Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle 7-12-19 by Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle

July 12, 2019 | 9 Tamuz 5779

Candlelighting 8:33 p.m. | Havdalah 9:39 p.m. | Vol. 62, No. 28 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

Jewish camps boost security after Tree of Life, Poway

NOTEWORTHY LOCAL Exit interview: Rob Menes

$1.50

Rabbi Aaron Meyer takes the pulpit at Temple Emanuel of South Hills By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer

communications. “The focus remains on assessment, awareness, training and communication at all JCC sites, including our camps, incorporating evidence-informed best practices.” This summer, security coverage at EKC has been expanded “to 24-7,” Samuels said, and to “all hours of operation at our day camps at each site.” Physical improvements at EKC include: an updated intercom system, entrance re-configurations that include a dedicated security booth, new fencing and video cameras. Additional lighting has been installed in various locations as well, and a dedicated a vehicle is now on hand 24 hours a day for response staff, if needed. “There have been no security-related incidents at any of our camps through the first three weeks of camp,” Samuels said, and only a few inquiries from parents regarding security. Jeremy Fingerman, CEO of the Foundation for Jewish Camp, a nonprofit

abbi Aaron Meyer first heard the call to the rabbinate while working as a college student at a local synagogue as a way to “pay for pizza and beer,” he said. “I was an environmental science major at Ohio State — go Bucks! — and I started working at a Reform synagogue, Temple Israel in Columbus,” recalled Meyer, who came to Temple Emanuel of South Hills on July 1 to assume the Rabbi Mark Joel Mahler Senior Rabbi Pulpit. In his position as a full-time youth and family educator in Columbus in his early 20s, Meyer faced a particularly challenging experience when a 16-year-old leader of the community passed away. As it was a time of rabbinic transition, and many congregants did not have a long connection with the interim rabbi there, they turned to Meyer for comfort. “I was ill-equipped to be there for them, and I was completely out of my league,” he said. “But I got to see the beauty of Jewish community when all of those kids simply came to the synagogue just to be together. And I realized there is something beautiful there that I wanted to learn more about, and being a rabbi allows me to be a part of those important moments in people’s lives — both those that are tragic as well as those that are joyous and uplifting — and it offers me the chance to be a student and a teacher for the rest of my life. What could be better than that?” He knows he has “big shoes to fill” as he succeeds Mahler’s 38-year tenure as the spiritual leader of Temple Emanuel, but the Erie native and 2011 graduate of the Reform movement’s Hebrew Union College, is ready to hit the ground running. “I think there are many people for whom

Please see Camp, page 14

Please see Meyer, page 14

Menes reflects on the challenges faced by the Pittsburgh Jewish community. Page 2 LOCAL JJEP’s new director Rabbi Larry Freedman starts this month.

 EKC campers enjoying yoga

Page 3 By Toby Tabachnick and Eric Schucht

WORLD Collecting Jewish art

Grandchildren no longer want to inherit paintings of dancing rabbis. Page 6

afety is a top priority for most Jewish organizations, including at Jewish summer camps. While many camps in Pennsylvania have had longstanding security protocol in place, the attacks at the Tree of Life building on Oct. 27, then at Chabad of Poway six months later, moved them to consult security experts anew, and to implement suggested upgrades where needed. At the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh’s camps, including the James and Rachel Levinson Day Camp, and the Emma Kaufmann overnight camp located in Morgantown, West Virginia, several changes were introduced. “As we have done in the past, the JCC evaluates and executes priorities in consultation with the Department of Homeland Security, Brad Orsini [the community security director for the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh] and local law enforcement in addition to the JCC’s director of security,” according to Cathy Samuels, the JCC’s senior director of development and

Photo provided by JCC of Greater Pittsburgh

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Keep it fresh with herbs

Headlines The exit interview: Rob Menes — LOCAL — By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer

ob Menes is a man of many hats, and he is readying to try on a new one. After four years ser ving Congregation Beth Shalom as its executive director, Menes is heading back to Vancouver, British Columbia, where he began his work life in the mid-1980s as an agricultural engineer. In 2002, at the age of 45, Menes began cantorial training at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. He was invested as a cantor in 2006, then served congregations in New York, New Jersey, Kansas and Nevada before coming to Beth Shalom in an executive capacity. Menes is pivoting again, and on July 24, he will leave Pittsburgh to become a chaplain at the Louis Brier Home and Hospital’s Snider Campus, a Jewish senior citizen facility in Vancouver. Prior to beginning his new venture, Menes sat down with the Chronicle to reflect on his time in Pittsburgh. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. You have lived in many different cities. How did you like living in Pittsburgh? I’ve been pleasantly surprised. Pittsburgh reinvented itself. It’s a wonderful place. There is great culture here and it’s an interesting city and I have really enjoyed being here. I have not enjoyed the traffic or the roads, but it has been just a wonderful experience. How was working in the Jewish community here, as executive director of Beth Shalom? The synagogue here has been phenomenal.

We have made great progress over these four years in every way. I started along with Rabbi Seth Adelson. We knew each other at the [Jewish Theological] Seminary. I didn’t know he was going to be here, but that was fantastic. During my four years here, I have been the luckiest executive director that I know because the rabbi, the president and I have formed a unified team for all these years. We are never in conflict. David Horvitz actually was the one who hired me, then Debbie [Firestone] took over, and between the two of them, it’s worked out beautifully. In these four years we reduced our deficit by hundreds of thousands of dollars, actually over $300,000. How did you do that? That would take a while to explain. Can you give me the short version? Just more efficient use of labor. Increased effort in fundraising. Also, an increase in dues and fees. Some of it is just basic administration, that without an executive director, it falls by the wayside. Also, membership has increased steadily every year of these four years by over 15%. We have a more dedicated membership now. It’s been a tremendous success actually. So that begs the question: Why are you leaving? There are two major issues. One is my family. I have family in Vancouver, my kids are there, my grandchildren are in Vancouver. And I have a lot of friends there, still, from my years there. So, there’s that. But the other part is — it’s hard to explain. I have tremendous respect for executive directors now. It’s an incredibly difficult job. You work behind the scenes, you don’t get the type of emotional outlet or the gratification that

p Rob Menes is leaving Pittsburgh after four years serving as the executive director of Congregation Beth Shalom. Photo by Toby Tabachnick

you would get as a cantor. In many ways, everything I loved about Judaism has been — not taken away — but kind of pushed to the background. On Shabbat morning, I come to services, but I’m kind of working. So, all of my spiritual connection is not what I want it to be. So, my next position is as a chaplain in a Jewish nursing home and hospital complex. What challenges does the Pittsburgh community face that we should address in order to have a vibrant future? The Jewish community in Pittsburgh is very strong in so many ways. Actually, it

reflects Pittsburgh in many ways. People leave Pittsburgh and come back, right? It’s a community that will stay strong because families here are strong. However, there has to be some self-reflection in the community to recognize that some congregations have to consolidate, they have to come together. We just cannot sustain the number of congregations we have. And also, there needs to be some recognition that there are some divisions in the Jewish community, particularly between what I see as the Orthodox community Please see Menes, page 15

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Headlines Joint Jewish Education Program selects Rabbi Larry Freedman as new director — LOCAL — By David Rullo | Staff Writer

abbi Larry Freedman has been selected as the new director of the Joint Jewish Education Program. J-JEP is a partnership between Congregation Beth Shalom and Rodef Shalom Congregation for students K-7. Freedman replaces Liron Lipinksky, who left the program last August for an opportunity with BBYO. Freedman, who was chosen after a national search, will begin his tenure on July 15. According to Rabbi Aaron Bisno, senior rabbi at Rodef Shalom, the search was conducted by a committee “comprised of parents, administrators, rabbis and the leadership of both congregations.” Previously, Freedman served as rabbi at Temple Beth Jacob in Newburgh, New York, for 11 years. Congregation Beth Shalom Senior Rabbi Seth Adelson felt it of “utmost importance” to find a director that would be able to “continue and strengthen J-JEP’s commitment to experiential education, the program’s hallmark. We also looked for the ability to attract and guide the best teachers, as well as an educational presence that would inspire

both in the classroom and out.” “I think that Jewish education is one of the great challenges in the Jewish community,” Freedman said. “Those of us involved with it, the adults, feel this great connection to it. The challenge is: How do you share that with the next generation who are not keyed in the same way to the old country? Their options of what to connect to are far greater than their parents.” He noted that Jewish education now competes with other interests. “With sports and other clubs and activities, t h e r e’s m o r e available to these children t h a t adds value a n d p Rabbi Larry Freedman

meaning and richness to their lives. My job is to help the teachers craft a program that shows why there is value and meaning and richness in their lives through a connection with our heritage.” Bisno felt it important that the new director understand the need “to bridge the congregations and the Reform and Conservative movements.” Freedman views this as an opportunity to “use the best of both worlds. I think

nobody beats Reform Jews in terms of understanding how Torah can make the world a better place. Nobody beats Conservative Jews in showing how Jewish ritual can make your life richer in the modern world. I know those are clichés but I think there is a lot of truth behind them. I’m hoping we can take the best of both movements and what they can teach us and bring it to all of the students.” Although there are differences between the two movements, “J-JEP does not teach Reform or Conservative Judaism,” Adelson noted. “It teaches Judaism. Rabbi Freedman is sensitive to this and I am confidant that he will effectively bridge the gaps where necessary.” Parental involvement is important to Freedman. He plans to meet with parents as soon as possible. “We’ll organize meetings. The program is good, but they always want to make it better.” How the program changes is still undecided but he suggests the possibility of growing it past grade seven. Adelson mentioned “an eye to reaching out to other congregations in the future.” While Freedman is new to J-JEP, he is not new to Pittsburgh, having served as an

Photo provided by Larry Freedman

Please see Freedman, page 6

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UBS Investor Watch,”Retiring old cliches’, Q1 2017

Modern Retirement Monthly, “Healthcare in retirement, August 7, 2018

“Health State and the Savings Required for a sustainable Retirement,” Journal of Retirement, 2017

Modern Retirement Monthly, “Planning for successful retirement and well-being,” September 6, 2017

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JULY 12, 2019 5

Headlines Freedman: Continued from page 3

associate rabbi-educator at Temple Sinai from 1991 to 2006. “I’m very excited about coming back to Pittsburgh, as is my wife, Deborah. We lived in Pittsburgh for 10 years. We love the city, love the Jewish community.” The couple have two children, Ethan and Lev. “We have friends who were raising young children while we raised ours. That’s a

Shiva: Continued from page 4

an extended period after, allowing the family to focus on their loss and grief. One of the hardest things for those attending a shiva is knowing what to say to a mourner. “None of us like to see someone in raw pain,” said Rosenblum. “What we tend to do is try to comfort ourselves, so you’re not sitting with someone in such raw pain, we tend to divert the conversation to something different or funny.” While such diversions might make us feel better, it isn’t the reason we’re sitting shiva with the family. “Our sages teach us, when you share someone’s pain, you actually take a piece of it from them, so that’s actually what you’re trying to do. While this is difficult, it’s important to remember that’s the goal.”

