Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle 1-7-22 by Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle

January 7, 2022 | 5 Shevat 5782

Candlelighting 4:52 p.m. | Havdalah 5:55 p.m. | Vol. 65, No. 1 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

NOTEWORTHY LOCAL Revisiting the JFK assassination Cyril Wecht shares findings in new book

Jewish Pitt professor helping bring Afghan scholars to Pittsburgh

$1.50

Retired rabbis don’t fade away, they just continue to serve

Page 2

By David Rullo | Staff writer

not taken seriously.” Leading up to the fall of Kabul on July 15, Sadr said that “social life became suffocated,” and that he feared for his safety and that of his family. He was cautioned that he might be a target of the terrorist organization or those sympathetic to the government who were unhappy with his criticism. He was urged to change his daily travel. He began altering his routine, forgoing his car for public transportation, bikes and travel by foot. He also was told to consider leaving the country. The academic, who has a Ph.D. in international relations, said the limitations put in place to combat COVID-19 helped because he was able to work from home, but other restrictions went beyond movement. “I could not speak freely,” he said. “Freedom of expression and freedom of thought were really coming under threat.”

abbi Eli Seidman believes that rabbis don’t really retire. “Rabbis, who really love their jobs and the mission of their jobs, retire from what they do but not from who they are,” he said. Rabbi Sara Rae Pe r m an a g re e d , quoting a magnet on her refrigerator: “Old rabbis never die, they just get gray around the temple.” “There’s a lot of Rabbi Eli Seidman truth to that,” she said. Seidman retired in 2020 after serving for 25 years as the director of pastoral care for the Jewish Association on Aging. After leaving the JAA, he spent time visiting Jewish patients at UPMC Rabbi Sara Rae Mont e f i ore an d Perman UPMC Presbyterian hospitals, as well as veterans at the Pittsburgh VA Medical Center. He also volunteered at the East End Cooperative Ministries food bank and prepared lunches for seniors at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh in Squirrel Hill. The rabbi’s in-person volunteer work paused, though, when he and his wife left Pittsburgh at the end of October 2021 to spend the winter with their daughter in California. The pair traveled the storied Route 66 at a casual pace, visiting big cities and small towns. “We did all of the cheesy, corny, touristy things,” Seidman said. “We visited the big

Please see Afghans, page 12

Please see Rabbis, page 12

LOCAL Putting community first during COVID JCC’s Jason Kunzman honored Page 4

LOCAL Richard Rattner says goodbye to Shadyside

 Omar Sadr (left), Jennifer Murtazashvili and Zalmai Nishat at a conference in Afghanistan Photo provided by Jennifer Murtazashvili By David Rullo | Staff Writer

O William Penn Tavern moving to Lawrenceville Page 5

mar Sadr felt beset from all sides. The ethnic Tajik scholar living in Afghanistan had been an outspoken critic of the corruption of the country’s government and what he called its “ethnocentrism and ethnic chauvinism.” At the same time, the Taliban was steadily advancing toward Kabul — where Sadr lived with his family — killing human rights activists, government bureaucrats, professors and media members in urban centers where they gained control. Things became bleaker after the United States-Taliban agreement was finalized in February 2020, setting a timetable for U.S. withdrawal. “We were warning in different academic debates and media debates that the Taliban’s intention was not a political settlement,” Sadr told the Chronicle. “Rather, they wanted what they call a ‘final victory,’ but we were

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Headlines — LOCAL — By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

n the 58 years since President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Dr. Cyril Wecht has grown even more convinced that the Warren Commission, and its finding that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, is grossly incorrect. Wecht said his theories have been reinforced by radiological studies, pathological exams and acoustic inspections conducted by others, as well as his own research, document reviews and visits to the National Archives — where he discovered that not only was Kennedy’s brain never examined, but that it was missing. “More and more evidence that has been examined by highly qualified experts shows clearly that the single-bullet theory is an absurdity and that there had to have been two shooters, and one of the shots was fired from the front, behind the picket fence on the grassy knoll,” Wecht told the Chronicle. For decades, Wecht, a forensic pathologist, attorney and medical legal consultant, has shared his findings on national television, within the pages of The New York Times, in articles and books, and at conferences. Having presented his views on the JFK assassination almost 1,000 times, and reaching myriad listeners, Wecht, 90, is now reiterating his position to a new audience. In November, Exposit Books published “The JFK Assassination Detected: An Analysis by Forensic Pathologist Cyril Wecht.” The 307-page work, co-authored by Dawna Kaufmann, describes everything from Kennedy’s autopsy and the eventual disappearance of the president’s brain to Wecht’s experiences having lunch with

Marina Oswald Porter (the late wife of Lee Harvey Oswald) and consulting on Oliver Stone’s Oscar-winning 1991 film “JFK.” Wecht said he spent almost six years writing the text and considers the book the most important work he’s authored, followed closely by his autobiography, “The Life and Deaths of Cyril Wecht: Memoirs of America’s Most Controversial Forensic Pathologist,” which was published in September, also by Exposit Books. Functioning as both a report on the president’s assassination and a catalog of Wecht’s travels throughout the decades, “The JFK

Assassination Detected” shares insights into the mind of one of the United States’ leading forensic pathologists. Having received his medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh and a law degree from the University of Maryland, Wecht served as county commissioner and Allegheny County coroner and medical examiner, as well as president of the American College of Legal Medicine, the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, chairman of the board of trustees of the American Board of Legal Medicine and the American College of Legal Medicine Foundation. During almost a half-century of work, Wecht performed more than 21,000 autopsies and “reviewed, consulted on and signed off on another 41,000 death cases,” including those of Martin Luther King Jr., Elvis Presley, JonBenét Ramsey and Kurt Cobain. He has held academic appointments at the University of Pittsburgh Schools of Medicine, Dental Medicine and Graduate School of Public Health, and the Duquesne University School of Law, School of Pharmacy and School of Health Sciences. Wecht said he remains vexed by those who subscribe to the Warren Commission findings. “More and more with each passing year, my frustration and my anger grow because of the fact that the government continues to get away with this,” Wecht said.

There was a brief moment of hope that the government might change course, Wecht said. In April 1992, following the release of Oliver Stone’s “JFK,” the filmmaker addressed the House Government Operations Subcommittee on Legislation and National Affairs regarding classified files relating to JFK’s assassination. Wecht said Stone’s efforts were instrumental in Congress passing the “President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992.” According to the act, “all Government records concerning the assassination of President John F. Kennedy should carry a presumption of immediate disclosure, and all records should be eventually disclosed to enable the public to become fully informed about the history surrounding the assassination.” Despite the legislation, however, the government still has not released all of the relevant materials, Wecht said. President Donald Trump seemed poised to release the documents when he tweeted on Oct. 21, 2017: “Subject to the receipt of further information, I will be allowing, as President, the long blocked and classified JFK FILES to be opened.” Nevertheless, Trump reversed course, citing national security concerns. On Dec. 15, a trove of almost 1,500 documents was released by the National Archives. Researchers, however, described the materials as “underwhelming,” according to CNN. Wecht likewise called the documents “utterly worthless.” President Joe Biden said the morethan-10,000 unreleased or partially redacted documents could be declassified as early as December, but Wecht isn’t holding his breath. “They’ll still play the same game,” he said. Please see Wecht, page 13

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Photo courtesy of Dr. Cyril Wecht

Cyril Wecht continues to challenge Warren Commission in new book

Headlines Prominent Jewish immigration lawyer pens new book, readies for Pittsburgh appearance

The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Jewish Community Foundation presents

— LOCAL — By David Rullo | Staff Writer

ustice was ingrained in immigration lawyer Susan Cohen’s thinking since she was a child in New Jersey. “My grandfather was the lawyer for the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City,” said Cohen, who now lives in Boston. “He instilled the love of law in many of us. ‘Justice, justice, thou shall pursue,’ runs deep in my family. Growing up, we had some pretty horrible antisemitic incidents in our family, and I’ve always identified with people who are marginalized. If something was unfair, I had this strong gut desire to rectify it.” The founding chair of the immigration practice at the Mintz law firm — which has seven offices in the United States and one in London — Cohen graduated from Brandeis University with a degree in Latin American and Spanish literature. That background enabled her to find a job with an immigration lawyer before obtaining her law degree. She joined Mintz in 1985. Initially hired as a corporate lawyer, Cohen thought she would work as a commercial litigator, but that practice ultimately didn’t resonate with her. Instead, during her first year with the firm, the young attorney worked on an immigration case — despite the firm not practicing immigration law — helping a Japanese citizen who was living in the U.S. as an artist-in-residence obtain his green card, although he had overstayed his visa. That success buoyed Cohen’s confidence, allowing the 27-year-old to find the chutzpah to persuade the senior management at Mintz that it was in the firm’s interest to launch an immigration practice. “I convinced them that clients of ours were

p “Journeys from There to Here”

Book cover photo provided by Susan Cohen

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 Susan Cohen

Photo courtesy of Jessica Sager

“ ‘Justice, justice,

2022

thou shall pursue,’

Online

runs deep in my

”

family.

— SUSAN COHEN

using other firms for their immigration business,” Cohen said. “They took a chance on me to prove myself. Slowly but surely, I was able to build an immigration practice that, over decades, became a go-to practice.” Cohen said that in addition to the corporate clients she has helped, the firm has taken an important role in pro bono work, defending the rights of immigrants. She called the corporate and pro bono work the “yin and yang” of the firm. The slow and steady practice begun by Cohen has grown to include a team that works on immigration and asylum. Cohen has compiled the stories behind several of her cases in her book “Journeys from There to Here: Stories of Immigrant Trials, Triumphs and Contributions” (River Grove Books, October 2021). Each chapter recounts the case of one individual or family and highlights some of the shortcomings and obstacles in the United States immigration policy while showing possibilities for reform. Along the way, readers are given firsthand accounts of the trials and tribulations of asylum seekers and others hoping to escape oppression and abuse, while making contributions to the world. Cohen recounts the struggles of Peng Xu, who escaped to America after running afoul

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2022 5:00 PM | ONLINE (Zoom Link Provided at Registration) RSVP: February 1, 2022 | Couvert: $10/person

Log on with your fellow snowbirds for an evening with Rabbi Danny Schiff, discussing

“LIVING THE DREAM: BEING A JEW IN '22” Learn more at

FOUNDATION.JEWISHPGH.ORG/SNOWBIRD Questions? Contact Patti Dziekan at pdziekan@jfedpgh.org or 412-992-5221. Minimum $500 commitment to the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s 2022 Community Campaign.

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Headlines JCC’s Jason Kunzman honored for work during pandemic — LOCAL — By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

ason Kunzman, the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh’s chief program officer, was honored by the Greater Pittsburgh Nonprofit Partnership with its Emerging Leader Award for his work helping the community during the pandemic. The GPNP, a project of The Forbes Funds, announced the award at its annual meeting on Dec. 8. Other recipients of the award were Ray Nell Jones and Verónica Lozada. Nell Jones is founder and CEO of the Allignment Chapter Corporation, a nonprofit committed to helping low-income single mothers and families in 22 states and 83 communities; Lozada is deputy director of programs and community engagement at Casa San José, a group that helps immigrant Latinos thrive in Pittsburgh. Kunzman said that Jones’ and Lozada’s efforts, along with those of his JCC colleagues, demonstrate the various ways frontline workers have put community first throughout the pandemic. In March 2020, when the JCC was mandated to shutter, senior leaders began strategizing how to best aid local residents, Kunzman said. They quickly determined that the JCC, at both its Squirrel Hill

opened its doors to Vitalant and blood donors for nine drives, Kunzman said. Those efforts resulted in the JCC broadening its partnerships with health providers across the region. Through work with the Squirrel Hill Health Center, UPMC, AHN, the Latino Community Center and Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance Pittsburgh, the JCC became a center for not only blood drives but free COVID testing and vaccination. In using its space for public health, the JCC has aided thousands, JCC representatives said. Since March 2020, the JCC has hosted more than 65 blood drives, with 1,770 donations helping nearly 5,319 patients; and approximately 3,000 COVID tests and 11,115 COVID vaccinations have been administered on the JCC’s premises. Those numbers are remarkable, Kunzman said, but it’s the JCC’s staff that keeps the organization  Jason Kunzman Photo courtesy of Jewish Community Center running on a day-to-day basis. of Greater Pittsburgh As soon as the JCC was permitted and South Hills locations, should begin to reopen after the initial mandated closure, staffers returned with renewed dedicahosting blood drives. At that point, the typical places people tion. That commitment continues today, could donate blood had closed. Throughout Kunzman said, and from morning until March and early April of 2020, the JCC night, the JCC is filled with professionals

who are working with members, partnering with stakeholders and serving the community at large. The numerous individuals who put in long hours for the greater good deserve recognition, he said, adding that the award he received reflects that team effort. The entire staff is willing to do “whatever it takes” to help the community, and that isn’t something that just began in March 2020, Kunzman said. Since Oct. 27, 2018 — the date of the antisemitic attack at the Tree of Life building — JCC staffers have worked tirelessly to maintain a space that promotes the community’s health and wellness. “There are countless staff that are there at crazy hours to make sure the end product gets delivered on time, and to the highest extent possible,” Kunzman said. JCC president and CEO Brian Schreiber echoed Kunzman’s praise, and said, “While this award could only be presented to an individual, we know that this award also recognizes our entire JCC community, who have been the most passionate individuals I know in pursuit of mission and excellence.” Still, the organization continues battling the financial scars of COVID. It’s 2,782 paid membership units represent just 67% of pre-pandemic levels. Thankfully, Kunzman said, several agencies and donors have stepped up to ensure Please see Kunzman, page 13

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Headlines After 20 years, Richard Rattner will relocate William Penn Tavern to Lawrenceville — LOCAL — By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

ichard Rattner spends his mornings at William Penn Tavern. Other than the occasional delivery person, he’s often the only one at the bar. “You get used to it,” Rattner, 59, said. “It’s a good time to decompress.” For Rattner, solitude is a gift, offering a chance to contemplate what changes should be made, either to his establishment or to the neighborhood. Well before Rattner opened the tavern in Shadyside 20 years ago, he was active in the Shadyside Chamber of Commerce, where discussions of gentrification — redeveloping an area to attract higher-income earners while typically displacing lower-income residents — were often on the table. In 2019, Pittsburgh was named the eighth-most gentrified city in America, according to the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. Rattner has tried not to bow to the shifting economic landscape. With the help of his staff — some of whom have been with him almost since the start — and longtime patrons, he has created a neighborhood pub devoid of pretension. “We are here for the average Pittsburgher,” Rattner said. “The prices are according to what the working man makes in Pittsburgh.” No sandwich costs more than $11.95. Wings are $1 each. Fried pickles are $8.75. There’s a simplicity to the items, and familiarity to the venue, that runs counter to Pittsburgh’s newer gastropubs, bars and sleek establishments catering to vacillating trends. “We find that when it all breaks down, people just want warm and fuzzy — good quality food at a quality price in a place that they can feel comfortable in,” Rattner said. That was Rattner’s aim 20 years ago when he opened William Penn Tavern and it will remain his goal when the establishment relocates this summer. After two decades in Shadyside — a period during which Walnut Street welcomed Patagonia and an Apple store and said goodbye to Shadyside Market & Deli after 69 years on site — the tavern is heading to Lawrenceville. Rattner views the move, which was prompted by his lease not being renewed, optimistically. “We feel that Shadyside has really gentrified over the last 20 years, and by going to Lawrenceville we feel we are returning to our roots in a sense,” he said. “It’s more mom-and-pops, more local Pittsburghers. We feel it will be a great fit.” Pittsburgh City Councilperson Erika Strassburger, who represents Shadyside and other neighborhoods in Pittsburgh’s East End, called the move “a huge loss for Shadyside.” The tavern has been a regular gathering place for many elected officials, Chamber of Commerce board members and Pittsburghers in general, she said, and Rattner himself has improved the PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

