Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle 1-1-21

January 1, 2021 | 17 Tevet 5781

Candlelighting 4:47 p.m. | Havdalah 5:50 p.m. | Vol. 64, No. 1 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

Rabbis encourage community to get vaccinated against COVID-19

NOTEWORTHY LOCAL Small town shul perseveres

Checking in with Beth Israel

E

Yet some Orthodox health professionals and communal leaders do worry that a vocal minority of their community won’t heed their guidance. They point to skepticism regarding the vaccine in the overall population because of anti-vaccine sentiments, as well as nervousness with the speed at which the vaccines were developed and the politicization of the virus.

They also point to the pernicious effects of misinformation in an era when communication and newsgathering takes place on messaging networks like WhatsApp. And they fear that mistaken notions that Chasidim in both Brooklyn and the haredi town of Bnei Brak in Israel have achieved herd immunity will make people feel that a vaccine is unnecessary.

“The imperative of Jewish law,” said Rabbi Daniel Yolkut of Poale Zedeck, a modern Orthodox congregation in Squirrel Hill,

li Green, a sophomore at Mt. Lebanon High School, understands why he must learn from home right now, but he also recognizes there would be advantages to being in school with his friends and teachers.

“I feel like I would benefit from going into the building,” he said, “especially with distractions at home.”

Green shares a sense of anxiety, though, about rejoining physical classes in person because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’m nervous,” he said. “Teachers are nervous.

My peers are nervous about the situation and I feel it would be hard. I feel like it would be hard to socially distance in a big high school.”

Mt. Lebanon High School began the school year on a purely remote model, then in October, moved to a hybrid model with in-person instruction two days a week.

Several weeks ago, when COVID-19 cases began to skyrocket in Allegheny County, the district resumed solely remote learning.

Students are now scheduled to return to the hybrid model later this month.

Green, like many other Pittsburgh-area Jewish students, is coping with the challenges of the 2020-’21 school year. Students not only have to worry about grades, parental expectations and getting into college, but they also are dealing with shifting between in-person and virtual learning, canceled activities, the inability to see friends closer than six feet apart, face masks and proper hand washing.

“It’s kind of annoying,” said seventhgrader Akiva Sunshine.

Because of the pandemic, Sunshine, a student at Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh, is currently learning at home using Google

Please see Vaccines, page 14

Please see School, page 14

LOCAL Bringing light to darkness

Inspiration from Natan Sharansky Page 3

NATIONAL  Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau receives a COVID-19 vaccine at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov), Dec. 20, 2020.

Photo by Miriam Alster/Flash90 via JTA

By David Rullo | Staff Writer and Ben Sales | JTA

F A boost in attendance for West Virginia congregations Page 8

‘Like a roller coaster’: Jewish students grapple with changes to school routines

By David Rullo | Staff Writer

Page 2

A pandemic silver lining

$1.50

or Rabbi Yisroel Rosenfeld, the question of whether to get vaccinated against COVID-19 has a simple answer.

“I, and many other rabbis, feel very strongly that it’s something that as soon as we have the opportunity — the fortunate opportunity, I would even say the miraculous opportunity — to benefit from it, let’s go for it and get rid of this horrible issue that has been going on for quite a while, unfortunately, with so many people dying,” said Rosenfeld, head shaliach of Western Pennsylvania and the rabbi of the Lubavitch Center of Pittsburgh.

Virtually all Orthodox leaders are encouraging their communities to trust the medical consensus and take the vaccine when it becomes available, and in Israel, many are already publicly sharing their own vaccinations.

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Headlines Washington PA’s Beth Israel perseveres despite COVID-19, changing demographics

p Longtime member Deborah Sekel’s daughter Susan was married at Beth Israel.

Photos provided by Marilyn Posner

— LOCAL —

By David Rullo | Staff Writer

T

hirty miles southwest of Pittsburgh, about 35 families still call Beth Israel Congregation their Jewish home.

Founded nearly 130 years ago, the Conservative congregation is the sole synagogue in all of Washington and Greene counties.

When Marilyn Posner joined the congregation with her husband David and two kids in 1972, there were 56 children enrolled in the shul’s religious school and almost 100 families were members.

Like many suburban congregations, Beth Israel has seen its membership shrink and watched as other once thriving congregations closed their doors due to shifting demographic trends.

Despite its struggles, Beth Israel has survived. It had to close its Sunday school several years ago and, until recently, leased space to the Living Stone Community Church. After five years, the church, facing its own membership crisis, was unable to continue to rent space at the synagogue and eventually merged with another church.

“Mainstream faiths have been dwindling in their membership,” said Judge Gary Gilman, Beth Israel’s president. “Our congregation is not immune to that.”

Several years ago, Beth Israel began consolidating its Shabbat services, combining its Friday and Saturday services into one service on Friday night. Still, there were times the congregation struggled to get a minyan, acknowledged Gilman, a judge for Washington County Commons Pleas Court.

Since being forced to move its services online because of the COVID-19 pandemic,

p Beth Israel has been in its current location, 265 North Ave. in Washington, Pennsylvania, since 1955.

though, the congregation has seen an increase in weekly attendees.

“We’re getting more minyans than if we were having live services,” Gilman said. “There are people attending I haven’t seen in quite a while. We’re also having relatives who don’t live near us Zoom in. Strangely, the pandemic has provided us with a bit of a boost.”

While unable to say for certain why more people have decided to stream Beth Israel’s services, Gilman cited convenience as one possibility.

“You don’t have to drive to and from the synagogue,” he said. “You can log on at the last minute, from your home, office or wherever you are.”

Cecil resident Deborah Sekel agreed with Gilman: “At least half of us live far away. So, it’s kind of a relief that I don’t have to drive half an hour each way to services.”

Sekel has been a member of Beth Israel for

close to 40 years. She said the congregation was a warm and welcoming place when she first joined, and that hasn’t changed.

“The thing that brought me in was their small-family approach,” Sekel said. “We felt really important. If I would have walked into a big synagogue with my two kids, they would have welcomed us, but when I walked into Beth Israel they were like, ‘We need you to sit on our board and teach Sunday school. We need to have you.’ I was there six months and I was on the board and teaching Sunday school.”

Posner, a past president, had a similar experience.

“It’s always been a very warm place,” Posner said. “The people are intelligent and active. They welcomed us and our children very warmly.”

Please see Beth Israel, page 20

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Headlines Natan Sharansky offers ‘light and hope’ at year’s end — LOCAL —

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

T

sipy Gur was tired of the darkness of 2020 so she asked Natan Sharansky to spread some light. With the year coming to an end, and having already facilitated nearly 160 Zoom programs since March, Gur, founder and executive director of Classrooms Without Borders, knew that Sharansky, a refusenik whose work four decades ago netted freedoms for Soviet

Jewry, could provide a final year-end hurrah.

Sharanksy’s story gives people hope, said Gur, so reading his book, viewing his movie and then virtually congregating for a Chanukah program was a fitting end to the season.

On Dec. 17, hours before the final night of Chanukah began, CWB, in partnership with Rodef Shalom Congregation and the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, welcomed Sharansky for a conversation about his life, its portrayal on film and his impressions of living in Israel today.

Over the course of 75 minutes, Sharansky

 Natan Sharansky says he remains optimistic about Israel 34 years after his arrival in the Jewish state.

Screenshots by Adam Reinherz

shared memories of imprisonment, insights gleaned from public service and his hopes for the future, prompted by questions from CWB representatives Avi Ben-Hur and Joshua Andy.

After Ben-Hur asked Sharansky about a scene in “From Slavery to Freedom,” a 2019 documentary in which Sharansky returned to his former Russian prison — where Sharansky spent nearly eight years after being convicted of high treason — Sharansky noted the irony.

“I looked at the cells and they were so small,” Sharansky said. “And then I

remembered, when I really actually lived there, it was like the whole world. There were so many things that happened.”

Whether it was strategizing how to pass messages between prisoners, or deliver effective responses to members of the KGB, those cells were rife with “energy and struggle,” he said.

Yet, when he returned to those spaces decades later, they appeared different.

“Suddenly, it seems so small, and you can’t imagine how in this small room there were Please see Sharansky, page 15

 Tsipy Gur and Classrooms Without Borders worked with Rodef Shalom Congregation and the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage to welcome Sharansky.

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Headlines Calabrian Chanukah celebration saved by Italian priest

p Rabbi Barbara Aiello lights the Chanukah menorah.

— LOCAL —

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

T

hanks to a Calabrian parish and its leader, the Chanukah lights shined a bit brighter last week for a southern Italian congregation led by a former Pittsburgher.

Photos by Domenico Pulice, Italy

With the eight-day holiday nearing its end, Sinagoga Ner Tamid del Sud — the first synagogue to openly function in Calabria, Italy, since the Inquisition — faced a dilemma. For years, the “Eternal Light of the South� had held an indoor menorah lighting ceremony. When the Calabrian-based space was deemed too small this year due to COVID-19 social distancing requirements, the congregation had to pivot.

p Rabbi Barbara Aiello, left, and Don Antonio Costantino during the 2020 Chanukah celebration

There were thoughts of holding the annual event outdoors, but the near-wintery weather in mountainous Calabria can be cold, windy and rainy, said Rabbi Barbara Aiello, a former Pittsburgher who returned to her patriarchal homeland and became Italy’s first, and only, modern liberal female rabbi.

Sinagoga Ner Tamid primarily serves b’nei anusim — people whose ancestors were forced into conversion centuries ago

and who have recently discovered their Jewish roots. Chanukah, with its message of upholding tradition despite outside influences, is an especially important holiday for this population, said Aiello.

With possibilities appearing bleak, Don Antonio Costantino, local parish priest of Chiesa di Santa Maria del Perpetua Soccorso, Please see Chanukah , page 15

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Headlines Rabbi Yehuda Herzl Henkin, pioneer of women’s leadership in Orthodoxy, dies — WORLD —

By Shira Hanau | JTA

R

abbi Yehuda Herzl Henkin, a pioneer in the world of Orthodox Jewish feminism who experienced personal tragedy later in life, died recently in Israel.

Henkin and his wife, Rabbanit Chana Henkin, founded a program for women to study the laws of family purity and answer Jewish legal questions on the subject — breaking new ground for women’s leadership roles in Orthodox communities. In 2018, Henkin was the recipient of the Katz Prize in recognition of his work on women’s place in Orthodoxy as well as his numerous published works of Jewish legal opinions.

In 2015, the Henkins’ eldest son and daughter-in-law, Eitam and Naama Henkin, were killed in a terrorist attack in front of their four children. Eitam Henkin had been a scholar in his own right and a close student of his father.

Yehuda Herzl Henkin was born in the United States in 1945 and attended the Yeshivah of Flatbush, an Orthodox school in Brooklyn, before studying with his grandfather, Rabbi Yosef Eliyahu Henkin, one of the most important Jewish legal authorities in New York City for much of the 20th century.

Henkin studied with his grandfather for five years and received semicha, rabbinic ordination, from him.

Along with his wife, also a teacher of Torah, Henkin moved to Israel in 1972 and settled in the community of Beit Shean in the north. It was there that Chana Henkin became involved in educating women in the local communities about the laws of “taharat hamishpacha,” family purity.

The couple later moved to Jerusalem, where Chana Henkin founded Nishmat, a seminary for women to study Torah, in 1990.

In 2000, the Henkins and Rabbi Yaakov Warhaftig founded a program for women to become experts in questions of family purity.

Graduates of the program would be

equipped to answer questions related to taharat hamishpacha that can be uncomfortable for women to address to male rabbis.

While the graduates could answer many questions posed by women, they would not be ordained as rabbis, and any questions that required “psak,” a decision over an area of the law that is unclear, would be addressed to leading Orthodox rabbis.

Though some criticized the program for pushing too far in creating a new role and title for women as experts in Jewish law, Rabbi Henkin’s authority and reputation lent added legitimacy to the endeavor, allowing the program’s graduates to become widely respected in many parts of the Orthodox community. Today there are 146 graduates, known as “yoatzot halacha,” working around the world.

“The support he gave and putting his reputation behind yoatzot halacha, together with his wife, that has made an enormous contribution to the growing acceptability of the role of women in matters of halacha,” said Rabbi Saul Berman, a professor of Jewish studies at Yeshiva University and a professor at the Columbia University School of Law. But even as the yoatzot halacha program pushed the boundaries of Orthodox roles for women’s leadership, it did not go so far as other Orthodox advocates for women’s leadership roles. In 2010, Rabbi Avi Weiss of New York ordained a woman as a rabbi and subsequently founded Yeshivat Maharat, which would ordain women, leading to accusations that he and his students were no longer Orthodox.

“Their whole posture is incremental change,” Adam Ferziger, a professor of Jewish history and contemporary Jewry at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, said of the Henkins.

“They didn’t want head-on collisions, they were looking to stretch things, give them an halachic basis, but always in a way that wasn’t looking to push the more conservative people into a corner.”

Berman described that gradual approach

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Please see Henkin, page 20

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p Rabbi Yehuda Herzl Henkin and his wife, Chana, started a groundbreaking program for Orthodox women to answer questions of Jewish law.

