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NOTEWORTHY LOCAL Shining a lens on immigration stories Squirrel Hill’s JCC features exhibit on migrant experience.
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Candlelighting 6:05 p.m. | Havdalah 7:03 p.m. | Vol. 60, No. 43 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
Times opinion editor, ’Burgh native Bari Weiss talks ‘news, Jews and views’
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Federation program highlights difficulty of life in Israel for Arab citizens
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By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer
Human rights warrior
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Rabbi Arik Ascherman stops in the Steel City. Page 4 LOCAL Wexner program returns
Landmark leadership program is accepting nominations. Page 6
daughter of community stalwarts Amy and Lou Weiss. She graduated from Community Day School, then Shady Side Academy, before heading to Columbia University where she graduated with a major in history in 2007. Since then, she has been a senior editor at Tablet, an online Jewish news magazine, then an associate book review editor and an op-ed editor at The Wall Street Journal. She currently is a staff editor for The New York Times opinion section. During Sunday’s question-and-answer format discussion with Rabbi Danny Schiff, Foundation Scholar, it became obvious why Weiss feels like she has no political home in contemporary America. She is adamantly anti-Trump, while advocating the repeal of the Second Amendment. She has no qualms about criticizing some current left-wing tenets such as its mandate for intersectionality and the condemnation of cultural appropriation, yet she described the NFL players’ kneeling during the national anthem as “the most elegant, honorable and respectful means of protest that I can imagine.”
rab citizens of the Jewish state maintain a vastly complicated life as evidenced by a presentation at a recent Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh event. The Oct. 23 gathering, which welcomed about 50 attendees to the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, featured a film, prepared remarks and a question-and-answer session with three visiting Israeli citizens. “This program is part of our efforts to promote shared society — an important part of Israel’s democratic and highly pluralistic, inclusive culture about which many Americans are not familiar,” said Adam Hertzman, Federation’s marketing director. “Many American Jews don’t have a full understanding of the complexities of being an Arab citizen in the State of Israel or of the challenges and many opportunities that come along with it,” agreed Kim Salzman, director of Israel and Overseas Operations at the Federation. “This event shed light on those complex issues.” Michal Steinman, director of the InterAgency Task Force on Israeli Arab Issues, shared a series of statistics at the evening’s onset to illustrate Israel’s relationship with “its largest minority.” “Arab citizens make up today nearly 21 percent of the total population in Israel, or approximately 1.7 million people,” said Steinman. “Eighty-five percent of the Arabs and the Jews in Israel live in all Arab or all Jewish towns or cities; and although Arab and Jewish towns are very often geographically close, Jews and Arabs don’t have many occasions to come into meaningful contact.”
Please see Weiss, page 16
Please see Federation, page 16
Current events were a topic of discussion when Bari Weiss, an opinion editor at The New York Times, shared the stage with Foundation Scholar Rabbi Danny Schiff at the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Community Foundation fall event. Photo by David Bachman By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer
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ari Weiss clearly feels at home in Pittsburgh. How could she not? Her featured appearance at the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh Community Foundation’s fall event last Sunday drew one of the largest crowds ever to a Federation program — more than 300 people, who greeted their hometown girl with rousing applause. Politically, however, Weiss, 33, has been “homeless for a really long time, and that’s still the case,” she told the crowd assembled for brunch at Rodef Shalom Congregation. Weiss, a journalist who is frequently criticized by the left for her conservative opinion pieces, caused a media stir last April when she left her position at the right-leaning Wall Street Journal for the progressive-leaning New York Times. “I’ve gone in the last year from being the most progressive person at The Wall Street Journal, to being the most right-winged person at The New York Times,” she said. Weiss is a true original, an independent thinker who grew up in Squirrel Hill, the
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Headlines Exhibit brings city’s immigration stories into focus — LOCAL — By Hilary Daninhirsch | Special to the Chronicle
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ut of Many: Stories of Migration” is a traveling exhibit highlighting the American immigrant and migrant experience through photographs and essays, focusing on Pittsburgh’s particular immigration stories. A precursor of the exhibit is currently on display at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh in Squirrel Hill and will run through the end of December, while a much more extensive version with almost entirely new content will open in January at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg. Five area photographers contributed to the exhibit, including Brian Cohen, owner of Brian Cohen Photography and founder of The Documentary Works, which produces collaborative photo documentaries focused on social and environmental justice. The name of the exhibit was inspired by the U.S. motto, e pluribus unum (out of many, one). “The premise at the heart of the project is that we all come from somewhere,” said Cohen. It also represents migration and how the stories change as people assimilate or move on. In addition to Cohen, who curated the exhibit, the other local photographers whose works will be featured are Scott Goldsmith, Nate Guidry, Lynn Johnson and Annie O’Neil. Currently on display at the JCC are 39 photos, all of which document various aspects of the immigrant and migrant experience from different angles and viewpoints. There is, for example, a section on Bhutanese refugees who have just arrived at Pittsburgh’s airport. Another photographer captured personal reflections on immigration, documented by photos of window
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p Brian Cohen’s photograph of Helen Nate is one of the photos featured in the exhibit.
signs with such phrases as “Stop profiling Muslims” and “My ancestors were immigrants.” By photographing its buildings, Cohen chronicled the numerous ethnic groups who, for a variety of reasons and circumstances, settled in Pittsburgh and its surrounding towns; the buildings now serve or have served as social institutions in which newly arrived immigrants would congregate for cultural or social activities. “Some represent communities that are still thriving; others represent communities that have moved on,” said Cohen. Captions accompanying each photo give a broader history of the particular ethnic group’s American immigration and specific information about how and when each group settled in southwestern Pennsylvania. For example, the photo of the Irish Centre of Pittsburgh represents the region’s Irish-American community, a microcosm of the almost
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two million Irish immigrants who settled in the U.S. between 1820 and 1860. Another photo is of the Bulgarian Macedonian National Educational and Cultural Center in Homestead. Founded in 1930, it is the oldest, largest and most active such organization in the country. A photo of Murray Avenue Kosher in the background with a Chinese lion in the foreground, taken earlier this year during the Chinese Lunar New Year celebration, represents the changing population of Squirrel Hill, showcasing that neighborhood’s established Jewish history as well as a more recent increase in the East Asian population. Cohen said that he chose to photograph buildings, such as grocery stores, private clubs or benevolent societies, as they have functioned as de facto social centers. The “Out of Many” project has been on Cohen’s radar for a long time. “We live in a
wonderful world, but it’s not perfect; there’s a lot we can talk about, and we have a lot to fix,” he said. “The idea is to get people talking in constructive and positive ways about something that seems to be a little heated, to create a space in which we can lower the temperature and be more empathetic and sympathetic to other people’s situations.” When the exhibit moves to the Westmoreland Museum of American Art, it will be significantly larger than the current showing at the JCC, with many more photos as well as extractions of essays from a book that will be published in January. Writer Reid Frazier will be writing a series of vignettes that describe the lives and experiences of recent immigrants, and Erika Beras, a frequent contributor to public radio programs, is compiling firsthand accounts of Pittsburghers who arrived here as part of the Great Migration. A future tool in connection with this project will be an interactive, location-sensitive digital platform. “We will place pictures and accompanying texts into the database and will ‘pin’ each item to a location that you can then find on a map. The tool will ‘know’ where you are and can tell you about migration-related stories that are nearby,” said Cohen. Through this tool, people also will be able to upload their families’ or their own immigration stories to a database, which will be pinned to a location. Cohen added that some area institutions, such as the JCC, Repair the World and City of Asylum, will be engaging in related programming in conjunction with this project. These organizations will have access to the materials for the purposes of encouraging positive conversations and interactions about the topic of immigration and migration. PJC Hilary Daninhirsch can be reached at hdaninhirsch@gmail.com.
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Headlines The power of Yiddish comes alive for this Pittsburgh native — LOCAL — By Hilary Daninhirsch | Special to the Chronicle
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espite reports of its demise, Yiddish is alive, though perhaps its muscles are weakened due to diminished use. However, if Miranda Cooper has anything to say about it, Yiddish will make a strong recovery, starting with her generation. Cooper, 23, a native Pittsburgher who grew up in Fox Chapel, is a fellow at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Mass. The center is a nonprofit working to preserve Yiddish culture and literature by rescuing books and supporting translation of books into Yiddish, thereby making it accessible to the larger Jewish community. The center also offers educational classes, museum exhibits and cultural programs. Cooper manages the center’s Translation Fellowship Program, the primary means by which it supports new literary translations. She also has an opportunity to study the spoken and written Yiddish language. Also, the center publishes a quarterly magazine, and Cooper works on its annual literary translation issue. A recent graduate of Williams College in Massachusetts, Cooper majored in English with a concentration in Jewish Studies. It was when she took a class in her sophomore year called “Ethics of Jewish American Fiction” that
she came to realize that the language used by some of the writers she was studying — Saul Bellow, Bernard Malamud, Isaac Bashevis Singer — was heavily inflected by Yiddish. Cooper said she had an epiphany that everything that was true about underlying Yiddish in American Jewish culture was part of her heritage. “These protagonists who were Yiddish-speaking and the way they spoke English, the experiences they had, the way they viewed the world, the Jews they became, these were my stories as well,” said Cooper. These realizations piqued her interest in delving deeper into Yiddish. After graduation, she took some intensive classes at Columbia College as well as a summer program at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, which Cooper calls “the biggest, oldest and most important Yiddish academic institution in New York City.” Cooper said that prior to World War II, more than 11 million Ashkenazi Jews spoke Yiddish, whether they were religious or secular. In the decade or so following the war, that number dipped to around 3 million. Though the Holocaust played a large role in its dissipation, shedding the Yiddish language was common, as Jewish immigrants attempted to integrate and assimilate. “Yiddish was a marker of the Old World,” she said, adding that another reason was the resurgence of modern Hebrew in connection with Zionism. Like many Ashkenazi Jews in the Diaspora,
Cooper’s great-grandparents did not pass along the Yiddish language to their children, so that by the time Cooper was growing up, the only Yiddish that remained in her household were occasional words or phrases, including a set of Yiddish refrigerator magnets. In fact, as a child, she didn’t realize that some of the words her mother inserted in language, such as tchotchke to mean knickknack, or schmutz to mean dirt, were Yiddish words. But once she started studying the language and hearing it in everyday usage, it confirmed her sense of purpose in studying Yiddish and how important Yiddish was to American literature. Today, in addition to many Chasidic communities, there are some other enclaves of Jews who speak Yiddish, with a rising interest in those wishing to learn. “In the past decade, there has been a big resurgence, a big Yiddish revival, as more and more people like me have discovered it was their missing piece of identity. Yiddish is a tangible way to have a cultural Jewish identity,” she said. For anyone interested in learning Yiddish (aside from taking in-person classes at select New York institutions), there are online classes, such as those offered by YIVO, as well as through the Workmen’s Circle. “Because the Yiddish studies world is small, teachers aren’t just adjuncts; these are the best Yiddish teachers in the country,” she said. Also, the language learning app DuoLingo is in the process of adding Yiddish to its platform of languages.
Perhaps one of the side bonuses of learning Yiddish is gaining an understanding of those infamous Yiddish curses, many of which are amusingly reminiscent of yesteryear. One of her favorites is: Vaksn zolstu vi a tsibele mitn kop in dr’erd! Translation: May you grow like an onion with your head in the ground! When she completes her one-year fellowship, Cooper is considering graduate school in Yiddish, Jewish studies or comparative literature. With Cooper’s love of American Jewish literature, it is no wonder that her dream is to become a Yiddish literary translator. She hopes to make a dent in some of the more than 39,000 Yiddish books in print that have not yet been translated into English, noting that to date, only about 2 percent of all Yiddish literature has thus far been translated. She is also a freelance writer and has contributed to Tablet magazine. Cooper acknowledges that it is up to her generation to keep Yiddish from becoming extinct and that it is her dream to raise her future children bilingually. “It’s a heavy burden to carry, and I hope that I can carry it, but I don’t see any other way. If we care about Ashkenazi culture and modern American Jews, then we have to care about Yiddish. If we’re prepared to let a language die, it’s like letting a culture die.” PJC Hilary Daninhirsch can reached at hdaninhirsch@gmail.com.
