Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle 12-7-2018

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December 7, 2018 | 29 Kislev 5779

NOTEWORTHY LOCAL Funds launched in honor of victim who died serving others

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Candlelighting 4:35 p.m. | Havdalah 5:38 p.m. | Vol. 61, No. 49 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

Sorting through mounds JResponse of mail is daunting task in pitches in to wake of shooting offer local colleagues a break

Lecture series and scholarship, serve as memorials to Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz.

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

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recipient when appropriate.

It has not been easy.

Hausman estimated that the congregations have received more than 14,000 letters and cards since the attack, as well as packages containing gifts. Because all three congregations were housed in the Tree of Life synagogue building and because that building is closed for the foreseeable future, all that mail had been stored at the post office until about three weeks ago, when it was moved to a room in Rodef Shalom Congregation.

That room is filled, from floor to ceiling, with boxes of mail that are being sorted and logged by a team working several hours every day. Because of law enforcement concerns, no photos were allowed to be taken in that room.

While mail specifically addressed to New Light or Dor Hadash, or particular families, is delivered accordingly, mail generically addressed to “Tree of Life” is presumed to

resh but unfamiliar faces were seen at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh last week as representatives from JResponse worked throughout the Squirrel Hill building stuffing envelopes, welcoming guests and helping out wherever needed.

Conceived of by the JCC Association of North America, JRepsonse deploys trained JCC professionals to “assist when disaster strikes,” said organization representatives.

Its personnel were in Pittsburgh to offer a break to communal professionals who had been working around the clock since the Oct. 27 anti-Semitic attack at the Tree of Life synagogue building.

In an effort to grant these employees either a long Shabbat or extended weekend, representatives of JResponse arrived — some for Friday service, others for Monday duty — eager to bid their colleagues adieu.

Tina Kaplan, who works in fitness reception at the JCC MetroWest in West Orange, N.J., assumed a similar function in the Squirrel Hill center. Standing beside Lauren Dworkin of the Bender JCC of Greater Washington, the two professional transplants aided patrons entering the building.

“People are really appreciative,” said Kaplan.

Hours earlier, she saw how her Pittsburgh counterpart reacted to being told to take the day off because of the hard work she had been doing until then.

“She was really happy. She was in disbelief.

She was very sweet,” said Kaplan. “You could see directly that’s why we were here to give some relief and a little bit of joy and show community support, and I think you could see it sinking in.”

Dworkin, who is the family engagement

Please see Mail, page 17

Please see JResponse, page 21

Page 2 LOCAL Perlman offers comfort

Legendary violinist headlines free concert.

 Using Post-it notes is just one method well-wishers have employed to support victims and survivors of the Oct. 27 attack at the Tree of Life synagogue building.

Photo by Toby Tabachnick

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By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer

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Volunteers of the Year

Local organizations name their annual honorees.

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hen Alan Hausman began going through the volume of mail addressed to “Tree of Life” in the aftermath of the Oct. 27 anti-Semitic attack, among the envelopes was one small package containing a child’s toy in a blister pack.

“It was to make us feel better,” said Hausman, vice president of Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Congregation and a public safety officer for more than three decades. “I cried for half an hour.”

That toy was among the thousands of packages and letters that began to arrive for the three congregations affected by the massacre — TOL*OLS, Dor Hadash and New Light — as well as the families of individual victims, survivors and “the Jewish community,” almost immediately after the attack.

Now, congregational staff and volunteers are undertaking the massive and heartbreaking task of opening each piece of mail, sorting it and delivering it to its intended

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Headlines Lecture series, scholarship fund to honor memory of slain doctor — LOCAL —

By Toby Tabachnick and Keri White

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r. Jerry Rabinowitz — one of the 11 people murdered in the anti-Semitic attack at the Tree of Life synagogue building on Oct. 27 — is being remembered by his professional colleagues for much more than his winning smile, his bow ties, and his penchant for dressing up as an elf to entertain hospital patients around Christmastime.

Although those defining attributes of Rabinowitz, a family practice physician, were recalled in fond detail at a memorial service on Nov. 29 at UPMC’s Herberman Conference Center, Rabinowitz’s colleagues are ensuring that his dedication to medical ethics and patient care will be preserved for years to come through an annual lecture series at Shadyside Hospital.

More than 150 medical professionals and friends of Rabinowitz came together at the memorial service, where the Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz Annual Lecture Series, which will be launched next year, was announced.

The series will focus on ethics, human relationships and humor. In addition, the Shadyside Family Medicine Department will be developing a special curriculum in ethical human relations “with a side of humor” for its residents and fellows, according to promotional material.

“Everyone learned from Jerry,” noted Dr. Joel Weinberg at the memorial service. “He was our moral compass on many levels.”

The lectures will “hopefully be imbued with a little bit of Jerry,” Weinberg added.

Rabinowitz had been affiliated with Shadyside Hospital since he came to Pittsburgh in the late 1970s for an internship and residency there.

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p Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz

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A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, Rabinowitz also will be remembered at his alma mater through the creation of an endowed scholarship in his name.

Jonah Klein, a general surgery resident at the Lankenau Medical Center and a Pittsburgh native, created a fund to honor Rabinowitz, a longstanding and active member of Congregation Dor Hadash.

Rabinowitz had been hiding after the shooter entered the Tree of Life building on Oct. 27, but rushed out to care for others when he heard gunshots. It was then that he was killed.

“Dr. Rabinowitz was beloved. He was passionate about family medicine and patient care — he made house calls on many of his patients. He was also a brilliant diagnostician,” Klein said. “Because he attended Penn undergrad and medical school, it was important to recognize him in the medical community here in Philadelphia, so I came up with this idea.”

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The project began with a GoFundMe page, with an initial goal of making sure that Rabinowitz was remembered and honored across the state. When the family medicine residency program at Penn took notice, it decided to create an endowed scholarship.

The funds will be awarded annually to a graduating family medicine resident that embodies Rabinowitz’s devotion to patient care and community outreach, Klein said.

The hope is that it will enable a family medicine physician to pursue an opportunity that would otherwise not be available, such as working in a community clinic, conducting research, establishing a diabetic or cholesterol care center, or supplementing resources to build an independent practice in an underserved area.

“Dr. Rabinowitz’s death should be a call for us all to model his compassion and urgency to heal the world,” said Rabbi Cheryl Klein, cantor of Dor Hadash.

“Jerry was a once in a lifetime kind of person,” said his friend and colleague, Gary Tabas at the memorial service in Pittsburgh. “I don’t have a mental image of Jerry not smiling.”

Brett Davidson, senior executive director at the Perelman School of Medicine, said the scholarship fund will allow Rabinowitz to be honored in perpetuity.

“An endowment of this type is particularly meaningful in the Family Medicine Department, which receives less notoriety than other departments. This enables us to support a resident to work in the community, advancing patient care, in the way Dr. Rabinowitz did,” Davidson said. “Because these doctors often train and work in economically challenged areas, such as parts of West Philadelphia outside of the Penn campus, the endowment is especially significant.”

Long considered a pillar of his community, Rabinowitz was one of the first physicians in Pittsburgh to treat patients with HIV/ AIDS, and was well respected by colleagues, friends, patients and all who knew him, Jonah Klein said.

“Dr. Rabinowitz always took an interest in my medical education and my training.

It was really important that he be remembered in Philadelphia, where he started his career,” he said. “Pittsburgh is a very strong community and he will undoubtedly be honored there, but … we need to tell this story every year, especially to young doctors, to ensure that we rebuild our terrible loss.”

Dr. Neil Busis, a longtime friend, colleague and Penn classmate of Rabinowitz, said that he was “thrilled” that Rabinowitz’s legacy is being honored at both Penn and at Shadyside Hospital, and that the scholarship and lecture series will ensure that “Jerry will live in the hearts and minds of other people.

Jerry was the real deal.”

Donations to support Shadyside Hospital’s lecture series in memory of Rabinowitz can be made at shadysidehospitalfoundation.org.

The GoFundMe for the page for the Penn scholarship is still accepting donations at gofundme.com/dr-rabinowitz-memorial-scholarship, although those contributions will be transferred directly to the Penn endowment fund. To donate directly to Penn, visit socialfundraising.apps.upenn. edu/ and search “Rabinowitz,” or contact Brett Davidson at brett2@upenn.edu or 215-898-9175. PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

Keri White writes for the Jewish Exponent, an affiliated publication of the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle.

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Headlines Itzhak Perlman offers comfort in concert — LOCAL —

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

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embers of the Pittsburgh Jewish community gathered at Heinz Hall on Tuesday, Nov. 27, for a free concert headlined by Israeli-American violinist Itzhak Perlman, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra music director Manfred Honeck, PSO principal clarinetist Michael Rusinek and the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh. The “Concert for Peace and Unity” event honored the 11 Jews murdered Oct. 27 at the Tree of Life synagogue building, as well as the city’s first responders.

After hearing of the anti-Semitic attack and the efforts to stage a concert, it was a no-brainer for Perlman to participate “when they called me,” he said in a phone interview following the event. He wanted “to support the families of the victims and to give them as much comfort as possible.”

Each of the artists donated their services, according to the PSO. The show, which was recorded and will be televised nationally by PBS (WQED in Pittsburgh) on Dec. 11 at 8 p.m., featured Perlman and his fellow musicians offering solace by way of such pieces as Maurice Ravel’s “Kaddish,” an arrangement of “Eli, Eli,” (“My God, My God,” — the Hebrew words

p Violinist Itzhak Perlman performs at Heinz Hall on Nov. 27.

Photo by Edward DeArmitt

appear in Psalms 22:2) and songs from Steven Spielberg’s 1993 film “Schindler’s List.”

While the music was powerful, Perlman was struck by the collective recital of the Mourner’s Kaddish.

Rabbi Hazzan Jeffrey Myers, the spiritual leader of Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha, who at points joined Perlman on stage, agreed. “The power of saying Kaddish particularly after the Ravel ‘Kaddish’ was played I thought was a powerful cathartic thing to help us move

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forward as a community.”

The hymn has an ability to conjure up the sentiments of mourning and the glorification of God without mentioning either, he added.

Perlman’s Nov. 27 performance, which occurred exactly one month after the Tree of Life attack, was preceded a day earlier by a communitywide service marking shloshim, the conclusion of 30 days of initial mourning.

The service at the Pittsburgh Marriott City

Center included a recorded message from Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, former chief rabbi of the United Kingdom.

Meanwhile, a tri-lingual shloshim service for Joyce Fienberg (one of the 11 victims, and whose family lives in France) was held at the Great Synagogue in Paris a day later, on Nov. 28. A public siyum, which marks the completion of a unit of Torah study, organized by the Kollel Jewish Learning Center in memory of the 11 victims was held on Sunday, Dec. 2 at Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh.

Prior to the concert at Heinz Hall, “I didn’t know when my personal shloshim would end, because to me it was not merely a counting of days,” said Myers. However, by the concert’s end something had changed, and it was precisely “when the carillon chimed 11 times that I noticed.

“As tears poured down my face, I once again invoked the Psalms [121:1-2], ‘I lift my eyes to the mountains: from where my help come?

My help comes from God maker of heaven of earth,’ and I just felt this immense weight lift off my shoulders as if God was saying to me, ‘I’m with you, we’re going to be OK,’” he added.

Prior to the show, Perlman met with family members of the victims.

“We have to get together and support each other,” he said. PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Headlines Jewish community tackling stigma, challenges of teen mental health — LOCAL —

By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer

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here is an alarming lack of resources for teens with mental health issues in Western Pennsylvania, including those in the Jewish community, say officials.

That crisis, though, is now being tackled by a number of changemakers who are unwilling to sit back and wait for someone else to address the problem.

Among those is Ayala Rosenthal, a senior at Yeshiva Girls School, who has personal experience with depression — her own, as well as of some of her peers.

At just 17, Rosenthal was moved to act after hearing of a girls’ suicide in a Chabad community in Israel about a year ago, she said.

“People don’t talk about this issue,” Rosenthal explained. The suicide generated conversation, however, because the girl had stepped in front of a train, and the incident was made public.

There is stigma around teen depression in the Orthodox community, Rosenthal observed, which can make the subject taboo.

But that stigma extends to society at large, noted Karen Wolk Feinstein, president and CEO of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation.

Suicide is the third leading cause of death for youth between the ages of 10 and 24, resulting in about 4,600 deaths per year, according to recent statistics provided by the Centers for Disease Control.

A survey of high school students in the United States revealed that 16 percent seriously considered suicide, with 13 percent actually creating a plan, and 8 percent trying to take their own life in the year preceding the survey, according to the CDC. Moreover, every year, more than 150,000 youth between the ages of 10 and 24 are treated in emergency departments for self-inflicted injuries.

The severity of the problem revealed itself to those at the JHF when the child of a staff member needed help a couple years ago.

“I think in many ways, until it hit home with the teen of one of our staff, we actually weren’t aware of the crisis — and I mean crisis — in teen mental health, both in terms of the increase in behavioral health issues with teens, and sadly, the increase in evidence that there is an increase in the rate of suicide and the number of people seeking help and emergency interventions,” Feinstein said.

Rosenthal, with the support of the JHF, helped organize two training sessions last month to train teens and adults to recognize the signs of depression in youth and how to appropriately respond.

“There are so many people suffering in silence,” Rosenthal said. “And lots of people look fine, but they aren’t at all.”

Rosenthal brought to Pittsburgh Rabbi Yarden Blumstein from Detroit, who “works with suicidal teens, saving lives,” Rosenthal said. On the afternoon of Nov. 18, Blumstein, who operates UMatter, a division of Detroit’s Friendship Circle, spoke to a group of almost 40 girls from Hillel Academy, Yeshiva Girls School and

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p Mental health advocate Ayala Rosenthal is a senior at Yeshiva Girls School.

Photo by Toby Tabachnick

Friendship Circle about teen depression.

“A lot of my classmates learned a lot about what to look for in friends who might be having a hard time,” Rosenthal said.

That evening, Rosenthal helped organize a panel of five mental health professionals to train about 150 adults — mostly members of the Orthodox community — in recognizing teen depression.

The JHF has been working for the last two years on an initiative to improve resources

“ People don’t talk about this

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issue.

— AYALA ROSENTHAL

for all teens in the community struggling with their mental health.

“We are looking to bring together different stakeholders and see how we can raise the voice to improve adolescent and behavioral health services,” said Deborah Murdoch, a JHF quality improvement specialist who is involved with the project.

When staff at the JHF began searching for resources for their colleague whose teen was suffering, they realized the “safety net was frayed,” said Feinstein. “When we had so much trouble accessing care — and we are pretty savvy — for a member of our greater Foundation family, we started to do some digging, and realized that the problems our staff person as a mother was encountering were not at all unusual.”

Services for teen behavioral health are “shockingly under-resourced, and underrepresented among advocacy groups,”

Feinstein said. “We didn’t find a group that was promoting teen behavioral health on a statewide policy basis. It didn’t exist.”

That was surprising, she said, given a current climate that contributes to increased stress among youth.

“We looked at the environment, with not only what happened at Tree of Life, obviously so close to home, but the number of school shootings and the fact that teens are routinely now — from preschool on — trained to behave and respond to a single shooter episode,” Feinstein said. “It’s pretty discouraging. We have an environment that is creating more anxiety and depression in our youth.”

There is a lack of resources here that includes “too few beds for teens who need them,” Feinstein said. “People wait 11 hours or more at the one emergency ER at [UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital]. And there is no special unit for teens.

“Getting an appointment with a psychiatrist or someone who specializes in adolescent mental health is another challenge,” she continued. “Follow-up for families that leave Western Psych is insufficient. What we have is very good, in many instances. That’s the sad thing. We have some centers of excellence, but they are under-resourced and under-staffed.”

