The Jewish Chronicle July 30, 2015 edition

Globe Deal, or no deal?

What’s Israel’s next move?

Page 8

August 8, 2015 Av 23, 5775

Vol. 58, No. 64 $1.50

Pittsburgh, Pa.

Iran: ‘It’s not just bad for Jews, it’s bad for Muslims too’

Iran deal gets expert treatment at Federation program

BY TOBY TABACHNICK

Photo provided by iStockphoto.com

Senior Staff Writer

Questions and concerns about the Iran nuclear deal were confronted headon by Middle East expert Patrick Clawson last Thursday night at a program sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Community Relations Council.

About 100 community members, including leaders of a host of local Jewish institutions, convened at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh in Squirrel Hill to hear the about the ideological underpinnings of the deal and to better understand its terms and its likely consequences.

Clawson, a senior fellow and director Please see Deal, page 11

With government corruption rampant, Jews — and Muslims — face especially tough conditions.

BY TOBY TABACHNICK Senior Staff Writer

Mark came to the United States from his homeland of Iran when he was a teenager, prior to the Iranian Revolution of 1979. His plan was to attend school in the States for a few years, then head home.

“But once the Islamic Revolution was happening, my father called and said,

‘Don’t even think of coming back,’” Mark recalled.

Mark is one of only a handful of Iranian Jews currently living in Pittsburgh, the majority of whom come from the town of Shiraz, located in the southwest of Iran on the Roodkhaneye Khoshk seasonal river.

Shiraz was once known as “the Jerusalem of Iran,” according to Mark.

The city, which is the sixth most populous in Iran, had an estimated Jewish population of approximately 12,000 to 15,000 Jews in 1948, but by 1956, the Jewish tally decreased to about 8,000 after an emigration wave to Israel. The number of Jews now living in Shiraz is estimated to be about 5,000.

Please see Iran, page 11

BUSINESS 18/ CLASSIFIED 18/ OBITUARIES 15 OPINION 12/ REAL ESTATE 17/ CELEBRATIONS 14 Times To Remember

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Patrick Clawson Photo provided by the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh

2 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE AUGUST 8, 2015

Metro

BY MASHA SHOLLAR Special to The Chronicle

Bows were lifted to strings with the orchestra and audience members waiting and shifting in their seats. A single moment of anticipation hung, suspended in midair, and then a door to one side of the Heinz Hall stage opened and out strode Randy Newman.

Such is his popularity that more than a few members of the audience leapt to their feet and applauded — a standing ovation before even one note had been sung. During the next two hours of last Thursday’s show, Newman, accompanied by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Fawzi Haimor, played some of his biggest pop hits, along with a selection from his film scores. The show was bookended with Newman at the piano, singing often unaccompanied, about everything from love and broken hearts to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Newman was born in Los Angeles in 1948 and has been a professional song-

IF YOU’RE

writer since the age of 17, although some from the younger generation may know him better as the composer of the music behind all of the “Toy Story” films as well as many other Disney/Pixar favorites such as “A Bug’s Life” and “Monsters Inc.” Listening to him perform, one is struck by the range of Newman’s talents. The middle of the show saw Newman, not at the piano, but on the conductor’s platform, as he led the orchestra through a selection of his film compositions, including pieces from “The Natural” and “Avalon,” both of which feature sweeping, epic and stirring music. That he is also the writer of a satirical song that features the line, “Putin puttin’ his pants on, one leg at a time” is a bit of a mind-bender.

Impressive too is Newman’s showmanship. Despite the fact that he’s been touring for many years, performing the same songs and telling the same anecdotes and jokes hundreds of times, it doesn’t seem like just patter or as if it bores him at all. And he’s not the only performer of his generation still hitting the road and staying relevant in the cultural consciousness. “There are

not getting

more people on the road from the ’60s and ’70s than there are from the ’90s.”

Newman made sure to sing crowd favorites, including “The Great Nations of Europe,” “Love Story,” “Marie” and “I Miss You,” which he told the crowd was “a love song I wrote for my first wife while married to my second.”

During “You Can Leave Your Hat On,” the near reverential silence was such that it was easy to hear Newman’s foot tap along in sync on the stage floor.

The fan favorite “Short People” was played sans orchestra, which Newman joked was “through no fault of their own, and I understand it.” The song caused some angst when it first came out, including a memorable push from the Maryland legislature in 1978 to make it illegal to play on the radio, which failed. However, most people enjoy the satirical bent. (I myself have fond associations with the song, having had it sung to me from elementary school clear through to high school graduation by a dear friend who is 6 feet 1 inch to my just barely 5 feet 4 inches.)

Photo by Pamela Springsteen

‘Natural’ entertainer: Randy Newman brings showmanship, songbook to Heinz Hall

Randy Newman

Between songs, Newman told the crowd about his tour around the city earlier in the day, describing Pittsburgh as “really kind of great,” adding that “I like it better than almost any city I’ve been in.” During the finale, he called out to the audience, “I’ll come back,” eliciting cheers and whoops.

The performance closed with Newman singing the classic “You’ve Got a Friend in Me,” after which he returned for an encore performance of “Lonely at the Top” and “I Think it’s Going to Rain Today,” Newman’s most covered song.

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

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THE JEWISH CHRONICLE AUGUST 8, 2015 — 3

METRO Respect, hope drive Israel’s soon-to-be MBC-affiliated center

BY TOBY TABACHNICK Senior Staff Writer

When Sabaa Hassan Sayed first entered the Manchester Bidwell Corporation on Pittsburgh’s North Shore Monday morning, she saw something she didn’t expect.

“It was full of hope,” said the vice head of the Akko Education Department, who was in Pittsburgh this week with a delegation of Israeli Jews and Arabs to learn best practices in preparation for the anticipated year-end opening of an MBC-affiliated center in northern Israel.

That new center, which broke ground on its facility late last year, will provide opportunities for individuals in need to gain valuable employment training in an atmosphere of coexistence, allowing Jews and Arabs “to recognize their similarities and begin forging a better future for Israel,” said William Strickland, president and CEO of MBC in a statement.

Sayed, along with Jane Cynkus, COO and operations project manager of the Akko Center for Arts & Technology (ACAT), spent Monday immersed in the culture that is MBC, observing the formula that has made the project so successful in Pittsburgh.

The replication of the model in Akko will be the first center of its type outside of the United States.

For the last four decades, MBC has reversed the negative trajectory of scores of Pittsburghers through such avenues as photography, horticulture, ceramics and the culinary arts, boosting self-esteem and providing people with skills they can use to find jobs. The MBC model has been successfully replicated in eight locations across the U.S. “We are here to learn its practices and protocols,” Cynkus said, “and see it in action.”

ACAT will offer visual arts programs in 3-D printing and photography to atrisk Arab and Jewish youth. For adults, ACAT will provide career training in

Akko was chosen as the site of MBC’s first overseas project because of its diversity. About 28 percent of the town’s 45,000 residents are Arab, while 70 percent are Jewish. In some neighborhoods in Akko, located in the Northwest Galilee region, Jews and Arabs work together, although their children attend different schools.

While there are other coexistence projects in Israel, Sayed sees ACAT as unique.

“The others are not the same,” she said. “Here, it is something more, something special.”

Other shared society programs in Israel are focused on dialogue, she said, but ACAT will put Jews and Arabs together in an educational environment, where everyone is treated with respect.

In each class of 16 students, there will be two instructors, Cynkus said: one Jewish, and one Arab.

“Everyone will be treated like they are special,” said Mark Frank, of Pittsburgh, a longtime associate of Strickland’s who has been instrumental in getting ACAT off the ground. “And they will develop a unique ability to interact because they’re being treated as special.”

The intended outcome of the program likely will be a more authentic amity, according to Sayed, because it will be a natural result of working together.

Also joining the delegation to Pittsburgh Monday evening were Akko Mayor Shimon Lankri and Ohad Segev, the general director of the Akko municipality who visited the MBC last year.

The contacts made on this trip will be valuable, said Cynkus, to help guide those behind ACAT as the project continues to develop.

“As we stumble and fall along the way, we will know who we can brainstorm with,” she said.

Cynkus hopes that this visit to Pittsburgh will help to create a “ big buzz,” and promote additional awareness and support of the project.

“I think Mark chose a good place for

Cynkus and Sayed were both impressed by the “spirit” of MBC, a nontangible element that could only be assessed by being there. food and beverage management as well as automated machine operations.

Cynkus and Sayed were both impressed by the “spirit” of MBC, a nontangible element that could only be assessed by being there, they said.

“There is something common to everyone who works here,” Cynkus said.

“We saw that’s what will make this project work.”

Those qualities common among the staff of MCB include “a driving commitment, and a belief in the mission,” said Cynkus.

“There is a certain way that people talk to each other here,” she added. “They have a language. You can feel the spirit of this place. There is a lot of respect.”

the project,” she observed. “It seems to fit well in Akko, and I think we can create positive energy and get more people engaged.”

Once Sayed saw the students and teachers in action at MBC, she was certain of the value of the program.

“It’s very amazing,” she said. “The connection between the staff and the students. You feel it.”

The delegation from Akko was to spend the remainder of the week in Pittsburgh meeting with community members and touring the region.

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

From left: Sabaa Hassan Sayed, Mark Frank and Jane Cynkus study best practices at Pittsburgh's Manchester Bidwell Corporation.

Photo by Toby Tabachnick

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4 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE AUGUST 8, 2015

METRO

Destination Israel … to the beat of his own drum

BY MASHA SHOLLAR Special to The Chronicle

Elliot Beck, who will begin his position as the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra’s assistant percussionist and timpanist on Oct. 1, started his musical career not on the drums, but on the violin. Beck said that after starting violin in the first grade, he dropped it several years later when the playing and practicing became more rigorous. His parents wanted him to pick a new instrument, and Beck, who said he “was a stubborn kid,” wanted to pick something that was “a little more rebellious” than classical violin and picked drums at the start of fifth grade.

Beck’s percussion career started with practice pads on the dining room table, which he practiced with for a full year before his parents invested in a kit.

Beck’s playing at this point veered away from the classical, and he played “rock music and a little bit of jazz” for a while as well as participated in a student klezmer band at the School of Advanced Jewish Learning (now J-SITE). At this point, Beck, who graduated from Community Day School in 2000, said he still didn’t view drums as something he could do for a living and said that if friends and teachers from high school were asked what his eventual job would be, they probably would have said some sort of scientist or doctor, based on his love of science and math.

Beck said that in high school, he discovered the timpani, or kettle drums, which he said “had some of the coolest percussion parts” in the classical music canon. They became his focus, and Beck said that a stint in his senior year of high school with the Pittsburgh Youth Orchestra, as well as previous experiences with the Eastern Pittsburgh Youth Orchestra and the Three Rivers Young Peoples Orchestra, inspired him to want to play the timpani more and hone his skills with it, leading him to enroll in Ithaca College and study both chemistry and music. After his freshman year, though, Beck realized that what he really wanted to focus on was music, and he transferred to the University of Michigan as a music major. He received his master’s from Temple University in Philadelphia and then returned home to Pittsburgh, where he completed Carnegie Mellon’s performance residency program.

Elliot Beck survived three rounds of tryouts before gaining a coveted position with the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra.

Photo by Terry Johnston

The importance of a good percussionist in a musical ensemble can’t be understated, said Beck. “At a really basic level, you’re responsible for the rhythm and the beat of the orchestra.” Each percussionist has “a very individual role” as part of a group that comes with “a lot of responsibility and power.” Beck said that while one may not notice a good percussionist, one will “definitely notice” a bad one,

looking for an “all-in-one job” of both assistant percussionist and timpanist and jumped at the chance to apply. He described a rigorous and intensive audition process for the symphony. Beck said that, before a player is even granted an audition with the symphony, he must submit an application detailing his experience, schooling and even teachers he studied under. Then, the audition com-

“If you want to be an orchestral musician, you don’t necessarily choose where you get to live. e jobs are so scarce that you have to follow the work.”