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Headlines Activist Rabbi Arik Ascherman visits Pittsburgh to promote new venture — LOCAL — By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer
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abbi Arik Ascherman, who for 21 years led Rabbis for Human Rights, an Israel-based advocacy organization, visited Pittsburgh last week to tout his newest venture, Torat Tzedek-Torah of Justice. Much less a dream deferred than a dream disturbed, Ascherman, 57, insisted that despite an organizational realliance, his calling remains unshaken. “I continue to be a rabbi dedicated to human rights,” said the Harvard-educated Reform rabbi. For decades, Ascherman, largely through RHR, has combated self-perceived injustices and other wrongs. His actions, which have attracted the attention of politicians, policymakers and others focused on Palestinian-Israeli relations, have rendered him both an internationally celebrated activist and a renegading pariah. In 2015, he was both feted with an honorary doctorate from the Chicago Theological Seminary and attacked by a knifewielding settler near Nablus. Such divergence of reception is now commonplace for Ascherman, whose first
foray into social justice came via his youth-group involvement nearly 40 years ago in Erie, Pa. The protests against anti-Semitism in France in the late 1970s, Arik Ascherman coupled with a “family that taught me to be conscious of the world around me,” paved the way for later activities as an undergraduate involved in the anti-apartheid movement, the J.P. Stevens boycott, farm workers’ rights and issues of discrimination on campus, he said. As an impassioned student, Ascherman found it frustrating that “people weren’t seeing the connections that I was seeing. Judaism and social justice were so entwined for me.” Such is why he eventually studied for the rabbinate, made aliyah and focused on causes including the protection of Palestinian farming lands and public housing in Israel. Decades have passed since the rabbi’s entry into activism. And although Ascherman’s allegiance to human rights has not abated, his attitude toward others has eased. “I’ve probably learned more about acknowledging that I don’t have all the truth and that good and decent people can have, on certain issues, different opinions,” he said. But even with such acceptance, a breaking
point still exists, he explained. “You have to draw a certain line when you talk about the fundamentals of respecting God’s image in every human being. And there’s a place where you have to be understanding to different points of view and also be able to say, ‘That’s it, this is the line that cannot be crossed because it is harming other human beings.’” These days, Ascherman perceives those infringements most notably in the actions taken against Palestinians and their olive trees. “Many settlements were created in the middle of a Palestinian olive grove,” and because of either fencing, building construction, vandalism or a refusal to allow Palestinian farmers access to the land, the olive trees have been destroyed, he explained. “In those places, we need to develop a plan of what it would take to reconstruct that land.” Within his solely staffed new organization, Torat Tzedek, Ascherman is working with mayors and farmers on a proposal to best manage the olive trees and adjacent land. Upon completion, “we would then create a table and present it to the army,” he said, before dismissing particular implications raised by his efforts. “Whatever the case will be, Palestinians still have a right to have roofs over their heads, and they still have a right to hold onto their land and enjoy the fruits of their labor,” he
said. “It’s not dependent on what eventual political solutions will or won’t be. As long as the occupied territories are going to be under Israeli sovereignty, that just increases our responsibility to respect the human rights of people we are going to have control over.” Ascherman welcomes dialogue on the issue. Immediately following his Pittsburgh talk at a private residence, the rabbi traveled to Providence, R.I., to meet with representatives from J Street U Brown and Brown RISD Hillel and to discuss “communities that are in immediate danger, such as the Palestinian village of Susya in the West Bank,” as well as “the challenges of power and whether Israel can still be called a democracy,” explained materials publicizing his visit. From that function, as well as others scheduled, newcomers to Torat Tzedek should understand that the organization functions from a moral base, explained its founder. “Human rights need to be above and beyond politics. Whether you think that the ultimate solution in the territories should be this or that or the other, we should all be able to agree that every person, including Palestinians, has the right to access their trees and put a roof over their heads.” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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Thank you for supporting the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Jewish Community Foundation at our recent fall event featuring Bari Weiss, staff editor & writer in The New York Times opinion section. We want to thank our generous sponsor, BilkeyKatz Investment Consultants. Invest in the future of Jewish Pittsburgh. Call us at 412.992.5224 to create an endowment today. We look forward to a successful year ahead.
The Jewish Community Foundation recognizes Beth Erlanger (left) with Bob and Lori Shure.
Ahmie Baum, professional advisory chair of the Jewish Community Foundation.
Dan Brandeis, Jewish Community Foundation director.
addressed more than 300 community members.
Steve Lande, former Jewish Community Foundation director, says farewell to Patti Flister, who recently retired after working for the Federation and Foundation for a combined 29 years.
Bari Weiss is originally from Pittsburgh. From left to right: Lou, Amy, Andi, Bari and Jack Weiss.
David Ainsman (left) and Gary Droz.
Meryl Ainsman (left), board chair of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, and Bari Weiss.
Lion of Judah endowments.
Photos: David Bachman
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Headlines National Jewish leadership program returns to Pittsburgh — LOCAL — By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer
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#MeToo A JEWISH PERSPECTIVE A T I M E LY S T U D Y S E S S I O N A B O U T HARASSMENT AND ABUSE WITH F O U N D AT I O N S C H O L A R
RABBI DA N N Y S C H I F F &
HILLEL J UC SENIOR J E WISH EDUCATOR
DA N I E L L E K R A N J E C
t’s a big community investment — $700,000, half of which comes from the generosity of local Jewish philanthropists — but the ultimate returns may be immeasurable. The Wexner Heritage Program, a two-year learning experience in select cities across North America, is currently accepting nominations for its 2018 cohort: 20 Jewish lay leaders and volunteers from Pittsburgh between the ages of 30 and 45 who have demonstrated leadership potential. This will be the third time Pittsburgh has participated in the Wexner Heritage Program; the Steel City was first selected to take part in the program in 1986, then again in 2007. “The purpose of the Wexner Heritage Program is to make an investment in volunteer leadership and to support them as they grow into their leadership in the community,” said Rabbi Ben Berger, the program director of the Wexner Foundation, headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. Berger was in town last week to meet with Wexner alumni and to speak with them about the nomination process for the 2018 cohort. The Wexner Heritage Program is run by the Wexner Foundation, the umbrella organization that operates programs such as the Wexner Graduate Fellowship for individuals seeking graduate training in Jewish communal service or Jewish studies, and the Wexner Israel Fellowship that provides public sector training in Israel. The Wexner Foundation was established by Les Wexner — chairman and CEO of L Brands (formerly Limited Brands) — and his wife, Abigail, 33 years ago.
“Les Wexner was a relatively young successful businessman and already had the Limited Brands that would become an empire in retail,” Berger said. “He came to the realization in a dangerous situation on a mountaintop in Vale and asked himself, ‘What’s my life for? What am I doing and how am I going to give more and do more? Am I going to give my money and my time to things I really care about and value?’ That was the way he came to start thinking about becoming a philanthropist. “Ultimately,” Berger continued, “he looked around the Jewish community both here and in Israel’s public sector and saw that we weren’t investing in our leaders.” Les Wexner took the matter into his own hands and assembled a group of friends in his home community of Columbus. Together they spent a year studying Jewish history and texts with prominent scholars. After that first year concluded, the group asked to keep studying together for another year, Berger explained. “That was 33 years ago,” Berger said. “And Les said, ‘if we can do this here, we can bring it to other communities.’ Pittsburgh was an early community, and it’s grown from there.” For many years, the program was funded entirely by the Wexner Heritage Foundation, but by the early 2000s it switched to a partnership model, allowing individual communities also to be financially invested in the program. “Those communities are still coming back even with the partnership model, which is a sign that it is working in the community,” Berger said. Such is the case for Pittsburgh. “In all Jewish organizations, or for that matter any organization or company, it’s all Please see Wexner, page 17
S U N D AY NOVEMBER 12, 2017 10:00 AM SQUIRREL HILL JCC LEVINSON HALL L I G H T R E F R E S H M E N TS P R OV I D E D D I E TA RY L AWS O B S E RV E D
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p From left: Lou Weiss, Lou Kushner and Lou Plung, members of the 1986 Pittsburgh Wexner cohort, enjoy an alumni event.
Photo courtesy of Ben Berger/Wexner Heritage Program
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Headlines Documentary delivers insight on the Philippines’ heroic efforts for WWII Jewish refugees — LOCAL — By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer
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little known story of great importance was shared with a small group on Oct. 22 in Oakland. “Rescue in the Philippines: Refuge from the Holocaust,” a 2013 documentary that details the incredible efforts of businessmen, diplomats, military members and foreign officials to save Jewish refugees during WWII, was shown at the Frick Fine Arts Auditorium on the University of Pittsburgh’s campus. The 57-minute film directed by Russell Hodge and Cynthia Scott-Johnson, which is now available on Amazon Prime, describes a largely untold story of how the five Frieder brothers, Jewish cigar makers from Cincinnati, partnered with Manuel Quezon, the first president of the Philippines, then Army Col. Dwight Eisenhower and Paul McNutt, an American diplomat and former governor of Indiana, to help more than 1,000 European Jews immigrate to the Philippines. The story mirrors the activities of those men, who, as Philippine-based poker-obsessed players, engaged in a calculated and maneuvering game of political bluffs and calls, against President Franklin Delano Roos-
p The Frieder family, circa 1930
p Refugees attend a dinner at the Frieder home.
Photos courtesy of Presidential Museum and Library PH (2010-2016)
evelt and the U.S. State Department. As the movie, which traces the late 1930s and early 1940s, reveals, upping the ante meant risking personal careers and human lives. But, like the sweet smell of sourced tobacco leaves from Mindanao, the picture’s conclusion is a delight, as viewers discover that the chips are still being counted from the players’ valiant take.
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The public showing of “Rescue in the Philippines,” which was the final installment in a five-part movie series, was hosted by the Philippine Nationality Room in the University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning and geared as a fundraising event for the group’s long-planned space. “We have raised $514,000 and have now been given a go sign by the university to start construction of the room,” said the Rev. Manny Gelido, chair of the Philippine Nationality Room. Fundraising efforts for what will be the 31st Nationality Room at the University’s Cathedral of Learning began in 2000, noted Jun Calejesan, project manager of the Philippine Nationality Room. And although monies have been raised to support initial construction costs, additional sums would still like to be generated for future student scholarships, added Gelido. Despite a small turnout, perhaps due to a conflict in timing with the Steelers game, the event generated great reaction from attendees. “It was a revelation to me and also heartwarming that we had a sense of common humanity to welcome the Jews at a time of great crisis,” said Gelido. “It’s not generally known that in World War II our community [did] such a great thing. It’s great to hear that a little country
Tickets available at www.jfedpgh.org/MNO All men in our community are invited to attend
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz @pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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Thursday, November 2, 2017 • 6:00 pm BYHAM THEATER 101 6th Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222
did this,” added Calejesan. E. Maxine Bruhns, director of the nationality rooms, agreed that the documentary offered previously unknown insights. “I was extremely moved by it,” said Bruhns, a nonagenarian whose late husband, Fred Bruhns, was a German refugee who served two years in a German prison for anti-Nazi activities. “It really captured the tragedy and the expanse and really made you stop and understand what people had gone through.” “Eisenhower, McNutt, Quezon, the Frieder brothers all made it work. They did something,” said Lee Feldman, a board member of the Pittsburgh Folk Festival and an attendee at the screening. “I never knew about the whole action that took place in the Philippines. I’m not an expert in the Holocaust, but I thought I knew a few things.” “This is the second time I’ve seen it, and each time is more powerful,” said Cynthia Calejesan. “Being a Filipino, it makes me really proud that a small country like ours was so welcoming,” she added. Broadening the message from the big screen, Gelido commented: “I wish every country would have that heart to welcome everybody.” PJC
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Calendar SUNDAY,
OCT. 29
The Kollel Jewish Learning Center presents Women’s Health Expo Heart & Soul from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, Robinson Building. Enjoy a healthy breakfast and informative sessions with featured speakers. There is a charge. Contact stacie@ kollelpgh.org to make reservations or for more information.
FRIDAY, OCT. 27 Itzhak Brook, M.D., will speak at Shabbat services at 7:30 p.m. at Temple Emanuel, 1250 Bower Hill Road in Mt. Lebanon. Brook will present “The Yom Kippur War — A Doctor’s Memories from the Battle Front.” He is an adjunct professor of pediatrics and medicine at Georgetown University School of Medicine, specializing in infectious diseases. All are welcome to the worship service, followed by an oneg.
In a collective service project, attendees and CDS families are being asked to bring donated items that morning for the Free Store 15104 in Braddock, founded and operated by Fetterman’s wife, Gisele Fetterman. Free Store 15104 receives surplus and donated goods and redistributes them to communities in need across Allegheny County. The conference will continue until 12 p.m. with student-led workshops designed to build participant leadership, teamwork and communication skills.
PASC District #3 encompasses all student councils in Allegheny County, serving as a leadership resource for hundreds of students and their advisers throughout western Pennsylvania. THROUGH SUNDAY, OCT. 29 Film Pittsburgh has announced the full lineup for the first annual Pittsburgh Shorts Film Festival — five days celebrating the best contemporary short films from around the globe. This year’s lineup features 90 short films from 20 countries, including narratives, documentaries and animated films. The festival takes place at the August Wilson Center for African-American Culture. Tickets and schedule information are available at FilmPittsburgh.org. SUNDAY, OCT. 29 The Jewish Genealogy Society of Pittsburgh will host Family at Your Fingertips from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Rauh Jewish Archives Detre Library, 6th floor Reading Room in the Heinz History Center, 1212 Smallman St. in the Strip District. Admission is free. Presenters will discuss current trends in genealogical research such as DNA testing, online resources for vital records, burials, naturalizations and newspaper entries and ways to share and collect information, all from one’s personal computer. The mission of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Pittsburgh is to provide a means for members and the community at large to reconnect with their Jewish roots in Southwestern Pennsylvania as well as in the countries and regions in which their families previously lived. Contact pghjgs@gmail.com for more information. Immediately following this event at 1 p.m. will be a presentation by Rabbi Barbara Aiello on Italian Jews during World War II. As the Nazi Holocaust took the lives of 6 million Jews across Europe, a different story played out in Italy. According to most estimates, around 80 percent of Italy’s Jews survived the war. What accounts for the
Chabad of Pittsburgh invites the community to Keeping It Together, celebrating Shabbat with thousands of Jews around the globe. The program begins at 6 p.m. with candle lighting followed by Kabbalat Shabbat and a special children’s program. Shabbat dinner is at 6:30 p.m.; there is a charge. Visit chabadpgh. com or email info@chabadpgh.com for more information.