 Richard Rattner stands outside the William Penn Tavern.

community through decades of service to the Shadyside Chamber of Commerce. Dec. 31 was Rattner’s last day as its president. “Richard is the unofficial mayor of Shadyside,” Strassburger said. In addition to having a vast institutional memory, the restaurateur knows how to set up every annual festival and event and is aware of everything happening in the commercial district. “He has made himself indispensable,” Strassburger continued. “I’m glad he’s not going far, but we’ll miss him in Shadyside.” Rattner said he plans to become active in Lawrenceville and find ways to support the area’s local schools and businesses as he did in Shadyside for so many years. He has a few months to figure out how best to contribute to his new neighborhood, as the William Penn Tavern isn’t opening its doors at 3810 Butler St. until June 1. In the meantime, the Shadyside establishment, located at 739 Bellefonte St., will remain open until May 31. Keeping open until then, Rattner said, ensures that the Carnegie Mellon University students who have supported the tavern during their years on campus will have a place to go through graduation. Rattner said he’s seen many of the same people come through his doors for years;

and, despite serving certifiably unkosher clam strips and cheesesteak hoagies, he’s also welcomed a fair number of rabbis. “It’s a good place for the rabbis to bring their younger students and let them be comfortable and be a little cool,” he said. Rattner, who is one of four Jewish brothers raised in Squirrel Hill by parents Joe and Mickey Rattner, credits his family with planting the seeds for the tavern. In 2001, he and his brother Stuart closed down William Penn Hat and Gown, a 105-year-old Shadyside-based boutique that the Rattner family had owned since 1970. By 2001, it was clear there “wasn’t much of a future in women’s couture,” Richard said. In paying homage to the former family business, Rattner opened William Penn Tavern and imbued the venue with tradition. It’s that charm, and Rattner himself, that make the tavern so special, said his friend Michele Rosenthal, adding, “He defines the word mensch.” For more than 40 years the Rattner and Rosenthal families have been close. Through the decades, Rosenthal has noticed the care Rattner has put not only into his own business but into everything — including competitors’ businesses — in Shadyside. “He cares about the community and the people who live there,” she said. “And he

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Photo by Adam Reinherz

cares about the success of the neighborhood and the business district.” That was especially apparent during the pandemic, when Rattner often partnered with fellow restaurateurs and bar owners to create a “united front.” “If any of us found a product that none of us could get, we would order for each other,” Rattner said. “If someone was low on employees, we shared employees…That’s what got us through this.” A restaurant’s success during the pandemic is no small feat, as COVID-19 has devastated many food services. Through November, the industry was still more than 750,000 jobs short of its March 2020 numbers, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. Even so, William Penn Tavern is in the unique position of having actually grown its staff since the start of the pandemic. “I didn’t lay anyone off, whether we had business or not,” Rattner said. “We paid our employees during the shutdowns. We stayed as a family, and it worked out.” Rosenthal isn’t surprised. “That’s what the tavern is — it’s Pittsburgh,” she said. “Richard knows people’s families. He knows people’s lives.” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ pittsburghjeiwshchronicle.org. JANUARY 7, 2022 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.

importance for the main three monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam; interesting facts about Israel today; prospects and challenges for the future; and Pittsburgh’s connection with Israel. 7 p.m. jewishpgh.org/ event/mega-mission-virtual-tour-5.

q SUNDAY, JAN. 9

q MONDAYS, JAN. 10-FEB. 7

Join your favorite Moishe House residents at Frick Park for a nature hike and to take fun winter headshots. Hot chocolate and hand warmers will be available. RSVP at bit.ly/moho010922 and they will email you final details before the event. 11 a.m.

Join Congregation Beth Shalom for a weekly Talmud study. 9:15 a.m. For more information, visit bethshalompgh.org.

q SUNDAYS, JAN. 9-JAN. 16

In the Briva Project’s weekly writing course, Sh’ma-Hear Your Inner Voice, students will reflect and write, moving through Chanukah to Tu B’Shvat. Each class will begin with a communal ritual and creative prompt. 6 p.m. $200 for all eight sessions. tickettailor.com/ events/briyaproject/604183.

q TUESDAYS, JAN. 11-MAY 24

Sign up now for Melton Core 2, Ethics and Crossroads of Jewish Living. Discover the central ideas and texts that inform our daily, weekly and annual rituals, as well as life cycle observances and essential Jewish theological concepts and ideas as they unfold in the Bible, the Talmud and other sacred texts. $300. 9:30 a.m. foundation.jewishpgh.org/melton-2. q WEDNESDAY, JAN. 12

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. 8:30 p.m. For more information, visit bethshalompgh.org.

Classrooms Without Borders presents the fourth session of Confronting the Complexity of Holocaust Scholarship: Reflections on the Past, Present, and Future of Holocaust Studies. Wendy Lower will present “Using Photographs as Evidence.” 3 p.m. classroomswithoutborders.org/confronting_ the_complexity_of_holocaust_scholarship.

q MONDAY, JAN. 10

q WEDNESDAYS, JAN. 12-JAN. 26

Join the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh on Zoom to learn more about the Mega Mission 2022. The mission will take place in Israel June 13-21, 2022. This is your chance to hear the details and ask all of your pressing questions. RSVP required to receive Zoom link. 6 p.m. jewishpgh.org/event/megamission-general-information-session.

In The Jewish Moral Virtues, Foundation Scholar Rabbi Danny Schiff will explore Jewish teaching on critical moral virtues. Based on the qualities listed in the 13th century “Sefer Maalot Hamiddot” (“The Book of the Choicest Virtues”), Rabbi Schiff will explore the contemporary application of these moral virtues to our 21st century lives. $65 for all 13 Zoom sessions. 9:30 a.m. foundation. jewishpgh.org/jewish-moral-virtues.

q SUNDAYS, JAN. 9-FEB. 6

Join the Jewish Mega Mission Virtual Tour of Israel with Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. Tour Guide Reuven Zusman will cover Israel’s

Your Hosts

q WEDNESDAY, JAN. 19

Bring the parshah alive and make it personally relevant and meaningful. Study the weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Mark Asher Goodman. 12:15 p.m. bethshalompgh. org/life-text.

The Squirrel Hill AARP meeting is open to all seniors. Come and welcome the beginning of 2022 together. The meeting, in the Falk Library of Rodef Shalom, will feature Pittsburgh Police Zone Community Officer David Shifren, who will discuss home safety practices. All are welcome to learn precautions that will help safeguard you, your family, your home, your neighbors, your vehicle and your bank account. Mr. Shifren is also a wellknown writer. Proof of vaccinations and masks are required. 1 p.m. Any questions, please contact our president, Marcia Kramer, at 412-656-5803.

Join Temple Sinai to study the weekly Torah portion in its hybrid class available on Zoom. Open to everyone. 12 p.m. templesinaipgh.org/ event/parashah/weekly-torah-portion-classvia-zoom11.html. q THURSDAY, JAN. 13

Join Classrooms Without Borders for a post-film discussion of “In Search of My Sister” with film director Jawad Mir; Sabrina Sohail, executive director of The Peace Project; and Serena Oberstein, executive director of Jewish World Watch. 3 p.m. classroomswithoutborders.org/post-filmdiscussion-in-search-of-my-sister. q THURSDAYS, JAN. 13-JUNE 30

The Alan Papernick Educational Institute Endowment Fund presents Continuing Legal Education, a six-part CLE series taught by Foundation Scholar Rabbi Danny Schiff. Earn up to 12 CLE credits. Each session is a standalone unit; you can take one class or all six. 8:30 a.m. With CLE credit: $30/session or $150 all sessions; without CLE credit: $25/session or $125 all sessions. For a complete list of dates and topics, visit foundation.jewishpgh.org/ continuing-legal-education. q FRIDAY, JAN. 14

Join Moishe House for a take-out Shabbat dinner. Candles will be lit. We will be socially distanced and masked up, and then take home a Shabbat meal to remember. RSVP at bit.ly/ moho-011422 and they will be in touch with the final details via email. 6 p.m. q SUNDAY, JAN. 16

Join the Chronicle Book Club: ‘The Lost Shtetl’

he Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle invites you to join the Chronicle Book Club’s Jan. 30 meeting, when we will be discussing “The Lost Shtetl” by Max Gross, winner of the National Jewish Book Award for 2020 and the Jewish Fiction Award. The author will join us for part of the meeting. From Amazon.com: “What if there was a town that history missed? For decades, the tiny Jewish shtetl of Kreskol existed in happy isolation, virtually untouched and unchanged. Spared by the Holocaust and the Cold War, its residents enjoyed remarkable peace. It missed out on cars, and electricity, and the internet, and indoor plumbing. But when a marriage dispute spins out of control, the whole town comes crashing into the twenty-first century.”

q WEDNESDAYS, JAN. 12-FEB. 9

How It Works

We will meet on Zoom on Sunday, Jan. 30, at noon to discuss the book. As you read it, we invite you to share comments and join discussions in our Facebook group, Chronicle Connects: Jewish PGH. We invite you to join now if you are not already a member of the group.

What To Do

Buy: “The Lost Shtetl.” It is available from online retailers. Email: Contact us at drullo@pittsburghjewish chronicle.org, and write “Chronicle Book Club” in the subject line. We will send you a Zoom link for the meeting. See you later this month! PJC

Join the Yeshiva Schools for an evening of cheese and wine and a live raffle drawing to benefit their arts and music program. 7:30 p.m. 403 Greenfield Ave. yeshivaschools.com/ annual-raffle. q MONDAY, JAN. 17

Join Classrooms Without Borders and the Maltz Jewish Heritage Museum for Hear Our Voices: MLK Day of Learning, an allday celebration including free museum admission, virtual family activities and special online programs. For questions or to make requests for special accommodations contact melissa@classroomswithoutborders.org. classroomswithoutborders.org/january-172022-hear-our-voices-mlk-day-learning-maltzjewish-heritage-museum. q TUESDAY, JAN. 18

Join Cara Ciminillo, executive director of Trying Together, and Anna Hartman, director of early childhood excellence at the Jewish United Fund and director of the Paradigm Project, for a virtual discussion about President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better framework and what universal childhood education might mean for the Jewish community. 7 p.m. Free. jfedpgh.org/universal-education.

Toby Tabachnick, editor of the Chronicle David Rullo, Chronicle staff writer

— Toby Tabachnick

6 JANUARY 7, 2022

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Stop by the Moishe House porch to check in with a resident and pick up some craft supplies. From cross-stitch to crochet, there will be a craft for everyone. RSVP at https://bit.ly/moho-011922 6 p.m. Classrooms Without Borders presents Using Holocaust films in the classroom, with Holocaust film scholar and author Rich Brownstein in conversation with Dr. Michael Berenbaum. Explore the greatest narrative Holocaust film ever made while discovering the impact of Holocaust genre films. 4 p.m. classroomswithoutborders.org/holocaustcinema-complete-rich-brownstein. q WEDNESDAYS, JAN. 19-FEB. 23

Chabad of the South Hills presents “Meditation from Sinai,” a new Jewish Learning Institute course that will discuss mindful awareness and divine spirituality to help you think, feel and live more deeply. $95. 7:30 p.m. 1701 McFarland Road or on Zoom. Call 412-512-3046 or email rabbi@chabadsh. com for more information or to register. q THURSDAY, JAN. 20

Classrooms Without Borders, in coordination with Tali Nates, founder and director of the Johannesburg Genocide & Holocaust Centre, and in partnership with the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, Liberation 75 and the USC Shoah Foundation presents Holocaust Museums and Memorials Around the World, a new series highlighting different angles of complex memory. 1 p.m. classroomswithoutborders.org/holocaust_ museums_and_memorials_around_the_world. q WEDNESDAY, JAN. 26

Join Moishe House Pittsburgh on Netflix Party to watch a movie together. Details and a link to connect will be sent out via email the day before. Goody bags of snacks will be available on our porch the day before and day of. 7 p.m. RSVP at bit.ly/moho-012622. q FRIDAY, JAN. 28

Join Moishe House for a take-out Shabbat dinner. Candles will be lit. We will be socially distanced and masked up, and then take home a Shabbat meal to remember. 6 p.m. RSVP at bit.ly/moho-012822. q SUNDAY, JAN. 30

