Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle 7-26-19

July 26, 2019 | 23 Tamuz 5779

Candlelighting 8:23 p.m. | Havdalah 9:27 p.m. | Vol. 62, No. 30 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

The art of a more inclusive color war

NOTEWORTHY LOCAL White Oak rabbi leaving

Young adults build connections, understanding on Federation mission

Gemilas Chesed’s Moshe Russell heads to Chicago.

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

Page 2

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LOCAL

For 17 years, between the ages of 7 and 24, Scott attended EKC, and although she cannot recall the specifics of each breakout, there was always a pattern.

“Usually color war starts with a shtick or a little skit put on by the staff members,” involving elements of “what the theme is going to be,” then a memorable vehicle would approach. “If the red truck was nearby, you knew color war was happening,” Scott said.

Depending on location, the details may look a bit different but “at almost every Jewish overnight camp you go to it’s a huge part of camp,” said Rachael Speck, EKC’s associate director. Between the surprise, nostalgia, tradition, competition and camaraderie, “it is the biggest, most important program that we do.”

Speck said color war holds a special place in her heart. Between being a camper, staff and captain, “I have participated in I’d say 30-plus color wars,” she said. Every summer presents a desire to outdo the last, but the general focus is upholding certain values, she explained.

delegation of young adults recently returned from “Israel Next 2019,” a Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh mission to Israel. The highly subsidized June 30-July 10 endeavor afforded nearly 20 participants a chance to explore religious and cultural sites, make new friends and gain greater insight into Federation’s efforts abroad.

“It was a fantastic trip,” said Alex Goodstein, a South Hills resident and mission co-chair. “It was definitely nice to get to experience Israel for both the historical and religious aspects, and also to get to see a lot of modern-day Israel in Tel Aviv, and from the Jerusalem side to see how everybody from all different religions live in the city and everything that comes with it.”

What made this trip unique were the participants and “the wide range of observance levels of Judaism,” said mission staffer Sara Spanjer, Federation’s young adult division director.

At each stop, the group conversed on deep and meaningful topics, and in so doing, grew closer, she explained. Visits to Rachel’s tomb and the Kotel offered moving experiences.

While visiting the former, “on the women’s side there were women there who pulled a few of our group members aside and had them say a line and repeat the line.” That was new for many in the group and generated great reflection “on the history of the Jewish people,” said Spanjer. “I would say the same for the Kotel.”

In visiting the Western Wall, “people really wanted to spend time, and they wrote thoughtful notes to put in the Wall for themselves and for friends and family.” The group was “definitely moved by the importance of

Please see Color War, page 14

Please see Mission, page 14

No Torah? No problem

Making a bat mitzvah happen in rural Pennsylvania Page 3 LOCAL J Street Israel trip

A PA resident describes his experience with J Street’s spin on Birthright.

Page 4

$1.50

 Color war breakout this summer involved landing a helicopter at the JCC of Greater Pittsburgh’s James and Rachel Levinson Day Camp.

Photo courtesy of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

T

he bug juice is poisoned. Camp lost its lease. Shaya the lifeguard just saw massive leeches migrating from the lake to the lap pool so swimming is canceled for the next three weeks. Just kidding! It’s color war: Cue the music, gather around and get ready because the Apache race is only days away.

Successful summers for campers can include developing friendships, learning lifelong lessons or passing a deep water test, but few elements of the camp experience are as cherished as color war and its epic breakouts.

“Anytime any little thing would go wrong, if a counselor broke his arm or a bus was late, from the first day of camp there were whisperings that it’s color war breakout,” said Shana Ziff, a Squirrel Hill resident who attended Camp Stone in Sugar Grove, Pennsylvania, for nearly a decade.

All summer long everyone anticipates color war, and “the breaks can happen at night, after dinner, after snack, at flagpole, any time of the day,” echoed Jamie Scott, an Emma Kaufmann Camp veteran and the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh’s director of the Children, Youth and Families Department.

keep your eye on PittsburghJewishChronicle LOCAL

Demystifying the mikvah

LOCAL

New Holocaust ed initiative

NATIONAL

Cleveland defamation case

Headlines Gemilas Chesed rabbi leaving for position in Chicago — LOCAL —

By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer

R

abbi Moshe Russell, spiritual leader of Gemilas Chesed Synagogue in White Oak, has announced he will be leaving the congregation. He will be moving next month to Chicago, where he will assume an education position at the Veitzener Kollel.

Russell, who has been at Gemilas Chesed for 10 years, is a Chicago native.

“He got a better opportunity in Chicago, and it especially makes sense because he has family there,” said Gemilas Chesed board member Larry Perl.

Gemilas Chesed, established 133 years ago, is currently exploring options regarding its spiritual leadership moving forward.

Down now to about 50 members, the congregation’s board is in no rush to make a decision.

“We want to take our time to make the best plan,” Perl said.

White Oak, just 16 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, is a small community of about 8,000 residents, but nonetheless it is still home to two synagogues: the Reform congregation Temple B’nai Israel and the Orthodox Gemilas Chesed. White Oak also has a recently remodeled mikvah and an eruv.

About a year and a half ago, Gemilas Chesed launched a campaign to try to grow its community. That effort, which included Russell attending fairs hosted by the Orthodox Union in an effort to attract Jews to White Oak, has not been successful.

“We haven’t grown at all,” said Gemilas Chesed’s president, Gershon Guttman.

“It’s tough.”

Gemilas Chesed was founded in 1886 in the nearby community of McKeesport. In 1963, the congregation moved to the large

p Larry Perl and Rabbi Moshe Russell

synagogue on Summit Street in White Oak, where it is still located.

The building has become too big for its current congregation, which attracts only about 20 people for a morning Shabbat service and about 75 people for the High Holidays — if members bring in family from out of town.

The building has two beautiful sanctuaries, one which seats about 350 people.

Still, the congregation, which now consists mostly of senior citizens, holds weekly Shabbat services, on Friday night, Saturday morning and Saturday evening. It also holds services twice daily during the week, although getting a minyan every day is sometimes challenging.

Photo byToby Tabachnick

“We do try to keep it going every day,” said Perl.

The congregation’s membership may be aging, and small in number, but those who are still affiliated are “loyal,” and its leadership wants to keep the shul in operation, according to Perl.

“We’ve got a lot of old-time members still here, we still have the core,” he said.

The process of finding a new spiritual leader is in its early stages, and various options are being explored, including hiring another fulltime rabbi to replace Russell, Perl said.

The congregation also has been in contact with Chabad of Pittsburgh to

explore possibilities. Although there has been “no real discussion” about Chabad establishing a full-time presence at the synagogue, “we are always looking to help,” according to Chezky Rosenfeld, director of development at Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh.

For the upcoming High Holidays, Gemilas Chesed lay leaders will conduct services.

“We want the community to know that we are still here, and we are still going strong,” said Perl. PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Headlines No shul, no Torah, no rabbi, no problem: a small-town bat mitzvah — LOCAL —

By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer

T

here are not many Jews in Warren, Pennsylvania, probably fewer than 10.

Located along the Allegheny River, 20 miles south of Jamestown, New York, the town of about 10,000 people no longer has a synagogue, a rabbi, or a Torah, and it hasn’t for years. There is no Hebrew school, no day school, no Jewish camp.

But none of that could stop Eliza Brook from preparing for and celebrating her bat mitzvah.

Although the Warren Hebrew Congregation — founded in 1906 to serve a small turn-ofthe-century Jewish community — maintained a stable but modest membership for decades, it closed in 1993 as families moved and children of congregants chose to live elsewhere.

The closest Jewish community to Warren is Jamestown, which sold its synagogue building two years ago after dwindling to 11 families. Jews in Jamestown now congregate in space provided by a Lutheran church.

The handful of Jews who remain in Warren sometimes head to Jamestown for the High Holidays or on an occasional Shabbat, or

p Harvey Stone, Eliza Brook, David Brook

to Chautauqua, which is 30 miles away, but otherwise forgo Jewish communal life.

So, when then 11-year-old Eliza told her father, David Brook, that she wanted to have a bat mitzvah, the announcement took him by surprise. Eliza did not know how to read Hebrew, and had no formal Jewish education.

Brook and his wife Verlynn Kleppe, who

Photo by Shallin Shelby

is not Jewish, have not raised Eliza and her older sister in any particular faith, instead introducing them to traditions of both Judaism and Christianity.

“We have not tried to label the children either way,” Brook said. “We have not created a bias one way or another.”

He is not certain why Eliza decided to have

a bat mitzvah, but he does have a theory.

“We had just gotten back from a cousin’s bat mitzvah in Connecticut,” Brook said, adding that he didn’t know “if it was the idea of the bat mitzvah, or the idea of the party” that was motivating his daughter.

“I thought it was cool,” said Eliza. “I wanted to learn the language. I thought it was interesting, and my cousin had done it.”

Regardless of the motivation, if Eliza was serious, Brook wanted to make it work. And he wanted Eliza to take the lead.

Her first step was to find a tutor and learn how to read Hebrew. Fortunately, a gentleman in Warren, Harvey Stone, 77, was up to the task.

Eliza called Stone herself and asked him to help.

“I was surprised when Eliza reached out,” said Stone, an engineer who spends winters in Florida. “I knew they were not bringing up their children as Jews, and that Eliza had no background. But I never turn anybody down.”

Stone, who had a “traditional” Jewish upbringing, had taught his own brother his haftorah, and had tutored several other children for their b’nai mitzvahs in Warren years ago, including some of his own children.

“I told Eliza how hard it would be,” Stone said. “She had no background in the Please see Bat Mitzvah, page 15

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JULY 26, 2019 3

Headlines Pennsylvania native returns from J Street’s first student trip to Israel — LOCAL —

By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer

A

fter returning from his first trip to Israel — a free tour offered by J Street — Adam DeSchriver, 21, has a “renewed sense of purpose for being committed to peace in the region, and I don’t take that lightly,” he said.

A clarinet student at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, DeSchriver joined 27 other college students and recent graduates on a trip designed to “present a robust, nuanced and honest view of the current realities on the ground in Israel and the Palestinian Territory,” according to J Street’s website.

The J Street trip — the first of its kind — was conceived as an alternative to Birthright, which, over the past two decades, has sent more than 650,000 young people on free trips to Israel aiming to strengthen Jewish identity and connection to the Jewish state.

In recent years, Birthright has been criticized by left-wing activists for not visiting the West Bank and not presenting opportunities for its participants to hear from Palestinians.

Last year, groups of Birthright participants associated with the anti-occupation group

p Adam DeSchriver in Jerusalem on his J Street trip.

IfNotNow walked off their trips in protest of their itinerary.

The 10-day J Street trip, which began July 2, was part of J Street’s “Let Our People Know” campaign, intending to present

Grantsmanship Training Program®

Photo courtesy of Adam DeSchriver

a “wide range of Israeli perspectives,” including “Palestinian voices who can speak to the realities of life under the occupation,” according to J Street’s website.

After seeing the Israeli/Palestinian conflict

as presented by J Street, DeSchriver, who grew up in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, now feels a responsibility to be an activist for peace in the region.

“It’s not something I had ever actually really, truly considered before,” he said. “But the occupation weighs on the Palestinians and it weighs on the Israelis. It drains the population, and more than ever, what we really need is peace in the region.”

When looking for a trip to Israel, DeSchriver, who completed his conversion to Judaism in May 2019, chose J Street over Birthright partially because of its eligibility requirements. To be eligible for Birthright, a participant must identify as Jewish and either have at least one Jewish parent, “or have completed Jewish conversion through a recognized Jewish denomination,” according to Birthright’s website.

Birthright’s requirement of a completed conversion, DeSchriver said, “is perhaps a little limiting to those who are choosing Judaism, to those who have made the choice, but who maybe have not had their moment in the mikvah.”

J Street’s eligibility requirements are broader.

“Anyone who identifies as a Jewish Please see J Street, page 15

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Headlines Demystifying the mikvah — LOCAL —

By David Rullo | Staff Writer

W

hen is it required to take a shower before immersing oneself in a pool of water? When a visit to the mikvah is planned.

The mikvah is a bath used for the purpose of ritual immersion in Judaism and is central in the lives of Jewish women throughout the world. The symbolism associated with the rite has inspired uses that go far beyond the traditional practices required by the Torah and Jewish law.

According to halakhah, women observing the laws of niddah, or family purity, are required to immerse themselves in a mikvah. At its most basic, the law requires a woman to immerse herself after her menstrual cycle before resuming sexual relations with her husband.

The requirement is found in the Torah.

Leviticus 18:19 states, “You shall not come close to a woman during her menstrual impurity to expose her nudity.” Leviticus 20:18 elaborates, “And a man who will lie with a menstruating woman will expose her nudity, it is a shame; and they will be cut off in the eyes of the children of their people.”

Rabbi Amy Greenbaum of Beth El

Congregation of the South Hills explained that for those women who follow the laws of niddah, “a woman immerses in the mikvah seven days after the cessation of her cycle before having sexual relations with her husband.”

Additionally, women visit the mikvah before their wedding ceremony. Chani Altein, co-director of Chabad of Pittsburgh said that “women are required to go before marriage” to become “ritually pure.”

Visiting the mikvah calls for preparation, Altein said. “A woman needs to be physically clean before going to the mikvah, [she must] take a bath and shower and remove all barriers between her body and the water of the mikvah. That would mean all jewelry, make up, nail polish … anything that could prevent contact between her body and the water.”

That preparation is required by anyone (female or male) visiting the mikvah, which is a requirement for conversion in all movements.

