Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle 6-4-21

June 4, 2021 | 24 Sivan 5781

Candlelighting 8:29 p.m. | Havdalah 9:37 p.m. | Vol. 64, No. 23 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

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Local rabbi creates Braille False alarm Torah for the visually impaired rattles some but shows efficacy of new security system

NOTEWORTHY LOCAL Education and advocacy

By David Rullo | Staff Writer

S

Fox Chapel teen raises awareness for mental health

Torah. The story caught the attention of the Washington Post.

Sarko, in turn, has become a champion for blind and visually impaired Jews, who he estimates number more than 300,000 in the United States alone.

“It doesn’t matter the denomination, blind people are supposed to be full members of the Jewish community,” Sarko said. “That means those who are blind or visually impaired can read from the Torah, right? No. Can they [read the Torah at their] bar mitzvah? No.” Most customs for creating a Sefer Torah date to the eighth century and come from the text of “Masechet Soferim,” according to the Devarim Institute, an educational nonprofit that Sarko now helps lead. But in the eighth century, Braille did not exist.

“Judaism has always adapted the application of its precepts based on context,” Sarko wrote on the Devarim Institute website.

“Today we have the ability to create a Braille sefer scroll and thereby include this segment of Jews in a congregational Torah reading

ome members of the Pittsburgh Jewish community were surprised the morning of May 26 by a message they received by text and through email of a “Bluepoint weapons threat alert” at Congregation Beth Shalom in Squirrel Hill. The automatic message, sent by the BluePoint system, read “BLUEPOINT WEAPONS THREAT ALERT MOBILE 1 Portable Panic, Beth Shalom ELC & Congregation.”

Twenty minutes later, at 9:50 a.m., a second message was sent clarifying that the original alert was a false alarm.

The notifications were the first transmitted as part of the BluePoint Rapid Emergency Response System, a network of local alarm stations that notify police, other first responders, people working in the building where an alarm is activated and other community leaders of a potential security threat. “The system worked exactly as it was designed to work,” said Shawn Brokos, director of community security for the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.

The notifications went out when the pull station on the second floor of the building was activated, she said. The cause of the activation is being determined.

Brokos noted there was an immediate police response and executive directors throughout the community were alerted so they could make appropriate decisions for their facilities. During the time between the initial alert and the all-clear, police verified there was not an active threat in Beth Shalom.

The procedure is analogous to a false fire alarm at a school where first responders are required to verify there is no fire before allowing students and staff back into the building, Brokos said.

While the BluePoint system worked

Please see Braille, page 14

Please see BluePoint, page 14

Page 2

LOCAL Now, you see him!

 Rabbi Lenny Sarko holds the Braille Torah.

Magician and mentalist Seth Neustein reappears on stage Page 4

LOCAL Getting to know:

David Vatz, ultimate coach Page 5

By Justin Vellucci | Special to the Chronicle

W

hen Rabbi Lenny Sarko lost some of his vision, there was something else he began to see.

About five years ago, Sarko, a man with a friendly demeanor who serves as the spiritual leader of Congregation Emanu-El Israel in Greensburg, experienced bleeding in his eyes due to Type II diabetes. The world became a little dimmer — not a good situation for a man so heavily reliant on reading holy texts.

He wondered how others managed.

“I was afraid if I ever got that again, I’d be out of a job, so I learned Braille,” Sarko told the Chronicle. “I thought, ‘If there’s Hebrew Braille, there’s got to be a Hebrew Braille Torah’ — but it doesn’t exist.”

So, Sarko created one.

Sarko’s Hebrew Braille Sefer Torah might be the first of its kind in existence. One contemporary parallel came in 2019, when 12-year-old Batya Sperling-Milner became a bat mitzvah in her modern Orthodox community by reading a paper, in Braille, about blind Jews and their relationship to the

Photo courtesy of the Devarim Institute

keep your eye on PittsburghJewishChronicle LOCAL

Rallying against antisemitism

ART

The art of Dan Droz

STREAMING

Menachem Begin documentary

Headlines Fox Chapel student raises awareness of teen mental health issues — LOCAL —

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

F

ox Chapel High School senior Abby Rickin-Marks scored a major victory for teen mental health awareness when, on May 23, both the City of Pittsburgh and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania made a proclamation calling for greater attention, education and advocacy for issues related to teen mental health.

The proclamations were publicly read by Councilperson Erika Strassburger and Lt. Gov. John Fetterman during an outdoor celebration at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh in Squirrel Hill.

Both politicians credited Rickin-Marks, 18, and other teens with shedding light on an important health concern for the community.

“It’s not something we talked about when I was a teenager,” said Fetterman. “Thank you for bringing attention to this and for reminding us all that this is a critical area.”

Strassburger said she was “proud of the work that the youth are doing today,” adding that “Teens are not just the leaders of tomorrow; they are the leaders of today.”

Following the program, Rickin-Marks said the proclamations were a capstone to three years of partnering with representatives from the Jewish Healthcare Foundation’s PA Youth Advocacy Network and the Pittsburgh JCC. Since connecting with Jewish community professionals in 2018, Rickin-Marks, whose family has been affiliated with Adat Shalom Synagogue in Cheswick, has spoken at multiple conferences and allied with students at neighboring high schools to increase awareness of teen mental health.

Earlier this year, she won the National

p Abby Rickin-Marks speaks during Teen Mental Health Awareness Day on May 23.

Alliance on Mental Illness Keystone Pennsylvania Youth Award, given to young leaders in mental health education.

There are many people in the community who work in the field of mental health, said Rickin-Marks, but “people don’t talk about it when it comes to teens.”

She said she hopes the proclamations will help further reduce stigmas surrounding mental health disorders.

“COVID was obviously not a good thing, and there were so many negatives regarding it, but one thing it did allow was for people to open up about their mental health to some degree,” she said.

Research from the University of Michigan confirms that teen mental health issues have intensified during the pandemic: The C.S.

Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health found that 46% of parents of teens ages 13-18 say their children have “shown signs of a new or worsening mental health condition since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.” Also, 73% of the parents said the pandemic has had “a very or somewhat negative impact on their teen’s ability to interact with their friends.”

Although researchers and parents have helped increase attention on teen mental health — and topics like anxiety and depression have become more “commonly talked about” — there is still considerable work that needs to be done, said Rickin-Marks. For instance, certain mental health issues, like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, continue to carry a stigma, she said.

Photo courtesy of Jewish Healthcare Foundation

Rickin-Marks’ advocacy, and that of her peers who helped secure the proclamations and recognition of May 23 as Teen Mental Health Day, has furthered the Jewish Healthcare Foundation’s commitment to address adolescent mental health, said Danny Rosen, JHF’s vice board chair and professor of social work at the University of Pittsburgh.

“Teen mental health is a critical issue impacting everyone in our community,” said Rosen. “I’m proud to see the Jewish Healthcare Foundation continue to empower and create space for the youth voice to be heard.” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Headlines Rally against antisemitism

T

he Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh hosted a rally against antisemitism on June 1, at 6 p.m. on the steps of the City-County building downtown. “Stand Against Antisemitism”

was organized in response to the recent rise of antisemitic incidents in the U.S., many of which have been violent. Several other local institutions, including the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, co-sponsored the rally, which

drew a crowd of approximately 400.

Speakers included Jeffrey Finkelstein, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb, Pennsylvania state Rep. Dan Frankel,

Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto and Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald.

Read the Chronicle’s full coverage of the rally online and in next week’s print edition. PJC

p Approximately 400 people showed up for the “Stand Against Antisemitism” rally.

Photo by Dave Rullo

p Rep. Conor Lamb

Photo by Jim Busis

p Center of Life Pastor Tim Smith

Photo by Jim Busis

Exciting News: The Jewish Federation of

Greater Pittsburgh’s 2021-2022 Wechsler Fellowship: Building Pittsburgh’s Next Jewish Leaders is now accepting nominations!

We are asking the Pittsburgh Jewish community to identify candidates to be considered for this extraordinary opportunity.

Please nominate one or more outstanding individuals from your organization, synagogue, community, or social networks.

Ideal candidates are between the ages of 22 and 45, who are passionate, innovative and inspired to lead our Jewish community into the future!

The Wechsler Fellowship explores the work of our Jewish community organizations, cultivates new leaders, and strengthens the sense of connection among Jewish young professionals from the diverse religious, professional and educational backgrounds that form the fabric of the Pittsburgh Jewish community.

Nominations are open now, please send your recommendations to Drew Greenwald at dgreenwald@jfedpgh.org.

Visit jewishpgh.org/wechsler to submit your application.

Questions? Contact Drew Gree*wald at dgreenwald@jfedpgh.org or 412-992-5218.

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JUNE 4, 2021 3

Headlines Abracadabra! Seth Neustein is back on stage — LOCAL —

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

M

agician and mentalist Seth Neustein pulled off an amazing trick: He turned his passion into a full-time career. In 2014, after six years as a project manager, the Jewish Penn Hills resident became a professional entertainer.

Neustein’s new vocation didn’t come out of thin air. He’d been standing in front of a crowd and delivering the unexpected for decades.

“I was the kid who would perform at other kids’ birthday parties,” he said.

Neustein even entertained at his own bar mitzvah. Dressed in a black cape and red yarmulke, Neustein performed mentalism and magic. Afterward, to the delight of family and friends gathered at Congregation’s Beth Shalom’s ballroom, he played “Sunrise, Sunset” and “The Pink Panther Theme” on his clarinet.

“My friends teased me about being a showoff,” he said.

Nearly 30 years later, Neustein, 42, is still on stage. His performances have evolved, as has his attire — double-bridged eyeglasses have been swapped out for smaller frames, and a black tie-on cape has been replaced by a dark suit or a tuxedo — and whether it’s magic or a miracle, joked Neustein, being

couldn’t walk across the house without having to lie down.”

The entertainer is now vaccinated and spent the past several weeks trying to shake the dust from his act through private performances at dinner p ar t ies and barbecues.

Many people haven’t seen live entertainment for more than a year, said Neustein, who is happy that socialization is returning and that he is able to make the audience experience  Seth Neustein Photo courtesy of Seth Neustein both fun and safe.

One of his acts, a “speakeasy,” involves mentalism, a perforable to fit into formal garb after the past year is something of a marvel. mance art Neustein described as “dealing For the last 15 months, like so many other with the superiority of the human mind.” performers, Neustein’s act basically vanished. Over the course of the program, participants Because of canceled events, and his own read each other’s minds and see the future, according to Neustein. health, he was largely out of commission.

“It’s a very innovative style of play, or epic “I got COVID real bad,” said Neustein.

Although hospitalization wasn’t necessary, “I theater,” he said. “I set up the conditions and

“PITTSBURGH’S LARGEST SELECTION”

make it possible.” Then, through conversation, “we figure out what’s going on deep in someone’s mind. It’s a very positive tour de force — I don’t reveal anything you don’t want to talk about.”

Neustein said his one-of-a-kind engagements occur in a safe environment in which only willing audience members are called upon to participate, and each performance is uplifting.

“Especially right now, when the world feels very bleak, I don’t want to contribute to any of the negativity that people feel daily, so the only person that gets made fun of is me,” he said.

The objective is always to “energize” attendees and have them walk away enthused and encouraged to accomplish whatever goals they might have, said Neustein.

Neustein himself could use a little bit of that boost. With his first major post-COVID performance set for June 12 at Steamworks Creative in Gibsonia, he is feeling a case of the jitters, he said. But after three decades of live shows, he isn’t worried about getting stage fright or negative reactions to his new material. The only cause of concern for the mentalist is the one thing he can’t predict.

Said Neustein: “I’m nervous about filling the room.” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Headlines Getting to know: David Vatz — LOCAL —

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

A

fter 20 years of constant play, the past 15 months were particularly difficult for David Vatz. Without the chance to suit up, strategize field position, chase down discs and compete for a championship, Vatz, a decorated player of ultimate (or, as it’s colloquially known, “ultimate frisbee”), found himself itching to get back on the field.

Between high school, college, club teams and professionally, “it’s been a part of my life since 2001,” said Vatz, 35. “It’s weird not to have a year with it.”

That pandemic-induced drought will end on June 5 when the Pittsburgh Thunderbirds, of the American Ultimate Disc League, open their 12-game season against the Boston Glory at J.C. Stone Field in North Park.

Vatz, a Thunderbirds assistant coach and the team’s all-time leading scorer, is counting down the days until ultimate begins again.

For the uninitiated, ultimate is similar to football, soccer or rugby: Players move down a field attempting to outscore their opponents by, like football, passing a disc to teammates around the field until they reach the opposing end zone. Unlike football, however, ultimate players may not take steps while holding the disc. Turnovers are committed after an interception, an incomplete pass or when the disc is tossed out of bounds.

Another differentiator between ultimate and similar sports is that there are rarely referees; players call their own fouls and abide by a code of mutual respect and trust, or “Spirit of the Game.”

Ultimate has a “lot of representation in the Jewish community,” said Vatz, a Greenfield resident who celebrated his bar mitzvah at Temple Emanuel of South Hills.

Vatz isn’t sure why so many Jews play the game, but speculated it may be connected to being introduced to the sport at overnight camps — although Vatz doesn’t recall sprinting for lofted frisbees during his time at URJ Camp Harlam in Kunkletown. He began playing ultimate as a student at Mt. Lebanon High School and continued at the University of Pittsburgh, joining an Oakland-based squad that competed for a national championship. After college, Vatz played for several teams, including the Thunderbirds. He said that there’s been a fair number of Jews suiting up beside him at every stop.

