Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle 9/28/2018

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September 28, 2018 | 19 Tishrei 5779

NOTEWORTHY LOCAL Abrahamic arrangements on tap for Oakland

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Candlelighting 6:49 p.m. | Havdalah 7:46 p.m. | Vol. 61, No. 39 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

Professor discusses American foreign policy in Middle East at World Affairs Council

Rose Ensemble to perform Jewish, Muslim, Christian works on Oct. 6.

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of other World Affairs Council events in Pittsburgh and is a member of the local Jewish community, walked the audience through these three points and then considered possible options for American foreign policy moving forward. Of note, he did not address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Today, Harrison began, American interest still revolves around energy and oil markets, as well as working toward a stable Middle East. To his second point, he added, “We are on the cusp of a new region” and it is “no longer your father’s Middle East.”

To look at his third point, the arc, Harrison started with what he called the “big bang moment for the Middle East,” or the simultaneous advent of the Cold War with the sudden independence of many Arab countries.

Without colonial rule, those states went looking for “outside support” to ensure their security, as well as economic and social well-being.

ewish Pittsburghers have reported more than 50 incidents of anti-Semitism and other security concerns since January 2018, according to Brad Orsini, the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s director of Jewish community security.

Orsini, a former FBI agent who has been monitoring threats to the Jewish community as a whole, its organizations and individuals since he was hired by the Federation about two years ago, said the incidents reported this year have ranged from anti-Semitic graffiti to online comments, to two physical assaults. It is unclear whether the assaults were rooted in anti-Semitism, he said.

When threats are reported to Orsini, “we do threat assessments and determine whether they are viable threats,” he said. “We determine whether the individual making the threat has the means and the motive to carry it out.”

If such a determination is made, “interventions” are introduced, Orsini said, including possible mental health interventions.

The Jewish community, Orsini said, has taken to heart the message he has been conveying since he began his work at the Federation: “If you see something, say something.”

“I have been making a concerted effort to tell the community that if you are calling 911 for something, your second call should go to the Federation’s security program to facilitate the response, and link the community to the police,” he said.

Orsini has been tracking reported

Please see Mideast, page 16

Please see Anti-Semetism, page 16

LOCAL ‘Thread’ing the needle Revolutionary backpacks in Homestead Page 3

He lived, his best friend didn’t

 Ross Harrison, a professor at Georgetown University and the University of Pittsburgh, led a discussion on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East for the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh on Tuesday, Sept. 18.

Photo by Lauren Rosenblatt

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T Jewish family ripped apart by opioid addiction.

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Official: reporting threats essential to keeping Jewish community safe

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he World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh works to provide its members with a “nuanced understanding of complex topics,” according to executive director Angélica Ocampo. For its most recent event, that meant discussing the Middle East — but leaving American politics out of it.

Ross Harrison, a professor at Georgetown University and the University of Pittsburgh who is well-versed in issues regarding the Middle East, told a crowd of about 80 people gathered at the Omni William Penn Hotel that the best way to discuss American foreign policy in a region that is fraught with political tension would be to forego American politics. Instead, he advised at the Sept. 18 event, focus on three main points: the nature of American interest in the region, the nature of the region itself and the “arc” of American foreign policy toward the region in the past.

Harrison, who has spoken at a handful

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Headlines Concert to showcase early music of Mediterranean Jews, Christians and Muslims — LOCAL —

By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer

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usic from the early traditions of Jews, Christians and Muslims will be showcased together in the vocal program “Land of the Three Faiths: Voices of Ancient Mediterranean Jews, Christians and Muslims,” at Synod Hall in Oakland on Saturday night, Oct. 6.

The program, which is part of Chatham Baroque’s 2018/2019 concert season, will be performed by the Rose Ensemble, an early music vocal group headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota.

“Land of the Three Faiths” explores the musical and cultural exchanges that took place among people of the three Abrahamic religions in medieval Spain. The music includes pieces that are simultaneously sacred, secular, folk and classical, and feature ancient instruments commonly used among those of different cultures.

“This program has been evolving for many years, in programmatic content and relevance to history and to today,” said the Rose Ensemble’s founder and artistic and executive director, Jordán Šrámek.

Included in the program, which features several pieces from the Sephardic tradition, are those that reverberate with the terrors of the period of Spanish Catholic monarchs during which the Inquisition commenced.

“We wanted to include music from the darker side of that horrifying regime,” said Šrámek, as well as music that reflects “the incredible journeys the homeless Jews took across the Mediterranean to what became the Diaspora.”

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p The Rose Ensemble comes to Synod Hall on Oct. 6.

Over the years, the Rose Ensemble has played “Land of the Three Faiths” at various venues, including churches, synagogues and colleges.

“It is really an important concert because it provides so much context for those who attend,” said Šrámek. “It’s about creating a platform for understanding through the arts.” Šrámek undertook extensive research to create the content of the program, including much time spent at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

But while Jewish and Christian music of the time period was fairly accessible, it was challenging to find pieces from the Islamic tradition, according to Šrámek.

There is “no Islamic liturgical music, save the chanting of the Qur’an (which, it should be noted, is not technically viewed as ‘music’ in the Islamic tradition, and would neverthe-

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Photo by Isaac Hackman

less be inappropriate in this concert setting),” he wrote in the program notes. “But that’s not to say that spiritual-religious music doesn’t exist in Islam, for in Sufism poetry and music serve the faithful the way that the para-liturgical piyyut gave voice to the Jewish mystics, and the myriad vernacular texts that enhance Christian prayer.” Šrámek is confident that he now has an “equally balanced” program, he said.

Chatham Baroque has been “wanting to bring the Rose Ensemble to Pittsburgh for a very long time,” said Donna Goyak, executive director of Chatham Baroque. “The music itself is special and unique, and the topic is very timely.”

Despite its roots in medieval history, the interfaith aspect of the program nonetheless makes it appropriate for a contemporary audience, concurred Šrámek.

“In the process of the research, we explored the point of it — that in times of tolerance and when people lived relatively peacefully, we should explore the musicmaking,” he said. “Then we can see not only what did happen, but what could happen.”

The Rose Ensemble will be joined by Cantor Laura Berman of Temple Sinai and the congregation’s Intergenerational Choir on some of the pieces at the Oct. 6 performance.

The Intergenerational Choir, which includes about 20 members ranging from high school students to retirees, is looking forward to the collaboration with the Rose Ensemble, according to Berman.

“This fits in with the work we have been doing in the interfaith community,” she said, which includes participation in an annual interfaith Thanksgiving service and performances at events commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The timing of the concert, at the conclusion of the High Holiday season, is apropos to “celebrating the birthday of the world,” Berman noted.

“This performance will give us the opportunity to raise our voices in a sense of unity, with differentiation and with mutual respect,” she said. Šrámek will lead a preconcert discussion one half hour before the performance “to provide the audience with some context,” he said.

This will be the Rose Ensemble’s first and final performance in Pittsburgh, as the group — which was founded in 1996 — will dissolve after this season due to funding issues. PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Headlines Eco-friendly company creating new jobs in Homewood — LOCAL —

By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer

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he sleek, durable backpacks created by the Pittsburgh-based company Thread International look more akin to an accessory featured in a style magazine than a product made out of recycled plastic bottles.

To say the Kickstarter campaign that is getting the backpacks off the ground has been a success would be an understatement.

With a goal of $45,000, the campaign had raised 10 times that amount by Sept. 14, with still another five days to go.

But the success of Thread extends beyond the creation of a trendy and functional backpack. The company, which was founded in 2011 by Ambridge, Pa., native Ian Rosenberger — who some might remember from his 2005 stint as a contestant on the CBS reality show “Survivor” — has also succeeded in putting those who need jobs to work, from Haiti to, more recently, Homewood.

Last March, Thread moved its Pittsburgh headquarters from a small office in East Liberty to a warehouse in Homewood, and is creating jobs for its neighbors, some of whom have not before been in the workforce.

A grant from the Richard King Mellon

p Thread has moved its headquarters to Homewood. Sam Klein poses with employee Lashawn Wilson from Homewood.

Photo by Toby Tabachnick

Foundation helped facilitate the move.

Thread got its start following Rosenberger’s visit to Haiti soon after it had experienced a devastating earthquake in 2010. Seeing an enormous amount of garbage in the streets, particularly plastic bottles, he was inspired to find a way to turn that trash into something useful, while employing people who needed jobs.

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After three years of research, he and four other founders of Thread had figured out a way to produce yarn and fabric from recycled bottles, explained Sam Klein, Thread’s director of product.

“In Haiti, Honduras and Taiwan, communities are collecting bottles off the ground, and selling them to collection centers,” said Klein, a Squirrel Hill resident and board

member of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh. “Then, the bottles are sorted and sold to recycle centers. We are not only using the plastic through the supply chain, but we are creating a demand in the industry for it.”

Thread has so far created almost 4,000 jobs for those collecting the bottles in impoverished neighborhoods. After they are recycled and converted into plastic flakes, they are shipped to mills in the United States and converted into yarn and fabric, then sold to brands such as Reebok and Timberland.

Now, Thread is branching out to create its own products, beginning with the stylish backpacks, and small “cord pouches” which are being sewn by the new hires in Homewood.

“Most of these women haven’t sewn before,” said Klein, “so we are training them, and teaching them a new skill set.”

After the women improve their skills, Thread hopes to broaden their duties to include partial assembly of the backpacks, according to Klein.

By 2019, Thread is planning to have a full e-commerce facility operating from its Homewood location, creating additional employment opportunities, beyond sewing, for residents. PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Headlines ‘God is in the Crowd’ takes lens to Jewry by looking inward — BOOKS —

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

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hose who have pored over the Pew Research Center’s 2013 survey, “A Portrait of Jewish Americans,” or the 2017 Greater Pittsburgh Jewish Community Study have a new volume to peruse. Tal Keinan’s “God is in the Crowd” is a first person approach to sweeping studies of Jewish life.

Specifically, by interspersing his personal story with harrowing figures, Keinan, an Americanborn, Harvard-educated Israeli entrepreneur and financier who served as a fighter pilot in the Israeli Air Force, diagnoses world Jewry’s current plight and proposes a solution.

Part memoir, part pitch, Keinan’s opening pages recall a childhood impacted by his parents’ divorce; stays at boarding schools hundreds of miles from his Miami home; his return to Florida for high school and eventual attendance at Phillips Exeter Academy. The latter, through its Jewish Student Association and related coursework, largely introduced Keinan to Jewish ritual: “Shabbat represented a weekly milestone for me, providing an important opportunity for reflection during this formative period,” he writes. “On Shabbat, I began to perceive a new relevance for myself as a member of a community, a cell in a bigger organism.”

But as Keinan’s interest grew, so too did his struggle between competing philosophies: “I was beginning to realize that membership in a tribe demands boundaries. As Jews, we were defined by particular codes, values, rules and rituals that we did not share with others. At the same time, I was an individual and a Universalist. I saw sectarian borders as artificial and even dangerous.”

Keinan’s difficulty follows him through enrollment at Georgetown University, his subsequent graduation from Tel Aviv University and his time training to become one of the only new immigrants to be a pilot in the Israel Defense Forces.

In narrating his years at Israel’s academy for air force cadets, Keinan offers readers an intriguing portrait of attempted assimilation — efforts spurred by anonymous peer evaluations, revealed to him as they are to other cadets, during closed door sessions with instructors: “Typical remarks for me would be ‘Thinks he joined a civilian flying club,’ or ‘Has no understanding that he is going to war after graduation,’ or, most injurious, ‘Is occupying the position of someone who deserves to be here.’ To many of my peers, I was still an outsider,” he writes. “My

reaction to this feedback was to try to conform outwardly, to emulate the bearing and demeanor of the Israeli fighter pilot.”

Alongside his trials, Keinan weaves a geographical breakdown of contemporary Jewry.

“Until the first half of the 20th century, the Jewish people was distributed across the world, in hundreds of distinct communities — the Diaspora. The Second World War marked the beginning of the most dramatic physical reorganization of the Jews since the beginning of the Diaspora.”

European, Ethiopian and Latin American Jewish communities disappeared, because of the Holocaust or by subsequent immigration to Israel, he explains. “As of 2016, almost 90 percent of the world’s Jews resided in either North America or Israel, and the world’s Jewish population continues to concentrate in these two geographies.”

Such loss of a globally diverse Jewish body has weakened the whole, he argues before employing game theory and the value of collective opinion, or “the wisdom of the crowd,” to substantiate the statement that unless a “radical evolution” occurs, “it will result in our extinction.”

Keinan’s claims are compelling; yet so too is his antidote to the calamity, a program titled, “The Jewish World Endowment — a sort of Birthright 2.0.”

As he writes, the program requires parents (or presumably guardians) to commit 1.25 percent of pretax income “each year, for each child, to the Endowment, beginning when the child is five years old.” Benefits of the program include: “two years in a Jewish summer program,” “two months’ participation in a Tikkun project,” and “a scholarship covering full undergraduate university tuition.”

Details of the program, as well as other sizeable proposals, are fleshed out in the text’s closing pages — a space where the author returns to first-person narrative.

By floating between autobiography and social strategy, Keinan offers material with lofty aims: Elements of “God is in the Crowd” could satisfy those seeking the story of a notable American-Israeli, while portions of the text may appeal to those interested in Jewish demography.

Collectively, “God is in the Crowd” may soar best within book groups, as conversant study partners could determine whether the fighter pilot’s vision has the merit to climb or merely the weight of a lead balloon. PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz @pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

THE JEWISH COMMUNITY FOUNDATION presents

THE

CONTEMPORARY ISSUES FORUM

A Downtown series with Foundation Scholar

RABBI DANNY SCHIFF

wishes a happy and healthy new year to all of our partners and fellows who participate in the programs that are operated in your community

Bring your lunch and join us to explore important topics in the news through the lens of Jewish values.

