Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle 3/2/2018

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March 2, 2018 | 15 Adar 5778

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Candlelighting 5:55 p.m. | Havdalah 6:55 p.m. | Vol. 61, No. 9 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

NOTEWORTHY LOCAL Student’s ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking scores Israeli cash

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Candidates share ideas on Special election leadership, legislature and lead in District 18 has whole country watching

By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer

T “You can see the differences between the candidates and the iterative process.”

Those disparities were on greatest display when it came to an inquiry on potentially privatizing Pittsburgh’s water.

“We have to keep PWSA public and our water public, regardless of whether it’s Peoples Gas or apparently the 20 other companies that are trying to privatize our water or even work in a public-private partnership,” said Erika Strassburger, an independent vying for the Squirrel Hill seat vacated by Democrat Dan Gilman. “I know that we need creative funding sources but privatizing our water, we tried that once with Veolia. That didn’t go well [and] we’re paying the price now. I just give a patent no to any privatization of our water.”

“I love the idea,” said Republican hopeful Rennick Remley. “I love that there is going to be diversity of thought on this issue, and we are going to hear a number of different solutions from a number of different companies.

“The last partnership did not work out and I don’t think that’s not because public-private partnerships don’t work,” added Remley.

“They do work, they work all around the world. I think that part of the problem was that it was mismanaged on our part. The PWSA is the landing ground for you know everyone’s cousin who can’t get a job. … We have to look at new ideas, and we can’t turn them down just

he outcome of the special election for U.S. Congress in District 18 — concentrated mostly in south suburban Pittsburgh but including the eastern suburbs in Monroeville and Westmoreland County — could be a bellwether for the 2018 midterms, with stakeholders across the country watching to see if the Democratic upstart candidate, Conor Lamb, might beat seasoned politician Republican Rick Saccone.

According to recent polls, the March 13 election to replace Republican Tim Murphy, who resigned last October in the wake of allegations that the pro-life politician had urged his mistress to seek an abortion, is neck and neck. Despite President Donald Trump carrying the district by 20 points in 2016, a Monmouth University poll of likely voters showed that Saccone, a four-term state representative, enjoys just a 3 percent lead over Lamb, a former federal prosecutor.

That may be why Republicans are pouring money into this campaign, including the purchase by four conservative groups of $4.7 million dollars in television and radio ads for Saccone, according to The Washington Post. The National Republican Congressional Committee also “has spent or reserved $2.4 million” on Saccone’s campaign, according to CNN. By contrast, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee bought a $224,000 television ad for Lamb last month, but is no longer running the ad.

Lamb and Saccone faced off during a debate last week hosted by KDKA, and both candidates met with potential constituents at town hall-style meetings at the South Hills Jewish Community Center hosted by South Hills Jewish Pittsburgh and the JCC, in partnership with the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Community Relations Council and the

Please see Candidates, page 20

Please see District 18, page 20

Pitt team competes in consulate advocacy contest.

Page 2 LOCAL

 Candidates speak at a town hall-style meeting at the JCC of Greater Pittsburgh in Squirrel Hill.

Photo by Adam Reinherz

Not one to back down Harold ‘Hal’ Bigler devoted himself to Jewish causes.

Page 4

THEATER Her path is far from uncertain

Native talent Robin Abramson stars in ‘Heisenberg.’

Page 16

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

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or nearly 90 minutes the four candidates vying to represent Pittsburgh City Council’s District 8 offered answers, quips and clarifications to previously offered comments on topics ranging from leadership qualities, reducing the likelihood of a mass casualty gun-related event, and, yes, even strategies for preventing wet basements.

Ann Belser, publisher of PRINT, Pittsburgh’s East End newspaper, moderated the Feb. 22 forum, which was held at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh. And although printed materials and voiced instructions indicated that audience applause would not be tolerated, there was no stipulation restricting the moderator from commencing the night with a little laughter.

“Do remember that these candidates are our neighbors and friends who have stepped forward to serve the community and they deserve our attention, courtesy and respect,” Belser said before introducing the candidates.

“You are going to run into them at Trader Joe’s or Target so don’t do anything tonight to cause you to hide in another aisle until they are gone.”

While an opening question prompted candidates to reflect generally on characteristics and qualities for leadership, the evening as a whole offered listeners the chance to tease out practical nuances between the politicians, said Chelsea Wagner, Allegheny County controller.

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Headlines Pitt students score funds from Israeli Consulate, WJC for advocacy program — LOCAL —

By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer

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team of young Israel advocates from the University of Pittsburgh wants to educate its peers on the realities of the Jewish state and just received a $5,000 prize from the Consulate General of Israel in New York and the World Jewish Congress to help get it started.

The prize was one of five awarded at an event called Campus Pitch held in New York on Feb. 15, a “Shark Tank”-style competition created to generate innovative ways to get students more involved in Israel and Jewish affairs. The competition was open to student teams from colleges and universities in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Delaware.

The four-student team from Pitt was part of a Hillel-Jewish University Center supported group called Panthers for Israel, which organizes social, cultural and political events on campus. Their initiative, a four-session student-led class they call Israel 360, will launch this week, thanks in large part to the funding from the competition.

So far, about 15 students — Jews and non-Jews — have signed up for Israel 360, with each student receiving a $70 stipend for taking the extracurricular course.

“A lot of organizations such as Chabad and Aish offer classes about Judaism that students can take for money, and we figured there should be one for Israel too,” said Steven Field, a sophomore majoring in history and political science originally from Ambler, Pa., and one of the leaders of Israel 360.

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2 MARCH 2, 2018

p From left: Serena Mlawsky, Rayna Saltzman, Steven Field, Kathryn Fleisher and Elina Lipov, Jewish Agency Israel Fellow.

Photo courtesy of Steven Field

Each session of the course will focus on a different topic: Israeli diversity; the Israel/ Palestinian conflict; Zionism; and Israel advocacy on campus.

“There are a lot of students out there, Jews and non-Jews alike, who want to learn more about Israel but don’t really have an avenue to do so,” Field said. “We feel it’s really important that students who want to learn about it,

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learn about it in an unbiased way in a safe environment, and we want to provide that.”

A study recently released by the Brand Israel Group showed that support for Israel among Jewish college students has dropped dramatically in the last several years, from 84 percent in 2010 to only 57 percent in 2016, with many students believing that Israel comes up short in areas such as human

rights, tolerance and diversity.

“We are definitely against BDS and pro-Israel, but our job is more to provide facts for both sides to show both sides of the argument and let students decide,” Field said.

“We’re confident that once they do take a Please see Consulate, page 3

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Headlines Consulate:

“ We need more innovative, out-of-the-

Continued from page 2

look at the facts and see the arguments, they will fall on the pro-Israel side.”

Another member of the team, Serena Mlawsky, a freshman originally from a Washington, D.C., suburb, became motivated to advocate for Israel following her participation last summer in the March of the Living, which took her first to Poland and then to Israel.

“For me, after seeing all the atrocities I saw in Poland, it only confirmed the need to have a Jewish state,” Mlawsky said.

The environmental studies and political science major believes that more than disapproving of Israel, college students tend toward indifference.

“I think overall, there is a sense of apathy toward Israel,” she said. “People very commonly assume if it doesn’t affect them, they have no reason to be educated on the subject.”

In addition to Jewish students who already “have some sort of relationship to Israel,” others who will take Israel 360 are friends of Mlawsky who “don’t know a whole lot about Israel, but they want to know more, so we can engage in intellectually stimulating conversations,” she said.

“One of my friends is in ROTC and feels that it is important to be educated on Israel for her foreign policy objectives,” she said. “One

box thinking, and we believe that … the next generation can give us ideas

”

that may be overlooked.

— ISRAELI CONSUL GENERAL DANI DAYAN of my friends is black and wants to learn more about Israel to bring it back to her community in a more positive light. And one of my friends is Catholic and understands that Israel and Jerusalem have huge ties to Catholicism and wants to bring that back as well.”

The Panthers for Israel team gave a fiveminute pitch about its vision for Israel 360 to a panel, competing against teams from Binghamton University, New York University, Baruch College and Cornell University.

The first-place prize of $10,000 went to Binghamton for its proposed campuswide “Water Gala” to raise funds to help bring Israeli innovation to African villages to alleviate the ongoing water crisis. Each of the other teams received $5,000 to carry out its proposed initiative as well.

“College campuses have become one of the strongest frontlines in the fight for

Israel’s legitimacy,” said WJC CEO Robert Singer. “It is a fight that we shouldn’t have to have, but it is one that we must have, as Jewish and pro-Israel students feel silenced and threatened by the dangerous initiatives of those seeking to boycott and delegitimize Israel and Jewish communities. The groups presenting today have proven their courage and determination in striving for a more balanced dialogue and a safer space.”

Consul General Dani Dayan said although he believes Israel is the “innovation nation,” it is often challenging for the Jewish state to come up with new ideas when it comes to matters of public diplomacy.

“We need more innovative, out-of-the-box thinking, and we believe that students and the next generation can give us ideas that may be overlooked,” Dayan said to the students. “The other reason this competition is so important

is because the battle for Israel’s legitimacy, for justice, is mainly fought on campuses, and you are our young ambassadors.”

The Campus Pitch initiative debuted in New York in the fall of 2015 for students in the Tri-State area, with the first competition held in spring, 2016. The project gradually expanded across the United States and to London in 2017 and is expected to launch in Europe and Latin America in the coming semesters.

In addition to Field and Mlawsky, the Panthers for Israel team included Kathryn Fleisher and Rayna Saltzman. Jewish Agency Israel Fellow Elina Lipov served as advisor.

“This is an excellent example of how Hillel-JUC strives to support student leadership to give the support and resources to execute their ideas,” said Daniel Marcus, executive director of Hillel-JUC. “We know when outstanding Jewish leaders like the those in Panthers for Israel are fully motivated, they have the most innovative ideas that engage the most students.”

The selection of her team as one of the finalists “was a huge honor, and it was definitely something I know my grandparents would have been thrilled to see me do,” said Mlawsky. “Unfortunately, they passed away, but they were all huge Zionists, so for me to convey my passion for Israel was definitely something I know they would have been proud of.” PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Headlines Harold ‘Hal’ Bigler remembered as a ‘good man’ and community leader — LOCAL —

“ Hal Bigler, with his perennial sense

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

I

t should come as no surprise that the Germanic origins of Harold Bigler’s first name denote leadership and power. But apart from those traits, perhaps more wondrous to those who knew “Hal” was the Pittsburgh resident’s gentlemanly and kind nature.

He was a “classic in the very best sense of that word,” said Rabbi Aaron Bisno of Rodef Shalom Congregation, “a genuinely good man, whose unfailingly positive outlook on life and for people encouraged and inspired and lifted every one of us up.”

Hal Bigler, a longtime supporter of Jewish communal causes, died on Feb. 15. He was 91.

Born to Samuel and Fannie Bigler, Hal was the youngest of three children.

“He was a spoiled brat in a way,” joked his wife Bette. “He had two older sisters who doted on him and a mother too, and father too. He was very well loved.”

Bigler grew up on Lilac Street in Squirrel Hill, celebrated his bar mitzvah at Congregation Poale Zedeck and graduated from Taylor Allderdice High School, where despite measuring only 5'9" and 160 pounds, he played center and

of optimism, was a figure who made tremendous contributions to his

”

community, his city and his country.

— RABBI AARON BISNO

p Harold ‘Hal’ Bigler

Photo courtesy of the Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives

middle linebacker for the football team. During his senior season he was team captain.

After graduation, Bigler joined the Navy’s V-12 program, served on a ship in the European theater and was eventually discharged as a lieutenant commander. In 1944, he enrolled at Bucknell University and played for the school’s football team.

His college experience engendered one of his proudest moments, explained Stanley Levine, a lifelong friend and 1943 teammate of Bigler’s

at Allderdice: Bigler used to say that Bucknell’s head coach, Ellwood “Woody” Ludwig, “made some remark that he never met a Jew before, but that Hal was a credit to his race.”

In 1945, Bigler transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, where he lettered and played center. Upon graduation, he returned to Pittsburgh, first to work at Gimbels and later at Babb Inc., a Pittsburgh-based insurance brokerage where he eventually became president.

When he was 25, he met Bette Joan Shapiro, a 20-year-old student at Pennsylvania College for Women. The two were set up by Mina Kavaler, whose husband had been a fraternity brother of Bigler’s.

“My father-in-law was [Bette’s] dentist and he wanted me to look her up and find somebody for her,” said Kavaler. “I thought that she was very pretty and [Hal] would be interested. He was single and most of my friends at the time were already attached and I thought what a perfect match and it was.”

The couple married on Oct. 19, 1952.

After more than two decades at Babb Bigler and board chairman Chandler Ketchum were fired. The two went on to form an eponymous brokerage firm, which was subsequently acquired in 1992 by Hilb, Rogal and Hamilton Please see Bigler, page 25

Sonja Finn is proud of her heritage & proud to be your Democratic Nominee.

She’ll bring independence, accountability and a fresh voice to City Hall…

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On March 6th vote “Let’s keep Pittsburgh livable through investing in our children, fixing our broken infrastruture, and ensuring future development is done in a responsible way”.

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Paid for by the Committee to Elect Sonja Finn, not by Grant Street insiders.

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Headlines Jewish columnist offers wit and wisdom during 70-plus-year writing career — LOCAL —

By Lauren Rosenblatt | Digital Content Manager

A

fter a nearly 70-year writing career, during which she spent 16 years writing a weekly column of Jewish-centric prose, Mollee Kruger, 88, still has more to say.

Before her 90th birthday, the poet, whose column ran for many years in the Chronicle, wants to complete her second memoir — this one about her travels as the wife of an internationally recognized scientist. She also wants to finish a book of poems about Jewish holidays, adding to the collection of seven poetry books she has already published. “Wish me luck,� she joked.

Kruger, from Rockville, Md., got her start in the Jewish press in 1967 when she sent a poem to the Washington Jewish Week about the world’s reaction to the Six Day War in Israel.

From there, she became the poet laureate for the paper, writing a weekly column titled “Unholy Writ� that focused on timely Jewish topics rooted in history, tradition and biblical references. The column, which broke the paper’s rule of refusing to publish poetry, was reprinted in Jewish newspapers around

the country, including the Chronicle, under the title “Writ Wit.� “My style remained fairly the same, tongue-in-cheek, but the content was forever changing because I preferred Mollee Kruger to turn out topical verse,�

Photo courtesy of she said of the column. “In Joe Kruger researching, I discovered the beauty and resilience of Judaism.�

As she describes it, her poems focus on Jewish tradition, the frustrations of being observant and keeping kosher and “nostalgia with a bit of a kick to it,� all with the idea of passing her knowledge of Judaism on to other people and future generations. “I felt that if I could present aspects of it in a palatable form, it could reach not only people who knew what I was talking about, but others who knew little and could learn something new,� she said.

Kruger, who grew up in a small rural town with few other Jewish families and no synagogue, started writing poems when she was 10 years old, learning the “wizardry of words and the delight of rhythm and rhyme� from her older sister, who would often read aloud school assignments focused on poetic greats and bought her a poetry book when she was 9 years old.