— Elliot Beck since it can throw everything else off.

Beck said that he had been looking on several websites that listed job openings for various symphonies and in January saw that the Israel Philharmonic was

mittee decides “if you meet their criteria” for an audition. “They said yes, and then the actual work began.”

Once given the go ahead for an audition, Beck was given a list of “30 to 40

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pieces from the orchestral repertoire,” which he was expected to be able to play for the audition. While daunting, Beck said that many of the pieces were familiar. Despite that, Beck said he was also undergoing auditions with other symphonies, and so he was unable to focus on the preparation until about six weeks prior to the audition itself. He described “seven or eight hours of practicing a day” to prepare.

The audition itself took place over three consecutive days in July. Beck said that the first day, each prospective percussionist took a place behind a screen and played a selection from what he or she had prepared, some solo pieces, others excerpts from orchestral pieces. After each player had tried his or her hand, many were sent home, while others were invited back for the second day of auditions. Only Beck and two others made it to the second round. This time, famed conductor Zubin Mehta was present, and the percussionists played without a screen. Again, selections from orchestral pieces were played, with Mehta making some changes to them as they went along, checking to see how flexible and adaptable the players were. At the end of the phase, only Beck had made it through to the third and final day, although “typically there would be a few people. So it was up to me to either nail it or bomb it.”

Beck said that after he was told he would return the next day, he was given a list of pieces to have prepared, many of which had never appeared on the original list.

On the last day, Beck performed with the entire orchestra so his interactions with them and with Mehta could be observed. By the evening, after a deliberation by the audition committee, they offered Beck the job.

Beck said that he is “really, really excited” to have a place in this “incredible, world-class” orchestra. Moving to Israel “wasn’t something I planned on,” but he is looking forward to the move.

“If you want to be an orchestral musician, you don’t necessarily choose where you get to live. The jobs are so scarce that you have to follow the work,” and Beck feels lucky, both professionally and personally, that work is taking him to the Holy Land.

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

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE AUGUST 8, 2015 — 5

METRO Briefly A Public School Conversation with the Community Relations Council of

the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh will be held on Monday, Aug. 17 at 7 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center. “What Will School be Like This Year for Your Pittsburgh Public Schools Student?” will be a back-to-school conversation with Linda S. Lane, superintendent, Pittsburgh Public Schools, and Saleem Ghubril, executive director, The Pittsburgh Promise.

Riverview Towers invites the commu-

nity to join the celebration of its 50th anniversary at its Summer Block Party, with carnival games and live entertainment featuring Jimmy Beaumont & the Skyliners on Sunday, Aug. 16 at 4 p.m., with dinner at 5:30 p.m.

Parking will be available at the top of the hill near Weinberg Terrace. There will be an $18 per person charge in advance and $20 per person charge at the door.

Children under 12 are free. RSVP

by Aug. 10 to Phyllis Cohen at pcohen@riverviewtowers.com or 412-521-7876. Visit rivervewtowers.com for more information

6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Green Oaks Country Club, 5741 Third St. in Verona.

Guests are invited to bring their racquets to play with the Israeli team at 5 p.m.

A diverse team of Israeli players and coaches will be flying to the United States to meet members of the Pittsburgh and surrounding Western Pennsylvania communities who are interested in learning more about the work of the Israel Tennis Centers. The ITC uses tennis as a tool to improve the lives of disadvantaged Israeli children of all backgrounds, providing them with essential life skills and values that will allow them to achieve to the best of their abilities. Funds raised during this exhibition will continue to support the Pittsburgh-Karmiel-Misgav Dream Bus initiative as it enters its fourth year.

With the partnership of the Jewish

The Israel Tennis Centers Foundation will hold an exhibi-

tion on Wednesday, Aug. 19 from

Federation of Greater Pittsburgh and the ITC Pittsburgh donors, this program provides transportation to allow more Jewish and Arab children to participate in the Doubles Coexistence program at the ITC-Galilee-Sajur.

The program brings together children from different religions in coexistence programs, promoting understanding, cooperation and friendship on and off the court.

The Israeli players include Loui, a 10-year-old Arab child who lives in Beit Safafa outside of Jerusalem. When Loui was just 6 years old he was invited to participate in the ITC’s Coexistence Program at the Ben B. and Joyce E. Eisenberg Tennis Center in Jerusalem.

Since then, young Loui has become part of the ITC’s high-performance group.

He has also joined the ITC’s National Team, traveling to Ramat Hasharon to practice and meet new friends from all over Israel.

Guests will meet the Israeli team and hear their stories. The evening will include cocktails, hors d’oeuvres and dessert.

The ITC is a nonprofit that works the medium of sport to enhance the development of Israeli youth. Since opening its first center in Ramat Hasharon in 1976, the ITC has helped more than a half-million children, many coming from outlying development towns throughout Israel.

The ITC’s 14 centers stretch from

Kiryat Shmona on the Lebanese border in the North to Beer Sheva bordering the Negev Desert in the South.

There is a $50, tax-deductible charge.

RSVPs are requested by Aug. 12. The event will be held rain or shine, and attire is casual.

Contact ITC Development Director Yoni Yair at 954-480-6333 or yyair@israeltenniscenters.org for more information or to attend the exhibition.

Register for the Pittsburgh event at israeltenniscenters.org/form/itc-exhibitionverona-pa.

Rob Menes is

the new executive director at Congregation Beth Shalom. His background combines Jewish theological studies and management skills.

Menes is a cantor, senior executive and an engineer. He has been a full-time cantor for the last nine years following graduation from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2006 and has been a senior level director in government and an executive in the private sector. He has been a member of the board of directors of synagogues as both congregant and clergy and has worked for synagogues as clergy, teacher and volunteer. Menes’ first day at Beth Shalom was Monday, Aug. 3.

Man f red Honeck

It z h ak P e rlm an

Music Director

Violin

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Violin superstar Itzhak Perlman joins Music Director Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra at Heinz Hall for a night of incredible music from the Silver Screen.

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Tickets start at just $35!

For tickets call 412.392.4900 or visit pittsburghsymphony.org/cinema

6 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE AUGUST 8, 2015

METRO

Lithuania’s Great Synagogue, demolished

by Russians, draws archeological attention

BY TOBY TABACHNICK Senior Staff Writer

The Great Synagogue in Vilnius, Lithuania was demolished by Russian troops just 55 years ago, but a local researcher from Duquesne University is already working on preserving its legacy.

Despite the synagogue’s relatively recent destruction, it is nonetheless the subject of an archeological project headed by a worldwide team of experts, including Philip Reeder, dean and professor of the Bayer School of Natural and Environmental Sciences at Duquesne.

Archaeological work undertaken to preserve or reconstruct history does not necessarily have to focus on ancient structures dating back thousands or even hundreds of years, according to Reeder.

Rather, he said, archaeology is about “uncovering any history that is potentially lost, even if it 55 years old.”

Reeder was in Vilnius earlier this summer, participating in the multidisciplinary team’s collection of data about Vilnius’ Great Synagogue, which was one of the largest synagogues in Eastern Europe.

Now mostly Catholic, Vilnius was once called “The Jerusalem of Lithuania” and was home to about 60,000 Jews, constituting about 30 percent of the city’s total population. The Nazis invaded Vilnius on June 24, 1941, and transported its Jews to the nearby forest of Ponary, where they were all murdered by firing squad.

Along with Reeder, the research team at the Great Synagogue includes Richard Freund of the University of Hartford; Harry Jol of the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire; Lithuanian Cultural Preservation archaeologist Zenonas Baubonis; and on-site director of the project, Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist Jon Seligman.

Seligman assembled the team after he learned about initial excavations by Lithuanian archaeologists in 2011, which uncovered parts of the synagogue, including various walls and steps.

Professor Philip Reeder, dean of the Bayer School of Natural and Environmental Sciences at Duquesne University, has been responsible for drawing maps of the Great Synagogue structure.

Photo provided by Philip Reeder

then demolished by the Soviets in 1957.

While housing and a school now sit on the site, some of the synagogue’s original structure remains below the surface, Reeder said.

Reeder has been at work drawing maps of the structure based on information he has obtained through Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), a process orig-

If able to return, the team plans to help locate unidentified mass graves believed to hold the remains of 70,000 Jews and other Lithuanians murdered by Nazis in the nearby Ponary forest.

Seligman has a personal connection to Vilnius, he said, speaking by phone from Israel, as some of his family resided there before World War II. The team is creating plans of subsurface locations of the remains of the Great Synagogue, which first was damaged by the Nazis in the 1940s, and

inally used in the oil and gas industry, that allows one to look beneath the surface of a structure without digging.

The team’s research will be combined with that of the Lithuanian archaeologists’ 2011 work and the work of archivists who have studied documentation about the synagogue, including

plans of the building dating from the late 19th century. Those plans show a complex with 12 separate structures and indicate a 30- by 120-foot bathhouse area, possibly including a mikvah.

“My role is to take the existing information from maps and diagrams, the other archives and our work and pull it together into one map,” Reeder said.

He stressed the imperative of working now to uncover the history of the synagogue.

“Something like this can quickly sink into the oblivion of history and be forgotten,” he said. “It’s recent history, but it still needs to be documented.”

Following their work in Vilnius, Reeder and Jol traveled to Vienna and Brussels to visit similar synagogues dating from the same period as the Great Synagogue.

“To see intact versions of similar structures is very important in terms of visualizing what is buried in Vilnius,” Reeder said.

After as much information as possible can be obtained about the Great Synagogue, Reeder said the goal is to have local authorities, including its current small Jewish community, erect either a memorial or a museum.

It is unlikely the Great Synagogue will be rebuilt for use as a synagogue, at least on the same magnitude, according to Seligman.

“Later on, we’ll see what the possibilities are,” said Seligman, who observed that because the Jewish population of Vilnius is now so small — only about 300 people — rebuilding the large structure for use by a congregation would be impractical.

It could, however, be rebuilt as a cultural institution, Seligman said.

The team is anxious to move the project forward, Seligman said, and is looking for sponsors the help finance an excursion next summer so it can continue its work there. If able to return, the team plans to help locate unidentified mass graves believed to hold the remains of 70,000 Jews and other Lithuanians murdered by Nazis in the nearby Ponary forest.

Reeder, who has been working on various archaeological projects in Israel with this team since 1999, is headed back to Nazareth this week to work at the grounds of the Church of the Annunciation, possibly one of the earliest churches in the history of Christianity. In June, the team discovered a mosaic floor there but halted its work because of Ramadan.

They plan to complete and document the excavation on this trip.

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

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE AUGUST 8, 2015 — 7

Globe Parsing the polls to find where Jews stand on Iran nuclear deal

BY M ELISSA APTER Special to The Chronicle

Millions are being spent on advertisements aimed at swaying the public and putting pressure on lawmakers to either denounce or support the Iran nuclear agreement. But where do American Jews stand on this hot topic?

The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles poll concluded that American Jews support the deal by a margin of 20 percentage points, 48 to 28, while the poll sponsored by J Street found an equal margin of support, but with a 60 to 40 breakdown. By contrast, The Israel Project survey found a slight majority of those polled opposed the deal with 47 percent against and 44 percent in favor.

Jocelyn Kiley, associate director of research at the Pew Research Center, said that given how “malleable” the public is regarding the deal, how questions are framed has a significant impact on respondents’ answers.

Generally speaking, “when you give people a little bit of information, you get a little bit more support for the agreement,” said Kiley.

But, the TIP poll, designed by Nathan Klein, founder of Olive Tree Strategies, found the opposite to be true.

When the nuclear topic was first put in front of respondents, arguments for and against the deal were presented, but in the middle of the survey, respondents were asked to rank from “very concerning” to “not at all concerning” 10 concerns that “foreign policy experts” said they had regarding the deal.

Among the statements respondents were asked to rank were: “Iran will receive an estimated $100 billion-$150 billion in this agreement, money that can be used to support terrorism.” And: “The sanctions on Iran that are related to terrorism, human rights abuses and ballistic missiles will also be lifted despite no progress or promises from Iran on these issues.”