The problem, she said, is not confined to Western Pennsylvania, but is “fairly widespread.”

Efforts in Pittsburgh’s Jewish community to address the crisis in teen mental health include empowering teens themselves to become advocates.

Inspired by the advocacy efforts of the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., the JHF and partner organizations, including the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, and Jewish Family and Community Services, is looking for ways to “provide skills and opportunities” for those students who are interested in

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mental health advocacy, said Murdoch.

Beyond the advocacy initiatives, the JHF and community partners are looking to the Detroit Jewish community for inspiration, Feinstein said.

A program instituted there in 2016 called “We Need to Talk” has focused on education, raising awareness, training regarding suicide prevention and intervention, Feinstein explained. “They are working to train the professionals who work with youth in their community, day school teachers and camp counselors and others with those skills.”

The JHF and its partners are “very focused on the Detroit model,” said Feinstein. “We would like to build a really strong safety net within the Jewish community.”

To that end, the Foundation is seeking a grant from its board to help fund the initiative.

“We are prepared, if [the grant is] approved, to put our money where our mouth is, so to speak,” Feinstein said.

“We’re taking Ayala’s cue,” she continued.

“Ayala isn’t waiting for the world to bring services to her yeshiva and Orthodox community. She is taking responsibility. We’d like to do that for the Jewish community.”

Jason Kunzman, chief program officer of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, has been working with the JHF to help bring more resources for teen mental health to Jewish Pittsburgh.

“This is all in the planning stages right now,” he said, but added that the JCC already had met with representatives from the JHF, Pittsburgh’s Federation, the United Way, JFCS and other funders from the region.

Additionally, the JCC recently received a $100,000 grant from the Staunton Farms Foundation, which focuses on behavioral health issues in Western Pennsylvania, that may be used to help fund teen mental health solutions.

The JCC also has planned to add more resources to address mental health issues at its camps, Kunzman said.

“We will be doing a better job of arming our camp staff with skills to identify potential issues and handle challenges as the needs arise,” he said.

In addition to her panel programs last month, Rosenthal has launched an organization she calls AMOTT — Acknowledging Mental Health in Our Teens Together — to “spread awareness, break stigma and support teens” in regard to their mental health.

Through AMOTT, Rosenthal hopes to bring to Pittsburgh’s Orthodox communities professionals to teach adults how to notice signs in teens that they are struggling, and to “offer practical tips and advice on how to properly handle and interact with a teenager who is going through a rough time.”

She hopes to create a series of video clips featuring mental health professionals as well as those who have had personal experience with mental health issues. She would also like to launch an adult-to-teen mentoring program, matching adults who previously struggled with mental health issues to teens who are currently struggling, she said. PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick @pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Headlines First Friday night remains in communal consciousness — LOCAL —

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

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unerals, shivahs, vigils and demonstrations of solidarity have filled the community’s calendar in the month since the Oct. 27 attack at the Tree of Life synagogue building. These public and private gatherings have united a neighborhood still reeling from the loss of 11 Jews murdered inside the seeming safety of a synagogue. But one event from weeks ago palpably remains at the forefront of the communal consciousness.

In the afternoon hours of Friday, Nov. 2, Shmuel Isenberg received a text message announcing a prayer service occurring outside of the Tree of Life building.

Uncertain of what to expect, or who exactly had initiated the idea, the Squirrel Hill resident decided to attend.

Upon approaching the corner of Shady and Wilkins avenues at 6 p.m., Isenberg made his way past people gathered near the 11 makeshift memorials and the accumulated flowers, cards and mementos placed nearby. He headed toward a small crowd

p A note is left at a makeshift memorial outside the Tree of Life synagogue building.

Photo by Adam Reinherz

collected in a street cordoned by police tape.

Recognizing many of the attendees as fellow parents at Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh, Isenberg was handed a prayer shawl and asked to lead the Friday afternoon service.

“Last January I lost my mother, so I am a

CMU book defaced with anti-Semitic words and drawings

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Carnegie Mellon University undergraduate was shocked to find that a library book she was using to write a research paper had been defaced with anti-Semitic invectives and swastikas.

Adira Rosen, a second year directing student, who is Jewish, found the words “Jews have no business at CMU!” and a large swastika drawn in black ink at the top margin of page 7 of the book, “The Passing Game” by Warren Hoffman. Just below those words, in a different script, were the words “you are right,” followed by “:)” — a symbol for a smiling face, according to a Facebook post by Rosen on Nov. 29.

After flipping through the rest of the 206-page book, Rosen found two more swastikas, on page 50 and on page 163.

Rosen had checked out the book, which was published in 2009, from CMU’s Hunt Library. She did not discover the anti-Semitic words and symbols written in the book until later that day when she removed it from her backpack, she said.

“The Passing Game” analyses “the ways in which Judaism and the LGBTQ+ community intersect through theatre and, more specially, [the play] ‘God of Vengeance,’” Rosen wrote.

“For context, ‘God of Vengeance’ is one of the first recorded instances of an openly lesbian couple on a Broadway stage.”

The controversy surrounding “God of Vengeance,” written by Sholem Asch and premiering on Broadway in 1923, is explored in the contemporary play “Indecent,” which will be presented by the Pittsburgh Public Theater this spring.

Rosen reported the defacement of the library book immediately to the president of CMU, the university’s dean of students, and others in leadership positions on campus, she said.

“Everyone responded immediately and

p Adira Rosen found this swastika and a related message inside a library book at Carnegie Mellon University.

Photo provided by Adira Rosen

with thoughtful actions,” she said.

Just a few hours later, an email from Farnam Jahanian, president of CMU, went out to the entire campus community.

“Today we learned that a book defaced with anti-Semitic language and symbols was discovered in Hunt Library,” Jahanian wrote. “I am distressed and saddened by yet another act of hate in our community.

“We must be clear: We condemn this evil,” Jahanian continued. “We reject bigotry in all its forms — it has no place in society. To members of the Jewish faith who are feeling especially vulnerable right now, please know that we are committed to providing a safe environment for our entire community and, especially in the wake of the violence at Tree of Life Synagogue, we are maintaining the highest level of vigilance.”

The incident is being investigated by both the CMU Police and the Division of Student Affairs, according to Jahanian’s email. PJC

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— Toby Tabachnick

Jewish mourner,” said Isenberg. Accordingly, “one of the responsibilities is to lead services apart from those on Shabbat.”

As the hour grew, scores congregated nearby. Several onlookers and passersby raised phones and recorded the scene. Isenberg

neared the conclusion of the afternoon prayer service and recited the Mourner’s Kaddish.

“I looked up at one point and turned to the building and saw ‘Tree of Life’ emblazoned on the wall, and it struck me, the events of what really occurred there in conjunction with what we’re doing,” he said.

With the names of the 11 victims in mind, he completed the hymn and passed the shawl to Ari Goldberg, who began singing Psalms welcoming Shabbat. Hours earlier, Goldberg, who was asked to lead the evening service, had considered what melodies to impart.

“On the one hand, you want it to be a joyous acceptance of Shabbos, but at the same time it’s such a solemn place and time that I didn’t want to pick a tune that would be inappropriate or someone might find disrespectful,” he said.

Rina Itskowitz, who attended the service, which was organized by Hillel Academy administrators, with her husband and five children, acknowledged the location as is a place “where people basically sacrificed their lives.”

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Money from Muslim fundraiser to be distributed to TOL victims by Dec. 15

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uslim groups that raised $238,634 for the victims and families of victims of the Tree of Life shooting have transferred the entirety of that sum to Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Congregation.

Celebrate Mercy and MPower Change, the two groups which organized the online fundraising campaign on LaunchGood. com, transferred two checks — one in the amount of $155,000, and another in the amount $84,534 — to the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh for distribution to victims of the Oct. 27 attack on the Tree of Life building.

On Nov. 21, the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh transferred two payments to TOL*OLS: one in the amount of $155,000 and another in the amount of $84,534, according to two letters of receipt dated Nov. 28 and signed by Sam Schachner, the president of the congregation, and Rabbi Hazzan Jeffrey Myers, the congregation’s spiritual leader.

Another letter, dated Nov. 8 and jointly signed by Tarek El Messidi, founding director of CelebrateMercy, Wasiullah Mohamed, executive director of the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh, and Stacey Hausman, controller of Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha, acknowledged that the gift of $155,000 would be “used to support the victims and the families of victims” of the shooting at the synagogue.

“TOL*OLS agrees to distribute 100 percent of the granted funds to the killed victims’ families as well as wounded survivors from the TOL*OLS, Dor Hadash, and New Light Congregations,” the letter states.

“Families of the 11 killed victims will each receive at least $10,000 for their short-term expenses related to the tragedy, especially funeral and memorial services expenses.

“The remaining $45,000 can be distributed to wounded survivors to assist with ongoing medical bills and/or therapy,” the letter

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

continues. “TOL*OLS agrees to distribute all granted funds by Dec. 15. TOL*OLS also agrees to send a detailed report, by Dec. 31, of how funds were distributed among the victims and their families.”

The second gift to TOL*OLS in the amount of $84,534 “will be spent on projects that help foster Muslim-Jewish collaboration, dialogue, and solidarity,” according to the LaunchGood fundraising page.

“We acknowledge that this gift is going to

“ They have been tremendous

”

partners.

— ALAN HAUSMAN our support fund to projects that will help foster Muslim/Jewish collaboration dialogue and solidarity if the victims and families have no further need,” the Nov. 28 letter signed by Schachner and Myers stipulates.

The Islamic Center of Pittsburgh “has been very good to us,” noted Alan Hausman, vice president of TOL*OLS. “They have been tremendous partners, standing by our side.

These are good people.”

Despite some media reports to the contrary, all the money raised through the online fundraiser launched by Celebrate Power and MPower Change “has been accounted for, and we have control over it,” Hausman said. PJC — Toby Tabachnick DECEMBER 7, 2018 5

6 color LOCAL

Calendar q MONDAY, DEC. 10 Music at Rodef Shalom will feature Nathan Lee on piano at 8 p.m.

At age 15 Lee won first prize in the 2016 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, as well as 14 special prizes. He began playing the piano at the age of 6 and made his orchestral debut at the age of 9. There is no charge.

Visit rodefshalom.org for more information.

is at the Carnegie Science Center North Lot. Register to attend at promo.post-gazette. com/conversation of 412-263-1541. q THURSDAYS, DEC. 13-JAN. 17 Chabad of the South Hills at 1701 McFarland Road will offer Kids in the Kitchen: International Kosher Cooking from 4 to 5:30 p.m. for ages 3-11; 3-year-olds must be accompanied by a parent, grandparent or caregiver. Each class includes the cooking segment, fun and hands-on learning on various Jewish topics and one-on-one Hebrew AlefBet and reading, catered to each child’s level.

Register before Nov. 30 at chabadsh.com/jkc.

Contact mussie@chabadsh.com or412-3442424 for more information. There is a charge. q FRIDAY, DEC. 14

q SUNDAY, DEC. 9

>> 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.

Rodef Shalom Congregation will hold the first Pursuer of Peace: In Action event, in conjunction with its Holiday Gift Drive, and features Roberta Schomburg, Ph.D., interim executive director of the Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning. In 2014 Fred Rogers posthumously received the Pursuer of Peace Award. Schomburg will speak on How to Support Children in Times of Crisis. Free and open to the public, her talk begins at 9:30 a.m.

Donations of new, unwrapped toys for children ages 4-17 may be delivered to Rodef Shalom.

Books up to an eighth-grade reading level are preferred. Contact Mayda Roth, director of development at 412-621-6566, ext. 140 or roth@rodefshalom.org for more information.

q SATURDAY, DEC. 8 Rabbi Jamie Gibson will share highlights and reflections from his trip to Berlin for the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht on Saturday, Dec. 8 from 4 to 6 p.m. at Temple Sinai. The evening will conclude with Havdalah. The program is free and open to the community. Contact Nancy Conaway at 412-421-9715, ext. 115 or Nancy@ TempleSinaiPGH.org or visit templesinaipgh.org/ postcard-germany for more information.

q TUESDAY, DEC. 11

South Hills Jewish Pittsburgh will hold the South Hills 7th Night Chanukah Celebration and Menorah Lighting from 5:45 to 9 p.m. at the South Hills Jewish Community Center, 345 Kane Blvd. The evening will include dinner and activities for the family. Visit southhillsjewishpittsburgh.org/chanukah18 for more information.

PBS will broadcast nationally WQED’s locallyproduced “Tree of Life: A Concert for Peace and Unity,” a free community event at 8 p.m., presented and hosted by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra to honor the Tree of Life synagogue building victims and first responders.

The performance, featuring Itzhak Perlman at Pittsburgh’s Heinz Hall, was recorded on Nov. 27, one month after the shooting, as part of the PSO’s “Music for the Spirit” series.

Be a part of the Moishe House annual tradition and ride with them to Vodka Latke: Get Lit in a party bus. Come to the house at 7 p.m. to get ready, and then pile into the party bus to the Flashlight Factory at 8 p.m. Contact moishehousepgh@gmail.com for more information. There is no cost to join the party bus, but you will need to buy tickets to the event separately. Space on the bus is limited, so sign up to reserve a spot. Contact moishehousepgh@ gmail.com for more information.

q THURSDAY, DEC. 13 In response to the horrific events at the Tree of Life synagogue building on Oct. 27, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is convening a community conversation on anti-Semitism in America and the implications for the future of American Jews and the Pittsburgh community from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Heinz Field Hyundai Club (West Club). Panelists include Rabbi Jeffrey Myers of Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha, Joshua Sayles of the Community Relations Council, Dr. Kathleen Blee of the University of Pittsburgh and Deborah Lipstadt of Emory University. The program will be moderated by David Shribman of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Free parking

Shalom Pittsburgh, a project of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, will hold the 13th annual Vodka Latke from 7:30 to 11 p.m. at HIP at the Flashlight Factory, 831 West North Ave., for young adults (22-45). Contact Meryl Franzos at mfranzos@jfedpgh.org or 412-992-5204 for more information or visit jfedpgh.org/vodka-latke for registration and pricing information.

Moishe House will hold its Ugly Sweater Shabbat from 7 to 9:30 p.m. Grab your favorite ugly sweater and come to Kabbalat Shabbat for latkes, donuts and dreidels. Services will be held in the living room at 7 p.m., followed by Shabbat dinner. Contact moishehousepgh@ gmail.com for more information. q SUNDAY, DEC. 16 Temple Emanuel welcomes Phil Terman for its Bagel Bites & Brunch at 10:30 a.m. Terman is a Jewish poet and professor at Clarion University. His latest poetry collection is “Our Portion: New and Selected Poems.” His works, including two of his popular collections, “The Torah Garden” and “Rabbis of the Air,” are filled with Jewish themes. Most recently, his work “Leaves from Aleppo” was produced onstage at the City of Asylum on the North Shore.

The event is free, but RSVPs are requested at templeemanuel@templeemanuelpgh.org. Call 412-279-7600 for more information.

The Jewish Genealogy Society of Pittsburgh will welcome local genealogist and historian Tammy Hepps of HomesteadHebrews.com to the Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives at the Heinz History Center. She will present her talk “Top 10 Things I Learned About My Family From My Couch,” which reviews the possibilities of internet-based genealogical research. The presentation will begin at 10:30 a.m. to noon with a brief introduction by a member of the JGS leadership team with time at the end for questions and JGS business. Refreshments will be served.

