Jewish in America is to be born a target. And yet, we continue to fight amongst ourselves in assigning blame, with various groups asserting that either far-right white supremacists are the primary danger or that Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and his supporters are the preeminent threat to Jewish lives. That we are even having this debate is ludicrous. The fact is neither David Duke or the black man suspected of throwing a

20 SEPTEMBER 13, 2019

rock at the head of a Lubavitch Chasid in Prospect Park — an attack that some on the right attributed, to varying degrees, to Farrakhan, and others on the left seemingly excused as the natural outgrowth of racial strife owing to gentrification — particularly cares whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, an AIPAC supporter or J Street member. To the person who hates Jews, it is the Jew who is the target, not the person who happens to be Jewish. I know this, because, like many of you, I have been on the receiving end of classic, textbook anti-Semitism in every place I’ve lived. Dallas, Texas? Check. Baltimore? You betcha. Coral Springs, Fla.? Philadelphia? Absolutely. (The one exception was in Jerusalem, but when I lived there, it was a part of everyday life to suspect that your particular bus ride could end in a suicide attack by an Arab terrorist.) Those yelling obscenities at me, from “dirty Jew” to “f---ing kike,” could have passed for a sample of the United Nations. The particular race of the hater didn’t matter. What mattered was that I was Jewish. Of course, it’s pretty easy to pick me out of a crowd, with my long, flowing beard, yarmulke and tzitzit hanging down from my waist. That probably helps explain the

attacks against the haredi community, more than anything else: Even in this “modern” century, the word “Jew” will most likely be associated with skullcaps, beards and/ or side-locks. The attacks in Pittsburgh — at a building housing Conservative and Reconstructionist congregations — and in Poway, at a Chabad House, had less to do with a particular religious practice and more to do with targeting an identifiable Jewish place, and the people therein. The same is true for the deadly shootings outside a Jewish community center several years ago in Overland Park, Kansas, and a nearby Jewish retirement village, attacks in which not a single Jewish person was killed. To the shooter, a neo-Nazi now on death row, his three victims might as well have been Jewish. Which is why it is the height of stupidity for us, with so many dead, to split off into camps pinpointing which brand of anti-Semitism is the most dangerous, or which political camp offers us the most safety. The purveyors of anti-Semitism care not a whit about our identity or our politics; why should we? What makes anti-Semitism so uniquely destructive, as opposed to all the other isms that have stained world history for millennia, is how easy it is for its targets to excuse or outright deny its presence in particular corners

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of society. In fact, it’s been there all along, everywhere we might have thought were our allies and our communal safety. Germany was once a beacon of Jewish achievement, its Jewish community having achieved the highest levels of society. And the United States could one day end up the same way. We forget that fact at our peril, even as we pray that such a future never befall us again. So what should we be doing instead of arguing with each other? How about embracing anew our shared Jewish identity and our collective Jewish experience? The only real and effective response to anti-Semitism is Jewish pride, refusing to bend or to hide. Where the anti-Semite seeks to render synagogues empty, we should pack them full with worshippers. Where the antiSemite seeks to spark fear, we should ignite joy. Where Judaism is being lived in private, we should bring it out into the streets. The absolute last thing we should do is quibble among ourselves, when our brothers and sisters are bleeding. With Rosh Hashanah beckoning, may the New Year finally bring us real peace — among ourselves and our surroundings. PJC Rabbi Joshua Runyan is the former editorin-chief of the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle.

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Opinion We are all one Guest Columnist Reuven Rivlin

oday, at Beit HaNasi in Jerusalem, the capital of the State of Israel and the heart of the Jewish people, I received the Declaration of Our Common Destiny, ‫מגילת הייעוד המשותף‬. The document, which is a roadmap for future relations between the Jewish people in Israel and around the world, is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, the Genesis Philanthropy Group and Beit HaNasi. The document was presented by over 30 leading thinkers from Israel and across the

Jewish world, from all shades of the spectrum of Jewish life and I want to thank them and the initiators of the project for being part of this important effort. Friends, the miracle of the Jewish people is not only that we survived for thousands of years. The real miracle is that, despite the fact that we were spread all over the world, speak different languages and developed different traditions, we always were one people. Despite our differences, we remained bound by our shared history, our core values and beliefs, our Book of Books and our commitment to improving the world. It helped that our enemies always saw us as one people. Our enemies didn’t differentiate between one stream of Judaism and another. Secular, haredi, Reform, Conservative,