The Beth El Sisterhood and Westminster Presbyterian Church will host the second interfaith program in the South Hills at 2 p.m. Eight women, representing Buddhism, Catholicism, Greek Orthodox, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Mormonism and Protestantism, will be part of the program, which will include a reading for peace, music, a question-answer period and a general prayer for peace, to be followed by a light dessert. The program will be held at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Upper St. Clair and is open to the community. MONDAY, OCT. 30 The annual AIPAC Pittsburgh program and dessert will be at 7:30 p.m. at Embassy Suites Pittsburgh, 535 Smithfield St., with guest speaker Mike Rogers, a former member of Congress from Michigan. Reservations are required by Oct. 15. There is a charge; dietary rules observed. RSVP at 410-223-4190 or aipac.org/Pittsburgh. WEDNESDAY, NOV. 1 The Zionist Organization of America will honor Lou Weiss with its Lifetime Achievement Award during ZOA’s annual tribute dinner and will also present two other distinguished Please see Calendar, page 9
MONDAY, OCT. 30 OneTable is relishing the moment and presenting an event aimed at teaching the history, benefits and processes to make all things pickled. OneTable’s chef, Sara Fatell, national community manager, is teaching the master class on both lactofermented and vinegar fermented foods and their places in Judaism, as well as in our diets. Guests at this first official Nosh:pitality with OneTable will start custom jars of pickles and kraut to take home, while also gaining skills that can be used to pickle anything and everything. The night includes dinner and drinks. OneTable is a social dining platform for Jews in their 20s and 30s that enables individuals to cultivate a Shabbat dinner practice. The program is from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Repair the World Workshop. Contact Carolyn Slayton at cslayton@jfedpgh.org or 412-992-5263 or visit shalompittsburgh.org for more information.
Secular Purim: Moishe House Does Halloween, 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. It’s the sixth annual Halloween party, and costumes are required for a night of candy, drinks and shenanigans. Snacks and some drinks provided, but contributions are always appreciated. All are welcome, so feel free to bring friends, partners, personal heroes, etc. Message a resident or the page if you need the address. facebook.com/ events/834161526742876/ Nearly 200 middle school students will gather at Community Day School for the 2017 Pennsylvania Association of Student Councils (PASC) District #3 Middle Level MiniConference. The theme of the conference for students in grades six to eight is “Putting the ‘Trophy’ in Catastrophe: Last-Minute ProblemSolving.” Braddock Mayor John Fetterman will deliver the keynote address beginning at 9:15 a.m. about how the student council leaders can become a positive force for change in society.
8 OCTOBER 27, 2017
Jewish survival rate in Fascist Italy? In her lecture, Aiello will focus on the southern region of Calabria, where she serves as rabbi of Congregation Ner Tamid del Sud. Calabria was home to Italy’s largest concentration camp, Ferramonti, where 4,000 Jews were interned. Extraordinarily, only four Jews perished in Ferramonti from an Allied bombing raid. Aiello will share stories of the Calabrian villagers and other Italians who protected their Jewish neighbors at great personal risk at 1 p.m. at the Heinz History Center, 1212 Smallman St. There is a charge. The Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives is the event organizer. Visit heinzhistorycenter. org/events/italian-jews-world-war-ii for more information.
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Calendar Calendar:
q THURSDAY, NOV. 2 Continued from page 8
members of the community with awards. Adrienne Indianer will receive the Israel Service Award for her love and support of the State of Israel. The Ivan and Natalie Novick Community Leadership Award will be presented to Ira Frank for his work with ZOA and other organizations emulating the Novicks, who were ardent Zionists. For information and reservations, call ZOA Executive Director Stuart Pavilack at 412-665-4630. The NarAnon Meeting and NA meetings take place every Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at Beth El Congregation, 1900 Cochran Road. Contact Karen at 412-563-3395 for more information. The Sivitz Jewish Hospice of the Jewish Association on Aging will be a sponsoring member of the national screening of the film “Defining Hope.” This documentary follows eight patients with life-threatening illness and the nurses who guide them to make critical choices along the way as they face death, embrace hope and ultimately redefine what makes life worth living. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. for the 7 p.m. screening at the Hollywood Theater, 1449 Potomac Ave.; a Q&A session on reactions to the film and a discussion on the importance of advance care planning will follow. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at hpnf.org/tickets.aspx. Watch the trailer at http://hope.film/trailer/. Contact info@hpnf. org for more information.
Christian Associates of Southwest Pennsylvania has published a collection of sermons, articles and other writings by local preachers. “I Was a Stranger and You Welcomed Me: Southwest Pennsylvania Preaches on Refugees and Immigration” brings together the work of 13 local Christian and Jewish clergy who address immigration from a biblical perspective. It is available for free download at casp.org/sermons; paper copies will be available soon for a nominal fee. The sermons will inspire conversation at an event co-sponsored by Christian Associates of Southwest Pennsylvania, the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh’s Center for Loving Kindness and Civic Engagement and All for All from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the JCC’s Robinson Building in Squirrel Hill. Preregistration for the free event is appreciated, though not required, by visiting casp.org/immigrantconversation.
q MONDAY, NOV. 6 As part of Beth El Congregation’s First Mondays Series, Dan Kamin will discuss “Charlie Chaplin’s Red Letter Days” from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; lunch is from 11:30 a.m. to noon. Kamin is a mime artist and Chaplin expert who trained Robert Downey Jr. for his Oscar-nominated performance in “Chaplin.” There is a $6 fee for this program. RSVP in advance at bethelcong.org or 412651-1168 by Nov. 3.
The National Council of Jewish Women Pittsburgh Section will hold its 47th Designer Days fundraiser at Thriftique, 125 51st St., NCJW’s upscale resale store located in Lawrenceville. Abundant free parking is available in the plaza lot. Buy tickets at is.gd/LttIkc.
Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. The panel will be moderated by Rabbi Sharyn Henry, Rodef Shalom Congregation, and consists of Rabbi Aaron Bisno, Rodef Shalom Congregation; Rabbi James Gibson, Temple Sinai, and Rabbi Daniel Schiff, Foundation Scholar at the Jewish Federation. There is no charge. Visit rodefshalom.org/calendar/rs-calendar for more information.
q SUNDAY, NOV. 5
q SUNDAY – MONDAY, NOV. 5-6
There will be a panel discussion based on the book, “Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resistance and Finding Joy” by
Going Beyond Memory, a conference on synagogue archiving, will be held at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. Visit
q THURSDAY – SUNDAY, NOV. 3-5
Insuring Our Community
Your Local Donegal Agent Since 1963! Together, Wagner Agency and Donegal provide insurance solutions for individuals and businesses in the Pittsburgh area. Stop by or call the Wagner Agency and discover the value of Donegal for your auto, home and business insurance.
americanjewisharchives.org for more information and to register. q MONDAY, NOV. 6 The Community Day School Class of 2018 families invite the community for Comedy & Cake featuring comedian Benji Lovitt from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at 6424 Forward Ave. There will also be an auction and dessert. The program will help raise funds to send the CDS eighth grade graduating class to Israel in the spring. RSVP and pay online at comday.org/CDSIsrael. Contact Jenny Jones at jjones@comday.org or Please see CALENDAR, page 10
6th Annual
Volunteer Mission to Israel April 22-29, 2018
Join us to see the beauty of Israel as we volunteer with hands-on projects in KARMIEL & MISGAV, Pittsburgh’s Partnership2Gether region in the Central Galilee. Want to learn more? Visit jfedvolunteer.org/mission-to-israel or come to an information session TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 7 6:30-7:30PM at Temple David of Monroeville
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 8 5:45-6:45PM at Temple Emanuel of South Hills
Refreshments will be provided. Dietary Laws observed.
5020 Centre Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Join us to speak to past Mission participants, learn about volunteering in Israel, and have your questions answered by lay leaders, the Volunteer Center and Partnership2Gether staff.
3510 Route 130 Irwin, PA 15642
www.wagneragency.com • (412) 681-2700
Questions? Want to RSVP? Contact Amy Cohen at acohen@jfedpgh.org or 412-992-5245.
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PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE
OCTOBER 27, 2017 9
Calendar Calendar: Continued from page 9 412-521-1100, ext. 3207, for more information. q WEDNESDAY, NOV. 8 The World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh will hold a luncheon with Ambassador Thomas Pickering from noon to 1:30 p.m. at the Duquesne Club, Main Room, 325 Sixth Ave. Pickering served more than four decades as a U.S. diplomat. He last served as under secretary of state for political affairs and has served as ambassador to the United Nations, Russian Federation, India, Israel and Jordan and holds the personal rank of career ambassador. This event is presented in partnership with the Iran Project. Visit worldpittsburgh.org/event/10299/ for more information and to register. q THURSDAY, NOV. 9 Temple David will present a Kristallnacht Commemoration and Holocaust Memorial Dedication at 7 p.m. at 4415 Northern Pike, Monroeville. For additional information, contact the Temple office at 412-362-1200. The Art of Grieving: Exploring One of Life’s Inevitable Experiences will be held at 7 p.m. at Rodef Shalom Congregation, 4905 Fifth Ave. Join Sheila K. Collins, Ph.D. as she shares her perspective on love, loss and healing. Visit rodefshalom.org/collins for tickets. The first 20 people to RSVP will receive a signed
copy of Sheila’s award-winning book “Warrior Mother: Fierce Love, Unbearable Loss and the Rituals that Heal.” Books will also be available for purchase the evening of the event. Visit SheilaKCollins.com for more information about Collins. The event cost is $15/public and free for Rodef Shalom members. q FRIDAY, NOV. 10 Shabbat Around the World, an Israeli-style Shabbat dinner, will be held at 6 p.m. at Chabad of the South Hills, 1701 McFarland Road. Call 412-344-2424 for reservations. The event website is chabadsh.com; the cost is $18/individual, $54/family max. q SATURDAY, NOV. 11 The Congregation Beth Shalom Centennial Gala, a party celebrating Beth Shalom’s 100th year, will be held from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. at the Pittsburgh Marriott City Center and will include dancing to the Boilermaker Jazz Band and DJ Jeremy Czarniak. The charge is $180 per person. Contact pghgala@gmail.com or visit bethshalom.org/events for more information. q SUNDAY, NOV. 12 The third annual Jewish Comedy Adult Night Out will be held at 7:30 p.m. at the Hollywood Theater, 1449 Potomac Ave., featuring Avi Liberman, who has performed on the CBS “Late Late Show” with Craig Ferguson and the Comedy Central network. Drinks and appetizers will be available. For more information and registration, visit chabadsh.
com or contact mussie@chabadsh.com or 412-344-2424. Event organizer is Chabad of the South Hills. The cost is $25.
translationfellowship@yiddishbookcenter.org or visit yiddishbookcenter.org/translationfellowship for more information.
q TUESDAY, NOV. 14
q THURSDAY, NOV. 16
The Jewish National Fund Western Pennsylvania, Tree of Life Award Dinner will be held at 6 p.m. cocktails, 7 p.m. dinner honoring Greta and Art Rooney II at the Omni William Penn Hotel. Contact JNF at 412-5213200 for more information.
Jewish Healthcare Foundation consultant Jonathan Weinkle, M.D., FAAP, will lead a continuing education workshop on building a covenant between patient and provider based on communication. The workshop runs from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the QI2T Center, 650 Smithfield St., Suite 2600. The cost is $30, which includes dinner; needbased scholarships are available. RSVP to Ben Johnston at bjohnston@prhi.org. Weinkle is a general internist and pediatrician at the Squirrel Hill Health Center, a clinical assistant professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Family Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and medical director of the Master of Physician Assistant Studies program at Chatham University. His first book, “Healing People, not Patients: Creating Sacred Relationships in Modern Healthcare,” will be published in December.
Chabad of the South Hills will hold its lunch for seniors at noon. The Mt. Lebanon Police Department will hold a safety presentation on frauds, cons and scams at 1701 McFarland Road. Contact barb@chabadsh.com or visit chabadsh.com for more information. There is a $5 suggested donation. q WEDNESDAY, NOV. 15 The Translation Fellowship Program is part of the Yiddish Book Center’s translation initiative to train and mentor a new generation of Yiddish translators and publish newly translated works. Up to 10 translation fellows will be selected to receive yearlong mentorship and training to complete booklength projects in Yiddish translation. Each fellow will receive a grant of $5,000 and will attend three two-day workshops at the Center to workshop his or her writing in a rigorous collaborative environment led by seasoned literary translators and other experts in the field. Applications are due Nov. 15. Contact Sebastian Schulman at
q SUNDAY, NOV. 19 Author Dorit Sasson will speak about her service with the Israel Defense Forces and her book “Accidental Soldier” at Parkway Jewish Center, 300 Princeton Drive. The program will be followed by brunch and an early opportunity to shop at the Sisterhood’s Chanukah Gift shop. Contact PJC parkwayjc@verizon.net or 412-8234338 for the time and more information. PJC
This week in Israeli history
Oct. 30, 1991 • The Madrid Middle East Peace Conference convenes
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The Soviet Union and the United States convene the Madrid Middle East Peace Conference, based on a two-track approach for bilateral as well as multilateral talks.
