Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle 3-8-19 by Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle

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Friday, March 8, 2019 | 24 Adar I 5779

NOTEWORTHY LOCAL White supremacy to tolerance is not an impossible feat

Candlelighting 6:01 p.m. | Havdalah 7:01 p.m. | Vol. 62, No. 10 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

Private party pairs first responders and families

Committee releases report allocating $6.3 million to victims of Oct. 27 attack

Former skinhead joins a panel on combating racism and hatred in America.

By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer

Page 2 LOCAL The epitome of fairness Judge Kaplan remembered as inspiring jurist. Page 3

 Pittsburgh Police officer Mike Smidga, left, was one of the first to respond to the Oct. 27 Tree of Life shootings. Barry Werber is a Tree of Life survivor.

Photo courtesy of Barry Werber

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

LOCAL Witness to tragedy Unearthed letter a testament to historic 1930s flood. Page 7

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any of those at Stage AE last week had seen each other once before. This time, however, there was a chance to say thank you. Four months after the horrific murders of 11 worshippers inside the Tree of Life synagogue building, Pittsburgh area police, fire, rescue, EMS, medical professionals and members of the Jewish burial societies gathered with representatives from Dor Hadash, New Light and Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha congregations for a night of enjoying each other’s company. Between the surplus of food and amplified acoustics, the private party, which was emceed by Jim Krenn and featured performances from Joe Grushecky and the Houserockers and Scott Blasey of the Clarks, was a chance to demonstrate appreciation, said Jeffrey Finkelstein, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. “Purely and simply, it’s about thanking our first responders, all categories, who worked to save our people.” Oct. 27 will forever be remembered, said Meryl Ainsman, Federation’s board chair.

“As opposed to other crucial moments in Jewish history when no one has been there for us, this time the police ran toward danger,” she noted. Attendees at the Federation-hosted function included survivors of the Tree of Life attack, family members of the victims and loved ones of the first responders. Some within the capacious setting wore Stronger Than Hate T-shirts. With pizza and beer being the primary offerings, the evening presented a relaxed and fraternal vibe. Brad Orsini, Federation’s director of security, who prior to joining the Jewish umbrella organization spent 28 years at the FBI, mingled with first responders throughout the event, as did Rabbi Elisar Admon, who with Rabbi Daniel Wasserman and others guided Pittsburgh’s Jewish burial societies through the process of cleaning the Tree of Life building and ensuring proper burials according to Jewish law. Admon and Orsini, like many throughout

ictims of the Oct. 27 attack at the Tree of Life synagogue building soon will be receiving “compassion payments” from the millions of dollars donated in the wake of the massacre, according to a report released from the independent volunteer committee that was charged with allocating the funds. The committee, convened by the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh last November, has been working for the past few months to determine how best to distribute the more than $6.3 million that was donated to the “Victims of Terror Fund,” which the Federation launched hours following the attack to help the victims, the affected congregations and the community. More than 8,500 people, companies and organizations made direct contributions to the Victims of Terror Fund, with donations coming from 48 states and at least eight countries. As several additional fundraising efforts were established by others, the committee estimates that more than 50,000 people contributed either directly or indirectly to the fund. “The response from the Jewish, Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, national and international communities was immediate and overwhelming,” said Meryl Ainsman, chair of the Federation’s board, at a March 5 press conference. “There has been an outpouring of love and support from people around the globe, representing virtually every ethnic and religious group. An act of hate against Jewish worshippers in Pittsburgh carrying out their religious beliefs and spiritual

Please see Responders, page 18

Please see Report, page 16

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Headlines Former skinhead, attorneys and others weigh in on fighting hate at Town Hall event — LOCAL — By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer

ony McAleer knows exactly what goes on in the mind of a racist and antiSemite. For 15 years, McAleer was an organizer for the White Aryan Resistance, a skinhead recruiter and a Holocaust denier. He also knows how to reverse that thinking. Single fatherhood, love for his children — and help from a Jewish therapist — eventually led McAleer away from the life of a white supremacist and toward the establishment of a nonprofit to help others leave hate groups. McAleer offered a unique perspective as one of five panelists at a Feb. 26 Town Hall event, “Working Together to End Hate,” presented by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and PNC at the Heinz History Center. In the wake of the Oct. 27 attack by a suspected white supremacist at the Tree of Life synagogue building, the panel was convened to discuss how to stop the scourge of hate crimes in the United States. David Shribman, executive editor emeritus of the Post-Gazette, moderated the event, which attracted a crowd of 600 people. “We have empty hearts, but no empty seats,” Shribman told the audience. McAleer spoke of his difficult childhood and of later finding “a sense of power when I felt powerless” in the white supremacist movement. Twenty years ago, he said, “I would have thought [this conversation] was a waste of time. I would have thought that you all are a bunch of idiots. But listening to it now, it’s so important to have this discussion.

p From left: Esther Bush, Roy Austin and Tony McAleer

“There are two ways to be,” McAleer added. “Everything we do in life is either born out of love, or it’s born out of fear. So how do we have an impact on society around us? I think we have to take leadership in our individual lives to inspire people to operate from the place of love, to operate from the place of compassion.” Others on the panel agreed that change starts with the individual, and that everyone is responsible for working toward the elimination of hate. “The name of the topic tonight, ‘Working Together to End Hate,’ — it’s impossible for one organization, one president, one attorney general to make progress on this,” said Michael Lieberman, the director of the Civil Rights Planning Center of the AntiDefamation League. Lieberman has spent 36 years at the ADL studying hate crimes

Photo by Toby Tabachnick

and helping to get state hate crime legislation passed. “Between 50 and 80 percent of all religion-based hate crimes since 1990 are committed against Jews and Jewish institutions,” he noted. “You don’t have to work for the Anti-Defamation League to be disturbed by that fact.” David Hickton, a U.S. attorney for Western Pennsylvania from 2010 to 2016, urged the audience to become “outraged equally by hate against blacks, hate against Asians, hate against women, hate against religious groups.” He said that during his tenure as a U.S. attorney, he prosecuted seven cross-burning cases and was unable to stop three major KKK rallies near Pittsburgh. There was little publicity and little “community outrage” regarding those events, he said.

“The tragedy at the Tree of Life in October is unspeakably sad to me in a way I can’t access, and in some ways am afraid to access,” Hickton said. “It is the worst event of its kind in the world, but the sad fact is, you all know, we have had other events like that here.” He pointed to Richard Baumhammers’ ethnically motivated killing spree in Pittsburgh in 2000 and the 2009 murders of women at a fitness center in the South Hills. “No matter your political point of view, no matter where you come from, it would seem to me we ought to be able to work together to develop a consensus that hate is totally unacceptable,” Hickton said. “And while we have all these laws to work on it, the best practice would be to go upstream and stop people from acting on their hate and not have to prosecute the case after we have to clean up the scene.” Hate for one group of people often transitions to hate for another group as well, explained Roy Austin, former deputy assistant attorney general for the civil rights division of the U.S. Department of Justice. “When we hate people who are from different countries or hate people because they speak different languages or hate people because of their sexual orientation or because of their gender, whatever it is, it feeds into the other hate,” Austin said. “My personal belief — and I don’t have the data to back it up — is we are in a time in America now where it is acceptable to hate and have hateful language, and there are going to be people who act on that hateful language, and that’s what we are seeing with this uptick in hate crimes.” It is imperative for people to “look at what Please see Hate, page 18

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GENERAL COUNSEL Stuart R. Kaplan, Esq.

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Headlines Family and fairness were hallmarks of Judge Lawrence Kaplan — LOCAL — By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

awrence Kaplan, the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas Family Division judge whose arbitration of intimacies set a peerless precedent, died in the company of his wife Natalie on Monday, Feb. 18. He was 90. Kaplan, though having never aspired to attain the bench, became a judge after an appointment from Gov. Milton Shapp in 1978. One year later, Kaplan was elected to a 10-year term, and in 1989 retained again. In 2008, the Jewish judge who was born to Dr. Edward and Libby Kaplan 80 years earlier on Aug. 21, 1928, stepped down from the court, having reached the state’s mandatory retirement age, and re-entered private practice where he served as a mediator and mentor. As a judge and gentleman, Kaplan was nonpareil, said Judge Dan Butler. In 1978, Butler became Kaplan’s first law clerk. He held the position for 7 years. “Most days we drove to work together, getting in by 8:30,” said Butler. “I watched him day after day. And he allowed me to be

p Judge Lawrence Kaplan

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part of the process in the inner sanctum as he exercised the warmth, concern, equanimity, fairness, patience and that humor that made him so unique,” but what truly separated Kaplan was that “he listened,” said Butler, a judge of the Allegheny County Magisterial District. “There was no judge with a better judicial temperament than he had,” echoed Raymond Baum, a practicing attorney who knew Kaplan for 50 years. “He was patient, he was focused on the welfare and well-being of the families and the children, and in any way not focused on himself. He never let his ego get in the way of his judgment and temperament, never lost his sense of humor and never took himself too seriously.” Such was attested to by the countless colleagues and disciples who attended Kaplan’s funeral at Rodef Shalom Congregation on Feb. 22, said his daughter, Ellen Teri Kaplan Goldstein of Pittsburgh.

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Among the nearly 1,000 attendees was an attorney who appeared before the judge decades prior. As masses snaked around the Shadyside congregation, the lawyer reiterated his account to Goldstein: The case involved criminal law, and though Kaplan typically attended to family matters, the Uniontown-born judge was called upon to hear the dispute. After both sides had rested, a decision was announced and the lawyer had lost. Having heard the outcome, the losing client turned to his advocate and said, “I know I lost, but I felt like I was treated really fairly.” Kaplan’s gift as judge was that in the thousands of people who presented him their troubles, “he was successful, if not always in achieving a consensus, then entering a decision which generally left even the most unreasonable people with the feeling that they had been treated fairly and that they had had their day in court,” said Butler. Humor was a common tactic for putting parties at ease, said his son, Thomas R. Kaplan of Delray Beach, Fla. A particular joke which Kaplan was known to tell was recited by his son, Jon Adler Kaplan of Baltimore, Md.: “What’s the Please see Judge, page 19

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Headlines Students at Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf show support — LOCAL — By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

emonstrating once more that the fatal Oct. 27 shootings at the Tree of Life synagogue building in Squirrel Hill have left few, if any, parts of Pittsburgh untouched, students at the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf in Edgewood have reached out to the Jewish community with a message of solidarity. They delivered a photograph of the student body gathered on stage, the kids with their hands raised and their thumbs, index fingers and pinkie fingers thrusted forward in the sign for “I love you,” to Dr. Isaac Levari, a member of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community and the school’s physician. Shot soon after they found out about the massacre, the framed photograph — which bears more than 150 signatures — represents the students’ spontaneous decision to join with the Jewish community in its time of tragedy. “We were all together in an assembly and the kids wanted to do something to demonstrate support,” said Marybeth Lauderdale, the school’s director. “They thought it needed to be acknowledged.” For the past 15 years, Levari has visited the school Monday through Thursday mornings,

providing care for sick or injured students. Aided by Gina McDonald and Nancy Possumato, both registered nurses, Levari works in the school’s spacious health center. Of the approximately 200 students at WPSD, nearly 61 are residential students, so for those living on campus, sickness can be a frightening experience, explained Possumato. Items such as games, oversized stuffed animals and televised content soften the health center’s potentially sterile feel. McDonald, who predates Levari’s tenure at the school by 11 years, spoke of a palpable sense of closeness in the health center and throughout WPSD. “I came to the school as a mom,” echoed Possumato, whose tenure matches Levari’s. “I walked through the doors not knowing anything, and I was embraced as a mom, and then when I began working here embraced as staff.” The school’s family feel is bolstered by a communal commitment to placing students’ needs first, said Lauderdale. Levari agreed, and said that is why he decided to learn sign language years ago. “It helps me be a better doctor and it’s very gratifying.” The benefit is mutual, explained Steven Farmer, the school’s CEO. For students it is encouraging “to see a doctor who wants to communicate with

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Journalist John Leland spent a year with half a dozen seniors in their late 80s and 90s. Expecting to write about the problems and pain of aging, he found surprising wisdom, happiness, and insights from aging that can teach us about how to live now. Full of colorful characters and pithy observations about how these elders choose and create happiness despite their limitations, his prose is readable and easy. While his conclusions are ideas that we’ve all heard before, we can still benefit from hearing again and again. Among the six elders, Helen Moses was 90 and rapturously enjoyed every day with her newfound love in the nursing home, balancing their close relationship with her disapproving daughter. She told her, “I was your age, but you were never my age.” Fred was 87 with a weak heart, clinging against all common sense to his three story walk up home, who said the happiest period of his life was “right now.” Fred gave thanks each day. Ping Wong, at age 99, tried not to think about bad things. “When you’re older, you have to make

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them. This is part of the spirit of the school, to send a positive message.” It is also difficult to find many doctors willing to learn the language, and Levari should be praised for his willingness to do so, added Farmer. Deflecting the compliment and his ability to fluently sign, the physician responded, “I’m like Moses, who spoke with a heavy tongue and had Aaron around.” According to Farmer, the nonprofit, tuition-free school was founded in 1869 and has served thousands of deaf and hard-ofhearing children since its inception. The school, located at 300 East Swissvale Ave. on a 21-acre campus, follows state and national standards, “but in some ways provides more than public schools offer.” Farmer touted the school’s print shop, television studio and math, science and technology center. WPSD has a diverse student body — ages range from 3 to 21 — and every effort is made to customize each child’s education in partnership with staff and families. “We have kids who speak and hear really well and some kids who only sign. We meet children where they are,” he said. Of every 1,000 children born in the United States, approximately two to three are born with a “detectable level of hearing loss in one or both ears,” according to the National