Following the statement section, respondents were asked, “Now that you have some more information, in your own opinion, do you think that Congress should vote to approve the deal and lift sanctions on Iran or reject the deal and NOT lift sanctions on Iran?”

Respondents were asked that same question at three points during the survey.

Near the beginning of the survey, 40 percent approved the deal while 45 percent rejected it. Near the end of the survey, approval of the deal dropped to 30 percent while disapproval rose to 58 percent.

Klein told JTA that he designed the questions to “educate” respondents. He said he wanted to gauge how respondents’ views would change with more information.

However, the methodology Klein employed is not uncommon, said Kiley, particularly if the researcher wants to see how “attitudes changed through additional information given,” but for a “clean read” of public opinion, look to the responses given before additional information or statements are offered to respondents.

Hundreds of people protesting against the Iran nuclear deal on July 26, in Los Angeles.

Photo by Peter Duke

TIP Jewish respondents, when asked: “Recently, the United States and five other countries (known as the P5+1) reached an agreement with Iran regarding the lifting of economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for concessions in Iran’s nuclear program. Based on what you know, do you approve or disapprove of this agreement?” Of the 1,034 respondents, 44 percent approved, 47 percent disapproved, and 9 percent didn’t know or didn’t offer an opinion.

The J Street poll, designed by Jim Gerstein of GBA Strategies, a public opinion research firm that works for Democratic candidates, and administered to 1,000 respondents between July 21 and 23, only asked two questions specific to the Iran nuclear deal, one regarding the deal itself and the other regarding how Congress should vote.

Read one of the two Iran-related questions: “As you may know, the U.S. and other countries have announced a deal to lift economic sanctions against Iran in exchange for Iran agreeing not to produce nuclear weapons. International inspectors would monitor Iran’s facilities, and if Iran is caught breaking the agreement economic sanctions would be imposed again. Do you support or oppose this agreement?”

Respondents had the options of strongly support, somewhat support, somewhat oppose and strongly oppose.

“No opinion” was not an option as it was in the other two surveys.

Klein criticized the omission, telling JTA that it introduced a bias in favor of the Iran deal, but Gerstein pushed back stating that there is widespread distrust of the government, which, if anything, would cause respondents without an opinion to oppose the deal.

That’s the inherent flaw with online surveys, said Kiley. Both the J Street and TIP polls were conducted online. Only the Jewish Journal utilized a telephone survey.

Kiley said it’s a common practice for those administering a phone survey to

not offer “an explicit ‘I don’t know’ as an option, [but] if a respondent doesn’t offer an opinion or if the person says ‘I don’t know,’ that response can be registered; but with an online poll, you don’t

[always] have that option.”

“One of the benefits of phone polls,” she added, “is that there is a probability that any American with a phone can be dialed randomly — weighted for demographics and such — but with online polls, that’s not how they’re designed generally.”

The Jewish Journal’s survey, conducted by phone, called only respondents who identified as Jewish in previous surveys unrelated to the Iran deal. TIP conducted its poll via email, using a third-party company to find self-identified Jews. For the J Street poll, Gerstein contracted with Mountain West Research Center to administer the online survey by email to Jews who identified themselves by religion or consider themselves Jewish.

The wording of the J Street poll question is identical to the ABC NewsWashington Post survey published in late July, done purposefully, Gerstein told JTA, to compare the Jewish-specific survey results against the general population. The ABC News-Washington Post poll results published on July 20 found that 56 percent of Americans supported Please see Iran polls, page 10

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8 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE AUGUST 8, 2015

GLOBE Iran deal or no deal, what’s Israel’s next move?

BY U RIEL H EILMAN JTA

In the not-so-warm afterglow of the announcement of the Iran nuclear deal, two high-ranking Israeli figures — Dore Gold, director-general of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, and Amos Yadlin, former chief of Israeli military intelligence — are making the rounds in the United States talking about how problematic the deal is.

On July 29, they spoke to a receptive crowd in New York City organized by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Yadlin focused on the “disastrous” long-term consequences of the deal, while Gold recited the litany of Iranian sins in the Middle East.

Both men seem to hope Congress kills the agreement by voting to nix it in September (hence their U.S. speaking tour).

If that’s what happens, everyone from Iran to Israel to the U.S. and the rest of the P5+1 negotiating partners — Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany — will have to figure out their next moves.

But if, as expected, Congress fails to muster enough votes to override a presidential veto, Israel will have to figure out how to live with the agreement.

What then?

That’s where things started to get interesting. With so much talk about the deal itself, here finally was some serious consideration about alternatives.

If the deal goes through Israel and the U.S. should have a parallel agreement to compensate for the deal’s shortcomings, said Yadlin, who now heads Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies and in Israeli elections in March narrowly failed to qualify for a Knesset seat with the center-left Zionist Union.

Such a parallel agreement, Yadlin said, should address the following issues: How Israel and the U.S. will continue and deepen intelligence collection on Iran to compensate for imperfect inspections.

What will be considered a serious enough Iranian violation to prompt U.S. reaction, whether snapping back sanc-

Briefly Neo-Nazis attack Orthodox Jew on Zurich street JTA

A group of neo-Nazis harassed, threatened and, finally, assaulted an Orthodox Jew in Zurich, Switzerland’s Jewish community reported.

The incident happened earlier this month but was only recently reported in national media in Switzerland, following the completion of an initial investigation into the case, the Tele Zurich reported this past Sunday.

A group of about 20 far-right thugs made a Hitler salute and shouted antiSemitic slogans at the victim on a central street in Zurich’s Wiedikon district at around 6 p.m. on July 4, according to the Sonntags Zeitung daily.

They made the Nazi salute as two leaders of the group spat at the man in

tions or something else.

How to improve Israeli missile defenses against Iran and Hezbollah.

How to make the Israeli and American military option more credible.

“How are we going to deal with Iranian violations? How are we going to deal with Iranian breakout? How are we going to deal with Iranian negative behavior in the Middle East?” Yadlin said. “My recommendation was for a parlor agreement [between Israel and the United States]. This is, I think, a positive approach toward the future to mitigate the risk of this agreement.”

Gold did not address any particulars of how Israel should prepare to live with the agreement, but he said he was confident the Israeli and U.S. governments would be able to sit down together and figure it out.

“The U.S. and Israel are allies, and when this passes we have to come back to the table as allies and seek how we deal with many of the practical issues that Gen. Yadlin has mentioned,” Gold said.

“We will find a practical way to come up with solutions to a very dangerous situation,” he said. “But in the meantime, we have to tell what we think about this agreement. We have to say the truth even though it’s unpleasant.”

If the U.S. walks away from the deal Gold, a pessimist in insisting Iran is doing all it can to pursue nuclear weapons, sounded optimistic when talking about how Iran might react if Congress were to nix the deal.

“I believe the Iranians will seek a way to come back to a negotiation,” he said.

“It will not be easy, it will be difficult, but I don’t think their interest is in overturning the table, walking away and going for broke.”

Rather, Gold said, “I think the Iranians’ paramount interest is getting rid of the sanctions, and I think that Iran is far more desperate to get rid of the sanctions than the West is for its components of the deal.”

Despite all his exhortations against a

the face and pushed him. At this point, police, alerted by passers-by, intervened.

However, they did not arrest the perpetrators, opting instead to merely ask them to leave the victim alone, according to the Zeitung.

The victim, a man in his 40s who was not named, was on his way home from a local synagogue when the attack happened, according to the daily. Police would offer no further information, citing an ongoing investigation.

Switzerland’s Federation of Jewish Communities said in a statement that the incident was “highly unusual and frightening.”

The alleged leader of the neo-Nazi gang has been referred to in the Swiss press as Kevin G., 27, from Hombrechtikon, a village in the Zurich Oberland area. He is a singer with the far-right rock band Amok.

Herbert Winter, president of the Jewish federation, said the incident was disconcerting because it risks worsening already prevalent fears. “There are

Amos Yadlin, at podium, and Dore Gold, seated at middle, headline a discussion of the perils of the Iran nuclear deal at an event in New York hosted by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

Photo by Zohar Lindenbaum/Conference of Presidents

deal, Yadlin said, “The ‘no deal’ now is much more dangerous than the ‘no deal’ of a year ago, because a deal already has been reached.”

Yadlin outlined three possible scenarios if Congress were to nix the deal: Option 1: Most likely, he said, Iran will resume its behavior from before the November 2013 interim nuclear agreement: building and spinning more centrifuges, renewing its 20 percent uranium enrichment and cutting the time it would take to reach the nuclear threshold from two months to one. Iran likely would not abandon the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty so as not to lose international credibility, and would hope for the collapse of sanctions. Sanctions probably would mostly stay intact, but Iran also would not face a military attack by Israel or the United States. It likely would be another year or two before negotiations resumed.

“It is very difficult to predict whether we are going to conflict or to another round of negotiations,” Yadlin said. “They will hope that they will come to the negotiating table with stronger cards because they have more nuclear capabilities. The other side, of course, will need to build his own card for a new round of negotiations.”

Option 2: Iran continues to abide by current nuclear limitations — agreed to in the 2013 interim agreement — and waits for sanctions to collapse.

parents who instruct their children not to wear a kippah or hide it under a baseball cap on their way to school,” Winter told the Blick daily.

Orthodox Union steps up campaign against Iran nuclear deal Washington Jewish Week

The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America has intensified its campaign to pressure members of Congress to oppose the Iran nuclear deal.

Since the deal was announced, the OU has sent out a slew of national action alerts. But in recent days, it has called on its member rabbis to fly to Washington Sept. 9, just days before Rosh Hashanah, to lobby against the deal, and released a series of new videos via its email list and social media targeting Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Kristin Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.). The Democratic senators remain publicly undecided on how

Option 3: Iran races toward a bomb, betting that America doesn’t have the will to exercise the military option and that Israel, if it has the will to attack, lacks the capabilities to destroy Iran’s nuclear program.

How bad is this deal?

The good news: In the short run, it will shrink the Iranian nuclear program, roll it back by about a year, significantly reduce Iran’s centrifuge capacity, reduce its stockpile of enriched uranium from 12 tons to 300 kilograms, and impose better inspections in declared nuclear areas, Yadlin said, giving the deal’s shortrange elements a B+/A- overall.

The bad news: In the long term it’s a “disaster” that will grant Iran as much nuclear infrastructure as it wants once the agreement expires, leaving Tehran “zero distance” from a bomb, Yadlin said. Meanwhile, Iran will use the infusion of cash it will get from sanctions relief to ship weapons to terrorist organizations. To keep pace with Iran, Sunni Arab nations like Saudi Arabia and Egypt will mount their own nuclear weapons programs and bolster their conventional weapons arsenals, eroding Israel’s qualitative military edge in the region.

“Iran is a challenge,” Yadlin said, “but we are strong and we will be able to cope with it if we do the right thing.”

they will vote and serve communities with significant Orthodox populations.

The Cardin clip, taken from video shot at the OU’s annual leadership mission to Washington, shows the senator declaring, “The agreement must provide an ample enough time before Iran could break out to a nuclear weapon with robust enough inspections that we can find out if they’re cheating.”

“Call or email Sen. Cardin and ask him to vote against the Iran deal because its inspections are not ‘robust enough,’” reads the final image of the 30-second clip.

Cardin, who was instrumental in securing the legislation allowing for the 60-day review period and vote by Congress, will be the focus of an additional digital campaign.

A save-the-date notice for the September lobbying blitz read in part, “We are confident that hundreds of rabbis traveling to Washington on the eve Please see Briefly, page 9

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE AUGUST 8, 2015 — 9

GLOBE After Palestinian baby’s death, Israelis say condemnation not enough rorists. Administrative detention, which allows security forces to detain a suspect without charging him, is commonly used DUMA, West Bank — The smell of stale against suspected Palestinian terrorists. smoke wafted from the burnt concrete As of June, 370 Palestinians were being home now marked by a banner bearing held in administrative detention, some the grinning face of a baby and, in for more than a year, according to bold red letters, a name: Ali Saad B’tselem, an Israeli human rights Dawabsha. group.