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upcoming work. “Her name was Queen Esther, a feminine power behind the throne.�

Her latest book, “Kosher Salt,� which was published in December 2017, is a tribute to the two editors who published her first Jewish poem at the Washington Jewish Week and celebrates the 50th anniversary of her column. The book, like her column, is a mix of serious subjects and lighthearted fun.

While one poem focuses on implicit bias and stereotypes (“No one can peer into our face / And speak about a ‘Jewish race.’�) others poke fun at summer camp (“For forty years Hebrews kept moving about / Abandoning Egypt, they tried camping out / And didn’t require so much gear for their tramp / As two little Jewish boys headed for camp�) or the ride to synagogue (“This car pool for Religious School / is humble and devout / The children passionately pray / The motor will konk out.�)

Hoping to reach a younger generation of readers and a broad audience, “Kosher Salt� includes verses from her column “Unholy Writ� with a fresh angle and a new perspective.

For her upcoming works and future collections of her poems, Kruger had one request: “Stay tuned.�  PJC

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“Imagine two daughters of Jewish immigrants from Lithuania sitting at a kitchen table and overdosing on poetry,� she said. “I was hooked forever on marvelous verses about a Puffin shaped like a muffin and Edward Lear’s table and chair that not only talked to each other but went for a walk together.�

When she was 12, she became a published author, with her poem about the month of May appearing in her hometown newspaper, the Bel Air Times.

She has gone on to write several poetry books, a memoir about growing up the daughter of a shoemaker and a novel about the struggles of growing older in American society — which was published in 2016 when she was 87.

In addition to her Jewish verse, Kruger has written about American history, including poems about the Spanish Inquisition, the American Revolution and Christopher Columbus.

Her work “Ladies First,� a 1995 collection about the first ladies from Martha Washington to Hillary Clinton, was later turned into a musical show and is being revived for a performance this March in honor of Women’s History Month. “There’s no Jewish content in it but of course you remember that we Jews produced the very first First Lady and an entire book was written about her,� she said of the

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MARCH 2, 2018â&#x20AC;&#x192;5

Calendar >> Submit calendar items on the Chronicle’s website, pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

Submissions will also be included in print.

Events will run in the print edition beginning one month prior to the date. The deadline for submissions is Friday, noon. q APPLICATIONS DUE

MONDAY, MARCH 5

The Yiddish Book Center is accepting applications for its July 1-27 Great Jewish Books Teacher Summer Seminar for day school teachers. The seminar will immerse Jewish day school teachers in modern Jewish literature and support them in bringing this content to their students. All program costs, including food and housing, are covered; there is a stipend of $3,000 for each participant.

Applications are due March 5. Any teacher at a Jewish middle or high school is eligible to apply. More information and the application are at tinyurl.com/yd3rnj8q. q SATURDAY, MARCH 3 The Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh’s Big Night: Kick Off Your Boots begins at 7:30 p.m. at the JCC in Squirrel Hill and will include live music by Radio Tokyo and PJ the DJ, a casino, silent auction and raffle. Purchase tickets at tinyurl. com/y96ojvty. q SUNDAY, MARCH 4 Rodef Shalom Congregation hosts the 2018 Ruth and Bernard Levaur Contemporary Lecture on “Jewish Christian Dialogue in an Age of Sharp Divisions” at 7:30 p.m. in Levy Hall with speakers Rabbi Sonja Pilz of Hebrew Union College and Rabbi Danny Schiff, Jewish Community Foundation Scholar. RSVP to JoAnn at 412-621-6566. q MONDAY, MARCH 5 The Women of Temple Sinai invite the community to learn about Passover cooking with Leon Edelsack at 6:30 p.m. Participants age 16 and older are welcome. The cost for this class is $10. RSVP is required. RSVP to Carolyn Schwarz at 412-421-1268 or visit templesinaipgh.org.

q TUESDAYS, MARCH 6 TO APRIL 17 The Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh holds a “Caregiver’s Aging Mastery Program: Learn the art of staying healthy and happy on your healthy aging journey,” a 12-part course, from 10 a.m. to noon in room 307.

Visit jccpgh.org for more information and to register by March 1; there is a $45 charge for the course. q THURSDAY, MARCH 8 In honor of women’s history month, Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum will host a lecture by Dr. Elaine Berkowitz, DMD at 6:30 p.m. A Pittsburgh native, Berkowitz received her doctor of dental medicine from the University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine. She retired from the Army Reserves as a Lieutenant Colonel with 38 years of service. She was deployed four times and has accumulated medals and awards, including a Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Prizren, Kosovo. Berkowitz is a member of various military and dental organizations and has published her autobiography, “Live Life…

Love Country.” q SATURDAY, MARCH 10 Niki Penberg, co-founder of Vegan Pittsburgh, talks about the ease of finding vegan meals at restaurants around the city at 12:30 p.m. at Rodef Shalom Congregation.

Participants will sample several dishes from local area restaurants. Visit rodefshalom.org for more information.

The Taste of Westmoreland is set for 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in the Student Union (Chambers Hall) at the University of Pittsburgh, Greensburg. The cost is $25 and $20 (for advance purchases of 10 or more). Children 12 and under are $10.

This is the 25th year that Congregation Emanu-El Israel brings the “Taste” to Westmoreland County. More than 800 people are expected to visit to taste the specialties of some 20 restaurants and caterers of Westmoreland County.

The evening will include door prizes, silent auction, 50/50 and raffle baskets, all donated by merchants throughout Westmoreland County. Anyone bringing canned and/or

q THURSDAY, MARCH 22 Hillel Jewish University Center’s Campus Superstar, a professionally produced singing competition featuring Pittsburgh’s most talented college students, will be held at 6 p.m. at Stage AE. Campus Superstar 2018 will honor Gail and Norman Childs. Ten finalists will compete for the “Elly Award” and the Ellen Weiss Kander Grand Prize of $5,000. The proceeds of this event will benefit the activities of the Hillel JUC. Visit hilleljuc.org/campus-superstar for more information.

q SATURDAY, MARCH 31 Temple David in Monroeville will host a second Passover seder, led by Rabbi Barbara Symons, at 6 p.m.

Food for Thought will be catering the event. The cost is $36 for Temple David members, $54 for nonmembers, $18 for children 12 to18 and free for children under 12.

For additional information or to make a reservation contact 412-372-1200 or stanb@ templedavid.org, or visit templedavid.org. The deadline is Monday, March 26.

Temple Emanuel’s second night of Passover family seder will be at 6 p.m. led by Rabbi Mark Mahler and cantorial soloist Dr. Charles Cohen who will tell the story from the Haggadah.

Temple Emanuel’s in-house catering department will prepare the seder. Special dietary needs can be accommodated if stated on the reservation form.

RSVP at templeemanuelpgh.org/event/seder2018 by March 21 or contact the Temple office at 412-279-7600 for more information. Walk-ins cannot be accommodated. The cost ranges from $20 to $42.

Attendees are encouraged to bring a canned good to donate to SHIM’s food pantry or make a donation to Mazon, a Jewish Response to Hunger.

nonperishable items for the Westmoreland County Food Bank will receive one free ticket for the raffle basket auction. Visit cei-greensburg.org/taste or call the CEI office at 724-834-0560 for more information.

Historian David Rosenberg presents the newest exhibition at Temple Emanuel’s Thou Art Gallery, “Who Is a Jew? Amiens, France, 1940-1945,” at 7 p.m. The exhibition focuses on a set of photo identification cards of Jews from Amiens and its region to explore how French Jews self-identified when forced to register during the Nazi occupation of World War II. Temple Emanuel of South Hills presents the event in partnership with the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh. There is no charge.

Visit templeemanuelpgh.org for more information. There will be a wine and cheese opening reception, as well as a brief talk with Rosenberg. q SUNDAY, MARCH 11 The Emergency Volunteers Project (EVP) is assembling a team of volunteers from Pittsburgh for deployment to Israel if needed during a crisis, including natural disasters.

Together with the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, Partnership2Gether (P2G) and the cities of Karmiel and Misgav, volunteers will be certified by EVP to become local and international first responders. The training will take place from 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. at Pittsburgh Fire Training facility, 1395 Washington Blvd. Contact Debbie Swartz at dswartz@jfedpgh.org or 412-992-5208 for more information; visit tinyurl.com/ y8tpcmym to register.

Rodef Shalom Brotherhood’s Pancake Breakfast is set for 8:30 a.m. to noon at 4905 Fifth Ave. Proceeds will help the congregation and community with needed projects. The money collected will help to rebuild the congregation’s playground and keep the Howard Levin Clubhouse running and more. The cost is $5 per person, $15 per family. Contact rmeritzer@gmail.com for more information.

J-Serve Pittsburgh is a teen-planned day of Jewish community service, from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., attended each year by 300 Jewish teens in sixth to 12th grade from around greater Pittsburgh. Teens meet at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh in Squirrel Hill for breakfast and a learning session led by peers. They then volunteer at more than 15 local service locations for several hours before returning to the JCC for lunch and celebration. Transportation to the Squirrel Hill JCC for the event is available from the South Hills JCC, Adat Shalom, Temple David and Temple Ohav Shalom.

J-Serve Pittsburgh is a partnership of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, Repair the World: Pittsburgh, BBYO and the Volunteer Center of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.

Visit tinyurl.com/ycd27two for more information and to register.

Congregation Dor Hadash will present a lecture by Misha Angrist titled “Steering the Wind: Genetic Screening in Jewish Populations” at 10 a.m. at the corner of Wilkins and Shady avenues. Angrist is an Please see Calendar, page 7

6 MARCH 2, 2018

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Calendar Calendar: Continued from page 6 associate professor of the practice at Duke University in the Social Science Research Institute and senior fellow in the Duke Initiative for Science and Society. Angrist explores the intersection of biology and society, especially as it relates to the governance of human participation in research and medicine. A participant in the Personal Genome Project, Angrist was among the first to have his entire genome sequenced and made public. He chronicled this experience in his book, “Here is a Human Being: At the Dawn of Personal Genomics.” He is also the editor-in-chief of Genome Magazine.

There is no charge but RSVP is suggested at admin@dorhadash.net or 412-4225158 to RSVP. q MONDAY, MARCH 12 Rabbi Alex Greenbaum and Beth El Congregation host a lunch and presentation

by South Hills Interfaith Movement (SHIM) from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Hear how neighbors are helping neighbors in the effort to build better lives for others, providing 12,000 pounds of produce last year from their gardens alone. There is a $6 charge. Visit bethelcong.org for more information. q TUESDAY, MARCH 13 The Exodus Lectures, with Rabbi Danny Schiff, Foundation Scholar, on the subject “Fact or Fiction,” is set for 7:30 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. at Rodef Shalom Congregation.

The program is co-sponsored by the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Pittsburgh, Rodef Shalom Congregation and Congregation Beth Shalom and is free and open to the community. Registration required; RSVP at tinyurl.com/y9mdpfle.

Contact Jan Barkley at jbarkley@jfedpgh.org or 412-992-5294 for more information. q THURSDAY, MARCH 15 “Nightmares, Dreams & Moral Imagination,” an interfaith and interracial dialogue program with Cornell William Brooks will be held from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Temple Sinai; a welcome reception will be held at 6:15 p.m.

Brooks, the former president and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), will challenge people of faith to commit to creating a more tolerant and just society.

The program is sponsored by the Simon Hafner Charitable Foundation and the Fine Foundation in honor of Rabbi Jamie Gibson’s 30 years of service at Temple Sinai.

Visit tinyurl.com/ycz4q6mv for more information about the program and Brooks. q FRIDAY, MARCH 16 Temple Emanuel will hold a Dairy Deli Food & Film program on at 7:30 p.m. (immediately

following the Shabbat service). The film is “The Sturgeon Queens,” a documentary that tells the history of one food store on the Lower East Side of New York City, Russ and Daughters. The cost is $36 per person.

RSVP at templeemanuelpgh.org/event/ deli by Thursday, March 8 or email templeemanuel@templeemanuelpgh.org and mail in your check, payable to Temple Emanuel. Walk-ins for this event cannot be accommodated.

fifth grade will gather for an authentic matzah-making experience and will have the opportunity to make dough from scratch, roll it and bake it, in under 18 minutes. Children will also play a Passover prize game, join a Passover sing-along and enjoy an Egyptian magic show.

Admission is $10 per child, and registration is required by March 12 at kidsmegamatzah. com. Contact Chabad at info@chabadpgh. com or 412-421-3561 for more information.

cocktail-making and mingling. Steven Kowalczuk, the cocktail chef from Steel City Mixology, will hold a mixology class from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Studio AM, 225 E. Eighth Ave. in Homestead. Appetizers will be provided. There is a $35 charge. RSVP at jfedpgh.org/E3 by Wednesday, March 14.

Contact Rachel Lipkin at rlipkin@jfedpgh.org or 412-992-5227 for more information.

q SUNDAY, MARCH 18

Chabad of the South Hills will hold a prePassover family outing with interactive Passover activities including making a seder plate out of wood from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Home Depot, Village Square Mall, 4000 Oxford Blvd. Passover food items for the kosher food bank will be collected.

Visit chabadsh.com or call 412-344-2424 to register. Prepaid reservations by March 14 are $5 a child or $10 family maximum.

After March 14 the cost is $7 a child or $12 family maximum.

AARP Squirrel Hill Chapter 3354 will hold its monthly meeting at 1 p.m. at Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha, located at Shady and Wilkins avenues. There will be a performance by New Horizons Band of Greater Pittsburgh.

Membership is not required to attend.

Refreshments are served after the meeting.

Contact Ilene Portnoy at 412-683-7985 for more information.

Parents of special needs children considering summer camps are invited to an information session about Quest Therapeutic Summer Camp, to be held at JFCS, 5743 Bartlett St., Squirrel Hill, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Quest Summer Camp is for children 6-18 who struggle with social relationships, impulsive behavior or emotional well-being.

Quest Therapeutic Summer Camp uses a system that combines recreational activities, behavioral therapy and group psychotherapy, and can help to improve children’s behavioral, emotional and social functioning.

The session is free, but registration is requested. Contact khorn@jfcspgh.org and include your name and the number of people attending (parents only please).

Magevet, one of the nation’s premier a cappella singing groups, will perform a free concert at noon at 5898 Wilkins Ave. (corner of Wilkins and Shady avenues) in Squirrel Hill.

Magevet is a coed ensemble comprised of undergraduate students at Yale University.

The other a cappella groups at Yale, the Whiffenpoofs and Whim n’ Rhythm announced this week that they, too, will each become co-ed. Until now, the Whiffenpoofs were all male, while Whim n’ Rhythm were all female.

“A cappella” means singing without instruments. Magevet’s repertoire spans modern Israeli pop and Renaissance choral pieces to Yiddish folk tunes and Zionist classics. Magevet, the Hebrew word for towel, is devoted to spreading Jewish music to the far corners of the globe.

While admission is free, RSVPs are requested at newlightcongregation.org/ magevet or leave a message at 412-422-5158.

The concert is sponsored by four East End congregations: Beth Shalom:Derekh, Dor Hadash, New Light and Tree of Light*Or L’Simcha.

Beth Shalom: Derekh is a new initiative of that congregation to promote engaging and transformational Jewish experiences. The concert location is the home of three of the four congregations: New Light, Dor Hadash and Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha.