Temple Emanuel will hold its inaugural Bagel Bites: Sunday Brunch Series with poet

Phil Terman at 10:30 a.m. Terman will read from his latest work, “Our Portion: New and Selected Poems.” Terman is the recipient of the Anna Davidson Rosenberg Award for Poetry on the Jewish Experience, teaches creative writing and literature at Clarion University and is a contributing editor for poetry for the journal “Chautauqua.” There is no charge. Visit templeemanuelpgh.org/ event/brunch1 for more information. q TUESDAY, DEC. 18 Super Gay: A Deep Dive Into the Not-SoHidden Homoeroticism in Jewish Text from 7 to 9 p.m. at Moishe House. Part Two of the Stuff You Didn’t Learn in Hebrew School series will explore queerness in Jewish text throughout the ages. Join us for an informative and fascinating night of learning facilitated by community member Ren Finkel. Contact moishehousepgh@ gmail.com for more information. q WEDNESDAY, DEC. 19 Squirrel Hill AARP invites all to come and join in for an afternoon of companionship and fun at 1 p.m. at Congregation Beth Shalom, 5915 Beacon St., at the corner of Shady Avenue.

Following the business meeting, entertainment will be provided by Julie Harris, singer/guitarist of Pittsburgh. Julie will entertain with a mixture of show tunes and pop standards. The chapter is requesting all to bring a new, unwrapped toy, which will be donated to patients at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. Latkes and punch will be served; there will be several door prizes. Contact Marcia Kramer, president, at 412-731-3338 for more information. q THURSDAY, DEC. 20 Game Night at Moishe House from 7 to 9 p.m..

Whether your favorite game is Telestrations or Apples to Apples, you can find it at Moishe House. Play one of our games, or introduce us to your own. Spend your Thursday night playing and snacking with your favorite Moho crew. Contact moishehousepgh@gmail.com for more information. q MONDAY, DEC. 24 MoHo Does Jewish Christmas from 7 to 10 p.m. at Moishe House. Got nothing to do on a random December Monday night? How about a tradition as old as the Torah itself … come to the Moish’ on Christmas Eve for a cozy night in with a movie and Chinese food. Contact moishehousepgh@gmail.com for more information. PJC

q TUESDAY, DEC. 11 The Squirrel Hill Historical Society’s next free program on The Story of Roads and Bridges in Pittsburgh will be with speaker Todd Wilson, transportation engineer, bridge historian and author of “Pittsburgh Bridges” from 7:30 to 9:15 p.m. at Church of the Redeemer, 5700 Forbes Ave. Visit sqhillhistory.org for more information.

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6 DECEMBER 7, 2018

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Headlines Rand Paul says aid to Israel should be ‘limited in time and scope’ — NATIONAL —

By Ron Kampeas | JTA

W

ASHINGTON — Sen. Rand Paul acknowledged that he had placed a hold on major funding legislation for Israel, saying he wanted time limits on assistance to the Jewish state.

The Kentucky Republican also said he wanted cuts in aid to countries he says are hostile to the United States.

“While I’m not for foreign aid in general, if we are going to send aid to Israel it should be limited in time and scope so we aren’t doing it forever, and it should be paid for by cutting the aid to people who hate Israel and America,” Paul’s office said in an statement emailed last week to the media.

Paul said he planned to introduce an amendment to the legislation, the United StatesIsrael Security Assistance Authorization Act of 2018, in coming days. The bill codifies into law the $38 billion defense aid package for Israel over 10 years that was negotiated in the final days of the Obama administration.

The Washington Free Beacon first reported Paul’s hold, a parliamentary procedure that allows senators to prevent a motion from

reaching a floor vote, and which usually is anonymous. The hold has been countered vigorously by major pro-Israel groups, including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and Christians United for Israel, through online ads and action alerts to membership. CUFI has specifically targeted Paul through actions in Kentucky, including ads in newspapers there.

In his statement, Paul blamed AIPAC and other unnamed pro-Israel groups for not meeting his demands.

“Each time I’ve tried to stop giving aid to enemies of the U.S. and Israel, I have been thwarted. Often by groups that claim they are pro-Israel,” he said. “Why would supposedly pro-Israel groups oppose my legislation to end aid to the Palestinian Liberation Organization? Maybe it’s because they fear any debate on anyone’s foreign aid threatens a broader debate on whether we should be borrowing from foreign countries simply to send the money to other foreign countries.”

AIPAC has in the past opposed radical cuts to the Palestinians, heeding in part Israeli security officials who say the assistance helps stabilize the region. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has recently endorsed President Donald Trump’s wide-reaching cuts in assistance to the Palestinians. It is not clear yet whether AIPAC is on board with the cuts as well.

p Rand Paul

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

AIPAC also vigorously advocates for foreign assistance in general, which Paul opposes. The lobby believes broader foreign assistance is critical because it advances U.S. influence generally and builds support for Israel overseas, and because making Israel a special case while other countries are neglected does Israel no favors.

Asked about Paul’s claims, AIPAC’s spokesman, Marshall Wittman, would only say, “We believe it is critical for Congress to adopt this legislation before adjourning given the growing threats to Israel’s security from Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas.”

CUFI noted in its statement that it has supported cuts to assistance to the Palestinians, and said the argument over those cuts were not germane to aid to Israel bill.

“Sen. Paul’s decision to hold this bill does not make America safer and does not ensure taxpayer dollars are used most efficiently — quite the opposite,” said CUFI Action Fund Chairwoman Sandra Parker. “Aid to Israel provides the U.S. with an extraordinary return on investment.”

The Senate passed the act in early August and the House of Representatives followed suit the following month. Now the Senate must pass a final version in line with the bill passed by the House.

The $38 billion deal negotiated in 2016 is the most generous ever to Israel. The act also expands a stockpile of weapons that the United States keeps in Israel, which may access the stockpile in wartime. It also enhances Israel’s qualitative military edge and urges space research cooperation between Israel and the United States.

Paul, a presidential candidate in 2016, alienated pro-Israel Republicans almost as soon as he became a senator in 2011, when he embraced his congressman father’s longtime call to cut defense assistance to Israel. The younger Paul later backtracked, saying he regarded Israel as a close ally, and would cut assistance only once it was clear the country was self-sufficient in its defense needs. PJC

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8 WORLD

New logo New website Long tradition of assisting the community

Headlines Is Ocasio-Cortez comparing the migrant caravan to Jews fleeing Nazi Europe fair?

— NATIONAL —

By Ron Kampeas | JTA

For over 30 years, the JEWISH ASSISTANCE FUND has provided a connection between those who want to help and those who need financial assistance

Visit our new website JewishAssistanceFund.org Explore how you can refer others Let us know if you need assistance Donate online Mazel Tov to our 2018 Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle Volunteer of the Year

Gean Goldfarb

May the warmth and brightness of the Chanukah lights fill your home.

W

ASHINGTON — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is just one of 435 members of the incoming U.S. House of Representatives, but her youth, surprise primary win in her Bronx-area district, socialism and, above all, outspokenness have attracted outsize attention.

So when Ocasio-Cortez, 29, likened the crisis at the U.S. border with Mexico to Jewish refugees that the United States turned away before World War II, the reactions came thick and fast.

“Asking to be considered a refugee & applying for status isn’t a crime,” Ocasio Cortez said last week on Twitter after U.S. border agents repelled Central American migrants with tear gas. “It wasn’t for Jewish families fleeing Germany. It wasn’t for targeted families fleeing Rwanda. It wasn’t for communities fleeing war-torn Syria. And it isn’t for those fleeing violence in Central America.”

Attached to her tweet was a now viral Reuters photo of a mother fleeing the tear gas clutching two toddlers, one in diapers.

A number of conservatives have sought to define Ocasio-Cortez as clueless and naive, and some seized upon the tweet to suggest that she was likening the migrants that President Donald Trump has labeled as “invaders” to the 6 million Jews who perished in the Nazi Holocaust.

“New York Democratic Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Sunday compared members of the migrant caravan attempting to enter the United States to Jews fleeing Nazi Germany during the Holocaust” was how the conservative online news site the Daily Caller framed its report on

Ocasio-Cortez’s tweet.

“I recommend she take a tour of the Holocaust Museum in DC,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who is close to Trump, said in his own tweet. “Might help her better understand the differences between the Holocaust and the caravan in Tijuana.”

Here’s the thing: The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum wasn’t exactly distancing itself from Ocasio-Cortez’s comment.

Asked for comment on whether it is appropriate to liken the Central American refugees to Jews fleeing Germany, a museum spokesman pointed to its statement in 2017 when Trump announced plans to shrink refugee access to the United States. The statement suggested it is not out of place to liken the flight of Jews in the 1930s to subsequent refugee crises, even if the conditions in the home countries of the asylum seekers differ in scale or torment.

“The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is acutely aware of the consequences to the millions of Jews who were unable to flee Nazism, as noted in our November 2015 statement on the Syrian refugee crisis,” the 2017 statement said. “The Museum continues to have grave concern about the global refugee crisis and our response to it. During the 1930s and 1940s, the United States, along with the rest of the world, generally refused to admit Jewish refugees from Nazism due to anti-Semitic and xenophobic attitudes, harsh economic conditions, and national security fears.”

The most famous case is that of the St. Louis, the German “voyage of the damned” turned away from the United States and Canada in 1939. (Historians estimate that a third of the 900 or so Jewish refugees aboard the St. Louis perished in the Holocaust.)

Please see Cortez, page 9

We welcome your support through referrals and tax deductible donations as we assist people throughout the year.

412.521.3237 • P.O. Box 8197 • Pittsburgh, PA 15217

JewishAssistanceFund.org

p Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez appears on “Meet the Press” on July 1.

Photo by William B. Plowman/NBC/NBC NewsWire via Getty Images

8 DECEMBER 7, 2018

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

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9 WORLD

Headlines healthy looking young men,� he said in one tweet, referring to the migrants at Tijuana.

Continued from page 8 He also asserted, “If these illegals were all conservatives who would likely vote repubCanadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau lican, none of these leftwing supporters recently apologized for his nation’s decision of these illegals would be supporting the to turn away the ship; no U.S. president has. illegals. None!�

Melanie Nezer, a vice president of HIAS, Later, however, Klein conceded that the lead Jewish refugee organization, said seeking asylum in the U.S., with or without the laws governing how nations accept and legal status, is not illegal. What’s new is a process refugees were determined with the Trump policy saying those who enter the Holocaust as an immediate memory.

United States from Mexico between ports of “The laws we have today in this country entry are ineligible for asylum. were based on the U.N. convention of 1951, “Any person who is facing serious danger which was based on Jewish refugees being or oppression should be given every opporturned away during World War II,� she said. tunity for asylum in the United States, just That’s why, Nezer said, it made sense for as my parents, survivors of the Holocaust, Ocasio-Cortez to wealthy invoke not only themake Jews spending, from Poland and Czechoslovakia, given Every day, investors philanthropic and even were career turned decisions away in theto1930s ‘40s,the butworld subse-a better asylum, � Klein helpand make place.

Buttweeted when Sunday. it comes to quent refugee crises.

Nezer said the Central American refuinvesting, few act with the same sense of purpose—yet. “The point she was making, and I think it gees were denied the opportunity to apply was anFor appropriate that countries refugee more statusthan from5,300 a distance the way our latestone, UBSwas Investor Watch, wefor surveyed investors in must hear asylum claims, � said Nezer, who We Jewish refugees theunderstand relative safety 10 markets on sustainable investing. found thatcould whilefrom some added that the Trump administration’s shut- terms, of a displaced persons Others say the basic concept, confusion about approaches andcamp. even impact is the down of the border at wasinvestors unprec- make current is not among designed tothree facilitate widespread.

ForTijuana example, littlesystem distinction the edentedmajor in recent history and, in the integration view the processing large numbers of asylum approaches: exclusion, and impactofinvesting. of HIAS, illegal. seekers at the designated crossing points — MortBetter Klein, president of leads the Zionist — although education often to higherespecially adoption.families Those who decidedthe to adminisinvest Organization of America and the by sonmultiple of tration counters that many of theadvisors, migrants sustainably were influenced sources—such as professional Jewishfamily, refugees, hasand become the most areciting gaming the system by falsely claiming friends media—with 9 in 10 an advisor’s influence. outspoken defender of Trump’s immigra- persecution back home. tion policies among Jewish organization “A refugee is someone who has crossed a Ž heads. Lee In a series of tweets, Klein suggested border because don’t feel safe in their Oleinick Christopher Butsko,they CEPA that theManaging Central American country,�

Nezer said, obviating the prosDirector–migrants aren’t First Vice President–Wealth Management actuallyWealth refugees. of the Manager, Central Americans applying for Management Seniorpect Portfolio PMP “Stop412-665-9914 illegal immigration. They’re mostly refugee status in their home countries.

412-665-9918 lee.oleinick@ubs.com christopher.butsko@ubs.com

Cortez:

Return on value

US cautious, but sees the potential of sustainable investing Adoption of sustainable investing also varies dramatically across markets. The emerging markets of China and Brazil show the highest rates of adoption, while only 12% of US investors have any sustainable investments.* Few investors expect to sacrifice returns when investing sustainably. In fact, 82% believe the returns of sustainable investments will match or surpass those of traditional investments. Investors view sustainable companies as responsible, well-managed and forward-thinking—thus, good investments.

Should investors prove to be right, more companies will likely adopt sustainable practices. Perhaps then, the world will be a better place indeed. p Migrants climb up a bank of the nearly dry Tijuana River as they attempt to For a copy of the UBS Investor Watch, please contact us at walnut@ubs.com. make their way past a police blockade to the El Chaparral port.

Photo by William B. Plowman/NBC/NBC NewsWire via Getty Images

She said the refugees have little choice but particularly along the border,� where gangs Ž drug Management smugglers proliferate, to turn"Jack" up at the border andCFP exercise their and Walnut Wealth Group Nezer Jacob Greenberg, said. “There’s no safe right to request UBS Financial Services Inc.place for people to be Financial Advisorasylum. processed, you’re not providing them a safe “There are noPdisplaced 5600 Walnut Street FINANCIAL LANNERTM person camps, CERTIFIED alternative place for them to apply.�  PJC Mexico is not safe for asylum seekers, Pittsburgh, PA 15232 412-665-9911 412-665-9900 jacob.greenberg@ubs.com

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Sustainable investing refers to a range of investment approaches that include environmental, social and governance factors as part of the overall investment process and approach. Such factors include environmental effects, worker treatment, product sourcing practices and corporate governance, among others. The overall objective of taking this approach is to gain a fuller understanding of investments, in an effort to change the world for the better in the long-term. The expectation is that you should not have to give up returns to invest sustainably—rather, sustainable investments should perform comparably to or better than conventional equivalents. Worldwide, 50 percent of investors expect higher returns with sustainable investments and 32 percent expect equal returns, according to UBS Investor Watch, “Return on values.�1 With the right direction and focus, sustainable investing allows you to build a portfolio you can feel good about.

Implementing sustainable investments If sustainable investing sounds like something you want to implement in your portfolio, consider which of these broad approaches resonates most with you. Keep in mind that sustainable investing is not philanthropy—the objective is to generate competitive returns, not give away money.

objective of enhancing one’s assessment of risks and opportunities. Integration investing may result in exposure to companies that don’t necessarily have a stated ESG focus, but which exhibit strong performance on environmental, social or governance metrics.

Impact investing: An expanding set of investment strategies aim to achieve intentional and measurable positive social or environmental change while delivering market rate or better returns. This investment style, called impact investing, is typically achieved through active fund manager involvement with companies—whether private or public— to achieve targeted change and deliver returns.

Investors can adopt full sustainable investing portfolios or incorporate individual equity or fixed income strategies into their existing portfolios over time. They can use any combination of the above sustainable investing approaches to shape portfolios in a way that meets their individual goals.