Some 100 Jewish visitors Plesner supports the change and trudged hesitantly under the suggested that Israel increase its banner and into the house on use of restraining orders and Sunday to pay respects to the tracking devices on Jewish terrorfamily of 18-month-old Ali, who ists. But B’tselem spokeswoman died Friday morning when susSarit Michaeli criticized the move, pected Jewish arsonists set two saying administrative detention is homes in the village on fire. Ali’s just as unjust for Jews as for parents and his 4-year-old brother Palestinians. Rather, she said, secuare in critical condition at an rity forces need to do a better job Israeli hospital near Tel Aviv. The investigating Jewish attacks and brother, Ahmed, has burns over 60 bringing perpetrators to justice. percent of his body.

According to Light Tag, of 43 The attackers, who have not yet churches and mosques torched or been apprehended, also left vandalized by Jewish extremists Hebrew graffiti on the walls with since 2009, perpetrators have been the words “revenge” and “long indicted for just one incident. live the king messiah.”

“In administrative detention, Inside the house, debris from the you don’t even know what you’re fire clashed with jarring reminders charged with, let alone [having] that just three days earlier, people the opportunity to mount an effeclived here. Packages of food stood tive defense,” Michaeli said. “If on the kitchen counter next to a there is no evidence, the authoripacked refrigerator, now charred. This house in the West Bank village of Duma is where a Palestinian baby was killed in an arson attack. ties should bloody well go and The skeleton of a child’s hobby find evidence and conduct a Photo by Ben Sales horse stood in a blackened corner proper investigation, instead of the of the room. Room by room, the smell of culating here since the July 31 attack that flames, which are consuming all of us, easy way out, which involves violation smoke only grew stronger. this time, gestures aren’t enough. The cannot be extinguished with weak con- of people’s rights.”

Tali Mizrahi, a member of the anti- attack is the latest in a string of Jewish demnations. These flames cannot be Light Tag Chairman Gadi Gvaryahu racism group Light Tag, is overcome by violence that has made international extinguished with solidarity rallies.” also said that the government needs to emotion while visiting the home of a headlines and sent shaken Israelis by the Yohanan Plesner, president of the treat Jewish terrorism more seriously, Palestinian baby allegedly killed by thousands into public squares in protest.

Israel Democracy Institute, urged the and acknowledged that sending a large Jewish arsonists.

In June, Jewish arsonists torched the government to adopt harsher methods group of Jews to Duma three days The Jewish visitors, who were organ- Church of the Multiplication in northern with terror suspects, even at the risk of after the attack may have inflamed ized by a group called Light Tag, a coali- Israel. On Thursday, an extremist infringing on their civil rights. tensions. But he said the trip was still tion that opposes anti-Arab racism, had stabbed six people at the Jerusalem Pride “We’re not preventing enough,” Plesner valuable, if only because it allowed the come to comfort mourners and bear Parade, killing a 16-year-old girl. The said. “We’re not talking about the freedom visitors to face up to what was done in witness to the crime, but a local guard Duma attack followed hours later. to express hate here, but rather a will to their name. detail organized by the village urged Harsh condemnations of the attack really kill. So we need to use stronger “It was important for us to come them not to stick around. Residents of poured from the highest levels of gov- tools, with the understanding that we’re look in their eyes and say, ‘This is the this village near Nablus had glared when ernment over the weekend, but many compromising some of our basic rights. worst thing a person from our nation the group arrived, and the guards public figures say it’s time for the gov- We need to do it thoughtfully.” could do,’” Gvaryahu said. “To say warned them to leave quickly in case ernment to back up its words with This past Sunday, Israel’s security we’re sorry, we’re shocked. It’s not a things got out of hand. concrete changes in how it treats cabinet approved the use of administra- mistake to come and meet people and “They can’t do anything,” said Yusef Jewish terrorists. tive detention for suspected Jewish ter- ask forgiveness.”

BY B EN SALES JTA

Briefly: Continued from page 8 of this vote and just days before Rosh Hashanah will have a highly visible and real impact upon this fateful vote in Congress. We will only have this impact with your participation.”

According to Nathan Diament, executive director for public policy at the OU, while the OU shares the “long list of concerns and criticisms” voiced by other organizations, its campaign focuses on the proposed inspections regime and the billions of dollars Iran is due to receive once sanctions are lifted.

Added Diament, “We share [Israeli] Ambassador [Ron] Dermer’s concerns that even if Iran abides by the deal to every paragraph and subparagraph, in 10 to 15 years, whenever they get to the end of the deal, they’ll be a full blown nuclear state with the blessing of the international community.”

Dawabsha, a cousin of the family who suggested that visitors wearing yarmulkes would do better to take them off. “Jews coming in these hours, it’s not good.”

Dawabsha’s sentiment was perhaps the bluntest expression of a feeling widely cir-

“We cannot continue to dismiss these flames, which are consuming the public in Israel, as an unfortunate set of coincidences,” Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said at a rally in Jerusalem last Saturday night. “These

The OU plans to keep the pressure on Congress through the August recess and “right up to the vote,” said Diament.

nuclear deal.

The Notice of Action granting Pollard parole requires him to stay in the United States for five years, a requirement that Lauer and Semmelman are asking President Barack Obama to waive using his clemency power.

Israel’s Channel 2 reported on July 28 that Pollard will be released one day early, on Nov. 20, because the 21st is a Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath. Pollard, who in 1987 was given a life sentence, has been serving his term in a federal prison in North Carolina.

The U.S. government does not oppose the release, Pollard’s attorneys said. His only application for parole, filed last year, failed.

Pollard was arrested in 1985 while working as a civilian Navy analyst.

Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters on July 28 in Washington, D.C., as he left a House of Representatives hearing on the Iran nuclear deal that the granting of parole is not related to the agreement.

Pollard granted parole, lawyers ask Obama to waive travel restrictions JTA

Jonathan Pollard, who has been imprisoned for 30 years for spying for Israel, has been granted parole following a unanimous vote by a federal parole panel.

The release date is scheduled for Nov. 21, Pollard’s pro bono attorneys announced in a news release on July 28.

Had he not been granted parole, he would have been required to serve an additional 15 years in prison, the release said.

According to Pollard’s attorneys, Eliot Lauer and Jacques Semmelman, the parole commission’s decision was made “independently of any other U.S. government agency” and “is not connected to recent developments in the Middle East,” presumably a reference to the Iran

Pollard issued a statement through his attorneys.

“I am looking forward to being reunited with my beloved wife Esther,” he said. “I would like to thank the many thousands of well-wishers in the United States, in Israel and throughout the world who provided grass roots support by attending rallies, sending letters, making phone calls to elected officials and saying prayers for my welfare. I am deeply appreciative of every gesture, large or small.”

Pollard singled out for special thanks the National Council of Young Israel and its leaders as well as David Nyer, Kenneth Lasson, George Leighton, Larry Dub, Nitsana Dirshan-Leitner, Effi Lahav, Asher Mivtari and Adi Ginsburg.

“It’s a miracle,” Pollard’s former wife, Anne Pollard, told Channel 2 shortly after news broke of his parole. “I just heard officially that this was true.”

She said she knew nothing about the terms of his release.

10 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE AUGUST 8, 2015

Health Jewish egg donations are hot commodity, but are they ‘kosher’?

BY SUZANNE P OLLAK Special to The Chronicle

Laura has donated her eggs four times to women who needed help having children.

“It gave me a real sense of purpose,” she said. “It really is a great personal pleasure to know that I have something that changes someone’s life.”

Laura, 28, from Manassas, Va., asked that her full name not be published to protect her privacy.

She made the donations through through A Jewish Blessing, a Jacksonville, Fla., company that matches Jewish potential parents who are infertile with Jewish egg, or ovum, donors and surrogates. The company has helped bring more than 180 babies into the world in its 10-year history, said founder Judy Weiss.

While some Jews seek out Jewish eggs to ensure that their babies are “kosher” with rabbinic authorities, most just want their offspring to be like them, officials at “egg banks” agreed. Despite the high cost of treatment, they report being unable to meet demand.

People are “looking for a donor who could pass as a member of their family. I think that’s part of human nature. We want a donor who looks like us,” said Heidi Hayes, CEO of Donor Egg Bank USA in Rockville, Md. Weiss agreed, saying, “It’s a sense of comfort, knowing you can relate to the woman who they felt had something in common with them.”

Some view this desire as ethnocentric.

Weiss has gotten “lots of ugly antiSemitic emails over the years.” Basically, she said, the email say, “‘You Jews think you are better than anyone else. You think your eggs are better than others.’”

A bigger concern for Weiss is finding enough Jewish eggs for women who want them. She is able to help about 40 families a year, but that number could be higher if

Iran Polls: Continued from page 7 the deal while 37 percent oppose.

New secular polls have shown support of the deal slipping. In an extreme example, a Quinnipiac University poll released Monday found that 57 percent of Americans oppose the deal while 28 percent support it and 15 percent either didn’t know or didn’t express an opinion.

The question asked simply: “Do you support or oppose the nuclear deal with Iran?” No clarifying language of the nature of the deal or negotiations was offered.

The Pew Research Center similarly abstained from offering details. Instead, respondents were asked: “How much, if

Egg banks are reporting that they cannot meet the demand for Jewish donations.

Photo provided by Ian Waldie/Getty Images

she had more eggs to distribute, she said.

Hayes has the same problem. She works with all types of women and estimated that just 5 percent of her clients are Jewish.

“Finding Jewish donors is difficult.

There aren’t as many women who donate,” she said.

NY LifeSpring is a company located in New York City and Israel that also connects Jewish couples with Jewish donors.

It gets many of its egg donations from Israeli women.

Ruth Tavor, who operates the company with her husband, David Fogle, estimated that they help about 45 women a year, from up to nine different countries.

She agreed that Jewish law is not a major motivator for people to seek Jewish eggs. Part of the reason, she said, is that there is no rabbinic consensus on the issue.

“If you meet enough rabbis, you will get many, many versions,” she said.

Website JewishFertility.org advises infertile couples to speak to their rabbi

about the best way to proceed with trying to become parents. To eliminate doubts about the baby’s religion, the newborn can be converted to Judaism, it says.

The website calls egg donations “a viable option” and lists three definitions of motherhood. By one definition, if the birth mother is Jewish, the child is Jewish, regardless of who provided the egg.

By another, the child is Jewish only if the egg came from a Jewish woman.

Some rabbis insist the woman must be single, as she must be someone the father could marry, according to the website.

The strictest definition holds that both the egg donor and the birth mother must be Jewish for the child to be Jewish.

All egg banks conduct a lengthy battery of checks on potential donors, including a medical history and information about job, income, drug and alcohol use and even hobbies.

At Shady Grove Fertility Center, which has locations throughout the Washington, D.C. area, donors are screened for 103

anything, have you heard about a recent agreement on Iran’s nuclear program between Iran, the United States and other nations?” Followed by: “From what you know, do you approve or disapprove of this agreement?”

When formatted in such a way, Pew found that of the overall public, 33 percent approved, 45 percent disapproved, and 22 percent offered no opinion. Of the 79 percent of the 2,002 adults surveyed between July 14 and 20 who said they’d heard of the deal, 38 percent expressed approval, 48 percent disapproved, and 14 percent offered no opinion.

Of the Jewish polls, the Jewish Journal contained the most neutral verbiage.

Steven M. Cohen, a demographer with the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, designed the questions and

supervised the poll conducted by Social Science Research Solutions Omnibus.

The key question was worded: “As you know, an agreement was reached in which the United States and other countries would lift major economic sanctions against Iran in exchange for Iran restricting its nuclear program in a way that makes it harder for it to produce nuclear weapons. Do you support or oppose this agreement, or don’t know enough to say?”

Of the 501 Jews surveyed by phone, 47.8 percent said they support the deal, 27.6 oppose and 24.6 percent didn’t know.

