Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle 8-9-19

August 9, 2019 | 8 Av 5779

Candlelighting 8:08 p.m. | Havdalah 9:09 p.m. | Vol. 62, No. 32 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

NOTEWORTHY LOCAL Catching up with Rabbi Myers

Tree of Life: On the road to rebuilding

Nine months after Tree of Life, two mass shootings leave 31 dead

The rabbi’s life has changed, but he’s still a teacher first.

By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer and Marcy Oster | JTA

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Now, decisions have to be made as to what functions the Tree of Life structure will serve going forward, taking into account the building’s significance to a host of interested parties, including the congregation’s membership and the worldwide Jewish community, just for starters.

“It’s very complicated,” said Alan Hausman, vice president of TOL*OLS. “There are many things to consider, and it’s taking longer than anyone anticipated.

Fortunately, none of us has had to do this before, so we are writing the book as we go.

But we have started the process.”

The congregation’s immediate past president, Michael Eisenberg, is the chair of the capital repair committee, charged with heading up the process of determining how and what to rebuild.

“I’m finding it’s not just Tree of Life’s decision, although we own the land, we have the name and so forth,” he said. “There are a lot of cooks in the kitchen.”

That’s where the listening sessions come in.

“When you are designing a building, you have to get an idea of what people want and how they see the current status of what’s there, what their desires are for the future,” Eisenberg said, noting that during the

t least 31 people and one shooter are dead in the wake of two mass murders that took place over 13 hours in the United States last weekend.

Twenty-two people were killed and at least two dozen injured in a shooting on Saturday afternoon at a Walmart shopping center in El Paso, Texas. In Dayton, Ohio, nine people and the shooter were killed and 26 injured in a mass shooting shortly after 1 a.m. Sunday morning. That shooting took place on the outskirts of downtown Dayton’s Oregon District, a popular entertainment area.

The shootings triggered feelings of angst among Jewish Pittsburghers, still coping with the aftermath of the anti-Semitic massacre at the Tree of Life building on October 27 that left 11 dead and six seriously wounded, including four law enforcement officers.

“All of us feel the pain and loss of loved ones in the senseless murders of innocent people across the nation,” read a joint statement issued by congregations Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha, New Light and Dor Hadash on Sunday. “We are heartbroken, again, by this weekend’s tragedies in El Paso and Dayton. It was approximately nine months ago that our community was targeted and affected forever by a hate crime.

“Last October, these and other cities across America shared their love and support with the people of Pittsburgh as we lost members of our congregations and cared for others who were injured and survived,” the statement continued. “We know first-hand the fear, anguish and healing process such an atrocity causes, and our hearts are with the afflicted families and those communities. We mourn with the families and friends of the victims and all of the survivors in El Paso

Please see TOL, page 14

Please see Shootings, page 14

LOCAL 30-year mystery solved?

 The Tree of Life synagogue building

Cemetery story opens longclosed doors Page 3 LOCAL Art for a cause

Eclectic work showcased at the JCC’s Berger Gallery.

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$1.50

By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer

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he process of rebuilding the Tree of Life synagogue structure has been underway since November, although no plans or designs have yet been drawn.

For the past nine months, the leadership of Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Congregation — under the pro bono guidance of Dan Rothschild of the architectural and urban design firm Rothschild Doyno Collaborative — has been convening a series of “listening sessions” comprised of community stakeholders sharing their thoughts on what the building at the corner of Wilkins and Shady avenues should be now that it holds the lamentable distinction of marking the site of the worst anti-Semitic massacre in the history of the United States, as well as being a cherished house of worship.

“We are doing our due diligence,” said Rabbi Hazzan Jeffrey Myers, spiritual leader of TOL*OLS. “It’s going to take some time.”

The 155-year-old congregation moved from its building on Craft Avenue in Oakland to the corner of Wilkins and Shady in 1952, where it since has served as the spiritual home to generations of worshippers. Since the massacre, the congregation temporarily has been housed at Rodef Shalom Congregation.

Photo by Toby Tabachnick

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Headlines Becoming Rabbi Myers — LOCAL — Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

N

estled high in Shadyside is a reconstituted office filled with papers, plaques and presents. The memento-covered space in Rodef Shalom Congregation is a large and crammed area bearing testimony to the singularity of its inhabitant. On the wall is a white poster board with encouraging words written in colorful marker. Beneath the sign are gifts from well-wishers across the world. The paper-laden makeshift desk where Rabbi Hazzan Jeffrey Myers sits was formerly a conference table.

While the space works well for now, Myers misses his old office — or more specifically, what was inside it. He misses his books.

Though Myers occasionally returns to the Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha building to get something, the bulk of his library — which includes works on Jewish thought, classic commentaries on the Torah and file cabinets full of sermons and sheet music — has remained out of reach.

Fortunately, in the coming weeks, nearly 10 months after a gunman entered the Squirrel Hill building on a Saturday morning and killed 11 Jews, a group of volunteers will help Myers pack and transport approximately 200 boxes of books to his relocated setting. It’s an important step forward — and one that needs to happen for pragmatic reasons.

Shabbat mornings require sermons.

Weekday minyans need occasional thoughts.

There is a weekly post from the rabbi on Tree of Life’s website. Each of these tasks, along with the numerous public remarks he’s delivered since Oct. 27, requires referencing books and papers Myers doesn’t have.

p Rabbi Jeffrey Myers speaking at the Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom at the State Department in Washington D.C. on July 16, 2019.

Photo provided by the State Department

“Everything isn’t on the internet,” he said.

Without easy access, he said, it is difficult to teach, and although Myers has followed a winding path of professional Jewish service, as noted by his dual titles of rabbi and hazzan, teaching is all he has ever wanted to do.

When Myers was 15, the cantor of his congregation died. Before the New Jerseybased position was refilled, Myers was named de facto bar mitzvah tutor. The appointment was logical since the teen was already leading services most Saturday mornings — the Linden shul was also without a rabbi then — so teaching Torah and prayers was just another congregational charge to a capable kid.

As bar mitzvah instructor, Myers relied on past tutelage for guidance. The former cantor taught him that trop, or cantillation, afforded access to parchments and opportunities.

“It’s all about trop because that opens the door for somebody to be able to read Torah, to read any piece of Torah,” said Myers. “If you just memorize maftir, all you can do is chant that maftir and nothing else.”

Eventually, the congregation hired another cantor, but throughout his life Myers remained drawn to the pedagogic enterprise — except for a brief college diversion.

As an undergraduate at Rutgers University, “I was majoring in zoology because I thought I was going to be pre-med — isn’t that what Jewish boys were supposed to do at that time? — but I reached a point after two years of all of those classes, that it’s just not what I wanted,” he said.

Instead, Myers realized education was his calling. “I hadn’t recognized up to that point all of the connected dots,” he said.

Aspiration didn’t entirely match reality,

however. Although Myers was experienced in leading junior congregations and informally educating Jewish students, he had never been responsible before for classroom management. That changed when Myers graduated from Rutgers and accepted his first formal post: seventh-grade Hebrew school teacher in Matawan, New Jersey.

He fell in love with the work and continued teaching while he got a degree from the Cantorial School of The Jewish Theological Seminary. Bolstered with a master’s in Jewish education, also from JTS, Myers started running religious schools and committed himself to curricular development at congregations in Massapequa, New York and Ventnor, New Jersey. By the time he arrived at Tree of Life on Aug. 1, 2017, Myers had spent nearly three decades in Jewish education.

Many of those years, which began in Rock Island, Illinois, were marked by positions as a cantor. Singing before a congregation was a chance to interpret liturgy and “try to bring it to the people in a way that simply declaiming the words would not.”

The same goes for responsive chanting or sermonizing, he continued. “I think all of these pieces all fit together, and to me that’s what makes a good and interesting service, the different pieces of it, not just one straight thing throughout.”

Elements of the service, like other synagogue responsibilities, afforded opportunities to educate, and Myers relished his role. During his tenure, however, Jewish communal life in the United States changed.

Congregations merged, some closed and paid cantorial positions became scant.

“I saw there were challenges ahead for Please see Myers, page 3

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Headlines News of restored White Oak cemetery ends 30-year search — LOCAL —

By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer

J

ack Bergstein began searching for a small, abandoned cemetery on Rippel Road in White Oak about 30 years ago.

In the late 1980s, Bergstein’s father, Adolph, told him about a cousin, Emanuel Menyheart Bergstein, who was killed by a train at the age of 12 in 1923, and who was buried in an overgrown cemetery not far from Gemilas Chesed Synagogue’s main cemetery on Center Street.

That’s all he had to go on.

“I went looking for it, and I couldn’t find it,” Bergstein said. “About 15 years ago, a guy from McKeesport drew me directions to a cemetery on Rippel Road, but I still couldn’t find it.”

Then, last month, a relative sent him an article published in the Chronicle (“Neglected Jewish cemetery in White Oak restored by non-Jewish volunteers,” July 17) about a tiny, neglected cemetery on Rippel Road that had been restored by non-Jewish volunteers, an effort led by Mark Pudlowski, founder of the Family of God Biblical Reasoning and Counseling Prayer Center in White Oak. There are eight headstones that remain in that Rippel Road cemetery, ranging in dates from 1902 to 1924. Of those, the inscriptions on only four of the them are legible, among them, Fanny Rittenberg Bergstein, who died in 1912.

Fanny, said Bergstein, was his grandfather’s brother’s first wife.

When he saw that Fanny was buried at the Rippel Road cemetery, he suspected that

Myers: Continued from page 2

those of us who wanted to serve as professional cantors,” he told the Chronicle two years ago.

Myers enrolled in the Rabbinical Academy (Mesifta Adath Wolkowisk, Inc.), an off-campus ordination program designed for midcareer working Jewish professionals.

Although becoming a rabbi had not necessarily been the plan, semicha was “something important to have, to be able to one day provide a way to continue to take care of my family as best as I could,” he previously said.

Myers’ prescience paid off. When his previous congregation ceased employing a cantor, he sought other opportunities.

Throughout his interview for Tree of Life’s pulpit, he cast himself as someone who could read Torah, chant prayers, sermonize and deliver a meaningful service to a diverse crowd. Myers was confident in his varying abilities — after all, in educational parlance, the task was no different than differentiating instruction.

“I appreciate that Tree of Life gives me an opportunity to try to shape and craft that type of service, that it can be different things,

His grave is in a cemetery in Monessen.

Monroeville resident David Bergstein, a cousin to Jack, had also been searching for the grave of Emanuel, who was his father’s brother.

“When I was a child, my father would say Kaddish at two cemeteries,” recalled David Bergstein. “One was in Monessen and one was on Rippel Road.

I remember we couldn’t get in [to the Rippel Road cemetery] because there was a high wall, and it was overgrown.

My father would go every holiday and he would say Kaddish outside the wall.”

That was at least 60 years ago, David Bergstein said, and although he remembered accompanying his father to that cemetery, he had no idea where it was until he read the Chronicle article.

He headed out to Rippel Road to see p The restored cemetery can now be seen easily from Rippel Road the cemetery after reading the story.

Photo provided by Mark Pudlowski The volunteers, he said, “did a nice, blessed thing to fix it up.”

Emanuel could be there as well. phenomenal job.”

Like his cousin Jack, David also suspects “When I got that article, it hit me that this Of the four headstones that cannot be that Emanuel is buried at the restored cememust be the cemetery I’ve been looking for,” read, Bergstein is convinced that one must tery on Rippel Road, and that it is the same Bergstein said. mark the grave of Emanuel. site where his father used to say Kaddish He drove out to Rippel Road to see Bergstein, a semi-retired attorney and standing outside the wall. for himself. lifelong resident of Monessen, has long David also suspects that his paternal Although he had passed that parcel of land been involved with genealogy, “long before grandmother, Lena Spitz Bergstein — many times before, only now could he see the internet,” he said, and the discovery of whose grave he has been unable to locate there was a Jewish cemetery there, thanks to these relatives’ graves carries great signif- — is buried in that cemetery, and that her the work of Pudlowski and others. icance for him. grave is also marked by a headstone that can The cemetery has been completely “This gave credence to my father saying no longer be read, “but there is no way to restored. It has been cleared of brush, the there was a cemetery there all those years tell,” he said. headstones have been re-set, mulch has been ago,” he said. “And now I was able to fulfill a “I just don’t know where else she laid, and a fence has been erected around the task I’ve been trying to do for a lot of years. would be.” PJC perimeter. A large blue Star of David stands I’m sure I’ll go back.”

Toby Tabachnick can be reached at on the grounds facing Rippel Road.

Emanuel’s brother, Lewis, coincidentally “I was so impressed,” he said. “They did a was also killed by a train when he was a child. ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

because people come in with different needs,” he said.

In the nearly 10 months since Myers was among those safely rescued from the Tree of Life building, he has seen firsthand the dramatic shifting of needs. People come to him with shattered faith, others are searching for connection anew. And like a teacher before his pupils, Myers wants to reach them all. But the classroom keeps expanding.

As a recognizable face of unspeakable horror, Myers receives requests from across the country for his guidance, media appearances and event remarks. In turn, he has been on national TV, radio and in print. He has spoken before members of Congress, delivered the invocation at Gov. Wolf ’s inauguration and received the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Medal of Valor, all in the backdrop to having eulogized the victims, addressed thousands at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum and welcomed President Trump and others in the immediate days after the shooting.

The frequency and weight of such activities is daunting, but Myers forges on, calling for the end of hate speech and encouraging ahavat chinam, loving people.

“We’re more mindful of words now,” said

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Myers. “We need to translate them into more deeds. We need to see more good. We need to flood the world with good.”

It can all get exhausting, but Myers has spent a lifetime educating, so whether it is congregants, infrequent guests, first-time listeners or students, Myers understands he has to carry the message forward. The responsibility has made him feel closer to God than ever before, especially when saying the Amidah. “‘OK, God, what do you need of me today?

Give me some guidance. What are the things you need me to say? Help me put the words in the right way.’ I ask that of God regularly,” said Myers.

As for all the publicity, the media attention, Myers stays grounded.

