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May 4, 2018 | 19 Iyar 5778
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Candlelighting 8:01 p.m. | Havdalah 9:05 p.m. | Vol. 61, No. 18 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
Community commemorates 6 million at second annual Walk to Remember
NOTEWORTHY LOCAL First went the duckpins, then went the lanes
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Students discover locals knew a lot about Nazi threat By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer
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Neighborhood haunt Forward Lanes turns the lights out after 94 years as bowling destination.
forget the people who died. There was a very good chance in 1943 that I would be among them.” On Sunday, Farhy joined six other local Holocaust survivors for the second annual Walk to Remember, an event organized to commemorate the 6 million Jewish lives lost and the importance of Holocaust education. Close to 100 people gathered at the Gary and Nancy Tuckfelt Keeping Tabs: A Holocaust Sculpture to walk six laps around the Community Day School property. The walk, which was created by Jacki Savage Gelernter and organized by the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh and CDS, raised money for the Holocaust Center and to support Holocaust education at CDS. Organizers are still counting donations from this year’s walk. Savage Gelernter, whose mother-in-law is a Holocaust survivor, said she organized the first Walk to Remember last year after
t long has been a myth that Americans were unware of what was happening to Jews during the Holocaust. But “Americans and the Holocaust,” a new exhibit at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, flatly dispels that myth while examining why, despite extensive media coverage of Jewish persecution, the rescue of the Jews of Europe never became a priority for the U.S. government. Two teachers at Winchester Thurston School in Shadyside and their students have contributed to that exhibit by doing hands-on research of local newspaper reports from the 1930s and 1940s, including those published in the Chronicle’s predecessor paper, the Jewish Criterion, and providing those articles to the museum in Washington. Callie DiSabato, who teaches middle school English, and Jared Gervais, a social studies teacher, led their eighth-grade students on the search for truth as participants in the “History Unfolded” project of the USHMM, scanning hundreds of newspaper articles to find out what Pittsburghers could have known about the Nazi threat, and then submitting their findings to the museum’s online database, thereby making that information available to the general public. Each year, Winchester Thurston’s eighth grade studies the Holocaust, and travels to Washington, D.C., to visit the museum. When the teachers learned of the “History Unfolded” project, they were eager to get their students involved as a way to do useful historical research. DiSabato and Gervais took their students to the Carnegie Library to examine local newspapers of the time period, and also worked with Martha Berg, the archivist at Rodef Shalom Congregation. Berg
Please see Walk, page 16
Please see Archive, page 16
Page 2 LOCAL Unbounding faith, in uniform
Albert Farhy, a Holocaust survivor who now lives in Pittsburgh, stands by the Gary and Nancy Tuckfelt Keeping Tabs: A Holocaust Sculpture at Community Day School. Farhy participated in the Walk to Remember on Sunday, April 29.
Naval officer speaks to Jewish women in the South Hills. Page 3 LOCAL Moral truth Rabbi Joseph Telushkin will offer universal message during visit. Page 5
Photo by Lauren Rosenblatt
By Lauren Rosenblatt | Digital Content Manager
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hen Albert Farhy was 12 and growing up in Bulgaria, he wasn’t allowed to walk the streets after 9 p.m. He also was not permitted to shop at certain hours of the day or have a bar mitzvah. One night, he looked outside his window to investigate what sounded like a buzzing sound coming from the streets. He saw crowds of people approaching his building, a mostly Jewish complex, yelling, “Death to America. Death to the Jews.” “It felt like we were mice,” he said. “You could not escape.” Farhy, now 88 and living in Pittsburgh, grew up amidst the rise of the Nazi regime in Eastern Europe. He was lucky, he says, because most Bulgarians helped the Jewish people. “It was a time when you didn’t know tomorrow,” he said. “Commemoration [of the Holocaust] is very important. Never
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Headlines As final pin falls, memories echo at Forward Lanes — LOCAL — By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer
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orward Lanes, a beloved East End venue occupied by recreationalists, social groups and professional bowlers, marked its final frame on Saturday, March 24 at the age of 94. Its demise was due to an eviction for “nonpayment of rent and additional rent,” said David Tkacik of Equity Real Estate, the property manager. Established in 1924, the 17-lane alley, which formerly occupied a second story Squirrel Hill structure, was originally home to two floors of duckpin lanes. “Pittsburgh was a duckpin city. Cleveland and places west of Pittsburgh were always tenpin,” said Guy “Buddy” DeLuca Jr., of Forest Hills. Although the 70-year-old’s father had operated Forward Lanes between 1959 and 1986, the family’s connections go back even earlier. In 1924, DeLuca’s dad was a carpenter for the Watkins family, owners of both Forward Lanes and Watkins Real Estate. After pursuing an opportunity in New York with the Firestone Tire Company, he returned to Pittsburgh and headed up Forward Lanes, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported in 1984. With alleys both upstairs and beneath, the space possessed a back entrance on Maeburn Road where mechanics could access the 12 lanes which were separated from another five lanes, explained the son. The “spacing” was reminiscent of prior times. “I don’t think you can find any odd lane center now,” DeLuca said before adding that it was around the “late 1940s when they went to 17 lanes,” and around 1959 when “they got the tenpin machines.”
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p Forward Lanes closed on March 24 after 86 years in business.
Paperwork confirms such recollections. A 1947 City of Pittsburgh Certificate of Occupancy states that Combination Window Company occupied the ground level, while later records reveal subsequent tenants. Although the first floor neighbors changed throughout the decades, Forward Lanes remained. Polished and preserved, the place was a familiar denizen for generations. “The lanes were part of the community forever. We had people there who owned Giant Eagle to garbage men, to attorneys and doctors. Everyone mingled there and nobody was special, you were all just bowling there and having fun,” said DeLuca. “Forward Lanes meant everything, that was the go to place,” echoed Bob Wissman, a former owner of the alley. Between 1984 and 2004, the 65-year-old Forest Hills resident ran the space. “There were only two places to go for families at that time: Forward Lanes and the Squirrel Hill Theater,” Wissman said. “It was just part of the community,” agreed DeLuca. Having such a shared space is what will be most missed, said former patrons. “I’ve been going there for quite a few years,” noted Brian Cynamon, 70, of Squirrel
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Photo courtesy of David G. Tkacik, Equity Real Estate
Hill. Back then its dated decor “wasn’t all that different” from its recent adornment. “It all looked the same. You go to the top of the steps, it had the year that it was established. There wasn’t much that was different except for the carpeting,” said Martin Huttner, 68. There were “old fashioned vending machines” in the corner, and “soft drinks,” which were available for purchase. “There wasn’t a bar back then, but the actual bowling alley looked exactly the same as far as I can remember,” agreed Ira Frank, 60. In 2003, Forward Lanes acquired a liquor license. One year later, when Andrea and Kevin Brewer took over for Wissman, the Forest Hills resident kept the license, but directed the new owners to attorney Linda Goldston, who helped the couple acquire a beer license. But even before mini Coronas were served in iced buckets or drafts were delivered in a plastic cups, Forward Lanes was a watering hole. As a teenager, Huttner used to frequent the spot with his fellow Gateway AZA bowling buddies. “Everyone in the league was Jewish. We had a lot of people in the league, around 45 to 50,” he recalled. “Sometimes we
brought Mineo’s pizza, which was very nice and still is.” Birthday parties, bar and bat mitzvah celebrations, B’nai B’rith meetings and other communal functions were routine. So too was league play. “My dad used to have two leagues: 9 and 10:30 every morning. My dad would go to Poli’s for lunch, then leagues in the afternoon: 1 and 2:30, then leagues at night: 7 and 9:30, Monday through Friday,” said DeLuca. Weekends were “always crowded,” he added. “My dad would open the bowling alley at noon and by 12:07 every lane was filled.” But over the years, attendance waned. “The league end of it started to dwindle and the leagues are what paid your bills, all your rent and utilities and payroll. The kids off the street were the profit,” said Wissman. With The Waterfront opening in 1999, the businesses adjacent to Forward Lanes, such as the theater and Champs, a Wissman-owned bar, began to suffer. “To see the street decline like that, it really hurt,” said the prior proprietor. “I was down there a couple of weeks ago and it’s very sad what I see there, the street there was so Please see Forward, page 20
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Headlines Naval officer speaks of maintaining tradition abroad at annual women’s event — LOCAL — By Lauren Rosenblatt | Digital Content Manager
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or Lt. Cmdr. Laurie Lans, there is always another Jew to be found. While on active duty and living abroad in places such as Iraq, Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf, Lans spent part of her time seeking out those other Jews, hoping to create Jewish communities wherever she could — whether that took the form of a giant menorah lighting or three people gathering for Shabbat dinner with challah and grape juice. “Hashem never sends anybody where there isn’t another Jew. That’s what I try to share with people,” said Lans, who now lives in Fort Drum, N.Y. She was in Pittsburgh to speak at Chabad of the South Hills’ annual women’s event on Tuesday, April 24. “If you leave here knowing that Hashem knows you,” she said, “that is the best thing.” The event, in its 12th year, is designed to inspire Jewish women and offer them a place to connect with one another, said Batya Rosenblum, co-director of Chabad of the South Hills. She invited Lans to speak because of her experience connecting to Judaism in some of the remotest parts of the world.
“This is something she is very passionate about, sharing the journey and how she’s been able to connect to Jews throughout the world,” Rosenblum said. “I’m hoping that [the attendees] will take away a renewed sense of Jewish pride, and that when someone can be strong in their Jewish values, they can take it on the road wherever they go.” Speaking to a crowd of about 75 people, Lans talked about how she maintained the traditions of Judaism while living abroad, from receiving kosher food supplies from a friendly Jewish member of her unit to using an ocean in South Korea as a makeshift mikvah to walking miles through the desert to make it to a synagogue for the High Holy Days as often as she could. One Chanukah, in an attempt to both bring together Jews in the area and encourage other members of the community to learn more about Judaism, Lans took it upon herself to host a giant menorah lighting. She planned the event for Dec. 25, not realizing until much later what that day signified for the majority of the population. At the lighting, Lans asked each person how they were able to get the time off work to attend. Fellow non-Jewish soldiers, they told her, offered to work for them, despite the date, telling them, “You have to be at the menorah.”
Although Lans had many stories of celebrating her Jewish heritage while living abroad, she also told the women about moments when her Judaism could be a barrier and a potential danger. On one trip to Kuwait and Iraq, she decided to hide her Jewish identity, hoping to protect herself and Israel in case someone mistook her connection as a sign that Israel was involved in the conflict. She asked p Women from Chabad of the South Hills for a new passport to remove her who helped organize the annual women’s trips to Israel and new dog tags that event on April 24 pose for a photo. Photo by Lauren Rosenblatt declared she had “no religious pref“It’s not all or nothing,” she said. “You do erence,” rather than stating she was Jewish. She also removed her mother’s necklace, what you can do to be the best Jew you can which was designed like a chai, in case and grow every year.” anyone in Iraq recognized the symbol. Carol Rose, a member of the planning Later on, she said, “I prayed to Hashem committee for the event, said she was and said, ‘Please take me back to Iraq inspired by Lans’ ability to see God, find and Afghanistan, and I promise to be a way to be Jewish and love her Judaism a proud Jew.’” wherever she was. “If it wasn’t there, she put it there,” Rose Lans encouraged the women in the South Hills to find their own ways of holding on to said. “You can take your feeling and your Jewish traditions and connecting to Judaism. love of God anywhere in the world and She told them to start small, like adding make it work.” PJC kosher meat to their diet or deciding to light Shabbat candles even if they decide to go the Lauren Rosenblatt can be reached at movies afterward. lrosenblatt@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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Headlines Moundsville has a heap of options for Pittsburgh daytrippers W.Va., home of the long-since retired penitentiary, now a tourist destination. For the past 15 years, Ryan has worked By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer at the residentially located prison, which is minimally set off from an aggregate of just got out of jail and I can’t wait to go homes by a slim street. back. It wasn’t the three square meals or “About 15,000 people” show up annually the chance to play chess in the yard — the for daily tours, escape rooms, scheduled cafeteria wasn’t even functioning and the wind sleepovers or ghost adventures, she said. was so great that it would have moved my “Weekdays aren’t as busy.” pieces faster than castling could. As it turned Located less than 90 minutes from Pittsout, the enjoyably chilling experience of visiting burgh, the stone walled structure, which the West Virginia State Penitentiary, even in 37 was inspired by a similarly gothic facility in degree weather, was better than a twilight tour Joliet, Ill., was built in 1866 and remained of Alcatraz, making it a must-do for Steel City operational until 1995. denizens seeking summer day trips. Understandably with over a century of “We get a lot of people coming down from use, there is a lot of history in those halls. Pittsburgh,” said Pam Ryan, of Moundsville, On the morning of my tour I was privy to hearing some stories from an exceptional guide. Unlike at Alcatraz, where visitors linger in line to board a boat and then get a recorded presentation via headphones, at the West Virginia State Penitentiary after parking your car outside of someone’s house, you cross a narrow avenue, enter the calaboose and moments later meet your guide, which is a human who is more than willing to p The Palace of Gold was built by unskilled laborers. Photo by Adam Reinherz answer questions posed.
