The Jewish Chronicle July 23, 2015

Metro Repair the World Friendliness, charm keep out-of-town interns firmly in city’s grasp

Page 2

July 23, 2015 Av 7, 5775

Vol. 58, No. 61 $1.50

Pittsburgh, Pa.

Jewish values lead Rabbi Schiff back to Pittsburgh

‘A dangerous mistake,’ Iran deal has many worried about national security

BY TOBY TABACHNICK Senior Staff Writer

BY TOBY TABACHNICK Senior Staff Writer

through a Jewish lens?”

Schiff, Brandeis said, is just the man to help answer those questions.

Born in Australia, Schiff earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Melbourne and received ordination, as well as a master of arts in Hebrew Letters, from the Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC–JIR).

Lawmakers representing Western Pennsylvania on Capitol Hill are meeting the completion of the deal announced last week between Iran and six world powers with skepticism, and in some cases, condemnation.

“I don’t like it, quite plainly,” said Rep. Tim Murphy (R-District 18) in an interview. “I think it is more of an arms proliferation agreement.”

Murphy criticized the deal as failing to impose accountability upon Iran, failing to provide adequate inspection measures and failing to “stop them from moving forward to developing nuclear weapons.”

“Iran is the top supporter of terrorism in the world, with the stated purpose of genocide to Israel,” he said, noting that the Iranian regime also supports enemies of the United States such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

“Instead of stopping nuclear proliferation, [this agreement] leads to the certainty of it,” he said.

While Murphy had not yet completed his review of the entire agreement at the time of the interview, “so far, I am voting against it,” he said.

Please see Schiff, page 8

Please see Iran, page 9

Photo provided by Rabbi Danny Schiff

Rabbi Danny Schiff, former community scholar at the now-defunct Agency for Jewish Learning and former spiritual leader of Temple B’nai Israel in White Oak, will be returning to Pittsburgh this fall to assume the newly created position of Federation scholar.

Schiff and his family made aliyah in 2009 after serving the Pittsburgh community for 17 years. His new position, under the auspices of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, will allow him to remain in Israel for six months of the year while being present in Pittsburgh for six months.

The role of Federation scholar is a oneyear pilot program, which was developed to help imbue with Jewish content the way in which the Federation functions as an organization. It is funded by a grant from the Federation’s Jewish Community Foundation, the Federation’s plannedgiving arm that enables donors to create permanent endowment funds.

Schiff’s responsibilities will include working with Federation staff, lay leadership and volunteers to add “Jewish context and learning to their work”; to “inspire donors”; and to train professional advisers — such as accountants, lawyers and estate planners — in how to talk about Jewish philanthropy with their clients, according to Dan Brandeis, Jewish Community Foundation director.

While Brandeis anticipates that Schiff will be available on a limited basis to provide educational opportunities for the community at large, his primary role will be as an internal Federation resource.

Schiff will be employed by the Federation on a three-quarter-time basis,

Rabbi Danny Schiff has been hired by the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh as its Federation scholar.

and, in addition to being in Pittsburgh for six nonconsecutive months out of the year, will work from Israel for three months, Brandeis said.

The Federation’s intent in hiring Schiff is to help the organization make decisions in sync with Jewish values.

“We have been challenged before with the question of ‘what do we do to act like a Jewish organization?’” Brandeis said. “How do you make decisions

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2 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE JULY 23, 2015

Metro Friendliness, charm keep out-of-town interns firmly in city’s grasp

BY MASHA SHOLLAR Special to The Chronicle

Pittsburgh for years had struggled to retain young people, as they were lured away by larger cities. But in another sign that this reality may be changing, five interns from the East Liberty-based charitable nonprofit Repair the World have decided to make Pittsburgh home after a year of volunteering here, citing the ’Burgh’s affordability, friendliness and livability.

Jodi Salant enjoyed the experience so much that she and another fellow decided to stay on for an additional year, this time in the role of team leaders to mentor the new cohort of fellows. Salant said she extended her fellowship because “it was a tremendous growing experience. I learned a lot about what I was interested in professionally and experienced a lot of growth, and I was excited about the opportunity to keep that going.�

Dravidi Stinett said that although she “came here for the challenge, I stayed because of the relationships and kind people,� describing how one freezing cold day in a parking lot, a stranger came

The welcoming arms of the city’s Jewish community have inspired five Repair the World interns to stay in Pittsburgh.

Photo by Lauren Demby

over to help her clean the mountain of snow off of her windshield. “He just said he figured I could use some help. It’s the small acts of kindness that stand out here. You don’t get that everywhere.�

Bari Morchower agreed. “What really impressed me about the ’Burgh is how friendly everyone is. I love how acceptable it is to say hello to someone walking toward you on the street. Pittsburgh is

big enough to remain somewhat anonymous, but small enough where you can see people you know on the street and say hello to them all warm and friendly.�

Morchower said that another draw for her was the diverse Jewish community here. “I really appreciate how much exposure I have to the Reform, Conservative and Orthodox communities within such a small distance.� In

Pittsburgh, she could “walk a mile or two and hit up all three kinds of shuls. It is the people that make a community what it is, though, and as a Repair the World fellow I got a really good glimpse of the chesed in Pittsburgh’s Jewish community. They were so welcoming, why would I want to leave?� Salant said she “definitely found a home within� the Jewish community.

Salant added that she “would not have found� her job without the connections and networking from Repair. “The service partner I was working with during this year ... hired me. So it is entirely because of RTW that I have this job.� She also praised the Pittsburgh director, Zack Block, calling him a mentor.

All of the interns see their new jobs as extensions of their tikkun olam work with Repair last year. Stinett, who is now working in the administrative department of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, said that the chance to help people was “one of the things that excited me about the job. It’s the little things I think make the biggest difference.�

Please see Interns, page 7

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METRO JFilm’s declaration of independence means funding freedom

BY TOBY TABACHNICK Senior Staff Writer

JFilm, currently a division of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, has filed an application with the commonwealth to become an independent nonprofit corporation.

Its anticipated independence from the Federation will allow JFilm to seek funding from more diverse sources, according to Iris Samson, chair of JFilm’s current committee and upcoming chair of the organization’s new board of directors.

“We are a small arts organization,” Samson said. “By becoming our own independent arts foundation, we can go after different arts funders. That will be the biggest benefit to becoming our own independent arts organization. It will give us a lot more freedom.”

At the core of JFilm’s enterprise is an annual independent film festival, but the organization runs several additional programs each year designed to enrich understanding of Jewish culture.

Samson noted that JFilm continues to add new programming to its docket on a regular basis. That programming includes a second annual film festival, ReelAbilities, which presents films and events that showcase the lives, stories and artistic expressions of individuals with disabilities; the Robinson Short Film International Competition, which

awards cash prizes for documentary, narrative and animated shorts; and Teen Screen, which reaches about 4,000 local students and teachers a year, exposing them to films at venues outside of the school setting to enhance their understanding of Holocaust history, social justice and tolerance.

“Every year, we seem to take on more programming,” Samson observed, attributing the organization’s expansion to its executive director, Kathryn Spitz Cohan.

“I think if we can get our hands on more funds, we can only expand in a positive manner, which we have done up to this point,” said Samson.

She said the move to become independent from Federation was not motivated “because of any kind of The Audience Award winner for best documentary at this year’s JFilm Festival was “Above and Photo provided by JFilm discord, but because we are Beyond,” produced by Nancy Spielberg. continuing to grow, and this The move to become independent of allows us to grow in areas we couldn’t Roskies, Marian Salamon, Alison Shapiro and David Sufrin. Spitz Cohan anticipates Federation “is less of a separation and before.”

In addition to Samson, JFilm’s board adding additional board members, she more of an evolution,” Spitz Cohan said. will be comprised of Estelle Comay, said, and JFilm’s volunteer committee of Please see JFilm, page 6 Norton Gusky, Eileen Lane, Dodie more than 40 people will stay intact.