Rabbi Jessica Locketz of Temple Emanuel of South Hills pointed out that “the largest way the Reform movement uses the mikvah is for conversion. You immerse to emerge as a Jew. It’s about renewing who you are and your soul becoming Jewish.”

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JULY 26, 2019 5

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WEDNESDAY, AUG. 7 | NOON Community Security & Anti-Semitism Update Brad Orsini PHOTO: David Backman

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THURSDAY, AUG. 15 | NOON What Is the Resiliency Center & How Will It Help Our Community Continue to Heal After the Shooting?

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6 JULY 26, 2019

Penn State professor describes statewide Holocaust education initiative

teachers are trained properly, if they have a place to go and learn about how to teach this, they will teach it and teach it well. For

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer instance, there’s a lot of famous movies about this topic, but it’s not enough. You oaz Dvir happily wears many hats. can’t just show ‘Schindler’s List,’ that doesn’t During last week’s Pittsburgh visit, he do anything. You have to know how to sported a few of his favorites. use the film.”

In describing efforts at creating a transforWhich is why a larger educational mative digital space, Dvir, an Israeli-born, undertaking began, he explained.

American-educated documentarian and In partnering with Penn State colleagues journalist, joined several presenters at the and the Department of Education, Dvir Holocaust Center of Greater Pittsburgh hopes the initiative will enable teachers to Summer Teachers’ Institute to explore find relevant materials and strategies for Holocaust education through a local lens. successful integration.

Along with Penn State University “The most important thing always is to colleagues, Dvir is currently collabo- give teachers tools that they can use in the rating with Pennsylvania’s Department of classroom,” he said.

Education on the Holocaust, Genocide and These efforts follow a statewide commitHuman Rights Education Initiative. ment to Holocaust education, explained When completed, the initiative will “create Lauren Bairnsfarther, Holocaust Center of a clearinghouse” for teachers where free and Greater Pittsburgh’s director. easily accessible materials will foster innovaIn April 2014, then-Pennsylvania Gov. tive and customizable Tom Corbett signed methods for Holocaust into law Act 70, a bill education, he said. prioritizing education Assembling such an about the Holocaust, electronic conglomgenocide and other erate requires curating human rights violathousands of pieces tions in Pennsylvania of content, including schools. The bill’s i m me rs ive te ch intent was to “provide nology, in hopes of children with an promoting greater understanding of the learning. Among the importance of the collected work is “A protection of human Boaz Dvir Wing and a Prayer,” p rights and the potenPhoto courtesy of A Wing and a Prayer Dvir’s 2015 documential consequences of tary regarding the unchecked ignorance, largely unknown story of Al Schwimmer discrimination and persecution.” and his efforts to aid the fledgling Jewish Such objective was confirmed by a survey, state by partnering with others to illegally conducted three years later, that determined transport military aircraft to the newly nearly 90 percent of schools provide this formed country. education, in age-appropriate fashions, In Pittsburgh, Dvir showed the documen- through their curricula. Creating a storetary and offered a pedagogical approach house for Holocaust educational content by sharing age-appropriate viewing enables teachers to further meet Act 70’s and discussion guides, lesson plans and objectives, explained Bairnsfarther. instruction modules.

Although the initiative does not officially While “A Wing and a Prayer” and Dvir’s launch until August, Dvir is excited about other work is among thousands in the the possibilities. budding initiative, his involvement with “I think it’s important for people to the Department of Education began prior know that teachers want to teach this and to the project’s formation. In an earlier students want to learn this. The lack of effort to bolster Holocaust education, the knowledge around it does not stand for lack Department of Education approached Dvir of desire,” he said. about using his documentaries in its stateDvir’s participation, along with fellow wide curricula. Through that conversation Penn State professor Elyana Adler, in last broader awareness emerged. week’s summer institute, was a boon for “In talking to the Department of Education participants, noted Bairnsfarther. it became obvious that there was a greater “If we can get with the teachers, get need, a much greater need, and that we at teachers to participate in creating this initiaPenn State have the resources and capability, tive, help them, teach them, train them, give together with the Department of Education” them material, give them support, then we’re and others to solve a difficulty in Holocaust doing our job,” Dvir said. “I mean the most education, said Dvir. important thing is that this ultimately transThere is a “gap” where “students are lates to making a difference for children. missing out on this important part of their That’s what it’s all about.” PJC education,” and the reason “is not because Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ they don’t want it or others don’t want to teach it,” he continued. “I believe that if the pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Calendar q SUNDAY,

JULY 28

Shaare Torah Congregation welcomes guest speaker Rabbi Daniel Cohen at 7 p.m. Rabbi Cohen will present “What Will They Say About You When You Are Gone?

Creating a Life of Legacy.” The free event takes place in the Shaare Torah social hall, 2319 Murray Avenue.

>>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 SATURDAY, JULY 27 The Kollel Jewish Learning Center welcomes Dasi Indich for Shalosh Seudos at the home of Shana Ziff (1808 Beechwood Boulevard) 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.

Beth Shalom welcomes Keren Fite of Karmiel, Israel. Fite will present Women in Torah at 12:45 p.m. Dr. Fite is an educator, writer, and volunteer. She is visiting to build connections between Beth Shalom and her home synagogue in Karmiel. This event is free.

Email Chris Hall at derekhcbs@gmail.com to RSVP for this free event. q SATURDAY, JULY 27-THURSDAY,

AUGUST 1

The Kollel Jewish Learning Center presents 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 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 a.m. at the Kollel Learning Center (5808 Beacon Street, Perlow Hall). Free and open to the community. Visit kollelpgh.org for more information. q MONDAY, JULY 29 The Kollel Learning Center welcomes Sara Chana Weinberger at 9:30 a.m. Weinberger will present “Chavai Women 1.0.” Leah Milch presents “Rus: A Paragon of ChessedRedined” 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. q TUESDAY, JULY 30 There are three opportunities to learn with Kollel Learning Center: Rabbi Levi Langer presents “Navi Shiur Shmuel 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

All three opportunities are at the Kollel Jewish Learning Center. Free and open to the community. Visit kollelpgh.org for more information. q WEDNESDAYS, JULY 31;

AUGUST 7, 14

Wholly Holy: Exploring Faith, Practice and Belonging in Judaism and Christianity, a series about Jewish and Christian lifecycle 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 https://tinyurl.com/WhollyHoly2019. q WEDNESDAYS, JULY 31;

August 7, 14, 21

“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 THURSDAY, AUGUST 1, 8, 15, 22 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, 6:308:30 p.m. Come once or come weekly, friends

Enjoy a classic Game Night at Moishe House from 7 to 9:00 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 age 22-32.

are welcome. Check http://bethshalompgh. org/thursday-evenings-in-my-garden/ for location and confirmation of upcoming dates. q THURSDAY, AUGUST 1 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. q MONDAY, AUGUST 5 Beth El Congregation of the South Hills presents their monthly lunch series with Rabbi Alex Greenbaum and a guest of interest. This month, George Savarese presents “The End of the American Empire.” $6.00, includes lunch. Visit https:// bethelcong.org/events/first-mondaysseries-2019-01-07-2019-08-05/ for more information and to RSVP. q TUESDAY, AUGUST 6 How do different groups work together to effect change, while being sensitive of each other’s needs? Playback Theatre leads Inclusivity in Activism at Repair the World beginning at 7 p.m. Free and open to the public. Food and beverages served. To RSVP visit hcofpgh.orog/optic-voices-roots PJC

q WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21 Join members of the Jewish community for an opportunity to catch up with old friends and meet some new! The Pittsburgh Pirates meet the Washington Nationals at Jewish Heritage Night. Each game 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 www.pirates.com/ jewishheritage or call (412) 325-4903.

q WEDNESDAY, JULY 31 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.

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JULY 26, 2019 7

Headlines 5 years ago, Naftali Fraenkel was killed by terrorists.

His mother looks back on a journey from grief to joy.

— WORLD —

By Beth Kissileff | JTA

W

hen her 16-year-old son Naftali went missing five years ago, along with two other Jewish teens who had last been seen near Alon Shvut in the West Bank, Rachelle Sprecher Fraenkel found comfort in her Jewish learning.

“God does not work for us,” she told the Israeli media. “God is not our servant,” but “prayer is worthy, no matter what the outcome.”

At her son’s funeral — held after security forces found the bound and lifeless bodies of the kidnapped teens near a Palestinian village on June 30 that year — she again turned to tradition. Prayer is worthy despite the outcome, she said, because “each prayer has its own work to do.”

For those who only knew Fraenkel as one of the mothers of the murdered teens, whose kidnapping led to a massive manhunt and a national trauma, she was the pious face of a searing and ultimately fruitless “Bring Our Boys Home” campaign.

But friends and family knew Fraenkel as a teacher and a scholar in her own right — a pioneer for intensive text education for Orthodox women. Fraenkel is

a longtime educator at Nishmat — The Jeanie Schottenstein Center for Advanced Torah Study for Women, and the director of Hilkhata, or Advanced Halakha Program, at the Jerusalem-based Matan Women’s Institute for Torah Studies.

“The truth is, tragedy doesn’t define anybody. Not me,” Fraenkel said in a recent phone interview, two days after the five-year yahrzeit for Naftali and the two other slain teens, Gilad Shaer and Eyal Yifrach.

What defines her is a devotion to Jewish learning — a devotion which has now led her to a new stage: the completion of a six-year program of learning halacha, or Jewish law, in a way largely indistinguishable from the studies undertaken by men who become rabbis. She not only completed the program, but as director signed all the diplomas.

In fact, according to the head of Matan, Rabbanit Malka Bina, the day after the shiva was over, Fraenkel was back in school to help her students study for their exams.

Fraenkel and the other 13 women who graduated on June 12 from the Hilchata program at Matan are all alumnae of the growing number of places providing text study for Orthodox women. Fraenkel says that many of them have been through daf yomi, the daily study of the entire 2,711-page Talmud that is completed in seven and a half years.

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p Rachelle Sprecher Fraenkel, whose son Naftali was kidnapped and murdered, seen in Nof Ayalon, Israel, in 2014.

Photo by Miriam Alster/Flash90

Some of the students are graduates of a three-year program at Nishmat that certifies women as yoetzot halacha, or halachic advisors. This program qualifies women to answer questions of religious law relating to issues around women’s bodies such as menstruation and fertility.

Although the Hilchata learning is as comprehensive as rabbinical school, Fraenkel describes it as “a non-agenda program.”

While some liberal Orthodox groups have been training women for roles that are explicitly or implicitly that of “clergy,” she explains that the completion of the Hilchata program does not signal any kind of ordination (in Hebrew, smicha). The certificates given out at the graduation read, according to Fraenkel, that “this person learned this and this and that and we pray that her Torah will give her ability to get people closer to shamayim,” or heaven. The certificates say the holder studied “seriously and in depth.”

The program was an “organic” evolution, she said. Women like her with strong backgrounds in Jewish learning, who took part in daf yomi and teach Torah, would be asked questions and feel they needed to defer to other authorities because they had not studied the relevant areas of Jewish law in the requisite depth. Learning at this next level was “an obvious next step,” she said, since as “teachers of Torah, students look up” to this group and approach them with questions.

An outgrowth of the program is the Shayla Women’s Online Responsa program of questions and answers on issues of religious law

for women run at Matan by Surale Rosen, another recent Hilchata graduate.

Over the six years, the students progress though a series of topics, including issues of personal status, laws of Shabbat and holidays, laws related to mourning and laws relating to women and rituals surrounding menstruation.

The Hilchata program launched in the 2013-2014 academic year, prior to her son’s murder, so it is natural to ask how her learning helped her grieve and channel her pain. She laughed and said that it was only helpful in the “sense that there was another close group of friends supporting” her and her family.

Asked what memories of her son she most wanted people to know, she initially said that she could not answer. But when asked about memories that most sustained her and gave her the ability to continue, Fraenkel spoke about how “originally the challenge was to separate the memory from the pain” and that it was a process because “every thought about how he was a wonderful kid was a stab in the stomach. Today the thoughts and memories are very joyful.”

She continued, “Yet there is a tragic side, he is missing out so much, we are missing him.” Her son’s friends, many who were like him in personality, continue to keep in touch.

Fraenkel, who has six surviving children, noted her son’s fifth yahrzeit and acknowledged that she was “emotionally drained.”

Fraenkel says that she has learned, in terms of how to deal with mourning, that the “important thing is to be there for people.”

She speaks of another bereaved mother who lost her son in Lebanon. She called Fraenkel before Rosh Hashanah and told her that the anxiety about celebrating the first holiday without her son was worse than the experience of going through actual holiday itself.

It was “so simple, so true and it calmed me down a little bit,” Fraenkel said.

She cites the words of another bereaved mother — Sherri Mandell, whose son Kobi was murdered by a terrorist in Tekoa in 2001 — that it is “not about overcoming, but about becoming.”

She likens grieving and moving away from the most intensive period of grief to photography. One can “closely focus on the wounded self ” and make that “all you see” or one can use a more “wide lens” and pull back and see “so many other blessings and expectations and successes and failures. When you work with a wide lens there is so much blessing there.” PJC

B’nai Israel building to become mixed-income rentals

— LOCAL — The synagogue building on North Negley Avenue that formerly housed Congregation B’nai Israel will be repurposed into 45 mixed-income rental housing units while integrating the historic building’s rotunda/ sanctuary in its design.

The building, which most recently housed the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh Charter School, was sold to Boston-area development firm, Beacon Development.