Building a portfolio you can feel good about Sustainable investing is growing in popularity. A 2017 McKinsey and Company study found that more than 25 percent of all managed assets are invested with sustainability in mind and that the use of ESG integration specifically is growing at a rate of 17 percent per year.2 Fifty-eight percent of investors believe sustainable investing will be mainstream in 10 years, and adoption of sustainable investing is expected to grow significantly, from 39% of investors today to 48% over the next five years, according to UBS Investor Watch, “Return on Values.�1

Sustainable investing is not an all-or-nothing proposition: You have the choice to take small steps toward sustainable investing with a few small changes in your portfolio or dive in with a more extensive approach.

But one thing is certain, your portfolio won’t become more sustainable unless you take action. UBS is here to help.

1. “UBS Investor Watch: Return on values,� 2018, https://www.ubs.com/magazines/wma/insights/en/investor-watch/2018/return-on-values.html.

2. “From ‘why’ to ‘why not,’ McKinsey and Company, 2017, https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/private-equity-and-principal-investors/our-insights/from-why-to-why-not-sustainable-investing-as-the-new-normal.

This article has been written and provided by UBS Financial Services Inc. for use by its Financial Advisors.

ESG/Sustainable Investing Considerations: Sustainable investing strategies aim to consider and in some instances integrate the analysis of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into the investment process and portfolio. Strategies across geographies and styles approach ESG analysis and incorporate the findings in a variety of ways. Incorporating ESG factors or Sustainable Investing considerations may inhibit the portfolio manager’s ability to participate in certain investment opportunities that otherwise would be consistent with its investment objective and other principal investment strategies. The returns on a portfolio consisting primarily of ESG or sustainable investments may be lower or higher than a portfolio where such factors are not considered by the portfolio manager.

In providing wealth management services to clients, we offer both investment advisory and brokerage services which are separate and distinct and differ in material ways. For information, including the different laws and contracts that govern, visit ubs.com/workingwithus.

Please visit our website at http://financialservicesinc.ubs.com/wealth/E-maildisclaimer.html for important disclosures and information about our e-mail policies. For your protection,

UBS Financial Services Inc. is a subsidiary of UBS AG. Member FINRA/SIPC. please do not transmit orders or instructions by e-mail or include account numbers, Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, passwords, or other personal information.

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Headlines — WORLD — From JTA reports

Jewish Americans sue Airbnb over plan to remove listings in West Bank settlements A group of Jewish Americans is suing Airbnb over the company’s announcement that it will remove the listings of homes in Jewish West Bank settlements.

The 18 plaintiffs, mostly families who own properties in Israel, filed the civil rights lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Delaware alleging that the internet hospitality firm has enacted a new policy discriminating against them based on their religion.

The suit, filed under the Fair Housing Act, accuses Airbnb of redlining the Jewishowned properties while continuing to allow Muslim and Christian homeowners to rent theirs, thus also taking a side in the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians over West Bank land.

It asks the court to prevent Airbnb from discriminating against Jewish homeowners and seeks compensation for lost rental income.

The plaintiffs are 12 Jewish-American families who own properties in Israel and one U.S. citizen who has used Airbnb to rent properties in areas of the West Bank.

Shurat HaDin-Israel Law Center, a human rights law organization, organized the suit filed this week.

Airbnb announced last month that it would remove the some 200 listings for rentals in the West Bank. As of last week the listings remained on its website.

The company said that it consulted with experts to learn about the historical disputes in the region in order to make a decision about whether it should be doing business in “the occupied territories.”

“We concluded that we should remove listings in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank that are at the core of the dispute between Israelis and Palestinians,” a statement on the Airbnb website said.

An Israeli woman who rents guestrooms in her home in the West Bank outpost of Kida filed a separate lawsuit last week in Jerusalem District Court, citing the country’s anti-discrimination laws.

Office of Jewish professor at Columbia vandalized with swastikas Swastikas were spray-painted on two office walls of a Jewish professor at Columbia University.

The word “YID” also was spray-painted on an office wall of Elizabeth Midlarsky, a professor of psychology and education at Teachers College. Midlarsky also researches and publishes about the Holocaust.

The New York Police Department is investigating the incident, the Columbia Spectator student newspaper reported about two hours after the graffiti was discovered on Nov.

28. All Teachers College academic buildings require an ID for entrance, according to the Spectator.

“I was in shock,” Midlarsky, who is 77 and says she is in poor health, told the newspaper. “I stopped for a moment because I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.”

Teachers College President Thomas Bailey said in a statement: “We unequivocally condemn any expression of hatred, which has no place in our society. We are outraged and horrified by this act of aggression and use of this vile anti-Semitic symbol against a valued member of our community.”

In 2007, Midlarsky was the victim of anti-Semitic vandalism at the university, when a swastika was spray-painted on her office door and anti-Semitic fliers were left in her mailbox.

The Anti-Defamation League in a statement offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the individual or individuals responsible for the vandalism.

“While we hope this reward facilitates the quick apprehension of the individual or individuals responsible for this most recent horrific incident, we all have a role to play in preventing these incidents from happening in the first instance. We must continue to stand up and speak out against bigotry and hatred to avoid what we fear is becoming a grave and troubling normalization of hate in our region,” said Evan R. Bernstein, regional director of ADL for New York and New Jersey.

AIPAC seeks a director of outreach to progressives in New York area The American Israel Public Affairs Committee has made a push in recent years to repair relations with liberals and Democrats. Toward that end, the pro-Israel lobby is seeking a progressive outreach director in the New York area.

The director’s task would be to “build relationships with key progressive political, religious, and community leaders in the Northeast Region, educating them about the U.S.-Israel relationship,” according to the job announcement posted late last week on the LinkedIn job search website.

“We have had a progressive engagement program for the past few years,” AIPAC said.

In 2014, AIPAC named a national director of outreach to progressives, and it employs a regional progressive outreach director in New England.

The pro-settlement policies of Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister since 2009, have helped sow disenchantment with Israel and AIPAC among progressives.

So did the clashes between Netanyahu and former President Barack Obama, and more recently, Netanyahu’s robust praise for President Donald Trump.

AIPAC in recent months has been more outspoken in endorsing the two-state outcome to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, while Netanyahu and Trump have both retreated to agnosticism on whether a Palestinian state is a preferred outcome of a peace deal. PJC

This week in Israeli history — WORLD — Dec. 7, 1921 — First nurses graduate Hadassah

Many people have said to me, and I am paraphrasing, I want to live a long life, so long as I have my health. I am sure that notion is familiar to many of us. Who doesn’t want to live a long healthy life. But to do so, you must take the necessary steps that will help you to achieve this. First step, you must create and then follow a healthy lifestyle; proper nutrition, regular exercise, etc...

You might consider a personal trainer; someone skilled in those areas to best help you achieve those goals. Equally important, you should choose a GREAT MEDICARE PLAN. One with lots of options so that you can obtain the best fit for you and your future. You might want to seek a professional to help guide you through that process. I would like to help you with that. Think of me as your personal trainer in this area.

You still have time but you must act now! The deadline is December 7th For those of you under the age of 65, you have until December 15 to make your choices.

Also, remember to set up your monthly withdraws.

This space was donated by Dan Askin.

Dan Askin

Dec. 8, 1885 — Joseph Sprinzak is born

Joseph Sprinzak, the first speaker of the Knesset, is born in Moscow. He and his Zionist family settle in Warsaw after Jews are expelled from Moscow in 1891. He starts the Zeirei Zion (Youth of Zion) youth group in 1905 and helps establish many of the institutions that form Israel’s foundation.

Dec. 9, 1914 — Shmuel Katz Is Born

Shmuel Katz, a leader of Revisionist Judaism and a founder of Menachem Begin’s Herut party, is born in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Known as “Mookie,” he makes aliyah in 1936 and joins the Irgun militia. He arranges for arms to be shipped from France in 1948 aboard the Altalena, which David Ben-Gurion orders sunk. He is later elected to the first Knesset.

Dec. 10, 1952 — Ben-Zvi inaugurated

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Twenty-two women graduate from the Nurses’ Training Institute at Rothschild Hospital in Jerusalem, making them the first nurses to receive their degrees in the Land of Israel. Hadassah opened the institute in 1918.

Yitzhak Ben-Zvi is inaugurated as Israel’s second president after a 30-day

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mourning period for his predecessor, Chaim Weizmann, and two days after being elected on the third ballot by the Knesset against Rabbi Mordechai Nurock and Yitzhak Gruenbaum. He serves three terms until his death in April 1963.

Dec. 11, 1947 — End of Mandate announced

Arthur Creech Jones, the British colonial secretary, opens a debate in the House of Commons about the end of the British role in Palestine by revealing that the British Mandate will end May 15, and that all British troops will be withdrawn by Aug. 1.

Dec. 12, 1920 — Histadrut founded

The General Federation of Jewish Labor, known as the Histadrut, is founded in Haifa to serve as a neutral, independent trade union representing all the Jewish workers in Palestine.

Dec. 13, 1961 — Death for Eichmann sought

After the two-day reading of a 100,000-word verdict finding Adolf Eichmann guilty of 15 charges, including murder, crimes against the Jewish people and crimes against humanity, Israeli prosecutor Gideon Hausner pleads with the three judges overseeing the trial to sentence the Nazi to death. PJC Items provided by the Center for Jewish Education (www.israeled. org), where you can find more details.

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VOLUNTEERS OF THE YEAR

WELCOME TO THE CHRONICLE’S FIRST ANNUAL EDITION OF

Volunteers of the Year

In past years, the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh presented its Volunteers of the Year recognition program at its annual meetings. With the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle’s relaunch and move to free subscriptions in the greater Pittsburgh area, the Federation, together with the Chronicle, decided to transition the Volunteers of the Year

program to us. We’ve expanded the reach of honoring these volunteers beyond the Federation’s annual meeting, and, with our greatly expanded distribution, organizations are benefitting from more community exposure. We hope you enjoy reading about the wonderful work volunteers perform in our community.

Adath Jeshurun Cemetery

She is always there to volunteer whenever we need her. She is a founding member of the new Hillel Academy Annual Campaign.

Renee Abrams entered the office of president as a privilege more than an elected position, following in the footsteps of her uncle Ben Melnick, who created the governing body and direction of the Adath Jeshurun Cemetery after the synagogue closed. Renee built on his dedication. Her initiatives created community awareness and included the creation of a Cemetery website and brochure, installation of cement pathways, updated operating documents and a community service project in partnership with a middle school for an annual “Salute to Our Veterans” held at the cemetery. Security concerns for Jewish cemeteries resulted in working with Allegheny County Homeland Security to secure best practices to protect AJC.

Jewish Family and Community Services

Randi Cohen has unreservedly shared her time giving job-seeking clients the benefit of her 37-year professional expertise in Human Resources, preparing them for interviews, career fairs and employer events. She works cheerfully with refugees, immigrants, single parents, mature and returning workers, recently unemployed, individuals with invisible disabilities, veterans and the long-term

unemployed. Volunteers with this level of critically needed skills are rare and invaluable.

Randi is also an ambassador to our employers at career fairs and events, which she unfailingly attends. Randi is a consummate professional, treasured resource for our clients and valuable member of the JFCS Career Development Center family.

Yeshiva Schools

Heading the Teacher Appreciation Committee with her leadership and team building skills, Chaya Cowen has organized and led volunteers in coordinating teacher appreciation functions and initiatives. Her enthusiasm in doing so has set a prime example, and a high standard of parent partnership with the school. Full of creativity and energy, Chaya has helped foster a positive and upbeat environment in the halls of Yeshiva Schools and beyond.

She works full time and is the mom of four Yeshiva students, yet manages to place volunteering at Yeshiva as a top priority.

Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh

Elena Davis is Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh’s Volunteer of the Year.

Elena has chaired our annual dinner for the past three years, and has always ensured it presents the school in such a wonderful light.

National Council of Jewish Women - Pittsburgh Section

Jan Engelberg is a longtime member, volunteer and Board Member of National Council of Jewish WomenPittsburgh Section. She has chaired many projects and programs over the years. This past year, on the planning committee of the Annual Meeting/125th Celebration, she created displays showcasing the history of NCJW volunteers and events. Jan led hospitality for Project Prom this past spring and was the Tennis Chair at our annual Day at Camp fundraiser for the Center for Women this past summer. Currently she is a co-chair of our Leadership Development Program and setting up our annual Designer Days Patron Party fundraiser.

The Jewish Women’s Center of Pittsburgh

Malke Frank has long contributed to Jewish education in Pittsburgh. In 1992, Malke cofounded the Jewish Women’s Center of Pittsburgh, creating new opportunities for Jewish women’s learning, leadership, spiritual growth and ritual practice. Malke has been JWC

president for years and a major driver of its innovative programming: a Women’s Pesach Seder, now 25 years old, Shabbat services led entirely by women, a book club reading female Jewish authors, creation of new Jewish rituals for women, collaborative programming with Muslim women, and more. The JWC celebrates Malke’s contributions to making the JWC a key resource for Jewish women in Pittsburgh.

Jewish Assistance Fund

Gean Goldfarb shares her creativity, enthusiasm, vision, passion and time to help the Jewish Assistance Fund. For eight years, she has filled many roles including serving as a dedicated board member and grantor. Currently she is Board Vice President and very involved in a Website Working Group that is redesigning the website and logo. Gean plays a pivotal role in the Jewish Assistance Fund. We count on her to assure that even with a small staff, we can have a big impact in the lives of members of the Pittsburgh Jewish community and their families by providing immediate financial assistance.

Please see Volunteers, page 12

For her many years of dedication, Beth El Congregation of the South Hills is happy to honor

Shelly Seigel as our Volunteer of the Year.

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VOLUNTEERS OF THE YEAR

Congregation Beth Shalom

In 2014 Tammy Hepps came to Pittsburgh tracing her family’s Homestead roots, and has since been invaluable to the Beth Shalom community. She found her home here volunteering with our Torah team, the strategic planning committee, as a board member, and as a regular Torah reader. She is also the co-chair of Beth Shalom’s Cemetery Committee, helping Beth Shalom’s Cemetery and the Homestead Hebrew Cemetery. With her interest in family genealogy and computer skills, she single-handedly developed a website connecting Homestead families with their Jewish history. Most recently Tammy was selected to be a member of Pittsburgh’s 2018 Wexner Heritage Class.

Hebrew Free Loan Association

Nancy Israel has been a dynamic and vital member of Hebrew Free Loan’s Board of Directors since 2011. Nancy has shared her time, expertise and background in nonprofit management to help advance HFL’s governance and operating procedures, culminating in a major revision of the bylaws. She co-chaired an engaging board retreat that led to data-driven decisions that will broaden HFL’s reach. Nancy

p Volunteer of the year Derek Smith helps out at Community Day School.

Photo courtesy of CDS

currently serves as the organization’s first vice president. Her mentorship and input have strengthened the HFL in many tangible and significant ways. HFL is truly grateful for Nancy’s dedication and contributions!

Young Peoples Synagogue/ Bohnai Yisrael

Samuel Jackendoff ’s volunteering for Young Peoples Synagogue/ Bohnai Yisrael has been instrumental in furthering the traditions and service we provide to our congregants. For several years, but this year particularly, Sam directed the erection and takedown of our sukkah. He served

again as our shofar blower on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and went to ailing congregants’ homes to enable them to fulfill the mitzvah of hearing the shofar.

Further, he readily came several times during the year when we needed assistance regarding the integrity of our building. YPS is pleased to recognize Sam as our Volunteer of the Year.

Ladies Hospital Aid Society

Carole Kamin and her husband Dan are members of R o def Sha lom Congregation where they both serve on the cemetery committee and recently made a significant

unrestricted donation. They are contributors to many nonprofits, including the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, Jewish Association on Aging, Jewish National Fund and the Birthright Israel Foundation.

Carole has spent the past 20 years donating her time to philanthropy and volunteerism.

As a Board member, Vice President and now President of LHAS she has worked tirelessly on generating funds for the social service programs and medical research.