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METRO Holocaust museum, local center join forces

Teachers get lessons in teaching about the Holocaust, genocide

BY MASHA SHOLLAR Special to The Chronicle

Holocaust education has always been a vital tool in making the cries of “never again” more than just a slogan.

For 40 area educators eager to teach the Holocaust comprehensively and meaningfully, the opportunity to participate in a three day training course run by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., in partnership with the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh was one they could not pass up.

Matthew Hamilton, the educational program director at the Holocaust Center who organized the session, said that with the passing of Act 70 of 2014, the Holocaust and genocide education bill, which “strongly encourages” schools to teach the two topics, the goal of the training was not only to make teachers aware of the legislation, but to provide them with the means to meet that mandate.

“We wanted to provide them with resources — and training on these resources — so they felt comfortable when they went back to their classrooms and they would have to teach about the Holocaust and genocide and human rights violations,” Hamilton said.

Karen Levine, one of the Holocaust Memorial Museum’s regional education coordinators who led the second

day of training, said that teaching the Holocaust is complex, tough and hugely important.

“A lot of people believe, well, Hitler came to power, he rounded up all the Jews and he killed them and that’s the whole story. And if you believe that, then the Holocaust would be really easy to teach,” she said.

But, Levine said, the truth is far more complex and layered. To teach it properly, educators must make sure their students understand this. “You really have to think about people’s motives, where people were, what people thought” and what sort of lessons or messages the students will come away with.

“I tell [the students] they have to be serious about it,” she said, adding that she often tries to close each lesson with something positive.

Levine said she hopes that the signing of the Holocaust and genocide education bill last summer will lead more schools to begin educating their students on the subject, and “if it’s going to be taught, it should be taught right.” Too often, Levine said, teachers use the “shock and awe method: Let me show you a bunch of pictures of horribly mutilated people.”

Other teachers just put on the Steven Spielberg film “Schindler’s List.”

But proper education comes when students are taught “how to think critically

“You really have to think about people’s motives, where people were, what people thought and what sort of lessons or messages the students will come away with.”

— Karen Levine, regional education coordinator for the Holocaust Memorial Museum Mary Smolter, a middle school history and social studies teacher at St. Alexis Catholic School in Wexford, said she knows just how hard it can be to teach this topic. She said she prepares her students for it before they’ve even begun the unit. She also allows parents the option to preview the material and video footage she uses in the course because they can be so upsetting.

about it, how to evaluate people’s motives, and their own motives going forward,” she said.

Levine said that the important role of teachers was highlighted at this training session, with a new unit — that the Pittsburgh teachers were first to use — about the responses and actions of teachers in the Third Reich.

Levine said they discussed the segrega-

tion of Jewish students and the government-directed curriculum, as well as the different reactions from the teachers.

Some, she said, were complicit, even enthusiastic, while “other people pushed back against the whole thing and wanted to help their students.” That unit was particularly important and meaningful, according to Levine, “because as teachers, when we go to the classroom, what we do matters and ... how we treat our students is essential.”

Smolter, the Catholic middle school teacher, said that although the training session was very emotional and could be “draining,” it was “one of the best professional development classes that I ever took,” describing it as both “concrete” and “useful.”

She had been doing research on the Holocaust and developing her own curriculum for several years when she visited the Holocaust Center last year to flesh out her lessons a bit more. Once involved with the center, she was able to get a survivor to speak to both parents and teachers. She took her class on a trip to the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington “and once I went to this museum I just thought, there’s so much more I really need to know.”

Masha Shollar is an intern for The Chronicle. She can be reached at mashas@thejewishchronicle.net.

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THE JEWISH CHRONICLE JULY 23, 2015 — 5

METRO Reggio Emilia teaching philosophy finds a home in Jewish education

BY MASHA SHOLLAR Special to The Chronicle

The David L. Lawrence Convention Center is currently hosting an exhibit titled “The Wonder of Learning: The Hundred Languages of Children,” a traveling exhibition that visits two cities in North America each year and explores the Reggio Emilia teaching philosophy.

That philosophy, which emphasizes child-directed learning, whereby the student, teacher and parents are co-equal partners in education, has been attracting much attention lately.

The exhibit’s presence in Pittsburgh, which organizer Carolyn Linder jokingly compared to “vying for the Olympics,” is due in part to Pittsburgh’s Jewish Early Childhood Education Initiative (JECEI), which was coordinated by Linder. The program, which aimed to combine the Reggio Emilia teaching approach with Jewish education, culture and values, began in 2011 when Linder, still with the Agency for Jewish Learning at the time, joined the national JECEI program, which disbanded shortly thereafter. Undeterred, Linder continued the initiative in Pittsburgh, partnering with three Jewish early learning centers — the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill, Temple Ohav Shalom in the North Hills and Community Day School, also in Squirrel Hill — to “transform the educational approach and practices of existing Jewish early learning centers into high-

Educators gather to cut the ribbon for the David L. Lawrence Convention Center’s latest exhibit, “The Wonders of Learning: The Hundred Languages of Children.”

Photo by Jennifer Highfield

quality educational centers with active family participation,” according to the AJL’s website. While not members of JECEI, Beth Shalom’s Early Learning Center and the Early Learning Center of Yeshiva School of Pittsburgh both have classrooms inspired by Reggio philosophy.

Linder said that “the benefit of having the national organization dissolved … [was] that we were able to create a Pittsburgh JECEI that met the needs of the individual schools as well as working with the entire Early Jewish Childhood community” given that the national JECEI program “wasn’t a communitybased approach.”

Linder knew that switching to an entirely new educational philosophy could prove controversial. Therefore, a major focus of the JECEI initiative was ensuring that the educators understood how the approach worked in practice,

not just in theory.

Melissa Harmon, director of early childhood education at Community Day School, said that the consultants didn’t just teach them the basics of that philosophy, but how it applied to each specific type of classroom and how it could be blended with Jewish education and values.

According to Liza Baron, director of the Early Childhood Development Center at the JCC, the point of Reggio Emilia is that “children are not born empty vessels. They are not creatures who just need to be fed information.”

Linder described the students as “coconstructors in the learning experience.”

They are taught in a community that they’re a part of, so education “is not something that’s done to them; it’s something they are a part of. What we learn and explore comes from the kids.”

But critics say that selling point is

also the system’s central flaw. Under a child-directed approach, they say, children neglect to learn the academic building blocks that will be necessary in kindergarten and beyond. Linder disputes that argument. “People [assume] that it’s kind of a free for all, that the children are not being directed, that they get to choose whatever they want to do whenever they want to do it, and that’s a misconception,” she said. All of the schools directors interviewed for this article agreed that the question is a legitimate one from parents but said that a visit to a classroom following the approach would quash that fear. Said Baron: “Just because you’re going to walk into a preschool classroom here and not see a color chart or a number chart or a days of the week calendar, Please see Teaching, page 7

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6 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE JULY 23, 2015

METRO Briefly The Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh will be sending one

its largest groups in several years to the JCC Maccabi Games, to be held in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., from Aug. 9 to Aug. 14.

Close to 1,200 visiting athletes, girls and boys ages 13 to 16 in 42 delegations from the United States, Canada,

JFilm: Continued from page 3 “Our leadership and their leadership have been talking about this for two years.”

JFilm was launched 24 years ago and is now heading into its 23rd film festival, Spitz Cohan said.

“This feels like the next logical step for this organization. We have a great relationship with Federation, and we will continue it.”

The Federation is supportive of the move, said Adam Hertzman, the Federation’s director of marketing.

“JFilm already raises most of its own money

Mexico, the United Kingdom and Israel will be attending this event, including 45 teens from the Jewish Community Center. The JCC’s athletes are participating in swimming, baseball, basketball, soccer and lacrosse.

The young athletes stay with local families. Games are held during the day, and events for all participants are held in the evenings.