The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle invites you to join the next Chronicle Book Club meeting. We will be discussing “The Lost Shtetl” by Max Gross, winner of the National Jewish Book Award for 2020 and the Jewish Fiction Award. Noon. To register, email David Rullo at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org. PJC PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Headlines Frustrated by haredi leaders, Orthodox activists push for stronger response to sexual abuse — WORLD — By Shira Hanau | JTA

n Friday morning, most of the people bustling through Beit Shemesh, a town in central Israel with a large haredi Orthodox population, were getting ready for Shabbat. Shoshanna Keats-Jaskoll had a different mission. Keats-Jaskoll was handing out flyers with messages of support for victims of sexual abuse, in a public display of solidarity at the end of a wrenching week in many Orthodox communities. At the beginning of the week, Chaim Walder, a celebrated haredi Orthodox children’s book author in Israel, died by suicide after being accused by numerous children and young women of sexual abuse. The Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel visited Walder’s family. Then, on Thursday, one of Walder’s alleged victims, Shifra Horovitz, also died by suicide, her friends saying she had been distraught by the response to his death. For Keats-Jaskoll, a cofounder of the Israeli advocacy organization Chochmat Nashim, which fights extremism and sexism in the Orthodox community, and for many other Orthodox women, the litany called for a coordinated, public response. So she, who is Orthodox but not haredi, and a network of haredi activists and volunteers printed 350,000 flyers and passed them out in haredi areas before Shabbat. Most of the reactions she got were from mothers thanking her for sharing her message, she told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. But one man told her he didn’t know anyone who had been hurt and questioned why she was giving out the flyers — keeping up the conversation for far longer than she expected. “I think this is really hard for haredim, when you’re told to trust leadership and there’s a real cognitive dissonance: something is wrong, the leadership should be saying something, if they’re not saying something maybe it’s not true, but if it’s not true what does that mean?” Keats-Jaskoll said. “So I think they’re going through a real crisis of faith in a lot of places.” The flyers that Keats-Jaskoll and others handed out spoke directly to that crisis of faith, and to the religious values of those whose confidence in their leaders might be teetering. They offered information about the rabbinic court that heard testimony against Walder, quoted rabbinic sources about the seriousness of sexual abuse and answered questions about why allegations first reported in secular media should be trusted in religious communities. Since the allegations against Walder first appeared in November, the case has taken an unusual trajectory in the Orthodox world. After Eichler’s, a Jewish bookstore

p Nearly 350,000 flyers expressing support for victims of sexual abuse were distributed in Orthodox communities across Israel by a group of volunteers Friday. Photo courtesy of Shoshanna Keats-Jaskoll

in Brooklyn, announced that it would stop selling Walder’s books in response to the Haaretz investigation, many other repudiations of Walder followed, in a flood that advocates for survivors of sexual abuse said seemed to represent a watershed moment for the community. But after Walder’s suicide, it became immediately clear that any shift extended only so far. In a number of haredi schools, teachers reportedly spoke to students about Walder’s suicide as an example of the dangerous effects of “lashon hara,” or speaking negatively about another person, and parents were counseled not to discuss the issue in detail with their children. At Walder’s funeral, Dov Weinroth, a lawyer and friend of Walder, called out the journalists at Haaretz who first published the allegations against Walder as “murderers.” And in the days after Walder’s death, multiple haredi Orthodox publications published obituaries of Walder that ended with the phrase “may his memory be a blessing” while failing to mention the allegations against him. Yet social media has given rise to a different kind of reaction: photos of Walder’s books in the trash and poignant accounts of difficult conversations between parents and children about abuse and what constitutes inappropriate touching. A social media campaign Monday generated a flood of complaints to haredi magazines about their coverage. And the crowdfunding campaign to print a second run of flyers has raised nearly $70,000 in just a few days. “There’s a dissonance between how people are responding in their homes and

the way the institutions are responding,” Keats-Jaskoll said. There are signs that the dissonance is having an effect on traditional institutions. After being criticized for visiting Walder’s family, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau called for victims of sexual abuse to come forward. Weinroth, too, made an aboutface, apologizing for criticizing the reporters who broke the story in a Facebook post Thursday that urged readers to “believe the complainants.” “I picked up the phone and called Aaron Rabinowitz,” Weinroth wrote, referring to one of the Haaretz reporters who broke the story about Walder. “Truthfully this was the first time, and for a simple reason: to apologize. At the end of the day, I had never spoken with him but I got up at the funeral and demeaned him.” Rabbi Natan Slifkin, author and director of the Biblical Museum of Natural History in Beit Shemesh who writes the blog Rationalist Judaism, compared the reaction to the Walder story to the haredi community’s reaction to the stampede at Mount Meron in April last year where 45 men were killed during an annual religious gathering. “The fact that Walder, clearly emerging as a horrific predator, was glorified after his death by important charedi rabbis and politicians and newspapers, while those who attempted to scream about the dangers are being branded as evil gossipers who drove him to his death, is just too much for many people in the charedi community,” Slifkin wrote. While calling out those who blamed the victims for Walder’s death and those who encouraged silence rather than shaming

abusers, Slifkin noted the signs of change, including an editorial in Mishpacha magazine’s Hebrew edition, which, in an unusual move, spoke directly about the topic of sexual abuse. “They [the victims] are not the guilty ones. They are not the abusers,” the magazine wrote. “To them we say in the name of the entire haredi community: our hearts are with you. We support you and we believe you, unconditionally. And we will do everything in our power as a community to build a safer and purer world for you.” For Keats-Jaskoll and other activists in the haredi Orthodox community, the fallout from the Walder case is indeed a watershed moment — and one that has to do with a broader phenomenon of people taking matters into their own hands after questioning their religious leaders. “I see more more and more and more people come to that realization of we have to do this, we can’t wait around,” Keats-Jaskoll said. “I think COVID helped with that, I think seeing what happened with COVID with leadership denying what was happening with COVID and watching people get sick and die, it kind of took a lot of people and shook them up and say maybe our leadership doesn’t know everything,” she said. She’s doing everything she can to help activists within haredi communities speed the change — while fearing that it won’t come fast enough for victims of sexual abuse. “We just can’t wait for the next suicide,” Keats-Jaskoll said. “We just can’t wait for more people to kill themselves to know that this is a massive crisis.” PJC

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PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

JANUARY 7, 2022 7

Headlines The founder of Jumpstart wants to be Arizona’s first Jewish governor — NATIONAL — By Ron Kampeas | JTA

n the summer of 1993, Arizona native Aaron Lieberman made friends with three other Jewish college students while working at a camp in upstate New York for kids with social, educational and emotional challenges. The four, including David Carmel, Rebecca Weintraub and Jordan Meranus, saw the substantial effect that one-on-one attention had on children over the course of the summer. They discussed transferring the methods to early childhood education, so the effects would be longer-lasting. Lieberman’s inspiration was a teacher who helped him overcome a speech impediment as a child. Lieberman and Weintraub, who were both at Yale, got a professor, Edward Zigler, the Jewish psychologist who helped design the federal preschool program Head Start, to mentor the project. Zigler helped broker an agreement with New Haven’s board of education to launch a pilot program. That evolved in 1994 into Jumpstart, a nonprofit organization that pairs university students with preschoolers through a number of partnerships, including Head Start. A 2018 peer-reviewed study published in Cogent Education found that “children in Jumpstart improved significantly in their language skills, literacy, initiative, and social development.” Jumpstart now operates in 15 states and Washington, D.C. Lieberman, 50, calls himself an “accidental entrepreneur” — after serving as Jumpstart’s CEO for its first seven years, he spun off a number of for-profit enterprises centered on early childhood education. One of those, Acelero, lists its revenue on an employee recruitment site as between $50 million and $100 million. Lieberman moved back to Arizona with his family in 2015, and in 2018 as a Democrat he won a traditionally Republican seat in the state legislature on a platform of working across the aisle. He quit his seat in September, less than a year into his second two-year term, to run for governor next year. He is aware that he would be the first Jew to occupy that office. “A lot of Jews will feel that there’s something extra special about electing a Jewish governor,” he said. “I’m here to be the governor for all of Arizona no matter what their faith tradition is, but I think it is an extra special and a nice thing that I will be the first.” Two hurdles await: an August primary that looks competitive, and securing the vote in a state that bumps back and forth between Republicans and Democrats from election to election. Two other Democratic candidates that have announced campaigns have statewide profiles — Katie Hobbs, the incumbent secretary of state, and Marco Lopez, a former mayor of Nogales who has federal government experience and deep ties to the state’s substantial Latino community. The Republican frontrunner, former news

8 JANUARY 7, 2022

p Aaron Lieberman, shown in an undated photo from his campaign website, quit his Arizona state legislature seat in September to run for governor. Photo courtesy of aaron4az.com

anchor Kari Lake, has already taken flack for associations with the QAnon disinformation campaign and with a Nazi sympathizer. Lieberman said he was partly inspired to run because of the Republican push to decertify Arizona’s presidential election results. (Doug Ducey, the GOP incumbent who resisted Trump’s pressure to decertify, is reaching the end of his term-limited second term.) “We don’t want that pen in Kari Lake’s hand in 2024. Because she’ll do whatever the [former] president wants her to do,” Lieberman said. But although he is a solid Democrat on a range of issues, including the right to abortions, Lieberman is also an ambitious centrist. He shies away from digging deep into hot-button issues that could hurt him in a purple state. Most strikingly, his website does not once mention the immigration issues in a border state that has become a locus for the fraught political battles over the issue. In an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, he condemned state Republicans like former Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio for trying to make it a state issue — but he kicked the can to D.C. “We need elected senators and congressmen and a president who can bring people together and fix our broken immigration system and come up with real lasting solutions,” Lieberman said. “Arizona desperately needs a comprehensive immigration program that includes a guest worker visa program. I can’t do that as the governor; as the governor, I want a secure border. I want to know who comes across it safely and securely. But the big work needs to be done in Washington, D.C.” Lieberman has adopted two sons from Ethiopia, and has said that he took citizenship

for granted until they were naturalized. “I realized then just how hard so many immigrants work to get their citizenship,” Lieberman wrote on Facebook on Sept. 17, 2020, marking Citizenship Day. “We were joined in the ceremony by immigrants of all ages; many of whom had to work hard and study hard to gain their citizenship.” His reluctance to wade into controversial waters emerged again in the interview when talking about a law that requires Holocaust education in Arizona schools, which he helped shepherd. The bill was nearly derailed because Republicans sought to include the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, which includes ways in which criticism of Israel can be defined as antisemitic. Some Democrats objected because they see the definition as impinging on legitimate criticism. The main sponsor, Rep. Alma Hernandez, a Jewish Democrat, reluctantly removed the definition, which drew sharp criticism from some pro-Israel groups. Asked for comment on the IHRA definition, which has rattled Jewish and pro-Israel politics nationally, Lieberman said only: “No.” “We had an incredibly high percentage of kids in Arizona, truthfully, it’s in every state, who couldn’t tell you if Jews were the perpetrators or the victims in the Holocaust,” he said about the law. “It’s really kind of terrifying.” Lieberman instead made education a focus of his three years in the statehouse, advocating for budget increases for child care subsidies for working mothers and for school funding. He wants universal pre-K and community college scholarships for students with B averages. It’s a major component of his campaign and he says he takes it with him wherever he goes, including among the state’s Native Americans,

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

who helped swing Arizona to Biden last year. “I was the first candidate to go up to the Navajo reservation, where the turnout among the tribes elected Joe Biden,” he said. “Those voters have concerns like every other voter, I want a good school for my kid. I want to be able to have an opportunity to earn enough money to support my family. Right now our teachers are paid 49th in the country. I want to get to 25th.” Lieberman spent years in New York City, but his Jewish Arizona roots helped bring him back. His mother, Evie, in 1976 was one of the founders of Temple Emanuel in Tempe. The family later moved to Phoenix. “Being Jewish and on the East Coast, in particular living in New York, it felt like almost everybody was Jewish,” he said. “In Arizona, it felt like you were part of this much smaller kind of tightknit community that just interacted in a little bit of a different way, but in a special way and in a nice way.” Lieberman said the responsibility of public service drew him closer to Judaism. “Once I got elected, for whatever reason, I just kind of felt this weight on me and I started becoming a regular Friday night service-goer, in part because the services at Temple Solel [in suburban Phoenix] are so musical,” he said. “It’s a great way to end the week and start the weekend.” Also attending Temple Solel is Kate Gallegos, Phoenix’s Jewish mayor, with whom Lieberman has worked on rerouting a water pipeline that was poised to rip through a mountain reserve. “The idea of tikkun olam has really been the animating force of my life. You know that as Jews, we are here in part to repair the breach to make the world better,” he said. “That’s what I’ve tried to do almost every day of my kind of professional career. And I see politics as an extension of that.” PJC PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Headlines — WORLD — From JTA reports

Israel begins administering 4th coronavirus shots

Israel has begun administering a second booster shot to citizens over 60 and to medical workers who received their first booster at least four months ago. Prime Minister Naftali Bennet explained the move, a bid to protect vulnerable segments of the population against the omicron variant that is currently sweeping through the country, on Sunday. “We’ve been first in the world [with the] booster shots and that policy has protected Israel’s citizens well,” Bennett said, according to The Times of Israel. While the ability of a fourth coronavirus vaccination to boost immunity has not been proven, the question is currently being studied at Israel’s Sheba Medical Center in a study of 6,000 people. In July, Israel became the first country in the world to offer residents a third coronavirus vaccine dose. Some experts have criticized the move for getting ahead of the data. Anthony Fauci, President Biden’s chief medical adviser, said he would recommend focusing on third shots, which have been shown to increase protection against the omicron variant, before moving on to a fourth shot. The number of new cases of the

coronavirus in Israel has skyrocketed in recent days, approximately tripling over the course of a week. Government officials and health experts have predicted those numbers will continue to rise with tens of thousands of new cases each day until the omicron variant runs out of new people to infect. Despite the surge in cases, the government has chosen not to impose a lockdown as was done in previous waves, choosing instead to focus on encouraging vaccination. The number of serious cases has not risen at the rate of the number of cases overall and the majority of hospitalized COVID patients are unvaccinated.

Soccer fans filmed singing about killing Jews in Belgium

Dozens of soccer fans in Antwerp, Belgium, were filmed giving Nazi salutes while chanting about Hamas and gassing and burning Jews. Police are investigating the videos, which appeared on social media earlier this week. The incident appeared to have taken place at or outside Café Stadion, a restaurant near a soccer stadium. The men chanted: “My father was in the commandos, my mother was in the SS, together they burned Jews ’cause Jews burn the best,” as well as “Hamas, Jews to the gas” while making the Nazi salutes. They appear to be fans of the Beerschot soccer team of Antwerp, the Gazet van Antwerpen reported. Separately, the ethics board of the Royal

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

Jan. 7, 2010 — Early Hebrew inscription is deciphered

University of Haifa’s Gershon Galil announces that he has deciphered a pottery shard inscription found at Khirbet Qeiyafa from the 10th century B.C.E., the earliest-known Hebrew writing yet discovered.

Jan. 8, 1978 — Hadassah leader Rose Halprin dies

Rose Luria Halprin, a national president of Hadassah and a Mandate-era Jewish Agency official, dies in New York at age 83. She played a liaison role in the construction of Hadassah’s Mount Scopus hospital.

Jan. 9, 1952 — Israel accepts German reparations

The Knesset ends three days of debate by voting 61-50 to accept more than $800 million in Holocaust reparations from West Germany over 14 years. The payments prove vital to the new state’s economy.

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Belgian Soccer Association last week fined the Club Brugge Belgian soccer team to the tune of $2,226 for chants heard at three recent matches. Fans of Brugge shouted “Whoever doesn’t jump is a Jew,” as they sprang up and down during the matches.

After attending shiva of accused abuser Chaim Walder, Israel’s chief rabbi calls for victims of abuse to come forward

Israel’s Ashkenazi chief rabbi called for victims of sexual abuse to bring complaints to the “relevant authorities,” saying “there is an obligation to complain to the authorities in charge of these issues, and not hide it,” according to the site Israel National News. The comments from Rabbi David Lau Wednesday came after Lau was criticized for visiting the family of Chaim Walder, the Israeli haredi Orthodox author of children’s books who was recently accused by dozens of young women of sexual abuse, as they sat shiva for Walder following his death by suicide earlier this week. “These acts must be uprooted and eradicated completely. In any case when there is a hint of an indecent act or harassment, there is an obligation to complain to the authorities in charge of these issues, and not hide it,” Lau said in a statement released by his office. Tomer Persico, an Israeli writer, shared an article to Twitter Thursday about a young woman and sexual assault survivor who died of a suspected suicide after news broke of Walder’s suicide.

“Wonder if respected rabbis will attend her funeral,” he wrote.