The LHAS gift shops under her efforts have contributed six-figure funding to these causes. Also, under her leadership, two successful inaugural fundraisers took place for both the Brain Institute and Eye Institute of UPMC.

Repair the World

Michael Kirshenbaum volunteers with Repair the World Pittsburgh frequently for the last few years. He is always thinking about the issues that we are working with and always ready to lend a hand. He gardens at the Sheridan Avenue Orchard on most Mondays as well. The orchard benefits a food pantry across the street from its location in East Liberty. Michael is also willing to have the difficult conversations, and he works hard to learn and grow from each of his experiences. We are incredibly grateful to have Michael involved with Repair the World Pittsburgh.

We can always count on Hesh.

He plays piano. Deals cards.

Tells stories. Makes us smile.

Congratulations Hesh Reinfeld Volunteer For the Ages

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VOLUNTEERS OF THE YEAR Beth Samuel Jewish Center

Lynn Klein has been volunteering at Beth Samuel Jewish Center ever since she and her husband moved to Sewickley and joined the congregation. While raising three children and working full time, Lynn also made time to work with the religious school, help at innumerable events and serve on dozens of committees. She was chair of the Sisterhood, and worked on several large fundraisers. After welcoming her first grandchild, Lynn recently stepped down from the Board after serving on it for over 30 years, including being President and Past-President. Beth Samuel thanks Lynn for being our star volunteer for 30 years!

Temple Emanuel

As Chair of Temple Emanuel’s Interim Rabbi Search Committee, Michelle Markowitz guided the committee through Temple’s first major rabbinic search in more than 30 years. From developing the candidate application to reviewing resumes and conducting interviews, Michelle implemented a consensus decision-making model that allowed the committee to successfully do its work in the best interest of the congregation. Michelle is now

enough, Karen took on leadership roles again: organizing activities for the kids, hosting events at her home and spreading her enthusiasm for Israel and peer leadership. Her tireless fundraising and friendraising enabled Young Judaea Pittsburgh to hire a city coordinator to mentor local teens who plan and lead monthly activities.

Thanks to her efforts dozens of children attend Young Judaea camps and Israel programs each summer and have created a community in Pittsburgh.

Hadassah Pittsburgh Region p Malke Frank (seated, center left) has been a major driver of the Jewish Women’s Center’s Women’s Pesach Seder, now 25 years old.

Photo courtesy of Jewish Women Center

leading our Settled Rabbi Search Committee and we have every confidence that they will succeed once again under her leadership. Michelle previously served on Temple’s board and is a past vice president of the congregation.

Temple Ohav Shalom

David Marx, a 20+ year member of Temple Ohav Shalom, whose nickname should be anonymous!

For many of those years, David has been committed to maintaining and improving the physical properties of our Temple. David has used his landscaping skills to enhance first

impressions when arriving at the building.

In addition, weekly grass cutting, planting and general cleanup save us thousands of dollars via his volunteer service. Inside, he is the first to relocate furniture, hang plaques and provide handyman services.

All of this happens with little fanfare. David sets the stage for our spiritual experiences.

Thank you David!

Young Judaea Pittsburgh

Karen Morris grew up in Young Judaea, became a teen leader and continued to take leadership roles at Camp Young Judaea Midwest. When her kids were old

Rochelle Parker has served Hadassah in multiple positions over a span of many years. She served four years as Group president and most recently completed two years as Pittsburgh Region president. Her mission is to inspire a passion and commitment to Hadassah’s partnership with the United States and the land and people of Israel. Hadassah has remained unwavering in its support of women’s health and wellbeing, education, advocacy and through opportunities for personal growth. Rochelle is proud to support Hadassah’s outstanding medical care and research to benefit everyone.

Please see Volunteers, page 14

Mazel Tov and Todah Rabah to Amy Perilstein, Adat Shalom’s Volunteer of the year

Congratulations and thanks to

DAVID SUFRIN,

the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Volunteer of the Year and 2018 recipient of the Gerald S. Ostrow Volunteer of the Year Award.

Photo: David Bachman

368 Guys Run Road, Cheswick, PA 15024

412-820-7000 • www.Adatshalompgh.org PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

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Today. Tomorrow. Together.

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VOLUNTEERS OF THE YEAR

Adat Shalom Congregation

Amy Wagner Perilstein is a dynamo of energy and caring. When Amy decides that something should be done you can be sure that a project will be completed with every detail addressed. As co-president of Sisterhood, Amy has put her efforts into Sisterhood projects. Along with her late mother, Jacklyn Wagner, Amy managed the Adat Shalom Gift Shop. For the past 10 years Amy has made the Adat Shalom Sisterhood Directory her project. From initial inquiries to project layout, Amy has her hand in all aspects of the Sisterhood Directory. Adat Shalom thanks Amy for her dedication to our community.

Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh Lynne Ravas is a retired teacher and the daughter of a Holocaust survivor.

Over the past year, she has volunteered in many capacities, but primarily as a Generations Speaker, telling her father’s story to student groups.

With a storytelling ability like no other, not to mention an incredible warmth and congeniality, she captivates students of all ages with her family story and helps bring home important lessons against hatred, anti-Semitism, and the difference that each individual can make. Not only has Lynne made a huge impression on the many

weekly publication of the Carnegie Shul Chatter to hundreds of Jews throughout the country. (After all, many of our former active members reside outside of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area.) Mike has also been a developer and producer of widely admired and well received programs hosted by the Carnegie Shul for the entire South Hills Jewish community. He is a stalwart member of the Shul and richly deserves this honor.

Temple Sinai

p Dr. Terry Starz volunteers in the Jewish Healthcare Foundation’s Fit With Physician program.

p Jonah Ufberg takes care of things in the Beth Hamedrash Hagodol-Beth Jacob Sanctuary.

children she has spoken to, but she is also an enthusiastic volunteer who inspires all the staff she has come into contact with.

to connect, and he challenges himself to make the most of every encounter. On Tuesday mornings at AHAVA Memory Care Center, we find him engaged and engaging with those touched by Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias. Thursdays, it’s Weinberg Village’s turn. We ♥ Hesh.

Photo courtesy of JHF

Jewish Association on Aging

Few volunteers in the day-to-day workings of a nonprofit can fill a room, both with people and personality, quite like Hesh Reinfeld. The special way Hesh gets along with older adults makes him a particularly valuable member of the Jewish Association on Aging family. Whether playing music or blackjack with our residents, Hesh knows what it takes

Photo courtesy of Beth Hamedrash Hagadol-Beth Jacob

Congregation Ahavath Achim (The Carnegie Shul)

Michael Roteman has been the Carnegie Shul’s volunteer par excellence for years as evidenced by his writing and transmission of the esteemed

Lynn Rubenson’s impact as a volunteer at Temple Sinai cannot be overstated. Dedication to our mission, her insight and creativity and attention to detail are apparent at Temple Sinai. Lynn is Secretary of the Executive Committee, Chair of the Marketing Committee, contributor to the Temple Sinai Shema Statement, a member of the Disability Task Force, Corresponding Secretary of Women of Temple Sinai, delivers bags for the Caring Committee, a volunteer chef for Temple Sinai Shabbat dinners and supports the Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact Network (PIIN). Lynn is VP of Marketing and Communication for the Women of Reform Judaism (WRJ) Atlantic District. Temple Sinai thanks Lynn for her very generous and meaningful support.

Thank you Leslie for everything you do for The Friendship Circle!

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VOLUNTEERS OF THE YEAR Beth El Congregation of the South Hills

Beth El Congregation of the South Hills is proud to honor Shelly Seigel as their Volunteer of the Year. Shelly has served as Chairperson of the Adult Education committee for the past few years and has been a regular volunteer at Beth El Bingo (a weekly fundraiser). Over the years, Shelly has also assisted with the membership directory, the mishloach manot project and pancake festival, has served as a substitute teacher in the religious school and was a leader of children’s services during High Holiday services. She is married to Daniel and is the mother of three beautiful daughters.

Lubavitch Center

Volunteering at your synagogue is an age-old Jewish virtue. Shlomo Silverman does not just lend a hand when needed, he is the one who organizes and manages many of the weekly programs at Lubavitch Center. A team of dedicated volunteers leads the weekly Kiddush setup, and Shlomo is always participating, and often recruits others to join. In addition Shlomo volunteers to help coordinate the daily minyan at Lubavitch Center, serving as gabbai at the early minyan. These, among

advisor to Head of School Avi Munro and CFO Bari Weinberger, he works to ensure that every trustee, no matter their financial acumen, understands the basics of financial reporting, accountability and budget setting considerations. Derek has taken the lead in soliciting donors for tax credit programs that make a CDS education affordable for more families. We are inspired by Derek’s passion and belief that our school is worthy of investment and that investment in ourselves can yield the biggest returns.

Friendship Circle

 Randi Cohen (left), JFCS Career Center volunteer, at a networking event

Photo courtesy of JFCS

many other initiatives, are why Shlomo has been a vital part in the rejuvenation of the youthful spirit felt at all functions of Lubavitch Center.

Zionist Organization of America: Pittsburgh

Jason Small, for more than 10 years, has been an active member of the Zionist Organization of America: Pittsburgh. He became involved with ZOA when he joined a ZOA Investment Club, which purchased only Israeli stocks, and later became its treasurer. Since then Jason has been elected

to the board of ZOA and currently serves as treasurer. He has also been helpful with ZOA’s IT needs. Whether it’s a meeting, helping with the Annual Awards Dinner, the Tolerance Education Program, and other programming, ZOA can always depend on Jason.

Community Day School

Derek Smith has been a CDS trustee, treasurer and assistant treasurer since 2007. He served on our Executive Committee, Audit Committee and as Chair of our Investment Committee. As valued

At Friendship Circle we are lucky to have Leslie Spiegel as a part of our “circle.” We can always count on her for greeting all of our friends at the door with a smile and ensuring that everyone is having a good time. Leslie is always willing to be here for us when we need her, whether it is working at the front desk during programs or helping out in the office with our office assistants. Thank you, Leslie, for all of the energy and time you have given us. We only should share many more happy times and create good memories together!

Please see Volunteers, page 16

Beth Samuel Jewish Center applauds our Lynn Klein for 30 years of hard work and dedication.

BSJC’s Volunteer of the Year

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VOLUNTEERS OF THE YEAR Chabad of Squirrel Hill

Jewish Healthcare Foundation

Dr. Terry W. Starz, a rheumatologist at UPMC and a trustee of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation, has spent the last two years helping to build the organization’s Fit with Physician program, a component of the Foundation’s Senior Connections initiative.

Dr. Starz enthusiastically leads groups of seniors into local parks, providing educational tips on the benefits of exercise as we age. He has also recruited fellow physicians to lead walks on a variety of other health topics. The program has soared thanks to his passion for keeping our region’s seniors active. The community is lucky for Dr. Starz’s ongoing commitment to population wellness.

Jewish Residential Services

E.J. Strassburger, a past president of Jewish Residential Services and a tireless volunteer for the organization, has enabled JRS to make a significant difference in the lives of individuals with chronic mental illness and intellectual and developmental disabilities.

He was instrumental in identifying Jason Kramer Hall, as well as in redevelopment of the Poli’s building into the Corrinne and Seymour Krause Commons, increasing the supply of affordable and supportive housing

Chabad of Squirrel Hill nominates Anat Talmy as our Volunteer of the Year. Anat is a community activist with a big heart and is always willing to help out when needed. Anat has helped organize and promote programs for Chabad of Squirrel Hill, Classrooms Without Borders, Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Israeli community. A skilled photographer, she has volunteered her services on countless occasions for us and other local Jewish organizations and has curated the visual arts presentation for the yearly Sound of Jewish Music event. If there is a job that needs to get done, Anat can be counted on to pull it off with a smile. p Volunteer Lynne Ravas teachs about the Holocaust.

Photo courtesy of Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh

for these individuals. Through his efforts the organization’s endowment has increased substantially, ensuring JRS’ sustainability well into the future.

Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh

Long active in the Jewish community, most recently David Sufrin chaired the Building Committee, which spearheaded the search for the Federation’s new space. He is currently an officer and a member of the Board of

Mazal Tov to our founder, Malke Frank.

“She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue”

Directors. Dave chaired the Annual Campaign for two years. He is a passionate fundraiser, Development Chair, a member of the Budget & Finance Committee, Planning and Funding Committee, Aging and Human Needs Commission and Foundation Grantmaking Committees. Pittsburgh is incredibly lucky to have a volunteer like David Sufrin. He is a true visionary and has been a great asset to the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh’s Jewish community and beyond.

Beth Hamedrash Hagodol Beth Jacob Congregation

Ranking just above Joe Biden and below the hit television Series “The Office,” Jonah Ufberg is one of the greatest things to come out of Scranton, Pa. His levelheadedness, calm demeanor, insights, and financial acumen have helped us troubleshoot problems as they arise. Jonah also brings his smile, enthusiasm and amazing cardigans to help make minyan each day. We are blessed to have him as a board member, congregant and most importantly, friend.

Help us Document the Events of the Past Weeks The attack at the Tree of Life synagogue building promises to be one of the most consequential moments in the history of Pittsburgh.

With the support of the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, the Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives is actively collecting original documentation of the event and its aftermath. The public is encouraged to submit digital materials — everything from photographs of vigils, to voice messages and texts on the day of the attack, to posts on Facebook and other social media, and to stories from the past week — through a special web portal https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org/collections/rauh-jewish-historyprogram-and-archives/responding-to-the-tree-of-life-tragedy To donate physical materials, please contact Eric Lidji at eslidji@heinzhistorycenter.org or 412-454-6406.

16 DECEMBER 7, 2018

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Headlines Mail: Continued from page 1

be intended for all three congregations, according to Hausman.

“We don’t view it as Tree of Life mail,” he said. “We know that we’re just the name on the building and it is really directed to all the congregations that were affected.”

In addition to sympathy cards and notes, the congregations have received stuffed animals, prayer shawls and knitted items “for comfort,” Hausman said.

“One of the earliest things we opened had a lot of weight to it — was about 15 pounds,” he recalled. Volunteers opened the package and found a polished rock slab with the names of all 11 victims engraved onto its front. Two days later, the volunteers turned the rock around and saw that the Mourner’s Kaddish had been engraved on its back.

“Some packages have 50 notes, one from every kid in a school, or every congregant in a church or a synagogue,” Hausman said.

Also within the mail are many drawings of trees, posters and mobiles with Jewish stars. The mail is coming from all over the world, including South America, Europe, the Dominican Republic and Guam. Several letters have come from Jewish inmates, and some of those have been written in Hebrew.

“It’s heartbreaking,” said Stephen Cohen, co-president of New Light. His congregation has received “well over 1,000 messages, between emails and letters and cards.”

p A Chanukah menorah stands outside the Tree of Life synagogue building.

Mail sent there in the wake of the Oct. 27 attack is being sorted by volunteers inside a room at Rodef Shalom Congregation.

Photo by Toby Tabachnick

The first card that Janet Cohen, who is tracking the mail for New Light, received two days after the shooting stated “You don’t know me, but my heart goes out to you all,” she recalled.

A Jewish Heritage Club from a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., school had apparently assigned its members research projects about the victims, Janet Cohen said. One

Temple Sinai invites you to

POSTCARD FROM GERMANY Saturday, December 8, 4–6 PM

Rabbi Jamie Gibson will share highlights and reflections from his trip to Berlin for the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht.

Come join us for Shabbat Se’udah Ha-Shli-Sheet.

student wrote about New Light member Mel Wax, saying, “I know he was a generous and kind person, because I researched him.”

Another note came for the family of Mel Wax from “Tim,” with no last name, and no return address.

