Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle 12-25-20

December 25, 2020 | 10 Tevet 5781

Candlelighting 4:41 p.m. | Havdalah 5:45 p.m. | Vol. 63, No. 52 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

NOTEWORTHY LOCAL Capping a career of communal service

Jewish Pittsburgh prepares for COVID-19 vaccinations

Federation CFO Milo Averbach retires Page 2

$1.50

A year like no other: The Chronicle’s top stories of 2020

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

A

LOCAL One of ‘Eight Bright Lights’

JCC’s Alan Mallinger gets national notice

 Pittsburghers are ready to roll up their sleeves for the COVID-19 vaccine Photo by Skarie20/iStockphoto.com

Page 3

By David Rullo | Staff Writer

LOCAL Leonard Bernstein ‘Reimagined’

Pittsburgh’s MCG Jazz to release new recording Page 4

W

hile all residential communities within the Jewish Association on Aging have been approved to receive the newly available vaccines against COVID-19, it is still unclear when vaccinations will begin.

The Food and Drug Administration authorized the emergency use of a COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by Moderna on Friday, Dec. 18. That vaccine was the second to be made available, a week after the FDA authorized a vaccine created by Pfizer, also with an emergency use authorization.

The JAA is on a priority list to receive the vaccine, but does not yet have confirmation of a date when it will begin to receive shipments, according to a JAA spokesperson. It is also unclear whether the JAA will receive the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, although it most likely will be the Moderna vaccine because the Pfizer drug is currently being distributed to local hospitals.

CVS Pharmacy, which will be distributing

the vaccine regionally, will both supply and administer vaccinations for the JAA staff and residents. While no official date has been set for vaccinations, they will most likely occur beginning in January, the JAA spokesperson said.

Nursing homes across the region have been particularly hard hit by the pandemic.

Although the JAA avoided a critical outbreak of COVID-19 in its facilities for months, in early August, six residents of the Charles Morris Nursing & Rehabilitation Center who tested positive for COVID-19 had died, as did one resident of Weinberg Terrace, a personal care community.

“JAA’s residents, our team members and their families have been waiting months for some positive news related to COVID,” said Deborah Winn-Horvitz, JAA’s president and CEO. “Knowing vaccinations are on the horizon gives us hope that there will finally be relief from some of the stress and heartache related to the pandemic.”

t the beginning of 2020, we asked communal leaders to imagine Jewish life in 2040. Some predicted that technology would become a prominent unifying force and means of connection.

Just a few weeks later, they were proven right.

This past year brought major shifts in how we engage with our communal institutions, our neighbors and even our families. And yet, though COVID-19 upended our lives, Jewish Pittsburgh spent much of 2020 doing one of the things it does best: caring.

When people moved inside, individuals and organizations ensured that shuttered doors didn’t beget silence. Phone calls, contactless meal drop-offs and virtual programming became mechanisms to combat isolation and safely embrace one another. Our communal organizations raised funds to help those struggling most, provided counseling services, hosted blood drives. Many congregations moved their services online so their members could still join together in prayer, even if not in person.

2020 will provide plenty of material for historians and researchers to unravel in the years to come, but allow us to share one factoid for our data-driven readers: Between March 11 and Dec. 16, the word “Zoom” appeared in 182 of our stories. In the 10 years prior, it was used nine times.

Here is a look back at the year that was.

January:

Pittsburghers turn the page and start again After 2,711 pages and seven-and-a-half years of textual rigor, members of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community completed the Daf Yomi cycle. Both for those who joined nearly 90,000 Jews at MetLife Stadium, or

Please see Vaccines, page 20

Please see Review, page 14

keep your eye on PittsburghJewishChronicle

LOCAL Supporting the marginalized

LOCAL Zach Banner: Mensch

MUSIC A New Year’s playlist

Headlines Federation CFO retires after more than three decades in Jewish communal life — LOCAL —

By David Rullo | Staff Writer

M

ilo Averbach believes he was destined to work for the Jewish community.

Averbach will retire Dec. 31 after serving as the chief financial officer of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh for the last 20 years. Those two decades cap a career that spanned an additional 14 years as both assistant controller and controller for the organization and, before that, time with various Jewish Community Centers.

The native Pittsburgher grew up in the East End neighborhood of Stanton Heights.

He calls himself a product of the JCC system, having spent time at the organization’s predecessors while growing up: the Young Men and Women’s Hebrew Association and The Irene Kaufmann Center.

Like many Jewish youth, Averbach attended Jewish day and overnight camp. His got his start in Jewish communal work at the Emma Kaufmann camp in Morgantown, West Virginia, where he served first as a staff member and one year as the camp’s assistant director.

Those early JCC experiences inspired Averbach to earn a master’s in social work from Washington University in St. Louis and to work for JCCs in both St. Louis and Dallas.

After working with youth early in his career, Averbach switched paths and earned an MBA at the University of Pittsburgh.

After graduation, he attended an information interview at the Federation, hoping to learn about opportunities to combine his two degrees and experience.

“I wasn’t interested so much in the Pittsburgh Federation, I just wanted to learn

about opportunities in the Jewish communal field,” he said.

After that initial interview, though, the Federation created a position for Averbach in its accounting department. He stayed in accounting at Federation for 34 years.

In his role as CFO, Averbach not only works closely with the controller who, with the accounting department, oversees the organization’s day-to-day financial operations, but also has responsibilities with the Jewish Community Foundation and the Federation’s investment funds. Additionally, he served as the lead staff person for what became the Jewish Community Health Plan and has served as the plan’s administrator since its inception “In the last 20 years, I’ve stepped outside or beyond just accounting and took more of a management role,” he said.

Part of that increased management role has included helping to create Federation’s IT department, working closely with the human resources department and assisting with central services, or those areas that help support other departments.

“If you work at a place long enough, you’re given opportunities and challenges,” Averbach said. “You enjoy those sorts of things because you get to come out of your box a little bit.”

For Averbach, coming out of his box has included working with the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh for the last six years, helping to create the Jewish Community Security department and hiring its first director — Brad Orsini — and assisting with the move from Federation’s longtime home in Oakland to its new offices at 200 Technology Drive.

“That was the opportunity I loved the most,” Averbach said of the move. “We outgrew the Federation building and put together a committee chaired by Billy Rudolph and a lot of great leadership.”

 Milo Averbach Photo provided by Milo Averbach

After first exploring the idea of simply expanding their building, the committee decided to sell the property and find new office space.

“I was involved in all of that, working with real estate agents, real estate attorneys, contractors, architects,” Averbach said. “It was a long process to sell the building and the selection of where we could go. I got to be involved in the design of the building with the architects and landlord. I never had the opportunity to do that before, but I loved it.”

Because of COVID-19, Averbach only worked in the new building for a little over a year before Federation employees began working remotely.

It’s the challenge of the unknown that Averbach will miss the most once he leaves the Federation.

“Some challenges are good and fun like working with the agencies,” he said. “Then there’s the tragedy of the Tree of Life that changed normal operations — working with the community and the Victims of Terror

campaign and distributing the dollars. That is a challenge. And then this pandemic, something you never thought could happen.”

In fact, Averbach had planned to retire earlier but decided to stay through the end of the year.

Over the last three and a half decades, Averbach said he has seen the strength of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community, and noted, “I think Federation plays a part in that.”

Averbach’s impact on Jewish Pittsburgh will continue to be felt after he retires, especially within the strong teams he helped Federation build and the new building Federation currently occupies, said Jeff Finkelstein, the Federation’s president and CEO, who has worked with Averbach for 22 years.

“I think that’s the kind of legacy that all of us should hope for because, at some point, we are all going to leave our jobs,” Finkelstein said. “What you want is to make sure you leave something stronger than when you first came.”

One thing Finkelstein will miss is Averbach’s sense of humor.

“It’s been able to lighten up dark times,” Finkelstein said.

Averbach’s plans include some weekend trips with his wife, Frani, spending time with his two children and growing into his expanding role as a grandfather — he currently has one grandchild and is expecting another soon.

“I look forward to the adventure of retirement,” Averbach said.

The Federation is currently interviewing CFO candidates with plans in place for as seamless a transition as possible, according to Adam Hertzman, the Federation’s director of marketing. PJC David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Headlines JCC’s Alan Mallinger honored for going beyond the call of duty — LOCAL —

By Justin Vellucci | Special to the Chronicle

A

longtime JCC staff member has been hailed for his unwavering community service by the group’s national parent.

Alan Mallinger, a Squirrel Hill native who has worked for some 26 years for the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, just was named one of Eight Bright Lights From the JCC Field by the Jewish Community Centers of North America.

Mallinger, who also is a longtime volunteer with the organization, started his career with Pittsburgh’s JCC when it still was based in Oakland, beginning with coaching youth basketball squads.

“I liked basketball and I liked working with the kids — and one thing led to another,” he laughed.

Mallinger then moved on to more advanced sports and recreation positions, helping with kids’ programming at the JCC as well as programming for adults.

He continues to work at the JCC site in Monroeville, and serves as the organization’s liaison to the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame of Western Pennsylvania.

 Alan Mallinger

Photo provided by the JCC of Greater Pittsburgh

Mallinger always has been a bit of a utility player for the Squirrel Hill-based organization, filling in whenever and however he’s needed. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic only amplified his ability to juggle multiple roles. In March, when in Monroeville preparing for summer camps, Mallinger was called to new duties. He accepted them without hesitation.

“I just started doing some other things, because fitness was closed,” he told the Chronicle, minimizing his heroism in the face of the virus. “Screenings were a big thing.”

Today, Mallinger begins his mornings as a health screener, monitoring for COVID-19-related symptoms in preschoolers and school-age children attending the JCC’s childcare programs.

Mallinger specifically serves those attending All Day at the J — a program designed

to provide virtually schooled children a place to study and receive instruction away from their at-home, working parents.

After that, he helps with the senior meal distribution program. Mallinger estimates the group delivers about 80 meals a day through the ACCESS program, not to mention those for people who pick them up in Squirrel Hill.

“He has continued in this role for nearly nine months,” said Brian Schreiber, the JCC’s president and CEO. “There is not a task assigned that Alan does not tackle, with a smile behind his mask and gratitude in his heart.”

Mallinger is characteristically modest about his contributions at the JCC, passing the praise to his peers.

“Being a team player is easy to do at this JCC because we have a good team,” Mallinger told the Chronicle. “There are a lot of people who do a lot of good.”

Mallinger said he was “a little surprised” to hear about the national JCC honor. “I’m just trying to help out and do what needs to be done,” he said. “In these times we’re in, it’s all hands on deck. If they need me to do something, I’ll do it.” PJC Justin Vellucci is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.

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Headlines ‘Bernstein Reimagined’ pays homage to the music of a Jewish icon — LOCAL —

By David Rullo | Staff Writer

M

arty Ashby remembered the reaction from the crowd after a 2018 performance of “On the Waterfront” at the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild on Pittsburgh North Side.

“The audience was stunned,” the guitar player and producer said.

The performance was part of an MCG Jazz production featuring the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra in honor of Leonard Bernstein’s 100th birthday.

Bernstein died in 1990.

Ashby and the big band did not know that two years later they would be recording both Bernstein’s popular music and his more “serious” works.

“When we were putting together the program [for the 2018 live performance], we realized that we were onto something really special,” Ashby said. “So, it came about organically. We said, let’s continue to refine the arrangements. After four or five months, we knew we needed to go in the studio and record this to capture this moment in time.”

Set for release Jan. 29, 2021, on the MCG Jazz label, the recording features three of Bernstein’s compositions from the 1949 film “On the Town,” the symphonic suite

 The latest Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra recording, “Bernstein Reimagined,” will be released Jan. 29 on MCG Jazz.

Photo courtesy of Marty Ashby

 The Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra first conceived of the “Bernstein Reimagined” project during live performances in 2018 at the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild.

Photo by Jacklyn Nask

from “On the Waterfront,” a selection from Bernstein’s adaption of “Peter Pan,” two tracks from Bernstein operas, “Trouble in Tahiti” and “A Quiet Place,” and three of Bernstein’s works that are not part of the musician’s pop canon: “Waltz from Divertimento for Orchestra,” “Meditation #1 from Mass” and “Chichester Psalms I.” The tracks highlight the composer’s versatility, or as Ashby puts it: “Maestro Bernstein

could do anything. He could write for a symphony, he could write opera, he could write theater works, he could write solo piano pieces and string ensemble works.”

Comparing Bernstein to a painter, Ashby said his flexibility meant there were many colors from which the SJM Orchestra could choose.

While his band didn’t capture the full palette of Bernstein’s hues, “we got a lot of the colors in the spectrum of his music,” Ashby said.

Not surprisingly, the Washington, D.C.based group swings like a big band, playing all of the cuts with a jazz sensibility. It utilizes a standard big-band orchestration of 17 members, although special guests and percussionists sometimes swell its size to up to 20 members.

All but one of the tracks feature new arrangements. “These arrangements haven’t been heard by anyone, except for the one track we played on tour around the world,” Ashby said. All the tracks began with Please see Bernstein, page 15

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Headlines Jewish nonprofit supports the marginalized in ‘healing’ and ‘resistance’ — LOCAL —

By Justin Vellucci | Special to the Chronicle

A

mi Weintraub is very taken with the meanings behind words.

Take Shulayim L’Shalom, an alternative youth group in Pittsburgh for LGBTQ Jewish teens and their allies that three years ago birthed Ratzon, the group Weintraub serves as a programming coordinator.

“It’s this idea of what ‘shalom’ means — completeness. [Shulayim L’Shalom] means ‘margins to peace,’” said Weintraub, who is a rabbinical student. “It brings people into completeness in our community.”