Israeli chief rabbi threatens to freeze conversions amid proposed reforms

Israel’s Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau said he would not approve future conversions to Judaism in protest of proposed reforms that would challenge his authority over the process, the Times of Israel reported. Lau’s statement comes as Religious Affairs Minister Matan Kahana is pushing controversial new reforms to Israel’s conversion system that would allow municipal rabbis to supervise the process rather than leaving sole responsibility to the chief rabbinate. The legislation would also end the tenure of the current head of the conversion authority, Moshe Veller. On Tuesday, Kahana wrote on Twitter that Lau’s move could harm Ethiopian immigrants and soldiers seeking conversion. Some sources have reported that Lau has already halted the conversion processes of 100 Ethiopian immigrants awaiting his signature. Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman warned Lau Wednesday that his threat to freeze conversions “is not appropriate to the status of the chief rabbi, and may lead to proceedings being taken to end his term.” A vote on the legislation has been delayed until further notice, as not enough support was garnered to support it, the Times of Israel reported on Dec. 29, 2021. PJC

helping you plan for what matters the most

Jan. 10, 2000 — Syria peace talks end

Seven days of talks between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Shara, focusing on trading the Golan Heights for peace, end without resolution in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.

Jan. 11, 1961 — Immigrant ship Egoz sinks

The Egoz, leased by the Mossad to secretly carry Moroccan Jews to Israel, sinks a few hours after leaving the Moroccan port of Al Hoceima on its 12th immigration voyage. Forty-four would-be Israelis drown.

Jan. 12, 1989 — Maccabi Tel Aviv wins in Moscow

In the first competition for Israeli athletes in the Soviet Union since the Six-Day War in 1967, the Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball team beats CSKA Red Army in Moscow, 97-92. Soviet Jews make up much of the crowd.

Jan. 13, 1898 — Zola accuses French of antisemitism

L’Aurore publishes a 4,500-word front-page letter from acclaimed writer Emile Zola under the headline “J’Accuse” (“I Accuse”), charging the French government with antisemitism in the Dreyfus Affair. PJC

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Congregation Emanu-El Israel of Greensburg will be leading a Talmud Class starting in February. The free class will run on Thursday evenings, 7:30 p.m., online, for one hour each week. The approach will look at a specific tractate and how their discussions are applied today. For more information please contact Rabbi Lenny Sarko at 724-9630789 or email rabbi@cei-greensburg.org This program is supported by the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. It is open to anyone in Westmoreland or Allegheny counties and is free.

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

JANUARY 7, 2022 9

Opinion There is good happening in the world Guest Columnist Jordan Golin

t’s no wonder that Americans feel more cynical about the present and less hopeful for the future. The political divisions in our country are increasingly fostering distrust, hatred and even violence. Untreated mental health and substance abuse problems are skyrocketing. Rising wages are not keeping up with rapidly accelerating inflation. And the global pandemic feels like it will never end. Despite it all, there is good happening in this world. It can be hard to notice the good, or even believe that it is happening, when we are inundated with stories and images reflecting the darkness all around us. So how do we find the good, the inspiring, the meaningful aspects of our world? Perhaps we need to look beyond the headlines and look toward people in our community working to improve the lives of others. The late psychiatrist Viktor Frankl, a

Holocaust concentration camp survivor, wrote about the meaning of life in his highly regarded book, “Man’s Search For Meaning.” He wrote: “We can discover this meaning of life in three different ways: (1) by creating a work or doing a deed; (2) by experiencing something or encountering someone; and (3) by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering.” Frankl espoused the belief that even under painful and tragic conditions, it is possible to experience meaning and triumph in our lives. I’ve seen this firsthand over the past two years and have been inspired by thousands of Pittsburgh community members who move beyond their personal difficulties to extend a helping hand to others who need support; by doing so, they become part of something larger than themselves. The impact of people doing good in our community has been especially evident in the last few months with the ongoing Afghan refugee crisis. Just two weeks ago, I had the good fortune of coordinating an unusual experience with 35 volunteers from the UPstander community of the Jewish Community Center of Greater

Pittsburgh’s Center for Loving Kindness, Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh and Repair the World Pittsburgh. The morning before Christmas, we delivered 850 meals from Salem’s Restaurant to Afghan refugees living in all parts of our city. I knew this day would be meaningful to the people we serve, but I had no idea how personally fulfilling it would be to the volunteers and to me. In preparing for this day, I was completely focused on logistics, coordination and the many other impersonal tasks involved in setting this up. On the day itself, however, I found myself in a sea of emotions. I was in awe of the generosity and thoughtfulness of the volunteers. I was impressed with the meticulous organization and caring attitude of Salem’s Restaurant. And I was touched deeply by the gratitude expressed by the refugees themselves. This act of kindness by our community helped take care of newly arrived refugees, it helped my JFCS staff enjoy time off for their holiday weekend, and it helped spread a message that our Pittsburgh community cares about our new neighbors and wants them to feel welcome here. But the acts of kindness don’t end with

this one activity. Individuals make a difference. One of our staff members recently noticed that their coworkers were overwhelmed with the current Afghan crisis, and organized a coffee and breakfast grab-and-go to help lift spirits. Private donors make a difference. This month, dozens of private donors purchased books for refugee youth through a City of Asylum wish list. These books will help children learn to read, practice English and enrich their understanding of the world. Partners make a difference. The Salvation Army recently donated 200 toys from its annual toy drive for refugee youth, most of whom were not able to bring toys with them from their native countries. The foundation community and government makes a difference. Because of the commitment of local government and leaders to make our city a place where people from all over the world can belong, this year Pittsburgh was named the 12th Certified Welcoming City in the United States. And we’ve seen just how welcoming Pittsburgh can be through the Please see Golin, page 11

Packing our parents in cotton wool Guest Columnist Audrey Glickman

y friend Joy mentioned the idiom of packing our parents in cotton wool to protect them and keep them alive longer — but I think that could

actually prevent them from living at all. Wrapping someone in cotton wool is the perfect description of what so many older children of elderly parents do. I think that when a person’s abilities become in any way mitigated, it’s best if we presume the person can do everything as usual until it is clear they need help. At that point, we should offer what is needed. When Mom is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, we don’t have to immediately build a fortress

around her, hire 24-hour guards and conspire to lock her away before she’s ready. Every person’s dementia progresses differently, and everyone’s life circumstances are different. Changing someone’s life situation can accelerate the progression. In fact, changing life situations can be stressful and detrimental to anyone at any time. After we become adults and before we become elderly, generally we make these decisions ourselves, in communication with

our significant others. It’s mostly children, the elderly, and perhaps criminals who have changes imposed upon them. There’s a commercial on television in which a woman says, “We have to talk about Dad.” Throughout the commercial, the siblings say that they must get together and choose a place for Dad to live. Not once do they mention getting Dad into the Please see Glickman, page 13

A response to the condemnation of Israel Guest Columnist Stuart Pavilack

recent op-ed published in the Chronicle, “The fallacy of shrinking the conflict” (Dec. 24), made numerous spurious claims about the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, including that six Palestinian rights organizations which Israel declared to be terror groups were “respected.” Those groups — Al Haq, Addameer, Bisan Center for Research & Development, Defense for Children International-Palestine, Union of Agricultural Work Committees, and the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees — do not meet the definition of “respected” familiar to most of us. These groups have links to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The PFLP first became notorious in the 1970s for airline hijackings and was involved in the 2014 murder of five Israeli worshipers and a police officer in a Jerusalem synagogue. Some of these “respected” organizations even appear to have one or more current staff or

10 JANUARY 7, 2022

board members affiliated with the PFLP, are involved with BDS activities and have a lack transparency of their funding. The op-ed also claims that Palestinians in Judea and Samaria do not have adequate access to water, nor rights equivalent to those of Israelis in Israeli courts. From 1967 to 1995, Israel increased the number of Arab towns and villages connected to water systems from four to 309. Today, 96% of Palestinians living in Judea and Samaria are connected to water systems. In 1995 Israel signed an agreement with the Palestinians, witnessed by the U.S., Russia, the EU and others, to provide them with water. Israel has consistently provided more water than the agreement required. That agreement also contained provisions regarding sewage, illegal drilling of wells and conservation, and allows the Palestinian Authority to drill for water in certain locations — which it has not done — that could produce 50 million cubic feet of water per year. Why do they claim not to have enough water when donor countries around the world have donated hundreds of millions of dollars to the PA for improved water and sewage systems, and conservation? Where has the money gone?

In 1967 Israel created military courts in Judea and Samaria, in accordance with international law, to implement and enforce rules of law that are similarly found in other courts. Article 66 of the Fourth Geneva Convention outlines the role of military courts, and those members of protected populations can only be brought to courts which have military status. The Palestinians have walked away from every attempt at peace in the last 30-plus years, and Abbas has said time again that “Oslo is dead.” He has made many other statements indicating he has no interest in a peaceful resolution to the Palestinians’ conflict with Israel. Here are a few. To the Arab League: “If you want war, and if all of you will fight Israel, we are in favor.” Regarding Jews visiting the Temple Mount: “They have no right to defile it with their filthy feet.” On Israel’s right to exist: “Call it what you want, but I will not accept it…the Jewish State…I will not accept it,” and “We bless every drop of blood that has been spilled for Jerusalem, which is clean and pure blood spilled for Allah.” Does this sound like someone who wants peace? I can say that I honestly agree with

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him — Oslo is dead. Abbas does not ask Israel to forfeit to the Palestinians the land it claimed in 1967 because he will only accept an agreement that includes everything from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea — which includes all of Israel. We must take him at his word. The U.S. and EU have been pushing a two-state solution for years and the Palestinian Authority has walked away from every proposal because it won’t accept any outcome in which Israel survives as a Jewish state. According to Albert Einstein, the definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” The current U.S. administration’s attempt to engage the Palestinian Authority in a two-state solution is naïve at best. It is negligent to not take into account past history and lessons learned. The PA will continue to milk the U.S. and donor countries for whatever it can get. Perhaps Yaacov Kirschen, creator of the Dry Bones cartoon, presented it best. The Palestinians want a two-state solution, one for Fatah and one for Hamas. PJC Stuart V. Pavilack is executive director of the Zionist Organization of America: Pittsburgh. PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Opinion Chronicle poll results: New Year’s resolutions

ast week, the Chronicle asked its readers in an electronic poll the following question: “Will you make (or did you make) any New Year’s resolutions this year?” Of the 117 people who responded, 75% said “No, that’s not my thing.” Sixteen percent of those who responded said “Yes, and I really hope to keep them,” while 10% said they had made resolutions but were not sure they would be able to keep them. Twenty-nine people submitted comments. A few follow. Getting through 2022 healthy is all I hope to have happen.

Will you make (or did you make) any New Year’s resolutions this year?

10%

Yes, but I’m not sure that I’ll be able to keep them.

74%

No, that’s not my thing.

I hope to start to pass my life knowledge on to my grandson who is only 2. I will try to follow: “Don’t sweat the small stuff. It’s all small stuff.” I’m not so attuned to the secular New Year, preferring to commit to improving around Rosh Hashanah. Also, I focus on character-based things, such as curtailing

gossip or more Torah study, as opposed to weight loss, etc. The secular New Year just doesn’t do it for me I stopped making them long ago because I

Golin:

We all can be a part of the good work happening in our community. Kindness and thoughtfulness can have a significant impact when shown toward just a few people or even a single individual. Pick up some groceries for an elderly or sick neighbor. Offer to babysit for a struggling young couple that hasn’t been able to get out for a while. Grab some extra coffee for your co-workers (or

Continued from page 10

coming together of people all over our region to welcome and support Afghan refugees. There are many more stories like this that few people hear about, buried in the mountain of worrying, negative news.

— LETTERS — It takes more than a village

It is gratifying to read of the efforts of Etna community members Megan Tuñón, Jessica Semler and Robert Tuñón, as well as those of the Highland Park Community Council’s Stephanie Walsh, in working to stamp out hate in their respective communities (“It takes a village: Communities respond to antisemitism,” Dec. 31). According to proverb … “it takes a village,” yet time after time we learn that it takes even more. It takes us as a nation, indeed a world, to stand up against hate of any kind, no matter where it exists. Toward this end, Pat Siger, Linda Simon and I contracted to bring The Violins of Hope to Pittsburgh in the fall of 2023. A collection of violins that have been restored from the ghettos and concentration camps of the Holocaust, The Violins of Hope will be on exhibit here in Pittsburgh for six weeks between October and November 2023, underscoring humanity’s ability to rise above the ashes of hate and destruction and to bring beauty to the world. As we work collaboratively with the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, multiple religious institutions, universities, educational institutions (including The Holocaust Center and Classrooms Without Borders), and Greater Pittsburgh’s robust arts community, our neighbors from near and far will be able to experience exhibitions, concerts, lectures, and theatrical and dance performances, each underscoring the importance of every person’s value to our collective existence. Lessons associated with the dangers of intolerance, bullying and hatred will be shared with middle and high school students throughout the region in a communitywide effort to break down the barriers that divide us and to underscore the importance of loving one another. We are thrilled to be part of a collaborative of 45 entities working together responding to hate in all its ugliness, and grateful to the people of Etna, Highland Park and the City of Pittsburgh for doing so today.

SAJS documents now archived

Sandra Rosen Pittsburgh

I read with interest the article “Rethinking the Brave New World of Jewish Teen Education” (Dec. 24). I wanted to call it to your readers’ attention that the former College of Jewish Studies/School of Advanced Jewish Studies had tackled this same issue for many years (from the early 1950s until it was dissolved just a few years ago). It has always been a challenging but tremendously important area of concern to the Jewish community. I am writing this to inform the community that there is now an archive for the historical documentation (correspondence, pictures, photos and writings) that came from SAJS. The archive is located at the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center. Over the many PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

No point in making them when I know I will break them!!! As Jews, we’re fortunate to have two opportunities to start afresh, Rosh Hashanah and Jan. 1. However, it’s best to start on a plan for improvement ahead of time and start those dates with momentum.

16%

Yes, and I really hope to keep them.

never keep them.