RESERVE YOUR SPOT TODAY!

foundation.jewishpgh.org/fall-downtown-series or contact Jan Barkley at 412.697.6656 or jbarkley@jfedpgh.org 10/11 10/25 11/1 11/8 11/29

Israel’s Nation State Law #MeToo, Demography, and Teshuva Jeremy Corbyn and Anti–Semitism Contagion The Pope, Capital Punishment and the Jews

Mark Zuckerberg and Holocaust Denial

Time: All sessions Noon – 1 p.m.

Location: Cohen & Grigsby, EQT Plaza, 5th Floor, 625 Liberty Ave. Cost: $10/session; $50 for the series

4 SEPTEMBER 28, 2018

Teacher Institute Project

ACCELERATE

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Calendar q SUNDAY, OCT. 21 Temple Sinai’s Brotherhood will hold a brunch featuring a conversation with Pittsburgh native and The New York Times op-ed staff editor and writer Bari Weiss from 10 a.m. to noon. Weiss was an op-ed and book review editor at The Wall Street Journal before joining The Times. She has also worked at Tablet, the online magazine of Jewish politics and culture and is a frequent panelist on “Real Time with Bill Maher.” She has written extensively on the #MeToo Movement and on issues related to social justice.

The charge is $10 per person before 5 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 11 and $18 per person at the door. Register online in your Temple Sinai account or mail a check payable to Temple Sinai Brotherhood, by Thursday, Oct. 11 to Temple Sinai, 5505 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15217. Contact Todd Miller at toddprmktg@gmail.com or 412-848-1082 for more information or visit templesinaipgh.org/brotherhood-brunch-special-guest-bari-weiss. >> Submit calendar items on the Chronicle’s website, pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

Submissions will also be included in print.

Events will run in the print edition beginning one month prior to the date as space allows.

The deadline for submissions is Friday, noon. q EVERY WEDNESDAY EVENING Heal Grow and Live with Hope, NarAnon meeting from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Beth El Congregation, 1900 Cochran Road; use office entrance. Newcomers are welcome. Call and leave a message for Karen at 412-563-3395. q SATURDAY, SEPT. 29 Wine and Wisdom in the Beth Shalom Sukkah will be from 8 to 9:30 p.m., hosted

by Beth Shalom, Moishe House and J’Burgh/ Shalom Pittsburgh. Join Jewish young adults to enjoy an evening in the Sukkah to sip on wine and share words of wisdom. Contact moishehousepgh@gmail.com for more information. q SUNDAY, SEPT. 30 Temple Emanuel’s Bereavement Support Group’s next meeting will be on Sept. 30 at 9:30 a.m. The group is led by Jamie Del MS, NCC, LPC and Naomi Pittle, LCSW, who both have experience in grief counseling.

RSVP to Leon at leonsteineresa@verizon. net. The group welcomes previous and newly bereaved adults to attend. Meetings are held at Temple Emanuel, 1250 Bower Hill Road.

Community Day School and PJ Library Pittsburgh will host S.T.E.A.M. Senses of Sukkot on Sunday, Sept. 30 from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at CDS at 6424 Forward Ave. in Squirrel Hill. Children ages 2-5 and their families are invited to explore the wonder and beauty of Sukkot through science, technology, engineering, art and math (S.T.E.A.M.). At the free event, children will explore the gooey insides of deconstructed gourds, create and share a friendship fruit salad, navigate a hay bale maze, build a kid-size sukkah with recycled materials and much more.

RSVP at comday.org/sukkot. For more information, contact Sarah DeWitt at sdewitt@comday.org or 412-5211100, ext. 2114. q WEDNESDAY, OCT. 3 Applications for the Immigrant Workforce Program are due Wednesday, October 3. The program prepares immigrant and refugee job seekers to succeed in the job market and the workplace by offering help with resumes, networking and interviewing, as well as individualized vocational English training aimed at building contextualized workplace

fluency along with employment-focused technology skills, including how to apply for jobs online and an introduction to Microsoft Office applications. The program will begin on Monday, Oct. 8, and will meet on Mondays and Wednesdays from 6 to 8 p.m., ending on Wednesday, Dec. 5. All sessions will be held at the Global Switchboard in Lawrenceville.

Free parking and onsite child care will be provided. The program is free for those who qualify. Please contact Robin Farabee-Siers at rfarabee-siers@jfcspgh.org or 412-5863773 to apply.

Women of Temple Sinai and the Falk Library Committee invite the community on a trip to the Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives at the Heinz History Center from 10 a.m. to noon with an optional lunch afterward at Lidia’s restaurant. Eric Lidji, the Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives director, will offer an overview and highlight family pictures, papers and artifacts donated by Temple Sinai member Barb Siegel. These items date back to her great-great-grandparents. Lidji has described the collection as “one of the most thorough and vital pieces the Archives has received.” There will be free admission to the Archives. RSVP to Susan Cohen at susan_k_ cohen@yahoo.com or 412-363-7745. Spaces are limited. (Please specify if you are joining the group for lunch.) Visit templesinaipgh. org/trip-rauh-jewish-history-programarchives-offsite for more information.

The Jerusalem Quartet is holding a concert in partnership with the South Hills Interfaith Ministries (SHIM) at the Carnegie Music Hall at 7:30 p.m. Attendees who bring a nonperishable food item will receive free access to any upcoming Chamber Music Pittsburgh concert. Visit http://www. chambermusicpittsburgh.org/our-concerts/ series/subscription-series/jerusalem-quartet for more information.

Rosenblum will review “My Year of Rest and Relaxation” by Ottessa Moshfegh. The program is free and open to the community; reservations are not required.

mortality, and identify action strategies.

Contact Kate Dickerson, dickerson@jhf.org or visit whamglobal.org/symposium for more information and to register.

The ladies of E3 of Women’s Philanthropy of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh will hold an evening of learning at the Indigo & Shibori Dye Workshop, with Workshop PGH at 5135 Penn Ave., from 6 to 8:30 p.m.

E3: Empowered, Educated, Engaged Jewish Women is an opportunity for women who are passionate about their community and are looking to grow as Jewish women. Shibori is an ancient Japanese resist-dyeing technique.

There is a $35 charge. Heavy appetizers will be provided; dietary laws observed. Contact Rachel Lipkin at rlipkin@jfedpgh.org or 412992-5227 to RSVP by Monday, Oct. 1 or visit jfedpgh.org/e3 for more information and to register.

Beth El Congregation hosts its monthly lunch program with Rabbi Alex Greenbaum from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. featuring guest author and foreign correspondent Lynda Schuster presenting her book “Dirty Wars and Polished Silver: The Life and Times of a War Correspondent Turned Ambassatrix.” Visit bethelcong.org for more information and call 412-561-1168 to make a reservation; there is a $6 charge.

q EVERY THURSDAY,

BEGINNING OCT. 4

The program Better Choices, Better Health is a workshop for adults to interact with people with similar conditions and concerns about health issues. Participants will brainstorm, make weekly action plans, set goals and problem solve to meet those goals. Participants will receive a companion book, “Living a Healthy Life with a Chronic Condition.” The group will meet for six consecutive Thursdays from 9:30 a.m. to noon at Temple David, 4415 Northern Pike, Monroeville. To sign up, call Temple David at 412-372-1200 and ask for Beverly. q SUNDAY, OCT. 7 Keystone Mountain Region BBYO will hold the free J-Fest on Darlington from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh in Squirrel Hill.

J-Fest on Darlington is for the teens, by the teens and is open to all 6th-12th grade Jewish teens. Visit bbyo.org/bbyo-near-you/ regions/keystone-mountain-region/j-fest-ondarlington for more information on the event, transportation and to register. q MONDAY, OCT. 8 The Jewish Healthcare Foundation, UPMC Magee-Womens Research Institute and the Women’s Health Activist Movement (WHAMglobal) will hold a daylong Maternal Health Leaders Symposium from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at 650 Smithfield St., Suite 2600. Experts and activists will identify cutting-edge research and evidence-based programs that address the causes and conditions related to maternal and infant

Temple Emanuel is offering Read Hebrew America Crash Course Level 1 on Wednesday evenings from 7-8:30 p.m, Oct. 3 through Nov. 14. The class, taught by Melinda Freed, is free and open to the community. To sign up, call the office at 412-279-7600 or email templeemanuel@templeemanuelpgh.org. q WEDNESDAY-TUESDAY, OCT. 3-9 The ReelAbilities Film Festival will be held at SouthSide Works Cinema. Visit filmpittsburgh.org/pages/reelabilities for more information. q THURSDAY, OCT. 4 Women of Rodef Shalom will hold the Sisterhood’s Solomon B. Freehof Book and Author Series at 10:30 a.m. Helen Faye

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Chabad House on Campus will hold its 30th anniversary celebration at 6 p.m. at the University of Pittsburgh O’Hara Student Center Ballroom, 4024 O’Hara St. Rabbi Leon Morris, president, Pardes Institute in Jerusalem, will be honored. Visit chabadpgh. org/celebrating30 for more information and to purchase tickets.

South Hills Coffee and Conversation with Congressman Conor Lamb (D), currently representing Pennsylvania’s 18th District and a candidate for reelection in Pennsylvania’s new 17th District, will be held from 7 to 8 p.m. at the South Hills Jewish Community Center, 345 Kane Blvd. The program is free and open to the entire South Hills Community.

South Hills Jewish Pittsburgh is partnering with the Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, the South Hills JCC, the JCC’s Center for Loving Kindness and Civic Engagement and the Pittsburgh Urban Magnet Project (PUMP) to present this special event. Register at southhillsjewishpittsburgh.org/lamb; there is no charge. q MONDAYS, OCT. 8 TO NOV. 12 Becoming American: A Documentary Film and Discussion Series on Our Immigration Experience, a six-week program presented with Duquesne University and Jewish Family and Community Services, features documentary films designed to encourage an informed discussion of immigration issues.

The Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh is one of 32 sites nationwide to host this series. Visit becoming-american. org for more information. On Oct. 8, 15 and 22 the program will be held at 6:30 p.m. at JCC Katz Performing Arts Center, Robinson Building, 5738 Darlington Road, Squirrel Hill.

On Oct. 29, Nov. 5 and 12 the program will be held at Duquesne University College Hall at Please see Calendar, page 20

q MONDAY, OCT. 8 Knowledge & Nosh is a new program created in partnership with Women’s Philanthropy of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, the National Council of Jewish Women and the Jewish Women’s Foundation. Knowledge and Nosh: Israel at 70: What about the Women? Part 2 will be a discussion on Nivcharot, a group of ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) women, working to end women’s segregation and equal representation in the Knesset, from noon to 1:30 p.m. at The Center for Women, 1620 Murray Ave. Esty Shushan, founder, and co-CEO of the Nivcharot Organization, will lead the program. Contact Judy Cohen at jcohen@jwfpgh.org, Samantha Dye at sdye@ncjwpgh.org, or Rachel Lipkin at rlipkin@ jfedpgh.org for more information. RSVP by Friday, Oct. 5.

SEPTEMBER 28, 2018 5

Headlines Two friends share opiate nightmare overdoses accounted for more than 42,000 deaths in 2016, the most recent year that statistics exist. That’s 116 people a day.

And the opioid epidemic hasn’t shunned Jews. The stories of Solomon and Wolfe illuminate the reality that opioid addiction does not discriminate along socioeconomic, ethnic or religious lines.

— NATIONAL —

By Joshua Needelman | Special to the Chronicle

P

HILADELPHIA — AJ Solomon sat in his car snorting heroin on Thanksgiving morning 2012 when he felt a jolt of introspection. It was the day after he completed an eight-week program at an intensive outpatient facility, and he was starting to learn more about the intoxicating pull of drug addiction and how little control he had.

He turned to his friend, Justin Wolfe: “Should we really be doing this?”

Solomon had drunkenly dialed Wolfe the night before, asking if he wanted to go to Camden, N.J., to cop heroin. Wolfe told Solomon they should wait for the morning, when Solomon was sober and could drive.

Solomon woke up at 8 a.m. and immediately texted Wolfe, but now he was having doubts.

“Dude,” Wolfe replied. “I’ll just stop if it gets bad. I haven’t done it in a couple weeks.”

Solomon and Wolfe grew up less than 10 miles from each other in southern New Jersey, a pair of Jewish kids with well-off parents and strong support systems. They met through a mutual friend and bonded over a shared secret, an all-consuming craving that altered their minds and upended their priorities. It would bring shame to their

‘Life of the party’

p Justin Wolfe (left) and AJ Solomon grew up with well-off Southern New Jersey families. Both became addicted to heroin.

Photos provided

families and brought them to that car behind Vito’s Pizza in Cherry Hill.

“It was the last time I saw him,” Solomon said.

A month later Solomon found himself on the floor of his parents’ kitchen, hugging his knees to his chest, crying. Wolfe had died.

Overdose. Solomon wept not because his friend was gone, but because he feared he’d be next. A harrowing question dominated his thoughts: “Am I going to die?”

Rabbi Yosef Lipsker, a spiritual adviser at Caron Treatment Centers in Wernersville, Pa., estimated he’s worked with 5,000 Jewish drug addicts over the past 19 years. “The community has never seen anything like this,” he said. “It’s insanity.”

This is the nation’s opioid crisis. Morphine, codeine, heroin, Vicodin, Percacet and Fentanyl are some of the names of opioids that more than 2 million Americans have become dependent on or abused. Opioid

Justin Wolfe lived an enviable childhood.

His family vacationed on the Jersey Shore and often spent Sundays at Eagles games.