— LOCAL —
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p A cell block at the State Penitentiary.
As we made our way through visitation centers, shower spaces and cells marked with graffiti, Ryan fielded inquiries such as, “Does that electric chair still work?” “What happened to the inmates who organized the 1986 prison riot?” and “If the warden’s family lived on site, where did his children play?” We had about 20 people in our party, about a third of whom were under the age of 12. The information was engaging and accessible, but more enthralling was ambling the area and appreciating the conditions. On the walls, and in all corners of the space,
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Photo by Adam Reinherz
there are paintings, sculptures and other inmate-rendered art. These productions, along with the tales of fights, friendships and fear forged by daily encounters between inmates, perfectly position the museum as a menagerie of life and death. That it teeters between the two is a turbulent reminder of humanity’s gifts and guilt. Ryan recalled a “weird” encounter from Please see Moundsville, page 23
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Headlines Telushkin brings universal Jewish insight to Upper St. Clair — LOCAL — By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer
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here are no Jewish answers to Jewish questions,” insists Rabbi Joseph Telushkin. The assertion seems a bit puzzling, coming from the man who has been hailed by the New York Jewish Week as “America’s rabbi,” a bestselling author of more than 15 books, including his comprehensive “Code of Jewish Ethics,” which won the National Jewish Book Award in 2007. His statement hangs in the air for a few seconds, and then Telushkin pointedly explains: “There are Jewish answers to universal questions.” What Jewish teachings have to offer, said the rabbi, is enlightenment and guidance to the world at large, and the world at large is primed to benefit from them. Aptly, when Telushkin comes to Pittsburgh on May 10, his talk entitled “The Twenty-First Century: A Moral Vision, One Day at a Time,” will be held not at a synagogue or another Jewish venue, but at the Upper St. Clair High School Theater, and open to the public. His appearance, held in honor of Rabbi Mark Mahler’s upcoming retirement after 38 years of service to Temple Emanuel of South Hills, promises to have wide appeal. Speaking by phone prior to his arrival in Pittsburgh, Telushkin gives a nod to Charles Dickens’ Classic, “A Tale of Two Cities,” when describing the state of Judaism in the 21st century. The reason the line, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” is so popular, Telushkin said, “is because it’s so universally and continuously applicable. In one sense, it is the best of times in the Jewish community, in that the world is willing to listen to our message, I think, more than ever before. There is an openness in America to making a Jewish message known.” He contrasted the circumstances of American Jews in the early 20th century with those of the Jews today. “When Jews started coming over to the United States in large numbers, European Jews in the late 1800s and the early 1900s, Jews were very concerned with preserving our identity, which obviously still is an issue,” he said. “But the world wasn’t really all that interested. But there is now, I would argue, a greater interest. There is a reaching out and a search and a thirst, and I think that Jews can take advantage of that.” There are “great Jewish teachings,” he said, that can improve the state of 21stcentury society. “We want to find a more civilized way of communicating,” he noted as an example, and Judaism has an answer to that: the prohibition against lashon hara (“evil tongue”). While a lot of Jews are familiar with the term lashon hara, most people don’t know that by definition, lashon hara is a statement that is true, he pointed out. “But the fact that something is true doesn’t mean that everybody else has the right to
know it,” Telushkin explained. “There are times when you have the right to say something negative or critical about a person, if people need the information. But very often, people will do it when it’s not necessary.” Of course, he added, if a statement is false and negative, “it’s an even more serious thing — it’s slanderous. But here, I want people, before they say something, to ask themselves the following questions: ‘Is it true? And even if it’s true, is it fair and is it necessary?’” During his talks, he said, he often inquires whether audience members can think of an episode in their own life “that you would be very embarrassed if other people knew about it?” “Basically, everybody raises their hand except for people who have very bad memories or very boring lives,” he said. “And if somebody spread that information about us, we would be very angry. Even if it’s true, nobody else has the right to know it.” People should refrain from talking about others, even when it comes to public figures, Telushkin advised. “It doesn’t mean [public figures] should be protected from criticism, but we can’t go around denying any level of privacy to people,” he said. Another Jewish teaching with universal application, he said, is the “most famous law in the Torah, the law of love your neighbor as yourself.” “So, what’s the explicit commandment?” he asked. “The explicit commandment is to love your neighbor. But what’s the implicit commandment? The implicit commandment is to love yourself. In other words, I think the Torah is really recognizing there the importance of self-esteem.” People tend to be at their best when they have a good sense of self-esteem, he said, but it is crucial that self-esteem be based on the right qualities, and parents have a responsibility to their children to make them feel good about doing good. “Parents should reserve the highest praise for their children for when their children do kind acts,” Telushkin said. “Children normally get their highest praise for one of four things: for their academic achievements, their athletic accomplishments, their cultural achievements — like piano playing — and in terms of their looks. “Kids need compliments,” he added. “But, I would argue that when parents reserve the highest praise for their children’s kindness, you develop a generation of people who think the most of themselves when they are being kind. And that’s why we have the capacity to have such a transformative effect. Their sense of self-esteem will derive from their goodness.” Telushkin will more thoroughly examine Judaism’s “moral vision” and its applicability to contemporary times at the talk, which will begin at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available for a “meet and greet” with Telushkin prior to the start of the program and the rabbi will be signing books following the presentation. PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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p Rabbi Joseph Telushkin comes to Pittsburgh on May 10.
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Headlines JAA’s ‘We Are Art!’ prompts memories, creativity for those with dementia — LOCAL — By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer
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or members of the Anathan Club, there is no right or wrong way to make art. And that’s the point, according to Maritza Mosquera, a professional artist who focuses on community transformation. The curriculum she has developed for the Anathan Club, a daytime program for adults with dementia and other memory impairments run by the Jewish Association on Aging, aims to help its members connect with memories, and tap into the creative instincts that remain within. Mosquera has significant experience working with elders as well as developing community engagement programs, including at the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Alternative Education in Prison program. She developed the “We Are Art!” program in collaboration with the JAA. The Anathan Club is a mixed group. Some members are non-verbal, while others are eager to contribute to a conversation sparked one recent day by some Currier & Ives riverside prints of New York. A few of the members had been active artists themselves before dementia or other impairments robbed them of particular memories, while others had little prior interest in drawing or painting. But this day, everyone in the room was an artist. “All right, you guys, we have art to make,” Mosquera decreed with an infectious enthusiasm after she personally greeted each of the 16 men and women seated around the tables in the Anathan Club. Mosquera took the Currier & Ives prints around the table so that everyone could have a closer look. She asked each member what he or she saw in the images, and what they liked about them. One member commented on “the water, the swimming,” another mentioned the boats and “people fishing,” while another had spied “a little house” and wondered aloud what the people inside are having for dinner. That spurred further conversation, as those around the table speculated about the food: fish, corn, maybe beans. “It all goes back to what they remember,” Mosquera explained in an interview. “And the more they look at the picture, the more they go into the whole story line.” After the members delved deeper into the tales the prints tell, Mosquera passed out paper, pencils and brush markers and the artists got to work. “They get to choose anything in the image they want to explore,” Mosquera explained. “Some say they don’t know where to start, so I might say, ‘How about that tree?’” The art the members of the club created ranged from abstractions to more realistic designs. Not everyone wanted to draw, and those who did not were encouraged to instead narrate a story about what they saw in the prints, which was transcribed on paper by art therapy intern Liz Powell.
6 MAY 4, 2018
p Maritza Mosquera, top, a professional artist who focuses on community transformation, encourages memories through art at the Anathan Club.
Photos by Toby Tabachnick
“ Art may improve quality of life for patients and caregivers, even if
”
temporarily.
— SAM GANDY “Some people like the storytelling better than drawing, but I consider storytelling art, too,” Powell said. In addition to providing a means to allow the club members to create their own art, Mosquera also takes them on outings to museums and galleries, where they look at masterpieces explained by docents and get
a chance to talk about their own impressions of the works. Recent excursions have included the Mattress Factory and the Carnegie Museum of Art. “Bringing them out into the community is huge from a dementia standpoint,” explained Amy Dukes, the JAA’s memory care liaison. Having dementia can be isolating, and it’s
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important that “people with dementia can still be part of the community.” The Anathan Club is “about engagement,” noted the club’s manager Lori O’Brien. “And art is a large component of our program.” The JAA began its art program at the request of a donor. While “We Are Art!” is currently running solely in the Anathan Club, O’Brien sees the possibility of it being extended to other facets of the JAA. “We wanted the program to be educational, and we wanted it to be replicable in other areas of the JAA,” she said. “Maritza has made the template.” O’Brien has seen the positive effects that art can have on those with dementia. “It’s calming,” she said. “Alzheimer’s is a lot about mood. If they have a great experience at a museum, or working on art, that feeling stays with them. “So, it helps not only in the moment, but when they get home.” Scientific research into the effects of art on dementia patients is scarce, but there is copious anecdotal evidence showing that it can improve self-esteem, temperament and quality of life. The movement to infuse art into programming for the memory impaired was galvanized in 2009 with the release of the documentary film “I Remember Better When I Paint,” which showed how non-pharmaceutical methods in the arts could help treat and stimulate people with Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders. The film illustrates how the arts can help transgress the limits of dementia, and was inspired by Hilda Goldblatt Gorenstein, the mother of one of the filmmakers and an Alzheimer’s patient; Gorenstein, who had a career as a noted artist before being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, experienced an improvement in speech and mobility when she began to paint again. Although it can be challenging to obtain hard data about the effects of art therapy, some researchers nonetheless agree there could be a benefit. “Art may improve quality of life for patients and caregivers, even if temporarily,” Sam Gandy of Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, told Alzforum, a news website aiming to help advance the development of diagnostics and treatments for memory disorders. “Anything that brings respite and joy into their lives is worth a shot while we are chasing down the science.” The “We Are Art!” program allows club members to explore additional genres of art, including poetry, drumming and architecture. The drawings and paintings they create are displayed in a gallery in the Anathan Club. The program is supported by The Sylvia & Martin Snow Family Fund, PNC Charitable Trusts, Ladies Hospital Aid Society, the Jack Buncher Foundation, and individual donors. PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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Headlines JFilm Festival opening night is leadoff hit — LOCAL — By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer
E
ven if the only paparazzi happened to be a couple of local reporters, JFilm Festival’s opening night was still a hit, with nearly 300 cinephiles and communal supporters attending screenings of “Heading Home: The Tale of Team Israel.” The baseball documentary’s Pittsburgh premiere and subsequent dialogue proved so popular that in the weeks leading up to the festival’s inaugural ceremony Kathryn Spitz Cohan, executive director of Film Pittsburgh, added a second presentation to the roster. The movie tells the story of the improbable rise of the Israel national baseball team from a global ranking of 41st to 19th in the 2017 World Baseball Classic. So on Thursday last week, after she, Jonathan Mayo and Jonah Rosenthal treated viewers of the originally scheduled 7 p.m. showing to a brief discussion of baseball and filmmaking topics, the trio delivered a virtual doubleheader by heading one door down to Theater 10 of the SouthSide Works Cinema and leading another conversation of similar nature at the end of the 7:30 presentation. In both settings, Spitz Cohan started the sessions with inquiries on the movie’s genesis. Mayo, a Pittsburgh native, MLB.com
well as suggestions, were shared by reporter and executive festival-goers following the event. producer of “Heading Home,” “This was a great chance explained how years earlier he to see a story that I was not had attended a Jewish sleepfamiliar with” and learn of its away camp with two of the Pittsburgh connection, said Cindy three directors and that in the Goodman-Leib, of Squirrel Hill. following years the friends Helen Eaton, also of Squirrel had collaborated on possible Hill, called the movie and projects, with this one actually the discussion that followed coming to fruition. “invigorating.” With microphone in hand, “Ideally it would have been Mayo then asked Rosenthal, wonderful to have the charTeam Israel’s former manager acters speak,” offered Paul of baseball operations, Caplan, of Oakland. about the process of assemp Jonah Rosenthal (left) explains the process of Nevertheless, said Jason Neiss, bling the players. “It was as crazy as it looks,” assembling Team Israel as Jonathan Mayo and Kathryn Spitz of Squirrel Hill, “the movie was Cohan listen. Photo by Adam Reinherz inspirational, fun and hilarious. explained Rosenthal, a Taylor Allderdice and University of Pittsburgh I ever dreamed of making a movie, but the It showed that Jews can do more than people graduate who now serves as a professional fact that I did it with Jewish friends and was think they can.” That ability to achieve is what most resoscout and mid-Atlantic supervisor of the Los able to combine my two hats — the Jewish side and baseball side — I’ve just enjoyed nated for Rosenthal, who said that many of Angeles Dodgers. Team Israel’s players are “out of baseball now.” Whether it required scouring Twitter, every second of it,” said Mayo. “I went to a World Series, but this meant “In a lot of ways this was their last hurrah,” Instagram and Facebook, or calling synagogues in the Dominican Republic, no stone more,” added Rosenthal. “Some things are and being a part of this experience was “their chance to make their mark on the game,” was left unturned in discovering potential just bigger than us.” “I was at the 2001 World Series when the he added. “Baseball is just in its infancy in players, added the former director of baseball operations at the University of Pittsburgh. Diamondbacks beat Mariano Rivera in the Israel. This team allowed baseball to grow Other questions were fielded by the three, bottom of the ninth, but this was so personal in monumental levels. Maybe one day that but where they ultimately scored was in to me,” echoed Mayo. “Because of the Jewish Sandy Koufax will come from Israel.” PJC describing the endeavor’s personal nature. side of it, it ranks way up there with anything “This has been the most surreal profes- else I’ve done professionally.” Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz sional experience I’ve ever had. It’s not that Similar enthusiasm and appreciation, as @pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
This week in Israeli history — WORLD — Items provided by the Center for Israel Education (israeled.org), where you can find more details.