These are commonsense, non-ambitious goals, so I am (at least) likely to keep them going throughout 2022: mandolin practice, second language practice, maintenance exercise. These “slip” when times get busy, so re-resolving reminds me that every day’s “goals” include these. Like the U.S. Congress, I made a continuing resolution. In my case, it was to become a better, slimmer, more engaging person. Why bother?!

deliver some snacks if your colleagues are working remotely). You’d be surprised how much people appreciate an offer of support. There are so many, incredible things that are happening throughout our community every single day. People are stepping up to the challenge of creating meaning by helping others. And nothing — not even a global pandemic — can stop this work from happening. The

New Year’s resolutions are silly and usually fail. We need not turn the page on the calendar to better our lives. Vowing to follow the 10 Commandments is the ultimate resolution. I (and hopefully many others) plan to do so in 2022 and in all the years to come About 10 years ago I resolved to never again make a New Year’s resolution, and it has been the only resolution I ever kept. My resolution is to make a nice contribution to the Chronicle! PJC — Toby Tabachnick

This week’s Chronicle poll question:

Have you been tested for COVID in the last month? Go to our website, pittsburghjewish chronicle.org, to respond. PJC kindness, devotion, and passion of our neighbors to help one another doesn’t grab headlines, but it grabs hearts and reflects the things that truly make life worthwhile. Have a healthy and meaningful new year. PJC Jordan Golin, Ph.D., is president and CEO of JFCS Pittsburgh.

years of its existence, SAJS successfully taught hundreds of Pittsburgh Jewish teens from all parts of the city. Many now live out of town but still have good memories of growing up Jewish in Pittsburgh. The archive is available to the public — Eric Lidji has been most helpful in organizing it and making it available. Penina Kessler Lieber Pittsburgh

CDS story incomplete

I was both saddened and stunned to see the short shrift the tenure of Frank Smizik (my brother) received in the Dec. 24 story commemorating 50 years of Community Day School “Community Day School marks golden jubilee”). In what could be the ultimate backhanded compliment, Frank’s six-year tenure was described thusly: ‘’He is credited with establishing an intramural sports program and other extracurricular activities.’’ I believe that is the definition of damning with faint praise. A reporter researching such a story most certainly should have reached out to the man who was head of school from 1998-2004. Frank was and is a phone call away. If the reporter had reached out he would have learned that when Frank took the job there he improved the math curriculum, English curriculum and Hebrew curriculum. There also were science books that were 10 years old. Within two years, the science books had been replaced. This letter in no way wishes to diminish the excellent tenure of Avi Baron Munro at Community Day but only to set the record straight on her predecessor. Bob Smizik Mt. Lebanon We invite you to submit letters for publication. Letters must include name, address and daytime phone number; addresses and phone numbers will not be published. Letters may not exceed 500 words and may be edited for length and clarity; they cannot be returned. Mail, fax or email letters to:

Letters to the editor via email:

Website address:

letters@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

Address & Fax: Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle 5915 Beacon St., 5th Flr., Pittsburgh, PA 15217 Fax 412-521-0154

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pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

JANUARY 7, 2022 11

Headlines Afghans: Continued from page 1

Sadr said he was committed to the struggle of his people and wanted to continue to protest and fight until the last possible moment, when the Taliban began entering Kabul. That struggle, he said, is why he didn’t have a plan to leave the country before being forced to flee. Once it was apparent that he could no longer stay in Afghanistan, Sadr decided to head to India, the only country aside from Turkey where Afghans could easily enter with a passport. As the Taliban was taking control of Kabul and citizens were trying to find a way to the airport, Sadr went to the Indian embassy — only to learn that the country had misplaced his passport. His options of escape disappeared while the office looked for his travel documents. Eventually, the Indian government offered Sadr safe passage to Delhi. While there, he was able to apply for a U.S. visa and learned he had been granted a fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh. Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili, the director of the university’s Center for Governance and Markets, has focused her work on Central Asia and Afghanistan for the last

Rabbis: Continued from page 1

statutes and the blue whale and all the fun things and museums along the way.” While in the Golden State, Seidman still volunteers — but virtually — conducting twice monthly erev Shabbat services via Zoom with residents of Heritage Manor and Canterbury Place, senior living facilities in Pittsburgh. He also has turned his attention to art, trying his hand at both painting and writing poetry, a hobby he began nine years ago. “I started writing [poems] for my own amusement,” he said. “They’re like a word puzzle that’s a fun way to express a thought. I like to make them rhyme. Most of them have a religious tinge to them. They’re about the parsha or Jewish holidays, but some are just whimsical.” Although he bought a paint set in Pittsburgh, it sat on a shelf for a long time. When he got to California, though, he decided to pick up a brush. “When I came out [to California], all the things I used to do weren’t available anymore — the JCC and EECM — so I looked around and found an art store about two blocks from where we’re staying,” he said. “I’ve been taking classes there since the beginning of December and having a great time.” Like Seidman, Perman has done some traveling since she retired from Greensburg’s Congregation Emanu-El Israel in 2016. “I was fortunate enough to be able to go to Shanghai [in 2019] to serve a congregation there for the High Holidays and during Shavuot,” Perman said. “I was able to do the b’nai mitzvah of five young people and then got to see a little more because we went to Beijing as well.” 12 JANUARY 7, 2022

quarter-century — she refers to herself as a “-stan person.” Murtazashvili, who grew up in Squirrel Hill and is a member of Congregation Beth Shalom, met Sadr in her travels to Afghanistan, calling him one of the “brightest stars, the most eminent social scientist” in the country. She became concerned for the fate of her friend during the spring of 2021 as she watched with horror the Taliban’s targeted assassination campaign against intellectuals. She began reaching out to various organizations, including the Scholar Rescue Fund, to see if it could help get Sadr out of Afghanistan. SRF is the only global program that arranges and funds fellowships for threatened and displaced scholars at partnering higher education institutions worldwide. Murtazashvili said SRF officials told her that before she reached out to them, Afghanistan hadn’t even been on their radar. “Because the U.S. government and others were sending so much assistance to Afghanistan, the idea of bringing people here while we were sending so much money there seemed unfathomable,” she told the Chronicle. It was through the SRF that Sadr was eventually able to gain a fellowship and come to the U.S. with his wife and daughter. For Murtazashvili, helping her friend escape the Taliban was only one piece in

a much larger puzzle. She next turned her attention to other Afghan scholars and intellectuals still in the renamed Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. She approached Pitt leadership saying that she wanted to bring others to America. “They said, ‘Fine, but we don’t have a budget for this, so you have to find funding,’” Murtazashvili recalled. With university support, The Afghanistan Project was formed as an initiative of the Center for Governance Markets, a global policy research center housed within the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at Pitt as an international hub for Afghanistan-related research and policy work. The Scholar Research Fund is also a program partner, Murtazashvili said, adding that she envisions reaching out to additional organizations that can help provide social services for the refugees. Murtazashvili has already secured an anonymous gift of $250,000 to help fund the resettlement work and is working to find other donors and apply for various grants. She said it costs approximately $120,000 to bring each person to Pittsburgh. Murtazashvili said there are four scholars confirmed to come to Pittsburgh so far, including Sadr. “Two are stuck in Afghanistan, one is starting as a Ph.D. student in January,” she

said. “The university supported her.” She is working to secure the funding to bring over four more scholars who have already been identified, and hopes to work with Pitt to bring over many more. Murtazashvili understands the need to help academics now, while Afghanistan is still part of the news cycle. “I’m going like gangbusters, trying to get support for this because people will forget about Afghanistan, I fear,” she said. “These people are making the decision now about what to do with the rest of their lives. That’s why there’s an urgency to support people now.” Both Murtazashvili and Sadr stressed the temporary status of those coming to Pittsburgh, noting that, eventually, they would like to return to Afghanistan when the situation allows. “Ultimately, [the Taliban] cannot rule Afghanistan for a long time,” Sadr said. “They have the recipe of disaster for themselves. How can you expect fundamentalist insurgent terrorists to rule — they can’t do it. They’re not made for governance. The Taliban can’t rule forever. The struggle for a better and free society continues. If Kabul is liberated, I wish to return because I can contribute more.” PJC

Perman also sailed on a cruise with retired Conservative rabbis, although she is affiliated with the Reform movement. The pandemic, however, ended the rabbi’s travels. She continues to study, creating her own Daf Yomi for the last two years with a friend over Zoom, and has taken classes with the Shalom Hartman Institute. For about a year before its closing in 2019, Perman led monthly Shabbat services at Temple Beth Am in Monessen. Since the pandemic, Perman has learned Torah trope and has begun chanting occasionally at Temple Sinai. She remains involved with the National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education at Seton Hill University. Perman continues to work to strengthen the community she served as part of both the Westmoreland Diversity Coalition and the Westmoreland Jewish Community Council. Mostly, though, she said she is happy to be a Jew in the pew, spending her time baking and catching movies. Rabbi Stephen Steindel, too, is happy to focus on life beyond the pulpit. In 2009, the rabbi retired from Congregation Beth Shalom and moved to Boston. Steindel said that in addition to enjoying the city, he and his wife, Lisa, became frequent cruisers. “We loved the Rabbinical Assembly Retired Association’s annual cruise each year from Florida,” he said. When not seeing the world from the deck of a ship, Steindel served as a chaplain at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and visited seniors at various retirement homes. Since moving back to Pittsburgh in 2014, Steindel has participated in a few life cycle events of former congregants but said he has mostly stayed out of the spotlight.

Unable to travel due to COVID, the Squirrel Hill resident has begun revisiting a collection of eulogies he gave during his rabbinate. Steindel, who served at Beth El Rabbi Stephen Congregation of the Steindel South Hills before his tenure at Beth Shalom, often delivered as many as 70 eulogies a year. The rabbi said he has been working with Eric Lidji, director of the Rauh Jewish History Program and Archives at the Heinz History Center, cataloging the eulogies, written on index cards. “All rabbis use the joke, ‘I’m finishing a book. Oh, the book you’re writing, rabbi? No, the book I’m finishing reading,’” Steindel said. Rabbi Mark Mahler began writing a book updating the 613 mitzvot at the midpoint of his rabbinate at Temple Emanuel of South Hills. He envisioned finishing the book during his retirement from the congregation starting in July 2018. Since tackling the project in earnest, though, the rabbi has realized the work would be spread across multiple volumes and decided instead that a curated website would be more appropriate. “The medium has changed but the goal remains the same: To make every one of the 613 mitzvot possible for Jews, individually or collectively, to observe today,” he said. The task, however, has proven more challenging than the rabbi anticipated. Each morning, after meditation and prayers, Mahler is deluged by personal emails requiring his response. “I’ve retired as senior rabbi of Temple Emanuel, but I’ll always be a rabbi,” he explained. “I still have so many relationships, and especially with the pandemic,

these communications are vital. I can’t really concentrate on my personal efforts until I respond to the emails on my desktop.” The South Hills rabbi thought retirement would provide an opportunity to travel with his wife, Alice, while allowing him to record the liturgical music he wrote and introduced to Shabbat services during his rabbinate. Life, however, had other plans. Mahler and his wife welcomed 2019 by spending New Year’s Eve in Paris. On Memorial Day, an accident while cutting his lawn left the rabbi with a ruptured quadriceps tendon requiring surgery. Two weeks later, a freak home accident ruptured the tendon a second time, requiring a second surgery and additional recovery time. In December of the same year, Mahler had heart surgery. He said the time spent on a ventilator during the three surgeries has challenged his larynx and forced him to put off recording his music until his voice eventually returns. “One of the great blessings of my 40 years in congregational life was I hardly ever missed a day’s work,” Mahler said. “With both leg surgeries and my heart surgery, I thought, ‘Thank God, I’m retired. I was laid-up for 10 weeks with my leg surgeries and six weeks before starting the journey back after heart surgery.’ If I had been employed full time, it would have driven me nuts. I can’t imagine the challenges then to the congregation.” Mahler said when he retired in 2018, he welcomed the new chapter in his life. “I embraced it then and continue to do so without looking back,” he said. “I’m surprised at how busy I’ve been since I retired as senior rabbi at Temple Emanuel, but I will always be a rabbi. One of my

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David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

Please see Rabbis, page 13

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Headlines Wecht:

Cohen said that everyone needs a good support system and that immigrants and asylum seekers, like those she wrote about, have no guarantee of legal counsel. “There’s no right to an immigration lawyer like you have if you’re accused of a crime,” she said. “You have to be able to find a lawyer, pay for a lawyer or find a nonprofit that provides opportunities for pro bono legal service. It’s really important to support organizations so they can continue to be a resource for people that can’t afford it because that’s the difference in success rates.” The author, who is donating the proceeds of her book to political asylum organizations, said she’s gained as much as the people she’s helped. “I feel blessed and honored to have gotten to know so many of my clients,” she said. “I’ve had the good fortune to have been able to work with thousands of people, and I’m truly in awe in just about all of them, even the ones with plain vanilla cases. I’ve had the chance to see a huge spectrum of immigrants, and they’re, for the most part, incredibly decent, good, hardworking people who obey the law, value the principles of democracy and are just good neighbors,” she said. Cohen will speak at City of Asylum on Jan. 31 at 7 p.m. PJC

Kunzman:

David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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

(In fact, my grandfather lived in our living room for a while when I was a kid. He slept on a cot. Soon enough he moved to the basement game room and continued living with us. He had, however, put in a bid to be one of the first residents in a new senior high-rise. When it was completed, he moved in. I do not know whose decision that was, though the fact that my mother bought him no more solid a bed than our old cot may be an indication of her feelings about the matter.) Yes, folks whose capabilities are declining may be a danger to themselves. My mother eventually reached the point where she was making herself noodle sandwiches, and often burning the noodles. And she absolutely forbade anyone going into her house to assist her. Then she began wandering. Essentially she’d made her own bed and had to lie in it. She found a happy life in the care facility, though she never forgave me for not returning her to her house after rehab from her broken hip. All I’m saying to my children who may be reading this is that when your parents reach the stage at which you are questioning our

ability to live in our current situation — and this is especially true if you live in another city, state, or country — please talk with the people in our lives. Our friends have spent much more time with us than you have in recent years. We should not pack our parents in cotton wool, only to destroy their ability to live. Over the years I’ve watched helplessly as caregivers (hired by the children) accelerated the demise of their patients by poor treatment, neglect or outright malice. Siblings have fought over this. I’ve seen children make the decision that the parents should move across the country to live “near” them in a nursing home, thus taking the parents away from their community and familiar surroundings. I’ve seen them separate happy couples who had been keeping each other young. I’ve seen them snoop on their parents’ communications — phone, text, email, etc. — and tattle on them to their siblings behind their parents’ backs. I’ve seen them make horrible decisions for their parents based upon nothing, when a simple question or two might have clarified everything

— a question posed to the parents’ friends or neighbors, not the doctors. These decisions generally seem to age the parents faster overall. At least from my perspective. It’s almost as if the children are saying “die already.” Nothing they’re doing for their parents will help them, except maybe to give them a few days or weeks to live, taking away the risks that the parents were willing and eager to take. Taking the life out of living. Life is life. We should live it until we no longer can. And it should be our choice whether to have the children take over and run things for us, especially in a manner we might not have selected for ourselves. I hope my children are listening. Wool makes me itch. PJC

When not commuting to or teaching in Latrobe, a round-trip journey that occupies five to eight hours a week, Gibson serves on the Pittsburgh Rabbi Mark Mahler C om m i ss i on on Photo by Toby Relations. Tabachnick Human He was nominated to fill the seat vacated by Rabbi Sharyn Henry when she moved outside city limits. “We take up issues that are raised by citizens about how their rights may be being infringed upon or not respected,” Gibson explained.