“I’d like to think my parents raised me right, that my tradition guides me correctly and that I have to trust myself that what I think is the right thing to do I do. I think that’s just so important because if you lose faith in yourself you’re going to question everything you do, every moment of every day. I just don’t think that’s healthy or that it’s part of a good healing process to just continue to doubt it.

“I don’t come from that from arrogance

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but just from deep abiding faith in God, that God is leading me on the right path.

There’s some reason God wanted me to be in Pittsburgh. I’d never been in Pittsburgh. I’m an East Coaster,” he said.

The season of retrospection is near, as both the High Holidays and the one-year anniversary of the shooting approach. Before then, Myers should get his books back, but he knows the perfect formula for learning to live and teach others after Oct. 27 is not waiting in a box for him.

“There is nothing that can prepare you for massacre,” he said. “There are no classes you can take on what to do. There were no rabbis I could call on the phone to ask what they did. This is just my way of saying that I have no doubt that I’ve made mistakes along the way, because I’m human. I’ve probably said things I shouldn’t have said, done things I shouldn’t have done. All I hope is that at the end, with whatever future story may be told, that the good I’ve done will hopefully outweigh any errors that I made of commission or omission, and that’s all I can hope for. I’ve tried my best.” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

AUGUST 9, 2019 3

Headlines Emeritus Mark Mahler. “You want to make sure you’re marrying the right person.”

This is often also the time when the couple signs their ketubah or wedding contract. A traditional ketubah obligates the husband to support his wife. But Meyer noted that there are plenty of modern variations and it can be “one of the most beautiful parts of the Jewish wedding. You have something hanging on your wall where you can look and say, ‘Remember that moment and these promises we made to each other.’”

The rest of the ceremony, including the sheva brokhot, takes place under the chuppah, an open-sided wedding canopy that symbolizes the tent of Abraham and Sarah.

“They were the first Jewish couple,” Mahler explained. “It therefore connects us to all generations of Jewish brides and grooms.”

Before entering the chuppah, in traditional ceremonies, the bride will circle the groom seven times, which Altein likens to building the walls in a home.

“In order to make a marriage work, we need something greater,” he said. “As the Talmud tells us, that is the blessing of Hashem and the setting up of the home on the foundation of God. The encompassing chuppah encircles them both and we circle it seven times.”

The groom then gives the bride her

— LOCAL —

By David Rullo | Staff Writer

I

f your ideas about weddings were formed by fairytales and love stories, you might be in for quite a shock if you go to a Jewish wedding.

In most traditional ceremonies, the types of vows popularized in TV and movies are never stated. Also, it’s not considered bad luck for the groom to see the bride on the day of the wedding. Instead, ritual and tradition are woven together in Jewish weddings, creating a ceremony that is equal Cantor Rena Shapiro, spiritual leader of Beth parts solemn and festive, legal and religious, Samuel Spiritual Center, is often asked to sing festive and transactional. those seven blessings, the sheva brokhot. It’s “A Jewish wedding is a conglomeration “the obvious things a cantor would do,” Shapiro of different things from Jewish tradition,” said.

Couples interested in music may have explained Rabbi Emily Meyer, formerly her sing or chant other sections of the of Bet Chaverim in Des Moines, ceremony as well, including “may Washington, who recently moved you be blessed in your coming, ” as to Pittsburgh. “The betrothal the rite begins. and the actual marriage are together in the same ceremony.

Before the blessings are even The betrothal starts with bless- Judaism chanted, the bride and groom Basics ings and the exchange of rings have already been busy. “In the accompanied by a vow. It’s formulaic.

Chabad custom, meaning in a Chabad Modern weddings have every possibility Orthodox wedding, the chatan (groom) in them. The second part is the [actual] recites a Chasidic discourse on marriage,” said marriage [including]the first blessings of the Rabbi Yisroel Altein of Chabad of Pittsburgh . marriage, a set of seven blessings.”

“It’s also a time when the kala (bride) focuses

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One unique characteristic of Jewish nuptials is the badeken or veiling of the bride, which comes after the bride and groom haven’t seen either other for seven days. During the badeken, Altein explained, “the chatan sees this is the wife he is going to marry and covers her.” Though it usually comes before the official ceremony, some couples now incorporate the badeken into the wedding itself.

Why is it important that the groom sees the bride prior to the ceremony?

“It’s based on the episode in Bereshit when Jacob thought he was going to marry Rachel and was tricked into marrying Leah,” JC Opn More Emanuel PossibilitiesFIN_Eartique said Temple of South Hills4/1/19 Rabbi11:47 PM

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The tradition and wonder of a Jewish wedding ceremony

Headlines The J.N. Chester Club: A friendship made official — HISTORY —

By Eric Lidji | Special to the Chronicle

R

ight at the bend where Centre Avenue leaves Oakland is a set of concrete steps. Climb them, and you’ll reach the foot of Avalon Street, in the upper Hill District. That’s where nine Jewish high school boys, on Thursday, May 5, 1927, started the J.N. Chester Club.

The boys named the club after their sponsor, John Needles Chester. Chester was a prominent water and sewer engineer who lived directly across the street from those steps, on a big estate hidden in a corner of the tony Schenley Farms district. He was a bachelor and a member of the Protestant elite of Pittsburgh. He belonged to both the Duquesne Club and the University Club, neither of which accepted Jewish members at that time.

Who knows how this engineer came to meet these working-class Jewish kids? Perhaps he watched them hustling along Centre Avenue each day, to and from Schenley High School, and struck up a conversation. That type of fortuitous encounter can easily arise when people from different circumstances live within close proximity of each other.

The J.N. Chester Club faltered at first.

The boys all agreed that their top priority

should be sports Somer Somerman and their second Boys Club, the Amie priority should be “to Club, the Windslow promote harmony and Juniors, and the friendship among its Velox Club. To members in future encourage and strucyears.” Beyond that, ture these clubs, the they didn’t know what YMWHA convened a it meant to have a club.

“Congress of Clubs,” That changed in a sort of hyperlocal 1928, when they affilUnited Nations with iated with the Irene a dab of the tribal Kaufmann Settlement competitiveness that House and were underpinstheOlympics. assigned an advisor, a Some of these clubs young Jewish lawyer were only for boys. named Reuben J. Others were only for Gershon. He encour-  The talented Saul Paris was girls. Some favored aged the boys to the illustrator for the J.N. Chester athletics; others broaden their interests Club. His work adorns the cover academics. But, at of this gorgeous club scrapbook beyond athletics. Soon from 1932. their heart, no one club Image courtesy Rauh they were pursuing Jewish History Program & Archives differed all that much debate and drama, from any other. Each holding meetings, and arranging banquets, was a group of friends, channeling the freebarn dances and boat rides. wheeling camaraderie of youth through the The J.N. Chester Club joined the Young formalities of club life — minutes to record Men’s and Women’s Hebrew Association meetings, broadsides to announce functions, in 1929. Here it entered an entire world of letterhead to send correspondence, newsletclubs. The Jewish youth of Pittsburgh were ters to document events. crazy for clubs in the years before World All that paper, in time, becomes an archival War II. There were literally dozens of them, record. The J.N. Chester Club left behind three and they all had superb names, like the volumes. The first is a minute book, irreverently Enoch Rauh Club, Omega Theta Mu, the documenting club meetings from 1931 to 1940.

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“In old news,” the first entry reads, “the scrap book was argued over, Mr. Bloom insisting that his poetry be included.” The second is that scrapbook, the gorgeously hand-illustrated (and poetry-free) volume seen here. It provides a history of the club through 1932, biographies of each member and an overview of club activities.

The third volume is a scrapbook from the early 1940s. The cover is a textured collage made from hand-cut pieces of cork.

Inside is a decade of club ephemera, from High Holiday greeting cards and menus to bank statements and newspaper clippings and photos.

All three volumes ended up in the possession of Manny Gold, a founding member of the club. He kept them safe for half a century.

When the specter of mortality convinced him he could not hold onto them for all eternity, he stashed them in a filing cabinet at the JCC belonging to the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. There they stayed for more than a decade, until being donated to the Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives, which cherishes them nearly as much as those boys who put so much heart into them in the first place. PJC Eric Lidji is the director of the Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives at the Heinz History Center. He can be reached at eslidji@ heinzhistorycenter.org or 412-454-6406.

AUGUST 9, 2019

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Headlines ‘Established’ artists display eclectic works at JCC, all for a cause — LOCAL —

By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer

W

hile there are a lot of opportunities for “emerging” artists to exhibit their work in Pittsburgh, Susan Sparks is all about giving “established” artists a chance.

That’s why she helps to coordinate the group Pittsburgh 10+.

“We’re ‘established’ artists, and by ‘established,’ I mean you have to have your AARP card to join the group,” she quipped.

“Established artists got to a certain point in their career and didn’t have the opportunity to exhibit, and they also wanted to give back.”

The 14 artists that currently comprise the group are mostly in their 70s, 80s and 90s, she said. Most of them are still producing art every day.

For the fourth year, the Pittsburgh 10+ is exhibiting their work at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh’s Berger Gallery. The exhibit runs through Sept. 27. A portion of the proceeds from sales of the art will be donated to the JCC to support the Zola Hirsch Special Needs Fund, launched by Lila Hirsch Brody in memory of her late husband.

The group formed about seven years ago, initially with five female members, said Sparks, who moved back to Pittsburgh after spending 15 years creating art on the West Coast.

The artists exhibiting in the Pittsburgh 10 + show currently at the JCC include: Zivi Aviraz, Robert Bowden, Lila Hirsch Brody, Eva Lu Damianos, Sylvester Damianos,

p “Tulip Explosion” by Lila Hirsch Brody

Kathy Depasse, Joel Kranich, Phiris (Kathy) Sickels, Kara Snyder, David Sparks, Susan Sparks, Dirk VandenBerg, Francine VandenBerg, David Watts and special guest artist Kathleen Zimbicki.

Some of the artists are taking or have taken art classes taught by Brody at the JCC. Although the group initially was comprised of women, men were eventually included “because we are not sexist,” Sparks said. The Pittsburgh 10+ now includes three married couples.

“The Pittsburgh 10+ takes its name from the Philadelphia Ten, a group of women artists from the Philadelphia area that broke a lot of the rules and exhibited together

Photo by Toby Tabachnick

between 1927 and 1945,” according to a press release. “At the time, exhibits of works by women artists were often described as conservative, but nonetheless, an important vehicle for presenting high quality artwork by women to the general public. This was the first significant step toward integrating women into the art world.”

The Pittsburgh 10+ borrows from this group by having six women artists at its core, “who break the rules in their own works,” and often do so to support a cause. Past causes to which the group has contributed have included the Center for Women, the Squirrel Hill Food Pantry and the MageeWomens Research Institute and Foundation.

The Pittsburgh 10+ also “gets together socially, to talk about art and to talk about our lives,” Sparks said.

Many of these artists first worked together at the former Eastside Gallery, a co-op gallery in Pittsburgh’s East End. Several of the artists are painters, and the group’s exhibits include work in abstract acrylic, super real oil and acrylic, printmaking, drawing, mixed-media, sculpture, pottery, fiber, and photography.

The works are mostly contemporary, and run the gamut from abstract expressionism to realism.

Highlights of the current JCC exhibit include Robert Bowden’s “A Tree of Lives,” depicting a tree with 11 branches surrounding a Jewish star, as well as his politically-themed watercolors; Brody’s signature vibrantly pigmented flowers; David Watt’s clever and oversized “Perogies and Butter” sculpture; and Susan Sparks’ “Art of Noise” etched metal series.

“There is a strong sense of camaraderie and support in the arts community, especially among this group,” said Brody. “And, we all learn from one another.”

The group presents together two or three times a year.

The exhibit at the JCC is free and open to the community during regular JCC summer hours.

A series of artist/gallery talks and demonstrations, each one featuring participating artists, will begin at 1:15 p.m. on each Wednesday beginning Aug. 7 and running through Sept. 18. PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

New film tells story of MLB catcher, CIA spy Moe Berg — LOCAL — Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

T

he subject of Aviva Kempner’s new film may have been a spy, but Kempner is all about spilling his secrets. With reliance upon interviews and archival footage, Kempner, a Washington D.C.-based filmmaker, relates the story of Morris “Moe” Berg, a Jewish baseball player who, aside from suiting up for the Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians, Washington Nationals and Boston Red Sox, joined the Office of Strategic Services to spy on German activities during World War II. “The Spy Behind Home Plate” — much like Kempner’s 1986 documentary debut, “Partisans of Vilna” — features the untold story of an inspiring figure. The 101-minute work, which opens Aug. 9 at Squirrel Hill’s Manor Theatre, utilizes 44 original interviews and 18 additional exchanges conducted between 1987 and 1991 by filmmakers Jerry Feldman and Neil Goldstein for “The Best Gloveman in the Leagues,” an unfinished film. As a collective endeavor, the project afforded Kempner greater insight

6 AUGUST 9, 2019

into one of baseball’s more curious catchers.

Born on March 2, 1902, to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, Berg went to Princeton University and Columbia University School of Law. But his passion was baseball, and he played professionally during baseball’s golden era — when Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Earle Combs created century-spanning memories — and participated in a 1934 all-star team that toured Japan. Over the course of 15 years, Berg batted .243 with six home runs and recorded 206 runs batted in. Years before those tallies were complete, though, MLB scout Mike González presciently said of Berg, “Good field, no hit.”

Dave Harris, Berg’s roommate on the Washington Senators, supposedly said something similar about Berg: “He can speak seven languages but he can’t hit in any of them.”

Like his at-bats, Berg’s quirks and intellectual prowess are well-recorded. At Princeton, he studied Greek, Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, German and Sanskrit. He supposedly read 10 newspapers a day.

“He would not let anyone touch his newspapers until he had read them,” noted Ralph Berger for the Society for American Baseball Research. “If anyone did touch them, Berg

p Moe Berg as a catcher during his time in MLB Photo courtesy of Irwin Berg

considered them dead and would go out and buy the papers again. Even in a snowstorm Berg would go out to buy papers if someone had touched them before he did.”