Having been a part of the sport for the past two decades, Vatz has noticed its popularity grow and that players are treated better, and he noted that concussion protocols have advanced significantly over the years.

For most athletes — regardless of sport — practice, training and travel is a part of life, and it’s no different with ultimate. But unlike those employed by the Steelers, Penguins or Pirates, players at the highest level of ultimate are usually competing for small change, said Vatz.

“It’s definitely not enough money to pay the bills,” he said. “You get a small check each

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 David Vatz is happy that, after a year away, his Thunderbirds can finally get back on the field.

 David Vatz high-fives fans after a Thunderbirds victory.

game. For the most part, teams are paying for your travel and your uniforms. People are usually doing it because it’s fun.”

In addition to loving the game itself, Vatz appreciates the feeling of being part of a team.

“Part of the magic of team sports is that you’re trying to accomplish something with

a group of people,” he said. “In 2005, when we made nationals for the first time with Pitt, we were a team of 14 guys.” The squad was smaller than most, but “banded together as a group and decided we’re going to do whatever was necessary.”

Battling against subjectively stronger clubs

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Photos courtesy of Pittsburgh Thunderbirds

and eking out close games “was something I did with this group of guys,” said Vatz. “And to this day those people feel like my family, my brothers.” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

JUNE 4, 2021 5

Calendar Submit calendar items on the Chronicle’s website, pittsburghjewishchronicle. org. Submissions also will 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

SUNDAY, JUNE 6

The Friendship Circle of Pittsburgh invites you attend “Friends All-Around” at the Highline on the South Side. The event will celebrate 15 years of friendship and honor the graduating class of 2021. Inperson and virtual options available so you can celebrate your way. 5 p.m. For more information and to register, visit one.bidpal.net. q

SUNDAYS, JUNE 6, 13, 20, 27

Join a lay-led Online Parashah Study Group to discuss the week’s Torah portion. No Hebrew knowledge is needed.

The goal is to build community while deepening understanding of the text. For more information, visit bethshalompgh.org. q

MONDAYS, JUNE 7, 14

Throughout our history, Jews have never shrunk from a good argument and we have had plenty of them — from the moment we got out of Egypt until today. In the course Top Ten Disputes, Rabbi Danny Schiff will take a close look at the top 10 disputes of Jewish history. How did they start? What made them so contentious? And how were they ultimately resolved? Five sessions for $25. 9:30 a.m. For more information and to register, visitfoundation.jewishpgh.org/ top-ten-disputes.

Join Moishe House and volunteer at the Sheridan Avenue Orchard and Garden.

All the food grown is donated to East End Cooperative Ministries. Help with

projects like weeding, trash cleanup, planting and caring for plants. 5:30 p.m.

For more information, visit facebook.com/ moishehouse.pittsburgh. q

THURSDAY, JUNE 10

Join the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Young Adult Division for a drive-in movie at Highmark Stadium’s West River Lot. Eat, drink and laugh from the safety of your car. $18 per person. jewishpgh.org/celebration q

FRIDAY, JUNE 11

Join the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Young Adult Division and One Table for their first in-person Game Night Shabbat event since the start of the pandemic. 6:30 p.m. jewishpgh.org/event q

SATURDAY, JUNE 12

Celebrate Shabbos at Raccoon Park with Moishe House Pittsburgh and enjoy a hike out in nature. The park is about 45 minutes away, so let Moishe House know if you need a ride or if you’re able to drive others. If it’s warm enough, folks who want to may even be able to swim. If you prefer some solo time to reflect in nature, there will be an option for that, too. 11 a.m. For more information, visit facebook.com/ moishehouse.pittsburgh. q

SUNDAY, JUNE 13

Eleanor Roosevelt Hadassah presents “An Afternoon of Broadway Entertainment.”

Broadway stars Nick Cartell and Jennifer Dinoia will entertain online by performing their favorite songs and sharing stories from and about their careers, followed by a question-and-answer session. 4 p.m. $36 general admission, $54 mezzanine, $72 orchestra. hadassahmidwest.org/ RooseveltBroadway

h

MONDAYS, JUNE 14, 21, 28

Join Congregation Beth Shalom for a weekly Talmud study. 9:15 a.m. For more information, visit bethshalompgh.org. q

TUESDAY, JUNE 15

Rodef Shalom’s Jewish Pittsburgh History Series will feature a presentation

by Jeff Suzik, director of the Falk Laboratory School. His topic will be “Falk Laboratory School and the Falk Family’s Transformative Commitment to Progressive Education in Pittsburgh.” 7 p.m. Free. rodefshalom.org/jewish-history-series q

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 16

Jews have never desisted from addressing tough problems. In this year’s CLE series, Rabbi Danny Schiff will dive into “Tense Topics of Jewish Law.” Each topic raises significant concerns in our contemporary lives. With CLE/CEU credit: $30/session or $150 all sessions; without CLE/CEU credit: $25/session or $125 all sessions. 8:30 a.m.

For more information, including a complete list of topics, visit foundation. jewishpgh.org/ continuing-legal-education. q

Join Moishe House Pittsburgh for Outdoor Game Night. Learn a new social deduction game called “Insider.” Imagine 20 Questions meets Werewolf/Mafia! It’s easy to learn and a lot of fun. It’s also socially distanced and quick to play. Drop into the game whenever, or just stay and chat. Drinks and snacks provided. 6 p.m. facebook.com/moishehouse.pittsburgh

SUNDAY, JUNE 20

Celebrate the longest day of the year crafting with Moishe House Pittsburgh. They’ll have materials for drawing and sculpting, as well as drinks and snacks. 4 p.m. facebook.com/ moishehouse.pittsburgh q

The Pittsburgh chapter of Hadassah and Hadassah Greater Detroit Wellness Wednesday presents “A Delicious Therapeutic Experience” with Julie Ohana, culinary art therapist 11 a.m. Register by Monday, June 14. hadassahmidwest.org/GDWW2021.

THURSDAY, JUNE 17

THURSDAY, JUNE 24

Hadassah Chicago-North Shore invites you to a virtual summer concert, “Let Us Find Peace,” presented by Lori Ann Powrozek.

11:30 a.m. Register by June 22 for this free online event at hadassahmidwest. org/CNSconcert.

Join the Jewish Association on Aging for Broadway Under the Stars Drive-In, a live, virtual concert by Mandy Gonzalez, Broadway star of “Hamilton” and “In the Heights.” Safe-distance parking. Bring your own lawn chairs. Drive-in style food, soft drinks and dessert served (dietary laws observed). 21 and older, BYOB (per PLCB).

Drive in or view at home. Proceeds benefit the care and services provided by JAA to our community’s seniors. Lot opens at 6 p.m.; program begins at 7 p.m. jaapgh. org/events PJC

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Headlines A rabbi’s accuser wanted me to tell her story.

Here’s why it took 20 years — NATIONAL —

By Gary Rosenblatt | JTA

I

n March 2005, I was on the verge of publishing an article that I knew would have a major impact. As the editor and publisher of The New York Jewish Week, I would be describing — for the first time — the true nature of the sexual misconduct that led one of the most prominent Reform rabbis in America to resign from his role as president of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the movement’s seminary.

Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman had resigned from HUC in 2000 and been suspended for two years from the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the movement’s rabbinic organization. The group had said only that Zimmerman had engaged in unspecified “personal relationships” that violated its ethical code, and many believed that he had a long-ago consensual affair with an adult woman in his congregation.

I found out that the allegations were far more significant. I had spoken to one of Zimmerman’s accusers, who told me that he had begun behaving inappropriately toward her when she was a teenage congregant. She told me that their intimate contact, which recent reports indicated included touching and kissing, began when she was 17 and was consummated when she was 20.

Some of those details were revealed recently in an investigation by Manhattan’s Central Synagogue — Zimmerman served there as senior rabbi from 1972 to 1985.

On April 27, the synagogue revealed the damaging findings of an independent study it commissioned last fall, providing details of the behavior that the CCAR had described only vaguely.

Why didn’t I publish the story more than 15 years ago? I knew that I had important information — information that could protect others as Zimmerman regained influence in his movement. But I did not have the full permission of my source, whom the CCAR had determined was trustworthy.

The following story explains why the facts remained a secret for all these years.

Credible allegations

Last month, Central Synagogue sent a letter to its community containing the results of an investigation into the events that led to Zimmerman’s suspension 20 years earlier.

The investigation was prompted by a woman’s disclosure after last Rosh Hashanah that Zimmerman, now 79, “initiated an inappropriate relationship with her while she was a young religious schoolteacher and congregant at Central” in the 1970s.

The investigators found credible the allegations by this former teacher, as well as those of one women who came forward in 2000 and a third in 2020, of “sexually predatory behavior by Rabbi Zimmerman in the 1970s and 1980s.”

The current leadership of the congregation said it was never informed by the CCAR of PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

 Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman, seen here in a screenshot of a video from Temple Emanu-El in Dallas, where he was senior rabbi from 1985 to 1996.

Screenshot from Vimeo via JTA

the events that led to Zimmerman’s suspension in 2000. The leadership said it was “devastated” by the news and condemned Zimmerman for “a gross manipulation of his spiritual authority.”

My involvement and knowledge of these allegations began 20 years ago. I received a call in the spring of 2001 from a woman who identified herself at the time only as “Debbie.” She said she was the one who had approached the CCAR a year earlier with allegations about Zimmerman, dating back to her teenage years, that led to his resignation and suspension. She was calling me because she was upset that only a few months later, the rabbi had been named executive vice president of Birthright Israel, a move that was starting to cause controversy because of his recent misconduct.

She said she was torn between speaking out through an article or maintaining her public silence, but she clearly wanted to talk.

The woman asked if she could speak to me anonymously, and I agreed — an agreement that still holds today, though over time, and after extensive phone conversations, she revealed her true identity to me. Then as now, I also said I would not publish her story without her permission and would not reveal her identity.

The article I came close to publishing in 2005 would have included details of Zimmerman’s years-long relationship with Debbie, who first met him in the spring of 1970 when she was 15. As she described it to me, Zimmerman became her rabbi and teacher the following year when he was appointed assistant rabbi at Central Synagogue, and he soon began to relate to her in an inappropriate manner.

The article would have revealed that when she was 17 and studying privately with Zimmerman, who was 30 and married, he used Martin Buber’s “I and Thou” theology as a framework to explain or justify their intimate contact.

For the next decade, the nature of their relationship was a secret, given that their families were friendly and that she and her family viewed him as their rabbi, teacher and confidant.

The article also would have noted, for the first time and based on a copy of the committee’s never-released report obtained

by The Jewish Week, that Zimmerman had an affair with at least one other woman, and that a CCAR investigative panel of its ethics and appeals committee found both women fully credible — and the rabbi far less so.

A ‘profound’ betrayal

I found Debbie thoughtful and articulate.

She clearly had given much thought over the years to the unhealthy nature of the relationship that took place decades ago.

“What was so damaging is that this was the formative romantic relationship of my life,” she said at the time, adding that “the betrayal to me and my family was profound.” (Her parents were friends with Zimmerman and his wife.)

The story Debbie told me back then reflected her disappointment, frustration and anger with Zimmerman for being “manipulative — taking advantage of me and my being young and vulnerable — and for being untruthful.”

She also was upset with leadership in the organized Jewish community for focusing exclusively on the rabbi’s rehabilitation and reentry into Jewish public life without concern for the psychological and emotional damage done to her as a victim.

Debbie praised the CCAR investigating panel for its diligence in pursuing her allegations and, in effect, bringing down a major leader. But she questioned why the gravity of Zimmerman’s violation of ethical and sexual boundaries did not seem to have been shared at least with other leaders within the movement, which, it turned out, included HUC, Central Synagogue and the central body, now known as the Union for Reform Judaism, so others could be protected.

(In the wake of the 2021 Central Synagogue announcement, those other groups are launching their own investigations.)

Debbie first called me a few days after the announcement of the Birthright Israel appointment. She felt it was improper for the rabbi to be given a top position in an organization involving 18- to 26-year-olds.

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

But she was wary of making her complaints public, concerned about “appearing vindictive” and fearful that her identity would become known.

Philanthropists Michael Steinhardt and Charles Bronfman, the co-founders of Birthright Israel, played a key role in hiring Zimmerman to help lead the organization professionally. In a news release announcing the appointment on April 5, 2001, Bronfman praised the rabbi as a “dynamic educator and leader whose talents will be a great blessing for Birthright Israel.”

Several years later Marlene Post, a lay leader of Birthright Israel who was one of several people who interviewed Zimmerman for the position, told me that “at that time we were unaware of the specifics” of his relationship. Post said she believed that the rabbi would not have been hired had the details been known.

All of this transpired at a different time.

There was no #MeToo movement, and investigators habitually sought to protect the privacy of the accused as well as victims, and behaviors like “grooming” — in which someone in a position of trust and authority manipulates a minor for sexual purposes — were not part of the public vocabulary.

That put the burden on accusers like Debbie to convince the public that abuse had taken place. They also had a reasonable expectation that their accounts and character would be questioned. Meanwhile, Zimmerman was not only a leader of the Reform movement, but a beloved spiritual leader and educator of great charm and charisma with a large and loyal following.

“I was single, I was very involved in my work and it seemed too risky to challenge him [the rabbi] publicly,” Debbie told me.

In the end, after much deliberation, she decided not to go public, and so did I. I agreed with Debbie that even revealing the contents of the CCAR committee report would have compromised her privacy, so I did not.