As to how Congress should vote, respondents were asked, simply, “Should Congress vote to approve or oppose the deal?” When asked in those neutral terms, 53.6 percent said approve, 34.7 percent said oppose, and 11.7 percent

genetic disorders, of which about a dozen are specifically Jewish. They are questioned about their religion and whether or not they are observant.

For every 30 people who offer to donate, only one is accepted, said Saffan, who works out of an office in Annandale, Va. “Most people who donate want to help somebody. They have two kids.

They want a little money for their college fund,” said Dr. David Saffan, a reproductive endocrinologist at Shady Grove Fertility Center.

It costs about $29,000 for one traditional donor egg cycle, not including medication, at Shady Grove. But the cost can be lower if a woman shares a donor’s eggs with other patients.

At A Jewish Blessing, a cycle costs between $35,000 and $50,000, Weiss said. Her company reimburses donors between $8,000 and $10,000.

It is illegal to pay someone for part of their body; the money is considered reimbursement for medical and other expenses.

A gay Jewish couple in Washington, D.C. turned to A Jewish Blessing for both an egg donor and a woman to carry their baby to term. It was important “to find someone who reflected our Jewish background,” said one of the men, who did not want his named published due to privacy concerns.

Their son, now 6 years old, has an Israeli name and is being raised Jewish, he said.

“We know there are a lot of halachic challenges” in making sure a child is Jewish, but with the help of A Jewish Blessing, some of those issues were cleared up for them, he said.

“We are so appreciative,” he added. I just wish more Jewish women would help” by donating their eggs.

Suzanne Pollak is a senior writer for Washington Jewish Week. She can be reached at spollak@midatlanticmedia.com.

responded “don’t know.”

Jewish Journal also gets praise for rotating between the placement of “good idea” and “bad idea” for the question: “In retrospect was it a (good idea) or a (bad idea) for the U.S. to conduct negotiations with Iran, or are you not sure whether it was a good idea or bad idea?”

Of the respondents, 57.9 percent said it was a good idea, 18.2 percent said it was a bad idea, and 23.9 percent were unsure.

If the Jewish Journal poll is accepted as the least biased, then American Jews, though skeptical of Iran’s ability to live up to its agreements, are divided but mostly in favor of the deal.

Melissa Apter is a political writer for Washington Jewish Week. She can be reached at mapter@midatlanticmedia.com.

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE AUGUST 8, 2015 — 11

Iran: Continued from page 1 The last time Mark was in Shiraz, prior to the revolution, the town had a distinct Jewish flavor, he said. Many businesses in the town were owned by Jews, and they were all closed on Saturdays. There were several yeshivas and synagogues in the town. His father was a rabbi — as were most of his other male relatives — and served as the principal of a large Jewish school for more than 35 years.

But things changed for all Iranians, including Jews, after 1979. New restrictions, based on a strict interpretation of Islamic law were enforced, Mark noted, including one that prohibits a nonMuslim from holding any employment rank above a Muslim. His sister, who still lives in Shiraz because she could not get out prior to the revolution, was demoted from her position as the nurse unit director of a major hospital to work in the shadows of a less-qualified Muslim employee, he said.

While there are still synagogues in the town, Mark said, the Jews “are practicing quietly,” and there are no Jewish day schools left.

Mark still has several family members in Shiraz, but he cannot return to visit them for fear of execution; he is officially

Deal: Continued from page 1 of research at the Washington Institute and the director of its Iran Security Initiative, has spent more than 35 years studying Middle East politics. He is a widely consulted analyst and media commentator and the author of more than 150 articles about the Middle East and international economics. He has also written or edited 18 of books or studies specifically on Iran.

The Federation invited Clawson to address the community in its effort to help its constituents “understand this very complicated issue [which has] the potential to divide this community,” said CRC director Gregg Roman just prior to Clawson taking the podium.

Clawson was chosen, Roman added in an interview, because “we thought he would give the most balanced presentation, and I felt he did give a balanced presentation.”

Clawson began his talk by opining on why the Obama administration sees the agreement as so important.

“In [President Barack] Obama’s viewpoint, the best way to enhance the security of the United States is to address historic grievances,” of governments with which we have had tense diplomatic relationships in the past, such as Cuba and Iran, Clawson said. “He is trying to create conditions he thinks will allow us to cooperate on common problems” and set these countries on the path to becoming “more normal states.”

Clawson characterized Obama’s approach as “very optimistic,” and posited that it makes many officials in Washington “nervous” because it often works “at the expense of our close allies.”

Clawson said he would have been

viewed as a deserter, he said, because he became a U.S. citizen before he served in the Iranian military.

While he does telephone his family regularly, Mark believes those calls are monitored; the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s scrutinizing presence is continually felt among his family there, with particular members of the guard assigned to each square mile of the country.

Based on his personal knowledge of Iran, Mark is not optimistic about the nuclear deal negotiated between that regime and the P5+1 countries.

He said there are precepts of Islamic law that hold that “any deal with a non-Muslim is a non-deal,” and need not be honored.

“This is one of the big issues that nobody wants to come out and say, why they can’t be trusted,” he said. “Look, whether they sign a deal or not, they’re going to make a nuclear warhead. Will this slow them down? I don’t know. They are technologically very advanced.”

One potential positive outcome of the deal, observed Mark, is the alliance that now may be formed between Israel and the many Arab countries whose governments are also concerned about Iranian nuclear proliferation.

“Arab countries are afraid of Iran,” he said, noting what he called a “traditional, deep-rooted hatred between Arabs and Persians.”

“In Iran, if a Persian wanted to insult

someone, they would call them an Arab,” he said.

Jewish Pittsburgher Sion Ghanooni, who left his home in Shiraz in 1964 for the United States, said he does not trust the Iranian government.

“What they would say today, they would not do tomorrow,” said Ghanooni, who still has a brother, sisterin-law and cousins in Shiraz. He has been able to arrange visits with them in Israel over the years, as they are able to travel to the Jewish state via Turkey.

Several years ago, Ghanooni, who is a physician, was issued an invitation to give a lecture at a university in Shiraz.

“I was happy to go to Iran to see my relatives,” Ghanooni said. “But when I called my relatives, they said, ‘Are you stupid? If you want to go to Iran, it’s a one-way ticket.’”

While he did travel several times to visit his family prior to the revolution, he has not been back since, he said.

“During the time I lived in Iran, people were nice,” said Ghanooni, 83.

“But after the revolution, they became a bunch of savages. The government is really bad. Anything you want, you have to bribe the government. Even if you want a death certificate, you have to bribe the government.”

Yehuda Kohanbash, also from Shiraz, has been in the United States for 42 years.

He still has cousins, uncles, nieces and nephews in Iran, he said, but he has not

seen them since he left, and does not talk to them because they do not have phones.

“And there are fears of listening,” he said. “I don’t want them to get into trouble.”

His parents, who live in New York, are still in touch with the family back in Shiraz, Kohanbash said.

“As a whole, the Jews are left alone,” he said. “But if they have money, they go after them. They label them as spies or terrorists.”

Kohanbash came to the United States in order to attend school here, he said, and intended to go back to Iran once his studies were completed.

“But I married an American, and there was no reason to go back,” he said.

He is wary of the new nuclear deal.

The Iranian government, he said, is corrupted and marred by “cheating and bribery.”

“It’s not just bad for Jews,” he said.

“It’s bad for Muslims too. Nobody trusts them.

“And the deal is definitely bad for Israel,” Kohanbash continued. “Hezbollah and Hamas are proxies, and as soon as they get their hands on a bomb, they will use it against Israel.

Iran may never attack Israel, but they will definitely give the bomb to the terrorists.”

“more impressed” with the Iran deal had the Obama administration first built a consensus with allies such as Saudi Arabia and Israel as to acceptable deal terms, then expanded that circle to include countries such as China and Russia, and only then reach out to Iran.

He challenged the idea that the United States could find common ground with Iran on such issues as battling ISIS and other terror groups in the Middle East.

“The Iranians are simultaneously firemen and arsonists,” Clawson said, noting that government’s penchant for funding terrorist groups while claiming to fight them.

“What Iran has done is fan the flames of sectarian tensions in the region,” including funding al-Qaeda in Syria.

Clawson said he is also concerned that the terms of the agreement actually undermine Obama’s stated goal of reducing nuclear weapons worldwide.

“The agreement lets Iran keep a lot of things which have no clear peaceful purpose,” Clawson said. For example, the enriched uranium it is allowed to keep pursuant to the deal cannot even be used in its power reactor, he noted.

Instead of permanently deterring Iran from getting a bomb, Clawson said, the United States instead has agreed to keep Iran “at least a year away from breakout activity.”

“I find that shift uncomfortable,” said Clawson.

He addressed the process of congressional review as it applies to the Iran deal.

Proper congressional review, he said, could make the deal more likely to succeed.

“In an ideal world, Congress would examine the agreement closely, hold hearings and push the administration on a lot of points,” as it did during the negotiation of the historic SALT and START treaties with the Soviet Union.

At that time, Congress labored through the agreements in detail, perfecting and clarifying provisions that might be ambiguous to those not involved in the negotiations, or potential meanings and issues that had not been contemplated, Clawson said.

Congress should take on that same role in regard to the Iranian accord, he said.

“There are a lot of ambiguous provisions in this agreement,” Clawson said.

“Even if those ambiguities were worked out in the talks, we don’t have a record of it.”

The danger of not clarifying those ambiguities is that the Iranians may later claim a meaning not intended and not recorded.

“I would like to get the parties on the record about what these clauses mean,” he said.

One common misconception concerns the supposed lifting of non-nuclear sanctions levied on Iran. The deal does not provide that all sanctions levied on Iran will be lifted, he explained. Those sanctions against Iran for its support of terrorism and its human rights violations will remain in place.

Another aspect of the agreement that is unclear, Clawson said, is “what happens if Iran cheats?”

He characterized the “snapback” provision as akin to “setting off a nuclear bomb” and noted that if Iran only “cheats small,” he would expect a smaller, more proportionate reaction from the United States.

Clawson said it would be useful for Congress to require the Obama administration to reveal its big picture strategy vis-a-vis the Middle East before it evaluates the Iran accord.

“What about Syria?” he asked, as an example. “Obama has repeatedly said we will defeat ISIS in Syria. What’s our strategy? I’d like to see Congress press

the administration on these matters.”

Regardless of how Congress votes on the deal, Clawson said, the deal is likely to proceed — even in the face of a congressional override of a presidential veto on a vote against the agreement. The administration will simply refuse to enforce the sanctions the agreement would lift, he said.

A rejection of the deal by Congress, said Clawson, would not bode well for the relationship between Israel and the United States.

“Winning a fight with your spouse is one sure way of losing a fight with your spouse,” he said. “If you think the relationship between the U.S. and Israel is bad now, what do you think it will be like if Congress rejects this deal?”

The Federation disseminated an email to its constiuents explaining its perspective on the deal, including links to a variety of articles on the subject. It will also sponsor additional programs on Middle East security and Iran in the coming months, according to Roman, who himself was featured in a debate on the Iran deal on July 24 on “Night Talk” on PCNC. Also on the panel was Joshua Forrest, chair of history and political science at La Roche College, and Dan Simpson, a former ambassador who is on the editorial board of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

“It was great to be engaged in vigorous debate on all sides of the issue,” Roman said. “But I wish some of the participants on the panel would have been more educated on the deal, as I invested time looking into all perspectives. You need an open mind to analyze this issue, and myopic perspectives certainly do not help us move the conversation forward.”

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

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

VISIT US ON THE WEB AT www.thejewishchronicle.net.

12 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE AUGUST 8, 2015

The Jewish Chronicle

Opinion

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A poll for everyone As in any political campaign, Jewish supporters and opponents of the Iran nuclear agreement are promoting the results of opinion polls to support their position. But how reliable are those polls?

And why is it that polling results on the same issue are so dramatically different?