May 4, 1994 — Agreement on the Gaza Strip and Jericho Area is signed
The Agreement on the Gaza Strip and Jericho Area, the first of its kind to grant Palestinians a measure of autonomy, is signed by Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat in a ceremony in Cairo.
May 5, 1985 — Ronald Reagan visits BergenBelsen and Bitburg Cemetery
The U.S. president, seeking reconciliation with Europe, angers Jewish leaders in the United States and Israel with his planned visit to a Nazi military cemetery.
May 6, 1951 — David Ben-Gurion visits Tennessee Valley Authority projects
Ben-Gurion’s trip, the first visit by an Israeli prime minister to the United States, includes a tour of hydroelectric and water projects in Tennessee and Alabama.
May 7, 1983 — Abu Musa declares a Palestinian revolt against Arafat
Palestinian militant factions unsuccessfully challenge Arafat’s control during the First Lebanon War.
May 8, 1936 — Exiled Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie arrives in Haifa
Exiled because of Italy’s incursion into Ethiopia, Selassie spends a few weeks in Jerusalem contemplating how best to gain global support for his country.
May 9, 1942 — Extraordinary Zionist conference begins at the Biltmore Hotel in New York
The Biltmore Conference would set the framework for Zionist policy in the years during and after World War II.
May 10, 1948 — Golda Meir has secret meeting with King Abdullah in Amman
The second secret meeting between the two was a last-ditch effort to persuade Transjordan to stay out of an impending war with the soon-to-be declared State of Israel. PJC
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TEEN TIKKUN 5778 LATE NIGHT CONVERSATIONS ON REVELATION SHAVUOT: SATURDAY, MAY 19 9:45 PM – 12:45 AM JCC SECOND FLOOR 5738 DARLINGTON ROAD, SQUIRREL HILL
6TH-12TH GRADERS 9:45PM – MIDNIGHT
ADDITIONAL SESSION FOR
8TH-12TH GRADERS ONLY 12:00-12:45AM
FEATURING MARISSA TAIT, RABBI CHAIM STRASSMAN, CHAIM STEINBERG, ELINOR NATHANSON, SARA STOCK MAYO, ALEX MALANYCH, RABBI DANIELLE LESHAW, HANNAH KALSON, RABBI ANDREW HAHN, DAVID HARRIS-GERSHON, AND TEEN LEADERS.
Refreshments available. Dietary laws observed.
Questions? Contact Chris Herman at cherman@jccpgh.org or 412-697-3233.
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MAY 4, 2018 7
Calendar THURSDAY, MAY 17 Elizabeth Rosner, author of “Survivor Café: The Legacy of Trauma and the Labyrinth of Memory,” will speak at 7 p.m. at the Carnegie Library Lecture Hall. Examining current brain research, Rosner depicts the efforts to understand the inheritance of trauma, as well as the intricacies of remembrance in the aftermath of atrocity. Visit pittsburghlectures.org/ lectures/elizabeth-rosner for more information and to purchase tickets. >> Submit calendar items on the Chronicle’s website, pittsburghjewishchronicle.org. Submissions will also be included in print. Events will run in the print edition beginning one month prior to the date as space allows. The deadline for submissions is Friday, noon. THROUGH SUNDAY, MAY 6 The 25th annual JFilm Festival, which presents international Jewish-themed films that deepen audiences’ understanding of Jewish culture, tolerance and our common humanity, will be held at SouthSide Works Cinema this year. The 11-day festival is complemented by a variety of supplemental programming, including visiting filmmakers, guest speakers and collaborative events with other local organizations. Visit filmpittsburgh. org/festivals/jfilm-festival for more information and to purchase tickets. TUESDAYS THROUGH MAY 29 The Ten Commandments in the 21st century with 10 rabbis offering contemporary perspectives will be held from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, Levinson B. There will be two rabbis per night. Each rabbi will present separately, and then there will be interaction between the two rabbis, as well as with the audience. Contact Jan Barkley at jbarkley@jfedpgh.org or 412-697-6656 for more information or visit jfedpgh.org/tencommandments for the complete list, cost and registration. FRIDAY, MAY 4 Parkway Jewish Center will host a musical, Klezmer-style Kabbalat Shabbat service from 6 to 7 p.m. with Cantor Henry Shapiro and his band Klezmerati, three musicians from Cleveland. Visit parkwayjewishcenter.org or facebook.com/parkwayjewishcenter for more information. A reception will follow the service. All are welcome. SATURDAY, MAY 5 Temple Sinai will hold a Pride Seder at 6 to 9 p.m. presented by the Pride Tribe and Women of Temple Sinai. The Pride Seder will take a form reminiscent of the traditional Passover seder, but participants will share stories and hardships of LGBTQ life, celebrate the freedoms that have been achieved, and explore freedoms not yet gained. Visit templesinaipgh.org/calendar for more information.
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SUNDAY, MAY 6 Pittsburgh Jewish Day School Odyssey of the Mind Competition will be held from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Community Day School, with participants in grades three to eight joining from Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh and Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh. Judges from Odyssey of the Mind and the Pittsburgh Jewish community will evaluate teams from the day schools. The students will compete in solving spontaneous verbal and hands-on problems, as well as present the solutions to long-term problems they have been working on throughout the year. Sara Stock Mayo and Elinor S. Nathanson, co-founders and producers of ShpielBurgh Productions, LLC, will premier “The Book of Ruth” Shavuot Shpiel, set to the music (but not the content) of “The Book of Mormon.” Tickets are on sale at RuthMusical.Eventbrite. com. All ticket sales will benefit JFCS Refugee & Immigrant Services and Jewish Community Center of Puerto Rico’s Hurricane María Relief Fund. The Kollel Legacy Circle event will begin at 5 p.m. with a light dinner buffet followed by the program at 6 p.m. at the Embassy Suites Hotel, 535 Smithfield St. Moishe Bane, Orthodox Union president, will speak on “Three Existential Challenges to American Orthodoxy That Are Largely Ignored.” There is a charge. Contact Stacie@kollelpgh.org or visit kollelpgh. org for more information and to RSVP. MONDAY, MAY 7 Beth El Congregation hosts its monthly First Mondays program with Rabbi Alex Greenbaum from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. featuring journalist Charles Reichblum, nicknamed “Dr. Knowledge,” who has built one of the largest collections in the world of fascinating facts and stories that serve as a source for his “Knowledge in a Nutshell” book series. There is a $6 charge. Call 412-561-1168 to make a reservation. A Lion of Judah lunch and learn will be held from noon to 1:30 p.m. with a discussion on Back to the Future presented by Rabbi Mark Staitman, rabbinic scholar. Contact Mia Alcorn at malcorm@jfedpgh.org or 412-9925222 for more information and to register. TUESDAY, MAY 8 Gnardening & Gnomes: The Sequel, from 6 to 9 p.m. at Moishe House. CB Chernomorets will lead an interactive public speaking workshop. Come prepared with questions or just come to learn. Also, liven up the backyard, and leave with a potted flower or herb (which may or may not be gnome shaped) and dinner afterward. Contact moishehousepgh@gmail.com for more information. From Matzah to Revelation: The Work of these 49 Days. Text study with the Kirtan Rabbi at Rodef Shalom Congregation at 7 p.m. on the Mysteries of Mourners’ Kaddish. Part of the Weeks of Jewish Flourishing. Learn more at rodefshalom.org/weeks. WEDNESDAY, MAY 9 Classrooms Without Borders will celebrate Israel and Art at Israel Night from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at the Children’s Museum. The cost is $20 for preregistration and $25 at the door. The fee covers entry, food, drink and all activities. Visit classroomswithoutborders.org/events for more information and to register.
MONDAY, MAY 14
J Street Pittsburgh and Temple Sinai Tikkun Olam Center will present actor and photographer Gili Getz at 7 p.m. in “The Forbidden Conversation,” a personal one-man performance that explores the challenges of having a conversation about Israel in the American Jewish community. A discussion with Getz and members of the audience will follow the performance at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh’s Katz Theater. Contact Kenny Cohen at kenneth@jstreet.org or visit act. jstreet.org/signup/forbidden-conversationPITT for more information and to register.
The Women of Temple Sinai will hold a cooking class on chocolate babka with Randy Boswell at 6:30 p.m. Anyone age 16 and older is welcome; there is a $10 charge. RSVP by Friday, May 11 at templesinaipgh.org/ wots-cooking-class-1.
THURSDAY, MAY 10 Hadassah Greater Pittsburgh and Young Judaea will present a panel discussion on Gil Troy’s new book, “The Zionist Ideas: Visions for the Jewish Homeland — Then, Now, Tomorrow,” at 7 p.m. in the Hadassah office at 1824 Murray Ave., Suite 202. Contact fsurloff@hadassah.org for more information. Temple Emanuel and South Hills Jewish Pittsburgh will host Rabbi Joseph Telushkin at 7:30 p.m. at the Upper St. Clair High School Theater, 1825 McLaughlin Run Road. Telushkin will speak on “The Twenty-First Century: A Moral Vision, One Day at a Time.” The event is being held in honor of Rabbi Mark Mahler’s upcoming retirement after 38 years of service to Temple Emanuel. There will be a Meet & Greet at 6:30 p.m., which includes reserved seating; tickets are $36. General admission tickets are $5. Telushkin will also be signing books after the presentation. Visit templeemanuelpgh.org/event/Telushkin for more information and to purchase tickets. FRIDAY, MAY 11 Temple Sinai will hold the second annual Shabbat service and dinner at 7 p.m. with the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh, and Wasi Mohamed, executive director of the ICP. A vegetarian dinner will follow the service. The cost is $18/$10 (12 & under). RSVP with Judy Rulin Mahan at judy@templesinaipgh.org or 412-421-9715, ext. 110 by Wednesday, May 9 at 5 p.m. or visit templesinaipgh.org/Shabbatwith-Islamic-Center. Unicorn Shabbat will be from 7:30 to 10 p.m. at Moishe House. Help celebrate community member Olivia’s “first” birthday with pastel rainbow glory. As always, extra points to those in costume. Gather in the living room for Kabbalat Shabbat services full of magical creatures followed by dinner in the dining room. Contact moishehousepgh@ gmail.com for more information.
The Jewish Association on Aging will present The Art of Aging: On Stage With Megan Hilty at the August Wilson Center. The reception begins at 6 p.m., and the performance begins at 8 p.m. Hilty is a Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama graduate who starred as Glinda in Broadway’s “Wicked,” was a Tony Award nominee in “Noises Off” and played Ivy in NBC TV’s “Smash.” Tickets are available at artofagingpgh.com. Contact 412-420-4000, ext. 3264 or sburke@jaapgh.org for more information. MONDAY-FRIDAY MAY 14-18 Bayer Center for Nonprofit Management and the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh will co-host a Grantsmanship Training Program. Participants will leave with useful, up-to-date, practical information for planning programs and writing grant proposals. The training will be held in the Jewish Life department at the JCC. Contact The Grantsmanship Center at 804-21-9512, registrar@tgci.com or visit tgci.com for more information and to register. TUESDAY, MAY 15 Rodef Shalom will host Peter Gethers: A Conversation With the Author at 7 p.m. Gethers’ new book, “My Mother’s Kitchen,” is a memoir about a son’s discovery that his mother has a genius for understanding the intimate connections between cooking, people and love. Following Gethers’ presentation there will be a Q&A period and book signing. Temple Sinai and co-sponsor Rodef Shalom Congregation will present a concert with Nava Tehila, the Jerusalem-based group of musicians and spiritual innovators, from 7 to 8 p.m. at Temple Sinai. The concert is free and open to the community. Visit templesinaipgh. org/NavaTehila for more information. The Mt. Lebanon Public Library will present “Why Declaring Jerusalem as Capital of Israel is Controversial” at 7 p.m. with Samuel Kayam, who will provide a historical review of the city and its importance to the three monotheistic religions. Kayam was born in Israel and raised in the northern city of Haifa.