Items provided by the Center for Israel Education (israeled.org), where you can find more details.
Oct. 27, 1978 • Begin, Sadat win Nobel Peace Prize Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin are jointly awarded the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to bring about peace between Israel and Egypt.
Oct. 28, 1910 • First kibbutz in Israel is established
Degania Alef is established as the first kibbutz in Israel. The idea for a communally operated agricultural settlement in the land of Israel did not, however, originate with the founders of Degania Alef.
Oct. 29, 1973 • Egyptian-Israeli military talks begin at Kilometer 101
At the end of the October 1973 War, after several miscommunications, the first Egyptian-Israeli military talks between generals commenced. These talks take place at 1 a.m. in Israeli-controlled territory, 101 kilometers from Cairo. 10 OCTOBER 27, 2017
PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE
Oct. 31, 1917 • Beersheba is captured by 4th Light Horse Brigade
As part of the British campaign during World War I, the Australian 4th Light Horse Brigade overtake the Turkish defenders and capture Beersheba.
Nov. 1, 1965 • Sixth Knesset elections are held in Israel
The 1965 election preparations begin in June 1963 when David Ben-Gurion resigns as prime minister for the second time.
Nov. 2, 1917 • Balfour declaration is released
In seeking official government endorsement for the Zionist cause from a great power, the leadership of the Zionist Organization successfully obtains support from the British government in 1917 by way of the Balfour Declaration. PJC
PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG
Headlines Conservative movement doubles down on intermarriage, and its rabbis ask why — WORLD — By Ben Sales | JTA
N
EW YORK — “It doesn’t help.” “I don’t know how it happened or why it happened.” “The most common response I’m seeing is confusion.” That’s what some Conservative rabbis are saying about their movement’s recent major statement on intermarriage, which reasserts the ban on rabbis performing interfaith weddings while urging its member synagogues to welcome interfaith couples in any and all ways before and after the nuptials. The letter, signed by the leaders of the centrist movement’s four major institutions and made public last week, does not reflect a change in policy. “A lot of rabbis felt like this latest letter really is non-news,” said Rabbi Jason Miller, a technologist who serves as a part-time pulpit rabbi in Toledo, Ohio, and administers a Facebook group for Conservative rabbis. “To just come out and restate the ruling in a nicer way isn’t news, and ultimately it doesn’t help those families who are hurting.” The letter was prompted by declarations by
p A letter from Conservative movement leaders urges rabbis to welcome interfaith couples but reiterates a ban on them performing their weddings.
Photo by Justin Oberman/Creative Commons
a few Conservative-ordained rabbis earlier this year that they would begin performing mixed marriages. It affirms “the traditional practice of reserving rabbinic officiation to two Jews,” but emphasizes that its authors are “equally adamant that our clergy and
communities go out of their way to create multiple opportunities for deep and caring relationships between the couple and the rabbi, the couple and the community.” Despite the effusive language welcoming non-Jewish partners, several leading
Conservative rabbis are criticizing the letter, questioning why it was necessary and calling for the ban either to be lifted or modified. Some rabbis say the letter is at best repetitive and at worst damaging — another reminder to interfaith couples that the movement does not sanctify their marriages. The rabbis also complained that they were presented with the letter this week as a fait accompli, just days before it was published, without having the chance to offer feedback. “It comes off as digging its heels in the sand,” said Rabbi Jesse Olitzky of Congregation Beth El in South Orange, N.J. “It comes off as trying to be welcoming without being welcoming. We try to celebrate all those who are part of our community, and statements like this make it harder for us to do so.” Rabbi Jack Moline, the former rabbi of Agudas Achim Congregation in Alexandria, Va., and now a civil liberties activist, added: “This is a phenomenon we’ve been dealing with for a long time, and why this particular statement was issued at this particular moment is confusing to me. My objection to it isn’t that we shouldn’t be taking this position. My objection to it is there’s no ‘there’ Please see Conservative, page 17
How this pristine 15th-century Hebrew Bible survived the Inquisition One such manuscript is the Abravanel Hebrew Bible. Ranked by the university in a 2012 statement as its rarest artifact, the handwritten Bible from the 15th century is perfectly preserved. The book is filled with drawings
Spain and Portugal that fled to Amsterdam and the Balkans during the Inquisition — commissioned 20 such Bibles. The volume in Coimbra is among the best preserved of the handful whose whereabouts are known today. The book is worth north of $3 million,
manuscripts — inside a huge vault with special climate control and aerial disinfection facilities. The vault is typically only opened to By Cnaan Liphshiz | JTA scholars. Yet last year, Amaral offered a tour inside to see the Bible. There was a brief OIMBRA, Portugal — From its moment of confusion when the employee mountaintop perch, the asked to locate the book said she University of Coimbra could not find it in the index system. towers majestically over the downBut Amaral, who has worked at town square that used to be the the library for more than 20 years, regional headquarters of the Portushrugged and said calmly that he guese Inquisition. would have to “let the fingers do the It’s a fitting location for the looking” once inside the vault. 737-year-old university, the Amaral may have been laid back, seventh oldest in the world, which but he was anything but cavalier. outsmarted and outlived the He expertly navigated the labyrincampaign of persecution against thine vault — two cards with digital Jews and freethinkers unleashed by keys are required for access — while the Catholic Church and Portugal’s donning librarian gloves. He took rulers in 1536. care not to breathe directly on the “This place was almost literally an books he handled, so as not to ivory tower of knowledge during those introduce moisture. dark times,” António Eugénio Maia Alongside its technological soludo Amaral, assistant director of the tions, the library employs a uniquely university’s 500-year-old library, said. time-tested and green method for Thanks to the university’s undocpest control: For centuries, it has umented policy of subterfuge against been home to a colony of nocturnal, the Inquisition — Amaral said its insect-eating bats. In the evenings, librarians essentially hid many books p when the library is closed, the tables The 15th-century Abravanel Hebrew Bible at Portugal’s Coimbra University Photo by Cnaan Liphshiz beneath their flight paths are covered that censors would likely have wanted to destroy, reintroducing them to the with furs in order to protect them indexes only after the Inquisition was abol- on parchment that are so vibrant, they seem according to the university’s Joanine Library, from the bats’ excrement. ished in 1821 — Coimbra was in possession to have been recently created. which in 2013 was recognized as a UNESCO The University of Coimbra has little of a collection of rare, pristine Jewish manuThe Abravanels — a distinguished, World Heritage Site. That’s where the Bible is scripts found nowhere else. wealthy Sephardic family with branches in kept — along with hundreds of other precious Please see Inquisition, page 20
— WORLD —
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OCTOBER 27, 2017 11
Headlines Israel’s centrist leaders vie to replace Netanyahu — by taking his side — WORLD — By Andrew Tobin | JTA
J
ERUSALEM — The Israeli political scene has always been one of stark contrasts between the two most iconic, if not always most successful, parties: dovish Labor vs. hawkish Likud. While Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu drew huge numbers of settlers in his most recent election as prime minister, uprooting Jewish homes in the West Bank was taken for granted in multiple Labor-led peace efforts since party leader Yitzhak Rabin signed the Oslo Accords in 1992. But the head of the reliably pro-peace Labor Party defied that dynamic in an interview broadcast last week, saying he would not evacuate settlements as part of a final status agreement with the Palestinians. Avi Gabbay told Channel 2 that the notion this is necessary was mistaken. “I think the dynamic and terminology that have become commonplace here, that if you make peace, evacuate, is not in fact correct,� he said. “If you make a peace deal, it is possible to find solutions that don’t require evacuating.�
he is vying with Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid to be the centrist alternative to Netanyahu. Both men are adopting or withholding criticism of some of the prime minister’s positions in the process. And with some exceptions, Gabbay and Lapid have refrained lately from seriously attacking the prime minister, even as police investigations swirl around Netanyahu, his family and associates. According to Abraham Diskin, a political science professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, both Gabbay and Lapid hope to reach rightward and win over some of the prime minister’s traditional Likud supporters, which is why they can sound like him. “You really have to control the arithmetic center in the Knesset,� Diskin said. “That p Avi Gabbay at a news conference after winning the Labor Party primary means attracting defectors from the right wing, including the Likud.� in Tel Aviv Photo by Miriam Alster/Flash90 Gabbay first made headlines last week at a Various Labor leaders and others in the said Gabbay’s statement does not reflect the Shabbat event in the southern city of Beeropposition distanced themselves from Gabbay’s position of her party, which is allied with sheba when he declared that unlike other comments after they were aired Monday in a Labor. While Israel would of course retain Labor leaders in the past, he would not join preview. Under prime ministers Rabin, Shimon the major settlement blocs, she said, unfor- a governing coalition with the Arab parties Peres and Ehud Barak, Labor pushed for peace tunately “you can’t promise everyone they that make up the Joint List — of which Netanyahu is a frequent critic. based on the premise that settlers would have to can stay in their homes.� Gabbay’s comments seem to move his move across Israel’s new border. Please see Israel, page 20 Tzipi Livni of the center-left Zionist Union center-left party rightward at a time when
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Headlines Atlanta rabbi regrets Rosh Hashanah sermon that casts the left as enemy of the Jews — NATIONAL — By Ron Kampeas | JTA
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rabbi at a suburban Atlanta synagogue apologized for a Rosh Hashanah sermon after congregants complained that he appeared to cast the American left as inimical to the Jews. “The great threat that we face as Americans and as Jews comes not from the alt-right but from the alt-left,” Rabbi Shalom Lewis said last month in a High Holidays address to Congregation Etz Chaim in Marietta, Georgia. “Some are violent, rampaging criminals, others wear suits and ties, jeans and T-shirts. Some make no pretense of their disdain for America while others appear loyal citizens. Their tactics are different but their goals are the same.” Lewis, who stepped down as senior rabbi this year after serving the Conservative congregation since 1977, named the Women’s March, Black Lives Matter and the LGBTQ rights movement as representative of the left’s betrayal of the Jews because each movement includes strident activists for Palestinian rights. “As Americans and as Jews, we must pick a side,” the 68-year-old spiritual leader said. “And though it should be an easy choice it is confusing because the left claims the moral high ground, wrapped in what they define as tolerance, equality, sensitivity and decency when in truth their agenda is intolerant, unequal, insensitive and indecent.”
— WORLD — From JTA reports
September terror attacks against Israelis dip to five-year low Israel’s domestic security agency recorded 103 attacks against Israelis in September, the lowest tally in five years for a month considered especially tense because of the many Jewish holidays. The figure for September, published last week by the Israel Security Agency in its monthly report, is 25 percent lower than the average for September attacks in the years 2012-16. The attacks resulted in the slaying of three Israelis. Israeli security services consider September and October months with elevated risk of attacks because the Jewish holidays motivate Palestinian terrorists and their groups to carry out attacks. As in previous years, Israel closed its border crossings from the West Bank to Palestinians for the holiday period as a precaution. Also, Israel intensified preventive actions, including house searches and detainment of suspects. Earlier this week, 32 suspects were detained in a single raid by Israeli military forces across the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem.