Masorti: For them we are all Jews. Today, we face a different kind of challenge. Jewish communities around the world have integrated successfully into their home countries. This has created new challenges to Jewish identity and to the Jewish people. The future of the Jewish people depends on three things: preserving our core values, traditions and identity; mutual respect for our differences; and mutual responsibility to each other. We must embrace our unity and our diversity. We must see our diversity not as a source of weakness, but a source of strength. Dear friends, when I say that the future of the Jewish people depends on preserving our identity, mutual respect and mutual recognition, I also mean the future of the State of Israel. As a Jewish and democratic

state, Israel is essential for the survival of the Jewish people. In the same way, a thriving Jewish people, our fifth tribe, is essential for the survival of the State of Israel. Today is just the start of the journey. From here, Our Common Destiny will go on a Jewish “world tour.” It will initiate conversations between communities, streams and generations. I look forward to welcoming it back to Jerusalem after it has been enriched by all the different colors that make up the Jewish family. If we sincerely embrace our diversity while cherishing our shared history, then this document can truly serve as a set of principles for our common destiny, a roadmap for the future of the Jewish people. PJC

a soul. But although we don’t yet have the tools to measure it, as anyone who has ever regarded the body of a deceased loved one can attest, the animating force, the spirit that we respond to with love, is no longer there. Death is perhaps the greatest mystery of life. It is always tragic, but as the anniversary of the Tree of Life synagogue attack nears, and as I reflect on the senselessness of recent violence and of the deaths of those close to me, the subject holds even greater relevance. This year, 79 people were killed in mass shootings, including Lori Kaye, a founder at Chabad of Poway, who also derived great comfort from the teachings found in “Toward a Meaningful Life.” She was killed during Passover as she was preparing to honor her mother with a Jewish prayer to remember the dead. Last October, 11 worshipers were gunned down at the Tree of Life synagogue, and my young daughter-in-law was killed by a drunk and unlicensed driver. Not long before that, I lost my husband of 35 years to cancer, and my mother. How to make sense out of any of this?

By turning to the teachings of Torah. Rachelle Fraenkel, whose 16-year-old son Naftali was murdered along with two other teenage boys by terrorists in Israel five years ago, told me: “Don’t ask, ‘Why did this happen to me?’ We are encouraged to ask the question, ‘Where am I going to take this?’” Fraenkel, a Torah educator who embodies grace and joy, continues to feel the pain of her loss. But she refuses to let it dominate her life. Blessed with so much, she said at Sinai Indaba, “it seems like the height of ingratitude to just take a can of black paint and throw it all over my life.” Similarly, one week after the Chabad of Poway shooting, Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein appeared on the program “My Life: Chassidus Applied,” and told its host, Rabbi Jacobson, “We suffer, we question, but we’re not going to be defined by our questions.” When tragedy strikes, we ask, “What are we going to do about it?” Rabbi Goldstein, who transcended himself to spread a message of hope even after his terrible experience, was inspired by his teacher, Rabbi Menachem Mendel

Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, who taught that a little light dispels a lot of darkness. The Poway rabbi’s approach was influenced by the example of the Rebbe, who responded to a 1950s terrorist attack in Kfar Chabad in Israel in which five students were murdered while at prayer by immediately establishing a vocational school and a printing house in their memory. These reactions seem almost superhuman. But Jewish wisdom dictates our response. I remember paying a condolence call to Rabbi Jacobson after his father died many years ago. It was early in my journey toward Jewish observance and I was apprehensive about how to relate to my teacher during a time of grief. But the entire family seemed so composed in the face of their personal tragedy. I had fallen apart at the death of my own father several years before, and I marveled at their equanimity in the face of their loss. This helped inspire me to continue my journey toward observance.

move beyond the hatreds of the past. Later, when talking to a former senior government official, I asked him how Rwanda treated the genocide in its educational system. He replied, “Not very extensively,” in part because people in the government couldn’t agree on how to present it. I thought that was consistent with the museum’s strategy of trying to minimize ethnic tensions by deflecting history. Some might argue that they are abrogating their responsibility in the educational system, but I think it might be the most practical way to let the society move forward at this time while everything is so fresh. I couldn’t help thinking about all of this in light of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I’m not suggesting that the situation in Rwanda is the same as the situation in the former British mandate, but I do think there are valuable lessons to be learned

Focusing on past horrors and injustices, whether real or exaggerated, simply can’t help peoples or their leaders make peace and build some form of mutual coexistence. Both sides have to have some willingness to let go of the past, and perhaps blur it in some cases, in order to focus on humanizing the other and building a better future. Under any circumstances, it is extremely difficult for victims, perpetrators, their relatives and their descendants to live in close proximity, and it is impossible to do so if the governments, the media and the educational systems are constantly reminding everyone of crimes and injustices, and keeping the hatreds and the fears ever fresh and alive. Unfortunately, that is not the path of government or most societal leaders in Israel, the Palestinian territories and their respective diasporas, who virtually all focus on grievances and blame, ancient history

and recent events. Moreover, the structure of Jewish and Arab societies, geography and security concerns limit the opportunities for the two peoples to interact directly in meaningful ways, and to get to know each other as neighboring human beings. Programs or policy changes that might facilitate more interactions get short shrift from political leaders on all sides. Instead, the political leaders mostly focus on grand political solutions for the endgame without doing anything to make any final resolution at all feasible. Rwanda’s watchwords are pragmatism and looking to the future. In the Middle East the watchwords are ideological purity and remembering the past. We could all learn something from Rwanda. PJC

Reuven Rivlin is the president of Israel.