SUNDAY, MAY 13
WEDNESDAY, MAY 16
The Jewish Genealogy Society of Pittsburgh and the Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives will welcome noted genealogist Lara Diamond, who will discuss the complications of genetic genealogy within endogamous populations at 11 a.m. Diamond is president of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Maryland, leads JewishGen’s Subcarpathian SIG and sits on JewishGen’s Ukraine SIG’s board of directors. She also runs multiple district- and town-focused projects to collect documentation to assist all those researching ancestors from common towns. Admission is free. Visit heinzhistorycenter.org/events/jewishgeneaology-with-lara-diamond for more information.
AARP Squirrel Hill Chapter 3354 will hold its monthly meeting at 1 p.m. at Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha, at Shady and Wilkins avenues. A representative from Duquesne Light will be speaking about how to save energy. Nightlights and bulbs will be available for free to all who attend. Refreshments are served after the meeting. Contact Ilene Portnoy at 412-683-7985 for more information.
PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE
Community Day School youth (usually sixth- to eighth-graders), teachers, parents and Adath Jeshurun Cemetery board members will meet at the cemetery, as they do annually, at 3 p.m. and respectfully discard the weathered American flags and replace them with new American flags to honor the Please see Calendar, page 9
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Calendar Calendar: Continued from page 8 individuals who unselfishly gave service to this country. Adath Jeshurun Cemetery is at 4779 Roland Road, Allison Park. Reviewed with the students are rules of respect both to the American flag and to the gravesites of veterans. RSVP to Renee at 412-363-3112 and visit adathjeshuruncemeterypgh.org for driving directions. Spa Night at Moishe House from 7 to 9 p.m. Treat yourself to an all-inclusive spa experience, complete with eye cucumbers and face masks to celebrate Moishe resident CB’s 24th birthday. Contact moishehousepgh@ gmail.com for more information. q THURSDAY, MAY 17 Need to unwind? Do you knit or want to learn? We have you covered, from beginners on up. Be a part of the NA’AMAT Needle Nuts at 10:30 a.m. at Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha at, 5898 Wilkins Ave. The cost is $15 per class. RSVP to naaamatpgh@gmail.com. Jewish Family and Community Services will hold its annual meeting, beginning with hors d’oeuvres and dessert reception at 6 p.m. followed by the meeting at 6:30 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh; dietary laws observed. Contact info@jfcspgh.org or visit jfcspgh.org for more information. Rodef Shalom Congregation will host live the “Harry Potter & the Sacred Text” podcast at 7 p.m. Harvard Divinity graduates, Vanessa Zoltan and Casper ter Kuile, will deep dive into a chapter of Harry Potter, tell stories from their own lives, and try out a medieval religious reading practice with this modern day classic. Tickets are $22-$30 and available at rodefshalom.org/rsvp. NA’AMAT Pittsburgh Council will hold its third Thursday Martini and Mahj at Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Come play, learn, teach, practice, laugh and hang while having fun. All skill levels and ages are welcome. Bring your mahj set if you have one and be sure to RSVP to naamatpgh@gmail.com. q FRIDAY-SUNDAY, MAY 18-27 Front Porch Theatricals, Pittsburgh’s
boutique professional musical theater company, will present its season opening production of William Finn’s semiautobiographical musical “A New Brain,” running at the New Hazlett Theater. Contact 888-718-4253 or visit frontporchpgh.org for more information and tickets. q SATURDAY, MAY 19 Cheesecake for Shavuot from 2 to 4 p.m. at Moishe House. What better way to celebrate receiving the Torah than eating lots of dairy! Make your own delicious mini cheesecake to take home. Toppings will be available. Contact moishehousepgh@gmail.com for more information. Tikkun Leil Shavuot, presented by the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, is the communitywide Jewish learning program with local rabbis and thinkers from across the Jewish spectrum. This night of Jewish learning is free and open to the community from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh. Teen Tikkun 5778, Late Night Conversations on Revelation will also be held. Visit jfedpgh.org/Shavuot for more information and to register. q TUESDAYS, MAY 22-JUNE 26
q WEDNESDAY, MAY 30 The Pittsburgh Jewish Community Study: Where Do We Go From Here? A South Hills Conversation will be held from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the South Hills Jewish Community Center. Rabbi Danny Schiff, Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh Foundation Scholar, will be joined by a panel of Jewish community leaders including Brian Schreiber, president/CEO, JCC of Greater Pittsburgh; Raimy Rubin, manager, Pittsburgh Jewish Community Scorecard; Jonathan Fischer; Stacey Reibach; and David Weisberg. The program is free an open to the community. Visit southhillsjewishpittsburgh.org/ comstudy for more information.
The Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh is hosting the workshop Better Choices, Better Health six consecutive Tuesdays, from 1 to 3:30 p.m. in room 202. The workshop is free. Participants will actively be a part of brainstorming on key topics. Contact Amy Gold at 412-697-3528 for more information and to register.
zoo at 1219 Spring Garden Ave. Come to drink cider, pet goats and eat local goat cheese. A portion of bottle sales will go toward Allegheny Goatscape to support the effort to mitigate invasive plants in an eco-friendly manner. The event is free, but register so Threadbare can plan for you at threadbarecider.com/event/ goats-galore/. Contact moishehousepgh@ gmail.com for more information.
q THURSDAY, MAY 24
q TUESDAY, MAY 29
Joshua L. Sindler, Z”L, Creative Classrooms musical performances by Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh students will be held at 7 p.m. followed by browsing in the student art gallery. The gallery will include art pieces from students in grades 1-12. Contact dshaw@ hillelpgh.org for more information.
Yeshiva Schools, entering its 75th year, will hold its annual dinner at 6 p.m. at the Westin Convention Center. Honorees will be Ed Goldston, Friend for Life; and Rabbi Yossi and Mrs. Chanie Rosenblum, recipients of the Community Builders Award. RSVP to the Yeshiva office at 412-422-7300, ext. 1217 or info@yeshivaschools.com.
Moishe Gets Moving: Bowling Edition from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Arsenol Bowling Lanes, 4310 Butler St. Contact moishehousepgh@gmail. com for more information. q SUNDAY, MAY 27 Goats Galore from noon to 2 p.m. at Threadbare Cider House, a grownup petting
q WEDNESDAY, MAY 30 Chabad of Squirrel Hill will present the seventh annual Sound of Jewish Music at Bellefield Hall, beginning with a dessert reception at 6:30 followed by a concert at 7:15 p.m. The event features the talents of over 50 women in the community. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door and can be purchased online
at SoundOfJewishMusic.com. Contact caltein@ chabadpgh.com for more information. q THURSDAY, MAY 31 The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh will show its appreciation with a celebration from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Pittsburgh Opera, 2425 Liberty Ave. Entertainment will be provided by Kippalive, Israel’s a cappella group. The $18 per person includes strolling dinner and cocktails; dietary laws observed. The PNC Community Builders Award will be presented to the Halpern Family. RSVP by May 18. Contact Emily Richman at erichman@ jfedpgh.org or 412-992-5217 for more information or visit jfedpgh.org/celebration. q SUNDAY, JUNE 3 Temple Emanuel will hold An Evening of Celebration Gala at 6 p.m. to honor Rabbi Mark Joel Mahler upon his retirement after 38 years of dedicated service to Temple Emanuel and the community. The evening will include dinner and entertainment. Proceeds benefit the Rabbi Mark Mahler Rabbinic Chair Fund. Tickets are $100 per person. Visit templeemanuelpgh.org/event/ gala for more information or call the office at 412-279-7600 for more information. PJC
Be Greek for a Week St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral
57th Annual
Sunday, May 6 to Saturday, May 12
Enjoy wonderful Greek food, pastries & lively dancing SERVING HOURS Sun: Noon to 8p s Mon to Thurs: 11a to 9p Fri & Sat: 11a to 10p (music till midnight)
LIKE US ON FACEBOOK Take-out available Monday through Friday Visit the FOOD FESTIVAL section of our website stnickspgh.org to place your ORDER ONLINE!* *Online orders can ONLY be picked up between 11a-2p & 5p-8p *St. Nicholas Cathedral is located on the corner of S. Dithridge St. and Forbes Ave., across from The Carnegie Museum.
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PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE
MAY 4, 2018 9
Headlines — WORLD — From JTA reports
Riskin and Amdocs founder honored for contributions as immigrants to Israel Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, who left New York’s Upper West Side to establish a thriving modern Orthodox community in Israel, and Morris Kahn, a South African who co-founded the tech firm Amdocs, were among seven immigrants to Israel honored for making major contributions to the Jewish state. On Tuesday, Nefesh B’Nefesh, an organization that helps Diaspora Jews make aliyah, announced its 2018 Sylvan Adams Bonei Zion Prize winners. They are awarded to immigrants from English-speaking countries — including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States. Riskin, 77, chancellor and rosh yeshiva of Ohr Torah Stone and the chief rabbi of Efrat, won in the field of education. Riskin received rabbinic ordination more than 50 years ago, and transformed Manhattan’s Lincoln Square Synagogue into a popular and growing hub of modern Orthodoxy. In 1983, he moved to Israel with congregants and co-founded Efrat, a West Bank settlement and suburb of Jerusalem with a mixed religious-secular population that today has 8,000 residents. He will retire in July as chancellor of Ohr Torah Stone, a network of educational insti-
tutions that has pushed the limits of traditional Jewish law to be more inclusive of women and Jews by choice. The Bonei Zion Lifetime Achievement Award was awarded to Kahn, 88, who made aliyah from South Africa in 1956 at the age of 26. He co-founded Amdocs, a managementand-billing software firm for large telecom outfits, and in recent years has increasingly focused his attention on philanthropy and venture philanthropy in the scientific and medical fields. Nefesh B’Nefesh said the award recognized “his exemplary entrepreneurial spirit and business acumen which has fueled the Start-up Nation and secured Israel as a world leader in technology. This year’s other honorees are Marcia Javitt, director of Medical Imaging at Rambam Healthcare Campus, in the field of science and medicine; Kalman Samuels, founder and president of Shalva, the Israel Association for the Care and Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities, in the field of community and nonprofit; Linda Streit, founder of the Daniel Rowing Centre, in the field of culture, art and sports; and Arsen Ostrovsky, an international human rights lawyer and executive director of the Israeli-Jewish Congress, in the field of Israel advocacy. A Young Leadership Prize was awarded to Maj. Keren Hajioff, head of public diplomacy for the Spokesperson’s Unit in the Israel Defense Forces. Hajioff made aliyah from London in 2009 soon after high school and joined the IDF a month later.
WORLD FAIR TRADE DAY CELEBRATE WTH US ON MAY 12!
Sylvan Adams is a Canadian real estate developer who came to Israel on aliyah with the help of Nefesh B’Nefesh. Mossad broke into Iranian nuclear files and smuggled out docs Israel’s Mossad intelligence service broke into the anonymous Tehran building that housed Iran’s secret nuclear files and smuggled half a ton of documents and compact discs back to Israel the same night. The New York Times in an article posted on its website Monday night quoted a senior Israeli official who spoke on condition of anonymity as saying that the Mossad discovered the warehouse in February 2016 and since then kept the building under surveillance. Mossad operatives broke into the building in January, took the original documents and returned to Israel the same night, the official told The Times. In his nationally televised broadcast in English on Monday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the hiding place of the documents and asserted they proved that Iran lied during negotiations in 2015. “This is where they kept the atomic archives. Right here. Few Iranians knew where it was, very few, and also a few Israelis,� the Israeli leader said. “Now, from the outside, this was an innocent looking compound. It looks like a dilapidated warehouse. But from the inside, it contained Iran’s secret atomic
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Live music . Fair trade food samples . Games Mother’s Day Sale - scarves and jewelry
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archives locked in massive files.� On stage with Netanyahu were shelves of binders and a moveable wall of CDs. “And here’s what we got. Fifty-five thousand pages. Another 55,000 files on 183 CDs. Everything you’re about to see is an exact copy of the original Iranian material,� he said, adding: “You may want to know where are the originals? Well, I can say they’re now in a very safe place.� The unnamed official told the newspaper that U.S. President Donald Trump was told of the operation to retrieve the documents by Mossad Director Yossi Cohen when he visited Washington, D.C., in January. The material was not unveiled until now because the documents had to be analyzed and translated from Persian, the official said. Netanyahu said during his presentation that the information had been shared with the United States and that “the United States can vouch for its authenticity.� Trump is set to decide by the middle of next month whether the U.S. will remain in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as the deal is known. In a meeting with reporters in the White House Rose Garden shortly after Netanyahu’s presentation, Trump said that the disclosure “showed that I was 100 percent right� in criticizing the Iran nuclear deal. Trump declined to say what he would decide on the Iran nuclear deal. “On or before the 12th, we’ll make a decision. That doesn’t mean we won’t negotiate a real agreement.�  PJC
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Headlines Most of Europe’s Jews have already stopped wearing kippahs — WORLD — By Cnaan Liphshiz | JTA
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MSTERDAM — The debate about wearing a kippah in Western Europe returned only a decade or so ago, but it has nonetheless come to follow a rigid pattern even in that short period of time. The cycle — there have been dozens of such cases — begins with an anti-Semitic assault. It prompts a Jewish community official to warn congregants not to wear the Jewish skullcap in a certain area or at certain periods to avoid inviting further violent attacks. This triggers a wave of indignation that often exceeds the reaction to the original assault. International Jewish groups hold up the warning as a sign of how bad Western Europe’s anti-Semitism problem has become. Some of these groups criticize only the relevant authorities. Others also blast the local Jewish official who advised others not to wear the kippah, saying he or she should support a higher community profile, not a lower one. Finally, some local Jews downplay the official’s concerns and the media move on — until the next incident. That’s exactly how things played out last JC ReSound WomenLookingHills_Eartique 5/1/18 month in Germany, when a non-Jewish
p A man wears a kippah at a gathering in Berlin to protest anti-Semitism.
