The Jewish Chronicle Nov. 24, 2011

Style Howling with wolves Deaf, Jewish artist says hearing loss has its advantages

Page 12

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE thejewishchronicle.net november 24, 2011 HESHVAN 27, 5772

Vol. 55, No. 28

Pittsburgh, PA

Local light-up

$1.50

Teens of all faiths meet at mosque for area initiative

BY MATT WEIN Chronicle Correspondent

Children’s Institute photo

The Children’s Institute of Pittsburgh in Squirrel Hill staged an alternative to the traditional Downtown lighting celebration, Friday, Nov. 18. “Bright Spot on Shady,” as the occasion was called, showcased the institute’s new Nimick Family Therapeutic Garden, a 10,000-square-foot year-round oasis that opened this past June.

Past ARZA president, wife warn threats to Israeli pluralism

BY LEE CHOTTINER Executive Editor

Reform Judaism is on the rise in Israel, Rabbi Stanley and Resa Davids said.

They should know. Jerusalem residents for seven years, he is the immediate past president of the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA) and she is a national board member of ARZA and Women of Reform Judaism (WRJ).

According to the Davids, more than 35 Reform congregations have been established in Israel along with 25 WRJ chapters. And this year, 50 High Holy Day

services were held — the largest number in Israeli history.

More applicants are applying to the rabbinic program at the Jerusalem campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) than there are jobs for them after ordination.

Additionally, in a “historic” development, he noted that the Reform movement now heads the largest single coalition in the World Zionist Organization.

All of this may be good news to Reform Jews, but the Davids, who were scholarsin-residence this past weekend at Temple Sinai, issued a serious warning: Pluralism in Israel is under fire, and a strong

partnership with American Jewry is needed to preserve it.

At issue is control of religious life in the country (marriage, conversions, etc.) by the chief rabbinate and other religious bodies that marginalize progressive, and sometimes Orthodox, rabbis.

In Jerusalem, Resa Davids said, the city government is tolerating a religious ban on pictures of women on billboards.

That effectively means the images of the leaders of the Kadima and Labor parties — both women — could not appear in outdoor advertising in the capital city during elections.

Please see ARZA, page 23.

Peace, love and understanding might not be funny, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be fun.

That’s how Bridging Faiths, an interfaith initiative for teens sponsored by the Pittsburgh Area Jewish Committee, drew a crowd of 40 to the Muslim Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh Sunday afternoon.

“I know that as a Jew, it’s my duty to make the world a better place,” said Eli Gelernter, a 16-year-old Jewish student at Pittsburgh Allderdice High School.

For Gelernter, who has attended every Bridging Faiths event so far, his motivation for doing so is clear.

“I go to an inner-city public school where there are so many different religions, and I was so ignorant about everything that was happening,” Gelernter said. “I needed to become knowledgeable.”

Bridging Faiths invites teens to come together in different houses of worship to learn about each other’s faiths, discuss religious and societal issues and work together on social action projects that benefit their communities.

“We hope to educate all different teens in all different faiths,” said Hannah Busis, a 16-year-old Allderdice student who counts herself among Bridging Faiths sizeable Jewish contingent.

“A lot of them are so similar in ways you don’t even realize. There are so many similar aspects that are interesting to learn about … and that can make our generation really tolerate and accept each other.”

Apropos of the last Bridging Faiths event, which centered on how religions address death and mourning, 17-yearold Monica Srinivasa thought that Sunday’s theme, “G-d and the Big Bang,” Please see Teens, page 23.

B USINES S 18/C L AS SIFIED 21/O BITUARIES 22/C OMMUNITY 17 O PINION 6/R EAL E STATE 20/S IMCHAS 16/S TYLE 12

Times To Remember

KINDLE SABBATH CANDLES: 4:38 p.m. EST. SABBATH ENDS: 5:40 p.m. EST.

2 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE

NOVEMBER 24, 2011

Metro Agency nurses an issue

Charles Morris is addressing noncompliance issues tagged by state

BY TOBY TABACHNICK Staff Writer

Following a 23-month-stretch of not a single citation from the Pennsylvania Department of Health, the Charles Morris Nursing and Rehabilitation Center was recently found in noncompliance with several long-term care requirements of the state.

Noncompliance found at Charles Morris by the Department of Health can often be attributed to agency nurses rather than the facility’s regular employees, according to David Gritzer, president and CEO of the Jewish Association on Aging.

“If we get an agency nurse that does not work up to our standards, we release them and have them never come again,” he said.

The noncompliances, which were found in an inspection dated Oct. 7, included an isolated incident of failure to implement proper infection control measures during blood glucose monitoring on one nursing unit, failure to ensure timely physician visits for one patient and failure to pro-

vide complete neglect and abuse training for some of its employees.

The Department of Health report states that five employees did not have mandated abuse and neglect training concerning involuntary seclusion of residents.

The nurses who did not receive abuse training were not regular employees of Charles Morris, but were temporary nurses from an agency, according to Jerry Pannell, administrator of Charles Morris. They will be sufficiently trained in the future, he said.

“Our regular employees have had the training,” Pannell said. “We have now updated our written training material for our agency nurses to include involuntary seclusion.”

The Department of Health also found that the facility failed to ensure that physician visits were timely for one of its residents.

While the facility’s physician services policy indicated that a resident must be seen by a doctor at least every 30 days for the first 90 days after admission, and at least every 60 days thereafter, clinical

records indicated that the resident in question had been seen only at four and five month intervals.

The vast majority of residents at Charles Morris have documented, regular visits from their physicians, according to Gritzer.

“The Department of Health had access to over 500 medical records for them to review,” Gritzer said. “They found a violation of only one patient, with one doctor.”

According to Pannell, that physician did, in fact, see his patient as per the mandated schedule, but failed to record the progress notes reflecting those examinations.

The Department of Health also found that a Charles Morris employee failed to clean and disinfect an instrument after checking a resident’s blood sugar level, and that the employee stated during an interview: “I’m not aware of any policy for cleaning it.”

Charles Morris has taken action to ensure the problem is corrected, according to Pannell.

“This was an isolated incident with the glucometer,” Pannell said. “We now have a plan of correction developed. All licensed nursing staff were in-serviced on infection control techniques.”

To monitor the concerns of patients

and their families, Charles Morris convenes a resident advocate subcommittee, which meets three times a week.

“The committee consists of the director of nursing, the administrator, a registered nurse unit manager, a social worker and our resident liaison,” Pannell said. “The purpose of the committee is to review all concerns that are brought by the residents, their families or our staff.”

Each concern is reviewed with the staff member involved.

“We hear all parties’ concern with whatever the incident is; then we put a plan of action together to fix the concern,” Pannell said.

Most concerns brought to the committee are “missing sweaters, wrinkled laundry, things like that,” said Pannell.

“Sometimes somebody has a food issue.”

Charles Morris also employs a patient advocate, Sharyn Rubin, to address issues before they become problems, according to Gritzer.

The facility admits and discharges 35 to 40 people a month, Gritzer noted.

“We have an outstanding rehabilitation program,” he said. “People want to come here.”

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

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE NOVEMBER 24, 2011 — 3

METRO Briefly

Brain Builders participants perform Tai Chi.

Brain Builders Club, a project of the Jewish Family & Children’s Service, has released a series of statistics it says demonstrates that the project is helping to stem cognitive decline in local seniors.

The program keeps brains actively engaged by combining creative writing, physical activity such as Tai Chi, and computer skills in an eight-week series to enhance cognitive ability.

Since the Brain Builders’s inception in 2009: • 71 percent of participants have

shown an improvement in mental status; • 36 percent have shown an improvement in depression symptoms; • 38 percent have shown an improvement in anxiety symptoms; • 64 percent have shown an improvement in quality of life indicators; and • 81 percent have reported improved functioning in one or more areas such as computer skills, creative/artistic skills, physical activity and wellness.

“Results thus far show that older adults can do something to not only improve their cognitive function, but their mood and outlook as well,” said Ellie Eisenstat, Brain Builders Club program coordinator, said in a prepared statement. “Participants can gain so much from these sessions.

They learn new skills and feel good about their accomplishments.”

Participants have also described their experience with Brain Builders as invigorating, welcoming and valuable.

“I am reaching out to know people I never thought I’d be interested in knowing. My mood is more confident, and [I] feel like I can handle complex situations better,” one participant said.

The next session of Brain Builders Club begins in January. Eligible participants must be 65 to 85 years of age, have transportation to Squirrel Hill twice a week, moderate physical ability and the ability to commit to the full eight-week program.

Contact Eisenstat at (412) 904-5960 for more information.

Please see Briefly, page 5.

4 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE NOVEMBER 24, 2011

METRO

Chasidic women dance the night away at musical event

BY ILANA YERGIN Chronicle Correspondent

On a chilly Tuesday night, Nov. 15, across the hall from the boys’ basketball practice, the Tzohar Seminary for Chassidus and the Arts held what turned into an invigorating musical performance from the students and visiting Israeli artists.

The Katz Performing Arts Center started to fill up as soon as the doors were opened at 7:45 p.m. The excitement was palpable as women and young girls filled the seats. Few were not in traditional clothing and everyone seemed to know everyone else.

“I’m very excited,” said Yolanda Avram Willis, who was one of the first to arrive for the show. “It’s the first public showing of the seminary and I hope it goes well.”

Twenty minutes late, with around 200 in attendance, the lights finally dimmed and the audience quieted down.

The evening’s performance began with a video of interviews with the students at the seminary followed by an opening act performance from six of the women.

“I’m in Tzohar Seminary because I love art and I love everything about it,” said one of the students in the video. “I love what it is to the world and what it can be to a person.”

The seminary is currently in its inaugural year. It is a program for

Ilana Yergin photo

Tziona Achishena (seated) and Sheva Chaya meet with audience members after their Tzohar Seminary program.

young, Jewish women who have graduated high school and are interested in combining Jewish studies with the creative arts. The students have the opportunity to learn everything from dance and music to filmmaking and creative writing. This year, 13 women are enrolled and Amy Guterson, who founded Tzohar, directs the program.

After the student performance, it was time for the main event. Tziona Achishena and Sheva Chaya are Israeli

artists, both originally from the United States, who are on tour together.

Achishena is a singer-songwriter and Chaya is a visual artist. As Achishena performed on stage, images of Chaya’s work passed by on a projection screen at the back of the stage.

“We call [the show] ‘Miriam’s Drum,’ our coming together with women and dancing and singing and sharing the artwork,” said Chaya after the performance was over. Both the songs and the artwork

are meant to inspire women and help women express themselves.

Throughout the entire performance, Achishena encouraged the women in the audience to rise, dance and sing along. She performed a mix of traditional Jewish songs and some of her own work. A slightly modified version of Bob Marley’s classic “One Love/People Get Ready” made it’s way into her performance.

At first, Achishena’s requests for audience participation went unanswered.

There was some foot tapping and applause, but mostly the crowd quietly enjoyed the show.

Slowly, though, Achishena’s enthusiasm and energy spread throughout the room. First, there was some foot stomping, then finally a crowd of dancers started to gather on the stage.

By the end of the night, most of the audience was on stage dancing.

The evening turned into more than the organizers had hoped for.

“It completely exceeded my expectations,” said Rivka Levy, one of the seminary students.

“It was really beautiful,” said Chaya.

“Over the top amazing.”

(Ilana Yergin can be reached at ilana.yergin@gmail.com.)

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE NOVEMBER 24, 2011 — 5

METRO Briefly Continued from page 3.

Reading is FUNdamental, a national children and family nonprofit organization, is seeking volunteers for its Everybody Wins! program.

Everybody Wins! is a lunchtime literacy and mentoring program that pairs secondand third-graders with community volunteers to share lunch, conversation and books. The pairs read together for an hour each week during a school lunch period.