His parents divorced when he was 7, leaving Wolfe and his brother, Austin, to split time between their father, Gregg, and mother, Cheryl Perpetua. Wolfe thrived socially and academically. Teachers adored him both for his intelligence and lively personality.

“He lit up the room. He was the life of the party,” Gregg Wolfe said. “It’s sad to say; I guess he did know how to party.”

Wolfe turned 15 and soured on family activities, instead hosting friends at his father’s house. He got into heavy drinking, and Gregg Wolfe sent his son to therapists.

It didn’t help. Wolfe, his father later learned, had a disease, one that couldn’t be talked out by well-meaning professionals with advanced degrees.

Wolfe enrolled at Drexel University in August Please see Opiates, page 7

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Headlines Opiates: Continued from page 6

2009, but by the following February he had been kicked out. It was a harbinger of things to come. He started at Syracuse University in September 2010 and was gone by March 2011.

He was re-admitted to Drexel in August 2011, only to be removed by February 2012.

Each expulsion was a product of aberrant behavior, Gregg Wolfe said, and he chalked it up to his son’s drinking. Wolfe continued to bring friends to his father’s home when he wasn’t at school, and Gregg Wolfe kicked out those who didn’t appear sober. Some seemed better adjusted than others. “Solomon was one of the friends in the beginning that was fine,� Gregg Wolfe said, referring to AJ. “He used to come in his suit, all dressed up, because he was [working] with [New Jersey] Gov. [Chris] Christie, and he was a very, very nice young man. Clean cut. Very respectful.�

One afternoon, though, Solomon walked in with glassy eyes. “He looked high,� Gregg Wolfe said. He pulled Wolfe aside and told him Solomon was no longer welcome.

‘I really liked them.’

That Solomon got a job on Christie’s advance team was hardly surprising, given his family’s prominence in the public sphere. His father, Lee, spent years as an elected official in local politics and ran for Congress unsuccessfully in 1992. In 2006, he

was appointed judge in the Superior Court from Camden County.

Solomon was Lee Solomon’s spitting image growing up. He walked like his father, talked like his father and commanded a room like his father. His older brother, Eric, has Asperger’s syndrome, and so Solomon felt extra pressure to succeed.

But after college, Lee Solomon grew wary of his son’s behavior. “My dad was like, ‘Who’s going to take care of your brother when I’m gone?’� Solomon said.

Lee Solomon didn’t know it, but by then, AJ Solomon was a heroin addict. He experimented with alcohol and marijuana in high school, and with Percocet after his freshman year at the University of Pittsburgh. When Solomon was 19, Lee Solomon got in a bike accident. “He was prescribed 180 OxyContin 60s and 180 OxyContin 40s. He didn’t like them.

He thought they made him feel kind of sick.

But I really liked them,� Solomon said. “So I did all of them, and I came back to school a full-blown OxyContin addict.�

He used throughout college, keeping his addiction secret. In his senior year, he moved to snorting heroin, a cheaper alternative, and graduated on time — albeit with a 2.75 GPA, he said.

One afternoon in August 2012, he hopped in a car with Wolfe and a mutual friend to buy heroin in Camden, N.J. They ran into the friend’s mom in a parking lot on the way back. “She pulls in, face to face with us, and pulls me out of the car,�

Solomon said. He tried to hide in his hoodie, but it was no use. His parents were called.

Solomon confessed. Sort of. He admitted to using opiates — not heroin — and his parents sent him to an outpatient facility for eight weeks in New Jersey. He spent the next six months going on and off suboxone, numbing his withdrawal symptoms with alcohol, and on and off heroin.

He’d fake the home drug tests his parents administered, pulling a syringe out of his pocket while urinating and hiding it behind the side of his leg to dilute the sample with water.

Finally, Lee Solomon had had enough: “You’re out of the house. You’re done. If you want to go die, you die. It’s your call. Not mine, But I’m not letting you die here.�

‘I knew he was gone.’

Wolfe told his mother in March 2012 that he had been using Percocet and OxyContin — like AJ, omitting his heroin use — and Perpetua began taking him to a suboxone doctor. Gregg Wolfe found out about the Percocet two months later. Because of HIPPA laws, Wolfe’s doctors couldn’t tell his parents about his omission of using heroin.

Wolfe’s behavior worsened, and in July 2012, Gregg Wolfe took away his son’s cell phone and car. Finally, Wolfe agreed to attend an inpatient facility in Cape May, N.J. At the last minute he balked. As an inpatient, Wolfe told his father, he’d be exposed to people who’d used crack cocaine and heroin. “I had to pause for a second,� the

father recalled. “[He’s] saying he’s taking pills and if I send him away he’s going to start doing worse things. So he agreed to go to an outpatient.�

Wolfe seemed to be turning things around. He enrolled at Temple University in September 2012 and pledged Alpha Epsilon Pi. Gregg Wolfe was proud.

On Dec. 18, 2012, Gregg Wolfe got a call from Perpetua. Wolfe was acting odd, she said. He rushed home, and shortly thereafter Wolfe came over, loopy and hyper.

Wolfe peed in a cup and, as Gregg Wolfe placed the dipstick in the sample, Wolfe fumbled around in the pocket of his hooded sweatshirt. A fish oil bottle popped out. Wolfe and Gregg Wolfe reached for it at the same time. Gregg Wolfe got to it first. “I can’t believe it. You gave me fake urine again,� he said.

Wolfe, who had been seeing a psychiatrist and was prescribed medication for anxiety and depression, claimed he had merely taken Adderall. Gregg Wolfe wasn’t having it. “You’re not getting the car for next semester,� he told him. “That’s over.� The son protested, but Gregg Wolfe stood strong. It was after midnight, and before the father went to sleep, he reminded his son that it was his 54th birthday. “Happy birthday, Dad,� Wolfe said, before following his father up to his room. Gregg Wolfe shut the door behind him and locked it.

He awoke after five hours, immediately threw on sweats and made for Wolfe’s car, not noticing that the third-floor light was on.

Please see Opiates, page 17

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SEPTEMBER 28, 2018 7

Headlines A new Torah scroll symbolizes a Liberal Jewish revival in the Czech Republic — WORLD —

By Margarita Gokun Silver | JTA

P

RAGUE — A new Torah scroll is being used in this historic city by one of its two Reform Jewish congregations to welcome the High Holidays and the series of solemn and joyous celebrations that conclude with, what else, Simchat Torah — the rejoicing of the Torah.

But it’s really not a new scroll at all.

Originally a Czech scroll, the Torah has spent the last several decades at a Reform synagogue in London. How it got there — and how it made its way back to Prague — points to the continuing rebuilding of Jewish life in the Czech Republic and the revival of traditions and culture that were lost in the Holocaust and under communism.

It’s unclear how and when the scroll made its way to the Hendon Reform Synagogue in the British capital. It wasn’t part of the Memorial Scrolls Trust, a Czech scrolls collection sold to Westminster Synagogue by the Czech communist government in 1964. Instead it was given to Hendon’s rabbi at the time, Arthur Katz, by a congregant in tribute to Katz’s heritage. Born in Prague and educated at a yeshiva in eastern Czechoslovakia, Katz served a community in Sobeslav when the Nazis invaded. He narrowly escaped to England in 1939.

After the Hendon Synagogue merged with the nearby Edgware Reform Synagogue, the newly formed congregation realized that there wasn’t enough space for all the scrolls. So Hendon’s current rabbi — Stephen Katz, son of Arthur Katz — contacted Rabbi Andrew Goldstein, rabbi emeritus of the Northwood & Pinner Liberal Synagogue in outerborough London. Goldstein said the younger Katz said he wanted it to go to the Czech Republic. The scroll was donated to the European Union for Progressive Judaism, or EUPJ. Earlier this year, Goldstein brought it to Prague as a gift for ZLU, the Jewish Liberal Union.

ZLU’s new Torah scroll was welcomed April 28 at a ceremony at the Spanish Synagogue here, where the scroll was read for the first time in over 50 years in the country of its origin. The crowd gathered in its sanctuary hailed from over 25 countries, all participants of the EUPJ’s first-ever conference in the Czech Republic. They came for shacharit — a service that now is a rarity in the building, which before World War II was home to a thriving Reform Jewish congregation and today functions as a museum and event space.

There were so many worshippers for the service that the synagogue’s wooden pews — downstairs and upstairs — had to be augmented with folding chairs.

“I had to get the fire chief ’s approval; there were probably about 470 people there,” said Jonathan Wootliff, EUPJ’s executive board member for the Czech Republic. “There’s never been that many people in that synagogue since before the war — the largest number for a service in living memory.”

Frantisek Fendrych, the ZLU chairman, 8 SEPTEMBER 28, 2018

p A view from inside Prague’s Spanish Synagogue

said the scroll is being kept at the High Synagogue, where an Orthodox congregation meets, because it has proper security.

The synagogue is safekeeping the scroll for ZLU until the Progressive synagogue has its own space — it meets now at temporary quarters in Prague’s Old Town.

For Goldstein, bringing the Torah to the Czech Republic was a natural continuation of his decades-long work dedicated to resurrecting Progressive — or, as it is known elsewhere, Reform or Liberal — Judaism in the country. The rabbi made his first trip to what was then Czechoslovakia in the early 1980s. Since then, and especially after the fall of communism, he has led services and presented lectures in nascent Czech and Slovak Reform communities and brought over groups from his and other congregations.

According to Tomas Kraus, the executive director of the Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic, there are about 15,000 people with a Jewish background in the country.

“Before the war we had 350,000 Jews [in the whole of Czechoslovakia] and in [the territory of] today’s Czech Republic 120,000,” Kraus said. “From the numbers you see the magnitude of the catastrophe here.”

Of all European countries, with the exception of Germany, the Holocaust lasted the longest in the Czech Republic. It began with the Munich agreement of 1938 when Nazi Germany annexed the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia and ended several months after V-E Day — only after the Terezin camp was finally liberated following a typhoid epidemic.

Photo by Margarita Gokun Silver

The memory of what happened to the Czech Jews during the Holocaust has a strong influence on the identity of modern Czech Jewry.

“The Shoah [plays] a big role in the self-definition of what it means to be Jewish,” said David Maxa, a rabbinical student at the Abraham Geiger College of the University of Potsdam in Germany, which was founded in 1999 by Walter Jacob, rabbi emeritus of Rodef Shalom Congregation in Pittsburgh.

Maxa accepted an appointment to become the next Reform rabbi of the Czech Republic when he is ordained.

“One of my key missions is to make sure that this kind of heritage will, in the end, be positive — more than just mourning the past but also looking to the future,” he said.

Building strong, active communities is part of that future. Today there are 10 congregations in the Czech Republic; in addition to the two Progressive congregations, there is the Orthodox Prague Jewish Community and several nondenominational congregations.

ZLU, founded 18 years ago by three people — Fendrych, Martin Hron and Simona Sternova — has since grown to a membership of about 150. Until now, ZLU did not have its own Torah.

For ZLU, as well as other Progressive Jews in the Czech Republic, the scroll’s return is highly symbolic.

“The Torah scroll is a great recognition and honor for us; it’s a new heart of our congregation,” Fendrych said via email. “Our dream is to have standard Jewish life again — we are working to reach here in the near future a more democratic, pluralistic Jewish life for our children.”

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The history of Jewish life in what is now the Czech Republic dates back hundreds of years. Prague has the oldest functioning synagogue in Europe: The Old New synagogue was built in 1270. The country boasts many known Jewish philosophers and scholars — among them Rabbi Jehuda Loew ben Bezalel, the 16th-century sage and mystic who figures in legends of the Golem, a mythical clay creature who extracts vengeance on the Jews’ enemies.

And in the 19th century Czechia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was one of the centers of Reform Judaism, born to modernize Jewish beliefs and practices.

Today the Reform movement is working to restore this traditional vitality of Czech Jewish life. Part of that work is reaching out to Jews who are not involved.

“During communism, Jewish identity forming was highly stigmatized,” Maxa said.

“We are trying to change this kind of perception and [build] an open synagogue community where people could come and see that Judaism can bring joy and meaning in daily lives to [those] who have lost connection to their Jewish roots.”

Sylvie Whittmann, one of the founders of Bejt Simcha, Prague’s other Reform congregation, echoes the sentiment.

“Bring more Torahs, bring educators, help the Czech Jews understand their identity,” she said. “We need normal Jewish life.”

The return of a Czech scroll and its restoration to its rightful place — a Czech Republic Jewish congregation — is part of that normality. PJC

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Headlines

Optical Outlet is Now Part of

Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan says she had ‘a very strange Jewish upbringing’ — NATIONAL —

By Josefin Dolsten | JTA

N

EW YORK — Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, appearing at a Jewish day school in Brooklyn, spoke about her Jewish background and how her family jumped from synagogue to synagogue.

“I had a very strange Jewish upbringing actually,” Kagan, 58, told journalist Dahlia Lithwick, who moderated the Wednesday evening conversation two weeks ago. “You would think Lincoln Square Synagogue, she comes from a modern Orthodox family. Actually my family didn’t really know what it was.”

Though Kagan had her bat mitzvah at that modern Orthodox synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, she did not grow up in a strictly observant household, the associate justice told an audience of about 280 at the Hannah Senesh Community Day School.

Kagan said her mother grew up in “an extremely, extremely religious family,” but had abandoned many aspects of Jewish observance by the time she had children. “[We] kept a kosher home so that my grandparents would eat there, but otherwise we were the kind of Jews who kept a kosher home and then went out and ordered shrimp at the Chinese restaurant,” the jurist recalled.

Before Lincoln Square, the family were members of B’nai Jeshurun, which belonged to the Conservative movement (today the congregation is unaffiliated) and Congregation Rodeph Sholom, a Reform synagogue.