Etai Groff, 16, is in the JCC’s group going to Fort Lauderdale, but immedi-

ately before that, he is joining his brother, Dylan Groff, 18, on the Maccabi USA team, playing in the European Maccabi Games in Berlin.

The JCC Maccabi Games are an Olympic-style sporting competition held each summer in North America. The first North American JCC Maccabi Games were held in 1982 with 300 athletes; the JCC of Greater Pittsburgh sent its first group in 1983. Regional Games were added in 1985 to augment the

even-year Continental Games.

Today, more than 6,000 teens participate in the JCC Maccabi Games each summer. The Games are co-sponsored by the Jewish Community Center Association of North America, the Maccabi World Union, Maccabi Canada and Maccabi USA/Sports for Israel.

Contact Alan Mallinger at 412-6973545 or amallinger@jccpgh.org or Mark Pattis at 412-697-3559 or mpattis@ jccpgh.org for more information.

and has been running very independently of Federation as time goes on,” he said.

“This made a ton of sense to us.”

Becoming independent will allow JFilm to “focus on its core mission [and also] solidify new partnerships.”

Toby Tabachnick can be reached at tobyt@thejewishchronicle.net.

The JFilm Festival’s Audience Award winner for best narrative in 2015 was a tie between “The Best of Men” (above) and “Serial (BAD) Weddings.”

Photos provided by JFilm

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METRO Interns: Continued from page 2 Morchower, who is now the assistant director of the Pittsburgh Area Jewish Committee, said that her job aims to “build bridges between different groups of people and on the building of relationships and trust through dialogue. When people take a seat at the table with an open mind and engage in meaningful conversation with one another, there is healing that takes place. It is this kind of healing in small groups that can change the way people treat each other on a larger scale, and perhaps even ‘heal the world.’”

Salant, who is about to start as the East End Housing Coordinator at East Liberty Development Incorporated, says that because it’s an “an anti-poverty initiative” she hopes for the chance to build on the philanthropy started during her time at Repair the World.

Stinett, Morchower, and Salant all said that they still keep in touch with the other fellows. “I still go to events,” said Morchower. She feels close to the other fellows because “we were in the first cohort together.”

Stinett also attends some of Repair’s events, and said, “Some of us former fellows have our coffees and lunches together, just to catch up and see how things are going. It’s one of those things, it’s such a unique experience. We’ll always meet up ... just to see how everyone is and how they’re doing. We’re a mini-family.”

“We get together for drinks, for coffees or lunches for whatever, just to kind of stay in touch,” added Salant.

As for the decision to make Pittsburgh home, the interns said they established so many close connections here that they were loath to leave.

Salant went so far as to say she’d fallen “in love” with Pittsburgh. “It’s become a second home. It’s a really friendly city ... and I’m excited to be able to explore it.”

“People talk to each other here,” said Stinett. “It’s not a big city, but it’s not too small either, a happy medium. And there are a lot of young people doing really great things; it just feels good to be a part of it.”

Masha Shollar is an intern for The Chronicle. She can be reached at mashas@thejewishchronicle.net.

Teaching:

Shalom and the JCC will be completing their training programs in the year to come, CDS will continue theirs, and a new school, Temple Emanuel Early Childhood Development Center in South Hills, will begin their first year as a JECEI school.

Josh Donner, executive director of the Shapira Foundation, which supports the JECEI program and helped to underwrite the Wonder of Learning exhibit along with the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Association for the Education of Young Children, said that the Reggio Emilia approach mirrors Jewish values. “The idea of deeply exploring questions is so Jewish.”

As a result of the exhibit, Linder said, she wants community members to engage in “big conversations about what high-quality early childhood education should look like.”

The Wonder of Learning: The Hundred Languages of Children will run at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center through Nov. 15.

Continued from page 5 doesn’t mean that those concepts are not being taught.” Any child’s specific interest can be easily incorporated into a larger lesson, she said. A child’s love of trucks, for example, can be taught in a way that incorporates spelling, colors, math and even days of the week.

Bonnie Valinsky, preschool director of the Early Learning Center of Ohav Shalom, said that “when children are highly engaged in what they’re doing ... learning is just inevitable.”

The local early learning centers have been using the approach for several years at this point, and Linder said that for some schools, this coming year will be the last of the five year JECEI initiative in terms of training and consultancy “because at some point, you want to be able to have created the system and processes in place so that it can then be sustained internally within the Early Childhood Center. So the work will continue, but they will not need as much outside support as they’ve been receiving for the last four years.” While Ohav

Masha Shollar is an intern for The Chronicle. She can be reached at mashas@thejewishchronicle.net.

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Schiff: Continued from page 1 He earned a doctor of Hebrew letters degree from HUC–JIR and a master of arts in museum studies from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Schiff has written extensively on

of the Federation’s activity,” said Schiff, reached at his home in Jerusalem.

Schiff praised the Federation for making Jewish learning a priority among its staff, lay leaders and volunteers.

“There are very few Federations around the country that have made Jewish learning such a priority as to appoint a scholar to bring this depth of learning to Federation activities, so the

for a Jewish community. So, while the objective is to bring Jewish education into Federation activities, the Federation is clearly there to serve as a resource for the community. The hope is that it will strengthen the Federation internally, but also the community more generally.”

Pittsburgh’s Federation is one of only a handful of Federations around the

“What a wonderful city it is, and what a strong, thoughtful, passionate and committed Jewish community we have. It is large enough to achieve great things and small enough for people to know each other and feel they belong to a true community.”

— Rabbi Danny Schiff Jewish law and ethics and is the author of the book “Abortion in Judaism,” published by Cambridge University Press.

He is a former board member of the City of Pittsburgh Ethics Board and the Society of Jewish Ethics.

“The objective that I have for this role is to bring Jewish learning to every facet

Pittsburgh Federation is really taking a thoughtful, leading initiative.”

He is confident that the education he will bring internally to the Federation will likewise strengthen the community at large.

“We live at a time when Jewish education at every level is a pressing need

VISIT US ON THE

country to employ a scholar to infuse Jewish values into its pursuits. Miami, Chicago and New York are among them.

The benefits to the community, when an in-house rabbi is guiding its Federation, are tangible, according to Lyn Light-Geller, executive director of educational resources and organizational

development of the UJA-Federation of New York.

Rabbi Michael Paley has been on staff at New York’s Federation for 18 years and has served as its in-house scholar for about 15 of those years, Light-Geller said.

“He helps to build community among our lay leaders and our donors,” she said.

“It’s not just about educating them, but also about engaging them in study and building community. He is able to instill a sense of Jewish values.

His presence here infuses everything we do with a Jewish flavor.

“I think this is a great step forward for the Pittsburgh Federation,” she added.

“Don’t underestimate the impact.”

Schiff, who plans to arrive in Pittsburgh in October, is looking forward to reconnecting with the community here. Since he moved to Israel, he has returned to Pittsburgh several times each year for teaching projects and to work on a concept for a museum project he is developing.

“What a wonderful city it is, and what a strong, thoughtful, passionate and committed Jewish community we have,” he said. “It is large enough to achieve great things and small enough for people to know each other and feel they belong to a true community.”

Toby Tabachnick can be reached at tobyt@thejewishchronicle.net.

web AT thejewishchronicle.net

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R & J e v o We l e m i t l l i t s ’s There . n u f e h t n to joi Not a member? Not a problem! • Call 412-829-7707 • JCCPGH.org

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE JULY 23, 2015 — 9

Iran: Continued from page 1 Sens. Bob Casey, a Democrat, and Pat Toomey, a Republican, both said they would be engaging in a close review of the agreement, with their priority being the protection of our national security.

“Preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon is critical to our national security and that of our partners in the region, especially Israel,” Casey said in a prepared statement. “That’s why I have consistently sponsored and supported sanctions against Iran, which brought the regime to the table in the first place, and legislation like the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act and the Nuclear Weapon Free Iran Act of 2015.”