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Earlier this month, Beacon, and Ralph A. Falbo, Inc., MCAPS LLC, secured Pennsylvania low-income tax credits from the state for the project, called North Negley Residences. TheGarfield development will incorporate significant energy efficiency and sustainable features, as well as community amenities.

Congregation B’nai Israel was located in that building from 1923 until 1996, when the congregation moved to Fox Chapel. PJC — Toby Tabachnick

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Headlines Ohio man accused of ‘inappropriate behavior’ with minors sues rabbis and synagogues for defamation — NATIONAL —

By Ed Carroll | JTA

A

Cleveland-area man is suing 15 local Orthodox synagogues and 22 rabbis for defamation, saying a community announcement alleging that he engaged in inappropriate behavior with children has ruined his reputation.

Akiva Meir Hersh of suburban Cleveland Heights filed suit July 11 in the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court claiming that an announcement written by the Vaad Harabonim of Cleveland, the Orthodox rabbinical council, created a false impression and hurt his future employment prospects.

Hersh is requesting punitive damages in excess of $25,000.

The Vaad’s announcement, dated Aug. 13, 2018, named Hersh and his home address, p Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court in Cleveland, Ohio. and said he “is alleged to have engaged in Photo courtesy of cp.cuyahogacounty.us inappropriate behavior with young men under the age of 13. We have also learned during services at a number of Orthodox the synagogues named in the suit, according that police reports have been filed detailing synagogues and later reported on by the to Hersh’s attorney, Joseph Triscaro. his activities. We understand that he is Cleveland Jewish News and two Jewish blogs.

In the lawsuit, Hersh denies the allegations.

At least one rabbi named in the suit attempting to create a Boy Scout troop. “The statements made concerning Hersh We are concerned that this is a potentially was asked by the Vaad Harabonim to are false and defamatory, and expose Hersh read the announcement at services. The and his family to hatred, contempt, ridicule, unhealthy and dangerous situation.�

JCThe Opn Beach Boardwalk_Eartique 7/23/19 1:55 AM Page 1 reportedly was made at all and obloquy because Hersh did not engage in announcement was read subsequently announcement

inappropriate behavior with young men under the age of 13,� according to the lawsuit.

The announcement “had the tendency to injure Hersh in his occupation, because no one would desire to deal professionally with someone who engages in inappropriate behavior with young men under the age of thirteen,� according to the suit.

On June 15, 2018, two separate reports alleging sexual misconduct by Hersh were filed with Cleveland Heights police. He was not charged in either incident.

The first was made by a woman who said that during a May 21, 2018, outing with her family and Hersh’s family, Hersh had discussed with one of her children taking a trip to Texas with him and that the child was not to tell the parents.

The same woman also quotes a child saying that Hersh had shown the child his gun collection. She said she informed her rabbi, one of the defendants in the lawsuit, Rabbi Aharon Lebovics of the Young Israel of Greater Cleveland, who told the woman he had heard a number of concerns regarding Hersh and urged her to file a police report. “We’re aware of it and we’re dealing with it, but that’s all I can say about it right now,� Lebovics said when contacted by the Please see Ohio, page 11

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JULY 26, 2019 9

Headlines — WORLD — From JTA reports

Trump involves Israel again in Democratic critique President Donald Trump continued his attacks on four freshman minority Democratic congresswomen, and again involved Israel in the debate.

In a July 14 tweet he called on “the four Congresswomen� — Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts — to apologize to America and Israel. “I don’t believe the four Congresswomen are capable of loving our Country. They should apologize to America (and Israel) for the horrible (hateful) things they have said.

They are destroying the Democrat Party, but are weak & insecure people who can never destroy our great Nation!� the tweet said.

Last week, in a tweet the House of Representatives condemned as racist, Trump said the four congresswomen should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came.� Omar was born in Somalia; the other three were born in the United States. All are women of color.

Trump has repeatedly defended his remarks by saying the congresswomen are anti-Israel and anti-Semitic.

At a rally on July 17 in North Carolina,

Trump supporters chanted “send her back� when Trump attacked Omar for “a history of launching vicious anti-Semitic screeds.�

Trump later said he disagreed with the chants and moved quickly to talk over them, but video of the rally shows he waited about 13 seconds before continuing.

In a prior tweet he called on the lawmakers to “apologize to our Country, the people of Israel and even to the Office of the President, for the foul language they have used, and the terrible things they have said.�

Historic Jewish cemetery in Poland vandalized A Jewish cemetery in southern Poland was vandalized a month after it was rededicated following two and a half years of renovations. “Jews eat children. Jadowniki eat Jews,� was painted on the fence of the cemetery in Tarnow. Jadowniki is a village near Tarnow, and the vandalism may have been referring to World War II-era incidents involving Jews there.

Natalia Gancarz of the Committee for the Protection of Monuments of Jewish Culture in Tarnow said the vandalism was a “result of anti-Semitism and deep depravity.�

Established in 1581, the cemetery in 1976 was added to the registry of protected monuments. Upon the cemetery’s reopening in June, Poland’s chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, praised the cooperation of Tarnow Jews living around the world with local activists.

SAFEGUARDING YOUR PRESENT & FUTURE

“This is a sign of how the impossible becomes possible when there is cooperation,� he said.

The renovation cost $800,000 and was paid for by a subsidy from the European Union.

It included repairs to the wall and about 100 gravestones, as well as the building of a driveway for the disabled and the installation of lighting. An exhibition about the history of Tarnow Jews was mounted in the pre-burial building.

The Jadowniki incidents involved a Jewish farmer and a land grab, as well Righteous Gentiles who hid four Jews and were threatened with death.

Montana rabbis condemn Sen. Steve Daines The Montana Association of Rabbis in an open letter condemned Sen. Steve Daines for his support of President Donald Trump’s “racist incitement and personal attacks� against “Democratic women of color in Congress.�

Daines, Montana’s Republican senator, last week tweeted his support of Trump: “Montanans are sick and tired of listening to anti-American, anti-Semite, radical Democrats trash our country and our ideals.

This is America. We’re the greatest country in the world. I stand with @realdonaldtrump.�

The Montana Association of Rabbis, or MAOR, is comprised of the six non-Orthodox permanent rabbis working in four cities in the state. There are also four

This week in Israeli history an ardent Zionist and drafts the Basel Plan, the blueprint adopted at the First Zionist Congress for a Jewish state in Palestine.

— WORLD — Working with Marks Elder Law when planning for your family’s future can help you make better decisions keeping more of your money during your lifetime ( Ĺ­ ),Ĺ­3)/,Ĺ­ ( 5 # ,# -ĹˆĹ­ Crafting strategies that allow you to keep more of your assets during your lifetime; Exploring the many payment options for disability and longterm care services; Designing instruments that protect your assets from Medicaid spend-down requirements; Ensuring that your affairs will be handled the way you want if you experience a serious injury or illness; and Administering your estate to ensure proper distribution of your assets while minimizing any taxes owed.

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Orthodox rabbis in Montana who are not members of the association.

The open letter published last week read: “Collectively, as Montana’s rabbis, we are the experts on anti-Semitism in Montana. We have studied it, lived it, and know it when we see it. Accusing these representatives of antisemitism is no justification for telling them ‘to go back to where they came from’ or inciting violence against them. “In a direct affront to Montana’s Jewish communities and Jewish leaders, Senator Daines has decided to join in the president’s rhetoric of hate, a rhetoric which presents a serious threat to Jewish communities. We do not feel safer or supported by Senator Daines’ comments, rather we fear the legitimization the president and the senator are giving to racism, xenophobia, misogyny and hatred.�

The letter called on Daines to meet with rabbis “so that he can learn more about the dangers of anti-Semitism and how his words do not combat anti-Semitism as much as they promote white supremacy and hatred.�

Daines’ office said in a response that “Steve welcomes the feedback of all Montanans. Steve is a strong supporter of Israel and the Jewish people. And as you saw in his recent tweet, he believes the anti-Semitic rhetoric from radical Democratic lawmakers is astounding.�

A Daines spokesperson said following a Trump rally in North Carolina that calls of “send her back� were inappropriate. “The senator does not agree with the chant and thinks it’s wrong,� the spokesperson told the Billings Gazette newspaper.  PJC

Items provided by the Center for Israel Education (israeled.org), where you can find more details.

July 30, 1980 — Jerusalem Basic Law enacted

July 26, 1967 — Allon plan presented

Government member Yigal Allon proposes that Israel keep control of the Jordan Valley with settlements and military bases but also pursue peace with the Arabs, including Palestinian independence.

July 27, 1656 — Spinoza excommunicated

The Amsterdam Jewish community excommunicates philosopher Baruch Spinoza after he refuses to take a payoff for being silent about his views on Judaism and God.

July 28, 1845 — Reform Rabbinical Conference ends

A two-week assembly in Frankfurt-am-Main of Reform rabbis ends after the 31 rabbis unanimously agree to remove all prayers calling for a return to Israel.

July 29, 1849 — Max Nordau born

Max Nordau is born Simon Maximilian Sudfield to an Orthodox Jewish family with a tradition of becoming rabbis in Pest, Hungary. He becomes

The Knesset passes the Basic Law: Jerusalem, enshrining among the set of laws holding constitutional authority that a united Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. The U.N. Security Council rejects the law and urges countries to move their embassies out of Jerusalem.

July 31, 1988 — Hussein disassociates from West Bank

Jordan’s King Hussein announces that he is giving up political claims to the West Bank, although he seeks to retain influence over Jerusalem. His announcement leaves the PLO as the representative of the Arab residents of the area.

Aug. 1, 1955 — First residents move into Dimona

The development town of Dimona in Israel’s south welcomes its first residents, all of whom are recent arrivals from Morocco.

Dimona’s early residents are all Mizrahim (Jews from Arab countries).  PJC

linda@marks-law.com

10 JULY 26, 2019

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Headlines Senator’s speech on ‘cosmopolitan elites’: anti-Semitic dog whistle or poli-sci speak?

problematic. In response to a tweet criticizing the speech, he wrote that “the liberal language police have lost their minds.”

In another tweet he wrote that he was using the term “cosmopolitan” as it was used by Martha Nussbaum, whom he quoted in the speech: “The cosmopolitan [is] the person whose primary allegiance is to the community of human beings in the entire world,” not to a “specifically American identity.”

Nussbaum, Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago, declined to comment specifically on Hawley’s speech.

But she told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, “Cosmopolitanism, as I argue, is a ‘noble but flawed ideal.’ But quite apart from that, I do think that the label has often been attached to Jews in order to imply that they are not loyal citizens of the nation they are in, and that this was and is profoundly wrong.”

Hazony, who organized the conference, also defended the term. He listed a number of academic books that use the term in their titles to discuss globalization or multiculturalism, and are not anti-Semitic.

“Sorry but ‘cosmopolitan’ is a normal term in political theory, history and other academic disciplines,” he tweeted. “It means ‘citizen of the world’ and has no anti-Jewish valence. @HawleyMO used it correctly in his National Conservatism speech.”

The Anti-Defamation League called on Hawley to be more careful with his language in the future.

“While there’s nothing outwardly anti-Semitic in the senator’s speech, we can understand why some are concerned about his use of the phrases ‘cosmopolitan elites’ and ‘money changing on Wall Street,’ which have a history of being used to demean Jews and may resonate with extremists,” the ADL

statement said. “We hope the senator will be more careful with his words in the future.”

Hawley’s main message was that America needs to refocus on nationalism rather than economic and cultural systems that prioritize globalization and multinational corporations, and that lead to the erosion of national cultures. It’s an idea that’s been echoed by President Donald Trump (who uses the term “globalists”) as well as his current and former advisors Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller, who is Jewish.

Hawley said his main goal is to “renew the way of life on which our republic depends, to renew the great American middle who make our republic possible, to renew our common venture in freedom.”

Hawley cites four academics he says support cosmopolitanism. Three of them are Jewish: MIT professor Leo Marx, Richard Sennett of the London School of Economics and Nussbaum. The fourth is the late University of Chicago professor Lloyd Rudolph.

Hawley adds that cosmopolitans dislike the shared institutions of American society, like the church.

“The cosmopolitan elite look down on the common affections that once bound this nation together: things like place and national feeling and religious faith,” he said. “They regard our inherited traditions as oppressive and our shared institutions — like family and neighborhood and church — as backwards.”

Later in the speech, Hawley said that the U.S. government should not “promote Christianity or any religion.” But he also said the government should not “hinder or diminish religious expression.”

And he said that America’s history as a nation “began 2,000 years ago, when the proud traditions of the self-governing citystates met the radical claims of a Jewish rabbi, who taught that the call of God comes to every person.” PJC

“This has had a very traumatic impact on Mr. Hersh’s life, not only upon him but his family as well,” Triscaro said. “Due to that, that kind of was the reason for proceeding in this fashion. It’s unfortunate what occurred, and he’s obviously trying to right that wrong through the trial process at this point in time.”

There are also 50 unidentified John Doe defendants in the lawsuit beyond the named rabbis and synagogues. Triscaro said those defendants would be named when they are able to identify them, but indicated they were part of the Vaad Harabonim.

“From our perspective, the statement was made through the Vaad,” Triscaro said.

“We’ve identified at least all the rabbis in the synagogues that were related to the Vaad at that point in time.”

No court date has been set.

Attorney Aaron Minc of Minc Law in Orange, Ohio, who specializes in defamation cases, said the case could hinge on

whether the Vaad or synagogue announcements could be considered privileged.