p Rabbi Shalom Lewis
Photo courtesy of Congregation Etz Chaim
In an interview last week, Lewis said he regretted not making clear that he was referring to the radical left, not the entire left. “If I was to deliver that talk again, I would throw in more adjectives to describe the word ‘left’; that’s my teshuvah,” he said, using the word for repentance, “even though there were many people who clearly understood what the target was.” Lewis said adjectives he should have used include “radical” and “extremist.” Lewis emphasized that his apology was for how congregants understood his sermon and he stood by its message. In the interview, the rabbi described himself as a liberal who believed in rights for the LGBTQ community, women and blacks, but who was appalled at what he said was the infiltration of radicals into movements advocating for these groups, as well as into the Democratic Party. “I stated there also, the good Democrats
Also, earlier this week, Israeli troops raided Palestinian media outlets accused of inciting hatred, including ones affiliated with Hamas. In Hebron, the forces raided Hamas’ al-Quds TV and al-Aqsa TV stations, as well as the offices of Palestine Today, Transmedia and Palmedia, and confiscated equipment. In Nablus, Israeli forces raided the Transmedia and Palmedia offices and confiscated the equipment before closing the offices with a six-month military order, the Palestinian Maan news agency reported. Woman decides to leave swastika on defaced garage door A New York Jewish woman says she won’t be painting over the large swastika and anti-Semitic slur spray-painted on her garage. “I just want people to see it,” Debra Calabrese of Staten Island told the Staten Island Advance. “The people driving by can’t believe it. Nobody can.” The vandalism, which was discovered Oct. 17 on Staten Island, also includes the misspelled slur “Kyke.” Calabrese, who has lived in the house for 14 years, told the Advance that she was “devastated” by the attack. “It’s disturbing. It’s a horrible thing,” she said. She said police detectives collected evidence and then told her she could paint
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have to recapture the Democratic Party so it’s back to the center,” he said. Lewis noted that he is no fan of President Donald Trump. Lewis wrapped up his sermon, which was shared on the right-wing website Frontpage Mag, by likening the silence of Jews in the face of what he describes as the threat from the left to the “craven” Germans who failed to stop the Nazi rise to power. He dismissed concerns about the August march by neo-Nazis and white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, that ended when an alleged white supremacist drove his car into a crowd of counterprotesters, injuring at least 20 and killing one, then closed his address by citing the same demonstration. “My friends, Charlottesville is the price of freedom ...,” he said. In a blog post in August, however, Lewis had decried what he saw as the inadequacy of Trump’s response to Charlottesville. In the interview, the rabbi said there was no comparing the threat from the radical right to the radical left. “The threat from the far right regarding anti-Semitism, which is real, is certainly not as significant and not as great a threat that I see nurtured on the left, which is filtered through the lens of Israel,” he said. Lewis sent out a letter of apology to congregants after his sermon stirred outrage in the week following the holiday and read it to the congregation during Yom Kippur services. “I hurt and angered many with my words on Friday,” he said at the time. “I am truly sorry. In no way was my intention for
people to feel that I was demeaning their core values or beliefs. I perceive a threat to our shared values and beliefs, but I do not view anyone in our congregation as a moral culprit. I am shaken that folks I admire, love and call friends have been in a place of great distress these past days because of my sermon.” Lewis suggested in the letter that he would defer in the future to the counsel of the congregation’s senior rabbi, Daniel Dorsch. “I will do everything in my power going forward to support his success and vision for our future,” he said. In 2014, Lewis stirred controversy with another Rosh Hashanah sermon, when he was accused of dehumanizing Muslims. In that instance, he described in stark terms what he said were the 50 million Muslims who are radical. “The enemy has eyes and ears. Fingers and toes. Speaks with lips. Runs with legs. Eats. Drinks. Has the face of a human being — but has a much different heart and a much different soul,” the rabbi said three years ago, decrying what he called the “silence” of the remaining 950 million Muslims. The sermon reportedly earned the rabbi a standing ovation from the 2,000 congregants in the sanctuary. He told the Atlanta Jewish Times that critics of the sermon were “dishonest.” “I am proud of the sermon and would not change a word in it,” Lewis said at the time. “It is honest and needed to be said — now it needs to be heeded.” PJC
over the anti-Semitic messages. Earlier last week, anti-Semitic graffiti was spray-painted on a Jewish nursery school in Mount Kisco, a New York City suburb in Westchester County. Two swastikas were discovered Sunday on the wall of the Bet Torah synagogue preschool. The incident, which remains under investigation, is being treated as a hate crime by the Westchester County Police.
The poll was conducted Oct. 12-15 — amid the time that President Donald Trump said he would not certify Iran’s compliance with the deal. International inspectors say Iran is complying with its narrow parameters. Trump said it did not mean he was withdrawing from the deal but wanted Congress to reshape the deal, although it is unclear whether this is legally possible. If Congress did not succeed in amending the deal, Trump said, he would pull out of the pact. The support in the poll is a marked shift from public skepticism of the deal when Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, presented it to the public two years ago. Support in those days scored as low as in the 20s. SSRS over eight years has asked respondents to rate four countries — Iran, Russia, Cuba and North Korea — as threats to the United States. The perception of Iran as a threat has diminished in recent years: The high of 49 percent who viewed the country as a “very serious” threat was in September 2015, when the Obama administration was rolling out the deal. It is now at 30 percent. The most serious threat perceived in the current poll is North Korea, which 62 percent of respondents rated a “very serious” threat. The Trump administration and the North Korean government have exchanged threats of a nuclear attack in recent months. PJC
Two-thirds of Americans back staying in the Iran deal Two-thirds of Americans back remaining in the Iran nuclear deal, according to a CNN poll. The poll published Friday showed 67 percent of respondents favored staying in the 2015 agreement, which traded sanctions relief for a rollback of Iran’s nuclear program, and 27 percent said the U.S. should pull out. “As you may know, the United States and five other countries entered an agreement with Iran aimed at preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons,” said the question posed to 1,010 respondents by SSRS, a research company. “Do you think the U.S. should or should not withdraw from that agreement?” The margin of error was 3.5 percentage points.
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Opinion The right thing at the University of Florida — EDITORIAL —
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t took a declaration of a state of emergency and $600,000 worth of security, including snipers, paid for by taxpayers, but the appearance of white supremacist Richard Spencer at the University of Florida last week passed largely without violence. That’s a very different outcome from the August march Spencer led in Charlottesville, Va., that resulted in the death of a counter-protester who was run over by an apparent Spencer supporter. It’s clear that authorities in Gainesville learned the lessons of Charlottesville and provided enough security to dampen the possibility of riots and murder. They should be commended for their advance planning, which rendered Spencer’s provocative appearance just another exercise in unpopular speech. There’s no secret why Spencer chose UF for his appearance. The public university has the largest Jewish enrollment, 9,400 of 52,000 students, in the country. But Spencer’s ideology — he has advocated a white ethno-state that would exclude non-whites and Jews — is a threat to more than Jews. And student opponents of all backgrounds who turned out to protest outnumbered
p White supremacist leader Richard Spencer, center, and supporters clash with police after the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va., in August.
Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Spencer’s supporters. The day passed largely without violence, although a man wearing a T-shirt branded with a swastika reportedly was roughed up. We applaud the students who were witness to Spencer’s appearance but didn’t take the bait of his provocations. Spencer was asked if he is a racist. His
answer is instructive: “Race is real, race matters and race is the foundation of identity.” That’s true if you’re a racist. It’s real if a pseudoscientific division between humans is your top concern, and if you rally around provocative symbols of a white race. In his profile of Spencer in the Atlantic,
Graeme Wood contrasted Spencer’s prep school look with his fiery and hateful rhetoric. “His appropriation of Nazi tropes is relentless. In his notorious speech that ended in a roomful of fascist salutes, for instance, he referred to the mainstream media as the lügenpresse (‘lying press’), a Nazi-era smear against anti-Hitler media, even if Spencer flubbed the pronunciation. More to the point, Spencer’s ideas themselves are Nazi to the core, and he knows it, even if many of his followers do not,” Wood wrote. Right-wing radicals have lately been met in opposition by antifa, left-wing antifascists who are willing to use violence to oppose white supremacists and neo-Nazis. That thankfully did not happen in Gainesville. As antithetical as neo-Nazis and white supremacists are to us — we agree with the recent meme reminding all that the United States fought a world war which opposed Nazism — a violent response only escalates the problems that must be confronted by law enforcement that is trying to do its job to protect the rights of all. At UF, Spencer was typically smug and self-involved. He told his audience, “You know that what I’m saying here will change the world.” We embrace those in Gainesville who did their best to peacefully prove him wrong. PJC
The Plame truth about antisemitism in America Guest Columnist Gary C. Gambill
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o one born into this world makes it very far without developing subconscious prejudices of one kind or another. These socially constructed inheritances tend to lessen with experience and exposure to diversity, but no one truly escapes them. The challenge is choosing not to act upon the prejudices we have or tolerate their public expression by others. Americans have made great strides in expunging overt racism from the public sphere. Sure, it pops up among celebrities in moments of stress and inebriation (Mel Gibson, Shia LaBeouf), followed by disavowals if not always outright apologies (Gibson claimed a “nervous breakdown”). But public figures who repeatedly express explicitly racist viewpoints don’t get very far in this country. Anti-Semitism is another story, as we recently learned from Valerie Plame, the former CIA operative famously outed by officials of the Bush administration after her husband challenged its claim that Saddam Hussein had purchased yellowcake uranium in Africa. In the intervening years Plame wrote a best-selling memoir (subsequently made into a feature film), joined the board of directors of the liberal anti-nuclear Ploughshares Fund and
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The truth about anti-Semitism in America is that we are further away from dispelling it than we are other forms of bigotry. began commentating on wide-ranging issues. On Sept. 21, Plame tweeted out a UNZ. com article by notorious anti-Semite Philip Giraldi, entitled “America’s Jews Are Driving America’s Wars,” which called, among other things, for the media to “be required to label” Jewish commentators who support Israel “at the bottom of the television screen whenever they pop up … kind of like a warning label on a bottle of rat poison.” Plame had previously tweeted at least one of Giraldi’s rantings (“Why I Still Dislike Israel,” in 2014) and half a dozen other screeds from the same website (including a 2015 article claiming that Israel’s Mossad “has to be a suspect” in the 9/11 terror attacks). Having encountered only scattered social media reaction to like-minded tweets in the past, Plame’s initial reaction to angry responses on Twitter was to double down, insisting that “many neocon hawks ARE Jewish” and admonishing her followers to
“read the entire article,” which she called “provocative, but thoughtful.” Only when the backlash began to draw mainstream media inquiries did Plame begin to backtrack, first by implausibly feigning ignorance of both the article (claiming only to have skimmed it) and of UNZ.com, then with a more full-throated apology and letter of resignation from the board of Ploughshares Fund. What’s astonishing about this affair is that Plame wasn’t drunk or distressed in any way (unless she found the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah distressing), nor was she caught unawares on a hot mic. Her grotesque expressions of bigotry were premeditated, public and purposed, however clumsily, to advance a political agenda. And they were largely ignored until they reached the threshold of Zyklon B metaphors and forcing Jews to display outward identification. Even then the reaction among liberal commentators was apologetic
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and circumspect. Wa s h i n g t o n Post columnist Molly Roberts bemoaned Plame’s “casual, careless a n t i - S e m i t i s m” not because it is deeply unsettling to Jews or p Valerie Plame encourages the Photo by Larry D. Moore worst instincts in CC BY-SA 4.0 the rest of us, but because it undermines critiques of Israel “that might otherwise hold merit” and does a “disservice to those who want to have a wider discussion about Israel’s influence” in American foreign policy. Liberals tend to view rampant anti-Semitism in universities and other bastions of the far left in much the same way — if they acknowledge it at all. The truth about anti-Semitism in America is that we are further away from dispelling it than we are other forms of bigotry. Those who peddle overtly racist dogma do not sit on the boards of reputable NGOs, do not land lucrative speaking gigs and certainly do not get admonished in The Washington Post for carelessly undermining more legitimate criticism of African-Americans. Liberals for whom Plame was, and will likely remain, a cause célèbre should ponder why the equivalent cannot be said of anti-Semites. PJC Gary C. Gambill is a research fellow at the Philadelphia-based Middle East Forum.
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Opinion Eager for the U.S. to pull out of UNESCO? Not so fast Guest Columnist Kenneth Jacobson
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ere we go again: The issue of how and why the United States should engage with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is back in the news. The announcement by the Trump administration that the United States will be pulling out of UNESCO over its biased treatment of Israel is only the latest manifestation of a fraught relationship between America and this U.N. body. Established soon after World War II as an effort to ensure the de-Nazification in Germany and the promotion of democratic values, UNESCO took a more complicated turn in later decades. While still doing important work in preserving cultural heritages and reinforcing the value of education, science and culture, UNESCO also entered treacherous terrain in two areas: Reflecting its huge expansion in the 1960s and ’70s consisting mostly of new emerging states, it began to challenge Western notions of a free press and the independence of journalism from government; and, echoing the trend in the General Assembly and other U.N. bodies, it singled out Israel as an alleged major violator of cultural and religious sites dear to Muslims and Palestinians. This combination of behavior led the United States to take action on three occasions. The first was in 1974, when Congress
suspended appropriations to UNESCO because the U.N. body had excluded Israel from a regional working group. The second was in 1983, when the United States pulled out of UNESCO, saying the body has shown hostility to a free market and a free press. And in 2011, Congress again cut funding to UNESCO, citing the organization’s recognition of Palestine as a member, in violation of U.S. law going back to the early 1990s, requiring cuts to any U.N. agency if the “State of Palestine” were accepted as a full member. The arguments about U.S. policy toward UNESCO remain pretty much what they have been for years. Those who argue for leaving conclude that America should not be a party to an institution that engages in such egregious behavior. And if we are ever going to get UNESCO back to first principles we need to be firm, tough and consistent. The United States can always return as a full member, and for now can continue to provide American perspective and expertise as a nonmember observer. Pulling out is “a courageous and ethical decision because UNESCO has become a theater of the absurd and instead of preserving history, distorts it,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted in response to the U.S. announcement. Advocates of continuing support agree that UNESCO does disturbing things, particularly through resolutions passed by various committees, including its executive board, that condemn Israel and even, at times, seem to deny the legitimacy of Israel’s historic claims to the land of Israel. Still, they argue, the organization does a lot of good work in
the scientific, educational and cultural fields that particularly benefits less developed nations. This work includes Holocaust education and efforts to counter violent extremism. Moreover, proponents argue, even though the United States loses many votes, it should stay in and fund the body because the potential for influence and changing minds is far greater from inside than outside. And since most of the voting decisions are made by member-states themselves, the United States is best positioned to change behaviors through direct diplomacy with those countries and not through punishing UNESCO itself. Then there are questions of timing and context. UNESCO’s executive board just elected a new director of the organization, turning down the original favorite, Qatari diplomat Hamad bin Abdulaziz al-Kawari, who is known for his history of anti-Semitism. Instead they chose a French diplomat, Audrey Azoulay, a former culture minister who also happens to be Jewish. While Azoulay has voiced criticism of Israel in the past, she at least offers the possibility of tempering the institution’s bias against the Jewish state. While the director-general does not have the power to cancel votes, the outgoing diplomat in that position, Irina Bokova of Bulgaria, was an outspoken critic of anti-Israel politicization at UNESCO and made great efforts behind the scenes to mitigate extreme campaigns. Should we not give Azoulay a chance to improve the situation? On a broader scale, the Trump administration’s decision comes at a time when our
allies and adversaries are questioning American leadership in the world. With all the mistakes of our foreign policy, U.S. leadership for almost 70 years has been good for the world and good for the Jewish people. In that regard, this move may well be seen as inconsistent with American values and tradition, and one more step of dismantling the unique role America has played on the world scene for decades. In sum, despite its legitimate concerns, America will be shooting itself in the foot by leaving. Both sides make legitimate claims. This is no slam dunk. It is always encouraging to see a U.S. administration taking a strong principled position based on its rejection of institutional bias against the State of Israel. This sets a good example. If only many of our allies would be as interested in standing up for Israel when it is under unfair attack, Israel not only would be in a better place, but chances for peace would increase and the reputation and functioning of the United Nations would rise to a higher level. The most recent UNESCO vote condemning Israel for its actions in Hebron did show more nations willing to abstain or even vote “no,” but not nearly enough to change the outcome. The U.S. decision on UNESCO has been announced, but there is still time before it is implemented. A further discussion and assessment are in order even if we end up in the very same place. PJC Kenneth Jacobson is deputy national director of the Anti-Defamation League.