Toomey, in a statement of his own, expressed concern that the deal “will provide hundreds of billions of dollars to an untrustworthy Iranian regime’s support for terrorism, while ushering in a nuclear arms race throughout the Middle East.”

Rep. Mike Kelly (R-District 3) went so far as to call the deal “a dangerous mistake of potentially historic proportions.”

The deal, Kelly said in a statement, “fails to achieve the paramount mission of permanently ending Iran’s nuclear ambitions while instead leaving the Islamic Republic newly emboldened, wrongly legitimized and ominously free to continue its deadly sponsorship of international terrorism.”

Kelly accused President Barack Obama of being motivated by personal ambitions at the cost of world security. Obama, charged Kelly, “was openly desperate to achieve a legacy-cementing deal at almost any cost. The Iranians exploited the situation by extracting concession after concession and are now left celebrating a deal that rewards their government with tens of billions of dollars in sanctions relief — much of which is guaranteed to be funneled to terrorist groups and causes throughout the world.”

He urged Congress to “do everything in our power to defeat this agreement.

Doing so would reassert our nation’s indispensable global leadership and deny Iran a victory the world cannot afford.”

Congressman Keith Rothfus (R-District 12) expressed similar sentiments.

“Unfortunately, President Obama’s agreement with Iran appears to fall far short of the commitments that he made to the American people,” he said in a news release. “The deal requires only modest concessions from the world’s largest sponsor of terrorism in return for freeing up hundreds of billions of dollars in frozen assets and sanctions relief that Iran will use to undermine the safety and security of the United States and our allies in the Middle East, particularly Israel.

“The agreement preserves Iran’s ability to pursue nuclear weapons in the future, effectively lifts the arms embargo and ballistic-missile ban and does not institute the unfettered access and monitoring that the president promised. Far from ending the potential for a nuclear arms race in the Middle East, I fear that this all but guarantees one.”

Rep. Mike Doyle (D-District 14) emphasized his commitment to preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and to the security of the Jewish state.

“I’m staunchly committed to preserving the safety and security of Israel that requires preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon,” Doyle wrote in an email to The Chronicle. “I believe that we can and that doing it through diplomacy

is certainly preferable to military action.

“I will diligently read and research the entire agreement and seek explanations to the questions I have in order to make a fully informed decision,” he said.

Democratic Senate hopeful Joe Sestak praised the deal, emphasizing its advantages over military options.

“Today’s nuclear agreement with Iran is another cautious, crucial step toward peacefully and permanently stopping the Iranians from attaining nuclear weapons,” Sestak said in a prepared statement. “Diplomacy is protracted, difficult and complex — but it must always be the first option to try over war.” A military option, he said, could be employed down the road if the Iranians breach the agreement and

pursue a nuclear weapon.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, while recognizing the work of Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry and their team of diplomats, expressed concern regarding the accord.

“Iran has continually violated the human rights of its people, funded terrorist organizations, threatened annihilation of Israel, worked to destabilize neighboring countries in the region, supported Holocaust denial and previously created a covert nuclear weapons program,” said the Federation in a news release. “Just this past week, hard-liners in Iran staged a rally in which thousands marched through the streets of Tehran chanting, ‘Down with America’ and ‘Death to Israel.’ Iran is not a country

that has earned our trust.”

The Federation said it welcomes “debate on the merits of the agreement and close scrutiny by Congress.” During the 60-day Congressional review period, the Federation “reaffirms our unwavering commitment to Israel’s right to exist and our belief that Israel should have a right to do everything necessary to defend itself in order to prevent existential threats to this existence.”

The Pittsburgh Jewish community, urged the Federation, should “remain involved in this Congressional review by expressing their opinions to their elected representatives.”

Toby Tabachnick can be reached at tobyt@thejewishchronicle.net.

For most, the jury is still out Jewish organizations and others were busy last week issuing statements on a nuclear agreement reached between Iran and six world powers (the P5+1).

Most urged a close study of the document before voting “good deal” or “bad deal” Here is a sampling:

amplifying legitimate Israeli concerns related to this deal and can work with the administration and Congress to find avenues for further U.S.-Israel assistance, cooperation and coordination in order to address these concerns.

Hadassah

ADL

We are deeply disappointed by the terms of the final deal with Iran which seem to fall far short of the president’s objective of preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear weapon state. The thrust of the deal relies substantially on Iran’s good faith and the ability of the IAEA to effectively carry out its inspection obligations.

AIPAC

During these negotiations, we outlined five critical requirements for a good deal: Inspectors must be permitted unimpeded access to suspect sites; Iran must fully explain its prior weaponization efforts; sanctions relief must commence only after Iran complies with its commitments; Iran’s nuclear weapons quest must be blocked for decades; and Iran must dismantle its nuclear infrastructure so it has no path to a nuclear weapon. We are deeply concerned based on initial reports that this proposed agreement may not meet these requirements and thereby would fail to block Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon and would further entrench and empower the leading state sponsor of terror.

AJC

The nuclear deal concluded in Vienna does not appear to address other extremely troubling aspects of Iranian behavior. AJC remains deeply concerned about Iran's ICBM program, which cannot be explained except for ominous military purposes; its repeated calls, including in recent days, for the annihilation of Israel and "death to America"; its direct involvement in terrorism and support for terrorist groups, including Hamas and Hezbollah; its hegemonic ambitions in the region, from Lebanon to Syria, from Iraq to Yemen; and its systematic repression of human rights, as amply documented in the most recent State Department report on human rights around the world.

Americans for Peace Now

We urge American Jewish organizations that have launched campaigns against this Iran deal to cease and desist.

American Jewish organizations can play an important role in identifying and

We remain acutely concerned that the proposed agreement will fail to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

Hadassah urges Congress and the White House to take all necessary actions to ensure that Iran can never acquire nuclear weapons capability.

National Jewish Democratic Council

While many have quickly jumped to conclusions on whether the announced agreement with Iran is a “good deal” or a “bad deal,” we call on all organizations and members of Congress to take partisan politics completely out of this situation. We call on the entire community to take the necessary time to read and review the details of the agreement.

The pro-Israel cause is hurt when the world’s only Jewish state is, once again, used as a partisan wedge issue.

Reform Movement Leadership

Jewish Federations of North America

President Barack Obama and his administration have repeatedly said that any deal with Iran must shut down Iran’s uranium enrichment pathway to a weapon, cut off all four of Iran’s potential pathways to a bomb and track Iran’s nuclear activities with unprecedented transparency and robust inspections throughout its nuclear supply chain. We agree. We urge Congress to give this accord its utmost scrutiny.

As the U.S. Congress, other world leaders and the American public, including the Jewish community, evaluate the details of the proposed agreement, we recognize that thoughtful people can and do hold strongly different opinions as to whether this agreement is the best obtainable result in securing our shared goals and upholding the ideal that solutions should be found through the negotiating process rather than a military confrontation.

StandWithUs

While StandWithUs welcomes international efforts to end Iran’s nuclear program through diplomacy, the details emerging about the agreement reached between the P5+1 and Iran raise serious concerns. It appears the deal will not prevent Iran’s regime from developing nuclear weapons, moderate its aggressive policies or perJ Street suade it to stop sponsoring terrorism.