Chabad of Squirrel Hill, in partnership with Community Day School, Hillel Academy, Yeshiva Schools, the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, Camp Gan Izzy Fox Chapel, G2G, and PJ Library, will hold Pittsburgh’s first-ever Kids’ Mega Matzah event at Beth Shalom from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Hundreds of children from pre-K through

q TUESDAY, MARCH 20 Chabad of the South Hills will hold a prePassover lunch for seniors, including a model seder and holiday program at noon. There is a $5 charge.

Call Barb at 412-278-2658 to preregister or visit chabadsh.com for more information.

Women’s Philanthropy of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh holds Mix and Mingle with E3: Empowered, Educated & Engaged Jewish Women for an evening of

Market Viewpoint is looking for Jewish Moms for a faith-based mystery shopping project in the Pittsburgh area.

Mystery shopping is a great way to earn extra cash while assisting businesses in providing great customer experiences.

For more information & to apply go to: http://www.marketviewpoint.com/pittsburgh/ PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

q THURSDAY, MARCH 22 The Exodus Lectures, with Rabbi Danny Schiff, Foundation Scholar, on the subject “How It Changed the World,” will be held from 7:30 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. at Congregation Beth Shalom.

The program is co-sponsored by the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Pittsburgh, Rodef Shalom Congregation and Congregation Beth Shalom and is free and open to the community.

Registration required; RSVP at tinyurl.com/ y9mdpfle. Contact Jan Barkley at jbarkley@ jfedpgh.org or 412-992-5294 for more information. PJC

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Headlines Jewish group calls on Ellison to resign from DNC — NATIONAL —

By Dan Schere | Special to the Chronicle

A

mid revelations that Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), the vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, attended a dinner in 2013 with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, a call for his resignation from the DNC is coming from an unlikely source: the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington.

The JCRC’s criticism of Ellison’s meetings with Farrakhan, who has described Judaism as a “gutter religion,” falls in line with other Jewish organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League, which called the news “extremely disturbing.”

But the JCRC appears to be the only nonpartisan group to go as far as demanding Ellison’s resignation.

“We just don’t want [Ellison] hanging out with an anti-Semite,” JCRC Executive Director Ron Halber said.

Ellison supported Farrakhan throughout the 1990s, but the Minnesota politician severed his ties with the Nation of Islam during his first congressional campaign in 2006.

A year and a half ago, while Ellison was in the running for the DNC chair position, Halber had told Haaretz he had concerns about Ellison’s “mixed voting record on Israel,” but still wished him the best. But the latest revelations, he said, “passed a line” because the 2013 meeting, combined with Ellison’s previous ties to Farrakhan, constitutes a relationship the two have.

“There was a lot of concern that Rep. Ellison was in a room with Louis Farrakhan after he several years ago denounced him, and that this meeting was of greater importance because of the position that he now holds,” Halber said. “The bottom line is

that Louis Farrakhan is part of his history.

At the very minimum, he should stand up and denounce [Farrakhan]. When you’re in politics, you put yourself in the spotlight.”

Halber said the Ellison controversy differs from another revelation that recently surfaced about former President Barack Obama, who was photographed with Farrakhan while a freshman senator in 2005.

“One picture is not evidence of a relationship, and Keith Ellison had a relationship with Farrakhan,” Halber said.

But Ellison did not speak with Farrakhan at the 2013 dinner, according to Jewish Democratic Council of America President Ron Klein, who spoke to the DNC deputy chair last week.

“I was told directly by Keith Ellison that he did not talk to Louis Farrakhan,” Klein said. “Several members of Congress were considering dealing with an Iranian resolution. He went there as a member of Congress to hear it out.”

Klein said Ellison assured him during the conversation last week that he had stayed away from Farrakhan for years. He said he contacted Ellison to get the full story about the dinner so that he could speak about the issue on behalf of the JDCA. Klein disagreed with Halber’s call for Ellison to resign.

“I don’t know what information and research [Halber] did to make that comment,” Klein said. “Based on what I know, I don’t think it’s necessary for [Ellison] to withdraw.”

J Street released a statement of support for Ellison.

“We condemn Louis Farrakhan’s statements and record of anti-Semitism unequivocally,” the statement read. “We expect and accept clear statements from Rep. Ellison and others we endorse similarly condemning Farrakhan’s record and views.”

The JCRC’s statement came days after it called on the Israeli government to suspend

 Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) is the subject of recent controversy over a dinner he attended in 2013 in New York along with Nation of Islam Leader Louis Farrakhan.

File photo

its plan to deport tens of thousands of Eritrean and Sudanese asylum seekers. The statement sparked some denunciations in the pro-Israel community.

The JCRC called on Israel to “develop a comprehensive asylum determination process that complies with Israel’s obligations under the 1951 Refugee Convention. This process should be in line with the current asylum-seeker policies of other Western democracies, and should do its best to safeguard these asylum seekers’ human dignity and rights.”

The two statements were not linked, Halber said. He said his organization is willing to go further than what some people might consider sufficiently diplomatic.

“People who are purely ideological are not going to be happy with the JCRC,” he said.

“And frankly, those are not the voices we listen to. We listen to the 80 percent of the Jewish community from the moderate right and the moderate left.”

Halber said the JCRC has a special responsibility to speak up by virtue of being located in the nation’s capital, and because the area’s Jewish community was recently determined to be the third-largest in the United States.

“If we are afraid to take positions on issues of the day, why would you want to be part of the JCRC?” he said. “Why would anyone want to be part of an organization that issues statements that are basically meaningless?” PJC Dan Schere is a political reporter with Washington Jewish Week, an affiliated publication of the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle.

U.S. agrees to Libyan request that activists say cements seizure of ancient Jewish artifacts — WORLD —

By Josefin Dolsten | JTA

T

he United States is signing an agreement with Libya that activists say legitimizes the confiscation of Jewish property by the North African country.

The State Department announced that the U.S. will sign a memorandum of understanding that will impose restrictions on importing ancient materials from the country.

In the announcement, the State Department said the memorandum continues “similar regulations” imposed in December through an emergency restriction. The agreement, which is set to be signed on Feb. 23, prohibits artifacts dated 1911 and earlier from being brought into the country from Libya.

The State Department further said in the announcement that the import limitations

8 MARCH 2, 2018

are meant to curb illegal trafficking on goods.

Jewish activists said the agreement gives the Libyan government ownership of materials taken from the Jewish community.

The emergency restrictions from December list many general categories of artifacts, and specifically mention “scroll and manuscript containers for Islamic, Jewish, or Christian manuscripts.” Among objects listed in the memorandum request last year were Jewish ritual objects, including antique Torah scrolls, tombstones and books.

Gina Waldman, a Libyan Jew who is the president and co-founder of the group Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa, or JIMENA, in a statement said the agreement legitimized Libyan confiscation of Jewish property.

Thousands of Jews departed Libya amid public and state-sponsored anti-Semitism in the 20th century and were forced to leave behind both personal belongings and a rich

cultural heritage that testified to over 2,000 years of Jewish presence in the country.

Today, no Jews remain in Libya.

“Although I believe in protecting the heritage and patrimony of the Libyan people, I am extremely disappointed that the MOU doesn’t exclude the patrimony of the Jewish community,” said Waldman, who was only allowed to bring a single suitcase with her when she and her family were forced out of the country in 1967.

Marc Lubin, a government relations consultant assisting Waldman’s group, slammed the agreement.

“The Libya MOU’s inclusion of the confiscated property of Libya’s expelled Jewish community legitimizes and provides a legal cover for this crime making this MOU little more than a license to steal,” he wrote in a statement.

“Restrictions are intended to reduce the incentive for pillage and trafficking and are among the many ways the United States is combatting the financing of terrorism

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and disrupting the global market in illegal antiquities,” a statement from the State Department said.

The agreement is not unprecedented. The United States has similar agreements with 17 countries, including one reached in 2016 with Egypt. Congress also has passed emergency laws restricting artifacts from Iraq and Syria from entering the country. Such laws draw on a 1970 UNESCO convention that allows for the placing of import and export restrictions in cases where a country’s patrimony is under threat of pillaging and its artifacts in danger of entering the black market.

Waldman likened the memorandum agreement to returning goods taken from Jews by Nazis to Germany.

“If a Nazi-looted Torah or any religious item was to appear in the United States, would the State Department give it back to the German government?” she asked. PJC

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Headlines For some Balkan Muslims, a Jewish ‘false messiah’ inspires interfaith understanding — WORLD —

By Cnaan Liphshiz | JTA

U

LCINJ, Montenegro — Throughout 1988, Jusuf Lika had debilitating migraines and sensory disruptions that doctors blamed on the chemicals in the darkroom where he had worked.

A man in his 20s in what was then still Yugoslavia, Lika consulted some of that country’s best medical experts, but none could help him, citing an irreversible buildup of toxins in his body.

“My world fell apart: As a young man I heard I would be a disabled person,” said Lika, a Muslim man of Albanian descent who runs a music school that he founded in his native city of Ulcinj, situated on the coast near the Montenegro-Albanian border.

But then a friend advised him to place in his bedroom a jar of earth from what many believe is the Ulcinj gravesite of Sabbatai Zevi.

A Turkey-born 17th-century Jewish eccentric, Zevi was regarded by followers as the Messiah — that is, before his conversion under duress to Islam, when he became known among Jews as perhaps the second most famous “false messiah.”

Two weeks after taking his friend’s advice, Lika was cured of his illness, he said during a recent interview in his office. “I am not a superstitious man,” Lika said. “I don’t know whether I was cured because of this, I’m just telling you what happened.”

Whatever the cause for Lika’s recovery, it reflects the lasting reverence for Sabbatai Zevi by some Muslims in Montenegro and beyond.

Sabbatai is one figure in a tangle of customs, secrets and traditional beliefs belonging to a regional identity that is rooted in mysticism, tolerance and religious cross-fertilization.

Regarded by many Jews as a mere historical footnote, Sabbatai Zevi is nonetheless “a symbol for some Montenegrins and Albanians of their distinct identity as well as an interfaith and intercultural bridge to the West and Judaism,” according to Eliezer Papo, a scholar on Balkan Jewish history at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel.

Especially for the secretive Bektashi

Shiite sect, Sabbatai Zevi is in recent decades has become “an element through which increasingly appealing to to express their genuine liberal Muslims in the region, philosemitism, to ‘market according to Papo. In 2015, themselves’ to the West and Papo chaired an international to some extent to also draw conference about Sabbatai tourism to Ulcinj and the Zevi in Ulcinj. (It was the region,” Papo said. “But I first time in the city’s modern wouldn’t say Zevi is integral history that it hosted a conferto the religious identity of the ence on Judaism, although the region. It’s a recent addition.” nearby city of Budva annually The place that Lika believes hosts the Euro-Asian Jewish is Sabbatai Zevi’s grave is Congress’ Mahar conference of owned by the Mani family Balkan Jewish communities.)

— a clan of business owners p Baba Mondi, the spiritual Sabbatai Zevi headquartered in Ulcinj’s was regarded by leader of the Bektashi sect, center. Under the shade of some as the messiah, calls Sabbatai Zevi a “dervish” until his forced olive and carob trees, the conversion to Islam in — a Farsi word for a deeply sepulcher is kept closed the 17th century. spiritual Muslim (and in Photo courtesy some rare cases Jew) who inside a yard that few visiof Wikimedia Commons tors dare trespass. Lika stays ascetically devotes his life outside as he shows a journalist a window to serving Allah. looking inside the small sepulcher, which “He is a dervish to Jews and he is a dervish has a dark and carpeted interior. to Muslims, and a bridge for our sister reliIn Jewish history, Sabbatai Zevi — a savant gions to meet on,” added Baba Mondi, who in Jewish texts whose erratic behavior fits the is based in Albania. He works at the world symptoms of a bipolar personality disorder center of his liberal sect — a magnificent — was a significant figure. By the time of his domed structure in Tirana with 12 arches conversion in 1666, he had developed a huge and jade-colored interior walls. following across Europe. It split established Elements of the Bektashi tradition and communities like the one in Amsterdam, faith may have played a role in the rescue dividing rabbis and families in a heated fight of hundreds of Jews during the Holocaust for the future of Judaism. Some credit the in Albania and Montenegro, a rare case of spiritual upheaval over the “Sabbateans” with popular defiance of the Nazi occupation. the development of the fervently mystical Whereas Sabbatai Zevi is a well-known Hasidic movement in the 18th century. and popular figure in Ulcinj, there is some Sabbatai Zevi’s legacy has had a long- dispute about where exactly he is buried in lasting effect on the region as a whole, this drab and chaotic city with a beautiful including on the Dönmeh of Turkey — a beachfront and few hotels. society of crypto-Jews who for centuMany locals believe Sabbatai Zevi’s remains ries presented themselves as Muslims but rest inside the sepulcher owned by the Mani continued to consider themselves Jewish, family — whom some locals, including Lika, with Sabbatai as their prophet. Today, only a believe are themselves Jewish because of handful of families that describe themselves their relative wealth and their name, which as descended from Dönmeh exist in Turkey is common among Turkish Jews.

— where they are still the subject of much Alma Mani, a woman in her 20s, was the distrust and conspiracy theories. only member of the family who agreed to an Sabbatai Zevi died in 1676 in Ulcinj, interview. Rolling her eyes when asked about where he had been exiled by the rulers the sepulcher, she insisted the grave inside of the Ottoman Empire for continuing to is not Sabbatai Zevi’s but of “some ancient practice some elements of Judaism after his ancestor.” She declined to say anything about forced conversion. This interfaith identity the family’s origin or pose for a photograph.

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Papo, the Ben Gurion University historian, also doubts that Sabbatai Zevi is buried inside the sepulcher.

Followers of Sabbatai Zevi wrote that he did not want to be buried in a Muslim cemetery. But he could not be buried in a Jewish one either because of his conversion, Papo said. Sabbatai Zevi’s followers also wrote that he is buried “adjacent to the sea,” whereas the Mani gravesite is more than a mile away from the beach.

Papo’s research has led him to an alternative location for Sabbatai Zevi’s grave, near the seaside fortress where Sabbatai lived out his final years and where he likely had his study.

The fortress’ tower has a work space that archaeologists now use to prepare exhibits from the site. Mysteriously, that space has two niches, one featuring two Stars of David and another adorned with a painting of a snake descending from a tree.

Whereas Stars of David were commonly used in Islamic decorations, the snake painting is a much stronger indication of Sabbatai Zevi’s connection to the place. It corresponds with Sabbatai’s unique interpretation of the story of the Garden of Eden in the Book of Genesis, Papo said.

“The followers of Zevi who became Muslims believed the messiah is destined to help us off the tree of knowledge of good and evil and onto the tree of life,” Papo said.

In Judaism and early Christianity, he added, there are strong ties between the snake and the concept of messiah. Additionally, Sabbatai Zevi’s followers called him “Ilan” — Hebrew for tree. Seen together, these elements reinforce the hypothesis that the snake painting is “a distinct Sabbatai Zevi symbol,” Papo said.

The same symbol features on headstones of Zevi followers in Istanbul.

As for Sabbatai Zevi’s burial place, Papo traces it to a hill near the fortress.