Institutes of Health. Of those, more than 90 percent are “born to hearing parents.” At WPSD, 30 percent of teachers are deaf, said Farmer. Between small class sizes — the student-to-teacher ratio is 1:8 — and the fact that many staff members are WPSD graduates, there is a shared belief “this is a home away from home.” School performances and American Sign Language classes have disseminated the school’s narrative by welcoming newcomers to WPSD. Similarly, partnerships and programs with area first responders and legislators have fostered connections, said Farmer. That is especially why the events of Oct. 27 stung, said Rosie Santucci, a junior at the school. “We are deaf and fully loved,” she said. “We are a small community like the Jewish community and we are both different in our own ways.” Santucci said she has been “treated differently” by others because of her deafness, but that fact inspired her and her fellow students to act. “We wanted to demonstrate we love the Jewish community,” she said, “and you have all of our support.” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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“Happiness Is a Choice You Make” yourself happy.” Daily mah-jongg with friends from his transcribed interviews with each of the good life” will mean at that stage. Now work your sustained her. six; but interspersed among the interviews are way backwards to see what steps will get you John, nearly blind and barely able to feed himself, surprising and thought-provoking findings of there. Working longer hours? Spending more glowed with the recollection of his partner, their academic studies about the oldest among us. One time with family and friends now? His point is study found that those with positive perceptions that we can use the lessons of aging sooner. beach house, and the beauty of opera. of aging lived an average of more than seven Ruth had to start over anew at 91 when her old years longer - a bigger boost than from not Before year’s end, he writes, “I had begun to accept death as a natural element of old-age assisted living facility was sold for condos. Fiercely smoking or from exercising. something we do, not something that happens independent, she also thrived on her closeness In another study, older people report a greater to us.” His tales of choosing happiness make a with her kids as the matriarch of the family. sense of well -being than younger people, fascinating read. The “lessons” turn out to be Jonas was an unusually energetic 90 something are more content, less anxious or fearful and more like tried-and-true maxims for any age, not who still made films and organized fundraisers. less afraid of death. Experience helps people part icularly new or sophisticated, but worthy Not surprisingly, the author found friendship and to moderate their expectations and be more nonetheless. affection that he hadn’t planned. He wrote that resilient in adversity. Researchers have named At Marks Elder Law, we help people every each visit, no matter how dark, raised his spirits. “I this the positivity effect. day with issues like these. I invite your expected the year to bring great changes in them. He challenges all the rest of us, too. For example, questions and feedback. Please let me know I didn’t expect it to change me Every time a phone he ask us to imagine, as an exercise, what it means how I can help you and your family. call went unanswered, I worried.” to have a good life at 75, 80 or 85 - and what “a Mostly we think of our elders, he writes, as a cause for worry rather than a resource to be appreciated. “I stopped thinking about old people as a problem and started to think of With the increasing costs of long-term them as an asset, a repository of wisdom and care, having the help of a legal professional experience.”

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Headlines Repairing the local world through dialogue — LOCAL — By Dave Rullo | Special to the Chronicle

onstructive and purposeful dialogue is important to Alexandra Friedlander. “I want people to have a safe space to have [difficult] conversations because a lot of times when they do, whether it’s with family, friends, classmates or people they work with, it doesn’t really end in any resolution,” she says. “Instead, it ends in ‘iffy’ feelings.” The Winchester Thurston junior hosted the second of four quarterly “Dialogue Projects” on Sunday, Feb. 24, at Repair the World. The focus of the event was “Community Responses to Hate Crimes” and explored “how different communities respond to hate crimes experienced by their own communities and how they respond when other communities face similar tragedies.” Friedlander developed the project after meeting Rachel Lipro, teen and family manager at Repair the World and Marissa Tait, youth advisor at Rodef Shalom Congregation and director of youth programming at Congregation Beth Shalom, at a Seeds of Peace camp in 2018. Seeds of Peace is a not-for-profit

leadership development organization which brings together youth and educators at its camp in Maine. Because Friedlander was the only Pittsburgh teen that attended the camp, there was no formal structure to create the type of safe place for conversations the “Dialogue Projects” encourage, so the 17-year-old used her new experience and education to develop her own in the city. “I wanted to use the skills I learned when I attended the Seeds of Peace camp with Rachel and Marissa,” Friedlander explained, “and put them into play using the connections I have at Repair the World and with Marissa. I thought we could do something really great.” According to Tait, “Alexandra’s peers, who attended the camp, have built-in programs at their high schools, so these conversations are taking place, chosen by principals and other advisors. I think it shows a lot about Alexandra’s character because she doesn’t have the Seeds of Peace support. This is a creation of her own using the tools she was given.” Libros said that the goal of the Dialogue Project is “not to have everyone leave with a shared opinion, rather it’s more about building skills and the way we listen to hear other stories and share ideas and experiences.”

The workshop began by participants breaking into groups of two and sharing facts about themselves not widely known. Friedlander explained the exercise as designed to get the attendees primed for the difficult conversations that would be taking place during the second half of the program. Once re-formed, the group presented what they had learned and discussed how surprising they found some of the information. Of particular interest to the group was Michelle Kennedy’s experience as a life coach. After the introduction, Friedlander presented guidelines for the conversations that would be taking place. These included: Be open and respectful to disagreement; always speak from an “I” perspective and personal experience; do what you need to do to remain present in the conversation; step up and step back (to ensure all voices in the room are heard); and state what you believe but don’t try to persuade others. Tait cautioned that “yes/and” statements should be used to validate what a person has said and to add onto their statement even if you disagree. Emily Zambito, an attendee, added that listeners should “assume benevolence and the best attention of those speaking.” The bulk of the project was spent on two activities designed by Friedlander that were meant to encourage discussion about

identity, bias and individual response to hate crimes. In the first, the group read editorials that responded to hate crimes and discussed their reactions to the information presented, including the perceived tone and bias of each story. Articles chosen included “The Tree of Life Shooting Devastated All of Pittsburgh,” “I Can’t Help but Ask Why Black Lives Aren’t Mourned This Way” and “The United States of Anti-Muslim Hate.” The final activity of the day was a hands-on project in which Friedlander read a statement and participants discussed whether they agreed or disagreed with what she had read. These included “All lives are mourned equally in identity-based violence,” “There’s a universal governmental response to identity-based violence,” “There is a universal public response to identity based acts of violence,” and “I have taken action against violence that did not directly affect my identity group.” “The Dialogue Project” continues Sunday, April 28, at Repair the World with a panel discussion focused on relations between police and the community and will include community members and Pittsburgh police officers. PJC Dave Rullo is a local freelance writer.

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Headlines Tragedy that reverberates for decades — HISTORY — By Eric Lidji | Special to the Chronicle

“P

rovenance” is the story of an object: Who made it? Why? And through which hands did it pass before yours? Answering these questions can determine value and authenticity, but it can also reveal meaning. Even the lack of provenance can prove to be meaningful. The provenance of this letter, given to Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives in late 2017, is weak. It was donated anonymously, without so much as a note of explanation. It is from “Eve,” to “Dorothy,” and it is dated, simply, “Friday — the 27th.” It begins with pleasantries. Dorothy had been ill, as had Eve. Eve was now feeling better and planned to use her strength to write as much as she could before the start of Shabbos. Eve felt relieved to hear from her pen pal, after a lull in their correspondence, “especially at this time when terror and disaster reigned here. You know Pittsburgh too well to have been unduly alarmed about those whose abode is high above the flooded area.” With that line, the circumstances become much clearer. The date is almost certainly Friday, March 27, 1936 — 10 days after the worst flood in the history of Pittsburgh. The high ground in question is unclear.

Squirrel Hill, Greenfield, Oakland, East Liberty and Beechview all had big Jewish sections above the floodwaters. Eve describes the inconveniences she had experienced: power outages, water shortages, radio silences, gasoline pumped by hand and selling at a dollar a gallon. By that Friday afternoon, her neighborhood had returned to normal. Even the movie houses were running again. Not so in the low-lying areas. It seems that Eve worked at Kaufmann’s Department Store, which gave her a reason to head downtown. “If you could see the muddy streets, battered shops, ruined business people, the hum and bustle of our little city, converted into a quiet, battered territory, undisturbed, except for the hum of engines still pumping water out of basements and first floors, your heart, too, would cry at the desolate scene,” she wrote. She had slipped through one of the many checkpoints erected along Smithfield Street, designed to keep people away from the flood zone at the Point, “and saw so much it would take endless words to describe. I know nothing of the war-ridden countries in Europe, but to me the sight of truck-loads of militia men, being transported through a torn and broken community, made me think of a city left bleak and bare after a war-time raid.” Looking at the deserted office buildings, Eve had an epiphany common to those who have witnessed the easy destructiveness of nature: that sense of the tremendous fragility

p A woman named “Eve” wrote to her friend “Dorothy” in March 1936, describing the destruction caused by recent flooding.

Image courtesy of Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives

of human accomplishment. In an aside, she told Dorothy, “man-made strikes are nothing for contraband workers can be secured — but nature’s strike left everyone powerless.” The account proceeds for more than 1,000 words, over eight pages, before suddenly rushing to a conclusion: “Shall write more in a few days — father is going to the synagogue

and will mail this for me thus saving me the trip down the street,” she writes. Maybe she wrote again, maybe not. Our letter is all that survives of the correspondence. This letter is exceptional, but it is not unique. The March 1936 flood is among the best-documented events in Pittsburgh history. A quick search of the Heinz History Center catalog reveals more than 90 relevant collections — personal reminiscences, oral histories, institutional accounts, governmental reports, books and many newspaper articles. There are hundreds of photographs, not only of the city but also of every low-lying town along the rivers. Just this past summer, I saw a photograph of the old McKees Rocks synagogue wearing a skirt of muddy floodwaters. It is the only known image of that small-town shul. Since last October, no object in the archive has felt more relevant to me than this letter — not so much for its contents, but because of its unknown provenance. A terrible event occurred, a major trauma in the life in the city. And more than 80 years later, vivid documentation continues to wash onto the shores of the archives, from parts unknown. PJC Eric Lidji is the director of the Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives at the Heinz History Center. He can be reached at eslidji@ heinzhistorycenter.org or 412-454-6406.

Murray Avenue Kosher

Name: Murray Avenue Kosher Width: 5.0415 in Depth: 6.75 in 1916 MURRAY AVENUE Color: Black • 412-421-4450 • FAX 412-421-4451 Ad Number:412-421-1015 1764_6 PRICES EFFECTIVE SUNDAY, MARCH 10-FRIDAY, MARCH 15, 2019

Empty Bowls Dinner

Candle Lighting Time Friday, March 8, 2019 • 6:01 p.m. TAKE-OUT SPECIALS

MEAT SPECIALS

London Broil

Noodles & Salad

Sunday, March 10, 2019

Two seating times: 1-3:30 P.M. Q 4-6:00 P.M. Rodef Shalom Q 4905 Fifth Avenue Q Oakland $20 in advance Q $25 at the door

The annual Empty Bowls dinner serves up a simple meal of soup and bread as a reminder that too many people throughout our region are facing hunger with “empty bowls”. The event features artisan pottery for guests to take home, soups from local restaurants, children’s activities and an auction featuring artwork.

Purchase tickets at pittsburghfoodbank.org – click on Get Involved, Featured Events.

$43.99

TUESDAY DINNER SPECIAL

STORE HOURS

Sun. • 8 a.m. - 6 p.m. Mon.-Wed. • 8 a.m. - 6 p.m. Thurs. • 8 a.m. - 8 p.m. Fri. • 8 a.m. - 3 p.m.

Stuffed Cabbage

Mashed Potatoes • Salad

Chicken Thighs $

Serves 4

$33.99

1 Kugel • 2 Pints Salad • 2 Mini Challahs

Serves 4

Wafer Steak $

2 Roasted Chickens 1 Qt. Chicken Soup 4 Matzo Balls

Chicken Paprikash

Chicken Drumsticks $

SHABBOS SPECIAL

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Serves 4

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WEEKLY SPECIALS

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3.99 10 OZ

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EMPIRE GOURMET TURKEY BREAST $ 55

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$ 09

8 OZ

BEEF EGGROLLS $ .50

SHOR HABOR SMK TURKEY BREAST $ 59

HAOLAM MUENSTER CHEESE (SLICES)

3.39 6 OZ

FRIED RICE $ 99

GOLDEN TASTE MARINATED EGGPLANT $ 99

We Prepare Trays for All Occasions UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF VAAD OF PITTSBURGH

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BENZ’S KISHKA (PARVE)

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CATERING SPECIALISTS DELICIOUS FRIED CHICKEN WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO LIMIT QUANTITIES.