One poll, conducted by the liberal group J Street, which supports the agreement, found that supporters outnumber opponents 60 to 40 percent. A second poll, by The Israel Project, which opposes the Iran deal, found American Jews oppose the deal by 47 to 44 percent. A poll by the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, which has no political affiliation, found more support than opposition: 48 to 28 percent.

The differing results seem to be based upon what is asked and how the questions are framed. To take an example from each: The TIP poll asked the following question three times: “Now that you have some more information, in your

Letters to the editor We invite you to submit letters for publication.

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Mail, fax or email letters to: Letters to the Editor via email: letters@thejewishchronicle.net Address & Phone: The Jewish Chronicle 5915 Beacon St., 5th Flr. Pittsburgh, PA 15217 412-687-1000 • Fax 412-521-0154 Website address: thejewishchronicle.net

Put ‘local’ back into the Chronicle

Pittsburgh born, bred and educated but now living in Washington, D.C., I find less of interest in The Chronicle. If I want opinion pieces or articles about national or international affairs of Jewish interest, there are many sources I can use. What I used to look forward to were accounts of local interest, e.g., the “Briefly” column, and, sadly, the obituaries as well as stories about people, events and institutions of long-standing cultural history in the community.

Lucy Zabarenko

Washington, D.C. ‘Bystander’ story hits a nerve

Reading The Chronicle’s “Should bystanders come to the rescue?” (July 30) gave me chills. This is the type of behavior my parents witnessed and lived

own opinion, do you think that Congress should vote to approve the deal and lift sanctions on Iran or reject the deal and NOT lift sanctions on Iran?” The percentage of those rejecting the deal grew each time the question was asked.

Similarly, one question in the J Street poll appeared to add information that could bolster support for the agreement.

In contrast, the Jewish Journal poll asked questions that were straightforward. In one, the words “good idea” and “bad idea” were even rotated to eliminate bias: “In retrospect, was it a (good idea) or a (bad idea) for the U.S. to conduct negotiations with Iran, or are you not sure whether it was a good idea or a bad idea?”

Writing in The Hill, veteran Democratic pollster Mark Mellman looked at polling of the American electorate on the issue and likewise found that how questions were worded had a dramatic effect on the results. He concluded that while most Americans are

likely to support the easing of economic sanctions against Iran in return for Iran halting its nuclear weapons development — polls revealing American support of the Iran deal tend to frame the issue this way — when provided with details about the deal and the objections raised, most Americans are just as likely to not trust Iran to uphold its end of the bargain.

“A fair interpretation of the data suggests Americans’ natural inclination is to oppose this deal,” he writes, “though they would support an agreement they believed would accomplish supporters’ goals.”

Those considering the Iran agreement and its merits are well advised to focus on the details of the deal and the merit of the answers to questions that have been raised about it. Once you have reached a conclusion on the merits, it won’t be hard to find a poll that will support that view.

through, as Jews suffered on a regular basis in Europe when Hitler came into power. No one stood up for Jews then or intervened on their behalf, which led to their extermination in concentration camps. I would not expect this behavior in the United States, particularly in Squirrel Hill.

There was an article in the TribuneReview on July 28 about Kevin Lockett, an African-American who was beaten and verbally abused by three young white males in the downtown subway after an argument over a cooler of beer and food.

These are two cases, of many I’m sure, where someone could have intervened and put an end to this madness. I understand that these days individuals are fearful of physically or verbally taking action, but there are many other ways of helping people in distress instead of looking the other way and taking no action.

In the Rite Aid situation, for example — or in any other business — employees should be trained to notice conflict and have an action plan in place to address these situations. Anyone with any sense at all, employee or bystander, can phone 911. At no time should anyone be a witness to and then ignore a situation where another human being requires attention and a situation needs an intervention. There is a difference between a legal matter and a moral duty, as stated

by Justin Dillon, a criminal defense attorney quoted in The Chronicle article.

History has proven what can happen when no one stands up for victims of verbal or physical abuse.

Our rabbis know best

I am outraged at the cartoon in the July 30 addition of The Chronicle depicting President Barack Obama surrounded by Congress in the Oval Office. Congress is reading the Iran deal. The caption reads: “And we thought Obamacare was Radioactive.”

Since when did we turn our community paper into a vehicle to promote the ideas of the Republican Party? I just attended a CRC program, where the guest speaker, Patrick Clawson, offered a scholarly and nonpartisan analysis of the Iran agreement. I think The Chronicle owes it to the community to approach issues that are important to us in the same way.

Fern S. Moscov

Mickie Diamond

Squirrel Hill

Squirrel Hill

The occurrence of anti-Semitic taunts in our neighborhood is very disturbing (“Should bystanders come to the rescue?” July 30). But the idea that anyone at The Chronicle needed to call Jerusalem for a rabbinic opinion is ridiculous. We all love Rabbi Schiff and are thrilled that he will be returning (in any capacity) to our community. But there are a halfdozen Pittsburgh rabbis serving congregations here for decades who have always made themselves available to provide such insights. They understand the community best; they should have been The Chronicle’s first choice for sources.

Lisa Steindel

Squirrel Hill Biased cartoon

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE AUGUST 8, 2015 — 13

OPINION Potential regional implications of the Iran deal GUEST COLUMNIST

Michael Eisenstadt On July 29, Washington Institute senior fellow Michael Eisenstadt testified at a congressional hearing on how the nuclear agreement might affect U.S. regional strategy, and what can be done to rectify its flaws. Following is an excerpt from his prepared remarks: Ensuring successful implementation of the nuclear deal with Iran will pose major challenges. It will require ongoing engagement with Iran, the management of tensions deriving from Iranian regional activities, and tending to the credibility of Washington’s nuclear redline — the commitment to use “all necessary measures” to keep Iran from the bomb.

To ensure it achieves its intended goals, the U.S. needs a credible implementation strategy that addresses the deal’s flaws, shows zero tolerance for cheating and pushes back at Iranian activities that undermine its interests and threaten its allies, as a means of bolstering the credibility of its commitment to deter an Iranian nuclear breakout. The main elements of such a strategy should include the following: Eliminate ambiguities: Differing

interpretations of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) are inevitable, since many of the articles do not lend themselves to a plain reading. And as those who negotiated the agreement move on to other jobs, and memories fade, it will be easier for Iran to contest the E3/EU+3’s understanding of the agreement. Accordingly, the U.S. and its EU partners should publish a document that sets down their joint understanding of the meaning of as many ambiguous JCPOA articles as possible, to avoid future friction among the allies, to prevent Iran from exploiting ambiguities in the text, and to deter it from testing the agreement.

Block Iran’s arms exports: U.S. officials claim that the nuclear accord bans Iranian arms transfers. Iran denies this is the case. Iran’s arms transfers have fueled sectarian tensions and violence in the region, thereby undermining the U.S. campaign against ISIS and alQaeda and its affiliates. To deter further Iranian cheating and defuse regional violence, the U.S. and its allies should interdict future Iranian arms transfers and work to create a more moderate third way in Syria by arming members of the opposition there, in the hope of drawing off support from extremists.

By pushing back against Iranian activities that violate the JCPOA and that undermine its interests by stoking violence in the region, the U.S. may also

deter Iran from additional challenges to the nuclear accord.

Deter a nuclear breakout: The nuclear accord does not block Iran’s path to the bomb; at best, it may defer the problem for an indeterminate amount of time. For this reason, deterring Iran from developing or acquiring nuclear weapons will remain the core imperative driving U.S. policy in the coming years. To do so, Washington needs to convince Tehran that if it tried to build a bomb, it would get caught, and would suffer unacceptable consequences: the reimposition of sanctions, and the use of force to block it from the bomb. The U.S. and the EU need to respond firmly to even small Iranian violations of the agreement with a series of calibrated responses, lest laxity invite new challenges. And President Barack Obama needs to sharpen America’s nuclear redline by eschewing passive formulations regarding “options on the table,” embracing unequivocal formulations that pledge the use of “all necessary measures” to block Iran from the bomb and taking actions that demonstrate a willingness to do so if necessary.

Military deterrence is a wasting asset — develop alternative options: Finally, the U.S. should recognize that given technological trends, the conventional military option against Iran’s program is a wasting asset. By the time that the core provisions of the nuclear accord expire

10-15 years hence (assuming the accord remains in force at that time), Iran is liable to have much more robust air defenses (S-300s or better) and the means to ensure that a clandestine program is immune to a conventional U.S. strike.

Iran has used past suspensions to advance parts of its program, and it will be sure to do so in this case. Accordingly, the U.S. should consider alternative ways of deterring an Iranian nuclear breakout when the Massive Ordnance Penetrator bomb — the conventional weapon of choice for use against deeply buried, hardened facilities — is no longer a viable option. These alternative options might include cyber and other forms of sabotage and threats to destabilize the Islamic Republic by means of a campaign of political warfare.

In sum: While the nuclear deal has a number of significant flaws, at least some can be rectified by a number of mitigation measures, which provide the basis for an effective implementation strategy. President Obama’s willingness to commit to these measures and to such a strategy will be a leading indicator of whether the nuclear deal with Iran will achieve its intended goal of blocking Iran’s path to the bomb or will further destabilize the Middle East, further hasten the decline of America’s fortunes in the region and beyond and eventually pave the way for the emergence of Iran as a nuclear weapons state.

ADA disabilities law: a dream worth celebrating, but not yet fully realized GUEST COLUMNIST

William Daroff Quick — when was the last time you thought twice about a ramp outside a public building? How about a wheelchair-accessible bathroom? Do you even blink when you see a closed-captioning-enabled TV? Most of these things are so common today that we barely remember how much has changed in the past 25 years.

The progress we have seen for people with disabilities is in large thanks to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), signed into law on July 26, 1990, and whose 25th anniversary was recently celebrated at the White House.

Modeled after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the ADA was created as an equal opportunity law for people with physical and intellectual disabilities. The legislation was designed to guarantee that people with disabilities enjoy the same rights as every other American.

Among other things, the ADA and its 2008 amendments prohibit discrimination in all aspects of the employment process and require employers to consider reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals. The legislation also prohibits discrimination in places of public accommodation, from retail stores, parks and doctors’ offices to

theaters, government office, and libraries, requiring the building of accessible entrances and removal of barriers when doing so would not cause undue burden.

We’ve come far since the ADA, and, because of it, millions of Americans can earn a living and participate in everyday activities that would have been impossible a quarter-century ago. But as we celebrate this anniversary, we must remember that the fight for civil rights of people with disabilities, similar to that for civil rights of other marginalized communities, is not over.

Here is the reality: One in five Americans has a disability, and less than 20 percent of people with disabilities were employed in 2014, compared with 68 percent of those without disabilities. More astonishing, 31 percent of people with disabilities live below the poverty line.

When was the last time you thought twice about an online job application?

What is commonplace for many people is a huge barrier for people with disabilities. Many job applications are online and not created in accessible formats, preventing these individuals from even getting in the door of a possible job.

What’s more, many employers remain reluctant to hire those with disabilities, not understanding that with proper accommodations and training, people with disabilities can take on a multitude of roles and responsibilities. Employers worry about the increased costs of providing accommodations and decreases in productivity when hiring people with

disabilities, yet studies, like one conducted in 2014 by the Institute for Corporate Productivity, have shown both of these worries to be unfounded.

Let’s do what we can to make it easier for qualified people of all abilities to get jobs, empowering people with disabilities to make a living wage and learn skills that will enable them to provide for themselves and their loved ones.

The issues faced by people with disabilities are not just in the workplace.

Schools continue to fail students with disabilities, with the Department of Education finding that only 19 states could be designated as “meets requirements” for their special education programs in 2014. Atypical students are often treated unequally, experiencing disproportionate suspension and expulsion rates, punishments that can have long-term negative effects. Even worse, these students can face inhumane disciplinary treatment in the classroom, such as being physically restrained or put in closets by teachers and aides who do not have adequate training.

Let’s work with schools — both public and private — to ensure students with disabilities are able to access a quality education with the accommodations they need for success.