Fittingly for the resting place of a man who personifies the concept of interfaith influences, the hill is sandwiched between what used to be a mosque and a church with a Christian cemetery.

“If you ask me, that’s where this Jew is buried,” Papo said. PJC

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Headlines In Democratic race for Illinois governor, the two top candidates are Jewish to 2008, and left to pursue a career in activism and politics.

Biss served as a policy adviser to the Democratic governor of Illinois starting in 2009, and was elected to the state House of Representatives the next year. In 2012, he was elected to his current position as a state senator representing Chicago’s northern suburbs.

— NATIONAL —

By Ben Sales | JTA

T

he Land of Lincoln’s next governor may well be a Jewish Democrat. It just isn’t clear what kind of Jewish Democrat he will be.

Two Jewish candidates are the front-runners in the Illinois Democratic gubernatorial primary in March, and both are favored to defeat the unpopular Republican governor, Bruce Rauner, in the general election.

Among the Democrats, a son of the Kennedy family also is in the running.

But between the two Jewish Democrats, religion and political party are where the similarities end.

J.B. Pritzker, a billionaire venture capitalist with ties to establishment Democrats, has enjoyed a commanding lead in the polls. But Daniel Biss is gaining — he’s a state senator who has aligned himself squarely with the progressive movement of Bernie Sanders.

Chris Kennedy, a wealthy investor and son of the late Robert F. Kennedy, is vying with Biss for second. And a large number of voters are undecided.

What they stand for

p Illinois state Sen. Daniel Biss, center

Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images for Motorola Mobility

Though the two front-runners have faced controversy — in Biss’ case relating to Israel — both are projecting confidence as they head into the primary’s final weeks. Here’s how Pritzker and Biss compare.

How they got here

J.B. Pritzker is a scion of the wealthy Pritzker family whose ancestor A.N. Pritzker founded the Hyatt Hotel chain. J.B. Pritzker, 53, graduated from Northwestern Law School and founded a venture capital firm in

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Chicago with his brother Anthony. He has a net worth of $3.5 billion.

This isn’t his first foray into politics. In 1998, he ran in the Democratic primary for Illinois’ 9th Congressional District, which has a large Jewish population. He lost to Jan Schakowsky, who still holds the seat.

Daniel Biss, 40, grew up in a family of musicians in Ohio, and earned his doctorate in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He taught math at the University of Chicago from 2002

Benjamin Harrison on behalf of creating “a home for these wandering millions of Israel.”

The Blackstone Memorial was the name of the signed petition.

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

Judges Miriam Ben-Porat and Shimon Asher are appointed to Israel’s Supreme Court by President Ephraim Katzir. Ben-Porat is the first woman to serve as a judge in Israel’s highest court.

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March 3, 1939 Mufti of Jerusalem rejects majority Palestinian Arab State

The Mufti has enormous power in his hands, yet he chooses non-engagement with the British, who controlled Palestine.

March 4, 1987 Jonathan Pollard is sentenced to life in prison

Jonathan Pollard, accused of spying for Israel, is sentenced to life in prison for espionage. He is later released in 2015.

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Please see Illinois, page 24

This week in Israeli history

March 2, 1977 Miriam Ben-Porat is appointed Supreme Court Justice

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Pritzker vs. Biss is a local version of Hillary Clinton vs. Bernie Sanders, the two approaches that have divided the Democratic Party since the 2016 presidential campaign. Pritzker is an establishment Democrat with deep connections. Biss is an upstart progressive campaigning against billionaires (like Pritzker).

Pritzker has been a Clinton ally for more than a decade and served as her national co-chair in the 2008 Democratic primary.

His sister, Penny, was a key Obama ally that year, leading to a sibling rivalry. Penny Pritzker ended up serving as Obama’s commerce secretary, while J.B. again was a major donor to Clinton in 2016, hosting a fundraiser for her at his home.

March 5, 1891 Blackstone Memorial is presented to President Harrison

William E. Blackstone, a Methodist lay leader and real estate investor, petitions President

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March 6, 1948 Truman Advisor Clark Clifford opposes State Department on Partition

Clark Clifford did not want the US to waiver from the partition resolution passed at the UN in November 1947, which called for the division of Palestine into Arab and Jewish states.

March 7, 1977 Prime Minister Rabin and President Carter meet in Washington

The Carter Administration had already established that negotiating a comprehensive resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict is a foreign policy priority for its administration.

March 8, 1969 War of Attrition begins between Egypt and Israel

Egyptian forces launch a major offensive at Israeli positions on the eastern banks of the Suez Canal, starting the War of Attrition that lasts until August 1970. PJC

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Opinion Our future is in our hands — EDITORIAL —

I

t seems like the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh conducts a comprehensive community study roughly once a generation, so the newly released 2017 study described in last week’s Chronicle is a major milestone. It is also a welcome one, and will help guide our community’s planning and choices for years to come.

The study goes a long way toward informing us how large and what kind of Jewish community we are today and will likely be in the near future, if current trends continue. In order to make our Jewish community the best it can possibly be, our challenge is to use the study to strategize about what we can and cannot change.

The first major finding, which undoubtedly surprised some people, is that we have bucked the regional trend for the Pittsburgh area by actually increasing in population since 2002, when the last study was conducted. In fact, our community’s population is close to its all-time high. Many lifelong residents of Pittsburgh remember when synagogue services, religious schools and organization events were bursting with people, and assumed that today’s often lackluster attendance is due to a general decline in the region’s Jewish population. The study shows that definitely is not the case, so we have to look elsewhere for answers.

The second major finding will not surprise those familiar with the Pew Research Center’s 2013 national study of American Jews,

because our local trends are very similar to what Pew found nationwide. There are two divergent trends among the Orthodox and non-Orthodox parts of our community.

Orthodox Jews are maintaining high rates of affiliation and traditional involvement across generations, with low rates of intermarriage and an average family size above what sociologists call the replacement rate. The nonOrthodox, on the other hand, are seeing much lower rates of affiliation and traditional involvement across generations, with very high rates of intermarriage and an average family size below the replacement rate.

The result is that the Orthodox, while still a distinct minority, represent a growing portion of our community, with likely profound impacts on the nature of our community in the future.

Characterizing the non-Orthodox segments of the community is fairly complicated, and the study shows a creative and technically sophisticated way of doing so. While the traditional segments of those formally affiliated to the Conservative and Reform movements have declined, the vast majority of the other members of our Jewish community are not totally uninvolved and uninterested. In fact, many of the “unaffiliated” are involved in some aspects of Jewish life and community; many others undoubtedly would like to be so involved.

It would be easy to geshrey that our Jewish community is doomed to assimilation and demise — or at least the non-Orthodox portion of it — but that’s not the message

of the community study. To come back to the first point about smaller attendance at events, it’s not that the Jews are no longer here. They are here; they’re just not showing up in traditional institutions in the same numbers. Either the core of the organized community isn’t reaching them or they’re not choosing to participate in traditional modes with the organized community.

Our task then, is clear: Study the results of the community study as closely and carefully as Jews have traditionally studied the Talmud, and then experiment with new programs and new modes of reaching and

engaging what has become the single largest segment of our Jewish community. In the process of doing this pioneering work there are many examples of ideas and programs that we can learn from and implement. Some organizations in our community, including but not limited to the Federation, are already learning from each other and others around the country. Two recent examples are bringing the OneTable and Honeymoon Israel programs here. As with technological progress, those institutions that are willing to adapt will continue and grow, and our community will be the better for it. PJC

Mahmoud Abbas, world’s worst historian Guest Columnist Rafael Medoff

A

number of recent or current international leaders hold earned doctorates, in fields such as law (the president of Greece), economics (the prime minister of India), or chemistry (both the chancellor of Germany and the prime minister of Belgium).

But, irony of ironies, the only world leader who holds a Ph.D. in history has turned out to be one of the worst historians in the world: Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority. This week the Palestinian president demonstrated yet again why he deserves that label.

Addressing the Palestinian General Council on Jan. 14, Abbas said the State of Israel “is a colonial enterprise that has nothing to do with Jewishness. The Jews were used as a tool under the concept of the promised land — call it whatever you want.

Everything has been made up.”

Abbas has a long record of denying Jewish history in the Holy Land. “They claim that 2,000 years ago they had a temple; I challenge the claim that this is so,” he said in August 2000, referring to it as “the alleged Temple”

12 MARCH 2, 2018

(August 2012). He claimed the “never-ending digging” in Jerusalem is a conspiracy by Zionist archaeologists to “vindicate the Israeli narrative [but] they have failed miserably” (February 2012). Israelis are captives of “delusional myths,” he said, and they are trying “to change Jerusalem’s landscape in every detail [in order to] invent a history” (January 2014).

If the Jews weren’t there, who were?

According to Abbas, “the Palestinians have existed before Abraham” (March 2016), and their achievements include “the invention of the Canaanite-Palestinian alphabet more than 6,000 years ago” (May 2016). Remarkable accomplishments indeed, considering that the very word “Palestine” was invented by the Romans only in the first century CE, and there were no expressions of distinctly Palestinian Arab nationalism until the 20th century CE. Middle East history is not Abbas’ only victim. In his 1983 Ph.D. dissertation-turned-book, titled “The Other Side: The Secret Relations Between Nazism and the Leadership of the Zionist Movement,” Abbas asserted that David Ben-Gurion and other Zionist leaders “collaborated with Hitler” and wanted the Nazis to kill Jews, because “having more victims meant greater rights and stronger privilege to join the negotiating table for dividing the spoils of war once it was over.”

The “real” number of Jews murdered by the Nazis was “much lower” than 6 million

and might well have been “below 1 million,” Abbas wrote. “Many scholars have debated the figure of 6 million and reached stunning conclusions — fixing the number of Jewish victims at only a few hundred thousand.”

Asked about his Holocaust writings in a January 2013 interview with a Lebanese television station, Abbas replied: “I challenge anyone to deny the relationship between Zionism and Nazism before World War II.” He added that he has “70 more books that I still haven’t published” that he says would prove his claims.

Nor is Abbas above misrepresenting the words of an American president. When challenged in 2014 over his refusal to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, Abbas told The New York Times that his position was supported by none other than Harry S. Truman. How so? Abbas pulled out a reproduction of Truman’s statement, in 1948, recognizing the newborn State of Israel. The Palestinian leader pointed triumphantly to the fact that the words “Jewish state” were crossed out and replaced by “State of Israel.”

The real reason for that name change had nothing to do with Truman’s opinion as to whether Israel should be a Jewish state.

Israel’s representatives in Washington drafted their request for U.S. recognition before the state was proclaimed and its name was known. They learned the new country’s name — via shortwave radio — just moments

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before handing their request to the president. They corrected it by hand to save time.

Not that any of this is a secret; it appears in many mainstream history texts, but not the sort of books that apparently interest Mahmoud Abbas.

How can one explain why an international statesman with a Ph.D. in history would consistently resort to such gross distortions of the historical record?

A skeptic might point to the quality of his education. Abbas earned a law degree at the University of Damascus, which is controlled by a regime with precious little regard for laws or facts. Similarly, he received his Ph.D. from the Soviet-controlled Oriental College in Moscow, an institution whose regard for history may be measured by the fact that it approved Abbas’ Holocaust-denying dissertation.

But that would be letting Abbas off too easy. It has been four decades since he completed his dissertation. That’s more than enough time to read some genuine history books and become acquainted with basic historical facts. A more plausible explanation for his chicanery is that Abbas is well acquainted with the facts — but cynically chooses to disregard all but the ones which he can wield as weapons in his fight against Israel. PJC Rafael Medoff is the author of 19 books about Jewish history and the Holocaust.

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Opinion Medical science’s advice: Don’t fear the reefer Guest Columnist Adam Rothschild

I

am a practicing family physician. Since Pennsylvania began allowing physicians to certify patients for participation in the statewide medical marijuana program in November 2017, I have also become a cannabis medicine physician. Medical cannabis skeptics question the notion of cannabis as medicine, but I am confident that it legitimately belongs in the modern pharmacopoeia as a safe and often effective treatment for a wide range of conditions.

No doubt, cannabis is also a recreational intoxicant and occasionally a drug of abuse.

My role as a cannabis medicine physician is to help suffering patients therapeutically use cannabis safely, effectively and responsibly.

Contrary to a common misconception, medical cannabis can — and often will — deliver a “high” due to the presence of the psychoactive cannabinoid THC. Sometimes the high is essential to cannabis’ therapeutic effect, as in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. Other times, the high is considered a side effect, as in the treatment of epilepsy. Although non-psychoactive cannabis products are available — even over-the-counter — in cannabidiol (CBD) preparations derived from non-THC-containing industrial hemp, current thought suggests that the therapeutic benefits of cannabis are best achieved through the combined actions of the multiple compounds present in THC-containing “drug cannabis.”

This phenomenon is known as the “entourage effect.” Many patients report the therapeutic superiority of full-spectrum, THC-containing cannabis products over CBD-only products as well as the synthetic THC medication dronabinol (Marinol).

Many patients who therapeutically use cannabis seek to minimize its psychoactive effects, especially during daytime hours when they wish to be productive. They do this by administering low doses and consuming preparations with lower THC concentrations.

In fact, many medical cannabis patients regularly use at least two preparations, a less-intoxicating preparation for daytime and a stronger, higher THC preparation for evening use.

A minority of medical cannabis patients medicate repeatedly throughout the day. A majority of medical cannabis patients, especially those with chronic pain — which is by far the most common reason for medical cannabis use — medicate once or twice per day, especially at night prior to going to bed. Many medical cannabis patients, such as those with Crohn’s disease or migraines, only medicate when they have a flare-up, which might be once per week or even once per month. Every patient is unique.

Getting high is not the point of medical cannabis. Relief is. Nonetheless, most medical cannabis patients will get at least a little bit high at least some of the time. For physicians who lack understanding and acceptance of the nature of the cannabis high, this can be disconcerting. After all, they may reason, opioids and alcohol also cause a high, and we have all seen how those can ruin patients’ lives. What these physicians do not yet understand is the fundamental difference between cannabis and most other drugs of potential abuse.

Nobody has ever died from a cannabis overdose. Cannabis does not cause physical dependence. And cannabis does not cause its users to pursue more dangerous drugs.

To the contrary, my patients often tell me that they want to use medical cannabis to decrease or eliminate their use of much more dangerous prescription drugs such as opioids like Oxycontin and benzodiazepines like Xanax.

Medical cannabis patients find relief with cannabis. A side effect of cannabis therapy is being high, and sometimes patients enjoy the high in addition to the relief.

I’m comfortable with that.

All medications have side effects. Is it such a bad thing if the side effects of an effective and safe medication are increased creativity, peacefulness and heightened awareness?

M a n y patients who seek out my services as a cannabis medicine physician are desperate for help, hopeful that this newly available option will relieve them of their suffering where other treatments have not.

Other patients have already been successfully self-medicating with cannabis and just want to go legal, even though they can obtain cannabis less expensively through illegal means. Still others simply like the idea of herbal medicine, freeing themselves from the perceived evils of big pharma. While my medical philosophy is firmly rooted in rationality and science, I support all of these motivations.