MARCH 8, 2019 7

8 WORLD

Calendar at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh. Join this welcoming group to socialize and make friends. Contact Debbie Marcus at 412-339-5405 or dmarcus@jccpgh. org for more information. q SATURDAY, MARCH 9 Shalom Pittsburgh Parents will have a night out at Games N’ At, located at 2010 Josephine St., South Side. Play throwback video games like Super Mario Brothers, Donkey Kong and PACMAN. From 7:30 to 9:30 p.m., $10 per person includes one-hour unlimited play plus wine, beer and corkage fees. The facility is open until 1 a.m. Visit jewishpgh.org/event/parents-night-out for more information. >> Submit calendar items on the Chronicle’s website, pittsburghjewishchronicle.org. Submissions will also be included in print. Events will run in the print edition beginning one month prior to the date as space allows. The deadline for submissions is Friday, noon. q THROUGH SUNDAY, MARCH 17 Film Pittsburgh announces the full lineup for the 26th Annual JFilm Festival — 11 days of international Jewish-themed films, guest speakers, and visiting filmmakers. This year, the Festival returns to SouthSide Works Cinema. The lineup features 21 narrative and documentary films from 11 countries, all of which are Pittsburgh premieres — including the world premiere of “Back to Maracanã.” To purchase tickets and view schedule information, visit FilmPittsburgh.org. q FRIDAY, MARCH 8 Jewish Family and Community Services will host a program to remember and honor the victims, survivors and first responders of Oct. 27, 2018. San Francisco artist Rabbi Me’irah Iliinsky will present framed prints of her painting, “The Tree of Life is Weeping,” to representatives of Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha, New Light and Dor Hadash congregations and the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police. Prints will also be presented to the victims’ families, to the survivors and to the injured police officers. The original framed painting will be presented to JFCS in recognition of its continuing caring support of the Jewish community. Rabbis and representatives of the three congregations and Pittsburgh Police Chief Scott Schubert will be participating. Attendance is by invitation only. Topsy Turvy Shabbat at Moishe House will be held from 7:30 to 10 p.m. to get ready for Purim and turn Shabbat dinner on its head with wacky dinner and dessert that will make you say “huh?” Be sure to wear your silliest outfits! Moishe House events are for young adults ages 22-32. Contact moishehousepgh@gmail.com for more information. q SUNDAY, MARCH 10 “Out of the Shadows and into the Heart,” what Chevra Kadisha can mean to you, with remarks by Dan Leger, Stefanie Small and Rabbi Daniel Wasserman will be held at 10 a.m. at the Jewish Community Center, Levinson Hall. The Senior Social Group will meet at 10 a.m. to noon to discuss addiction, in room 307

8 MARCH 8, 2019

Temple Emanuel of South Hills will hold Bagel Bites: Sunday Brunch at 10:30 a.m. at 1250 Bower Hill Road with Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh Foundation Scholar Rabbi Danny Schiff. The program is free and open to the community. Visit templeemanuelpgh.org/ event/bagel-bites-brunch to RSVP. Classrooms Without Borders will present Jonty Blackman for a lecture and a Poland seminar meeting and get-together from 1 to 2:30 p.m. at Rodef Shalom Congregation. Blackman will lecture on Polish and Lithuanian Jewry before the War. Food/light refreshments will be served. There is no charge but reservations are required. RSVP at classroomswithoutborders. org/events/rsvp.php?222. Children ages 3-12 are invited to an afternoon of pre-Purim fun, from 1 to 2:15 p.m. at Chabad of Squirrel Hill, 1700 Beechwood Blvd. Children will bake festive hamantashen to take home and to donate and will enjoy a special ventriloquist/ puppet show following the baking activity. The cost is $10 per child; reservations are required by March 7 at chabadpgh.com/kidscooking. The New Community Chevra Kadisha of Greater Pittsburgh will hold its 14th annual Adar 7 dinner. The kosher dinner will be held at Temple Sinai. San Francisco artist Rabbi Me’irah Iliinsky will present her illustrated book, “Mapping the Journey: The Mourner and the Soul.” A commemoration to honor the memory of Jerry Rabinowitz, z”l, a longtime member of NCCK, will be observed. To conclude the program, Iliinsky will honor NCCK by presenting its members with her painting, “The Tree of Life is Weeping.” The painting will be housed on a rotation basis in the homes of members. q MONDAY, MARCH 11 Beth El Congregation’s monthly lunch program with Rabbi Alex Greenbaum will include guest Edd Hale discussing “The Great Castle Shannon Bank Robbery,” based on research of court documents, period newspapers and an eyewitness interview. Lunch is at 11:30 a.m. and the lecture starts at noon. There is a $6 charge. Call 412-561-1168 to make a reservation. Beth El Congregation will host the final evening of the Winter Speaker Series with Dr. Karen Wolk Feinstein at 7 p.m. She will discuss “What is Jewish Healthcare and how do you build a foundation around it?” This evening is free and starts with a wine and cheese reception. Visit bethelcong.org to make a reservation. Classrooms Without Borders and the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh will host an open house at 7:30 p.m. for the Momentum Women’s Trip to Israel. The Momentum trip, a program organized by the Jewish Women’s Renaissance Project, will be taking place from Nov. 5-12, and women from Pittsburgh will join hundreds of women from other cities around the world for eight days of Israel exploration and Jewish inspiration. The Momentum trip is heavily subsidized and open to mothers with at least one child under the age of 18. Contact one of the trip leaders, Emily Richman at ERichman@jfedpgh.org or Chani Altein at caltein@chabadpgh.com for more information.

q TUESDAY, MARCH 12 The ladies of E3 will hold an evening of service from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. with Beverly’s Birthdays to create preassembled bags filled with all of the items needed to host a small birthday celebration that will be distributed to the JFCS Food Pantry and other families in need. Register at jewishpgh.org/event/e3-3. Moishe House will hold a Haunted Tour & Movie Night from 7 to 10 p.m. at Temple Sinai. Moishe House events are for young adults ages 22-32. Contact moishehousepgh@gmail.com for more information. The Squirrel Hill Historical Society free March program will be on the History of Kennywood from 7:30 to 9:15 p.m. at Church of the Redeemer, 5700 Forbes Ave., with speaker Andy Quinn, a member of the family that has owned Kennywood Park for more than 100 years, and a historian and former Kennywood community relations director. Visit squirrelhillhistory.org for more information. q WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13 Women are invited to an afternoon of food for body, mind and soul at Chabad of Squirrel Hill’s ladies’ lunch and learn from noon to 1:15 p.m. with lunch and a lesson on the Kabbalah of time presented by Leah Herman at 1700 Beechwood Blvd. The cost is $18; reservations must be made by March 12 at chabadpgh.com/lunch. “Ten Matchboxes” will be performed from 7 to 8 p.m. at Rodef Shalom Congregation. A poor teacher, 10 empty matchboxes and the ability we all have to use our imagination is the setting for Janusz Korczak’s story of decency, honor and the acceptance of each other’s differences. Israeli actor and teaching artist Amichai Pardo of the Orna Porat Theater will star in this performance, which is suitable for ages 8 and up. The performance is sponsored by Classrooms Without Borders. There is no charge. Visit classroomswithoutborders.org/ events/show.php?216 for more information. q THURSDAY, SATURDAY, SUNDAY,

MARCH 13,14,16

A Revival of “Hadassah, A Persian Musical,” including a new song and all-new staging will be held at the Jewish Community Center, Katz Theater. This is a “Hamilton”-themed community Purim Shpiel to stand up to hate and collectively increase the community’s joy. Tickets are on sale at HadassahRevival. Eventbrite.com — and ticket sales benefit Tree of Life * Or L’Simcha, New Light, Dor Hadash and the JFCS Squirrel Hill Food Pantry. q THURSDAY, MARCH 14 Knowledge & Nosh: Women’s Lunch Break to Educate will present Bar Gissin, executive director of The Movement for Public Journalism, from noon to 1:30 p.m. for a discussion about social change through journalism. The Movement for Public Journalism is an Israeli grassroots social movement set against the background of the crisis in public confidence in the media. Visit jewishpgh.org/event/knowledge-noshwomens-lunch-break-to-educate for more information and to register. Chabad of Squirrel Hill will host a Loaves of Love event for women from 7 to 9 p.m. at 1700 Beechwood Blvd. Amy Weiss will

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

lead participants in challah-making, and Sue Berman will demonstrate Purim challah shapes. The cost is $10; reservations are required by March 12 at chabadpgh.com/lol. q SATURDAY, MARCH 16 Temple Sinai will hold an adult Purim carnival with games, prizes, trivia, food and adult drinks from 7 to 10 p.m. The best costume will win a Hidden Harbor gift card. The cost is $18. Register in your Temple Sinai account or RSVP to Rebekah Malkin at Rebekah@TempleSinaiPGH. org or 412-421-9715, ext. 121. (Must be 21 or over — ID required.) Visit templesinaipgh.org/adultpurim-carnival-0 for more information. Beth El Congregation will hold a Casino Night from 7:30 to 11 p.m., starting with dinner and live music followed by games. The cost is $40 per person. Enjoy a 50/50 raffle, prizes and silent auction. Visit bethelcong.org or call 412-561-1168 by March 10 to RSVP and for more information. q SATURDAY, SUNDAY MARCH 16-17 The Orchid Society of Western Pennsylvania will hold its annual orchid show from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday at The Artsmiths of Pittsburgh, 1635 McFarland Road in Mt. Lebanon. The show is open to the public. Admission is free, but donations are appreciated. Visit oswp.org for more information about the event schedule. Contact Sheila Nathanson at 412-343-9457 or Gary VanGelder 412-638-9756 for event-related questions. q SUNDAY, MARCH 17 Temple Sinai will hold a family Purim carnival with games, food and prizes from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The cost is $10 and free for children 3 and under; children under 8 must be accompanied by an adult. There will be costume contests with prizes for the best Purim-related costume and most creative costume and family kite design competition inspired by the Mary Poppins Purim Shpiel. Decorate a kite to adorn the shpiel stage with prizes for the most creative kites. Contact Debbie Haber at 412-421-7039 or DHaber@ TempleSinaiPGH.org for more information or visit templesinaipgh.org/family-purim-carnival. The South Hills Jewish community will kick off Purim at the South Hills Jewish Community Center with activities, food and lunch from 12:15 to 2:30 p.m. Lunch and admission are free with games and activities at an additional cost. Unlimited game bracelets are available for $8 through Sunday, March 10 at the South Hills JCC and online. Beginning March 11, bracelets will be $10 (at the JCC, online or at the Carnival). Register for the Carnival and purchase your all-you-can-play bracelets at jccpgh.formstack. com/forms/shpurimcarnival. Bracelets will be available for pickup the day of the Purim Carnival at a special Will Call window. When registering, purchase the number of bracelets you would like as well as indicate the total number of people coming. All attending will need to be registered to receive a ticket for lunch. Visit southhillsjewishpittsburgh.org/ purim19 for more information. The Jewish and Sikh Community Gathering: Stronger Together will be held from 4:30 to 6 p.m. at the Pittsburgh Sikh Gurudwara. Experience the opportunity to share prayer, food, reflections and solidarity with Sikh and Jewish brothers and sisters. Visit jewishpgh. org/event/jewish-and-sikh-communitygathering for more information and to register.

Please see Calendar, page 9

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Calendar Calendar: Continued from page 8 q MONDAY, MARCH 18 A symposium on the intersection of antiSemitism and the First Amendment’s Free Speech Clause will be held in the Duquesne University Union Ballroom at 6:30 p.m. The program will consist of a panel discussion and Q&A followed by a reception at 8 p.m. The program is free and open to the community. Registration at eventbrite.com/e/symposiumon-anti-semitism-and-the-first-amendmenttickets-56020170839 is appreciated, but tickets are not necessary. Pasta making at Moishe House from 7 to 9 p.m. Moishe House events are for young adults ages 22-32. Contact moishehousepgh@ gmail.com for more information. q TUESDAY, MARCH 19 Chabad of the South Hills will hold a prePurim lunch for seniors at noon at 1701 McFarland Road, including hamantaschen and a musical Purim program. Call 412-278-2658 to preregister and visit chabadsh.com for more information. There is a $5 suggested donation. Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Security Director Brad Orsini will provide hands-on training with UPMC trauma surgeons from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Stop the Bleed is a national awareness campaign and callto-action intended to cultivate grassroots efforts that encourage bystanders to become trained, equipped and empowered to help in a bleeding emergency before professional help arrives. There is no charge. Visit jewishpgh.org/event/stop-the-bleed-training for more information and to register. Ashton Applewhite, a voice in an emerging movement dedicated to dismantling ageism and making age a criterion for diversity, will be the Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures speaker at 7 p.m. at the Carnegie Library Lecture Hall, 4400 Forbes Ave. There is a $10 charge. Applewhite is the author of “This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism.” Visit pittsburghlectures.org/lectures/ ashton-applewhite for more information. q WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20 The Squirrel Hill AARP Chapter will hold a meeting in the Falk Library, second floor at Rodef Shalom Congregation, at 1 p.m. The chapter nominating committee will present its slate of officers to the membership for approval. Marsha Stern will give a health report on the importance of home safety and Barry Werber will give a legislative report. Naomi Herman, creator of the blog themindfulfiles.blogspot. com, will address the topic of the Responsibility of Living and Leaving for organizing important information for families. If Pittsburgh Public Schools are closed due to inclement weather the meeting will be canceled. Refreshments will be served following the meeting. Contact Marcia Kramer at 412-731-3338 for more information. South Hills Purim at the Castle: Party like it’s 357 BCE at the Court of Beth El from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Make your own Purim costume accessories, dinner, activities and Megillah reading. There is no charge. Visit bethelcong.org/events/purimparty for more information and to RSVP. Rodef Shalom and Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha congregations will hold a Purim dinner catered by Colleen Wolfson from 6 to 7 p.m. in Freehof Hall at Rodef Shalom. The cost

is $18 for members, $36 for nonmembers, $10 for kids 12 years old and under, and free for kids 3 years old and under. Note dietary restrictions when you RSVP at rodefshalom.org/RSVP. Young Peoples Synagogue’s Purim party will be held at 7 p.m., beginning with the Megillah reading followed by a kosher Purim feast. Costumes are optional. Pay what you wish. Call 412-421-3213 by March 13 to RSVP and for more information and location. Megillah reading and bar outing with Moishe House from 7 to 10 p.m. at Congregation Beth Shalom. Moishe House events are for young adults ages 22-32. Contact moishehousepgh@gmail.com for more information. q THURSDAY, MARCH 21 Chabad of the South Hills and South Hills Jewish Pittsburgh are co-sponsoring Purim in the ‘Burgh, Celebrating Pittsburgh Pride at the South Hills JCC, 345 Kane Blvd. with the Megillah reading at 4:30 p.m., activities beginning at 5 p.m. and dinner at 5:45 p.m. The cost is $10 per individual and $18 per family. Contact Mussie@chabadsh.com or 412-344-2424 or visit chabadsh.com/Purim for more information and to RSVP before March 7. Kesser Torah Grand Purim Seudah will be held at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh beginning with the Megillah reading at 4:45 p.m., and the grand Purim seudah at 5 p.m. with activities for the family. Grilliance will provide dinner. The cost is $18 per adult and $10 per child. Visit paypal.me/KetherTorah to RSVP by March 10 and specify for Purim Seudah. Your payment is your reservation. Contact Rabbi Yossi Capland at 502-807-7004 for more information.

