Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle 7/20/2018

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July 20, 2018 | 8 Av 5778

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Candlelighting 8:28 p.m. | Havdalah 9:32 p.m. | Vol. 61, No. 29 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

NOTEWORTHY LOCAL Rabbi Walter Jacob honored with new biography

Writer Eric Lidji paints a sensitive portrait.

Pittsburgher bowls her way to Policing bronze at Special Olympics USA methods changing under leadership of Jewish commander

By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer

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with top-level bowlers. While she placed fourth out of four bowlers in the division, she would have placed first or second in all but one other division.

Nonetheless, Truxell said he was proud of her efforts.

“She did great,” Truxell said. “She struggled a little bit because it was new lanes, so she found out what she was doing, she made the corrections and she worked hard.”

He added that she steadily improved throughout the week, posting a score of 153 in the team round on Wednesday.

“It’s a whole different atmosphere, there’s a ton of people there, it’s a crowded environment,” Truxell said. “So it’s not like a weekto-week practice.”

The road to qualifying for July’s Games was a long and arduous one. In January 2017, Silk won a gold medal at the Allegheny County tournament. Then, she traveled to Erie for the sectional round, again earning a gold. But since the number of gold medal winners exceeded the number of spots

or the past 50 years, Zinna Smith, 72, has lived in Homewood, one of the city’s highest crime-ridden neighborhoods, and a place where the residents historically have had a fraught relationship with the police.

Smith recalls the days when the cops would stroll down the streets, hitting their clubs on telephone poles in a demonstration of might, and speak disrespectfully to community members. Although she has never sold or used illicit drugs, she was pulled over in her Cutlass Supreme twice for minor traffic infractions and was told by the cops that the Cutlass is a “drug dealer’s car.”

But things are changing in Homewood, and throughout the rest of Zone 5, thanks to a concerted effort to improve community relations led by Jewish Pittsburgher, Jason Lando, who serves as commander of its police department. The zone covers Pittsburgh’s East End neighborhoods, including Larimer, Friendship, Garfield and Highland Park.

“I have seen a big difference in the police officers since Jason Lando has been the commander of Zone 5,” said Smith, who serves as the chair of the public safety committee of Zone 5. “The police officers have been more interactive with the community.”

The police “play basketball with the kids and have small group pizza parties,” she said. “I saw some policemen recently at the East Liberty Target, just standing inside and talking to anybody that would stop and talk to them. I’ve seen them stop their car and open their trunk to give a helmet to a kid riding a bike. That’s not something police officers did before.”

Please see Silk, page 15

Please see Policing, page 15

LOCAL Blogger is one hungry Jew

Instagram account puts Pittsburgher in upper echelon.

Page 3 LOCAL All things Goldblum celebrated

Jeff Goldblum Day brings out the fans, and fanatics.

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$1.50

 Isadora Silk competed in Seattle last month.

By Jonah Berger | Chronicle Intern

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ittsburgh resident Isadora Silk bowled her way to a bronze medal at the Special Olympics USA Games in Seattle this month, culminating a long journey that included local and regional tournament victories and a bit of good luck.

The Games, which took place July 1-6, featured athletes from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Every four years, more than 4,000 athletes, 10,000 volunteers and close to 70,000 spectators take part in Special Olympics USA, which showcases the abilities of athletes with intellectual disabilities.

Silk, 41, said she enjoys meeting fellow athletes at the Games, but most of all, reveres the sport itself.

“I just think it’s a really fun sport,” said Silk, who has bowled for nearly her entire adult life.

Jeff Truxell, Pennsylvania’s bowling coach at the Games, said Silk has steadily improved over the past year, reaching an individual single-game average of 146. That success put her in a singles grouping at this year’s Games

Photo courtesy of Leonard Silk

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Starbucks brews kosher kerfuffle

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Evangelicals a study in contrasts

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Progressives upend Democrats

Headlines New biography of Rabbi Walter Jacob released — LOCAL —

By Jonah Berger | Chronicle Intern

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umerous studies have revealed the centrality of emotion — oftentimes at the expense of pragmatism — in human psychology. Recently, researchers have also sought to examine how emotions play a part in other facets of society, including politics.

Those findings should perhaps be unsurprising to many, given the appeal of empathy and reassurance over hard truths and complex solutions. It seems at times, though, there exist only two extremes: an emotionless, highly technocratic approach or a spiritual-like fervor impervious to changing norms.

Throughout his life, Rabbi Walter Jacob, 88, the longtime spiritual leader of Rodef Shalom Congregation, has been supremely successful in his ability to straddle the line between those two sides. He has extolled — and practiced — the benefits of individual piety, while criticizing unwarranted idealism; he has regarded as vital the community’s spiritual connection to the past, while at the same time addressing the exigencies of maintaining a bustling hub for Jewish life in a modern American age.

That is the takeaway from author Eric Lidji’s new biography, “The Seventeenth Generation: The Lifework of Rabbi Walter Jacob.” The book was highlighted at an event at Rodef Shalom on July 10.

At the event, City Councilwoman Erika Strassburger praised Jacob’s impact on so many in the community.

“We might be celebrating the 17th generation in one sense, but I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that Rabbi Jacob has been the rabbi for five generations of Strassburgers.”

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During his time as senior rabbi, Jacob embraced the surrounding community, including those of different persuasions, working constructively — and ultimately succeeding in many instances — to bend the arc of history in the direction of compassion, equality and justice. From his overtures toward a previously averse Catholic establishment to his persistence with city officials on behalf of the intellectually disabled, Jacob found that engagement, as opposed to intransigence, proved the most fruitful method of achieving the congregation’s goals.

In the 1970s and 1980s, as the balkanization of politics and society intensified, Jacob remained steadfastly committed to compromise and understanding. He constantly sought middle ground, whether on Israel or local issues, always remaining calm and judicious.

While refusing to concede on certain matters about which he felt most strongly, Jacob respected the entrenched opposition to his proposals from some in the congregation, often going the route of gradual change rather than grand symbolic pronouncements to accomplish his aims.

In an increasingly fast-paced world in which deep devotion to a craft became more unusual, Jacob was in it for the long haul, a scholar who demonstrated remarkable passion for grasping the intricacies of Jewish law. As chair of the Responsa Committee of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, his opinions on questions of Jewish law influenced rabbis and laity around the country, helping to shape the future of the Reform movement in the United States.

And taking the helm of the city’s largest and oldest Reform congregation at a time when the centrality of the synagogue in the lives of ordinary Jews appeared to be waning and contemporary trends in the American Jewish community — increasing

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p Rabbi Walter Jacob, subject of “The Seventeeth Generation,” speaks at the July 10 book launch event.

Photo by Mosaic Photography for Rodef Shalom

secularity and youth disillusionment, among others — had only just begun, Jacob adapted to these trends, adding services for families with young children, among other programming changes.

“He takes something that he’s given, he adjusts it to the nature of the times and his own skills, and then he allows it to continue,” Lidji said at the event.

Lidji’s book recounts Jacob’s captivating life story, elucidating the many ways in which his ancestry (15 generations of whom were rabbis), and own childhood (which included a harrowing escape from Nazi Germany) shaped his outlook on life and allowed him to confer his kindness and scholarship onto others.

As a child growing up in the residential wing of a historic synagogue in Augsburg, Germany, Jacob was imbued with the religious values he would later go on to preach.

Though his mother, Annette, shielded him from many of the horrors of the Nazis, his lived experience in Germany would influence his outlook on the rabbinate and ultimately strengthen his connection to European Jewry.

Though he has long felt a deep bond to Jews who lost families members in the Holocaust, Jacob believed that sorrow and mourning was not enough. Upon returning to Germany and observing the absence of even a single rabbinical seminary, he established one, designed specifically for prospective Reform rabbis who had previously traveled as far as the United States to find a high-quality rabbinical education. Abraham Geiger Kolleg, the culmination of that effort, has ordained dozens of rabbis since its inception in 1999.

Jacob is cerebral yet deliberate, conservative yet ambitious, an independent pioneer who has also understood the benefits of collective action. More than 20 years after he stepped down as the senior rabbi at Rodef Shalom Congregation, he continues to serve as a beacon to countless Jews and non-Jews around the world.

The book can be purchased at Rodef Shalom or online or at rodefshalom.org/17gen. PJC Jonah Berger can be reached at jberger@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Headlines ‘One Hungry Jew’ chronicles food with relish — LOCAL — Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

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ayna Greenberg is one hungry Jew. Literally. Such is Greenberg’s Instagram handle, where more than 325,000 followers gleefully track her gastronomic exploits. Between saliva-inducing images of hickory smoked brisket, artisanal pizza and (yes) even avocado toast, Greenberg, 32, has carefully crafted a digital presence that is both “consistent” and “unique,” she explained.

“It has taken me years to figure out what content works well, what looks great, what resonates with an audience, but three and a half years later I think I have found a sweet spot,” she said.

Through her exquisite food photos and expanding digital presence, the former Squirrel Hill native and current New York City resident has become a coveted influencer. Accordingly, hotel groups, restaurants and chefs regularly invite her to document experiences in hopes that a positive review will generate business. Other times, Greenberg goes about the practice by introducing herself to public relations departments and requesting access to restaurants.

“People are super generous with it. Every city is a little different with it depending on

p Rayna Greenberg

Photo courtesy of Rayna Greenberg

how big it is,” she explained. “Cities like L.A., Chicago, New York have tons of food influencer-type people that do stuff like this so they’re very used to you reaching out.”

The fact that the Community Day School graduate is able to travel globally, dine enjoyably and chronicle such adventures is a dream, she said. “I moved to New York the week after the market crashed in 2008. It was sort of an interesting time.”

Alone in the Big Apple with a degree in business and journalism from Indiana

University in Bloomington, Greenberg waited tables, worked with top chefs and taught herself how to take pictures.

Back then, “there was no such thing as an Instagram influencer or that type of thing. I had never heard of anybody monetizing a social media account,” she noted. “If you used to ask somebody to pay you to post something on social media they would laugh in your face.”

Nowadays, the climate has changed.

A 2017 survey of 4,000 active social media consumers aged 16-61 reported that “31 percent of consumers across the U.S. and Europe said they have purchased a product or service based on a social influencer post,” according to Business Wire.

Greenberg is well aware of her sway. In fact, she regularly parlays it into netting guests for her “Girls Gotta Eat” podcast.

Co-hosted with Ashley Hesseltine, whose “brosbeingbasic” Instagram account has 770,000 followers, the podcast is “a comedy show about sex and dating,” said Greenberg.

Directing followers from Instagram has been “an amazing way to build the show, just to advertise through that platform,” she added.

Between regular posts and candid conversations, Greenberg lives a relatively exhibited life. Yet the exposure occasionally presents misunderstandings.

“A common misconception is that all of my photos come from me dining out, like I spend

my whole day dining at these restaurants, but most of my photos come from photoshoots,” she said. Arranged beforehand, the sessions enable Greenberg to typically “walk in, the dishes will be ready and [I’ll] just hang out take some photos and get out of their way.” That way, “I’m not doing that in the middle of a restaurant with a light disturbing other guests while they are paying to enjoy their experience.”

Another misperception lies in the One Hungry Jew name. Sometimes there is “flak” for posting things “like shellfish or pork,” she said. “People do say stuff every once in a while, and it’s a nice way to engage with my audience and say, ‘Hey I am actually not religious. You can be Jewish and not keep kosher.’ It’s sort of a learning moment for other people.”

A certain curiosity which Greenberg quickly clarified was the absence of Pittsburgh from her posts; despite mentioning Austin, Chicago and New Orleans, she failed to include the Steel City in her travel guides.