Beginning in 1939, Berg appeared on the radio quiz show “Information, Please” three times. He penned a classic piece on the psychology of pitchers and hitters for

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

The Atlantic in 1941. During World War II, Berg clandestinely followed physicists around Europe and determined Germany’s chances of acquiring a nuclear bomb. After the war, Berg supposedly declined the Medal of Merit, the highest-ranking civilian honor of its time.

Berg never married and spent his later years living with his brother Samuel and sister Ethel. When he died, Berg’s ashes were initially buried in a New Jersey cemetery then transported to Israel, though it’s not clear where on Mt. Scopus his remains are.

Berg’s baseball cards are reportedly the only ones held in the CIA Museum’s collection.

All of this has contributed to Berg’s considerable mystique.

“Little about Moe Berg adds up,” wrote Berger.

“He was a linguist who became a major league baseball player, a nuclear spy who spent most of the last two decades of his life practically homeless,” echoed Mark F. Bernstein of Princeton Alumni Weekly.

Even as the subject of two biographies, “he remains an enigma.”

Nicholas Dawidoff tackled the case in his Please see Film, page 15

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Headlines Catching up with Paul Caplan at 106 — LOCAL — Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

P

aul Caplan’s days are often spent reading Voltaire, listening to classical music and playing trombone in the company of his collected art. On Saturdays the 106-year-old attends Rodef Shalom Congregation in Shadyside, partakes in post-services cake and wine and enjoys conversing with other members. Though Caplan retired from his work as the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s physician many years ago, he still wears a jacket, shirt and tie every day — and humbly insists that he doesn’t deserve a spotlight.

“The reason for this [interview] is because I’ve lived long enough to establish some memories, which they may enjoy hearing or at least tolerate,” he said with a smile during a visit with a reporter.

Caplan was born in California, Pennsylvania. His father, Philip, an Eastern European refugee, arrived in the Washington County borough because a relative had a men’s clothing store nearby. Philip decided to open a women’s clothing store, called Caplan’s Big Store, where he sold the latest women’s fashions he’d bring in from New York.

Although Caplan’s Big Store was successful, Paul Caplan never considered

p Paul Caplan is still playing the trombone at 106.

joining the business. By the age of 10, he had decided to become a doctor.

“This met with my parents’ approval,” he said.

Caplan’s decision was spurred by an encounter with a doctor when his mother, Dora Freedman, was sick.

“My mother was ill and a general practitioner came to her bedside to treat her, and he

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Photo by Adam Reinherz

was so kindly,” said Caplan. “He was so gentle and so caring that I said to myself, even then, ‘Someday I’d like to be like that man.’”

Nearly a century later, Caplan cannot recall the physician’s name, but he remembers his features. “His face and his affect remain with me to this date.”

Caplan’s decision to become a doctor was

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

reinforced a year later during a ballgame at Colfax Elementary School.

“I wasn’t much of an athlete. Once I tried to be a catcher, but it didn’t work out,” he said. “The first ball hit me and I said, ‘That’s the end of this career. I’m not going to be a catcher. I think I’ll go to medical school instead.’”

Though Caplan is slightly embarrassed to draw attention just because of his longevity, he admits he has some incredible memories, including the time when only half the homes in the country had electricity.

“I remember a little bit of World War I,” he said. “I remember going into a railroad station — this is the end of World War I — and the troops were demonstrating. They were marching for benefit of the population.”

Caplan, born in 1912, was a child when the Great War ended in 1918. By the time World War II arrived, he’d already graduated from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. As a practicing physician with the 83rd Infantry Division, Caplan was stationed in Normandy for months.

The experience was “terrible,” he said. “I was making a decision on who should be sent back with the next ambulance immediately and who can wait.”

But today, Caplan doesn’t think much about those days. “It’s kind of passed. I think Please see Caplan, page 8

AUGUST 9, 2019 7

Calendar Community Day School presents “Golda’s Balcony” at 6 p.m. at 6424 Forward Avenue. Sandra Laub portrays Golda Meir in this one-woman play about Israel’s only female prime minister. $18/ adult or $10/ages 12-18. Includes heavy appetizers and hour-long performance. Visit comday.org/ golda for more information.

q WEDNESDAY, AUG. 14

q MONDAY, AUG. 19

Come out for a Finger Paint Pictionary Night from 7 to 9 p.m. at Moishe House. Come with your best art, guesses, and messes for this crafty twist on everyone’s favorite game.

Contact moishehousepgh@gmail.com for more information. Moishe House events are intended for young adults age 22-32.

The National Council of Jewish Women – Pittsburgh Section will host their third annual day at Camp NCJW at Green Oaks Country Club in Verona beginning at 10:30 a.m. All funds raised from the day of golf, tennis, swimming and card games will benefit NCJW’s Center for Women, which provides financial and career development assistance to women in life transitions. Camp NCJW is open to the public, with tickets ($85-$250) available at ncjwpgh.org or 412-421-6118.

q WEDNESDAYS, AUG. 14, 21, 28;

SEPT. 4

“Heal, Grow and Live with Hope” Nar-Anon 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 THURSDAYS, AUG. 15, 22, 29 >>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 AUG. 9, 10, 11, 15, 16, 17, 18 Queer, Jewish – Dancing in the Diaspora is a collection of dances exploring the intersections of queer and Jewish identity in the Diaspora at The Carnegie Stage. Moriah Ella Mason and collaborators explore queer and feminist themes in Jewish sacred texts.

Visit carnegiestage.com/event-calendar for more information and tickets. q SUNDAY, AUG. 11 Join Chabad of the South Hills for a screening of the film “The Light of Fire” by Bentzi Avtzon on Tisha B’Av at 4:30 p.m. at the South Hills JCC, followed by conversation. $5 advance tickets, $10 at the door. Call 412-344-2424 or visit chabadsh.com to preregister. q MONDAY, AUG. 12 Enjoy a BBQ at Kesser Torah (5685 Beacon St.) at 6 p.m. $12 adult; $8 child. RSVP at ydcapland@gmail.com or paypal.me/ kethertorah.

Caplan: Continued from page 7

I have more important things to think about such as, ‘What should we do tomorrow?

What’s my next event?’”

Even so, he does still think about his late wife, Gertrude Forman, whom he married in 1942.

“She was beautiful, had a bright personality and was generous,” he previously told the Chronicle. She died in 2006, leaving Caplan and two daughters, Donna and Roberta.

“I enjoy my relationships with my daughters, but they’re not in Pittsburgh,” said Caplan. “They don’t intend to move here and I don’t intend to move to New York.”

More immediately, Caplan intends to go to his trombone and the nearby sheet music.

8 AUGUST 9, 2019

q TUESDAYS, AUG. 13, 20, 27;

SEPT. 3

Learn how the stories of Abraham, Hannah, Isaiah and Jonah illustrate themes of the Jewish New Year and help us prepare spiritually for the upcoming holidays at Spiritual Readings for the Jewish High Holidays with Rabbi Jonathan Perlman presented by New Light Congregation and Rodman Street Missionary Baptist Church. The free series takes place at 7 p.m. at New Light Congregation. Email info@newlightcongregation.org or call 412-421-1017 to enroll. q WEDNESDAY, AUG. 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 tinyurl.com/WhollyHoly2019.

Twice to three times a week, the jazz lover plays for roughly 10 to 15 minutes, though he no longer has the lip he once had. Though he used to be a working musician, now he just plays by himself.

“I no longer have an orchestra, no longer part of a group, it’s all past history, and remember my age is such that I no longer qualify as a jazz performer,” he said. “Maybe I’ve made that decision myself, but I don’t play with anybody anymore.”

As a teenager, Caplan had his own group — the Caplan Jazz Band, which included trombone, sax, trumpet and violin. The violin was included, Caplan said, “to add a little diversity.” The violinist decided to quit because his contributions were “being obliterated by the horns,” Caplan said. But the band continued for some time, playing bar mitzvahs and Italian weddings “because

Thursday Evenings in My Garden offers weekly conversation and exploration about everyday spirituality for healing, growth, creativity and innovation. Thursdays through Labor Day, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Come once or come weekly, friends are welcome.

Check bethshalompgh.org/thursdayevenings-in-my-garden for location and confirmation of dates.

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 pirates.com/ jewishheritage or call 412-325-4903. q SATURDAY, AUG. 24 Beat the August heat with Moishe House’s Pool Party at Highland Park Pool from 2 to 4 p.m. Meet at Highland Park Pool (151 Lake Drive). Be sure to RSVP so they can pay for your pass! RSVP at moishehousepgh@gmail. com. Moishe House events are intended for young adults age 22-32.

q SATURDAY, AUG. 17 Moishe House or beach vacation? Join Moishe House for a Tropical Lunch Shabbat beginning at noon. Come hungry and bring your best vacation gear. Contact moishehousepgh@gmail.com for more information. Moishe House events are intended for young adults age 22-32.

q WEDNESDAY, AUG. 28

q SUNDAY, AUG. 18 The South Hills Bereavement Group welcomes previous and newly bereaved adults to a monthly support group at Temple Emanuel of South Hills at 9:30 a.m. Meet others who have lost their parents, siblings, partners or children find hope. No RSVP needed. Free and open to the community. Led by Jamie Del, MS, NCC, LPC and Naomi Pittle, LCSW.

that’s where we were getting a small salary and a lot to eat,” he said. “We really weren’t good enough to play in any formal way. We were amateurs.”

Caplan still remembers the similarities between the Jewish and Italian groups he entertained. “They have the same sense of beauty, the same sense of music, the same sense of camaraderie. I mean, Jews want to preserve their faith. Italians want to preserve their faith as well.”

Caplan was exposed to other faith traditions and nationalities as the orchestra’s physician, too. He traveled the world with the musicians, going to Italy, Japan, Norway, Scotland, Sweden and Russia, where they were often met by politicians and dignitaries.

“We were treated with much respect and with interest,” he said.

Being feted overseas, though, wasn’t most

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

q WEDNESDAY, AUG. 21

Join Moishe House for a Movie in the Park at Flagstaff Hill beginning at 8:30 p.m. Watch “Jurassic Park” with snacks and friends. Sign up to bring something (food, beverages, cutlery, etc.) RSVP at moishehousepgh@ gmail.com. Moishe House events are intended for young adults age 22-32. q SUNDAY, SEPT. 8 You are invited to attend the closing program of the Jewish Women’s Center of Pittsburgh, Retrospective: 1992-2019 from 3-5 p.m. at the Rauh Jewish History Program and Archives located in the Heinz History Museum. Come mingle, reminisce and enjoy light refreshments. Please RSVP to evite.me/ zUeenuUehG by Aug. 28. PJC

important to him. “The highlight of my career was first becoming a physician,” he said.

The good work he’s done in that profession is evident all over Caplan’s home, where the walls are hung with scores of awards and honors thanking him for decades of medical service. Medicine-themed books, prints and art also reflect the pride he takes in his former profession.

By the door, there’s a hat that has the words “83rd Infantry Division WWII” on the brim.

When asked how the second World War influenced his practice of medicine, Caplan paused. “That’s a personal thing I’ll save for the next visit.”

Then, smiling, he added, “If I tell you everything now, you won’t come back.” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Photo by Willem van de Poll - Nationaal Archief Nummer/via commons.wikimedia.org

q THURSDAY, AUGUST 22

Headlines — WORLD — From JTA reports

Man shoves baby’s stroller in London, calls parents ‘dirty Jews’ A Jewish family from the United Kingdom complained to police about a young man who was filmed hurling an object in their direction and calling them “dirty Jews” on a London street.

The incident, which police are treating as a hate crime, escalated after the man pushed aside the family’s baby stroller, The Independent reported Monday. The parents, who were sitting at a café, protested, prompting the man to call them “dirty Jews.”

When the man saw a passerby filming the exchange with a cell phone, he tried knocking the device from their hand. Then he kicked an advertising board in the family’s direction and walked away.

Last month, a British Jewish community watchdog group said that a record number of nearly 900 anti-Semitic incidents have been recorded in the United Kingdom for the first six months of 2019.

Police say Israeli lawmaker should be indicted for bribery, aiding an alleged pedophile The Israel Police recommended indicting Israeli lawmaker Yaakov Litzman for bribery

and aiding an alleged pedophile.

Litzman, who heads the haredi Orthodox United Torah Judaism party and serves as deputy health minister, could be charged with fraud and breach of trust for helping Malka Leifer, including preventing her from being extradited to Australia, where she faces 74 counts of child abuse.

He also faces bribery charges for allegedly helping to prevent the shutdown of a food business that the Health Ministry determined had serious sanitation violations.

He is accused of offering special benefits to Health Ministry employees in exchange for their keeping the Jerusalem-area restaurant open.

In the Leifer case, Litzman is accused of pressuring Jerusalem district psychiatrist Jacob Charnes to say that Leifer was mentally unfit to stand trial. She is accused of molesting several girls while the principal of a haredi Orthodox girls’ school in Australia.

Because of the psychiatrist’s opinion, police did not call on Leifer to testify, which was a major reason her extradition was not approved. In early 2018, following testimony from neighbors and others and following new psychological assessments, psychiatrists determined that Leifer was faking her symptoms of mental illness and that she was fit to stand trial. She has been in prison for over a year but has not yet been extradited.

Litzman denies the accusations. The Jerusalem District Attorney’s Office will decide whether Litzman should be indicted.

Comedy club owner David Kimowitz and family nanny stabbed to death in suburban NJ David Kimowitz, 40, owner of The Stand comedy club in New York City, was found dead last week in his Maplewood home. The au pair, Karen Bermudez-Rodriguez, 26, was found dead on the street outside the home, The New York Times reported.

The woman’s boyfriend, Joseph Porter, 27, of Elizabeth, New Jersey, was arrested in connection with the deaths and later charged with two counts of murder. He reportedly was upset because Bermudez-Rodriguez wanted to break up with him. He used the key she had given him to enter the home, where he allegedly killed Kimowitz.

Porter was arrested at Newark Liberty International Airport before he could board a flight to Cancun, Mexico, according to court documents.