“My mother’s view was that everything depended on how good the rabbi was, and she would go from synagogue to synagogue to synagogue to find a rabbi she liked,” Kagan said.

Kagan said she “loved” attending Hebrew school at Lincoln Square, but hit a snag when she realized the synagogue, then led

by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, had not allowed a girl to have a bat mitzvah ceremony.

“It was 1973 and they’d never done such things, and it was this kind of process of negotiation to try to get them to even get it into their heads that this was a possibility, and it was sort of a disappointment because I didn’t get to do

all the stuff my brother had done,” she said.

In the end, Kagan had a bat mitzvah ceremony on Friday evening rather than the typical Saturday morning, and chanted from the Book of Ruth instead of the haftarah and Torah portions.

“It was a little bit not exactly what I wanted,” she said. “But I have to say that they came a super long way even to do that in those days at that sort of synagogue, so I give them a lot of kudos for that.”

At the day school event, Kagan noted that she is one of three Jewish justices now sitting on the Supreme Court (Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer are the others).

Some thought that President Barack Obama would not nominate Kagan in 2010 because she would be the third Jewish justice on a nine-member court, she said.

“As far as I know it never came up in the decision-making process that he used, and it really never came up as I went through the process that leads to confirmation, so I think it’s something that’s kind of a great thing,” Kagan said.

The jurist mostly skirted political topics at Wednesday’s discussion, but she did address what she described as a “danger” for the Supreme Court today. In the recent past, Kagan said, the court has been seen as split between the left and right, with one jurist in the middle.

“It prevents anybody from thinking that the court is on some team because the court just wasn’t acting as if it was on any team,” she said of the previous configuration. “Sometimes some people got what they wanted and sometimes other people got what they wanted.”

The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding hearings on the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the seat recently vacated by the swing voting Anthony Kennedy. Kavanaugh would be President Donald Trump’s second appointment to the court and represent an expected 5-4 conservative majority.

Kagan, who is part of the court’s liberal wing, worried about a court being seen as merely political, especially in the big cases that “people care about.”

“I do think it’s a dangerous thing,” she said, if “it really does seem like the divisions follow ineluctably from political divisions and one side is winning.” PJC

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Legal Notice Marjorie B. Robbins, Deceased of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania No. 02-18-4821 Jan Robbins Brody, Executrix; 3357 Brookdale Drive; Pittsburgh, PA 15241 p Elena Kagan, left, speaks with journalist Dahlia Lithwick at the Hannah Senesh Community Day School in Brooklyn, N.Y.

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SEPTEMBER 28, 2018 9

Headlines — WORLD — From JTA reports

Cleveland Browns sign Jewish kicker Greg Joseph The Cleveland Browns have signed kicker Greg Joseph, who played football and soccer at the Donna Klein Jewish Academy in Boca Raton, Fla. Joseph, a 24-year-old rookie, was cut by the Miami Dolphins this summer after signing with the club as an undrafted free agent out of Florida Atlantic University. Fellow rookie Jason Sanders, a seventh-round draft pick. beat out Joseph for the job, though the latter made all three field goal attempts in preseason games, including a 54-yarder.

NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport was first to report Joseph was signing with the Browns.

The Browns signed Joseph after Zane Gonzalez missed four kicks in Sunday’s game against the New Orleans Saints — two field goals and two extra point attempts, all in the second half, including a potential game-tying field goal of 52 yards.

Joseph won’t have much time to become acquainted with his new teammates, as Cleveland hosted the New York Jets on Sept. 20.

Homemade bomb found affixed to headstone in NJ Jewish cemetery A homemade explosive device was found

affixed to a headstone in a Jewish cemetery in New Jersey.

The device was discovered on Sunday at the B’nai Abraham Cemetery during the Jewish Federation Cemetery Visiting Day, a public event organized by the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest. The cemetery was evacuated following the discovery, NJ.com reported.

The Essex County Bomb Squad defused the device, News 12 New Jersey reported.

Investigators reportedly said the device was not capable of exploding.

The homemade explosive was made up of a non-military mortar taped to a container of lubricant, the police told News 12.

“There is no indication at this time that the device was targeted as a bias/hate crime incident, but we will be following up with our law enforcement partners at Homeland Security to advise them of the incident,” Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest CEO Dov Ben-Shimon said in a post on Facebook.

Police checked the rest of the cemetery for other explosive devices and did not find any.

Fargo and Minot markets. Titled “Roots,” the ad says Heitkamp abandoned her “North Dakota values” by “siding with liberals and her party to support the disastrous Iran deal.”

“Those are not our values, they are their values,” the ad continues, showing photos of Heitkamp and three key Democratic supporters of the agreement.

“Heidi Heitkamp voted for the Iran deal, putting party loyalty above American security and the desires of her constituents,” RJC director Matt Brooks said in a statement.

“She knew the deal was a dangerous risk that would give Iran access to some $100 billion, money that Iran has used to support terrorists like Hezbollah and the cruel Assad regime in Syria. The deal has made America less safe.”

President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the nuclear agreement in May. In June, the RJC said it planned to spend more than $500,000 to target Scott Wallace, a Democratic congressional candidate in a Philadelphia-area district whose charity has given to anti-Israel groups.

RJC launches $1 million ad campaign against Iran deal senator

NJ township to repeal eruv prohibition

The Republican Jewish Coalition launched a $1 million television and digital advertising campaign in North Dakota against its incumbent senator over her support for the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

The campaign targeting Heidi Heitkamp, a Democrat, was launched two weeks ago and will air throughout September in the

A New Jersey township has agreed to repeal an ordinance prohibiting the construction of an eruv that state officials said discriminated against Orthodox Jews.

The Sept. 17 announcement resolved a lawsuit filed by the state attorney general’s office against Mahwah in October.

The ordinance said the affixing of PVC

This week in Israeli history

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Sept. 28, 1995 — Interim Palestinian deal signed

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Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat sign the IsraeliPalestinian Interim Agreement, known as Oslo II, at the White House. The deal establishes the Palestinian Authority as an elected, self-governing body and says neither side should take unilateral action on the status of the West Bank or Gaza Strip.

Sept. 29, 1923 — Syria gains Golan

Under borders drawn primarily by Britain and France after World War I, the new nation of Syria gains control of the Golan Heights.

Sept. 30, 1986 — Mordechai Vanunu returns

Mordechai Vanunu, a nuclear technician who left Israel in 1985 and leaked details about the country’s nuclear program and the reactor at Dimona, is brought back to Israel to face trial.

He is convicted in 1988.

Oct. 1, 1981 — Aircraft for Saudi Arabia

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Saudi Arabia. Israel adamantly opposes the sale, but Reagan says, “It is not the business of other nations to make American foreign policy.”

— WORLD —

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pipes on utility poles to demarcate the eruv violated town signage rules.

The township previously had repealed an ordinance that prohibited out-of-state residents from using its parks, which also appeared to be directed at Orthodox Jews in bordering New York, which also had been part of the lawsuit.

Mahwah also agreed to inform the attorney general’s office in writing about any new ordinance proposals affecting the use of parks or signage on utility poles for the next four years.

An eruv is a boundary of string and existing fences and power lines, sometimes several miles in circumference, within which observant Jews may carry objects and push strollers outside of their homes on the Sabbath.

Last summer, some Mahwah residents objected when they saw trucks in their neighborhoods installing small PVC pipes on utility poles to demarcate the eruv. The Township Council then called for the removal of the pipes, citing zoning regulations that prohibit signs on utility poles. The eruv association said it had obtained permission from the utility company to hang the eruv infrastructure.

Local residents have voiced concerns that an increase in haredi Orthodox residents could mean a change in the character of their town or a defunding of local services that many haredi families do not use, like the public school system.

In January, the township settled a lawsuit with the Bergen Rockland Eruv Association that alleged the municipal ordinances illegally targeted Jews. PJC

President Ronald Reagan announces a plan to sell American F-15 fighter jets and Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) planes to

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Oct. 2, 1187 — Saladin captures Jerusalem

Saladin, the sultan of Egypt and founder of the Ayyubid dynasty, captures Jerusalem from crusaders after a siege that began Sept. 20.

Saladin eventually signs a treaty with English King Richard the Lionheart that divides the Land of Israel between crusaders along the coast and Muslims in Jerusalem and the interior. Unlike the crusaders, Saladin is tolerant of Jews and allows them to live in the holy city.

Oct. 3, 2005 — Choreographer Levy-Tanai dies

Sarah Levy-Tanai, a choreographer who won the Israel Prize in art, music and dance in 1973, dies at age 94 or 95 (the Jerusalem native was never sure whether she was born in 1910 or 1911). The daughter of Yemeni parents, she founded the Inbal Dance Theater.

Oct. 4, 1992 — El Al 747 crashes

El Al Flight 1862, a 747 flying cargo from New York to Tel Aviv, crashes into an apartment complex in Bijlmermeer, Netherlands, after taking off from Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, where the plane had stopped for a crew change.

Caused by a mechanical failure, the crash kills four people on the plane and 43 on the ground. PJC

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Headlines Ari Fuld, American expat slain in West Bank, remembered as a combative activist and caring friend — WORLD —

By Ben Sales | JTA

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hen Ari Fuld first approached him, Josh Weixelbaum was a 20-year-old soldier visiting friends in the West Bank settlement of Efrat.

Fuld had heard Weixelbaum speaking English, so he introduced himself and asked Weixelbaum about his time in the army. Fuld soon learned that Weixelbaum, an American immigrant from New Jersey, was serving near Nablus, in the northern West Bank, and that his posting got chilly during the long winter nights.

Within a couple weeks, Weixelbaum recalled, Fuld arranged for the regiment to receive blankets and fleeces inscribed with their military unit’s logo. Fuld drove up to the posting to deliver some of the supplies himself.

The two stayed in touch as Weixelbaum finished his service, attended college and took a job. He said that Fuld, a prominent pro-Israel activist who worked at a nonprofit that supported Israeli soldiers, became a “free-of-charge, volunteer mentor” in how to fight in a different role: as an advocate for Israel online and in person.

“The thing is not to fear them and really not to ever be ashamed of who I am and what I believe in,” Weixelbaum said, recalling Fuld’s main piece of advice. “Ari and I didn’t always agree on everything. That, to him, was secondary. The important thing was don’t be ashamed.”

Fuld, 45, was killed by a Palestinian terrorist in a stabbing attack Sept. 16 near his hometown of Efrat. An American immigrant to Israel, he served in its army and worked at Standing Together, a nonprofit that provides food and supplies to the Jewish state’s soldiers.

His friends said he embodied a dual persona: The pugnacious activist for his country, eager to defend a right-wing perspective on Israel, and the warm, loving, funny father of four who never hesitated to lend a hand.

“The arguments were tough,” said Yariv Oppenheimer, the former general director of the left-wing organization Peace Now, who co-hosted a political talk show with Fuld.

“He had very sharp right-wing opinions. He didn’t yield and it was tough.

“But when the cameras turned off, he was a character who was fun to talk to, fun to laugh with, a little sarcastic. A man so full of energy and optimistic, it’s hard to talk about him in the past tense.”

A member of the right-wing National Union party, Fuld was a full-throated advocate for the right of Jews to control and settle in the West Bank. He took on not only anti-Zionist activists, but also Israeli left-wingers whose views were the opposite of his own. The two taglines for a speaking tour scheduled for November were “Why the world has given up honesty for the sake of diplomacy” and “Why the 2-state solution was always part of the problem.”

His statements — including claiming that “all terrorists who have murdered Jews in Israel have been Muslim” — occasionally

p (Top) Ari Fuld posted several videos of himself online. (Above) Some of the thousands who attended his funeral late on Sept. 16.

Photos courtesy of Screenshot from YouTube

saw him banned from Facebook.

“Today’s war is an information war and it must be known that we have people from within who are simply misinformed and causing tremendous harm to Israel,” he wrote in a 2016 post for the Jewish Press titled “Confronting the Left at the Jerusalem Day Parade.” “We must not be silent! We must stand up and shout the truth.”

Friends said that his ideological commitment was real and that he never shied away from a debate.

“He asked a question, and he would expect an answer,” Weixelbaum said. “At the same time, when he got asked a question, he would give an answer. He was always careful to not let someone get away without answering the question.”

And in the day following his death, friends have said that he practiced what he preached through his final moments. Video

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of the stabbing shows Fuld chasing after the teenage terrorist and firing a gun at him before collapsing.

“He died as he lived; a selfless hero who wanted to help and protect others,” wrote Sarri Singer, a victim of terrorism in Israel who founded Strength to Strength, a nonprofit that brings together terror victims, in a column for Britain’s Jewish News. “His first instinct after a terrorist stabbed him in the back was to neutralize the threat and make sure everyone else was safe.”

Fuld grew up in New York City, in the borough of Queens, and moved to Israel in 1991 after graduating from high school to attend Yeshivat Hakotel, a yeshiva in Jerusalem’s Old City. Following his army service, he stayed on for decades in reserve duty — even after he was exempted at age 40.

In addition to his work with Standing Together, Fuld taught karate in and around Jerusalem.

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But he wasn’t only a fighter. Aaron Friedman, a close friend and neighbor of Fuld’s who last saw him the weekend prior to his murder, recalled Fuld as a loving and dedicated community member. He remembered one “small thing” Fuld did for him: When Friedman’s cellphone broke, Fuld immediately lent him his own.

“He was ALWAYS willing and offering to help friends,” Friedman wrote in a Facebook message. “He was someone you wanted around and just loved joking around with.”

Weixelbaum said that the softer side could surprise Fuld’s ideological rivals. At a recent event in Jerusalem, he said, some people with whom Fuld had debated online met him in person for the first time.