“When I come home to Pittsburgh I really want to do the things that I’ve always done, eat at the restaurants that are so nostalgic to me,” she said. So whether it’s feasting at a friend’s house, or at her parents’ home, “I don’t spend a lot of time in the dining scene in Pittsburgh because I just want those nostalgic things that I grew up with because I am there for such a short amount of time.”

Please see Hungry, page 20

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JULY 20, 2018 3

Headlines Change in kosher status scalds some Starbucks drinkers — LOCAL —

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

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hough coffee consumers nationwide may be steaming over Starbucks’ change in kosher status, the caffeinated faithful in Pittsburgh have largely kept cool about the situation. Last week, the Star-K, a national kosher certification agency based in Baltimore announced that “Starbucks corporation has decided to end the expanded Star-K kosher information program. Consumers are advised that effective immediately the Star-K can only recommend a limited number of drinks and can no longer vouch for the kashrus of many of the flavored items previously listed.�

The organization went on to state that “in general, Starbucks stores serve hot treif meat and cheese. Therefore, since 2011,�

Rabbi Moshe Heinemann, the Star-K’s rabbinic administrator, “suggests that one should avoid if at all possible buying drinks prepared with equipment that may have been washed with treif equipment.�

p A view of a Starbucks shop in Squirrel Hill.

“ I don’t really think this rates on the Richter scale of

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earth-shattering things.

— RABBI DANIEL WASSERMAN

Although a list of “acceptable� drinks was included in the announcement, many were outraged by the events and went online to seethe.

A change.org petition to “Make Starbucks Kosher Again� attracted 8,000 supporters, many of whom shared comments claiming that the decision reflected an “insensitivity� from the Seattle-based corporation.

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In Pittsburgh, however, reactions were less heated. “I don’t really think this rates on the Richter scale of earth-shattering things,� said Rabbi Daniel Wasserman of Shaare Torah Congregation. “I couldn’t give a flying fickle finger,� echoed Jerome Parness, of Squirrel Hill.

Wasserman, a member of the Vaad Hara-

Photo by Adam Reinherz

banim of Greater Pittsburgh, said that he and his local rabbinic colleagues may discuss the matter at an upcoming meeting. He clarified, however, that he does not speak on behalf of the group.

The Vaad Harabanim describes itself as the “local kosher supervision agency in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area,� supervising “local restaurants, bakeries, caterers, institutional kitchens and commercial enterprises.�

Those interested in obtaining “Vaad certified� coffee have other options, explained Wasserman. “Dunkin’ Donuts on Shady and Forbes is under our hechser, so if people are not sure what to do with regards to coffee they can go in there,� he said. “We gave a hechsher here in town on Dunkin’ Donuts, and there they are very careful not to wash anything that comes in contact with the coffee with anything that comes in contact with dairy,� echoed Rabbi Yosef Itkin, kashrus administrator of the Vaad Harabanim.

As for the coffeehouse marked by an iconic green siren, Itkin added, “I don’t have any connection to Starbucks.�

Parness, a cold-brewer who boasted the quality of Costco’s Rwandan coffee, scorched Starbucks before questioning the company’s rationale. “I would never drink that stuff, it’s so full of calories,â€? said the retired physician. “I used to drink a lot of Starbucks coffee but I found it very bitter. ‌ I’m very surprised at what they’ve done. I guess the kosher market is not so important; I don’t know why they would have done something like that.â€?

Like several interviewed for the story, Michelle Goldwasser stated that she found the issue rather bland.

Said the Squirrel Hill resident, “The truth is that I’m not a coffee drinker. I never go to Starbucks.�  PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz @pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Headlines Jeff Goldblum Day celebrates Pittsburgh actor — LOCAL —

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

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eff Goldblum, the iconic Hollywood star whose 1965 bar mitzvah took place in an Orthodox synagogue in Homestead, was feted in Pittsburgh once again, though this time there was no Torah reading. On July 13, several hundred Steel City denizens descended on the Artisan Collective, an East End haunt located at 5001 Penn Ave., for Jeff Goldblum Day. Beginning at 11 a.m. fans of the Jewish actor flocked to the multistory building for activities including Jeff Goldblum trivia, Jeff Goldblum Pictionary and a Jeff Goldblum costume contest.

The daylong celebration, which brought together local businesses and several hundred Goldblum enthusiasts, was the brainchild of Artisan employees Matt McKelvey and Shauna Burd.

“It’s been something I’ve been thinking about for years,” said McKelvey.

Nearly a decade and a half prior, the Council of the City of Pittsburgh, spearheaded by Councilman Douglas Shields, declared July 13, 2004, “Jeff Goldblum Day.” For 14 years, “I kind of sat on that day and … finally it just came at the right time to put

it all together,” McKelvey explained.

Plans began last month, with McKelvey and Burd designing T-shirts, buttons and other Goldblum emblazoned items for purchase. Drawings were even made for Goldblum inspired tattoos. (By noon on July 13, 22 people had registered to be forever linked in ink to the thespian.)

Though she declined a permanent marking of Goldblum’s visage on her person, Melissa Ciccocioppo arrived at Artisan adorned in vast Goldblum attire. The Bloomfield resident’s T-shirt, necklace and earrings all displayed images of the celebrity whose role as Dr. Ian Malcolm, the mathematician in “Jurassic Park” (1993), largely introduced the West Mifflin North High School graduate to cinephiles of a certain generation.

In a movie where researchers and scientists collaborate on bringing dinosaurs back from extinction, “his character is the smartest of the group, and he’s just the most on point with everything and I just loved how he thought about stuff,” said Danielle Pratt, of Latrobe.

Anya Braggs, of Pittsburgh, similarly discovered Goldblum in “Jurassic Park,” but noted that the internet may possess the actor’s greatest performances.

“I just love watching him in interviews, because he’s awkward but in a really funny way,” said Sarah Gross, of Pittsburgh.

Following “Jurassic Park,” the Jewish

p Melissa Ciccocioppo and Spaz at Artisan on Friday, July 13. The couple said they are big Goldblum fans and Ciccocioppo has several Goldblum-inspired objects in her home, including a shower curtain and door mat.

Photo by Lauren Rosenblatt

performer, who four years after studying under Rabbi Marvin Pritzker at Homestead Hebrew Congregation received instruction from Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre, went on to star in “Independence Day” (1996) and “Thor: Ragnarok” (2017). Combined, the

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two films grossed nearly $1 billion.

“He’s huge right now, [but] if you look back he’s been huge,” said Marie Lawton, of Plum. “I’ve loved the guy since ‘Earth Girls Are Easy’” (1988).

Please see Goldblum, page 20

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Walnut Street Sunday July 31 & Ellsworth Avenue Wednesday July 25 through Sunday July 29

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JULY 20, 2018 5

Headlines They love Israel and Trump — the complex world of evangelicals — LOCAL —

By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer

M

ore than 80 percent of white evangelical Christians voted for President Donald Trump, a candidate whose personal behavior arguably conflicts with the family values of traditional Christianity.

His purported marital infidelities, the vulgar way in which he spoke of women in the now infamous “Access Hollywood” interview and now, his alleged affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels all seem pretty contrary to the ways of the church.

But in “Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump,” a new book by John Fea, a history professor at Messiah College in Mechanicsburg, Pa., the politicization of evangelicals and their overwhelming support of Trump can be explained as a natural corollary of their “culture war” begun in the 1970s — which includes a resolute stance against abortion and the defense of “religious liberty,” as they define it.

Fea, who was in Sewickley last week to promote his book, argues that Trump fashioned his rhetoric and his policies to garner the votes of white evangelicals, who have become a powerful voting bloc.

Evangelicals comprise about 26 percent of the population in America, according to a Pew survey, and about 15 percent of the Christian population in Pittsburgh. With the exception of the large Allegheny Center Alliance Church on Pittsburgh’s Northside, most evangelical churches in the area are in the suburbs or more rural locales.

There are four beliefs which define evangelicals in a theological way, said Fea in an interview: the centrality of Jesus dying on the cross as a way to provide forgiveness for sins; the idea of conversion, accepting Jesus as savior, and having a “born again experience”; the inspiration of the Bible, both the Old and the New Testament, as an authoritative moral and spiritual code for living; and activism.

Activism, said Fea, who theologically identifies as an evangelical, can be interpreted in a variety of ways.

“Traditionally, when evangelicals think about activism, they think about sharing their faith with others,” he said. “Think of Billy Graham preaching, and people coming forward to accept Jesus. But it also has resulted in evangelicals being engaged in social concerns — feeding the poor, loving their neighbors, serving their neighbors in all kinds of capacities.”

While there are many Christian denominations that practice one or more of these four tenets, most do not embrace all of them.

“When you put all four of them together, you have something unique, and that would be an evangelical Christian,” he said.

Most evangelicals would say that their ultimate priority should be being “a witness to the world, preaching the Gospel, living out the Gospel, following Jesus in the world, 6 JULY 20, 2018

p John Fea

and following his commandments,” Fea said.

But that mission, in some ways, has been “co-opted by a political mission,” he explained. “So, evangelicals have now become associated in the culture less for what they believe theologically and more for their political alignment with the Republican Party, and now their political alignment with Donald Trump.”

While there are some evangelicals who are Democrats, independents, socialists or associated with the Green Party, “the majority of them align with the Republican Party because of the Republican Party’s effectiveness of tapping into some of their concerns,” Fea said. “But also, it goes both ways. Evangelicals have attached themselves to the Republican Party because of their culture war agenda.”

Although evangelicals promote “religious liberty,” Fea said, its reach tends to be limited.

“You rarely hear them applying this First Amendment principle to anybody but themselves,” he argued. “You rarely will hear them talk about religious liberty for Muslims or for Jews or for non-Christian religions. You will find some that are consistent, but religious liberty has become the new mantra for conservative evangelicals.”

Often, an evangelical’s notion of religious liberty is connected with “sexual politics, especially gay marriage,” Fea continued.

“They tried to get an amendment to the

Photo courtesy of Eerdmans Publishing Company

Constitution defending traditional marriage between a man and a woman. And when that failed, and when Obergefell v. Hodges was passed by the Supreme Court legalizing same sex marriage, then they began pulling out the religious liberty mantra.”

What that basically means, he said, is the preservation of traditional positions on marriage in educational institutions as well as in businesses, as with the recent Masterpiece Cakeshop case at the Supreme Court.

Evangelicals feel “persecuted” and “want to be able to practice their deeply held beliefs in the way that they want without being discriminated against by the government.”

The conservative white evangelical community is driven by a “political playbook” begun in the late 1970s by the Moral Majority and authored by Jerry Falwell, Fea said.

“He was able to mobilize millions of white conservative evangelicals to believe that the best way to live out their faith in America is through gaining access to political power,” he explained.

The evangelical agenda is to elect “the right president who will appoint the right Supreme Court justices, collecting the right members of Congress who will confirm those Supreme Court justices,” Fea said. “That’s how evangelicals function and try to change the world and bring their message to the world.”

Historically, Republican presidents such

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as George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan were men “who respected American institutions, whether you agreed with their politics or not, they seemed to be generally men of character,” Fea said. “But the 2016 election was really a test of that political playbook.

Would the playbook hold up if the candidate was morally problematic, to say the least, like Donald Trump? And it turns out the playbook did hold up.”

Historically, evangelicals have had a positive relationship with Jews, Fea said, “because many of them — not all — believe that the New Testament and Old Testament prophecies from the Book of Daniel, especially, still teach there is place in God’s plan for the future for the Jewish people and the Jewish nations.”

Evangelicals strongly support Trump moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem because “many of them believe this is going to speed up biblical prophecy,” he added.

“Many evangelicals believe that Jesus Christ will one day return to the city of Jerusalem, and one of the signs that he will return is the restoration of the Jewish nation. So, if you could read evangelical magazines in 1948, when the Israel state is created, this was a huge event with the evangelicals because it signaled the prophesy.”