Kimowitz’s wife, Laura, and two preschool-age daughters were not at home at the time of the Saturday-morning murders.

The family reportedly moved into the home 18 months ago following renovations.

Bermudez-Rodriguez was a student from Colombia who started babysitting for the Kimowitz family more than a year ago, a family friend told NJ Advance Media. She was in the United States to learn English.

Several comedians took to social media to mourn Kimowitz’s death, whose funeral was scheduled at Bernheim-Apter-Kreitzman Suburban Funeral Chapel in nearby

Livingston. Rachel Feinstein remembered him as “such a kind and spirited person.”

“He was always so joyous and silly and warm,” she said. “Such a gift to our community.”

Two Jewish boys wearing kippahs assaulted in Toronto suburb Two Jewish boys wearing kippahs were assaulted in a Toronto suburb while they were walking on Shabbat.

An 18-year-old male approached the boys, said to be 14, from behind as they walked in Thornhill, which has a large Jewish population. The assailant began swearing at the boys and then punched one of them in the face before fleeing, B’nai Brith Canada said in a statement issued Sunday, a day after the incident.

The victims could not record the incident: It was Shabbat and they are observant and do not carry cellphones.

The boy hit in the face later went to an emergency room for treatment of his injuries.

The York Regional Police Hate Crimes Unit is investigating, according to B’nai Brith.

“This is an extremely serious incident, and we trust that law enforcement will give it the attention that it deserves,” said Michael Mostyn, chief executive officer of B’nai Brith Canada. “It is inconceivable that Jewish families will be afraid to send their children to the park, in a heavily Jewish neighborhood, on the Jewish Sabbath.” PJC

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“ELDER LAW NEWS – A POTPOURRI” This is one in a series of articles about Elder Law by Michael H. Marks., Esq. Michael H. Marks is an elder law attorney with offices in Squirrel Hill and Monroeville.

Send questions to michael@marks-law.com or visit www.marks-law.com.

Pa Inheritance Tax Relief For Young Inheritors In Pennsylvania, any inheritance left to a child is currently taxed at 4.5% percent of the net value of the assets, after the bills are paid. Beginning in 2020, an inheritance left to a child d age 21 or younger from a parent or stepparent will be free of Pennsylvania inheritance tax (rate of 0%). The 4.5% percent rate will still apply to any inheritance to any other direct descendent, your spouse’s descendants or the spouse of such a descendant.

Other inheritance tax rates are unchanged (siblings - 12%; other relative or friend - 15%. ) Average Nursing Care Cost The statewide average cost of nursing home care this fiscal year is $10,420 per month, or more than $125,000 per year.

In-Hospital Observation Status Sometimes a patient staying overnight in the hospital is not officially admitted, but instead is classified as being on “observation status.” Patients don’t often don’t know that they are not officially admitted, even though the hospital is required to notify them. This technical distinction makes a big difference in the cost that you pay. If you’re not officially admitted to the hospital, you will be billed for Medicare part B outpatient cost-sharing that would otherwise be paid by your part A hospital

coverage. In addition, if you are then discharged to a nursing home, Medicare will not pay the nursing home coverage that may have been available if you were officially admitted. Despite official recommendations that in-hospital observation status should not last longer than 24 to 48 hours, hospitals continue to classify patients this way more often and for even longer stays, costing such patients thousands of dollars. If you are staying overnight in the hospital, be sure to ask and clarify whether you are officially admitted or not (and if you are not officially admitted, it may be important to appeal that determination).

for disabled veterans, even with disability not penalty until now. from injuries sustained while in service, and Financial Costs Of Caregiving for the widows of deceased qualifying veterans.

Benefits were available to applicants who lack A new federal government study estimates assets and income to pay for their own care. In that in recent years one in 10 Americans cared addition to lengthy bureaucratic delays in the for a parent or spouse. Spousal caregivers in application process, one problem with these preretirement years ages 59 to 66 also had reduced benefits has been lack of predictability as to who income and retirement assets (i.e. lower pay and will qualify financially. Eligibility assessment smaller IRAs) compared to non-caregivers. . 68% was subjective and inconsistent. New rules now of working caregivers had negative effects on set forth a “bright line test” or clear, objective, their employment. By the year 2050, the number numerical standard for asset eligibility, and of Americans over age 65 will almost double. For clarify other eligibility issues. However, there is a 65-year-old now, male life expectancy is about also now for the first time a penalty for those 18 years, and for females almost 21 years.

So-Called “Secure Act” Threatens Ira Values who make gifts (or “transfers without adequate At Marks Elder Law, we help people every day A bill is proceeding through Congress that will consideration”) within a three years look-back with issues like these. I invite your questions and increase taxes on your IRA when inherited by your period prior to applying for VA benefits. There feedback. Please let me know how I can help you children or others. The mis-named “Secure Act” was no prohibition against gifting and no gifting and your family. does have some tax breaks for taxpayers for their own IRAs and other qualified retirement plan accounts. However much more burdensome tax increases will apply to IRAs inherited from a deceased owner. Family members inheriting With the increasing costs of long-term IRAs, 401(k)s, etc. will pay taxes much, much care, having the help of a legal professional sooner under similar bills in both the House and when planning for your family’s future can Senate, and the value of your hard-earned IRA help you make better decisions that can savings will be significantly reduced when it’s left behind by you to others. This change upsets result in keeping more of your money. decades of financial and estate planning advice www.marks-law.com We help families understand the strategies, for IRA owners and will increase taxes for your the benefits, and risks involved with children.

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elder law, disability and estate planning.

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AUGUST 9, 2019 9

Headlines What is 8chan, the site linked to shooters in Christchurch, Poway and El Paso?

— NATIONAL —

By Josefin Dolsten | JTA

N

ot long after news that a shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, left at least 22 people dead, reports started swirling that the suspect had posted a manifesto on 8chan, an online forum.

Law enforcement officials are investigating a document posted there that is believed to be authored by the suspect. The text contains racist rhetoric, blaming immigrants for taking away jobs from Americans. It was uploaded fewer than 20 minutes before the shooting, according to CNN. This isn’t the first time 8chan has been tied to a mass shooter this year. Suspects in attacks on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, and a synagogue in Poway, California, also are believed to have posted hateful manifestos on the site.

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency spoke to experts on extremism to learn more about 8chan and why it became a venue for hate.

What is 8chan?

8chan is an online messaging forum created in 2014 by a computer programmer to protest

p 8chan was founded by a computer programmer in response to what he saw as increased censorship on the messaging board 4chan.

Photo courtesy of Getty Images/JTA Montage

censorship on another messaging board called 4chan. The programmer, Fredrick Brennan, was upset that 4chan banned discussions of Gamergate, a campaign to harass several women in the video gaming industry.

Unlike other online forums, such as Reddit, 8chan lacks moderation measures meant to curb hateful content. It is rife with racism, misogyny and anti-Semitism posted by users.

LEGAL NOTICE

Name: JCC Legal Notice Width: 5.0415 in Depth: 6.75 in th The Jewish Color: BlackCommunity Center of Greater Pittsburgh will hold its 124 Ad Number: – to install the Board of Directors for the Term 2019-2020 on Annual Meeting

Monday, September 9, 2019 at 6:15 pm in the JCC’s Alex and Leona Robinson Building at 5738 Darlington Road, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15217.

The following Officers and Directors will be nominated: • William S. Goodman – Chair of the Board • Merris Groff – Treasurer • Carole S. Katz – Vice Chair • Scott E. Seewald – Assistant Treasurer • Samuel W. Braver – Vice Chair • Hilary Tyson – Secretary • Joshua M. Farber – Vice Chair • Jeffrey Galak – Assistant Secretary • Lori B. Shure – Vice Chair • James S. Ruttenberg, Immediate Past Chair Brian Schreiber, President & CEO

Board members eligible for a one-year term: • David Knoll • Stefani Pashman • Steven Recht

• Sharon Werner • Derrick Wilson

Board members eligible for a first three-year term:

• Ina K. Gumberg

• Neil DiBiase

• Uriel Marcovitz

Board members eligible for a second three-year term: • Sherree Goldstein

• Deborah F. Graver

Board members whose terms continue: • Elyse Eichner • Jake Goodman • William H. Isler • Samantha Klein • Douglas W. Kress

• Ty Morse • Louis B. Plung • Rita Rabin • Todd E. Reidbord • Eric R. Smiga

The meeting will consider such business items as are properly brought before it.

Election of Officers and Directors of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh will be proposed for passage.

10 AUGUST 9, 2019

The site has a ban on illegal content but it is not closely enforced. Child pornography has been shared frequently on the site.

How does 8chan compare to other sites?

Keegan Hankes, a research analyst at the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project, calls the site “one of the most violent

and racist online spaces that we track.”

“What’s actually really dangerous about this forum is not just that all of these hateful ideologies are present, but that they are all interwoven together and they’re part of the same toxic community at once,” Hankes told JTA. There are many sites that are home to hateful rhetoric, including comparatively mainstream sites such as Reddit, or more fringe forums such as 4chan and Gab. Hankes said 8chan has created a community that “celebrates mass casualty violence.”

“This is not an accident that we’ve seen many manifestos posted to the site in the immediate moments before a mass casualty,” he said.

Oren Segal, the director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism, said few conversations on the site do not contain bigotry.

“You can be sure that if somebody starts a thread about fluffy bunnies, it will be only a couple of posts before that devolves into hate as well,” he said.

Why do attackers post on 8chan?

What makes the site so dangerous is that potential attackers aren’t just looking to Please see 8chan, page 15

This week in Israeli history cooperative group of small landholders led to the moshav movement, dies of a hemorrhage in Jerusalem at age 57. His 1919 program for labor unity became the basis for the Mapai party, created in 1930.

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

Aug. 9, 1982 — Terrorists attack Jewish deli in Paris

Aug. 13, 1995 — Aharon Barak named head of high court

Aug. 10, 1920 — Treaty dissolves Ottoman Empire

Aug. 14, 1944 — U.S. rejects bombing death camps

Two Palestinian terrorists, believed to be part of the Abu Nidal Organization, attack a Jewish deli in Paris, Chez Jo Goldenberg, with grenades and machine guns. Six people are killed, and 22 others are wounded.

The World War I victors and the Ottoman Empire sign the Treaty of Sevres to break up the empire. The treaty incorporates the Balfour Declaration’s language calling for “a national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine.

Aug. 11, 1929 — Jewish Agency globalizes representation

The 16th Zionist Congress creates a broadly representative Jewish Agency for Palestine, including non-Zionists, on a vote of 231-4 with four abstentions.

Aug. 12, 1944 — Berl Katznelson dies

Labor Zionist leader Berl Katznelson, whose idea of a

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Aharon Barak, a Supreme Court justice since 1978, is appointed to serve as the court’s president, a position he holds until 2006. As Israel’s chief justice, he expands the court’s power.

U.S. Assistant War Secretary John J. McCloy writes a letter to a World Jewish Congress leader to announce that the U.S. military will not bomb Nazi death camps and their infrastructure.

Aug. 15, 2005 — Gaza evacuation begins

Soldiers and police deliver evacuation orders to Gaza Strip settlers, giving them 48 hours to evacuate their homes under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan for Israeli disengagement from Gaza. PJC

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AUGUST 9, 2019 11

Opinion Domestic terrorism should be called out — EDITORIAL —

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ast weekend’s shootings in El Paso and in Dayton left us reeling again.

While the motive of the shooter in Dayton remains unclear, the suspect in the El Paso case seems to have been driven to kill by white supremacist ideology. Shortly before he entered the Walmart on the southern border, he posted a manifesto against the “Hispanic invasion of Texas” to the fringe social network 8chan.

We’ve seen this horror movie played out too many times before, including last Oct. 27, when an anti-Semitic murderer posted a hate creed online before heading into the Tree of Life synagogue.

We were heartened, though, when federal authorities announced on Sunday that they are treating the El Paso mass shooting as a case of domestic terrorism. By doing so, the government has taken an important step in tamping down on the white supremacist hate groups that essentially have formed an online cabal at least as dangerous to our society as foreign terrorist groups.

A 2017 report by the Government Accountability Office found that 73 percent of extremist murders since 9/11 came from far-right groups, with the remaining 27 percent from radical Islamic extremism.

The FBI defines domestic terrorism as

acts committed by people who are linked to or inspired by “U.S.-based movements that espouse extremist ideologies of a political, religious, social, racial, or environmental nature.”

The El Paso shooter, the Poway shooter and the Tree of Life shooter — who together have killed a total of 34 innocent people in the last ten months — were not lone wolves. They were each part of virtual communities that work to radicalize, incite, and celebrate the murderers of minorities.

Although no law has been enacted that specifically addresses domestic terrorism — a bill has been introduced in Congress, but not yet passed — by calling out and treating an act as domestic terrorism, the federal government may prosecute it as a hate crime if the state in which the violence occurred has no hate crime law.

In addition to the benefits to prosecution, we see much merit in being unambiguous in our words in naming these acts of domestic terrorism for what they are.

“Calling it domestic terrorism, while it doesn’t change the reality of the lives lost or the individuals injured, symbolically it is an important one,” Michael Masters, the director of the Secure Communities Network, which coordinates security for Jewish institutions, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “Being able to identify individuals as domestic terrorists and investigate them through that lens is important in recognizing a problem and seeking to address it.”

President Barack Obama took much

p President Donald Trump makes remarks about the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton at the White House as Vice President Mike Pence looks on, Aug. 5, 2019.

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

criticism from political opponents for failing to use the term “Islamic terrorism” in relation to ISIL and al Qaeda while he was president. Following the 2016 attack at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando which left 49 people dead at the hands of a murderer who pledged allegiance to ISIL, Donald Trump, in an interview, said that failing to

say “radical Islamic terror” was hindering efforts to fight terror.

“The first thing you need is a president that will mention the problem. And he won’t even mention what the problem is,” Trump said of Obama. “Unless you’re going to say that, you’re never going to solve it.”