“You seem so tough on social media and you’re a teddy bear in real life,” he remembers them saying. “He was incredibly normal … warm and genuine and loving.” PJC SEPTEMBER 28, 2018 11

Opinion The BDS picket line — EDITORIAL —

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hat’s with University of Michigan professor of American Culture John Cheney-Lippold? He’s the guy who refused to write a letter of recommendation for one of his students, a junior named Abigail Ingber, who asked him to support her effort to study abroad — in Israel. Cheney-Lippold refused Ingber’s request because he adheres to the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, which includes a boycott of Israeli academic institutions.

“As you may know, many University departments have pledged an academic boycott against Israel in support of Palestinians living in Palestine,” he wrote to her. “This boycott includes writing letters of recommendation for students planning to study there.”

Further, according to the learned professor, writing the requested letter to help one of his students study in Israel would be like crossing a picket line, he said. “I would hope anyone who cares about injustice, such as Israel’s unequal treatment of Palestinians, would make a similar decision … Israeli universities are complicit institutions — they develop weapons systems and military training.

Standing up for freedom, justice, and equality

p University of Michigan professor John Cheney-Lippold refused to write a letter of recommendation for one of his students to support her effort to study abroad — in Israel.

Photo tiny-al/iStockphoto.com

for all is something I’m proud of.”

Apparently, Cheney-Lippold’s claimed ethical convictions only apply selectively, as he had no problem serving on a panel this summer at a workshop sponsored in part by the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy & Strategy at IDC Herzliya. His hypocritical refusal to support his student’s

effort to study in Israel and acceptance of an opportunity for personal benefit underwritten by an Israeli university is as upsetting as it is stunning. The University of Michigan deserves better, and Cheney-Lippold’s students have a right to expect more ethical and balanced treatment from their professor.

We note that neither the American Culture

department nor the University of Michigan supports BDS. And they don’t support the offensive actions of Cheney-Lippold. Indeed, last week the university reaffirmed its opposition to any academic boycott of Israel and was directly critical of Cheney-Lippold’s actions.

But here is what is truly offensive about Cheney-Lippold and his judgement. Aside from apartheid South Africa, which no longer exists, the professor wrote, “I would have very gladly written a letter for any other graduate program or study abroad.” Really?

Anywhere but Israel would include programs in Syria, Russia, Iran, China and Saudi Arabia, or any other number of countries that deny “freedom, justice and equality,” not to mention life and safety. But CheneyLippold doesn’t seem to be concerned about those human rights distractions or contradictions, because it’s just Israel that is uniquely disqualified, in his judgment.

To be sure, the student seeking the letter of recommendation could have gone to another professor — as she no doubt did — but that’s beside the point. When we see the disturbing reality of professors like Cheney-Lippold buy into the canard that Israel is uniquely deserving of condemnation, it not only magnifies the insidious nature of the BDS movement, it also raises serious questions about the bona fides of these academics themselves. PJC

Italian universities apologize over Nazis, will American universities follow suit?

Guest Columnist Rafael Medoff

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ater this month, the heads of Italy’s universities intend to issue a public apology for their anti-Jewish actions during the Nazi era. When will American universities such as Columbia and Harvard finally own up to their own disgraceful behavior during those years?

Hoping to impress Hitler and strengthen Italy’s alliance with Germany, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini introduced a series of laws in the autumn of 1938 to strip his country’s Jewish citizens of their rights. The first of these measures required that universities fire their Jewish faculty members and ban the admission of Jewish students. Italy’s universities meekly complied.

This week, the University of Pisa, on Italy’s northern coast, will hold a Cerimonia delle Scuse e del Ricordo, a Ceremony of Commemoration and Apology, for what it did to its Jewish professors and students in 1938. The event has been endorsed by the Conference of Rectors of Italian Universities, thus giving it the official imprimatur of the Italian academic community.

The time has come for some prominent American universities to come clean about the Nazi-era skeletons in their own closets.

12 SEPTEMBER 28, 2018

While obviously not on the level of what the Italian institutions did, many U.S. schools did shamefully pursue friendly relations with the Hitler regime in the 1930s.

Professor Stephen Norwood, in his book “The Third Reich in the Ivory Tower,” describes, for example, how Harvard hosted visits by Nazi Germany’s ambassador to the United States, Hans Luther, and its Boston consul-general, Baron Kurt von Tippelskirch.

Harvard President James Conant extended a warm welcome to Hitler’s foreign press chief, Ernst “Putzi” Hanfstangl, when he visited the campus in 1934 (for his 25th class reunion).

Columbia University, too, welcomed the Nazi ambassador. Luther spoke on campus in December 1933, and Columbia President Nicholas Murray Butler (who was an unabashed admirer of Mussolini) also hosted a reception for the Nazi envoy. When students protested, Butler insisted that Luther represented “the government of a friendly people” and therefore was “entitled to be received … with the greatest courtesy and respect.” Ambassador Luther’s speech focused on what he characterized as Hitler’s “peaceful intentions.”

Harvard, Columbia and other universities also engaged in student exchanges with Nazi Germany. Even the blunt statement by a German official that his country’s students were being sent abroad to serve as “political soldiers of the Reich” did not persuade many American institutions of higher learning to pull out of the exchange programs. American students returning from a semester or year

in Germany spoke glowingly to their campus newspapers about the Hitler regime’s cleanliness and punctuality.

In 1936, both the Harvard and Columbia administrations sent delegates to Germany to take part in the 550th anniversary celebration of the University of Heidelberg.

They did so despite the fact that Heidelberg already had been purged of Jewish faculty members, instituted a Nazi curriculum and hosted a burning of books by Jewish authors.

Columbia’s delegate, Professor Arthur Remy, later raved about the “very enjoyable” reception at which Hitler’s propaganda minister, Josef Goebbels, presided.

Harvard’s Conant also invited Nazi academics to the university’s 1936 tercentenary celebration, prompting Albert Einstein to boycott the event. And in 1937, Conant sent warm greetings to the Nazicontrolled University of Goettingen on its 200th anniversary.

At Columbia, student protesters rallied outside the home of President Butler to protest his participation in the Heidelberg celebration. Butler retaliated by having the rally’s leader, Robert Burke, brought before a university court on the charge of being “disrespectful to the president.” Despite Burke’s excellent grades, and even though Columbia’s own attorney later acknowledged that “the evidence that Burke himself used bad language is slight,” Burke was permanently expelled.

Obviously, the apology by Italian universi-

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ties comes 80 years too late. What this world needs is people with the courage to defy immoral orders when they are issued, not go along with them and then mumble “sorry” eight decades later.

Still, apologies of this sort do have some value, because the actions and pronouncements of the academic community matter.

In Italy, the universities’ compliance with the race laws helped legitimize the fascist regime’s anti-Semitism and paved the way for further government action against Italian Jews.

In the United States, the universities that welcomed and praised Nazi officials, and participated in student exchanges and other friendly relations with the Hitler regime in the 1930s, helped soften Hitler’s image in America. Precisely at the moment when Americans needed to hear the truth about Nazi Germany, our elite academic institutions were making the Nazis more palatable.

Universities play an important role in shaping public attitudes. They help establish standards which one hopes will be applied in future times of crisis. Acknowledging the mistake of appeasing dictators in the past might help preempt similar appeasement in the future. PJC Rafael Medoff is the founding director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, and the author of the forthcoming “The Jews Should Keep Quiet: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, and the Holocaust.”

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Opinion The inconvenient truth about Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian terrorism Guest Columnist Sean Durns

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ahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority, the entity that rules the West Bank (otherwise known as Judea and Samaria) has been appointed to lead a terrorist organization.

Although the press has frequently called Abbas, who also leads the Fatah movement and the Palestine Liberation Organization, a “moderate” and the P.A. a “peace partner,” not a single major U.S. news outlet has reported the P.A. chief ’s new job.

According to Palestinian Media Watch, a nonprofit organization that monitors Arab media in the West Bank, eastern Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, on Aug. 2, the official newspaper of the P.A. reported Abbas was now “the one responsible for the Palestinian National Fund.”

Israel’s defense ministry designated the PNF a terrorist organization in March 2017, noting: “The fund has a crucial role in the financial support for Palestinian terrorist operatives imprisoned in Israel, and it is used as the most significant route for transferring money.”

Times of Israel reporters Judah Ari Gross and Eric Cortellessa have reported that although the PNF “is said to contain billions of dollars from wealthy Arab donors and profits from various investments … there is little transparency or oversight in the management and use of funds.”

Abbas’s appointment should be newsworthy. As PMW pointed out, the P.A. president is now in violation of Israel’s Counter Terrorism Law 2016-5776, which stipulates

p Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas speaks at a session of the Palestinian Central Council in January.

Photo by Issam Rimawi/

Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

that “one who heads a terrorist organization or manages it or takes part in directing the terror organization in general, directly or indirectly” faces “25 years imprisonment.”

In other words, a nominal U.S. ally is now leading a terrorist organization.

Indeed, the P.A. is the recipient of considerable Western aid and support and has long been central to the U.S. policy of promoting a two-state solution. The United States even helped create the P.A. as part of the Oslo process in which Palestinian leadership renounced “the use of terrorism and other acts of violence,” promising a “new epoch of peaceful coexistence, free from violence and all other acts which endanger peace and stability.” Needless to say, this hardly squares with paying terrorists.

Yet, many in the press have described Abbas as “moderate” — despite his public refusals to end the terror slush fund.

Several recent reports by The Washington

Post, The New York Times and Foreign Policy magazine, among others, have highlighted recent U.S. aid cuts to Palestinianrelated entities. In 2017, for example, The Washington Post alone ran more than a dozen stories relating to the peace process.

This makes the failure of major U.S. news outlets to report on Abbas’ new posting all the more striking.

The fund itself — and the Authority’s policy of financially incentivizing terrorism — has been the subject of some media attention, much of it inaccurate, as the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America documented in a March 21 Washington Examiner op-ed. In one particularly egregious example, The Washington Post’s “Fact Checker” column even approvingly cited research about Palestinian prisoners that was provided by the Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCI-P), a group tied to the Democratic Front for the

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Liberation of Palestine, a U.S.-designated terror organization.

But facts are stubborn things.

According to a Jan. 9 report by Israel’s defense ministry, the P.A. paid terrorists and their families nearly $350 million dollars in 2017 — $160 million for jailed and released prisoners, and $190 million for their families. Payments increase with the length of the sentence and the number of people killed or injured in a terror attack.

Abbas could put an end to these payments.

But the prospective peace partner has planted his feet firmly in the sand.

In underreported July 23 remarks in Ramallah, Abbas called imprisoned terrorists “pioneers” while conferring medals on their families. According to a translation provided by the Middle East Media Research Institute, Abbas then exhorted: “We will neither reduce nor prevent [payment] of allowances to the families of martyrs, prisoners and released prisoners, as some seek, and if we had only a single penny left, we would pay it to families of the martyrs and prisoners.” Not a single major Western newspaper noted Abbas’s remarks — although some, such as The Washington Post, have previously run stories on Chinese tourists purportedly being overcharged at an Israeli restaurant, among other frivolities.

Equally stubborn, then, are both the Palestinian leadership, which remains committed to paying terrorists, and the many major U.S. news outlets that are seemingly committed to ignoring or obfuscating facts inconvenient to their “blame Israel” narrative. PJC Sean Durns is a senior research analyst for CAMERA, the 65,000-member, Bostonbased Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America.

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SEPTEMBER 28, 2018 13

Life & Culture An Afro-Cuban-Yiddish opera tells the story of a Jewish refugee — OPERA —

By Josefin Dolsten | JTA

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EW YORK — “Hatuey: Memory of Fire” flashes alternately among three unlikely settings and languages.

The chamber opera is set in a nightclub in Havana in 1931, a Cuban battlefield where indigenous people fight Spanish conquistadors in 1511 and Ukraine in the early 20th century, where Jews face violent pogroms.

The settings may seem incongruous

p Above, Jennifer Jade Ledesna, center, plays a singer at a Havana nightclub in “Hatuey: Memory of Fire,” a love story set in 1931 Cuba. Left, Nicolette Mavroleon appears in “Hatuey: Memory of Fire,” a chamber opera about a Yiddish poet and his obsession with an indigenous Cuban freedom fighter.

Photos by Maria Baranova

enough, but they are connected by perhaps an even more surprising piece of writing: an epic Yiddish poem about an indigenous chief who has been called “Cuba’s first national hero.”

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The opera, with music by Grammy Awardwinning klezmer musician Frank London and libretto by Elise Thoron, is having its U.S. premiere at Montclair State University as part of the suburban New Jersey school’s Peak Performances series. It draws inspiration from the life of Asher Penn, a Ukrainian

Jewish refugee who arrived to Cuba in 1924 and later founded the country’s first Yiddish newspaper.

In Cuba, Penn learned about the story of Hatuey (prounced ha-too-WAY), an indigenous chief who led Cuba’s Taino people in an uprising against Spanish colonial forces in the 16th century.

He was so taken by Hatuey’s heroism and execution at the hands of the Spanish — and the way it resonated with his own experience of pogroms in his native Ukraine — that he composed a 125-page poem about him in 1931. The catch: Penn wrote the poem in Yiddish.

London and Thoron’s production, which is playing at Montclair State’s Alexander Kasser Theater through Sept. 23, stays true to Penn’s writing by including excerpts of the poem in the mamaloshen. The Taino characters sing in Yiddish, which could have turned out as a joke from a Mel Brooks movie but instead eerily connects one persecuted “tribe” to another. Other parts are performed in English and Spanish with supertitles.