Photo courtesy of Nishmat via JTA

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Calendar Submit calendar items on the Chronicle’s website, pittsburghjewishchronicle.org. Submissions also will be included in print. Events will run in the print edition beginning one month prior to the date as space allows. The deadline for submissions is Friday, noon. q SUNDAYS, DEC. 27; JAN. 3, 10, 17, 24, 31 Join a lay-led Online Parashah Study Group to discuss the week’s Torah portion. No Hebrew knowledge is needed. The goal is to build community while deepening understanding of the text. For more information, visit bethshalompgh.org. q SUNDAY, JAN. 3 Calling all ages and abilities: Join Congregation Beth Shalom for Come Together Schlep-A-Thon.

Walk, or schlep, a single lap around the synagogue in a fundraiser guaranteed to warm your spirits. Earn the chance to win prizes by having people sponsor your walk. Staggered start times beginning at noon.

For more information, visit bethshalompgh.org/ come together. q MONDAY, JAN. 4 Join Beth El Congregation of the South Hills for First Mondays with Rabbi Alex. This month, musician Seth Kibel will present “Klezmer: American Music.” 12 p.m. For more information and to register, visit bethelcong.org. q MONDAYS, JAN. 4, 11, 18, 25; FEB. 1 Join Rabbi Jeremy Markiz in learning Masechet Rosh Hashanah, a tractate of the Talmud about the many new years that fill out the Jewish calendar

at Monday Talmud study. 9:15 a.m. For more information, visit bethshalompgh.org. q THURSDAY, JAN. 7 Classrooms Without Borders, in partnership with Rodef Shalom Congregation, is excited to offer the opportunity to watch the film “Beslaney: Memories” and engage in a post-film discussion with the film’s director Sara Tsifroni, producer Ancho Gosh and the film’s researchers and protagonists Zouheir Takhaukho and Professor Yair Auron, in conversation with CWB scholar Avi Ben-Hur. 3 p.m. For more information and to register, visit classroomswithoutborders.com.

Moishe House Pittsburgh is exploring different ways to practice Shabbat and rest at the end of each week. For the discussion Shabbat as Anti-Capitalist Practice, they will reflect on what it means to take a day off from striving in a capitalist society.

7 p.m. For more information, visit facebook.com/ moishehouse.pittsburgh. q SUNDAYS, JAN. 10, 17, 24; MONDAYS FEB. 8, 15, 22 Beth El Congregation of the South Hills presents its Winter Speaker Series. For a complete list of speakers, topics and times, and to register, visit bethelcong.org/events. q MONDAY, JAN. 11 Join the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh on a virtual tour of United Hatzalah and learn how they are saving lives in Israel every day.

United Hatzalah is an innovative and fast-growing organization whose focus is getting emergency medical attention to people all over Israel. Learn

about the Federation’s relationship with and support of this unique organization. 12 p.m. For more information, visit jewishpgh.org/event.

The first semester of the school year is ending. For sophomores, juniors, and seniors, as well as entering freshmen/women, the last months have been a unique and challenging time. Please join Temple Sinai and JFCS for College During the Pandemic: A Program for Students and Parents. The conversation will be facilitated by Erin Barr and Stephanie Rodriquez from JFCS’s Children Service and Temple Sinai’s Rabbi Darryl Crystal. 7 p.m. For more information and to register, visit templeseinaipgh.org.

Join the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh virtually for a discussion about Domestic Violent Extremism: The Evolving Threat, with John Polcastro and Matthew Trosan of the FBI. 7 p.m. For more information, visit jewishpgh.org/event.

Join Classrooms Without Borders in Israel — virtually. Monthly tours with guide and scholar Rabbi Jonty Blackman via Zoom.

7 p.m. For more information and to register, visit classroomswithoutborders.org. q TUESDAY, JAN. 12 Classrooms Without Borders in partnership with Rodef Shalom Congregation and the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage present “Our People: Discovering Lithuania’s Hidden Holocaust.”

Dr. Efraim Zuroff, Rūta Vanagaitė and Holocaust scholar Dr. Michael Berenbaum will discuss the role played by ordinary Lithuanians in collaborating with the Nazis during the Holocaust. 3 p.m. classroomswithoutborders.org/our-people

The Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh’s Education Outreach Associate, Emily Bernstein, interviews Dr. Joe Harmon, the 2018-19 Holocaust Educator of the Year. Harmon teaches at Redbank Valley High School. 3 p.m. hcofpgh.org/events q TUESDAY, JAN. 12; FRIDAY JAN. 22; THURSDAY, FEB. 4 What are you doing in June 2022? The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh hopes that you will be in Israel with them and hundreds of others from Pittsburgh’s Jewish community. To learn more, join Federation for a Zoom info session. Young adults are invited to attend a special session on Jan. 12 at 6 p.m. Adults should plan to attend on Jan. 22 at noon or Feb. 4 at 7 p.m. For more information and to register, visit jfedpgh.org. q TUESDAYS, JAN. 12 -JUNE 1 What is the point of Jewish living? What ideas, beliefs and practices are involved? Melton Course 1: Rhythms & Purposes of Jewish Living examines a variety of Jewish sources to discover the deeper meanings of Jewish holidays, lifecycle observances and Jewish practice. Cost: $300 per person, per year (25 sessions), includes all books and materials. For more information and to register, visit foundation.jewishpgh.org. q WEDNESDAY, JAN. 13 Classrooms Without Borders presents Voices of Struggle: Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X. Guest speaker Yusef Jonas analyzes how these powerful orators used language to galvanize and inspire activism. 4 p.m. classroomswithoutborders.org Please see Calendar, page 7

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Calendar q TUESDAY, JAN. 19

Calendar: Continued from page 6 Join Temple Sinai and JFCS for Grandparenting During the Pandemic. They will share ideas for the best ways to interact with grandchildren at a distance, thoughts for activities, and there will be an opportunity to share experiences. The conversation will be led by Stefanie Small from JFCS and Rabbi Darryl Crystal from Temple Sinai. 7 p.m. To register visit templesinaipgh.org.

The Jewish Pittsburgh History Series, sponsored

by Rodef Shalom Congregation, will present Rodef Shalom Rabbis: J. Leonard Levy, Pacifist by Martha Berg, Rodef Shalom archivist. Rabbi Levy served the congregation from 1901-1917, a period of historic growth. There is no charge to attend this Zoom event. 7 p.m. For details and to register, follow the Jewish History Series link at www.rodefshalom.org. q WEDNESDAY, JAN. 20 Join Moishe House Pittsburgh to write a letter and brighten a friend’s dark winter day. They will even provide stationery, envelopes, and stamps!

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

q THURSDAY, JAN. 14 Classrooms Without Borders, in partnership with Rodef Shalom Congregation, the Maltz Museum of Jewish History and the University of Pittsburgh Jewish Studies Program, is thrilled to bring together renowned artists and scholars for a special event honoring Primo Levi’s life and work through education and song. 4 p.m. classroomswithoutborders.org q SUNDAY, JAN. 17 Grief Workshop (Part 1): Creating Sacred Community will be the first Moishe House Pittsburgh event in a series led by community member Ami Weintraub. The goal of these workshops is to explore grief rituals within Judaism so participants can obtain tangible tools for dealing with the loss and grief we are experiencing as a society and as individuals.

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

Beth Shalom Congregation’s Derekh Speaker Series welcomes five authors from across the country. Sarah Blake will kick off the series, discussing her latest novel “Naamah,” which retells the story of the great flood from the perspective of Noah’s wife. 7:30 p.m. Free. For more information, and to register for the Zoom event, visit bethshalompgh.org/speakerseries. q THURSDAY, JAN. 21 Join the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh for “Is Israel and Zionism Still Relevant in 2021 to American Jews?” — another fascinating webinar hosted by Neil Lazarus. 12 p.m. For more information, visit jewishpgh.org/event.

Classrooms Without Borders, in partnership with Rodef Shalom Congregation, is excited to offer the

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Join the 10.27 Healing Partnership and Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife for Jewish Style R&R- Rachamim and Resilience. This series of weekly interactive workshops will be an opportunity to engage in classes that will build on Jewish values, core concepts of resiliency, and mindfulness tools as a way of expanding our resiliency toolbox in this next year. This program is being offered at no cost and is open to all ages. 7 p.m. For more information, visit 1027healingpartnership.org/events. q SUNDAY, JAN. 24 Interested in learning more about a unique gap year program in Israel and Pittsburgh? While serving as a shinshinim you will have the opportunity to immerse yourself in Israeli life and culture, do tikkun olam in Karmiel Misgav, meet with other cohorts across the country, and more, all while having the experience of a lifetime. Open to anyone aged 18-20 in September. Learn more at the MASA Pittsburgh Shinshinim program information session. 11 a.m. jewishpgh.org/event q MONDAY, JAN. 25 Classrooms Without Borders, in partnership with the American Association of Teachers of German, the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in New York City, and Germany Close Up, invites you to screen the short film “Masel

q WEDNESDAY, JAN. 27 In honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh presents a special, one-night program with Julie Kohner.

Kohner will discuss her parents’ book, artifacts, and her mother’s landmark appearance on “This Is Your Life.” 7 p.m. hcofpgh.org/events q THURSDAYS, JAN. 28; FEB. 4, 11, 25; MARCH 4, 11 The Mishna, the Oral Law in written form, is one of the greatest works of the Jewish people.

In this survey course, Jewish Community Foundation Scholar Rabbi Danny Schiff will provide a comprehensive overview of this singular, foundational work. Co-sponsored with Derekh at Congregation Beth Shalom. 9:30 a.m. For more information and to register, visit foundation. jewishpgh.org/mishna. q SUNDAYS, JAN. 31; FEB. 7, 14, 21, 28; MARCH 7, 14 What does Jewish tradition have to say about God, Torah, mitzvot, suffering, messiah, Israel? In this special course, Pittsburgh Rabbis on Jewish Belief, Jewish Community Foundation Scholar Rabbi Danny Schiff will host 14 Pittsburgh rabbis, each teaching a session on fundamental aspects of Jewish belief. 10 a.m. For more information and to register, visit foundation.jewishpgh.org. PJC

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JANUARY 1, 2021 7

Headlines For the few Jews in West Virginia, one of America’s most struggling states, the pandemic has offered silver linings — NATIONAL —

By Larry Luxner | JTA

W

HEELING, W. VA. — Surrounded by silver crucifixes and Christmas ornaments, Samuel Posin and Joan Berlow Smith sell vintage jewelry and myriad tchotchkes at their church-turned-boutique gift shop in this city.

This is not the kind of place you’ll find many Jews. In this deeply rural state where just over half of all voters identify as Christian evangelicals, fewer than 1,200 Jews are thought to be scattered among West Virginia’s 1.8 million residents.

Yet born and raised in Wheeling, Posin, 62, prays three times a day, eats only kosher food and keeps Shabbat — making him one of less than a dozen observant Jewish adults in all of West Virginia, by his own estimate.

He credits a life-changing trip to Israel a decade ago for lighting his spiritual spark.

“I spent seven weeks at Rabbi Akiva Yeshiva in Jerusalem and immediately became religious,” Posin said of his 2010 trip to visit his sister, who had moved to Israel.

About five hours’ drive south of Wheeling — on a winding mountain road in the heart of Appalachian coal country — Elisse Jo Goldstein-Clark, the proprietor of a bed-and-breakfast called the Elkhorn Inn & Theatre, showcases another unlikely Jewish home.

Every Chanukah, she displays an 8-foothigh menorah in front of her historic inn, which is filled with railroad and coal-mining memorabilia. Each of the hotel’s 14 guest rooms has its own mezuzah.

West Virginia is one of America’s poorest states, located in a part of the country that long has been in decline. But the proud Jews you’ll find here show how Judaism endures even in the unlikeliest of places and what Jewish living looks like in rural America.

Goldstein-Clark is a rare Jewish transplant to West Virginia. Originally from New York, she moved to Jerusalem years ago and served a stint in the Israeli army before returning to the U.S. She ended up in the town of Landgraff after her husband — a disaster-response official whom she met in New York after the 9/11 attacks in 2001 — was deployed there to address severe flooding in West Virginia in 2002. The couple decided to stay, and a year later opened their hotel in a restored 1922 coal miners’ clubhouse.

“For 18 years, the New Yorker in me never stopped whining about how incredibly rural we were,” Goldstein-Clark said. “But living in West Virginia has turned out to be the greatest blessing in my life.”

Driving around West Virginia these days, “Make America Great Again” billboards are as plentiful as gun shops. President Donald Trump defeated Joe Biden in all 55 West Virginia counties in November’s elections.

The state is so staunchly conservative that its Republican governor, Jim Justice, earlier this year urged like-minded rural counties in Democrat-controlled Virginia to secede from that state and join his.

8 JANUARY 1, 2021

p Robert Judd started in April as the rabbi of B’nai Sholom in Huntington, West Virginia, but has yet to hold an in-person service because of the pandemic.

p Samuel Posin and Joan Berlow Smith, members of Wheeling’s small Jewish community, run a jewelry shop out of a converted 1932 church building.