RIF Pittsburgh addresses literacy needs in the greater community by providing children with access to self-selected books and creating positive environments that motivate children to read.

Last year, RIF Pittsburgh provided 64,000 books and reading activities to 20,000 children.

Contact Florri Ladov, executive director of RIF Pittsburgh at (412) 3218022 or fladov@rifpittsburgh.org for more information.

NA’AMAT USA, Pittsburgh Council Lunch and Learn will have Pam Fagelson speaking on reflexology Wednesday, Nov. 30, at noon at the Labor Zionist Educational Center, 6328 Forbes Ave. Fagelson will explore reflexology, the ancient belief that your hands and feet contain maps of your entire body, which can be used to reduce stress and increase relaxation. As time permits, some hand reflexology will be demonstrated.

The program is free and open to the community. Call (412) 521-5253 for more information.

“More Than Just Learning” hosts Shirley and Morris Shratter interview Holocaust survivor Herman Snyder on their latest program.

Snyder discusses his experiences from his youth in Poland until he reaches America. He is now 93 years old.

The program airs every Tuesday in November and December at 8 p.m. on Channel 21 or Verizon 47 in Pittsburgh only.

Watch for the scrapbook at the end of the program.

The Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, in partnership with the University of Pittsburgh Diabetes Prevention Support Center, is offering a healthy lifestyle research program for adults at risk for type 2 diabetes and/or heart disease.

If you are age 18 and older, do not have diabetes, and are overweight, call (877) 444-3772 to determine eligibility for the program.

Individuals who join the study will: • Take part in a lifestyle change program to help prevent diabetes and lower risk for heart disease; and • Learn how to improve eating and activity habits to safely lose weight.

Screening appointments are currently being scheduled.

Screenings and the lifestyle program will be held at the JCC, 5738 Forbes Ave. There is no cost to take part in this study. Participation is voluntary and all results are confidential.

Beth Israel Center will hold the third lecture of its Roy and Judy Joseph Memorial Lecture Series, Sunday, Dec. 4, 7:30 p.m. at the synagogue, 118 Gill Hall Road, Jefferson Hills.

Arthor Mitchell James Kaplan, will dis-

cuss his book, “By Fire, By Water.”

The lecture is free and open to the community. Contact Carolyn Carson Weiss at (412) 655-8887 or carolyncarson753@hotmail.com for more information.

Pittsburgh Area Jewish Committee will present a panel of experts who will discuss Sharia, Halacha and Canon law, Monday, Dec. 12, 7 p.m., at Rodef Shalom Congregation.

The panel will include Rabbi Scott Aaron, community scholar from the Agency for Jewish Learning of Greater Pittsburgh; Haider Ala Hamoudi, assistant professor of law at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law; and Father Lawrence DiNardo, diocesan vicar for canonical services and director of the Department for Canon and Civil Law Services at the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh.

Witold “Vic” Walczak, legal director at American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, will moderate the discussion. University of Pittsburgh School of Law is co-hosting the event.

The event is free and open to the public. Contact PAJC at pajc@pajc.net or (412) 605-0816 for more information.

Temple Sinai will present a lecture by the Jewish Healthcare Foundation on “Caring for our Senior Citizens and Perfecting Patient Care for the Elderly,” Tuesday, Nov. 29, at 7:30 p.m.

Karen Feinstein, president and CEO of JHF, and Nancy Zionts, chief program officer, will speak.

Perfecting Patient Care, or PPC, is an engineering methodology developed by JHF along with the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative that calls for patient need to drive patient care in the same way that customer need drives commerce.

The speakers will talk about how the Jewish Healthcare Foundation helps clinical partners measurably improve patient outcomes by using these proven quality-engineering principles adapted for health care. This interactive lecture will focus on applying quality improvement techniques in long-term care facilities.

The event is free to the community.

Visit templesinaipgh.org or contact Linda Raden at lraden@templesinaipgh.org for more information.

Chabad of the South Hills will hold a bar mitzva celebration and gala banquet to mark its 13th year in the South Hills, Sunday, Dec. 11, 5 p.m., at the Omni William Penn Hotel Downtown. Mentalist Marc Salem will perform his show “Mind Games.”

Visit chabadsh.com or call (412) 3442424 for more information.

The Jewish Chronicle invites students from day schools and religious schools to present their cover designs for our Chanuka edition, which will be published Dec. 15. The winning cover will appear in print, and all submissions will be posted on our website, thejewishchronicle.net.

A few guidelines: • The cover dimensions are 10 inches wide, 13 inches deep • No black and white • The deadline for submissions is Dec. 8 Once your cover is done, send your signed artwork submission, in JPEG format only, to Angela Leibowicz at angelal@thejewishchronicle.net. Only e-mails will be accepted.

6 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE NOVEMBER 24, 2011

The Jewish Chronicle

Opinion

David M. Caoin, CEO EDITORIAL STAFF Lee Chottiner, Executive Editor Angela Leibowicz, Community/ Web Editor Toby Tabachnick, Staff Writer SALES STAFF Susie Mangel, Senior Sales Associate Roberta Letwin, Sales Associate Donna Mink, Classified Sales PRODUCTION STAFF Dawn Wanninger, Production Manager Nancy Bishop Production Artist BUSINESS STAFF Joe Soloski, Comptroller Josh Reisner, Office Manager Marcy Kronzek, Subscriptions BOARD OF TRUSTEES Richard Kitay, President Cindy Goodman-Leib, Vice President Larry Honig, Secretary Andy Schaer, Treasurer Davida Fromm, Past President Carolyn Hess Abraham Brian Balk Daniel Berkowitz Lynn Cullen Milton Eisner Stephen Fienberg Malke Frank David Grubman Carolyn Hess Abraham Thomas Hollander Evan Indianer David Levine Ari Lightman Mitchell Pakler Amy Platt Benjamin Rosenthal Charles Saul Adam Shear Jonathan Wander Lou Weiss Published every Thursday by the Pittsburgh Jewish Publication and Education Foundation 5915 Beacon St., 3rd Floor Pittsburgh, PA 15217 Phone: 412-687-1000 FAX: 412-521-0154 E-Mail: newsdesk@thejewishchronicle.net SUBSCRIPTION: $45 in Pennsylvania $47 East of the Mississippi $49 West of the Mississippi and FL NEWSSTAND PRICE $1.50 PER COPY POSTMASTER: Send address change to THE JEWISH CHRONICLE, 5915 BEACON ST., 3rd Floor PITTSBURGH, PA 15217 (PERIODICAL RATE POSTAGE PAID AT PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS TO JEWISH TELEGRAPHIC AGENCY AND FEATURE SERVICE) USPS 582-740 Manuscripts, letters, documents and photographs sent to the Jewish Chronicle become the property of this publication, which is not responsible for the return or loss of such items.

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Attack on Iran won’t be easy ran’s nuclear program has been much in the news these past 10 days.

First came a report from the United Nation’s International Atomic Energy Agency, which is the closest thing yet to smoking gun evidence that Iran is developing a nuclear weapon.

Then came Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s appearance Sunday on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria: GPS news program, in which he warned that Iran is less than a year away from being unstoppable in its quest to build such a weapon.

(In that same program, Barak, a retired Israeli army general, also took aim at opponents of President Obama’s Israel policy, saying the president has been “incredibly supportive” of the Jewish state.)

We don’t know on what evidence Barak based his dire warning about Iran. Perhaps it was the IAEA report alone; perhaps it was some evidence that has not yet been made public. In any event, since the defense minister of Israel went out of his way to make such a prediction, it must be taken seriously.

Now what?

No one wants a war with Iran. It would be devastating, even if Israel and her allies win. But that may

I

ultimately be the only option available. Computer worms, such as Stuxnet, may slow down the Iranian nuclear program, but it won’t stop it.

But if war becomes the only option, there are some hard realities we must keep in mind: • Israel can’t do this alone. Allies would be needed not only to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities from the air (those we know of), but to follow up with a ground invasion — the only way to neutralize the entire program. The United States is currently getting out of Iraq and expects to have some 40,000 troops in the region by the end of the year. Likely, a time-consuming mobilization would have to take place.

• While that is happening, Israel would face retaliatory strikes from Lebanon, Gaza, and maybe even Egypt. Hamas and Hezbollah have built up their rocket arsenals, and this ordinance can strike deeper into Israel than ever before, as recent attacks on Beersheba and Ashkelon have shown.

Many thousands of Israelis — Jew and non-Jew alike — would be forced to the bomb shelters. Who knows how long they would be there.

• Terrorist attacks on Jewish, American and Western targets around the world could escalate. We believe U.S.

military officers when they say the ability of al-Qaida and other terrorist cells to attack has been eroded, but it still exists. And even if their attacks are crude, it only takes one or two successful assaults to sow fear into the civilian populations, which is what they want.

• Israel and the Jewish Diaspora could see a backlash in public opinion, people using the Internet, the public squares, the airwaves and the newspapers to ask why the world is fighting to protect the Jews. Anti-Semitic? You bet, but such a reaction cannot be discounted.

To be sure, what we just described is the worst-case scenario. There are rosier prospects, too. In this week’s paper, Ben Cohen, writing for the JointMedia News Service, notes that the Western allies are not divided over Iran as they were over Iraq and its purported weapons of mass destruction. This time, they understand the threat.

But will they choose military action?

And how might China and Russia impede those efforts if they do?

An attack on Iran, however limited at first, comes with serious consequences. The Jewish world, indeed the entire world, must cooperate for the best, but be prepared for the worst.

Judge Romney on policies, not faith Menachem Z. Rosensaft

NEW YORK — On Dec. 17, 1862, General Ulysses S. Grant issued General Order No. 11 expelling “Jews, as a class” from large parts of Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee “within twenty-four hours.”

A few weeks later, following protests from Jewish groups, President Lincoln had this order rescinded. When Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise of Cincinnati, Ohio, met with the president on Jan. 6, 1863, to thank him, Lincoln reportedly replied that “to condemn a class is, to say the least, to wrong the good with the bad,” and that he would not allow any American to be discriminated against because of his religion.

America has two pronounced and antithetical religious traditions. The first, embodied by Republicans — Theodore Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan — and Democrats — Bill Clinton, Barack Obama — alike, is one of unifying tolerance, according to members of different faiths not just the freedom to worship but the fundamental presumption that no religion has a monopoly on authenticity or

legitimacy. The second is epitomized by a narrow-minded aversion toward the other, virtually any “other.”

Lincoln’s generosity of spirit stands in stark contrast to Pieter Stuyvesant, the autocratic 17th-century director-general of the Dutch colony of New Netherlands (later New York), who considered Jews a “deceitful race” and urged that “such hateful enemies and blasphemers of the name of Christ” not be allowed “to further infect and trouble this new colony.”

But then again, the Calvinist Stuyvesant was equally antagonistic toward Lutherans, “Papists” and Quakers.

Fast-forward to the Ku Klux Klan with its virulent hatred of Jews and Roman Catholics; and then to Father Charles Coughlin who ranted against Jewish “Christ-killers and Christ-rejecters” on his radio broadcasts during the 1930s, and told a 1938 rally in the Bronx, “When we get through with the Jews in America, they’ll think the treatment they received in Germany was nothing.”

In this context, the unseemly polemics regarding Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith take on ominous overtones.

Jews should be especially careful to eschew the disparagement of any religious group. Quite aside from the persecution and discrimination we have suffered at the hands of non-Jews over the centuries, we consistently shoot at one another in circular firing squad fashion and then bitterly bemoan our lack of unity. Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the former Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel, has referred to Reform Jews as “a separate people” who “should be vomited up.” In

turn, far too many Reform and Conservative Jews scorn the Chabad-Lubavich movement as a messianic cult.

Dallas pastor Robert Jeffress made headlines when he called the Mormon Church a “cult” and declared, “Mormonism is not Christianity.” Driving the same point home even more crudely, another supporter of one of Romney’s Republican rivals told a Christian radio talk show host, “juxtaposing traditional Christianity to the false God of Mormonism is very important.”