London, a founder of the Klezmatics and other klezmer supergroups, learned about Penn and Hatuey through his friend, the theater director Michael Posnick, who is Penn’s son-in-law (the Penn family later moved to the United States). Posnick serves Please see Opera, page 15

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Life & Culture The ‘best football player who grew up in Israel’ seeks a spot at U.S. college — SPORTS —

By Hillel Kuttler | JTA

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EL AVIV — In the summer of 2011, Yuval Fenta saw two guys tossing a football on the beach in Herzliya. He asked to participate.

“You’re too small,” they responded.

A dejected Fenta retreated, but not before hearing them mention an American football league that played in Israel.

Seven years later, Fenta has showed them.

Now a 21-year-old running back for the Tel Aviv Pioneers, the son of Ethiopian immigrants for the past three seasons has earned the Israel Football League’s Offensive Player of the Year award. In 2017-18 he ran for 1,561 yards, averaged 6.9 yards per carry and scored 14 touchdowns.

Before that, with the Kfar Saba Hawks, he twice won the Israel High School Football League’s Most Valuable Player award and led the team to a championship each of his three seasons. Right after graduating to the adult league, Fenta led Israel’s national team to a 2015 European championship.

This season, which begins Nov. 15, will be Fenta’s last in Israel. Beginning in 2019, he intends to play college football in America — in Division II, or maybe even Division I, the highest level. (The 2018-19 season will be the eight-team IFL’s first playing 11 on 11, having previously fielded nine a side due to a shortage of players.)

Before applying to U.S. colleges this winter, Fenta is studying to improve his English to succeed on the Scholastic Aptitude Test, a key entrance exam. Only in high school, he said, did he understand that good grades could open the door to college.

Now, “no one can set limits for me. I’ll decide what I’m capable of doing,” Fenta said on an early-September evening in Yarkon

Park’s Sportek complex prior to the Pioneers’ first preseason practice.

As to playing Division I football, where the best American college players compete, the 6-foot, 180-pound Fenta said: “They’re bones and muscle, just like I am.”

For 2.5 years, prior to his discharge this week, Fenta served in the Israeli army with “active athlete” status — the only football player so classified. He would have preferred serving in a combat unit, as did three of his brothers. But his status enabled him to work in a part-time desk job — he handled paperwork covering wounded soldiers’ medical care — while developing his athletic ability.

Fenta is one of nine children born to Ethiopian Jewish parents who moved to Israel in 1991 from their village near Gondar.

The next year, Fenta’s father, Adeba, traveled to Ethiopia to bring his parents to Israel.

Yuval’s paternal grandparents are both centenarians and live near Haifa.

When their son first took up football, Fenta’s parents feared for his safety — especially after he broke a leg late in his first season with Tel Aviv.

“But they quickly realized that this is me,” he said.

They cover his gym membership, prepare protein-laden meals and buy him whole wheat bread. “Relative to their means” — Adeba works as a gardener and his wife, Ungudai, cleans homes — “they pay more for me than rich parents do for their kids,” said Fenta, who works as a waiter.

Coaches and teammates said that though he is quiet, Fenta is a leader. Fenta paraphrased former NFL wide receiver Cris Carter in saying that football developed his personality and character. The Israeli standout met 18 NFL Hall of Famers, including Carter, who visited Israel in June 2017.

Told of Fenta’s remark, Carter seemed gratified.

“That’s what we hope for in our life,” Carter,

Opera: Continued from page 14

as co-producer of the opera.

In a phone interview, London said that he initially wanted to adapt the poem itself into an opera. But after he teamed with Thoron, his previous collaborator on a work about Marc Chagall and the Soviet Yiddish Theater, the pair decided to interweave the story of the poet and his poem’s hero.

“Once we had the idea to incorporate the story of poet in our theater piece, that’s where it got both very rich, very complicated, very multilayered and trilingual, but a lot of fun because that opened the door also for us to include the Afro-Cuban music,” he said.

London, who lives in New York, has performed Afro-Cuban music almost as consistently as klezmer in a career that spans some 500 CDs. Though the pair concocted the fictionalized nightclub setting — and a romance between Penn and the singer to whom he tells the

p Frank London is the composer of “Hatuey: Memory of Fire.”

Photo by Anya Roz

story — the rest of the opera is based on the true stories of Penn and Hatuey, London said.

Even though he was enthusiastic about combining the various narratives and languages, London said it wasn’t necessarily an easy fit.

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who played for the Philadelphia Eagles, the Minnesota Vikings and the Miami Dolphins, said. “We as Hall of Famers know the platform we have. We’re very careful with the things we say, realizing that everything we say is like a [stone] thrown in a pond. It’s going to have a ripple effect.”

IFL Commissioner Betzalel Friedman called Fenta “the best running back in the league since he entered — it’s not even close” and offered this scouting report: “He knows how to be patient as a runner. He can turn on the jets. He can run behind his blockers and find a hole. He’s also not afraid to lower his head and have contact.”

Tel Aviv’s head coach, Assaf Gvili, called Fenta “the best football player who grew up in Israel.”

“He’s phenomenal, eager to learn and very coachable,” Gvili said. “Most talented players have big egos; he doesn’t.”

Itay Ashkenazi, Kfar Saba’s former head coach, remembers being stunned when Fenta, gained 15 yards on a sweep, vaulted several feet over a would-be Haifa tackler and ran for another 15. On defense, at outside linebacker, Fenta displayed speed, strength, tackling ability and, overall, was “a shut-down player,” Ashkenazi said.

His Kfar Saba teammate and fellow captain, Damian Faur, cited a critical play that Fenta made on defense, also against Haifa.

Kfar Saba was leading 32-30 late in the 2014 championship game, but Haifa was driving deep in Kfar Saba territory.

After a completion, Fenta and a teammate crashed into the receiver, who fumbled.

Fenta recovered the ball and the championship was secured.

“I’m not surprised that Yuval was the one who won the game,” Faur said.

Gvili plans to employ Fenta as a linebacker-safety hybrid this season. Playing offense and defense, Gvili believes, will help Fenta showcase his skills for the American colleges he approaches.

p Yuval Fenta plays running back for the Tel Aviv Pioneers.

“It took us a long time to figure out how this piece was going to work,” he said.

The diverse cast of 16, none of whom knew Yiddish previously, learned the entire libretto in the span of two weeks.

London said it helped that they are all opera singers and thus used to performing in foreign languages.

“It’s hard to act in a language you don’t know,” he said, “but opera singers are trained to learn how to sing in languages they don’t know — that’s what they do.”

The production also received assistance from the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, which helped with translation and transliteration into Yiddish.

Writing an opera in Yiddish had been a longtime goal for London, but he struggled with finding a story that fit.

“I didn’t just want to take a beautiful Sholem Aleichem shtetl story in Yiddish and make a klezmer-shtetl opera,” he said, referring to the famed Yiddish author and playwright. “I really wanted this to have a more universal message and not be a

nostalgic piece.”

As a member of the Klezmatics, London has long blended Yiddish musical traditions with contemporary music. For “Hatuey,” he wanted to do something in a similar vein.

“The Klezmatics’ entire career was based on the same premise but within music: to create a vital, living Yiddish klezmer music that is directly connected to our roots and history and to its history, but that is perfectly alive in our world,” he said.

Last year, London staged the opera in Cuba, but he had to make modifications to accommodate the production company’s limitations. The Yiddish parts were performed in Spanish, and London altered the music so it could be played by a band rather than a full orchestra. The New Jersey production represents the opera’s first run as it was written.

London said that putting on a new opera helps bring Yiddish theater back to its roots.

“Yiddish theater 80-100 years ago was cutting edge, avant-garde zeitgeist theater,” he said. “We’ve gotten back to that.” PJC

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Photo by Hillel Kuttler

“A talent like him should keep working on his craft,” Ashkenazi said. Fenta, he said, “can play college football, for sure.”

At Sportek, Fenta joined his teammates for practice on an unmarked grassy patch squeezed between basketball courts and a busy street. The nearest light tower beaming in their direction was at least 100 yards off. They danced into and out of stringy boxes in an agility drill, sprinted station to station toward cones, got into position to tackle and be tackled. Fenta and others absorbed a coach’s instruction to linebackers, then dropped quickly into zone coverage.

Being a dual threat appeals to Fenta.

Heading off to another country, even just for a few years — that will be challenging.

“It will be hard for me,” he said of leaving.

“I’m very patriotic, very Zionist.” PJC

SEPTEMBER 28, 2018 15

Headlines Mideast: Continued from page 1

“It was the convergence of these two dynamics that formed the new Middle East,” Harrison said. “States that were pro-change were aligned with the Soviet Union; states that were status-quo were aligned with the United States.

“What happened in the Middle East, largely stayed there,” Harrison continued. “It didn’t really blow back to the Soviet Union; it didn’t really blow back to the United States, and the region didn’t really get a say.”

When the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s, that structure collapsed as well.

Those countries that had originally turned to the Soviet Union for support are the ones that are the most politically fraught today, Harrison said.

As those states were looking for new sources of support and backing, the United States became somewhat uncontested, he said, and maintained a “soft touch” in the region — until 9/11.

As American foreign policy took a more aggressive stance in the wake of the 2001 terror attacks on the United States, a “resistance axis” led by Iran began to form to push back on the West. That dynamic “to some degree is still with us today,” Harrison said.

“You have this sort of conflict trap that was created,” he continued. “It’s important

p Ross Harrison tells a crowd of about 80 people about the three main points to consider when discussing American foreign policy and three possible pathways forward in the Middle East.

Photo by Lauren Rosenblatt

to understand the core problem is not just one actor. It’s a failed region. … The region collapsed not because of Iran, not because of Saudi Arabia, not because of Turkey, not because of Israel.”

After addressing the three “touchstones” for considering U.S. foreign policy, Harrison turned toward three possible pathways for

moving forward: more direct intervention, or military force; offshore balancing, or using outside force to create a balance of power in the region; or encouraging cooperation among the different actors in the region.

The first option, direct intervention, could mean repurposing military force away from the so-called Islamic State and toward coun-

tering Iran in Syria. The second option, offshore balancing, would require a smaller military footprint, Harrison said, but would likely cause Iran to “hunker down” and feel threatened, moving it further away from the United States and closer toward powers such as Russia.

Though he admitted it sounded somewhat naive, Harrison said he would back the third method, along with a layered approach that focused on the international, regional and local “power game,” and allowed for the United States to be on the ground when it was necessary.

“We stop personalizing American foreign policy in the Middle East. We’re a little too kind to our allies and a little too hostile to our adversaries,” he said. “We cultivate regional stewardship and cooperation.”

Although Harrison said he wanted to keep American politics out of the discussion, creating regional cooperation had to start on the political, rather than economic or technical, level, he said. The infrastructure is already there, he added; now it just takes political will.

“The international community should play to the best, not the worst, instincts of regional actors,” Harrison concluded. “Unless that happens, I’m afraid the region will not move to a better spot.” PJC Lauren Rosenblatt can be reached at lrosenblatt@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

Anti-Semetism: Continued from page 1

incidents beginning Jan. 1, 2018, online through the Law Enforcement Enterprise Portal, a “virtual command center run the by the FBI,” he explained.

Law enforcement has access to the portal, Orsini said, and often adds intelligence to the database.

Of the more than 50 incidents reported so far in the Jewish community in 2018, the highest concentration occurred in Squirrel Hill and Shadyside, with some incidents reported in other areas such as Mt. Lebanon and Dormont.

Recent incidents include swastikas and KKK graffiti painted onto the building of a Jewish-owned business, and the posting of flyers throughout the city by white supremacist groups Patriot Front and Identity Evropa.

Identity Evropa’s slogan, “You will not replace us,” reflects “its belief that unless immediate action is taken, the white race is doomed to extinction by an alleged ‘rising tide of color’ purportedly controlled and manipulated by Jews,” according to the Anti-Defamation League. Identity Evropa is known for the 2017 Charlottesville rally.

Patriot Front, the ADL reports, “espouses racism, anti-Semitism and intolerance under the guise of preserving the ‘ethnic and cultural origins’ of their European ancestors.”

Orsini is urging the community to report sightings of posters and flyers displayed by these and other racist and anti-Semitic groups.

“Our goal is if you see people posting these things, let us know,” Orsini said. “We are trying to identify all the groups posting in Pittsburgh.”

16 SEPTEMBER 28, 2018

p Swastika and graffiti were recently found on an area building.

Photo courtesy of Brad Orsini

p Bradley W. Orsini

In 2017, the number of reported antiSemitic incidents in the United States rose 57 percent, according to an ADL annual report which showed 1,986 incidents in 2017.

In addition to anti-Semitism, Orsini investigates other types of threats to the Jewish community. The elderly — including those residing in senior care facilities — are particularly susceptible, he said.

“We’ve worked with assisted living facilities and help organizations deal with not just

Photo courtesy of Brad Orsini

anti-Semitism, but with reports from our community that people are stealing from them,” he said. “That is an issue in any community, but it’s directed toward our elderly, a vulnerable population that people prey on. We are trying to educate the elderly on these issues.”

Although Orsini has received more than 50 reported security threats this year, he does not believe the Pittsburgh Jewish community “is at any more risk than any other Jewish community across the country,” he said. “But

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

I think it is important for people to realize there are groups out there that would like to see harm to the Jewish community.”

Accordingly, prior to any large event in the community, Orsini “scrubs social media,” searching for potential threats, including protestors that could present a risk of violence.

While Orsini could not share details of some threats he is actively investigating, he did note that “there are concerns that I have.”

“But the reason we shouldn’t fear is because we are so aware, and we are reporting these threats,” he said. “When we are aware of a threat, we can handle it and take it to its logical conclusion and disposition.”

To report a potential security threat, contact Orsini at 412-992-5229 or borsini@ jfedpgh.org. PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Headlines Opiates: Continued from page 7

He moved the vehicle a mile down the block so Wolfe couldn’t find it.

When he came back he noticed the light.