Making sense of death Guest Columnist Robin Blumenthal

irth is G-d saying you matter. I learned that from my first teacher of Torah, Rabbi Simon Jacobson, a scribe for the Lubavitcher Rebbe and author of “Toward a Meaningful Life,” an introduction to Jewish philosophy. But if that’s true, does death mean the opposite? Only if you see life as starting at birth. Indeed, Jewish wisdom teaches that the soul comes down from its lofty place, where it has been basking in the radiance of the Divine presence, to elevate this lowly world and make it into a dwelling place for God. When the soul’s “unique and indispensable mission ends, it continues its spiritual journey in other realms,” having left a lasting impact on this world, Rabbi Jacobson told me. Of course, this presumes the existence of

Conflicts: Continued from page 20

and to emphasize the role of the Belgians in building upon those enmities. However, the exhibits certainly don’t shy away from the horrid nature of the actual genocide and its aftermath, imparting two messages consistent with the government’s strategy for healing Rwandan society: first, that the results of letting hatreds go unchecked are so horrible we can never let that happen again, and second, that Hutus and Tutsis shouldn’t hate each other for the genocide and all that preceded it — the real culprits are the foreigners, the Belgians, who conveniently aren’t there anymore. Through this strategy, the government shifts the blame away from groups in its society toward an outside, third party, enabling its citizens to

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Please see Sense, page 28

Jim Busis is the CEO and publisher of the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle. SEPTEMBER 13, 2019 21

Headlines CMU: Continued from page 1

delicious, very healthy, and there are vegan and gluten-free options.” Roni Sosis, a CMU sophomore studying global studies and creative writing, appreciated Tahini’s abundance of specialty offerings. “I got their vegan bowl. I’m vegetarian. It’s amazing to have multiple vegetarian options on campus,” said Sosis. Tahini isn’t the first kosher provider on campus. In years past, CMU students were able to purchase Vaad certified meals, but when the previous vendor’s contract came to an end, it was important to ensure the dietary option remained, explained Petter. “When we learned that Pomegranate was closing, I had students, parents and faculty approach me and say, ‘What is going to be the kosher food option at CMU?’” said Dan Marcus, Hillel JUC’s executive director. “For students who keep kosher, it’s a necessity,” said Sosis. “Having access to food is a basic right.”

p Timothy Liu, left, gets his hot kosher meal from Judah Cowen of Elegant Edge Catering. Photo by Adam Reinherz

There’s also the fact that many students on campus have a dining plan, said Alex Zissman, director of Jewish student life at CMU. Without kosher food, “observant

freshmen” would be paying for “something they couldn’t consume,” said Sosis. Marcus worked to “make a shidduch” between Elegant Edge and Petter, added

JCC: Continued from page 1

Tabares, who spoke at Pittsburgh Allderdice High School and to teen participants at J-Serve, was “so instrumental in this community’s healing and resiliency five months ago,” noted Brian Schreiber, president and CEO of Pittsburgh’s JCC. “Both our communities have witnessed hatred and devastation,” Tabares said in accepting his award. “Through love and kindness we have supported one another and begin to heal and find our new normal. “The beauty of kindness is that it is shared,” he continued. “We should build bridges, not walls. Having kindness and love in our hearts creates a much more peaceful existence for all.” The Ida & Samuel Latterman Volunteer Mitzvah Award was presented to Tim Smith, president and executive director of the Center of Life; Geraldine Massey, the family engagement coordinator at Center of Life; and Liddy Barlow, executive minister of Christian Associates of Southwest Pennsylvania. The Center of Life is a community organization in Hazelwood that helps to provide underserved families with life skills, education and training. “The time we live in now, more than ever, we need to be able to link up and be able to not just come together, but get together, so we can do something that has never been done before,” said Smith in accepting his award, a tzedakah box. “And I believe that is one of our charges as human beings.” Symons, referring to all three recipients of the Latterman award as “giants,” praised Barlow for her role in fostering interfaith connections. “You have mentored us in the art of interfaith gathering, helping us to understand the power of congregation, the power of ecumenical work, and the power of how that can spread beyond the Christian world,” he said. The JCC, said Barlow in accepting her award is “a gift to our region. It is just a 22 SEPTEMBER 13, 2019

p Dr. Elizabeth Miller, Grant Oliphant and Doron Krakow

powerhouse of creative goodness. It is an inspiration to your neighbors of all faith traditions. And the JCC has also been a gift to me personally, because this has been the place where I have met some of the best colleagues that I have ever had the honor of working with. ...It is a joy to be about the work of tikkun olam with you.” The S.J. Noven Koach Award was presented to JCC board member Ina Gumberg; the Rogal-Ruslander Leadership Award was given to JCC board member Lori Shure; and the Lillian Goldstein Senior Adult Volunteer Leadership Award was presented to Earl Parker, an AgeWell volunteer. Presidential citations were presented to Cary Klein, CEO of Big Burrito, and in memory of Jerry Segal. Award recipients were all “exceptional volunteers and leaders,” said Schreiber. New board members were installed as the only order of business on the agenda, including new board president Billy Goodman. The evening concluded with a conversation

Photo by Toby Tabachnick

featuring Grant Oliphant, president of the Heinz Endowments and Doron Krakow, president and CEO of the JCC Association of North America, “to explore the role of community in our civic culture” and “the possibilities of what communities can be,” Schreiber said. The conversation was moderated by Dr. Elizabeth Miller, a member of the advisory committee for the Center for Loving Kindness. Miller, chief of adolescent and young adult medicine at UPMC Children’s Hospital, had been “instrumental as we developed new, inclusive language in our membership policy related to gender identity and expression,” Schreiber noted. Miller queried Oliphant and Krakow on the meaning of community, and the JCC’s role in fostering community. Oliphant quoted the Sufi poet, Hafez: “Out of a great need we are all holding hands and climbing. Not loving is a letting go. Listen. The terrain out here is far too dangerous for that.”