The congregation of the Grace Baptist Church in Monroeville enthusiastically supports Israel, hosting an “Honor Israel Night” event biannually, and raising money to purchase an ambulance for Magen David Adom, Israel’s emergency medical first responders. The congregation also has “a Jewish roots Sunday school class in our church based on what we believe is biblical Judaism,” said member Arlene Berg.

“It comes back to the Genesis 12, verse 3, command for Christians: ‘I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you,’” said Arlene’s husband, the Rev. Jeff Berg. “We really have a love for blessing Israel.”

Its most recent Honor Israel Night was held this past May, with keynote speakers Stuart Pavilack, executive director of the Pittsburgh office of the Zionist Organization of America, and Rev. Patrick Neff, of the national church and field ministries director for the Friends of Israel. Rabbi Eli Seidman, director of pastoral care at the Jewish Association of Aging, gave prayers for the welfare of the State of Israel, for Israel Defense Forces soldiers and for captive soldiers at the event.

Jeff Berg said he is “thrilled” about the U.S. Embassy move to Jerusalem and that “as far as we can see, President Trump is showing that he’s good for Israel.”

“We love Israel,” echoed Arlene.

There are some politically “progressive” evangelicals who reject the idea that Israel still has a place to play in biblical prophecy,” according to Fea, and who “believe Israeli treatment of the Palestinians is just wrong.”

But historically, evangelicals have mostly “been on the side of Israel.” PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Calendar q WEDNESDAY, JULY 25

Photo by alexkich/iStockphoto.com

Zionist Organization of America: Pittsburgh will hold a discussion on America in Transition: A changing Supreme Court in an era of confrontation, with Nathan Firestone, J.D., professor of political science at Point Park University and an adjunct faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh.

Firestone has focused on American foreign policy, constitutional law, and has lectured extensively on Middle East politics. The program will be held at 7 p.m. at New Light Congregation, 5898 Wilkins Ave. There is no charge, but RSVPs are requested at Pittsburgh@zoa.org or 412-665-4630. q SATURDAY-THURSDAY, AUG. 4-9 >> 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.

Look for the Shalom Pittsburgh station for giveaways and other fun. There is no charge.

Contact Meryl Franzos at mfranzos@jfedpgh.org or 412-992-5204 for more information.

q SUNDAY, JULY 22

First Mondays with Rabbi Alex Greenbaum, with lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., featuring guest George Savarese presenting “Russian Roulette,” Putin’s war on the United States.

Savarese has served as the host of the World Affairs Council’s “Global Press Conference” on KQV radio and has worked for AP Radio and National Public Radio. There is a $6 charge. Visit bethelcong.org for more information and call 412-561-1168 to make a reservation.

A Tisha B’Av Break Fast, even if you were not fasting, will be held from 9 to 11 p.m. at Moishe House. Contact moishehousepgh@ gmail.com for more information. q WEDNESDAY, JULY 25 Moishe House will meet at Market Square for yoga and dinner, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Breathe, stretch and flow with 100 of your closest friends (and the entire Moishe gang) for an hour of yoga with instructor Clair Baer, and then have dinner. Contact moishehousepgh@gmail.com for more information. q FRIDAY, AUG. 3

q MONDAY, AUG. 6

q SUNDAY AUG. 12

adults to attend. Meetings are held at Temple Emanuel, 1250 Bower Hill Road. q THURSDAY, AUG. 16 The annual Jewish Heritage Night at PNC Park begins at 7:05 p.m. as the Pirates take on the Chicago Cubs. This year, there will be an optional pre-game kosher BBQ in the Picnic Park. The food will be provided

by Smokey Nat’s (a project of Shaare Torah Congregation), which is under the supervision of the Vaad Harabanim of Greater Pittsburgh. For more information, and for ticket prices, see Pirates.com/JewishHeritage. q SUNDAY, AUG. 19

Temple Emanuel’s Bereavement Support Group meetings will be at 10 a.m. The group, which is open to anyone who is experiencing grief following loss, is led by Jamie Del, LCSW and Naomi Pittle, LCSW, who both have experience in grief counseling. RSVP to Leon at leonsteineresa@verizon.net if you plan to attend. The Bereavement Support Group welcomes previous and newly bereaved

Congregation Beth Shalom’s Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented at 10 a.m. to recognize the achievement of a valued member. Visit bethshalompgh.org/

events-upcoming for more information.

Shalom Pittsburgh will hold its eighth annual Apples and Honey Fall Festival from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at The Waterfront Town Center.

The community is invited. Contact Meryl Franzos at mfranzos@jfedpgh.org or visit shalompittsburgh.org/apples-and-honey-fallfestival for more information. q DEADLINE WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 7 The Jewish Women’s Foundation 2018 call for proposals is offering two programs: small grants up to $10,000 to fund innovative programs that impact women and girls; and start-up grants between $2,500 and $5,000 to fund pilot programs and small nonprofits working to improve the lives of women and girls. For more details, visit JWF’s website at jwfpgh.org; or contact Judy at jcohen@ jwfpgh.org or 412-727-1108. PJC

Photo by popba/iStockphoto.com

Photo by haojiankang/iStockphoto.com

Shalom Pittsburgh and the Young Adult Division of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh will hold Family Friday at the Frick Shabbat from 5 to 7:30 p.m. at the Frick Art & Historical Center. Bring a picnic or enjoy the food trucks. Challah and grape juice will be provided.

The Women’s Summer Learning Program at the Kollel Jewish Learning Center, 5808 Beacon St., is a weeklong program with two teachers giving three classes a day. There is no charge. Contact Stacie Stufflebeam at 412-214-7973 or stacie@kollelpgh.org or visit kollelpgh.org for more information.

q SATURDAY AND SUNDAY JULY 28-29

q SATURDAY, AUG. 18 Move Forward Through the Power of MuSic, the annual MuSic for MS Music Festival to help end multiple sclerosis forever will be from 3 to 10:30 p.m. at Hartwood Acres. There is a charge, but free tickets are available to anyone living with MS. Visit MuSicForMS.org/ tickets for more information.

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The kick-off weekend for Beth Shalom’s Solar Initiative begins at 12:45 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. on Sunday. Learn how the Congregation can help the environment and reduce expenses by adopting modern energy efficient practices and how you can do the same in your home. Also learn about clean solar energy’s role in powering Pittsburgh’s Climate Action Plan 3.0, how co-ops can help homeowners install solar power at below market rates, and about Beth Shalom’s plans to install a solar roof. With help, the congregation can become the first religious organization in the region to go solar and cut its greenhouse emissions. The weekend is free. RSVP to adulteducationcbs@gmail.com. Visit bethshalompgh.org/events-upcoming for more information.

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

JULY 20, 2018 7

Headlines Jewish Democrats face progressives’ Israel criticism — NATIONAL —

By Charles Dunst | JTA

N

EW YORK — After Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shocked the political world by defeating longtime New York Rep. Joseph Crowley in a Democratic primary last month, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez quickly aligned himself with the former political outsider, saying on a radio show that “she represents the future of our party.”

If so, that future appears to include the kind of sharp criticism of Israel once considered taboo in both major parties.

Ocasio-Cortez ran on a platform of Medicare for all, fully funded public schools and a universal jobs guarantee. But she has also been critical of Israel, calling its military’s killing of Palestinian protesters in May a “massacre.”

The Democratic Socialists of America, of which Ocasio-Cortez is a member, supports the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. Ocasio-Cortez has remained silent on the issue.

In Minnesota, Democratic congressional candidate Ilhan Omar calls herself an “intersectional feminist” and Israel an apartheid regime. In Virginia’s 5th Congressional District, Democratic nominee Leslie Cockburn is the co-author, along with her husband, of “Dangerous Liaison: The Inside Story of the U.S.-Israeli Covert Relationship,” a scathing 1991 attack on the Jewish state.

“It seems to me that some criticism of Israel is part of a package among young progressives along with health care for all and jobs for all,” Democratic strategist Brad Bannon told Newsweek.

That puts Democrats who are both liberal and pro-Israel in a bind. Whether the result of “intersectionality,” which links Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians to other left-wing causes, or a willingness to call out its right-wing government, progressive criticism of Israel may make for some hard choices come Election Day. According to a Pew Research Center survey, the percentage of Democrats saying they sympathize more with Israel than the Palestinians has declined from 38 percent in 2001 to 27 percent in 2018 — the lowest level of support on record. Support for Israel further decreased among self-identified “liberal” Democrats from 48 percent in 2001 to 19 percent in 2018. In the same time period, their support for Palestinians rose from 18 percent to 35 percent.

Although the Pew survey received notable criticism, the general trends it notes have been shown elsewhere.

Some credit Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) with normalizing such criticism of Israel.

While the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate defined himself as “100 percent pro-Israel,” he recently called on the United States to adopt a more balanced policy toward Israel and the Palestinians. In late March, Sanders’ office posted three videos to social media harshly criticizing Israel for what he deemed its excessive use of force in Gaza and the Trump administration for not intervening during the border clashes.

Last year, Perez appointed as his DNC deputy Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota,

8 JULY 20, 2018

p Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez appears on “Meet the Press.”

p Ilhan Omar at the premiere of “Time For Ilhan,” a film about her run for a congressional seat in Minnesota, during the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City in April.

who in addition to being dogged by ties to the anti-Semitic Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan implied that U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East is “governed” by considerations of what is good or bad for Israel.

(Ellison, who was the first Muslim elected to Congress, is running for attorney general in Minnesota and is not seeking re-election.

Omar is seeking his seat.)

Left-wing activists have also drawn Democratic politicians into Israel controversies. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, a potential 2020 presidential candidate who has recently tacked left, penned a glowing Time magazine write-up of controversial progressive heroines and Women’s March leaders Tamika Mallory and Linda Sarsour. Mallory, in a non-apology steeped in intersectional progressive terminology, has since defended her own relationship with Farrakhan following his recent anti-Semitic rants. Sarsour, who argued that Zionism and feminism are incompatible, is a prominent supporter of BDS. “There’s a lot of evidence that defining liberalism through an intersectional lens has had the effect of casting Israel as an ‘oppressor’ and thus a nation worthy of condemnation even as its actual policies on issues associated with intersectionality are infinitely better than those of its neighbors,” KC Johnson, a history professor at Brooklyn College, former Fulbright instructor at Tel Aviv University and regular Washington Post contributor, said in an email interview.

The Republican Jewish Coalition is expected to make the rise of the Democratic left a target of its activism. It already has run ads in a Philadelphia-area congressional district where the Democratic candidate, Scott Wallace, faced heat after a charity he runs was shown to have given to anti-Israel groups. (He said he wasn’t aware and is pro-Israel.) RJC spokesman Neil Strauss told ABC News that anti-Israel rhetoric has become mainstream in the Democratic Party. (Efforts to reach the Republican group for comment were unsuccessful.)

“They’ve jumped right now from some cautionary-type language to outright hostile language on Israel,” Strauss told ABC. “These people are becoming the standard-bearers in the Democratic Party and it’s unfortunate.”

Halie Soifer, the executive director of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, said there is no contradiction between Zionism

and Democratic politics, maintaining that the Democratic Party continues to best represent Jewish interests.

“Given President Trump’s alignment with neo-Nazis and in his politicization of Israel as a partisan issue — not to mention his radically right-wing domestic agenda — we are confident that the overwhelming majority of the Jewish electorate will continue to support Democrats in the upcoming election,” Soifer said. “JDCA is supporting Democratic candidates who share our policy platform and values, and we have, in some instances, spoken out against candidates who are not aligned with our views. JDCA is proudly serving as the voice of pro-Israel and socially progressive Democrats, and we will do everything in our power to ensure that the Jewish community’s values are represented in the midterm elections.

“Every election, Republicans attempt to use Israel as a partisan wedge issue, and every year they fail to get a majority of the Jewish vote.