Ratzon — Hebrew for “yearning” or “possibility” — is not your parents’ Jewish nonprofit. Jewish but non-hierarchical, the group staunchly promotes big ideas and big ideals — and shouts from the rafters for people who find themselves on the margins of society. The youth group Shulayim L’Shalom, whose regular meetings have been sidelined

by COVID-19, is only part of the picture.

“We believe that healing and resistance go hand in hand. When oppression and violence rattles our communities we are often left with political, emotional and spiritual wounds. Joining together to heal and fight back helps us care for ourselves and those we love,” the group’s website reads.

“Ratzon is a place for those from marginalized communities, cultures and identities to gather in healing and resistance.”

The group maintains a space in North Oakland — other politically left-leaning groups also share the space — where it promotes drop-ins and events. Since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, much of the building’s footprint has been dedicated to the group’s distribution efforts: Ratzon collects food, toiletries, baby clothes and other material needs, and volunteers deliver them to families throughout the city.

A lot of the group is about healing, Weintraub said. Members frequently sing together at events — you can hear a sample of one singing session online — or light candles at post-denominational Shabbat services. Ratzon even joined the more traditional fray to host a menorah-lighting Chanukah celebration recently.

“The belief is that people on the margins of society … need to heal and we also need to resist, to safeguard ourselves and our community,” Weintraub said.

In addition, the group does very practical things — like offering gender-affirming clothing to transgender youth and others expressing their gender identity.

“Ratzon is a lot of things,” Weintraub said.

“Part of the idea is we want to be uplifting for queer Jewish people — for material needs and for spiritual needs.”

The broader Jewish community in Pittsburgh has been supportive of Ratzon, Weintraub said, adding “we look forward to serving our community together.” PJC

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Justin Vellucci is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.

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Coordinated visits between residents and loved ones  Ratzon collects and distributes food and other supplies to people in need.

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 A banner hanging in Ratzon made by teens and community members Photos provided by Ami Weintraub

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12/15/20 11:07 AM

DECEMBER 25, 2020 5

Calendar Submit calendar items on the Chronicle’s website, pittsburghjewishchronicle.org. Submissions also will 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 FRIDAY, DEC. 25 Join the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh for a long-standing Pittsburgh tradition, Mitzvah Day, when the Jewish community provides services to organizations throughout the entire community.

Opportunities include blood drives and a variety of virtual volunteer activities. For more information, visit jewishpgh.org/mitzvah-day. q SUNDAY, DEC. 27 The Zionist Organization of America will hold its first-ever virtual Superstar Gala at 7 p.m. The lineup includes David Friedman, U.S. ambassador to Israel; Gilan Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S.; Dr. Kiron Sinner, director of CMU’s Institute for Politics and Strategy; Rapper/actor/filmmaker, Ice Cube; And Morton Klein, ZOA national president. Pittsburghers Andrea Chester and Harold Marcus will be spotlighted. For information, visit zoa.org/gala or contact ZOA Pittsburgh Executive Director Stuart Pavilack at pittsburgh@zoa.org or 304-639-1758. q SUNDAYS, DEC. 27; JAN. 3, 10, 17, 24 Join a lay-led Online Parashah Study Group to discuss the week’s Torah portion. No Hebrew knowledge is needed. The goal is to build community while deepening understanding of the text. For more information, visit bethshalompgh.org.

q MONDAY, DEC. 28

q MONDAY, JAN. 4

Moishe House Pittsburgh welcomes HIAS President Mark Hetfield for Our People Were Refugees Too: MoHo Meets HIAS President Mark Hetfield. Hetfield will discuss the organization’s work, the current state of the refugee crisis during the pandemic and how we can advocate for our country to welcome the stranger.

7 p.m. For more information, visit facebook.com/ moishehouse.pittsburgh.

Join Beth El Congregation of the South Hills for First Mondays with Rabbi Alex. This month, musician Seth Kibel will present “Klezmer: American Music.” 12 p.m. For more information and to register, visit bethelcong.org.

q MONDAYS, DEC. 28; JAN. 4, 11, 18, 25 Join Rabbi Jeremy Markiz in learning Masechet Rosh Hashanah, a tractate of the Talmud about the many new years that fill out the Jewish calendar at Monday Talmud study. 9:15 a.m. For more information, visit bethshalompgh.org. q TUESDAYS, DEC. 29-JUNE 1 What is the point of Jewish living? What ideas, beliefs and practices are involved? Melton Course 1: Rhythms & Purposes of Jewish Living examines a variety of Jewish sources to discover the deeper meanings of Jewish holidays, lifecycle observances and Jewish practice. Cost: $300 per person, per year (25 sessions), includes all books and materials. For more information and to register, visit foundation.jewishpgh.org. q SUNDAY, JAN. 3 Calling all ages and abilities: Join Congregation Beth Shalom for Come Together Schlep-A-Thon. Walk, or schlep, a single lap around the synagogue in a fundraiser guaranteed to warm your spirits. Earn the chance to win prizes by having people sponsor your walk. Staggered start times beginning at noon. For more information, visit bethshalompgh.org/come together.

q THURSDAY, JAN. 7 Classrooms Without Borders, in partnership with Rodef Shalom Congregation, is excited to offer the opportunity to watch the film “Beslaney: Memories” and engage in a post-film discussion with the film’s director Sara Tsifroni, producer Ancho Gosh and the film’s researchers and protagonists Zouheir Takhaukho and Professor Yair Auron, in conversation with CWB scholar Avi Ben-Hur. 3 p.m. For more information and to register, visit classroomswithoutborders.com. q MONDAY, JAN. 11 The first semester of the school year is coming to a close. For sophomores, juniors, and seniors, as well as entering freshmen/women the last months have been a unique and challenging time. Please join Temple Sinai and JFCS for College During the Pandemic: A Program for Students and Parents.

The conversation will be facilitated by Erin Barr and Stephanie Rodriquez from JFCS's Children Service and Temple Sinai's Rabbi Darryl Crystal.

7 p.m. For more information and to register, visit templeseinaipgh.org. q TUESDAY, JAN. 12; FRIDAY JAN. 22;

THURSDAY, FEB. 4

What are you doing in June 2022? The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh hopes that you will be in Israel with them and hundreds of others from Pittsburgh’s Jewish community. To learn more, join Federation for a Zoom info session. Young adults are invited to attend a special session on Jan. 12 at 6 p.m. Adults should plan to attend on Jan. 22 at noon or Feb. 4 at 7 p.m. For more information and to register, visit jfedpgh.org. q WEDNSDAY, JAN. 13

The need for CARE does not stop during times of Crisis THE SAFEST PLACE TO BE IS IN YOUR OWN HOME We help our clients stay safe at home.

We have implemented protocols to mitigate exposure to COVID-19.

Join Temple Sinai and JFCS for Grandparenting During the Pandemic. They will share ideas for the best ways to interact with grandchildren at a distance, thoughts for activities, and there will be an opportunity to share our experiences. The conversation will be led by Stefanie Small from JFCS and Rabbi Darryl Crystal from Temple Sinai. 7 p.m. To register visit templesinaipgh.org. q THURSDAYS, JAN. 28; FEB. 4, 11, 25;

MARCH 4, 11

Danny Schiff will provide a comprehensive overview of this singular, foundational work. Co-sponsored with Derekh at Congregation Beth Shalom.

9:30 a.m. For more information and to register, visit foundation.jewishpgh.org/mishna. q SUNDAYS, JAN. 31;

FEB. 7, 14, 21, 28; MARCH 7, 14

What does Jewish tradition have to say about God, Torah, mitzvot, suffering, messiah, Israel? In this special course, Pittsburgh Rabbis on Jewish Belief, Jewish Community Foundation Scholar Rabbi Danny Schiff will host 14 Pittsburgh rabbis, each teaching a session on fundamental aspects of Jewish belief. 10 a.m. For more information and to register, visit foundation.jewishpgh.org. q MONDAYS, FEB. 1, 8, 15, 22;

MARCH 1, 8, 15

Most people associate the term “Haftarah” with opaque prophetic reading on Shabbat morning.

This course, Haftarah, will attempt to make the opaque sparkle. Choosing selectively from the most interesting Haftarah portions, Jewish Community Foundation Scholar Rabbi Danny Schiff will seek to imbue meaning in these powerful prophetic passages. 9:30 a.m. For more information and to register, visit foundation.jewishpgh.org. q TUESDAYS, FEB. 9, 16, 23; MARCH 2, 9 Treating Jewish jokes as text, From Sinai to Seinfeld invites students to analyze and interpret the evolving concerns, styles, rhythms, preoccupations and values of the Jewish people that lie buried deep in words that make us laugh as Jews, and that bond us as a people. $50 per person, includes all books and materials. For more information and to register, visit foundation.jewishpgh.org. q THURSDAYS, FEB. 18; MARCH 18;

MAY 6; JUNE 17

We live in a time of multiple challenges.

Controversial issues and struggles confront us daily. But the truth is that Jews have never desisted from addressing tough problems. In this year’s Continuing Legal Education Series, Jewish Community Foundation Scholar Rabbi Danny Schiff will dive into a range of “tense topics” — difficult and troubling issues that are both powerfully emotional subjects and have substantive legal ramifications at the same time. Get up to 12 CLE ethics credits. With CLE/CEU credit: $30/session or $180 all sessions; without CLE/CEU credit: $25/ session or $150 all sessions. 8:30 a.m. For more information and to register, visit foundation. jewishpgh.org. PJC

The Mishna, the Oral Law in written form, is one of the greatest works of the Jewish people. In this survey course, Jewish Foundation Scholar Rabbi

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Headlines Searching for facts and truth in historic fiction — HISTORY —

By Eric Lidji | Special to the Chronicle

S

undown is a fictional coal patch along the Connoquenessing Creek, north of Pittsburgh. Only one Jewish family lives in Sundown — the Kahns. Al and Celia Kahn and their children run a small store, known almost universally as “the Jew’s store.�

The town and the family were the creation of Chester Aaron, who lived in North Butler, Pennsylvania, from his birth in 1923 until he left for the U.S. Army in World War II. I learned about his books from Steven Edelstein, who also grew up in small-town Western Pennsylvania and has also written about his experiences using the tools of fiction.

Through the eyes of his fictional counterpart Ben Kahn, Aaron wrote about Sundown twice, in his first novel “About Us� in 1967 and again in his last novel, “About Them� in 2011. He died in 2019 in California, where he went to live after the war. He became a writing instructor and an X-ray technician, and then he became a world-famous garlic farmer. Congregation B’nai Abraham in Butler recently finished saying kaddish for him.

The two Sundown novels corroborate various historic facts about small-town

Jewish life in Western get it from all sides Pennsylvania, such as the — from non-Jewish way families spread across Polish immigrants in the region, creating a the town, from unemconstellation among small ployed American-born towns. But the novels also miners, and from contain many dramatic the relatively well-off moments that feel invented, business and political rather than fact disguised leaders who run the as fiction. It’s hard to tell town. The Kahns have what’s invented and what’s only one reprieve. In “About Them,� we meet reported, and so it’s hard to embrace the book as a the lone Black family in historic source.

Sundown, the Taylors, What value does who share a deep bond make-believe serve in with the Kahns. The relationship is suffused the effort to understand ď ° Chester Aaron’s first with mutual respect, in the past? The “truthâ€? of novel, “About Us,â€? from 1967, part because the two fiction is often experiential. documented the declining faith and fortunes of the Kahn families, in the eyes of Fiction can articulate the family of fictional Sundown, Sundown, are almost way it felt to live through Pennsylvania, in the 1930s.

Image courtesy Rauh Jewish Archives the same. (Almost: The a time and a place. This at the Heinz History Center Taylors notably must is where the two novels provide something that is hard to find in wait outside many places that would allow the historic record. Archival documents like the Kahns to enter.)

The ugliness committed against these minute books and store ledgers have a way of keeping certain intense, human experiences families — sometimes casual, sometimes at a distance. You can define their contours, horrific — is more multifaceted than “hatred� but it takes diligence. With fiction, all those suggests. Everyone likes the Kahns. But in dramas are right on the surface. any disagreement, anti-Semitism sharpens One illuminating example is Aaron’s the knives. A local gets drunk and disgraces portrayal of anti-Semitism — not its existence himself, and he blames his situation on a very but its complexity. In “About Us,� the Kahns sober Ben Kahn: “Jew jinx. Hitler knows.�

Faith is another place where the novels elaborate on details that feel obscured in the historic record. The Kahns remain religiously observant through a period of economic success. Only when the Depression steals their few comforts, and then a beloved daughter tragically dies, does their faith drain away. These troubles are no harder than those the Kahns had experienced in Europe. Maybe they just expected more of America.

Their children seek meaning in art, war, politics and business. Religion becomes a residue of their youth. An elderly Ben Kahn passes a synagogue one day, and the echoes of prayer inside strike his heart like the smell of home cooking from the kitchen.

That nostalgia is also a source of historical insight. “About Them� finds an elderly Ben Kahn making a final pilgrimage to Sundown.

Everything he sees is coated in delight, even though “About Us� had presented his childhood as dusky and grim. By surviving the experience, it became precious to him and to those who survived it with him. You can find that same tension and contradiction throughout many reminisces of the Jewish past. PJC Eric Lidji is the director of the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center. He can be reached at eslidji@heinzhistorycenter.org or 412-454-6406.

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Headlines Steelers ‘mensch’ Zach Banner to donate part of game day check to Tree of Life — LOCAL —

By Faygie Holt | JNS

P

ittsburgh Steeler Zach Banner announced last week that he was donating a portion of a game day check to Tree of Life, the site of the mass shooting in October 2018. “I’m crashing Hanukkah this year guys ‌ by donating part of my game day check to the Tree of Life synagogue here in Pittsburgh.

Happy Holidays!� tweeted Banner.