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— CORRECTION — In the Chronicle’s Oct. 6 opinion piece “A political journey,” the location of unrecognized Bedouin communities was misreported. The sentence in question should be, “In Israel proper, only 11 of 46 Negev Bedouin villages are recognized.” The Chronicle regrets the error. PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG
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Headlines Weiss: Continued from page 1
Eloquent and persuasive, Weiss skillfully justified how and why each of her varied opinions was sound and rational throughout the one-hour conversation, which appropriately covered “News, Jews & Views” — in that order. Schiff began the conversation asking Weiss to describe her political outlook and inquiring whether she had been more comfortable working for The Wall Street Journal than The New York Times. It was the Journal’s response to Trump, she said, that was the impetus for her to change jobs. She described the mix of views on Trump among the staff at the Journal and the paper’s ultimate decision to “be neutral” to Trump, then to move toward a “pro-Trump stance.” “I’m thrilled to be at The New York Times,” she said, adding that she is still writing the same sorts of pieces that she wrote while at the Journal but is now viewed as “provocative,” has a broader audience and is “engaging with people who don’t agree with me.” Yet, despite a generally conservative bent, Weiss is not shy about vehemently criticizing the president, especially when it comes to his “attacking the role of a free press
in a democracy.” “Trump is acting like an autocrat,” she said. “I see that as a really troubling sign of what could come.” Weiss also called to task the media for “letting Trump be the assignment editor,” and allowing him to dictate the news of the day by any random Tweet. “We are letting ourselves be distracted by Trump being a master of chaos,” she said. Weiss is also deeply concerned by the “ideology that fueled Trump’s rise,” she said. “We can’t take that seriously enough.” But what keeps her up at night, she said, first, is the fact that “this man is in charge of our national security, that he is in charge at the end of the day for our safety.” The security issue was the reason why she could not vote for Trump “or absolve those who did.” Her second major concern when it comes to Trump is his character. “One thing the conservatives have gotten right is emphasizing that character matters,” Weiss stressed. “Trump has proved the conservatives were right.” Weiss sees the faults of the left with comparable acumen, particularly its emphasis on “identity politics” which have “gone extremist,” she said. Switching from news to Jews, Schiff questioned Weiss on the concept of chosenness, which led the journalist to a discussion on
the recent Harvey Weinstein debacle and how the fact that Weinstein is Jewish has not been exploited either in the media or in her own private conversations. While “decades ago, something like this would have sent most Jews into a state of nervousness about what it meant for the Jews,” Weiss said, the fact that Weinstein’s Jewishness is hardly mentioned shows that Jews are in a “place where we are comfortable in our skin.” The discussion turned to anti-Semitism in America, and while Weiss sees no immediate threat to Jews’ safety here, she does see warning signs similar to those in Europe 20 years ago and cautions Jews to pay attention. “I’d rather catch the cancer at stage one than at stage four,” she said, emphasizing that the threats against Jews historically can come just as readily from the left as from the right. “There is hostility on both sides,” she said. Weiss has written opinion pieces on anti-Semitism veiled as anti-Zionism, including a piece about last spring’s Women’s March, organized in part by Muslim activist Linda Sarsour, who famously Tweeted: “Nothing is creepier than Zionism.” “It bothers me that those of us raising the alarm about anti-Semitism veiled as anti-Zionism have been dismissed,” she said. Schiff turned to the challenge of engaging the support of young Jews for Israel. “In most liberal arts colleges, Israel is not
details the struggles of the Arab-Israeli filmmaker’s struggles of leaving her childhood home in Fureidis, an Arab village near Haifa, relocating to Tel Aviv and attempting to engage in a romantic relationship with her Canadian-Jewish boyfriend, who arrived in Israel roughly five years earlier. More than juxtaposing rare moments of
Steinman. “[There is a] level of tension that we see in Israel between Jews and Arabs, and closing the socioeconomic gaps will not be enough.” “As Arab citizens in Israel, we always need to prove our loyalty to Israel, [but] I don’t need to prove anything to anyone. I was born in Israel. I pay my taxes,” said Ghaida Rinawi-Zoabi, director of the Injaz
cool because it’s seen as the last standing bastion of white colonialism in the Middle East,” Weiss explained. “There is cache right now with being a victim. Oppression gives you moral high ground and moral standing. It’s hard for a college student to stand up for Zionism and being a Jew.” There needs to be a shift in thinking, she said, from Zionism being a colonial problem to being a “movement of restoration. Israel is the origins of our people. It’s important for students to know their history. It’s important for them to understand that the fundamental truth and justice of the Jewish story is crucial to fight back against anti-Zionism on college campuses.” The “views” portion of the discussion shifted rapidly from topic to topic, ranging from the struggle at the Kotel between the Orthodox and the non-Orthodox, to contemporary feminism, to how being a Jew from Pittsburgh has influenced her work as a journalist. The Pittsburgh Jewish community, Weiss said, is “haimish, down-to-earth and grounded” and has informed how she views the world. Being Jewish, she added, “is the most important part of my identity. Being a Jew has never been anything other than a source of pride for me.” PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
no segregation, not by law, but by de facto.” The discrimination that exists is showcased Continued from page 1 both by the lack of Arab hospitals, towns or universities that have been established by the The failure to assimilate is demonstrated Israeli government, as well as other public not only by “mixed cities,” where Arab and works fiascos, including the general inaccesJewish residents largely reside in separate sibility of easy public transportation for Arab neighborhoods, she explained, but by the citizens and the paltry road signs denoting separate Jewish and Arab educamajor Arab villages along hightional systems, which exacerbate ways, she said. “The discrimination linguistic barriers. is very sophisticated, and you have It is in “the common good of to be very sophisticated to fight this all Israelis” to create educational discrimination.” chances for positive interactions While discrimination may exist, since those activities ultimately the high court has ruled that there reduce fear and foster greater are “equal rights to all citizens,” understanding, noted Myriam countered Steinman, repeating Darmoni Charbit, director of civic Zoabi’s statement that “there is no and peace education at the Center apartheid in Israel.” for Educational Technology. “Building a shared society is a Similarly, without such beneficial huge challenge in Israel,” but it is engagements, not only does segreachievable through education, said gation spur ignorance, but it also Charbit, who along with her co-pretriggers a socioeconomic burden senters provided a framework for on Israel’s citizens, added Steinman. following up the discussion. Arabs often “live more in the “Get informed and educated,” periphery; are less urban; are undersaid Zoabi. “Democracy in Israel is served in terms of public transportathe most important issue to work tion and health services in industrial on and pursue.” zones around Arab municipaliFor those visiting Israel, make ties; are less budgeted in terms of p Ghaida Rinawi-Zoabi and Myriam Darmoni Charbit Photo by Jim Busis sure to see Arab villages and infrastructure and building; have discover their world, because “if you low, and low-quality employment go to Israel, you’ll see Arabs who are rates; underperform in public schools; and are hilarity against an otherwise serious subject, Center for Professional Arab Local Gover- thirsty for integration and who want to be a under-represented in higher education.” the 57-minute movie from 2010 was repre- nance, adding that she is often “treated as a partner in all aspects of society,” said Steinman. These particulars create a statistical reality sentative, explained the speakers. second-rate citizen.” That face-to-face encounter is key, agreed in which “over 50 percent of Arab families “The story of Israel is really the stories of During the question-and-answer session, Charbit, a former civics teacher, before live in poverty, compared with less than 14 the people of Israel,” said Charbit. Zoabi was asked about similarities between offering a final piece of advice to those percent of Jewish families, and all Arab towns But over the past 10 years there have been Israel’s treatment of Arab citizens and South present: “Learn about the issues with people are rated among the four lowest economic two basic messages from the Israeli govern- Africa’s former implementation of apartheid. who are the issues.” PJC rankings for municipalities,” she said. ment: integration through economic develop- Quick to bifurcate the two governments’ Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz A docudrama offered an illustration of ment and exclusion through polarizing rhetoric. behaviors, Zoabi answered, “Israel is not an the challenges. Ibtisam Mara’ana’s “77 Steps” And bridging those ideas is no quick fix, noted apartheid state. There is no racism. There is @pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
Federation:
16 OCTOBER 27, 2017
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Headlines Wexner:
“ The Wexner program is the kind of learning
Continued from page 6
about the people,” noted Jeff Finkelstein, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, which is responsible for raising about $350,000 for the program. “Wexner is one of the greatest ways to invest in Jewish leadership development.” Wexner graduates have gone on to chair the Federation’s board, take on positions at the national Federation level and head other Jewish institutions throughout the city, including the Jewish Association on Aging, Friendship Circle and day schools. “The Federation is helping to bring this program back to Pittsburgh to benefit the entire Jewish community,” Finkelstein said, emphasizing that the fundraising for Wexner is separate and apart from the Federation’s annual campaign. More than half of the money needed to fund the 2018 cohort already has been raised, with Wexner alumni being the first to step up to the plate to donate, according to Finkelstein. Since its launch, the Wexner Heritage Foundation has educated Jewish leaders in 33 communities across North America. “We create cohorts of 20 local members in each community we are in and, over the course of two years, provide a deep Jewish and leadership education that we intend will energize them as a class to be collaborative, to be confident and informed and to be ready as a Jewish volunteer leader,” said Berger. It is that fostering of collaboration that can yield the most community impact, according to Danny Rosen, a member of the 2007 cohort and co-chair, along with Sue Berman Kress, of
Conservative: Continued from page 11
there. Why am I focused on this right now? Everything about it seems to be random.” The Conservative movement has long attempted to straddle the question of intermarriage — neither accepting it like Reform Judaism nor declaring it anathema like much of the Orthodox movement. Its ambivalence toward mixed marriages comes from the movement’s mission to observe Jewish law while embracing the modern world — and from congregations that include both traditionalists and, like a majority of American Jewish communities, families affected by interfaith marriage. Conservative Jewry falls in the middle when it comes to the data on intermarriage. About a quarter of Conservative Jews are intermarried, compared to almost no Orthodox Jews and half of Reform Jews, according to the Pew Research Center. “We are committed to the principles of inclusiveness and welcoming and human dignity of all people,” said Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson, dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in Los Angeles, who wrote the letter. “We’re also committed to the principles of the integrity of Jewish law and commanded-ness.” The prohibiting-yet-welcoming posture isn’t new. It’s the same stance that the Rabbinical Assembly took in 1972, when the associ-
opportunity that no one city could provide, because they bring in scholars from around the country and have resources that no one city
”
could have. It is a really unique experience.