This year will be no different. The more Jewish voters who go to the polls in November, the better the result will be for Democrats.”

Although anti-Israel attitudes certainly exist within progressive circles, some liberal Jews believe they are on the margins.

“I believe that support for Israel remains as strong among both Republicans and Democrats as ever,” said Rabbi Jack Moline, the executive director of the Interfaith Alliance and the former head of the National Jewish Democratic Council. “With some few exceptions on both sides of the aisle, the notion of a national homeland for the Jewish people is accepted and secure. However, just as people who were formerly on the margins of both parties are now considered part of a big tent, ideas that were once marginal in Israel are being entertained by mainstream leaders.

“For a liberal Zionist like me, objecting to bad policy in Israel is an indication of deeper concern, not lesser support,” he added.

“Consider it a victory for the reactionary right that honest disagreement with the current administration has been successfully depicted as betrayal.”

Daniel Shapiro, the former U.S. ambassador to Israel under President Obama, said there is no contradiction between liberal values and Zionism, which he said “is the expression of the wholly legitimate right of the Jewish people to sovereignty in their ancient homeland.”

Photo by William B. Plowman/NBC/NBC NewsWire via Getty Images

Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival

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“If there are those in the Democratic Party or the progressive coalition who misunderstand that — there may be some, but we tend to exaggerate the phenomenon — it is incumbent on people like me to educate them about Israel’s inherent legitimacy,” he said.

The larger divide, Shapiro said, relates to the Palestinian issue, not Israel’s existence.

“An Israel that is seen as still seeking to keep a realistic two-state solution alive, where its security needs are met and it is recognized as a Jewish state — and even though Palestinian leaders have not yet met their obligations to make that outcome possible — will not have trouble retaining the broad, bipartisan support it has historically enjoyed,” he said.

Rabbi Jill Jacobs, the executive director of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, said the Pew study was flawed, insofar as it suggested that support for either Israel or the Palestinians implies a lack of advocacy for the other.

“The question of whether one is proIsrael or pro-Palestinian is a false dichotomy.

We need to stop asking questions, in polls and otherwise, that suggest that one must choose between the human rights of Israelis or Palestinians,” Jacobs said. “The only defensible position is one that stands up for the human rights of both — and insists that these are not in conflict.

“That means working toward two states, and opposing the occupation and the growth of settlements that entrench it. This is the position of the Israeli left who should be the natural partners for the Democratic Party — in contrast to the Republican Party, which has allied itself with Likud, the Jewish Home party and the rest of the pro-settlement, pro-occupation hard right.”

Yet others see the Democrats’ continued embrace of progressive figures and Israel critics like Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, Ellison, Sarsour and Mallory as further divorcing their party from Israel, leaving liberal Zionists — a majority among American Jews — in political turmoil.

“Democratic base voters are more hostile to Israel than at any point in decades, which will produce a less supportive House Democratic caucus next year,” Johnson said. “As the 2020 presidential primaries take shape, it’s easy to imagine more ideologically flexible contenders (such as Kirsten Gillibrand or Kamala Harris [the California senator]) sharply criticizing Israel to boost their standing with progressive activists.”

“Liberal Zionists,” Johnson warned, “will need to more effectively communicate how Israel’s policies on women’s issues, LGBT rights and civil rights are consistent with a Democratic Party increasingly oriented around identity politics.”

A Wider Bridge, a pro-Israel LGBT group, insists that it is doing just that: making the progressive case for Israel.

“Israel has long received broad support from both Democrats and Republicans. I believe that is still true today,” said Ronit Bezalel, the group’s communications director.

“Much of our work at A Wider Bridge is to make the case for Israel among progressive allies. We do not believe that support of Israel excludes the concerns raised on behalf of the Palestinian people.” PJC

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Headlines Caught between jihadists and neo-Nazis, Swedish Jews fear for their future — WORLD —

By Cnaan Liphshiz | JTA

M

ALMO, Sweden — When Carinne Sjoberg dissolved the Jewish Community of Umea in northern Sweden, she knew it would send shockwaves far beyond the small congregation that she had spent decades building.

The move in May owed to intimidation by neo-Nazis, making it the first time in decades that a Jewish organization in Western Europe acknowledged that it felt compelled to close shop over safety concerns.

Neo-Nazis from the Nordic Resistance Movement, beginning in 2016, pasted stickers with fascist imagery on Umea’s Jewish community center, “making the place look like after Kristallnacht,” Sjoberg said.

The closure followed surveillance activity on the center by the neo-Nazis, who published details about individual visitors.

“I didn’t take it lightly,” Sjoberg, a 56-year-old Jewish mother of two, said about the decision to close a center serving a community of 70 people. “I hate giving neo-Nazis this victory. But I can’t bear the responsibility for people’s lives, not under such threats.”

The closure caused a national uproar.

Amid intense media coverage in Sweden of the affair, Prime Minister Stefan Löfven mentioned it in a speech denouncing anti-democracy forces in his country.

But the indignation did little to change the fact that in Sweden, Muslim extremism and the far right are part of a broader set of challenges to Jewish communal life. So while the Jewish community of Stockholm may be growing, the problems are nonetheless causing some Swedish Jews to fear for their future as a minority here.

“We have a vibrant community in Stockholm but even here we face multiple threats, from Muslim extremism to far-right violence,” said Aron Verstandig, president of the Council of Swedish Jewish Communities — an umbrella group with approximately 6,000 members out of Sweden’s estimated 20,000 Jews.

None of these challenges are unique to Swedish Jewry: Several Jewish communities in Eastern Europe suffer neo-Nazi intimidation, and many Jews in the continent’s west have experienced violence at the hands of radical Muslims.

Nor are the problems connected to living as a religious minority in an ultra-secular society like Sweden’s endemic to this country; they occur across Scandinavia and beyond.

p Stefan Dozzi, right, and Motti Toledano pose for a photo at the pro-Israel pavilion in Visby.

Photo courtesy of the Sweden-Israel Friendship Association

But Sweden is perhaps the only European country where Jews are reporting a critical convergence of these issues. For example, far-right violence is not a real concern for Jews in France, where more than a dozen of them have died since 2012 in anti-Semitic attacks by Muslims. Conversely, Muslim extremism is not a real issue to the Jews in Ukraine, where far-right nationalists have recently assaulted several congregants.

Which is why to some Jewish community leaders in Europe, Swedish Jewry is something of a test case for the rest of the continent.

“The challenges that the Jewish community in Sweden face today are sadly indicative of far wider phenomena taking place across Europe,” said Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress.

In the southern province of Skane, a 15-year-old Jewish student attending a high school near Malmo suffers violent harassment at school both from ethnic Swedes and Muslim immigrants, his father said.

‘The leader of one gang is an Afghan boy,” Please see Sweden, page 20

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Headlines — WORLD — From JTA reports

U.S. Embassy to cost $21.5 million after estimate of $250K The new U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem is going to cost a bit more than President Donald Trump had estimated. Make that nearly 100 times more.

The Maryland-based firm Desbuild Limak D&K was awarded a $21.2 million contract to design and build “compound security upgrades” to the embassy, according to official documents uploaded this week, Al-Monitor reported. The United States has already spent $335,402 to refurbish the embassy, formerly a consulate, ahead of its May opening.

“We’re going to have it built very quickly and inexpensively,” Trump told reporters in March following his decision months earlier to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and relocate the U.S. Embassy there. “They put an order in front of my desk last week for $1 billion. … We’re actually doing it for about $250,000, so check that out.”

Trump repeated this and similar claims numerous times, eventually raising the price to $400,000 during a news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

“As the president stated, the cost of initial modifications made to permit the embassy to open on May 14 was approximately $400,000,” a State Department official told Al-Monitor. “Following the May 14 opening,

we have moved on to planning for and construction of a new extension and security enhancements at the interim site.”

The $21.5 million total “is actually a lot for that considering that they have plans apparently to purchase a new facility,” an aide in the House of Representatives told Al-Monitor.

The Trump administration has not announced when it plans to begin construction on a permanent embassy.

Netanyahu warns area near Gaza of ‘prolonged struggle’ Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Sderot, where at least two rockets from Gaza caused serious damage and injured a family of four, and warned of a “a prolonged Zionist struggle.”

Netanyahu met Monday in Sderot with the heads of the local municipal councils of communities located in the Gaza border area.

“I have just finished an excellent meeting with the heads of councils in the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip. I told them that we are in a prolonged struggle,” Netanyahu said in a statement following the meeting.

On Saturday, more than 170 rockets and mortars were fired from Gaza at southern Israel. Israel responded by striking some 40 Hamas terror targets in Gaza. In addition, in recent weeks thousands of acres of farmland and woodland have been burned by kites and balloons set alight and sent over the border from Gaza to Israel.

“There is an exchange of blows here. It is

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not over in one go,” Netanyahu said, “and I cannot comfort those who have taken the most difficult losses. This is very hard to take, but we know that we are in a prolonged Zionist struggle.”

In a warning to the terrorist organization that runs Gaza, Netanyahu said: “It is important that Hamas understand that it faces an iron wall and this wall is comprised, first of all, of a determined government, of strong local leadership and Zionist settlement, and that we will continue to strengthen it and — of course — the IDF.” He met with the municipal heads of Sderot, Shaar Hanegev Regional Council, Sdot Negev Regional Council, Eshkol Regional Council and Hof Ashkelon Regional Council.

Poland honors satirist who said Jews create anti-Semitism A Polish satirist who in 2016 made anti-Semitic jokes on television and later accused Jews of fomenting hatred against themselves was awarded his country’s highest distinction for artists.

Ryszard Makowski, 62, was awarded the Gloria Artis Medal for Merit to Culture on Thursday along with 20 others by Culture Minister Piotr Gliński in Warsaw, the wPolityce news website reported. Makowski won the bronze medal, the lowest of three categories in the distinction awarded annually to artists by the ministry.

“It is an expression of thanks by Poland for

This week in Israeli history

July 23, 1984 — Eleventh Knesset elections result in national unity government

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

July 20, 1949 — Syrian-Israeli armistice agreement is signed

Israel’s War of Independence ends in 1949 with the signing of armistice agreements between the newly established Jewish state and four Arab states. Separate agreements are signed with each state.

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The United States rejects a U.N. request that U.S. Marines be temporarily stationed in Jerusalem to support an Israeli-Arab military truce agreement. The United States continues its policy of supporting diplomacy in the region, while maintaining politically strategic, military distance.

July 22, 1946 — King David Hotel bombing in Jerusalem takes place

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your creativity and for your commitment, for your talent — that is always augmented with work, perseverance, creative courage,” Gliński said in presenting the award.

In 2016, B’nai B’rith Poland protested Makowski’s performance on the public broadcaster TVP3 over a song with words saying that dishonest banking practices have been around for as long as “tsimmes and gescheft” — Yiddish words that mean a sweet carrot stew and business, respectively. The song also references the Rothschild Jewish family.

In March, Makowski wrote in wPolityce about the protest by Israel and Jewish organizations against a law that criminalized blaming the Polish nation for Nazi crimes.

The law was amended last month.

“One may suspect that this ostentatious struggle of Jewish circles,” he wrote, “is aimed at sparking up anti-Semitic moods.”

The Polish association Never Again, which monitors hate crimes and speech in Poland, wrote in a statement that the honoring of Makowski is astounding as he is a “wellknown author of songs and articles which are strongly rooted in anti-Semitic stereotypes and prejudices.”

Rafal Pankowski, a co-founder of the association, added that “as a citizen of Poland, this medal is not awarded in my name!”