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Zissman. The choice of Cowen came from the fact that “he caters our Shabbat dinners and we know he’s a good option for dining services to work with.” Marcus is pleased by having made the partnership, but said the praise really belongs to Petter and the university at large. “Pascal has always been tremendously helpful and supportive of the needs of Jewish students,” he said. “It shows how Carnegie Mellon appreciates its Jewish students.” Vaad certified food is “well-received on our campus,” said Petter. That’s true even of students unfamiliar with kosher food, like Justin Wang, a CMU freshman studying computer science. Wang said he’d never tasted Mediterranean food before and had no idea the shawarma and fresh fruit bowl he ate that day were kosher. “It was better than most of the food on campus,” he said. The cultural exposure and connections are a real benefit on campus, said Sosis. “Food can bring people together.” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org. “My prayer for all of us is that we will hold onto that notion of community and work even harder to strengthen it,” Oliphant said, “even when we perceive wrongly that we don’t need it. The territory around here is far too dangerous for that.” Krakow praised Pittsburgh’s communal response to the Oct. 27 massacre, and the role of the JCC in guiding the community toward resilience. “I think of all the communities in the JCC movement, I have had reason to be in Pittsburgh more frequently than any of the others, and it has never failed to be a time when I am energized and inspired by this community, a community I knew well before it was struck by the tragedy of this past October 27,” he said. “Inevitably, I am moved and inspired by the people of the community and the things that they do, and tonight has been no exception.” Krakow praised the volunteer leadership of the JCC, and its response to events that “they could not anticipate.” “Nobody could possibly imagine they would be taking on the roles that lay leadership has in this last term, that they would have to preside and manage and shepherd the community through such remarkably difficult days,” he said. “I want to say on behalf of the JCC Association of North America that we are deeply and profoundly grateful to Jimmy Ruttenberg for his extraordinary leadership during this period. “Communities are defined by a group of people with common interests, with common values and with common and shared experiences,” Krakow continued. “And the finest of communities are those that are also defined by the degree that they feel accountable to one another and responsible for one another. And it is in moments of crisis or tragedy or need where these defining elements of community are truly put to the test. And this is in Pittsburgh an extraordinary and remarkable example of great community.” PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Fall Arts Preview Parade: Continued from page 11

recognize that while this is great storytelling and great theater, and that the music

Jazz: Continued from page 12

“There’s always a connection,” he said. “Is it religious? No, not really. It will have an impact, though, on any music I come up with.” This is especially true for him when it comes to klezmer music, including one of his biggest influences, Argentinian klezmer clarinetist Giora Feidman. “If there’s any kind of connection, it’s to klezmer music. I listen to it today because I have that connection. There also may be some Jewish influence from the Broadway shows I’ve done. Certainly, no doubt, ‘Fiddler on the Roof.’” This fall, Karsh has a number of shows on his schedule, including gigs with John Burgh’s Jazz Allstars on Sept. 14, at the

is powerful and stirring and the script is engaging, it does deal with some issues that are from the darker side of humanity in some ways, but that it also recognizes the promise and love of the human spirit. “This particular piece speaks to our

society now in an important way. Injustice is at the center of it and we have to look at what we consider just and unjust and how we treat people. These things are really on the surface of society right now.” “Parade” runs March 13-22, 2020, at the

PNC Theatre at the Pittsburgh Playhouse. Tickets can be purchased at pittsburgh playhouse.com/tickets. PJC

Washington Jazz Society on Sept. 15 and at the Mt. Lebanon Artists Market on Sept. 21. (A complete list of performances can be found at kenkarshguitar.com.) To see another Pittsburgh Jewish jazz guitarist’s work, albeit of a different kind, pick up the recent book “Narrative Complexity: Cognition, Embodiment, Evolution,” out from University of Nebraska Press, to which Martin Rosenberg contributed the chapter “Jazz as Narrative: Narrating Cognitive Processes Involved in Improvisation.” Despite the heady content, Rosenberg, a well-known Pittsburgh scholar of science, philosophy and the arts, doesn’t take himself too seriously: “I’m not a real guitarist,” he said. “I just play one on TV.” The humility is misleading. The guitarist-composer has had a standing gig at Riley’s Pour House for five years and also performs occasional shows at Elwood’s Pub,