gmail.com for more information. The North American Grinspoon Awards for Excellence in Jewish Education celebrate educators who teach with distinction. The award celebrates successful innovation in Jewish education. Nominations for the Grinspoon Award 2019 Outstanding Day School Jewish Educator must be submitted by March 26 for review by the selection committee. Contact Carolyn Linder at clinder@jfedpgh.org for more information or visit research.net/r/Grinspoon. q TUESDAY-THURSDAY, MARCH 26-28 Performances of the play “Wiesenthal (Nazi Hunter)” written by and starring Tom Dugan will be held at the August Wilson Center, 980 Liberty Ave. Simon Wiesenthal, a Holocaust survivor, was responsible for bringing more than 1,100 Nazi war criminals to justice. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Tree of Life. Visit trustarts.org or contact 412-4566666 for tickets and more information. q WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27 The Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh’s next Generations Speaker Series guest will be Susan Hawkins, the daughter of survivors from Hungary and Ukraine. She will tell her parents’ story of loss and survival through concentration camps, hiding and emigration. She will also discuss her own recent journey of traveling back to Hungary and Ukraine years later, and retracing some of the places where her family lived. The program begins at 7 p.m. at 826 Hazelwood Ave. Visit hcofpgh.org/generationsspeaker-series for more information. q THURSDAY, MARCH 28

Chabad of Pittsburgh will hold Purim Fest at Dave & Buster’s at the Waterfront from 5 to 8 p.m. and will include the Megillah reading, arcade and dinner. The cost is $15 for adults and $10 for children. Visit chabadpgh.com/ purimfest for more information and to RSVP.

The Jewish Association on Aging’s Amy Dukes, director of memory care operations, will present “Healthy Living for the Brain & Body” at 7 p.m. at the South Hills Jewish Community Center. There is no charge. Visit southhillsjewishpittsburgh.org/healthy for more information.

q SATURDAY, MARCH 23

q SATURDAY, MARCH 30

Shalom Pittsburgh of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh will hold its Young Adult Purim Party at 8 p.m. Visit shalompittsburgh. org/event/jfed-young-adult-purim-party for more information and to RSVP.

The Great Temple Sinai Bake Off will have seven of the best Temple Sinai bakers compete for the winning spot. Sample the creations and vote for “The People’s Choice” winner from 6 to 9 p.m. The $20 charge will include appetizers, dessert, two drinks and the competition. RSVP to Kate Passarelli at klpassarelli@verizon.net by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, March 26. Visit templesinaipgh.org/ BakeOff for more information.

Party bus to Shalom Pittsburgh Purim party at Capital Cathedral. Moishe House events are for young adults ages 22-32. Contact moishehousepgh@gmail.com for more information.

Havdalah Music Share at Moishe House from 8 to 10 p.m. Bring your ukulele, clarinet or just your vocal cords, and get ready for a musical night of singing and community. We will have some songbooks and suggestions, but feel free to teach us your favorite song or melody. Moishe House events are for young adults ages 22-32. Contact moishehousepgh@gmail. com for more information. q WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3 The Jewish National Fund’s Breakfast for Israel will feature Ethan Zohn, an inspirational speaker and winner of “Survivor: Africa,” from 7:30 to 9 a.m. at Rodef Shalom Congregation. Zohn is a cancer survivor and Israel advocate. He attributes his victory on “Survivor” to his strong Jewish values. Zohn played professional soccer in Hawaii, Cape Cod and Zimbabwe, and co-founded Grassroot Soccer, a nonprofit that combats HIV/AIDS in developing countries. There is no charge. RSVP by March 21 at jnf.org/wpabfi. q SATURDAY, APRIL 6 Temple David will hold a Mystery Dinner Theater and Auction from 6:30 to 10 p.m. Travel back to the groovy ‘70s when Jack, Chrissy and Janet struggle to evade their nosy landlord and murder. Tickets are $36 for dinner, show and one wine or beer. Additional beverages will be available for purchase. Be sure to come dressed to impress in your best ’70s attire. RSVP to jessicar@templedavid.org or call 412-229-7395 by March 22. q SUNDAY, APRIL 7 Registration for Good Deeds Day, an international celebration of doing good, closes March 19. Visit jewishpgh.org/ good-deeds-day for more information and to register. q THROUGH SATURDAY, APRIL 27 The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s traveling exhibition Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race will be at the Heritage Discovery Center in Johnstown. The exhibition examines how the Nazi leadership, in collaboration with individuals in professions traditionally charged with healing and the public good, used science to help legitimize persecution, murder and ultimately, genocide. Admission to the entire Heritage Discovery Center will be free every Saturday during the exhibition in order to maximize the number of people who see it. Visit jaha.org for more information. PJC

q SUNDAY, MARCH 24 Congregation Beth Shalom’s Derekh Speaker Series will host Idra Novey, author of “Those Who Knew,” at 10 a.m. as part of a series of talks by authors from across the country made available through the Jewish Book Council. There will be a book sale and author signing at the end. Visit bethshalompgh.org/ speakerseries for more information. q TUESDAY, MARCH 26 Game Night at Moishe House from 7 to 9 p.m. Showcase your artistic abilities with Pictionary, take over the world of Catan or claim your Scrabble championship title. As always, feel free to bring your own games to teach others. Moishe House events are for young adults ages 22-32. Contact moishehousepgh@

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

q WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20 Party with a Purpose: Celebrating Refugees and Immigrants, a Jewish Family and Community Services Young Adults Committee event, will be held to raise money and awareness about JFCS’s Refugee & Immigrant Services at VooDoo Brewery, 205 E 9th Ave. in Homestead from 6 to 8 p.m. One dollar per drink will go to support local refugees and immigrants. Learn more at tinyurl.com/JFCSParty.

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

MARCH 8, 2019 9

10 WORLD

Headlines — WORLD — From JTA reports

Youngstown rabbi, Green hopeful, says congregation fired him over critical comments on Israel A rabbi in Youngstown, Ohio, who is running for the Green Party’s presidential nomination, was fired from his part-time job as spiritual leader of a local congregation because, he says, of comments he made criticizing Israel. Dario Hunter, in an interview published on Feb. 19 on Cleveland.com about his bid for president of the United States, had said that the United States should stop providing any aid to Israel because of its’ “horribly atrocious” treatment of Palestinians. “I do not believe the United States should be providing any form of aid to Israel or any human-rights abusers,” Hunter told the reporter. Congregation Ohev Tzedek-Shaarei Torah co-president Neil Yutkin told Cleveland.com that Hunter wasn’t being fired because of his Israel comments, but because of concerns that his presidential campaign would take up too much of his time to perform his job as a rabbi. Hunter is the son of an Iranian Muslim father and a black Christian mother, who first underwent a Reform conversion to Judaism and later converted Orthodox. He was ordained by the non-denominational Jewish Spiritual Leaders

Institute, an on-line rabbinical school. He won a write-in campaign for Youngstown school board in 2015 and joined the Green Party last year. He also is a member of Jewish Voice for Peace. Jill Stein, the Green Party’s nominee in 2012 and 2016, has indicated she doesn’t plan to run again. “I have that background that speaks to all of the issues of fundamental fairness and justice that the Green Party espouses — an openly gay black Jewish man who’s the son of an immigrant,” Hunter told Cleveland.com. Adelson being treated for cancer Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson has lymphoma and plans to continue working through treatment, according to his firm, Las Vegas Sands Corp. Adelson, the longtime Jewish and Republican megadonor, is dealing with side effects from medication he is taking to treat the disease, the statement said, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Adelson, a funder of the Taglit-Birthright program for young Jewish adults, has “side effects [that] have restricted his availability to travel or keep regular office hours,” the statement said. “They have not, however, prevented him from fulfilling his duties as chairman and CEO.” When the treatment is over, Adelson, 85, will return to his regular schedule, it also said. Adelson was a major giver to President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.

Ilhan Omar questions ‘foreign allegiance’ during talk on Israel Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who recently apologized for suggesting that Israel’s supporters buy political clout, was criticized last week for apparently raising another trope many consider anti-Semitic: the notion that supporters of Israel have dual loyalties. In a panel discussion Feb. 27, according to reporting by the Jewish Insider, Omar was discussing criticism of Israel when she said, “I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK to push for allegiance to a foreign country.” Omar appeared on a panel at the Busboys and Poets bookstore in Washington, D.C., alongside three House colleagues: Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Mark Pocan (D-Wisc.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.). Tlaib has also been accused of criticizing Israel in ways that invoke the dual loyalty charge. When the conversation turned to Israel, Omar also said her critics are holding her and Tlaib to account for their Israel criticism because both are Muslim. “What I’m fearful of — because Rashida and I are Muslim — that a lot of our Jewish colleagues, a lot of our constituents, a lot of our allies, go to thinking that everything we say about Israel to be anti-Semitic because we are Muslim,” she said, according to the Insider. Omar also appeared to compare her support for Palestinians to congressional efforts to end apartheid in South Africa, a comparison Israel and most of its supporters reject.

“So I know many [members of Congress] were fighting for people to be free, for people to live in dignity in South Africa,” she said. “So I know that they care about these things. But now that you have two Muslims who are saying, here is a group of people that we want to make sure that they have the dignity that you want everybody else to have, we get to be called names and we get to be labeled as hateful. No, we know what hate looks like.” “We reject the parallels Representative Omar has repeatedly drawn between Israel and apartheid South Africa,” reads a statement from the Jewish Democratic Council of America. “We also want to make clear to both Reps. Omar and Tlaib that our denunciation of their recent tweets was completely unrelated to their religion. We celebrate the diversity of Democrats in 116th Congress, but unequivocally oppose the use of anti-Semitic tropes. We would have condemned such tweets from any member of Congress, regardless of their party or background.” Liberal commentator Jonathan Chait, writing in New York magazine, accused Omar of using the cause of Palestinian rights “to smuggle in ugly stereotypes.” “Accusing Jews of ‘allegiance to a foreign country’ is a historically classic way of delegitimizing their participation in the political system,” he wrote. “Whether or not the foreign policy agenda endorsed by American supporters of Israel is wise or humane, it is a legitimate expression of their political rights as American citizens.” PJC

This week in Israeli history — WORLD —

a beachhead north of Tel Aviv and carry out one of the worst terrorist attacks in Israel’s history. They hijack a taxi and later two buses and kill 38 civilians, including 17 children, before Israeli police stop them in a shootout.

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

March 8, 1969 — War of Attrition begins

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March 9, 1914 — Ruppin buys land for Hebrew U

Arthur Ruppin, the head of the Palestine Office of the World Zionist Organization, purchases the estate of Sir John Gray Hill atop Mount Scopus to serve as the campus of what becomes the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

March 10, 1970 — Law of Return amended

Israel’s Law of Return, first passed in 1950, is amended by the Knesset to change the definition of “who is a Jew.” The changes come in response to two high-profile cases involving a Jewish convert to Catholicism and an interfaith marriage. The revised law reads, “Jew means a person who was born of a Jewish mother or who has become converted to Judaism and who is not a member of another religion.”

March 11, 1978 — Coastal Road massacre

412-901-5433 • askinsure@msn.com 10 MARCH 8, 2019

Egyptian forces launch a major offensive against Israeli positions on the eastern bank of the Suez Canal, starting the War of Attrition, which lasts until August 1970.

Eleven Palestinians traveling by boat from Lebanon land on

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March 12, 1947 — Truman delivers doctrine

In a speech to a joint session of Congress, President Harry Truman lays out what becomes known as the Truman Doctrine: The United States will provide assistance to any democratic nation under threat from totalitarian forces. It helps provide Truman with a justification for U.S. recognition of Israel’s independence.

March 13, 1881 — Czar Alexander II assassinated

Czar Alexander II of Russia is assassinated when a bomb is thrown into his carriage in St. Petersburg. After assuming the throne in 1855, he instituted a series of reforms, including allowing Jews to live outside the Pale of Settlement. The response to the killing includes a series of anti-Jewish pogroms.