He also serves on the ethics committee at UPMC Magee-Woman’s Hospital and on the advisory board of the Atkins Center for Ethics Center at Carlow University. The rabbi said he is involved behind the scenes in several other interfaith efforts, a passion he had during his rabbinate. Early in his retirement, Gibson traveled to the Caribbean, but has been unable to travel since the pandemic. He hopes to go to California in January for a five-day retreat as part of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, and to Jerusalem this summer for the two-week Rabbinic Torah Seminar of the Shalom Hartman Institute. While maintaining a full schedule, Gibson said the slower pace allowed by his retirement

is welcome and that he is happy to create space for the next round of Jewish leaders. “The wonderful thing about retirement,” Gibson said, “is that I’m not out of the house at 8 a.m. and back at 10 p.m. I can have a more leisurely pace to my day, and that’s OK. In terms of Jewish life, it really is time for newer people to step up with ideas and perspectives. Frankly, there are tools the younger generation has that I never got in rabbinical school 40 years ago.” The Chronicle tried to contact retired Tree of Life Rabbi Alvin Berkun, but could not reach him by press time. PJC

Book: Continued from page 2

Continued from page 3

“I don’t think that they’re going to disclose everything that is there.” In his quest to refute the Warren Commission’s findings, Wecht has been called a conspiracy theorist and regarded as a rejecter of government truths — in his new book he includes a related chapter on debating the late Sen. Arlen Specter, who, after serving as assistant counsel for the Warren Commission, continuously promoted the “single-bullet theory.” Wecht doesn’t mind being described as a conspiracy theorist. Apart from the scientific evidence supporting his beliefs about the JFK assassination, he said that Americans have come to learn much about the government’s clandestine affairs, including those during World War II, Vietnam and the Korean War. It’s no longer inconceivable that elected representatives are capable of acting nefariously, Wecht said. “Government officials can get away with things.” “I want people to lose their naivete, their belief that these kinds of things can never happen in America, to be aware of this,” he said. PJC

of China’s one child policy; Armenian poet and intellectual Gazmend Kapplani; Somali Jamal Ali Hussein; and numerous other men and women who braved smugglers, harsh government edicts and armed conflicts to make it to the U.S. The immigration expert said she wanted to show how people can be taken advantage of not just by the system, but by mistakes and errors made by the government. “A lot of people say, ‘Why don’t people get in line? They should be doing it right.’ I think a lot of people who aren’t close to the process would have no idea, without reading the book, the kind of ways people can be swept into this radically protracted stressful process for reasons that are not of their own,” she said. Peng Xu’s story highlights the errors inherent in the system. After being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Xu was released onto the streets of Boston unable to speak or read English, with no information about the city or help reaching his uncle in New York. The Chinese citizen was completely unprepared for the trials of an American city, having never even seen a revolving door. Luckily, Cohen was able to locate the frightened immigrant before he came to harm.

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

Glickman: Continued from page 10

conversation. They are talking about a nice “retirement” facility with golf and the ability to take one’s dog, apparently the only criteria they think matter to Dad. There are plenty of stories like this. Many elders are in living situations that were decided by their children. Yes, it is still a good thing to grant your children conditional power of attorney over your affairs and your health care. But make certain that your wishes are completely understood from the very beginning, because once a person is diagnosed with dementia, the decisions are frozen in time. Of course there are many seniors who live only for their children and grandchildren — who make no life for themselves other than what might benefit their next-generation family members. Again, that should be their decision, not the family members’, unless the elders are imposing themselves on the children and camping in the living room.

Rabbis: Continued from page 12

delights in retirement is to see the gifts that Rabbi Aaron Meyer has brought to the congregation and community.” Pittsburgh’s newest rabbi retiree, Rabbi Jamie Gibson, has maintained an active schedule since he retired from Temple Sinai in 2020 after 32 years. He holds the Rabbi Jason Edelstein Endowed Chair in Catholic Jewish Dialogue at St. Vincent College in Latrobe. In his class, “Catholic Jewish Dialogue,” Gibson teaches elements of Judaism and challenges for Catholic/Christian dialogue in the past and present day. PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Continued from page 4

the JCC can continue its work. The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh provided $1.3 million in COVID relief. The Jewish Healthcare Foundation delivered an additional $2.5 million. Individual donors have given $1.3 million to help with recovery, and the government — not through the Paycheck Protection Program — has provided another $900,000. “The JCC appreciates the community’s investment in it,” Kunzman said, “and it is our responsibility to provide a significant and meaningful return on that investment. “Every day when our staff wakes up, that’s what gets us out of bed and into the Center, at the two locations. It’s something we take very seriously and are wholeheartedly committed to.” Schreiber agreed and said that Kunzman’s recent award recognizes an entire staff ’s dedication. “We do not engage in the work for the accolades,” Schreiber said, “but we deeply appreciate those external experts who have recognized the power and impact of our work.” PJC

Audrey Glickman, a native Pittsburgher, is the author of “POCKETS: The Problem with Society Is in Women’s Clothing. She is a rabbi’s assistant, with prior experience in nonprofits, government, advertising, and as a legal secretary.

David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org. JANUARY 7, 2022 13

Life & Culture Fassoulia with ground beef: A taste of the Middle East — FOOD — By Jessica Grann | Special to the Chronicle

I COVID-19 Vaccine Clinics at the JCC NEW at the JCC South Hills

345 Kane Blvd., Scott Township In partnership with American Healthcare Group, LLC and Pathways Wellness Program, the JCC will provide a COVID-19 vaccine clinic for all ages, with a focus on the pediatric population. Other vaccinations to be made available include influenza, pneumonia, shingles and Tdap. Saturday, January 15, 9 am-12 pm While walk-ins will be accepted, please sign up to best ensure your spot. The signup link will close January 12, so sign up now! For info and signup link: jccpgh.org/event/covid-vaccine-clinics

am always looking for simple weekday meals that are nourishing and don’t take a lot of time to cook or to clean up. This recipe is a mash-up of fassoulia and spiced beef (hashweh) that I made on a whim. When the pot was scraped clean after dinner, I figured this would be a good recipe to share. I took my fassoulia recipe, which is green beans cooked with tomatoes, and added ground beef and some extra spices, and served it over plain rice. You’ll enjoy this wellrounded dish with a Middle Eastern flavor.

Fassoulia with ground beef

Serves 6 Ingredients: 2 cups diced onions 2 tablespoons olive oil 2 pounds ground beef 1 teaspoon baking soda 3 cups diced tomatoes, or 2 cans of diced tomatoes 4 cloves garlic, sliced 1 teaspoon oregano 3 tablespoons baharat/seven spice 1 tablespoon cumin 2 teaspoons salt 1 teaspoon black pepper 1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper ½ cup water, but only if you’re using fresh tomatoes 2 pounds fresh green beans or whole frozen beans

Over medium-low heat, sauté the onion in the olive oil for 5 minutes, then add the ground beef. Cook until chopped into small pieces and browned. Stir in the baking soda. This may sound like a strange addition, but it is a tried-andtrue way to soften cheaper cuts of meat. The mixture will bubble up with the addition of the baking soda. Continue stirring until it dissolves, about 1 minute. Add in the spices and garlic and stir until fragrant, about 1 minute, then pour in the tomatoes and stir. If using canned tomatoes, you don’t need to add extra water, but if you’re using freshly diced tomatoes, add in a half cup of water. Allow the mixture to come to a soft boil. Add the beans in a layer over the meat, reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove the lid. Using tongs, mix the beans into the meat mixture and cook uncovered until fork-tender, about 5 minutes. Fresh beans will hold up better than frozen beans, and your goal is for the beans to be firm but fork-tender. Frozen beans will reduce more into the sauce but will still taste good. I had nice frozen beans when I made this recipe — you can tell that from the photo because they appear much smaller than if they had been fresh. Serve over rice. Enjoy and bless your hands. PJC Jessica Grann is a home chef living in Pittsburgh.

At the JCC Squirrel Hill

Robinson Gym, 3758 Darlington Road The Squirrel Hill Health Center community COVID-19 vaccination clinics will be held on a walk-in basis. January 7, 14, 21 and 28 – 9:30 am-12:30 pm February 4, 11, 18 and 25 – 9:30 am-12:30 pm Walk In | Vaccinations and boosters are free of charge. For more info on COVID-19 Vaccine Clinics at the JCC, go to jccpgh.org/event/covid-vaccine-clinics

Masks are required

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HAPPY. HEALTHY. 14

JANUARY 7, 2022

WHOLE.

 Fassoulia with ground beef

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Photo by Jessica Grann

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Life & Culture The Israel Film Archive collects more than a century of Israeli historical footage online. Here are the highlights.

in 1964, he met with Israel’s third Prime Minister, Levi Eshkol. The most moving of these paparazzi clips is the one of Sammy Davis Jr., who came for a one-day visit in 1969 and asked to be driven straight from the airport to the Western Wall, where he wedged a handwritten wish between ancient stones.

— FILM — By Karen Chernick | JTA

or years, only those with special permission could visit the climate-controlled repositories of the Jerusalem Cinematheque to see the moving pictures held in the Israel Film Archive. But following a massive digitization effort, anyone with an internet connection can now watch the footage. “We’re at the fun part where we can share this treasure with the public,” says Noa Regev, director of the Jerusalem Cinematheque. Following a $10 million project that began in 2015 to preserve, restore and digitize its audiovisual collection, the archive can now be streamed via a website that launched in Hebrew in late 2020 and added Englishlanguage subtitles in October. Divided into two sections, the website includes a paid on-demand category, “The Artistic View,” containing 300 Israeli feature films, and a free “Historical View” area with digitized versions of rare films; every newsreel created in Israel from 1927 through 1972; home movies; and family collections. “The Historical View” exposes, in mostly black-and-white film with scratchy patina, the life of the region across elections and wars, tree plantings and commercials for 1920s beauty salons. There are also full versions of historic footage you may have seen as blips in documentaries, like the Declaration of the State of Israel. There’s much to see on the platform, which is searchable by decade, keyword and location, with more selections on the way. Only around 30% of the archive’s celluloid and video materials have been digitized so far; Regev estimates that within five years the full archive will be available. “People keep discovering more materials,” she adds, hedging that as the archive constantly grows it may never be fully available online. “The most fascinating materials are the ones brought down from someone’s boydem [Yiddish for ‘attic’], both in Israel and abroad.” Below is a shortlist of some of the materials you can see now, spanning the late 19th century to the 20th.

Archaeological discoveries

p Josephine Baker visits Israel in 1954 in footage available in the Israel Film Archive. Screenshot via the Israeli Film Archive and the Jerusalem Cinematheque, Israel state archives

Lumière Brothers film of Jaffa, Bethlehem and Jerusalem, 1896

Filmed by a representative of the French filmmaking pioneers the Lumière brothers just a year after they invented their groundbreaking Cinématographe device, this nine-minute clip – the earliest video footage of the region – opens with a train pulling into the Jaffa station in 1896. The fez-donning crowd can’t decide where to look: the locomotive they have been expecting from Jerusalem (which only comes once daily), or the strange contraption being operated by a foreigner. As this reel pans across Jaffa, Bethlehem and Jerusalem, it shows the bygone vendors, mustaches and camels of 130 years ago.

Thomas Edison’s cameraman in the Holy Land, 1903

Not to be outdone by his French colleagues, American inventor Thomas Edison dispatched cameraman Alfred C. Abadie to the region a few years later, in 1903, with a Kinetograph. Abadie captures a main drag in Jaffa and Jerusalem’s unnamed “busiest street.” Five men with interlocked arms are at the center of Abadie’s lens during a section introduced by an intertitle card that reads “Jewish Dance at Jerusalem,” hopping to music we can’t hear in the mute clip.

p Footage from the Lumière brothers, capturing a train pulling into Jaffa station in 1896, is accessible on the Israel Film Archive website. Screenshot via Israel Film Archive

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Purim at the Tel Aviv Zoo, 1959

The archive holds charming footage of both Purim and the storied Tel Aviv Zoo (which used to be in the center of the city near present-day Rabin Square), and they coincide in this 1959 short of costumed celebrations among leopard cages. This was back when Purim costumes were handmade originals, and here we see a child wearing a feathery chicken get-up standing comically close to pelicans of roughly the same height, while brothers dressed like explorers drag around a faux hot air balloon. This iteration of the zoo looks leagues ahead of its grassroots 1930s version, located in Rabbi Mordechai Shorenstein’s backyard (as immortalized in this 1935 clip).

Josephine Baker and other celebrities visit Israel

American stars of stage and screen visited Israel throughout the 1950s and 60s, with their ceremonial landings at Lod airport recorded in newsreels. Josephine Baker, the U.S.-born cabaret singer and activist who made her home in France, flew El Al in 1954 to perform several shows (and tried, unsuccessfully, to adopt an Israeli child). When “White Christmas” actor Danny Kaye made a surprise visit a few years later, in 1961, he spent most of his time on the Caesarea golf course. The following year Frank Sinatra arrived by private jet to give seven performances whose proceeds benefited a Jewish-Arab youth center in Nazareth. And when Kirk Douglas visited

Ancient stones are a recurring theme in the archive, including a Hasmonean Period burial cave found accidentally in 1956 when foundations were being prepared for an apartment building on Jerusalem’s Alfasi Street. In another clip, aerial footage records the excavations atop Masada, led in 1963 by archaeologist and politician Yigael Yadin. The rededication of the ancient Roman amphitheater in Caesarea in 1961 — after a 1,700-year hiatus — was filmed to record the host of international musicians brought to re-inaugurate the space, including cellist Pablo Casals, who played on a humble stage amid ruins.

Carmel market, 1969

On the other hand, some clips aren’t weighted with the gravitas of ancient history, Biblical empires or storied battles — they’re just funny. This reel showing shoppers shamelessly poking pickled fish and splaying the limbs of butchered chickens in Tel Aviv’s open-air Carmel Market is one of them. Only women are shopping in the clip, and they want to make sure they are selecting the absolute best fill-in-the-blank. So what if their hands and noses touch half a dozen creamfilled pastries they didn’t end up buying?