BackStage Bar, Wallace’s Whiskey Room Kitchen, playing with well-known Pittsburgh names like Mark Strickland and Don Aliquo. But playing jazz, for Rosenberg, is always in service to his scholarship. “With jazz, you’re dealing with complex processes involving a number of people and unpredictable behavior,” he said. Order emerges spontaneously — “much like it does in nature.” This fall will also see at least one non-local Jewish jazz musician bring her talents to the Pittsburgh area when the City of Asylum’s 15th Annual International Jazz Poetry Festival welcomes pianist Mara Rosenbloom and the Flyways on Sept. 13. The native New Yorker performed at the Shadow Lounge almost a decade ago. Rosenbloom grew up going to a Reform temple and isn’t sure how much the Jewish melodies influenced her work, though

“singing, dialogue and critical thinking were all important things reinforced by it, as well as installing the importance of ritual in my life. I think it’s something important in an artist’s life, if not everyone’s life. Maybe that connects directly to this group. The name of the band is Flyways, which are the patterns of migratory birds, so there’s an element of that. What are these pathways and cycles we go through, year after year, and how do we navigate them together and continue to make these same journeys every year?” The pianist and her group will perform a piece by the Jewish poet Adrienne Rich, “I Know What I Dreamed,” which they set to music, as well as collaborations with poets Roy Guzman, Natalie Scenters-Zapico, Corrine Jasmin and Toi Derricotte. PJC

“ It’s a theatrical form that honors

Playback: Continued from page 14

idea is that when something is really painful, it’s very close and for a lot of us, that is too overwhelming to talk about. There is a lot of shame with having to express it. What if people don’t get it, or what if I start to fall apart? So they don’t talk about it. The idea of taking it outside of yourself and seeing it there is less threatening.” The storytelling can bring tears to audience members, she said. Even though it is not their own story they are seeing played out, they often can identify with it nonetheless. “It doesn’t matter if it’s not your story,” Mayo said. “There is something touching about it, and that is what good art is supposed to do.” Through the years, the Pittsburgh Playback Theatre company has been used as a means to bring people from diverse backgrounds closer to one another. “It’s a theatrical form that honors people’s stories,” Ostfield told the Post-Gazette in 2008, when a group of Israeli Jews and Arabs

Improv: Continued from page 17

Pittsburgh Playhouse, directed “Of Mice and Men” at Prime Stage Theatre and accrued scores of credits and recognition. Keeping one foot in academia and the other onstage may make him a “hybrid” in some cities, but such straddling isn’t uncommon in Pittsburgh. “At Point Park it’s cool that a lot of the professors are working faculty,” he said. “Around the country you don’t see that as much.” What Keitel does observe, however, is society’s need for more artistic engagement. “The world would be a better place if there

people’s stories. It allows them to be heard and to stand for a moment in each other’s shoes, and that builds a sense of community.

”

— RONI OSTFIELD came to Pittsburgh to work on coexistence through theater. “It allows them to be heard and to stand for a moment in each other’s shoes, and that builds a sense of community. The idea is that they will take Playback home and use it as a peace-making tool.” Richard Keitel, a Pittsburgh-based professional actor and director and a professor at Point Park University, has been a member of Pittsburgh Playback Theatre

since its founding. He was serving as its artistic director when the Israeli Jews and Palestinians came to Pittsburgh. “That was a wonderful project,” he recalled. “I remember that week starting off, when people told stories there was a lot of anger and resentment and people bringing up the history. By the end of the time we were making breakthroughs where people could see that each other was human again. I

was more art in the world. If everyone tried to put themselves in someone else’s shoes, there would be a lot less violence in the world,” he said. Keitel is Jewish, and spent 17 years at Camp Sussex, a New Jersey summer camp founded nearly a century ago with the intent to aid underprivileged Jews. Famous camp alumni include Mel Brooks, Gabe Kaplan (“Welcome Back, Kotter”), Alex Winters (“Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure”) and Louise Lasser (“Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman”), according to summercampculture.com. Keitel learned much from summer camp and by acting throughout the years. “Actors have to be in touch with themselves, and with the human condition and with the world,” he said.

A particularly chilling convergence of stage and life occured last year, he explained, when he saw actors performing “Cabaret” on Saturday evening, Oct. 27. Although there were doubts as to how the show could be performed, “it was one of the magical, strange nights of the theater,” explained Keitel. “My colleague, Zeva Barzell, had some of the actors playing Nazis in the audience, and when they stood up and did the Heil Hitler and started singing, I could feel the hair on the back of my neck. The next day people are singing ‘Mi Shebeirach’ in the streets of Squirrel Hill and it was very chilling.” The value of art, or of attending theater, is that not only does a particular tension become more palpable, but society grows

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

David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org. made a joke that we just solved the Mid-East peace process, there is going to be peace from now on. Hopefully it made a dent.” Throughout the years, the company has had many Jewish members, including Keitel, who used to joke in rehearsal that they had a “minyan.” He has had countless memorable experiences with the group, including working with parents grieving stillborn children and the Lost Boys of Sudan. While his career keeps him busy with more conventional theater projects, he has stayed with Playback because it is “so nurturing for my soul,” he said. “It is a different type of theater but it is something I love. That’s why I have been doing it for these 34 years.” He hopes Playback can continue to be useful to Pittsburgh’s community at large, including the Jewish community in the wake of the Tree of Life massacre. “My goal is we keep going on and we keep helping people,” he said. “It’s a really beautiful thing.” PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org from the experience, explained Keitel. “The community I felt marching and singing in Squirrel Hill, like the audience watching ‘Cabaret,’ we were all together. When you go to a theater, there’s between 100 and 500 people all watching and breathing together. When you watch something on TV, you’re by yourself,” said Keitel. Isolation is never good for people, he said. “I think there would be a lot more peace if people took acting, put themselves in each other’s shoes and saw theater that could change them,” said Keitel. “I don’t understand how seeing ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ can’t change you.” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org. SEPTEMBER 13, 2019 23