J Street welcomes news of the agreement Rather it only delays its pursuit of struck by the United States and its inter- nuclear weapons and allows it to connational partners with Iran to prevent tinue promoting violence and instabilIran from developing a nuclear weapon. ity around the world. We hope that The deal is complex and multifaceted, Congress, which has 60 days to review and it will take some time to analyze all the agreement after it is submitted by its features. However, from what we the administration, will ensure that the have seen so far and what we have deal protects the United States and our learned from President Barack Obama allies and prevents nuclear proliferaand the negotiators, this agreement tion in the region. appears to accurately reflect the parameters set forth in the April 2 framework. Zionist Organization of America It also appears to meet the critical cri- The deal paves the way to provide teria around which a consensus of U.S. nuclear weapons to [Iranian leader Ali] and international nonproliferation Khamenei, the Hitler of the Mideast, experts has formed for a deal that veri- and hundreds of billions of dollars to fiably blocks each of Iran’s pathways to Iran, the Nazi Germany of the Mideast, a nuclear weapon. enabling them to fund, arm and increase It will be important for Congress to Islamic terrorism throughout the world. carefully review this agreement on its Even if they fulfill every aspect of this, it merits and at the same time be mindful allows Iran to attain nuclear status in of the likely consequences of its rejection: 10 to 15 years. a collapse of diplomacy and international sanctions, as Iran pushes forward — Compiled by Washington Jewish with a nuclear program unimpeded.

Week Jewish Voice for Peace

This opportunity for the diplomatic process to succeed in avoiding war with Iran is too important to discard over partisan politics. This is a strong deal, and we urge our elected leaders to vote in favor of the agreement when it comes before Congress.

10 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE JULY 23, 2015

Globe Will Iran deal’s sanctions relief fund terror?

BY ALINA DAIN SHARON AND SEAN SAVAGE

Beyond the recently reached nuclear deal’s implications for Iran’s nuclear program itself, much of the fear about the agreement centers on how the substantial sanctions relief it provides to the Islamic Republic might open the floodgates to increased Iranian exporting of terrorism.

Barring an override (two-thirds of both the House and Senate) of a presidential veto of the deal’s rejection by the U.S. Congress—if Congress even nixes the deal to begin with—the agreement is likely to be implemented. In exchange for Iran scaling back or transforming the operations of its nuclear plants and limiting nuclear enrichment, among other key stipulations, international financial sanctions that are currently placed on the Islamic Republic will be gradually phased out. Many critics fear that this economic boost to Iran will give the country more chances to fund terror groups like Hezbollah and Hamas, while taking other actions to further destabilize the Middle East. A January report by the Congressional Research Service noted that about $100 billion in hard currency is currently inaccessible by Iran due to the compliance of foreign banks with American-imposed sanctions. Other estimates point to a figure as high as $150 billion.

“It is clear to me that the sanctions will be thoroughly gutted,” said Jonathan Schanzer, a former terrorism finance analyst at the U.S. Department of the Treasury and vice president for research at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies think tank.

“There will be little way of financial pressure that the United States and its allies will have after the implementation of the deal,” and there is “no way to assure the public that Iran will not spend that money on terrorism or destabilizing the region,” said Schanzer.

Making matters worse, Schanzer said, “the banking system is about to relax its sanctions against Iran, so they will be allowed back onto the SWIFT financial messaging system,” referring to the international telecommunications system that enables financial institutions worldwide to send and receive information about transactions.

“The Central Bank of Iran will be delisted so the channels for moving those funds to dangerous actors will be cleared.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has already complained that Iran is not trustworthy enough to abide by the deal, has said that the lifting of sanctions will allow billions of dollars to flow toward Iran’s “terror and war machine that threatens Israel and the entire world.”

A major component of the narrative on Iran has been its providing of training, funding and weapons to terror groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, as well as to the regime of

Photo by Gilabrand/Wikipedia

JNS.org

The Alisa Flatow memorial in Gedera, Israel, commemorates a 20-year-old victim of the Kfar Darom bus terrorist attack in 1995.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. New Jersey attorney Stephen M. Flatow recalled that when he sued Iran in 1998 for the murder of his daughter, Alisa Flatow, by the Palestinian terrorist group Islamic Jihad in 1995, he was able to “introduce evidence, under seal, in other words not released to the public, that Iran was funding Islamic Jihad.”

During the Flatow trial, an expert on Iran testified that the Iranians specifically budgeted money to support terror attacks in Israel.

“The goal of our lawsuit was to make it financially unprofitable for Iran to continue to support terrorists. We believed that if you hit the Iranians in the pocketbook with large payouts and many of them, they’d get out of the terror business,” Flatow said.

Flatow eventually won a judgment of $247 million from Iran in a landmark ruling, but has been unable to actually collect the money.

“Unfortunately, our own government began to protect Iranian assets and blocked the kinds of seizures that we hoped would get Iran’s attention,” he said. “That allowed Iran to continue its funding of terrorism. Now that billions of dollars will be released to Iran [in the

nuclear deal] … the country’s coffers will be refilled and more money can be spent supporting terrorists such as Islamic Jihad and Hamas.”

In an interview with The Atlantic in May, President Barack Obama attempted to dismiss the argument that sanctions relief will immediately mean billions of extra dollars for Iranianbacked terror groups.

“The question is, if Iran has $150 billion parked outside the country, does the IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps) automatically get $150 billion?” Obama rhetorically asked, referring to Iran’s military. “Does that $150 billion then translate by orders of magnitude into their capacity to project power throughout the region?”

Hooshang Amirahmadi, a professor of planning and public policy at New Jerseybased Rutgers University and a candidate in Iran’s 2013 presidential race, made a similar point on the funding issue. He said that “most people misunderstand, or don’t want to acknowledge, that the [sanctions relief] money they are talking about is Iran’s money. This is not gift. This is Iran’s money held in [foreign] banks.”

Another misunderstanding, Amirahmadi said is the concept “that there’s a

check that tomorrow will be returned to Iran for $100 billion or $150 billion to the Iranian government, and the Iranian government will take it, put in a bank account and start writing checks” to terror groups. In reality, he said, the money will be gradually released and allocated toward a budget.

“Most likely, the military will get most of [this money]. In the Iranian budget as we speak, about 34 percent of it goes to the Revolutionary Guards and others in the military. And then the rest will go to social programs, economic programs, and so on. … As we speak, [Iranian] public employees have not been paid for a long time, so the Iranian government owes the people a lot of money,” Amirahmadi said.

Yet “given the Iranian system, a lot of this money … will end up in the pockets of people who are corrupt, who are already millionaires,” he said.

Amirahmadi acknowledged that Iran will probably give some of these funds to entities it considers “friends” in the region, like Hezbollah or Assad, whose civil war-ridden country just received a $1 billion credit line from the Islamic Republic. “There’s no question about it,” he said, though cautioning that the funds are likely to amount to “a few billions, not a hundred billion.”

Amirahmadi also questioned some of the criticism leveled against the Iranian government, which in his view, “like any other regime, wants to survive, and it has friends that it wants to survive and who want to help Iran survive, and it has also enemies that are after it.

“So Iran, like any other regime, is going to put some of this money in its defense operations, and the operations of its friends in the region,” he said.

“That is expected and it should be understood. … The fact is, other countries are doing exactly the same thing like Saudi Arabia, other Arab nations and non-Arab nations. … From an Iranian perspective that is a legitimate way of spending their money. From a Western perspective it is not.”

Obama, meanwhile, has claimed that the Iranian people expect President Hassan Rouhani and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to use the sanctions relief to improve the country’s economy. The American president added that Iran has continued to provide support for Hezbollah and the Shi’a Houthi rebels in Yemen “despite sanctions.”

Nevertheless, Schanzer argues that even if only 10 percent of the sanctions relief is used by Iran for bankrolling terror, that is still billions of dollars, which is a staggering sum and a very good reason why Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, Syrian President Bashar alAssad and the Houthis in Yemen are all salivating over this deal.

“One might argue that the Iranian people will be better off, but it is undeniable that Iran’s terror proxies will be better off as well,” Schanzer said.

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE JULY 23, 2015 — 11

GLOBE

Iran addressed in Obama’s speech to VFW

BY TOBY TABACHNICK Senior Staff Writer

President Barack Obama received a warm welcome from the Veterans of Foreign Wars and Ladies Auxiliary members who convened at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center Tuesday on day 4 of their 116th annual convention.