Even getting to work or to school can sometimes be impossible for individuals with disabilities. Safe, accessible and readily available paratransit options remain inadequate. While the ADA requires public transportation to be accessible, little funding is available,

resulting in isolation and barriers to educational opportunities, jobs, health care and social interactions. Federal grants created to address these needs, such as the Federal Transit Administration’s Enhanced Mobility of Seniors and Individuals with Disabilities (Section 5310) program, receive little attention and are insufficiently funded.

Let’s work with our local and federal government officials to identify safe and accessible transportation options for people with disabilities.

Though the ADA and its 25th anniversary should be celebrated, we must acknowledge that people with disabilities, simply put, still do not have full civil rights. While the ADA exempts private membership clubs and religious institutions from its mandates, we have a moral and religious obligation to work with and for people with disabilities in their fight for basic human dignity.

We cannot forget that we are all b’tzelem Elohim, created in God’s image.

When Moses, a man with a speech impediment, did not believe he could lead the Jews out of Egypt because of his disability, God asked him, “Who do you think gave you that mouth?” In the next 25 years, let’s build upon the dreams of the ADA and the Torah’s words to create a world in which people of all abilities are afforded full civil rights.

William Daroff is senior vice president for public policy and director of the Washington office of The Jewish Federations of North America.

14 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE AUGUST 8, 2015

CELEBRATIONS

TORAH

Bat Mitzvah

The spiritual dimension

Cara Drook, daughter of Ellen and Tim Drook of Mt. Lebanon, will become a bat

mitzvah on Saturday, Aug. 8 at Temple Emanuel of South Hills. Cara is the granddaughter of Jacqueline and David Bialosky of Pittsburgh and Janet Drook and John Drook of Indiana.

BY RABBI SHARYN H ENRY

Parshat Ekev Deuteronomy 11:22-11:25

Wedding Fries/Katz: Hollis and Matthew Bulvony of Upper St. Clair and Goldie and Joel

Katz of Point Breeze are delighted to announce the marriage of their children, Lauren Kay Fries and Richard Mark Katz, on Saturday, June 13 at the University Club.

Rabbi Aaron Bisno officiated.

Lauren is the granddaughter of the late Sarah and Richard Cloutman. Richard is the grandson of the late Ida and Saul Jaffe and the late Florence and Alfred Katz.

Richard is a sales support specialist with Direct Energy. He graduated from Syracuse University with a Bachelor of Science degree in consumer affairs and a post baccalaureate in accounting.

Lauren is an operations manager at InnerWorkings. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications from the University of Tampa.

Katherine Pettit was matron of honor, and Jason Levy served as best man. Launna Fries, niece of the bride, and Haley Sherlock, niece of the groom, were flower girls.

Evin and Ethin Fries, nephews of the bride, and Ian Leaman, nephew of the groom, also participated in the ceremony.

Following a honeymoon in Costa Rica, the couple resides in Swisshelm Park.

We’re

Open!

This week’s portion (Ekev) contains one of the most famous phrases in the book of Deuteronomy, although many people might be surprised to find that its origin is biblical. The well-known phrase occurs in a passage detailing the various hardships the Israelites endured throughout their 40year sojourn in the wilderness.

The phrase “man does not live on bread alone” is found amid a list of hardships described by Moses as tests “to learn what was in the hearts [of the Israelites]” and whether they would keep God’s commandments: “God subjected you to the hardship of hunger and then gave you manna to eat, which neither you nor your fathers had ever known, in order to teach you that man does not live on bread alone, but that man may live on anything that the Lord decrees.”

With bread referring to the material stuff of life, many lessons have been taught on the important but obvious truth that human beings are not fulfilled by material things alone; there is another, spiritual dimension of life which makes it truly worthwhile. The problem is that when we look at the entire verse, and especially when we look at it in context, it cannot mean that. (Or just that.)

In his Torah commentary, Rabbi Gunther Plaut teaches, “There is no question about the broader meaning of the text: God taught you in the wilderness that He could meet your needs by whatever means he chose … This time He sent manna, another time He could choose to care for you in a different way.”

In other words, the people were sustained in the wilderness by God’s providence — in one form or another — for 24 hours a day for 40 years. And, of course, they were continuously forgetting this idea, or ignoring it, or downright rejecting it.

This central tenet of the Hebrew Bible — that God is present at all times, at once abiding within us and outside of us, and greater than the mind can ever expect to fathom — is also the most challenging.

The Israelites struggled with it, and so do we. Recognizing this challenge, the rabbis

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of the Talmud developed the b’rachah (blessing) as a way for us to focus on what is taking place in our lives moment by moment. Rabbi Meir (139-163 C.E.) taught that every Jew should say at least 100 blessings daily. Many of us have likely heard this teaching.

But the words of a contemporary teacher, Rabbi John Rosove are new and may inspire us: “[There are] many opportunities to collapse the abyss between oblivion and consciousness, God and us, heaven and earth. The b’rachah’s power and significance is that we experience the worlds below and above simultaneously, that we recognize constantly that God is immanent and that the material world is infused with divinity.”

Collapsing the abyss between oblivion and consciousness — sleeping through the day or being fully alive — connects heaven and earth, God and ourselves.

One particularly powerful practice is beginning each day with the recitation of the series of 15 blessings that appear at Shacharit (the morning service). These blessings begin with thanking God for giving us the ability to make distinctions — between night and morning, specifically. The rest of the blessings remind us to make connections between what we do in the morning, the power of God and our own obligations and as human beings. For example, we thank God “… who frees the captive,” and we appreciate our ability to stretch and move. We also understand that there are others in the world without this freedom, and we are called upon to work on their behalf.

I would add that these blessings give us an opportunity to open our minds and hearts to the wonders of the world. In the above example, that of “freeing the captive,” we might allow the blessing to challenge ourselves to broaden our knowledge or explore why we hold certain opinions (do they still work for us?). The new siddur of the Reform movement, “Mishkan T’filah,” calls these blessings “Nisim B’chol Yom — [Blessings] for Daily Miracles.” I invite you to remember that our daily lives are filled with divinity. Blessings just focus our attention on that exquisite truth.

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CONNELLY: On Thursday, July 30, 2015, Anita Connelly. Beloved wife of the late Michael Connelly. Daughter of the late Ella Kublanov and Bernard Serbin. Sister of Richard (Francie) Serbin. Aunt of Lawrence, Haley and Joshua Serbin. Lifelong friend of Suzanne Altman. Graveside services and interment were held at Homestead Hebrew Cemetery. Contributions may be made to the Family House, 5245 Centre Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15232.

Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. schugar.com.

FAIGEN: Cynthia Ruth Faigen died peacefully with her family by her side on Tuesday, July 28, 2015; Beloved wife of Gerard Faigen. Beloved mother of Ross (Suzy) Faigen and Steven (David Evans) Faigen. Loving sister-in-law of Margie Abels. Grandma of Lisanne (fiance Sean Reichert) Faigen, Katelyn Faigen, Maggie Faigen, Katherine (fiance Mark Aquilar) French and Adam Faigen.

Great-grandmother of Alexis French.

Also survived by nieces and nephews.

Services were held at Temple David.

Interment at Kether Torah Cemetery.

Contributions may be made to Temple David, 4415 Northern Pike, Monroeville, PA 15146. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. schugar.com.

Please see Obituaries, page 16

HOFFMAN: Allen M. Hoffman, 83 years young, adored, adorable and best friend and husband of Laverne Hyatt Hoffman. Allen passed away peacefully

on Sunday, August 2, 2015, surrounded by an abundance of love from his family.

He was a devoted father of Terri Hoffman Greenberg (Randy Frankel) and Jill N. Hoffman (Greg Rispler) of

Delray Beach, Fla. A special loving step of father to Evan (Riva) Aussenberg Gaithersburg, Md., Jon Aussenberg of Chandler, Ariz., and Hilary Aussenberg.

An exceptional “Papa” to Erin (Bryan Dorsey) Greenberg Dorsey of Las Vegas

and Ross Greenberg of New York. He was the wonderful son of the late Rae and Joseph Hoffman. An exceptional, devoted, loving brother to his sisters, Shirley (Bill) Brand and Iris (Morton) Goldstein. He was an adored uncle of many nieces and nephews who will all

miss him dearly. Allen was a proud graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy and kept his license well into his 70s. He was also the owner of HALCO, a holiday costume company for over 40 years. Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. Interment at Beth Shalom Cemetery. Contributions may be made to a charity of the donor’s choice. schugar.com.

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THE JEWISH CHRONICLE AUGUST 8, 2015 — 15

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THIS WEEK’S YAHRZEITS — Sunday August 9: Eda Yitta Katron Ash, Etta Borof, Charlotte Charapp, Lois Pearlman Diamond, Dora Fargotstein, David Finkel, Arthur Friedman, Faye Glasser, Libbie Glasser, John J. Gruene, Lenora Williams Klee, Charles Laufe, Kenneth Phillip Levenson, Pauline Loibman, Anne P. Morris, Mary Plung, Harry Serbin, Clara Ida Shapiro, Matthew Samuel Silverstein Monday August 10: William Berger, Samuel Danzinger, Abraham Gernstat, Samuel Green, Elliott Hansell, Jennie Herron, Samuel Katz, Richard Lebby, Louis Schaffer, Dina Schiff, Morris Schwartz, Tzulel Seiavitch, Cora M. Strauss, Hymen Weiss, Gussie Wright, Charles D. Zeigler Tuesday August 11: Lt. Ace Allen, Andrew Cohen, Minnie Drosnes, Esther Streng Finegold, Lena K. Friedman, Benjamin Heller, Elenora Soupcoff Heller, Hyman Herman, Norma Kalmenson, Phillip Lerner, Bessie Mallinger, Shirley Markowitz, Molly Pollock, David Rabinovitz, Leona Shirey, Meyer Maier Talenfeld, Jacob Wells, Joan Elise Ratowsky Whitley

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Wednesday August 12: Marion Jessica Blumenfeld, Helen Finkel Eger, Esther Fried, Max Hadburg, Lottie Heller, William Katz, Rose Lieber, Louis Olitzky, Bettie Olender Polak Tanur, Anita Ohringer Ruslander, Gabrielle Heliene Segall, Rose Siskind, Sam Weinberger

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Thursday August 13: Hazel R. Dickler, Sam Garfinkel, Samuel Goldenson, Philip Goodman, Abraham Katz, Samuel Krasik, Jack Morris, Abraham S. Robins, Albert Shapiro, Fay Oppenheim Stein, Mollie E. Swartz, Fannie Cohen Weiner, Saul H. Weissman, Myers L. Zacks

&DOO XV ZLWK DQ\ FRQFHUQV DQG TXHVWLRQV DW SEND OBITUARY NOTICES AND REQUESTS FOR MORE INFORMATION TO obituaries@thejewishchronicle.net.

THE DEADLINE FOR PUBLICATION IS NOON MONDAY.

Friday August 14: Louis Aaron, Ruth E. Bell, Harry Gottesman, Herbert Samuel Grossman, Eugene I. Hilsenrath, Frank Kress, Albert H. Levenson, William S. Mason, Rosa Perlstein, Dorothy Miller Ryave, Gertrude Siegel, Lillian Linder Silverman, Frank Solomon, Louise Stark, Harvey Edward Thorpe, Solomon C. Zionts Saturday August 15: Judge Samuel J. Feigus, Sherman Hershman, Stuart Irwin Holtzman, Joseph Kossis, Celia S. Landay, Simon Miller, Ruth Pattak, Morris Rosen, Ann F. Schwartz, Benjamin Schwartz, Mollie R. Schwartz, Isadore Louis Sigal, Dorothy B. Solomon, Harry M. Solomon, Bessie Stein, Maurice Louis Swartz

16 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE AUGUST 8, 2015

Obituaries: Continued from page 15 KATZ: On Saturday, August 1, 2015, Beatrice F. Katz. Beloved wife of the late Alvin Katz. Beloved mother of Jay (Peggy) Katz, Barbara Katz and Bob Katz. Grandmother of Braum and the late Asher Katz. Graveside services and interment were held at Ohav Zedeck Cemetery. Contributions may be made to Sivitz Jewish Hospice, 200 JHF Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15217. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. schugar.com.