Under Ohio law, absolute privilege, or immunity, is granted to persons whose position or status requires that they be able to act in that position without fear of civil action. Qualified privilege permits persons in positions of authority to communicate or relay certain statements, even defamatory ones.

“If it is protected by privilege here, they [the plaintiffs] would have to prove more than just negligence” on the part of those making the statement, said Minc, who is not a party to the case. “Generally, something is protected by qualified privilege if it’s held to be made in good faith, it’s a limited statement made to a limited audience only for the purpose of conveying something the other party would have a genuine interest about.

It’s pretty broad.”

In Ohio, a person is allowed to make minor errors in a statement if a claim qualifies as

privileged, Minc said. “Fair report” privilege protects parties who publish police reports, public filings and statements by the government, which generally qualify as privileged.

“If they’re merely reiterating the police report, there’s a big question of whether it’s qualifiedly privileged based on a fair report defense or not. That would make it a much harder case” for the plaintiff, he said. “If it is qualifiedly privileged, you have to show that the rabbis and other people who published and republished it knew, had actual knowledge, that the information wasn’t true.

Which is nearly an impossible standard in Ohio. It’s very hard to prove.”

A statement is not necessarily privileged, however, merely by the fact that it was said by a rabbi in a house of worship.

“No, there’s no special privilege in the context of a pastor [or] rabbi standing in front of their congregation saying something,” Minc said. “They’re equally on the hook if something they said was wrong.” PJC

— NATIONAL —

By Ben Sales | JTA

S

en. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) gave a speech condemning “cosmopolitan elites” and their plan to weaken America through their international network and their control of big business.

Hawley made the remarks July 16 at the National Conservatism Conference in Washington, D.C., a gathering of nationalist thinkers organized by Yoram Hazony, an American-Israeli professor.

Aside from referring to Jesus as a “Jewish rabbi,” he didn’t mention the Jews by name in the speech. But critics of the speech found parallels to the use of the term “rootless cosmopolitan,” an anti-Semitic smear popularized by Joseph Stalin in the mid-20th century. Nazis also used “cosmopolitan” as an anti-Semitic term.

Said Hawley, “For years, the politics of both left and right have been informed by a political consensus that reflects the interests not of the American middle, but of a powerful upper class and their cosmopolitan priorities. This class lives in the United States, but they identify as ‘citizens of the world.’ They run businesses or oversee universities here, but their primary loyalty is to the global community.”

Critics said the languages echoes charges that Jews form an elite class and are only loyal to each other, rather than being true citizens of the countries they live in.

“If you’re Jewish and the use of ‘cosmopolitan’ doesn’t scare you, read some history,” wrote liberal New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, who is Jewish.

Jeffrey Goldberg, the Jewish editor in chief of the Atlantic, tweeted wryly that “rootlessness is also a cause for concern.”

Hawley denies that the speech is

Ohio: Continued from page 9

Cleveland Jewish News about the lawsuit.

In the second report, a father alleged that Hersh attempted to get close to one of his children and that the father had received a phone call from a friend saying that Hersh was seen holding the child’s hand in a “way that seemed suspicious.” The father also asserted that his child had a secret cellphone that he believed Hersh had given the child to communicate secretly. There was no SIM card in the phone, and the call and text logs were empty.

According to the report, the father said the incidents had taken place “over the past couple of years.”

Triscaro said Hersh has not lost his job as a result of the incident but is concerned for future employment. The attorney said he could not remember Hersh’s employer and did not want to make any misstatements.

p Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) addresses the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority Policy Conference in Washington, D.C., on June 27, 2019.

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

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PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

JULY 26, 2019 11

Opinion Reflecting community: a note on process — EDITORIAL —

Our goal is to pursue balance

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s Pittsburgh’s only news source tasked with the specific mission of serving the area’s Jewish community, the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle takes its charge seriously.

That said, we realize that not everyone is always pleased or in agreement with all the stories we print, the opinion pieces we share, or the sources we tap for information. We hope this editorial might help elucidate our process.

Our Jewish community is diverse in a myriad of ways, including religious denomination, political perspective, gender, sexual orientation, age and neighborhood.

We continue to strive to reflect that diversity in our news coverage as well as our opinion pieces.

The newspaper has played a vital role in connecting our community since its beginning, our roots going back more than

in our paper, over time, if not within each issue.

100 years to our predecessor newspapers.

In July 2017, the newspaper changed its name from The Jewish Chronicle to the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, emphasizing its local focus.

We are deliberate in our endeavor to be an indispensable source of news while also working to build and strengthen the Jewish community of Southwestern Pennsylvania.

In doing so, we do our best to seek out voices that reflect the broad range of people and perspectives that comprise Pittsburgh’s Jewish community.

Our small staff is diverse as well, and includes members who affiliate with a variety of congregations, and those who live in the suburbs as well as the city. Our editorial team is comprised of two women and two men. The ages of our staff members span 30 years.

We recognize that accurately reporting stories means seeking out a variety of voices, and we make a concerted effort to do so.

We also encourage feedback from all who are willing to give it. Our goal is to pursue balance in our paper, over time, if not within

each issue. We realize that such balance is not reflected every week, either in the sources we utilize, the types of stories we run, or the opinions we share.

Some things to keep in mind: There may be limited sources available for any particular article for any number of reasons, and often our reporters must prioritize the types of diverse voices they pursue, depending on the topic of the piece. While one story may benefit from sources that represent a range of denominations, for example, another may benefit from those that differ in political views or represent different genders. You can see how we work all this out if you follow us week after week; it’s harder to tell simply by looking at a single issue.

The Chronicle is steadfast in its commitment to reflect the community we serve in all its diversities. Our reporters continually are encouraged to seek out new voices for their stories, while also relying on those that have enriched our paper for years. PJC

A path to peace Guest Columnist Sara Stock Mayo

“Challenges in thinking and listening to one another’s narratives is the powerful path to peace.”

— Dr. Mehnaz Afridi, director of Holocaust, Genocide & Interfaith Education Center, Manhattan College “We are going to protect each other and protect each other’s communities. We will not stand for hate of any kind.”

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— Sheryl Olitzky, executive director, Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom

’ve just returned from a life-changing trip with the Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom in which 52 Jewish and Muslim women visited Berlin, Warsaw, Krakow and Auschwitz — the first ever trip of its kind.

SOSS states as its mission: “We grow relationships between Muslim and Jewish women to build bridges and fight hate, negative stereotyping and prejudice.” Our shared goal was to come together to bear witness to the greatest atrocity of Western civilization, to learn from the past and from one another so that we can combat hate in our present time.

Our group of women, aged 17 to 77, began our trip in Berlin learning about both Jewish history and the wave of refugees from Muslim majority countries. We visited many sites, including the Holocaust memorials dedicated to the Sinti/Romas and murdered homosexuals, with a lecture by trans scholar Finn Ballard. We did a memorial service at track 17, where the Jews were sent by train in mass deportations.

Profound stories and experiences were 12 JULY 26, 2019

p Jewish and Muslim women from around the country in front of the Noyzk Synagogue in Warsaw Photo provided by Sara Stock Mayo

common. A German man who struck up conversation in a restaurant with us said: “I assume you are going to Auschwitz. I imagine for many of you, it’s the first time. That’s going to be hard.” He said that as a German citizen, he thought it was brave for us to come together and confront the difficult history of the “axis of evil” that took place in Germany, saying he was so moved that he needed to go cry.

We went to a mosque to do Jummah prayer and then to Shabbat services at the Oranienburger Strasse shul which, in its glory days, seated 3,200. We visited Kiga NGO, which teaches new refugees about anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. Founded by two Turkish immigrants, the organization builds relationships through school-based peer communication. We learned about a Jewish/Arab bilingual puppet theater and about the group Shalom Habibi, whose

tagline is, “Make music not war.” We collectively ate lots of hummus.

We visited the Polin Museum on the former site of the Warsaw ghetto. The museum traces Jewish history in Poland from the Middle Ages to the current community.

We went to the Nozyk Synagogue, the only surviving synagogue in Warsaw out of five that existed pre-WWII and the most visited synagogue in the world. Here, we met with the rabbi, who told our group, “We are in a time where the main political currency is hatred, and people like to sell us-vs.-them.”

We also had the opportunity to hear from the wife of the mufti of Poland and to learn about the Tatar Muslim community.

In Krakow, we visited the JCC where we learned about various groups working to eradicate hate. One young woman was piecing together her identity and discovered

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she wanted to belong to the Jewish community without even knowing her own history.

She learned Hebrew and started dating a man who had discovered he was Jewish at age 6. This is another common occurrence in Poland today — young people discovering their family’s past and coming to terms with a complicated history. The JCC is dedicated to rebuilding Jewish life in a community that was decimated and relies on help from at least 70 non-Jewish volunteers. According to 28th-generation Rabbi Avi Baumel, he gets conversion requests at least twice a week.

“If a community that has gone through what this community has gone through can rebuild,” he said, “it is a testament to the human spirit.”

We visited the museum on the site of Oscar Schindler’s factory, and worked together to weed a Jewish cemetery, removing moss from stones and saying Kaddish for those who have no families left to do so for them.

We went to Auschwitz/Birkenau, where we conducted an interfaith service. As a Jew, it is of course beyond words to describe how it feels to walk through Auschwitz, but the added layer of our Muslim sisters’ responses and seeing our pain reflected through them made me realize what this trip was truly about. The sensitivity expressed was a testament to our shared humanity, and hearing the Quran beautifully chanted by an Islamic scholar in a place known for man’s inhumanity to man is an experience I will never forget.

As we walked back toward the bus, arm in arm, hugging and crying — kippot and hijabs merging against the blue sky— it was impossible not to feel something we so rarely feel these days: hope. PJC Sara Stock Mayo is the director of ruach and music at Temple Ohav Shalom and co-leader of the independent minyan Chavurat Shirah.

She is the managing director of Pittsburgh Playback Theatre.

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Opinion Pittsburgh’s dirty little secret Guest Columnist Howard Rieger

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ost people don’t know that Pittsburgh’s air quality receives a grade of “F” from the American Lung Association for ozone and smallparticle pollution. Or that Allegheny County is in the worst 2% of counties in the country for cancers caused by air pollution. Or that residents of Allegheny County face a substantially higher risk of developing asthma than the national average.

For the most part Pittsburgh’s power elite covers up our dirty little secret in favor of perpetuating the myth that Pittsburgh is one of the most liveable cities in the country.

I love Pittsburgh. What I don’t love is that I bought into the “urban legend” that the “smoky city” solved its pollution problem 70-plus years ago. Regarding smoke, that is mostly true.

What remains, however, is a less visible but more toxic combination of small-particle and ozone pollution that is literally killing us.

Pittsburghers have been fed a steady dose of good news, starting in 1985 when Rand McNally rated Pittsburgh the most livable city in North America. For years I proudly shared those links with friends worldwide.

Moving back to Pittsburgh from New York City nine years ago, when I retired, gave me a new perspective. I had been “drinking the Kool Aid” for years. How could we be the most liveable city and also have the worst air? How could it be that New York City is rated just below 50% nationally for air quality while Pittsburgh is at 7%?

Dozens of local community organizations have worked on this issue for years, collecting data and providing testimony to the authorities — who have failed to take action. That led me to conclude that the only way real progress would be made was through citizen activism.

My 40-plus years of experience in community organizing have taught me a thing or two about activism, and what has become clear to me is that people who are not beholden to the powers-that-be — who are not compromised by personal, professional, corporate and political interests — need to speak out. They need to call out the individuals and organizations that should be pressuring the county to act but for a variety of reasons have failed to do so.

It’s been an eye-opening experience.

First, one confronts denial. “It was so

much worse in the past.” “If there is bad air, it comes in from other states, aided and abetted by our geography and topography.” “Our deaths from pollution can be attributed to the elderly who lived here in the bad old days.”

These nostrums contain partial truths that obscure the fact that the real source of our pollution is homegrown: U.S. Steel is by far the worst offender. Further, neighboring states have improved as we have gotten worse.

Next comes the failure to act. Allegheny County, our air-pollution-enforcement authority, has not done what it could do to force U.S. Steel to upgrade its more than century-old Clairton Coke Works, which is the source of much of our bad air. U.S. Steel/Clairton Coke Works still relies on Please see Secret, page 20

Jews must not be shields for Trump’s racism Guest Columnist Aaron Keyak

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resident Trump did what seemed nearly impossible last week, sinking to a new low in demanding that four Democratic congresswomen “go back” to their countries of origin. The president’s racist attacks on sitting members of the House of Representatives were awful enough at first blush. And then he chose to defend his statements in blasting his victims, Reps.

Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Ayanna Pressley as “anti-Israel” and “anti-Semitic.” His rhetoric even whipped up the crowd into a chant of “send her back” in reference to Rep. Omar.

American Jews want no part in the president’s racist tirades nor his weaponization of support for Israel. Not only does he not speak for our community, he deeply offends us.

No doubt Reps. Omar and Tlaib have caused offense in our community with their comments that peddle in anti-Semitic tropes and cast one-sided blame on Israel for the lack of Middle East peace. But the answer to their problematic words and policy positions will never be an excuse for the descent into the president’s base racism. We, as American Jews, understand that our fate is tied up with other minority communities, with whom we have labored for decades to advance civil rights and battle prejudice.

We resent being used as a rhetorical shield, or as a whitewash for the president’s racism.

Come Election Day, our actions at the ballot box will again reflect that sentiment.

Despite the baseless predictions from the White House otherwise, American Jews are stalwart backers of the Democratic Party.