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Art:

lovely bond with which to reconnect.” Finding a director with a Pittsburgh connection wasn’t a requirement, said Bisno, but “it was a bonus.” “When we had the opportunity to meet with Freedman and welcome him back to Pittsburgh, it was a slam dunk.” “Beth Shalom is very optimistic about the future of J-JEP, led by the experienced and capable Larry Freedman,” Adelson said. “I am tremendously optimistic that, as the J-JEP program enters its eighth year, it will

continue its unique and innovative path to imparting the wisdom of our tradition to our children, making it relevant and enjoyable to all who enter. Rabbi Freedman’s presence will bring new inspiration, raising J-JEP to new heights of success.” For his part, Freedman said, “I’m very excited to grow the program and work with the whole community.” PJC

Rabbi Seth Adelson, senior rabbi at Congregation Beth Shalom, said that Jewish custom calls for guests to not make the mourners attend to their needs. To this end, those attending a shiva should not knock on the door; they should simply enter the home. And they should not address the mourners unless they speak first. If you’re unsure of what to say, Rosenblum said, it is appropriate to talk about how the deceased touched your life. “Even though you may cause the mourner to cry or tear up, that’s fine, you’ll never be disrespectful if you impart a story or the way that person touched your life. You’ll never offend them. You may make them cry, but you won’t offend them.” Shiva also helps a family in mourning fulfill their obligation for daily prayer. “Mourners do not leave the house, so they fulfill their daily obligations to pray morning, afternoon and evening at home,” said Adelson. “The congregation generally sends somebody to

lead services and prayer books as needed.” These prayers, according to Meyer, include the daily prayers, Jewish prayers of mourning — El Maleh Rachamim or Kaddish Yatom, the mourner’s kaddish — “and a number of Psalms that offer comfort and remind us of God’s presence and nearness.” Shiva is an important part of the grieving process, but it is not the final step. “You never know when a trip to the grocery store is going to remind them of a loved one’s favorite food or a particular smell is going to bring memories rushing back, even years later,” Meyer said. “Recognize shiva as the beginning of a mourning process. Continue to be there for friends and loved ones mourning.” “Bring your human presence, a willingness to listen and the warmth of your hug,” Schiff said. That will be more than enough. PJC

in your family aren’t interested in your art collection, you might consider donating it to charity. “It’s always better to give something away during your lifetime because the income tax deduction is much higher than the 4.5% tax your inheritors will have to pay.” If your family does inherit your art collection and doesn’t want to keep it, there is a market — but it’s probably not going to have the value it did when originally bought. “We sell a lot of this artwork at auctions,” Oehler said. “It’s not that it won’t sell. It simply sells for a fraction of the price that was paid for the work. Sometimes we even recommend it go to a house sale.” Berkovitz believes there is value in Jewish art, if one knows what they’re buying. “The first and second generation of artists that emigrated from Europe and landed in Palestine before it was Israel are very interesting,” he said. “They have wonderful views of Jerusalem. Moshe Castel plays around with the Hebrew alphabet. There are many, many interesting and collectible things, but you have to do your homework.” That education, he points out, is part of the experience. “The more you understand what is available and what is historically significant, the more you’ll enjoy it.” PJC

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

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Calendar q WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7 Join members of the Jewish community for an opportunity to catch up with old friends and meet some new. Jewish Heritage Night is Aug. 7 as the Pittsburgh Pirates meet the Washington Nationals. Each ticket purchased will include a limited edition “Pittsburgh Strong” Hebrew T-shirt. A specially priced kosher meal can be purchased for just $5 per person. The menu can be found at pirates.com/ jewishheritage or call 412-325-4903.

>>Submit calendar items on the Chronicle’s website, pittsburghjewishchronicle.org. Submissions will also be included in print. Events will run in the print edition beginning one month prior to the date as space allows. The deadline for submissions is Friday, noon. q THURSDAYS, JULY 11, 18, 25 Thursday Evenings in My Garden offers weekly conversation and exploration about everyday spirituality for healing, growth, creativity and innovation. Thursdays, Memorial Day through Labor Day, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Come once or come weekly, friends are welcome. Check bethshalompgh.org/thursdayevenings-in-my-garden for location and confirmation of upcoming dates. q SATURDAY, JULY 13 Say goodbye to Shabbat and hello to the new week at a Havdallah Bonfire beginning at 8 p.m. Enjoy singing, s’mores and good friends. Contact moishehousepgh@gmail. com for more information. Moishe House events are intended for young adults, 22-32. q TUESDAY, JULY 16 Pizza in the morning, pizza in the evening, pizza at summertime…when you attend the Make Your Own Pizza Party from 7-9:00 p.m., it’s perfect every time. Moishe House events are intended for young adults age 22-32. Contact moishehousepgh@ gmail.com for more information. Moishe House events are intended for young adults age 22-32. q WEDNESDAYS, JULY 17, 24, 31; AUG. 7, 14 Wholly Holy: Exploring Faith, Practice and Belonging in Judaism and Christianity, a series about Jewish and Christian life-cycle events and why we do them the way we do them. This interfaith program is presented in partnership between the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh and Congregation Beth Shalom. 11 a.m.-1 p.m., Eisner Commons, Congregation Beth Shalom. The series is free, lunch included. Free on-site childcare available. For more information and to RSVP, visit tinyurl.com/WhollyHoly2019. q WEDNESDAYS Heal, Grow and Live with Hope. NarAnon and NA meetings EVERY Wednesday evening at Beth El Congregation, 1900 Cochran Road, 15220 at 7:30 p.m. Come to office/ school entrance at the end of the building to

be buzzed in. Call Karen at 412-563-3395 and leave a message for more information. q FRIDAY, JULY 19 Celebrate Jewish Christmas in July. MoHoHo, Merry Jewmas (in July). Join Moishe House for this twist on the traditional Shabbat celebration. Eat Chinese food and Christmas cookies, with plenty of eggnog to wash it down. Welcome in Shabbat with services in the living room at 7:30 p.m. and then adjourn to the dining room for dinner. If you would like to participate in a white elephant gift exchange, bring a silly wrapped gift, something you find in your house or $5 or under. Moishe House events are intended for young adults age 22-32. Please sign up on OneTable: bit.ly/2RuIYKM q THURSDAY, JULY 25 Moishe House is heading to Nerd Nite Pittsburgh. Nerd Nite is a monthly lecture event that strives for an inebriated, salacious, yet deeply academic vibe. It’s often about science or technology, but by no means is it limited to such topics. And it’s definitely entertaining. Sign up here: forms.gle/ L4YMyskvommHLEq96. Moishe House events are intended for young adults, 22-32.

q MONDAY, JULY 29

q WEDNESDAY, JULY 31

The Kollel Learning Center welcomes Sara Chana Weinberger at 9:30 a.m. Weinberger will present “And You Shall Speak to the Daughters of Yaakov: The Life and Legacy of Sara Scheirer.” Leah Milch presents “Rus: A Paragon of Chessed-Redined” at 10:30 a.m. Weinberger discusses “Michal, Avigayil and Batsheva: The Wives and Lives of King David” at 7:30 p.m. Free and open to the community. Visit kollelpgh.org for more information.

Sara Chana Weinberger presents “Mothers of Mashiach” at 9:30 a.m.; Elky Langer discusses “Chuldah and Esther: Prophecies of Darkness” at 10:30 a.m. and Yikara Levari presents “Devorah and Yael: The Feminism of the Ancients” at 7:30 p.m. All three opportunities are at the Kollel Jewish Learning Center. Free and open to the community. Visit kollelpgh.org for more information.

q TUESDAY, JULY 30 There are three opportunities to learn with Kollel Learning Center: Rabbi Levi Langer presents “Navi Shiur Aleph” at 9:30 a.m. “Women Sages Through the Ages: From Bruriah to Nechama Leibowitz” is presented at 10:30 a.m. by Sara Chana Weinberger. “The Great Women Behind the Greatest Prophet: A Look at Yocheved, Miriam, Zipporah … and BIsyah?” is discussed by Weinberger at 7:30 p.m. Free and open to the community. Visit kollelpgh.org for more information. q TUESDAY, JULY 30 Enjoy a classic Game Night at Moishe House from 7 to 9 p.m. Bring your favorite game or play one of theirs. As always, snacks and drinks will be provided. Contact moishehousepgh@ gmail.com for more information. Moishe House events are intended for young adults, 22-32.

q SUNDAY, JULY 28 Dasi Indich presents “Rebuilding the Temple through Building People: Rachel, Wife of Rabbi Akiva — The Power of Belief in Oneself and Others” for Sunday Brunch and Learn at 10:30 a.m. at the Kollel Learning Center (5808 Beacon St., Perlow Hall). Free and open to the community. Visit kollelpgh. org for more information.

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Beth El Congregation of the South Hills presents its monthly lunch series with Rabbi Alex Greenbaum and a guest of interest. This month, George Savarese presents “The End of the American Empire.” $6, includes lunch. Visit bethelcong.org/events/first-mondays-series-2019-01-072019-08-05 for more information and to RSVP. PJC

PRICES EFFECTIVE SUNDAY, JULY 14-FRIDAY, JULY 19, 2019 Candle Lighting Time Friday, July 12, 2019 • 8:33 p.m. TAKE-OUT SPECIALS

MEAT SPECIALS

Top of Rib Roast

The Kollel Jewish Learning Center presents the 19th Annual Women’s Summer Learning Program. Learn about great women in Jewish history, discover their biographies and inspirational messages from their lives. Free and open to the community. Visit kollelpgh.org for more information.

q MONDAY, AUG. 5

Murray Avenue Kosher

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Rabbi Doniel Schon presents a parsha class at 9:30 a.m. followed by Lisa Cook’s presentation “Tapping into True Greatness in our Generation: The Life Lessons of Rebbetzin Henny Machlis” at 10:30 a.m. Sara Leah Weisswasser presents “Channah: A Study in Using Life’s Challenges to Deepen Our Relationship with Hashem” at 7:30 p.m. All three opportunities are at the Kollel Jewish Learning Center. Free and open to the community. Visit kollelpgh.org for more information.

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The Kollel Jewish Learning Center welcomes Dasi Indich for Shalosh Seudos at the home of Shana Ziff (1808 Beechwood Blvd.) at 5 p.m. Ziff presents “Of Weasels and Wells: The Isha HaShumanis — A Picture of a Woman’s Faith.” Free and open to the community. Visit kollelpgh.org for more information.

q THURSDAY, AUG. 1

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JULY 12, 2019 7

Headlines — WORLD — Compiled from JTA reports

Linda Sarsour tweets that Jesus was Palestinian and Twitter goes crazy

Muslim political activist Linda Sarsour started a mini-Twitter war after tweeting that Jesus was Palestinian. “Jesus was Palestinian of Nazareth and is described in the Quran as being brown copper skinned with wooly hair,” she tweeted on Saturday. This led to a more than 24-hour debate about the Jewish and Palestinian roots of Jesus. Sarsour noted that Palestinian is a nationality and Judaism a religion, implying that there is no contradiction between Jesus being both Jewish and Palestinian. “Palestinian is a nationality not a religion. Your point is not negated. Jews lived with Palestinians in peaceful co-existence before there was a state of Israel,” she tweeted. She then switched from insisting that Jesus was from Nazareth, which currently is in Israeli territory, to reminding her followers that he was born in Bethlehem, which currently is part of the Palestinian Authority. She tweeted: “Why so upset by the truth. Jesus was born in Bethlehem aka ‫بيت لحم‬ in Arabic. Bethlehem is in Palestine. It’s currently militarily occupied by Israel and home to a predominately beautiful Palestinian Christian community. Yes,

the birthplace of Jesus is under military occupation.” Some followers pointed out that Palestine as a concept did not exist until over a century after Jesus died and the land on which Bethlehem and Nazareth were situated was called Judea. She continued to double down on the “multiple truths” about Jesus — that he could be Palestinian and Jewish, finally saying she had enough “Jesus talk” and would turn her attention to the Women’s World Cup finals. The Jerusalem Post’s Seth Frantzman wrote Sunday that: “There is no reason to repackage Jesus as Palestinian. He can be a historical figure from Bethlehem or Nazareth without being ‘Palestinian.’ Sarsour’s attempt to reference the Quran is interesting because she seems to not mention other aspects of how Jesus is described in Islamic theology. For instance, he is seen as a messenger to the ‘Children of Israel’ and an adherent of the laws of Moses. He is linked to the line of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the Tribes of Israel, as well as kings David and Solomon.” Higher number of Americans say businesses should be able to refuse service to Jews

Nineteen percent of Americans think small business owners should be allowed to refuse service to Jews if doing so would violate their religious beliefs, a new poll shows. That is an increase from 2014, when 12% of respondents agreed with the statement,

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according to survey results published by the Public Religion Research Institute. The survey found increased support for business owners to refuse service to other groups as well, including gays and lesbians, transgender people, atheists, Muslims and African Americans. The survey did not ask, however, about refusing service to Christians or straight people, which might have controlled for those who were expressing support for religious autonomy. The proportion of Americans who think small businesses should be able to refuse service to gays and lesbians was the highest among all the minority groups, at 30 percent. The other groups ranged from 15 percent for African Americans to 29 percent for transgender people. A significantly higher proportion of Republicans approved of service refusals in all categories than Democrats did. Twentyfour percent of Republicans thought small business owners should be allowed to refuse service to Jews based on religious grounds. That number was 17 percent for Democrats. PRRI surveyed 1,100 adults via phone with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percent. Eva Mozes Kor, survivor of Mengele twin experiments, has died

Holocaust survivor Eva Mozes Kor, who underwent experiments in Auschwitz together with her twin sister, has died at the age of 85.