POLLOCK: Stanley L. Pollock, age 87.

Beloved husband of the late Deborah Mintz Pollock, son of Ada and Isadore Pollock of Kittanning, Pa., brother of the late Alvin and Mildred Pollock of New Jersey, father of Mark of Jerusalem, Israel, Lee (Natalie) of Avon, Conn., Adam (Perla) of Aventura, Fla., stepfather of the late Seymore M. Schlessel (Ina) of Woodmere, N.Y., and grandfather of six grandchildren. Stan received his bachelor’s of science and doctor of dental medicine degrees from the University of Pittsburgh. Following his completion of an internship in oral and maxillofacial surgery at Bellvue Hospital in New York City and a residency at Magee Hospital in Pittsburgh, he served as a captain in the United States Air Force during the Korean War. He returned to Pittsburgh and completed his combined program in oral and maxillofacial surgery and anesthesia at the then Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh and received a master’s of science degree from the School of Dentistry, University of Pittsburgh. Stan opened offices in McKeesport, Homestead and Irwin, Pa., and became chairman of the Departments of Dentistry at Homestead Hospital (later South Hills Health System), Armstrong County Hospital and Monsour Medical Center in Western Pennsylvania. Next, Stan earned a second bachelor’s degree of science in business management from Carlow University in Pittsburgh, a doctorate of philosophy degree from Pacific University and a Juris Doctor degree from Southern California University of Professional Studies. He also earned distinction as a certified financial planner, chartered financial consultant, certified health care business consultant and mergers and acquisitions certified professional. Medical Economics Magazine selected Stan as One of the “Best 150 Financial Planners for Doctors in the U.S.” He became a master certified business appraiser and a master certified

machinery and equipment appraiser, the highest awards given in the appraisal industry; appraiser certified for litigation support; and appraiser certified in business valuation review. After 45 years of hands-on oral and maxillofacial surgery, he formed and served as president of Professional Practice Planners, Inc., a national health care consultancy located in McKeesport, which specialized in professional practice appraisal, brokerage and transitions. Stan was a nationally known speaker and teacher lecturing nationally and internationally on a wide variety of subjects. He was a noted author of over 100 publications. He was the editor of and contributor to Business Valuation Resources, Guide to Valuing Dental Practices (2011). He was a former president of the Unites States Dental Association. He was adored by patients and admired by doctors and dentists alike for his selfless devotion to their needs. He continued his passion of consulting until he passed.

Funeral services were held on Monday, Aug. 3. Arrangements by the Gesher Hachaim Jewish Burial Society.

Contributions may be made to any worthy charity. Shiva will be observed at 144 North Dithridge St., PH2, in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh. Shiva visits are welcome in the evenings through Thursday evening.

SIGAL: Judy Ann Sigal passed away peacefully after a heroic fight with cancer on Thursday July 30, 2015. Born June 28, 1960, she is the youngest daughter of Norma and the late Erv Sigal, and the niece of Natalie Cuban.

Mourning her loss are her siblings Shellie, Michael and Randi; and her nieces and nephews, Jeff, Reid and Terri, Brian and Katie, and Molly. She will be dearly missed by multiple close friends and colleagues. A recurring theme in Judy’s life was spending time with her family, as well as sharing special times with her closest friends and their children. Judy was a proud graduate of Penn State University and loved the Creamery.

She received her master’s as a reading specialist at Duquesne University. Judy began her career at Sylvan Learning Centers. She taught throughout the years at Crescent, Murry, Horace Mann, Belmar, Phillip Murry, and finally Phillips. She had many close relationships and her students who knew how much she cared. Her love for her Nittany Lions was only surpassed by the Pittsburgh Steelers. A major highlight of her life was attending the Steelers Super Bowl victory in Detroit. Judy spent much of her free time volunteering for multiple organizations. She was excited to be honored as “Volunteer of the Year for

CCFA.” Her sense of humor never waned. Her smiling face and good nature will be remembered by all. Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. Interment at Homewood Cemetery.

Contributions may be made to the Sigal Family Research & Education Inflammatory, Bowel Disease Fund, Medical & Health Sciences Foundation, 3600 Forbes Ave., Suite #8084, Pittsburgh, PA 15213 or Pittsburgh Mercy Health System for Dancing Classrooms, 101 Bradford Road, Suite #320, Wexford, PA 15090. schugar.com.

TURBINER: Bernard Turbiner, age 94, of Sterling, Va., and formerly of Pittsburgh died on Sunday, August 2, 2015. He was predeceased in May by his beloved wife Rose, to whom he was happily married for 68 years. He was the devoted father of Eva (Ralph Ullman) Turbiner of Morristown, N.J., and Paula (Charles) Roberts of Ashburn, Va.; cherished grandfather of Emily, David, Helena (James), and Steven; adored great-grandfather of Connor and Hudson. Bernie moved to Pittsburgh in 1949 after surviving the Holocaust. He and his family settled in the Highland Park neighborhood. Bernie was a selfmade businessman, owning and operating Bernie’s Bar in North Braddock. He retired in 1980 and volunteered, participated in the activities of the Jewish Community Center, and delighted in spending time with his wife, children and grandchildren. Bernie and Rose moved to Squirrel Hill in 2003, where he made many new friends. Services were held on Monday, Aug. 3, 2015 at Garden of Remembrance Cemetery, Clarksburg, Md. Donations in his memory can be made to the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh or the U.S. Holocaust Museum, Washington.

D.C. Condolences may be made to the family at sagelbloomfield.com.

WEISBAND: On Wednesday, July 29, 2015, Myrna Lois Weisband, age 82.

Beloved wife of 61 years of Arnold L. Weisband. Beloved mother of Jeffrey (Cheryl) Weisband of Pittsburgh, Gary (Wendy) Weisband of Wynnewood, Pa., and Richard (Mary) Weisband of Phoenixville, Pa. Daughter of the late Ida and Meyer Sherer. Sister of Nathan (Karen) Sherer. Proud grandmother of Ryan, Erik, Douglas, Brett, Ari, Vince and Leeland Weisband. Great-grandmother of Cassiopeia Weisband. Also survived by nieces and nephews. Myrna was a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Education. She loved to travel, was an avid reader and a long time Steeler fan. Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel. Interment at Beth Shalom Cemetery. Contributions may be made to Animal Rescue League, 6620 Hamilton Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15206 or Allegheny Health Hospice, 4818 Liberty Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15224. schugar.com.

Unveiling An unveiling for Marlene S. Brand will be held on Sunday, Aug. 9, 2015, at 1 p.m. at Homewood Cemetery in Pittsburgh.

SEND OBITUARY NOTICES AND REQUESTS FOR MORE INFORMATION TO obituaries@thejewishchronicle.net.

THE DEADLINE FOR PUBLICATION IS NOON MONDAY.

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THE JEWISH CHRONICLE AUGUST 8, 2015 — 17

The Jewish Chronicle

Real Estate Directory

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18 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE AUGUST 8, 2015

The Jewish Chronicle

Business & Professional Directory

CONSTRUCTION

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AUTOS WANTED 724-287-7771 CA$H Buying Unwanted Vehicle$ Good Bad Purcha$ed Your Location Denny Off$tein Auto $ale$

DONOR WANTED Jewish woman needs a kidney transplant. Barbara Jaffe is now in stage 5 renal failure and needs help. She is blood type O+. Donate for Jaffe by contacting Starzl Transplantation Institute – UPMC Services South, 729 Montefiore Hospital, 3459 Fifth Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15213 or call 412-647-5800.

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The Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh will hold its 120th Annual Meeting to install the Board of Directors for the Term 2015-2016 on Wednesday, September 9, 2015 at 7:00 p.m. in the JCC’s Irene Kaufmann Building at 5738 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15217.

NOTICE THE FOLLOWING OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS WILL BE NOMINATED FOR AN ADDITIONAL ONE YEAR TERM:

Marc L. Brown – Chair of the Board Samuel W. Braver – Vice Chair Carole S. Katz – Vice Chair James S. Ruttenberg Vice Chair Hilary S. Tyson – Vice Chair Kenneth T. Segel – Treasurer William S. Goodman – Assistant Treasurer Stefani Pashman – Secretary Merris Groff – Assistant Secretary Jeffrey B. Markel – Immediate Past Chair Brian Schreiber – President & CEO

BOARD MEMBERS ELIGIBLE FOR A FIRST ONE-YEAR TERM:

Richard M. Guttman Ellen P. Kessler Brian Lamfrom Todd E. Reidbord BOARD MEMBERS ELIGIBLE FOR A FIRST THREE-YEAR TERM:

Rona K. Kitchen Scott D. Leib Eric R. Smiga Shelly Snyder BOARD MEMBERS ELIGIBLE FOR A SECOND THREE-YEAR TERM:

Merris Groff Stefani Pashman

BOARD MEMBERS WHOSE TERMS CONTINUE:

Richard M. Guttman Ellen P. Kessler William H. Isler Louis B. Plung Henry Blaufeld Ina K. Gumberg Joshua M. Farber Jack M. Friedman Jeffrey Galak David A. Glickman Alan B. Gordon Larry Honig Douglas W. Kress Audrey Russo Scott E. Seewald Lori B. Shure Rebecca Tobe

The meeting will consider such business items as are properly brought before it. Election of Officers and Directors of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh will be proposed for passage.

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THE JEWISH CHRONICLE AUGUST 8, 2015 — 19

Community Jew’colade Pittsburgh-based commercial director Andy Kelemen placed third in the national “I Want To Be Recycled” video contest conducted by Keep America Beautiful and the Ad Council, in association with Zooppa, the global social community of creative talent.

The contest asked crafty recyclers to create and submit videos about how to “give your garbage another life” through recycling. The contest is an extension of the “I Want To Be Recycled” Public Service Advertising campaign, which was launched by Keep America Beautiful and the Ad Council in 2013.

Photo from Andy Kelemen’s Facebook page

All about Israel The Pittsburgh Onward Israel Internship Program, which ends this week, gives young adults internships, working side-by-side with Israeli peers. This eight-week Tel Aviv-based internship program places participants in a workplace based on their skills, interests and future plans.

Participants intern four days a week and also have a weekly day of interactive, informal educational programming. One day a week is devoted to learning about and experiencing contemporary Israeli society. There is a home hospitality weekend in Pittsburgh’s Partnership communities of Karmiel and Misgav in the Central Galilee, and participants also have a weekend retreat with Jewish students from across North America and the world. Participants learn about the Pittsburgh community’s investment in Israel and how to create Israeli engagement.

Connections are part of Onward Israel. From left: Alisa Dan, Jessica Chmielinski and Janet D’Anna.

Photo provided by My Israel Photos

These young women are out and about.

Photo provided by Pittsburgh Onward Israel

Participants in the Onward Israel Shabbaton included Rachel Eisenberg, Jessica Cohen, Dana Cohen, Michael Feinberg, Vered Juhl, Hilla Rotenberg, Hannah Busis, Ariel Zucker, Chris Owen, Zia Hellman, Abby Neft, Alisa Dan, Ethan Busis, Jessica Chmielinski, Emma Gossard, Janet D’Anna, Brittany Schultz, Jared Harris, Becca Berland, Leah Anton, Noah Abramson and Vicki Yuhas.

Photo by Michael Feinberg

Having fun is also a huge part of the experience. From left: Jessie Cohen, Brittany Schultz, Ariel Zucker and Abby Neft.

Photo by Jessie Cohen

The group is exploring the Negev, which extends over Israel’s southern region.

Photo provided by Pittsburgh Onward Israel

20 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE AUGUST 8, 2015

Kosher Meats

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

Visit GiantEagle.com for location information.

Empire Fresh Kosher Boneless Chicken Breasts

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Price effective Thursday, August 6 through Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Available at

and