Anti-Semitism, Pankowski said, is something that his association refuses to see as “part of the Polish culture and heritage which deserves to be celebrated by the official representatives of the Polish state.” PJC

Members of the Irgun, a Jewish military organization that is absorbed into the IDF during the 1948 War, bomb the British administrative headquarters in Palestine, based in the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. Twenty-eight British, forty-one Arabs, and seventeen Jews are killed.

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

When neither party receives a majority of the votes in the eleventh Israeli Knesset elections, the Labor and Likud parties form a coalition government.

July 24, 1920 — First Jewish congresswoman Bella Abzug is born

Bella Abzug is born in the Bronx, New York to an Orthodox Jewish immigrant family from Russia. Elected in 1970, she serves three terms in Congress and is the first Jewish woman to be elected to the House of Representatives.

July 25, 1973 – Paralympic gold medalist Keren Leibovitch is born

Competitive swimmer Keren Leibovitch is born in Hod Ha’sharon, near Tel Aviv.

Considered Israel’s greatest Paralympian, Leibovitch wins four gold medals, two silver medals and a bronze medal in Paralympic swimming competitions in 2000 and 2004.

July 26, 1967 — Israel’s Allon Plan is unilaterally presented

Penned by Yigal Allon, the Plan is a strategic proposal for Israel’s retention of the Jordan Valley in the West Bank. It includes a series of Jewish settlements and military installations to act as buffers against potential Arab attacks from the east. PJC

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The Federation Community Spotlight: David and Carole Maretsky A few months ago I decided I wanted to help Community Day School by leaving a legacy gift and said, “If I am doing it for them, I might as well do it at the same time for the Jewish Federation.” Because I remember in my dealings with Community Day School over the years that if it wasn’t for the Federation supporting a third Jewish day school that it probably would not have existed. And that is where we started.

JCF: That’s amazing. So you have a long history with CDS. DAVID: It’s kind of been our baby. Our daughter had two children who both have now graduated from CDS. The last one just graduated in the current class and just came back from Israel. And my grandson is in Israel on the Diller program.

CAROLE: They’re very involved in Jewish life. Our grandson is very involved in BBYO and she [our granddaughter] is very involved in the Friendship Circle. It is mostly because of the influence of Community Day School.

The Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Pittsburgh recently got the chance to sit down with David and Carole Maretsky to discuss their participation in the Grinspoon LIFE & LEGACY™ program. The Maretsky’s philanthropic efforts fund programs all throughout Western Pennsylvania, including the Jewish community here in Pittsburgh. They have a passion for Jewish education and the importance of Jewish continuity. We spoke about collective giving and why it is important now to make decisions about afterlife giving.

JEWISH COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: What inspires you to give back and what does philanthropy mean to you?

DAVID MARETSKY: What inspired me was that my parents, and Carole’s father, were always people who were giving. Not always money, but they gave their time to their synagogues and various organizations. We were fortunate enough that we were able to give—from what I earned—both time and money. You can’t just put everything in your pocket if you want the world to continue. You have to give back.

CAROLE MARETSKY: And it’s not just financial. Right now I am a volunteer at Children’s Hospital on the oncology floor because I myself have had cancer, and also I am a social worker. So to me, when I go work with the children and provide that sort of giving, my background can help parents and children by providing empathy. I also work at Our Clubhouse, which used to be Gilda’s Club, and giving back has really given me a lot of strength.

JCF: What other organizations do you give to?

CAROLE: Jewish Federation, Community Day School, Temple Sinai…

JCF: That is very generous. People won’t give if they aren’t being asked.

DAVID: Exactly. I was once in my doctor’s office—a nonJewish doctor—and he asked how I was feeling and what I was doing. So I told him what I do with the Jewish Assistance Fund. When I got my bill, because he had done some testing, inside the bill was a check for the Jewish Assistance Fund.

Sometimes it is just that easy.

JCF: You have chosen to leave legacy gifts for the benefit of Community Day School (CDS) as well as the Jewish Federation’s Community Campaign. Can you talk a little bit about where your commitment to CDS began?

DAVID: Well, Community Day School is forty-something years old, so it must have been forty some years ago.

CAROLE: ’73 was when Marci started in the first kindergarten class.

DAVID: So before ’73, Dr. [Solomon] Abrams—who was at the old Hebrew Institute of Pittsburgh at the time—came to a group of individuals who, like ourselves, were looking for an alternative to an orthodox day school in the city. Our family was part of that original group that started the school and our daughter Marci [Maretsky Caplan] was in the first kindergarten class of the school.

12 JULY 20, 2018

JCF: What are your hopes for the future of CDS and the Jewish community in Pittsburgh?

DAVID: We have supported CDS for over 40 years and we hope there will be at least another 40 years of growth where the Federation will be able to continue their commitment to community development and programming to educate the Jewish community of Western Pennsylvania.

CAROLE: I see both of my grandchildren, and my daughter as well, grew up with strong Jewish values. That is what I would like to see grow and continue to grow. Jewish education provides the opportunity for that and I would like to see kids in the future have those opportunities to thrive and become menches.

JCF: What would you say to people who think endowments and after-life gifts are complicated or hard to talk about?

DAVID: To be honest, giving a legacy gift when you are living is the time to do it. Because now is when you are thinking about it.

CAROLE: It’s what you have worked for all of your life. What you have worked for and strived for; for your own children and for future children. It is the only way to ensure that what you have worked for will continue.

DAVID: I would think that anybody in the Jewish community would make this commitment while they’re living, not to just hope that the support is going to come from somewhere else later. Who knows what’s going to happen later?....I hope that in the future we inspire somebody, either our peers or our children, to do the same thing.

JCF: Why give to Federation and not just give directly to the organizations that you want to help?

DAVID: I talk to people who say that they are just going to give to Temple Sinai or Community Day School, and CDS is my little baby. But the way I think about it, this way I have helped my pet project and also helped the Jewish Community as a whole.

CAROLE: Jewish Federation helps fund the other organizations. There are so many Jewish organizations and we cannot say that the other organizations aren’t as worthy, so this allows us to help everyone.

Ways You Can Support the Future of Jewish Pittsburgh Will or Trust

You can create a charitable bequest in your will that designates to charity a specific dollar amount or a portion of your estate. You may use a charitable bequest to establish a fund within the Jewish Community Foundation to enable you to help ensure the future well-being of the Jewish community.

Retirement Plan Assets (IRA, 401(k), pension, etc.)

You can use retirement plan assets to create or to add to an endowment fund in the Jewish Community Foundation. Contributing your retirement plan assets—including corporate pension and profitsharing plans, Keogh plans, 401(k) plans, 403(b) plans and individual retirement accounts (IRAs)—is often tax efficient, as it may save both income and estate taxes.

Life Insurance Policy

You can purchase life insurance with the Jewish Community Foundation as the beneficiary. Life insurance can be used to fund a charitable gift to the Foundation, permitting you to make a substantial legacy gift for a relatively modest outlay.

Cash

You can give cash or stock to create an endowment in the Jewish Community Foundation. Endowments provide a permanent source of income for the Jewish cause you care about most. Creating an endowment during your lifetime may provide an immediate tax benefit in the year the endowment is funded.

Please remember these Jewish organizations with a gift in your will, trust, retirement account or life insurance policy.

Beth El Congregation of the South Hills Community Day School Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh Jewish Association on Aging Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh Jewish Family and Community Services Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh Jewish Residential Services National Council of Jewish Women, Pittsburgh Section Rodef Shalom Congregation Temple Emanuel of South Hills Temple Sinai Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh

For more information about the Grinspoon LIFE & LEGACYTM program, contact Jan Barkley, Life & Legacy coordinator 412.697.6656 | jbarkley@jfedpgh.org

LifeLegacyPGH.org PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

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MEET US ON THE MOUND! ENTER TO WIN A CHANCE TO THROW THE FIRST PITCH AT JEWISH HERITAGE NIGHT

7:05PM

AUGUST 16 vs

Enjoy an evening at the ballpark to watch the Pirates battle the Cubs on Jewish Heritage Night. Attendees will receive a limited edition baseball cap. New this year, we are offering an optional pre-game kosher barbecue catered by Smokey Nats in the Picnic Park at 5:45 – 7:30PM. Register today for the game, the BBQ or a chance to throw the first pitch at jfedpgh.org/jewish-heritage-night Questions? Contact JOSH AVART at joshua.avart@pirates.com or 412-325-4903.

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PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

JULY 20, 2018 13

Name: Jewish Federation of Greater Pi Width: 10.25 in Depth: 13.75 in Color: Black plus one Ad Number: 10043527

Join the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Pittsburgh for

Explore Australia through an exclusive, curated experience

OCTOBER 27 - NOVEMBER 7, 2019

Register by October 5, 2018 for special early bird pricing!

• See the iconic sites of Sydney including the Sydney Opera House, Bondi Beach and Sydney Harbor Bridge • Visit the expansive Queen Victoria markets and the remarkable Royal Botanical gardens in Melbourne

Cost: $4,600* per person

• Picnic in the Australian bush and witness incredible flora and fauna in Cairns at the Far North Queensland’s World Heritage Rainforest, Barron Gorge National Park and the Great Barrier Reef

• Travel with Rabbi Danny Schiff to Melbourne’s thriving Jewish community with a visit to its largest synagogue and the Jewish Museum of Australia

Participation in this mission requires a minimum commitment of $3,600 per household ($1,000 for young adults ages 22-45 at the time of the mission) to the Jewish Federation’s 2019 and 2020 Community Campaign.

Cost per person $4,600 Double; $6,200 Single. Early bird registration October 5, 2018.

After October 5, prices increase $300.

For more information: jfedpgh.org/down-under Questions? Please contact Eric Probola at eprobola@jfedpgh.org or 412.992.5216.

Mission Chairs Sheri & David Berk, Co-chairs • Lori & Bob Shure, Co-chairs

14 JULY 20, 2018

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Headlines Silk: Continued from page 1

available in the state round, a random draw was employed to pick the qualifiers.

Silk was ultimately chosen to compete at the state competition in State College. After earning another gold medal — and winning yet another random draw — she qualified for the national Games in Seattle.

This month’s Games were not the first in which Silk has participated. In 2014, she won three gold medals at the Special Olympics USA Games in New Jersey. Her exploits

were especially remarkable given that she had recently overcome a rare form of cancer that required a year of chemotherapy and stripped her of both her kidneys.

Silk, who works at Rite Aid in Squirrel Hill, also plays basketball, bocce, golf, soccer and tennis.

Her father, Leonard Silk, praised her work ethic in a phone interview.

“Isadora has certainly blossomed into a wonderful young woman, very independent and strong-willed, knowledgeable, and has just been a wonderful person,” he said.

He added that Special Olympics USA has provided a “platform” for Isadora to feel

comfortable participating in sports on an “even playing field.”

“Special Olympics has been a big part of Isadora’s life, and for the kids and adults who participate in Special Olympics, it’s been a wonderful program,” Leonard Silk said. “And we’re very lucky to have Special Olympics as part of our lives and as part of Isadora’s life.”

Isadora Silk’s mother is Pittsburgher Louise Silk.

The rest of Pennsylvania’s contingent also fared well at the Games, winning nine gold, 23 silver and 14 bronze medals, in addition to 27 ribbons. The basketball team took home a team gold.

Policing: Continued from page 1

In the wake of the shooting of Antwon Rose by an East Pittsburgh police officer, the Greater Pittsburgh area is struggling with finding ways to improve policing. Initiatives have ranged from reviewing department policies to introducing legislation that would standardize and modernize police training for officers statewide.

But the officers of Zone 5 may be on to something. And, since the expansion of their community outreach program four years ago, their efforts seem to be paying off.

“We have really gone out of our way in the last four years to make an intentional effort to change things,” Lando explained. “And we’ve seen amazing results from that.”