More than 75 percent of Jewish Americans voted for Democrats in the most recent midterm elections, according to exit polls.

Other polls have revealed that the president has a dismal 29 percent approval rating

— LETTERS — Correcting the record

An article last week stated that the Holocaust Center’s new exhibit, “OpticVoices: Roots,” features a photograph of Rabbi Jeffrey Myers looking through the bullet hole in a Torah that saved his life. It appears that the artist behind the exhibit believed this to be true, but it is not. The Holocaust Center is making every effort to ensure that this falsehood does not continue to spread, because we are an organization that exists to preserve history and to fight for accuracy at all times lest we fuel denial.

The exhibit includes a photograph of Rabbi Myers looking through a bullet hole in a siddur that was damaged on Oct. 27. The truth is that the desecrated siddur was preserved as a witness to that unspeakable day.

We invite you to visit the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh to engage with “OpticVoices:Roots” to see this evocative photograph for yourselves.

Lauren Apter Bairnsfather, Holocaust Center director

‘Significant omission’

There was a significant omission of fact in last week’s article about the small abandoned burial ground in White Oak (“Neglected Jewish cemetery in White Oak restored by non-Jewish volunteers,” July 19). It is on private property.

When Chronicle reporter Toby Tabachnick contacted me, I made this clear. Regretfully, PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

among Jewish Americans, and that only one in six identify as Republican.

American Jews recognize that whatever his gifts to the far-right in Israel, this president has stoked anti-Semitism here as no holder of the office before him. He routinely caricatures Jews as a wealthy monolith whose allegiances are divided between the United States and Israel. He has refused to condemn white supremacists on numerous occasions, and in response to neo-Nazis marching in Charlottesville he shockingly stated that there are “some very fine people on both sides.” The Anti-Defamation League found that violent anti-Semitic attacks doubled last year.

This is why, not surprisingly, 71 percent of Jews disapprove of Trump’s handling of anti-Semitism. According to the same survey, 60 percent feel the president bears responsibility for recent anti-Semitic attacks in Pittsburgh and Poway. Jews recognize that fueling white supremacism fuels anti-Semitism. This is why using Jews as a shield in the midst of his own racist tirades is so hypocritical and downright dangerous to the Jewish community.

American Jews can feel nothing but horror at the president’s bigoted statements, which violate democratic principles, tear at the social fabric, and strike fear into the hearts of minority communities — and are, at times, truly racist. This brand of demagoguery recalls the politics of another century and a different continent. The duties of privilege and resistance are ones that we have inherited from our history as a persecuted minority.

Trump’s repugnant rhetoric and actions speak for themselves, reflecting damningly on those who stand with him. Despite their attempts to let Jews be dragged down into the fight, almost the entire Jewish community will stand united against him. As a people with a deep and long history with these sorts of leaders, we know well how — and far too often — it turns out. PJC Aaron Keyak is a former head of the National Jewish Democratic Council and managing partner of Bluelight Strategies in Washington, D.C.

this important fact giving context was omitted from the article. This private property had a for-sale on it for several years. Attempts to locate the property owner were unsuccessful.

Additionally, these graves were canvassed in the early 2000s by a local volunteer for the Jewish Cemetery Project.

Clearly, the Jewish Cemetery and Burial Assn. (JCBA) cannot go onto private property and do maintenance. Additionally, with our limited funds, purchasing properties is not an option.

The JCBA is interested in working with cemetery owners to maintain their sacred burial grounds in proper condition and is prepared to assume that responsibility when they are no longer able to.

Jonathan Schachter, executive director JCBA

Dead deserve better

I am both awed and upset by the article in the July 19 issue regarding the ignored Rippel Road cemetery (“Neglected Jewish cemetery in White Oak restored by non-Jewish volunteers,” July 19). A non-Jew came upon this abandoned cemetery and brought it back to life, using in large part his own personal resources, time and respect for a Jewish cemetery.

Neither congregation in the vicinity is accepting ownership of the small and now beautifully restored cemetery. The article states that “members of Gemilas Chesed were ‘overwhelmed’ when they saw what Mr. Pudlowski and two friends had accomplished, but the congregation’s president is quoted as saying “we will try to maintain it, but I don’t know what that means.”

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Please see Letters, page 20

JULY 26, 2019 13

Headlines Color War: Continued from page 1

“Color war just showcased everyone’s talents,” said Ziff. “There were so many different ways you could contribute to the team. If you were crafty and wanted to do an art project and present it, or if you were athletic and competed in games, or artsy and directed plays, or you recited a bracha (blessing) or answered a quiz, there were ways for you to contribute to your team.”

Providing vast opportunities for involvement is critical, Speck said, as is remaining cognizant of both the individual and the collective.

For color war in general, but especially when it comes to breakout, “you have to keep in mind any sensitivities,” said Akiva Sutofsky, a licensed professional counselor.

Breakout scenarios can cause “a traumatic experience where you can say, ‘Everyone is safe, it’s funny and things go back to normal five seconds later,’ but you are jerking a kid out of their routine, which is something to be sensitive about.”

From start to end, color war can present an overstimulating and challenging experience for campers who struggle with transitions or are sensitive to loud noise, noted Speck. Whether it is providing therapies to help children attain calm or focus, or equipping staff with better training in mental health literacy, the aim is to ensure “children and adolescents reach their development potential.”

In recent years, Jewish camps have investigated options for greater inclusivity, not only in color war but in the larger camping experience.

“An unprecedented number of calls and emails from camps wishing to start programs for people with disabilities, expand services or become more inclusive” was reported

Mission: Continued from page 1

the Kotel,” she added.

Amplifying the experience were constant reminders of closeness. On Friday night, mission members ate dinner at Federation Foundation Scholar Rabbi Danny Schiff ’s Jerusalem home, and during the week, the group toured Karmiel and visited “the memorial that our partnership city placed to remember those 11 that were murdered [at Tree of Life],” said Spanjer.

While in Karmiel, the young adults also saw some of the three-day Karmiel Dance Festival, a global gathering of nearly 250,000 dance aficionados.

Goodstein said he “didn’t partake in any dances,” but was able to see the headlining concert on July 3.

Though the group was not there on July 5, Federation interest remained as Maria Caruso and dancers from her Bodiography company provided the festival’s final performance at Karmiel Cultural Hall.

Bodiography’s visit to Karmiel was due to the Federation’s Partnership2Gether relationship between Pittsburgh and the Karmiel/ Misgav region, explained Federation’s overseas planning associate Debbie Swartz.

14 JULY 26, 2019

by representatives of the Foundation for Jewish Camp and the National Ramah Tikvah Network.

Though long central to the organization, inclusion took on new meaning at EKC and James and Rachel Levinson Day Camp after the JCC received a two-year $100,000 grant from The Staunton Farm Foundation in November 2018. Since then, the JCC has piloted projects at its camps to broaden inclusion and create awareness and conversation about invisible disabilities and FOMO (fear of missing out).

Such awareness is imperative, Speck noted, especially given that one in six U.S. children between 2 and 8 have a diagnosed mental health disorder or developmental issue — and the numbers have been climbing. So camps have adapted and innovated. Integrative strategies, designated spaces or sensory rooms, and the hiring of educated staff or inclusion specialists are becoming more common. The Foundation for Jewish Camping notes several initiatives are currently underway.

“We see that attention to including campers with disabilities is exploding as a priority across movements, and organizations with interest in overnight camping, day camping, vocational training programs, family camps and more,” reported the organization.

While the Jewish camping experience continues to evolve, one familiar event hasn’t changed too much. In pitting kids of varying abilities and talents against one another in a team-oriented exercise requiring manifold efforts, the Apache race remains a constant color war presence.

“During the Apache race there can be 100 people on a color war team and every single team member does something,” said Speck.

Whether it is swimming laps in the pool, running a mile, building and starting a fire, hitting an archery target, shooting a half-court shot, digging for bubble gum in powdered sugar while only using your Discovering Federation’s specific commitment to the Jewish state was insightful, said Stacey Horvitz, a Squirrel Hill resident and mission co-chair. “We were able to go to places in Israel, different locations and facilities where Federation dollars go to, and we could see where that money is going and how it’s being used in the real world.”

Attaining this understanding was “significant because whenever any organization is asking for money you are kind of hesitant, but to be able to go to the facility and see how the money is being used,” it changes your appreciation, she added.

“I think you hear about it often but by going on these missions you get a firsthand look to see what’s happening in more of an experiential way,” echoed Spanjer. “You are able to understand the impact that Pittsburgh Jewry has in Israel, and it creates a special connection as well. It makes our worlds a lot closer and brings our communities a lot closer together.”

Horvitz agreed with the mission’s ability to build community, but placed focus on the participants.

“I went to Jewish day schools and I went to Allderdice for high school, and since high school I haven’t really been in a Jewish community or had a Jewish surrounding so it’s been kind of hard to meet people in that

p Color war was celebrated with a spectacular bonfire.

Photo courtesy of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh

mouth or singing a song as fast as you can, “the entire camp is participating in the same race all around camp,” said Speck.

“There were like 150 people on each team,” recalled Sutofsky, who between the ages of 8 and 18 attended Camp Hativkah in Putnam Valley, New York. The Apache race was “the most memorable part of color war. It would go for hours.”

“It was always fun to be paired with people that you wouldn’t ordinarily team up with if you had the choice but then you get so close to them,” said Ziff. “It was fun as a kid when the older kids were involved, and it was fun as an older kid to get to be a leader to the younger kids.”

“It was very competitive but they were always reminding us as kids that it’s just color war and that there’s no color war in the bunk. In the bunk everyone is friends.

There’s no competition. Everyone gets along,” said Sutofsky.

The earliest reference to color war dates

p A selection of candies at the Tel Aviv Carmel Shuk

Photo by Alexander Goodstein

way,” said Horvitz. “A trip like this helps you form a community that you can’t do outside of a group trip or a group cohort, because in your life, with work, it’s difficult to make time to meet people and form close relationships.”

For many young adults finding connection can be difficult. The demographic is often “looking for smaller groups to connect with within the community,” said Spanjer, who in

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back to 1916 at Schroon Lake Camp, a Jewish boys’ camp in the Adirondacks, noted historian Leslie Paris.

“The camp’s Red and Gray week at the end of August involved several days of competition within each age division, including track and field events, checkers, swimming and Indian leg wrestling,” Paris writes in “Children’s Nature: The Rise of the American Summer Camp.”

More than a century later, after tweaks and updating, color war is still an integral part of camp.

Color war, said Ziff, “put you in another world. You are given a color and for some reason you are screaming and putting all of your energy into it for a few days. It was just kind of fun to escape. It was cool experiential learning. Why can’t adults have that? Why can’t we do that?” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org. overseeing Federation’s young adult division helps bring together those aged 22 to 45.

Federation is “a place to be involved” and provides a space where young adults can “hopefully stay throughout their lives,” she continued. Participating in missions or committees, or being involved philanthropically in the community or in local synagogues, are all ways Federation can help people can connect.

Goodstein and Horvitz both praised Federation’s offering and subsidization of the trip. Not including flights, expenses were around $700 per person. Stays included those at “four- and five-star hotels with great locations,” said Spanjer.

Because of this experience, “one of my goals upon returning is to be more proactive and plan events and not just wait for things to pop up,” noted Horvitz. In the meantime, “I will continue to look for other Federation trips to Israel and elsewhere, and stay involved.”

Participating in the mission was an eye-opening experience, continued Horvitz.

“If they are doing a trip somewhere else in the world I would love to go with and see what other impact Federation is having in the world.” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Headlines Bat Mitzvah: Continued from page 3

language or the music to relate to. It was starting from scratch.”

For more than two years, the two met weekly for lessons, and when Stone was in Florida, they met over the phone.

“It was funny because he would sit outside and the people in his community in Florida would listen to me practice,” Eliza said. “I had my own fan club.”

Stone found some on-line courses to help Eliza learn to read Hebrew. He taught her the blessings before and after the haftorah, as well as her haftorah. He also taught her some liturgical songs, such as “Adon Olam” and “Ein Kelohanu.”

“She’s an excellent student,” Stone said.

“And she’s a competitive swimmer, a soccer

J Street: Continued from page 4

person, or is on a Jewish journey, is fine by us,” said Logan Bayroff, director of communications for J Street.

The exclusion of those who have not yet completed conversion “was an idea that always kind of rubbed me the wrong way,” DeSchriver said. He is also uncomfortable, as a convert, with the idea of a “birthright,” he said.

“The idea that there are certain Jews who have been endowed with this right at birth to go to Israel was something I always kind of struggled with because it was something that did not include me as a convert, it was not something I was given at birth,” DeSchriver explained. “I thought certainly, if I don’t have this right, and there are additionally people who used to inhabit the land and they don’t have the right to go there, I’m not completely comfortable with the idea of American Jews who have never been there to have a right to go there. I think it’s a great privilege that we should not take for granted because it is an incredible place, there are incredible people, it’s an incredible experience, and to me I have no right to that — it was really a privilege that was offered.”

DeSchriver traveled to Israel along with students and recent graduates from around

Mikvah: Continued from page 5

While those who visit the mikvah for conversion purposes usually make appointments during the day, evening hours are typically reserved for women so they can maintain a sense of anonymity and modesty.

The mikvah experience is not limited to women. Rabbi Mendel Rosenblum of Chabad of the South Hills immerses himself in a mikvah dedicated to men daily. “It’s a Chasidic tradition. Many centuries ago, Ezra proposed we should have to go. He believed

player, and she rides horses. I don’t know how she fit it in.”