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

July 12, 1938 — Weizmann protests Britain’s Pro-Arab stance

Chaim Weizmann writes to Malcolm MacDonald, the British secretary of state for dominion affairs, to complain about the government’s shift from supporting Zionism to adopting a pro-Arab policy.

July 13, 1978 — Peace deal is urgent, Sadat says

Egyptian President Anwar Sadat invites Israeli Foreign Minister Ezer Weizman to a meeting in Austria to press the importance of reaching a bilateral peace agreement.

July 14, 1555 — Paul IV forces Jews into Roman ghetto

Pope Paul IV issues the decree Cum Nimis Absurdum, which subjects Jews living under papal rule to humiliations and restrictions, including living in ghettos. Rome’s Jews remain in the ghetto until the late 19th century.

July 15, 1908 — Max Fisher born

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Kor, of Terra Haute, Indiana, died on Thursday morning in Krakow, Poland, the CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center said in a statement. She was in Poland with the museum’s annual trip to visit Nazi camps. Kor and her sister were one of some 1,500 sets of twins who were experimented on by Josef Mengele. CANDLES stands for Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Lab Experiments Survivors. Kor founded the museum in 1985. Kor and her twin sister, Miriam, who were born in Romania, were the only members of her family to survive the Holocaust, after being sent to Auschwitz in 1944. They were liberated 18 months later. Kor moved to Israel with her sister in 1950. In 1960, she married fellow survivor Michael Kor and they moved to the United States. She returned to Auschwitz regularly to share her experience with groups during tours of the site, and she frequently spoke about the power of forgiveness, publicly forgiving Mengele and the Nazis. Her embrace in 2015 of 94-year-old Auschwitz guard Oskar Groening, during his trial in Germany, made headlines. The CANDLES museum wrote in its announcement of Kor’s death: “The themes of Eva’s life are apparent. We can overcome hardship and tragedy. Forgiveness can help us to heal. And everyone has the power and responsibility to make this world a better place. We hope Eva’s story continues to change the lives of those who hear it for many years to come.” PJC

Max Fisher is born to Russian Jewish immigrants in Pittsburgh. The founder PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

of Aurora Gasoline devotes his substantial philanthropy to Jewish causes, Israel and his home city of Detroit.

July 16, 1926 — Stef Wertheimer born

Stef Wertheimer, who in 1952 founds Iscar Metalworking and becomes one of Israel’s wealthiest citizens with a net worth of $5 billion, is born in Kippenheim, Germany.

July 17, 1888 — S.Y. Agnon born

Writer Shmuel Yosef “Shai” Agnon is born in Buczacz, Galicia, now part of Ukraine. Although his early writing is in Yiddish, most of his books are in Hebrew. He is awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1966, becoming Israel’s first Nobel laureate.

July 18, 1290 — England expels Jews

King Edward I orders the expulsion of the Jews from England, where they had settled in significant numbers only in the 11th century. Approximately 4,000 Jews leave the country. Jews are not allowed to return to England until 1656. PJC

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Headlines Steve Nasatir, the powerful director of Chicago’s federation, steps down from the empire he built — NATIONAL — By Ben Sales | JTA

efore he stepped down last week, Steve Nasatir led the Chicago Jewish federation for four decades. In that time he built an empire. His federation, called the Jewish United Fund, or JUF, does the things that most Jewish federations do: It raises money for an array of Jewish causes across the city, country and world, with the donations going to a central fund and allocated as its leaders see fit. Those causes include Israel, Jewish day schools (19, in fact) and fighting poverty. It also acts as an address for Jewish programming and setting policy agenda. But JUF is much more powerful than most federations: It controls the Hillels on all the campuses in Illinois and owns the real estate that houses various Jewish institutions in the Chicago area, from community centers to social service agencies. And JUF provided the loan guarantees to the city’s Jewish day schools that enabled them to erect their buildings. It’s a federation that raises lots of money. In Fiscal Year 2018, JUF’s general

p Steve Nasatir speaks at an event commemorating his 40 years as president of the Jewish United Fund in Chicago in May. Nasatir was one of the most powerful Jewish federation executives in the country. Photo by Robert Kusel

fundraising campaign brought in nearly $87 million from a community of approximately 300,000 Jews. By comparison, the federations serving San Francisco and

Washington, D.C. — communities similar in size — each brought in less than $20 million in unrestricted and designated fundraising. In the 40 years with Nasatir at the helm,

according to JUF, the federation brought in $8 billion through all of its fundraising methods. “Eight billion, that’s kind of a lot,” Nasatir, 74, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in a recent interview. “Really being involved in everything from [fighting] BDS to helping Holocaust survivors to taking care of the poor to building day schools to being engaged in Israel both philanthropically and in an advocacy way, to participating in [combating] the hunger in the Soviet Union and on and on and on, I think makes for greater and greater success because the community recognizes that that one place is JUF federation.” He began working at JUF in 1971 and assumed the leadership in 1979. Nasatir has been succeeded by his son Lonnie, formerly the Midwest director of the Anti-Defamation League who took over this week. Nasatir will stay connected to JUF as executive vice chairman. According to Haaretz, as of 2015 he was one of the highest-paid federation executives in the country. Nasatir spoke of the “very, very big table” that JUF sets for the array of Jews and Jewish groups in Chicago, but he made clear it was JUF that would decide who gets to sit Please see Nasatir, page 10

Selma’s only synagogue has 4 members and is fighting for its life — NATIONAL — By Ben Sales | JTA

henever the lone synagogue in Selma, Alabama, needs dusting, new lighting or vacuuming, Ronnie Leet is the one who does it. It’s tiring work — especially since the 120-year-old Temple Mishkan Israel hasn’t held regular services in years, hasn’t had a rabbi in nearly half a century and isn’t even close to having enough Jews for a minyan, a prayer quorum of 10 people. In fact, the temple has only four members. At 68, Leet is the youngest. There are two or three other Jews in the city of 20,000 known for its role in the civil rights movement, but they’re not involved with the synagogue. “The congregation gets smaller and smaller, and we’re getting older,” Leet said. “With a 120-year-old roof, we see issues every day with it. As every year goes by, and as it gets older and older, something is going to happen.” Other small towns in America with dying synagogues have simply pulled the plug. Buildings are vacated, prayer books and Torah scrolls are sent elsewhere, and the dwindling membership finds other places to go or just stops going to synagogue. It would probably be easier for Selma’s temple to follow suit. But it’s doubling down

an early community of Jews that continues to survive in 2019.” There are no illusions of becoming a regularly functioning synagogue in the near future. But Mishkan Israel members and Milligan believe it still has something to say to the 81,000 tourists who filter through Selma every year visiting places like the National Museum of Voting Rights, which is just across the p The exterior of Temple Mishkan Israel in Selma, Ala. The synagogue has four members but wants to Edmund Pettus Bridge transform into a museum. Photo by Amy Milligan from the synagogue. They plan for the synagogue to become a museum, one more dot in on the continued life of the synagogue. Mishkan Israel wants to raise $800,000 the city’s constellation of spaces commemothrough GoFundMe for renovations. A rating a formative era in the Deep South. The Virginia professor is trying to turn the syna- synagogue would host exhibits on Southern gogue into a cause celebre. And last year it Jewish history and the Jews’ role in the civil rights movement, as well as events. got an email address. In 2017, some 125 people prayed at the “Temple Mishkan Israel is one of those stories that’s so easy for people in the United synagogue during a Jewish mission to Selma States to overlook,” said Amy Milligan, a over Martin Luther King Day weekend. Two Jewish studies professor at Old Dominion years earlier, 205 attended a commemoration University in Norfolk who is writing a book at the synagogue of the 50th anniversary of about Selma’s Jewish life and has taken an Bloody Sunday, when Alabama state troopers active role in helping the congregation with beat nonviolent civil rights marchers on the fundraising and publicity. “It’s a story about bridge and shot tear gas at them.

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“We want it there for people to tour the building and hear our story of the past,” Leet said. “It’s more than just fixing the building and letting it sit there.” Decades ago, Selma had a thriving Jewish community of as many as 500 members. Leet said that as recently as the early 1950s, half of the businesses in the city’s downtown were owned by Jews. In the 1920s and ’30s, Milligan said, Jewish businesses used to take out ads in the local paper notifying their customers that they would be closed for the High Holidays. Stores owned by non-Jews would likewise buy ads wishing Jews a happy holiday and reminding them to come by after it ended. Jews came to Selma around the early 1830s, and the first organized services took place in 1867. Mishkan Israel moved into its current building in 1899, and it still has the original electricity system. Leet said the building is still in remarkably good condition for its age. But as Jews became more successful, Milligan said, younger generations moved away. “It very much is a fulfillment of the American dream,” she said. “People came into Selma, they had their businesses, and they built that as a community for their children. And then they sent their kids away to college. The parents said, ‘Go have a career. I want you to prosper.’” Please see Selma, page 11

JULY 12, 2019 9

Headlines Teenager Jack Hughes is first Jewish player to be No. 1 overall pick in National Hockey League draft

get to brag? they asked Hughes, a 5-10, 170-pound forward. “Not just [then] but the other 364 days, too,”

he responded, noting the siblings’ competitiveness. His brother is a defenseman. In the recently completed season, Hughes

broke the U.S. National Team Development Program record for points with 190. For Hughes and his brothers, the hockey lineage comes from their parents. Mom Ellen Weinberg-Hughes was a member of the U.S. women’s national squad that took silver in the 1992 World Championships, while dad Jim played for Providence College before becoming a coach and working in player development with the NHL’s Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs. “It’s in my blood to be an athlete, to be a hockey player,” Hughes said on the Kay show. “My parents are having a ball with it.” The Devils expect quite a bit from their top choice. “I think he’s going to change our organization,” an executive and a former star goalie with the club said, according to the Breaking Israel News website. “He’s a tremendous talent.” Upon confirming Hughes’ Jewishness, one of Kay’s sidekicks, Peter Rosenberg, was on board as a fan, forsaking his former favorite, Pittsburgh Penguins great Sidney Crosby (who’s not Jewish). “Dude, we’re counting on you,” Rosenberg told Hughes. PJC

professors who objected to the firing called it “disgraceful and unwelcome in our community.” Nasatir wrote in a letter to students about the firing that “our hand was forced” and JUF tried “to avoid the separation with Dan and the advisory committee, which we neither desired nor initiated.” A millennial Jew in Chicago who is connected to JUF said it’s hard to dissent from federation and still be able to participate in the local Jewish community. Fearing a backlash from JUF, this person asked to remain anonymous. “Being on the wrong side of federation doesn’t just hurt your standing within the federation, but can have an impact on your standing within the entire Chicagoland Jewish world,” the millennial said. “Its ability to support all different sorts of causes, including very, very innovative ones, gives federation the ability to set restrictions on groups that probably would have no connection to federation in other cities.” Nasatir and his supporters say the federation’s size allows for a more effective and efficient system, and point to his achievements over the decades. In particular, Nasatir mentioned the 30,000 Soviet Jews whom JUF resettled in Chicago, and its work helping Israel, along with anti-poverty activism it led locally. During the late 1980s and early ’90s, JUF raised a total of more than $100 million for Soviet Jewish resettlement, Nasatir said. In 2004, while Israel was fighting the second intifada, JUF raised more money for Israel per capita than any other Jewish federation. “We’re very connected to the notion of collectiveness, and we’re able to project the story of connecting the members of this