We agree. PJC

We need a comprehensive strategy for fighting anti-Semitism Guest Columnist Michael Fromm

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grew up in Reading, Pennsylvania, in the late 1960s and early 1970s when it was not easy to be Jewish in a small town. Anti-Semitic bullying was an everyday reality for many Jewish kids, including me. But it was in this environment that I gained insights into how to overcome hostility. I learned how to stand up for myself and, for better or worse, to be a Jew in a non-Jewish world. I learned how to interact with people from diverse backgrounds with different world views, and to make friends for myself and the Jewish people. I was doing intergroup relations and didn’t even know it.

My experiences motivated me to get involved in interfaith work. Over the years, I have learned that while reacting to anti-Semitism in crisis mode is sometimes necessary, being proactive in educating the public on Jewish values and building alliances with key segments of society is vital to long-term Jewish security.

This strategy was recently underscored in a report issued by the Reut Institute and a Jewish Federation of North America/Jewish Council for Public Affairs Task Force that pointed to increased community relations efforts as a primary approach to combat anti-Semitism.

But not all Jewish communities, particularly

12 AUGUST 9, 2019

in smaller locales, are equipped to effectively do this work. When people are unfamiliar with nuanced anti-Semitism, they often don’t recognize it when they see it. How can you be outraged at charges of “dual loyalty” if you’ve never heard the term before? How can you be appalled at subtle and not-so-subtle efforts to delegitimize Israel if you can’t see why calls for dismantling the Jewish state are fundamentally anti-Semitic?

In the early 1990s, when many in the Jewish world were seeing a decline in anti-Semitism, some of us were less sanguine. There was still ignorance, and no small measure of enmity, simmering beneath the surface. Today we are seeing these prejudices re-emerging on both ends of the political spectrum, and the hostile voices on the extremes are getting stronger, not weaker.

The Jewish community’s current response to anti-Semitism — mostly calling upon political leaders to condemn it — is not nearly enough and we are not getting traction. In order to address bigotry, the Jewish community needs a wide-ranging strategy for Jews and non-Jews alike on how to detect and confront anti-Semitism.

Recently, several national organizations have brought together government and Jewish leaders to discuss the rise in anti-Semitism. While these efforts are critical, we must also ensure that those working at the local level in coalition with the non-Jewish community have the resources, training and support they need to implement

methodologies that can work.

JCPA, a convener of 125 Jewish Community Relations Councils and 17 national advocacy agencies, was created to deter anti-Semitism through intergroup relations. Support of JCPA’s robust grassroots network should be part of any comprehensive strategy adopted by the organized Jewish community in the United States. This strategy would require investment in five major areas: • Train Jews, particularly younger ones, on how to engage with non-Jews in discussing cultural traditions and religious observances.

The Student-to-Student program, first launched in St. Louis and now expanded to Washington, D.C., and Indianapolis, trains Jewish teens to educate non-Jewish teens with the aim of overcoming stereotyping and intolerance. Programs like this need to be scaled across the country.

• Energize our commitment to building alliances with ethnic groups that possess increasing demographic and political power in every community. There are 54 million Hispanics in America. Jewish organizations, to the degree they are trying at all, have barely scratched the surface in getting to know Latino leaders nationally and locally.

• Engage segments of society that are “at risk” for anti-Semitism on both political extremes. On the left, instead of trying to avoid legitimizing public figures whose views we don’t like, we must, as the Reut Institute urges, “fight intersectionality with

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intersectionality.” Jews must engage in progressive circles, embrace the causes of the day and ensure we have a seat at the table. At the same time, we must not fear talking to the right, many of whom do not have a firm understanding of Jews and Jewish issues.

• Prepare the next generation of advocates by providing more accessible, nuanced education on Israel. As initiatives to delegitimize Israel (i.e., BDS) gain momentum, we must respond with programming that leverages national resources to enhance local efforts.

• Develop social media toolkits for local communities to be effective communicators on issues important to the Jewish people.

Use technology to bring people together vs. driving people apart. The Jewish community must strive to find common ground and consistency in its messaging.

In today’s climate, local communities cannot be left to their own devices to combat anti-Semitism. For the organized Jewish community, an effective strategy for delivering the necessary tools calls for a fundamental re-evaluation of our national priorities, a serious dedication of capital and a coordinated plan that leverages our collective resources to ensure the well-being of the Jewish people. It’s time that we take it to the next level. PJC Michael Fromm is chair of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and lives in New York City and Reading. This article first appeared in New York Jewish Week.

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Opinion The secret of Chabad’s success Guest Columnist Yisroel Altein

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n commemoration of the Rebbe’s 25th yartzeit, many articles have been written about the success of Chabad in carrying on the Rebbe’s vision.

Many are trying to understand the secret to Chabad’s success. Every once in a while, I read about a rabbi or organization that proclaims we need to learn from Chabad how to be successful in reaching Jews from all walks of life. At times, they include specific suggestions. We need to be more welcoming. We need to be more joyous. We need to change our model and offer free programming. We need to learn how to market Judaism.

These are all good points. I may be biased, but I agree, Chabad is pretty good at all the above.

However, those are not the key ingredients to Chabad’s success. A friend of mine who was a marketer for a large food company once told me, “My job is to get you to pick up the can the first time; quality control is responsible for getting you to pick up the can the second time.” The typical remarks about Chabad’s success, listed above, are what may get people into our doors the first time, but what helps us get them in after that?

Here is the good news: The Rebbe often proclaimed that he did not copyright his ideas.

In fact, he wished that others would adopt and implement them, as well! So I want to share what I learned from the Rebbe and what I believe to be some of the essential ingredients that together create the success of Chabad.

First and foremost, the Rebbe taught us how to view a fellow person. Every person possesses a soul, “a part of G-d.” This is who they are, and this is how they are to be treated. It is not easy to always see through the façade of the body, past people’s actions, but we need to always remember that within each one of us there is a unique soul and that is who we truly are. We see in others what’s

most important to us about ourselves. The more we are in touch with our own soul, the more we are able to see the soul in another.

When we view every person as a soul, we can have unconditional love for them.

The next important concept is the value of a mitzvah. Every time a person does a mitzvah, be it putting on tefillin or lighting Shabbat candles or any other of the 613 commandments, it has an impact on the person and on the world that is infinite. That explains why the Rebbe encouraged people to stand on the streets and help Jewish men put on tefillin and offer the women Shabbat candles. Many people questioned the benefit of asking a person to put on tefillin as a one-time thing, but the Rebbe argued that one infinite mitzvah performed by one infinite soul is of tremendous value.

People crave authenticity. The Rebbe taught that one must never compromise on Torah and mitzvot. I may not be ready to fulfill every mitzvah today — in fact, it is not a good idea to start with everything at once, the chances of that lasting are slim — but that does not mean I have to compromise on what is the truth.

So while the Chabad House is run in accordance to halacha, the participants, including the rabbis and rebbetzins, are all on a personal journey to fulfill more and more every day.

When one realizes that everyone has a special soul, every mitzvah has infinite value, and every person is on their personal journey, this leads to an attitude of not being judgmental of others.

Chabad is an abbreviation for Chachmah, Binah and Daat — wisdom, understanding and knowledge. These ideas are expounded upon in Chabad teachings in depth. When learning Chassidus, one gains deep appreciation for these ideas, and they bring a sense of joy and life to Torah and mitzvot.

The Rebbe’s secret to success? Recognizing the value of every Jew and of every mitzvah, and refusing to compromise on either of them. PJC Rabbi Yisroel Altein is co-director of Chabad of Squirrel Hill.

— LETTERS — Pollution blues Regarding the column by Howard Rieger that appeared in the July 26, 2019, issue of the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle (“Pittsburgh’s dirty little secret”): People in Pittsburgh listen to the radio, watch the television news and read the newspaper, so people are aware of the air quality. Air quality is not a secret. Pittsburgh is one of the most livable cities in the country based on various criteria, one of which is not air quality.

By writing a column in the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, does Rieger think that suddenly readers will be motivated to be pollution control activists? Does he think that young people will choose to speak out about pollution control for a bar or bat mitzvah project?

U.S. Steel Corp. may be the worst offender of pollution control in Allegheny County. It does seem that large manufacturing corporations all over the world do try to get away with what they can and for as long a period as they can. One reason is that protecting the environment costs money. Pollution control equipment is expensive. A large corporation such as U.S. Steel is constantly having to spend money. Pollution control equipment is probably put on the back burner or when they are forced to improve their relationship with the environment then they will do what is necessary.

Perhaps when they prepare to do something about air quality another crisis may spring up. Please remember United States Steel Corporation has a dozen or more locations. At any given time, their other locations outside of Pittsburgh have various issues to be solved.

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Silence is assent Guest Columnist Mark Asher Goodman

A

few years ago, the word “civility” was all the rage. You read about its importance in op-eds. You heard about it on television. You saw rabbis giving sermons about it all the time.

You hear about it a lot less these days.

The past few weeks, the president of the United States has said things and been present at rallies that have been widely interpreted by many as racist. From criticisms of American cities where the residents are predominantly black, to chants of “send them back!” about four female legislators who are American citizens, we have seen a coarseness and a vituperative hate in our public discourse the likes of which I personally have never witnessed.

If civility was on life support for the past few years, recent weeks in America may have killed it altogether.

It’s not that civility, the idea, is dead. In principle, acting toward others with a sense of openmindedness and a belief in their good intentions remains an important value, both for us as Americans and as a Jews. It is in Pirkei Avot that we are taught to “judge everyone with the benefit of the doubt.” In a famous story about Hillel and Shammai, we learn that they argued for three years, but that when the House of Hillel won, it was only because they were magnanimous and kindhearted, and taught both sides of the argument wherever they went.

Civility still exists, and G-d-willing, there should soon come a time for it to return to the public sphere.

But not now.

That’s because there is a different operating principle that the Jewish community has now confronted due to the rough language of our current moment. That principle is: Silence is assent. That value also comes from the Talmud. According to

Jewish law, for testimony to be valid, there must be two witnesses that will testify to it. When there are two witnesses to an act, and the first makes a statement in regard to the act, but the second remains silent, the court follows the legal concept that “shtika k’hoda’ah dumia” — silence is assent. By remaining silent, it is assumed that we agree with everything that is going on, and everything that is said.

There are those that Judaism regards as unfitting to testify as witnesses. Among the category of individuals unfit for testimony are slaves, minors and imbeciles. All are believed to lack the intelligence or the selfagency to make important determinations that might determine an important outcome.

We as Jews — as Americans — are all witnesses to the events of our time, including the outrageous ones and the unjust ones, the offensive ones and the hateful ones. We must not remain silent in the face of racism. We cannot accept the indefinite detention of migrant children in abysmal conditions at our nation’s borders. We must express our outrage against those who attempt to pervert democracy from outside our borders, and those within our borders who blindly allow it to happen, in hopes that the perversion of our election might serve to benefit them.

We each must find our voice, both independently and collectively, to express that we do not approve. If we remain silent, we telegraph to each other and the world that we agree with every act, every word, every immorality, that we witness. We are either witnesses with voices, or we are imbeciles, unfit for testimony, lacking the basic qualities that make us worthy to be free people. To quote Abraham Joshua Heschel, “We must declare a state of moral emergency. The hour calls for high moral grandeur and spiritual audacity.” The time for civility is over. The time for words and actions is now. PJC Rabbi Mark Asher Goodman is the spiritual leader of Brith Sholom Jewish Center in Erie. He lives in Pittsburgh, and teaches in and around the Greater Pittsburgh Jewish community.

U.S. Steel Corp. has only so many thumbs and only so much money to plug all the holes.

The offenders of the quality of the air in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County should make it a priority to do as much as possible to make improvements to air quality.

Mayor Peduto, City Council members, Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald and County Council members should know what is going on in their city and county. They certainly have the stage to speak out and take action.

It seems that the Allegheny County Health Department does the best it can when it comes to handling the challenge to keep various organizations in line concerning violations to air quality.

Karen Coburn Pittsburgh

Female representation

Oh, boo hoo. No females represented in the article featuring four local rabbis writing on shiva call etiquette (Letters, July 19). Did it ever occur to the females writing their complaining letter that most of the dozens of local rabbis were also excluded from the article, lest it become as long as a telephone directory? That not one of the brilliant rabbis of the Kollel were included? And did it not occur to them as well that each of the four rabbis whose pieces were featured wrote something good, meaningful and helpful? That last fact is all that matters. The article was a very solid one and the author should be commended.

Diana Connan Forgy Pittsburgh

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AUGUST 9, 2019 13

Headlines TOL: Continued from page 1

sessions, Rothschild solicits feedback on the economic, social and physical impact of the events of Oct. 27.

So far, there have been seven sessions, with 15 to 20 people at each one. Groups have been convened of young adults, and members of TOL*OLS’s tenants New Light Congregation and Congregation Dor Hadash. A recent session for families of victims and survivors of the massacre drew about 40 people.

“It’s been very enlightening,” said Eisenberg. “You really see how emotion drives physical design. You look at the practicalities of it, what people were really seeing in our space prior to the event, what they saw as its shortcomings, how their community was affected by the attack and by being displaced from the Tree of Life building.”

People write down their thoughts on post-it notes that are posted on a board, and then compiled into a manuscript by Rothschild’s team.

“We have transcribed all these thoughts and ideas into a manuscript, completely anonymous, and sorted into those three categories [economic, social and physical], over 30 pages long,” said Rothschild, who has led these sorts of listening sessions in other neighborhoods and for other projects. “It becomes the programming information for future vision as described by the people who have participated.”

After people write down their thoughts, they have the option of reading them to the group.

Shootings: Continued from page 1

and Dayton. This epidemic of senseless acts of violence, prejudice and terror must end.”

On Tuesday evening, dozens of people planned to gather at Beth Shalom to write letters to the families of victims of the shootings in El Paso, Dayton and Gilroy, California. The event was organized by Yael Perlman, daughter of Rabbi Jonathan Perlman of New Light Congregation, and soon to be a freshman at Brandeis University.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Community Relations Council wrote it was “devastated and outraged by the mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, this weekend” in a statement issued Sunday.

“Our community knows all too well what it is like to be targeted by hateful people with guns, and we are far from alone,” the CRC statement reads. “The attack on a bar in Dayton marks the 251st mass shooting in the United States this year. Enough is enough.”