Photo by Carsten Koall/Getty Images
man wearing a yarmulke was assaulted on April 17 by an attacker shouting “Jew!” in Arabic. The victim was an Israeli Arab who said he donned the kippah to test whether it had actually become dangerous to wear a yarmulke in Germany. In response, Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, publicly advised Jews to avoid wearing 10:14 AM in Page 1 kippahs urban settings. (At a night-
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time rally last week in Berlin, Schuster emphasized that his statement was that individuals should not go out alone with a kippah. He said he felt misunderstood and wanted to clarify.) In response, Israel’s Ashkenazi chief rabbi, David Lau, and a Brussels-based Jewish organization called on German Jews to continue to wear kippahs and, in Lau’s words, “be proud of their Jewishness.”
Meanwhile, non-Jews in Germany organized a solidarity protest in which marchers wore kippahs — a gesture that has taken place in Sweden, Denmark, France and Poland in recent years. In 2016, a community leader in France, Tzvi Amar, provoked a similar debate when he warned Marseille Jews to avoid wearing kippahs. And in 2014, a Danish Jewish school in Copenhagen urged its students to come to school wearing baseball caps over their yarmulkes. But to countless Jews across Western Europe, these debates featuring high-profile figures, politicians and Jewish community leaders have little bearing on their own personal choice. Not waiting for anyone’s invitation, hundreds of thousands of them have been hiding their kippahs and other Jewish symbols for years now in Paris, Marseille, Brussels, London, Amsterdam and many other European cities with a large population of Muslim immigrants. At least a quarter of Europe’s Jews had resolved not to wear their kippahs or any other Jewish symbol publicly before any of the debates even took place, according to a 2013 survey in nine countries. In that European Union poll of 5,100 Jews — the most comprehensive study of its kind — 49 Please see Germany, page 23
Temple Sinai invites you to the 2nd Annual
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Please join us as we welcomee our Muslim friends just a few days before they begin their holy month of Ramadan. We are honored to have Wasi Mohamed, Executive Director of the ICP, offer wordss of greeting and friendship during our service.
BETWEEN SHARED PRAYERS AND FOOD IT WILL BE AN EVENING TO REMEMBER! COME BE PART OF THIS SPECIAL EVENING. A vegetarian dinner will follow the service. Cost: $18/$10 (12 & under). RESERVE YOUR SPOT with Judy Rulin Mahan at judy@templesinaipgh. org or (412) 421-9715 ext. 110 by Wednesday, May 9 at 5 PM.
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Updating Our Mission Statement Over the past year, our lay and professional leadership went through the thoughtful and intentional process of updating our Mission Statement. Our goal was simple – to help our members, guests, professional staff, donors, partners and other stakeholders know more than what we do, but WHY we exist and who we aspire to be. Mission statements are more than just assemblies of words. Each word has weight and intention. It is our “North Star” that guides us in our future efforts to meet the community wants and needs. They help focus our efforts on what matters and how we aim to bringer greater impact to our corner of the world. A close examination of mission has been part of our DNA for the 123 years we have served community. In 1939, the Irene Kaufmann Settlement (predecessor to the JCC) wrote a mission statement that included as its primary objective the advancement of “the civic, intellectual and social welfare of the surrounding community.” Twelve years ago, our board developed and adopted the following statement: “To advance our vision of an exemplary, thriving, engaged community rooted in Jewish values, the JCC of Greater Pittsburgh’s mission is to enrich our community by creating an environment that strengthens the physical, intellectual and spiritual well-being of individuals and families.” The process this year was much more inclusive. We involved more parties ----- staff, board members and individuals from the community. We held discussions and focused meetings to solicit ideas and input, filling up whiteboards with words and beliefs. And here, simple and direct is our new Mission Statement:
We thank you, every member of our community, for inspiring us to make every word matter.
Brian Schreiber, JCC President and CEO
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James Ruttenberg, Chair of the Board
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Opinion Divisiveness at a unity rally — EDITORIAL —
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s if the saga of Trayon White, the embattled Washington, D.C. city councilman who recorded himself castigating Jewish bankers for controlling the weather, wasn’t already deeply disturbing on a number of levels, it appears that some of those who support him think nothing of moving from the realm of implied anti-Semitism into the territory of outright Jew hatred. Ironically, at a “unity rally” designed to tamp down inter-community strife — as well as to defend White against calls to reprimand him for donating $500 in public funds to a Nation of Islam event in February where Louis Farrakhan described Jews as “my enemy” — Farrakhan’s mid-Atlantic representative, Abdul Khadir Muhammad, went after Elissa Silverman, the Jewish at-large councilwoman who has been among White’s staunchest critics. “What is the fake Jew that calls themselves Jews, the ADL, the JDL,” Muhammad said into a bullhorn held by a onetime consultant to D.C.’s mayor. “You got your nerve to say Farrakhan can’t come back to D.C. What nerve are you, you fake Jew?”
Silverman rightfully called for the dismissal of the rally’s organizer, who until Tuesday sat on the city’s housing board, and quite properly railed against the “disturbing tolerance [in the city] for anti-Jewish hate speech.” But we see the problem of innercity anti-Semitism as being much larger than White and the ward he represents. Like many incredibly poor and predominantly African-American urban neighborhoods across the United States, the Nation of Islam has strong support in White’s ward. The group provides a disciplined social welfare structure in areas where government seems unwilling or unable to provide residents with services or hope. And so the Nation of Islam steps in with its baggage of anti-Semitism and shifted blame, and people like White are elected to citywide office carrying the conspiracy theories against Jews that no one questions. And why would they, especially if they’ve never met a Jew to plant a seed of doubt in their minds? That’s essentially what Silverman was doing when she invited White to a Passover seder following his Rothschilds remark. White responded positively. But then came the exposure of his Nation of Islam connection and reports of
his early departure from a Jewish community-sponsored visit to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. White either has a very long learning curve ahead of him, or no interest in stretching himself beyond what the Nation of Islam has taught him. This presents a challenge for the Jewish community, and we need to be paying attention. Trayon White Sr. sparked the ire of Jewish In March, the New p community. Photo courtesy of Facebook Pittsburgh Courier, a local media outlet serving the African-American commu- the 50-year-old Civil Rights movement. nity, ran an incendiary op-ed by Richard But most of our African-American interB. Muhammad, the editor of the Nation locutors are, like us, middle class, educated of Islam newspaper, The Final Call. In that and professional people. Perhaps, in order piece, Muhammad condemned the Repub- to address our real audience we need to go lican Jewish Caucus for asking seven Afri- farther. We can’t offer what the Nation of can-American congressmen, all Democrats, Islam offers, and shouldn’t try to do so. But to repudiate Farrakhan because of his perhaps we should try to figure out a way anti-Semitic remarks. to offer another voice and presence that is We pride ourselves on our support for heard and seen throughout our cities. PJC
Iran’s lies matter Guest Columnist Jonathan Tobin
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o Obama administration alumni and other detractors of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, there was nothing all that new or noteworthy in his presentation of a treasure trove of Iranian nuclear intelligence obtained by the Mossad. While Netanyahu’s remarks contained dramatic revelations about a secret Iranian nuclear program and proof that Iran had been lying for years up to the implementation of the nuclear deal it concluded with the West, to the prime minister’s critics the speech was just another excuse to bash him for his style and his dogged opposition to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Netanyahu has become a polarizing figure, both in terms of Israeli politics and in the United States. For good or for ill, his antagonistic relationship with President Barack Obama and his closeness with President Donald Trump have come to mean that for many people, where you stand on Netanyahu has more to do with your partisan loyalties than the merit of his positions. Unfortunately, the Israeli leader’s comments on Monday provoked those same predictable reactions, along with snide comments about his PowerPoint presentation that reminded many of the cartoon bomb used in his 2012 speech at the United Nations about Iran. That’s unfortunate because he had a lot to say that needed to be heard. And it’s especially true
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for those who have become deaf to arguments about the nuclear deal’s ability to forestall the nuclear threat from Iran. Israel’s findings make clear that the calculations that led to the agreement — and that continue to be employed by its defenders — are rooted in false assumptions. The main argument put forth by those who have tried to downplay the significance of the intelligence Netanyahu presented is that even if it’s all true, it’s old hat. All of the material dates back to before the JCPOA was agreed upon in July 2015. The deal’s defenders now say that everyone knew that the Iranians were lying about not trying to build a nuclear weapon. The fact that they had a secret, parallel nuclear project in addition to their public program (whose archives were raided by the Israelis) is therefore meaningless. They argue that the mendacious nature of the Iranian regime is exactly why Obama’s deal was needed and must be kept in place. No matter what mischief the Iranians were up to before 2015, they are convinced that the inspections conducted by the International Atomic Energy Agency are enough to ensure that no such duplicate program can currently exist. Therefore, they assert, the fact that the Iranians were cheating prior to that is meaningless. There are two problems with that reasoning. The first is that it’s not true that everybody knew Iran was lying. In fact, the U.S. intelligence establishment — whose confidence in the deal and in Iranian compliance is constantly being cited by those who oppose Trump’s intention to withdraw from it — didn’t know. Worse than that, American intelligence spent the last years of the George W. Bush administration doing its best to convince the world of the argument that the
Iranians weren’t lying about their weapons program and had ceased its strive towards production. The 2007 National Intelligence Estimate claimed that Iran had abandoned its efforts to build a bomb in 2003. Those claiming that Israel’s fears about Iran were exaggerated used that estimate as a cudgel to beat down efforts to raise the alarm about the danger of the Islamist regime. The estimate continued to be cited in the early years of Obama’s presidency as he sought to rally public support for an effort to create a rapprochement with Tehran. The Israeli findings show that American intelligence was dead wrong. How could that happen? The short answer is that like all human institutions, intelligence agencies are fallible. In 2007, the U.S. intelligence establishment was still reeling from its colossal error in Iraq that helped justify the invasion of that country. President George W. Bush took the blame for that blunder, with some still claiming that he “lied” America into a war, rather than it being a case of him believing what the experts told him. Many of those same people were determined never to make that mistake again, and so they decided to take the opposite tack on Iran. Yet the Israeli findings prove that they were just as wrong in 2007 as they were in 2003. More importantly, the assumptions about Iran spread by the media “echo chamber” — to use the phrase coined by Obama’s Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes for the efforts of the president’s tame presscheering section — never spoke of Iran lying during the debate over the merits of the Iran deal in 2014 and 2015.
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Just as problematic is the argument that we can be sure the Iranians aren’t lying now because of the IAEA’s inspections and the ability of Western intelligence agencies to know if Tehran begins cheating on the deal. After all, if Iran was able to hide a duplicate nuclear program from the West prior to 2015, how can we believe that the same regime can’t or won’t do it again? The IAEA inspections don’t extend to military bases and are not, despite the Obama administration’s initial promises, of the “anytime, anywhere” variety. Israel’s feat was an amazing act of derring-do, but what they learned should disabuse us of blind confidence in the ability of Western intelligence to be ahead of the curve when it comes to Iran. That’s why the sunset clauses that will allow the restrictions on Iran’s program to expire within a decade are so dangerous. If the Iranians lied before and are likely lying to us again now, then what possible hope can we have that Western governments will have the time to head off an Iranian nuke once Tehran is ready to break out from the agreement? Netanyahu’s critics can snipe all they want about his presentation. But Israel’s proof that Iran was being deceitful shows how untrustworthy the assurances of the nuclear deal’s defenders are. Trump is right to take this evidence to heart. Iran’s mendacity is one more reason for the United States to begin the necessary work to change or scrap a pact that was based on untruths and continues to be defended by false assumptions. PJC Jonathan S. Tobin is editor in chief of JNS — Jewish News Syndicate.