 Rabbi Joshua Lief of Temple Shalom in Wheeling, which was West Virginia’s first home to its oldest Jewish community Photos by Larry Luxner via JTA

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Yet West Virginia is in serious trouble. It has America’s lowest percentage of college graduates, fourth-highest incidence of poverty, highest rate of opioid overdose deaths and fourth-oldest population. Most troublesome, the state is the only one whose population consistently declines year after year. It has been on a downward trajectory since its peak shortly after World War II. Back then, when coal was king, the state was more populous than Florida, and synagogues and Jewish communities thrived in small towns and cities from Beckley and Bluefield in the south to Wheeling and Weirton in the north. Most of these Jews were descended from Eastern European peddlers who flocked to West Virginia around the turn of the 20th century and became prosperous merchants and retailers.

West Virginia once had eight cities with vibrant Jewish congregations, according to Posin, whose family dates back four generations in Wheeling.

But most of the communities that thrived from the 1890s to the 1970s virtually disappeared by the 21st century.

“From today’s standpoint, it is hard to believe that thousands of Jews lived in the coalfields during that 80-year time span, that Jewish life once flourished there,” historian Deborah Wiener wrote in “Coalfield Jews: An Appalachian History,” published in 2006.

“Because of present reality, it is easy to look on their story as an oddity of history.”

Back in 1950 McDowell County, where innkeeper Goldstein-Clark resides, had 100,000 people, a kosher butcher and synagogues in Keystone, Welch and Kimball.

Today the county’s population has sunk to 17,000, and McDowell has the shortest life expectancy and highest drug-related death rate of any county in the United States.

“When we moved here in 2002, we were told that the last Jews had moved to Bluefield, and that I was the only Jew left in the county,” Goldstein-Clark said. “That hasn’t changed.”

The state’s Jewish population peaked at about 6,000 in the 1950s, according to Rabbi Victor Urecki of B’nai Jacob Synagogue in Charleston, the state’s largest city (46,000 residents, down from 86,000 in 1960).

“The attrition continues throughout the state, and every community of faith is equally affected,” said Urecki, one of West Virginia’s six rabbis. “The lack of young people is a problem in every congregation.”

Rabbi Zalman Gurevitz, who runs the Chabad center at West Virginia University in Morgantown, said it’s not just Jews.

“Anyone who has graduated college is going to have a hard time,” he said. “There’s nothing to come back for.”

The Morgantown Chabad serves about 100 to 150 Jewish students at WVU. Since the pandemic hit, Chabad has not held in-person Shabbat services, though it offers takeout kosher Shabbat dinners that include challah, grape juice, matzah ball soup and a main dish. On the High Holidays, Gurevitz hosted about 20 people in an outdoor tent.

“Obviously it’s challenging to have a Please see West Virginia, page 15

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Headlines 10 heartwarming Jewish stories from 2020, a year to otherwise forget — WORLD —

By Gabe Friedman | JTA

T

here’s no sugarcoating it: 2020 was a difficult, trying, tragic year.

But just because COVID-19 dominated the headlines and our personal lives, that doesn’t mean there weren’t any Jewish bright spots. Plenty of history was made, from a march of tens of thousands against anti-Semitism to a new kind of vaccine that Jewish doctors helped create, to a Jewish vice-presidential spouse.

Here are some of the Jewish stories that helped distract us from the pain of the past year.

The Jews involved with the vaccine

Several Jewish scientists have been at the forefront of the rush to produce an effective COVID-19 vaccine, trying to alleviate the suffering inflicted on the world by the virus in the past year.

There is Mikael Dolsten, the Swedish Jewish head scientist at Pfizer, who was key in helping the pharmaceutical giant produce the first approved vaccine and talked to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency about the role of immigrants in scientific innovation and the new form of mRNA vaccines. Tal Zaks, an Israeli, is the chief medical officer of Moderna, the other American company to produce a vaccine authorized by the FDA. And the CEO of Pfizer, Albert Bourla, is a Greek Jew proud of his heritage — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims that helped Israel become one of the first countries to secure a Pfizer vaccine contract.

The first Jewish second husband

Vice president-elect Kamala Harris wasn’t the only member of the Biden presidential ticket to make history in November. Her husband, Doug Emhoff, became the first “second husband” in American political history — and the first Jewish spouse of a president or vice president. He has relished the role, speaking at events aimed at Jewish voters and with Jewish politicians.

Along the way, Emhoff and Harris have helped charge a wave of love for intermarried families. The couple released a video together this month about Chanukah — “one of our favorite holidays in our big, modern family,” Emhoff said.

Zach Banner as mishpocha

The 6-foot-8, nearly 350-pound offensive lineman of Chamorro and AfricanAmerican ancestry became one of the Jewish community’s favorite sons this year, especially in Pittsburgh.

After fellow NFL player DeSean Jackson made headlines in July when he posted a series of anti-Semitic messages on social media, the Steelers’ Banner was among the most prominent people to call him out and say publicly that Jews “deal with the same amount of hate, similar hardships and hard times” as the Black community. Banner said PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

p Zach Banner seen prior to a game between his Pittsburgh Steelers and the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., Dec. 22, 2020.

Photo by Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images via JTA

he was partly inspired to speak out after being in Pittsburgh during the shooting at the Tree of Life building in 2018.

Following Banner, a stream of other Black athletes and commentators, including the former basketball stars Charles Barkley and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, took stands against anti-Semitism.

Banner’s love for the Jews didn’t stop with one post — after what he called an outpouring of love from the community, he donated some of his earnings to a Tree of Life-related charity and tried challah to raise money for his charitable foundation. His thoughts on the Jewish bread, via the video he released? “That is fire, wow!”

The year of the celebrity Chanukah video

Maybe it was all of the quarantine isolation.

Maybe it was the sense of solidarity brought on by the pain experienced around the world this year. Whatever the reason, this was the year that a large chunk of the celebrity zeitgeist, Jewish and non-, had fun marking Chanukah.

Non-Jewish rock star Dave Grohl and his Jewish producer Greg Kurstin posted eight entertaining covers of songs by Jewish musicians, one for every night. Haim, the Jewish pop band, marked the holiday like never before, from song and dance to a guitar giveaway. Daveed Diggs, the Black and Jewish star of “Hamilton,” among other things, gave us a delightful Chanukah rap (for kids). The Jewish Broadway star Nicolette Robinson and her non-Jewish Broadway star husband Leslie Odom Jr. covered “Maoz Tzur” for a holiday album and chronicled their family’s holiday experience on Instagram. And the list didn’t stop there.

The Abraham Accords

Before 2020, Israel only had formal diplomatic relations (and historically not the warmest of relations) with two neighboring Arab countries, Egypt and Jordan. As 2020 ends, Israel now has relations with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, and pending ties with Sudan and Morocco (it also formalized ties with Bhutan, the tiny Buddhist-majority nation known for prioritizing the happiness of its citizens).

While the deals include tradeoffs that

have made some on both sides of Congress’ aisle uncomfortable — including advanced military weapons to the UAE and taking Sudan off the U.S. list of terrorism sponsors — the moves have also been widely lauded for enlarging the Arab world’s acceptance of Israel. The small communities of Jews living in those countries have rejoiced, and Israelis have been pretty excited, too — over 50,000 of them have already visited the UAE, one of the world’s glitziest vacation spots.

Lots of Nobel Prizes

It’s just a fact: Jews are known for their proclivity for winning Nobel Prizes. So much so, in fact, that the concept features in all kinds of strange theories about Jewish intelligence.

But 2020 was an extra-successful year.

Academic Paul Milgrom shared the economics prize for his discoveries in the field of auction theory. Poet Louise Gluck won in literature “for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal.” And Harvey Alter, a researcher for the National Institutes of Health, shared the Nobel in medicine for helping identify the hepatitis C virus.

A child’s “Avinu Malkeinu” goes viral

One break from the heaviness of a pandemic High Holidays came in the form of a beaming 6-year-old in Australia, Bibi Shapiro, who went viral with his version of “Avinu Malkeinu.” His mother, Nina, told JTA that she never meant for the video to become public — but was glad it did.

“People have said it’s made them happy and given them hope,” she said, “and even though I don’t understand it, the fact that it has done that to people especially at this time in the world, I’m so grateful for it.”

Bibi appeared over Zoom during Yom Kippur services at Central Synagogue in New York City, collaborated with a favorite singer from his native South Africa and spurred an international conversation among Jewish children’s musicians, showing the global reach of good news.

A historic march against anti-Semitism

It’s hard to remember a time before the

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

pandemic raged through the country this year, but as the calendar turned to 2020, the New York City area was reeling from a spate of violent anti-Semitic attacks, including a Jersey City kosher store shooting and a stabbing in Monsey, New York. Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn were the victims of a sharp uptick in random assaults.

In response, New York City officials and local Jewish groups helped organize one of the largest marches against anti-Semitism the country has ever seen, which symbolically started in Lower Manhattan and crossed the Brooklyn Bridge.

“What has happened in Brooklyn, what has happened in Monsey, New York, was an attack on every New Yorker and every New Yorker has felt the pain,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said before the march.

While its impact was blunted by the pandemic, the march offered a sense of optimism and unity to start the year.

An Israeli phenom makes the NBA

It’s rare for an Israeli athlete to make it to one of the top-tier American sports leagues.

It’s unprecedented for an Israeli athlete to be touted as one of said league’s top prospects. Deni Avdija achieved both of those feats when he was picked ninth overall in the first round of the 2020 NBA Draft by the Washington Wizards.

The lanky 6-foot-9 forward with heaps of potential (he’s just 19), born to a Jewish Israeli mother and Muslim Serbian former Israeli basketball player father, has not been afraid to show off his Jewish pride — he even lit a Chanukah menorah in a video on the Wizards’ Instagram page.

The Wizards have embraced Avdija’s identity — and the new fans it has produced — by creating a Hebrew Twitter account.

The team’s Jewish announcer called him “the mensch off the bench on Chanukah!” in his first preseason game, and Avdija was in the starting lineup for the club’s regular season debut, albeit a losing one, in which his coach said the Israeli was “fantastic.”

A mayoral Rosh Hashanah baby

In 2019, Minneapolis’ Jewish mayor, Jacob Frey, was a rising star — and sex symbol. He made significant change in the city’s historically fraught zoning rules, endearing him to many fans on the left, and became a Twitter target for President Trump.

But in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death at the hands of police officers in his city, Frey was thrust into the center of the country’s raging debate on police reform.

His refusal to defund the city’s police department made him a poster child enemy for many progressives.

Just before Rosh Hashanah this year, though, he had a joyous reprieve — the birth of his first child, a girl he and his wife, Sarah Clarke, named Frida.

“For us, her birth leading into Rosh Hashanah symbolizes new beginnings and hope in the midst of tough days,” Frey tweeted. “She’s our reminder of a better tomorrow.” PJC JANUARY 1, 2021 9

Headlines — WORLD — From JTA reports

Rabbi Zalman Teitelbaum, Satmar leader, tests positive for COVID-19

Rabbi Zalman Teitelbaum, leader of a faction of the Satmar Chasidic community, has tested positive for COVID-19, according to Yeshiva World News.

Teitelbaum, who is in his late 60s, is apparently showing mild symptoms, according to the site.

Teitelbaum, who is based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, is not the first Chasidic leader to test positive for the virus. His own brother and leader of a rival faction of the Satmar Chasidic community, Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, tested positive for COVID-19 back in March.

The Satmar community has been implicated in a number of large gatherings over the last several months, in defiance of state and city guidelines meant to minimize the spread of COVID-19. In November, a large wedding for one of Zalman’s grandchildren was downsized after plans for it drew public scrutiny.

Later that month, a grandchild of Aaron Teitelbaum married in a massive wedding that was held in secret — and later detailed in an article by his faction’s Yiddish-language newspaper. Even after both weddings were publicized and denounced by elected

officials, large weddings continued to be held in Kiryas Joel, Aaron’s base.

In a speech given at a post-wedding celebration and printed on flyers posted in Hasidic neighborhoods of Brooklyn, Aaron struck a tone of defiance.

“We won’t surrender. We won’t close down.

And indeed, we didn’t close down, neither the boys’ schools, nor the girls’ schools, nor the yeshivas. Neither the large ones nor the small ones. Everything proceeded as usual,” he said.

“God came to our aid, and the authorities realized they were dealing with a stubborn people.”

Just days before Teitelbaum’s diagnosis, thousands were set to gather at an event memorializing a Satmar leader who died weeks earlier and whose funeral attracted thousands. And on Sunday, WhatsApp alit with pictures of Zalman dancing with hundreds of his followers at the dedication of a new Torah scroll on Saturday night. Few if any in attendance could be seen wearing masks.

Massachusetts Republican official says he caught COVID-19 at White House Chanukah party

The vice chair of Massachusetts’ Republican Party — and of its Republican Jewish group — says he’s pretty sure he contracted COVID-19 at the White House Chanukah party.

Tom Mountain, who has been hospitalized twice in recent weeks, told the Boston Globe

on Saturday he regrets attending the Dec. 9 event, over the objections of his wife.

“I didn’t listen to the warnings of my own family, and now I’m paying the price,” Mountain told the Globe. “I was one of those people who thought I would never be a statistic. But any large gathering like that where you have people from all over the country, somebody’s bound to have it.”

Now, his wife, son, daughter-in-law, and mother-in-law have also all tested positive for the virus, he said.