He signed off as “Hulk,� a reference to Marvel superhero Bruce Banner. “I have been so moved by the support and love I’ve received from the Jewish community this year, especially here in Pittsburgh,�

Banner told Jewish News Syndicate. “The Tree of Life synagogue is such a major fixture in our city, and I see so much overlap between their mission and the mission of my foundation [B3 Foundation] champion.

To build and strengthen community, to heal division and bring people together. This is my way of saying thank you for the ongoing support I’ve received and to stand as an ally

The Twitterverse responded to his announcement of tzedakah with people calling the football player a “mensch� and inviting him for latkes, coffee and even to Friday-night Shabbat dinner.

p Zach Banner, offensive tackle for the Pittsburgh Steelers Twitter/Zach Banner via JNS

for my Jewish brothers and sisters.�

Earlier this year, the offensive tackle took to social media in support of the Jewish

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In his July video, Banner urged the “Black and brown communityâ€? to understand that like them, Jews are a minority and face the “same amount of hate [and] similar hardships ‌ â€?

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Members of Tree of Life responded: “We look forward to inviting you to celebrate the holidays in person sometime soon!�  PJC

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Headlines Auschwitz museum director wades into Yad Vashem debate — WORLD —

By Cnaan Liphshiz | JTA

A

s the head of Poland’s AuschwitzBirkenau Memorial and Museum, Piotr Cywiński and his staff rarely intervene in matters that don’t concern their imposing institution.

They even sit out debates that do concern them, such as Poland’s controversial outlawing in 2018 of rhetoric that blames the country for Nazi crimes.

But Cywiński decided to speak out about the controversy surrounding Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust museum, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to appoint as its head Effi Eitam, a hawkish retired general and politician who, a growing number of critics say, has used racist rhetoric against Arab Israelis and Palestinians.

“I am concerned about the future of this institution,” Cywiński told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency about Yad Vashem in a telephone interview.

Cywiński, a 48-year-old historian who is not Jewish and has headed the Auschwitz state museum since 2006, is not alone in expressing concern about Yad Vashem.

Hundreds of Holocaust survivors and scholars have protested the plan, which was made known in August, to have Eitam, a former leader of the settler movement in Israel, succeed Avner Shalev, a former general and government cultural official who is retiring after serving in the role since 1993.

Opponents of the appointment, including 750 scholars who signed a petition protesting it, have cited what they call the “hateful rhetoric” of Eitam, a 68-year-old hero of Israel’s 1973 war and the famous Entebbe operation in Uganda.

Eitam’s advocates cite his managerial and leadership credentials, and the fact that Yad Vashem has had controversial heads in the past, including the late secularist politician Tommy Lapid, who had said that “lying comes easier to women” and that Yitzhak Rabin’s cabinet was a “Judenrat,” the name for the Jewish governing councils of Nazi ghettos that is often used to imply Jewish collaboration with anti-Semites.

In Eitam’s case, the hate speech allegations refer to a speech Eitam made in 2006, in which he said about West Bank Palestinians that “some of them may be able to stay under some conditions, but most will have to go away.” He also said: “We will need to make a decision, which is to expel the Arab Israelis from the political system. We have raised a fifth column, a group of classic traitors.”

He also said in a 2011 interview that “de facto autonomy” for Arab Israelis is “an existential threat characterized by stealth. And stealthy threats by nature are like cancer.”

Last week, Eitam responded for the first time to his critics, saying he does not wish to see Palestinians driven out of the West Bank, though he added that he could see such an expulsion happening over the course of the conflict.

“If war is declared on us by people, publics or groups who seek to make Israel into an arena for terrorism, there we will fight with all of our strength and there we will prevail,”

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 Piotr Cywinski, the director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, at a press conference in Oswiecim, Poland, Jan. 26, 2020

Photo by Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images via JTA

he said. “Expulsion of the Arabs of Judea and Samaria is not a goal, it is an outcome.”

He also said: “When the allegations against me are false and baseless, there’s no need to respond. My connection to the Holocaust is deep and alive. It’s how I grew up and raised my children, grandchildren and soldiers.”

Cywiński called the leadership of Yad Vashem “an internal Israeli decision” and declined to name specifically Eitam, whose mother survived the Holocaust as a fighter in the Red Army but lost her parents in the genocide in what is now Latvia. Still, Cywiński said that whoever succeeds Shalev needs to “maintain Shalev’s achievement of positioning Yad Vashem as an international research authority, rather than merely a national museum, and as an international center for education on the Holocaust.”

The outcry over Eitam’s appointment is making Cywiński doubt whether Eitam is the man for the job, he conceded.

“I am hearing the voices of many different institutions around the world. I don’t want to focus on any names and focus instead on what the problem is, the reason it was very criticized by some very important partners in such a fashion,” he said.

The protest “shows that maybe the roadmap to choosing the right person is not exactly understood,” he added.

The decision to speak out about Yad Vashem is part of a growing willingness on Cywiński’s part to intervene in matters outside his professional purview, said the father of three, who divides his time between Warsaw and the museum near Krakow, some 150 miles south of the capital.

Earlier this year, Cywiński took another bold step, heading an international activist campaign for the first time. It was on behalf of Omar Farouq, a 13-year-old Nigerian boy sentenced to 10 years in prison by a Muslim Sharia court for things the boy had allegedly said during a conversation with a friend who reported him to the authorities.

In an open letter to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who had visited Auschwitz in 2018, Cywiński wrote that Farouq should be released. If that’s impossible, Cywiński added, then he and other activists volunteered to divide the sentence between them and serve it for Farouq.

As the director of a Polish state museum built on a Nazi camp where “children were imprisoned and murdered, I cannot remain indifferent to this disgraceful sentence to humanity,” Cywiński wrote at the time.

None of it came to fruition, but it was unusual for Cywiński to speak out on the issue, especially because he is known to believe that Holocaust museums should generally stay narrowly focused on their subject.

In speaking to JTA, Cywiński singled out for criticism Belgium’s Kazerne Dossin Holocaust museum, which is facing flak for its universalist approach to its subject matter.

This year it also endorsed a prominent promoter of the boycott Israel movement.

Cywiński also disapproves of the recent decision by the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center in Florida to include an exhibit about George Floyd, a Black man who was killed by a white policeman in Minnesota earlier this year.

“It’s not the best way,” Cywiński said. “We have to stay very, very strongly on the basic message of all those institutions. It’s not an issue to compare everything, it’s not the issue to introduce everything in everything.”

The Holocaust “informs our knowledge about other tragedies,” Cywiński said, but “museums about it shouldn’t be about creating a melting pot of everything in one place.”

His growing tendency to speak out on issues beyond his museum’s scope are “perfectly in line” with this view, he said. “I’m not saying Holocaust historians shouldn’t speak out about what happens in the world, on the contrary. Just that Holocaust museums aren’t the appropriate place to deal with things that are not part of the Holocaust.”

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Cywiński has opted for more activist approaches because “the world is becoming more and more difficult. And our level of responsibility and cooperation must grow accordingly,” he said.

Shalev’s ability to make Yad Vashem an international center “for education against hatred against this background is also why I admire what he has done,” Cywiński said.

Immediately after his appointment, Shalev founded Yad Vashem’s International School for Holocaust Studies, a pioneer institution whose programs for educators from all over the world have set the standard in the field. He has also advanced the collection of individual names of Holocaust victims by Yad Vashem, reaching five million of them that are now accessible on the memorial’s website in six languages.

The collection of the names of rescuers of Jews, the Righteous Among the Nations, also received a major push under Shalev.

A third of Poland’s 7,112 Righteous were recognized under Shalev, as well as nearly half of Ukraine’s 2,659 rescuers. (This push has had its own controversy — critics said some recipients of the honor should never have received it, and other rescuers were left out of the process, despite ample evidence of their heroism.)

At Auschwitz, Cywiński has also placed a focus on education. He has also headed massive restoration efforts, ranging from fixing decaying barracks to old suitcase buckles, obtaining many millions of dollars for these projects from multiple governments and donors. Under Cywiński educational projects have expanded dramatically, thanks to the opening of new training programs for historians, teachers and most recently even journalists.

Back in Israel, some critics of Cywiński believe he is neglecting to speak out on issues that are central to Auschwitz’s mission, including the legislation by Please see Museum, page 15

DECEMBER 25, 2020 9

Headlines it was available to them, leading to fears that the country will have a tough road to herd immunity.

— WORLD — From JTA reports

Israel bans tourists and brings back quarantine hotels amid latest COVID spike

A spike in coronavirus cases coupled with the threat of a new strain of the virus discovered in England has led Israel to shut itself off, once again, to foreign travelers.

In addition, Israelis returning home are required to quarantine in designated hotels for at least 10 days.

The new requirements come as Israeli media is reporting that people confined to the hotels, which have been required for some non-Israeli travelers, are protesting the conditions there, and one person in isolation committed suicide at a hotel on Monday.

Israel currently has a total of over 23,000 COVID-19 cases, and the numbers are also spiking in the West Bank and in Gaza, Haaretz reported.

British authorities say the new strain, which has been tracked in southern England, is up to 70% more contagious. Israel is far from the only country to limit travel from the United Kingdom in response.

Israel’s COVID vaccine rollout began this weekend. As he indicated he would be, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was the first Israeli to receive the vaccine. The day after, 10,000 medical staff received it.

Only 40% of Israelis in a recent survey said that they would get the vaccine as soon as

Halle synagogue shooter sentenced to life in prison

The far-right extremist who attempted to shoot his way into the synagogue in Halle, Germany on Yom Kippur last year has been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of two people outside of the synagogue.

The 28-year-old gunman was sentenced by a court in Magdeburg near Berlin and denied the option of an early release after his first 15 years in prison.

The sentence he received is therefore unlimited, pending his death or healthrelated changes in the conditions of his incarceration. It is the harshest prescribed punishment in the German criminal code, DPA reported.

During the months-long trial, the perpetrator said he carried out the attack because he believed “Jews were ruining Germany.” In his closing argument earlier this month, he denied the Holocaust several times, ignoring the judge’s warning that doing so was illegal.

He also attempted to escape prison.

On Oct. 9, 2019, he showed up at the Halle synagogue with the intent of murdering congregants praying inside, prosecutors say.

The heavy front door, which is now being repurposed into a memorial, kept him out.

He proceeded to shoot and kill two at a nearby kebab shop.

Josef Schuster, the head of Germany’s

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Central Council of Jews, wrote in a statement that the verdict “makes clear that murderous hatred of Jews is met with no tolerance. Up to the end, the attacker showed no remorse, but kept to his hate-filled anti-Semitic and racist world view.”

Beauty pageant runner-up gets anti-Semitic hate online after saying her father is Israeli

The runner-up in the Miss France beauty pageant received a torrent of anti-Semitic tweets and other online messages after telling a judge in the contest that her father is Israeli.

“I have an array of origins: My mother is Serbo-Croat, my father Israeli-Italian. This gave me a passion for geography and the discerning of other cultures,” April Benayoum told the contest’s audience, according to the Jerusalem Post.

The tweets, including one in which the author wrote, “Hitler forgot about you,” provoked condemnations from some of France’s top politicians, including Marlene Schaippa, the minister delegate in charge of citizenship.

“MissFrance2021 is not a contest in antisemitism,” Schaippa wrote. “Full support to April Benayoun, who has been the target of unprecedented anti-Semitic hate speech after revealing her origins.”

LICRA, the International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism, announced that it is taking legal action against multiple individuals who sent the messages. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said he was

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Dec. 25, 1925 — Tehiya founder Geulah Cohen is born

Activist Geulah Cohen is born in Tel Aviv.

Elected to the Knesset with Likud in 1973, she forms Banai, which becomes Tehiya (“Revival”), in opposition to the peace treaty with Egypt.

Dec. 26, 1968 — El Al Flight is attacked in Athens

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French police have arrested two adults and two minors suspected of an anti-Semitic hate crime in which they allegedly verbally assaulted a Jewish family near Paris in their car.

The incident happened in the northern Paris suburb of Aubervilliers, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin wrote on Twitter. No one was hurt in the incident, Le Parisien reported.

“Yesterday night, during Hanukkah, a family from Aubervilliers was assaulted because they are Jewish. In France, in 2020.

The perpetrators were apprehended very swiftly by the law enforcement. They will have to be punished in relation to the seriousness of these facts,” Darmanin wrote.

Initial reports said the incident happened at 8:40 p.m. and that the perpetrators screamed anti-Semitic insults, including “f**ck the Jews,” rocked the car back and forth and hurled bottles at it, RTL reported.

Prior to the assault, music with songs in Hebrew was heard in the family’s car, Le Parisien reported. PJC

Jerusalem. An advocate for Arab interests, Storrs remains as the governor of Jerusalem and Judaea until 1926.

Dec. 29, 1946 — Irgun carries out night of the beatings

Angry that the British government administered 18 lashes to an Irgun member for his role in a bank robbery, the underground movement abducts British soldiers and flogs them 18 times each.

Dec. 30, 2002 — Ruling: Reservists must serve in territories

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine attacks an El Al flight in Athens en route from Tel Aviv to New York.

One passenger is killed. The two terrorists are captured.

Dec. 27, 2008 — Operation Cast lead begins

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Paris area Jewish family assaulted after playing Hebrew-language songs in their car

This week in Israeli history — WORLD —

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“deeply shocked” by the incident.

Benayoum, 21, holds the title of Miss Provence, a region in southern France.

Amandine Petit, who won the overall title of Miss France, told La Depeche that the tweets on Benayoum were “very disappointing” and said she “fully supports” Benayoum.

Israel launches Operation Cast Lead in Gaza after Hamas breaks a six-month-old ceasefire. The 22-day military operation aims to stop rocket launches and terrorist attacks.

Dec. 28, 1917 — Britain names Arab Advocate as first Jerusalem governor Gen. Edmund Allenby names Ronald Storrs the military governor of recently captured

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Israel’s Supreme Court rules that IDF reservists may not refuse to serve in the West Bank and Gaza, saying that letting soldiers refuse assignments will turn “the people’s army … into an army of peoples.”