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Opinion Jews and justice: some contemporary thoughts Guest Columnist David Wecht
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n 1915, Louis Brandeis declared that “to be better Americans, we must be better Jews. And to be better Jews, we must become Zionists.” Brandeis spoke as a secular Jew. He spoke at a time when anti-Semitism was common. He spoke as a proud American, and he spoke to debunk the myth of dual loyalty. The following year, Brandeis was appointed to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, the first Jew ever to serve in that position. He would become one of our greatest jurists, authoring opinions that still guide our law today. More than 100 years after Brandeis’ elevation to our highest court, how far have we American Jews come? Three Jews serve on the Supreme Court. Jews serve in both houses of Congress and as lower federal judges. Jews serve as governors, legislators or jurists in many states. Jews have run credible campaigns for president and vice president. Jews serve in the highest ranks of business, entertainment, academia and the learned professions. Jews have achieved remarkable success. And yet, something seems amiss. Last year, anti-Semitic incidents in the United States were up by 57 percent. (I must leave aside for now the outrageous wave of recent attacks on Jews in Europe, a phenomenon that also requires our attention.) Right here, in this country, Jews are assaulted on the street, as happened twice in just one recent week in Brooklyn, N.Y. On both the left and the right, enemies of the Jews express their hatred more and more openly. On college campuses, Jewish students are berated and harassed. Under the thin veneer of “boycott, divest and sanction,” “Students for Justice in Palestine” or other labels, anti-Semites make the university a fearful environment for students who wish to express themselves openly and proudly as Jews. As one example, many universities witness an annual abomination known as
“Israel apartheid week,” in which the Jewish state and its supporters are demonized and threatened. These campuses are where the leaders of tomorrow are being trained. Think about that. In the meantime, too many American Jews go blithely on their way. “It is not I who am intimidated on campus. It is not I who am assaulted on the street. It is not I who am heckled as I enter an event for a Jewish group. It is not I who am targeted by anti-Semites on social media. It is not I who feels unsafe walking to and from shul.” “I have a comfortable life. Why speak up? Why say anything? Why bring attention to myself? Why stir the pot?” Most groups are proud to celebrate their heritage. They understand that their celebration is a celebration of what the United States of America is all about, a celebration of what it means to be an American. Christopher Columbus Day. St. Patrick’s Day. Black History Month. How many Jews celebrate their heritage? How many Jews do you know who assimilate and drop out of the picture? How many Jews do you know who suppress or ignore their heritage? How many Jews do you know who fail utterly to educate their children in Judaism, in Jewish history, in Zionism, in ahavat yisrael — the love of Israel and of the Jewish people? Philosopher Emil Fackenheim wrote that, after Auschwitz, there is another commandment: “Jews are forbidden to give Hitler posthumous victories.” Too many Jews give Hitler such victories every day. It needs to stop. But how? Jewish education. Jewish self-respect. Jewish pride. Jewish insistence on the defense of Jewish rights and interests. This brings me to justice and the rule of law. As Justice Brandeis observed long ago, the principles upon which our constitution is based — including the idea that we are a government of laws, not a government of men and women — can be traced all the way back to our Bible. Avraham Avinu. Moshe Rabbenu. David Hamelech. Each of these people learned that law and justice circumscribe the might of
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even the most powerful leaders. Law is, or can be, our protector. There was no rule of law in Nazi Germany. There was the rule of Hitler. Nazi judges swore allegiance to the fuhrer. There was no rule of law in the Soviet Union. There was the rule of the Communist Party and its Politburo. There is no rule of law in Iran. There is the rule of the ayatollahs. Jews cannot long survive, let alone flourish, in regimes such as these. As a minority throughout the diaspora, Jews know that the protection and vindication of their rights depend on order as well as opportunity, on rules as well as freedom, on tolerance as well as nationalism. How can the law help to shape and protect our destiny as Jews? First, as James Madison recognized, our system of laws embraces a constitutional regime of ordered liberty in which the minority is protected from the periodic whims and oppressions of the majority. This constitutional principle of minority protection serves, one hopes, to ensure that depredations akin to those that helped to drive our ancestors toward these shores — the pogroms, the confinement to the pale of settlement, the restrictions on livelihood — never recur here. Second, in this country, we do not settle disputes by force or by who shouts the loudest. We settle our disputes according to the rule of law. As Jeremy Bentham observed: “Every law is an infraction of liberty.” Unfettered liberty would allow every person to do as he or she pleases, rules be damned. Jewish history confirms that disorder and chaos are not conditions conducive to Jewish survival, much less Jewish success. Third, a system predicated on the rule of law is one that allows human opportunity to flourish. Principles enshrined in our Constitution mean that the kinds of discrimination endured by blacks, Jews and others in this country in the past are, one hopes, indeed a thing of the past. A system such as ours, based upon the rule of law, exists to unshackle opportunity and to make it equal for all, rather than to hamper it or load the dice for or against any person or group. The rule of law does not guarantee our
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success. It does not guarantee our happiness. It does not guarantee that we will not encounter prejudice. Rather, the rule of law in this country does something that has not been common in the history of the Jewish diaspora: It places our destiny squarely in our own hands. And what will that destiny be? It is up to you. You have the freedom to choose. I hope you will make the most of that freedom and that choice. Too many diaspora Jews, past and present, have not done so. They have allowed that choice to lead them to end their Jewish journey, and that of their children and descendants. They have assimilated. They have been ashamed to be Jews. They have abandoned their duty to educate their children in our heritage, our religion, our language, our holy land. They have abandoned their synagogues. They have ignored our holidays and celebrations. They have ignored anti-Semitism. They have failed to stand up for their Jewish brothers and sisters here and abroad. They have failed to defend and support the State of Israel, or even to attempt to understand it. They have declined the wondrous opportunity — only dreamed about for two thousand years by our ancestors — to visit and experience the marvel that is eretz yisrael. They have avoided the need to get involved in public life so as to make Jewish voices and needs heard and respected by elected officials. They have failed to learn from the mistakes of the past. In so doing, they have neglected the Jewish future. We live in a nation governed by the rule of law, affording unprecedented opportunity for every person to pursue his or her dreams. I have a hope not only for you, but also for all of those among our Jewish brothers and sisters that you can reach, and that you can influence or encourage. My hope is that we will strive always to ensure that our children and those who will follow them will enjoy a future that is not only free but Jewish as well. PJC Pittsburgh native David Wecht is a justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. He adapted this article from a lecture he delivered at Gratz College in Philadelphia on April 24.
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Headlines Walk: Continued from page 1
learning of the impact her mother-inlaw’s story could have. After one talk in a class for trauma counselors in training, Gelernter said the students were asked to write down their thoughts on Post-it notes as they left the class. One read: “Through trauma, there is courage, bravery, strength and hope, and what I witnessed today changed my life for the better.” That phrase inspired what would become the wording of the logo for the Walk to Remember — “courage, bravery, strength and hope” — and encouraged Gelernter to organize another event for Holocaust survivors to share their story and “help open the eyes of individuals.” Before ushering people to begin their laps, she encouraged participants to be brave, courageous and kind as they worked to
Archive: Continued from page 1
introduced them to the Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project, an online digitalized collection of more than 100 years of local Jewish newspapers, including the Jewish Criterion (1895-1962), the American Jewish Outlook (1934-1962), the Jewish Chronicle (1962-2010) and the Y-JCC series (1926-1975). The students found relevant articles in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Jewish Criterion and the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph. One interesting facet of the project, said Berg, was having the students compare what information was available to the Jewish community via the Jewish press to what was available to the general community during World War II. Many newspaper articles exposing what the Nazis were doing to the Jews of Europe were “not in the Post-Gazette, but they were in the Jewish Criterion,” said Gervais. For example, students looking for information about the Warsaw Ghetto uprising “struggled to find that information in mainstream papers, but did find information
A recent national study, however, found 41 percent of millenials believe that fewer than 6 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust and 45 percent of Americans cannot name a single concentration camp. The study, commissioned by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and released in April, also found 58 percent of Americans believe something like the Holocaust could happen again. In Pittsburgh, college students have taken it upon themselves to make sure their campuses never forget. Each year, faculty, staff and students at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, read the names of victims murdered in the Holocaust. This year, students at CMU from the Hillel Jewish University Center painted the names of the concentration camps against a black background on a campus fence. On Pitt’s campus, the brothers of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity organized a silent walk and candle lighting ceremony and shared survival testimonies and biographies of
about that in the Pittsburgh Newspaper Project,” he explained. The students discovered that Pittsburghers had a lot of information about the encroaching Nazi threat in the years leading up to the war, including the Nazi annexation of Austria in 1938, which “was reported on quite a bit,” and the “Jewish boycott in 1933, which predates the war by six years,” Gervais said. Given evidence that Pittsburghers knew what was going on — if not what was coming — the question arises as to “how local leaders responded,” said Gervais. “In the Jewish papers there were a lot more editorials and op-eds,” he said. “In the Post-Gazette, there was simply a lot of reporting.” In the Criterion, Gervais added, the students found evidence of “a lot of people raising money and trying to rescue Jews and help them get out.” In addition to learning research skills, the project provided a means for the students “to do real world work,” said DiSabato. “They are asked to be citizen historians and engage in content that is significant.” “It’s tough to get students to do history,” said Gervais. “This offers a unique way to study history out of the box.”
Winchester Thurston has a large Jewish student population, according to DiSabato, and some of those students were “emotionally impacted when they read the literature and were looking at the photos.” The project also had a significant impact on those students who are not Jewish, as well as those who are several generations removed from World War II, said Berg. “I think one of the most important things I see in this project is that for students whose grandparents may not have been born before the Holocaust, there is no personal connection,” she said. “But reading contemporary articles has a different kind of impact. It’s a great project for kids who don’t have a personal connection to the Holocaust.” So far, Winchester Thurston is the only school in Pittsburgh that has participated in the “History Unfolded” project, according to Eric Schmalz, the p An advertising poster designed USHMM Citizen History community by Ottomar Anton for the Hamburgmanager. More than 9,400 people have Amerika shipping line and featuring its registered to participate in the project, flagship, the MS St. Louis, is part of a U.S. exhibit. including 1,855 teachers from more Holocaust Memorial Museum Courtesy of Galerie Prospect than 100 schools. Articles have been submitted by more than 2,600 different Nazi burning of books,” he said, adding that registrants from across the country. the 1933 article “shows that not only were The project was initiated in 2015 and people in Pittsburgh aware of Nazi atrocities, launched a year later, with an eye toward but that they were protesting them.” making the information useful to the museSchmalz also finds letters to the um’s exhibition curators for “Americans and editor informative. the Holocaust.” “There are particular cases of individuals With thousands of articles so far uploaded, doing protests and people trying to sponsor Schmalz said he “believes we are scratching refugees into the country,” he added. “There the surface of what’s out there.” are college papers showing that people were “This is exciting and remarkable to us, the trying to raise money for refugees.” amount of information reported within and The “Americans and the Holocaust” without the Jewish press,” he continued. exhibit includes a large interactive wall map While it is a common belief that when news with at least one article from every state, of the Holocaust was reported, it was buried including an article from the Pittsburgh Press in the back of the paper, “there were plenty about the 1933 Jewish boycott. of reports on Page 1,” according to Schmalz. The “History Unfolded” project will One of the “exciting” aspects of the continue for another three years, according to project, he said, is “to see the response of Schmalz, and the information it unearths will the community.” be shared with scholars and educators. PJC “We came across an article in the Jewish Toby Tabachnick can be reached at Criterion about Pittsburgh universities and institutions that got together to protest the ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
p The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum exhibit offers a portrait of American society that shows how the Depression, isolationism, xenophobia, racism, and anti-Semitism shaped responses to Nazism and the Holocaust. It reveals how much information was available to Americans at the time and asks why rescuing Jews did not become a priority.
Courtesy of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
16 MAY 4, 2018
victims of the Holocaust outside the student union for 24 hours. Aaron Chumsky, the former Jewish identity chair for the fraternity, organized the event on April 11 and 12. He said the biographies and testimonies added a “personality” to each victim, making them more than just a name. That personal connection is what makes people care, said Lauren Bairnsfather, director of the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh. To create those connections, she continued, is important to hold community events, like the Walk to Remember, where members of the community can forge connections with one another and with survivors. “The more we come together, the more I know that Holocaust education will continue,” she said. “It’s not just something that happened 75 years ago. It’s relevant now.” PJC
commemorate the lives of those lost during the Holocaust and ensure it never happens again. She drew connections between their activities and the work of the students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., whose motto — “Never again” — harkens back to the “Never forget” and “Never again” tag lines of Holocaust awareness. Avi Baran Munro, head of school at CDS, echoed the sentiment. “There are students here, young students who have learned in the appropriate way to be upstanders,” she said. “We can take the lessons of our history and use them to empower the next generation.” In Pennsylvania, more than 90 percent of the state’s school systems educate students on the Holocaust, genocide and human rights violations, according to a November 2017 report. The report comes three years after the passage of Act 70, a bill that made free educational guidelines, resources and training available to schools through Holocaust and human rights organizations.