“I have to admit I wasn’t the most careful about wearing the face masks,” Mountain said, “but now I’m zealous about it. I have no doubt about their necessity.”

Mountain is a right-wing Republican in the country’s most heavily Democratic state and a resident of Newton, a Boston suburb.

The White House held two in-person Chanukah parties on Dec. 9, even though previous White House events had already been identified as COVID-19 super-spreader events. Many invited guests declined to attend because of the pandemic.

Mountain said he began showing symptoms and tested positive on Friday, Dec. 11, just two days after attending the White House event. “No one can ever say for sure exactly where they got it, but I’ll say this: Before the party, I was in perfectly good health,” he told the Globe. “Three days later, I was in the hospital with COVID, and it was all downhill from there.”

Pakistani court orders release of 4 men acquitted of Daniel Pearl murder

A court in Pakistan ordered the immediate release of four men who had been jailed there since 2002 for the murder of the Jewish-American journalist Daniel Pearl.

The Sindh High Court in Karachi ordered the release of the men, who had been acquitted of the murder, calling their detainment “illegal,” the Dawn newspaper reported.

They had been involved in Pearl’s kidnapping, the court found, but not in his murder.

The court did not identify the killers in the acquittal.

Ahmed Omer Saeed Sheikh, Fahad Naseem, Salman Saqib and Sheikh Adil were acquitted of murder in April but kept in jail on executive orders as prosecutors appealed their acquittal. A two-judge panel of the court ordered their release from “any sort of detention” and declared all orders of the government related to their detention “null and void.”

The men are to be put on a no-fly list and must appear before the court whenever summoned as the court considers the appeals against their acquittal, the court said.

Pearl was the South Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal when he was abducted and beheaded in Karachi in 2002 while researching a story about Islamist militants. He was 38. PJC

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

Jan. 1, 1995 — Full Agranat Report is released

The full, 1,500-page Agranat Report, the official assessment of the IDF’s performance in the October 1973 war, is released. The preliminary version led to Prime Minister Golda Meir’s resignation in April 1974.

Notice to our subscribers Most of you, our valued Chronicle subscribers, are aware the United States Postal Service is facing considerable challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the tremendous influx of mail and packages during this season of online holiday shopping.

Unfortunately, the post office’s challenges are negatively impacting delivery of the Chronicle along with everything else that is mailed.

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Jan. 2, 1927 — Cultural Zionist leader Ahad Ha’am dies

Ahad Ha’am dies in Palestine at age 70. He adopted the pen name Ahad Ha’am (One of the People) amid his advocacy for a Zionism focusing on cultural efforts, including the revival of Hebrew.

Jan. 3, 1919 — Faisal-Weizmann agreement is signed

Chaim Weizmann and Emir Faisal, son of Sharif Husayn of Mecca, pledge respect and cooperation between Arabs and Jews in the Middle East, but the British and French mandates stifle their accord.

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Jan. 4, 2006 — Sharon suffers massive stroke

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, 77, has a devastating stroke en route to Hadassah Hospital after feeling ill at his home in the Negev. He slips into a coma from which he never recovers.

Jan. 5, 1996 — Phone bomb kills terrorist Yahya Ayyash

Hamas bomb maker Yahya Ayyash is killed in Gaza City when the Shin Bet sets off explosives in his cellphone. Ayyash’s bombs killed more than 80 Israelis and maimed 400 others.

Jan. 6, 1909 — Longtime Communist lawmaker Moshe Sneh is born

Moshe Sneh, known for left-wing politics and resistance to British rule, is born in Radyzn, Poland. Except for four years, he serves in the Knesset from 1949 to 1972, mostly with the Communist Maki party.

Jan. 7, 2010 — Early Hebrew inscription is deciphered

University of Haifa professor Gershon Galil announces that he has deciphered an inscription on a pottery shard from the 10th century B.C.E. It is the earliest-known Hebrew writing yet discovered. PJC

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Thank you to the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh Jewish Healthcare Foundation United Way of Southwestern PA and hundreds upon hundreds of individuals throughout our community for your regular and additional Covid relief support that has assisted us in our recovery and in addressing ongoing and emergency needs during the pandemic.

We wish everyone in our community a 2021 of continued resilience and strength.

Proudly serving the citizenry of Allegheny County and beyond for 125 years Brian Schreiber President and CE0

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William S. Goodman Chair of the Board

JANUARY 1, 2021 11

Opinion New Year’s resolutions borne of a pandemic — EDITORIAL —

T

he kinds of resolutions we make for the secular new year generally tend to be different than our pledges for the year to come on Rosh Hashanah. As we head into a new year on the Jewish calendar, we enter into a period of self-reflection, repentance, and, if we do it right, spiritual contemplation leading to improved behavior toward one another and in the eyes of God. In contrast, the resolutions many of us make on Jan. 1 tend to be more focused on the physical world: eating better, exercising more, aiming for eight hours of sleep each night.

Now that we are at the dawn of 2021, coming off a year that few are sorry to

see pass, we might be well-served to fashion a different sort of resolution for the year to come.

We are hopeful that 2021, and the COVID-19 vaccines it brings, will end the deaths and societal upheaval caused by the pandemic. But as difficult as 2020 was for so many of us, there are certainly valuable lessons to be had that we can resolve to incorporate into our lives moving forward.

Family: Many of us have been separated from our parents, our children and other family members for months. Others, tragically, have had to bury loved ones this year — and without the traditional communal support of in-person shiva visits. Some of us were fortunate to shelter-in-place this year with family members and to realize how much we love being together. When the

world opens up again, let us resolve to prioritize our family, to say “I love you” as often as we can, and to never miss an opportunity to bestow a hug or a kind touch.

Friends: It has been a long time since we have been able to safely gather in person with our friends. Phone calls and Zoom visits have helped keep us socially connected, but they are a poor substitute for being together physically in the same space. Let us resolve to not take our friendships for granted, to make the effort to meet for coffee or dinner or walks, and to tell our friends how much we treasure them.

Communal organizations: Our network of Jewish communal institutions has been there for us during these dark days. Counseling, meals-to-go, child care, calls to the elderly and infirm, blood drives, and, yes, even

providing information and connection through this newspaper. Our Jewish organizational network would not have been able to maintain these services in this heightened time of need if they had not had the funds and manpower to do so. Let us resolve to continue to support these organizations through donations or volunteering.

The arts: For many of us, the pandemic would have been much more difficult to weather had it not been for books, music, virtual museum visits and television. If there was ever any question whether the arts are an “essential” service, COVID-19 decisively put it to rest. Our theaters and music venues have been dark since last March. When they again open, let’s fill their seats.

It’s been a rough year. We got through it.

Here’s to a better 2021. PJC

learn that, but I kept this newly acquired information to myself, never to speak about it to anyone. Then, just as surprising as their arrival, after a month, these seven kids vanished, and no one even asked why.

In my 30s, I was a hospital director when Syria became engulfed in a savage brutal war. The situation was horrific, and, in the shadows, I set up a network to provide medical aid to my countrymen and woman, which led me into the field of humanitarian aid.

When my underground work was discovered, I had to flee my country, but I was

compelled to continue helping my people.

I was approached by people from several Israeli NGOs, who had heard about my work and wanted to help their Syrian neighbors.

I couldn’t believe that Jews were offering to help people who had been their sworn enemies for decades. It made me rethink my early prejudices, and, for the first time in my life, I started working with Jews.

My curiosity made me revisit my history about those seven students, and I began talking to other Syrian friends about their memories of

They never said goodbye Guest Columnist Shadi Martini

I

n 1984, I was in school in Aleppo, Syria, and these seven kids appeared in my class.

It was weird having so many new students two months into the school year. It also was strange that these kids would not talk to anyone. They stayed only with each other, and never mingled with the other students.

It made me wonder why. So, I asked a friend of mine, “Who are these kids?”

He came close to me and whispered: “They are Yahoud.” (“Yahoud” means “Jewish” in Arabic).

I froze. What were they doing in our school? Where did they come from?

This incident made me want to ask more questions, but I had to be careful, because asking about Jews was very dangerous in Syria, and, I’m sad to say, still is. I learned that they were actually Syrians. They were born in Syria and their roots go back hundreds, if not thousands, of years. I was stunned to

Please see Martini, page 13

College students are falling through our largest food safety net: SNAP Guest Columnist Miriam Lipschutz

T

here’s something the incoming Secretary of Agriculture and I have in common: a love for dairy cows. Tom Vilsack is currently chief executive for the U.S. Dairy Export Council, and was the former USDA Secretary under President Obama.

But when I was studying animal science at the University of Vermont during his term, many of my peers were silently struggling to afford enough to eat. One in five UVM students experience food insecurity. According to the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice, one in three students at fouryear institutions are food insecure. During the pandemic, hunger has only gotten worse. While the USDA’s sprawling wheelhouse includes addressing concerns of small farmers, food supply, and animal rights, 1 in 4 Americans rely on the agency’s food programs to feed themselves and their families.

12 JANUARY 1, 2021

Many food insecure college students are locked out of our nation’s largest food safety net, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — commonly known as SNAP — thanks to outdated student eligibility restrictions. For instance, students enrolled more than half-time must work at least 20 hours a week to be eligible for SNAP. But with the loss of on-campus work-study jobs and the closure of restaurants and other service sector businesses, many college students are being hit doubly hard — losing income as well as their SNAP benefits, with their route to eligibility cut off. A GAO report from last year showed almost 2 million college students who are potentially eligible have not reported receiving SNAP, many of whom are dissuaded from even applying because of the cryptic language that explains which students can get benefits.

This year, more than 6 million new people have enrolled in SNAP. One in four students have had to take out loans to cover the cost of food, and one-third know someone who dropped out because they couldn’t afford to eat, according to a recent study by Swipe Out Hunger and Chegg. Black, Latinx, and

indigenous students have been disproportionately impacted by the economic fallout of COVID-19, burdened with higher rates of basic needs insecurity compared to their white peers as well as a higher drop-out rate.

Our country has continually failed to invest in higher education for low-income students, who are disproportionately students of color, despite the fact that at least 60% of new jobs require some education beyond high school.

Students are dropping out of school when faced with the decision of whether to buy food or the supplies they need to succeed in school. We must consider: In the future, who will have access to higher paying jobs, and who will be saddled with debt and no degree?

Campus food insecurity has always existed, but only recently been given the attention it deserves because of student-centered organizations like Challah for Hunger that are uplifting student voices and advocating for long-term solutions for the exasperated rates of basic needs insecurity that we are seeing now, but have always existed. While immediate relief is needed, we also need to #FUELHigherEd and create policy solutions that acknowledge food as

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fundamental for learning and make nutritious meals universal. Policies must be equitable, centering student populations most impacted by basic needs insecurity, and these should not be temporary band aids, but truly transformative state and federal policies.

In returning to his former cabinet post, Tom Vilsack will have a huge impact on college student’s ability to fill their own cabinets at home through how he runs the agencies and proposed rule changes to SNAP. During his tenure under President Obama, the department was able to reduce food insecurity by the order of 8 million people. Addressing our nation’s growing levels of food insecurity, especially the lack of access to SNAP access for college students, must be a priority during the Biden administration. No student should have to choose between food and their education. PJC Miriam Lipschutz is the director of advocacy at Challah for Hunger and a second-year master’s of public policy student at Temple University. She can be reached at miriam@ challahforhunger.org.

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Opinion My rabbis taught me to keep distance from my non-Jewish family. As an adult, I’m learning to love them again.

Guest Columnist Aharon Schrieber

I

t was early in the evening on Christmas Day in 2018, and I was driving along the dark, winding roads of sleepy, suburban Long Island. It was a road I had once known well. On the radio, Nat King Cole crooned “The Christmas Song,” and I did my best to hum along. For the first time in more than 10 years, I was going to see the Catholic side of my family on Christmas.

For most Jews, Christmas Day is filled with takeout food and movies. Growing up, mine were not. Each year, my parents and I would pile into the station wagon for my aunt’s annual Christmas party. My mother grew up Catholic, converted before marrying my father and remained close with her sister, mom and, to my childhood mind, an impossibly complex family tree of cousins and extended relatives.

So, once a year, I found myself eating a sad, flimsy tuna sandwich among a boisterous crowd of men and women who, despite the kippah on my head and tzitzit sticking out beyond my shirt, loved me all the same. Sure, there was some playful teasing and confusion about why I couldn’t eat the same food as them. But they made every accommodation to make me feel comfortable and ensure I had a fun time. It made me so proud to have a family that was unique from all my friends.

Martini: Continued from page 12

our Syrian Jewish community. I was surprised to learn that 850,0000 Jewish people were forced to leave Arab lands, and that Israel has set aside a day to commemorate the expulsion of Jews from Arab lands. It is Nov. 30.

I was having a conversation about my new discoveries with my friend from Aleppo and he

As the child of a convert growing up in an Orthodox community, my thoughts and feelings were often in conflict with what I was taught and told by my rabbis and teachers. Communal truths, like that Esau hates Jacob, and the accompanying interpretation that Esau is Rome, were confusing to me. How could Rome hate me? Rome — Catholics and Italians — are my family. The

The gulf of world and family history is a wide and great expanse. It is worth wondering how much of it is our own making.