community — and that includes the donors to this organization — to the great events of Jewish life,” Nasatir said. “The ultimate referendum is that annual campaign. If we really had it wrong, we wouldn’t see the continued expansion of an annual campaign year after year after year.” Part of that success stems from the personal attention that Nasatir paid to fundraising, said Misha Galperin, a former Jewish Agency for Israel executive who considers Nasatir a mentor. Galperin said that Nasatir would personally meet with 200 donors every year. “The number of people he individually met with every year and solicited was stunning,” said Galperin, now the president of Zandafi Philanthropy Advisors. “I tried to emulate him and I never reached his numbers. He backed up his commitment and his faith and his theory with delivering results.” JUF has also retained its power by being able to cultivate large donors while simultaneously doing a good job of leveraging donor-advised funds, said Lila CorwinBerman, a history professor at Temple University and author of the forthcoming book “The American Jewish Philanthropic Complex.” Donor-advised funds allow donors to park money in an account at federation and then donate that money to causes of their choosing. “During the time of his leadership, a lot of federations have struggled and private foundations have become a lot more powerful,” she said. “I think Chicago has done pretty well, and it’s in particular because he’s done a good job of treating it more like a private foundation than a federation.” JUF’s reach helps draw young adults to a

continuum of programs, said Rabbi Megan GoldMarche of the Silverstein Base Hillel, which serves college students and post-college young people and is under JUF’s umbrella. Affiliations with Hillel and JUF can make it harder to attract some young Jews, GoldMarche said, but others end up coming to Base Hillel after attending JUF social programs. “A big piece of it is having access to reach a wide range of people we wouldn’t otherwise reach,” she said. “There’s a whole range of people who don’t know that they’re looking for Jewish learning, who don’t realize that what they need in their 20s is a rabbi, and often those people first come through our doors through a co-sponsored program with federation.” JUF is looking now toward its next generation, too. Nasatir said he had “zero” involvement in the process that led a search committee to appoint his son as his successor. He called the question a “sore spot,” but said he was “very proud.” “It was not my decision so I have nothing to say,” he said. “It’s obvious, it is. My son succeeded me. OK. Judge my son by what he does and judge me by what I do.” In May, JUF thanked its longtime chief executive at a gala whose guests included Chicago’s newly elected mayor, Lori Lightfoot, and the former General Dynamics chair and megadonor Lester Crown. “The federation over the years has become a place where different segments of the community, Orthodox and secular and a whole range of things can come to the table and discuss things,” Nasatir said. “They can still talk together and work together for what they see as the larger good.” PJC

— NATIONAL — By Marc Brodsky | JTA

ack Hughes, even at 18, is no stranger to making history. And now he’s done it again, becoming the first Jewish player to be drafted No. 1 overall by the National Hockey League. The New Jersey Devils picked Hughes, a Florida native who grew up in Ontario, Canada, in the NHL draft. He’s the son of a Jewish mother and Catholic father — both big-time hockey players back in the day — who attended Catholic high school but had a bar mitzvah. “We did Passover when we were younger,” the teen phenom told “The Michael Kay Show” on ESPN Radio. His older brother, Quinn, was the No. 7 pick a year ago by the Vancouver Canucks. Both were members of the U.S. squad in the Men’s World Championship this year in Slovakia. They have a 15-year-old brother, Luke, who appears to be following in their footsteps. Being chosen No. 1 overall “obviously is special … really exciting,” he told Kay. Does this mean at holiday time you

Nasatir: Continued from page 9

at the table. The power of the purse and the federation’s influence over Chicago Jewish institutions meant that JUF can effectively decide which groups and views are funded in the Jewish community there and which are in and out of the communal umbrella. (JUF has contributed to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and its parent company, 70 Faces Media, through donations and subscriptions to its syndication service.) “There’s no question we’re a top-down community in many, many ways,” he said. “We recognize the bottom-up and the diversity, but yes, there are rules.” Later he added, “We do have guidelines. If you want to be part of the federation system, there are the kinds of things that you can do, there are the kinds of things that you can’t do. It’s not ad hoc.” JUF operates with many of the same policies as other federations. Its boundaries on Israel discourse, for example, fall within the norms of federations nationwide. It opposes the boycott Israel movement, and also won’t direct donor money to causes on the right that advocate violence toward or forcible expulsion of Israeli Arabs. What sets JUF apart is its reach. In one instance, in 2012, JUF mandated budget cuts to the University of Chicago Hillel. In response, the Hillel board and its director, Dan Libenson, threatened to separate from JUF. So JUF fired the director and board with no notice and ordered them to vacate the building immediately. A group of University of Chicago 10 JULY 12, 2019

p Jack Hughes was chosen first overall by the New Jersey Devils in the 2019 NHL Draft. Photo by Andre Ringuette/NHLI via Getty Images

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Headlines The protests by Ethiopian Israelis, explained — WORLD — By Marcy Oster | JTA

rotests by the Ethiopian-Israeli community and their supporters entered a third day on Wednesday in Israel in the wake of the killing of an Ethiopian-Israeli teen by an off-duty police officer. While the protests are tied to the death of Solomon Tekah, 19, on Sunday night in Kiryat Haim and charges of police violence, demonstrators say they are also about the racism that members of the Ethiopian-Israeli community are exposed to every day. “We came here together — how can it all be destroyed? How did this thing happen to us? How are we different just because we are Ethiopian?” Tekah’s father, Worka, said in the eulogy for his son. “We respect the laws and customs. Why are we not respected? We have to live together. Enough! Let us be at peace.” Ethiopian Israelis say they have long been discriminated against in housing, education and employment in large part due to the color of their skin. Here’s what we know:

A brawl, a shooting, unrest

The officer who shot Tekah told investigators that he was walking to a local park with his wife and three children when he came upon teens involved in a street brawl. He said he made it clear that he was a police officer and the teens then began throwing stones at him. The officer, whose name was not released, said he felt that his life was threatened and aimed at the ground when he fired his service revolver. The police believe the bullet ricocheted off the ground and struck Tekah in the chest. The Israeli media is reporting that police are getting ready to charge the officer with negligent homicide, a lesser charge than manslaughter, since it does not appear that he intended to kill the teen. Even before Wednesday’s protests started, 136 protesters already had been detained and 83 protesters and police officers were injured during demonstrations the day before that blocked major intersections across the country, especially in Tel Aviv. Some of the protests became violent, and police and the media reported rock throwing, firebombs and burning tires. Police used riot dispersal

methods in some cases to remove the protesters, but also tried to keep a low profile elsewhere to prevent clashes. The protests on Wednesday were less intense after the Tekah family called in a statement for “just and legitimate protests in an organized fashion … without disrupting public order, certainly without violence,” to begin at the end of the shiva mourning period on Sunday.

Not the first time

Solomon Tekah’s killing comes six months after Yehuda Biadga, 24, a mentally ill Ethiopian Israeli, was shot and killed by police who say he charged an officer while brandishing a knife. His death led to demonstrations throughout Tel Aviv. In May 2015, similar protests erupted following the beating of an Ethiopian-Israeli soldier by two police officers that was filmed and widely distributed. Those protests degenerated into riots in which police officers fired stun grenades, water cannons and tear gas to disperse the demonstrators, who threw rocks and glass bottles at police, and also vandalized some storefronts.

Gains and gaps

More than 144,000 Jews of Ethiopian descent are living in Israel. They or their parents and grandparents arrived in two main waves: in 1984 with Operation Moses and in 1991 with Operation Solomon. Most arrived with the clothes on their backs. They did not speak the language. They had to try to integrate into an entirely new culture. According to figures compiled by the Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute, education levels and employment in the Ethiopian community has improved significantly, though gaps with the general population remain. For example, general matriculation rates for Ethiopian Israelis (a measure of college readiness) rose to 55 percent in 2016 from 38 percent in 2000, though the general Jewish student population stands at 77 percent. Between 2000 and 2016, employment rates for Ethiopian men aged 22-64 rose to 80 percent from 63 percent, compared to 81 percent in the general male Jewish population, and soared to 74 percent from 37 percent for women, compared to 80 percent for all Jewish women. Israelis are proud of the rescue of

p Ethiopians and supporters have protested across Israel against police violence following the death of a 19-year-old Ethiopian Israeli, Solomon Tekah, who was shot and killed by an off-duty police officer. Shown here is a protest in Kiryat Ata last week. Photo by Flash90

Ethiopians and their integration into society. “It is difficult to find instances in history where one country spirited Africans out of their native continent not to sell them into slavery, but rather to bring them to freedom,” The Jerusalem Post’s Herb Keinon wrote Wednesday. “Yet that is precisely what Israel did with the rescue of Ethiopian Jewry via Operation Moses and Operation Solomon in the last century. In the process, Israel has spent hundreds of billions of shekels to house, educate and train the immigrants. The amount of money the social welfare departments in local municipalities spend each year on Ethiopian immigrants is tremendous. And it has had an effect.” Others insist, however, that the dollars spent and the statistics don’t tell the whole story. “The Ethiopian community’s protest is justifiably directed at the police, but the blame for the fact that even the second generation of Ethiopian immigrants is having a hard time assimilating into Israeli society lies with the government and the one who heads it,” the lead editorial in Haaretz countered. “So long as this issue isn’t made a national priority, it will continue to claim victims.”

Ethiopian lives matter

Many have called Solomon Tekah’s death a symptom of the racism that is deeply rooted

Selma: Continued from page 9

Despite the famous image of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel marching with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Leet said the local Jewish community was not active in the civil rights movement. Other Southern synagogues were attacked, and Mishkan Israel received a bomb threat. While Jews were comfortable in the community, Leet said they still felt uneasy about their relations with elements of the white Christian majority and did not speak out publicly for racial equality. Milligan said a museum exhibit could

p The four members of Temple Mishkan Israel — from left, Hanna Berger, Ronnie Leet, Joanie Gibian Looney and Charles Pollack — stand in front of the Torah ark. The synagogue has not held weekly services for decades.

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Photo by Amy Milligan

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in Israeli society and its police force. They cite as proof a 2016 statement by former police chief Roni Alsheich, who said it was “natural” for his police officers to be more suspicious of Ethiopian Israelis than of other Israelis. “You say to yourself, OK, it happened once but won’t happen again,” a young woman from Nes Ziona in central Israel told The Jerusalem Post. “The next time it happens you think, OK, maybe they’ll fix it. But when it becomes systematic, you think to yourself are our lives worth less?” President Reuven Rivlin called for a halt to this week’s violence and for Israelis to regroup and figure out how to deal with the crisis together. “We must stop, I repeat, stop — and think together how we go on from here. This is not a civil war,” he said. “It is a shared struggle of brothers and sisters for their shared home and their shared future. I ask of all of us to act responsibly and with moderation. “We are brothers and sisters. We came here, all of us, to our homeland, which is home for every one of us, and we are all equal in it. We will fight for our values and we will fight to ensure a safe future for every child that grows up here. We will not accept a situation in which parents are afraid to let their children out of the house for fear of being hurt because of the color of their skin or their ethnic origin.” PJC

provide an unvarnished portrayal of that attitude and era. “We knew that where everybody was on Sunday morning was where we were not,” Leet said. “I think the congregation as a whole really didn’t play a part in the national movement of civil rights here in Selma. They didn’t know where it was going to fall on them.” So far, the synagogue has raised only $6,500 online. But Leet hopes the synagogue’s diaspora will come through. In 1997, some 220 relatives of current and former synagogue members came back for a reunion. “There’s a love across this country from people raised in Selma,” he said. “We want the country and world to know there was a wonderful congregation here in Selma, Alabama.” PJC JULY 12, 2019 11