Changes have included an email blast on community crime to keep residents informed about what’s going on in their neighborhood, an annual police open house that draws about 1,000 residents, a youth football partnership and a “Raising Readers” program that has officers reading books to kids at Willie T’s Barber Shop on Frankstown Avenue. The department’s community outreach staff has grown from one officer to seven.

And about a year ago, in accord with citywide policy, Zone 5 implemented its Neighborhood Resource Officers program, embedding an officer into its three “highest priority neighborhoods based on a number of factors that we took into consideration” — East Hills, Homewood and Lincoln-Lemington, said Lando. “When people have issues in those neighborhoods, now they have a go-to officer.”

He described incidents in the past “when we would pull a car over in Homewood, and before we could even get out of the car to contact the driver, people would approach the officers, accusing us, saying, ‘You stopped him for no reason.’ I’m not going to tell you we don’t ever experience that, but we see a lot more cooperation now than we ever had because we are working with the community groups to explain what our role is.”

When citizens understand why police do the things they do, he said, “they’re a lot more compliant with us. So, because of that, we have seen complaints against our officers — in Zone 5 specifically — drop 40 percent since we started doing the outreach work in March 2015.”

The department also has made a concerted effort to reach out to youth.

p Jason Lando is transforming policing in Zone 5 by focusing on the local community.

Photo by Toby Tabachnick

“That is probably the subset of the community where you see the most animosity toward the police,” said Lando.

The youth engagement sessions are held in schools and churches and are structured to be informal. The officers wear street clothes and do not lecture the youth on proper behavior. Instead, they bring along pizza or sandwiches and tell the kids “to vent and to tell us why they don’t like the police,” Lando said.

“We don’t react,” he explained. “We select officers that are really good with this kind of thing. Then, after the kids get it out of their system, we do a little bit of explaining, like, this is why we might ask someone to get out of a car. This is why we might ask someone to show their hands. This is why we tell people don’t run. Then we move beyond the police stuff and just talk to kids — do you play any sports, what are your hobbies, tell us about your family.”

The meetings last about two hours and have, so far, uniformly led to “an attitude shift,” Lando said.

Often, the connections made during the meetings lead to a continued relationship, where a teen might recognize a particular officer answering a call — for example, to a house where a party is becoming too loud

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for neighbors — and offer compliance rather than defiance.

Community engagement also extends to everyday interactions, said Zone 5 Officer Paul Froehlich.

“I can remember on regular patrol, driving by a group of teen girls, and they were yelling, ‘F--k the police,’” he said. “So, instead of not saying anything and driving away, I parked the car, got out, and started talking to them, and asked them why they hate the police so much. We talked for 20 or 30 minutes and at the end of that they were like, ‘You’re the coolest cop I know.’ It changed their attitude.

In 20 minutes, we went from ‘f--k the police’ to wanting to hang out with cops.”

The formula is “really basic stuff, but it takes education on both sides,” Lando said.

“There are people that believe we are out to beat people up and harm them, and all we care about is taking people to jail. They don’t see any of the good stuff. And there are officers out there — and there is less and less as time goes on, because we are seeing a new generation of officers — but there are officers out there that will say, ‘Why do we have to go through all this community stuff?’ You’ve just got to find a way to bring everyone together.”

Lando has seen officers “that were previ-

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Silk, who has twice been to Israel, was inducted into the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame of Western Pennsylvania in 2010 after winning a gold medal at the Special Olympics World Summer Olympics in Shanghai, China in 2007.

She said she plans to continue bowling, and hopes to return to the USA Games in 2022.

“I would like to try for it,” Silk said. “But you never know, because you never know how many spots they are going to give to teams.” PJC Jonah Berger can be reached at jberger@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

ously jaded or skeptical about this high-level community outreach, and they come to an event and see people who previously hated police come to this event and just want to have fun with officers and get to know them.

In that officer’s mind, he can see this actually works. I’ve seen the officers come around tremendously from four years ago.”

In the last few months, he added, all Pittsburgh police have undergone bias training.

“This is not about being racist or being sexist, or whatever,” he said. “It’s that everybody in the world — everyone — has some sort of implicit bias that they might not realize they have. And so, the purpose of the training is to help officers realize this is what my biases might be, and recognize them, and as you move about your day and you’re making decisions — sometimes decisions that are split-second critical decisions — be aware, so you are not making decisions based on your biases.”

In regard to police-involved shootings, he said, “our biggest concern when we train officers is that bias doesn’t manifest itself in an unnecessary, fatal encounter.”

All six police zones in Pittsburgh are doing community outreach “to a degree,” said Chris Togneri, a public information officer for the City of Pittsburgh’s Public Safety Department, but there has been an emphasis on outreach in Zone 5.

“We were behind the eight ball,” according to Lando. “People were not friendly to us four years ago. We had more issues than other stations. We have a lot of guns out here, we have a lot of violence. And so that creates an atmosphere where there is a higher likelihood of a negative encounter.

That’s why we wanted to beef up the community involvement.”

Bringing the police and the rest of the community together can be furthered if the public refrains from jumping to conclusions about the police too quickly from media reports, which sometimes can be incomplete or misleading, according to Lando.

“When something does happen, we would really appreciate if the public could wait until the facts are in,” he said. “Because so much of the time, you see a 10-second blurb on the news of an incident that was captured on someone’s iPhone, and it doesn’t show any of the facts. And every time the news puts that on, it drives a wedge between the police and the community.” PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

JULY 20, 2018 15

Opinion Judging a judge on his merits — EDITORIAL —

B

arring something akin to a tsunami, Judge Brett Kavanaugh will, sooner or later, be confirmed as the newest Supreme Court justice. Elections have consequences. And so we wonder about the utility of the pitched opposition and handwringing over a conservative president appointing a conservative justice.

Nonetheless, last week, Democrats of all persuasions, including the Jewish Democratic Council of America, launched wide-ranging attacks on the Kavanaugh nomination — some, including Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey, even before the president uttered the nominee’s name.

What is unfolding is the equivalent of a holy war, complete with dire predictions of the consequences of Kavanaugh’s addition to the court being repeated by opponents with near messianic fervor. For example, JDCA posited: “If Judge Kavanaugh is confirmed, we are deeply concerned that he will serve as the swing vote on decisions that will turn back

p Brett Kavanaugh

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

the clock on decades of social progress. Such decisions would directly threaten the values that we hold dear as Jews and Democrats, such as a woman’s right to choose, voting rights, separation of church and state, social and economic justice and environmental protection. The stakes could not be higher.”

The stakes in Supreme Court nomination battles are always high. But, the president gets to make the nomination, and the Republicans have the majority votes in the Senate to

confirm the appointment. Still, while Republicans lament the Democrats’ outcry against the nomination of Kavanaugh, we must not forget that Republicans refused to hold even a single confirmation hearing on Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama’s pick to fill the seat of deceased Justice Antonin Scalia.

Reaction to the nomination within the Jewish community was mixed. Progressive groups raised flags about the pick, saying Kavanaugh’s record shows he would be a threat to reproductive rights and separation of church and state, while Orthodox groups were less concerned with abortion and gay rights, and were encouraged by Kavanaugh’s record on religious liberty. These differences are very much in line with the liberal-conservative divide that seems to have enveloped our entire country.

But what about Kavanaugh the man and the quality of his background, experience and judicial temperament? In that regard — whether you agree or disagree with his views — Kavanaugh unquestionably has the educational pedigree, the governmental and judicial experience and history of collegial

success that are such important components of an influential court leader. Beyond that, Kavanaugh has an extensive judicial record after 12 years on the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and senators will have the opportunity to engage him quite thoroughly on those writings.

Although Kavanaugh has a conservative record, it is sometimes difficult to predict what kind of justice a particular nominee will be. The Supreme Court has a long history of its justices veering from the ideology of the presidents who appointed them — most notably Chief Justice Earl Warren, a staunch Republican appointed by Dwight Eisenhower who went on to lead the court in landmark liberal decisions, including those mandating desegregation. Likewise, Kavanaugh’s mentor, the conservative Anthony Kennedy, was the court’s most recent swing vote, contributing to many of the significant decisions many Democrats are loudly touting today.

While Kavanaugh’s confirmation looks like a slam-dunk, how his presence on the court affects American law and society in years to come remains to be seen. PJC

Sense of unease as Israelis and visitors grapple with rocket reality Guest Columnist Josh Sayles

T

he two massive concrete caterpillars on a playground in Sderot, Israel, near the Gaza border, haven’t strayed from my thoughts for nearly a week. They double as bomb shelters for the children who play there, constantly under the threat of rocket fire from Hamas. Red lines are painted on the inside so the children, two-thirds of whom suffer from PTSD, know how far in they have to go so as not to be struck by shrapnel. I’ve seen these shelters several times, most recently three weeks ago with 34 friends and colleagues from 25 countries as part of a Young Jewish Leadership Diplomatic Seminar run by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Later that same day, we visited a nearby army base on the border with Gaza to receive a briefing from the Coordinator of Government Activity in the Territories (COGAT).

As we were sitting on an idling bus preparing to leave, my friend Victor raised his hand.

“Excuse me, where’s the nearest bomb shelter?” he asked the Israeli diplomat on board. “If we hear an alarm, which direction should we run?”

Hamas had fired a dozen or so rockets at Israel the day before.

“A rocket isn’t going to hit here,” said the diplomat, displaying nonchalance of which only an Israeli army veteran is capable.

“And if it does, you’re safer on the bus.

Just stay put.”

Victor’s eyes got a little wider. An uneasy silence filled the bus.

16 JULY 20, 2018

p Participants of the Young Jewish Leadership Diplomatic Seminar pose in front of a shelter in Sderot, Israel.

Photo provided

Sixteen days later nearly 200 rockets were fired from Gaza at Israel. Thirty were intercepted by Iron Dome. One struck a synagogue. Thank God it was empty.

I’m still processing the seminar, during which we heard from Jewish religious and secular leaders; Jewish, Arab and Palestinian activists; right- and left-wing politicians and civil servants; and experts on economic and social issues.

In particular, I’m grappling with Adi, an undocumented African asylum seeker and college student from whom we spent a morning learning about her journey and her life in South Tel Aviv. If granted citizenship, she would be a productive member of Israeli society, and I despise the limbo in which the government has left her. Yet what other government would bring an undocumented

immigrant to share her uncensored story with a group of activists and then let her go?

Certainly not the United States.

I’m appalled by a member of Knesset we met who belonged to the Joint Arab List, the third largest political party in Israel. He insisted that Hamas is not a terrorist organization and that the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel is a legitimate form of nonviolent resistance. I would like to think that others in his party are more willing partners for peace but I am skeptical. He was the only one even willing to meet with us.

I’m troubled by a story that my roommate Benji, who leads missions to Israel for non-Jewish South Africans, shared with me. On a recent mission for black Africans, one of the participants approached a young Israeli security guard in Ben Gurion Airport.

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“Can you please tell me where the bathroom is for people of color?” he asked.

The guard, astonished, told the man he had no idea what he was talking about.

“I grew up in apartheid South Africa and I really don’t want any trouble,” said the man, irked by the response he had received.

“Where is the bathroom for people of color?”

The guard directed the man to the nearby men’s room and upon entering he saw a religious Muslim washing his hands.

Something so simple changed his entire perspective on Israel.

The BDS movement spends more money on rhetoric in South Africa than any other country, Benji said. They believe that if they can convince the South African government to classify Israel as an apartheid state, it will be a significant victory for them.

I left Israel convinced that a two-state solution is the only path forward for lasting peace. Unfortunately, I’m also convinced that we’re as far away from a viable two-state solution as we’ve been in decades.

But there’s hope. Sunday morning I woke up to a group text from Celine, my colleague in Paris. The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked her to give a talk on Jewish and Arab coexistence to French diplomats next week. And Olinka, my colleague in Warsaw, arranged two meetings with the Polish government.