Dec. 31, 1898 — Israel Museum founder is born

Eliyahu Dobkin, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, is born in Belarus.

He works with the Jewish Agency’s immigration department from the 1930s to the 1950s and founds the Israel Museum in 1965. PJC PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

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DECEMBER 25, 2020 11

Opinion Stunning religious practice in Europe — EDITORIAL —

L

ast week, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), the EU’s highest court, dealt a serious blow to ritual Jewish and Muslim methods of animal slaughter. The court upheld a Belgian law that requires that animals must be stunned before they are killed. Neither Jewish nor Muslim law allows for stunning in the slaughter process.

Proponents of the CJEU ruling and supporters of the Belgian law assert that the stun-first approach is more humane. Critics argue that properly executed slaughter is less painful and less traumatic for the animals.

Either way, the ruling is a serious setback for religious freedom in Europe. And it isn’t

clear whether the ruling would also prohibit the importation of slaughtered meat that has not observed the stun-first requirement.

Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis, urged reconsideration. “Europe needs to reflect on the type of continent it wants to be. If values like freedom of religion and true diversity are integral, then the current system of law does not reflect that and needs to be urgently reviewed,” he said.

According to the CJEU, its ruling actually protects religious practices and doesn’t prohibit any religious observance. It argued that the ruling permitted religious practices since it “allow[s] a fair balance to be struck between the importance attached to animal welfare and the freedom of Jewish and Muslim believers to manifest their religion.”

That superficial analysis by the CJEU is remarkably naive and misinformed, since it improperly assumes that religious slaughter can be performed on a stunned animal. It cannot. And, besides, Jews and Muslims don’t want to “manifest” their religion — they want the freedom to practice their religions.

Two distinct elements in European society are promoting the ban on ritual slaughter.

Opponents on the left are concerned about animal welfare, and see ritual slaughter as inhumane. Opponents on the far right are ultranationalists, who see Jewish and Muslim practices as alien imports to Christian Europe. Strange bedfellows, indeed. But through their issue alliance, opposition to ritual slaughter has taken on a life of its own, without regard to the sensibilities of Jews and Muslims.

According to Rabbi Menachem Margolin, the head of the Brussels-based European Jewish Association, had Belgium’s parliament “engaged properly with Jewish community officials before banning the practice, some satisfactory solutions could have been found, as has been the case in the Netherlands and elsewhere, because the method of slaughter is not crueler or [more] painful to animals than other methods.” But no such effort was made.

Not every Jew in Europe eats kosher meat.

But the availability of kosher food is one of the markers of a thriving Jewish life. In a pluralistic society, every effort must be made to enable such religious observances. If the European Union wants to welcome Jews and Muslims, it needs to make their legitimate religious practices welcome as well. PJC

Is there something wrong with a program that encourages in-marriage?

Guest Columnist Jonathan S. Tobin

W

hat’s the point of programs that were designed to encourage young people to embrace their Jewish identity? There was little doubt about what was on the minds of those supporting massive increases in funding for Jewish education (both day schools and synagogue schools), Jewish summer camps and trips to Israel following the publication of the National Jewish Population Study in 1990: intermarriage. Everyone studying the situation understood that, as that study concluded (and as future surveys would confirm), if a majority of Jews were marrying outside their faith, the result would have enormous consequences for the future of the American Jewish community.

It was that understanding that motivated what was initially called a drive for “Jewish continuity.” While outreach to interfaith families was also recognized as a necessity, the prospect that among those who were not Orthodox fewer children would be raised as Jews and have a Jewish education meant a decline in a sense of Jewish peoplehood and a desire to raise their own Jewish families in the future. A need to counteract these depressing demographic trends led to the creation of the Taglit-Birthright Israel program — a nonprofit educational program that takes young Jews on trips to Israel — in 1994.

Since then, more than 600,000 Jews have gone on Birthright. The Jewish Futures Project, a program of the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University, has just published a study analyzing the impact of the trip on those who went in its first decade. The major takeaway from this work is clear: Participants are much more likely to have a Jewish spouse or 12 DECEMBER 25, 2020

partner when compared to a similar group of Jews who didn’t take a Birthright trip. Some 55 percent of those who went on Birthright wound up with a Jewish spouse or partner compared to only 39 percent of those who didn’t. The impact on participants being engaged Jewishly or connected to Israel in some manner is similarly clear.

The numbers don’t mean that Birthright is a magic bullet for promoting in-marriage. It’s also possible to argue that people who chose to go on such a trip were already more likely to be involved Jewishly in their subsequent lives, as well as to have a Jewish family. But no matter how you analyze the data, it’s clear that the investment in Birthright is responsible for results that are strengthening Jewish commitment among those who took part.

Even though this is exactly what those who funded and supported this massive effort wanted, some people aren’t very happy about it. As a Times of Israel article delineates, the talk about greater numbers of Jews marrying Jews is upsetting the interfaith outreach movement. And the notion that Birthright is somehow being perceived as a tool to prevent intermarriage also seems to be making the authors of the study nervous. A lot has changed since 1994, and anything that even implies that there is something wrong with Jews marrying non-Jews has become a taboo subject in the organized Jewish world.

While the 1990 study generated a boom in efforts to decrease intermarriage, within two decades — the very period covered by the study of Birthright participants — the organized Jewish world had shifted in the way it thought about the subject. By the time the Pew Research Center published its authoritative “Portrait of Jewish Americans” in 2013, the intermarriage rates had continued to grow with more than 70% of nonOrthodox Jews intermarrying.

The news wasn’t all bad. The children of intermarriage were less likely to get a Jewish education, but a majority still identified

as Jews in one way or another. The fastest growing demographic Jewish group was termed “Jews of no religion” — people who didn’t practice Judaism or affiliate or take part in Jewish life in the way that Jews traditionally did but who nonetheless called themselves Jewish. This clear expression of pride in having Jewish origins reflected their widespread acceptance in almost every sector of American society and a marked decline in anti-Semitism since non-Jews were increasingly willing to marry Jews — something that was not true in earlier eras.

But it also meant that synagogues were hemorrhaging members, and philanthropic organizations like Jewish Federations and other groups were raising less money and attracting fewer supporters. Since merely identifying as a Jew didn’t encourage the formation of Jewish families or increased participation in Jewish activities or a sense of Jewish peoplehood — that would, for example, promote, solidarity with the State of Israel — the rise of the Jews of no religion must be considered an ominous demographic trend that will ultimately lead to the implosion of the non-Orthodox population.

But while the impact of intermarriage was even more serious than previous studies had indicated, the community’s willingness to act on the issue or even discuss it had changed markedly. The sheer ubiquity of intermarriage among the non-Orthodox meant that most of those involved had intermarried children and grandchildren and were reluctant to countenance anything that would treat such people as a problem to be solved rather than a resource to be celebrated.

That has, in turn, given birth to a growing emphasis in the organized Jewish world on outreach with little or no overt talk of encouraging endogamy. Outreach programs have clearly done a lot to help intermarried families find a place in the Jewish community. But this emphasis, while not enough to satisfy those who believe welcoming and empowering this

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group should be the Jewish world’s priority, has also led to an atmosphere in which Jewish groups fear being identified with any effort that is seen as reducing intermarriage.

Hence, the reaction to the Birthright study has not been so much celebration as worry among some of those speaking up that the talk about in-marriage is insulting to the intermarried and promoting a distorted view of Jewish identity.

It’s true that, as outreach proponents argue, there is a lot more to being Jewish than marrying a Jew. But Jewish families are the bedrock upon which identity is forged. Schools, camps and trips to Israel are important. But a home where Judaism is actively practiced (rather than merely being a limited set of rituals that are observed without faith and which are competing against the traditions of other faiths), and where Jewish concerns and values remain at the core of the family’s identity, is far more important.

One needn’t think ill of the intermarried or be unwilling to welcome them into the community to understand that such a result is a lot more likely if both spouses/partners are Jewish.

A rational response to the Birthright study is not to downplay the impact on intermarriage but to double down on it. Trips to Israel are just one element that can reinforce Jewish identity, and in a free country where none are obligated to follow their parents’ path and all are Jews by choice, rising rates of intermarriage are a given. But this study should encourage, rather than discourage, the organized Jewish world to ramp up efforts that are specifically designed to increase the possibility that Jewish families are formed.

It’s time for Jewish groups to stop being afraid to speak about endogamy. It’s no insult to the intermarried to recognize that doing so is absolutely vital to the Jewish future. PJC Jonathan S. Tobin is editor in chief of JNS, where this piece first appeared.

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Opinion Why Christmas is the best day to be a Jew Guest Columnist Alex Kirshner

T

he Christians of my childhood tried hard to make me feel welcome around Christmas, and they succeeded as much as possible in a Catholic and Protestant suburb of Pittsburgh. Our next-door neighbors invited my family to their big Christmas Eve party every year. The crowd always welcomed us, and eventually we reached a customary status as the Jews of the party. We were among the last to leave, with a short commute and no church the next morning.

Christmas could be hard, though, especially early on. When you are 5, the slow drip of Chanukah presents doesn’t match a bearded man chimneying in to shower you with gifts all at once. (And when you are 5, you don’t realize how lucky you are to get gifts at all.) A menorah in the window for eight days doesn’t match extravagant lights all over the yard for a whole month. Christmas isn’t for us, and it’s hard for a kid to internalize the notion that something so culturally dominant is not for you. Shouldn’t everything be for you?

But adulthood brings wisdom. As I’ve aged, I’ve come to view Christmas as a uniquely wonderful experience for American Jews. In fact, when I look upon Christmas through a particular lens, Dec. 25 reveals itself as the

single best day of the year to be Jewish.

As Jews, we spend a lot of time being yelled at. Even when we are not being implicated in world-dominating conspiracy theories by anti-Semites, life is hectic. But on Christmas, there may be nobody at all to even bother us, much less subject us to their worst vitriol. In fact, on Christmas, Jews can enjoy an almost unprecedented serenity.

Even before a pandemic relegated many Americans to work-from-home setups that tore down whatever thin boundaries existed between work and home, it had become difficult to live a single day of responsibility-free life without going on a solo vacation or throwing your phone into a lake. Even then, your boss or someone in your house might find you and ask for something. The bill from ignoring them comes due within days.

Unless, of course, you are observing Jewish Christmas.

To be a Jew on Christmas is to spend an entire day doing either nothing at all or whatever you want. Like most Jewish families, mine had traditions for this day.

I kept a strict calendar growing up: Wake up (whenever I wanted), clean out my closet (whenever I wanted, or skip it), shoot baskets at the still-open JCC (whenever I wanted), go sit in a 100-seat auditorium to watch a movie with 30 other people, nearly all of them from our synagogue (whenever I wanted, pending showtimes), and go for Chinese food, with many of the same people.

I just as easily could have done none of these

things and faced no consequences or guilt.

When I moved away from home and joined the workforce, I adopted a new Jewish Christmas tradition: to talk to exactly one person all day, and for that person to be the woman who took orders over the phone at a Chinese restaurant on 14th Street in Washington, D.C. Roommates need me to clean the kitchen? No, they’re home with their families. Colleagues need something? No, this is the one day they’re not on Slack. Parents want to talk? No, they’re napping. All day?

Yes. I fell in love with the extreme solitude of this one day, despite a general extraversion that makes silence grating in normal times.

There are many wondrous days to be Jewish. I haven’t experienced weddings of enough denominations to firmly call Jewish weddings the world’s best, but the combination of the chuppah, the hora, and the liquored-up pre-wedding tish have to put our nuptials near the top of any list.

Shabbat, Passover and the High Holidays have many virtues.

But all of these days also carry obligations.

A wedding is expensive and hassling. The sabbath is a day of rest that, at least during nonpandemic times, still involves schlepping to shul, standing up on the rabbi’s request and waiting out a service of several hours.

Passover is a week-plus of reflection — but I like bread. Yom Kippur is a vital day of atonement, but the whole premise of the day is that it is difficult.

On Jewish Christmas, my sole obligation

is not to inadvertently get dumplings with shrimp in them. Even that is only because of an allergy, not because anyone would bust me for eating treif.

The last two years, I have been in an interfaith relationship with an Episcopalian.

Our time together has strengthened my respect for Christianity, as I’ve seen how her family’s interpretation of faith meshes seamlessly with our concept of tikkun olam, to repair the world.

They have welcomed me into all their traditions, including filling a stocking for me and having me to my first Mass last Christmas Eve. I didn’t eat the little wafer or drink the wine, but I took joy in seeing a community of a different faith coming together on one of its most sacred days.

On Christmas Day, my girlfriend’s family even eats Chinese food — an incursion on Jewish turf, I have told her, but one I can forgive.

The chance to see another religion in action up close, without any proselytization or pressure, has hopefully made me more well-rounded.

I’m embracing these new traditions. But they have severely cut into an event that for me carries a different kind of sacredness. Long live Jewish Christmas, the most blissful 24 hours this Jew has ever been blessed to enjoy. PJC Alex Kirshner is a writer, editor, and podcast host based in Washington, D.C. He grew up in Mt. Lebanon. This piece was first published by JTA.

An opportunity to change the cycle of hate Guest Columnist Marcus Sheff

H

azard a guess where anti-Semitism is disseminated to a greater extent today than in any other medium.

It is unlikely to be social media, nor wildly popular TV stations in the Arab world.

Every day, around 60 million children in the Middle East and North Africa region and between 200-300 million children in the Muslim world turn up to school. Over the last decades, these schools have taught a regular and unchanging diet of hatred toward Jews.