Advertisement for Instant Soup produced by Osem, 1960

When not prodding things in person at the market, Israeli shoppers trusted television ads to tell them what was good. Regev says the archive’s vintage commercials are an underexplored gem, such as this one by Israeli manufacturer Osem encouraging mothers to feed their toddlers a broth of bouillon cubes and boiling water. (It must have made an impression — the soup powder is a staple of Israeli households to this day.) The Israeli landscape features in other ads, like the Caesarea beach in a 1964 Gottex swimwear commercial, and a road trip to Rosh Hanikra as the premise for an ad for fuel-efficient Heinkel scooters. PJC

p Two Israeli children celebrate Purim at the Tel Aviv Zoo in 1959, in documentary footage available at the Israel Film Archive. Screenshot via Herzliya Studios Archive

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JANUARY 7, 2022 15

Life & Culture ‘Licorice Pizza’ captures the moment when pop culture started to see Jewish women as beautiful — FILM — By Stephen Silver | JTA

his year, everyone seemed to have an opinion about how the entertainment industry views Jewish women. The comedian Sarah Silverman and others openly inveighed against what she deemed “Jewface,” or the trend of casting non-Jewish actresses as (Ashkenazi) Jewish women; a plotline on this year’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” season mocked a similar idea by having Larry David cast a Latina actress as a Jewish character on a show about his childhood. Whether you agree with Silverman or not, it’s hard to hear a term like “Jewface” and not think about the way Jewish characters have historically looked onscreen. For much of the 20th century, show business and popular culture considered stereotypical “Jewish” traits — curly hair, olive skin, a prominent nose — either “exotic,” comic or worse, inspiring countless Jewish women to undergo rhinoplasty. It wasn’t until Barbra Streisand flaunted her “Jewish” looks beginning in the late 1960s — as Bette Midler would a few years later — that the culture began to shift. Streisand, writes her biographer Neal Gabler, “had somehow managed to change the entire definition of beauty.” Now, at the end of 2021, along comes a film set in the 1970s with a female Jewish protagonist who is not only played by a Jewish actress, but is also portrayed as a sex symbol. The film is “Licorice Pizza,” the latest from acclaimed writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson, and it opened wide in theaters on Christmas after several weeks of limited release. And the character is Alana Kane, played by singer Alana Haim of the band Haim, making her screen debut. In the film, Alana is an aimless, guileless San Fernando Valley 20-something who gains maturity and an entrepreneurial spirit after befriending Gary Valentine, an overconfident child actor (Cooper Hoffman, son of Philip Seymour Hoffman) who enlists her in various business schemes and convinces her to make a go at acting. The two of them enter a teasy, flirty codependency — Gary, not even 16, makes his attraction to Alana known early and often, especially when the two open a waterbed business together and he instructs her to “act sexy” when selling the kitschy relics over the phone. But it’s not just Gary. Seemingly everyone in the movie, from lecherous older industry veterans to upstart young politicos, is obsessed with Alana — not in spite of her obviously Jewish appearance, but because of it. Anderson plays up Haim’s physical parallels to the Jewish beauties of the era: a casting director (Harriet Sansom Harris) gushes over her “Jewish nose,” which she notes is a very in-demand look, while reallife producer Jon Peters (played by Bradley Cooper as a manic, sex-crazed lunatic), gets very handsy with Alana — after pointedly bragging that Streisand is his girlfriend. “Licorice Pizza” is in line with ideas espoused in Henry Bial’s 2005 book “Acting

16 JANUARY 7, 2022

p Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman in “Licorice Pizza”

Jewish: Negotiating Ethnicity on the American Stage and Screen,” particularly its chapter on the ’70s, which Bial described as the period when “Jews became sexy.” Streisand, at the time of her Broadway debut in the early ’60s, was described in reviews as a “homely frump” and “a sloe-eyed creature with folding ankles.” But by the ’70s, bolstered by her immense charisma and no-apologies attitude toward her own stardom, she was one of popular culture’s greatest sex symbols, even appearing on the cover of Playboy in 1977 — the year after starring in and producing her own “A Star is Born” remake. Her physical appearance didn’t change in the intervening time; only the public’s reactions to it did. Anderson himself was born in 1970, so the teenage adventures in the film aren’t his memories specifically — they’re mostly those of his friend Gary Goetzman, a former child actor who lived through many of the episodes depicted in the movie. And Anderson himself is not Jewish, though his longtime partner Maya Rudolph, who has a small part in the film, is. Yet perhaps by virtue of being born into a world in which Jewish women were suddenly being considered sexy, Anderson seems to innately understand the period-specific sexual, cultural and spiritual dynamics that would lead to someone like Alana being celebrated for her looks. Anderson wasn’t immune to those dynamics. As a child he had a crush on Alana Haim’s mother, Donna Rose, who was his art teacher: “I was in love with her as a young boy, absolutely smitten,” he told The New York Times, waxing rhapsodic about her “long, beautiful, flowing brown hair.”

Photo by Paul Thomas Anderson/Metro-Goldwin-Mayer Pictures Inc.

p Barbra Streisand in the 1968 movie “Funny Girl,” when she was beginning to be embraced as a Jewish sex symbol. Photo by John Springer Collection/CORBIS/

For much of the film, Alana is unsure whether or how to leverage her sex appeal, as she also tries to figure out what she wants to do with her life. An attempt to respect the wishes of her traditional family (the other Haims, including their real parents, play the Kane clan) by dating a nice, successful, age-appropriate Jewish guy ends in disaster at a Shabbat dinner when the guy himself, Lance (Skyler Gisondo), refuses to say the “hamotzi” prayer. The scene also touches on the debate over “religious” vs. “cultural” Judaism that has been raging in American Jewish circles since at least the time period when the

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Corbis via Getty Images via JTA

film is set. While acknowledging he was “raised in the Jewish tradition,” Lance cites “Vietnam” as the reason why he now identifies as an atheist and can’t bring himself to recite a blessing. In response, Alana gets him to admit he’s circumcised before declaring, “Then you’re a f—king Jew!” The moral of the scene might be the movie’s biggest lesson to impart about Judaism: It’s not just a belief system. It’s an innate part of you, affecting everything from your hair to your nose to your genitals. It can make you be perceived as ugly in one decade, and a bombshell in the next. PJC PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

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Celebrations

Torah

B’nei mitzvah

‘Today, you are going out…’ Rabbi Jeremy Weisblatt Parshat Bo | Exodus 10:1 - 13:16

W Isaac Samuel Eaton, son of Ross Eaton and Rachel Eaton, will become a bar mitzvah at Adat Shalom during Shabbat morning services on Saturday, Jan. 8, 2022. His grandparents are Stephen Garoff and Janelle Garoff, and David Eaton and Louise Eaton.

Noah Elliott Eaton, son of Ross Eaton and Rachel Eaton, will become a bar mitzvah at Adat Shalom during Shabbat morning services on Saturday, Jan. 8, 2022. His grandparents are Stephen Garoff and Janelle Garoff, and David Eaton and Louise Eaton.

Engagement Jack and Mimi Halpern are proud to announce the engagement of our grandson, Andrew Zeiger, son of Howard and Ilene Zeiger of Danville, California, to Jennifer Sachs, daughter of Howard and Trish Sachs of Chevy Chase, Maryland. Andy and Jen are medical students at Thomas Jefferson Medical School in Philadelphia. A November 2022 wedding is planned. PJC

e have returned once more to Parshat Bo, and we read again about the makkot (plagues) brought upon Egypt through the voice of Moses and the staff of Aaron. It would be trite to use the symbolism of the makkot once again as we are in the midst of the now too commonly used phrase “historic pandemic surge.” Moments like these remind me of words written long ago by the famous and influential American theologian and preacher Reinhold Niebuhr. Neibuhr wrote often about preaching and sermonizing, contemplating the needs of the community who would be listening, and what “newness” and “topical” thoughts he could bring to ancient and divine words. Early in his career, Neibuhr found himself with a problem not unique to him, but rather quite common to clergy before him, clergy during his time, and to clergy today — and I am certainly no exception! Of this particular problem regarding preaching the sacred word, Neibuhr wrote: “Now that I have preached about a dozen sermons, I find I am repeating myself ... The few ideas that I had worked into sermons at the seminary have all been used, and now what?” It is this particular problematic position that I, too, find regarding this moment in our lives — how to share something new regarding Bo. Bo is a section of Torah that has been preached many thousands of times and nearly every conceivable facet regarding “plague” has been mined over and over until the well is all but dry. And yet, therein lies the truth and teaching for this moment — to do as Ben Bag-Bag taught: Turn it over and over again, and you will find something new. For this moment, I offer this teaching to

inspire us and carry us through this difficult time: “today, you are going out ...” (Ex. 13:4). “Today, you are going out” gives us a twofold lesson to help face today and to have hope for tomorrow. As our ancestors faced the difficulties, the trials and tribulations of living in a painful present, so too are we living in such a moment. I don’t know anyone who has been spared from the challenges of what COVID, let alone this newest surge, has brought into our lives. But like our ancestors, I believe with a perfect faith that we have the strength of spirit to rise to the challenge and to do so together. And in the rising, we are then reminded of the second blessing of “today, you are going out” — exodus from the trial. There will indeed be a moment for us to finally emerge from this painful present and go forth, just as that generation did that left Egypt full of bounty, full of hope, full of faith in a better tomorrow. Though we do not have the sacred promise from a prophet telling us the exact date and time of our exodus (wouldn’t that be nice!), we do know this will not last forever. There will indeed come the time that we will come out, leaving behind our “Egypt” and turn, faces shining full of hope, toward that promised land. Though it is hard and trying not to know with such specificity as our ancestors did, it is in this moment that we can build upon their foundations of faith and be stronger; though we lack prophet and priest, we have faith and community. Together, we can prepare for that triumphant day. Together, we can lift up one another in this painful moment. And together, we will cross over to a land of promise. Kulanu kadimah, forward together into 2022 and toward a year of hope and healing. PJC Rabbi Jeremy Weisblatt is rabbi at Temple Ohav Shalom. This column is a service of the Greater Pittsburgh Rabbinic Association.

JEWISH CEMETERY BURIAL ASSOCIATION O F G R E AT E R P I T T S B U R G H

RESTORATION ✡ PRESERVATION ✡ CONTINUITY

Kether Torah Cemetery • Reserve Township

A special meeting of the Hill District congregation Kether Torah was held in 1916 and each member was assessed $50 for the purchase of a cemetery on Hoffman Road in what was then Millvale. The congregation later purchased and expanded south onto a new hilltop section on Irwin Lane, and the cemeteries now total over 700 graves. Adath Israel, a shul in Oakland was granted a small portion of ground within the upper portion. Rabbi Ephraim Rosenblum was Kether Torah’s longstanding spiritual leader, and the congregation is now led by his son Rabbi Yossi Rosenblum. Kether Torah is the last remaining 19th century Pittsburgh congregation to pray in nusach sefard, a blend of Ashkenazi and Kabbalistic traditions. The founding families and early members stayed close. The Rice and Linder families were synonymous with Kether Torah. Harry Linder, known as “Aaron Dovid” served as President from the move off of the Hill to Squirrel Hill, passing away in 1973. Charles Rice served out Harry’s term … and then some. He stayed on for over forty years running the shul, and devotedly lit yahrzeit candles for members throughout the year in his home. His brother Frank Rice chaired the cemetery committee passing away in 2006. Duties were ably assumed by George Weiss. The JCBA is proud to assume the ownership, management, and maintenance of Kether Torah Cemetery in 2022.

D’Alessandro Funeral Home and Crematory Ltd. “Always A Higher Standard” Dustin A. D’Alessandro, Supervisor Daniel T. D’Alessandro, Funeral Director

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For more information about JCBA cemeteries, to volunteer, to read our complete histories and/or to make a contribution, please visit our website at www.JCBApgh.org, email us at jcbapgh@gmail.com, or call the JCBA office at 412-553-6469

18 JANUARY 7, 2022

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

JCBA’s expanded vision is made possible by a generous grant from the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Jewish Community Foundation

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Obituaries BALES: Sam Bales, age 84, of Pittsburgh, on Thursday, Dec. 30, 2021, peacefully at Montefiore Hospital. Born on May 16, 1937, in Pittsburgh, he is survived by his wife, Arlene Bales of Pittsburgh; his children Michael Bales and Debbie Bales Gardner and husband Mike; his sisters, Ruth Kramer and Yvette Adelsberg Levy; his stepchildren, Suzy Eppling and husband John, and Jay Goldberg and wife Natalie; along with his grandchildren, Dori Gardner and great-grandson Caleb, granddaughter Kim Eppling and grandsons Zachery, Marco and Aden Goldberg; along with other cousins, nieces and nephews. Sam was preceded in death by his first wife, Judy Bales; two sons Scott Sheldon Bales and Steven Scott Bales; parents, Hyman Bales and his wife Sarah Tzfanis; and grandparents Chananie Belfer and wife Fannie Weinstein. Sam came from a proud family of immigrants from the Eastern European countries of Romania and Moldova, who came to the United States to build a better future for their families. Sam graduated from Peabody High School and Connelley Trade School, where he became a master plumber and a founding member of AMPAC (Associated Master Plumbers of Allegheny County). He spent over 50 years employing his trade to the Pittsburgh greater metropolitan area, and especially Squirrel Hill. Both his sons, Steven and Michael Bales, followed in their father’s footsteps and became master plumbers. Michael continues the tradition to this day. As a plumber, Sam always felt that he was helping his friends, not his clients. He loved to fish, loved the opera and adored his crazy little dog “Sweetie.” In addition to his family, Sam loved his country and served six years in the United States Air Force as he was in the Pennsylvania Air National Guard in the munitions field. Graveside service and interment were held on Jan. 2 at 1 p.m. at Shaare Torah Cemetery. A memorial service will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that any memorial contributions be made to UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital or Humane Animal Rescue. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. schugar.com GELERNTER: Fanny “Francine” Gelernter. During Shabbat, Dec. 24, 2021, our beautiful ladybug and butterfly lovin’ Fanny “Francine” Gelernter, aka “Mrs. G.,” of Squirrel Hill and formerly Monroeville, Pennsylvania, was again reunited with the love of her life and husband, Simon (z”l), who preceded her in death in 1997, along with their son, David Bruce Gelernter (z”l) in 1959, and parents Israel Olitsky (z”l), Zena (z”l) and Leon Schack (z”l). Survived by her children Maureen “Mimi” and Joel Waldman, and Steve and Jacki Gelernter; grandchildren Sara and Brendon O’Connor, Dara Brown, Max Gelernter and Eli Gelernter; “bonus” grandchildren, Lindsay Kopecky, Jonathan Waldman and Margot Waldman; and extended family Natalie and “Sir” Richard Berger. The four-legged family members: Frankie 4 Paws, Yoffi, Maya, Bjorn, Tova and Shadow, were also a great source of joy for her. PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

She taught students of all ages for 45-plus years at Hebrew Institute, Temple David, Temple Sinai, Parkway Jewish Center and Rodef Shalom. She was gifted and dedicated when assisting a student in the preparation of their bar/bat mitzvah. Upon the sudden death of Simon, Fanny decided to keep his memory alive by continuing his practice of delivering presentations about her childhood Holocaust experience, including Kovno ghetto and Stutthof concentration camp, stating “I am the voice who speaks to you on behalf of all of the voices that have been silenced.” She had a bat mitzvah at age 79 and, later that year, returned with Steve, Jacki, Max, and Eli to her hometown of Kovno, Lithuania, as well as to Palanga, Lithuania, the beach town where she vacationed as a young bourgeois girl. She sought to also go to Stutthof, Poland, visiting the concentration camp she didn’t think she would survive, let alone return to see the ladybugs and butterflies that gave her hope throughout her life. Fanny considered every day a “birth day” and brought unique perspective to every situation in her life. She always said that her children (and later her grandchildren) were her “diamonds and furs.” Consistent with her belief that it is best to “give with a warm hand,” she delighted in taking the family on a trip to Israel in 2007.In lieu of a funeral, we will have a celebration of Fanny’s life in the spring at a time, date and place to be determined. To be notified of this event and/or share any story or experience as we Celebrate Fanny G, please email celebratefannyg@gmail.com. Donations may be made in her memory to The Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh online jfedpgh.org/donatehc or mailed to: Attn: Holocaust Center, Chatham University 0 Woodland Rd. Pittsburgh, PA 15232. Fanny’s kind, sweet wit, sass, humor and inspiration will be missed by all who met her. Do svidaniya and zei gezunt! Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. schugar.com LEVY: Jonathan George Levy, Pittsburgh, passed away at the age of 22. Jonathan was born on Feb. 2, 1999, to Philip E. Levy and Debra A Levy (née Schwartzberg) at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, New York. Jonathan was a student at the University of Arizona, studying digital media and communications. He was a talented writer with a passion for comedy, and a loving son, grandson, brother, nephew and friend to many. Jonathan will be remembered for his infectious smile and his kind and compassionate spirit. Jonathan is survived by his parents, Philip and Debra, his brothers, Jason and Andrew, his grandparents, Arlene and Kenneth Eskind and Malvina Levy, and several cousins, aunts and uncles. His dogs Nala, Phineas and Archie will also miss him and his hugs dearly. Funeral services were held on Friday, Dec. 10, 2021, at Temple Emanuel of South Hills, followed by interment at Mt. Lebanon Cemetery in Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania. Memorials or donations may be made to Temple Emanuel (General Fund) or The Friendship Circle. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. schugar.com Please see Obituaries, page 20

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

In memory of...