Readmitted to the CCAR

Four years later, Zimmerman was back in the news. After a brief stint at Birthright Israel, he had stepped down and held several non-pulpit posts, including two years as vice president of what is now the Jewish Federations of North America.

In 2005, after four years of suspension from the CCAR (two more than the original two years), the rabbi was readmitted to the Reform rabbinic group he once served as president.

Rabbi Janet Marder, then president of the CCAR, announced that following a “rigorous process” of counseling and mentoring, Zimmerman met all the requirements outlined and was reinstated to full membership. She said the CCAR board made the decision based on the recommendation of the committee on ethics and appeals.

That decision prompted Debbie to be back in touch with me. She felt his reinstatement was unearned, and she blamed the CCAR for not living up to the rules of its own ethics Please see Accuser, page 20

JUNE 4, 2021 7

Headlines This Orthodox dad leaned on his Jewish community to survive a 2-month COVID coma — WORLD —

By Cnaan Liphshiz | JTA

W

hat would it be like to go to sleep one day and suddenly wake up in a world turned upside down by COVID-19?

Eli Seliger, an Orthodox Jewish father of seven from London, has a pretty good idea.

In March 2020, long before anyone knew the scope of the pandemic in the United Kingdom, where it has killed more than 127,000 people, the disease put him in a two-month coma from which he almost did not emerge.

When he woke up on May 27, Seliger could not move his legs. He recalls being “in pain, exhausted and also scared” to learn the world was being radically reshaped around him.

“People were wearing masks, people were being isolated. My family couldn’t see me, the world was unrecognizable,” said Seliger, 54, who heads the U.K. branch of the Zichron Menachem charity, which helps children with cancer.

But he had more immediate challenges than making sense of how the pandemic had changed the world. Seliger had a long path to recovery from a host of complications that very nearly killed him.

He had survived pneumonia, kidney failure and a nerve disorder while in the coma. He had also lost 60 pounds. Seliger was the first adult in the country who was diagnosed with ADEM, a brain inflammation similar to multiple sclerosis that usually affects children.

Seliger said he was motivated to persevere through a grueling 14-week rehabilitation process of physical therapy sessions by three things: the upcoming wedding of his daughter, which he vowed to attend; the expressions of support by his extended community; and the trajectory of the pandemic.

“Just hearing about what had happened filled me with determination to return to normal,” he said.

Seliger, a South Africa native who has been living in the United Kingdom since 1987, dismissed his physical therapists’ advice that he install railings and other aids at his home to alleviate the effort required by activities such as climbing the stairs or standing in the shower.

“Once you make those kinds of allowances, it’s just more difficult to return to normal,” he said.

Besides, Seliger was on a tight schedule to heal. He made a vow to himself that he would not only attend his daughter Sally’s wedding in August of 2020, but also give her away as wedding protocol (not Jewish law) commands. And he did.

“Well, I needed a cane, but I walked her down the aisle,” he said.

Seliger’s story made headlines in the mainstream U.K. media when he came out of the coma, appearing in publications such as The Sun, one of the country’s biggest tabloids.

He believes he wouldn’t be alive today if not for prayer: Before he was rushed to the hospital, Seliger had been dealing with a cough for about a week and likely would not 8 JUNE 4, 2021

p Eli Seliger looks at a baby in London in April 2021.

have been hospitalized in time to survive had his 12-year-old son Yonah not asked friends and relatives to pray for his father’s health.

“I told my son Yonah in passing, not very seriously, that maybe he should say Psalms for me to get better,” he said.

But Yonah took the request seriously and sent a text message seeking prayers for his father. One recipient, a distant relative, made a late-night visit to check up on Seliger, who by then was not breathing properly and had an oxygen saturation of 88% — seven points below the normal level. Alarmed, the visitor arranged for Seliger to be hospitalized immediately.

Hours later, Seliger’s condition deteriorated rapidly. Doctors sedated him into a medically induced coma.

“Yonah’s call for others to say Tehillim for me basically saved my life,” said Seliger, using the Hebrew word for Psalms.

Seliger owes his life to faith in other ways as well, he said.

“It gave me the strength to continue, it gave my family the strength to keep hoping and strengthened me that way,” he said.

He’s not alone in that opinion.

While much has been written about how close social contact and large families have made Orthodox Jews particularly at risk to COVID-19, “it is often forgotten that those same characteristics have also served as strengths, saving lives through direct intervention and giving patients the strength to pull through indirectly by making them feel supported,” said Shneor Glitsenstein, a Chabad rabbi from Seliger’s heavily

Orthodox London neighborhood of Golders Green who has followed his recovery.

While Seliger was comatose, members of his local Jewish community set up groups to pray for him consecutively for every hour of the day. One of these prayer marathons went on for 36 hours, during which Seliger’s wife, Leah, had been warned he was likely to die imminently.

“It’s that feeling of security, that your community has got your back, that someone will deliver kosher food for you, that someone will take care of you, that gives people a sense of purpose to go on living in the hardest of situations,” said Glitsenstein, who also prayed for Seliger. “It’s a spiritual embrace that’s difficult to explain in words but has a dramatic impact on health.”

The Board of Deputies of British Jews

Courtesy of Eli Seliger via JTA

has recorded at least 900 Jewish funerals of victims of the coronavirus, but the full number of Jewish victims lies in the thousands. Jews, who number about 250,000 in the United Kingdom, were at first overrepresented in terms of fatalities there, though their share appears to have evened out as the pandemic spread across British society.

Neighbors on the heavily Jewish street where Seliger lives with his family didn’t need the media for updates on his recovery.

They were getting daily updates through cellphone text messages, said Glitsenstein, who also lives near the Seligers.

“The day he came back, it was a celebration.

People were waiting for him on the street,” Glitsenstein said. “Just as they had given him and his family the strength to go on, his return gave them that strength back.” PJC

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Tell us, in 200 words or less, what makes your father special, and it may be included in our June 18 issue.

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Please type “Father’s Day” in the email subject line and include an attached Microsoft Word file — no handwritten submissions will be accepted. Include your name, your father’s name, your phone number and email address.

All submissions must be received no later than June 11. PJC — David Rullo PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Headlines Amid surge in hate crimes, prominent European Jews worry war against antisemitism is lost — WORLD —

By Cnaan Liphshiz | JTA

I

n Germany, a man wearing a kippah was beaten on the street. In Austria, a student was harassed on the train for reading a book mentioning Jews in the title.

In London, a nurse said she was threatened at her hospital for wearing a Star of David necklace. And in Belgium, an Orthodox Jewish woman was told “Get away, dirty Jewess” by a man with whom she tried to share a park bench.

The full dimensions of Europe’s current surge in antisemitic activity are not yet clear, but by some measures, including those by the British Jewish community, the extent is unprecedented. Meanwhile, the range and density of incidents are unusual.

Local Jewish leaders are responding with sometimes uncharacteristic pessimism.

Antisemitic incidents were already rising in Europe before the 11-day conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza that ended with more than 230 Palestinian and 12 Israeli fatalities. With the start of the hostilities, Europeans began bracing for antisemitic activity that tends to accompany Middle East tensions. It’s known on the continent as “the import of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

That dynamic was prominently on display during an escalation in 2014. But this time, some prominent Jewish community leaders and longtime fighters against antisemitism are issuing unusually dour warnings that the battle may be lost.

In light of dozens of incidents in Belgium alone in recent weeks, Joel Rubinfeld, the president of the Belgian League Against Antisemitism, wrote that he doubts whether he will be able to continue living in the country with his wife and two children.

“I believed I could. Now I doubt I can,” Rubinfeld, a former leader of the CCOJB, the umbrella group of French-speaking Belgian Jews, wrote in an op-ed published recently in the Le Vif weekly.

Brigitte Wielheesen, a well-known journalist and counterterrorism expert from the Netherlands, wrote in an op-ed for the news site Jonet that after years of battling antisemitism, she has concluded that the activity has become useless.

“The fight against this sickness has become hopeless,” wrote Wielheesen, a former secretary of the Interprovincial Rabbinate of the Netherlands. “If Jews are Europe’s canary in the coal mine,” she said, then “that bird is no longer alive.”

Dutch Chief Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs, who for years has recommended local Jews immigrate to Israel, partly due to antisemitism, said during a lecture in the city of Nijmegen that he and his wife would leave if not for their duties.

“It made us think of a captain duty-bound to a sinking ship,” one listener described it in a letter he sent to Jacobs following the lecture, Jacobs wrote on his blog.

The Israeli-Palestinian flareup came shortly after Jews in France expressed deep

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p In the Paris suburb of Sarcelles, pro-Palestinian rioters broke shop windows and set fires on July 20, 2014.

concerns over their future in the country in the wake of a final court ruling in the Sarah Halimi case. The nation’s highest court upheld rulings that the Muslim man who killed the Jewish physician and educator while shouting about Allah and calling Halimi a demon was too high on marijuana to be criminally responsible for his actions.

“I understand your doubts and your questions about the future, and I share them,” a leader from France’s leading Orthodox organization said at a rally in Paris last month.

Not all communal leaders are so deeply pessimistic.

In Britain, Jews are shaken by a flurry of antisemitic incidents this month and “scarred” by the recent proliferation of antisemitism within the Labour Party, said Jonathan Arkush, the previous head of the Board of Deputies of British Jews.

“But I don’t believe you should jump from that to thinking our community is not viable as it was,” he said, citing Labour defeats after 2019, media vigilance about antisemitism and police efforts to curb it.

Meanwhile, news of antisemitic incidents continued to flow in throughout last week.

In the Germany incident in Magdeburg, a city situated about 70 miles west of Berlin, a group of young men allegedly harassed a 22-year-old who was wearing a kippah and proceeded to beat him, inflicting minor injuries, the news site MDR reported. A passerby intervened and the men left the scene. The passerby said they were Arabs.

Also in Germany, in the northern city of Hamburg, three people in a car hurled antisemitic hate speech at a Jewish cyclist while stopped at a traffic light, the news site TAH reported. In Bremen, a northern city located 200 miles west of Berlin, a man wearing a face mask with a Star of David pattern was insulted on the street.

In Austria, a non-Jewish woman was called a “child killer” and harassed by three men in the subway who picked on her two weeks ago because she was reading a book titled “The Jews in the Modern World,” she told the ORF broadcaster. One man pulled her hair, she said. The woman said police advised her to forget the incident and that it was not antisemitic because she’s not Jewish. The Interior Ministry told ORF it was looking into the incident.

In the United Kingdom, two men confronted a neonatal nurse in an elevator at her London hospital after they noticed her Star of David. They asked the nurse, Hadasa Abrams, whether she believes in “a free Palestine.” She replied “I’m Jewish,” prompting one to say “I want to kill all your people,” Abrams wrote on Facebook.

In the Belgian city of Antwerp, a blogger described witnessing a man shouting “Get away, dirty Jewess” at an Orthodox Jewish woman who approached a park bench where the man was sitting.

On May 21, a man was assaulted on a train in Austria after asking two men, whom witnesses said had a Middle Eastern appearance, to stop making antisemitic remarks and denying the Holocaust, a local paper reported.

In London on the same day, a Jewish man was assaulted in his car because it had an Israeli flag. That followed a streak of incidents, including the serious assault of a rabbi outside his synagogue in Chigwell, near London, on May 16.

That same day, a convoy with eight cars displaying Palestinian flags drove through London, with passengers yelling antisemitic obscenities on loudspeakers. One of the passengers shouted “f— the Jews, rape their daughters,” while driving through a heavily Jewish part of London.

“Antisemitism in the United Kingdom

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Photo by Cnaan Liphshiz

sadly always spikes when there is conflict in the Middle East, but this feels worse than ever,” Luciana Berger, a former prominent Jewish Labour lawmaker who now works in public relations, tweeted that day.

British Jewry’s security unit documented more than 250 antisemitic incidents in the 17 days that followed May 9 — a 500% increase over the previous 17 days. In May, that unit, CST, has logged 325 incidents — more than any month since 1984, when CST began documenting incidents. In July 2014, during Israel’s Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, CST recorded 317 cases.

Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire agreement on May 21, but new incidents continue to unfold. Last week one of British Jewry’s biggest charities, Norwood, which helps children with learning disabilities, had its website hacked. A banner reading “Free Palestine End Apartheid” replaced the homepage.

Also last week, Élise Fajgeles, a Jewish former City Council member from Paris — the scene of some of the worst violence during the 2014 spike — penned an open letter to Muslims in Europe pleading for their community to crack down on extremists who are perpetuating hate crimes against Jews.

(According to France’s National Bureau for Vigilance Against Antisemitism, Muslims or people from a Muslim background are responsible for all the recent violent incidents where the perpetrators’ identity was established or surmised. The profile of hate speech perpetrators was more diverse, with right-wing extremists accounting for half, the bureau found.)

“I’m not here to speak to you about what’s going on over there,” Fajgeles wrote in her open letter, published in French in The Times of Israel. “I’m going to talk about what’s happening here. I’m here to tell you about me. I want to tell you I’m afraid.” PJC JUNE 4, 2021 9

Headlines — WORLD — From JTA reports

Bill Maher defends Israel on his HBO show: ‘You can’t learn history from Instagram’

Bill Maher spent nearly 10 minutes of his HBO talk show, “Real Time with Bill Maher,” defending Israel, bringing up ancient Jewish history and showing comparative maps of the state from its early days to today.