The intensity has varied from country to country, but the central themes are consistent: the canards that Jews tried to kill the Prophet, that they control the global economy, media and politics. The conspiracy

theories that Jews are the reason Germany lost the First World War and are to blame for the rise of the Nazi Party. The age-old fallacy that Jewish leaders met and agreed to kill Jesus, they are immoral and corrupt, are warmongers, inherently treacherous, and betrayers. The lie that Zionism was established in an effort to take over and rule the world, and that Zionists intentionally set fire to the al-Aqsa Mosque.

Anti-Jewish racism infected the Arab and Muslim world so successfully and so completely, that people from the region who hold tolerant, anti-racist attitudes to Jews are outliers. Arab and Muslim Jew hate has melded with anti-Semitism in the U.S. and Europe. They share often indistinguishable tropes, which have become rife on chatgroups, campuses, academia, in labor movements, political parties and wider communities.

But it does not have to be this way.

Research by the Institute for Monitoring

Correction

In “Writer Abby Mendelson bucks the trend, is a jack and master of most trades” (Dec. 18), the article incorrectly identified Mendelson as a former president of Congregation Poale Zedeck. Mendelson instead served as president and former board member at the Kollel Jewish Learning Center. The Chronicle regrets the error.

www.pittsburghjewishchronicle.org PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Textbooks shows that there have been recent improvements in textbooks across the Middle East and North Africa region.

In the UAE, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan reformed the school curriculum that had been authored by the Muslim Brotherhood. It is now quite remarkably different, teaching tolerance and peacemaking. In Tunisia, textbooks educate about the importance of negotiations, peace and respect for the Other.

In some countries, positive changes to textbooks have been made and they offer the promise of greater and more wide-ranging improvements. Jordan’s King Abdullah took control of the Muslim Brotherhood-authored curriculum in the face of demonstrators outside his Royal Palace. He oversaw the completion of a root-and-branch change to Islamic textbooks. Diversity is now a central theme, Islam is presented as a culture of life.

Unfortunately, the Jordanian curriculum is

far from perfect: the view of Israel is a real cause for concern. And we know that in Morocco, King Mohammed VI has instituted the teaching of Moroccan Jewish history.

Of course, some extremist actors will not be open to veering off their hateful course.

Iranian textbooks are committed to a total struggle until the coming of the Mahdi. The Syrian curriculum presents a radical Baathist approach and the Palestinian curriculum rejects peace in favor of Jihad, martyrdom and the sacrifice of young schoolchildren.

Sadly, the vast majority of schools in the Middle East and Asia are still teaching hate.

But change is a real possibility.

IMPACT-se’s report into the Saudi Arabian curriculum in January highlighted dozens of offending examples of hate which needed to be removed and was presented to the highest levels in the Kingdom. In September, the

Please see Sheff, page 15

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DECEMBER 25, 2020 13

Headlines Review:

April: Continued from page 1

p Nearly 90,000 people attended the Jan. 1 Siyum Hashas at MetLife Stadium.

Photo by Adam Reinherz

participated online with thousands worldwide, Jan. 1 was a chance to reflect on years of daily Talmud study and inspire others to participate in Daf Yomi as a new cycle began.

Shawn Brokos succeeds Brad Orsini Following a 24-year career at the FBI, Shawn Brokos joined the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh as its director of community security. Brokos Shawn Brokos replaced Brad Orsini after Photo by James Uncapher his move to the Secure Community Network, and said she would continue Orsini’s efforts to keep Jewish Pittsburgh safe.

Jewish professor sues Point Park University for alleged discrimination Chana Newman, a professor at Point Park University since 1964, sued the institution claiming employment discrimination based on her Jewish Channa and Israeli ancestry and Newman Photo by alleged that anti-Zionist Toby Tabachnick professors and students sought her removal once she rejected efforts to malign Israel. The Chronicle is continuing to cover the story.

February:

Chronicle begins COVID-19 coverage After misguided fear about the coronavirus negatively impacted Chinese-owned businesses, the Chronicle encouraged readers to support local Asian restaurants (while following appropriate dietary laws). In the early weeks of our COVID-19 coverage, editorials and op-eds asked public officials to disseminate a message that local Chinese establishments are safe and sanitary, and that xenophobia is unwelcome.

March:

Local Jewish institutions prepare for coronavirus and address its arrival At the beginning of March, synagogues, schools and communal institutions worked to avoid an outbreak and create plans in the event of viral spread. Although programming continued in person throughout the first two weeks of the month, by March 18 much had changed. Services at synagogues were canceled or moved online, and the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh suspended in-person programs.

Virtual fitness classes were offered free regardless of membership.

14 DECEMBER 25, 2020

Online instruction offers new learning opportunities After Pittsburgh’s three Jewish day schools transitioned to online learning, teachers, administrators and parents navigated a new process of at-home Lilly Butler Photo courtesy of Hillel instruction. Zoom, Academy of Pittsburgh Google Meet and other digital technologies allowed learning to continue outside the traditional classroom.

Local Jewish nonprofits battle economic plights of COVID-19 Following the March 15 closure of both its branches, Pittsburgh’s JCC furloughed almost 50 of its 135 full-time employees, moved another 50 to part-time employment and announced that its 350 part-time employees would not be scheduled to work for the foreseeable future. The JCC also noted that all senior staff members had taken salary cuts. The Pittsburgh section of the National Council of Jewish Women laid off employees, and the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, like many newspapers nationwide, experienced a loss of revenue after severe declines in advertising.

Howard Reisner first Jewish Squirrel Hill COVID-19 casualty Howard Reisner, owner of Chair Restoration on Murray Avenue, became the first member of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community to die of COVID-19. Rosner, 78, was remembered Howard Reisner Photo provided by for his involvement in Shalom Reisner the Lubavitch community and the happiness he brought to those he encountered.

May:

Pittsburgh says goodbye to longtime Jewish educator Ed Frim, a passionate Jewish educator and innovator, died at 61.

Frim, the former Agency for Jewish Learning executive director, was remembered for his commitment to inclusion, musical Ed Frim Photo by Aimee Close abilities and kindness.

June:

Jewish organizations respond to George Floyd protests After George Floyd, a Black man, was killed by a Minneapolis police officer, Jewish groups voiced solidarity with national protesters. The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Community Relations Council said in a statement that it was “heartbroken by the senseless and unnecessary death of George Floyd at the hands of law enforcement.” The umbrella organization also commended Pittsburgh Chief of Police Scott Schubert for speaking out against the atrocity and for taking steps to use it as a teachable moment at the Pittsburgh Police Academy.

Local rabbis retire

Rabbi Jamie Gibson

Photo by Carol Rosenthal

Rabbi Paul Tuchman

Photo courtesy of Dick Leffel

Rabbi Jamie Gibson, of Temple Sinai, and Rabbi Paul Tuchman, of Temple B’nai Israel, retired from their pulpits. Gibson, who headed Temple Sinai for 32 years, was feted with a series of celebrations including a proclamation from Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto and a “drive-bye” parade. Tuchman, who served B’nai Israel for 11 years, was praised for his easygoing nature, and said he was eager to return to Arizona where he grew up.

Federation provides more than $1M in relief In June, the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s pandemic assistance reached more than $1 million. By Dec. 16, that number had skyrocketed to $7,300,854, providing relief funds and grants toward communal initiatives, including the delivery of meals to homebound seniors, school lunch programs at Yeshiva Schools and pay for health screeners at Jewish facilities.

July:

Non-Orthodox congregations wrestle with the how and when of reopening Three months after closing, non-Orthodox congregations wrestled with how and when to reopen their buildings. As COVID-19 cases surged in Allegheny County, congregations continued working with their task forces. Congregation Beth Shalom began offering in-person services, while several early childhood centers reopened.

August:

JAA grapples with COVID-19 outbreak

Photo provided by JAA

After months of avoiding COVID-positive cases, six residents of the Charles Morris Nursing & Rehabilitation Center and one resident of Weinberg terrace died after testing positive for COVID-19. Seven additional residents of Charles Morris — isolated in one unit — and three additional residents of Weinberg Terrace, tested positive.

Residents of the two impacted communities were asked to quarantine in their rooms or apartments.

Rabbi Yossi Rosenblum becomes new CEO of Yeshiva Schools Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh underwent a historic transition as, after more than 40 years at the helm, Rabbi Yisroel

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Rosenfeld passed the baton to former student Rabbi Yossi Rosenblum.

Previously, Rosenblum served as principal of the Yeshiva Boys School and educational director and Rabbi Yossi head of Yeshiva Schools. Rosenblum Photo by Rosenfeld became head Jordon Rooney shaliach of Western Pennsylvania and the rabbi of the Lubavitch Center of Pittsburgh.

September:

Locals find creative ways to celebrate the High Holidays

p Rabbi Seth Adelson marked the first day of Elul by blowing the shofar on the roof of Beth Shalom.

Photo by Jim Busis

After celebrating Passover “Zeders” and experiencing Tikkun Leil Shavuot online, local residents experienced another set of Jewish holidays amid the pandemic.

Whether it was making special recipes for Rosh Hashanah meals or finding ways to convert one’s dining room into a space for a meaningful Yom Kippur, members of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community creatively observed the High Holidays.

October:

Lubavitch leader and educator dies R abbi Ephraim Rosenblum, a beloved educator who served Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh for five decades, Rabbi Ephraim died. Rosenblum, Rosenblum 85, was also spiriPhoto by Eliran Shkedi tual guide of Kether Torah Congregation. Two months later, Rosenblum’s wife, Miriam, a lifelong Jewish educator who founded the Keren Rachaim organization in Pittsburgh, and dedicated herself to supporting those in financial, physical and spiritual need, died at age 78.

Second commemoration of 10.27

 A makeshift memorial to the 11 victims murdered during the massacre at the Tree of Life building on Oct. 27, 2018 Photo by Jim Busis

Two years after the shooting at the Tree of Please see Review, page 20

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Headlines Bernstein: Continued from page 4

Bernstein’s original orchestrations and were then reimagined.

“The seven arrangers we have on the recordings really make it fresh,” Ashby said.

“It’s really exciting how it brings new life to these compositions of Leonard Bernstein.”

And, because it is jazz, improvisation plays a large part in the recordings.

The band had to work hard to master the pieces because “within every tune there is at least one improvised solo,” Ashby said. “It keeps the music fresh because no matter how many times we play this music around the world, every time will be different.”

Of course, playing it around the world,

or even in MCG’s North Side building, is a challenge now because of COVID-19. That complicates promoting the album.

“Our hope is everybody’s hope, that by this summer, certainly by the fall, that we’ll be able to gather in large enough numbers that it will make sense to have a 17- to 20-piece orchestra perform live for folks,” Ashby said.

Until that time, the recording will utilize jazz radio to promote the album and get the word out to the jazz community.

Ashby is not simply part of the ensemble of musicians that played the music. He produced the live shows in 2018 and worked as a producer on the recording.

The producer role, he said, allowed him to be involved in the nuts and bolts of the recording. He helped pick out the repertoire with Executive Producer Ken Kimery and

Artistic Director Charlie Young, submitted thoughts on the arrangements and assisted with the recording, editing and mixing of the music. He also was engaged in the business end of the project: negotiating deals with distributors, giving thoughts on the artwork, working with the manufacturer and dealing with the Bernstein estate to get licensing.

That process was made easier by Flavio Chamis, a member of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community and a friend of Ashby’s.

Chamis is a Brazilian composer and conductor who served as an assistant conductor to Leonard Bernstein on several occasions. Ashby and Chamis have collaborated on several projects.

“He is such a wealth of information about the maestro and music in general,” Ashby said of Chamis. “He was such a great

resource to connect us with the Bernstein business office as well as well as provide some insight into these pieces.”

Chamis also wrote the liner notes, providing historical and artistic background for each of the pieces.

The artwork was created by another Pittsburgher, artist Jeff O.Brien Myers who, Ashby said, creates all of MCG Jazz’s covers.

While the opportunity to hear the reimagined Bernstein pieces live will not occur for several more months, Ashby has a suggestion.

“When you listen to ‘On the Waterfront’ on your home stereo, crank it up and imagine you’re sitting in an audience and hearing it live,” he said. “It’s very powerful stuff.” PJC David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

Museum: Continued from page 9

Poland’s government — which is ultimately Cywiński’s employer, since the museum is state owned — that bans blaming the Polish nations for crimes against humanity. One of the justifications put forward for this law was the mislabelling of Auschwitz, which the Germans built, as a “Polish death camp.”

Under Cywiński, the Auschwitz museum took on a key role in correcting journalists and others on this issue, chiefly through the museum’s Twitter account, which has more than a million followers.

But the law meant to address this problem provoked an outcry, including by Yad Vashem historians, who said that the legislation by Poland’s right-wing ruling party, Law and Justice, “risks Holocaust distortion,” is an impediment to free expression and research about the Holocaust, and prevents a free exchange of ideas about thousands of Polish Nazi collaborators.

After several weeks of silence on this matter, Cywiński issued a carefully-worded statement that paled in comparison to the scathing criticism leveled at the legislation abroad. To stamp out the “hideous term ‘Polish camps,’ this law must be understood primarily abroad,” he said.

“Otherwise, we are creating a tool that will be ineffective by definition,” Cywiński said.

He has also sat out the debate on a controversy surrounding another Polish state museum on the Holocaust, at Sobibor. The museum has decided to build a monument on grounds littered with human remains, and scholars say the area may also contain archaeological findings that are in danger of being damaged by the construction.

Sheff: Continued from page 13

country had made significant improvements. Much incitement, anti-Semitic and anti-Israel material has been removed.

The majority of Jihad-related content is no more, and homophobic material has been eliminated. There is a great deal more to be done with these textbooks and much entirely unacceptable material remains, but these positive changes are encouraging.

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 Piotr Cywinski, left, confers on Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev, right, an award during visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, at the former Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum Poland on June 13, 2013.