Attempting to defend himself against accusations of bigotry in a Washington Post op-ed, Jeffress invoked John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, for the proposition, “It is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation, to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.”

Say what?

Since Romney’s faith has once again been injected into the national political discussion, it would behoove us to examine his personal religious values and beliefs as he himself has expressed them.

“Freedom,” he explained in a Dec. 6, 2007, speech, “requires religion just as religion requires freedom. … I do not define my candidacy by my religion. A person should not be elected because of his faith nor should he be rejected because of his faith.”

Romney’s religiosity appears to be devoid of sectarian zealotry. “I believe,” he said, “that every faith I have encountered draws its adherents closer to God. And in every faith I have come to Please see Rosensaft, page 9.

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE NOVEMBER 24, 2011 — 7

OPINION

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Student remembers Rothko I enjoyed your review of Mark Rothko as you brought out his Jewishness (“Rothko in ‘Red,’ ” Nov. 10). I was his student at Brooklyn College and we got along very well. He was always kind, fa-

therly and respectful of my art, particularly because I understood the abstract nature of what he was saying, even though I was 19 years old.

I have not seen the play, but follow it on the Internet. I am hoping it gets closer to California.

Mr. Rothko, as we called him, will always be a very special person for me.

He did not know it, but I became an art major because he made art so real and wonderful.

I gave a class on Mark Rothko and told the Jewish part of his life, as I am Jewish. Most people in the audience were surprised.

Roberta Carasso California

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8 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE NOVEMBER 24, 2011

OPINION P.A. appears moderate compared to Hamas but its objectives are identical Guest Columnist ISI LEIBLER

We are repeatedly told that Palestinian Authority (expired-term) President Mahmoud Abbas and the P.A. are our genuine peace partners and that we are unlikely to find more moderate Palestinians with whom to negotiate.

Yet Abbas obtained his “Ph.D.” justifying Holocaust denial, and that just scratches the surface of his record: • He refuses to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, insisting that the “occupation” dates back to 1948, and even denies any Jewish link with the Holy Land.

• He sanctifies mass murderers of Israeli women and children by bestowing honor on the killers and granting state pensions to their families.

• He rules over an authority in which the controlled media, mosques and state educational system incite hatred against Jews and deny Israel’s right to exist.

• He endorses the execution of any Palestinian who sells land to a Jew. • He assures his people that any future Palestinian state will be entirely cleansed of Jews.

• He is committed to reuniting with the genocidal Islamic Hamas, the charter of which calls for the murder of all Jews and the elimination of Israel.

Besides refusing to negotiate with Israel, Abbas effectively rejected offers made by former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to cede 95 percent of the territories conquered in response to Jordan’s offensive against Israel. Indeed, the more Israelis concede, the more Abbas demands. Today he has escalated the issue of so-called Arab

right of return of refugees to Palestine as a non-negotiable demand, despite realizing that this would bring an end to Jewish sovereignty, which no Israeli government could contemplate.

On the surface, the Palestinian Authority appears moderate compared to Hamas. However, its objectives are identical. Abbas speaks with a forked tongue and is vague about his longterm goals when he addresses nonArab audiences, whereas Hamas is completely honest and boasts that it will never negotiate and will continue to fight until the Jewish state is destroyed.

Some Palestinian Authority leaders are becoming less inhibited. Only a few weeks ago, a prominent Fatah leader explicitly proclaimed that a Palestinian state would merely represent the first steppingstone toward the ultimate objective of eliminating the Jewish state. Unfortunately, all opinion polls demonstrate that the Palestinian masses have been brainwashed and endorse these views.

Professor Sari Nusseibeh, the president of Birzeit University, was hailed by many naive Israelis as a Palestinian model of moderation. Yossi Beilin referred to him as a living testimony Please see Leibler, next page.

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE NOVEMBER 24, 2011 — 9

OPINION Leibler: Continued from previous page. to the fact that Oslo was not a failure.

Nearly 10 years ago I challenged the bona fides of Nusseibeh, pointing out that he was appointed by, reported to, and accepted instructions from Yasser Arafat. I observed that political dissidents under Arafat’s authority had extraordinarily limited lifespans and suggested that Nusseibeh’s role was to provide the Palestinian Authority with a moderate face to the Western world.

His amiable and soothing approach was obviously designed to revive Israel’s fond memories of the “irreversible peace process” and Arafat’s cynical “peace of the brave.”

Whereas Nusseibeh did, in fact, call for an end to violence and condemned boycotts, he was also recorded in a Palestinian television program expressing sympathy and praising the militant mother of a suicide bomber whom he referred to as “a soldier dying in battle.” He always took care not to pass judgment on suicide bombers, merely questioning the benefits of the strategy rather than its morality.

He was often bracketed with

Rosensaft: Continued from page 6. know, there are features I wish were in my own: I love the profound ceremony of the Catholic Mass, the approachability of God in the prayers of the Evangelicals, the tenderness of spirit among the Pentecostals, the confident independence of the Lutherans, the ancient traditions of the Jews, unchanged through the ages, and the commitment to frequent prayer of the Muslims.”

This broad-based inclusivity appears to have given a decidedly ecumenical

Arafat’s Jerusalem representative, the late Faisal Husseini, who was also considered a “moderate” throughout most of his life. Yet following his death, Husseini was quoted in an Egyptian newspaper interview as having said, “We must distinguish our strategies and long-term goals from the political phased goals which we are compelled to accept due to international pressures.” The “ultimate goal is the liberation of all historic Palestine … Oslo has to be viewed as a Trojan horse.”

In a lengthy article recently published on the Al-Jazeera website, Nusseibeh set aside his cloak of moderation and, like Faisal Hussein, demonstrated that despite the sophisticated chatter, he is no more moderate than any of his Palestinian counterparts. His article is a passionate opposition to the recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. The arguments he employs, arguing that Jews should be the only people denied the right to statehood, testify to the fact that his moderation is a sham. He warns that if Israel were recognized as a Jewish state, it would become an “apartheid” entity. Not only would Israel’s Arabs be stripped of their citizenship and other rights, but they would also be killed as the ancient Canaanites and Jebusites

were by the Israelites according to the Bible.

He conveniently ignores that Israel as a Jewish state was the rationale for its creation by the United Nations in 1947. He also overlooks the inconsistency that the new Palestinian entity would be governed by Sharia law and cleansed of any Jews, and that there is no Arab country that remotely extends similar rights to minorities comparable to Israel. Furthermore, he has the gall to condemn Jewish intolerance toward other faiths in Jerusalem, disregarding the fact that it was only when Jerusalem came under Jewish sovereignty in 1967 that freedom of religious association and worship were extended for the first time to all religions — in dramatic contrast to the manner in which the Jordanians ruled the city.

Adopting the Abbas U.N. approach, Nusseibeh also reneged on his previous call to Palestinians to cease promoting the right of return for Palestinian refugees to Israel. He actually insisted — hold your breath — that 7 million diaspora Palestinians are entitled to repatriation or compensation.

Nusseibeh’s turnaround reaffirms that there is not a single Palestinian leader who could be described as a

ethos to the religious imperative that forms an integral part of Romney’s political philosophy. Balancing a recognition that “the founders proscribed the establishment of a state religion,” with a belief that “the creator” should be acknowledged “in ceremony and word” in the conduct of public affairs.

His blurring of the constitutional separation between religion and government seems not to have given rise to intolerance or intellectual insularity on his part. On the contrary, for Romney the values of “our religious heritage” are “not unique to any one denomination” but “belong to the great moral inheritance we hold in common.”

Romney does not come across in any way as mean-spirited. “We should remember that decency and civility are values, too,” he told the Values Voters Summit in October. While anti-abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or where the mother’s life is in danger, he acknowledges, “this is a tender and sensitive issue, and people — good people — come out on both sides of this issue. I respect people that have different views on this issue.”

Confronted recently for the umpteenth time with the health care plan he had implemented in Massachusetts, he replied simply, “I care about people.”

moderate and who would be willing to support a negotiated settlement to achieve a genuine peace deal with the Jewish state.

And in this insane “Alice in Wonderland” global environment, we are being told to deal with these bigots as though they are genuine peace partners.

The reality is that appeasing these hypocrites, far from bringing us closer to peace, merely emboldens the radicals who confront us with ever-escalating demands that few of the original architects of Oslo — certainly not Yitzhak Rabin — would ever have conceded. To the world and those calling on us to continue providing unilateral concessions — which without exception weakened our position and encouraged our adversaries — I issue one challenge: Please identify one single Palestinian leader or intellectual who genuinely advocated moderation and was not assassinated.

(Isi Leibler, the former head of the Australian Jewish community and a former senior official at the World Jewish Congress, lives in Jerusalem and is a regular columnist for the Jerusalem Post and Israel Hayom.

This column previously appeared in Hayom.)

Romney’s views on the economy, jobs, taxes, health care, the preservation of Social Security and Medicare, energy policy, the U.S. role in world affairs, and other matters of national and global import are all legitimate subjects for scrutiny and debate in this year’s presidential campaign. His faith and church, however, should be off the table.

(Menachem Z. Rosensaft is an adjunct professor of law at Cornell Law School, lecturer in law at Columbia Law School, and distinguished visiting lecturer at Syracuse University College of Law.)

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10 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE NOVEMBER 24, 2011

GLOBE The test ahead

Iran’s nuclear challenge reaching point of no return

BY BEN COHEN JNS

On Sept. 25, 2009, a grim-faced President Obama stood before the phalanx of journalists covering the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh to share a sensational piece of intelligence.

Flanked by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and then-British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Obama disclosed that Iran had been operating a clandestine uranium enrichment plant near the town of Fordow, in the country’s north.

The discovery of the Fordow facility — buried 300 feet beneath the region’s mountainous terrain, under the control of the regime’s much-feared Revolutionary Guard — did not sway Iran from the official line that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. Accordingly, Obama delivered a warning to Tehran. If Iran’s leaders continued to ignore the growing series of U.N. Security Council resolutions demanding the reigning in of their nuclear ambitions, they would be held “accountable.”

At the time, there was little expectation that Obama’s verbal salvo would trigger a change in Iran’s behavior. Now, more than two years after the Fordow plant was unmasked, the notion that the Tehran regime will voluntarily comply with the Security Council seems more unlikely than ever.

The earnest efforts of the European powers to engage in diplomacy have crumbled. Obama’s entreaties to Tehran in the first months of his Presidency are an embarrassing memory. As for the international sanctions imposed upon Iran, even if one grants that it is premature to write them off completely, they have hardly been an unqualified success.

(The situation is so serious that Israeli defense Minister Ehud Barak appeared

Abedin Taherkenareh photo/EPA

An Iranian nuclear power plant in Bushehr, southern Iran.

Sunday on the CNN program Fareed Zakaria GPS and said Iran is less than one year away from being unstoppable in its goal of producing a nuclear weapon.)

The current stalemate over Iran invites comparisons with Iraq in the months leading up to the 2003 war. The combination of sanctions and diplomacy failed there too, pushing the military option to the forefront. Even so, Saddam Hussein calculated that the U.S. and its allies would not launch a war against his brutal regime.

Iran’s rulers are in danger of repeat-

ing that fatal error. Just like Saddam, the mullahs are confident that international divisions over what to do next will insulate their regime from military action.

Yet there is a critical difference between the two situations.

In Iraq, the western allies were bitterly divided, with France leading the charge against American and British assertions that Saddam was developing chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction. In the case of Iran, there is no such skepticism: indeed, some of the most strident reminders to Tehran that the military option remains on the table have come from the French.

More significantly, the most damning evidence that Iran is weaponizing its nuclear program has been gathered by a U.N. body, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Its latest report, issued this month, stresses that many of Iran’s nuclear activities are specific to weapons construction, and have no civilian application.