Opinion TIP’s tipping point

— EDITORIAL —

ewish-organization watchers were surprised last week by the apparent collapse of The Israel Project, more often known as TIP, which describes itself as “the only organization dedicated to changing people’s minds about Israel through cutting-edge strategic communications.” First came reports of the sudden resignation of Josh Block, TIP’s CEO of seven years, who cited plunging fundraising efforts as the reason for his unexpected departure. And then JTA reported that 13 staff members in TIP’s Washington, D.C., and Israel offices were let go, without notice and without a final salary payment. Following a hastily convened board meeting last Friday afternoon, TIP issued a brief, largely uninformative press release, which acknowledged Block’s resignation and

reported that leadership is considering the organization’s options. TIP was founded in 2002, at the height of the second intifada, with the stated goal of addressing and improving media coverage of Israel. In its first decade of operations, TIP achieved impressive results. In 2012, after TIP’s founder, Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, left the organization to start the nonprofit disability group Respectability, Block, a former spokesman for AIPAC, was hired as TIP’s CEO. Described as “pugnacious,” he shifted TIP’s focus from providing journalists with background information on Israel to advocating more aggressively for Israel in a Twitter-blast style. But it wasn’t just Block’s change in approach that attracted attention. TIP was also seen as aligning with and advocating for Israel’s Netanyahu government — which troubled some of the organization’s major donors, who were

drifting away from Israel’s increasingly rightleaning government policies. TIP was founded and supported by donors from both political parties. Until recently, support for Israel was wholly bipartisan, and it was unthinkable that Israel would be a wedge issue between Republicans and Democrats. The tipping point came in 2015, when the Obama administration and other world powers reached a nuclear limitation agreement with Iran. The deal was opposed by the Israeli government, and Netanyahu worked very openly and aggressively with Republicans to circumvent President Barack Obama in opposition to the agreement. It was ugly, it was divisive, and Block and TIP jumped in — not to explain Israel’s position to the media, but to blast the Obama administration for the deal. Block’s antagonistic approach to Obama angered some TIP supporters, and may have been a reason the organization lost

some of its largest Democratic donors. It may be too late for TIP to prevent its own demise, but its missteps should serve as an instructive tool to other Jewish organizations. First, any organization that depends upon financial and other types of backing from a broad spectrum of the Jewish community should be mindful of veering too far to either the right or left, thus risking the disassociation of a large contingent of supporters. Additionally, organizations that are successfully serving a niche function — as TIP did originally — would be well-advised to stay the course. By shifting its focus away from providing secular journalists with unbiased information to jumping into the political debate about Israel, TIP became just one of several right-leaning megaphones and obfuscated its own relevance. As the adage goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” PJC

How Mad magazine taught me to think like a furshlugginer Jewish intellectual Guest Columnist Andrew Silow-Carroll

ad magazine is on life support, and I can’t say I’m either surprised or all that sad about it. DC Entertainment announced last week that the satirical magazine will stop publishing new content. It was like hearing about a beloved old relative who passed away: I hadn’t had any meaningful contact in years, but had fond memories of when we were still close. For me, that meant during my pre-barmitzvah years, growing up in the 1970s. For a suburban kid binging on a diet of Saturday morning cartoons and grim, adults-only dispatches on the nightly news, Mad was a hoot — hilarious, irreverent, slightly risqué. Today I am a man, and realize Mad was something more. Many of the eulogies have focused on the political legacy of the magazine. The Denver Post once celebrated its “mid-20th-century history of bold political satire and anti-censorship court cases.” (In 1964 the Supreme Court refused to hear music publishers’ complaints over the magazine’s right to publish song parodies.) Others suggested that its mocking attitude influenced the ’60s generation to “question authority.” The Washington Post called it the “most influential magazine of the post-World War II era.” Looking back on the old issues, I’m also struck by how political they were, with biting parodies of the 1960s “Establishment” represented by Richard Nixon, George McGovern and Henry Kissinger. An American flag poster from 1971 would still raise eyebrows today, reworking the pledge of allegiance into a bitterly ironic statement on American divisions, addressed to “one nation under God with liberty and justice for all, including 12 JULY 12, 2019

kikes, wops, spics, niggers, WASPS, etc.” Watergate, the Vietnam war, the “generation gap,” the civil rights movement: Mad translated the issues dominating the news of the day and the whispered conversations of my parents and their friends into a comic language we kids could understand. But I barely remember the political stuff. It is the education Mad gave me as a consumer — and consumer of pop culture — that sticks with me. In a pre-ironic age, when advertising had insinuated itself into seemingly every corner of our lives (or so we thought, in the era before smartphones), Mad taught its young readers to be wary of corporate America. Its fake ads undermined health claims for cigarettes and the promises of cosmetics. An advertisement for “Sucka” instant coffee forced us to acknowledge the workers who were exploited so that our parents could enjoy “instant” satisfaction. Mad was in the “deconstruction” business years before the term was coined. It was Consumer Reports for kids. Mad worked the same subversive magic on TV shows and feature films, in the classic parodies written by Dick DeBartolo and Larry Siegel and drawn by Angelo Torres and Mort Drucker. “The Oddfather” parody asked if Marlon Brando was really a believable Mafia don with his cheeks stuffed with cotton. If the Chinese immigrant hero of the TV series “Kung Fu” is such a pacifist, why does he end up whuppin’ cowboy ass at the end of every episode? And how come the newsroom crew on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” never seemed to cover a news story? Later I would discover Pauline Kael and

Andrew Sarris, whose movie criticism gave me a vocabulary and methodology for understanding why a piece of art works or doesn’t. Mad was there first, in a visual language that we absorbed by osmosis. It said, ” I can enjoy this movie, but I can also see how absurd, artificial and manipulative it is — and how it fails on its own terms.” We Jews like to claim this critical distancing as something distinctly Jewish — or at least a trait perfected by Jews in the mid-20th century. The case can be made: The “usual gang of idiots” who put Mad together included founders Wi l li am Gaines and Harvey Kurtzman, editor Al Feldstein, and artists and writers from Drucker, Al Jaffee and Dave Berg to Larry Siegel, Stan Hart and, more recently, Drew Friedman, all Jews. (And all men, I know — the topic for another essay.) Its prose dripped with Yiddishisms, some real (shmuck!) and some imagined (furshlugginer!). Nathan Abrams, in an article on Mad’s Jewish sensibility in the journal Studies in American Humor, argues that in the 1950s and ’60s Mad “marinated in the same urban Jewish culture” that produced the New York Intellectuals. No surprise, then, that its contributors had the same intellectual concerns of their counterparts in academia and high-brow literary magazines: “suburbia, psychoanalysis, existentialism, Freudianism, intellectual pretension, bohemianism, technology, disarmament, and containment.” Mad’s contributors were the low-brows in this media class war. Jews and other sons of immigrants at the top rungs of the

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entertainment food chain — the movie makers, ad execs, book publishers and publicists — were being harassed by more Jews and other sons of immigrants from the bottomfeeding world of comic books and humor rags. This class conflict reached its peak in the 1973 parody of “Fiddler on the Roof,” titled “Antenna on the Roof.” Drucker and writer Frank Jacobs set the musical in a tinseled, clearly Jewish suburb, and changed the Sholem Aleichem adaptation into an angry indictment of Jewish assimilation. Zero Mostel is portrayed as “Mr. Buckchaser,” and his daughters are Sheila, “A Free Sex fanatic”; Nancy, a “speed freak just now,” and Joy, who “Makes bombs in the attic/ And answers the phone with Quotations from Mao.” Their world is soaked in bourgeois excess, and their existence is corrupt and soulless. The last page is a cartoon jeremiad, with a crowd of shtetl peasants led by Chaim Topol as Tevye condemning the nouveaux riches for all the tsurris of the 1960s, from student unrest to pollution to striking unions. “Now that we’ve seen the Mess you’ve made,” they sing to the tune of “Miracle of Miracles,” “We’re afraid God wants back his melting pot!” It’s an entire Philip Roth novel in a seven-page comic. I stopped reading Mad regularly in the mid-1970s, the magazine having done its job on me, and pop culture. I was ready for the raunchier, more tasteless fare of “National Lampoon,” and the not-ready-for-primetime satire of “Saturday Night Live,” where Mad’s influence was obvious whenever a fake commercial came on selling flammable toy cars or “Little Chocolate Donuts” breakfast cereal. But whenever I talk back at an implausible movie or TV show, or tweet a devastating take down of a disingenuous politician, I remember my old friend Mad. PJC Andrew Silow-Carroll is the Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s editor-in-chief. This piece first ran on JTA.org.

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Opinion I grew up Chasidic. I’m now a skeptic. I still believe in the Rebbe. Guest Columnist Eli Reiter

rowing up, everyone seemed to have a “Rebbe story.” The Lubavitcher Rebbe was an outsized character. He led the ChabadLubavitch movement for over 40 years until his death in 1994 and changed the face of Judaism across the world. Some of my peers think he’s the savior, that we’re living in the messianic era and that he is still alive. Others still believe in his wondrous self while believing that he left this earth. Others, like myself, don’t know how they feel about the man who passed before they were old enough to see him. On Sundays, fans waited in line at 770 Eastern Parkway, Chabad headquarters in Brooklyn nestled in the Crown Heights neighborhood. They wanted to be gifted a dollar from the Rebbe and perhaps even a blessing. That’s where the magic often happened: The Rebbe would wish confused couples mazel tov and, months later, they would learn they were expecting a child. He reversed depressing medical prognoses for non-Jewish strangers. He sent letters to Chabad emissaries across the globe, solving their internal conflicts that they never shared with anyone beyond their families. After graduating as a student in Berlin, well into his ascent to become leader of the Chabad movement, he stayed in touch with his former physics professor, Erwin Schrödinger. Not many rebbes stood in so many worlds at once. Most of the time, I believe in these stories. But a part of me is disappointed that I do. Many of these tales are supernatural, existing beyond scientific facts. How can a rationalist like myself believe all these magical accounts? At the moments when my doubt wins out, I am upset by my suspension of belief. Does being skeptical make me a heretic? Those alive at the time are tethered to what they saw of the Rebbe with their own eyes. For us millennial followers who were too young to see or hear him, he only lives on in stories. I grapple with these narratives because the whole religion of my childhood is built on tales. In elementary school, we traded playing cards in the all-boys yeshiva I attended. They weren’t of baseball or basketball stars — sports were for the gentiles. Instead, we had gedolim cards, pictures of famous bearded rabbis, both living and dead. Wizened old men (and only men) from Europe, Israel and New Jersey. I was told stories about these people, about their near slavishness to Torah study and their pious lives. Even at 7 years old, I didn’t believe these stories. It was as if these people

never had a bad day. They always did the right thing and had superhuman willpower. As I read the versions of their biographies published by the Orthodox Jewish publishing house ArtScroll, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes — what nonsense. So why is it that now, as an adult, I find myself believing magical stories about the Lubavitcher Rebbe? Am I becoming more naive? Am I a bad skeptic? Despite my skepticism, I believe in and love the magic and prophetic powers of the late Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. But that belief and love has its limits. The older I get, the less open I become, my openness to belief changing and ossifying into cynicism. But I mourn that loss of flexibility. I want to drink the Kool-Aid again. I grieve the missing warmth of an organized group of believers. Last year, I went to the mystical Israeli town of Safed on a rainy winter day. It was just another tourist spot to visit, one with small shops and gross hostels. Out of breath from the high air, my hoodie weighed down from the wetness, I felt the magic and lightness of the supposedly sacred location. I felt carried by the invisible elements and the drops of spirituality. But I was upset as the magic won over and I had a religious moment. How could I buy into this? Months later, I returned seeking a similarly paranormal moment, that feeling that would carry me beyond science and rationality. But I felt nothing. And that loss stung. My on-again, off-again relationship with Rebbe stories is similar. At times they give me solace. But when a Hasid opens the Igros — the collection of letters that followers sometimes use to seek answers to contemporary questions by opening to a random letter and hoping for an answer — I roll my eyes. Other times, when I think about a letter the Rebbe wrote hinting about things to come that later came true, I feel relief that there were people on this earth who were a little bit more than mortal. I’m learning how to balance my rationalism and mysticism, and reckoning with the roller coaster of emotions and thoughts that come with bouncing between these two directions. Scientific rules govern our lives. I carry the textbooks that give my life meaning in my mental backpack next to the Sichos, the collected talks, of the Rebbe. My devotion to scientific principles is as strong as my devotion to the Rebbe. They both give my life meaning. But I also know that there are exceptions to every rule. I’m still grappling, unsure of the balance between devotion and betrayal to rationality. As we come to the 25th anniversary of his death, I have learned to celebrate the exceptions to the scientific rules, even if they are at odds with popular disbelief. PJC Eli Reiter is a New York-based educator, storyteller and writer. This article originally appeared on JTA.org