Medical cannabis is not a panacea. It probably will not cure cancer or even a simple urinary tract infection. It is not right for everybody. Some patients who seek its relief will unfortunately be disappointed in its lack of effectiveness for them. Other patients will not tolerate its psychoactive effects or other side effects.

In that sense, it is just like any other medicine. Unlike most other medicines, though, it is remarkably safe, remarkably versatile and derived from a plant that healers around the world have cherished for thousands of years. Cannabis is medicine. To intentionally misquote Blue Oyster Cult’s 1976 classic song, don’t fear the reefer. PJC Adam Rothschild, M.D., is the founding physician of PGH MMJ, a medical cannabis practice located in Pittsburgh’s East Liberty neighborhood.

He is also a family physician at Handelsman Family Practice in Munhall and medical informaticist at M*Modal in Squirrel Hill.

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— LETTERS — A clarification on the Shabbat cabinets A recent article mentioned that approximately eight years ago, Shabbat cabinets were installed in UPMC Presbyterian, UPMC Montefiore and UPMC Shadyside hospitals (“Bikur Cholim of Pittsburgh becomes official organization,” Feb. 9). It failed to explain that when the concept first came to Rabbi Larry Heimer’s attention from Tzipy Rosenberg and other community members, he took the initiative to reach out to the UPMC Facilities Management department in having the carpentry shops construct the cabinets.

At about the same time, Rabbi Nosson Sachs reached out to Rabbi Heimer, who provided him with the blueprint and suggestions for the placement of the cabinet at the UPMC Shadyside site. Rabbi Heimer also obtained the support of the UPMC Presbyterian-Shadyside Food and Nutrition Services department in providing nonperishable food items as well as kosher grape juice, and he continues to ensure that the cabinets are well stocked.

Various congregations and organizations have donated siddurim, chumashim, tefillin and kippot, among other things, to enhance the usefulness of the Shabbat cabinets. More recently, Rabbi Heimer worked with Rabbi Doris Dyen to have a Shabbat cabinet installed at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital, providing her with support and guidance in its installation.

Rabbis Heimer and Dyen have sent emails about the Shabbat cabinets to rabbis and congregations in the Pittsburgh area, indicating that staff at the information desks at each hospital site can assist in directing patients and family members to the cabinets.

Rabbi Doris J. Dyen Clergy, UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital Dr. Nina Butler Bikur Cholim of Pittsburgh

Study points to need for congregational unity Having read the recently-published Pittsburgh Federation’s 2017 Jewish Community Study and this paper’s coverage of the same, I want to weigh in with a few observations (“Jewish Pittsburgh growing, but denominational affiliation dropping,” Feb. 23).

Given the changing face of our community — namely larger numbers of Jews in the aggregate with fewer folks affiliated with non-Orthodox “bricks and mortar” congregations — I believe now is the time for Reform and Conservative congregations’ lay and professional leadership to join one another as partners to discuss in a serious, rational and non-emotional way the future of our shared enterprise. We can hardly afford to tarry.

There is, after all, no denying that the ever-increasing costs of running congregations, coupled with a decline in our respective membership rolls across the board, augurs poorly for a belief that individual congregations can continue to meet the challenges we face better than if all of us are willing to strategize and work collaboratively. We need one another now.

What’s more, as a generation of leaders who have led congregations through recent decades of growth retire or begin to look to retirement, as every one of our congregations face the same demographic, sociological and economic challenges, and as altogether new generational models of Jewish communal organizing proliferate, it is more pressing than ever that our leaders prioritize looking past an exclusive focus on our respective, individual congregations’ needs and opt instead to come together to address the collective needs of Pittsburgh’s liberal Jewish community as a whole.

The trends we face as a community are inexorable, and a failure on the part of our communal leadership to take these realities seriously is inexcusable. The facts are clear, and the future — though different than we may have imagined (or wish were so) — is full of possibility and remains ours to embrace and to shape.

But it will only be so if we are unafraid to come together to solve what ails us.

Rabbi Aaron B. Bisno Frances F. and David R. Levin Senior Rabbinic Pulpit Rodef Shalom Congregation

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MARCH 2, 2018 15

Life & Culture Bat mitzvah, JCC musical gave Public’s ‘Heisenberg’ actress her start — THEATER —

By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer

W

hen Robin Abramson was living in Israel in 2005, the Pittsburgh-born actress was cast in an ex-pat production of “The Sound of Music.”

Despite her Semitic looks, the dark-haired former staffer of Emma Kaufmann Camp was nevertheless given the role of Maria von Trapp.

“The only place where I could ever go to in the world where they would cast me as Maria in the ‘Sound of Music’ would be Jerusalem,” quipped Abramson, who now lives in New York City, but is back in the Steel City to star in the Pittsburgh Public Theater’s production of “Heisenberg.”

Abramson grew up in Monroeville attending Temple David, where she celebrated her bat mitzvah. It was there that she first realized she had a love of performing.

“Preparing for my bat mitzvah began my long love affair with rehearsal and performance,” recalled the Gateway High School and Point Park University grad. “That’s when I got the bug.”

Being cast in the lead in a teen production of “The Boyfriend” at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh sealed the

deal. The director of that show, Jill Machen, continues to direct the JCC’s teen productions.

“I remember Robin expressing her desire to pursue a career as an actress, and remember thinking she had the talent and the determination to do so,” said Machen.

Now, following her New York debut in an off-Broadway production of “Shadowlands,” Abramson is back in her hometown and ready to take the Public’s stage in a two-person show that offers a twist on the traditional boy-meets-girl love story.

“Heisenberg,” penned by British playwright Simon Stephens, tells the story of Georgie, a 40-something, free-spirited American woman, and Alex (played by Anthony Heald), a tightly-wound 70-something Irishman, and their chance encounter at a train station. The title of the play is taken from the Uncertainty Principle posited by physicist Werner Heisenberg, which states that there is a limit to what can be known about the behavior of quantum particles — or, in this case, relationships.

When the play opened on Broadway in 2016, Abramson was “riveted” by the performance of actress Mary Louise Parker, who played Georgie.

“Mary Louise Parker was brilliant,” Abramson said. “She was fantastic, unpredictable, riveting. I came home, and [my boyfriend] said, ‘How did you like the show?’

p Actress Robin Abramson grew up in Monroeville attending Temple David.

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“ Preparing for my bat mitzvah began my long love affair with rehearsal

”

and performance.

— ROBIN ABRAMSON And I said, ‘I really loved it but I have to tell you, I don’t think I would want to see that show with anybody but her.’ And now here I am.”

Despite being enamored with Parker’s performance, Abramson is making the role her own.

“What ensues out of that chance encounter at the train station is surprising and moving, and funny we hope, and shocking really,” she said. “What I like most about Georgie is she’s flawed, which I think we all are. She doesn’t have much of a filter. But her intentions are good, I believe. She’s really human, just like he is. They are real people with real flaws that I think we can all identify with.”

The show is directed by Tracy Brigden, with whom Abramson worked at the City Theatre following her graduation from Point Park.

Abramson’s career path has had some turns. After college, she made aliyah. She lived in the Jewish state for about three years “off and on,” attracted by the “passion” of Israelis and motivated to try her hand as one herself following a Birthright trip.

“Israel blew me away,” she said. “After graduating from college and not walking into any high paying jobs, I thought, just move to Israel.”

When she arrived, she was surprised to find

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a couple of theater companies run by American and British ex-pats that were doing plays in English. In addition to playing Maria in “The Sound of Music,” Abramson also had the lead in an Israeli, English-speaking production of Shakespeare’s “As You Like It.” But although she was having success as an actress in Israel — while working for Birthright — she ultimately missed her family and decided to come back to the States.

She moved to New York a couple years ago to try her hand in the Big Apple and to be with her boyfriend, Broadway actor Jeremy Kushnier.

While getting cast in New York “is really hard,” persistence paid off for Abramson when she landed the role of Jewish New Yorker and convert to Christianity Joy Davidman in “Shadowlands,” which tells the true tale of Davidman’s relationship with C.S. Lewis.

“The moral of the story is you’ve got to keep hitting the pavement because you never know,” Abramson said.

“Heisenberg” runs at the Pittsburgh Public Theater from March 8 to April 8. PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Life & Culture Why ‘Black Panther’ might also be a milestone in black-Jewish relations — FILM —

By Gabe Friedman | JTA

I

f you have checked in on the pop culture zeitgeist at all in the past two weeks, you know that the film “Black Panther” is breaking box office records and Hollywood assumptions about race.

The well-received Marvel flick was written and directed by African-Americans (co-written

by Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole, and directed by Coogler) and features a mostly African-American cast anchored by Chadwick Boseman in the title role as a black superhero.

But some fans might not realize that the original Black Panther character was actually created by two white Jews.

The superhero was the brainchild of writer Stan Lee (born Stanley Lieber) and artist Jack Kirby (born Jacob Kurtzberg), who already were veterans of the comic book industry when they started working together at Marvel at the dawn of the 1960s. The first comic book series they produced in tandem was the Fantastic Four in 1961, but they would go on to create a slew of beloved superhero characters, from the Hulk to Iron Man to the X-Men. Lee and Kirby’s Black Panther character debuted in July 1966, in a Fantastic Four comic strip (he would get his own series later in the ’70s). The leader of the fictional African country of Wakanda was the first black superhero featured in a mainstream comic book. In addition to having supernatural physical abilities (granted in part by a heart-shaped herb he eats), the Black Panther is a scientist with a degree from Oxford University. In the Marvel universe, Wakanda, which resisted Western colonization, is also the most technologically

p Posters for “Black Panther” fill Edwards Houston Marq’e Stadium 23 & IMAX at a screening of the blockbuster film for the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Houston last week.

Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images for IMAX

advanced nation on Earth — a concept meant to shatter stereotypes about Africa.

Besides being a pop culture milestone, the Black Panther’s debut came at a crucial juncture in black-Jewish relations. The years after World War II and up to about 1966 (yes, that exact year, as explained below) have been referred to as a “golden age” in the relationship between the two groups. American Jews, who empathized with blacks as they themselves struggled to fit into white American society before and after the war, participated in the civil rights movement to an outsized extent, and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. often praised them for their activism.

Jews “demonstrated their commitment to the principle of tolerance and brotherhood not only in the form of sizable contributions, but in many other tangible ways, and often at great personal sacrifice,” King said in 1965.

However, relations strained over time, as

Jews found their way into the upper echelons of America while blacks remained stifled in comparison, even after the passage of multiple civil rights bills in the ’60s. In October 1966, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale formed the Black Panther Party (which did not take its name from the character), and kick-started the Black Power movement, which scrutinized the ways that any whites — Jews included — interacted with blacks.

The aftermath of Israel’s victory in the 1967 Six-Day War subtly added to the groups’ separation. After Israel repelled attacks from many of its Middle Eastern neighbors, it took control of the Arabs living in the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula and territory known as the West Bank. It was a turning point in the way that many groups — including blacks, who sympathized with other groups they considered oppressed — viewed Israel, and in turn some American

Jews. In their eyes, Israel became another unjust colonial regime. Jews felt betrayed, as did blacks when some major Jewish groups began to oppose affirmative action.

So perhaps “Black Panther” represents an opportunity for healing. The film’s creators and a number of black writers have been praising Lee and Kirby for reaching out to non-white audiences and imagining an empowered African culture free from colonialism. Coogler called them “amazing” in an interview last week. Reginald Hudlin, who over a decade ago wrote a Black Panther TV series, called the duo’s character “perfect.” Stephen Bush, writing in the New Statesman, called them “genius.”

As for Lee, who is now 95, he has been rooting for the Black Panther film for a while.

“Congratulations @marvelstudios, #RyanCoogler, and the entire cast & crew on the soaring success of Black Panther! What a thrill it is to be able to witness all the records this dynamic, thoughtful movie is smashing,” he tweeted.

So perhaps it’s time to celebrate the message of reconciliation that “Black Panther” represents, just like Kirby — who passed away in 1994 — might have done. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Kirby’s family compared him to Bernie Sanders, saying that he would have been delighted to see the character empower such a wide audience.

“A black superhero with both amazing mental as well as physical powers, from a technologically advanced society in Africa, sends as strong a message now as it did over 50 years ago. Today, my grandfather’s message will reach tens of millions of people of all races and nationalities, a concept my grandfather could never have conceived of,” Kirby’s granddaughter Jillian said in a separate interview cited by THR. PJC

Former NBA star Amar’e Stoudemire just launched a line of kosher wines — SPIRITS —

By Josefin Dolsten | JTA

N

EW YORK — Six-time NBA All-Star Amar’e Stoudemire has launched a line of kosher-for-Passover Israeli wines.

The 6-foot-10 former player, who returned last month from a trip to the Jewish state, spoke glowingly about the wines and his connection to Israel at a news conference here.

“It’s a blessing for me and my family to be able to produce such great wines from a land like the land of Israel, so we’re constantly counting our blessings for that,” Stoudemire told reporters at the Jewish National Fund House on the Upper East Side.

Stoudemire, 35, said he had been in talks with the Israel Wine Producers Association for three years about making an Israeli wine and realized the opportunity when he relocated to the country in 2016 to play for the Israeli team Hapoel Jerusalem. He retired from basketball last year after helping lead Hapoel Jerusalem

to the Israeli Basketball League Cup. “Once I moved to Israel, it was the perfect connection to meet with the vineyards and go to the tastings and figure out the different blends for each bottle,” said Stoudemire, a part-owner of Hapoel Jerusalem.

Stoudemire played for the New York Knicks and Phoenix Suns among other teams in a 16-year NBA career. Although raised Christian, he began exploring a spiritual connection to Judaism on a trip to Israel in 2010.

“I feel spiritually Jewish, culturally Jewish,” he said at the time.

Stoudemire’s line includes two red wine blends and one Cabernet Sauvignon, all produced in limited quantity by the Tulip Winery on its vineyards in Kfar Tikva, in Israel’s north.

The winery produced only 100 bottles of the high-end wine, Stoudemire Private Collection, with each bottle retailing at $244.99. It produced slightly larger quantities, 1,680 each, of the Stoudemire Reserve and Stoudemire Grand Reserve wines, which are retailing for $59.99 and $99.99, respec-

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tively. The kosher beverage giant Royal Wine Corp. is distributing the wines, which are currently only available for purchase in stores in New York and New Jersey.

Stoudemire, who continues to speak about his connection to Israel, said he’s open to producing additional wines, but that he would not produce them outside the Jewish state.

“I prefer to keep the wines strictly from the grapes in Israel,” he said. “It’s my way of giving back to the land. I try to do what I can to stay rooted.”

Making sure the wine was kosher was important to the basketball star. Stoudemire identifies with the Hebrew Israelites, African-Americans who believe they are connected to the biblical Israelites and adhere to some Jewish customs.

“A kosher wine is always important for us because you can drink those during the High Holy Days,” he said.

This isn’t Stoudemire’s first venture outside of basketball. He has also started his own clothing line and record label, and written children’s books.

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His fans may also wonder if Stoudemire will be using the wine for purposes other than drinking: In 2014, the athlete shared a photo of himself soaking in red wine.

He later said that he Amar’e Stoudemire had been engaging Photo courtesy of Jewish National Fund- in the practice — USA known as vinotherapy — for months in order to relax and rejuvenate his body.