The liberal comedian and political commentator reserved a large portion of his comments for those who have criticized Israel before and during its recent military conflict with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Maher took aim at the social media messages posted by celebrities such as model Bella Hadid that accused Israel of war crimes.

“You can’t learn history from Instagram.

There’s just not enough space,” he said.

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, appearing on the show as a panelist, countered Maher’s arguments, saying that some of Israel’s attacks on Gaza — which began after Hamas fired rockets at Israel on May 9 — should be defined under international law as war crimes.

“War is a crime,” Maher responded, saying that Hamas purposely hides its ammunition in places that house civilians.

Maher then got into historical arguments.

“What if Canada fired 4,000 rockets into America? Or Mexico? Which is an even

better analogy, because we actually did steal the land from Mexico,” he said, comparing early American expansion to Israel’s occupation of parts of the West Bank. “I would submit that Israel did not steal anybody’s land. This is another thing I’ve heard the last couple of weeks, words like ‘occupiers’ and ‘colonizers’ and ‘apartheid,’ which I don’t think people understand the history there.

The Jews have been in that area of the world since about 1200 B.C., way before the first Muslim or Arab walked the earth.”

He also showed the United Nations’ partition plan of 1947, which, had the Palestinians and their Arab neighbors not rejected, would have created two states, one for Palestinians and one for Israelis.

He ended by taking another shot at Hadid, after slamming Hamas and how it rules in Gaza.

“Bella Hadid and her friends would run screaming to Tel Aviv if they had to live in Gaza for one day,” Maher said to applause.

‘Virtual rally’ to denounce antisemitism unites Pelosi, Schumer, McCarthy and McConnell

A “virtual rally” to combat antisemitism exhibited rare agreement between the leading Republicans and Democrats in Congress on the need to fight hatred of Jews.

The Zoom event, which approximately 23,000 people signed on for, was held in the wake of an increase in antisemitism

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In Cairo, President Barack Obama calls for “a new beginning” between the United States and the Muslim world. He recommits to Israel but calls the Palestinians’ situation “intolerable.”

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The event featured a roster of politicians, celebrities and religious leaders, from NBA Hall-of-Famer Ray Allen to Timothy Dolan, the Catholic archbishop of New York, who spoke while standing next to a menorah.

There were representatives of organizations representing Black, Latino, Chinese, Muslim and Indian Americans, among others.

Several of the speakers emphasized the need to root out all forms of hate, an approach that some have criticized for diminishing the unique problem of antisemitism.

The event recalled last year’s march against antisemitism in New York City, which drew 25,000 people to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge protesting a spate of attacks in late 2019 against Jews in the New York area. That event, despite its impetus, had an uplifting air, with loud music, people chatting with their friends and a rally following the march.

There have been smaller in-person rallies in support of Israel and against antisemitism in recent weeks as well. The energy at this event, held remotely, was calmer and more formal. Some speakers lamented that, after years of rising antisemitism, these gatherings were still necessary.

“I wish we didn’t have to be here, rallying in defense of Jewish communities around the world and right here in our own country,” said Rep. Ted Deutch of Florida, who is Jewish. “But we do. We always do, because none of us will remain silent as Jews are intimidated, threatened, attacked and even killed because of who we are.” PJC

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

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nationwide surrounding the recent conflict in Israel and Gaza. Jews have been assaulted and synagogues and other Jewish establishments vandalized in cities across the country.

The event, which was organized by the Jewish Federations of North America, the Anti-Defamation League, all four major Jewish religious movements and other leading Jewish groups, was devoid of the partisan battles that have often accompanied accusations of antisemitism in recent years. A representative for President Joe Biden touted his administration’s actions to fight hate, and Republicans mentioned a bill they’ve proposed to combat antisemitism, but neither side called out the other by name.

Instead, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (who is Jewish) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell all denounced antisemitism using largely similar messaging.

“In the last few weeks we have seen a disturbing spike in bigotry and violence against Jewish communities across the country and around the world,” Pelosi said. “This hatred is horrific and heartbreaking. We must not hesitate to call it for what it is: antisemitism.”

McCarthy vowed that “the monsters who are attacking Jewish Americans [will] face swift, durable justice.” Schumer said “antisemitism is vile, reprehensible and countering everything that America stands for.” McConnell said “the modern world knows too well what happens when this evil is met with silence.”

June 7, 1981 — Iraq’s nuclear reactor is destroyed

Eight Israeli F-16s fly a 2,000-mile round trip to bomb Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor.

Operation Opera destroys the Frenchbuilt reactor, which Israel fears is meant to develop weapons.

June 8, 1963 — Educator and politician Chaim Boger dies

Chaim Boger, a member of the second Knesset, dies at 86. He helped bring the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium, launched in Jaffa in 1905, to Tel Aviv in 1909 and taught at the high school from 1919 to 1951.

June 5, 1952 — Hadassah Medical Center breaks ground

June 9, 1959 — General and politician Benny Gantz is born

June 6, 1956 — Merger forms Tel Aviv University

June 10, 1964 — National water carrier begins pumping

Hadassah breaks ground on the Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center at Ein Kerem to replace its medical campus on Mount Scopus, which is in the Jordanianoccupied section of Jerusalem.

The Tel Aviv School of Law and Economics merges with the Municipal Institute of Natural Sciences and Humanities to form Tel Aviv University, which soon adds the Academic Institute of Jewish Studies.

Benny Gantz, who rises to be the Israel Defense Forces’ chief of staff in 2011 and a candidate for prime minister in opposition to Benjamin Netanyahu from 2019 to 2021, is born on a moshav, Kfar Ahim.

The 81-mile National Water Carrier begins pulling water out of the Sea of Galilee for drinking and agriculture. The system of pipes, canals, tunnels, reservoirs and pumping stations can carry 19 million gallons per hour. PJC

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JUNE 4, 2021 11

Opinion Antisemitism in America — EDITORIAL —

A

little more than a year ago, just before COVID-19 overtook our lives, we were lamenting the troubling rise of antisemitism in the United States. We were nervous. We were concerned. Still reeling from the massacre at the Tree of Life building in 2018, we in Pittsburgh knew very well where unchecked antisemitism could lead.

We were tense as we read reports from the American Jewish Committee and others of the rise of antisemitic events and the disturbing statistics. Even though Jews comprise less than 3% of the American population, the majority of religiously based hate crimes targeted Jewish people or Jewish institutions.

Those reports, and stories of Jews being attacked in broad daylight in major metropolitan areas around the country, were so disturbing that they prompted a March 2020 probing piece by Gary Rosenblatt in The Atlantic, titled “Is It Still Safe to Be a Jew in America?”

Then came the pandemic and forced isolation. Things seemed to quiet down and attention was diverted with increased focus on serious racial issues that were playing out. But that was followed by the buildup to the deadly confrontation between Israel and Hamas during Operation Guardian of the Walls. And all of a sudden, the ugly scourge of antisemitism is upon us, again. This time, with a more ominous vengeance. And this time, not coming just from some on the far right, but from some on the far left and from within the Arab and Muslim communities.

How else does one explain what was on the

minds of the men who got out of cars while waving Palestinian flags and ran toward the tables of a sushi restaurant in Los Angeles shouting to diners, “Who’s Jewish?” and proceeded to beat patrons who identified themselves as Jews.

The recurring story of the search for Jews to pummel and exact revenge recalls the worst of history’s antisemitic terror.

The attacks, as they mushroomed across the country, once again raised fear that the U.S. is no longer the exceptional nation as a home for Jews.

We once held out hope that attacks against Jews were an aberration. Recent events have disabused us of that dream. According to the Jewish community’s Secure Community Network, antisemitic incidents, including vandalism and physical attacks, have increased 80% over the last month. The numbers are scary; the attacks terrifying.

In New York City, 29-year-old Joseph Borgen was beaten by a group of people shouting antisemitic slurs as he lay on the ground in the middle of the street.

A 20-year-old professional soccer player in New York said he was threatened by men holding knives who asked if he was Jewish and told him they would kill him if his answer was yes. In Hallandale Beach, Florida, a man shouted antisemitic epithets at a rabbi and later emptied a bag of human feces outside the rabbi’s synagogue.

But the violence is not limited to cities of large, visible Jewish communities. Vandals in Tucson, Arizona, hurled a large object through the glass door of a synagogue. In Anchorage, Alaska, surveillance footage shows a man placing antisemitic stickers on the doors and walls of the Alaska Jewish

Museum and a gay bar.

Disturbingly, the media often sweeps under the rug the identity of the perpetrators of these crimes, neglecting to call out the fact that they are anti-Israel “progressives.”

Recognition of the significant rise in antisemitism in the U.S., and the related vilification and increased threat to the safety of Jews, prompted the leaders of 16 of the nation’s most prominent law firms to join together last week in a statement “to publicly denounce anti-Semitism and the demonization of Jews pervading the press, social media, and the streets of this country.” The law firm leaders declared that “we stand against the pernicious and violent attacks against Jews in this country. We are horrified by the vitriolic hate being spewed … on social media. We are disheartened and alarmed by the lack of urgency in denouncing these escalating and offensive attacks of Jews.”

Fortunately, leaders in both political parties are beginning to realize how serious the threat has become. Prodded by major Jewish organizations, the White House recently arranged two off-the-record meetings with Jewish organizational leaders.

And while Congressional leaders from both parties have denounced antisemitism in clear and convincing terms, their words are not enough. They must act.

For starters, Congressional leaders must lobby the administration to nominate and then back the appointment of a State Department ambassador-at-large to monitor and combat antisemitism. And the Biden team needs to fill the position of Jewish liaison to the White House. These two positions are more than symbolic. They identify departmental and White House personnel

who can help address poisonous antisemitism and other issues of serious concern to our community.

But the real need is for the administration to promote the passage of an antisemitism hate crime law, similar to the anti-Asian hate bill that President Biden signed on May 20.

Reps Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and David Kustoff (R-Tenn.) introduced just such a bill last week, which has legislative language closely mirroring that of the anti-Asian hate bill. This legislation against antisemitism is focused and clear, and is very different from the watered down resolution introduced in the House in 2019. Although the 2019 resolution was first introduced to condemn antisemitic comments by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), it was then neutered to condemn all forms of bigotry — making it as relatively meaningless as the reflexive, offensive rejoinder that “All Lives Matter.”

Any meaningful legislative effort to deal with antisemitism must stay focused on antisemitism. The issue is deadly serious.

We join those who insist that it be addressed directly and clearly. If members of congress are serious about the bill, they should join in a bipartisan effort to get it passed, rather than using the issue as another weapon in their incessant culture wars.

Antisemitism is hateful and corrosive. It is a unique problem which deserves focused attention. It must not be homogenized and lumped together with other forms of hate.

We call upon our leaders in government to acknowledge that reality and to take targeted steps to stem the flow of hate that has been pouring down on our people.

We must do everything we can to make it safe to be a Jew in America. PJC

American Jews need allies against antisemitism Guest Columnist Jordana Horn

O

bviously these past few weeks have been difficult for so many people, mainly the Palestinians and Israelis who have been enmeshed in conflict and under fire. Thankfully there’s now a ceasefire that everyone hopes will hold — but the aftermath of the conflict lingers.

I’m not Israeli and I’m not living in Israel.

I’m a Jew, I live in the U.S., and these past few weeks have made me extremely uncomfortable in a way that will persist long after the smoke of the most recent destruction has cleared.

Some would say it’s unseemly to talk about these feelings in light of the greater suffering in the Middle East. But if we don’t talk about what’s going on, candidly and openly, I fear for what will come next for Jews in America.

There’s been a tremendous uptick in targeted hate crimes against Jews all over the world in the past two weeks. In the United States, recent violent incidents include an assault on Jewish diners at a kosher

12 JUNE 4, 2021

restaurant in Los Angeles, a synagogue door smashed in Arizona and garbage thrown at a Jewish family in Florida. In New York City, a Jewish man was punched, kicked and pepper sprayed in midtown Manhattan, and a window was smashed at a kosher pizza restaurant on the Upper East Side.

I’m thankful that President Biden has made an unequivocal statement against antisemitism, and I don’t doubt his sincerity or intent. And I’m grateful for other politicians who have done the same. However, the reality on the ground is unfolding all around us, both in person and online, and there are those who refuse to discuss or acknowledge this rise in violent hate against Jews, much less denounce or condemn it.

That’s how antisemitism grows. And I won’t be complicit or let it go quietly.

Over the course of the past two weeks, more than 17,000 tweets were posted with permutations of the idea “Hitler was right.”

And despite my efforts to bring these alarmingly frequent incidents to folks’ attention — even posting screenshots of hateful remarks made to me on my own Instagram feed, like “Killing the son of god and subverting nations into a cesspool of sexual deviance and destroying the family home

and working to wipe out the white race is unholy and God will have his vengeance (sic)” — I find Jews like me being gaslit, quite honestly, by people I’d consider allies under other circumstances.

Instead of offering unconditional allyship or support, I’m seeing many folks respond to this exponential growth of antisemitism with retorts like “Islamophobia is on the rise” (I’ve not seen any statistics bearing out a sudden dramatic uptick in Islamophobia, and find that this is often stated as an attempt at “whataboutism”). Or, “Actually, you can be anti-Zionist and not antisemitic.” (To that, I say, actually, anyone can criticize the government of Israel — but arguing that Israel has no right to exist seems a lot like antisemitism). Or, “Palestinians are Semites!” (Exactly how is that relevant when I’m telling you about Jews getting beat up, or spat on, or told that “Hitler should have finished the job”?)