During his 40-minute speech, Obama defended the nuclear accord with Iran, discussed the continued need for improved health services for veterans in light of last year’s Veteran’s Affairs scandal in which at least 18 veterans died while on a waiting list to be seen at a VA hospital in Phoenix and mentioned last week’s murder of five service members in Chattanooga, Tenn., by a lone gunman.

While making his push for support of the Iran deal, reached just one week ago, Obama criticized those judging the deal without knowledge of the facts.

“There is some shaky information out there,” he said, adding that he wanted to set the record straight.

As a result of the deal, he said, “Iran is prohibited from pursuing a nuclear bomb permanently.”

Among the accord’s provisions that will ensure this end, Obama said, are “unprecedented access to Iran’s nuclear facilities” and the ability to snap back sanctions “if Iran cheats.”

Significantly, the president said, because of the Iran nuclear deal, a future American president will be in a strong position to act if Iran attempts to obtain nuclear weapons despite the agreement.

Obama criticized those who, “in the debate over this deal, echo some of the

same mindsets and policies that failed in the past.”

“These are the same folks who were quick to go to war in Iraq, and we know the consequence of that choice,” he said.

The “more responsible way” to protect America’s national security, the president said, is to unite the international community in meeting the threat of a nuclear Iran. He said the deal was evidence of “strong diplomacy.”

Such diplomacy is preferable to “rushing into another conflict,” he said, and “it must be a last resort to send our sons and daughters into harm’s way.”

Obama said that not all sanctions against Iran would be lifted pursuant to the accord, and that several would remain in place, including those that address the regime’s human rights violations.

While the president has been criticized for not negotiating the release of several Americans jailed in Iran as part of the deal, he said his administration “would not relent until we bring home our Americans who are unjustly detained.”

He did not reveal, however, any specific plan to achieve their release.

Obama also failed to address other concerns voiced by opponents of the agreement, such as the potential results of pumping some $150 billion back into a country that is a known funder of terrorist organizations, or the threat to Israel’s security.

The president emphasized the importance of working together with our global allies to prevent terror and told the audience of veterans that he would “not hesitate to use force to protect our nation, including against terrorism.”

VFW National Commander John W. Stroud introduces President Barack Obama at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.

Photo by Toby Tabachnick

Listing the al-Qaeda leaders who have been killed on his watch, he noted the strong action of the United States “when threats emerge.” Obama also addressed the threat of ISIL, but said he did not believe that the United States should be engaged in another ground war in the Middle East to fight that terrorist group.

Instead, he said, he is confident that ISIL can be defeated through airstrikes.

“We will degrade and ultimately destroy this barbaric terrorist organization,” Obama said of ISIL. While noting the threat of domestic lone wolf terrorists, Obama said, “we have to be vigilant in protecting our homeland.”

“We honor our five service members killed in Tennessee,” he said.

Noting that America has “the greatest military in human history,” the president connected its success to a strong

economy, touting the surge of the stock market during his administration, “record levels” of exports, the Affordable Care Act and the increase in domestic production of energy as the “foundation of national security.”

The president last spoke before the VFW at its national conventions in 2009 and 2012. He also addressed the VFW as a candidate in 2007 and 2008.

Convention attendee Archie Elam, a veteran of Operation Desert Storm and a West Point graduate, recognized the potential benefits of trying diplomacy with Iran before using military force.

While he doesn’t trust the leadership of Iran, “that doesn’t mean you don’t engage with them,” he said.

Toby Tabachnick can be reached at tobyt@thejewishchronicle.net.

Analysis

In Israel’s domestic politics, Iran deal is a gift for Netanyahu

BY B EN SALES JTA

Maybe Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be thanking the Obama administration for the Iran deal.

Netanyahu called Tuesday’s agreement on Iran’s nuclear program a “stunning historic mistake.” He says it’s going to endanger the Middle East.

But within Israel, the deal looks to be a political godsend for the prime minister.

A few days ago, Netanyahu’s narrow, two-seat majority in Knesset faced trouble. Last week, he warned his coalition partners that he would have to renege on budgetary promises he made when they formed the government in May. In response, a coalition lawmaker threatened to force another election — just four months after Israelis last went to the polls.

Now, the Iran deal appears to have given Netanyahu a new mandate to lead. Isaac Herzog, leader of the Knesset opposition and chairman of the center-

left Zionist Union party, reportedly may join Netanyahu’s coalition, forming a unity government to fight the agreement and counter any subsequent Iranian threat. With Zionist Union’s 24 Knesset seats, the narrow, 61-member coalition would become a broad, 85seat government.

Herzog and Netanyahu met Tuesday night to discuss the deal, and according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office, Herzog said he “would do his utmost on behalf of the security of the State of Israel in the new situation that has been created.”

This isn’t the first time opposing parties have come together in the name of national security. Just ahead of the Six Day War in 1967, Prime Minister Levi Eshkol formed a national unity government with his right-wing rivals to present a united front against Israel’s enemies.

The next day, Israel went to war; this time, analysts say, Israel could be hardpressed to take military action and will lobby the U.S. Congress to reject a deal before contemplating a strike.

Some of Netanyahu’s rivals have blamed Netanyahu for failing to block the deal or improve its terms. Yair Lapid, head of the opposition centrist Yesh Atid party, called for the prime minister’s resignation. He alluded to another military campaign, comparing Netanyahu to Prime Minister Golda Meir Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu waves after the Yom Kippur war, as he leaves the White House in October 2014. A which Israelis largely view as a large majority of Israelis back the prime minister on debacle. the Iran issue.

Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images But Israelis look to be siding with Netanyahu on this one. A poll last Thursday by Israeli Channel 10 campaign against the agreement, with found that 69 percent of Israelis oppose 37 percent placing him at fault and 34 the Iran deal, while 74 percent believe it percent supporting him. But the vast won’t stop Iran from getting the bomb. majority of Israelis buy Netanyahu’s Only 10 percent of Israelis support the main argument: that this is a bad deal deal. Sixty percent say Israel should that will fail in its goal. And if he suclobby Congress against the deal, while ceeds in attracting Herzog and 33 percent favor military action to padding his coalition, he won’t need to prevent an Iranian nuclear weapon — worry about his approval ratings for a while, anyway. with 40 percent opposing a strike.

The country is split on whether Ben Sales is JTA’s Israel correspondent.

Netanyahu erred or acted wisely in his

12 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE JULY 23, 2015

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Opinion End run around Congress On July 13, the day before the nuclear agreement between Iran and six world powers was reached, the Obama administration began circulating a resolution at the U.N. Security Council calling for the chamber’s approval of the deal. That vote took place Monday, just a day after the agreement was officially delivered to Congress, with the council backing the agreement on the heels of the European Union giving its assent and Germany moving to reopen trade with Iran.

But the vote at the United Nations is almost irrelevant to the outrage expressed by some members of Congress and the news media over the submission of the resolution itself. They rightly point out that the administration had already agreed that Congress would have 60 days to review the Iran agreement and give it an up or down vote. That would

be how our country would decide whether to go forward with the deal. But by going to the United Nations first and offering a resolution that would bind the United States and other members, the White House effectively pre-empted Congress and rendered any decision legislators make on the issue moot.

Republicans and some Democrats in Congress asked President Barack Obama to delay the U.N. vote until Congress could weigh in. That request was consistent with the president’s own public defense of the Iran deal during a widereaching news conference shortly after its announcement, when Obama said he welcomed congressional review. Sens.

Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.), respectively the chairman and the ranking member of the influential Foreign Relations Committee, were therefore justified in objecting to the

White House’s U.N. maneuver. Corker went so far as to call the U.N. move an “affront to the American people.”

But now, the U.N. resolution is legally binding on member states. Congress, which has placed economic sanctions on Iran, could cause the United States to be in noncompliance if it votes to maintain those sanctions.

The administration has argued that the U.N. vote in no way affects the congressional review period or the right of Congress to express its views on the Iran deal. Some have said that the Security Council resolution doesn’t take effect for 90 days, giving Congress plenty of time to maneuver. But that’s silly. The resolution is now international law. The fact is that the administration was disingenuous or worse for agreeing to the congressional review process only to undercut it by pushing a U.N. vote.

Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have said repeatedly that one of the benefits of the Iran deal is the administration’s ability to use its newfound “relationship” with Iran to address issues relating to that country’s destabilizing support of the Assad regime in Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas and others. And the president, who has repeatedly violated his own red lines in pushing the negotiations, has said he will not let up on Iran.

Can he be trusted to meet his commitments?

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A Jew is a Jew

I enjoyed The Chronicle’s cover story on the Supreme Court’s gay marriage decision very much (“Jewish advocates react as SCOTUS makes gay marriage law of the land,” July 2). The organization I feel does best in inclusion is Chabad. There is a seat in every Chabad House for any Jew whether he or she is Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, unaffiliated or anything in between. Whether he or she is white, black, Asian or mixed racial. Whether he or she is gay, straight, bi or transgender. A Jew is a Jew. Brian Miller

Squirrel Hill

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE JULY 23, 2015 — 13

OPINION

Iran agreement is a good deal for America GUEST COLUMNISTS

Dennis Jett Bradley Harris During the George W. Bush administration, we were told that the United States had to attack Iraq to stop Saddam Hussein from acquiring nuclear weapons. In then-Secretary of State Colin Powell’s infamous speech on Feb. 5, 2003 at the United Nations, he asserted that Saddam was “determined to get his hands on a nuclear bomb.” The following month, Bush ordered the invasion with no thought given to the consequences or alternative strategies. As a result, more than 4,400 American service members were killed, tens of thousands were wounded and, by one estimate, more than 1 million Iraqis died. And what do we have to show for those costs and the trillions of dollars spent on the invasion? The self-described Islamic State is terrorizing a large portion of the region, the Iraqi government is near collapse, and millions of Iraqis have been displaced by recent fighting. Bush’s war is without doubt the most costly foreign policy blunder in American history.

Now, those who were the cheerleaders for invading Iraq are back clamoring for a way to inflict an even larger disaster on our country. This time, they want to make it impossible for diplomacy to succeed in preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. Some, like Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), even argue bombing Iran would be the best outcome and only take a few days. The opponents of diplomacy claim this historic agreement is a “bad deal.”

However, they offer no realistic alternative and make another disastrous war in the Middle East all but inevitable.

Why is the Iran agreement a good deal?

The deal blocks Iran from acquiring a nuclear bomb. Ronald Reagan, paraphrasing a Russian aphorism, once famously said about a weapons agreement with the Soviet Union: “Trust but verify.” This agreement provides the means to verify and does not rely on trust. It has been endorsed by a wide range of experts from across the partisan divide, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Jim Walsh to Stanford University’s Kori Schake, who served as a foreign policy advisor to two Republican presidential campaigns. From a technical standpoint, the agreement stops Iran’s nuclear program from progressing

toward a bomb. And if it does cheat, the deal ensures we will know. In short, the agreement ensures that Iran will not acquire a nuclear weapon.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has imprudently called for Congress to reject the current agreement and return to the negotiating table at a later date. This approach would be bound to fail. The United States has pushed hard with our international partners and come to an agreement.

Rejecting the deal would be turning our back on the world and would imperil future diplomatic efforts with our British, French and German allies.

War with Iran would be, in the words of former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, “a catastrophe.” It would rally the Iranian people around their leaders and give their nuclear program unprecedented support. Military action against Iran would be a moral abomination threatening the lives of civilians in Israel, Iran and throughout the region. It would pour fuel on the flames of an already explosive Middle East.

Moreover, even proponents would have to concede that while the deal installs decades of restrictions, a bombing campaign would only set back Iran’s program for two or three years. The deal

is the best way to stop Iran from advancing its nuclear weapons program.

That is why it’s no surprise that a majority of Jewish Americans supported the then-developing deal with Iran in a J Street poll. They recognize that rejecting this deal will lead to a breakdown of the unity on sanctions and make either a nuclear-armed Iran or another war inevitable. And they know Israel’s security is best served by the agreement that has been reached rather than the unrealistic and unattainable alternatives the opponents of diplomacy propose.

President Barack Obama has led the world to a historic agreement. Through his vote, Sen. Robert Casey (D-Pa.) will play a critical role in approving or disapproving it. The Jewish community in Pennsylvania should speak out in support of this good deal with Iran.

Dennis Jett, former U.S. ambassador to Peru and Mozambique, is a professor of international affairs at Pennsylvania State University. He is a member of Congregation Beth Shalom in Pittsburgh.

Bradley Harris is the program assistant for nuclear disarmament at the Friends Committee on National Legislation. He is a member of Har Zion Temple in Penn Valley.

The four major problems with the Iran deal GUEST COLUMNIST

Ron Dermer Israel has long been concerned that the P5+1 powers would negotiate a bad deal with Iran. But the deal announced last week in Vienna is breathtaking in its concessions to an Iranian regime that is the foremost sponsor of terror in the world, is on a march of conquest in the Middle East, is responsible for the murder and maiming of thousands of U.S. soldiers, and vows and works to annihilate the one and only Jewish state.

There are four major problems with this deal. First, it leaves Iran with a vast nuclear infrastructure. This is not the hoped for “dismantle for dismantle” deal, in which the sanctions regime would be dismantled in exchange for the dismantling of Iran’s nuclear weapons making capability. Rather, this deal leaves Iran’s nuclear capabilities essentially intact (the conversion of the Arak heavy-water facility being the notable exception). In fact, this deal allows Iran to improve those capabilities by conducting research and development on advanced centrifuges and building intercontinental ballistic missiles, whose sole purpose is to carry nuclear warheads.

To keep Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions in check over the next decade, the P5+1 countries — the five U.N. Security Council members plus Germany — are relying on intelligence and inspectors.

Here, the historical record does not bode well. The United States and Israel have two of the finest intelligence agencies in

the world. But it was years before either knew that Iran had secret facilities at Natanz and Fordow.

As for inspections, Iran has been deceiving the International Atomic Energy Agency for years and has consistently refused to come clean about the possible military dimensions of its nuclear program — a commitment that Iran has once again been permitted to dodge before signing this agreement.

Given this history of deception, it is

The deal transfers to the Iranian regime’s coffers $150 billion that is now frozen in foreign bank accounts. Iran has a $300 billion to $400 billion economy. A $150 billion cash bonanza for the regime is the equivalent of $8 trillion flowing into the U.S. treasury. particularly disturbing that the promised “anytime, anywhere” inspections regime has degenerated into what has been aptly described as “sometime, somewhere” inspections.

The second problem with this deal is that the restrictions being placed on Iran’s nuclear program are only temporary, with the most important restrictions expiring in 10 years.

There is no linkage whatsoever between the removal of these restrictions and Iran’s behavior. In 10 years, Iran could be even more aggressive toward its neighbors, sponsor even more terrorism around the globe and work even harder to destroy Israel, and the restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program would still be automatically removed.

A much more dangerous Iran would then legally be allowed to build a massive uranium enrichment program that would place it just weeks away from having the fissile material for an entire nuclear arsenal. As President Barack Obama himself has admitted, the breakout time would then be “almost down to zero.”

That is why this deal does not block Iran’s path to a nuclear bomb. It paves it. By agreeing to temporary restrictions on its nuclear program today, Iran has cleared its path to many nuclear bombs tomorrow. Iran won’t have to sneak into or break into the nuclear club. Under this deal, it could simply decide to walk in.

That leads to the third problem with the deal. Because states throughout our region know that the deal paves Iran’s path to the bomb, a number of them will race to get nuclear weapons of their own. The most dangerous region on earth would get infinitely more dangerous. Nuclear terrorism and nuclear war would become far more likely. In fact, if someone wanted to eviscerate the global nuclear nonproliferation regime, this deal is definitely a great place to start.