Torah even clearly tells us that Esau kissed and hugged Jacob when they reunited, later commentaries notwithstanding. So it was easy to ignore teachings of that ilk because they were so obviously not true.

The teachings about Chanukah were harder to ignore. Because on Chanukah, the threat to the Jewish nation was not to the body, as on Purim and Passover, but to the Jewish soul. The Hellenists did not seek to kill Jews. Rather they sought to warp Judaism itself.

it was perfectly OK to be cordial with this side of my family, I started to keep a certain distance between us. I still remained close with my grandmother, but Christmas after Christmas, for more than a decade, I found some excuse or another why I couldn’t see the rest of my family. Even though I knew it hurt them, my grandmother especially.

There were only so many times I could say no, though. After years of absence, I found myself again sitting at a table with a family that worships a foreign God. My family. I suddenly

looked at me and said: ”Well, they left of their own free will. They didn’t even say goodbye.“ I did not interrupt him, and he continued: “My best friend was Jewish. He lived in the apartment above us and we would hang out together every day. We would play and run and laugh, and then, one day, he did not come back. I knocked on his door, but he did not answer. I wanted him to come out and play with me, but he never showed up. He abandoned me and did not even say goodbye.”

I felt that his voice was shaking. Even though all these years had passed, he still felt sadness, and at the same time, anger, when recalling this childhood memory. For Syrians, it was dangerous to ask about the fate of loved ones who disappeared.

It was doubly dangerous if they were Jewish.

I told him what I had learned: that his friend had not abandoned him; that his neighbors had had to leave without telling anyone because they were smuggled out of the country, and otherwise they would have been arrested and put into jail, where they probably would have died.

What has happened in Syria in the last 10 years made me, and a lot of other Syrians, realize what impossible choices the Syrian Jewish population faced: to feel as a stranger in your own homeland; not to feel safe in

— LETTERS — Memories of Jewish West Virginia

In regard to “For the few Jews in West Virginia, the pandemic has offered silver linings” (online, Dec. 24): Following the Yom Kippur War, I joined what was then the Tri-State Israel Bond office assigned to Charleston and Huntington, West Virginia. Charleston had an aging but dedicated community focused around the Conservative congregation. Jews were small business leaders and professionals. Huntington was merging Reform and Conservative congregations — already a sign of decline — with issues of smoking in synagogue during the oneg after services, seating, etcetera, challenging the two denominations. The mayor of Huntington was Jewish.

I have many good memories of both communities filling the once famed Daniel Boone Hotel in Charleston or the Holiday Inn in Huntington, owned by Mayor Harold Frankel, to buy State of Israel Bonds.

Times continue to change.

Harvey Cohen Naples, Florida PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

My yeshiva rabbis were quick to point out that this was particularly important to be mindful of in the melting pot of American society. Be wary of the friendliness of non-Jews, I was taught. While well meaning, it could lead to a dilution of a person’s Jewish identity, or worse, a complete abandonment of Judaism.

This teaching caused me to view my Christian family a little differently. While

felt great comfort to be in the company of people that I share the common bonds of ancestry with. And my heart cried that I had feared these feelings for so long. They gave their love to me freely and without want. It is no threat to my Jewish identity or observance.

I do not blame my yeshiva rabbis for what they taught me. Judaism, and particularly Orthodox Judaism, is inherently a tribal religion. It is filled with rules and regulations that govern interactions between Jews and non-Jews, many of which are explicitly geared toward a preservation of peoplehood.

But I regret that I was taught to fear the love of people who do not worship as I do, and to believe that I was betraying my God and my people by celebrating with my family on a day that is meaningful to them.

The gulf of world and family history is a wide and great expanse. It is worth wondering how much of it is our own making.

But there is also a very narrow bridge.

And love is what can help us cross it. The main thing is to just not be afraid to try. I will always believe that Esau kissed Jacob with nothing but a pure heart.

Why couldn’t Jacob kiss him back?

When it was all over and goodbyes were exchanged, I walked out into the night and got into the car. Through the window I could see my family waving to me. I waved back. PJC Aharon Schrieber is an attorney living in New York City. This piece was first published by JTA.

your own home; and to fear that at any time someone could come and put you in jail, just because of your beliefs.

In the last 10 years, six million Syrians were forced to leave their country and become refugees. I am one of them. But if we want someday to rebuild our country and have a stable Middle East, we should recognize all the injustices that happened to Syrians, including its Jewish population. PJC Shadi Martini is the executive director of Multifaith Alliance, and a member of Anti-Defamation League’s Task Force on Middle East Minorities. He was the general manager of a hospital in Aleppo until he left Syria for the United States, in 2012. This piece was first published by The Times of Israel.

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JANUARY 1, 2021 13

Headlines Vaccines: Continued from page 1

“is to seek out expert medical counsel and to follow it.”

Rabbi Dr. Aaron Glatt has been providing medical counsel on COVID-19, including for the Kollel Jewish Learning Center in Pittsburgh last month. He is both an assistant rabbi at Young Israel of Woodmere, a large Orthodox synagogue in Woodmere, New York, and the chief of infectious diseases and hospital epidemiologist at Mount Sinai South Nassau on Long Island. He gives a weekly COVID video update targeted to a largely Orthodox audience.

“The majority have [said], ‘How do I get on the list?’” Glatt said. “A significant minority have reasonable, legitimate concerns about the vaccine, and this is even seen in younger health care professionals. Then you have a very small but vocal group that will not take the vaccine, no matter what. There’s no way to convince them. I can’t convince them, and I hope God protects them.”

Rabbi Amy Bardack, director of Jewish

Life and Learning at the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, believes it important that the silent minority Glatt refers to understands that the vaccine is kosher and adheres to halacha.

“The two Orthodox rabbinical bodies, the Orthodox Union and the Rabbinical Council of America, issued a joint statement that there’s a Torah obligation to receive the vaccine as soon as it’s available,” Bardack said. “They trust the medical professionals who deemed it to be safe and effective. You know, the commandment to preserve life and not cause harm is a very serious directive.”

Rosenfeld, too, points to the directive to preserve life as a mandate to get vaccinated.

“When it comes to saving a life, nothing gets in the way,” Rosenfeld said. “We’re all familiar that on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year, we fast. [But] the Torah tells us when it comes to saving a life, eat on Yom Kippur, do whatever is necessary to save a life.”

While there has been some concern online about gelatin made from pork used to stabilize the vaccine, Yolkut said those concerns are misplaced.

“Jewish law prohibits consuming pork in

food,” Yolkut said. “There is no concern about the idea of injecting something made of any kind of non-kosher substance. This represents someone ignorant to Jewish law.”

In a video message posted earlier this month, Dr. Stuart Ditchek, an Orthodox pediatrician in Brooklyn who, like Glatt, has offered frequent updates on COVID-19 research and treatments targeted to an Orthodox audience, warned people away from getting their medical information from social media or messaging apps.

“The best thing we can do is to crush the misinformation mill,” Ditchek said. “Don’t believe a headline because it appears on a website. Don’t believe a WhatsApp video because somebody put it out.”

Orthodox leaders said the anti-vaccination movement among some Orthodox Jews mirrors a parallel problem in society at large.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the percentage of Americans willing to take a COVID vaccine is rising. But 27% still said they probably or definitely wouldn’t get the vaccine.

“We can have full faith in the scientific community about the safety and effectiveness, and the necessity of the vaccine,” said Bardack.

In fact, whether to get the vaccine may be the easiest question to answer when it comes to COVID-19-related matters, according to Bardack.

“The Conservative movement is going to be coming out with a paper through the Law Committee next week that will actually deal with much fuzzier ethical considerations like, is it ethical for a business or a congregation to require people to be vaccinated before they can enter a building, or to require people to be vaccinated in order to be members?” she said. “Those are really interesting, ethical questions that are far less clear than whether the vaccine should be taken.”

There are no legitimate concerns that should stop a person from getting vaccinated, Yolkut stressed.

“Certainly, my understanding, based on what I’ve heard from my teachers, is that barring some unusual circumstances, it is absolutely imperative to go out and make sure that you’re available to be vaccinated appropriately,” he said. PJC David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

School: Continued from page 1

Classroom. It is hard to get into the rhythm of learning, he said, because his routines have been disrupted, shuffling from in-person to virtual learning and back.

When school takes place in Hillel’s physical building, Sunshine spends his day in a cohort with 12 or 13 other students, wearing masks and social distancing. Weatherpermitting, he eats lunch outside, with — but apart from — other students.

This year, Hillel gave everyone their own Google Chromebook, which has helped navigate the changes between virtual and in-person instruction, Sunshine said. “It’s made everything flexible and super easy to deal with.”

For Aviv Davidson, an eighth-grader at Community Day School, moving from virtual to in-person classes has not been too difficult.

“Considering everything is online, I think that the school has done like a really good job of this teaching in general, because I’m still getting the same amount of education as I would be in a regular time,” Davidson said.

“The only difference is the classes are shorter, but that works out because we’re spending less time in front of a computer screen.”

His brother, Cobi, a fifth-grader at CDS, also is comfortable that school has moved to virtual learning for the time being. He misses seeing his friends, he said, but even when they are in the CDS building together it can be hard: “We’re separated into cohorts and I don’t get to see friends in the other classes at all.”

Both Davidson brothers, though, have found a few advantages to virtual learning.

It’s sometimes easier to communicate with teachers online, they said, and they prefer starting their day a bit later because they no longer are walking to school.

Abigail Bernstein, an eighth-grader at Hillel Academy, said all the changes this year have felt like a “whirlwind” and “sometimes it can get a little bit like a roller coaster.”

Still, “the schools are doing a really good job making sure everything goes smoothly 14 JANUARY 1, 2021

 The Berelowitz children were fully engaged in their virtual classrooms at Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh during Spring 2020.

Photo courtesy of Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh

because we have different schedules for if we’re in person or virtual,” Bernstein said.

“And I mean, sometimes it’s like, ‘Oh, the next day, you’re going be virtual,’ or ‘We’re gonna go back,’ but it’s been pretty smooth.”

Over at Mt. Lebanon High School, Green plays percussion in the school band. He is also learning to drive. This should have been an exciting year filled with field trips and outings with friends, but those things can’t happen because of the pandemic.

“I can go through a drive-through by myself,” Green said. “I can go to Target and Walmart or Game Stop to browse, but that’s really about it.”

Green is more bothered by what the virus has done to his extracurricular activities.

“So many things got canceled,” he said. “My field trip with the marching band got canceled, a bunch of conventions got canceled.”

The high school band at Mt. Lebanon was supposed to make a recording — something Green was looking forward to — but that

was canceled as well.

“We were on the doorstep of recording an album, a CD, and couldn’t because of a spike in the cases,” he said.

Hillel Academy is not offering its usual selection of clubs this year, Bernstein said, but she takes dance classes at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh.

Her lessons started in person there but moved to a virtual format on Nov. 20.

Erin Barr is the clinical coordinator for Jewish Family and Community Services’ UpStreet, a teen mental wellness program offering drop-in consultations with therapists, scheduled therapy appointments, text-based peer support and support groups for teens.

Barr said it’s important to remember that many students are suffering a loss even if they are outwardly showing signs of coping well.

“I think there’s a lot of grieving going on,” Barr said. “I don’t know if we always think about it, but they’re missing out on a lot of defining moments in their high school careers,

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especially when you talk about seniors.

They’re missing school dances and musicals.

You know, you’ve done drama your whole life and now in your senior year it’s canceled.”

Behaviors that might normally be attributed to teenage moodiness could instead be caused by grief for what has been lost due to the pandemic, Barr said.

Many students are finding ways to cope, though, despite the changes to routines and lost opportunities.

“I think we’re seeing some kids that have found some ways through it,” Barr said.

“They’re coming up with some routines or healthy habits for themselves, changing their schedule around a little bit to make sure that they’re fitting in time to take care of themselves, or an activity that they like to do like exercising, or they’re finding ways to interact with friends virtually.” PJC David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Headlines Sharansky: Continued from page 3

three people, and there was so much life and energy,” he said.

Although he wasn’t certain whether people were taking to the streets on his behalf in those days, Sharansky had convinced himself that “all of the Jews and all of the State of Israel” were fighting for his release.

“I wanted to be sure of this,” he said.

That feeling was a purposeful reminder.

“It’s much easier there in prison, in that

Chanukah: Continued from page 4

reached out. Costantino had previously attended the Chanukah celebration at Sinagoga Ner Tamid del Sud, and, determined to keep the practice going, suggested his church as a possible venue.

Aiello accepted the offer, and last week, while social distancing, she and Costantino welcomed Calabrians to the holiday event.

Taking turns, the two spiritual leaders

small cell, to feel yourself connected to all the Jewish world than when you are in the government and chairman of the Jewish Agency,” Sharansky said, referring to a post he held from 2009 to 2018.

When holding a position in government, he said, there are people “who you are more connected to, those who you disagree with, there are debates, conflicts.” Prison didn’t present those scenarios. “It was an ideal place to feel that all of us are united in one struggle.”

Although later years presented challenges in regard to economic, security and social problems facing the Jewish state, the human

rights activist said he remains optimistic.