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— LETTERS — Insult to the Bible Marion Adelson compared Donald Trump to our biblical prophets (July 5) and prays for the day when the Bible gets “A book of Trump” like a “Book of Esther.” What a gross insult to our Bible and Prophets! Trump is a man who separates young children from their parents (six of whom died in detention), certainly doesn’t “welcome the stranger,” drastically cuts funding from agencies which help the indigent and tries to humiliate anyone who doesn’t agree with him. How shocking are Marian Adelson’s views. Selma Weiss Pittsburgh

Further offense

For a newspaper that has worked and succeeded to upgrade the discussion of serious issues, I was surprised by your publication’s including a small story about Mrs. Adelson. It was stupid, irrelevant and irreverent. She can support any politician she wishes but to suggest the elevation of this present “leader” to a Bibical status is incredible, only all the more that you would bother to print it, circulate and think it was newsworthy. Phyllis Dreyfuss Pittsburgh

Setting the record straight

In the June 21, 2019, issue of the Chronicle, there was a letter titled “Keeping Synagogues Relevant.” In the letter, it was stated that “The Reform and Conservative movement are definitely becoming less relevant.” Although I do not intend to set forth the facts which demonstrate that this statement is wrong, I do want to correct a major error in the letter. Essentially claiming that the Reform and Conservative movements are no longer religious movements, the letter states: “Case in point: The Reform movement honoring Al Sharpton at their convention.” This statement is not true. The Reform movement has never honored Rev. Sharpton at its convention. On May 20, 2019, Rev. Sharpton did give a talk at the Consultation on Conscience of the Religious Action Center of the Reform movement. The invitation to give those remarks resulted in criticism because of aspects of his past record relating to Jewish matters. (Other than being invited to give remarks, Rev. Sharpton was not “honored” at the Consultation of Conscience.) In his remarks, Rev. Sharpton appealed for a united front in combating anti-Semitism, racism and other forms of bias, and acknowledged his past role in stoking divisions. The “overarching message” of Rev. Sharpton was that blacks and Jews must overcome past differences to confront an increase in bias against all groups. Rabbi Jonah Pesner, director of the Religious Action Center, acknowledged the pain that Rev. Sharpton’s appearance caused others in the Jewish community. Rabbi Pesner said: “At this moment — when children are being separated from their parents at the border, and Jews are being murdered in synagogues, and people of color are being gunned down at their churches, and people in mosques are being firebombed — we need to stand together, and Rev. Sharpton has stood with us these past couple of years.” Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union of Reform Judaism, added that Rev. Sharpton’s role as an ally in this moment of increased bias and violence needs to be considered in understanding why he was invited to speak at the Consultation on Conscience. Rabbi Jacobs said: “We are in a moment of urgency, and Rev. Sharpton has spoken up and has stood strongly with the Jewish community.” Barton Z. Cowan Pittsburgh

Forgotten history

Thank you for your article about our wonderful women’s philanthropy mission to Latvia and Russia. The important history of the refusenik movement has been largely forgotten and almost unknown in the younger community. I urge your readers to watch the movie “Refusenik” on Amazon Prime. These were extremely courageous men and women who risked everything just to be Jewish. Many Jews and non-Jews, especially several political leaders in the U.S., rallied to rescue them with the cry of “let my people go.” Perhaps the Chronicle could do an educational piece one day about this proud moment in recent Jewish history. Essie Garfinkel Oakland

Concentration camp denial

I write this letter in despair and sadness as I witness the discussion about calling the detention centers at our southern border “concentration camps.” I believe I have some legitimacy entering this conversation as I am the child of concentration camp survivors. I was born just outside the refugee camps housing thousands of Jewish survivors. This subject should not be controversial, but it is because an American politician has used this painful history as a rhetorical device in a most cynical way. I’m not commenting on the plight of Central American immigrants at our borders and the deplorable circumstances they endure in their countries of origin that drive them here. What distresses me is the deliberate degradation of the “concentration camp” reality as those who know the history understand it. The historical context for the term “concentration camp” has a specific meaning rooted in the Holocaust. It references the attempted extermination of my people by Germans and

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Please see Letters, page 19

JULY 12, 2019 13

Headlines Camp: Continued from page 1

advocating for Jewish day and overnight camps across North America, noted that there has been a recent push from that organization for increased funding on the federal level for security in rural areas where many overnight camps are located, as many day camps are connected to synagogues, schools and other institutions in urban areas closer to law enforcement. While the question of security has reentered the public conversation, Fingerman has not noticed much of an uptick in parental concern. “All of us are concerned about the overall rise of anti-Semitism, but I haven’t heard too much [about] camps hearing from parents other than [from] our encouragement of camps to communicate with parents what they do every year,” Fingerman said. “Of course, with the growing concern over the rise of anti-Semitism, camps are certainly putting more effort into training their staff this summer and preparedness.” Such is the case at Camp Young Judaea Midwest in Waupaca, Wisconsin, which this summer is home to 31 campers from Pittsburgh in addition to two staff members and two counselors-in-training. CYJ’s director, Robin Anderson, has not received an influx in parental calls about security this season, she said, noting that

her camp is proactively communicative regarding its security protocols which have been in place for about 10 years. “We are continuing to work closely with the local sheriff ’s office and local emergency management,” Anderson said. “We have a great relationship with both parties who send armed reserve duty officers after hours. They stop by regularly to check in on the camp as well.” CYJ also brought in representatives from the sheriff ’s office during staff training “to discuss what to do in the event of an armed shooter on site,” and representatives from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security walked the property in mid-May “to offer additional suggestions of safety measures to put in place,” Anderson said. One security suggestion that CYJ implemented was to install a barrier gate for the purpose of “deterrence,” she noted. At Camp Ramah in the Poconos, a Conservative overnight camp, a security consultant specializing in Jewish communal spaces was brought in to audit the camp’s security protocols. Camp Executive Director Rabbi Joel Seltzer said local Department of Homeland Security and FBI agents toured the camp to give suggestions and advice. He explained that the camp, and many other Jewish organizations in the area, were introduced to the security personnel after the 2017 nationwide wave of bomb threats called in to JCCs and other Jewish institutions. Ramah has made investments into its

Meyer: Continued from page 1

their only rabbi is Rabbi Mahler,” Meyer acknowledged. “And they are tremendous shoes to fill. Fortunately, I happen to have large feet, and am eager to do so. I am blessed to have Rabbi Mahler still in this community to continue to learn from, and hopefully access as a professional resource, not only for myself but for congregants. And Rabbi Jessica Locketz [rabbi and director of education] has been here for 15 years, so she knows this community inside and out, and the community knows her well. So, while I am the new guy, I am building on the shoulders of giants.” Meyer spent the last eight years at Temple De Hirsch Sinai, an 1800-family congregation in Seattle Washington, where he led multiple Shabbat services each week, and taught a Torah study group and other adult education courses. He is married to Rabbi Emily Meyer, who led a small congregation in Seattle and taught at a Jewish day school. They met while in seminary, and now have two children, Evelyn, 3, and Eli, 7 months. They are making their home in Upper St. Clair. Meyer is excited to continue his rabbinate in the South Hills of Pittsburgh, an area which is growing Jewishly, he said. “I took heart in the demographic study that the Jewish Federation recently did that indicated that about 20 percent of the Jewish population is living here in the South Hills,” he said. “I think that is an enviable demographic position to be in, and leveraging the amazing school systems in Bethel Park, Upper St. Clair and Mt. Lebanon, young families like 14 JULY 12, 2019

p Rabbi Aaron Meyer Photo provided by Aaron Meyer

my own are attracted to this area, which is a tremendous strength, as well as having an amazing early childhood program here. That brings a lot of energy into this congregation, and will allow it to continue to thrive at a time when other synagogues in the Jewish world are concerned about their numbers.” Meyer has a firm belief that Jewish values compel action when it comes to making the world a better place, and that interfaith inclusiveness can help the Jewish community flourish. “I think that Reform Judaism offers an unapologetic vision in line with prophetic Judaism of what this world needs to be, and our values demand certain actions of us and those around us in this world, not in a partisan political sense but in a tzedeckdriven vision for what this world could be,” he said. “We have a tremendous opportunity to do good in this world, and I think our values compel us to do so.” While in Seattle, he spearheaded the

security infrastructure in recent years, adding additional cameras and a camp-wide public address system. “So the truth is, our philosophy has been the same for the last 20 years or so, which is the security of our campus has to be the number one priority because the fun and the joy and the Judaism that p Shabbat at Emma Kaufmann Camp Photo provided by JCC of Greater Pittsburgh comes from Jewish summer camp can only be created in an environment where a who attend school in the Pittsburgh area. child feels safe,” Seltzer said. “So, long even While she has received only a handful before the Poway or the Pittsburgh of today, of additional questions from parents and really since post-9/11, our camp in about security this summer, the topic is particular has been extremely thoughtful and always on her mind. has invested a significant amount of time, “Regardless of outside events, we’re always money and resources into our current infra- trying to make some enhancements,” David structure and building it to get to this state.” said. “This is just a constant in our world A recent grant allowed Camp Harlam in today and something we have to remain Kunkletown, Pennsylvania to install addi- vigilant about and make sure people feel safe, tional lighting and construct a gatehouse reassured and also prepared.” PJC for its 24-hour on-site security personnel, Toby Tabachnick can be reached at according to Lisa David, director of Camp Harlam, one of the 18 overnight camps ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org Eric Schucht is a writer for the Jewish operated by the Union for Reform Judaism. This summer there are 25 campers from Exponent, a Philadelphia newspaper affiliated Pittsburgh there, as well as 10 staff members with the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle.

TDHS Campaign for Gun Responsibility, and advocated for better support for those experiencing homelessness. He testified before the Washington state and federal legislatures as a representative of the Jewish community on issues of criminal justice reform, gun responsibility, LGBTQ+ equality and a more just Farm Bill. He was also co-chair of the Faith Action Network, Washington State’s largest interfaith coalition. In terms of interfaith work within the congregation, Meyer would like to see the Jewish tent open a bit wider. “We need to do a better job of recognizing those who make the choice every single day to be involved and invested in the synagogue are the ones with a Jewish soul,” he said. “In fact, that’s not how they started off by birth. Maybe they married a Jewish partner and have chosen a committed Jewish life, maybe they themselves have decided to convert, maybe they are exploring it for the first time. But if we open our tent to be even more inclusive, we will be surprised by the goodness in people and the ways in which their diverse backgrounds can so enrich our Jewish community.” The rabbi is “passionate” about working with older congregants. While in rabbinical school, he participated in the U.S. Army Chaplain Candidate Program and did clinical pastoral education with Hebrew SeniorLife, a Harvard University gerontology affiliate. He holds a certificate in gerontology from the University of Washington. “My particular passion is working with people who are a bit older than I am, in a different stage of their life,” he said. “I think there is a tremendous amount of wisdom and knowledge that we have to honor and to

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glean, as well as to recognize the lifeblood of the Jewish community right now are those that are not only empty-nesters, but continue to be invested and involved in synagogue life after their children have flown the coop.” He also enjoys working with young people, helping them to prepare for their bar and bar mitzvahs, and finding ways “that Judaism can be relevant in their lives, and accessible as well as applicable.” Although Temple Emanuel has managed to maintain its membership at a time when many congregations are struggling, Meyer acknowledges that in the 21st century, synagogues generally are facing unique challenges. “I think people are yearning for relevance, and need congregations to prove their value proposition, that we have an obligation to make the most of people’s time when they are here,” he said. “We are asking a tremendous amount of people in terms of their time and their financial resources to be a part of the Jewish community and it’s our obligation to meet them where they’re at: to work with them on Jewish education, on building up values, offering up a safe haven from the somewhat crazy world in which we live as well as continuing to build a community, and the interpersonal relationships that allow everyone to thrive. “And it grows and changes,” he continued. “Synagogues can no longer do what they have always done and expect to get what they have always got. Either we continue to innovate, to continue to change with the times and with the families who walk through the door, or we have lost that relevance and we are not going to see them again.” PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