— SUE BERMAN KRESS, CO-CHIAR OF THE WEXNER ALUMNI GROUP
the Wexner alumni group for the region. The “real power of Wexner,” Rosen said, is bringing 20 people together to learn and think about “how we can have better influence in the region. The ripple effects of these relationships and connections and networking benefit the Jewish community tremendously.” Rosen, who was the board chair of AgeWell Pittsburgh when he began the Wexner program, has since expanded his service to the community by chairing and serving on a variety of boards and commissions both within and beyond the Jewish community, including the Friendship Circle, the Jewish Healthcare Foundation and the Federation. While Wexner does not specify outcomes for individual communities, the foundation hopes that “with the investment, each one of these 20 people will pay it back in some way. We believe that leaders will lead, and they will find ways to lead, they just need the skills and the support of the community to do it.” While the academic aspect of the program extends through a two-year term, those at the
foundation think of it as “a lifetime experience, because you enter into a network of 3,000 alumni, which includes not only the Wexner Heritage Program, but also includes alumni from our Wexner Graduate Fellowship and our Wexner Israel Fellowships,” Berger said. “And through each of these programs, if you see what many of them are doing across the United States and in Israel’s public sector, they are running great institutions, they are at the forefront of great leadership throughout.” Kress, who was part of the 2007 Pittsburgh cohort, is a case in point. She is currently serving as chair of Hillel Jewish University Center’s governance and human resources committees; chair of Women’s Philanthropy for the Federation; co-chair of a new Federation young adult task force; and as a lay leader of AgeWell Pittsburgh. Kress also sits on a nonprofit board outside the Jewish community, she said. Kress praised the program’s scope and impact. “The Wexner program is the kind of learning opportunity that no one city could provide, because they bring in scholars from
ation of Conservative rabbis adopted a paper prohibiting interfaith marriage. Written by Rabbi Aaron Blumenthal, the paper urged that “every effort should be made to retain contact with the intermarried couple,” who “deserve our deep concern,” according to the Jewish thought journal Zeramim. Similar language appeared in a June statement from the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, which restated the ban and urged the movement to “expand our efforts to welcome all families, including those that are interfaith, to explore Judaism together with us.” Artson says the language of welcoming is more assertive in this letter than in past statements, and that the unanimity it represents among Conservative institutions makes it especially powerful: It was co-signed by Arnold Eisen, the chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary; Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, CEO of the Rabbinical Assembly; and Rabbi Steven Wernick, CEO of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. Artson said he consulted with 15 young, up-and-coming rabbis while writing the letter. “The fact that we periodically reaffirm our core convictions is part of being a healthy organization,” he said. “Christians have been believing in Jesus for a long time, but they keep sharing the good news.” Artson portrayed the letter as another stage in a long process of re-evaluating the ban. Conservative rabbis are prohibited
from officiating at or even attending intermarriages; failure to heed the ban is one of three ways a Conservative rabbi can be expelled from the Rabbinical Assembly. The other two are performing a conversion that violates Jewish law and performing a wedding of someone who was married but did not have a Jewish divorce. Several rabbis have already run afoul of the officiation ban. Seymour Rosenbloom, a retired Philadelphia rabbi, was expelled from the Rabbinical Assembly in December for performing an intermarriage. In June, the Conservative-ordained clergy at B’nai Jeshurun, an influential, nondenominational New York synagogue, announced that they would begin performing intermarriages. So did Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie, a JTS ordainee who heads the experimental congregation Lab/Shul in New York. “More and more rabbis feel uncomfortable and even brokenhearted at being caught between the call to serve all of their families, and between the requirement of the Rabbinical Assembly,” said Rabbi Adina Lewittes of Sha’ar Communities in New Jersey and an interim rabbi at B’nai Jeshurun. For intermarried couples, she said, the ban “causes them to question the appropriateness of their belonging in that community. It causes, often, a fatal blow to the relationship.” A Rabbinical Assembly commission has been examining the intermarriage prohibition, and Artson expects the group’s Jewish
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around the country and have resources that no one city could have,” she said. “It is a really unique experience.” Being a member of Wexner is also a “lot of hard work,” she added. “The sessions are four hours long, twice a month for two academic years. You also commit to three weeklong retreats in the summers. And there’s work to be done between sessions.” The retreats “take place in idyllic locations in the mountains out West, in Colorado and Utah, and one of them is in Israel,” said Berger. The instructors of the sessions at the retreats and throughout the academic year “are the highest caliber” Jewish educators. The course covers Biblical history through modern Jewish history, as well as the rabbinic period and contemporary Jewish leadership challenges. The program is entirely free to those chosen to participate. The application process begins with a nomination by an executive professional from one of the local Jewish community agencies or synagogues, or by a Wexner alum. Applicants are then required to submit essays on Jewish identity and their understanding of Jewish leadership. The Wexner Foundation in Columbus forms a committee that reads the applications, then chooses and interviews finalists. Local alumni are not involved in the final selection of the Pittsburgh cohort. Nominations close on Oct. 31. “The experience is just unmatched,” said Kress. “And it’s been a great investment in the community,” she said. PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
law committee to re-examine the ban soon. One change might be a lifting of the ban on attending intermarriages performed by others, he suggested, something his letter “cracked open the door” to by recommending that rabbis be present throughout the wedding process for interfaith couples. This year, the movement took another step toward integrating interfaith couples by voting to allow synagogues to admit non-Jews as members. Some of the rabbis who spoke about the issue said the movement could go a step further, crafting a ceremony for interfaith couples that does not conform to the traditional Jewish wedding ritual, called kiddushin. Rabbi Menachem Creditor of Congregation Netivot Shalom in Berkeley, Calif., noted that the option for such a ceremony already exists in Conservative liturgy for same-sex couples. “If the Conservative movement is truly a pluralist movement, there is room for more than one opinion even on the biggest questions,” he said. “Jewish law and tradition can sanctify anything in the world.” Miller, the Ohio rabbi, said the ban personally affected him when he couldn’t attend his cousin’s interfaith wedding — an abstention he said he would not repeat. “I didn’t go to my cousin’s wedding because he married a non-Jewish woman, and it caused an unhealable fissure in our relationship,” he said. “I can’t afford for those relationships to be so hurt.” PJC OCTOBER 27, 2017 17
Celebrations B’nai Mitzvah
Sarah Goldenberg, daughter of David Goldenberg and Pamela Teano, will become a bat mitzvah on Saturday, Oct. 28 at Temple Emanuel of South Hills. Sarah is the granddaughter of Calvin Goldenberg, Ann Goldenberg, Charles Jackson and Jeanie Johnson.
Zachary Charles Friedberg, son of Robyn and Marc Friedberg, will become a bar mitzvah at Adat Shalom during the Shabbat morning service on Saturday, Oct. 28. Grandparents are Donald and Natalie Milmaster and Edna Friedberg and the late Allan Friedberg.
Dalia Kolko, daughter of Eydie and Adam Kolko, will celebrate becoming a bat mitzvah on Saturday, Oct. 28 at Congregation Beth Shalom. Dalia has an older sister, Elana. Dalia is the granddaughter of Yael and David Moses, Dvorah Kolko and the late Myron Kolko. Dalia attends Community Day School, and her hobbies are musical theater, sports, training her dog, Toby, and going upstreet with friends. Dalia completed the Volunteer in Training program at the Friendship Circle and looks forward to continued participation in the coming year.
Julian Alexander Gass, son of Aimee Miller and Martin Gass, will become a bar mitzvah on Saturday, Oct. 28 at 10:30 a.m. at Rodef Shalom Congregation. Grandparents are Bernard and Ravenna Palkovitz Miller and Rita Randazzo.
Torah The danger of greed Rabbi Sharyn Henry Parshat Lech Lecha Genesis 12:1-17:27
R
Even as I recognize my own needs
abbi Aaron Bisno likes to tell me that when he had a golden retriever (now I have a retriever mix), he tried to teach her that “it is better to give than retrieve.” While dogs follow, for the most part, their instincts, human beings can aspire to act in accordance with ethical and moral values and sacred teachings. For Jews, Torah is our guide. Lech Lecha contains an important lesson about prosperity and how we might best put our good fortune to use. When commanding Avram to leave his homeland, God promised
to buy what I don’t need, I hope never to equate my possessions with my very being. him that in his new location he would merit to have children and become a great nation, he would become wealthy, and he would become well-known and respected (Bereshit 12:1-2). The promise is fulfilled, as the text tells us, “Now Avram is “severely (kaved) wealthy.” (13:2)
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The word kaved is an interesting choice and one that is not usually associated with wealth. In fact, kaved is most often translated as “heavy.” Are we to understand from this verse that having a lot of money can be a heavy burden? As the story unfolds we learn that while Avram and Lot both become wealthy, Avram’s character remains unchanged with the accumulation of wealth; Lot wants more
and more. In fact, Lot ultimately leaves the Promised Land in search of a place where he can acquire even more wealth. In “The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don’t Need,” Juliet B. Schor explores why so many Americans feel materially dissatisfied, regardless of how much they have. I was startled by the title of Chapter Four: “When Spending Becomes You.” Even as I recognize my own needs to buy what I don’t need, I hope never to equate my possessions with my very being. The story of Lot and Avram ends with a clear message about greed: “Avram [is] on the heights, Lot down on the sunken plain.” I’m pretty sure the Torah is not just describing their physical locations. PJC Rabbi Sharyn Henry is a spiritual leader of Rodef Shalom Congregation. This column is a service of the Greater Pittsburgh Rabbinic Association.
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Obituaries FELDMAN: Joni Beth Feldman, age 62, of Squirrel Hill suddenly passed away on Saturday, October 21, 2017, at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital. Born in Pittsburgh on May 11, 1955, Joni was the daughter of Selma and the late Mervin Feldman. She attended Chatham University where she studied social work. She then devoted herself to helping children, their families, and the community in any way that she could. Her generous, free spirit will be missed by many. She is survived by her mother, Selma Feldman, her sister Wendy Lamfrom, nephew Brian Lamfrom and his wife Traci, and great-niece and greatnephew, Averi and Caden Lamfrom, whom she adored. She was preceded in death by her father, Mervin Feldman. Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel. Interment private. Memorial donations may be made to the Special Needs Programming at the Jewish Community Center of Squirrel Hill, 5738 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh PA 15217 or Animal Friends, 562 Camp Horn Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15237. MORITZ: Grace Miller Moritz of Pittsburgh, age 83. Grace was born in Long Island City, N.Y., the daughter of Benjamin and Violet Miller. Grace was the wife for 62 years of Silbert Moritz. She was the Mother to Howard (Nancy Burk) Moritz, Lowell (Paula Beal) Moritz, Ruth (Jim) Moritz Allen, and Susan (Tom) Moritz Roth. She reveled in being the grandmother of Alex (Joanna), Simon, Carl, Ben (Jullie), Hillary, Emma, Elizabeth, Izzy, Jacob, and stepgrandson Ben Berenstein, and the great-grandmother of Lydia Allen. Grace was the sister of Doris Levine, and a loving aunt. With four children at home, she earned her bachelor’s degree in teaching, and then her master’s degree in social work from the University of Pittsburgh. Throughout her career, she employed her expert organizational skills to deftly manage many major studies and programs. She is a co-author of 22 published research papers. Grace touched the lives of many people when she became one of the first leaders of SOS, a bereavement group for survivors of suicide. She was the initial therapist at STAR, Services for Teens at Risk, a Commonwealth of Pennsylvania funded program for suicide prevention. She was a clinical interviewer for the Impact Study, examining the effects of sudden parental death, as well as a contributor to a study of youths exposed to suicide. She was an active member of Temple David in Monroeville, at one point co-coordinating the religious school, and later a member of Temple Sinai where she proudly became an adult bat mitzvah. Grace was a smart, strong, pragmatic person who seamlessly balanced the demands of being a housewife with those of a modern career woman. She was an expert at knitting, needlepoint and sewing. She had a passion for learning, travel, family,
fashion, chocolate, peanut butter and scotch. Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. Entombment at Homewood Cemetery. Donations in her honor can be made to the Squirrel Hill Community Food Pantry, c/o JF&CS, 5743 Bartlett Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15217, or the charity of your choice. RUBIN: Gerald L. “Jerry” Rubin, on Tuesday, October 17, 2017. Beloved husband of the late Ethel Rubin. Companion of Lois Waldman. Devoted father of Shirley (Sandy) Goppman and Ronna Rubin. Brother of the late Rheda Saxe. Loving grandfather of Steven and Gina Goppman. Also survived by nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews. Jerry was grateful for the care provided by Home Instead as well as Danielle from the Jewish Association on Aging. Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. Interment Adath Jeshurun Cemetery. Contributions may be made to Riverview Towers, 52 Garetta Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15217.
Jewish Association on Aging gratefully acknowledges contributions from the following: A gift from ...