A gift from ...

In memory of...

Anonymous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Matilda Barnett

Rushie Leff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . James Leff

Anonymous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barbara Berenfield

Harold Lenchner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Betty Lenchner

Anonymous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Eleanor Toker

Linda Levine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jacob Levine

Anonymous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Samuel Toker

Linda Levine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rose Rosenfeld

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

Michael & Andrea Lowenstein . William M. Lowenstein

Harold C. Weiss. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jeffrey S. Weiss

Jack & Bernice Meyers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sarah A. Epstein

Carol and Michael Yahr and Family. . . . .Matilda Barnett

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

Marc M. Bilder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Anne Mallinger

Howie & Shelley Miller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brenda C. Miller

Marc Darling and Susan Denmark . . . .Anne M. Darling Marc Darling and Susan Denmark . . . James H. Darling Margie & Kenneth Epstein . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Larry Epstein Margie & Kenneth Epstein . . . . . . . . . . . . . Masha Epstein Stephanie Flom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . William Flom Stephanie Flom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Peter Oresick Dana L. Gelman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Phillip Harris Susan Goldman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Isadore Pachtman Robert & Kathleen Grant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ruth H. Cohen Robert & Kathleen Grant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Harry B. Harris Ms. Marjorie Halpern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Leonard Chasick Mary Jatlow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Celia Glantz

Robert Miller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Brenda Miller Larry Myer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Oscar Zeidenstein Esther & Harry Nathanson . . . . . . . . . . . . Isaac Bachrach Ann Notovitz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Mollie Samuel Norman & Judy Orr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . William D. Orr Shirley E. Preny . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Esther Mallinger Shirley E. Preny . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Max Mallinger Shirley E. Preny . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jack I. Mallinger Bernice Printz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lilly E. Rosenberg Ross Rosen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sylvia Rosen Ross Rosen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anna Gross Rosen

Carole Kaufman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ann R. Hendel

Karen K. Shapiro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ann Tergulitza

Suzanne Kessler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Emanuel Goldenberg

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

Suzanne Kessler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mollie Goldenberg

Eileen Snider . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Dan Snider

Sharon Knapp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Nettie Galanty

James Spector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Morris Spector

Carl B Krasik. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Julius Belle

Patricia A. Spokane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dorothy Schneirov

Jeffrey L. Kwall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Saul and Clara Kwall

Lynda Stern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Edward Stern

Harold & Cindy Lebenson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Phillip Harris

Lynda Stern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sylvia Stern

Mrs. Rachel Leff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . James Leff

Mr. Andrew N. Stewart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Howard Mamolen

THIS WEEK’S YAHRZEITS — Sunday January 9: Clara Deutch, Myer Feldman, Isadore F. Frank, Benjamin Harris, Bess M. Levenson, Albert Dale Malyn, Frank Miller, Sophie Paransky, Max Rosenfeld, Harry Schlesinger, Leon Stein Monday January 10: Sidney J. Alpern, Samuel J. Amdur, Julius Belle, Beverly Renee German, Harry Kalson, Tillie Krochmal, Joseph H. Levin, Jeremy Marcus, Samuel Miller, Ida B. Shaffer, Edith Nayhouse Thorpe, Minnie Weller Tuesday January 11: Anna Cohen, Celia Cohen, Edythe B. Dickerman, Alfred Engel, Julia P. Farbstein, Katie Fireman, Jennie Gold, Sarah Goldstein, Ruth W. Gusky, Max Jeremias, Harry Kaplan, Marian Papernick Lindenbaum, Morris Lipkind, Alice Lipp, Manuel L. Mason, Harry Miller, Anna Schwartz, David S. Shermer, Albert Sherry, Ruth K. Slotsky Wednesday January 12: Jennie Bluestone, Charles Fishkin, Ida Karp, Freda Lenchner, Katie Middleman, Lillian Myers, Louis Rosenfield, Rebecca Schutte, Meyer H. Siegal, Maurice Smith, Harry L. Steinberg, Roslyn Weinberg Thursday January 13: Joseph Baker, Rebecca Belkin, Helen Citron, Max Elinoff, Jennie Greenberger, Rachel Grinberg, Minnie S. Kopman, Sylvan A. Mendlovitz, Wallace Norman, Ciril Perer, Manuel Regenstien, Anna Gross Rosen, Jacob Rosenberg, Louis E. Rosenthall, Jacob Rosenzweig, Pearl Sheckter, Morris Singer, Herman Smith, Eleanor Goldberg Toker Friday January 14: IEthel Graff Braun, Moses Brown, Brenda Cramer Miller, Sarah A. Epstein, Anna C. Feigus, Minnie Feldman, Max Green, Meyer Grossman, William Gusky, Jesse L. Kann, Samuel Karp, Ida A. Leff, Fannie London, Samuel Robins, Ethel Ruben, Louis Samuels, Belle Sokolow, Louis B. Stein, Irvin H. Tapper, Phyllis Weiner Unger, Ida Winer, Morris Wolk Saturday January 15: Jacob Bahm, Mollie Barnett, Jack Hart, Helen Betty K Israel, Edward Josephs, Pearl Karp, David Kart, Diane L. Katz, Anna Lazier, Marian Levine, Belle Wise Levy, Joseph G. Luptak, Erna Metzger, Beverly Pattak, Morris Roth, Mollie Simon, Samuel Sloan, Max Spodek, Herman Spolan

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JANUARY 7, 2022 19

Obituaries Obituaries: Continued from page 19

LUCKOFF: B el ove d mother, sister, aunt, grandmother, Jane Luckoff (1939-2021), passed away on Dec. 17 in San Rafael, California, after a long battle with dementia as a result of a brain injury, with her family by her side. Jane was born Jan. 26, 1939, in Pittsburgh, to Rose Adler Fleishman and Martin J. Fleishman. After high school, she moved to Ann Arbor to attend the University of Michigan where she earned a BA in English and met Michael Luckoff, her former husband of over 40 years. Married in 1960, she began her family in Detroit, subsequently moved to Chicago and Los Angeles before settling in Marin County in 1972. Jane would continue her education, earning a master’s degree in counseling from Dominican College. Upon completion, she was very proud of starting her own successful relocation counseling business. Jane was a loving mother, generous and kind with everyone, an animal lover and loyal friend. She enjoyed making others happy, entertaining, and was a consummate volunteer, offering her time to a friend in need and to the community. A talented artist in her own right, Jane enjoyed the rich offering of the arts in the Bay Area and abroad. Her love of travel led her to span the globe visiting six different continents, including her favorite, Africa. Her quick wit, beautiful smile, and bright spirit will be greatly missed. She leaves behind her children, Lynn Luckoff, Nancy Luckoff, Jeffrey (and Eva) Luckoff; her identical twin sister Diane Beckerman; and her grandsons Stephen, Bradley and Bennett Luckoff. She is preceded in death by her mother, Rose White, her father, Martin Fleishman, and her

beloved dog Dusty. A memorial service will be announced at a later date. Donations in her honor can be given to Jewish Family and Children Services, and the Schurig Center for Brain Injury Recovery. RAPPORT: William Rapport, age 97, on Saturday, Dec. 25, 2021. Beloved husband of 73 years to the late Betty Rapport. Beloved father of Joseph A.M. (Eleanor C.) Rapport of Pleasant Hills and Deborah Fae M. (Charles J.) Drummond of Churchill. Preceded in death by one brother and one sister. Grandfather of Aaron J. (Miranda) Rapport, Sarah F. Rapport and Joanna M. Drummond. Great-grandfather of Frances T. and James D. Rapport. Also survived by nieces and nephews. The family wants to express their gratitude to UPMC Seneca Manor and the Bridges Hospice for their excellent care and compassion. Services and interment private. Contributions may be made to the UPMC Benevolent Care Fund, c/o Debbie Panei, director of development, 200 Lothrop St., Forbes Tower Suite 10072, Pittsburgh, PA 15213 (412.854.3524), or PaneiD@upmc.edu or to the Squirrel Hill Community Food Pantry, 828 Hazelwood Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15217. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. schugar.com SCHEINHOLTZ: Joan L. Scheinholtz, on Friday, Dec.31, 2021. Beloved wife for 61 years of the late Leonard L. Scheinholtz; loving mother of Stuart (Joanne) Scheinholtz of Tiburon, California, Nancy Scheinholtz of San Mateo, California, and Barry (Debby) Scheinholtz of Berkeley Heights, New Jersey. Sister of the late Arnold

Libenson, Jerome (Harriette) Libenson, and Robert (Nona) Libenson. Sister-in-law of Maxine Libenson. Adoring grandmother of Max (Francisca Espina) Freeborn, Miles Freeborn, Sarah (fiancé Matt Shanes) Scheinholtz, Eli Scheinholtz, and Jack Williams. Also survived by many loving extended family members and friends. Joan grew up in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and moved to New York City after graduating from William Smith College. She met the love of her life, Len, in New York, and they realized their fate when they exchanged identical Valentine’s Day cards. (Valentine Schmalentine — as long as you’re healthy!) They married and moved to Pittsburgh shortly thereafter to the new suburb of Mt. Lebanon, where they raised three (brilliant!) children. Joan was a docent at the Carnegie Museum of Art where she led tours for many years and established lifelong friendships. Joan was an avid traveler, both with Len and her friends. She was a global adventurer with particular interest in arts, culture and cuisine. She dispensed sound advice free of charge. Joan was a friend to all and will be deeply missed. Services were held at Temple Emanuel of South Hills, 1250 Bower Hill Road, Mt. Lebanon, 15243, on Sunday, Jan. 2, 2022, at 11 a.m. Interment Mt. Lebanon Cemetery, Temple Emanuel Section. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Planned Parenthood, the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, or a charity of your choice. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. schugar.com SHAPIRO: Michael Allan Shapiro, Feb. 9, 1950 - Dec. 29, 2021. The family is saddened to announce Michael Shapiro, of Coral Gables, Florida, passed unexpectedly on Dec. 29, 2021, at the age of 71. Michael leaves behind his father, Robert; daughters, Ali McNamara (Ray) and Abbey Stewart (Jason); brother Daniel Shapiro (Sharon); sister

Elynn Shapiro; two beautiful grandchildren, Bryce Stewart and Aubrey Knight; nephews Cole Shapiro and Zane (Lisa) Shapiro; grandnephews Cash and Duke Shapiro; and his uncle Harold Shapiro. Michael was born in Pittsburgh to Robert Shapiro and the late Sophie (Zubroff) Shapiro on Feb. 9, 1950. He graduated from Mt. Lebanon High School, attended Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and then received his law degree from the University of Miami School of Law, graduating on the Dean’s list in 1974. Michael practiced general law, trusts, estate planning, and real estate law for 47 years, first for the prestigious Gars, Dixon & Shapiro, and then Michael A. Shapiro Law Office. Michael was a devoted son, father, brother, grandfather, nephew, uncle and friend. He loved his family, gardening, sports and cooking, and was also generous with his time and money to environmental, political and ethical causes. Throughout his life his kindness and love touched and inspired many. He made the lives of those around him better, and his beautiful spirit remains part of us. Michael will truly be missed. Our celebration of his life will take place later this year. If desired, memorial donations in Michael’s honor may be made to the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital Foundation, 3100 S.W. 62nd Ave, Miami, Fl 33155. STEINER: Gary Stephen Steiner, 68, of Pittsburgh, sadly passed away on Dec. 22, 2021. Son of the late Daniel and Delores (Hainick) Steiner, adoring father of David and Brad Steiner, loving brother of Greg (Ann) Steiner and Jodi (late Jason) Laby, and forever friend of Lynn Shiner. After graduation from Stanford University and UCLA Law School, Gary practiced entertainment, contract and immigration law and produced movies in the entertainment industry. His creative genius, incisive wit and impish grin will be missed by all who knew him. PJC

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Real Estate FOR SALE

FOR SALE

F O R S A LE LAWRENCEVILLE • $599,000 • MCCLEARY SCHOOL CONDO New Listing. Spectacular 3 bedroom 2 bath condo. McCleary School Condo. Great for a family. Mile high ceilings, 9.5 ft. island, sleek counter tops stainless appliances. 2 car covered parking. Bldg. amenities include roof top deck, exercise room, dog washing station. SHADYSIDE • $185,000 Only a few doors from Walnut and Starbucks. Adorable garden apartment with parking. Rarely one on market. Pets permitted. SQUIRREL HILL • $349,900 • MELVIN STREET REDUCED! 2-story family home awaits your family. 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, 2nd floor laundry. First floor living room, dining room, remodeled kitchen and a large, versatile room with cathedral ceiling that can be used as a wonderful family room, office, den, primary bedroom suite, or in-law suite. Devin Canofari 412-552-9115

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Community Happy Noon Year’s Residents of the New Riverview celebrated “noon” year’s with an afternoon celebration on Dec. 31. The festivities included a performance of Auld Lang Syne by Dan McCay and lots of smiles.

p Sandy Sperling wishes everyone Happy “Noon” Year. Photos courtesy of Jewish Association on Aging

p Priscilla Burgess raises her glass to the “noon” year.

Temple David helps out

p Temple David welcomed 35 participants, who packed 95 personal care bags for Ronald McDonald House, on Mitzvah Day.

p Volunteers organize bags

Photos courtesy of Temple David

Gifts for JFCS Guardianship Services clients Donors, including Edgar Snyder, ensured JFCS Guardianship Services clients received personalized holiday gifts. Each requested item was delivered to a specific client. Many of the clients have little to no contact with family due to abuse or neglect. Additionally, client finances are often limited to necessities such as living expenses, food and medical care.

p JFCS staffer Rebecca Remson shops for items on the Holiday Gift Drive list.

p After requesting a sketch book and art supplies, this client holds his holiday gifts. Photos courtesy of JFCS

Time to pray Before being sworn in as Pittsburgh’s next mayor, Mayor-Elect Ed Gainey welcomed faith leaders for an online event on Jan. 2.

p Rabbi Jamie Gibson was among members of the clergy who spoke at “An Interfaith Prayer for Pittsburgh’s Future” prior to Mayor-Elect Ed Gainey’s Jan. 3 inauguration.

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p Rabbi Sharyn Henry addresses health and wellness during the online event.

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Screenshots by Jim Busis

JANUARY 7, 2022 23

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Available at 24 JANUARY 7, 2022

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