“There were many things which I was unhappy about — I was resigning from the government, there was criticizing the government, there was this, that — but with all this, I really feel [Israel] is by far the best place,” said Sharansky. Israel is where “you as a Jew can see, enjoy, the real free life.”

More than three decades after arriving in Israel to the greetings of politicians and throngs of supporters, Sharansky still appreciates the complexity of his journey.

“I had the unique experience of going in one day from hell to paradise, straight,” he said. “So,

now, 34 years later, when you are in the sky, you can only go down, and I’m still in paradise.”

Those words conveyed the precise message CWB wanted to share by inviting Sharansky to speak, said Gur. Sharansky’s message, reaching more than 200 people — from Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, Israel, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, the United Kingdom and 23 U.S. states — is “inspirational, and gives us light and hope,” said Gur. PJC

offered prayer, first in English then in Italian.

“Adon olam, Spirit of the Universe, God of our understanding, You are called by many names.

The words we use to honor you are different and diverse. Help us see that beneath all these differences we are all connected,” said Aiello, followed by Costantino’s Italian translation.

Along with kindling 50 menorahs to mark the seventh night of Chanukah, joining Costantino in the blessing was moving, explained Aiello. As an interfaith partner,

Costantino not only ensured the vitality of this year’s Chanukah celebration, but has been a friend during darker periods as well.

“In the days following the Tree of Life tragedy, Don Antonio and our mayor, Felice Molinaro, approached me to organize a memorial for those who were killed,” Aiello said.

There’s a personal connection that’s felt between southern Italians and Pittsburghers, the rabbi noted.

“At the turn of the last century, literally dozens of families left the poverty of Calabria to find a better life in America,”

Aiello said. “Interestingly, the majority of these families settled in Pennsylvania, many in Pittsburgh.”

Aiello hopes when travel restrictions are lifted, “Pittsburghers will consider a visit to Italy, especially to Calabria,” she said. “I hope that they will come to Serrastretta to connect with Calabresi who feel such a strong connection to them and who are ready to share a smile, a hug and, of course, a meal.” PJC

West Virginia: Continued from page 8

permanent presence in a place where Jewish communities are getting smaller and smaller,” said Gurevitz, who with his wife, Hinda, has seven children.

Georgia Katz DeYoung grew up in Martinsburg, a town in West Virginia about 90 minutes from Washington, D.C. She went away for college but came back to manage her father’s downtown department store, George Katz & Sons.

At its peak in the early ’50s, Martinsburg had 60 Jews. Its synagogue, Beth Jacob Congregation, opened in 1912 in a former church as an Orthodox shul, became Conservative when it moved downtown in 1952 for the convenience of local merchants, and turned Reform before closing down in the late ’60s.

“As industry began to fade, the merchants also left Martinsburg,” said DeYoung, who now lives in New York. “There were two malls on the outskirts of town, and the chains and restaurants followed, so the downtown became decimated. I could see the Jewish population was getting smaller, and finally they gave up. Last time we were there it had become a church.”

The pandemic’s silver lining

The coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 300,000 Americans and shuttered synagogues across West Virginia and the world. But it has also injected new life into isolated Jewish communities through online prayer services.

At B’nai Sholom Congregation in Huntington, not far from the point where West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky meet, nearly 300 people tuned in for online services on Yom Kippur. That’s more than usually attend in-person services at the 111-member congregation.

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 Temple Beth El, a small cinderblock building built in 1935, serves the few Jews left in Beckley, a former coal-mining town in southern West Virginia.

Photo by Larry Luxner

“This is a tight-knit community here,” said Rabbi Robert Judd, who joined B’nai Sholom in April but has yet to hold an in-person prayer service due to the pandemic. “Nobody gave up, nobody threw their hands up in the air. Instead they adapted to technology very quickly. And from what I can tell, people seem to be liking it.”

Wheeling, once the nation’s wealthiest city on a per-capita basis, is home to the state’s oldest synagogue, Leshem Shomayim. Now known as Temple Shalom, the congregation was formed in 1849, even before West Virginia was a state. A century later, services were led by the Zionist luminary Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver.

Now Temple Shalom, with 80 member families, is America’s smallest Reform synagogue with a full-time rabbi; his name is Joshua Lief. About 70% of Wheeling’s Jews

marry outside the faith. The last Jewish wedding here was 12 years ago.

When the pandemic hit, Lief began broadcasting daily Torah lessons via Facebook Live. Temple Shalom typically draws about 90 worshippers for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services, but this year some 350 people tuned into the synagogue’s online services.

“We were forced to figure out how to do this,” Lief said. “Because of the pandemic, we’ve actually increased our level of activity.”

In Charleston, Urecki says B’nai Jacob has not missed a virtual minyan or Shabbat observance since holding its first Zoom service on March 21, which Urecki broadcast from his synagogue’s sanctuary.

“That 5:45 minyan every evening has created a virtual community for people who need community now more than ever,”

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

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

Urecki said. “Many people have left West Virginia but consider B’nai Jacob their eternal homes, and our online Torah classes are bigger than they’ve ever been.”

Yet Urecki wonders what the long-term future holds for West Virginia’s few Jews.

“I’ve been hearing about decline for decades, and I try to push back against this feeling of helplessness,” he said. “We’ve got to find a way to engage younger people, but we have not found that secret sauce yet.”

West Virginia has seen its share of anti-Semitism and bigotry. Its most celebrated politician, the late Sen. Robert Byrd, was a proud member of the Ku Klux Klan as a young adult. A year ago, more than 30 West Virginia correctional academy trainees gave a Nazi salute in a class photo; they were fired. Earlier this year, a local state senator, Robert Karnes, wrote a Facebook post accusing Holocaust survivor and financier George Soros of having “made his fortune selling Jews to the Nazis.”

Yet local Jewish leaders said they feel comfortable here. Urecki said the vast majority of Christians he encounters are deeply respectful of Judaism. When he first arrived in Charleston 35 years ago to take up his new post at B’nai Jacob, Christians greeted him with “shalom” on the streets, and local ministers began calling to see if he could speak at their churches about Judaism.

Following the massacre at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life building, an hour and a half north of Morgantown, Chabad’s Gurevitz said many local Christians reached out to him to offer condolences.

Support for Israel is also a deeply held tenet of evangelical Christianity in West Virginia.

“This is America, and there are obviously anti-Semitic groups in West Virginia, too.

But I don’t think it’s more or less than any other place,” Gurevitz said.

“Personally I feel very safe here. And I would like to believe that if someone tried to hurt us, the community would protect us.” PJC JANUARY 1, 2021 15

Life & Culture ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ soars, then stumbles — FILM —

By Sophie Panzer | Jewish Exponent

F

ans of Israeli actor Gal Gadot had something big to look forward to this Christmas when Warner Bros.

Entertainment released “Wonder Woman 1984,” the long-awaited sequel to director Patty Jenkins’ wildly successful “Wonder Woman,” for streaming on HBO Max. The film picks up some 70 years after the end of “Wonder Woman,” with our undercover Amazon protagonist working a day job as archaeologist Diana Prince and thwarting criminals anonymously in her spare time.

Despite her success, she is still mourning the death of her pilot boyfriend, Steve Trevor, after he sacrificed himself to protect humanity from a deadly weapon during their escapades in World War I. While working at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., Diana meets new colleague Barbara Minerva, a social outsider played to awkward perfection by Kristen Wiig. When the museum is asked to identify a mysterious artifact, Barbara and Diana are drawn into a greedy businessman’s plot to grant everyone in the world their deepest desires.

The first half of the film is full of everything that made the first movie delightful and groundbreaking. The opening scenes on the Amazonian island of Themyscira, where Lilly Aspell’s young Diana is participating in an epic test of strength and skill, are perfect in every way. Jenkins’ use of slow-motion once again avoids the cliché that plagues action movies because it highlights the strength and agility of the Amazons without overly sexualizing them, which is rare for women’s bodies on screen. Gadot’s battle scenes throughout the film are also beautifully choreographed.

Jenkins is to be commended for her attention to detail and her commitment to continuity between the two Wonder Woman films. She takes the fish-out-of-water comedy that served as the source of the first movie’s charm and reapplies it to Steve’s miraculous — and kind of creepy — arrival in the ’80s.

Diana’s confusion at restrictive Victorian women’s fashion in the London department store provided plenty of laughs, and Chris Pine imbues Steve with pure, hilarious joy at things like escalators, fanny packs and the

GET THE

 Gal Gadot as Diana Prince in “Wonder Woman 1984”

latest in aviation technology.

Fans of the first film may notice the visual parallels Jenkins creates; in the original, Diana’s shiny armor is a literal bright spot in the muted grays and browns of Europe’s smog-smothered cities, besieged towns, muddy trenches and pallid soldiers. The striking color contrast represents her perseverance and hope, even when all seems lost.

In 1984, which Jenkins interprets as an age of glorified greed, Diana’s timeless, minimalist outfits in white and navy are meant to be a tasteful alternative to the neon pink leg warmers and aqua workout suits that the masses have embraced. This time, her visual presence advocates for moderation in the face of excess.

The plot starts to get shaky as the film develops its two villains: Wiig’s Barbara, who later becomes the bloodthirsty Cheetah, and Pedro Pascal’s Max Lord, the con man desperate for success as his pyramid scheme

collapses. Their insecurities drive them to embrace the power of an ancient, powerful stone that grants wishes while exacting a terrible price.

Wiig channels her comedic chops to make the motivations of insecure Barbara ring true to anyone who has ever been jealous of a more beautiful, popular friend who appears to have it all. Pascal’s Max is also compelling, as his motivations stem from a deep emotional vulnerability that has to do with his young son, Lucian Perez’s Alistair.

The two villains together, however, are just chaotic, and their competing backstories and character arcs are the main reason the film runs a whopping 2 hours and 32 minutes.

Despite the length, many key plot points feel glossed-over.

Audiences get a hint of this problem when Diana enters her flat for the first time.

Jenkins seems to have anticipated a burning question raised by the time gap between

Courtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment

World War I and 1984: What was this superhero doing to stop the atrocities of World War II and the Holocaust? She answers with a long zoom-in of an old photograph of Diana alongside men in striped prison uniforms, suggesting she played some role in liberating concentration camps, but we never get more information than that.

This vagueness continues when Steve magically returns. The mechanism of his reanimation is given a short but far from satisfactory explanation, and the audience is expected to run with it despite the multiple troubling questions it raises. The origin of the wishing stone is equally vague, and the consequences of wishes gone amok happen so quickly it’s hard to process the world’s descent into chaos.

The movie is ultimately worth a watch for the breathtaking visuals and action sequences alone, but fans of the first film will feel some storytelling magic is missing. PJC

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Celebrations

Torah

Birth

In each generation, there are ‘Josephs’ in our midst

Aaron and Emily Weiss are proud to announce the birth of their son Carson Timothy Weiss on Nov. 6, 2020. Carson was born at 9 pounds 7 ounces.

His paternal grandparents are Jeffery and Randi Weiss, and his maternal grandparents are Timothy and Angela Bittle.

Carson’s Hebrew name is Yaakov Israel, in honor of his Saba Jeffery and his late great-grandfather “Papa” Ed Evans. PJC

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Rabbi Mendel Rosenblum Parshat Vayechi Genesis 47:28 – 50:26

T

he ending of this week’s Torah portion, which is also the completion of the entire book of Bereishit, is very perplexing. Here is what the verse says: “Joseph died at the age of one hundred and ten years; they embalmed him and he was placed in a coffin in Egypt.”

Why doesn’t the book of Bereishit conclude on a more inspiring note? Why must it finish with a gloomy and despairing ending — Joseph’s death and burial? For thousands of years, the classical Jewish sages have made a special effort to conclude their written works and talks on a positive note. Even if the subject matter was not upbeat, there would always be an effort to have a conclusion that would invigorate readers and listeners with a message of hope and promise.

Even if the Torah felt compelled to culminate with Joseph’s death, it could have ended with the penultimate verse of Bereishit: “Joseph told his brothers: ‘I am about to die, but G-d will indeed remember you and bring you up out of this land to the land that He swore to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob ... You will bring my bones up out of here.” At least that would have ended the book with a promise for future redemption.

This question becomes even stronger upon considering the Jewish custom that when the reader of the Torah concludes each of the Five Books of Moses (as will occur this Shabbat morning), the entire congregation thunders out loud: “Chazak! Chazak! Venischazak! — Be strong! Be strong! Let us be strengthened!”

But how can one gain strength, never mind triple strength, from this despairing end?

In January of 1987, in a very moving talk on the Sabbath of the portion of Vayechi, the Lubavitcher Rebbe addressed this very question.

He suggested it is precisely this ending that grants us a deeply moving and comforting message.

Unfortunately, we cannot live life without pain and every life comes with challenges.

What a person must know is that they are empowered to deal with the pain and that they are not alone in it.

“Joseph died at the age of one hundred and ten years; they embalmed him and he was placed in a coffin in Egypt.” In these seemingly uninspiring words, one may sense profound inspiration. The Jewish people are about to become enslaved and subjugated to a tyrannical government that will attempt to destroy them. This new Egyptian genocide program will drown children, subject all Jewish men to slave labor and crush a new nation. What will give the people of Israel

the resolve they will desperately need? What will preserve a broken and devastated people from falling into despair?