In the nine years that have elapsed since Iran’s nuclear program was first exposed, the IAEA has never sounded this direct. The agency’s previous Director-General, the Egyptian lawyer Mohamed ElBaradei, went to extraordinary lengths to protect Iran from international criticism, frequently complaining about the “double standard” that allowed Israel to possess the nuclear weapons denied to Iran.

However, ElBaradei’s successor, the Japanese career diplomat Yukiya Amano — who assumed the post around the same time that the Fordow plant was uncovered — has adopted a radically different stance. In a recent interview with Reuters, an observer familiar with

News Analysis

the IAEA’s inner workings spotlighted ElBaradei’s political agenda as the chief contrast between the two men. “Because of his Iraq experience, ElBaradei was very, very worried that the IAEA reports would be used to justify military action,” the analyst said. “Amano hasn’t had that experience and therefore his priority is not to find every possible way to get Iran to cooperate.”

David Albright, an American expert on nuclear proliferation, went even further. The revelations in the IAEA’s November report could have been published much earlier, Albright said, “but there was a head of the organization that had a different view about it.”

Meanwhile, those very same states that encouraged ElBaradei’s strategy of deflecting attention from Iran onto the U.S. and Israel — Russia, China, and a host of non-aligned countries — are now complaining that the IAEA under Amano is compromising its neutral status. In the days leading up to the release of the IAEA report, both the Chinese and the Russians leaned on Amano not to publish the evidence of the Iranian nuclear program’s military dimensions. In resisting these pressures, Amano displayed a commendable backbone that will doubtless be tested again and again in the coming months.

The ultimate test, though, is reserved for the United States and its allies. For Russia and China, the standoff with Iran is an opportunity to determine whether American power is declining as sharply as both countries hope.

In that sense, America faces a choice: to continue battling Russian and Chinese opposition to further sanctions on Iran, or to recognize that since sanctions are unlikely to work, examination of military options is the next logical move.

Nightmare scenarios abound on either side of this dilemma. If the mullahs attain nuclear weapons in spite of tougher sanctions, Iran will have inflicted a massive strategic defeat upon the United States and its allies before it even presses the red button. If a pre-emptive bombing campaign fails to conclusively destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities, the U.S. risks triggering an Iranian response aimed, in the first instance, at Saudi Arabia and the other petrodollar monarchies in the Gulf.

Throughout the Iranian nuclear saga, military action has been a dim and distant prospect, something western leaders have kept on the table with little appetite to see it through. The IAEA report, which should extinguish any doubts about Iran’s true intentions, may bring military intervention that much closer.

As Obama tries yet again to bring China and Russia back into the fold, in meetings at the APEC Summit in Hawaii, he should make it clear that ElBaradei is gone, and that Iran is not Iraq Redux: this time, those who challenge the legitimacy of a military response will have little scope to challenge the evidence underwriting it.

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THE JEWISH CHRONICLE NOVEMBER 24, 2011 — 11

12 - THE JEWISH CHRONICLE NOVEMBER 24, 2011

Style A practical art Deaf Jewish artist makes exquisite Judaica, howls with wolves

BY TOBY TABACHNICK Staff Writer

Sharon Jo Serbin is a wood carver, sculptor, mosaic artist and muralist.

She wrote a children’s book, entertains at birthday parties, models in the nude for art classes, is a trained masseuse, and teaches Pilates and drama.

Sharon Jo Serbin howls with a wolf

She teaches babies how to communicate by signing, as she just happens to be deaf.

“I consider myself a creative specialist,” Serbin said in a clear voice, although she has not heard a sound since she was 18.

With no formal training in art, Serbin creates intricately carved yads and menoras, and hand-painted ketubas — custom designed depending on the character of the couple.

Serbin’s art career was born of practicality. When her three children were young, she would paint over stains on their clothes because she could not afford to buy new ones.

“I have no training in art,” she said. “It just pours out of me.”

From her humble start in painting, she began experimenting with a variety of media, learning the art of mosaics from her sister, Pittsburgh artist Daviea Davis, who created the two dramatic glass mosaics depicting Old Pittsburgh and New Pittsburgh at the Pittsburgh International Airport.

Serbin also creates stunning stained glass works, and donates much of it to various nonprofit organizations. The candlesticks she made for Temple Sinai are multimedia masterpieces of hand-carved wood and glass mosaic, evoking the Old City of Jerusalem.

Believing everyone is charged with continuing God’s work of creation, Serbin’s own work is infused with an undeniable spirituality.

“I think God just started creation, and it is up to us to continue it,” she said. “We make it beautiful with our stories, our songs, our babies. Each part of us is a part of creation.”

Born with a hearing loss in her left ear, Serbin’s hearing became progressively worse throughout her childhood. When she got to high school, she was losing hearing in her right ear as well. By the time she was

18, she was completely deaf.

“I believe my art work is better because I am deaf,” Serbin said. “I can completely focus on things. Nothing distracts me.”

Last year, when a physical evaluation indicated that cochlear implants would allow her to hear, she declined to undergo the procedure.

“They said everything would be highpitched,” she said. “I didn’t want that. I have a memory of sound. I don’t want it replaced.”

A patent optimist, Serbin sees other perks of being deaf.

“I can sleep in a crowd,” she said, smiling.

“And I can win fights by closing my eyes.”

Serbin recently quit her full-time job as the infant supervisor at a day care center so that she could focus on her art, and so that she would not be tied to a rigid schedule. She likes to have the freedom to go downtown when she feels like it so that she can talk to and hug the homeless.

The Facebook page devoted to Serbin’s art is called “Wild Woman Creations,” and the moniker fits. She recently satisfied a “Waterfall Ketuba” longtime longing of howling with a wolf.

“I was the storyteller at the Council of Three Rivers annual Pow Wow,” she ex- back, and I howled. Then he started to plained. “This year, a vendor there had a howl and we howled together.”

Not surprisingly, another of Serbin’s wolf hybrid. He was beautiful. I started playing with him, and wrestling. We un- many vocations is motivational speaker.

“I spoke at St. Lucy’s Auxiliary for the derstood each other. I’ve wanted to hear a wolf howl my whole life. So I put by Blind,” she recalled. “I spoke about posihands on his throat, and I threw my head tive thinking. If you build up the negative,

you build up a wall. But if you build up the positive, you build up a ladder.”

“Being deaf didn’t stop me,” she said.

“To be truthful, I think it spurred me on.”

(Toby Tabachnick can be reached at tobyt@thejewishchornicle.net.)

At left: Serbin, wood carver, working on sculpture.

Above: A Tree of Life menorah made by Serbin

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE NOVEMBER 24, 2011 — 13

METRO

Local universities approach hate speech in different ways

BY LEE CHOTTINER Executive Editor

Incidents such as the one at Kent State University, in which a tenured professor shouted “death to Israel” during a lecture by a former Israeli diplomat, are rare, if not unheard of, in Pittsburgh.

But that doesn’t mean city universities have no way to address them in case they do occur.

The tenured history professor, Julio Pino, who reportedly has ties with a jihadist website, disrupted an Oct. 27 lecture by a former Israeli deputy consul general, Ishmael Khaldi, asking him an insulting question. Instead of accepting Khaldi’s invitation to ask another question, Pino left the hall chanting, “death to Israel.”

Kent State President Lester Lefton released a statement deploring the incident.

While anti-Israel professors are on the faculty of Pittsburgh universities, Aaron Weil, executive director and CEO of the Hillel Jewish University Center of Pittsburgh, said he knew of no incidents similar to the one at Kent State.

“I am not familiar with policies in Pittsburgh [universities] on hate speech, fortunately because there hasn’t been the need to be familiar,” Weil said.

“Some faculty are anti-Israel, but in my eight years here I have not witnessed here what happened at Kent State.”

But he does believe Pino’s remarks crossed the line into hate speech. “ ‘Death to is Israel’ cannot be seen merely as death to a political entity,” he said. “ ‘Death to Israel’ can be [seen] as a call to genocide.”

The Kent State incident poses difficult

questions for local universities; namely, how far would they let a student or professor go before deciding the line between free speech and hate speech had been crossed? Is there such a line at all?

And if there is such a line, should there be penalties for crossing it?

The American Civil Liberties Union clearly opposes any effort by colleges and universities to adopt hate speech policies on their campuses. That’s the wrong response, well meaning or not, according to a statement on the ACLU’s website.

“The First Amendment to the United States Constitution protects speech no matter how offensive its content,” the statement said. “Speech codes adopted by government-financed state colleges and universities amount to government censorship, in violation of the Constitution.”

However, advocates of hate speech policies say they protect groups for whom “the verbal attack is a symptom of an oppressive history of discrimination and subjugation that plagues the harmed student and hinders his or her ability to compete fairly in the academic arena,” wrote Gerald Uelman, dean of Santa Clara University School of Law and a fellow of the Center for Applied Ethics.

“The resulting harm is clearly significant and, therefore, justifies limiting speech rights.”

Across the state, Temple University found itself in a situation similar to Kent State’s in 2009, only with Muslims as the target of the hate speech.

At that time, a student organization brought Geert Wilders, then a member of the Dutch parliament known for his

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anti-Islamic remarks, to Temple to speak. Students protested Wilders’ appearance on campus, brandishing signs that read “Hate Speech [does not equal] Free Speech,” according to the Philadelphia Daily News, and the Muslim Student Association issued a statement saying the campus Muslim community feels “attacked, threatened and ultimately unsafe.”

Nevertheless, the university allowed the program to go on. “We respect the right of our student organizations to invite people who express a wide variety of views and ideas,” a Temple spokesman wrote.

Closer to home, Pittsburgh area universities deal with the hate speech issue in different ways.

Carnegie Mellon University has a “Freedom of Expression Policy,” which guarantees the right to free speech — printed and spoken. The policy does not define hate speech, but it does state, “all such [free speech] activities must be peaceful, avoiding acts or credible threats of violence and preserving the normal operation of the university.”

“While we can’t comment on hypothetical situations,” said Kenneth Walters, a spokesman for Carnegie Mellon University, in an e-mailed response to the Chronicle, “I can tell you that the university would fully review the details of any charge of violations of community standards on our campus.

“Carnegie Mellon provides guidance to the university community on these issues through its freedom of expression policy, which addresses the nuances of free speech and the planning and response to speaker events,” he

continued. “If a case were brought forward, it would be adjudicated based on a detailed review of the facts gleaned from those with first-hand knowledge, as such matters are impossible to judge fairly out of context or based on second-hand reports.”

Duquesne University does not define hate speech, according to Bridget Fare, assistant vice president for public affairs. Although, “we have a zero tolerance policy regarding verbal and other forms of aggressive attacks, threats, etc.”

Neither does the University of Pittsburgh have a hate speech policy, according to its spokesman, John Fedele. For Pitt students, though, the school has a pledge known as the Pitt Promise, a commitment to civility in which individual students pledge, among other things to “support a culture of diversity by respecting the rights of those who differ from myself” and “contribute to the development of a caring community where compassion for others and freedom of thought and expression are valued.”

Likewise, at Robert Morris University, the only policy that remotely addresses hate speech is for students, spokesman Jonathan Potts said.

“There’s no speech that’s prohibited per se,” Potts said. However, “our Code of Student Conduct speaks to behavior that is threatening or intimidating to an individual — that’s physically threatening or intimidating.”

(Lee Chottiner can be reached at leec@thejewishchronicle.net.)

14 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE NOVEMBER 24, 2011

METRO

Transgender Jews seek wider acceptance, understanding

BY RON KAPLAN Chronicle Correspondent

Transgender and transsexual Jews face significant challenges in gaining acceptance from the Jewish community and in navigating through life in general.

Wheeling, W.Va., native and author Noach Dzmura illustrated these challenges in a thought-provoking discussion sponsored by the Hillel Jewish University Center of Pittsburgh and Bet Tikvah, Saturday, Nov. 19.