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Headlines Menes: Continued from page 2

and the non-Orthodox, the Conservative and the Reform movements. There really needs to be a coming together of those. I see that as an issue. How have you seen the Orthodox/ non-Orthodox divide manifest itself, and how would you address it? It’s interesting because if you look at events that are held, open events, public events, they often reflect either the Orthodox

communities or the non-Orthodox communities. You can see just by the attendance, even though they are public, even though they are open. I must admit, that after the October 27 events we did come together to some degree, but even then there were some difficulties — when we held the funerals and things like that, there were some divisions that were evident. I think we can do a better job of coming together. Actually, we have made some moves at Beth Shalom to bring together communities, and it is working. Like our caterer here, Elegant Edge. We have decided to have a caterer that operates under the Vaad. Our

kitchen now is under Vaad supervision, and as a result we are having more and more events from the Orthodox community here, and that could only be a good thing for bringing the various communities together. Any other advice you have for Jewish Pittsburgh going forward to make the community stronger, to make it more vibrant? Consolidation is a big thing. And of course, people are really worried about security. That actually has brought a lot of us together as a good thing, and we need to keep that up. I would like to see the Jewish community as

a whole embrace more music, more dance, more artistic opportunities in Judaism. That would be a wonderful way to bring communities together. What else would you like to say? I’ve learned a lot being here. I’ve enjoyed Beth Shalom, I’ve enjoyed the people I’ve been with. The staff at Beth Shalom has been fantastic. I just can’t say enough. It’s been a great experience. I’m glad I had the chance to come here. PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

Pennsylvania budget boosts security, Human Dignity Project scholarship funding to private schools launched in Monroeville — LOCAL —

tudents of Pennsylvania’s private schools will benefit from the commonwealth’s 2019-20 budget, which includes an increase in governmental funds for security, as well as the money available for scholarships through EITC (Educational Improvement Tax Credit). The new budget was signed into law by Gov. Tom Wolf on June 28. Jewish and other religious-based K-12

schools in Pennsylvania will receive a total of $3.2 million in security grants, up from $459,000 last year. EITC will receive an increase of $30 million, for a total allocation of $240 million to provide scholarships for low-to-middle-income students to attend the nonpublic schools of their choice. Pennsylvania’s education budget has a net increase of $443,749,000. PJC — Toby Tabachnick

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— LOCAL —

new art installation, as well as educational diversity programming, will be the focus of the recently launched Human Dignity Project of Monroeville. The project was established by the Monroeville Interfaith Ministerium, and is in partnership with Monroeville Public Library. Its aim is to promote understanding and acceptance of people from diverse faiths, ethnicities and races. The idea for the project came to Rabbi Barbara Symons, spiritual leader of Temple David and a member of MIM, about two years ago — long before the events of Oct. 27 — when she was considering the library as a location to install a Holocaust memorial. The concept was broadened to “be more inclusive, as it should be,” she said. There will be two components to the project: an art installation on the grounds of the public library, and continuing educational

programming at the library reflecting the fluctuating diversity of the community. The Monroeville Council unanimously voted to support the initiative. Symons, her colleagues on MIM, and the library are now working with the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council to create the “living monument” that will be accessible to passersby, as well as those stopping to engage with the installation. “We are working toward having shortterm artists in residence that create short-term public art in order to better understand and interact with the community” before the ultimate art work is installed, according to Symons. So far, Symons said, the primary focus of the working group that consists of Monroeville religious and library leaders is “to get the wheels moving.” They are looking for funding and volunteers. The project is estimated to be completed by the end of 2021. PJC — Toby Tabachnick

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Life & Culture A history of something that never happened — BOOKS — By Selah Maya Zighelboim | Jewish Exponent

The Fourth Reich: The Specter of Nazism from World War II to the Present Gavriel D. Rosenfeld Cambridge University Press

earing the term “The Fourth Reich” might conjure up an image of a future fascist German state, brought to existence through political instability and rising anti-Semitism. Perhaps it’s not even Germany that comes to mind, but another country’s despotic future after taking a hard turn toward right-wing extremism. In The Fourth Reich: The Specter of Nazism from World War II to the Present, Gavriel D. Rosenfeld traces the history of the term. He begins in the ’30s, when “Fourth Reich” was used neutrally to describe a more positive post-Nazi Germany. He continues on through the legitimate concerns over Nazi insurgency in the postwar period, the universalization of the term beginning in the ’60s and the renewed concerns over Germany in the ’80s and ’90s when the Soviet Union collapsed and reunification seemed imminent. He continues on through

recent histor y, including criticisms that Germany was becoming a kind of economic Fourth Reich during the Great Recession, noting the usage of the term after Donald Trump’s election and demonstrating how the term was adopted by anti-Israel critics who used the term to attack the Jewish state. Ros enfeld, a history professor at Fairfield University, specializes in the history and memory of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. He is the author of numerous books and articles on the subject. For this book, he examines how “Fourth Reich” is used in a large body of media that includes newspapers (including the Jewish Exponent); books; films; and comics, such as a memorable reference to Captain America.

The book follows a dynamic period of nearly a century and touches on a variety of countries. In doing so, it speaks to issues that go beyond the facts of German history. At several points, for example, the book compares Nazi insurgency against the Allied occupation following World War II to insurgency against the more recent American occupation of Iraq. Rosenfeld never quite reaches a solid conclusion over why the former was more successful than the latter, but he mulls over different elements that may have helped, such as the fact that Germany was divided between several countries, and that its neighbors didn’t support the insurgency. This brings readers to contemplate

Reclaiming the identity of the Jewish Arab — BOOKS — By Eric Schucht | | Jewish Exponent

When We Were Arabs: A Jewish Family’s Forgotten History Massoud Hayoun The New Press

odern-day depictions of Muslims and Arabs can paint them as one and the same, inseparable. But Massoud Hayoun’s love letter to his grandparents is an attempt to highlight the experience of the Jewish Arab while making sense of their lives under European colonial rule and in relation to Zionism. When We Were Arabs: A Jewish Family’s Forgotten History discusses what it means to be Arab. It not only acts as a biography of the author’s Jewish grandparents, it gives an alternative perspective on Zionism with a comparison to the colonization of the Arab world. Hayoun tells the story of his grandfather Oscar’s life under British rule in Egypt and

his grandmother Daida living in French-occupied Tunisia. There’s a big focus on how the colonizers attempted to strip away the culture of the natives and replace it with their own. And to some degree, their campaign worked, as many Arabs growing up in that world attempted to emulate Western culture and saw it as superior to that of their ancestors. The Westerners in the book aimed to divide and conquer by separating the Jewish Arabs of the region from their Muslim counterparts, two groups that had lived in peace for generations. Eventually, Oscar and Daida left their homelands for France, the idealized world

of the colonizers that did not live up to their expectations. The “civilized world” was not all that it seemed. And now, stripped of their former citizenship, the couple immigrated to the United States where they lived out their days in Los Angeles. The author, despite his Jewish heritage, identifies more with his Arab roots and is not entirely friendly to Zionism, drawing parallels between the colonization of North Africa by white Europeans and the establishment of the state of Israel. His conflicted feelings about Israel as a Jewish state are clear, as he grapples with the way Jews of color are still marginalized there.

something they may not have spent too much time considering, and which has contemporary relevance: How can a country genuinely transform from a totalitarian regime into a democracy? Germany, in fact, not only made this transition — which may seem incredible in the light of present-day struggles to do so — it went from the most notorious dictatorship in history to one of the biggest leaders of the free world. Nowadays, Rosenfeld notes, people tend to brush off the idea of the Fourth Reich and describe Germany’s turn to democracy as a “success story,” suggesting that it was perhaps inevitable. Some might counter that there’s not a lot of value in writing about the history of something that never happened. By following the term, Rosenfeld argues, we can see how a Fourth Reich could have come about through, for example, the electoral success of different far-right parties throughout history. That fear, he says, has kept the reality at bay. But after reading The Fourth Reich, Germany’s success story seems far from inevitable. In fact, it seems like nothing short of miraculous. PJC Selah Maya Zighelboim writes for the Jewish Exponent, an affiliate publication to the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle. She can be reached at szighelboim@jewishexponent.com.

The first half of the book can be a bit of a slog to get through. A couple of the early chapters are intended for setting the foundation for the text, providing context for the world Oscar and Daida inhabited. It explains the origins of Arabs and the introduction of Judaism to the region along with the strategies and results of the colonization of Arabs, specifically, Jewish Arabs. However, the academic tone of these sections aren’t as much of a breeze to read through as the tales told about the grandparents’ lives. When We Were Arabs is an intriguing read for anyone interested in furthering their understanding of complex identities and mixed cultural heritage. “To breathe life into the Jewish Arab is to redefine the Arab,” writes Hayoun, who wants to transform the notion of Arabness. The reader will walk away with a newfound perspective on Jewish identity from a voice that is not always at the forefront of the discussion. PJC Eric Schucht writes for the Jewish Exponent, an affiliate publication to the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle. He can be reached at eschucht@jewishexponent.com.

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Life & Culture Culinary herbs — fresh is best — FOOD — By Linda Morel | Jewish Exponent

“A

re those herbs?” asked a friend looking at a three-tiered planter box on my deck, brimming with basil, chives, rosemary, dill, thyme, parsley and mint. “I’ve been thinking about planting herbs.” “I love snipping herbs for cooking,” I said. “Exactly,” she said. “The convenience and flavor must be amazing.” Herbs are so versatile. You can plant them in the ground or grow them in individual pots on windowsills and patios. The first time I bought herbs, the owner of the garden center gave me advice: “Don’t fuss over them. Don’t over-water. Just put them in soil and let them be.” But most herbs need five hours of full sun a day. Their succulent leaves boost salads, deepen the intensity of sauces and make perky garnishes. Mint enhances both savory foods and fruity desserts. Push rosemary needles under chicken skin for spectacular flavor. The best potato salads are seasoned with thyme. Dill, parsley and basil exude summer. “You can actually taste the freshness of homegrown herbs,” my daughter said, enjoying a corn salad. “The basil and chives we’re eating were warmed by the sun just 20 minutes ago. Even herbs from farmers markets can’t compete with that.” Once the fall comes, I suggest harvesting garden herbs. Mince and freeze dill, parsley and chives. Hang basil, thyme, mint and rosemary upside down for four weeks until they’ve dried. Pull off the leaves and store them in zippered bags. Their flavor is so much more vibrant than bottled herbs on store shelves. With any luck, your summer crop will last all winter. Mint Tea | Pareve Serves 4

Photos courtesy of iStockphoto.com

Consuming mint tea is a popular pastime among some Sephardic Jews, particularly from Morocco and Iraq. Mint tea is served in Israel and in many Israeli restaurants in America. Equipment: a 1½ quart teapot; and heatproof glasses or coffee mugs 1 large bunch of mint, about 1 ounce 4 teabags of orange pekoe and pekoe cut black tea, such as Lipton 3 tablespoons sugar

Rinse mint under cold water. Gently shake off water and dry on paper towels. Reserve. Bring 4½ cups of water to a boil in a kettle. Meanwhile, fill the teapot with hot tap

water to warm it. Cover the teapot. When the water boils, discard the contents of the teapot. Place the teabags inside the warm teapot, along with the sugar. Pour the boiling water into the teapot and cover it again. Let the teabags steep for 2 minutes. To the teapot, add all but several sprigs of mint. Cover it and steep another minute or two. Add a fresh sprig of mint to each glass. Pour the tea immediately into heatproof glasses. Serve immediately. Marinated Picholine Olives | Pareve Yield: about 1 cup of marinated olives. Serves 4 as an hors d’oeuvre. 1/4 lb. green picholine olives (select brine cured olives with pits, not canned) 2 cloves garlic, squeezed through a garlic press 1 teaspoon rosemary, chopped fine 1/4 teaspoon thyme leaves, chopped fine 1/8 teaspoon lemon zest 1 teaspoon olive oil