The television was on, and Wolfe was lying on the couch. “I screamed and screamed and he wouldn’t wake up,” Gregg Wolfe said.

Wolfe “was cool when I touched him,” said Vivian Bush, Gregg Wolfe’s longtime girlfriend. “I knew he was gone, but I didn’t know what else to do. I tried to do CPR on him but … he was gone already.”

Gregg Wolfe called 911. The paramedics met him at the door and wouldn’t let him upstairs. “I was a complete wreck,” he said.

Wolfe died at age 21.

The paramedics checked Wolfe’s car, and, under the seat, found an empty heroin bag.

“I don’t count [my own] birthdays anymore. I don’t celebrate,” Gregg Wolfe said. “It’s meaningless.”

‘Turning point.’

About seven months after Wolfe’s death, Solomon went to an inpatient facility in Florida. He didn’t last long and spent a few weeks living out of his car. He moved on to needles: “If I was awake, I was shooting up every half hour.” Lee Solomon tried to prepare himself for life without his son.

“Stick a fork in him,” he’d say.

An employee at the Florida facility arranged for Solomon to attend a different inpatient program in Prescott, Ariz. On Feb. 28, 2014, Solomon left that facility, having completed 30 days, and hopped on a shuttle for the airport in Phoenix. His plan was to fly back to New Jersey, say goodbye, and shoot himself in the head with his father’s gun: “I was going to blow my brains out.”

His parents canceled his credit cards, preventing him from buying a plane ticket.

His mother, Dianne, called Solomon’s friends and pleaded with them not to help him. “If you enable him to get home, if you give him money, you’ll be killing him,” she told them.

One friend called Solomon. Jackson Train, a painter, a musician, the yin to Solomon’s yang, who had shared a crib with him when they were babies, asked if Solomon was shooting up.

“It wasn’t supposed to go this way,” Train said.

That “was the turning point,” Solomon said.

He called Lee Solomon. He told him he was going back to rehab. In the back of the shuttle, surrounded by confused passengers, he dropped to his knees, burst into tears and prayed.

“I prayed to God to relieve the obsession or let me die,” Solomon said. “That was the first time I ever felt relief. I didn’t have an obsession to use. … I was just like, ‘I’m here. I’m in the present.’ And I was just, like, tired, and I hadn’t felt that way since I was 14 years old, [when I] had my first drink, smoked weed.

‘Everything changed that day.’

On a sunny August morning more than four years later, Solomon shoved open an unmarked white door at Victory Bay Recovery Center, about 20 miles south of Philadelphia in Laurel Springs, N.J., and was greeted by smiling faces and high-fives: “What’s up, AJ!” “Hey, AJ!” With his charm and easy smile, Solomon is a natural figurehead of the outpatient substance abuse treatment and rehab center.

“Hey AJ, when am I beating you in Ping-

p AJ Solomon, center, founded Victory Bay Recovery Center in February 2017. The facility’s opening was ushered in by a speech from former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, right, who is a longtime friend of Solomon’s father, Lee, left.

Photo provided

Pong?” a Victory Bay client asked, playfully. “I’ve never been beaten,” Solomon said, grinning.

Along with co-founder Brent Reese, Solomon founded Victory Bay in February 2017. He doesn’t have a clinical background, but he might have something more important: street cred.

“I’m just lucky I didn’t use today,” he said.

“I’m grateful I’m an addict. My life now is more fulfilling than it ever was, even before I was doing hard drugs. I feel like I have a purpose. I feel like most people don’t find their purpose at 23.”

Solomon’s philosophy for recovery is rooted in the 12-step program, which relies heavily on faith.

He implores recovering addicts to try finding something bigger than themselves.

It isn’t an easy ask.

“How do you explain to the public that the answer is something that anyone can have?

That’s love? I don’t know. It sounds so f---ing cheesy,” Solomon said. “The truth is, we’re going to keep giving people pharmaceuticals, to treat pharmaceuticals, and they’re going to keep dying.”

‘Not my son, not my daughter.’

Two weeks after Wolfe died, Gregg Wolfe went back to work. “Believe me, for the longest time, I felt like crawling into a hole and never coming out,” he said. But he had responsibilities. He had to care for Bush. He had to care for Austin. He had to go back to work; he’s the owner of the court reporting and litigation support firm Kaplan Leaman & Wolfe.

And he used his story to help others. He appeared before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations on April 26, 2013, advocating for changes to the HIPPA laws that prevented him from learning the full extent of Wolfe’s use.

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He partnered with Jewish Family & Children’s Service of Southern New Jersey and launched Right in Our Backyard, a traveling group of parents who have lost children to drug overdoses, recovering addicts, police officers and a therapist, who make presentations at high schools, synagogues and churches about the ills of opioid abuse.

Gregg Wolfe implores parents to have their children sign power of attorney forms when they are 18. This way, parents can obtain medical information pertaining to their children into early adulthood.

“Every parent, a lot of Jewish parents — and gentile parents — sit there and say, ‘Not my son, not my daughter,’” he said.

“I remember Justin saying to me, when I wanted to put him into a rehab, ‘I don’t want to bring shame to my family.’”

Gregg Wolfe doesn’t celebrate on Dec. 19 anymore, but on the first anniversary of Wolfe’s death, the father’s 55th birthday, Bush purchased him a pendant emblazoned with Wolfe’s high school graduation photo.

He wears it everywhere.

On the last Saturday of August, Gregg Wolfe climbed on his boat, which is named Just In Heaven, and took a seat around a circular table.

Bush sat next to him. The top button of his shirt was left undone. It always is. That way the pendant bearing his son’s face dangles freely.

“In my mind,” Gregg Wolfe says, tugging on the pendant, “he sees everything I do.”

‘I finally have my son back.’

The past four years have produced no shortage of proud moments for Solomon’s parents, but for his father, who is now a justice on the Supreme Court of New Jersey, one stands above the rest.

Solomon flew in from Arizona for Thanksgiving 2015. Sober for more than one year, he walked in the door with a

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

bouquet of fresh flowers, made a beeline for Dianne and handed her the bouquet: “This is for you,” he said.

Solomon was the center of attention all night. Dinner was eaten and toasts were made.

Late in the evening, Lee Solomon noticed his wife and Solomon talking in the living room.

He got nervous, remembering the verbal sparring mother and son waged against one another during the throes of AJ’s addiction.

It was hours before Dianne Solomon joined her husband upstairs.

“Is everything OK?” he asked.

“Everything’s OK,” she replied. “I finally have my son back.”

Early in his work with JFCS, Gregg Wolfe got a call from Solomon. He was working the 12-step program, he told Gregg Wolfe, and wanted to make amends with the people he had wronged.

“I went to his house, where me and his son used together,” Solomon said, letting out a long exhale.

They sat at the kitchen table in Gregg Wolfe’s home, and Gregg Wolfe listened to thje story of Solomon’s journey. Then he asked some questions: Why couldn’t his son recover, as Solomon had? Would things have been different if he had kicked his son out? What was it?

“He wanted me to be able to answer questions that I couldn’t answer, that don’t really have an answer, unfortunately,” Solomon said. “It was hard, but I did the best I could.”

Solomon left Gregg Wolfe’s home, off to complete more recovery work, but not before the two men made an agreement.

Solomon joined Gregg Wolfe at a Right in Our Backyard event, stepped in front of a microphone and shared his story. PJC Joshua Needelman is a staff writer for the Jewish Exponent, an affiliated publication of the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle.

SEPTEMBER 28, 2018 17

Celebrations

Torah

Engagement

Finding joy on Sukkot

Amy and John Bass of Fox Chapel happily announce the engagement of their daughter, Madison Bass, to Bradley Lewis, son of Shelly and Scott Lewis of Orange Village, Ohio.

The bride-to-be is the granddaughter of Charlotte and Harold Chefitz of West Orange, N.J., and the late Dr. and Mrs. Lee and Marian Bass of Pittsburgh. Maddie received her undergraduate degree from Indiana University Bloomington and a master’s degree in psychotherapy and counseling from Adler Graduate School in Minneapolis. She works as a school counselor in Pittsburgh.

The groom-to-be is the grandson of Donald and Barbara Meckler of Pepper Pike, Ohio, and the late Hartley Lewis and late Sandra Lewis of Cleveland. He received his bachelor’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis and master’s degree in education from the University of Minnesota. He works as an educator in Pittsburgh.

The couple met at Emma Kaufmann Camp in 2011. A wedding is planned for Nov. 2, 2019. PJC

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18 SEPTEMBER 28, 2018

Rabbi Amy Bardack Sukkot

I

n recent years, the most popular undergraduate courses at both Harvard and Yale were about happiness. Tal Ben-Shahar’s Harvard course on positive psychology, known colloquially as “How to Get Happy,” drew 900 students per term.

More than 1,200 students per semester registered for Laurie Santos’ Yale course, “Psychology and the Good Life.”

The search for happiness is also a common theme of nonfiction bestsellers, with titles such as “The Happiness Project,” “10% Happier,” and “The How of Happiness.” In our culture, happiness seems to be both highly valued and elusive. We want desperately to reach a state of happiness, but we lack a road map to get us there.

We are in the midst of Sukkot, which is known as zman simchateinu, the time of our joy. No other holiday is associated with joy as explicitly as Sukkot. In the book of Vayikra we are told to gather four species and “rejoice” in God’s presence for seven days.

Again in Devarim, we learn that we should “rejoice” for seven days, and have “nothing but joy.” On the surface, it makes sense that joy would be associated particularly with Sukkot. The bounty of the late harvest is a natural source of gratitude and celebration.

Looking at the place of Sukkot in the calendar, it also makes sense that rejoicing is called for. After the intense focus on themes of life, death and sin during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we turn outward, to the physical labor of building a sukkah and the awakening of our physical senses through the smells and taste of nature. After the self-denial of Yom Kippur, we are ready to let loose on Sukkot.

And yet there is a countervailing strain in the holiday. The sukkah itself, in which we are commanded to dwell, is characterized by fragility and simplicity. It is a temporary structure, allowing rain and wind to enter.

The sukkah is far less impervious to the elements than our sturdier, more permanent homes. In the sukkah we are also forced to live more simply, in a dwelling place far less ornate and well-appointed than our homes.

We are more exposed to the elements and less protected by our possessions in this pared-down structure.

The sukkah highlights our vulnerability, not our bounty. This feeling of vulnerability is echoed in the book we read publicly during the Shabbat of Sukkot. The book of Kohelet tells of a wealthy, powerful man who realizes that his riches, wisdom and power cannot bring happiness. The book emphasizes our mortality, and finally concludes that given the limits of our days on earth, all we can enjoy are the simplest and most momentary of pleasures.

To be human is to know our own mortality, and that is our vulnerability. Ironically, it is in this precise state of vulnerability — highlighted by Kohelet and the sukkah itself — that we are supposed to “have nothing but joy.” I do not think that happiness is an automatic outcome of observing the holiday.

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Rather, I view the command to be happy on Sukkot as a challenge.

We are challenged to be happy precisely when we feel most exposed and least protected. We are called upon to feel joyous despite our vulnerability.

The fragility inherent in Sukkot is, of course, not just local but global. We are living in a time when the earth is increasingly fragile. As I write, the Carolinas are beginning to come to terms with the enormous damage wrought by a fierce hurricane. Ocean pollution has destroyed coral reefs, fracking has increased earthquakes, and rising temperatures have created more and more extreme weather events while also threatening biodiversity.

If we can let ourselves find happiness in an imperfect setting, then we are training ourselves to let joy into our lives, even when our world is flawed.

How do we let ourselves feel joyous, on Sukkot or at any time, when human, animal and plant life are in peril? Tal Ben-Shahar writes in his book “Being Happy” that one of the biggest obstacles to happiness is perfectionism. Consequently, one of the keys to living a happier life is being more accepting of imperfection. If we wait for everything in our lives to be perfect before we let ourselves celebrate, we will never celebrate.

This is a lesson I am always re-learning.

We shouldn’t postpone joy, waiting until everything is okay before we can let ourselves be happy. At any moment there are always people suffering, whether in our families, our communities or somewhere in our global village. That is our reality. Imperfection and fragility cannot be sidestepped.

The trick is to allow happiness in, alongside the vulnerability. Sitting in our sukkah is not perfect. It leans at a funny, precarious angle. The chairs aren’t that comfortable.

Sometimes there are bees or mosquitoes. The weather is completely unpredictable. And that is the point. The sukkah is a laboratory to test our ability to subdue our perfectionism in order to make room for happiness.

If we can let ourselves find happiness in an imperfect setting, then we are training ourselves to let joy into our lives, even when our world is flawed. This Sukkot, may you look squarely at all that is broken, while embracing joy nonetheless. PJC Rabbi Amy Bardack is the director of Jewish Life and Learning at the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. This column is a service of the Greater Pittsburgh Rabbinic Association.

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James Lange, CPA and Attorney Willpower Doesn’t Work by Benjamin Hardy

debunks many ideas we hold about how a lack of willpower is the reason we fail to make permanent changes in our life—changes that we want to make.

This isn’t totally new ground, but Hardy argues that “willpower is actually holding you back.”

So, what does work?

He says that if you think you need willpower to achieve something, you are not addressing the deeper internal conflict: you don’t know what you want, and you haven’t committed to it. Once you really decide what you want and commit to it, the issue of willpower is no longer relevant. He quotes Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.”

So, how do you assess your level of commitment? He says commitment requires: • Investing upfront • Making it public • Setting a timeline

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• Installing several forms of feedback and accountability • Removing or altering everything in your environment that opposes your commitment

Change your environment. That was an idea that resonated with me. He says, “the best use of your choices is consciously designing environments that facilitate your commitments.”