Dzmura, the communications coordinator at Congregation Chochmat HaLev in Berkeley, Calif., underwent a sex-change operation to become a male.

Raised in the Byzantine Orthodox Church, Dzmura converted to Judaism nine years ago. His first exposure to Judaism was at Beth Tikvah services in Pittsburgh in 1997.

“I didn’t know anything about Judaism,” he said. “I had never seen a religion that included gay people.… It was amazing.”

“I immediately felt at home … and the eastern European music in the services was the same as the eastern European music of the Byzantine Orthodox Church.”

Dzmura emphasized that transsexual and transgender Jews face obsta-

Noach Dzmura

cles in gaining acceptance from rabbinical authorities and society as a whole. Jewish law poses an obstacle as well since many scholars believe it prohibits sex-change operations.

Dzmura noted, however, that Jewish law is fluid and adapts over the ages.

He pointed out that an Orthodox rabbi in Washington, D.C., recently presided over a wedding service between two gay men. He recounted how another Orthodox rabbi, Eliezer Waldenberg, at one time a dayan on the Supreme Rabbinical Court in Jerusalem and an authority on medical halacha, once concluded that if a person were distraught enough about gender identity to consider suicide, a sex-change operation would be permissible Shortly after he converted, Dzmura researched the Talmud for its perspective on gender variance. He also sought to “bring the richness of Jewish tradition to people struggling with gender identity today.”

Dzmura is the director of Jewish Transitions, a program that offers guidance on gender transitions and whose current programs focus on conversion and burial practices.

He also edited the anthology “Balancing on the Mechitza: Transgender in Jewish Community,” which includes personal descriptions of individuals’ experiences struggling with their sexual identity and place in the Jewish community as well as discussions of how Jewish law and tradition regard gender variance.

The sex of an individual affects nearly all Jewish rituals, from conversion ceremonies to where an individual can sit at temple to the rituals observed by burial societies, he said.

Therefore, confusion and ignorance of gender variance can cause distress to transsexuals and transgender persons, making it harder for them to gain acceptance.

“We need change that involves the entire community,” Dzmura said, from acknowledging and accepting young children of ambiguous gender to changing language to make it more inclusive of the transgender community.

For transgender and transsexual persons, he noted that ambiguity about one’s gender is not such a bad thing.

“Up-in-coming youth are saying ‘I am both or neither [sex] …’ The third space is for people who value ambiguity,” Dzmura said.

He thinks that language and society’s obsession with categorizing people is counterproductive.

“How do we start talking about each others’ souls and not about each others’ bodies?” he asked. “Be careful about what words you use.”

(Ron Kaplan can be reached at ronkap205@yahoo.com.)

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE NOVEMBER 24, 2011 — 15

BOOKS ‘Vices’ a gripping read about a mysterious Jewish family Book Review

BY MORTON I. TEICHER For the Chronicle

The intriguing new novel, “The Vices,” the second by author Lawrence Douglas, begins with an opening that grabs the reader’s attention — as well it should.

The setting is the Queen Mary 2, four days out of Southampton, heading for New York. Oliver Vice, the story’s protagonist, disappears over the side, presumably a suicide. He was a professor of philosophy at Harkness College in western Massachusetts.

The rest of the book features an unnamed narrator, Vice’s “closest friend,” a fellow faculty member, who writes of his relationship with Oliver and his effort to understand what happened. The Harkness College setting is based on Amherst College, where Douglas teaches.

Going back 12 years to when the two men first met in a used bookstore near the campus, the story follows the development of their friendship. We learn about the narrator’s background as a Jew with a mixed educational background in philosophy, history and law.

He produced a novel that attracted attention, resulting in his three-year appointment as a “visiting writer.” After his first year, he married Melissa and she found employment as a teacher at a private high school. They saw Oliver from time to time as he confided in the narrator about his involvement with two women.

Oliver turns out to be a wealthy man as becomes evident when he invites them to his mother’s Christmas celebration in her elaborate New York apartment filled with paintings by wellknown artists. They meet Bartholomew, Oliver’s dysfunctional twin brother, some other friends, and most importantly, Francizka, Oliver and Bartholomew’s mother. She presides over “a lavish Hungarian Christmas meal,” with pork dishes that Melissa refuses to eat. Francizka talks about her two husbands, both dead, Victor Vice (formerly Weiss, as we later learn), the twins’ father, who was a

Book Review “The Vices,” by Lawrence Douglas. New York, Other Press, 2011, 344 Pages.

professional art dealer, and Jacob Epstein, their stepfather, who had been previously married. With his first wife, he had two sons, “both Lubavitchers.”

Most of all, she describes the family from which she is descended, “one of the wealthiest and most decorated in all of Hungary.”

As the story develops, it becomes more and more complicated and the surface identities are less and less reliable.

What started out as a relatively straightforward effort to learn about Oliver becomes a mystery, filled with hints and pointers that raise doubts and questions about what is true and what is false.

Readers become captivated by a fascinating chronicle that firmly compels their attention.

The narrator’s search becomes enigmatic, intruding vigorously and painfully on his own marriage. Uncertainty and ambiguity prevail although a bit of clarity emerges when the narrator visits Victor Vice’s first wife in Portugal and meets her daughter, Oliver’s half-sister. There is further transparency at the very end when the narrator goes to the cemetery where there is a memorial to Oliver and, in accordance with Jewish tradition, he places pebbles on the headstone.

Ultimately, tangled human relationships are the subject of this well-written and insightful story that powerfully depicts the elusiveness of truth and the deceptions that debase many lives.

(Morton I. Teicher is the founding dean of the Wurzweiler School of Social Work, Yeshiva University, and dean emeritus of the School of Social Work, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.)

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16 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE NOVEMBER 24, 2011

Simchas Weddings

B’nai Mitzva Yonathan Eglash, son of Dr. Rachel and Brian Eglash, will become a bar mitzva Saturday, Nov. 26, at Congregation Beth Shalom.

Grandparents are Norbert and Judy Eglash of Milwaukee, Addis Yithak of Jerusalem and Kebede Taddesse of Addis Abbaba, Ethiopia.

Sato/Tarter: Sharon and Ralph Tarter of Squirrel Hill announce the marriage of their son, Gregg Lawrence, to Michelle Taemi Sato, daughter of Sandra and Paul Sato of Honolulu, Sept.

4 at the Oahu Country Club in Honolulu, followed by a reception at the Moana Surfrider in Waikiki. Judge Linda Martell officiated with a Jewish ceremony.

Michelle’s grandparents are Janet and Thomas Nakai of Honolulu, and Katherine and Nihei Sato of Honolulu.

Gregg’s grandparents are the late Sadie and Ben Tarter and the late Marion Becker Dwoskin and Isadore Becker.

The bridesmaids included Gina Giang of Los Angeles, Trina Orimoto of Honolulu and Nikki Ann Yee of Hong Kong.

Groomsmen included Mark Sato, the bride’s brother, of Honolulu; Adam Perer of New York and Mike Rosenthal of Arlington, Va. Ian and Lexi Tarter, nephew and niece of the groom, served as ring bearer and flower girl. Best man was the groom’s brother, Barry Tarter of Chicago. Melyssa Sato of Honolulu, the bride’s sister, was maid of honor.

Births Tamuzs: Eileen and Nicholas Lane announce the birth of their grandson, Oskars Benjamins Tamuzs, Oct. 5, in Strasbourg, France. Parents are Erica Lane-Tamuza and Kristaps Tamuzs.

Oskars is named in loving memory of his great-grandfathers, Bernard Halpern and Ben Lane.

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Madeline Paige Moritz, daughter of Natalie and J. Kenneth Moritz, will become a bat mitzva Saturday, Nov. 26, at Adat Shalom Synagogue. Grandparents are Rita and Stuart Chetlin and Janet and Donald Moritz.

Max T. Weinsweig, son of Leslie and Craig Weinsweig of Clarksville, Md., became a bar mitzva Saturday, Nov. 12, at Shalom Aloicham in Columbia, Md. Grandparents are Shirley Weinsweig of Squirrel Hill and the late Burnet Weinsweig and Carole and Allen Miller of Maryland.

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE NOVEMBER 24, 2011 — 17

Community A

Plot maintenance J’Burgh photo

J-Burgh adopted a plot in Emerald Park atop Mount Washington in conjunction with the Mount Washington Community Development Corporation. J-Burgh participants planted eight trees and smaller shrubbery within their adopted plot and previously cleaned up the garbage and aligned deer fencing on two similar trips to their adopted plot.

Pictured from left are Steve Slusarski, David Andrews, Sarah Heal, Carly Adelmann, Perry Elrichman, David Hartwich and Jason Chottiner.

C L O Jew’colades

S

Club Event

COMPILED BY ANGELA LEIBOWICZ Community/Web Editor

Hannah Jo Weisberg of Monroeville landed a role in “Titanic: The Musical,” the Tony Award-winning production staged at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio. Weisberg, the daughter of Dr. Edward and Dorothy Weisberg, played Eleanor Widener in the production. The 2011 graduate of Gateway High School is currently a freshman in B-W’s nationally recognized music theater program.

E Hannah Jo Weisberg

R L

Oren Spiegler was featured in the Nov. 19 Chicago Tribune “Pen Pals” column, which introduces readers to frequent writers through a biographical sketch. Spiegler has had dozens of letters published in the Tribune over a period of many years, and his commentary has regularly appeared in newspapers and magazines both locally and throughout the United States since 1973.

Lila Hirsch Brody was accepted into the 2011 Annual Exhibition of the Pittsburgh Society of Artists, which was juried by Janet McCall, executive director of the Society for Contemporary Craft. The exhibition is being held at the Fein Art Gallery, 519 East Ohio St., until Dec. 12. Brody’s works have been shown at the Carnegie Museum, the Chelsea Gallery in New York and the Amsterdam Whitney Gallery. She is a longtime member of Associate Artists of Pittsburgh and teaches at the Jewish Community Center.

Chabad Fox Chapel photo

Emmelia Jaffe, Ashley Nadulek and Ally Burton enjoy making pizza during the Jeen club kick-off event at Chabad Fox Chapel, The Jewish Center.

3 or 4 medium apples, preferably golden delicious (I used Granny Smith), or pears, peeled, cored and very thinly sliced 2 tablespoons brown sugar Crème fraîche, sweetened whipped cream or vanilla ice cream

O This recipe is a keeper and a disappearer — it was gone in about one minute. I found it while roaming around the New York Times Diner’s Journal looking for an easy dessert. This recipe is from Mark Bittman. It has lots of butter in it, so it is a special treat.

O

FREE-FORM APPLE OR PEAR TART Yield 8 servings • Time About 1 hour, plus 1 hour’s refrigeration

✂

Ingredients 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour Pinch of salt 3 tablespoons sugar 9 tablespoons cold butter 1 egg yolk

Combine flour, salt and sugar in a food processor; pulse once or twice.

Cut 8 tablespoons butter into chunks, and add it and egg yolk to flour mixture. Process until butter is blended, about 10 seconds. Turn mixture into a bowl, and add cold water, a tablespoon at a time, stirring after each addition. After adding 3 or 4 tablespoons, you should be able to gather mixture into a ball; wrap ball in plastic, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour (or freeze for about 15 minutes).

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Roll or pat dough into a 10-inch circle; it can be quite crude in shape. Place it on a cookie or pizza sheet lined with parchment. Arrange fruit slices on top, right out to edges; make the pattern attractive, if you like. Sprinkle with brown sugar. Cut remaining butter into bits, and top fruit with it.

Bake until crust is nicely browned and fruit is tender, 20 to 30 minutes. Remove, and serve warm or at room temperature, with crème fraîche, whipped cream or ice cream.