March 14, 1473 — Jews massacred in Cordoba

A massacre breaks out in Cordoba, Spain, against the city’s conversos, Jewish converts to Catholicism who were believed to continue practicing Judaism in secret. The massacre starts during a procession for a new association known as the Caridad, a fraternity for Christians who were not of Jewish origin. PJC

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Headlines Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption scandals, explained — WORLD — By Ben Sales | JTA

sraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is going to court on corruption charges — he says he’s innocent. Netanyahu was indicted in three cases last week pending a court hearing. It’s the first time in Israel’s history that a sitting prime minister faces criminal charges. Oh, and elections are in fewer than six weeks. Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister for a decade, is up for re-election on April 9. He’s running for his fifth term. He was first elected in 1996 for one term, then returned to office in 2009 and hasn’t left. He leads the right-wing Likud party. But he could be in trouble. After years of investigation, his country’s attorney general charged Netanyahu in three separate corruption cases. Two have to do with Netanyahu buying himself positive press, and the third alleges that he received illegal gifts from a rich donor. The Israeli Police have numbered them Case 1000, Case 2000 and Case 4000. (The Case 3000 investigation was dropped.) Case 1000: Netanyahu is accused of accepting illegal gifts from Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan, including Cuban cigars and pink champagne. The gifts totaled about $200,000. In return, Netanyahu

p Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing corruption charges as he gears up for his re-election. Photo by Gabe Friedman

“ Nothing will happen —

”

because nothing happened.

— BENJAMIN NETANYAHU

allegedly helped secure a U.S. visa for Milchan and supported a law that would give tax breaks to the billionaire if he moved back to Israel. Case 2000: Netanyahu is accused of advancing a law that would have hurt one newspaper in exchange for positive coverage from a rival paper. In Israel, the two leading papers are Yediot Acharonot and Israel Hayom. Yediot is generally antiNetanyahu. Israel Hayom is almost always pro-Netanyahu — and it’s also free, thanks to funding from the American casino mogul Sheldon Adelson. Case 2000 alleges that Netanyahu made this deal with Yediot’s publisher: Netanyahu would support a law banning free daily papers — that would hurt Israel Hayom. In return, Yediot would give Netanyahu positive coverage. Case 4000: Netanyahu is accused of supporting looser regulation of Israel’s telecom giant, Bezeq, in exchange for favorable coverage from a news website Bezeq owns called Walla. Like his ally, U.S. President Donald Trump, Netanyahu says the local press is out to get him. He accuses the media of being left-wing and dishonest, and likes to use the term “fake news” a lot. He doesn’t translate it: He just says “fake news” while speaking Hebrew. Please see Netanyahu, page 20

Four (tempting) behaviors to avoid when saving for retirement And the secret to real retirement savings success

Provided by: Lee Oleinick, Managing Director – Wealth Management, Walnut Wealth Management Group, UBS Financial Services, Inc., 412-665-9914 To err is human, but you can sidestep some of the most common mistakes people make in saving for retirement by avoiding these four oh-so-tempting behaviors.

Retirement savings mistake #1: procrastinating Even though you know you will get older and eventually retire, a little part of you still believes you might not. Nobel Prizewinning economist Richard Thaler, the founding father of behavioral economics, has spent much of his career exploring why so many Americans have difficulty saving for retirement. One thing he found is that people would rather enjoy what their money can do for them today rather than in the future.1

Retirement savings mistake #2: being too loss averse We don’t like to lose money, so the notion of less money in our paycheck today to serve our needs in the future is a tough pill to swallow. The problem with loss aversion is that we keep delaying that uncomfortable feeling of a smaller paycheck. If you delay too much, you lose out on the compounding effect. For example, if you decide to save $5,000 a year beginning at the age of 35, by the time you’re 65—assuming a 4.5% rate of return—you’ll have 43% less savings than if you had started saving at age 25. That adds up to $240,000.1

Retirement savings mistake #3: not practicing discipline When deciding how to invest, too often investors try to PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

time the market rather than follow a disciplined investment approach. Trying to get in the market “at the right time” sounds smart, but in reality, it often leads to inaction, because that right moment never seems to come. The idea of timing the market only reinforces the first two mistakes (procrastination and being too loss averse). Here’s an example of a disciplined savings strategy: You could start by putting $5,000 away, and then add 5% each year. It might sound boring, but in the end, it will add up to much more than a “timed” strategy that never quite launches.

Retirement savings mistake #4: tinkering with your portfolio too much You want to take a more active role in your investments? That’s good, except if you have a tendency to overmanage. This often happens with retirees, who find themselves with more free time than ever before, and take a keen interest in chasing performance. In the research paper, “Trading is hazardous to your wealth,” authors Brad Barber and Terrance Odean found that, on average, households turned over 75% of their equity portfolios annually and underperformed by 1.5% each year.2 The biggest cause of this is mistiming when to buy and sell a particular fund. People are often driven by the desire to own more of that “hot” stock in rising markets when others are buying, or by “fear” in falling markets when others are selling. In a diversified portfolio, you’ll always be tempted to adjust the portfolio exposure in favor of the best-performing asset classes. The problem is, acting on that temptation may be costing you. So what’s the trick to saving for retirement? Actually, there is PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

none. Start saving for retirement today, and stick with it. No gimmicks, no magic timing and no schemes that will “pay off big.” Just old-fashioned discipline. Modern Retirement Monthly, “Three common mistakes in retirement planning,” November 7, 2017

The Journal of Finance, “Trading is Hazardous to Your Wealth: The Common Stock Investment Performance of Individual Investors,” April 2000. 2

This article has been written and provided by UBS Financial Services Inc. for use by its Financial Advisors. As a firm providing wealth management services to clients, UBS is registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as an investment adviser and a broker-dealer, offering both investment advisory and brokerage services. Advisory services and brokerage services are separate and distinct, differ in material ways and are governed by different laws and separate contracts. It is important that clients carefully read the agreements and disclosures we provide about the products or services offered. For more information, please visit our website at ubs.com/ workingwithus. In providing financial planning services, we may act as a broker-dealer or investment adviser, depending on whether we charge a fee for the service. Financial plans provided free of charge are a service incidental to our brokerage relationship and the service terminates upon delivery of the plan. We provide financial planning services as an investment adviser for a separate fee pursuant to a written agreement, which details the terms, conditions, fee and scope of the engagement. Note that financial planning does not alter or modify in any way the nature of a client’s UBS accounts, their rights and our obligations relating to these accounts or the terms and conditions of any UBS account agreement in effect during or after the financial planning service. Clients are not required to establish accounts, purchase products or otherwise transact business with us to implement their financial plan. Should a client decide to implement their financial plan with us, we will act as either a broker-dealer or an investment adviser, depending on the service selected. For more information about our financial planning services for a fee, please see the firm’s Financial Planning Disclosure Brochure. UBS Financial Services Inc., its affiliates and its employees do not provide tax or legal advice. Clients should speak with their independent legal or tax advisor regarding their particular circumstances. Investing involves risks, including the potential of losing money or the decline in value of the investment. Performance is not guaranteed. © UBS 2019. The key symbol and UBS are among the registered and unregistered trademarks of UBS. All rights reserved. UBS Financial Services Inc. is a subsidiary of UBS AG. Member FINRA/SIPC.

MARCH 8, 2019 11

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Headlines In Hungary and Poland, Jews accuse own communal leaders of playing anti-Semitism card — WORLD — By Cnaan Liphshiz | JTA

n November, a magazine in Hungary reported on alleged mismanagement of taxpayers’ money by that country’s largest Jewish federation. The article by the right-wing Figyelo magazine about the Mazsihisz Jewish group triggered an outcry locally and internationally. But it wasn’t over the problems the article sought to expose. Those were eclipsed by passionate reactions over the image that appeared on the magazine’s cover. It featured a photomontage of Mazsihisz President Andras Heisler surrounded by bank notes. The Jewish organization said it was a “character assassination” that “revives centuries-old stereotypes” about Jews and money. Figyelo’s editors rejected the claim but incensed condemnations kept flowing in: from the World Jewish Congress, the European Jewish Congress (Heisler serves as vice president in both), the American Jewish Committee and even the State of Israel. Last month, though, Figyelo was vindicated in the eyes of at least some Hungarian Jews because thieves stole $437,000 in government money from Mazsihisz. The culprits were suspiciously versed in Mazsihisz’s inner procedures. Peter Feldmajer, Mazsihisz’s former president, said the allegations “will strengthen the view that Mazsihisz is a corrupt organization.” Several critics of Mazsihisz, including Adam Schoenberger of the liberal Marom group, said that whereas Mazsihisz is notoriously opaque, they do not believe it to be an institutionally corrupt organization. To some, the case was an example of how certain Jewish groups in Eastern Europe avoid or discredit scrutiny of their muddy financial affairs by casting it as anti-Semitic. “The Figyelo photo montage wasn’t nice, but it wasn’t anti-Semitic,” Ferenc Olti, a former board member of Mazsihisz, said. “Sometimes it’s beneficial for Mazsihisz to point outside, to say ‘we’re attacked and this attack in anti-Semitic’ although this is absolutely not the case most of the time.” In nearby Poland, journalist Nissan Tzur has a similar impression about that country’s Jewish community. “Complaining about anti-Semitism is standard practice for Jewish community institutions whenever there’s any serious attempt by media to look into how restitution property is handled,” said Tzur, who is Jewish. A debate about anti-Semitism and Jewish groups’ finances played out recently as well in Poland, whose Jewish community of 15,000 is Central Europe’s second largest after Hungary’s 100,000 Jews. In 2013, Tzur, a dual citizen of Israel and Poland, and a colleague, Wojciech Surmacz, published three articles in Forbes Poland that described how Jewish community institutions allegedly sold restituted property below market value in contradiction with Jewish customs and for personal gain.

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p Andras Heisler, president of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Hungary, shows German Chancellor Angela Merkel a Holocaust monument at the Dohany Street Great Synagogue in Budapest in 2015. Photo by Carsten Koall/Getty Images

Leaders of the Polish Jewish community and Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, protested to Forbes Poland’s German publisher, Axel Springer. Piotr Kadlcik, then the president of the Union of Jewish Communities of Poland, drew parallels between the articles and the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto by the Nazis because both “attacks” were timed to coincide with Jewish holidays to weaken resistance. Lauder then published on the WJC website a statement that accused the journalists of using “ugly anti-Semitic stereotypes” such as that of “greedy Jews enriching themselves at the expense of the wider community.” Tzur, who reports from Europe for several mainstream Israeli papers including Maariv and Makor Rishon, says no such tropes were used. “It’s simply ridiculous to accuse me, the grandson of Holocaust survivors, of such things,” Tzur said in an interview. Still, Axel Springer eventually published a correction retracting the bulk of the accusations made by Tzur and Surmacz and an apology to Jewish leaders. The Polish magazine insisted on the veracity of its reporting, clashing publicly with its German publisher. The Jewish community leaders who protested the article “formulated just one accusation, but it was the most serious one: of anti-Semitism,” Haim Dov Beliak, the rabbi of the Beit Polska umbrella group of Progressive Jewish communities in Poland, wrote at the time. He insists the information published was true and that the charges of anti-Semitism were merely for “telling the truth.” Tzur also said the information he published was accurate. But even if it weren’t, he said, “It wasn’t remotely anti-Semitic. The

affair shows that the use of the anti-Semitism card to deflect matter-of-fact accusations of financial mismanagement or abuse is still effective in Eastern Europe.” But, he added, “It won’t be for long because using it erodes its credibility. It’s like crying wolf.” Both Poland and Hungary have their fair share of anti-Semitic hate speech in the media — including by some of those countries’ top politicians. In 2015, the Anti-Defamation League urged the Polish government to reconsider its nomination of Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz, citing his statement in 2002 in which he said that the anti-Semitic forgery “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” contains some truth. Macierewiez also wrote in a newspaper in 1996 that contrary to ample evidence, Poles did not kill Jews at the 1946 Kielce massacre. Last year, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban used language that seemed like it was lifted straight from 1930s Nazi literature when he said during a speech: “We are fighting an enemy that is different from us. Not open, but hiding; not straightforward but crafty; not honest but base; not national but international; does not believe in working but speculates with money; does not have its own homeland but feels it owns the whole world.” Orban’s statement was universally accepted as anti-Semitic dog whistling. But Jewish leaders there were more divided when it came to accusations that the Orban government’s campaign last year against the liberal Jewish billionaire George Soros was anti-Semitic. Mazsihisz claimed that the campaign, which featured posters of Soros with the words “don’t let him have the last laugh,”

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risks “encouraging anti-Semitic sentiment” because Soros is Jewish and the “laughing Jew” was a favorite trope of Hitler’s. In a country whose government is allegedly perpetuating racist stereotypes about Jews, the controversial Figyelo cover photo and the anti-Soros campaign photos “cannot be separated from those stereotypes, even when the images themselves are not directly anti-Semitic,” said Marom’s Schoenberger, whose left-leaning association in Budapest is not part of Mazsihisz. But both Feldmajer, the former Mazsihisz president, and EMIH, Hungary’s Chabadaffiliated Jewish organization, said that calling the Soros posters anti-Semitic was going too far. “I think it was wrong of Mazshisz to characterize both the Figyelo article and the Soros campaign as anti-Semitic,” said Olti, the former Mazsihisz board member. “This claim shouldn’t be used to block scrutiny or to advance political agendas, as was the case in the Figyelo article and the Soros campaign,” respectively. “The Jewish community should respond to calls for transparency rather than fight them and refrain from taking positions more suitable for political opposition groups.” In February, a left-leaning weekly, Magyar Narancs, ran an expose about EMIH’s receipt of state subsidies. It was a front-cover item and featured an image of the rabbi blowing a shofar with the title “Slomo Koves’ billions of state funding,” although the money’s recipient was EMIH, not Koves. But Koves said he does not regard his depiction as anti-Semitic. “I didn’t say it was anti-Semitic then and I don’t say it’s anti-Semitic now,” Koves said. “It’s just cheap journalism and bad info.” PJC

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Headlines The Iranian revolution was 40 years ago, but Persian Jews still feel the pain — WORLD — By Karmel Melamed | JTA