The CRC noted that the Jewish Federations of North America and Secure Community Network “have reached out to the communities affected in order to offer assistance.

We are saddened by these senseless acts of violence, but remain committed to our work to minimize the forces of hatred, racism, anti-Semitism, and xenophobia. May the victims’ memories forever be a blessing.”

Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto took to Twitter Sunday morning to condemn the attacks: “Woke up this AM to yet another mass shooting. Called my friend, Dayton 14 AUGUST 9, 2019

One benefit of the process, Rothschild said, is that “people feel their voices are heard, and you are getting specific ideas from people who will be using the spaces we create. The manuscript has been written by the people who have been affected by this trauma, so it’s not an expert swooping in and saying, ‘I think this is what should happen.’”

Although the opinions gathered differ in detail, “you can begin to see how synergy is created by combining concepts that are not identical but can build on each other,” he added. “It’s not a uniform consensus that forms, but it’s bringing a fuzzy picture into focus.”

There have been a range of ideas communicated by the participants of the sessions.

“It runs the gamut from leveling the building and starting anew to putting it up the way it was, just fix it and move on,” Eisenberg said. “At this point anything is on the table.”

Some participants have suggested maintaining the synagogue’s large, main sanctuary, but taking down the central section of the building “because the victims were in that part of the building, and that part of the building is the oldest, so it’s getting to the end of its useful life anyway,” Eisenberg explained. “And then people want to remove the psychological reminders of the incident, so maybe take down the pavilion area as well.”

Rothschild believes the listening sessions have been “cathartic” for those who have attended.

“Some of these ideas have been inside people’s heads and either they have not been

able to share them, but certainly they have not been able to hear them from others,” he said. “A lot of this isn’t about content, it’s about processing trauma.”

Eisenberg hopes to have at least one more listening session to which he will invite his entire congregation.

Tree of Life’s responsibility to the wider community is also part of the discussion, as the building may serve, at least in part, as a memorial and a place for visitors to Pittsburgh to pay their respects. To that end, the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh is exploring the possibility of relocating to the Tree of Life property as well.

“Moving to Tree of Life is a great idea, and we’d be foolish not to explore where that could go,” said Lauren Bairnsfather, director of the Holocaust Center. “It has a natural and powerful connection — the history of the worst anti-Semitic event with the most recent and worst in U.S. history. The potential to honor the victims of October 27 with a commitment to education, community and positive action appeals to us on many levels…. Over the past nine months, our programs have reached more than 10,000 individuals. A larger public space in a location of such significance would allow us to have an even greater impact across the region.”

These last nine months have also found Eisenberg working with insurance adjusters, and organizing the insurers’ required walkthroughs with contractors to determine the cost of repairs to restore the building to its condition prior to the massacre.

In addition to the anticipated insurance funds, the congregation has received donations through the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Victims of Terror Fund, as well as donations made directly to TOL*OLS. Whether additional fundraising will have to be undertaken in order to rebuild is not yet known, because the scope of the project remains undetermined.

While congregational leaders had hoped to have a firm plan in place for rebuilding by the first anniversary of the attack, “now, it’s going to be a vaguer description of what it will be,” Eisenberg said. “But we are trying to ride a momentum of sentiment to make sure that things are done right up at the corner, and we don’t want to squander the opportunity and we don’t want it to go too long.”

Rothschild’s firm planned the 1995 renovation of the Tree of Life building. Neither it nor any other architectural firm has yet been contracted to work on the building’s design going forward.

In the meantime, TOL*OLS leadership is “gung ho, we are moving ahead with this,” Eisenberg said.

“I’d like to see us get past this ‘Tree of Life is all about the tragedy,’” he continued.

“There is still a vital community, and there are people who want to be together. We want to build something grand and big and make a model and show that we are strong and that we came back bigger and better than ever.

And that’s what we are looking to do.” PJC

Mayor @nanwhaley to offer support & advice gained from our horrific experience.

Incredible that states & federal government continue to ignore this epidemic. Doing nothing will not solve the problem.”

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf called for banning assault weapons and instituting stricter background checks in a tweet on Sunday, as well as targeting white nationalism and investing in mental health care.

“We cannot accept this violence as normal,” he wrote. “We must act.”

Pennsylvania Sens. Bob Casey and Pat Toomey also called for decisive action in the wake of the attacks.

“President Trump should address the nation to condemn white nationalism and pledge an all of government effort to confront white nationalist terrorism,” Casey wrote in a statement. “For years, Congressional Republicans have blocked action on measures to reduce gun violence and they must be held accountable. It’s time for Senator McConnell and Congressional Republicans to confront gun violence or get out of the way.”

Toomey wrote in a statement that we should “do more to keep guns out of the hands of psychopaths.”

While acknowledging that “no law will end mass shootings entirely,” Toomey encouraged Congress to work toward keeping communities safer “by passing bipartisan proposals such as my legislation with Senator Joe Manchin to expand background checks to all commercial firearm sales. I also agree with Senator Lindsey Graham that we should pass a bipartisan ‘red flag’ measure that enables families and law enforcement to

obtain a court order to keep guns away from dangerous individuals.”

The alleged El Paso shooter is in police custody and has been identified as Patrick Crusius. He is believed to have posted a manifesto on 8chan, a conspiracy theory message board, in which he wrote disparagingly about Hispanic immigration to the U.S and in support of the manifesto and actions of Chirstchurch mosque shooter Brenton Tarrant.

Later on Sunday, Crusius was charged with capital murder, El Paso County District Attorney Jaime Esparza said. Under Texas law, he could face the death penalty. The shooting is being investigated as domestic terrorism and a hate crime, CNN reported.

If the manifesto is proved to have been authored by Crusius, the El Paso massacre would be “the third deadliest act of violence by a domestic extremist in over 50 years and the second deadliest act of violence by a rightwing extremist in the same span, second only to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing,” according to the Anti-Defamation League .

The Dayton shooter, who was killed by police less than a minute after the start of the shooting, was identified as Connor Betts, 24, of Bellbrook, Ohio. Wearing body armor and a face mask, he used a .223-caliber high-capacity magazine rifle in the attack, and had extra magazines for the rifle. One of the victims of his attack was his sister, Megan Betts, 22, who had arrived at the entertainment area in a car with her brother and a friend.

Betts was once kicked out of his high school because he had made a list of girls he wanted to kill, according to the Dayton Daily News.

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union

for Reform Judaism, was in El Paso last week with hundreds of faith leaders to protest the treatment of asylum seekers on the border with Mexico. “Now our hearts turn again to El Paso, in the face of this slaughter of innocents by a gunman who authorities say was inspired by anti-immigrant rhetoric,” he said in a statement. “It is not enough for elected officials to muster their ‘thoughts and prayers.’ Like millions of Americans I’m sick of the pathetic excuses offered by too many lawmakers for not passing strong and effective common sense gun laws.”

Jacobs also called on Trump to “stop demonizing asylum seekers and immigrants, which serves to embolden those like today’s shooter.”

The Rabbinical Assembly, the international association for Conservative/Masorti rabbis, also called for new gun laws in a statement issued on Sunday. “We pray for their families, and for refuah sheleimah, full and complete healing for the many who are wounded. We must not wait another moment to take action to improve U.S. gun laws,” the statement said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted his condolences: “In the past 24 hours, we have witnessed two murderous attacks in Texas and Ohio. On behalf of all government ministers and all citizens of Israel, I send condolences to the bereaved families, best wishes for recovery to the injured, and solidarity with the American people,” he said in the tweet. PJC

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

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

Adam Reinherz contributed to this report.

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Headlines Film: Continued from page 6

1995 book, “The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg.” Paul Rudd later played Berg in a 2018 feature film adaptation of Dawidoff ’s work.

“We as Americans Jews are very much a part of the fabric of America, and our heroes are also part of baseball history,” said Kempner, who also made the film “The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg.” Her documentaries, she said, always serve a “dual purpose”: to chronicle singular American lives and to inspire others. She herself has been inspired by film, especially classic war

8chan: Continued from page 10

share their thoughts with like-minded people. They also aim to inspire others to commit violence, experts say.

“The fact that 8chan is used as a place to disseminate these hateful explanations for violence is because those shooters know and hope that the users will copycat,” Segal said.

Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters for America, a liberal watchdog that monitors conservative media, said that recent rhetoric in conservative media outlets has further emboldened users.

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movies; “The Bridge on the River Kwai” and “Casablanca” are among her favorites.

She is not a fan of the violence she sees in today’s films.

“I think what Hollywood has developed is this whole genre of shooting and killing to get things done. To me, it doesn’t have to be a lot of gun fighting and violence to present heroes.

To me, my heroes are more intellectual to begin with,” said Kempner. Whether it is the actions demonstrated in the Vilna Ghetto, the efforts of the partisans during the Holocaust or Berg’s “careful sleuthing” to determine the locations of foreign nuclear scientists and how best to stymie their work, “I think my heroes are very different.”

Whether featuring Gertrude Berg, who

“When Tucker Carlson gets up there and warns about invasions and ‘great replacement,’ and that immigrants are going to make us dirtier, they see a lot of that stuff as a wink and a nod — as a demonstration that these major influencers across the sector are trying to encourage them to keep at their work,” he said.

The “great replacement” is a widespread conspiracy theory that the white race faces a genocide due to immigration by people of color and Muslims.

What actions are being taken to stop hate on 8chan?

On Monday, the CEO of Cloudflare, an internet services provider, announced that

p Moe Berg on assignment in South America

Photo courtesy of Linda McCarthy

won the first Emmy Award for Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, or Julius Rosenwald, a Chicago philanthropist who partnered with Booker T. Washington to build schools in segregated black communities in the early

it was terminating its services to 8chan.

The CEO, Matthew Prince, said the decision was motivated by the El Paso and Pittsburgh attacks. But he also said he did not think Cloudflare’s decision would have a significant impact.

“While removing 8chan from our network takes heat off of us, it does nothing to address why hateful sites fester online. It does nothing to address why mass shootings occur,” he said.

Following Cloudflare’s decision, 8chan found a replacement provider, Voxility, but that company pulled its services shortly after.

Without a provider, 8chan goes dark.

Brennan, 8chan’s founder, has even called for it to be shut down.

1900s, Kempner tries to convey personal narratives in ways that resonate with an audience. With her new film, she sheds light on Moe Berg’s peculiarities. Even though his athletic career was largely belittled by baseball statisticians, Berg knew his worth.

“Maybe I’m not in the Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame like so many of my baseball buddies, but I’m happy I had the chance to play pro ball and am especially proud of my contributions to my country,” he said in 1972, according to the CIA. “Perhaps I could not hit like Babe Ruth, but I spoke more languages than he did.” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

“It’s a complete negative to everybody except the users that are there,” Brennan, who no longer has control of the site, told The New York Times. “And you know what? It’s a negative to them, too. They just don’t realize it.”

Some argue that shutting down sites like 8chan makes it harder for law enforcement to monitor the extremists who use them. But Hankes said it is helpful in decreasing hate on the internet.

“Any action that limits their impact and limits their reach is valuable,” he said, “because this is so widespread and has been allowed to spread with very very little oversight on the internet for so long.” PJC

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

2

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

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

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

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AUGUST 9, 2019 15

Life & Culture Staff picks: Five most influential books

— BOOKS — PJC staff

W

e’re in the dog days of summer now, limping along from one air conditioned haven to another, trying to escape the humidity and heat, or dashing onto a porch to escape a sudden summer shower. But if August seems like a bit of a slog, here’s something to brighten it up: It’s the perfect time to get in the last of your summer reading and get ready for new fall book releases.

It’s also a good time to while away the hours revisiting some of your old favorites, which is what the Chronicle staff did when we each sat down to come up with a list of five books that have influenced us the most.

Have a list of your own? Share it with us: letters@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

Adam Reinherz, Staff Writer

1. “Paradise Lost,” John Milton. At each read I marvel at Milton’s language and buildout of biblical narrative. Throughout my life nothing else has captivated my interest and so defeated me, while inspiring a belief that although interpretations are restricted by certain “adamantine chains” the battle for understanding is epic.

2. “On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction,” William Zinsser.

After submitting certain pieces I’ll feel as though I’m progressing. I then read this and remember how much I should have rewritten.

3. “52 McGs: The Best Obituaries from Legendary New York Times Reporter Robert McG. Thomas,” Robert McG. Thomas Jr. Try reducing someone’s life (meaning-

16

AUGUST 9, 2019

fully) to 800 words in print. Thomas can.

His puns, clear prose and employment of perfect anecdotes render each entry an unmatched work of art.

4. “Human Being and Citizen: Essays on Virtue, Freedom, and the Common Good,” George Anastaplo. The late author was my teacher. In many ways he taught me how to read. Reviewing his work lets me hear his voice again.

5. “Daniels’ Running Formula: Third Edition,” Jack Daniels. I read this in bed, in the bathroom and everywhere in between.

Daniels is a genius. Thanks for making me faster.

David Rullo, Staff Writer

1. “Howl,” Allen Ginsberg. Ginsberg’s most famous poetry collection is fi lled with verses and lines of varying length. He often spoke of the Greek influence on the rhythm but there’s a strong sense of the type of chants heard in Hebrew prayers as well.

2. “Life After God,” Douglas Coupland.

Where does a generation fi nd meaning when it no longer believes in God? Coupland sought to answer the question through these short stories.

3. “Tender Is the Night,” F. Scott Fitzgerald. A romantic tale of the Lost Generation told in most tragic terms.

4. “On the Road,” Jack Kerouac. The quintessential American road novel.

5. “Man’s Search for Meaning,” Victor Frankl. The drive for purpose and meaning, even in the most horrid of spaces.

Liz Spikol, Acting Editor-in-Chief

1. “The Idiot,” Fyodor Dostoyevsky. I read this at a dark time in my life, when I

was dealing with an illness that prevented me from engaging in everyday life. The book’s protagonist has epilepsy, and is an outcast in Russian society. I related to his alienation and took comfort in his company as we both made our way through worlds that were hostile to us. Books are good friends.