COMPILED BY ANGELA LEIBOWICZ angelal@thejewishchronicle.net

18 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE NOVEMBER 24, 2011

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THE JEWISH CHRONICLE NOVEMBER 24, 2011 — 19

GLOBE Briefly JointMedia News Service

‘Al-Qaida sympathizer’ arrested for alleged bomb plot in New York Manhattan resident Jose Pimintel, a “27-year-old al-Qaida sympathizer,” was arrested Sunday for allegedly plotting to bomb New York City police and post offices, the Associated Press reported.

Pimintel, who was also targeting U.S. troops, planned the bomb since August but “jacked up his speed” after the Sept. 30 killing of U.S.-born alQaida cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki, said New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

“We had to act quickly yesterday because he was in fact putting this bomb together. He was drilling holes and it would have been not appropriate for us to let him walk out the door with that bomb,” Kelly said, according to the AP. New York police have been the targets of 13 terrorist plots since 9/11 — none successful — Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a press conference.

PBS introduces Woody Allen documentary A three-hour documentary about famed, and sometimes infamous, American-Jewish director Woody Allen aired this week on PBS. “The big thing with Woody was getting over the hump of him agreeing to do this in the first place … That hesitation was about him feeling that he wasn’t an interesting subject — that’s how out of touch he is,” said the film’s director, Robert Weide, who may also be familiar to viewers as the former director of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

“Woody Allen — A Documentary” aired in two parts and included a rundown of Allen’s prolific directing careers, as well as interviews with other big names in the entertainment industry who worked with Allen, including Diane Keaton, Martin Scorsese and more.

Anti-Semitic vandalism gets residents to fight back After vandals torched three cars and painted swastikas in an anti-Semitic attack in Brooklyn on Nov. 11, local residents have decided to stop being victims.

The Jewish Defense Organization (JDO) and Bnai Elim are now offering self-defense and legal gun-firing classes to residents in the area, the New York Daily News reported.

The classes are being held at a secret location and more than 500 people have reportedly signed up, according to JDO spokesman Jeff Klein.

He called the classes “a Jewish selfdefense renaissance,” according to the Daily News.

In the meantime, police are still investigating the Nov. 11 vandalism.

The reward amount offered by New York Police for information that would lead to the capture of the perpetrators has now risen to $56,000, said Assemblyman Dov Hikind.

Sotheby’s to auction three Chagall paintings Sotheby’s auction house in New York is selling three rare Marc Chagall paintings that depict synagogues, RT.com reported.

Max Cottin originally bought the paintings at an exhibition of Jewish art in 1945. His descendant is now auctioning them off.

Originally from Russia, Chagall, a famous Jewish painter, is only known to have painted six pieces depicting synagogues. Chagall, who died in 1985, is known to have said, “If a painter is Jewish and paints life, how can he help having Jewish elements in his work? But if he is a good painter, there will be more than that. The Jewish element will be there, but his art will tend to approach the universal.”

Just one of the three auctioned pieces, “Interior of the Yemenite HaGoral Synagogue, Jerusalem,” is expected to sell for up to $600,000, the Associated Press reported. The sale is scheduled for Dec. 14.

FBI: 65 percent of 2010 religious hate crimes antiJewish The FBI released new data summarizing hate crime statistics for 2010, according to the blog Religion Clause.

Out of 1409 religion-based hate crimes, 65.4 percent were anti-Jewish, according to the report.

A total of 6,224 incidents were reported in 2010.

The 1409 religious-bias cases constitute 20 percent from the total of incidents; 47.3 percent of the incidents were racially motivated and 19.3 percent were based on sexual orientation.

Within those incidents motivated by religion, 13.2 percent were anti-Islamic; 4.3 percent were anti-Catholic, and the rest targeted other religions, denominations and religious viewpoints.

Visit the FBI website, fbi.gov, for the full statistics.

Student remains ‘thoroughly sickened’ by professor’s anti-Israel remarks A Kent State University student is trying to make sure Professor Julio Pino’s recent anti-Israel remarks don’t fly under the radar.

Evan M. Gildenblatt lodged several grievances against Pino—who shouted “Death to Israel” during a lecture by Israeli diplomat Ishmael Khaldi — with university Provost Robert Frank.

“I, as a student at this university and the primary organizer of this event, am still thoroughly sickened by Professor Pino’s remarks and believe that he has shamed Kent State University in a most disgraceful fashion,” Gildenblatt wrote in a letter.

Gildenblatt says Pino violated university policy by failing to “maintain a professional demeanor,” “exhibit a high degree of maturity and self-respect and foster an appreciation for other cultures,” “respect the dignity and well being of others,” and “demonstrate respect for all campus and community members.”

Israel deploying new intelligence battallion on Egyptian border The Israel Defense Forces has announced the establishment of a new intelligence-gathering battalion to be stationed along the Israel-Egypt border.

The move comes after a surge in violence from the increasingly lawless Sinai Peninsula, where radical groups have gained a foothold following the ouster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in February.

Soldiers in the new battalion, which also includes female troops, are undergoing extensive combat and intelligence training, and some are also expected to be stationed along Israel’s border with Jordan.

Explaining the need for the new battalion, defense officials on Sunday said that a great deal of uncertainty remains about Egypt’s future, and it is unclear what type of government will arise in Cairo after the parliamentary elections scheduled for Nov. 28 and to what degree the Muslim Brotherhood will be bolstered as a result.

Israel to seek closure of U.N. ‘refugee’ aid agency Israel intends to ask the United Nations to close down the aid agency that assists Palestinian refugees living in Judea and Samaria, Gaza and Jerusalem, saying the organization poses an obstacle to any future peace agreement between Israel and the

Palestinians because of its distorted

definition of the term “refugee.”

The Israeli initiative, proposed by M.K. Einat Wilf (Independence), follows months of Palestinian efforts to obtain unilateral recognition of statehood at the United Nations and membership in several of its agencies. UNESCO (the U.N. Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization) granted “Palestine” membership last month, prompting the United States to cut funding in accordance with a law requiring financial ties to be cut with any U.N. agency that affords the Palestinians membership.

Now Israel plans to pursue its own measure at the U.N. to shutter the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.

UNRWA is the only U.N. aid agency dedicated to helping refugees from a specific region or conflict.

Simon Wiesenthal representatives: Fight for evangelical support The dean and director of interfaith relations at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Abraham Cooper and Yitzchok Adlerstein, wrote a letter to the Jerusalem Post arguing for the need to reach out to Evangelicals and denounce the Palestinian criticism of Zionism.

The writers condemned Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ push for Palestinian recognition in the U.S. as an effort to delegitimize the Jewish state and to reduce Christian support Please see Briefly, page 22.

for the country. They also cited the2010

20 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE NOVEMBER 24, 2011

FOR SALE FOX CHAPEL

$629,000

FOR RENT

GREENFIELD

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F a b u l o u s 4 B R , 2 f u l l , 2 h a l f b a t h s o n p r ivate cul-de-sac — everything is new — roof, windows, deck, electrical, plumbing, exquisite granite COOK’s Kitchen with top of the line appliances. Gleaming Brazilian rosewood 4” hardwood floors throughout, sauna in master, Jacuzzi tub in 2nd Bath…A “ M u s t S e e ” p r o p e r t y o n 21 / 2 a c r e s .

2 unit/or use as single family. Very large, bright property, with 2 new kitchens. Was income producing property with GAI of $21K, kitchen, bedroom, LR, office, bath on first floor. 4 br, bath, lr, dining room, new k i t c h e n on 2nd and third. Right near Murray Ave Chabad.

FOX CHAPEL

Fabulous 3BR single family house, 1 block f r o m C h i l d r e n ’ s H o s p i t a l , s p a r k l i n g r e n o v ation with “state of the art” granite kitchen, stainless steel appliances, wide open spaces throughout, gorgeous wide plank HWF, audio, video, cable ready. A “MUST SEE”

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C O N D O- F o r e s t H i g h l a n d s Totally redone…..2 BR, New granite Kitchen, beautiful new hardwood floors throughout, two exquisite custom Italian marble bathrooms, P. R. has hand painted fixturing, walk-in cedar closet off Master B.R.

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THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CONDIMINIUM & COOPERATIVES PEOPLE ARE OFTEN CURIOUS ABOUT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CONDOMINIUM AND A COOPERATIVE. IN SHORT, A CONDOMINIUM IS A FORM OF JOINT OWNERSHIP WHILE A COOPERATIVE IS A CORPORATION WHICH OWNS THE BUILDING

MURDOCH FARMS For the most discriminating buyer!

First Time Offered! Spectacular light and bright home on a beautiful piece of property. Enjoy wonderful architectural appointments including beautiful woodwork, stained and leaded glass, lovely side porch, fabulous formal living room and dining rooms, large eat-in kitchen, spacious bedrooms, a 3 car garage and much more. For a private showing call Marianne DiPlacido or Jill Portland 412-521-1000

Jill Portland, Broker/Owner RE/MAX Realty Brokers Office: 412-521-1000 ext 200 Home: 412-683-0933 Mobile: 412-496-5600 jill portland@remax.net

A condominium is a form of joint ownership in which each unit owner owns the airspace in her unit and a percentage of the common area in the property. So, if you purchase a condominium unit with one percent of the common areas, you would own one percent of the building. The “airspace” would include the right to live there and the right to decorate the interior walls and floors. Everything else is a matter of common maintenance. A condominium is transferred by deed, recorded in the public records. Each condominium unit is separately assessed for real estate tax purposes. Each owner pays her own real estate taxes separately. You can obtain a mortgage loan to buy a condominium unit.

A cooperative, however, is a corporation which owns the entire building. Each unit owner owns shares of stock in the corporation for their percentage interest. Each unit owner receives an occupancy agreement for their unit. This gives you the right to live in your home, and the right to decorate the interior. The share of stock represents your percentage interest in the entire property. Cooperative apartments are sold by transferring the stock and having the board issue a new occupancy agreement. No deed is required. The transfer may, but need not, be recorded in the public records. It will not appear in the newspaper. A cooperative apartment can be mortgaged.

One important difference between a condo and a cooperative is that cooperative units are not separately assessed for real estate taxes.

Instead, the corporation pays real estate taxes on a single assessment for the entire building, and the tax bills are apportioned among the shareholders based upon their stock interest. You pay a portion of the real estate taxes to the corporation every month along with your maintenance fee and utilities.

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE NOVEMBER 24, 2011 — 21

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LAUNDRY & IRONING also available to do home or office cleaning, clean out basement, garage or yard.

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POSITION WANTED THE CARE REGISTRY, INC provides nurse aides and companions to offer one on one care for you in your home. The workers are screened and bonded. All shifts and live in care available. The Care Registry is licensed by the PA Dept. of Health. Low rates! Care management also available.

412-421-5202 or www.TheCareRegistry.com ••• CAREGIVER CONNECTION A PA. Licensed home-care registry, Jewish Family & Children’s Service refers screened, JF&CS trained caregivers providing short/long-term personal care services to seniors at affordable rates. Available 24/7, call 412-422-0400 or 877-243-1530 (toll free).

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••• IF YOU ARE seeking quality respite care for your loved one, please contact Carmella at 412-607-2056.

BUYING AUTO/TRUCKS/ JUNK REMOVAL SELLING & BUYING Auto’s & JUNK Removal. Cars, Trucks, Vans, SUVs, Quit Driving, Death, Wrecks, Antiques, Classics & Junkers.

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CHAIR CANING CANE & ABLE Chair caning, hand pre-woven cane rush reed & wicker repaired. Reasonable rates pick up & deliver.

Charyl Hays 412-655-0224.

COMPUTER NICE JEWISH Boy, offering the full range of computer services, from advising and teaching to repair and support. I will come to your house or apartment, fix any problem you’re having & teach you what you need to know to use it. I have 14 years’ experience working with people of all ages. . No job is too large or small, and nobody is too computer illiterate. (Really) CALL JASON 412-401-1204, or visit my www.computerwizweb ard.us. References available.