Headlines Rabbi: Continued from page 2

no hospital in my area, wanted to touch me as a liver donor because I had donated a kidney. Even though one isn’t related to the other, it was just a hospital policy.” He found an exception through the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. “I ended up finding a recipient. He registered in Cleveland. In December of this past year, I donated a third

Tablecloths: Continued from page 3

family heirlooms, recognized the tablecloths’ resemblance to signature quilts, a craft that emerged in the mid-19th century as a way for communities to honor departing friends or to fundraise. The earliest evidence I can find for this practice crossing over to tablecloths dates to California in the 1930s. Rebecca Migdal, an expert in American material culture, explained to me over a Passover seder that this change may relate to the Colonial Revival design movement also in the ’30s. In Western Pennsylvania’s Jewish community, signature tablecloths were fundraisers

Speechwriter: Continued from page 8

holidays, death — and offers her own ways of incorporating them into her life. And she grapples with the tough questions. She devotes a section to “the awful parts of the Torah,” including God’s wrath, and suggests “understanding them in new ways” through the ongoing process of re-interpreting, challenging and “re-translating [Judaism] for the times in which we live.” And then there’s dealing with the concept of God. In one dramatic account, Hurwitz describes a spiritual retreat during which she and the other participants were each told to go into the woods, find a private spot and speak out loud to God on successive days. Feeling embarrassed, self-conscious and deeply skeptical, she nevertheless finds

of my liver to a stranger.” Rabbi Mendel Rosenblum, director of Chabad at the South Hills, attended yeshiva with Simon. “Even without this story, he’s an extremely engaging, scholarly and funny person,” Rosenblum said. “He could give an amazing talk without this story. For some reason, though, he has this deep need to give. Hopefully, all of us have it to some degree.” Rosenblum said when he asked his friend why he would do this, Simon replied, “I’m going to go through a few months of pain

and loss of income and work, and this man will have his life back. His kids will have him in the future.” Such a simple explanation was humbling. “The way he said it, I felt foolish,” Rosenblum said. “How many times do we look at someone and think, ‘I wish I could give that person life’? To him, it’s so simple, if you have the ability to be inconvenienced in some small way and someone will get their life back, it’s a no brainer.” For his part, Simon is not advocating for

people to donate organs. “I am advocating that if you’re inspired by this story, take upon yourself an additional act of goodness and kindness to make someone’s life better,” he said. “We can all do that. If each of us do that, and we live with that kind of intention, the world will be a better place. Every one of us has the capacity to transform and change the world.” PJC

in which individuals, families, and organizations donated to have their names or their loved ones’ names added to the tablecloth. Often the embroidery was arranged to keep family members’ names together. The tablecloths I’ve rediscovered were initially created in the 1940s and 1950s, though many were updated for decades after. To me, these tablecloths convey the values of the world in which they were created more poignantly than any written records. They point back to the social structure of the mid-century Jewish communities in our region, in which reliable cohorts of women filled their hours with volunteer work that kept their communities going; in which people regularly socialized through formal

sit-down dinners, often prepared by these women, to support the many community organizations they belonged to; and in which these people and their events proudly adopted the trappings of American middle class life. In such a setting, these tablecloths were useful and elevating, and the labor to create them not daunting. The strangeness they have since taken on speaks volumes about how much our community has since evolved, for better and for worse. But mysteries remain. Just how many existed in our region? Was their extreme prevalence in this region’s Jewish community unique? Here is where you come in, dear reader. Do you, like the Weinberger family who

brought the Homestead tablecloth to life for me with their memories of (grand) mother Hazel making it, have your own recollections of such tablecloths from your community? Do you have pictures of them in use? Or do you have in your possession an actual undiscovered tablecloth in the wild? Please contact me via TammyHepps.com/ contact. I would like to weave your contributions into the larger story of these tablecloths and the hardworking women who created them. PJC

a private spot and begins to speak. After great difficulty, she finds herself, alone in the woods, declaring, “I don’t know what I’m doing. … I don’t know. … I don’t know, but I cannot do this alone.” Like much of the book, the section is written with an openness and almost self-deprecating style that is deeply appealing. “I’m fully aware of how crazy this may sound,” she writes of the episode, which ends with her feeling loved and reassured in a way she cannot explain. “That experience was very hard to write about,” Hurwitz said. “I’m a pretty private person but I was trying to capture it as it happened.” She does not share her political views directly. But in presenting the mission of the Jewish people, as described in the Torah, to create a society promoting equality, “based on the belief that we are all created in the