A women’s study group from a Young Israel congregation in Great Neck, N.Y., sent 20 personal notes, one from each woman.

Students from Maimonides Academy in Los Angeles sent notes intended for specific families. A stack of handwritten letters tied with a ribbon came from STEM Prep Academy in Nashville, Tenn. A letter written to survivor Barry Werber came on paper with the printed words: “Never Again.”

Sorting through all the notes is heartwrenching, said Janet Cohen. “It’s hard to do, but it makes me feel good. It’s a mitzvah for me to do it.”

Because of the sheer quantity of mail, not every piece can be read closely at this point in time, Hausman said, but each letter and card will be read in its entirety eventually, then documented and put into a digital format that can be shared with the community.

“This stuff is touching,” Hausman said, noting that the mail has included cash and

checks from people on fixed incomes. One letter contained $5 with a note saying “sorry, it’s all I can afford.”

Larger amounts of cash and checks are also contained within the envelopes. All of the money received is recorded and deposited into appropriate accounts, Hausman said.

Mixed within the piles of mail are also routine phone and electric bills that have come to the congregations that need to be sorted and paid, once they are found.

And now, the congregations are beginning to receive Chanukah cards, Hausman said.

Although it is a daunting task “as soon as shloshim is over, we will respond,” said Stephen Cohen. “We intend to respond to every single package, post and letter.”

Dor Hadash has formed a committee to write thank you notes, Dor Hadash President Ellen Surloff said, and hopes to include religious school students in the process. They will respond to children who have sent drawings and condolences from around the country.

TOL*OLS is planning on running ads in papers across the country to express its gratitude to those who have sent letters, money and objects of comfort, Hausman said.

“I know personally that we will never get a proper thank you to everyone,” he said.

“That would take years.”

His congregation will send receipts and written thanks to anyone needing that documentation for tax purposes and “for larger gifts,” Hausman said.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh also has received more than 200 pieces of mail related to the Tree of Life shooting, according to Adam Hertzman, the Federation’s director of marketing.

“We’ve been getting everything from a simple letter to a 11 inch by 17 inch rolled up collage from a school in Israel,” Hertzman said, adding that all mail is opened by a Federation staff member and then forwarded to the appropriate family or congregation.

While it is not an emotionally simple task to open and sort thousands of pieces of mail, it is comforting, Hausman said. “The bottom line is there is much more love in the world than evil.” PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

The evening will conclude with Havdalah.

Free and open to the public.

Questions? Contact Nancy Conaway at (412) 421-9715 ext. 115 or Nancy@TempleSinaiPGH.org.

5505 Forbes Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15217 (412) 421-9715 www.TempleSinaiPGH.org Temple Sinai is an inclusive community that embraces, supports, and values all people, regardless of ability or needs, to participate in every aspect of our Reform Jewish synagogue life. For more information or to request an accommodation, contact Judy Rulin Mahan at (412) 421-9715 ext. 110 or judy@templesinaipgh.org.

8900 University Blvd, Moon Township, PA 15108 PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

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DECEMBER 7, 2018 17

14 color

Opinion George H.W. Bush, a mensch — EDITORIAL —

F

ormer President George H. W. Bush is being remembered this week as a mensch, as well as a model of duty and service. His family and friends are even referring to him as the best one-term president in the history of our country. And while it may be that Bush was all of the above, there is no question that our fondness for the man has something to do with the healing effect of the passage of time since his presidency in 1989-1993, let alone with the more balanced public persona he projected in contrast to our current experience.

Certainly Bush was circumspect, careful with words and prudent — a favorite term of his — in his public comments and decision-making. He was also experienced.

Yet American Jews had some difficult times with Bush. He battled incessantly with Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir’s government in Israel, which, not unlike today, was focused on building settlements. And Israelis and American Jews chafed at Bush’s pressure on Shamir during the first Gulf War not to retaliate for Iraqi missile attacks on Israel.

There were also the ugly jabs from Bush and his top advisers that made us squirm.

“When you’re serious about peace, call us,”

p President George Bush poses for photographers following an Oval Office address to the nation on Sept. 27, 1991.

Photo by Luke Frazza/AFP/Getty Images

Secretary of State James Baker once said, addressing a virtual Shamir during testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Baker even gave the number for the White House switchboard.

Then, in 1991, Bush famously lashed out at pro-Israel activists who had flooded Congress in response to the president’s reluctance to approve loan guarantees requested by Israel.

The Jewish state needed the money to help absorb hundreds of thousands of Jews from

the former Soviet Union, but Bush held up the loan guarantees over Shamir’s settlement enterprise. Bush called himself “one lonely guy” battling “a thousand lobbyists on the Hill.” Jewish leaders rightfully resented the insinuation that the pro-Israel community was possessed of a power sinister enough to unsettle the leader of the free world.

And although Bush largely conducted himself and his presidency in a dignified and patrician way, he was known to use

occasional, disquieting racist dog whistles, such as the 1988 Willie Horton campaign ad that played on white fears of black crime. That made minorities nervous, just as his confrontational comments regarding Israel were disquieting for the Jewish community.

Bush later told Jewish leaders how sorry and misunderstood he was for the “one lonely guy” remark. It was also Bush who, working behind the scenes, set into motion Operation Solomon, which brought 15,000 Jews from Ethiopia to Israel in 1991. And earlier, as vice president, Bush persuaded the government of Sudan to allow U.S. planes to transport 900 Ethiopian Jews stranded in Sudan. In this, he was ahead of the American Jewish communal leadership, and deserves recognition and praise.

The 41st president of the United States had a mixed record in office. He did things we applauded, said some things that made us uncomfortable, and backed some policies that were more conservative than a majority of the Jewish community was ever willing to go. And yet practically everyone who dealt with him described him as polite and self-effacing, gracious and warm, and deeply human. He was a mensch.

Although we disagreed with much that he did, we will miss him. PJC

Forging connections to Israel as a Diaspora emissary: mission possible Guest Columnist Elina Lipov

B

eing a shlicha, an Israeli emissary, means being on a mission — a mission of connecting people to people, to ideas, to hopes and to activism.

My mission was to connect students in Pittsburgh to the land of Israel.

Being a shlicha in a totally new place, with new people, new culture, new family and friends, in a way was being a chalutza (pioneer), just like the Jews who first came to the pre-state Israel and worked the land in order to create a new community — a Jewish one.

Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, once defined pioneering as “recognition of a historic mission and unconditional stabilization and without any aversion to any difficulty or danger — at the disposal of this mission. This is the moral merit and mental imperative to live daily according to the conscience decree and according to the claim of destiny.”

As the Jewish Agency Israel Fellow at the Edward and Rose Berman Hillel Jewish University Center of Pittsburgh, I found a partially functioning community around Israel, which had the potential and the enthusiasm to do whatever it takes to grow the community and bring Israel to 18 DECEMBER 7, 2018

campus, but was lacking the linking factor and maybe some courage to stand up to the haters around them.

Since I never felt like I was “advocating” for anything but my own point of view, it was easier for me to connect to the students on a personal level and to be the connection to the land of Israel that was much-needed on campus. For me, this was the real mission. By working hard on getting to know the people around me and the different resources we had, I was able to create a custom-made connection through various fields of interest to each student.

Community is a powerful thing, and it is most beneficial when it works both ways — when you are open to let different opinions in, and at the same time you contribute your own ideas to the community. Tolerance is the key word.

I got to see “my” Israel through so many different lenses in Pittsburgh. Every conversation and every activity with the students inspired and challenged me to rethink and reevaluate my own connection to Israel.

Every time Israelis ask me about my experience in Pittsburgh, I mention the importance of educating ourselves about Diaspora Jewry and its challenges, because we’re all connected and we bond around Israel. How can we bond if we don’t have tolerance for each other?

In order to see the bigger picture, I had to step out of my comfort zone and my own bubble (called Israel), so I could

better understand how Israel exists in the Diaspora — realizing that neither Israelis nor Diaspora Jews fully see each other’s perspectives, yet feel comfortable criticizing those perspectives.

Now that I’ve returned to Israel, I feel an obligation to bring back the different voices and the points of view, the struggles and the challenges that Jewish communities in Pittsburgh and elsewhere are dealing with when it comes to Israel. Standing up for Israel while being in Israel is easier than doing it while you’re abroad and surrounded by protesters. Nevertheless, Jews in North America and across the Diaspora refuse to give up. When Jewish communities from across the continent gathered in Tel Aviv for the Jewish Federations of North America’s 2018 General Assembly from Oct. 22 to 24, something amazing and empowering occurred. Suddenly, the ability to criticize, challenge and yet keep thinking about the future of Israel was infused with a different perspective, one that allows personal experiences to speak for themselves.

In the first four months since I’ve been back in Israel as a returning shlicha, I can see the fruits of my dedication and hard work. I’m proud of the amazing community I helped create in Pittsburgh, knowing its members are continuing the work we started. I also take pride in understanding that I’m part of a larger movement — as one of the hundreds of Jewish Agency shlichim who return home to Israel each year after serving in the Jewish

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Diaspora, undergoing transformative professional and personal experiences like I did, and returning infused with motivation and a strong desire to influence Israeli society.

Sometimes, it only takes a single moment or encounter to change a person’s perspective. When I met a sophomore Russian Jewish student in Pittsburgh, she promised me that she’d never go back to Hillel, the place where she felt as far from a Jewish community, not to mention Israel, as possible. It took us just one coffee date to see our potential — the two trips to Israel and three new communities we created together, and our deep personal connection. We became best friends.

Two years later, upon my return to Israel, I can see her pictured on Facebook as a student board member at Hillel, continuing the mission of creating a better community for more students to join and feel welcomed, while sharing her personal experience with Israel.

Looking back on my time in Pittsburgh, I can proudly say that I came as one individual, but left with a few hundred new family members — members of the community that I feel so privileged to be part of, and a community that helped me become a pioneer. Undoubtedly, my mission was challenging. But ultimately, it was “mission possible.” PJC Elina Lipov was the Jewish Agency Israel Fellow at the Edward and Rose Berman Hillel Jewish University Center of Pittsburgh.

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Opinion Public charge laws prevented my grandmother’s escape from Nazi Germany Guest Columnist Ana Mendelson

T

he Trump administration recently proposed a change to federal immigration rules that would significantly broaden who is deemed a “public charge” in the United States. For many of us in the American Jewish community, this harmful proposal is a painful reminder of the dangerous consequences of such policies, as such rules were initially imposed to curb the number of Jewish immigrants in the years preceding and during the Holocaust. My grandmother was one of these immigrants.

In 1924, the United States enacted hyper-racialized immigration laws that restricted the immigration of Jews and others from Eastern and Southern Europe.

The Immigration Act of 1924, which codified the original public charge rule, remained the law as Nazis won the 1933 elections in Germany and Jews tried to flee Europe. Instead of accepting refugees, the United States capped the number of Jewish immigrants allowed into the country and denied entry to those that they feared would become “public charges.”

This country viewed my family as unwanted “economic burdens,” thereby ruling out America as an escape route from Nazi Germany. My great-uncles were only able to come to the United States because they were sponsored by a factory owner.

Two visas to Cuba were secured for my great-grandparents, but heartbreakingly, they were unable to find a way out for my grandmother. All of 19 years old, my grandmother was forced to go into hiding underground for two years in Berlin.

By her own fortitude, luck, and the courage of a few righteous gentiles, she survived the horrors of the Holocaust. Six million Jews and 5 million other persecuted peoples did not. Had U.S. immigration policy been different, who knows how many more would have survived? Certainly if the United States had allowed my family to immigrate, my great-grandmother would not have died without knowing if her youngest daughter was alive or dead in Germany.

We must remember that at the time, the U.S. immigration policy that denied entry to my grandmother was seen as sensible.

Xenophobia and hate were disguised as financial pragmatism and as acts of national self-interest. Now, the Trump administration is using similar rationales to broaden the definition of a public charge to include — for the first time — non-cash basic needs

To our readers: Due to the closure of U.S. Post Offices during the national day of mourning for former President George H.W. Bush, delivery of this week’s issue of the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle may be delayed.

The staff of the Chronicle apologizes for any inconvenience.

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

benefits like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). If the proposal is enacted, the United States could deny citizenship or legal immigration status on the basis of applicants having used or the possibility of them accessing SNAP or other benefits like Medicaid. This proposal is the latest in a string of anti-immigrant rhetoric touted by this administration.

American Jews have witnessed this rhetoric being used to embolden hateful action, seen as recently as the tragic shooting at Tree of Life in Pittsburgh, and as far back as the immigration policies that kept my grandmother out of the United States in the 1930s.

Today, the American public — and especially American Jews — must not let history repeat itself. We must oppose this proposed rule change in the strongest possible terms.

When my grandmother was finally able to reunite with her family here, she dedicated her life to helping those in need. She worked for decades as a social worker, first for the Red Cross and then in schools. She understood that all people, regardless of background, deserve basic human rights like access to food. She passed these values on to her children and, in turn, to her grandchildren. It was these values that motivated me to advocate for an end to hunger as a board member for MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger.

Like my grandmother, MAZON believes that no one should go hungry, especially in a nation of such wealth as America. The president’s proposed change goes against our Jewish values, shared history, and commitment to eliminating food insecurity for everyone in the United States. SNAP is a vital part of our social safety net, helping hard-working Americans — -both citizens and legal immigrants — feed their families.

We must reject the administration’s attempt to invoke dangerous stereotypes about poverty and immigrants to further its own hateful agenda. If enacted, the rule change would only make our country poorer, sicker and less compassionate.

Today, people seek out immigration to the United States for many of the same reasons as my grandmother: to flee persecution, to reunite with family and to build a better life for future generations. And chances are, someone in your family came to America for those same reasons. Penalizing immigrants for trying to feed their families is unnecessary, impractical and immoral. We have an opportunity to voice opposition to this cruel proposal by submitting public comments.

Please speak up before it’s too late. PJC Ana Mendelson is a board member of MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger and is a graduate student at Northwestern University.

We invite you to submit letters for publication. Letters must include name, address and daytime phone number; addresses and phone numbers will not be published. Letters may not exceed 500 words and may be edited for length and clarity; they cannot be returned.

Mail, fax or email letters to:

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DECEMBER 7, 2018 19

17

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Headlines JResponse:

“ Each JCC is

Continued from page 1

and parenting center director at the Bender JCC, echoed the delight in serving such a role.

Whether it is the people or the facilities, “there are similarities between this center and ours, and recognizing how similar the communities are, it deepens the feelings of empathy,” she said.

Pittsburgh was JResponse’s first deployment. It is being supported by the JCC Association and participating JCCs, said Doron Krakow, the organization’s president and CEO. “Each JCC is contributing directly by providing these staff members on loan,” said Krakow.

Transportation, housing and related costs are covered by a strategic action fund established by members of the JCC Association’s board.

Created last year, the fund provides “flexible resources for innovative programming,” explained Krakow. “In this instance, we are providing a subsidy to each participating JCC JResponse participant for the first $250 in costs. Beyond that, participating JCCs are picking up the difference.”

Thus, staff members of JCCs around the country are able to alleviate their colleagues in Pittsburgh without it costing either the traveler or the Pittsburgh JCC any money.

The goal, said Krakow, is to raise enough funds so that each participating JCC can ultimately send its JResponse members and

contributing

”

directly.

— DORON KRAKOW

p Lauren Dworkin and Steve McGarr were among a group of JCC professionals who arrived in Pittsburgh as part of the JResponse program to relieve local employees who had been working tirelessly since Oct. 27.

Photo by Matt Unger/JCC of Greater Pittsburgh

never have to worry about contributing additional money.