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Anonymous ........................................ Marshall Steinberg
Harriette Libenson...............Fannie Katzman Rubenstein
Dr. Lawrence N. Adler ....................... Dr. Henry Goldstein
Beverly Marks ................................................Alvin Marks
Phyllis Anatole ......................................Carol Lee Anatole
Beverly Marks .......................................Herbert B. Marks
Howard S. Berger .......................................Selma Berger
Ferne Rogow..............................................Sylvia Vinocur
Mr. & Mrs. Jonathan Glasser Dane ..... Jay David Glasser Irene Ellman............................................Helen Sheinberg Irene Ellman.........................................Edward Sheinberg Norman Glantz ............................Miriam Magadof Glantz Marlene & Herb Goldstein ..........................Sarah Rudick Marlene & Herb Goldstein ............ Capt. M. Allan Rudick
Ruth Seiavitch .......................................... Harry Seiavitch Ruth Seiavitch ..........................................Helen Seiavitch Ruth Seiavitch .........................................Meyer Seiavitch Tamara Skirboll .........................................Fannie Skirboll Joel Smalley ...........................................Sherwin Smalley
Alvin & Gloria Greenfield .................. Charlotte Greenfield
Joel Smalley ................................................Mary Smalley
Shelly Hanlon ...................................................Ray Lazier
Ronald Tepper ..............................................Harry Tepper
Phyllis Izenson ..................................... Helen Gottesman
Sybil Wein & Family.................................. Morris M. Wein
Jocelyn Katz................................Louis & Pauline Daniels
Claire & Morris Weinbaum ....................Sarah Weinbaum
THIS WEEK’S YAHRZEITS — Sunday October 29: Pauline Berzosky, Anna Birnkrant, Leonard Farber, Hanna Ficks, Jeanette Kohen Kuperstock, Hannah Rae Levine, Barnett Marcus, Lillian Pretter, Henry Rosenfeld, Sam Schlessinger, Peter Shaffer, Meyer Shepman, Alberta Myers Walken, Adolph Weitzen, Miriam Yahr, Max Zweig Monday October 30: Mildred Caplan, Frances Citron, Marcia Green Farbstein, Eva Frank, Reva Cohen Goldberg, Sarah B. Gordon, Lawrence L. Green, Jacob Levinson, Samuel Nathan, Jerrilyn Ruth Perilman, Sara Recht, Milton L. Rosenbaum, Bernath D. Schwartz, David Srulson, Tobe L. Unger, Abraham Wechsler Tuesday October 31: Arthur Levine, Solomon Linder, Mayer Eli Ruben, Rose Shapiro, Freda Siegel, Charles Weiss
ROTH: Gerald “Jerry” H. Roth, on Saturday, October 21, 2017. Beloved husband of Ruth M. Roth. Beloved father of Diane and Nat Cohen of Pittsburgh and Martin and Lynn Roth of Hartford, Conn. Brother of the late Bernice Faigen and Annette Rubinstein. Brother-in-law of the late Donna and Steven Greenberg, Israel (Sonny) Faigen, Harold Rubinstein and Bernard Moskowitz. Grandfather of Jason, Geoffrey and Abigail Cohen and Lauren and Jennifer Roth. Also survived by Aunt Goldie Weinstein, sister-in-law Sema Moskowitz, as well as nieces and nephews. After returning from the Korean War, Jerry was the first in his family to graduate from college. With a degree from the University of Pittsburgh, he embarked on a successful career in retail pharmacy, for many years owning and operating R&R Pharmacy in the North Side and Pentlong Pharmacy in Penn Hills with his brother-in-law Harold Rubinstein. After retiring, he worked part time in many area pharmacies. Jerry was very active in the B’nai Emunoh Congregation. He served as president of the men’s club and organized many successful fundraising events with his sister Bernice Faigen. Jerry drew the crowds, and Bernice fed them. He was an avid traveler, competitive racquetball player and also enjoyed golf and poker. Graveside services and interment were held at Beth Shalom Cemetery. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. STERN: Shirley Stern, age 92, of West Bloomfield, Mich., died October 16, 2017. Beloved wife to the late Al (Abe) Stern. Devoted mother of Andrea Stern, Laurie (Paul) Singer and Ted Stern. Adoring grandmother of Drew Singer. Loving daughter to the late Tillie and the late Isadore Katz. Cherished sister of Sarah (late Louis) Goldfaden and the late Larry (Marilyn) Katz. Also survived by loving nieces and nephews and her devoted caregiver, Ouy. PJC
Wednesday November 1: Benjamin C. Brown, Evelyn Wolk Caplan, Ruben Cohen, Dr. Bernard Cramer, Samuel T. Greenberg, Frank Grossman, Ida Kaplan, Dena Katzenberg, Morris Krantz, Raymond Paul Lazier, Rebecca Paris, Adolph Roth, Nina Ruben, Anna Sadowsky, Leonard Schulhof, Helen R. Seiavitch, George Sherman, Doris Wechsler Thursday November 2: Goodman George Altman, Jacob L. Berkovitz, Leo Berkovitz, Vivian Cuff Boyd, Sylvia Breman Braun, William Cohen, Sidney Leo Friedman, Jennie Gernstat, Helen B. L. Hersh, Norman Katz, Rachel Klahr, Arnold Klein, Nathan A. Kopelman, Phillip Levy, Edwin E. Lichtenstul, Michael J. Niderberg, Paul Numerosky, David Rosen, Meyer David Rosenthal Friday November 3: William Darling, David Friedman, Miriam Magadof Glantz, Sadie Goldberg, Goldie Gross, Sam L. Herer, Henry Kaplan, Louis Kaufman, Sarah Krimsky, Louis Max LaBovick, Goldie Schwartz, Mary Smalley, Sara R. Solow, Dr. Marshall Steinberg Saturday November 4: Belle Abramson, Leroy E. Broder, Samuel Chaban, Bella Chotiner, Edward Goldstein, Isadore Goodman, Regina Labowitz, Sam Markowitz, Jennie Murstein, Minnie Protetch, Samuel Segal, Ben Smolar, Ben Vinocur, Florence H. Weiss
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Headlines Inquisition: Continued from page 11
information on how exactly it came to possess the Abravanel Hebrew Bible, possibly because it was hidden or scrubbed from the library’s indexes to hide it from Inquisition agents. What makes the Abravanel Bible so rare, however, isn’t just its age — it’s the pristine condition. Across the Iberian Peninsula, numerous books remain that Jews smuggled out during centuries of Inquisition, at risk to their own lives, but they are damaged. One such specimen: An 1282 copy of the Mishneh Torah, the code of Jewish religious law authored by Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, or Maimonides. The book has whole passages that an Inquisition censor singed away, making them lost forever. It’s kept at the 400-year-old library at the Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam, which was founded by refugees from the Inquisition. The second-rarest specimen at Coimbra’s library is another Bible dating to the 15th century. The Latin-language volume was one of the world’s first printed books, prepared by partners of Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of the print machine. Printed in 1462 — just 12 years after the original 42-line Gutenberg Bible which is on display in Mainz, Germany — the one in Coimbra is the only surviving copy of an edition of four 48-line Bibles printed by two of his partners. Language differences aside, the printed book looks similar to the handwritten one. Both have illustrations and hand-drawn
p António Eugénio Maia do Amaral with the 15th-century Abravanel Hebrew Bible.
margins that writers used to keep their text straight before the invention of print. That’s no accident, Amaral said. “The margins and drawings were added to the printed copy to make it seem as though it was handwritten,” he said. This retrograding was partly done for aesthetic reasons — readers were used to seeing them — and partly as a “precaution,” Amaral said, because some Christian fanatics considered print machines “the works of the devil.” Thousands were murdered during a series of Portuguese Inquisitions that followed the Spanish Inquisition of 1492. At least 200,000
p The Inquisition Patio in Coimbra, Portugal
Jews fled the Iberian Peninsula for the Netherlands, South America and the Middle East during the period, which lasted nearly three centuries. Thousands more stayed and practiced Judaism in secret for generations. The library’s archives also contain rare, chilling records that reveal the bureaucracy behind the Inquisition’s barbarity. For example, the minutes of a 1729 trial against Manuel Benosh, a Portuguese Jew, indicated that he was “released” by the Inquisition to civil authorities with an instruction that he be “punished in flesh” — a euphemism for a death sentence by burning. Outside of Lisbon, Coimbra University
Israel: Continued from page 12
The next day, Gabbay told a crowd in Dimona that he is not sure there is a Palestinian partner for peace. Netanyahu has said repeatedly he is sure there is not. In the television interview, Gabbay made two other surprising statements in addition to the one about settlements. He said Netanyahu should only step down if indicted on allegations that he took bribes — allegations Netanyahu denies. Other figures on the left have called for the prime minister’s head in the wake of the corruption allegations. Asked how his position on settlements differed from that of Netanyahu, who has said that uprooting settlers would amount to ethnic cleansing, Gabbay said he was committed to reaching a deal — unlike the prime minister. “There is a huge gap between those who at least want to get there and those who don’t want to get there,” he said. But Gabbay reportedly backtracked in a text message to Zionist Union members. He assured his associates that he is committed to pursuing a peace agreement based on the two-state solution, but said “there is no point in committing to [evacuating all the settlements] as a starting point for talks.”
p Yair Lapid at a Yesh Atid conference in Herzliya, Israel
Photo by Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images
Lapid remained silent. But in an essay in the Atlantic magazine, the Yesh Atid leader supported Netanyahu’s hawkish views on Iran. Lapid accused Tehran of lying to the West and using the nuclear agreement to move toward becoming a regional nuclear power. Iran has denied it seeks nuclear weapons. “I don’t often agree with Prime Minister Netanyahu,” Lapid wrote, “but his description of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani as a ‘wolf
in sheep’s clothing’ is right on the money.” In fact, Lapid has found consensus at times with Netanyahu since the start of his political career. After his upstart party’s surprising election showing in 2013, Lapid ruled out trying to form a government with the Joint List. He called its members “Zoabis” in reference to the anti-Zionist Arab-Israeli lawmaker Hanin Zoabi, whom Netanyahu has repeatedly sought to silence. Instead,
Photos by Cnaan Liphshiz
is the largest owner of Portuguese Inquisition verdicts. “It was a mission that made this place not only a victim and opponent of the horrors of the Inquisition, but also a witness to them,” Amaral said. True to its tradition of defiance, the library was also one of the few institutions to openly refuse to comply with the censorship policies of the regime of António de Oliveira Salazar, Portugal’s pro-fascist dictator of 34 years, until 1968. “Again there were the same tricks as during the Inquisition,” Amaral said. “In the end, we now see who has prevailed.” PJC
Lapid became Netanyahu’s finance minister. Lately, Lapid has struck a statesmanlike pose. In January, he reminded Israelis that Netanyahu is “innocent until proven guilty” and criticized Gabbay for attending a rally demanding the prime minister be brought to justice. In February he expressed hope that Netanyahu would not be indicted. Stronger opposition has come from Barak, who has called for Netanyahu to resign and relentlessly flogged him from outside the political arena as a “feeble lackey of a prime minister.” Gabbay and Lapid have so far held their fire against each other, too. And when Lapid did attack his rival, shortly after Gabbay won the chairmanship of Labor in July, Lapid subsequently took back his comments. Yohanan Plesner, the head of the Israel Democracy Institute and a former director-general of the now-defunct center-right Kadima party, predicted that in the next election — it’s slated for November 2019 but could come sooner — voters will rally around the most credible centrist. He said left-leaning voters and leaders will forgive the candidate some Netanyahu-like rhetoric in the interest of ousting Netanyahu himself. “What will really determine Gabbay’s fate is whether he will be seen as a real competitor for power,” Plesner said. “If he is, whether he said this or that won’t really matter.” PJC
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Community For the sake of seniors
t Community Champion Karen Wolk Feinstein, Ph.D. (left) and Deborah Brodine, president of UPMC Community Provider Services
UPMC Senior Services honored individuals and organizations that contribute significant time and energy to improving the lives of seniors throughout Western Pennsylvania at its ninth annual Celebrating Senior Champions Dinner and Auction. More than 500 business leaders, physicians and supporters of senior causes gathered on Oct. 19 at the Omni William Penn to recognize those whose work benefits seniors and caregivers in the region. Dr. Arthur S. Levine was recognized as the Grand Champion. Levine became senior vice chancellor for the Health Sciences and dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh in 1998 and was named the John and Gertrude Petersen Dean of Medicine in 2013. The Jewish Healthcare Foundation, under the leadership of Karen Wolk Feinstein, Ph.D., president and CEO, was honored as the Community Champion. Dr. Eric G. Rodriguez was the 2017 Caregiver Champion. Rodriguez is an associate professor of medicine within the University of Pittsburgh’s Division of Geriatrics and serves as a geriatrics medical consultant at the UPMC Senior Care-Benedum Geriatric Center at UPMC Presbyterian. WQED’s Rick Sebak served as emcee. All proceeds from the dinner and auction benefit UPMC Senior Communities Benevolent Care Fund, which provides financial assistance and support services to eligible seniors. t Dr. Steven D. Shapiro (left), UPMC chief medical and scientific officer, joins Grand Champion Dr. Arthur S. Levine, senior vice chancellor for Pitt’s health sciences, and his wife, Linda Melada.
u Community Champion Dr. Eric G. Rodriguez (left) and Dr. Fred H. Rubin, chairman, Department of Medicine at UPMC Shadyside
Photos courtesy of UPMC
Baseball fun
p Players from the Spring Division 2 regularseason and playoff champion White Sox show off their trophies during the Squirrel Hill Baseball Association’s annual awards ceremony. The event, which was held on Thursday, Oct. 19 at Lederman Field in Frick Park, welcomed hundreds of guests as trophies and awards were distributed to players and volunteers throughout the league.
p From Left: Jeff Margolis, Ethan Jacobson, Natty Margolis, Aaden Jacobson, Brian Jacobson and Shimmy Margolis celebrate their various awards at the annual celebration. Photo by Adam Reinherz
Photo by Robert Itskowitz
t From left: Zev Loring, Jonathan Loring and Meira Loring celebrate the end of another season with Squirrel Hill Baseball.
Photo by Leah Ackner
22 OCTOBER 27, 2017
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Community Sacred time
Honored
p Adat Shalom’s consecration of students was held during Shemini Atzeret/ Simchat Torah. Top, from left: Ella Ettinger, Eli Ramirez, Abigail Kushon, Josh Ummer, Aiden Drucker, Ella Golomb, Victoria Pfendler. Bottom: Noah Eaton, Isaac Eaton, Cameryn Brindza, Max Choset, Simon Roth, Ari Roth and Mitchell Randall. Photo courtesy of Adat Shalom
p After accepting the Stark Young Leadership Award, Kristen Keller thanked the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh board of directors for the recognition and told how a question was the start of her active involvement with Federation activities. She said she recognized the question, which began, “Will you …?” as an invitation that empowered her to fulfill her community responsibility and to shape the world as a legacy for her children and others. Photo by David Bachman
Garden magic Prekindergarten children from the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh’s Early Childhood Development Center recently took a field trip to Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. Built in 1893, the Phipps glass house has ever-changing displays in the different gardens. Photos by Matt Unger for the Jewish Community Center
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24â&#x20AC;&#x192;OCTOBER 27, 2017
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