Divine image,” Hurwitz writes: “The Torah strikes me as an unavoidably political document — a passionate protest against old hierarchies and abuses of power.” She adds that while people may interpret the text to support different opinions “on issues like immigration and poverty,” she disagrees with the notion that rabbis shouldn’t be “political” in sermons that apply the Torah’s “moral lessons … to current events.” Most of the book is a richly sourced effort to confront the stumbling blocks to living a serious Jewish life by taking Judaism seriously. (An appendix lists 40 books that Hurwitz recommends as “sources for getting started.”) Hurwitz makes it clear that she is not a ba’al teshuva (returnee to the faith) in the Orthodox tradition. She rarely attends synagogue and does not lead a fully observant life or accept the concept of an all-powerful

God who monitors our actions. But she has chosen a personal path that brings her fulfillment through studying, wrestling with and coming to appreciate Judaism as she continues to “find my place” within it. “I love how, even when we try to give up on Judaism, it does not give up on us,” she writes. “It took me a long time to love Judaism enough to choose it back. But I’m glad I did.” And she hopes to follow up by writing a book “about Jewish spirituality — really focusing in on the God/Divine aspects of Judaism.” In speaking her truth after many years of writing in and for other voices, Hurwitz has opened a brave new path, suggesting “there is something in Judaism worth finding” and encouraging readers to look for themselves. PJC

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

Tammy A. Hepps is the creator of the local history project HomesteadHebrews.com. You can view pictures of all of these tablecloths at TammyHepps.com/tablecloths.

Gary Rosenblatt is the editor of The New York Jewish Week.

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PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

SEPTEMBER 13, 2019 25

Celebrations

Torah

B’nei Mitzvah

We shall not be indifferent

Isla Pearl Madison Abrams is an eighth grade student at Winchester Thurston School in Shadyside. Isla is a starting member and co-captain of the girls’ basketball, field hockey and lacrosse teams. She is also a three-year elected representative to the student council and was recently elected to be one of the three student officers of the middle school student council. This past year Isla took part in the state finals of the Science Olympiad as part of the Winchester Thurston team in Juanita, Pennsylvania. Isla has recently returned from a school science exploration in the Azores Islands in the Atlantic Ocean as part of research on volcanos and thermal mineral springs in Ponta Delgada. In addition to her school activities, Isla is a regular volunteer for J-Serve and the Community Food Bank. One of her favorite service roles is acquiring shoes for residents of the Golan Heights. Isla is the daughter of Avery and Patricia Abrams of Shadyside, is a member of Beth Shalom Congregation, and became a bat mitzvah on Sept. 7, 2019. Jacob Braydon Friedberg, son of Robyn and Marc Friedberg, will become a bar mitzvah at Adat Shalom during the Shabbat morning services on Saturday, Sept. 14, 2019. Grandparents are Natalie and Donald Milmaster, Edna Friedberg and the late Alan Friedberg.Sasha

Rabbi Aaron Bisno Parshat Ki Teizei Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19

his week’s Torah portion Ki Teitzei is comprised of more mitzvot or commandments than any of the other 53 Torah portions. By traditional reckoning, there are 613 mitzvot in the Torah; and no less than 72 (and some say 74) are contained in this week’s reading. These 70-some commandments touch upon a diverse array of concerns, including the treatment of captives and the rights of aliens, the protection of workers and the most vulnerable among us — including the poor, children and even lost animals. Yet there is a central idea that connects all of these concerns together. Indeed, this idea is so central to the Torah that it serves as an ethical plumb line running through all of Jewish ethics. “Lo tuchal l’hitalem!” Ki Teitzei demands — “you shall not be indifferent.” This brief package of Hebrew has been translated in a variety of ways: Do not ignore your responsibilities; do not hide or

withhold yourself or your help; do not refuse to get involved; do whatever you can to help. Do you remember in the first pages of Genesis when Cain asks of God, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” God’s response is immediate and clear: “Yes!” Yes, we are responsible for one another! Lo tuchal l’hitalem! And do you recall the wicked son from the Passover Haggadah who asks, “What is this to you? To you and not to me?” For his so doing, for his drawing himself outside the locus of concern for the people around him, this indifferent son merits the label “wicked” and is held up as the paradigm of evil. Lo tuchal l’hitalem! You shall not be indifferent is the essence of Judaism. And, given our comfort and (candidly) our facility with explaining why we needn’t care about the experience and suffering of others, Ki Teitzei’s message has never been more important than it is today. PJC Rabbi Aaron Bisno is spiritual leader at Rodef Shalom Congregation. This column is a service of the Greater Pittsburgh Rabbinic Association.