OS ANGELES — Asher Aramnia, an 83-year-old Iranian Jewish businessman living in Los Angeles, fought back tears recently when recalling his beloved cousin, who was randomly executed by Iran’s Islamic regime 40 years ago for the crime of operating a women’s beauty parlor there. Aramnia is among the thousands of local Iranian Jews who this month are recalling the painful memories of the violence, imprisonment, anti-Semitism and total chaos they encountered 40 years ago after the Iranian regime’s late dictator, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, took power in Iran. “We grew up together. I was devastated when hearing the news of her execution because she was supposed to be released from prison that very day,” said Aramnia, who arrived in the U.S. only a few years before the revolution. He asked that his late cousin’s name be withheld because family members living in America still fear potential reprisals from the Iranian regime. The nightmare for Iran’s Jews began on Feb. 1, 1979, when the exiled Khomeini returned to Iran, quickly dissolved the monarchy of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and shortly after established a new fundamentalist Islamic state. Practically overnight, the new theocratic regime eliminated many of the freedoms and civil liberties once taken for granted by Iranians — including the country’s Jews, who under the shah’s reign had experienced one of the greatest periods of peace and prosperity in their long history in the region. The new regime also quickly executed several prominent Jews in the country, accusing them of sympathizing with the fallen monarchy or “spying for Israel and America.” For fear of what calamity might befall them, many Jewish families rushed to abandon their homes and businesses and fled the country — often under cover of night. Others lost everything they owned, as the new government confiscated millions of dollars in assets. “The Islamic Revolution was a horrific calamity for Iran’s Jews since our lives were suddenly turned upside down when Khomeini took power,” said Joe Shooshani, a businessman and Beverly Hills city planning commissioner who arrived prior to the revolution. “Those of us who were able to adapt to our new lives in America have done well, and those who were unable to do so have suffered a lot.” Under the late shah’s rule, Iran’s Jews, as well as other religious minorities in Iran, had become accustomed to being treated with respect, albeit as separate, distinct cultures. Now they were third-class citizens, and the atmosphere of hostility led thousands of them to flee the country after 2,700 years of living there. Looking back, the trauma of that flight has left deep wounds within the

p Frank Nikbakht leads the Los Angeles-based Committee for Minority Rights in Iran. Photo courtesy of Nikbakht

p Iranian Islamic Republic Army soldiers carry posters of the Ayatollah Khomeini during the revolution of 1979. Photo by Keystone/Getty Images

Iranian-American Jewish community, which today, according to activists’ estimates, is approximately 40,000 in Los Angeles and 25,000 in New York. The Jewish community of Iran, which was 80,000 prior to 1979, is now 5,000 to 8,000. Many have flourished in exile, clustered in “Persian” communities in Beverly Hills, Encino, Brentwood and other Los Angeles neighborhoods. Their cultural stamp is felt in a network of schools and synagogues here and in the Greater New York area. The Farsi language is still heard at kosher Persian restaurants in West Los Angeles and the Pico-Robertson neighborhood. But many Iranian Jews continue to live in disbelief at what transpired during the revolution. Jewish flight from Iran began in earnest, most community members agree, in May 1979, when the new regime’s revolutionary guard executed 66-year-old Habib

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Elghanian, a philanthropist and the leader of Iran’s Jewish community on false charges of spying for Israel and America. “Elghanian’s execution was mainly political, in order to tell the Iranian Jews that their time as equal and influential citizens had ended, while catering to the Palestinians who had been close to many Islamic revolutionaries before and during the revolution,” said Frank Nikbakht, an activist who left Iran after the revolution and now heads the Los Angeles-based Committee for Minority Rights in Iran. Nikbakht, now in his 60s, said Elghanian was not the last Jew executed by the Iranian regime. Since 1979, at least 14 Jews have been murdered or assassinated by the regime’s agents; two more Jews have died while in custody and 11 others have been officially executed. In 1999, Feizollah Mekhoubad, a 78-year-old cantor of the

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popular Youssefabad Synagogue in Tehran, was the last Jew to be tortured and then officially executed by the regime, according to a recent report prepared by the Committee for Minority Rights in Iran. “Executing Jews from time to time was also a policy to keep them in line in Iran,” Nikbakht said. “In some cases, such as the Albert Danialpour case, executions had to do with business rivalries at the hand of Islamic killing judges like Ayatollah [Sadegh] Khalkhali.” Danielpour was executed in Hamadan on June 5, 1980, charged with cooperating with the CIA and with Israeli intelligence. Khalkhali served as chief justice of the revolutionary courts. With each Jew the Iranian regime executed, thousands of Jews fled the country. Nikbkaht said others left to escape the regime’s strict sharia laws, which were designed to humiliate and place Jews at a disadvantage. Since then and until nearly 20 years ago, executions of Jews continued in Iran. In 2000, 13 Jews from the city of Shiraz were arrested on trumped-up charges of spying for Israel and faced execution. Yet as a result of a vocal campaign launched by Iranian-Jewish activists in Los Angeles and the larger Jewish community, the Shiraz Jews ultimately were imprisoned and later were released. Other Iranian-Jewish leaders in Los Angeles recalled the difficult transition their community members made in settling into their new lives as immigrants in a new country. The Los Angeles-based International Judea Foundation, known as Siamak, was one of the first Iranian Jewish nonprofit groups made up of individual volunteers helping Iranian-Jewish immigrants with various areas of life. “It was difficult for many Iranian Jews in the beginning to get acculturated to life in America,” said Dariush Fakheri, 69, the founder and head of Siamak. “But ultimately the revolution was beneficial to a great extent because we as a community realized our human potential with minimal boundaries to fulfill our dreams in this great country”. Despite the hardships and upheaval Iranian Jews encountered following the 1979 revolution, the younger generation who have no recollection of Iran or were born in America said their families’ painful experiences at the hands of the regime are still very much alive for them. “We must understand our community’s trauma — and there is no other word to describe it — of being forced to flee their homes, the consequences of which reverberates to this day,” said Sam Yebri, an infant when his family left Iran in the early 1980s. Yebri now heads 30 Years After, an Iranian Jewish nonprofit based in Los Angeles promoting civic and political activity among younger Iranian Jews. “No matter how assimilated or affluent our community becomes,” he said, “we must remember where we came from, the sacrifices that our parents’ generation made and what responsibilities being part of the global Jewish world entails.” PJC MARCH 8, 2019 13

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Opinion A new opportunity to do good — EDITORIAL —

n Jerusalem last week, the Jewish Agency’s board of governors was presented with an idea for taking the desire of young Diaspora Jews to do good in the world and channeling it into service to the Jewish people. Through service projects, young Jewish adults will be able to enhance their Jewish identity and their connection to Israel. The project is called Shalom Corps, and it’s an idea worth following. Like Project Ten, launched by the Jewish Agency in 2016, Shalom Corps is seen as a Jewish Peace Corps. But unlike the earlier effort, the object of Shalom Corps is to direct the effort to help Jews in need. “We want to engage the next generation,” said Gail Reiss, the new president and CEO of the Jewish Agency for Israel in North America (JAFINA). “We have found that more and more of our children want to be hands on. They want to repair the world.” Shalom Corps was conceived as a partnership between the Israeli government and

Diaspora players, in coordination with the Jewish Agency. Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs is working with an organization called Mosaic United, which leverages government funding to raise donor money in the Diaspora. What will it take to move Shalom Corps from a good idea to a flourishing program? According to Reiss, there is still work to be done in the areas of finance, budgeting and organizational governance, but progress has been made. And once the organization’s formal structure is set, branding and

marketing efforts will be pursued. According to the plan, funding for Shalom Corps will be raised by the Jewish Agency and partners it identifies, and the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs has pledged to match those contributed funds. As currently conceived, Shalom Corps will operate in volunteers’ local communities, and there will also be global experiences for the millennial volunteers — along the lines of the Masa program in Israel. But, with Shalom Corps it is anticipated that there will

“ We want to engage the next generation. We have found that more and more

of our children want to be hands on.

”

They want to repair the world.

— GAIL REISS, THE NEW PRESIDENT AND CEO OF THE JEWISH AGENCY FOR ISRAEL IN NORTH AMERICA (JAFINA)

be a yearly project to tackle a specific global, Jewish-related need. It’s a promising idea — another example of how the Jewish organizational world is trying to understand and be responsive to the largest generation of Jews since the baby boomers. And given the Jewish Agency’s successful placement of Israeli shlichim in Diaspora communities, doing the same with Diaspora volunteers holds tremendous promise. In discussing the new program with the Jewish Agency’s board of governors last week, Rabbi Benji Levy, CEO of Mosaic United noted: “Through the development of Shalom Corps we will create a movement that heals the fractured world around us while simultaneously investing in our greatest asset: our Jewish youth.” And Jewish Agency Chairman Isaac Herzog continued that theme. “The thousands of young Jews set to participate in this program,” he said, “will also be strengthening their own Jewish identity and connection to Israel.” We endorse the idea and look forward to great results from Shalom Corps. PJC

A tombstone in a Paris cemetery Guest Columnist Gerard Leval

uring a recent visit to Paris, I walked over to Place du Trocadéro, the large plaza so familiar to tourists seeking the best views of the Eiffel Tower. However, rather than view the Eiffel Tower, I walked a few steps to the south and ventured into the large Passy Cemetery to see the elaborate graves, including those of many noted figures in French history and culture. I walked past the tombs of Claude Debussy, the great impressionist composer, and the painter Edouard Manet and his sister-in-law, Berthe Morisot. I noted the tombs of a former president of the French republic and of prominent authors, industrialists and military heroes of the last century. But, my attention was drawn to a simple reddish granite tomb. At the top of the stone at the head of the grave there was a brief inscription in French, “To the memory of Isaac, Anna, Aline,” followed by a very Jewish surname. Just below the names were the words “who disappeared in 1942.” The words did not leave any doubt as to the circumstances of the deaths of the three individuals. They had been deported during the German occupation of France and murdered. Such inscriptions are sadly not uncommon in Paris cemeteries, a silent tribute to the thousands of Jewish victims of the Nazis and their collaborators. But it was what appeared just below the inscription which caught my eye. Engraved under the names of the obviously Jewish victims of the Holocaust was a symbol, which appeared to be a cross. Upon close inspection it was actually a Star 14 MARCH 8, 2019

of David, over which was engraved a large cross. To the left of this symbol was the name of another deceased individual, also bearing the very Jewish surname of the Holocaust victims, an individual who had died relatively recently, in 2003. Familiar as I am with the history of the post-World War II French community, I readily understood the significance and tragedy represented by this grave. It was evident to me that following the war and the deportation of members of this family, one of the survivors, probably a son and a brother, had elected to convert to Catholicism. He had chosen to abandon the faith and tradition of his family. In spite of this choice, he had felt an obligation to remember his relatives, but to do those from his new religious vantage point. I do not purport to judge the actions of the survivor in his decision to leave his Jewish tradition and adopt the Catholic faith of the majority of French people. Perhaps it was the product of a religious revelation. Maybe it was the desire to leave the burdens of being Jewish behind and integrate into the fabric of France. Possibly it was the hope of insuring the safety of future generations — to inoculate them against the hatred that had deprived his relatives of life. Since I did not live through the persecution of the Holocaust, I am simply unwilling to judge those who did. Nonetheless, the pain that I felt while standing over this grave arose from a sense that the ambiguous symbol was a desecration of the martyrdom that the three identified victims had assuredly experienced in 1942. They had been killed because they were Jews. It seemed so tragic that their memorial should try to dissimulate the true cause of their suffering or suggest that their suffering could be redeemed through adherence to a faith not their own.

The sight of that grave served to reinforce the reverberating effects of the Holocaust, as its consequences continue to echo through the years, and of some of the subtler ways in which there are still efforts to undermine and distort its lessons. My encounter with this tombstone also served to reinforce one of my longtime concerns regarding Holocaust memory and respect for the Jewish dead: the steadily disappearing tombs in Jewish sections of Paris’ municipal cemeteries. Over the years, I have noted with increasing distress the removal of graves of Jews resulting from the apparent failure of families and their descendants to pay the required maintenance fees for those graves. Under applicable French law, even a “perpetual concession” in a municipal cemetery is only an assurance of a right to the grave for so long as officially recognized direct descendants of the purchaser of the grave continue to pay the very considerable annual maintenance fees. And the authorities do not make it easy to establish ancestry and to make maintenance fee payments — as I can attest from my own lengthy and frustrating efforts to protect the grave of my grandparents. With a diminishing Jewish population and families where either conversion away from Judaism or alienation from Jewish tradition has distanced them from prior generations, many Jewish graves do not benefit from the payment of maintenance fees and are being removed. A significant number of the disappearing graves contained inscriptions to the memory of victims of the Holocaust, placed there by grieving survivors after the war. The removal of those graves, erasing forever the memory of the victims whose names appeared on the gravestones, effectively commits a second destruction of the individuals who were so horribly deprived

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of life just two generations ago. My efforts to alert Jewish religious authorities in France to take action to prevent these terrible acts of desecration have not resulted in any concrete results. Those authorities simply invoke French law and assert that there is nothing that can be done. However, we Jews know that the act of caring for our dead is one of the most important mitzvahs, an obligation that is a broad and vital one. We must make certain that the dead are given a proper burial and that their place of burial is maintained. Symbolically, we all do this whenever we visit a Jewish grave and place small stones at the grave — echoing the very real obligation to protect graves from marauders in an earlier era. Preventing the wanton removal of Jewish graves and the exhumation of Jewish remains to be tossed into a collective public grave is equally an imperative. It is not appropriate to be resigned to desecration. Allowing Jewish martyrdom to become a kind of ecumenical statement through the conflating of the symbols of Judaism and Christianity seems very disrespectful. Allowing the destruction of Jewish graves and the removal of memorials to those of our brethren who were martyred and deprived of a proper burial is reprehensible. My brief walk in the Passy Cemetery highlighted the continuing need to prevent the desecration of the memory of those Jews who were destroyed in the Holocaust and the urgency of protecting the remains of Jews whose descendants may have ceased or become unable to care for their last resting places. PJC Gerard Leval is a partner in a Washington, D.C., law firm. He writes and lectures on topics of French and Jewish interest.