Envision what you want your future to look like and take steps to make that enhanced future happen.

In my case, I have hired a trainer who comes to our house three days a week. My wife and I consciously designed our environment to support our commitment to do weight resistance exercise three days per week. We invested in a trainer, made it public, built in a timeline, we’re accountable to the trainer, and we set up an exercise room. We employed the same technique with diet. We hired a chef with the directive to shop and cook nothing but the healthiest food for our family. If there is no junk food in the house, we must eat healthfully. It isn’t about willpower. We’ve removed options and limited choices; we’ve “created an environment that makes your [our] goals inevitable.”

Hardy gives lots of examples. Though “change your environment” could be taken to an extreme, like changing where you live, Hardy gives lots of

more “do-able” examples. You could do things in different places like taking your laptop to a coffee house without the charger. That forces you to get done what you need to do in a finite amount of time. That falls into a category he calls “forcing functions,” where you turn a behavior you’d like to do into something you have to do.

Hardy also talks about our over-connected society and the importance of getting away from email, cell phones, and always having to be on call. This isn’t just for younger generations. This is for us. Even when I get together with my buddies to go for a walk, one of them has his cell phone on and takes every call. It isn’t like he is a doctor on call a limited number of hours per month. While he considers always being available great customer service, I see his behavior reducing his potential for happiness.

Hardy talks about addictions, even ones that aren’t crippling. We are addicted to certain behaviors that contradict our goals—too much social media taking time away from things that are important to us, for example. We have to approach making changes like we are overcoming an addiction.

Hardy includes a chapter about eliminating unneeded stuff. Several years ago one of the hot books was The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Or-

ganizing by Marie Kondō. I interpreted Kondō to say you should dispose of everything unless you have a good reason to keep it. I never went that far, but I did some decluttering, and Hardy suggests I do some more. Disorganization and clutter sap energy.

If you read the book, you will identify plenty of valuable ideas, but you won’t be willing to do all of them. For instance, Hardy advocates time of reflection/prayer and gratitude and journaling in the morning. It’s all I can do to work-out first thing in the morning three days a week and drag myself to the office for my first meeting.

On the other hand, developing a morning ritual and/or purposefully stating your goals and intentions for the day while your energy is fresh is an objective I can get behind.

Willpower Doesn’t Work is an intriguing book that I would highly recommend.

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SEPTEMBER 28, 2018 19

Calendar Calendar: Continued from page 5 6:30 p.m. The series is free and open to the community. No RSVP is required. Visit duq. edu/BecomingAmerican for directions and film details or Melissa Hiller at mhiller@jccpgh.org or 412-697-3231 for film details. q TUESDAY, OCT. 9 Hadassah Greater Pittsburgh and Temple David Sisterhood are hosting local author A.J. Funstuff to discuss her new book at an event about breast cancer awareness at Temple David at 6 p.m. The cost of the event is $10.

Send a check to reserve your spot by Oct. 3 to Hadassah, 1824 Murray Ave., 15217, or call 412-421-8919. q EVERY WEDNESDAY EVENING,

BEGINNING OCT. 10

Melton Pittsburgh 2018-19, an international organization for adult Jewish learning, will begin classes on Wednesday, Oct. 10.

The classes are sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. To register, visit foundation.jewishpgh.org/melton-adulteducation. For more information, contact Jan Barkley at jbarkley@jfedpgh.org or 412-697-6656. q WEDNESDAYS, OCT. 10 AND OCT. 17 Beth El Congregation will host two current event evenings at 7:30 to 9 p.m. that are free, open to the public and begin with a wine and cheese reception. Session 1 is

on Major Technology Breakthroughs and the Implications for the Future, led by Mt. Lebanon educators Joshua Bilak and Drew Haberberger. Session 2 is on Moral Implications of Technology, an ethical discussion led by Rabbi Alex Greenbaum.

For more information and to RSVP visit bethelcong.org or call 412-561-1168. q THURSDAY, OCT. 11 Chabad of the South Hills will host a Torah and Tea for Women at 1701 McFarland Road at 7:30 p.m. The event will look at “Eishet Chayil-Women of Valour,” the age-old wisdom of King Solomon sung as a tribute to Jewish women. Hot tea and refreshments will be provided. Visit chabadsh.com for more information. q SATURDAY, OCT. 13 Shabbat on the Ark aboard the Gateway Clipper will be held for families with children up to age 12 from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. at 350 W. Station Square Drive. A dairy breakfast will be served. The cost is $20 per family for up to six members; space is limited. Contact Katie Whitlatch at kwhitlatch@jccpgh.org or 412-697-3540 for more information and to RSVP by Oct. 5. q MONDAY, OCT. 15 Temple Emanuel will host a downtown lunch and learn featuring Rabbi Don Rossoff and a conversation on current events from noon to 1 p.m. Free and open to the public. Bring your own lunch. For more information, locations and to register, contact Temple Emanuel at

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$180. Reservations are required by Oct. 14 at chabadpgh.com/sweetbeginnings.

q TUESDAY, OCT. 16

q THURSDAY, OCT. 18

The Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh will host the exhibit “Stitching History from the Holocaust,” on loan from the Jewish Museum Milwaukee. The exhibit features reconstructed dress patterns from Hedy Strnad, a woman whose talent was cut short by the Holocaust. Helen Epstein, a journalist and author, will talk about Jewish women in the fashion industry. Registration is $10 and is free for survivors and students (with valid ID).

“South Hills Healthy Living: A Blueprint for Tomorrow” series will be from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the South Hills Jewish Community Center, 345 Kane Blvd. Dr. Keith Somers, a pediatrician and co-founder of One World Eating, will explain the benefits of plant-based diets for both adults and children in his talk on “Plant-Based Diets for a Healthier Family.” Register at southhillsjewishpittsburgh.org/jewishveg.

q WEDNESDAY, OCT. 17

q SUNDAY-TUESDAY, OCT. 21-23

South Hills Jewish Pittsburgh presents “Nosh & Know with Rabbi Danny Schiff” from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. In this five-part series, held at The Artsmiths of Pittsburgh, 1635 McFarland Road, Schiff explores “Judaism & The Holy Body.” Limited to just 40 people, “Nosh & Know” sells out quickly each year.

Registration is $50 for all five sessions and includes lunch. Dates and topics: Oct. 17, Tattooing and Piercing; Oct. 24, Cosmetic Procedures and Enhancements; Oct. 31, Visiting the Sick; Nov. 7, Exhibiting Bodies; and Nov. 14, Extending Life. Sessions are presented in partnership with Beth El Congregation, The Carnegie Shul, Jewish Community Center South Hills and Temple Emanuel. Call 412-278-1780 for any questions and/or help with registration. To register visit southhillsjewishpittsburgh.org/events/noshknow-with-rabbi-danny-schiff.

The National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education at Seton Hill University will hold the 2018 Ethel LeFrak Holocaust Education Conference on “Women, the Holocaust and Genocide.” Contact Tim Crain at tcrain@ setonhill.edu or 724-830-1855 for more information. Register at alumni.setonhill.edu/ lefrakconference.

Squirrel Hill AARP will feature the New Horizons Band of Greater Pittsburgh following their general meeting at Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha, 5898 Wilkins Ave., at 1 p.m.

The band’s repertoire includes standards, sing-alongs, patriotic, folk, swing, jazz and holiday music. Attendees are asked to bring donations of used eye glasses, cell phones/ chargers, new travel size toiletries and caps for men and women who are undergoing cancer treatments. Items will be donated to the Veterans Administration, Children’s Hospital, Hillman Cancer Center and Family House. For more information contact Marcia Kramer, 412-731-3338.

Chabad of Squirrel Hill will host “Sweet Beginnings,” a kick-off event for the Love and Knaidels program, which brings women together to cook for others in need. Women will make two pans of rugelach, one to bring home and one to donate, at the event, which will be held at 7 p.m. at Chabad, 1700 Beechwood Boulevard. Admission is $18 per person; a table of 10 can be purchased for

q THURSDAY, OCT. 25 Rabbi Barbara Symons of Temple David will discuss the book “The Assistant” by Bernard Malamud from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and again from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Monroeville Public Library at 4000 Gateway Campus Blvd. The community is invited; no registration is required. Visit MonroevilleLibrary.org for more information. q SUNDAY, OCT. 28 The Jewish Genealogy Society of Pittsburgh presents “Top 10 Things I Learned About My Family From My Couch” with local genealogist and historian Tammy Hepps of HomesteadHebrews.com, at 10:30 a.m. at the Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives at the Heinz History Center. The presentation will begin with a brief introduction by a member of the JGS leadership team with time at the end for questions and JGS business.

Refreshments will be served. Contact pghjgs@gmail.com for more information.

Chabad of the South Hills will hold its fourth annual Jewish Comedy Night at 7 p.m. at the Music Hall at the Carnegie Free Library, 300 Beechwood Ave. in Carnegie, featuring Sarge, a singer, comedian and pianist. Enjoy wine, cocktails and hors d’oeuvre. Visit chabadsh. com or contact mussie@chabadsh.com or 412-344-2424 for more information and to register. The early bird special of $25 includes priority seating; after Sept. 28 the cost will be $36. PJC

Frankel announces $600k in grants

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tate House Democratic Caucus Chairman Dan Frankel (D-District 23) announced that nearly $600,000 in grants would help fund a gateway revitalization project and boost recreation for Pittsburgh area residents.

The grants include $75,000 to the Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition for improvements to “O’Connor’s Corner” on the Murray Avenue business corridor and $194,125 to The First Tee of Pittsburgh for construction work on a new clubhouse building/learning center at the Bob O’Connor Golf Course in Squirrel Hill.

Frankel said the grant for the Squirrel Hill

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project — approved by the Commonwealth Financing Authority — will help fund a revitalization project that will add streetscape amenities, storm water enhancements, a green bus shelter and directional signage to Squirrel Hill’s “O’Connor’s Corner,” an area named as a tribute to the former Pittsburgh mayor.

The grant to First Tee of Pittsburgh will be used to ensure that the new Arnold Palmer Learning Center the organization is building meets LEED green building standards, with environmentally friendly technology that allows storm water runoff to be collected for irrigation. PJC

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SEPTEMBER 28, 2018 21

Community College students unite

Temple Emanuel’s Tashlich & Tacos

Hillel Jewish University Center and Chabad House on Campus held a Rosh Hashanah unity event. About 270 students celebrated in the Pitt O’Hara Student Center, beginning with appetizers and mingling, then services and a gourmet catered Yom Tov meal. Hats off to Rabbi Shmuel Rothstein and Danielle Kranjec for leading the happy crowd. The goodwill and positive energy in the room was a great way to start the year off together.

More than 150 people attended Temple Emanuel’s Tashlich & Tacos event on Rosh Hashanah. Now in its third year, Tashlich & Tacos brings together families and friends at Canonsburg Lake for the service, followed by food and fun at Mad Mex Lakeside.

p Students in the Pitt O’Hara Student Center Ballroom before Rosh Hashanah dinner

p From left: Harvey and Lynn Rubin and Lori and Steve Blattner

p Students mingled and had appetizers before services and dinner.

p From left: Pace Markowitz, Amanda and Josh Hausman, Dave Dvorin

Photos courtesy of Chabad House on Campus

Photos courtesy of Temple Emanuel

At Temple David Weiger Religious School

p Rabbi Barbara Symons distributes apples and honey as Temple David’s Weiger Religious School begins another sweet year of learning.

22 SEPTEMBER 28, 2018

p Rachael Farber’s class learns about atonement and what it is like to be burdened by “sins” as they carry backpacks full of rocks standing in for their sins.

Photos courtesy of Temple David

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Community Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh hosts Dr. Ervin Staub

Israel Bonds honors Milton Eisner Development Corporation for Israel/Israel Bonds with Congregation Beth Shalom honored Milton Eisner with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his years of service to Israel Bonds, the synagogue and the Jewish Community of Pittsburgh at a brunch on Sunday, Aug. 19. Co-chairs for the event were Bernice and Jack Meyers and Marlene and Art Silverman.

p On Thursday, Sept. 13 the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh hosted Dr. Ervin Staub at the Heinz History Center. A professor of psychology, emeritus, at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Staub is the founding director of the doctoral program on the psychology of peace and violence. He discussed his own experience as a Holocaust survivor, his research and experience exploring the roots of violence, how communities can heal from violent acts, and how bystanders can intervene and stop them from occurring.

Photo courtesy of Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh

Hillel Academy is hard at work

p From left: Bernice Meyers, Milt Eisner and Marlene Silverman

Hillel Academy fifth-grade girls are working on art projects. t Fifth-grader Rachelle Eisenberg works diligently on a portrait of Pittsburgh.

p Ken Eisner paid tribute to his father and presented the Lifetime Achievement Award and his brother, David Eisner, was the featured speaker at the event, speaking about his service to the Jewish community. From left are Ken Eisner, Milt Eisner and David Eisner

p Fifth-graders Chana Katz and Perri Berelowitz bond over a mutual love of art and a shared watercolor palette.

Photos by Micki Myers

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p Congregation Beth Shalom president Debby Firestone and her husband Nate Firestone celebrated with honoree, Milt Eisner. From left: Debby Firestone, Milt Eisner and Nate Firestone Photos by Jay Podolsky

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SEPTEMBER 28, 2018 23

KOSHER MEATS

Empire Fresh Kosher Bone-In Split Chicken Breasts

• All-natural poultry — whole chickens, breasts, wings and more • All-natural, corn-fed beef — steaks, roasts, ground beef and more • Variety of deli meats and franks Available at select Giant Eagle stores.

Visit GiantEagle.com for location information.

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99 lb.

Price effective Thursday, September 27 through Wednesday, October 3, 2018

Available at $' B3-&B LQGG

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