Place all ingredients in a mixing bowl and gently stir. Cover and refrigerate for 24

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hours. Bring to room temperature before serving in an attractive bowl. Classic Cheese Ball with Herbs | Dairy

spatula, twirl the cheese mixture from the bowl into a sphere. Lift the sphere from the bowl and place it on top of the pecans. Using your hands, roll the cheese mixture around in the pecans until it becomes a round ball covered with pecans. Wrap the cheese ball in aluminum foil and refrigerate it for two hours before serving. Recipe can be made up to three days ahead. If refrigerated until hardened, let soften unwrapped at room temperature for 30 minutes before serving. Corn Salad with Basil and Chives Pareve Serves 4

Yield: 1 large cheese ball to serve 6-8 as an hors d’oeuvre. 1 (8-ounce) bar of reduced fat cream cheese at room temperature 4 ounces of soft cheddar cheese at room temperature 1 garlic clove, minced Kosher salt to taste 1/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard 2 teaspoons lite mayonnaise 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice Dash of Tabasco sauce 1/2 teaspoon: parsley, chives, thyme and dill, chopped fine 1 cup pecans, chopped

In a medium-sized bowl, place the cream cheese, cheddar cheese, garlic, salt and mustard. With a fork, mash the ingredients together until well blended. Add the mayonnaise, lemon juice, Tabasco sauce, parsley, chives, thyme and dill. Using the fork, continue mixing and mashing until all ingredients are combined. Spread the pecans evenly on a plate. With a

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If you’ve got leftover corn on the cob, use it in this salad. 3 ears of corn, left over or steamed 8 ounces of cherry tomatoes, rinsed and cut in half 3 tablespoons basil, chopped fine 3 tablespoons chives, chopped fine Kosher salt to taste 2 tablespoons olive oil, or more, if needed 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar, or more, if needed

Place all ingredients in a mixing bowl. With salad servers, toss gently until well combined. Move to a crystal bowl or other attractive bowl. Can be served immediately, or left at room temperature covered with plastic wrap before serving. Can be refrigerated but return to room temperature before serving. PJC Linda Morel writes for the Jewish Exponent, an affiliate publication of the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle. JULY 12, 2019 17

Celebrations

Torah

Bar Mitzvah

Aharon, peacemaker Rabbi Mendel Rosenblum Parshat Chukat | Numbers 19:1-22:1

Reid Ringold-Unangst became a bar mitzvah on Thursday, June 27, 2019, in Hollywood, Florida. Reid is a seventh grader at Propel East and is very active in the Friendship Circle of Pittsburgh. Reid’s favorite thing is vacationing and he’s so glad he got to share his favorite vacation spot with so many friends and family. For his mitzvah project, Reid helped create the Friendship Circle calendar and participated in the Kids Who Care programs. Reid also made a Jewish holidays throughout the year book (available to read at the Friendship Circle) for anyone who wants to learn. Reid is the grandson of Marlene (Gagi) Ringold and Fredda and Paul Unangst. He amazes his parents Ilyssa Ringold and Marc Unangst, his Gagi and his whole family every day. PJC

Letters of Testamentary Estate of Sylvia A. Busis deceased of Pittsburgh, PA, No. 021903313 of 2019 Co. Extr. EJ Strassburger, Esq. of SMGG Four Gateway Center, 444 Liberty Ave., Ste. 2200 Pittsburgh, PA 15222, 412-281-5423

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n this week’s Torah portion, we read about the passing of the High Priest, Aharon. The Torah tells us, “The whole congregation saw that Aharon had expired, and the Entire house of Israel wept for Aharon for thirty days.” The Midrash points out that in the description of the Jewish People’s mourning of Moshe, the Torah says “The Israelites wept for him for thirty days”. However, when describing Aharon’s passing it says “The Entire House of Israel wept for him.” It would appear that Aharon had captured the greater popular appeal. What made Aharon so popular? What was his charm? The Midrash tells us one of the reasons: “Hillel says: Be one of the disciples of Aharon. He loved peace and pursued peace; loved people and drew them close to the Torah.” When two people quarreled Aharon went and sat down with one of them and said to him, “My son, know that your friend has said, ‘I am ashamed before him because I have sinned against him.’” Aharon would sit with him until he had dispelled the ill feeling from his heart. Then Aharon would go and sit with the other one and say to him, “Know that your friend is saying, ‘Woe is to me! How shall I raise my eyes and look at my friend? I am ashamed before him because I have sinned against him.’” Aharon would sit with him until he had dispelled the ill feeling from his heart. When the two friends later met, they embraced and kissed each other. In other words, Aharon understood that what keeps people apart is often their pride and ego. Each one thinks, “Let the other one come to me and then we can reconcile.” So Aharon took it upon himself to let each know that the other one really wanted to reconcile even though neither party had ever told Aharon that that was their intention, nor had they appointed him as the peacemaker. Although this method was extremely effective, it does beg the question, how was Aharon permitted to concoct a story like this? Permitting a lie is no small matter in Torah, as it says, “Distance yourself from falsehood.” How can we explain this? Was Aharon’s method of making peace merely a case of “the ends justify the means”? Or was there something more to his approach that needs to be understood? There is a teaching from Hillel, the great Talmudic sage, recorded in a famous debate between the schools of Hillel and Shammai that helps us understand Aharon’s method. The Talmud asks, “What does one sing when dancing before the bride?” Beit Shammai said, “The bride as she is.” Beit Hillel said, “The bride is beautiful and graceful.” Said the school of Shammai, “What

if the bride is lame or blind, can we call her beautiful and graceful? Did the Torah not prohibit lying?” To which Beit Hillel replied, “When someone makes a purchase, shall we praise it or criticize it?” How do we understand this passage? Most students assume that Shammai was scrupulously honest and Hillel was gracefully generous. Hillel was willing to tell a white lie for the sake of peace. Shammai was not. There is, however, a different way of understanding Hillel’s approach. Hillel will tell you that if you don’t see beauty or grace in the bride, it is not because she does not possess it, rather it is because you have not looked hard enough. Obviously, the groom who is marrying this bride sees something very beautiful in her. When you sing her praises, you are identifying with that beauty that her groom sees in her, and it is therefore not a lie. It is actually a very deep and moving truth when you can connect to someone else’s truth. This idea can be applied to Aharon’s peacemaking method. When he approached each of the parties in conflict, he understood that their deepest desire was to live in peace and harmony and end the conflict. That was the truth that Aharon was operating on and it is for this reason that it was so effective. I just returned from New York where, together with thousands of others, we marked the 25th yahrtzeit of the Lubavitcher Rebbe of Blessed Memory. In the spirit of Aharon, the Rebbe taught, lived and breathed the idea that we look past external labels and descriptions into the depth of another person and love them for who they are. The Rebbe built a worldwide network based on this ideal and inspired followers and students to continue in this path. Now, 25 years later, this legacy of unconditional love has grown by leaps and bounds and has spread to all corners of the world in the form of thousands of centers. I suggest that to honor his legacy, we incorporate one of these practical things, as cited by Chabad.org, that the Rebbe asked every Jew to do: Start each morning by saying, “I accept upon myself the mitzvah to love my fellow Jew just as I love myself.” Speak only good about other people. Don’t even listen to a bad word, unless some real benefit will come to this person through your conversation. Look for opportunities to do another a favor. Support a Jewish free loan fund. Bring Jewish people together. Tear down the false barriers of age, affiliation and ethnicity. Invite other Jews to share in the most precious thing we have: our Torah and our mitzvahs. Shabbat Shalom! PJC Rabbi Mendel Rosenblum directs Chabad of the South Hills. This column is a service of the Vaad Harabanim of Greater Pittsburgh.

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Obituaries DANIELS: Ruth Daniels, on Wednesday, July 3, 2019. Beloved wife of the late Ralph Tall, Seymour “Dan” Daniels and companion to the late Allan Goppman. Loving mother of Francine Tall (Donald Foster) and Louis (Stephanie) Tall. Stepmother of Shelly (Paul) Nelson, Janis (Dan) Klein, Michael (Debbie) Daniels, Murray (Denise) Goppman and Sandy (Shirley) Goppman. Sister of the late Jack Kessler. Grandma of Allison Rubin, Geoffrey Tall, Gershon, Rina, Noah and Sara Klein, Brian, Elizabeth, Steven and Gina Goppman. Also survived by six great-grandchildren, nieces and nephews. Graveside Services and Interment were held at Adath Jeshurun

Cemetery. Contributions may be made to Make-A-Wish Foundation, 707 Grant St., #3700, Pittsburgh, PA 15219. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. www.schugar.com

Letters:

guinea pigs for “medical experimentation.” There are many differences, too many to mention here. And they matter. We should be clear: “Concentration camp” looms large because it signifies only one thing in its historical context: a place to intern, starve and murder Jews by the Germans to achieve genocide. That specificity should be defended unapologetically to honor those who were killed in those concentration camps not to mention those who survived, traumatized by the experiences. What is happening now is not that. I believe historical accuracy is critical, especially now when in the United States and in Europe, a mere 70 years after these crimes were committed, there is an astonishingly minimal

Continued from page 13

supported by the countries in which these places were located. In the simple, broad definition, yes, the term describes a place where people are housed against their will. Yes, people were concentrated in camps before the Holocaust, during WWII as was cruelly done to Japanese Americans, and after the Holocaust as now at our borders. It’s apparently necessary to reiterate that Jews were not willingly immigrating; they were forcibly removed from their homes, their rights taken away, their babies thrown from windows, their women raped and their children made

McDONALD: Thomas J. McDonald on Tuesday, July 2, 2019, of Pittsburgh, PA and Sarasota, FL died unexpectedly during a brief hospitalization at Shadyside Hospital in Pittsburgh, PA. Beloved husband of Dr. Terry (Podolsky)(Wolinsky) McDonald of Pittsburgh, PA and Sarasota, Florida; son of the late Winifred Bradley McDonald; father of Thomas W. McDonald of Philadelphia;

stepfather of Dr. Matthew (Ruth) Wolinsky and grandfather of Elena Wolinsky, all of Houston, TX; oldest brother of Dr. Jack McDonald of NY, Gerald McDonald of NM, Kathleen (Jim) Davies of NJ, Michael McDonald of CA; Karen (Matt) Farrel of NY; and Joseph McDonald of NY and NJ. Also, brother of the late James, Nancy and Patrick McDonald. There are also many nieces and nephews. Mr. McDonald received his Bachelor of Arts and master’s degrees at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ. During his long career as an electrical engineer and project manager, Mr. McDonald traveled extensively throughout

the United States, Canada, South America, Europe and Asia. He was an avid reader his entire life and enjoyed walking, biking, golfing, swimming, plays, musicals, ballet, the symphony pops and doing volunteer work, especially in retirement. His brilliance and wit were second to none, and he had an amazing and positive zest for life. He will be missed by all who knew him. There will be a private memorial/celebration of his life at a future date. Professional services by D’Alessandro Funeral Home & Crematory Ltd., Lawrenceville. dalessandroltd.com

awareness among young generations of Auschwitz let alone the true dimensions of the Holocaust. For this same politician to reinforce her assertions with the phrase, “Never again” is a further diminution of my family’s suffering not to mention all of the other perished family members who have no voice. Annette Kolski-Andreaco Pittsburgh

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat and they appeared on TV and shook hands. What a disappointment that was. At the last minute, the Palestinian leader refused to accept Israel as a nation. Now, the Jewish son-in-law of Donald Trump wants to give the West Bank and Golan Heights to the Palestinians. Although Trump has been intelligent enough for a change to stop sending money to the Palestinians, Jared Kushner promotes giving billions to Palestine so they can shoot rockets into Israel. I see no logic in that decision. Shirley T. Shratter Pittsburgh

No logic

Reading recently in “Letters to the editor” the two opposite views of American views of how Israeli Jews should accept the Palestinians is a great description. It wasn’t too long ago, President Clinton thought he had arranged peace between

Please see Obituaries, page 20