Knowing that the majority of attendees at Eliza’s June 22 bat mitzvah would not be Jewish, Stone created a 34-page packet to be used in lieu of a siddur.

“I put together a service that I thought would fit with the people who were there,” Stone said.

Although Eliza’s initial guest list was long, as the big day approached, she had whittled it down to just 20 people, close friends and family. Still, her dad had to find a venue in a town that is not accustomed to hosting bat mitzvah services and parties.

He found it at the Conewango Club, an exclusive, old-school club established in 1896 for Warren’s businessmen; the club did not even admit women until fairly recently.

The Brooks also needed to borrow a Torah.

The Jewish community in Jamestown, where Brook was raised and where his parents still live, was happy to help.

Brook’s mother, Brenda, was charged with picking the Torah up from the locked closet where it is kept at Bethel Lutheran Church, and brought it down to Warren for the big event. Brenda also brought along challah she purchased from the Wegman’s in Jamestown, and some wine for kiddish.

The service, kiddish and party all went smoothly, and Brenda is proud of her granddaughter’s accomplishments.

“It was a personal goal that she set for herself, and she achieved it,” Brenda said. “It was very personal, and very rewarding.”

Stone remains impressed by Eliza’s initiative and tenacity.

“She was motivated to take this on, starting from scratch and learning Hebrew,” he said.

“I enjoyed working with her, and I think she did a wonderful job.”

Brook is still amazed that everything came together so seamlessly.

“I didn’t think much about it until I was

the United States. Some of the J Street participants had been on a previous trip to Israel with Birthright or another group, while some, like DeSchriver, had never before been to Israel.

The students returned to the U. S. “more knowledgeable about the realities on the ground and more motivated to become activists for peace,” Bayroff said.

Although DeSchriver’s early Israel education was limited to the secular history and current events curriculum at his public schools, he is now pursuing a Jewish studies minor through the University of Rochester.

Prior to his J Street tour, he took some courses that dealt with the conflict, including “Zionism and its Discontents” and “Israel/ Palestine,” allowing him to join the trip with some background perspective on the struggle for peace in the region.

“I’d like to emphasize that the trip was so well-balanced, maybe even to a fault,” said DeSchriver. “It was incredibly inclusive of all narratives that exist there as much as it could be in the scope of 10 days.”

The travelers met with a wide range of people living in the region, from a contemporary Kabbalah artist in Safed, to settlers in the West Bank, to Palestinian activists at a village in the West Bank, DeSchriver said.

They toured Hebron “and met with various panels of people discussing Jewish pluralism in Israel, discussing politics in Israel, discussing life in Jerusalem and plurality

in Jerusalem, specifically for those who are not in the majority as an Ashkenazi Israeli Jewish narrative.”

They also received “a security overview of the Gaza situation,” he said.

The trip’s itinerary was exhaustive, he said, and “certainly conducive to giving everyone on the trip details that they didn’t know and couldn’t be expected to know in informing everyone of the incredibly complex reality.

“And I would say that in that happening, I as a person have become rather suspicious, or perhaps distrustful, of those who say they know exactly what needs to be done in the region, because there are so many competing narratives and perspectives that no one could possibly know what needs to be done in order to bring about peace and stability,” he continued. “That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try, and it doesn’t mean we should end the conversation there, but for anyone to say they know, and to stop listening because they think they know, is a real shame.”

The trip provided him with “an added layer of understanding on the humanitarian level, as well as understanding on the geopolitical level.”

DeSchriver, who is president of his school’s Hillel, is motivated to share what he learned on his trip.

“Each one of us has this privilege and this opportunity — not a right — but really an

opportunity and privilege given to us by the generosity of J Street and its donors,” he said. “We were invested in and chosen because they believed that each of us was the right one to bring on this trip to show these things to, and to say, ‘Now it’s your turn to go home and to find in your best way how to let your community know that this is incredibly complex, there are so many factors to consider,’ and each of us should have some responsibility as activists going forward.”

The trip also left at least two participants “reconsidering their belief in a Jewish state,” according to a July 10 New York Times report.

“I came in here a very ardent Zionist,” Jesse Steshenko, 19, of Santa Cruz, California, told the Times. “You never know when a Holocaust might happen again. Yet, coming here, I’m starting to doubt whether a two-state solution is possible — and whether Zionism is even worth pursuing anymore.”

J Street currently has no plans to offer additional free trips to students, according to Bayroff.

“For now, this was the only trip of its kind,” he said. “It was intended to be a model to demonstrate to Birthright and to philanthropists what a trip like this can look like.

J Street is not looking to be in the student trip business.” PJC

you had to do it for the purpose of prayer and other reasons. His enactment was not accepted by the Jewish people and never really took hold. Some people do it today to be at an elevated level of ritual purity.”

Some women who go to the mikvah go for reasons that are not related to family purity laws.

“It connects you to the tradition of Jewish practice going back 2,000 years,” said Rabbi Doris Dyen, spiritual leader of the independent havurah Makom HaLev. “It’s about feeling renewed and inwardly cleansed.”

Other reasons women may visit a mikvah, Dyen said, are “transitional moments in life.

Women may use a mikvah for the last time

after a hysterectomy and are completely healed physically to mark that phase of their life. It may also be for a nonphysical reason … to mark the transition from being single to a family unit.

Sometimes, if people are getting divorced or for retirement [they go]. It’s marking the passage from one place in your life to another.”

Rabbi Locketz spoke of transition as well — “immersing as one person and emerging renewed and changed.”

“Before or after major challenges or experiences in life,” Greenbaum said, “the mikvah can be a powerful spiritual experience. I believe it is worth a visit for anyone who has ever wondered what it would be like.”

Altein agreed. “I can’t speak of everyone, but there are definitely women that get a lot out of the experience of going to the mikvah.

They feel when you are in the water, after you immerse yourself and pray — an auspicious time for prayer — that’s a time between the woman and God. It can be very uplifting and rejuvenating.”

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in the service and looked at all the moving parts,” he said. “My mom getting the Torah and driving it to Warren, Shallin [Eliza’s godmother and the event’s photographer] flying in from Oklahoma. My sister coming in from Rochester, New York, and my mom’s sister and brother-in-law coming in from Connecticut. And I never had to push Eliza or encourage her to study. She did it all on her own.”

Now that Eliza has had a hearty taste of Judaism, she is interested in learning more.

“I think I will still want to celebrate Christmas, and do both,” she said. “But now that I know the Hebrew, I want to go more [to services] and learn more about the community.

“I feel accomplished,” she said. “I guess it was kind of a big deal.” PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

This is the second in a series of articles providing information about Jewish customs and habits. PJC David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

JULY 26, 2019 15

Life & Culture A Jewish family sold this Kandinsky painting to survive the Nazis.

Amsterdam is keeping it anyway.

— ART —

By Cnaan Liphshiz | JTA

F

ollowing a protracted legal fight, the family of Irma Klein last year finally got Dutch restitution officials to recognize that the Nazi occupation forced Klein to sell her Wassily Kandinsky painting to this city’s municipal Stedelijk Museum for a fraction of its worth.

That was in 1940, several months into the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, when Klein and her husband sold “Painting with Houses” for the modern-day equivalent of about $1,600 because they needed money to survive the Holocaust.

In its ruling last November, the Dutch Restitutions Committee accepted the family’s account.

But in an unusual and controversial departure from universal practices, the committee also determined that the painting should not be returned to the family. It cited “public interest” in keeping the work on display at the Stedelijk, among other arguments.

It was the latest of several such refusals by the Netherlands based on what the Dutch Restitutions Committee introduced in 2013 as a “weighted interest” approach to looted art.

It has prompted outrage and concern by some experts, claimants and their representatives. They fear a precedent and see injustice by a country that used to be considered a model implementer of art restitution practices.

“These developments risk turning the Netherlands from a leader in art restitution to a pariah,” Anne Webber and Wesley Fisher wrote in a December op-ed in the Dutch daily NRC Hadelsblad. Webber is an art restitution expert and Fisher is the director of research for the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.

Their essay was titled “It’s a scandal that this stolen art hangs at the museum.”

It is “particularly disturbing,” Fisher told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, that this is happening in the Netherlands, which is one of only five countries (the others being Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom and France) that set up committees to determine the provenance of suspect artworks. Such committees were a key requirement of the Washington Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art — a landmark document agreed upon in 1998 by 44 countries.

The principles are significant because they form the basis for handling countless claims that cannot be resolved in court because of statutes of limitations.

The document’s effect on restitution efforts remains inconclusive. More than 21 years after its publication, more than 100,000 paintings out of approximately 600,000 that the Nazis stole remain unreturned, according to Deutsche Welle. Some of them hang in museums and private collections across Europe and beyond. Others are the subject of drawn-out legal fights.

16 JULY 26, 2019

considered in isolation from the Nazi regime,” but also owed to the dire financial straits faced by Klein and her husband in 1940.

It also said the Amsterdam municipality “bought the painting in good faith.”

Unu s u a l l y, the committee then cited the painting’s promi n e nt p l a c e m e nt to explain its decision not to return it, saying in a statement that the artwork “has a significant place in the Stedelijk Museum’s collection.”

“The Committee concluded on the grounds of these interests that the city council is not obliged to restip Chloe van der Vlugt and Tritraan Hadad stand near a disputed Kandinsky painting at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Photo by Cnaan Liphshiz tute the painting,” the statement said.

Interviews with visitors to the Stedelijk restitution, offered no reference to compenThe argument for keeping art accessible in suggest there is widespread support for the sation, according to Gert-Jan van den Bergh, resisting restitution claims is not new in court Dutch approach of resisting restitution to the lawyer for the claimants, who do not cases, according to Orna Artal, a co-founder ensure public access to art. wish to be named. His clients do not rule out of Ramos & Artal, a dispute resolution firm “Art is meant to be viewed,” said Chloe a monetary settlement, he said. in New York and an expert on provenance van der Vlugt, a 19-year-old art student from (The value of the painting is not known, and restitution of Nazi-looted art.

Miami, Florida, who is in favor of keeping van den Bergh said, as it has never been However, such reasoning is unusual to the disputed Kandinsky in the Stedelijk. The appraised. But a Kandinsky painting similar be invoked by a state-created restitution 1909 painting by the Russian artist features in style to “Painting with Houses” and committee, Artal and Marika Keblusek, a mysterious figure crouched sorrowfully in created the same year fetched $26 million at a lecturer from the University of Leiden a field opposite houses with radiant facades. a London auction in 2017.) who specializes in the study of looted “A lot of pillage happened in art, whole Fisher, the Claims Conference representa- art, confirmed. countries have lost their treasures,” she tive, said the committee’s failure to discuss According to the lawyer van den Bergh, added. “We need to move on.” a monetary settlement did not give the it’s happening in the Netherlands in reacDuring two days of interviewing at impression of goodwill. tion to a massive restitution claim in 2006: random some 50 admirers of Kandinsky, “There are a good many ways in which a Some 202 paintings were yanked from JTA did not encounter a single person who museum can agree that a painting belongs Dutch museums in favor of the Goudstikker favored returning the painting to the family to the family but nonetheless retain the family, whose claim was affirmed by the after being informed of the dispute’s details. artwork,” he said. “It is not reasonable that the Restitutions Committee.

Those interviewed came from 10 countries, family in this case is not receiving anything.”

The first use of the “weighted interest” including Israel.

Queried about the possibility of compensa- approach came seven years later, when “I think it should stay here, Kandinsky tion, Eric Idema, the general secretary of the the committee recognized that paintings belongs to all of humanity,” Liad Eini, 19, an Dutch Restitutions Committee, said he “cannot belonging to the late Jewish art collector Israeli art lover on leave from the army, said comment on this specific case.” Generally, he Richard Semmel were looted, but agreed passionately during a visit — the second in added, the committee has no mandate to offer to return only one. Four paintings that two days — to the Stedelijk. The city-owned compensation. Fisher, however, insisted that Semmel lost because of the Nazis were kept modern art museum, housed in a structure even a vague recommendation on a settle- on display, citing the museums’ interest in resembling a huge bathtub, is considered one ment would have put pressure on the Stedelijk keeping them accessible to the public. of the world’s leading institutions of its kind. Museum to offer the family some money.

It was a watershed moment for the Dutch Eini’s mother, Dorit, a teacher, hushed her Stedelijk has not made such an offer, van Restitutions Committee, which has made son, reminding him to speak softly. den Bergh said. about 170 recommendations, most of them “Paintings reach museums at the end of The museum, which is being sued by binding rulings, pertaining to some 1,500 sad stories and tragedies,” she said. “The the family, has said it will keep to the letter items. (Among the binding rulings, 84 were Holocaust happens to be famous and evoc- of the binding recommendation of the fully or partially in the applicants’ favor and ative to us Jews, but it’s no exception to the Restitutions Committee, which said the 56 were to reject the claim in full.) various calamities behind many of these museum is excused from any further action The introduction of the weighted interest paintings all around us.” on Klein’s Kandinsky. approach means that “ownership of looted All those interviewed said, however, The committee also cited the failure of art outweighed rightful ownership,” Webber that Klein’s family should be offered Klein, a Holocaust survivor who died in and Fisher wrote in their op-ed. And while monetary compensation.

