Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle 3-22-19

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March 22, 2019 | 15 Adar II 5779

Candlelighting 7:16 p.m. | Havdalah 8:16 p.m. | Vol. 62, No. 12 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

NOTEWORTHY LOCAL Bringing Wiesenthal back to life

Saliva sample confirms belief in Jewish heritage

Play about famous Nazi hunter comes to Pittsburgh. Page 2

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“What do you mean? I’m 50 percent,” she said. Prokopiv phoned her brother, Sergey Khatsevich. The Ukrainian man offered a similar suggestion that maybe their mother’s mother was Jewish. No go. She phoned her sister once more and probed for any explanation as to how a Christian girl raised in a Christian family in western Ukraine could suddenly be Jewish. Defying a vow issued decades ago, Khatsevich shared a memory that started Prokopiv along a narrative web knotting countries and entangling characters from the United States, Germany, Ukraine, Russia and Israel. “We need to seriously speak,” said Khatsevich. “It’s time to tell you everything.” Prokopiv was born on Aug. 16, 1970. Twelve years earlier, Ida and Mykhail Khatsevich welcomed their first child, a

o stranger to the rejuvenating effect of knowing that people halfway across the world are with you in your time of need, Pittsburgh’s Jewish community, itself less than five months removed from the Oct. 27 massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue building in Squirrel Hill, was among the first to reach out to Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand, reeling in the aftermath of attacks on two mosques March 15 that left 50 worshippers dead. Linking the two, according to news reports, was a white supremacist hate that makes little if any distinctions between hated groups. “Unfortunately we are all too familiar with the devastating effect a mass shooting has on a faith community,” Meryl Ainsman, chair of the board of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, said in a statement. “We are filled with grief over this senseless act of hate. May those who were injured heal quickly and fully, and may the memories of the victims forever be a blessing.” As news of the attacks on the Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre spread late last week, the Federation began accepting donations to help the Muslim community of Chirstchurch. “We were definitely motivated in part by the fact that the Muslim community of Pittsburgh was enormously supportive after the Oct. 27 shooting,” said Adam Hertzman, Federation’s director of marketing. By Tuesday, the Federation had received more than $230,000. That sum, as well as the fact that more than 3,200 donors have contributed, was staggering, said Hertzman. “We have a regular role in the Jewish

Please see Russian, page 16

Please see Response, page 20

Israeli takes up media cause

Her vision is for outlets and news consumers to partner.

TRAVEL

 Olena Prokopiv, left, Maria Sierova and Igor Kurnikov By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

Witness Europe at crossroads

Its Jewish history long and painful, Berlin remains complicated. Page 12

After Christchurch, Jewish community mirrors support By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

LOCAL

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saliva sample confirmed Olena Prokopiv’s decades-old belief. After Prokopiv peered down at her computer screen, the lingering sense of difference forever dogging her disappeared as quickly as one can click an email. Staring the Greenfield resident and Ukrainian immigrant in the face was a message with the results of a DNA test she submitted a month before. According to the findings, Prokopiv was 50 percent Jewish. Stunned, relieved and uncertain what to make of a conclusion wholly inconsistent with her upbringing, Prokopiv grabbed a phone and dialed her sister, Lesya Khatsevich. “I asked her, ‘Do you remember anything?’” Prokopiv said in a recent interview. Khatsevich, who lives in Kalush, Ukraine, posited that maybe their grandmother was Jewish. Prokopiv scoffed at the idea.

Photo by Adam Reinherz

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