2. “The Genius of Birds,” Jennifer Ackerman. Isn’t is strange how you can see something your whole life and never really see it? I liked birds before I read this book, but learning about their brains, their cognition, their similarities to humans completely altered the way I interact with the world.

Now, even a short walk from the office to the train station is fi lled with wonder, as I watch sparrows living out their tiny, fascinating, largely unexamined lives as we graceless humans clomp on by.

3. “The Soul of an Octopus,” Sy Montgomery. If I’d never thought much about birds, I’d probably thought less about octopus. It turns out, they are remarkable creatures whose consciousness is so complex, they’re more like ultra-sophisticated aliens rather than fellow animals. “Soul” made me realize how much we don’t know about animals — and heavily influenced my decision to become a vegetarian.

4. “Portnoy’s Complaint,” Phillip Roth.

At the time I read this (too young, surely), there weren’t many Jewish people on TV or in popular culture. So what a kick to see the East Coast, vulgar, profane, hilarious, intellectual, deeply feeling, fully Jewish human beings from my own life represented in a book! Portnoy’s also honed my instinct to be authentically myself, warts and all, in my own writing.

5. “Orientalism,” Edward Said. I know,

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I know — Said was controversial, to say the least. But when I went to grad school to study translation theory in the ’90s, the postcolonial curriculum owed everything to his positioning of the West vs. the Other in this book. His thinking helped reshape the academy’s approach to black and brown cultures ages before you could take online quizzes about implicit bias. For me, Said provided a new way of understanding my place in the world — a consciousness I carry even now.

Toby Tabachnick, Senior Staff Writer

1. “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland/ Alice Through the Looking Glass,” Lewis Carroll. I wrote my college thesis on these works, spending more than a year scrutinizing each passage, as well as the often bizarre journals of Charles Dodgson.

2. “The Edible Woman,” Margaret Atwood. This was Atwood’s first novel, and my introduction to the writer who would become my lifelong favorite. Atwood describes the work as proto-feminist, as it was written in 1965, anticipating second wave feminism.

3. “Bird by Bird,” Anne Lamott. Invaluable suggestions and advice on how to write well and what it means to be a writer.

4. “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Harper Lee. I first read this book in seventh grade, and have revisited it many times since then.

It’s the perfect example of how to make a difference in the world through fiction.

5. “The History of Love,” Nicole Krauss. A brilliantly woven plot about love and mortality, the Holocaust, literature, betrayal, forgiveness. As soon as I finished it, I started it again. PJC

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Life & Culture The best foods to bring to shiva — FOOD —

By Arielle Kaplan | The Nosher

Getty Images

J

gathered our top shiva food picks. Keep in mind that the first day of sitting shiva is sure to be loaded with food, so offering food anytime throughout the seven days, or the following weeks and months while the family recovers, is really helpful.

1. Paper goods

OK, so this isn’t food. But, it’s totally necessary. No mourner wants to deal with a sink full of dishes, so providing paper plates, cutlery, cups, and napkins is an easy way to lend a helping hand. Freezer bags are also useful to store the abundance of leftover food following the shiva.

2. Nuts and dried fruit

With the abundance of nut allergies, this can be hit-or-miss.

Contact the point person before buying nuts, but dried fruit is almost always a win. It’s easy, non-perishable, and nutritious. You can also bring fresh fruit, but avoid Edible Arrangements. They’re thoughtful in theory, but in the end, a big waste.

3. Gift cards

It might seem tacky, but a gift card for food delivery services like UberEats, Seamless and Postmates — or even one to a local restaurant — is immensely helpful and super easy on both ends. The family can use it at a time when they will really appreciate the convenience.

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4. Finger foods Cold cuts and sliced bread, mini hotdogs, pierogies (even the frozen kind), falafel and assortments of frozen bites are easy, filling foods with little clean-up. Plus, kids love finger foods and it’s important to consider what the kids will eat during shiva, not just the adults.

5. Challah

Homemade or store-bought, challah will always be a win.

You can drop one off fresh out of the oven on Friday for Shabbat, but any day of the week will do.

Challah can be used for lunch and dinner sandwiches, breakfast french toast, and the leftovers (if there are any!) preserve nicely in the freezer.

6. Chinese food

Jews love Chinese food — it’s one of our more positive stereotypes — and not just on Christmas, so you really can’t go wrong with this one. But don’t take any chances and ask the family’s point person if they’re averse to takeout. If you’re out of town, you can look up a local Chinese restaurant and order delivery for the whole family, tip included.

7. Rice pudding (or something other than bakery cookies)

Give the mourners a break from the regular rugelach and cookie platters and bring them a tub of delicious

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rice pudding, or even some ice cream or a box of gourmet chocolates. Nothing warms the heart like sweets.

8. Assorted baked goods

As long as the mourning family’s house isn’t already filled to the brim with these treats, rugelach and baked goods like babka and banana bread are still a win. Just make sure everything is sliced and ready for noshing to avoid dirtying extra knives.

9. Soup

Hot matzah ball soup in the summer?

Actually, soup is comforting all year round, and it can stand getting heated up multiple times and even being frozen for later.

Whether it’s homemade or store-bought, a little Jewish penicillin will go a long way.

10. Breakfast foods

Lunch, dinner and dessert foods are the first items people think of to bring to a shiva but what about breakfast? It’s (debatably) the most important meal of the day. Drop off vats of yogurt, bagels (ideally after the family has gone through their shiva bagels), lox and even freshly made shakshuka (Trader Joe’s has an excellent starter kit) for the mourners.

Oh, and COFFEE! This is so important.

Give a Starbucks gift card or drop off freshly brewed coffee or espresso. They’ll really appreciate it.

11. Frozen food

Frozen brisket, Shabbat chicken, schnitzel, and the like are super helpful for mourning families who just aren’t ready to start cooking again. Vegetables are also a plus and a necessary break from supremely comforting — and caloric — dishes like lasagna and other kinds of baked pasta dishes.

In the end, no matter what you offer a family in mourning, the gesture will be wholeheartedly appreciated. But taking the extra step to determine what exactly they need speaks volumes. PJC

AUGUST 9, 2019 17

Vladimir Sukhachev/iStockphotos.com

ewish holidays usually follow the same story: They tried to kill us, they failed, now let’s eat. These victories — like the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt, and the miracle of the oil lasting eight full days — are always followed with vast amounts of Jewish delicacies, like brisket and latkes. But food isn’t only used for celebratory occasions — it’s also consumed in times of mourning, like the shiva.

Shiva typically begins promptly after the burial, and while not all mourners sit for the entire shiva period, one thing remains constant: an abundance of food.

You see, the Talmud states that it’s forbidden for mourners to cook for themselves on the first day of mourning. Even if it didn’t, most mourners are not exactly in the perfect state of mind to start whipping up a feast for guests. As such, extended family members and friends often provide tons of food for the mourners, sometimes enough to last the entire seven days.

The most commonplace Jewish foods at a shiva are deli sandwich platters, baked pasta dishes, loads of baked goods and sliced fruit platters. All gestures are appreciated, but if the same food is being presented to the mourning family day after day, it can be overkill, even when it’s something sweet.

So it’s important to check in with the family, or the person helping to coordinate the shiva, to find out what kinds of foods the family needs, and which they’ve already received. And for many, this sometimes means waiting a few weeks after shiva to bring over a hot meal — grief lasts longer than seven days, after all.

Everyone’s palate and dietary needs are different, so there’s no one-dish-fits-all for mourners. How do you determine the best thing to bring? By asking, of course! Or, as to not overwhelm the mourning family, ensure that a point person, or team, has been chosen to keep track of incoming food.

Another option is to use a website like Caring Organizer or Meal Train to organize meals. While Edible Arrangements and dessert platters are popular go-tos, those sitting shiva need more nutritious foods to get them through a difficult time, not to mention foods that don’t spoil easily. Many of the experts we consulted with said to stay away from those Edible bouquets, as adorable as they may be, as well as fruit salads because they go bad quickly and just end up getting dumped in the trash.

If you’re making an effort to lend a helping hand, take the extra step and ensure the edible support you offer is actually helpful.

Store-bought food is just as good as homemade, and remember to take precaution by checking with the point person if the family has any allergies, kosher guidelines or other food restrictions. The last thing you want to do is send a mourner to the hospital because you didn’t know of a serious allergy.

The bottom line? The best way to comfort mourners is with delicious food, so we

Celebrations

Torah

Wedding

Reinterpreting Torah Rabbi Helen Plotkin Parshat Devarim Deuteronomy 1:1 - 3:22

T

Naomi Weisberg Siegel and Eric Cooper are delighted to announce the marriage of their daughter Rebecca to Vinay Bhatt, son of Haresh Bhatt and the late Bhavna Bhatt of Upton, Massachusetts. Rebecca is the granddaughter of the late Rebecca Weisberg Siegel and the late Robert T. Siegel of Williamsburg, Virginia, formerly of Pittsburgh. Rabbi Amy Hertz, formerly of Rodef Shalom Congregation, performed the ceremony in Boylston, Massachusetts, on July 27, the day after the couple were married in a Hindu ceremony at the Sri Lakshmi Temple in Ashland, Massachusetts. PJC

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he medieval Jewish commentator known as Rashi is famous for saying much in few words. With a brief comment on one Hebrew term near the beginning of Deuteronomy, he makes the profound suggestion that the need to reinterpret the Torah for every generation began inside the Torah itself.

Deuteronomy 1:5 begins: “On the other side of the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses began to elucidate this Torah.” Rashi zeroes in on the Hebrew term be’er, which I’ve translated as “elucidate.” His comment: “In 70 languages he explained it for them.”

Seventy languages? Where did that come from? The text doesn’t mention languages.

A literal understanding of Rashi’s comment is so implausible that we can assume it’s not what he meant.

Rashi didn’t make up the idea that Moses was a polyglot but he always insisted that he interpreted the Torah according to the peshat — the unadorned contextual meaning. If he chose to highlight that particular tradition, he must have thought there was some question about the text that this commentary might answer.

One question that piques Rashi’s interest is be’er itself. Only twice in the Bible does Moses elucidate. Usually, it’s “Moses spoke” or “Moses said.” Therefore, Rashi figures, this unusual term must be asking us to tease out extra nuance.

Behind Rashi’s investigation of this single word is a larger question about Deuteronomy: It contains lists of laws that differ from lists found elsewhere in the Bible. Sometimes Deuteronomy has more details or alternate explanations; sometimes the laws are different in substance. Even the Ten Commandments don’t seem to be written in stone.

Scholars explain these differences historically, theorizing that the text was assembled from a variety of law codes developed and recorded by different communities in different eras. Rashi also recognized the differences, but his method was to explain them in the context of the narrative.

Deuteronomy opens in the 11th month of the 40th year after the Exodus from Egypt.

Of the thousands of Israelites who escaped

slavery and heard the voice of God at Mount Sinai, only three —Moses, Joshua and Caleb — remain; the others died in the wilderness.

Their offspring stand looking across the Jordan at the Promised Land. Joshua will lead them from here; God has told Moses that he must die without crossing over. As he sends the younger generation on its way, Moses retells their history, reviewing the laws around which they will build a new society.

In the biblical story, the Israelites are only one generation removed from their parents’ life in Egypt. Maybe they speak Egyptian; maybe Hebrew has been passed down to them.

But they certainly don’t speak 70 languages.

Did Rashi mean that Moses translated the laws so they could be understood by neighboring nations? Or that he prepared a translation for later epochs, when new languages would emerge?

No: Rashi’s comment specifically says that Moses elucidated it in many languages for the very people whom he had led through the desert, whose parents encountered God at Sinai. Rashi seems to believe that their new context requires a new interpretation.

Living in France in the 11th century, Rashi was a rabbi to a community whose context was vastly different from the eras of the ancient Hebrew and Aramaic texts that were their birthright. He made it his life’s work to annotate the Bible and the Talmud to make them accessible to his generation.

Sometimes he literally translates. More often, he writes in Hebrew, bridging the meaning gap between the tradition and the world around him. With his comment on be’er, he claims Moses as his model: Both elucidate the text in a language suited to the context of their listeners.

A millennium after Rashi, it’s not surprising that the texts of the Jewish tradition sometimes seem foreign in our generation. If Moses needed to speak 70 languages to reach his audience, how much more does the Torah require interpretation today? Whatever our language, it is our challenge to find the 70 ways of reading that make the riches of our tradition accessible to us. PJC Rabbi Helen Plotkin teaches biblical Hebrew and classical Hebrew texts at Swarthmore College and is founder/director of Mekom Torah, a Jewish community learning project. She is editor and annotator of In This Hour: Heschel’s Writings in Nazi Germany and London Exile.

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Obituaries BURK: Rabbi Elliot Burk, on Friday, Aug. 2, 2019; beloved husband of Annette Van Zaig; father of Josh (Donna) Van Zaig and Johanna Van Zaig; brother of Lester Burkow, Gail Aricha and Sheila Garber; grandfather of Addison Augustine, Tyler Van Zaig, Jonathan Van Zaig, Christopher Moses, Tom Sailor and the late Carly Jayne Stankorb. Elliot was a humanistic rabbi who extended his services to people of all faiths.

He was a talented artist, creative, loving and wonderful companion and tremendous animal lover. Services and interment PRIVATE. Contributions may be made to the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank and Guide Dogs of America.

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

CHIZECK: Irene Chizeck, of Deerfield Beach, FL, formerly of Stanton Heights passed away on Friday, July 26, 2019. Daughter of the late Ruth and Irving Klein.

Beloved wife of 62 years of Harry Chizeck. Mother of Brian (Mary) and Iris Chizeck. Sister of the late Paul (Ann) Klein and Paula (Rich) Kulczyski.

Proud grandmother of Seth and Kyle. Also survived by many nieces, nephews and cousins. Irene enjoyed family gatherings, traveling, spending time with dear friends.

She also enjoyed her career at Weight Watchers as a public relations coordinator.

Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel,

Inc. Interment Adath Jeshurun Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to American Diabetes Association, P.O. Box 15829, Arlington, VA 22215. schugar.com COHEN: Henry B. Cohen, Ph.D., on Monday, July 29, 2019. Beloved husband for 50 years of Reva Balk Cohen; loving father of Jennie Cohen, Abby (Jonathan) Maeir, Stuart B. Polonsky, Jeffrey (Inna) Cohen and Andrew (Claire) Cohen. Brother of Judith. Favorite brother-in-law of David (Rosalyn), Samuel (Hannelore), Phillip (Bette), Lois (late Leizer) and late Ivan Balk.

Adoring grandfather of Coby and Noa Maeir.

Also survived by many nieces, nephews and friends. Henry was a graduate of Columbia University and was a professor of mathematics at the University of Pittsburgh for 40 years. He was a noted researcher and was especially proud of his research in children’s math education. He created the popular character “Professor Puzzle,” and engaged hundreds of children in Pittsburgh area schools as a guest lecturer who found a creative way to make math fun. Graveside services and Interment were held at Mt. Lebanon Cemetery, Beth El Section. Contributions may be made to Beth El Congregation, 1900 Cochran Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15220. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., schugar.com.

GROB: Maurice Grob, on Wednesday, July 31, 2019. Beloved husband of the late Marilyn Grob. Beloved father of Darryl L. Grob of Pittsburgh, Heather J. (Burton) Cieply of Southbury, CT and Dr. Robert B. (Tracy) Grob of Orefield, PA. Brother of the late Fred Grob,

Pauline Singer and Frances Winland. Loving grandpa of Alexandra Nicole, Jonah Davd, Gabrielle Noa and Megan Emily Grob, Shayna Faye (Jared) Goldberg, Eric Andrew (Shannon) Cieply and Alexander Benjamin Cieply. Greatgrandpa of Emma Cieply and Max Goldberg.

Uncle of Jeffrey Singer. Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. Interment Mt. Lebanon Cemetery. Contributions may be made to Lehigh Valley Hospice, 2024 Lehigh Street, Suite #100, Allentown, PA 18103 or Temple Emanuel, 1250 Bower Hill Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15243. schugar.com HAFFNER: Sylvia Haffner, on Wednesday July 31, 2019. Beloved wife of the late Dr. Hyman Haffner. Beloved mother of Karen Mendlowitz, Richard Haffner and Evan Haffner. Grandmother of Jessica Mendlowitz (William Jackson), Michael Mendlowitz, Andrew Haffner and Dylan Haffner. Sisterin-law of Shiela and Aaron Margolis. Also survived by nieces and nephews. Graveside services and interment will be held on Friday Aug. 2, 2019, at 9:30 a.m. at Beth Abraham cemetery. Arrangements were entrusted to the Gesher Hachaim Jewish Burial Society Contributions may be made to a charity of the donor’s choice.

KOVANIC: On Friday, July 26, 2019, Hana Dubovy Kovanic passed away at the age of 83. Born on May 17, 1936, in a small town in Czechoslovakia, Hana’s childhood revolved around the war. Prosecuted by the Nazi regime, Hana and her family were imprisoned in

labor and concentration camps across Eastern Europe. Liberated from Terezin in May 1945 and surviving the horrors of the war, the family emigrated in 1948 to the United States to escape communism and find a better future for their children. With minimal past schooling and knowledge of the English language, Hana defied all odds, graduating with honors from James Monroe High School. Accepted into the business school of City University of New York, Hana received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting, business and finance. After working for many years in New York City as a CPA, Hana began her college teaching career following her marriage to beloved Peter and birth of their only daughter, Paula. Involved in various educational, accounting and religious organizations, Hana prided herself on speaking about her Holocaust experiences, hopeful that future generations will never forget the horrors of intolerance, bigotry and prejudice. Her husband, Peter Kovanic, predeceased her in 2012 and brother Otto Dubovy in 2010. She is survived by her daughter and son-in-law, Paula and Richard Spiro, grandchildren Benjamin, Lucas and Reese, brother Carl, and nieces and nephews. Family and friends honored Hana at a memorial in Pittsburgh and burial was held at Mount Freedom Cemetery in New Jersey. Remembrances may be made to the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh (fedpgh.org/ donatehc). Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., schugar.com

Please see Obituaries, page 20

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Inherited IRA within 10 years of your death.

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2. Spend More Money Many of you don’t spend as much money as you can afford. Maybe if you realize to what extent your IRAs and retirement plans will be taxed after you die, you would be more open to spending more money while you are alive. Why don’t you enjoy your money rather than allowing the government to take a healthy percentage of it? Con-

sidering taking your entire family on a vacation and paying for everything. My father-in-law takes his entire family on a 4-day annual vacation in the Poconos. Yes, it costs him, but family memories will be a more valuable legacy than passing on a slightly bigger IRA—especially if your IRA is destined to get clobbered with taxes after you die.

A variation on the same idea is to step up your gifting plans—not only to charity, but also to your family. Sometimes it makes sense to lend a financial helping hand to family members who might need one sooner than later.

3. Update Your Estate Plan Thoughtful estate planning can provide options for survivors that will allow them to make better decisions because they can do so with information that is current at the time you die. Even if you have wills, life insurance and trusts, the changes in the laws suggest you review and possibly update your estate plan. This includes your IRA beneficiary designations too, and that’s particularly true if you have created a trust that will be the beneficiary of your IRA or retirement plan. Assuming some form of The SECURE Act is passed into law, you would likely improve your family’s financial security by updating your estate plan.

4. Life Insurance & Sprinkle Trusts The changes brought about by The SECURE Act could make life insurance more valuable to your estate plan than in the past. The idea is you would

withdraw perhaps 1% or 2% of your IRA, pay taxes on it, and use the net proceeds to buy a life insurance policy. In the past, your heirs could stretch the IRA over their lives. The SECURE Act makes life insurance much more attractive.

Another good strategy for some IRA owners under The SECURE Act is Sprinkle Trusts. If used in an optimal manner, they can provide families with the opportunity to spread the tax burden from Inherited IRAs over multiple generations by including children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren as beneficiaries. Sprinkle Trusts have become more attractive recently because they can offer significant tax benefits to certain IRA owners, but they can also have hidden downfalls so discuss with an attorney who has expertise in both tax and estate planning to map out a strategy that is appropriate.

5. Combine Different Strategies Perhaps the best response to The SECURE Act involves a combination of strategies including revised estate plans, a series of Roth IRA conversions, a series of gifts and the purchase of a life insurance policy.

Spousal IRAs Please note that The SECURE Act will not apply directly to an IRA or retirement plan that you leave your spouse. After your spouse dies and leaves what is left to your children, then the SECURE Act rears its ugly head.

Reprinted with permission by Forbes.com where Jim is a regular contributor.

The foregoing content from Lange Financial Group, LLC is for informational purposes only, subject to change, and should not be construed as investment or tax advice. Those seeking personalized guidance should seek a qualified professional.

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AUGUST 9, 2019 19

Obituaries Obituaries: Continued from page 19

LIEPACK: Eileen Florence Liepack, on Wednesday, July 31, 2019. Beloved wife of the late Stanley Liepack. Beloved mother of Faye (Marvin) Leibowitz and Lawrence M. (fiancée Zina Bershadsky) Liepack. Sister of Paul (Marion) Berkson and Cantor Thomas (Lois) Berkson. Dearest “Greema” to Cheryl Renee (Jack) Bouchard and Ellen Paulette Leibowitz. Also survived by many nieces and nephews. Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. Interment Beth Shalom Cemetery. Contributions may be made to a charity of the donor’s choice. schugar.com MARVIT: Mazal Bouganim Marvit passed away on July 29, 2019; 26th of Tamuz, 5779.

Weddings: Continued from page 4

wedding ring, placed on her right forefinger, so the bride can display it to the guests. This fulfills one of three elements of marriage in the Jewish tradition, according to Mahler: “cohabitation; the exchange of silver, something valuable; and the giving of a contract.”

At the conclusion of the ceremony, the groom performs what is perhaps the bestknown ritual of a Jewish wedding: the smashing of a glass beneath his foot. This

She was 66 years old. Born in Casablanca, Morocco, on May 8, 1953, she grew up in Jerusalem and served in the IDF, where she met her future husband. Mazal dedicated her life to caring for others. As a floor nurse for 25 years at UPMC Montefiore, Charles Morris Nursing Home and elsewhere, Mazal brought sunshine to her patients and residents. Mazal is survived by her husband Joshua; sisters Sima, Anet, Tamar and Miriam; children Deborah, Moshe, Tom and Sam; daughter-in-law Danielle; son-in-law Edgar, and grandson John. She was predeceased by her brothers Amram and Tzion. Mazal was known for her love of travel and her commitment to her family, regularly taking her family on trips to Israel. Mazal was buried in Homestead Hebrew Cemetery in West Mifflin, PA. Arrangements were entrusted to the Gesher Hachaim Jewish Burial Society.

MCKENZIE: Beverly Jayne McKenzie, age 82, of Upper Burrell Township, formerly of Churchill and Bethel Park, passed away on Tuesday, July 23, 2019, with her family at her side. Beloved wife of Jay S. McKenzie; daughter of the late Earl and C. Elizabeth (Herron) Hemphill; loving mother of Pamela A. (William) Swope and Randal S. (Christina) McKenzie; loving grandmother to Courtney Swope (Gary) Cannon and Julie A. Swope; great-grandmother to McKenzie Cannon. Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. Interment Private.

Contributions may be made to the American Diabetes Association, 112 Washington Pl., #1520, Pittsburgh, PA 15219. schugar.com

custom, too, has changed over the years and taken on various meanings.

The first instance of the act occurred after the destruction of the Second Temple.

While a party was taking place in honor of a couple that had just been married, a sage broke a glass and interrupted the celebration, reminding everyone that they should remember the destruction of the temple even during this time of joy.

“We smash the glass to remember our hearts are shattered and something is missing,” said Altein.

Although a solemn act, Mahler said this is

the time “everyone yells ‘mazel tov’ and the bride kisses the groom.”

These days, there are numerous additional interpretations.

Meyer said that she uses the breaking-theglass ritual as an opportunity to offer the couple both a blessing and a warning. The blessing: “May the blessings in your life together be as numerous as these shards of glass.” The warning: “As one step shatters this glass, a word said in haste can shatter this partnership.”

Before going to the seudat mitzvah, the religious feast following the ceremony, the bride and groom are required to spend a few minutes

POCHAPIN: Marsha A. Pochapin, age 83, of Squirrel Hill, on Wednesday, July 24, 2019. Beloved wife of Martin A.; loving

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mother of Pam (Emil M.) Quatchak, Robi (Carol Darwish) Pochapin, Kevin (Deanna) Pochapin and Allison Pochapin. Devoted grandmother of Miriam, Pablo and Antonia. Dear sister of Ellen (Joe) Kleinerman and Michael (Claire) Drapkin. Faithful friend of Michelle Rodriguez, Sean and Carol Hughes and family. Marsha was the rock of her family and loved her four children unconditionally. Interment was in West View Cemetery of Rodef Shalom Congregation. Memorial contributions may be made to the Parkinsons Foundation of Western PA, 575 Lincoln Ave., Bellevue, PA 15202. Professional Services trusted to D’Alessandro Funeral Home & Crematory Ltd., Lawrenceville. dalessandroltd.com PJC alone for some much-needed one-on-one time before the business of the festivities. The reason for this, Altein said, is that although “the chuppah symbolizes a home, it is far from a home. Therefore, the bride and groom go into a private room. That is an act of marriage.”

While many traditions attempt to predict the best time to get married, Mahler recalled the words of a rabbi he once knew who told him, “The best time to get married is when you are in love.” PJC David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Community JFCS distributes scholarships to students Scholarship recipients gathered for the Jewish Scholarship Service (JSS) annual celebration and disbursement of checks. This year JSS, through the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh and more than 40 foundations and family philanthropic funds, distributed more than $500,000 in scholarship aid.

Jewish Family and Community Services administers the program.

p Sarah and Yoel Clark celebrated with other JSS scholarship recipients.

Sarah will attend graduate school at Chatham University in the fall.

p Congratulate Harrison Supnick twice: he received his JSS scholarship check for Pitt Medical School on July 24 and married Stephanie Long on July 28.

Getting educated in Europe

p Ben Unger was happy to pose for this photo of him holding up his scholarship check. Ben proudly attends the University of Pittsburgh.

22 AUGUST 9, 2019

p Classrooms Without Borders participants recently returned from study seminars in Greece and Poland. Now back home, the educators are preparing to incorporate lessons learned abroad into their classrooms. More than 100 people participated in CWB’s seminars this summer.

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Photo courtesy of Classrooms Without Borders

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Community Summer fun at Camp Gan Izzy Camp Gan Izzy Fox Chapel Chabad finished another fantastic summer. Each day was filled with a variety of activities, including tennis, talent shows, fun at Sandcastle Water Park and more. The warmth of the CGI family will keep the kids smiling until next summer.

p The CGI Color Run with camper Ella Salzman and counselor Sharon Rutman.

p Having fun at CGI’s trip to the Pittsburgh Zoo. From left, Josie Depasse, Rosie Perlman and Aviva Graver

p CGI’s trip to Fun Fore All was a highlight of the summer.

Campers Reid Ringold-Unangst and Gabe Lubowsky smile with their counselor Chana Cohen.

p Campers Lilliana Haber and Claire Adelson with counselor Leah Hashimi at the CGI Color Run.

Photos courtesy of Camp Gan Izzy

Hanging out at Hillel Camp

p Campers at Machane & Mini Machane Hillel were excited to try the ropes course at SportsWorks at the Carnegie Science Center.

Photo by Rachel Cohen p It is all smiles after playing in the stream at Fall Run Park.

Temple Sinai soaks up the sun

Photo by Josh Huff

t Rabbi Jamie Gibson spent time with Temple Sinai kids at Emma Kaufmann Camp.

t Shabbat in the Garden at Temple Sinai was celebrated with Cantor Laura Berman and Rabbi Jamie Gibson on July 26.

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AUGUST 9, 2019 23

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