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Opinion Who will be Israel’s next prime minister? Guest Columnist David Rubin

veryone knows about Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu. Israel’s invincible leader, soon to be the longest-serving prime minister in history — except, apparently, Benny Gantz didn’t get that memo, since Benny has just pulled ahead of Netanyahu in the latest polls. How can this be? Bibi is a powerful international spokesman, a skilled diplomat and an expert economist. If Americans were allowed to vote, Netanyahu would likely win in a landslide. But in the upcoming April 9 elections, the only votes that count are from Israeli citizens. Israelis see a flipside to the legendary Netanyahu, who some view as indecisive in battle, not resolute enough in meeting the challenge of settlement in the strategic, mountainous heartland of Israel — Judea and Samaria (the so-called West Bank) — and they are concerned with entrusting him with the sovereignty of Jerusalem, Israel’s eternal capital since the days of King David more than 3,000 years ago. Once labeled by an American magazine as “King Bibi” due to his seemingly irre-

destructing more with each passing day. Unlike the United States, Israel is a parliamentary democracy in which the citizens vote, not for an individual, but for a party, and the leader of the largest party has the challenge of forming a coalition with smaller parties, the goal being to attain a majority of seats in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. Remarkably, until last week, Gantz didn’t need to say a word on policy to achieve his strong standing in the polls. In fact, from his perspective, it was better not to say anything. But in a tiny country like Israel, where most issues are potentially explosive, issues eventually need to be confronted, and as that happens and people see what Gantz truly stands for, the shift in popularity may swing back to Bibi. In his maiden policy speech, Gantz seemingly inexplicably praised Israel’s now unpopular 2005 unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, in which some 10,000 Israelis were forcibly expelled from their homes in a bitter and painful process that nearly tore the fabric of the country apart. According to Gantz: “It was a legal move that was adopted by the Israeli government and carried out by the IDF and the settlers in a painful but good way. We have to take those lessons and implement them in other places.” The statement is especially disturbing since it is well known that in every armed conflict, Hamas intentionally hides its armed forces, its weapons factories and its missile

— LETTERS — Enough of the attacks against Kahane How convenient to use the descriptions of “extremist” and “hate-filled agenda,” as well as condemnations of racism, against Rabbi Meir Kahane, a man whose life was spent being a shomer, a watchman against those who threaten the Jewish people (“An extremist rabbi’s legacy is again haunting Israeli politics,” “An unholy alliance,” March 1). These derogatory titles have become common propaganda against anyone who does not follow the mindset of the accuser. The decades of hatred against Kahane have become beyond disgusting. Those who so vehemently criticize should move to the Jewish state and attend the funerals of victims who were killed by truly racist and blood-thirsty fanatic terrorists. Stop the hate. Rosie Wayne Squirrel Hill

Netanyahu is a sometimes flawed yet experienced leader, one who recognizes the existential threat from an Iran seeking to attack Israel from both Lebanon and Syria, while achieving nuclear bomb status. placeable status, things may be changing for Netanyahu and his Likud party. With the attorney general having announced bribery indictments against him, Netanyahu seems to be somewhat in defensive mode as his nation enters an early election once again. So there is a new Benjamin in town, or a new Benny, that is, who seems to be taking Israel by storm. Formerly chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, Benny Gantz has entered politics for the first time, forming his own Israel Resilience Party and seriously challenging Netanyahu’s predominant rightof-center Likud. Pundits projecting Netanyahu’s virtually assured victory may be irrationally exuberant, the thinking being that Gantz’s lead is only “temporary.” The fact is that Gantz is now the darling of the media, which has become a formidable foe to Netanyahu in recent weeks. In a country that has always been enamored with generals and always seems to be searching for the latest “messiah” in the form of a new centrist party, Gantz seems to fit the current perceived need. Voters are flocking in droves to the tall and handsome Gantz, especially from the establishment leftwing Labor party, which seems to be self-

launchers in civilian population centers, daring Israel to attack. With President Trump’s peace plan still not released, but already being publicly debated, it behooves all Israelis, as well as Americans who care about Israel, to understand that the “land for peace” formula that has been recycled and regurgitated by virtually every American administration in recent years, was proven dead after the Gaza withdrawal, when the Hamas terrorist organization set up its rocket launching pads on the ruins of the once peaceful and thriving Jewish communities. Netanyahu is a sometimes flawed yet experienced leader, one who recognizes the existential threat from an Iran seeking to attack Israel from both Lebanon and Syria, while achieving nuclear bomb status. Clearly, Netanyahu has the firmness and resolve that Gantz and his potential partners on the Left don’t possess. As Benjamin Netanyahu faces his most difficult challenges, the world should know two things, that Bibi is the better Benjamin and Benny Gantz is not the Messiah. PJC David Rubin, former mayor of Shiloh, Israel, is the founder and president of Shiloh Israel Children’s Fund.

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MARCH 8, 2019 15

Headlines Report: Continued from page 1

practices was felt personally by millions as if this horrible indignity had been perpetrated against all of humanity.” The committee tasked with deciding how to fairly allocate the money was formed through a vote by the Federation’s board of directors, and was comprised of prominent civic leaders “to make sure it had the ability to make decisions independently from the Jewish Federation,” said Ainsman. David Shapira, chairman of Giant Eagle Corporation and a former chair of the Federation’s board, chaired the committee. Other committee members included Susan Brownlee, former executive director of the Fine Foundation; Jared Cohon, president emeritus of Carnegie Mellon University; Steve Halpern, president of Woodland Management and a Federation board member; Mark Nordenberg, chancellor emeritus of the University of Pittsburgh; Charles Perlow, chairman of McKnight Realty partners and a Federation board member; and Nancy Rackoff, an estates and trusts attorney at Eckert Seamans. The three congregations that were in the Tree of Life synagogue building during the attack were invited to send representatives to the committee meetings. Those representatives were Stephen Cohen, co-president of New Light Congregation; Jon Pushinsky, a past president of Congregation Dor Hadash; and Sam Schachner, president of Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Congregation. Ainsman, as well as Federation president and CEO Jeff Finkelstein, were also invited to attend the meetings. “No amount of money can compensate for the loss of a loved one’s life; no amount of money can fully compensate for a life that has been violently knocked off course and suddenly filled with unanticipated and daunting obstacles; and no amount of money can ever completely heal our hearts or our communities,” the committee’s report states. The committee, in determining how to distribute the funds, considered what it presumed to be donor intent where none was specified, the “perspectives and experiences of a number of victims,” and the “availability of other resources to meet certain needs,” according to the report. The committee also considered, “where contextually appropriate,” the means by which funds established after other mass casualties were distributed, and consulted with Washington, D.C.-based attorney Ken Feinberg, who administered funds for victims of 9/11, the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., the Las Vegas shooting at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival, and the murders at Virginia Tech. The committee met formally nine times between mid-November and mid-January, and again in February to finalize decisions. “We had to go through a process of how to define who the victims are,” Shapira explained at the press conference. “The obvious victims are the people who were killed or wounded, but it is clear they are not the only victims. There were people in the synagogue who were not killed but watching their friends and in some cases 16 MARCH 8, 2019

relations being killed. There were people who were on the premises but who were not yet in the building. “Then there was the question of whether there were victims other than people,” Shapira continued. “So, one thing that was pretty clear to me was that the [Tree of Life] building was a victim. And it was pretty clear to all of us, I think, that the three congregations were victims, too.” The committee also wanted to acknowledge the first responders, “who were both saviors and victims,” Shapiro said. The majority of the money, $5,352,893, will be distributed to those whom the committee found to be “most directly impacted by the incident.” That group includes the families of the 11 worshippers who were murdered, the two worshippers who were seriously physically wounded, and those who were trapped in the building while the attack was occurring. Others in this group include some people who were outside of the building during the attack, as well as the injured police officers. The committee did not distinguish awards based on financial or other circumstances of particular families or individuals, according to the report. The sum of $4,367,523 will be divided among families of the 11 people who were killed and the two people who were seriously physically injured. The nine people who were trapped inside the building during the attack but who were not physically injured will receive payments totaling in the aggregate $436,752. An amount of $48,428 will be divided among a group that was outside the building during the attack. The number of people in that group has not yet been determined. A sum of $500,000 is set aside for compassion payments to injured police officers. “To be clear, payments to the seriously wounded victims themselves and to the families of the worshippers who were killed are not viewed by the Committee to be compensation for what are irreparable losses,” the report states. “For some, the payments will help cover practical expenses, such as funeral costs, medicals bills or lost income, although distributions from victim funds such as this one are given without any limitations on their use. Furthermore, the Committee hopes that these payments will serve as a comforting reminder to all recipients of the expressions of compassion that came from thousands of people around the world.” The remaining $950,000 will be used to support the congregations and promote communal healing, according to the committee’s report. Included in this category is reconstruction of the Tree of Life synagogue building, and seed funding for memorialization and education. Congregation Dor Hadash and New Light Congregation will each receive $100,000 from this sum, and Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha will receive $450,000. Members of these three congregations have “special human needs, since they were intended targets of the attack, and those killed and seriously injured came from within their midst,” according to the report. “The compassionate gift designated by the Independent Committee to the victims and/or their representatives, will help our congregation to address numerous needs of our congregants as we recover from this tragedy,” reads a statement issued by New

p Meryl Ainsman and David Shapira address the press conference.

Photo by Toby Tabachnick

Light Congregation. Dor Hadash likewise expressed appreciation for the work of the committee and the donations that came from around the world. “Congregation Dor Hadash is immensely grateful to the Oversight Committee for taking on the incredibly difficult task of determining how donations should be distributed,” reads a statement from the congregation. “The Committee listened to all voices — victims, congregants and community members. They devoted countless hours to ensuring a deliberative process and an equitable result.” Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Congregation will be receiving more funds than the other two congregations because it owns the building where the attack occurred; Dor Hadash and New Light were tenants. Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Congregation will incur most of the costs to repair or reconstruct the building, which will likely be “a costly, complicated and extended process,” according to the report. “The monetary gift designated by the Independent Committee will help our synagogue to be restored so that it will again become a prayerful place,” Schachner, president of Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha, said. “This donation will be of help to Tree of Life as our congregation moves forward.” The memorialization, commemoration and education effort will receive $300,000. “It is impossible to imagine that this community could move forward without honoring the individual victims, without memorializing this tragedy to help ensure that nothing like it ever is repeated, and without addressing the hateful, anti-Semitic roots of these killings through the power of education,” the report states, calling for the Federation to “take the lead in forming an appropriately independent, broadly representative and well-led Commission to push forward with this important work.” Michele Rosenthal, the sister of brothers Cecil and David Rosenthal, who were murdered in the attack, expressed appreciation for the work of the committee. “We understand this process was not an easy one, but we felt the Committee led by David Shapira was sensitive to the affected victims and their families and demonstrated heartfelt compassion,” Rosenthal wrote in a statement. The Federation has ceased accepting donations to the Victims of Terror Fund, but

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each of the three congregations continues to accept donations. Donations can also be made to the Federation at jewishpgh.org/ help-jewish-pittsburgh-heal/. A copy of the full report can be obtained by visiting the Federation’s website, www.jewishpgh.org. PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsbrghjewishchronicle.org.

Shinshinim program expands

n August, the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh will double the size of its popular shinshinim program. Named for the Hebrew words shnat sherut, which translate to “a year of service” in English, the program is conducted in partnership with the Jewish Agency for Israel, and supported by a private local family foundation and Federation funding. It offers Pittsburghers a chance to create connections with Israel through informal education and relationship-building provided by Israeli volunteer emissaries. The expansion from two to four emissaries follows the success of the program’s first year, said Kim Salzman, the Jewish Federation’s director of Israel and Overseas Operations, in a press release. “After such a great first year with Raz [Levin] and Hadar [Maravent] connecting Pittsburghers to Israel, we have identified a need in the community for making deeper and more meaningful connections to Israel.” Next year’s volunteers will all come from Pittsburgh’s Partnership2Gether sister cities of Karmiel and the Misgav region. Two girls, Tamat Nawy from the city of Yuvalim in Misgav and Sivan Avhar from Karmiel, will join two boys, Itamar Medina from the city of Tuval in Misgav and Guy Hoffman from Karmiel, in Pittsburgh. Nawy and Hoffman both visited Pittsburgh with Partnership2Gether’s Diller Teen Fellows Program two years ago. Hoffman also spent a summer at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh’s Emma Kaufmann Camp. “We had an incredibly dynamic and talented class of applicants this year,” said Shani Turel, the Jewish Federation’s program coordinator for the shinshinim. “The four teens volunteering in Pittsburgh next year will make an amazing addition to our community.” PJC — Adam Reinherz

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Headlines Deborah Lipstadt quits synagogue after its national affiliate backs Netanyahu overture to far-right party — NATIONAL — By Ben Sales | JTA

eborah Lipstadt, the prominent Holocaust historian, is resigning her membership in her local synagogue because it belongs to a movement that defended an Israeli political deal with the extremist right wing. Lipstadt belonged to Young Israel of Toco Hills in Atlanta, an Orthodox congregation. The broader Young Israel movement, in a statement, defended an agreement between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jewish Power, a far-right political party. Critics of the deal note that Jewish Power is led by followers of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, who advocated the expulsion of Arabs from Israel. “Prime Minister Netanyahu acted to get right-wing parties to merge in order to meet the threshold necessary to secure a victory in the election,” read the statement by Farley Weiss, president of the National Council of Young Israel. “We understand what Prime Minister Netanyahu did, and he did it to have ministers of the national religious and national union parties in his coalition.”