As part of the initial deployment to Pittsburgh, responders have served as lifeguards, in concierge roles at the fitness desk or for AgeWell at the JCC, in member services, at the front desk and also as facilities and security support. JResponse representatives from around the country will continue to serve their Pittsburgh colleagues throughout the end of 2018, explained Alexis Winsten Mancuso, assistant executive director at Pittsburgh’s JCC.

Steve McGarr, youth operations director at the JCC of Central New Jersey, participated in JResponse training last year. The experience, he said, readied him to serve in the Steel City.

“It doesn’t matter whether it’s facilities or fitness or seniors or [early childhood], or whatever they ask us to do while we’re here,” said McGarr, who drove six hours from New Jersey in order to work here last Friday and Monday.

Sam Aboudara, who oversees the JCC affiliated camp system for New Jersey, flew

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in Thursday evening after finishing work in order to aid his Pittsburgh counterparts all day Friday.

“Today I am working with Emma Kaufmann Camp and just helping them with some administrative support,” he said while seated next to a stack of mailings.

Aboudara has been working within the JCC system for more than six years.

“I think that the beauty of being part of a national network organization like the JCC movement allows us to be able to help the people we work in partnership with,” said Aboudara. “I know that if we were to go through a disaster like this in our home territory of New Jersey that we too would want kind of the assistance of being able to have professional people who do the work that we do, and be able to step in, allow us to take care of bigger priorities or support us just during tough times.” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Headlines First Friday: Continued from page 5

In praying there, said Isenberg, the worshippers demonstrated to those who sought “to wipe out Jews from this spot” that “our resilience lives on.”

As Goldberg melodically chanted, the crowd grew. Barely able to hear his own voice, he saw close to 100 people standing and swaying in prayer alongside. Upon reaching “Lecha Dodi,” a 16th-century liturgical poem, he was interrupted by Rabbi Elisar Admon, who apart from teaching at Hillel Academy’s Boys High School had supervised the Jewish burial rituals relating to the attack.

Admon commanded the crowd to stop.

In the silence, he pulled from the pack a gentleman wearing a camel hair coat and spoke of the continuous commitment this man had shown to the Jewish community from the first moments after the shootings until the present day.

“People need to know what he has done for us,” said Admon. “We are safe because of him.”

The man, an FBI agent, began to cry.

The crowd clapped and resumed singing louder than before.

Moments later, the service was interrupted by the spontaneous chanting of “Al Hanisim,” a Chanukah supplication thanking God for the miracles performed in “those days.”

Though not included in the traditional Friday night liturgy, much less weeks before Chanukah, attendees feverishly belted out Hebrew words associated with battles waged by the Maccabees and a rededication of the Holy Temple.

It evoked the sense that “even though our enemies have been rising up against us, we still prevail,” said Goldberg.

By then, night had fallen, and apart from the dim glow cast by the street lights, the memorial candles and the parked police vehicles nearby, there was no ability to see.

When the service finally reached the Shema, the crowd recited it forcefully.

Bianca Labrador, of Verona, Pa., was among those who attended the service with children in tow. Days earlier, the former Kansas resident was at a loss as she struggled to put her 4-year-old daughter to sleep.

Crying out, the child proclaimed there were monsters beneath the bed, and monsters

Torah in the closet and monsters throughout the room. After reassuring her exhausted daughter that monsters do not exist, Labrador retreated downstairs.

“I looked at my husband and I told him, ‘I just lied to her,’” she recalled. “There are monsters in this world and one of them just attacked our community.”

She then began crying.

Labrador was born to a Jewish mother and raised Episcopalian. Prior to the Friday evening service, the only other formal Jewish function she ever attended was a funeral.

When the Oct. 27 attack occurred, she reached out to a friend in California.

“I said to her that it makes me feel so bad because it’s a community I feel attached to, but not actually involved with,” said Labrador.

Within moments, Labrador’s California friend connected her through Facebook to Maya Beck, a Jewish Squirrel Hill resident whose cousins include Councilman Corey O’Connor and Father Terry O’Connor.

Beck, who takes pride in her family’s openness and closeness, invited Labrador, her husband and their three children to the street-side service and a subsequent Shabbat dinner.

“You could really hear the pain of the community,” Labrador said of the makeshift prayer gathering. In that moment, “I allowed myself to fully process everything that had happened.”

David Knoll spent the service standing beside his three children. Like others, he wasn’t initially certain what to expect, but by evening’s end, with a tear-stained face, Knoll said he had undergone something profound.

“What we experienced there was absolutely incredible,” said the Squirrel Hill resident. “It certainly changed my life.”

At the service’s completion, the crowd began to wane. Goldberg returned the shawl to its owner and found his children, some of whom who had been speaking with friends.

Before heading home, the Goldberg group walked past the 11 makeshift memorials — now since taken inside the Tree of Life building — each bearing the bold faced name of someone killed inside the building six days earlier.

Making their way down Shady Avenue, Goldberg said, “it was the first moment where it began to feel like some relief.” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Speaking truth to power Rabbi Jeremy Weisblatt Parshat Miketz Genesis 41:1-44:17

O

ne of my favorite lessons of Torah study comes from my teacher who taught me prophets in rabbinical school. Each class, Rabbi Dr. Andrea Weiss always asked us the following question, “Which lens are you using?” By that she meant, how are you reading the text in front of you? Is it through contemporary eyes, ancient context, a gendered lens, political, social, etc.? It’s a technique I’ve used ever since my time in seminary.

Reading this week’s Torah commentary with my sixth- and seventh-grade religious school class, I asked them the same question: “Which lens are you using to study Miketz?” One after another, my students raised their hands and shared how they understood the parshah, and, therefore, what this week’s Torah portion means to them as a modern Jew. As we approached the part in our portion where Joseph instructs Pharaoh on how he should run his kingdom over the next 14 years, one of my students brought up the subject of power and responsibility.

Looking at the role of Pharaoh, it’s clear that he is the absolute ruler and power of ancient Egypt, and all are subservient to him.

But look closer: A Hebrew slave reminds Pharaoh that in reality, he is the servant of his kingdom! If Pharaoh hoards the grain over the next seven years and then denies it to his people, who is left for him to rule?

Who will gather the grain in the good years?

What will be left of his kingdom?

To be the ruler, to wield the power, means — as Joseph reminds us through his actions — to place the people and the country at the center of all you do, and not the other way around. What on the surface seems to be a test for Pharaoh and Joseph, and the power and strength of the Eternal, becomes then an eternal lesson for all of us, regardless of the age and generation in which we read Parshat Miketz.

At one time or another, many of us will be placed in positions of responsibility and power. Once achieved, who becomes our focus and center of attention when power is

suddenly ours? Do we forget the responsibility to those in our charge and care, seeking only to tighten the grip, or, like Joseph, do we remember to care for those who support us in our hour of great responsibility?

This is a lesson that is repeated throughout our parshah. Fast forward to the beginning of the famine, and Joseph is confronted by his elder brothers. Like he did with Pharaoh, Joseph speaks in a manner that will challenge their understanding of their place in

A Hebrew slave reminds Pharaoh that in reality, he is the servant.

the world. The brothers, like Pharoah, are used to being in control and “running the show,” but now, facing Joseph, knowing that their families depend on the success of their trade mission in Egypt, will they finally understand what it means to be responsible and care?

In our world, especially in this hour and place, we know the change that can be brought when those who not only have the will, but the ability to bring change, either step forward or stand still. Our ancestor, who had everything to lose and nothing to gain by speaking truth to power to Pharaoh, saved countless people by reminding Pharoah of his duty.

May we merit the ability to be like Joseph, hearing the call to protect, to save, to remember those in our care, and, if we find ourselves being the Joseph in our world, calling upon his strength to remind those in power of who truly serves who. PJC Rabbi Jeremy Weisblatt is the rabbi of Temple Ohav Shalom. This column is a service of the Greater Pittsburgh Rabbinical Association.

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19 color OBITS

Obituaries

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ADLER: Robert Adler, age 98, of New York and later Mt. Lebanon, on Monday, November 19, 2018. Predeceased by his beloved wife Ethel. Beloved father of Sanford Adler (wife Denise Bonn) and Roni Schiffman (husband Carl Schiffman). Grandfather to several grandchildren and a great-grandson. Born in Fulda, Germany, a survivor of the Holocaust, he maintained his love of Judaism and its traditions. He and his late wife founded a South Hills Cancer Support Group in 1987.

For many years, he served as an enthusiastic volunteer, visiting patients at St. Clair Hospital. Services were held in New York.

Memorial contributions may be made to American Cancer Society, 320 Bilmar Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15205; Beth El Congregation of the South Hills, 1900 Cochran Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15220; or Ahavath Achim Congregation, 500 Chestnut Street, Carnegie, PA 15106. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel Inc. schugar.com

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COHEN: Ethel Sniderman Cohen of Pittsburgh, on November 27, 2018, age 97.

She was predeceased by her parents, Rebecca and Joseph Sniderman; her husband, Philip Cohen; beloved son, Wayne Cohen; and beloved granddaughter, Rosa Bruggeman Cohen; and brothers and sisters, Milton Sniderman, Irene Sniderman and Helen Gisser. Ethel is survived by loving daughters, Wendy Cohen (Steven z’l) of Minnesota, Camille Miriam (Rudy) Fabian of Pittsburgh, Charlotte (Marcel) Cohen of Boston and son Charles (Domenica) Cohen of North Carolina. Ethel grew up in Pittsburgh, graduated from Peabody High at 16, and worked as a secretary in Washington, D.C., during World War II. She then moved back to Pittsburgh, where she met and married Philip Cohen, a physicist. Her growing family lived in Butler, Pennsylvania, and then in Valparaiso, Indiana. Ethel and Phil returned to Pittsburgh in 1985, where she has welcomed her many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. One of our last precious memories is of Ethel with one cheerful 6-month-old great-grandson on either side of her bed, turning her head from one side to the other to interact joyfully with the babies. Ethel spent her last few peaceful days surrounded by her loving family. Shiva will take place at the house of Camille and Rudy Fabian, 2334 Tilbury Ave., Pittsburgh, starting the evening of November 28, 2018.

Arrangements entrusted to the Gesher HaChaim Jewish Burial Society. Funeral services were private.

FALK: Julian Falk, on Thursday, November 29, 2018. Beloved husband of Tibey Meyers Falk. Loving father of Lauren Friedman (Pat Sullivan) and David (Judy) Falk. Brother of the late Frank and Ivan Falk. Brother-in-law of Jack (Bernice) Meyers, Judith Falk and the late Jane Falk. Grandfather of Joseph, Nicole

and Elijah Friedman. Also survived by many loving nieces and nephews Services were held at Beth EL Congregation. Interment Mt. Lebanon Cemetery. Contributions may be made to Beth El Congregation, 1900 Cochran Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15220 or Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, 234 McKee Place, Pittsburgh, PA 15213.

Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. schugar.com GROSS: Aviva K. Gross, on Thursday, November 29, 2018. Beloved wife of Harvey Gross. Loving mother of Robert (Marnie) Gross and Benjamin (Danielle) Gross.

Beloved Bubbie of Asher, Joseph, Isabelle and Mason. Sister of Toby (Jeffrey) Lightman.

Daughter of the late Rabbi Robert and Hilda Kaufman. Aviva lived to help and take care of others. She was a practicing social worker who worked primarily with the geriatric population. She was a loving daughter who took care of her ailing mother who had multiple sclerosis throughout her life. She was a kind and gentle soul who cared deeply about her family and the community she lived in, Squirrel Hill. She will be missed greatly by her friends and family. Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel Inc. Interment Poale Zedeck Memorial Park Cemetery. Contributions may be made to Hadassah, 1824 Murray Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15217 or the Jewish Assistance Fund, 828 Hazelwood Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15217. schugar.com ROTHMAN: Herman David Rothman, June 22, 1931 - December 1, 2018, commonly known as H. David Rothman, a devoted husband of 58 years and an extraordinarily loving father, who, in addition, was a tireless advocate of constitutional rights and legal education, died on Saturday, December 1, 2018. He was 87 years old. He is survived by his loving wife, Maxine Kravitz Rothman, his children, Denice Rothman Hinden (Larry Hinden), Ira J. Rothman (Michelle Charles Rothman), Lee M. Rothman (Rhonda Rothman), his brothers, Elliot P. Rothman and Irving N. Rothman, and his 10 grandchildren: Max, Alec, Chloe, Troy, Madeline and Jacob Rothman and Amber Boswell (Justin Boswell), Logan Moon, Anna Hinden and Thea Charles-Moon. H. David was a graduate of Taylor Allderdice High School, class of 1949, the University of Pittsburgh, class of 1953, and received his law degree from Georgetown University in 1956. Following a legal clerkship during his time at Georgetown for the Honorable Harold M. Stevens, who was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C., by former president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, David

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Obituaries BRAND: William S. Brand, on Wednesday, November 28, 2018.

Loving husband of Shirley Brand. Loving father of Michelle (Gregory) Winter, Jeffrey (Lisa) Brand and Steven Brand. Brother of Arlene (Arthur) Kramer and Phyllis (Bernie) Pivo. Grandfather of Jennifer, Danielle, Jacob and Jessica. William retired from MSA after 37 years of dedicated employment and was a longtime member of Congregation Beth Shalom. He loved doing outdoor activities with his kids and grandkids and, once his wife became blind, doing outdoor blind leisure development activities. Being an avid golfer, he enjoyed all types of sports and as a jack-of-all-trades was always willing to help everyone. Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. Interment Homewood Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to a charity of the donor’s choice. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to a charity of the donor’s choice. schugar.com returned to Pittsburgh in 1957 to practice law where he continued to impact people’s lives for 56 years. A regular fixture on Grant Street in both the federal and state courts, as well as state courts throughout the various counties of Western Pennsylvania, H. David certainly left his mark on the legal community. A remarkable and innovative criminal defense trial lawyer, H. David honed his trial skills and was one of the original attorneys hired by the newly formed Office of Neighborhood Legal Services in 1966 under the supervision of the late Honorable Judge George H. Ross. This office was formed to represent indigent people and became the foundation of what is now known as the Allegheny Office of the Public Defender. This focus of people less fortunate became a lifelong focus of H. David.

H. David Rothman’s love and appreciation for the city of Pittsburgh and animals were realized through his walks with his dog through the city streets and parks of Pittsburgh as well as relaxing times while watching or listening to the Pittsburgh Pirates and Pittsburgh Steelers games. H. David also volunteered his time teaching American Government and Law at Peabody High School, a program supported and promoted by the Allegheny Bar Association. Perhaps his greatest accomplishment to the greater Western Pennsylvania legal community was his years of service as an adjunct professor at Duquesne University School of Law, where he taught constitutional law and criminal procedure. His ability to influence young legal minds with entertaining, insightful and intelligent application of the law to real-life situations made his course a “must” for those who felt passion for individual rights. Additionally, David served on the Pennsylvania State Criminal Rules committee for many years working to create rules and regulations to improve the practice of criminal law throughout the state of Pennsylvania. His courtroom demeanor was known by all to be that of integrity,

preparedness, grace and fierce advocacy.

He will be greatly missed and remembered by those whose lives he influenced with his passion for knowledge, philosophy, understanding and devotion to equal rights in life and the law. A brief memorial service was held at the Rivers Club. In honor of H. David’s love of animals, donations may be made in his name and be sent to: Humane Animal Rescue, 6926 Hamilton Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15208.