Gabrielle Kranson-Forrest, the daughter of Rachel Kranson and Jamie Forrest, is an eighth grader at The Ellis School. She enjoys art, theater, reading and cooking. She works hard at playing piano and can pop a wheelie on her BMX bike. For her bat mitzvah project, she volunteered through Repair the World’s Peer Corps program at the Sheridan Avenue Orchard in East Liberty. The Sheridan Avenue Orchard is a community garden where produce is donated to the East End Cooperative Ministries, and through this program Sasha learned about food insecurity and food justice. Sasha and her family are members of Beth Shalom Congregation and she will become a bat mitzvah on Sept. 14, 2019. PJC

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Obituaries HENDRICKS: Marilyn Hendricks on Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2019. Beloved wife of Leonard H. Hendricks Jr.; loving mother of Geoffrey Hendricks; sister of Judy Neborak, Beverly (Jason) Manne and Linda Weiss; sister-in-law of Wendy (John) Adelsberger; daughter of the late Joseph and Ilona Weiss. Also survived by nieces and nephews. Marilyn was a 1974 graduate of Allderdice High School. She then attended the Chaim Greenburg College in Jerusalem for a year and then the University of Pittsburgh. She worked in the accounting field in the 1980s and at the Rehabilitation Institute for five years. She also volunteered at the Humane Society animal shelter in Butler. Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. Interment in the national Cemetery of the Alleghenies, Bridgeville, PA. Contributions may be made to the Humane Society of Butler, 1015 Evans City Road, Renfrew, PA 16053 HORWITZ: Paula Horwitz, nee Klahr, 1923 - Sept. 4, 2019. Matriarch, devoted friend, mother, grandmother and wife of the late Dr. David Horwitz. Compassionate, hardworking, spirited and unconventional; with impeccable taste. Her house was always open to friends and newcomers — where friends often became family. She believed in perseverance and that any and every problem could be solved. She loved to work in her daughter’s optometric office until the

age of 95. Survived by her daughter and son, Dr. Roberta Horwitz and Steven Horwitz; grandchildren Aaron and Elena Jackendoff; and son-in-law and friend Sim Jackendoff. Paula is an inspiration to all. Services and interment private. Donations may be made to HIAS.org. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. schugar.com KURTZ: Shirley F. Kurtz, age 88, on Friday, Aug. 30, 2019. Born in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh to the late Joseph and Belle (Bronstein) Rothman. Beloved wife of 57 years to the late Saul Kurtz. Beloved mother of JoAnn Kurtz-Ahlers and Michael (Susan) Kurtz. Sister of the late Lois Goldman. Grandmother of Beth and Steven Kurtz. Also survived by cousins and many dear friends. Shirley helped many people during her lengthy career as a psychotherapist, and along with her husband Saul, contributed to many charities. Graveside services and interment were held at Ohav Zedeck Cemetery, Shaler Twp. Contributions may be made to a charity of the donor’s choice. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. schugar.com STEIN: Shirley Mae Stein (Marcus), beloved wife, mother, grandmother, aunt, cousin and friend, passed away on Sept. 9, 2019, in Pittsburgh. She was 93. A lifelong resident of Pittsburgh, Shirley graduated from the

University of Pittsburgh and worked as a professional before it was commonplace for women. She spent her career at Sears (ultimately, as buyer for women’s apparel) until her retirement. Shirley was happily married to Simon Stein for 48 years, until his death in 2008. She rejoiced in family — especially her grandchildren, nieces, nephews and their children — and delighted in making meals for gatherings large and small. Shirley is fondly remembered for her ability to make friends with people and to express caring wherever she went. No birthday, anniversary or other occasion went unrecognized. She had close, lifelong friendships with female cousins and women she met as far back as kindergarten. She took an active interest in everyone’s life, whether it was her grandchildren and grand-nieces, neighbors, hairdresser or the staff at the Penn Avenue Fish store who supplied her with whitefish and pike for her homemade gefilte fish for all Jewish holiday celebrations. Shirley was a former board member of the Women’s Auxiliary of the Charles Morris Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. She volunteered there and at Presbyterian SeniorCare - Woodside Place, going on field trips with residents of both institutions. An avid mahjong player, she played a weekly game for decades with cousins and friends. She is survived by her children Leon Stein (Jennifer) and Linda Stein (Dan Doyle); grandchildren Lisa

McKarns (Tom), David Stein (Melanie), Ben and Jon Doyle; great-grandchildren Kate Sickles (Michael), Jack and Will McKarns, Hannah and Taggart Stein, and Sammy Doyle; and great-great-granddaughter Eliza Sickles. She was aunt to nieces Marsha Heller, Joan Marcus (Adrian Bryan-Brown), and Abby Savitz (Nate); great-aunt to Michael Kamens (Carmel), Debby Adamo (Rich), Mindi Feldstein (Marc), Rachel Dragotta, (Phil), Sarah Savitz (Dan Stafura); great-great-aunt to Amanda and Courtney Kamens, Lilly and Jennifer Adamo, Carolyn Feldstein and Amelia and Talia Dragotta. She was sister-in-law to Victor Stein, Allen Stein (Marilyn) and Ruth (Stan) Jonas and beloved aunt to the Goldstein and Stein cousins, who adored her. In addition to her husband, she is predeceased by her mother, Sarah Marcus, father Abraham, brothers Bernard and “Cookie” (Raymond), sister Lillian Heller (Alex) and niece Carolyn Kamens (Aaron). The family extends special gratitude to Earlene Halliwell, who was a great friend and caretaker to Shirley during her recent illness. Graveside services were held at Beth Shalom Cemetery on Tuesday, Sept. 10th. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her memory to Hillman Cancer Center. Professional Services by D’Alessandro Funeral Home & Crematory Ltd., Lawrenceville. dalessandroltd.com PJC