Photo by Janek Skarzynski/AFP via Getty Images via JTA

“It would behoove the director of the Auschwitz museum to stay out of debates outside Poland and focus on issues inside it, and chiefly the dangerous limits placed on Holocaust education and civil rights by his employer,” Rabbi Avraham Krieger, the director of Israel’s Shem Olam Holocaust Institute for Education, Documentation and Research, told JTA. Krieger, whose institute focuses on religious life in the Holocaust, defended Eitam’s appointment as “no less worthy than any other,” characterizing the opposition to it

as “fear that Yad Vashem will return to its rightful mission of examining what the Holocaust has meant to the Jewish People, its victims, and not be converted into some shapeless universal value.”

Cywiński defended his decision to stay out of the Holocaust legislation debate.

“I was not consulted about the law, I had no part in the law. Now why do I have to take the museum into a political decision that it had no hand in creating?” he said. “It was not an educational project, research project, it is strictly a political project. I don’t want to

enter in politics with the museum.”

Why, then, is Cywiński wading into the Yad Vashem controversy?

“I’m not trying to influence any decision, this is something for Israelis to decide,” he reiterated. “All I am saying, is that Yad Vashem, under the leadership of Avner Shalev, has achieved a status, which it didn’t always have, of being an international authority on the Holocaust. Now Israelis need to decide if it stays this way or goes back to being an entity that is limited to Israel’s national perspective.” PJC

Today, nearly half of the population of the Arab world is under the age of 24. In other words, the future of the Arab world is currently sitting in schools, digesting the curricula being taught. We can help moderate how Jews and Israel are perceived across the Arab and Muslim world through a change in school textbooks, undoing decades of hate education and replacing it with values of tolerance.

There is at this very moment a window of opportunity to slow down and ultimately put

a stop to hundreds of millions of children learning to hate Jews from first grade. It is no small task to unravel hate education delivered to millions of children. But there is perhaps no more important task. The opportunity has now arisen to stop it before it starts.

The Abraham Accords and other positive changes taking place in the Arab world present the opportunity to engage with curriculum developers in the region.

Tolerance of Jews and the acceptance of Israel’s place in the Middle East can become

the norm in textbooks from Morocco to Asia. What is required is professional and culturally sensitive curriculum research, the understanding of where problems lie, cooperation with partners, the willingness to teach alternative content and the authority to drive change — and to build a more tolerant and better future for our region. PJC

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Marcus Sheff is CEO at The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Curtural Tolerance in School Textbooks.

DECEMBER 25, 2020 15

Life & Culture Chronicle’s New Year’s Eve playlist: ’Twas the night you danced with Rod Stewart, Ofra Haza and the Beastie Boys 2. “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?,” Rod Stewart

— MUSIC —

Having already knocked off the iconic holiday song, time to cue up “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” Written by Frank Loesser, an Academy Award-winning landsman responsible for the music and lyrics to “Guys and Dolls” and “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” the song is especially good when covered by Rod Stewart. Why Rod Stewart? Why not?

Pre-pandemic, the septuagenarian rocked 20,000 fans in Tel Aviv. Post-pandemic, here’s hoping he does it again.

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

A

t this point, you’ve navigated 2020 and discovered new ways to observe the Jewish holidays through 10 months of the pandemic. Whether you reconfigured your den to resemble a sanctuary for Kol Nidrei, spent hours scraping hardened honey from your screen after a “sweet” multigenerational digital Rosh Hashanah, or jerry-rigged a tablet holder from two books, a T-shirt, three twist ties and an old copy of the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle so family members could enjoy an optimal viewing angle of you kindling your menorah on Zoom, you marked 2020 through hard work. Now that the secular New Year is upon us, it’s time to celebrate.

You’re probably counting down to midnight from the same spot you spent much of 2020: at home. That’s great. Whether you’re ringing in 2021 from your living room, dining room or kitchen — forget about a virtual ball drop, no need for simulation — you’re going to party. All you need is a cell phone, tablet or musical streaming device.

 Ofra Haza

“Ofra Haza” by Burnt Pixel is licensed with CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

— to songs you never knew you needed on New Year’s Eve.

 What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?

“Rod Stewart” by Alain Bachellier is licensed with CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

1. “Auld Lang Syne in Yiddish,” Jewish People’s Philharmonic Chorus

Thanks to a specially curated Chronicle playlist, your spirits will be high, your feet will be tired and, depending on how loud you turn up your speakers, you might even find yourself embarking on a contactless cookie drop-off at your neighbors’ on Jan. 1. So brace yourself for fun. You’re about to smile, sing and sweat — imagine a socially distanced scaled-down Studio 54

It goes without saying that “Auld Lang Syne” is the holiday’s defining tune. It also goes without saying that this year is markedly different from those past. What better way to honor tradition and acknowledge the unusualness of it all than “Di Tsaytn Fun a Mol”?

3. “Happy New Year,” ABBA

If you have a karaoke machine, now’s the time to use it. Apart from a sweeping chorus you’ll be singing the next three weeks, this song probably has the best video accompaniment to boot. Search “ABBA Happy New Year 1980.” Until the camera pans out around the two-minute mark, you too may believe that Agnetha, Björn, Benny and Anni-Frid are celebrating the fourth night of Chanukah.

Please see Playlist, page 17

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Mail to: Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle | 5915 Beacon Street, 5th Floor, Pittsburgh, PA 15217 16 DECEMBER 25, 2020

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Life & Culture What to stream to ring in 2021?

We asked the staff of Film Pittsburgh — FILM — Film Pittsburgh Staff | Special to the Chronicle

T

his year’s New Year’s Eve celebration most likely means a quiet evening at home for many of us, but the Film Pittsburgh team wants to help keep things festive. Since we’re all about movies, we put together a list of some of our favorites you can stream to send the year out in style.

Happy New Year!

When Harry Met Sally

Indisputably on the Mount Rushmore of romcoms, “When Harry Met Sally” is a film with a perfect script, inventive format and iconic scenes/quotes, including one in a diner that has been quoted and referenced a million times. Add to that two of my favorite women in film (Nora Ephron and Carrie Fisher) and you have an all-time classic.

The New Year’s Eve scene at the end is Billy Crystal at his neurotic best, even if I’m certain Harry and Sally would have broken up a year later. ­— Drew Checkelsky, Teen Screen assistant educator

The Poseidon Adventure

New Year’s Eve would not be complete without a cult film from the golden age of disaster films — the 1970s. “The Poseidon Adventure” is in the style of other all-star disaster films of the era (think “Airport,” “Earthquake,” “The Towering Inferno”), even though it’s listed in “The Official Razzie Movie Guide” as one of “The 100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made.” This story about a luxury cruise liner that capsizes during a New Year’s Eve party is a pure rush of guilty pleasure. And who can forget Maureen McGovern singing the theme song, “The Morning After”? My favorite plot line centers on retired Jewish storeowner Manny Rosen and his wife, Belle, on their way to Israel to meet their 2-year-old grandson for the first time. Jack Albertson and Shelley Winters played those roles to perfection. We all know how it ends, but why not watch it again for old times’ sake?

— Judy Kaplan, office and outreach manager

Cupcakes

Just what we need right now, and perfect for New Year’s Eve, “Cupcakes” is a fun and frothy film and a distinct departure for award-winning filmmaker Eytan Fox (“Yossi & Jagger,” “Walk On Water”). We were so

Continued from page 16

4. “My Dear Acquaintance,” or “New Year,” Regina Spektor

5. “New Year’s Day,” Pentatonix

Before founding member Avi Kaplan left the a cappella group in 2017, Pentatonix recorded this catchy number. As a transitional piece between slower numbers on the Chronicle’s playlist and faster tempos to come, “New Year’s Day” hits a fitting chord.

In a COVID-19 world, certain lyrics ring true: “Tomorrow morning when we wake/ This town will be a different place/ And the past will wash away like coffee stains.”

6. “New Year’s Day,” Bon Jovi

Jon Bon Jovi isn’t Jewish. His keyboardist, and fellow Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, David Bryan is a member of the tribe. Bon Jovi’s “New Year’s Day” is fantastic both because it invites what will certainly be awful dancing for many and also because the 2016 video weirdly looks like social distancing restrictions were in place. It’s probably safe to assume that all that livin’ on a prayer granted the band some type of foresight.

7. “Raise Your Glass,” Pink

Like a bizarrely large braided challah, you’ll probably find this chart-topping single PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

The Holiday

My wife and I have several films we watch every holiday season, one of which is “The Holiday.” I’ll gladly admit the film is somewhat predictable but wonderfully so. It features an ensemble cast and includes a delightful performance by the legendary Eli Wallach as an aging film composer.

Also starring Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law and Jack Black, “The Holiday” never disappoints.

— Paul Sloop, director of programming

Forrest Gump

Ever since our children were very little, one of our favorite family movies has been “Forrest Gump.” With a scene in which Forrest and Lt. Dan celebrate New Year’s Eve, and Sally Field — who was raised Jewish — showcased as Forrest’s mom, it is an almost perfect end

Daft Punk), has worked to ensure WWII-era French Jewish musicians receive compensation they were denied under Vichy rule.

Playlist:

For those who like to Spektify, either one of these ditties from proud Jewish mom Regina Spektor works. Born in Moscow and educated in American Jewish day schools, Spektor is a Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter and HIAS supporter.

delighted to find a comedy (with musical numbers to boot!) from Israel, that we made it our opening night film at the 2014 JFilm Festival. It’s a meringue-like musical comedy, light, airy and sweet, and filled with delicious performances from some of Israel’s biggest stars. Enjoy!

— Kathryn Spitz Cohan, executive director

9. “Sabotage,” Beastie Boys

Naysayers may argue this song has nothing to do with New Year’s. Au contraire. This epic tune has everything to do with 2020 and the path to 2021.

Looking back on the past year, there’s a lot to lower your spirits. Don’t fall prey to the “mirage” — you have to stay optimistic. It’s like what three hideously  ‘No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)’ mustachioed Jewish police

“Barbara Streisand Donna Summer No More Tears (Enough Is Enough) officers told us almost 25 b/w Wet” by A.Currell is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0 years ago: “’Cause what at most b’nai mitzvah parties. That’s for good you see, you might not get/ And we can bet, reason. Released in 2010 by Pennsylvania so don’t you get souped yet.” native Alecia Beth Moore, aka Pink, “Raise Friendly reminder: No idea how loud Your Glass” celebrates underdogs while you will be playing this song, but that care championing those who don’t always fit in package you’re dropping off at your neigh(see: most memories of adolescence). bor’s tomorrow? Make double.

8. “One More Time,” Daft Punk

Lest one think this song recalls the monotony of quarantining, “One More Time” is about continuing to dance and celebrate without end. Hence, if you have a strobe light, plug it in. For those who don’t, your cell phone will do. While gyrating to blinking flashes, keep in mind some relevant Daft Punk history: Daniel Vangarde, the Jewish father of Thomas Bangalter (one half of French duo

10. “Tfila,” Ofra Haza

Forty years before Gal Gadot, Israel had a different Wonder Woman: Ofra Haza, a Grammy Award-winning artist who catapulted to fame after placing second in the 1983 Eurovision Song Contest. Haza may have recorded more popular numbers, but “Tfila,” which translates to “prayer,” is a mustplay New Year’s ballad. Both because of its synth-pop beat and memorable lyrics, you’re

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of the year film for all ages. Further, listening closely reveals Forrest as “the Jewish philosopher,” with his heartfelt speech at Jenny’s grave wondering whether life is destined, or accidental, or both. And, of course, his iconic line, “Life is like a box of chocolates — you never know what you’re gonna get,” feels particularly prescient, especially now when so many things we face have unknown consequences. We can’t wait to watch it again. 2020 has sure been a long year.

— Lori Sisson, Teen Screen director

Sunset Boulevard

We end with a film that seems most appropriate for our times — Billy Wilder’s classic “Sunset Boulevard,” which finds Gloria Swanson’s Norma Desmond holed up in her mansion dreaming of better days. And even if you’ve seen it many times before, it bears a repeat viewing now for its iconic New Year’s Eve party scene where William Holden’s Joe Gillis asks what time the other guests are to arrive, and Norma answers, “There are no other guests!” So, as we celebrate alone to safely usher 2020 out the door, let us all be optimistic that 2021 will find us once again … ready for our close-ups!

— Caroline Collins, associate director PJC

going to want to put this one on loop. For what it’s worth, this song probably sounds best while wearing a sequined one-piece jumpsuit.

Ten is a good Jewish number, but 13 also works. Here are three more honorable mentions:

11. “No More Tears (Enough Is Enough),” Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer

If you thought 2020 was going to be great but ended up being totally duped, this song is for you (as long as you’re willing to imagine that Babs and the Queen of Disco were referencing a bad year and not a bad boyfriend).

12. “Opposites Attract,” Paula Abdul

Remember what was life like before the pandemic? Now try remembering what life was like decades before the pandemic. Let us help you: It was a time when a suspender-clad cartoon cat bopped step for step with Syrian Jewish descendant Paula Abdul.

13. “This Is What it Feels Like,” Armin Van Buuren feat.

Trevor Guthrie

This song is a roller coaster in the best way.

It starts off really slowly, pulls you in with sorrowful lyrics — “Nobody here knocking at my door/ The sound of silence I can’t take anymore/ Nobody ringing my telephone now/ Oh how I miss such a beautiful sound” — then jolts your body with an electronic beat that will keep you moving until the snow melts. PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

DECEMBER 25, 2020 17

Torah Be like Joseph: Feed everybody Rabbi Mark Asher Goodman Parshat Vayigash Genesis 44:18 - 47:27

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18 DECEMBER 25, 2020

T

he other day I ventured out of the house to our local supermarket in Greenfield to restock the essentials — one of the only occasions upon which I go anywhere these days. As I was checking out, I overheard the manager speaking to an assistant manager and two employees.

They were discussing something that took place earlier in the day: “Another” shoplifter had been caught stuffing food items into a backpack.