Amsterdam in 1983, to claim the painting, the committee has ruled since 2013 in favor But the elaborate ruling of the Dutch which the committee determined “had of returning some looted art, they added that Restitutions Committee, an advisory body not been stolen or confiscated.” However, weighted interest in principle means that whose establishment by the government in the committee did find that “the sale of “[n]o Dutch museum would ever need to 2002 helped make Holland a pioneer in art the painting cannot, on the one hand, be return a single work of art ever again.” PJC PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

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Life & Culture Tai chi with tefillin: inside New York’s quirkiest yeshiva — RELIGION —

By Ben Sales | JTA

I

f you walked into Romemu Yeshiva on a weekday morning, you would be forgiven for thinking it’s an urban ashram.

Students sit on cushions, in rows, on a faded Persian rug, backs erect, legs crossed, eyes closed, hands resting loosely on their knees.

Soft grins cross a few of their faces. Many are wearing prayer shawls. A few are wearing tefillin. The AC is turned to 65 degrees.

Usually these 20 or so students meditate silently for up to 45 minutes at the beginning of each day. On Tuesday, because they were hosting guests, meditation — or “sitting,” as they call it — was abbreviated to 10 minutes.

Still, for Jews, 10 minutes of sitting silently feels like a long time.

In one way Romemu Yeshiva, launched by the Manhattan congregation of the same name, is the latest of several initiatives to provide an inclusive, egalitarian space for adults to study Jewish text at a high level. It has 22 students, mostly in their 20s and 30s.

The yeshiva began meeting in June and will run until August.

Other schools of that kind — like Yeshivat Hadar, the Pardes Institute and Svara — generally emphasize the study of Talmud and Jewish law that has long dominated the yeshiva world. But Romemu Yeshiva is the vanguard of a larger project to infuse American Judaism with concepts traditionally considered Eastern, like meditation, mindfulness and mystical philosophy. It wants to show American Jews that those concepts are authentic to Judaism, even if they’ve been de-emphasized in favor of mainstream prayer and study.

Rabbi David Ingber, Romemu’s founder, called it “fully neo-Chasidic.”

“This yeshiva is the culmination of a revolution in the West of mindfulness and contemplative practice,” he said. “It’s not foreign to Jewish life. Endemic to Jewish spiritual work is intentionality, mindfulness, cultivating states of awareness and cultivating the kind of person who is full of love and compassion and those types of things.”

At most yeshivas, or advanced schools for adult Jewish study, prayer follows a nearly identical daily routine, with set liturgy that is mostly murmured semi-quietly, occasionally sung. Romemu turns that custom on its head.

The morning prayer consisted of a series of six chants — most of them a line or two from the prayer book repeated over and over rhythmically with rising volume and three-part harmonies. A rabbi introduced each chant with a series of softly spoken instructions, and each was followed by another minute or so of meditation.

But even that routine was broken. Before saying the Shema prayer, the group broke off into pairs to do a “gazing exercise” in which they stood opposite each other, made eye contact and said to each other, “You are made in the image of God” or “You are made in the image of Shechina,” the traditional Hebrew feminine form of God’s spirit. Some riffed on that.

“You are made in the image of love, care, service, kindness and joy,” one student said

p Students meditate as part of the morning prayer at Romemu Yeshiva in New York in July. The yeshiva combines intensive study of Jewish text with mindfulness and mysticism.

Photos by Ben Sales

pRabbi David Ingber, the founder of Romemu, teaches a class on Chasidism.

p Sarah Hurwitz, left, a former speechwriter for First Lady Michelle Obama, does a “gazing exercise” with rabbinical student Lily Solochek.

to his partner. “You are made in the image of the strength, power, kind words spoken from the heart.”

The goal of integrating mindfulness and Judaism is not new.

The late Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan offered a

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traditional Jewish alternative to Eastern practices in his 1985 guide “Jewish Meditation.” The Jewish Renewal movement, founded in the 1970s by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, has the same ethos and counts Romemu as one of its congregations.

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This yeshiva, however, aims for an expansion of Renewal’s mission to more mainstream spaces. Ingber envisions shorter-term seminars for Jewish clergy and other leaders of all denominations, as well as a greater range of classes to be offered to the public. The yeshiva already has weekly public events.

“It’s a kind of place where you can have this kind of amazing laboratory,” said Rabbi James Jacobson-Maisels, the head of the yeshiva. “You come together, you do intensive practice together, you create the kind of model for what Jewish life might look like.

People want their religious lives to speak to their basic human needs.”

The yeshiva’s students do learn Jewish law and Talmud, which Romemu styles as “contemplative rabbinics.” But they also have time cut out for Kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism, and Chasidism. A class this week studied the Torah commentary of Menachem Nachum Twersky of Chernobyl, an 18th-century Chasidic rabbi.

“It was exciting to be able to do meditation in my own tradition to not step into someone else’s tradition as a guest,” said Sarah Hurwitz, a former speechwriter for Michelle Obama and now a student at Romemu. She said her favorite class is Chasidism because “it’s so infused with love, it’s so infused with joy, it’s so infused with this real yearning for connection with the divine. There’s a real sense of emotion behind it that can sometimes feel like it’s missing in Jewish spaces.”

The curriculum also aims to merge study with spiritual practice. Before studying Jewish texts about loving God, students meditated one day on what it feels like to give and receive love from people in their lives. A teacher of qigong, a movement system similar to tai chi, is onsite. The students will hold a weekend silent retreat at the yeshiva this week.

“Parts of it feels radically different,” said Lily Solochek, a rabbinical student who began studying at the Conservative movement’s Jewish Theological Seminary and is now a student at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. They are at Romemu Yeshiva for the summer.

“It’s not solely about can we learn it and learn some truth about the world around us, but can we learn it in a way that it can really touch us on a deep, spiritual level and then put that into practice?” Solochek said.

The yeshiva’s daily schedule is demanding, beginning at 7:30 a.m. and lasting as late as 9 p.m. Some students pay a tuition of up to $5,000, while others get a living stipend. Almost three hours in total are set aside for prayer, including an hour for the afternoon service after lunch — a kind of spiritual siesta. But Romemu’s faculty doesn’t expect the students to be able to sustain the yeshiva’s rigorous lifestyle when the program ends in August.

“We want them now to start to be able to translate and help other people see how this can be accessible to them as well,” JacobsonMaisels said of the students. “To help people see, ‘Oh, this is a possibility. I can find a really deeply meaningful Judaism, a deep connection to my roots [that] makes me operate in this contemporary world in a way that feels much more open to me.’” PJC JULY 26, 2019 17

Headlines

Torah

Repair the World Fellows to receive Get out there and take action tuition discount at Chatham — LOCAL —

R

epair the World, a national volunteer service organization with a Pittsburgh chapter, has entered into a strategic partnership with Chatham University to support alumni of the Repair the World Fellowship. Chatham will offer an automatic 20 percent tuition discount to alumni of the Repair the World Fellowship admitted into many of its graduate studies programs.

“We are excited to partner with Repair the World to support young people with the ambition to create change now and in the future,” said Trish Golla, assistant director of graduate admissions at Chatham, in a prepared statement. “We look forward to supporting Repair the World alumni in an academic environment rich with learning and personal growth opportunities.”

Pittsburgh is one of eight communities where Repair the World operates. The Chatham tuition discount is open to Repair Fellowship alumni from any community.

“This partnership with Chatham University enables Repair Fellows to continue their education in a stellar learning environment,” said Sam Kuttner, director of the Repair the World Fellowship, in a prepared statement. “Chatham’s values and focus on areas of food and sustainability offer opportunities that are in alignment with our alumni’s passion around food justice, and the education they receive there will be instrumental in their path as changemakers.

We are fortunate that Chatham University is a partner of Repair.”

In addition to the partnership with Chatham, Repair the World also has partnerships for reduced tuition scholarships and other student benefits with Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College of Public Policy and with the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public & International Affairs and Master of Social Work program. PJC — Toby Tabachnick

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Rabbi Yisroel Rosenfeld Parshat Pinchas Numbers 25:10-30:1

I

n the beginning of this week’s Torah portion, we talk about Pinchas. He was known for his heroic actions on behalf of G-d. When he witnessed an act of rebellion, he did not wait around looking for others to act. He did not wait for instructions from anyone. Pinchas was bothered by what he saw as a direct affront to G-d Himself. He immediately sprung into action and took matters into his own hands.

In response, G-d ended the plague that had stricken the nation, exclaiming, “Pinchas ben Eleazar ben Aharon Hakohen Hashiv Et Chamati Meal Bnei Yisroel,” “Pinchas the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron the Kohen has turned My anger away from the children of Israel.”

Just before this event, the Jewish people were faced with yet another adversary.

Balak, the powerful king of Moav, sent the gentile prophet Bilam on a mission to curse the Jewish people. G-d intervened. Instead of cursing them, some of the most beautiful blessings were bestowed upon the Jewish people by Bilam.

Among them, while looking over the Jewish camp, he proclaimed, “How good are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling places, O Israel!”

The commentaries explain that Bilam had noticed that in the Jewish encampment all of the tents of each family were positioned so that the openings should not be facing each other. This was done intentionally so that no family should have the urge to envy that which the other had. Allowing maximum privacy and keeping to themselves was a virtue which allowed them all to get along and live in unison.

The Jewish people understood that in order for each of them to have maximum productivity in their service of G-d, they all needed to stay focused on their mission.

Involving themselves in somebody else’s affair would only hamper their own abilities to do their own job.

Think of it like a football game. Every player has his position. Each one has their

unique roll to play. If the blocker would decide for a moment that the receiver is not doing his job and therefore he will go out to catch the ball, he risks not just neglecting his own position, but ruining it for the receiver as well! Each player has their role and they must not be concerned with the other. When everyone focuses on their own role, they form a great team that accomplishes the mission.

In life it is the same way. So often we are tempted to get involved in somebody else’s affairs. We are concerned that they are not doing their job. So we make it our business to tell them what they should be doing. We must take a lesson from the Jews in the dessert.

Set up your tent so that the opening is not facing your neighbor. Stay laser focused on your mission here in life. Do not constantly look at others in judgment of whether they are doing their job. When we all do that, we will be able to function better as a team and accomplish great things.

But then there is Pinchas. He had a moment when he realized all was at stake.

He saw that the very essence of Judaism was under attack.

Pinchas was a Kohen, a priest. He was the grandson of Aaron who was known for his gentle and kind demeanor. It certainly was not in his natural instinct to be vengeful or to get involved in somebody else’s business.

But this was different. It was time to break the rules. He knew that now was the time to stand up and make a statement. He took action at a time when any action was needed, regardless of what his day job was.

It’s similar to an interception. When the ball is taken by the other team, drop your role, forget your day job, and if you’re in a position to do so, tackle the guy.

We all have moments when we are called upon to be the “Pinchas.” Of course, we must first and foremost stick to our job. But at times when all is at stake, don’t be caught up in what your day job is. Get out there and take action. Stand up for Judaism and everything that is holy. PJC

Rabbi Yisroel Rosenfeld is the dean of Yeshiva Schools and Lubavitch Center of Pittsburgh. This column is a service of the Vaad Harabanim of Greater Pittsburgh.

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Obituaries SHRATTER: Morris Shratter, age 94, died on Sunday, July 14, 2019. He leaves his wife Shirley of 67 years and his son, Ellis.

Born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA since his early years, Morris was dedicated to the Pittsburgh community.

He started out as a lifeguard at Highland Park pool. As a good patriot he served in the Air Force during World War II, after high school early graduation. In his 30 years of public service he worked as a history teacher, guidance counselor and was the head of Scholars Program. He also was an active member and leader at Recovery International for 20 years.

Specially dedicated to the Jewish community, Morris was president of the Jewish War Veterans in Pittsburgh for four years where he distributed many scholarships. He helped Jewish immigrants become citizens, led a discussion group at Rodef Shalom as a volunteer for ten years, he and his wife established a group “Spur” to gain promotions for Jewish teachers. After retiring, he and his wife Shirley established a TV program “More Than Just Learning”, to interview well known people about the importance of education. On July 6, 1995 Mayor Murphy issued a proclamation making the day “Morris and Shirley Shratter Day”. He also won one gold and two silver medals in swimming at the 2008 National Senior Olympics. Morris will be greatly missed by his wife, Shirley, son, Ellis, nieces and nephews, Marvin, Rochelle Pallock, Mindy Freeman, Tina and James Blake, Lee and Kelly Shratter and Robin Taylor. Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. Interment is at West View Cemetery of Rodef Shalom Congregation. schugar.com WEIN: Marion Mandel Blattner Wein, 89, of Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, PA passed away July 21, 2019 at The Charles Morris

Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, after living at Jewish Aging Association’s Residence at Weinberg Village assisted living facility since 2013. Marion was born September 20, 1929 to Frank and Ida (Mallinger) Mandel on Nicholson St. in Squirrel Hill. Marion’s greatest love was for her children: Steven (Lori) Blattner, Joe (Jane) Blattner, and Eileen (Peter) Sposato, and stepson Tom (Tania) Wein, along with her grandchildren Robin (Jake) Galik, and Michael Blattner, Frank and Annie Sposato, Rachel (Tieff) Wein Madden, Hanna, Dacota and Noah Wein, as well as many nieces and nephews. She is predeceased by her four siblings that she loved dearly: Joseph, Saul, and Martin Mandel, and Ruth Mandel Ganz Fargotstein. She was also predeceased by her husband of 16 years, Richard J Blattner, and father of their three children, and her second husband of 34 years, Victor M Wein, originally of Clarion PA. After the passing of her 1st husband, Richard, Marion at a young age of 35, became an active real estate agent for Blanche Greenberger Real Estate Agency, making many friends and contacts that she carried late in life. Her life was full of friends and those who loved her from her Class of June 1947 at Taylor Allderdice, where she spent many hours helping with their reunions, her Jewish War Veteran’s relationships as their long-standing communications chair, her love for music, and mostly her love of her Jewish faith. In lieu of flowers, you may please make a donation to Jewish Aging Association at JAA, 200 JHF Drive, Pittsburgh PA 15217 to honor the memory of Marion. Proffesional services trusted to D’ALESSANDRO FUNERAL HOME & CREMATORY LTD., Lawrenceville. dalessandroltd.com PJC