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Lauren Rosenblatt can be reached at lrosenblatt@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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Community Temple Sinai celebrates Rabbi Gibson More than 450 people gathered on Sunday, April 29 for a fun-filled evening starting with cocktails under the tent, dinner catered by Big Burrito and a dessert bar by Bella Christie. All were there to wish senior Rabbi Jamie Gibson “Yasher Koach” for his 30 years of service at Temple Sinai. An entertaining program was filled with musical tributes, heart-felt good wishes and a song medley by Rabbi Gibson. The City of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County declared April 29 “Rabbi Jamie Gibson Day” and presented him with proclamations. Together, Temple Sinai members, Jewish and interfaith leaders, civic leaders and members of the community fêted Rabbi Gibson for stellar leadership, support through all life cycles and inspirational spiritual guidance.
p From left: Jon Minton, Karen Levin, Deb Dunton, Rabbi Keren Gorban, Carol Rosenthal and Rick Rosenthal
p From left: Event co-chairs welcome the crowd. Karen Ross, Louise Malakoff, Tony Ross and Michael Malakoff (not pictured are co-chairs Ilene and Jimmy Ross)
p A trio of clergy adapted a musical tribute for Rabbi Jamie Gibson. From left: Rabbi Seth Adelson, Cantor Laura Berman and Rabbi Cheryl Klein
18 MAY 4, 2018
p Clergy who worked with Rabbi Jamie Gibson over his 30 years at Temple Sinai came to honor him. From left: Cantorial soloist Sara Stock-Mayo, Rabbi Larry Freedman, Rabbi Ron Symons, Rabbi Ezra Ende and Rabbi Audrey Korotkin
p Temple Sinai teens performed a musical medley of popular songs rewritten to honor Rabbi Jamie Gibson. From left: Dora Gordon, Rebecca Gordon, Russell Petro, Ethan Beck and Rachel Petro
p Barbara and Rabbi Jamie Gibson
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Photos courtesy of Temple Sinai
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Headlines Forward: Continued from page 2
vibrant at one time. It was like Times Square sometimes on the weekend.” Even so, the old haunt gives rise to great memories. “We filmed a couple of movies in there: ‘Roommates’ (1995) with Peter Falk and D.B. Sweeney. And we gave lessons to Randy Quaid and Woody Harrelson in ‘Kingpin’ (1996), so we had Hollywood there as well,” said Wissman. For DeLuca, lights out at the lanes signals a startling end.
“I was there all the time,” he said. “Mommy knew where I was at because I was always at the lanes.” While his dad would manage, DeLuca would aid. “I worked for free and bowled a lot of games.” Sometimes he would roll 50 games a day. Often, it would be 200 to 250 games per week. “I happened to get pretty good there,” he said. In the 1960s, at the age of 12, DeLuca bowled on television with Nick Perry. A decade later, he was captain of Team USA when the ninemember team competed against bowlers from 24 nations in the World Championship Games in Caracas, Venezuela. “The U.S. team
finished second and DeLuca finished 15th in the world,” reported the Post-Gazette. The accolades continued. “I went to the military and won the Army Singles, Doubles, Teams, all events two years in a row, then I came home and went to Robert Morris [University]. We won four bowling championships there. I was most valuable player for four years, I’m in the Robert Morris Hall of Fame, I’m the youngest member of the Pittsburgh Bowling Hall of Fame,” he said. “The whole career started from being at Forward Lanes. You don’t think about it then, but it changed my whole life. … I feel
horrible that the place is closed.” “That was the heartbeat of the neighborhood. It’s definitely a death in the family for that town,” said Wissman. The 5844 Forward Ave. space is available for an appointment or tour, noted marketing materials from Equity Real Estate. “Asking rent is $8,500,” added Tkacik. “Hopefully it will be rented again by someone,” said Wissman. “Hopefully somebody will get back into it and get her going again, hopefully somebody will.” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz @pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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MAY 4, 2018 21
Celebrations
Torah
Births
It’s just that simple Perla: It is with great joy that Morgan and Nick Perla announce the birth of their son, Valentino Nicholas Perla. Valentino (Tino) was born on Feb. 16 at 1:04 p.m. He weighed 11 lbs. 7 oz. and was 20 inches long. Grandparents are Susan and Rick Tabor and Pam and Rich Perla. Paternal great-grandmother is Peggy Perla and maternal great-grandfather is Bill Samuel.
Sohinki: Laura and Lewis Sohinki of Pittsburgh are thrilled to announce the birth of their son, Benjamin Micah Sohinki, Benyamin Menachem, on March 30. Benjamin is the brother of Charles Gabriel and the grandson of Meryl and David Ainsman of Pittsburgh and Arnie and Jo Sohinki of Rochester, N.Y. Benjamin’s great-grandparents are Betty Ainsman of Pittsburgh and Stan Dickson of Buffalo. Benjamin is named in loving memory of his paternal cousin, Morton Hollander.
B’nai Mitzvah
Harrison Samuel Pittle, son of Naomi and Howard Pittle of Mt. Lebanon, will become a bar mitzvah on Saturday, May 5 at Temple Emanuel of South Hills. Harrison is the grandson of Arnold and Sandra Ruben of Pittsburgh, Carol Stanley and Gerry Jesberger of British Columbia, and the late Carl and Sandy Pittle.
Ava Pries, daughter of Lilia and Jim Pries, will become a bat mitzvah on Saturday, May 5 at Beth El Congregation of the South Hills. Grandparents are Tema and Norman Kerman of Pittsburgh, and Bea and Pat Pries of Bluffton, S.C. Great-grandmother is Ines Calderon of Tampa, Fla.
Rabbi Ron Symons Parshat Emor | Leviticus 21:1-24:23
“A
nd when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the way to the edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I Adonai am your God” (Leviticus 23:22). It’s just that simple. This is our time-honored commitment to helping those on the fringes. While today we try to meet the needs of the hungry through access cards, food banks, food pantries, 412 Food Rescue and soup kitchens, way back when, we left the corners of our fields (pe’ah) unpicked for those in need. More than 1,500 years ago, Rabbi Shimon asked why the dominant mitzvah of leaving the corners of the field happens in the corners of the field: “They said that a person must leave corners (pe’ah) only at the end of the field for four reasons: because of theft from the poor, wasting the time of the poor, for the sake of appearances and because the Torah states, ‘You shall not reap all the way to the corner of your field’” (Sifra Kedoshim 1:10). Let’s try to get inside of Rabbi Shimon’s head and our own humanity. How is it theft from the poor? “This way, the farmer will not find an opportune time to say to a poor relative, ‘Come and take all of the corner (pe’ah) for yourself,’ giving the relative an unfair advantage over the other poor people who are equally entitled to the corner (pe’ah).” Although Jewish law does give higher priority to helping one’s relatives than to helping others, some aspects of tzedakah need to be kept open for all of the poor, lest those without families go unsupported. How does it prevent wasting the time of the poor? “This way, the poor people will not be
sitting around and watching all day saying, ‘Now he is about to designate corners (pe’ah).’ Rather, they can go and collect gleanings from another field and return at the end of the harvest.” People often assume that the unemployed needy have time and can wait for the donor to give whenever it is convenient, but Rabbi Shimon makes it clear that the poor need even more consideration since it is so difficult to gather support from multiple sources. How does it prevent a negative appearance? “This way, passersby will not say, ‘Look how so-and-so harvested his field but did not leave any corners (pe’ah) for the poor.” We should not be judging each other on the size of our contributions to community organizations. It is the giving, not the amount that matters. And because the Torah states, “You shall not reap all the way to the corner of your field.” I think it is that simple. For those of us who appreciate the human hand in the writing of the Torah and for those of us who believe that God authored the Torah through Moses’ hand, ensuring that the hungry have what to eat is an eternal value of the Jewish people. If you would like to do something about hunger in our community, I suggest you download the app, “412 Food Rescue.” The mission of 412 Food Rescue is to prevent perfectly good food from entering the waste stream. With the app on your phone, you will be notified when local businesses have surplus food and when community organizations can serve the food to those in need. You will drive to location A, load your car with food and drive to location B, all the while being a hero. It might take as little as 30 minutes. Find out more at 412foodrescue.org. It’s just that simple. PJC Rabbi Ron Symons is the senior director of Jewish Life at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh. This column is a service of the Greater Pittsburgh Rabbinic Association.
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Zoë Florence Hirsh Sherman, daughter of Rabbi Erin Hirsh and Ezra Sherman, will become a bat mitzvah on Saturday, May 5 in Elkins Park, Pa. Grandparents are Elissa Hirsh and the late Charles G. Hirsh of Pittsburgh and Tamar and Jack Sherman of Northport, N.Y. Celebrating with Zoë will be her aunt and uncle, Amanda and Dan Hirsh, also of Pittsburgh, as well as her cousin Ryan.
22 MAY 4, 2018
Emma Friedman, daughter of Jennifer and Alan Friedman, will become a bat mitzvah on Saturday, May 5 at Temple Sinai. Grandparents are Steffi Snyder, Edgar Snyder, Sandy Snyder and Leila and the late Abe Friedman. Emma is a seventh-grader at Community Day School. She enjoys playing basketball, competing in Odyssey of the Mind, socializing with her friends, and playing with her dog, Milo. She has an older sister, Ally, a ninth-grader at Allderdice. PJC
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Headlines Germany: Continued from page 11
percent of 800 Swedish respondents said they refrained from wearing clothing that identified them as Jewish. In Belgium, whose capital city is the seat of the European Union, the figure was 36 percent. In France, 40 percent of the approximately 1,200 Jews polled said they avoided wearing such items in public. “It’s a matter of preserving one’s sanctity of life — an elevated value in Judaism,” said Prosper Abenaim, the only rabbi living in Paris’ poor and heavily Muslim neighborhood of La Courneuve. On Shabbat, Abenaim wears a hat over his kippah as he takes the miles-long walk from his home in the affluent 17th district to La Couneuve’s dwindling synagogue. He advises his congregants to do the same — and immigrate to Israel, he said. Jews like Abenaim are not being para-
Moundsville: Continued from page 4
the mid-1970s. “I remember walking on one of the streets and the prisoners yelling out at you,” she said. “I never thought they could see you, but somehow they could.” Our tour guide similarly said that locals used to call over and alert officers whenever white sheets draped the exterior walls in a rope-like fashion. Despite possessing fewer than 10,000 residents, Moundsville has a heap of stories, but perhaps none that date back further than a site situated 26 feet across the road. Grave Creek Mound, a National Historic Landmark, is one of the largest conical burial mounds in the United States. With a height of 69 feet and a base diameter of 295 feet, the grassed domain, which was originally encircled by a 40-foot wide and 5-foot deep moat, was erected by members of the Adena people roughly 2,000 years ago. Adjacent to the mound is the Delf Norona Museum, which houses artifacts illumi-
noid. The Fundamental Rights Agency of the European Union in its 2017 overview of anti-Semitism said that “Jewish people wearing visible symbols of their religion are the most likely to be targeted by antiSemitic incidents.” In France, most anti-Semitic violence is perpetrated by Muslims, according to the National Bureau of Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism. That category of crime, as well as hate speech, rose sharply in the early 2000s in France and other Western European countries during the wave of terrorist attacks in Israel known as the second intifada and Israel’s actions to stop it. In those years, the number of anti-Semitic incidents reported to authorities soared from a few dozen a year to hundreds, never returning to pre-2000 levels. Heavily Muslim areas like La Courneuve are considered especially risky, although Jews living in richer areas with fewer Muslims also refrain from wearing kippahs and other Jewish symbols in public.
Philippe Karsenty, a local politician and pro-Israel activist from the upscale Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, a few years ago warned a younger relative not to wear a Star of David pendant. Karsenty remembers telling him: “Nothing good will come to anyone from you wearing it.” In France today, a Jewish symbol is likely to “escalate a parking dispute to a stabbing,” Karsenty said. Perhaps ironically, anger and opposition to Muslim extremism in Europe is creating additional problems for Jews who wear kippahs. Several European countries have banned the wearing of face-covering veils, a Muslim custom. While these recent bans in Belgium, France and the Netherlands clearly target Muslims, they are nonetheless creating an atmosphere that is more restrictive of wearing all and any religious symbols, including the kippah. In the Netherlands, an employee of the Anne Frank House last year waited for six
months in vain for his bosses to decide on whether he could wear a kippah to work. He declined their suggestion that he come to the office wearing a hat and ultimately decided to wear a kippah without permission, forcing them to hammer out a policy on the matter. They finally permitted him to wear the kippah. The leader of France’s far-right National Front party, Marine Le Pen, has been candid about her plan to ban the wearing of the kippah in public — not because she opposes it, she has said. Rather, she said in an interview last year, French Jews should “sacrifice” the freedom to wear a kippah in public in favor of the fight against radical Islam. But Le Pen also cited the fear of many French Jews in downplaying the significance of the sacrifice she was asking. “Honestly, the dangerous situation in which Jews in France live is such that those who walk with a kippah are in any case a minority because they are afraid,” Le Pen said. PJC
nating Adena culture. As explained by the museum, it is unknown why the Adena built such a large structure. Visitors to the monument can observe informative dioramas or even climb the mound on a spiraled set of stone stairs. The activity is one of but a slew of things to do nearby. Those seeking a slightly alternative religious or aesthetic experience can head east 11 miles to New Vrindaban, home to an International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) community, as well as “The Palace of Gold.” Built by unskilled laborers who learned on the job, the magnificent building boasts a multitude of marble, onyx, gold inlay and even peacock feathers all integrated into an exquisitely designed residence originally intended for A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder of ISKCON. As a guide explained, Prabhupada’s death interrupted construction and redirected the project’s focus toward erecting a memorial shrine. A tour of the facility, which lasts less than 30 minutes, affords access to a glorious space as well as several possessions previ-
ously belonging to Prabhupada. While exiting the palace bestows monumental views, so too does the return trip. Although I headed north on I-79, and arrived in Pittsburgh roughly an hour and 40 minutes later, Google Maps suggests an alternative trek “via OH-7 N/Ohio River Scenic Byway and US-22 E.” For daytrippers choosing either path, recommended pre-reading is “Trees of West Virginia Farms and Woodlots,”
a digital publication available at agriculture.wv.gov. With the text in mind and the sights outdoors, drivers may discover that there is no better escape from a dialogue on prison breaks, burial grounds and stained glass, than recognizing the difference between a pawpaw and a sassafras. PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz @pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
The details // Exploring Moundsville and beyond Getting There: Head southwest on I-79 from Pittsburgh. Washington, Pa., is a welcome stop for those seeking outlet shopping.