I immediately recalled a moment at the same supermarket just a year earlier — as I was coming in, a gaunt and tired looking woman was being placed in handcuffs in a Pittsburgh Police squad car. Inside, the manager and assistant manager were quietly explaining to a police officer that the individual in question had been stealing items from the store, and that it was not her first time.

It is becoming readily apparent that these are not isolated incidents. Food theft is the symptom of a much greater problem of an America in crisis — a crisis exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, but that was around long before it as well.

According to the Jewish hunger organization Mazon, one in eight Americans struggle with hunger. That’s 41.2 million people, including 12.9 million children and 4.9 million seniors. Those numbers are from before the pandemic.

Now, with the travel and hospitality sectors of our economy frozen, unemployment has grown. And, as we know, the effects of the pandemic-related recession have hit lower-income folks harder. Their jobs were the first to go. Their savings were small or nonexistent, and their debts greater to begin with. Mazon now estimates that approximately 80 million Americans now face hunger or food insecurity.

We live in an America with the largest and most expensive military on earth; a nation that counts eight of the 10 richest people on earth among its citizens. And yet millions of people go to bed hungry every night. In our own city of Pittsburgh, we have seen food bank lines that stretch for miles. And, as I have seen with my own eyes, some of my neighbors have even reduced themselves to stealing.

This is unacceptable. We must do better — as individuals and as a nation. Our Torah tells us “Olam Chesed Yibaneh” — a world of lovingkindness must be built. In the hashkiveinu prayer we recite every single night, we ask for God to “Shield us, and remove from us, pestilence, sword, famine and sorrow.” God has provided for us ample food and wealth such that every person in our country could be fed adequately, if only we could distribute it to all. And yet, here in the 21st century, we still fail at this most basic task of humanity. The simplest thing we can do as a society is to ensure that everyone has enough food to eat. And that assurance ought to be given unconditionally.

In Parshat Vayigash, we reach the

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conclusion of the story of Joseph and his brothers. Joseph has read Pharaoh’s dreams of seven fat cows and seven skinny cows and devised a plan — to feed all of Egypt in a time of great famine. So insightful was Joseph’s vision that Pharoah made him grand vizier of all. So complete was the famine that it stretched all the way to Canaan, forcing Joseph’s estranged brothers to come to Egypt, hands out, begging for food. “Our father said Go and procure food for us” (Gen. 44:25).

And Joseph cares for his estranged brothers as he has provided for all the rest of Egypt, saying, “I will provide for you — for there are yet five years of famine to come — that you and your household and all that is yours may not suffer want” (Gen. 45:11).

We must work to create an America in which having enough to eat is considered a right, and not a privilege, as it was in Joseph’s time.

We are not powerless. We can do the same.

We can give and volunteer locally at the JFCS Squirrel Hill Food Pantry and Great Pittsburgh Food Pantry. And we should, if we can, give generously. But that is not enough. We must work to create an America in which having enough to eat is considered a right, and not a privilege, as it was in Joseph’s time. To do that, we need food advocacy — to work within the state and national framework to advocate that a just a loving nation feeds all who are hungry, reducing none to desperation or theft. That takes more than local pantries — it takes a national effort.

A good start would be the expansion of SNAP, the USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. For every one meal provided by a food bank, SNAP provides nine meals. The best way to defeat hunger in America is with food advocacy — changing the way our food distribution system works, and making it work for everybody. These are the things that the Jewish organization Mazon is dedicated to. Mazon is our modern-day Joseph.

The Torah tells us we will always have poverty: “For there will never cease to be needy ones in your land.” But it also tells us that the response to this reality is that we must “open our hand to the poor and needy fellow in your land” (Deut. 15:11).

Hunger is a crisis. But it doesn’t have to be.

Indifference to hunger is the real crisis. If we can overcome our indifference as a nation, we can overcome hunger, too. PJC Rabbi Mark Asher Goodman is the rabbi of Brith Sholom Jewish Center in Erie, Pennsylvania. He lives in Pittsburgh. This column is a service of the Greater Pittsburgh Rabbinic Association.

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Obituaries FARBEROW: Allen Leon Farberow (aka Pap Al), 91, of Monroeville passed away peacefully at home on Dec. 16, 2020. He was surrounded by his loving family. Mr. Farberow grew up in Squirrel Hill, joined the U.S. Navy and then married the love of his life, Marcia. He retired from Harry Service and then worked at Giant Eagle until he was 87. His hobby was bowling, and he belonged to many leagues throughout the years. He was also a member of B’nai B’rith. His love of life, sense of humor, kindness and devotion to his family will be missed by many. He is survived by his two children, Ellen Dean (Don) and Jeff Farberow (late wife Kathy), four grandchildren, Amy Beltz (Scott), Michael Kiefer, Carrie Saye (Stephen) and Brittney Powell (Matt), and four great-grandchildren, Mason Beltz, Christopher Kiefer, Cecilia Saye and Miles Powell. Also many cousins, friends, nieces and nephews. A special thank you to his caregiver, Lillian Cleary, who was by his side for the last few years. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, graveside services and interment are private. The family asks that any contributions be made to Caring Hospice, 118 Fox Plan Road #1, Monroeville, PA 15146. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. schugar.com GLYNN: Toby Glynn, age 85, of Mason, Ohio (formerly of Pittsburgh and Delray Beach, Florida), passed away on Monday, Dec. 14, 2020.

Preceded in death in 2012 by her devoted husband, Norman, of nearly 53 years of marriage, Toby was a dedicated mom to her three children: Pam (Andrew) Harris of Cincinnati, Ohio; Michael (Nancy) Glynn of Pittsburgh; and Gary (Susan) Glynn of Cincinnati, Ohio. Lovingly known as “Nannie” by her adored grandchildren Trevor Harris, Abby (Joshua) Green, Lindsey (Marc Lubitz) Harris, Alexandra (Erik Hames) Glynn, Lauren Glynn and Joshua Glynn; and great-grandson Ethan Green. Toby

was born on April 20, 1935, in Duquesne, Pennsylvania, to the late Sophia and Irwin Haber and was raised in McKeesport with her late sister Ruth (Haber) Bernstein. A lifelong shopper, Toby got her start at the downtown Kaufmann’s and always loved going to malls. For over 20 years she worked in guest relations at the Carnegie Museum.

Toby was active over the years in Pioneer Women/Na’amat and Hadassah. Graveside service and interment were private at Temple Sinai Memorial Park. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions would be appreciated to JDRF (jdrf.org), the Cincinnati Freestore Foodbank (freestorefoodbank. org) or a favorite charity of one’s choice.

Professional Services trusted to D’Alessandro Funeral Home & Crematory Ltd. HARRIS: Joseph J “Jerry” Harris, Ph.D. Born Feb. 1, 1926, in DuBois, Pennsylvania, Jerry died peacefully of COVID-19 on Dec. 17, 2020, eight weeks shy of his 95th birthday.

Predeceased by parents Morris and Sarah Harris (née Wein), sister Miriam, sister Charlotte (David) Rudel, and his first wife, Betty Jean Tobias Harris. Jerry is survived by his wife of 29 years, Alayne C. Harris and his three children: Milton (Alison Wohler) of Arizona; Eve (Abbe Don) of San Francisco; and Zachary of Jerusalem. He is also survived by stepdaughter Pam Cohen of Philadelphia. He is remembered with love by two grandchildren, Itai and Mika Harris, both of Israel, and by three nephews and two nieces, Neil (Dianne) Rudel of Duncansville, Pennsylvania; Mark (Gail) Rudel of Marietta, Georgia; Barry (Debbie) Rudel of Churchill; Miriam (Kevin) Quast of Penn Hills; and Karen (Fred) Reb of Paris. Numerous grand and great-grand nephews and nieces will fondly remember “Uncle Jerry.” A World War II veteran, Jerry served in General MacArthur’s headquarters in Manila and Tokyo. He returned to complete undergraduate studies at Penn

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State University, and earned a Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh. He retired after a career as a clinical psychologist for the Veteran’s Administration at the VA Highland Drive hospital. Jerry loved fly fishing and could talk about history for hours. He was a lifelong learner and voracious reader. He was an early supporter of liberal causes like election reform and handgun control, and the conservation of Western Pennsylvania’s forests and streams was close to his heart.

Private interment will be at a time to be determined in the Indiantown Gap National Cemetery in Annville, Pennsylvania.

An online memorial is planned for a date to be determined. Arrangements by D’Alessandro Funeral Home & Crematory Ltd., Lawrenceville. Contributions in Jerry’s memory can be made to a charity of your choice. dalessandroltd.com MALVIN: Brett Jared Malvin of Jersey City, New Jersey, formerly of Squirrel Hill, passed away suddenly on Thursday, Dec. 10, 2020. Beloved son of Dr. Jack Malvin and the late Denise Malvin; loving brother of Reid Steven Malvin of New Jersey and Kari Lynn Vissichelli (Christopher) of Pittsburgh.

Devoted uncle of Emma Joely Malvin, Riley Whitney Malvin and Carter Sloan Vissichelli.

Brett was a successful Realtor in the New Jersey and Manhattan markets. Brett will be remembered for his love and devotion to his family and most especially for the way he cared for his nieces and nephew.

He was lost to us far too soon and will be

in our hearts forever. Services and interment private. Contributions may be made to Make-A-Wish Foundation, 707 Grant St. #3700, Pittsburgh, PA 15219. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. schugar.com SCHREIBER: Barbara Sydney B erkowitz Schreiber, of Pittsburgh, died Friday, Dec. 18, 2020. She was predeceased by her son, Jeffrey Schreiber, and is survived by her sister Brenda (Paul) Gran, daughters Lorynne Schreiber (Ian Shore) and Deena (Glenn) Nacion, and her grandchildren, Eric Shore, Jennifer Nacion and Joshua Shore. Barbara was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, grew up in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, and York, Pennsylvania, attended Penn State University and made her life in Pittsburgh.

Barbara will be remembered for her love of the arts, her fashion sense and her keen bargain-hunting prowess. She leaves behind a collection of watercolor and oil paintings, silkscreen prints, ceramic pottery, an extensive wardrobe and a jungle of plants.

Services and interment private. Donations may be made to the Southwestern PA Area Agency on Aging, Inc. (swpa-aaa.org), the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust (trustarts.org), or to the charity of your choice. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. For Zoom information please visit schugar.com. PJC

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

In memory of …

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In memory of …

Adalyn Pakler Baraff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Esther Pakler Weiss

Sanford Middleman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Katie Middleman

Faye Bleiberg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bessie Bleiberg, Faye Bleiberg

Rhoda Rofey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Leonard Rofey

Max Mallinger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Faye Bleiberg

Andrea J . Sattler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Helyn Spokane

Morris Krantz, Sherwin Glasser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Joseph Goldhammer

Rosalyn Shapiro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anna Shapiro

Sherwin Glasser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Eleanor F . Glasser

Paula R . Singer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anna Ruben

Elinor & Ivan Gold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Herbert A . Gold

Anonymous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Harry L . Steinberg

Jan & Ed Korenman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Freda Winerman

Louis M . Supowitz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Albert James Supowitz

Jan & Ed Korenman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Betty Kuperstock

Richard Toker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Eleanor Toker

Rushie Leff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hyman Mallinger

Harold C . Weiss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Marian Weiss

Sally & Tim Litman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Louis Rossenfield

Harold C . Weiss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mollie B . Weiss