But then, when Bereishit chooses its final words, they provide us with a message that perhaps served as the greatest source of strength for an orphaned and broken Jewish family: “Joseph died at the age of one hundred and ten years; they embalmed him and he was placed in a coffin in Egypt.”

Joseph’s sacred body is not taken back to the Holy Land to be interred among the spiritual giants of human history — Abraham and Sarah; Isaac and Rebecca; his father Jacob or his mother Rachel. Joseph’s spiritual and physical presence does not “escape” to the heavenly paradise of a land saturated with holiness. Rather, Joseph remains etched deeply in the earthiness of a depraved Egypt, together with his beloved people.

Joseph insisted that he remain in Egypt with his people to act as the ultimate symbol of survival, for it was Joseph who was able to thrive even as he was torn away from his family and sent down to Egypt. If the Jewish people ever despaired, they could look at Joseph’s model and gain tremendous inspiration from his remarkable life.

The Jews may be entrenched in Egypt and all that it represents, but Joseph is right there with them, in the midst of their condition, giving them strength, blessings and fortitude.

In each generation, G-d plants such “Josephs” in our midst — those inspiring figures who are there with the Jewish people motivating us and lifting us up through our challenges. Some “Josephs,” like the original one in our story, operate on a global level and others on a local level.

This message is very personal to me, as I mourn the loss of my parents, Rabbi Ephraim and Mrs. Miriam Rosenblum OBM. Both of them were legendary figures in the Pittsburgh community and role models or “Josephs” for our family, the community and beyond. They lifted us up and inspired us in countless ways.

Sometimes, even after their passing, if we open our hearts, we can feel the touch of their soul, the richness of their spirits, the faith of their lives. We may be stuck in the quagmire of “Egyptian” exile, yet “Joseph” is present with us. Thus, even in the midst of a dark and bitter exile, we can hold each other’s hands and thunder aloud: “Chazak! Chazak!

Venischazak! — Be strong! Be strong! Let us be strengthened!” PJC Rabbi Mendel Rosenblum is director of Chabad of the South Hills. This column is a service of the Vaad Harabanim of Greater Pittsburgh.

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Obituaries LEFKOWITZ: Stanford Alan Lefkowitz, age 88, of White Oak, passed away peacefully on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2019, surrounded by his loving family.

He was born in McKeesport on June 23, 1931, and is the son of the late Carl and Rose Lichenstein Lefkowitz. Stan was the beloved owner of Penn Taft Pharmacy which has cared for generations of West Mifflin residents for the last 70 years. A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh in accounting and Duquesne University in pharmacy, Mr. Lefkowitz also served the nation as a Navy Corpsman for the U.S. Marines. He was the Alumni Of The Decade for Duquesne, president of the Allegheny County Pharmaceutical Association, proctor for interns for the Pharmacy School for hundreds of pharmacy students, and sponsored scores of little league baseball teams.

Stan was very involved in the community.

Stan Lefkowitz was kind and compassionate — loved by everyone who knew him, and always left folks feeling encouraged and better about themselves. He is survived by his loving wife of 62 years, Regina Ruth Mendel Lefkowitz; son, Howard (Harriet) Lefkowitz of Las Vegas, Nevada; daughters, Charlene (Kenneth) Saenz of Potomac, Maryland, and Sherri (John) Foster of Vienna, Virginia; and grandchildren, Laura Beth, Noah and Justin.

MILLER: Ruth L. Miller, on Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2020. Beloved wife of the late Bertie Miller.

Beloved mother of Sari Miller (Michael Werner) and the late Louis (surviving spouse Sheila) Miller. Grandma of Zachary Miller.

Sister of Selma Lenchner and the Lenchner family of Toronto, Canada. Services and interment private. Contributions may

be made to Family House, 5245 Centre Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15232 or MakeA-Wish Foundation, 707 Grant St., #3700, Pittsburgh, PA 15219 or Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh, 826 Hazelwood Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15217. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. schugar.com REITER: Charlotte Reiter passed away peacefully in her home surrounded by her family on Dec. 26, 2020. She was the loving mother of Marc Reiter (Eishel Salas) and Raimee (Jeff ) Gordon, proud Gammie/ Gingi to Noa Reiter and Hannah and Zach Gordon and devoted sister to Rosalyn (Ivan) Platt. She also loved her cousins and nieces.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Sally and Samuel Berger, and her significant other, Jack Levin. The family is grateful to her loving caregivers. She was a sweet, kindhearted woman who was loved by all. She had a quiet determination, a quick sense of humor and never complained.

She had a profound love and devotion to her family. She will be deeply missed.

Donations in her memory may be made to the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation or to the Alzheimer’s Foundation. Due to COVID19, graveside service and interment were private. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. schugar.com STEIN: Shirley Helen Stein, age 86, of Mt. Lebanon, passed away peacefully on Monday, Dec. 21, 2020. Survived by her children: Steven Kaplan (Linda), Randy Kaplan (Lynn), William Kaplan, Karen Blum (Jeffrey) and Jamie Kaplan. Also seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. Sister of Ralph Lewis. Service was held privately by the family. Services entrusted to William Slater II Funeral Service, Scott Township. slaterfuneral.com PJC

SEND OBITUARY NOTICES AND REQUESTS FOR MORE INFORMATION TO

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Anonymous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Louis Landau

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Anonymous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ronald C . Rosen

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Susan Cohen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Blanche Schwartz

Mrs . and Mr . Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ruth Kwall Land

Paula Cramer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Giddy Levine Keizler Gottlieb

Marion Reznik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Isadore Bergstein

Marc Darling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . James Darling

Deanna Love Rutman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Charlotte Cohen Love

Edythe Greenberg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Katherine Lincoff

Andrea J . Sattler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .William Spokane

Sue and Richard Linzer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sidney Linzer

Mr . Stampahar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Samuel Levine

THIS WEEK’S YAHRZEITS — Sunday January 3: Eva Abrams, Herman Auerbach, Charles Bardin, Shirley Berger, Bella Bliman, Nessa Bogden, Samuel Brill, Anna Briskman, Molly Brookner, Gertrude Cohen, Ithiel A. Cohen, Miriam Gusky Dajczmann, Philip L. Drosnes, Philip B. Eatman, Rachel Edelstein, Anna Kitman Epstein, Ida Feinberg, Dov Baer Friedland, Gerson E. Friedlander, Jennie Friedman, Mary L. Furman, Joseph Garner, Charles H. Gold, Bessie Goldberg, Lena Stein Golden, Morris Goldhamer, Gilbert Goldman, Rudolph Hanau, Isadore L. Horewitz, Jennie Fried Kadetsky, Martin Ronald Katz, Ernestine Gold Klein, Samuel Levy, Katie Levy, Ben Lipsitz, Ida Makler, Mildred Broida Markowitz, Sam Mellon, Margaret Weinberg Milligram, Diana Parnes, Rose Pitler, Rose Pittler, Herschel Pretter, Sol Rattner, Abe Rauh, Nathan Rosenthal, Nathan Roth, Yetta Lewis Samuels, Samuel Sapeer, Tereza Schlesinger, Rebecca Schwartz, Mollie Sedler, Herman Skirble, Sarah Sugerman, Harry E. Talenfeld, Jennie Vishik, Marcus Wagman, Charles Wasbutzky, Therese Wechsler, Lt. Stanley Weiner Monday January 4: Reuben Abromovitz, Edith Alber, Isaac Joseph Bachrach, Harry Myer Baker, Lena Barr, Maurice H. Bloom, Harry Caplan, Max Chersky, Abe R. Cohen, Lena Diamond, Jean Eckstein, Gerald Field, Jennie Fienberg, Irwin Firestone, Rae Cohen Frank, Joseph Frankel, Isadore Gedunsky, Annie Genstein, Martha Goldblum, Sheina Goldstein, Belle S. Goodman, Clara Schutte Gordon, Clara Green, Celia Greenstein, Anna Herz Herzberg, Sidney Himelblau, Samuel Horwitz, Sylvia S. Kahn, Gilbert Joel Katz, Edward L. Kimball, Hilda Krause, Rose Krause, Jacob Krimsky, Elinore Leff, Isadore Leibovitz, Harry Leventon, Minnie Lewine, Leonard Lipsky, Esther Madel, Lou Maglin, Alexander Zesha Markovitz, Sarah Mervis, Harry Meyer, Jean Merwitzer Nydes, Ziesel Ortenberg, Barry Milton Platt, Rev. Rubin Rabinovitz, Malka Shanblatt Rosenthal, Libby Rothman, Rose Rubinstein, Jeffie Schreiber, Aaron Shapira, Rachel Leah Solwitz, Sadie Speiser, Yetta F. Weinberger, Rose Weisman, Milton Wiener, Max Xhersky, Harry Young, Charles Zeiger Tuesday January 5: Sarah Abels, Joseph Altman, Morris Barrish, Fannie T. Beerman, Celia Berman, Chester M. Berschling, Bertha Plotkin Bierman, Max Bloom, Louis Blum, Leona Ruth Broad, Esther Burnstein, Harry Chaitkin, Florence Cohen, Joseph S. Cohn, Max Deaktor, Meyer Dizenfeld, Dr. Robert Diznoff, Celia Feith, Sol Feldman, Nathan Florman, Freda Frank, Herbert I. Frank, Hillel Freed, I. Leon Friedman, Benjamin Goldberg, Herman Goldberg, Rebecca Goldberg, Rena Ray Goldbloom, Alison Beth Goldman, Adele Greenfield, Max Greenstein, Beverly Haber, Gedalia Harris, Harry Harris, Jennings Hoffenberg, Esther Horovitz, Hyman I. Kopelman, Louis Fabian Lefkowitz, Louis Levin, Anna Levinson, Ella Ruth Levy, Dr. Sheldon M. Lubow, Rita Lupovich, Louis J. Marks, David C. Mervis, Ethel Siff Miller, Katie Nelson, Jessie R. Nevins, Rachel Numerosky, Saul Osachy, Nathan Ostrow, Pauline Reznick, Louis Robinson, Louis Rosen, Henry Schor, Albert Shaer, Julius Lewis Shamberg, Mollie Sherman, Abraham Sidransky, Elimalech Sigman, Sam Sirocca, Pfc. Sanford Sivitz, Lena Soffer, Anna Steinitz, Norbert Stern, Rose Weiss Wednesday January 6: Annie F. Anathan, Harry Berger, David Berman, Sadye P. Bitterfield, Jacob Bloom, Bessie Bonn, Harry Chatkin, Hyman Cohen, Maurice Cohen, Bessie Coltin, Dora Feinberg, Kenneth Frankel, Yitzchok Friedman, Lillian Garenburg, Jack Ginsburg, Robert Jacob Glueck, Abraham Goldbloom, Rebecca Gratz, Thomas Greenberg, Jesse B. Guttman, Ida Katz, Cecile G. Kluger, Abraham Koch, Tinnie Lange, Benjamin Levine, Claire W. Lichtig, Samuel Marks, Libbie Miller, Dr. Emerson N. Milligram, Arthur Moskowitz, Jacob Neiman, Ruth Friedman Oshry, Howard David Oshry, Morris Persky, Morris Price, Nathan Ripp, Esther I. Robin, Joseph Rosenberg, Jennie Rosenbloom, Mollie G. Rosenbloom, Benjamin Rosenblum, Ralph Hyman Rosenthal, Rose Golomb Ryave, Pearl Salkovitz, Blanche Schnitzer, Esther K. Schuetzman, Sarah Shugerman, Irving Harold Silver, William N. Silverman, David Silverstein, Max Simon, Samuel A. Steinberg, Abraham Teplitz, Rosalind Dym Teplitz, Blanche Thompson, Morris David Weis, Freda Winerman, Jennie Zionts Thursday January 7: Helen Bloom, Perry S. Brustein, Julius Caplan, Arthur Cohen, Israel Cohen, Joseph Darling, Eva Davidson, Abraham Dinnerman, Toby Libbie Feinberg, Ella R. Finn, Lottie Gerber, Fannie Gibbons, Max Gibbons, Anna F. Glick, Dr. Hyman D. Goldberg, Hyman D. Dr. Goldberg, Rhea Golden, Max E. Goldman, Bessie Goldstein, Leon Greizman, Charles Gross, Rae Halpern, Ruth S. Harris, Bella Horovitz, Fannie Adler Kahn, Miriam Kaufman, Peter Kaufman, Pincus Kaufman, Rae Kleinerman, Frank Krakoff, William Kramer, Samuel Love, Janet Martin, Rebecca Podietz, Isadore J. Rosenthal, Louis Schwartz, David Shapiro, Joseph Sokolow, Nathan S. Spanel, Rebecca Spokane, Isaac Sunstein, Manuel Joseph Topp, Max Venshancey, Israel Wayne, Jack E. Wise Friday January 8: Ralph R. Abel, Henry Abramovitz, Morris J. Ackerman, Paul Adler, Philip D. Alter, Jessse Bamberger, Bertha Berkowitz, Bertha Boharas, Jessie Carlis, Eva Cohen, Abner Crumb, Reva Lippard Davis, Lottie Dobkin, Leora Ecker, Rosalind Elpern, Martin Falk, Max Feinstein, Rose Finkelstein, Lillian Adlow Friedberg, Lena Friedlander, Rhea Friedman, Louis Gettis, Samuel Glick, Dr. Robert Stanley Goldbloom, Harris Goodman, Benjamin Gorman, Nell Schechter Greenberger, Fannie Greenwald, Eva S. Half, Marc Alan Hersh, Morris Hoffman, Esther Horvitz, Rose Jacobson, Louis Judkovitz, Nathan Kaufman, Sydney L. Kaufman, Jr., Julius Kertman, Abraham Krieger, Harry Lazier, Sam Levine, Abraham Lichter, Molly Liebovitz, Murray S. Love, George Marcus, Mary Michael Marks, Sara Marmins, Lewis Meyer, Mary Zweig Miller, Samuel H. Pachter, Sam Perilman, Lillian Rambach, Sarah Rosen, Mark H. Rossen, Edith Schwartz, Meyer Seegman, Morris Shapira, Esther Sher, Hannah Sobel, Dora Cornrich Weiner, Lena Weinstein, Marian Weiss, Meyer Weiss, Ida Finkel Williams, Dr. Michael M. Wolfe Saturday January 2: Anna Rose Toby Alpern, Jeremias Becker, Simon Beigel, Leah Berman, Donald Marvin Bernnard, Laura Adelsheim Bickart, Leon Bluestone, Oscar Bluestone, Oscar Blustone, Max Boodman, Rebecca Botkin, Martin Braun, Martin Braunstein, Sarah Brenner, Marcus Buck, Israel Chaiken, Rose Czitter, Dr. Jacob R. Davis, William G. Dubin, Edward L. Feinberg, Myer Feldstein, Maurice Fischman, Fanny Frankel, Belle Firestone Freedman, Harry Friedman, Irving Friedman, Abraham Gershenson, Herbert A. Gold, Max Goldfein, Jacob Goldstein, Mary Gottlieb, Frances Kendal Haberman, Anna Harris, Benjamin M. Harris, Julius Harris, Phillip Kaufman, Lt. Stanford Kay, Mary Klein, Casriel Lafer, Isadore E. Lample, Max T. Levine, Charles H. Levine, Anna Lewis, Sol Lieber, Harry Lincoff, Alvin Lippard, Joseph Littman, William Lubow, Morris Mazefsky, Morris Mazersky, I. H. Mendelson, Dr. Joseph William Mendoza, Mendel Miller, Mortimer Gerson Millin, Rose Myers, Bessie Pudles, Dorothy Cottler Richman, Fannie Rachel Romanoff, Israel P. Rothman, Berel Louis Sachs, Dorothy B. Schneirov, Rose Serbin, Joseph Smolevitz, Louis (Happy) Solomon, Lena Star, Caro Talisman, Kivie Wolfe, Sam Yoshpa, Ida Zeff, Abe Zwang