Finally, the deal transfers to the Iranian regime’s coffers $150 billion that is now frozen in foreign bank accounts.

Iran has a $300 billion to $400 billion

economy. A $150 billion cash bonanza for the regime is the equivalent of $8 trillion flowing into the U.S. treasury.

Those funds are unlikely to be spent on new cancer research centers in Tehran or on funding a GI bill for returning members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Instead, tens of billions are likely to flow to the Shiite militias in Iraq, the Assad regime in Syria, the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Palestinian terror groups in Gaza and other Iranian terror proxies in the region.

Billions more will go to strengthening Iran’s global terror network, which it has used to perpetrate terror attacks on five continents in more than 30 cities, from Buenos Aires to Burgas, Bulgaria, to Bangkok.

Rather than force Iran to face the hard choice of guns or butter, this deal will enable it to have more dangerous guns, more lethal rockets, more sophisticated drones and more destructive cyber capabilities. Removing the arms embargo on Iran magnifies this problem by orders of magnitude.

Any one of these problems would be sufficient to make this a bad deal. But all four make this deal a disaster of historic proportions.

Israel has the most to gain if the Iranian nuclear issue is peacefully resolved. But this deal does not resolve the issue. It makes things much worse, increasing the chances of conventional war with Iran and its terror proxies today and dramatically increasing the chances of a nuclear-armed Iran and a nuclearized Middle East tomorrow.

Ron Dermer is Israel’s ambassador to the United States.

14 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE JULY 23, 2015

TORAH What Is Your Will?

BY RABBI PAUL TUCHMAN

Parashat Devarim Deuteronomy 1:13:22; Isaiah 1:1-27

Have you made your will? Perhaps you have made the will in which you dispose of your financial and physical estate.

But have you made your ethical will?

Perhaps you have, or maybe you aren’t yet familiar with the idea. Let’s consider the Book of Deuteronomy as an example.

“These are the words/d’avarim that Moses addressed to all Israel on the other side of the Jordan.” So begins Sefer D’varim, the Book of Deuteronomy. This book is presented as a series of addresses

by Moses to the Israelites shortly before his death.

But “Deuteronomy” is a Greek word, roughly translated as “second law.”

That’s because much of it is a recapitulation of material we have read in the first four books of the Torah. It includes the history of the Israelites and many of the laws and regulations that we have already studied.

Deuteronomy is more than that, however. It includes Moses’ exhortations to our people. “This is how I hope you will behave,” he tells us. Follow God’s mitzvot, remember who you are and how you came to be this way, preserve and defend our heritage and our rituals, keep far away from sin.

An ethical will is a document left for one’s children and grandchildren. The writer sums up his/her experiences and the lessons learned, which the writer hopes will govern his descendants’

behavior. The assumption is that one’s most cherished possessions are not material goods, but an ethical — and sacred — way of life. You may have read the most famous ethical will of our time, Carnegie Mellon University Professor Randy Pausch’s “Last Lecture.”

Ethical wills were more common among us Jews during the Middle Ages, but there are many modern and contemporary examples, too. The comedian Sam Levenson wrote a notable ethical will. One of the most unusual, and best, came from Glueckel of Hameln in the 1690s. She not only wrote an ethical will, but a memoir of her very interesting life. Her work is unusual because there were very few Jewish women in her era who wrote much of anything.

The next Jewish month is Elul, traditionally the season of preparation for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

This is a time for taking stock of one’s life and coming to understand how to be a better person and a better Jew. So I suggest that contemplating your ethical will would be a good exercise in the weeks ahead. What would you put into it?

You might include an account of your achievements and also your mistakes.

You might pass along your wisdom and rules to guide behavior. You might express your hopes for the next generations of your family and even your visions for the future of our Jewish people and the human community.

Let Moses’ example guide us in the weeks ahead, as we think seriously about our lives and the legacy that we are creating for those who come after us.

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

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OBITUARIES BARBROW: On Tuesday, July 14, 2015, Stanley Jay Barbrow; Devoted husband of Jacqueline. Adoring daddy of David and Amy and stepdaughter Aleyne.

Loving and beloved grandpa of eight grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. Survived by his sister Elinor Cohen. Predeceased by his sister Jane Broff. Also survived by seven nieces and nephews. May his memory be for a blessing. Graveside services and interment were held at Homewood Cemetery.

Contributions may be made to your favorite children’s charity. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. schugar.com.

GOLBITZ: Sherman Jay Golbitz, November 20, 1943 to July 15, 2015.

Sherman was born in Pittsburgh. Beloved husband, father and grandfather.

Survived by wife Darlene; children Luann and Bill Golbitz, Leslie and Brian Eades and David Golbitz; grandchildren Charlize and Logan Golbitz, Carter and Emma Eades; and many loving relatives and friends. Proceeded in death by parents William and Cecily Golbitz and sister Beth Adams. Memorial service July 20, 2015, at 4 p.m., Beth El Synagogue, 14506 California St., Omaha, NE. Memorials to JDRF Nebraska or Rose Blumkin Jewish Home.

SCHWARTZMAN: Joan L. Schwartzman, age 85, of Pittsburgh, on July 17, 2015.

Joan was surrounded by her family and died peacefully after a full and satisfying life. Daughter of the late Jean (Hirsohn)

and Irving Lipking, Joan was the beloved wife of the late Irving Schwartzman; cherished sister of Lawrence and the late Joanna Lipking of Evanston, Ill.; adored mother of Diane Samuels (David Sufrin), Evelyn Whitehill and Mimi (Steve) Gillis; loving “Gram” to Marc (Naomi) Samuels, Abby Samuels, Rachel Samuels, Madeline Whitehill, Jack Whitehill and Jacob Gillis; and great-grandmother to Sydney Samuels. Joan touched the lives of all she met with her interest in and generosity to others, her optimism and independence, and her lifelong interest in learning and trying new things. She will be greatly missed by her family and her many close friends. Joan was born in New York City (Bronx) and lived in Cleveland as well as Oil City and New Castle, Pa. After completing college in her 50s and participating in a number of national emergency response teams, Joan was appointed Lawrence County (Pa.) Emergency Management Coordinator. She moved to Pittsburgh in 2002 and became involved in a number of volunteer organizations, including as president of the Friends of the Squirrel Hill Library and in various leadership positions with NA’AMAT and Hadassah. She was a regular student of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, a member of Congregation Beth Shalom and an avid theater and symphony attendee.

Joan was also a master bread maker and clothing designer and seamstress. Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. Interment private. Donations may be made to The Friends of the Squirrel Hill Library. schugar.com.

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16 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE JULY 23, 2015

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18 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE JULY 23, 2015

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THE JEWISH CHRONICLE JULY 23, 2015 — 19

Community Jew’colades U.S. News and World Report has named the Charles M. Morris Nursing and Rehabilitation Center of the Jewish Association on Aging as one of the “Best Nursing Homes in Pennsylvania” for 2015.

Dr. David H. Perlmutter has been named executive vice chancellor for medical affairs and dean of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Perlmutter, 63, holds the Vira I. Heinz endowed chair of the department of pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and serves as physician-in-chief and scientific director of Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC. He will begin his new duties at the Washington University School of Medicine on Dec. 1.

A good time for all!

Jewish Community Center Day Camps have provided fun, friendship and learning for children ages 2-16 for three generations.

The James and Rachel Levinson Day Camp’s activities include a pool, garden and climbing wall.

JCC campers enjoy fun times at the pool, in the garden, climbing the rock wall and hiking.

Photos by David Chudnow

Song and dance This year’s Performing Arts Camp’s production was “Bye Bye Birdie,” and performances were held last week.

The cast performs a number with telephones.

Mitchell Dubin, assistant music director, and Jacob Stuligross, who played Conrad Birdie, warm up at the piano.

Photos provided by the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh

20 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE JULY 23, 2015

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4

29 lb.

Price effective Thursday, July 23 through Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Available at

and