Why does it seem to be so excruciatingly difficult for so many people — including those who consistently stand up against hatred directed toward any other group — to unequivocally stand up against antisemitism?

I believe there is systemic racism. I believe that our nation, built on the scaffolding of enslaving people, has prejudice and

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stereotypes, at best, and hatred, at worst, baked into its fundamental recipe. And I’m also someone who believes, as a white-presenting Jew, that I should sit back and listen, or be an upstander as needed, when a person of color tells me about their experiences with hatred and bigotry. I do not attempt to tell them that they did not experience what they are telling me, even if it’s beyond the parameters of my understanding or own experience.

I have learned, especially over the past year, what it means to be an ally. I’ve marched, put up signs, had many hard and productive conversations, as well as hard and unproductive ones. I’ve done my own initiatives as an individual, including starting a townwide reading project where participants read and discuss books meant to open our eyes to experiences not our own, and setting up a town-wide meeting with our local police department to have an open dialogue with our community. I do believe that even one person can make a difference, however small, and try to live according to that ideal.

My activism — or that of countless Jews across the land — is not a quid pro quo, by any stretch of the imagination. But I’d Please see Horn, page 13

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Opinion One-and-a-half minutes Guest Columnist Keren Rosenfeld

N

inety seconds is my new measure of time. I have a lot to accomplish in those precious seconds these days. At night, within 90 seconds I have to put on shoes; grab my sleeping 4-year-old and a few pillows; take her to the stairwell outside our apartment hoping she stays asleep so I can lay her down then run back to grab my 2-year-old; not forget a house key; and then wait.

I wait patiently, still. Calm to keep my baby girl calm. Calm while the siren wails and the inevitable BOOM crashes overhead, shaking the doors, but never shaking my core. I remain still. I wait for the sirens to stop. Sometimes they do. Sometimes

they continue, preceding another series of BOOMS. During the day, I also grab an iPad so the kids can focus on something else.

This part isn’t so bad. A 90% Iron Dome success rate means that not having a safe room or bomb shelter in my building leaves us fairly safe. You just pray you aren’t at the wrong place in the 10% margin of error. Like that guy three miles away....

The hard parts are the moments before.

And the moments after. I didn’t grow up with the gas masks and bomb shelters like my husband. This is his normal, not mine.

He is a sea of calm in this mayhem. But his sea was swept off to protect others when he was called up for Air Force Reserve duty. So I must be the calm. Alone.

The before parts include running logistics. Making sure my phone is charged and nearby. Deciding how far we can wander from home. Determining if there is a shelter near the playground, or the grocery store.

Which child should I grab first? Should

I carry them both? Can I risk grabbing a shower while alone with the girls? What if while giving them a bath a siren goes off? Are 90 seconds enough to rise, throw on towels, grab the girls and sit in the hall? Will I have time to put a diaper on the baby? Remember to stay calm, or at least appear calm.

They’re young, so they don’t ask questions.

They seem fine. I hope they’re fine.

The after parts include not being able to fall asleep. Sleep. I can’t remember real sleep anymore. Being woken up three or four times a night by sirens, and then a few more times by phantom sirens. Motorcycles sound like sirens sometimes. Ambulance sirens make my heart beat faster. I am constantly looking for sturdy walls that face north, away from where the rockets come from. I never let my girls wander more than four feet away in case I need to grab them and run. The after parts sucks.

I’ve always been independent. I traveled the world alone. But being alone with

two little girls is different. After two nights alone, we moved in with friends. I can admit it when I am in over my head. The kids thought it was camp. The adults made plans: One mom grabs the two older kids, then the others grab the babies and head for the stairs. We stay until I miss home.

The sirens have stopped, but I still hear them sometimes. I still keep my showers short and leave the window open, so I can hear a siren just in case. But the knot in my stomach hasn’t gone away. My husband is still away. I try not to think about it too much. I have other things to focus on. I’ve gotten used to balancing work and entertaining the kids thanks to COVID. I still don’t sleep well.

I’m lucky. Thirty minutes south they have 15 seconds. PJC Keren Rosenfeld is a native Pittsburgher living with her husband and two young daughters in Tel Aviv, Israel.

What’s wrong with The New York Times’ report on children’s deaths? So much.

Guest Columnist Robert Satloff

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n the front page of its May 26, 2021, edition, The New York Times ran a powerful, moving spread titled “They Were Only Children,” featuring thumbnail photos of children it says were among the 69 youths under 18 years old — 67 Palestinians and two Israelis, one Arab and one Jewish — killed in the 11 days of conflict between Israel and Gaza-based Palestinian terrorist groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).

On May 28, former national director of the Anti-Defamation League Abraham Foxman tweeted: “I am cancelling my subscription to NYTimes. I grew up in America on the

Horn Continued from page 12

be lying if I didn’t say that it does make me wonder: Where exactly are our allies now? Why am I being told, as I tell people about targeted violence against Jewish diners on the streets of Los Angeles or New York, or people wearing Jewish stars, “This is complicated”?

No: It’s not complicated that my kids need even more security now at their Jewish schools. It’s not complicated that my kids’ Jewish camp will not allow care packages because it’s worried about bombs. It’s not complicated that many Jews are taking off

Correction:

NYT- I delivered the NYT to my classmatesI learned civics- democracy and all the news ‘fit to print’ for 65 years but no more. Today’s blood libel of Israel and the Jewish people on the front page is enough.”

Soon thereafter, I retweeted Foxman and added: “Few people on this planet have more authority on confronting anti-semitism than @FoxmanAbraham. When he makes an accusation of ‘blood libel,’ sit up and take notice. @nytimes” While “blood libel” is not usually a term in my lexicon, I stand by that tweet, given my respect for Foxman, whose books on antisemitism include “Never Again? The Threat of the New Anti-Semitism,” “Viral Hate: Containing Its Spread on the Internet” and “The Deadliest Lies: The Israel Lobby and the Myth of Jewish Control.” Ironically, within moments, Twitter lit up with viral hate directed at Foxman and me, focused on their external signs of being Jewish, whether Stars of David or kippot. That’s unequivocally wrong and terrible.

It’s been absolutely appalling to see the surge of hatred against Jews, both here and abroad. But what’s making it worse is seeing how those whom we’ve aligned ourselves with in the fight against bigotry in the past have been silent — at best — in our time of need.

These past two weeks have been pretty personal for us Jewish parents. What is more of a gesture of hope in the world, after all, than having a child? For Jews especially, we have children in part from a sense of carrying on the legacy of heritage, history and tradition that our ancestors fought to keep alive.

In “East End’s B’nai Israel to become mixed-income housing in 2022” (May 28), we incorrectly stated that the congregation first opened in 1920. B’nai Israel was founded in the early 1900s and opened the synagogue in 1923. The Chronicle regrets the error. PJC PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

those same deadly lies.

No one ever accused Foxman of being a shrinking violet and he can certainly respond for himself to ad hominem attacks.

My response is this: a detailed critique of “They Were Only Children” and why it merits criticism for presenting a skewed, distorted, largely unsourced account of the events in Gaza.

Doing journalism in Gaza

A fundamental deficiency of “They Were Only Children” is that it is silent on what role, if any, Hamas — the foreign terrorist organization that controls Gaza — played in arranging, supervising, facilitating, directing or otherwise affecting the reporting of this story, either directly or via the sources cited.

Specifically, readers have a right to know if the blandly referenced “Palestinian officials” cited as sources for the “identities of the children killed, their photographs and I had six kids, which in darker moments I think of as my own private way of fighting against Nazis, hate and all those who would put out the flame of Jewish light in the world.

I don’t want to have the hard conversations with my kids, to activate that dormant epigenetic trauma, to introduce them to the realization that in every generation we’ve had to worry about who would hide us when it hits the fan, or where we would go. I don’t want to face the fact, explicitly, that the past

the circumstances of their deaths” were, in fact, Hamas officials, members or sympathizers. Readers have a right to know if the reporters traveled to Gaza and interviewed family members face-to-face, inspected sites where children reportedly died, and assessed claims and counterclaims about the precision of Israeli bombing that allowed the story to repeatedly ascribe responsibility to Israel and what role, if any, Hamas minders played in this effort; alternatively, readers have a right to know whether reporting was second-hand, through local stringers and online interviews, and what role, if any, Hamas minders played in that effort.

The reference to “Palestinian officials” as a source for this story is woefully inadequate for what purports to be the world’s newspaper of record.

Photo sourcing is an especially tricky matter.

Please see Satloff, page 15

two weeks have shown conclusively why the Jewish people so desperately need the State of Israel to exist.

But in the past two weeks, many of us have had to realize what generations before us have realized: It’s possible that as Jews, we are not safe anywhere. PJC Jordana Horn is the host and head writer of the podcast Call Your Mother. This article originally appeared on Kveller.

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JUNE 4, 2021 13

Headlines Braille: Continued from page 1

…. The creation of Braille Sefer Torahs will potentially affect hundreds of thousands of Jews nationwide and potentially worldwide.”

Sarko’s Braille Torah scroll is embossed in Hebrew Braille, which was created around the 1950s.

“This is not transliteration,” Sarko stressed.

“It’s just being felt instead of read.”

That’s an important distinction, because the Torah is supposed to be read in real time and not recited from memory, Sarko said.

Sarko hopes to make his Braille Torah scroll — and others based on the same slate-and-stylus Braille embossing — widely available by shipping it to congregations when blind or visually impaired Jews have lifecycle ceremonies or want to read from the bima. After the service, they would ship the Torah back to Sarko, who would pass the scroll to another congregation.

“This is an amazing achievement that he’s done here,” said Ed Haines, chief program officer for Hadley, a nonprofit in suburban Chicago that provides support to the visually impaired.

Founded in 1920 by William Hadley, an educator who lost his eyesight later in life, Hadley offers practical help, connection and support free of charge to anyone with a visual impairment, their families and professionals supporting them. Since July 2020, more than 10,000 learners have accessed 50,000 workshops through Hadley, which provides

p The Braille Torah

Photo courtesy of the Devarim Institute

online, large-print, Braille and audio media, reaching all 50 states and 100 countries.

“There are 7 million blind or visually impaired adults in the U.S. — there’s got to be someone in a congregation who wants to stand up and read the Torah, like anyone else,” Haines said. “The fact that [Sarko’s]

done this, it’s just fantastic.”

There is, of course, a science to the text — and the task of following through on the work is no small thing. A Braille “cell” consists of six dots of 2 millimeters in diameter, cast in two columns of three, with each mark set 1 millimeter apart, Sarko

BluePoint: Continued from page 1

successfully, some people who were in the building at the time experienced anxiety when they received the first notification, recalling the attack at the Tree of Life building on Oct. 27, 2018, said Ken Turkewitz, Beth Shalom’s outgoing interim executive director.

“Certainly, it rattled some people,” he said.

“You know, 10/27 is not that far in the rearview mirror. Some people were rattled, and it was a challenge to get word out to people quickly enough to put them all at ease.”

The event was “pretty traumatic” said one person working at the synagogue at the time of the alert, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

“When you open [the text or email], it doesn’t tell you anything,” the individual said. “It has no human information.”

In their initial panic, that person forgot the training they had received. Had the alert included short specific directions such as, “Lockdown procedures include turning off your light, silencing your phone, locking your door,” as well as some supportive words such as “the police have been called and are on their way — we will keep you updated with more information as we receive it,” their panic might have been assuaged, they said.

Anxiety and panic are natural reactions to this type of situation, according to Stefanie Small, director of counseling services and senior services at Jewish Family and Community Services.

14 JUNE 4, 2021

 Congregation Beth Shalom

“When a crisis happens, and it doesn’t matter if it is a false alarm, your body goes into an automated response,” she said. “It goes into fight, flight or freeze. Your adrenaline is what’s pushing you to make decisions.

Your brain doesn’t have a chance to tell you how to react.”

Anything that reminds Pittsburghers of the trauma they went through during the attack at the Tree of Life building could induce a similar response, Small said. And the recent uptick in violent antisemitic attacks and vandalism around the country added to the anxiety many felt.

“I think it’s really important that people know our bodies react the same whether it’s an immediate threat or a perceived threat,” said Maggie Feinstein, director of the 10.27

Photo by Toby Tabachnick

Healing Partnership. A counselor from that organization was at Beth Shalom on May 28, offering support for those traumatized by the alert.

Feinstein said there are a few steps people in similar situations should follow to help minimize the anxiety they feel.

“One is to allow the feelings to be there,” she said. “Two is to get somewhere safe. Three is to ground yourself in the place that is safe.”

Both Feinstein and Small recommend taking deep breaths and acknowledging what around you makes you feel safe as helpful techniques.

Not everyone in Beth Shalom during the false alarm was traumatized by the event.

Audrey Glickman, assistant to Rabbi Seth

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said. There are about 4,000 marks in each column in Sarko’s Torah — and there are 239 columns in the scroll, which took Sarko more than three years to finance and create using machine-punched slates.

The scroll does have limitations. Though the Braille marks on the scroll do not flatten when the scroll is rolled up or touched, Sarko said it is not kosher because a scribe didn’t “write” it and because Jews have to touch it — without a yad — to read from it.

That’s one limitation for blind individuals like Betty Kane and Judy Meyers, two sisters from Squirrel Hill who are Orthodox Jews.

“We would never read it from the bima,” Meyers told the Chronicle, citing Orthodox prohibitions against women reading from the Torah in public. “It might be interesting to see what it looks like. That’s a nice thing he’s done, nevertheless.”