In the meantime, we are organizing ourselves to provide support to each other as we strive to strengthen Israel and egalitarian Judaism in our communities throughout the world. PJC Josh Sayles is the director of community relations for the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.

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Opinion Our kids deserve our respectful debate Guest Columnist Brian Schreiber

Whether you support the Allegheny County Children’s Fund Initiative

T

hese are extraordinary times. As noted in the Chronicle’s June 21 opinion piece, “The purpose of a newspaper,” the more polarized opinions become, the more we need lively, respectful debate over issues that are important to us. I couldn’t agree more.

Respectful debate between people seems harder and harder these days. A 2016 NORC Center for Public Affairs Research study found that 74 percent of Americans think manners and behavior have deteriorated in the United States over the past several decades. Other studies during this time pointed to negative consequences of uncivil behavior: 79 percent say incivility in government is preventing action on important issues; 77 percent say the country is losing stature as a civil nation; 76 percent say incivility makes it difficult to even discuss controversial issues; 64 percent say they have stopped paying attention to political conversations and debates; and 61 percent say incivility is deterring people from entering public service. All the while, the issues keep coming, and the need to reclaim civility, sensitivity and thoughtfulness becomes increasingly essential in public life and community space.

The past few weeks have seen contentious national debate on immigration and the separation of children from their parents, arousing passions from people on various sides of the issue and reminding some of

or not, I hope that you will become better educated about the proposal. the darkest times for our people. Outside the headlines, a different conversation about children has begun right here in Allegheny County. A number of highly respected local nonprofit organizations are supporting the introduction of a ballot initiative to create a public children’s fund for at-risk youth.

The initiative, if passed, would provide a revenue stream for early learning, afterschool and nutrition programs funded by a .25 mill property tax increase that would generate approximately $18 million in funds to secure social services for underserved children in the area. Supporters of this initiative, including Allies for Children, United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania, PUMP, Trying Together and the YWCA, to name a few, are part of a consortium of organizations who have seen strong returns coming from investing in programs that yield benefits for our children and our community: early learning, after-school and good nutrition. They are advocating because currently there is no reliable or sustainable way to fund these social services in our region.

While the JCC is not a sponsor of the proposed ballot initiative, we are watching the progression of this ballot initiative with great interest. Our new Center for Loving Kindness and Civic Engagement strongly believes in the values of our founding mothers and fathers from the Irene Kaufmann Settlement that local residents actively engage in public life and support a vibrant American democracy. In reviewing Y-IKC documents, historical photographs, Y Weeklies and annual reports, our agency’s legacy is built on the premise that a strong democracy and engaged civil society foster prosperity for our local Jewish community, and help integrate the privileges and responsibilities of American citizenship with active Jewish communal life.

Over the past 12 months, the JCC has hosted public forums and programs around topics as diverse as racism, the environment, domestic abuse, immigration and gun violence that have ultimately engaged thousands of individuals of all ages, walks of life and political views. We have involved public officials, spiritual leaders

of multiple faiths, community advocates and interested citizenry in the conversation.

The current effort around a children’s fund provides an additional opportunity for public discussion and information sharing.

Over the coming weeks, volunteer canvassers are attempting to collect more than 40,000 signatures on petitions just to earn a place on the ballot. You’ll see them in business districts and knocking on doors. And with that in place will likely come spirited conversation and debate throughout the community.

We support the Chronicle’s mission to “print pieces that will inform, engender respectful dialogue and educate on the wide variety of issues that are important to Jewish Pittsburgh.”

As CEO of an agency that serves thousands of children each year, I understand the motivation of a number of our nonprofit colleagues and partners who are the driving force to petition for this ballot initiative. I also value the JCC’s history and fundamental belief that the issues that affect the citizenry of Allegheny County affect Jewish Pittsburgh as well.

Whether you support the Allegheny County Children’s Fund Initiative or not, I hope that you will become better educated about the proposal. And as we have done for decades, I am positive the JCC will serve as a nonpartisan venue for hosting conversation and civil debate should the initiative be placed on the November ballot. We also will continue to serve as a district polling location for people of all backgrounds and religious beliefs to exercise their conscience as we have for decades.

I look forward to the dialogue. PJC Brian Schreiber is the president and CEO of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh.

We invite you to submit letters for publication. Letters must include name, address and daytime phone number; addresses and phone numbers will not be published. Letters may not exceed 500 words and may be edited for length and clarity; they cannot be returned.

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JULY 20, 2018 17

Celebrations

Torah

Engagement

Your bestselling memoir Rabbi Paul Tuchman Parshat Devarim Deuteronomy 1:1-3:22 Shabbat Chazon

H

ave you read this bestselling memoir, “Face to Face: My Life and Times with God and the Israelites,”

by Moshe Rabbeinu?

You’ve surely read at least some of it. It’s the Book of Deuteronomy, the first portion of which we have been reading this week.

Deuteronomy begins with Moses retelling the history of Israel, from after the encounter with God at Mt. Sinai through 40 years in the desert. We have Moses’ personal slant on these events, tinged with his reflections about his role during these important years.

And what about you? Do you have a sense of fitting in to a great holy endeavor? What is your personal sacred calling?

You have one; you are a Jew. You are part of a people that has views about the world around us and voices to express them. You possess a vast, profound and strikingly beautiful tradition of teachings to guide you. You have learned from your elders and taught (maybe without knowing it) your peers and those who come after you.

How have you, how do you — will you contribute to the sacred history of our Jewish people? There are precious few of us who will become famous for our Jewish achievements. What is more important is to be a willing and active contributor to the flow of Jewish life that sustains us all.

There are precious few of us who will become famous for our Jewish achievements. What is more important is to be a willing and active contributor to the flow of Jewish life that sustains us all.

Markovitz/Wiedemann: Jeff and Randi Markovitz of Jefferson Hills are thrilled to announce the engagement of their daughter, Elyse, to Dan Wiedemann, son of Steve and Ellen Wiedemann of Boynton Beach, Fla. Elyse and Dan reside in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., and are planning a May 2019 wedding in Pittsburgh. PJC

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His voice is personal; he confides his feelings along with his memories of what occurred.

We know how Moses fits into history, and not only from his memoir. This book has some of the same features that we have come to expect in the memoirs of politicians: Many of the events are familiar because they have been extensively reported, but the writer adds items that are new. There are explanations, arguments, revelations and sometimes self-serving defenses.

But whether in Deuteronomy or the rest of Torah, all agree that Moses speaks and acts out of a sense of a sacred calling to serve God and the Jewish people. To be sure, he had his moments of doubt, and some would say he had a problem with anger management; but he remains our greatest prophet and teacher.

Don’t be too modest. Every time you read and discuss a Jewish text, your donations to charity, every time you engage constructively with the Jewish community and its institutions, every instance of your support of the State of Israel—with each of these you are adding to your indelible page in the great and ongoing book of Jewish history.

Like Moses, you are face to face with God and the Jewish people. Try writing your own Jewish memoir, one that coming generations will be grateful to read and study.

Shabbat shalom! PJC Rabbi Paul Tuchman is the rabbi of Temple B’nai Israel in White Oak. This column is a service of the Greater Pittsburgh Rabbinic Association.

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Obituaries BERNSTEIN: Norma F. Bernstein, on Wednesday, July 11, 2018. Beloved wife of the late Israel Bernstein. Dearly loved and devoted mother of Donna (Bob) Kaplan.

Cherished nanny of Debra Bracco and Linda (Jeff) Solomon. Adored great-nanny of Aaron and Cole Bracco and Ryan, Spencer and Kate Solomon. Dear daughter of the late Yetta Kimball and sister of Jacqueline Fleishman and the late Sam Kimball, Dorothea Hirsch, and Diane Moss. Loved aunt of Jamie Blatter, Amy Hirsch, Iris Kowel, Debbie (Steve) Wagner and the late Barry Rabinovitz and Susan Hirsch. Also survived by many great-nieces and nephews. Norma deeply loved her family and was so very proud of us. She will be remembered for her kind and generous heart and quick wit, a truly funny lady. Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel Inc. Interment Beth Abraham Cemetery. Contributions may be made to Sivitz Jewish Hospice, 200 JHF Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15217. schugar.com KRUMAN: Joel Kruman, age 74, on Saturday, July 14, 2018. Beloved son of the late Sam and Bella (Rabner) Kruman.

Beloved husband of Betty J. (B.J.). Dear brother of Jerome Kruman. Brother-in-law of Ron (Peggy) Lunardini. Uncle of Jeffrey (Janet) Kruman, Steve (Jodi) Kruman, Randy Kruman, David (Jessica) Lunardini, Karen Lunardini (Jeffrey) Denniston, Brandon (Katie) Marlier and Meridith Marlier. Also survived by many beloved nieces and nephews and great-nieces and nephews across the country. Joel loved Penn State football and the Pittsburgh Steelers and Penguins. He had many hobbies but his most important one was toy train collecting. He was a member of the National (TCA) and Fort Pitt Divisions. Service held at William Slater Ii Funeral Service. Interment Kether Torah Cemetery. Contributions can be

made in his memory to Ahavath Achim Congregation Chestnut & Lydia St. Carnegie, PA 15106, or a charity of your choice. slaterfuneral.com SIMON: Dolores M. “Cookie” Simon, age 88, of Squirrel Hill passed away peacefully on July 9, 2018. Beloved wife of the late William; loving mother of Michael (Carrol), Kim Walker and Erin Simon.

Cherished grandmother of P a u l a Simon, Samuel and William Custer; beloved sister of Etta Marilyn (late Alan) Weintraub of Lima, Ohio. Her parents were Samuel G. (“Buck”) and Leah Cohen Savage. She is survived by many nieces and nephews, Sharon (Rob) Kovalsky; Wendy (Bruce) Platt, Todd (Dorit) Weintraub, Cindee Gardner, as well as Samuel Simon, Paula (Steve Levy) Simon, and Rosalind (Dave) Laskin, David (Joan) Simon, Marilyn (Ken) Gerling, Philip Pollis, June (late Larry) Silverman and by her beloved grandcats, Lulu, Izzy and Minnie. By all accounts, she was the most popular girl in her high school graduating class at Taylor Allderdice in 1947, then went to the University of Pittsburgh and joined AEPhi where she made lifelong friends. She became a dance instructor with Arthur Murray until starting her family and then became a realtor in 1969. Cookie had a long and successful career starting with Blanche Greenburger and then retiring from Coldwell Banker in 2013. Cookie had a full and rich life. Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. Interment at West View Cemetery. Donations to Humane Animal Rescue, 6926 Hamilton Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15208, would be appreciated. schugar.com PJC

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THIS WEEK’S YAHRZEITS — Sunday July 22: Harry Blumenthal, Israel I. Brody, Esther Klee, Isaac Latterman, Albert Levy, Ruth Mazefsky, Joseph Ostrow, Morris Rubin, Isaac Schor, Malcolm Slifkin, Sadye Steinman Monday July 23: Julius Field, Anna Rose Frieman, Nathan Gilles, Esther Glick, Sarah Geller Goisner, Saul Greenberg, Leonard Herbert Hochhauser, Mildred Golanty Krauss, Herman Labowitz, Minnie Landay, Benjamin Lazier, Margaret Racusin, Harry Silverstein, Clemens Simon, Dr. Morris Benjamin Weber, Hymen J. Wedner, Ida Wolf Tuesday July 24: Bess Baker, Samuel Finkelstein, Meyer I. Grinberg, Dorothy Levine, Emil Mendlow, Jean Ostfield, Dr. Herman Pink, Annie Rosenburg, Hermina Schwartz, Harriet Taper, Benjamin H. Tauberg, Stuart D. Weinbaum, Lillian Wells Wednesday July 25: Morris Chetlin, Ida Daly, Miriam Friedlander, Bruce Robert Gordon, Max Harris, Samuel Lefton, Sylvia G. Levine, Morris Linder, Ida Match, Jacob Mazer, Pearl C. Numer, Charles Olinsky, Goldie Faleder Recht, William Myer Rose, Simon Jacob Rosenthal, Reuben C. Solomon, Leonard Stein, Tsivia Topaz Sussman, Ray Weiner Wesosky, Florine K. Wolk, Benjamin I. Young, Harry N. Zeligman, Ruth Zeligman Thursday July 26: Sam Baker, Harry Davidson, Paul Allen Friedlander, Ruthe Glick, Sophia Mintz Latkin, Benjamin D. Lazar, Tillye Shaffer Malyn, Mary Perilman, Reva Rebecca Reznick, Katie Share, Ethel K. Stept, Morton A. Zacks Friday July 27: Anna R. Brill, Sam Friedman, Samuel Goldston, Joseph N. Iancu, Belrose Marcus, Mitzi Davis Marcus, Samuel Morris, Samuel Natterson, Phillip Nesvisky, Jacob Pearl, Nathan Rosen, Mayme S. Roth, Earl Schugar, S. Milton Schwartz, Becie Sokoler, George Wolinsky Saturday July 28: Esther Bennett, Dr. Simon Berenfield, Frances Cartiff, Bertha Feldman, Charles J. Goldberg, Solomon Kramer, Abraham Leibowitz, Rose Lipser, Benjamin Plotkin, Samuel Sidney Sakol

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Headlines Hungry: Continued from page 3

Although she is only able to return to Pittsburgh a few times a year, there is a constant to her travels.