The rabbi of Lipstadt’s synagogue, Adam Starr, himself condemned the statement in a Facebook post, writing “Not in my name and not in my shul’s name!” But Lipstadt still felt that she could not continue to be associated with the Young Israel movement, despite having fond words for her synagogue and rabbi. “I cannot be associated with an organization that gives such racism, celebration of violence, and immoral policies a heksher,” or imprimatur, she wrote in an open p Deborah Lipstadt Photo by Osnat Perelshtein letter posted to Facebook. “At this time of rising Lipstadt said in an interview that she felt antisemitism, Jew hatred, and prejudice of all kinds, each of us — and not just our a particular urgency to act because her latest spiritual leaders — must speak out and act book is about present-day anti-Semitism. “This is a party that has racist views,” she individually and collectively. And so I speak out with deep sadness that such a despicable said. “This is a party that condones murder. action is given ‘cover’ by people who claim to This is a party that condones the man who walk in the ways of the Kadosh Baruch Hu,” a committed the largest mass murder in Hebrew term for God. Israel by a Jew. Those are all things that I

find despicable, and to say it’s just politics is really bad.” One of the leaders of Jewish Power hung a picture in his home of Baruch Goldstein, the Jewish terrorist who killed 29 Palestinians at the Cave of the Patriarchs in 1994. Lipstadt also condemned Netanyahu for the agreement, which saw Jewish Power merge with other right-wing parties in a joint slate for Israel’s upcoming election. The unified slate will give the parties a better chance of getting enough votes to enter Israel’s Knesset. She said the deal was of a piece with Netanyahu’s recent tendency to cozy up to right-wing nationalist leaders in Europe, like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. “It was sadly in sync with a number of things we’ve seen,” she said. “This was just one more step but this was a dealbreaker.” Netanyahu defended the deal on Twitter by noting that the Labor Party partnered with non-Zionist Arab parties to maintain power in the mid-1990s. “Such hypocrisy and double standards from the left,” Netanyahu wrote. “They condemn a bloc on the right with right wing parties while the left worked to bring extremist Islamists into Knesset to create a bloc. … The height of absurdity.” PJC

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MARCH 8, 2019 17

18 CELEBRATIONS/TORAH

Celebrations

Torah

B’nai Mitzvah

Beautifying a mitzvah, even when it’s not seen

Gabriel Feinstein, son of Stefani Pashman and Jeremy Feinstein, will become a bar mitzvah on Saturday, March 9 at 10:30 a.m. at Rodef Shalom Congregation. Gabe is a seventh-grader at Colfax K-8 where he is part of the soccer team. In addition to soccer, Gabe is an avid squash player. He also enjoys reading about history and spending his summers in the Colorado Rockies. For his mitzvah project, Gabe participated in Peer Corps through Repair the World, volunteering with Circles Homewood. Joshua K. Kaufman will celebrate his bar mitzvah on March 9 with the Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Congregation at Rodef Shalom. Joshua is the son of Joel B. Kaufman and Amanda H. Wunder, the grandson of Burton Kaufman and the great-nephew of Lois S. Kaufman. Joshua attends Shady Side Academy, where he is in seventh grade. Joshua is an avid hockey player and fan, and he frequently plays soccer and baseball. PJC

Hate: Continued from page 2

we have in common, not what is different,” urged panelist Esther Bush, president and CEO of the Urban League of Pittsburgh. “If we could just learn to be together and respect each other, we could be a much better place.” She suggested people of different races “start by living in the same neighborhoods.” While hate speech does not generally rise to the level of a hate crime, panel members agreed that speech is often a precipitator to crimes and must be addressed. “You are hurting someone whether [hate speech] is a hate crime or not,” said Bush. “And so a crime takes it to a certain level, but you are placing pain upon someone just by your actions before it becomes a crime. At Tree of Life, the man who walked in obviously had a hate for Jewish people before he walked in. But when the violence came out everything changed.” President Donald Trump bears responsibility for rhetoric which can contribute

to an atmosphere that fosters hate, some panelists opined. Even before he became president, “Donald Trump created an environment where hate was more acceptable than we should tolerate,” charged Hickton. “And I believe it has gotten worse since he became president. I think nobody wants to go so far to say he lit a match that caused what happened [at Tree of Life], but we all know it was a fake caravan and we all know the words of the terrible person who did that deed relate back to that. So words matter when you are in public life.” There is a “danger,” however, in assuming “that the problem will go away if [Trump] goes away,” cautioned McAleer. “It’s not. He’s a symptom of what’s underlying it. “When populism shows up, you know there is something systemically wrong happening in society,” he continued. “What were the conditions in society that allowed someone like Donald Trump to be elected?” PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Rabbi Shimon Silver Parshat Pekudei Exodus 38:21 - 40:38

oward the end of this week’s parshah, when the work of the construction and the assembling of the Mishkan has finally been completed, the Torah tells us: “The cloud covered the Communion Tent, and Hashem’s glory filled the Tabernacle. And Moshe could not come into the Communion Tent, since the cloud had rested on it, and Hashem’s glory filled the Tabernacle.” Similarly, in the Haftarah, when the Kohanim have put the final touches on the Temple and brought the Holy Ark inside, the prophet says: “And when the priests came out of the holy place, the cloud filled the house of Hashem. The priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for Hashem’s glory filled His house. Then Solomon said, ‘Hashem has said that He would dwell in thick darkness.’” After all the hard work, all of the skilled detail, all of the generous gifts, they finally completed everything. Not only is Moshe unable to enter, but the rest of Israel cannot even see the final product. It is shrouded in heavy clouds, in thick darkness! It is totally hidden and concealed from the eyes of Israel. What is the meaning of this? Is not the purpose of the entire project to be able to see the beautiful resting place of the Shechina, the Divine Presence, in Israel? We need to understand that the purpose of the gifts and the work was not for the benefit of the people who gave the gifts and who did the work. The intention was not for the workers to be able to boast, or even to feel proud of their handiwork. The purpose of the gifts was not to satisfy Hashem’s “needs,” for He does not lack a thing. The project was a vehicle for those involved to excel in their service of Hashem and in their love for Him. Ultimately, we are taught that the entire goal was to earn atonement for the sin of the Golden Calf. Hashem, in His

Responders: Continued from page 1

the Steel City, worked intensely in the days and weeks following Oct. 27. Having the chance to reconnect with those who shared similar experiences was meaningful, said Admon. “It’s a privilege to be part of this team. It’s an unbelievable team because all of these people had one mission — to save lives — and their motivation is unbelievable,” he said. By evening’s end, after hugs and photographs, the venue began to empty. Headed toward the exit, already bundled and ready to brave the wintery air were Audrey Glickman and Joe Charny.

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abundant kindness, gave us this mitzvah so that He could come to rest His Divine Presence within our midst. One can understand this with a parable: Let us say that someone wishes to give a precious gift to his beloved friend. He spends a long time preparing the gift. He invests time and effort to perfect his work. He invests so much love in every small activity until it is finally ready. He gives the gift to his dear friend. The friend accepts the gift with so much love himself, and then he takes it and puts it in a safe place, to cherish forever after. The person who made it will never see it again. But that doesn’t matter. That was not his objective when he made it. He was not planning on seeing it and gaining personal pleasure from his own handiwork. He only wanted his friend to see it and gain the pleasure of its beauty. This is how we can understand the Mishkan. Even though it was Hashem Who actually commanded us on all the minor details, nonetheless, at the end, the main service and workmanship was a labor of love. The same may be said of the gifts. We have many mitzvahs that we can enhance and beautify. We spend more money on them. We spend more time on them. For example, we might buy a beautiful tallit and tzitzit, build a beautiful sukkah and decorate it, beautify our shuls, the furniture, the Torah scrolls and the like. These examples of doing a mitzvah b’hiddur are visible and pleasing to the eyes. We also have other mitzvahs, where the hiddur is unseen. We might spend an enormous amount on the parshiot, the parchment scrolls inside our tefillin or inside our mezuzahs. We never see them. The point is not the visual pleasure of the result. The point is the exercise in love and devotion in the actions and activities of the mitzvahs. Chazak, chazak v’nitchazeik. Be strong, be strong, and let us strengthen ourselves. PJC Rabbi Shimon Silver is the spiritual leader of Young Israel of Greater Pittsburgh. This column is a service of the Vaad Harabanim of Greater Pittsburgh.

“We got to talk to each other and say thanks and get to see that we’re all just people who were thrown into this horrible situation,” said Glickman. “It was so wonderful to meet these guys and to reaffirm our initial impressions of the cooperation between the different departments and municipalities who came together and acted so efficiently.” “It was really great to get to know the people who saved our lives and meet their families. That was the highlight for me,” added Charny, a Tree of Life member since 1955. “We got to meet their wives,” offered Glickman, “who suffer more than they do.” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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19 color OBITS

Obituaries BALK: Ivan “Itzy” R. Balk, age 77 on Sunday, March 3, 2019. Beloved son of the late Morris L. and Hannah Fay Balk; beloved father of Mark (Debbie) Balk and Chana Balk (Ted Nusbaum); brother of David M. (Rosalyn) Balk, Sam (Hannah) Balk, Phillip (Bette) Balk, Reva (Henry) Cohen and the late Leizer (surviving spouse Lois) Balk; “Saba” to Molly and Emma Balk, Ben, Leo and Addie Nusbaum. Former spouse of Trudy Balk (David Slifkin). Also survived by many nieces and nephews. All who knew him knew instantly of his love and dedication to Yiddishkeit, all who didn’t know him felt like they knew him due to his kind and warm personality. Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. Interment Shaare Torah Cemetery. Contributions may be made to Weinberg Village, 300 JHF Drive, Pittsburghgh, PA 15217 or Beth El Congregation, 1900 Cochran Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15220 or Kollel Jewish Learning Center, 5808 Beacon Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15217. schugar.com EDELSTEIN: Ruth Evelyn Edelstein, beloved

wife of the late Bernard Edelstein and a longtime resident of Pittsburgh, died February 22, 2019, at the age of 97. Ruth had been a snowbird for about 35 years when she decided, at age 96, to move to Florida permanently. She spent the last 8 months of her life thoroughly enjoying the assisted living she had moved into in Lake Worth, Florida. Her greatest joy was her family. She had two daughters, Molla Siegel (Gary) and Marsha (Marly) Stone Franks. She is survived by two grandsons, Matthew Siegel (Erika) and Stephen Siegel (Pippa) and five great-grandchildren; Avi, Marley, Betty, Rosa and Levi, who was born on February 14, 2019. Ruth was a member of B’nai B’rith, Congregation Beth Shalom, a proud owner of a Hole in One at Schenley Park Golf Course, and an active participant in the Pittsburgh Meals on Wheels program. She will long be remembered as “Little Ruthie” and as a great volleyball player both at the YMHA and in the water at several area swimming pools. Service and interment was held at Adath Jeshurun Cemetery. Arrangements entrusted to the Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. schugar.com PJC

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difference between unlawful and illegal? Ill eagle is a sick bird.” Through songs, poems, limericks and quips, Kaplan demonstrated cleverness and good spirit. He had a creative spark, which manifested itself in his love of music and the arts, said Jon Adler Kaplan. A clarinetist who performed in the University of Pennsylvania marching band and a lover of dance, Kaplan went on to participate in more than 60 shows, mostly through activities with Rodef Shalom Congregation and the Allegheny County Bar Association, said his daughter. “My dad and my mom were known for dancing. They loved the jitterbug and they were good at it,” said Jon Adler Kaplan. “Whenever there was an opportunity to dance they would. Whether it was a wedding, bar mitzvah or special occasion, they were always on the dance floor.” Married for 66 years, the duo began their courtship as students at the University of Pittsburgh. Kaplan was in law school and Natalie Adler was a master’s student in education when the two met in an elevator. “My father’s joke was our life has had its ups and downs ever since,” said Thomas R. Kaplan. Throughout their marriage, Larry, a judge and mediation expert, and Natalie,

an educator who founded Carriage House Children’s Center Inc., sought to steady life’s unbalances. After recognizing the familial burdens of jurisprudence, the Kaplans worked with the National Council of Jewish Women’s local chapter to create the Children’s Rooms in the Courts. In 1980 the first Children’s Waiting Room opened and became a place where kids could safely reside without having to see and hear the disputes their parents or guardians were having inside the court. Since 2001, nearly 60,000 children have benefitted from the space. “My father was a phenomenal community activist,” said Thomas R. Kaplan. Among numerous undertakings, he was a religious school teacher and served as president of the junior congregation at Rodef Shalom, president of the Pittsburgh chapter of the American Jewish Committee and president of the Pennsylvania Bar Institute. “You just can’t take all your life,” the deceased jurist said in a 1999 interview with NCJW, Pittsburgh Section. “You got to give as well. It’s always sort of been a philosophy of mine, so if you give back the interest is compounded.” Lawrence Kaplan is survived by his wife Natalie; two sons, Thomas Ross (Pamela) Kaplan and Jon Adler Kaplan; daughter, Ellen Teri Kaplan (Michael) Goldstein, and three grandchildren. PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.