THIS WEEK’S YAHRZEITS — Sunday December 27: Allen Abramovitz, Goldie Sebenberg Alberts, Rachel Elke Alpert, Sarah Benjamin, Harry Berkowitz, Henrietta Borchardt, Isaac Cohen, Lew J. Cohen, Herman J. Criep, Mary Dine, Samuel W. Finhill, Saul Franklin, Diane Friedman, Sidney Gelfand, Eleanor Glasser, Samuel Goldberg, David Golding, Lena Goldstein, Saul M. Gordon, Tillie Green, Moses Greenberg, Jacob Hechtman, Nathan Holzman, Rose Katz, Joseph Kauffman, Elsie Keller, Harry Krupp, Rena R. Labbie, David Lando, A.I. Leff, Herbert Lenchner, Lillian M. Levick, Howard Milton Levy, Phillip Mehlman, Phillip Mervis, Samuel Moses, Israel J. Novick, Jeannette Pearlstein, Leonard Rofey, Lilly E. Rosenberg, Rose Ruben, Zelda Sadowsky, Hyman Schwartz, Marion Segal, Rachel Seidenstein, Michael Sigal, Jacob Silverman, Leah Singer, Sprintza Slifkin, Charley Solof, Fannie Teitelbaum, Lillian Ulanov, Kenneth Zapler, Helen Zucker Monday December 28: Carl Alpern, Louis Americus, Darlene D. Beck, Bessie Benjamin, Anna Brodie, Ann Broida, Harold E. Caplan, Louis Citron, Abraham Cohen, Molly Crea, Gertrude Engelberg, Mayer Esman, Jacob Harry Feingold, David S. Finkel, David Ari Flamm, Samuel Goldblatt, Simon Greengard, Freda Greenwald, Dr. Alex S. Hartstein, Martin Hoffman, Baer Horvitz, Phillip Jacobson, Saul Jacobson, Alfred Kaplan, Sarah Kaplan, Reisel Kerber, Daniel Kirshenbaum, Louis C. Klein, Yetta Krovitsky, Leonard L. Launer, Samuel Levin, Sidney Linzer, Murray Litt, Hyman Mallinger, Marvin L. Olender, Jacob Perer, Rella Wilkoff Ratner, Mary Saul, Samuel L. Schnitzer, Tillie Schutte, Ethel Schwartz, Sophia Nernberg Segal, Seymour N. Seltman, Ben Simon, Belle Skirboll, Jacob Spevock, Dorothy Stein, Lena Steinfeld, Arthur J. Stern, Sam Warmstein, Edith Wolinsky, Elizabeth Zentler Tuesday December 29: Cora Abel, Samuel Abrams, Rev. Nathan Abromson, Anna Adelson, Abraham Azinsky, Henry Barish, Dora S. Birnbaum, Hyman Bleckman, Albert Brawer, Sarah Burke, Violetmae Caplan, Maurice Corman, Ben Edelstein, Libbie Fischoff, Moses L. Fisher, Kate Friedlander, Sarah Gerson, Anna Lebovitz Glick, Jack Green, Harry Holzman, Benjamin Hushan, Frank Jaffe, David Jaskol, Rose Josephson, Helen Karnold, Fannie Kauffman, Clara Labovitz, Abraham Leibovitz, Sonia B. Lewinter, Osher Lemel Manes, Bess Marchel, Harry D. Margolis, Irving Masloff, Benjamin Miller, Rose Miller, Alter Monchik, Fay Monchik, Isaac Monchik, Meyer Monchik, Miriam Monchik, Mordecai Monchik, Naomi Monchik, Henry Mustin, William Nathanson, Joseph Nelson, Carrie W. Nevins, Ida Noven, Lewis Perlstein, Bertha Reingold, Ida Levinson Reuben, Rose Rosenberg, Louis G. Ruben, Ann H. Sable, Harris Aaron Samuels, Louis Scheinholtz, Phillip Scholnick, Joseph Schultz, Max Schwartz, Pauline Sharon, Harry Skeegan, Irvin Skirboll, Rose Solomon, Leo B. Stoller, M. D., Annie B. Volkovitz, Yetta Weiss, Rheva Louise Metz Wells, Bertha A. Wiesenthal, Jacob Wolk Wednesday December 30: Hymen H. Abromovitz, Dorothy Augenblick, Louis Bagran, Samuel Belle, Mayer Berenfield, Jacob Bernstein, Louis Caplan, William B. Chersky, Isadore L. Cohen, Alter Feldman, Louis Finkelstein, Frank Fisher, Ronald E. Fishman, Jacob Foreman, Ernie M. Friedman, Saul Garber, Sara Barbara Goldberg, Pauline Goldenson, Abraham Goldman, Isaac Gross, Israel Heyman, Abraham Katz, Sarah Labinsky, Ida Lavine, Pearl C. Lazar, Samuel Levenson, Hyman Levinson, Chaie Dobre Levison, Rose Levy, Jerome Zachery Lieber, Morris K. Manela, Ida Marcus, Dora Modele, Louis M. Morris, Morris Nathan, Anna Pearle, Benjamin Raphael, Samuel Ruben, Irwin Saunders, Bessie Schachne, Louis Seigle, Irwin Shapiro, Melvin Silberblatt, Joseph A. Simon, Esther Rose Singer, Dan Snider, Roy Snyder, Harry Soupoff, Isadore Tevelin, Barnet Turets, Morris Vertman, William Wein, Rachel Weisenthal, Joseph Weiss, Rosa Wiesenthal, William Wolfe, Oscar Zaslov Thursday December 31: Louis L. Aaron, Simon Alpern, Esther Steinberg Amdur, Lillian Azorsky, Nathan G. Bagran, Dr. Abraham Saul Browdie, Alex Brown, Rosalind Caplan, Jake Davis, Howard Jay Dunhoff, Rose Edelstein, Sylvan Elencweig, Joseph Elias, Clara Feldstein, George Goldberg, Louis Gordon, Fern Betty Harris, Samuel Harrison, Sera Herskovitz, William L. Kann, Jennie Klarsfeld, Haiman Koelman, Yitzchok Leib Koidanov, Albert L. Lange, William Lavine, Albert Lenchner, George A. Levenson, Chai Dobre Levinson, Ruth Hirsch Linder, Beatrice Loeb, Esther Teplitz Love, Samuel Malyn, Morris Martin, Benjamin Melet, Elaine G. Messer, William Rosenberg, Israel Rosinsky, Bernard J Schiller, Gustella Schmidt, Carrie Schwartz, Myna Shub, Louis Silver, Rose Berkowitz Simensky, Meyer M. Snyder, Rudolph Solomon, Esther Teplitz, Samuel Wilkoff, Harold I. Wolk, Della Yaechever, Nathan Ziff Friday January 1: Harry Arons, Charles Bernhardt, Claye Clara Bierman, Herman Godfrey Bigg, Jacob Bloom, Joseph Brand, Esther Breman, Esther Broad, Israel Buck, Jacob Charie, Jacob Cohen, Lee Bernice Davidson, Samuel Davis, William Edgar Egerman, Albert Epstein, Sam Faigen, Mortimer M. Frankston, Chana Friedman, Sigmund Friedman, Clara Annette Gerber, Bessie Gettleman, Fannie A. Goldberg, Max Goldberg, Maurice A. Golomb, Minnie Gorback, Lillian Granoff, Simon Kalstone, Anna Kaufman, Fannie Keizler, Sam Klee, Elizabeth Kopelman, Martin Kovacs, Ida Kurfeerst, Samuel E. Latterman, Dr. Fred Laufe, Faye Lester, Ida Levine, Sophie Lieberman, Sam Liebman, Katherine Greenberg Lincoff, Bessie Marcus, Sam Melnick, Milton Moses, Florence Neft, Bessie Silverstein Perman, Rose Pohl, Harry Rom, Abraham Rosenfeld, Ethel Sachs, Bernat Samuels, Louis Seder, Anna G. Serbin, Elka Shapera, Anne Deutch Shapiro, Borach Shrager, Meyer S. Sikov, Paula Silverstein, Gustave S. Smith, Seymour Solomon, Jean Solomon, Herman M. Spiegel, Herman Spiegelman, Helyn R. Spokane, Ike Tepper, Harry Verk, Mollie B. Weiss Saturday January 2: Albert Ackerman, Sadie King Aronovitz, Shana Esther Arons, Sadie King Aronvitz, Mollie Barnett, Rebecca Bier, Sarah Blatt, Julius Caplan, Ethel Citron, Jacob L. Cohen, Albert L. Cuff, Morris Joseph Karl Davis, Jacob Diznoff, Rae Feldstein, Rose Friedberg, Dr. Morris J. Gelb, Harry Gerson, Sarah Gindler, Minnie Goldberg, Abraham Goldstein, Ben Golomb, Anne Skolsky Gordon, Mildred Green, Hymen B. Grodstein, Morris Gross, Irwin Grossman, Minnie Gusky, Celia Hepps, Julius Kaplan, Gertrude P. Katz, Louis B. Klein, Margaret Kopelson, Meyer Lazear, Yenta Leiber, Rose Levine, Fannie Levinson, Henry Lewis, Charles Lipsitz, Sylvia R. Litman, Irwin Luick, Maurice H. Margolis, Mildred Broida Markovitz, Benjamin M. Markowitz, Rose Steinman Morris, Ben L. Moses, Raymond Moss, Ruth Moss, Philip H. Nevins, Dr. William Ratowsky, Celia Rattner, Meyer Reich, Aaron D. Reiner, Bella Robin, Constance R. Rose, Kenneth E. Rosenberg, Bernard Roth, Rose Rubenstein, Sarah Samberg, Ethel Schulberg, Max Shapiro, Ben Simon, Belle Somach, Minnie Sperling, Jennie Spokane, Rev. Alex Spokane, Nathan Stalinsky, Saul H. Taper, Bernard Teplitz, Fannie Wintner, Samuel Sidney Zelmanovitz

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

DECEMBER 25, 2020 19

Headlines The vaccine will allow the JAA to accomplish one of its “highest priorities,” said Winn-Horvitz: reuniting residents with their families.

The Squirrel Hill Health Center also has been preparing and planning for distribution of the vaccine.

“It’s a bit chaotic,” said Susan Friedberg Kalson, CEO of the Squirrel Hill Health Center. “On the other hand, it’s a much better chaos than what we’ve been living with since March.”

Kalson said that federally qualified health centers in Pennsylvania, like the Squirrel Hill Health Center, expect to receive the Moderna vaccine.

The Squirrel Hill Health Center plans to vaccinate its staff first. It will then help vaccinate those classified as Phase 1A by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: healthcare personnel and long-term care facility residents.

It’s important for the Squirrel Hill Health Center to help reach people that could potentially fall through the cracks, Kalson said, including “private duty, people who work in long-term care facilities, other healthcare related people, first responders — EMTs aren’t getting direct access.”

Finding those people is part of the “chaos” Kalson referenced. The center is now working to develop a strategy for reaching them, and has already begun to plan for distributing the vaccine to the general population.

Earlier this month, the Jewish Healthcare Foundation provided a grant to the Squirrel

Review:

JAA announces closure of Charles Morris

Vaccine: Continued from page 1

Hill Health Center, enabling it to purchase medicinal grade freezers to store the Moderna vaccine, which does not require the subzero temperatures as does the Pfizer version.

“Right now, we’re supporting refrigeration, but we’re there for them for whatever they need,” said Karen Wolk Feinstein, JHF president and CEO. “You know, this is a part of our mission of saving lives. I can’t think of a better way to do it.”

The Squirrel Hill Health Center is currently partnering with the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, which offers COVID-19 testing at both its Squirrel Hill and South Hills locations. The two organizations also expect to collaborate for vaccine distribution.

“The goal is that we’d like to be what’s called a ‘pod,’ an open port of distribution,”

Continued from page 14

Life building, local residents marked Oct. 27 by observing an online commemoration featuring a performance from famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma. The day was also spent in Torah study, volunteerism and prayer.

November:

 The Charles M. Morris Nursing and Rehabilitation Center Photo provided by the Jewish Association on Aging

Voting day

 Andrew Clifton holds a Biden/Harris banner Photo by Adam Reinherz

Despite long lines and chilly temperatures, Pittsburgh voters eagerly cast ballots in person on Nov. 3.

The Jewish Association on Aging announced that the Charles M. Morris Nursing & Rehabilitation Center would close by Jan. 12, 2021, because of financial shortfalls, including gaps in Medicaid funding. The decision was “difficult” but inevitable, said JAA leaders.

Additional residential arms of the JAA, including Weinberg Village, Weinberg Terrace, AHAVA Memory Center and The New Riverview — which collectively house 341 residents — will remain intact. JAA additionally committed to broadening senior services.

Cantor Moshe Taube dies Moshe Taube, a Polish Jew whose inclusion

on Schindler’s List enabled survival during the Holocaust, died at 93. Following the war, Taube became an internationally celebrated cantor, who, after leading services at Congregation Beth Shalom for decades, continued the task at Young Peoples Synagogue throughout his 90s.

December:

Community celebrates Chanukah amid COVID-19 As COVID-19 cases surge in Allegheny County, local residents marked Chanukah.

Through social distancing and virtual programming, individuals and organizations found ways to incorporate light during a dark period. The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh created a Chanukah candle lighting video feed where each night, starting Dec. 10, a new candle was lit and added to the 24-hour repeating video. On

Dec. 15, Chabad of Western Pennsylvania held its grand menorah parade. PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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said Brian Schreiber, JCC president and CEO. “We actually did that in 2009 with the H1N1 vaccine and did several immunization clinics way back then. We will need to get [county] approval. We anticipate getting that when it’s time for public vaccination but don’t know that yet.”

The Squirrel Hill Health Center will provide the doctors and nurses when the JCC is approved.

It will still be some time before the general population begins to receive vaccinations. Those interested in learning more about the vaccine, or when they might be able to receive either of the two drugs, can contact the Allegheny County Health Department. PJC

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DECEMBER 25, 2020 21

Community On this night The Friendship Circle of Pittsburgh stayed busy on Zoom last week with a Disney Chanukah event, Secret Maccabee Gift Exchange and Young Adult Network Chanukah event.

p Celebrants wear a different kind of mask for Chanukah.

p Keep on rockin’. u Festive Chanukah kits were sent to Friends at Home participants Photos courtesy of The Friendship Circle of Pittsburgh

Help from above

p Even lighting candles online can be meaningful.

Saturday night’s all right at JAA p Pittsburgh Aviation Animal Rescue Team co-founder Brad Childs worked with Maggie’s Farm Rum Distillery and 412 Food Rescue to donate and distribute 20,000 pounds of pet food — equivalent to 80,000 meals.

p Jean punches it out during exercises.

22 DECEMBER 25, 2020

Photo courtesy of Jewish Association on Aging

p A pallet of food arrives for shipment on the PAART plane.

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Photos courtesy of PAART

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Community It’s a beautiful morning at CDS

We found fun

p With students and staff out for winter break this snow is going to stay pristine for weeks, or until it melts.

Photo courtesy of Community Day School

Nice Jewish boys

p Participants enjoyed a Chanukah-themed scavenger hunt created and designed by Rebecca Elhassid and Aviva Lubowsky.

p After last week’s snow caused a tent at Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh to fall, volunteers arrived and saved the day.

Photo courtesy of Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh

It’s tough to leave this party

p Life is like a basket of chocolates, succulents and balloons.

Photos by Aviva Lubowsky

A date that will live in infamy p JFCS staff celebrated Chanukah with candle lighting, singing, home-delivered goody bags and by participating in a virtual escape room.

Photo by Sarah Welch

Play that funky music t After-school chalil club began with Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh’s Rabbi Noam Ohayon. During the weekly digital gathering, students learn how to play the chalil, a soprano recorder.

Photo courtesy of Rabbi Noam Ohayon

p Local history professor and author Barbara Burstin was the featured speaker during Beth El Congregation of the South Hills’ First Mondays with Rabbi Alex event on Dec. 7. Burstin’s talk was titled “FDR: Was He Good for the Jews?

A discussion with Dr. Barbara Burstin on Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.” Screenshot courtesy of Beth El Congregation of the South Hills

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PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

DECEMBER 25, 2020 23

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