SEGAL: Jerome J. Segal, surrounded by family and loved ones, Jerry passed on November 28, 2018. He was born in Pittsburgh in 1929 and attended Roosevelt Elementary School. He graduated from Taylor Allderdice High School in 1947. In addition to the standard curriculum, Jerry took “Saturday classes” that were awarded to students based on their artistic promise. One of his teachers was the famous Pittsburgh painter Samuel Rosenberg. He continued his education with a B.S. and an M.B.A from the University of Pittsburgh and added engineering classes. In 1951, Jerry joined the United States Army, serving on the front lines in Korea and rising to the rank of Staff Sergeant. Shortly after returning to the States in 1954, Jerry met and married Harriet Winikoff (Z”L). Over the next five years, they were blessed with three sons. In 1955 Jerry became the president of Dormont Manufacturing Company, a small pipe fabrication shop in Lawrenceville. In 1970, Jerry invented the first flexible stainless steel gas appliance connector. Subsequently, in 1972 – in collaboration with McDonald’s – he invented the first quick disconnect gas connector for the food service industry.

Because his inventions improved the safety of all gas appliance installations, Jerry was recognized by the Gas Appliance Manufacturers Association with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Dormont quickly became an industry standard: its products can be found in almost all commercial kitchens around the world. Jerry met his second wife, Dr. Monica Zettler-Segal, and they were together for 40 happy years. He became a stepfather to her three children and the family continued to grow with spouses and grandchildren. They loved the crazy mayhem of a large, diverse blended family. From his first years, Jerry loved and dabbled in all forms of the visual arts. Although demands in college precluded any art courses, over the years he managed to perfect his pastel techniques, study metal sculpting and – almost daily – grab a pencil or colored pen and sketch something that caught his eye. After the sale of Dormont in 2006. Jerry created original oil paintings that depicted his own unique interpretations of photographs taken by the Hubble Telescope.

In order to capture the special visual characteristics of the cosmos, Jerry decided to forego the traditional paintbrush and use his fingers (encased in rubber gloves). As Jerry described his technique in an interview, “look at how much fun I was having, streaking through the heavens with my hands.” Jerry’s collection was on display at a series of exhibitions at the American Jewish Museum Gallery in the Jewish Community Center

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of Pittsburgh. Beyond his love of art, Jerry was an avid gardener (hosting several local summer garden tours), a devoted animal lover (adopting numerous rescue dogs and cats) and an adventurous traveler. He and Monica are the proud owners of a small historic Regent Square home that they renovated extensively. It now includes a studio with a two-story ceiling and a cozy library – both overlooking the park – and was the subject of an episode on HGTV. He was also the de facto Mayor of the JCC Men’s Health Club, playing billiards and kibitzing for hours with his dear friends. Jerry loved comedy and laughter, sharing his passion for Mel Brooks and Borscht Belt humor at any occasion. He was an ardent supporter of Israel, inspired by his first cousin (Jerry Inbar Z”L) who emigrated in 1950 and with whom he toured the country several times. Jerry is survived by his wife Monica, his three sons Dr. Eric (Karen), Dr. Lee (Susie) and Evan (Tracy), three step-children Deirdre O’Hearn (Tim Baldwin, Esq.), Steve O’Hearn (Dr. Demmler Schenk) and Dr. Kirsten O’Hearn (Dr. Eric Donny), eight grandchildren: Ben Segal (Feliz Molina), Jessica Segal, Tess Segal DePaula (Marcus), Ariel Segal Eck (Chris), Dr. Julia Segal, Jory Segal, Frances and Audrey Donny; his sister Esther Fuhrman (Bob), his good friend Maureen Williams and many nieces, nephews and cousins. Jerry is preceded in death (Z”L) by his parents (Harry and Lena

Segal), his sister (Annette Wolfson), his first wife (Harriet) and his granddaughter (Emily Segal). Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. Interment at Homewood Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, 5738 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15217 or the Animal Rescue League Shelter and Wildlife Center, 6926 Hamilton Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15208. schugar.com SUKENIK: Barbara Schachter Sukenik died on Thursday, November 29, 2018, in Cleveland, Ohio, at age 74. Beloved wife of 48 years of Lester Sukenik. Beloved mother of Jeffrey Sukenik of Boston, Mass., and Roni Sukenik Rodman (Mark) of West Hartford, Conn. Beloved grandmother of Alec, Max and Savannah; Sister of Ethel Schachter Zeilinger and Barton (Linda) Schachter. Sister-in-law of Arnold Sukenik; daughter of the late Beatrice and Joseph Schachter and stepdaughter of May Reif Schachter. She is survived by many beloved nieces, nephews, cousins and friends.

Barb cherished her relationships with family.

She was one of 21 first cousins of the Schachter and Simon families. Private arrangements were provided by Shapiro Funeral Services in Cleveland. A memorial service will be held in Pittsburgh at a later date. Please consider a donation to the Tree of Life Building Project, c/o 1st National Bank, 1940 Murray Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15217. PJC

Jewish Association on Aging gratefully acknowledges contributions from the following: A gift from ...

In memory of...

Anonymous ..............................................Jacob Feingold Anonymous ....................................................Faye Lester Faye Bleiberg ...........................................Bessie Bleiberg Faye Bleiberg ..............................................Morris Krantz Faye Bleiberg .............................................Max Mallinger Suzanne Falk................................................Caroline Falk Joan Finkel ................................................David S. Finkel Lois Fishman ................................................Frank Levine Toby Gordon ...............................................Louis Gordon Edythe Greenberg ....................................Max Greenberg Edythe Greenberg .........................................Katie Lincoff Gloria Greenfield .................................Eleanor Granowitz Sharon Greenfield .........................................Racille Light Hannah & Marvin Kamin Family Fdn .......... Celia Kaddell Libby Israel .............................................Phillip Jacobson Daniel R. Kendis................................ Maurice A. Berman Carol Ann & Leslie A. Klein ..............Ernestine Gold Klein Eva Koster for Dorothy Decker ...................... Tillie Simon Rebecca & Elliot Lemelman .....................Max Lemelman

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Rochelle S. Lilien........................................Morris Nathan Rita Reese ..........................................Charlotte Ruthrauff Morris & Marion Riemer ............................... Lena Riemer Morris & Marion Riemer .............................. Louis Riemer Anne D. Rosenberg ................. Edward David Rosenberg James Ruthrauff ........................Charlotte June Ruthrauff Gloria Shapiro ............................................. Irwin Shapiro Patricia Green Shapiro .........................Henry Elias Green Rosalyn Shapiro ........................................... Esther Davis Susan & Daniel Simons.....................Ann & Harry Whiser Richard S. Stuart ...................................... Celia Liberman Sarah Udman ...........................................Samuel Udman Lois C. Waldman .............................. William B. Waldman Nancy Waldman Yuskovitz & Family.....William B. Waldman Harold Weiss ............................................ Mollie B. Weiss Larry D. Weiss, M.D. ............................ Bernard H. Weiss Joan M. Zeiden ..........................................Albert Epstein

THIS WEEK’S YAHRZEITS — Sunday December 9: Henry Abelson, Carl Anish, Milton Backal, Baruch Berenstein, Bert Bergad, Sydney Bertenthal, Fredric Alvin Green, Samuel M. Hyman, Philip Katz, Joseph Levy, Ella Markowitz, Louis Miller, Gust H. Oppenheim, Ralph Pecarsky, Sol E. Podolsky, Abraham W. Shapiro, Rae Specter, Bernard H. Weiss, Ann Whiser Monday December 10: Harry I. Alpern, Emma F. Brody, Isadore Caplan, Samuel Davis, Samuel Finkel, Louis Gallet, George J. Golden, Joseph Goldhamer, Celia Kaddell, Charles Kanselbaum, Lina Kapner, Phillip Larry Katz, Louis Kessler, Sarah E. Kramer, Blanche Levine, Louis Monsein, Jacob Robinson, Shirley B. Samuels, Sarah Stein, Sophie Patz Strauss, Albert Zweig Tuesday December 11: Pearl Alinikoff, Ethel Berry, Beyne R. Bricklin, Ida Briskin, Sheldon A. Cohen, Thomas Cohen, Abe Darling, Nettie Ebel, Charles Finesod, Rebecca A. F. Finkelhor, John J. Fischer, Morris R. Gordon, Arnold Kanselbaum Gertrude C. Kimball, William Krapin, Samuel Fishel Londo, Sgt. Max Marcus, Mollie Rubin Pretter, Joseph Recht, Harry Rice, Charlotte June Ruthrauff, Fannie Shapiro, Erma R. Spielberger Wednesday December 12: Edna Sarah Bennett, Max L. Berg, Leah Birnkrant, Moses Bluestone, Paul Cooper, Sadie Mermelstein Feinberg, Celia Garber, Henrietta Goldman, Phillip Goodman, Nathan Greenberg, Rose B. Gross, Ethel Farber Hoyt, Yetta Klein, Dr. Marvin Kurfeerst, Celia Levin, Ruben Marcus, Samuel Neustein, Belle Mandell Rodin, Ruth Sachs, Bessie Sands, Abraham Schulman, Julius Shapiro, Louis Shapiro, Raymond Weinberg, Bella Zeman Thursday December 13: Anna Arnowitz, Freda Blumenfeld, Dora Cole, Anna Sanes Cukerbaum, Esther Davis, Caroline Falk, Theodore Gold, Abe Goldstein, Josephine Levine Gottlieb, Ada Hilsenrath, Anna Hinkes, Harry Kellman, Harry Klatman, Josiah Drotman Lazar, Harry Levinson, Samuel Mandelblatt, Abe Mullen, Sadie Segal, Jennie Shaffer, Tillie Simon, Louis B. Supowitz, William Zeidenstein Friday December 14: Berul Amstey, Fannie Berner, Florence G. Davidson, Joseph Goldhammer, Ethel J. Greenberg, Helene Tumpson Horewitz, Albert Marcus, David Miller, Edwin L. Miller, Fannie Pecarsky, Fannie Robinson, Maida Rothaus, Seymour Schwartz, Esther Levy Shapiro, Matthew Teplitz, Ida Sack Tobias, David Weinberger, Morris Wolf Saturday December 15: Bess B. Aberman, Abraham Boodman, Henry E. Green, Esther Ruth Karpo, David Labowitz,Reuben B. Lando, Anna Miller, Laura Roth Miller, Jerome Myers, Samuel Roth, Samuel Shaffer, Tillie Shussett, Edward H. Talenfeld

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

DECEMBER 7, 2018 25

22 COMMUNITY

Community Podcast taping

First night of Chanukah at Tree of Life synagogue building Children distributed glow sticks and donut holes to the hundreds of community members gathered to celebrate the first night of Chanukah with congregations Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha, Dor Hadash and New Light outside the Tree of Life synagogue building on Dec. 2.

“After unspeakable hatred divested our Jewish community,” said New Light co-president Stephen Cohen, referring to the anti-Semitic attack of Oct. 27, the congregations had come together “to publicly and proudly” celebrate their Judaism through lighting the oversized electric menorah on the grounds of the synagogue.

“This Chanukah, we commit to creating the kind of community where hope and love truly are stronger than hate,” said Dor Hadash president Ellen Surloff. “We invite our friends and our allies to bask in the menorah’s warm light.”

First responders were honored at the event, represented by Pittsburgh police Sgt. James Glick, who served as candle lighter, along with all survivors of the attack in attendance.

The event concluded with Rabbi Hazzan Jeffrey Myers, spiritual leader of TOL*OLS, and Rabbi Jonathan Perlman of New Light, leading the community in Chanukah songs, including a Yiddish version of “Oh Chanukah!”

p Unorthodox, the podcast of the Jewish news site Tablet, came back to Pittsburgh to tape their Chanukah podcast before a live audience at Clear Story in the South Side on Monday, Dec. 3. One of their guests on the podcast was Tova Weinberg (left) seen with the podcast’s hosts, Mark Oppenheimer, Stephanie Butnick and Liel Leibovitz, along with a guest from the audience (holding the mic).

Photo by Jim Busis

Welcome Blankets 2018

p From left: Brad Orsini, director of Jewish Community Security Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh; Jerry Wasek, one of the first responders, a paramedic; and spiritual leaders Rabbi Hazzan Jeffrey Myers of TOL*OLS and Rabbi Jonathan Perlman of New Light Congregation.

Photo by Toby Tabachnick

A Pittsburgh message in Toronto p JFCS Refugee & Immigrant Services received 30 handmade blankets to be given to refugee and immigrant families. The nonprofit Welcome Blanket (welcomeblanket.org) collects and sends these blankets to agencies that help newcomers. Each blanket has a note describing the blanket maker’s own immigrant history. Photos courtesy of Jewish Family and Community Services

Photo courtesy of Jewish Family and Community Services

Macher & Shaker: Dr. Jonathan Weinkle

p Hananel Segal, a graphic designer from Toronto, visited Pittsburgh with Rabbi Chaim Strauchler after the Oct. 27 attack at the Tree of Life synagogue building. Segal was so inspired by his time here and the words of the Squirrel Hill community that he created this sign, which hangs outside of his synagogue, Shaarei Shomayim Congregation in Toronto.

Photo courtesy of Hananel Segal

26 DECEMBER 7, 2018

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

 The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services recently honored Dr. Jonathan Weinkle, a family practitioner at the Squirrel Hill Health Center (SHHC), with the Refugee Health Award for Medical Care. JFCS was proud to nominate Weinkle for his compassionate medical care of the many refugee and immigrant clients served by JFCS.

Photo courtesy of Jewish Family and Community Services

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23 color COMMUNITY

Community Menorah contest

Recovered memories Gary Schwager of Pittsburgh exhibited Recovered Memories, his father’s pre-Kristallnacht photos and post-Kristallnacht family letters at Temple David on Nov. 17. The exhibit portrayed the beautiful life Erwin Schwager and his family lived in Munich, Germany, before Kristallnacht and included representative selections from about 400 letters the five family members exchanged during the three-year period between November 1938 and November 1941.

More than 2,000 photos were preserved with the support of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Munich State Archives. The photos were the story of resilience, because Erwin Schwager and his brother survived to live happy, fulfilling lives, in spite of their great losses.

The 80-year-old photos, taken with a Leica I camera, were recovered in 2017. Erwin Schwager photographed the photos in his early 20s before he immigrated to the United States on Oct. 26, 1938, at the age of 24. He arrived in the U.S. just three days before Kristallnacht. When Erwin Schwager was in his late 70s, he translated his family’s letters from the copies family members had made. Over three years, Erwin Schwager alone wrote over 150 letters and other family members produced similar volumes.

p Yeshiva Schools students entered into the International Tzivos Hashem Menorah Contest. This year, many students chose to dedicate their submissions to the victims of the Tree of Life synagogue building shooting.

Photo courtesy of Yeshiva Schools

Itzhak Perlman performs The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra honored the Tree of Life Synagogue building shooting victims with A Concert for Peace and Unity. The free concert was held at Heinz Hall, with Manfred Honeck as conductor, Israeli-American violinist Itzhak Perlman and the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh. Jewish Family and Community Services worked to provide tickets for victims/families. The Symphony hoped that the performance would provide an opportunity “to find comfort, strength and solace through music, hope and unity.” All artists donated their services for the performance according to the Symphony.

(Please see the related story on page 3.)

p The Schwager brothers

p Living a normal life in Munich p Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Conductor Manfred Honeck with Itzhak Perlman Photo by Edward DeArmitt

Macher & Shaker: Jackson Blaufeld

 Pittsburgh Allderdice basketball player Jackson Blaufeld signed a National Letter of Intent (NLI) with Dartmouth College. Dartmouth’s varsity athletic teams compete in NCAA Division 1 as well as in the eight-member Ivy League conference and the ECAC (Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference).

Photo courtesy of Jackson Blaufeld

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p Life is good before Kristallnacht

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Photos by Erwin Schwager

DECEMBER 7, 2018 27

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KOSHER MEATS

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Visit GiantEagle.com for location information.

Empire Kosher Fresh Ground Turkey Sold in 1 lb. pkg.

4

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Price effective Thursday, December 6 through Wednesday, December 12, 2018

Available at 18AD31335_PJC_1207.indd 1 28 DECEMBER 7, 2018

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