DRIVER NEED A RIDE? Call Norm, he will drive you. Doctors, shopping, anything that needs to be done. Experienced, insured, great references and reasonable rates.

Available le for airport pickup or departure.

Norm 412-521-6999.

HOME REPAIR INTERIOR/ EXTERIOR, retaining walls, drywall, flooring, ceramic laminate, painting, plastering, pressure washing, kitchen & bath remodeling. Call 412731-1496.

MUSICAL ENTERTAINMENT THE HOT MATZOHS, Pittsburgh’s #1 Klezmer Band, is available for your Wedding, Bar/Bat Mitzvah, Corporate or other special event! The dynamic band, featuring violinist Barbara Lowenstein (founder), offers many styles of music in addition to Klezmer, e,g, classical, jazz, swing and folk. Call 412-344-3338 or 412-3030746. e-mail: barbsviolin@gmail.com.

PLASTERING PLASTER/PAINTING Marbleized painting & drywall, free estimates, excellent references. Call Herzel 412422-5486.

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Buying or Selling Real Estate

Advertise in The Jewish Chronicle 412-687-1000 Rate $10.25 column inch

TORAH Instant gratification Portion of the Week RABBI ELI SEIDMAN, JEWISH ASSOCIATION ON AGING Toledot, Genesis 25:19-28:9

“The boys grew up. Esau became a skilled trapper, a man of the field. Jacob was a scholarly man who remained with the tents.”

— Genesis 25:27 Jacob and Esau were fraternal twins, but they couldn’t have been more different.

As they grew, Esau became a hunter and a man who demanded instant gratification. He wanted what he wanted when he wanted it. We see this in the episode in this week’s Torah portion, Toledot.

Esau came in from the field, tired and hungry. Jacob was cooking a bowl of lentils. When Esau demanded some, Jacob offered to sell it to him in return for Esau’s birthright.

Esau said, “Look, I am starving and about to die. What good is my birthright to me?” The Torah shows us that he did not value his birthright at all. In fact, he was glad to be rid of it. It represented responsibilities and obligations he had no intention to fulfill.

As opposed to Esau who was interested only in material things, Jacob was a man who was self-disciplined, a scholar and respecter of the traditions of his father and grandfather. Jacob understood that in order to achieve anything in life, a person must work patiently and have faith. Nothing that is achieved quickly and easily is worthwhile. But if we put our best efforts into it, with G-d’s help, we will succeed.

While Esau represented instant gratification, Jacob represented a focus on the eternal. We do not have to forego all of the pleasures of this world. But we do have to live a life of faith and service to G-d and others. If we do so, we will feel a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction.

When we live only for the pleasures of the moment, like Esau, we end up with a hunger that can never be satisfied.

Shabbat shalom.

(This column is a service of the Greater Pittsburgh Rabbinic Association.)

$42,500 Cooperative at University Square. 2 bedroom 2 bath in a great building with many amenities. Indoor parking, attendant on 24 hours, convenient location in Oakland. See with Jill Portland 412-521-1000 ext 200. Or 412-496-5600.

$69,000 Park Plaza First Time Offered. one bedroom for $69,000.

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22 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE NOVEMBER 24, 2011

OBITUARY/GLOBE FELDMAN: On Sunday, Nov. 20, 2011, Florence (Watzman) Feldman, 80, formerly of Squirrel Hill; wife of the late Leonard Feldman; devoted mother of Lynn (Steven) Markenson and Brian (Janice) Feldman of Potomac, Md.; adored grandmother of Alexander, Zachary, and Joshua Markenson and

Matthew and Rebecca Feldman; sister of Nathan Watzman and the late Milton and Robert Watzman. Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel; interment B'nai Israel Cemetery. Arrangements by Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., 5509 Centre Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15232. www.schugar.com

FISCHMAN: On Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2011, Beatrice "Bea" Fischman; beloved wife of the late Carl "Kevie" Fischman; beloved mother of Marlene (Joel) Mullin; sister of the late Frances Bauer and Anne Rosenberg; grandmother of Joshua (Crystal) Mullin and Erin (Eric) Carter; great-grandmother of Desmond Mullin. Services and interment were held at Shaare Zedeck Cemetery. Contributions may be made to Charles M. Morris Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, 200 JHF Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15217 or Sivitz Jewish Hospice, 200 JHF Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15217. Arrangements by Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., 5509 Centre Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15232. www.schugar.com GLICK: On Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2011, at Select Specialty Care in Latrobe, Pa., Beverly E. (Stern) Glick, 85, of Latrobe, formerly of Pittsburgh. She was born Sept. 26, 1926, in Pittsburgh to the late Benjamin and Anna (Siegel) Stern. Beverly was a member of the Congregation Beth Israel in Latrobe, and had been a volunteer at the Little Shop at Excela Health Latrobe Hospital for more than 30 years. Besides her parents, Glick was preceded in death by her husband, Morton B. Glick; two sisters, Geraldine Dunn and Jocelyn Glasser; also survived by two daughters, Susan (Mark) Kessler of Latrobe, and Marsha (Howard) Kwait of Cecil Township, Pa.; twin sister, Shirley Morris, of Washington, Pa.; five grandchildren, Hillary, Ashley and Andrew

Briefly JointMedia News Service Continued from page 19.

A Life Worth Remembering is a Life Worth Sharing The Jewish Chronicle’s new Extended obituary is a thoughtful way to honor your loved ones.

In addition to Standard* obituary, the extended obituary offers: • Black and white photos (1.25 wide x 1.5 inches high @ $12 per photo) • Color photos (1.25 wide x 1.5 inches high @ $25 per photo) • Unlimited words ($0.25 per word beyond the Standard format) A life is greater than the sum of those it touched...it’s full of images, stories, laughter and tears. Let the Chronicle help you tell the tale that should be told. As every life has a natural length, so too does the story of that life.

*Standard Obituary: $50 flat fee that includes name & date of passing, family members and relatives, funeral home and graveside services, interment & contribution information.

U.S. as an effort to delegitimize the Jewish state and to reduce Christian support for the country. They also cited the2010 Christ at the Checkpoint (CATC) conference, where it was argued that modern Jews are not genetically related to biblical Jews like Moses and Jesus.

This statement was part of Christian Palestinian’s strategy of twisting history and pushing Evangelical Christians away from Jewish support. Such events are clearly anti-Semitic in nature, the authors said, and they only reinforce the need to actively reach to Evangelical Christians and promote a positive view of Zionism.

Shalit negotiator to handle captive soldier affairs David Meidan, who conducted the complex negotiations for the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, has been appointed the prime minister’s coordinator on the issue of captive and missing Israeli soldiers, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement on Sunday.

Meidan was made Netanyahu’s special emissary for the return of Shalit in April, replacing Haggai Hadas, who had been in the position for two years.

Kessler and Brittany and Derek Kwait; and many nieces and nephews. Services were held at John J. Lopatich Funeral Home in Latrobe; interment B'nai Israel Cemetery, Greensburg, Pa. Contributions may be made to Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America, 300 Penn Center Blvd., Pittsburgh, PA 15235-5511 or Congregation Beth Israel, 414 Weldon St., Latrobe, PA 15650-1517. Arrangements

by John J. Lopatich Funeral Home, Inc., 601 Weldon St., Latrobe, PA 15650. www.lopatich.com HACKMAN: On Saturday, Nov. 19, 2011, Edwin (Eddie) Hackman; husband of Reva Simon and the late Minnie Hackman; father of Barry (Valerie) Hackman of Bethesda, Md.; step-father of Ronna (Martin) Blumenfeld, Jeffrey (Leah) Simon and Leonard Simon; son of the late Rose and Benjamin Hackman; brother of the late Relda Norwind and Arnold Hackman; grandfather of Marnie and Shira Hackman; stepgrandfather of Daniel Blumenfeld, Elisheva Simon and Benjamin Simon; also survived by many nieces and nephews.

Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel; interment Sons of Israel Cemetery. Contributions may be made to New Light Congregation, 1700 Beechwood Blvd., Pittsburgh, PA 15217 or Jewish War Veterans Allegheny County, 7567 Penn Bridge Ct., Pittsburgh, PA 15221.

Arrangements by Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., 5509 Centre Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15232. www.schugar.com

Meidan was instrumental in negotiating the deal that saw the release of Shalit in October in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners. Shalit had been abducted

by Hamas in June 2006 during a crossborder raid, and was held captive in an unknown location in the Gaza Strip for more than five years before he was returned to Israel.

Ben-Gurion researchers create sperm from regular cells Ben-Gurion University researchers achieved a major breakthrough in male fertility by producing sperm cells from regular mouse cells, Israel National News reported.

Professor Mahmoud Huleihel at the university’s Shraga Segan Department of Microbiology and Immunology in the Faculty of Health Sciences conducted the study that was published in the science journal Nature.

“This study may open new therapeutic strategies for infertile men who cannot generate sperm and/or prepubertal cancer patients at risk of infertility due to aggressive chemo or radiotherapy, and cannot cryosperm as in adult patients,” Huleihel said, according to a press release.

Professor Eitan Lunenfeld from Soroka University Medical Center, BeerSheva and Professor Stefan Schlatt from University of Münster in Münster, Germany contributed research to the study. The German–Israel Foundation contributed funding to the project.

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METRO Teens: Continued from page 1. appropriately addressed the other side of the topic.

“I was really fascinated with the creation aspect, and how science ties into that with my own religion,” said Srinivasa, a Hindu student from Shady Side Academy. “I thought it would be cool to explore it with other religions.”

Sunday’s installment of Bridging Faiths was the first in the programming series to be held in a mosque, and gave students the opportunity to learn the basic tenants of Islam as taught by their peers. After a tour of the mosque and a student-led discussion about the Five Pillars of Islam, groups of students from all the represented faiths presented creation stories from their religions.

Nabeel Haque, an 18-year-old Muslim student from West Allegheny High School, attended the program’s first event last February at Rodef Shalom Congregation. He was grateful for the Muslim Community Center’s opportunity to host the event, and to teach other teens about Islam.

“It’s very important,” Haque said between sessions of small group discussions. “[Muslims] are often viewed as radical. We have a chance to just show what we believe and how we believe it.

Mira Singhal, an 18-year-old Methodist student from Upper St. Clair, has been involved in interfaith activities for “three or four years.” She said religion helps give teens a sense of self and that programs such as Bridging Faith

ARZA: Continued from page 1.

In the Knesset, proposals to limit foreign funding to Israeli nongovernmental organizations and to curtail authority of rabbis in the Diaspora have been proposed.

Not long ago the chief rabbinate made an agreement with the Rabbinic Council of America that gives chief rabbis the right to determine whose conversions in Israel will be accepted, even among Orthodox rabbis.

Such controls can even determine where a girl may have her bat mitzva.

Resa Davids described how her granddaughter’s planned bat mitzva by the Dead Sea had to be moved because not a single hotel in the area would permit a woman to read from the Torah on their grounds.

“The threat was if they allowed this child to read Torah, they would lose their hashgacha (kosher certification),” she said. Asked if she equated that to blackmailing the hotel owners, she replied, “exactly.”

Submission to chief rabbinic authority ought to be voluntary, Stanley Davids argued, not imposed upon the entire country.

“We talk about Israel as a Jewish democratic pluralistic state,” he said. “[But] there is a lot of [debate] going on right now as to what a Jewish democratic pluralistic state is. What does it look like?

“If the American Jewish community doesn’t partner with Israelis,” he added, “the future is very challenging.”

He hastened to note that his comments are not an attack on Orthodoxy.

“There is not Orthodoxy in Israel; there are orthodoxies,” he said. “There are many variant expressions of Orthodoxy,” not all of which agree with the

Matt Wein photo

Mira Singhal (left) and Eli Gelernter participated in the Bridging Faiths program Sunday, Nov. 20, at the Muslim Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh Area Jewish Community sponsored the program.

augment their sense of community.