Sarko thinks he can create subsequent Braille scrolls faster than traditional scribes, making a new one in as little as one-to-three months. He estimates a traditional scroll costs about $25,000 to produce; he said the cost of his Braille scroll is comparable.

It’s already generated excitement in the Jewish visually impaired community.

“I’ve been trying to keep it low-key up til now,” Sarko said. “They all say the same thing: ‘When can I get the scroll?’”

“Well,” he said, “it’s possible for people to get it now.” PJC Justin Vellucci is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.

Adelson and a survivor of the Tree of Life attack, said she had no adverse reaction.

“The same response as usual kicked in — ‘There’s something happening, we have to find out what’s happening, we have to take appropriate action. What is the course of action? Let’s do that.’ That was my response,” she said. “It’s probably atypical. I’ve learned since the shooting that many people don’t feel that way.”

Beyond the emotions triggered by the event, Brokos said there are lessons to be learned by the first alert from the BluePoint system.

“For the after-action review, we’re going to give Beth Shalom the opportunity to talk about what went well and what didn’t,” she said. “The police already have comments they want to share with our folks, City Emergency Management has comments they want to share. And it’s an opportunity for our locations to share similar experiences.”

The report, Brokos said, will help the community be better prepared for events in the future.

“We’re not as happy as we’d like to be,” Turkewitz said. “It pointed out where we have to do more training to smooth the rough edges.”

He said the synagogue had a fire alarm sound a year-and-a-half ago and learned some lessons from that event as well.

“You analyze it, figure out where your weak points are and what you can do better,” he said. PJC David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Opinion Satloff: Continued from page 13

Indeed, an observant reader identified one of the pictures used from the top line of the “They Were Only Children” photo spread as a reprint of a photo circulating on the web for years. It has since been replaced by The New York Times with one “supplied by the family,” which raises questions about the origin of the photo that first appeared in the newspaper.

Connections to Hamas

“They Were Only Children” includes no references to any of the victims being related to Hamas/PIJ operatives or themselves members of Hamas or PIJ, nor does it make any reference to children being in proximity to Hamas/PIJ rockets or other Hamas/PIJ facilities or being used by Hamas/PIJ as “human shields.” This is not an incidental issue; it goes to the heart of the argument about who is responsible for the deaths of these children and whether Israel was discriminate — and therefore legitimate — in its use of force.

For example, the article tells the story about a 10-year-old Gaza City girl killed after being hit by shrapnel and rubble from an Israeli attack on a building nearby, but there appears to be no attempt to report on why Israel hit that building. Similarly, the article describes the destruction of two Gaza City apartment buildings owned by the al-Qawlaq family, resulting in the deaths of eight children, but there appears to have been no effort to ascertain whether there were any military facilities in those buildings. It matters greatly if children were asleep in a bedroom with rocket launchers or intelligence networks set up in the kitchen next door. No fewer than nine times, “They Were Only Children” states that children were killed either by an Israeli airstrike, Israeli warplane or Israeli bomb, ascribing responsibility solely to Israel; in reality, responsibility for these deaths can shift 180 degrees depending on the answers to questions that don’t even seem to have been asked.

Interestingly, some information on these issues is available elsewhere. See, for example, the press releases of Defense for Children International-Palestine, an organization cited as a source for this article even though it appears to have disturbing connections to a different Palestinian terrorist group. A May 11 press release on the DCI-P website detailing the death of Muhammad Saber Ibrahim Suleiman, age 15, notes that “Mohammed’s father was reportedly a commander in the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, a Palestinian armed group and the armed wing of Hamas, according to information collected by DCIP.” That fact does not appear in “They Were Only Children,” only Muhammad’s photo.

Other DCI-P press releases also provide details about past incidents in which child members of armed terrorist groups were injured in “work accidents” perpetrated by those groups, lending credibility to claims that some of the children killed in the recent conflict may have been participating in the hostilities themselves.

To its credit, on May 30, the Times posted a story noting that one of the children featured in the photo display, Khaled al-Qanou, was found to be a member of the radical Islamist PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

terrorist group Mujahadeen Brigades. It remains unclear the standard by which the Times required extra time to determine his membership in a terrorist organization, whether the newspaper had concerns about al-Qanou’s activities before it went to print on May 26, and whether the newspaper has information that does not yet rise to the level of confirmation that other youths killed in the conflict were also combatants.

Abuse of the thumbnail photo format

There are few more evocative formats to underscore the human dimension of calamity than publishing numerous thumbnail photos, especially children, across the front page of a newspaper. Usually, this is a format reserved for the most horrendous terrorist acts (think Orlando, Charleston, or Pittsburgh) or destructive natural disasters (such as Hurricane Katrina) — in other words, singular events for which the cause is clear, the perpetrator is readily identifiable and the absence of responsibility for the death on the part of the victim or his/her family is obvious.

As tragic as the deaths of the Gaza children certainly are, none of those conditions were met in this case. “They Were Only Children” brought together images for what was not a singular event but 11 days of fighting; it provided no substantive, independent accounting for the cause of individual deaths, and offered an implicit free pass to the terrorist groups that, at least in some cases, were responsible for placing children in harm’s way and, in all cases, chose to provide no basic defense for civilians (e.g., bomb shelters) as they launched their own attacks from heavily populated areas. By applying a format normally reserved for the black-andwhite of terrorist attacks or natural disasters to the gray, unknowing reality of Gaza, New York Times editors debased its use.

Numbers killed by Palestinian friendly fire

“They Were Only Children” notes that among the Palestinian children who died in the conflict, two “may have been killed” by a Hamas/PIJ rocket that fell short, not as a result of Israeli fire. In fact, multiple sources suggest that number is higher. The same DCI-P May 11 press release cited above raises doubt about six additional children killed, noting that they died just 800 meters west of the Gaza perimeter fence, with both Israeli aircraft overhead and Palestinians “firing homemade rockets toward Israel” nearby. Even more definitively, OCHA, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territories — not an organization known for its pro-Israel proclivities — released details of the Gaza conflict that noted that 63 of 66 children who died in Gaza were “seemingly” killed by Israeli fire, clarifying that three, not two, were definitely not victims of Israeli attacks and hinting that the number may be higher.

Factual reporting or he said/she said

“They Were Only Children” is repeatedly inconsistent in reporting some items as fact and others as opinion. Take, for example, this paragraph: “Israel blames Hamas for the high civilian death toll in Gaza because the

group fires rockets and conducts military operations from civilian areas. Israeli critics cite the death toll as evidence that Israel’s strikes were indiscriminate and disproportionate.” The article sets this up as two unproven assertions — Israel blames and its critics respond — when it is an objective fact that Hamas fires rockets from civilian areas whereas the charge of indiscriminate and disproportionate response is inherently subjective. In contrast, the article takes as fact every statement it cites by a family member, without mentioning any connections the family may have with Hamas, either by having membership or sympathies with Hamas or coming under Hamas pressure to report the narrative a certain way.

The charge of “indiscriminate and disproportionate” use of force itself deserves the close look that this article avoids altogether.

Observers not usually accused of pro-Israel bias, like Matthias Schmale, local Gaza representative of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, told an interviewer that Israeli attacks were “precise.” The numbers bear this out: even according to OCHA, of the 245 Gazans it says were killed in Israeli attack, only 128 “were believed to be civilians,” meaning that at least 117 were legitimate military targets – a number that could well be higher.

This percentage — about half military and half civilian victims — compares favorably with reportage of similar cases of fighting against terrorist groups embedded in civilian areas. See, for example, the accounting of civilian casualties in the context of the U.S.-led bombing of Mosul to free the city from ISIS control in 2017. This is also generally in line with the record of U.S. and Afghan airstrikes over the last five years, according to U.N. data as analyzed in a report recently released by the British NGO Action on Armed Violence, which showed children constituting 40% of all civilian casualties in Afghanistan. For the record, it bears noting that the Times did not do front page spreads with thumbnail photos of Iraqi or Afghan children killed by American warplanes, American missiles or American bombs.

Mischaracterizing the fighting

In “They Were Only Children,” Israel is characterized as the aggressor and initiator of the entire Gaza conflict, as the article states “An average 15-year-old [in Gaza] would have lived through four major Israeli offensives.” Whatever one’s view of the 2021 Gaza conflict, it was certainly not “an Israeli offensive,” as Israel’s May 10 airstrikes were a response to Hamas rockets fired on Jerusalem and there was no attempt to retake territory.

However, this is not the first time The New York Times accused Israel of having initiated the recent Gaza conflict in a news analysis. In a May 25 TikTok of the fighting, the newspaper noted in the second paragraph that “Israeli warplanes started bombarding Gaza City on May 10, compounding the civilian suffering in the coastal enclave. At the same time, the rocket barrage by Hamas — the militant group that has ruled Gaza since 2007 and does not recognize Israel — took a toll on Israeli cities, including Tel Aviv, the commercial center of the country.

It is not until 13 paragraphs later — 13!

— that the writer corrects himself, no longer suggesting that Hamas rockets and Israeli airstrikes were simultaneous. Instead, buried

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

deep in the story, he writes: “Militants in Gaza then began firing rockets in Jerusalem’s direction, to which Israel responded with airstrikes on Gaza. Barrages by both sides intensified through the week, as did casualties — though Gazans have suffered a disproportionate number of deaths.” It is unlikely many readers made it to the fifteenth paragraph to get a more accurate picture than the one from the second paragraph; even there, the article makes an assertion of an ill-defined “disproportionality,” hinting the situation would somehow have been more equitable if more Israeli children had died.

Imbalance on mental health reference

“They Were Only Children” says it is focused on children’s fatalities and does include the stories of two Israelis killed along with the Palestinian children. However, the article also goes into a discussion of the mental health implications of the Israel-Gaza conflict. Here, there is a major imbalance, as it discusses the psychological trauma of Palestinian kids, without any reference to the psychological trauma of Israeli kids. It notes that “mental health experts and independent organizations who work with children in Gaza say they commonly suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic fear and anxiety.” Missing is whether experts who work with Israeli children find that fleeing night after night to bomb shelters, fearing their homes and families may be hit, has any impact on those kids’ mental health. One would never know from this story. *** Despite a veneer of balance (namely, the description of the two Israeli children killed), “They Were Only Children” is a deeply flawed article that presents a skewed, sensationalist image of the Gaza conflict. It falls short of meeting basic journalistic standards in failing to provide essential information on the reporting environment, on the family connection of child victims to combatants, on the proximity of the victims to legitimate military targets, and other key facts about the circumstances of many deaths. The slippery discussion of sourcing — including the reference to unnamed “Palestinian officials” in Hamas-controlled Gaza — makes the reporting fundamentally suspect.

Despite these flaws, the writers and editors had no compunction in ascribing responsibility for numerous deaths, repeatedly blaming one side (Israel) for killing these children, apparently not even inquiring whether local actors knowingly placed some of the victims in harm’s way. Without these details, readers receive a distorted and incomplete picture of what happened during these 11 difficult days. Yet even with all these unknowns, New York Times editors chose to give this story a format — front page treatment with thumbnail photos of victims — normally reserved for the most clear-cut cases of terrorist barbarity and natural disaster. In the process, they abused the trust of their readers. PJC Robert Satloff is the author of “Among the Righteous: Lost Stories of the Holocaust’s Long Reach into Arab Lands,” and executive director of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

This piece first appeared on The Times of Israel.

JUNE 4, 2021 15

Life & Culture A ‘metaphor for how we see the world’: The art of Dan Droz

By Justin Vellucci | Special to the Chronicle

— ART —

T

o artist Dan Droz, seeing is believing.

Well, sort of.

“You look at a sculpture [and] the closer you look, several questions might arise: ‘How is that trick done?’ ‘How is this piece made?’” Droz told the Chronicle. “The more you look at the piece, you realize what you initially saw is only part of the picture.

And that, really, is a metaphor for how we see the world: There’s a lot that isn’t revealed.”

Those itching to experience Droz’s work in person no longer need to wait or wonder when the COVID-19 veil will be lifted. Droz is now exhibiting several works in a solo show dubbed “Elusive Spaces” at the new Associated Artists Gallery, 100 43rd St. in Lawrenceville, through June 25.

Droz isn’t new to sculpting. Though the Pittsburgher retired in 2019 in his late 60s after a 38-year career in graphic and furniture design to dedicate himself full time to his art, he had been sculpting for many years.

And COVID-19 didn’t slow him down.

“This COVID period has not been completely without activity — I’ve been really busy, in fact,” said Droz, who has created several works, most of them 4-to-6 feet tall, for individual patrons.

But Droz, like most artists, has not exhibited recently. He had a big, 75-to-80-piece show scheduled at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, but the center closed before the show; he had two others scheduled at Harrisburg galleries in March of 2020, and then COVID-19 hit.

Now, with pandemic restrictions relaxed some, he’s excited to be returning to the fray with Associated Artists. And he’s developed new ideas during the time away.

“This is certainly the first time I’ve been able to exhibit in quite a while,” Droz said.

“During that time, though, I started to experiment with a lot of new materials.”

For example, Droz points to work involving wire mesh materials, cast glass and various polymers — similar to the ones that coat pool noodles — in an epoxy resin. Some of them are even displayed at Associated Artists Gallery this month.

Madeline Gent, Associated Artist’s executive director, is extremely excited about Droz’s show; it’s the first exhibition with regular public hours at her gallery since COVID-19 broke out. Gent said that it’s particularly important for Droz, because his pieces present differently in person than in photographs or video.