Stoudemire said the whole deal had been exaggerated.

“It was a birthday gift, a friend of mine was [saying], ‘Hey I got this perfect place for you to go, they have this red wine bath, and I want you to try it out,’” he recalled. “So I went and tried it out. It was great, so I took a picture, then I posted on Instagram, and it just kind of was blown out of proportion. That’s a luxury deal, red wine baths.” PJC MARCH 2, 2018 17

Life & Culture Consider the versatile, nutritious cauliflower Rich in antioxidants, a one-cup serving of cauliflower also delivers 73 percent of the daily value (DV) of Vitamin C, 19 percent of our Vitamin K, 15 percent for folate, 12 percent for Vitamin B6 and 11 percent of our fiber needs.

And best of all, its relatively mild flavor gives cooks a blank slate. I’ve been experimenting with cauliflower in different ways,

— LOCAL —

By Keri White | Special to the Chronicle

A

diet rich in a variety of fruits and vegetables is generally recommended for optimal health, but that

lightening up hearty winter meals with cauliflower as a second vegetable dish in place of rice or pasta. I then repurpose the preparation to provide a second or third dish meal — economical, efficient and healthy. Here are some of my recent discoveries.

Please see Food, page 19

can be a challenge in our region during the dead of winter. The good news is that with some effort, we can find locally grown and stored produce at area markets.

One such example is the versatile cauliflower.

Harvested in late fall, this hardy cruciferous vegetable packs a nutritious punch.

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Life & Culture Food:

Cauliflower “Pancakes” Continued from page 18

Cauliflower “Rice” Serves eight

This preparation provides a lovely bed for roasted fish or meat with just about any sauce or seasoning. Use it in place of rice or noodles, and you won’t miss the starch. Note, the recipe makes about eight servings, but I only needed two for my dinner that night.

This gave me plenty of leftovers to use in the recipes that follow.

1 head cauliflower, leaves and bottom stem removed (core can be used in recipe) 2 tablespoons olive oil 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon pepper 1/3 to 1/2 cup vegetable broth or water

Makes four pancakes

This dish was originally inspired by a photograph I saw on social media touting cauliflower grilled cheese. It seemed the perfect opportunity to use some of my surplus rice.

As it turned out, my rice was too wet to mimic anything like bread, but the result was delicious anyway. I melted cheese on my pancakes, which was sublime, but there is no limit to what you could do with these versatile and healthy discs.

Solo, they would be a wonderful light meal or side dish, but they would also be a

worthy bed for beef stew, chili or any type of chicken or fish dish.

Curried Cauliflower Soup

2 cups cauliflower rice (recipe above) 2 eggs 2 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil

This soup was another creation made specifically to use up the surplus of cauliflower rice. If you want to go straight from fresh cauliflower to soup, simply use four cups cauliflower florets, cook the soup 15 minutes longer, and puree with an immersion or traditional blender before serving. If you are seeking a cream soup, add half-and-half or cream before serving and heat through.

In a medium bowl, mix the rice with the eggs.

In a large skillet, heat the oil on medium heat.

With wet hands, form the rice mixture into patties and carefully place them into the hot oil.

Cook the pancakes for about three minutes until slightly browned, then carefully flip them.

(They are fragile.) Cook the second side until browned and serve immediately, as desired.

Cut the cauliflower into small-sized chunks that will fit in a food processor. Using a grating blade, run the pieces through the machine to form “rice.”

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil, salt and pepper on medium; add the cauliflower rice.

Stir to coat, add ⅓ cup of broth, lower the heat and cover.

Cook, stirring frequently, until the cauliflower is softened and cooked through, about 10 minutes. Note: You may need to add water or broth if the cauliflower is sticking to the pan during the cooking process.

— WORLD — From JTA reports

Jewish columnist at conservative conference calls out Trump misconduct A conservative Jewish columnist speaking at an influential annual conference for conservatives was booed and then provided protection after comments criticizing Republican Party “hypocrites” for ignoring sexual misconduct by the president of the United States.

Mona Charen, a senior fellow for the Ethics & Public Policy Center, spoke on Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, in Washington, D.C., on a panel called “#UsToo: Left out by the Left.”

She called out conference participants for ignoring Donald Trump’s bragging about his sexual conquests, though she did not use his name, according to reports.

“I’m disappointed in people on our side for being hypocrites about sexual harassers and abusers of women who are in our party, sitting in the White House, who brag about their extramarital affairs, who brag about mistreating women, and because he happens to have an ‘R’ by his name, we look the other way, we don’t complain,” Charen said.

Her statement came just before an annual straw poll of attendees found a 93 percent approval rating for Trump.

She also criticized the party for its support of Roy Moore.

“The Republican Party endorsed Roy

Serves two as a main dish or four as a starter or part of a meal

2 tablespoons butter, margarine or oil 1 onion, diced fine 3 cups cauliflower rice 3 cups vegetable stock (or more, if thinner soup is desired) 1 tablespoon curry powder (or more to taste) Salt and pepper to taste Optional: 1/2 cup half-and-half or heavy cream

In a medium pot, melt the butter and add the onions, salt, pepper and curry powder. Cook over medium until the onions are soft and cooked through.

Add the cauliflower rice and stir to coat.

Add the broth, bring it to a boil, lower the heat, cover and simmer 15 minutes.

Add the cream, if desired, or omit and serve. PJC Keri White is the food columnist for the Jewish Exponent, an affiliated publication of the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle.

Moore for the Senate in the state of Alabama, even though he was a credibly accused child molester,” she said. “You cannot claim that you stand for women and put up with that.”

Charen, whose columns are often pro-Israel, also criticized CPAC for inviting as a speaker far-right French politician Marion Marechal-Le Pen, granddaughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen and niece of National Front leader Marine Le Pen. “The only reason she was here is she’s named Le Pen, and the Le Pen name is a disgrace. Her grandfather is a racist and Nazi. She claims she stands for him. The fact that CPAC invited her is a disgrace,” Charen said to booing.

She reportedly was escorted out of the conference center by three security guards for her own protection. Charen later wrote that the guards who escorted her out “seemed genuinely concerned for my safety.”

‘Righteous’ Poles ask Israel and Poland to return to ‘path of dialogue and reconciliation’ A letter signed by a group of 50 Poles honored by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations has appealed to the governments of Israel and Poland to return “to the path of dialogue and reconciliation.”

“Please do not write the history anew,” reads the letter sent Monday to the prime ministers of the two countries.

“The greatest tragedy in the history of both our nations was once and for all recorded during the dark night of the Nazi occupation, the victims of which we are still all of today,” wrote the group, also known as Righteous Gentiles. They acknowledged that “as

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in everyone, also in our nation, there were wicked people, [who] acted on their own behalf, not on behalf of the Polish state.”

Signatories of the letter stressed that those people were members of the Polish nation.

“We were also afraid of them,” they said.

The letter was signed by the members of the Polish Society of the Righteous Among the Nations, a nongovernmental organization founded in 1985 on the initiative of people honored by the State of Israel as Righteous Among the Nations for saving Jews during World War II. The society aims to preserve memory and spread knowledge about the Nazi occupation in Poland, about the Holocaust and about people who risked their lives saving Jews.

Its letter follows the enactment of a new law in Poland that criminalizes those “who, in public and contrary to the facts, imputes that the Polish Nation or the Polish State was responsible or co-responsible for the Nazi crimes committed by the Third Reich or for other crimes against peace, humanity or war crimes, or otherwise grossly diminishes the responsibility of the actual perpetrators of these crimes, shall be liable to a fine or imprisonment of up to three years.”

The law has triggered protests from Holocaust survivors and Israeli leaders, as well as researchers, historians, journalists and Jews around the world.

Now the Righteous are urging “our two nations, united by a nearly 1,000-year-old common history, to build a covenant and a future in Poland, Europe, Israel and America, based on friendship, solidarity and truth.”

The letter also asks the international

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

community “for empathy and prudence, for sensitivity in creating law and responsible media narrative, for honest and independent historical research.”

Yeshiva University men’s basketball team qualifies for NCAA Division III tournament The Yeshiva University men’s basketball team has earned its first berth in the NCAA Division III basketball tournament.

On Sunday, the Maccabees defeated Purchase College, 87-81, in Purchase, N.Y., to win the Skyline Conference championship and earn an automatic berth into the national tournament.

“There is nothing much to say. We are champs,” head coach Elliot Steinmetz said in an interview posted on the Maccabees’ website. “These kids worked hard, stayed the course through everything all season, and now we are champs forever. What a moment!”

Athletic director Joe Bednarsh said that people from all over the world have been following the team and its run to the championship. Yeshiva is the flagship university of Modern Orthodox Judaism.

“People have been reaching out to me about this team from Thailand, South Africa, Argentina, Israel, England and more,” Bednarsh said. “The Maccabees are truly the pride of the Jewish people.”

Y.U., which has a record of 18-10, will be competing in the opening round next weekend.

The Maccabees defeated the regular season conference champion, Farmingdale State, in overtime in the semifinals. PJC MARCH 2, 2018 19

Headlines Candidates: Continued from page 1

because the word private is in the name.”

Mark Healy, another independent, was suspicious of privatization.

“Partnerships never work without oversight and working together to further whatever the commitment is,” he said. “I think that PWSA, when we made this deal with Veolia, we sort of washed our hands of it and assumed they would fix our problems. … Pittsburgh owning its own water authority is really important to try to make happen, but if we can’t make it happen, and we can’t afford to make it happen, we have to make the right decisions and they’re tough and we need to swallow our pride in order to move our city forward.”

Democrat Sonja Finn said she agreed with Strassburger.

“I know that we all know that what is happening with PWSA and the lead in our water and updating the infrastructure is a large problem, but we can’t let it overwhelm

us,” said Finn. “Elected officials are there for a reason. They are not there to be our fair-weather friends, they’re there to be our friends and fix things when things are bad and not just be overwhelmed and say, ‘Well, let’s see if somebody else, if some corporation can take care of this for us.’ That’s not the point of having elected officials.”

Greater consensus was reached on the city’s tax loss from public charities, such as UPMC. Three of the candidates said such entities must contribute their “fair share,” and Finn, although not using the term, stressed the situation’s urgency by saying, “I’m ready to go to the mat with it, because each year that we don’t, that is at least another $25 million dollars that is not going towards the people of this city. … Let’s get that money.”

Somewhat similar harmony was on display on the issue of guns and public safety. After Belser asked what steps City Council could do to prevent school shootings in Pittsburgh, the candidates discussed citywide bans, lawsuits and improvements to infrastructure.

“We could certainly work with the school

board to find funding to make the schools safer,” answered Remley. “There’s something called mantraps, but that’s infrastructure and capital spending that we just don’t have right now. The city could also ban guns in the city. I mean Chicago and D.C. — they all have these laws. It certainly is something we could do.”

Healey said a citywide ban may not be the panacea that everyone hopes for.

“We could do a city ban and we would all love to agree with that, and it makes sense, but if someone could go bring a gun in from an outlying county or from Ohio or West Virginia, are we really fixing the problem?

We really have to work with our state legislature as well as the surrounding regions’ legislatures and make change and drive that home to the federal government,” he said.

“The statistic we know for sure is the less guns, the less shootings,” said Finn. “This is where we need to lead. We need to form a coalition with other cities for gun control, and we really have a chance now.”

Strassburger backed a federal ban on

District 18: Continued from page 1

JCC’s Center for Loving Kindness and Civic Engagement. Both JCC town hall meetings were closed to the press.

A third candidate, Libertarian Drew Miller, was not invited to the debate, nor was he invited to appear at a JCC town hall event.

At Lamb’s JCC event, the Democratic candidate was grilled on his support for Israel, according to several attendees. The queries came in response to an article by the Washington Free Beacon reporting that Lamb had espoused anti-Israel sentiments while a student at the University of Pennsylvania. On Feb. 12, the website reported that in 2002, Lamb accused Israel of “terrorism” and of intentionally attacking innocent civilians in Gaza, in a post on his college student newspaper’s website.

Lamb said he does not recall making those comments and told the Chronicle that he is a steadfast supporter of Israel.

“There’s no question where I stand when it comes to Israel,” Lamb, a University of Pennsylvania graduate and military veteran, wrote in an email. “When you’re in the Marines, you learn to know who your friends are. Israel is our friend, one of our closest and most important allies in the world, and I will always support Israel. As for these comments, I don’t recognize them, and I have absolutely no memory of them.”

Representatives of J Street, the left-wing Jewish advocacy group which has endorsed Lamb, said the organization stands by the Democratic candidate regardless of comments attributed to him in the Daily Pennsylvanian.

“Conor will speak for himself, but he told me that he could not recall what he had written as a freshman at Penn 16 years ago,” said Victor Kovner, co-chair of J Street PAC. “He has made clear to us, however, that he is a strong supporter of a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine, and of active U.S. diplomacy toward that goal.”

Likewise, the Jewish Democratic Council of America, a national organization that supports candidates who endorse those domestic issues that are important to the 20 MARCH 2, 2018

Rick Saccone

Courtesy photo

Jewish community, and who support Israel and a two-state solution, is still “comfortable” with Lamb, despite the online comments, said Ron Klein, chair of the JDCA. “If he said these things today, I might have a different view,” Klein said, adding that some JDCA colleagues have had “multiple conversations” with Lamb’s campaign, and the Democratic candidate’s positions are “consistent” with the organization on such issues as the environment, health care, and “Israel’s right to exist as a homeland of the Jewish people.”

Scott Feigelstein, director of the Pennsylvania/S. New Jersey office of the Republican Jewish Coalition, had a different take on Lamb’s 2002 comments.

“Lamb’s attack against Israel in the middle of the Second Intifada was and is disgraceful,” Feigelstein said in a statement. “Nearly 1,000 Israeli civilians were murdered in the Second Intifada by members of Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups. Israeli forces seeking out terrorist cells and infrastructure went to great lengths to protect the Palestinian civilians among whom the terrorists hid.

“Lamb’s accusations are untrue and unacceptable,” added Feigelstein. “The people of the 18th district deserve better.”

Connor Lamb

Courtesy photo

In his statement to the Chronicle, Lamb favored strengthening the U.S.-Israel relationship.

“Israel has proven that it can and will protect its people,” Lamb wrote. “And it is in America’s interest to ensure that they can continue to do so. I support robust foreign and military aid to Israel. … Foreign aid to Israel is critical to Israel’s security and very survival — but it’s more than that. It’s an investment in our own security as well, as Israel stands on the front line against many of the same forces who threaten U.S. personnel and interests abroad.”

For his part, Saccone also identifies as a strong supporter of Israel.

“Israel’s security is vital to the security of the United States,” he wrote in an email. “I have spent time in Israel and the Middle East and understand the nature of the region on a firsthand basis. Israel is the only democracy in an already volatile region and without it the world would be much a more dangerous place.”

Saccone identified Palestinian terrorism as an obstacle to peace.

“Peace can only happen when both sides are willing to sit at the table in good faith,” the Republican candidate said. “The

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

semi-automatic weapons, as well as a 30-day waiting period on gun purchases.