“I hope that just in our community, we could start fostering a more loving relationship with each other and diminish this ignorance,” Singhal said. “Our whole purpose is to get rid of the ignorance against different religions and come together as a community. Instead of thinking we’re so different, we’re actually seeing how similar we are to each other.”

After about two hours of activities, presentations and small group discussion, the students assembled bags of hats, gloves, socks, toiletries and first aid supplies to be donated to the homeless shelter in Braddock.

We acknowledge with grateful appreciation contributions from the following: Donor

In MeMory of

REGGIE BARDIN..............................JOE BARDIN BRUCE BERMAN .......................WILFRED IRWIN BERMAN ROSE KAPLAN...........................HENRY KAPLAN SANFORD DANOVITZ ................SAUL T. GLASS MILDRED LINZER .....................BERTHA LILLIAN BERLINER BEVERLY MARKS.................FREDA SCHWARTZ

Donor

In MeMory of

GOLDIE MORTON...............BERTHA & HERMAN JACOBS GOLDIE MORTON.................SHARON MORTON TOBY PERILMAN......................SAUL PERILMAN SHARON SNIDER......................NETTIE TOUBER RICHARD STUART ............MICHAEL SUPOWITZ RUTH C. YAHR .............................MIRIAM YAHR, SIGMUND YAHR & I. LEROY (LEE) YAHR

controls on religious life.

In Israel, “you never paint with one brush,” he added; “it’s much too complicated for that.”

Stanley Davids served as an Army chaplain and rabbi of an Atlanta congregation before becoming ARZA’s president from 2003 to 2008. He currently sits on the governing boards of the Jewish Agency, the WZO and HUC-JIR in Jerusalem.

Resa Davids is a career Jewish educator who served as assistant principal of the modern Orthodox Yeshiva High School of Atlanta and coordinator of that city’s Florence Melton Mini School. She has been instrumental in developing WRJ chapters in Israel.

The Davids urge American Jews to visit Israel and develop personal relationships with Israelis while there. They touted one particular ARZA project, called Mifgash (Encounter), which uses elements from the Birthright model to develop such relationships.

“Many American Jews come to Israel under a variety of circumstances,” Stanley Davids said, “so if you’re coming on business and you already have personal friends, that’s going to change how [you] relate to Israel.”

The external threat to Israel’s existence from her neighbors and Iran remains great, the rabbi said, and he called on American congregations to lobby their representatives for continued authorization of the $3.5 billion U.S. aid package to the Jewish state.

But the internal threat to the country is no less important than the external threat, he said. “The struggle for Israel’s soul is no less of an existential threat.”

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 27: CAROL LEE ANATOLE, SAMUEL BEERMAN, FRANK BERNSTEIN, NATHAN BLIMAN, REBECCA NEEDELMAN BODEK, SADIE CHOTINER, BENJAMIN M. COHEN, BENJAMIN M. COHEN, LOUIS COHEN, MORRIS COHEN, HYMAN DALY, REBECCA FRIEDMAN, ISAAC GLICK, DR. HENRY GOLDSTEIN, SELMA GOLDSTEIN, SELMA GOLDSTEIN, DAVID GROSS, RAYMOND E. GUSKY, HYMAN H. KIMEL, IDA KUSHNER, HYMAN LEVINE, ALFRED MALT, DAVID MARSHALL, JAMES J. MCQUARTERS, LYDIA MENDELSON, ETHEL NATHAN, J. THOMAS OPPENHEIM, SOL ROSENBLOOM, EUGENE M. ROSENTHALL, JACK I RUBENFIELD, RAYMOND A. SACKS, ZIRLE SAPPER, IRVING SCHERR, JOSEPH SCHILIT, MAX SCHWIMER, ELMER SOLOMON, DAVID G. TARSHIS, HAIMIN TAUBERG, ISRAEL TRACHTENBERG, MORRIS TRACHTENBERG, SARAH WEISS, DORA B. WHITEMAN. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 28: SAM BIRNKRANT, HARRY CHODER, SARA CHOTINER, MINNIE COHEN, FAY FARBER, GOLDIE FISHMAN, BENJAMIN HIMMEL, ABRAHAM KORSUNSKY, MAURICE KRAMER, ROSE LEVY KURFEERST, LOUISE LEBBY, ABRAHAM MOSES LEVINE, ADELINE LEVITT, ISAAC LIEB, SADIE LISSAUER, MARY N. LUSTIG, ANNIE MERMELSTEIN, BERTHA BREMAN MILLER, MORRIS MILLSTEIN, SADIE NATHANSON, IDA NUSIN, FRED NUSSBAUM, DORA RABINOVITZ, JENNIE PECK ROSEN, JACK I. RUBENSTEIN, NOAH SAXEN, HERMAN SCHIFF, SADIE HOFFENBERG SILVERMAN, RAYMOND IRWIN SLOAN, SHERWIN SMALLEY, ARTHUR SPEIZER, FREDA STEINBERG, MINNIE WALDMAN, MARY WEIS, MARY WEISS, LEO T. ZEIDMAN. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29: MIRIAM ABRAMOVITZ, DAVID BAGRAN, MARTIN BASS, BERNARD ISRAEL BERNSTEIN, DR. ISRAEL AARON FINE, SAMSON FINN, HERMINA GROPPER, LILLIAN KARP GROSSMAN, GOLDIE HANDELSMAN, CELIA HARRIS, JACOB LATSKY, HYMAN LEVENTON, ABRAHAM LOUIS LONDON, ANNA SARAH LUBICH, SOLOMON MARCUS, MOLLY BAKER MARKS, ANNA MILLER, SAUL B. MILLER, LEO ADOLPH MOSES, GOLDIE MOZERSKY, HARRIET M. NICHOLSON, SAMUEL ROSE, HERBERT ROSENBAUM, DR. DAVID H. RUBEN, MORRIS SCHNEIDER, EMANUEL SCHWARTZ, ESTHER G. SCHWARTZ, HARRY SEIAVITCH, ROSE SHIFMAN, SARAH SILBERBLATT, ETHEL CLAYTON SKLAR, CHAYIM STEINBERG, REGINA STENGEL, JACOB SWARTZ, BESSIE TOBIAS, IRVING TROFFKIN, SYLVESTER ULMAR, SYLVIA S. VINOCUR, FANNIE WEINBERG, LOUIS WEINER, SAMUEL WEISBERGER, MOLLY WEISS, ANNA OSGOOD YORK. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30: ROSE BALES, JULIA E. BRAND, ABRAHAM J. CAPLAN, SAM A. CAPLAN, DR. SAMUEL CIROTA, LOUIS DANIELS, ROSE FIEDLER, JEROME FRIEDBERG, HARRY GOMBERG, BERNARD J. GRINBERG, ANNA GROUDINE, ISADORE KURFEERST, MORRIS L. LEVEY, ESTHER COHEN LUBOVSKY, DOROTHY MILLER, ABRAHAM MODELE, PETER PETTLER, RACHEL POLLACK, HENRY POSNER, ATTORNEY HARRY T. RAPPORT, LEAH ROSEN, SAUL L. RUBIN, ROSE RYAVE, RACHEL SAFIR, RAE F. SCHWARTZ, SARA SCHWARTZ, FREDA SIFE, BESS R. SKOLSKY, GEORGE STERN, MAX TAPOLSKY, FRANCES TURK, SAMUEL WEISBERGER, JOSHUA N. WOLK, MORRIS WOLK, BESSIE M. ZWIBEL. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1: HYMAN BALIS, BESSIE GLANTZ BAUMAN, MARTIN A. BEREZIN, NORMAN BLACK, HYMAN BLUMBERG, CHARLES G. BROWN, DR. FREDERICK CARLTON, JOSEPH CHERNOVITZ, ABE M. COHEN, ESTHER EISMAN, CARLE JOSEPH ENELOW, YETTA GERSON, REBECCA GREENGARD, SELMA JEREMIAS KOSTOVA, ABE KOTOVSKY, LEONARD LEVY, HENRY LICHTMAN, FRANK S. LOEB, RACHEL JACOBS LUNTZ, DAVID ISADORE MANDELBLATT, IRENE MARLIN, REBECCA MILLER, SEYMOUR H. MILLER, ABE MORRIS, A.H. NEAMAN, IRVING NIXON, JOEL ORTH, ABRAHAM L. PERRIN, GUSTA PHILLIPS, SAMUEL RAIDER, ANNA E. REUBIN, JACOB RIECK, PHILLIP ROSENBERG, SIDNEY ROSENFELD, MADELYN D. ROSENTHAL, FANNIE KATZMAN RUBENSTEIN, HARRY E. SABLE, HELEN SCHWARTZ, WILLIAM ALLEN SCHWARTZ, WALTER SIGEL, ESTHER SUGAR SILVERBLATT, PAULINE SNOW, LUCY TEPLITZ, MINNIE WEINBERG, WILLIAM WEINBERG, SAMUEL WEISBURGH, FLORENCE BELLA WOLF, FANNIE YORKIN, SAUL YOUNG, FANNIE E. ZION. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2: HANNAH R. ADLER, DORA BALTER, MINNIE BERKOVITZ, WILFRED IRWIN BERMAN, MINNIE COHEN, HARRIET FRIEDLANDER, DAVID GLICK, LEO GOLDSTEIN, GASTON G. GROSS, DR. ETHEL W. JACOBSON, ISABEL KOBE, FANNIE KORNSTEIN, LOUIS L. LEVINE, MILDRED LEVINSON, SADIE LEVY, MARC LINTON, CELIA MAGLIN LUPOVITZ, ADELAIDE HARRIS MARGOLIS, SAMUEL MARGOLIS, ROSE MICHALSON, CELIA F. MIDDLEMAN, HELEN ROSENBLOOM, WILLIAM ROSENBLOOM, SARAH GERTRUDE SACK, CHARLES SALTSBURG, THELMA SAPIR, FREDA SCHWARTZ, SAMUEL F. SHAEFFER, NAOMI SOLOMON, MYER H. SPARKS, SYDNEY HERBERT STONE, MAURICE STRAUSS, MAX STRAUSS, MICHAEL SUPOWITZ, PFC. JACK SUSSMAN, ANNA SWARTZ, ELIZABETH KRAMER SWARTZ, BESSIE WACHS, SOLOMON WEINSTEIN, HARRY LEONARD WIDOM, LEO ARTHUR ZOBER. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 3: JOSEPH COHEN, MAX COHEN, HELEN PEARL CUSHNER, MAX ENGELBERG, ARTHUR FIRESTONE, ANNIE FRIEDMAN, GERTRUDE GLASSER, SAMUEL MORRIS GOODMAN, DAVID S. KOHN, EVELYN B. LETWIN, NORMAN H. MARCUS, HERMAN MARKOWITZ, LEAH KLEIN MARTIN, EMANUEL MORETSKY, PAISACH PALMBAUM, SARA PLATT, HYMAN QUASE, PHILIP ROBIN, FRANK G. RODRIQUEZ, ROSA ROKHKIND, JEANNETTE SAMUELS, JOSEPH DAVID SCHEIN, MILDRED SCHOENBERGER, JOSEPH SCHWARTZ, WILLIAM SCHWARTZ, SAMUEL SILVERMAN, JEAN WALTERS, MAX WALTERS, BENJAMIN WEISS, LEOPOLD WEISS, SIGMUND ZENTLER,

(Lee Chottiner can be reached at leec@thejewishchronicle.net.)

Call DeeAnna Cavinee at 412.521.1975 or e-mail donations@jaapgh.org for more information or to make a contribution to the Jewish Association on Aging.

(Matt Wein can be reached wein.matthew@gmail.com.)

at

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— THE JEWISH CHRONICLE NOVEMBER 24, 2011