“This is a great demonstration of work that needs to be seen in person,” Gent said.

“I love this one piece and when I was with it today, I said, ‘I wish people could see this glow, this effervescence.’”

“No offense to photographers, but [Droz’s art] is a wonderful reminder of how art needs to be seen in person, experienced in person,” she added. “Dan’s work reinforces that notion. The pieces are elusive but they

 Thought Process, 2021.

 The Pittsburgh Droz Family, left to right, Eli (2) David, Noah (4), Allie, Dan and Cathy

 Mobius 5, 2021.

 Parent and Child, 2021.

function in the greater space of the gallery.”

Can’t make the Lawrenceville show? Don’t fret — there’s another planned soon for the James Gallery in the West End. Droz also has one or two pieces set to be displayed in the

juried show of the Three Rivers Arts Festival this year — if it is held in person.

Nachum Golan knows Droz’s work well.

He purchased a sculpted, red and black, faux tablecloth by Droz at the Associated Artists’ opening in May. He also has two Droz sculptures displayed in his rooftop garden in Pittsburgh.

“Dan Droz — he’s a Renaissance man,” Golan told the Chronicle. “He’s extremely talented and he doesn’t just do the sculptures, he thinks about how to do it, how to bend metal and how

Photos courtesy of Dan Droz

to bend glass, which is very difficult.”

“He’s just very talented,” he added, “and I love his art.”

Droz’s “Elusive Spaces” exhibition is open to the public Thursdays and Fridays from 1 to 6 p.m. on select Saturdays as posted on AAP’s website, and by appointment. For more information, call 412-361-1370 or visit aapgh.org. PJC Justin Vellucci is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.

www.pittsburghjewishchronicle.org 16 JUNE 4, 2021

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Celebrations

Torah

B’nai Mitzvah

Real, but not true Sivon Feinberg is the daughter of Ayelet and Adam Feinberg, sister of Idan Feinberg and granddaughter of Dorit and Gilad Tal and Ed and Linda Feinberg. Sivon is in the seventh grade and attends Community Day School. She loves to dance and swim on the Sailfish swim team. She also enjoys hiking, running, riding on road and mountain bikes, playing piano, reading, cooking and baking.

She enjoys spending time with friends and participates in the program “No Place for Hate” at her school. Sivon will celebrate becoming a bat mitzvah at Congregation Beth Shalom on June 5, 2021.

Maya Rachel Gelman will become a bat mitzvah on Saturday, June 5, 2021. Maya is a seventh-grader at Jefferson Middle School. She is the daughter of Daniel and Eva Gelman, and the granddaughter of Ruth and the late Robert Gelman and Sarah and the late Abraham Honig.

Adeline Louise Young, daughter of Laura and Jeff Young of Mt. Lebanon and older sister of Evan, became a bat mitzvah at Temple Emanuel of South Hills on Saturday, May 29. Addie’s grandparents are Nathan and Elinor Young of Squirrel Hill, Edward Hopkins of Rockville, Maryland, and the late Carol Hopkins. She loves musical theater and has performed in numerous shows, including some with Stage 62, a community theater in Carnegie. In her spare time she enjoys dance, crafting and spending time with the family’s dog, Manny.

For her mitzvah project, Addie will be volunteering in the boutique at Dress for Success Pittsburgh and will be collecting home and personal care items for the women they serve.

Rowan O’Connor will become a bar mitzvah at Temple Sinai on Saturday, June 5, 2021. He is the son of Mardi Steinitz and Patrick and Beth O’Connor, and the grandson of Rachel and Barry Landay and Cathy and the late Allan Steinitz and Barbara Jones. Rowan is finishing seventh grade at Dorseyville Middle School. He enjoys playing with his puppy, Desi, swimming, riding his bike, playing sports and spending his summers at EKC. PJC

helping you plan for what matters the most

Cantor Julie Newman Parshat Shlach | Numbers 13:1 - 15:41

A

llegheny County will soon stop sending out the daily messages about the county’s COVID rates that many of us have been getting since March 2020. It has been a solid piece of information that I could count on. Watching the numbers of cases dropping recently literally makes me feel like I can breathe easier. But it hasn’t always been so over the past 14 months.

As the pandemic grew, the rising numbers in the report could make my breath catch and my heart feel squeezed. That was the lens through which I saw this year’s news, which regularly included heartbreaking headlines reporting stories of violence and injustice, provoking feelings of worry and powerlessness.

In Parshat Shlach Lecha, the Israelites experienced heartbreaking headlines. As they prepared to enter the land of Canaan, Moses sent one man from each tribe, “men of stature,” to scout the land. Their instructions were to get information about the people, the towns and the land. They were to “see the land, what it is like and the people that dwell in it.” But having lived through the trauma of Egypt and the miracles of the Exodus, what lens would they see through in judging whether the people there were “strong or slack, few or many”? Or whether the land was good or bad and whether the towns were open settlements or fortresses?

They were to evaluate whether the land was “fat or lean,” and if there were trees. And finally, they were to “muster their strength” to bring back a sample of fruit, this being the season of the first ripe grapes.

We are told that after 40 days they brought back that sample of fruit, a giant cluster of grapes carried on a pole by two men. They also brought back their headlines. They acknowledged to Moses that the land was indeed “flowing with milk and honey,” but that news was overshadowed by their conclusion that they couldn’t go up against these mighty people and large fortified towns. And although Caleb, one of the scouts, strongly contradicted the majority opinion, he didn’t deny the substance. The majority then doubled down, emphasizing the feeling of menace from “men of huge measure,” from a land that “consumes all who dwell in it,” and even the danger from sons of giants. They finish with a statement of utter powerlessness, saying “we were in our own eyes like grasshoppers and so we were in their eyes.”

Rashi, the great medieval commentator, saw this bad report, this dibah, as a lack

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of faith. But couldn’t they have just been responding to being at their emotional limit and overwhelmed? When people are overstressed, our minds are just bad at discerning between real and imagined danger. We know that unprocessed fear operates outside of our consciousness and can shape our beliefs, decisions and actions. Were the people of Canaan a truly outsized danger or were they imagined monsters? Would the land truly “consume all who dwell in it,” or were the scouts unconsciously consumed with fear? The great Hassidic master, the Maggid of Mezritch, taught that the scouts had fallen prey to a distorted perception about themselves, the land and its inhabitants. Put another way, their feelings were real, but not true.

What of the Israelites, who, upon hearing these headlines, wept loudly and bitterly into the night? In their terror, they blamed and complained. They wished aloud that they had died in Egypt. They lashed out and threatened to stone Caleb and Joshua, the only other spy to return with a positive report.

When fear feels like too much or when we feel unsafe, we can be pushed outside of what psychiatrist Daniel Siegel calls our “window of tolerance,” where fear and anger can take over. We can harm ourselves (go back to Egypt) or others (stone Joshua and Caleb) as we look for any way to not feel that fear and uncertainty. We can be cut off, separated, from our own wisdom, faith, resilience and strength.

Yet Joshua and Caleb remain connected to their inner resources. They were able to respond to the Israelites’ fear and despair with reassurance and compassion. Indeed, we all have different capacities in different situations. (The healthcare heroes of the COVID-19 pandemic have surely shown that.)

The result of this sorry episode was that a generation of Jewish people would die in the wilderness, cut off from their relationship with God, from their promised land, by fear.

How can I avoid being cut off, by the fears of our own time? How do I get back in touch with my own inner resources when reading or hearing whatever the headlines bring? I begin by finding a feeling of safety.

Connecting to something I can count on. By becoming aware of my breath. By feeling my feet on the floor. By knowing that my fear may be real, but not true. This can be faith, and a prayer. PJC Cantor Julie Newman is president of Tiferet, a Jewish spirituality project, and spiritual leader of Chavurat Shirah, an independent minyan. This column is a service of the Greater Pittsburgh Rabbinic Association.

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Obituaries HEIMOWITZ: Melvin Heimowitz, on Sunday, May 30, 2021. Beloved husband of Reva Heimowitz. Beloved father of Michael Heimowitz (Dori Gillman) and Lynne (Chris) Wrigley. Brother of the late Barbara Block. Brother-in-law of Ethel Gelman. Grandfather of Meghan, Sam, Max and Ryan. Also survived by Susan (Michael) O’Keane, Joyce (Howard) Simons, Sharon (late Harry) Barovsky and the Block-Weisman family. Graveside services and interment were held at Poale Zedeck Memorial Park. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. schugar.com.

ELINOFF: Yetta Hyman Elinoff, died peacefully at home on May 26, 2021, of natural causes at the age of 98, surrounded by those who love her. Born in 1922, she grew up in New Kensington and Squirrel Hill, the youngest daughter of Samuel and Minnie Hyman, along with her older sisters Rose and Helen. After graduating from Taylor Allderdice in 1939, she met her future husband, Saul Elinoff, on a blind date. Their love affair lasted 71 years and produced three children, five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. Always ahead of her time, Yetta was an outspoken advocate for the causes she believed in: education, breast cancer awareness, women’s rights, and care for the elderly. She invested in the local Jewish community in so many ways, including refurbishing the Arbor Unit at Weinberg Village in honor of her husband Saul, who died from Alzheimer’s disease, and giving out scholarships to thousands of college students over the years as the trustee of the Hyman Family Foundation. Family always came first: Whenever there was a need, she always showed up, ready to pitch in with suggestions and resources. Outspoken and feisty, she suffered no fools. She was a loyal friend (holding onto friends from high school, adding new ones from hobby groups and her winter home in Florida), and a wonderful cook: Her dill pickles and sweet and sour meatballs were legendary. She cared deeply about politics and social justice. Her last act of defiance was voting for Joe Biden in the 2020 election and she was overjoyed to watch his inauguration. Her passion for justice and love of family were passed down to her daughters and grandchildren. Yetta is survived by her two daughters: Lois Rubin (Ira Rubin) and Sara Elinoff Acker (Peter Acker); her five grandchildren, Beth Rubin (Dave Wish), Joel Rubin (Nilmini Rubin), Brian Elinoff, Stacey Elinoff and Sophie Acker; her daughter-in-law Paula Elinoff; and five great-grandchildren, Maya Rubin-Wish, Kai Rubin-Wish, Renuka Rubin, Araliya Rubin and Bhavana Rubin, as well as many nieces and nephews who adored her. She is predeceased by her beloved husband Saul and her son William. Graveside services and interment were held at New Light Cemetery. Donations in her memory can be sent to Sivitz Hospice and Palliative Care of Pittsburgh or HIAS, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. schugar.com.

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THIS WEEK’S YAHRZEITS — Sunday June 6: Eugene Bernard Barovsky, Norman L. Berger, Louis Cohen, Hyman Danovitz, Hattie Kaufman, Dr. J. Kalman Leon, Emanuel Samuel Levin, Miriam Levin, David Levine, Esther Levine, Julius Moskovitz, Ruth Perlmutter, Fred Rosen, John J. Roth, Louis Siskind, Clara S. Sniderman, Mollie Weiss Monday June 7: Mollie Apter, Erwin Becker, Barry Birner, Lena Caplan, Abraham Fink, Sarah Friedman, Sarah “Sandra” Goldberg, Arthur Klein, Eva Miller, Hyman Moravitz, Donald L. Samuels, Louis Shapiro, Barbara Lucille Solomon Tuesday June 8: Libbie Cohen, Benjamin Friedlander, Harold Goldstein, Diane Golbitz Hamilton, Louis Klein, Frank Kopelson, Lilian Miriam Krasik Kurtz, Max Marcovsky, Jean Smolevitz Marshall, Ethel Miller, Saul Oliver Neft, Maurice A. Nernberg, Ethel Riesberg, Sarah Turk, Lawrence S. Williams Wednesday June 9: Celia Bergad, Rebecca Bluestone, Caroline Cooper, Tillie Gold, Shelton C. Goodman, Henry E. Hersh, Mollie Kramer, Celia Kweller, Martha Cohen Landy, Charlotte Leff, Evelyn Letwin, Helen Levin, Minnie Mendler, Morris A. Robins Thursday June 10: Beatrice Helen Amper, Sarah Rosenbloom Ronay, David Scholnick, Mildred Simon, Blanche Tarlo, William Wanetick Friday June 11: Bessie S. Bernstein, Cecelia M. Fink, Jacob Galanty, Simon Gastfriend, Sarah Leah Greenberg, Sadye I. Horwitz, Sylvia Herman Kahan, Betty Stern Kaplan, Abe L. Kessler, Dr. Ben Moresky, Henry Norell, Nathan Roth, Max Rubin, William Bernard Segal, Morry Wise Saturday June 12: Anna Alpern, William Brown, Ruth Tolchin Ehrenreich, Morris Finesod, Natalie Geminder, Emma E. Gottlieb, Betty Stern Kaplan, Hyman Sanford Liebling, M.D., Faye Bloom Rattner, Lois Recht, Sarah Hoffman Reifman, Sidney Schatz, Irving Schiffman, Esther Solomon

ROSENFIELD: Elaine Rose Bovitch Rosenfield, on Monday, May 24, 2021.

Beloved former spouse of the late David P. Rosenfield. Beloved mother of Mindy (Peter) Goodman, Stuart (Nancy) Rosenfield and Elyse G. (Mark Sweitzer) Rosenfield. Grandmother of Matthew and Steven Rosenfield and Ari Goodman. Also survived by her feline children, Morrie and Lady. Elaine was a graduate of Peabody High School. Early in her career, she worked as a real estate agent with Florence Real Estate Agency. She was president of the AZO Women’s Auxiliary. Later, she owned and operated The Advertising Works for approximately 25 years. She was a loyal member of the Mount Lebanon Rotary. She was instrumental in organizing Art in the Park which originally was held at the Mt. Lebanon High School parking lot. She was a compassionate animal activist. Services and interment private. A celebration of her life will be announced at a later date.