Costs: Free parking and reduced entrance rates throughout make Moundsville a relative bargain. Admission to the West Virginia State Penitentiary is $14 for adults, $11 for seniors, $8 for kids 6-16 and free for children 5 and under. Admission to Grave Creek Mound and the Delf Norona
Museum are free. Admission to the Palace of Gold is $9.50 for adults and $7.50 for children under 12. Additional Bonus not to be Skipped on a Summer Day: Moundsville is home to Grand Vue Park, a massive recreation area complete with ziplining, swimming, disc golf, miniature golf, a Par-3 golf course, picnic shelters and playgrounds. Access to the park is free. Additional costs apply to activities. PJC
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24 MAY 4, 2018
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Obituaries ALTER: Marcie Kleber Alter, 52, of Jerusalem, formerly of Pittsburgh, on April 17, 2018. Daughter of the late Tema Alter and the late Arthur Alter. Loving mother of Ben Alter and his wife, Belle; grandmother of Adir Shaked and Oziel Sagiv of Neve Daniel, Israel. Also survived by her brother Howard Alter and his wife Jamie of Fairfax, Va., and nephew, Ben Alter, of AnnandaleOn-Hudson, N.Y. She attended Winchester Thurston School and the University of Pittsburgh. Marcie made aliyah in 2003 and lived on a kibbutz. Approximately three years later, she went to the doctor with numbness in a leg. She was diagnosed with a cavernous angioma, essentially, bleeding in the brain. She had two brain surgeries, which were only partially successful. An additional two surgeries stopped the bleeding but left her 99 percent paralyzed, unable to speak and on a feeding tube. Yet, despite the physical limitations, her higher brain functions were completely intact. Her memories, creativity and ability to process new information were unaffected. But her mind was trapped inside a body unable to communicate. Staff and visitors would point to an alphabet on the wall to spell out words and communicate with her. Eventually, she was fitted with a computer that responded to eye movements. This opened up the world to her, enabling her to email and communicate with friends and family, as well as utilize the internet. Despite having a feeding tube, a tracheotomy, and being unable to speak, she co-authored a Kindle book in 2014 called “Chanukah Highlights” (“My Favorite Food is Birthday Cake Book 1”). In a truly humble manner with a keen sense of humor, she was quoted as saying that the book was “written by someone who had not had a meal in close to eight years.” Despite declining health, Marcie’s mother made the trip to Israel twice to visit, and her brother, Howard, made numerous visits, as did other family and friends from Pittsburgh. Marcie’s condition did not deter her from attending the wedding of her son, Ben, in 2013 and the brit milah of a grandson. Marcie was buoyed by a wonderful support system with numerous friends who spent time with her, ensured someone was with her during Shabbat, and arranged and accompanied her on regular visits to the Western Wall. Her many, many friends conducted Torah study in her room, and so many people integrated her into their lives and their families. She lived at St. Louis French Hospital in Jerusalem for nearly 12 years and was cared for by a wonderful and loving group of doctors, nurses and staff. A rabbi who visited regularly said it was Marcie’s visitors that gained the most from the visits by watching her strength, sense of
humor, and will to live come through despite all the obstacles. In the months before her passing, her brain showed signs of recovery as she began to regain feeling in her arms and legs and was able to take a step or two with help and was able to use her hands to wheel herself in the wheelchair. Marcie was buried on April 17, 2018, in a cemetery on a hill overlooking the Old City in Jerusalem. A service of Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. schugar.com BERMAN: Martha Yorkin Berman, of Upper St. Clair, formerly of Washington, Pa., age 93, on Monday, April 23, 2018. Adored mother of Diane L. Berman, of Pittsburgh, and cherished grandmother of Bernard Balbot of Chicago; preceded in death by her beloved husband and daughter, Dr. Bernard Berman and Dr. Linda Berman, and her two siblings, Alan (Bud) Yorkin and Ruth Yorkin Drazen. Survived by loving nieces and nephews. Martha was born in Washington, Pa., to the late Jessie and Maurice Yorkin on July 23, 1924, graduated from Pennsylvania College for Women (Chatham University) with a degree in economics and government followed by a fellowship at the National Institute of Public Affairs before working as a labor mediator for the National Labor Relations Board prior to her marriage. When her two daughters reached high school, she returned to graduate school and obtained a master’s degree in counseling, working as a full-time counselor for Peters Township High School until her retirement in 1986. Martha was best known as one of Washington County’s most committed and treasured volunteers. Her volunteering began in the 1950s with the Washington County Medical Auxiliary and culminated in her chairing the Washington Hospital Board of Trustees and becoming a member of the Washington Hospital Foundation Board. She was a founding member of the Washington County Mental Health Association and served on numerous other boards for her synagogue, library, and multicultural community centers. Over the past decades, she was honored by the League of Women Voters, the YMCA, the Mental Health Association, the American Association of University Women and the United Way for her commitment to volunteer service. Martha was loved by many in the communities she served and will be deeply missed. Services were held at Beinhauer Funeral Home. Interment at Beth Israel Cemetery, Washington, Pa. The family
suggests that donations be made to Washington County Community Foundation (Berman Family Fund), Temple Emanuel, or the Pennsylvania Center for Women and Politics at Chatham University. Please add or view tributes at beinhauer.com. GROSSMAN: Shirley Lotz Grossman, on April 24, 2018, while surrounded by her family, peacefully passed to be with her adoring husband of 72 years Bernard “Bob” Grossman. Survived by her daughters Michele (Dan) Babuscio and Joan (Mark) Neitznick; grandchildren Bari and Melanie Medgaus, Sarah and Ryan (Mary) Neitznick, Danielle Morgan and Justin Babuscio; and great-grandchildren Jayda Medgaus, Henry Neitznick, and Rhys Morgan and several nieces and nephews. Born in the Bensonhurst district of Brooklyn, Bob’s business first took them to Miami, then north again making Pittsburgh their home for over 50 years. Given Shirley’s God-given talents Shirley could have chosen many career paths, but besides her full-time job raising her family, Shirley worked part time at many small retail establishments around the area, finally retiring from Sears as a jewelry salesperson at the ripe young age of 86. Shirley’s true passion though was always her love for her husband Bob and her children Michele (Shelley) and Joan, her grandchildren and precious great-grandchildren. If a manual is ever written on how to be a successful mother/wife and in general a decent human being, Shirley would be the individual described in that book. There are many words to describe Shirley but the words that stick out the most to describe her are loving, empathetic, caring, compassionate, insightful, intelligent, honest and kind. Truly a gentle soul, Shirley had the temperament of a lion when it came to caring and protecting her family and the ones she loved. Shirley saw all people through a single lens, a rarity in today’s world, never judgmental and always finding the goodness in everyone she met. To those who knew Shirley, or had the opportunity to meet her, few walked away from that encounter not feeling they had just met an angel. Shirley was a living example of the Golden Rule, someone you can honestly say loved her neighbors as herself. Shirley embodied a spirit that all of us should strive to. If the opportunity would have presented itself Shirley probably would have matriculated through college to become a teacher. That is not to say Shirley did not go through
her life teaching. The lessons Shirley taught are the most important lessons in life to learn but sadly for some the most difficult to understand. As we awake today in Shirley’s absence we find the world a little less kind and a little less loving but hopefully from the lessons Shirley taught us all on what it means to be a good person, those lessons will be carried through to fill the void Shirley’s absence will most certainly leave behind. Graveside Services and Interment were held at Betty Rosenberg - Parkway Jewish Center Cemetery. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. schugar.com HARRIS: Barry Harris on Tuesday April 24, 2018. Beloved son of the late Howard and Fannie Harris. Brother of Jack (late Theresa) Harris and the late Jerome Harris. Best friend of Irwin Roth. Also survived by nieces, nephews, greatnieces and great-nephews. Interment was at Tiphereth Israel Cemetery. Contributions may be made to a charity of donor’s choice. schugar.com TALOTTA: Patricia “Patsy” Singer Talotta, beloved Mother, Nana, and friend, passed away quietly surrounded by her family on April 24, 2018. She is survived by her three children: Jon Talotta (Elizabeth), Jan Bardin (Jeffrey), and Mary Anne Talotta, as well as her six granddaughters: Emily, Katherine, and Jessica Talotta of Arlington, Va., and Samantha, Alexa, and Julia Bardin of Demarest, N.J. Her sister was the late Suzanne Nolan. A Pittsburgh native, Patsy spent her entire life in Squirrel Hill. She attended Falk School, Winchester Thurston, and Pennsylvania College for Women. In her early life, she taught nursery school at Rodef Shalom Congregation, before becoming a devoted mother (and second mother to so many), and later enjoying a successful career in real estate at Howard Hanna. She was a gourmet cook and baker, skilled grower of orchids, Boston Terrier lover, and savvy player of cards and board games. She always treated friends like part of the family, her kitchen was always open, and she was just a phone call or a text away — “keeping everyone in her loop.” Patsy touched countless lives with her unconditional love, warmth, and compassion. Services and interment private. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to The Children’s Institute 1405 Shady Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15217 in memory of Patricia Talotta. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Scholar Chapel, Inc. schugar.com PJC
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MAY 4, 2018 25
Community Jewish Sports Hall of Fame The Jewish Sports Hall of Fame of Western Pennsylvania held its 36th annual banquet on Sunday, April 22. Founded in 1982, the Hall of Fame has a dual mission: to financially support Jewish-related sports programs in Western Pennsylvania and Israel, and find and honor Jewish men and women with connections to the area who have achieved a high level in athletic competition, or have prestigious careers that are closely related to the sports field.
p Hall of Fame President Arnie Reichbaum presents the Sidney Simon Memorial Scholarships to Jacob Weinberg, baseball, Pine Richland High School; and Carla Goldsmith, tennis, Peters Township High School
p David Dinkin, Manny Gold Humanitarian Award winner
p Beverly Mermelstein, Hall of Fame inductee, golf
Yom Hazikaron at Hillel Academy
p Sherree Hall, Ziggy Kahn Award winner
p Hall of fame inductee David Brinn, track, University of Pittsburgh
26 MAY 4, 2018
Photos by Eric Reichbaum
p In honor of Yom Hazikaron, Adam Poznanski shared his experiences in the Israeli army with the K-4 students at Hillel Academy. He shared stories and pictures with them and spoke about his grandfather, Ari Poznanski, who helped fight for the state of Israel in the War of Independence.
PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE
Photo provided by Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh
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Community Yom HaShoah at CDS Led by Hebrew and Jewish Studies teacher Jackie Goldblum, Community Day School Middle School took part in the nationwide effort to honor victims of the Holocaust and Nazi persecution by holding a Yom HaShoah commemoration on Thursday, April 12 at the site of the Gary and Nancy Tuckfelt Keeping Tabs: A Holocaust Sculpture. The moving event included student-led music, Hebrew prayer, lighting of remembrance candles by local Holocaust survivors and their families, as well as a flag-lowering ceremony. The theme was “The Power of Words,” focusing on the impact that words had in the Holocaust and subsequent genocides.
p First-grader Eli Eidinger and classmates explore the Gary and Nancy Tuckfelt Keeping Tabs: A Holocaust Sculpture, as they learn why it is important to be an “upstander.”
p From left: Eighth-grade student Liam Beresteanu, Keeping Tabs Sculpture patrons Gary and Nancy Tuckfelt, retired CDS Social Studies teacher Bill Walter, and Rabbi Sam Feinsmith participate in the Yom HaShoah candle-lighting ceremony.
p Seventh-grade students Gabriela Berger and Jonah Rosenberg play “Yizkor (Remember)” by Ayala Asherov.
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p CDS grandparent and Holocaust survivor Adam Waks lights a candle in remembrance of the 6 million Jewish victims of the Holocaust.
p Keynote speaker Rup Pokharel came to the United States as a refugee from Bhutan and is now a refugee and immigrant service coordinator for Jewish Family and Community Services. Photos provided by Community Day School
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MAY 4, 2018 27
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