“We need to start where we can, and while we don’t have the authority to ban guns in the City of Pittsburgh, I agree that we have to start somewhere,” she said. “If we want to take on the possible lawsuit and potentially lose millions of dollars in a lawsuit, that would be a decision that City Council would have to grapple with, but in the meantime we have to organize.”

The forum was sponsored by Bend the Arc: Pittsburgh, the Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, the JCC of Greater Pittsburgh’s Center for Loving Kindness and Civic Engagement, the League of Women Voters of Greater Pittsburgh and the Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition. The special election for the seat will be held on Tuesday, March 6.

Video of the forum is available at League of Women Voters of Greater Pittsburgh’s Facebook page. PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz @pittsburghjewishchronicle.org. continued support of terrorism by the Palestinian Authority will not make this process easier. As a former diplomat stationed in North Korea I understand the difficulty of trying to make a deal when there is seemingly irreconcilable differences between the two sides.”

In the wake of the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., that killed 17 students and teachers, both candidates have come out as pro-gun rights, with neither calling for a ban on assault weapons.

“I prosecuted violent crimes and gun trafficking as an assistant U.S. Attorney, and that experience showed me that one of the most effective things we can do right now is to strengthen our background check system,” Lamb said. “Our system is full of gaps and loopholes that too often allow guns to get into the hands of people who aren’t legally allowed to have them.”

Saccone emphasized dealing with the problem of mass shooters from both a mental health perspective and through the enforcement of existing gun laws.

“Like my opponent, I support enforcing the laws that are currently on the books,” Saccone wrote. “I think that events like these are signs of a societal issue as well as a mental health problem. I support seeing what can be done to prevent these attacks from a mental health perspective.”

The Libertarian candidate, Drew Gray Miller, identifies as “a political centrist,” according to the Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania’s website. Described as a “fiscally conservative, socially liberal candidate,” Miller is a former legal counsel to the majority whip of the Pennsylvania Senate.

“The more the Republican and Democratic politicians work against each other, the weaker our nation becomes,” Miller said in a statement. “In the end, respect and compromise will unite us, bringing new opportunity and advancement to all citizens. As an independent, I will focus on diligently working for you to ensure that every citizen has a voice and a seat at the table.” PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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MARCH 2, 2018 21

Celebrations

Torah

Wedding

We all must take responsibility

Keller/Wagner: Rochelle and Jimmy Wagner are excited to announce the marriage of their son, David Charles Wagner, to Rebecca Ruth Keller, daughter of Debbie and Joey Keller of Toronto. The wedding took place on Sunday, Oct. 15, 2017, at Eagles Nest Golf Club in Maple, Ontario.

Cantor Ben Silverberg officiated.

Rebecca is the granddaughter of Lena (late Chaim) Markel of Montreal and Joan (late Stanley) Keller of Delaware. David is the grandson of Marcia and Lee Himmel and Arnold (late Jacklyn) Wagner, all of Pittsburgh.

Rebecca holds a Bachelor of Science from Queens University, Kingston, Ontario, and a Bachelor of Science in nursing from the University of Toronto. She is a fertility nurse coordinator at Seattle Reproductive Medicine.

David holds a Bachelor of Science in supply chain management from the Smeal College of Business, Penn State University. He is an analyst at Marketplace Ignition.

Rebecca and David reside in Seattle.

B’nai Mitzvah Asaf David Gazit, son of Lynne (Wolfson) and Shmulik Gazit and brother of Yael Chaya Gazit of Tel Mond, Israel, became a bar mitzvah on Monday, Nov. 20, 2017, at the Kotel in Jerusalem. Safi is the grandson of Donna Levenson Wolfson and Jack Silverstein of Monroeville, Yemima Gazit of Rishon L’etzion, Israel, and the late Howard Wolfson and Yosef Gazit. Great-grandparents are the late Shirley and Irving Levenson and the late Frances and David Wolfson.

Sadie Rose Rothaus, daughter of Rod Rothaus and Samantha Dye, will become a bat mitzvah on Saturday, March 3 at Temple Emanuel of South Hills. Sadie is the granddaughter of Joan and Ronald Rothaus of Upper St. Clair, the late Michael Branch of Jacksonville, Fla., and Jill Branch of Dunnellon, Fla.

Eliana Justine Rubin, right, and Liviya Johanna Rubin, daughters of Dr. J. Peter and Julie Rubin, will become b’not mitzvah at Adat Shalom during the Shabbat morning service on Saturday, March 3. Grandparents are the late Dr. Leonard Rubin, Larry Dales, Annette Dales, Ruth Sterling, Clifford Hutton and Peggy Kinsey. PJC

22 MARCH 2, 2018

Rabbi Amy Greenbaum Parshat Ki Tisa Exodus 30:11-34:35

I

t has been a few weeks since the Parkland, Florida shooting. As I study the parasha for this week, Ki Tisa, I find myself asking a troubling question, “Are we like Aaron?”

The Israelites in the desert were fearful, Moses had been gone for 40 days, and the uncertainty of their future terrified them.

And so they said to Aaron, “Rise up, make for us gods that will go before us, for this man Moses who brought us up from the land of Egypt — we do not know what became of him!”

Aaron instructs them to remove the gold from their ears and their sons’ and their daughters’ and to bring it to him. He takes it and fashions it into a molten calf.

Meanwhile, Moses is up on Mount Sinai receiving the Torah and God tells him to hurry down, for your people “have become corrupt. They have strayed quickly from the way that I commanded them.”

said to the king, “If your majesty will do me the favor … let my life be granted me as my wish, and my people as my request.

For we have been sold, my people and I, to be destroyed, massacred and exterminated.”

These automatic weapons are destroying us, massacring us and exterminating us.

Many have heard of the wisdom and understanding of our Talmudic statement that explains that one who kills an individual kills an entire world. Have we permitted our leaders to distort our laws and values and enable individuals to buy weapons that decimated 17 worlds in six minutes in Florida and fired over 1,100 rounds of ammunition, killing 58 and injuring hundreds more in Las Vegas? Are we tolerating our leaders sitting back and allowing their empty words to stand as they say, “I can do nothing. It is not my fault”?

Our ancestors went to their leaders and pleaded for change. We must do the same.

You may have heard of the Jewish folklore of the man who remains in his house as the waters rise around him. A townsperson knocks on his door and says, “Come out,

We must not accept mass shootings as our new reality.

As Moses returns to the camp, he hears the celebrations and sees his people dancing around the calf. Moses demands an answer from Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you brought a grievous sin upon it?”

Aaron’s answer: “Let not my master’s anger flare up. You know that the people are disposed toward evil. They said to me, ‘Make us a god that will go before us, for this man Moses who brought us up from the land of Egypt — we do not know what became of him.’ So I said to them, ‘Who has gold?’ They removed it and gave it to me. I threw it into the fire and this calf emerged.”

Aaron takes no responsibility for the destruction he has brought upon his people.

Both Moses and Aaron know that the people have the capability, and sometimes the desire and the propensity to do evil. We cannot throw up our hands as does Aaron and say, “The calf just emerged from the gold. I didn’t do it, it isn’t my fault.”

We all must take responsibility. Now is the time. We must stand up and demand that our leaders change our laws to protect our children, our community, our nation. We do not have the luxury of throwing up our hands and doing nothing. Of saying, I didn’t do it, it isn’t my fault. It just emerged — it just happened. I am helpless.

We are not helpless.

Let us model ourselves after our heroes of the holiday we just celebrated — Purim.

Mordechai and Esther learned of a plot to destroy all of the Jews of Shushan, to massacre their community. They did not stand idly by — they acted.

Our ancestors went to their officials, to their leaders, and pleaded their case. Esther

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come out, the waters are rising, we must all get to safety.” The man replies, “God will save me” and closes his door. A few hours later a boat pulls up to the window of the man’s house and says, “Climb out of your window and into my boat. Hurry, we don’t have much time.” The man replies, “No, God will save me.” Finally, the waters have reached his roof and a helicopter flies overhead and sends down a ladder, “Hurry, hurry, this may be your last chance,” the people say over the megaphone to the man. Once again, the man replies, “No, I know that God will save me.”

What happens next you might wonder … the man drowns.

Once in heaven, the man says to God, “What happened, I believed in you, I thought you would save me.” God said, “I tried, three times I tried. The first time I sent you a knock on the door, the second time a boat and finally, a helicopter.”

We are drowning. We must not accept mass shootings as our new reality. Judaism is a religion of action, not simply belief. We must act; write to our members of Congress, attend rallies, donate to organizations that are working to create common sense gun laws, make certain our college kids complete absentee ballots, and of course, vote. Judaism teaches us we must make our voices heard.

Let us not be like Aaron, helplessly throwing our hands up in the air, or like the man in our story, drowning in denial. Rather, let us be like Mordechai and Esther standing up for what we know is right to save our people. PJC Rabbi Amy Greenbaum is associate rabbi of Beth El Congregation of the South Hills. This column is a service of the Greater Pittsburgh Rabbinic Association.

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Headlines Illinois: Continued from page 10

In this effort, Pritzker has maintained his establishment ties, scoring endorsements from both of his state’s Democratic senators, Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth. He is campaigning on Democratic touchstones of pledging more funding for education, health care and social services.

Biss has purposefully aligned himself with Bernie Sanders-style Democratic politics.

His ads rail against a “rigged system,” and he pledges to “make billionaires pay their fair share in taxes.” He is campaigning for key Sanders policies like Medicare for all, the universal health care proposal and free higher education.

Biss has also made inroads among the Sanders activist base. He was endorsed recently

by Our Revolution, the successor group to Sanders’ 2016 campaign. And his initial running mate was a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, but that didn’t work out.

Here’s why:

Why they’ve gotten in trouble

Both candidates have faced controversy, with Biss’ relating to Jewish issues.

His initial running mate was Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, a Chicago alderman who is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. But Biss faced backlash for the choice, made in September, because the DSA — along with Ramirez-Rosa personally — supports the boycott, divestment and

p J.B. Pritzker speaks to the media at MacArthur’s Restaurant in Chicago.

Photo by Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune/TNS via Getty Images

sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

Ramirez-Rosa had criticized the United States because it “subsidized the oppression of the Palestinian people.”

The move led Rep. Brad Schneider, a Jewish Democratic congressman from the Chicago suburbs, to withdraw his endorsement of Biss. Biss then dropped Ramirez-Rosa from the ticket, claiming that Ramirez-Rosa had previously told him he opposes BDS. Pritzker has come under fire of late. The most prominent scandal came from a tape recording of him speaking to former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat who is now in prison on corruption charges, about filling President Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate seat. Pritzker suggested Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, who is black, as that “covers

you on the African-American thing.” He also called Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. a “nightmare.”

In another tape recording of a conversation with Blagojevich, Pritzker sought political office from the governor.

What they say about their Judaism

Both Pritzker and Biss credit their Jewish background for who they are. Pritzker and his relatives are longtime donors to Jewish causes, and Pritzker includes his support of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in his campaign website biography. He also has served on the national board of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobby.

In an interview with a Chicago Jewish

paper, Pritzker said his childhood was imbued with Jewish values.

“I’ve often said it’s hard to separate the values of my parents and the values of my religion,” he said. “When we would go to temple and listen to discussions (in services or Sunday school), there was no difference between the things being taught at temple and those being taught at home. … It was just the basic things you learn from your rabbi and teachers are the same things we were learning from experiences with our parents.”

Biss is descended from an Israeli mother and grandparents who survived the Holocaust. He grew up in a secular, culturally Jewish family. He told the Chicago Sun-Times that his maternal grandparents gave him “a deep sense of Jewish identity” but not “a strong sense of ritual observance or literal belief, necessarily.” His grandparents on the other side “had kind of a Marxist view on religion.”

In a story he’s told multiple times, Biss recalls fasting on Yom Kippur as a child, when his maternal grandmother came up to him and said, “Why would you do that?”

Biss still identifies as a Jew, though he has said he does not observe many rituals. He said he consulted a rabbi when he launched his run for governor.

“There is a place for morality and ethics and a kind of a sense of community in politics,” Biss told the Sun-Times. “In fact, that’s the point of politics. And many of us have those senses shaped by our faith. But, then, if you bring the faith into politics in a way that’s exclusive of somebody else, that’s just dead wrong.” PJC

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This is not a new topic for me, and some of you may have remembered the speaker I brought in, Susan Turnbull. We also did a radio show. Susan is the leading expert on ethical wills, and I think she offers some lessons that are worthwhile for all of us.

First, the ethical will is not a legal document, and it has really nothing to do with the passing of material wealth from one person to another either

Ethical Wills: A Way to Pass Along Wisdom and Values toYour Family during lifetime or at death. This is from Susan: “An ethical will is a personal letter, or it can certainly also be a recording or some kind of a multimedia creation, from you to your heirs with the idea that this letter or recording would live beyond you and

one of the founding members of a committee that helped Montefiore Hospital become a reality in 1908. Hers was also one of the founding families of Congregation B’nai Israel, formerly housed on N. Negley Avenue. Her passion for caring for the

“An ethical will is a personal letter...or some kind of

a multimedia creation, from you to your heirs with the idea that [it] will live beyond you and be part of the record of your life.

— SUSAN TURNBULL

”

be part of the record of your life. It really takes a look at what sort of information and what kinds of themes and reflections, what values, some of the lessons that you’ve learned that you would like to pass on as part of your legacy.”

I think we all cherish the memories of our loved ones that have passed. Some of us are fortunate enough to have old letters or even old recordings—to remind us of their voices and ways of expressing their thoughts. I have several documents, written by two people who probably never heard of the term “ethical will”. My great grandmother, Annie Jacobs Davis, who married Barnett Davis, my great grandfather, wrote an autobiography that chronicled the events of her life, but also shared her values. She was known as The Mother of Montefiore Hospital because she was

underserved found continued expression in the next generation when one of her children, Isaac Davis, my grandfather, an ophthalmologist, did not hesitate to treat patients who could not afford treatment. Clearly, her values were communicated to her son. But, her autobiography passed her values on to multiple succeeding generations. My mother, Barnetta Davis Lange, sent me some personal letters that I will always cherish, and which I look forward to sharing with my daughter, so she can learn from her grandmother too. I believe my values have been shaped by the good examples of my ancestors.

Ethical wills are certainly not new. Rabbi Jack Riemer writes “The first ethical wills are found in the Bible. Jacob gathers his children around his bedside and tries to tell them the way in which

they should live after he is gone. And Moses makes a farewell address, chastising, prophesying, and instructing his people before he dies. David prepares Solomon before he goes to his eternal rest.”

More recently, Randy Pausch, a young terminally ill CMU professor, created an international sensation with his last lecture found at https:// www.cmu.edu/randyslecture/ Though what you write will not likely achieve that degree of notoriety, it could add a different type of legacy for your family.

If you wanted a quick free resource of how to go about writing an ethical will, you could listen to my radio show or read the transcript of the show with Susan found at http://paytaxeslater.com/ radio-show/169-ethical-wills-susan-turnbull/ There are other resources on how to write an ethical will recommended in the show. I know my life is enriched because some of my family members, including one I never met, took the time to create a communication that could be cherished for generations.