Did You Know?

Anshe Lubovitz Cemetery– Shaler Township For more information about the JCBA, to inquire about plot purchases, to view full histories, to volunteer, and/or to make a contribution please visit our website at www.jcbapgh.org, email us at jcbapgh@gmail.com or call the JCBA at 412-553-6469.

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

The roots of Anshe Lubovitz are in the Russian town of Schedrin. This special seat of Jewish learning became a government center and region of commerce. It thrived for over 100 years, and included over 1,400 Jews. Yosef Chaim Weiner had arrived on the Hill in the early 1900’s, and brought a Torah with him. Anshe Lubovitz bought a home on Roberts Street in 1907. A cemetery in Shaler Township was purchased in 1910, and unfortunately for Weiner, it was none too soon. He passed away in 1911, and was the first burial at the cemetery. Other notable burials include Reliable Luggage Company founder Samuel L. Weiner, and Nathan Liff, Pittsburgh boxer, trainer and manager. Anshe Lubovitz joined the JCBA in 2020.

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Headlines Beth Israel: Continued from page 2

Posner and her family moved from Squirrel Hill to Washington because of her husband David’s work. She recalled that when living in the city, the family sampled various congregations.

“When you live in Squirrel Hill, you have lots of options,” she said. “When we moved here, I said the people are so warm and welcoming, there was no reason to look anywhere else.”

Washington had a vibrant Jewish community at one point, said David Posner.

“For our 100th anniversary, one of our members gave a talk remembering walking down Main Street 20 years earlier,” he recalled. “There were Jewish merchants all the way up and down the street. No longer.

There are almost no Jewish lawyers left, no Jewish doctors left, no Jewish merchants left.

Henkin: Continued from page 5

as “a sense of balance between the halacha and the realities of the community.”

“He brought that kind of balance, of gradualism, in making advances particularly for women in the community, which was clearly a substantial focus of his in his writing,” Berman said.

In his legal opinions, Henkin could be forceful. He stuck up for his grandfather’s position that women could recite the Kaddish, the mourner’s prayer, in synagogue along with the men. He argued that women could fulfill the obligation to hear the megillah on Purim by reading it for themselves or by hearing another woman read it, but that women could not read megillah on behalf of men.

Even in his first volume of Bnai Banim, his collected opinions published in 1981, Henkin began evaluating questions related to contraception and how women could attend synagogue services while caring for young children — issues that became more central to Jewish legal discourse years later.

“In many ways he anticipated and pioneered decades of halachic discussion,” said Laurie Novick, a yoetzet halacha who worked closely with Rabbi Henkin on Nishmat’s yoatzot website, yoatzot.org, to which women can submit Jewish legal

“The Jews have moved out of this small town,” Posner continued. “Frankly, in all of Pittsburgh’s surrounding towns, the Jewish congregations are dying. It’s a recurring problem.”

Despite his bullishness on the new Shabbat service attendees, Gilman knows the congregation will still face challenges when the pandemic ends.

“Unfortunately, as we end 2020, we’re not growing, we’re downsizing,” he said.

Beth Israel has tried several different things to attract new members, including reduced or pay-what-you-can dues. While those policies have failed to attract a younger generation more averse to joining religious institutions than their parents, they have helped current members like Sekel.

“We don’t turn our noses up at people that can’t afford to pay dues,” she said. “If I were to go somewhere else, I couldn’t afford the dues.

I know they would cut me a break, but then I

would have to negotiate my dues every year.

I don’t want to have to do that. Beth Israel is thrilled that I’m willing to come to their minyans and bring two other Jewish adults with me. What I pay them in dues, they’ll take.”

The congregation’s spiritual leader, Rabbi David Novitsky, noticed a decline in the number of attendees after the massacre at the Tree of Life building in October 2018.

“People were scared to attend services,” he said. “Our synagogue has also gone through hard times the last two years. People have passed away.” The rabbi, while pleased that more people are tuning in for Shabbat services online, knows that it can’t replace meeting in person.

“We miss being social,” he said. “We miss talking, discussing issues of Jewish law. We miss the food. We miss the potato latkes.”

In fact, the congregation had to cancel its largest social event — its annual Chanukah celebration — due to COVID-19 restrictions.

“We would have a festival,” Gilman said.

“We’d have a band come in. Because of COVID, we didn’t have it this year.” Instead, the congregation added Chanukah songs to its traditional Friday night Shabbat service.

“We still try to have some semblance of recognizing special events,” Gilman said.

Despite dwindling membership, those who are still at Beth Israel are committed — and there might yet be another chapter to the congregation’s story.

“If the building were sold after COVID, we would find a hotel and rent it every weekend,” said Sekel. “Maybe it would even be in someone’s house. I feel an obligation to them. They got me through a lot. I felt alone in the world and they said, ‘We need you.’ That feeling has never gone away. I would never leave until the day they tell me they don’t need me anymore.” PJC

questions relating to taharat hamishpacha.

But he also disagreed with certain positions taken by the more progressive wings of the Orthodox community.

While Henkin believed there was no major legal issue with the women’s prayer groups that became popular in the 1980s, where women led prayer services for women, he wrote that he was not certain enough to issue a ruling and left it up to greater authorities or local rabbis to decide for their own communities. And he made clear his disagreement with proponents of partnership minyanim, in which women can lead parts of the service and read from the Torah for men and women, when they became popular in more recent years.

“He did not really believe that just because you could make a halachic case for something that the community should, of necessity, move in that direction,” Berman said.

Rabbi Henkin and his wife agreed on that point, building the yoatzot halacha program in a way that could achieve broad-based support.

“He and Chana together had decided that they would not push for traditional semicha for these women,” Berman said. “They felt that would marginalize them in the community and it would prevent the kind of eventual acceptance that would be achieved by creating changes on the ground.”

And Henkin’s stature as a legal authority helped garner support for the program.

“Could she have started the yoatzot program without him? Yes, she could have,” said Atara Eis, director of Nishmat’s Miriam Glaubach Center educating yoatzot halacha in the United States. “She would have gone to all of the rabbanim and gotten the support and done it in her quiet way and she would have done it.

“But certainly it’s a different level when he simply supported everything she did.”

Even after the yoatzot program was fully established, Henkin remained involved in the program and continued to administer the final oral exams given to its students. He taught the yoatzot how to write responsa, Eis said, providing feedback to ensure that the opinions they produced would be considered authoritative.

In 2017, Nishmat published its first collection of responsa written entirely by women, called “Nishmat Habayit,” one of the first volumes of Jewish legal texts authored by women scholars.

“He taught these women how to write shutim,” Eis said. “That’s learning from the best.”

Berman said the fruits of the early generation of pioneers in securing space for women in serious Torah study in Orthodoxy is now beginning to be felt.

“Everyone who was involved in the promotion of women studying Talmud and women studying Torah understood that out of that group, there would emerge women

whose voices would be so significant that they would impact in very important ways the history of halacha,” he said. “That’s because of all of this groundwork that was laid by many people, but particularly by him and his writings in halacha.”

Chana Henkin acknowledged the support her husband gave to her work and her vision in a eulogy Thursday, saying that even when she traveled to the United States 10 times a year to fundraise for Nishmat, he never protested.

“The story of the seminary is a story of, time after time, you saying ‘do what you have to do,’” she said. “But there is nothing great that I did, that was sketched out by me, without the main one sketching things out being you.”

But the partnership worked in both directions and would last until the very end of his life.

In his final book, a collection of essays on the weekly Torah portion published in November, Rabbi Henkin remembered the weekly Torah study he and Chana would engage in every Shabbat.

“We sat on Friday nights and went over the weekly Torah portion and asked about everything, big or small, and we did the same on Shabbat morning. And at the third meal on Shabbat afternoon we would read the next week’s portion. Many of the questions that we asked at the beginning of Shabbat we had answered by Shabbat’s end,” he wrote. “From those Shabbatot came the kernel of this book and many of my wife’s answers are included within it.” PJC

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

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Community Mitzvah Days 2020 The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh and its Volunteer Center held Mitzvah Days between Dec. 21-25. The annual event enabled volunteers to come together virtually to draw pictures, write letters and learn about various ways to help while staying at home.

As part of Mitzvah Day, the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, in partnership with Vitalant - Pittsburgh and Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, held blood drives on Dec. 24. t Hooked up and ready to give.

Photo by Jim Busis

p Stacie Stufflebeam, of the Michael Levin Lone Soldier Foundation, discussed how Mitzvah Days participants could inspire soldiers in the IDF who do not have family in Israel.

Screenshot courtesy of David Chudnow

Happy birthday, Moshe Baran

Partisan, Holocaust survivor and Pittsburgh Jewish community staple Moshe Baran celebrated his 100th birthday on Dec. 10 (Gregorian calendar) and Dec. 14 (Hebrew calendar).

Although COVID-19 prevented in-person gatherings, Baran was joined online by friends and family who marked his centenarian status.

The group, referred to as “Moshe’s whole spread-out shtetl of people,” watched a 70-minute video of recorded birthday greetings, interspersed with a Yiddish soundtrack and family photos. Compiled by Baran’s grandson Boaz Munro, the tribute included nearly 65 well wishes sent in from residents of Pittsburgh, New York, New Jersey, Florida, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Las Vegas, Jerusalem, Belarus and Berlin. t Centenarian Moshe Baran receives a birthday greeting from daughter Avi Baran Munro.

Screenshot courtesy of Avi Baran Munro

Thoughtful and tasty delivery t JoAnn Lippock and Deb Scheib continued Temple David’s annual tradition by delivering Christmas dinner to local firefighters at Fire House #4 in Monroeville.

Photo courtesy of Temple David

22 JANUARY 1, 2021

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Community Hanging around with Temple David

Happy Chanukah from Hillel JUC

Temple David hosted a virtual havdalah and mezuzah-hanging ceremony on Dec. 19.

Hillel JUC mailed Chanukah gift bags to students across the country. Complete with gelt, candles, dreidels and socks, the packages enabled students to celebrate the holiday with style.

t This mezuzah is purr-fect.

p Two socks are better than one.

u What’s better than a mitzvah and a hug?

p Yummy and versatile treat is good for Chanukah or Passover. p Joseph and Minda Raithel pose with their mezuzahs.

p Marsha and Randy Boswell enjoyed the mezuzah-hanging event.

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Photos courtesy of Temple David

p I can light with a little help from my friends.

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p Pancake portrait with pals Photos courtesy of Hillel JUC

JANUARY 1, 2021 23

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