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Ruth Haber ............................................................. Simon Miller Bernard Halpern............................................... Sylvia Goldstein Marian Hershman.......................................Sherman Hershman Amy R. Kamin ..................................................... Samuel Honig Elaine & Carl Krasik.............................................Samuel Krasik Sanford Middleman ......................................Morris Middleman Arlene Murphy ..........................................................Eva Ulanoff Arlene Murphy ...................................... Joan Ratowsky Whitley Marvin A. Perer, M.D. ...........................................Ethel R. Perer Nathaniel S. Pirchesky ....................................... Beatrice Galler Mr. & Mrs. Joel Platt ................................................Robert Platt Norman S. Rosenfeld...............................................Tillie Dental Robert A. Rosenthal................................................. Eli Racusin Rhoda F. Sikov ................................................. William M. Rose Arnold & Susan Silverman .................................... Rae Labovitz Sheila Winkler Slewett ........................ Harold Leighton Winkler Richard S. Stuart ..............................................Jacob Liberman Robert & Susan Zohlman...................................... Harriet Taper

THIS WEEK’S YAHRZEITS — Sunday July 28: Arthur Abelson, Sara Rider Brenner, Martin Fried, Charles J. Goldberg, Rose Zelmanovitz Gottlieb, Myra Ruth Edelstein Harris, Harry M. Jacobson, Phyllis Kaiser, Morris Mermelstein, Rose Monheim, Harold L. Neuwirth, Esq., Frieda F. Riemer, Norman S. Rom, Louis Tucker Monday July 29: Ben Block, Hyman Chizeck, Minnie Cohen, Harry Kallus, Paul A. Kleinerman Tuesday July 30: Ella Amper, Marian S. Beck, Rose Beck, Samuel H. Bigler, Tillie Dentel, Harry Louis Diamond, Sidney Elinow, Celia M. Elovitz, Meyer Feldman, Theresa Fried, Fannie Gross, Helene Rose Hyman, Harry Latterman, Samuel Lederman, Benjamin Love, L. J. Marks, Tillie Michaelson, Benjamin Middleman, Philip Recht, Samuel Sanford Rosen, Celia Schlesinger, Louis Shapira, Nathan Sniderman, Rose Stern, Frank Sussman Wednesday July 31: Yetta Burke, Anna Goldberg Cody, Meyer Coon, David M. Fineman, Sigmund Fleisher, Sylvia Goldstein, Edith Lena Kaplan, Joseph Konigsberg, Rose Liberman, Sylvia Weiner Markovitz, Theodore Marks, Samuel Recht, Sam Rosen, Sarah Rosenthal, Abraham Saffran, Mollie Slutsky, Isadore Sobel, Freda Tauberg Thursday August 1: Dr. Nathan Ashinsky, Sarah L. Blumenthal, Samuel J. Cramer, Rae R. Granowitz, Leon Robert Greenberg, Tiby M. Grinberg, Louis Kitman, Milton Myer, Fannie Dvinsky Pollock, Jacob Stein, Alexander Udman, Joseph H. Wells, Rebecca Siegel Wilner, Mildred Marlin Wolovitz Friday August 2: Leonard Barmak, Yolana Berger, Saul Cazen, Ben W. Closky, Celia Cohen, Rose Freed, Max Goldston, Jacob Herring, Esther F. Horelick, Max Levenson, Jacob Liberman, Harry Louik, Abram Morgan, Merle M. Pearlman, Essie Rogalsky Rosenfield, Samuel Ruben, Hannah Rubenson, Sidney Schwartz, Ben Shapiro, Sarah Shapiro, Wilma Shlakman, Ida Shoag, Frances Siegman, Eva Simon, Abraham B. Slesnick, Edward Irving Stein Saturday August 3: Louis Gerson, Ruth Wein Gordon Herskovitz, Samuel Honig, Samuel Kamin, Benjamin Lebby, Fay Levin, Charles Gershen Lisowitz, Florence B. Perilman, Sarah Rosenberg, Manuel Siniakin, Samuel Nathan Unger, Marcus D. Wedner, Louis M. Witkin, Meyer Zarkin

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JULY 26, 2019 19

Headlines Secret: Continued from page 13

75-year-old pollution controls that have no backup systems. Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, entrusted to serve as steward of the public interest, isn’t doing his job.

Rather, he acts as a cheerleader for U.S. Steel.

While the city has no enforcement powers in this arena, it does have a voice and a bully pulpit, and it is good to see city leaders begin to exercise those prerogatives. Pittsburgh City Council Member Erica Strassburger, a newcomer to her position, has made it clear that we can have cleaner air and good jobs at the same time. She has provided an opportunity for citizens to register their concerns.

In the wake of two fires at Clairton that turned our most egregious ongoing source of pollution into a ticking time bomb, Council Member Corey O’Connor initiated a “Will of the Council,” a statement supporting Allegheny County Health Department

efforts to prevent air pollution at both Clairton Coke Works and U.S. Steel’s Edgar Thompson facility.

The county has dragged its heels for years, and it is unclear whether its recently negotiated compliance agreement with U.S. Steel in the wake of the fires goes far enough, since it allowed the Clairton Coke Works to operate for over three months after the Dec. 24 fire and explosion that wiped out all of its pollution controls. That in my estimation is malfeasance.

Based upon the county’s decades of bare-minimum enforcement of air pollution regulations, why should we trust them to act decisively now?

It is incomprehensible to me that in the face of this constant threat to the health and wellbeing of all of us, our two healthcare giants, UPMC and Highmark, have been silent.

Or that the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health has been silent. Or that the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, which was created 75 years ago to take on the smoke-pollution problem

Letters:

in tandem with government, failed at its recent “Our Next 75” summit marking its anniversary and charting its future course to even mention that we are in the midst of a long-standing health emergency.

All of these so-called leadership groups could apply pressure on the county to do something but have chosen to sit on their hands.

When leaders fail us, the only way to make change is at the grassroots level. That leaves it up to us to let our city and county council members know that enough is enough. Let Rich Fitzgerald, our county executive, know that his failure to act is unacceptable. He was silent until the fires and then barely made any waves in the aftermath.

In the midst of all of this, Dr. Karen Hacker, the director of the county health department, has announced her departure. Tell Fitzgerald and your county council member you want a successor who is empowered to act decisively to eliminate the health emergency in which our county continues to be mired.

The county is great at declaring emergencies when some measles cases show up. Where is the declaration of emergency when hundreds die unnecessarily each year because of unchecked pollution?

Where are the voices of all the doctors in our community? While they treat our youth and ourselves for asthma at record-breaking rates, their voices are silent. How about the specialists who treat the elderly with pulmonary issues? Silent. Or the oncologists? Silent.

We may not be able to influence all of them, but how about calling our own practitioners?

Denial amounts to death for too many.

Let’s not let our leaders pretend that they can keep our dirty little secret forever. They can’t.

We shouldn’t. The secret is out! PJC Howard M. Rieger was president/CEO of Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, 1981-2004, and president/CEO of Jewish Federations of North America, 2004-2009.

In retirement he is a community activist in Pittsburgh and Chicago.

In defense of cartoons Continued from page 13

Why not seek out youth in the area (Jewish or otherwise) who could make this a mitzvah/ social action project and/or receive school credits for performing community service? It was embarrassing to read this well-written article only for it to end on such a dispirited note.

These eight forgotten deceased deserve better from our Pittsburgh Jewish community.

Joan Granowitz Charlson McMurray, PA

Southern connections

I read the article on the Jewish temple in Selma, Alabama, with great interest (“Selma’s only synagogue has 4 members and is fighting for its life,” July 12). I was stationed at Craig AFB, Selma, Alabama, from April of 1962 to June of 1962. During my stay at Craig, I was fortunate enough to make friends with many members of the Jewish community, and when I was off-duty, spent time at the temple on holy days and Shabbat and even tried teaching Sunday school. I was sad to read the article, as that temple was a welcome home away from home for a lonely airman, just looking for some connection with his home and religion.

Barry Werber Pittsburgh

Thank you for your wonderful paper. I have enjoyed it through the years. I love the Torah portions, the events and many articles weekly. The first thing I turn to is the opinion page and my favorite thing to see there is the political cartoons.

One of the greatest commandments we learn is to love our neighbors. Well, how can we love them if we don’t understand how they think? The political cartoons are fantastic because, whether we identify with them or not, we can easily see a hot-button issue important to someone else. That helps us love them because then we understand them.

I have laughed at your comics, been confused and asked others for insights into them, and seen how others think so that I can be careful of their feelings to show love for them.

When I grew up, we got four newspapers in our home. I always, even as a young child, studied the political cartoons so see how current events are interpreted by others. It doesn’t matter if I disagree with them. Please, I beg you, bring back the political comics.

Cathy Heinlein Charleroi, PA Editor’s note: We have not discontinued the cartoons for good — we are just prioritizing reader and op-ed voices instead. When we have room for them, we will certainly include them. PJC

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JULY 26, 2019 21

Community NCSY Garden Sizzler

Pittsburgh Pirates everywhere in the park

More than 300 people attended the NCSY Garden Sizzler, an outdoor event benefiting NCSY’s Jewish teen engagement initiatives, on June 25. Guests enjoyed a generous gourmet barbeque and jazz music. NCSY is a program of the Orthodox Union.

During a July 18 event at Frick Park on South Braddock Ave., Pirates pitcher Joe Musgrove, the Pirate Parrot and a life-sized Mensch on the Bench (Team Israel’s mascot) joined fans and community members. The afternoon street fair was followed by the Pittsburgh theatrical premiere of “Heading Home: The Tale of Team Israel” at Regent Square Theater. A special question and answer session after the film was held with Pirates broadcaster Greg Brown and MLB.com reporter Jonathan Mayo. Chairman of the Board and principal owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates Robert Nutting and team president Frank Coonelly attended.

p Paul Rosenberg, left, Ira Karoll and Dr. Bruce Rabin were among more than 300 attendees at the NCSY Garden Sizzler. The annual outdoor event benefit’s NCSY’s Jewish teen engagement initiatives. Guests enjoyed a generous gourmet barbeque and jazz music.

p Gordon Fisher, Barb Feige and Wes Scott

p From left: Mason Jones, Chris Archer, Blake Gavin, Randy Frankel and Wes Gavin

Photo by Memories by Mindy Photography

p From left: Jonathan Loring, Zev Loring and Joe Musgrove

Photo by Adam Reinherz

p From left: Marti Herskovitz, Roberta Eisenman, Leah Milch, Judi Kanal, Tova Weinberg and Chaya Pollack

p Also on July 18, at Stan Lederman Field in Frick Park, Pirates pitcher Chris Archer met with Squirrel Hill Baseball Association players. Archer fielded questions from the nearly 30 young players. Pirates Charities and Good Sports also presented $15,000 in baseball equipment to the Squirrel Hill Baseball Association.

Photo by Memories by Mindy Photography

u John Katz, Moish Nadoff and Sol Horvitz

Photos by Sandy Riemer

Open Doors Award Temple Sinai honored Open Doors honoree Eva Tansky Blum on May 17. The Open Doors Award was created to recognize those who have dedicated themselves to advancing Temple Sinai’s mission of providing a welcoming and caring spiritual community for all those who wish to enter.

p From left: Eva Tansky Blum, Norman Wolmark, Burt Tansky and Rabbi Keren Gorban Photo by John Schiller

22 JULY 26, 2019

p From left: Philip Lehman, David Levenson, Debra Caplan, Burt Tansky, Eva Tansky Blum and Rabbi Jamie Gibson

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Community Sweet Lemonade

Summer Fun at Camp Gan Israel Pittsburgh

The Friendship Circle hosted its annual Lemonade Stand community fundraiser on July 2.

Aided by the hot and humid weather, members were able to raise a total of $200 to buy supplies for summer programs. Lemonade and cookies were prepared by Friendship Circle members, who also assisted customers and created handmade signs to promote the event.

First session campers at Camp Gan Israel Pittsburgh enjoyed summer activities including a trip to Idlewild and a visit from the Kona Ice Truck. t Camp Gan Israel Pittsburgh boys division camper Yosef Pressman holds a cool treat from the Kona Ice Truck.

p Friendship Circle friends staff one of the lemonade tables on Murray Avenue in Squirrel Hill.

p Members line up for a snapshot.

Photos courtesy of Friendship Circle

Rabbi Chuck at Camp Ramah p Mini Gan Izzy campers, from left, Sonja Cohen, Mayaan Horvitz, Ziva Naiditch and Mimi Friedman enjoy water play.

p Rabbi Chuck Diamond, center, addresses staff and campers at Camp Ramah in Canada during the dedication of new Friday night siddurim. The siddurim were donated in memory of the 11 victims of the Tree of Life shooting.

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG  

Photo courtesy of Rabbi Chuck Diamond

p Mini Gan Izzy campers, from left, Levi Hoffinger, Leah Rudolph, Ari Rosenblum and Nachi Hordiner participate in a silly science experiment.

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Photos courtesy of Elly Feibus

JULY 26, 2019 23

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