If you are interested in more financial information (we have written 5 best-selling financial books, many peerreviewed articles, have 208 hours of our radio archives, etc.), we encourage you to visit our website, www.paytaxeslater.com. It has a wealth of valuable free material of special interest to IRA and retirement plan owners, or please call (412) 521-2732 for a free copy of James Lange’s 420-page hardcover book, Retire Secure! or to see if you qualify for a free second opinion consultation.

The foregoing content from Lange Financial Group, LLC is for informational purposes only, subject to change, and should not be construed as investment or tax advice. Those seeking personalized guidance should seek a qualified professional.

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Obituaries ARNOWITZ: Roslyn Arnowitz, on Friday, February 23, 2018, of Squirrel Hill. Beloved wife of the late Robert Bandell. Mother of Alan (Terry) Bandell, Leonard (Anna) Bandell, Nancy Bandell and Judy (Robert) Friedberg.

Sister of Claire Weiner, Mayer Arnowitz and the late Wilma Yahr and William Arnowitz.

Grandmother of Aaron (Carrie) Bandell, Julie (Lance) Price, Colin Bandell, David Friedberg and Susan Friedberg. Great-grandmother of Max and Jonah Bandell. Also survived by many nieces and nephews. Roslyn worked as a bookkeeper for many years at the family business, Beck Arnley. She was a member of Rodef Shalom Congregation and was a volunteer at the Carnegie Museum. Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. Interment West View Cemetery of Rodef Shalom Congregation. Contributions may be made to Rodef Shalom Congregation, 4905 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213.

BASKIN: Marilyn “Lyn” Joan Weiss Baskin, of Tampa, formerly of Pittsburgh, passed away on Thursday, February 22, 2018, at age 84. She was surrounded by her beloved husband of 66 years Norton “Norty”, daughter Janice “Jan,” son Scott, and cherished granddaughter Alexandra “Avi”. Lyn is also survived by beloved grandson Joshua,

Bigler: Continued from page 4

Co. of Pittsburgh Inc. Bigler recounted elements of the period to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2003: “We didn’t let this whole thing embitter us. Here we were terminated after 25 years with two weeks’ pay. It was quite a story. If there was sex in the story too, we’d have written a book about it. … We just used whatever money we had available to us at that time. I remember [that] when it happened, we called our wives to set up a dinner meeting at the Duquesne Club, and we finished dinner before we told them what had happened.”

Although Bigler had never been a member of the Duquesne Club, he played an integral role in its history, specifically in terms of its welcoming Jewish members, which began in 1968.

According to The Pittsburgh Press, Bigler, as part of the American Jewish Committee’s “Executive Suite” project, investigated “Jewish participation in Pittsburgh corporate life in the 1960s.”

“I know that he felt that it was unfair because Jews were not allowed in there,” said his wife. “A lot of business was done there

wife Shira, and triplet great-granddaughters Naomi, Alizza and Meira, of New York. She is also survived by brother-in-law Howard and wife Cheryl, who she considered her brother and sister, niece Wendy Baskin Hutchinson, husband Jess, grandnephew Zachary, all of Pittsburgh; nephew Jeff Baskin of Arizona, grandniece Alexa of Cleveland; the Fried, Sedwick, Arnold families of Virginia, and Sallin family of California. She was preceded in death by son, Craig. She will also be missed by other family and lifelong friends around the country. Lyn was an outstanding wife, mother, and grandmother and a truly remarkable one-of-a-kind woman who left her mark on all who knew her. She loved reading, gardening, the sun, and her dogs. She was always a Pittsburgher at heart. Her elegance, style, humor, wisdom, and loving devotion to her family will be deeply missed. She will be missed most by her best friend in the whole world, her Norty.

Memorial contributions can be made to the dog rescue group of your choice. Interment at Gan Shalom Cemetery, Tampa, Fla. ROFF: Barbara Nathan Roff, 75, of Jerusalem, Israel, formerly of Aliquippa, Pa., Wooster, Ohio, and Brooklyn, N.Y., died Tuesday, February 20, 2018, at 3:30 p.m.

Jerusalem time, in Hadassah Hospital after a brief illness. She is survived by her daughter, Naomi Roff Kohn, and son-in-law, Tzvi Kohn; her grandchildren, Liav and Gal Kohn; her brother, Robert David Nathan and his wife, Debra, of Mabank, Texas; and their children Michelle and Jessica. Graveside services were held in Beersheva, Israel.

Contributions in memory of Barbara may be made to the Jerusalem Foundation, Jerusalem, Israel. PJC and he felt that he should do whatever he could to make it a Jewish club as well.”

Bigler served as the first co-chair of the Lev Society at the United Jewish Federation, now known as the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. He also served on numerous committees at Rodef Shalom.

“Harold was an important leader in the Jewish community many decades ago, but his legacy of volunteerism and leadership will be felt for a long time,” said Jeffrey Finkelstein, the Jewish Federation’s president and CEO. “Hal Bigler, with his perennial sense of optimism, was a figure who made tremendous contributions to his community, his city and his country,” said Bisno.

Harold Bigler is survived by his wife, Bette J. Bigler, sons Marshall S. Bigler and Clifford (Colleen) Bigler, grandson Bryan (Chauncie) Bigler, nephews Matt Lewis, Ritchard Lewis and David Winkler, and nieces Mary Rhonda Lewis, Laura Kraslow and Susan Rosenthal. He was predeceased by sisters Eleanor Lewis and Sylvia Bigler. PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz @pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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

In memory of...

Anonymous .......................................................... Belle Broder Anonymous ................................................... Louis M. Plesset Anonymous ....................................................... Manuel Selker Carolyn D. Allen ...................................... Robert Joseph Allen Carolyn D. Allen ...........................................Rose Seiger Allen Carolyn D. Allen ........................................Dr. Simeon C. Allen Irv Beck ...................................................................Rose Beck Charlotte Bluestone .........................................Max Bluestone Charlotte Bluestone ........................................Meyer Goldfarb Robert L. Bogdan................................................Alice Bogdan Lisa Campbell .............................................. Rita M. Friedman Ada Davis ............................................................William Davis Ginny Dederich .............................................Florence Schorin Ira Michael Frank............................................Audrey G. Frank Esther Fried .................................................... Morris S. Levine Bernard & Betty Halpern ..................................Bessie Halpern Joel Kauffman .................................................Rosia Kauffman Joel Kauffman ............................................. Haimen Kauffman

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Dr. Allan & Vivian Levine................ Leo Abraham Levine, M.D. Milton Lewis .......................................................Samuel Lewis Milton Lewis ....................................................... Harriett Kopp Mollyann March ............................................ Audrey B. Green Janet Moritz ........................................................ Dorothy Katz Larry Myer ...................................................... Trudy Rosenthal Larry Myer ......................................................... David A. Myer Dr. & Mrs. Jay Orringer........................ Harry B. Orringer, M.D. Sylvia Pearl Plevin ...................................................Betty Pearl Gloria & Arthur Pollock & Family................ Isadore M. Pollock Robert Rosenstein ........................................ Ruth Rosenstein Esther L. Schwartz .................................... Helen S. Latterman Faye Pearl Schwartz ...............................................Betty Pearl Dr. Stephan A. Schwartz .............................Leonard Schwartz Ruth Seiavitch .............................................. Ida R. Thompson Ruth Seiavitch ............................................... Freeda Solomon Patricia Green Shapiro .......................................... David Stern Harold C. Weiss .............................................Samuel J. Weiss

THIS WEEK’S YAHRZEITS — Sunday March 4: Rebecca Adler, Dorothy Fried, kenIda Goldberg, Rachel E. Goldberg, Dr. Norman Golomb, Lillian Hellman, Gerhart M. Horewitz, Ida Levy, Isaac Marcus, Bessie Michelson, Mildred S. Moss, Albert Rapport, Sylvia L. Samuels, Hyman David Segal, Manuel Selker, Edna M. Siegal, Goldie R. Siegel, Genevieve Stern, Nathaniel Stutz, Isaac Young Monday March 5: Joseph Abravanel, David Block, Solomon Evelovitz, Esther S. Finkelhor, Mollie Friedman, Nisan Gilboa, Sophie Goldman, Harry H. Green, Johanna Halle, Harold M. Harris, A. Hepps, Ruth Kaplan, Samuel Katz, Rosia Kauffman, Rose Kertman, Helen S. Latterman, Edward Lewis, Samuel Lewis, Samuel Lichtenstein, Shirley F. Little, Philip Mallinger, Judith Moritz, Jennie Ostrow, Benjamin Rambach, Max Reifman, Sam Rosenberg, Sarah Schwartz, Marvin Sniderman, Mayme Sukolsky, William Taylor, Sara Weiner Tuesday March 6: Frieda Alper, Yetta Browarsky, Mollie Chaimovitz, Frances Light Feinberg, Nathan H. Gross, Ethel Miller, Hattie H. Rapoport, Jacob M. Rose, Rose Roth, Harry Scott, Arthur J. Stern, Ruth Stern, Sadie Weiss, Robert S. Yecies, Joseph Zinner Wednesday March 7: Max Berman, Anna Bernfeld, Morris J. Bialer, Molly D. Bloch, Estelle H. Braver, Rose Cohen Calig, Frank R. Cohen, Goldie Davis, Anne S. Debroff, Ike Diamond, Pearl M. Feinberg, William Fried, Rebecca Friedberg, Nathan Glosser, Sadie C. Heller, Sophie Hersh, Leonard B. Jacobson, Lena Kaufman, Samuel Linetsky, Payce Lipkind, Joseph M. Orringer, Rae Venig Rubin, Florence Schorin, Leonard L. Schugar, Leonard Schwartz, Hyman Shalansky, Ben Shanker, Fannie Siegel, Elvin Teitelbaum, Isaac Weis Thursday March 8: Samuel L. Alpern, Sarah Dorothy Cohen, Leo Gitelman, Gerald B. Greenwald, Harry Greenwald, Morris Klein, Saul A. Kwall, Earl Lebovitz, Sam Lewinter, Carl Lieberman, Julius Jakob Maas, Harry Margolis, Fannie Melnick, Abe Miller, Sally Miller, Darlene Robinowitz, Ethel Bodek Rogers, Max Samuels, Birdie H. Schwartz, Manuel Wikes, George Wintner Friday March 9: Bella Bilder, Sidney Bilder, Henry Bloch, Bailie Anna Cohn, Sedalia Ekker, Rita M. Friedman, Charles Gilles, Clara Goldhammer, Frances H. Gordon, Joseph Greenwald, Hyman L. Hausman, William Hinkes, Haimen Kauffman, Abe Kirshenbaum, Edward Lewis, Abraham Pervin, Al N. Plung, Jack Sarbin, Hannah Rae Shapira, Benjamin Siegal, Vera Silverman, Fannie G. Tavernise, Samuel N. Whiteman, Joseph Wilkofsky, Manuel Zapler Saturday March 10: Rose Bahm, Lena Brand, Fay Seiner Cohen, Robert Davis, Edna Foster, Herman Frank, Mollie Gutkind, Abraham Hyman, Bernice M. Israel, Carl Katz, Lena Brodie Lebovitz, Dora Leiber, Gershen Liepack, Harold Meyers, T/Sgt. Sherwyn W. Meyers, Esther Rider, Isaac Rosenberg, A. Max Schmuckler, Lena G. Schwartz, Jack Isadore Slomoff, Paul Tabor

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MARCH 2, 2018 25

Community Adult Purim Carnival at Temple Sinai

p Community members enjoy a game at Temple Sinai’s Adult Purim Carnival on Saturday, Feb. 24. t Ellen and Bob Katzen play a game at Temple Sinai’s Adult Purim Carnival.

p Barbara Gibson tests her coordination skills at the carnival.

Photos courtesy of Temple Sinai

At Temple David Temple David and Classrooms Without Borders presented “Ten Matchboxes,” staring Amichai Pardo as Januz Korczak and also starring members of the Weiger Religious School.

In the play, a poor teacher (Korczak) gives his students empty matchboxes to create something according to their character, personality and interests using only their imagination.

p “Januz” watches as Sammy Sloan licks a “delicious” matchbox lollipop.

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p “Mama” Sara Pechersky, “Januz,” “Mama” Natalie Keough and “son” Elijah Sloan try to resolve a conflict over a broken matchbox.

p Amichai Pardo as Januz Korczak, Callie Sloan and Jacob Carney decide what to do with the “treasure” hidden in the matchbox.

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Photos courtesy of Temple David

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Community Social Justice Innovation Weekend

At Rodef Shalom

In February, more than 100 entrepreneurs, designers and computer programmers from the Pittsburgh area came together for a four-day event, Social Justice Innovation Weekend, to pitch ideas for making Pittsburgh a more equitable, inclusive community. Participants worked for two days developing a product and pitch with mentors from various backgrounds, culminating in the Social Justice Innovation Weekend Showcase to compete for prizes. The event was held at Repair the World: Pittsburgh and Alpha Lab Gear, in East Liberty.

​ p ​TheRSTY (The Rodef Shalom Temple Youth) were responsible for planning, creating and executing the congregation’s Purim Carnival. They slept over the night before and created a memorable celebration for the community.

p Participants Sarah Calahan, center, and Jahlise Chard, left, talk with a mentor about their idea, Raise the Bar, an accreditation program for bars, restaurants and other establishments working to make themselves a safe and inclusive space for all. Team Raise the Bar came in second place.

p ​ Rodef Shalom Purim Carnival teen volunteers, Jordana and Ariella Avigad

p Groups worked with mentors during the Saturday morning session on business plans and project development at the Repair the World Workshop on the first full day of the Social Justice Innovation Weekend.

u From left: The current cohort of Repair the World Fellows, Tara Allentuck, a Food Justice Fellow serving with 412 Food Rescue and Grow Pittsburgh; Max Hill, a Food Justice Team Leader serving with Grow Pittsburgh; Annie Linden, a Food Justice Fellow serving with 412 Food Rescue and Just Harvest; Rachel Bukowitz, a Food Justice Fellow serving with 412 Food Rescue, Circles East Liberty and Just Harvest; Naomi Morris, an Education Justice Fellow serving with School2Career, Circles East Liberty and Just Harvest; and Sara Tyberg, an Education Justice Fellow serving with Higher Achievement and Assemble

Photos courtesy of Repair the World: Pittsburgh

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p ​Teen volunteers Gabi Naveh and Abby Blank with Maya Aaronson at the Purim Carnival on Sunday, Feb. 25 Photos courtesy of Rodef Shalom Congregation

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MARCH 2, 2018 27

PASSOVER in the

AISLES! Celebrate the

Foods of Passover!

Join us for sampling of delicious kosher foods and fabulous food artists, who will create an original matzo piece incorporating Seder foods.

10 a.m. – 3 p.m. at each store!

MARCH 16

Squirrel Hill Giant Eagle

1901 Murray Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15217

South Hills Market District

7000 Oxford Dr., Bethel Park, PA 15102

MARCH 17

Shadyside Market District

5550 Centre Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15232

PASSOVER for KIDS at Bring your little ones for story time and a scavenger hunt with Danielle West of the Jewish Community Center PJ Library, who will be reading The Matzah Ball Fairy by Carla Heymsfeld at our Market District stores on March 17!

South Hills Market District 10 a.m. – 11 a.m.

Shadyside Market District 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

www.GiantEagle.com/celebrate

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