“My first job was at a restaurant in Pittsburgh called Pamela’s,” she said. “When I

Goldblum: Continued from page 5

“We’re all drawn to him because he has that quirky charisma, that intangible unique quality,” said McKelvey.

“There is no one like Jeff Goldblum. He has made being himself an iconic thing to be and he’s kind of like everybody’s cool uncle,” echoed Burd.

come to Pittsburgh, I go there every day. It’s my favorite restaurant.”

Such simplicity relates back to the origins of “One Hungry Jew.” “It just was a silly hobby in the beginning.

I always took photos of food with my cell phone and I just figured, ‘Hey I will put this somewhere,’” she said. “I was sitting in bed one day and had all these food photos and

didn’t know what to do with them, and I was like I’ll call it One Fat Jew and that was not available so I picked ‘One Hungry Jew.’ That is how it was born.

“I didn’t think about the fact that I would have to formulate a business around this and would have to do things like call the bank and tell them that my email address is onehungryjew.”

But like a delightfully surprising dish, even those experiences have been enjoyable, she said. “You know everybody laughs, every time I say the name it always incites a giggle from somebody, and I love that.” PJC

There’s also the physical aspect to his aura, said Ciccocioppo. “He’s aging very gracefully, he’s a very attractive 65 year old man.”

While Goldblum’s presence at the event may have made some more crazed than a quirky scientist who mistakenly transforms himself into a bug-like creature — the actor’s character in “The Fly” (1986) — the luminary never showed. He was similarly unresponsive to multiple requests regarding the day, including those from Mayor Bill Pedu-

to’s office and Artisan.

But those who attended Jeff Goldblum Day knew better than to be blighted and instead heeded the words of Dr. Ian Malcolm: “If there is one thing the history of evolution has taught us it’s that life will not be contained. Life breaks free, it expands to new territories and crashes through barriers, painfully, maybe even dangerously, but, uh ... well, there it is.”

Such was evidenced by Burd, whose comments should solace those shut out of the

evening’s closing event — a secret showing at Row House Cinema in Lawrenceville where every one of the 83 seats had been sold.

“Were going to do this every year,” she said.

“Next year we’re hoping it’s going to be a block party.” Like Malcolm eloquently stated, “I’m simply saying that life, uh … finds a way.” PJC

Sweden: Continued from page 9

the father, an Israeli who moved to Sweden eight years ago for work, said on condition of anonymity. One beating happened last year after his son refused to play in a soccer match with one team called “the Jews” and another “the Palestinians.”

Another beating involved an ethnic Swede who picked on the Jewish boy, the father said.

His son “goes to school reluctantly. He doesn’t want to live here. He wants to move back to Israel as soon as he turns 18, join the army and fight the Arabs. He’s become very right-wing,” the father said.

Stefan Dozzi, the secretary-general of the Sweden-Israel Friendship Association, also has firsthand experience of the dual threat facing Swedish Jewry.

During the Almedalem political activism conference last week on the island of Gotland, south of Stockholm, he and another activist for the organization were physically assaulted by neo-Nazis who attempted to place their banner on the association’s flag in the group’s pavilion. It was the first time the pro-Israel group set up a pavilion during the Almedalen conference.

The incident was widely reported in Swedish media. However, Dozzi said, “no one wrote about the intimidation by Muslims” at Almedalen. At least two men he described as Muslims told him they would burn the Israeli flag on display at the association’s pavilion. Dozzi said the flag was stolen during a break later that day.

“We have two kinds of enemies,” said Dozzi, who described himself as having Jewish roots. “I think things will only get worse here, with the Muslims and the neo-Nazis. We will have to flee this country eventually.” Dozzi, who works for the association full time, said he feels “safer in Israel.”

Back in Umea, Sjoberg said she has faced various forms of anti-Semitism, ranging from the neo-Nazi harassment to “Arabs who spat at me on the street for wearing a Star of David pendant.”

Such incidents involving Muslims are on the mild end of the spectrum.

Last month, three Arab men were 20 JULY 20, 2018

p Carinne Sjoberg peels off a sticker that neo-Nazis left on the door of what used to be the Jewish community center of Umea, Sweden.

Photo courtesy of Sjoberg

convicted of hurling firebombs at the synagogue of Gothenburg in southern Sweden in December after President Donald Trump announced the U.S. Embassy in Israel would be moved to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.

It was one of several attacks on Jewish places of worship in southern Sweden in recent years, and especially in Malmo, where a third of this city’s population of 350,000 is Muslim and about 1,000 residents are Jewish.

Jihadism and neo-Nazi anti-Semitism “feed off one another” in Sweden, Sjoberg said.

The arrival of hundreds of thousands of Muslims to Sweden starting in the 1970s generated “less tolerance to people who are perceived as foreign,” emboldening the far right.

“I don’t think they would have dared to go after us like this 15 years ago,” Sjoberg said.

The boldness of neo-Nazis in Sweden seems unusual for Western Europe, where law enforcement agencies in many countries with bitter memories of Nazism have a relatively low tolerance for far-right shenanigans.

In 2015 and 2017, skinheads twice disrupted lectures in Swedish schools by Holocaust survivors. And in Gothenburg last year, hundreds of neo-Nazis marched on Yom Kippur to celebrate their hateful ideology. The original itin-

erary had them passing by the synagogue, but city authorities made them avoid it.

Part of the problem, Sjoberg said, is that Sweden was never de-Nazified after World War II — it was officially neutral but in practice collaborated with Nazi Germany.

“There was massive support for the Nazis, but none of the reckoning against collaborators that happened in occupied countries after liberation,” she said, referencing the dismissal of collaborators from positions of influence and prosecutions in France, Italy, the Netherlands and beyond.

In Umea, authorities lack the determination to stand up for the Jewish community, Sjoberg said. Talks with the city on moving the Jewish center to a secure location ended abruptly last year, she said, when authorities put the intended space up for rent and backed out of an agreement to turn it into a JCC. “They were giving us the run-around, not keeping to agreements and leaving us twisting in the wind when we were being targeted by neo-Nazis keeping track of our comings and goings. I had to pull the plug,” Sjoberg said.

Umea’s deputy mayor, Margareta Rönngren, disputed her account of negotiations.

“The members decided to close down

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz @pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

Lauren Rosenblatt contributed reporting to this story. Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz @pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

the community, the municipality cannot take responsibility for that,” Rönngren said.

“Accommodation was an urgent issue, the municipality tried to help the community, but could not at this time find a safe solution that met the community’s requirements.”

The city “in fact offered the Jewish community center other accommodation, safety premises were checked by our security department, but the community didn’t approve,” she said. “The closure of the Umea Jewish community center is very sad” and “very serious when the causes are threats and harassment.”

In addition to violent harassment, Swedish Jews also need to deal with strict secularism on the part of authorities that sometimes encroaches on their customs.

Ritual slaughter of animals is illegal in Sweden, and although ritual circumcision of boys under 18 is allowed, banning the practice is a constant subject for debate. A Jewish couple in Gothenburg, a Chabad rabbi and his wife, are facing hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines for insisting on homeschooling their children. And in March, two Cabinet ministers called for shuttering all faith schools.

Yet even against this backdrop, Jewish life has prevailed, at least in Stockholm, according to Petra Kahn Nord, the community’s spokeswoman. The capital, she said, has three synagogues, a JCC with a kosher shop and a newly opened Jewish library.

Stockholm also has a Jewish kindergarten and a Jewish school “with a long waiting list,” Kahn Nord said, adding that the community in the city is growing with a lively participation of young congregants and at least one Limmud Jewish learning conference annually.

But this success feeds of other communities, like Malmo, where there are so few Jews left that the Jewish kindergarten there now has mostly non-Jewish children, Kahn Nord acknowledged. She said some Jews from her hometown of Malmo, Gothenburg and beyond leave for Stockholm because of harassment.

But many do so “for positive reasons — because they want to have a more Jewish life,” Kahn Nord said. So while “Stockholm’s Jewish community is growing,” in the rest of Sweden “it’s just dying away.” PJC

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JULY 20, 2018 21

Community Hillel JUC in Israel Forty-two students from the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University and Duquesne University participated on a Birthright Israel trip this past May thanks to the Hillel Jewish University Center of Pittsburgh. The students spent 10 days on an educational journey through Israel that offered an incredible and unique opportunity to explore their Jewish identities.

p Sasha Cohen Ioannides, Caleb Glickman, Nina Edwards and Aden Halpern

p From left: Eliana Lande, Brianna Weissman, Max Cohen and Marianne Kitsio

p Sasha Cohen Ioannides, Molly Tappan, Rachel Barcelona, Zahava Rubin, Caleb Glickman and Nina Edwards

p Students from all three universities

Photos courtesy Hillel Jewish University Center of Pittsburgh

Summer activities at Chabad of the South Hills t Zivah Stahl enjoys fun summer games and activities with her friends at Babyccino

p Phil Fel wins the July 4th gift basket at the Summer Senior Carnival. Cindy Friedlander, the volunteer cook who is loved by all the monthly senior lunch participants, is helping to hold the basket.

Photos courtesy of Chabad of the South Hills

22 JULY 20, 2018

p Hilda McNabb and Merle Blumenseld are having fun blowing bubbles at the Summer Senior Carnival.

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

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Community Honoring Pursuers of Peace Rodef Shalom Congregation honored Rabbi Abraham Twerski and Gateway Rehab, leaders in addiction treatment and recovery, with the Pursuer of Peace Award on Sunday, June 24.

p ​From left: Pursuer of Peace volunteers, Adina Cohen, Georgia Davidson, Mina Kavaler, Marcia Levaur and Nancy Rosenthal

​ p From left: Phyllis Wechsler, Valerie Bacharach and Marian Allen, steering committee co-chairs

p ​Robin and Peter Gordon, honorary co-chairs

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

​ p From left: Rabbi Aaron Bisno and Rabbi Sharyn Henry of Rodef Shalom Congregation with former Pursuer of Peace honorees, Bishop David A. Zubik and Rabbi Walter Jacob

p ​Karen Feinstein, honorary co-chair

p ​Paul Bacharach, president and CEO of Gateway Rehab, accepting the Photos by Savannah Butler Pursuer of Peace Award 2018

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

JULY 20, 2018 23

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