Contributions may be made to Humane Animal Rescue, 1101 Western Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15233 or an animal cause of donor’s choice. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. schugar.com SMITH: Steven Smith, age 84, passed away peacefully on May 27, 2021. Beloved husband of Lynda Smith; loving father of the late Samuel Smith; brother of his twin Michael Smith and Dorothy Dym; and son of the late David L. Smith. Interment was held at Shaare Torah Cemetery in Whitehall. In lieu of flowers, please make all memorial contributions to your favorite charity. Professional services trusted to D’Alessandro Funeral Home and Crematory, Ltd., Lawrenceville. dalessandroltd.com. PJC

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A Notable Personality • Tom Wein-Clarion

Thomas Wein’s sales skills pioneered the Wein Family of Clarion to come to Western Pennsylvania. Originally from Sakavoli in what is now modern day Poland, Tom (1890-1941) had peddled in Sweden as a young man before plying his skills in the Swedish speaking parts of early 1900’s Wisconsin. On his way back to New York, Tom scouted out a store operated by his sister-in-law’s cousin. He liked what he saw. Joined by his brother Philip, a cloth cutter in New York, they formed Wein Brothers in 1911 in the growing coal mining and lumbering county seat along the Clarion River.

Tom was part of the first group of Clarion men to be called up for service in WW I. He served proudly in France, and then returned to the boom in business that was America in the 1920’s. As Clarion prospered, as many small towns did in this inter-war period, so did Wein Brothers, with other family members coming to Clarion. A second store was opened in Brookville in neighboring Jefferson County.

Younger than his brothers, and more modern and Americanized, Tom Wein was the merchant who laid the foundation for a business that was to remain open for over 100 years. Passing away far too young, Tom is buried next to his wife Sophie Finkelstein Wein, and fifteen other Wein Family members in Titusville’s Oil City-Tree of Life Jewish Cemetery.

For more information about JCBA cemeteries, to volunteer, to read our complete histories and/or to make a contribution, please visit our website at www.JCBApgh.org, email us at jcbapgh@gmail.com, or call the JCBA office at 412-553-6469 JCBA’s expanded vision is made possible by a generous grant from the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Jewish Community Foundation

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JUNE 4, 2021 19

Headlines Accuser: Continued from page 7

and appeals committee. These include “the making of restitution” and offering “an acceptable expression of remorse” with specificity of wrongdoings to all of those harmed, according to the guidelines.

“He should have been expelled, not suspended” by the CCAR, Debbie told me at that time, asserting, as is clear from the committee’s private report, that the rabbi did not admit to the nature of their relationship or the fact that he had relations with another woman until he learned that the CCAR committee already knew the facts.

“What kind of teshuva [repentance] is it,” she asked, “when he has advanced his career by lying about what he did?”

Debbie said she received no compensation for the therapy she underwent — only airfare to attend a meeting with the ethics committee. Zimmerman wrote an apology to her that she said was impersonal and did not take full responsibility for his actions.

She felt he should have apologized to her family and others who were hurt or misled, and should have initiated a personal meeting with her without being prompted.

“That’s what a wrongdoer has to do,” Debbie told me. “It’s easy to say ‘I made a mistake,’ but it’s hard to say that directly to the victim.”

She criticized the ethics committee for allowing the rabbi to make his apology in writing rather than face to face.

“The process of teshuva should be a dynamic between people,” she told me, “but it’s been between the CCAR and him.”

Debbie said she resented being left out of the process.

In a response to my queries in 2005, Zimmerman emailed me to say that an expert who was counseling him as part of the reinstatement process warned him against having any personal contact with Debbie.

He maintained that his letter was “an act of teshuva,” and went on to point out that he had more than fulfilled the CCAR requirements for readmission.

Accusing Debbie of seeking revenge, he stated: “My career has been seriously damaged. This is about destroying me and my family. I have met every teshuva requirement, both of the CCAR and the tradition itself. She has made none to my wife and family, and in fact quite the opposite.”

Zimmerman threatened to out Debbie without her consent, telling me, “She may leave us no recourse but to respond to her in public and by name, and to lift the veil that has protected her and her actions.”

(On May 11, I sent an email to Zimmerman telling him I was working on this follow-up to Central Synagogue’s investigation, and that I would like to speak with him or get a statement from him with his response to the investigation and its findings. He has not replied.)

Soon after contacting me again, Debbie again decided, reluctantly, not to go public, fearful of public exposure and a possible lawsuit.

So the matter remained until it boiled up

again last month with the Central Synagogue letter to its congregants and a report in the Forward.

Returning to the story

Debbie texted me two days before the Central Synagogue letter was made public last month. She was under the impression that I was writing an article on the latest development, but that wasn’t the case. In fact, I was unaware of it until I spoke with her the next day and she brought me up to date. Now that the Zimmerman chapter had been reopened, she was committed to having her story known — under the same conditions we agreed to more than 20 years ago, that her identity remain private.

“I’ve wanted at least the basic fact of my youth and his predatory conduct to be known,” she told me. “But Zimmerman put a lid on it by threatening me with litigation and [with] revealing my identity.”

Central Synagogue and others are faulting the CCAR for not sharing the extent of its findings with colleagues, even within the movement, and the organization is undergoing its own reexamination of practices now. But the CCAR’s policies two decades ago on dealing with sexual impropriety among its clergy were praised at the time, and many saw its decision to take action against Zimmerman as courageous.

To me, the episode underscores the difficulty, if not impossibility, for any peer group to pass judgment on one of its own, and suggests why experts in the field recommend that outside investigators probe misconduct at this level.

It also underscores the ways in which Jewish concepts about repentance may figure into #MeToo episodes in our communities.

Zimmerman insisted that he fulfilled more than the requirements for teshuva, including therapy, apology and time for self-reflection. But Debbie told me earlier this week that “at the heart of the issue” for her, even now, is whether the rabbi “could actually see the person he has wronged and understand how he harmed me.” That did not happen, she said.

In preparing this piece, I went back and found my “Zimmerman file,” a thick collection of printed out emails, notes of conversations with Debbie going back 21 years and a number of others, including Zimmerman. It took me nearly two hours to read through it all.

On the page that contained the rabbi’s email to me, cited above, I had written a note to myself: “Am I obligated to hold the story if she gets cold feet?”

That was the question I grappled with in 2001 and again in 2005. It seemed to pit journalistic responsibility against compassion for a self-described “damaged” victim of an abusive relationship. In the end, I felt that to tell Debbie’s story without her permission would be one more violation of her personal freedom.

Now, 21 years after we first spoke, I reviewed the contents of this article with her before publication to ensure its accuracy. PJC Gary Rosenblatt was editor and publisher of The Jewish Week from 1993 to 2019.

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JUNE 4, 2021 21

Life & Culture ‘Upheaval’ captures Menachem Begin’s essence — STREAMING —

By Andy Gottlieb | Contributing Writer

I

f “Upheaval: The Journey of Menachem Begin” was a Netflix-commissioned documentary, we’d be subjected to six one-hour episodes with countless repetition, speculation and other means of filler.

And considering that it now takes Hollywood nearly three hours to tell the back story of Spiderman, Batman or even the third-tier superheroes, “Upheaval” is a breath of fresh air.

Clocking in at a spare one hour and 26 minutes, “Upheaval” smartly tells the epic life story of the seminal Israeli leader.

Director Jonathan Gruber effectively mixes new interviews, with notables such as former Israeli ambassadors to the United States Michael Oren and Ron Dermer, and news footage with archival accounts of Begin’s (and Israel’s) history with no wasted motion.

“Upheaval” begins with a montage of accounts of recent antisemitic attacks around the world as a way to show that Begin’s lifelong struggle to provide security for Jews continues today.

That theme continues through the film’s final moments.

“Begin’s Israel is an Israel of proud Jews who are not going to take antisemitism any more, but are going to unite and fight, and that’s a power lesson from Begin’s life,” former vice presidential nominee and U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman said.

Gruber follows a conventional chronological format in detailing Begin’s career.

Born in Brest, Belarus, Begin’s Zionism is established at an early age when he meets Ze’ev Jabotinsky, who espouses the love and need for a Jewish state. Begin soon leads Betar, a Zionist youth movement Jabotinsky founded.

Around the same time, he meets Aliza Arnold, who he marries at 19. She becomes the rock in his life.

During World War II, Begin is arrested for “Zionism,” as he describes it, and, without being tried, ends up in a Siberian gulag. He gets a reprieve of sorts when Germany invades Russia, as he’s conscripted to fight the Nazis.

Upon arriving in Palestine in 1942, Begin immediately begins to chafe against the British mandatory government, proclaiming a revolt two years later and going underground.

The film continues through events leading to Israel’s 1948 founding, exploring the conflict between the more hardline Begin and his rival, Israeli founder and first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, who was more conciliatory.

Begin didn’t want to accept reparations from Germany, but Ben-Gurion thought the money would help build Israel — and wins that battle.

If there’s any drawback to the film, it’s at this point, which largely skips over the next 29 years, noting that Begin spent that time in the opposition, largely with the Herut party he formed. Granted, more important moments await, but a bit more depth — even 10 minutes — would have been helpful.

As you’d expect, Begin’s upset 1977 election as leader of the Likud Party and the

22 JUNE 4, 2021

p Menachem Begin at his first meeting with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat at the Egyptian Embassy in Washington, D.C. Courtesy of Abramorama / Photographer Ya’acov Sa’ar. 4/25/79.

p Menachem Begin and his wife, Aliza, on their way to the United States for the peace treaty signing between Israel and Egypt at the White House.

Courtesy of Abramorama / Photographer Ya’acov Sa’ar. 3/25/79.

subsequent peace talks with Egypt occupy a significant chunk of the movie.

While those events are familiar and well-documented, the film’s account is far from rote, with archival footage conveying a lot of meaning in short snippets.

“The real prize is peace itself,” Begin says over the telephone to Egyptian President Anwar Sadat while discussing their winning of the Nobel Peace Prize.

At perhaps the height of his powers, Begin establishes the Begin Doctrine — sort of a “do unto others before they do unto you” — in 1981 with the bombing of Saddam Hussein’s unfinished nuclear reactor.

“Israel has nothing to apologize for,” Begin defiantly said. “We decided to act now before it’s too late.”

Unfortunately for Begin, the beginning

of his end was near. The 1982 Lebanon War became his Waterloo (or Vietnam).

While Minister of Defense Ariel Sharon is often blamed for extending the conflict far beyond its original scope — and for the Israel Defense Forces not doing enough to prevent the Sabra and Shatila massacre — Begin took responsibility, as well as the political hit.

Between that and his wife dying in November 1982 while he was away on a visit to the United States, Begin was never the same. Plagued by depression and his own health issues, he resigned in August 1983, staying mostly secluded until his death at 78 in 1992.

While Begin earned his reputation as a hardliner, the film reminds us that nothing is ever as simple as it seems, pointing to his willingness to transfer control of the Sinai as

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

a way to broker peace with Israel, as well as his advocacy for inclusiveness that included Israeli Arabs and his support for the immigration of Ethiopian Jews, Russian Jews and the Vietnamese boat people.

Ultimately, his goal was the same as nearly everyone’s else’s: peace “Peace is the beauty of life. It is sunshine. It is the smile of a child. The love of a mother.

The joy of a father. The togetherness of family …” he said.

The virtual premiere of “Upheaval” is at 8 p.m. on June 7 with a Watch Now @ Home cinema release on June 9. Visit upheavalfilm. com for details. PJC Andy Gottlieb is the managing editor of the Jewish Exponent, an affiliated publication, where this first appeared.

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Community Helping out at Temple Emanuel

u Temple Emanuel families packaged beans for South Hills Interfaith Movement’s food pantry, wrote get well cards for Shabbat bags (which were distributed by Temple Emanuel’s Caring Committee), donated books for children and made bookmarks as part of a May 23 program planned

by Rabbi Jessica Locketz and board member Sara Wulff, with help from Temple’s art teacher, Michelle Dreyfuss.

Photo courtesy of Temple Emanuel of South Hills

The air up there

Smiles and Siddurim

After referring new residents to the Jewish Association on Aging, Weinberg Terrace and Weinberg Village residents received air plants as part of the Refer-A-Friend program.

Community Day School first-graders received their siddurim (prayer books) during a special presentation. Students demonstrated their knowledge of Hebrew and Tefillah (prayers) for friends and family via Zoom. First-grade parent Marni Greenwald designed the siddur covers.

t Rita admires the new addition to her apartment.

p Morgan Guttman lifts her siddur high.

p Alexandria Nabieva holds her siddur tight.

Photos courtesy of Community Day School

Machers and Shakers Sisters Noa and Netta Dobzinski each received first place awards at the state competition of the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science, an organization that promotes and encourages science and mathematics research and analysis among middle and high school students.

Noa took first place in the Chemistry category. Netta took first place in the Behavioral Psychology category. The Dobzinskis are eighth-graders at The Ellis School.

u Jude poses with her air plant while wearing an awesome mask.

Photos courtesy of Jewish Association on Aging

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p Noa Dobzinski

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p Netta Dobzinski

Photos courtesy of Anat Talmy

JUNE 4, 2021 23

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